King of Darkness (30 page)

When Tyra ascended the steps to the front door of the nondescript shelter building, she had to dig deep in her brain for the security code to get inside. Her brain was so frikkin’ fried that she couldn’t wait to collapse in her office. Breathing a sigh of relief when the door lock clicked open, she slid through without a sound. The lobby was empty; both resident halls would have been locked down by now. No sound came from the couple of volunteers still on site or the night security guy. Perfect.

She shuffled briskly to her office. Once inside, Tyra closed and locked the door and dropped into the ancient desk chair. She took a few deep breaths to steady herself, and suddenly she was
really
feeling the exhaustion that she’d been fighting since she’d left Thad’s side. Her vision started to blur. The urge to simply lay her head down was immense.

She chuckled softly. She was always amazed at how her race could be gifted with such power and strength, but if she overused it, she suddenly could barely push a paperclip. Just thinking about it made her muscles quiver. The wide expanse of her desk beckoned like a bed in a five-star hotel.

Maybe if she just closed her eyes for a little while…

“Do you realize you’re still wearing your hairnet?”

“Holy crap!” Tyra shot straight up in her chair and spun toward the low voice behind her. Anton Smith. “How the hell did you get in here?” As the words left her mouth, she swept the previously forgotten hairnet off her head and into the trash can beneath her desk. Why had no one told her?

“I used the door,” he said soberly. “I knocked first but you didn’t seem to hear me. Are you okay?” He took a small step toward her.

Tyra frowned. “I locked it.”

“It wasn’t locked.” A voice in Tyra’s head gently reminded her that she should stop him from getting near her. Whether due to exhaustion or something else, she couldn’t quite manage to act on it.

Shit.
She held her hand out in front of her.
Yes. Stop in the name of love, because you don’t know who you are and I’ve got more baggage than you can handle, and here I am so wiped out that I forgot to lock my office door. Also, please don’t kill me or anything.
Although seriously, if that was the best she could manage in the way of self-defense, she almost deserved to eat it, didn’t she?

“It’s probably better if you don’t come closer. You’re right. I’m not feeling well.” He seemed genuinely concerned, but she didn’t feel up to tangling with the what-ifs in the event that he wasn’t. Figuring out his affiliation with the wizards would have to wait until she felt a little less like she’d been run over by a truck. Jesus, she just wanted him to leave.

He sidled to the farthest corner of her desk and perched there, as if afraid to come any closer. From the strained muscles in his neck to the jackrabbit bounce of his left leg, nervous tension radiated from his body, and Tyra didn’t need her powers to detect that. Thank God, because she was fading fast. “I wanted to apologize for upsetting you earlier.” He swallowed, studied her for a second, and then continued. “It was… inappropriate for me to approach you the way I did. I’m sorry.”

Her fingertips lifted lazily from the arm of her chair, dismissing the apology.
Just
go… I’m tired.
“You don’t have to apologi—”

“Yes, I do. You know, I kept struggling with the feeling that these memories were at the tip of my brain, and you just… felt… familiar in this
really
good way.” He breathed out a shaky laugh. “I reasoned at the time that maybe if I spent some time with you, I’d remember something. But really I just wanted to be near you because it felt good. It was selfish of me to freak you out like that. I truly am sorry.”

Tyra sighed wearily.
God, God. I can’t do this now
.

But there he was, staring at her with puppy-dog eyes and what seemed like real worry for her.

Her vision blurred a bit more. Even weakened as she was, she was more than a little curious. If he were a wizard, why hadn’t she felt any kind of malicious aura? Her long-range radar had never been as strong as others of her kind but surely she’d have gotten a read on something. And if he wasn’t one of them, where the hell did he get that ring?

Tyra cleared her throat and mustered the strength to meet his gray eyes head-on. Might as well lay it all out there while she was still semilucid and see what happened. Maybe it was her fatigue talking, but she didn’t believe he would suddenly turn around and kill her. Maybe, just maybe, it would be enough to overwhelm him. Make him need some time to go and think while she finally got some rest.

