I didn’t stick around to make sure they followed through because a whiff of familiar fear reached me then. It only took one glance to see which direction it was coming from, and then I was off, my feet pounding the pavement as my own fear ramped up.
The plan had always been reckless, but it had been the only way to break the back of a place already so organized and populated. Of course, there would be injuries and casualties, but I was banking on the biggest outcome being chaos. The appearance of another fear-spreading monster would put an end to my hope of a low body count.
A roar rose from near the center of the ring, so great and terrible that it could only be from the monster. Unfortunately, it was coming from near the same location I was supposed to sync up with Dee, near the tall glass tower at the center of the compound. My fear ratcheted up, and it had nothing to do with the scent of the wind.
Strength flooded my limbs as I launched myself forward with great leaping bounds. The streets were blessedly empty, but a long building filled with low mooing sent a shiver down my spine. Those voices sounded far too similar to what we’d found in Egypt. If that had been all I found, it would have been enough, but I’d found evidence of dozens of horrifying experiments.
There was no time to stop and help the poor creatures trapped in cages and strapped to exam tables, nor the women and men crucified against walls as strangely colored concoctions filled their veins. But their piteous cries followed me into the heart of the compound, adding fuel to the fire of my anger.
Fires raged all around, and the sky was rapidly filling with black smoke. Dense clouds swirled and billowed all around the outer ring now, the red glow of their fires creeping ever closer toward the center.
A short leap took me to the roof of a short building, and I got an angle in the inner ring. There were large apartment and office buildings, but the central area was dominated by a massive glass tower that was surrounded by sculpted gardens and a large square of basketball courts.
The first thing I noticed was not one, but two bulbous shapes had a small silver-haired woman pinned against one of the apartment buildings while a helicopter got up to speed on the basketball courts. A small crew of guards stood around the helicopter, nervously handling their machine guns as they scanned their surroundings.
I was spotted as I leapt from the roof to the top of a wall, then down to the street below, Dust kicked up around my feet as the men began taking aim. Something hit me in the chest, like a fist smashing me backward out of nowhere, and instead of pain, my anger flared white-hot.
If the beast within had had his way, I’d have drawn the sword on my back and raced over to cut each and every one of them down. The need clawed at my insides, but I pushed it down, sublimating the baser instincts as I drew the pistols on either hip.
The world narrowed down to tight focus as I blocked out everything else but the nine men scrambling around the helicopter to train their rifles on me. The two who’d spotted me and gotten shots off dropped with my first two rounds, and the next two with their machine guns sighted were the next to receive hollow-tipped bullets through the skull.
I leapt through hedges and ran across the loose gravel filling the gardens as I angled my way toward Donatella. Ignoring the flash of muzzle fire as my legs churned beneath me, I didn’t bother sighting as I dropped the guards one at a time, relying more on feel. As the last man dropped and I was about to turn on the fear-exuding monsters, four figures came racing out of the glass building.
Two carried heavy briefcases while two others flashed blades. The shock of red hair and the tall, pasty-faced figure could only be one man, and it took all of my willpower to keep running into the cloud of fear and not straight at Matthew and his companions.
“Fall back!”
Dee’s face was sheeted in blood from a nasty cut across her scalp, and one arm hung limp and at an awkward angle. She’d lost her sword somewhere in the fight, but still fought like a whirling dervish one-handed. It took another shout to reach through to the Alpha, and when she noticed me, it nearly got her killed as a large claw came swiping at her head.
The cloud of fear struck me then, and my knees grew weak. One of the creatures spun on me, and I could finally behold its horrific features in full. They had filed the rows upon rows of misaligned teeth into fangs, the tongue within forked like a snake and ever moving. The nose was flat against the face, and thick black hairs swayed from bulging warts. The eyes were as large as dinner plates, oddly flat, and filled with a mindless rage.
Slashing at the thing’s neck, I realized immediately that the blade might be more of a liability in my hands than not as it turned on the monster’s leathery skin, angling back toward me. Releasing the weapon, I ducked a lumbering swing and danced to the side as the jaws chomped the place I’d been standing.
