Summon (36 page)

“Look at you.” Marinette’s smile widened at the
harsh resolve darkening Rae’s face. “Did you wake for him or because you know
the five of us cannot remain. There is the cursed balance to consider.”

Rae eyes twitched to mine. The invisible hold on me
disappeared, shredded, a golden glow of power washing over me in a cloud of
warmth. The world became mist and shadow. Just us. Her gaze lovingly swept over
my body then fixed on the darkest shadow looming in the distance.

The moment of peace shattered.

“Release the body you stole,” Rae demanded. “Lex is
owed the funeral I denied her.”

“And wander the earth aimless without form.”
Marinette sneered. “Never.”

“End this now and we won’t pursue you. If you don’t,
we
will
end you
. And if you
run,
we will hunt you
. Death will
become your only escape if we decide to come for you. Formlessness is better
than nothingness.”

“I think not.”

“Accept the offer.”

Rather than struggle for freedom, Marinette stepped
into Rae. Rubbing their cheeks together, she purred. Her red eyes slitted
evilly. “I’ll take my chances.” Cackling, Marinette jerked off the rooftop
dragging Rae with her.

Groaning, I crawled to follow them over. A hand
gripped my calf, and I twisted to glare.

Crouched behind me, Malice grinned. “You and me.”

He heaved, and swung by the ankle I lifted off the
ground. Gaining centrifugal force as we spun, he roared, and released me.

I hurtled through the air and slammed into the side
of an adjacent building.

The concrete gave. In an explosion of grey dust and
rubble, I tumbled into the derelict space, my body cut, bruised and scraped.

Rolling to a stop, I swallowed a moan and staggered
up.

Malice gushed through the ragged hole in the wall
as a churning mass of purple smoke. Reforming to float above ground, he landed
on bare feet and flexed his toes, fixed a crick in his neck.

Chin dropped to his chest he studied me. He shook
his head in disappointment. “This won’t do.” He sprinted toward me. Powerful
thighs obliterated the gulf between us in five strides.

I braced one foot in front of the other, palms up
and ready.

On impact, a luminous arc slingshot across the
room.

Bodies angled forward, clawed hands fell hard on
set shoulders to dig deep. We rendered each other motionless, pushing with
godly force and cancelling each other out. Muscles strained. Our foreheads
cracked together then separated. Nostrils flared. Brow lowering, my eyes
blinked to defend against the grainy dust chipped off the concrete surfaces by
our crackling energies. My lips thinned to rigid lines of determination, and
Malice’s curved teasingly.

Be strong.
Lose and there is no one strong enough to help her.

The pressure of his hold was crushing. His fingers
dug cruelly into my flesh, nails piercing skin. His hold tightened, and the
tendons in his neck bulged as he scavenged a further wisp of power to shoot
fire through his fingers into my collarbone.

I faltered, panicked at the sheer magnitude of
Malice’s strength.

My boots skidded creating white smoke.

Gritting my teeth, I bolstered my reserves with
strength of mind born of desperation.

I fail,
and she is alone.

The ground cracked. The pressure of my feet using
the floor as a buttress caused a rippling of circular fractures. A whiplash of
energy broke the concrete into jagged peaks.

A hiss exploded past my lips.
I fail, and the vampire claims what is mine.
Death’s tempest gushed
from the prison inside me and rumbled to the fore. It sucked hard on the energy
humming from Malice’s flesh.
His skin
lost its glow then pulsated with luminosity. Seared pupils dilating, I gasped
at the burn.

Malice squinted a fraction. “There you are.” He
chuckled. “This will do.”

He reared back and cracked his skull against mine.

Pain bloomed across my head and neck, knotted my
spine.

My strength abated long enough for Malice to grip
the rounds of my shoulders, swing me overhead then slam me down. Air was
hard-pressed from my lungs. Sprawled, blood wetting my lips, my insides dropped
as if still falling. I flinched as my pain receptors caught up with reality.
Each molecule of my body suffered the collision.

Immobile, the blink of an eye felt an age.

I rolled to evade a knee to the throat. Jerked my
head to avoid a meaty fist, and Malice punched clean through floor.

He cursed, wedged up to the upper arm.

Cart-wheeling one-handed, I used his chest as a
springboard to flip into a crouch. My boot heel connected with his sternum and
tore the trapped arm from the concrete.

Malice flew into the opposite wall. Shaking off
dust, he barrelled forward.

My leg slid back, and my fists came up. Weight
shifting onto my knees, I looked him dead in the eye, warning him I’d not lose
this fight. I saw nothing but a warped reflection of lethal intent.

It’s him
or me. Other gods, it must be me.

Arms swung balled fists, and the shifted air sang.
Feet danced. Our heads jerked back and swerved. The thud of flesh on flesh was
surpassed only by the sounds of our laboured breathing; barks of pain; grunts
of victory.

The cage formed of my arms stopped a left hook to
my cheek. Reading the lines of his body, I shifted position to defend against
an uppercut. Open hand cutting down to block the blow, I grabbed his extended
arm, gave him my back, ducked, and tossed his bulk overhead. He hit the floor.
I held onto his arm, planted my foot on his pectoral then twisted until the
bones joint popped.

His yell bounced of the walls, but I kept the
pressure steady.

Malice defied gravity and rolled his lower body
until balanced on his shoulder blades. He kicked me in the face. I collapsed.
He straddled my upper chest and trapped my arms under his thighs. Snapping his
arm into place, he wiggled his healed fingers then curled them under and hauled
back his fist.

Heavy blows rained. Powerful, singular thumps that
shook the world.

Crafting magics into a shield, I was a moment too
late. My skull cracked as a blow glanced my cheek, knuckles bloodying skin.

Ears ringing, vision doubled, I rocked my hips and
swung my legs up. Locking my ankles across Malice’s chest, I lurched, and we
hit the floor on our sides.

