Laying in his arms I feel like I belong, like the world isn’t against me. His cell goes off, he grabs it and checks the message. “Marcus wants us to meet up downstairs in five minutes.”
“This should be interesting.” Swinging my legs out of bed. Time to hear what he has to say.
***
The team is gathered in the living room area for a meeting. Or what’s left of us. We are broken fragments of the team we started. With the tour cancelled, everything is in limbo.
“I have no right to ask this of you, but if we want to end this, we need to stage an attack soon, before he escapes for good.”
“What are you asking us?” Ianna asks carefully.
“I’m asking you to stand by me one last time. To seek out retribution for the lives lost and end this war. Will you stand with me?” Marcus asks. The room falls silent. I glance from person to person, gaging their reaction.
Adam is the first to speak, “I will.”
Asher follows, “I will.”
After everything we’ve been through, we need closure, this isn’t over. Everyone clears out except Marcus, Mason and me. We have unfinished business.
“No more secrets from here on out,” I state, getting to the point immediately. They both nod.
“Why don’t I remember Mason like I remember you from when we were kids?”
“Mason and I looked a lot alike as kids, but I did spend more time with you because I was able to wipe your memory of it so father wouldn’t find out. When father was away your mom let us all play together like a normal family. If he was home, we were never allowed to be together, you and Mason were locked away more than I was.”
“He hated us.” Mason stated, eyes cast down at his hands. I can see the damaged little boy who never thought he was good enough, peeking through his tough exterior.
I cup his cheek; how could anyone not love this man? “We always had each other, I want you to know how grateful I had you both to lean on in my darkest days.”
Marcus says, “Listen, there is a good chance this is going to go sideways before this fight is over. I want you guys to know I love you. I want nothing more than for you to live a long happy life. It’s all I have ever wanted. I should’ve killed him a long time ago. I’m the only one who can.”
“You don’t have to sacrifice yourself to kill him, Marcus.”
“I know that, but if things go bad, know I only wanted to keep you safe. I will do whatever I have to, to end this once and for all.”
“Love you, Marcus, thank you for watching over me.”
“I’m not saying goodbye to you, brother.” Mason pulls him into a fierce hug.
“Okay, get some sleep, tomorrow we send the devil back to hell.”
Devine Retribution
It doesn’t take us long to get a location on dear old dad. Come hell or high water, we will end this today. Everything has come down to this moment. We will finally be free of that monster.
“Our intel puts him at an estate fifty miles east of our current location. Looks like he’s preparing to leave, his men have procured a private jet that is set to depart in twenty-four hours from an airfield to the south. We cannot allow that to happen,” Adam says, pointing out locations on the map laid out before us.
“So, we beat him there and fuck his shit up,” Asher says, his rage has not subsided since losing Imari. He’s out for blood like the rest of us but for him and Adam, this is about something more.
“We all have our reasons for wanting this to end. Together we are a unified force against the enemy. Nothing is going to stop us this time. We have come too far and lost too much to back down now.” Marcus empowers us with his speech.
***
The sun is dipping low in the sky as we approach the hangar beside the airstrip. We have been watching the hangar for a few hours now. His men finished prepping and loading the plane a few minutes ago and the moment they left, we arrive. If they stay on the schedule we have, he should arrive in an hour. We set ourselves up, scattered around the hangar, which is the only cover nearby.
My heart is racing, not wanting to come face to face with that man again. He’s done everything possible to destroy our lives and our happiness. I don’t think I’m strong enough to face him again. What if he turns us against each other again? What if he makes me shoot Mason?
“I can hear you over thinking, stop. Everything will be okay.” Mason wraps his arm around my shoulder but I can’t let him placate me into a false sense of security.
“You don’t know that. He could turn you against me, he could make us kill each other.” I press my forehead against his strong chest. My hands resting on his sides. Tears clog my throat but I refuse to let them reach my eyes, I’ll be the strong one.
