He was yanked to his feet by his hair and the dude before him grinned, flashing a row of gold upper teeth. "Time to pay up. You ain't got no money. But 's all good," he rapped, tilting his head side to side, "cuz we accept blood."
Tyler focused on details. Black cap. Latino maybe. Young. Early twenties.
The hold on his hair abruptly let go, throwing him off balance even as the dude's fist barreled toward his face. Tyler ducked and ran. Three steps. That's all he got before his body slammed to the ground. The side of his face hit the asphalt hard. The explosion of pain was brief before it went numb.
"Cracka don't run, bitch."
"What the fuck is going on?"
He was yanked to his feet again. "We found this little fucker hiding under the stairs."
Tyler focused on the tall dude before him with coal black eyes. Warm blood streamed steadily down the side of his face. He blinked, trying to clear the blur from the vision of his damaged eye.
"He had him a fancy wallet and no money." Black hat held his wallet out.
Tall dude took it and smiled, looking it over. The smile vanished and he glared at Tyler.
Shit.
Tall dude shoved the wallet in Tyler's face and leaned to put his own face just inches from Tyler's. "You know dese crackas motherfucka? Huh?"
Tyler grunted and struggled under the cold fingers suddenly crushing his throat. The guy holding him from behind was like an iron straitjacket.
"I'm going to choke the fucking life out of you right here unless you tell me where I can find that red motherfucker running this lawless outfit." The cultured tones of a man with education and money surprised Tyler. Whoever held him from behind wasn't like the other bangers there.
He jerked and thrashed, vision turning dark. His spirit began to slip out of his skin and he fought to hold it in. Shit. Why was it doing that?
The pressure left his throat and he fell to his knees to gasp and gulp cold night air into his fiery lungs.
The guy paced exactly before Tyler, only his expensive leather shoes and the bottoms of dress pants visible. "You have two seconds to talk."
Tyler nodded. He knew the rules. No negotiating, only buying minutes to live and think of another plan. "I can take you…" he coughed and gagged, "…can take you. To him."
Leather shoes guy bent and brought his face close to Tyler's, flashing his denture-perfect, brilliant white teeth. "That's more like it." He looked at Tall Dude standing next to him. "Take him to the house. Tie him up and beat that sweet cooperation out of him. Then beat the location out of him." Another pretty grin with a crushing hold on Tyler's face. "And if he's lying?" His shoulder twitched several times with a deranged excitement. "Beat him the fuck to death."
****
Kassie focused on the fear in Tyler. It was embedded into her psyche from the day she'd met him. She could taste it. Bitter and gagging. She looked around the city streets, following the scent. She was close. What would he be doing at a place like this? This was a very bad area. She could sense the evil everywhere. Something she seemed to have picked up from Lyght since….
Pain sliced through her chest at just the thought of him. Every time she tried to miss him, the crush of guilt chased it off until she had to stop and breathe through the avalanche. What was wrong with her? It was too much. What she was feeling wasn't normal. She figured out the second she landed in the city that something was wrong with her. How long had it been wrong and what exactly was it? Was she sick somehow and didn't know it?
She needed to get back to Lyght. At least let him explain these things to her so she'd know. If she had inherited some of his power, she needed to deal with it, not be a stupid whining bitch. Maybe she could use it to pay for this horrific crime she'd committed.
Kassie made her way into a building, following the sick smell. After several flights of stairs, she ventured down a hallway that was fit for a horror movie. One light bulb for a fifty foot stretch made it eerie as hell.
A heavy smacking sound came through a slightly open door just ahead. She half crouched and scooted to the wall and put her ear against the moldy cracked and peeling plaster.
"That's enough. Don't kill him yet. He'll be pissed if we don't get what he wants before the kid kicks it." The tough sounding voice reminded her of something from one of the cop shows Bill had enjoyed, with violent gangs and corrupt cops and a single good guy.
Another smacking sound, light this time. Kassie jerked away, heart slamming her chest. Someone was being beaten.
