Ezra pointed at me. “We were hoping so. We can leave our cars here. Ride together.”
Pearl glanced over her shoulder, then back to us. “The beach?”
Silently, we nodded. The beach was private if the guards stayed at a distance.
That decided, Jack glanced over at the group of Kings and parents, then glared at Ezra, griping with a hiss, “Your dad is like a bloodhound.”
“And he can hear you,” Ezra and I muttered as one.
“Oh.” Jack rubbed his chin. “Right.” His head cocked. “I always forget about that. What’s that like, being able to hear everyone?”
Snickering, and with a quick glance at Ezra, then back to Jack, I whispered, “He wears earplugs to bed.”
“How would you know that?” Cahal asked softly at my ear.
I jumped, my heart skipping a beat as I banged against Pearl, but…he wasn’t behind me. He was clear across the room, speaking with King Fergus. My friends stared at me peculiarly, obviously not hearing what I had. Moving my wide-eyed gaze to Ezra, I whispered fiercely, “What type of powers does your dad have?”
Ezra blinked slowly, and then peered across the room to his dad. Stared. Spring green eyes flared briefly, dimly, and I was sure that if I hadn’t physically seen his mouth move, I wouldn’t have heard his voice. My mind knew it should be there, so I listened. It was quiet, like the gentlest of breezes, but ricocheted before me, after me, then farther past me, bouncing across the room until it hit its intended destination. “Leave her alone.”
His dad’s lips curved but he still held his conversation, evidently receiving the same treatment he had given me. It appeared he found it amusing.
“What was that?” Pearl asked, staggered, rubbing her ears.
“That was sick, man.” Jack held up a fist.
Ezra fist bumped him, shrugging. “It’s just an old form of communication.”
“I don’t like it.” My wolf growled quietly as I stared at his dad. “So don’t do that again, please.” The last bit was directed to Cahal, and I got an immediate answer.
“It’s so much more entertaining, don’t you agree?” Cahal’s voice purred at my ear, and I jolted. “Besides, you never answered my question.”
I still didn’t. If he wasn’t going to respect me, then I wasn’t even going to respond with a lie, much less the truth. He got no answer.
I lurched again, hearing him chuckle at my ear, and turned to Ezra, whose mouth was moving and I only caught the tail end of him saying in that funky way, “…affecting your hearing? I said to leave her the hell alone.”
My voice was a mere breath. “I think he’s getting us back for all that dancing.”
His eyes were narrowed. “I know he is.”
Abruptly, Antonio charged into the room, the door flying wide open to hit the wall. He didn’t seem to notice, his nose buried in an old brown leather book of sorts. He had changed his clothes, too. He no longer wore his suit, but now, a pair of black cargos, a black t-shirt, and black boots, and his hair was tied back at his nape, his handsome features showing in sharp relief. His ensemble was completed with the two huge black duffels over his shoulders, their straps like an “X” over his chest. I had never seen him appear quite like this.
Absorbed and fervent and chilling, all at once.
The room went quiet as he trekked across the floor, only peering up from his book when he stood in front of the window I had broken with my uncle earlier. He stared out of it for a few moments, and shook his head slowly, his eyes closing. He whispered, “It’s time.”
Swiftly, Cahal weaved through the motionless gathering to stand next to him. “For?”
Antonio’s eyes opened, and he shut the book. He lifted the duffels off his shoulders and let them fall heavily to the floor with a glance to Cahal, again whispering, “It’s time.” He turned from him, murmured a word, and the book in his hand glowed golden. Walking to Vivian, he held it out. “Take this. Keep it safe. Know that anyone who tries to read it will directly die.”
Her startled, a green gaze flew from Antonio to Cahal.
Bizarrely, Cahal was unbuttoning his suit jacket, but he nodded once.
She took the proffered book, holding it gingerly, as if it might bite her.
“What’s going on?” Mrs. Jonas asked, watching, like all of us, as Cahal finished removing his jacket, then began slipping his dress shoes and socks off.
Good question.
One that Antonio and Cahal ignored.
“Do they have time to leave?” Cahal probed, rolling his shirt sleeves up.
