Avenger (25 page)

He reached in and brushed the wisps away.

She pressed against his touch and tried to ignore the feel of the bars. They didn’t cause her pain, just drained her strength — strength she was about to need.

Vessler quivered and Nikki was sure he had to fight the urge to reach into the cage and soothe her.

Her eyes fluttered open, and she tried her best to look innocent and lost. “You prefer my hair down, don’t you?” she whispered softly, wanting,
needing
to draw him even closer.

“Yes.” Beads of sweat broke out across his brow.

She could actually hear his heart hammering. He was
breathing hard now, and his palms had gone sweaty against her skin. Slowly, she reached behind her head to tug her hair free. The palm of each hand landed around the two pencils. With a smile that could liquefy glass, her body stiffened. Her hands lunged forward and she planted the pencils deep into his chest.

Chapter 23

V
essler screamed and reeled back, gasping for air. One pencil protruded from his chest cavity, the other had snapped off and rolled, bloody, across the floor.

The commotion caused the group of lab employees to converge on Vessler at once, yelling for help. Scientists in white and men in black sprang into action, hurrying through the wide door. A gurney was rushed in while Vessler screamed orders and tried to keep pressure on the wound.

Nikki sat down on the concrete floor, careful not to touch the bars. She watched the uproar she’d generated by trying to kill Vessler with her pencils. She’d failed, but she’d certainly left her mark. Once Vessler was wheeled out, one of his men stopped at the cage door. He pulled a short wooden baseball bat from behind him.

Nikki swallowed hard.

“For you,” he mouthed, and smiled sadistically. He tapped the bat against the bar. “Soon.”

Nikki turned her back to him, refusing to let him see her fear. She moved across the floor and settled in next to Zero.

“Nice move on Vessler,” he muttered. “But I think you missed his heart.”

“Too small a target,” she said.

Zero’s shirt was ripped and his necklace was gone, but his fingers kept going to his throat as if searching for it.

His gaze fell on something outside the bars. Nikki turned to see. The cord was all that remained of his necklace.

“Zero, I’m so sorry.” She started to touch him, but was afraid of causing more injury. There was nowhere to place her hands — every inch of Zero was already swollen or bleeding. “What can I do?” But her words were as hopeless as her question. Nothing. There was nothing she could do for him.

“Did you bring any juice boxes?”

A tiny laugh escaped her throat.

Then, Zero did something unexpected. He reached for her. Nikki responded by sitting on the floor and drawing him closer, and even gently placed his head on her lap. When one tear fell from her cheek to his face, she brushed it away. “You look terrible,” she said, pushing his white-blond hair away from his silvery eyes. Clumps of blood caused some to stick, but she worked them free and smoothed the strands.

“Difficult to kill a Halfling.” His breaths were heavy, labored. She listened to him inhale, exhale. There was a gurgling sound with each intake of air. “Have you read about the death and resurrection? Will gave you a Bible, right?”

She frowned. She didn’t want to hear Zero talk about death.

His lips cracked and bled as he continued. “It says that the Son gave up the ghost. The essence of heaven had kept him alive beyond what any normal man could endure. I think he
finally asked death to take him. I never understood it. Until now.” Zero’s eyes closed. “It was a beautiful sacrifice, wasn’t it?”

She nodded, though with his eyes closed, he couldn’t see. But Nikki didn’t trust her voice to speak. Zero would hear her uncertainty. She needed to stay strong for him, and a broken voice wasn’t an act of strength.

He pulled a few more breaths. “Hey, I liked your hair with the Jinsu pencils.”

“I learned that from Raven.”

“I’ve never known Raven to wear pencils in his hair.”

Nikki grasped the edge of his T-shirt and gently tugged the material away from one of the cuts on his throat. “No. He taught me to drive through. I should have spent more time working on it. But after I almost planted the pencils in Raven’s chest, I didn’t really want to try it again.”

“Until now,” Zero croaked.

“Until now.”

“Remind me not to make you angry, ‘kay?”

She pressed her hand gently to his head and smoothed his hair again. “I’d never do that to you, Zero.” More tears followed, and they dropped from her onto him.

“Enough with the water works,” he whispered. “You’re getting me all wet.”

