Angelfire (25 page)

A TREMOR OF FEAR RUSHED THROUGH ME, BUT I stood my ground. He launched forward abruptly, but Will was right there in front of me. As Ragnuk leaped up, Will ducked and slammed his shoulder into the ursid's chest with all his might and flipped him high over our heads. Ragnuk crashed into the wall behind us, shattering more bricks. He spun suddenly and drove his power straight into Will's chest, propelling him back until he hit the far wall. Will screamed and pulled weakly at his belly. My heart sank. An iron pipe protruded from Will's abdomen, brutally impaling him.

“Will!” I shrieked, and rushed to him.

Ragnuk turned toward me, slow as a serpent, with wicked triumph on his blocky face. He vanished for a moment, and I felt something powerful slam into my body and knock me
back into a column, cracking my back.

“Ellie!”
Will roared from the other side of the room.

My eyes misted over and I slumped dazedly, and when I looked up, the reaper's dark face was inches from mine.

“Wake up, Sleeping Beauty,” Ragnuk sneered, his hot breath blasting me.

I smashed my fist into his nose as hard as I could, and he flew from me, thrashing wildly. He scrambled back to his feet, shaking his head and thundering with rage. I ran to Will and slid to a stop as I reached him. He pulled his body forward along the pipe, desperate to free himself. I cupped his face with both my hands and pressed my forehead despairingly against his cheek. “I'll get you off this,” I promised, breathless, my hands running the length of the reddened iron. “I'll help you!”

“Call your swords,” he groaned. “Hurry.”

I nodded and willed them into my surprisingly steady hands.

Will's eyes shot wide open. “Behind you!”

I spun around. Ragnuk bounded across the room, leaving me no time to react. He swiped at me and hooked a talon around my leg, pulling me off balance. I hit the floor, landing flat on my back. Ragnuk's teeth clamped down on my leg, and he threw me across the warehouse, knocking my swords from my grip. I crashed into a large wooden crate piled high with scrap metal and cardboard, cracking my wrist. I groaned as I lifted my broken wrist and looked for my weapons.

“Leave her alone!” Will thundered.

I looked up to see that he was still struggling to free himself from the pipe that impaled him. His hands were clamped around the end of it and he pulled himself forward with what little strength he had left, one inch at a time.

The reaper stepped toward me, his head low, his black eyes fixed on me with a hungry stare. “Get up, girl!”

I struggled to my feet in the debris, cradling my broken wrist, stumbling from the pain that rocketed up my arm. I could feel the tiny bones clicking and moving beneath my skin, snapping themselves back into place.

“So, here we are,” he sneered. “Bastian doesn't even care whether you die now. Your death is no longer necessary, he says. Well, his orders mean nothing to me now. I'm still going to eat you alive.”

“Ellie, don't listen to him!” Will shouted.

Ragnuk tossed his head at Will. “Your Guardian doesn't know when he has lost. Typical of a vir.” The reaper thudded over to Will and looked him up and down. “You all think you're gods, storming around, barking orders. You're no better than the humans. You look just like them.” He spat on the ground at Will's feet. “For the most part.”

Ragnuk ran a talon down Will's cheek, drawing a red line of blood. The cut healed instantly. The claw was large enough to punch right through Will's skull, but the ursid reaper's movement was shockingly gentle. “You do a good job, Guardian. Looks like you've got her fooled into thinking
you're human. She doesn't even remember what you're capable of, does she?”

Will didn't answer him. I didn't understand why Ragnuk didn't just kill Will. He had us both at his mercy at that moment, but he chose to taunt us instead of just finishing us off. It was like he was getting a high off his momentary power over us.

“You haven't told her anything, have you?” Ragnuk laughed. “You arrogant vir bastard. No attempt to jog her memory? Should I do the honors? Shall we remind her of the monster you truly are?” He smiled with his bear face and licked his fangs.

Will jerked away from him and swung a fist, but the reaper moved his head fluidly to the side, avoiding the strike effortlessly. Ragnuk grabbed the end of the pipe with his jaws and bent it upward. The metal creaked and groaned until it pointed at the ceiling at a ninety-degree angle. Will gasped for breath.

“Get out of
that
, Guardian,” Ragnuk sneered, his voice dark and cruel.

“Will!” I cried in horror. I squeezed my fist and whimpered in pain.

