He crossed his arms over his chest. “I don’t want you to worry about Hunter, though. He’ll be fine. We take care of our own.”
Who was Jarvis trying so hard to convince of that? It didn’t matter. Despite all the outlandish things he’d learned today, Chase felt pretty good about all of it. He fit in here. For the first time in his life he didn’t stand out because of his size or his temper or his weird ability to heal. Even his inborn aggression would be considered an asset instead of a danger.
Gwen wasn’t going to like his decision, but he couldn’t wait until he became a full-fledged Paladin. Even if he had to keep it secret, it would be enough to know that he had a purpose in life.
“Fuck, no!” Jarvis took off at a run to hit what looked like a fire alarm on a nearby wall. As soon as he did, a loud horn started blasting away.
“What’s wrong?” Chase shouted over the racket.
“The barrier!” Jarvis hollered back as Paladins came pouring into the cavern from all directions.
Chase turned back to the barrier and saw that the bright colors were gone, replaced by greens the color of pus, with pulsing streaks of black.
Jake came charging across the cavern carrying three swords. He tossed one to Jarvis and shoved the second into Chase’s hands. Chase clutched the pommel like a lifeline. As the Paladins formed up in ragged lines and faced the barrier, the klaxon shut off, leaving his ears ringing.
Jarvis snagged Chase’s arm and dragged him toward a narrow tunnel at one side of the cavern. “Chase, get back out of sight and stay there. The stairs and elevators are in lockdown to keep the bastards from escaping, so you’re trapped down here with us for the duration. There’s a small chance the barrier will stabilize, but no matter what, I don’t want you getting mixed up in this. Use that if one of the bastards gets past us, but don’t try to be a hero.”
Then he was off, running right up to the front of the formation. Chase fought the urge to follow him. What had he been training for, if not to fight? He inched farther forward until he could see into the main cavern. In a flash of light, the barrier blinked out. He blinked to clear his vision. Shadows were moving in the darkness that slowly took shape and form.
It looked like a scene straight out of hell. The shadows surged forward, becoming solid nightmares. The Others were built like humans, although their coloring was off. They shrieked and screamed as they swung their swords with reckless abandon, facing the equally determined Paladins. Blade on blade they fought. After a few seconds there were already bodies writhing on the floor, as blood-splattered swords arced through the air.
The noise was horrific as some men screamed in challenge and others in agony. One of the Paladins went down close to where Chase stood. The injured man barely got his sword up to block an attack from a second Other. Between one heartbeat and the next, Chase threw himself between the downed warrior and the bastard trying to kill them both.
The sword felt different from the one he was used to, awkward and slow to respond. Even so, he managed to hold the cold-eyed killer at bay long enough for the Paladin behind him to get up off the floor. Between the two of them, they forced the Other to back off.
“Thanks, kid, I’ll take it from here.” The Paladin shouldered him aside and charged his enemy, bellowing curses at the top of his lungs.
Chase retreated, knowing he’d be more of a hindrance than a help if he tried to do more. But it was hard to sit this out, seeing the men he’d just met bleeding and hurt.
His eyes automatically sought out the two men he knew best. Jarvis and Jake fought side by side, slowly forcing their opponents to give ground, gradually pushing them back to where the barrier had once stood.
If the situation hadn’t been so grim, he would have thought their grace and speed beautiful to watch. How could anyone move that fast with the heavy weight of steel in his hand? He’d never again complain about the endless repetitions of the training drills. Now that he knew that lives depended on his ability to fight, he would take whatever Jarvis dished out.
The barrier flickered in and out. A shout warned the Paladins, and they made one last concerted effort to push the Others back into the shadows of their own world. When the barrier finally snapped back into full strength, only a handful of the enemy was still standing on the wrong side. They were quickly eliminated, along with their wounded, while the Paladins started helping their own wounded up off the floor.
