Leviathan (Fist of Light Series) (18 page)

“It's too late,” Noah croaked out from on top of my shoulders. “You must leave me. Go.” He coughed up a globule of blood.

“Noah!” Kathryne cried out as I sat him down.

“He's lost a lot of blood. Can you do anything?”

She shook her head tearfully. “Closing the wound wouldn't be that difficult, but replacing the blood—”

“Get out of here. I'll hold them off so you can make good on your escape,” Noah demanded.

“We can't leave you here. Plus, Jas is in no condition to be going anywhere. He's practically catatonic. What happened...”

“You must help him, Caleb. Promise me.” His glazed eyes took on some of their usual vigor, his piercing stare renewed.

I couldn't deny a dying man his last wish, though he hadn't needed to ask. “I'll do everything in my power to help him,” the promise was given with ease.

“Good. I know you will. Now go before they come back with an army of their underlings behind them. GO!”

Those familiar words made me flash back to the house all those years ago, when I had been fooled by a different set of parents. This time, there was a genuine fatalistic set in Noah's eyes, an urge to provide whatever protection he was able so that we might make it out alive. Despite having his entire life flipped upside down and likely his every encounter with his wife being questioned, he still strove to protect his own. Maybe it was better this way. It would take a man greater than I to weather that kind of storm and come out as he did. Reluctantly, I moved away from Noah, but not before placing a sword in his arms.

“This is how it was meant to be,” he assured me, sensing my hesitation. “A Were dies with honor, not cowering away from his doom.”

I looked at the man who had become more of a role model than anyone else had ever been for me. Strong. Present. Unshakable. Taking in every detail of his visage, I reconstructed my memory to be without the blood, or the slight glint of fear in his eyes. When he postured himself into a fighting stance, all that remained was determination. Wiping at my teary eyes, I pressed hard against my eyelids, physical pain trumping emotional. There would be time to grieve later.

“It’s time to go,” I told myself.

Jas was a mere specter of his usual self, crouched in a field of gory remains. His eyes were clouded, crazed, his mind in another place. Blood dripped from his elongated canines, a vacant smirk plastered on his face. Approaching him as I would a rabid dog, I made sure to present no threat.

“It's time we get out of here, Jas. Everything is fine. Do you think you can stand?”

“We don't have time for this,” Herk appeared from nowhere, cracking Jas about the head and tossing him over a shoulder like a sack of meal.

I wanted to reprimand the man and ask where the hell he had been but was too busy trying to take stock. Vampires were beginning to flood out of the monolithic castle and surrounding houses carved from stone and earth.

“Everything's set? You sure took your sweet time,” I couldn't help but add.

“I've got the detonator,” Herk said tersely, carelessly hefting it in one hand.

“Kathryne!” I yelled at her bustling form, though it was doubtful she would come until she had finished with her task.

Instead of standing around like a clueless moron about to be run over by a horde of vampires, she had gone and done what I'd forgotten about in all the chaos. The human prisoners weren't in the best of shape, but that might have been expected, considering their recent imprisonment. They could've been kept down here for weeks, or even months. Shaking off such dark thoughts, I watched as the humans scattered in all directions at Kathryne's vehement gestures. She sprinted her way over to us after she finished, glancing nervously at the amassing bloodsuckers.

Herk hefted his load pointedly and prepared to leave. “You had them go off in different directions as distractions?” he said, approval in his voice.

Kathryne flashed him a look. “No. They have a better chance of making it out of this place if they go it alone. Following in our wake is only going to concentrate the attack on us and get them all killed.”

“Better chance than they did when they were strapped down to those tables and getting the life sucked out of them.” I nodded while trying to ascertain Noah's whereabouts.

He had begun to move toward the oncoming vampires, limping his slow way there despite his mortal wounds.

“We should probably figure a way out of here,” I started.

Hector looked down at the detonator. “We'll be sitting ducks in here or outside. They'll have the upper hand since this is their turf. Even this won't be enough to save us from the distance we'll need to run before making it to safety.”

