Grimm: A Novel In The Nate Temple Supernatural Thriller Series (The Temple Chronicles Book 3) (42 page)

Her eyes rolled back in her head as she moaned in rapture.

Tory tried to take a step closer, a jealous, envious dark look on her face. The vine keeping her alive pulsed brightly and she stopped, eyes suddenly clearing. I followed the vines to find the green sprite on the ground, staring up at Tory with determined, pained eyes. Then I realized why. She sported several slashes across her nude form that let me see
inside
her. I saw bone and a few organs before averting my gaze harshly.

She was dying.

And her last act was to keep Tory alive long enough to destroy the Grimm.

The second Grimm had reached the first Grimm and Barbie. The silver sprite opened her eyes, stared at the approaching Grimm, smiled, and then beckoned him closer with a seductive wiggle of her finger.

The second Grimm decapitated his brother, and then kicked his body away, standing before her curvaceous form all ready to be sexed up by a creature that was anathema to him. His excitement was also…
noticeable
, judging by the prominent bulge in his pants.

Another figure approached from out of nowhere, strolled up beside the Grimm and the silver sprite in a seductive sway. Her ebony skin shone brightly in the rising sun. Her hand reached down and clutched his manhood. He grunted in anticipation, his gaze darting from one stunning creature to the other, as if not believing his luck.

A crackling sound emanated from her fist, then she released him and walked away. In the place of his manhood now rose a lump of stone in vaguely the same shape as his previous appendage. Barbie reached down, swept her fingers in the blood of the first Grimm, and then wiped it down her face like war point, swirling down around her breasts.

She gripped the surviving Grimm’s head like a long lost lover. He whimpered in agony. “Say
Please
.” She cooed, gripping his hair tighter and tugging his body closer to her, enough for his chest to brush her nipples.

“Please…” He whispered in response. I didn’t know whether it was in fear or expectation, but it was sickening how much he was in her thrall.

Without warning, she smiled, and squeezed her fist. His head simply ceased existing.

I stared, transfixed, forgetting Jacob was right behind me as I stared at the looping war paint covering her body. It was tribal, exotic, dark, seductive, and deadly.

I met her eyes, which instantly flew over my shoulder in alarm. I flinched, and my mind jolted back to my situation. Her warning saved my life. I felt the snick of a blade slide across my ribs, protected by my Kevlar vest, before a body slammed into me from behind. Even with my flinch and the Kevlar, it was a near thing, saved only by Barbie’s warning.

I whirled, whipping up my hands while imagining a blade clutched in a defensive fist. Jacob’s sword clanged into my metaphysical one in an explosion of sparks. I shoved him back with the aid of my Maker power, drinking in the quivering river of power beneath my feet.

And a vision of Indie filled my mind’s eye.

These guys had stabbed Indie.

Gunnar had just eaten his brother’s throat.

You could say that we were both more motivated than we had been at any point in our lives, and you would be underestimating our passion.

Our eyes met from a few paces away. Power erupted between us, sending up a cyclone of sparks that abruptly bloomed around us like a miniature big bang model.

I dove deep down into my mind, wading into the river of power that was so hungry to be utilized. I metaphorically dove in head first, allowing the power to roll and wash over me with violent, deadly, almost innocent glee. It crashed over me, rolled into me, fueled me, empowered me like an adrenaline shot to the groin. I reached out and introduced myself to the alien power. It recoiled, and then paused a few inches from my fist, as if smelling me. Like a dog with a new human.

It drifted closer, defying all laws of physics, and then slammed into my chest.

But there was no pain.

It was a high five.

Endorphins pummeled my mind and I somehow survived it. So much power coursed through me that the majority of it flowed right back out of me, having nowhere to take up residence. I studied my new roommate. It was pure emotion. Carnal. Beastlike. It wanted revenge. For both the Grimm’s trespass on my property and the harming of my woman. I sympathized, and allowed I knew not what inside of me, my mind beyond the realm of rationality.

It metaphorically beat me bloody, and I sighed in release. It felt right. No more thinking. Just emotion. Revenge. Make an example out of these killers. I almost let loose, but a small part of me was screaming defiance. I honed in on it and a flood of rational thought finally broke through, hammering me, slapping me in the face. Which woke me up just in the knick of time. I wasn’t
just
emotion. I was
enlightened
. I had
thought
.
Rationality
. This presence did not. Sure, it was powerful beyond measure, but it needed a Captain.

I focused around that bubble of thought, forcing it back into the river like it had forced itself on me. I essentially slapped the shit out of it, and it calmed, startled.

Then waited, unmoving, the entire river of power completely still.

Good
… I heard a voice whisper in my mind.
I can work with this one… But there will be a price
. I waited a beat, and then nodded my agreement. The voice laughed.

I felt a gentle, polite merging of the power with my soul this time, fortifying my resolve, strengthening my limbs, and whispering dark words of power that could be used to do
this
.

And to do
that
.

I opened my eyes to see only a second had passed, the sparks still falling around Jacob and I. He was glaring at me. I smiled back and unleashed some of those secret words.

The air exploded in a crackling wave that slammed into Jacob, forcing its way past his last second shield of power like a monsoon against a screen door.

He flew from his feet, body literally smoking. I noticed that the webs of sizzling energy I had first thrown at him had badly marred his body, leaving behind angry red welts, but they didn’t seem to faze him.

He climbed to his feet, staring at me incredulously.

“What have you done?” He whispered, spitting out a tooth.

“I made a new friend.” I whispered back, not fully understanding it myself.

And we fought.

