phantom knights 04 - deceit in delaware (36 page)

Melly caught Nell, just barely twisting her pistol out of the way.

“That was quite a performance,” a soft, amused voice spoke, drawing all attention.

“Hans,” Charlotte exclaimed before throwing her arms around him as he tried to sit up. He winced and groaned, causing Charlotte to loosen her hold.

“Be easy, my heart,” he said, and I saw the blood on his coat. “I am not unharmed, and it burns like anything.”

“I thought you were dead,” Melly said cooly as she moved to his side. When she dropped to her knees beside him, she gave him a quick once over, and then slapped his arm.

Freddy laughingly groaned. “What was that for?”

“For putting yourself in harm,” Melly replied before leaning her forehead against his shoulder.

Charlotte gasped, and slapped his other arm. Freddy’s gaze flew to her.

“What was that for?”

“I thought you were dead!”

“Not dead, my heart, acting.” Freddy looked up toward me and Jack. “I believe the rest can be left up to you.”

“So it can,” Jack said before kissing his mother’s head and ushering her toward Dudley and Hannah. “Keep my mother safe.”

As I glanced around the room, quite at a loss as to what I should do, I noticed that someone was missing, and that fact sent me running.

CHAPTER 28

JACK

E
ntering the great room, my father was there, as were the remainder of the Monroe guards, constables and Jericho, Mariah, and Leo. There was a frenzy in the fight, as if everyone knew this was it. This was our final battle. At the end of this day, we would know who was victorious, and who had failed. All that I knew was that I could not fail.

“Give me a pistol, Jack,” my mother said as she came up beside me. “I am going to destroy that murdering madman!” She was shaking as she stared out over the dozen fighting men, toward the open door where Luther was making his way outside.

“Mama—” what I was going to say was cut short when William gave a great roar of fury. Twisting toward him, he was staring across at my mother.

“Luther!” William shouted over the clash of steal, the pounding of fist against flesh, and the grunts and groans of wrestling men.

Pulling his pistol from his belt, he shot the guard standing between himself and the door.

Luther ran out of the house and my father followed him.

“Follow him, Jack,” my mother exclaimed, gripping my hand. “He will kill your father if given the chance.”

There was hysteria in her voice, and in that moment all of my tension and anger with my father shifted to the back of my mind. All that I thought about was keeping my father alive, for my mother.

Stomping toward the door, one of Luther’s guards growled as he ran toward me with an axe in hand. He swung his axe toward my head. Leaping back, I dodged the blow, my blood pumping fast, and my excitement bubbling. It may have been morbid, but battle always excited me.

Swiping a knife from my belt, I swung low and stabbed at his gut. He leapt back, barely missing my blow.

Dancing from foot to foot, I kept moving so that he did not have a clear path to swing at me. He swung wide, and I sucked in my stomach and arched my body over the head of the axe.

Sidestepping to the left, I came against the side of his body with a punch against his ribs. Flipping the knife blade up, I pressed it against his throat.

Opening my mouth to tell him to drop the axe, there rose a light into his eyes. Jerked away from him, an arm wrapped around my neck, and a strong hand came down over mine, forcing the knife out of my hand.

The guard with the axe came toward me, menacingly tapping the back of the axe head against his open palm. His crooked gaze ran over me, as if he was deciding where to strike first.

He grinned, a yellow, jagged teeth grin that froze on his lips as the tip of an arrow appeared through the left side of his chest.

“Bloody ‘ell,” said the guard against my back.

Jericho wrenched the arrow from the guard’s back as he dropped. “Thought you could use the assistance,” he said as he strung the same arrow upon his bow and raised it to point at the man at my back.

I felt him duck his head behind mine as his arm gripped tighter around my throat. The sound of blood pumping in my ears was all that I could hear. Jericho’s mouth was moving as if he was saying something, but no sound could overcome the rushing river. The room began to sway. Blinking did nothing to cease the rocking. Clawing at his arm caused his arm to tense, the muscles bulging under my fingers.

Somewhere there was an echo of a clang before, mercifully, the arm slipped away from my neck. The man’s weight pressed into me, forcing me forward. A light hand wrapped around my wrist and gave a great tug. My body stumbled to the right as the man dropped face first onto the floor.

