Ace’s eyes grew dark like a switch was flipped. The green irises that shined with so much love and care were blackened. The faint lines around her eyes grew darker and darker as the power within her coursed. It was the battle between Aaryon’s power and Solaris’ that was destroying her.
Slowly, without breaking eye contact, she moved back. Something in the way the silence descended set me on edge. Fear quickly consumed me, and I knew whatever was inside her at this point, wasn’t going give her up easily. I did as she did, and cautiously stepped back, refusing to break eye contact.
And then, as though she began fighting, she grit her teeth, rushing backward and away from me. She was still fighting but she was losing, he was stronger, and I couldn’t turn away. The pain in her face broke a scream of anger from me.
‘Why are you doing this?’ I shouted, hoping that somehow, I’d get a humane response, that I’d get anything that would make sense to me.
Why weren’t the Beings helping her? Why did they leave her to suffer like this? I shouted again, and this time Ace screamed, her body recoiling with each movement.
As I stepped forward, she stepped back and then I saw it, a dark and evil look washed across her features, her eyes narrowed and the webbing around her face blackened.
Her hair rose off her shoulders, and a burst of dark energy shot forward throwing her head back. She was floating, and then she raised her arms, I saw the white, blinding light building under her skin, pulsing, threatening to erupt at any moment and then I knew—she wasn’t in control anymore. Dalca was.
Hoping that she wouldn’t attack me was blind stupidity, she wasn’t in there anymore, as the realization struck, she unleashed her power targeting it with terrifying precision, the reality of the attack dawned on me and as I threw myself to the side it narrowly missed me.
I hit the ground hard, immediately bracing myself for an onslaught.
She dropped to her feet and rushed me, knocking me down when I’d tried to sit up. I rolled out of her way, but she forced me back down and pressed her arm across my throat momentarily stunning me. When I got my higher reasoning back, I grabbed her arm and pushed her off.
When I yielded, she didn’t. She came at me with full force, slamming her elbow into my jaw. I staggered backward forcing down the pain and lunged at her. Again, she stunned me, her sheer speed and strength were astonishing.
An open palm strike hit me right in the chest winding me and forcing me to stammer backwards, I pressed my palm to my knee and heaved in deep breaths.
And when she came again, I was prepared, I stepped back, avoiding a right hook coming at my face and in a moment of clarity, I fought back. I grabbed her arm, blocking her hit and when she came at me again, I caught her and wrapped my arm around her, pressing her up against my body.
She struggled, thrashing against my hold but I was still stronger than she was.
‘You need to fight him!’ I pleaded in her ear as the fight suddenly became less of a struggle and more of an attempt to kill me.
Her shrill scream threw me off guard as she thrashed in my arms, desperately trying to dig her nails into my forearm. I grit my teeth and tightened my hold. She struggled, breathing heavily.
Every time she moved, I tightened my hold a little more. Angry tears burned my eyes with each move. I felt her pain and struggle, he was forcing fear around her heart, reminding her of everything he’d done, her mind rushing back to all the nights she’d been helpless, and he was making her feel that with me.
‘Fight him!’ I shouted desperately.
Tears burned my eyes.
‘Fight!’
But with each second that I held her, he was bringing her mind right back to the helplessness she felt when he held her down, when he raped her, when she couldn’t fight him off.
I yelled against the pain he was making her see and pushed my own power into her.
‘Ace, fight!’
But she didn’t.
He kept forcing images of all the times she was unable to break free, right back to Larry’s apartment. He was forcing his images into her mind and as she fought and screamed against me, I felt her start to tremble and succumb the way she had all those nights. I couldn’t beat him, I was no match.
‘Fight him!’ I pleaded again, my own voice breaking. ‘Please!’
The helplessness was consuming, but I continued holding her body against mine and refusing to let him break her.
I held on tightly and then, she stilled and in a quick motion, she threw her head back and connected with my face. I heard the crack in my nose as blood rapidly filled the back of my throat. The shock of the pain threw me off guard and I released her.
She turned in her spot and came at me again. This time, I didn’t hesitate. I squared off with her and waited, she lunged again and this time I grabbed her tightly and pressed her against my body and then, I did the one thing I’d never forgive myself for. I dragged her to the back of the bunker and retrieved a syringe filled with the Serum—it took one, quick administration of the liquid and she went down.
***
I couldn’t look away, her eyes widened when she fell in my arms, full of fear and betrayal.
While she was still unconscious, I forced myself away to think. I pulled out my phone and dialed Alex.
‘We’re in trouble.’ I said quietly.
I heard a low breath before he asked me what happened.
‘Dalca is here, he’s taken her over completely.’
‘How could this have happened?’
‘I don’t know.’ I answered honestly, my body exhausted from the toll, ‘I saw her change before my eyes.’
‘We’re coming.’
‘No.’ I shook my head, ‘No one else is going to die because of this.’
‘You can’t face her down alone.’
‘I’ll hold her at bay as long as I can. But I need your help.’
‘What can I do?’
‘I know Aurel’s been forced out of the game, but the Agency will be coming, I have no doubt that they’d find a way to track us.’
