Into the Darkness (13 page)

Charles stepped back, wiping his forehead with his forearm.

I stared at his glistening body, droplets of sweat working down his corded muscle, identifying each grove with precision. My mind slipped to the Boss without my control.

I registered a phone ringing as Charles slowly turned to me, his manhood starting to rise again. His eyes burned into me as his head tilted to the side. “For a prude, you are sure turned on a lot.”

That snapped me out of it. I deflected immediately. “You’re freaking naked while fighting monsters and swinging a sword. You have all that bare
muscle!”
I stabbed a finger at him in accusation. “How is that my
fault?”

A smile wormed up his face. I registered my phone ringing again.

“Aren’t you going to answer it? Or are you ready to give me a go?” Charles’s expression was gleeful.

“Oh, shut up.” I snatched my phone out of my handbag, registering the name as Jared.

A jolt of fear pierced my gut. I gouged the phone as I raised it up to my ear. “Jared?”

“Sasha, help! Something is trying to get in!”

Charles stood right in front of me, bent at the waist, his ear angled to my head. After hearing Jared, his body straightened with a jerk. His eyes bored into mine, the shadows sprinkling across his face, one smoky gray eye standing out.

“I have to go.” I threw the phone back into my bag.

Charles shook his head slowly. “You have magic. He doesn’t. I can’t let you.”

“They’ll kill him!” Heat engulfed my body, my awareness now recognizing that as magic. My limbs tingled, my chest felt like it flexed,
then opened, the magic coating my skin and branching out, at my beck and call.

“Sorry, Sasha, I can’t let you go.”

His hand grabbed my arm so fast I didn’t see it coming. Which didn’t change the result. As his fingers clasped my skin, the tiny sound of skin searing had him flinching away a second later.

“What the
—“

I was running before he’d finished the sentence.

Bare feet slapping on pavement, my handbag flapping at my side, I flew to my car in desperation, knowing that Charles would be right behind me. Sure enough, just as my door closed, his giant fist smashed through the window.

“Same side!”
I screamed, fragments of shatterproof glass raining in on me.

I slammed the car in reverse and stomped on the pe
dal. The car lurched backward, Charles falling, naked, onto the empty parking space. I flung the gear into drive and punched the pedal again, taking off as Charles started sprinting after me.

Another thrill of fear slammed into me, only this time, it energized me. My smile took up my whole face as Charles chased me, butt-ass naked, sprinting with bare feet on concrete, muscles rippling,
a phone to his ear.

He grabbed a phone but no shoes? What was the story with his priorities?

He was quick, but he couldn’t match the speed of my Firebird. Especially when I’d been given a green light to go fast. Recklessly fast.

Chapter
Sixteen

I screeched to a halt in front of Jared’s apartment complex. It took me three seconds to register that unnatural cold. One or more of those beasts were here, and judging by the freezing marrow in my bones, it was probably leaning towards
more.

I sprinted up the walkway and through the door balancing precariously on one hinge. The light in the entryway of the apartment complex flickered, a telltale sign that something was horrifically amiss. At least, that was always the case in horror movies. Then again, the rent here was cheap, and the landlord never got around to fixing anything. It might have been normal.

Still, the door was broken. Something was amiss.

I sprinted up the stairs, my sanity having been left in my apartment. On Jared’s floor I heard screaming.
Loud, high-pitched, unnatural screaming, like a rabbit that felt the first pinch of the wolf’s jaws.

A burst of speed had me standing in the doorway of Jared’s apartment, staring at two…
things.
One looked like a four legged spider, equipped with red manacles and grisly brown fur. Maybe human once, maybe all creation, this thing was so unnatural my stomach started to twist. Beside it stood an alien—oval head, long limbs and bulbous kind of fingers.

I blinked a few times, not believing my eyes. Somehow, the weird spider thing made sense. I’d seen some pretty gross monsters lately. The alien-looking thing, though, seemed a bit…childish somehow. Like the conjurer was telling some sort of joke.

Or it really was an alien…

Clearing my mind of the panicked fog, I zeroed in on what could only be the remnants of a human. Red head lulled, eyes staring, face slack. His body bent unnaturally, his heels able to touch his head, like his back had been broken.

I stared, horror creeping into my awareness eradicating every other feeling. Rubber limbs fell to the floor, the body splayed unnaturally, dead.

At the back of the apartment another scream erupted. My gaze drifted that direction, my body numb. A giant held Jared by the hair, my boyfriend crying and screaming, scratching at the hand carrying him by his scalp.

This wasn’t a monster.

