Dark Descendant d-1 Page 23

  Anderson coughed loudly, and everyone jumped—including me—though we’d all been expecting it. He turned over onto his side and coughed some more, painful, racking spasms that brought up gouts of water and made him gag. But at least he was alive, and awake. I hefted my stone, but until Anderson had quit coughing, I doubted he would be in any shape to take out whichever Olympian I didn’t hit.

  I decided that as soon as Anderson was able to breathe without retching, I’d take out Alexis. I had no idea which divine ancestor Dean was descended from, or what powers he might have, but I did know Alexis could throw lightning bolts, and those were a dangerous long-distance weapon. I had to hope that whatever Dean’s powers were, they weren’t much use in a fight.

  “It never occurred to you that there would be extra security on your lady wife once you took a Descendant of Artemis into your household?” Alexis mocked, though I wasn’t sure Anderson could hear him over all the coughing. “I never took you for a fool, but then women do tend to have a negative influence on masculine intelligence.”

  Still coughing, though not quite as desperately, Anderson managed to push himself up to his knees. I still didn’t think he was capable of doing anything really useful like fighting or running.

  A flash of movement in the distance caught my eye, and I realized I was running out of time: Peter was coming back. When he got here, he would kill Anderson, and that would be that.

  Of course, Peter was only human for the time being. I hefted the rock, wondering if I could put enough oomph into my throw to kill.

  The thought shocked me, but only for a moment. I wasn’t a killer, but I wasn’t some helpless damsel in distress who would stand horrified and useless on the sidelines, either. I knew next to nothing about Peter, but if he was in cahoots with Alexis, then he was a bad guy, period. I wouldn’t feel bad about killing him.

  At least, that’s what I told myself.

  “Stay out of this, Nikki!” Anderson suddenly shouted, his voice loud and clear despite all the coughing.

  I was so startled I almost dropped my rock. Dean jumped, and Peter started running faster, but Alexis just laughed.

  “You think she hung around to try to save your pathetic hide?” Alexis asked through his laughter. “Or is that supposed to make me paranoid?” He looked straight at Anderson, not glancing away for a moment—proving how unthreatened he felt. Of course, his cronies were doing enough looking around; he didn’t have to. I huddled down lower behind the bush I was using for cover.

  Did Anderson know I was here somehow? Had that been an actual order? Or was Alexis right, and he’d just been trying to distract the opposition?

  The moment of indecision cost me, and by the time I made up my mind to ignore Anderson’s command—if it even was a command—it was too late. Peter had drawn a gun—my gun, I suspected—and was pointing it at Anderson. If I managed to clock him with my rock, the impact might cause him to pull the trigger. I didn’t dare risk it.

  Feeling a little like that useless damsel in distress after all, I remained crouched behind the bush, hoping Anderson had some kind of a miracle plan up his sleeve, because I was plum out of ideas.

  TWENTY-SIX

  Anderson spat a couple of times, then shook his head in an effort to get his wet hair out of his eyes. He should have looked like a helpless victim, kneeling there on the ground in his underwear with his hands cuffed behind his back and a gun pointed at his head. Instead, he looked poised and unruffled.

  “Have you ever wondered why Konstantin made a deal with me?” he asked Alexis, and despite the dire situation, a small grin tugged at the corner of his mouth.

  Alexis looked nonplused, both at the question and the casual tone, but he answered quickly enough. “Because it was not worth our effort to squash you and your little friends like you deserve.” He sounded very sure of himself, but both of his accomplices were visibly worried.

  Anderson’s grin broadened. “Really? Why don’t you give your boss a call right now? You’ve got me helpless, after all, and if you have your pet kill me and steal my immortality, my followers would most likely disperse. So call Konstantin and ask him if he wants you to kill me.”

  Alexis snorted. “You trespassed on my property. I’m within my rights to kill you, and I don’t need to ask anyone’s permission.”

  Anderson shrugged. “Fine. Don’t ask him. If ignorance is bliss, you must be in heaven right now.”

