by Carol Roi
"Get out here and find out just how 'dead' Ares is, Brad! As long as one person on Earth believes in him, Ares -- God of War, exists! In me!" I'd never really prayed to the War Gods before, but in the heat of battle, maybe this once Mars will answer me.
"I don't think so, sister. I'll come out when I'm good and ready and not a moment before."
Temper flying, I decide to go after the man. "Not bloody likely." I step in front of the bolthole of my prey. The loud report of gunfire and the blossoming pain in my stomach tells me the ultimate truth. My temper will be my downfall.
Blade and scabbard drop from my hands, landing in the snow as I clutch the fatal wound, staggering backwards several paces before falling to my knees. Because I forgot the first rule of combat -- know the field, make sure that there is nothing the enemy can use against you -- I'm dying. This upstart of a headhunting, immoral Immortal had hidden a gun here, just in case whoever answered his challenge got the better of him.
The sound of snow crunching under approaching feet makes me look up. He's standing over me, sword in hand, balanced on his shoulder. "Any last words?"
He's won; I'm dead. Dying slowly before he completes the job. But I still have a little fight left in me, not much, but enough. Calling out to the heavens in the ancient tongue, I accept my fate. "Nemesis, hear my plea! Revenge upon this child! Take him to judgment, to Tartarus take his soul!" The breath leaves me, the pain in my gut flaring.
"Are you done?" His tone is so gloating, reveling in his victory.
Almost. I bow my head, readying for the final blow, quietly whispering my last words on Earth. "Jim, I could have loved you& "
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Diandra parked her Jeep next to Eolia's Lexus, scrambling out of the car, leaping onto the hood and then over the chain-link fence. Dropping to the ground, she drew her sword and paused, ranging her hearing outward, searching for any sign of the other immortals. The sound of a gunshot made her scramble for the dials, losing precious seconds of time as she struggled to get control. Once she had it, she began to run toward their voices.
Topping a small rise, she gazed in shock at the scene below her, Eolia on her knees, her arms wrapped around her bleeding stomach, Ventriss standing over her, his sword resting lazily on his shoulder. Dee started down the hill, knowing she would never reach them in time, knowing she couldn't interfere if she did. Lia's curse floated across the snow-covered ground, and Diandra stopped where she was, straining to hear her last words.
Ventriss' sword descended, and to Dee's horror the blade didn't go completely through on the first stroke. It took him two tries before Eolia's body slumped to the snow. The Amazon watched as her friend's Quickening seeped from her still form, hanging close to the ground for long seconds, then floating upward, twisting as it rose, becoming a whirlwind of electrical energy. Lightning sprang from the spinning funnel, striking the trees, the rusted playground equipment, and finally Ventriss, driving him to his knees.
Dee waited until the last flickers of power faded away, then she approached the other Immortal. His head came up as her buzz washed over him, and he staggered upright, leaning on his blade. Snapping a kick to his chest, the Champion sent him sprawling backwards on his ass, his sword skittering across the icy ground.
He peered up at her, and she knew he was trying to make out her features in the darkness, but the only illumination came from the wan moonlight behind her, the Quickening having shattered the solitary street lamp. "Who in the hell are you?" he finally gasped, and she could smell the fear pouring off of him.
Dee brought the katana back in preparation for the killing blow. "Diandra of Delphi. But tonight my name is Nemesis." Steel flashed in the air, slicing silently through flesh and bone. She took a step back, feeling the energy building around her. Throwing back her head, she screamed, giving voice to her rage and her grief. And then she was swallowed by the storm.
Part 23
If he hadn't witnessed the devastation with his own eyes, hadn't heard the desperation in his partner's voice, Jim Ellison never would have believed the younger man's story. It was crazy; yet there was no doubt in his mind that it had been Ventriss' voice on the answering machine. Blair had insisted he play the message, to prove to the stubborn sentinel there was a reason for Lee's attack on him and Diandra. What Jim couldn't understand was why Lee felt she had to be the one to confront him. And what had been that crack of Brad's about older women? Lee wasn't immortal; she couldn't be immortal...
The truck's tires slipped on the icy pavement, and all thoughts other than driving flew out the window. They had to be in time to stop what was going to go down. Catching a glimpse of a bank's digital clock as he sped past it, Jim changed the thought to what had gone down. Twenty-five after the deadline hour and, with the conditions of the roads, they still had about fifteen more minutes of driving before they arrived at the old duck pond.
Sliding through a sharp turn, Jim heard Blair hiss in pain. "Sorry, buddy."
Holding his abused ribs, taking shallow breaths in an effort to control the pain flaring through his body, Blair Sandburg moved away from his contact with the door. "Jus' keep goin' -- I'll live."
Both eyes on the road, hands clenched around the steering wheel, the detective started the conversation again. "Chief, you were telling me how you came to the conclusion that Brad Ventriss was/is Immortal."
"I didn't. Megan did." He glanced out the rear window, seeing the lights of Megan's car several blocks behind them.
