PHENOMENAL GIRL 5 (35 page)

“Lainey, call everyone on the left quadrant,” Rath barked out. “The group by the river is getting beaten down.”

“Wesley’s team still can’t get through,” Toby said from his computer. “Someone needs to get over there to help them.”

“I’m sending the team in sector three,” Paul said.

We were like generals sending grunts into battle as we each radioed our contacts. I felt sick. Heroes were going to die in this one. And it was all because of me. If the freaking Dragon didn’t want his chance with me…

“We should be there,” Paul said. “We have the best security system on the planet and this place is guarded by magic. Nothing and no one’s getting in unless we let them.”

As if the universe realized what a cosmically stupid thing that was to say, what felt like an explosion rocked the building, though there was no sound. My skin buzzed like crazy. I could almost reach out and touch the magic. I shot a quick glance at Rath, and it seemed to be affecting him the same way.

“Something’s trying to get in,” he said.

“Nice, Paul. Why don’t you just say ‘What could possibly go wrong?’ while you’re at it?” Toby snapped.

“Is it him?” I asked.

“Not powerful enough,” Rath said, as another explosion rocked us. “Maybe some of his cultists. Check the roof.”

I typed a command into the computer to redirect the security system on the monitor, leaving a channel open in case one of the team needed us. Sure enough, there were two goth-looking types hurling what looked like fireballs at the building. A golden glow would appear, almost like a shield, and block it every time.

A sense of pure evil came over me. I shuddered. “
That’s
him.” He had definitely arrived.

This time there was an actual sound, and a furious explosion rocked the building. The alarms screamed.

“Get up there,” Rath ordered Toby and Paul. “They’re going to breach the shield, and our defense system’s not going to hold up to magic like that. Try to hold them off as long as possible.”

They both nodded and took off.

I saw them appear on-screen, fighting off our magical terrorists. One of the cultists broke off from the fight and headed straight for the building.

“Kamikaze!” Rath said from beside me.

“What?”

“Death magic is powerful. Especially your own death. It may be enough…” Another explosion, this time followed by an electric current I felt race through my spine. Rath swore again. “They just popped our building’s protection spell. Anyone can get in now.”

I whirled back to the screen. The Dragon was nowhere to be seen, but I could sense his malevolent presence.

And then he appeared in the room in front of us.

I reacted without thinking, pulling back and hitting him with all the strength I had. He flew backward and went through a wall.

“We’ve got to get out of here,” I called to Rath. “Can you call Wesley and tell him to get back here?”

“I can try a distress spell.”

“As long as we can do it while fleeing,” I said, and we took off toward the entrance.

The Dragon appeared in front of us again. I hauled Rath backward, skidding to a stop.

“I love a girl with spirit,” the Dragon said. “But don’t run. It will make it worse on your friends.”

“Go to hell.” I picked up the nearest object, which happened to be a heavy oak table, and hurled it at him, just as Rath whispered something in Italian, and I felt my skin hum as an electric current hit the Dragon.

“Nice,” I said to Rath as we headed back the way we came.

“Won’t be able to do much more than that,” he wheezed, and I could see his skin looked gray. “It took too much out of me.”

“Save what you can for defense.” I headed toward the nearest window. “We’re out of here.”

My skin burned as something sorcerous hit me and was negated. The circle of protection burned hot against my chest.

“Bitch!” The Dragon growled, in the room with us again, blocking the window. “That’s going to cost you.”

“Not with magic it won’t,” I snapped. “
Ustione
.”

Fires popped up on him for a moment and then disappeared. The Dragon laughed. “Your magic is too weak, little girl. And the circle of protection will help you, not him.”

“
Schermo sopra
Ben!” I yelled, just as the magic hit him. My shield took the brunt of it, but some of the blast still got through. He staggered.

I grabbed him and tossed him through the doorway, out of harm’s way. The Dragon reached for me and I dodged his grasp, then managed to catch him with a powerful right hook. I followed through, pivoting and driving my left fist into his chest. I felt bones crush under my blow.

