by Sandy James
Sarita stared at the carnage and shivered. “I hate those filthy things.”
“Thanks for bailing my ass out.” Rebecca slid the last few feet down the pole.
“Break up the reunion,” Johann barked. “We’re in trouble.”
He kept a close eye on the events as he stalked Max and Megan.
Artair was stuck between Sergei and Helen—both of whom had daggers they brandished. In response, Artair gave them a confident smile and drew his sword.
“Sarita, you help Gina,” Rebecca ordered. “Helen’s mine.”
Gina was backed against Freya’s cage as three revenants pinned her to the bars. Freya could help if they could get her free, but it was clear her powers were somehow contained—probably by the cage itself. All the goddess could do was helplessly watch the events around her.
“I’m on it,” Sarita said, breaking into a run. She climbed the stairs to the stage and then jumped on the back of one of the revenants attacking Gina, pounding against its head with the hilt of her sword. The creature turned frantic circles trying to shake her.
Gina kicked the closest zombie away and buried her dagger in its neck. The revenant stumbled back far enough Gina could draw her sword. A moment later, the creature’s head rolled across the stage.
After Sarita hopped from the revenant’s back, she gave it a kick to the midsection until it stumbled forward a few steps. Then she beheaded the zombie as Gina dispatched the last.
“The damn key fell through that crack in the floor,” Gina said. “I’m going after it. Watch Artair’s back. Where in the hell’s Johann? And what happened to Megan?”
“I’m here, Gina,” he replied. “You guys have this under control. I’m going after Megan.”
Johann put his plan in motion. He choked one of the teenagers from behind until the boy passed out. After jerking the red robe off him, Johann donned it. Moving slowly through the crowd, he put his trust in the Amazons and Artair to deal with Helen.
Max was his.
“Don’t worry, Johann. I’ve got my man’s back,” Rebecca whispered a mere moment before she sent an arrow flying at Helen. As always, her shot was perfect. The arrow sank between Helen’s shoulder blades.
Had Rhiannon come to their aid and blessed the arrows, Helen might have been eliminated. All that arrow would have had to do was pierce her black heart. But the arrow sticking out of her wasn’t blessed by Rhiannon, and she wasn’t going to die. Not today.
Helen let out an angry howl as she stumbled around. She reached over her shoulder and jerked the arrow out of her back. Blood seeped onto her dress, quickly staining the material a dark reddish-brown. She stared at the arrow for a moment, snapped it in half and dropped it to the stage. Then she turned on Rebecca.
“I’m growing tired of your interference. To think I wanted to make you a goddess—to make you as important and powerful as I am.”
Rebecca snorted. “You’re not powerful and important. You’re just a wannabe goddess who needs to be put down like a rabid dog.”
“I’m more powerful than you could ever imagine. Your little arrows can’t stop me. No, Rebecca. I will not be denied.”
Rebecca nodded at the trussed up Chernabog, who was actually grinning like a simpleton. His yellow fangs against his black skin shone bright in the light. “Seems that you don’t have enough power to do anything on your own. You needed Sparks to make you a goddess. You needed Chernabog to help you gather followers. And you needed Popov to control them. But it looks like you’re on your own now.”
She hauled another arrow out of her quiver, although Johann figured it wouldn’t do much good. Helen knew she was there and would easily deflect it. In one smooth motion, Rebecca notched and shot the arrow.
Helen stopped it midair with an outstretched palm. The arrow dropped to the stage.
“Lost the element of surprise?” Helen asked. “Well, then. You’ll die now.”
Chernabog turned his head to Rebecca. “Kill that bitch.”
Rebecca ignored him. “God, Helen, you’re boring me with your empty threats.”
Johann passed close to the stage as he moved, wishing he could help Rebecca. She had things in hand. She didn’t need him. Megan did.
After putting her bow over her shoulder, Rebecca unsheathed the dagger strapped to her thigh, meeting Helen’s weapon with one of the same.
“Helen!” Freya shouted.
The former Earth twisted to face Freya. Rebecca took a couple of steps closer, but Helen must have realized and quickly whirled back. Helen waved her dagger, trying to watch them both at the same time with furtive glances from goddess to Amazon.
“When I escape this prison, know this,” Freya said, gripping the bars with her long fingers. “I shall enjoy ending your existence. You killed my favored Amazon and set yourself up as an Ancient. You have put my daughter in the path of danger. When you die, I promise you, ’twill not be easy. Nay, Helen. When I end your life, it shall be slowly and very, very painfully.”
Helen’s face blanched. She kept shifting her nervous gaze between Freya and Rebecca.
Rebecca used her lapses in attention to draw closer.
Fixing her stare on Rebecca, Helen backed up a step and bumped into the pile of chairs. “I have no intention of fighting you.”
Rebecca chuckled. “What changed your mind? Freya? Yeah, I think I’d be afraid too if she’d threatened me like that.”
“I’m not afraid.”
“Bullshit,” Rebecca replied. “You’re terrified. You’re acting like a rat caught in a corner by some hungry cat. You said you were going to kill me. Well? Here I am! Bring it on!”
Helen’s quick look back at Freya spoke volumes.