“This is completely my fault. If I hadn’t come to ask you about my past and what Vessler was planning, you wouldn’t be here.” Hopelessness stole through her system, followed quickly by anger. “Everyone warned me to stop poking into my past. To leave it alone, concentrate on who I am now, but I wouldn’t listen.”

“Yeah, you’re stubborn that way.”

Nikki nodded. Her stubbornness may have killed Zero. But then his upper body tightened and his hand rose to grasp hers.
His bloody fingers trembled so much Nikki slid her hand into his to help steady him.

He took a moment to inspect the room beyond the cage. Two scientists were clicking away on computers and one of Vessler’s bodyguards hovered nearby the men. The room beyond the cage was fairly large, but Zero leaned closer as if to keep anyone out there from hearing.

“Listen to me, Nikki.” His voice was slightly stronger. “Stop blaming yourself for everything. You tried to take my place. I’ll never forget that as long as I live … however long that might be.” He grimaced, then gestured above them. “There’s an air vent in the ceiling.”

Nikki glanced into the rest of the room to make sure no one was watching them. The adjacent room off to the right — visible through a window behind the scientists — held Vessler. Nikki’s eyes followed Zero’s gaze. Across the ceiling, the bars were spaced farther apart. In the right corner a vent took the place of a small section of ceiling.

“You’re thin, Nikki. You can fit through. When the chance comes, I want you to run.”

“If I can fit, so can you.”

He chuckled. “Yeah. Good luck getting me up there.”

She considered the vent for a few seconds. That was all it took to know she’d never take the coward’s way out. Of course she could go for help. But she knew Vessler. If she left, even through a skinny air vent, he’d kill Zero. That, she’d never allow. “No. I just need some time to think. Time to pray. When we go, we go together. There’s no way I’ll leave you here.”

He squeezed her hand. “They can’t hurt me anymore. Run, Nikki. Run.” He passed out on her lap just in time to miss the creaking of the cage door.

Vessler’s men dragged her out. She caught a glimpse of an exam room adjacent to her cage, where a doctor stitched the wound in Vessler’s chest. When they took her from the cage, she saw Vessler smile.

She’d assaulted their boss, and in doing so had assaulted their livelihood and manhood. If they beat her, so what? At least they weren’t focusing their attention on Zero anymore. The first few blows were to her face, causing spikes of pain from her head down through her body. With the wingcuff secured to her midsection, keeping her from bracing herself in any way, each strike was unlike anything she’d experienced since tapping into her Halfling power. But Nikki’d been in karate tournaments where the abuse was nearly this bad. She could take it. She had to. She needed to protect Zero.

Vine shut off the barbeque grill for Will while the other Lost Boys — and Girls — shared what information they had. Nikki’d been gone for nearly two hours. Vegan had just told them Nikki had also snuck out earlier in the day to visit Zero, who now wasn’t returning her calls or texts. Vine ran inside the house and tried to log on to the network. Zero was always reachable there.

He tapped his foot while the computer booted up. Something wasn’t right — about any of it. When the computer screen flashed on, he sprang into action, tapping in his personal access code.

Vine swallowed the thick ball of apprehension when a blank screen appeared. He tried again, slowly this time, making sure he entered every letter accurately. Again, a black screen. The
network was down. That had never happened. He ran outside, sliding through the patio doorway.

He started to tell Will and the Halflings what he’d discovered, but his words stopped in the moment he reached the backyard. Everyone was looking at the sky. Vine looked up as well, but the sun shot straight into his eyes. He slammed them shut for a few seconds, and when he reopened them it was darker, and a sound much like a tornado became louder as moments ticked past. He realized the sky was filled with wings, enough to block the setting sun. There had to be twenty Halflings, all descending on the backyard like a great flock of birds.

Vine searched out Will on the back porch. “Who are they? What are they doing here?”

Will didn’t answer, just stared at this new group as they sailed toward the house.

As they neared, the wind smacked with such force, it blew over the patio table. Chair cushions swirled into the violent current of air. Winter and Vegan’s hair flew in all directions, while Raven, Mace, and Glimmer seemed to be bracing themselves against the onslaught.

