Shadow Borne (27 page)

My hand fell to my
side as an idea sparked. Maybe I couldn't find Mark and Claire. But
in all this smoke, would Kahn know that? Eyes narrowed, I turned a
slow circle. No, I finally decided, visibility was damn near zero
now. So I couldn't bring myself to Mark and Claire and the others.
And they wouldn't be able to see through this fog any better than
me, but I was willing to bet Kahn wasn't quite so limited by human
frailty. If I was wrong about that, well, no harm done. But if I
was right...

I would bring
Kahn straight to me. With any luck, Mark and the others would
follow the commotion to us. If not...well, at least it would buy
them some time. Hopefully. I didn't exactly relish the thought of
self-sacrifice. But throwing myself to the wolf for nothing? Yeah,
that really didn't sound like a good time. So, how was I supposed
to know what the final outcome would be? I couldn't. How was I
supposed to make the chips fall the way I wanted them to? Hell. I
couldn't do that either.

Well, I sighed and
closed my eyes, let the pain and regret wash over my skin. When I
opened them again, I was clearer, stronger–determined, and yes,
maybe a bit resigned, too.

With a final deep
breath, fists clenched at my sides, I started to scream.

"Mark? Claire? Guys,
answer me! I'm over here!"

There was no answer.
But then, I knew there wouldn't be. I sucked in another lungful of
air, felt the smoke burn a little as it went down.

"Hey! Claire! I
think I see you! Claire, thank the stars, it's you!" I shouted,
forcing my voice to remain steady as I projected the sound through
the mist and the smoke. "Oh, no, are you okay?" I yelled to the
air.

The smoke was
getting thicker now. Wrapping my sleeve over my fingers, I clapped
a hand over my mouth. And that's when I felt it, when it hit me.
Ice slithered across my senses. He was closing in on me. So
close...

I planted my boots
deeper into the soil and forced myself to hold still when every
instinct I possessed reared up and screamed at me to run. My hand
shook as I brought it away from my mouth and down to my side. I
would not run. Besides, it was much too late for that now. With one
final deep breath, I threw the dice.

"Come on, Claire, we
have to get away from here! Run!"

I
wasn't at all surprised when cold, hard fingers clamped over my
upper arm. The man who stepped out of the shadows was dark and
beautiful. I'd never before seen his face but the jewel green eyes
were familiar.
Kahn...

So this was Mark's
father. I could easily see the family resemblance. His eyes
narrowed and a chilling smile crept over his face when I winced in
response to his ever-tightening grip. No, I decided, he wasn't like
Mark at all. Only the unusual color of his eyes connected him to
Claire's husband. And thank the stars above, that nothing else of
this man lived on in Mark. Our Warrior of the Ruins was strong and
compassionate and warm. The man who bared his teeth at me in a
terrifying mockery of a smile was...evil. That was the only word
for it.

"Where is she?"

His voice was smooth
and polished, cold and menacing like the rest of him. I gasped when
he twisted my arm, but laughed and my lips curved, surprised to
feel triumphant after all. I was probably going to die. At the very
least, I was about to get hurt.

"She's not
here."

Still holding me
fast, his other hand shot up and he backhanded me.

"And you're a fool."
I added.

"Am I, now?" he
growled, losing some of his polished sheen.

"Get away from her!"
Something flew at him from behind.

The impact knocked
him off balance and his weight almost brought me to the ground. At
the last second, I twisted one leg around his and ducked under his
arm. His hand slipped away from my arm and I shoved his shoulder.
The distraction and my quick maneuvering bought me the few precious
seconds needed to get free of his grasp. I spun around quickly to
see my rescuer.

"Claire!" I grabbed
her now frozen form and yanked her out of the way of Kahn's fist
just in time.

She shook her head
then and seemed to snap out of it. The 'I can't believe I just did
that' look was still pasted to her face, but when her eyes met
mine, she was at least coherent.

A second later, Mark
darted out of the mist and rushed Kahn before the wizard had the
chance to attack us again.