“They’re in here!” Dee shouted, but her words were drowned out by my own quiet curses.
I couldn’t land a solid blow on the eight-foot-tall creature. Though its movements were slow and sluggish compared to mine, the fear kept my muscles loose and it was tireless in its attacks. The helicopter’s blades rose to a high-pitched whirr, and I noticed out of the corner of my eye all four men on board as the aircraft lifted off while Dee fought desperately with her own monster.
I’d just avoided a kick to my midsection and was digging deep to find another scrap of strength when a massive claw landed against my side and smashed me against the concrete. Pain exploded in my skull as it bounced off the ground, and I landed on my side, where I could feel hot blood coursing down.
Spots formed in my vision, big black circles hovering between me and the world, and for half a second I lay there stunned, trying to make sense of what had happened to me. The world went dark as a clawed foot the size of my torso rose above me. The malformed muscles flexed, and my brief life flashed before my eyes as death descended.
“NO.”
The single word staggered the creature back and rocked me where I lay as another aura overwhelmed me. Head clearing, I glanced around, looking for a third or even fourth monster, but found only Dee. The young woman stood straight and tall, her silver hair whipped about her by the winds and an orange glow of fire highlighting her preternatural beauty.
Donatella didn’t exude fear, but indomitability.
The subtle but clear difference was potent. I saw a glorious, silver-haired creature, but whatever the monsters registered, it was too much for their twisted minds to handle. Letting out oddly high-pitched shrieks, the pair turned and fled in the same direction. Their stubby, little legs carrying them with shocking speed as they waddled away like giant, terrifying babies.
“Courtney!” Dee blinked rapidly, the aura of command about her faltering then fading as she rushed over to my side.
“Get your family to safety,” I ground out, already pushing myself to my feet and ignoring the screaming agony in my side.
“What are you going to do? You’re bleeding!”
“I’m going to end this,” I said and turned toward the helicopter as its skids left the ground and it rose into the air.
One of the men in the open side door was pointing at the two monsters running off and raising a long rifle to sight on Dee and me.
“Go!” I shouted, and though I filled my voice with command, it didn’t have nearly the impact her word had, and she hesitated.
Chapter 32
Spying my discarded sword a few feet away, I snatched it up, spun on one heel, and hurled it like a spear. The man with the rifle watched incredulously as the blade flew like an arrow straight for the motor above his head. He was scrambling back and his companions shouting in alarm when the blade shattered against the spinning steel of the motor.
The men laughed in amusement at my failed attack, unaware that it had been a ruse. I’d sprinted after the weapon, knowing it to be a gamble. As the blade shattered and the pilot’s attention was directed up, all of my weight landed on the forward tip of one of the skids.
Like a frisbee falling at an angle, the hel
icopter came right down, and I was forced to throw myself against the fuselage as the rotor blades shattered against the ground into thousands of sharp shards. As it was, my leg got chewed up by several, and I was thrown clear of the wreckage as it crumpled to a stop.
The sound of feet quickly approaching brought me back to awareness, but I breathed a sigh of relief when I scented Dee. I was pushing myself to my feet when a roar of rage rose from within the wreckage.
“FOOLS! YOU SMALL-MINDED FOOLS!”
“Can you—” Dee’s words were cut off as the shriek of steel tearing filled the air.
“Shen!” The pain and hurt in Matthew’s voice was shocking as he rose from the column of black smoke like a redheaded demon.
A small form shifted twenty feet away, and Matthew let out a sob of relief as he ran over. Dee and I watched the man cradle the other man with the pathos one could only hold for a brother or lover, and from the emotions swirling between the two, I was certain they were both.
“Our dream will become reality,” the man sniffed, the broken body of his dying friend held in his arms. “Master’s perfect world is here, Shen… It’s here!”
“It’s over, Matthew!” I shouted, dragging one leg as I limped over to the man.
