His Words of Wrath (The Kaldr Chronicles Book 3)

by Kody Boye

  That was when I felt something from below grab me.

  I screamed.

  I clawed.

  Water was sucked into my lungs.

  The last thought before I blacked out was not that I would drown, but that the GPS device had likely been ripped out of my shoulder.

  7

  I awoke coughing.

  Freezing cold and unable to catch my breath, I turned my head to expel what felt like a body full of water as I began to gravitate back toward consciousness. Ears blurry, lips trembling, lungs desperate for release and body shivering from the anticipation of life, I blinked several times to try and clear my vision only to find myself in a cold, dimly-lit room.

  I tried to move.

  Rope grazed my hands.

  I screamed as I tried to break free—not only from the pain throughout my shoulders, but at the cord chafing my wrists at the back of the chair I was tied to—and gasped as a nearby door opened.

  “Ah,” a woman’s voice said. “So he is.”

  “Fuck,” I gasped, “you.”

  A slap replied, hard enough to turn my head to the side and sharp enough to cause blood to trail from gashes made along my cheek.

  “You should learn some manners,” the woman said.

  I raised my eyes.

  Her face—nearly obscured by her hair in the darkness—looked upon me as I visibly trembled.

  “Are you cold?” she asked, leaning forward to look at me. “Jason DePella?”

  “How do you know my name?” I gasped.

  “Why shouldn’t I?” she replied. “You’re the one who’s sleeping with that spoiled little prince.”

  I froze, suddenly chilled beyond recognition.

  This was the Kaldr who had been killing the men in Austin—the one who’d forced Guy’s hand when he’d been forced to retaliate against the intruder.

  “You’re her,” I said, training my gaze directly on her.

  “Leanne Ambrosia,” she replied. “A pleasure.”

  “Why are you doing this?” I asked, trying my hardest to fight against the rope, but to no avail.

  “Because Elliot Winters is a coward who refuses to acknowledge the extinction that is taking place around him,” she said, placing a hand upon and then sinking her nails into the wound along my left shoulder. I screamed as she toyed with the thread of stitching that had since been ripped open. “Oh?” she asked. “Were you trying to… let your friends know where you were?”

  “Where are they?” I asked.

  “Oh, don’t worry. They’re perfectly fine. Having a feral attack the Howler was only a diversion to separate you from the bastard prince.” She tightened her hold on my shoulder, sinking her thumb deep into my wound. “Tell me, Jason—does that hurt?”

  “Stop it,” I cried. “Just stop!”

  She ripped her hand from my wound.

  I screamed.

  She laughed as she lifted her fingers to lick the blood from their tips. “You taste beautiful,” she said. “Unlike those other men. Those dirty humans.”

  “Why kill them then?” I asked. “Why not just feed off them and then let them go?”

  “Because it’s so much fun to feel them slipping away beneath your lips, don’t you think?”

  “I wouldn’t know, bitch.”

  I spat at her feet and was instantly slapped.

  “I’m not sure what I’m going to do with you,” she said, circling my body like a shark would the poor castaway in the sea. “I mean, I could kill you—drain your powers and be done with it. Or I could gag you and let you waste away.” She leaned forward to face me. “Tell me, Jason: which would you rather have?”

  “I’d rather die than have to look at you any longer.”

  She slapped me again, this time with enough force to cause me to bite into and tear the inside of my cheek. Blood dripped from my lips as I narrowed my eyes to glare at her.

  Leanne Ambrosia laughed and flipped a switchblade from her side, extending the blade with a flick of her wrist. “I could,” she said, placing the blade against the back of my neck, “let you bleed.”

  She applied just enough pressure to puncture and draw blood from beneath the skin.

  “Or I could,” she started, then stabbed the blade into my arm.

  I howled as the knife entered and then withdrew from my body just as quickly, sobbing as blood spurted out from the wound.

  “I think I like this idea better,” she said.

  “I hate you,” I replied. “I fucking hate you.”