The violence ended as abruptly as it had started. Now that it was over, Chase threw up, his stomach wrenching in painful spasms. When his gut had emptied itself, he leaned against the tunnel wall for support. When he was sure he could stand again, he picked up his sword from where he’d dropped it, hoping that Jarvis wouldn’t kick his ass for treating a good weapon so carelessly.
He was about to rejoin the others to see if he could do anything to help, when he heard soft footsteps on the stone floor behind him. He looked around, and too late, he realized that it wasn’t one of the Paladins coming to check on him.
Cold steel cut through his T-shirt like butter. He staggered back as a gush of hot blood poured out of his gut. The pain didn’t start until he’d stumbled several steps out into the cavern; then it came in unrelenting waves with the screams that clawed their way out of his throat.
As Chase hit the floor, he heard Jarvis’s battle cry and his sword cut straight through the enemy they’d all missed. Chase was dimly aware of Jarvis stepping over the bloody body; then the Paladin knelt beside Chase and took his hand in his.
“Hang in there, buddy. You’ll be fine. The first time’s always the worst.”
Chase used the thick sound of Jarvis’s voice to seek out his friend’s worried face. The last thing he saw, as darkness reached up and grabbed him, was the streaks of tears running down Jarvis’s face.
“Jarvis, why don’t you get your depressing ass out of here?”
“Keep pushing, Hunter, and we’ll both find out if Doc notices the extra bruises you’ll have.” Jarvis was too tired to put much energy into the threat, but right now he was in no mood to take shit off anyone.
“We both know the boy’s going to live, so why don’t you go get some rest? I’ll call you myself when he comes around.” Hunter’s voice was softer, tinged with what sounded an awful lot like sympathy. Or worse, pity.
Jarvis forced himself to respond civilly. “I appreciate the offer, but I need to be here when he wakes up.”
Even if guilt wasn’t riding him hard, he cared enough for Chase to make sure his first transition from death back to living went smoothly. Shit, could this nightmare get any worse? He wondered what excuse Jake had given Gwen for Chase not coming home tonight. Tomorrow was Monday, and she wouldn’t like the fact that their little field trip made him miss school.
Telling her the truth was impossible.
“Hey, Gwen. Sorry, but your brother was accidently killed today when aliens invaded. I knew there was a chance they’d do that, but I figured it was worth the risk. I’ll be glad to help him with any homework he misses over the next couple of days while he recuperates.”
“No problem, Jarvis. Just drop him off at the farm when he’s up and around. Oh, and don’t bother ever speaking to either one of us again. You set one foot on my property, and you’ll find out just how good I am with my rifle.”
“I understand. Take care and have a good life, Gwen. I’d like to hope that you find someone else to get in your good graces soon, but I’m not that generous.”
“Go to hell, Jarvis.”
“I’m already there.”
The door to the lab swung open and Jake poked his head in. “How’s it going?”
Hunter eased himself off his bed and into his wheelchair. “Has this place turned into Party Central? I’m out of here. If Doc starts looking for me, tell him I’ll be back when I feel like letting him use me for a pincushion again.”
He rolled past Jake, glaring at him for holding the door open for him. “I can do things for myself.”
“I know
. But I can’t stop helping you, since you’re always so damned grateful.”
Hunter shot him another nasty look before disappearing down the hallway.
Jake approached Jarvis, who was slumped in an uncomfortable molded plastic chair. “How’s he doing?”
“As well as can be expected. The machines have already started picking up a heartbeat or two every few minutes. Once he starts breathing again, he should come back pretty fast. Doc wants to be here for that, but he needed a break after stitching everybody up. I offered to keep an eye on Chase so he could catch some z’s.” He nodded toward the still form chained down on the stainless steel table. “Luckily, he was the only fatality. Most of the other wounds were pretty minor.”
The memory of seeing that Other swinging his sword and Chase’s blood spraying the floor made his own gut hurt. It had all happened so quickly, but Chase sinking to the floor had seemed to flow in slow motion as Jarvis had fought his way through the crowd to catch him. Would he ever get over the look of betrayal in the boy’s eyes as the light in them had faded and then disappeared altogether?
