God of Destruction (14 page)

“You’re only eighteen this time, but I’ve
been watching you for more than just this lifetime.”

She blinked away confusion. “Wait.
Like…reincarnation?”

He nodded.

“I’m…I’m Catholic! I don’t believe in
rein—”

“It doesn’t matter what you
believe
,
Claire, I’m telling you the truth,” he spat. “You all saw what I
can do, what else would I have to lie about?”

Claire went silent.

“Are there a lot of…your kind…walking
around?” Scottie asked, collapsing on the couch under the weight of
his shock.

“Not too many, the humans grossly outnumber
us,” he replied with a shrug. “Only
very
important humans
have us trailing them, protecting them from dangers that would
impact them and affect others.”

“Important?” Claire laughed. “I can’t think
of any r…reason why you’d need to protect
me
. Are
y…you—?”

“Don’t you dare ask me if I’m
sure
,”
he snapped. “Of course I’m sure; I’ve been following you for
three thousand years
.”

She ran her hand through her hair as she
searched for the answers to life’s great questions in the carpet.
“
Why
?”

James placed his hand on the small of Alex’s
back to lead her to the couch, but she flinched away, taking her
place beside Claire instead. He masked his pain well. “You are,
what my kind calls, a Spirii. It means that trauma in your original
life causes you to be reincarnated over and over again until that
trauma gets resolved.”

“A…And you know what that trauma is?” she
inquired.

“Oh, come on, Claire,” Scottie exclaimed,
“don’t tell me you believe any of this!”

“I…” she trailed off, rubbing her forehead.
“I have such a bad headache.”

James shot a scathing look at Scottie. “You
have to believe it, Claire. Your dreams? They’re not dreams at all!
They’re flashbacks. The same flashbacks you’ve had since you were
first reborn.”

Claire’s lip quivered. “I don’t…I don’t
know.”

His face darkened. “Whether you believe me or
not, I need you to trust me and cooperate when I tell you that we
need to leave Paris, today. You need to hide while I find a way to
fix—”

“Leave?” Alex blurted out, pushing Claire
behind her. “Why would we have to leave?”

“Because that man in the catacombs is gonna
come after the both of you,” he announced, rendering the room
silent.

“Me too?” Alex inquired realizing, finally,
that her dream today hadn’t been a dream at all. “Why don’t
I
have a guardian angel?”

“Because my bosses decided that you were able
to protect yourself,” he said. “That man from earlier wasn’t just
any
man. His name is Angra Mainyu, known by some cultures as
the God of Destruction—”

“So now you want us to believe in mythology
shit, too?” Scottie erupted.

Hayden placed a calming hand on his chest.
“Ya, James. I’m sorry but this is all starting to seem a little
too
far fetched.”

“You don’t
have
to believe me,” James
growled. “Frankly, I don’t care if you do, but Natalia is—”

“Ya, where
is
Natalia, James?” Scottie
snarled. “Russell, too. Did you zap them with that weird parlor
trick of yours, like this guy?”

“
Natalia
isn’t anything like we
thought she was,” he began. “When I found Claire and Alex after the
lights went out, that snake had already read the spell and brought
Mainyu back to this world. I should have known it was her…I’ve been
worried about this since I found out about the robbery at the
British Museum.”

“What does
that
have to do with
anything?” he countered.

“Back in December, the British Museum was
robbed of one artifact.
Two
guards were killed to get this
thing and everyone thought it was unusual because they only stole a
piece of paper from the, extinct, Book of Eternity, an ancient
spell book from Persia. The page was relatively worthless except to
scholars and anyone who knew how to use it!”

“And you think that spell can resurrect
mythical beings?” Scottie accused.

“It did,” Claire murmured softly. “We saw it.
What does the s…spell call for?”

James rolled his eyes to the ceiling,
thinking. “A structure for him to materialize on, preferably human
remains, though there are some substitutes.”

She nodded. “There are plenty of those in the
underground. W…What else?”

“Blood. Any blood. The stronger the blood,
the more ideal.”

