I needed Jordy to get me close enough to the ones in charge. Once I was within shouting distance, I’d run. It wasn’t fair or kind, but it was necessary. I couldn’t risk the most powerful member of our team. He was the key to everyone getting out alive.
“Chill out, boss. I’ve got it. Stay close and don’t shoot myself in the head.”
Jordy rolled his eyes. “Things are going to happen fast, and you’re not going to be in the best control of your faculties. Be smart. Follow the rules. Jas, recite the rules.”
“Are you…” I paused and blew out a breath. “Okay, okay. Treat the weapon as if it’s live and ready to fire. Don’t point it anything I’m not prepared to kill. Keep my finger off the trigger until I’m ready and my sights are on the target. Situational awareness. Make sure I know what’s behind.”
“Good job. Time to go.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
THE RUBBER SOLES OF our boots made almost no sound as we approached the building in teams of twos and threes. Jordy, Mikael, and I took off for the northwest corner and held outside the exit door. Thanks to some early reconnaissance, we knew that the doors were unlocked. That was the good news.
I tried some slow, deliberate breathing but I could only focus on the worst-case scenarios. We were facing an unknown number of soldiers and cult members alike. These were people who sent in military-grade security experts to kidnap a woman and twelve children, terrify the Order’s members, and capture me. I was less concerned about the soldiers than I was with the crazy devotees who may or may not have special abilities. Soldiers were fairly predictable. Crazy people in the midst of human sacrifice? Not so much.
“On my command,” Jordy murmured into his headset. “Go.”
Mikael and I clicked the safeties into the off positions on our weapons and pointed them downward. “We’ve got this,” he whispered.
Sweat dripped down my spine as Jordy opened the first door. He stepped inside and swept his weapon in a thirty-ish degree angle around the room. I followed him, turning left instead of right, and swept my section. Mikael took up the rear and ensured no one was behind us.
Jordy nodded to us. “Status.”
Rubios was the first to respond. “Clear.”
“Clear.”
“Clear.”
“Roger that. Stack up.”
Nothing could have prepared me for the abject terror I felt while waiting to hear from the other teams. Nor could I have known that my body would respond before my brain processed. The man said to stack up, so I positioned myself behind him and got ready to clear the next section.
We were slapped with the disgusting scent of blood and carcasses as we made our way to the chilly staircase. It was enough to make anyone gag, but my recent brush with murder and mayhem had given me some immunity. Mikael wasn’t so lucky. He gagged and retched until his stomach was empty.
Jordy was furious. The sound echoed both ways on the staircase. We might have just given up our single advantage, the element of surprise. He ground out a single word. “Slaughterhouse.”
Fan-friggin-tastic.
I couldn’t wait to get my hands on those assholes. They’d chosen a location that could easily cover up their activities. Unless someone knew what they needed to find, a search would be useless. If we didn’t wrap this up immediately, we were all dead, and no one would know where the bodies were buried. Literally.
We took the stairs going up to the second floor. It was too quiet. The only sounds were the echoes of our footsteps. There was none of the expected chanting or screaming. Something felt wrong.
Jordy ordered an abrupt stop and signaled us to listen. On the other side of the flimsy metal door came practiced and measured steps. The door burst open, and a man dressed in fatigues moved into the small alcove with his gun drawn.
Time came to a screeching halt.
Jordy drove his hands forward, knocking the gunman’s hand down and to the side. In a quick series of movements, he disarmed the man and brought the muzzle down on his head twice in quick succession. Dazed, the man fell against the wall and hunched over.
“Jas. Now.”
Ever the teacher, Jordy had disabled the man enough for me to attack. I grabbed his head and gave him a wicked knee to the face, smashing his nose into a mess of blood and cartilage. Infuriated, bleeding, and desperate, he reached for my throat.
My mind went blank as his bloody fingers scrabbled to find purchase on my neck. I knew I should have moved, ducked, struck him. Something.
