“I’m sorry.”
“You know, I never let Cade do that. I never let anyone do that.”
A large part of Moselle’s front wall abruptly crumbled and the earthquake suddenly stopped.
“Where is it, Joe?” Cade asked.
“Underneath us,” the rat squeaked.
In the distance, there was a loud creaking noise—the moan of wood about to break.
“Ready yourselves!” Cade shouted as the roof seemed to blow off Moselle’s home. “Incoming!”
Sabrina looked up into the dark sky. She could not see much, but her senses told her there were otherworldlies present. Thousands—no, hundreds of thousands.
“Now, Moselle!” Cade pointed above them. “Fire!”
Moselle engaged the water hose and sprayed a steady stream up into the sky. Sabrina couldn’t see her targets until they began to fall. One after another, large bats, like the one that attacked her at Peter’s house crumbled. The ugly things howled in pain as their skin sizzled on the ground.
“That’s gotta hurt, yo!” the rat called out. “Keep that shit off me.”
“Come here, Joe. You’re too valuable to lose again.” Cade snatched the rat from the ground and tucked him into his jacket.
Sabrina’s nerves frayed when one and then another of the bat-shaped slimes evaded Moselle’s spray. She could not bear the thought of being molested by one again.
“What the fuck do we do now?” she asked. “Cade, what do we do now?”
“Stay grounded and hide,” he answered with a point back to the limo, which had its back tires swallowed up by the tear in the earth.
Cade lifted his gun and fired off two shots. Seconds later two dozen or more tiny slimes showered down.
“Water bottle?” Cade called out to Nico, who had just driven the fire engine in a semicircle around him. “Toss me one, quick.”
A small water bottle tumbled end over end through the air to Cade’s hand. He tore the end off and spilled the water out on the slimes that were on the ground at his feet. Vapors rose up as the slimes screeched in pain.
“You Tainted guys never learn.” He laughed. “I do.”
Sabrina spotted another large bat as it swooped in behind Cade. In its claws was a shard of wood, sharp as a spike on one end.
She witnessed the attack when no one else did. “Cade! No!” she screamed until her voice cracked.
The bat drove the wooden spike into Cade’s back and knocked him hard to the ground.
“Cade…” Sabrina gasped.
She did not expect him to burn to ash—that only happened when vampires were killed on television—but Sabrina did expect him to be dead. Run through. Heart pierced. Finally, really dead.
Cade, I never meant it to end this way. You were supposed to leave me…go back to your sire, your family, and I was supposed to grow old and bitter. Sabrina’s heart did not break as she’d suspected it would. It had already broken too many times before.
“He’s gone, Sabrina,” Jackson whispered. “Release your wings, fly out of here.”
“I was supposed to die first.”
“No,” Jackson snapped. “You have to live.”
Nico must have slammed on the breaks because the fire engine came sliding stop across the grass. Dunyasha looked but did not react—only her head moved. Sabrina had expected one of them to show their grief, but neither did.
“Jackson…look.”
Out from Cade’s back spread a pair of large, stony wings and with one flap, he was up. With another, he was turned about to face his attacker.
“Meet my secret weapon.” Cade spread his arms, and when he did, it was clear that the back of them was coated in the same stone that the wings were made of. “H.B., say hello.”
Up from the back of Cade’s neck moved something strange. It looked alive…and it appeared to have a large beak.
“Is that an eagle?” Jackson asked.
The wings swiftly sliced forward and obliterated the slime bat where it hung in the air.
“Hello everyone,” H.B. said.
“Brace yourselves!” Cade shouted. “That attack there…that was just a warning shot.”
“Is that… You-you have a gargoyle on your back, Cade.”
H.B. smiled. “Hello Sabrina.”
“There’s no time for introductions. You have to hide! Now, Sabrina!” Cade pointed after he landed near her. “I cannot protect you here.”
Dunyasha returned to Sabrina’s side in a flash. “I will protect her.”
“Don’t you touch her,” Jackson grumbled.
