West (A Darkness Series Novel)

by Stacey Marie Brown

  I heard the legend as a child: Balor tried to kill all his grandsons because of a prophecy saying one of them would slay him in battle, destroying Balor’s kingdom by using his own eye to kill his people, the Fomorian. Balor tossed all his grandsons in the sea to drown, but one survived—Lugh, who grew up and killed Balor and became the next high king of the Tuatha Dé Danann.

  “Bringing Balor back to defend the spear is kind of poetic genius. His hatred and need for revenge is probably the best defense. He’d want no one to obtain it and let Lugh’s power back out in the world and possibly Lugh himself.” I looked out to see where Balor was. “So, grandpappy is back and really pissed off, holding a grudge on his long-deceased grandson.”

  “Seems so.” She leaned over and grabbed the knife wrapped on her leg. I wanted to laugh. The six-inch knife wouldn’t be so much as a splinter in his massive body. “Uh, there’s also something else.”

  “We need to move now.” I gulped, watching the monster ascend.

  “There’s another rumor Lugh used a piece of Balor’s eye after he killed him, lacing the spear with the magic stored in his eye. It’s said that’s why the holder of the spear will never lose a battle and will be the ultimate killing machine.”

  I groaned. “You’ve got to be kidding me.” This was even worse than I thought. The missing part of his eye was now a piece of the spear. No wonder Balor wanted it back, or at least near him at all times. Hell! Now I understood why Morweena had no problem letting us go after the spear.

  Balor rose higher out of the water, like a skyscraper emerging from the earth, water gushing down and around him like a tsunami.

  “Do you have a plan, sweetheart?”

  “I was kind of hoping you had one.”

  My brain looped in unhelpful circles as the demon rose to his full height, my mouth gaping. He was an ugly son of a bitch, but I had to give him props for his physique, which was mostly on display except for the tiny loincloth. His body, unlike a giant or ogre, was ripped with muscle, like a true warrior and king. His skin had a grayish tint, and long white hair dripped down his back in braids and dreads, but he was completely bald on top. His hair circled around his pointed ears and down his face, giving his cheeks tuffs of white.

  So many people portrayed him as having only one eye, like a cyclops, but he actually had three. The two normal ones were used to see, the third, the one in the middle of his forehead, was used to kill and destroy. Legend said he mostly kept it closed until he was ready to kill. Supposedly this beam of light would blow up anything it pointed at.

  I gulped. The moment he decided to open it, we were dead. “Rez, it’s time we leave. Think we’ve overstayed our welcome.”

  “I couldn’t agree more.” Rez backed into me. “Come up with anything yet?”

  “Yes.”

  “What?”

  “Run.”

  I grabbed her hand and tore down the beach. A cry boomed from Balor, and the earth thundered behind us in little earthquakes with his every step. There was only one way in and out of this little cove: a steep trail difficult enough to climb on a day when you didn’t have a giant demon king after you.

  I glanced over at him. He wrinkled his forehead and scrunched his eyes in fury. His eyes wandered over the rocky beach like he was still searching for us. In his hand was a large javelin. He let out another growl and his eyes flashed with a green color, then the lid of his third eye lifted. A beam like a laser hit the side of the cliff in front of us, halting us in our tracks. The light tore into the mountain, ripping large chunks away from it.

  “Oh. Shit.” I barely got my words out before an avalanche of rock tore from the surface, gravity tugging it down with speed. Rubble tumbled down the cliffs, breaking into car-sized pieces as they shattered and rolled with force straight for us. We would be crushed and buried in a matter of seconds.

  Twisting, I dived for Rez, ripping her roughly off her feet. My body slammed on top, taking us to the ground. Using a large boulder as a shield, I pressed us tight against it. Dust and rock rained down in a heavy barrage, pounding and slicing at our skin. The large chunks rolled over the boulder, flying like missiles into the sea. All I could do was curl tightly around, shielding her from some of the impact. The rumbling stone cascaded around us like thunder.

  Warmth soaked into my waterlogged shirt, and I knew it was blood slipping down my sides as the debris tore our clothes into shreds. The screech of the tumbling rocks quieted enough I became aware of Balor’s grunts snapping crisply in my ear. The earth vibrated with each step.

