by Tessa Cole
My trembling grew stronger, making my teeth chatter as I fought to keep my jaw locked.
“Marcus, you have to kill it,” I gasped.
“I’m not killing you.”
“Please.” The warring commands ripped deeper, tearing into my soul, and then the fire from the archnephilim’s brand exploded again, consuming Jacob’s ice and the buzz.
I staggered to my feet, my attention locked on the archnephilim, and I couldn’t look away as if I were a passenger in my own body.
Marcus barked my name, and Jacob commanded me to stop again, but his ice didn’t blast through the archnephilim’s fire and I heaved forward one step… two steps.
Someone swore. I didn’t know who.
The archnephilim howled with pleasure, his satisfaction oozing inky darkness into the flames within me. My stomach heaved. He didn’t have to pour a tentacle down my throat any more to control me. He was already inside me, ripping into my soul.
A sob tightened my throat and my eyes burned.
“Gideon, I can stop him,” I said, but my words were a gasp, I wasn’t even sure if they came out, and I couldn’t look to see if Gideon was still locked in shock, holding Zella.
A tentacle swept toward me and out of the corner of my eye, Kol rushed forward and tackled me. We crashed to the floor, sliding into the side of a knocked-over table.
Thank God.
The archnephilim surged toward us, his tentacles tossed the table aside, and a massive tentacle grabbed for me. Kol seized the back of my shirt and wrenched me out of reach while Marcus tore through the tentacle with his claws. My body jerked, trying to break free from Kol’s grip and stand.
The tentacle reformed and Marcus tore through that one, too, his lips curled in a snarl revealing his wolf’s teeth. He swiped as the tentacle reformed again, and another one seized his leg. It jerked him off his feet and slammed him against the rock wall, then down onto the stairs.
I screamed. Blood rushed onto the steps around his head and he lay still, too still.
I heaved in Kol’s grip, but I wasn’t sure if it was to run to the archnephilim or Marcus. He was hurt because of me. Again. And this time I might have killed him.
A sob broke free. Please don’t let him be dead. Please, God. If someone was supposed to die, it should have been me. Me. No one else. And certainly not Marcus.
“Gideon.” This had to end now. He had to blast divine light into the archnephilim’s brand and stop this. “Please, I can stop him.”
Marcus moaned and his eyes fluttered open.
Relief flooded me, but the archnephilim surged toward him and a flurry of tentacles swarmed around the rock wall.
I screamed for him to get up, get out of the way, for Jacob, for anyone, to help him, but the archnephilim was too fast. He yanked the wall down, the stones crashing onto Marcus. Gideon dove out of the way, dragging Zella’s body with him, and Jacob wrenched to the side, narrowly dodging another block.
“Marcus!” I twisted harder against Kol’s grip. His hold slipped, and I scrambled to my feet and headed toward the archnephilim. Shit. No.
Kol snagged my shirt again, yanking me off my feet. My butt hit the floor, the impact jarring up my spine and making my teeth snap. The force sliced through some of the archnephilim’s power and I seized control of my muscles and fought to stay with Kol. I wanted to go to Marcus, somehow find the strength to heave those stones away and save him, but there was no guarantee that if I got free, I’d head to him. All I could see beneath the pile on top of him that now blocked the entrance to the cafeteria was his arm and half of his head. His eyes were closed and I couldn’t tell if he was breathing.
“Essie,” the archnephilim said, and his fire consumed all but the smallest voice screaming about Marcus.
My body wrenched to face Kol, twisting my shirt in his grip and using that hold to slip out of it, leaving me in my sports bra, then stood. Kol seized my arm and jerked me close, capturing me in a bear hug.
“Keep her away,” Gideon yelled at Kol, his gaze filled with an icy fury, and with a scream, he charged at the archnephilim, his sword of light forming in his hand as he ran.
The archnephilim tossed another table at Gideon. He sliced it in half with his sword, without losing stride, and swung at the middle of the archnephilim’s form. The blade sank into the archnephilim’s smoke and jerked to a stop. The smoke burst apart, revealing the archnephilim in his angel form, blocking Gideon’s blade with one made of darkness.
