The Forbidden Trilogy (99 page)

The agent scrambled back, sweat breaking out on his face,
and unloaded his gun into the beast of a man.

Beleth hopped away, releasing Luke and Hunter.

Lucy backed away as well, making sure to stay behind him.

Beleth thrust his hand-blade into the earth again, and Luke
screamed. "Move!"

Everyone jumped away, except for the agent, who took aim at
Beleth as the blade pierced through the earth below him and impaled him through
his chest. Blood trickled out of his body and mouth as Beleth pulled his blade
back, and he fell to the ground, dead.

Lucy's stomach turned with bile. Somewhere in the back of
her mind a macabre scoreboard ticked off one more body count to add to the
horror tally of this mission. Innocent lives lost—too many, and too morbid, to
count.

She inched closer, moving in on Beleth as her brother grew
weaker with each blow. Hunter charged, his face a mask of fury after watching
another friend and colleague murdered—fury that would turn to grief when this
was over.
So much grief.

This was her chance, her one shot while he was distracted by
Hunter's blade and Luke's powers.

She sped up, nearing Beleth and his squirming piece of tail.
It moved, withering, totally grossing her out, but she ignored it and raised
the serum, ready to stab him in the back.

Before she could land the blow that could save them all, the
piece of tail, squirming on the ground, leaped at her face like an acrobatic
jelly fish, and opened up like a web. It covered her face, her eyes lost in
darkness.

She screamed and reeled away, stabbing at the thing with the
syringe. When that didn't work, she dropped the syringe and clawed at it with
her hands, trying to rip it off as she instinctively walked backward, fleeing
from something attacking her.

"Lucy!" Her brother cried out, but it sounded so
far away.

Her face burned as if acid had been poured onto it. Was the
thing eating her?
Oh, God.
She fell backward, landing hard on her butt,
and shooting pain splintered off from her tailbone. She grabbed her knife and
tried cutting the black thing off her face, worried she would cut into her own
flesh, not knowing where it ended and she began.

Then it fell off.

Her face burned in pain. The world was too bright. She
touched her cheeks, expecting to feel raw flesh and bone, blood and gore, but
it felt fine, normal.

A shadow loomed over her. Beleth.

She had to stop him. She looked around for the syringe, but
it lay too far away, draining into the earth. She'd been a fool, and in her
moment of panic she'd lost the only useful weapon they had to defeat him and
get away.

Luke and Hunter lay on the ground, maybe dead.
No.
She couldn't think that.
Never.
Everyone she loved could die: Luke,
Hunter, Sam and her baby. The people she loved more than anything in the world
would all die if she failed.

And she had.

Beleth leaned into her, then looked up at Simmons. "Is
it them?"

Lucy didn't understand. Were they who?

Simmons didn't respond.

Beleth asked again, resigned. "Are they ours?"

"No," said Simmons. "It was a boy. A boy with
blonde hair."

Beleth nodded.

Lucy suddenly realized....

That night, when Beleth and Simmons had kissed, they'd
conceived a child. That child, a boy with blonde hair, whose mother had been
married to Steele—that child had been Drake.

Everything is connected.
Lucy looked at Beleth.
"I know your, son. He's a good man." She couldn't believe she was
saying this.

Drake had made a lot of mistakes, but in the end, he really
was a good man. He wanted to save Sam and his baby. He'd come back to do the
right thing. Didn't everyone deserve a second chance to do the right thing?

"He'd want you to fight this—this control Steele has
over you. He'd want to be able to get to know you."

Beleth's face softened a bit, and for one fraction of a
breath, a tear appeared in his eye. His voice came out soft, sad, resigned.
"Thank you. If we meet again in another life, I hope it will be different.
You are the kind of person the world needs."

He raised his blade, his hand trembling from the effort of
fighting his orders for so long, his face caught in desperate agony, and....

Something large landed behind Lucy, shaking the ground and
moving the wind.

Beleth backed away.

She looked behind her and smiled, already knowing what she'd
see. The beetle, her friend, stood over her, lowering its horn, facing off
against Steele. She had called for his help when the helicopters had been
broken, and he had come.

