Stricken (The War Scrolls Book 1) (21 page)

Chapter Twenty

Killian barely kept himself upright as the demon pulled the broken door shut behind him. He wanted to fall to his knees and scream. He lunged toward the bed instead and grabbed his cell phone. His fingers raced across the small buttons, punching in the number he’d already memorized.

He was at the window in a matter of seconds, ripping the curtains aside to look out. The demon, Nephilim, and Aubrey had already disappeared from sight, but Killian didn’t need to see them. With the bond, he could follow Aubrey anywhere.

He
would
follow her anywhere, even to Hell itself if he had to.

Her little hellcat was still going wild. His fur stood up straight on his back as he hissed and slapped at the air as if the two who’d taken Aubrey still stood in the room. It was an impressive display of fury for such a little thing.

As the phone rang, Killian swiped the kitten up and set him on the bed before grabbing his bag and upending it over the desk. Knives, flares, and his favorite dagger dropped onto the wooden top with a clang.

“Jason?” he barked into the phone as soon as the Elioud answered, donning his wrist sheaths and tucking the knives inside. “They have Aubrey…” Saying the words aloud felt like pumping pure acid through his veins. It hurt. God, it hurt. “I need help.”

Jason was silent for a heartbeat and then said, “What do you need?”

Relief hit Killian hard, causing his head to bow. He filled Jason in, only listening long enough to ensure Jason and the others were on the way before he shoved the cell phone back into his pocket. He grabbed the dagger and Zee, unable to leave the protective kitten behind, and started toward the door, certain Aubrey’s captors had enough of a lead that he could follow undetected. He didn’t even bother trying to dress the wound on his arm. It wouldn’t make a difference, and all that mattered was Aubrey, anyway.

One way or another, he would free her. And the two who had her were going to regret ever coming near her. It would likely be the last thing he did, but he would do it. He’d promised her.

***

The tormented look in Killian’s eye as Aubrey’s captors dragged her from the room would stay with her forever. She’d never seen such anguish before. It tore through her like shrapnel slicing deeply through her flesh. So did her terror for Killian.

He was infected. Not even what her Nephilim tormentor had done to her so long ago came close to matching the feelings ripping through her over that fact. She felt fragmented, completely shredded. She couldn’t even summon the will to care that the two who’d taken her were going to kill her. The knowledge that Killian was going to die sapped her will, her anger, everything. There was nothing left but sorrow and terror for the Halfling warrior who had invaded her life and stolen her heart.

What did she care if the vampire and his friend broke her bones? If they made her blood run in little rivers down her body? The biggest horror she could have imagined had already happened. Killian was infected.

She wanted to scream for him as the Nephilim monster tossed her over a shoulder as if she weighed nothing and raced past the dead man lying across the walkway. She bit her tongue instead. Bit it so hard she tasted blood.

It didn’t hold back her sobs.

They came in gasping whimpers as the night slipped by in blurs.

She didn’t even care where they were taking her or what they wanted. All she wanted was to die quickly and get it over with. At least that way it wouldn’t hurt so very much.

***

Killian slipped through the marsh like a ghost, following Aubrey’s scent as if it were a trail of breadcrumbs. She was bleeding. The scent was faint, like that which came from a small nick or a bitten lip. It infuriated him even so. The warrior inside raged. He couldn’t seem to find the energy to contain that part of himself. Not that it mattered. He needed that vengeance-fueled side loose.

The entire right side of his body burned as the infection began working its way through his system. It didn’t hurt as much as he’d expected it would, but it was close. Within hours, he’d be gone, any hint of the warrior he’d been burned away.

He refused to let the infection take him, though. Not until Aubrey was safe.

He looked down at the kitten in his arms again.

“We’ll find her,” he vowed, refusing to entertain the possibility that they might be too late.

Zee hissed, his white fur still standing on end. Aubrey had picked the perfect animal for her. The kitten was her own little warrior, fierce and protective.