Jake held out a cup of coffee. “It wasn’t your fault, Jarvis. Him dying like that, I mean.”
“Try telling that to Gwen. She’ll never forgive me…or any of us for putting her brother in danger. I should have known better than to let him get that close.”
Damn, his eyes felt like sandpaper. He pinched the bridge of his nose, trying without success to relieve the headache he’d been fighting for hours.
“That’s bullshit and you know it. Introducing Chase to the barrier is not just your job, it’s your duty. If you hadn’t taken him down there, I would have. No one has control of the barrier. If you want to blame someone, blame the bastard who swung the sword!”
“I would, but he’s dead.” Which reminded him. “I’ve been meaning to ask: did you happen to see where that Other came from? We’d already finished the mop-up of the few who didn’t cross back over. How did we miss him?”
“I don’t know, but I’ll ask around to see if anyone else saw what happened.”
“As soon as the mop-up is done, I want a team to explore that tunnel where Hunter was caught again and see if that’s where those crazy bastards are coming from. If we have to blow up the whole fucking tunnel to stop them, I’ll light the fuse myself.”
Jake snagged another chair and straddled it, resting his arms on the back. “It’s a shame we can’t tell Gwen that her brother’s a hero. He stayed right where you told him to, but when one of our guys went down, Chase jumped in long enough to give Toby a chance to get his wounded ass up off the floor. As soon as he did, Chase retreated to the tunnel. Smart kid. When Chase wakes up, Toby said to tell him he owes him big time.”
He doubted that would comfort Gwen in the least. “Speaking of Gwen, how did that go?”
“About as well as you’d expect. She’s glad everyone is okay, what with the car going into a ditch. I told her you’d call and let her know when she could expect Chase to get home. I bought you some time—but the longer you put off talking to her, the worse it’s going to be.”
Yeah, he should have called her himself, but he’d chickened out. As soon as Chase was definitely on the mend, though, he was going to drive out and bring her here, the Regents’ need for secrecy be damned. He wouldn’t be the first one to bring a civilian in when the circumstances warranted it. Only a few months ago, Trahern had introduced Brenna Nichols to the hidden world of the Paladins when her life was in danger. So far, there hadn’t been any major repercussions from the powers that be.
Of course, Brenna’s father had been a Regent himself, although she hadn’t known about that part of his life. That, plus the fact that she was head over heels in love with Trahern, had ensured her silence.
Gwen’s circumstances were nowhere near the same. First of all, she wouldn’t want her brother to be a Paladin, and she was going to want Jarvis’s guts for garters for lying to her for weeks.
The only thing he hadn’t lied about was how he felt about her—not that he’d ever told her in words. Now he never would.
An hour later, Hunter rolled back into the lab.
“Don’t you guys have your own rooms?”
Hadn’t they just gone through this a little while ago? “If you don’t want company, find someplace else to hang out.”
Before Hunter could respond, the machines surrounding Chase blipped again, this time for several more beats than the last time. Jarvis leaned forward, trying to read the numbers on the display. Was Chase breathing?
Jake sat up straighter. “What’s up?”
Jarvis fought to keep his excitement tamped down. “I think I saw Chase breathe.”
He crossed to the table with Jake hot on his heels. Hunter rolled closer and leveraged himself up high enough to see. The three of them hovered over Chase, their eyes straining against the dim light to see if the boy’s chest had just expanded.
“There! He did it again.”
They all watched as Chase’s lungs took a series of shallow breaths. When they continued to do so, the three men backed away to celebrate. Even Hunter was smiling. He twirled his chair in a tight circle and then headed for the phone.
“I’ll call Doc. He’ll want to know.”
Jarvis let him make the call; it was good to see Hunter excited about something. He and Jake continued to hover near Chase, as if their presence would ensure the boy continued on his journey back to the living.
