He realized that Eugene was still waiting for his answer, and that there was no point in resisting him, really.
“Twenty-three,” he said finally, hearing his voice come out deep and hoarse.
“Twenty-three…” Eugene repeated thoughtfully. “So, I was right, you were born before I left. Michael kept you a secret from me for three years! And that’s with all the spies I paid for…” He shook his head disappointedly.
Michael?? Jane and Pain stared at Chad, both dubious. His father was Michael?? Pain’s head seemed to spin, and then everything cleared. She felt like she was looking at Chad with different eyes now. Suddenly, she could see Michael’s feline eyes and the hard line of his jaw; his cheekbones, square and prominent in Chad’s face; even the sloping line of his broad shoulders reminded her of their former leader. A scene flashed before her eyes: the night they met, when she and Jane brought the guys to Peter for the first time, how his look lingered on them both. He knew Dave because of his famous father, it turned out. But Chad, he reminded him of Michael, only he didn’t realize it because of the time that had passed since Michael looked like this. And the hair, it was confusing. Michael had sand-colored hair, straight and short. If only they hadn’t been so blind back then, she thought. If only Peter had paid more attention to his senses, then they could have figured it out long ago and prepared Chad for everything that was coming.
She realized she was staring at Chad without blinking, her eyes already stinging from the dryness, and he was looking back at her from across the room, bewildered. She blinked in confusion and sighed. Situations where she couldn’t affect anything made her edgy.
“So, I take it he gave you to some friends of his, civilians. Otherwise they would have trained you, made a real man out of you.” Eugene was pacing back and forth now before Chad and Dave. “I’m really interested in the way he hid your Mark, but I guess there are a lot of ways to do that these days. You know, I’ve always considered Michael a bright, clever man. Now I really doubt it, and I just see another reason why I should own the Headquarters, not that narrow-minded martyr, and not Peter, of course. What was he thinking giving you away to a mundane family? How did he see you avenging him without proper training?
“The night he died he was acting really odd. Almost as if he was sensing that he would die, you know? So when I finally got to him and knocked him out, I threw him down from a five-story building. All of his bones were broken, but he came around when I got down to him. He looked so fragile, and yet he told me, ‘My son will finish my job with you, Eugene’ with so much menace that I actually began to respect him,” he even mimicked Michael’s voice, trying to sound serious and menacing – clearly, he was enjoying his little show. “But when I found out about his ‘big plan’ for you – actually, no plan at all – I lost it, I lost all respect for him. He wanted you to defeat me when you wouldn’t even stand a minute against any of the men in this room!” Eugene laughed, and the Beasts around him smirked, mirroring their boss’s expression. “You don’t even know how to use your power! What could you possibly do against me??” He paused in front of Chad, looking at him mockingly.
But Chad knew how to use his power, Pain thought. Maybe he didn’t have any experience or practice, but he was already stronger, faster, and had better reflexes than humans. It was with him his whole life, he just didn’t know it. Considering the way he had fought on the roof, she actually doubted he would lose to any of these cutthroats. It was in his blood, and Michael was strong, one of the strongest. With some luck, Chad could deliver a fine blow even without any practice. The most important thing was that Eugene wouldn’t expect it from him, would he?
She tried to lock her gaze with Chad’s as her lips moved almost imperceptibly – Do it. But Chad cast his eyes down, clenching and unclenching his fists until veins stood out corded in his arms. He was losing it, and it was no surprise, considering everything that happened. Focus, she thought desperately. If only I could do it for you.
Eugene sighed, as if he was bored, and produced a knife from behind his back. It was intricate and expensive-looking, its blade black and curved, with serrations near the hilt. He brought it to Chad’s chin, forcing him to raise his head. This turn of the events Pain didn’t like. A shiver ran through her spine at the sight of Eugene with the weapon, and she tensed, her breath getting slower, her eyes focusing on Eugene’s every move. Like a wound-up spring, she was ready to attack any moment now. One wrong step, one abrupt movement, and she would launch herself at him. And if there was no luck, then between him and Chad. After all, she had a shield of her own. All those hours of meditation and practice had to pay off. She knew Jane would be left alone among the Beasts, and she knew her sister was ready for it. The only thing she didn’t know was what they both were going to do after that.
