Beleth's wings erupted from his back and he dove up and forward, closing the distance.
"Distract him," Lucy commanded Hunter.
Luke straightened his back. "I'll help too."
He still limped, but his eyes burned with determination, and Lucy didn't argue. She pulled a protesting Simmons with her, running farther away, toward the cliff.
Beleth landed in front of Hunter and Luke, the earth beneath his feet shifting and cracking. "I'll make it quick." Not a boast, but a mercy offering. His hand formed into a blade, his wings still out, and he struck at the two men.
Luke threw up a shield, defending against the blows—one blow after the other. They were too wounded and too tired to really fight.
Lucy left Simmons near the cliff. "Wait here, and don't let him get you." Probably unnecessary. If nothing else, she could count on the woman's own self-preservation to keep her alive.
She ran back toward Beleth, making sure to stay behind him. If she could catch his wing with the serum, they could win this.
The agent who'd been knocked away finally stood and drew a hand gun, circling Hunter and Luke and aiming at Beleth.
A black tail whipped out from behind Beleth and tripped the guard. When he retracted it, Hunter jumped forward and cut off the tip. It fell and squirmed on the ground like the lizard tail.
The agent scrambled back, sweat breaking out on his face, and unloaded his gun into the beast of a man.
Beleth hopped away, releasing Luke and Hunter.
Lucy backed away as well, making sure to stay behind him.
Beleth thrust his hand-blade into the earth again, and Luke screamed. "Move!"
Everyone jumped away, except for the agent, who took aim at Beleth as the blade pierced through the earth below him and impaled him through his chest. Blood trickled out of his body and mouth as Beleth pulled his blade back, and he fell to the ground, dead.
Lucy's stomach turned with bile. Somewhere in the back of her mind a macabre scoreboard ticked off one more body count to add to the horror tally of this mission. Innocent lives lost—too many, and too morbid, to count.
She inched closer, moving in on Beleth as her brother grew weaker with each blow. Hunter charged, his face a mask of fury after watching another friend and colleague murdered—fury that would turn to grief when this was over. So much grief.
This was her chance, her one shot while he was distracted by Hunter's blade and Luke's powers.
She sped up, nearing Beleth and his squirming piece of tail. It moved, withering, totally grossing her out, but she ignored it and raised the serum, ready to stab him in the back.
Before she could land the blow that could save them all, the piece of tail, squirming on the ground, leaped at her face like an acrobatic jelly fish, and opened up like a web. It covered her face, her eyes lost in darkness.
She screamed and reeled away, stabbing at the thing with the syringe. When that didn't work, she dropped the syringe and clawed at it with her hands, trying to rip it off as she instinctively walked backward, fleeing from something attacking her.
"Lucy!" Her brother cried out, but it sounded so far away.
Her face burned as if acid had been poured onto it. Was the thing eating her? Oh, God. She fell backward, landing hard on her butt, and shooting pain splintered off from her tailbone. She grabbed her knife and tried cutting the black thing off her face, worried she would cut into her own flesh, not knowing where it ended and she began.
Then it fell off.
Her face burned in pain. The world was too bright. She touched her cheeks, expecting to feel raw flesh and bone, blood and gore, but it felt fine, normal.
A shadow loomed over her. Beleth.
She had to stop him. She looked around for the syringe, but it lay too far away, draining into the earth. She'd been a fool, and in her moment of panic she'd lost the only useful weapon they had to defeat him and get away.
Luke and Hunter lay on the ground, maybe dead. No. She couldn't think that. Never. Everyone she loved could die: Luke, Hunter, Sam and her baby. The people she loved more than anything in the world would all die if she failed.
And she had.
Beleth leaned into her, then looked up at Simmons. "Is it them?"
Lucy didn't understand. Were they who?
Simmons didn't respond.
Beleth asked again, resigned. "Are they ours?"
"No," said Simmons. "It was a boy. A boy with blonde hair."
