I was still too far away. She almost escaped, but he tackled her and they rolled. One guard exited the vehicle and tried to pull her off of him.
My hands slammed into the lackey’s side as I barreled into him, pushing him from her. Filled with rage, I shoved my recent experience into the man, and he went slack in fear. He succumbed to claustrophobia and the trap restrained him.
Ryleigh crept away from Stephan. She grasped the gun, though she held it by the muzzle. He dragged her down once more.
By the time I knocked the scientist from her again, she pointed the barrel at him. I started a terrible Nightmare construct, permeated with all my terror, anger and hatred. This bastard kidnapped Lia and injured Darian. He needed to suffer, and I wanted him dead. This would accomplish both.
“Lukas?” She shouted. “We need to get Tobias. Lukas?”
As she moved closer, my power surged. Stephan’s eyes widened as he saw how much stronger my magic flared with each step she took. With her energy fueling my creation, I could destroy them all. The range felt incredible. I only required another minute, and I’d unleash my worst prison trap yet. With luck, it would eliminate every one of Cedric’s men in a single shot.
“Lukas!” She pushed me as something hot rolled over us.
The ground erupted near my head, but the debris wasn’t large enough to bruise. Stephan ran to the van as his lackeys drove away. The gun sat at my side and I picked it up as I stood, running after him in a crouch.
Another blast of lightning missed me and she screamed, this time in pain. I had the bastard in my sight; with one bullet, I could end him. I would have, but I couldn’t do it with what I sensed from her through the Bond.
My mate feared me and she was injured.
I lowered my hand as he jumped into the vehicle and they sped away. Arcs of electricity peppered the grounds, churning the once pristine grass until it resembled a battlefield. She fell into my arms as another projectile aimed for us, but it landed further off target.
We took refuge in the drainage ditch parallel to the driveway. She hugged her legs, terrified and bleeding in several places from her ordeal. The floodlights flickered with each explosion until they expired.
She scooted from the trench. Our enemies couldn’t see us in the dark, but flashes illuminated us on occasion. Before I realized her intent, she kneeled next to the fallen lackey. She checked his pulse, but he was beyond saving.
“What did you do to him?” She whispered in horror. Though she still appeared afraid, she no longer cowered from me. I hesitated. “Lukas?”
“The guys call it a Nightmare Prison.”
“Nightmare…” She shook her head. “But, he’s dead!”
She abandoned the mercenary and let me lead her back to the safety of the culvert. I tried to explain. “You know how people say if you die in your dreams, you’ll perish in the real world, too?”
“It’s true?” Her eyes widened, but she didn’t seem terrified of me anymore, thank the gods.
“It only works if the person believes what’s happening is genuine. It takes time, but if I craft a construct merging their recent reality with a fatal conclusion? Yeah, it’s effective.”
“Shit, Lukas. That’s scary.” She laughed a little. “Oh my god. That’s what you were doing when I touched you, isn’t it? How many would have died? Can you pick and choose who gets hit at that distance? It felt like you reached for miles and miles before you let me go.”
As I thought it through, I realized she was right. I couldn’t control my phobias with precision in such a scenario. Had I let my creation loose, the consequences would’ve been catastrophic.
“Tell me you won’t attempt it again.” She pleaded.
“I can’t. What if I’m unable to save you any other way?”
“There’s always another way, Lukas. Promise me.”
“I won’t make a promise I can’t keep, but I’ll try not to let anger override my common sense. Deal?”
Satisfied, she turned toward the facility. Lightning flashed all around us now, and the bank we hid behind rumbled and shook. One of Cedric’s earth-movers tore up the landscape. We peeked over the berm, searching for the best path way back to our allies. Ryleigh’s fear escalated as she looked at all the people in battle, spread over the lawn surrounding the battered rehabilitation building.
Screams echoed in the dark between us and my team.
“I see Thane.” I nudged her into a crouch. “Let’s go home.”
