Indestructible (Indestructible Trilogy Book 1) (15 page)

Nolan clears his throat, looking embarrassed. “He’s telling the truth, Leah.”

“What, someone’s blood went into this?” Of course, the weapons we carry are formed of the ashes of fallen warriors, but
blood?

“The power’s in our blood,” Nolan explains. “The scientists were experimenting for ways to transfer that energy into weapons.”

Cas interrupts by swinging the blade into the wall. It cuts through the plaster and brick like paper.

“What?” he says. “This place is falling apart anyway.”

“You two, we need to hurry if we want to make it back before sunset,” says Nolan.

“Hold on,” I say. “What did you need me here for if you’re not going to tell me what’s happening?”

“We needed a three-person team,” says Cas. “God knows why. You’re not even qualified. You’re just a child.”

I’ve had about enough. “This again?” I fold my arms. “Look, the both of you are acting like children. Not me. So quit being patronising.”

“Whatever.” Cas casts one lasts, dismissive glance around the room. “I’m done here.” There’s an undercurrent to his voice, some emotion I can’t place.

Nolan’s already gone. Frustration buzzes beneath my skin. If Cas won’t answer my questions, I’m going to corner Nolan instead. But he’s not in any of the other rooms. Leaving the building, I find him standing a few feet away, watching the divide.

I walk over to him. As I approach, I see the walls of rock, falling down into darkness. I picture a drop leading into the core of the Earth itself, through layers of rock and lava…

I stop dead. A shape clings to the rocky edge of the divide, a winged, humanoid monstrosity. My heart starts drumming in my ears and my hand leaps to the dagger at my waist.

“Shit.” Nolan sees what I’m looking at and draws his own dagger. “Cas!” he shouts at our partner’s retreating back.

Cas reacts instantly; his hands blur as he draws the sword from beneath his cloak. He runs forward and clears the divide in one bound, before I can so much as blink. My heart slams into my chest as I take off after him, Nolan shouting my name. The dagger’s in my hand, which is shaking with both adrenaline and fear. The divide suddenly seems wider, a gaping void I have to jump over, but I don’t stop. The breeze rushes through my hair and my coat streams out behind me as I fly over the gap, to where Cas is already climbing down to the fiend.

My heart leaps into my throat as he clings to the edge one-handedly, slashing at the fiend with the other hand.

“Are you mental?” Nolan yells from behind, jumping the gorge.

The exact same thought just crossed my mind. I hover near the edge, but the fiend’s out of sight, and jumping down to meet it would be asking to fall. Cas positions himself so that his feet barely brush the cliff’s sides as he stabs at the monster. Then the fiend lets go.

I step back as it rises on jagged wings, and lunges at me. My knife comes out but I’m too slow, and miss. Talons dig into my shoulders as the monster skims overhead, then wheels around and faces me.

It’s like an even uglier version of the winged fiend from the forest. The skin of its face is stretched over elongated, rotting teeth, its eyes wide, bulbous and grey. The wings look like they belong to another creature entirely, like a pterodactyl. Clawed hands move towards me and I step back, my feet catching on the cliff’s edge.

That was close.

Nolan’s already there with his weapon drawn. He strikes at the fiend, which retreats into the air, letting out a guttural sound. Then it dives again, fast as a blink. My hand moves automatically, heat travelling down my arm to the knife. As I watch, like a half-stunned observer, the blade lights up, fire-coloured and deadly. One swipe cuts the fiend’s face. It screams, and slashes with its claws. But Nolan jumps in front of me, deflecting it. Cas catches it from behind with a vicious stab. The blade protrudes from the fiend’s chest.

I slash again. Again. The fiend’s trapped between the three of us, and I can see its eyes darting about, like it’s aware of its situation. Blood pours from cuts all over its body and the gaping wound from Cas’s knife.

Nolan lifts a hand before Cas can deliver the killing blow.

“What—?”

“Hold it,” says Nolan. “Can you speak?” he addresses the fiend.

I blink at him.
He’s lost it.

But the fiend swivels its eyes in his direction, like it can understand him.

“What’re you—?” My question’s cut off when the fiend opens its mouth, a half-scream, half-groan almost shattering my eardrums.

“You… are nothing.” The words come out half-broken, but recognisable as English. Incredible as it seems, the fiend actually spoke to us.
No way. Impossible.
The fiends don’t
talk.
They’re not human.

“What are you doing here, fiend?” Nolan asks, as though this doesn’t surprise him at all. Cas looks unfazed, too. Once again, I’ve been left out of the loop. Ordinarily, I’d demand answers from him right now, but I can’t stop watching the fiend’s face as its mouth works, forming words again.

“Not your concern.”

“I think you’ll find it is.” Nolan jabs the fiend with the point of his blade. “You knew we were coming here.”

The fiend doesn’t answer. A growl slips between its teeth, tinged with pain.

“I’m warning you,” says Nolan. “Your kind are supposed to be extinct. Where did you come from?”

“You… know the answer to that.”

“The way was shut,” says Nolan.

“Did you think you drove us away forever? We can kill you any time, human.” The words come out faster. My heartbeat is loud in my ears. I can’t look away.

“You know what will happen if you attack headquarters.”

“Would you risk human life to destroy us? Of course not.” The fiend lets out a coughing sound. The hairs on my arms rise as I realise it’s laughing. “You’re hypocrites. You and Murray both.”

“How do you know about Murray?”

“People tell me things, human. More than you tell your new recruits, I don’t doubt.” Another coughing laugh. “We’ll take your world, humans, one way or another. You might get a visit from someone familiar very soon.”

“Your kind already attacked us at our base,” Cas intervenes. “You sent one. Was that a message for Murray, or for me?”