“Feisty. But you’ve got a problem.” The Dragon’s body glowed red. “Your protection only works on spells directed at you. So if I make myself stronger than you…” He punched me in the chest and I flew back into a wall, gasping, thinking he had punched a hole through me. As it was,
I knew several ribs were broken. “Now we’re on an even playing ground, girl.” He grabbed me and I struggled, finding his grip too strong—it was a new sensation. I started to panic. I was always stronger than men; it shouldn’t be like this for me.

“I’m stronger now,” the Dragon growled in my ear. He ripped at my clothes and my struggle turned into a frenzy of biting, scratching, tearing, kicking, hitting. This couldn’t happen. Never mind the end of the world; I wasn’t getting raped, either.

He was on top of my body, overpowering me. I kneed him in the groin and he punched me in the throat. I gasped airlessly, seeing blackness for a moment. Tears burned in my eyes.

He froze. He held me pinned to the ground, studying me with a quizzical expression, frowning. One hand shot to my throat, squeezing the air out of me, as the other moved up to my stomach. He pressed his palm flat, pushing in slightly. I was starting to lose consciousness, and wondering just what the hell he was doing, but I was glad he wasn’t trying to rape me at the moment.

He swore in some language I didn’t understand and released the pressure on my throat, but kept me pinned to the ground. “What’s done is done, but it won’t help you! Do you understand?” he screamed in my face. “It won’t help!” He looked up to see Rath standing there.

The Dragon frowned and said something in that strange language. A bloody red current struck Rath. I screamed as I felt the magic take effect.

Rath fell to the ground. He whispered something in Italian, and then his eyes went blank. I felt a sob tear my throat. He was dead.

He had made the sacrifice.

The Dragon screamed as a blue glow overtook him. The magic hummed around me, but didn’t hurt.

“Damn old man death-cursed me!” the Dragon growled.
He looked down at me and I knew it had weakened him. “I don’t care if you did wreck part of my plan, the Darklight will still let my Masters back into this world. Soon enough, my dear, you will be expendable. And then you will beg for death before you receive oblivion.”

“You’re going first,” a harsh voice said from the doorway.

The Dragon looked up and I arched my body to see Wesley, eyes black, coat whipping in an invisible wind as the strength of his magic filled the room. My skin felt like millions of ants were running under it.

“You tried to take what is mine,” Wesley said, his cold voice sending a shiver of fear through me. “And you killed my son. You’re dead.”

The blast of power knocked the Dragon off of me and into the wall behind him. Black blood ran out of his nose as he struggled to fight back, but Wesley pushed more will-magic on him, the power visible, radiating off of him like tendrils of black smoke. Wesley held out a hand, fingers splayed, and the tendrils shot off of his body and into the Dragon, lashing him like whips. The Dragon screamed as Wesley spoke Italian in a voice so harsh that I didn’t even want to know what he said. He began to float in the air as the power coursed through him, his eyes black with red energy flaring off of them. The hair on the back of my neck stood up. I had never been scared of him until that moment.

The room filled up with tension, with dark power, and the Dragon seemed to realize he had one last chance to stay alive. He started pushing back at Wesley magically, but the strain was showing as patches of his skin began to burn off under the intensity of Wesley’s sorcery. The hum and buzz of machinery around us seemed to vibrate the walls, and then the lights popped and everything electronic in the room exploded in a blast of electricity and fire.

Black blood was beginning to run from the Dragon’s eyes
like tears. “It doesn’t matter what you’ve done,” he growled. “The prophecy is still fulfilled. The Darklight will return my Masters to their former glory. And I’ll be there to see it happen.” He slammed a fist into the wall behind him, and then another. A loud crack sounded in the room, and then a swirling black hole appeared behind him, sucking him in. “I’ll be back to watch you weep for what you’ve unleashed on this world,” he snarled before disappearing.

“No, you won’t,” Wesley said. Dark energy flared off of him like a cape or wings, and he followed the Dragon into the darkness. The black hole disappeared.

I got to my feet in a daze.

That didn’t just happen
, I thought.
Wesley didn’t just go into another dimension with the Dragon to die.

I staggered over to the wall and clawed at it. “No!
No!
God, no!” I punched the wall with a fist, hearing a cracking crunch, and then another and another, not caring when my knuckles turned bloody. I leaned my forehead against the wall, sobbing in grief. “Come back,” I whispered, voice choked with tears. “Please come back.”

