Daughter Trilogy Bundle (130 page)

I feel the ease of burden as the last cry of the beasts falls flat, and then Devin flashes to my side to force a ripple through the wind.  It strikes her hard, and she staggers again as she growls at him.

Her eyes glow, just as I see electricity surging past me and slashing her side, but it regenerates almost instantly.

Oh no.  Jace is here.

Nadia’s warning flash through my mine
,
making me sick, dizzy, and almost frozen in fear.

I keep the wind forced back as I speak to our group uselessly launching attacks at the powerful bitch.

“Go now,” I yelp.  “Go now before it’s too late.”

“
We’re not leaving,” Kry asserts.

I know they won
’t go willingly, and that leaves me with only one option.  My eyes glow green, and I subdue Rhea’s storm while facing our family, our friends, and our allies. 

“
Go,” my echoed voice commands.  “Take the women no matter how hard they fight, and go.”

It
’s the strongest my Aphrodite’s gaze has ever felt, and it’s the first tie I’ve tried using it only so many immortal men at once while in my sane frame of mind.

I feel a little relief when I see it start to work, and I turn back just after seeing Deacon tossing Camara over his shoulder against her hissing protest.

“Put me the fuck down!” she screams, but he can’t.

She can struggle, but she won
’t do anything to hurt him. 
At least I hope not.

“
No.  Kahl, stop!  It’s our daughter.  Look at me,” Persia blares, but her stare isn’t strong enough to counter mine, and my father is forced to do something he’ll regret if we don’t make it through this. 

More protests scream out as the women are forced to leave against their will, and the men will bear the burden of guilt forever despite their forced compliance.

Rhea screeches as Jace slices into her side with another powerful bolt, and then Devin knocks her into a rolling back flip with a stronger ripple.

“
Devin, you have to go too,” I strain out, but I know before the words leave my mouth it’s pointless.

“
You can’t force me,” he snaps.

“
Me either,” Jace growls as he takes my other side, and he blasts his energy streaks against Rhea with more force than I’ve ever seen him possess before.

“
Please,” I cry.

“
No, damn it,” Devin harps, and I see a small twinkle developing in the eyes of the enemy.

What the hell?

She gasps briefly as her side is ripped by Devin’s magnified ripple once more, and then suddenly the colliding forces of our monstrous winds are too much for the earth to take any longer.

The air explodes around us, and everyone is launched backwards to dig up the remaining fragments of sand on the beach.

I grunt as the unexpected impact of my body thrashing against the ground knocks the breath from my lungs.  Devin slowly starts to climb to his feet as does Jace.

Rhea is staggering back up off her knees and I launch a hurling streak of electricity at her while she
’s not at her strongest.

I gasp in shock when she suddenly dematerializes into the shadowy fragments I had seen her spawn from.

“It would have been nice to have known she could do that,” my chimed voices snap in unison.

“
That’s fucking new,” Jace mutters out in ghastly bemusement.

The fragments whirl over to the line drawn by the crashing waves, and I thrust a new lightning streak at her just as she rematerializes.  She screams out as it gashes her all the deeper and the steel color of the lightning changes into a blaring white force as it plummets from the sky and strikes her once more.

She screams out louder this time, and I see the blood pouring from her once indestructible body.

“
You bitch,” she snarls, and the wind rips free from my clutches as she pulls forth the earth’s power as Deidra once had, but I have a few abilities in that area as well.

The ground quakes beneath us and jagged rocks shoot free with an impaling attempt.  My eyes flash a deeper red to force the earth back into place, and she seems a little taken aback by this. 

“You’ve got it all, don’t you?” she growls, and then I see that same, odd smirk on her face again.  “Too bad I’m not invincible,” she murmurs with a suspiciously calm, eerie tone.

I don
’t give it much thought as I hurl another bolt of lightning at her, and it slashes her side again.  Then I grow sick as I see all the progress we’ve made suddenly taken away when her body heals itself in front of our eyes.

“
What the fuck?” I screech.

“
It’s what makes her so hard to kill,” Jace grunts.  “She regenerates too quickly, and you’re forced to start all over.”

Crap.  Crap.  Damn!

The thunder rumbles with a ferocious desire as the lightning suddenly blasts free from the sky with an ambushing hail of white flares.  She screams as they combine for one massive attack, and she’s thrown onto her back, her blood returning to a steady flow.

More sand from the beach is thrown free in a huge gust and forced to join the wet floor of the ocean.  I launch another attack, but she dematerializes again.

“Damn it,” I snarl.

“
Adisia, get back,” Devin yells, and I look over in gaping disbelief at the powerful pieces of her dissembled goddess clashing violently against the wind I had evoked as a barrier.

The forceful shadow fragments don
’t swirl back together though, they charge right for us - right for Devin… not Jace.

No.  No.  No!

“NO!” I scream, and Devin’s arms fly up involuntarily as the shadows swarm into his mouth and rush to take him over.

I race toward him, but Jace grabs my arm to hold me back. 

Devin’s veins pulse with her blood, his body contorts to adjust to her occupation, and when he looks back at me, it’s her volcanic eyes crackling instead of his swirling ocean blues.

“
Isn’t this clever?  I do hate taking on another body.  It’s so very dreadfully draining,” Devin’s voice says, but it’s not him speaking to me.

No.  It was supposed to be Jace she took over.  That was Nadia
’s dream.  The shadow makes Jace kill Devin.  That was her fucking dream!

“
Get the fuck out of his body!” I command through my emotional gust, but she begins laughing.