  “Tell me more,” she purred.

  “I hate you for everything you’ve ever done to me,” I said, trying desperately to free myself from the bonds. I drew upon my fading reserves of power to form a blade of ice between my skin and the cord holding me in place, shuffling in an attempt to cut myself free. “I hate you for ruining my life. For killing all those poor men. For hurting their families and terrorizing this entire town.”

  “Keep going,” she said.

  “I hate you for all the hurt and pain you’ve caused, and for ripping me away from any chance of a normal life I could’ve ever had. I hate you,” I said, “I hate you I hate you I HATE YOU!”

  She threw her head back and laughed. “Yes,” she moaned, slashing the switchblade across my chest. “Again! Again!”

  I screamed.

  She cut.

  I cried.

  She laughed.

  I had just ripped one hand free when she placed the knife against my neck.

  “Any last words?” she asked.

  “Yeah,” I replied. “Fuck you.”

  I threw myself back and screamed as the chair collided with the floor.

  She lunged.

  I kicked, connecting with her shin.

  She cried out as her knee buckled and she went flailing to the ground.

  When she landed with a hard crack, I took the chance to saw through the one remaining bond before hurling myself toward the knife.

  She scrambled.

  I flailed.

  My fist caught her in the mouth and caused her to go stumbling back.

  I’d just grabbed the switchblade when her stiletto slammed into my back.

  I groaned.

  “You little bastard,” she said. “I’m going to kill you if it’s the last thing I—”

  I flung myself to the side, hurled her into the nearby wall, then cut into her Achilles tendon with the switchblade.

  She cried.

  I screamed.

  When she slipped to the ground, I slammed the knife into her throat and stabbed her over and over again.

  Beads of ice shrouded my body.

  “I won’t,” she gurgled, “let… you…”

  I pressed my hand over her face and channeled all of my willpower into her skull.

  Her face—once so beautiful in its horrible wrath—became cocooned in ice.

  I stabbed the switchblade into her neck, channeled the ice through its blade, then ripped the blade and half of her neck out with it.

  She stopped moving shortly thereafter.

  Gasping, I fell and then scrambled back, toward the doorway which she had not bothered to close.

  When I crawled through the threshold and into a dark, concrete-lined hall, I pushed myself to my feet and began to make my way down the corridor.

  “Guy,” I whispered, stumbling forward. “Aerick.”

  I opened a second door into a parking lot and collapsed.

  Though I knew I couldn’t risk letting myself be captured, I couldn’t fight the waves of darkness that coursed through me.

  I closed my eyes, bowed my head, then passed out.

  8

  I woke sometime later to the sound of a monitor beating in sync to my heartbeat.

  “Sir?” a voice asked as a curtain was parted and an individual stepped in. “Sir? Are you awake?”

  “I,” I started, then stopped, allowing my eyes to adjust to the bright light streaming down from above me. “I…”

  “Can yo
u tell me your name?”

  I blinked. I turned my head to regard the nurse at my side and grimaced as I realized the state that I was in. “I,” I started again, “duh-don’t—”

  “The victim shows signs of possible amnesia or disassociation related to trauma,” the nurse said as another figure began to step forward.

  “Possibly,” the voice said.

  I turned to find Shadow standing next to me. “Sh… Shadow?” I asked.

  “Shh,” the Wiper said, raising his eyes to look at the nurse as she leaned forward to check my vitals. “Everything’s going to be all right.”

  “Doctor?” the nurse asked. “Can you please come over…”

  She trailed off, as if she’d suddenly forgotten whatever she’d been asking, before turning and walking further into the emergency room.

  “What happened?” I asked.

  “We managed to trace the GPS tracker to the parking lot you were being held in,” he said, contemplating the wounds hidden beneath layers upon layers of gauze and bandages. “The Harpy didn’t manage to pull it out.”

  “Hah-Harp—”

  “Shh, Jason. Just be quiet. We’re going to get you out of here.”