“Your mate makes me stronger than you,” the archnephilim said with a sneer.
“And you killed her.” Gideon leaned in, his blade grinding against the archnephilim’s until they were hilt to hilt.
“Not yet.”
My body wrenched against Kol’s grip but he held tight.
Jacob grabbed Kol’s daggers, discarded on the floor by our feet, and lunged at the archnephilim. The archnephilim shoved Gideon’s blade from his and blocked Jacob’s attack, then swung back at Gideon before he could strike. Gideon blocked the attack and Jacob jabbed at the archnephilim’s torso, but a tentacle seized Jacob’s wrist and wrenched the blow off target.
More tentacles swept from the archnephilim, like extra arms, working in conjunction with his sword strikes, yanking at wrists and ankles, forcing the guys to slice at the tentacles before they could strike his body.
I twisted and heaved against Kol, my mind screaming to go to the archnephilim and not to go, my insides burning and buzzing.
Gideon sliced through two tentacles and twisted his attack, slipping it past the archnephilim’s blade. His sword of divine light sliced into the archnephilim’s side, drawing a yell. The tentacles dipped and Jacob leaped close, jabbing both daggers into the archnephilim’s other side.
The archnephilim howled and the agony of his brand burned hotter.
“Essie!” he roared and power, not just fire, exploded under my skin, fiery, dark, consuming. Divine light blazed from my hands without me summoning it, more powerful than anything I’d ever manifested before, and my body slapped my palms against Kol’s thighs.
He screamed. His grip on me loosened and I wrenched free, but instead of rushing to the archnephilim, my body slammed a blast of divine light into Kol’s chest, making him stagger, then grabbed his head between my hands and shot another searing blast into his face.
Time slowed and bile burned my throat at what I’d just done.
Kol screamed with heartrending agony, his face and neck horribly burned and bleeding, his skin blackened and red, his features almost unrecognizable, his eyes barely open, unfocused. He wrenched back, but his legs, also with bleeding burns, gave out and he dropped to the floor.
Get up. Please get up.
Blood oozed from his chest, his T-shirt seared away, and he clutched his head, his body shuddering, wracked with pain, his breath shallow and desperate.
My body jerked toward him, divine light blazing from my palms again, and my mind screamed. Take control. Stop this. Save him. One more blast and I could kill him. I’d already—
My throat tightened. God, I’d already horribly disfigured him, probably blinded him. I couldn’t. Please, God, don’t let me.
The archnephilim’s power made my hand rise.
No.
I wouldn’t. I. Would. Not.
I wrenched my hand even higher and sent the divine light into the ceiling, the blast ripping through the ceiling tiles and showering the bits down on me.
Surprise and fear swept cold around and through me. The archnephilim hadn’t expected me to resist him. Bully for me. Except I had no idea if I could do it again.
“Enough,” the archnephilim growled. “Essie.”
My body started to step toward him. I wrenched my foot back. “No.”
“Essie.”
His fire squeezed tighter around my heart and I trembled with the effort to stay put.
“I said no.”
Jacob rammed one of Kol’s daggers into the archnephilim’s back. Gideon swept his swo
rd at the archnephilim’s legs, and the archnephilim exploded into his wraith form of writhing smoke. He whipped a tentacle at Gideon, who sliced it in half, then surged toward Jacob.
Jacob sliced at the archnephilim, his hands a whirl of movement, but the archnephilim’s flurry of tentacles slashed and twisted, and one shot past Jacob’s guard and slammed into his body. He staggered, just for a second, but it was enough for the archnephilim to ram a massive tentacle through his chest.
The vampire screamed and the archnephilim tossed him at Gideon, who half caught him and half slowed his fall — his sword vanishing between one second and the next. Jacob sagged against Gideon, as lifeless as Zella had been. Gideon let him slide to the floor and leaped at the archnephilim, his sword reforming.
