Sevan: Zodiac Dragon Guardians, Book XI

by Faulks, Kim

  A crash came from the doorway below. “Amaris!” A male screamed.

  I jerked my head toward the sound. No...no...no! Don’t come here. Don’t come...I sent out a lash of power, desperate to make her understand as Blaze released his grip on my wrist and lunged forward to grab my neck. I stumbled backwards as he wrenched me backwards, dragging my heels along the ground.

  I heard the thunder of her steps and saw her filthy, blood-smeared face as Amaris scrambled up the stairs and lunged toward me. Fear was all I could see in her wide, dark eyes.

  “That’s far enough,” Blaze snarled behind me as we stepped backwards into an empty room. His grip tightened, choking me. I pulled against his hold, trying to swallow against his hand.

  “Amaris...Amaris...Amaris. I have to be honest, this is making me hard.”

  He yanked me forcibly against his body.

  “Fuck you, you sick sonovabitch,” Amaris growled and lifted a gun, taking aim.

  Heat lashed my arms as the whip flicked, the strands searching the air.

  A guttural whimper tore from Kane as he shoved through the others, and that’s when I saw her. “Oryn,” I whispered as she watched the Hellhound guard leave her side and step toward me.

  The Hellhound looked ashen, his lips smashed tightly together, hands gripped in fists as his sides. He trembled and staggered on his feet, tumbling sideways.

  “Kane, no!” Oryn cried as the towering male crumbled to his knees.

  One lash from the whip speared through the air, the tip winding around his neck.

  “One,” Blaze murmured in my ear.

  The lash hissed, burning Kane’s skin. I couldn’t shake my head, couldn’t turn away...could only lift my gaze as RyKor let out a savage snarl and punched the air.

  No...no...no. Whatever this lash was, it was bad for us. RyKor fell, landing on all fours. The muscles along his back rippled under his blood-drenched shirt.

  “Two,” Blaze growled.

  A shot rang out as the power from the whip filled the air. The bullet slowed as energy rippled and threw the shot wide.

  “Stone!” Ezre roared as the third Hellhound stumbled forward.

  There were two to go now. Two Hellhounds that could fight our way out of here. Two more shots rang out, and the bitter stench of hot gunpowder filled my nose. Blaze’s grip tightened around my neck. I struggled, twisting to claw his hand as the thud of the Hellhound’s fall carried through the room.

  “Three,” Blaze smiled and met my gaze.

  His dark eyes were alight, filled with manic excitement.

  “Take me,” Amaris roared behind me. “My life…my life for hers.”

  “They say only the death of a Queen will summon the most powerful of the Cursed...the one they call Sevan.” Blaze stared into my eyes. “I missed the opportunity before, when Heron killed your mother. But I won’t miss this one now.”

  I tried to shake my head, nails buckling as I clawed his hand. No...no...no. His grip tightened, until the room darkened.

  A terrifying snap filled my ears. Cold plunged down my spine as the room went black, then my knees buckled.

  Air splashed against my cheek.

  “Sevan...I summon you now!” Blaze’s roar carried into the darkness.

  My Hound gave a whimper, her blazing red eyes blurred...until there was nothing at all.

  * * *

  “Mommy?” The whisper carried through the dark. “Mommy, is that you?”

  Footsteps echoed as I raced through the emptiness.

  I was lost to the pain and the terror, running...running...running. A snarl carried past my ear, not a sweet, comforting sound...but one raw, and savage...and very male.

  I spun, searching behind me. My steps stuttered as I grasped my arms, hugging myself. But there was no light down here, only the cold and shadows, and the voice of a little girl as she called for her mom.

  There was only me.

  The growl came again. In the distance...but getting closer. Footsteps thundered, and under the heavy blows came something else, faster pounding...swifter movements. The racing smack of paws on the ground. I dragged in the frigid air and smelled him.

  Not a Wolf...but a Hound.

  Male. Hound. Racing toward me.

  I stepped backwards, hands searching behind me. “Mommy?” Gone was the voice of the girl, leaving only the woman behind.

