Darkness Shatters: Book 5 (Sensor Series)

by Susan Illene

  I looked up to find more humans rushing through the entrance—at least a dozen men and women. There was no way I could take them on alone. The shaman was just getting up and looked a little dazed. Shell-shocked would have been more accurate. He’d never been in a battle before and wasn’t prepared for it.

  The humans were climbing over the destroyed furniture, coming closer. I sensed Rob—Hunter’s father—coming toward me from down the hall. Paula had given him a clean bill of health two days ago and told him he could go home, but he’d chosen to stay and help.

  “Want some company?” the werewolf asked.

  “Absolutely,” I said, nodding at the incoming wave. “But let’s try slowing them down first.”

  I grabbed a broken chair and tossed it at a woman getting close. She tried to dodge it, but not fast enough. A yelp tore from her lips as the chair struck her chest, knocking her down.

  “Good idea.” Rob grabbed another chair lying next to him.

  The werewolf chucked it at a guy who was coming up next. The human raised his arms to protect his head just as the table struck him. He fell back. After that we began grabbing everything we could find, tossing it over as fast as we could. With each piece we got closer to the humans.

  It was working and they were backing away, but then the big burly guy I remembered from the news stepped up with a machine gun in his hands. He sprayed bullets at us in a barrage that was impossible to avoid. Several tore into my chest and legs. Rob cried out as rounds struck him as well. The older werewolf staggered and fell to his knees.

  “Dad!” Hunter cried out, racing down the hall.

  “No. Stay back,” I ordered him.

  Hunter didn’t stop or appear to hear me.

  Dammit, he was going to get himself killed. I caught the human with the machine gun reloading. I raced toward him, grabbed the weapon, and bent the barrel. After tossing it away, I punched him hard enough to send him flying into a wall. He crashed into it and slumped to the ground. The feelings of rage I sensed from him evaporated.

  More gunfire went off. I scanned the lobby and found two human men firing on Hunter. The boy’s body jerked as each bullet hit, but he continued toward them with a steely look in his eyes. I stumbled as fast as I could and leaped onto his nearest attacker. Once I had him on the floor, it took all my strength to knock the human out.

  More bullets hit me. Damn. I didn’t even know where they were coming from anymore. With blurry vision, I gazed up and saw Hunter wrestling with a human to get his gun. A shot fired. Hunter’s head became bloody and maybe part of his skull went missing. I blinked my eyes, but he remained hazy to me. All I could be sure of was that he fell back on the floor.

  “Hunter,” I called and began crawling toward him.

  Someone grabbed me before I made it two feet. It took me a second to figure out who had a grip on my waist.

  “We have to get you out of here,” Ajax said, pulling me close.

  Half carrying me, he took me down the hallway toward Emily’s room. Kerbasi was there, standing at the entrance.

  “Help me get the bullets out of her,” the shaman said. “She’s bleeding out all over the place.”

  The guardian nodded. “Of course.”

  Working together, they gently set me on the floor.

  Kerbasi knitted his brows as he studied my wounds. “Sensor, you have many holes in you. Did you know that?”

  I was so lightheaded I couldn’t be angry at him for his inane question. “The bullets…”

  “Aha!” He pulled my knife from my pocket. “I knew you’d have one somewhere.”

  “Now I know I’m dreaming if I’m letting you use my own knife on me,” I slurred out.

  “No, sensor, that would be my dream.”

  The guardian unfolded the blade and went to work on my stomach. There was only a sting before a bullet went flying, hitting a wall. He moved to the next wound on my hip and dug that round out just as fast.

  I squinted at him. “You’re rather good at this.”

  It barely hurt.

  “An expert torturer knows what hurts the least and what hurts the most.” He leaned closer, his black hair falling over his face as he dislodged a bullet in my ribs. “Lucky for you, I’m feeling generous today.”

  “I’m going to owe you many pizzas for this, aren’t I?” A little of my strength was returning now that he’d tended the worst of my wounds. Foreign objects in the body slowed the healing process by quite a lot—so I’d learned more than once.