Chapter Thirty-seven
Darian
Ian placed me beside the remnants of the clearing we’d occupied as a base camp. Jason, Aubrey and Arabella already left with the truck. The moment he put me down, the assassin winked out of sight.
Groaning, I rolled myself over and onto my hands and knees. I felt Ryleigh’s terror build. I was naked, so I grabbed the pair of jeans I’d set aside earlier. Why, oh why couldn’t we morph with our clothes, like the Shifters in the movies?
Unless I was dead, there was no reason not to be in there, searching for my mate.
My strength increased the further I walked toward the building. I heard pockets of fighting now, but no one stopped my progress. Retracing Ian’s steps, I made my way back into the basement lab.
An argument raged beyond the battered industrial doors, and I paused to catch my breath. Cedric’s voice pinned me in place, and a cold sweat rushed over my skin. My vision wavered, and I leaned against the wall.
Trapped in my cell again, I watched Cedric and my sire discuss how they planned to torture me.
“Make sure they heal him well after.” My father drawled. “His traitor status renders him useless as my heir, but no female wants to breed him if he’s damaged.”
“He’s already damaged.” Cedric laughed, and my kin joined him.
“Yes, but the women only care about the package. I hope my grandson isn’t such a disappointment.”
Screaming from someone else’s lips jerked me from the memory. Cedric spoke, and his tone curled around my spine, filling me with terror.
“You led them to us. Even knowing the risks, you brought her straight to our facility. You’ve destroyed us. How many died today for your mistakes? Of all the careless acts of stupidity I’ve witnessed in my years, this is the worst.”
Lightning flashed and Kevin screamed, casting shadows from the room beyond as the light danced. The structure rumbled and shook, but not from Cedric’s abilities. The combat outside caused major damage to the exterior. It sounded like a battle, but I couldn’t worry about it now.
I saw Cedric’s unprotected back through the door. He faced Bargas, forcing him to kneel before him as he passed painful arcs of electricity through his body.
If I could move, I’d kill him before he ever sensed me coming. If I could move, I’d cripple the Elitist movement, maybe forever. If I could…
My mind flickered from the here and now to my memories of imprisonment. I remained trapped in my fear. It wasn’t Kevin kneeling before this monster, feeling the heat burn through his veins. Kevin wasn’t the one smelling his flesh char. Those weren’t Kevin’s screams echoing throughout the space until his throat bled.
It was me.
I crumpled to my knees and held my head in my hands. The motion startled Cedric and he cursed. From the corner of my eye, I spotted Bargas flat on the floor at his feet, eyes wide open in death. Cedric was pissed if he was getting sloppy.
Before I moved, he stood above me.
I refused to whimper as he hauled me upright. It always gave him pleasure to hear it, and I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction. The second he touched me, he pushed electric fire through me. It burned in waves at the right frequency to harm without killing me or making me lose consciousness. He’d practiced on me for over a century to perfect it.
My back snapped into a painful arc, and I balanced on my tiptoes as every nerve flared to life in the most agonizing way. As the current let up, I sank in relief, though he didn’t allow me to fall.
“Hello, Darian.”
Oh, gods. His sinister voice tore into the memories I’d thought healed. Terror rolled over me, as fresh as if I’d never left my cell.
“I’ve missed our time together.” He laughed. “How wonderful to know something pleasant resulted from today’s fiasco. I can’t wait to get started. What’s it been? Over sixty years now? I wonder, will you last as long as you used to? I still forget sometimes, not everyone tolerates as much of my personal touch as you.”
He cast a disgusted look over his shoulder at Kevin’s prone form and hauled me up the stairs. He towered over me at almost seven feet tall. His broad and muscular frame dragged me through the debris with little effort. His size didn’t make him a monster.
He enjoyed torture with the skill and passion of a maestro.
He loved hearing the screams of his victims, and perfecting his ‘art’. None of my other tormentors elicited the pain he pulled from me. They never came close to drawing out the agony and humiliation as he had.
