Their bad luck. Bad thing about parasei—even these louts, old as some of them were, they’d only been in this world a few decades, if that. They didn’t live long enough to gain much in the way of strategic skill and most of the brain power was devoted to pain, chaos…death.
Two more peered around the corner, tried to come at him. He held still, waiting. Although he still had a dozen or so knives, he wasn’t about to throw them if he didn’t have to. The swords would do for now.
There might even be light at the end of the tunnel. Might—he’d sensed something just seconds ago, that weird prickle along his spine. The presence of a Grimm—a strong one, old. Too old to be Celine, thank God. This was too much for her—
Oh, hell. In his peripheral vision, he saw something. Fuck holding on to the knives. He drew two in one hand and sent them flying. As the demons fell, Rob dropped from the ceiling.
Jacob stared at the other Grimm, his lip curled. “I must be in dire straights if you were sent.”
“Maybe I was sent to collect your rotted carcass and I just arrived too soon.” Rob smiled, striding forward. A body blocked his way and he stepped on it—not over it the way many would have. He gave it a glance, a faint frown on his face as if he’d only just noticed it. “I can always leave and come back, you stupid old git.”
“You’re here. You might as well make yourself useful.” Jacob gave him a once-over. “You don’t even have weapons.”
“I don’t need them.” Rob cracked his neck, first one way, then the other. As several more of the parasei started to rush them, he sank to a crouch. A mean smile came and went. “This is going to be fun.”
Adrenaline crashed through Jacob, hard, fast. If he hadn’t been fighting for going on thirty minutes, then he might have echoed Rob’s thoughts—one thing they had in common. They both had a mad love for the fight.
As the parasei struck, an eerie, animalistic howl echoed through the house. In another forty-five seconds, three more parasei were dead and Rob had blood dripping from his fingers. It was almost the same shade of red as his eyes.
He looked at Jacob and smiled. “I thought you could use a bit of a break, there. We’ll split the next round.”
“Show-off,” Jacob muttered.
Rob cocked his head, listening. “They’re regrouping—they didn’t expect you’d get reinforcements this late in the game.” Red eyes glinted as he looked at Jacob. “They’ll have more of a surprise in a bit. You must have landed yourself in a right mess. You’ve got Will coming.”
“Will…?”
The brilliant flash of light came, but it was muted.
Jacob closed his eyes, briefly wondered if he could just fall down now. He felt rather cold now and—
“A right mess doesn’t even touch it, Jacob, and no. You cannot fall down. Celine, you stay in here.”
Celine—
Spinning around, he opened his eyes. Pain forgotten, blood loss forgotten, he stormed across the floor. Celine watched him, her eyes neutral, as he came to a stop in front of Will. “This entire place is flooded with parasei,” Jacob growled. “I miscalculated—she shouldn’t be here. Take her back.”
“You shouldn’t have come in so blindly,” Will replied. “No. I won’t take her back. We finish the job.”
Jacob snapped, “She’s not ready for this—”
“That’s not for you to decide,” Celine said.
“I’m not speaking to you,” he bit off, tossing her a glance.
“Too fucking bad—if you’re discussing me, you can damn well include me in the conversation. I won’t be left in the dark.”
She shucked the long coat she wore, revealing a tooled strip of leather that rode low around her hips. It held two guns, carried extra ammo and somehow managed to look bloody sexy—keep your mind where it needs to be, he told himself. She had her knives to go with the guns, as well as her staff, and it still wasn’t enough.
“There are plenty of things you like keeping me in the dark over,” Celine said, obviously unaware of his preoccupation. “This isn’t going to be one of them.”
Caught off guard, he jerked his eyes up, stared at her. “In the dark? Over what?”
Behind him, Will moved away. Vaguely, he was aware of Will crowding Rob away from the door. It was oddly quiet in the house. Regrouping? Calling for more numbers? Fuck, he hoped not…
Curling his free hand into a fist, he stared at the ground. “In the dark over what, Celine?”