Hazel eyes flashed to mine, connecti
ng us in a moment. Power pulsed inside of me, registering the danger. My forehead beaded with sweat. That’s when the monsters turned toward me slowly. They honed in on me, sensing the magic I knew called to them like a turkey leg to a starving man.

The man’s eyebrows dipped in confusion, his head ti
lted. He slowed.

“What is this?” A voice of masculine honey poured across the apartment floor, crawling up my legs and covering me with slime.

Something wasn’t right with this man, besides the fact that he carried my boyfriend by his hair.

“Come to rescue your love? I heard him calling someone—you? Why not the police
, I wonder. And why…” The monsters stepped toward me. My chest throbbed.  The man’s eyes turned calculating. “Bring her with us.”

Power pulsed through the room—from me or them, I had no idea. Sweat dribbled down my forehead. The man kept coming, Jared screaming and crying in his grip.

I tried to push them back, like I’d done before. I stuck out my palms, desperately trying to destroy them somehow, but I didn’t know what had caused it. Maybe fear deterred me. Maybe my near-death experience had me holding back. Whatever it was, nothing came!

“Shit.” I grabbed a baseball bat, ready to go down fighting.

It didn’t glow. Maybe that was reserved for metal?

No matter. I played softball once.

As the first creature reached me, I swung with all my might. Then staggered sideways and forward, the bat going clean through the creation.

A cartoon-like hand reached for me, fire erupting on my shoulder where it touched. Blisters formed, the pain consuming me, when suddenly I was flying.

I fell to the left, barreling into a cheap bookcase that splintered under my weight. A leather clad man stood in my wake, burnished gold sword flashing, bare arms swirling with the same burnished gold light, his tattoos glowing and crawling around his skin.

I felt a strange stirring in my core, like I lay in the middle of a feather storm. Burnished gold materialized around me, forming a
cage. A churning, vibrating cage, keeping me imprisoned.

What a dick! Did he want me dead?

Jared’s body went airborne, the scream wrenching my insides. He hit the wall with head and right shoulder, the scream cutting off.

“Jared!” I surged forward, only to
realize this cage held an intense electric shock that knocked me on my ass.

Stunned, I followed
Stefan with my eyes, his sword slicing through the air, his arms glowing in moving designs.

“Alas, we meet again,” the hazel eyed
man drawled, drawing a sword. His voice was like honey, but his movements resembled a badger. “How did you know I’d be here?”

“You reek of human death. You’ve gone too far,
Andris, and for what results? I’m still better.”

The two circled each other, their swords held loose. Both their steps were nimble and elegant, the more deadly for it.

“Tell me,” the man said conversationally, “why waste power on that human female? Or did I go after the wrong human?”

“You?
Make a mistake?”

“It is rare, yes, but when concerning humans, I’m sure you’ll—“

Pale gold blade of the smooth talking man whipped out, aimed for Stefan’s head. Stefan dodged, graceful like a dancer, joints moving as if oiled, then countering immediately.

The man
dodged also, stepping away, forcing space between them. Assessing.

“Why wait, Andris?”
Stefan asked, eyes calculating. “Why stall? What are you after?”

“Unsolved mysteries.
For example, that male seemed rather usual, as far as humans go. Crying and begging—so much drama. Conversely, that female never showed fear. Then here you are, wasting valuable power to protect her. Is she a pet? Is that the draw? She certainly is pretty—I can see the allure. Maybe she wasn’t scared because she thinks she is always protected?”

Stefan
lunged, his sword swiped through the air. Andris dodged, the blade cutting through the air right next to his head. He countered immediately. Stefan met the attack and countered again, fast as lightning. Each time the blades met, sparks flew. The men evenly matched for height and brawn, but Stefan was faster and more skilled. Andris retreated, a step at a time, eyes darting, looking for a way out.

“Another time, then.”
Andris gave a slick smile.

I screamed as two more beings lumbered into the room, not much more than smoky wisps of purple. Both apparitions stopped at me, my chest once again surging outward, sensing something in them and wanting to call to it. Or maybe they called to me.

Before I could think more on it, one palpitating blob floated toward me like a plumb of smoke. I shrank back from the swirling burnished gold cage. Tendrils reached for me, connecting with magic. A spark lit up the room, the vapor creature flashing color and imploding, winking out.

Stefan
flagged, momentarily slowed. Andris’s blade found his flesh, slicing a huge red gash in his arm.

“No!” I screamed.

“And why do the
Dulcha
keep reacting to her?” Andris’s voice became suspicious. “What have you found, Stefan? What is worth your life?”

