Unnaturals (52 page)

Mason flinched as a huge Twisted wolf tried to leap the wall of fire but split apart as a deadly wail was added to the mix. Lilly.

`Mason?'

He turned to find Renee huddled over Eleanor. Mason glanced up. The god hadn't noticed them yet. Instead, Bemeon had focused on the wolves tearing into his army.

`We're safe!'
His daughter's words triggered movement.

He knelt beside Renee. `Here, give her to me.'

`She's healing, but slowly.'

Eleanor's body contorted as she healed. Mason stood, wings fanning. `Get on.'

He thrust skywards. Gunfire erupted. Strobes picked out Bemeon's form. Eleanor gripped his arms, wailing her pain. Mason circled, watching two Fund helicopter gunships fire thousands of rounds into the god.

`Useless,' Eleanor whispered through bloody broken lips. `He has fed on human blood. Bemeon is connected to this world now.'

Mason watched Bemeon shudder. A tentacle fell as the gunships circled around. Modern weapons
could
hurt him.

`He stepped back then,' he said. Rockets slammed into the god, detonating in a wave of black flesh. Bemeon staggered. Lashing out with a tentacle, he sent a helicopter spiralling into the ocean.

`They cannot kill him,' Eleanor whispered. `If he can be forced back into the portal we can close it.'

Mason scanned the beach. `I need Max.'

`He's somewhere here,' Eleanor said, shifting in his arms. Something like a laugh sounded. `The boy loves to blow things up, doesn't he?'

`What?' He looked at her in surprise. Then the air shimmered and he wheeled away. Bemeon roared as an explosion tore his chest apart and it was Mason's turn to laugh at the sight of an armoured vehicle charging through the car park, rocket launcher still hot. `He does.' Armed men followed the tank, wearing a body armour he knew well.

The Fund had arrived. Automatic gunfire sent flashes of bright light across the seething beach.

`He will make more.' Eleanor looked up at him. `You could kill every single creature coming through the portal and Bemeon will twist those here to do his bidding.'

`He has to go back through the portal, then?' Mason began to swing around to land beside Wilson.

`It is the only way.' Eleanor pulled herself straighter. `If he breaks away from the portal he will win, and we will cease to be. None of us will survive.'

Her eyes said everything. She had faith in him. She believed he could stop Bemeon.

`Watch it,' Renee said. He banked, setting down in the carpark.

`Mother.' Nikki took Eleanor from him, supporting her. `We cannot stop him. Even Wilson's fire is losing its effect.'

Mason looked up as Wilson crackled with fire, his gift tearing at the god. Flesh burnt and healed just as fast. `Killing him won't work — he has to go back through the portal.'

Eleanor, sagging against Nikki, nodded in agreement.

`Sire, Max has authorised a full air strike.' The cultured voice seemed ill-placed among the carnage.

Mason turned to find a ball of red light hovering beside him. Flashes of energy flickered through it. `Syrus?'

`I found the nanotech compartment in the ATV,' Syrus said. The red ball hovered closer. `They adapt fast and my energy has improved their abilities.'

`Air strike?' Nikki asked, shouldering her mother.

Mason touched the glowing ball of nanobots. `Interesting.'

`Two aircraft are inbound as we speak.'

Mason looked to the west, where lights streaked across the sky.

`Fighter jets,' Renee said. `Nice.'

`No. Not nice.' Mason spun around seeking out Max, spotting him on the seawall firing into the chaos. `I need to talk to him.' He felt a tingle of fear. How far had Max gone? Through the Fund he had access to every type of weapon available, even nuclear.

`Speak and he will hear,' Syrus said, enveloping Mason with the nanobot cloud. Comms crackled.

`Max! The jets! What are they carrying?'

`Sir, you're out then? You have Ruth?'

"Yes.' Mason turned towards the jets that streaked towards them. `Max, this is a civilian area. What are they carrying?'

`No nukes, sir,' Max said, falling back and heading towards him along the sea wall. `But we probably should fall back.'

`Christ!' Mason scanned the beach for Ralph. `There are too many on the beach.'

`Not my problem, sir,' Max said, reaching him. `That thing is getting bigger by the second and only the gunships have made a dent in it.' He nodded towards the approaching lights in the sky. `These will blow Bemeon into another universe.'

`Damn it, Max.' Mason brushed past, angry. Too many Wolves and Darkells would be hit.

