Mortality Bites - The COMPLETE Boxed Set (Books 1 - 10): An Urban Fantasy Epic Adventure

by Ramy Vance

  “OK, so he probably won’t. But there’s still Egya. He could help us.”

  “How? Once we give up, we’ll be taken into the facilities and disappear,” she said. “We have to fight.”

  “No,” I said. “Sometimes we have to accept the hand dealt to us. I cannot … will not risk anyone getting hurt for something we have no chance of winning. I’m sorry, but we turn ourselves in. That is the right thing to do.”

  GoneGodDamn it, I hated taking the moral high ground.

  The demon in me wanted nothing more than to fight.

  But the Cherub—the better part of me that was my father—demanded that we protect this place. And protecting it meant surrender.

  I removed my mask and put my hands up in the air. “Come on, let’s get this over with.”

  ↔

  SURRENDERING SUCKS.

  It’s not just that you have to admit defeat. It’s not the humble pie you’re forced to eat or even the bleak future of incarceration, torture and only the GoneGods know what else horrible tortures that face you.

  It’s knowing that with your surrender comes the end of hope. Hope for Justin, hope to stop the fifty shades of evil these guys were doing, hope for whatever future you wanted to help build.

  That future was something—the only thing—that both the angel and demon within me agreed on … making this world a better place for humans and Others alike.

  Don’t get me wrong. I had no delusions of grandeur that I, wee ol’ Katrina Darling, would be the sole architect of that future. But as I walked to meet my fate, my heart sank that I would no longer be a player on the board. That my contributions, no matter how small, would no longer be a part of that future.

  The demon in me wanted to go out in a blaze of glory. One last stand that would end with sweet oblivion. At least I could go out fighting.

  The angel in me chose surrender because she wasn’t quite ready to give up hope. After all, I had escaped three dead gods and a former ex-archangel. What made human incarceration any different? There might be a chance to escape while they transported me to wherever before ending my life.

  There were procedures, protocol to follow. I’d have a day—or at least a few hours—to figure something out.

  But Serena Russo didn’t strike me as the type of evil that would let me escape. She was going to take me somewhere private. Somewhere quiet. And put me down with an injection like an unwanted dog.

  The only thing that surprised me about all this was that I wasn’t scared.

  Most Others were terrified of death, seeing its finality as the worst of all possible fates.

  But I wasn’t afraid.

  Why? I don’t know.

  Maybe it was because I was once a human—a human who got to live three hundred years—and humans know they’re going to die as children. Or maybe I simply was too naïve or stupid to be afraid.

  Or maybe it was that I once witnessed my father and his impossible bravery as he faced his own death with a smile on his face, and ever since then I’d vowed I would do the same.

  So that was exactly what I did.

  Removing the mask as I walked down the hill, I smiled … staring right at Serena Russo as I did.

  “You know there is no escape,” she said as her soldiers flanked us.

  “I know.”

  “So why are you smiling?”

  “For reasons you’ll never understand.”

  “What I understand is that I win.”

  “You do,” I said, and Mergen smacked his lips as if to emphasize my agreement.

  “This ends with me winning.” There was a tinge of desperation in her voice, as if she needed me to believe her. But it came off more like her trying to convince herself. She held out her hand to Isabella.

  The encantado hesitated before fishing out the vial and handing it over to her. Serena gripped it like she was holding the elixir of life itself, and that’s when it struck me why she was so desperate to get us. That vial of serum we stole for Justin … it was for someone else.

  It’s for her son.

  Serena looked between me and Isa. “You’re doing the right thing, you know. You can’t possible understand why, but it’s the right thing.”

  “And everyone else dies?” Isa said. “What about the others who need the serum?”

  Serena pursed her lips in answer.

  “Happy?” I said.

