Fallen Eden (20 page)

Even with the Hayward’s and Hector’s obvious skill, the number of men Troy had brought along couldn’t be overcome. One would be sent flailing into the outskirts to only be replaced by two more. It was like trying to damn the Amazon with a few twigs.

“If you don’t let me go right now,” I warned, watching William take a fist to his jaw “I’m never going to speak to you again.”

Paul let out an unimpressed sounding whistle, pulling me further from the warzone. “What, are we back in junior high or something?”

“Dang it, Paul,” I yelled, stomping down on his foot. He didn’t even flinch. “Quit treating like I’m some damsel in distress.”

“I’m supposed to protect you and that’s exactly what I’m going to do,” he said, but before I could argue back, a body torpedoed towards us. The man crashed into us with an impact that sent us flying backwards, suspended in the air long enough to feel like we were flying. We barraged through William’s tool shed, splitting wood and garden tools before thudding to the ground. I glanced over at Paul who had a look on his face that made me think of a cartoon character with stars orbiting their head. He was fine, save for a few cuts and scraps that would heal in a few minutes time.

The man who’d charged us marched through the entryway Paul and I had just created in the shed. He headed straight for Paul who was still trying to shake away the stars.

I flipped off my back, grabbing for the shovel laying beside me on the way up. I lunged in front of Paul, gripping the shovel like a bat, and swung for the fences. The man’s midsection took the hit, sending him flying backwards. He somersaulted through the air, crashing to the ground several yards away—no need to worry about him anytime soon.

“Damsel in distress?” I tossed the shovel to the side, giving Paul a hand up.

“More like damsel of destruction.” He gave his head a final shake. “So you can hold your own in a fight. That totally turns me on,” he said, sweeping his pants clean. “But you’re not going out there in the middle of that cluster f-bomb.”

“Watch me.” I shot him a glare, before gunning for the exit.

“Not a chance.” His arms ringed around me, wrestling me back into the shed.

“I’m warning you, Paul Lowe,” I snarled, twisting back and forth like a wild animal.

“Oooo, I’m so scared.”

“Final warning.” I stopped scrambling about in his arms, ready to deliver the next one of two actions, all contingent on Paul.

“And this is my
final
warning to you. Behave or—”

His words were vanquished by my fist. His grip had loosened just enough when I’d stopped struggling that I’d had just enough wiggle room to bring my right arm around into his jaw.

“Crap, Bryn.” His arms left me, probably moving to examine his face which I’d hit no harder than a Mortal-strength punch, but I didn’t stop to turn around to apologize or make sure his face, or ego, weren’t too damaged.

I flipped through the hole in the shed, breaking into warp speed one stride later, with only one destination in mind. I heard Paul’s footfalls rush after me, but I wasn’t worried he’d get to me before I got to William.

He was surrounded by eight men, fending them off with strategically placed strikes and ducks timed right before a hit could connect, when I leapt over the circle of men around him. I pressed my back into his, at least able to protect half of him, as I drove my palm into the neck of the nearest man. He sailed through a window opening of William’s house, which had been fully consumed by fire and smoke. Nothing of it would be left standing in an hour.

“Thanks for saving me some,” I said, barely tilting my head back to him. He froze, his back going rigid against mine, as if just realizing I’d joined the party. One of his hands grabbed mine, in the most natural kind of way. There was destruction surrounding us and this touch—
his
touch—faded it all away. It was a moment like this that made dying the next moment acceptable.

I noticed two men charging for me, but I didn’t respond. That would have required me removing my hand from William’s and if it meant dying to keep it planted in his, I was just fine with that.

The men were a lunge away from crushing me and my only response was a squeeze of William’s hand, my inaudible good-bye. The men’s heads suddenly collided together before they were tossed to the side, Paul taking their spot in front of me. “If we survive this, you are so in trouble.”

“What about protecting her did I not make clear?” William hollered back to Paul, pulling his hand away.

