The grey eyed man spun around, bringing his sword back up then paused to look at the creature facing him.
Desperately, Clement searched for calm within the storm of violence. He reached out within himself, looking for that which always came of its own volition, the sense that his cause was just and that a higher purpose guided his hand.
Instead, he found only doubt while the crippled vampire brandished long bladed knives in both its hands.
It was as if the two opponents had come to an unspoken decision, then suddenly they were flying at one another. Steel against steel, sparks flew in the darkness as they spun and parried.
Clement tried everything he had ever learned. He jumped to the side, feinting first one way, then to the other, doing all that he could to force the monster back.
They danced a deadly dance as they flew together only to break apart again. Desperately, Clement tried to pit brute strength against the creature, then their faces drew horribly close together and it spoke to him.
“What an interesting weapon you have there. The craftsmanship is astounding. However, as soon as I dispose of you I will dispose of it, for you see, it obviously has a terrible effect on him and I can’t have that, can I?”
Clement risked a quick glance at his brother upon the bed. He was in chains but seemed calm, so far unhurt, although it did look as though his strange tattoos were of a far lighter hue than he remembered.
“Trying to distract me won’t work, vampire,” Clement said through gritted teeth, “My brother is just fine and is going to stay that way, if I have anything to say about it.”
The thing leered at him as they trembled with the force they each used against one another.
“Stupid, blind fool. I wasn’t talking about your brother,” it said, then spun away from him, its blade flicking out as Clement came within a hair’s breadth of having a wrist sliced wide open.
As he danced his own pirouette, Clement had just time enough to see Sara look hard at Braze after hearing the Journeyman’s words. And in the next instant, he saw her eyes go wide with the dawning of some understanding.
He had no time to consider what had just happened as he brought himself round to chop down hard with his sword like an axe, trying to drive the Journeyman back.
But, the creature did not relent and its knives flew together time and time again in a crossed lock that Clement’s sword could not cleave apart.
They circled round one another in a seeming stalemate, when suddenly the thing said, “I think I have tired of this.”
It cocked its head to the side as if hearing something from afar, then continued, “Yes. I’m quite sure that I have. And time presses for us all, does it not?”
A flurry of blows almost too fast to see hammered Clement to the floor. His sword fell to the side with a thud and then the shadow was leaning over him, its single eye gleaming with cruel delight.
“For all your efforts, you are no match for me, little man. Neither you nor your poisoned sword will stop me.”
Sara screamed, the vampire’s stupor still leaving her sluggish as she groped about herself for something, anything, that she might throw at the Journeyman.
That was when she saw it.
As with the rest of the suite, the bedroom’s far wall was of towering glass. The view of the city beyond was extraordinary and all the more so because the clear panels rose far higher than any glass she had ever seen in any other building. She was sure that it was heavily reinforced, doubtless with some cutting edge technology that Abraxis Industries had yet to release in the marketplace.
But what she saw then took her breath away. The view of the city, and its miles and miles of lights in every direction, had begun to bow inward.
The Journeyman saw it, too, as it took a step back from Clement, its knives drooping slightly in its hands as it turned toward the glass wall.
There was a whining sound, almost as if someone nearby had begun to pull a single, screeching note from a badly tuned violin. It was a sound that grew and grew while the wall bulged inward to a point that should have been impossible.
When Clement saw the Journeyman hesitate, he began to inch his hand closer to his sword hilt. He had been pounded down by the creature as if he were of no more consequence than a housefly. Yet, while it was distracted, he might have one last chance, even if it meant his own life in exchange.
His fingers were outstretched, almost to the point of touching the sword’s pommel, when Clement caught a glimpse of Sara’s face. He followed her stunned regard and his breath blew out of him.
“Sara!” he shouted even as he was turning away, rolling into a ball and facing away from the bulging glass, “Cover your face. Now!”
Sara heard Clement at the same time as she saw the Journeyman take another step back, for once without anything to say.
Like a lightning strike in slow motion, she saw great jagged fractures appear like the branches of a tree sprouting from nothing in the glass wall. Then, she, too, was flinching away, doing her best to cover her face with her hands.
The high keening sound stopped. Then, like a bomb burst, the glass blew inward in a storm of shards.
Sara felt thick chunks of it raining down upon her back. There were some heavier than others, but when she risked a glance through the fingers covering her face, she saw that while thick, the glass had broken in cubes and not jagged pieces that would have meant all their deaths in an instant.
Thank God...no, thank Braze, for safety glass, she thought. Sara gingerly put a hand down to the floor, trying to leverage herself enough to turn around. She looked up to where she had last seen the Journeyman and she froze.
Her breath stopped and it was not because she saw the Journeyman still standing, somehow proof against the violent glass explosion, but because of what she saw coming in through the opening.
It could have been Lucifer himself, only she saw no tail, nor did the being carry a pitchfork. What she did see, though, was something straight out of the Book of Revelation.
Black anger raged upon his face and it was a visage of terrible beauty. Sara knew without any question in her mind that before her now stood something that exists only in the worn pages of the blindly faithful.
