God of Destruction (21 page)

“Are you going to help me or
not
?” he
snarled, walking backward toward the door. “I can’t afford to lose
anymore time.”

“I will, we’ll go now—” James replied, eyes
flickering to Kierlan.

“So,” Alex growled, nearing him dangerously.
“Is this ‘friend’s’ life more important than Scottie and Hayden’s
too?”

“I’m not saying that, Alex,” he groaned.

“What are you saying, then?”

“Look,” he annunciated. “He says that they
were kidnapped by Natalia. Scottie and Hayden were kidnapped by
whoever Natalia works with. Maybe, wherever this girl is, Scottie
and Hayden are there, too.”

Alex’s eyes lit up. “We’ll go, too.”

“No,” he reflexively shot back. “You stay
here. I can’t find them and protect you at the same time.”

“I don’t need you to protect me, James, I’m
coming with you.”

“No,” he repeated with finality.

She smiled a knowing grin. “You can’t keep us
here, James. We’ll find a way to follow you, whether you want us to
or not!”

“Can’t I?” he taunted, returning her smirk.
Scratching the back of his neck, he made a quick decision as he
looked up to Kierlan. “They do
not
leave this room!”

“Hey!” the thief snarled. “I’m no
babysitter!”

James closed his eyes, silently willing
everyone to stop being a pain. “Kierlan,
please
,” he
said.

Grunting in distaste, Kierlan curtly nodded,
stepping away from Russell’s chair.

“James, you can’t be serious!” Alex
shrieked.

“D…Don’t leave us with him,” Claire
pleaded.

“We’ll only be gone a few hours,” he
promised, following Taran out the door. “They
do not
leave
this room!”

“James!” Alex reached uselessly for him,
hindered by Kierlan’s massive body stepping between them.

“I’ll bring them back, I promise,” James
vowed before the door finally separated them.

Chapter Eighteen

Somewhere in Northern France; June
30
^th
, 2012

Janie hit the floor in a tangle of limbs. She
didn’t dare make a sound, knowing exactly what followed when she
did.

No one there would help her anyway.

Janie wasn’t sure where Natalia had brought
them, but she knew they had left her personal hell at least an hour
ago. Since their arrival, she’d been dragged across concrete
floors, down stairs, and finally thrown into a heap with the other
captives. She’d learned long ago that, in Natalia’s presence, she
shouldn’t make a sound, but Hayden and Scottie, unprepared and
terrified, hadn’t shut up since they got there. Scottie spouted
empty threats at anyone who would listen while Hayden sobbed into
his shoulder, ignorant of what was to come.

The room was brightly lit, displaying Janie’s
horrifying deformities for all to see. Even Janie wanted to avert
her eyes from her body’s gruesome flesh. She exhaled a dark
chuckle, wondering how Taran could have stomached touching her, but
she stopped that thought in its tracks. Thoughts of him were
strictly forbidden even in the most harmless degree. They raised
too many questions of where he was, what he was doing, and, most
importantly, if he was coming back. The sound of someone’s skull
hitting the floor pulled her from her reverie.

Then it was quiet.

Not a foot away, Scottie’s mouth lay open in
a frozen scream and his eyes stared up at the woman leaning over
him. The arch of her boot encased his throat, the heel pressing
into the side closer to her. Janie’s eyes followed the path of the
boot trailing higher up its owner’s body, finally finding the
familiar, strawberry blonde locks falling around the nape of her
neck. A tranquil smile remained on her face, but her eyes were
narrowed into slits, one eye twitching with irritation.

Scottie coughed as she stepped more
forcefully onto his neck.

“That is better,” she murmured. “Now, I need
you all to be good children.”

“What’re you gonna do to us?” Hayden
whimpered, wiggling away from Natalia’s other boot.

Natalia bit the inside of her mouth,
unimpressed at being interrupted. “I will not have to do anything
if you and your friends cooperate.”

Janie had learned well enough that the woman
was not to be trusted. “Then why are we here?”

She didn’t have time to prepare herself
before the toe of Natalia’s shoe met her cheek, shoving her onto
her side. Hayden gasped and burst out in tears again, reaching for
Janie’s shoulder. She recoiled instantly with a shriek when
Natalia, mercilessly, stomped on her hand.