“Or what human?” Dunyasha reached out and grasped Jackson by the throat. “Americans. So many of you, and you all think you are invulnerable. I should kill you. Prove you are nothing more than brushwood.”
“Don’t hurt him,” Sabrina pleaded.
“Why?” Dunyasha squeezed harder and lifted him off the ground. “Who would miss him?”
“I would. I need him.”
Dunyasha released Jackson and he stumbled, his hands around his neck. Sabrina listened to him cough and wheeze—at least he could breathe.
“Get inside the car, fairy princess. I will protect you.”
Sabrina looked at Cade. He had seemed to be waiting before he gave his next order.
“Natalia, go!”
Natalia stepped down from out of the fire engine’s passenger seat, something large sparkling in her hand. “Do I have to?”
“Yes, you know the plan. Go!”
“You will owe me for this.”
“I know. I know.” He nodded.
Dunyasha positioned herself between Sabrina and Cade with an abrupt movement that startled Jackson. “In the car now.”
“Weston, push the car out of the hole,” Jackson said with a cough.
The car rose into the air and moved several feet away until it was back down on solid ground.
“There are gasses being released through the cracks in the ground.” Weston’s voice could be heard, but no one could see him. “Get inside the car, Sabrina. I will filter the air.”
Sabrina did as they all wanted and got into the limo and watched out a window as Natalia undressed down to her bra and panties and then strapped a large, shiny thing to her back.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Sabrina said under her breath.
“What?” Jackson asked as he slid into the seat next to her.
Sabrina stuck her head out of the limo’s moon roof and shouted. “I don’t look like that!” She pointed at Natalia. “Those are the cheapest fucking Halloween wings I’ve ever seen, and they’re in the wrong shape, Cade.”
“You certainly don’t look like this.” Natalia posed. “I am a model of perfection and class. You look like white trash America, darling.”
Sabrina looked down at her oversized hoodie and grumbled.
“Deal with it, Sabrina,” Cade said. “This was all I had back at my house.”
She could not believe it. “Those are yours?”
“You weren’t always around, my sweet sunshine. Had to make due.”
“You fucking vampires,” she spit.
“Easy there, princess. We fucking vampires are trying to save your tight ass.”
“Stop calling me that!” Sabrina demanded. “Stop calling me, princess! My parents are dead, and I’m the new ruler of the Water Kingdom.” As she said it, she finally admitted it to herself. “Show me some damned respect.”
“Well then, Your Highness, I’ll keep my undergarments on.” Natalia mocked.
“Go, Natalia,” Cade urged. “Get to the roof. Watch Nico and I for the signal.”
“You—”
“I will.” Cade flashed a grin at Natalia. “Wouldn’t want you and those cute little wings hurt, Odette.”
“Oh?” Natalia grinned back. “Well… Black Swan. White Swan. Blonde Fairy. I intend to give all a performance they will never forget.”
Cade turned to look at Sabrina. “Break a leg.”
“Fuck you, Cade!”
Sabrina shouted before she plopped down in her seat with a loud exhale.
“I’m so glad I never let him come inside me.”
“What?” Jackson looked surprised. “Okay…”
“I don’t normally do that, you know,” Sabrina grumbled. “And now I’m really glad I never did that with him.”
“Then why did you do it with me?”
“Because.”
“Because?”
“Because I wanted it to be special, okay?” she snapped.
“I’m sorry.” Jackson took her hand. “Are you okay, Sabrina?”
“I’m just mad. Humiliated. Embarrassed now.” She groaned. “Gah. Who says that? Why the fuck did I just say that?”
“I’ve never done that before either.” Jackson broke the tension with his admittance.
Sabrina shook her head. “’Cause you were afraid to get some stupid girl pregnant?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, guess what, Stonewall. We fairy aren’t just horny, we’re extremely fertile.”
“What are you saying?”
“I’m saying my parents are dead. I’ve inherited my father’s power. I can feel it,” Sabrina stated. “Things are growing inside me, Jackson.”
“Are you pregnant?”
