Pursuit: An Urban Fantasy Novel (The Lillim Callina Chronicles Book 4)

by J. A. Cipriano

  He hoisted himself up, looming over me. The hatred in his eyes made me shudder. “I wanted her back, and I got you! What good are you to me?” he shouted, his teal eyes blazing.

  That’s when it clicked. Masataka had been in love with Dirge. Joshua had loved Dirge, and consequently, tried dating me. While not the healthiest of relationships, it at least made sense. Masataka… Masataka had gone the other way, replacing his love with hatred.

  “I’m sorry, Masataka. I didn’t want you either,” I snapped, swallowing the lump in my throat as I stared up at him. “And I didn’t ask you to do what you did.”

  His face twisted in fury. A guttural snarl escaped his lips as he bared his teeth. “I didn’t do it for you, Lillim.” He spat, and a thick gob of saliva hit me in the face. It dribbled down my cheek, warm and slimy. “You think you can just replace her?”

  My hand lashed out, smacking him hard across the face. His head snapped back, but before I could wriggle out from beneath him, he dropped all his weight down on top of me, pinning me to the ground. Blood dribbled down his chin, and he smiled, teeth a macabre canvas. “Ouch,” he whispered, and his voice was strained, half-angry, half… I’m not sure.

  He reached out and grabbed my face with his right hand. His Vajra swarmed out over my head in an instant, cutting off not only my air supple, but my vision as well. I tried to scream but the sound was cut off in a staccato burst as I flailed against him.

  He stood then, dragging me to my feet by my face. My lungs felt like they were going to burst as I reached out, seizing his wrist with my fingers and tried to tear him away. It was no use. I might as well have been trying to chop down a redwood with a fire poker.

  “I’d ask you how it feels to die, Lillim,” Masataka said, raising me into the air so that my feet came off the ground. “But somehow, I think you probably have a good idea what that feels like.”

  I lashed out with my knee, catching him hard in the stomach. An “oomph” exploded out of him as I tumbled to the ground. I hit hard on my shoulder as I rolled backward, tears streaming from my eyes as I sucked in a breath that was more molten lead than oxygen. My ragged throat screamed as I reached down and grabbed my katana, Isis, and flung the blade at him as hard as I could.

  Isis burst through Masataka’s chest in a macabre spray that covered me in hot, sticky blood. He stumbled backward, one hand gripping the blade as he fell to his knees. His eyes widened in shock. His mouth opened and closed, like a fish out of water. His hands ran up his chest, feeling the blade. His fingers closed around it as he shut his eyes. I shoved him, and he hit the ground with a thud, still gripping the blade of my katana.

  “Bitch,” he coughed, face twisted in rage as I knelt down next to him and gripped the hilt of the katana protruding from his chest. Blood was gushing out of him. If I pulled the blade free now, he’d bleed out before anyone could save him.

  “It’s okay,” I said, and my voice was cold and empty as I stared into his eyes. They were already starting to fade, and the urge to turn away from him was so overwhelming that I almost did. But I couldn’t do that, I owed it to him to watch him die. After all, I had killed him. “It will be over in a second.”

  “No!” Mitsoumi’s voice was so loud that it made me turn and look at him. He was sprinting across the battlefield so fast that it would only be a moment until he reached us. I turned back to Masataka, and he grinned at me.

  “Do it,” Masataka pleaded. “Please.” Tears were forming around his eyes, sliding down his cheeks and soaking into the still damp earth. “I want you to do it.”

  I shut my eyes and took a deep breath. “Okay,” I said and started to jerk the blade free of him when something grabbed me by the ponytail. My bloody hands slipped off the hilt of the katana as I was flung backward like a ragdoll. I hit the ground in a sprawl and scrambled onto my feet. Mitsoumi was kneeling over his brother, back to me.

  “Someone come help,” Mitsoumi cried as a tremor roiled through the crowd. A cacophony of sound exploded from the Dioscuri as people surged forward. They rushed by me, ignoring me, to tend to the fallen Masataka. I turned away.

  I looked down at my body. My clothing was covered in sticky red goo, and as I tried to wipe my hands on my pants, the blood wouldn’t come off. “It won’t come off,” I whispered to no one because no one was paying any attention to me.