A glance at his watch. “The clock chimes twice.”
Everyone in the room peered to the wall clock with the swinging pendulum, directly next to the broken window, even though I was pretty sure none of us had any clue what Antonio was talking about. It was one minute until two o’clock.
Cahal inhaled harshly, gazing from Vivian to Ezra with what almost looked like a dose of distress. His eyes slammed back to Antonio. “How many uninvited?”
Antonio squatted and unzipped the duffels, removing guns from their depths. Lots and lots of frigging guns. He whispered, “Too many.”
Cahal sucked in another large breath. “How many casualties?”
“Too many,” Antonio whispered once more, giving hand weapons to the Kings, who took them mutely, even if they were looking back and forth at each other with blank expressions.
The clock on the wall chimed twice.
“Is something going to happen?” Jack asked quickly, no longer able to stay mute. “If so, we need to know.” He pointed toward the window. “Our mates are out there.”
“There’s no time.” Antonio gazed at Ezra and me, then murmured softly, “Catch them.”
An explosion rocked the floor beneath my feet, shaking the whole building.
Heart in my throat, I instantly crouched, like everyone else in the office.
With the exception of Pearl and Jack.
Pearl doubled over, holding her stomach and chest, shrieking piercingly.
Jack grabbed his head and chest, arching, bellowing brutally.
They fell.
Without thought, I went to my knees, the floor still vibrating under me, and thrust my arms out, catching Pearl just as Ezra dove and caught Jack. They were both unconscious.
Frantically, I shook Pearl — the sounds of another explosion and the frightened cries from outside harsh in the air — trying to wake her, but it didn’t help. My breath seized in my lungs, unable to get oxygen over the fear that my best friends’ lives were in jeopardy. I rapidly studied her stomach and chest where she had been holding. There was no blood soaking through her gown. Nothing looked wrong at all. Hands trembling, a sickening feeling began to override my terror, and I ripped into her black silk robe the smallest bit right at her belly button.
“Goddammit!” I roared, patting her flesh repeatedly, trying to make it come back. “No, goddammit!” It didn’t reappear. My eyes tearing up, my gaze slammed to Ezra, and I shouted over the chaos, “Check Jack’s hand!”
Ezra was staring at Pearl’s unblemished belly — no mate mark — and he inhaled sharply, turning to his other best friend on his lap, and even as another explosion rocked the building we were in, the floor shaking violently under us, he slowly lifted Jack’s hand and turned it over, spreading his slack fingers wide. It was gone. Jack’s mate mark was gone.
Nikki and Gideon were both dead.
Tears instantly cut unrelenting, brutal paths down my cheeks. I stared at my best friends. When they woke… Oh, God. I didn’t want them to go through the gut-wrenching agony. Not them. Not my best friends.
Lifting Pearl protectively, I placed her on my lap. I rocked her softly. Sobbing on her golden hair, I rubbed her back gently, and my blurry vision found Ezra.
He was doing much the same, holding Jack’s back against his chest with his hand over his best friend’s heart, staring down at it. In slow increments, he gazed up at me. His spring green eyes held the same grief for them as mine di
d.
Our sorrow was deep for our late mates, but time had muted it somewhat. Jack and Pearl’s anguish was going to be so new and horrifying and profound that they would willingly drop into the bottomless pit of hell to escape it, just as it had tortured us.
“Wait!” Antonio’s voice boomed throughout the room, deep and commanding. Furiously blinking through misery-filled tears, I saw the Kings and Cahal on their feet, rushing toward the door with weapons in hand. From the ground, Antonio thundered, “One more! Get down!”
Cahal stalled, and then moved with Vampire speed, blurring, when the Kings didn’t listen, knocking each one to the ground and diving on top of their bodies haphazardly.
The next second, an explosion rocked the building so fiercely I screamed, holding Pearl tight as I fell on my side, Ezra landing next to me, protecting Jack as I was Pearl. The blast was so close it hurt my ears, ringing in pulses, and I watched as Ezra’s mouth opened wide.
He roared in my face, covering his own, much more powerfully sensitive, ears.
