King of Darkness (31 page)

At the same time, Fangboy managed to slip a hand free from Franklin. With a flash and a mighty
crack
, the wizard channeled a bolt of lightning from the storm outside… right toward Thad and Isabel. Lee stepped down from the body he had perched upon, ready to move in and deflect.

The ear-piercing shriek that Isabel let out was nothing compared to the massive blast of freeze that shot from her hands as they flew up on either side of Thad in a defensive gesture. With a massive fizz and crackle and a shit-ton of steam, the lightning strike petered out before it had a prayer of nailing Thad. And she’d managed it with her face buried in Thad’s shoulder. Well, how about them apples?

Thanks to Isabel, Thad hadn’t needed a shield after all.

And now, as the two edged away, a cloud of steam formed between them. Now
that
was a pretty cool trick. Not only did it obscure Thad and Isabel from view, but judging by the heat that radiated from their bodies, this was the kind of steam that could boil a human or make a volcano erupt.

Turned out that even after seven hundred years, Lee could still see new things.

They were almost to the window. “Thad, that one with the fangs. He’s the one who brought me here.”

“Lee,” Thad growled.

No instruction was necessary. Lee nodded. “I’m on it.” As soon as he knew for sure that Thad and Isabel were good, he plowed forward… a moment too late. Fanged wizard struggled free and blasted Franklin with a spark to the chest, dropping him like a ton of bricks.

It was clear from one look at Franklin that nobody was home anymore. Fucker was gonna hurt something awful for that one.

Lee paused, noting the evil little glint in the enemy’s eye. This shithead was cocky, which would work in Lee’s favor. He waited a beat for Fangboy to draw closer, then pulled up his left knee and snapped his leg, catching the guy beneath the chin.

When the dude’s head flew back and threw off his balance, Lee used the opportunity to push forward. He quickly stuck the same foot to the floor and kicked sideways at the center of the wizard’s chest. It was enough to send him sprawling backward on the floor just as Thad was helping Isabel down the fire escape.

One of Lee’s size-thirteen boots leveraged to flip the fucker onto his belly, and Lee placed that same foot squarely on the guy’s neck. With a fast sweep of Lee’s other foot, both of the wizard’s hands were kicked underneath his own body. Lee hopped up so that the other foot was now resting mid-back. He balanced on the body like a surfer.

Wasn’t often he got to be even taller.

The wizard grunted his discomfort. “Yeah, I bet that hurts a little,” Lee muttered. He bounced a couple of times for good measure and then pulled his gun again, firing cleanly into the back of another wizard’s head as he prepared to strike one of Lee’s comrades.

He looked down at Franklin. By Lee’s calculations, Franklin’s heart had been stopped for a good minute, and as much as Lee wanted to spend time making this son of a bitch pay, he knew there was no time to waste. He had an idea. It was dicey but it might work.

Lee gave a final bounce on top of Fangboy before hopping down to straddle him. Lee’s boot took up a new position at the base of the guy’s spine as Lee yanked and pinned one of the wizard’s arms back with his knee while twisting the other to place an evil palm on Franklin’s chest.

The howl of pain over the wizard’s wrenched shoulder was music to Lee’s ears. Hey, maybe he could torture and make positive progress at the same time.

“Do it,” he growled into the wizard’s ear.

“You’ve gotta be fucking kidding.” Fangboy’s breathing was ragged and heavy. “You’re about rip my arm off, and now you want me to shock your friend back to life? I don’t fucking think so.”

“Do it,” Lee growled again. He still had a hand free to pull out a dagger, which he slid in between the wizard’s throat and the floor. “Do it, or you’re dead, motherfucker.” He added a little pressure to the wizard’s twisted right arm to sweeten the deal.

A garbled response came from the wizard’s mouth. Lee couldn’t understand it, but the jerk of Franklin’s body told him he’d gotten the desired results. Lee studied Franklin for a few seconds, ensuring that he could see evidence of breathing before his left hand pulled back swiftly and efficiently to cut the wizard’s throat.

