United Eden (20 page)

Go! Paul yel ed as the man who had it out for me began to stir.

I did, running and leaping past him, having nothing but a smile and a hand running over his back in passing. A smile and a touch for a man that would very likely die here today. Save some for me, I hol ered back, not able to let a serious moment be my last with Paul Lowe. Wed end things like wed started them.

His eyes swept around the room as he readied his body to meet the charging man. I real y dont think that wil be a problem.

My laugh of reply was sad, but it was al I had for him as I ran towards the sealed doors leading into the bal room. I wasnt sure if Id find any one in there, but I couldnt let it go uninvestigated.

I shoved through the ten foot tal doors, closing them noiselessly behind me. I didnt need or want to be fol owed. Turning to inspect the al but silent dark room, my knees gave out. I would have fal en to them had I not stil hand my hands braced over the doorknobs.

It was like Id just awakened from a nightmare to find it hadnt been a nightmare at al , but the sweetest kind of dream in comparison to what I saw before me now.

At the center of the massive bal room was a long table to which a few dozen chairs were fitted around. At the far end of this table were a handful of Inheritors surrounding a man laying prostrate over the table, John at the head of the man. I shook my head, sure the body I was seeing splayed out on the table wasnt him, it couldnt be. It was a trick of the eyes, a mirage of my deepest fears. It wasnt Wil iams eyes that were fading into shadows before me as a team of men lead by John neared their goal.

I screamed, shril and without the restraint of volume, the kind that would have had the men covering their ears if they werent so intent on ending the life of the man I loved.

The faces stayed focused, not looking my way, but one did. John managed a smile through his concentration, eyes lifting to the mezzanine floor above as a flood of men rained from over the railing.

Just when I thought this day couldnt get any better, John said, his smile pul ing tighter as the army of men came at me. I rushed forward, no plan, no strategy in mind other than getting to Wil iam. That was al that mattered in our end. That we were together in life and, now, in death.

An audience to my greatest victory yet, John said, as the swarm of men scattered over me. The day I kil the chosen one. The day Immortals wil discover the prophecies are false and our ancient, antiquated ways are in need of an overhaul.

I lost sight of the cluster surrounding Wil iam as I crumbled beneath the weight of an endless sea of bodies fal ing over me, but I was a Taker, in ful mastery and ownership of my gift. John had the numbers, but I had the hand of death to be dealt out to any who fel victim to a touch of my skin.

I heard the shrieks and felt the convulsions of the men closest to me on the pile as their bodies rol ed to the ground, freeing me. I leapt up, already surrounded by another circle of men ready to stal me however they could, but these ones had witnessed their counterparts dying instantly and looked a bit more reluctant to throw themselves down on me.

Knowing I couldnt wait around for them to come to me with Wil iams life siphoning from him, I charged towards the ones in front of me, arms outstretched.

That wil be quite enough of that I think, a voice cal ed out from above me. I didnt need to look up to know it was Troy, but a fluttering glass sound vibrated around me, shifting my eyes up. I couldnt have looked up at a worse time. I noticed Troy for a flash as he flew off of something down to join his comrades because it was the smal island of a chandelier careening towards me that seemed the more urgent of the two threats.

I was correct in which of the two posed the greater risk to me, but I was incorrect in the amount of time I had to leap away from it. The chandelier couldnt have struck me more dead-on. I crashed to the ground beneath it, hearing and feeling the crystal breaking against the hard surfaces it smashed into, including my body.

It was as close as Id felt to having the wind knocked out of me as an Immortal and I wouldnt be alive if I was stil Mortal. But Troys purpose hadnt been to kil me, it had been to distract me.

Theres our little Juliet, Stel a purred, sliding her hand into mine. I didnt think I could have felt worse after being on the bad side of a head-on col ision with a few ton chandelier coming from three floors up, but Stel as touch proved to me yet again just how wrong I was about a lot of things.

Come on, she sneered, pul ing me by the wrist across the floor, bits and pieces of the same chandelier Wil iam and I had danced under stil stuck to or in me. Lets watch Romeo die.