“I know Marcus and I will never let anything happen to you. We’ll find our way out of this, alive,” he assures me. Lifting my chin so our eyes meet, he presses a soft kiss on my lips.
“I love you, Jake,” I whisper against his lips.
He groans in response. “You know how much that turns me on. How am I supposed to fight with a raging hard-on?” He grips my ass hard and grinds himself against me. “The things I’m going to do to you when this is all over.”
“I’ve been drooled on before, Mase,” I say with a laugh. He just shakes his head, a smile playing on his gorgeous face. Dipping me he playfully bites my neck, and I have to stifle a squeal. This man is everything to me, please let that still be true when this day is over.
“Break it up, you two.” Marcus yells. Mason smacks my ass, hard and retreats to his position by the hangar door. Once there he shoots me a wink. We fall silent, all our hopes and prayers hanging in the balance, watching the surrounding area and waiting for Adam to signal their arrival.
Right on schedule, three black cars start down the road toward us. From my position I can see the line of cars pull to a stop about fifty feet from the plane. More cars than I had expected, how many can we fight? Two body guards get out of each car, once they deem the area safe they open the door for James to get out of the car, with him surrounded they approach the aircraft. Those numbers we can deal with. I breathe a sigh of relief. At the foot of the stairs leading into the jet, James freezes, studying the landscape surrounding the airstrip. What is he looking for? He couldn’t have heard us.
“What is he doing?” I whisper to Asher, who only shrugs. Pressing his finger to his lips. I barely breathe as I watch him stand there, looking right at us. We watch as he presses a phone to his ear answering a call. With bated breath, we wait for Marcus’s cue to attack.
A clicking noise draws my attention; I slowly turn to see the barrel of a gun a foot in front of my face. I gasp and press myself back against the wall as far away from the gun as I can, which isn’t far enough for my liking. Around the hangar I see twenty men dressed in black with guns raised, flood into the hangar. We are surrounded. Well, this went downhill really quickly.
“Game over,” says the guy holding a gun to my head. Instantly, a cold sweat erupts over my body. With my hands up in surrender, I step away from the wall. The guy jabs me between the shoulder blades with his gun. I wince and join the others being lead out of the hangar. I’m not going down like this. Flames erupt from both of my fists while I spin around swinging my elbow up into his nose, tossing a fireball at him, knocking the gun from his grasp. Standing ready to attack them all with the limitless fire within me.
Asher jumps to my side aflame, until a series of beeps activating our blocker bands causes our flames to die instantly along with any advantage we had over them. I look to Marcus for orders, he raises his hands in surrender. I follow suit, and we are pushed toward the man I would happily murder with my bare hands.
I have always wanted to remember my past, to feel like I was part of a family. Standing here, side by side, Marcus and this team have become my family. We aren’t blood, but they are everything to me. And I’ll fight until my last breath to save them from this bastard. He will not take anyone else from me.<
br />
The Legend, the Leech and the Monster
We sit on the ground in a line with our hands tied, facing the monster we all hate. “Well if it isn’t my ungrateful disrespectful sons; the legend and the leech,” Father says. No, not my father, what do I even call him? Wicked step-father? Mason stiffens at the use of his father’s pet name for him, leech.
“Marcus, my boy, I hear you received my gift,” he smiles my way, making my skin crawl. “It is a shame you and the leech survived. Perhaps I should start calling him the cockroach instead. You do seem to be difficult to kill,” he says to Mason. “All of my children prove difficult to kill. I suppose that’s something to be proud of. Lucky for me, your friends and fans were much easier targets. Yet, even after your friends started dying, after I bombed the arena and killed innocent people; you wouldn’t stop this crusade against me. Compelling Phoenyx was the perfect plan, when you welcomed her home with open arms I thought for sure I had finally succeeded.” Shaking his head.
“How like you to compel her to do your dirty work because you are too much of a fucking coward to face me like a man,” Marcus taunts him, arms raised at his sides.