“This girl’s got the meanest right hook I’ve ever met,” Paul answered, reaching for his jaw.

“Just wait until you feel mine,” William grumbled, his back twitching from whatever beating he was dealing out.

“Boys,” I said, in the middle of thrusting my forearm into the throat of the gorilla moving man gunning for me. “Can we do this later?”

“Gladly,” William answered, heaving a man over both our shoulders.

“Can’t wait,” Paul said, ducking as a refrigerator-sized boulder sailed at his head.

Two men, the giants of these monster-sized men sent for us, appeared in front of me. One cocked his neck to the side, the other popped his knuckles—a tad melodramatic if you ask me—before they launched towards me.

Still backed up against me, I wound my elbows through William’s. Needing no command, he bent forward, just enough so that both my legs were in position to punch into the breastplates of the charging Goliaths. My legs surged forward, my feet connecting with their intended targets. The sound of splitting bone was the only resistance the duo put up as they sailed away from us into the dark forest.

Two down, a seeming thousand more to go.

William shifted me back to the ground, just as another typhoon of men came down upon us. It appeared every last member of Troy’s army had diverged on the three of us and, with their swollen numbers, they managed to separate the three of us quickly.

I heard William call out for me, but I was so deep in concentration attempting to block the endless flood of arms and legs coming at me, I couldn’t conjure up a response. I was moving as fast as my Immortal body was capable of, but it wasn’t enough. Every second that went by, I felt more and more strikes make contact with my body.

Something pounded against my head, dulling the roar of screams around me to a muffled echo, and, for the first time since I’d been Immortal, blurred my sight so that colors and shapes were impossible to make out. I crashed to the ground, sounding like a ton of cinder blocks.

“Bryn!” William screamed, but I was so messed up, I couldn’t tell which direction his voice was coming from.

“I was hoping to kill two birds with that stone,” Troy’s voice was discernable and I guessed he was the hazy dark shape filling my field of vision. “Paul moved faster than you, but that’s alright. This was the birdy I wanted anyways.” Fingers stroked through my hair a couple of times.

I don’t know if it was a surge of adrenaline that helped normalize my senses, or perhaps Immortality was just that efficient in keeping us well-oiled machines, but my vision and hearing returned at almost the same time. Troy’s jilted smile was the first thing I saw, right before I heard William call out for me again.

This time I was able to make out which direction it was coming from. I looked to the side, managing to catch a glimpse of him through a sliver-sized opening between the dozens of legs around me.

He wasn’t fighting anymore, he was trying to shove his way through the men beating at him like he was a punching bag. I only saw his face for a second before it was swallowed by the ocean of arms and legs clubbing him to the ground.

“Move her out of here,” Troy instructed, aligning himself in front of my gaze. I twisted onto my side, going to crawl on my stomach to William if need be, but before I squirmed an inch, I was hoisted onto the shoulder of someone. My head thudded against his back, bouncing against it every other step he took in his sprint away from the fight.

“Go, Paul!” William’s strained voice called out. “They’re taking her!”

I didn’t hear any more because the man whose shoulder I was riding could’ve competed with a bullet in the 400 meter. The air around me was jetting over us, creating a slip-stream in our wake. No one needed to tell me what this Immortal’s gift was.

Barely a minute later, but for speed’s sake, we could have crossed the French border, we surged to a stop.

“Stella, where are you?” the man hissed into the dark night, shifting me to the ground.

“Right in front of you, you half-wit.” Dressed for what you’d think to be the social event of the decade, Stella sauntered towards us, leering at me the entire journey. She kneeled beside me, moving her mouth just outside my ear. “I’ve been looking forward to this day,” her feline voice purred as she ran her hand down my face. About mid-way down my jaw, her nails dug into the flesh, tearing down the line of my neck.

