Torment (Soul Savers Book 6) (45 page)

Tristan shot another
fireball at him, and Lucas chuckled once again as he caught it in his
hand. He grew the ball of flames between his palms until it became
big enough to engulf him. Then he and the fire rose off the railing
and into the air.

“I wonder,
Alexis, who you’re going to try to save first this time. Not
that there’s a chance in hell that anyone will survive in the
long run, but for now, who will you run to first? Your people? The
Normans? Or your son?” His voice deepened even more and
crackled with the fire, sounding almost demonic. “And don’t
fool yourself for a moment that Dorian stayed with the Normans. He’s
not that stupid. I’d say he’s reached Noah by now.”

He rose higher into the
air, his eyes glowing brightly and his white-blond hair curling
upwards to look more like horns jutting out of his head. And the way
he hung there, the way the flames danced around him so that you could
almost see the shape of bat wings for a moment, and then a tail the
next, he took on the appearance of Satan himself. With a wicked grin,
he clapped his hands together and the sound thundered loudly over the
earth. The ground rumbled and buildings along the Mall began to
crumble and fall.

A flash of light shone
in the far distance, faint and small from here, but probably blinding
up close.

“There goes
Richmond,” Lucas said, his tone sharp, filled with a demented
thrill. Another flash sparked to our right. “And Baltimore. See
what I mean about the Normans? So eager to destroy. Like I said, you
can’t stop this.”

And then he
disappeared.

Orange glows dotted the
horizon all around us, illuminating several mushroom clouds rising
into the air.

“Oh, fuck,”
Vanessa breathed.

“Cruz and Rene,
you know what to do,” Victor said as he pierced us with his
ice-blue eyes.

The two women nodded,
spun, and launched themselves down the stairs, their bodies exploding
into their Were-forms before their paws hit the ground. The jaguar
and the cheetah ran toward the Mall and the Washington Monument.

“Who are you
going to save,
sisters
?” Victor asked, saying that last
word as though his tongue molested it. “Don’t worry about
the Normans we have. They’re tucked safely away. Of course …
there’s
your
Normans halfway across the city. I wonder
if they have any clue what’s coming for them. And then there’s
the boy and Noah.”

“Dorian,” I
whispered.

“Don’t
worry. Edmund and I will get them.” The words had barely left
his lips when a large, white shape swooped down, grabbed him in her
mouth and shook her head like a normal dog shakes a toy. Sasha flung
Victor off the landing, and his body soared into a tree below. She
picked up a shocked Edmund next and flew off with him clamped tightly
in her jaw.

I turned to Tristan.
“Do you think Dorian’s—”

“GO!”
Tristan barked at Vanessa and Owen, cutting me off as he grabbed my
hand. “Go to the others and take them underground. Hurry! We’ll
get Noah—and Dorian if he’s really there.”

Owen and Vanessa
disappeared with two pops, and Tristan led me for the flash. We left
the steps of the Capitol building and appeared at the bottom of the
stairs of the Jefferson Monument. Balls of fire streaked across the
sky and slammed into Earth, sending chunks of dirt and grass flying.
What looked like black crystals also shot out of the air. Two crashed
into the ground thirty yards away from us and shattered on impact
with two creatures exploding from the shards.

My heart stopped in my
chest.

Their horned heads
twisted on their human-like bodies as they looked around, as though
orienting themselves. Thickly muscled arms, powerful looking chests,
and trunk-sized legs were covered in mottled skin that changed
colors, as though they’d been bathing in motor oil. Their
glowing red eyes landed on Tristan and me, huge leathery wings rose
from their backs, and their mouths stretched open, revealing rows of
sharp teeth. The darkest depths of evil poured out of them, as if
they’d risen from the pits of Hell itself. I had a feeling they
had. Fear wrapped itself around me.

With two flaps each,
the creatures rose from the ground and flew at us.

“Get Dorian,”
Tristan barked, snapping me out of my frozen state, and he shoved me
up the steps before turning to fight the Demons.

Ignoring the warmth of
pain still pulsing in my belly, I sprinted up the stairs, and
although my telepathy refused to work again, I sensed the two souls
inside. When I reached the top of the stairs, a fireball blasted into
the domed roof. Chunks of stone rained down.

