“Don’t take it out,” Jonah ordered, running up to them. He saw Tracy was reaching for the spear. “If you take it out, she’ll bleed out in seconds.”
“What do I do?” Tracy pleaded with tears in her eyes.
“Talk to her. I’ll get help.”
Tracy nodded shakily.
“I’ll find someone. I promise.”
Turning, he dodged wildly as three more spears soared into their ranks. Jonah sought the source, but saw no spear wielding demons. Then the cold brushed by and he knew. “James!”
The realization that the phase demons had arrived already dawned on James long before Jonah. He felt the cold, sensed the change in the air, and he’d been the first to see the projectiles fly. He’d seen the attack on his mother, and ignoring the problems surrounding them, his feet moved toward her.
“James.” An old woman touched his shoulder. “James, we need you.”
Warmth flooded him. “I know, but—”
Ramee put something in his hands. “James, they need you. Even the Guardians need you. The phase demons can anesthetize us. They push out their depraved energy on us and it freezes our power within. It’s only seconds, but in a frenzy such as this that is all the archdemons need. You must have faith in yourself.”
Still in shock, James realized he held the invention he’d left in Texas. He looked up in wonderment. His eyes darted about and seeing the surrounding chaos, he registered how desperate things had become. Projectiles were flying in all around. Two Guardians, bloodied and battered, froze weirdly and were overtaken by a large, blood-thirsty fiends. Aerial battles were waged and creatures swooped and dived from the sky. In his mind he heard, You can stop them.
Jonah reached him, grabbing his arm and pulling him from his observations. Focusing on Jonah, James realized Ramee was gone.
“It’s your mother,” Jonah told him. “The phase demons… They…” He couldn’t finish.
James understood if this device worked it may work on all the demons. An image of the functioning energy distribution floated in the back of his mind. He remembered what Jarrett said about the submarine, and new purpose coursed through him. Reaching past his grief and pain, James nodded. “I have to stop them.” He saw a dune not far off that would give him the time and protection he needed. As he ran for the hill, James knew he would likely not ever talk to his mother again, but if he didn’t stay focused, they may lose everyone he cared about. “Get Tracy,” he told Jonah. The despair didn’t leave him, but Ramee’s guiding assurance offered him control. “Tracy! I need you!” he shouted impatiently.
Holding up her mother so she didn’t slip further down the shaft, Tracy cried out, “I can’t!”
“You have to. You’re the only one strong enough with elemental magic to do it,” he shouted back, and he ducked out of sight to begin readying the metal coils to adapt to his new plan.
“I can’t leave her!” she exclaimed with an anguished sob.
“I’m here,” Collett said, walking through a newly formed magical portal of light. Ashley followed the guardian and brushed past Collett with Nate behind her.
Crying, Ashley came to the other side of her mother. “Mom.” Already knowing she’d spent too much on others, she offered what little healing magic she had left, but the injury was too severe. As a medical student, she understood better than anyone the gravity of this wound.
Weary and wounded from various hits, Rederrick turned to see where he was needed next. He fought his way back to where he’d left Cynda and Tracy, and that’s when he saw the terrible sight. “Nooooo!” Rederrick cried out as he struggled to reach his wife.
He limped and hopped his way to them as best he could. His left leg was horribly torn up from the demon claws that had tried to pull him down seconds before.
“Cynda! I’m coming!” he yelled, then grunted as something stabbed his side. The adrenaline of battle and fear for his wife allowed him to ignore it.
His agony-filled cry drew the attention of his other allies. Howling, Delphene in full hybrid form tore through any enemy between Rederrick and his wife. The carnage and ash coated both of them as they waded through the wake of her destruction. She accepted several stinging hits to help him, but refused to relent for the sake of her friends.
Above them, Haki saw the tragedy play out, but engaged in his own perilous combat, he could only mentally project to his forces to protect them. He knew they would need it in the moments to come. Justice had to trust them to Victory’s care.
“Oh, take it out,” Rederrick pleaded desperately. He wrapped Cynda in his arms, holding her still for his daughters.
