Gods of Blood and Bone (Seeds of Chaos Book 1)

by Azalea Ellis

  She looked at me, and I nodded.

  We continued on, her taking the place of our scout again, until we reached the fifth floor.

  Adam panted and leaned on the wall for every step, the pain of his injured leg wearing on him.

  I couldn't help but think that if he hadn't saved Jacky, he'd probably be well enough to survive all on his own. But I was glad for his recklessness, because otherwise she would have died, and I would never be able to gain her alliance.

  In the middle of the fifth floor, the staircase abruptly disappeared, having collapsed for about six steps. Big steps, as always.

  My heart sank in my chest, but I clenched my jaw and tried to think of a solution. Going back down wasn't an option. I remembered the way Jacky had ended the first Trial.

  I judged the distance of the gap. "Jacky. Could you jump that?"

  She pursed her lips. "Yeah...probably. Maybe."

  I nodded. "Okay. Give me a second." I rummaged in my bag and pulled out a coil of plastine rope.

  They watched me as I tied the rope into a noose-like harness on both ends, pulling on my knots to test them. Thank God for the internet, and my foresight in studying some survival channels during the last week. "Jacky, you're strong. I've seen your power. Could you lift one of us?"

  She looked from me to the two-sided harness, and nodded. "Yeah, I’m strong. And I can be lightweight, too. I dunno if I can make it, but I’ll try."

  "Brace yourself around the corner at the top of the stairs so our weight doesn't pull you off the edge, too," Adam said. "It doesn't matter how strong you are if you can't keep your body from sliding because you're too light."

  She grinned and wrapped one slipknot around her stomach, throwing the other over her arm. She stepped back down the stairs, and with a mutter that sounded like "fingers crossed," she lunged up the steps, and then sprang up off the edge of the last step. She slammed into the edge of the upper step, knocking her air out with an audible oomph, but she easily scrabbled the rest of the way up and sat gasping for breath. She adjusted the rope around her waist and stood, giving the victory sign, two fingers spread into a V.

  Adam stepped to the edge and reached out his good hand. "Lower down the other end." He wrapped it gingerly around his waist and she stepped backward to brace herself on the edge of the stairwell.

  A piercing screech split through the air, like a siren made of knives.

  We all flinched, and Jacky turned around and ripped off the eyestalk of the "concerned citizen" that had sounded the alarm. "Sorry. I didn’t see it," she said.

  Adam shook his head. "Just hurry and pull us up." He swung off the edge gently, and she slid for only a few inches before getting a good grip and pulling him up.

  He sat panting afterward with eyes closed against the pain, while she took the tightened harness from around him like he was made of maggots.

  I went next, my weight causing the vines to tighten around my torso with bruising strength. I moved upward and rolled over the edge coughing as Jacky pulled unstoppably on the rope. Her body didn’t look strong or heavy enough to stand firm and lift one man-sized person, let alone two, but it was impossible to deny the facts. I crawled to my feet, pulled my slipknot over my head and handed it back to her. "Impressive. Let's go. I'm sure they're on their way. Hopefully that little gap slows them down a bit extra." Unfortunately, I had a feeling it wouldn't.

  We were all gasping for breath when we burst through the door to the rooftop. I shot a glance to my map to get our bearings, and pointed to the roof of a nearby building. While we had been climbing, storm clouds had oozed across the sky. The wind whipped at me, threatening to push me off my feet.

  I took a few breaths of the electrically charged air to regain some strength, stepped back, and ran to the edge of the roof. I leapt out into the empty space between buildings, feeling the extra weight of that place pulling me down.

  I landed barely inches away from the deadly drop and rolled over before coming to my hands and knees. My claws were out, digging into the cold material of the building's roof. I stood and moved to the edge. I could see the shadowy forms of rat-men passing by at a run, through a window halfway up the building we'd just ascended.

  "They're coming!" I warned, hoping that fear would lighten our steps and bolster our recklessness.

