by Shéa MacLoed
I staggered to my feet, only to find Alister already standing, ready to take another shot. If I charged him, could I knock the gun out of his hand before he shot me again?
Something whizzed by my head and crashed into Alister's arm, knocking his hand away. His gun went off with a loud explosion, the bullet burying itself in the wall of the house inches from my head. For a split second, I stared dumbly at the small marble dragon lying on the floor at Alister's feet before a blur streaked past me. Alister and his attacker tumbled to the floor in a tangle of arms and legs. The gun went off again, this time taking out the overhead light. Giving myself a mental slap, I ran toward the two men grappling on the floor. I gave Alister's hand a swift kick. Instead of letting go of the gun, he tried to bring it up and shoot his attacker. So I did what anyone would do. I stomped on his wrist good and hard.
Alister let out a scream of agony, and I felt the bones of his wrist crunch under my boot. The gun fell from nerveless fingers, and I scooped it up. With one hand now essentially useless and the gun in my possession, the fight between the two men was decidedly one-sided and not in Alister's favor. Within moments Alister was penned face-down, arms wrenched behind his back.
"Inigo." I breathed a sigh of relief. I hadn't been sure he'd come. It was a good sign that he had, right?
Inigo gave me a wry smile. "You sure know how to show a guy a good time." His hair was mussed, his lower lip split and bleeding, and there was a bruise blossoming on his right cheekbone. Still, he was the best thing I'd ever seen.
I opened my mouth, but before I could get a word out, the large kitchen window behind us exploded. I ducked, covering my head and neck with my arms as glass sprayed everywhere. I didn't even have time to cuss before the patio was swarming with the undead, spilling through the open door and shattered window. More were appearing from around the sides of the house and over the back fence. How many were there? It seemed like hundreds.
Without thinking I raised the gun and started firing into the oncoming horde. It was a regular gun with regular lead bullets. Other than annoying the vampires, they were pretty much useless. The last thing I needed was for Alister get his hands on the gun and shoot me or Inigo, so I emptied the clip into the vamps. The second the gun was empty, I tossed it away and pulled out my knife. They were on me now. So many of them. Far too many for me to fight. All I could do was hack away blindly, hoping against hope the blade would find its mark. Talons scraped bloody furrows along my cheek and ripped my leather jacket to shreds. That pissed me off. I'd liked that jacket. It had cost almost five hundred bucks. And now it had a bullet hole and vampire claw marks.
To my left I caught Inigo out of the corner of my eye fighting for his life while Alister Jones was calmly letting himself into the house and out through the front door. "Oh, no you don't." I started to go after him but there were too many vampires. There was no way I could fight my way through them. I'd be lucky to survive, never mind catch up to Alister before he got away. There was only one thing left to do. It meant sacrificing everything I owned and putting both myself and Inigo in mortal danger, but what else was there to do?
Another set of claws like fingernails raked across my back, carving deep furrows. I gasped at the sharp pain. Hot blood dripped down my back and slid below the waistband of my jeans. How bad was I hurt? It didn't matter. I had to stop Alister.
I ditched the inhibitions, the questions about my powers. I ignored any worry about control. Instead, with a scream from the very depths of my soul, I ripped off the metaphorical lid and let all of my powers free at once. With the screeching sound of hell itself, out poured Darkness, Fire, Smoke, Earth, and finally the latest: Water. In a whirling vortex of empty blackness and brutal fire, they screamed through the room seeking their prey. One by one, they swallowed the vampires, leaving only the echoes of their screams as they burst into dust and ash.
Inigo lay on the floor, face pale, eyes wide. He stared at me as though I'd suddenly grown a second head. He'd seen my powers before but not like this. Never like this. They were out of control, and I had a feeling they were going to eat me alive.
"Go," I gasped over the storm of my power." Get Alister."
With a nod he scrambled to his feet and ran for the front door. After one quick glance behind him, he disappeared through the open doorway. I would have to trust he could do what I hadn't been able to: catch Alister Jones.