  “Of course,” Kerbasi answered, going for the last chunk of metal in my thigh.

  While he worked on it, the shaman returned with bandages and began wrapping my wounds up. He wasn’t quite as gentle, but he was trying. I noticed a few graze wounds on him. They were already closing and he didn’t seem to feel them.

  “It’s too bad neither of you guys can heal me,” I said, sitting up after they finished.

  Kerbasi gave me an earnest look. “I would if I could.”

  “I appreciate the sentiment.” Putting a hand on his shoulder, I staggered to my feet. “Gotta go back.”

  “I don’t think it’s necessary,” Ajax said. “Reinforcements have arrived.”

  Through blurry vision, I looked back down the hall but could only see part of the wrecked truck. The gunfire had just come to an abrupt halt. My senses told me Yerik had arrived and was using magic to subdue the humans. At least that stupid elixir couldn’t stop him from doing that.

  Something else niggled at my mind—something missing. It took me a moment to realize what was bothering me. Hunter’s signature wasn’t appearing on my radar. He was gone. The memory of him getting shot in the head replayed in my mind, hazy but not so hazy I couldn’t see it for what it was. My throat constricted. He’d died because I hadn’t gotten to him in time.

  “I have to check on Emily. Guardian, can you wait here just in case any humans sneak through?”

  “Of course,” Kerbasi agreed.

  “I’ll go see if they need help up front.” Ajax headed back toward the lobby.

  In my foggy state of mind, I didn’t think to put on a suit before going into her room. I just passed through the two sets of doors and staggered toward her. She was lying there, barely breathing. Her face was pale and black marks dotted her face. My senses told me she had little time left if I didn’t do something. I’d lost one teenager tonight, but I wasn’t losing another.

  “Fuck the angels and their stupid rules,” I said under my breath.

  I snuck my fingers under one of my bandages and coated them with blood. Then I pressed them between her lips and rubbed the blood into her mouth. I repeated the process several times until I sensed a difference. Slowly, her body was responding. Two more times was enough to satisfy me that she’d make it.

  Falling back into a chair, I gazed at the innocent girl whose world was about to be rocked again. I’d have to tell her, but not until later when she was better. For now, the black was taking over. I sunk into a deep healing sleep.

  Chapter Twenty-nine

  Awareness came to me in increments. I wasn’t on a chair anymore, but rather the cot I’d been using since I started staying at the clinic. It was in a different room down the hall from Emily—whose life force now felt much stronger on my radar. I breathed out a sigh of relief. I’d saved her. If I’d accomplished nothing else during the attack, I’d at least done that.

  I stretched an arm. My muscles ached and my body felt stiff, but I didn’t feel dirty. I was wearing different clothes. Someone had cleaned me up and put a pair of shorts and a t-shirt on me. I must have been in bad shape not to notice. How long had I been asleep? And how long had Lucas been hovering over the cot?

  I rolled over and opened my eyes. Damn, he didn’t look much better than I felt. His hair wasn’t combed and fell partially over his face. Whiskers lined his jaw and there was a haunted expression in his eyes.

  “Is Emily okay?” I asked.

  He nodded. “She’s doing surprisingly wel
l and resting.”

  “What time is it?”

  He glanced at his watch. “Almost six in the evening.”

  So it was already dark outside. I’d slept most of the day away.

  I swung my legs around to the floor and reached for him. It took a couple tugs to get him to come down, but he settled next to me on the cot. I laid my head against his shoulder and breathed in the musky scent of him. He wrapped an arm around me and pulled me closer into his body. The big scary lion had let me into his den.

  For a moment we just sat there, allowing the comforting silence to content us. So much had happened in a matter of days to rock our world. It wasn’t often we were actually together when life kicked us. It felt good to share the pain. Tendrils of our mating bond pulsed back and forth, feeding us strength. It was too bad we couldn’t sit together forever.

  “How did it go with your brother?” I asked.

