Once Broken (Dove Creek Chronicles) (19 page)

“Yes,” Jescha said. “John was a thorn in the demons’ side for many years. They will want to give him to Apollyon.”

“I am sorry, Remi. John is unstoppable once his mind is made,” Hugo said.

“We can still save him. We didn’t take the crash course in these fancy powers for nothing. Let’s get the hell in there,” I answered.

“How many did you see in there, Remi?” Gabriel asked as he joined us.

“Only seven Triple Six, Cerise, and Valan, but it’s a safe bet there are others at least at every entry point and more vampires in there somewhere. Valan wouldn’t be without an entourage.”

“Right. Remi, Jescha, and Alex take the front entrance. Gabe, Meg . . . You’re with me. We’ll go around back. Casey, Joss, and Aric go right. Meredith, you and Gio take the left entrance,” Hugo directed.

“How can I help?” Dylan asked.

“You can stay back and stay safe,” I said. “Dad didn’t risk his neck for you to go traipsing back in there and get yourself killed.”

“Remi’s right,” Jocelyn agreed.

Dylan didn’t look placated in the least. “That’s it? Just stay here and be useless? Hell no.”

I looked up at the sky and sighed in frustration. There wasn’t time to stand there and argue with my brother, but I also didn’t want him to try to follow us.

“He can cover Garrett,” Gabe suggested. “We’ll all be in there and he’ll be outside alone. This way, Dylan can be the look out and still be out of harm’s way.”

Judging by the hopeful look on Dylan’s face and the relieved expression Garrett wore, I guessed that Gabriel’s suggestion was plenty acceptable to everyone. I broke away from the group and retrieved a shotgun from the toolbox in the bed of my truck. I checked to see that it was loaded and grabbed an extra box of shells, too.

“You remember how to use one of these?” I asked, handing the gun and the spare rounds to my brother. Dylan gave me a look that told me I had asked a stupid question. “Alright, Tex. You see anybody that isn’t one of us coming toward you, blow ‘em away.”

“Come with me,” Garrett said to Dylan. “I’ll hafta be in the parking lot for the comms to work.”

“Everyone knows the plan?” Hugo asked. Words of various degrees of enthusiasm went up around our group, answering the question. Our leader looked resolute – it was a grisly task we were taking on. “Protect each other in there.”

With that, we began our march into battle. Quickly but quietly, we entered the oak grove. They would be watching for us, but the darkness would buy us time if we didn’t announce ourselves with unneeded racket.

I looked back at the others and felt my heart swell with appreciation. Hugo paused and said something to Meredith. She gave him a gentle kiss, then smiled and murmured something in return. I felt like an intruder on their private moment, so I turned my attention forward and kept on my way.

The angel Jescha drew abreast of me with her light, smooth stride. She kept her eyes on the trail through the trees as she spoke. “I hope truly that we can save your father. He is a good man.”

“So everyone keeps telling me. Good man doesn’t mean good father, though.”

“No. John has sacrificed much to follow his calling. As have you.”

I wasn’t used to anyone acknowledging what I’d lost and what I’d given up to become Amasai. It made me a little uncomfortable. “It’s just how it is. I wouldn’t do anything differently.”

When I said it aloud, I found perspective on what my dad had been trying to make me understand. It all clicked. I looked at Jescha and she had turned her direct gaze to me. I got that eerie feeling that she knew what I was thinking.

I changed the subject to ask a question that had been troubling me. “If we’re too late, if Cerise does her ritual and they jailbreak Apollyon, can you beat him?”

“No,” she answered.

So much for softening the blow.

“No?” I repeated.

“No,” Jescha confirmed. “But I shall try, with your assistance.”

It had never occurred to me –
ever
– that a divine being like Jescha would ask for my help. But there it was, and everything had already spiraled so far away from my concept of normal that it didn’t seem all that weird.