This was an angel and dark flames danced over his shoulders and through his windswept hair. Enormous wings upon his back folded themselves as he set his feet upon the glass strewn floor, their color a steel grey that shifted with otherworldly iridescence.
And as he opened his mouth to speak, Sara saw deadly fangs between his full, luscious lips. What stood before them now was of such magnificence that it hurt her to look at him, and it was all the worse because she knew that he was a fallen being.
"Caim. It is enough. Your audacity is only exceeded by your vanity...fool.”
Sara saw the Journeyman flinch away from the dark angel’s words, as if the black fire that danced in a penumbra around the being would reach out and scourge him.
“You seek greatness. You wish to elevate yourself. For that I can but congratulate you.
“That you seek to rise to my height, however, is unacceptable.”
None of them dared breathe as the angel spoke. For him, only the Journeyman seemed to exist, the rest of them far beneath his notice.
“I see them, these cunning bones of your plan...you would play the game of the wolves among men. A new method of battle toward conquest for a world that has moved on from what we have always known.
“So be it.
“But it shall be by my hand and in my own time. Ever you forget that I am the father of all vampires, a Seraph that chose his own fate rather than drift unanchored and purposeless as my own creator has bereft me.
“Despite all that you would do, Caim, you will never be a master of vampires, for there is only one. Kabiel, brother to Malakh, brother to Galgallin, and paladin to the dark forces that prey upon mankind. I am your lord.”
The dark angel blazed in black fire, his eyes shining despite the darkness that crackled aro
und him.
“You force me to reveal myself, youngling," he said as he walked over to seize the Journeyman by the scruff of the neck and then shake him like a toy.
"And for that you shall pay dearly."
The angel did not release him as he went back to the burst open window.
"Daniel would have seen you destroyed at the hand of that man, but feared he would not suffice. He came to me and I have come to rescue not you, but what you have learned about this new way of warfare."
His wings lifted as he was about to take to the air, then he turned back toward them and said in Braze’s direction, "His plan was not without merit, wolf. Be warned. I have taken notice of you now and the empire you attempt to build.
"This will not be forgotten as I consider what to do with such knowledge."
With a rush of air that smelled faintly of brimstone, the angel and the Journeyman disappeared into the darkness and silence fell at last upon them all.
There were grunts and groans as Sara and Clement got shakily to their feet. Seeing Braze still lying there, Sara raced to his side and began to try unwrapping the chains that still bound him.
“Are you hurt?” she asked Braze as she worked at loosening the chains.
He answered in a heavy voice, “No...there is no need for concern. Just free me.”
At last, Sara managed to undo a knot and the whole length of the chain eased its tight hold. Then, she was pulling it down off his body, his skin unblemished but for his ever present tattoos.
Sara glanced over her shoulder and saw Clement standing there looking at them vacantly, his hands empty.
“Are you alright?” she asked him.
He did not seem to hear her and just as she was about to repeat her question, he said, “I do not suffice. You and I both heard it, Sara. And the thing is, he was right. I don’t.”
She did not understand what he was trying to say, convinced that he was under some kind of shock after all that had just happened.
“Look, you did the best you could. And, now it’s over and we’re all still alive.”
Clement nodded and replied, “Yeah, but my best wasn’t good enough.”
He stood still a moment, then shrugged and said, “I’m going for a walk. I think I need some air to clear my head.”
He clenched his hands, then unclenched them, as if trying to reconcile with himself that they were still empty, then he strode from the room without looking back.
She did not like seeing Clement and the way he had seemed so defeated, his own self doubt doing more damage than anything the Journeyman had managed.
Braze groaned as he pushed away the last of the silver chains, then Sara flung herself at him, her arms wrapped hard around his body.
Only he did not embrace her in return and gradually Sara loosened her hold upon him, drawing back from him slightly then dropping her head down to seek his velvety lips with her own.
She kissed him, desperate to feel him answer her and for a time it was though he were frozen, the power of the silver slow to quit him. Then his lips moved under hers.
He kissed her back and suddenly it was with so much force it was like violence. His tongue went deep into her mouth, but it was not in the sensual dance that she had always known with him. Rather, his tongue stabbed into her with no sign of subtlety or elegance.
Sara started to pull back from him when his teeth bit down hard on her lip and she screamed as she broke free.
“What in the hell’s the matter with you?” she asked, blood running from the corner of her mouth.
Braze’s head was down and as he answered her, he lifted his chin up and what Sara saw made her take a stumbling step backward.
“Nothing is wrong. Not anymore,” he said with a deep voice laced in sinister tones. Over his body, black markings swarmed darkly, their colors more stark than Sara had ever seen them.
“The time has come for what I believe is now inevitable. And for that, I blame you, human bitch.”
He said it with a grin that twisted horridly upon his face.
“Braze...honey, I don’t understand. What’s going on?” Sara asked, afraid of his answer.
“I’m afraid Braze is unavailable at the moment, bitch. My name is Nash and I am going to end your evil influence on him.”