  “I am.” Serena turned to Isabella. With a tone that resonated with unbridled anger, she growled, “And you. I wanted nothing more than to be your friend. To work together to make this GoneGod World better. But you have shown your true, traitorous form. You are going somewhere very dark and lonely. And your precious love, Justin? Well, let’s just say I’m going to let our little experiments run their course, for better or worse.”

  Isabella groaned, but offered no reply.

  “So I win,” Russo repeated. And then her eyes flitted as she looked away as if in shame, as if she knew full well that she was playing the role of villain in this little story and said, more to herself than us, “I win and there will be no destiny, no intervention of the gods, no curse or magic to alter that. Cuff them.”

  Three soldiers approached me, and I braced myself for their inevitable manhandling … when this godless world offered up a miracle.

  A miracle in the form of an empty beer bottle.

  ↔

  IT SEEMS that even without the gods, the divine wheel of Karma still turns. Something that became wholly (and holy) undeniable when an empty beer bottle flew from the window of Gardner Hall.

  THE TRUTH BITES

  T he beer can didn’t even hit anyone, instead falling limply by the foot of the soldier holding me down. He looked at it before stepping down on it hard, crushing it beneath his feet.

  I couldn’t help but smirk at this minor act of defiance. Someone took the risk of expressing their discontent. Sure, it wouldn’t save me, but it was something. A minor act of bravery.

  Only if everyone protested with minor acts of bravery … then this GoneGod World would transform into something else.

  But the thing about minor acts … they were often gateways to bigger acts of bravery.

  Bolder moves.

  And that came in the form of a friggin’ full beer can lobbed from a third-floor window of Gardener Hall. I looked up to see that some enterprising physics student was using exercise elastics and a couple bras to create an impromptu slingshot.

  “Fire a warning shot and let’s get out of here,” Serena said.

  A soldier standing at her side unholstered his pistol and aimed it in the air, but before he could fire off the shot, another beer can came flying, hitting him in the stomach.

  He keeled over as three more cans came flying, and not just from Gardner’s windows—from all around. Molson, McConnell, even the back of Douglas Hall … students, both Other and human, were lobbing full beer cans at the soldiers.

  Minor acts and heavy burdens ... GoneGod fuckin’ damn!

  We didn’t need to be told twice. Immediately getting to my feet, I slammed into the soldier nearest me.

  Deirdre, as strong as she was, pulled apart her restraints and picked up two soldiers, tossing them like empty sacks against the wall of Douglas Hall.

  “The psychics,” I cried out to the changeling. “They’re how they found us.”

  Deirdre didn’t need to be told twice. She immediately went for them, knocking them both unconscious with a thud.

  Now we could escape and couldn’t be followed.

  At least until they woke up. But given how hard she hit them, I figured we had a few hours at least.

  I ran over to Isa and helped her to her feet. It was harder than you’d think, given that we were both bound. “Isa, transform. Get out of here. You know what you need to do. Go, now.”

  Isa looked at me and shook her head. “What about you?”

  “I’ll fight my way out and meet you where we said.” GoneGods, I hoped she knew what I meant.

  “B
ut …” Another beer can flew past her, hitting a soldier in the shoulder.

  I heard the military van engine roar to life. They were retreating.

  Or getting ready to pursue us should we run.

  Either way, we needed to make our move. And now.

  “Isa, I really appreciate this act of bravery, but we really don’t have time for this. Go. Go now.”

  The encantado nodded before pursing her lips and transforming into Malik Unlike before, the transformation was instant. So all the times she slowly shifted in front of me was so that I could witness her power.

  Show off.

  An instant later she was bolting down the hill.

  I turned to Deirdre and watched in awe as she dispatched four more soldiers, quite literally using the largest of the bunch as a club against the rest. “Deirdre,” I yelled out, “put him down and follow Isa. Protect her.”

  “But milady,” she said, still holding the poor soldier in her arms.

  “Go!” I ordered. “I will follow. Promise.”