Stefan
switched his sword to his other arm, the color of the blade fading to orange. The cage around me did, too. His power was weakening as he tried to keep me out of harm’s way.

Rage and fear consumed me in equal parts seeing
Stefan struggling. I registered the look of triumph on Andris’s face as he raised his sword. Without thinking I struck out, focused on that blade.

Black bands rose in the air around Andris like ribbons, wrapping around his sword and squeezing, breaking the blade into shards. Andris screamed and convulsed, drawing his sword arm into his chest, staring, wide-eyed, at his hand where my magic had burned him. His fingers shook, starting to turn a molten red. The color climbed, as if soaking into his skin, burning and blistering as it went.

Andris screamed, still staring, fixated.

Stefan
, sword hanging loosely at his side, his face a blank mask. He was damn good at hiding his emotions.

I would have kept staring as well—I had no idea what I’d done—but the last bl
ob of magic drifted toward me. I screamed again, drawing Stefan’s gaze, scared that if it touched the cage something more would happen to him.

Charles burst through the door, blade whirling, cutting across the pouf of magic in his rage. His eyes swept the room, landing on a fleeing
Andris. His gaze darted to Stefan, now hot on Andris’s trail, then to me.

I spared a glance for Jared, his arms flailing limply. Good, he was alive.

I didn’t get long for relief. Charles stared at me with crazy eyes.

I probably shouldn’t have ditched him. He seemed slightly…perturbed.

“What the fuck, Sasha?”

Maybe more than slightly…

“You trying to get me fired?
”

In three quick steps, he reached toward my neck, probably meaning something awful, only to hit
Stefan’s cage. A bright orange spark flared, singeing Charles’s skin.

“Damn it! You
come outta there because I got a score to settle with you! I want to shake you like a crying baby!”

“What a horrible thing to say!”

“Yeah! I am a freaking Watch Captain, Sasha! Yet I had to run down the street, in bare feet, naked, with nothing but a cell phone and a sword! Obviously I drew some notice! Plus, I had to go back to your damn apartment for a sword before I even followed you! It was locked!”

“You remembered your phone but not a sword? How is that my fault?”

“
Because you flustered me
. I’m going to—“ Another flash of orange. “Damn it! You aren’t worth his protection!”

“Another horrible thing.
To think, I thought you liked me.”

“You—“

Moaning interrupted my cringing from Charles. One of Jared’s limbs tweaked. He moaned again.

“Go make sure he’s okay,” I instructed.

“No. And you know what, I don’t even want to have sex with you anymore. That’s how mad I am at you right now!”

“Over-dramatic, hmm?”

Stefan stepped into the room. He’d gone out through the window after Andris, he’d re-entered through the door. Judging by the lack of enemy blood, he didn’t catch his prey. Judging by the huge gash on his arm that he tried to ignore, but brought protectively into his body, it hurt a lot.

His eyes found me, deep and dark.

“Can I get out, now?” I asked, shrinking back from his intense stare.

“Charles, grab Jared and get out.”

Charles gave me a smug look of retribution before he did as instructed, gently lifting a moaning Jared and stalking from the apartment.

Stefan
closed the door slowly, turning toward me and lowering to the ground, legs crossed. He stared at me through his self-made jail cell. “You…used magic. You attacked with magic.”

“I didn’t mean to! Well, yes I did. I just wanted him to stop hurting you. He was about to kill you!”

Stefan’s eyes squinted. He leaned forward. “Are you okay?”

“Scared, a little.
But…” Sweat dripped down my temple but I started to shiver. I looked at my arms. They glistened with moisture. My cheeks burned right before my head swirled.

The fever gripped me.

Suddenly the cage disappeared and Stefan had me in his arms. The last thing I remembered, he was running.

*****

“She’s lucid, sir. Somewhat. No response, though.”

Stefan
approached the wide bed, looking down on the limp human, her angelic face devoid of color. Her arms rested on her chest, her body so still she looked dead.

A shot of fear pierced
Stefan’s chest. “Will she make it?”

Luke’s head shook before he sighed. “She shouldn’t have made it last time. Yet she did. Something is holding her to this life.”

“My blood helped last time. Will it help again?”

Luke studied him, trying to read
Stefan. He’d keep on trying, too. Stefan didn’t maintain a leadership role by giving away his motives.

Stefan
hadn’t told anyone what he’d seen: That Sasha had used the black magic level, the most powerful, rarest level of magic that existed. That level of magic, nearly a pure shot drawn directly from the elements, hadn’t been seen in hundreds of years—the use of it not more than legend. Even Trek, the enemy’s mage, could only go as high as white, a step down.