Chosen (The Chosen Few Trilogy #1) (41 page)

At that moment there was a massive commotion in our front line. Several vampires fell at once, writhing in agony. Then, suddenly, Loki was there! With unbelievable skill he cleared a space around him- an unstoppable, deadly dervish. The deadliest warrior our world had ever known.

Loki leapt through our ranks, his stony face crinkling into the most malicious exp
ression
I’d ever seen. He craved
all this death and destruction, worshipped at its altar and drank from its poisoned chalice. Above us the
Gods trumpeted and then
there
was an ear-splitting
crack as if the heavens had been ripped wide open.

Lightning sheared through the dark, illuminating everything in sparkling incandescence. Thunderclaps pealed in constant succession, a thousand bombs detonating one after another without end.

A
vast spinning darkness appear
ed
o
ver
the ocean, a darkness that dwarfed the skies into insignificance.
In disbelief,
I saw the pale grey arms that belo
nged to the lesser Gods
start waving uncontrollably as if in pure terror.

The great darkness expanded once
more
. Lightning struck the rolling oceans, hissing like molten steel plunged in ice water.

“
This is it,
”
Johnny
,
in his wheelchair, was
at my side.
“
This is everything we have trained for.
”

Loki leapt our way.
“
My Master has arrived!
”

I tried to collect my power but the warrior was too quick. In a second he was among us and I remembered the speed with which he
’
d punished Eliza
‘
s single mistake.

This was our death. I cast around desperately for Lucy.

Loki hacked
at my neck but I
stumbled
away. He had hold of Johnny’s elbow with his other hand.

All of a sudden Eldritch was there; the King of the elves struck at Loki until he was forced to focus on his own defence.

“
I knew we would meet again, Eldritch-
”
Loki
’
s sibilant taunt slipped past my ears.

So, with Loki and Eldritch locked in deadly combat next to us, Johnny
, Lucy,
and I turned our full attention once more to the boiling oceans.

“
This is our last chance,
”
Belinda came to stand before us now. Tanya Jordan moved to her side. In another second Jade, looking battle-torn and speckled with
blood
came to stand with
them.

“
We will make this our line,
”
Belinda said to the amazing warriors around her.
“
Our line of death. Nothing gets past it, nothing gets past us. Or we die trying.
”

And now Ken walked past me, looking somehow
changed
in the silvery light. The surfer dude looked harder. Gone was the flippant smile. Gone was the trademark slouch.
Here was a man who had
found his calling.

“
Last stand time is it?
”
he smiled
.
“
Right where I wanna be.
”

Ceriden came to my other side, and helped make a second line with Felicia, Cheyne and Marian Cleaver.

In the next few minutes I saw some of the greatest feats of combat our world had ever
known. I felt privileged,
breathless, to be a part of it. It all started when the Ga
tes of Hell belched forth
dozens of
shrieking fiends brandishing
weapons
, and among them ran Emily Crowe, fresh from Hell
. She saw us
and
sent
the whole infernal group at us with a
hiss
of command. And among us they fell. Ripping. Snarling. Possessed of a bloodlust
beyond anything I had ever
seen, fired by brimstone and sulphur. But, like I said, we stood firm. Those warriors like Belinda and Tanya, Jade and Ken and Felicia punched and kicked left and right, they slashed with weapons and feet and claws, they made their stand and retreated not an inch. And the fiends of Hell fell dying and dead on the ground, shattered apart, painting the sand with their leaking life-blood, their
ranks falling on
the unbreakable steel of our iron defence like mere waves smashed upon a mountain of unyielding rock.

Only Crowe remained alive, and simply because her cowardly, black heart told her to flee.

Hundreds of feet above us the skies churned. With a grinding, cracking sound the heavens literally
tore apart.
The new black hole
overwhelmed everything else. The
agonized
trumpeting of the lesser Gods spoke reams to us of what was happening up there.

It was Gorgoroth. The World-ender. He was here. And he was feasting on the very Gods that had summoned him.

Half
-
chewed
tentacles splashed into the ocean
. Chunks of pallid, slimy flesh rained down from the skies, a terrible solid rain that made me want to retch.

I touched Johnny
’
s hand. Together we expanded our bubble of power until it was just visible in the night air, a faint she
en of light pulsing with
energy.

Above us s
omething
immense, probably
immeasurable
, began to force its way through. There was a mind-numbing noise that accompanied it, like a thousand whispers running through my head all at once.

Pain exploded behind my eyes. I turned around, grimacing. I saw Devon struggling to contain this new attack
.
Lysette had collapsed to her knees. I hoped to God she hadn’t gotten a glimpse of Gorgoroth’s mind. Giles was bent over beside her.

“
Do
it
now
!
”
I heard Belinda scream and saw from my periphery another great phalanx of demons crash into our ranks. Suddenly humans and Ubers were battling everywhere. Loki was still locked in a deadly struggle with Eldritch. Emily Crowe was wearing our forces down on the left flank.

