“You'll be all right once we start moving. Sitting and thinking makes everything worse.” Leaning over he dotted a kiss to her temple.
Evelyn noticed the inner tug, the need to get up and go...somewhere...had lessened with the lack of contact between hands.
“Everyone ready?” Dragar gathered his things.
Christian stood, shield against his body, and made his way up the aisle. He and Roman traded a tense glance before Christian worked the stair door open and lowered it to the ground.
“Why don't you let me come with you,” Roman said to Dragar. He was as tall as Rhett and Dracht, black hair combed away from his face.
“We need you here to guard the jet in case we need to use it again, and we probably will. If anything unusual happens, take off and land somewhere nearby, or as close as you can. We'll meet back here when we're done,” Dragar replied.
“Unusual like the insects?” Roman asked, standing in the doorway to the cockpit.
“Or worse,” Alexandra said, climbing out of her seat. She stretched her fingertips toward the ceiling and headed forward after Minna toward the door.
Rhett waited until everyone else was up and at the front of the jet before helping Evelyn out of the seat. It was a sweet gesture that she returned with a smile. Evelyn appreciated the small tokens he bestowed upon her, all signs of his affection. There had been so little time to explore their bond, to show him how much she cared. The hectic cycle of life continued to disrupt—and interrupt—and now they were about to advance on an enemy not many could best.
Descending to the tarmac, Evelyn discovered Israel's air was as oppressive as Egypt's. Clouds hung low here, too, filling the sky in thick layers of white, gray and charcoal. The relentless, churning mass gave the impression it blanketed the entire earth, blocking out the black sun, only burning away when it reached the very outer layers of the atmosphere. She found it as suffocating as she ever had.
“Good hunting,” Roman said from the doorway before he pulled the stairs up, sealing the jet once more.
Several other planes sat on the asphalt in front of one story buildings collected near a gate leading out into the rest of the city. None of the aircraft had pilots or people waiting to board. Everything looked frozen in time, as if people had left their toys where they sat when the chaos set in.
So far, the private strip looked vacant of life.
Dragar led the way across a service road, through a split between two buildings and out into a long parking lot for owners and visitors. Nine vehicles sat haphazardly in their slots, some parked at wrong angles. One Honda had been abandoned so fast the doors were still open.
An easy target, Dragar went right to it and ducked his broad shoulders down to look inside.
“No keys but that doesn't matter. Find another car that works and let's get on the road,” Dragar said. The Honda only sat four. They needed another vehicle.
“Here's a truck. Fit five in the front cab and the rest in the bed so we don't have to split up.” Rhett aimed for a red Dodge Ram and tried the driver's door.
Locked.
He tried the back passenger door—it opened. Sliding in, he hit the button to unlock all the doors and went back to the driver's side, setting his shield aside to get under the dash.
Dragar seemed to be in agreement to going in one car if they could and left the Honda where it sat.
Evelyn flanked Alexandra and hopped into the bed of the truck. She knew it was better if the Templars in their armor stayed out of sight as long as possible.
Rhett got the engine going while Dragar, Christian and Dracht stood there staring at the girls.
“What?” Evelyn asked, sitting on a wheel well cover.
“You ride inside,” Dragar said, gesturing with his shield.
“We're fine back here,” Alexandra argued, crouching down to sit near the cab.
Minna found a place opposite Alex.
Rhett backed out of the driver's seat and shook his head. “No, you girls ride inside. We don't know how the inner city is. It could be worse than the mob we saw in Aswan.”
Alexandra exhaled an impatient noise. “It's not going to be much different if a bunch of people see you guys in that get up.”
“We can't hide it forever. Those other people were news hounds. We didn't need to see ourselves splashed on TV before we even arrived here,” Dracht said, making a gesture for the girls to get in the cab.
“Let's go!” Dragar, in an unprecedented move, raised his voice.
It shocked Evelyn into motion; she'd never heard him speak above a conversational tone.