  Deirdre hesitated before dropping him to the ground. As soon as his body touched the earth, he crawled away for all his worth. I swear to the GoneGods he could have beaten an Olympic sprinter with that crawl.

  The changeling fae nodded at me and followed Isa down the hill, bounding forward with such force that she must have cleared ten feet.

  The soldier with the pistol tried to follow, but I managed to kick him in the back of the knees. He went down with a satisfying thump.

  Now it was time for me to escape.

  Might have done it, too, if Serena wasn’t so damn smart.

  I felt a pistol at the back of my head. “In the van. Now.”

  And as she forced me inside, I lamented making that promise to Deirdre. I hated having to break it.

  I guess there was still a bit of Other in me after all.

  ↔

  MERGEN and I sat bound in the van. They had put us both in handcuffs that were, in turn, chained to the security van’s narrow metal benches.

  Serena sat across from us, gun in her hand. “Do you know what this is?” she asked. There was one more soldier—the one who had originally bound me—sitting next to her, his pistol aimed at my head.

  “The part of the story where the villain reveals her dastardly plan?”

  “No,” she said. “Not at all.” Serena banged on the van’s wall and cried out. “Stop the van.” Then, turning to the soldier, “Get out.”

  “But Dr. Russo,” he protested, but one glare from her was all he needed as an answer. He got out without another word, and a second later we heard the unmistakable sound of the passenger-side door opening and slamming shut.

  I guess he didn’t like being so summarily dismissed.

  “Don’t like an audience when …” I nodded toward her gun.

  “What? Oh, this …” She looked at the gun like it was the most foreign thing in the world. Like she’d never considered using it. Like she hated its precise nature.

  “So what is this?” I asked. “The part of the story where you tell me your plan, try to win me over with some heartfelt rant? Or is this the part of the story where you threaten me and everyone I love?”

  Serena chuckled, her gaze distant. “Oh no,” she said. “You got this all wrong. This is the part of the story where I beg.”

  THE FINAL COUNTDOWN

  “Beg?”

  Serena looked down at her lap as she ran the palms of her hand against her suit pants. “You killed your father, didn’t you?”

  “No,” I lied, to which Mergen grimaced like he’d just taken a bite out of a sour peach. Looking at him, I growled. “Hey, whose side are you on, anyway?”

  Serena smirked. “He is an avatar of truth. He can no more help his reactions to lies than we can hide our own pain. It’s his nature.”

  “Oh brother,” I said, turning to Serena and giving her my best eye roll. “Don’t you go all cliché on me and start talking about our natures and how we can’t help but be who we are. And I swear to the GoneGods, if you tell me the parable of the scorpion and fox, I’ll scream.”

  “Humph, no. Nothing so trite.”

  “OK, so I killed my father, what of it?” I said, steeling myself against the emotion that bubbled inside. Thinking of my father … my dad … it was the one thing that always threatened to bring out tears in me. His loss, and my role in it, are my greatest regrets.

  My greatest shame.

  But I was face to face with the villain, and I couldn’t afford to show weakness. Not now. Not here.

  Not if I had any chance of surviving this night.

  She smirked at my flippant comment. She’d done her homework, and she knew that I was lying. She knew full well what kind of emotions evoking my father’s memory did to me.

  “What would you do to bring him back?” she asked.

  Anything. The thought was so immediate, complete and fast that I couldn’t stop myself from thinking it out loud. I simply couldn’t.

  Mergen smacked his lips and rubbed his stomach.

  Serena just nodded.

  I gritted my teeth, angry at myself for not being able to control my emotions. With a growl, I held Serena’s gaze and growled, “If you offer me a way to bring him back—”

  “Nothing like that,” she said, her voice distant, matching her thousand-yard stare. “If I had that power, we wouldn’t be here. But I do not have any power over death. Nothing like that.”

  I noticed Mergen getting fatter at that comment. I’d seen this before. Some truths meant so much to the person speaking that it hyper-nourished him. He got big, fast.

