Tall, Dark & Apocalyptic (15 page)

“Yeira!”

Her head snapped around at the sound of Audie’s call. Panic flared. “Audie! Stay back. Get out of here.”

Slowly, as if weighted down by the amount of power she was expelling, Edwige’s head turned, her hands lifted.

Horrified, Yeira screamed. “No, Mother, I’ll come with you now. But leave the hunter alone. He’s nothing to us.”

Yeira couldn’t meet Audie’s gaze, couldn’t bear to see his reaction to her horrible secret. He would surely hate her for the evil blood running through her veins. He’d be relieved he hadn’t finished what they’d both started moments earlier.

It didn’t matter. Her ploy seemed to be working. For a beat, Edwige’s gaze slipped back to her, away from Audie.

But then the witch’s lips curved, her black eyes sparking with evil intent, and she turned toward Kord, her power snapping around her.

Yeira started to run. “Audie!”

Kord didn’t wait for the witch to attack. He lifted his hand and blue energy flew from his palm, spinning across the space and hitting Edwige just as she gathered her magic to fling in his direction. Audie’s restrictive guide magics dropped over Edwige like a cloak and the air suddenly stilled. The trees settled into silence. And the water in the creek stopped its ceaseless attack on the shore.

Yeira sucked in a breath and started toward Audie, just as a pair of arms wrapped around her from behind. She slammed up against a broad, hard chest. Yeira struggled against the impossibly hard grip as she felt the world softening.

The shimmering, blue bubble around Edwige stretched, contorted and finally burst.

Chaos returned.

“No!” Yeira stopped struggling and whispered the hunter’s name, seeing the next moments of his life playing out like a gore-filled horror show. Her gaze caught his and she sucked in a shocked breath. His eyes held the apology he’d never be able to give her…because the world was dropping away from beneath her feet.

And Edwige was lifting her hands to pummel the man Yeira loved with deadly energy.

~
TD&A
~

Audie lunged to the side as the dark one flung a black jolt of sizzling energy, sending the dirt where he’d been standing into the sky and leaving behind the choking stench of sulfur. He rolled, managing to get a tree between him and the witch, before the next jolt exploded the massive tree, filling the air with bits of white flower and a strong, peppery scent.

Fire exploded around him as the tree was consumed, and black smoke rolled in waves from the conflagration. A thunderous crackling noise brought Audie’s head up—just in time to catch a tree limb which was plummeting downward, jagged end first.

Muscles bulging with the effort, Audie grunted under the weight of the coarsely barked chunk of tree. A splinter of wood that was thick enough to have impaled him protruded from the broken branch, mere inches from his face.

Audie flung the branch away.

The smoke swirled and the witch walked out of it. “You thought you could take my daughter from me, Hunter?” The witch’s hand snapped out and he was blown backward, into the burning poivron tree.

He grunted as flame licked his flesh, and shoved clear, straightening with a long knife in his hand. Audie flung the blade across the space between him and the witch.

She swung her hand and the knife flew sideways, impaling itself up to the hilt in an intact tree.

Black sparks shot from the witch’s terrifying eyes as she shifted her hand in his direction. Audie dove behind a large rock as another jolt of her energy razored toward him.

The rock exploded, spraying tiny missiles of stone all around. He crouched behind what remained, his mind quickly sifting through his options.

There was only one thing to do. Audie couldn’t defeat the witch. She was far too powerful. He would make a judicious retreat and rejoin Grimm and Yeira. The three of them could plan what to do next.

If Yeira was still speaking to him.

The rock face exploded again and Audie ducked as large chunks of it rained down. He called to his guide magics, praying the rock would hold long enough for him to find the void.

The energy moved slowly through the magic-drenched air.

Something heavy slithered against his leg and Audie twitched away, trying to focus on gathering energy. Another heavy bump against the opposite leg had him looking down, just as a black snake as thick as his arm lifted from the ground, mere inches from his thigh, and opened an impossibly wide mouth, showing inch-long, curved fangs.

The snake struck and Audie threw his hard-won magics at it, disintegrating the thing in a geyser of black blood and gore.

A cool, dry length wrapped around Audie’s throat before he could react. A sibilant wash of air sounded in his ear. Audie leapt to his feet, tugging the snake’s tail until it let go with a hiss. He sent it flying toward the witch, but it disintegrated in a puff of black smoke.

Through the smoky air, a husky, disembodied chuckle told him the witch was having some fun at his expense.

Audie swore as the ground all around him swayed and slithered. At least a dozen of the things circled him, bright eyes spitting hostility as wide jaws opened and tongues tasted the air.

The circle of snakes tightened.

He stepped back and another dense, black body writhed angrily as he trod on it, the snake’s muscular body flying off the ground. The fangs snapped closed a fraction of an inch from his leg. “Just freaking great!” he yelled as he slashed at it with his sword. The blade went through the reptile like it was made of mist and it disintegrated.

The oversized black snakes were everywhere. He was on his tiptoes as he dodged thick, writhing body after thick writhing form. Audie swung his sword, slashing a bit hysterically as they lunged and struck. The snakes all had black, iridescent scales that flashed green and gold in the drifting rays of the sun. Their eyes, unnaturally bright, were green, with bands of gold around them.

Their impossibly long fangs dripped green venom that sizzled when it struck the dirt.

Audie had never seen snakes like the dozen or so slithering toward him as he tried to back away.

The rock took another hit and the snakes scattered as shards pierced the ground.

Audie started to run, trying to keep an eye on the infested floor of the wood as he ran. A snake dropped on him from a tree branch and Audie snatched at it, smashing it into a tree before flinging it away.