Alex absentmindedly searched her palm.
“Stronger? You mean…like you?”

He shrugged. “Mainyu’s human body can’t
sustain all the powers he possesses, so it will deteriorate at a
faster rate than a normal human until he, eventually, falls back
into the original components that made him. Whose blood did they
take?”

“Mine,” Alex whispered.

He exhaled loudly, hopelessly. “I don’t know
how Natalia knows all that she does, but she knew exactly what to
do to bring Mainyu back. Alex’s blood will only slow his
deterioration a little bit, but long enough to prepare a
sacrifice.”

“Why my blood?”

“Claire isn’t the only Spirii I’ve met since
her first life,” he murmured, folding and nervously unfolding his
hands. “You, Alex, are the reincarnation of a very powerful
priestess, the sister of Claire’s original incarnation. By today’s
standards, I guess you would call yourself a witch.”

Scottie scoffed, turning away from them in
disgust. When he faced them again, it was with disgust in his
voice. “You guys can’t seriously be
buying
all of this shit,
are—?”

“Shut the hell up, Scottie!” Alex yelled.
“This is serious! Me and Claire
saw
that guy piece himself
together right in front of us.” She gave James a look of good
faith. “James, or Hosrael, or…
whoever
he is, is telling the
truth.”

He glowered into each of their faces, probing
for something in them that wasn’t there. He sighed. “Alright,
assuming
that I believe you—and I’m not saying I do!—what
happens now that this…
god
is resurrected?”

James frowned deeply. “Alex’s first
manifestation, Shireen, banished him to another world to prevent
the destruction of the entire planet. Now that he’s back…”

Scottie chuckled darkly. “Great. What does he
want?”

James pointed at Claire. “He wanted her then,
and he’s definitely going to want her now. And now that he knows
that Shireen is back, too, he’ll want Alex dead.”

Claire couldn’t help but sit down when her
head started spinning. Hyperventilating, she gasped, “I…need…a
bag…”

They ignored her when a scream from outside
made them all turn to the window. “Everyone, get back,” James
ordered, inching toward the glass.

Far below their room, Mainyu stood on the
sidewalk, roaring demands into the faces of passersby. By the time
James looked down, the god was holding a woman over his head.
Despite the glass between them, the words he bellowed were as clear
as day.

“Where is the woman with the hair of
sunlight?! The eyes of daylight’s sky?! Tell me: where is
Ziba?!”

James turned back to his friends. “Stay here.
I’m leaving; I don’t know when I’ll be back.”

Alex stepped toward him as he neared the
door, prepared to go with him. “Is it him? The guy from the
catacombs?”

James nodded. “Stay here. I don’t know how
strong he is, or if they proceeded with the sacrifice, yet. I don’t
want you to get hurt.” He held her at arms length, pressing his
lips quickly to hers before he vanished out the door.

She stood there, watching the door slam shut
behind him. It took her a moment to move. “We have to go after
him.”

“Are you crazy?” Hayden breathed, leading her
away from the door. “You
heard
James, Alex. He’s a god! You
don’t stand a chance.”

Alex shook her head stubbornly. “But he also
said my blood is stronger than a normal person’s! I’m a witch! I
can help.”

Hayden grasped her shoulders and lightly
shook her. “He told you that you were a witch
two
minutes
ago! You have no idea if he’s telling the truth and if he is than
you have no idea how to do anything remotely magical! Think this
through for a minute.”

Alex scowled up at her cousin with tears
brimming in her eyes. “I trust him, no matter who or what he is!
Whether he’s an angel or a human or a freaking
leprechaun
,
he’s still my Jimmy.”

Hayden let her arms fall when Alex shook her
away, allowing the smaller girl to stride toward the door.

“Alex,
wait
!” Claire pleaded without
standing.

Alex turned, eyes nearly shut while she
blinked away the hot tears. “Claire, please
shut up
, I can’t
take anyone else’s begging right now. I’m going and that’s—”

The blonde girl interrupted, albeit in a
voice too meek to match up with her words, “I’m going w…with you.”
She held Kierlan’s gun in her raised hand.

