Stormfront (Undertow Book 2) (22 page)

I held up a finger to signal her that I needed a minute,
then turned back to the two football players. “Why don’t you guys head into the kitchen and help yourself to some soda. I just need a moment to talk to Ana.”

They gave
Ana a wave, which she didn’t return, and then headed into the kitchen, Marsh slinking along behind them.

This was a nightmare.

I was now trapped in my house with Teddy and Jesse, unsure of how many Mortis were outside and no clue how to get the quarterback and his teammate safely to their cars. I needed to call Raef, except my stupid phone was in the Jeep along with Ana’s. We had tossed them in my backpack and I was so preoccupied with chocolate, hair color, and the Nikki disaster, that I left the bag in my car.

Crap, Crap, CRAP.

Ana leaned against the post, fluffing her newly colored hair. “Soooooo. This situation is interesting.”

I rubbed my face, flustered. “Teddy came to the door, but I saw a Mortis in shadow form outside.”

Ana stiffened, but then took a deep breath calming herself. She knew as well as I did that the house was safe, and I wasn’t inviting those suckers in. “Leaving Teddy outside as a snack would have been the perfect holiday present for Raef.”

“Be serious
, woman!”

“Fine. I’m just going to fantasize that the only reason he is inside is because you didn’t want to have to dispose of his body. And Jesse? How’d he get here?”

“He wanted to make sure Teddy hadn’t come by, which he did.”

“Well – we are safe inside, and I see MJ has phased. Don’t let him try to take on whatever is outside on his own.”

“Don’t worry. I won’t,” I said, glancing around the hallway. It was to our credit that neither of us was freaking out about the Mortis lurking around my yard. I chalked up our calm to the simple fact that we had
been there
and
done that
with another uninvited Mortis before. I would brag about our bravery, except it was honed on some seriously messed up experiences.

I looked at Ana, “By the way – your hair looks great in that dark brown.”

Ana ran her hand compulsively along the bottom of the banister. “Thanks. Did you call Raef and Kian?”

“Our phones are in the car,” I replied, wincing at my foolishness.

“Ah. Well, that wasn’t too brilliant,” she replied. “It’s okay – we’ll just stay inside and wait for the guys. The house is safe, so just don’t invite any shadows in.” I rolled my eyes.

Ana watched me closely as I rubbed the back of my neck, the stress starting to climb inside me. “Eila – are you really okay with Teddy being here?”

Exhausted, I sat on the bottom step of the grand staircase and nodded. Ana slid down next to me, and placed her arm over my shoulders. “Tell you what. Since we are stuck together for a bit, how about I find a game on TV for the guys and you take five or ten minutes and just get your thoughts in order. Raef and Kian will come by here when they realize we aren’t at Torrent Road, and it will all be fine.”

I looked over at my friend, “Thanks
, Ana. I appreciate that.”

“Anytime,” she replied with a small smile. “Kian and Raef are useful, you know – some of the time.”

Kian and Raef had been way more than just useful to us. And I knew that Kian was so much more than a simple guardian to Ana, no matter how hard she was trying to keep him simply as a friend. I looked at my dear pal seated next to me, “Ana, why did Kian call you
Pix
?” I asked, recalling how floored she looked when Kian said the word.

Ana swallowed and fiddled with the edge of her shirt, “It was a nickname. He used to call me Pix last summer. That’s all. Just a nickname.”

Her mind seemed to drift for a moment, no doubt back to last summer, but then she shook her head and stood with purpose. “All right, enough of this reminiscing crap. I have two idiots to entertain. Now – where’s the rat poison for Teddy?”

“ANA!”

I sat alone on the botto
m
of the staircase for a few minutes, gathering my thoughts as Ana suggested. It helped calm me, but it also served to build my anger because I couldn’t step outside my house and defend myself, or my friends.

Well, technically Marsh could hold his own, but I needed him here, with us, since I was a
flippin’ soul-channeling novice.