  Scarlet appeared, followed shortly by Guy—who, though worse for the wear, appeared to be perfectly all right. “How you holding up?” he asked.

  “I’m ok,” I replied.

  “Can you stand?”

  “I—”

  Scarlet leaned forward, braced her hands along my ribcage, and pulled me into a sitting position. I would’ve screamed had Shadow not pushed a hand over my mouth.

  “You need to be as quiet as possible,” the Wiper said, the waves of energy undulating off his person like ripples created by a stone cast into the water. “Guy, will you help him off the stretcher?”

  “Yeah,” Guy said.

  I grimaced as my bare feet settled onto the floor, but was able to maintain myself. “Nurse?” Guy asked as the woman approached.

  “You can’t remove him from here,” she said. “You people aren’t supposed to be here.”

  “I’m his husband,” Guy said, her face instantly changing tune. “And these are his siblings.”

  “All right,” she said, her face alternating between emotions faster than I could keep up. “That’s fine, I suppose.”

  “I need you to remove the IV from his hand.”

  “Are you sure?” she asked. “It’s the only thing administering pain medication to him right now.”

  “Yes,” Guy said. “I’m sure.”

  I extended my hand and allowed the nurse to free me from the line. I grimaced as she did it quickly and efficiently, but nodded as she pressed gauze and a band-aid to it shortly thereafter.

  “We’re leaving now,” Shadow said as Scarlet gestured Guy and I to begin to walk away. “You didn’t see anything.”

  “All right.”

  “And this patient here was a John Doe.”

  “I’m aware,” she replied.

  “Who you discharged of your own accord.”

  The nurse didn’t say anything. She merely turned and began to make her way toward another patient.

  Shadow’s magics continued to undulate through the hospital as we proceeded past nurses, doctors and other individuals, flickering lights and causing visible camera equipment to stop moving and then malfunction. Slight clicking noises could be heard as we proceeded, likely the resulting energy traveling through the wires and disconnecting sections of power. When we reached the front desk, the computers hit a blue screen, then went completely dark. The people stationed at them did not respond at all. “We’re almost there,” Scarlet said, gesturing toward the motor home that was parked nearby. “Just a little bit longer. Don’t panic.”

  A police cruiser pulled into the parking lot across the street.

  Shadow—who’d been keeping pace with us—stepped forward and pushed his hand out toward the cruiser.

  Just as soon as it’d turned into the parking lot, it stopped, the men inside remaining calm and complacent as they watched the four individuals making their way toward them.

  “Are they going to notice us?” I asked.

  “No,” Guy said.

  “And their cameras?”

  “Are already dead,” Scarlet confirmed.

  Shadow stopped the traffic making its way up and down the road and allowed us easy passage to the other side of the street. As he approached the motor home, Guy turned and directed his attention toward the cruiser. The man driving turned his lights on, pulled out, and began to speed away.

  “We’re in the clear,” Scarlet said as Shadow opened the motor home.

  A figure immediately came forward and took hold of my hands. “Good to see you,” Aerick said, one side of his face bruised and his forehead covered with a bandage.

  “Are you badly hurt?” I asked.

  “Not as badly as you are,” he said. “Come on. We’ve gotta leave.”

  I let him help me into the vehicle and allowed him to lead me toward the very back as Shadow, Scarlet and Guy climbed aboard. He helped settle me into the bed and sighed as he pulled a thin sheet up over my hospital gown. “Thank God you’re all right,” I said.

  “She banged me up pretty bad,” I replied.

  “Who?” Guy asked, stepping into the room.

  “Leanne.”

  “Ambrosia?”

  I nodded.

  Guy placed a hand over his face and frowned, only barely considering me through the space between his fingers. “God,” he whispered. “I should’ve known.”

  “Should’ve known what?” I asked.