“
I don’t think so, lover girl.  You see, Devin is immune to your incredible powers, and now, so am I.  The others won’t harm him because they all love him so very dearly.  I’ll rule the world without fight.  Not to mention, even if he wasn’t immune, you still wouldn’t risk hurting him to save your own life.  Isn’t love just a grand bitch?” she laughs even louder while mocking me.

“
Adisia, step back,” Jace whispers while tugging on my arm.

“
No.  She can’t have him,” I wail, and tears flood my face.

“
Oh yes I can,” she taunts.  “And you’ll be the first one to die at the hand of the man everyone seems to love.”

She throws forth Devin
’s ripple, but I bat it away at the last moment with my wind.  The waves roar as the swirling cyclones of water charge me, but my fire meets them head on to steam the watery attack. 

“
Devin, fight her,” I plead as I stare hopefully into the eyes still void of all blue.

She laughs ridiculously hard, and then I feel a stabbing wave of pain as a ripple I didn
’t see coming slices against my stomach.  Before I can regain my footing, another one surges against me, and this time it cuts deeper.

I scream in agony, and then another strikes me with more force.  I feel as though I
’ve been tied to a post and forced to take lashings from a slave master’s whip.

Electricity surges against Devin as Jace goes on the attack, and I scream when I see his body falling to the ground.

“Jace.  No.  Don’t.  You’ll kill him,” I plead, and my eyes gape open as realization springs to light.

No.  That
’s what the dream meant.  No!

“
She’ll use him to kill everyone, Adisia,” he shouts as he blasts Devin’s body again.

That
’s why Jace is here.  That’s why his mother told him he would be at my side.  That’s what she meant when she told him he’d be the only one who could be at my side.  He’s the only one who can kill Devin because everyone else loves him too much.

“
You fool,” she shrieks humorously.  “You can’t kill me.  Only she has the power, and in here, she can’t touch me.”

“
Only she could kill you before you put yourself inside his body,” Jace counters, and I see his body reddening from the strain he’s exerting to collect all of his energy.

“
No!” I scream pleadingly as I flash over to try and stop him, but he releases it before my wind can knock him to the ground.

The ball of hurled energy only seems to grow, and I feel as though I
’m watching the deadly surge of power heading toward Devin in slow motion.  Her volcanic eyes grow wide as the energy wad strikes her, and then Devin’s body is sent flying backwards with a lifeless motion.

“
Oh, please no,” I sob helplessly, and my feet stagger around in a drunken frenzy as I stumble over and over trying to get to him.

“
Please no,” I pray again when I finally reach him, and I scream out at the sky as my tears drown and soak my face.

The volcanic eyes have gone, and the shadowy fragments expel themselves to reform her lifeless body beside Devin
’s.  I cry harder as I see his blue returning, but they’ve lost the smoky blaze.  They’ve been replaced by the glazed over stare of a man who has been taken from me.

Jace drops to his knees with a pale, tortured expression as he stares at me wailing over the body of my husband.  I start zapping his heart with my own electricity, and each time I pray to hear or feel it beating again.  Each failed attempt only brings me to more tears, and each second ticks by slower when he doesn
’t wake up. 

“
No.  Please wake up, Devin.  I can’t be here without you.  Please don’t leave me,” I beg, and I slam my fist into his chest with more of a zapping force. 

His body is forced to react and convulses under my power, but his heart remains still, impassive, and cold.  My lips feel so dry as they cling to each other in a quaking motion.

I flop over onto his still body as I sob against his neck - praying he wraps his arms around me the way he always does or gasps for a breath.  But nothing happens.

No air fills his lungs and no movement stirs.  His heart is silent, refusing to beat even though I
’ve forced all my energy into him.

Each tear burns more as it streaks down my cheek, and each breath is harder to take against my weighted chest.  I begin hyperventilating as the rattled breaths become more erratic, and then I hear the cries and screams coming from all around as the others make their way back.

I barely even notice them rushing over like blurs of light because I don’t care.  I’ve lost the only man I could ever love, and I’ve lost my will to give a damn.

“
No,” Theia exclaims.  “Devin!”

She joins me in my painful, languid, and tormented moment, and I almost cringe for fear of having to share him right now.

I feel the world spinning violently out of control around me.  I stand back up to my feet as the colliding flashes of the three powers inside start taking over.

The wind picks back up, and the ocean moans against its barbaric, merciless ripping motions.  Ships in the distance tip and screams emerge as mortals begin begging for their lives.

“Adisia, no!” Kry pleads.

“
Who cares?” my chimed voice sobs out.

“
Your daughter,” Jace counters, and I begin choking on the emotion knotted painfully in my throat.

“
She’ll never know him,” I cry out, and the tears rip free with even more force as they drizzle their warmth down my neck.  “She’ll never remember his warmth, his voice, his remarkable blue eyes… she won’t have one memory.  What’s the point?”

“
No.  Devin wouldn’t want you to do this,” Jace murmurs soothingly.

“
Devin?” I scream as my eyes burn with contempt for his foolish counter.  “How do you know?  He’s not here because of you!” my echoed voice snaps, and then Kry flashes between us before the energy coursing around my hands stings the man I once called my friend.

“
He’s not here because of Rhea.  Devin would have sacrificed himself a thousand times over to keep you and Aster safe.  Don’t disrespect his memory by losing it now,” he pleads.

“
I’m not losing it!” I explode with my mingling three extra voices chiming in with perfect harmony.  “It’s already lost!  It’s all lost!”