Jordy decided for me. He placed the gun at the man’s temple and fired once, tugging me aside as the body slumped. “What did I tell you?” he hissed. “Don’t wait for your abilities to kick in or to decide you want to brawl. Shoot, Goddamnit. Mikael, you too.”
“Yeah, yeah. Sorry. Got it.” We grabbed weapons and ammunition from the body, sticking whatever we could in pockets and holsters. He was armed to the teeth, forcing us to assume that the rest would be equally ready to kill.
“Status.”
“Clear.”
“Clear.”
The fourth team, comprised of the woman, Aurelia, and her partner, John, wasn’t responding.
“Status. Reli, John. Status. Over.” Jordy swore in the silence. “Rubios, how far away are you from their position?”
The line crackled. “Found a room with… oh, God. We cleared the room. All fatalities.”
“Dammit. How many? Cause of death?”
“Two children. Slit throats. They suffered.”
Joshua hadn’t lied. The innocents were being slaughtered before the main event. This was just the opening act.
Jordy sensed my urgency. “New orders. Shoot to kill. Once the hostages are removed, I want the biggest show of force you can manage. Over.”
“Copy that.”
“Copy.”
“Copy.”
Mikael gave my shoulder a comforting squeeze, the slightest pressure to let me know that he was there and had my back. In front of us, Jordy examined the rusted elevated walkway. He cursed and gestured for us to look. The path wrapped around the periphery of the main slaughtering room and gave us a direct line of sight.
Beneath us was an altar of three dark and heavy stones. The legs sported graffiti of the ancient and mystical kind. Clad in a simple pink dress, a little girl lay bound and gagged on the top slab. Her hair and face were smeared with the same ruby liquid that coated the altar. She moved her head from side to side, desperate to find someone who would save her from the same fate as the two dead children that had been kicked off the platform and discarded.
We raised our weapons and aimed at the man sharpening the edges of a curved ritual knife. As we pulled the triggers, the man, seemingly guided by preternatural instinct, whirled around and dragged the blade across the girl’s throat.
The bullets whizzed by the murderer as the child gurgled and bled out.
Oh, dear God.
✽ ✽ ✽
Hell broke loose.
The cult’s rent-a-cops trained their weapons on us and opened fire.
So great was my fury that I didn’t bother to duck. I pushed Jordy away and aimed.
Pow.
The first round clipped a heavily armed man in the shoulder. Mikael’s bullet, however, found its home between his eyes. We found a rhythm quickly enough. I selected a victim and squeezed the trigger.
The recoil shot up my arms and shook my frame. In the second it took me to recover, Mikael fired twice. Body shot, headshot. We were merciless.
One of the doors along the west wall of the elevated path opened with a bang. I squeezed off two shots that pulverized the side of his face. “I’m out. Reloading!”
I reached across my body and snatched a magazine while my other hand hit the release valve. Using my palm, I shoved the new cartridge, racked the slide, and took aim. The weapon had become an extension of me, exacting vengeance and putting down those animals masquerading as human beings.
“East and North walkways cleared.”
“West cleared,” I said brusquely, having no real interest in broadcasting my progress. The fury raging inside needed an outlet. It cried for violence and destruction of its own making. When the familiar warmth of energy and power flowed through my limbs, I was ready.
Mikael dispatched the attackers on the south wall and disappeared without a second glance in my direction, whispering back to inform me that he was going to the children, the ones who were still alive and penned into human-sized kennels.
At least I had Jordy watching my back.
Crap.
Jordy had already hit the ground floor and was grappling with a giant of a man with red hair. Despite the twelve-inch disadvantage, Jordy was inflicting major damage. The giant grunted and curled into himself to protect his vital organs, making the fatal mistake of leaving him open to the killing move that snapped his neck. In an instant, the beast reared its head and cut down everyone in his path. Jordy or Jordan, whoever was in control, attacked with brutal efficiency.
Rubios, Houlihan, and a few others joined the close combat. John screamed. One of the giant men wrapped his hand around his neck and slammed him against the wall. John struggled to get a decent hold, but the giant had a much longer reach.