  Alexis landed a crushing punch on Anderson’s nose, though he had to bend over a bit to do it. I winced at the crunching sound of cartilage giving way. Blood spurted from Anderson’s nose, and he crumpled to the ground. His muscles remained tense, however, so I knew he wasn’t unconscious.

  Alexis bent and wiped the back of his hand on the grass, cleaning off the blood I supposed. Then he stood up straight and resumed his arrogant, cross-armed pose, towering over his fallen foe.

  “You and your people have been a thorn in my side for some time now,” Alexis said. “A quick death would be too easy for you.” He pulled back his foot and delivered a brutal kick to Anderson’s belly. Anderson grunted and curled himself around the pain.

  Just how slow a death did Alexis have in mind? Enough that I had time to run for help?

  I dismissed the thought with only the briefest consideration. With my car all the way back at the church, and the mansion at least a half-hour’s drive away, I couldn’t risk it. But the slow death comment gave me hope. Whatever torture Alexis planned, it would probably mean some relaxing of Peter’s guard. The Descendant still had the gun pointed and ready, but I didn’t think he was quite as poised to shoot as he had been when he’d first arrived on the scene. Maybe if Alexis was going to deliver a beating, he’d get a little careless and place himself between his flunky and Anderson. And wouldn’t it be a terrible shame if I hit Peter with the rock and he ended up shooting the wrong guy?

  “I’m sure you’re not enjoying this,” Alexis said. He was panting with eagerness, getting his rocks off on the pain he was inflicting. He delivered another kick before continuing. Unfortunately, Peter still had a clear line of fire. “But I suspect it will hurt you more to hear about all the fun I’ve had with your dear wife since she’s been my guest here.”

  Anderson froze, his sudden stillness overcoming even the reflexive writhing. I closed my eyes for a moment in an attempt to stave off my sympathetic horror. Behind my closed eyelids, I couldn’t help seeing the image of Steph, the damage she’d taken, and the pain she’d endured after less than an hour in Alexis’s clutches.

  Emma had been Alexis’s prisoner for the better part of ten years, and he might not have kept her in the water all that time.

  Alexis laughed, enjoying the pain and horror Anderson couldn’t hide. “Once a year, on the anniversary of her capture, we fish her out, and Konstantin and I share her. Even after all this time, she still cries for you when we—”

  Anderson let out a roar, like nothing I’d ever heard before. So loud my bones and my teeth rattled with it, and so savage it froze Alexis and his cronies in their tracks. Three sets of eyes widened to almost comic proportions, stunned by the fury of that roar.

  And then Anderson moved, his pain forgotten as he lurched to his knees.

  The sudden movement broke all of us out of our stupor. I knew from the terror on Peter’s face that he was totally unnerved and that he was going to shoot. I also knew that my thrown rock would be too late to stop him. I leapt to my feet and hurled it anyway, putting all my strength behind it and aiming for his head.

  The gun fired. I watched in horror as Anderson’s head snapped back, blood spurting from the back as the bullet passed all the way through. His eyes glazed over, and his body started listing just as my rock caved in the side of Peter’s skull.

  There was another moment of disordered shock as everyone looked around, trying to make sense of what had happened. Anderson and Peter lay on the grass, both staring sightlessly into the night.

  I cursed myself for waiting as long as I ha
d to throw the damned rock. Sure, I’d been worried hitting him with the rock would make Peter reflexively fire the gun; however, I’d known for a fact he was going to fire it on purpose eventually, so the smart thing would have been to take a chance that the blow wouldn’t make him pull the trigger or that his shot would miss. I’d wanted a better opportunity, hoped for a sure thing.

  And because of that hesitation, Anderson was dead, and the Olympians now had a new Liberi to add to their stable.

  At least, they would have him soon, once Peter’s wound healed enough for him to revive. The rock had done an impressive job on his skull, and that kind of an injury would take time to heal. Not that that helped me a whole hell of a lot.

  Alexis’s searching eyes found me, and his lips twisted into an expression somewhere between a grin and a sneer. Now would have been a good time for me to run for my life, but I stood there frozen by his gaze, horrified by my failure.