Minna, never one to argue, gave Dragar a withering look that surprised Evelyn as much as the sudden command. Nothing in Dragar's expression suggested he was remotely affected by the glance.
Behind her, Alexandra muttered, the words too quiet to make out.
The entire thing struck Evelyn funny while she plopped into the back bench seat. All of it, from the shooting in the alley to the duplicity by Christian to the swarm of insects that still littered the ground in haphazard clumps.
Evelyn wondered, briefly, if she was starting to crack from the strain. Burying her face in her hands, she smothered the laughter into her palms.
This couldn't all be happening. In a moment she would wake up in bed, or at the hotel in Athens and everything would be normal. Galiana and Genevieve wouldn't be dead, the world wouldn't be in chaos and they wouldn't be about to embark on what amounted to a suicide mission.
The silence that met her muffled laughter let her know that she'd stunned the people around her. She could feel Alexandra's stare like a physical touch—Rhett's, too. Minna touched fingertips to her forearm in concern.
From the front seat came the sound of Dracht's armor creaking when he twisted around to see what the problem was.
“You all right, Ev?” Alexandra whispered.
“I'm fine. Let's go.” She dropped her hands from her face, controlling the laughter with supreme effort.
Everyone was still staring at her. She met Rhett's eyes. Pale green, they sparked with concern.
“I'm fine,” she insisted. “It just all hit me at once.”
“Don't worry. We've all had our moments,” Dracht said, surprising her all over again.
“Even you?” she asked. Rhett stowed his shield and climbed inside.
“Even me,” Dracht said.
“When was your moment?” she asked.
Instead of answering, Dracht looked at Alexandra, then faced front in the seat.
Evelyn glanced at her sister only to find Alex pretending like the clouds out the window were the most interesting thing she'd ever seen.
What had happened between them? Alexandra wasn't talking. Dracht wasn't talking, either. Any ill placed humor fled in the face of curiosity.
Dragar and Christian climbed into the bed of the truck, shields clanking against the sides.
“Do you want to know when my moment was?” Rhett asked. He reversed out of the slot. Putting the truck into gear, he tromped the pedal and shot them out of the parking lot.
“When?” Evelyn asked. She met Rhett's gaze in the rear view mirror.
“The night I found myself staring down the barrel of your gun.”
†
Situated on the edge of the city, only empty fields surrounded the small airport. But signs of life crept up quickly while the Dodge hurtled down the damp road; ahead, where the urban sprawl jutted up out of the desert, people milled in the streets, coming out of hiding in droves. Some packed cars, others clustered together in frightened groups, and still more ran in frantic circles that seemed to send them nowhere but closer to the edge of insanity. Papers fluttered in wet gutters, belongings scattered the sidewalks, streets and parkways.
A few children picked up the dead bugs with morbid interest, turning them this way and that. The deceased lurked everywhere, left where they lay until loved ones claimed them. None of the businesses, from city offices to private shops, were open to the public.
Many were looted, doors ripped off the hinges or sitting open at awkward angles, the supplies raided by anyone brave enough to fight their way through the other frenzied survivors to claim it.
Evelyn couldn't tell what time of day it was; time seemed suspended, kept at bay by the hand of fate. She knew it wasn't night time yet or it would have been even darker than the murk that passed for daylight.
Rhett drove through red and green lights and stop signs; he paused for no one. Not the beggars pushing carts, baby strollers or dragging trash bags behind them. They needn't have worried about anyone paying attention to the Templars in their armor. Most of the residents of Jerusalem were distracted by their own personal holocaust. Private horrors they couldn't escape no matter how many tears they shed, how hard they begged or how far they fled. Although Israel had seen its share of war and strife, modern humans weren't prepared for end of the world scenarios.
Not really. The reality of it preyed on the mind, toyed with psychological barriers and protections that once seemed impenetrable.
Even Evelyn found herself susceptible on some level. No matter how long she'd been alive or what she had seen, nothing in her knowledge base prepared her for this.
