Foreboding Skies (The Skybreaker Saga Book 1) (20 page)

I stomped on her gut to cut off whatever she was saying. I raked my claws back and forth over her torso. Her meek struggling lasted only a few seconds, that’s all it took to turn the front part of her body into ribbons. She was exceptionally dead and had I been in the right state of mind I would have tossed her corpse aside and gone for anyone else. Jessica Stewart’s part ended when she made the sacrifice. The black disc grew into a sphere and was the size of a large exercise ball. I knew that I was supposed to be doing something about that.

Before I could remember what it was someone stabbed me in the back. I twisted and threw an elbow that connected solidly with the jaw of the newest threat. I followed with a lunge into my staggering foe that took both of us to the ground. I cracked my elbow against his face two more times before taking a quick look at him. He was a young Middle Eastern man with a shaved head and terrible facial scaring. “You killed her!” He repeated again and again despite his shattered jaw. Before I could end him we were interrupted by a debilitating shrieking sound.

The door was starting to collapse in on itself. Only after the fact did I realize that one of the Wiccans abandoned their post to stab me with a dagger. In a fit of rage the boy sentenced himself and his fellow Wiccans to death while simultaneously dooming their efforts to failure. It was the age old scourge of love striking again, not that I can really knock someone else for allowing emotion to distract them from their goal.

He regained enough of his senses to claw at my face but another elbow forced his nose cartilage into his brain, ending his struggle. His death elicited a cry from an elderly looking witch that turned into a cackling chant. I rolled to the side as a bolt of magic seared the air where I had been and came up running at the elderly women.

Before I could take three steps two other Wiccans decided to target me instead of focusing on containing the collapsing breach. The ones who hadn’t been fast enough to untangle themselves from the ritual’s increasingly unstable magic were hard hit by the increased strain. Four of them had already fallen shuddering to the ground. The remaining five Wiccans were on their way out.

I heard a desperate voice calling out, telling me that I needed to flee, that there wasn’t much time left. I could feel the energy discharge coming and I knew on some level that I was in danger, but I couldn’t bring myself to leave when there were still foes to slay. The old witch died under my claws before she could get a second volley off and I threw her corpse at the two others who stood up, they were an older northern European man and women, perhaps they were brother and sister. The man threw a fiery haze that intercepted the body, causing it to burst into flame but failing to halt or deflect the now flaming projectile. The women ducked under the burning body while the man took it in the chest and screamed as the fire spread to him. He tried to roll around but became more tangled with the fiery cadaver and died even faster. The women was down on her hands and knees as I aimed a kick at her jaw but before I could connect she threw herself back and put her hands up in front of her as if to ward me off.

My leg passed through the area between her hands and I immediately lost all feeling in it. I still couldn’t feel my right arm and now my right leg from the knee down felt like it had been dipped in sulfuric acid, it hurt like hell and I couldn’t move it at all. It knocked me off balance long enough for the witch to scamper away while readying her next spell and I was too far away to stop her. I then remembered that I didn’t need to go to her, I could kill her right from where I was standing. Using my functioning left hand I began pooling my power while picturing the hardened air fastball I was about to throw shattering her skull. She turned toward me ready to fire off her spell and I hurled the ball at her.

That was when the breach finished its collapse and discharged the excess energy. She was standing closer to the explosion than me and was hit before she could release her spell. I saw her flesh warp and disintegrate as the energy wave swallowed her. In the instant before the wave impacted I hardened my essence and roared my defiance. It struck with the force of freight train and carried me off into unconsciousness.

              The smell was what woke me up, not the pain, though that did announce itself once I awoke. It was the smell of foul magic and still smoldering flesh that pulled me into consciousness. A severely burnt chunk of flesh lay next to my head. My rage finally subsided to the point where I could from coherent thoughts again. My first thought was that I was still alive, my second was that being alive can be damned painful at times. I suffered several broken ribs, a fractured skull, internal bleeding, and some of my limbs were still sorting themselves out. My right arm was waking up at a pace both leisurely and agonizing, but at least I was getting some feeling back and could move it. My leg was still paralyzed but the pain began to subside.

              A brief moment of panic hit me as I thought about what happened to Kovo and John amidst the chaos. Had they managed to escape? Were Alewyn and his party still alive? If my memory was right, a dangerous assumption these days, then I was the only one to make it through the barrier and everyone else should have been able to escape. I thought I heard someone shouting at me to run. Hopefully whoever it was had taken their own advice.