“I think I know a little something about who you really are.” To her own ears, her speech was rather slow. A little slurred, even? His eyebrows twitched a little, but she’d expected much more of a reaction. Huh.

His head dropped to his chest for a moment. Eyes closed, his chest rose and fell with each deep inhalation. Finally, he nodded. “I know. You don’t have to tell me. I know who I am. What I am,” he murmured.

“Oh, my God, where am I?” Isabel’s whisper was laced heavily with anxiety.

“Shh.” Thad’s body covered most of hers. Heaven forbid that whoever was out there got past Siddoh and Lee; they would still have to get through him.

And they were not going to get through him.

He leaned close to her ear, speaking as softly as he could. “Close your eyes, and try not to move. We’re going to get you out of this.”

“How?” Well, that was a damn good question, wasn’t it?

“Just don’t worry. We’ll handle it. Now please be quiet,” he whispered.

Thad glanced surreptitiously over his shoulder, trying to make sense of the craziness going on behind him. There appeared to be a room full of the same exact wizard freak, and Lee was staring down the lot of them. It wasn’t clear which was the real deal until one of them let out a dull “unh” as his head was shoved to the side by an unseen force. Siddoh must have thwacked him a good one.

The replica that was hit turned in the direction of the blow and planted his left foot on the floor, his right leg swinging in an arc to connect with some part of Siddoh’s body with a harsh “smack.” At once the other replicas turned and descended on Siddoh, kicking and landing blows wherever they could. Thad frowned as Siddoh became visible again so he could focus his energy on fighting back.

The weird got even weirder when another group of copies split off. The new set turned to advance on Lee with what seemed like excruciating slowness. The subtle clenching and unclenching of Lee’s fists told Thad all he needed to know. The older male’s patient composure in the face of attack had always awed Thad.

Almost unconsciously Thad gave Isabel’s hand a reassuring squeeze. He leaned down again, looking her over to ensure that she was well enough. He thought of Eamon, who had passed so abruptly after they’d all thought he would be okay. Thad needed to be certain this time. “Listen, I want you to play dead for a little while longer. Do you think you could move if you had to, though?”

He took the subtle press of her thumb into his palm as an affirmative. They really didn’t have much choice. He would throw her over his shoulder and make a break for it, if it came to that.

“Here’s the deal: When I signal you, I want you to get up as fast as you can—and I want you to stick to me like glue no matter what. Squeeze my hand again if you understand me.”

When Isabel clasped Thad’s hand, firmly this time, a heady mix of relief and adrenaline surged through him. He stood carefully and sidled over to Lee, tapping him quickly in the middle of his shoulder blades to signal that he was going to try to get by Lee when the time was right. Lee nodded tightly.

Thad dropped back while Lee drew his gun with the silencer attached. A rapid “click, click” sounded but the bullets passed right through the six wizards coming at them, embedding in the wall behind them. Lee then quickly aimed at the group attacking Siddoh, firing carefully to avoid hitting their guy. Eventually, one took a hit. There—they had their original for sure this time. Lee shot the wizard’s leg two more times.

The really messed-up part was that the dude barely flinched. In fact, the bullets seemed to expel from the wizard’s body almost immediately. The phenomenon was fairly common in a strong enough vampire, but not in humans or wizards. Thad had to wonder how much vampire blood this fucker had sucked down.

On second thought, he didn’t want to know.

This could be a real problem. Multiple Man kept advancing forward, the wizards’ collective faces still and menacing. It reminded Thad a little of the time he’d seen a dusty old Space Invaders game in a pizza parlor. As strange as this all was, he wouldn’t have been surprised if the copies had started humming the game’s music.

The wizard laughed heartily and jumped back from where Siddoh had curled into a defensive position against the copies still wailing on him. The original wizard’s arms crossed over his chest, and Thad wanted to wipe the satisfied smirk right off the bastard’s face. The man looked for all the world like he was watching a sporting match rather than participating in a battle.

