Alliances (Guardians of White Light, #1) (23 page)

“Mathias!” a voice bellowed from behind him.

He glanced over his shoulder to see the General running towards him.

“Alna’s magic is destroying everything in her path. The walls of the lab are crumbling. People are dead. Human fatalities,” he reported frantically. “The files on the drug are destroyed,” he added. At least they had achieved their mission objective.

Mathias nodded absently, barely taking the General’s words in.

“Are you listening to me?” the General demanded. As he reached him, he became aware of Jenna's state. “What—what happened?” he asked, crouching beside them. “Was she wounded?“

Mathias shook his head. “Not physically. It’s the curse. She killed Arthur. His pain of death is hers. There’s no wound—I can’t—there’s nothing I can do to ease her agony.”

The General was taken aback at Mathias’ vulnerability. He had never seen him like this. For a moment he forgot what he was. He seemed so
human
.

He reached for Jenna’s wrist to check her pulse, but was stopped by Mathias’ words. “It’s weak, but steady.” The General looked at him.

“I can feel her.”

“Her blood?”

Mathias nodded uncomfortably.

The General pushed down his reaction to this disturbing revelation.

“All right.” He reached into his inner jacket pocket and withdrew a hard plastic case. He opened it and ripped open one of the packages. A syringe already full of some sort of liquid.

“What is that?”

“Morphine. If we don’t stop the pain, she could go into shock, which, given her current state, could be enough to kill her. This will knock her out until we can get her some proper help. Human doctors won’t have a clue what they’re dealing with here. Is there anyone in…
your
world?”

“Yes.”
Jax.
He was the only one who could help her now.

“Hold her,” the General ordered.

Mathias tightened his grip on Jenna and held her steady as the General injected her with the syringe. Within moments he felt her body weaken, her screams subside. He struggled to get to his feet with her in his arms, but his body wouldn’t let him.

“I can’t—you need to take her,” he admitted with bitter defeat.

“Mathias, this place is being torn apart. We need to leave now.”

Mathias gestured to his chest and the General almost choked from the shock of what he saw. There was a five-inch gaping hole through his chest.

“Take her,” Mathias urged.

The General snapped into action and took her from Mathias, cradling her in his arms. He stood up and watched Mathias struggle to one knee and then the other, before finally managing to get to his feet. He held his hand over his chest and gritted his teeth.

“I know how you feel about me, but I know you'll protect
her
. The way you were warning her off me is proof of that.”

“You heard that?”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“I may have misjudged you in some respects.”

A look passed between them. “Where?” the General asked.

Grunting against the pain, Mathias pulled out his cell phone and handed it to the General.

“Eternus. Hit
REDIAL
and say you seek sanctuary for The Hunter at my request. They’ll trace my phone and come to you.” He couldn’t reveal the location of Eternus to the leader of the STR. It was too great a risk no matter what the circumstances.

He staggered forward and reached for the choker around Jenna’s neck. He unclasped it and put it in his pocket. He gently peeled off the gauze. The General stared at him.

“When they come to you, they’ll recognize my bite and they won’t harm you.”

“If you stay here, you’ll die,” the General cautioned.

Mathias gestured to Alna and the devastation all around them. “I have to stop her.”

“How?”

“By reaching through the dark,” he answered cryptically.

The General nodded and started to walk away.

“Silas must be taken out, whether I live to lead the assault or not.
She
’s the key,” Mathias called.

The General looked back at him. “She’ll make it,” he vowed.

CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

“Alna! Release the magic!” Mathias bellowed from the ground beneath her.

“I don’t need your mercies, Mathias!” Orion rasped from a few feet away where he lay sprawled. He screamed as Alna assaulted him with another bolt of light. She was moments away from killing him.

“I’m not doing this for you!” Mathias yelled at him. “I warned you not to attack her.”

“You can’t reach her; she’s buried beneath the magic now.”

“She’s the ivory witch. The white light in her is strong.”

“It’s gone too far,” Orion told him, gesturing towards the lab with his shaking, bloody hand.

Mathias looked to his left and watched as Alna’s magic rained down on the lab. In seconds it disintegrated. All that remained was a black charred outline of where its concrete walls had once stood. It was as though it had never existed.
Oh my God.

“Alna! Let go!” Mathias bellowed.

She cocked her head towards him. Her eyes were black, devoid of all their former light. But he saw recognition in her eyes. His voice had affected her. “You’re destroying everything! Stop, Alna! Now! This is not what magic is for!”

Her eyes met his and she floated to the ground. Thick blue magic surrounded her as she glided towards him.

“You’re wounded.”

He ignored her concern. “We devoted ourselves to white magic, to the good that it could do. Not this, Alna.”

His comment struck a nerve and she screamed, “Graven ripped that life away from us!”

“Not for
you
,” he said, sadly. “You never became
this.
” He bared his fangs.

“You don’t know what it feels like to possess this power. It’s intoxicating. I won’t give it up now.”

“Yes you will!”

He shot out his hand and grabbed hers. The blue fire she held in her palm burned his skin. But then something inexplicable happened. He felt a warmth course through him, a sensation that he hadn’t felt since his human years. And he watched the blue fire extinguish.

“What is this—stop!” she protested, trying to pull away.

But he held her hand tightly.

“What are you doing?”

He jerked her towards him and made her look at him. “Letting you go,” he whispered gently.

He took hold of her other hand and the same thing happened. The blue flame on her palm extinguished.

