Gods of Blood and Bone (Seeds of Chaos Book 1) (18 page)

I watched the pack run across the roof below and felt a strange exultation melt through me. I would not die here today. I would destroy them. My claws tingled out and my senses sharpened and focused on them. I could hear their panting breaths and almost smell their eagerness. I smiled and looked to Jacky beside me on the edge of the roof. "Are you ready?"
 

She cracked her knuckles with more pops than should have been possible with ten fingers and smirked. "Are you?"
 

I turned back to the enemies below without answering. The first rat-man reached the edge of the roof and sprang at me. I lifted one knee to my chest and kicked outward and down, catching it at the base of the throat and knocking it down into the chasm of darkness between the buildings.
 

I watched it disappear, its hands reaching to the heavens as it plummeted. I raised my head and sucked in a breath of energy charged air as the next three came. I spun and clawed across the face of one as it reached me, and Jacky pummeled two with flurries of heavy blows and kicks that obviously stemmed from extensive training.
 

I aimed a kick to the knee of my opponent. He dodged and I thought for a minute that I would fall, off balance, but something instinctual kicked in and I slid to my hands and knees and swung a leg to take him off his feet. Then I thrust my hand at his throat, fingers straight, and cut into it, still crouching. I curled my fingers before ripping them out, and then drug him by his ears and dropped him off the edge.
 

More of them had already jumped across the gap, and I turned to fight without thinking.
 

As I fought, I caught a glimpse of Jacky, far outnumbered and overwhelmed. Two grabbed her from behind while another three attacked her from the front. She snapped her head back and aimed a kick at their knees, but they were undeterred. They moved to the edge and swung her much smaller body out over the edge.
 

I moved before I realized what I was doing, springing like an animal onto the back of the rat-man with the main grip on her. I clawed into the front of its throat and sliced my hands backward, opening up its jugular veins to the world. "She's mine," I said. Jacky had the type of fighting power that would significantly increase my chances at living through this Trial, and the following ones. "I won't let you take her."
 

It dropped to its knees and loosened its grip on Jacky, dropping her over the edge.

I pulled myself atop its shoulders and lunged for her. My hand barely caught her wrist, and my claws dug into her. But I'd caught her. I drug her up as the rat-men punched and kicked at my unprotected, kneeling body, while the rat-man under me jerked and bled out like a slaughtered animal.
 

My armored vest spread some of the impact of their blows, but could only do so much. A blow to the back of my skull rattled my balance and made the darkness seep in around the edges of my vision.
 

But Jacky had already regained her footing. With a scream, she attacked with a new savageness born from the fear of her near-death. She held them off while I regained my feet, both of us now in the disadvantageous position of being surrounded on the edge of the roof and cut off from Adam.
 

Before I could join her in the fight, light exploded on the other side of the roof and knocked us all off our feet. My ears rang and I crawled to my hands and knees, my blinded eyes streaming tears from the sudden brightness.
 

I heard faint shouting, and then Adam's voice filtered through the ringing. "Working! Hurry…not much…"
 

I stood on shaking legs and blinked till I could see saw the pod, lit up and powered on, and Adam leaning on it with a charred rat-man at his feet. He waved to me urgently, still shouting, then bent over at the waist and hung onto the pod as if to keep himself from collapsing.

I looked to the ground and saw Jacky lying on her back with her eyes closed. I fumbled over to her, stepping on the still-disoriented bodies of our enemies.
 

She didn't move when I smacked her face and yelled at her to get up, and then I saw the blood seeping from the side of her head. She must have smashed it into the ground for the second time that evening when the blast hit.
 

"Crap," I muttered, unable to hear myself over the ringing still echoing through my skull. I grabbed her by the collar of her shirt and stepped forward, pulling until her smaller body started to slide. I dragged her slowly across the roof, right over the rat-men when necessary, until we reached the pod. The ringing and disorientation had already decreased, and I could hear the rat-men rising to their feet behind me.
 

