Astrid's Wish (23 page)

Jarrett

Before Ben could reply, Miles and Carter moved into position.

With or without their assistance, they were going to make a run for it.

Klaus moved to the other side, angling his gun toward a turned-over metal table, and laid down a cover of gunfire. Ben shouted for the two men to run, and they did. He looked over his shoulder to see them jump into the open space of the hallway. Relief filled his soul at seeing the men safe. Now they just needed to hold off Lucian’s goons until they got Astrid out of there.

* * * *

The sound of footsteps and whispering met his ears. Astrid got to his feet and stood against the wall by the door. When whoever on the other side opened it, he would be ready for them. He clasped his hands together, ready to bring his combined fist down on the first head to poke through the door.

The knob jiggled, and Astrid’s heartbeat speed up. As the door came open, he brought his hands down with all his might but stopped himself at the last minute when he saw Carter’s wide eyes staring back at him.

“What the hell, Astrid?”

“Carter?” He smiled at his new friend, happy to see him alive. He lunged forward when he saw Miles step out from behind Carter.

Wrapping both men in a hug, he held on tight.

“Air, I need air,” Carter gasped.

He let go and grabbed Miles’s hand. “Something is wrong,” he said in a panic. “I can’t wish for anything. My magic is gone.”

“Settle down. Carter and some of the witches from the council set off a magical bomb that rendered all paranormals powerless. Don’t worry, you’ll get your magic back, but we needed to hit Ivan where it hurts.”

“And there is no better way than taking away his magic,” Carter said with a smile. “We neutered that ass wipe.”

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“Okay.” Miles gave Carter a funny look. “Let’s get out of here.”

Miles held Astrid’s hand as Carter led the way down the hallway.

The gunfire still filled the air, but they continued on. He kept close to Miles as he followed him. They had reached the end, when a man stepped into view.

“Not so fast, son.” Ivan pushed Carter to the floor. When Miles jumped in front of him to protect him, Ivan punched him in the face.

Astrid cried out as Miles fell to the ground.

Looking at his father, then back to where Miles lay crumpled over, he did the only thing he could think of. He screamed.

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Klaus fumbled the rifle in his hand when heard a bloodcurdling scream coming from the direction of where Miles and Carter had gone. Ben had heard it, too, and followed his gaze to the entrance of the hallway. A bad feeling settled in the pit of his stomach.

“Go, we got this.” Garrett waved for them to go.

They waited until Abner gave the signal before he and Ben ran for their lives across the gap between them and the hallway. He and Ben were a lot larger than Miles and Carter and made for a much bigger target. Abner pointed at them, and they took off. They landed hard as they hit the floor. He groaned as he rolled to his side to see both Carter and Miles laid out cold and no sign of Astrid.

“Oh god, no.” Ben scrambled to his feet and rushed to Miles’s side while Klaus checked on Carter. “Baby, wake up. Please wake up.”

Miles’s head lolled from side to side before he opened his eyes.

He tried to sit up, but Ben placed a hand on his shoulder, holding him down. “Ivan has Astrid.”

Klaus jumped to his feet and beat pavement down the hallway. He skidded to a stop when he heard Astrid whimper. Easing around the corner, he looked to see what was going on. Ivan held Astrid by the collar, sneering in his face. Rage sent him tearing across the room.

Ivan turned as he heard him advancing. He pulled Astrid in front of him and placed the blade of the knife in his hand to Astrid’s throat.

A small trickle of blood dripped from the edge. “Not so fast there, Klaus. If you want my son to live, you’ll back off.”

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“You won’t kill him. Astrid means way too much to your cause.”

He waved his hand toward the door. “Or you wouldn’t be going through all this trouble.” It was a gamble. Ivan seemed unstable and desperate and capable of anything at the moment, and he didn’t want Astrid to become a causality of the man’s insanity.

“Klaus,” Astrid cried out. The small action of speaking drove the blade deeper into his neck. He grimaced in pain.

“You don’t get it, do you? Either way, they will come for him. If it’s not me, it will be someone else. I already sacrificed too much to bring this little twerp into the world. He’s mine.” Ivan took the butt of the knife and struck Astrid in the temple, knocking him out. Ivan tossed him to the side, and he fell to the floor with a hard thud.

