I almost missed them, Rufus and his men, but my senses had become heightened to supernatural beings, and I sensed them before I saw them. In a panic, I jumped into the same alleyway I had laid in wait that night that seemed so long ago. Peeking around the corner, I saw not only two men but another five that looked suspicious about a half a block down. My shaking hand dug in my purse for my phone and dialed Caden.
“Where are you?” he answered.
“I’m in the alley way, diagonal from the front door. Can’t you see me?” I knew he had a camera somewhere out here, and I looked around trying to find it.
“They blocked the cameras. Stay there. I’m coming to get you.”
I hung up the phone, and he was already behind me.
“What’s going on?”
“I’ve been calling you for hours.”
I looked at my phone. I was surprised to see there were eight missed calls. “I must have had it on vibrate.”
He grabbed my arm and started dragging me after him.
“Why are you so mad?”
“All hells about to break loose, literally, and I’m spending hours trying to get you to answer the phone.”
“What is going on?” He was dragging me after him in a hurried pace down the tunnel.
“They are strategically surrounding the place. I was waiting to find your location before making our move.”
“How many are there?”
“Right now there looks to be about fifty.”
“That many?” I said a bit of panic now creeping into my voice.
“That’s not the problem. I can handle fifty Drauths. There’s been some talk that they might have demons with them.”
“What does that mean?”
“I can take anyone of them down if it was one on one combat, but if there’s more we might have a problem.”
We reached the bar before I could ask any more questions. All the guys were there and I didn’t want to repeat what he had said. They probably already knew, but I didn’t want to give it any validation by acting panicked. I’d already done that in the past and regretted it. I wanted Caden and his men to walk out there feeling as confident as they could.
All the guys were sitting in the main bar room when we entered.
“Did you get Metulla on the phone?” Caden asked the moment we came in.
“Yes. He said he’s sending guys over now to evacuate the streets. He’s going to say a gas main broke,” Joey said.
“How long?” asked Caden.
“Ten, maybe twenty minutes.”
“Is everyone ready?” Caden asked the guys.
“As ready as were going to be,” Alex replied and the rest of the guys either nodded in agreement or said yes.
He turned toward me. “I want you to go downstairs and wait for me until I come for you.” He tried to walk me in the direction of the elevator, but I dug in and wouldn’t budge from my spot.
“Absolutely not.”
“I’m serious.”
“And so am I.” I stood ramrod straight, ready to fight this battle to the bitter end.
He motioned me over to the side and I followed him not wanting to have this fight in front of the guys.
“Please, do this for me? I don’t want them anywhere near you. The idea of what they would put you through is already killing me.”
He was as close to pleading as I’d ever seen him since we met. I’d never heard him say please before and I started to cave slightly, but I just couldn’t do it. I couldn’t let him go out there alone. I didn’t even know what I was capable of, but what if whatever help I could offer was the difference between life and death for him?
“I’m not letting you go out there alone. This isn’t just your fight, and I’m done letting other people fight my battles.”
“This goes way deeper than you. This has been brewing for centuries.”
“I know that, but I’m part of this. They are coming for me. They made me involved whether, I wanted to be or not. I’m not hiding.”
He smiled a bittersweet smile.
“I wanted you to be tougher so that I knew you would be able to handle yourself if I wasn’t around. I guess it makes sense that you wouldn’t be satisfied sitting on the sidelines anymore. I don’t like, it but I’ll respect your choice.”
As much as I could see he hated the idea that I was going to go out there and face them with him, I could also see the respect shining in his eyes. Caden wasn’t the type of man that would ever be able to be with someone that couldn’t hold their ground. Maybe for a while he could make it work, but the strength of his personality would eventually bull doze over someone weaker, whether he meant to or not. I didn’t want to be that type of person. The kind that let their lives be dictated by someone else. Whatever mistakes I made in my life, I wanted to be my own. I wasn’t willing to live with anybody else’s choices.
“Caden, the cops are out there clearing the streets,” Alex yelled from the window across the bar room where he stood.
Caden nodded and looked back to me. “I need one promise.”
“What?”
“If it gets ugly, you leave. You switch on your glow and get out of there.”
“No, I won’t…”
“This is nonnegotiable. You either agree, or I swear I’ll lock you in the apartment.”
I nodded, knowing he was serious and would do exactly that. I had no plan on leaving him, but if it made him feel better, I’d agree. I knew I was lying, but sometimes lying isn’t such a bad thing.
“There is a bank account in the name Giselle Franklin at Santander Bank. There is a license and passport with that name in locker three hundred and eighty-five at JFK airport. This is the key.” He pressed it into my hand with a wad of cash. “Keep this on you. It’s enough to get you out of the country. There’s enough money in that bank to keep you comfortable for the rest of your life.”
I raised my hand to object, but he stopped me.
“It’s to give you options. I’m not telling you to hide. I’m giving you time to regroup if you need. That’s all.”
“Okay.” I took the key and the cash and stashed them in the inside pocket of the parka jacket I was putting on. Unlike them, the cold still affected me.
