Chosen (The Chosen Few Trilogy #1) (40 page)

He heard Ceriden swearing off to his left, more drama queen than vampire, but the man certainly could fight. He watched Felicia tear her way through demons and foul humans alike, not yet adopting her Lycan form.

They were metres away from Mena Gaines and the mall entrance. The façade that fronted the mall had been shredded by gunfire. Blood was splashed over the walls like the work of a psychotic graffiti artist.

Cleaver saw Mena Gaines take stock of the situation. Emily Cr
owe inclined her head in Gaines’
direction.
“
It is done,
”
he heard Crowe say.

In that moment Gaines’ eyes locked onto his own.

“
Ah
, Marion. I thought my battle might
be against you.
”

Cleaver hesitated, looking beyond her to where he saw
twelve
strange, robed figures. Crowe
was
striding towards them, her pace swift and purposeful.
A
round her
the mall
blazed and burned. A brand new yellow Hummer, raised on a dais, l
isted onto its side with a crash as its
support collapsed. Crowe fairly danced through the inferno.

Jesus!
He had
to hurry. What would happen if
Crowe
raised this mysterious
Hierarchy? Moot question, really. Cheyne didn’t even know what the hell the Hierarchy was up to.

Either way, Cleaver thought, his duty was to stop Gaines and Crowe.

Delta boys dropped to one knee, took aim with their weapons, and fired a volley. Crazed bodies jerked and fell bac
kwards, sprawling on the
marble
floor. The shots echoed and played havoc with the acoustics, repeating again until even Cleaver ducked instinctively.

Emily Crowe was down amongst the bodies. Cleaver couldn’t tell whether she was dead or alive.

They penetrated further inside the mall
, entering
through the food court. Metal chairs and tables were scattered around in disarray. A row of barricaded eateries circled the court.

Cleaver saw bodies dotted here and there, some tied to the barriers that separated the food court from the restaurants, a few hanging from the rafters above, others sprawling over the cushioned seating. For some, this mall truly had been Hell.

Cleaver ached with guilt. Innocents
had
died here, even as the cops and the feds and
Aegis
dithered around outside.

For a long second everyone just stood there
, wiping their brows and
taking stock. Cleaver even managed to return Felicia
’
s grim smile.

“
Looks like-
”
he began, but a sound cut him off.

Behind him he heard Mena Gaines start
to laugh, a corrupt
sound that set his nerves on edge. When he turned she was standing in the entrance way, her right foot resting atop the lifeless body of a cop, her left hand constricting the throat of another.
Cleaver flinched away from the
hate that glowed from her ashen eyes.

“
Fight me!
”
she screamed at him.
“
Your cowardice owns you, Marion! Just like the dictators you work for!
”

Cleaver
leveled
his shotgun at her.
“
Fuck you.
”

He fired. She danced aside, and the blast missed her right cheek by a millimetre, so close he saw
sparks chewing and burning
her flesh in the shell’s wake.

Beside him, Felicia fell to her knees. At first he thought the lycan had given up and a searing horror gripped him, but then he saw her scrabbling for a cop
’
s discarded gun.

Felicia fired three successive shots at Gaines.
The Destroyer danced aside and then, with
supernatural speed, was
among them
.
Her elbow caught him across the cheek and sent him reeling.
Her front kick
slammed
into his ribcage with crushing strength. He fel
l back, gasping for breath, barely avoiding
her follow up.

At that moment a sight
greeted his eyes that
stunned
him into immobility.

A
tank
was trundling through
the mall entrance behind Gaines, grinding away plaster and concrete as it went. Its gun turret
swiveled
a few notches- towards the Destroyer.

Cleaver moved barely in time as Gaines spun and leapt towards him, executing perfect strikes that he barely managed to evade. In one second of do or die decision he let her get near him, close enough to stare point blank into her feral eyes and to smell her fetid breath.

“
Weak,
”
she hissed, spittle flying from her bloodless lips.

“There’s a tank behind you,” he hissed back,
reveling
in the fear that
crossed her face
.

Cleaver unloosened the cattle prod from beneath his duster and pressed it against her heart.

“I’ll always be
better than you, Gaines,
”
he said and pressed the button.

Mena Gaines
’
s eyes widened into pools of agony.
Cleaver
shoved her body away as it
shook with epileptic
convuls
ions
.

And suddenly Cleaver
made a
double-take as Ken Hamilton strode past him, gleamin
g sword held in one hand,
closely followed by Cheyne and the members of her coven.

Cheyne said, “We have wasted enough time here.”

Mena Gaines groaned at his feet. Cleaver looked down at her and felt a
moment’s
pity. Here was a human woman, corrupted beyond
recognition or repair, writhing in
agony
but
seeking a way to destroy him.