Crunch.
“Shit.” Malice convulsed. He let me go to grab his
head and stop his temple bashing the concrete as internal damage healed.

I wriggled free kicking in his direction, and a
stray thrash caught his hip.

Malice slewed across the floor. Terse seconds
later, he gained his feet, grinning, and leapt a mind-bending distance to land
kneeling, one hand in the air for balance.

We sparred until he feinted, tricked me, and
doubled me over with a swift jab to the solar plexus.

Trapped in a headlock,
I watched
the ball of his fist sail into my face.

Don’t dare
pass out.
Blackness.
Keep standing.
My legs buckled.
Wake.
It took precious seconds for me to
shake it off.

Out of ideas, I punched him in the back of the
knee. He fell as I slipped my head free.

Twisting at the waist mid fall, he scooped an arm
around my legs and pushed hard on my stomach.

The back of my skull caved. I
felt
my lower sutura tear from the connecting bones. I blinked.
Twitched. Stared perplexed at the ceiling.

Malice frog-leaped onto me, but this time I rolled,
reversing our positions. Before I got his arms under, he grabbed my head and
again banged our foreheads.

Blood spurted.
Argh!
I hunched and tripped, my own feet.

Standing, Malice smeared blood over his face and
chest. His quiet chortles evolved into hysterical laughter. “Finally,” he
hollered, throwing open his arms and back his head, exultant. He beckoned with
a lazy wag of two fingers. “A god worthy of death.”

I thumbed my swollen nose and swallowed blood
pooling in my throat.
This is ridiculous
.
Rae needed me, and I circled a lunatic.

Watching the thickset body rock back and forth,
ready to pummel me for another round it hit me.

He was stronger.

I was faster.

Sprinting into a blur of silver light, my speed
faster than the immortal eye perceived, I backhanded Malice across the face
then slammed the side of my palm into his throat.

He choked, and his eyes watered.

It cost me a hit to the side, but the burst of pain
was worth it.

Planting my hands on his upper back, I pushed him
down to meet the upward thrust of my knee. Keeping my foot elevated, I widened
my back stride then pushed him again to hammer the second thrust into his face.

Head cracking back, he tottered then crumpled.
Moonbeams highlighted the shattered bones protruding from his face.

Malice swayed on his knees. I nudged his chest with
my boot to aid his descent.

Defeated enemy flaccid, I loomed, chest heaving,
and my attention fractured.
Go find her.
Now. You sense she needs you.
My fists clenched and unclenched as I fought
my instincts.
Go now. This fool is not
your problem.

Still, Malice laughed. “You think,” he wheezed,
“you’ve won.”

I glared. “I have.”

My foot pressed down on the side of his head,
keeping the godling pinned as I considered how best to end him. Draining his
energy would take too long, and decapitation wouldn’t destroy his divine soul,
only the vessel he’d stolen.

What if he
jumps into another?

Many of my friends and allies fought. Could I press
on knowing he might return to battle?

Stop
wasting time and decide.

Lochlann burst into the room, sword drawn. “Gods, I
searched for you everywhere.” His hair and body was slick with gore.

Daphne skidded to a stop at his heels. Blood
covered her from the chin down. Eyes threatening to turn solid black, her fangs
extended into deadly pikes at the sight of all the blood splattered across the
walls and floor.

Clothes torn, eyes battle wild, they looked rough
but were alive.

Scanning the room, Lochlann strode closer and put
the tip of his blade at Malice’s throat. “Rae fell into the river. I tried to
help but couldn’t get close enough. The undead won’t stop rising. Maeve is….”
Lochlann struggled to go on, and Daphne touched his cheek. He steadied, but his
eyes burned. “Marinette has taken her prisoner.”

Shock then a burst of clarity choked my shout of
denial. “Maeve should never have come here. We should have kept her away.”

Lochlann blinked rapidly, nodding. “Rae needs you.”
At those three words, my faltering control snapped. I’d turned to leave when he
added, “I cannot watch our sister die again. Go to them.” Hooded eyes staring
down the deadly length of his silver-edged blade, his top lip curled. “You’re
finished here, little brother.”

With a fierce look that spoke of my gratitude, I
ran, confident my brother would see the task undertaken in that room ended.

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

Cael

The
world became a blur, the fighting fierce, and our enemy relentless. The dead
didn’t tire. They swarmed like locust, eager to use claws of bone and fang on
the living.

I didn’t need a weapon to cut them down.
Block.
I
was
a weapon.
Duck.
I
shot beams of fire from my hands.
Punch.
Droning zonbi crossed my path then stumbled headless and silent into the melee.

Shifters launched themselves bodily onto the wolves
twisted by Marinette’s evil. Blood, fur and lathered saliva flew through the
air. The roars of werecats clashed with the throaty howls of werewolves.

Something slammed into my back and latched on with
bone-crushing ferocity. A vampire – from the stench – sank its
teeth into the side of my neck. Reaching back to grasp its face sunlight
speared from my palms.

A deafening shriek made my ears ring. The creature
released me to jump away.

Slapping a hand to the side of my neck, I spun to
terminate the creature.

Scorched flesh crusting with scabs, Gwendolyn
snarled, and stood from her defensive crouch. “
Fairies
.” She wiped her face and dead skin sloughed off the cheek
I’d burnt. “I loathe you all.”

Adroitly sidestepping a thrash of her arm, I
grabbed the vampire Queen by the throat and kicked her legs from under her.
Shoving aside my cloak, I spread my legs for greater balance to compensate for
her struggles. “In thanks for countless years of service I’ll endeavour to be a
kind executioner.” I emitted a beam of light from my finger. Fisting a hand in
her ringlets, I forced her head back. “I warned you not cross me.”