Tyler was very near. She could feel him. She looked all around, searching for a spot he could be hidden. There was nothing but his fear permeating the air.
God, please don't let it be him.
How could she find out?
Again she looked around, searching for something usable. A corroded looking sprinkler hung on the hall ceiling. A fire. She could light one, set the alarms and sprinklers off. They might leave the room long enough for her to get to their victim.
Damn it. She had nothing to light a fire with. She went several doors down and knocked.
As locks clicked and snicked, and the door opened up to a huge black dude in baggy jeans and a white wifebeater shirt, it hit Kassie. What a stupid idea.
The guy stared at her like she'd interrupted his last meal.
"Uh, hi. I was hoping you might have a cigarette." Dear God what was she thinking? Every instinct sounded major alarms in that second warning she had both feet ankle deep in a heaping pile of dumb shit. "You know what? Never mind." She waved a hand with a flirty airhead giggle. "Weak moment, trying to quit. I'm on my way to visit my mother." She pointed down the hall. "She lives here. I better get going before she gets pissed."
She turned and pain flashed through the top of her head as he yanked her back by her hair.
"Ain't no old ladies staying here last I checked." He dragged her inside.
Screaming, she fought to get her footing, but he went too fast. Down a hall and through several doors, he hauled her like a weightless doll.
"Look what I found snooping outside." He threw her and she hit the floor with her right knee and the hot streaks of pain shot through her. She hated screaming, but couldn't help it. A scared whimper reached her ears and she looked up and met the legs of a person tied to a chair. Dread filled her as she raised her gaze higher. Oh God. Tyler. Tyler bloodied and beaten till his face was swollen so she hardly recognized him.
Anger and fury welled up inside her like a giant wave she couldn't keep in. "What have you done!" Her entire body quivered with the force of her anger and the effort to hold it. "What have you done to him?"
Their laughter boomed as though she were hilarious. "Must be baby-momma." One elbowed the other.
"What I done? You mean this?" A guy struck Tyler in the face and blood flew, his head flopping lifelessly. "Or this?" He struck him again.
Horror gripped her and she drew a huge breath and screamed his name as hard and loud as she could. "Lyyyyyght!" She screamed it over and over until her throat was shredded.
The fists came for her then. But she didn't stop. They beat her and she screamed his name with every hit.
She deserved this.
****
Dare woke, feeling like she'd been blown to pieces and put back together again.
"You were, dear."
She jumped and turned to the voice behind her. An old man stood, busying himself with something she couldn't see. She looked around at the strange room. Nearly white. "Where the fuck am I? Am I dead?"
"Not any more. I revived you. I'll tell the Ruby Prince he can come see you now."
"The what?" Did he just say ruby prince?
She watched Francis, her secret hero who'd almost been killed because of her, rush to her. She gasped when he pulled her in his arms. God, he felt so amazing. She held him tight, no longer wanting to deny how perfect he felt, how right. "Where am I? What is this place? He said something about a ruby prince."
"Shhh, don't worry about any of that.
You nearly died and I brought you here where I live."
She shook her head, looking into his deep red eyes. She suddenly remembered the last moment they just before…
She bolted up. "Antoine! Shit! They must have him. It was a fucking ambush." She struggled in Francis' embrace but he only tightened it.
"Shh, stop. They'll find him."
"They, who?"
"My brothers and sister."
The door burst open and in walked the woman from the first night. Danger rolling off of the angelic looking form, blue eyes cold and locked on. Dare's muscle locked in dread. This bitch was B-A-D.
"Where is Tyler?" She stopped by the chair.
Francis spun to her. "What? What do you mean where's Tyler? He's with you."
She looked at Francis, silvery light bolting from those cold eyes. "He was until her people ambushed you."
"You were supposed to stay with him!" Francis grabbed his head.
"Maxwell 911'd me!" She glared at Dare.
Clearly she considered the whole thing Dare's fault. "I had no clue they were going to do that!"
"She had no clue." Francis repeated in a firm voice.
The girl stretched out her hand and her fingernail grew into a long metal spike.
