by Dale Mayer
"You think he kept on coming?"
"I'm afraid they didn't have a choice," he shouted. "The mountain made that decision for them."
"Shit. That means they are likely to be crushed inside."
Goran hovered in place where he watch the exit they'd flown from. "There's no sign of them. They might have gone back. Found a different way. Don't lose hope."
The growl from the mountain had become deafening. He had to shout to be heard. "We have to stay here and make sure."
"There is any number of other possible exits they might escape from.”
"No. Look!" Cody pointed to the ledge they'd flown off of.
"Someone is up there."
A blast rent the air, sending both Cody and Goran tumbling backward with the force.
*.*.*
Rhia couldn't breathe. She didn't dare. She was afraid she'd lose something precious if she did. She couldn't help but want to turn back. And knew it was no longer possible.
Not anymore. Her beloved Serus would survive. He had to. And he'd do anything to keep Tessa and Seth alive. Even if it cost him his life. As she would in his place.
She called out in her mind again. Serus, please, my love – answer me.
No answer.
Rhia shuddered, rejecting the promise of the pain to come. They'd survived this the last time, were they lucky enough to survive it again?
"Mom. They will be fine," David murmured quietly at her side
She turned her black gaze on her son. "Will they?" she shook her head and stared silently out the window. "I wish I could be sure of that."
The truck slowed. The gears grinding, the box bucking with the force, before it came to a rolling stop.
Rhia strode to the back of canvas covering and threw back the canvas. And found herself surrounded by gunmen – vamp and human.
All pointing their guns at her and David.
*.*.*
"Hey, what's going on?" Jared asked. He'd been escorted out of the cab in time to see Rhia and David being held under guard.
As his gaze swept the area, he realized there were dozens, maybe hundreds of people here. Vamp and humans. Most of the humans were unconscious on the ground. His gaze landed on a group of teens. Human teens. Sarah. Aaron. Jessica. Even Stephen. Damn, it was good to see them safe. He'd been afraid they'd never made it back to town.
He rushed over to them – and came up against several gunmen as they stepped in his path. Jared glared. Then switched his gaze to the large group of pale vamps standing beside the humans.
And the anger and confusion in their gazes.
He looked around. The soldiers had been separated from the vamps. Ian and Jewel appeared dead. Wendy was crouched beside them, anger and yeah, that was fear on her face.
So she didn't know or like what was going on either. Damn. Would this never end?
Seth's three friends that the soldiers had carried out had been laid on stretchers. Carefully. Unlike Ian and Jewel. So they were bad vamps and this was a group of equally bad vamps retrieving their fallen comrades. Nice. Not.
He was getting damn tired of this shit.
*.*.*
Wendy kept her eyes on the proceedings while pinching Ian to wake up. She could only hope he'd be himself when he did. They needed him. What should have been a welcoming party had turned into what she suspected was a clean-up-the-stragglers party. And she was one of the stragglers.
They'd been surrounded and basically ignored in the beginning, but now that the others had arrived, things had changed. She figured they'd been waiting to see who else had survived.
Gloria walked over to where Rhia was standing.
"Nice to see you again, Gloria." Rhia's voice was cool, wary. "I don't know how well all the raids did, but this mountain appears to be finished."
Wendy agreed silently. They'd seen too much stuff right now to believe anything anyone said.
In her hand, Gloria held a small computer type unit. "True enough. We've been tracking you. Well, some of you. You did quite well. That you will lose the two ancients is sad, of course, and you've lost your daughter. And for that," she took a deep breath and smiled. "I am grateful. I'd have preferred to have killed her myself to make sure that nastiness was stamped out permanently. However, as the creator of that obscenity, I'll be happy to kill you instead."
Wendy gasped.
Rhia stiffened. Her gaze went cold. "I wondered who was the organizer behind such a large operation. Especially when you started coordinating the raids. It seemed like you were so anxious to help, the first one to compile the computers, the ledgers. To box the information to look at later. As if you were going to be the one going over the material. At the time I didn't think anything of it, but now..." she frowned. "Are my sisters in on this?"
"No." Gloria gave a mocking laugh. "We couldn't trust any of them to keep quiet." Then she smiled again and Wendy's blood chilled. "We should have taken you out at the beginning, but we were too busy trying to salvage the situation. Besides, if any one of you had been taken out early, the others would have torn the mountain apart looking for answers."
"And the rest of my family?" Rhia answered coolly. "What have you done to them?"
"Oh, me nothing." Gloria smiled, a dead iciness to her eyes. "The mountain will take care of them. Or will take care of them." She held up the device in her hand. "It's a remote detonator. I have one more charge to go. And that should finish it. My husband was part of the Moltere clan, you know. I hate to see the place go, but it's not the only location I have at my disposal. If you'd stayed up there, you'd have been buried like all the rest. We were hoping a few other members would make it out of there, but... now it's too late."
She lifted the device.
"Wait," Rhia shouted. "Why not wait and see who else survives?"