  I craned to the side and saw the giant coming for us. We couldn’t defeat him. Our only chance was to flee, which was not my natural mode. We had blindly jumped into this and now understood the consequences of our impulses too late. If we had any hope, we needed a plan. Even with that, I felt our odds were almost nil.

  “Darlin’, when I say the word, I need you to run…as fast as you can.” I cupped her face, forcing her to see the desperation in my face.

  “You’re running too?”

  My teeth slid over my bottom lip.

  “Right, West?” Her voice rose sharply, her eyes widening. “I’m not leaving you.”

  “I’m not willing to chance going separate ways, and then he decides to go for you. If we both ran, he could reach us easily. One step and we’d be in his hands.”

  The earth pounded under us, his heavy steps getting near us, shooting up my anxiety.

  “West—”

  “No time for debate.” I shook my head, my heart thumping. “On three you run. Don’t look back...whatever you hear. All right?”

  “No, West.”

  “This. Is. Not. A. Choice!” I almost screamed, my face turning to ice. “You are not dying here tonight. I will not allow that.”

  Balor roared. At any moment he could open his third eye and charbroil us right here.

  “No.” She shook her head.

  “One…” I climbed off her, pulling her to sit up with me.

  “West, I can’t...”

  “Two…”

  Her eyes glossed over with liquid. A small whimper emerged from her throat.

  With her arms still in my hands, I looked briefly into her eyes, her face full of fear, sadness, and something I couldn’t place. A strange agony engulfed my chest. Would I ever look into these eyes again? Would I ever have the chance to kiss those lips again?

  I reached up and, without realizing it, I grabbed her face and crushed my lips against hers for a brief kiss. I pulled back, my forehead still touching hers.

  “Three,” I whispered against her mouth, then stood, turned, and ran straight for the demon, waving my arms. “Hey, you ugly bastard!”

  Balor’s head jerked to me, a snarl forming on his face. He pulled his arm back and aimed his javelin at me, but he stared around as though searching for Rez. I couldn’t chance looking behind and only hoped Rez followed my order, but if she were there I had to keep him occupied.

  “Come on, Balor, show me what your wrinkled, ancient ass is capable of,” I screamed at him. His normal eyes focused on me, his grip tightening on his spike. His enormous size gave me a second to see his moves coming, but he was still a hell of a lot faster than I thought. My body leaped to the side as his lance penetrated the ground, crackling the earth right where I had stood. I fell on jagged rocks, which sliced a deep gash across my stomach and hip. He tugged out his javelin, twisting to find me again. It took him a few moments to locate me, so maybe his eyesight wasn’t good. I might have that going for me. Then I caught sight of a black shadow darting toward the water.

  Shit, Rez. What was she doing? I told her to run, but I didn’t have time to dwell on it. Balor grunted and raised his weapon to strike again. Scrambling up, I barely got to my feet when the blade sparked against the rock where I stood, sending me flying. I curled into a ball, scraping the side of my body as it grazed the razor edges of stone before tumbling into the damp sand. I pushed up quickly, my toes digging in and helping me stand.
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br />   Balor drew out his spike, and at not seeing my dead body speared to it, he howled with aggravation. He reminded me of a zombie. At one time he was the high demon king, worthy of legend, someone respected and feared. Now he grunted and moved like an ogre. Rez had said bringing someone back from the dead was a myth in its own right. Dark, twisted magic like that didn’t come without a cost. I wondered how much was left of him inside the husk.

  I ran, moving across the beach. Where was Rez? Had she gone into the water? Actually, it probably was the wisest move. She could swim faster than she could run. She was much safer there. I hoped she was way down the coast by now, far from danger.

  I glanced over my shoulder and saw Balor’s eyes land on me. I caught the green glint as his third eye began to rise. Shit.

  My feet zigzagged across the beach, taking a sharp turn at the exact moment a beam of light shot down where I had been, exploding the ground like a bomb. Once again I went sailing into the air, the power of his magic shooting me to the far end of the beach. Rolling, skidding, and banging, my already bruised and bleeding form grated like cheese over the rocks.

