Evernight (The Night Watchmen Series Book 2) (43 page)

“
T
AKE ME BACK RIGHT NOW!
”
I yell, trying to pull away from Weldon’s iron grip.

Every second that passes feels like another bone breaking in my body. Feels like another shred of myself being ripped away until there’s nothing left. Nothing but all of my fears, which have been waiting for the moment when they could finally take over me.

“Don’t be stupid,” Weldon shouts back. “Going back is the worst decision. It’s the dumbest thing you’ve said to date. Risking you being captured isn’t something to play around with. Power or not, something could wrong and you could end up in the wrong hands. It’s better this way. Safer.”

He’s pulling, tugging, yanking me in a direction I don’t want to go, and I fear I’m going to hurt him. I’m going to hurt him before I can get him to walk me back to Jaxen.

“Have some faith in your people,” he says. “They know how to fight.”

I can’t believe my ears. “Not if they’re ambushed! Which they are in case you didn’t notice.” I pull against his tugging and manage to get my hand free. “I can stop them!” I continue. “I can save everyone. I know I can. You have to trust me! I trusted you!” I plead, holding my ground.

He stops, his shoulders stiff. His head slightly bent.

“Please, Weldon!” I continue, shoving myself through this small window of opportunity. “I can get them all out of there. We can’t leave them behind.”

My chest tightens as I wait for his answer. I don’t dare breathe. Not until he gives me the answer I’m seeking.

He curses under his breath and hangs his head. Fights an internal war between his responsibilities and his empathies. His fists ball against his thighs and his golden eyes find mine.

“Do you always have to be so annoyingly brave?”

My brow furrows. “Didn’t you say I needed to stop acting like a coward?”

“Answering a question with a question. How becoming of you.” He exhales loudly, grabs my hand, and pulls me back in the direction we came from. “Jaxen’s going to kill me,” he mutters more to himself than to me. His hastily stomps ahead, pulling me harder than I like. “I’m going to be murdered by my best friend just to prove a point. Just to prove that my partner is stronger than most are giving her credit for. How’s that for the story of how I died?”

“Sounds pretty noble to me,” I squeeze past my teeth, trying not to whimper from the twisting of his grip.

He looks back at me as if he’s mortally offended. “Noble?” He barks out a laugh. “I met noble once. He was an ass. A primitive, prudish ass.” He pulls me to the left and stops in the darkness. “Look, I’m only doing this because you need to show them what you’re made of, and I believe you can. That’s it. Nothing more, nothing less. Got it?”

I nod, seeing past the rough demeanor he tries so hard to hide behind. I don’t think about what the Darkyns are doing. About how much time we’ve already lost. I think about how in this moment, Weldon has done more for me than any other person. And I don’t give him enough credit. He’s a good friend. He trusts me.

He. Trusts. Me.

“You do this, or I’m taking you back,” he says firmly. I nod fervently, seeing him through new eyes. “No time for second-guessing,” he continues, looking at me seriously now. I nod again, finally seeing the friend in him that Jaxen sees. The goodness in him. “Get in, render them useless, and we leave. Okay?”

I nod one last time, knowing this is the right thing. This is the only thing.

When we appear back through the shadow, all hell has broken loose. The church is crumbling piece by piece, falling and striking men left and right from either side of the fight. There’s a mess of legs, arms, and bodies that litter the floor. Magic streams through the air in small beams. Electricity strikes left and right.

Jaxen’s not more than ten feet away from me, fighting against two Darkyn Witches with the ease of a seasoned Hunter. I start forward, but a sudden, huge blast of power sends me flying into the air. I smash into the seal with a loud thud and fall face-first to the ground.

Not again.

The air rushes out of my lungs, deserting me. I try to roll, but I can’t move. I can’t breathe.

“Faye!”
Jaxen shouts over the commotion.

My power kicks in on impact. My breathing slowly returns to normal as I dig my fingers into the dirt, letting my rage fuel me. Dark magic is everywhere, leaving my hair standing on end. Every sense in my body is on high alert, scoping and detecting any possible threat.

I know before I roll over that a Darkyn is close. Too close, with the intent of hurting me. I feel his movements almost as clearly as if I can see him with my own eyes. When I roll, I’m ready for him. Just as the Darkyn reaches down for me, I drive my flux up into the cavity of his chest, all the way to his heart, and twist.

Jaxen grabs me from under my arms as I let go of the flux, lifting me to my feet. The lifeless body of the Darkyn slams against the ground, blood pooling out from underneath him. Jezi stands next to Jaxen, looking torn between thanking me and cursing me for returning. She turns away, sending a blast of magic strong enough to knock the feet out from under four Darkyns.

Jaxen pulls me hard against him, tucking me into the safety of his arms. His heat, his scent, and the fact that he’s still alive and still fighting strong springs an overwhelming need to kiss him. “You shouldn’t have come back,” he says into my ear before launching a flux across the room behind me at whoever approaches.

“We’re in this together, remember?” I say as I brush the side of his face. I pull my flux out from the sheath on my pant leg and throw it at a Darkyn who runs up behind Jaxen. He drops to the ground. “I’m going to finish this now. Cover me.”

He looks hesitant at first, but then nods and turns back to the chaos behind him. Weldon moves behind me to cover the other side, and Jezi stands by my side. She nods approvingly before turning her back to me. They have me completely circled, protecting me with a shield of magic and electricity.

I close my eyes and let my inner strength kick into overdrive. Every other time I triggered it was when I felt cornered. When I knew my loved ones weren’t going to make it out alive. When I felt threatened.

This time is no different.