“Hell, I could be…”
Moselle’s Worst Fears
Natalia scaled the wall and then jumped from landing to landing with ease. Moselle watched Cade’s clan mate climb the side of her house like the macaque monkeys she had once seen in Gibraltar. It was quite a sight, one Moselle thought she may never forget. In fact, she thought as she gazed at her damaged hand and then in the direction she last saw Jackson, this entire night was filled with events that would leave scars on her forever.
She heard Cade shout. He issued commands like her father—quick and sharp. Nicodemus turned the fire engine and Moselle lost sight of Natalia. Thick oil covered much of her front yard now. It might have looked beautiful, shimmering as it did, had she not known it was alive and meant to harm her and her friends.
Friends. She contemplated the word as she sprayed salt water on one of the Tainted oil beings that had surged up and tried to wrap its tentacles on the trucks tires. Jackson and Sabrina have betrayed me. What friends have I left?
Moselle could see her limo but could not see inside it. Her first thoughts were of concern. Sabrina had always been a spoiled and egocentric child who acted like she was royalty. Of course it all made sense now. She was royalty and it was not until years after Sabrina was deposed that Moselle learned the truth.
Sabrina’s faced her trials by fire, and she’s slowly become a woman. Her hardships mirror my own…
The sound of machine gun fire interrupted her thoughts. Cade had finally armed himself with something proper. He had taken a knee, aimed, and fired steadily into the darkness near her collapsed wall. Whatever was there, whether it be one Tainted or a hundred, Cade was doing his best to hold it off.
“Wish I had one of these back in Stalingrad,” he shouted to Nico.
After Nico turned the truck, Moselle saw Natalia again. She was at the top of the house, next to a turret that was merely ornamental.
Moselle heard Nicodemus shout something over the roar of the engine. It was in a language she didn’t understand but knew Cade did. As the fire engine circled the yard, she found Cade again and doused a pile of slimes that had taken the shape of a large bear behind him.
The Tainted, they seem limitless…as limitless as the Egyptian sands… My home. My true home. I—I am the master of my own fate.
Cade nodded to Moselle in thanks as he emptied his clip of ammo.
“Joe?” Cade called out. “Where is it?”
Moselle could not hear the slime’s response, but by Cade’s reaction it was not good.
“H.B.,” Cade called out. “Time to go. Take the flares and the flashlight. Light her up.”
Moselle watched the gargoyle that had wrapped itself around Cade slowly peel himself off. The more it moved the clearer it became. It was hugging him, like a baby animal riding on its mother’s back. Cade is full of surprises.
The gargoyle skittered across the grass to a leather satchel where it dug into it like a raccoon in trash. Moselle watched it lift its head and then freeze, motionless a moment.
“Better than the movies, right, H.B.?” Cade said to the gargoyle and it nodded in response before it flapped its stony wings and sailed away into the night sky.
The fire engine bounced suddenly. Nicodemus had either run over something large or the ground had given way—Moselle feared it was the latter. She looked back, and spotted Dunyasha beside the limousine, a sea of Tainted surrounding her.
“Nicodemus, the limousine!” Moselle shouted at the cab.
Nico must have heard her because the fire engine circled about and sped toward the limo. The closer they got to Dunyasha the more obvious it became that she did not fear the Tainted; it was they who feared her. Although surrounded, not a single Tainted, oil or slime, moved within ten feet of her or the limo.
Moselle sprayed the area regardless, and when Nicodemus stopped the truck, she sprayed the ground behind them.
“I am fine, Nicodemus,” Dunyasha implored. “You do not need worry about me. These Tainted creatures, they will not harm me.”
“For how long?” Nico answered.
“The question is, Nicodemus, how long does your sire wish to confront them?” A look of dissatisfaction formed on Dunyasha’s face.
Before he could answer, the ground buckled again and the fire engine jumped a foot off the ground.
“Do you feel that, Moselle?” Cade shouted to her. “Just like the hospital. Pollution could suck this whole place down into a sinkhole in a matter of seconds. Shit, it’s trying to out-maneuver me.”