Reaching out a shaking hand, I covered one of his hands with mine, trying to help him, and gritted my teeth as the explosion reverberated in jarring shocks. Dust flew into the room, clouding the space deep gray. I choked on it and tried to breathe shallowly, but that didn’t offer any relief. Only when the dust started billowing out through the broken window was I able to breathe again, my lungs and eyes heavy and burning.
Ezra coughed as harshly as I did, and he lifted my hand I had laid on his, holding it between us as we peered around from the floor. The Kings and Cahal were beginning to rise, Mrs. Jonas and Vivian were watching from the ground under Mrs. Jonas’s desk, Antonio was lifting to his knees and digging through the duffels, and Pearl and Jack’s parents were slowly crawling to us. They had been on the far side of the room when the first explosion went off and had been trying to make their way here ever since, eyes steadfast on their children.
Antonio stopped their progress and started handing each of them weapons, shouting orders, “Go with the Kings. They’ll need your help.” They looked to Pearl and Jack, and Antonio barked, “They aren’t dead! Unconscious. Not dead. Go!”
They nodded when shots were fired outside on the lawn, adding even more screams.
The Kings and Cahal stared at the doorway. Outside of it, what had once been the hallway was completely demolished. It appeared like part of the building had collapsed.
King Venclaire said to no-one in particular, “There were heartbeats out there.”
As one, the Kings quickly nodded their thanks to Cahal for saving their lives.
Cahal shook his head, and pointed at Antonio, who had ordered it in the first place.
“Time to go!” Antonio barked, pointing at the broken window. “Our exit.”
Curses of rage and screams of suffering were growing nearer, and everyone holding a weapon took a fortifying pause before they started piling through the window. Antonio waited until the last one was gone before he turned to us where we were laying Pearl and Jack in a corner of the office farthest away from the window and any stray bullets.
My heart was racing like mad, scared shitless, and I was heartbroken for my best friends, but there were Mysticals dying out there. My numb shock of this actuality had worn off. It was time to act. To fight.
Antonio moved in our direction. He kissed my forehead, wiping away my drying tears on my dust-gray face. “Don’t go anywhere, Lil. Stay here. Get the gun I gave you this morning, and shoot anyone who enters through that window. Understand?” His voice was quiet, but it held a certain finality you didn’t argue with.
But, still… “I can help,” I jabbed a finger at the window, “out there.”
He bent, face level with mine. “You leave, and Jack and Pearl might die in this room.”
My lips pursed, but I gradually nodded. He was an Elder. In this situation, I trusted the Elder. Plus, he had never steered me wrong before.
He straightened, turning to Ezra, and stared him down. “I once asked you if you were good enough.” Cries of torment flooded the air outside. “You never answered.”
Ezra’s voice was void of emotion. “I’m good enough.” A simple statement of fact.
“Time tells all,” Antonio whispered, before setting a hand on Ezra’s shoulder. He peered at me, but tightened his grip on Ezra. “Do not shoot us. Only anyone that enters through that window.”
I nodded once.
Antonio’s eyes glowed, and they disappeared.
I blinked.
Antonio had just taken Ezra by means of his vanishing act. Transversing. I knew they were outside in the action while I had been left in here. My jaw clenched, but a quick glance to Jack and Pearl and I knew I was in the right place.
Dashing to the desk, I opened the drawer where I had stashed my gifted gun. After grabbing it with only a slightly shaking hand, I positioned myself on the floor in front of Vivian and Mrs. Jonas where they still hid under the desk.
Straightaway, Mrs. Jonas blathered, “He didn’t tell me what to do. I’m getting the hell out of here.”
“Stay down,” I ordered, gun aimed at the window, where I could see Mys and Com attacking each other, their battle coming closer. “You go out there and you’re dead.” It was pure pandemonium. Like a stampede, but with weapons.
“I’m not going to stay in here and be a sitting duck,” she hissed, and pushed out from under her hiding spot, standing. “I’m going.”
“Mrs. Jonas, don’t be stupid. Get under the damn desk,” I pressed, eyes never wavering from my duty.
“Like I’m going to listen to you,” she snarled. A hail of bullets from a machine gun fired from somewhere outside, rocking her body, her blood flying out behind her. Making not a sound, she was dead before she hit the floor.
