James turned around. Flames engulfed the trees near the river. Crowley stumbled out of the inferno with Rowena emerging right on his heels.
James lifted his weapon and strode toward the pair. Trina stayed him. “Leave Rowena to us, focus on Crowley.”
“No problem.” He knew better than to engage the high priestess. He wouldn't stand a chance against her Magic. He lined up Crowley in his sights and squeezed the trigger.
The bastard moved and the shot barely grazed him. Still, Crowley hadn't seemed to notice him yet, so he lined up another. His curly blond hair sat right in the notch of his sight. James squeezed the trigger.
Nothing.
With a curse, he threw down the gun and drew his blades. He crept closer.
Lilith and Trina had gotten to Rowena, they had her arguing about something.
Crowley still had his back to him.
James lifted his blade.
Rowena swung around and lifted her hand. “No.”
James froze. Not because he wanted to. The bitch had done something to him. He couldn't move. He tried to speak and couldn't.
That's why Crowley hadn't turned around. He couldn't.
Rowena took a step closer. “There's something wrong with that one. I intended for the humans to finish him off, but . . . .” She waved her hand to Crowley. “You can kill him later. After we clean up this mess and get rid of the mercs.” She shook her head. “If the Watchers see this, if the Vampiric Council finds out, there will be war.”
There was no stopping that now.
Lilith spoke his thought out loud. “You ensured a war when you joined up with Crowley and lured the humans here.”
“But the Watchers. They can't see us.” Rowena pointed to Crowley again. “Not when he's here. We can pretend none of this happened.” Her gaze narrowed. “The way he casts a shadow over us, I'd almost think he's a—”
“Don't!” Lilith's shout drowned out anything Rowena might have said. “Do not speak another word.” She glanced at Trina. “Can you release them?”
Trina nodded. With a flick of her wrist, the invisible bonds loosened.
Everyone moved at once.
Julius dashed away even as James brought his blade down.
Lilith summoned her swords, stepping toward Rowena.
Fire burst from Rowena's hands, missing Crowley and setting more shrubs on fire, before Lilith forced her to turn and fight.
James went after Crowley. “Trina, keep the soldiers away and put out that damn fire.” He lunged, nicking Crowley. “You love causing trouble.”
Crowley winced. Down to one blade and wounded, his odds weren't so good now. “And you never did die easy.” He lashed out with his blade.
James knocked his arm to the side with one arm, jabbed up with his other.
Crowley blocked him. Reared back and head-butted him.
Shit.
James stumbled back a step, tightening his hands on his blades.
Crowley attacked again. Punched James in the jaw, bringing his blade around the side.
It was a good move. One James didn't expect. He should have landed the blow, but at the last second, he dropped his blade.
James couldn't stop his momentum and stumbled past, barely catching himself before going headfirst into the blazing shrubs.
Crowley picked up his blade, mumbling to himself. “Fucking prick, stay out of this.”
James' gaze narrowed. Again he had the sense that Julius might still be in there.
A cry escaped Crowley and for a split second he seemed different. “Listen.” His head jerked to the side. “Listen to me.”
James circled, watching his opponent.
“No.” Crowley shuddered so hard his neck cracked as his head jerked to the side again. James glanced down as Crowley pulled his blade out of his own thigh.
Christ. He wasn't just in league with a rogue Watcher, it had possessed him. “Jules?”
“Az—”Crowley shook his head violently. “No.” The denial burst from Crowley's lips and he went on the attack, slashing his blade from side to side as he advanced. It wasn't a good ploy. The wild maneuvers put him off balance. Jules knew better, damn it. He'd taught the son of a bitch to fight. Was his old friend even in there?
James stepped back for every wild slash Crowley made, watching for his opening. On Crowley's next downswing, James rushed him, catching his arm and knocking away the blade.
The two of them tumbled to the ground. He could make the killing blow. He could ash him. But, Christ, if Jules was in there. If the dumb shit was still alive and trapped . . . . “Jules?”