  Finally I came to a stop when I dropped between two boulders, wedging so tightly a rib cracked. My ears rang, and it took me a moment for my head to stop spinning, bile coating my tongue. The ground shook, and I knew Balor was coming to investigate. I tried to move, my teeth grinding together in agony, and I sucked in a sharp breath to steady myself. Ignoring the slashing pain, I yanked my head enough to see over the top. And I froze.

  Balor was making his way to me, but that was not what my focus caught on. Rez was climbing up the back of one of Balor’s legs.

  Holy shit! What is she doing?

  Balor took three steps and loomed over me. I had nowhere to go. Besides being stuck, sheer cliffs surrounded me and boxed me in like a cornered animal. The beast inside was impossible to ignore, stinging my muscles with its urge to change to beast. I roared. It wanted out. It wanted to survive. But all I felt was unbearable pain.

  Green flashed in his eyes again, and I closed mine. This was it. No more running. This was how my story would end: in charred beast bits.

  The moment I expected his eye to burst me into flames, I heard him bellow with pain instead. I snapped my lids open.

  His attention was focused over his shoulder on one of his legs. That was when I saw Rez twist a knife deep across his Achilles heel, where the skin was thinnest. Blood squirted out like a tiny fountain.

  Balor swung his hand at Rez, trying to rid himself of the nuisance. His hand missed her. She took the opportunity to stab the knife into another part of his heel, causing another spray of blood. Balor boomed, his fingers knocking Rez off his leg and into the ocean.

  Balor stumbled back and crashed exactly where Rez had fallen, the ocean sucking him back below. I tried to scream her name, but he created a tidal wave of water around him, which pummeled down the beach on me. The water jiggled me out from the rocks, shoving me roughly through them like I was a sock in a washing machine. My head cracked against a rock and plunged me into the dark depths of nothing.

  I had drifted into pure darkness when a sharp sting sliced my face.

  “West!” A beautiful voice sang my name, pulling me back to conscious. “Wake up, please.”

  I groaned, coughing up at least a gallon of seawater. Rez stood over me for the second time tonight. Her shoulders sagged with relief when I winked at her.

  “We have to stop meeting like this, sweetheart,” I said hoarsely, hacking up the rest of the water in my lungs. “If you want me wet, I know easier ways to go about that.”

  “Shut up. You’ve been out for ten minutes. I was scared to death.” She smacked my chest, and I clutched my torso with a moan.

  “Ow.”

  She lifted what was left of my shirt, and a small intake of air filtered through her lungs. My stomach resembled a plate of burnt lasagna. Blood, skin, muscles, and veins protruded from the wounds over my body.

  A deep depression coiled inside me because I couldn’t become the beast and heal my soul. It was so dark there; all I could do was use humor. If I gave over to this kind of darkness, I would be lost forever.

  “What happened to Balor?” I lifted my head and looked past her.

  “He didn’t come back up.” She helped me sit up. “All I can think is we weren’t worth the effort up here after I sliced his heel.”

  I sucked in, grinding my teeth together. “What the hell where you thinking? I told you to run.”

  “Don’t be grumpy because I saved you again. Just accept being the damsel,” she quipped.

  I huffed with aggravation.

  “We can talk when we get home. We need to get you stitched up.” She got to her feet, still only in her underwear, which were ripped and streaked with dirt and sand. She quickly tucked my diving stuff in a small crevice since I wouldn’t be able to carry it back. It was restrictive and too dangerous.

  I nodded, wrapped my arm around my waist, and rose to my feet. Rez slipped an arm around me and helped me walk. My strained leg muscles and fractured rib were healing, but slowly. My head spun from being cracked like an egg against the rocks. There weren’t many places my body didn’t hurt.

  Rez helped me slip on my boots, got into her clothes, and walked carefully with me as I limped toward the trail to the top of the cliffs. I gave the beach a last look over my shoulder.

  On top of the opposite ridge stood a hooded figure, a cloak billowing in the wind. I blinked and the form was gone, leaving me unsure I’d seen it in the first place, even though my entire body prickled with a warning.