  Lucas stiffened. “He claimed he had his reasons for hiding until now.”

  Well, technically he did. I tried to say as much, but the spell on my hand burned. Damn, Ariel. Even now I was still blocked from talking to him about it. Whether the archangel wanted to or not, she would be removing it the next time I saw her. Until then I’d just have to handle Lucas the best I could.

  “How badly did you beat him up?”

  He exhaled a weighted breath. “Not nearly enough.”

  I didn’t say anything.

  He tipped my chin up so our eyes met. “You’ll need to select new furniture for the condo in New Orleans. I’m afraid I destroyed most of the pieces downstairs.”

  “That bad, huh?” I gave him a commiserating look.

  “I let my temper get the better of me.”

  A smile played on my lips. “I’m shocked.”

  Humor flashed in his gold eyes, but it was gone a moment later. “It appears the battle here took an even greater toll.”

  “Hunter.” I swallowed.

  Lucas gave me a squeeze. “I did not particularly like the werewolf, but I did not wish for him to die.”

  He was only halfway speaking the truth, but I let that go.

  “Is his father okay?” I could sense Rob on my radar, but he’d been in bad shape the last time I saw him.

  “Recovering, though he’s understandably upset about his son,” Lucas answered.

  “Poor guy. They hadn’t been getting along until they got sick.”

  “That’s the interesting thing about death.” Lucas stared up at the ceiling. “It rarely bothers to warn you when you’re about to lose a loved one so that you might make things right with them.”

  He said that as if he spoke from experience.

  “Who was it for you?” I asked, doubting I’d get an answer. He hated talking about his past.

  Lucas didn’t move. He kept staring at the ceiling as if it had all the answers. Who knows? Maybe it did in some strange way.

  “My mother,” he said after a few minutes. “I was young when she passed, but I regret not getting to know her better. Over the centuries I’ve thought of countless questions I would love to ask, given the chance.”

  It warmed me, hearing him say something so personal.

  I took his hand. “What would be the first thing you’d ask?”

  “What she was thinking when she chose my father.” He shook himself. “No, I wouldn’t come out that strong. I’d ask about her family instead.”

  “You didn’t meet them?” I’d never thought about him having a family other from Micah. It sort of seemed like he’d just popped into existence.

  Tension filled the room. “No, but I learned during my last stay in Purgatory that my mother’s family may have come from a line of sensors. That the only nephilim the archangels haven’t executed are those who carry the gene for it.”

  I didn’t know what to say. For most of Lucas’ life, he’d hated my kind and then he found out last year he was a descendent of them? I couldn’t even get mad he hadn’t told me sooner. He’d probably needed time to process that sort of news.

  “That must have been difficult to take,” I said.

  He rubbed a hand down my arm. “It would have been worse if I hadn’t already cared for a sensor. That took some of the sting out of it.”

  “Glad I could be of service.”

  A knock sounded at the door. My senses told me Paula was on the other side.

  “I’ve got it.” Lucas took his arm from around me and stood up.

  While he went to answer it, I dug out some clean socks from the bag I kept in the room and put them on my feet. My tennis shoes were under the cot. I tugged them onto my feet as Paula came into the room.

  “I’m going to take a wild guess on how Emily is recovering so quickly.” She gave me a stern look. “Will there be ramifications for this?”

  I stood. “The archangels have got their hands full at the moment. Getting mad at me for saving a dying girl should be low on their priority list.”

  The gold in Lucas’ eyes darkened. “I don’t believe that is entirely what she meant. We have no idea what your blood might do to her.”

  “What was I supposed to do? Hunter was dead and Emily was close to it. I couldn’t handle losing them both.” Not to mention I’d been half-delirious from my injuries and hadn’t been thinking clearly.

  Lucas rubbed his face. “We will simply have to hope for the best. Your immortality is new enough your blood may not affect her very much. Her recovery is already taking longer than if it had been me who saved her.”

  “That’s what I was thinking.” I looked at Paula. “Is she still contagious?”