"That's him, isn't
it?" Claire jumped back and gasped as Mark viciously plowed his
fist into the wizard's jaw. "Kahn."

I nodded before
realizing she couldn't see me. "That's him." I said.

"I heard you
screaming but we couldn't find you until we saw the darkest shadow
begin to move. We followed it to you."

"Kahn's shadow." I
nodded, my eyes riveted to Mark and Kahn as they circled each
other.

"No." Claire
whispered and my head snapped up at the raw fear in her voice. She
was staring fixedly at a point behind me. "His."

I whirled and came
face to face with a solid black wall. The startled cry that formed
never made it past my lips. The blackness wasn't a wall.

Lahuel. The war
demon had moved lightning quick, surrounding me in a matter of
seconds. His pitch dark shadow hand was surprising solid and strong
as it wrapped around my throat. Instinctively, my hands shot up to
grip his arm and even though it looked like my fingers should have
simply passed through that arm, they didn't.

It didn't even feel
like he was applying pressure and yet my throat was steadily
closing. My lungs were on fire, burning, and my head began to swim.
Dimly, I heard Claire shouting but couldn't make out the words.

I watched her rush
forward, felt her hands close over the Lahuel's, where they wrapped
around my throat. She was trying, without success, to pry his
fingers off of me.

"Somebody help us!"
she screamed, close enough to my ear that I understood every
word.

There would be no
help. Mark was fighting Kahn. No one else was close enough to hear.
And even if they did, what were they going to do? I thought
miserably as I watched the Lahuel's free hand slowly come up. He
pointed it at Claire's shoulder, and then he was touching her. Just
one ink black finger but the instant it made contact with her body,
she screamed and doubled over in pain.

I exhaled then, the
last of my breath slipping from my lips in a defeated sigh and with
it, a small, shimmering burst of silver and gold light. The demon
recoiled at the light, and through my half-closed eyes, I watched
as his black shadow form quivered and lightened. The places where
my light touched his shadow seemed to sparkle before they faded
away. Light to dark...

I
sucked in what meager air I was able. His black, empty shadow eye
sockets seemed to gleam with a rich, oily darkness and the pressure
on my throat increased until I saw stars behind my eyelids. Eyes
closed, I blocked out everything else, the Lahuel, Claire's
shrieking, thoughts of my family and friends and my home, the
fervent wish to
live
...all of
it was tamped down. I focused solely on the light. Pictured it. In
my mind it was a deep, burning, vibrant red. It was powerful. It
was life.

In
my mind's' eye, I watched my lips purse and saw the fine red,
glittering mist escape in a powerful torrent, felt the Lahuel's
fear as the crystalline mist enveloped him.
Light to dark.

The pressure on my
throat was gone. My eyes flew open and my hands went automatically
to my neck. I was alive. The Lahuel writhed in front of me as
shimmers of red and silver light tore through the shadows that made
up his body. The black hole that had been his mouth opened in a
silent scream and he dissolved in a final burst.

Oxygen rushed into
my lungs, spearing through my body and awakening the starved
tissues.

"Oh..." Claire
breathed, climbing to her feet and leaning against my gasping
form.

All the remained of
the Lahuel was a pile of gray ash at our feet. A second later, the
wind kicked up and carried the demon's remains away, scattered it
through the night. Abruptly, the smoke cleared and with it, the
mist that surrounded us evaporated into the night. The demon's
spell was broken.

"Are you okay?" I wheezed, rubbing at my
throat and wincing.

"I think so." Claire finally nodded.

But there was no time to rest. At the same
time, we became aware of the battle that still raged on, just
behind us.

With the smoke gone, we were all able to see
each other. Hundreds of warriors stood scattered around the meadow.
A few were injured and just about everyone looked dazed. I didn't
spot Aranu or Mike in the crowd. Comprehension returned swift and
sure, with all eyes trained on the two men locked in combat at the
center of the meadow. Although, maybe combat was a strong
word...

Like the Life Breathers a few hours ago,
Mark was getting his ass handed to him. Claire rushed forward and a
well-meaning soldier grabbed her and held on tight.