Apparently the witch grew tired of playing with him. Edwige’s magic sang and the ground behind Audie exploded, sending thick black bodies into the air.

Audie’s gaze slid around the woods as he ran, looking for a sheltered spot to gather his magics. He found a tight copse of three huge trees and tucked himself out of sight within it. Lifting his palm, he quickly called the guide energy again and watched impatiently while the power sifted toward him from the surrounding woods.

The magic was a dull, lackluster blue and came slowly, wafting toward him in thin streams. Either he was still weak from the power word or the witch’s presence in the wood was somehow dampening the lighter energies.

He briefly considered using another power word against Edwige, but with his wounds and his already fatigued system, he would have only one shot. If the word failed, he’d never get out of the wood alive. So he stuck to his original plan, gathering his translocational magics.

The world softened and the abyss pulled him in…embracing him. Audie sighed in relief as it started to tug him away. He was going to make it.

The tree-cocoon shattered. A wall of fire rose up around him. Audie twisted away from the raging flames as they licked at his clothing, sizzled against his skin. For one horrible moment he was stuck, unable to move forward or back.

The void vibrated and another man moved toward him through the abyss, a man he recognized all too well.

Audie braced himself. He couldn’t retreat through the wall of fire at his back.

The slender, ethereally beautiful man with the chin-length blond hair and amused blue eyes walked up to him, smiled, and went on past, exiting the void with a pop. Audie’s body twisted sideways and, with a snap of air, the physical world released its hold on him and he finally surged into the void.

As soon as her feet touched the ground, Yeira jerked free and swung around, power crackling at her fingertips. Grimm leapt to the side as she flung the sizzling, silver energy toward his heart and it exploded a large-leafed plant instead, sending sand flying skyward in a geyser.

He rolled and came up on his feet, a sword in one hand and a dangerous gleam in his eye. “Just tamp it down, Yeira. I’m not your enemy.”

“Where are we?”

“North Carolina, United States of America. We’re in the twenty-first epoch. Before the wars. It’s where Audie told me to bring you.”

She stood before him, energy crackling and chest heaving with rage. “Give me your bluestone.”

“No. Audie would kill me.”

“Audie’s the reason I need your stone. She’ll kill him as easily as she takes a breath.”

Grimm shook his head. “He made me promise.”

Yeira took a step in his direction, rage flowing off her in sparking waves.

The hunter lifted his sword, holding it before him in two hands and taking a battle stance. “Don’t make me use this, Yeira.”

“I don’t want to fight you, Grimm. I just want your stone.”

“He’ll be here in a few minutes. If you leave now, you’ll miss him.”

He said it so calmly, so matter-of-factly, that Yeira almost believed him. The energy started to settle back, sliding back under her skin. “What are you and Audie up to, anyway?”

Grimm slowly lowered his sword and rested the tip in the sand, leaning on it while keeping a wary eye on her. “The same thing you’re up to. We want Edwige stopped.”

“Audie can’t stop her.”

“He knows that. He only wanted to distract her long enough for you to get away.”

Yeira blinked. He’d risked himself to save her? Then, remembering what she’d admitted in front of him, she frowned. “I doubt he’ll be interested in saving me now.”

Grimm gave her a sad smile. “You mean because he heard you’re Edwige’s daughter?”

She flushed, realizing he wasn’t surprised. “You knew?”

“It’s hardly a secret in reborn circles.”

She blinked, shocked he’d admit what he was. “Why, Grimm?”

As her anger slipped away Grimm visibly relaxed. “Why did I infiltrate the hunters?”

“Yes.”

“Several reasons. The most obvious one was to keep an eye on the Authority, helping our people whenever I could.”

“But you have a reputation as one of their fiercest hunters. How could you betray the reborn like that?”

He shook his head, his gaze darkening with emotion under her accusation. “I steered them away from the good ones…the reborn formed from life, rather than death.”

She thought about this for a moment, considering. She’d always known some of them were different, but she didn’t know why. There must have been others, like her, who hadn’t been dead when Edwige used her foul magics on them. Those reborn still bore the shadow of their humanity, and all the things that went with it. “So you protected some nests and helped the hunters exterminate others?”

“I’m not proud of it but…yes.”

Yeira inclined her chin. “Okay, you said there were several reasons.”

“I wanted to join them because I believe in their cause. Like you, I realized a long time ago that some of the reborn needed to be exterminated to stop Edwige’s black plague across the worlds and times.”

She waiting, knowing there was more.

He looked away, his jaw tight. “This isn’t the right time or place, but I don’t think you’re going to cooperate unless I tell you, so…”

When he hesitated, she prompted. “Go on.”

“I did it to stay close to you.”

She blinked, shocked by his admission. “Me? I’ve done all I could to avoid the Sorceri.”

His lips curved upward. “That might be, but Kord has done everything he could to stay near
you
.”

“To kill me, yes.” As always when she thought about it, bitter regret spiked over Audie’s crusade to exterminate her.

“You’re a fool if you believe that.”

Her head snapped up at his words, anger rising. “What the hell are you talking about, Grimm? He nearly killed me the last time we met on the battlefield. If I hadn’t fled…”

“He didn’t kill you, did he? He had ample opportunity to do it. Others wanted to flood the warehouse and exterminate you. Kord drew them back and went himself. He saw you, didn’t he? Gravely injured. Did he plunge his knives deep? Did he slice off your head?”

Doubt crowded out the anger and Yeira’s gaze slid away to hide her confusion from Grimm. “You’re wrong.” She blinked, amazed as tears flooded her eyes. She had to think about something else. Anything else. “Why were you stalking me?”

“We need you—the light reborn. We need you to defeat Edwige. And we need you to…lead us.”