Dawn of a Dark Knight (23 page)

“No other way. Come on.”

Crap.
Her goal was to get him out of this building. “I think there are a least three men on the other side of this door. Do you have any weapons on you?”

He cocked an eyebrow. “They weren’t there when I came down. I don’t have anything on me.”

“So, let’s say for the sake of argument there are unfriendlies on the other side of that door. I’m not really up to much of a fight. If there’s no other way out of here, why don’t we try to bring them down to us?”

“Okay.” Markus picked up the only piece of trash in the hall, a plastic bottle cap, and threw it up the stairs against the door.

The door flew open. Two men appeared at the head of the stairs. Both she and Markus hid at the first corner. She resisted the juvenile temptation to say, “Told you so.”

As the first man rounded the corner, Markus rammed him in the knees. The guy popped up like a trained soldier and went for Markus. The second guy reached to pluck Markus off his comrade.

Kira leapt up and hit the second guy directly on his throat before he could touch Markus. As he sputtered and coughed, she wrapped herself around his back, placing him in a chokehold. His dark energy ripped through her, coldly burning in each location his skin contacted hers. The man tried to use this energy to hurt her, but his power sputtered, releasing only weak, intermittent cold bursts.

Disregarding the pain, Kira held fast.

She grunted as the man slammed her against the wall. She maintained her hold, but her strength waned.

After a final weak attempt on his part to knock her loose, the Hashishin passed out, falling backward on top of her. She tried to drag in air but couldn’t. Stars swam in her darkened vision. He was too heavy, too crushing to push off. Before threatening asphyxiation set in, the weight lifted. Markus held out his hand and pulled her up.

“Thanks. There’s one more. Once we exit, run for it. I’ll distract the last one and be right behind you.” Kira’s insides clenched down so tight she could barely breathe. She clung to the belief they were less likely to kill her than him.

Refusal etched every aspect of his face.

“I can do this. I have a plan.” Exiting the door first, she dropped low and punched the remaining guard in his crotch as she came up fast. He dropped into a nut clutch.

Kira yelled, “Run. Don’t look back. Call Kane.”

He ran for the exit.

She skipped around the gray-haired guy on the floor, following Markus. Pain bit into her left thigh. Her leg collapsed. Oh, God. An obscenely large knife handle protruded from her thigh. Blood seeped around the buried blade.

Ashor,
she screamed telepathically.

She didn’t dare touch the knife out of fear its removal would make the bleeding worse.

“Fucking bitch,” the gray-haired Hashishin hissed as he grabbed her by the hair and yanked backward. The odor of old cigar smoke and failed deodorant infused Kira’s nose. He twisted her hair in one fist and crushed her throat with the other.

Ashor’s voice boomed in her head,
What’s going on?

Can’t breathe...choking me. Knife hurts.

A man with a tanned, smooth head sauntered down the hallway. He yelled, “Jeb, don’t kill her. Terek wants her alive. Bring her to my office now that she’s awake.”

She clawed at Jeb’s hand, panicked by the looming suffocation.

Suddenly, he released. A sadistically pleased smile tipped his lips upward.

Kira coughed and dragged air into her lungs. Jeb ripped the knife out of her leg. Her scream came out a garbled gasp.

Ashor’s voice entered her mind.
Don’t die. Hold on. We’re almost there.

Jeb dragged her by the arm to a room up the hallway.

“The bitch deserves to die, Theo.” He grabbed Kira’s head and pulled her tightly against his body. He pressed his knife against her neck. “Say the word and I’ll do it. With pleasure.”

“Patience, Jeb,” Theo said from behind a pretentious wooden desk.

“Damn.” Jeb threw her onto an area rug that had the concentric Hashishin insignia woven into its center.

“How did she get out, Jeb?”

“Dunno. Appeared at the head of the stairs with some guy who ran out the front.”

Theo’s eyes glimmered with excitement as his gaze flicked over her. Fear slithered down her spine. She grabbed the wound on her thigh to apply pressure and slow the seepage. Too much blood too fast. Woozy was going to hit soon.

“I’m so glad you decided to join us, Dr. Hardy.” Theo rose from the chair and adjusted his ritual blue
bisht
robe. He leaned toward Kira and touched her face, laughing as a frigid burn of dark power tore into her.

