by J L Terra
“Bryn.” He shook her shoulder. “Wake up.”
Her body bowed and she cried out. With only her shoulders and feet on the roof, the rest arched up into the air. She went limp and slid down the roof. He caught her.
Had the Druid come to them in a dream as a dragon? His dragon. The beast he had faced so long ago. Was he now devouring Bryn?
A tear rolled down his cheek, hot and wet. It tracked through the grit on his skin. His phone rang in his pocket, but he ignored it. He swiped at his face. Tried to pray.
Her breath evened out.
He looked up at the ocean of stars overhead. So clear. Close enough he could reach out and touch each one. It was in that moment that clarity came.
He wasn’t going to allow a dragon to kill her. “I won’t let that happen.”
It cannot be ignored.
“That doesn’t make it true.” The future would be of their construct. Providence orchestrated His will, but each of them made their own choices. It was the balance that held the world together. While it threatened to collapse every day, it could also be its very salvation at the same time.
Two sides of the same coin. Like the Druid, and Daire. Light and dark. Good and evil. Damnation and redemption. It was all about the choices a person made.
Then let it be.
“I’m not going to let her go to her death.”
That was the choice Daire would make. Providence needed to stop forcing his hand, pushing Daire into the smallest corner there was—the one where Bryn died and Daire had to stand aside. Allow whatever came to buffet his friends, like wind against the sails of a great ship.
He knew now what the road ahead held. Bryn would go with him, but only so he could ensure her complete safety.
The Druid had tried to wipe them out. Or at least slow them down. But it hadn’t worked, they were still here and still breathing.
He got on the phone and confirmed Mei was good.
“What about Ben and Amelia?”
“That’s why I was calling you a minute ago. Remy pinged his phone. They’re a couple miles away, but I’m headed there now.”
“And?” Daire gathered Bryn in his arms and scooted to the edge of the roof, the phone between his cheek and shoulder. “Spit it out, Mei.”
“Malachi is there as well. He says Ben went crazy trying to get to Amelia.”
Chapter 30
Daire threw the truck in park and glanced at Bryn. She was slumped against the passenger window, still out. His brain spun with all that had just happened. So fast he could barely catch up long enough to process it all. But there was no time.
He jumped out and slammed the door, then ran over to the source of the commotion.
Ben stood in the center. Amelia’s face was awash with terror. Her hands balled into fists. “I’m sorry.”
Ben held his gun on Malachi. Finger on the trigger.
“Put it down, man.” His teammate took a half-step forward. “Don’t make me put you down.”
“Like you could,” Ben bit out.
“Easy.” Daire trotted over and lifted his hands. “Everyone. Easy.” He glanced at Amelia. “You okay?”
She nodded, a jerky movement. Blood trailed from her knees halfway down her shins and she’d swiped blood on her jaw from her hands.
“Go find something to get cleaned up.”
Proximity was half the problem here. But before Amelia could take two steps, Ben launched himself toward her.
Daire ran flat out and barreled into his friend.
They hit the ground and Ben grunted. Daire rolled off and went for his gun hand. Ben squeezed the trigger. Malachi jumped back as gravel sprayed up. Amelia screamed.
Daire slammed Ben’s arm down on the ground over and over again. Was he going to have to fight both of them? He couldn’t hold off both Malachi and Ben if they chose to come at him simultaneously.
He glanced at Malachi, saw his attention was on Amelia, and then turned. Yelled over his shoulder, “Go!” He needed her out of here. “Take the truck.”
Bryn was still inside, which could pose a problem. He would catch up. Somehow.
Ben’s fingers quit their grip on the gun and it dropped. Daire grabbed it up and stood. He held the gun on his friend with one hand and waved Amelia behind him with his other.
She ran to him and grasped the sides of his jacket with both hands. Daire took measured steps backward so she moved with him, but kept his attention on Ben. “Don’t.”
His friend’s gaze drifted around. Like he’d been drugged and didn’t know what to focus on.
“What’s wrong with him?” Malachi’s question startled him. “Does it have something to do with the smell of Amelia’s blood?”