“Over?” the man asked in a dangerously quiet voice. “You think your little antidote will stop this?” He waved a hand around at the flames and chaos closing in. “Pandora’s box is open, fool, and there’s no putting the treasures back in. Master Williams was right.”
“Master?” Dee asked, and I was pleased to see nothing of the affection she’d once held for this man in her face or scent, only contempt. “Don’t corrupt my grandfather’s legacy—”
“Corrupt?” Matthew roared, his anger suddenly hot and fierce as he clutched at his dying lover with one arm and waved the other around at the chaotic world around us. “This is Dean’s vision! What is a world with Alphas who don’t lead? How can they guide humanity toward a better and brighter future? When the fools refused to see the wisdom in Shen’s plans…” A racking sob tore through him as he gripped the man even tighter. “We had to act! If we hadn’t, this world would be unlivable in two centuries and humanity gone in three! We gave you a chance!”
“You murdered billions,” I said, unable even now to fully comprehend the loss.
“We could, so we did.” Matthew shrugged as if it were nothing, and from his cold scent, I knew he really didn’t care about the loss of life.
“You’re insane,” Dee said, her expression horrified.
“Look in the mirror, Donatella.” The man smirked, his confidence suddenly back. “Alpha… Beta… all weak words that fail to describe what we are… Powerful.” He rose to his feet on unsteady legs, letting his weakly breathing lover down gently, and stood tall.
“KNEEL.”
The absolute command was similar to what Dee had done with the monsters. But where she’d been indomitable, Matthew’s naked voice of command was colder and harder, missing Dee’s warmth beneath it.
If I hadn’t been walling out the beast within and its impulses, I’d have fallen to my knees and bowed my head in submission right there. The awful power of his control upon my unwilling body and mind was horrifying. Not only because it was directed at me, but because of its potential.
I saw then that ascension and my little trick of walling out the beast within were half steps edging toward the same place. The thing Dee, Matthew, and most certainly Dean Williams before them had discovered was that, at its root, the Enkyos Serum empowered a person to dominate their enemies.
All of this flashed through my head in the second my knees trembled and I fought off the man’s powerful control. I didn’t fall, however, and was able to dodge to the side awkwardly as a silvery curved blade cut at me from behind.
The reason for Matthew’s sudden confidence was clear as two men surged up out of the darkness. The glow of flames and dense black smoke from the downed helicopter added to the lurking shadows, and all I could make out were two outlines as they danced in at me.
One leg was weak and useless. The knee would bend, but it didn’t want to hold any weight, and the pain was excruciating. My arms still worked, and I had one thing neither Alpha facing me did, a desire to live that fueled my limbs with a wild strength.
I also had no clue what I was doing in a fight against two trained men, and this was clear in seconds. Not only were they armed and better trained, but they worked in tandem. The dark-skinned man moved in low, his shorter blade seeking to cut at my injured side while his taller companion harried my left side, forcing me to pivot on the weak leg.
Swordsmanship and hand-to-hand combat might not have been my strengths, but I was aware of my surroundings. Keeping track of Dee and Matthew as they struggled behind me, as well as the pair before me, I managed to edge the pair between me and the wreckage, earning a stab in the shoulder in the process.
Blood coated my sides and one shoe was sloshing with it as they grinned in triumph.
“Go low, Adesh,” the taller man said. “This fucker ends here.”
The shorter man nodded, but before he could attack, I surged forward. When they tried to step back, to brace themselves for the impact, their heels clipped the wreckage. The shorter man went down under me, his screams of pain and anger cutting off sharply as I drove my fist into his neck, crushing the soft tissue and bones within.
The taller man twisted around and got me beneath him. Flames licked at my injured side, but instead of walling the pain out, I drank it in. Drank it all in.
As I did, I felt the certainty settle within me that this was how I was meant to be. As I would rule over my pride, with absolute authority, I would rule this thing beneath me. Reaching into my pocket, I yanked out the vial of antidote and smashed it down into the man’s mouth.