Beleth nodded.
Lucy suddenly realized....
That night, when Beleth and Simmons had kissed, they'd conceived a child. That child, a boy with blonde hair, whose mother had been married to Steele—that child had been Drake.
Everything is connected. Lucy looked at Beleth. "I know your, son. He's a good man." She couldn't believe she was saying this.
Drake had made a lot of mistakes, but in the end, he really was a good man. He wanted to save Sam and his baby. He'd come back to do the right thing. Didn't everyone deserve a second chance to do the right thing?
"He'd want you to fight this—this control Steele has over you. He'd want to be able to get to know you."
Beleth's face softened a bit, and for one fraction of a breath, a tear appeared in his eye. His voice came out soft, sad, resigned. "Thank you. If we meet again in another life, I hope it will be different. You are the kind of person the world needs."
He raised his blade, his hand trembling from the effort of fighting his orders for so long, his face caught in desperate agony, and....
Something large landed behind Lucy, shaking the ground and moving the wind.
Beleth backed away.
She looked behind her and smiled, already knowing what she'd see. The beetle, her friend, stood over her, lowering its horn, facing off against Steele. She had called for his help when the helicopters had been broken, and he had come.
Everything is connected.
A large horn rang out and the beetle charged.
Chapter 126 - Steele
Steele sat in the lotus position, his massive power uncoiling out of him and drilling deep into the earth. Heat rose from below, raising his body temperature and covering his body in a slick sheen of sweat. All around him, Diamond Head cracked open like an egg being prepped for an omelet. The earth caved in on itself, leaving small walking trails weaving through the pulsing lava that had come to his call. Magma rose higher, building slowly, pulled from its thousands of years of slumber like a monster of old.
He basked in the power it took to command nature to his will.
"What have you done?"
Steele opened his eyes and stood, facing the boy—now a man—who had ruined his family. Drake stood before him, Sam at his side, with another girl, her face familiar but unimportant.
His eyes returned to Drake. "I'm glad to have you back. Soon our entire family will be reunited."
He rubbed his fingers at that, anxious for Simmons to arrive. The power in the baby called to him, but he couldn't unleash it without her. He marveled at this draw, this need he had to be with her. He'd squashed all human emotion, prided himself on his inability to know or understand that messy realm, in which so many people lived and died, in their pathetic lives. Even as a child, he'd never understood it.
But Simmons... she ignited something in him, and he knew that his powers and reach and influence would be greater with her by his side. So he cultivated patience. Too much time had gone into these plans to rush it now.
Drake, whose temper controlled him, scowled at Steele. "You're no family of mine."
Drake wasn't his child, true. It galled him to know that his wife had betrayed him with his best friend, that they thought him so stupid, so easily duped by their sniveling lies. So he'd made it his mission to find Drake, and with a poetic timing he couldn't have planned had he tried, he'd found Drake just as the boy was about to live his dreams of surfing.
The plan had been to kill him, to end the life that had ruined his, but when he discovered Drake
's extraordinary powers... well, he couldn't snuff out the life of one so great—not until he'd acquired those powers for himself.
But what justice, what pure poetry, to breed the daughter Simmons hated with the son she gave up to protect. A twisted justice to her betrayal.
Now, the baby of these two carried more power than any paranormal ever had. And Steele had taken revenge on the two people who betrayed him. Beleth would live the rest of his life having never known his son, and this baby—what Sam could do with its powers—would bring Simmons back to him, where she belonged.
Sam smiled up at him; her coerced adoration disgusted him, but served his purpose. "Did I do well, Daddy?"
He walked to her and combed her hair with his hand. "Yes, dear, you made your father proud."
The contact didn't please him, but it reinforced his hold on her. She hadn't had the powers he'd hoped for, but she was the key to getting them, just as he'd always known she would be.
He returned to his location on the cliff, concentrating again to raise the magma even higher.