"Because I'll probably just have to kill them. I was hoping to see some we'd been working on for years. I had a lot invested in those kids. We've got three and will take care of them, but they aren't as far along as the others in their programming. One of the missing you know very well."
Wendy knew. She didn't know if Rhia had connected the dots, but it wouldn't take long.
David gasped.
Rhia whispered, "Seth?"
"Yes, Seth." Gloria laughed. "I'd planned his transformation personally. To target your mutant daughter. Too bad I never had a chance to see how that turned out. Looks like he didn't survive the mountain either. He still needed several more sessions to make the programming permanent." She shrugged, mocked, "Oh well, what's done is done."
Her smile turned sly. "You remember Goran's boy, Tyson, don't you? See, we couldn't get to your men so we decided the best bet was the next generation. They were born to replace you, after all. And replacements were exactly what we needed. Tyson, already being a son of one of the higher council members himself, came up with the idea of going after others like him. It was a great idea."
Wendy reeled as she realized how many vamps had been involved and how many she knew personally. And how many Rhia must know. Talk about betrayal.
Ian groaned softly. She gasped and leaned over him. "Quiet. We're surrounded."
He stilled, then his eyes opened a slit. She stared down into them. Damn, was he with them or with Gloria? And how was Wendy supposed to find out?
*.*.*
David lunged toward Gloria and came up short as guns butted against his chest. "You used my brother as a tool? A weapon to destroy my family?" he asked in outrage.
Gloria stared at him, her gaze flat, dead. "We gave him a gift. He would have a chance to live. To carry on his family's genes – the right way. He had been trained to assist Tyson."
David shook his head. "You have no idea what you've done."
She laughed. "Of course I do. And thanks to Goran's emails to Markus, Tatia, and Cleary – we knew right from the beginning. Of course he also asked me about the Enforcers. I'd already taken care of them a long time ago. Join or d
ie. It was that simple."
"How could you?" Rhia shook her head slowly, as if coming out of a deep sleep and couldn't believe what she was hearing. "You lost your own son and husband in the last war!"
"Yes." Gloria's gaze hardened. "Because of the humans. The humans killed my family before I even understood we were in trouble. But I made them pay. Back then and every day since."
David stared at the vengeful woman he'd known all his life. He'd always been wary of her. Had heard bits and pieces about her over the years but never questioned any of it. There had been no reason to. Until now. And realized how a simple misconception of what had originally happened to her husband and son had let them be so blind to someone who was a really obvious suspect. Now that he understood, hindsight was a bitch.
"I should have known," Rhia said painfully.
"Why? I went out of my way to keep you from even considering me."
David stared at the car Gloria had exited. Was it rocking? He studied it carefully. Yes. Someone was trapped in the trunk. He glanced around at the group holding the guns. Boredom was starting to wash over their faces. They might be henchmen, but they were nothing like Motre's men.
He walked over to Jewel's side. Guns were raised as he moved, but no one stopped him. He crouched down beside Jewel, wishing she'd wake up. He gazed into Wendy's worried gaze. She motioned downward. He glanced at Ian and found his friend staring at him. Anger like he'd never seen before burned deep inside. The car jerked beside him. David looked up at Wendy and tilted his head toward the car. She shrugged. Damn, she didn't know who was in there either.
Behind him, Gloria barked, "Let him out."
Soldiers immediately raced over and opened the trunk. They lifted out an ancient male vamp and helped him to his feet. The men cut the bindings on his hands and legs. They stepped back.
"Oh no," whispered Rhia.
David twisted to see who it was. Councilman Adamson.
"I'm so sorry, Rhia," he said painfully. "I had no idea."
"Now that we all know where we stand, let's take care of this problem first." She lifted the device in her hand.
David straightened and started moving, his fingers already clenched around a spike hidden in his pockets. He just needed a chance... any chance...
"No!" cried Rhia. "Don't."
Gloria laughed. "Too late." And she pushed the button.
"Shit, Dad, now what?" Tessa huddled back against the mountain ledge as cold wind blasted them. The dark of night was their only saving grace.
Where were Cody and Goran, the fliers in their group? Some of the others here might be jumpers, but there was no place to jump to. The valley glowed with rivers and fields and was a hell of a long ways down. The ledge they were standing on was takeoff spot for fliers. And the worst for any others of their kind.
"I might be able to glide down." Except her father's voice didn't have that strong confident tone she wanted to hear. They were standing in the middle of nowhere with no place to go. She needed hope.
"Anyone else here a jumper? A glider?"
The others all shook their heads. "None of us," Chad said. "We went into the security side of things because we are big and strong. We don't have those advantages so we needed training to make up for it.”
"Yeah, little good all that training will do now." Fear threaded through Lenther's voice. She felt for him. She might survive the fall as a glider. She did not know about them. She'd never made an attempt from so high up, and the landing might be a bitch, but she'd likely live. She could possibly carry one of them. But there were five to split between her father and her.
It was too many.
And they were all huge. And she...well, she was a hell of a lot smaller and weaker.
Then the choice was taken from them.
The mountain exploded. She grabbed two men and jumped.
