by Aja James
She fell to one knee with a pained gasp.
He moved past her just as Tristan came at him from the left, while Morgan attacked from the right. Wielding the sword and dagger in each hand, he countered two enemies at once.
Tristan’s blows were heavy, obliterating when they landed. But for the same reason, his movements were slower. Morgan might be weaker as a human, but his honed reflexes from military training and vicious street fights when he was undercover aided him now. He was fast, instinctive, and every attack was aimed to inflict maximum damage.
But neither, nor both, was the warrior’s match.
He’d held off two Great Beasts before—the Tiger King and his son. Tristan might be an Elite warrior, but even when he was still the Paladin, before the Master amplified his powers, the warrior could defeat the Medieval knight nine out of ten times in hand-to-hand combat. And the human soldier might be well-trained, but he was merely human.
Shortly, the warrior knocked Morgan out with a sword hilt to the temple. Then, he focused on Tristan, dodged a mighty swing from the Elite’s axe, and used the momentum to push the knight back with rapid parries of his sword.
When the enemy was backed against the wall, he moved in with his dagger, stabbing it straight through flesh and bone until he’d nailed Tristan’s shoulder to the plaster-covered concrete.
A muffled grunt of agony was all he heard as he retrieved another dagger from the wall of weapons, discarded his sword and strode toward the exit.
If his luck held, the training hall wouldn’t be on lock down yet. By his calculation, less than eighty seconds had passed.
The Pure Ones didn’t employ twenty-four-seven security to watch live feeds from every room. After all, their base was supposed to be secure. This wasn’t a prison; it was a sanctuary and home for the Immortals. Which was why the warrior bet he still had about thirty seconds before someone picked up on the carnage he left in his wake. At least he’d let them live.
On to the next task.
His target should be heading down this corridor right now.
Five, four, three, two…
One.
Just as the double doors of the training hall slid open, the warrior’s target walked past, his hand held in a female’s.
The ex-vampire queen, Jade Cicada. Her touch could be debilitating if she wished it, the warrior recalled from the intelligence reports in his memory banks. But he’d never let her close enough to touch his bare skin.
His hand struck out faster than the human eye could track, grabbing his target around the upper arm and pulling him into the warrior’s side.
The female vampire didn’t react in time, not trained in the arts of battle, dangerous though she was. Sliding a dagger into and out of her belly was like slicing through butter. So soft and vulnerable, despite being an Immortal.
She clutched the gushing wound and staggered back, her eyes wide with shock and fear. Not for herself, it was obvious, but for her charge. One hand reached out toward the warrior’s target as if she could somehow pull him back to safety.
Too late, the warrior thought.
His target had been acquired.
*** *** *** ***
“Code Red security breach, Level Seven,” Inanna said grimly a few seconds after Sophia dropped the metaphorical bomb of who Benji’s real sire was.
They’d all been struck dumb by the reveal, yet no one challenged the truth of it. It was as if they could all feel the veracity in their bones. In their souls.
This was what Destiny felt like.
Inanna’s words shook them out of the paralyzing silence. Both she and Tal wore almost invisible ear pieces as members of the Elite. Though they weren’t currently on guard or hunt rotation, it was protocol to be connected during waking hours, an added security measure in these increasingly violent and unpredictable times.
“No.”
The syllable whispered from Inanna’s lips like the last breath before the heart stopped beating, as her blue eyes went wide with terror.
“What’s going on?” Sophia demanded. “Report.”
But Inanna had already run from the room as if demons were on her heels.
Tal was only two steps behind her, slowing just enough to impart:
“The Paladin has Benjamin. Warriors down. Jade injured. Shield on lock down. He’s moving through the east wing. Stay here.”
Like hell!
Sophia charged after the two Elite warriors, heedless of Tal’s command. She didn’t know whether Seth and Eveline followed and didn’t care.
She had to get to them—Dalair and Benji.
