Bound by Revenge (Guardian Series) (27 page)

They were going down.

Alex approached them carefully, not sure what sort of powers they’d have to surprise him with. When he found himself sliding across the room, face first, on the floor, he knew. His opponents had strength he didn’t know how to conquer. Same as Vance. But Vance had held back during their brief practice. Too bad these guys weren’t afraid to hurt him. Hand to hand combat would never work against his opponents. They’d mop the floor with him, literally.

And his gun really wasn’t a great option. It would be too dangerous. There was no guaranteeing that he could get his aim right, which meant with his brother so close to the demons he would be hard to avoid. It wasn’t a risk worth taking.

That left him with his old standby. He pulled a pair of kamas from under his shirt, where he had tied them down to keep them secure. The Japanese kama had been one of his favorite weapons during all his years of exhibition fighting. The ones he pulled out today bore some similarity to the short sickles he used in the past. They held the same shape, but unlike the thin, dull blades that had holes running across the surface, the blades on the kamas he pulled out today were made of a solid piece of steel, sharpened at the point and along the bottom of the blade.

He was pleasantly surprised when he pulled the weapons from Vance’s stash. And he was eager to test his skills against the power of the demons.

“Alright boys. Lucky shot. But let’s try this again.” He said.

Alex approached them slowly, more cautious after their last meeting. But this time, when the first brute struck out to knock him back again, Alex blocked his punch by hooking his arm with the curve of the kama.

The demon growled at the pain as his blood pooled on the ground. It flowed freely from the wound left on his arm, with no sign of healing.

“You didn’t think I’d use just any old weapon, did you?” Alex chuckled, before he attacked the stunned demon again. This time catching the blade in the center of demon number one’s chest and dropping him to the floor.

“Hmm. That was a lot easier than I expected.” Alex said to himself. “Now it’s your turn big boy. You ready for this?”

The second demon pushed Tom onto the floor as he tried to get the boy out of the way so he’d have a clear path of attack. The guardian was far more skilled than they were prepared for. Sarrin was a strong demon and he went down fast, without putting up much of a fight.

Eroin had been fighting alongside Sarrin for almost a hundred years. It had been since they had both turned their backs on the old ways and gone rogue. They defied the creators and opted to live for only their own pleasure.

They’d been wreaking havoc in Ruthers all that time.

Originally, they’d started slowly. Only the two of them on their team. They’d throw parties, invited teenagers from town, provided alcohol and drugs and watched the chaos. That got old quickly and they moved onto the adults.

With the adults, everything was far more exciting. Adults didn’t get grounded for bad behavior, they had real consequences. The two demons would convince people to lie, cheat, steal and fight. They ruined relationships, caused people to lose their jobs, sent people to jail and influenced people to give into their instincts. It resulted in all sorts of unforeseen results, from raging orgies to murder.

Still it was small time fun with just the two of them to share in the spoils.

Slowly other demons began finding their way to Ruthers and joining their ranks. With the swell in numbers, the group got more audacious in their attempts. They built gangs in town, not the teenage street gangs like you’d find in the large cities, but mobster style groups that helped the demons terrorize the neighborhoods through their threats and displays of violent control.

Eroin and Sarrin led the group halfheartedly all that time. They had been more interested in the results than the structure. When Morgan came to town and wanted to take control, the two were more than willing to give it up. It would only give them more time to enjoy what they’d created.

Standing there with Sarrin lying dead on the floor in front of him, Eroin started questioning Morgan’s leadership. There was no enjoyment to be had in death but it was too late to second guess their decision. Now he had to fight for his life and take down, not only the guardian that killed his best friend, but the others in the room as well in order to break out of the warehouse and move his operations to another town. He just hoped that Morgan would let him leave.

Alex attacked demon number two just like he’d gone after the first. But the demon had learned something from the first altercation. He blocked the path of the kama with his own blade. He tossed one from Alex’s grip and left him with only one of his pair.

Still, Alex couldn’t be deterred by something as simple as losing a weapon. He was so close to getting his brother back.

“You’ll pay for that, guardian.” The demon said. “He was my best friend. You have no idea what you’ve done.”

“I know exactly what I did. I took out the asshole that was going to kill my brother. What makes your friend more important than my family?”

“He was the only one I had.” Alex shrunk out of the way of the demons sword as it cut through the air.

“Yeah, we’ll Tom’s the only brother I have, and to hell with you if you think you can take him away from me.”

“Oh, I’ll take him away from you, and then I’ll take everyone else you care about. Then after you watch each of them bleed out on the floor in front of you, I’ll kill you.”

“You underestimate the Andrean strength. A deadly mistake on your part. But don’t take my word for it.” Alex said while trying unsuccessfully to make contact.

“Are you sure you don’t want to start begging now. It’s the last shot you have to save the boy. I’ll kill you anyway, of course.”

Alex paused to think about the offer. It was more likely than not a trick. But if there was any doubt in his mind that he’d win this, it might be worth the shot to give up his own life for his defenseless brother.