  “I was just starting to have fun,” Alexis said with a mock pout. “But then you’ll be more fun to play with anyway. I’ll show you everything I did to your sister, and everything I would have done if that interfering faggot hadn’t showed up and spoiled everything.”

  I’d never asked Blake how he’d managed to run Alexis off that night, but now I had a good guess. The air crackled with electricity, raising the little hairs on my arms. I could have turned tail and run, but with Alexis so close, I didn’t see how he could miss if he threw a lightning bolt at me. I was superstitiously reluctant to turn my back on him.

  Dean squatted beside Peter’s limp body, frowning down at him. “Umm, Alexis?”

  “What?” Alexis snapped, obviously annoyed to have his gloating interrupted.

  “He doesn’t seem to be healing.”

  “What?” Alexis said, and this time he sounded more surprised than angry. He turned to look at Peter’s body.

  I’d have taken advantage of his distraction to run like hell, only I took one last glance at Anderson first. His eyes, instead of staring sightlessly at the sky, were focused on the two Liberi. As I watched, a smile curled his lips, the expression so sinister as to be almost evil.

  Anderson reached out with one leg, hooking it around Dean’s ankle and yanking him off his feet. With a cry of surprise, Dean fell, and Anderson rolled until he was straddling him. His hands were still cuffed behind his back, but Anderson leaned back and tucked those hands just under the waistband of Dean’s pants, making contact with his bare skin.

  Dean let out a shriek of pain, his back arching as he tried to buck Anderson off of him. But Anderson held on tight, bracing himself with his legs and using his grip on Dean’s waistband as an anchor.

  When Anderson had used his Hand of Doom against Jamaal, Jamaal had passed out after only a few seconds, and I expected the same thing to happen now. The surprise and his friend’s screams had momentarily kept Alexis from attacking, but surely a lightning bolt would be on its way any moment.

  Figuring that even in the handcuffs, Anderson had a better shot of taking out Alexis than I did, I decided to take one for the team. With an incoherent battle cry, I launched myself at Alexis. If he was busy fighting with me, he couldn’t electrocute Anderson. Surely Dean would be unconscious any second now, and then Anderson could turn his attention to the greater enemy.

  Dean was still shrieking, his voice high and thin with agony. If he weren’t already starting to go hoarse, Alexis might not even have heard my own cry.

  Alexis whirled toward me, and I knew the lightning bolt was coming. I’d semi-resolved myself to taking it, but at the last moment I threw myself to the side. The quick dodge kept me from taking a direct hit, but even a near miss with that kind of power was enough to stun me.

  I hit the ground with a thump, too disoriented to soften my fall. My limbs felt like jelly, and my head hammered and rang with pain. I wanted to just lie there, maybe slip into soothing unconsciousness so I wouldn’t have to hear Dean’s piteous screaming anymore.

  I blinked away the afterimage of the lightning, expecting another blast at any moment but unable to muster the strength or coordination to get up. I looked over my shoulder, thinking maybe Alexis was going to strike at Anderson now that he’d temporarily disabled me.

  Alexis was indeed staring at Anderson, but he showed no sign of tossing a lightning bolt. Instead, he stood there in slack-jawed horror, his face a mask of fear. Muscles still weak and quivering, I forced myself to sit up and see what had put that look of terror on Alexis’s face.

  Dean’s body was glowing cherry-red as Anderson continued to straddle him, teeth bared in a truly savage snarl. A thin, keening wail rose from Dean’s throat, but the sound was growing thinner by the second as the glow intensified. Anderson was glowing, too, his skin radiating a white light that made me squint.

  “You’re next,” he growled at Alexis, the snarl turning into a smile that was no less savage.

  Alexis looked like he was about to wet his pants. I know I would have if Anderson had looked at me like that. Of course, I’m pretty sure that in spite of my fear, if I’d been in Alexis’s shoes I’d have mustered the courage to throw one more lightning bolt in an attempt to save my friend from agony. But Alexis always chose to look out for number one, so instead of trying to help Dean, the cowardly bastard turned tail and ran.