Rhett closed in on the old city in Jerusalem, the walls like a fortress. Walls that she had hidden behind once upon a time with thousands of others while a war raged on the other side. She was always hit with nostalgia whenever she came here, the memories as fresh in her mind as if it had happened last week instead of centuries ago. Violence, screams, prayers, blood. Fear.
Driving through the Jaffa Gate, they entered the Christian Quarter. The ramparts stood tall and imposing, rising high above the asphalt that nearly looked out of place against such majesty.
Evelyn stared out the windows in shock; there wasn't a person to be seen anywhere. She would have thought millions would have flooded the old city in an effort to be closer to the holy places within the sanctuary.
“Where is everyone?” Alexandra asked. Even she, apparently, was taken aback by the vacant streets.
“Couldn't tell you. Makes it easier for us. We're getting close,” Rhett said, taking a sharp right turn.
“It's creepy,” Alex insisted.
Rhett pulled the truck over to a curb and cut the engine. Across the street to their left, ancient buildings and stone streets wove through the quarter, with arches over the walkways, crosses decorating high peaks and spires. The gloom added to the sensation that they'd been thrust back in time, that this wasn't two-thousand-eleven but an era when Christ walked the earth.
Dragar and Christian jumped out of the back, shields affixed on their arms, swords pulled from their sheaths. Dracht and Rhett vacated the truck and the girls filed out on their heels.
Evelyn would have bet half her life that the sinister taint on the air wasn't her imagination. A chill marched down her spine and she shuddered.
Rhett took a path toward a narrow stone street between two structures, his sword hissing against the sheath when he removed it. An arch overhead marked the entrance to the passage that boasted broad stone steps and high stone walls on both sides.
She could see a hundred feet or more ahead before the path curved gently, what lie beyond obscured by the turn. Rhett, Dragar and Dracht took the lead; Christian followed behind her, Minna and Alexandra. Their boots thudded off the ground, ringing hollowly in the corridor.
There was evidence of the storms and pestilence even here; puddles shimmered between rocks and the black carapaces of the bugs littered the walkway. When they came to the curve, Rhett slowed and his posture grew wary. Evelyn had seen him in battle, knew when he was tensing to fight.
Dragar and Dracht took their cues from Rhett, she assumed, because they both slowed and affected the same wariness he did. As if some silent cue had been given, Rhett and the two front Templars split up, two going to one side of the path, one to the other.
Alexandra and Minna immediately followed suit, as did she, cutting to Rhett's side where she pressed against the stone. No sounds of traffic or cars or the dull roar of people on the move could be heard here.
It was so silent that another rash of chills raced along her arms. She heard no birds, no rustle of leaves, no rasping scrape of twigs on concrete. How Rhett and his brethren could walk so quietly with all that armament was beyond her.
What came charging around the curve was as quiet as they were, and took Evelyn—took them all—by surprise.
Black, thick across the chest, with razor teeth protruding from long muzzles, the beasts resembled a cross between a wolf and something straight out of a nightmare. Pale eyes, white fire, gleamed in the murky light. Their claws, talons more than not, should have left scratching, scraping noises on the stone.
Nothing.
Not one growl, not a shuffle of fur over muscle, no vicious snap of teeth. The animals—no, beasts—didn't appear as solid as a real wolf, like it really had been plucked from the dream realm. Three in all, two cutting away toward Rhett, one aiming to pass between for either the girls or Christian.
Rhett didn't hesitate; he blocked one with the shield and sliced at the other, a hard, downward arc meant to cut it in two.
Much to Evelyn's shock, the creature crashed to the ground with an inhuman snarl. The other collided with the shield so hard it knocked Rhett down. He landed with a thump and a grunt and a clatter of metal on stone.
The third creature made it past Dracht's swinging sword—straight for her. Back pressed tight against the wall behind her, Evelyn reached for the blade at her hip. The gift from Ashrael that she thought wouldn't be of any use to her. Except maybe to cut rope or something equally harmless.