“No fight, huh? That’s a damn shame. I was spoiling for a good kick-your-ass fight.”
“Then you shall have one.” Helen began to speak in Latin. Her voice was followed by the loud resonance of metal grating against metal. “But not with me, Rebecca. You’ll be too busy fighting revenants to worry about my fate.”
Fuck. She was releasing more revenants. Johann glanced back, torn between Megan and the teenagers who could soon become zombie food.
“Don’t worry, Helen,” Rebecca said. “I can take you out first.”
“You could,” Helen replied. “But in the time it takes to fight me, many of those children will die. I’m sending the revenants after them instead of you. Choose who dies, Rebecca. Will it be me or those innocents?”
Several revenants stumbled onto the field. As they drew closer, they attacked the teenagers in the red robes.
“Damn it,” Johann called. “We’ve got trouble, everyone. Revenants are taking out the kids. Get yourselves free and get your asses out to the field.”
Helen laughed, long and loud. “Now, my dear Earth, I’ll leave you to try to save as many as you can.” She glanced at Freya. “And I shall live to fight another day.”
Helen disappeared in a light dim enough to show she’d been badly wounded. But she wasn’t dead—and this wasn’t going to be the last the Amazons saw of her.
Rebecca stomped her foot. “Damn, damn, double damn.” Then she hurried to help the others.
Artair had things well under control, thrusting his sword into Sergei’s heart. He was dead before he hit the floor. Johann wasn’t surprised when Sergei’s skin shrank and shriveled. Only a matter of moments later, he was mummified. In typical Artair fashion, he cleaned his weapon on Sergei’s shirttail.
“I’m ready, Becca mine.”
“Right behind you,” Sarita added.
“Where are you, Gina?” Rebecca asked as she sheathed her dagger and drew her sword. She was already running toward a group of revenants who had cornered three of the teenagers.
“I’ll be there as soon as I get the damned key. It’s so dark, I can’
t see shit under here.”
“Johann?” Rebecca craned her neck to see which way Popov was heading. “You damn well better be going after Megan! Popov’s carried her out of here. Did you hear me, Johann?”
Johann couldn’t answer Rebecca’s call and bring any attention to where he hid. He stalked Maksim Popov as the singer carried a limp Megan through the crowd.
God, she has to be all right. If she isn’t…
He pushed the terrifying thought from his mind.
One of the revenants had bitten his right elbow and another had taken a good chunk out of his right shoulder, but being a leftie, Johann could still swing a sword. Blood slowly trickled down his arm, dripping through his fingers. But he hadn’t had time to bind up the wounds. He needed to get to Megan first.
She seemed lost to Max’s control as she lay wilted in his arms. Johann crept closer, hoping to get to them before Max realized the man in this red robe was not in his control. White-hot rage raced through Johann, and he tried to rein it in so he didn’t make a stupid mistake simply because he wanted to kill Max. Pain helped keep him grounded, so he measured his heartbeat by the incessant throbbing of his shoulder and elbow.
Thankfully, he could hear the voices of the others with his earpiece, and he was confident that they were winning the day. He was only yards away from Megan when the revenants Helen had set lose started a riot among the teenagers.
As Max’s followers recognized what was happening, they woke from their trance. A good revenant bite could have that effect. Screams echoed through the field, and Johann found himself swallowed by the panicked teenagers, who seemed to have no idea where they were or what was happening.
He was a man torn in two. Max was almost too far away to catch, but teenagers were screaming all around him and the metallic smell of blood mixed with the sickening stench of the undead. If he didn’t defend them, a whole bunch of those kids were going to die.
His choice was snatched away from him when several revenants surrounded him, and he had to hack his way out. After he beheaded three, he kicked the last in the groin hard enough it doubled over. Johann took the creature’s head off with one broad swing of his sword, and he silently thanked Artair MacKay for all the time he’d spent teaching him how to wield the weapon.
As the Amazons and Artair fought their way into the crowd, Johann tried to locate Max again. His greatest fear was that if the guy got away, they’d never be able to find Megan. Her GPS was gone.
He couldn’t let them leave.
Fighting like a man possessed, Johann sliced through several of the zombies. His ear buzzed with the triumphant shouts from the rest of his allies as they attacked the revenants.
He dropped one more zombie, took a quick look around and saw the Amazons were culling the herd. Most of the teens were running away from the field as the revenants fell at a rapid pace. He desperately peered toward where Max had gone. Just about to bellow in frustration, he caught a glimpse of red hair.
Max was shoving Megan inside the back of a black limousine, flanked by three tall, very muscular men dressed entirely in black. All of them looked like professional wrestlers, not a neck amongst them. Obviously not all of Max’s followers were kids. Didn’t matter—their blood could spill just as easily as anyone else’s. And if the gorillas kept Megan from him that would be exactly what would happen.
A plan quickly formed in his mind.
“Gina!” Johann shouted.
“A little busy here, Johann.” Her voice sounded husky and she panted for breath. “Damn, I hate the way these things smell.”
Sarita grunted her agreement. “It doesn’t get any better when they’re dead for good.”
“I’m up to sixteen,” Rebecca bragged before she grunted as if swinging her sword. “Make that seventeen. Anyone able to top that?”