Both of them flinched. He felt the shift in her grip. Daire said, “You can smell it?”
Malachi was ten feet away. He turned his dark eyes to Amelia. “What is up with her? It’s affecting Ben.”
“It’s the Druid’s curse.” Amelia’s voice was soft. Guilt raced through him, the way it had with every single one of her family line for half a century. His fault. She said, “There’s nothing we can do about it. It just is. I should never have distracted him like this. It was stupid.”
Ben started to clamber to his feet. He stumbled, and then managed to get up. “Mine.” He stepped forward.
He had to have touched her injuries because he was entirely in the throes of the curse. They had to render him unconscious before he hurt one of them, or himself. “Malachi can you get to him?”
The newest team member stepped forward.
Ben pulled a knife and flung it at him. It lodged in Malachi’s chest. Amelia cried out. Malachi barely grunted. He grasped the hilt and pulled it out, then turned it on Ben. “I don’t like being stabbed.” He made a face, one hand on his chest.
Daire wasn’t a big fan of it either. Especially not when it was with his own sword. His stomach still hurt. “Don’t kill him.”
Malachi shot Daire a look. “I’d be well within my rights.”
That must have been nice, living a life where he had rights. Daire only had his duty and his honor. What rights he might’ve been able to scrounge up had been stolen, or obtained illegally. He’d been born a slave and was one still. The only difference was who he was in service to. One master didn’t compare with another, and this one was the one he’d chosen to remain with—a bondservant to Providence.
“Please,” Amelia said. “Don’t kill him.”
Malachi looked long at her, his face void of emotion. What was the man thinking? Daire didn’t know if he’d like the answer to that. He clearly had his own story and hadn’t deigned to share it with any of them. Malachi lowered his head to Amelia, an old-world bow. The kind of respect rarely seen these days. He only hoped the guy actually meant it.
Malachi feinted toward Ben, then swiped with the knife.
Ben had been expecting it. He slammed a hand into the one holding the knife.
Malachi jabbed his other hand in a palm strike and caught Ben’s diaphragm. He coughed, then doubled over onto the ground. Malachi hit the knife handle into the back of his head. Ben dropped, unconscious.
Malachi turned to Daire. “He’ll have a headache.” He dropped the knife and wandered over. “You want me to take Amelia to get cleaned up?”
Daire studied him. Wasn’t he affected?
“It’s okay.” Amelia’s voice was stiff and full of remorse.
Daire wasn’t so sure it was okay. A door slammed, and he turned to see Bryn make her way over, pushing hair back from her face. Still a little out of it, he’d guess.
Another van pulled up. Mei.
Daire needed to get Amelia out of here before they all converged and things got a whole lot worse. “Okay, why don’t you—”
Ben roared. Launched himself up and grabbed the knife as he moved. He sliced at Malachi and sent the man reeling. Daire braced. When Ben was close enough, Daire brought his gun down on his friend’s temple.
Ben didn’t even react
. He barreled into Daire, shoving them both down to the ground again. This time with Amelia underneath him. He shifted. She shifted, grunting and trying to get free.
Ben grabbed for her, got ahold of her shirt, and tore it.
Amelia screamed.
“Mine!” Ben’s voice roared through the clearing.
“Dad!” Mei’s boots hit the gravel.
“Stay back!” Daire got both of them away from Amelia, then tugged Ben’s arm. He shoved his friend’s whole body back in a tackle. Ben hit the ground and grunted.
Both of them fought to grasp the other.
“Enough!” He had to say it. Not that it would convince Ben to stand down, but Daire had to try.
“Dad,” Mei called out as she raced over. “What are you—”
He swung at her.
Mei cried out and fell back.
“Back up,” Daire ordered. He struggled with Ben. Tried to flip him onto his front so he could bind his hands. The man was strong. They’d sparred too many times. He knew all Ben’s moves, and Ben knew all of his.
Daire grabbed his neck and squeezed.
Mei screamed.
