The Seven (Fist of Light Series) (40 page)

“You aren’t the one he’s going to kill when he finds out we took his babies,” Jas muttered darkly.

“Hey, at least the blow is slightly lessened for the fact that he actually gifted one to me already. How about this?” I prepared to outline the bet, taking out my lucky quarter. “Whoever wins the coin toss gets to decide our mode of transportation. If you really want, we can all pile in the Mustang, although its backseat has never been known for its legroom.”

“I don’t know, Caleb. That doesn’t seem very fair. I’ll cream you for sure!”

“Sure you will.” I smiled. “So you’re in, then?”

He snatched the quarter from my grasp. “I’m in. But I get to flip it. It’s my ass, after all. As usual, no cheating.” Jas glared at me.

“How could you ever accuse me of such a thing?” I held a hand to my heart, as if pained.

Jas blew on the quarter, taking every bit of luck he could get. “Call it.”

He flipped the coin off his thumb, spinning it end over end. It ended up making me lightheaded, but each and every rotation was followed as I waited for it to reach the zenith of its flight.

“Tails,” I proclaimed.

A door slammed open, and our heads turned in unison to assess whether there was a threat. All of us were obviously non-trusting, jumpy archetypes. In my case I had adequate reason, since half of the people here weren’t too happy with me, and it always helped to expect the worst, since that had a habit of rearing its head in my presence. Someone wanted to spite me, however, because no alarm bells went off in my head and no one charged through the door looking to maim or kill. No one even tried to capture me, and it appeared a leaden weight had manifested to drag me lower on the list of Most Wanted in the supernatural community. The coin fell to the floor, accompanied by a sharp clanging, before it bounced and rolled underneath the Mustang. The pack of misfits had actually shown up to our little extravaganza; this promised to be interesting.

“I got it,” Jas resigned himself to the task.

“You guys come to say goodbye?” I asked.

It seemed all seven of them had decided to throw in, though I didn’t know for sure what their intentions were. If they had decided to put their lives on the line, I might feel the urge to hug them, so hopefully they stayed far away. As a rule, I didn’t like people touching me, and it got awkward fast when you had a poking party. All of them were wearing sensible clothing, and some even sported some suspicious bulges under their jackets. Sandra, Monique, and Mary had pulled back their hair and tied it securely, which gave the impression that they meant business. Henry carried a knuckleduster in one hand and Simon had lost the glasses, although I would be surprised if he wasn’t wearing contacts. Jas got up from the ground, having slid under the car in order to grab the coin, and looked forlorn.

Simon stepped forward. “We’re coming with you, so don’t even try to stop us!” The impact of his statement was slightly lessened by the habitual repositioning of his glasses, which ceased to be in evidence.

Jas whacked me on the shoulder and I looked down at his hand. “You have no dog in this fight,” I replied, reasonably enough. “Win!” I snatched the coin out of Jas’ hand with childish glee. “Thank you very much. Come back anytime you feel like losing. Always bet on the toss, my friend.”

They all seemed a little confused by the spectacle, besides Zack. “We’re your friends, so in a way, we do have a dog in this fight. Two, if you count Jas, since invariably, he’s some form of dog.”

“We can’t let you leave by yourselves. It would inevitably end up weighing down on our consciences when you ended up dead. Plus, you wouldn’t survive outside ten minutes against all that opposition.” Henry assumed a pained expression.

I let loose an amused breath. “Well, if it means that much to you, feel free to tag along. Make sure to pick a car that can keep up. We’re not stopping for anything and speed limits are to be considered loose guidelines.”

Mary surprised me with her forwardness. “Hell yes! I call the Tesla!”

There was indeed a Tesla in the far corner of the garage, which I hadn’t noticed previously.
Go figure
. I gave myself some credit, because it was easy to be distracted by all the ripsnorters when there was an unassuming car in the background.

“Well, guess this means they are tagging along.” I smiled.

It took some time to travel down the private road to get to the main thoroughfare. Not that we were maintaining the speed limit. We definitely had thrown that pesky regulation out the window. The roads were typical of anything in the mountains or rural areas, snaking and constricted. Therefore, it was very difficult to travel at any speeds far exceeding the speed limit. I gave it my best go, though, for the sake of the deadline threatening. That and the Shelby was just a damn fun car to drive.

Jas gave me a strained smile from the passenger seat. “Do you think we could slow down a smidge?” He was strapped in and forcing himself into the contours of his seat at each turn. “It’s not that I don’t have the utmost confidence in your abilities as a driver, but I have
no
faith in your ability as a driver.”

“I had thought he was doing rather well, so far,” Zack disagreed from the backseat.

It had gotten rather impractical to be driving a car for every two people, so in the end, we were forced to fit as many people into the high performance cars as we were able. Although, like most expensive cars, there were no more than two seats in most cases, so a loophole was exercised by a few guilty parties. For instance, Razor and Hailey were comfortable by themselves in the Ferrari. Most of the remaining crew was able to squeeze into a Maserati, complaining all the while. Of course, Mary was at the wheel of the Tesla. That only made me laugh at the absurdity of the situation. We were driving down a scenic road in the middle of a national forest, traveling in some of the most expensive cars on the market, riding in Old-West style to save the town from bandits. I hoped we would arrive in time, because the tolling in my mind was rising to a crescendo, and a sense of finality followed close on its heels.