Putting a weak hand to Tracy’s cheek, her mother whispered, “Help James.”
Another spear flew in, landing at their feet. Seeing how close it was, Nate and Delphene rushed to defend the grieving family and their dying mother.
“Tracy, your brother,” Jonah urged and compassion filled his eyes.
“My mother needs me!”
Jonah thought of his own mother and his growing love for this family. Words failed him for a time. He could do nothing to fix this.
“We can’t stay here!” Cody yelled.
Glancing about and seeing the threats surrounding them Jonah ordered, “Cody! Help them move her!” Jonah turned Tracy to him. His hands came up to her cheeks and drawing her close he kissed her brow. “We’ll watch your back. Take care of her and stay alive.” Closing his eyes on a desperate prayer Jonah rested his head against hers for a second and hurried after Nate and Delphene. He picked up a dagger from the ground and dodged a creature’s overhead swing as Tracy watched the chaos swallow him.
“Collett, she’s dying!” Ashley cried and Tracy’s focus was drawn back to their mother.
“Yes, I know.”
Tears shone in Tracy’s eyes. “Help her!”
“Please,” Ashley begged Collett.
Collett gripped Tracy’s hand, filling her with warmth and reassurance. She met Tracy’s pain-filled eyes. “You must help your brother now. He needs you more than you mother.” Tracy gave her mother a forlorned glance. Collett tilted her head and caught the young woman’s attention again. “I know what it is I ask, but the battle is not yet won. Many more will die if you tarry here.”
Tracy looked to her father. He was hurt, but the anguish he displayed was only for Cynda. He was desperately trying to hold on to his love, not just to keep her up but to keep her here with him. Tracy recognized his love, his pain. She sought Jonah on the battlefield again. Her heart was shattering. Her mother was dying, but the man she had fallen in love with was in danger. Taking a deep, shuddering breath, the eldest child of Rederrick and Cynda Williams reluctantly accepted her responsibility. She wiped her tears with a bloody hand and nodded. “You’ll take care of her.”
“I will. I swear. I will do whatever I can to ease her pain.”
Tracy trembled, but with tears streaming down her cheeks she leaned in and kissed her mother's cheek, and then left her in the care of her family.
Collett reached for Cynda with a heavy heart. Grabbing the protrusion and using her magic, she commanded the spear to disintegrate. Cynda cried out from the heat of it, but the agony in her eased almost instantly. As the macabre stand keeping her upright disappeared, Rederrick caught her full weight in his arms. He felt the pain of his cracked ribs and knew they fully broke from the strain. The burning tear in his shoulder plagued him, and the festering poison in his leg was spreading, but none of it compared to the pain in his heart. He carried her and cried.
“Over here!” Cody shouted, showing them a place by the small rocks that may offer them a reprieve.
As they settled in, Collett leaned in and whispered in Cynda’s ear. She kissed Cynda's brow, and with tears in her eyes, she gripped Rederrick's hand. She poured all the comfort she could into him, to soothe his broken heart and ease the pain of his injuries.
Ashley was sobbing and kept her hands over her mother’s wound. Collett moved to her and gently pulled h
er hands away. “You are a rare treasure, Ashley Williams. Even knowing you cannot take away what has been done, you still sacrifice what is inside you to ease her pain.”
“I don't want to lose her,” Ashley begged.
“You could never lose her. She is a part of you and you are a part of her.” Collett hugged her tightly and soothed her grieving heart. “Save your strength, valiant warrior. You have a bigger part to play yet. Your mother is comfortable. I swear it to you.”
Ashley's tears eased, and she held tight to Collett until the Guardian pulled away and whispered, “Jarrett!” Then she disappeared.
By the time Tracy reached James, he fumbled to open the round metal object he’d constructed days before. “I didn’t have time to finish everything. It’s like a transformer but more dangerous,” he stammered. “But if we can—”
“Just tell me what to do, James,” Tracy told him, cutting off his scientific explanation.