“Mrs. Zeller,” I hissed, trying hard not to gag, or gawk, at Mrs. Jonas’s corpse, “don’t you fucking move. You stay right under that desk. If you don’t, I’ll hog tie you down.”
I saw the book that shimmered golden out of the corner of my eye as she held it out, waggling it once. “He gave me a task. And I’m going to do it. Safe does not mean running into bullets or bombs.” She said it so reasonably, too. Logical, scary teacher.
“Good,” I whispered, seeing a Com man race by the window too close. He came back, like I had figured he would. As soon as I saw his head, and gun, peek inside, I pulled the trigger, dropping him, then I stated, “Because I like safe, too. And Ezra would be mighty pissed if I let you die. Safe does not mean you piss off Ezra.”
“I think we both understand what safe is.” She leaned, pointing. “Incoming.”
“She’s, like, thirteen.” I watched in shock as a Com teenager headed toward us.
“She will kill us just the same,” Vivian stated, voice hard.
“I don’t want…” I trailed off, watching the Com girl lift her gun and take aim on an elderly Elemental. “Oh, Jesus.” I altered my aim to her, but before I could fire, she did. As the Elemental fell dead, I pulled the trigger. My heart twisted for all of a beat at ending such a young life, before sanity returned when I saw another elderly Elemental scream and drop on top the dead Elemental. She was holding her chest, and crying out in pain as she passed out.
Her mate.
Taken.
Murdered at the hands of supposed innocence.
My heart hardened in that very instant, rock solid…cold.
“Another one.” Vivian pointed. “Com male to the right.”
I watched as he came straight for the window. He didn’t see me as he walked. He didn’t see me as he started to lift himself inside the room. Nor did he see me as I shot him dead.
Four Coms came directly after, doubtlessly from seeing the Com male drop. They all went down. There were the beginnings of a decent body pile outside the window. I worried it would attract more.
It did.
The Coms were like freaking gnats. One right after another came to the window, trying to enter. They came to their death. Sh
ape. Size. Race. Age. Sex. None of that mattered. Every single one of them fell by my hand.
“Perhaps I could grab one of those bodies and have a snack,” Vivian murmured.
“We already had this conversation,” I grumbled, firing off another shot. Direct hit. I really loved this gun. “You aren’t moving a muscle.”
“I was kidding. Safe. I like safe, and you’re an excellent shot, so you’re safe,” she muttered. A pause. “How long has Ezra been gone now?”
A quick glance at the clock, which was miraculously still attached to the wall. “Thirteen minutes, give or take a few.” It had only been fifteen since the first explosion had gone off. “I’m sure he’s fine.” He had better be, or I was going to kill Antonio. “And you know your mate’s fine.” She was still coherent.
Firing, I shot a Com man, who looked like he was near a hundred, as he struggled to move through the dead bodies, his destination the window. How the hell had he survived these last fifteen minutes? It was crazy.
She snorted. “Cahal doesn’t die. He may get hurt, but that man just keeps on ticking.” She sounded proud. It was so odd having this conversation right now. Especially when the woman had barely talked to me so far today. I was beginning to think she was really terrified, and conversing sanely was how she dealt with a life-or-death situation. “You think this room’s spelled? It stayed intact when the rest of the ceilings around us went down.”
I do believe I was right. “Who knows?” Who cares? Anyone else would have just been grateful it was still intact, but she was making herself think things through rationally to keep her mind off the situation.
“What do you suppose is in this book?” she asked.
“No clue, but unless you want to die-by-spell, I would suggest—”
“Safe, remember?” she interrupted. “I was just wondering if you’d ever seen it before, since he raised you.”
“Never saw it before today,” I muttered, but a second later I wondered at the truth of my statement. Antonio had always had tons of books. He liked to read a lot, but kept them under lock-and-spell, never letting me even hold one.
“How long’s it been now?” she asked.
“Two minutes since the last—” I stopped cold when Antonio and Ezra reappeared in the same spot they had left. Gasping, I crawled quickly — staying low — over to Ezra. I screamed at Antonio, “You let him get hurt!”
King Hall Page 35