  “It’s okay,” Charlie said, putting a hand on my shoulder. “Let’s go get you cleaned up. Okay?”

  “No…” I said, and the first tears slipped down my cheeks like hot lava, so hot on my skin that it felt like I was crying fire. “It’s not okay, Charlie. I just killed the one person who sacrificed his life to bring me back, and I didn’t even blink. What kind of person does that?”

  Charlie’s arms wrapped around me, encircling me from behind. My first instinct was to throw him off, but for some reason, I didn’t. A shudder ran through me, and I felt him press himself closer to me, leaning his head down until it was near my ear. His breath on the back of my neck made me remember my classes in the academy. Had that really been so long ago?

  “You did what you had to do,” he said, and his voice was so quiet that I knew no one else could hear him speaking. “And how did you know it was me… again.”

  I grinned at this and turned to face him, wiping my eyes with the back of my hand. “You’re the only Royal Guard that came to check up on me, Charlie. Who else would it be?”

  “Maybe I’m a spy,” he replied with that weird modulating voice that all the Royal Guards have. He took me by the hand and began leading me away. I let him.

  “What are you doing?” Kenna, the Dioscuri’s greatest healer screamed from behind me. “Someone stop him!”

  I whirled around as Masataka pushed Kenna away. She lost her balance on her prosthetic legs and toppled to the ground. Masataka was on his knees as the glow surrounding his chest faded from silver-white to nothing almost instantly. Evidently, she had managed to stop the bleeding. Masataka reached out, gripping the hilt of Isis in his hands, trying to pull it free.

  “Stop, Masataka, let her help you,” Mitsoumi cried, grabbing him by the wrist with his good hand.

  Masataka whirled on his brother, wild-eyed, and shoved the King of the Dioscuri away. “I don’t need your help, Mitsoumi!” he screamed, reaching out with his other hand. His trident exploded from the ground in a flurry of rock and stone. He caught it and faltered, leaning heavily on the weapon as he trudged forward. “Lillim! Lillim, you can’t hide from me!”

  “It’s over, brother,” Mitsoumi said, standing and reaching out toward his brother once more. “This fight is over.”

  “No it isn’t!” Masataka screamed, taking another step forward. “It isn’t over until…”

  “Until you’re dead?” he asked. “Because that is what will happen if you fight in your condition. You have a sword in your chest. If you weren’t wearing that Vajra, you would already be dead. Let Kenna help you.”

  “No!” Masataka snarled. He took a few more steps toward me. “She’s a criminal. I must stop her.”

  “What if I pardon her, Masataka? Then you won’t be able to stop her. Then you’ll have to give this up.”

  “You won’t do that, Mitsoumi,” Masataka snapped, glancing over his shoulder. “You can’t take her away from me!”

  “Masataka, you must stop this.” Mitsoumi sighed and looked down at the dirt before looking back up.

  “No! I will not,” Masataka cried and took another step forward. The wound on his chest opened and blood began leaking down his body.

  “Yes! You will listen to me,” Mitsoumi said, reaching out and grabbing his brother by the shoulder, spinning him so they were face to face. “I am the king!”

  Masataka’s face twisted in rage. “Yes,” he said so quietly that I barely heard it even though I was only a few meters away. “You are the king… for now.” Masataka’s trident flashed through the air like a striking serpent. The weapon pierced Mitsoumi through the throat in an instant.

/>   Mitsoumi reached up, gripping his neck as blood fountained from the wound. He slipped to his knees as the Royal Guards swarmed around them, unsure of what to do. Masataka’s foot snapped out as he tore the weapon free of his brother. Mitsoumi’s body crumpled backward to the ground as blood gushed out around him to form a macabre angel in the dirt.

  Masataka bent down and plucked the royal medallion from his brother’s neck. The golden medallion began to glow like spun starlight as Masataka fastened it around his neck. Light filled his body as he jerked Isis free from his chest… only there was no blood.

  Silver light exploded from the wound, wrapping around him like a bandage before fading away to reveal the pristine flesh beneath. Masataka ginned, trailing his fingers over the spot as he took a step forward.