              I tried to sit up only to smack my head against rock. Make that a large boulder that I probably couldn’t have moved even at full strength. It was wedged against what I guessed was the wall, I was stuck in between a rock and a hard place. I felt around and found a hole big enough for me to wiggle through. Using the wall as support I worked my way to my feet. It was far too dark to see anything but my keener senses told me that I was not alone. I heard the uncertain shuffling of feet and smelled a familiar scent of brunt leather and hair jell underneath the more overpowering odors. That was when the newcomer flipped on a flashlight and my eyes could confirm what my nose already told me, agent Rick Goodwin arrived late to the party.

He stood on the other side of the twenty foot wide crater the energy discharge carved out. I was surprised by how benign the explosion turned out to be. It could have been large enough to take out a city block at least. The bastard was examining the charred remains of his accomplices and hadn’t noticed me yet. Or so I thought. One of his hands swung toward me and a lance of incandescent fire scorched the air above me as I ducked on instinct. It took a few seconds and another fire lance before I comprehended what was happening. Goodwin could shoot fire and he was doing it at me.  One of my own made the fucker a fire totem, probably the same one who enraged the Fae. At least I hoped it was the same. I didn’t want to think that more than one of my number was involved with Goodwin.

The rubble strewn floor made dodging difficult but provided plenty of projectiles for me to use. I sent dozens of rocks flying toward Goodwin with a torrent of air and immediately fell on my face as my head swam. It was hardly the first time in recent days that I collided with my limits, but it was probably going to be the last. Goodwin wasn’t going to kill me. I would have preferred to die via immersion. I hated those who felt they were entitled to whatever they pleased regardless of the consequences for others. Others. I remembered what set me off in the first place. The old man being sacrificed, I hadn’t been able to save him and my own helplessness stirred my bitter rage. I thought of the children whose guardian wouldn’t be coming back. The lives shattered by the scheming of a mad man. Indeed, it seemed that Goodwin possessed a divine sense of entitlement. His misconceptions needed to be corrected before I escorted the bastard to hell.  

Goodwin was throwing fire about wildly while screaming about his destiny and how I was merely a stepping stone on the path to greatness. All of his attacks passed harmlessly over where I was sprawled on the floor. I took the time afforded by my tactically advantages position to think of a proper attack. If I could get close enough to him I could destabilize his totem thus unleashing all the power stored within, possibly giving the both of us a fiery demise. But I would need to be on top of him and depending on the quality of the totem unraveling it could take several minutes. I hoped he didn’t have any more totems up his sleeve.

He was working his way closer to me and growing ever more agitated. He seemed to have a general idea where I was but couldn’t pin point me without sight. The dust was thick now from my smoke screen and his blasting. I briefly hoped he would run out of juice before the dust settled but he realized that’s what would happen if he kept shooting blindly. “Think you can hide? That your power will protect you? It won’t. I have been elevated above you by powers you cannot comprehend!” I didn’t bother moving. I needed to conserve my strength and Goodwin, like most psychopathic ass wipes, would stop to gloat once he saw me. He wouldn’t be able to help himself.

He was nearly on top of me when he finally noticed me lying on the ground. He stopped his incoherent babbling long enough to let out a demented cackle. “Are you already dead? That is a considerable disappointment. After all the trouble you have caused me I wanted to have some fun with you.” He delivered a hard kick to my side. It would have been painful if it weren’t just another drop in my ocean of pain, but I still made a show of groaning and curling up. “You are still alive. Perfect.” I focused my remaining essence and began to probe his totem as he continued to kick me.

It was superbly made. I knew that I couldn’t create a totem of such high quality to save my life. But the great thing about destruction is that it simply doesn’t require the level of talent necessary to create. “You think you have stopped anything? You have stopped nothing! This was only a test run, we will rebuild and we will succeed. You cannot stop the Void. The Children will see our lord return and usher in a new day for the faithful!” I was grateful for the fact that he stopped kicking me to give me valuable information. I was also grateful that I felt a handgun sized lump of metal digging into my side. I didn’t recall exactly how or when I lost my Berettas only that I didn’t have them when I really wished that I did. Goodwin allowed himself to slip firmly into a delirious rant and would not have been quick enough to react if I decided to put a few bullets in him. But I was curious as to what he would say next. I gave him a little prod.

“Who…Who gave you that totem?” I doubted he knew the real identity of whomever had given it to him but whatever he said would give me more than I had. Which was effectively nothing.

He kicked me again. “What? What is a totem? Are you delirious?”

“Your power.” Another kick.

“I have been uplifted! This ring is the symbol of my new station.” He shoved an ornate serpent ring in my face as he threw his head back and laughed. He wasn’t even aware he was using a totem. The next question died on my lips as I finally broke into the core of the totem. Goodwin was already dead. The moment he began using the totem in earnest his life expectancy began a rapid count down to a grisly demise. It was set to incinerate him with or without my meddling, ensuring Goodwin lived to tell no tales. It was a cruel yet intelligent measure to dispose of a pawn who outlived their usefulness. I estimated two minutes before Goodwin popped like peeps in a microwave.

