Eternal Hope (The Hope Series) (48 page)

“If anyone’s to blame, then it surely has to be the person who ‘introduced your friends to this life’? The person who attacked me and my girlfriend without provocation?”

Clay bared his teeth. “We had plenty of provocation. It just didn’t come from you. The old one said he wouldn’t give us any more power until he had his wife back. If you knew… if you knew how this felt, you’d do anything for it, too.”

Daniel’s mouth twitched, hiding his disgust. “You couldn’t be more wrong.”

Clay shrugged his shoulders. “Whatever. You’re still going to die.”

The arrogance on this guy was unbelievable. Kayden stepped forward and felt the glyphs around his neck turn to fire. The power inside him was building, just like Daniel’s. “You have no idea what you’re up against here. You should turn around and leave while you still can.”

Clay turned to Kayden with a smug smile. “And oh look, you brought a back up singer to the party. What an honour. You’re the one who killed himself, aren’t you? She told us about you.”

Kayden narrowed his eyes. “Who?”

Clayed pointed with the tip of his knife over Kayden’s shoulder. At Agatha. “Her. She’s the one who gave me this.” Kayden barely had time to turn around before he heard the knife whistling through the air. A number of things flashed through his head:
It doesn’t matter, he can’t hurt you. There’s no chance he’s going to hit you, and so what if he does? But wait, if Agatha gave him that knife…

…Daniel will get them out.

The pain was blinding for a second. Literally blinding. When Kayden’s vision returned, he found the knife buried up to its hilt in his chest. It hadn’t looked like a Pax blade. It hadn’t looked…

All hell broke loose.

Kayden sank to his knees as Farley screamed and a charge of bright blue light ripped through the air. A burning smell assaulted Kayden’s senses. He turned around to look at Cliff and Farley, stunned. Her hands were clasped over her mouth, her eyes, pale and silver as always, filled with fear. Cliff’s Catena was lit up beneath the black shirt he wore, burning through the material. And Daniel… Daniel was the embodiment of rage.

*****

In five seconds, three of Immundus were dead. But not Clay. No, Clay backed into the crowd as soon as he had thrown the Pax blade. The others closed rank around him, uncaring that he was using them as a human shield. Daniel was going to smoke that guy if it was the last thing he did.

The souls inside Daniel picked
now
to start screaming and shouting, just like they always did, when he could have used some silence to concentrate. He cast a quick look over his shoulder to make sure Farley was safe. Cliff was fighting a handful of Immundus who had already reached him from the other end of the tunnel. Farley knelt beside Kayden, who had fallen onto his back with his hands wrapped around the hilt of the knife protruding from his chest.

“Don’t let him it pull out!” Daniel yelled. She looked up, shocked and pale.

“But it’s burning him!”

“He’s just going to have to deal with it,” he gritted out. Daniel pivoted in time for one of the Immundus to lunge forward and slice him on the forearm with a knife. The guy, already bleeding from his head from some other fight, looked surprised when Daniel did nothing more than hiss and stalk forward, his hand outstretched. He was obviously expecting Daniel to writhe in pain like Kayden; that meant they
all
had Pax blades. Hopefully Cliff knew. Daniel sucked his teeth, wishing Agatha had mentioned that while she’d been conscious.

He felt the pressure in the tunnel grow as the power inside him ramped up, stole the oxygen from the air. A burst of light, pure, brilliant white this time, blasted from his hand, splitting in two as it snaked through the air. It slammed into the chests of two Immundus, lifting them from the ground with the force of it. Then it did something Daniel had never seen before: it carried through the backs of their bodies to slam into two more. Daniel blinked, watching as all four men spasmed and died, dropping to the floor.