The only sound in the room was my breathing and the hiss of the fire as the smoke detectors did their job and the sprinklers overhead started to extinguish the blaze. I was aware I was getting wet, too, and didn’t care. A wave of sadness, frustration, and anger coursed through me.

I wasn’t losing him again. Not this time. I knew I was weakened from the fight with the Dragon, and by giving Wesley some of my power, but I had try.

“
Portila di nuovo me
,” I whispered like a prayer. “
Portila di nuovo me.
”

It was a spell that was too powerful for me, a spell that could burn me out in an instant. But I knew I had to try for Wesley, no matter if it killed me. I loved him enough to sacrifice myself for him.

A sound like a heavy wind came from behind me, and I
whirled to see a black hole opening in the floor and Wesley rising up from it. With a cry, I flew over to him. He caught me with one arm and held me tight. I sobbed against him, shaking and holding on to him for dear life, not even caring that my body was in pain. He was here, he was alive, and that was all that mattered.

“Where did you go?”

“A dark dimension,” he said. “We fought and I weakened him further, but before I could kill him, he fled into a place even I am afraid to go. What he met in there was probably worse than anything I could do to him, so there’s a bit of comfort in that.”

“He can’t get back, can he?”

A tension ran through Wes’s body. “I don’t know, Lainey. The Dark Lands are unpredictable at best, but Fantazia and I will try to ward the gateway between this world and that one, which will make it difficult for him to return if he survives, but I can’t promise he won’t.”

He went over to Ben’s body and fell to his knees beside it, cradling his head in his arms. “Benji, I’m so sorry. So very sorry.” Tears ran down his face.

“He died to weaken the Dragon,” I said softly. “He saved me. He helped save us all.”

Wesley nodded numbly and my heart ached for him and for Ben. I stood there, not knowing if I should go to him or let him have time alone.

“He was trying to get the EHJ back on track,” Wesley said in a broken voice. “He told me he knew he had messed up along the way, gotten distracted by the celebrity aspect of it all. He wanted to show me he had done a good job as a leader.”

After a few moments, he got up and staggered over to me. He slumped to his knees as if his strength was finally gone, wrapping his arms around my waist as he rested his head on my midsection. I ruffled his hair, trying to comfort him.

“It’ll be okay now, Wes. As much as it can be, I mean.

The Dragon’s trapped in a hell dimension, he didn’t get his chance with me, the spell won’t work, no more worries about Ancient Ones or us bringing the end of the world.”

Wesley sighed, looking up at me. “It’s not exactly over.”

“Well, he still could come back for revenge because we ruined his spell, but that’s kind of a normal day for us. What villain isn’t trying to get even with the heroes for ruining his evil plan? But the apocalypse spell is stopped. That’s it. Game over. The end.”

“Didn’t you hear him earlier? It doesn’t matter that he didn’t spawn the Darklight. The prophecy is still fulfilled. The Darklight is created through the dark soul and the pure one.”

“And he didn’t get his chance,” I said. “He stopped.”

“My soul is black,” Wesley said, getting to his feet to look me in the eye. “I’m still a good man, but Jihad’s death is not the first time I have killed, even in the name of good. Long ago, I had to take out an entire town corrupted by servants of the Ancient Ones. Hundreds of lives gone in an instant because of me. That will stain your soul, Lainey. And that’s one memory that sticks forever. I have to live with that knowledge every single life. That’s why I don’t want to kill, even in situations where it’s necessary. It takes its toll on my soul.”

Hundreds of people?
I shivered, again just a bit scared of him. “But what does that have to do with…” It hit me then why Dragon had stopped his attack. When he touched my stomach.

My hand flew involuntarily to it, remembering the bullet that I hadn’t dodged after all on the night Wes had come to me and the EHJ.

“It’s early on, but…” Wesley said.

“I’m pregnant.” I said it aloud, just to see if it made more sense that way. Nope. It was still crazy and impossible. But not scary. Not the end of everything I had ever worked for. A baby might be a beautiful thing—if it was a baby of goodness.

He nodded.