  Anderson turned to me, no longer looking anything like the unprepossessing normal man I’d first met. He seemed to have grown in size behind that white glow, muscles bulking up as he put on what I’d guess was another six inches or more in height. His blah-brown hair was now snow white and shoulder length, and his medium-brown eyes were like twin white stars in his face.

  “Stop him!” he ordered me, his voice resonating differently in that suddenly deeper, broader chest.

  I wasn’t in any shape to chase after bad guys, but I wasn’t crazy enough to defy an order given by a crazed immortal.

  I forced myself to my feet, considering my options as Alexis fled toward the house. Fear had given his feet wings, and even at my best, I wouldn’t have been able to run him down when he had this much of a head start. If he made it through the house and to a car, there would be no stopping him.

  It was only a slight detour for me to dart to the shore of the pond and grab my backpack before I sprinted after Alexis, but in that time he’d put even more distance between us. I ran as fast as I could, one hand digging blindly in the backpack until my fingers found another rock.

  Puffing with exertion, I drew that rock out of my backpack. Alexis was almost to the back door. If he got inside the house I’d never get a shot at him. So even though I was still a good fifty yards away, and it was so dark I could only make out his shape because he was moving, I pitched the rock with every ounce of strength I could muster.

  Alexis’s hand closed on the doorknob, and he twisted it while banging into the door with his shoulder. He took about half a step inside before the rock made solid contact with the back of his head.

  I was too far away and too weak to do the same kind of damage I’d done to Peter, supernatural powers or not. But the blow was hard enough to drop Alexis to his hands and knees. He didn’t lose consciousness, but he was clearly woozy, his body swaying as he tried to regain his feet.

  My own knees gave out then, and I collapsed onto the grass. As I lay there panting, I dug through my pack for another rock, pushing myself up into a sitting position. Even with the power of Artemis, I wasn’t sure I could hit Alexis again from this distance, especially not while sitting down, but I was willing to give it a try.

  It turned out I didn’t have to. A glowing white pillar of fire—Anderson—ran by me at an easy lope that seemed to cover about ten yards per stride. Alexis screamed in terror when he saw what was coming for him. He lurched to his feet, still visibly unsteady, and stumbled through the doorway. He tried to slam the door behind him, but Anderson had already closed the distance.

  I turned my head and covered my ears when Alexis began to scream.

  TWENTY-SEVEN


  Covering my ears didn’t help, at least not enough. I didn’t care what Alexis had done—I couldn’t bear to hear a human being suffer like that.

  Sobbing with the effort, I got to my feet once more and, still covering my ears, ran back toward the pond, putting more distance between myself and the house in hopes the sound would be muffled. I made it all the way back to the edge of the water before my legs refused to carry me anymore and I had to sit down. The screams were fainter now, but I could still hear them, and I knew the sound would haunt my sleep for years to come.

  Peter lay where we had left him, his head still caved in from the impact of my rock. There was no evidence of any healing whatsoever, so he’d clearly failed in his quest to become Liberi. I didn’t see how, though. He’d shot Anderson in the freaking head. I’d seen the bullet come out the other side, seen the life drain from Anderson’s eyes. Anderson had died, I was sure of it.

  Maybe Peter hadn’t really been a Descendant after all, though I wasn’t sure how one could make a mistake about that. The glyphs were pretty clear indicators.

  And then there was Dean.

  Actually, there wasn’t Dean. Where Dean had lain, there was a shirt, a pair of jeans, and a pair of sneakers, all empty. The air smelled of sulfur and ash, although as far as I could tell there wasn’t even a speck of ash or dust to mark where the Liberi had once been.

  He was dead. And not the kind of dead a Liberi could get up and walk away from. He was an immortal being who could only be killed by a mortal Descendant. And yet Anderson—clearly not a mortal—had killed him.

  Footsteps approached me from behind, but I didn’t turn to look. Alexis’s screams had finally stopped a couple of minutes ago, so I guessed Anderson was through with him. There was no eerie white glow lighting the night now, but that didn’t stop the chill of fear that traveled up and down my spine. I’d been coming to think of Anderson as a friend, but after the savagery I’d witnessed tonight, I couldn’t force myself to look at him.