Thrall (41 page)

Ais was fast and strong, even outside of her Lilitu form. But Gretchen and I together were formidable. I heard Lucas give a hoarse yell of triumph. I’d never felt so capable, so powerful. Gretchen and I moved in concert, each of us sensing the other’s intentions. The daggers became extensions of our hands as we drove Ais back toward the locked door. Ais fought us, trying to slow our progress. Our blades opened slashes across her arms and shoulders.

Growing desperate, Ais lunged between us. Our blades sliced twin lines along her back and we turned as one, both determined to keep Ais away from Lucas. Though his eyes were still lidded with pain, he leaned forward, focused on every movement of our blades.

As we hemmed Ais into the far corner of the room, she started laughing. I felt Gretchen tense, and we hesitated, wary. Ais’ laughter swelled.

“You poor creatures. Fighting so hard for every insignificant victory. The Ancients are reawakening. An army of my sisters is waiting to storm the Wall and reclaim this Earth. Even if you kill me, another will pave the way for their return.” She sighed, letting her smile deepen. “But I think if you could kill me... you would have done so already.”

Ais’ words sent shivers of dread through me, pulling me out of the moment. Gretchen lunged forward, but I hesitated. It was just the opening Ais needed. Ais collided with Gretchen, driving Gretchen past me, back into the center of the room.

“Gretchen!” Lucas tried to stand, but he was too weak from the blood loss. He fell back into the chair, woozy. I felt frozen, watching the fight helplessly from the sidelines.

Gretchen swung her dagger for Ais’ face. Ais knocked it out of Gretchen’s hand with a powerful backhanded swipe. As Gretchen lost her balance, Ais caught Gretchen’s arm and wrenched it painfully behind her. I heard a snap and Gretchen clamped her teeth shut around a growl of agony. Ais grabbed Gretchen by the back of the neck and swung her around with great force, sending her sprawling to the floor. Gretchen slid into a bank of filing cabinets. Her head knocked against the base of a cabinet by Lucas’ chair. Lucas forced himself to move, dropping to Gretchen’s side. Gretchen was still. Lucas looked up at me, his face ashen. I don’t know if there was blame in his eyes. I didn’t need to see it to feel it coursing through my veins. We’d been so close. And in one careless moment, our advantage was lost.

Galvanized by horror, I leapt toward Ais. She fell back before my wild swings. But it was panic more than skill that drove me forward. I pressed my attack, pushing Ais closer and closer to the office door. If I could reach it, if I could open it, we might get help. Ais kept dodging back out of reach, gauging my movements. When I finally faltered, she was ready. She caught my wrist and wrenched Gretchen’s dagger out of my hand.

I stood face-to-face with her, unarmed. She grabbed the front of my shirt and jerked me off my feet, slamming my back against the office door.

“What am I going to do with you?” Ais leaned in close, giving me a look that would have been almost tender if it weren’t for the malice in her smile. I felt more than saw her shoulder move, and my body jerked against the wood of the door.

Pain came crashing through in the next moment - untempered by any relief - so strong my vision doubled. Ais had stabbed me through the left shoulder with Gretchen’s dagger. She’d driven the blade through with such force that it had pierced the door behind me, pinning me in place. A hoarse moan clawed its way out of my throat. Ais watched me, unblinking.

“I warned you of the price of betrayal. But before I let you die, it’s only justice for you to feel some of the pain you’ve caused me.”

I could see Lucas and Gretchen over Ais’ shoulder. Gretchen rolled to one side, and then laid back, hand clamped to her head. Lucas swayed over her, fighting dizziness. I was blocking their only escape. We had come this far, only to fail. Dina’s life, snuffed out in less than a second. Gretchen and Lucas, with all their training, still no match for the creature before me. And the Guard... Where was Hale? Where were our soldiers? Unless the Thrall had overwhelmed them? Images spilled into my head of Dad, cornered, fighting for his life.

Ais watched my face for a few moments, and then touched my forehead. But there was no cold spreading through my mind. I smiled hollowly. At least she couldn’t read my thoughts.

Ais lowered her hand and tilted her head to one side. “I don’t have to read your thoughts to know what you’re thinking,” she murmured. “You’re thinking it can’t get any worse. But you’re wrong. Just wait and see.”

Why had we come here? I rolled my head to the side in defeat, wanting only to escape Ais’ stare. Over her shoulder, I met Lucas’ eyes and I remembered why.

Lucas held my gaze, steady, determined. He rose to his feet, shaky. Gretchen’s dagger gleamed in his hand. His eyes dropped to the ground beside me. I followed his gaze and saw the hilt of Semangelof’s sword just peeking out from under the table.

Ais turned to face Lucas. “So fragile,” she said. Lucas stared at me, swaying, and I knew what he needed.

“
Fight,
” I said, summoning the last of the strength I’d gleaned from Matt.
The call
came through, weaker than I wanted, but I felt the words, pushing through the air between us.

Lucas was ready, aching for the power of that command. When
the call
reached him, he straightened, eyes sharpening. “You bet your ass I will.”

Ais tensed, her attention riveted on Lucas. There was no time to waste. I nudged the chair away from the doorknob with my knee. I tried to fumble with the door’s lock, but my left hand was useless – any movement sent searing waves of pain shooting across my shoulder and down my arm. I tried to reach it with my right hand, but twisting my body caused another wave of sickening pain. There was only one thing I could do.

I gripped the hilt of the dagger with my right hand. It didn’t budge. I leaned forward, pushing against the searing pain in my shoulder, biting my tongue to keep from screaming out.