`Wait,' Renee grabbed his arm. `Ralph knows. He'll signal the others so Bemeon thinks we're retreating. Maybe he won't notice the jets.'

Mason launched skywards. It was a good plan that would work better if he helped. Swooping down to the beach, he tore into Twisted wolves, at the same time letting his gift carry his voice across the battle zone. `Fall back!'

Ralph howled. Wolves fell back. Darkells followed. Mason grabbed two fallen Darkells as the alpha morphed beside him, a young boy in his arms.

`Are you sure?' Ralph dodged a dying creature. Mason kicked its head in as he passed.

`No, but we have more.'

`Cowards!' Bemeon roared behind them as the beach shook under Mason's feet. `Stay and die on the field of battle for I will find you in this world.'

`We're winning, you know,' Ralph puffed, following him up onto the seawall.

`No, we're not.' Mason handed the two Darkells girls to Tashia. He hoped they'd be all right. He had to stay focused.

`What's that?' Ralph's eyes narrowed at the nanobot cloud.

`Syrus,' Mason said.

Syrus settled over him again and static echoed in his ears. He looked for Ruth, spotting her in the ATV with Sally.

`Is Ruth okay?' Max asked. `After being in there, I mean.'

Mason moved to watch Ralph form another line of defence at the top of the seawall. Fund security forces stood side by side with his Wolves and Darkells. `I think so.' He glanced back towards the streaking lights. A low roar trembled on the edge of hearing. They were coming fast. `How big a hit are they carrying?'

`Shitloads,' Max said. `If they don't knock that thing on its arse, then nothing, short of a nuke, will.'

`Shitloads?' Mason found a smile even as Bemeon's army moved closer to them. `You've been here a day and the British accent is already fading.'

Max snorted, shouldering his rifle as a Twisted wolf lunged for the seawall, only to die in Wilson's fire. `You've been a bad influence in more ways than one.'

`Look!' Renee stood on the seawall, pointing. Mason joined her. Bemeon's army paused as the god hollered in glee.

`Priestess.'

She stood on the beach at his feet.

Mason felt it. She didn't share her god's glee. Covered in blood, her eyes sought him out.

`She's—' Mason struggled to say what he could feel as the god stomped his foot in delight and Michelle raised her arms. Deadly white energy filled her body.

`Strike them down, my Priestess. Take your revenge.'

`My sister has remembered,' Eleanor whispered, grabbing his arm with Nikki still holding her up. `Look at her, Hunter. Does she look like his priestess anymore? That's my sister and she's wielding the same energy I do.' She pulled at his arm. `Help her, please. She is my sister.'

`How can you say that?' Renee's angry heat brushed against him as she faced her mother. `That bitch nearly killed Nikki and Ruth! It's been centuries since she was taken, Mother. She can never be one of us. Michelle has killed too many of our kind! What makes you think she will ever change?'

Mason spun Renee to face the beach. `That says a lot to me.'

Energy raced towards Bemeon's army as Michelle's human shape melted away. Her body matched Eleanor's. Dark and scarred, her tattoos glowed in different patterns.

`Holy shit!' Renee pulled free as Bemeon fell silent.

`Michelle wants to come home,' Eleanor whispered as the backline of Bemeon's army exploded under the touch of Michelle's white energy.

`NO!' Bemeon howled. His energy lashed out towards Michelle just as the sound of two fighter jets boomed overhead.

`Bogie is lit up and packages are away.' The words echoed in Mason's shared comms. Around him the chaos slowed.

Michelle's face streaked with bloody tears as she began to run.

Above him four missiles streaked towards the god. Eleanor's grip on his arm threatened to possibly break a bone.

He couldn't save Michelle. There wasn't enough time.

`Mason?' Renee glanced back at him. The world had almost stopped. Bemeon's ball of energy slid slowly through the air. Missiles hissed as they inched forward. `You doing that?'

`No,' Tashia stood beside him. Blood ran freely from her eyes as she pulled Eleanor off him. `Hurry, save her. I cannot do this for much longer.'

Mason didn't ask how she was doing it. Tashia began to grow older as he watched. The energy she was expending must have been immense.

`Michelle first. Then deal with Bemeon. It is important she lives, Mason.'

He took a step but Renee pulled him to a halt.

`You're not considering this? You have no idea what she has done over the centuries. Michelle nearly killed Ruth.'