“His name—” Crowley thrashed beneath him, seeming to struggle against himself, the same as Lilith had done with Nan. His jaw clamped tight and he arched off the ground. “His name—”
Come on, yes. Say his goddamned name. Lilith could exorcize the Watcher with that information. She could banish it.
An ice cold wave slammed over them. The world went topsy-turvy as the biting liquid ripped James away from Crowley. One instant, he had nothing to grab hold of. In the next, the tide pulled him down to the ground. Raked him over stone and earth. He slammed his blade into the dirt. Held on.
The heavy weight of the water receded with the same startling speed as it arrived.
James gasped. Sucked in a deep breath and coughed.
Trina. That had to have been Trina putting out the fire. Smart ass.
He pulled his blade from the ground and stood.
Crowley was nowhere in sight.
Rowena staggered to her feet a couple of yards from him, glass tinkling within her sodden robes. She glanced up and her eyes grew wide. She screamed.
Something the size of a toddler emerged from her robes. Skinless, with hair standing in wet tufts around its reptilian head, the creature scurried up her body. Its three-fingered hands anchored on the sides of her mouth. It squeezed inside.
Holy mother of God.
James stepped back.
Aimee.
That's the creature Rowena had cursed Lilith with?
Rowena reached her hands out to him. To him. She wanted help from him.
He shook his head. “That's your karma. Not mine.” He turned away, searching for Lilith. Only a handful of the coven still stood. Will. Ghost. And soldiers. Christ, soldiers were coming out of the fucking woodwork.
A handful of them carried a hooded figure. Crowley. “Goddamn it.”
Crowley or Lilith?
Will bounded after the soldiers in Lycan form.
Lilith, then. Will would get Crowley back. He turned back in time to see Rowena make a suicide run into the midst of a group of soldiers. They all opened fire. Her body jerked and wrenched in the hailstorm they unloaded on her.
Just then, Lilith walked out into the open.
Christ. “No!” He waved her back.
Her gaze snapped to his.
She jerked.
Once.
Twice.
The shots meant for Rowena hit her square in the chest.
Her brows furrowed and she looked down at herself, then crumpled to the ground.
“Lilith.” Trina ran to her friend, skidding to a stop on her knees at her side. “Lilith.”
The gunfire stopped.
James held his breath as Trina turned Lilith's limp body over.
Trina's shout of denial confirmed the worst. A sob broke from her and she pulled Lilith into her arms.
A horrible sound filled the battlefield, a howl more animal than human. Lamenting. Anguished. James gasped, out of breath. He tried to suck in air, but couldn't.
He dropped to his knees. The sounds of the fight around him faded as his world narrowed, pinpointed. He could feel the wind on his face, the damp earth under his knees soaking through his jeans.
He doubled over from a searing pain in his chest. A physical pain, unlike anything he'd known, spreading out from where his heart should be. He glanced down, expecting to find he'd been shot, too. There was nothing. No physical wound.
Just a cavernous, empty agony.
He'd failed. Again.
Someday . . . . Your destruction.
When the old woman cursed him with destruction, he expected his own oblivion. He expected the end of his existence. He'd accepted that. Not this. Not like this.
Nothing could have destroyed him more.
The hot steel of a gun pressed against his neck. “Stay down. I'm not messing with you.”
He didn't care. Welcomed the numbness. If they were indeed life mates, two halves of a whole, then she was everything bright and loving and good about him. She reintroduced him to life, to love.
And what did he do? Took her soul. Her life.
“Lilith?” Trina leaned back, staring at Lilith, shaking her.
Slowly, James rose. Was she alive?
“Stay down.” The muzzle pressed harder to his head.
No. She didn't move.
The corners of his mouth drew down, trembling. He drew his lips together in a thin line. He needed to say goodbye. To touch her again, one last time.
