God of Destruction (24 page)

James was the only one in the room who
noticed the black mist forming outside the window, buzzing like a
swarm of angry bees. He sprang to his feet. “Get away from the
window!”

Kierlan and Taran jumped at the sudden
outburst. “James, what’s—?” Kierlan muttered.

“Get away from the window!” he growled,
yanking Alex up by her arm. Before he faced the other men again, he
pushed her toward the kitchen, “Hide somewhere, anywhere.” Noting
the urgency she’d never heard from him before, she quickly obliged,
searching for a cupboard to hide in.

Finally hearing the noise outside the window,
Taran turned to the window. “Holy shit!” he exclaimed, pushing
Kierlan toward the opposite wall. “Go! Go!”

“Don’t leave me!” Russell begged, unable to
turn and watch the impending doom. “Come back! Please take me with
you!”

Kierlan’s chest tightened, moved by the
pathetic man while he cried louder than ever.

The black smoke entered the suite easily
through the shattered window, filling the space from wall to wall
as it entered, claiming Russell. They watched the dark vapor enter
him through his eyes, his ears, his nose, his mouth, and, finally,
his mouth when he screamed. And, for the last time, Russell’s
screams echoed through their brains.

The smoke settled quickly, crawling across
the floor, most of it toward the window. A small cloud, however,
crept across the carpet toward the door to the master bedroom,
slipping easily, and silently, through the crack under it. Once it
passed the threshold, it expanded into a thick, overwhelming cloud
once more.

“Oh my God—” James breathed.

“Claire!” Kierlan roared.

Claire never saw it coming when she finally
opened the bathroom door, wiping the last drop of bile from the
corner of her mouth with her sleeve. The buzzing mass hit her full
on, flying effortlessly up her nostrils when she inhaled and into
her mouth when she gasped. Suddenly seeing nothing but darkness,
she staggered on weak legs in the direction she hoped the bed would
be. Blind, deaf, and unable to scream for help, Claire caught her
foot on the carpet and sprawled out on the floor.

Before she gave into terror and exhaustion,
she heard his voice in her mind hiss:

Come to me, my love.

Chapter Twenty-One

Paris, France; June 30
^th
, 2012

Hayden screamed a strangled sob when she was
forcibly pried away from Janie, squeezing her eyes shut when she
glimpsed Scottie’s limp body.

Janie anticipated her own manhandling; she
didn’t make a sound when she was dragged across the circular room.
She didn’t know when Natalia and her team brought in the chairs
they were, again, being tied to, but she noticed that, this time,
there were only two. Soon enough, there would only be one, and she
knew, very well, that she may not be the one sitting in it for
another video. She wanted to reassure Hayden; to do
anything
that would make cease her wailing, but she couldn’t come up with
anything remotely positive to say. She didn’t think she’d be able
to manage a smile if she tried.

“You know the drill,” Natalia grumbled,
pulling the final knot taut around Janie’s chest. “If you speak, I
will kill you. Well,” she chuckled, “sooner.”

Hayden freely let more tears pour down her
face. “Please. Natalia, just let us go.
Please
. If there’s
any
shred
of humanity left in you, please—”

“And what if there is none left?” Natalia
demanded without facing her. “You know nothing of me or what I have
done
. Believe me, Ms. Clove, if there was ever any shred of
this
humanity
in me to begin with, it is gone, now.”

Hayden bit her lip, praying her next attempt
would be met with better reception. “Natalia—”

“Believe it, Hayden,” Janie deadpanned
through the swelling in her face. “There’s nothing left.”

Natalia grinned, pulling harder against the
ropes constricting around Janie. “You will be next my
dorogoy
. And I will enjoy, very much, having your blood on
my hands. When I slowly cut off each and every one of your limbs.
Then, I will
kill
you.”

Janie wished she could summon up any
infinitesimal degree of fear after all this time. Rather than
suffer through any mental image of her impending doom or, worse
yet,
hope
for her rescue, she let her head hang and waited
for the newest hostage video to begin. She could have fallen asleep
if not for the mental picture of the monster’s face replaying in
her head to the soundtrack of Hayden’s cries.