The warm liquid I felt follow led me to the conclusion it wasn’t only her voice that was feline. “I’m going to enjoy this.” Her hand gripped into the hollow of my shoulder and whatever power I had left in me drained out of me like water moving through a funnel. I wasn’t just powerless feeling, but empty feeling. Like I’d never known an emotion and I never would. Her laugh chimed several octaves higher than soprano-qualification. “What do you think of your first time with me? Nothing quite like it, is there?”

So payback wasn’t just a bitch, it was a bitch dressed in heels and Versace.

“You can play later, Stella,” Troy said, coming up behind us. “We’ve got work to do right now. Get her arms and legs tied,” he yelled back at one of the men rustling through the trees. “And Stella, I don’t have to remind you not to take a finger off of her for even the shortest second, do I?”

“The idiots, Troy,” she sneered, “are the males dressed in blah suits. Don’t insult me again or else you might get to know my touch.” She raised her eyebrows at him.

He chuckled, licking his lips. “Last I recalled, it wasn’t all that spectacular.”

Her eyes narrowed into slits, her fingers managing to drill deeper into my skin.

“Now this one,” he said, crouching beside me, “something tells me I could get very used to her touch.” I didn’t need to look at his face to know the lust that was formed around it. “If John wasn’t so eager to have her back, I wouldn’t be wasting time with chit-chat.”

“Stella, back away,” I said, trying to twist away from her to no avail. “Troy wants to feel my
touch.
” I eyed my challenge at him.

Troy grinned, moving aside to let a pale-faced boy who’d barely had his driver’s license when he’d been Immortalized bind my wrists with something that looked like shiny chrome barb-wire.

I gave Troy an unimpressed look. “You think that’s going to detain me? Isn’t that kind of like binding me with a wet noodle?” The boy moved seamlessly to my ankles, twisting the same thing around them in a figure-eight formation.

As soon as the boy moved away, I popped my wrists and ankles against the metal restraints I’d assumed would snap instantly. Instead, the metal only contracted around me farther, its sharp prongs bursting through my skin. A flash of fire singed over my skin where the metal ran. I yelped, sadly more due to the pain than the shock of it.

“What do you think of my little invention?” Troy asked, stepping back into view. “It’s my version of an Immortal-grade restraint. Convincing, isn’t it?”

I didn’t chance a response. I was still grinding my teeth from the shockwaves of pain and there was no way I was going to cry out in front of him again.

“Well, we better get going,” Troy said, more to me than the men around him. “Although it’s a shame we left so many Haywards still standing. Although they won’t stay that way for long.” He drilled his eyes into me, annunciating each syllable just so it fed the fury bursting in me.

Despite Stella’s debilitating hold, I felt the thing inside me I never wanted to hear from again flicker to life. Not quite as immediate as a light-switch, but close enough to make it dangerous. I felt it spreading through the far reaches of my body, bubbling to the surface of my skin, ready to erupt. All I needed was the shortest second of freedom from her and I’d no longer be an invalid Immortal, but the angel of death incarnate.

“Bryn!” A voice crashed through the woods, followed by a body breaking through saplings and anything that stood in its path from the sound of snapping and splintering. Paul’s voice was all I needed. Stella shifted in the direction of Paul’s voice, her hand loosening infinitesimally, but I was ready and waiting for it.

I popped my shoulder up, forcing her hand to break contact. Her face christened with horror before she readjusted it in place . . . but I was ready for her. For the first time since I’d learned what I was capable of, I wasn’t desperate to keep it contained. I was welcoming it, willing it to the surface. My skin was buzzing by the time her fingers curled back into my shoulder.

Her body bolted away from mine like she’d been electrocuted, blasting a boulder into smithereens as she shot through it.

 So maybe payback was more the thing of sneaker-wearing oddballs.

I eyed Troy, still lying below him, bound up and unmoving, but I could tell from his expression it was like he was looking at something as final as the Council’s verdict of death. It was the first moment of exhilaration I’d felt in awhile.