She didn’t know what she’d do when she got there, she just knew she had to. If anything happened to either one of them… It didn’t bear thinking, so she shut down those thoughts.
Even so, she could feel the change coming on. The blackness within her. She could feel it spreading in roiling tentacles of bleakness and rage throughout her body, crushing her soul.
She raised her wrist to her mouth as she ran down the corridors, speaking through the communication device.
“Do not engage! Everyone stand down! Keep them in the Shield. Block all exits. Do. Not. Engage.”
The last words came out in a voice Sophia barely recognized as her own. It was deep and resonant, a hissing growl.
Goddess help them all if anyone dared disobey her.
She disengaged the small communicator from her wrist and lodged it in her ear, tuning into the Royal Zodiac’s frequency. In situations such as these, the members of her inner quorum, both the Elite and Circlet members, had their own communication channel to coordinate emergency actions.
“Target isolated,” Gabriel’s roughened voice came through loud and clear, as if he was speaking directly into Sophia’s ear, right next to her.
“Garden rooftop through Tal and Ishtar’s chamber. Ishtar is with them.”
Shit.
That was the only exit that wasn’t automatically locked down. And for good reason. The Shield was located in a fifty-story high-rise in downtown Manhattan, surrounded on all sides by a cluster of taller skyscrapers. The rooftop was a dead end, unless someone wanted to hurl themselves off of it to a violent death. That couldn’t be Dalair’s end game.
Unless…
Sophia shuddered through a hot and cold flash, staggering off stride before regaining forward momentum.
What if it was his mission? What if their enemies purposely wanted to snuff out both of Sophia’s sources of Light at once to bring out the Destroyer?
But no. Couldn’t be, she immediately tamped down the fear. If that was the case, Dalair could have easily killed both of them as soon as he located Benji. Instead, he was taking Benji with him.
Benji was his target. Perhaps because their enemies knew what Sophia and the others had just realized—that Benji was the key. Whether as the Light Bringer himself or something more, they couldn’t be sure. Regardless, the boy was critically important to the Universal Balance. They all felt the truth of it.
But what could Dalair possibly do once he was on the rooftop? There was nowhere to go.
At that thought, Sophia careened around a corner and arrived at Tal and Ishtar’s apartment.
Cloud, Valerius and Rain stood vigilant at the entrance as Sophia pushed past them.
The two Elite warriors gave her a brief nod, signaling without words that they were there as backup, should Dalair come back this way. Rain’s attendance was a precaution in case immediate medical attention was needed. Though she was less effective in healing the most severe wounds since she lost her Gift, she was trained in modern medicine as well as emergency procedures.
Sophia prayed that training wouldn’t be put to the test this day.
She sprinted up the spiral staircase that led from inside the apartment to the private rooftop terrace that she’d commissioned for Tal and Ishtar specifically, so that Tal could have his own slice of open-air paradise while living in the confines of the Shield. After millennia as Medusa’s prisoner,
she’d wanted him to feel free even in this concrete jungle.
How did Dalair know about it?
No one knew about the Pure Ones’ new base since relocating from Boston. Not even their allies in the New England vampire hive knew the exact location, save Ryu Takamura because of Rain’s work with Ava.
Perhaps Dalair’s hyper senses helped him follow the air currents? Or perhaps…
Erebu was the only one outside of their inner circle who had been here. He knew about the terrace. He was even now in the clutches of their enemies. He’d warned them of his capacity for betrayal.
But Sophia didn’t believe it. She didn’t want to believe it. Just as she refused to believe that Dalair was beyond redemption.
As she burst through the doors at the top that opened to the garden, she slowed her footsteps on approach, taking in the scene before her.
Inanna, Gabriel, Tal and Ishtar surrounded Dalair and Benji in a tight semi-circle, within two long-legged bounds of the pair but out of arm’s length.
Dalair was standing on the two-feet-thick, four-feet-high concrete wall of the terrace, part of his heels balancing off the edge. Tal and Ishtar stood on either side of him on the ledge, while Gabriel and Inanna remained below in the garden.