  No, not a woman...a Queen...my mom’s faint whisper raced through the emptiness. I jerked my head toward the sound as my pulse sped.

  Thud...thud...thud…

  A shudder of fear cut through my chest with the sound.

  He was coming...he was coming for me.

  I shook my head and turned to search the emptiness. The air turned lighter in the distance. I lunged forward, heels clattering on the floor now where there had been none before.

  It was a hallway in front of me. Stony floor, towering marble walls. Screams echoed from that place, faint screams, torturous screams. I knew that sound...knew that hallway...knew everything about that.

  But the panicked pounding of a Hound in full flight was growing louder behind me. I jerked my gaze over my shoulder and lunged forward, toward the familiar.

  But Hell was waiting.

  Hell, my home.

  Hell, my past…

  Hell, my future.

  I turned back to that hallway...the one I’d walked all alone, and the closer I came to the entrance, the further I saw along the hall. My steps slowed, fear no longer came from the hunting of the Hound behind me...but from what waited at the end of the hallway.

  Images flashed through my mind, and a whimper of pain and fury followed. A male’s pain...and a Hound’s fury. I knew that sound, just as I knew this place.

  It wasn’t just my home, but my past…

  No...no...no. My Queen! MY QUEEN! The Hellhound roared through the echoes of my past. My steps slowed as I stepped out of the darkness, and into the echoes of my past on the day I found my mother.

  I knew who hunted me...both in my past and in the darkness. The faceless Hellhound who’d clutched my mother’s dead body…

  The leader of the Cursed.

  The one they called Sevan.

  7

  Artemas

  The needle on the tachometer danced into the red, but still I gripped the wheel and pushed my foot against the accelerator. Sweat trickled down the nape of my neck, sticking the collar of my filthy shirt to my skin.

  There was no stopping now. No slowing what I was...and what was coming. I lifted my gaze. Blue flames lashed midnight pupils. My Hound was running, tearing through the darkness as I speared the black Masterati through the night, heading for the one place I didn’t want to be…

  My home.

  Hell’s Gate.

  Pain lashed deep, snaking around my spine like a serpent ready to strike. I knew this pain...knew the battle the rest of my line carried. And I knew how vulnerable they were.

  Kane, RyKor, Ezre, and Stone had fallen, now lashed by the one thing designed to control the Cursed. The one thing that was left behind in Hell along with our past.

  But now it’d surfaced, and it was calling those left behind. I sucked in a hard breath and stared down the white line of the road. Haze was almost there, drawn by the pull of the cursed whip. He was unable to fight the call.

  Cekresy was fighting, using pain and anger as she hurtled toward Hell’s Gate. She was strong, tearing apart her own soul to deny her true nature. But even she was running toward that place where earth met Hell.

  I strangled the wheel as agony came once more, splitting me from the inside. I leaned forward as the glaring oncoming headlights blurred.

  Sevan, I summon you now!

  The command resounded inside my head. It wasn’t a Queen’s command...or a King’s. Heron’s face burned in my memory. I swallowed the bitter acid in the back of my throat. I knew his voice, knew the slimy sound and the taint it left behind.

  I knew the secrets and the lies...and I knew how a realm in mou
rning could turn on those who’d protected them. The blinding headlights swept past as the screams of Hell’s Gate’s people filled my head once more.

  I’d fled like a coward with a Queen’s blood on my hands. Mommy? The Princess’s voice haunted me, and that pull to Hell’s Gate grew stronger. I yanked my boot from the accelerator as lights from a gas station came over a rise.

  I yanked the wheel, kicking up dust in the rear-view mirror, and headed for the entrance. Harsh lights made me wince as I tapped the brakes and stopped the car next to the pump.

  The engine ticked and hissed. The power of the Cursed lash was stronger than ever before. I turned off the engine and sat there, unable to move, unable to do a damn thing. Inside my head, I was racing toward the end, helpless to stop it.

  But I had to.

  I lifted my gaze once more and met those burning blue flames. Inside the black danced a darkness I never wanted. One I wasn’t created with...one I’d tried to ignore.