“You see,
this
,” she announced,
stepping over them, “is
not
cooperation. If you will all be
silent
and do as I tell you, none of you will be hurt!”

Janie’s lip quivered against the ground.
Taran
, she thought.

“Is that understood?” Natalia continued.

They said nothing.

“Good,” she grinned. “Now, we are going to
make a little…
movie
. I think it is time we sent a message to
your friends.”

Save me…

***

“We
have
to help them! What if there’s
too many for them to handle? What if they need help? What if they
get lost? What—” Alex ranted, pacing before Kierlan’s stubborn
body. He hadn’t moved from his place by the door, watching the
girls for any sign of a brewing scheme. By this point, he didn’t
think either of them was capable of such a feat.

Since James and Taran had made their dramatic
escape, Claire hadn’t left the couch, too engrossed in the
self-loathing thoughts he knew nothing about. Alex, on the other
hand, hadn’t shut up, or strayed from the path she was making in
the floor. He was feeling less like a dangerous criminal and more
like a babysitter by the minute.

Little did he know Claire had finally hit
rock bottom. Her thoughts revolved around her absent friends,
knowing they’ been taken because of her. She tortured herself with
the mental image of what they could possibly be enduring in
Natalia’s hands, bloody, beaten…dead? She envisioned impossible
scenarios in her head, visions where James and his new friend
brought Hayden and Scottie back safely.

After that, she didn’t know what they were
supposed to do to send Mainyu back where he’d come from. She could
only imagine that James would refuse any help, as usual, and hide
her while he dealt with the god in his…
supernatural
way. She
wanted to help, it was her, or
Ziba’s
fault he was after
them in the first place. But she didn’t know how.

“Jesus Christ, will you
please
shut
her up!” Russell snarled, writhing against the chair he was tied
to.

Kierlan rolled his eyes. “Sorry, girly, I
can’t let you out.”

“Why not?” Alex snapped, crossing her arms to
mirror his stubborn posture.

“Your boyfriend told me not to.”

Alex rolled her eyes. “Oh
please
, what
do you care if we go out there? Last I checked, none of this
concerns
you
!”

“Trust me,” he muttered through clenched
teeth, “you don’t wanna go out there with that thing.”

“Like I said: Not. Your. Problem! If we wanna
go out there and get killed, that’s
our
problem!”

Kierlan said nothing, but his eyes flickered
over to Claire on the couch. She was curled up so tightly into
herself that she looked smaller than the petite girl standing up to
him.

Incapable of scheming?

Though it was a foreign concept to Claire,
being as innocent as she was, she would have done anything in that
moment if it meant protecting her friends. For once,
she
wanted to be the hero, instead of the damsel in distress. Just
once.

Somewhere in the suite, three cell phones
simultaneously shrieked.

“Who the hell is calling me?” Alex snarled
without tearing her eyes from Kierlan.

Claire looked up to find Kierlan’s gaze
centered on her. She gulped and averted her eyes. “M…Mine, too.
Maybe it’s James?”

“I don’t think he’d be calling
me
,”
Russell mocked, gesturing with his chin to his singing pants
pocket.

Eyebrows knit, Alex reached into the front
pocket of her jeans and glared down at the screen. Astonishment
colored her face when she read the name: Natalia. Instantly, she
accepted the Facetime request.

“You bitch,” she gasped when the assassin’s
face on her phone. “You
bitch,
where are you? What did you
do to them?”

“Alexandria, this is not a time for you to
make demands,” the lilting voice replied, her face unaffected by
the name calling.

“What did you do to Hayden and Scottie?” Alex
growled, narrowing her eyes.

Natalia grinned, showing teeth. “Tell your
friend to accept the call.”

Alex pursed her lips but finally whispered,
“Claire, answer the phone.”

The blonde complied. She winced when
Natalia’s face came into view. “Natalia, w…what do you wan—”

“I am glad I have all of your attention,”
Natalia laughed. James’s voice mumbled something in the background
as his picture appeared in the corner of the frame. Taran scowled
down at the screen over his shoulder.

“What’s going o—”Claire began.