"But you were the one that made the connections, right?"
"Yeah."
"Damn. Can't that son of a bitch just stay dead?" Jim turned the final corner that would put them on the straight road leading directly to the pond without fish-tailing the truck too much.
"We can only hope." Blair muttered between clenched teeth, bracing one hand on the dashboard.
Jim heard the pain filled voice, the sharp hissing breath and the rapid tattoo of his friend's heartbeat. "As soon as we find them, I'll get you to the hospital, Chief."
"'Kay."
The flash of lightning over the docks ahead of them heralded the sudden black out of power in the area. Jim slowed the truck as he watched the electrical display. He saw the brilliant bolts of power snake out, destroying windows, blowing out street lamps, then seemingly curl back into themselves as the display died. The horrified, whispered mantra caught his attention.
"It's not Dee, it can't be Dee. Let be Brad, please let it be Brad."
Spotting Diandra's Jeep, parked near Lee's Lexus, Jim pulled in beside the cars and jumped out of the truck after shutting the engine down. Walking around to assist Blair, he sent his hearing out, searching for the voice of either the Immortal Amazon or the Security Specialist and CIA Agent.
"Diandra of Delphi. But tonight my name is Nemesis."
"Chief! Dee's over that way!" Jim started to move towards the fence, intent on getting to Diandra, something in her voice worrying him.
"Oh shit! Too close! Way too close!"
Concern for his friend over took Ellison's need to find and arrest the not-dead-after-all Immortal Brad Ventriss. He turned to see Blair trying to scramble away from the fenced in park, a look of sheer panic on the man's face as the strangely luminescent fog started to build around them. "Sandburg?" He reached his partner's side and made to support the unsteady student.
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Blair could feel the sense of righteousness emanating from his lover through their 'psychic' connection, knew when the warrior he loved brought her blade down. He started to move, stumbling away from the epicenter of the Quickening that was rushing in to fill the void.
Blair's panic grew to new heights as Jim reached for him. He realized that if he and Jim were in contact when the second Quickening hit him through his connection to Diandra, it could have devastating consequences for both of them. "No! Don't touch me
! Dial back, Jim! Zero all the dials out…" The pain stabbing through his head stopped all further thoughts from being voiced.
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The absolute terror in Blair's voice unnerved Jim, but not as much as the sight of the student dropping like a poleaxed steer to the icy ground. Jim moved to try to cushion his friend's head as he started to convulse, not wanting the Guide to further harm himself. The hairs on the back of Jim's neck stood up and his skin started to tingle strangely, like it had when he was a child and he'd stood too close to a Tesla Generator at the Museum of Science. He could feel himself starting to zone out on the peculiar sensation, and tried to pull back. But something was powering the sensory feedback, causing it to loop back, over and over again, coming at him from three directions -- outside of him, through the Sentinel/Guide connection and from Blair himself.
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Megan Connor cursed under her breath as she swerved to avoid a car sliding through the intersection, barely avoiding getting hit herself by the out of control station wagon. Jockeying her Chevy Tahoe back onto the road from the sidewalk, she snapped at her passenger. "Bloody hell. Why couldn't Sandy and Jimbo have waited for us? Grab me that cell phone in the glove box, J-M."
Jan-Michel LaFollet released his death grip on the door and the dashboard, found the cell phone and handed it to the Australian Inspector. "Do you know where they're going?"
"No." One hand on the wheel, she hit the auto-dial function on her department issued phone and nearly screamed in frustration as it took several rings before someone picked up her call. "Rafe! Bloody well took you long enough!"
"Connor? What the hell?"
"No time, mate. I need to know how to get to the duck pond by the docks. Don't ask, I'll tell you later."
"Duck pond by the docks? Meg, I'm not sure I know… Wait a second." There was silence on the other end then another voice chimed in on the line.
"Connor, you wanting to know about the one where David Lash did his work?"
"Yes, Henri. I don't know where the hell it's at and I have to meet an informant there soon."
"Take West 34th from South Main. It leads right to it." The normally jovial detective's voice was full of concern. "And Connor? Watch your back. That's a really bad area of town. Better yet, wait for Brian and I to back you up…"
"No time." She slapped the cell phone closed and threw it to the seat between her and LaFollet. "Hang on," was the only warning she gave as she whipped her forest green SUV into a 180 and gunned the powerful engine, heading back the way she had just come. "Passed the damn street I need three blocks back."
Jan-Michel merely nodded as he pushed off the door he'd been slammed into. "Do you always drive like this?" He flinched as the Inspector barely missed side swiping another vehicle. "Kyyyrist! Don't answer that!"
Megan took the left onto West 34th, power sliding through the turn, her thoughts already far ahead of her position. "Bloody bugger, I knew there was something strange about your boss. She's another damn Immortal, isn't she? That's why she left to answer Ventriss' challenge."
"Yes, she is. But I don't understand why Lee felt she had to attack Diandra, Sandburg and myself."