I shoved Jacky's unconscious body into the pod and shut the door on her. The pod started to vibrate and hum, and then it let out a familiar shock wave, and she was gone.
 

I turned back to the group of rat-men, already stumbling toward us. "Hurry and get in, Adam."
 

He was as tense as a tightly strung guitar wire as he watched them, but he shook his head. "I have to be here to charge it again. Get in. I'll be right behind you."

I hesitated, and he turned on me. "Go! You’re wasting our time,” he snapped.
 

I stepped in and closed the door.
 

He reached upward with his good hand, the other resting on the power cartridges, and another explosion of light connected the ground and sky, as he called down the lighting.
 

I had a last glimpse of him before the wave of energy filled my bones and took me away. A half-blind image of his back, his silhouette standing against the low-hanging moons.
 

* * *

I found myself back at the starting building along with a few others and the General, the standard dizziness and nausea making the room spin, along with the effects of being less than five feet away from a lightning strike only moments before. My claws had slipped away sometime without me realizing it, but my hands were still covered in layers of dried and drying blood, sticky and uncomfortable. I lay on the ground for a few moments, and then crawled over to Jacky's body to check her head wound. She lay motionless, except for the slight rise and fall of her chest as she breathed.
 

"At least she's alive," I sighed. I waited for Adam, my heart sinking in my chest with every passing moment. It had been too long. If he were going to return, he would have done so already. The rat-men must have gotten to him. With his arm like that, there was no way he could have fought all of them off.
 

But in the space between one moment and the next, Adam appeared in a shockwave. His beanie was gone, and his hair floated around his head with static electricity. Little sparks jumped around him, and I could literally smell the charge suffusing his skin.

Our eyes caught, and he smirked again. "Told you I'd do something impressive." Despite his words, his muscles were rebelling in mini spasmodic tremors, and he smelled burnt.

I nodded, nothing clever coming to my weary brain. "Glad you made it." I looked him over. "You left my pack?"

He opened his mouth and then closed it again. "Uh, yeah. Sorry. I hope there wasn't anything important in there."
 

“It’s fine.” I’d gladly pay the contents of my pack in exchange for his life.
 

He slipped it into his pocket with a weary nod, then we sat next to Jacky's body and waited.

No other Players returned, and after a few minutes General Zarack boomed out, "Eleven survivors. That is everyone. Quite a surprising number this time."
 

"Surprisingly high, or surprisingly low?" I murmured.
 

The floating cube buzzed, and rolled out the same words I'd seen before.
 

CONGRATULATIONS ON SURVIVING THE TRIAL. THERE ARE NO BESTOWALS.

"No bestowals? That’s nucking futts," Jacky said weakly. She sat up and grinned at my surprise. "I’m pretty damn tough. A little knock on the head isn’t gonna put me down."
 

DO YOU WISH TO RETURN FROM THE TRIAL?

YES
NO

She turned to Adam. "Consider my debt to you paid. You saved me, and I helped get you through."
 

He snorted. "We saved you again after you passed out. How do you think you got back?"

She scowled. "You’re the one who knocked me out in the first place, no? Twice, I believe. I don’t owe you nothing."
 

"Knocked you out? If I hadn't been there—”

I put my hand up to stop their bickering. "Guys. Each of us saved the others out there. None of us would have survived if we hadn't all been there. We made a great team." I smiled at them both.
 

Jacky grinned back. "We kicked their asses, crazy Eve."
 

But Adam noticed a deeper intention beneath my words, and narrowed his eyes in silence.
 

"Will you two meet me in the real world? Tomorrow?" I asked.
 

"Why?" He asked.
 

"I've got something I want to talk about, a proposition I think you'll want to hear. Just come and listen. I'm not going to force you to do anything, but if we're talking about who owes who…maybe you'll remember a little note in your locker?" I knew it was him from the combination of name and the twin to his butterfly knife, which I had hidden in my closet.
 