  Jacky came next, landing smoothly, and then tossed the harness back to Adam. He wrapped it around himself, took a few limping lunges, and jumped off. He didn't quite make it, but Jacky was already moving forward, taking up the slack in the line.

  He smashed into the side of the building with a thump and muffled a scream.

  I crawled to the edge and grabbed the back of his hoodie and his good arm and helped to pull him up.

  He rolled to his back, half across my lap, and lay there shuddering visibly. He'd bitten through his lip, and blood trickled down the side of his face. "Can I get some more numbing spray?"

  I nodded and pulled off my backpack, fumbling around in it until I felt the can. I sprayed inside the makeshift sling, close to the skin. "Do you want some for your leg, too?"

  "No. Wouldn’t do any good." He stood up and weaved on his feet for a second, then started toward the far side of the roof. "This way next, right?"

  This time the jump was easier, and he made it on his own, without help from Jacky.

  But the next roof was slightly higher than our own, and I worried that even Jacky might not be able to make it.

  I had her wait to jump until I'd positioned myself with bent knees and cupped hands at the edge of the roof.

  She moved to the far edge and came running at a full sprint, stepping right into my cupped hands and jumping as I pushed upward to give her a bit more lift.

  She sprang away like she was flying, and tossed the harness back to me once she reached the roof above.

  I jumped, slammed into the wall on the end of the rope, and was dragged up the building’s rough side to the top.

  I turned back to throw the harness to Adam, and saw the rat-men burst onto the roof as lightning shattered the sky in a burst of blinding light, followed by a rumble of thunder that I felt pass through the air like a physical force. The wind was screaming now, whistling in my ears so I had to shout to make myself heard. "They're on the roof! Hurry!"

  Once again Jacky was already moving forward as Adam swung through the air, but the impact still jostled his whole body. His eyes rolled back in his head as his broken arm hit the wall, and he hung limp and still for a second until consciousness returned to him.

  "Brace yourself with your feet and just walk up," I shouted.

  He did, moving upward as Jacky moved forward.

  I grabbed his good hand and gave him a boost over the edge.

  The rat-men were standing on the edge of the roof of the first building, and as I looked, the first of them jumped across to the second building, landing easily. It turned to urge its fellows on. They would be on us soon.

  I turned around and looked to the far side of our rooftop, where a long, oval shaped pod stood on its end. I pulled up my mini map and zoomed in as we hurried over to it. Sure enough, it was the extraction point. The front had an indentation like a shrunken handle, so I grabbed it and pulled. It popped open with the sound of hissing hydraulics.

  I waited for a moment, but nothing happened.

  "We have to get in," Adam said. "This type of teleportation pod will take us one by one. I've seen them before."

  Jacky looked to the rat-men and then to Adam. "You go first."

  He frowned, but she pursed her lips. "You’re useless in a fight, chico. I don’t wanna have to protect you and me, so you better get safe. Plus, I owe you one."

  He stepped in with a single frustrated nod and sealed the door, stood there for a few moments, and then looked around in confusion and opened it again. "It's not working. It's not powering up."

  "What?" Jacky ground out.

  "It's broken." He snapped. "Like I said."

  I turned to the rat-men. They
would arrive in less than a minute at the rate they were going. "Shit." I pulled up my map to search for another extraction pod. There was one a few streets away, but on the ground, and the roof we stood on had no door, no way to move down through the building. Except for the one we'd just come from, all the buildings around were un-jumpable, either too high or in a weird shape that we'd just slide right off of. There was no way we were going to jump all the way to the ground, and climbing down it wasn’t possible, either. "Shit," I said again.

  We had only one option. "Okay. We're going to fight. There are more of them, but being on the high ground gives us an advantage. We'll kill them all, and then go find a working extraction point." Despite my words, I doubted we'd be leaving the Trial alive.

  I turned back to them and saw Adam kneeling awkwardly at the back of the pod. He peeked around it. "One of the power sources has corroded. The other one's a bit rusted, but I think it still works. I might be able to fix the pod, if I could get a charge in it.”

