Crest (Book #2,Swift Series) (23 page)

“Bravo.” He applauded, lying on the concrete floor, a large smile crossing his lips. “I was beginning to think this was going to be too easy.”

My mind focused on him again and I shifted my eyes to the wall on his left, sending his body flying towards it with such force that it left the wall cracked and sprinkled him with drywall as his body fell to the floor.
That was for Collin.

He moaned as he tried to sit up, but quickly fell back towards the ground. I took in a deep breath and focused on his motionless body, bringing it up to the ceiling and then letting it drop back to the ground. He hit the ground with a bounce and rolled over on his side, grabbing his ribs and moaning from pain. Then his moan turned into a laugh. It was soft at first, but then he rolled back over and faced me, laughing harder with each second that passed. “Impressive,” he gritted through his teeth, trying to talk through his pain. “Really, I have to say that you’re pretty strong to have picked me up like that. You and I have similar powers and I tried to use those powers to protect myself against you, but I see that you broke through that fairly easily. But like I said before, I knew you were special.”

Jude flicked his hand as if he were shooing away a fly and my body went flying backwards, only stopping when it hit the far wall at the back of the room. Pain seared through me as I struggled to get up, but couldn’t. My head throbbed and it felt as if every bone in my body was on fire.

“Oh, come on now. Get up. Let’s not end all of this fun so soon,” Jude muttered, still talking as if he were in great pain.

I forced my legs to push up from the ground and into a standing position, but before I had time to understand what was happening, I felt my arms being pulled and trapped behind my back. Next, the dim room went completely black and I realized that something was placed over my head. I struggled to get free, but the hands that were holding me were strong. Panic filled me as I feared that it was all about to be over and that Jude had won. He had tricked me into thinking we were alone and I foolishly believed him.
He’s a coward
, I thought to myself. This—this is all he had in him? He couldn’t fight me alone; he had to bring his minions with him? Anger began to boil in my chest as I wondered if this was the way he acted when he killed the other Astoria. Was he too much of a coward to fight him or her alone, too? Did he bring an army of people and overtake them; not even leaving them a chance to fight him off themselves?

As I stood there, fuming over what was happening; I remembered my secret weapon and a new sense of hope washed over me. I closed my eyes tight, channeling my fear and anger, remembering the spell that Collin and I had spent the entire day perfecting. The energy poured into the ball I had in my mind and it wasn’t long before I split the ball and created my two forms. When I opened my eyes again, I saw the backside of Jude walking across the room, towards my body. I could now see that my head was covered with a black bag and that Jackie and Daniel were the ones holding my arms. Even though Daniel and Jackie’s cold, black eyes were staring straight ahead, they couldn’t see me hidden in the darkness. I knew they were still under his spell, so I knew that it was now three against one. It was clear that I only had this one chance to end Jude for good.

Jude approached my form that was being held captive and drove his fist into my right side, sending a searing pain to my ribs.

“How does that feel?” He laughed as he drove another fist into me, sending the same crippling pain to my left side. I tried to be quiet as I hunched over in pain, not wanting to give myself away. Collin had been right, if one form is injured, then the other form would feel the effects as well. Before I could catch my breath from his last two punches, I felt another blow hit my face, knocking my head back to the left. Immediately, I could feel the pain in my bottom lip and taste the blood in my mouth. That was it. He wouldn’t land one more punch on me. I glanced over to Collin and saw that he hadn’t moved from his position on the floor.

No guts, no glory,
I thought to myself. I dug deep, thinking of all the anger I had deep within me... then I dug even deeper, thinking of every fear or worry I had ever experienced. Once all the thoughts were in my head, I channeled the anger and pain and built the power deep within me. The floor beneath my feet began to tremble, sending a vibration up the walls and to the roof above me. Jude was unsteady on his feet, glancing around and wondering what the hell was happening. I glanced up just in time to see the roof rip off and part from the building. I looked back over at Jude and took a moment to enjoy seeing him squirm before getting his attention.

“Jude!” I shouted.

He whirled around and gasped when he saw me standing behind him. My smile grew as I watched his face fall when he glanced back and forth between my form that was still being held captive, and the form that he ended up facing. Without giving him any time to think about his next move, I funneled all my energy and sent him flying up into the sky. When he was out of my sight, I closed my eyes and kept my concentration, focusing on sending him as high as I possibly could. A moment later, I opened my eyes and waited. A long minute passed before his body came crashing back down and hit the floor, creating a large crater in the concrete beneath him, his lifeless body lying at the bottom of it.

I closed my eyes and breathed heavily, feeling a rush of energy leave my body. My body felt weak and tired, and I was on the verge of collapse. Falling to my knees, I took a few seconds to gather my thoughts and pull myself together. Voices pulled me out of my daze and I glanced over to Daniel and Jackie, who were both glancing around the room and asking each other questions of where they were and what was happening. Quickly, I snapped out of my energy transfer spell, joining my two forms back into one. I jerked the bag off my head and ran over to Collin.

Both Jackie and Daniel called after me, demanding to know what was going on, but I just ignored them, wanting to know if Collin was still alive. When I reached him, I felt for a pulse. A small one was there, but I knew that he was injured badly.