With Inigo safely out of the way, I let go any pretense of control. I let my powers consume me.
Flames licked at my skin, and heat from the fire sucked out moisture and drew it tight, yet I could see nothing but blackness. My hands and feet were ice. Wind whipped my hair into a rats' nest. I blinked my eyelids rapidly and still nothing. Had I gone blind?
I tried to orient myself, feeling my way along the patio, touching here and there to see where I was. As I crawled away from the burning house toward the back lawn, I tried not to think about the fact that the house that was burning was mine. That everything inside would burn with it. Everything I owned was about to go up in flames, including me.
Hands on my shoulders pulled me to my feet. "Inigo?" I reached out to touch his face as if it would help me see.
"No, it's Jack."
"Jack?" When had he gotten back to the States? Why was he here? How did he know to come?
"I always know when to come," he said as if he could hear my thoughts. "Now come on. We need to get you out of here."
"How are you not burning?" I knew I was still ablaze. I could feel the Fire dancing along my skin. He didn't answer as he hurried me toward what I could only assume was the front yard. I felt a fresh breeze on my face and heard sirens in the distance. My hands and feet were still numb from the cold, but the farther I got from the burning house, the better I felt. At least physically.
"My house," I said.
"Water," Jack said. "You've got to call the Water."
"I did," I told him. "Unfortunately it seems to want to be ice." And that stood a fat lot of good against fire.
"Come on, Morgan," he said. "Focus. You can do this. It's not just you. Other people are in danger. Other houses. You must stop the fire."
I nodded. Closing my eyes, although I still couldn't see anything so I didn't know why I bothered, I took a deep breath and concentrated on my powers. It was time to make them work for me instead of the other way around. Darkness seemed the easiest to control these days, so I used it like a shepherd uses a sheepdog. I sent it after Fire. Darkness curled out and around the Fire, chasing the flames and nipping at its heels, driving it back into the place where it belonged. I ignored the Earth and the Wind. I would deal with them when I had the Fire under control. With a smirk, the Darkness dove into my center, pulling the Fire with it, and I slammed the lid on them both. Now I focused on Water. Great pools of liquid water. My feet and hands began to thaw and all of a sudden the air was filled with steam and mist.
"Good girl," Jack said. "It's working."
"The fire's going out?"
I could almost feel him giving me a funny look. "Yeah. The fire's going out."
"Good, I need to go after Alister." I staggered in what I thought was the right direction. Jack grabbed my arm.
"Don't be stupid, Morgan, you can't see."
He was right. I couldn't. But the Darkness could.
Grabbing onto my power with something akin to a mental vice grip, I ordered it to let me see. With a flash, the world in front of me lit up in shimmering silvers and purples. I saw footsteps stretching across the lawn. One set glowed bright gold and orange—Inigo. The other was so black, it was as though every speck of light nearby was being drowned in a well of infinite darkness—Alister.
I ran, following the tracks, leaving Jack shouting behind me. My powers were still riding me. Not like before, but I could feel them close to the surface, straining to get out.
I must have followed those glowing footprints for a couple of miles before I found myself standing in a forest of trees. I was in the park, high up o
n Mt. Tabor. How the hell had I gotten here? In front of me were two figures struggling over something. I picked up speed, the Darkness giving me that extra bit of push I needed.
As I ran, a shot split the night air. One of the figures jumped up, a gun in his hand. The other lay unmoving on the ground. The gunman lifted his arm to fire again.
"Stop!" I shouted, throwing one hand out. An icicle shot through the air, barely missing the gunman before burying itself in a nearby tree trunk.
Alister whirled to face me, gun raised. "I think you should stop," he snapped. "Give me the amulet."
"No way in hell."
He smirked and turned the gun on Inigo's motionless body. "Place the amulet in the book, or I will shoot him in the head."
"You'll shoot him anyway."
"Perhaps. But I will definitely shoot him if you don't give me what I want."