“Where did you get that?” Alex demanded.

Claire pointed at the body on the floor.

“What was he doing with a gun?” Alex
whispered, more to herself than her friends.

Scottie held a stubborn expression while he
rolled his eyes, keeping his arms crossed tightly around himself.
Under the expectant eyes of Claire and Alex, he shook his head to
clear it. Growling a string of profanity under his breath, he
managed to finally glower at Alex as she backed slowly out of the
room with Claire. He groaned. “Us too.”

Chapter Twelve

Location Unknown; June 29
^th
, 2012

“It was awful,” Janie finally murmured,
digging her nails into his back to keep him closer.

Taran obliged, pulling her flush against his
chest, wishing he could take away the painful memories as easily as
he’d taken away her tears.

“What did he do?” he asked, though he was
completely positive he wasn’t going to want to know the answer. As
he gazed down at the broken girl in his lap, he felt something stir
in his chest.

Janie was far from wanting to experience the
horror all over again. “I don’t wanna talk about it.”

“Are you hurt? Do you need me to fix
anything?” he pleaded, looking her over, though the dark obstructed
much of his view.

She nodded. “My hip.”

He lifted her gently off his lap, placing her
on the floor. When his hands met her cold flesh he flinched and
noticed for the first time that she was shirtless. “Where’s your—?”
he began but caught himself. “Never mind.”

“He tore it up.”

Taran nodded, though he knew she couldn’t see
him.

“I thought he was going to kill me, but when
I opened my eyes, he was tearing up my shirt…I gave him the
picture; as far as he knows, there’s no reason to keep me alive
anymore.”

Taran squinted in an attempt to find whatever
ailed her in her hip area, but when he began to prod, he found her
skin slick with fresh blood. His pants were soaked with it after
the night she’d spent sitting there, bleeding out without his
knowledge.

“Jesus Christ!” he yelled, finally finding
the wound with his fingertips. “You should have told me about this
when you came back!”

Janie couldn’t help the look of confusion
that passed over face. “Sorry.”

“You’re lucky he didn’t pierce any organs, or
I would’ve woken up with you dead in my lap!” he enthused, tearing
a strip of cloth from the hem of his dress shirt to wrap around
her.

She hissed as the cloth stuck to her open
slice, but didn’t fight him, even as he applied pressure to the raw
flesh. “You’re so cold,” he said, handing his suit jacket to her.
She donned it thankfully.

“I’m always cold,” she countered, viciously
clenching and unclenching her fists against the pain when he went
back to work.

“That’s deep,” he mocked, tying the ends of
the cloth together to ward off the dust itching to infect her.
“Janie, what did you mean about the pictures?”

She sat up and against the wall beside him,
leaning heavily against his shoulder. “I had one of the pictures on
me. I gave it to him. I have two others stashed, but he doesn’t
know about those. They’re gonna kill me, they don’t need me
anymore.”

Taran bit his tongue until he tasted blood.
“You need to go to the hospital.”

Janie snorted despite herself. “Ya, let me
know when you see one.”

Taran ground his teeth together, carefully
thinking over his words before he whispered, “What I’m saying is,
I’m getting you out of here.”

“How do you plan to do that?” she asked.

“We’ll have to run,” he explained, pulling
himself to his feet. “We’ll run! I’ll fight them off while you get
out and we can find a—”

“Taran!” she interjected. “I can’t run, look
at my leg!”

Truth be told, he’d forgotten about that.
“Right. Stand up.”

Her glare was sweltering as she sat there,
not bothering to dignify his demand with action. “I can’t stand
either, dumbass.”

“Then, I’ll…I’ll carry you! I’ll carry
you…while I fight them off. Then, when we get to the door, I’ll let
you down and you’ll crawl away while I cover the door. You’ve seen
around the building more than I have, have you seen any way
out?”

“Ya, but my last attempt didn’t go so well.
That’s kinda why I can’t walk.”

Taran stared thoughtfully at the floor. “If
you can point us in the direction of the way out, you won’t have to
walk. You won’t last much longer here without medical
attention.”