“I don’t have anything high enough to make it work perfectly, and I need lighting.”
“What do you mean high enough?”
James looked around frantically. “The bolts will look for the ground, and the higher it is the better odds we have of the stray bolts striking the phase demons.”
“How high?”
James shrugged. “Forty feet or so.”
“I can’t suspend it magically and call the lighting,” Tracy told him.
“I originally planned for my own power source and had hoped mom or you would use her magic to lift it. But I realized today, you could be the power source.” he said.
“Maybe one of the Guardians could help.”
“I think they're a little busy,” James said seriously, and Tracy couldn’t disagree. She bit her lip. “Ashley could probably lift it. Hold on,” she said as she left their meager protection seeking her sister.
She struggled to make it back to them as the fighting was growing more intense. As she reached the rest of her family, she noted her father held her mother in his lap and spoke softly to her. The sight nearly broke her again.
“Ash, we need you too. You have to come. Where’s Collett?” she asked.
“She said Jarrett’s name then disappeared,” Ashley explained.
“You have to come,” Tracy urged with renewed tears at the sight of her mother.
“Go,” Rederrick ordered.
“But,” Ashley began.
“You can’t help her, Ash,”
“I wasn’t staying for only her. You’re hurt too.”
Rederrick took her hand, “Baby, it’s time to go. You have to help them.”
With renewed tears Ashley nodded. “I know.” She knew her father’s wounds were worse than he let on, but also understood he wanted to keep that from her siblings.
“Collett did all that can be done here.”
Wiping her cheeks, Ashley smeared the remnants of war across her face. Kissing his whiskered cheek, she moved to stand.
Tracy looked to Cody. “Watch over them, okay.”
“With my life,” he promised.
The girls took off running, and Rederrick let go a relieved sigh. The numbness in his leg had spread, and blood seeped steadily from the gash. He spat on the ground, and the dark, brackish blood he’d been hiding from his daughter told him all he needed to know. He met his wife’s fading gaze and smiled down at her. “Looks like we’ll get that trip to Elysian after all.”
With her vision dimming, she offered a weak grin in reply.
“Save me a spot on the beach.”
Whispering, “Always,” Cynda put her left hand on his chest, her diamond wedding band glinting when the magic attacks near them flared. Then her last breath shuddered past her lips. Her beautiful long fingers went limp, but he gripped her hand to keep it in place.
“Cody,” Rederrick grunted. Cody turned, noting Cynda’s vacant eyes as Rederrick closed them. “I need you to do something.”
“What? What can I do?”
“I need you to tell my kids we love them. I need you to—” He began choking on the blood again and spat as much of it out as he could.
Cody’s eyes widened in shock. “No. Not you too.”
“Can you use your projection? Give them this message. Tell them we’re proud of them, and that—that we love them.”
Cody crouched down and shook his head. “You tell them. You can’t leave them too.”
“They’ll be okay, they have each other, and they have you now. I promised Cynda a vacation together.”
“Please don't.”
Rederrick smiled and gripped Cody’s arm. “You’ll tell them. I know you will.”
Emotion clogged his throat, but Cody swallowed past the lump that formed. “I’ll tell them.”
“That’s good. Now go do something useful,” Rederrick mumbled, and leaned back against the rock to close his eyes for the last time.
Chapter 41
Rising above the melee on his black wings and hovering just out of reach, Bellig smiled. “Haven’t we already tried this before? As I recall you didn’t fare so well.”
Cade snarled and Jarrett’s eyes went red. The brothers called to the wolf within and changed without any words to their opponent. They had held back the transformation until now, using the power of it as a reminder to Bellig. They wanted him to see their snapping, cracking bones, wanted him to witness as claws and teeth elongated.
For Jarrett most of all, this moment was the first time it felt good to be an animal, and before his shifting body had even finished, he leapt forward.
Bellig saw the intent in Jarrett’s eyes and dropped to avoid him. He sidestepped Cade on his left as a shining blade came down. Jarrett was ready and Bellig’s sword rose to his right as another blade swooped toward his back.
