Blue Moon Rising (The Patroness) (26 page)

The smile dropped and his fist came quickly down on me. I accepted it, and retaliated with a punch to his kidney. His grip on me had loosened and I launched for his head, instinct taking over.

Everything seemed to happen in slow motion then. I wasn’t quite myself, everything inside of me focused down to that costumed being in front of me. Nothing else existed, just him and me.

I gripped his head tightly between my hands and looked him deep in the eyes. In a burst of bluish green light all my guilt, anger and fury were set free, and catapulted Mordred right out of the human body and back into his prison except it’s walls were now of my own creation. This time it was I who banned him, but I didn’t know how I’d done it.

I stared, unmoving and unsure of what had happened and didn’t even realize that I let go of the Father. He fell of the chair, sliding onto the floor, dead from the blast of power. The world came crushing back to me in one swift moment, as if a hooting fast train barrelled by me, and I had to gasp for air. Then I limply slopped onto the ground, and knelt beside the body, closing his eyes with my slightly trembling hand and said a prayer.

Utterly exhausted I turned, and faced the raven. 

I hoped the gargoyles had been right about ‘the four split souls forced into the shade’. I had to believe that they weren’t happy about being on the wrong side, of being a means to an end for the bad guys. I hoped with all my being that the raven would appreciate my acts.

“Are you going to make me any trouble?” I asked the man, who was still hurting from my sleeping powder and whose brother or sister I had killed.

The raven stepped to the side and for the first time I saw him smile. Suddenly he appeared so much younger and looked even boyish. “I’d be glad to have your back.”

I’d fought against this man, had wounded him, had killed his father and a sibling, and yet he wanted to help me, instead of going for my throat. “Why?” I just had to know.

His brows drawn tight, he replied, “Our fa...Mordred had told us our sole purpose in life was to protect him, and to do what he’d ordered. No questions. We only know that our mother shares his exile but we don’t know how exactly we came to be here. From one instant to the next we were there, fully grown but with no understanding of this world. So we trusted him. But then I saw you, and the other two men fight against us, no matter the risks, to save a friend. It...” He shook his head, at a loss for words, “...touched me. It awakened something in me, right here.” And he put a hand right above his heart.

“What’s your name?”

He blinked, “I don’t have one.”

The way he replied, full of surprise that someone would ask at all, made my heart ache in return. That bastard Mordred had no sense of family. He’d used his own children as if they were disposable soldiers, means to an end, nothing more. “We’ll change that as soon as we are out of here.”

With that I grabbed Cutter lying on the ground since the altar had been blasted as well and went out the door like the good obedient experiment the human standing guard on the left expected me to be. The raven followed, and then, with a quick move to the side, he rammed his elbow into the stunned human’s face. Bone crunched and the guard dropped to the floor. I grabbed the gun lying at the ground. “Does the tranquilizer kill humans?”

“I don’t think so.”

“Good. Where’s the rest of my weapons? And my clothes?”

“No clothes but the weapons are in a storage room on the left.” He pointed towards the grand corridor.

I wanted to move on, but the raven took my arm and said, “Wait, let me call for back-up first.” Then he let out a hoarse shriek, reminding me of a crow and a few seconds later, with a rustling of feathers, the two other ravens joined us. Both were in their human form with their wings still visible. The man looked nearly identical to the one standing beside me, except his hair was black showing streaks of violet, and his eyes were a light shade of that same color. The woman was about my height, had silky, auburn hair and stunning golden eyes.

“We’re with her,” the raven beside me announced.

That was all it took, and we moved on, first stopping to get my leather harness, knives and throwing stars and then advancing along the corridor sweeping every room leading away from it. At the sight of us, me with the tranquilizer gun and sword in my hands and three grim ravens at my back, most of the white coats dropped whatever they’d been doing and lifted their arms as high in the air as possible.

“Tie them up!” I called out. The ravens smiled and two of them went to work.

