Primordial (Lilitu Trilogy Book 2)

by Toby Tate

  Seconds later, Hendricks fell to the floor, writhing in pain and shrieking like a man on fire.

  The final change had begun.

  Seventy-two

  The idiots on the black ops team had no idea what awaited them once they got a few hundred yards along the subway tracks. Lilith had a virtual army of mercenaries that she had procured, along with the backpack nuke, thanks to her stepfather the senator. They traveled the darkness for what seemed like miles, until they were lulled into a false sense of security.

  The ambush was sudden—shots rang out from behind a concrete barricade on the other side of the tunnel, sending the black ops team and the rest jumping from the walkway onto the tracks below. The flashlights were turned off and everything went black, but Lilith could still see like a cat. She could even see through the barrier, and counted several men with AK-47s on the other side. But her brother, John, was quick. As she watched with dismay, the team blinded the mercenaries with their lights, and John leaped from the walkway to the barrier and began pulling men from behind it with superhuman strength, tossing them onto the tracks likes sacks of potatoes. Lilith was filled with rage at this ultimate act of betrayal and lunged at him, fully determined to take his life.

  But the leader of the black ops team was fast and armed with an MK16 grenade launcher, he fired at Lilith and put a hole in her massive chest. She fell in a broken heap and lay still. They thought they had killed her, and while they were busy interrogating their new prisoners, she awoke and fled, healing so quickly that she hardly remembered being injured.

  Lilith knew they would eventually find where she had planted the backpack nuke, so she made her way down the tunnel to an old, unused elevator shaft below Madison Square Garden , and then dug in and awaited them with malevolent anticipation.

  * * *

  Lilith didn’t have long to wait. The whole group of weaklings showed up just as she had expected, ready to disarm her nuke. She watched from the shadows of the subway terminal as David Jenkins, a young nuclear weapons expert she had recruited, was forced into the elevator shaft to begin disarming the nuke. She saw that he had a bandage wrapped around one of his fingers, which looked to be a couple of inches shorter than the others. He was sweating and nearly in a state of shock—they had obviously tortured the kid to extract the information from him. He began slowly punching the numbers into the keypad to abort the countdown, which she knew was timed to go off in mere minutes. He had to concentrate, because one wrong number would set the blasting caps off prematurely, and detonate the nuke.

  As Jenkins punched in the numbers, Lilith waited, thinking about what her next move would be. She couldn’t allow Jenkins to finish the sequence. She had worked too long and too hard, sacrificed everything for this. She couldn’t let things fall apart now. But they still had her offspring in their possession. If she were to do anything, chances are they would kill it. She was sure she could probably have another child, but what if she couldn’t? What if she was only allowed to have one? She couldn’t take that chance.

  As Jenkins was about to punch in the last number, Lilith sprang from her hiding place, catching everyone off guard. She charged directly toward the elevator shaft and proceeded to make short work of Jenkins, disemboweling him with a hooked claw and tearing out his throat with a clamp of her massive jaws. Then, as the timer on the nuke continued to beep its relentless countdown, she turned toward John, Hunter, Lisa, Gabe, and their puny black ops team. She was about to show them the true meaning of terror and pain, even if it meant being burnt to a cinder by a nuclear bomb.

  But in her fury, she had temporarily forgotten the egg, which Hunter now held in a backpack, a Beretta pointed directly at it.

  “Here’s how it’s going to play, Lilith,” he had said. “You’re going to punch in the last number and disarm the nuke and you and your baby are going to live. But if you make a move on us, I’m going to kill your baby, and then we’re going to kill you. I know you can understand me. So, what’s it going to be—life, or death?”

  She stood in place as the timer on the nuke counted down the seconds, beeping at one minute intervals as if alerting them to the inevitability of their fate. Sweat was dripping down Hunter’s brow—she could both see it, and smell it. Humans—weak, pathetic bags of meat. But she found that she did want to live, and she wanted her baby to live, too. She turned and padded back toward the elevator shaft, then punched in the last number of the code.

