Forged: The World of Nightwalkers (23 page)

The light was called the Curse of Ra, and Ahnvil knew it well. It was a violent burning energy that could damage even a powerful Nightwalker, as was evidenced by the agonizing pain in Ahnvil’s chest. Jackson was down and Ram was under attack by two of the three Templar assailants. Cloud cover began to rush over them and thunder roared as Ram used his power over the weather to generate a tremendous lightning blast. It hit the first Templar and radiated to the second one, causing the both to falter and fall out of the sky. That left the female and she was focused on Ahnvil. Or rather the woman behind Ahnvil, who was the only one uninjured. Outside of Max, who was still in the car and wise enough to stay there. He was mortal and there was nothing he could do. Their attackers were keeping them back from the car and Ahnvil couldn’t risk sending Kat in that direction. Especially not when he was pretty sure the Templar woman was mistaking Kat for a Nightwalker. One hit by the Curse of Ra would kill a mortal human where they stood. It was Ahnvil’s worst nightmare come to life, and if he remained in flesh form there would be nothing he could do to protect her.

“No! Don’t do it!” she cried, somehow sensing his only course of action.

“I have no choice,” he said darkly before closing his eyes and calling his stone skin. It rippled over him at lightning speed, as if gleefully delighted to be let out of its cage. She had her hands on his back and felt it turn into rough stone. With one tear Ahnvil ripped away his T-shirt and his whole body seemed to grow even bigger. He caught another blast, this one to the face. The Templars on the ground were regrouping, but so was Jackson. He used his massive power of telekinesis to pick up both men and send them slamming into the fuselage of the plane. The ringing of the metal echoed into the pre-dawn sky. The woman in flight was completely fixated on Ahnvil, and she beat him back with blast after blast. Finally, he roared with utter fury, his back hunching up and suddenly … suddenly wings were growing out of the rear of his shoulders, below the scapula and near the spine. His entire body began to distort, growing ever larger and now more and more misshapen. When he turned to look at her he had horns curling back from his skull, his face was distorted and grotesque, wide lips and deadly fangs for his mouth and dark sunken eyes … but eyes that were still the beautifully warm amber she recognized and allowed her to see the man and soul beyond the flattened nose, flared nostrils, and sharp cheekbones.

“Go! Run tae the car!” he snarled at her through a mouth full of fangs.

She was frozen in place, but not from fear of the attackers. She was terrified because he had been forced to become this thing and it was possible he would not be able to change back. And all because he had needed to protect
her
. Once again she was too frail and too weak. Well, she wasn’t going to fail him. Not this time. She ran, watching all of the attackers from all corners and
dodging one blast and then another. The second came so close she could smell her hair burning. Why were they trying to attack
her
? She was a nobody!

As she rounded the car, Max jumped out and protected her with the shield of his body as he shoved her into the back of the town car. Karma was hot on her heels and bounded into the car along with her. Then Max scrambled back in behind the wheel, his eyes darting back and forth and watching for anything he could do to assist the situation, she presumed. But now that he had wings, Ahnvil was becoming a force to be reckoned with and looked to be the only one of the three under attack who could take flight and meet the bitch in the air head-on. With a massive pumping of stone wings he launched himself into her like a huge granite missile. He plowed into her, tackling her like a linebacker and then pile-driving her down into the ground, tearing up asphalt and earth in a three-yard strip.

Meanwhile the other two men were back on their feet and now that the attackers no longer had the element of surprise Kat could see exactly why Jackson was the leader of his people. His power was phenomenal. He was throwing the men around like rag dolls, and at the same time pummeling them with objects from the ground. Ram waited until Jackson held them pinned in one place then aimed another bolt of lighting directly into their heads. After that it was apparently game over for those two attackers.

But she barely noticed. She was transfixed on watching Ahnvil fly and then the sheer power it must have taken for him to tear up airport asphalt down into the dirt. When he stood up again, he grabbed the female by the front of her shirt and hauled back his fist …

 … and hesitated …

“Beat the bitch!” she screamed at him, knowing why
he was hesitating. The last Templar female he’d been near had needed his help and he had failed to provide it. And while his need to protect Kat had driven him this far, it was almost impossible for him to beat his fist into the dazed woman’s face.

He seemed to hear her scream and turned to look over his shoulder at her, but he couldn’t see her through the reflective glass.

He shoved the woman back into the ground and got to his feet. Ram and Jackson joined him and they helped to pull him back.

“Do we take her and question her?” Ram asked Jackson.

“No. There’s no time and no room in the car. Just leave her here. We’ll have drawn human attention by now. We need to leave before anyone can investigate. Whoever did this was damn foolish and impulsive.”

“This doesn’t seem like something Apep would do,” Ram said grimly. “It’s all a little half-assed.”

“I think I know the why of it,” Ahnvil said, his breath heaving from him, his big stone body shuddering. “But the sun is coming. If it touches me while I’m like this, there will be no coming back.”

“Change back to flesh, Ahnvil,” Jackson commanded of him. “The threat is neutralized. You don’t need to stay like this.”

“Doona tell me what tae do! I willna let them come for her!”

“Her?” Ram echoed. “You mean the girl.”

“Aye, I mean the girl!” he growled savagely, his body everything that was threatening. “I willna …”

Then he staggered, nearly dropping to his knees. Both men reached out to help him but he threw them off savagely.

“Ahnvil.”

The sound of her voice made him still, but his breath nonetheless came hard. She moved in closer and both men held out hands as if to stop her. She ignored them, pushing past them both. She knelt down and then moved her entire body into Ahnvil’s arms. She pressed herself to his granite rough chest, wrapping her arms around his sides and pressing her hands to his back. After only a moment his hand came to her back and he held her to himself desperately, and yet it seemed as though he were afraid he was going to hurt her at the same time.

