Stephanie Rowe - Darkness Unleashed (2 page)

Zach cast him a baleful glare. "You're asking me if I'm sure I feel heat? Really?"

"Shit." Of course Zach knew what he was talking about. The man had an up close and personal relationship with fire that none of them understood. If Zach had the inside scoop on why he could do what he did, he wasn't talking. But the guy could pick up heat from a thousand miles away, and he knew when things were out of balance.

Ryland ground his jaw, knowing that there was only one thing in this region that could generate heat of that nature, but it was buried deep below the earth, never to be exposed to earth's surface. Not
it. She
. "Keep an eye on it," he told Zach.

"As if I wouldn't." His voice edged with tension, Zach kept his attention focused on the distant mountains, on the heat that only he could sense.

Although Ryland had wanted only Thano with him, he'd allowed Zach to come because Thano had requested it. After being incarcerated and tortured by a black magic wizard for several months, Thano had returned with a broken body and the ability to do some weird shit with violet fire. Things were changing every day with him, and no one knew where things were leading. It made sense to bring a fire expert along just in case Thano suddenly went up in flames.

But Ryland and Zach had never been buddies, and he didn't like having someone along who was ready to cut him down at any moment, literally. Although everyone on the team was pretty damned certain that Ryland was on the edge of going rogue at any second, Zach was the one who Ryland sensed was actually looking forward to finally having a reason to take him out, ending the threat that they all felt he posed to the Order. If Ryland so much as drifted near the line of going rogue, Zach would kill him first and check facts later.

Not that Ryland blamed him. As annoying as it was to have to watch his back with Zach all the time, he knew that Zach was the only one who really saw him for what he was.

Not that he had time to spend thinking about Zach. Night would soon be falling and he wanted to have Catherine under his protection.

Yeah, he didn't think the mountains could hurt her, but he wanted her where he could keep her safe anyway. If she was who he thought she was, the safety of the entire Order depended on her survival. "Come on."

He began to jog down the side of the mountain. Behind him was the clatter of Apollo's hooves on the rocks, footsteps that could turn into complete stealth when the horse chose. Zach gave a grunt of irritation, but he leapt off the rock and broke into a steady run to catch up.

As the three warriors continued their slip-sliding descent down the rocky cliff, the sensation of death grew stronger. Ryland's adrenaline began to jack up, and a warning began to prickle at the back of his neck. The black brands on his arms that were in the shape of machetes began to burn, as the weapons strained to be released. Death was near. Was it Catherine?

"Is that her?" Thano was beside him now, Apollo loping with ease as Ryland sprinted along. "Is she the death we're picking up?"

Ryland glanced at Thano in surprise. "You can sense that?" The cold, ominous feeling of death was thick now, cloying to his skin. Prior to now, neither Thano nor Zach had been able to pick up Catherine's trail. He looked over at Zach, who had caught up to them. "What about you?"

Zach shoved a strand of his dark hair out of his face. "In about two seconds, I'm going to call out my weapon and start attacking the air, so yeah, I feel it."

Ryland swore. Up until now, he'd been the only one who could sense Catherine's aura, which meant either she had changed in some way, or else there was something else ahead of them casting the lethal scent into the air. He flexed his hands, readying to call out his weapons, as they continued to sprint down the mountain. Below them was a dark grove of trees that seemed to be defying all odds by surviving in this barren area. He frowned, studying the grove as they neared it. The darkness seemed to undulate between the trunks, as if it were a living creature, taking deep breaths, waiting for them.

Recognition nudged at the back of Ryland's mind, and he instinctively slowed. "Wait a second."

Thano reined in Apollo, and Zach slowed as well. "What's up?"

Ryland stared at the trees, straining to see into the darkness that was too impenetrable given that the sun hadn't set yet. "I don't know." But he'd seen it before. He knew what was hiding. He just couldn't remember. It had been too long.

He came to a complete stop, and his teammates lined up beside him, three warriors abreast.

Apollo lifted his head and flared his nostrils, the great black beast fixated on the grove. For a moment, there was complete silence, a standoff.