Aggravating. It was so darn aggravating to be a prisoner in my home. If Raef and Kian were here, they would clear the area and spring us. God, I wish I had my phone and I wish Mae hadn’t cancelled the home line.

I sat bolt upright when I realized Teddy or Jesse probably had a phone. I jumped to my feet and was about to go plead for a cellular device, when there was a knock at the front door.

Oh for crying out loud! Was my house destined to be Grand Central Station? I approached the door to open it, but my hand froze on the knob as a voice crept through the wood.

“Ms. Walker. I must speak with you,” said a rough voice on the other side of the door. Rillin Blackwood was outside, speaking through the mahogany frame. Holy shiz.

I knew he couldn’t cross the threshold to the house, so I gathered all my courage – every last shred of instinct that told me he was not a threat, and I opened the door.

Standing there in a black leather jacket, his wide frame nearly filling the door, was Raef and Kian’s dealer and my occasional stalker. I stared at his tattooed skin and the faint scar that ran down the curve of his face. He really was a bad-ass version of Thor.

“Ms. Walker, I apologize for my abrupt appearance and I know you have many questions, but time is critical. I was able to eliminate one hunter who was by the barn, but the others have moved on to what I believe is their current target.”

Many questions? More like nine million! But the look on Rillin’s face worried me immensely, and his seriousness took priority over any question I had. Plus, he had apparently picked off one of the shadowy visitors that had been stalking my house. That seemed counterproductive if he wanted me dead.

“What do you mean
moved on to their current target?
”

“The two Mortis who bought Blacklist names from me – they are friends of yours? Bodyguards?”

Unease crawled through my body as I replied, “Yes. Why?”

“I believe the Mortis that were here tonight were designed to distract you from their true goal. Your
protectors are problematic for them.”

“What are you saying?” I asked, my voice faint as fear began to rise.

“I believe your bodyguards are the current target. I need to warn them – you can’t afford to lose their protection, especially now. I believe the older Mortis have your details from the Breakers, bought from a man named Anthony Sollen. They’ve figured it out. They know what you are and who protects you.”

All I heard was that Raef and Kian were in danger and my heartbeat pounded in my ears. “They are hunting on Sandy Neck, but I don’t know where exactly,” I said, louder and panicked. Sandy Neck’s
beach-side forest was huge.

“I know where they are,”
announced Ana, coming up behind me, her body tense, but a determined look on her face. “You are Rillin, aren’t you?”

The dealer nodded, “Yes
, Ma’am. Can you tell me where they hunt exactly?”

“Forget telling – I’ll show you.”

* * * *

We had basically thrown Jesse and Teddy from the house, without them seeing
Rillin, and taken off in MJ’s Bronco. Marsh sat in the far back, ram-rod straight. He had tackled Rillin at the house in an attempt to tear his throat out until I managed to call him off, explaining quickly what was going on. Rillin immediately realized I had another guard – a shifter – and he was impressed.

I drove like a wo
man possessed along Old King’s Highway as Rillin followed the Bronco on foot, moving fast in his shadow form along the darkened road. Finally we reached the off-road section of Sandy Neck that Ana had directed me to.

“There’s
Kian’s car!” she gasped from the passenger seat next to me. I pulled in next to the black SUV, nearly snapping the Bronco’s key off in the ignition as I scrambled to get out of the vehicle. Ana yanked open the back and Marsh leapt out to the sand.

Rillin
stepped out of the darkness towards us. “I’m going to try to locate them – hopefully they won’t pick a fight with me before I can warn them. Stay HERE with the Shifter,” he demanded, pulling a handgun from his back.

Ana and I jumped back and Marsh growled, but he held it out to me, handgrip first, the barrel pointed at him. “The gun won’t kill them, but it will slow them down.
Head shots are best if you can. Take it – you’ve earned this gun.”

I reached out and took the oddly familiar weapon in my hand as I nodded.

“The safety is off, Ms. Walker. Shoot, don’t hesitate, even if I’m in the way – even if your guards are in the way. Protect yourself, at all costs,” he urged and bolted into the woods.