The men watched with no little awe as this tiny little mortal woman calmed her big beast of a Gargoyle. His breathing eased and very slowly the roughness beneath her began to smooth out and soon she had her face pressed against warm male flesh. His shirt had been ripped away in the battle. His pants remained in spite of how much larger he had grown, but it was obvious they had been stressed to a near breaking point. They now hung loosely on his hips.

And yet stone still rippled over him in waves, more and more frequently. She could see it in the light of dawn.

They realized at the same time the danger that meant.

“Get her in the car. Cover her with the blanket. Go! Now!”

“We’ll make it before the sun crests,” Max promised after ushering them all in the car. He hit the gas a moment later and with a spray of dirt and gravel tore off the tarmac.

They sped the entire way there. Ahnvil knew if the sun crested and pure daylight touched him he would turn to a statue instantly. The windows were polarized on either side of them to keep the sun out, but still he was anxious. Any number of things could happen before they got to the compound. Not the least of which
was another attack by Apep’s forces. If indeed it was Apep responsible. Ahnvil had a suspicion that this was far more about Panahasi than it was about Apep. Still, it was nothing to take lightly for any reason.

Ahnvil didn’t even relax when they reached the compound borders. He would not until she was safely ensconced within and he was finally in touch with his stone. Pain had begun to claw through him, as though his body realized the sun was over the horizon and calling for him to rest … yet he must resist. If he turned without his stone he knew nothing would bring him back this time. Not even the woman who still held him tightly. Truthfully, he had no idea how she had managed to bring him back the first time. It had felt like magic, the soothing sensation she had sent into him. Just as everything she made him feel seemed like magic. Because God knew he had never felt anything like this overwhelming hunger he seemed to have for her. Maybe it was because of the threat of permanent being and the madness it brought. Maybe come the night, after his touchstone had recharged him, he wouldn’t feel the same for her.

But as he ran his hands gently down the length of her back he found that incredibly hard to believe. Damn it, he barely knew her! What else could it possibly be? Perhaps it was that he didn’t want it to change. Didn’t want to lose the hunger he felt every time he smelled the warm chocolate scent she seemed to carry around with her everywhere she went. How did she do that? How did a woman manage to smell like warmed chocolate? It was only one of the many mysteries of her. Mysteries he wanted to unlock one by one.

By the time they pulled into the garage he had broken into a cold sweat. He hurried her into the house, ignoring everyone and everything around him, including Marissa and Jackson’s sister, Docia, as both tried to
greet him warmly and with relief to see that he was okay. The house also had polarized glass so not a stitch of daylight could get in, but still he worried. Glass was fragile. Even reinforced as this glass was, all it would take was one little chink.

He should have gone straight for his stone. It was kept in the center of the house. Jackson’s ambient energy recharged the stone every day, so it had to be kept centrally in order to draw the most energy from him. It only took a small amount, but still, as with all things, the more the better.

Ahnvil brought Kat and Karma directly into his rooms.

“This is my suite,” he said roughly. “Doona worry, you’ll be safe here wi’ my friends. All the glass in the house is protecting everyone inside. The forces again’ us canna attack in daylight any more than we can go out in it so we should be safe … unless there is a human attack. But I doona think they would dare. As long as we’re behind this glass we’re too powerful for them by far. These are my private rooms and I want you to sleep here today. Come the night I’ll be regenerated and back to my normal self and I’ll be able to protect you myself.”

“You said yourself your friends will be here. I’ll be more than safe enough. They are amazingly powerful.”

“Aye, but so are our enemies.” He ran an anxious hand through her hair, fingertips touching her face so delicately. But she could feel him shaking hard. He was using everything he had to stay in his flesh state.

“Go,” she said on a soft breath. “I’ll be fine. Please go.”

He did, reluctant the entire time, but eventually went for the stairs and hurried down. As soon as he reached the ground floor, Jackson was there. He had Ahnvil’s touchstone in his hands. Ahnvil took it, the sudden wash
of relief he felt nearly bringing him to his knees. But he wouldn’t be safe until he had regenerated with his stone for several hours. He opened the front door and walked out into the rising sun. His landing, what they called the place they chose to sit on while they turned to statues and regenerated, lending a sense of normalcy to their appearance by making them look like any other normal statue, was a thick shale slab reinforced by concrete beneath him. It was still cold from the night, but he hardly felt it. What he felt was the clawing pain of turning to stone. He settled down onto his hands and knees and as his wings burst free and his touchstone was absorbed into the flesh of his hand, he moved as if to lunge forward, so that when he froze into his stone visage at last, he looked like he was a Gargoyle statue ready to leap free at any moment.

Kat watched all of this from above, and even for many minutes longer after that. She knew she couldn’t truly relax until he’d been out there several hours. She wouldn’t until she could see him move again. Until she could be certain he wasn’t permanently turned to stone.

Jackson found her there, with her hands pressed against the glass, staring down at her Gargoyle worriedly.

“Don’t worry,” he said gently. “He has his touchstone now. He’ll be just fine by the time the sun sets. Now come with me. Before we sleep I would like you to meet my wife and the others who reside here. I don’t know how much Ahnvil has told you …” he hedged a bit awkwardly.

“Everything,” she said. “I know you’re a Bodywalker Pharaoh. I know there’s a Djynn living here and that he or she would turn to smoke in sunlight. I know you are all called Nightwalkers and that you can’t live in the sun any more than I can.”

“You’re right,” he said with a bemused smile. “He has told you everything. But we know nothing about you, will you help us get to know you?”

“Of course. And then … I’m very tired …”

“We’ll leave you to sleep. You can use Ahnvil’s bed until we can get rooms set up for you. You’ll have your own by night’s end tomorrow. Come. Come meet everyone.”