Then there was a scrabble of claws from a cliff to their right. Ryland spun that way, searching the rocks, but he saw nothing. Then, from the other direction, another scrape. Then, from behind them, another. "We're being hunted."

"By what?" Zach held out his arms. There was a loud crack, a flash of black light, and then he was holding a three-pronged steel sai in each hand, weapons that matched the black brands etched on his forearms. Every Order of the Blade warrior carried the marks of the weapon that had chosen him when he'd come into his power as a Calydon. Bred for violence, a Calydon warrior could call out his weapons at any moment, a simple mental summoning that made the steel weapons appear in his hands, instruments of death that were an exact match for the symbols etched on his arms.

Thano called out his halberds, the long hooked spears looking deadly as ever, with another crack and a flash of black light. "Maybe it's local wood elves inviting us to a night of drunken debauchery and singing. You know how those guys like to party." Apollo snorted, but didn't move, his gaze still fixed on the woods, as if he knew that's where the threat was coming from.

Ryland's weapons burned to be called out, but he didn't release them. Memories were pounding at his brain, struggling to surface. "I know what's after us."

"Well, then stop messing around and fill us in." Zach turned as there was another scrape, his sai up and ready.

Shit. What was it? Ryland could almost remember, almost connect with the memories from seven hundred years ago. "Give me a second—"

There was a guttural growl from deep in the woods, and suddenly something black streaked out of the woods right toward Zach. It was a misty, shadowy creature with claws and horns that were so faint they were barely visible. Ryland recognized it instantly. "Son of a bitch. It's a talrak!" What was it doing on the earth's surface? They never came out into the light. Ever.

Zach released a battle cry and swung for the beast.

"No!" Ryland shouted. "Don't fight it!"

But Zach jammed his sai into the creature as it lunged for him. His blade disappeared into the shadowed torso, and then the head of the creature became visible, taking shape from the misty outline of its body. Red glowing eyes. A scaled face. A horned nose.

"Zach!" Thano urged Apollo into a gallop as the talrak raked its claws over Zach's chest. He hurled his halberd into the creature, but the moment he did so, its shoulders became solid, taking true form.

"Don't fight it!" Ryland shouted. "You're feeding it!" He whirled around, frantically searching for something he could use against it. A Calydon weapon would never work. The talrak would absorb its violence, using the dark energy to make itself corporeal. If it became fully corporeal, they were in serious trouble. He needed something pure and selfless to kill it. Shit! What the hell would fit that bill up here?

"Catherine!" he shouted, knowing that an angel's touch would blast the creature into oblivion, but there was no answer from the woman he'd been tracking, the one who was supposed to protect them. They were on their own.

"I'm not going to let it kill Zach!" Disregarding Ryland's order not to engage, Thano plunged into the fray. With each blow, the talrak became more solid, and then it split into two creatures.

More shadows moved in the wooded grove, and Ryland realized an army was amassing in the trees...trees! That would do it!

Ryland swore and sprinted toward the grove...and away from the battle. Shutting out the bellows of his teammates and ignoring all his instincts that were screaming at him to rush to their aid and fight, he ruthlessly forced himself not to feel the agony of his teammates as the talraks tore at them, each strike stealing flesh and life force. He reached the trees, and then genuflected before the nearest one. "I thank you for your sacrifice," he said to the tree, forcing his mind to quiet. He wiped his mind of all thoughts of anger and hatred toward the creatures. "My friends are good, and I take lives only in their defense." Offer made, he lunged to his feet and slammed his machete through the trunk the tree, dropping it in one violent stroke.

Ryland split the trunk lengthwise, three blows splintering it into a dozen wooden spears. He grabbed three of them and spun around. Zach was on his back, a vicious, snarling black wolf the size of an elephant pinning him to the earth. The massive creature bared his teeth, its twelve-inch claws deep in Zach's chest. Thano bellowed with fury and slammed his halberd into its side. The creature immediately swelled to twice its size. It turned its slavering head toward Thano, as the second one leapt on Thano's back. It howled its intent to kill him as Apollo shrieked in outrage, spinning around in a fruitless attempt to bite it and yank it away from his rider.