  Then Lilith climbed out of the elevator shaft only to find Lisa, the woman whose worthless husband she had stolen, with a pistol pointed at her. She was enraged beyond reason, and began to charge at the woman, fangs bared and eyes blazing. But after only a few feet, she heard the gun fire and felt a stinging sensation in her neck. Her vision became blurry and her equilibrium was off, but she continued to charge. Then, another pop and another sting as Lisa fired the pistol a second time. She found she could no longer run, and slowed to a walk, then stopped altogether. The humans standing before her began to multiply, becoming tens, then hundreds, and then blurring together into one indistinguishable mass.

  “Go to sleep, bitch,” she heard Lisa say, just before she toppled over on her side and the world turned to black.

  Seventy-three

  Lisa had been wheeled into the operating room almost immediately after entering the hospital. She figured it would probably be a short labor, for which she was thankful. She was already completely dilated, and ready to begin pushing.

  They had found a doctor who spoke English, and she asked that Jade be allowed into the room with her. She asked for an epidural anesthesia, thinking that she had already experienced enough pain in the last few days.

  “I wish Hunter could have been here,” Lisa said, gazing up at Jade, who squeezed her hand.

  “I’m sure he wishes he could be here, too.” Jade’s voice sounded funny, muffled by the mask. “Just concentrate on your baby for now. Everything will be fine.”

  As Jade spoke, Lisa felt weight shifting inside of her. “The baby is turning,” the doctor said. “The crown of the head is becoming visible.”

  The nurse beside her was saying something in Greek over and over again, which probably translated to “push” in English. It seemed like she couldn’t have stopped pushing even if she wanted to, but she held her breath and continued to bear down.

  “I will have to do an episiotomy,” the doctor said. “You shouldn’t feel a thing.”

  Thank God for the anesthesia.

  Sweat covered her body, like she had just stepped from a cold shower and the voices around her sounded as if they were coming from another planet, surreal and distant. In her mind she only felt two things—the gripping hand of her cousin and the baby between her legs.

  * * *

  The baby’s head finally broke free of her body as the doctor guided it with his hands. Soon, he was out and began to cry. The nurse wrapped him in a blanket to retain body heat while the doctor clamped off the umbilical cord, then snipped it with a pair of large scissors.

  The nurse gently handed Lisa her new son. She gazed down at his brown eyes and thick, black hair, cradling him in her arms as tears streamed down her face.

  “I do like the name John,” she said, kissing him lightly on the forehead. “But I’m going to call you Jonathan. Jonathan Hunter Singleton. Welcome to the world.”

  * * *

  An hour and ten stitches later, they wheeled Lisa and Jonathan into their hospital room on the maternity ward, Jade following close behind.

  “If you need anything, just push the call button,” the curly-headed doctor said. “You should be able to leave in a day or two, but right now you must rest.”

  “Thank you for everything, doctor,” Lisa said, beaming.

  He smiled and closed the door behind. Lisa glanced down at her son, who was staring back up at her.

  “He’s so beautiful,” she said.

  Jade laughed. “Don’t let Hunter hear you say that.”

  “I think he would agree
with me.” Lisa pinched the baby’s cheek. “Wouldn’t he, little guy?”

  Suddenly, the door opened, and the man Jade had seen in the lobby entered the room, closed the door and blocked it with his body.

  “Who are you?” Jade asked.

  He reached down and pulled something out of the pocket of his khakis, then clicked it open with his thumb—a switchblade. Jade glanced at his eyes and saw a shifting, silvery mass, as if something else was alive behind them.

  “In case things don’t work out as planned, I’ve come to take care of any loose ends,” he said.