She heard the confusion in the blond Immortal Watcher's voice and tried to sympathize with him, "Maybe she thought she was protecting you? I mean, you are new to this damn Game of theirs."
"Maybe." He was keeping his eyes forward, looking for the signs that they were getting close to their destination, when he saw it. "Shit! Quickening storm straight ahead. Step on it, Connor!"
Catching sight of the massive electrical storm forming in front of her, Megan felt her heart clench in fear. "Oh, God! Please, not Dee. Please don't let it be Dee…" Her foot pressed harder against the accelerator.
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Spying the distinctive blue and white pickup, Megan slid her Chevy to a skidding halt behind it. The Tahoe had barely come to a stop when LaFollet jumped out of the car and was running for the fenced in, darkened park. The Quickening storm they had seen had blow out the power grid for blocks and the second one that followed worried them both. She shut off the engine, jumped out, and was approaching the fence line herself when she found Blair and Jim.
Jim was on his knees next to Blair, his expression blank, his body rigid in the classic signs of a deep zone out. And her fellow Companion/Guide's body was still shivering in what looked to be the after affects of a grand mal seizure. Dropping to their sides, Megan reached out and pulled Jim's hand into hers, unknowingly severing the connection between the Sentinel and Guide, and cutting off one of the sources of his zone out. "Jim? Ellison! Damn it." No response from the detective. Looking down at the unconscious student, she said, "Sandy, I could use your help here." But there was no quirky, smart alec remark to answer her.
Thinking back to what she had seen of the Quickening storms, she decided to take a chance. "Okay, there was a hell of a light display, but you're both too close to the center. So maybe it was an overload on your sense of sight or maybe touch? Is that it, Jim?" Dropping her voice to a soft, quiet alto, Megan pulled the Sentinel's slack hand towards her chest, placing it, palm open and flat over her heart. "Jim? Feel that? Come on; focus in on the feel of my heart. It's pounding like a rabbit's, I know, but you're scaring the hell out of me. Sandy's unconscious. I don't know why and I could really use your help here."
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Jan-Michel cleared the fence in a smooth jumping motion, adrenaline giving him the extra boost to hurdle the obstacle without a problem. Two Quickening storms, so close together, could only mean one thing. Out of the three Immortals that had arrived at this park, only one was left. Even as he ran deeper into the park, the former Navy SEAL made a silent vow. If it was Brad Ventriss, he'd kill the man with a well placed gun shot, then take his head in retribution for the loss of two of the oldest women Immortals on Earth.
Sliding to a halt, spotting a slumped figure on the snow covered ground, he pulled his gun and Azir's sword, ready to take revenge. The figure threw their head back, long dark hair cascading over her shoulders as a keening cry issued from her throat. Shocked, the weapons dropped from his hands, as the answer became clear to him. Two Quickenings, two Immortals dead and only Diandra of Delphi remained alive. He collapsed to the ground, giving voice to his own grief. "NO! NO! Oh, God! Why Lee?"
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"Jim? Feel that? Come on, focus in on the feel of my heart. It's pounding like a rabbit's, I know, but you're scaring the hell out of me. Sandy's unconscious. I don't know why and I could really use your help here."
The words barely penetrated the cotton in his head, but they, along with the feeling of a rapid heartbeat under his palm, helped Jim to slowly find his way back from the edge of the abyss the electrical storm had sent him to. The hand that wasn't registering the speaker's heart curled around the wrist of his Guide. The weakened pulse there brought the Sentinel all the way back. "Chief?"
The wan moonlight, the only illumination in that darkened area, showed the detective the shallow, pale coloring of his best friend's face, the shudders still running rampant through the young man's body. Then the pain hit Ellison hard, behind the eyes. He'd suffered from migraines before his senses had kicked in, stress induced tension headaches really, but since learning to control his Sentinel senses, they'd gotten worse. But only when he'd overloaded on one sense or another, like now. Groaning, he slumped over the gently quaking form of his Guide and heard the jaguar scream in protest as he allowed the darkness to consume him.
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"Chief?"
Megan nearly cried at the sound of Jim's tentative query fo
r his friend as she clutched his cold hand closer to her
breast. Blinking away the few tears that escaped her control, she watched, horrified, as the Sentinel stiffened, then collapsed over the prostrate form of his friend. "NO!"
Shaking hands reached out to both men, searching for pulses she feared she wouldn't find. She was relieved when she did locate them. Sandburg's was a little thready, as was Ellison's, but neither man responded to her pleas, her prodding or the out right poke that she gave the detective in the ribs. She'd had the presence of mind to grab her cell phone when she exited her Tahoe and now pulled the device from her coat pocket.
"This is Inspector Connor, Major Crimes. I have two men down, both are members of my department, at the old park at the West End of West 34th. I need an ambulance and back up here ASAP." Her voice was hard, leaving no room for argument as she told the Dispatch Office her situation. "Thank you." Shutting down the phone, her head snapped up as the sound of two voices screaming, in what could only be called grief, shattered the cold night air. "Oh, gods! Now what?"