Leviathan (Fist of Light Series) (38 page)

M
y bright eyes shot open, my power thrumming. Herk's dark sword began moving, stabbing towards Kathryne's midsection. Sapphire seeped from my skin, slow at first but then in increasing certainty, snaking out to envelop Herk. Pain wracked me. My skin smoked and cracked. Time had been on my side, but I was too slow. Kathryne's eyes widened as her flesh parted under Herk’s weapon. Blood spurted from the mortal wound and her shaking hands moved to grasp the dark hilt. Kathryne’s lips parted and her muscles slackened. Hr legs betrayed her and she fell limply to the ground.

Herk was encompassed totally in a shroud of cold energy, but he had the entirety of the core's power behind him now. Roiling black expanded and burst toward him, the thin connection latching onto a new vehicle. Red light writhed under blue, then burst outward, tearing my construct to shreds. Herk laughed insanely, delighted at this new influx of power. He had limitless power at his fingertips. But he was an untested neophyte newly bestowed with the might of a god, an enterprising child trying to catch air between his grasping fingers. Nonetheless, although his methods were ham-fisted and blunt, he lashed out with that dark muscle effectively.

There was still some power remaining, but pain overrode all possibility of defense. In reality, my position was untenable. Kathryne was dying and Gallick, Zack, and Mary were likely facing down the unstoppable might of the hordes. I tried coming up with some grand scheme, but drew blanks. A dark fist slammed into my midsection, flinging me into the far wall with all the strength of Hercules doped up on god juice. I could feel my bones break at the impact, capillaries burst, and my vision flickered uncertainly. My hope dimmed and died, leaving only a sea of pain and hopelessness.

“Thanks for making this easy for me.” Herk clapped happily, grinning.

My heartbeat slowed, faltered. Slick blood choked my airway. The distinctive patter of blood pooling around me was unmistakable. I was battered and broken. I was
dying
. My mind reeled, struggled, decided. I was dying.

“I don't know how you managed to best him. I'd planned to turn on him eventually, once I stole enough of his power. Cusion had become bloated and overconfident in his age. It was only a matter of time before another took his place. That's how this place works, you know.” He crouched beside me, patting my head and clucking, displeased with my inattention. “An empire falls, but another emerges from the ashes. I think I'll enjoy being a god.”

I pleaded with my eyes, gurgling. “Cahh-losssss-errr.”

“What's this, your dying words? How precious.” He bent to one knee in my blood, bringing his head nearer to mine.

“Sahh-prissee.” I spat a globule of partially clotted blood in his face.

Kathryne had shuffled her way over, dragging the black sword behind her. Herk had been so engrossed in glorifying his victory that she'd been able to approach unnoticed. An Aevum is not one to be crossed lightly, and making an Aevum
woman
intent on your blood is tantamount to suicide. The blade passed cleanly through Herk's neck as he recoiled into the path of the dark steel, hands streaking blood, eyes clenched tight. He didn't even have time to process his death and probably deserved more pain for his treachery.

My own soul was unraveling at the seams, vision darkening. Kathryne collapsed at my side, one hand held against her chest. The other snaked out to grasp mine. A detonation of sound, the core had split. All in. Dark stone groaned in protest, an earthquake slamming into the ground around the podium an expanding outward. Ruby light glimmered and formed within the dark core. The core had been thwarted twice; it wouldn't let us escape. Self-destruct was the last line of defense. Every soul would be obliterated, wiped out of existence as Cusion promised. A fate worse than death.

Stone buckled as the wave of blunt power traveled towards us. A ball of energy coalesced in the domed room, expanding outwards. This was a high stakes game, as if that wasn't clear. But it hardly mattered, right? Faced with the destruction of your soul when you're already as good as dead? The choice was simple. As usual, it wasn't really a choice at all.

The room dropped several degrees as the power I'd been holding back began to coalesce on the air. Every last scrap of energy in my flickering form was put into the effort. There wouldn't be a chance to contain the blast if I wasn't prepared to go all in too. Azure energy wrapped up the expanding red orb, encompassing it in a flimsy barrier. The two disparate constructs clashed, mine contracting inwards and the other doing its all to release its payload. A fluttering heartbeat, a flash of pain, hardly noticed with the agony consuming me, driving me to the edge of insanity.

It wouldn't be enough. I could see that. Game over. The deck had been rigged from the start. There wasn't any way we could go up against an eater of worlds and win. My head slumped and the power was released. In the last instant before my construct shattered and all was lost, tainted power mixed with an intoxicating mix of sea green flooded into me, intertwined into an indistinguishable whole.

Kathryne lent the last of her strength and the orb shrunk, vibrating in anger but unable to resist the icy energy stealing the power from its final strike. I laughed, a horrible, half-deranged thing. A wall of stone crashed down on us and I lost hold of my construct. The weight of the dark stone crushed our broken bodies beneath its incalculable weight, but I held on long enough to witness the end. Second stage, the collection of energy exploded outwards into the world, unchallenged, unstoppable. The pain stopped, and so did my heart. The world dimmed, the curtains drawn, the story concluded.

T
he afterlife wasn't what I'd expected. I'd had high hopes, all things considered. It was a huge letdown, to tell you the truth. Actually, it wasn't a whole lot different from when I was alive. There was pain, for one. A lot of it. I opened my eyes, expecting to see pearly gates or at least a gaggle of admiring fans. Instead, Jas' inhumane ministrations awaited me. You would expect a friend like that to welcome you with open arms into the next life. After all, we were adopted brothers.