  “What have you done?” Kenna screamed from the ground as she scrambled over to Mitsoumi. Her hands glowed with power as she tried to knit Mitsoumi’s ravaged flesh back together with her hands. Even from here, I could see it was pointless. Mitsoumi was gone.

  “Overcome a flesh wound,” Masataka said as he took a step toward me and tossed Isis to the ground between us. He swiveled his eyes across the scene as the crowd began to whisper among themselves. “I am your king, now,” he said, reaching down to finger the medallion at his neck. He glanced up at me and pointed with his trident. “Arrest her.” The heads of the Royal Guard swiveled woodenly toward me.

  “You can’t be serious,” I said. “You just murdered the king. You think people are going to let you get away with that?”

  “Yes,” he said. “I am next in line. The medallion has chosen me as successor. So yes, I expect them to follow my orders.”

  “That doesn’t matter!” Kenna screamed, stomping toward him. “You just killed your brother! No matter what the medallion says, you’re just an usurper.” Kenna turned, gesturing toward the Guard. “Seize him!”

  Masataka flicked his wrist and jagged stone sliced up through the air spearing her through the chest. Kenna’s eyes went wide as she slid down along the rocky skewer until it damn near split her in half.

  “Now then, I trust no one else has a problem with me,” he said with a shrug, and his voice was empty and cold. It reminded me of a wolf picking off stragglers. When no one moved, a thin smile crossed his lips. “Good. Take her,” he ordered, pointing at me with his trident.

  I flung Charlie off of me, and he hit the ground with a thud. I knew he was probably asking himself why, well that was easy. I didn’t feel like having him get killed, too. My movement seemed to awaken the Royal Guard. They surged forward. I ran, sprinting across the ground toward the spot Kain had shown me earlier. I leapt, pouring my power into it and was jerked hard to a stop by my left ankle.

  I fell face first into the dirt. Pain shot through my nose, and I grabbed hold of it as tears flooded my eyes. I kicked out with my right foot and struck something that felt like stone. Then I was buried under a mountain of Royal Guards.

  Chapter 13

  “I can’t believe you just killed your brother,” I said, my voice half-strangled as I was thrust through the dungeon’s doors and into a tiny cell. The glowing green stone reminded me of luminescent moss. I whirled around as Masataka slammed the barred door shut.

  “Don’t worry, you it won’t bother you for long,” Masataka said as one Royal Guard snapped a huge padlock closed. “I’ve learned my lesson. As soon as the execution fields are ready, I am going to have you put down. There will be no more James Bond escapes for you. You have maybe a half hour, at most.”

  “When I escape from here, I am going to kill you, Masataka,” I snarled.

  “If you escape, I’ll have your parents executed. Go ahead and try to face me, Lillim. I almost want you to do it.” Masataka waved his hand over his shoulder but didn’t turn around. “How many lives will you cost? How many, Lillim?”

  I swallowed and slid to my knees as the outer door to the dungeon clanged shut with an echo that reverberated through the room. Before I could stop them, tears slid down my cheeks. I tried to wipe them away, but they flowed through my fingers and spattered against the stone floor.

  “How many?” I asked, and the words felt hard and unfamiliar in my mouth. Mitsoumi was dead. I shuddered as his lifeless face filled my vision. I shut my eyes against it, but the image stayed. I swung my head from side to side, trying to shake away the memory. It worked… until Mattoc’s grinning face appeared.

  “No,” I said, trying to push it away. “I’m sorry!” The words tumbled out of me as I reached out toward the memory of Mattoc. Mattoc had given his life for me. It felt like it had happened so long ago, but had it really? Had Mattoc ‘died’ so long ago?

  I shook my head, flinging the tears away. “If I die… then what was the point of Mattoc’s sacrifice?” I looked down at myself, still covered in blood and flung my fists against the door. The sound rang out like a gunshot in the stillness as pain shot through my hands. I hit the doors again, calling on my power. It flared inside me like a caged tiger.

  I smashed it against the bars. I might as well have hit it with a wet tissue. It melted away into nothing, and I screamed again. That’s when I heard the outer door creak open. I threw my back against the wall, ready to reach through the bars and grab anyone who passed by. Unless there were a lot of them. Then again, I’d probably still grab them.