‘Got it, man. I’ll keep an eye out and we’ll intercept before they find you.’
‘Thanks.’ I hung up and contemplated how to do this.
A rattle of chains in the next room alerted me to her, she was awake.
I sucked in a sharp breath and walked in.
She pulled at the restraints tugging on the two chains above her head that held her arms up. It was the only way I knew I could keep her safe. She’d disappeared and the presence taunting me through her now, was relentless. He knew I was suffering and so he kept pushing.
An angry torrent rushed through her, making her black eyes flare.
‘I’m going to kill you, Lazarev.’ She hissed, looking up at the chains. ‘You’re stringing me up like a prisoner. Like I’m nothing more than the filth you lock up.’
‘You’re not Ace.’
‘Are you going to break out the whips too?’ She laughed.
Anger rushed through me. Dalca was driving a wedge between my reality and my belief.
‘Oh.’ Ace began again, a grin building on her beautiful lips. ‘Maybe you should bring someone else in, you know…just to have a bit of fun.’
‘Shut the hell up!’ I shouted, running my hands through my hair. ‘Shut up!’
‘Maybe Alex?’ She offered. ‘He’s a big, strong man, maybe the two of you can show me a good time.’
Tears spilled onto my cheeks.
‘What about Matt? I know you often wondered if Ace had been sleeping with him.’
My fists shook at my side.
‘I can confirm, she has thought about it, especially on those long, cold nights when they were working late, surrounded by take out.’
‘Stop.’
She laughed and then she stilled, the way she froze chilled my blood.
A dark, determined look found me. I refused to believe that she was gone. She was stronger than this.
‘You have to leave now.�
� She breathed, and my eyes widened, I stepped toward her but she shook her head, her black eyes closing, briefly. ‘I can’t hold him back. Ila, you have to leave now.’
‘I’m not leaving you.’ I tried to get closer and she shook her head again.
‘You have to get away from here, go anywhere!’
I opened my mouth to tell her I wasn’t going but when she opened her eyes again, they were Dalca’s.
‘Ace, fight it.’ I breathed, holding onto the hope that she could do this. I knew she could.
‘Fight what? What I was meant to be? Fight destiny?’ She smirked.
Struggling for words, my mouth opened and then closed.
‘You were the one who kept telling me how powerful I would become, how important I am. Now you’re afraid? Why?’
‘This isn’t you.’
She clenched her fists in the cuffs and looked down at me, my eyes swung up to her hands. The markings on the steel would stop her power from escaping but God, Dalca was strong. The Light still pulsed under her skin and he was showing me how much control he had. My heart lurched.
‘He’s poisoning you, Ace.’
‘He’s making me stronger.’
‘He’s killing you.’
‘Then I’ll be the most powerful Divine Sensitive who has ever lived. This human shell won’t be able to stop me.’
‘Do you even hear yourself? This is insane.’
‘I know it seems that way, but when those two realms cross and that tear rips open the sky, the only way this can end is with me.’
‘And then what? You die, game over?’
‘It’s not that simple.’
‘Then explain it to me.’
‘The government, the Agency, they don’t care about us. We’ve been played for fools from the beginning.’
‘How do you know that?’
‘Why do you think I had Cale in play?’
My brain was struggling to keep up. Ace smirked.
‘I had him in play to see how corrupt they are. And as soon as it was confirmed, I set my plan into motion.’
‘You’re plan to abduct Ace?’
‘Yes, to have her with me, so that we could be strong enough to beat them.’
‘The Agency?’
‘Everyone, Agent Lazarev. All the world’s governments who’ve set out to destroy us.’
‘I refuse to believe that.’
‘Believe what you want, but you know the truth just as I do. We’re on the losing end of the war, unless we stop it.’
I looked up at her and somehow managed to pull myself together enough to continue fishing for information.
‘What is the Legion?’
‘Ah,’ she smiled. ‘Now you’re figuring out how to play this game.’
‘This is not a game,’ I spat, ‘What do you know?’
‘They’re my contingency plan.’
‘Contingency in place of what?’
‘In place of Ace failing.’
‘What do they want?’
‘World peace.’
I scoffed.
‘World peace and the end of a tyrannical, one sided existence for all Sensitives.’
There is was. Cold, hard truth.
The non-Sensitives wanted to exterminate us, and he wanted to stop them before they had a chance. I couldn’t let either of those things happen.
Our way of life, Ace’s way of life was about balance and Dalca, his Legion army and the rest of his followers were about to blow all of that to hell.
‘Everything I’ve done is to build her up to the woman she needs to be, this will not come easily but if she fights, she will have a chance.’ She said simply. ‘Without this union, the entire race will be wiped out.’
‘I don’t believe you.’
‘Now I know that’s a lie.’
I looked away.
‘You know as well as I do, this is the only way. She must be strong enough to face what is coming, and she won’t be until she and I are unified.’
‘You’re sick.’
‘Your emotions are of little use, Lazarev, you must see that by now?’
‘You’re not going to take her from me.’