“Dorian!” I
yelled as I swerved to avoid the falling debris. I ran into the
portico. Two bodies stood on the far side, one much bigger than the
other. The smaller one, still taller than me, grabbed the other one
and launched himself straight upward. “NO! Dorian!”

He soared over the top
of the building with Noah in his arms, narrowly missing a hunk of
black ice that slammed into the far side of the memorial. The ground
shook. More debris fell. I sprinted across the portico, but new words
painted in blood on one of the walls stopped me in my tracks.

“We don’t
belong with you. I have to do this. Don’t try to follow.”

Oh, no. Oh, God, no!
Please don’t do this to me.

I wanted to drop to the
ground, to shrivel up and die, but I ran back for the other side.
Halfway down the steps, Tristan fought with three Demons now as he
tried to make his way up here.

“Dorian!” I
screamed desperately at the top of my lungs as I searched the sky for
my son, but I knew in my breaking heart that I wouldn’t find
him. He was gone. My son had done the inevitable that I’d
fought against for so long.

Sasha landed next to
me, the fur around her muzzle stained red.

“Go after
Dorian,” I ordered her, pointing to the sky, but she ignored
me. Instead she went after one of the Demons Tristan fought,
following it into the sky when it flew away.

I ran down several
steps, shooting electricity at one of the others still fighting my
husband. With a noisy flap of wings, it launched itself at me. Its
powerful claws grabbed my shoulders, digging into my skin as it flew
upward several feet, and then it threw me back to the ground. I
crashed into the rotunda and rolled across the marble floor with the
impact reverberating through every bone. With a grunt, I pushed
myself to my hands and knees. A loud sound thundered overhead,
shaking the whole stone and marble building, and I looked up.

The far side of the
roof collapsed, boulder-sized chunks of marble falling to the floor.
Cracks splintered across the ceiling and down the walls. I pushed
myself to my feet and spun back toward the steps and Tristan. A huge
piece of marble fell from the ceiling in front of me, breaking into
pieces on impact, destroying the phrase I’d read earlier so
only “god,” “hostility,” and “tyranny”
could be read. More snapping and cracking in the walls, and the words
“all men are created equal” crumbled before me, along
with “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

The world and
everything I knew was falling apart around me.

I tried to move again,
to run for Tristan, but a heavy weight immobilized me—the
weight of complete and utter failure. My heart and soul broke for all
that had been lost, shattering along with the pieces of marble that
crashed down around me, knocking me to the floor. Despair wracked
through my every cell, ripping me apart from within. I looked outward
at the blazing sky as I collapsed facedown, unable to fight the truth
anymore. The sensation that engulfed me was not one I could easily
brush my fingers over, drag off and flick away. This girdle of misery
was something I’d live with until my dying day and beyond.

I’d be tormented
forever, not by what Lucas had done, but by my own failure to stop
him. Because I could do nothing now. Nothing for the world. Nothing
for my people. Nothing for myself nor my son nor my husband, who
still fought, trying to protect us from evil to the bitter end.

I’d tried, and
I’d failed.

It took me a long
moment to realize that more than the heaviness of my emotions weighed
me down. A chunk of roof had fallen, crushing my body to the floor
and pinning me facedown. Not even with my inhuman strength could I
move it from this position, and I called for Tristan, but my voice
came out weak. He’d never hear me over his battle with the
Demons. I let my head fall, my cheek pressing against the cool marble
floor.

Barely conscious, I lay
at the top of the stone steps with the stately Thomas Jefferson
behind me, and gazed over the Potomac River Tidal Basin at the scene
of annihilation before me. I tried one more time to scream my love’s
name as fire and ice fell from the sky.

Hell stormed down on
Earth, ending life as we knew it.

“Alexis! Dorian!”
Tristan’s voice carried from what sounded like far away,
although I knew he was close.

I opened my mouth to
answer him, but could only scream from the excruciating agony that
tore through my back and shoulders. My bones felt as though they were
breaking, and my skin was shredding to pieces. Clenching my jaw, I
pushed myself to my hands and knees, and focused on trying to breathe
as the pain momentarily subsided.