“I am here to make a deal you cannot refuse,”
she taunted, her entire face filling the frame. “I have a few
people here that I am sure you are all missing.” The screen jerked
away from her face, and spun to display the illuminated faces of
Hayden, Scottie, and Janie.

The three captives sat in a line of three
chairs, their arms wound behind them. Janie sat forward, the ropes
wrapped around her supporting her frail body. The latest kick to
her face had swelled her cheek to epic proportions, forcing one of
her eyes shut. Hayden’s makeup streaked from her glassy eyes and
her lip quivered; her chair shook with the tremors of her body.
Beside her, Scottie’s mouth was covered by duct tape, but his
muffled shrieking was still audible to them. As they watched, a man
appeared in the frame, striking Scottie’s temple with the butt of
his gun. The girls standing in the hotel room gasped, Claire’s hand
flying to her mouth. Blood trickled from Scottie’s face and his
yelling abruptly cut off as he swayed precariously toward
Hayden.

“Scottie!” Hayden shrieked, erupting in
tears.

Janie said nothing; it was hard to believe
she was even conscious.

“Oh my God,” Taran murmured, yanking James’s
phone away. “Janie?”

The girl’s head jerked upward like she’d been
slapped, her eyes darting every which way in search of something
that wasn’t there. “Taran?” she mumbled under her breath. When she
didn’t see him, and her eyes found Natalia instead, she winced and
let her body fall slack against the ropes again.

“D…Don’t hurt them!” Claire pleaded.

“You know what we want, James,” Natalia
snarled.

“Anything!” Alex exclaimed, staring at her
friends, wherever they were. Despite all her effort, her eyes
couldn’t help but wander to the grotesque face of the girl she’d
never seen before. Her heart twisted, wondering how old the girl
was: fourteen…fifteen? Nausea roiled in her stomach, watching
Taran’s face fall further and further into anguish. “What do you
want?”

Natalia’s teeth glimmered in the light.
“Bring Claire and Alex to the River Seine in one hour, or we will
kill your friends. One. By. One.”

The line abruptly disconnected.

Alex stood frozen with phone still in hand.
“We have to go.”

“Wait,” Claire whispered. “W…what if they
find them? Maybe we should w…wait for James to come b…back?”

Alex shoved uselessly at Kierlan’s chest.
“And what if they don’t?! If we wait for them to come back, James
will never let us go.”

“I know that!” Claire said. “But we can’t
just walk into a dangerous situation like this because they say
they’ll let Scottie and Hayden go. What if they’re lying?”

Alex’s hands pulled at her hair. “We don’t
have a choice, Claire! They’ll
kill
them. And it’ll be all
our fault!”

Claire stood, hesitantly enveloping her
friend in a hug. “Alex, James has powers, r…remember, if anyone can
stop them—”

“If he can find them,” she breathed. “And
what if they’re waiting for him to try that? We can’t assume that
they know less than we do, they brought a
God
back to
life
!”

“Alex, listen—”

“No. You listen,” Alex whimpered. “I’m going
back to the catacombs whether you go or not. I’m not going to let
Scottie, Hayden, or that girl die because we’re scared. I won’t
make you go with me, Claire,” she continued, holding Claire at
arm’s length, “but I want you to remember what’ll happen if you
don’t go.”

“I know what’ll happen,” Claire muttered. “I
can’t
go.”

Alex retracted her hands like she’d been
burned. “Claire!” she gasped, eyes widening. “For once in your
life, try to be a little irrational.”

The blonde’s eyes narrowed, but she said
nothing.

Irrational? Her mind was made up before she
gave herself the chance to weigh the outcomes again. After all,
she’d always wanted to be a hero, and now she finally had the
chance to do right by her friends. Now was her chance to prove she
wasn’t the baby in their group. Her eyes flashed to Kierlan,
standing against the door with his scowl focused on Russell.

She approached him slowly, looking up to meet
his full height, until her chest nearly touched his. Confusion
colored his face when he finally met her gaze. “Claire?”

“Please, we need to leave,” she murmured
begrudgingly.

His eyebrows knit together and he chuckled
darkly. “I told you, I’m not letting you through. You’re both safer
here.”

“Please,” she pleaded. “Our friends’
lives
depend on it.”