  Seventy-four

  Most of the space directly around the huge base of the obelisk was empty concrete, but beyond that, lay rows of olive trees that provided the perfect cover. Each man on Jason’s team placed himself directly across from one of Hendricks’s men, and waited for the signal. As soon as he said the word “go,” they made their move.

  At first, it appeared to the guards that shadows had suddenly leapt from the trees and were running toward them. Before any of them could cry out or even raise a gun, their throats were cut. The life drained out of them in seconds as they fell to the ground, drowning in their own blood.

  Suddenly, gunfire erupted from the tree line to their left, and Jason and his men dove for cover behind the obelisk. They had missed one.

  “Shit, where is that coming from?” Jason yelled into his headset, bullets pinging off the granite all around him.

  “I see him, Jason,” Samson said. “He’s behind one of the trees.” There was quick burst of automatic fire, then silence.

  “I think I got him.”

  “Go check it out, but keep low,” Jason said. “Slater, cover him.”

  “I’m on it,” came the reply.

  Jason hoped that the police were doing their part at keeping watch, but he had his doubts about where their loyalties lay. For all he knew, that could have been one of them doing the shooting.

  From across the parking lot, someone whistled. It sounded like Mac. There was trouble.

  “Chin, come with me. The rest of you stay here and make sure there’s nobody else waiting in the shadows.”

  Jason and Chin stealthily made their way across the parking lot to where the whistle had come from and saw Mac cradling someone on the ground, with Hunter standing over them.

  “What’s going on?”

  Mac glanced up. “It’s Gabe. She’s been hit.”

  “Chin, see if you can do something,” Jason said.

  The Asian man pulled the carbine strap off his shoulder and laid the gun on the ground as he knelt. Jason could see the wound was in her left shoulder—there was blood all over her shirt.

  “It looks like the bullet went straight through,” Chin said. “I’ll grab the first aid kit.” He stood and took off toward the darkness.

  * * *

  “Damn,” Gabe said, Mac still cradling her head. “Didn’t count on getting shot.”

  “Nobody ever does,” Mac said, smiling down at her.

  “I hate to do this, Mac, but you and Hunter need to set those charges ASAP, or we’re all fucked.”

  Gabe tried to get up, and then moaned in pain.

  “Hey, you’re not going anywhere, young lady,” Mac said, gently pushing her back down on the ground. Chin returned with a first aid kit, immediately knelt and opened it up. He pulled out bandages and surgical tape, then gently pulled open Gabe’s shirt.

  “I’ll try not to make this too painful,” he said, then glanced at Mac. “I’ve got it under control. She’ll be okay. I just need to stop the bleeding.”

  Mac gazed into Gabe’s deep brown eyes as she grimaced from the pain. He reached down and grabbed her hand between both of his.

  “I have to go. You going to be alright?”

  Gabe nodded slowly. “I’ll be fine as long as I don’t get shot again.”

  Mac grinned and squeezed her hand. “Hunter and I will take care of planting those charges. You stay here and hold down the fort.”

  “Mac?”

  “Yeah?”

  “I just want to say…”

  Her words hung in the air as Chin worked to apply the bandages, ignoring the conversation.

  “What?” Mac prodded.

  “I just want to say…I love you.”

  Chin gave Gabe a quick sideways glance as she waited for some kind of answer from Mac. In spite of the pain in her shoulder, his silence hurt even more.

  At least acknowledge that you have feelings for me.

  Mac reached down with one hand and gently caressed the side of her face, his eyes searching hers.

  “I love you, too,” he finally said.

  He let her hand slip from his as he stood, pulling the backpack tight up against his shoulders. Then, Gabe watched as he and Hunter walked off toward the obelisk with Jason in tow.

  Seventy-five

  “Listen, I don’t know who you are,” Jade said, “but I’m about to call the nurse, so I would suggest you get the hell—”

  Before she could finish her sentence, the man lunged at her with the switchblade. She sidestepped the knife as he swiped it through the air and Lisa screamed, clutching the baby close to her breast.