  I looked to the rat-men. Less than thirty seconds. I slung off my pack and tossed it to Adam. "There's another power cartridge in the side pocket. I don't know if it'll work, but I got it from a transport pod the last time I was in-Trial. I don't think it has any power."

  He grabbed the pack and looked at me with surprise and a kind of consideration that bordered on respect. "I'll show you what I can do besides fighting, if you can keep them off me." He grinned with a sort of cockiness that made me smile back.

  "It better be impressive," I said, and turned back to the rat-men below.

  I watched the pack run across the roof below and felt a strange exultation melt through me. I would not die here today. I would destroy them. My claws tingled out and my senses sharpened and focused on them. I could hear their panting breaths and almost smell their eagerness. I smiled and looked to Jacky beside me on the edge of the roof. "Are you ready?"

  She cracked her knuckles with more pops than should have been possible with ten fingers and smirked. "Are you?"

  I turned back to the enemies below without answering. The first rat-man reached the edge of the roof and sprang at me. I lifted one knee to my chest and kicked outward and down, catching it at the base of the throat and knocking it down into the chasm of darkness between the buildings.

  I watched it disappear, its hands reaching to the heavens as it plummeted. I raised my head and sucked in a breath of energy charged air as the next three came. I spun and clawed across the face of one as it reached me, and Jacky pummeled two with flurries of heavy blows and kicks that obviously stemmed from extensive training.

  I aimed a kick to the knee of my opponent. He dodged and I thought for a minute that I would fall, off balance, but something instinctual kicked in and I slid to my hands and knees and swung a leg to take him off his feet. Then I thrust my hand at his throat, fingers straight, and cut into it, still crouching. I curled my fingers before ripping them out, and then drug him by his ears and dropped him off the edge.

  More of them had already jumped across the gap, and I turned to fight without thinking.

  As I fought, I caught a glimpse of Jacky, far outnumbered and overwhelmed. Two grabbed her from behind while another three attacked her from the front. She snapped her head back and aimed a kick at their knees, but they were undeterred. They moved to the edge and swung her much smaller body out over the edge.

  I moved before I realized what I was doing, springing like an animal onto the back of the rat-man with the main grip on her. I clawed into the front of its throat and sliced my hands backward, opening up its jugular veins to the world. "She's mine," I said. Jacky had the type of fighting power that would significantly increase my chances at living through this Trial, and the following ones. "I won't let you take her."

  It dropped to its knees and loosened its grip on Jacky, dropping her over the edge.

  I pulled myself atop its shoulders and lunged for her. My hand barely caught her wrist, and my claws dug into her. But I'd caught her. I drug her up as the rat-men punched and kicked at my unprotected, kneeling body, while the rat-man under me jerked and bled out like a slaughtered animal.

  My armored vest spread some of the impact of their blows, but could only do so much. A blow to the back of my skull rattled my balance and made the darkness seep in around the edges of my vision.

  But Jacky had already regained her footing. With a scream, she attacked with a new savageness born from the fear of her near-death. She held them off while I regained my feet, both of us now in the disadvantageous position of being surrounded on the edge of the roof and cut off from Adam.

  Before I could join her in the fight, light exploded on the other side of the roof and knocked us all off our feet. My ears rang and I crawled to my hands and knees, my blinded eyes streaming tears from the sudden brightness.

  I heard faint shouting, and then Adam's voice filtered through the ringing. "Working! Hurry…not much…"

  I stood on shaking legs and blinked till I could see saw the pod, lit up and powered on, and Adam leaning on it with a charred rat-man at his feet. He waved to me urgently, still shouting, then bent over at the waist and hung onto the pod as if to keep himself from collapsing.

  I looked to the ground and saw Jacky lying on her back with her eyes closed. I fumbled over to her, stepping on the still-disoriented bodies of our enemies.