Chad raised his look to Eugene’s face. He could feel the stinging tip of the knife that dented his chin. It was strangely sobering, sending shrill, buzzing impulses through his veins. His vision got sharper, his breath steadier, and only now he began to feel the churning warm air that was coming off of Eugene. Chad stared into his apathetic dark eyes, trying to get rid of the sound of cracking bones in his mind. He could almost feel his head in his hands, the way his neck would break if only he could get through the shield.
The tip of the knife drew blood from his chin, and he glanced down. He didn’t pull away, though. Instead, he looked up at Eugene again and pressed his chin down, feeling the knife cut deeper into his skin, but too angry to stop. Pain gasped, and he cut his eyes at her, seeing her mouth something to him with a scowl.
Eugene shook his head.
“Just like your father, reckless and stubborn. You’ll end up just like that poor bastard, too.”
Chad wasn’t looking at him. He gazed at Pain, frowning, until he realized what she was saying. He turned his look to Eugene then, nodding slightly, making him think he was responding to his words. Eugene snorted, turning away and throwing up his hands with an annoyed expression, the black knife gleaming fiercely in one of them.
“So, the end of the story is near. By the way, after I finish with these two, you all can have a nice time with those two,” he pointed at the girls with his free hand and then leaned back on his heels carelessly, looking over his grinning and pleased fighters.
And this was when Chad nodded to Pain from across the room, and as two shields flared up around her and Jane, she drew a knife from her belt and threw it at Eugene in one incredibly swift motion.
It struck his shield and cluttered to the floor, but it didn’t matter, because as Eugene followed it with his surprised gaze even for a split second, Chad’s hand closed on the black knife and snatched it from Eugene’s hand. As the whole room froze in surprise, and Eugene turned to Chad with his eyebrows arched in confident bemusement, Chad brought the knife down, and it practically exploded with light when he poured all of his power into one single blow. Eugene’s shield blazed up…
…and shattered in a million of shimmering fragments, letting the blade go through his chest and right into his heart.
The room gasped. Eugene’s eyes flew wide open, and he tried to inhale reflexively, gagging. Shock and pain mixed in his look as he stared at Chad in horrified amazement. The others could do nothing but gape at the two of them, frozen to their spots and not believing their eyes. The sisters’ expressions weren’t that much different from them. Though they both had hoped that it would happen, they couldn’t quite grasp that the picture before their eyes was real.
An incredibly long second passed before Chad pulled the knife free, pushing Eugene away from him. He blinked one more time and collapsed onto the expensive rug, staining it with blood. Chad stared down at him, amazed more than the others. Somewhere behind him, Dave let out a hissing breath, watching the blood spill from Eugene’s chest. He glanced at his friend, not blinking, but Chad’s eyes were still on Eugene.
“My father wasn’t a bastard,” he muttered, squeezing the knife in his fingers and feeling its s
lippery hilt. Even the idea of Eugene’s blood on his hand was sickening, as if he had just killed a disgusting insect.
Suddenly, he realized that the room was still shockingly silent. He raised his eyes to look around. Everyone was staring at him: astonished, unbelieving, confused, scowled, even scared.
And then they all unfroze at once.
Pain, being the only one ready to this turn of the events, leaped in the room’s center, pulling Jane forward with her just as the Beasts’ hands grabbed the empty air behind them. Angry shouts and surprised exclamations mixed with the clatter of unsheathed weapons as the crowd lunged after them. But there were two daggers in Pain’s hands already, and they stopped short, ducking from the deadly steel that hurled in their direction. The entire arsenal was put to use now by both Pain and Jane, not giving the Beasts even a second to straighten up and attack them. But one of them, being comparatively safe behind the others’ backs, took a chance at attacking and picked the easiest of the targets. A knife swished past Jane’s shield and struck Dave’s shoulder. He swayed and stared down at it in pure amazement, and then his knees gave in, and he fell, losing his consciousness. Belatedly, Chad came around and dashed to catch him, but Dave had already struck the floor, banging his head against it.