Lucas, watching out of the corner of his eye, timed his lunge to the moment the dagger came free from the door. I choked back a gasp of pain and dropped to my hands and knees.

Ais didn’t hear me. She was moving to counter Lucas’ attack. He dodged back quickly, stumbling, his grip unsteady on the dagger.

My hand closed around the pommel of Semangelof’s sword. I pulled it out from under the table. It made a soft whisper as the blade swept against the cheap linoleum floor. The dagger was still embedded in my left shoulder – I didn’t trust myself to pull it out without fainting. My left arm hung uselessly at my side, and every movement threatened to blind me with pain. I forced all of this to the back of my mind and rose with the sword in my right hand. I walked toward Ais, forcing myself to place one foot in front of the other. My sense of balance was off. I had to use the sword as a crutch, leaning on it to keep from falling over.

Lucas had dropped back before Ais. When he backed into a wall, he threw his hands up in a gesture of surrender. “Wait.”

Ais faced him, confident. “There is no mercy for the sons of Adam.”

I planted my feet on the floor and shifted the sword behind one leg, hoping to keep it out of Ais’ view for as long as possible. “Don’t hurt him,” I said. The door behind me opened.

“Braedyn, I’m here!” I heard Dad’s voice, but I didn’t turn.

Ais’ eyes slid past me to the entering Guard. But instead of drawing back in fear, Ais smirked. Something was wrong. “Excellent timing,” she murmured.

Ais raised her hands, and two curtains of rippling shadow emerged behind her. Her wings, both whole, extended to the high ceiling. “
Come to me,
” she said.

Her voice shook the air. I heard Dad enter the room. Ais laughed at my confusion.

“I’m nearly two thousand years old,” she said. “Full of the life energy of a hundred men. I heal fast.” Her eyes slid back to my dad, moving toward her like a puppet. She took a few steps closer, smug with anticipated triumph. “Did you honestly think I would have let your little soldiers in here if there were any chance they might prevail? You’ve lived too long with the humans, child. You have no instincts, no understanding of your powers, and very soon you’ll have no father left to save you.”

“I have one thing you don’t have,” I said, my grip tightening on the pommel of the sword.

“Oh?” Ais flicked an idle glance at me, amused. “What’s that?” When I didn’t answer, her eyes shifted back to my father, gleaming in anticipation.

I only knew one sword move - the lunge attack Hale had taught me in the last of our practice sessions. It took Ais straight through the heart in one clean motion.

Ten minutes later, I sat on the floor as Lucas knelt behind me and wrapped his good arm across my chest, bracing me. I leaned back against him, letting the pain wash over me, not fighting it.

“I never should have doubted you,” he whispered into my ear. “When I felt you in my mind... when I heard you... in that moment I knew you completely. How I ever let myself think you were one of them...” His voice sang with recrimination.

“You heard me?” I asked, feeling a heat rushing into my cheeks.

In answer, Lucas just chuckled softly. Dad stirred in the club chair. He was still a little out of it, but he was coming around. I could still hear the sounds of a battle downstairs, but it didn’t sink in. Ais was dead. Didn’t that mean we’d won?

I saw Gretchen across the room, rooting through boxes. Her arm had been dislocated, not broken. With Lucas’ help, she’d managed to slam the joint back into place with no more than a hiss of pain.

My whole body tensed as Gretchen returned to us, dousing a clean bar rag with vodka. “Top shelf,” she said appreciatively. “But I doubt that will make this any easier.”

I felt Lucas’ arm tighten around my chest. “I do love you,” he whispered.

And then Gretchen pulled the dagger free from my shoulder, and I passed out the good, old-fashioned, human way.

Dad, Lucas, Gretchen and I stumbled down the steps a few minutes later. I had revived quickly, thanks in no small part to the vodka Gretchen had poured liberally over my shoulder. It had sent a stabbing, burning pain to chase me back to consciousness. Judging from the smell rising off of Lucas, she’d treated him in the same fashion while I had been out. As we reached the bottom of the stairs, Gretchen squeezed my good arm gently.

“They’ll need your help with the Thrall,” Gretchen said. I stared at her, uncomprehending. “Every Thrall will follow the last order Ais gave them until they die,” Gretchen explained. “Unless we stop them. You need to use
the call
again. Do you understand?”

I nodded, but the fight upstairs had weakened me. I wasn’t sure what I’d be able to do.

We stepped into the hallway. I felt my stomach drop unexpectedly. I couldn’t see any Guard soldiers. A handful of Thrall saw us from the club and surged forward. That drew the attention of others. Gretchen stepped in front of us to meet the first attackers, blades in hand.

“Go back,” she shouted. “Barricade the door. Don’t come out until I tell you it’s safe!”

“We’re not leaving you,” Lucas said. Gretchen ignored him, bracing for the onslaught.

“
Stop!
” I shouted. I felt
the call
forming, but I lacked the strength to force a connection. The Thrall charging for us didn’t even hesitate. We retreated up the stairs as the Thrall advanced. I tried to summon
the call
again, but it would not come. There was chaos in the club beyond us. With a sick dread, I knew people were dying.

“
Stop fighting!
” Another voice rang out, clear and powerful. Chimes crackled through the air as
the call
flooded through the cramped club.

On the stairs, Gretchen and I traded a wondering look. I pushed past Gretchen and ran into the hall. I could see the club beyond. The crowd of Thrall had stopped fighting. Their fists had dropped to their sides. Their faces had eased into vacant expressions.

I edged further into the club, stunned. I could see Guardsmen, grouped into corners and behind the bar. I saw more than one bloody face, but at least ten soldiers were still on their feet.