With my hands out by my sides, I let my volation awaken. Currents of bright electricity crackle down my arm, sending sparking tingles all the way to my fingertips There’s so much energy in the room… almost too much… but it’s here and it’s mine for the taking. With a deep breath, I let everything drift away from me. The sounds, the screams, the pain… all of it. I am a beacon of hope. A vessel meant to absorb all that is wrong so I can give the world a sliver of what’s right.

The energy in the room is so vibrant, so powerful, that I can see it. It shimmers around each and every person like an aura. A life force that is mine for the taking. I slam my fists closed and yank on the energy. The power strikes me hard. It fills up every nook and cranny of my receptive soul, and something inside of me breaks open. A floodgate that can never be shut. I tug harder, feeling the very essence of every soul around me weakening, filling me with strength.

My eyes flick open.

No one is moving anymore. They’ve all taken to their knees, gasping for air. And they’re all watching me… begging me to stop with pleading gazes.

Control it,
I tell myself. I search for Jaxen’s face. He’s right in front of me, fighting back against each and every one of my tugs. Just like the night in front of the warehouse, I envision everyone around me tethered to my drain by a bright string. One by one, as I pull and pull, I release those I do not want to harm.

Jaxen stands first, then Weldon, then Jezi, then Gavin and Cassie. Sterling, Tillman, and Elite after Elite find their footing and make quick work of apprehending the Darkyns around me whose lives are slowly slipping away into my body.

The shivers begin in my fingers. A small, itching twitch spreads up my arms like a rash. It’s too much—too, too much—and I suddenly feel like a bloated fish engorged on food. A cold sweat breaks out across my brow as Jaxen makes his way over to me. He reaches for me, but then yanks back as if I’ve burnt him.

“Faye,” he says sharply.

The command in his voice pulls me from the power I’m locked in. My eyes meet his.

“Don’t let it control you.”

I want to tell him that I’m trying not to. That I want to stop now, but my words won’t form. The vacuum won’t end. When I’ve severed the last tie to my people, I know that this is it. I won’t be able to stop, and I feel death’s door looming close by. I have to expel what I’ve taken in. I have to get rid of it… or it’s going to be rid of me.

“Get…them…out,”
I force out. It’s all I can do not to sway to my knees. Not to hurl out all the darkness I’ve inhaled.

His jaw clenches. His eyes narrow. “Get out while you can,” he says, low at first, never moving his eyes from mine. When no one moves, he spins around and yells,
“Get everyone out!”

Tillman and Sterling look over at me. I can only imagine how monstrous I must appear. Darkyns are beginning to boil from the inside out, and there’s nothing I can do to stop it. It’s like I was made to kill. Like my ability has a mind of its own and won’t stop until its thirst is quenched.

Until Darkyn blood has been spilled.

“She has to purge what she’s absorbed,” Weldon says for me. He’s right next to me, touching me despite my skin searing with heat. “She could level this place.”

“Apprehend those that you can. The rest of you, to the roof,” Tillman orders. He stalks over to me as some Elites grab Darkyns, haul them over their shoulders, and head out. I use the last of my strength to sever the ties to the Darkyns they take. The rest rush out. Part of the roof caves in across the room, sending dust and rubble flying through the air.

“Aim it at the Darkyn portal. Too many humans are at risk if you level this place,” Tillman orders me. He turns back to the Darkyns who have lost the battle against my drain. I make the mistake of following his gaze. My knees buckle the moment I see what I’ve done. The blood. The shriveled, decaying bodies. The horror in their eyes.

The look in Tillman’s eyes when he turns back around to face me is one I’ll never forget. He wears his mortality in his gaze like a prison uniform he can’t strip out of. He feels every bit of his weakness. But most of all, it’s the fear and the disgust at who I really am… what I’m really capable of, that makes me look away. That ends the awful tugging of my vacuum power.

“Get her out of here when she’s done,” he says, his voice so low I can barely make out the words.

He stalks off as I face the portal where more and more of the Darkyn Coven’s army pours in from. I can’t fight the urge to hold the magic in any longer. I keel over and it explodes past my lips, bursting out from my pores. Everybody in the line of fire flies backward before disintegrating into ash. The portal crashes in on itself, ending the army from advancing any further on us.

I fall to my side when the last of the magic is gone. Darkness circles the edges of my vision. My throat’s a burning, fiery desert. My stomach has shriveled into nothing. I barely have the energy to blink… so I don’t. I just drift in between nothingness and consciousness as my body slowly takes to repairing itself.

I don’t know how long I lay there for before someone grabs my hand and slides an arm under my back. I feel myself lifted up and tucked close to a warm, beating heart. The comforting, electric scent stirs me back to the present.

“I’m getting you out of here,” Jaxen says so softly, gently, and then my eyes finally drift shut.

I
WAKE TO THE SCEN
T
of electricity and leather, inhaling, savoring every second of it.

It’s a scent I’ve grown to need. A scent that could find me even in my darkest hours. I roll into Jaxen, curling up against the warmth of his bare chest, and nestle my face in the hollow of his neck.

“You’re awake,” his husky voice says. I can hear the smile swimming in his voice, bathing in the light that only true love could provide.

Nodding against his neck, I move closer, cradled in the darkness of night. I graze my fingers along his spine rippled with muscles, all the way down to the top of his basketball shorts. The throaty sound he makes awakens heat deep inside my belly. His feet rub against mine as he pulls me harder against him. His fingers find my chin. He gently pushes it up until he has full access to my throat, and then presses his lips against my skin. The kiss is so soft, yet so scorching.