We emerged from the cover of the little thicket and split into the groups Hugo had assigned. Dylan hung back to stay with Garrett and I gave him what I hoped was a reassuring look. I said a silent prayer as I sprinted for the main entrance with an angel on one side of me and a werewolf on the other. I asked God to protect my father and brother. I asked Him to watch over us and help us prevail. I had faith, but faith will only go so far. It was time to give it a helping hand.

chapter fourteen

Reinforcements had already been posted at the school’s main entrance, as expected. The humans were joined by vampires and none of them were keen on letting us break through and get inside.

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see the giant tawny and
gray wolf spring into the air. Teeth bared in a vicious snarl, he pounced on a vampire and went straight for the jugular. I became focused on the woman coming toward me and didn’t see the outcome of Alex’ attack.

She was shorter than me, and maybe a little older. A line of bracelets on one of her arms jangled as she raised her hands to
conjure her power. A shuddering, foggy cloud of energy surrounded her, and she dropped her hands to her sides. As she did, I saw her feet come off the ground as she levitated.

“
Alright, Tinkerbell,” I said. “Time to clip your wings.”

The
airborne woman began to fly around me in fast circles, just out of my reach. The wind began to swirl as she picked up speed, creating a vortex with me at the center.

I
pulled the long silver knife from my right boot and spun it in my hand. Watching very closely, I aimed at just the right split-second. I reached out and used the pommel of the knife to smack her in the temple and she dropped like a sack of potatoes, taking the mini tornado with her. The idea of killing human beings still left me feeling iffy, no matter what they were mixed up in.

A blur of movement drew my eye to the left and I looked just in time to see Jescha lop off the head of a vampire. The swing of her thin, narrow blade was neat and his neck was hewn cleanly at the shoulders. The demon fled the corpse in a burst of red energy, leaving a sticky mess of a body behind. 

The few seconds of distraction blinded me to an oncoming attack. The tall man my father and I slipped past earlier looked ready to have his revenge.

A black shadow moved like tentacles to surround me. I tried to move, but the shadow wouldn’t budge. Its dark fingers tightened around my throat. I fought for air. The skinny
man stood expressionless and motionless, focused on choking the life out of me. I glared at him. Oh, how I hated him.

At the very moment I thought I would black out, Jescha finished with another vampire. She banished the writhing darkness with a beam of pure white light, and I gasped as I tried to catch my breath. The man looked taken aback and I took advantage of his lapse in focus. I ran the few steps toward him and decked him square in
the nose. He doubled over with both hands clutching at his face and I brought my knee up sharply to strike him in the gut. I kicked his feet out from under him and he toppled. He wasn’t so tough without his evil shadow.

Jescha and I were ready to move, but Alex was entangled with another bloodsucker.
His lips were peeled back to reveal extended fangs, angling to bite the back of the werewolf’s neck.

I tightened my grip of the knife I held and lifted it. Bringing the tip down swiftly, I hit only shoulder. It was as though he had sensed me coming and danced out of the way. Alex lunged and his great snapping jaws just missed taking
the vampire by the throat. Jescha was ready with her short sword, but her concentration was broken and she never swung. I looked at her and followed her gaze until I found the interruption.

Valan.

From the way he looked back at Jescha, I guessed they had crossed paths before. I didn’t care. Whatever history they had was secondary to my desire to kill the ancient vampire myself.

The momentary standoff was interrupted by the sound of crunching bone as Alex bit down on
the other vampire’s arm. I was the closest, so I buried my knife in his chest all the way to the hilt. The silver pierced his heart and I doused him with holy water. There was little more than a pile of bone and sinew left after the demon was forced to flee.

Valan had already gone for Jescha, but Alex was trying to shift the bloodsucker’s attention onto himself. The werewolf growled and tossed his head, pointing his
muzzle toward the heart of the school. I knew what he was trying to tell me, but I was being stubborn. I hadn’t gotten many opportunities to take out Valan, and here I was face to face with him for the second time that night. On the other hand, I didn’t want to leave my dad’s life to chance.