“You dog!” Pain spat viciously and threw another knife at the Beast.
It hit him in the throat, and he collapsed forward, pinning another fighter to the floor.
“Don’t pull out the knife!!” she shouted to Chad.
“I know, I know,” he snapped back nervously, dragging Dave to the big window.
The katana swished through the air, and the first head tumbled to the floor as the sisters stood back to back, blocking the path to the guys behind them. The attackers stepped back only for a second, and then the bristling sea of Beasts rolled on the girls.
“Guess this part of the plan we haven’t thought through!” Jane shouted, grunting under the pressure of the first blow. She pushed the Beast back, and with the next strike, she cut his head off. The others backed off as he collapsed to the floor, but then they dashed to her again, even more enraged.
“It’s not even a plan, it’s a disaster!” Pain shouted back, stealing a glance in Chad’s direction – he was slapping Dave’s cheeks, trying to bring him around.
“Wake up, wake up, Dave!”
He didn’t stir and didn’t open his eyes. The T-shirt under his jacket was quickly darkening around the shoulder, and though Chad knew that the wound wasn’t very dangerous, the look of Dave, limp and pale, turned his blood cold and made his mind blank. Everything inside him screamed, “He’s dead! Dead!” It seemed there was no way to shut those voices out and make himself believe that Dave was going to be perfectly alright if they just got out of there fast enough.
A loud chorus of angry shrieks pierced the air, and he slewed around, startled, just as someone slammed into him, knocking him off his feet. They went over in a tangle, and Chad felt something jab into his stomach – a hilt of a sword – and as they sprang apart, he seized hold of it and pulled it free. The man startled for a moment, realizing that his hand closed on the empty air, and in the next second his own sword was sticking out of his stomach. Chad jumped aside, getting out of the way as the man fell, and then someone grabbed the back of his sweater, flinging him around and into the wall. A melee of Beasts flashed before his eyes – the rest of the room was in chaos, the girls caught up somewhere in the middle of it. He ducked, hitting the wall with his shoulder instead of the head, and as the Beast showed up in front of him again, he just lunged for his legs, seized them, and sent him flying into another wall. With Eugene’s knife lost and the size of his opponent so much smaller than his own, Chad just didn’t know what else to do. And now he stood there dazed because the man struck the wall with so much force that he thought he could hear all of his bones crack. Chad’s jaw fell open as the Beast slid to the floor, followed by a heavy painting and a huge fragment of the wall that broke off with a loud crackle and landed on top of him.
Everybody turned at the sound, pausing their fight for a second, and stared with astonishment at the hole. Their looks changed from surprised to interested, and Chad raised his eyes at the wall in bewilderment. There was something inside it, right where the painting had been, something metal and gleaming.
A safe.
The crowd dashed to it, forgetting about the girls and everything, and suddenly glass rained down on Chad when a chair sailed through the window from across the room.
“Shit!” Chad ducked, grabbing the heavy gold curtain and covering Dave and himself with it.
“Jane, cover!” Pain was already by his side. Without a word, she shouldered him away, seized Dave under his arms, and broke through the spiky opening, back first, carrying him with her and sending more shards into the air.
Chad paused, unsure – some of the Beasts hadn’t fallen for the bait, and safe or no safe, they were trying to get to Jane. They had only a few seconds before someone would get behind her back, and he didn’t know what to do, until her furious voice pierced the air like a siren.
“What are you waiting for??”