The wheels of the Mustang slid off the side of the road, throwing up dirt and gravel, and I winced as the cacophony reached my ears.
Oopsie
. I was in front, leading our little assembly, but was by no means all that far in the lead. Razor was practically parked in my backseat and Mary was giving him hell in the Tesla. Henry had taken last in the Maserati, in his eyes some cruel twist of fate. The road finally branched off onto a freeway, the 96 to be exact. I grinned manically and opened it up to see what she could do. I never had gotten a chance before, which meant this could be my one and only, from a fatalist perspective. Might as well enjoy the ride, despite the chance of the five-O getting on our tail. By the time a minute had passed, I was sailing down the freeway in fifth and loving every second of it.

We had to take evasive action when cars got in the way of my breakneck passing. Repeatedly, the drivers on the freeway expressed their distaste with our reckless driving by honking as if Death had appeared on his shining horse before them. Even Jas had lightened up a little as the rule involving sins and fast cars once again intervened. The rumble of the engine was accentuated post-haste by the radio, which was turned up full blast. Sound hit my body from all sides, evidence of the subs at work, and I took in all the miniscule details. My adrenaline flowed and the connection with my power was ever-present, sharpening the scenery around me, as well as enabling me to prepare for any unexpected encounters. As the GPS informed me, the drive couldn’t be much more than four hours at these speeds, assuming the car would hold out that long without overheating or causing any trouble.

“What do you think they’re trying to accomplish?” Simon attempted to push up his nonexistent glasses he had left behind.

I mulled over the question before responding. “It seems to me that he’s trying to spread fear. There were those slayings on Alcatraz, which definitely didn’t make anyone dream about double rainbows. He’s driven the average citizen into a frenzy and sent them rioting in the streets. And now he’s preparing a legion. There’s no landmark or place of power for him to take in the vicinity. The only logical conclusion I can conceive is that he’s making a challenge to any and all who would take it while simultaneously causing panic and chaos, perpetuating his own brand of Darkness that he intends to spread across the globe from this locus. From what I’ve heard, he’s an intelligent guy. I’m not going into the situation underestimating my quarry. I can only hope that I’m right, that we get there in time, and that we can successfully force them back into their dank residences beneath the earth.”

“That’s
all
you came up with, huh?” Jas said.

I chanced a glance while maneuvering through traffic in order to return the stare. “I think a lot.”

“It would seem so,” Jas said.

“Turn-right-in-one-mile-onto-299-West,” the staccato GPS announced. It also told me I was speeding, but I ignored that inconsequential tidbit of information.

“Hey, Jeeves, why don’t you have a GPS function?” I jibed.

“
I’m far more sophisticated than a simple contraption like your GPS system. I would never degrade myself by attending any one person in such a fashion
.”

I brought my speed down a notch to make the exit onto the next leg of our journey. It would be really embarrassing to go the wrong direction and not notice, which was why I had a handy-dandy GPS at my fingertips.

I smiled. “Yeah, sure. Whatever you say, buddy. Anyways, what do you know about the Fist of Darkness?” I asked him.

Zack and Simon shared a look of mutual confusion in the backseat, which was noticed out of the corner of my eye. I winked at Jas, grinning, and he gave me a thumbs-up.

“
What I know of the Fist of Darkness would make you cry for your mommy and wet your bed in terror, boy. There have been many, through the millennia, and I have witnessed the atrocities committed by them all
.”

I choked in astonishment, nearly missing a gear as I shifted into sixth. “Say what now?”

Jas was equally surprised by the admission. “You’ve seen what?!”

“
What, you think someone’s living in a cave eternally, making sentient amulets for the mechanisms of control that Nature decides to grant power
?
I have and will always serve the Fist of Light
.”

“I feel like I’ve been given a mega-magical hand-me-down.” I latched onto the amulet at my neck, feeling the heat and power under the upraised surface.

If Jeeves had been visible, he would have been clutching his chest dramatically. “
You would demote me to such a lowly rank
?” Jeeves mourned.

Jas put on his sunglasses, pushing them up his nose with one finger. “I think that’s a very generous attribution.”

By this time, Simon and Zack were twirling their fingers next to their ears. “
The Fist of Darkness is a force of Evil that innumerable denizens of the dark wish to emulate. He, in his many existences, has destroyed lives, villages, cities, towns, countries, monuments, wildlife, forests, republics, kingdoms, and fractured the world. Have you ever wondered why the dinosaurs went extinct
?
Why there are so many ancient civilizations that disappeared mysteriously? Atlantis wasn’t just a legend.
”

“Obviously, he’s no longer forced to omit this information,” Jas pointed out helpfully.

A simple question remained. “Why?”

“
He is the embodiment of Darkness, of evil. His actions are driven by an insane lust for power. And yet he possesses a kind of genius that no other can transcend. In his many lives, he has rationalized his existence in numerous ways. But those that are the most prevalent are that he is doing what is necessary, right, and his duty. That is the failing of the histories
:
they fall short of defining evil. They paint a distorted, ugly picture of an insane archetype that knows nothing of love or peace. Unfortunately, that is not the case, many times. The Fist of Darkness, like many forces of the Dark, believes that his cause is just, right. Look into your past, and you will see a similar trend
;
no country goes to war believing they are wrong for doing so
.”

“I can’t help but think we’re missing something,” Zack said.

“I agree completely, there’s some vital component which has been overlooked,” Simon peered at my chest where the necklace sat underneath my dirt-challenged shirt.

A minivan driving family man was not happy with our collective driving habits, and he let us know with impunity. Long after we had passed him, my ears were still ringing from the horn.

A smile stretched across my face, and I reveled in the game. “Think we should slow down? People don’t seem to be impressed with our maneuvering abilities.”

“Maybe you should do some more swerving, they might like that,” Jas rubbed his chin thoughtfully, pondering.

I snorted. “Maybe. So, Jeeves, we’re up against an insane genius that believes he’s doing his duty by destroying the world. That’s just dandy. Anything else you’d care to add?”