Cheyne raised her arms as the members of her coven assembled
.
After a moments murmuring, I saw a blur form in the air around the dark-cloaked coven, shimmering like St Elmo
’
s fire, then portions of the blur shot off in several directions.

Demons were struck but they d
id not fall. Instead they
stopped moving, seemingly
mesmerized
. Cheyne and her brethren had unleashed a glamour on them, one that robbed them of all volition.

Vampires and lycans fell upon them.

I looked up. A miniscule portion of Gorgoroth had
already slipped through into our world
, a portion that dwarfed the ocean.

Gorgoroth was the
o
riginal evil
, the root of everything we feared-
from the darkness that crawls under your bed to the shadow stalking you in the night. He was the pale white hand that falls on your s
houlder in a locked, empty room;
t
he light footfall downstairs that drags you out of sleep. Gorgoroth spawned the very
idea
of badness, of evil, of the existence of the Devil. It was he who planted that seed in our minds, and left it to be nurtured.

Loki flung elbows and punches and spin kicks. Eldritch blocked well for a time, but then his regal bearing started to diminish.

At that moment Emily Crowe distracted Eldritch with a staff strike. Loki struck a stiffened finger into Eldritch
’
s neck and even from my position I heard cartilage snap. Eldritch went down clutching his neck. Loki stomped on his head, then growled
like a rabid dog.

“
I win!
”
he cried.
“Your best of best cannot defeat me!
No one will ever beat me!
”

My heart and mind choked as I saw Belinda step
up to him, a beautiful
reed standing before the mighty storm, catching his full attention. Even as I prepared to let loose the power Johnny and I had gathered I saw on Belinda
’
s face a
n
acceptance at having to engage this deadly opponent. I knew she was ready to die to save us.

I had no more time. Behind me Devon Summers
’
voice strained and cracked with the effort of
keeping us strong.
I squeezed Johnny
’
s hand and we hurled our bubble of force at Gorgoroth
’
s maw like a shrieking comet.

It struck true and
the God screamed. I watched in
awe as the cloud contracted and then expanded further. Gorgoroth
’
s voice slid through our brains again, sibilant and eerie, the voice
that tells
psychopathic murderers to commit atrocity. I caught Johnny‘s eye. 

“
What the hell are we supposed to do now?
”

Johnny shook his head.
“
Try,
”
he said.
“
Try again.
”

Lucy screamed then, terrifying me.
What now?
I glanced to see t
hat the Destroyer, Jondal, had
crept right up to her side. Still emaciated and as repulsive as a den of maggots he leered at her and reached for her with veiny hands.

“
NO!
”
Lucy screamed and stumbled into my arms.

“
I knew I would get my chance with you,
”
the vile words drip
ped
fr
om his lips like drops of venom
.
“
I promised you, little one.
”

Lucy screamed again and buried her head against my chest. In her terror she had forgotten her power. Jondal lurched forward with an insane giggle. I saw the trident in his r
ight hand, sharp
and deadly.

Jondal struck. The trident
’
s gleaming points arced down towards Lucy
’
s back. I dragged her bodily away, putting myself as the target. But as the daggers were an inch away Tanya Jordan inserted herself between us, effecting an impossible deflection and sending the weapon a millimetre past her waist.

“
Pick on me,
”
she said, her voice a blast of arctic ice.
“
If you can.
”

I hugged Lucy close as Jondal struck and Tanya calmly turned his wrist around twice, breaking it two ways in less than a second and making him squeal as the bones grated. Jondal tried to kick out but Tanya caught his foot on her instep, then stomped once on his knee and once on his shins, both times breaking more bones.

Jondal collapsed in a writhing heap. His squeals were the sounds of eels being burned alive.

Tanya broke his other arm at the shoulder.
“
Harm a little girl would you?
”

Lucy peeked out from the safety of my chest.

Tanya met her eyes, then nodded at Jondal.
“
Fry him.
”

I turned away as Jondal
’
s screams intensified to the power of ten.

No one bothered to put him out of his misery.

I smiled
at Tanya.
W
ith a wink she was gone, leaping back into fray, already heading back to confront Emily Crowe.

“
We must finish this!
”
Johnny cried.
“
Before Gorgoroth destroys all we love!
”

I held out my hand to Johnny, and again we summoned our power.

And
then
, incredibly, there was a scream of jet engines and suddenly a formation of F-16 Fighting Falcons sped over the nearby hotels straight at the black hole that was Gorgoroth. I nodded at Johnny. Here was the diversion we needed.

The F-16
’
s banked and circled back, sleek streaks of hot metal in the sky, and let loo
se a volley of missiles
into Gorgoroth
’
s midst. At the same time Johnny and I un
leashed our own arsenal
. From the beach off to our left I saw two dozen white streaks sear th
e air as mobile missile launchers
let loose their own payloads.