“Tristan,”
I gasped as my muscles tensed, readying for another onslaught I felt
rippling from the inside out.

“Alexis! Dorian!”
he yelled again, panic filling his voice now.

A wail ripped from my
insides, my only answer. My back arched up like a cat’s and
then down as more pain exploded from my spine. Panting, I fought to
catch my breath. The pain rolled away again, and I rocked back on my
heels and pressed my palms to my thighs to stand. My entire body
ached, and I felt like a two-ton weight was strapped to my back.

“Alexis!”
Tristan’s voice came closer, yet still muffled and distant.
“Dorian!”

“Here,” I
called out to him. He finally ran into what remained of the rotunda,
hurdling over the piles of rubble that had once been the domed roof.
The sky lightened above us with dawn, illuminating his fretful face,
bruised and battered, as were his arms.

“Dorian! Alexis!”
he yelled again as his eyes darted around the demolished building.

“I’m right
here,” I repeated, trying to yell louder. “I’m
okay!”

Sort of. I was sure I
would be after my body healed whatever back injury I’d
suffered. It seemed to be already on its way.

Tristan’s gaze
swept everywhere but failed to land on me. Instead, it fell on the
pile of marble and stone at my feet.

“Oh, no. Oh,
fuck. Alexis!” He lifted a boulder and threw it to the side.
“God, no.
Please
no.”

“What are you
doing? What’s wrong?” The fear and anguish in his voice
scared the hell out of me.

He threw off another
chunk of stone and boomed out, “NOOOO!”

The desperate sound
broke me. Tears streamed down my face, and I didn’t know why.
Dorian had flown away. Right? Wherever he’d gone, I was
positive that he couldn’t possibly be buried under this pile.
So what did Tristan see that had him so devastated? It couldn’t
be what he thought. I wanted to hold him and hug him and tell him it
would be okay. But I couldn’t move, and he couldn’t hear
me. And then I looked away from his desperate yet lovely face and
down at what he had found. My breath caught in my throat.

Legs with familiar
boots pinned under another slab of marble. A midsection soaking in a
pool of blood. A small, pale hand.

Tristan lifted the last
two pieces and threw them to the side. He bent down in an unusually
disgraceful way, slipped in the blood and fell next to her. His whole
body trembling, he slid his arms under her, wrapped them around her
torso, and pulled her limp body to his chest, one hand against the
back of her head, holding her tightly.

I shook my head in
denial at the sight, straightening up as I tried to make sense of it
all. Movement behind me made me jump and spin on my heel. Whatever
had been back there disappeared, but something white moved behind me
once more. I spun again, but every time I moved, it did, too. I
looked over my shoulder, turning in place, but it remained in my
peripheral vision. Realizing I acted like a puppy chasing its tail, I
stopped. The movement behind me ceased, too.

But in front of me
stood three women, looking all angel-like with their huge wings
lifted and spread as though they were about to take flight. I grinned
at first, happy to see Mom, Rina, and Cassandra, but almost
immediately my smile faltered, and then slid away. Behind them, in
the distance, standing with other people in a white mist that faded
in and out, were Winston, Stefan, and Solomon. I shook my head, not
understanding, and my gaze came back to Mom. My heart stuttered and
tilted as I glanced at her wings, and my brow furrowed as I looked
over my shoulder again. Now I knew what I’d seen moving before.
As though appreciating the acknowledgement of their existence, my own
wings lifted from my back and spread wide.

What the hell?
I
thought but didn’t dare to voice.

I noticed the clean
freshness of the air for the first time and inhaled its clear, crisp
scent. It didn’t match the scene of fire and destruction
surrounding us. My frown deepened as I looked at my wings again, then
at my mom and my grandmother, and then at my sobbing husband.

“Tristan,”
I breathed, falling to my knees and trying to reach out for him, but
unable to touch him, to comfort him.

He rocked back and
forth, holding her body close with the most devastating and
heart-wrenching expression I’d ever seen. Her chestnut colored
hair spilled over his hand and arm as he clutched her to his chest as
though if he let go, he’d fall completely apart.