“Hot Lips? What’s with these stupid nicknames? I think I prefer Cinderella.” A cloud of dusty debris engulfed Alex and appeared to swallow him whole.
Damien grinned. Alex was failing. Tonight would be the last night he ever dared to threaten Amy.
A girl of about eighteen materialized next to Alex. Wrapped from head to toe in darkness, blonde hair whipping around her face, she whirled on Charles atop a cloud of thick malevolence. She fixed him with a burning look of rage stronger and scarier than an entire pack of pissed off werewolves. Damien recoiled. Perhaps he had spoken to soon? He braced himself for a bloody, vicious fight.
Charles stood paralyzed as the blonde advanced upon him. Darkness shot from her fingertips and wrapped him in a cobweb-like net. The cobweb sizzled like a skillet on high, and Charles’s clothing caught fire as if he had been dipped in gasoline.
Kimmy shouted a warning. Damien ducked a spray of javelins Alex had shot his way. Alex dodged Peter’s fist and charged into the house. Kimmy flew after him with a shriek of anger and a massive boulder of holy light blasting a thundering path in front of her. “I’ll deal with Alex! You help Charles!”
“What about Amy?” Terror rioted within him at the thought of leaving her to Alex. He tore his attention from the house with a Herculean effort. Kimmy could keep Amy safe, at least, she had better. A thought skittered across his warring emotions. The humans were unconscious. He woke Amy and the others seconds before Alex reached them.
Damien teleported Charles out of the fiery darkness and hit the blonde with a wall of his own. She staggered back, winded. Charles gaped at him, openmouthed. “You saved my life.”
“Told you I wasn’t a psycho.” He smiled. He and Charles might wind up friends if Charles set aside his Dark bashing. They had an unfortunate amount in common.
“Lara!” Peter shouted at the blonde. “Lara, this is crazy! Why are you helping Alex?”
The blonde spun on the spot. Her expression softened as she locked eyes with Peter. “You were Ash’s friend. For this, I will spare you.”
The girl vanished. The ground vanished. The blood red moon vanished. Everything around him had gone. Lara had teleported him into literal darkness. He and Charles were floating in an endless, empty void. Blackness surrounded him and blotted out his vision. Dark tendrils slashed and ripped at his skin. The only thing he heard was the endless echo of Charles’s agonized screams.
Damien fought his rising panic and let his Dark half take control. His night vision kicked in, and the world swam into focus. He peered through the gloom with his eyes glowing red. Charles was floating a few feet away. A teenaged girl Damien had never seen before hovered nearby, gazing at Charles with awestruck interest. She looked an awful lot like Kimmy with long raven hair and beautiful, sapphire blue eyes.
“Who are you?” Damien breathed, trepidation lacing his tone.
“Why, I’m The Dark, of course. Who else would live here?”
“Darks are people. They’re not entities,” Charles said.
“Are you sure?” She floated closer to him. “I’ve never been able to tell.”
“What’s your name?” Charles tried a different tact.
“I already told you.” She laughed. “I am The Dark.”
Damien’s stomach lurched like the first sickening plunge of a drop zone ride. “My God! You’re not actually The Dark, are you?”
“You people make no sense.” Charles pressed a hand to his forehead. “Hey, it doesn’t hurt anymore.”
“You’re welcome.” The girl dazzled the void with a brilliant smile.
“How did you make it stop? Why do you live here? And where’s Lara?” As usual, Charles was full of questions but had no answers.
Charles, this girl was the first Dark ever to exist, Damien warned through their dark link. She is the supreme ruler of the entire supernatural world, and the darkness obeys her every whim. She’s extremely unpredictable and very, very dangerous.
I can hear you when you use my darkness. She barged into their conversation with a girlish giggle. Charles’s jaw was slack, his eyes deep blue pools of apprehensive confusion.
Damien was fed up with the nonsensical conversation. “Look, we’re a little busy right now trying to stop a psychopath from murdering our friends. If you’ll just let us out of here, we’ll be on our way.”
“But I never get company.” She whined like a dog who had lost its favorite toy. They met her pleas with stony silence. She shrugged, resigned. “Very well, but try not to let that one die. He’s cute.” She awarded Charles with a flirtatious wink. His face glowed brighter than the setting sun.
“Thanks for your help,” he said, avoiding her eyes.