***

“Claire!” Kierlan yelled, throwing open the
bedroom door and bolting inside. He barely made it three steps
before he tripped over Claire and went sprawling to the floor. He
groaned as he bit the carpet, reaching blindly for something to
support himself with. He let Taran pull him to his feet.

James knelt beside the girl on the floor,
holding his palms over her forehead and torso while he felt for the
pleasant thrum of life in her body. Such a feeling tingled in his
hands, assuring him that she was alive, but there was definitely
something else. Something else pushed back at him from within her,
something dark and potent holding her hostage just under the
surface of consciousness.

“Is she dead?” Kierlan asked, brushing the
dust off his shirt from the fall.

James shook his head. “No, just
sleeping.”

“On the floor?” he asked.

“It’s definitely not natural,” James
countered. “He did something to her.”

Kierlan looked her over for any sign of
damage, finding nothing but a noticeable paleness. Her skin was
lightly graying, like a corpse. “What’d he do?”

The angel shook his head. “I don’t know.
Whatever it is, he wouldn’t hurt her.”

“How do we know that?” Kierlan demanded,
kneeling on her other side. He stared down at her, noting with
satisfaction that her chest was rising and falling with steady
rhythm. Absentmindedly, he brushed a tendril of blonde hair from
her face.

James cocked an eyebrow at the display. “He’s
waited too long. He’s wanted this for thousands of years now, since
the first time she was born. He wouldn’t hurt her now, not when
he’s so close to getting what he wants.”

Taran fell to his own knees. “What does he
want?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” James said. “Her. And I’m
sure he wants a few other choice people dead; like you,” he
gestured to Taran, “and Alex.”

Below them, a slight moan emerged from
Claire’s lips, drawing the attention of everyone in the room.
“What’s he doing to her?” Kierlan said.

“I don’t know,” James breathed.

A sudden shriek pierced the air, one that
didn’t come from Claire. They jumped to their feet. “James! Get in
here!”

The three men went running toward the sound
of Alex’s voice, leaving Claire on the floor. The blonde whimpered
once, her head whipping from side to side. Her eyes flickered open
as she gasped.

Their depths were entirely black.

***

Claire plummeted through an endless, gray
fog, waiting for her feet to hit solid ground, but no sensation
ever came. Her hair whipped into her face, the sound of wind
echoing in her ears until, suddenly, it stopped. Nothing touched
her but the stale air, stinking heavily of decay. The fog rolled
around her as if she stood on the ground.

The silence screamed through her brain.

“
Hello?” she called, wondering momentarily
if she was dreaming. “Is anyone there?”

She received no response.

“
Where am I?” she asked, more to herself
than anyone hiding around the limbo.

A sudden, otherworldly scream broke the
silence and the fog swirled upward, disturbed by something she
couldn’t yet see. Then, someone, some
thing
broke the wall of
mist before her, arms flailing above its head while it ran
ahead.

Claire couldn’t help but emit a startled
shriek as she recognized the face before her, hidden somewhere in
the depths of unfamiliar cuts, bruises, and gore.

She tried to leap out of the way of
whatever
her friend had become, but she had no idea how when her
feet wouldn’t touch anything solid. Her body went slack, sinking
like a feather when his body smacked,
hard
, into
her.

“
Scottie!” she shrieked, though her cries
fell on deaf ears. “Stop!”

His body was like a lead weight on top of
her, scratching and clawing at her exposed flesh, while he shrieked
half-words at the top of his lungs. His face was too close to hers,
breathing that decaying stench into her face through browning
teeth. His cheeks were grey and falling apart, peppered with specks
of dried blood in the places where his skin was peeling away. His
once vivid eyes were pearl-grey like the mist.

Claire tried to shove him away, but her arms
had become rubber tubes, floating toward whichever way was up at
this point. Her chest was collapsing, the breath leaving her as she
drowned in nothing but air.

Then her back hit the floor, a sharp
crack
sounding when the back of her skull was quick to
follow.

“
Selfish!” Scottie finally screamed.
“Coward! Whore!”