Glass shattered, and I felt the shard tear through his cheeks and grind against the roof of his mouth as I forced it shut. Staring into those terrified Alpha eyes, I felt an indescribable elation. As the fear shifted to panic and his body convulsed, froth forming around his lips, my own smile grew.
A cry of pain drew my attention, and I frowned in annoyance to find Dee fallen to the ground and Matthew standing above her with a steel beam raised in his hands, about to bash her brains in.
“NO.”
The redhead staggered but without missing a beat flung the steel bar at me. It spun through the air so fast that it nearly took my head off, and I had already been moving to duck when he let go.
The shockingly powerful awareness flickered, and I released it with a shudder of revulsion. The shaking body of the dying Alpha beneath me was a shameful reminder of the thing I’d become for a second.
The terrible thing was how desperately I wanted it back. Even knowing how cold and unfeeling I’d been, the power was too addictive.
“YOU WILL DIE.”
Every word hit me like a hammer blow as I struggled to my feet and a part of me wanted to die. The pain clouded out my concentration, not only of my injuries but also a stabbing pain in my heart that I shrugged off.
“DIE!”
The man thundered the command, and I almost fell to my knees again as pain exploded in my chest. Matthew seemed incredulous that I refused to follow his commands, and his rage filled the air with such a rancid taste that I gagged.
“DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE!”
He stalked toward me, every shout hitting my body like a sledgehammer, and I swayed under the assault, refusing to buckle or be bowed. Defiantly, I raised my one good hand and tightened it into a fist.
“No.”
My voice came out croaking and weak, but my arm never wavered. Matthew let out a wordless scream of anger and swung a hammer blow that would have taken my head off had Dee’s arm not reached around and snatched back his head. As she plunged the short dagger from her boot into his neck, I was coated in a spray of the man’s hot blood.
Blinking, I stood there and stared around dumbly, waiting for something else to leap from the
smoke or shadows and attack us. When nothing did, relief, instead of triumph, swept through me and I took in the chaos closing in around us.
“What a fucking mess,” Dee said, glancing around at the destruction we’d wrought.
My mangled leg gave out, and she caught me before I fell. “We need to get you seen to, fast.”
“Pop the smoke,” I said. “And let’s go get your family. I want to be gone from here before the swarm reaches us.”
“Gone where?” she asked, and I knew what she meant. Where could we go in a world turned to chaos? Then I remembered a dream from a couple weeks before.
“We’re done saving the world.” I glanced around at the destruction we’d wrought and shrugged. “Or fucking it up. We’ve earned a rest. I know of this cabin in the woods of Montana… Sounds like a good place to raise a family.”
Dee frowned, looking around us as we made our way to where a small group of women was gathering outside the apartment building the monsters had been guarding.
“We’ll help the world as much as we can,” I said. “But let’s heal those closest to us first… and maybe ourselves too.”
When she met my eyes, I sensed the same troubled thoughts in her head as in mine. The power slumbering within us, and possibly all Alphas, was frightening. Nor could we deny what Matthew had said: Pandora’s box had been opened. Try as much as we might, there might be no hope of putting the genie back in the bottle on this one.
“Momma!” Dee’s excitement when the busty blonde raced ahead of the others and drew near pushed my worries to the back of my mind.
Off in the distance, I spotted a Blackhawk helicopter flying toward us at speed. The attack helicopter kicked up twin swirls of colored smoke, but in the open air beneath its rotors, I saw five figures hanging from the open side doors. When I saw my pride approaching, safe and unharmed, a knot released within and I sagged in relief, the pain suddenly very real as I sagged against Dee.
The helicopter barely held us all, but I managed to cling to consciousness as it rose into the air, Shandra and Annie furiously pressing gauze into my wounds. We landed outside of Shenzhen, at the airport, and while the plane was prepped, I stood and gazed back at the burning circles of fire off in the distance.
New World Alpha: Book Three (A Harem Fantasy) Page 16