Guess he’d forgotten to mention to the guy that he was dead either way.

By the time Lee had finished cutting the dead wizard’s wrists so the body would bleed and disintegrate, the smoke had all but cleared. About half a dozen wizards lay dead on the floor, but most of Lee’s guys were all right with the exception of the standard bangs and scrapes. Except Franklin, of course, who had started to gasp and wheeze while he communed with the blood-slicked floor.

The fight came down to Siddoh and Multiple Man, who was now without his multiples. Lee advanced slowly in case Siddoh needed an assist, but Siddoh had the dude cornered. After a kick to the gut and another to the head, the bad guy was sagging at the juncture of two poor excuses for walls. Sid’s FS blade was out and ready to finish the job.

Mid-arc, Siddoh’s arm stopped and the knife clattered to the floor. Siddoh was red-faced and howling with rage like he had probably never howled before.

The wizard was gone. Just… gone.

“
What
the
fuck?
” Siddoh’s arms flew wide. “Come back out here and fight like you’ve got some balls, you cock-smoking son of a bitch!”

The nauseating nasty vibes were gone. Elvis had left the building. Lee placed a hand on Siddoh’s shoulder. “Sid. Stand down. He’s gone.”

Lee looked around. One wizard was left alive, held on the floor and hog-tied by Lee’s team. The man was clearly a newbie. Hell, he was clearly worthless. Wizards grew stronger and more physically fit over time by virtue of the blood they drank. This one was in about the same physical shape as the Pillsbury Doughboy.

He gestured to the two males holding Doughboy. “Bring him.”

Siddoh had stepped back at the wall and was still shouting at the shadows. “I know you’re still here, motherfucker, and I am
not
fucking done with you yet!” He took a kick at the now-destroyed lounge chair that had come to rest near one corner of the room, sending it flying against the wall one more time.

“Siddoh,” Lee gritted through his teeth. He pointed to Franklin. “We need to get the fuck out of here. Franklin needs treatment.” He gestured to the group of soldiers awaiting his command. “You guys,” he said, cutting an imaginary line with his hand, “grab Franklin and come with us. The rest of you, bleed out the bodies, check to make sure the place is vacated, and then torch the fucker.”

He paused again, stretching his senses out. There was definitely a remaining hint of evil in the air, so Siddoh’s assessment that the wizard was still around somewhere was likely accurate. Or there were others. Ordinarily he trusted his team to handle themselves but he couldn’t begin to guess what else this dude had in his bag of tricks. “Actually, I’ll stay here as well. Siddoh can handle overseeing transport and questioning our detainee back at home.”

“No way.” Siddoh stopped and jabbed his finger at Lee. “
I
will stay.”

Now was not the time for a power play. They needed to handle things back at the estate, redistribute the patrols, make sure everyone got medical treatment, and handle a laundry list of other stuff that did not include having a pissing contest. He jabbed a finger back at Siddoh. “Think you can handle your shit, buddy?”

Siddoh’s nostrils were flared, his hands curled into fists, his arms akimbo. “What do you think,
buddy
?”

“Fine. You stay, but keep it cool. This guy’s gone so let him stay gone. It’s not like we won’t have another crack at him.” Lee would bet money on it. He didn’t know who this jerkwad was, but they definitely would cross paths again.

“Okay. Let’s get out of here,” Lee said to the team that was already taking Franklin out the window. “I’ll see you guys very soon.”

Lee waited until the rest of the transport group had gotten safely to the ground before easing out the window himself. He pegged Siddoh with one final don’t-you-screw-this-up glare before he jumped down over the rusted fire-escape railing to the alley below.

Isabel had known Thad would be angry, but he hadn’t so much as looked at her since they had gotten into the car. Even though she had expected his reaction, it stung like crazy.