There was no way I could get to Inigo before Alister shot him. Nobody was faster than a bullet. Not even a Hunter. I had to buy some time while I considered my options.
"It was you all the time, wasn't it?" I said. "The Bahamas. The pink house. Even the vampire at the club. All of it."
Alister snorted. "So, you finally understand. I was beginning to think you were just another thickheaded SRA minion."
"Sure. Sure. I'm just a Hunter, after all."
"Did you honestly believe all this running about you've been doing was random? Really, Morgan. I thought you were more intelligent than that."
I wanted to kick myself for not figuring it out sooner, but I wasn't going to let him know that. "Tell me, was it you who put out the hit on me?"
"But of course, my dear. Who else?" He looked downright smug. Unfortunately the gun never wavered.
"Well, it could've been Darroch." Although Darroch had denied it, of course. But I wasn't about to tell Alister that. "Or, you know, one of my many supernatural nemeses."
He gave a delicate snort. "Oh, yes. You've collected a few of those, haven't you?"
"One or two," I admitted. "And then of course there are always the unknown elements." I heard a faint rustling. Anyone with normal hearing wouldn't have caught it, but my Hunter senses were better than that. Inigo was waking up. Gods, I hoped he had the sense to lay still. If he moved, Alister would shoot him for sure.
"Oh, I assure you," Alister said, "there is nothing unknown to this. I hired the hit."
"Why? Why take a hit out on me when you know you need me?" Keep him talking. Keep him talking.
His face turned red and angry. "You've a bad habit of getting in my way, Morgan Bailey. With you out of the picture, well, let's just say it would make my work easier. Discovering you were the one needed to insert the amulet into that little grimoire was an unfortunate setback. I tried to stop the volunteers once I found out, but good work is hard to find these days."
"Don't I know it," I said sympathetically. "Most assassins aren't ready for a Hunter."
"It's a tragic truth," he agreed. "Alas, I will simply have to do it myself, now that I have you and the amulet here. Something I should have done in the first place."
"Oh, sure, I get it. If you want the job done right and all that. Still, I have one more question."
He raised one eyebrow and gave me a regal nod. "Fire away." That must have hit his funny bone because he chuckled a little.
"All right. The soul vampire technology. Tell me about it."
"What's to tell?" Alister shrugged, his gun never wavering. The trees cast eerie shadows across his face, and my Darkness-enhanced vision could see the black aura shimmering around him. It was downright spooky. "You know your father and I were partners, of course." It wasn't a question. I gave a slight nod, and he continued. "When the technology was developed by the precursor to your SRA, I immediately saw the vast potential. Can you imagine? An army of vampires at the bidding of whomever controlled the technology. We could end wars, poverty, hunger, destitution. It could be our salvation." His voice was intense. He really believed this shit.
I couldn't see how having an army of vampires would end anything but war perhaps. Rationality wasn't important right now. Keeping him distracted and talking was. "I can see that. So what was the problem?"
If a snort could be regal, Alister's was. "Your father, Alexander Morgan, was always annoyingly by the book. The man couldn't let go when he thought he was in the right. It was most annoying." He gave me a look as if to say it was clear where I'd gotten it from. Not that I was by the book, mind. At least not all the time. "There was only twice when he bent the rules, if not outright broke them. Once, when you were born." He gave me a nod. "And once when we heard about that technology. He believed most ardently that that technology could not fall into any government hands. Not even our own!"
I didn't bother to point out my father's government and Alister's government were two different governments, seeing as how Alister was British and my father had been American. "So what happened?"
"He went to destroy the technology," Alister said, his right hand tightening on the gun. I swear I broke out in a cold sweat. "I got there first."
"You murdered my father." It should have been a surprise. It wasn't.
He sighed. "Believe me, I took no pleasure in it. Alex was my friend. We were partners at the SRA. But he left me no choice."