Thad’s skin burned as anger at the wizard’s arrogance rose to the surface, along with a burst of fire. He fought to tamp it down. If he let it free now, it would hit Lee’s shield and that wouldn’t get them anywhere.

Something didn’t fit, though: It wasn’t like Siddoh to just curl up and take a beating. Thad could only hope that Siddoh was trying to pull a fake-out.

He glanced back at Isabel. The shallow rise and fall of her chest was barely noticeable. If the wizard was aware that she was awake, he wasn’t showing it. He was too busy gloating to pay attention.

Lee sounded two high, short whistles to call backup from outside. Just then, Siddoh flipped onto his back, planting his feet into the back of a disgusting old lounge chair in the middle of the room and sending it careening into the corner toward the original wizard. It clipped the dude’s leg and slowed him down, if only for a moment. Siddoh planted his hands on the floor behind his head and vaulted to his feet, facing off with the guy, his face red and angry.

Thank. Fuck.

***

It was all just a head trip.

It had to be.

Lee kept one eye on the wizard and Siddoh, and the other on the fucked-up defensive line in front of him. A crash and rumble echoed from outside the apartment, and then another. Backup was tangling with something. His nostrils flared. And an electrical storm was brewing, and… yep… more wizards.

His adrenaline pumped. Soon, Siddoh wouldn’t be the only one getting a piece. The waiting sucked ass, but it always paid off.

A crash came from above as the floor boards splintered and gave way. One of his guys fell through the ceiling riding on the back of another wizard like it was a bucking bronco.

And the motherfucker had fangs. Now that was some crazy shit.

Franklin was grappling with the fanged wizard from behind, keeping his arms pinned. That was a wise move. Just like a vampire, a wizard could channel its power through other parts of the body but the hands were the easiest way.

More wizards swung in through the fire-escape window, and as if on cue, a few more of Lee’s fighters burst in through the apartment door. The replicas of the first wizard were now strangely inactive, standing before him in attack stance and glowering but otherwise making like a bunch of bumps on a log. Lee was even more confident now in his earlier assessment. There were no replicas, really. The whole thing was a mind-fuck.

He jerked his head back to talk to Thad, who was still standing behind him waiting for an opening. “These guys are an illusion. If we get him to flex another power, they’ll either go away or he’ll drain his energy. Now, while he’s still engaged with Siddoh, would be the best time. Let’s get you guys gone first.”

Lee looked over to make sure that the two males were still involved in a vicious bout of hand-to-hand across the room.

“All right. On three.” Thad took a deep breath and readied for action. “One…” He inched back toward Isabel. “Two…” Lee glanced out of the corner of his eye to see Thad sink into a semi-crouch next to Isabel. He would drop his shield on three.

“Three!”

In the blink of an eye, Thad scooped up Isabel, who was understandably wide-eyed and trembling. “This way,” Thad barked into her ear. He moved so that his back was to her front, one hand grasping either wrist to shield her body as best he could while they slid past Lee and along the perimeter of the room.

Lee slammed the door to the room shut behind them and threw his shields up again. Just as Lee was about to fire a dagger at the wizard Siddoh was fighting, a small fiery ball shot across the room like a comet. It missed the wizard but just barely, knocking him off balance and giving Siddoh the chance to gain the upper hand.

Lee smiled slightly with approval. Thad would be off-the-chain awesome with his power as soon as they trained him to control it. Wouldn’t help him much cooling his heels at the estate, but one never knew what could happen in the future.

An apparent newbie broke from the pack and went gunning for Thad. Before the wizard had moved even a foot, Lee’s arm swept out to clothesline the boy, and one boot landed squarely in the small of the wizard’s back. Lee raised a knife and stabbed down swiftly, ending the wizard’s life in a far more merciful manner than would have occurred if their positions had been reversed.