  “Lillim, are you still alive?” Charlie’s non-modulated voice slipped through the dungeon like mouse whispers in the wind.

  “Charlie?” I asked, moving to look through the bars. He was creeping through the room, clad in the standard black fighting suit of the Dioscuri. A long scar stretched down the right side of his face from ear to mid-chin. He smiled at me, the freckles across his nose bunching together.

  “Shh,” he mouthed, putting a slender finger to his mouth. “We need to hurry.”

  He stepped up to the bars and put his thumb against the padlock. The lock flared purple, glowing around his thumb before opening with a nearly inaudible click.

  “My access still works,” he said, grinning at me and tugging it off the door. “Thank god for paperwork. They’re probably still processing my dismissal from the guards.”

  “Wait…” I said as he pulled the door open to let me out. “They dismissed you?”

  He shrugged and ran a hand through his short, black hair. “Yeah. They said I couldn’t be trusted because I was your friend. I was like ‘no, you can trust me. I don’t even know her. All I did was breathe on her in class…’ which is why I was dismissed instead of executed.”

  “What?” I asked, stepping out of the room, and my power started to return. It was like the heat from a fire slowly spreading through my body.

  Charlie stared past me at the wall for a long time. “Yeah… well,” he said, chewing on his lip. “Masataka is rounding up everyone, and I do mean everyone, to swear new blood oaths. Once he does that… everyone will have to obey him. Those that aren’t swearing are being dismissed.”

  “By dismissed, do you mean something other than dismissed?” I asked.

  Charlie turned then, stepping past me and moving toward the exit. He almost seemed to deflate as he moved. “Yes,” he said, slipping out the door. The pain in his voice made my heart break. Charlie had never been anything but nice to me. Annoying? Sure, but he didn’t deserve to be punished because he knew me from the academy. I clenched my hands into fists and shut my eyes, forcing down the rage that bubbled up inside me. That just wasn’t fair.

  I tugged the door open, and it slammed against the wall so loudly that it had to have woken the dead. Charlie was already pretty far ahead, moving so silently that there was no way I could match his stealth. Charlie turned toward me and gestured for me to be quieter… which was pretty much when a white-gloved hand reached out and grabbed him by the back of the head.

  “Charlie!” I yelled despite it being the stupid move as I charged forward. I rounded the corner to see Ordain standing there with a rather cheery look on his face. He held Charlie in
the air by the scruff of his neck like a naughty puppy, despite being nearly a foot shorter than Charlie.

  “Must you always be so loud?” Ordain asked as Charlie kicked and trashed. “And you, stop that,” Ordain added, shaking Charlie violently.

  “What in god’s name are you doing?” I asked, barely hiding the surprise in my voice.

  “Nothing,” he said, smirking at me. “I am doing nothing in god’s name.”

  I rubbed my temples with my left hand as I took a step toward him. “Can you please put Charlie down?” I asked.

  “Sure,” he said and dropped Charlie unceremoniously. My friend struck the stone with a thud and pain flashed across his face. “We need to get you out of here before Masataka’s death squad comes.”

  “Why?” I asked. “Why are you here, Ordain?”

  “Two reasons. One is simple. Only I get to kill you, and I don’t feel like doing it right now. I’m lazy that way.”

  “And the other reason?” I asked, bending down to help Charlie to his feet.

  Ordain put one hand to his abdomen and untucked his black tank-top from his jeans. Beneath was a gnarled mass of scar tissue that looked like something had punched a hole in his stomach.

  “Because Masataka gave me this by stabbing me in the back.” Ordain narrowed his sapphire eyes at me. “Stabbing someone in the back is sort of pathetic… don’t you agree?” he asked, his voice so completely empty that I wasn’t sure how to take his remark.

  “Lillim,” Charlie said, shaking me.

  I glanced at him. “Yeah?”

  “We have to get out of here. Like right now,” he replied, tugging me past Ordain, toward the entrance.

  “The only place she is going is to the council chambers,” Ordain said and his voice froze me in my tracks. It slid over my limbs, numbing me with its coldness. “That’s where Masataka is.”

  “Which is why we shouldn’t be going there,” Charlie replied, pulling on my arm once again.