  Hell’s touch.

  My lips curled, and white fangs glowed in the mirror’s reflection. Movement from inside the gas station drew my gaze as a young guy swept the floor under the glaring lights.

  My fingers trembled as I yanked the handle and climbed out. The Chrysler’s engine still hissed and pinged, but it’d get me there, no matter how hard I drove it...for I had no plans on driving it back.

  The thought settled deep inside me.

  There was no coming back from this...whatever this was.

  I’d spent almost my entire life denying what I was, and what I crawled out of Hell with. Now was the time for answers. Now was the time to end it for good.

  Cekresy battled her demons, tearing her soul to shreds in the process. Her pain and terror ripped through our line. No matter how hard she fought to keep the agony confined, it bled into each of us like a disease, infecting the link that connected us. Hold on, I commanded and strode toward the bright lights of the gas station. Fight for as long as you can.

  Fuck you! Her scream tore through my head. I clenched my jaw and yanked the collar of my shirt. She hated me...and she had good reason to.

  I’d pushed them away, closed off the gate to everything they once knew.

  I was the destroyer.

  I was the end.

  And I’d paid for that. I paid for that with a mark on my soul. Hell’s mark. I wasn’t just made to hunt for Hell. I was marked to be consumed by it. I lifted my head and strode toward the building. But there were lives at stake here. Innocents who were fighting to survive.

  The automatic doors opened with a whoosh. I could feel the lash tightening around my neck, itching to cut the flesh...and bring the Cursed to their knees.

  There was no coming back from that, no undoing this when it was done. I sucked in a hard, savage breath and reached for the back pocket of my pants. The envelope was old and worn. I’d held it in my hands a hundred times.

  But no more.

  Lincoln. The name was scrawled on the front. The only name my wife had whispered...the only name that mattered to her. I closed my eyes and tried to steady the tremble in my hand. This was the last promise, the last thread that joined me to her.

  This was the last thing I could do...to warn the person she loved as much as she loved me.

  “Yes, sir?” the attendant called across the counter as I neared. “Can I help you?”

  I opened my eyes, stepped up to the counter, and glanced at the stitched name on the kid’s shirt. “William, right?”

  Messy blond hair and blue eyes that brightened a little when I called his name. “Yes...sir.”

  “I need you to do something for me.” I pressed the crumpled envelope on the counter. “I need you to hold on to this envelope for me. If I don’t return in a few days, I want you to mail it. Can you do that?” I peeled off a fifty dollar bill from my wad of cash.

  Money...it’d be worthless where I was going. There wasn’t enough in the world to buy me a second of salvation. I shoved the rest of the wad toward him and watched the kid’s eyes widen. “If I don’t return…”

  The kid just nodded, staring at the cash as I leaned closer. “This is life or death, you understand me, son?”

  He jerked his head upwards, and those clear ice-blue eyes met mine. “Yes, sir. I understand. If you don’t come back in a few days, I’ll make sure that envelope is mailed as quick as a wink.”

  I nodded and slid the cash and the envelope toward him.

  “Hey, I know you, right? You’re that...that...Senator?” He jerked his head toward the TV playing above me.

  “Not anymore,” I answered, then turned away.

  I wasn’t a Senator, or a husband. That envelope carried with it the last tie I had to this human world. My wife’s sister had been prepping for the end of the world for a while now. I’d given her the arsenal, told her how to stay alive, taught her how to fight...creatures like me.

  At least, until the end.

  And now I’d given her the last pin in that grenade, all the information there ever was on my kind, the way we lived, the way we hunted...and the things that could control us...things like the Cursed lash. I strode toward the automatic doors once more and then out into the night.

  The doors closed behind me and the feeling of falling consumed me. The ground so fragile under my boots, the air, so thin I could barely catch my breath. I swallowed more than inhaled, and grasped the hose as I pulled my wallet free, and swiped my credit card on the pump.

  All the money I had would go to Lincoln. I was a man with only a past now, and a future just as far as a full gas tank would take me...only I knew the destination.