He attempted to shift to dragon form, but I halted him midway, ripping the power out of him like gutting a deer. I don’t know how I did it. It was instinctual. I merely told it
no
, and the power obeyed my wish, eager to be used by the world’s last surviving Maker. Jacob coughed, instantly returning to human form, which had to hurt. Gunnar had once told me that abrupt shifts like that had broken the minds of many young shifters. One always had to be in control to shift like that, a master of their beast. Rapid shifts were often considered a sign of weakness.

Bullets rained down from the mansion, pelting the earth a few feet from Jacob. He snarled, rolling to cover, and began to flee.

Nope.

Again, without completely understanding what I was doing, I threw my hands up into the air. A purple vortex coalesced in the sky directly above me, growing larger as bolts of power emanated from its depths, forcing it to grow faster, wilder, and more erratic. I allowed emotion into the vortex then.

Fury.

Death.

Hope.

Absolution.

Then I threw my hands at Jacob. These monsters had a single purpose. An undying hope. To destroy the world of magic.

Fine. I would take away
their
hope. Not just that single hope for extermination.

But
all
hope. I would make their minds barren with any sense of motivation, replacing it with complacency and acceptance. I would neuter their souls by taking away their inner fuel. The necklaces would do no good being worn by broken warriors, terrified of their own shadows.

I remembered Death once teasing me about being the Rider of Hope.

So be it.

I embraced the moniker now, casting every particle of my being into the foreign spell.

The world seemed to groan, and then crack in two, and a blur of black flecks flew across my vision as Jacob was hammered by dozens of bolts of power within a second or two. Then all was still.

I realized I was lying on the ground. I sat up and my head swam.
Good
… the voice whispered approvingly in my head. Then it was gone. And so was the power. I was confident that I could still tap into it to do a basic spell, but the godlike power was gone.

I was myself again.

I decided to stay seated for a second, gather my wits. I looked around to find Tory running up to me, holding the green sprite over a shoulder in a fireman’s carry. She set the body before the two surviving sprites. They didn’t acknowledge their comrade, but instead stared at me with amazement… and horror.

Which should say something.

They were world-class sociopaths. So what did that make me?

I shook off their looks as I noticed Gunnar pelting up to me with the pack close on his heels. They halted a dozen feet away and Gunnar continued on alone. He shifted back to human form, all naked manliness and scooped me up. Which was icky.

But I let him.

“Jacob.” I pointed at the crater where I had last seen him. Gunnar grunted and carried me closer, the rest of the crew following. Alucard stepped out from behind a tree, clutching a vampire’s head in one hand, eyes wild, and fangs out. He blinked a few times, composing himself, and then dropped the head before walking up to the crater. I noticed the two other vampires following him; head down as if in submission. That was good.

Gunnar reached the lip and we peered down. Jacob’s battered body lay there unmoving. Then his body lurched suddenly and he gasped a labored breath. His eyes opened wildly, but he was too weak to do anything. I noticed the two surviving sprites suddenly dart off to equidistant points on either side of him. They pointed at Tory and then another spot, which would form a triangle. Tory blinked, frowned, but complied.

Once in their proper positions, Barbie spoke. “Just let us do the work, child. I only need you to be a conduit. You hold our sister’s power for a short while. Let me use it. It will help you in healing. Consider it payment for the gift of life she gave you.” Her voice was wrought with grief at the end. Tory nodded, looking guilty, and obeyed.

A ring of power suddenly rose from the ground, outlining the outside of the crater in a glowing azure light. Jacob’s eyes darted to the sprites and he snarled, regaining some of his strength. His face began to morph into a scaly snout and Barbie belted out a foreign word. His amulet snapped free and flew to her hand, emitting sparks as it pierced the dome of power. Jacob collapsed with a groan and the dome fell, leaving only a broken, battered man behind.

I let him get his bearings, coming to his feet on shaky legs.

“I tried to warn you,” I growled. Then I had Gunnar set me down and I began heading back towards the only thing that mattered to me.

Indie.

“Follow. Or die here, Grimm.” I snarled. I heard the wolves spitting out warning growls as they shepherded my prisoner back to the entrance to the gardens.

“Oh, I’ve waited a long time to see this…” Barbie murmured darkly.

Chapter 42

M
y eyes scanned the scene as I slowly began to trot, then run. Trees flew past me, broken, shattered, and uprooted. Benches, statues, the hedge maze, all were either broken, torn from the earth, or smoldering in flame, kept in check by the snow.

But I found no surviving Grimms. I saw several bodies. Grimms, dragons, and a few wolves, but none moved. It was a cemetery. Charon was about to have a busy day, but I hadn’t seen him yet, which was odd.

I heard Gunnar lightly laughing off Tory’s concern over his eye. “You’re missing an arm.” He said drily. She tried to laugh but only grunted in pain. I noticed that the green vines were growing weaker, but her wound looked better, not an immediate concern of bleeding out any longer. She murmured something to him that I didn’t catch, but I did hear his response. “They were hiding on the grounds. When the Grimms left to fight us here, the pack was able to rescue their children. They apparently brought them to the mansion. Dean has them in a safe room inside
Chateau Falco
. The wolves wanted to make up for their disgrace. I accepted their offer as Alpha.” His last words were dark, hungry, and a warning to the wolves trotting behind him. Tory wisely stayed silent. I idly wondered what he would ultimately decide to do with them.

But then I spotted Indie. She was lying on the earth, but no dome of power covered her any longer. A guardian fell from the sky and instantly dove to her side as if to protect her.

Then it opened its beak to rip her in half.

I began to panic.

No
…

Then it hit me. When I had called upon the river of magic, I had directed all my power at Jacob.
But there will be a price
… the voice had said. And I had
agreed
.