He held her chin between three fingers. “Who helped you escape?”

She struggled to break free of his grasp, but found she was unable. His power locked her to him with little more than a light grasp. Healing slash marks over his wrists and upper arms suggested recent bloodletting as was necessary to power the darker rituals. He ran his fingers over her lips, tracing a frigid burning path. His arousal hit her in waves.

Her entire being recoiled. Bile crested in her throat as her stomach prepared to empty.

He gazed deeply into her eyes, trapped.

Concentrate.
Use the enthralling power.
His arousal ramped up and overwhelmed her senses. Disgusted, she closed her eyes.

He stepped away and shook his head in confusion, but then smiled triumphantly. To Marelena who was standing at the opposite side of the room, he said, “Get everyone on full alert for visitors. Tell them to capture the guy who just escaped and take him to the northern interrogation facility.”

“Sure, Theo,” Marelena replied casually as she exited.

Theo’s touch, although blistering cold, hadn’t been as painful or frightening as she remembered from her youth. From Terek. Perhaps, her imagination had exaggerated Terek’s touch. Or she was stronger now. Realistically, Theo probably wasn’t as powerful as Terek.

“There’s someone here that will be very happy to see you,” Theo pointed behind her.

Kira whipped around. What was he doing here?

****

As they pulled off the state road, Javen pulled the black .45 handgun from its holster. He checked the magazine and chambered a round. The car turned toward the security guardhouse in front of a large gate blocking the Order of Assassins complex from the world.

Javen said, “I’ve got ’em.”

Ashor eased the car forward slowly. Javen leaned out the passenger window. Four pops and all three guards were down.

“Four shots? You going rusty, old man? Maybe we need to get Nate to give you some pointers,” Christian teased.

Javen grumbled crossly, “Get the goddamned gate.”

While Christian found the button in the guardhouse to activate the gate, Ashor said, “I don’t detect any daemons, which means swords are optional. That doesn’t mean Terek isn’t here, but obviously I can’t detect him. Kira is in that middle building. Ethan, take Christian and clear the front. We’ll hit the rear. Meet in the middle.”

“What about the no-kill human rule thing?” Christian asked.

“We’re protecting our
akhrian
.”

“So, it’s open season on Hashishins, then? This is going to be fun.” Christian smiled.

Kira’s pain and terror reverberated within Ashor’s mind. Rage blazed through him. “We’ve got to get her out of there.”

As they all jumped out of the car Javen said to Ashor, “I’ve got the bastards milling at the back entrance.” He smiled viciously as he pulled out his favorite blade and disappeared in a blur of speed.

Ashor followed a few feet behind.

****

Vance Wilkins sat zip-tied into a chair with duct tape over his mouth. An ugly bruise covered the left side of his face and a small laceration sliced his cheek and nose. His gaze remained glued to Theo.

Sympathetic, Kira wondered if they had used the
walmwilde
on him. If so, it appeared he was no longer under its influence.

Theo sauntered toward Vance. He scraped the tip of a small blade teasingly along Vance’s chin line. His cruel, yet entertained, eyes connected with Kira’s as he taunted, “Dr. Wilkins, aren’t you excited to see Dr. Hardy?”

Vance’s entire body trembled. His eyes widened as the blade slowly trekked down his face and neck. A few tears escaped his eyes.

Theo moved the knife down Vance’s restrained arm and cut the bond confining his left hand. He quickly exposed the freed wrist and slashed twice deeply over the vessels. Blood pumped briskly.

“It seems, Dr. Hardy, that Dr. Wilkins is in need of your
special
assistance.” With a wide grin, he stood back allowing her unrestricted access to Vance.

Kira crawled to Vance and mumbled, “I’m so sorry about getting you into this.”

She turned to Theo and asked, “Do you have any bandages?”

Theo laughed.

I’m sorry, Vance, but that asshole can rot in hell before I’ll reveal,
she thought. “Vance, look at me. You’ve got to put pressure on this to stop the bleeding. Hold it against your body.”

His terrified eyes roamed wildly about the room.

“Vance, look at me!” She got nothing coherent from him. An impressive puddle of blood had already leached from his wrist. She let go of her own wound to apply pressure to his, but blood streamed rapidly through her fingers as she tried to grip his wrist with both hands. The healing power begged for release. It cajoled and surged. She gritted her teeth to fight to suppress.