Weakened from poor nutrition, beaten and degraded daily, I hadn’t had a choice. Unable to shift in the specialized cells, I’d bowed to his mercy. Any iota of resistance he rewarded with more and more creative punishments.
I’d dreaded my father’s visits, but Cedric had invaded every second of my incarceration. Every movement, every noise, every sensation had filled me with paranoia as I waited for him to return. His sadistic enjoyment never failed to horrify and sicken me.
We reached the front entrance of the building, and he dragged me over the broken portico. My fear consumed me and I couldn’t focus on the battle raging around me. Shouts, grunts and moans all faded when compared to the man holding me by the throat.
“Oh, look.” He smiled. “I do believe I see the female you lot are trying to save. It’s a shame to lose her, but no sense letting the enemy possess her, right?”
I looked up as he guided us toward my lovers. Lukas hovered over another combatant, though they remained too distant to make out whom. A jolt of terror speared me; not for me, but for my mates. My Setahs. For once, I knew I could defend myself. I wasn’t weakened, beaten, and battered anymore.
I was free now; and I was strong enough to protect the ones I loved.
My fist connected with his face before he summoned his ability, and the shot missed them by a few yards. He released my neck and wiped the blood from his lip. His eyes lit up and a terrible grin twisted his features.
“It’s been a long time since you last fought back. I’m so pleased, Darian. It’ll be so much fun to break you all over again.”
I’d tried not to draw attention to them, but he caught my glance.
“She’s important to you? Interesting.”
He sent out another volley. His bolts landed far from them. They ran in pursuit of Stephan as he fled.
Did the bastard know he took shots at his own son?
My injuries left me too weak to shift, but it didn’t mean I couldn’t fight. I tackled him, though he proved too bulky for me to topple. As we grappled, Cedric lobbed random attacks into the melee, many of them close to my mates. Lightning arced around us, and I cursed as the waves connected with my exposed skin.
Of all the scents in the universe, the smell of my own charred flesh turned my stomach like no other.
I refused to let the horror of my wounds pull me back into my traumatized nightmare. He faced me, trading blow for blow, but I knew he played with me. He could push the fatal current through me at any moment, yet he continued to make it dance beyond us, grazing me before arcing away again.
Exhausted, each strike weakened me further until I struggled to stand.
Chapter Thirty-eight
Ryleigh
Somehow, I’d ended up on a movie set by mistake.
There was no other rational explanation for the things I saw. We endeavored to reach Thane and Ian on the opposite section of the lawn. Erick and Daniel worked their way in our direction, but several pockets of chaos separated us. We crouched as we sprinted every couple of feet until something else forced us to stop. Lightning played over the lawn, striking at random, sometimes hitting its mark.
Screams and moans filled the air, and the scent of ozone flowed as thick as the smoke.
Twenty yards away, a big black grizzly chased an Intaran wielding fireballs. Several fizzled on the grass in their wake, but a few damaged the building. Half of the structure toppled, and flames engulfed the rest. As we ducked and dodged objects, I sent up a silent prayer hoping all our people made it to safety.
Between the electrical discharges, stray fireballs and various mystical projectiles, I struggled to ride the shifting ground without falling. Someone ripped up chunks of soil and hurled it at their opponent, but I didn’t know who was on what side. Multiple animals ran amok, fighting each other and those with different defenses.
Lions, and tigers, and bears, indeed.
The earth rumbled again and Lukas cursed. I followed the direction he looked and saw the tunnel we’d gone through earlier had collapsed. With a shaken expression, he turned toward me.
“The next time a madman gives you the choice between going underground or shooting me… let them shoot me, okay?”
He looked serious, so I nodded to reassure him. But he couldn’t mean it, could he? Without another word, he led me forward.
Lukas and I spotted our Setah and a man he identified as Cedric. As we approached the back of the building, I watched Darian wrestle with Cedric on the driveway. Arcs of electricity danced around them, but neither gave an inch.
We started toward him instead.