Everything is connected.

A large horn rang out and the beetle charged.

Steele sat in the lotus position, his massive power
uncoiling out of him and drilling deep into the earth. Heat rose from below,
raising his body temperature and covering his body in a slick sheen of sweat.
All around him, Diamond Head cracked open like an egg being prepped for an
omelet. The earth caved in on itself, leaving small walking trails weaving
through the pulsing lava that had come to his call. Magma rose higher, building
slowly, pulled from its thousands of years of slumber like a monster of old.

He basked in the power it took to command nature to his
will.

"What have you done?"

Steele opened his eyes and stood, facing the boy—now a
man—who had ruined his family. Drake stood before him, Sam at his side, with
another girl, her face familiar but unimportant.

His eyes returned to Drake. "I'm glad to have you back.
Soon our entire family will be reunited."

He rubbed his fingers at that, anxious for Simmons to
arrive. The power in the baby called to him, but he couldn't unleash it without
her. He marveled at this draw, this need he had to be with her. He'd squashed
all human emotion, prided himself on his inability to know or understand that
messy realm, in which so many people lived and died, in their pathetic lives.
Even as a child, he'd never understood it.

But Simmons... she ignited something in him, and he knew
that his powers and reach and influence would be greater with her by his side.
So he cultivated patience. Too much time had gone into these plans to rush it
now.

Drake, whose temper controlled him, scowled at Steele.
"You're no family of mine."

Drake wasn't his child, true. It galled him to know that his
wife had betrayed him with his best friend, that they thought him so stupid, so
easily duped by their sniveling lies. So he'd made it his mission to find
Drake, and with a poetic timing he couldn't have planned had he tried, he'd
found Drake just as the boy was about to live his dreams of surfing.

The plan had been to kill him, to end the life that had
ruined his, but when he discovered Drake's extraordinary powers... well, he
couldn't snuff out the life of one so great—not until he'd acquired those
powers for himself.

But what justice, what pure poetry, to breed the daughter
Simmons hated with the son she gave up to protect. A twisted justice to her
betrayal.

Now, the baby of these two carried more power than any
paranormal ever had. And Steele had taken revenge on the two people who
betrayed him. Beleth would live the rest of his life having never known his
son, and this baby—what Sam could do with its powers—would bring Simmons back
to him, where she belonged.

Sam smiled up at him; her coerced adoration disgusted him,
but served his purpose. "Did I do well, Daddy?"

He walked to her and combed her hair with his hand.
"Yes, dear, you made your father proud."

The contact didn't please him, but it reinforced his hold on
her. She hadn't had the powers he'd hoped for, but she was the key to getting
them, just as he'd always known she would be.

He returned to his location on the cliff, concentrating
again to raise the magma even higher.

Drake raised his voice to be heard over the boiling rage
beneath them. "In your broadcast, you said you were doing this for common
man, for the people like those living on this island. If that's true, then why
erupt the volcano?"

Clever boy, just like his mother.
"When the
demons of this volcano are ready, I will send it over the side of the mountain
and let it tear a scar through the land. It will burn through everything as it
makes its way to the harbor."

Drake's jaw dropped in shock. "You'll burn the entire
island."

It felt good to finally share his plan with someone who
could see the bigger picture. "People will die, naturally, but I've given
them a chance to join me. It's time for the next step. These things must happen
for the greater good."

Drake stared past Steele, no more questions on his lips.
Perhaps he had finally seen the futility of fighting it.

Behind Steele, an explosion erupted and he flew forward,
shards of metal, plastic and rock piercing his body. Pain stung him, but he pushed
it aside—nothing his body couldn't handle. He looked up to where Drake had been
looking.

A kid stood with a grenade launcher over his shoulder, and
several others flanked him. One boy levitated, throwing rocks at Steele, which
he easily dodged. The same boy called out orders. "Toby, move to the
flank. Gary, find some metal. Greg, Mary, get behind cover. Norm, get above
him."