The archnephilim sent a barrage of tentacles at Gideon, jabbing and slicing into him. Nothing cut deep enough to stop him, but he was starting to slow down. Blood splattered the cafeteria floor, making the footing slick, sweat glistened on his face, and his breath was ragged.
He twisted, dodging a tentacle, took another one in his right shoulder, and lunged, driving his sword in the center of the archnephilim’s form.
The archnephilim howled again and his fire within me shuddered, weakening, and I seized control of my body. I yelled the light strike spell and sent a blast of divine light at him, not nearly as powerful as what I’d hit Kol with, but it didn’t matter. I had to do any little thing I could to help Gideon. The blast slammed into the archnephilim, drawing a grunt of pain.
His fire flickered, and for a moment he had control of me again, but I forced him out with another yell of the spell and sent another blast at him while Gideon sliced a huge chunk out of his smoke.
The archnephilim roared and a massive barrage of thin, spear-like tentacles shot toward Gideon.
Gideon wrenched his sword up, slicing through four or five, but seven more impaled him, drawing a scream and jerking him off his feet. He swept his sword down to cut the smoke impaling him, but the archnephilim surged around him, completely covering him.
The archnephilim’s form writhed, the edges tearing free, forming and reforming as if caught in a ferocious wind. A hint of light sliced out of the top, and Gideon’s head emerged from the smoke. He gasped a desperate breath and heaved against the archnephilim’s grip.
I shot another blast of divine light at the archnephilim, but this one was weaker than all the others. I was running out of juice. Still, it hit him and his inky fire within me shuddered, weakening even more.
All I could hope was that I could find another blast within me and that it would be enough for Gideon to break free. I yelled the spell again, using the cry to strengthen my will against the archnephilim’s fire and the buzz within me, but the archnephilim surged back and crashed through the bank of windows at the back of the cafeteria.
I scrambled after them, everything within me now screaming that I couldn’t let him take Gideon, couldn’t let him die. Energy like sizzling electricity raced up my right arm from Gideon’s brand and light gathered in my palms, stronger than my last few blasts.
The archnephilim swept to the end of the small patio enclosed by the buildings behind the Joined Parliament Operations Building.
I let a blast fly. It sliced through the archnephilim, nicking Gideon’s shoulder and drawing a scream of pain, and erupted out of the back of the archnephilim’s smoke.
“Do that again,” the archnephilim sneered, a hint of his fire making my body twitch. “Next time I’ll make sure you hit your mate.”
“He’d be willing to make the sacrifice,” I said, fighting his power and concentrating on Gideon’s electricity to strengthen my will.
“But are you?”
The archnephilim’s smoke curled away from Gideon’s head, revealing the angel twisting and heaving to break free. Smoke poured down his nose and throat, and he gasped and coughed, desperate for air. Hints of divine light sliced through the darkness, but were quickly devoured.
“If I just squeeze, he’ll be dead.”
“Go ahead and squeeze.” My pulse pounded, fear clutching my chest. I was going to kill Gideon, my mate, the mate who’d hate me the moment he knew the truth about me, and every cell in my body howled that I had to save him.
If he died, the archnephilim would still be allowed to slaughter supers.
Really. That was the only reason I had to save him.
The archnephilim’s smoke contracted around Gideon, making him moan in pain.
I flinched and jerked forward a step.
“Are you sure?” he said with a dark laugh.
No. Not at all. Please, don’t.
“I’m in your head. I know what you’re feeling.”
A flicker of divine light burst from the middle of the archnephilim. He shuddered, physically and in my head, weakening for a moment, and his smoke peeled farther away from Gideon’s head. Then the archnephilim regained strength and twisted a tentacle around Gideon’s neck and squeezed, drawing another strangled moan from Gideon.
“Give yourself to me,” the archnephilim said.
Gideon’s pale eyes, bright with angel glow, locked on me. I could see his desperation and feel it in the brand. If I gave in, the archnephilim would win.
Black misty angel wings pulled out of the archnephilim’s smoke and he rose a few feet off the ground.
“Give yourself to me and I’ll let your mate live.”
Confusion flickered over Gideon’s expression. His attention dipped to my arm then shot back to my gaze, his eyes now filled with realization and horror.
