The Black Knights

by Matilda Reyes

  Before I could ask what he meant, Jordan walked back into the room. Mikael seized the opportunity to duck out, leaving me with a bittersweet parting smile as Jordan, oblivious or at least acting so, came over. He took up a seat next to me on the couch and held my hand. He closed his eyes and mumbled to himself for several long moments, then looked at me. “I don’t know what to say to you that you don’t already know. So, don’t die, okay?”

  Laughter bubbled out. “I’ll do my best to keep us alive. Try not to do anything that will worsen your injuries.”

  He smiled wryly. “I have normal-people feelings, as you called it. You should know what they are by now.”

  I did not know what normal-people feelings he possessed about me and I didn’t want to know. I couldn’t take any more pressure right before a big mission. It was bad enough that his life was on the line with me. The thought of protecting his feelings while rescuing a man I wanted to hug senseless was too damn much. I’d not probed that feeling in the back of my head. I was comfortable with the fact that we were sleeping together. We had developed a new level of intimacy as we whispered secrets to each other in the middle of the night. Though sleep had been low in supply, the last few weeks had been sublime. I’d learned that he could carry a conversation. He told me about his parents and his first love. Try as I might, I still couldn’t imagine him as a high school student with a part-time job who attended church with his mother. I could envision him leaving his apartment late at night with the father that had introduced him to a violent lifestyle. He made me smile with the deep care and worry he had for his friends. He liked cuddling in his sleep. That was as deep as I needed to get.

  “Uh-huh,” I said. “You’re annoyed that I ruined your sleep again last night.”

  He snorted. “So we’re going for feigned ignorance. Remind me never to share my feelings again.”

  “What do you want me to say? I don’t want you to die because, aside from the obvious, I like this version of us and I want to enjoy it.”

  A pleased smile crossed his features. “Good enough. Don’t make me fish for compliments or your feelings. This isn’t easy for me.”

  I leaned my head on his shoulder and stared at our linked fingers. “We can figure it out after this. Once we all walk out unharmed, get home, and get rest, we’ll talk. I promise. But we have to get our heads in the game.”

  “You’re right,” he said. “We should prep. I have to pick up ammunition and more weapons for the team that will arrive tomorrow.”

  “I have to work on the preliminary plans.” I blew out a breath. “Get out of here. Those guns will not load themselves.”

  He smiled, kissed me on the lips once, and went in search of car keys and a partner to help him with what would be a heavy load.

  I turned toward the table and stared at the images we’d printed out. Ideas floated in my head, but I still couldn’t figure out how to put them together. I was missing something. I was sure of that. I was forgetting that one thing that would make a difference.

  ✽ ✽ ✽

  Dawn arrived too quickly on the day of the ritual. The sun through the window blinds woke us. Neither Jordan nor I could fall back asleep, so we went for a long run. When we returned, we sparred in the backyard for another hour. I demanded Jordan return to bed for a nap when we were both tired enough to let down our guard. I refused to risk the safety of the group just because Jordan didn’t get enough rest.

  Hypocrite that I was, I waited until he had fallen asleep to return to the kitchen and made myself an oversized mug of coffee. Laid out on the table in front of me were blueprints of the property Danny had acquired. Based on the few details Nicholas conveyed, I had come up with what felt like a foolproof plan. That likely meant that it would fall apart before we could begin, so I tried to come up with plans B and C. Hours ticked by as I moved the pieces around on the map and cursed to myself over every scenario my dark mind could conceive.

  The house came to life in the early afternoon when everyone rose. There was an immediate line at the coffee machine and the sounds and smells of breakfast being made filled the air. Someone turned on the television. I abandoned my seat and snuck off to bed where I hoped to find peace and quiet. My thoughts were all over the place, filled with the inevitable deaths that would be on my hands and the lives that depended on me.

  Jordan was asleep when I walked in. I sat on the far side of the bed and let myself travel down those scary roads in my mind. Nicholas would die. My assassins would die. I’d ruin the lives of countless families. I was responsible for making sure chaos wasn’t released on humanity.