I exhaled through my nose and fired. The bullet ripped through his chest somewhere above the heart. It wasn’t enough. The giant turned toward me, grinned, and shoved his gun in John’s mouth. He pulled the trigger and laughed. Without bothering to wipe the gore from his face, he pressed a hand to the seeping wound and shot in my direction.
“No more!” Mikael roared. He aimed and put three bullets into the man’s head. Children screamed and pointed at another man charging them. Mikael and I fired at the same time and struck him in the chest from both sides.
“Mikael, go!”
He nodded briefly and worked with Aurelia to free the children. They hightailed it out of there, hopefully off toward one of the waiting vans.
I jogged down the stairs, sweat dripping into my eyes. Cecilia was still missing.
And those asshole cult priests? They hadn’t fled because they were too busy collecting the spilled blood and packing up their supplies. The youngest, a towheaded man in his twenties, stepped on the bodies to avoid getting hit.
Humanity deserved better than the slaughter of children and the desperate grabs for selfish gains. Our enemies deserved no better than the suffering they dealt to others.
The carnage and screams around me faded as I strode forward. The soldiers deserved a death meted out by their kind. Those who used the blood of innocents for their gain deserved something far worse.
Me.
✽ ✽ ✽
I transformed into something greater than myself as I stepped over the dead. The energy pulsing in my veins flowed to my fingertips on command as five acolytes surrounded me. I laughed savagely.
“Run away while you can.”
One of the robed lackeys tossed the words back at me. He bared his teeth and lunged. Pure energy shot from my hand, hitting the center of his chest. Like an angry beast, he shook off the blow and came for me again.
They needed to quit while they were ahead. I threw my arm out and laughed as his body was engulfed in flames.
Two of his friends rushed to his side and tried to smother the fire. To my left, another raised a gun and pointed. I raised my other hand directed the energy into his body. He screamed and writhed as his organs boiled in fiery blood.
“Who’s next?” I screamed. Four acolytes pressed closer and chanted a containment spell as if the power inside me could be contained. Their words grew in confidence and volume with each step. The way they looked, they were giving in to the visions of being the ones to subdue me, fueling their heady dose of bloodlust.
Unfortunately, mine was stronger. I released a surge of energy that knocked them down, laughing when I saw the reason for their inability to rise. Their heads had been ripped off and popped like grapes while their bodies still twitched.
“Jasper, no!” Jordy bounded across the room and tackled me, protecting my body from a spray of bullets. “Are you okay? Talk to me!”
“Get off. Must kill.”
“Jasper.” He slapped my cheek. “Listen to me. You have to snap out of it before the rage consumes you.”
“They must pay.”
He scrambled to his feet, grabbed my hand, and ran toward a low wall. “Yeah, no shit. Stay here and try not to blow up anything important. You know. Like me.”
I snatched his gun and reloaded it for him. “Don’t move. This needs to end.”
✽ ✽ ✽
Cecilia’s scream rent the air. “Help me, please. It’s Charles! Charles said he’s going to slit my throat!” She sobbed as two more robed figures picked up her legs and torso and tied her to the altar.
I peeked over the wall and saw our team overtaking the cult’s joke of a security team. All that remained was to free Cecilia and destroy the items used in the sacrifice. Needless to say, I’d fulfill Dakarai’s request and torch the place on my way out.
Hurt. Torture. Maim. Take from them what they’ve taken from us. Make them beg for death.
“Jas,” Jordy said. He shook my arm and snapped his fingers in front of my face. “Get your crap together. If you can’t, stay here and don’t move.”
What Jordy hadn’t yet understood was that he had no role to play in these last moments. Worse, he had no influence on my decisions. I knelt and held his face in my hands. “I couldn’t tell you my plans earlier because I needed confirmation. Jordy, in case this doesn’t work, I wanted to say goodbye.”