His eyes widened. "That was
you
? You thief! You stole my—”

"I
saved
your ass," I snapped. "They were about to do a locker check on you."
 

That gave him pause. "Well, do you still have it?"
 

I nodded. "I do. If you come tomorrow, I'll bring it for you."
 

"How do I know I can trust you?"

"Well, it's obvious, isn't it? You
don't
know that. But come anyway. You won't regret it."
 

He thought for a while, and then said, "Where?"

"I'll message you the information. Give me your contact info."
 

He did, reluctantly, and then I turned to Jacky. She grinned like the Cheshire cat and said, "Give me
your
contact info. I’ll call you in the morning, and you can tell me the meeting place then."
 

I laughed, letting some of my tension out. It was unavoidable, and when Jacky's infectious snorting joined me, even Adam couldn't hold back. I stood up and walked to the cube. "I'll see you guys tomorrow."
 

My bones vibrated as the cube returned me to my room, back in the dark, and alone.
 

* * *
 

My legs trembled as my body realized that the danger was gone, for the moment. A window popped up, telling me I'd gained three levels. The Seeds appeared from the ether, and I tucked them into the back of my bedside drawer. I'd decide what to do with them later.
 

"More importantly…" I murmured, and picked up the small mirror I'd set to recording. I hit 'stop,' and then 'replay' in fast forward, to see what had gone on in my room for the hour or two I'd been absent.
 

I saw my nervous self from before the Trial disappear like the product of special effects, and then a few minutes of empty, silent room, and then I was back again, stumbling, dirty, torn, and tired, and full of relief. "What? That can't be right," I muttered.

I rewound it to the beginning and played through again. Only fourteen minutes had passed in the recording, but I knew the Trial had lasted for at least an hour. "Maybe it's broken."
 

I checked the time on my clock. Less than one hour had passed since I left for the Trial, and I’d already been back for half of that time.
 

I showered and laid down to try and sleep, my mind spinning with the possible implications of my discovery.

Chapter 14

Our torments also may in length of time

Become our Elements.

— John Milton

“You want us to do what?” Adam snorted incredulously.
 

“Join me.” I said again, looking at the four others I’d called together to China’s backyard after school. Adam, Jacky, Sam, and of course China herself. Her parents had gone to her grandparents’ house, so no one would be able to observe us.
 

“I want to create a team that works together to survive the Trials and the Game. People that we enter every Trial with, who can have each other’s backs in the Trial, and in the real world, with the ones behind it. We’ll be organized. Prepared. It would increase our chances of survival,” I said.

“How do we know we can trust any of these people?” He looked at the others. “I don’t know them. Why should I trust them to have my back, with my life? How do I know I can trust you? This could be a trap.”
 

I resisted the urge to grind my teeth. I’d known he’d be difficult, but I’d still asked him to meet, and more than ever I wanted him for my team.
 

Before I could say anything, China spoke up. “We’re not tricking you. What would we gain from that anyway? We want to team up, not make enemies.”
 

“Even if that’s true, what would I gain from allying with you? I’ve been playing for months, and I’ve gotten by just fine on my own. It just creates more risk for me if I’ve got to look after someone else along with keeping myself alive.”

I settled back in my seat at one of the benches in China’s backyard garden. “That may have been true in the past, Adam. But you’re vulnerable right now.” I looked pointedly at his arm. “You wouldn’t have made it out of that last Trial if not for Jacky and me.”
 

He opened his mouth to respond bitingly, but I held up a hand and continued. “And we wouldn’t have made it without you, either. That’s exactly my point. We all gain if everyone in the group looks out for the best interest of everyone else. You can trust us because you know that by looking out for you, we’re really just looking out for ourselves. A symbiotic relationship.” I stared into his eyes, knowing that my honesty would be more compelling to him than any reassurance of my good nature and morality.