"You can't go to him."

"Like fucking hell I can't!" she raged,
rounding on the man who held her captive. "Let go!"

"He wouldn't want you getting hurt." the
soldier protested and then grunted as Claire's foot made contact
with his kneecap.

Mark fell to his knees and Kahn stalked
around him, blue lightning crackling and sizzling from the tips of
his fingers.

"Let her go." I ordered the soldier who held
Claire. "She's right. He's going to get killed out there."

"But he wouldn't want–"

"Screw his male pride. I'm sure he'd rather
be embarrassed than dead and there's no sense in the whole damn
army standing here useless, watching him die." I shook my head and
as soon as he'd released Claire, I turned to face the crowd of
soldiers and Breathers. I shouted a single, hoarse word.

"Fight!"

Claire and I rushed forward and the rest of
the men followed, weapons drawn.

Kahn definitely saw what hit him–but he
never had a chance.

In a matter of minutes, the wizard had
fallen under our onslaught and just like that, Kahn's long running
reign of terror came to an end.

Claire and I each took up a side and pulled
Mark to his feet. He groaned and clung to Claire. I backed up a
step but remained close, just in case. He was bruised and I counted
at least three lacerations where blood seeped and he didn't seem
too steady on his feet. But, from what I could see anyway, his
wounds looked to be mostly superficial, although I was sure he
would feel like absolute hell by morning. I winced at the blue
black lump on his temple.

"I love you." he squeezed Claire one last
time before letting her go to address the large group gathered
around him. If the rest of the warriors had been expecting a
rousing, patriotic speech, they would have been wrong. Still,
nobody was disappointed. Mark simply glanced at the bedraggled,
worn-but-still-fierce group and said, "Thank you. All of you."

One arm snaked around Claire's waist and the
other clenched into a fist that was thrust high into the air.
"Today we are victorious!" he roared.

Weapons were raised to the sky and deafening
shouts rang through the crowd, filling the meadow to bursting with
a swell of vibrant energy.

When the noise finally died down, several
long minutes later, our much lighter at heart group passed through
a grove of trees where fat green gemstones hung like glittering
fruit, past the black gates at the end of Kahn's Meadow, and into
what had once been the realm of the dark wizard.

I pressed a little closer to the soldier
beside me as we all filed into the wide open space. It wasn't what
I'd been expecting at all and if the collective sharp intake of
breath around me was anything to go on, I wasn't alone in that
thought.

In direct contrast to the lush beauty of the
meadow, this place was a barren wasteland. Everything here was
dead. The ground was cracked and dry and dusty. No grass or plants
of any kind grew here. Pools of lava boiled to our left, a thin
gurgling river of red that snaked through the dead land to
disappear around a towering onyx and pearl castle. Craggy mountains
rose behind and to either side of the dark palace and the moon cast
no real light here, only picked up and reflected the undertones of
the river so that the world seemed to take on a faint red
tinge.

Claire and I, the other nymphs, the
Breathers, and the majority of the soldiers waited close by the
gate as the castle and the surrounding grounds was checked for
survivors, or prisoners. Mike had caught up to our group just
before we'd reached the gates and he waited with us now, in
silence. I'd caught a brief glimpse of Aranu as Claire and I had
taken up our posts to wait, but now he was nowhere in sight. It was
probably just as well. Much like earlier, his eyes hadn't lingered
on mine.

Within the hour, Mark and the others
returned.

"It's empty." he confirmed, holding out a
hand to Claire.

"What do you want us to do?" a soldier
questioned with a backward glance at the towering structure.

Mark didn't look back as he gave the final
order.

"Burn it to the ground."

***

“
Are you sorry?” Claire
asked on the way back.

Mark glanced down at her and frowned
slightly. “Sorry?”

“
That, you know, we helped
you.” she said quietly, mindful of the soldiers around
us.

“
Am I that transparent?”
He turned his head and smiled.

“
Yeah.” Claire
shrugged.

“
No.” Mark finally said.
“Above all else, I'm thankful to be alive, with you, on our way
home to our children. But...”