Ragnuk smiled and stepped away from Will heavily, his talons clicking on the floor. He lumbered toward me but stopped halfway and turned to pace back and forth. He seemed conflicted somehow, probably deciding whether to kill me or to chew on me for a bit before I died.

“Why don't you show her your true self?” Ragnuk growled to Will. “You could escape that trap easily. I've seen you escape from worse. You're holding back, Guardian!”

I stared at Will in confusion. What was Ragnuk talking about? Will had told me he didn't shape-shift like Geir. My gut trembled. Had he lied to me? Was he about to transform right in front of me?

Will's arms strained with the excruciating effort of trying to free himself from the pipe. He didn't look up to Ragnuk when he spoke. He stared down at the pipe, his hair falling over his eyes. “I am not like you.”

The ursid laughed, bellowing. “You are a reaper! I don't care if you're angelic or demonic or idiotic. You're not human, so stop pretending to be!” Spittle flecked his mouth as he yelled. “You have a hunger that can never be sated.”

“I'm better than that,” Will groaned.

“You are
not
!” Ragnuk roared. “You think you're not a monster, but you are. Show her, Guardian. Show the girl!”

“I'm not a monster!” As Will dragged his body toward the end of the pipe, his power detonated, slamming the ground and wall behind him. He grabbed the pipe with both hands and bent it until the metal was straight. I watched in horror as Will slid forward and he dropped to the ground, leaving the pipe stained dark and a gaping hole in his abdomen. He collapsed to the ground on all fours, spilling red. He coughed and moaned as he struggled weakly to his feet and faced Ragnuk. “But I am not human either.”

Will staggered to the side, leaning against the gore-covered pipe as the hole in his gut closed over. When he turned back to me with anguished eyes, his belly was smooth, but his shirt was shredded. He ripped the pipe clean out of the wall, yanking a chunk of the wall with it.

Ragnuk snarled, curling his lips back and exposing his massive fangs. The ursid pounded Will's back to the wall, his jaws gaping wide, ready to snap. Will swung the pipe up with both hands, striking Ragnuk in the mouth. The ursid chomped savagely, lashing his head back and forth, gagging and snarling. Will yanked the bar out of Ragnuk's mouth and jammed it through the ursid's neck. Ragnuk roared and thrashed, ramming his skull into Will's temple with a sickening crack. Will hit the ground hard and didn't move.

I tested my grip again and found my hand now fully healed, and I bolted forward, grabbing one of my swords on the way as I ran to help Will. Ragnuk's paw struck my chest and slammed me to the floor, knocking the breath right out of me. As I lay there gasping, his other front paw stomped on my arm holding the sword, pinning my blade. I yanked, but the lack of oxygen had weakened me. I stared up into the reaper's inky black eyes.

“This is the end for you,” he hissed. Blood from the bar impaling his neck leaked onto my shirt.

“No, it's not,” I snarled.

He smiled cruelly. “Oh, I think it is. Once again, your Guardian is down and you are alone. I know you remember
the last time you and I were alone. I'd like to
relish
the moment, savor it, if you don't mind.”

I glared up into his empty eyes. My fear for Will's safety consumed me, and that fear spun into hate and rage. “That was then. This is now.”

My power swelled into a swirling orb in my palm, the heat of it blasting both of us. Ragnuk's eyes widened. I let it erupt point blank into his face, the white-hot light swallowing his entire upper body. He shrieked and reeled back, shaking his head violently, blinded by the light of my power. I rolled away from him and swept up my second sword.

Ragnuk backed away, fighting against the glaring light. When it settled, I gaped at the damage I had done to him. Half his face had burned away, revealing sinewy muscle, sagging chunks of flesh, and gleaming white bone. His massive fangs were exposed completely on the right side, and the charred bones of his jaws clicked grotesquely. His right eye was missing from the dark, bony socket, and his remaining eye was shut tight from pain. He breathed heavily, wheezing, staggering on his feet. I watched in horror as his face tried to heal itself; the flesh bubbled and spread slowly, uselessly. He needed to feed.

The reaper stared at me with his one bloodshot eye, a new hate and hunger boiling within him. My pulse pounded faster.

“Now, look what you've gone and done,” he spat with
his half-skeletal face. “How did you burn me? It burns like angelfire!”