Ben punched Daire’s stomach, right where he’d been stabbed by the Druid.
He cried out and lost his grip on Ben’s neck.
Mei yelled, “Malachi, do something!”
“You want me to sit on his legs?” Malachi’s voice was strained.
“Amelia, step over here with me.” That was Bryn.
Daire blocked out their conversation and tried to focus past the pain. He grasped Ben’s wrist with one hand and punched his face with the other. Twice. Three times. Ben gritted his teeth and a feral noise emerged from his mouth.
Mei tugged at his jacket. “What are you doing?”
Daire had no time to shove her away. She leaned her body into his and tried to move him off her dad. “You don’t…” He tried to bite out the words as he wrestled with his friend. Daire pinned Ben’s hand on the ground, one knee on his chest. “Settle.”
“Mine!”
He was crazed.
“Get off him!” Mei slapped at his back.
“Back off!” Daire managed to get Ben’s knife and tossed it away. “Malachi!”
The man had a gun out and pointed at both of them. Blood trailed down the front of his T-shirt.
“I need something to tie him up with.”
“You will not!” Mei shoved at him again, trying to dislodge Daire.
He didn’t want to hurt her, but he needed to get Ben contained. What he needed was a stun gun.
He pinned Ben’s shoulders and turned to her. “You don’t understand,” he said, biting out the words between clenched teeth.
At which point Ben bit down on Daire’s arm.
He cried out, then said, “Someone get me a stun gun!” Ben’s teeth were still in his arm, and his grip was getting harder.
“You want me to shoot him?” Malachi asked.
Mei screamed out her frustration at him. She didn’t need any words. They all knew how she felt.
Knocking him unconscious hadn’t worked.
Daire shifted his fingers and squeezed the pressure point in Ben’s neck. His eyes rolled back and he laughed, a high-pitched grating sound. But he let go of Daire’s arm.
Mei whimpered.
“Here,” Bryn said, her voice gentle. “This was in the truck.”
Mei took a coil of rope from her, then handed it to him. Blood ran from the bite mark on his wrist. He hissed out a breath, then said, “Help me flip him over.”
Bryn sat on Ben’s legs while Daire tied his hands, and Malachi held aim on Ben, waiting for the go ahead to shoot. Or for Ben to do something that warranted it.
Daire hogtied his friend. “Get Amelia out of here.” He turned to Mei. “You promised you’d look out for them when I needed you. That’s now.”
“No way.” Her gaze on him was brittle. “I’m staying with my dad. You want this Amelia person out of here, you take her.”
Ben writhed on the ground, moaning words Daire couldn’t make out.
“You’ve been gone. Things happened.”
Sure, she’d been recovering from a gunshot to the abdomen, so it wasn’t her fault. It was also only days out from that experience. She didn’t need to hurt herself dealing with Ben. He also didn’t blame her one bit for being mad at him when she didn’t understand what was going on.
“Go.”
“You promised,” he reminded her.
“I take it back,” she said. “My dad needs help.”
“Taya is on her way.”
“Great, then I’ll have her help as well.”
Daire sighed. “Malachi?”
“I’ll stay with Mei and make sure she’s good.”
Daire nodded. That made sense. “It’ll wear off with reduced proximity.” Likely Mei felt the effects as well but was so overwhelmed with being mad at him that she didn’t realize it.
“Daire?”
He glanced at Amelia, where she stood beside Bryn. Their arms were around each other’s waists. The sensation of being pulled toward his niece was like a magnet. With Bryn added into the mix, it made his head swim.
Two people here weren’t feeling anything—Malachi and Bryn. Why? It hardly made sense when he fought the pull just looking at her. Half the urge to tackle Ben had been because Ben wanted to be close to Amelia. All the sensations were wrapped up in fighting that urge, plus getting close to her himself so he could protect her. The curse twisted into himself an obsession to destroy everything and everyone in order to keep her safe. In both Ben and Daire.
He looked at Bryn, mostly to keep from looking at Amelia.
Bryn said, “Let’s go find a first aid kit, okay?”