In other words, if Dalair chose to hurl himself and his target off the roof, no one would be able to reach them in time to pull them back.
Sophia heard the distant cacophony of New York City at work. It was a regular weekday. Cars honking. Construction sites clanging. The noises of people chattering like busy bees, muffled by the barricade of towers that surrounded the rooftop on all sides. Occasionally, planes rumbled overhead.
But most of all, she heard the excruciating silence of helpless trepidation, the heart-stopping fear of those who stood to lose someone they loved.
Dalair held Benji in a deceptively loose clasp in front of him, his muscular forearm locked across the boy’s shoulders, right beneath his chin. His other hand held a long dagger with the blade pointed backwards, the end of the hilt facing them.
His expression was completely unreadable, his eyes an opaque black that Sophia detested.
He was not Dalair right now; he was an enemy soldier. A cold-blooded killing machine. One she had to somehow find a way to coax off the metaphorical and physical ledge and let his hostage go.
Speaking of which, she glanced at Benji, whose bright blue eyes were wide and unblinking, his face ashen pale. He was silent, still and solemn. Unsurprising, given the situation, but nonetheless uncharacteristic. However, there was no fear in those angelic orbs. Only worry.
And somehow, Sophia knew that the boy didn’t worry for himself; he worried for them.
She raised her eyes back to the boy’s captor.
“Dalair,” she said softly as she walked closer.
Inanna and Gabriel automatically shifted to let her through.
Sophia tried to ignore the sheer terror in their eyes. They were not Elite warriors in this moment. They were simply Benji’s parents. All they knew was that their greatest joy in life was in the hands of the enemy.
She squeezed Inanna’s wrist briefly as she passed, willing some calmness into the warrior.
Inanna blinked in confusion as her body relaxed involuntarily, her eyes losing their frantic gleam.
“No closer,” Dalair ordered in that toneless, emotionless voice, stopping Sophia at ten feet away.
She was closer to him than any of the others. Perhaps he allowed it because she posed the least threat amongst the group that surrounded him.
She shifted a little, shuffling slightly closer just to test him, disguising the movement by raking a hand through her shoulder-length hair.
His unnaturally dark eyes flickered, noting her progress, but he didn’t comment.
“There’s nowhere to go, Dalair,” she spoke quietly, unthreateningly, as if they were in the middle of a reasonable, normal conversation. A private conversation just between the two of them.
“You didn’t come this far to fail your mission with an accidental slip. Come away from the edge.”
He didn’t answer her, and he didn’t move. They both knew that if he fell from the edge, it wouldn’t be an accident. A warrior of his caliber didn’t do anything but on purpose.
“Why, Dalair?”
She didn’t expect him to answer, but it didn’t hurt to ask. She thought back to the time he’d abducted her. She asked him all kinds of questions that he didn’t answer, often simply talking out loud to sort through her own thoughts.
But then she recalled that there had been loop holes in his “programming.” He couldn’t answer questions he didn’t know the answer to, because why would his Masters tell a zombie soldier the reasoning behind their machinations? But he could and did interact within certain parameters.
Of course, that was then, this was now.
Since the ordeal, she wondered whether he’d been acting out orders after all, even the parts where she seemed to have reached the man within the shell. Perhaps some of his actions had been of his own accord. And perhaps his Masters had reinforced his programming since then to seal off those loop holes.
Nevertheless, Sophia had to try to reach him. There was nothing to lose now.
“If I promise not to interfere with your plans, whatever they may be, may I come closer?” she ventured, testing the boundaries of his protocol.
He stared stoically back at her.
Just when she thought he wouldn’t answer and opened her mouth to ask another question, he said, tipping his head slightly to indicate Ishtar on his left, “She goes down. You come up.”