  “Jade, be careful! He’s crazy!”

  Jade’s heart was racing as she glanced around the small room, looking for something, anything, that she could use to stop this maniac. Then, she saw the privacy curtain hanging next to Lisa’s bed. She ran toward it, the man charging after her, then grabbed it and yanked as hard as she could. The curtain tore from its rings and she flung it in front of her, creating a wall between her and the attacker. As he was temporarily blinded, she lashed out with her left foot, but the kick landed on his thigh. He drove the knife through the curtain where it cut a large gash in Jade’s leg. She screamed in pain, grabbing her leg and leaving herself vulnerable.

  The man reared back, as if about to take another swipe at her, when two orderlies appeared in the doorway. They crept toward the man as he waved the knife in front of him, keeping them at bay. Jade began backing toward the window, holding her bleeding leg with one hand. The blood was seeping through her fingers and she was beginning to feel dizzy.

  As the two orderlies spoke to the crazy man in Greek, a hospital security guard came into the room behind them, gun drawn. The man suddenly lunged at the orderlies and there was a deafening roar inside the room as the guard pumped two bullets into him and he toppled to the floor face first.

  That was the last thing Jade saw before everything went black.

  * * *

  Jade awoke in a hospital gown, lying in a bed. The first thing she noticed was a sensation of floating—they must have given her morphine. Her leg was still throbbing, but she was feeling no pain. She reached down and gently ran her fingertips over the wound—there were several stitches there. She turned and saw Lisa in the next bed, staring at a TV in a corner of the room.

  “Wow, now isn’t this ironic,” Jade croaked.

  Lisa glanced over at her. Jade noticed she wasn’t holding the baby any longer.

  “Welcome back to the world,” Lisa said, smiling. “Do you remember what happened?”

  “Duh. A crazy dude with a knife tried to kill us. What happened after I passed out?”

  “You were lying in a pool of blood—I thought you were dead. They hauled the guy’s body out and the doctor took you into the OR and stitched up your leg. Luckily, I knew your blood type, so they were able to put some more blood into you. You lost a lot. How do you feel?”

  “Like hammered shit. Pardon my French. Who was the dude with the knife?”

  Lisa shrugged. “Nobody knows. I’m sure it was one of Hendricks’s goons. But I’m not going to let him make me live in fear. Besides, I asked them to put a guard outside our door, just in case.”

  “Just before he attacked me, I swear I saw something moving around inside his eyes, like a silvery liquid.” Despite the morphine, a shiver wound its way through Jade’s body.

  “The Lilitu use a par
asitic creature to control the minds of their victims. Hunter had one of those things inside of him when he was kidnapped by Lilith a few months ago. The CIA discovered a way to drive them out without harming the host.”

  “Unbelievable.”

  “I was lucky to get him back. Poor little Jonathan would be fatherless.”

  “So where’s the little man now?”

  Lisa patted the mattress on the opposite side. “He’s right here beside me. He sleeps like a rock, just like his daddy.”

  The TV was playing a local news station, the volume down low. A raven-haired woman read from a piece of paper and spoke earnestly in Greek. Lisa had to wonder if all that was happening here in Crete would ever make the evening news. Or if there would even be a Crete to report on.

  “I wonder how Jonathan’s daddy is doing right now?” she said.

  Seventy-six

  Hunter glanced around at all of Hendricks’s dead guards. Most of them probably had been controlled by his parasites, with no memory of who they were or why they were here—only that they had to serve his highness. He felt sorry for them. They probably all had families that would never know what had happened to them. At that moment, Hunter wanted nothing more than to shove a gun up Hendricks’s ass and pull the trigger. But he had to be patient—they couldn’t afford to be emotional. There was no room for mistakes.

  He glanced at Mac, who was looking the door over. “There’s no way we’re getting through here without blasting it open,” Mac said. “I hate to use our C4 on this, but I guess we have no choice.”