Klaus moved toward Ivan. The murderous rage Klaus felt fueled his steps. “You’ll be sorry you did that,” he gritted out. With one more worried glance at his mate, he lunged for Ivan.

“So much anger over a half breed,” Ivan said as he jumped out of the way. “He’s barely worth the air he breathes. If we didn’t need him so badly, I’d kill him myself.”

“How can say that?” He swung his fist out, clipping Ivan on the chin. “He’s your fucking son.”

“There’s that righteousness showing through,” Ivan spat, his blood darkening the ground. “Your family thought they were so superior, spouting off about equality and the need to control what is in our nature. Let me tell you something, we are all not equal. Some of us are better.”

Ivan’s punch landed square in his chest. He stumbled back and bent at the waist to get his breath back. Ivan took advantage of his moment of weakness and brought his knee up, connecting it with his nose. Pain surged straight to his brain as blood poured down his hands and he covered his face. He landed hard on the floor.

He put his hand up as Ben tried to come to his aid. “This is my fight. Stay back.” Ben nodded as he herded Miles and Carter behind him.

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“You and the council’s silly ideas,” Ivan remarked as he circled him. “How long did you think you could control us? Some of us liked the way things used to be, liked being able to do what we wanted when we wanted. The council stole away our freedom, and now we’re taking it back.” Ivan dove for him.

Klaus scrambled to his feet, grabbing his head as his vision swam before him. Rubbing his eyes, he squinted to bring Ivan into focus.

The man’s face had shifted to something almost animalistic from his anger. Klaus tried to draw Ivan away from where Astrid lay lifeless on the floor. He walked on unsteady legs toward the far corner of the room, away from the others.

“You’re insane, Ivan.” He blocked Ivan’s punch with is left arm and threw his right fist out, landing it on Ivan’s cheekbone.

“Stupid fool, you of all people know magic can only be contained for so long before it blows up in your face.” Ivan bent down to pick up his discarded knife. “This is your wake-up call. Some of us paranormals are pissed and taking back our lives.”

The sound of a timer beeping caused Klaus to lose his focus on Ivan. Carter had said when his watch went off they would have only seconds before they were all given back their magical abilities. His eyes shifted toward the men in the corner, and Ivan moved on him, running him up against the wall with the knife pointed up under his chin.

“Anything else you want to say before you go and meet your parents?” Ivan dug the tip of the knife into his skin.

* * * *

Astrid came to with Carter hovering over him. He was speaking, but Astrid couldn’t hear what he said. Blinking his eyes open and closed, he got his bearings about him. The faint sounds of fighting had him turning toward the battle going on between Ivan and Klaus.

He lurched forward, but Carter held him back.

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“Astrid, can you hear me?” Carter asked. He gave a slight nod in response. “Astrid, listen to me. Time is running out. We only have minutes before the bomb wears off and everyone is back to normal.”

He nodded again, still not comprehending what Carter said. “We need to take Ivan out before he gets his magic back.”

“But how?” His head shook from side to side as he stared up at Carter.

Carter looked over his shoulder then back to him. “Miles said that if you wish while Klaus has his hands on Ivan, too, you can kill him.”

“What? I’m affected by the bomb, too. I can’t wish for anything,”

he said in panic.

“That’s the tricky part. You have to get close enough to Ivan that when the bomb wears off you can catch him off guard then make your wish.” Carter gave a squeeze to his upper arm. “Easy enough, right?”

“But how will I know when that is?”

“When the alarm on my watch goes off you’ll have only seconds before we all turn back to normal.” Carter shrugged. “At least normal for a paranormal.”

Get close enough without being noticed?
He didn’t think it would be possible, but he had to try. A loud bang came from the corner his mate and father fought in. His heart nearly stopped at the sight of Ivan pinning Klaus to the wall with a knife at his throat.

Pulling himself to his feet, he dug deep for courage he didn’t know he had. He tiptoed lightly up behind Ivan, listening to the harsh words his father directed at his mate.

“Anything else you want to say before you go and meet your parents?”