Killian just hoped he could hold on long enough to see them reunited. He ran a little faster, weaving back and forth between trees and bog water as Aubrey’s captors did. They were headed south, where marsh gave way to miles of forest.

Within half an hour, the minds of the Elioud shifters began to whisper at him from the west. They were closing in, getting closer.

He kept running, refusing to slow.

The first of the Elioud, Tyrell, caught up to him within a matter of minutes. He changed direction in midstride and instead of crossing paths with Killian, began to run at his side. His fur flashed like silver in the little bit of moonlight peeking through the thick branches overhead.

Zee went wild in Killian’s arms, hissing and clawing. He didn’t try to get away, though.

The rest of the Elioud shifters followed on Tyrell’s heels, their thoughts full of murder. Killian almost felt sorry for the demon and Halfling who had taken Aubrey. Her friends planned to tear them apart.

Killian couldn’t wait to let them.

Jason changed from wolf to man in midstride. He ran bare-ass naked, barely even stumbling.

Killian cursed and slowed. “This isn’t going to work,” he muttered, swaying on his feet.

Jason skidded to a stop in front of him as the rest of the group closed in around them.

“I can’t track her with you so close,” Killian answered. “The Fallen-bond is confusing my bond with her.”

Jason glanced at the Elioud and then at Killian. Surprise echoed in his mind over the bond, but he didn’t mention it. “Fall back and spread out,” he commanded the Elioud.

The shifters fell back.

Killian closed his eyes, trying to focus on his connection with Aubrey. Separating it from the bond the Fallen shared with the strongest Elioud was hard…far harder than it would have been without the virus attacking his system. But he found it, pulsing like a rope of light.

“Better?” Jason swung his head in Killian’s direction.

“Better.” He swayed again. The infection worked fast. Faster than he had time for. His temperature was rising, the virus pushing it higher and higher. He gritted his teeth, fighting it.

“You’re infected,” Jason said, tensing. A low growl started in the back of his throat.

Similar sounds echoed from the rest of the Elioud.

Killian didn’t even attempt to deny it. “You can kill me after we find her,” he told Jason, holding his gaze. “But not until.”

The Elioud milled restlessly, their nervousness clear, but Jason silenced them with a low whistle. “Agreed, St. James,” he said.

That was good enough for Killian.

He adjusted Zee in his arms and took off running again.

***

“We’re being followed,” the Nephilim, Tomiel, announced.

Killian! It had to be Killian.

Aubrey perked up at Tomiel’s announcement, hope breaking through the heavy fog in her mind. They’d been running for nearly an hour. The trees were little more than dark blurs around them. Her ribs were bruised where she bounced on his shoulders with every stride. The combination of rhythmic, painful bounces and fear had lulled her to the edge of mental exhaustion.

“Doesn’t matter,” the demon, Halphas, said. He didn’t even sound winded, as if running were no big thing to him. “We’ll catch up to the
varcolac
soon. If he manages to hold on to himself that long—”

Werewolves. They were meeting a pack of werewolves.

Aubrey’s heart sank. There was no way Killian could fight through that, not with
La Morte Nera
raging through him. Chances were she’d never see him again. That thought brought anger boiling to the surface.

“What do you want from me?” she demanded.

“You mean you don’t know?” Halphas actually sounded surprised as if he hadn’t quite realized Aubrey didn’t know everything already.

“His Master wants you,” Tomiel answered.

“Why?” Aubrey demanded, fighting back the urge to vomit as anger gave way to fear.

“You really don’t know, do you?” Halphas asked.

“No.” She gritted her teeth as she bounced painfully on the Halfling’s shoulder.

Each jarring bounce was like falling on a rock.

“Your father was brilliant,” Halphas said. “Do you know how difficult it was for him to create a virus that killed angels? Finding a way to poison their blood so it attacked instead of Healed took some doing. But he did it.”