Behind her, Alexandra shouted. “Evelyn!”
She tugged the knife out of its sheath. The creature's mesmerizing eyes threatened to paralyze her, seemed to be fixed on her for just that reason, slowing her motions down until she felt like she existed in one of those dreams where you need to be running fast, really fast, outpacing your enemy, go-go-go, cut through the annoying languid haze—and can't. Where your arms feel weighted, your feet feel attached to lead balls and the scenery warps by like it's melting, all slow-motion, so slow the thing behind you is going to catch you any second. Except right now it was her hand and the knife and the creature with the strange, pale eyes. She heard her heartbeat rushing through her ears, a clamoring static-hiss that blotted out even Alexandra's strident cries.
The beast collected itself, gathering strength behind its haunches, opening its maw because it meant to shred her down to the marrow with its vicious, needle teeth. And the knife was still rising, painfully slow, coming up and up but it was only at her waist and the wolf-hybrid was airbound, coming right at her, lips pulled away from the teeth she just couldn't escape.
A flash of silver sang near her ear, cut through the molasses thick haze with a quickness she couldn't quantify. It moved as fast as the wolf, apart from her reality, taking aim at the beast's throat. A howl of pain burst from its maw at the moment of contact, the head flying one way, the body another. And suddenly time whipped into overdrive, senses overwhelmed with motion, noise and a flurry of activity.
Christian stood next to her, lowering the sword back to his side. He met her eyes. “Need to be a little quicker on the draw.”
Evelyn blinked rapidly, gasping for breath. “Thank you.”
Christian didn't reply. He inclined his head as if they were now even, like he'd somehow made up for the almost-kidnapping back at the Templar stronghold, reasserting his position as protector.
He stepped past, jogging for Rhett who rose up from the ground with a helping hand from Dragar. The other attacking creature lay off to the side, as dead as the other two, though whether Rhett had contributed to its demise or one of the other Templars was beyond her just then.
“What in the hell were those?” Alexandra asked.
Evelyn struggled to regain her composure. Sliding the dagger back into the sheath, she lifted her hands and rubbed feeling back into her fac
e with her fingertips.
“I couldn't tell you, but we need to press forward before more show up,” Dracht said.
“Let's go.” Dragar turned away from Rhett and flanked Dracht.
Christian walked with them, a show of force on the front line.
Rhett, breathing hard, waited for her to reach him and slung an arm around her shoulders, dragging her briefly to his chest.
She didn't mind the hard, unrelenting armor under her cheek when she wrapped her arms around him.
“Come on,” he said after a moment, leaving a kiss on her crown. He stepped away after making eye contact, jogging to catch up to his Templar brethren.
“You all right, Ev?” Alex asked.
Minna touched her back, a gentle press of fingers that also encouraged her to go forward.
“I'm fine. I'm fine.” Her mind raced to catch up to the present. A scan of the sky showed it was still roiling like a concoction in a witch's cauldron. The streets were still empty behind her when she glanced back. That wicked sensation hadn't left, only intensified since the attack. She regarded the backs of the Templars ahead of them, marching in a line, swords drawn, hair long and disheveled, armor making them appear larger and more deadly.
Fearless.
No blood decorated any of the swords, as if the beasts were as ethereal as they'd seemed, embodiments of evil that were susceptible only to the power of a holy blade. Her's might have worked—if she'd ever been able to make contact with the beast before it had ripped her throat out.
Overhead, the sky darkened another degree. And another. Making it harder to see. The pathway ahead became gloomier than the parts behind them, a thickening fog that was more than fog, coiling through the air to obliterate what lay beyond.
The Templars split up again, two to each side of the narrow street. She, along with Minna and Alex, followed suit. They didn't need to be told to get out of the proverbial line of fire.
While they all crept closer to the mist, Evelyn reasserted her mantra. Don't freeze up. You can do this.
Daughters of Eve Collection (Books 1, 2 & 3) Page 51