“You? What’s so special about…?” The fiend’s eyes bulge as it twists to face Cas. “You’re
him,
aren’t you? How very convenient. To die at your hands would be an honour.”

Cas’s blade’s at his throat, quick as a flash.
What did that mean?
I don’t dare speak, and I’m not sure I can.

“You’re asking to die?”

“Death comes to everyone, but you know that better than most, right?” The fiend coughs. Blood spatters the ground.

“Just answer me one question,” says Cas. “Is Jared alive?”

“You know.” The fiend’s teeth are bared in a pained grin.

My mind spins. Cas’s talking to the fiend like someone he
knows.
What the hell is going on?

Another laugh. More blood spatters. “Maybe you should look to your own before you appoint blame. I know what you’re doing. She’s part of it, isn’t she?”

And it raises an arm, twisting to show us the wrist. Harsh lines cover it up to the elbow, etched into the skin like a tattoo shaped like a flame.

Two gasps. Nolan and Cas wear almost-identical expressions of horror.

While they’re standing frozen, it reaches and grabs my arm.

I freeze, panicking. My arm lights up like a beacon, a blaze of light reaching into the sky. But something’s different this time—more like the first time my powers activated, when I felt disconnected from my body. A vibration grows beneath my skin and the air around my arm shimmers. Heat rushes up my arms, and the ground trembles under my feet. A sound echoes in my ears, like the distant beat of a drum.

The air ripples. The fiend’s eyes dim, its body swaying as Cas’s and Nolan’s blades pierce its skin. But before it can hit the ground… its body falls apart before my eyes.

Or, that’s what it looks like. The vibration in the air reaches the monster and distorts it, like a reflection in tinted glass. Skin flakes away, particle by particle, until its entire body is enveloped in white flames. The drumbeat grows louder in my ears, and I drop to my knees as trembles overtake the ground. Tremors in land and air.

An energy blast.

It spreads out in waves, a force of its own, beyond anything natural. A crumbling sound tells me the research building is no more. Even the edges of the divide buckle as rock falls away…

“Leah! Leah!”

Voices. Someone shaking me. A tremor so strong my teeth rattle against each other. The earth’s not shaking anymore.

It’s me.

I caused it.

The noise stops. I register the impression of a hand holding mine. Nolan—no, Cas.
What?

My absolute confusion is enough to send the last tremors away. I drop his hand, stand up quickly. Nolan crouches at a distance, braced against the ground. The concern in Cas’s eyes—such a foreign expression on his face—fades in a flash. He glares at me.

“Way to nearly get us all killed,” he snaps.

I nearly…
what?
My mind tumbles over itself and it takes a good minute to form the first question.

“How?”

“Let’s go,” he says, curtly. “Come on, Nolan.”

He strides away, leaping over the divide again. That alone is unchanged by the blast.

“Wait!” I yell—like
hell
I’m letting him run off without answering my questions after saying something like that.

I run after him. My legs are still shaking, and I almost trip at the edge of the fall, but Nolan grabs my arms and steadies me. I ready myself and jump, and then run again to catch up to Cas.

“Wait.” I step in front of him, dagger pointing directly at his chest. “I’m not moving until I get some answers. Now.”

CHAPTER TWELVE

Cas rolls his eyes. “You do know the fiends will be here soon? And we need to make it back before sunset.”

“What, so you can disappear again?” I narrow my eyes back at him. “Nice try. What if I want to say I’m not coming back?”

An eyebrow arches. “You are coming back.”

“That’s funny, I thought you didn’t want me there. I distinctly remember you wanting to leave me to die in the wilderness.”

Cas’s eyes narrow, but he says nothing. I have him there. Savouring the brief moment of triumph, I say, “Told you. Now, answers. Did I just use some kind of energy blast?”

“In a manner of speaking.” Cas moves out of range of my knife. Not that I’d actually stab him with it—well, maybe. If he doesn’t tell me what I just did. Nolan catches up, visibly pale and shocked.

I direct my questions at both of them. “What I did isn’t normal, is it? And the fiends—you knew that monster, or someone who knew him. How?”

“Pick one question.”

“Pedant,” I mutter. “Fine. What the hell did I just do?”

“Ask Murray.”

“Murray’s told me even less than you have.” I cross my arms. “Look. I know you don’t like me, and I’m not overly fond of you either. But I just caused a freaking explosion. If there was a person, a normal human, standing nearby, then—” I can’t go on. I can’t think of what happened the last time I got too close to an energy blast. Randy’s face comes to mind, and an onrush of images of the other people I spent two years in the wilderness with. Tears tremble at the edges of my eyes. I squeeze them shut and look away, renewed anger making my body shake.

“Yeah, they’d be toast,” says Cas.

“Cas!”
says Nolan, shoving him. Hard.

“Don’t touch me,” says Cas. “She wants the truth, she gets it. Without Murray’s sugar-coating. You’d think we weren’t fighting a war.”

“You’re not fighting a war,” I point out. “You’re screwing with me. Are you not telling me the truth because
you
don’t know?”

“You insolent—”

“She has a point,” says Nolan. “Leah, we really don’t know. I haven’t seen a power like yours since…” He trails off as Cas gives him a murderous stare.

“And no one thought to tell me I could cause a freaking
explosion?”
I stare at the two of them, unable to believe it.

“We didn’t know,” said Nolan. “I thought…” Again, he trails off. Cas’s eyes are narrowed to slits, and he looks about ready to stab someone.

“Let me get this straight,” I say. “You didn’t know. But that fiend knew something. Right? It knew Murray, and it knew
you.”

I struggle not to flinch as Cas’s stare pins me to the spot.

“It’s true,” says Nolan. “Must be one of the older fiends. I didn’t think they had long memories.”

“Long memories,” I say. “So it’s been here since…”