The void disappeared. They were back in front of Amy’s house.
Lara’s eyes bulged. “You, you’re supposed to be dead. You killed Ash. You deserve to die. Why didn’t she kill you? She kills everyone she meets.” Tears glistened at the corners of her pretty green eyes. “Why did Ash die and not you?”
All at once, Damien understood. Lara was a guardian, and Ash had died while serving Assassin’s Honor. It must have hurt like hell when she lost him. Damien shuttered. He knew exactly how it felt to lose someone he had been put on this earth to protect. He spoke to her on a rush of sympathy. “Lara, I can’t imagine the pain you are going through, but this?” He gestured around the battle-scarred yard, at Charles, burnt and bleeding. “This isn’t going to help. I know it seems like the only way to deal, the only way you’ll ever feel okay again, but it’s not. Killing Charles will land you in prison. It won’t bring Ash back. It won’t dull the pain.”
“What will?” she asked in a quavering voice, her now bright red eyes locked on his. His heart squeezed, crushed under the weight of his own emotional torment. She was begging for answers he had sought for half his life.
“You need to go home,” he told her with an air of quiet authority. “This isn’t your battle, to win or to lose.”
“Didn’t you once tell Alex that if things went south, you wouldn’t be there to clean up his mess?” Damien jumped. The Dark was back.
Lara paled at the sight of her. “Did I say that?” She giggled nervously. “Okay, I’ll be going, then.” She disappeared. The Dark threw Charles a final warm look and vanished into thin air.
“That was weird.” Charles ran a shaking hand through his hair.
Damien shrugged. “At least Lara’s gone.”
“Yeah, nice speech.”
“You weren’t so bad yourself. Who knew you were so smooth with the ladies?”
A female scream split the night in two.
“Amy!” Her name was ripped from Damien’s lips on a strangled cry of terror.
Her house was glowing. Moonlight streamed through the large bay window and painted the scene inside in bright shades of red.
“It’s the eclipse,” Charles whispered.
Damien bolted for the house. A gunshot echoed from within. The Blood Moon glowed brighter, high above them all.
Forty-five
KIMMY BURST INTO the kitchen and knocked Alex to his knees with a glowing boulder of energy. He melted away with a strangled cry and zoomed beneath the floor toward Zack and the rest. Her world spun on a rotating axis of adrenaline and blood-pumping panic. She flung a web of light over Amy’s house, engulfing the two-story structure in a glowing dome. Holy light was to Darks as rope was to humans. Alex was now her prisoner. The only problem? Zack, Amy, and the rest were trapped inside the house with him.
Kimmy tore after Alex, scattering stools as she went. She rushed into the living room as he rounded the corner from the opposite side. He was gripping a revolver in his fist and dragging Chris, limp and unconscious, in his wake. Nova stumbled after them, sporting two black eyes and a bleeding lip. Amy and Zack sat shoulder-to-shoulder on the couch. Max stood in front of them with a pistol to Amy’s temple. Kimmy ducked back around the corner and teleported to the hall behind Alex’s group.
“Damn, it’s awfully crowded in here.” Alex s
wept his chilling gaze over the hostages. “Let’s get rid of a few bodies, shall we?”
Kimmy pressed her gun to Alex’s back. My bullets are enhanced with holy light, and I’m authorized to kill you, she said through a light link.
“If you shoot me, Max will kill Amy.”
“Psych.” Max lowered his weapon. “I love Amy. I could never hurt her.”
Alex’s blue eyes were chips of ice. “I thought we had an agreement.”
“You thought wrong.”
“You’ve made the biggest mistake of your life, Max. One day it will cost you.”
“Surrender now, and the OSC may show mercy,” Kimmy breathed in his ear.
“You’re a terrible liar,” Alex said.
“And your death threats have gotten rusty.” Kimmy dug the gun into the small of his back and marched him into the living room. She plucked the revolver from his hand and made him face the wall.
A sharp gasp froze her insides. She turned her head a fraction and caught movement out of the corner of her eye. Nova had Max’s pistol clutched in a trembling fist. She pressed its muzzle to Amy’s forehead and stared blankly at Alex. Kimmy clenched her lip between her teeth. Nova must have brainwashed Max into handing her the weapon.
“Don’t shoot.” Kimmy gasped, an electric thrill of fear spiking her adrenaline sky-high. Her job had become near impossible. How was she supposed to keep track of two Darks at once?