“Dreams have power, do they, Jacob?”
Slowly, he lifted his head, met her eyes. “Nothing happened in those dreams that you didn’t want. It doesn’t work that way.”
The smile on her lips was a bitter one. “Interesting argument. We’ll finish it if we live through this.” She went to push past him and he caught her arm.
“You are not staying here,” he said, tempted to shake her.
“Yes. I am.”
“You want to die—for good? You aren’t up to this yet. Listen to reason!”
Celine jerked back. “It’s for me to decide, Jacob. Not you.” She raked him over with a scathing look. “You’re as pale as a corpse and you think I’m not up to it? You stupid son of a bitch.”
“Stupid?” He gripped her arm and turned, shoving her toward Will. Fear for her overwhelmed his mind, made it hard to think. They had dozens of demons trapped in this small space with them, four helpless humans, and Celine wanted to throw her neck out there? Careless as she was with it? “Will, get her out of here!”
“No. Children, we haven’t the time for this.”
Celine shoved away from him. “Don’t worry, Jacob. I’ll stay good and out of your way—that’s where you obviously want me, right? Unless, of course, we’re dreaming.”
“Stay with them,” Will said, pushing his way between Celine and Jacob. He glared at Celine and pointed to the humans. “You’ve got those pistols Finn is also so fond of—use them, but your job is to keep the humans safe. Stay with them or so help me, God, I’ll freeze your arse to this spot.”
Celine curled her lip. “This spot suits me fine.” She wanted to hit Jacob. Then she wanted to make him lie down. He looked awful—
“Turn around,” Will growled.
“Bugger off.” Jacob went to storm away but—well, hell, it looked like he froze in mid-step.
“Don’t push me, Jacob.” Will nudged Jacob’s arm. “I’m going to need every bit of energy I have. So don’t push me. Fuck…Jacob, what are you trying to do, tear yourself up so badly, you can’t heal?” He muttered something else—
The words sounded foreign—ancient—but Celine couldn’t even process that. She was too busy staring at the gaping, ragged chunk in Jacob. She could see slivers of bone, the flesh closing back in on itself…and so much bloody, raw meat.
“Oh, shit,” she whispered. “Jacob?”
“He can’t answer you,” Will said, his voice level and cool once more. The white-haired man flicked another look at the door. “Rob, where are they?”
“Still on the second floor.” He tipped his head back, a smile on his face. “They are terrified.” Red glowed in his eyes. “I like it.”
“What are they doing?”
Celine wasn’t worried about them. She was worried about Jacob. She hissed out a breath as Will ripped the shirt he wore, both above and below the gaping wound. Not that there was much shirt left in that area. Then he pushed his hands inside, right over that meaty, bloody mess. “Why…why can’t he answer me?”
“Because I froze him, just like I’ll do you if you don’t be quiet for thirty bleeding seconds,” Will said. His eyes blazed silver…and so did his hands. A strangled scream escaped Jacob and his body swayed.
Celine rushed across the floor, steadying him. His body was stiff as board, unyielding, unmoving. And his eyes were a screaming, endless hell.
Over Jacob’s shoulder, Will stared at her. “I wouldn’t let him fall, Celine,” he said quietly.
Another groan escaped Jacob.
“Why are you letting him hurt?” she snarled.
“Because if I don’t, I may not have the strength we need to get out of whatever trouble may be waiting.” His lashes swept down. “I have my limits.”
Abruptly, Jacob sagged. His eyes closed. “I could kill you for that, Will. That hurt.”
“Yes. But you can fight now. Easier to do when you aren’t missing half of a kidney.”
“Half…” Celine closed her eyes. Shaking her head, she eased back from Jacob. “And you think I’m reckless.”
“Celine—”
“No.” She didn’t look at him. She couldn’t. Her head was spinning, her gut churning and her heart ached. And if she looked at him once more, she wouldn’t be able to do what she needed. “We have a job to do. Let’s get it done.”