Drake raised his voice to be heard over the boiling rage beneath them. "In your broadcast, you said you were doing this for common man, for the people like those living on this island. If that's true, then why erupt the volcano?"
Clever boy, just like his mother. "When the demons of this volcano are ready, I will send it over the side of the mountain and let it tear a scar through the land. It will burn through everything as it makes its way to the harbor."
Drake's jaw dropped in shock. "You'll burn the entire island."
It felt good to finally share his plan with someone who could see the bigger picture. "People will die, naturally, but I've given them a chance to join me. It's time for the next step. These things must happen for the greater good."
Drake stared past Steele, no more questions on his lips. Perhaps he had finally seen the futility of fighting it.
Behind Steele, an explosion erupted and he flew forward, shards of metal, plastic and rock piercing his body. Pain stung him, but he pushed it aside—nothing his body couldn't handle. He looked up to where Drake had been looking.
A kid stood with a grenade launcher over his shoulder, and several others flanked him. One boy levitated, throwing rocks at Steele, which he easily dodged. The same boy called out orders. "Toby, move to the flank. Gary, find some metal. Greg, Mary, get behind cover. Norm, get above him."
Another boy nodded and jumped into the air, flying straight for Steele.
Paranormals. Kids that must have grown up in my facility. Steele headed toward them, sorry that it would have to end this way for them. He'd given them their powers, sheltered them and trained them. They could have been his agents, helping him form a new world order, but instead they had rebelled, forcing him to create the Grunts.
Now, he'd have to kill them. Such a waste.
He lifted his hands, and the earth around them began to shake.
Chapter 127 - Lucy
The beetle attacked Beleth, pushing him back with its horns.
Lucy used the distraction to check on Luke and Hunter. Both had been knocked out, again. She worried about permanent damage after so many attacks. Purplish bruises had formed on Luke's face, and on Hunter's stomach, where his shirt had been pushed up.
"Guys, wake up. We gotta get out of here." She nudged them each and cajoled them to wake. The sphere had fallen from Hunter's hand, and she grabbed it and slid it into her pocket.
Beleth and the beetle had taken to the air, tumbling through the sky in an acrobatic aerial battle. Jaws snapped at blades. Claws tore into muscle. Beleth struck the beetle's shell, and Lucy felt it in her gut. It was willing to die for her, and she couldn't stop it, only try to get away in time to stop Steele and save her friends and the other kids.
There was still a way they could all make it out alive. Maybe.
Hunter groaned and sat up. "Lucy, are you okay?"
She nodded and caressed his face, also starting to bruise. "I am, but you look like hell. We have to go." She turned to her brother. "Come on, Luke."
He looked worse than Hunter, pale and sunken into himself. He'd used too much power, drained himself too often. He groaned. "Luce, did we win?"
She helped him up. "Well, we're not dead yet. Let's count that as a victory and get the hell out of here."
They followed the edge of the cliff until reaching a waterfall. Simmons followed silently, still nursing her broken nose and shooting daggers at Lucy.
The waterfall plummeted into jagged rocks below. Jumping would not end well for them. Near the waterfall, a thin piece of rock rose, like a column sticking up from the cliff, thinner through the middle. They might be able to jump to it and climb down, but even at optimal health, that could be disastrous. And no one in her rag-tag crew was at optimal anything at the moment.
Another spasm in her gut; the beetle had taken another hit. She couldn't let it die for them. This wasn't the beetle's battle.
She edged near the waterfall, her toes hanging off the cliff. "We jump. Luke, I know you're tired, but try to slow us down as much as you can."
Simmons balked. "I'm not jumping down there. Your brother can barely stand on his own two feet."
"Fine. Stay here and die. I really don't care anymore."
Hunter held her hand and leaned in to kiss her. "I love you, Lucy. You're the bravest woman I've ever known."
Simmons frowned at them, but Lucy ignored her.
As they prepared to jump, the beetle fell from the sky and landed in water beside them—flipped on its back, gashes and dents in its shell. It twitched, still alive but hurt.