“We better get moving,” I said. “Preferably in the opposite direction of the angry vampires. Noah’s made his choice.” I ground my teeth against the wave of emotion that swelled and threatened to capsize me.

I looked back one more time at Noah, who was still standing his ground. It would be the last time I ever laid eyes on him, I was sure. The image of a gallant hero was imprinted into my brain, someone who stood against the forces of Darkness no matter the odds. Backtracking to our original entrance into the underground, we moved swiftly despite Herk having an additional burden to carry.

“How are you planning on avoiding them out in the forest, on open ground with no available escape?” Kathryne interjected, forcing my attention back to our pressing demands.

“I've got a plan,” I said, more assured than before. “But first, Hector, if you would do the honors?”

“With pleasure.” A grin that brought childhood pyrotechnics to mind grew on his face as he flipped the safety up and pushed the red button.

For a moment, nothing happened and we all stopped to share a confused look. For his part, Herk pressed the button a couple more times to satisfy his temper. We peered through the oppressive darkness, but nothing went boom. Then, like someone had pulled the stopper on a drain, the charges exploded. Great balls of flame burst into the air from the joining between cavern wall and castle. The rock almost seemed to ripple, a mini-earthquake spreading across its length. Debris flew high in the air, illuminated by vibrant flames that were expanding upward, licking greedily at the roof of the cavern. The first thing that jarred with movie set explosions was the massive, ear-splitting
sound
that traveled in its wake, the shaking of the earth as it groaned in protest. Even from this far away, the earth shivered beneath our feet and the wave of sound forced hands to ears.

“Damn.” Herk raised his eyebrows and stared hard at the conflagration.

“Damn is right.” I cast a look toward the destruction, but no details could be made out from this distance in the chaos, despite the unnatural illumination.

Then, disaster struck. The cavern walls began to protest the not-so-gentle reformation of its walls. Dust filtered down from the ceiling, causing the lot of us to rub at eyes and splutter as bits of sand invaded our bodies. Kathryne was staring forlornly back at the destruction, but we didn't have the time for regrets.

It was high time we high tailed it out of this joint before the whole thing fell to pieces with us still inside. “Let's get the hell out of here before the whole place falls on our heads!”

Everyone readily agreed with that sentiment and we took off at a run. Noah had done what he thought was right. That didn't stop me from rubbing my eyes a little more vigorously than was necessary as we continued our flight from the scene.

By the time the cavern had narrowed and we’d come to a branch, the whole placed seemed ready to come down. Standing became a difficultly with the ground refusing to stay in one place while larger and larger chunks of rocks fell from above. The whole cave system was ready to come down around us.

“Which way?” I asked, winded.

Kathryne crouched low and sighted down each of the tunnels. There were only two of them, but there was little chance we'd have time to backtrack if one didn't lead to the surface.

“The left one,” she said.

“You sure?” I squinted, but they didn't seem all that different to me.

She narrowed her eyes. “Of course I'm sure. That's the way out.” She pointed definitively to the left.

“You’re cute when you're angry,” I teased, and she furrowed her brows threateningly. “All right, okay.” I raised my hands in surrender.

Kathryne might have killed me then and there if not for Herk's interruption. On the whole, I wasn't too sure about him. His timing, at least, was impeccable.

“You two done with the love fest? Might wanna move this along before we get crushed to death. No big deal or anything.” Herk repositioned Jas' dead weight, looking only slightly encumbered despite our long run.

“Right.” I nodded and set off down the chosen tunnel.

We ran, not giving a thought for what lie ahead, or what might be following in our wake. This side tunnel was rocked by less of the tremors, but regardless it wasn't easy to keep your footing at a dead sprint. Chunks of rock detached themselves from the ceiling and pummeled us, so much so that we were running hunched over with hands over our heads. Finally, when I thought the whole tunnel might cave in on us and leave us trapped beneath the earth, we moved from underground into the darkness of the forest. The transition was so unexpected that I stopped mid-sprint and peered around, noticing the outlines of trees and glimmering stars adorning the sky.