In every room we found a magical creature. Vampires, witches, faeries, you name it. Bound onto that goddamn operating table, their eyes either dull and helpless from loss of hope, or filled with so much hatred they were on the verge of an all-consuming blood craze. One by one we freed them and my heart drummed erratically in my chest as I thought of Pauline. I hoped she was alright.

In the next room I found Josianne Bellemort, her beautiful face distorted from pain, and tears were running down her cheeks. Directly above her left hand those motherfucking white coats had placed an UV-lamp which made her skin burn and blister with a crackling sound, that came to close to that of popping popcorn. Maybe I should rethink my merciful tie-up politic.

With a sweep of my arm I pushed the lamp aside so it fell to the floor, broken. Opening the metal cuffs around her wrists and ankles I pulled Josianne up into my arms. “Shhh, Josianne, everything will be fine now, you hear me. Romaric’s been looking all over for you.”

Romaric’s name got into her head and hearing it seemed to calm her down and fuel her with energy at the same time. She stopped crying and nodded, and weakly she slid of the table, ready to follow me but nevertheless eyeing the ravens suspiciously. Good girl.

After we rescued fourteen creatures and had almost reached the end of the corridor, a woman in a white coat leaped out of a room on the left, and blocked our way. She was armed, revolver in one outstretched hand, tranq gun in the other one.

“S-Stop right there.” Let me guess, the crazy scientist bitch so keen on experiments. Our little but growing troop of tied-up white coats and freed victims came to an abrupt halt. “You can’t escape,” she added on a nervous breath.

“Oh, is that so?”

She nodded vigorously. “I won’t let you.”

“Ah,” I took a small step towards her, all the while holding her gaze locked with mine, “good thing we weren’t planning to escape then, huh?” Another step. She looked confused, so I explained, “We just gonna walk the fuck out of here.”

I went directly for her and locked my hands around her wrists. Pushing her arms wide, I brought them quickly to her side, muzzle aiming at the floor before giving her a smacking Glasgow kiss. She dropped to the floor, a trembling hand at her blood spurting nose as I collected the weapons.

Pretty sure one of the ravens would take care of her I headed for the next room, opened the door and gasped as I finally found what I’d been bracing myself for while moving down this corridor.

Pauline lay unconscious, bound to the table, cuts similar to mine showing on her arms. The scientists in her room showed no signs of resistance after a glance at me, so I practically flew to her to get those damn cuffs off her.

“Pauline, Pauline, it’s me, Maiwenn. Oh please, wake up. Wake up.” My voice was hoarse from anger, sorrow and guilt choking me. Unnoticed tears ran down my cheeks.

She gave no reaction so I pulled her up to gather her into my arms only to jerk away as I found her back wet and sticky with blood. Oh, my God. I had to bite my lip to keep from crying out at the sight of her wounds. They’d ripped out one of her wings, the other one was in shreds. Her beautiful wings, gone. My vision became red with the white-hot need for revenge.

Taking a deep breath I gently carried her out of the room. It was time to get her the hell away from this place. Back out in the corridor I turned to the raven, “Way out?”

The female answered, “Right ahead, then up the stairs to the left.”

And that’s where we went. Heading up the stairs and pushing open the doors what I first thought of as a laboratory turned out to be an old, vacant hospital.

Finally outside I noticed the surroundings and that the sun was already flirting with the horizon despite my every cell burning with a savage hunger for vengeance. We were losing the cover of darkness; bad news not only for the vamps but also for the rest of us. Humans were ignorant, sure, but only to a certain degree. A group of scientists and bloody, tortured magical creatures might be too much even for them.

I had to act fast. So I went over to the –raven with red-rimmed eyes. “Could you please take care of her?”

“But of course.” He gathered Pauline gently in his arms.

“Take them away, out of reach.” I ordered before going back for one last time. Down the steps and into a hell of pain, sorrow and coldness.