  I pulled my knees to my chest and wrapped my arms around them. I was scared. Not the way I worried before every other mission. This was a deep-down fear that gripped my heart. Something would go wrong.

  “I swear, you think too loud,” Jordan grumbled as he propped himself up on his elbows. “What’s bothering you?”

  “Aside from the obvious?” I asked, hugging my knees to my chest.

  “Yes, aside from the obvious trap that’s coming for us, worrying that Nicholas is still on our side and the pressure of a final battle.”

  “Someone will get hurt, maybe even die.”

  “Those are the risks every time we go out into the field,” Jordan reminded me. “We all know and do it anyway.”

  “What if the plan doesn’t work?”

  “We have two backups and the failsafe.”

  “What’s the failsafe?”

  He grinned. “We take the gloves off and worry about the repercussions later. Either way, I want to be in my bed within twenty-four hours.”

  “I’ll do my best to get you there.”

  Jordan crooked a finger at me in a come-hither gesture. I inched closer. He tugged at the front of my shirt and pulled me down for a kiss. “Just in case I don’t have the chance to kiss you again,” he replied with a shrug. “We could die tonight.”

  “You don’t get to pull this end-of-the-world crap, Jordan McAllister!”

  He kissed me again and laughed. “If you’d used my middle name, I might have been scared. Like you said, we need to get our heads in the game. That means getting distractions out of my way first. I’d regret not kissing you now.”

  “Good. Distraction handled,” I said as I untangled myself from his embrace. “She will appear at some point. Your job is to keep everyone clear of me. We can handle Carlo and Vernon. Can you do that?”

  “I’d rather fight at your side.”

  “You’ll guard my back. That’s a side,” I said with a helpful smile.

  His voice fell flat. “You’re going to run away from me in the middle of everything. Again.”

  I hadn’t planned on it, not exactly. “No, I won’t. There’s time where I need to separate from you, but I’ll come back right away.”

  “You’re a terrible liar,” he snarled. “If I’m supposed to serve at your side and know what you know, don’t you think it’s fair that you clue me into your plans?”

  “I’ll take that under consideration,” I said, my lips twitching. With a wicked grin, I locked the bedroom door and returned to him. “We have a few hours before we need to be ready. Let’s spend it productively. Just in case.”

  ✽ ✽ ✽

  Over twenty assassins changed clothes and strap on more weapons than a SWAT team full of ninjas in less than fifteen minutes. I clocked them. They were big, scary, and lethal.

  They all looked to me at the front of the room. Shit. This was when I had to make a speech, say something that would inspire them to run to their deaths.

  “This mission is bigger than anything we’ve ever done,” I began. “It is a rescue mission. We’re getting Nicholas back in one piece. It’s an assault to kill as many of these cult bastards as we can. And we’re stopping a ritual we don’t understand. Yes, the task will be difficult, damn near insurmountable, if I’m honest. The odds are likely against us. But I’d take our numbers and people over anyone any day of the week.” Someone in the crowd
broke into a cheer. “We are stronger and tougher than them.” That got a smattering of applause. “We have frigging superpowers!”

  Fitzpatrick, a newer assassin who always seemed out of place with his baby face that grew a wispy beard, whistled his approval. “I am honored to go into this fight with you. We will win, and we will come out unscathed.”

  “Last person back is buying beers,” said Smith. “Because we’re saving the world tonight.”

  I burst into laughter. “There’s no one else I’d rather have at my back than all of you.”

  “Good speech,” said Hernandez. “Now, this is the last chance to bow out. No harm, no foul. But once you get in that van, you’re committing to following this through, to whatever end. Remember that. Is anyone stepping down?”

  No one walked away. I tuned out as Jordan gave them a rallying speech. Soon, assassins were striding by me, filling what seemed to be a never-ending line of vehicles. I rode shotgun in a minivan and twisting around in the seat to assess the rest of our passengers. Hernandez and Marin had squeezed into the back row with all of their equipment. Jordan and Mikael were managing in the middle row. Once Voss got into the driver’s seat, we quieted and focused on the road.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  ON THE DARKEST DAY of the year, we, a cabal of world-class assassins, put aside our dignity and crawled through the mud. That mud was the low vegetation and flower gardens that covered the property owned by this damn cult. The sprinkler systems had gone off a scant couple of hours before we arrived, leaving us to slog through the dirt.