Rage was bubbling up inside me, but I tamped it down. I couldn't let him see he was getting to me. I had to keep his attention on me as long as possible without goading him into pulling that trigger. No easy task. I listened carefully for the rustling to tell me Inigo was awake, but I heard nothing. Had I imagined it? I cleared my throat. "So really, you're just trying to rule the world. For the good of humanity, of course."
"Of course." He seemed quite pleased with himself. "My family has been protecting humanity for centuries. I am only trying to finish what they started."
In other words, wipe out anyone who wasn't human and put himself on top of the food chain. "What about the book? The grimoire? How does that fit into the plan?" As we talked the gun had lowered slowly. Now was pointed more in the general direction of Inigo's stomach. Still not what I would've preferred, but it was better than his head.
Alister tsked. "That's two things. You said you only wanted to know one."
"Come on, Alister. You're going to kill us both anyway. So why not tell me what the book is for? What's your end game?" I prodded. "You can tell me. You know you want to. What's the harm?"
"Do you really think I'm just going to tell you everything I have planned like I'm some kind of cheap movie villain?" Alister's tone turned from pleasant into something closer to a snarl. The gun returned to point at Inigo's head. "Now give me what I want."
The Darkness inside me reared its head, responding to the anger. I mentally pushed it down with no little force. Now was not the time to let it out unless I wanted to get myself shot. I strained, listening for some sound to tell me I wasn't alone in facing Alister.
Alister's forefinger hovered over the trigger, and I went absolutely still. "Well, Ms. Bailey. It's been fun, but I've got better things to do than to play twenty questions with you." His finger tightened.
This was it. Now or never. I took a deep breath.
"All right. I'll do what you want. As long as you promise to leave Inigo alone."
"Very well," he said. "I promise." But I could taste the lie.
Alister reached into his jacket again and pulled out the grimoire. Holding it out, face up, he nodded. "Take off your amulet and place it in the book. I don't want to see any more of those icicles, either."
I carefully lifted the chain from around my neck. I walked slowly toward Alister, the amulet in my palm. As I approached, I glanced down at Inigo, but he was so still and pale, I figured I must have imagined the sounds I'd heard. I couldn't risk Alister pulling the trigger. I was on my own. My only hope was that whatever happened, it would distract Alister enough for me to take him.
With trembling hands, I placed the amulet carefully in the middle of the gold filigree. It slid
into the slight depression and clicked easily into place. Alister and I both stared at the book in expectation. Nothing happened.
"What have you done?" Alister snarled, pointing the gun at my head.
"Nothing," I insisted. "I did exactly as you asked. I have no idea…"
Before I could finish my sentence, a bright beam of blue light shot from the heart of the amulet, straight up into the heavens. The sapphire's blue glow lit up the woods like a beacon. This was it.
I swept my arm upward, knocking Alister's right hand away. The gun went off, shattering the night air, but the bullet buried itself harmlessly in a tree trunk. A kick to a knee, and Alister collapsed, dropping the book. The amulet tumbled from the filigree and rolled under a bush. The light went out, plunging us into darkness, but I could still see well enough as Alister raised his gun to fire at Inigo.
I kicked Alister's hand away just as Inigo surged to his feet. Thank the gods. Unfortunately, Alister had more tricks up his sleeve.
From the small of his back he pulled a blade. To my Darkness-enhanced vision, the blade glowed with an eerie white light. Sidhe made. The only way a human like Alister could get his hands on a sidhe made blade was from the Fairy Queen herself. And a sidhe blade was one of the few things that could kill a dragon.
"Inigo," I hissed.
"I know," he answered, carefully circling out of the way of the deadly knife.
Then Alister did something really freaky. As he twirled the blade in an intricate pattern, he began to chant. I only recognized the language because I'd heard Kabita use it during her spellcasting. Alister had finally embraced his Witch blood, but what he was doing was far beyond a normal cast. This was something dark and ugly and…evil. I could see the darkness building in his black aura. If he finished the spell…
I pulled the Fire that simmered just beneath the surface of my skin. Where Alister was dark, I would be light.