Another boy nodded and jumped into the air, flying straight
for Steele.

Paranormals. Kids that must have grown up in my facility.
Steele headed toward them, sorry that it would have to end this way for them.
He'd given them their powers, sheltered them and trained them. They could have
been his agents, helping him form a new world order, but instead they had
rebelled, forcing him to create the Grunts.

Now, he'd have to kill them.
Such a waste.

He lifted his hands, and the earth around them began to
shake.

The beetle attacked Beleth, pushing him back with its horns.

Lucy used the distraction to check on Luke and Hunter. Both
had been knocked out, again. She worried about permanent damage after so many
attacks. Purplish bruises had formed on Luke's face, and on Hunter's stomach,
where his shirt had been pushed up.

"Guys, wake up. We gotta get out of here." She
nudged them each and cajoled them to wake. The sphere had fallen from Hunter's
hand, and she grabbed it and slid it into her pocket.

Beleth and the beetle had taken to the air, tumbling through
the sky in an acrobatic aerial battle. Jaws snapped at blades. Claws tore into
muscle. Beleth struck the beetle's shell, and Lucy felt it in her gut. It was
willing to die for her, and she couldn't stop it, only try to get away in time
to stop Steele and save her friends and the other kids.

There was still a way they could all make it out alive.
Maybe.

Hunter groaned and sat up. "Lucy, are you okay?"

She nodded and caressed his face, also starting to bruise.
"I am, but you look like hell. We have to go." She turned to her
brother. "Come on, Luke."

He looked worse than Hunter, pale and sunken into himself.
He'd used too much power, drained himself too often. He groaned. "Luce,
did we win?"

She helped him up. "Well, we're not dead
yet
.
Let's count that as a victory and get the hell out of here."

They followed the edge of the cliff until reaching a
waterfall. Simmons followed silently, still nursing her broken nose and
shooting daggers at Lucy.

The waterfall plummeted into jagged rocks below. Jumping
would not end well for them. Near the waterfall, a thin piece of rock rose,
like a column sticking up from the cliff, thinner through the middle. They
might be able to jump to it and climb down, but even at optimal health, that
could be disastrous. And no one in her rag-tag crew was at optimal
anything
at the moment.

Another spasm in her gut; the beetle had taken another hit.
She couldn't let it die for them. This wasn't the beetle's battle.

She edged near the waterfall, her toes hanging off the
cliff. "We jump. Luke, I know you're tired, but try to slow us down as
much as you can."

Simmons balked. "I'm not jumping down there. Your
brother can barely stand on his own two feet."

"Fine. Stay here and die. I really don't care
anymore."

Hunter held her hand and leaned in to kiss her. "I love
you, Lucy. You're the bravest woman I've ever known."

Simmons frowned at them, but Lucy ignored her.

As they prepared to jump, the beetle fell from the sky and
landed in water beside them—flipped on its back, gashes and dents in its shell.
It twitched, still alive but hurt.

Beleth dropped from the sky behind them, turned his hand
into a giant hammer and lunged it forward, throwing Luke, Lucy and Hunter over
the cliff.

Simmons remained behind with Beleth.

Hunter landed on the thin column of rock, using his
para-powers to navigate the tricky balancing act.

Lucy grabbed on to its edge, the sharp rock cutting into her
hand.

Her brother fell into the waterfall and disappeared into the
white mist.

Her throat thickened and she let out a loud sob. "No!
Luke!"

Grief, weariness and pain gripped her. The blood from her
cuts mixed with water on the rock to make it slippery. A strong hand gripped
her wrist and pulled her up. Hunter. She struggled to right herself, and shot
an angry glare above.

Beleth stood at the edge of the cliff, his expression a mix
of grief and anger. "I'm sorry for your brother."

Luke. God, no, Luke.
He couldn't be dead, but looking
down, she didn't know how he could have survived.

Beleth may have been under Steele's control, but he was too
dangerous a weapon to let live. She stepped forward, ready to end him once and
for all, when the small piece of rock tilted under her feet, the midsection
breaking from the weight of two bodies.