He pulled free. `She'd done nothing I haven't already done.'

`What?'

`Ruth left me last year. In London. We'd argued. She'd had enough of the butchery. Ruth ran away with Wilson. I, Butcher followed them to the airport. I caught her.'

`But you're not a monster like Michelle. You chose not—'

`I didn't choose. Max shot me.' Renee had to understand why he would save Michelle. She deserved a second chance, like he'd had.

 

Michelle ran.

Away from the dark god, away from the darkness. The same darkness that had torn into her mind when Mari had cast her away. Cold fingers of dark energy had begun to unravel her, fingers that had prised open every part of her mind and begun to shred her very existence, fingers that had unlocked a part of her buried deep by centuries of the Bloodells' way.

Her true self had been freed. The false life she had been forced into burnt away.

She remembered her father and mother. The sister she had loved and the day the Bloodells had torn her family apart.

Her life had been a lie. The truth of who she was had burnt the lie from her mind.

Michelle Darkells found her true energy gift and would make him pay. The one who had destroyed her family and now wanted her daughter.

Bemeon.

Ruth pulled her hand off the blast-proof glass of the ATV. A bitter cold had settled outside.

`How it this possible?' Sally asked beside her, pistol gripped tightly in her hand. `Mrs D?'

`No idea,' she said, touching her stomach. Mason still moved freely but the rest of the world seemed to have stopped. `But I can see some sort of missiles up there. Means we're staying in here for the moment.'

`What about,' Sally pressed closer to the window, eyes darting until she found Wilson, `everyone else? Won't they all die?'

`You have to trust them, Sal,' Ruth said trying to convince herself. Everyone she cared about stood outside, too.

Mason pulled away from Renee, launching himself at Michelle. His wings enveloped the priestess and the cold furrowed deeper into her; why would he do that?

`Mason isn't going to kill her, is he?' Sally asked.

`No.' Ruth didn't understand why he wouldn't finish Michelle, but his stance wasn't that of the killer she knew. What was he doing?

`Those things are starting to move,' Sally said, flicking the safety switch off.

The click cut though the quiet of the cabin, comforting Ruth. She looked at Sally, noticing her tight face and approving her steady hand. She'd rested the pistol on the dash of the ATV. `Did Wilson give them to you?'

`What? No.' She shook her head, eyes still on Wilson. `Max did. Wil nearly had kittens when I told him you'd trained me.'

`You think you're ready to use them?'

Sally moved until her body pressed against Ruth's side. `More than I expected. If Wilson hadn't made me come in here with you, I'd be out there with him.'

`He didn't make you do anything, girl.' Ruth looked through the glass as motion crept back into the world. `That voice in your head was me. Damned if I am going to see you try to prove how much you love him by getting yourself killed.' She touched her stomach again, feeling her daughter move. A low whine began to build outside.

`Thank you.' Sally touched her hand. `But if one of those Twisted things gets close to Wilson I'm out of here.'

Ruth smiled, absorbing the passion radiating from Sally as the frozen chaos began to move outside. `You and me both.'

 

Mason held Michelle in his arms, wings wrapping them in a snug cocoon. Time was short. Yet he paused, studying her — so much like her older sister Eleanor, but for so long tainted with a different energy.

`Taste me.' Michelle moved in his arms. `Tashia cannot hold the world back for much longer, then Bemeon's fire will find me whatever I do.' She looked up at him. `His fire will consume me and you have no defence to match it. That is his hidden gift, a fire that none other can repel except Bemeon himself.'

`I don't—' Mason screamed as Bemeon's fire slammed into him. Chaos resumed. Four missiles tore into Bemeon, the noise deafening, but failing to cover Mason's own wounded scream.

`Taste me!' Michelle writhed. She slipped her hand up between them and used her nails to slash her throat. Thick arterial blood splashed him. `His fire will kill us both. Unless you taste me and live.'

Mason buckled. His wings crumbled and white hot pain coursed through him. His scales were useless as armour against Bemeon's fire.

`For the sake of the goddess, grow some balls and accept what you are!' Michelle yelled, pulling his mouth nearer to her throat. She stretched up to meet him. `Take me, Hunter. Satisfy your revenge. I accept my fate. Accept yours.'

He tasted rich, hot blood. Incisors responded, growing. Jaws clamped down on her flesh and his arms tightened, squeezing. Blood flowed, then gushed. He would have her.