‘This was never about you, or her, it was always about the end of the world, you think when that big white light comes for us, any of this will matter?’
‘White light? What the hell are you talking about?’
‘The end you fear, it’s just the beginning.’
My eyes shot back to her.
‘The Legion awaits, and the Legion will not make this easy.’
Everything he was saying somehow burned a hole through my chest, I didn’t know why but I believed it.
‘I hear what you’re thinking, and it’s hard I’ll give you that, but the sooner you let me take her and do what we must, the sooner this will all be over.’
Rage shook my body and a fresh torrent of anger coursed through me.
‘You might even have a world left to move on in, if all goes to plan.’
‘Screw you.’
‘Look at her, Lazarev, she’s fading. How much longer do you think she has?’
My eyes coasted across her body. She was shivering as shock rolled through her. Blood pooled at her wrists and made long rivers down her arms and over her unbuttoned shirt.
‘She’s not faring too well.’
‘Let her go.’
‘I’m afraid I cannot do that; you must see that by now. She cannot fight the way she is, she’s not ready.’
‘You’re killing her!’
‘I know it looks that way, but I assure you, I mean her no harm. This body is merely a vessel.’
‘I cannot lose her.’ I found myself pleading, pathetically whimpering. Dalca was relentless. He wouldn’t give her up and he wouldn’t allow me in.
‘She asked you to let her go, why won’t you?’
‘Don’t you dare.’
‘I was there, I heard your conversations. They’re touching, I must say. But she wasn’t meant for this Earth, and she doesn’t belong to you.’
Anger surged through me. Although my Darkness wasn’t as strong as hers, it was strong enough to do some serious damage and at this point I could have brought the building down around me. I clenched my hands into useless fists at my side and took a long, deep breath and finally swung my eyes back.
She slumped against the chains, stretching her arms out above her head. Her shirt came up a little, revealing the skin on her stomach. The black veins spanned across her whole body, the Darkness was struggling against the Light and it pushed through her, barley contained within her body.
‘You know what you have to do, don’t you?’ Dalca said, ‘But you’re afraid. You can’t bring yourself to say goodbye.’
My heart broke.
What else could I do? There were no more options. I retrieved another vial of Serum and filled the syringe. With it in my hands, I walked over to her and as I reached up for her neck, she moved back, straining against the chains.
She was there, but so was he. I had no choice.
‘I’m so sorry.’ I reached up, ignoring her cries and pressed the needle into her neck, pushing the plunger all the way down.
Before long, the Serum took hold and she slumped against the chains and it was finally quiet.
I gently tilted her face up and ground my teeth when I saw that her eyes were vacant.
What the hell was I expecting? I’d done this to her.
A defeated sigh left my lips. He was right. I couldn’t do this.
Chapter Thirty-Six
Ace
He switched between anger and fear, his voice shaking with each word and with what little control I had, I pulled against the restraints.
Through the strain of the Darkness coursing through me it had changed me on the outside too and it scared Illarion.
My hair hung in sweat drenched ropes around my face and it seemed to have turned the color of blood. The cool copper I’d dyed it was now reflective of the fiery hell I fel
t myself occupying. The webbing on my skin even darker now and from what I saw in Illarion’s eyes, my eyes were probably completely black too.
With each sharp burst of breath I managed to exhale, I seemed to splutter a bit of blood too, but that wasn’t the only problem. The chains around my wrists cut into the already torn flesh, bringing forth flowing streams of blood.
To add to the list, Dalca was tormenting Illarion with things he knew would affect him on a personal level. Interrogation 101. Make sure the subject is emotionally compromised and said subject wouldn’t be able to think clearly.
Illarion’s eyes flashed with pain every time our eyes met.
Yep. Dalca was doing everything I would.
He wanted me in here. He wanted to show me how weak I was and how quickly our best laid plans would fold because ultimately, everything we did, was in vain and he was my out, my salvation, ironically.
The endgame, the final goal—it was all leading to this, to me being the hero they wanted and that could never happen in this plane, I knew that now. Dalca was right, he’d always been right.
Tears spilled onto my cheeks with the realization. I couldn’t reach Illarion; I couldn’t fight back, and I wanted so badly to hold him, to tell him it was all going to be okay and that I could do this. But those words would never come.
I wished I had more time with him, I wished that I’d said everything that had been on my mind, that I’d told him more often how I loved him, that I was sorry I’d wasted so much time.
But with each fresh wound and each terrified scream, I was losing him, I was drifting further and further away.
His eyes brimmed with tears and with each cry that I shouted he stood his ground, he stood back, keeping his eyes on my black ones.
He tensed in his spot casting his eyes downward. This was the worst kind of torture. I felt everything that coursed through him, I heard every word and I didn’t miss the way he looked at me.
He couldn’t feel me.
All he saw was Dalca.
My heart fell. If he couldn’t feel me, was it too late? Had Dalca taken over, was my essence completely gone?
“You’re fighting me, why?” He said gently. “You know this is how it ends, you knew all along, deep inside, didn’t you?”
“Maybe.”
Jack of Hart- Wild Card Page 44