A few minutes later, Doc charged through the doors. He was still buttoning his shirt and he had a bad case of bed head, testimony to his own excitement. He grabbed his stethoscope and plugged it into his ears before gently applying it to Chase’s chest with his eyes closed.
Apparently satisfied with what he heard, he pressed his fingers to Chase’s wrist and whispered numbers under his breath as he stared at the clock on the far wall. Even though the machines were probably busy monitoring the same data, Jarvis didn’t blame Doc for wanting to judge the boy’s recovery with his own senses.
“He’s back. It may come in fits and starts, but his pulse is getting stronger, and his lungs sound clear.” He grinned at Jarvis, his tired eyes sparkling over the top of his reading glasses. “I’d give him another few hours at most before his eyes open.”
Damn good news!
“Doc, I know you didn’t like it when we brought Trahern’s woman in here to fuss over him, but I’m going to be doing the same thing. Chase’s sister will need to see for herself that he’s all right. If you’ve got a problem with that, speak your piece now—but it won’t stop me.”
Doc set his stethoscope aside and came around to Jarvis’s side of the table. “No, I certainly did not appreciate Brenna Nichols being in my way, or the peremptory way Dr. Young took over my lab. But their interference undoubtedly saved Blake Trahern’s life. There are nights I can’t sleep, thinking about how close I came to killing that man unnecessarily.”
He looked back down at Chase. “If this boy needs his sister, you won’t get any complaints from me.”
“Do you want me to go get her?” Jake offered.
He’d played coward long enough. “I appreciate the offer, but I need to face her sometime.” Jarvis rested his hand on Chase’s bare shoulder, needing to feel the boy’s body warming up as his blood started pulsing through his veins and arteries.
“She’s going to be upset, Jarvis, but she’ll get over it.”
“I got her brother killed, Jake. That’s too much to get over.”
Hunter poked his nose into the discussion. “If she’s anything like that Brenna Nichols or Dr. Young, maybe you’re selling her short. Those two could face down a mob of crazed Others all by themselves. Hell, they managed to tame two of the toughest Paladins in creation.”
“Shut up, Hunter.” He had to get out of there before he broke down completely. It was hard enough to take that first step toward Gwen and total disaster.
But Jake joined right in. “Damn it, Jarvis, you know Gwen. She’ll�
��”
He held up his hand. “If anything changes, call me. Otherwise I’ll be back in a couple of hours.”
After all—once Gwen banished him from her life, where else could he go?
Chapter 16
The crunch of gravel in the driveway snapped Gwen out of her exhausted stupor. She charged out of the house, not sure if she was going to hug the two males who were hours and hours overdue or knock their heads together for scaring her so badly. Why hadn’t they called again if they were going to take this long? Jake had tried to make the accident sound like nothing major, but there’d been something in his voice that had convinced her that blood or even broken bones had been involved.
She skidded to a halt when she saw the Chevelle. The sky was just starting to brighten, but the barn lights made it clear that there wasn’t a mark on the car. The grim look on Jarvis’s face as he climbed out of the car worried her deeply. He looked as if he hadn’t slept in days, his face shadowed with exhaustion. But what sent the blood plummeting from her head was the lack of expression in his dark eyes. They looked dead.
Whatever had happened to her brother had been bad. Very bad. Jarvis caught her before she hit the ground, but just barely. He swung her up in his arms with ease and carried her onto the porch, setting her down in the rocker.
“Put your head down until the dizziness is gone. I didn’t mean to scare you.”
She fought him. “Tell me now.”
“Breathe, damn it. I’ll tell you everything when you’re no longer the color of pea soup.”
His big hand relentlessly pushed her head forward until it touched her knees. It didn’t take long for her to feel back in fighting form. She batted at his hand until he released her.
“Go slow, Gwen, or you’ll be right back down there.”
She managed to raise up without her head spinning out of control again. Then she mustered up the courage to open her eyes to face the bad news she knew would be reflected in Jarvis’s.
Darkness Unknown Page 22