His eyes grew wide. “No. Jasper, no. You can’t. You don’t—”
“Dying is not on my agenda, so cross your fingers and hope I’m not wrong. But… I wish you a long and happy life. You deserve it.” I hesitated then pressed my lips to his. “Thank you for everything.”
“I’m begging you not to do this. There has to be another way. And what is wrong with you? Kissing me now? Talk about terrible freaking timing! Stay and fight with me. Together.”
Shaking my head, I stood and released him. I spoke the words of compulsion that Dakarai had taught me earlier in the day and infused it with the ability to bend others to my will. “Protect yourself at all costs. Don’t leave until it’s safe. You’re the key to everyone’s safety.”
He roared and thrashed against my gentle command. “No! What are you doing? Don’t sacrifice yourself. Don’t leave me!”
“Never, silly man. You couldn’t get rid of me if you tried. Be good, Jordy.”
It was grief, both mine and his, that nearly caused me to run back to his side. But the knowledge that I was the only one who could permanently end this threat propelled me. I squared my shoulders and allowed the entirety of my abilities to take over.
“Charles,” I bellowed. “Stop this madness. Free her and end this peacefully.”
“Child, you are in far over your head. Call off your dogs, and I will allow them to leave. Even Cecilia.”
I lifted a brow. “This isn’t a negotiation. Untie Cecilia, and I promise that you will be given a fair trial within the Order and permission to live out your days in comfortable solitude.”
“This isn’t a negotiation,” he mocked. “Miriam, Ian, for cripes sake, hold her down!”
Ian reared back and smashed his fist into Cecilia’s temple. “She’s down. Miriam, a little help please?”
Unlike the two men, Miriam remained silent. There was something profoundly wrong with the situation. Charles and Ian had demonstrated violence while she merely had watched. When we first met, I’d wondered if she was the seductive power behind their actions. Her curious stare and the way she idly caressed Cecilia’s throat confirmed it.
“Miriam, tell your dogs to back down.”
She frowned slightly. “That’s impossible. What we aim to do will allow everyone to have insight and power. We’ll free everyone from the bonds of cosmic equilibrium and the world will play out the final battle between li
ght and dark.”
I snorted. “Armageddon? Are you an end-of-days looney? Jesus, people. Give it up.”
Charles lifted his arm and made a come-hither gesture. Hundreds of stomping feet drew closer. “You are a foolish little girl. We have been protecting a myth, a fairy tale. Il Separatio doesn’t speak to anyone if he even exists. We are tired of protecting a cause that inhibits human development and progress.”
“Look around you, Jasper,” Ian said, his voice wrapping around me like unctuous tentacles. “These people are willing to die for our cause.”
When I laughed, I had to admit I sounded unhinged. “Your people are ready to die. Do they know you’re unwilling to offer the same sacrifice? That’s what makes you weak.”
“It is your weakness as well, child.”
“That’s where you’re wrong.” I smiled crookedly. “You’ve sealed your death warrants. Any last words?”
“Stupid bitch,” Charles spat. “I should have killed you with the rest of your pathetic and weak family. Our new world has no room for whining children.”
My legs gave out. “You?”
His soot-black eyes were emotionless. “Yes, me,” he taunted. “All of them, even your distant relatives within the Order. Your precious Circle was devastated when they learned of your losses. They insisted on bringing you into the fold and teaching you. They thought they needed you.”
I staggered to my feet and glowered. “May your death be equal to your life. May the suffering you wrought come back to you a thousand-fold.”
The world narrowed down to the pinpricks of energy beneath my skin and the presence of Charles and his cult. He ordered the acolytes to restrain me, the traitor of humanity.
The primordial need for justice would be denied no longer. I closed my eyes and screamed as the pulsing beneath my skin erupted with the force of a nuclear bomb.
EPILOGUE
Jordan’s Diary, Winter 2016
IT’S BEEN THREE MONTHS since I last saw you and I’m slowly going crazy. After… well, after, it was a madhouse. When the smoke cleared, the slaughterhouse had been decimated. Our people, including Cecilia, were unharmed.
Order of Vespers Page 22