Weston finally materialized enough that Moselle and Cade could see him. “It’s the same shift in gravity I felt before Sabrina’s apartment building collapsed.”
There was a flicker of light above her otherwise dark home. Then another. Moselle turned and laid eyes of two bright flares illuminating Natalia as she stood at the top of the tower.
“Take the bait,” Cade mumbled. “Take the damn bait.”
The ground shook and the fire engine rolled forward, its nose slamming into the side of the limo. Moselle was sick of being jostled about. She wanted this day—this seemingly endless day of discomfort to end.
The ground swelled, and like something out of a cartoon, it moved speedily away from them, building in size as it rapidly approached her home.
“It’s going for it!” Cade shouted. “Nico be ready.”
“Be ready for what, Cade?” Moselle asked.
The earthquake shook harder and harder. Even from the opposite end of her yard, Moselle could see the damage being done to her home.
“Cade, what are you doing?” she asked. “What have you asked your childe to be ready for?”
“For this.”
The noise that followed was unfathomable. Pollution rose up from directly under Moselle’s house. Two dark pillars burst from the roof on opposite ends of the house.
“My home!” Moselle screamed.
“Signal now!” Cade ordered.
Cade and Nico each launched a flare. Two colorful lights—red and yellow—screamed straight up into the blackness. Moselle watched the lights flicker away until the other flares, those in Natalia’s hands, were dropped and fell down the side of the house. Moselle scanned the sky above her damaged home. There, high above it, was an object blocking out the stars—a gargoyle.
H.B. had swooped out of nowhere, snatched the vampire in his claws, and flew her away until they were both swallowed by the night.
Moselle shook—not from the earthquakes, but from utter distress. Her home crumbled as the mass of Tainted known as Pollution rose up from it.
Great Isis. Great Horus. Great Ma’at, I call to you all. Is this real or am I trapped in an endless nightmare?
She heard Cade call out. “Tri. Dv
a. Odin.”11
Nicodemus’s arm stretched out of the cab. There was a blinking light in his hand, and when he moved his thumb over it, the light vanished.
* * *
11 Russian - Three. Two. One.
The Battle of the Crater
The explosion was massive.
Cade hadn’t been present during the Siege of Petersburg but he knew soldiers who had and he had visited the site several times after the war. This was exactly how he’d imagined it that day—a deafening boom matched only by a rumble so harsh one would think God himself had punched the earth.
Moselle’s home was instantly obliterated. Nothing but smoke and dust remained.
Nicodemus had set the explosives perfectly. He’d placed the C4 along the foundation, filled the depths of the building, and molded it all so it faced inward. They had only had to wait until Pollution unearthed itself inside the building. Cade knew it would; it had already destroyed a hospital and a high-rise building, and he set the bait flawlessly. Natalia may not have liked to play the part of the worm, but she wiggled on the hook perfectly.
Debris rained down all around them. It wasn’t much—mostly small rocks the size of pebbles and golf balls. Nicodemus put enough C4 down to reduce it all to a mist. I’m surprised there’s any debris at all.
Regardless, Cade panicked when he looked back at his sire. Dunyasha had not taken cover. He was about to crawl out from under the fire engine when he saw several chunks of rock land on an invisible barrier above her. Is she? Cade thought. No, it’s the air spirit. He’s smart to protect her. When this is over, I’ll owe a him a whiskey and my thanks.
Sabrina’s head slowly rose out of the moon roof of the car, a look of total shock on her face.
“That was for you, Leanne!” Cade shouted. “How’d you like that, Sabrina?” He gazed her way. “I learned that little trick from the Union Army.”
“You destroyed Moselle’s house, Cade.” Sabrina pointed.
“Pollution destroyed her house.”
“No,” she disagreed. “You blew it up.”
“I blew up Pollution.”
“What the fuck, Cade?”
“What?” He shrugged as he stood. “I just saved your sweet ass.”
Two Polluted Black-Heart Romances Page 35