At Ivan’s threat, what trepidation he did have faded away. That scared, frightened child begging for death vanished, and in his place stood a man. A man ready to seek vengeance for the years of abuse suffered from the negligence of his very own father.

“No, but I do,” he said sharply. At the loud buzzing sound coming from Carter’s watch, he dug his fingers into Ivan’s upper arms. He
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could feel Ivan’s body tense under his fingertips, and the knife slipped from his grasp. He made eye contact with Klaus. “Grab on.”

Klaus’s brow drew together in confusion, and Astrid motioned with his chin to his hands. Once Klaus had a hold of Ivan, he leaned up next to his father’s ear.

“I hope there is a special place in hell reserved for you where you receive the same treatment I did for the past hundred years of my life.” He spat the words out with such force spit landed on Ivan’s face.

“I wish you were dead.”

Ivan’s body began to shake, and he let go. Klaus slid out from in front of Ivan and grabbed Astrid around the waist and backed away from the witch.

“What have you done?” Ivan asked as he slowly turned to face them.

Bursts of light shot through Ivan’s body, and he glowed in the darkness. His body contorted into positions that the body wasn’t capable of. The sound of bone cracking echoed off the walls. Ivan’s mouth opened, but no sound came out. In the next instance he burst into ash, falling into a pile on the ground.

Astrid stood there, numb to the fact he just watched his only parent die, by his own hand, and felt nothing. The man never showed him one ounce of love, so it was only fitting. He had no delusions of ever being a family with the man who sired him. Ivan was dead, and he couldn’t be happier. He’d threatened his lover and his family.

Killing Ivan was the only way to save them all.

“Angel, are you okay?” Klaus asked, running his hands over his body, searching for injuries.

Astrid grabbed Klaus’s hands, stilling his movements. “I’m fine, never felt better.” He smiled up at the man who he loved more than life itself because without Klaus, life wasn’t worth living.

Klaus returned his smile. His gaze dropped to Klaus’s lips, and he couldn’t help but lean forward and steal a kiss. Bringing his hands up, he twined his fingers in the back of Klaus’s hair, pulling him closer,
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deepening the kiss. He needed to feel the life coursing through Klaus to prove he was alive, and that they were okay.

The sound of someone clearing their throat had him jumping back from Klaus. He turned to see Ben, Miles, and Carter smiling at them.

“I’m glad you two are okay, but I think we need to check on the others before you two can get reacquainted, if you know what I mean.” Carter waggled is eyebrows at them.

Heat seared his face at Carter’s words. Klaus wrapped his arm around him and pulled him close. “It did get awfully quiet out there.

We should go check and see what is happening. This might not be over yet,” Klaus said as he pushed away from him. “You three stay here while Ben and I go see what is going on out there.”

“Like hell I’m letting you out of my sight,” Astrid snapped at Klaus. “If you haven’t noticed, I got my powers back, so those, those”—he pointed toward the open door—“bad guys better watch out.”

Klaus’s eyebrows shot up his forehead until they met his hairline.

“Okay?” He looked over at Ben, who nodded his agreement.

“Yeah, I think we might actually need both of your combined magic out there if the fight’s gone south and we’re getting our asses kicked.”

Ben and Klaus led the way out. He had to admit, it was eerily quiet beyond the room they were in. As they came to the entryway that led into the main part of the hangar, a collective gasp rang out among the small group.

What dark warriors who were still alive were bound and sat in a line before the Warriors of the Light that had come to their aid.

Benedict stood in the forefront, arguing with a very pissed off Constance. Astrid had to suppress his giggle at seeing the evil bitch bound like a calf in a rodeo competition.

Benedict looked up from arguing with Constance and jogged toward them. “Thank god you’re alive.” He wrapped Ben and Miles in a hug. Both Ben and Miles seemed shocked by the affectionate
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gesture. Benedict let them go and turned to face him and Klaus.

“Where is Ivan?”

“He’s dead,” Klaus stated without any emotion.

“Oh.” Benedict’s eyebrows rose. “Well, we’re going to have one pissed-off mama over there when she finds out.” Benedict breathed out a heavy sigh. “Keeps saying she wants to see her son, yada, yada, yada. I guess she will just have to learn to live without him, huh?”