It would take me longer than two minutes to stop the countdown and I certainly wasn’t going to risk anything to save Goodwin. From what I could glean from the totem the discharge would in fact have enough power to kill me along with him. My best chance for survival was to take cover in the crater. If only I could convince Goodwin to let me crawl over to it because he was about a minute from being extremely overcooked. “You have caused me a great deal of trouble and I would very much enjoy tormenting you for a while longer but I have plane to catch within the hour and really must be going.” Forty-five seconds. He whipped out a dirty harry-esque revolver and pulled back the hammer. “Someone like you doesn’t deserve to be ended by my power.” Thirty seconds.

I whispered under my breath. “What? Begging for your life? Don’t bother.” Twenty seconds.

I said it a little louder. He leaned in. “You are an idiot and your hair is dumb.” I threw the gathered dust in my hand into his eyes and kicked him in the balls, it lacked force and wouldn’t keep him down for more than a few seconds. It was a low blow in many ways, but I was desperate. I army crawled as fast as I could with the clock ticking down in my head as Goodwin fired off all six of his shots off in rapid succession. I barely registered the new pain that flared to life as a bullet hit my thigh. Ten seconds. “You insolent worm!” My hands found the lip of the crater and I pulled for all I could. A wave of fire kissed my feet and I tumbled down with a roar of pain. The roll down helped to extinguish my feet a little but I still had to flop around to put the fire out. My clothing took the brunt of the damage, letting me get away with some minor second degree burns.

I laughed as the exhilaration set in. We had stopped Goodwin and his ilk and as an added bonus I was still alive. I knew Vladimir succeeded because I would have felt a full breach form even in my sorry state. I laughed until the pain informed me that I needed to take it down a few notches and I settled for a quiet chuckle. I may have survived the fight but as I faded in and out of consciousness in complete darkness I began to doubt my long term survival. Would anyone find me in time? Was anyone still around to look? If there were they would have a lot of annoying rock to get through. My lack of concern should have been more concerning to me but I was too damned tired.

Soft lips were pressed against mine forcing air into my lungs before they withdrew and strong hands compressed my chest. Someone was giving me CPR. A strong light pressed against my eyelids. The lips came back as I cracked my eyes open only to see Alewyn far closer to me than I wanted anyone to ever get. We locked eyes for an agonizingly awkward moment before he calmly pulled back and cleared his throat.

“One question. Did you check for a pulse first or did you see an opportunity and take it?” He actually had the nerve to slap me. “Hey, I’m dying here. You can’t hit me.” I managed to choke that out before a severe coughing fit took over and stressed the battered state of my respiratory system.

“That’s right you were dying, your heart stopped. Also, your breath is awful.”

“How did you get down here?”

“That was me my man.” A tall and lanky pacific island man slid down the side of the crater.

“Izzy!” I was rewarded for my jovial greeting by a wave of pain that set me back down. “Got another one of those pick-me-up shakes and or some marijuana?”

“Anymore of the former may kill you and I always carry the latter. It wasn’t difficult for me to find this place. Gaia showed me the way.”

“She usually doesn’t move expeditiously, and neither do you.” Vladimir had been standing off to the side trying to suppress a laugh at my expense but now sounded annoyed at the Druid’s presence.

“Something has Her really spooked. The last time She was this riled up was when the Onyx King arrived. I would have been here sooner but a certain polish prick didn’t think it necessary to tell me of this little shindig.” There was plenty of mutual dislike between the two. I was the only thing they had in common, and a continued desire to stop the world from being rendered utterly lifeless. It wasn’t enough to form a friendship over. “You did well my man Zee.” He was the only one who ever called me that and never bothered to explain why. I chalked it up to the oddities of being over two thousand years old.

“How did we come out?” Vladimir quickly dropped both mirth and annoyance. “That bad?”

“No. Considering the circumstances our losses are light. I lost two and Aslan lost four with several wounded. The real problem is that Louis fled after he alerted our enemies either intentionally or not. It makes little difference to me at this point. I will inform his creator I will be killing him for his incompetence and cowardice.” His dour mood made sense. The Vampire who made Louis was one of the eldest Lords and a true prick. And even if he said it made no difference if Louis was a traitor or an idiot, it did, for all of us and the entire Community at large. If intentional then there was a significant chance Louis’ creator ordered him to do so. Meaning at least one of the Vampire Lords was acting against us. He sighed before looking at me again. “Don’t worry too much about it. You need to rest, leave the details to me.” I nodded my agreement and let my eyes slid shut. I felt I earned that much at least.