Number of the Beast (Paladin Cycle, Book One) (38 page)

Shane straddled the
leather seat and kick-started his bike. He weaved through the
narrow wooded passage until he came to a gravel road bordered by a
worn-out barbed wire fence and rotten posts. Stringy weeds climbed
the length of the fence.

Shane swerved his bike,
almost spilling onto the ground. He shot down the road. Hot wind
smashed into his face and torso.

If someone hurt Amy he was going to
kill them and he was going to prison for first degree murder. He
had made that decision before he’d even gotten back on his bike. He
regretted not carrying his .40 SIG on his bike instead of in his
truck. Sighing, he conceded to borrowing Carmen’s Saturday Night
Special.

Shane finally arrived
about ten minutes later. He skidded to a stop beside Amy’s totaled
car where Carmen paced on the shoulder, gun in hand.

Shane killed the engine
and hopped from the bike. “Still nothing?”

“
Atticus went looking for
her.”

Who the
fuck is Atticus,
Shane
thought.

She squeezed his hand.
“He’s trying to help her.”

Shane snickered. “Did he
you tell you that before or after you fucked him?”

“
Fuck you!”

“
Where’d he
go?”

“
He saved my life. He’s
not the bad guy.”

Shane eyed Carmen’s
swollen face, bloody lip and unkempt hair. “Where did he
go?”

Carmen shook her head.

Shane gripped the front of her shirt.
He clenched the fabric, twisting, tightening the collar around her
neck. Leaning closer, his face inches from hers, he gritted, “Where
the fuck did he go?” Spittle sprayed Carmen’s hard
glare.

She pushed off him. Straightening her
arm, she pointed the gun at his crotch. “Don’t you ever put your
hands on me again…or I’ll shoot your fucking dick off.”

Scoffing, Shane snatched the gun from
her grasp. “Not today, sweetheart.”

Kneeling on a jagged cliff, Tobias
glanced across the raging tides of the Gulga Sea. A sky eel soared
about the violet clouds. He heard the drums and chants of the
cannibals deep within the jungle far behind him. The Zawau tribe
never came close to the sea for they feared the elemental shades
that possessed the waters.

At Tobias’ feet lay the
remains of six white birds he had fallen with a sling. Positioned
in a star formation, their heads pointed outward, beady eyes gazed
blankly in all directions. From a flask, Tobias sprinkled a circle
of salt around him and the doves.

A cold breeze whipped his
long hair about his face and he snarled. He pinned his hair back
with a piece of ratty cloth. It had been sixteen days since
Galmoria abandoned him on the jungle world of Zlldoseus with the
instructions to reach the peak of the tallest bluff by the next
full moon. It was part of his rite of passage she had told
him.

But that was before his encounter with
the enchantress Sengyla, and she revealed the truth to
him.

“
You possess the blood of
human, Paladin and Geminus. You are destined to become the Dark
Trinity—a force of insurmountable power.”

“
Lies, all lies,” he had
protested. But Sengyla had shown him his true mother and true
father and he had known then that Galmoria was the
Deceptor.

Tobias took a clay vial from his
leather vest, and drank the contents, a thick bitter oil. He took a
pipe with a long curved stem and touched the bowl that hung close
to his navel.

Smoke rose from within.

He closed his eyes as a higher state
of consciousness seeped into his mind and veins. A divine sensation
swam over him. Every nerve and cell in his body danced, like
millions of fiery sprites, readying his body for battle.

If he failed then he failed the
future, all futures and Galmoria’s schemes would flourish, and all
the universes would belong to her and the Beast.

He had one chance to save all life,
and to save his own humanity.

He had to be ready for this was a
critical moment in the proper timeline. He had one chance now to
preserve the future.

He exhaled a twist of purple smoke and
searched the cosmos for the realm of Buckeye, Texas.

The naked man shoved Amy against a
tree. She watched as the large panther became a nude woman right
before her eyes.

It was all real, Amy thought. Tobias
was real and the beasts were real. And she was going to
die.

With thorny vines and
sturdy roots, the woman helped fasten Amy to the tree. Squirming,
Amy cried out. Hot tears streamed down her filthy cheeks. Strands
of stray hair obscured her sight. As if she really cared to look
upon the monsters anyhow.

It had all been true. The
bad vibes Sherry felt; Cinder’s ravings about a coming war; and all
of Tobias’ warnings. This man and woman...they were the
Beasts.

Determined to keep her
fear hidden, she steadied her voice, forced herself to stop
sobbing. “What do you want with me?”

Neither one responded.

A curved claw released from the man’s
finger. He turned toward the woman.

“
You are my eternal twin,”
he said flatly, and kissed her mouth. He held her chin with one
hand. The claw swiped the woman’s throat.

The woman-beast gurgled and from the
look in her bulged eyes Amy knew she had been surprised.

As blood bubbled from the woman’s
neck, the man gently laid her to the ground. Claws tipping each of
his fingers, he dug into her bare chest, and ripped the stone from
her.

When he neared Amy, she
smelled the stench of animal pouring from his skin. He sliced open
Amy’s shirt, exposing her breasts.

He held up the pulsating
stone. “My eternal twin’s soul shall live forever inside you.” With
a flat palm, he embedded the stone into Amy’s chest.

Like hot ember, it melted into her
skin. Amy’s screams cut her throat raw.

# # #

A scream penetrated the woods and
echoed around Atticus.

I am too
late
, he thought. Hell horns! Pausing he
closed his eyes, opening his senses and his mind. He inhaled a deep
breath and let it out. Both an advantage and disadvantage, the
Paladin and Geminus races could sense one another when in close
proximity.

To the left a strange
scent tainted the air. The Geminus was close. And the closer he got
to the Geminus, the tighter his vibrating auro
constricted.

