The Claimed (34 page)

A footfall at the door alerted her to Christopher’s return. Besides Matt he had two other Shadow Hunters with him from his cadre. Four Hunters to battle eight Dark Ones and a Reaver.

Impossible odds, but then again, she was always one to root for the underdog.

“Are you ready?” Christopher asked, his features set in implacable lines, displaying no fear. No emotion, although she knew his soul was heavy about his friend and any risk to her.

“I’m ready,” she said, and walked up to him, slipping her hand into his.

Together
, they thought in unison, and with a blur of light, they sped toward the ocean and their destiny.

Sammie had never been one to just sit and wait, especially when it seemed like hours, rather than minutes, had passed since she had phoned Victoria to warn her about Ryan. Even without traffic due to the early morning hour, it was still a good twenty-minute ride from Victoria’s, if she had been at home. Sammie suspected that she had been farther away, at Christopher’s Sea Girt home.

She didn’t know if Ryan could last another five minutes, much less twenty or more.

His cries were weaker now as the huge man kept on attacking him, while the leader, Alexander she had heard the woman call him, kept on asking the same thing.

“Where is Adam Bruno?”

If it hadn’t been for the weirdness of the whole thing she might have thought they were out to kidnap Adam for his money, but the glowing hand and shimmering field around them had her thinking this was about more than just money.

She had been tempted to call Adam and warn him. She liked him and his wife Bobbie. They had become friends in recent months. Because of that, she held off on phoning, certain that involving the couple might prove more dangerous than waiting for Victoria and Christopher to deal with the situation.

As she finished walking the perimeter of that section of the casino, a weird buzz came in the center of her body, drawing her attention to the shore. A second later, blurs of light erupted from the waves. They were like shooting stars, except that they streaked across the sands and in her direction.

In the blink of an eye the streaks arrived before her, and suddenly Victoria and Christopher stood there along with six men. Six very large, very handsome, seriously strong men. They had the kinds of bodies ripped by hard work and not weight machines in a gym, but that still didn’t keep her from quipping, “What did you do? Raid the nearest Chippendale’s? And how did you do that?”

Victoria shook her head and approached her friend, giving her a tight hug before inclining her head in the
direction of the building. “I’ll answer all of your questions later. For now we need to know if Ryan is still in there.”

Sammie nodded and provided the information she had gathered from her walk around the periphery of the building. “There are four men in the center holding up a chair with Ryan in it. One really large goon with the light saber hand, the woman, and the old dude.”

She pointed to the corners of the structure. “There is one man at each corner. Two padlocked doors on a diagonal from each other.”

Victoria looked toward the casino, fairly familiar with it from her trips to Sammie’s T-shirt shop which was barely thirty yards north on the boardwalk. Then she turned her attention to Christopher. “I can create a shield around Alexander’s group, hiding them from the others. That might create enough of a distraction for you to take out the men at each corner.”

Christopher nodded and glanced at her friend. “I’m going to trust you to do something else for me, Sammie. Keep Victoria out here no matter what.”

Sammie shot her a look, one that Victoria recognized well. Although Sammie would pay lip service to Christopher’s request, she would defer to Victoria’s judgment about what was necessary. “I think you should hurry. Ryan sounded pretty weak.”

With a grim nod, Christopher touched each of his men and then Victoria, establishing a mental connection with them. Silently he commanded his cadre members to the corners of the building while once again admonishing her to stay back.

She pushed off onto her tiptoes and kissed him, murmured, “I will stay safe. You do the same.” There was so
much more she wanted to tell him, but she held back for fear of distracting him.

“What was that?” Sammie said, obviously confused by the lack of verbal instructions.

Victoria took a chance that her earlier suspicions were right. Laying her hand on Sammie’s shoulder, she sent a pulse of power into her friend, sharing the equivalent of the mental radio channel through which Christopher and she would instruct his men.

Sammie jerked back for a moment, clearly tuned in and surprised as Victoria silently said, “I’m going to create the shield now. On three.”

Victoria focused on the inside of the building and in her mind’s eye, the energy shield that Alexander had created came into focus, as did the sight of Ryan, sagging and half dead in the chair held by the four men.

“You’ve got to stop this, Alexander. It will do us no good if he is dead,” the woman said, to which the older man replied, “And why is that bad?”

Bastard
, she thought. And heard an echo in her brain. Sammie repeating the word.

There was no time to wonder how Sammie had so quickly been able to use the link. Instead, Victoria carefully envisioned the size of her energy field and its density. She needed it to be just the right magnitude to cloak the world beyond it from those torturing Ryan and to then allow Christopher and his men to enter.

Raising her hands, she released her power in increments, allowing it to surround the other field without making her shield visible. Then, collecting the additional energy she would need to complete the distraction, she mentally counted down.

Three.

Two.

One.

She discharged the power and put up the wall.

Immediately there was activity as the guards at the corners lost sight of their colleagues. Just as quickly she experienced the force of Christopher’s people breaking through the padlocked doors and taking out the four men with stunning blasts of energy.

She was about to lower the shield to allow them to enter the center of the structure when she felt as if she had been struck in the gut by a blast of power. She would have crumpled to the ground if not for Sammie, who grabbed hold of her and kept her upright.

She sucked in a rough breath, fighting the pain, and a sharp blade of light suddenly sheared through her shield, pulling at her energy and empty spaces through the tear.

The Zero Point Reaver
, she thought, and broke the connection, but it was as if he was still drawing her into himself as the blade in his hand grew brighter and stronger with every second that passed.