  Serena’s impotency over death wasn’t just a true statement. It was something … more to her.

  “Then what is this?” I asked.

  “Do you know why I joined the World Army? Not because I give two shits about the plight of humanity or Others. I joined because I needed their resources. And their influence.”

  “Because …” I feigned boredom.

  Because …” she sighed, removing her glasses. She looked tired. Almost beaten.

  But she didn’t need to finish her sentence. “Because of your son.”

  ↔

  MERGEN BURPED. I mean, seriously dude … way to kill a moment.

  But that was exactly what he did. He burped like he’d just had one of the most satisfying meals of his life.

  It was so out of place … I mean, we were literally in a life-and-death struggle, and here he was acting like he’d just maxed out at some Michelin Star steak house.

  Serena and I shared a laugh. Almost like we were friends. But that camaraderie was short lived, because as soon as the moment passed, her face went deadly serious. “How do you know about Collin?”

  “For one thing, he’s the password to your computer. But for another, I saw him through the window of your house.”

  Serena nearly stood, except the van’s roof prevented her from doing so. Her face turned dangerous, a darkness passing across it that would have made me shiver if I still had it in me to be afraid of people like Serena Russo.

  I knew that look on her face; that was the fierceness of a mother.

  In this moment, she was a lioness.

  “What the hell were you doing at my house?”

  “Staged a little break-in, as you may recall. Don’t worry—Collin was fine. He looked pretty excited by the whole deal, actually. Cute kid.”

  She stood over me like she would slap me—or maybe use that pistol after all. Her hand was shaking, the pistol’s nose trembling.

  And then, with a long exhale, she sat back down.

  Actually, she slumped. And all the fire and fury seemed to fall away. “He’s dying.”

  I swallowed. “Of what?”

  Maybe she hadn’t heard me, or maybe she’d ignored me. Either way, she continued like I hadn’t spoken at all. “I tried to save him with the aqrabuamelu’s venom, enhance him like I did the cadets. It worked at first, but he’s falling apart. His body is literally c
rumbling before me and I can’t do anything about it.” Her eyes glistened with unescaped tears.

  “So make more?”

  She shook her head. “You saw the aqrabuamelu. He’s gone. And without him, we’re done.”

  “You’re still draining him.”

  “Nerve agent. Seems those poison glands can be animated with a little electro-stimulus. Everything else is gone, including the part of him we need to produce more anti-venom.”

  Mergen licked his fingers.

  “You shouldn’t have killed the golden goose.”

  She nodded. “Don’t lecture me. It was a mistake. A mistake made, and now cannot be reversed.”

  “Find another scorpion man,” I said. “But you’re not stupid. That mission is underway, isn’t it?”

  Again, Serena nodded. “Do you know how rare they are? He might have been the only one, and now he’s gone.”

  So that was it. There was only so much anti-venom and no promise of making more. And what they did have she wanted for her son.

  “What about Justin?” I asked.

  She shook her head.

  “So, let me get this straight. You’re willing to sacrifice Justin, let him and the others die, to save your son.”

  “The other cadets already had the anti-venom. They are out of danger. It is only Justin and my son who are left.”

  “And you only have enough venom to cure one of them,” I muttered.

  “Yum,” Mergen muttered. To give the Avatar of Truth his due credit, he did cover his mouth after he realized his faux pas.

  “So there you have it,” she said. “My son or Justin. That is the choice we have to make.”

  “Humm, let’s see … the son of an evil bitch or the man I love.”

  Mergen grimaced.

  “Which part?” I asked him, but I knew the answer. It was all of it. Serena wasn’t evil. Not completely. She was just trying to save her son. I’d do the same thing if I was in her position. And as for my loving Justin—it was time to call it. I loved the idea of him. But my heart … it didn’t belong to him.

  It never did.

  Still, I couldn’t sacrifice him for Serena’s sake. That wasn’t right, either.