“
Stop it!” she wailed. “Stop it!”

“
Bitch! Bitch! Witch! Bitch! Witch! Bitch!
Witch!”

She leaned away from his nails when they
clawed into her neck. Red stained his bony fingers. “Get off
me!”

“
How could you let me die?!” he roared,
snapping his teeth just a breath away from her nose.

“
I didn’t!” she challenged. “They wouldn’t
let us go after you! James left to find you!”

“
It’s all
your
fault, Claire!” he
continued.

“
Stop it! You’re not dead! You’re not
dead.”

“
It’s all your fault, Claire.”

The voice that spoke wasn’t Scottie the
second time, or even a voice she was very familiar with. She knew,
without a shadow of a doubt, however, who it belonged to when
Scottie’s face moved out of her line of sight, replaced, instead,
by the face of a fortunate-looking, older man. His face was
completely bland, the sharp edges of his jaw locked. A dark
ponytail cascaded down his back, over his ancient robes. His chest
was bared, the muscles impressive under smooth skin.

“
Your friend is dead, now, and it’s all
your fault,” Mainyu murmured in a pleasantly musical voice.

Claire viciously shook her head, the only
movement she was able to make. “No. I didn’t! You’re not here, this
is a dream! You’re not real!”

“
I’m real enough. That’s all you need
concern yourself with, my love.”

Claire’s lip quivered; internally her body
writhed with her effort to move, flight instincts finally
overwhelming her, but, in reality, she lay completely motionless.
“Why me? Why did you have to come after me?”

The god laughed darkly. “How can you even
ask that? Of course I would come after you. I’ve always come after
you. And I always will!”

“
Just leave me alone,” she pleaded. “I’ll
do anything, just please leave me alone—”

Mainyu smiled, his face nearing hers. “I’m
afraid I can’t do that. I’ve been waiting for this day since I was
first banished, my love. I will not let you slip through my fingers
again.”

“
I’m not her!” she shrieked. “I’m not the
girl you love.”

He reached out to cup her face. “Oh, but you
are. You just don’t remember.”

“
No!” she sobbed. “No.”

A dark look came over him when she wrenched
her face from his grasp. Slowly, he stood. “Come to me, or another
of your friends will die.”

“
Please, don’t do this!” she
cried.

“
You have one hour.”

He snapped his fingers and the ground opened
up beneath her. Then, Claire was falling again.

***

Claire jolted upright on the floor, the
blackness in her eyes washing away. Sweat slicked her forehead and
she gasped, re-inflating her deprived lungs. Blood stained her
neck, the claw marks marring her flesh burning an angry red. “No!”
she yelped, hands flying to her throat when the sting finally
registered in her conscious mind.

“Oh, thank God you’re awake!” Alex whispered,
hugging Claire from her kneeling position beside her.

“Alex?” Claire murmured, eyes flitting around
the room, landing on Taran while he sat silently on the bed.

“Ya, Claire it’s me,” she heard her friend
sniffle. “I’m so glad you’re awake! When I saw the blood I thought
he got—” It was easy to deduce that she was crying, despite her
face being hidden while she embraced Claire tightly.

“Where is everyone?”

“James and Kierlan are cleaning up the blood
in the living room,” she explained. “We’ve gotta move Russell’s
body soon.”

“What?” Claire bellowed, struggling to her
feet. “They killed him?”

Alex urged her to relax, trying,
unsuccessfully, to hold her down. “No, Claire, Mainyu did.”

“Alex, you wouldn’t believe the dream I just
had,” Claire said as she wobbled on her feet.

“That was no dream, Claire; that was
him
! Look in the mirror,” Alex ordered, gesturing
frantically to the attached bathroom.

Claire didn’t move, finally noticing the
blood on her fingertips. Eyes bugging, she looked between Alex and
the red on her hands for a long time. “It happened while I was
asleep.”

Alex nodded dumbly.

“What’s
he
doing in here?” Claire
asked, finally gesturing to Taran while he glanced uncomfortably
around the room.

Alex followed her gaze and automatically let
her eyes fall to the floor. “He’s going to help us get out of here,
to save Hayden.”