Caden touched my face and gave me a look I would remember for the rest of my life, for however long it might last. I could read it in his eyes. He loved me. Whatever motivated him to do the things he did, I still hadn’t a clue, but I knew, then and there, he loved me every ounce as much as I loved him.
“Everybody ready?” Caden asked the guys.
“I’m coming,” came the gravelly voice of Charlie from the kitchen. He walked out finishing the last bite of a Philly cheese steak. “I thought I was going to get a really good last meal. I mean, it’s not bad, but it’s not exactly surf and turf. And I never thought I’d have to cook it for myself!”
I smiled at him and he returned the smile back. “I hope they feed you better than they fed me, but from the looks of it I’d say no,” he said to me as he came to stand with us. I couldn’t help but laugh even with everything going on or perhaps in spite of it.
“Are we going out there and kicking some ass or what?” Charlie continued to the group.
“Let’s go see what they’ve got,” Caden agreed, but in a more solemn fashion.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Caden took the lead as we walked out to meet them. Somehow, I found myself in the center of our group, surrounded on every side by one of the guys, and I knew it wasn’t an accident. Sizing up the scene I saw the street didn’t have a pedestrian left, but Rufus’s men more than made up for it. There had to be at least a hundred of them slowly surrounding us. The initial fifty to seven seemed like wonderful odds now. Rufus emerged in the center of his men, but didn’t take any steps beyond his row of men in the front. Obviously, still not secure even with a group this large.
“I see you felt you needed quite a bit of support,” Caden mocked him.
“Some of us ha
ve unfair advantages. I see nothing wrong with evening the playing field.”
Caden laughed at him. “You think this is enough to take me down? You’re wrong. Just so we make everything clear. I’m playing by my own rules now. You won’t be able to crawl away like you usually do. You’re standing on your death bed.” He eyed Rufus and his men, and I could see them visibly cringe. “That goes for everyone here. I’m done giving mercy. You attack me here at my home, you won’t see tomorrow. Know that.”
I could see more than a couple of them waiver. Rufus, obviously afraid of a defection, hastily raised his hand in the air and screamed an order of attack, not wanting them to have any time to rethink their alliances. Wave after wave of Rufus’s men heading at us. My first instinct was to pee my pants, quickly followed by an overwhelming urge to run for safety, like Caden had asked me to do. I had a friend when I was younger that was all muscles and toughness that had once told me, “Everyone is afraid of a fight, even me. That’s how you know what you’re made of, if you fight in spite of the fear.” I didn’t do any of those things that I thought I might. I didn’t cower and I didn’t run. I stood my ground. This was my ship, and I was willing to go down with it.
The adrenaline was coursing through my veins. I felt like I was running on overdrive. I was glowing as if I’d been born at a nuclear meltdown. I was so bright it was generating heat. I could feel the warmth I was throwing off.
I walked toward Caden, ready to help him, but it didn’t seem necessary. He was taking out everyone that came at him like they were fruit flies he was swatting at, just a minor nuisance.
I saw three huge Drauths getting the best of Dave and ran to get in the fight. I swung like I had been practicing in the gym. I knew that I didn’t have that much strength behind the punch, but my glowing light seemed to zap the Drauth on contact. Clearly stunned from the shock, I delivered a followed up with a swinging kick to the head. I’d always wanted to try that out, they are just too cool. The guy landed flat on his back. Dave quickly finished off the other two once he had better odds and was smiling at me.
“Nice kick!” Dave said looking at me impressed.
I was grinning ear to ear, feeling like a total bad ass.
He reached down to the guy I had knocked out and quickly severed his head.
The other guys were picking men off the perimeter that managed to get past Caden, and I stood and fought with them. It was quickly becoming difficult for them, to move forward toward us, because of the pile of dead lifeless bodies piling up.
Anytime one of us got ganged up upon, there was always someone else at our back to help fight them off. It was a rush fighting amongst the guys, and the motions I had been practicing for weeks in the gym came completely natural to me now. A stray guy managed to get behind me while I was fighting, but he fell in agony as soon as he touched me. Dave walked over and snapped his neck off his body before he even had the opportunity to stand up again.
Someone was being ripped apart everywhere I looked. You would have thought Charlie was in his prime the way he was taking down some of Rufus’s men.
The onslaught of men was thinning out and whatever men Rufus had left were hanging back now, clearly afraid, not that I blamed them for a second. I looked at the group surrounding me and realized they were a killing machine. The love of my life was standing in front of me in a pool of blood from all the lives he had ended. It didn’t change how I felt about him in the slightest. He hadn’t looked for this fight. He’d even tried to warn them off, but they had come anyway.
Rufus, true to form, had stayed out of the fight. He was still standing where he had when this had all began.
“You fight well Caden, but let’s see how you do against some of your own?” Two of the guys from the card game from that weird day with Jack appeared behind Rufus out of thin air.
Oh fuck. I didn’t say it, I just thought it. I looked at the guys trying to gauge their reaction. They stood as firm as ever behind Caden. There would be no breaking ranks from our side.
“This has nothing to do with you,” Caden said to the two full blooded demons.