I had a choice to make: Revenge or heroism.

“Come Remington. Your father,” Jescha said.

I unfastened my bow from the harness on my back and followed her. I gave one last look behind me, where Alex and Valan were tearing at each other so quickly that their every movement was a blur. Though I’d wanted to send that vamp back to hell from the moment his fangs sank into Dominic’s throat, I hoped Alex would rip him to shreds.

Jescha and I went as fast as we could down a dark corridor that would lead us to Cerise and hopefully back to my dad. I lead the way, retracing my exact path from before. The angel followed me in silence, even her steps falling without a sound.

“Entering the west corridor,” I said into my headset. I could hear other chatter through the comms, but no specific information. Then Gabe’s voice came through clearly.

“Copy that. We’re coming from the north.”

We kept moving, the path ahead of us clear. Jescha heard the footsteps first and halted me with a hand on my arm. I pressed my back to a row of metal lockers that were painted red, and I lifted my bow. There was another wide hallway that intersected the one we were
in, and I guessed that was where the sounds were coming from. It sounded like more than one person, moving quickly and trying to be quiet.

I hoped it was Gabriel.

Keeping my back to the wall and my bow level, I shuffled the few steps toward the corner where the two hallways met. I paused and strained my ears.

“Is that you, Gabe?” I asked through the comm.

“Where are you?”

“Up ahead, to the right.”

I looked up to see Gabriel peer around the corner cautiously, his crossbow held at the ready. He visibly relaxed when he saw Jescha and me, and he waved over his shoulder to let Hugo and Meg know that it was safe.

Meg rounded the corner, having shifted into her two-legged form, and asked, “Alex?”

“Fine, when we left him. Tangling with Valan, but he wouldn’t let the two of us stay and help.”

“Great. I suppose I shouldn’t have expected anything less,” she said.

Hugo nodded toward the way they had been going. “Let’s get moving. The others will catch up.”

His words were certain, but I could hear in Hugo’s voice that he didn’t like that the rest of the team hadn’t made it inside yet. We would have to make do with only the five of us, since time was of the essence.

Hugo took the lead, flanked by Jescha on his left and me on the right. In mid-stride, Meg shifted back into her wolf form and brought up the rear along with Gabe. There was no way to be sure what we would find ahead of us, so we all had our weapons drawn and ready.

Three more of the Triple Six stood guard at the door to the classroom where Cerise had holed up. Her following had clearly grown in the last few
days.

I snapped my bow into its place on my back and got ready to move. Hugo, Gabriel, and I sprinted the last few steps and each chose one of the guards. Meg and Jescha hung back and protected our blind spots, watching for reinforcements.

Even over the sounds of the fighting, I could hear Cerise’s voice inside. It enraged me. It frightened me. Most of all, it spurred me on.

The woman who faced me was wearing an arrogant smirk, the lo
ok of someone who believes herself to be unbeatable. I recognized her as the one who helped Cerise and her goon make a quick escape the night we tussled at Benny Jenkin’s house. I aimed a haymaker for her left cheek, ready to wipe the smug expression clean off her face. But she disappeared. I was left caught in a moment of helplessness before I felt myself being thrown forward toward the wall. With barely enough time to react, I caught myself with my hands, saving my face from slamming into the masonry.

As I turned around, the woman appeared out of nowhere and slugged me in the gut, then in the teeth. I fought for breath for the second time that night, gasping like a fish out of water. I kept my back to the wall and
spat the blood from my mouth. There was absolutely no way I was going to stand there and be her punching bag.

She was fast, but predictable. I stepped away from the wall, inviting her attack. She took the bait.

Right when she reappeared, I side-stepped enough to avoid her spinning kick. She vanished again and as we each tried to outmaneuver the other, I came a little closer to figuring out her pattern.