How could that have happened? How could humans do such things? Out of curiousness or out of fear of the unknown? The chief of the white coats might have been under Mordred's control and he might have manipulated her, but the seeds had been there…and those others? They’d just followed in the name of science or whatever excuse that made them sleep at night. In the end they all saw in us nothing more than lab rats.

Remembering Pauline’s shredded wings, the ‘it’s coming round’ I heard when I woke up, I sat my jaw and marched the long of the corridor. Beginning in the back and quickly working my way to the exit, I emptied every bottle with even the slightest hint of a chemical inscription onto the floor, and opened every gas tap I could find.

A smile twitched at my lips as I climbed the stairs to the first floor of the hospital. Standing at the top I looked back. “I really hope this will warm your heart, Mordred. It sure as hell does mine.” And with my breath I lightened a match and let it fall onto the ground.

I tried to take a run for the doors leading outside but the roaring explosion ripping through the hospital’s foundation knocked me right off my feet. Through the rocks crashing down I caught a glimpse of blue, then…nothing.

My eyelids fluttered open but the harsh light of day was such a horrible reminder of the nightmare I just had, that I turned onto my side, buried my face into my soft pillow and closed my eyes again.

“Oh, no. You don’t!” Someone snarled.

My eyes popped open. Kylian?

I rolled onto my back and looked up. Yep, there he was, leaning over me. The worry showing in his bright blue eyes belied his hard words though, and I swallowed the ‘Fuck off’ that was ready to bounce off the tip of my tongue.

I tried to sit up. With the operative word being ‘tried’ since my left arm turned out to be trapped in a sling and I was pretty sure someone had smashed my right knee with a sledgehammer. The mean teeth of pain were picking my every bone and I sucked in a sharp breath. Then two strong, warm hands grabbed me under my arms, pulling me easily up into a sitting position, so the next instant I found myself leaning comfortably against the headboard of my bed.

“Thanks,” I murmured. I looked around me and noticed that the bright light that had annoyed me earlier was coming from the setting sun as its last, strong rays flooded through my window. Apparently I’d slept the whole day.

“Don’t mention it, I mean I had to do something. It was like watching all those birds trapped in pools of petrol on Discovery Channel. Heartbreaking, really.”

If looks could kill.

Kylian pulled up a chair and sat down beside my bed. Serious now, his eyes scrutinizing me, he asked, “How are you feeling?”

“Like I’ve been hit by a truck,” I replied honestly.

“Try concrete.”

I arched a brow at that.

His tone reproachful he explained, “Yep. After whatever you did inside of that damn hospital, the whole building came crushing down. On you.”

“Shit, hadn’t considered it. I admit my plan had some holes in it.”

“A damn Swiss cheese has more consistency. Your arm is broken, your knee was dislocated and that’s not even half of it. Viviane ordered for you to stay in bed.”

I rubbed my face hoping to wipe away the persistent layer of fatigue there but found it hurt. Ah, I remembered Mordred punching me there. “Okay, let’s start at the beginning. What happened in the park? I mean, after I’d been drugged.”

He leaned back in the chair. “One of the birds grabbed you and the bad guy, and flew off. Chastel and I fought the other two, till they, too, took off.”

“And the faeries?” I had been wondering what had happened to them.

“Got away.”

I sighed in relief. “That’s good, that’s good.” One of many weights lifted, I continued, “So how did you find us?”

“Well, after the fight we had to take care of Chastel’s wounds. When that was done, we decided to head for the north-eastern suburbs since you magically tracked down Pauline there. And believe it or not, searching the area we stumbled over some wasted bum rambling about angels of death. So we asked him, and he gave us a rough idea as to where those bastards might be hiding. Later, the weird troop of birds and lab coats standing in front of the hospital were clue enough.”

He leaned forward, his elbows resting on his knees. “I saw you through one of the windows, and wanted to go inside. Then everything went boom. And I tried to get to you as fast as I could. The birds, too.” He chuckled and shook his head. “Surprised the hell out of me when they told me they were with you and would kill me if I hurt you.”