“We’ve decided it does,” the demon called Fritz said.
“We think we want some of the action going on here,” the other demon Gerald chimed in.
“That’s unfortunate for you,” Caden said.
They both took several steps to close the ten-foot gap between them and us. Alarm shot through me. This was different. I could physically sense the difference in the energy that these two were throwing off. Their raw menace and dislike for Caden was rolling off them in waves of energy that felt abrasive to my senses. It must have triggered something deep within me, because the pale yellow glow that surrounded me that I was becoming accustomed to, was darkening into an orange shade.
I stepped closer to Caden’s side and he shot me a look that silently told me to distance myself. That’s when it really hit me, he might not win this.
He made eyes toward the back. I knew what he wanted. He was silently asking me to place myself where I’d be able to leave once the fighting began again, but it wasn’t going to happen. It took him a few seconds before he realized, I wasn’t going anywhere. He looked furiously at me, and I just took a step closer to him anyway and nodded my head no. He’s was irate, and I didn’t care. I was staying.
“Don’t be too mad at her Caden. We would have just tracked her down anyway. She’s way too interesting to leave alone,” Gerald said and they laughed in unison. They eyed me and it felt like a million tiny needles poking my skin.
“And what is that lovely aura of orange you’re putting off little Lexie?”
“Why don’t you come a little closer, and I’ll show you?” I went to step forward, but Caden blocked me. Anger was overtaking everything else I was feeling. I knew it was some sort of fight or flight instinct kicking in to full gear, because it definitely wasn’t rational to egg them on. I had no idea what these two were capable of, but my instincts screamed they were formidable, but I couldn’t contain myself. The rage was causing me to become aggressive. I wanted to tear them apart with my hands and for some crazy reason I believed I could, even though it was probably completely illogical to think it.
I could see their next move clearly. The two would take out Caden. With him out of commission, the other guys would be quickly overwhelmed by the numbers of Rufus’s men. The two demons started edging closer to Caden, and I saw the other men getting ready for the second wave of the attack. I wanted to get past Caden, but I knew he would fight me. I held back. I would wait for them to attack, and then I guess I’d see what I really was capable of.
I always thought I would fear death when I was looking it in the face. These men would rather have me alive, but they wouldn’t hesitate to kill me if it was more convenient. I had no disillusionment on that, but I wasn’t afraid. I was more alarmed at living without Caden. Watching him die and not giving everything I had to stop it wasn’t something I could go on living with. It wasn’t even a choice. It was instinctual. I’d willingly give my life for him.
The tension was mounting to an unbearable level when the one demon struck out at Caden. The other demon quickly came at him from the opposite side. Rufus’s other men quickly ganged up on the others.
Time slowed, as I stepped forward toward what would most likely be my death. Even with the two of them, they struggled against Caden’s superior strength, but he was still slowly losing ground. They got him to his knees, and the one looked like he was preparing to rip his head from his shoulders, when I launched myself at his side. I was glowing almost red now, and I don’t know how I did it, but I managed to stun him enough to get him off Caden. It didn’t last long, as he easily reached around for me and slammed me to the ground.
Black dots flittered over my eyes. I was laying not even five feet from Caden as they overpowered him, and I couldn’t move. I felt nothing from the neck down. I’d lost all control. I couldn’t even turn my head from the gruesome scene before me, that I was unable to s
top. I was frozen. It was difficult to breathe as I tried to swallow air into my lungs.
So, this was the end. Tears blurred my vision as my head laid turned toward the scene of horror in front of me. I had no regrets. I’d given everything I had. Sometimes in life, that’s just not enough.
They were saying something to him now before the final deathblow that I couldn’t hear, but I was glad for it. I didn’t want to know what vile things they said. I didn’t know much about what a demon could survive, but there was a look of finality as I looked into Caden’s eyes. They were silently saying goodbye. Whatever was about to happen, it would be the end.
He looked away, and I closed my eyes, not wanting to see the last strike.
“Really Fritz? And you too Gerald? This is my daughter’s home. Have you no respect?” I heard Jack’s voice, and I opened my eyes quickly. “Uuughh, look at her! You could have broken her for good you clods!” Jack stepped over me and grabbed my awkwardly bent head, quickly shifting it into alignment. “There, that should fix itself. Just give it a couple of minutes. I’ve got to go even the numbers for your boyfriend now. I’ll be right back.”
Within seconds of his movements, I felt tingling in my toes and fingers and I knew he was right. I couldn’t see anything anymore. I could only hear as I watched the night sky. It was oddly beautiful tonight. Odd because even on a gruesome evening such as this the stars still shone brightly. I would have expected a blood moon on a night like this.
“The rest of you don’t need to be here. This is above your pay scale. That includes you Rufus,” Jack informed them.
“We’re sorry Jack.” And I heard the scurrying of footsteps receding.
“Jack, we’re tired of him hogging New York…” was cut off by a loud cracking noise.
“Now Caden, was that really necessary?” Jack said.
“I didn’t want to do…” another crack.
Obsidian Souls (Soul Series) Page 22