Jackie and Daniel were kneeling beside me, still questioning what was going on and asking what had happened to Collin. I promised that I would tell them everything, but we needed to take care of Collin first. After seeing his condition, they agreed. Daniel picked up Collin’s body and flew him home while Jackie and I followed closely behind.

After inspecting Collin, Daniel concluded that he had a concussion, a few broken ribs and a broken arm. Once it was clear that Collin would live, they demanded I tell them what had happened. Daniel said the last thing he remembered was walking into Jude’s house a couple days ago, and after that, all of his memories were gone. Jackie said her memory loss began even before that. She said the last thing she remembered was having a cup of tea and reading the newspaper when there was a knock at the door. It was the same morning I had woken up feeling ill.

As much as I hated doing it, knowing I had promised I would explain everything after Collin was taken care of, there was somewhere else I had to be. I apologized the entire way to the door and flew the moment I felt the cold air hit my face. I flew with determination and intensity. Since Jackie and Daniel’s spell had been lifted, that meant only one thing—that Abby’s spell would be lifted, too. When I landed back in the clock tower, my heart almost stopped when I saw Abby in a sitting position next to Blake. Blake jumped up the moment he saw me and immediately began inspecting my injuries.

“Meredith, are you okay?” Blake asked, softly grazing my face and busted lip.

“I’ll live.” Somehow I managed a small chuckle as I collapsed into his chest. He hugged me hard, crushing my sore ribs against him. A small gasp escaped my lips, but I didn’t ask him to let me go, the pain was bearable. Still keeping a firm hold around me, he pulled his head back and softly kissed my lips.

“I can see that you two still have it.” Abby’s voice was soft, but as mocking as ever.

Blake let me go, knowing exactly what I wanted to do. It was just a few steps until I reached her and tackled her with a hug. “Abby.” I sighed, pulling her to me as tight as I could. Even though my ribs and other injuries that were sprinkled throughout my body were now screaming in pain, I didn’t care. Abby was alive and safe. “I was so worried,” I whispered as I hugged her tight.

“I know. Me, too.”

I released her and began to look her over. “Are you okay?”

She nodded slowly. “Better now. Blake filled me in on everything. So, I guess Jude is...” Her voice trailed off.

I nodded. “He’s gone.”

She sighed and pulled me in for another hug. “I’m so happy you’re safe. When you disappeared from 1905, I thought we had lost you.”

We sat there holding each other for a long moment.

“Meredith, where’s Collin?” Blake asked, his tone guarded.

Releasing my hold on Abby, I looked over at him. “Sorry, I should’ve told you. He’s at his house recovering. He was hurt pretty bad, but Jackie and Daniel are looking after him. I wanted to come and make sure Abby was okay, but I need to get back there soon.”

“We’ll all go.” Blake said, coming over and picking up Abby, who still looked too weak to fly on her own.

When we arrived, Collin was awake and was explaining everything that had happened while Daniel and Jackie were under Jude’s spell, but he still looked to be in a lot of pain. I approached him and gave him a soft hug, not wanting to hurt him even more. After making all the proper introductions, I filled him and the rest of the group in on how I went about defeating Jude, giving Collin’s amazing energy transfer spell all the credit. If it weren’t for him, I wouldn’t be there at that moment and all the people around me wouldn’t be, either. So, in my eyes, Collin was the hero of the day. He congratulated me on the fight, but told me that I owed him one for his incredible training skills.

I picked up where Collin had left off, explaining to Jackie and Daniel what had happened over the last couple days. They were shocked when I filled them in on the truth about the Harpers, about me, and my real reason for being in London and wanting to contact the council. They apologized over and over to me, to Collin, to Abby and to Blake. Their apologies were so unending that I had to ask them to stop, it was making my head hurt.

Finally, Blake forced me into the bathroom so he could attend to my wounds. I tried to tell him that I was okay, but he wasn’t buying it. Truth is, I just wanted to take a shower, go to bed and deal with my injuries in the morning. To say that my body was tired and weak would have been a huge understatement. The amount of magic I had used the last couple days, especially tonight, left me feeling as though I could sleep for days.

Daniel had given Blake a first-aid kit and he pulled out some gauze, alcohol, and a bandage. As I sat on the bathroom counter, Blake carefully cleaned my busted lip. I pointed out where my ribs ached and where the back of my head still pounded from hitting the wall, but other than that, I kept most of the pain to myself. He was gentle with me and when I looked into his eyes, I realized how lucky I was to have him in my life. What was even more amazing was that I saw the same adoring look reflected back at me. However, even knowing we were all safe, there was sadness in his eyes.

“Blake, is everything alright?”

“Fine,” he said, his voice flat.

My stomach twisted at his tone. “No, it’s not. You’re upset.”

He inhaled a deep breath and blew it out as he threw away the bloody gauze.

“Hey, tell me,” I urged, taking his hand and pulling him back towards me.

He sighed loudly and looked towards the ground. “I let you go, Meredith. I let you go fight Jude without any protection. Do you have any idea how much I hate myself for letting you go?”

I took his hand, placing it on my chest and his eyes met mine. “Look at me. I’m here. I’m alive. Abby’s safe. Daniel and Jackie are safe. We’re all okay.”

“I know and that’s because of you. Because of your strength and courage, but it still doesn’t make what I did right. My job as a protector is to protect you, Meredith, and I failed you.” He looked away from me.