Two palms pressed against my cheeks.

“Jack, can you hear me?”

Shaking my head a little, I focused upon Mariah’s bright blue eyes.

“Quite,” I replied through a gravelly voice.

“Can you fight?” she asked me. Her wooden bow was hung over her shoulder, and the tips of her arrows were sticking up behind her back. There was a metal urn upon the floor at her feet. Which I supposed she used against the guard.

“Try and stop me.”

Removing myself from her hands, the three of us ran toward the door. My gut and chest constricted when we passed a body upon the floor, and I realized with startling understanding that it was Arthur. He had a hole in the front of his coat that told more than I could process.

Two of Monroe’s guards and two of Luther’s were blocking the door in their fighting.

“We do not have time for this,” I said to Jericho and Mariah. “Time to unleash the beast.”

Jericho gave me a curt nod. Handing his bow to Mariah, he shoved up the sleeves to his brown coat then charged forward. Jericho grabbed the smallest of Luther’s guards around the neck and tossed him away. The other was shoved into Jericho’s back in his fight against one of Monroe’s guards.

Taking one of Jericho’s arrows from the sheath that Mariah held, I stomped forward and swung at the guard. The arrow struck his face, breaking in half across the bridge of his nose.

He winced, but we were not through. Jericho grabbed one arm as I grabbed the other. Jericho and I each placed one boot against the man’s back as we both pulled his arms behind his back. Jericho gave me a nod and we each threw our weight into our legs, sending the guard sprawling through the door. He tripped over the threshold and dropped to his belly. Running forward, I leapt onto his back and launched myself out into the yard.

Glancing around quickly, I did not see my father or Luther. There were a few fallen guards, but most of them were fighting inside the house.

“There!” Mariah called, and my gaze followed her pointing finger toward the scaffold where my father and Luther were facing off, throwing blows at one another.

Running forward, Mariah and Jericho were at my sides, not leaving me alone for a second.

William swung at Luther with his tight fist, Luther dodged the blow and came at my father’s side, silver appearing in his hand a second before his hand disappeared into the front of my father’s coat.

A roar sounded, and I thought that I had unleashed the sound, until I saw a sight that robbed me of breath at the same time causing so much joy to rush through me that I stumbled over my own feet.

Levi had appeared upon the scaffold, just as Luther’s knife appeared. Levi released a cry of so much fury that Luther was startled. My father’s hand came down to his side as he stumbled against Luther.

Levi ran forward, leaping into the air, straight for Luther.

William pulled the knife from his side and dropped it before he himself stumbled and dropped onto one knee.

Levi’s fists were flying against Luther, forcing the man back as he covered his head against Levi’s blows.

Boots pounded upon the ground behind us. I swung around and released my fist. A large palm wrapped around it, and I raised my gaze to Leo’s blue one.

“I believe we have been here before, Jack,” Leo said, but then his gaze moved past me to the fight happening behind me. His gaze went wide, his mouth went tight, and then he stomped around me. Twisting around, I faltered for air, for thought, for anything coherent.

My sister was fighting Luther.

Rushing after Leo, my only thoughts were that if Luther laid one hand upon Bess I would kill him.

The closer I ran to my sister, the more pronounced her lack of coloring became. Bess was pale, and she staggered in her steps, but she forged ahead, swinging a dagger at Luther.

He caught her hand and dragged it down. She cried out as he wrenched the blade from her hand.

For an instant, I could only see red.

Luther raised his fist and struck Bess’s cheek. She flew backwards, tripped over Levi’s boots, and dropped onto her backside beside our father.

Levi pushed to his feet, a bloody red slash across his cheek.

“That is my sister!” he screamed in fury as he ran straight at Luther.

Luther moved out of the way of the charge, but slammed one fist into Levi’s shoulder, sending the boy spiraling.

“Enough of this!” Luther spat as he pulled a pistol from his belt.

Leo, Jericho, and I ran between Luther and my father and sister.

Luther spat blood, blood covering his teeth from his lip that had been busted open again.