Dare's eyes felt like they were going to fall out of her head. "What the fuck?"
Francis held her wrist. "Peggy what are you doing?"
"Probing. She will have links I need."
"You could hurt her."
"Oh she's a big girl." She bent her head as though searching for an entry. "What's a little pain?"
Dare leaned away. "Don't you fucking touch me with that thing. What the fuck are you?"
The metal on her finger suddenly raced up the girl's arm and swallowed her entire body until she stood like some fucking freak from a nightmare sci-fi movie.
"Oh my God, oh my God." Dare whimpered and cringed back.
"Peggy. Don't. Do this."
"Then make her tell me! Where! Is! Tyler!"
Dare covered her ears and screamed as the sound of those words seemed to tear at the molecules in her brain.
"You're hurting her! Please stop!"
The girl aimed her hand at Dare and a flash of red filled the room. Dare blinked, staring at the woman encased in a red casket looking box. She looked at Francis. No. Not Francis. Some red statue. A red man statue that moved and seemed to be made of…ruby. Oh dear God, dear God. She was dreaming. "The Ruby Prince," she barely whispered. The room spun and she fell into darkness with the words I got you Abigail floating softly in her spirit like a long forgotten lullaby.
Chapter Thirty Five
The second Lyght touched down at the compound, he knew she wasn't there. Where the bloody hell was she? He grabbed Sam who appeared to be looking for Toren and spun her around, following Kassie's cord.
The city. "Take us to the city. Your mother is in the city."
Sam looked at him like he'd lost his mind. "My mother?"
Lyght fought panic. "Sam, please, she needs me."
"Sorry, you freaked me out calling her my mother. Are you okay?"
Lyght paused, confused. "She is your mother. What do you mean?"
"No." Sam shook her head. "She's just a close friend. Like a mother."
"She never told you?" Lyght couldn't believe it.
"Told me what?"
"Never mind, later."
"No not later!" She grabbed his arm. "Told me what?"
Lyght grabbed her shoulders. "Sam, she's your mother. She was blackmailed by your father into silence. Sweetheart, I'm sorry. I thought you knew."
Lyght prayed Sam didn't break down on him. Not now. "How do you know for sure?"
"Love, it's why I can find her through you. Your biological tie."
Sam's mouth dropped. "I thought…I thought it was just because I was close to her or something."
Lyght nodded. "You are. Just closer than you realized." He held his hand out to her. "I don't mean to be insensitive," he said softly," but can we please go find her. She's in trouble. I can feel it."
A few moments of awe sat on Sam's face before a light switch of panic seemed to flip in her. She snatched Lyght's hand and shut her eyes, flashing them to the city.
Lyght had wished to listen to conversation and find something out while at the compound, but something inside of Kassie had him tied in knots. Whatever forced her out of hiding was bad. At least to her. And the shit he felt in her call had him burning with a righteous justice. Fuck!
The second Sam got them in the city, Lyght was ran over by a locomotive of his own power travelling at the speed of light.
"What was that!" Sam staggered.
****
Kassie fought on the bed as they wrestled her legs apart. Her throat was raw, her eyes had no more tears. "Lyght," she rasped, breathing shallow around the pain in her abdomen.
An explosion rocked the air and she screamed. Light filled the room, blinding her. She gasped, trying to see through her swollen eyes, her jaw shaking uncontrollably. Then she heard deep words, foreign, followed by agonizing screams. One, then another. The voice drew closer, louder.
"What the fuck is that? Is that God? Fuck!"
"She been calling for light, dude, look at him!"
She was suddenly cut loose by one of the guys and they covered her with a blanket. And there he was, standing in the doorway, so bright and beautiful, his eyes like brilliant white stars, fine shards of diamond hair lay across his forehead. White robe glistening like a sea of sparkles.
"We're sorry man, here, she's yours."
He hung his head and spoke those words and the two men in the room began to scream in agony. He knelt next to the bed and bowed his head, reaching his violently trembling hand out to her. "Kassie! You are so beautiful and merciful. Please. I beg you. I beg you with all my being. Let me judge them with wrath."