“Where are we?” Herk was first to ask.

“No idea. Hopefully somewhere close to where we landed.” I forced my eyes to light up, exposing the surrounding scenery.

Grinning, I honed in on a bulging section of landscape, an unnatural formation that looked not unlike a bunch of marshmallow shaped rocks.

“This way, but keep an eye out. This place is going to be crawling with vamps out for our blood,” I joked, but my heart wasn't in it.

It only took a couple minutes to arrive at the parachutes, during which a tense silence prevailed.

“Okay. We need to do this fast. I'm not promising this is going to be a warm ride, but it'll be better than being hounded down in the night. Like Herk said, we'd have no chance of outrunning these buggers on their turf. We don't even know what might be waiting for us between here and the surrounding cities, traps or roaming patrols. So we fly.”

The three of us helped buckle Jas into the harness then did ourselves. All the while my heart was pounding at two times its accustomed rate. My fight or flight mechanism had been pushed a couple times too many by a hyperactive inner child and it was going into overdrive. I had made some more enemies this night, and these ones didn't have much of an expiration date unless lured out into the sunlight or they had their heads hacked off. Then again, what kind of life are you living, if you don't make a few enemies every once in a while? The last buckle clicked together satisfyingly and I cinched down all the straps, making sure they were tight.

“This better work,” I muttered under my breath. “All right. Everyone strapped in?”

Kathryne and Hector stated the affirmative and I called up a goodly portion of my diminished power. On the whole, it shouldn't be too difficult to float us about on a light wind current. Parachutes are supposed to float, so providing a little extra buoyancy couldn't be
too
hard. Maintaining the wind current wouldn't be that much more difficult than flying alone.

“You think you can lift all of us?” Herk asked dubiously.

“Have a little faith,” I eyed him disapprovingly, but the power of my stare was lost to the night.

Calling Air, I poured energy into my design. Leaves swirled around erratically in a circle and the parachutes flapped and fluttered around us. Increasing the power by increments, I waited until the ropes of the chutes were taut but no lift had been applied. Checking one last time on Jas, I was sure he would be relatively safe. A little bit more power and my feet lifted off the ground.

“You might want to get us in the air
before
the bloodsucking vampires get ahold of us,” Kathryne advised, pointing out a group of frontrunners scouting our position.

“Let's get the hell out of here. I stopped being careful and threw up a strong wind before their commander got smart and had them attack before we were out of their clutches.

Like the dam had finally broke and water rushed through the uncountable cracks and crevices that had sprouted up across its length, a torrent of wind was unstoppered. We shot into the air as if a giant hand had plucked us and was pulling us up into the sky. Nervously, I slackened the power on our ascent and allowed us to level out, already hundreds of feet up. Cold, biting wind brought out goose bumps and my eyes streamed from the blast of wind.

“Well, can't say that went as well as I'd hoped, but it wasn't a complete catastrophe. We didn't have to tangle with any more vampires. That's a plus,” I said.

“I think I'm going to be sick,” Herk said, only half joking.

“Try not to very hard,” Kathryne said, who was right behind Hector.

Whatever came up would be spewed into the current and taken directly into her. Chuckling, I tried to get my bearings.

“There.” It would be impossible to see where she was pointing even if it hadn't been dark out, but I eventually caught on.

“Got it.” I redirected our course to intersect with the new target.

In the distance, lights had become visible. Where there were lights, there was civilization. I wasn't about to fly these things all the way back to California, so we needed to get another form of transportation. I knew there was an airport around this general vicinity but wasn't ready to get onto an airline so close to the vampires recently destroyed stronghold. I had no doubt that there were plenty of the undead buggers that got out alive. They would plan for a move like that and to do something expected at this point would get us all killed.

Flying through the starkly lit night, there was a pervading silence that felt sacrosanct. Up here, there were no pressing matters that had to be dealt with, no shirking of duties that might cause harm to another. Up in the night sky, there were no weighty responsibilities threatening to break me.