Nash? Nash Abraxis? But, his father’s dead....
The man who had held her so sweetly in his strong arms began to advance upon her as Sara backpedaled away. The hands she had come to know so well as they caressed her body were hooked things, like claws.
“You have very nearly ruined all that we have planned together. Your presence alone enough to cloud his reasoning and push me away, leaving him weak and exposed.
“I have known human women and their wiles...how dangerous you all are. Clement’s mother was the same and very nearly led me down that path before I managed to see clearly at last.
“I will not allow the same errors to befall my beloved son.”
Sara shook her head.
“Braze! Braze, listen to me. I know you’re in there and you can hear me. You have to fight, Braze. Don’t let him do this.”
The man who was quickly slipping into the form of a beast whose skin crawled so thickly in runes that it had become almost entirely swallowed up in darkness shook his head from side to side.
Then took another step toward her.
“There can be no more of the human woman, son,” it said, speaking to someone who Sara could no longer see, “The desire you feel for her will only yield weaklings like Clement and the bloodline must flow on, strong and unadulterated.
“My hand has been forced. I never wanted to reveal to what extent I can control you. But so be it. Together from now on, Braze, you and I will rule and upon one of our own females we shall sire a son that will carry both our souls, sparing us from the cold fingers of Death. Then, he too and his sons after him, will join us as we continue the great work you and I have begun.”
Sara shook her head at what she heard, at the madness that rang in every word of the black beast before her.
“What you are describing is a condemnation to hell for Braze, to exist for all eternity trapped in your shadow,” she said.
“And, I can’t allow that,” she continued.
The beast smirked and said, “You have no say in the matter, bitch.”
"Over my dead body," Sara replied, her eyes blazing with anger.
Nash Abraxis twisted his son's mouth into a leering smile and said, "Yes...my thoughts exactly. Prepare for the sweet embrace of oblivion, human bitch."
He advanced upon her, his hands curling into claws. The muscular body that had become almost completely blackened over in seething tattoos began shifting into wolf. A black beast whose eyes were rimmed red in madness.
Sara shouted, sure that Braze could still hear her.
“Braze, now! You have to fight him now! If you don’t, you’re going to lose any chance of ever being free to live your own life.”
The werewolf hesitated. The foot it had raised to close the distance between it and Sara sank slowly to the floor.
Sara saw its red rimmed eyes slip into familiar, beautiful amber tones and it was Braze’s own voice that spoke to her.
“Sara. I cannot hold for long,” he said, then nodded towards the sword still lying on the floor where Clement had let it fall.
She heard a terrible sadness in his voice as he continued.
“It is the only way, my darling. Otherwise, I will be forced to watch, helpless, as I rip you apart, then be damned to exist eternally under my father’s complete domination.”
Sara swallowed, tears springing to her eyes.
"It is time to put an end to this madness, Sara," Braze said, then, anguish thick in his throat as he continued, "But, know this. If it is by your hand, I do not regret it. My end shall be sweet if it is by the hand of the woman I love."
Sara's eyes widened, then taking hold of herself, she nodded to him and went to pick up the sword.
It
was heavier than she thought. And cold to the touch.
"Sara...hurry. Please. He is forcing me back."
She approached him, seeing that his entire body was shaking with the effort it cost him to hold his father's spirit at bay.
Sara leaned close, almost nose to nose with the man she loved and she asked him, "Do you trust me, Braze?"
His eyes said yes just as his jaw locked tight. Black curling tattoos wrapped round him as his massive arms lifted, his hands become claws in truth.
"Braze shall be rid of you for once and all," said the gravelly voice.
And, without hesitating, Sara thrust herself against the man she loved, against the beast that meant more than anything to her.
And as the creature wrapped its blackened arms around her, vicious claws sinking into her back, poised to rip in her in half, Sara could see the sword's tip dripping blood, protruding from the werewolf's back.
Heavy arms fell away from her and the beast took a single, awkward step back before looking down to see the sword that remained buried low on its abdomen to one side.
"But..." it mumbled, in puzzlement or in fear, "...what is happening?"
The dark symbols that covered him over were dissolving, losing coherence, and the voice emanating from beyond the grave had become a hollow, empty thing.
"This is no killing blow," she heard him say, then his head shook from side to side as if biting flies assailed him.
"No, it isn't," she said, "But, in the hands of someone who loves your son, it's enough.
“You didn't understand, but I did. Every time Clement came close to Braze, I saw your markings fade just a little, and Braze himself said that he felt a peace that he hasn't had in years. When I asked him what he meant, he replied that it was nothing less than blessed silence. If only for a short time, Braze was no longer overshadowed by his past.
“Then, the Journeyman himself confirmed my suspicions.”
Sara stepped close to the werewolf before her, its face twisting as the dark colors shifted and curled like a dying fire, then took hold of the sword's haft.
Her Billionaire, Her Wolf--The Novel (A Paranormal Alpha Werewolf Romance) Page 21