****
Lyght had never felt anything like it. Though his power had returned to him, he wasn't able to use it the way he wanted. Torture and devastate, utterly annihilate. He'd wanted to torture the men but instead he was judging them with righteousness and mercy. A cruel hard death would have been just, but merciful was far more just. And the fact that it was Kassie doing it, was mind blowing. The one who had been so defiled and hurt was still able to retain her sense of mercy and compassion. Even on her enemies.
It was almost as if she were the Archangel and he were…the human.
Lyght froze.
Holy. Nine. Universes.
"Lyght." Fresh tears rolled over her bruised and swollen cheeks. "You came."
Even though he was only a few feet from her, he flashed to her side and scooped her into his arms, burying his face in her shoulder. "You called me sweetheart." He let out a sob. "You finally called me."
She hugged him tight and nothing had ever felt so good.
"Oh God, Lyght, I don't feel…so good." She groaned weakly.
Lyght grabbed his head as the sound of the universe ripped like rusty sheet metal in his skull.
"What is that? Lyght, I'm scared."
The air before them trembled like rippling water then it split like a festering wound. What the bloody hell? The thing that climbed out of the ripped air wasn't like anything Lyght had ever seen. At first glance, it looked almost like a daddy long legs spider, but with a lumpy human head and two bulbous abdomens. And the size of a bloody building.
Bloody hell! Private demon? Could Kassie have somehow created it?
The thing opened its mouth and shrieked, again tearing through Lyght's brain. Like it was a part of him. "Kassie. Sweetheart. I think that is an Ozeliblis. I think you may have created him."
"Me!?"
"Us. What we are together. You will need to give me all of my power to fight it. Can you do that?"
She looked at him with wide terrified eyes and shook her head. "I don't know how. Tell me. Tell me how!" She shrieked the words, watching it approach, its jagged mouth and matching eyes billowing with dread and darkness
like erupting volcanos.
Shit. "The last time, what happened that you gave me the power, what happened to you?"
Tears streamed as she clung fast to his cloak, hiding behind him. "I was scared. I'm scared now! Take the power! Take it! I'm fucking scared of it! Lyght! I'm scared!"
Fear? Was fear its power? It resonated from within Kassie, acting like a hot air balloon for the beast. And was it growing? With every step toward them? "I still don't have it. Try giving it again, sweetheart." He fought to remain calm.
"Take it! Take the power, I don't want it!"
A miniscule portion of his energy hit him and he flew at the beast. The thing swiped him out of the air like a bug and Lyght struggled in its cold clutches, suddenly able to feel its intentions. The monster was using both of them as a portal into the realm. It would devour the two of them and feed on the world's fears and miseries until all were consumed with it.
Bloody fucking hell.
How did it get such a strong hold in them?
The thing threw him to the ground and Kassie's fear surged enough for him to feel it. He hit with the force of a meteor, pavement and earth shattering like thin glass beneath him. Unable to move, he watched the thing approach.
Dear God.
He fought to stay conscious as it pulled him by his head from the crater. The beast's abysmal mouth opened and Lyght struggled to get free, the darkness approaching like the ground rushing up to him. It tried to pull him apart, half his body in its mouth. Lyght screamed from the pain.
The supernatural diamond armor embedded in his tissues held him together and Lyght was sorry Uriel had reinforced his body with it all those millennia ago. Kassie's screams raked him to pieces until he wished for death.
The creature howled like an angry child and slammed him into the Earth again. This time his diamond shattered like fine crystal. He felt himself fading. He couldn't fade.
Yes…he could. Fade. Just fade.
Don't die. Please don't die.
Lyght heard Kassie's plea. If only he could help it.
****
Sam watched on in horror as the monster slammed Lyght to the earth with diabolical force. Kassie jerked around to face the point of impact and screamed. Blinding white light blasted from her body to send the beast hurling through the air with a torturous howl.
Summon Lyght (Archangels Creed) Page 28