Beleth dropped from the sky behind them, turned his hand into a giant hammer and lunged it forward, throwing Luke, Lucy and Hunter over the cliff.
Simmons remained behind with Beleth.
Hunter landed on the thin column of rock, using his para-powers to navigate the tricky balancing act.
Lucy grabbed on to its edge, the sharp rock cutting into her hand.
Her brother fell into the waterfall and disappeared into the white mist.
Her throat thickened and she let out a loud sob. "No! Luke!"
Grief, weariness and pain gripped her. The blood from her cuts mixed with water on the rock to make it slippery. A strong hand gripped her wrist and pulled her up. Hunter. She struggled to right herself, and shot an angry glare above.
Beleth stood at the edge of the cliff, his expression a mix of grief and anger. "I'm sorry for your brother."
Luke. God, no, Luke. He couldn't be dead, but looking down, she didn't know how he could have survived.
Beleth may have been under Steele's control, but he was too dangerous a weapon to let live. She stepped forward, ready to end him once and for all, when the small piece of rock tilted under her feet, the midsection breaking from the weight of two bodies.
As if on a macabre see-saw, they balanced their lives on either end of the column as it tilted back and forth. Neither of them could move for fear of toppling them both into the rocky water. They locked eyes, fear filling Lucy, but not for herself.... She'd nearly lost Hunter too many times already.
"Don't move," she said.
She had split-moment visions of their lives together in the real world, where they didn't always stand at the edge of death: going to the movies, or out to eat; walking hand in hand down the street as they browsed shops.
His eyes reached across the distance and held her as if in an embrace. "Lucy, you need to get off. Run and jump, fast!"
"No! You'll fall to your death."
His green cat-like eyes, and handsome face with its boyish charm; the way that one shock of hair with the silver streak always fell out of place and into his face; his long fingers and strong hands—she absorbed these details, memorizing each bit of him, and then put him back together as the whole man who stood before her. The man she loved and could not lose.
He grinned, but his eyes were sad. "I messed up with the sphere, betraying you to steal it, but I'm not go
ing to mess this up. I'm sorry."
He ran away from Lucy, forcing the column to tilt down in his direction, forcing Lucy to run toward the shore and jump, forcing her to leave him to the fall alone.
She ran and jumped to the cliff's edge.
As Hunter fell, he called to her. "Catch!"
She turned and caught his sword, flying hilt-first toward her, and without another thought—because she couldn't let her mind anywhere near thoughts about Hunter and Luke—she lunged at Beleth with every ounce of anger and rage and fear she could summon.
He parried and countered, but instead of blocking his attack, she tilted her blade, allowing his to glance off. She pushed and slashed, cutting his arm and his shoulder. He cried out in pain as black blood dripped from him. She focused, narrowing in her senses, ignoring everything else, and watched his every move as she counterattacked. Lucy looked for the most minuscule tell, and danced with him like a shadow, always there but always out of reach.
Still, Beleth didn't waver, didn't slow.
But she did. The adrenaline pounding through her body wouldn't last forever. The reality of pain awaiting her on the other side of this battle weighed in on her with each raised blade. He drove her back as her muscles shook from fatigue.
Beleth pushed her closer to the waterfall, attacking, but then his one tell appeared, his one opening—that moment as he pulled one blade back before the other swung at her.
She slid past the attack, moved around him with lightning speed, and shoved the sword in his back and yanked it free.
He groaned as spider legs erupted from his spine, grabbing her, pulling her.
They both fell from the cliff and into the waterfall.
Water filled her mouth and she choked, trying to find her way to the surface. Her lungs burned as she forced her body to swim out from under the torrent of water slamming into her. She made it to the shore, breathless and dripping, and pulled herself to land, still clutching Hunter's sword. The sphere pulsed in her pocket, warming her, healing her. It had to be what had kept her alive after the fall.
The Forbidden Trilogy Page 73