The screaming had grown weaker,
hoarser, but still persistent. Atticus struggled to keep his mind
clear of the sort of devilry being forced upon Amy. From the sound
of her horrific cries she would not last much longer.

Atticus shouldered his way through a
wall of thorn-ridden shrubbery.

There the Beast stood,
only a few yards away. A woman’s body lay on the ground at his feet
and Amy was bound to a tree. Her head wobbled from side to side, as
if she had no control over the movement. Her sobs were
faint.

Behind the Beast, a
shadowy figure materialized and stood, predatory eyes hollow with
darkness. Savage black mane framed its barbaric physique and face.
A vest adorned with shrunken heads and bones covered its chest,
spiked gauntlets on its arms. Its matted fur glistened wetly
with...

What? Atticus wondered. Some sort of
shiny, sticky substance, as if the creature had bathed in
it.

Fear gripped Atticus.
Unable to move or speak, he watched as the being grew to twice the
height of an average man and as broad as a bear. Claws grew from
its fingertips. Teeth, black as graphite stone, elongated, like
that of the extinct saber tooth tiger.

In silence, its ominous presence
loomed over the Geminus.

Small white phantom birds fluttered
around the being’s shoulders, their song muted.

# # #

It burned! The gem seared the skin on
Amy’s chest. Gritting, she glared at the monster of a man before
her. He killed the woman with him and now he was probably going to
kill her.

But why the jewel? What did it mean?
Some sick ritual?

Through tear-blurred
vision, Amy stared over the naked man’s shoulder where a naked
grotesque being appeared, the same as the one in the mirror at The
Bull. Innately, she knew it to be her son.

Thank God!

But Tobias just stared at her. What
was he waiting for?

Female…ma’am…I am…deeply
saddened…but…

“
Help me!”

The naked man looked at her. His gaze
held a fraction of sympathy, dare she think it. “It will all be
over soon.”

Tobias!

His
voice resounded in her mind.
It is as I
have foreseen. It is as it should be.

The gem sizzled. Her limbs vibrated
with what felt like electricity. Her eyes burned. She squeezed ‘em
shut. Then everything went black.

# # #

A lump grew in Atticus’
throat. He swallowed, lifted his sword high,
and…charged!

A fireball, large enough to swallow a
vehicle, sparked from the darkness and took the form of a monstrous
skull before engulfing the Beast with a crackling chomp. An
agonizing roar bellowed from the Geminus as he fled, blazing, into
the forest.

Atticus froze.

The forest silenced. The shadowy
figure was gone. The Beast was gone.

The woman’s body remained on the
ground and Amy remained bound to the tree.

What had happened? Had Atticus somehow
unleashed a raw power from within himself? A power capable of
obliterating the Beast in a fury of holy flames? Do holy flames
generally take the form of a demented skull?

What was the shadowy visage, that
savage beastly being?

He ran to Amy and set to work on
freeing her. A strange stone throbbed frenziedly in her chest. It
pulsed with a dim bluish light.

Atticus sliced the vines
and roots securing her to the tree. When he scooped her up, a hand
under her back and the other under her knees, blood spilled from
her nostrils and streaked her cheek and chin. Her feet and arms
dangled as he carried her through the woods. Her moans stopped but
the heat radiating through her clothing told him she was still
alive but burning with fever. Sweat drenched her long blond hair.
Dirt and leaves speckled her long strands.

When Atticus neared the road a voice
called from behind.

“
Asshole! Put her
down.”

Atticus turned to see a
muscular male in a sleeveless gray shirt and grease stained denim
pants. He pointed a gun.

A strange warmth of divinity washed
over his aura. A wonderful yet awkward sensation. He stared at the
man holding the gun…the man he knew to be his Twin.

“
What happened to her?”
Carmen said. She sat beside Amy’s car, back against the front tire.
She was alive!

Atticus approached Carmen.
“Amy’s alive.”

His Twin strode toward
him. “I said put her the fuck down.”

“
Shane, I suspect.”
Atticus gave a curt nod. “Amy needs to come with me for
protection.”

“
The fuck she does.” Now
only feet from Atticus, Shane pointed the gun. “Put. Her. Down.
Now!”

“
At least allow me to
place her inside the car. She is injured.”

“
Fine.” Shane said, waving
the gun at the car. “Put her in the car then step the fuck
away.”

Atticus lay Amy across the
back seat, then ducked out of the vehicle. “Shane, there is
something of utmost importance I must tell you.”

With the muzzle of the
gun, Shane gestured toward the ditch. “I don’t know how the hell
you know my name, and I don’t really give a shitpie either. All I
fucking know right now is that Amy is fucking unconscious, and I
catch you bringing her out of the goddamn woods. And her goddamn
shirt is fucking ripped open! What the fuck am I supposed to think,
you motherfucking asshole!”

Atticus complied and
stepped further into the ditch, away from the car, away from Amy.
“I am not the enemy. I am your ally. And I am your—”

“
Just shut the fuck up.”
Shane held the pistol on Atticus with one hand while his other
raked through his buzz cut.

Shane glanced back at the
car where Carmen and Birch stood. Birch had an arm draped over
Carmen’s shoulders. “I’m seriously thinking about just putting a
bullet through this bastard’s skull right now. I swear to
God.”

“
Don’t,” Carmen said
pleadingly. “He’s telling the truth. He’s not the one who did
this.”

“
It was the Beasts,” said
the bastard.

Shane shot him a cold
gaze. “Don’t speak again, got it?”

The bastard
nodded.

“
Don’t kill him, man,”
Birch said. “Let the sheriff department handle it from here. Amy’s
gonna be alright but she ain’t gonna be a happy camper if you’re in
prison.”