A low, deviant laugh filled the room. Celine saw Rob out of the corner of her eye as she settled by the humans, a gun in each hand. “They’re heading down…they don’t know you’re here yet, Will. Or Celine. All the dead bodies…they stink up the air.”
“Get ready,” Will said.
“Stay safe,” Jacob rasped, looking at her as he stripped the remains of his shirt away.
She just stared at him.
“This is going to be fun,” Rob whispered.
Chapter Ten
Will’s patch job was holding up pretty well. But Jacob knew he didn’t have much left in him.
When an ebb in the attacks came, he rested against the wall, panting. “This is hell,” he whispered.
And across from him was a blood-stained monster. One who was no longer laughing.
Rob didn’t look like he was about to fall, but he didn’t look like he was having fun anymore, either. That wasn’t a bad thing, Jacob thought. Rob had too much fun being destructive.
“Their numbers are thinning,” he said grimly. “But ours are about to thin by one too, mate.” His reddish-eyes narrowed as he studied Jacob. “You don’t have much left in you, do you?”
“No.” He slid Celine a look from under his eyes, then shot Rob a look.
Rob shook his head. “Don’t.” The grim look in his eyes faded for a brief moment, replaced by a wicked glint. “Hey, you need me here. I take her out of here, you’ll go down. Will can’t handle this on his lonesome. And we can’t leave them alive—they’ll scatter, and if these asshats get loose, spread out…?”
Jacob closed his eyes. That couldn’t happen. All sorts of fucked-up things happened out there with the demons lately. When they starting acting this cohesively, they were too big a danger.
Grief ripped through him, all but gutted him.
A hand touched his arm. “We’ll get it sorted, Jacob. You need to get yourself together.” Rob leaned in, keeping his voice low. “You’re her focus and if she sees you wavering…”
No. Celine was too strong for that. Now. Besides, he wasn’t that important to her. Still, he’d gotten them in a right mess. He needed to do his best to help get them out of it.
Even if it took everything he had.
“There you go.” Rob put more distance between them, a smirk on his bloodied face. “You had me worried for a minute there.”
He fell.
Celine, with a scream trapped in her throat, saw it coming as the one of parasei leaped forward and took Jacob’s staggering body down. She wanted to lunge for him, wanted to grab him, cradle him…
And she couldn’t.
Crouched by the four sleeping humans, both guns out, all she could do was fire as one by one, injured parasei tried to come for the vulnerable humans. Out like this, their minds would be so vulnerable—
“Jacob…”
Rob came out of nowhere, that blurring speed terrifying. He tore through the parasei trying to pile on Jacob and sent them flying. He grabbed Jacob and hauled him up, brought him to Celine’s side, laid him with the mortals. “Girl, if you go down, I can’t help you,” Rob said. Then he was gone, once more lost in the crush.
“God.” She shoved one of the guns into the holster and reached over, laying a hand on Jacob’s chest—it was wet, wet with so much blood, and under the wet, his skin was cold. “Dear God.”
“You…you should have…left,” Jacob rasped. “We’re all fucked, Celine.”
A harsh rattle escaped him. “All of us.”
No.
It wasn’t going to end this way.
It just wasn’t.
Laying a hand on his cheek, she shot the door a glance and then bent over, glared at him, nose to nose. “You’re not dying. I’m not dying. We’re not fucked, you ass. I still have some yelling to do.”
A faint smile twisted his lips. “You’ll have to do it on the other side, I’m afraid. Sorry…this is my fault.”
“No.”
Then she stood and faced the door. She wasn’t going to the other side. Not yet, damn it. Not damn yet.
Targeting a demon in the hall over Rob’s shoulder, she squeezed the trigger.
Then another. And another.
Rob whirled around, staring at her, his mouth agape. She ignored him. The more demons she took down, the fewer could get in here to hurt the humans, or her, or Jacob, right?
“You’re shooting at them over my bloody shoulder!”
“Then I suggest you don’t move your head much.”