“Your white light is…weakening…me,” she choked.

He shook his head. And that was when she realized the truth. “It’s extinguishing the black. It’s
strong
.”

“It’s gone centuries without use.”

He watched as the dark blue light surrounding her gradually dissipated. He felt her body weaken. He could feel her heartbeat slow. She dropped to her knees and that was when he let go.

As he did, he felt movement from his right.
Orion!
Without thinking twice, he slid a knife from his sleeve, spun and hurled it at him. He was so fast that Orion didn’t see it coming until it plunged into his chest.

The magic that Orion had intended to assault Alna with was diffused instantly. He caught Mathias’ eye. Gripping the handle of the blade, he murmured words under his breath and gritted his teeth from the searing pain in his chest. And then, he was gone.

Mathias turned back to Alna. She leaned forward on her knees, barely able to hold herself up, yet looked up at him and smiled. And then, seemingly out of nowhere, the brightest bluest embers he had ever seen engulfed her. He reached for her, but she held up her hand, commanding him to stay back.
I am done, Mathias.
The embers quickly grew to flames. She didn’t cry out, didn’t fight it. She simply let it take her, engulfed in her own magic. A sorceress’ death. Mere seconds later she was gone. No trace of her remained. No ashes, no body. Nothing. It was as though she had never been.

Unable to repress the agonizing pain in his chest any longer, Mathias collapsed. He gazed at where she had been and where she no longer was. The one consistent person in his very long existence had perished. Tears filled his eyes and he sobbed as he lay immobile on the cold, muddied ground. Exhausted and alone.

***

Mathias! Mathias! Wake up! Mathias!

A voice thundered through his subconscious, urging him to awaken. It was persistent. Merciless. It wouldn’t take no for an answer. He had to wake up.

His eyes snapped open.

“Good. You’re awake. Daylight's coming!”

Mathias fought to see through blurred vision, his senses dulled. His body was spent. He was severely wounded, and beyond exhausted.

He felt arms around him. Someone was lifting him up, carrying him away.

“General?” he choked out.

“Hold steady,” was the brief response.

He felt himself being lowered onto a hard surface and then being pulled inside to a dark place.

“This will protect you from the light until we reach the base,” the General mumbled, covering Mathias with a couple of heavy blankets. He started to move away, but Mathias gripped his arm. His grip was weak, startling the General.

“Where…what is…happening…?”

“You’re in the back of Luke’s truck. When you didn’t return to the base, your army became concerned. Daylight was too close for them to search for you, so I did.”

“
You’re
saving me?”

“Get some rest,” the General answered.

CHAPTER TWENTY TWO

“My son!” Silas bellowed, his voice echoing through the throne room with such ferocity that it caused the candelabras to shake. His security guards stationed around the room couldn’t suppress a shudder of fear.

He studied the muddied, beaten figure of Tanya kneeling before his throne. The air moved and a fraction of a second later he was upon her. She gasped from the surprise of it. He gripped her neck and held her off her feet.

“You let him die? He was the heir to my throne, my second in command, and you let him die?”

“He raised the stakes, wanted to kill them,” she choked out. “She’s strong.”

“She? The Hunter killed him, not Mathias?” he asked with surprise.

“Yes, Sire. I had just come to after she’d knocked me out and I saw Arthur about to kill Mathias and that was when she…”

“When she what?” He shook her roughly.

Tanya gulped and looked away. “She ran them through with a tree branch.”

“Them?”

“Mathias and Arthur. Arthur took it in his heart and Mathias in his chest, but not his heart.”

“Mathias still lives?”

She nodded frantically.

As he took that in, distracted, he dropped Tanya and she crumpled to the floor. He walked back to his throne.

“My Lord,” she rasped, “I will kill her for you.”

“There is no need. She will be close to death after taking my son’s life.”

“What?” she dared to ask as she shakily climbed to her feet.

Silas sank into his throne, highly agitated and barely managing to rein in his temper. “The Hunter is linked to me and all those who I sire. Killing Arthur will have almost killed her. There is no honor in my killing a weak opponent.”

“What about retribution?”

“All in good time, my dear.”

She wondered what he meant.

“
He
will come to
me
.”
And, I will be ready.
“Now leave me,” he ordered. “All of you!” he added, when only Tanya started for the doors.

As soon as they had left he buried his face in his hands.
My son. My son.

CHAPTER TWENTY THREE

Mathias awoke groggy. He could feel that it was daytime. That added an extra element of fatigue to his already exhausted state. His head was fuzzy and it took him longer than normal to ascertain his surroundings.
Painkillers. Dammit.
He hated medications violating his body. They interfered with his normal state and, because his heart was a dead organ and didn’t pump his blood, it took a long while for drugs to leave his system. He eased himself up to a seated position in the familiar bed. He was in his former chambers at Eternus’ base.

He felt an uncomfortable pull within his chest. Stitches. He looked down to see a wealth of bandages encircling his chest, constricting his movements. He gazed around the room. Heavy black drapes covered the window off to the right of the room. The carpeted floors matched the drapes. The white walls were covered with medieval paintings and tapestries depicting Eternus’ great victories. He eased himself onto the edge of the four-poster bed that took up most of the room. He pushed one of the velvety curtains hanging from the bed aside and struggled to his feet. His body hurt. He gripped the ivory bookcases hugging the wall for support as he made his way to the double doors.