A strange rush pulsed through Daniel’s body, and it was like the power lassoed back to him instead of being discharged like usual. It made him feel dizzy as it re-entered his body. He didn’t have time to recover before the next wave of Immundus rushed forward, all holding out a knife of their own. It didn’t matter that they were Pax blades- they were still fiercely sharp, and if eight Immundus all stabbed him at once, there was no way he was walking away from it. Daniel held out both palms, concentrating hard. He would need to control the energy as it came out of him. If he gave too much, he was going to destroy himself when it came flooding back. The tide washing through him was almost impossible to restrain. It felt like he was trying to hold a door closed while it was being smashed from the other side with a battering ram.

The light came out just as white as before, concentrated and powerful. It arced into the air before striking a man so hard he flew backwards into the wall. Like a relay, it shot out, connecting to another three before dissipating and whipping back into Daniel’s body. The strength of it made his head spin.

The Immundus in front of Clay seemed less inclined to come forward now- now that they’d seen what had happened to seven of their comrades in less than a minute. Clay pulled a bitter face and sneered. “You call the Reavers monsters. What does that make you, Daniel? You’re a killer. You’re no better than they are.”

Ignoring the sharp pull in his stomach, Daniel was about to release another charge, one aimed at killing Clay once and for all, when a crippling pain shot through his chest. Just like before in the car, it felt like he was having a heart attack. Daniel gasped and clutched at his ribcage, turning to find Farley. She was stood over Kayden, who looked like he was unconscious, and in front of her were three Immundus.

Cliff was doing his best, but he was being overwhelmed. No matter how many of them he killed, the Immundus just seemed to keep coming. The tunnel was so crowded with bodies all clad in black that it was impossible for Farley to see how many of them there were. Kayden had gone into shock and passed out. His lips were white; he’d lost so much blood from that one wound that she doubted he was going to wake up again. She had no idea what the hell she was supposed to do. All she kept thinking was that it shouldn’t be possible for someone to die if they were already dead, but it looked like Kayden was seconds away from disproving that theory.

Agatha was still lying on the ground next to him. Farley shifted over to her vulnerable body just in time to catch an Immundus staggering out of the fray. He was tall and dark, and for a moment she thought it was Oliver. It wasn’t, but her heart leapt into her throat all the same. The guy smiled spitefully, eyeing her up and down. Farley stooped down and snatched up a knife that had fallen to the floor, holding it out just like she’d done all the times she’d practiced with Cliff. When she’d practiced with Kayden. When her mother had attacked her. She swallowed hard and watched as the Immundus crouched low and started to circle her, his own knife held out in front of him.

“You ready to play?” the Immundus asked.

Farley raised an eyebrow. Fear wasn’t going to help her now. “Sure.”

That made the Immundus’ smile even wider. He darted forward and slashed, connecting with thin air. Farley dodged sideways and lashed out. The edge of her knife sliced across his face, drawing blood on his forehead. She’d been aiming for his throat, but at least she’d hit him. He flinched, surprised.

“Bitch!”

Farley didn’t waste her breath coming back with a retort. Nothing suitably scathing came to mind, and she was too busy trying to keep her panic at bay. She wasn’t ready for this. Nowhere near. But she had to pretend she knew what she was doing long enough for Daniel or Cliff to notice she needed help. She could do that.

They were wheeling around one another again, when Farley realized she was going to need help sooner than she’d thought. Another two Immundus made it past Cliff, who was firing out bolts of impossibly bright fire quicker than she could see. They crept forward, and suddenly there were three of them. Nothing mattered more than protecting Agatha and Kayden.

The one she’d slashed started to laugh. “You’re screwed now, princess. Once we wake up your little friend, it’s game over.”

Farley pulled in a deep breath. They didn’t want to hurt Agatha. They wanted to wake her up, which meant waking up the thing inside her, too. All they had to do was touch her. Terror flooded like poison through Farley’s veins. Everyone would die if that happened.

Farley felt it again- that cold, strange rush building in her body. Just like on the beach. Reactions she never knew she had fired into action. Except now, she knew what was about to happen. And there was nothing she could do to stop it.