“He made it,” Jas announced.

“Yeah, I made it. Now stop pounding on my damn chest, you half-wit.” I clutched at my contracting heart.

“We've been waiting,” Simon said.

“Kathryne not so patiently. She gave up a lot,” Zack said.

“I know,” I grumbled. “Wouldn't have been able to save our asses without the help.”

Something was off. Did heaven move, or were we in some kind of transitory hell? The entire vestibule bounced, sending waves of pain through me. I looked down at my body to find my skin cold and clammy, icy and frostbitten. You'd think someone would have had the decency to clean me up, even if this
was
hell.

“The fool thinks he's dead.” Kathryne pinned me with her luminous eyes, clamping my cheeks in her grasp, looking deeper.

She sat back in her seat, satisfied. “His psyche is scarred, but that's no surprise. Only a fatalistic idiot would think to unleash that power within themselves
on purpose.
”

“You aren't dead,” Razor assured me from the driver’s seat of the SUV.

“Nope, see.” Jas poked me in the side and pain stormed through me. “You know, you should really be more careful with those knives. This one obviously backfired.”

“You're the devil.” I clenched his hand painfully, but gratefully.

“How?” I wondered aloud.

My head rested in Kathryne's lap, I noticed. One of her pale arms was bandaged tightly, tinged red with blood. There were worse places to die, if my wounds took their toll. Far worse, I shivered, trying to distance myself from the black nothingness of Cusion's dark world. Shadow
woofed
and paced around on my legs, sending spasms of pain through my spine. I smiled. Pain, I felt
pain.
I was alive after all. I'll be damned.

I drifted in and out of consciousness on our drive. Jas had decided it wouldn't be safe to go back to the Order. But I was too busy listening to figure out where our ultimate destination was. Plus, I didn't want to think about the time when I'd have to move anywhere.

“We felt the world buckling in on itself,” Mary said.

“Yeah, as if you could ignore the tsunami of stone,” Zack said. “And the power rushing over us— it was like being dunked in the Atlantic.” He shivered at the memory.

“Even we felt it.” Simon offered a weak nod. “We were reduced to wandering phantoms, but it was unmistakable.”

“So was the detonation at the plant,” Razor said. “Might as well have light a signal fire for all our enemies. At least it was easy to find. The vamps broke at the sight of it. Apparently they didn't fancy a tussle with whatever was powerful enough to set off that explosion.”

“Hopefully they'll think we died in it.” I smiled grimly.

“Yeah, as if anything has ever been that easy for us,” Jas said with a grin.

I shrugged, a painful gesture. “A guy could hope. Can't take that away from me.”

“Half the city lost power. We still don't know how the people reacted. Might have gone looting and pillaging again. I wouldn't doubt it,” Jas predicted.

“No one was hurt,” Kathryne said. “Luckily we weren't close to anything important, besides the plant.” She shrugged, unconcerned with trivial things like destruction of property.

“I bet Sanders is already reassuring the public and talking about eco-terrorist groups who went off the deep end,” Zack said, nodding to himself.

“No doubt.” I laughed, which morphed into a spasmodic coughing fit.

“Shut your mouth,” Kathryne commanded.

I'd learned one thing, at least. No good came from arguing with a woman. I watched the blur of passing headlights as we ate up the highway.

“The trapped souls scattered,” Jas said. “Good thing they got out, too. Otherwise we might have been stuck inside that dying beast. Considering it melted into a black puddle of goop, that wouldn't have been good.”

“Razor spared some juice and Kathryne was able to revive us. Death is draining, that's for sure.” Simon stared down at his hands, still trying to get used to having them again, I'd bet.

“I never want to die again,” Kathryne declared, and we all looked at her amusedly.

“Definitely not like
that
,” Jas agreed wholeheartedly.

“Then what?” I rasped, trying to ignore the glare Kathryne directed my way.

“We had to drag your cold ass into this baby.” He patted the vehicle. “Waiting up for the vamps to finish the job wouldn't have been any better. Dead is dead.”

“Well I'll be damned,” I croaked.

“That's not all.” Mary craned her neck to join in.

“Nope, not by half,” Zack said.

I groaned, my throat raw. “CliffNotes
please
.”

Kathryne made a disgusted noise. “Herk never woke. We left him behind. He'll probably be pinned as one of the ringleaders in 'charges' against some still unnamed eco-terrorist group. People need reassurance of their continued safety, after all.” She smirked. “We burned Cusion's remains, just in case.”

Two thumbs up at that. I kept quiet, although my eyes roamed. No one had escaped unscathed from the explosion. Faces blackened by soot assailed me, and their mental states were uncertain. Razor sported bloody gashes all over his body, clothes torn to shreds, his earthen appendage the only thing that escaped without damage.

“After everyone had gotten themselves together again, Jas had the idea to hole up in the mansion up north.”

“Vampires are turning over every loose stone in Frisco,” Jas said. “They'll think twice about making war on the Clan, at least for as long as it holds together. Word spreads fasts, bad news faster. My dad's death is probably on every Were's lips. We can hope that they pull it together, but it's more likely they'll fracture, maybe even disband. Those who supported him might want revenge, but the rest will want to disappear into the woodwork. Which is exactly what the Blood Pantheon wants. I'm still trying to figure out a way to stop that from happening.”