“Victoria! Victoria, can you hear me?” Sammie asked, but she didn’t know if it was only in her head or out loud since the drain of energy was disorienting her.

A loud shout came from Christopher as he launched himself at the Reaver, shooting huge blasts not of energy, but of water from an assortment of puddles in the room. The water cannon shots pushed the Zero Point Reaver backward from their force. With a snap, Victoria’s connection with him severed as the assassin turned his attention to Christopher.

She sucked in a breath as if brought back to life, and
the communications of the warriors inside the building came at her like static across a radio, warning each other and Christopher about the dangers from the remaining Shadow Hunters.

“I can’t just wait here,” she said to Sammie, and struggled to rise, still feeling weak.

“I can’t either,” her friend said, and helped Victoria toward the door to the casino building.

W
hile trying to keep an eye on his father and his cadre members, Christopher continued pounding the Zero Point Reaver with water cannon shots. With only a physical deterrent attacking him, the Reaver could not connect to Christopher’s energy. The force of the blasts kept the Reaver distracted. So long as Christopher didn’t run out of water, he could keep the assassin at bay, but he had to do something more permanent to take him out of the equation.

A diversion
, he thought, and although it would expend needed energy, it might present him with the right opportunity.

Splitting his energy in half, Christopher directed a part of himself away, materializing in a far corner of the building, while at the same time speeding behind the Zero Point Reaver. The man did as he had hoped, turning in the direction of the first Christopher.

With an immense push of energy, he plunged his hands
into the ground behind the Reaver and forced all of the moisture from the floor and air into the cement directly beneath the Reaver’s feet. With a massive twist of power, Christopher created a waterspout as powerful as a Category Five hurricane, pulling the Zero Point Reaver down into the mixture of water and cement within no more than a second.

But as the Reaver’s head began to slip beneath the surface, he struck out, jabbing that dangerous energy-sucking blade upward. The tip of it sliced across the back of Christopher’s arm, burning like a stingray’s bite.

Christopher ripped away to avoid the Reaver making a more lasting connection. As he did so, an energy blast skimmed past his head, so close that its warmth singed his skin.

“No, Alexander. We must go,” he heard Maya scream, and watched as she grabbed his father, urging him toward the door, and making his second shot go even wilder.

Christopher rose then, intending to subdue his father, since his men had taken care of Alexander’s Hunters. But before he could gather enough energy to deliver a stunning blow, a blur of light streaked from beside Maya and disappeared through the walls of the casino.

Alexander was selfishly leaving his men and Maya behind.

Silence followed his father’s departure and the capture of his people, but was quickly disrupted by the squeak of a metal door opening as someone entered. He finally realized that Victoria’s protective shield was no longer in place.

Victoria and her friend ran into the space, and seeing that it was safe to continue, raced to Ryan’s side as he did.
His friend was slumped in the chair, and when Christopher got to his side, fear gripped his gut at how weak and fractured his life force was. Christopher crouched and offered Ryan support as he snapped the energy bonds keeping him connected to the chair.

As Ryan’s body slipped to the floor, Victoria and Sammie were there immediately, helping to lower him to the ground. Ryan moaned pitifully no matter how gently they handled him.

Christopher cradled him in his arms and Victoria quickly went into action. She ran her hands across his body to judge the severity of his wounds, but Christopher already knew.

Not only had the Zero Point Reaver drained Ryan of nearly all his vitality, but what remained of his core was fractured into pieces by the expansion of his empty spaces into needed life pathways. It was almost as if someone had opened a fuse panel and yanked and melted together all the wires, leaving them in a useless jumble. Even if it was possible to recharge Ryan’s core, there was no guarantee the energy would pass along the various Hunter connections to revitalize his body.

“Oh, goddess, Ryan. I’m so sorry,” he said, lowering his head to Ryan’s and dropping a kiss on his temple.

“Christopher. We need to get him help. Maybe with all of us combined we can fix this,” Victoria said, tenderly laying her hand on his arm.

Christopher nodded. He couldn’t let fear and emotion overwhelm logic. “He’s too weak to transport with energy. We’ll need to do it the old-fashioned way.”

He looked up at his men, who were busy containing his father’s Shadow Hunters and Maya with circles of binding
energy. Rage bubbled up inside him, demanding justice for their hand in what had been done to his friend. It took all his control not to have them executed on the spot, but they would pay for it somehow. Especially Maya.

“Matt. Head back to the compound and bring the Acadia around so we can move Ryan.”

“What do you want us to do with them?” Matt said, and jerked his head in the direction of their prisoners.

Once again the desire for vengeance rose up, but as Victoria passed her hand across his arm once more, he gazed at her. She understood what he was feeling because she was experiencing it as well through the link created by their Equinox. But he knew what would happen if he slipped down that dark slope.

“We’ll take them back to the compound later. Bring them before a panel of the cadre members along with our other prisoners. Except Maya. I’ll decide her punishment on my own,” he said.

“Christopher, it’s not what it seems,” Maya pleaded, but he ignored her, glancing at Victoria.

“What can we do for now?” she said.

“Get him sunlight. Start feeding him our energy in the hope we can push away the emptiness and recreate the pathways to his core.”

“Do you want to take him outside? I can run and get a portable chaise longue so you can lay him out. It’ll make it seem more normal,” Sammie offered, seemingly aware of their need for discretion.

Victoria thanked her friend. “That would help.”

Sammie raced out in a blur of speed to get the chaise and Christopher said, “She’s not human.”