I looked down at the silver handgun in my palm, and finally realized why I recognized it.

It was Dalca’s gun.

A gun, which had been pressed to my temple, eliminating all but one option the night of the Fire and Ice Ball.

Ana looked at me, “Are we really staying here?”

“Hell no,” I replied, and I started running in the same direction
Rillin had gone, Ana and Marsh by my side, and Dalca’s gun firmly in my hand.

We heard it long befor
e
we saw it. Motion in the woods, at a distance, but closing fast. Multiple points of action that were not part of the natural landscape headed our way.

“We’re not alone,” warned
Kian, now hyper alert as he kneeled by the deer he had just killed. By the sounds of the snapping twigs and scuffed sand, we weren’t alone by a long shot, and whoever was coming towards us didn’t care about stealth.

Kian got to his feet just as a Mortis burst through the tree
line, smashing into him and driving him into the sand. I ran for him, and plowed into the soul thief who was trying to get a solid arm around Kian’s neck to snap it.

I slammed the attacker into a tall pine and managed to drive my elbow into the side of his face hard enough to hear the crack of his neck. He slumped to the sand just as I turned, and was hit in the chest with what felt like a 100-pound
knife. I staggered, trying to stay on my feet as I grabbed the shaft of the crossbow arrow protruding from my chest. I yanked it from my body, roaring in pain as the Fallen marks flashed to the surface of my skin. We were under attack, by our own kind. A coordinated assault that could only mean one thing – our identities as Eila’s protectors was known.

Kian, now covered in his own dark markings, was going hand-to-hand with two other Mortis, a male and female. I made a move to help him, but was tackled by another
soul thief, this one wielding a dagger. He collided with me and we smashed into the sand.

I moved just i
n time to avoid the dagger being driven into my eye and he buried the sharp blade into the sand next to my head. I fought for control of the blade, while trying to get a grip on his neck, but my arm had become weak from the arrow.

The attacker got the blade over my head once again just as I heard gunfire. The chest of the Mortis above me bloomed red, and his concentration snapped in the direction of the shooter. In that one, fleeting second, I managed to glimpse Eila and my heart froze.
She was running towards me, gun in hand.

I reached up and yanked my attacker’s neck sharply to the left. He crumbled into a heap and I tossed his body aside, scrambling to get to Eila just as two more
soul thieves burst from the shadows and converged on me.

I heard Eila scream my name as the attackers reached me, but they suddenly fell to the ground, dead at the feet of the dealer. I stared at him for a moment, shocked he was standing in front of me and helping me, but then I saw Kian, struggling.

“Go help Kian – I’ve got to get Eila and Ana out of here!” I yelled and the dealer nodded, throwing himself into the fight with Kian.

I ran for Eila as Marsh bolted past me, throwing himself at another onslaught of soul thieves, swiftly decapitating another female, but the other two broke through, followed by more.

We were horrifically outnumbered, under a full onslaught of Mortis who were trying to kill us.

I ran for Eila, but then felt the familiar knifing punch strike my back, knocking me to my knees as another arrow buried itself in my shoulder blade.

From my point on the ground, I saw Ana running for Kian. She grabbed a crossbow off the body of a dead Mortis, touching his face for a moment, and then stood and aimed at one of the many attackers who had converged on us. She braced herself and fired a clean shot right through his throat, dropping the attacker to his knees.

But the raiding Mortis kept coming, two now headed straight for me. I couldn’t reach the arrow in my back and it had weakened my other arm. Eila turned and saw them heading for me, and in her face I saw her power come to life, transforming her soft beauty into razor sharpness.

Her Lunaterra heritage ignited in her eyes, forming a copper ring around the brown, and I screamed at her to not do it. Screamed at her to not call her gift and end her life.

In that moment, my world slowed to a crawl as I watched her throw her hands outward, her dark hair fanning away from her fair skin like a devastating wraith. Shards of brilliant light flew from her body, as she delivered a fatal blow to the fight.