I tried to be patient, to let her play her game of peek-a-boo while I avoided her every attack. But I didn’t wait for her to make a mistake. I positioned myself to be directly in front of her as she came back out of thin air and I socked her so hard that she came off her feet. It was plenty obvious why she had been avoiding getting hit.

Stunned, the raven-haired woman didn’t vanish. I looked down at her, unsure of what to do that would contain her.

My hesitation cost me. I gasped as I felt her blade under my chin. There had been scarcely enough time, but I managed to unsheathe the knife at my back. I used my right hand to grip her arm and my left foot to trip her. Pitching myself forward, I threw her over my shoulder and thrust my knife as she landed on her back. I felt the sharp sting of her own weapon as it bit into my neck, not deep enough to do any
critical damage.

My aim was true, though, and the woman made a terrible, guttural sound of agony before the life went out of her eyes. It had become second nature for me to aim for the heart, but I’d never been so shaken by it. So much blood. The sight of it was unforgettable.

The feral growl of a werewolf captured my attention and I looked behind me. Meg was in an offensive crouch, her hackles up and fur bristling. I followed the intense gaze in her green eyes to the opposite end of the hall – a pair of vampires.

The female was grinning, a wild look in her eyes. She was enjoying the bloodshed. Her companion, a male leech with the wooden good looks of a model, was covered in blood. I guessed from Meg’s violent reaction that it was Gio’s.

I tried to get out of the way, but in the span of a heartbeat, all hell broke loose.

The vampires blurred down the hall toward us, Meg pounced, and Jescha went in, her sword held high. I was caught in the middle of the fray and ducked just in time for Meg to leap over me. The next thing I knew, Gabriel grabbed me by the arm and pulled me the rest of the way down to the floor. The bloody vampire went through the air as Meg flung him, right where I had been standing.

“Thanks,” I said to Gabe over the ruckus.

“Thank me later. Get moving.” He pointed toward the door.

Hugo joined us as we made a run for the entrance to the music room. There was so much chaos in the hallway, no one noticed the three of us slip away. Gabe waved his hand to open the door before we got there, his impressive new power saving us precious seconds. We all skidded to a halt as we finally made it inside the room.

The din coming from the hall rose to deafening levels. It blocked out what Cerise was saying, but we could see her chanting rhythmically. My eyes searched out my father and found him still alive. He was bound to an altar, prone and helpless.

Cerise looked up from her ritual, a flicker of surprise and fear in her eyes before rage took over. This was supposed to be her moment and there we were, crashing her party.

Six of her followers were around the altar, holding hands. She looked to them for protection.

“You must kill the intruders,” Cerise told them. “Apollyon has commanded it.”

I was pretty sure the demon had commanded no such thing, but I wasn’t in a position to argue.

Hugo twirled his sword in his hands, then set his stance. Loading a bolt into his crossbow, Gabriel looked like he was ready to kill rather than be killed. I unsnapped my own bow from my back and nocked an arrow. My target was already clear to me.

I aimed at the middle of Cerise’s pretty red dress and loosed the arrow. She opened her mouth to a burst of flame and I watched my shot turn to useless ash.
With a frustrated grunt, I snapped my bow back into place and made a dash toward her. From the corner of my eye, I could see the huge guy barreling toward me. I thought that I could outrun him, but he was closing in fast. Cerise went back to chanting, though she kept her eyes on me. I braced for impact, but a streak of tawny and silver came out of nowhere.

Looking over my shoulder, I saw Alex leap through the air and land hard on the hulking man. I skidded to a halt, afraid for what was about to happen.

“Alex! No!” I called out, but my warning came too late.

The man’s neck snapped as he hit the floor, killing him instantly. Alex’ wolf form disappeared at the same time, leaving him standing as a mere man. For a fleeting, painful moment, our eyes met.

Dark wings. A dazzling, terrifying presence appeared and swept Alex away.

My stomach lurched, but there was no time to fully take in the loss of Alex. The distraction had given Cerise enough time to finish her incantation.