  “She was when I first tested her this morning, but I’m waiting on another culture now. I suspect I’ll see quite a bit of improvement with that one. The black marks on her skin have nearly faded and the fever is gone.”

  “Can I see her?”

  She clasped her hands. “Of course, but until Emily is back to full health I ask that you continue following the procedures we’ve set in place for her quarantine. We can’t afford to take any risks.”

  “I understand.”

  Lucas followed me as I headed out of the room and down the hallway. I sensed Kerbasi sitting with Emily and was glad she wasn’t alone. Her mood told me she didn’t know Hunter was gone yet. She felt upbeat and positive. Together Lucas and I stripped off our clothes in the outer room and donned the annoying white suits Paula insisted we wear.

  Emily smiled as soon as we entered. Her skin had cleared up dramatically and she sat up in bed. She’d even brushed her hair. Hearing Paula say she was recovering was one thing, seeing it for myself was another.

  “Hey, Mel,” she said, sounding stronger. “Glad you’re looking better.”

  She must have seen me before I was taken away.

  “Was I that bad?” I pretended to look worried—anything to keep the mood light as long as possible.

  She rolled her eyes. “Uh, yeah. You were covered in blood and your clothes had holes all over them.”

  If I’d been in a clearer state of mind, I might have thought to pass out elsewhere. She must have had quite the shock when she woke up.

  “How did I get moved?” I asked.

  “I cleaned you up and carried you to the other room,” Lucas said, giving me a disapproving look that didn’t match his actual mood.

  I pulled some of my hair behind my ear, noting that he’d left it loose after washing me. It had been in a ponytail last I remembered.

  “I’m surprised I didn’t notice.”

  “It was rather pleasant seeing you quiet and amenable,” Kerbasi remarked. “If only it was that way all the time.”

  “Don’t make me shoot you, guardian,” I warned.

  He grunted. “Exactly my point. I much prefer seeing you riddled with bullets.”

  That came out as a lie. I must have grown on the guardian recently.

  “So where’s Hunter?” Emily gazed around us.

  The tension in the room grew thick.

  I went and sat on th
e bed next to Emily. “There’s something I need to tell you.”

  “What?” She swallowed.

  It was rather hard for her to not miss the emotions coming from the rest of us.

  “When the humans attacked the clinic this morning it got bad. There weren’t enough of us to fend them off. Rob got shot a bunch of times and Hunter saw it.” I was explaining this the wrong way, but I couldn’t bring myself to say the words that would tear her world apart.

  “Okay,” she said slowly. “But his dad is here. Why isn’t he?”

  I took her hands. “When his father went down, Hunter ran for him. I told him to stay back, but he didn’t listen or couldn’t hear me through all the gunfire. There were too many humans…I stopped one guy from getting to him, but he wrestled with another man. There was a shot and he was hit in the head—”

  “No!” She shook her head in denial. “He’s a werewolf. A couple shots can’t kill him.”

  I cupped her cheeks with my hands. “Hunter was still recovering from the plague and he was only turned a couple years ago. He wasn’t strong enough to take an injury like that.”

  “But he can’t die. We’re supposed to be together forever.” Tears ran down her face and she grasped the opal necklace he’d given her last week.

  “Sweetheart, I’m sorry.” I pulled her into a hug. “I tried to save him. I swear I did.”

  “Mel, what am I supposed to do? Everyone around me keeps dying.” She buried her face in my shoulder. Her body shook as she choked on her tears.

  “Not all of us can die,” I whispered in her ear. “You’ve still got me and Lucas.”

  “And me,” Kerbasi added.

  “But I want Hunter.” Her voice came out muffled.

  I rubbed her back. “I know.”

  She jerked away from me. “I want to see his body.”

  There hadn’t even been time for me to see it. Where had they put him?

  “That’s not a good idea,” Lucas said.

  She scooted around me and hopped off the bed, still wearing a hospital gown. Her expression was determined as she looked up at the nephilim.