  I knew it all too well.

  Hell’s Gate waited. I squeezed the handle, letting the rush fill my ears. Cekresy was close, running...running...running. It all started with Kane. The first to fall...and the first to set into motion the snowball of energy.

  Soon, I’d feel the full force of the lash. Soon, I’d shoulder the load of all six of my line. Just like I had all those years ago.

  I knew the power Heron would have if we’d stayed, and I knew the three innocents that’d feel the full effect of that power. Three Princesses that would’ve been dead inside a day if we remained. The only way to save them, and ourselves, was to run, and hide.

  So I did the only thing I could. I ripped the Hounds from Hell and forced my line through the Gate and into this world. I unleashed not just one beast onto this world...but seven of us. Seven Hounds to hunt and hate...and hide.

  Only, four of us went back. Four couldn’t stay away, not from the Gate itself, or from the royal line. The handle gave a click when the gas ended. I yanked the nozzle free and placed it back into the cradle.

  I knew the moment Kane had fallen for the young Princess, his desire to protect drove every action. He was a victim of his desire...one that would be our own undoing.

  I made for the driver’s door and lifted my head to the young attendant staring at me through the window. He had a fistful of cash and a letter that could save at least one person. That was all my conscience would allow. One last person connected to me.

  I prayed Lincoln would understand what was happening. I prayed she’d go underground, to the bunker she’d been building for the last ten years, ever since I’d stood beside my wife and showed her sister who I truly was.

  I started the engine and shoved the car into gear before pulling out and leaving the gas station behind. Blue eyes haunted me in the rear-view mirror as the headlights splashed against the sign.

  Hell’s Gate 106 miles.

  Can’t...can’t hold on....Sevan...HELP ME! The desperate plea from Cekresy ripped through my head, yanking my hand down on the wheel. White lines blurred. I fought the Chrysler as the tires skidded and I crossed the middle line. Panic filled me, searing my nerves. I yanked the collar of my shirt, tearing buttons free.

  I reached out through our line, tasting her pain, taking in her memories, her hate, and her torment. A guttural whimper tore from my lips. I gripped the wheel,
fighting to hold on as the floodgate between us opened.

  The walls inside me trembled. I held on with all I had, sending my Hound’s power along hers. But there was no power I could give her, no strength between our line. All I had to do was to understand...and to see.

  She raced through burning streets on foot. The bitter stench of sulphur burned with every breath, asphalt stuck to her boots, burning through rubber to sear her feet. Still she ran, falling forward to hunker on all fours. Her nails buckled, tearing free as her Hound moved in. Her breaths deepened, drawing in the sting and the burn.

  I tasted her agony. I clutched hold of her rage. She lifted her head and, through the eyes of her Hound, I saw the mountain high above.

  The Cursed lash pulsed in the air, drawing her closer...hurry...hurry...it whispered and she was unable to fight the call. None of us could. I drove my foot down on the accelerator. There was only one way we’d survive this. Only one way any of us could.

  You know what you have to do, I sent the thought spearing down the line. Kill the man who wields the power.

  Cekresy sent a snarl through the line, and the savage sound filled my head. I’ll tear the sonofabitch apart.

  She would...she’d leave him in pieces. But what about the royal line?

  The young Princesses’ faces filled my mind. My heart clenched, driving guilt through the line. Protect them if you can....but kill those who seek to control us.

  My pleasure, she snarled as her Hound moved in, turning hands into paws. Bones snapped and molded back together, fur sprouted from pink skin. My own beast hunkered far too close to the surface.

  I focused on the white lines in front of me and pushed the Chrysler harder than ever. Paws pounded the pavement inside my head, blending with the thunder of my pulse as the nose of the Chrysler climbed.

  Mile after mile, until the car crested the rise. The midnight sky burned in the distance, the sight a punch to my chest. Hell called to me, the unmistakable throb like a lifeforce in my veins. I clutched hold of that hunger, drawing it into me and away from the connection I shared with the others.