Mariah helped a stumbling Levi toward us, and she held him up beside me. Getting a closer examination of my brother, he had a cut across his arm as well as his thigh and cheek. His nose had dried blood crested into his nostrils, and his nose was crooked. Someone had broken it. I had a rage filled feeling that I knew who that person was, and I was standing between him and my family.

“You are far outnumbered, Luther,” Leo announced. “Surrender to us and this battle will go no further. No more lives need to be lost.”

“The only lives to be lost are yours, Adamsen.” Luther smiled, and the blood covering his teeth made him appear like a wild animal that had just feasted.

“This is your final opportunity, Luther. Surrender.”

“I think not.” Luther’s smiling gaze move past us, to the scaffold behind us.

Slowly turning, I felt our advantage slipping, and when I saw Martha standing upon the scaffold, the long blade of a sword against my mother’s throat, I knew it. She had a fist full of my mother’s hair. Guiding her, she forced Mother to kneel.

“You thought to betray me,” Martha said to Luther. “You thought you could use me and discard me, replacing me with this doxy.” She shoved my mother’s head away from her.

Mother’s dark hair fell in disarray in her face and down her back.

“Marta, my dearest love, I have seen the error of my ways. Kill her and we can be together,” Luther said, causing all of us to rush in different directions.

Leo tackled Luther to the ground. Levi, Bess, Mariah, and I ran toward the scaffold.

“Do not!” I shouted.

“Please!” Bess screamed.

Levi only growled.

Martha’s hand shook slightly as she stared down at my mother. She inhaled, closed her eyes, and moved the blade.

My world shattered all around me with the pops of gunfire.

Martha’s body lurched forward, the sword swinging away from my mother’s skin. Martha fell, landing in a heap upon the stairs. A dead heap.

Hooves pounded upon the ground as Levi and I ran over Martha’s still body to reach our mother.

She was breathing in and out quickly as we dropped to our knees beside her. Levi and I each wrapped an arm around her as we leaned into her. She was alive, and that was all that mattered for that moment.

The pounding of several horses drew my head away from my mother’s, my gaze hungrily seeking out her savior. Jeanne, Pierre, Arnaud, Gideon, Rose, and Edith rode past us, toward the house.

From the distance that separated us from the house, I counted six guards that were running toward us. Edith raised her hand up and then down in a quick succession, sending two knives flying forward. One struck one of the guards.

Beside me, Levi sighed. “Magnificent, is she not?”

“Indeed she is,” my mother whispered as she leaned her head against my brother’s temple.

Two of the guards raised muskets. I felt Levi’s body stiffen. They aimed their guns toward the approaching riders, more specifically, Edith.

Levi hopped up and launched himself off the scaffold, running forward, shouting her name, as the guns exploded.

My mother screamed, my sister screamed, Rose screamed, and I was certain that I heard my wife as well.

The horses neighed, stomping, as a body struck the ground.

No…

My mother gripped her hand against my arm as she lost control on her emotions.

Arnaud had maneuvered his horse before Edith’s, using his body to shield her as the guns went off.

The way he fell from his horse, we knew that he was gone.

Mother released my arm, jumping forward and leaving the scaffold. When her feet touched the ground, she stumbled forward, tripping over the long hem of her dress.

A shot fired, closer to us than from the house, and when I looked toward the ground, my blood froze inside my body.

Luther shoved Leo’s still body off, and pushed himself to his feet, pausing only to pick up one of Leo’s pistols.

My body pumped rage like a pulse.

Jericho ran toward Luther, shouting his own rage in a cry of war. Luther raised the pistol and fired without a pause, without a thought.

Jericho’s body jerked back and then forward as the ball tore a hole through his body.

Mariah’s blood turning scream was what drove me out of my living nightmare.

She ran toward Luther, though I knew she was trying to reach Jericho. Luther’s fist flew forward, slamming against her cheek.

Bess screamed, rising from where she was kneeling on the ground, and I jumped from the scaffold, landing beside her. Mother was helping Father to his feet to our right, and it was there that Luther’s gaze was fixed.

Bess grabbed my hand, squeezing it, and together we ran toward our parents, placing ourselves between them and Luther.