Mortal Obligation

by Nichole Chase

Page 26

 

  Another knife appeared in her hand but he knocked it aside and continued to squeeze her cheeks in an attempt to get her to open her mouth. Melanie was closest, and with speed that only Bryce could have matched, she stabbed Tristan with her own blade. He dropped Juliette and reappeared near the rest of his group a few yards away.

  “That stings,” he complained and motioned to the oldest woman in his group. She grabbed the knife with one hand and yanked it out of his back. She looked at it for a moment and then casually flung it at their group. It sailed through the air and for a moment everyone seemed to be stunned. Paden managed to snatch it out of the air inches from Ree’s face before throwing it right back.

  The Dark Ones launched themselves forward with growls that echoed off of the tombstones and trees.

  “No! She is mine!” Tristan roared at the woman who had thrown the knife. In a moment of clarity, Ree watched as the boy that had once been her brother grabbed the woman’s face and twisted savagely. With a massive yank Tristan removed her head from her shoulders. Then there was no more time to think. Paden was fighting two Dark Ones while the rest did their best to keep any from reaching Ree. Paden moved his hands faster than she could keep up with, only the flash of his silver dagger announced where he had struck out.

  Just as she thought she could be helping, a whistling sound filled her ears and she realized what was happening just before she hit the ground several feet away. Blinding pain stabbed through Ree’s body as her head hit a tombstone and a horrible ringing filled her ears. She scuttled up to the monument and tried to stand up, but dizziness sent her crashing back to her knees. Something slammed into her back, pushing her face-down to the ground. The muted sounds of fighting came from behind her and she struggled to get away from whoever was battling on top of her legs. Pulling herself along the ground, she brushed desperately at the blood dripping into her eyes. Her fingers touched something soft, but blackness was starting to creep into her vision and she had to blink several times before she could see what it was.

  Weylin was lying face down with blood covering his face, head and neck. Gasping in fear, she fought to control her breathing so she didn’t pass out, and crawled toward his neck so she could check for his pulse. For a moment she couldn’t find it and her heart split, but then the soft beating made itself known under her fingers. She pulled him into her lap and tried to check his wounds. A deep gash flayed his neck open where one of the Dark Ones had bitten him, and part of his ear was missing. Carefully, she tried to pinch the wound shut and apply pressure to slow the bleeding. With horror she realized he had been the one that had pushed her out of the way. He had saved her from this fate.

  Lightning flared across the cemetery, blinding Ree for just a moment and she tried to pull Weylin with her further away from the fighting. The Dark Ones all snarled at the brightness, but she couldn’t see what had caused that bright light.

  “Ree! Where are you?” Roland and Sophie had finally shown up. “Damn it Ree, answer me!” His voice held a frantic edge she could hear over the sounds of battle.

  She wanted to let him know she was alive, but the world was starting to spin. She touched her forehead and realized there was a great deal of blood running down her face. “Here,” she whispered and hoped they would hear. She tried reaching for the power, but she couldn’t find it. Maybe if she put a shield around her and Weylin the others would be able to stop worrying about her and take care of themselves, but it was useless. She didn’t have the energy to do anything; she couldn’t even touch the energy in the plant life around her.

  The tombstone she was hiding behind crumbled as someone was thrown into it. Peering through the rubble, she found Paden locked in combat with Tristan. It was terrifying to witness the savagery her brother was capable of, and Paden was obviously losing. There was blood flowing down one of his arms, and he was limping slightly on his left leg. The pain and frustration Paden was feeling had been transformed into blind rage, but Tristan was so fast Paden could barely keep up. As she watched she realized that draining Claire had given Tristan a definite edge. Her untapped power was aiding his abilities. He sent Paden sprawling with a roundhouse kick and laughed as his longtime friend spit dirt out of his mouth.

  A dark blur of leather and denim joined the fight. Roland was fast and had a very different fighting style, all kicks and punches. At first Tristan seemed very confused by the fact that another Dark One was set against him. But then he began to bait Roland with snide jokes and insults. Roland never responded, instead he dragged the tip of a sword across Tristan’s face, barely missing the younger Dark One’s throat. Enraged, Tristan’s anger seemed to make him even faster, but he still wasn’t capable of holding off both Roland and Paden.