“Good for him,” Aubrey snapped, angry at her father all over again.

The demon laughed. “Of course, the virus would have killed anything with angel blood, including you and your brother. He couldn’t have that, so he had to find a cure.” He paused dramatically. “Had he left it alone, none of this would be necessary. We wouldn’t need you.”

“Need me?”

“Your antibodies, to be specific,” he continued. “Your blood and your brother’s are very much alike. With him gone, yours is worth quite a lot right now. An answer to a lot of prayers, as it were.”

Aubrey’s mind reeled at that. Was he saying her father had found a cure in Aaron’s blood? That her blood could cure Killian? Get rid of the infection? Oh God…please.

A little vein of hope began to spread.

“Your father’s virus was a blessing in disguise for us. Do you know how long we’ve waited to destroy the Fallen? We’d hoped the virus would kill them all, but it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen since the Dominion has hidden themselves behind their walls, so we had to come up with another plan.”

“Wha—” Aubrey cleared her throat and tried again. “What plan?”

“The races need a cure. We have it. You, actually. Any Fallen-kin who pledges themselves to Hell in the coming war will get an antidote. Those who don’t…” Halphas laughed, making it clear what would happen to the Nephilim and Elioud who didn’t pledge their oaths to Hell, thus granting Hell thousands of additional souls to use up and spit out.

Aubrey had no doubt the same grisly fate awaited her regardless of what decision the Elioud and Nephilim made.

“Well, better for all of you if they agree, wouldn’t you say?”

Aubrey trembled, fighting back the bile rising in her throat.

“It’s a good thing the Elioud went looking for you to try to warn you. I don’t know how they found out, but I suppose it doesn’t matter. Turns out, even with the infection running through their veins, they led us right to you.”

Oh…God.

“Don’t cry, little one. If the Fallen-kin agree, you might actually survive.”

“I hope they don’t agree so I get to kill you.” Tomiel sounded pleased at the prospect.

“Why are you doing this?” Aubrey demanded of him, clenching her hands into fists. “Why are you helping them?” Good God, did he not understand how much damage the demons had already caused with the virus? How many of his kind had already died? How many might still die?

“How do you think we found out about your father, Aubrey?” the demon asked, his voice hardening. “As soon as he uncovered what your father had done, he came to us.”

“You’re insane,” Aubrey snapped to the Nephilim carrying her.

“The fact that you’ll live long enough to watch Killian die is almost perfect,” the giant muttered. “Too bad you’ll probably die before the rest of your friends. I hoped to let you live at least that long, but they’ve been particularly resourceful.”

“What are you talking about?” Aubrey cried.

“He’s talking about revenge,” Halphas said.

Aubrey stared into the darkness, not understanding.

“Your brother and a Fallen warrior killed his brother,” the demon supplied, chuckling. “There Cromiel was, trying to do the Fallen a favor by forcing your father to hand over the virus so he could give it to them, and one of them killed him. They didn’t have a clue what was really going on. Neither did Cromiel, of course. The poor fool had no idea your blood was the cure.”

Oh God.

Horror ran through Aubrey, blowing apart what little calm she’d managed to cling to thus far. Jason had told her that she’d been taken by the Halfling because of her father, but she hadn’t known the Nephilim had been trying to
help
the Fallen. She was bait, a way to force her father into handing over the virus, and no one had known what was happening. Everyone had been working at cross purposes, years of mistrust working against them. Like dominoes falling, they’d destroyed themselves, allowing demons to manipulate and twist the situation to their advantage. Because her father had created the virus, she’d been kidnapped by a Nephilim. Because the Fallen didn’t trust the Nephilim, the warrior had killed the Halfling without hesitation. Because the Nephilim died, his brother had discovered the virus and gone to the demons who’d unleashed it on the world. Because of that, the Elioud had been seeking her, Killian had become infected, and now she’d die too. Each act had been a ripple, created by her father alongside the virus and used by demons to destroy all of them.