Ryland fisted one of the spears and took aim at the one on Zach. "I ask only for peace for my friends," he shouted, and then hurled the wooden spear that was still soft and flexible, brimming with the pure life of nature. The splintered sapling hit the talrak cleanly in the shoulder. It barely penetrated, and yet the moment it touched, the talrak let out a howl of agony and dissolved.

Bull's-eye.

Apollo let out a shrill squeal, and Ryland spun toward Thano, unleashing a second sapling at the creature on Thano's back. Again, a clean hit, and the talrak disappeared in a wail of agony. Ryland whirled to face the woods, and then hurled another into the darkness. Again and again, he threw saplings, cutting through the darkness with his crude spears. Each time his wooden spear split the darkness, there was a howl of agonized protest as another talrak fell victim to his blow. Seven times he unleashed his offerings, and with the seventh strike, there was a great, shuddering gasp as if the earth itself had exhaled with relief. The dark shadows in the grove vanished. All that remained were the trees, with the soft rays of the setting sun cutting through the foliage.

They were gone.

Ryland dropped the last of the saplings and whirled around, finally able to go to his team. Zach was on his back, gasping for air, and Thano was hunched over Apollo's neck, gripping his shoulder. "Did you get bitten?" he shouted at Thano as he ran toward Zach.

"No. Just clawed."

Ryland let out his breath in relief, but then swore when he saw the lacerations across Zach's chest. They weren't the six-fingered claw marks. They were the pockmarks of the bite of a thousand teeth, a bite designed to poison him, not tear his flesh apart. "Oh, shit." He crouched beside the fallen warrior. "Zach. Open your eyes."

His face was gray and ashen, his cheeks already sunken, his eyes closed. "What the hell were those things?"

"Talrak. Open your eyes, Zach." Ryland gripped his teammate's arm, dreading what he would see when Zach opened his eyes.
By all that is merciful on this earth, do not let his eyes be orange.
If his eyes were orange, it would be too late. He would have to use the last sapling on his own teammate.

With supreme effort, Zach opened his eyes. They were still brown. Relief shuddered through Ryland, and he grinned. "I knew you were a tough bastard." He looked over at Thano. "If his eyes turn orange, he's in trouble, but they're still brown."

Thano was gripping his shoulder, his face twisted in pain so great that even a Calydon warrior couldn't hide it. "Well, shit, then, let's have a party. I feel like champagne and line-dancing right now, don't you?"

"Yeah, you'd look cute in a denim skirt and cowboy boots," Ryland said as he turned his attention back to Zach. "Can you walk?" Zach might not have crossed over yet, but Ryland knew that they had only a short window to get him treatment. Since Thano had only been clawed, he had a couple days still. The healing sleep of the Calydons would not save either of them from talrak poison. "We gotta get going." There was only one thing that would counteract talrak venom, and he wasn't going to find it out here.

"Yeah, sure." With a force of will that was impressive, Zach hauled himself to his feet. His jaw was gritted, his face pinched, but he was up. "Want to tell me what's going on, Ry? What were those things, and how did you know how to kill them?"

"Talraks. They're vermin from the nether-realm. They never come out into the light, so I don't know why they were here." Ryland used his machete to make a few more spears, then handed a couple to each of his mates. "Anger and violence feed them. The only way to stop them is with purity."

Thano looked down at the supple sapling in his hand. "Nothing is more pure than nature. There is no evil in vegetation."

"Yeah, but you still have to fight the talrak without malice in your heart." Ryland grinned. "It's a good thing I don't like you guys that much, or I would have been too pissed to be able to calm myself enough to defeat them."

Zach frowned at him. "Without malice? Shit, Ry, that's all you are."

Ryland shook his head as he picked up the last two spears and began heading down the hill. "Malice implies emotion. Violence doesn't. There's a difference." And he knew damn well what that difference was. Emotion was the death knell for a warrior. Cool, calculated violence was the key to victory.

Thano rode up beside him, looking at him thoughtfully, even as he gripped his shoulder. "You feel no humanity toward anyone," he observed. "That's why you could fight them. Because saving us wasn't personal."