  With Roland in the fray, they were able to make progress and push Tristan farther from where Ree was hiding. Sophie was somewhere Ree couldn’t see, but she felt a fuzzy sense of the power the Guardian was using. A constant warm feeling radiated from the Immortal with short jerks of power that meant she was attempting to spear a Dark One.

  A bright light lit the area again, and Ree blinked her eyes in pain. Ducking her head made her vision blur and her stomach heaved. She leaned away from Weylin’s limp form, and her stomach lost all of the food she had eaten earlier. Eventually there was nothing left and dry heaves racked her body until tears ran down her cheeks. Weylin moaned and she realized she was pressing on his wounds. She tried to spit the terrible taste out of her mouth.

  “Ree?” Paden’s voice was very close to her and warm hands traveled over her head and shoulders. “Are you okay, Ree?”

  “I’m okay, but Weylin needs help. ” Her voice was dull, and she could barely raise it over a whisper.

  “Hurry, Paden,” Roland hollered.

  “We have to go, Ree. Hold on,” Paden said. Someone took Weylin out of her lap and Paden lifted her into his arms. She groaned as the world spun and he pressed her head against his chest. “Please don’t leave me, Ree. Please don’t. ”

  Just before she blacked out she felt his lips on her forehead while he mumbled reassurances.

  Chapter 36

  Groaning, Ree rolled over on the bed and touched her head. There was a very gentle light coming from the corner and once her eyes adjusted she could just make out Sophie sitting in a chair, holding a book on her lap.

  “Don’t make any quick moves. Paden healed your head, but we still don’t know the extent of his ability and you may still have a concussion. ” Closing the book, she leaned back in her chair and looked at Ree with sad eyes. “I’m so sorry I wasn’t there to help your friend. ”

  Tears poured out of Ree’s eyes as she remembered Claire’s body lying on the ground, surrounded by those monsters. Her brother’s face, twisted with evil laughter and covered in her friend’s blood, seemed to be printed on the back of her eyelids. Tristan, her dead brother, was the Dark One she would have to fight and kill. Her heart just couldn’t understand it. Part of her had been thrilled to see her brother standing there, but then the horror of what he had just done tore through her like hot steel. How could she look at her parents knowing Tristan was walking the streets of Savannah every night, hunting people as if they were animals? For that matter, how could she look at her friends, or Paden’s family? Her brother had murdered the baby of their family. A girl so full of life and love she lit up any room she occupied.

  Her hands twisted in the blanket as she stared at the ceiling, tears dripping down her face. She wasn’t in her room on the island and the need to know where she was helped her gain control of her emotions. She wiped her nose on the sleeve of her shirt and dried her face with the edge of the sheet.

  “Where are we?” Her voice broke on the last word, rough from the tears she was holding back.

  “Above the shop. There is a two-bedroom apartment up here I keep for emergencies. ” Sophie made no move to come closer to Ree, so she sat up slowly and turned to face the Guardian. r />
  “You knew. ” Ree’s voice was oddly calm as she made the accusation and was rewarded when the other woman nodded. “You knew Tristan was the person I was going to have to fight. ”

  “I suspected as much, but there was no proof. ” Ree looked at her and the anger in her chest started to well up and out.

  “You suspected my brother had been turned into a Dark One, the Dark One, the one that would be pitted against me in mortal battle, but you didn’t think you should tell me it was a possibility? When were you going to tell me, Sophie? When we received an invitation to come fight?” She stood up, anger filling each word until she was shouting. Sophie sat there calmly with her hands folded over the book in her lap and offered no response. With no outlet for all of the rage running through her, Ree grabbed the lamp off of the table next to the bed and threw it across the room. The stained glass of the Tiffany lamp shattered and rained down on the floor. Still seething, she picked up the little table and it, too, hit the opposite wall.

  “Everything okay in there?” Paden tapped on the door.

  “We’re fine,” Sophie responded.

  Ree growled and walked over to the door and snatched it open. Paden stumbled into the room and looked at her with a little fear in his eyes.

  “Did you know? Did you know my brother was a Dark One?” It wasn’t a fair question because she remembered the look on his face when he had seen Tristan holding Claire.

  “No, Ree. I didn’t know. ” Quietly he closed the door and leaned against it. “None of us knew. ”

  “She did. ” Ree flung her hand in Sophie’s direction. “She suspected Tristan had been turned. Holy shit, I don’t even know how they make Dark Ones! No one tells me a damn thing!” Her head was starting to throb again but she was too angry to stop now. “Did Roland know, too? I want to be pissed at all of the appropriate people. ” She pinned Sophie with her gaze.