Her hands were ablaze before she could blink. The panic she’d been keeping at bay charged head on at her, leaving her momentarily paralyzed. The fire flickering over her skin seemed to surprise the Immundus, too. They stopped in their tracks and stared, their mouths open.

“She’s one of them,” the first one whispered. Suddenly their predatory glares took on a whole new meaning. Farley was no longer sure what they intended to do with her. A second ago, they’d looked like they were going to dice her into tiny pieces. But now… Now it looked like they thought she was capable of feeding their habit. A disgusted shiver ran through her body.

“Farley!” The cry startled her, and she stupidly turned around. Daniel was bent double and Clay was marching through a small crowd of Immundus, another knife gripped firmly in his hand. There was a look of murder in his eyes.

Daniel was in danger.

Everything happened so quickly. No build up. No warning. And yet, Farley saw everything happen in slow motion. Silence filled the tunnel. Thick, impenetrable silence. The sound of Cliff’s crazed struggle to keep the Immundus back; the sound of metal against metal; the wild shouts and screams of people being thrown through the air. All of it was just…gone.

A bizarre tension churned in Farley’s stomach. It felt like a small flicker of power started to cycle around, over and over on itself, intensifying with each revolution. Daniel’s eyes fixed on hers. The pain in them a second ago seemed to fall away. His body straightened out so slowly, but it must have happened quicker than a heartbeat in reality. He gave her a firm look, an acknowledging look, and held out his hand. It was directed at no one in particular. Clay realized that quicker than Farley would have liked. He looked accusingly from Daniel’s hand to Farley and back again, apparently already aware of what was about to happen, even before she was.

Daniel nodded.

And Farley exploded.

Light. It came from everywhere. It stung every part of her body- her skin, her fingertips, her eyes. Even through the pain and confusion, Farley could see. Daniel was lit up, too, his body bowed the way she’d seen it so many times before. She knew hers was arched the same way. The huge well of energy that had been building inside her detonated all at once, so much more than just light. The shock wave that travelled out of her was mirrored by an exact replica shooting out of Daniel. The force of the joint explosions collided together and crashed through the tunnel in an unstoppable wave that sucked every particle of oxygen from the atmosphere.

A high-pitched tone pierced through Farley’s mind, making her head spin. It was over in a second- the longest second of her life. When she exhaled, a strangely quiet sigh over the incessant ringing in her ears, her body sagged, like her breath had been the only thing keeping her upright. She was on her knees when Daniel reached her side, and the flames on her hands were out.

“What…what was that?” she stammered.

“I don’t know. But it did the trick. Come on.”

Farley glanced around. Bodies lay discarded on the ground, stacked one on top of the other in places. Everyone was dead. Everyone apart from Cliff.

“Didn’t think to do that sooner?” he asked, a dazed look on his face. His arms and face were covered in blood.

“We didn’t know we
could
do that,” Daniel answered tightly. He pulled Farley to her feet, and she did her utmost to remain that way. “I’m going to get the bike. I’ll be two seconds,” he said. The Ducati lay on its side a good hundred feet further down the tunnel. God only knows how it had gotten there. Daniel leapt over the bodies strewn around them and started jogging away. Cliff’s arms came out of nowhere, locking around Farley’s body. The surprise of it nearly put Farley on the floor.

“It’s okay,” he said softly.

It took a second for Farley to realize why he was trying to comfort her. She was crying, or at least tears were falling from her eyes. He squeezed her tight and then pulled back.

“I have to get Agatha and Kayden out of here before the other messengers show up. Will you be okay?”

She looked down at all of the people she’d helped kill. A strange numbness filled her. She nodded. Cliff looked incredibly weathered as he moved over to Kayden and Agatha’s lifeless bodies. The shirt he wore hung in tatters around his neck where his tattoo, his Catena, exactly like Kayden’s, had seared through the cloth. It was beyond weird to see him take both of her friend’s hands and disappear in the blink of an eye. And just like that, they were gone.