He nodded.
“Yeah, you should go.” Mei’s words sliced through him the same way the sword had. But there wasn’t time to explain. Even if he could apologize, she wasn’t the kind of woman who took words at face value. Not when actions meant so much more to her.
“It seems like you have your hands full,” Mei said. “And we don’t need your help.”
“I told you about the Druid. I told you I need your help.”
“Well, I don’t need yours.”
He stood. “I never intended for this to happen. But what am I supposed to do, confine Amelia to Nevada for the rest of her life? I wasn’t the one who brought her here to Atlanta. That was all Ben.”
“Did he know this could happen?”
“That doesn’t make it my fault.” He ran a hand through his hair. “I could have explained better, but—”
“I know,” she fired back. “Things happened. So maybe you should take your business elsewhere.”
“I don’t get to ask the team for help when I need it?”
“Not anymore.”
Daire figured that when Ben was in his right mind again, she would see things differently. And Ben would agree with him. Even Shadrach couldn’t begrudge Daire’s need to have the team’s help. He’d tried to keep them safe as best he could, without putting them in unnecessary danger. They’d stuck with him through all of it.
They were trained, but what help was that against a Druid? And why did Mei see this as any different than when it was her father who needed help? Then it had been all hands on deck. But now she was forcing Daire out because she was mad he’d hurt Ben.
Bryn and Amelia had already started toward the truck. Daire caught up with them. Had she been like this because Ben no longer had the power to heal? Maybe Mei was acting like this because she was scared. Ben wasn’t able to come back from any and every injury anymore. He could die, and Mei would lose him.
The fact the rest of them would have to suffer the loss as well didn’t register to her in the heat of the moment.
Daire detoured to the van Mei had been driving. He dug around until he found a first aid kit and bottled water, then glanced back at Mei, Ben tied up on the ground, and Malachi. Then he walked over and climbed into the driver’s seat of the t
ruck.
Amelia said, “I think the bleeding stopped.”
“Good,” Bryn said from the single seat in the rear.
He handed over the first aid kit and then pulled out of the parking lot. What was left of it. The entire area had been devastated by that flash flood. Who knew where those two cops had ended up.
“I’m sorry.”
He glanced over at Amelia. “Not your fault.”
“I tripped on purpose.”
Daire’s foot slipped off the pedal. “You…”
“I know.” She winced. “It was a dumb thing to do. But Ben wasn’t going to let Bryn leave. And she wanted to come after you. I figured it would be a good distraction, then I could like, get a rag, or something. Cover up the cuts.” A tear rolled down her cheek. She swiped it away and looked down at her lap.
“Daire?”
He ignored Bryn’s question and gripped the wheel. “What am I supposed to do with that? You put people in danger.”
All so Bryn could show up while he was talking to Mei—a conversation that had turned out to be pointless. He would never forget the look on Bryn’s face. Like he’d betrayed her, when there wasn’t anything between them but a couple of shared experiences. That look was entirely too similar to the one she shot him right now. Like Daire was someone to feel sorry for.
He should be mad at both of them, but he couldn’t. “We have to figure out that song.”
“The book is toast. It got soaked,” Bryn said.
He pulled out onto the highway, ignoring the sheriff’s deputies’ attempt to control traffic. A rush of wind blew against his face. It smelled like that cave. Like the dragon’s hot breath. His mind flashed with images of Bryn being pulled away from him. The sound of her scream. The feeling of being helpless. Probably how Mei felt right now, but how did pushing him away help anything?
Daire checked all the pockets he had for his phone. It was gone. “Either of you have a phone?”
“No.” Amelia stuck a bandage to her left knee.
“No, sorry,” Bryn said.
Daire ran his hand along his leg. He rubbed at the fabric until there was hot friction beneath his hand. It was that or punch the dash. How were they going to find the Druid now? They had no book. No way to call for help.
Metal screeched against metal. The truck jerked forward. Daire gripped the wheel and glanced over his shoulder for a second. A full size truck was right behind them. It filled the view of the pickup’s back window.