“Kill him, Alex.” Tom’s voice rang across the room.

Glad to have the reassurance from his brother, Alex knew he couldn’t just surrender to the demon. Their best chance of making it out of here as a group was to kill as many of these damn demons as they could. And to hell if Alex wasn’t going to do his part.

The demon’s strikes were quick and hard. Alex blocked each attack without much thought. That was the benefit of all his practice. The movements had become second nature to him.

His muscles strained, exhausted from controlling the demon’s blade. The demon seemed to get stronger with each blow as his anger boiled up inside him.

Alex knew he couldn’t continue blocking the blows for much longer. He needed to finish the demon off before he didn’t have the strength left to do the job. Before he became a lifeless shell on the floor and abandoned his brother with no protector.

He needed to take the risk. He ducked away from the demon’s next advance instead of blocking it. He used that second that the demon needed to resume his stance after the attack to throw his body under the demon’s arm and hook the kama into the demon’s heart from behind.

One final scream escaped from the demon as his upper body swayed slowly before his legs collapsed underneath him. He cracked his head on the floor when he landed. 

Chapter
Twenty

Abby heard the unearthly scream coming from the back of the room. Alex had to be doing ok on his own because it wasn’t his scream that she heard in the background. Good thing, too, since he wasn’t going to get help from anyone else. Vance was locked in the battle of his life against Morgan. And he had to keep an extra close eye on Morgan because he knew how quickly she’d turn away from him and attack Sam.

Sam was fighting the leanthan leader without any real progress and Abby herself was honing her skills against Leus, good practice, but disappointingly not a quick win.

Knowing that Alex was doing well against the demons gave her back the hope that maybe they’d all get out of this alive and unharmed. Now, instead of killing off their opponents, they just needed to get Tom safely out of there and back to Alex’s house.

She could see Alex unshackling Tom out of the corner of her eye. Leus wouldn’t give her the chance to go see him, though. She ducked his advances and returned them when she could. All the fight in her was gone for the moment. She was just trying to keep herself safe while she waited to see if Tom had been injured. Too bad they hadn’t thought far enough ahead to come up with an evacuation plan.

A single shot echoed through the large, almost empty room. Every fighter froze in place before taking inventory of their own bodies to see if they had been the one hit.

Abby was fine and she didn’t shoot Leus. Alex and Tom were cautiously making their way across the room. Neither one hurt. Sam was roughed up but not bleeding. And Arratta seemed fine, too.

That left Vance or Morgan.

The two were on the floor, wrestling for the small pistol. Blood covered both of their clothes and the more they struggled, the more blood smeared over their bodies and onto the floor around them.

Finally, Vance knocked the gun out of Morgan’s grasp and threw it towards Sam. She scooped it up as soon as she saw it coming in her direction.

Once Vance knew that the gun was safely away from Morgan, he stopped fighting. The pain was immobilizing. It shot from his shoulder all the way down to his leg. He struggled to pull air into his lungs and still his concern was not for himself, but for Sam.

He regretted pulling the gun out and flashing it at Morgan. If he could go back in time, he wouldn’t have brought the firearm in with him at all. Then he would never have been tempted to use it. But as powerful as he was, he couldn’t turn back time. He just hoped he would live with the consequences.

Morgan hadn’t meant to shoot him. Really, she hadn’t. It was just a reflex. Vance pointed the gun at her and aimed right at her head. She wasn’t about to let him kill her so she tried with all her might to force the gun from his hands.

At some point during the struggle the gun went off. She wasn’t even sure if the bullet had hit him or her or no one at all, not until she saw all the blood anyway.

“You did this to yourself. You did this to us.” Morgan’s voice was shrill from panic and she shook Vance’s shoulders and jostled his whole body.

“Morgan, if I die, this was your fault alone. You should have stayed out of his. So help you god, if you try to go after Sam for this, I will find a way to destroy you, even from the other side.” Vance’s voice was failing. Morgan had to lean over his mouth to pick up the faint words.

“None of this should have happened. We were fine before. Before you.” Morgan pinned Sam with a glare so fierce there was no question there had to be love behind it. Love for the demon lying beneath her.

This time, there were no threats, no snappy comebacks. Nothing.

Just the gaping wound in Vance’s side. It wouldn’t be a quick death. The hole wasn’t over his heart, but he was losing blood fast and his skin was already taking on that green tinge his kind adopted before they died.

Morgan was stunned. Too stunned to think. Too stunned to move.

Sam couldn’t believe what had happened. Vance was hit. After all this time, she finally had a chance at happiness and Morgan took it all away from her.

Tears didn’t cloud her eyes as she looked down at her lover on the ground, bleeding. Instead, Sam was filled with a clarity she had never experienced before and a rage so intense that without her inhuman strength she wouldn’t have been able to control herself for even a moment.

Morgan wasn’t moving in to try to finish him off. She was leaning over him, talking, and stroking his skin. Seeing Morgan sitting calmly in a pool of Vance’s blood filled her with a strange sensation. Almost as though she was plummeting off the side of a bottomless cliff.