She dragged me to the end of the table, where the men were stil working over Wil iam, so near to their objective. Sliding her hands under my arms, she lifted my broken body and laid me out over the table, not a foot away from Wil iam.

His eyes were a stage away from vacant, not even able to connect with mine with the intimacy I was so familiar with. His skin had christened from copper to gray and his cheeks and eyes were sinking into the depths of his skul . He was more dead than alive.

I concentrated on forcing my gift to the surface like Id never wanted it to more, but it was like turning a key over in a car without a battery. No matter how hard or how many times I tried, I was powerless.

When that failed, I tried to fight. Tried to bite, claw, kick, and squirm my way out of Stel as hold, but I was a newborn lamb in the claws of a lion.

Like the lamb, the only fight I could put up was a scream.

Stop it, its useless, Stel a snapped, grabbing the back of my neck as I snapped my head back and forth, trying anything to fight. She smacked my head down on the table, twisting it towards Wil iam and holding it there. Watch him, you little twit. Youre going to watch him die.

My body was stil shaking, but it wasnt in fight, it was trembling in realization. Wil iam was seconds from death, seconds from the one thing Id tried with everything in my power to keep him away from. Wil iam, I said, my voice shaking worse than my body.

His eyes traced over to mine, the hint of confusion evident in the pul of his eyebrows. He was already so far gone he didnt recognize me.

Im right here with you. I wont leave you, I vowed, hoping my words would make their way into the fading pieces of his consciousness and would give him comfort.

John chuckled, his eyes burning into me. I must extend my thanks for delivering Wil iam to me on a silver platter. This whole thing worked out even better than Id planned, John said, his voice wavering, tel ing he was experiencing a physical tol .

He waited for me to reply, to make further inquiry into his insanity, but I was done with trying to figure out him, the Inheritors, Immortality . . . and life in general. Cora and Abigail were right when they said that, in the end, theres nothing that matters except unconditional frickin love. I was done with the rest of it.

Bryns a little preoccupied at the moment, Stel a answered John, cackling in between. Let me be her voiceover. Clearing her throat, she said, Why, John, whatever are you talking about? she lowered her voice a few notes and added an embel ished school girl wistfulness to the tone.

He grinned at her. This was never about you. You were only the piece of irresistible bait I needed to dangle in front of him.

Whatever do you mean? I thought I was the one you wanted. Why wouldnt I be, with my sub-standard looks and dimwitted personality? Stel a cackled again, in response to her attempts at playing me or Wil iams eyes further fal ing, I wasnt sure.

Youre pretty enough to look at and I have to admit that fiery attitude of yours turns me on like nothing else, but theres a mil ion more of you out there, darling. Johns eyes bored through me. Once I knew who Wil iam was and what the Guardians assumed he was, you became nothing more than the carrot at the end of a pole, dangling just out of reach until I got him exactly where I wanted him. John looked down, his face victorious. Right here. Dying at my hands and with his death, I also kil whatever hope the Guardians had of overthrowing me.

Wil iams body suddenly shook, tapering off into a tremble, something unintel igible drifting from his lips before they closed in unison with his eyes. The man I loved was gone. Here a moment ago, gone forever in the next.

I win, John sneered, growling over his face,
. . . chosen one.

My eyes fel two heartbeats after Wil iams, about to beg John and his assassins to turn to me next. I now understood why Juliet saw no other choice than to fal chest first into that dagger or why my grandma had died of natural causes not even a week after my grandpa. Love had become the essence of their lives as it had mine. When it was gone there was nothing left. Nothing but the wrath and hate and upheaval storming around me.

There was no need to beg though because John came at me before Wil iams chest fel in its final breath. He flung the chairs away, his executioners fol owing behind him. I knew the pain that would be coming, it was something Id never forget, but I craved it. There was no worse pain than what was pulsing through me having just watched Wil iam die before me. His body losing the warmth Id coveted so many times, right beside me.

Dont worry, dear, youre next, John said, spinning me around so he could look me in the eyes. His were drunk with power and victory. Im sure mine were somewhat defiant, but mostly dead.