Vine’s gaze shot around the patio, then back to the sky. They were outnumbered by more than two to one. Mace stepped forward and stood a little in front of Will. Mace always took the lead now, and if these Halflings were here for a war, he was ready. Unlike the rest, who were still shell-shocked, with their clothing plastered to their bodies like they were all trapped in a wind tunnel.

Vegan and Winter finally began to move, and both girls worked to cluster and hold their long hair away from their faces. Vine’s heart kicked up and adrenaline sluiced through his system.

As the twenty-some Halflings touched down in the backyard, one took center stage. His flock of giant, graceful winged creatures all fell into place behind him.

Vine instantly disliked the guy. And after a quick sizing up of the Halflings on the porch, the strange leader’s gaze lingered a moment on Vine. The dude’s face said the feeling was mutual.

For a short stretch of time after they returned her to the cage, the room was blessedly quiet, giving Nikki time to examine Zero’s wounds, hold him while he rested, and pray. “Please, see Zero safely out of this. I don’t really want to die either, but if dying will protect him, I will. No matter what my future after that holds. I don’t want to live on this earth as a dark creature. Whatever Vessler has planned for me, please, give me a way out. Even if it means drawing no more breath.” She prayed all of this silently, not wanting Zero to hear and be tempted to give up hope. Nikki wasn’t giving up, though she reasoned it could sound like it. She was a fighter. And right now, this was the only way she knew to fight.

The exam room door opened and Nikki stood. When Vessler came closer with the short baseball bat in his hand, she placed herself between the door and Zero.

“Your spirit is good, but your aim is faulty. You didn’t pierce my heart, only my flesh.”

Nikki spread her stance. “You’re supposed to be my teacher, so why don’t you give me one more shot?” The strength of her voice surprised her, and the contempt it held for the man who’d once been her guardian made her proud. She wished she could think of something more cutting and clever to say.

“There’s no edge to gain, Nikki. You can’t win. That is, until you join me.”

She leaned forward. “I’ll never join you.”

He laughed. “Of course you will. You’ve already secured that future by coming here. Now, it’s just a matter of time. And, sadly, torture. Disobedient children have to be punished.”

Vessler’s men opened the door and dragged her out onto the floor, where Zero’s blood had already dried and stained the concrete. Vessler took the first few blows, using the bat to pummel her thighs and shoulder. When she could no longer stand, he had his men hold her up. After several strikes, they thrust her to the ground.

Boots stepped into her peripheral vision, the wooden bat swinging to and fro like a pendulum above them. She buried her head between her arms and whimpered in anticipation. The blow made a thud as it landed across her back. She screamed, the nerve endings beneath her skin erupting on impact then radiating outward. Her muscles bunched violently beneath her damaged flesh. She cried out again, the sudden stiffness tearing her bruises apart. Then Vessler yanked a light toward her face to inspect her eyes. He did this over and over while Nikki silently prayed for God to help her.
Please, please don’t let me turn
. And over and over again she knew Vessler was angered by the fact that her eyes remained filled with the light of heaven.

He finally tossed her back into the cage. Once he was gone, Nikki rose onto her knees and bent forward in a prayer posture. “Give me grace,” she whispered. “I can’t do this without you.”

Chapter 24

T
hey continued to remove her from the cage and batter her. Her stamina had waned over the prior beatings, making her easy to knock to the floor. Each time she dropped to her knees, she staggered back to her feet in agony, in defiance. Her bruised knees became a constant reminder from her foe to stay down, to submit to the torture he offered. To succumb to the dark.

But she fought him. She fought him until she no longer could.

She opened her hands. Splayed them flat on the floor. Ten bloody fingers, ten shards of pain. She swallowed, the metallic taste of blood coating her lips and throat.

Streams of hair hampered her vision as she struggled to lift her head. Her gaze shifted, left then right, but her enemy wasn’t nearby. Her head sagged, and her eyes filled, forcing her to blink them clear. Tears of blood fell to her hand, raining her life onto the floor. Releasing her from his cruelty. But not soon enough.

A noise. Behind her. To the right. The sound of her tormentor stepping back preceded the strike, soon paired with a crunch as the impact of his boot to her ribs buckled the bones. She gasped, bolts of pain exploding through her as lung and fractured bone made contact.