Cleaver hardened his heart, took out a Glock, and aimed it at her skull.

“
You could
…
never
…
kill,
”
she spat up at him.
“
Not in cold
…
blood.
”

Cleaver thought back through his life. At
every turn he had tried to
put the wanderers back on the right path.

Was she
truly
beyond help?

Gaines stared up into his eyes, holding his gaze, his attention.

The cynical part of him thought
why?

He heard Ceriden
’s
yell and
jumped back, more through years of well-honed instinct than
anything else, not even sure he was the object
of the vampires warning.

But Mena Gaines
’
dagger still sliced through his shin. If he hadn
’
t stepped back it would have crippled him.

Gaines squeal of glee sounded
like knives grating over bone.
She rose to her feet like a demonic phoenix, daggers flashing, but
then
Cleaver saw a fantastical sight:
Felicia, sprinting gracefully- wild, blonde hair streaming out behind her, arms and legs thrustin
g like pistons in a
V8 Camaro- suddenly drop into a four-legged sprint without missing a beat. As she dropped, her body moulded seamlessly into a wolfs, gaining powerful hind legs and a strong, muscular back, front paws with razor-like claws and a Lycan
’
s pronounced skull. Her cry became a snarl and then a howl of joyful bloodlust.

Sh
e struck Gaines in the chest, then used her ripping claws to gain purchase and wrap herself around the Destroyer’s hard body,
scrambl
ing around her back, and then reappearing with her fangs bared right at Gaines’ exposed throat.

In that explosive moment
Gaines hadn’t
even
move
d
an inch. Felicia ripped out Gaines’ throat in a tearing mess of flesh and blood. The Destroyer staggered, dropped to a knee, and then collapsed with a soft sigh, unable to give vent to her dying agonies because her vocal chords had been shredded.

Felicia, still in wolf form, snarled up towards the heights of the mall.

Cheyne sighed.
“
T
he Hierarchy are not here then,”
she said almost to herself. “I do not understand this diversion at all.” Her voice sounded hollow, defeated.

Ken rested the tip of his sword on the floor and turned to her.
“
You don
’
t sound too happy about that. Isn
’
t it
good
news?
”

Cheyne scratched her nose.
“
Let’s be honest,
it
s
right there in our faces-
why
would a demon want to ruin this world?”

“Pointless,” a member of Cheyne’s coven put in helpfully. Cleaver peered into the depths of her cowl but saw only a hint of blonde hair, blue eyes, and her platinum talisman.

“
Their plan either runs deeper,
”
Cheyne said.
“Or this is the most elaborate diversion of all time
.
”

“So,” Ceriden regarded Cheyne with wide eyes. “What
is
their plan?”

“We’re missing something. And I bet my broomstick Crowe’s in on it.”

“Why?” Ken asked.

“She was
here,
” Cheyne said. “Orchestrating everything. Now, that bitch has vanished.”

“I saw a dozen robed figures
chanting
,” Cleaver told them.

“Didn’t Crowe go to Egypt, then Paris?” Ken recalled from Kinkade’s bulletins. “
Didn’t she stea
l something from the Louvre
?
”

“Yes. The Louvre t
ext,” Cheyne said
, then spun towards her coven.
“Look into it,” she said urgently. “We need to know everything about that text.
Now.”

In the
silence that followed Cleaver shook his head and surveyed the chaos around him. Oddly, he felt good. At the end of the day they
had
re-taken the mall.

“
So,
”
he said.
“
Who fancies a trip
to the beach?
”

5
1

NEW BABYLON - THE BEACH

The lesser Gods tore at the skies.

I fell back as Jondal hurled his staff at my head. I sensed Tanya dancing in from my left, kicking the beach sand into tiny whorls under her bare feet, and watched her engage the Destroyer, effortlessly spinning and ducking under Jondal
’
s precise swings, pirouetting to avoid one blow, then striking savagely with a lunge that almost broke the skeletal man‘s arm.

I gathered some power. Beside me I sensed L
ucy doing the same. I was
aware that Gorgoroth- the World Ender- was on his way, but I took a moment to glance sideways
.

“
So now you
’
re chosen too?
”
I had a hundred questions, a thousand.

Lucy shrugged.
“
Always knew I was, dad, didn
’
t you?
”

I grinned and pretended to reach out to ruffle her hair.

“
No
way
,
”
she cried in mock-anger. Then s
he raised a finger
.
“
I
’
ll soak you.
”

I watched as Tanya drove Jondal back
.
A demon breached
our lines
.
I
used my power to thrust it
into the sand, forcing it feet first until it was buried up to its neck and unable to move. Then Lucy fireballed its head.

“Go team!” Lucy shrieked. Father and daughter working together. Quaint.