Enough of the cocky banter. “Gina!”
“Busy, Johann.”
“I don’t give a shit.” He paused to behead another revenant. “I need you. Popov’s got Megan and he’s getting away.” He tripped one of the creatures. It fell to its knees, then Johann lopped off its head. “Can you muster up a little lightning?”
“Hang on. If I do, I’m gonna be too tired to help in this fight. Shit, Sarita! Watch out! There’s one coming up… Never mind. Rebecca got him.”
“Gina, I’m behind you, lass,” Artair answered. “I’ll watch your back. Help Johann.”
“Left of the stage, Gina. See him?”
A long moment passed. “Yeah. I see him.”
“Then let him have it.”
Johann had to give her credit. The bolt of lightning was immediate and well placed—her best effort to date. Striking just to the driver’s side of the car, the energy from it blew Max and his men back several feet while Megan was protected inside the car. One goon never got back up.
Johann kept running—sword still at ready—hoping to strike Max down before he could get back on his feet.
“Stop!” Max shouted.
Johann wondered for a moment if he was yelling at him.
“Shit,” Sarita hissed. “I think we might have trouble brewing. Those stupid kids just stopped running away.”
As he regained his feet, Max’s gaze caught Johann’s. The Sentinel skidded to a stop, readying for a fight.
“Leave us or your friends die,” Max said in a voice that seemed too confident, considering his circumstances.
“It ends here, you bastard.”
“For you and yours, Sentinel, but not for me.”
Judging by his surprised expression, Max didn’t know Megan was back in control until she’d pressed her .38 to the back of his head. Evidently the lightning had shaken her loose from whatever hold he had on her.
Johann couldn’t help but grin. She was right—the gun had come in handy. But when he saw how violently her hands trembled, he wondered exactly how free Megan really was.
“Dorogoy—”
“I’m not your fucking darling.” Her voice was chilly enough to frost the grass. “Call off your followers, or I put a bullet in your brain.”
An evil smile was his only answer.
“Kill him, Megan,” Johann ordered.
He wasn’t about to give Max time to get control over her mind again. Thinking he’d have to coax her to pull the trigger, he jumped as the sound of her shot echoed through the air.
Max fell to his knees, and Johann expected the guy to slump over—especially since a good chunk of his forehead had been blown away by Megan’s shot.
He didn’t. Instead, he laughed, looking like some horror-movie villain—the kind the heroine kept killing who simply wouldn’t stay dead.
The laugh was the creepiest thing Johann had ever heard. “Megan get the hell out of there!”
Wiping his hand over his forehead, Max instantly healed the wound.
For a man who should be dead, he moved pretty damned fast. He leaped to his feet, seized Megan’s wrist and forced her arm in the air. She refused to release the gun. He lifted his knee and brought her forearm down hard enough against his thigh she should have dropped the gun. But not Megan. It took three hits, and Johann was amazed he hadn’t heard her bone snap.
Max backhanded her across the face just as Johann got to them. He shoved Megan out of the way, then tried to hit Max with a roundhouse kick. Max was ready. He blocked the kick and brought an elbow down hard on Johann’s thigh. Max grabbed Johann’s injured shoulder and dug his fingers into the revenant wound. Pain shot through Johann every bit as intense as Gina’s lightning strike.
He dropped to his knees.
“Dorogoy.” Max focused on Megan. “You are mine.”
“Fight him, Megan.” Johann tried to push aside the agony racing down his arm. He struggled to get back on his feet.
One of Max’s beefy guards no
w held her arm, but from the glazed look in her eyes, the restraint wasn’t needed. Max had her back in his power.
“Megan! Fight him, damn it! Fight him!”
Max stepped away, and one of the bodyguards punched Johann in the face, causing him to sprawl in the grass. Then the guard repeatedly kicked him in the ribs and back until Johann was sure he’d pass out from the pain.
Max laughed and swept Megan back into his arms. An unnerving smile played across his lips as he glanced at the crowd of teenagers.
“My loyal followers, I have a job for you,” he said in a clear, steady voice. “Kill the Amazons.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
“I can’t kill these kids,” Sarita shouted. “Back the hell up, buddy.”
His body throbbing in pain, Johann rolled over to see Sarita knock a tall teen down. The boy got right back on his feet.
“They don’t stay down,” Sarita said, the alarm clear in her voice. “They’re worse than revenants because I can’t lop their heads off.”
Megan needed him. The Amazons needed him.
He couldn’t be two places at one time.
His heart screamed for him to get up and go after Megan—pain and risk be damned. His head argued, telling him the rest of his group was in more immediate danger. Max wasn’t going to kill Megan, that much was clear. Yet Johann couldn’t stand her being with that bastard a minute longer than she had to be. He closed his eyes, trying to hold the agony thrumming through his mind and his body at bay.
Shit, this was what he feared would happen if he fell in love with Megan. He had to make an impossible choice.
Megan or the Amazons?
Love or duty?
When he opened his eyes, he saw Rebecca—who had two zombies coming up behind her. One of the guys in those damned robes crouched close on her left, like he was going to tackle her.