  “You would have to ask him yourself, but the last time either of us saw Tristan he was lying dead in a coffin. We waited to see if he would rise, but became convinced he would not. I have no idea what they did different, but he didn’t show any signs of coming back. We knew he had been spending time with Dark Ones, but couldn’t be sure of their influence over him. I never trusted his death completely, but I had no proof that it was anything other than a terrible accident. ” Sophie stood and set the book down in the chair. Her face was a work of sorrow and understanding. “I really am sorry, Ree. When you are ready to talk I will answer every question I am able to. ” She left, pulling the door closed behind her.

  Ree sat down on the bed next to Paden and covered her face with her hands. The bed shifted as he moved closer. His callused fingers pulled her hands away from her face. Gently, he brushed the tears from her face and pulled her into his arms. Her control disappeared when his arms wrapped tightly around her and his face buried in her hair. Her sobs were uncontrollable, thick and loud. So much had happened in the last week, so much had changed. The whole world had been turned upside down and she was trying to keep up with the shift. Fear for her friends and her family, pain for what her brother had become seemed to beat at her heart. Grief for Claire and Paden’s family intertwined with the guilt Ree felt at her death.

  Taking a mighty sniff after a very long time, she finally felt more in control of herself. The tears had helped to cleanse some of the pain that was clutching her heart. Paden had eventually laid her down on the bed, but when he had tried to move away she had yanked him down with her. She didn’t want to be alone with so much pain.

  Tucked against his side with her head resting on his shoulder she toyed with a button on his shirt a little embarrassed by her outburst. “I’m sorry. ” Her voice was thick and worn out.

  “Why are you sorry? You haven’t done anything wrong. ”

  “I got snot all over your shirt. ”

  He laughed and his arm tightened around her for a moment. “It’ll wash out. ”

  “How is everyone else? Is Weylin okay?” She tilted her head up toward him and waited for his response. There was a brief hesitation before he answered and fear tightened her stomach.

  “He’s fine, Ree. I don’t know much about what I’m doing when I heal, and his ear was gone. There was nothing I could do about it. ”

  “He’s missing an ear?” Ree’s voice squeaked. She remembered the ragged edges poking out of his bloody hair and squeezed her eyes shut. “Will he be okay?”

  “Yeah, he isn’t saying much so we left him in the other room to try and get some sleep. ” Ree frowned and decided to talk to Weylin as soon as he woke up. She owed him a giant bit of gratitude and hoped he could forgive her for getting him into this mess. “What about the others?”

  “They’re fine. We all came back with some cuts and bruises, but you and Weylin were the worst. We don’t heal well when we’re bitten by Dark Ones. It won’t kill us, but it seems to interfere with our Immortal gifts. The biggest thing was the lecture we got once we were sure you two were going to be fine. ” Grimacing he wiggled on the bed in discomfort.

  “What were we supposed to do? Not try to save Claire?” Shaking her head against his chest, she moved so she was more comfortable. Having him hold her was the best balm she could have imagined. “Where were they, anyway? They shouldn’t have just left us like that!”

  “Roland ran into more trouble when getting John and his family to their house. It looks like the Dark Ones have started hunting any Immortal lines, or families that have a little something extra in their genes. ” His voice was very serious, and Ree could feel the anger bubbling just under his calm exterior. She snuggled closer and wrapped her arm over his chest. “Roland texted Sophie to let her know his suspicions and she went to make sure that as many of our people were as secure as she could manage. ”

  “She thought we would be safe in the pub because she had placed protection spells there,” Ree told him.

  “We would have been safe if we hadn’t left. ” His voice was tired.

  “We had to, Paden. It’s why we’re here, doing all of this. We had to try and save Claire. ” She looked up at him. “I’m so sorry, Pay. I loved Claire too. ”

  His chest shook with his effort to not cry. Neither of them said anything for a few minutes while he tried to regain control of himself. Ree realized they still hadn’t spoken about Tristan and she had no idea where to start. That wound went so deep and was so painful she wasn’t sure she could actually speak about it.

  Finally she broke the silence and asked, “What do I tell my parents? What if they go to the grocery store one night and run into Tristan?”