“Get down, buddy. Don't make this any worse.”
James took a step closer.
The soldier pistol-whipped him across the back of his head. Pain streaked through his skull and he fell to his knees as darkness checkered across his vision. He battled it, determination commanding him. He struggled up, shaking off the darkness.
James stood and for a split second he thought he saw Lilith move. Trina looked up, her eyes widening, then shook Lilith again, her lips moving rapid-fire.
The soldier behind him pressed the muzzle of his weapon to James' head. “You don't give up, do you?”
Was she alive? He took another step.
“I swear I'm going to shoot.”
Lilith looked up, her gaze coming straight to him.
She was alive.
Relief surged through his veins, making him dizzy with joy.
Her mouth opened on a single word. He couldn't hear her, not from this distance, but he read his name on her lips. “James.
A sense of deja vu assailed him, bringing him back to his last day as a human. To the evening when she'd done the same thing as her executioners lit a pyre beneath her feet.
In that moment, he knew she'd been right—everything had happened for a reason. Even though he'd failed her then, she still had faith in him. An unshakable faith that he'd save her. That he was good. That he deserved her love.
Humbled, he could give no less in return.
He had faith.
In her.
And in whatever deity had brought her into his life. Whether God or goddess or whatever, he could give a shit. Whatever deity was out there, had given him his own miracle, his own paradise in her.
And he'd be damned if he let anyone take that from him.
He closed his eyes, allowing himself to descend into the darkness of his Vampiric talent. Let his consciousness sink into the old familiar agony.
Have faith. She'll survive. She'll keep our allies alive.
His veins turned to ice as he called on that old pain, drawing it to him.
Have faith. She'll keep you from going too far. She won't let you get lost.
James put all his faith in her.
And let go.
Chapter 39
“Can you move?” Trina asked.
Lilith nodded. She hurt everywhere, but she could move now. James' bite may not have changed her fully to a vampire, but she'd acquired the ability to self-heal.
Trina tugged at her. “We should go.” The soldiers all focused on James and no longer paid any attention to them. She regained her feet with Trina's help, her whole body protesting the movement, but her gaze remained on her mate.
A strange purplish-black light surrounded him. His eyes were open, but they were the eyes of a cadaver, with milky cataracts obstructing his pupils. His skin had turned translucent, leaving the thin layer of veins and muscle beneath his skin visible.
His words from the day before came back to her. I couldn't stop. I killed them all.
Lilith swallowed. She didn't know if she should be more concerned about the guns or James. She had no idea what talent he possessed, but if he feared using it, she knew he had his reasons.
A new sound filled the air around them. At first, nothing more than the howl of wind, but as it grew louder, the sound changed to unearthly voices screaming in rage. The hair on her skin stood at attention.
Louder, it came closer. From the east, a shrieking, growling, wailing chorus.
Everyone, now united in fear of the unknown, turned to find the source of the screams. They no longer fought among themselves.
A new enemy came.
The clearing, and those there, stood silent. No one moved, fear reducing them all to their base instincts, and they waited on that basic level, like animals sensing a predator nearby. Watched. Listened.
Danger was coming.
Death was coming.
Through the darkened forest, the first signs of a purplish-black emanation grew. The light approached from the southeast. The caterwauling becoming more ear-piercing as the strange light drew near.
A chill crept up Lilith's spine making her shiver, raising gooseflesh on her skin.
Instinct urged her to run.
Reason told her there was no point.
An arm reached around and encircled her from behind. She started, sucking in a quick burst of air.
“Sh. It’s me.” Will spoke close to her ear.
His head popped between hers and Trina's, his arm yanked her closer to Trina and back against him. “All right, ladies, you stick with me, and if you've got a god, I'd start praying.”
Trina glanced back. “What is it?”
“James.” Lilith whispered his name like a benediction, hoping to invoke his mercy on them. “It's his Vampiric talent. I'm not sure what it is.”
