The Ring Bearer (24 page)

52

Daniel tried to keep up with Callin, but after the gunfire started, it was futile. He looked behind him, but Nevia had fallen behind almost immediately. He wasn’t even sure she had taken to running to begin with. He was slightly disappointed by that. He knew that she couldn’t possibly hold his friends in as high esteem as he did, but he thought she might put in a little more gumption. 

By the time he made it out the doors, the gunfire was getting pretty heavy. Danato and his men were tucked in alongside his house firing on the men heading to the helicopter. Clark was among them, and one of his soldiers was carrying Cori over his shoulder. Danato’s men were doing their best to stop them, but they couldn’t risk an all-out massacre with Cori in the mix.

Against the prison wall not far from where he came out, Ethan and Heaton were firing on the men guarding the helicopter that had landed right in the middle of the courtyard. The bullets from both sides were falling short, but they could hardly switch tactics without making themselves vulnerable.

Callin was behind Ethan and Heaton pacing, like a caged animal. He was a man of action, guns were not likely to impress him, but he did have to abide by basic rules of self-preservation—bullet proof or not, being pummeled by multiple bullets could still put him on the sidelines. He leaned down to say something to Ethan who was crouched under Heaton taking the low aim, while Heaton took the high.

Ethan looked over at Clark and the bell boy carrying Cori like luggage. He jumped up knocking Heaton’s gun out of position. Daniel started to run over to stop him from doing something stupid, but luckily Callin had the foresight and strength to stop him. Ethan was in the middle of his torrent of emotions when he locked eyes with Daniel.

“Kill him!” Ethan ordered as Daniel made it to him.

Daniel glanced over at Clark nearly two hundred yards away. He looked back at Ethan and shook his head. “It’s too far man. I’d kill Cori too.”

Ethan was more than disappointed. He was beside himself with fear and anger. They were two emotions that never sat well together. There was no room for patience in that mix. “He’s going to take her?” Ethan ground out as Cori was loaded into the helicopter.

“Let him,” Callin said more calmly than Daniel would have expected from his first view of the situation.

“What?” Everyone was thinking it, but Heaton asked it.

“Trust me, Ethan. This fight is only beginning.” Callin smiled.

Daniel exchanged a look with Heaton, but neither of them knew Callin well enough to know if he was making a plan or just giving Ethan a pep talk. The questions that should have followed were interrupted by the helicopter lifting off the ground.

“Cori!” Ethan started to run out to it despite the risk of being shot by Clark’s remaining men.

“Shit! Heaton!” Daniel hissed and ran after him.

“I’m on it!” Heaton yelled from behind him.

Ethan didn’t shoot as he ran toward the helicopter, but Clark’s men didn’t offer the same courtesy. Daniel focused on the space between Ethan and the men firing. It was a blanket destruction wave that was easier to do than a focused one, but he had to remain attentive since he wasn’t going to get a second chance at stopping a bullet.

The coolness filled his body and he could feel his joints ache with the running pace. The guns fired, but the bullets were dust in the wind by the time they reached Ethan. He heard Heaton firing behind them, keeping the left flank by Danato’s house off of them.

Daniel didn’t even know Callin had run past them until he was ahead of Ethan. The overachieving werewolf took one superman leap at the ascending helicopter. His graceful jump almost fell short when the helicopter veered off toward its destination, but his hand caught the landing skid and didn’t let go.

Ethan’s shooters gave up the gun fight and ran at him full force. He took down two men with easy punches, but a third got him from behind. A fourth man approached and raised his gun. Daniel threw his contradicting power at him and sent the man forty feet in the opposite direction. Unfortunately, his enthusiastic defense landed him on his ass ten feet away from his previous position.

Heaton came over to check on him. “You okay?”

Daniel gave him a thumbs-up, but he didn’t really feel very thumbs-up. Heaton offered him a hand. When he was returned to a standing position, he saw a man a few meters behind Heaton about to fire on them. Daniel pushed Heaton protectively to the ground.

The man suddenly fell back hit by an unexpected round. Daniel exchanged looks with Heaton, who was taking his turn on the ground. Another chorus of gunshots preceded several of Clark’s men dropping. They followed the sound and saw Nevia on the roof, taking aim with a borrowed sniper rifle. Naturally, she was getting dead on shots to the exposed targets.

Daniel smiled as he reached down to return the favor to help Heaton. “Dude, you are so in love with her,” he mocked.

“Can you blame me?” Daniel posed coolly no longer denying the accusation.

“Little help!” Ethan grunted as he tried to fight off four men that had resorted to dog piling him as an attack.

“Oh!” Daniel and Heaton exclaimed and rushed over to peel the men off with a few well-placed sets of knuckles.

53

Danato watched Ethan and his friends take on the straggling regime by the helicopter, while the others ducked for cover around the house and in the grasses beyond to get away from the roof fire. He couldn’t even begin to wonder why Callin was out of his cell, and why he was hanging from the helicopter Cori was being kidnapped in, but he hoped that was a good thing.

For once in his life, he wasn’t angry. He was only scared. Cori was too important to him, to lose. He didn’t care about getting revenge. He didn’t care about what he had to do. All he knew was that he couldn’t lose another woman he loved.

“Need some help?” Garr said from behind him. Danato turned and found Garr and Remi carefully looped by the arms observing the situation.

Danato looked over the pair of them wondering how many rules it broke to employ the prisoners for his cause. Then again, if it worked for Cori and Ethan, why not for him? “Yeah,” he nodded. “I want these assholes off my property as soon as possible.”

Remi smiled and Garr smiled—as best he could. They released each other and marched forward each with their own agenda.  