  I swore under my breath as my gloves caught on another hiding cactus. The spine cut through the solid, thick leather along my palm. A spike shot through and into my flesh hard enough that the skin had broken. I’d destroyed and was now bleeding on my favorite gloves. Fantastic. My pants leg had just gotten caught in a snarl of roots, tripping me and stranding me in place. I would have hit the ground if it hadn’t been for Jordan. He untangled me and had me on my feet before anyone else could discover that anything was amiss.

  “There’s sand in my mouth,” I muttered.

  Jordan snorted. “You’ll get used to it. We’re almost there.”

  I glanced at the top of the ridge beyond the next hill. Lights as bright as those in a football stadium illuminated the concrete driveway. There were no shadows where we could hide, not twenty of us, at least, not even between the rows of cars that filled the space. I tallied sixteen vehicles on the pavement with room for another ten in the garages.

  Shit. That was a lot more people that I’d been prepared to kill. I wouldn’t have an existential crisis to have over the numbers of people I’d have to murder if I didn’t figure out a way to get my people there.

  In my ear, I heard Fitzpatrick state that our targets had cleared the garage. A few people were prowling the premises although he couldn’t get an exact count. Two other assassins broke off from the group to verify his numbers while the rest of us waited in tense silence. Esai reemerged from his vantage point by a low tree and pointed in the direction of the first garage. He held up two fingers, one for each person with a weapon. I nodded once, and he peeled off with Marin at his side. Her thin frame appeared elfin next to his solid mass of a torso and shoulders. She darted past him and disappeared from our line of vision. Esai swore under his breath and ran after her.

  “You took down both,” Esai complained through the headset when he caught up with the sprite-like woman. “There’s such a thing as leaving fun for others.”

  Marin let out an indifferent grunt as she came around the corner of the largest building and moved toward the other entrances to the property, searching for hiding guards. When neither she nor Esai found anyone, I signaled to the team, and we hoisted ourselves and our gear over the low wall and spread out. Weaving our way through some stunning classic cars, I could see Jordan fighting the urge to stroke the smooth lines of an Aston Martin and the bulky muscles of a Dodge Charger. He shook his head, exhaled, and retrained his gaze on our destination.

  As we passed a fountain that flowed between two staircases, I debated splitting up. The team and I had discussed this ad nauseam the night before, and I still didn’t know what to do. There were two main buildings on the property, the larger home that featured several small villas and a great room that our plans told us dwarfed the driveway. It seemed like the most logical location. But there was a wine cellar built into the smaller dwelling on the north side that would have been perfect for a small sacrifice. Now that I had a better sense of the numbers we were facing, splitting our forces seemed even more unwise. I hated my indecision and the fear nagging at the corner of my mind. But I had to get past it.

  “Fitzpatrick, go with Smith, Ramirez, and Mercer. Once you confirm that the ceremony is not happening at the other location, hightail it back to us and get in position. We’ll wait three minutes for you.”

  He nodded and melted into the night with the other three assassins, leaving us with nothing to do except listen.

  “There has been no movement from the building,” said Mikael from his base back in the van. “The tracker Nicholas carries in his shoe is still on the property. No cars have left or entered the grounds since your arrival. Careful with the west end of the land. It drops off into a cliff if you are unaware of where to find the stairs down to the beach.”

  “Lovely,” I muttered. We’d all memorized the layout of this place. The cliffs near the lower buildings didn’t scare me, not as much as they should have. The small tower that held an even smaller bedroom backed up right onto the cliff’s edge. There was no solid ground beneath those intricate stained-glass windows, just a sheer drop into the battering waves of the Pacific Ocean.

  Jordan’s hand snaked around my waist from behind. He pulled me back against his chest and lowered his lips to my ear. “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing,” I said.