I was done with John Townsend, done looking at him, worrying about him, having nightmares about him, done with anything having to do with the grinning form of soul cancer before me. His malignancy had spread, corrupting the body of Immortality. He may have won in this life, but I was certain there was a next one after this and whoever and whatever ruled it would slam the gates shut before the likes of John Townsend would be al owed passage.

It was there Id find Wil iam. It was there we could live the kind of peaceful existence together wed always longed for. Death was the answer al along.

Fate might have been fickle and maybe even favored the fortunate, but one thing I did know”it was cruel.

I twisted my head towards Wil iam, ready to die, ready to fol ow him as I had at every juncture. But what I saw when I looked over at him didnt make sense, it couldnt have been possible. His body was shifting, flickering tiles turning over, starting from his head and moving down his body. I was so uncertain of what I was seeing I narrowed my eyes, blinking them a few times to be sure.

Stel a, John, and his men were busying themselves around me, savoring the moment, oblivious to what was happening inches away from them.

The shifting ended at his feet, the limp body before me eliciting everything from unbridled joy to fresh remorse in me. My life eclipsed from dark to light in a space of time so short it was incalculable.

Norberto laid next to me, where I thought Wil iam had moments ago. Hed morphed into Wil iam in an attempt to avoid a concentration on the real one and hed paid with his life. A life I knew he was wil ing to give in Wil iams defense, but it didnt ease the sorrow I felt staring at his young gentle face.

You look at me, John commanded, dril ing his index finger into my cheek and forcing it back to him.

Seeing John so smug, so sure hed just annihilated Wil iam and, along with it, the Guardians hope, made me laugh. I may be dead in the next minute, but the triumph of knowing Wil iam was stil out there, alive and fighting, couldnt go unreleased.

See if youre stil laughing through this, John said, dril ing his finger deeper as four others prepared to join it.

Thats the last finger you wil lay on her ever again, a voice boomed through the bal room, coming from the giant doors Id come through.

John froze, his smugness vanishing as quickly as itd appeared. Both our eyes, along with every other set in the room flew towards the voice, where a man stood like a last beacon of hope, quivering in his rage.

He looked like hed spent a weeks stint in hel and had to shovel, climb, and claw his way through legions of demons to get out. His clothes were torn, tarnished, and, in some places, missing. The exposed parts of his skin were blotched with the less favorable colors of the rainbow and substances of war. Id been more right about him leading the battle from the front of the line than Id wanted to be and he had the scars, battle wounds, and stories to go with it.

Wil iam! I yel ed, releasing my relief and my fear and every other emotion that somersaulted after.

John glanced back at the body splayed over the table, his eyes widening as he took in Norberto. He stared for another moment before composing himself, a smile settling into its proper level of smug as he looked back to Wil iam. Oh, goodie. That was a rather pathetic kil . I was expecting much more fight from the great chosen one, he said. No matter, though. I real y cant imagine anything better than kil ing you twice in the same day. Looking around the room, John yel ed, Boys, take him down. Hes alone, looks like hel just spit him out, and his powers are not even a tenth of what youve heard rumored.

The army of men hesitated, looking amongst themselves to see who would go first.

Im stil in hel and, while my powers might not be what theyre rumored to be, I can assure you I dont need anything more supernatural than my abhorrence for you to take out every Inheritor in here, Wil iam growled, scanning the room. And Im not alone, he said, shaking his head. I brought a couple friends.

Two more bodies flew down from the mezzanine, taking their spots on either side of Wil iam.

Am I supposed to be intimidated? John said, looking Patrick and Paul over like they were the least impressive Immortals hed seen.

Wil iams mouth curled at the corners. Youre about to be.

As his mouth closed, I knew Wil iam was done with words. He was done with John, just like I was. Only one of these two would be leaving this room today and I was not going to watch Wil iam die again.

John must have seen the same thing in Wil iam I did because his expression turned serious, but when his eyes glanced back to me, a glint sparked in them. Let the games begin, he said, reaching a hand high in the air before slapping it down towards my face.