54

Jillian came to inside of a helicopter. She had a vague recollection of why she was there, but it was more like a dream than a memory. Outside the window, a grassy tundra zipped by. She saw a no name soldier sitting across from her. Beside him was a familiar face, General Clark.

General Gregory Clark was the reason she lost her medical license, and why she had spent the last six years searching for her love. He was the reason she was there.  She despised him to her very core.

She had witnessed him kill Hirem. The memory of his death was still fresh in her mind. As was her own death.

It didn’t make sense, but it didn’t have to. The emotion behind it was raw and penetrating. There was no room for logic at this point. All she could do was wallow in her anger, grief, and fear.

She may not have remembered how she got there, but she knew what she wanted to do now that she was. She was fastened to her seat and her hands were bound together behind her, but not the way they should have been. Even now she could feel the anger pooling in her gut, translating to her hands.

She knew she didn’t need to fear Clark anymore. She had the power now. She didn’t have to leave Hirem’s death unanswered for.

55

There were moments in time that just didn’t make sense. The first night Ethan spent in Danato’s home was the beginning of those moments, but as strange as it was to see a vampire hanging on his bedroom window, it was stranger still to watch Danato directing his men to cover Remi and Garr while they laid waist the Clark’s men.

Remi shot blasts of water that lacerated the men. Garr engulfed the high grasses in flames, which scattered the hiding men. Those that weren’t taken down by humane leg and arm shots by the prison guards, were downed by Nevia. Although she was taking full body shots, their Kevlar vests would keep them alive—just securely unconscious.

Ethan assigned Heaton and Daniel the task of collecting weapons to prevent any further problems. With the good guys back on the winning side, Ethan stared after the diminishing helicopter. His only mode of flying transportation was a dragon, and she wasn’t likely to cooperate, nor was Danato. Although, in this particular case, Danato might approve any plan as long as it got Cori back.

Instead, he just put his trust in his newest werewolf friend. He had high hopes that if anyone could save Cori, it would be him.

As he watched, the helicopter wobbled and fire spewed from its cockpit. It careened to the ground along with his hopes of Cori’s safe return. A plume of fire and smoke rose above the exterior walls. Paused panic tingled along Ethan’s skin, draining his muscle control and making him instantly sick. His knees hit the ground and he slumped over unable to make demands on his limbs. The only part of his body that was operating was his eyes. Even with tears welling and blurring his view, he couldn’t pry his eyes off the space that the helicopter should have inhabited.

He could hear Danato bellowing at the distant catastrophe with the same anger and pre-emptive grief that he felt, but he couldn’t find a thought in his mind, let alone a voice in his throat. 

56

Danato didn’t want to believe the worst. He wanted to believe that Cori was okay. He wanted to believe that the helicopter wasn’t high enough; that the drop wouldn’t kill her; that she might somehow survive. He wanted to believe, so very much.

“Where is she?” Belus asked from beside him.

Danato glanced down at his friend. Belus looked like he was in pain, and he felt bad that he hadn’t gone inside to check on him. His eyes narrowed demanding the answer to his question without actually saying it.

“She’s gone,” he answered not prepared to say the other word until he saw the wreckage for himself.

Efrat stumbled out of the house and triaged the situation. He noticed his fellow elementals working with Danato’s men and a grim smile appeared on his face that might as well have been a grimace. Even in the midst of this chaos he had caused, he had the gall to condescend.

Danato stalked toward him with the intention of ripping his head clean off. “You did this!”

“Danato, don’t!” Belus yelled after him, but he was already at Efrat’s neck.

Efrat grabbed his wrists sending an arch of electricity through his body that snapped under his fingernails. Despite the pain he didn’t let go. He wanted Efrat to pay for everything. Rationally or not, he wanted to blame the last six years on him. If Cori was indeed dead, then there would be no one to care whether he lived or died. He could be once and for all rid of the pain in the ass. 

Belus’s voice was joined by several others, but no one could grab him since he was as electrically charged as Efrat. Nothing was going to keep him from getting his revenge.

Except perhaps being flung thirty feet by an invisible force.

His connection separated from Efrat and they both landed near each other, but out of reach. Daniel’s feet stopped beside him and he stared down at Danato like he was trying to be tough, but remembered that he wasn’t. “Don’t make me do that again, Danato,” he pleaded more than threatened.

Danato stood up and dusted off his clothes. Daniel fell back giving him plenty of space. Efrat stood as well. He didn’t attack, but his usual embittered facial expression was slightly more sour than usual.

Danato looked to the cluster of people he laughably called his family. They all had the same look. They wanted a leader. Ethan was nearly catatonic with grief. Daniel no doubt would have preferred to not be there at all. Belus was still getting filled in by Heaton, but he was already goading him with wide eyes. They needed a leader, and that leader was him.

“Somebody get me a truck!” He barked at anyone in ear range. “We need to check the wreckage for survivors. Ethan you’re with me. Belus stay here and monitor things. Get Clark’s men rounded up, imprisoned and/or treated. Heaton can inform the medical staff that they need to prepare for…anything.”

Everyone seemed relieved to have an order and jumped to. Belus headed over to check on Garr and Remi’s progress. They were starting to have a little too much fun with their herding and would need to be reined in. Nothing Belus couldn’t handle.

As he passed Danato, Belus nodded to Efrat. “You should take him with you, too.”

Danato would have laughed if he thought he could manage it in his state of paused grief. “What?”

Efrat seemed to be just as surprised by the suggestion, and furrowed his brow at Belus.

“He brought me back once.” Belus shrugged. “Just in case.”

Danato looked back at Efrat. He expected him to smile smugly or outright refuse to help. Instead he gave a curt nod. “I’ll help if I can.”