The battle between the lycanthropes and the ex-guardian was impossible to keep up with. Unnatural speed created a blur of motion as swords, claws, and Bellig’s depraved magic surrounded them.
Cade tumbled as Bellig threw magic, only to embrace his agility, and rolled to his feet. He came on again, looking to take Bellig’s legs. He missed as Bellig lifted into the air and cast the same black mist at Jarrett, pushing him back this time.
All around them the battle between The Faction and The Brotherhood waged, but for these brothers, the war between good and evil hung solely on their shoulders.
Despite being bigger and gifted with supernatural strength, Bellig matched the twin werewolves strike for strike as the two of them furiously attacked him. He was a warrior in every possible way. He had lived and breathed war his entire twelve-hundred-year existence. As a mortal, he’d been one of the first they called Viking. In his extended lifetime as a Guardian, he fought in every war mankind created. He was Strength!
The brothers worked in concert with each other and tested him as never before. When he countered one, his twin would be there pressing back, forcing Bellig to keep his focus on the two.
He reveled in the challenge they presented until there was a brush of air as Jarrett came behind him, swinging for his waist. Bellig twisted, steel met steel, stopping the deadly cut. Cade’s strike gave him no quarter, and the red blade of his sword stopped Cade’s shining weapon a second before it struck his neck.
Enraged, Bellig roared and threw a blast of crippling energy at Jarrett, throwing him back several feet. As he rose, Jarrett staggered, his body felt the chill of the energy blast as it continued to seep into his bones.
While Jarrett struggled to rise again, Bellig redirected his hand and cast at Cade with the same energy. The black hybrid groaned and fell back, hitting the ground hard. From behind, he heard Jarrett getting up and sent another wicked blast his direction.
Bellig stalked Cade with the promise of death in his eyes. Cade tried to roll away, and Bellig, using his wings for leverage, ascended over him, landing before Cade finished the roll. Cade tried to roll the opposite direction, but Bellig was too fast and kicked him, lending magic to the blow, so he flew into his charging brother.
/> The brothers disentangled themselves, but Bellig was too fast. His red blade stabbed at Jarrett before he could form any solid defense. Cade didn’t think. He stepped in front of his brother and tried to block the hit. Because of the odd angle Cade created, the sharpened red steel slipped past and pierced Cade on the upper right shoulder.
The shock of the invading metal so close to his heart stunned Cade. He sucked in a breath as Bellig grinned devilishly.
“Noooo!” Jarrett growled in fury and tried to strike. Three demons telepathically directed by Bellig attacked Jarrett, pulling him away from his brother. Jarrett thrashed and fought with everything he had. He took one demon out fast plunging his sword through its heart but lost his grip on the weapon as the creature turned to ash and his counterparts clawed at his arms to control him. Snapping and snarling, Jarrett kicked, bit, and clawed anything he touched as the monsters bore him to the ground.
Agony tore through Cade as Bellig grabbed his neck with his free hand, pulling him closer to sneer. Pleased beyond measure, Bellig lifted him high into the air above the battlefield while Jarrett fought to free himself.
Tracy dragged Ashley over to where their brother was hiding and fiddling with his contraption. “I’ve got Ashley, are you ready yet?”
“Almost,” James replied without looking up.
Confused, Ashley looked at her siblings. “What am I doing here?”
“We need your power. Lift this device for James,” Tracy explained.
“I can’t do that, I don’t have the same power as you and Mom.”
“You come from the same line of witches as I do,” Tracy insisted. “You can do this.”
“Tracy, I've barely tapped into my healing magic. I could’ve helped Mom better than I can help here, and now she’s gone, I can feel it. We’ve lost her.”
Emotional, Tracy countered, “We both know nobody could’ve helped Mom. Not even Collett could help her. I saw it in her eyes. Right now we have to help everyone else.”
“But I’ve done nothing like this, and Dad’s still hurt.”
The Truth of Victory: A Powers of Influence Novel Page 37