*.*.*
Goran regained his balance, shifted his weight, and spun around to look at the spot where he'd seen Serus and the others just moments before. That section of the mountain was gone. Not just damaged but completely missing.
"Cody, can you see them?" he screamed over the wind.
Cody hovered in place, his gaze frantically tracking boulders as they fell. "No, I can't!"
"They're falling." Goran dipped down. "They have to be, there's no other place for them to go."
And he dove into the mess of falling rock.
Cody tore after him. Tessa! Can you hear me?
Cody! Help!
Where are you? I'm looking everywhere but I can't find you.
We're falling. The mountain blew up. I jumped. But it's too far.
Her panicked cry tore into his heart. I'm coming. Hold on.
He tucked his arms tight against his body, folded his wings back, and bulleted downwards.
*.*.*
David grabbed the closest vamp and stabbed him, then spun around and slashed at two more. A shout rose up around him.
Councilman Adamson joined in the fray. David ducked and kicked and cut and burned to ash every vamp he could touch. He heard Ian roar behind him. David turned and realized Ian was slaughtering Gloria's henchmen, Wendy at his side. He laughed. "Glad to have you back, Ian." He ducked and barely missed a spike in the shoulder. "Oops." He landed an uppercut and took out the guard.
"These assholes are going to die for what they did," Ian cried out.
Then David didn't have a chance to hear anything as he was punched, kicked, and knocked to the ground. He rose with blood in his mouth and started to spin, spikes in both hands as he tore through the enemy, hoping that the others would finish off the ones that he wounded. He came to a staggering stop, exhausted and out of breath. He crouched, both hands out waiting for the next attack.
And found there were no more attackers.
His chest heaved as he searched the group. His mother. Jewel, still unconscious. Ian and Wendy. Even Jared – holding two spikes of his own. Wow. That guy had hidden depths.
He struggled upright, realizing his mother held Gloria to her knees on the ground.
Councilman Adamson walked over. "Gloria, how could you do this? You killed so many of our people."
"Your people," she snapped. "Not mine. I am not one of you."
He stared at her, pain and hatred mixing in his features. "Then I have no trouble doing this." He stabbed her in the chest with a silver spike.
She exploded and covered them all in ash.
*.*.*
Serus had two vamps over his shoulders and Motre wrapped around his chest. They were freefalling. He'd pulled off some major stunts in his lifetime, but he didn't have much hope of a happy ending this time.
Goran, save my daughter! Please. She's doesn’t have my experience. You need to help her.
Cody is on that. I see you. Almost there. Shit. How many are you carrying? Goran laughed. Show off. What am I going to do with you?
Well, you could help us to land for a start. And taking half the weight would be good too, Serus said humorously. The ground was rising rapidly. He couldn't land gently with the weight he carried and he didn't have a free hand. Actually, how about you just slow us down enough that we don't slam into the valley floor?
Goran swooped down and grabbed the back of Serus’s pants, adjusted his grip on Seth, and said, "Hang on everyone. This could be a little rough."
I can't lift you all, but... And he heaved backwards, using the power of his wings to slow their descent and angle them away from the falling rocks.
*.*.*
Tessa cried out as another rock smashed into her shoulder. One of the men clinging to her lost his grip on her arm and wrapped his big arms around her waist instead. She could hardly see where they were going because he was so big.
Tessa, hang on, I'm almost there.
Hurry!
A cold wind whistled past so fast, bringing tears to her eyes. Moonlight shone overhead but she could barely see. She blinked her eyes to clear them but
they filled instantly.
She couldn't hear. She could barely see, but she was feeling way too much. Everything hurt.
And then she was grabbed under the arms.
Got you!
Tessa was jerked up hard than pulled sideways as Cody tried to control their downward plunge. The ground swerved sideways as he pulled them away from the peak they ready to slam into. They were going way too fast even now.
Up ahead the valley opened up.
Look.
Vehicles clustered in one spot with a large group of people standing in a circle. They were too far away to identity anyone but Tessa could see a mix of vamps and humans. Tessa said, Looks like the others made it out safely.
Good. And our fathers are slightly ahead of us.
If you could slow me down enough, I could get down on my own.
I'm not sure about that. We are still going too fast. You’re carrying too much weight.
But the truth was, with the two men hanging onto her, Cody was carrying too much weight, and it was showing. His wing might have healed, but this would tax any flier.
She could hear Cody's wings as he struggled, his breathing labored.
I'm fine, he gasped. We can do this.
They were coming in low and fast.
And she understood what she needed to do. She said, We can. But not quite this way.
She called out to Chad and Lenther. "Hey you two. Can you grasp on to Cody? It will ease the weight for him.
Instantly, the two vamps reached out and grabbed Cody's legs. They swung wildly in the air while the weight was redistributed. Okay Cody. Let go. I'm fine.
You say that, but...
She wiggled her shoulders. Let go, Cody.
Hang on, I'll slow it back a little more then drop you.
She felt the force as he pulled back on his wings to slow their descent, then he let her go.