Alex smashed his elbow into her face. She stumbled backward. Pressure exploded behind her eyes as though a blister had burst in her brain. She pushed back with everything she had, fighting feverishly against Alex’s mind control. But squashing the darkness invading her thoughts was like jamming her head into a vice while suffering from a migraine. It hurt too much to fight her way free. Kimmy’s mind tilted into a whirling pool of poison and pain.
Tears rolled down her cheeks as Alex forced her to relive the worst moments of her life. She stood in the corner of a pitch-black room, the space filled to bursting with violent, angry demons. She gazed down into a drawer of neatly folded baby clothes and rained tears upon a hand-knitted blanket. She stared wordlessly at Tristan while he struck her in the face. She cradled her brother against her chest and held him to her as he died in her arms.
The others’ voices drifted to her across a vast, empty void. Their tones were anxious and fraught with tension. No one tried to help her. Did they even know she was in trouble? She struggled to reach Charles and found only darkness where he had been.
Alex’s voice was the loudest and most grating. “So, Zack, think of this as a reality TV show. I’m the host, and you’re our star contestant. Who should Nova kill? Your brother or your girlfriend?”
“You’re insane.”
“Answer the question!”
Kimmy’s world spun out on swirling rapids of terror. What had happened to Damien and Charles? Where was her backup? Someone had to stop this. She had to stop this! But she was powerless to help them. She was weak and useless, like Tristan had always claimed. Her holy light barrier sparked, sizzled, and melted into nothing.
Alex strode across the room and punched Zack in the face. Zack clenched his jaw, refusing to give him the satisfaction of a response. “That’s for hurting Chelsea. Now answer the question.”
Zack addressed Nova in a low, calm voice. “Kill me. I know you like Chris, and Amy has nothing to do with this. If I’m dead, your brother might leave them alone.”
“How dare you tell my sister what to do.” Alex punched Zack again. The pistol shook in Nova’s hands.
Amy pivoted on her heel and plucked the gun from the younger girl’s grasp. “Nobody uses this but me.”
Kimmy gaped in elated shock. Amy’s wrists had been tied behind her back, hadn’t they? She now wore a plastic cuff on each arm like tacky prison bling. Max was holding a pair of scissors. He had cut her free. Had they been working together all along?
Alex charged Amy with a bellow of rage. She held her position and fired the gun. He stumbled and clutched his shoulder. Kimmy’s mind rejoiced. Amy was a fighter and a natural born cop. Kimmy clenched her jaw and wrapped the bullet in holy light to stop Alex from removing it and healing his wound. Hope sprang up within her like a strong summer breeze. All Amy needed was a little bit of help. Kimmy enhanced the other girl’s speed, strength, and reflexes. The crazy Dark psycho would never see it coming.
Alex tackled Amy and flung her to the floor. She clutched the pistol in both hands and elbowed him in the throat. He choked. Kimmy stole back an ounce of control. The victory lit a fire within her. Alex was busy wondering why he couldn’t best a human girl in unarmed combat. Kimmy was the least of his concerns. Alex and Amy battled on the carpet in a thrashing tangle of limbs. Zack and Max wore identical expressions of horror. Nova’s gaze was locked on Chris.
Alex clocked Amy in the jaw and made a grab for the gun. She rolled away at lightning speed and leapt to her feet with the grace of a jungle cat. The next bullet she fired was aimed perfectly for his heart. A finger of darkness flicked it aside. The bullet missed Alex by inches and shattered the TV screen. Amy ducked another blow and darted away from him. He caught her by the hair and swung her to the ground. She threw out her arms to break her fall. Her pistol slipped from her fingers and clattered to the floor at Nova’s feet.
Nova stooped to pick it up and stared at the weapon as if waking from a trance. A surge of gleeful delight strengthened Kimmy’s spirit. Alex was using so much energy to incapacitate her that his hold on everyone else was slipping.
Alex locked eyes with his sister. “Shoot Chris.”
“I don’t want to.”
“I said shoot him! Now!”
“He’s my friend.” Tears shimmered in Nova’s ocean blue eyes.
Chris sat up with a dazed, groggy yawn. “What’s happening? Nova, you shouldn’t have a gun. They’re dangerous. Give it to Kimmy.” Kimmy glowed with pride. Chris caught up faster than half her bright new cadets.