For about sixty seconds, she had easy targets. But then the parasei figured out the game had changed and they stopped giving her such easy targets.
“Grimm and guns,” Rob muttered. Shaking his head, he looked at Will. “What’s this world coming to?”
“I asked that very question when I brought you over.” Celine ignored them. Sinking back down by Jacob, she covered his heart with her hand. It was still beating. He still breathed. And he was still so very, very cold…
Ironically, it was Jacob’s fall that turned the tide. Even after Celine’s little reenactment of the shootout at the O.K. Corral, apparently, the parasei got cocky. Too cocky.
Moments of silence dragged on.
Then Rob frowned and shot Will a look. “I hear scratching.”
“Scratching?”
“Yeah, like a pen on paper—”
That was when they rushed the small room where the Grimm held their ground, and that was when Celine got to see which of the two Grimm left standing were the scariest. It wasn’t the blond man covered in blood, that was certain.
Will, still wearing his trademark white, had managed to keep himself mostly pristine. There was something almost elegant in that lethal violence of his, and it was echoed in the way he lifted a hand as the hall flooded with parasei, dozens of them, possibly thirty, a crush of them so thick, it was a miracle they didn’t trample each other.
The white light that always flashed when he did that traveling bit of his erupted. But this came from his hand, somehow brighter. It was even brighter than it had been when he’d healed Jacob.
And even from where Celine knelt by the mortals and Jacob, she felt the heat. It edged close to Rob and he dropped to the floor in a feline crouch, watching the parasei with a strange little smile as he whispered, “Burn, baby, burn.”
The stink of scorched flesh filled the air seconds later and Celine watched as flame consumed the whole lot of them.
“You’d think they’d learn by now,” Rob said, shooting Will a look. “They shouldn’t ever crowd in so close that you can see that many of them at once.”
“The stragglers are gone.”
Celine didn’t look away from the bedside, still staring at Jacob’s pale, ghostly face.
Will stood at the foot of the bed and glanced at Rob. “Thank you.”
“How long will he have to be under, do you think?”
Celine barely heard them. How could he have lost weight?
It hadn’t been more than a few days…no. A day. It had been one day since she’d seen him last—since she’d gone into the gym and tackled him, felt that long, lean body pressing into hers, all those muscles and planes.
Now he wasn’t much
more than a skeleton, skin stretched over bone. His cheeks were sunken in, his hair was dull—she’d seen cancer patients with more life.
“Celine.”
Jerking her head up, she looked at Will.
At some point, he’d moved to stand by her side.
“Yeah?”
There was a troubled look in his eyes and he hesitated, then finally said, “It would be so much easier to tell you this if I didn’t have so much guilt already over how much I’ve messed up your life.”
“You didn’t mess it up. My life is how it’s meant to be,” she said quietly.
“She might not be so forgiving in a minute.” Rob stood in the doorway, a disgruntled look on his face.
“Rob, be quiet. For once in your blasted life, would you please just be quiet?” Will snapped.
“Why, so you can flounder around for the words?” Rob shrugged restlessly, moving into the room and starting to pace. “He’s sending you away, little girl. You’re coming with me.”
“I… What? No.” Celine stood up, shaking her head. “I need to be here. With Jacob. He needs me.”
He needs me…
It was a bizarre echo of what she’d said to Jacob all those weeks ago. About Gavin. She’d been wrong, then. She wasn’t wrong now. Was she?
“What he needs is to heal,” Will said, his voice gruff. “We don’t feel much in stasis. We aren’t aware of much. But those with a psychic gift…it can split the energy. And he needs to devote that energy to healing. Right now he’s searching for you, and he’s trying to heal. He can’t do both. It’s draining him.”
Draining—
She jerked her hand away from his arm. “I’m draining him?”
“Not you. He is doing it. By trying to find you. He feels you near, even if he isn’t aware.” Will watched her closely, like he thought she was going to fall over the edge.
Celine wasn’t so certain she wouldn’t.
Grimm Tidings: Grimm's Circle, Book 6 Page 9