  “I can tell when you’re lying.”

  Right. The tickling in the back of his mind, which was way more developed than my sense of him. I turned off my microphone and leaned closer to him. “Do you ever have a gut feeling things will go wrong?”

  “All the time. Spill it.”

  “We don’t have time for everything. The numbers don’t look good, and I’m not confident in what Nick told us. I’m worried you won’t listen. I don’t want anyone to get hurt.”

  “Problems for lesser people,” said Jordan, his voice harsh. “What happens next is irrelevant to you. The rest of us will take out the bad guys, rescue a few good ones. If it all works out, we’ll spend tomorrow on the beach working on our tans.”

  “Grossly understating the issue.”

  “No, you’re grossly overstating it. This is simple. You were born for one reason: to protect the Balance at this exact moment in history. Whether I listen to you, Nick does what he’s told, or things go as planned, those are no longer your problems. Your only job is to confront Carlo. We are all acceptable losses to help you do what needs to be done.”

  “Not a single loss is acceptable.”

  “Missing the point. You’re worrying about issues that shouldn’t be on your radar because they’re insignificant. The lives of our team members are my concern, not yours.”

  I checked my watch. Fitzpatrick and the others were due back in ten seconds. “What if I can’t do it?”

  “I’m not going to hug and kiss you and tell you it will be fine. You have no choice but to take him out and end this. There are no other options.”

  “No pressure.”

  “You shine under pressure. Or glow. Whatever. You’ve got this.” He hugged me from behind, then let go to look at his watch. “They should be back by now.”

  We flipped on our headsets and microphones again. Our ears were filled with chatter, whispers we hadn’t been able to hear.

  “Blood everywhere,” Fitzpatrick blubbered. “I’ve never seen so much blood. Christ.”

  “This is Voss. Are there any people in the building? Cult members? Victims? Bo
dies?”

  “No. No one. Nothing. They must have left within the last hour because the blood hasn’t dried out yet.”

  Crap.

  I rolled the tension out of my neck. “Get back here now. We’re moving in, so you’ll take up the rear position. Hurry. We’ll need you.”

  “Copy. We’re on our way.”

  ✽ ✽ ✽

  My team headed toward the southernmost building. Most of the bedrooms were in that wing of the home as was an extended great room with beautiful views of the ocean. It seemed like a powerful enough place to hold a ceremony, not that there were many obvious options left. We trudged across the grass, our rubber soles sure and quiet on the saturated ground. The downward slope toward the cliffs should have scared me, given my weak swimming skills, but all I could think about was walking out, done and ready to go home.

  Ahead of us lay the largest of the property’s edifices, the one that could have been a small mansion. At my signal, the team split up, some climbing up onto the roof and scampering across while others snaked their way to the far side of the building. Jordan, Carter, Esai, and I slowed and took our positions, ready to breach the northernmost entrances at my signal.

  My view was terrible. Since the house was built on a sloping hill, we were above the roof and could only see slivers of the house inside. Frustrated, I gestured for the others to hold back. A trellis offered a way down to those great room windows. I scaled it down to the side of the uppermost window. Much better. From my perch, I spotted Nicholas standing in the farthest corner from me. He looked like a shadow of himself. Even wearing one of their stupid mud-brown hooded robes, I could see his shaking hands and hollowed out cheeks. There was a bruise darkening his left cheekbone. He stood awkwardly, favoring his left leg. They’d hurt him. Worse, he hadn’t been able to heal himself.

  Things just got real. I’d been prepared for minimal engagement. The battle against the end of the world didn’t need to be messy; it needed to be over. I would have been content with a few well-placed bullets. Seeing what they’d done to Nicholas, however, negated that reality. I was bloodthirsty. I could taste it on my tongue. I had plans for the ones who’d hurt him. They’d suffer the most. But those who stood by and hadn’t helped him would also pay. Then I’d go after everyone else. I scuttled down the trellis to the ground and signaled for the guys to join me. Our vantage point was better, but we still had to find an entry point.