She sat rigid against him with her hands folded in her lap, unsure of what to say. Her hands looked the same as they had the day before: pink polish slightly chipped, fingers that she wished were longer, knuckles that she wished were smaller. She glanced at the tiny stork-bite birthmark in the crook of her thumb and forefinger that nobody ever noticed but her.

How could something as innocuous looking as that hand have managed to pull off that parlor trick back there? And what would have happened to Thad if she hadn’t accidentally blasted ice at that lightning bolt?

The thought left her trembling.

Thad maintained an iron grip around her shoulders. After he’d barked a few orders to a large male who’d emerged from the shadows in that alley, they’d headed off. While he hadn’t done any talking, he also hadn’t left more than a millimeter of space between them. Perhaps he thought she might run off again.

She had absolutely no intention of doing that. The decision to go for a walk had been crazy impulsive, and while she also had known it was a little bit stupid, she’d had no idea
how
stupid until far too late. She was cursing herself right and left for the screw-up.

The bad news was that she had begun to care deeply for Thad. That fight back there? She would never have imagined such a thing. She and Thad had shared something special, the way their powers had come together.

Boy, even in her own head that sounded nutty.

Isabel’s heart did a little flutter, skipped a beat, and then thunked really hard in her chest. Like it had been running to catch up with something and had tripped a little. Anxiety gripped her tenaciously. Even though she deserved it 100 percent, she wasn’t sure she could face Thad being angry with her. And what about the others? There were many from Thad’s military in that building. What if they were all angry?

And what had that weirdo vampire-wizard done to her? Isabel was pretty sure the fuzzy memory of her heart having stopped was a real one, but honestly, could she even trust her memory? She was also fairly certain she remembered something about talking to a horse.

If only she could do what she usually did in a crisis: crawl under the covers with a box of Girl Scout thin mints and not emerge until the whole thing had passed. Hell, a box of cookies wouldn’t cut it in this situation. She’d need something bigger, like a cheesecake. Or a Krispy Kreme delivery truck.

Oh God, Alexia! Isabel had almost forgotten about her. Sheesh, some kind of friend she was. Would Alexia forgive Isabel for ditching her back at that mansion when she was still healing from an injury? Surely she would. Alexia always seemed to understand, even when maybe she shouldn’t.

Isabel consoled herself with the knowledge that had she wound up biting the big one back there in that disgusting apartment, Alexia definitely would have been well cared for. And who knew? Maybe that Mr. Tall, Dark, and Sociopathic Alexia had her eye on would finally have been willing to throw a little love her way.

Right, that was probably stretching it. That male was as warm and cuddly as a Frigidaire.

Isabel realized that at some point during her whiny little self-pity party, Thad had begun speaking. Not to her, but to the driver, who looked like death warmed over.

The male murmured a sullen “Yes, sir” to Thad, but for what she wasn’t sure.

From the way he was dressed, she had to gather that he was one of those soldier guys, but his skin was kind of pasty and his body was hunched, as if he would have gone fetal had the vehicle’s steering wheel not been in the way. He was missing that confident badass demeanor all the other males she’d seen tonight seemed to have. Maybe he had been injured earlier?

Isabel shivered a little, thinking about the harm that might have come to anyone from her failed Houdini attempt. From the looks of things, Thad’s men had been holding their own when she and Thad had escaped from the melee, but they had all put themselves in danger to get her back, and she really couldn’t forgive herself for that.

Almost as if she thought she might get reprimanded for it, Isabel sighed deeply and allowed herself to sag against Thad’s solid warmth. He smelled of sweat and smoke and leather, and it was the most comforting combination of scents that had ever entered her nostrils. A shiver—a pleasant one this time—vibrated through her, and she wanted to burrow under his chin and stay there forever.

Oh
God, I really do, don’t I?

Yes. Yes, she did. But even if her feelings had changed, reality had not. An invisible knife stuck deep into her heart and twisted until a few tears slid quietly down her cheek. Thank goodness it was dark.

***