  She didn't move when I smacked her face and yelled at her to get up, and then I saw the blood seeping from the side of her head. She must have smashed it into the ground for the second time that evening when the blast hit.

  "Crap," I muttered, unable to hear myself over the ringing still echoing through my skull. I grabbed her by the collar of her shirt and stepped forward, pulling until her smaller body started to slide. I dragged her slowly across the roof, right over the rat-men when necessary, until we reached the pod. The ringing and disorientation had already decreased, and I could hear the rat-men rising to their feet behind me.

  I shoved Jacky's unconscious body into the pod and shut the door on her. The pod started to vibrate and hum, and then it let out a familiar shock wave, and she was gone.

  I turned back to the group of rat-men, already stumbling toward us. "Hurry and get in, Adam."

  He was as tense as a tightly strung guitar wire as he watched them, but he shook his head. "I have to be here to charge it again. Get in. I'll be right behind you."

  I hesitated, and he turned on me. "Go! You’re wasting our time,” he snapped.

  I stepped in and closed the door.

  He reached upward with his good hand, the other resting on the power cartridges, and another explosion of light connected the ground and sky, as he called down the lighting.

  I had a last glimpse of him before the wave of energy filled my bones and took me away. A half-blind image of his back, his silhouette standing against the low-hanging moons.

  * * *

  I found myself back at the starting building along with a few others and the General, the standard dizziness and nausea making the room spin, along with the effects of being less than five feet away from a lightning strike only moments before. My claws had slipped away sometime without me realizing it, but my hands were still covered in layers of dried and drying blood, sticky and uncomfortable. I lay on the ground for a few moments, and then crawled over to Jacky's body to check her head wound. She lay motionless, except for the slight rise and fall of her chest as she breathed.

  "At least she's alive," I sighed. I waited for Adam, my heart sinking in my chest with every passing moment. It had been too long. If he were going to return, he would have done so already. The rat-men must have gotten to him. With his arm like that, there was no way he could have fought all of them off.

  But in the space between one moment and the next, Adam appeared in a shockwave. His beanie was gone, and his hair floated around his head with static electricity. Little sparks jumped around him, and I could literally smell the charge suffusing his skin.

  Our eyes caught, and he smirke
d again. "Told you I'd do something impressive." Despite his words, his muscles were rebelling in mini spasmodic tremors, and he smelled burnt.

  I nodded, nothing clever coming to my weary brain. "Glad you made it." I looked him over. "You left my pack?"

  He opened his mouth and then closed it again. "Uh, yeah. Sorry. I hope there wasn't anything important in there."

  “It’s fine.” I’d gladly pay the contents of my pack in exchange for his life.

  He slipped it into his pocket with a weary nod, then we sat next to Jacky's body and waited.

  No other Players returned, and after a few minutes General Zarack boomed out, "Eleven survivors. That is everyone. Quite a surprising number this time."

  "Surprisingly high, or surprisingly low?" I murmured.

  The floating cube buzzed, and rolled out the same words I'd seen before.

  CONGRATULATIONS ON SURVIVING THE TRIAL. THERE ARE NO BESTOWALS.

  "No bestowals? That’s nucking futts," Jacky said weakly. She sat up and grinned at my surprise. "I’m pretty damn tough. A little knock on the head isn’t gonna put me down."

  DO YOU WISH TO RETURN FROM THE TRIAL?

  YESNO

  She turned to Adam. "Consider my debt to you paid. You saved me, and I helped get you through."

  He snorted. "We saved you again after you passed out. How do you think you got back?"

  She scowled. "You’re the one who knocked me out in the first place, no? Twice, I believe. I don’t owe you nothing."

  "Knocked you out? If I hadn't been there—”

  I put my hand up to stop their bickering. "Guys. Each of us saved the others out there. None of us would have survived if we hadn't all been there. We made a great team." I smiled at them both.

  Jacky grinned back. "We kicked their asses, crazy Eve."

  But Adam noticed a deeper intention beneath my words, and narrowed his eyes in silence.