  “That it would’ve been her,” he said. I waited for him to reply further, but when he didn’t, I gestured him forward with a nod of my head and then took hold of his hand. “Leanne was one of the many Kaldr who broke away from my father’s clan ten years ago. We’d assumed that it was another male Kaldr, given the age of the victims and the reported sexualities the Agency was able to uncover, but now it makes sense.”

  “What about the Harpy?” I asked. “And the wolf that attacked Aerick?”

  “Both dead and dumped in the river.”

  “Then what grabbed me in the water?”

  “Something grabbed you?” Scarlet frowned as she walked into the room. I nodded as the motor home began to shift out of the parking lot and make its way onto the road. “Did you see what it was?”

  “No,” I said. “Why?”

  “Maybe it was the mermaid,” she said.

  “There’s a mermaid in Lady Bird Lake?” Guy frowned.

  “Maybe she was tricked by the Kaldr into thinking that you were part of her clan and that’s why she willingly handed you over to her.”

  “She saved me,” I said, trying to think back to the moment I felt something grab hold of me. “At least, I think she did.”

  “It doesn’t matter,” Scarlet said. “The only thing that matters now is getting you to the ranch and under the care of a medical provider.”

  “You mind if I stay here?” I asked.

  “I’ll burn the sheets,” she replied before turning and leaving the room.

  Guy chuckled.

  Aerick settled down on the bed and took my hand. “She saved my life,” he said.

  “She’s a helluva good shot,” Guy agreed.

  Though I tried to nod, I found my strength waning. “Guys,” I said, struggling to keep my eyes open. “I’m fading.”

  “Sleep, Jason,” Guy said.

  And as if commanded, I did.

  Part 5

  1

  We returned to the Winters’ family ranch in the dead of night. Exhausted beyond compare and unable to stand on my own two feet, it was almost impossible for me to make my way out of the motorized home, let alone up the porch stairs and into the farmhouse.

  By the time we reached Guy’s flat, I collapsed into bed and passed out.

  The following morning, I woke to the sound of voices in the other room.

  “Are you s
ure we’re safe for the time being?” Guy asked.

  “I can’t guarantee that,” I heard Scarlet say, the sound of a zippo being lit dragging through the air like a whip snapping against someone’s bare skin.

  “Could you not smoke in here, please?”

  A brief murmur was offered before I assumed the cigarette was extinguished.

  “Hey,” Aerick said from my side. “Are you awake?”

  I turned my head to look at him. Shirtless, disheveled, and still covered with the bandages from last night, he forced a smile as he reached out to run a hand across my face. “Hey,” he said. “You are.”

  I scooted closer to snuggle against his warmth and grimaced as the wounds I’d almost forgotten about flared to life. Like fire they danced upon my shoulders, burning into my conscience the liquid-hot pain of realization. I ground my teeth together to keep from seething, but apparently it didn’t help, as Aerick immediately splayed a hand over my stomach.

  “You ok?” he asked.

  “I’ll live,” I replied. “Don’t worry about me.”

  A knock came at the threshold. Shortly thereafter, Guy appeared in the bedroom, eyes alight with curiosity as they settled upon the bed. “Jason,” he said. “How you feeling?”

  “Like shit,” I replied, then laughed when I realized I could say no more.

  Guy settled down at the foot of the bed and set a hand on my leg, squeezing my knee as he looked back up and out through the threshold. “Scarlet,” he said.

  “Yeah?” the woman replied.

  “Could you come in here and tell them what you told me.”

  “Are they decent?”

  “They’re not naked if that’s what you’re asking.”

  Scarlet appeared in the threshold, her dark skin gleaming like fine amber in the light streaming from the overhead window. “Good morning,” she said.

  “Morning,” I offered, though wasn’t sure what more to say.

  “I didn’t want to bother you unless absolutely necessary, but I think it’s important that you hear this, given what’s gone on.”

  I nodded and waited for her to continue.

  Sighing, she reached up to run a hand along her buzzed skull before allowing it to fall slack at her side. “The Sanguine are nowhere to be found,” she said. “However.” She paused. “That doesn’t mean they aren’t around.”