Stepping up to Marcus, standing a few inches taller, the resemblance is uncanny when they are this close. Both mirroring each other’s rage. “I’m facing you now, boy. You didn’t have the balls to finish me off when you had the chance. Taking your precious Phee with you when you ran away. And giving her my last name, like she could ever be one of us.”
Anger is vibrating through every cell of my body, I cannot sit here and listen to him any longer. I sit up on my knees, shouting, “They are better men than you will ever be!”
He backhands me so fast I don’t have time to react, then his hand clenches my throat like a vice. “Would you like to see what kind of man I am, Phoenyx?” I whimper. He traces his finger down between my breasts and stomach. Mason is wild with anger, thrashing against the two guards that hold him. This makes father smile brightly. “Is Marcus so different? How many times over the years has he compelled you? He’s no better than I.” My air passage is constricted; I wheeze a breath in to fill my lungs. The guards are struggling to contain Mason who seems determined to break free.
I spit blood in his face. “You are a fucking monster; they will never be anything like you.”
He throws me down next to the others. Asher nudges my hand behind my back. When I open my hand he places something in my palm. I roll it around in my hand a few times before realizing what he has given me. It’s the device Adam uses to deactivate the blockers. I look over at him, wide eyed, and he winks. We are not done with this fight yet. Running my fingertip along the edge of the wrist blocker I find it, a small divot in the bracelet. My eyes dart around the room, making sure my actions are going unnoticed. With some struggle I manage to stick the tool in the hole and twist, slowly until it falls from my wrist. I catch it in my grasp before it hits the floor.
Father laughs, “You have all taken lives, I’ve seen it first hand, I had such hopes for both my sons. But you have done nothing but disappoint me.” Scowling at Mason with disgust. “Especially you, leech, nothing more than a fucking parasite, living off power stolen from others. It’s pathetic.”
“Enough,” Asher screams, bursting into flames and rages forward. Adrenaline spikes in my veins, I scramble back a few feet before taking position beside my team. We are at a standstill with guns raised.
“It’s over, give up now.” Marcus orders.
“You wanted this war!” James yells.
“I wanted your death!” Marcus hollers back, launching a beam of lightning at father, who dodges it.
“You’ll never succeed because you are a coward!” Father counters.
“It appears our numbers are about even, old man. I’m liking our odds.”
Laughing, “You underestimate me again, boy.”
Dozens of men come around the corner, mother fucker!
Marcus rushes at him lighting crackling over his skin. They connect in a fit of rage. Not missing my chance, I back him by shooting at the guards on James’ side. Keeping them at bay but it’s not gaining us any ground. We are outnumbered and I don’t see how we can win this but we don’t let that stop us from throwing everything we have at them.
Marcus and James’ fight comes to a standstill. He has Marcus in his grasp. Holding him down. I take the shot, aiming for his head, end it. “He’s a shield.” I realize too late, as the bullet deflects. “Fuck.”
“What are we going to do?” Ianna asks.
“We blow the plane. The majority of his men are hiding behind it. He thinks he has the option to leave, take that option away. Phoenyx, let’s do this,” Asher says, calm and collected with murder in his eyes. It’s a brilliant idea.
Asher and I stand side by side our hands locked together, drawing everything into us we syphon our powers into a tornado of fire. Praying Marcus is either protected by his shield or gets out of the way in time. We have no choice, it’s now or never. The swirl of fire doubles in size, then quadruples, roaring ten feet in the air. With a flick of the wrist the tornado sharpens and screams through the air toward the jet.
When it detonates, the entire hangar and plane are incinerated instantly. In the center of the fiery chaos is Asher and me. Having taken care of only half of father’s men. Ianna and Kai spray the flames with water. Inside the remnants of the explosion, we see James and Marcus untouched within his shield, standing side by side. Marcus is alive, but so is James. Does this man ever die?