A large tangle of bodies separated us from him, and Lukas charged into the fray. Screams of terror trailed him as ally and enemy alike cowered in his wake. They panicked, scattering away from the unseen Nightmares of his creation.
Many attempted to attack me. With a single touch, he activated one of his mental prisons. With a moment of concentration, he misdirected his opponent by filling them with unnamed fear. This indirect assault continued for a few minutes, but it lasted long enough for our allies to intervene.
“Hey, beautiful.” Daniel yanked a Shifter off his feet and shot him in the chest.
I blinked, but I couldn’t summon sympathy for anyone who stood between me and my mate. It felt like scrapes and bruises covered every bit of me. One of the flames landed on the back of my thigh. The blister rubbed my scorched pants as we crept closer to Darian.
He and Cedric exchanged punches. All around, small arcs of lightning flashed in a circle, keeping us from interfering. Every couple of seconds, an arc curved in to hit my lover, but he never made a sound.
A cluster of writhing bodies slammed into me, separating me from Daniel and Lukas. I kicked and scratched, but the mass was protected by fur, so I didn’t make an impact. Erick shoved the animal off me, and it transformed into a sturdy oak. We sat there under its branches as I caught my breath.
“Shit.” I poked the bark, but it seemed real under my fingertips. “Is he a genuine tree now, or is he still aware?”
“Oh, he’s sentient.” The blond grimaced. “Don’t worry. I won’t leave him like this. It’d be a helluva boring way to spend the next century.”
A fireball struck its trunk, and I screamed. Flaming shards sprayed us, and we rolled in the grass to extinguish the flames. He glanced up at the charred mess. “Hell, now that’s a bad way to go.”
Daniel groaned several feet away, and we scooted over to him. Burns flared down one side of his back from shoulder to hip. We pulled him to the shelter of the building and leaned him against the wall.
Lukas looked around us for a way to help Darian. The closer we got, the stronger the electricity saturated the air. With a frustrated shout, he ripped the earpiece from his ear and let it dangle at his collar.
“The damned radio is down. Dean! Dammit, Dean, where are you?”
He turned in a circle, looking hard at the various clusters of fighters, but none of us saw him in the chaos. The surrounding
pressure changed from one moment to the next, and I gasped as a huge chunk of concrete hurtled in my direction. Lukas strayed too far away to reach me in time, and I became too paralyzed by fear to run. Seconds passed, but they felt like minutes as I watched the bus sized slab come down.
Before it hit, Ian popped in front of me and the atmosphere around us thickened. The hairs on my arm stood up, and I shivered. Between Ian and the pavement, a shimmering distortion appeared, a few feet larger than the projectile. With a sucking sound, the object went through the gap and disappeared. At some point, my knees stopped supporting me, and Ian helped me stand again.
“Where did you send it?”
“No idea.” Ian shrugged. “Hopefully, it doesn’t land somewhere awkward.”
I looked up at him in horror. Would the piece fall on an innocent person from nowhere?
Ian smirked. “I’m sure an unconnected rift opens into the space between places. It’s uninhabitable, I promise.”
“If you say so.”
Lukas grabbed me in a crushing hug and thanked Ian.
“Dean heard you, but he’s in a snarl.” Thane said as he joined us. “He’ll be here in a minute.”
I couldn’t tell if we would emerge the victors. Darian hissed as another current slithered over him, and though he stumbled, he refused to submit. Lukas pulled me to safety as a bolt hit close to where I stood. We ducked behind a collapsed portion of wall.
“Jeez.” I breathed. “How do you seem to know where it’s going to strike?”
“It’s amazing what a few seconds of precognition lets you avoid.” He looked to where I froze earlier. “It doesn’t always work.”
His smile appeared strained. Darian grunted again and we dodged a volley of burning brick. He nudged me further away, and the others followed.
“Everyone is clear, except Darian.” Thane looked around. “We’ve taken out all Cedric’s allies.”
Beyond The Veil: A Paranormal & Magical Romance Boxed Set Page 145