Certain she could never tear a strip of cloth from any of the clothing she wore like they did in the movies, she crawled up Vance and ripped the duct tape off his mouth to place it over his wrist. It helped but the area still wept blood.

Immediately upon the duct tape’s removal, Vance emitted a high-pitched whine. Kira’s gaze darted to Theo. Displeasure transformed his face. If Vance didn’t stop that pitiful noise, he was toast.

“Shhh,” Kira whispered.

“Shut up!” Theo yelled. It didn’t penetrate Vance’s terror. The whining continued. Theo slapped him. The noise stopped.

Theo raised his hand as if to hit Kira. She shrank back.

He growled, “Fix him or I’ll do something far worse.”

Kira sensed Ashor was close. And enraged. The more upset he was, the faster he might get to her. Good.

Yells echoed in the hallway followed by the deafening reverberations of gunshots.

“Guard them,” Theo ordered Jeb, and exited.

Pinpricks of light floated in her peripheral vision.

Kira shook Vance to get him to focus on her. His eyes roamed haphazardly about the room. She whispered, “Look at me.”

When he finally did and seemed to have some sense of cognizance, she instructed, “People are coming to help us. Don’t fight them. Tell the guy who arrives first that I need a blood transfusion. Can you do that for me?” She shook him again to gain eye contact. “Please, stay with me. Can you do this?” She thought he made a slight nod, but didn’t trust that he would communicate the message.

Within her mind, she asked Ashor
, I need a—

“Stop talking to him,” Jeb yelled as he jerked her away from Vance. He slapped her, catching her nose.

Renewed pain ricocheted throughout her head. Tears leaked from her eyes. Nose pain just had to be the worst.

Gripping the wound on her thigh as hard as she could, she thought to Ashor,
Please hurry.

Jeb hauled Kira to her feet by her arm and said, “They’re here for you, aren’t they? Who are you to them?”

Kira moaned when her injured leg landed hard against Jeb’s knee.

Jeb whipped her around in his arms to face outward and pressed his knife against her neck.

****

Ashor maneuvered through the building in a minute flat, quickly killing anyone that crossed his path. He didn’t hesitate to watch the bodies fall.

Wrath pounded in his blood. As he entered the office in which he sensed Kira, he pulled up.

He took in the man restraining Kira. The bastard looked moderately capable, but fearful. Fear made the enemy stupid. His nostrils flared as he noticed Kira’s pants were heavily soaked with blood and more dribbled from her nose. Far too much blood loss.

“Come any closer and I’ll do it.” Jeb pressed the knife hard enough against Kira’s neck to cause bleeding.

Ashor reigned in the rage that threatened to overwhelm his control. In a low, chilly tone, he ordered, “Step away from her, and I’ll make this quick for you.”

Blood trickled down Kira’s neck from the knife’s point of contact. “I hold all the cards.”

Ashor smiled. It was the smile of one that knew his abilities were far superior to that of his opponent. He enjoyed the stark terror that crossed his enemy’s face.

Kira’s pain-glazed eyes pleaded.
Don’t let me die like this.

You’re not going to die here. I promise you.

Jeb’s knife slipped when his captive became sudden dead weight. He sliced a deep gash in her neck unintentionally as she fell. She hit the floor with a dull thud.

Ashor roared. Rage took over, burning hot and fierce with the promise of death.

Chapter Twenty-One

Kira clawed her way through a fog. Struggling to consciousness, she cracked her eyelids. Daylight illuminated the familiar bedroom in which she had helped Ashor exorcise the daemon. She was on his bed. Alone.

Sedating dizziness clouded her mind. Why so lightheaded? Two words materialized to the forefront of her consciousness: Opioid analgesia.

Slowly she blinked her eyes open, closed, and then open. The room rocked as if she was weightless in water.

Despite the pain relief drugs, a muscular ache resonated in far too many areas of her body. Within seconds of recognizing the pain, all injured areas throbbed. Moaning softly to herself, she wallowed in self-pity.

Her right hand was anchored to an IV infusing fluids. She felt down along her left thigh and found a bandage, beneath which several sutures closed the knife wound. Along her right shoulder and her neck, she found the lacerations had likewise been closed.

She dozed.

Julie entered some time later and halted. “Good to see you awake. How are you feeling?”