  We didn’t talk much the entire way back to the cottage. It took all my strength to keep walking, my body wanting to shut down and heal. When we entered, Rez sat me on the edge of the bed.

  “I’m going to start a bath with some healing salts. They’ll help close some of these superficial wounds faster. Then I will stitch the others.” She proceeded to the bathroom. The sound of water filling the tub lulled me and I began to doze.

  “Hey.” A hand touched my face and I jerked awake. Rez dropped her fingers, but her face was inches from mine. “The bath’s ready.”

  I nodded and met Rez’s gaze. She quickly looked away and hastily moved from me. The kiss. I had kissed her. Again. It was now the only thought in my mind. The small cottage created an intimacy that slinked over my skin, rousing me. Again. Aw, shit!

  “Thank you.” I gripped the metal footboard and stood, then hobbled to the bathroom. The smell of salt mixed with the sweet odor of magic. These weren’t your normal bath salts.

  “Didn’t I get enough salt earlier?” I stared at the milky water.

  “And sand, dirt, rocks.” Rez came in behind me. “The magic in this will help you mend faster…” We both knew she left off “because you can’t.” We were quiet for a moment.

  Rez shifted on her feet, waving her hand at the tub. “Will you be okay?”

  “Think I can handle it.” I gave her a half grin. Turning away, I reached for the back of my shirt to pull it over my head, tearing some of the wounds open. I hesitated. Air heaved in my lungs, and I grabbed the side of the tub. Warm blood oozed along my torso and back, seeping into my damp, stiff shirt.

  Rez tilted her head. “You sure you’re all right there?”

  My nose scrunched up in a snarl. She smiled smugly.

  “Let me help you.” She took a step to me, grabbing the hem of my shirt and turned me toward her. No man, especially a Dark Dweller, wanted to appear weak, but this was different. A woman wanting to undress me, especially Rez, made it so I couldn’t deny the nurse thing got my heart pounding.

  Her hands felt warm against my skin as she skimmed my sides and she carefully drew my shirt up. Her body pressed against mine, her eyes on her hands, though her breath fluttered against my skin. She was gentle with the pieces of my sliced shirt sticking to the wounds. Her fingers hit my chest and her lashes fluttered, lifting to my face. It was like I was in a trance and could not look
away. Her breath faltered when I lifted my arms as far as I could. It hurt like hell, but I could withstand pain in her presence. She tugged the fabric over my head and threw the shirt on the floor.

  She didn’t move away, her gaze still on me. The whole room seemed to disappear. All I knew was I wanted her. Wanted to be deep inside her. The urge overwhelmed me. Consumed me.

  Lars. Remember fuckin’ Lars. My brain shouted at me. I clenched my jaw and shot backward away from her.

  “I think I can handle the rest.” I ran my hand through my hair.

  “Yes. Of course.” Rez moved away, thumbing toward the door. “If you need anything, I’ll be out here.”

  If I need anything? Yeah, to be in between your legs. I shoved the thought away as soon as it crossed my mind. I waited for her to shut the door before I finished undressing. My body was so aroused it hurt.

  I eased into the tub, trying to clear my head of shooting pain. I struggled to relax, but the thought of her right outside the door was too hard to forget. Images of her wearing only her underwear flashed in my head. We’d only been on this mission over a week, and I never had to relieve myself so much in my life. It scared me she was the only one I thought of when I did. She was the cause and the cure. I tried to force myself to think of women in general, a bunch of them together, but no matter what, my mind returned to her. Just her.

  “Fuuuuccckk,” I growled. Doing it myself now wasn’t good enough. It only made me more tense and aggravated. There was a reason people didn’t see my bad mood much. It was something no one should experience.

  A light knock tapped at the door. “Want to make sure you didn’t fall asleep.”

  “Nah. Getting out now,” I called back. It took me a bit of effort to get out of the tub, but I already felt the surface wounds closing. Overall, my body felt a lot less sore and tired. The magic in the salts was amazing. I wrapped a towel around my waist and moved into the other room.