Will tightened his grip on them. “He's a necromancer. I've heard stories of this in my pack. He's making the dead walk tonight.” He stared into the forest.
The cemetery sat to the east, at the edge of town. Dear gods, that must be where they came from.
The light reached the clearing, and through the crowd she made out the shapes of humanoid silhouettes racing toward them.
Guns fired, sounding the war drum. Men fled in all directions as the misty light surrounded the soldiers on the front line of this new war. The shouts of the men's terror blended with the snarling and shrieking already filling the air. Amid the nightmare the humans begged for their god's intervention with desperate prayers.
“It's James, though, right?” Trina's voice shook. “So we're safe.”
“I'm not sure he has any control,” Will whispered.
They were all fighters. And they all died. Lilith repeated what James said yesterday. She looked at Will and Trina. “James told me there are times you shouldn’t fight. When the only way to survive is to lower your gaze, keep your mouth shut and be still.”
Lilith glanced around, searching for anyone from the coven. Kat stood not too far away, staring into the forest. Lilith called out to her and repeated the instructions. Katherine raced to tell the others.
Will regarded her. “All right, ladies, turn around, heads to my chest, eyes closed tight.”
Neither had ever been much for the damsel in distress thing, but they didn't argue. Her gaze met Trina's for the briefest of seconds before she pressed her face to Will's shoulder. He leaned on them even as his strong arms wound protectively around them.
“Will?” Trina whispered. “Are you okay?”
“No more talking.” The urgent strain in his voice, more than his words, had the desired effect.
A body rammed into them. They stumbled. Will righted himself, pulling them tighter in his embrace, standing straighter.
A burst of frigid air passed by.
The sounds were horrendous. The grim music of annihilation—sickeningly wet chords and bone-crunching acoustics harmonizing the macabre melody of death. Never in her life
had she heard grown men scream in such a way. The shouts conjured disturbing images mind-wrenchingly offensive in their gruesomeness. A glacial chill chased urgent footsteps passing by.
Then, an unholy scream.
Her stomach churned. Burning bile caught in her throat, and she fought to choke it back down.
She dared to open her eyes and found Trina staring back, wide-eyed. Her breathing came in short little pants much like her own. Lilith tightened her hold on Will, overwhelmed with gratitude for his solid presence.
Trina's gaze shot to the left, over Lilith's shoulder. Her lids fluttered rapidly over her flat, dead stare. Her lips parted as if she would speak. Will gave them both a squeeze, and naught but a squeak escaped Trina's lips.
Lilith couldn’t decide if she wanted to see what frightened Trina. Then she had no choice.
It was there, behind and between them, challenging Will with its empty gaze. She couldn't imagine how Will could stand so strong in the face of something so vile. The creature wasn't even paying her any attention, and she already shook.
She wanted to turn away, but its ghoulish visage seized her attention.
The creature had been human at some point, but no longer. Now, something dark had touched it. A purplish glow enveloped its emaciated form. The empty eye sockets radiated it. Its sallow skin, rotten and decayed, left one whole side of its corrupt face exposed, the alabaster of its skull visible underneath the ragged edges of putrid flesh. Its teeth were jagged and needle-pointed, as if it spent its afterlife filing away at them for such an occasion.
The creature’s attention shifted to her. It inspected her with the same morbid curiosity she'd given it. It jerked its face closer and, opening its mouth, let out an ominous shriek designed to petrify.
Both Trina and Will jumped with the same terrified enthusiasm she did.
The creature's head jerked to the side, as if it saw someone more to its liking. It bounded off in search of other casualties, and as she let out the breath she'd been holding, Will and Trina did the same.
The creatures swarmed around the campsite, the yard, then off into the shadowy forest.
The night returned to its natural inky hue, leaving her a clear view of the holocaust, the devastation even more terrifying in its permanence.
The Beacon (The Original's Trilogy Book 1) Page 31