“Tick tock, tick tock.”
Gideon’s struggles grew desperate. He thrashed against the smoke, and shot feeble blasts of divine light from his palms. The archnephilim’s form shuddered, weakening even more.
With a snarl he swept into the air and bolted away. “You have one hour. You know where to find me.” The image of a warehouse and the knowledge of its location flashed in my mind. “Come alone.”
Chapter 18
I raced to the edge of the patio, fear ripping into my soul, tearing at my heart. “Come back. I’ll trade.”
“Come alone,” the archnephilim said in my head. “I see anyone else and your mate dies. Slowly.”
“You kill him and I die. I die and you die.”
The archnephilim laughed. “Your essence isn’t strong enough to shatter mine, but his is definitely strong enough to shatter yours.”
Pain bled through the electricity of Gideon’s brand and I gasped for breath. I couldn’t let him die. It didn’t make sense. I didn’t know him, didn’t love him, and we weren’t anything to each other, but the bond between us twisted deep within me.
I clenched my jaw and fought to draw a breath deeper than a shallow gasp. I needed to think, but with the archnephilim’s fire gone, the buzz had taken over, screaming through me and making it hard to focus. Rushing off without a plan would get both of us killed. I needed a way to make sure Gideon lived—
My thoughts stuttered.
Jacob. Kol. Marcus.
I scrambled back into the cafeteria. The massive rocks from the wall still crushed Marcus, Jacob lay, his eyes closed, in an alarmingly large pool of blood, and Kol lay a few feet away, drawing ragged gasps that were coming too far apart.
I didn’t know if Marcus was alive—
My chest tightened at the thought. But if he was, I wasn’t strong enough to uncover him. I needed Jacob, probably Kol as well.
Vampires could take deadly blows and lose massive amounts of blood and still live. So long as he had his heart and his head, I could save him. He just needed blood.
I glanced at the shattered fridge, where the blood had been stored. There was no guarantee any of the blood bags survived, and if I wanted to help Kol — who’d been magically depleted before the fight had even begun and was probably unable to heal himself — my best bet was to let Jacob bite me. I already knew the sexual euphoria that came with a vampire feeding was strong, and if rumor was true, it would be
even stronger now that he’d claimed me. I just hoped it was enough to help Kol if I was only holding his hand.
That, and I had to hope that Jacob would break free of the feeding frenzy that came with such a serious injury and come to his senses before he killed me. Of course, if the archnephilim had completely destroyed his heart, there would be no coming back from that, but I couldn’t think about that possibility because I didn’t have a plan B.
I grabbed the closest of Kol’s daggers, set it on Jacob’s chest — because I needed both hands to move him — and hauled him to Kol’s side. Then I dropped between them, praying that this would work.
Before I could lose my nerve, I sliced the dagger against my forearm. The blade was sharper than I expected and cut deep. Blood rushed from the wound and I pressed it to Jacob’s parted lips.
My pulse pounded, but Jacob didn’t move, didn’t even draw breath.
Blood leaked over his lips and oozed down his cheeks, and the buzz set my nerves on edge, making me tremble.
“Come on.” I pressed my arm harder against his lips. “Please.” This had to work. It had to. If it didn’t, I didn’t know if I’d be able to help Kol, not with his face — and God, his hands, too — so badly burned.
Then Jacob snarled, his eyes still closed. He seized my arm in a vise-like grip and bit hard, tearing at my flesh. I screamed and jerked, my body instinctually trying to stop the pain, but he held tight and sucked, the pain excruciating.
A whimper escaped my clenched jaw, but I had to keep going. Even if the sexual euphoria didn’t come and I couldn’t help Kol, Jacob might still be able to uncover Marcus.
Please, God, let him be alive.
Jacob’s teeth dug deeper, and I sobbed. Tears leaked from my eyes, the agony more than I could bear. I had made a mistake. A horrible mistake. He wasn’t going to come to his senses before he killed me and if I died, the archnephilim was guaranteed to kill Gideon.