“Don’t you dare listen to him.” Alex’s voice was deadly calm. “Shoot him. Do it. You know you want to. Somewhere deep down you know it’s what we’re born to do.”
Amy squirmed. Alex slammed a fist into her nose. Max rushed forward, armed with nothing but a paperweight. Alex hooked his ankles with darkness and sent him sprawling to the carpet.
Nova swayed on the spot. “Alex, stop, please! I’m not like you. I don’t want to hurt Chris. I don’t even like blood. It makes me feel sick.”
“You’re lying to yourself.” The air crackled with the force of his fury.
“But I’m not! I was better off without you. I’d rather live with a foster family than be around you. Just leave. Never come back. I never want to see you again.”
Alex stared at her for a long, painful moment. His eyes went cold as if he had tossed aside the last shred of his humanity. “Whatever, sis. If you don’t want to join in the fun, that’s your loss. But you must at least stay to watch.”
Kimmy fought to free herself from Alex’s hallucinations. They clung to her like long, sticky cobwebs. Terrified screams. Mocking laughter. Tristan’s low, poisonous voice. They echoed in her ears and filled her with thick, solidifying dread.
Alex dropped Amy and plucked the pistol from Nova’s hand. He trained it on Zack. “I’ve hated you for a long, long time. This is goodbye, Donnellson.”
The bullet slammed into Zack’s chest from point blank range. Amy’s anguished scream wrenched Kimmy back to reality. Zack slumped in his seat, the wound directly over his heart.
Forty-six
THE GROUND CRUMBLED beneath Amy’s feet. The foundation on which she had built her life, the first man she had ever loved, was breathing his last, slipping through her fingers. “Zack!” His name was a strangled whisper. Her throat had constricted to a tenth its normal size. Her vision had narrowed to a sliver of moonlight reflected in his crystal blue eyes. Her heart tore itself into deadly, broken shards. She gazed at him lying crumpled on her couch and fought to accept reali
ty. Alex had shot him. Zack was gone.
She stared across the room, vacant and unblinking, and met Chris’s stricken gaze with a hollow look of her own. A red-hot dagger of grief pierced her bleeding heart. His sky blue eyes were brimming with tears, his young, pale face a mask of pain. Her chest heaved with silent sobs. She got to her feet and stumbled toward Chris. Zack would want her to take care of him.
Running footsteps pounded the laminate floor. Damien, Charles, and Peter burst into the room. “Get down!” Damien grabbed her around the waist and threw her to the floor. Bullets flew over her head. Alex was aiming for Chris. Hatred scorched away her pain. She struggled toward the cowering eleven-year-old as bullets peppered the carpet around her.
“Amy, please! Stop moving. Charles and Peter are with him. Hold still, I’ve got you.” Damien cradled her against his chest, shielding her with his own body. Amy glimpsed Zack’s lifeless form and started to shake. Damien held her close and glowered at someone over the top of her head.
Amy followed Damien’s gaze. Alex stood near the kitchen doorway in a life-or-death faceoff with Kimmy. Each wore a tightlipped scowl of fury and clutched a gun in a steady hand. A ball of anxiety spun in her stomach. The fight was too even, a fifty-fifty coin toss on who might possibly win. Kimmy needed backup, an extra point in her favor to tilt luck toward their side.
Amy struggled to pull strength from the flames of her anger. She waited for the rush of heat and found only coals. Her fire had gone out. She was empty inside. She slumped against Damien and let a wave of misery sweep her away.
Uproar exploded around her. Alex cursed. Footsteps fled the room. Police radios crackled and the front door was kicked down. Amy was removed from everything as if listening to it all from far, far away.
A choking, gargling sound drew her attention. She tore her eyes away from her boyfriend’s body. Kimmy had Alex pinned to the floor with her hands wrapped tight around his throat. His face was an unpleasant shade of purple.
Alex snapped his fingers, and the floor fell away. Amy sailed across the room and straight into Alex’s waiting arms. A distant, numbed-out part of her brain tingled with shock. The rest of her wept for Zack. Kimmy crashed head-first into a wall. Damien leapt to his feet. Nova took a hesitant step forward. Alex stood with his back against the shattered TV, clutching Amy to him in an iron death grip. His breath was hot against her neck. His nails dug painfully into her bare arms.
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