Out of nowhere, a line of soldiers approaches our back. They make their way toward us quickly with guns raised over the now wet charred remains of the airfield. My heart sinks, we were outnumbered before, this is the end. We will never survive; we don’t stand a chance. There has to be a hundred soldiers. They stop twenty feet from us. Both sides in our battle are frozen at the sudden appearance of such a large group. From the front row, Silas steps out front, and I want to cry in relief. He came to fight our battle side by side. Mason stands at my side, his hand gripping mine. His power running through mine. Energizing me, recharging my strength.
Before I can ask Silas how he knew where to find us, the brief reprieve erupts into chaos once again, rapid gunfire and a show of powers. James steps into the fray, fearless inside his protective bubble with his gun pressed into Marcus’s temple. Hatred floods every sense I have. I will not let this man kill someone else I care about.
A flicker of rage comes alive inside of me, all of the moments of feeling unloved, ashamed and unwanted only to be thrust into a war that had nothing to do with me is more than I could bear. I always felt so powerless in the world, regardless of my formidable abilities. I’ve never felt like I belonged to anyone. My body weak and my mind weaker, all because of him.
The flicker of rage grows into a limitless storm inside. Every moment of my life was leading up to this. I drag a slow and painful breath, recharging. Mason’s hand in mine, he’s ready to share our powers to end this.
“I fucking love you,” he says, kissing me hard and fast on the lips before we launch every ounce of fight we have left in us at this man who has ruined so many lives. I lock eyes with Marcus and nod, letting him know we are ready. His elbow slams into James’ face, breaking his shield for a brief moment. Long enough for our powers to hit him square in the chest, sending him flying backward, falling in a lifeless heap forty feet away.
Silas’s men finish off any remaining men loyal to James and we stand surveying the scene before us. Everything is destroyed, mangled and burnt. “It’s over. It’s finally over.” I sag into Mason’s arms.
“Is he really dead?” Adam asks, walking over to where James’ body landed, gun in hand. We watch as he stands over James. Two shots ring out as Adam shoots him twice in the head. Causing me to jump at the sudden noise. “Yup dead.” He states when he walks back to where we stand.
I stand in shock. Is it really over?
Marcus rushes up, hugging Mason and me, cupping my cheek. “It�
��s over.” I smile up at him. Then he walks over to Silas, who is checking on his men. “Nice timing, Gage.”
Silas smiles holding out his hand. “Prince Charming usually saves the day. I’m just trying to live up to my reputation.”
Marcus shakes his hand. “Things were going sideways for us, real fast. I’m sorry I doubted your loyalty. You saved us all.”
“My father trusted James, like everyone else. Once he saw what we were up against he was behind us one hundred percent.”
Kai and Ianna walk over to him, hand in hand, pulling him into a hug, saying, Thank you.
Mason and I walk over to the group around Silas. I’m still trying to wrap my head around what just happened. Silas glances at me smiling, I give Mason’s hand a quick squeeze before walking into Silas’s open arms. “I don’t know what to say besides thank you. You saved us all today. My whole family, everyone I love is safe because of you,” I cry in his arms.
“I could never live with myself if I walked away from you and something happened. I will always love you, Nyx.” He nods at Mason. “If you ever get tired of this guy, come find me,” he says with a teasing smile at Mason.
“Never gonna happen, Gage. I won’t let her out of my sight,” he says reaching out to shake Silas’s hand.
“Glad to hear it. She deserves nothing but the best.”
All a little worse for wear, we climb into the transport and head back to the estate we are calling home.
***
After showering and packing up, its time to say goodbye. Ianna and Kai are leaving for the south coast, back to their families and ready to start their lives together. “I can’t believe after everything we have been through, it’s all over. We may never see each other again.”
Ianna pulls me into a hug, saying, “You know that’s not true. We will see each other plenty. Be blissfully happy my dear friend, you deserve it. I love you.”
“Love you too, safe travels. Call me as soon as you land.” I can’t stop the tears from falling.
Titan Elite (Demigods Duet Book 2) Page 14