Ishtar growled low and menacingly in her throat. The edges of her form shimmered with the urge to transform from vampire into the Great White Beast. With her ability to turn into a giant snow leopard, she had the greatest chance of reaching and thwarting Dalair. The only thing that held her back was his grip on Benji. They all knew that Dalair could easily break the boy’s neck before any of them reached him.
“Ishtar,” Sophia said her friend’s name in the tone of an order.
For a moment, she feared Tal’s Mate wouldn’t obey her. Ishtar looked as if she was about to lunge at Dalair in the next breath.
But something must have been communicated between Tal and Ishtar, for she looked past Dalair and Benji at her Mate, the ferocious expression on her face crumbling for a split second before fixing again in a mask of resolve.
She leapt down from the wall, transforming in a flash as she did so, landing on all fours in her giant leopard form, while Sophia clambered up in her place.
“Back up,” Dalair commanded, his eyes narrowing on the Great Beast.
Even when Ishtar was standing in the garden, not on the wall, she could reach him in this form in one long leap.
When she didn’t do as he ordered, Dalair shifted an inch backwards. Now, most of one foot dangled off the edge.
With a menacing growl and a baring of sharp teeth, Ishtar retreated a few feet, though she remained poised for action, all four limbs and long, thick-furred tail tensed and ready.
While Dalair focused on Ishtar, Sophia edged a little closer on the wall. She was closer to him than Tal was, almost at arm’s length.
He didn’t turn his head toward her at the approach, keeping his eyes focused on the three Elite warriors and one royally pissed off animal spirit, but she knew that he missed none of her movements.
She could feel his awareness of her.
It was beyond the powers of his hyper-sensing. It was a connection between just the two of them, as if their bodies were magnetized. As if they were one and the same.
Suddenly, Sophia had an idea. She didn’t bother to test the logic of it.
She simply said, “Where are we going, Dalair?”
She heard one of the others gasp at her use of “we.” She ignored the soft exhalation, her attention focused solely on Dalair.
His eyes flicked in her direction before narrowing back on the others.
“To th
e Master’s hideout,” he answered when Sophia thought he wouldn’t.
She inched another step closer.
“Are we supposed to bring Benji with us? Unharmed?”
This question she asked for their audience and for her own peace of mind.
“Yes. Unharmed.”
She could feel the collective tension ease a notch, though not by much.
“Then wouldn’t it be easier to come down from the wall and leave through the front door?”
“They won’t let us.”
“I can order them to stand down,” Sophia negotiated.
“They will not let us.”
Sophia followed Dalair’s emphasis to look at Inanna, Gabriel and Ishtar. It was true. Her authority as their queen meant nothing in the face of someone threatening Benjamin. They would never allow anyone to leave the premises with him. Their instincts would overrule every rational thought.
Even Tal, who seemed the calmest of the four of them, was a hair’s breadth away from lunging into battle. Sophia had never seen the warrior filled with such determination and barely contained violence.
“Then we are at an impasse,” Sophia said reasonably, and repeated, narrowing her eyes, “There’s nowhere to go.”
Dalair’s unreadable gaze slid to hers, meeting her eyes for a brief moment.
“You’re wrong.”
A split second later, he hurled himself backwards off the wall with a mighty push from his legs, taking Benji with him.
It all seemed to happen in slow motion, the next two seconds.
Inanna, Gabriel, Ishtar and Tal all lunged toward them as Dalair flicked his wrist and let fly the long dagger he held.
It was aimed at Ishtar’s throat, and it was clear that with her momentum, she wasn’t going to avoid it in time.
Tal, who was mere inches away from reaching Dalair, turned at the last moment, contorting his body in mid-air to reach out to the handle of the dagger as it zinged past him toward his Mate.
His fingertip brushed it just barely, enough to change the course of its trajectory by a couple degrees, so that it lodged in Ishtar’s shoulder instead of her throat.
The impact jolted Ishtar backwards by an infinitesimal degree. But it slowed her forward momentum enough that when she swiped out a gigantic paw towards Dalair’s feet as they left the ledge, she missed by centimeters.