I held my ground, my own fury matching his. The corners of my vision pulsed, darkening, and I fought to stay focused. My power was building steadily, swelling past my limit of control. I was slipping again, but I didn't fight it. All I yearned for now was to dig my hands through Ragnuk's entrails, to smell the sizzle of angelfire on his hide.

“You don't stand a chance, girl,” he snarled. “You reek of humanity. I can smell your soul through your skin. It makes you weak.”

“My humanity makes me strong!” I shouted, the truth in my words resonating deep within my heart. “It gives me passion so I can keep on fighting, and my friends and family give me something worth fighting for!”

“And if you didn't have those swords?” He laughed, spittle and blood flying from his maw. “You and your weapons. You're helpless without them. You'd be nothing without them. My weapons are part of me. Tooth, claw, and bone.” He dug his nails into the floor and licked the charred remains of his black lips. “You're
helpless
, Preliator, and you always will be.”

Something swelled deep within me, something angry, desperate, and dark. It flowed at my feet like fog, flickering with snaps of electricity. I crouched, feeling the energy pulsing from me and out through space. The floor throbbed as if it had a heartbeat, hammering inside my head in time with
my own pulse, drowning my senses in the hypnotic rhythm. I forced my eyes up to meet the reaper's angry stare.

I snarled, binding my power to me, feeling it pounding against my will. “I am not helpless!” I shrieked, releasing my power full force. The concrete floor sank beneath me and I with it, the white light swallowing Ragnuk whole. He roared and leaped high into the air before coming down on me. He landed with an earth-shattering thud and lashed a paw at me, but my arm shot up, deflecting his strike. I swung the sword in my other hand up, but his teeth clamped down on the flaming blade, wrenched it from my grip, and threw it aside. I jammed my fist into his soft throat and his jaws crunched shut.

I stared into Ragnuk's eyes and felt myself slipping away again, into the darkness deep within me. Deep down inside I knew that if I lost control, I could hurt Will. But as soon as the thought had passed, so did my sense. Crouching low to the floor, I gathered my power as I had done moments before, my swords back in hand. I ground my teeth tightly as the energy collected inside me, swallowing me in white light, pressing outward on every inch of me.

“You can't do it, girl!” Ragnuk thundered, the white of his one remaining eye flashing like a crazed animal's.

I felt the floor creak and groan, throbbing under strength that couldn't have belonged to me. With a hoarse cry I forced my power into the floor, crushing the concrete with the might of a tidal wave. The floor rolled in waves, rising and falling
like water, before it sank deeper into a massive crater. The building ached and moaned as dust shook free.

“It's not going to happen!”
The reaper's voice was distant and muffled.

I sent another shockwave rocketing in a circle around me, and it exploded into the walls and columns like a bomb. The windows shattered and sprayed countless glittering glass shards all around me. Steel crunched and screeched, and the ceiling sagged heavily. Debris crashed to the floor. My hair blazed around my face like a wildfire. Someone far away seemed to be screaming, and I realized after a moment that it was me.

Again
. The columns closest to me and the beams above crashed to the floor, ripping out giant hunks of the ceiling. As a beam collapsed beside Ragnuk, I could see fear finally resonate across his scorched face. He roared and launched himself at me, talons outstretched.

My power rocked the building once more, and the ceiling plummeted down on top of Ragnuk. I squeezed my eyes shut and braced myself to share his fate.

But it never came. Warm hands wrapped around me, cradling me close to an even warmer body. I felt a strange rushing feeling, and then it was gone a moment later. The air was now cold and I was on my feet again. As my eyes focused, I found myself in the middle of the street looking back at the ruined warehouse. My vision pulsed, and I was unsure whether or not what I saw was actually real. Half the
building had collapsed to the ground and was nothing but an undefined pile of wood, brick, and metal.

I searched for Ragnuk in case he had survived. All seemed quiet until I heard a rustling amid the debris, and the fury inside me swelled once again to the surface and spilled over. I climbed over the pile of debris and found Ragnuk crushed beneath a section of the ceiling. Blood seeped from his mouth. His bones were flattened beneath the rubble—all but his half-exposed skull and a single foreleg. The claws of his free paw raked the rubble weakly, as if he were trying to climb his way to freedom, but his efforts were useless. I stepped up to him, both my swords in hand, the blades scraping the chunks of concrete beneath me. The reaper's wet, black eye rolled up to meet mine, swiveling so much that a stripe of reddening white showed around the rim.