Chad flinched, tearing his gaze off the fight and dashing to the window. Something gleamed at his feet, and he picked it up mechanically – it was Eugene’s knife. It fit into his palm as if it was made for him personally, and as much as he hated Eugene, he just couldn’t leave it there. So he thrust it under his belt, and spotting Pain’s pale face outside, slipped through the hole. Jane appeared at his side in a second, still holding her swords and followed by two Beasts.
And then all of them halted because they saw what was happening outside.
A swarm of people was gathering over the building like a black cloud. Ghosts, clad in black gear, looking illusory in the dim light of the brightening sky. There were more than a hundred: some of them were bandaged, their gear torn, blood still smeared across their faces. A lot of them looked unfamiliar and didn’t wear gear, but they all looked equally determined and fierce. And in their head was Skull, his black eyes cold and calculating, his machete dark with fresh blood.
He raised his voice, commanding half of the men to head inside, and the Beasts darted upward, hoping to escape. Only they didn’t have a chance against the furious crowd of Ghosts. A half-dozen geared men rushed forward, grabbing the Beasts and bringing them down to the roof. The others disappeared inside the building, finishing what the Beasts had started at their quarters a few hours ago. A few dozen landed on the roof, and Skull approached the sisters before going with them.
“You should bandage his wound. We won’t be going home for another half-hour.” He looked at Dave with a frown. He hung limply from Pain’s arms, pressed against her chest like a big rag doll. His jacket was open, revealing a dark blotch on his shoulder. “I don’t think you should go home alone. You’ll be alright on the roof with us.”
He flew up closer, taking Dave into one of his arms. Pain looked at him gratefully, wiping at her glistening forehead as her hands became free.
“Okay, let’s go,” she nodded, and as he vanished in the darkness above, Jane and Chad followed him up to the roof.
Pain was about to follow them when she noticed a dark figure to her right. She turned and saw a man in a long coat pause in a few yards away from her. African-American, clearly over forty years old, tall and imposing. He gave Pain the strangest of looks, as if warring with himself over something, and then darted inside the building after his squad. She couldn’t see his face well in the darkness, and after a moment she shook her head and hurried after the others.
The lights up there were bright, illuminating another crowd of black-clothed men. Some of the Beasts had gathered there, trying to take advantage from their number, but the Ghosts were ten times better in fight, and already a few bodies lay around them. They landed near the superstructure, where the wind was muffled a little, and Skull laid Dave carefully on the ground and began to take off his long leather coat.
“Take this
.”
Jane was already by Dave’s side, taking him under the arms and pulling him into her lap.
“We’re good, thanks,” she said. After the heat of the fight in the small room, she was almost grateful to feel the chilly wind on her skin.
The giant shrugged, putting the coat back on. In three long strides, he reached the edge and disappeared below it.
Pain and Chad came closer, watching Dave in Jane’s arms, Chad with worry, Pain with a cold frown. Jane laid a cool palm on his forehead, and his eyelids trembled. Slowly, he opened his eyes and looked around groggily, stirring.
“Am I dying?” he wondered weakly, focusing his gaze on Jane’s tired black eyes.
She raised one split eyebrow.
“No, silly. It’s a minor wound, and we’re gonna head home soon,” she replied.
“We’re not there yet? Why did I think I heard Skull then?” He stirred again, trying to turn his head and look around the roof.
“Don’t move. Our fighters are here, they’re going to finish the Beasts. After that, we’ll head home. I’m going to pull out the knife now and bind up your shoulder. I’ll do it quick, but it will sting a little bit. Do you think you can handle this?”
Dave swallowed, taking a few seconds before the answer. It had to be done anyway, so he let out a shuddering breath and nodded,
“Yes. Okay.”
She produced a rubber band from an inside pocket, then wrapped it tightly around his shoulder. He held his breath, and she hesitated. She was used to fixing up Ghosts, but imagining how awful it was for Dave, never been wounded before, she felt unsure for a moment.
Sky Ghosts: All for One (Young Adult Urban Fantasy Adventure) (Sky Ghosts Series Book 1) Page 34
