Two Knights of Indulgence (4 page)
Read Two Knights of Indulgence Online
Authors: Alexandra O'Hurley
“At some point, someone has to stand up and stop this
insanity.”
“And you think you are the man to do it?
The world is as it is.
Fighting and dying, it is the only thing men
know how to do.”
“So we just accept that and do not try to change it?”
“There is no changing it.
You either fight
or you die
.”
“I cannot accept that.
There has to be a breaking point.
People should not have to live in fear.
They should not live for vengeance.
They should not die for it, either.”
“You have seen enough of death and dying in your short
life, yet you strain to ignore the truth.”
“I do not ignore it.
I just don’t accept this is the only way.
We took vows to strive for peace.
There has to be a way to find it, to stand up
to death and say not today.”
“You cannot stand up to death.
It will come for us both eventually.
It is the way of this world.
Open your eyes or die with it.”
A movement caught Matthias’ eye, and he spun on his
heel, his weapon ready.
Shock floored
him as he watched one of the men he’d killed rise from the ground, staggering
as he moved.
Matthias might have fought
for the church, but he was not a deeply religious man, especially with what he
had seen over the years.
He made the
sign of the cross over his chest as he watched another of the men awaken from
death’s slumber.
“What witchcraft is this?” he heard Nicolas whisper
from his right.
Matthias didn’t wait to answer, but rushed in with his
sword raised, hoping the night wouldn’t be the end of them both.
The battle began again, slowly at first as
man after man rose from the ground.
He
was weary, and his arms felt wobbly, barely able to lift his sword once
more.
After what felt like hours of
battle, Matthias realized the two men he’d beheaded never rose again.
“Nicolas!
Cut
off their heads.”
Matthias punctuated
his point by severing the head of the man before him, the thing falling to the
ground with a thick plop.
He struck them
down, one by one, slicing through their necks.
Once it was over, Nicolas stood with his hands on his
knees, breathing heavily.
“What was
that?”
A form materialized before them, bathed in white
light, and a female stepped from the illumination.
Matthias squared his shoulders and his feet,
raising his sword before him.
“Matthias, drop your sword.” The woman’s voice echoed
in his mind, yet her lips never moved.
“Mary?”
Matthias dropped to one knee, planting his sword in the ground before
him.
Nicolas did the same, he vaguely
noted.
“No, I am not your Mary.
I am Gaia, and I am here to save you.”
Chapter Two
Present
Day
Britt Van
Drees
ran into her
patient’s room, machines screaming around her.
In the day’s chaos, Britt had forgotten to turn off the sound.
There was no point letting a dying woman hear
the slowing of her own heart, since it would only cause more anguish.
The elderly woman in the bed had been brought
in from the nursing home just an hour earlier, her heart slowly failing.
Britt had been doing everything they could to
make her hold on until her family could arrive, but they were still over two
hours away, having been vacationing when they got the call.
Britt had been working feverously to make
sure the woman got the opportunity to say goodbye, checking in on her a little
more than she did the rest, even with their overwhelming night.
And now the woman was coding, and there was no one at
her side. No one should ever die alone.
Britt looked to her quad partner, Joanne.
“Go see who’s available; we need to get her
stable.”
“That bus accident has them all busy.
I doubt anyone has a free set of hands.”
“There has to be someone.
Go!”
Joanne ran from the room, just as her patient reached
out and grasped her arm.
The woman’s
eyes begged her for help as her lips moved soundlessly, the words she wanted to
say dying before they rose from her mouth.
Even without the declaration, Britt knew the woman wanted her family by
her side, to not be alone, not now, when she needed them most.
Britt observed the screens and knew she had to get the
woman calm.
“
They’re coming.”
As she scrutinized
knew the woman had little time left, especially if the doctors were tied
up.
Britt punched the screen to get the
sound to stop, knowing she had to sooth the dying woman.
Death was knocking on the door, and it
wouldn’t give in until it got its due.
“I can’t pull anyone. We’re understaffed and
overfilled.”
Britt didn’t turn as she heard Joanne’s voice, her
gaze frozen to
cataract-filled stare.
Fear shone bright
in the elderly woman’s eyes, made brighter by the incandescent lights above the
bed.
That fear spoke to Britt.
Her parents had been alone when they died,
and she would have done anything to have the opportunity to change the
past.
She might not have the chance to
do that, but she could make it right for
this
woman.
It made her realize what she
needed to do.
“Jo, there has to be someone.
Go to the second or third floor if you have
to.
Don’t come back here unless you have
a doctor in tow.”
Britt listened to Joanne’s footsteps padding away and
once she was gone, Britt stood up straight and began to hum lowly.
She moved her hands, allowing them to hover
just over
chest, circling the area as she searched for the root of the problem.
Light began to pour from a spot near
The muscle was weakening and about to simply
give out.
Britt massaged the muscle and gave the woman a burst
of energy, soft light filling the room.
Within a few minutes
“What … what was that?”
There was no way to explain what had just happened
without jeopardizing her safety.
If
anyone realized what she was capable of, she could be in danger.
She’d had nightmares of being tested and even
dissected to find the source of her power.
Britt had no idea how she was able to do what she did, and she wasn’t
worried too much about what it was.
She
was able to help people, and nothing else mattered.
“Your family should be here soon.”
“Are you my guardian angel?”
Britt smiled inwardly.
“I’ve been called worse.”
“I’ll be able to say
goodbye?”
“I think so.”
her lips, dropping a kiss to the back.
tears rimming them.
“Thank you.”
Britt smiled, trying to keep her own tears at
bay.
Working in her field was hard on
the soul.
She’d seen too much death over
the years, and she’d tried to build a wall around herself.
Yet it was impossible for her not to be
touched with the emotion that ran deep inside the walls of the hospital.
Death was a part of life and was deserving of
the emotions that surrounded it, not a cold façade of indifference.
Her power had directed her to this career path.
She was a healer.
Dropping a kiss to
seat beside her.
She gathered the
woman’s hands in hers.
“Rest now.
I’ll
awaken you as soon as they get here.”
“How can I say no to my angel?”
****
The full moon hung heavy in the sky, so low it
illuminated the night, nearly blanking out the stars surrounding it.
Nicolas
DeSaint
stood at the edge of the tree line watching men loading crates from one SUV
into the next, all of them silent as death.
The three worked in tandem, a well-oiled machine, obviously familiar
with what they were doing.
The only
sound made was the wooden boxes hitting the inside floor of their cargo van as
they were pushed inside, that and the distant hooting of an owl echoing across
the blackened emptiness of night.
Matthias nudged him from the side, and as Nicolas
turned to look at where his friend was pointing, he saw two small ovals of
light heralding another car approaching.
Both he and Matthias stepped back into the woods a bit to prevent the
headlights from giving away their location, not ready for their presence to be
noticed.
As the car rounded the last
twist that would bring them high atop the mountain, the lights splashed across
both of them, kept hidden by the thick stalks of evergreen branches tattooed on
their dark pullovers, until they were plunged into darkness once more.
Wheels crunched over the gravel and ice on the old
logging road, and the large red luxury sedan pulled to a stop with a slight
squeak to the breaks.
The owl hooted in
reply. The noise had probably sounded like its vermin prey.
Two men exited the vehicle, and the guys
loading the van stopped what they were doing to silently welcome them there.
One of the newcomers spoke up. “Did you check the
product before you started throwing them around?”
The original three stared at one another.
Nicolas imagined them all looking
blankly.
The mouthy
guy
cracked open
one of the wooden tops and pulled an item out.
Blue-black steel glinted in the moonlight,
confirming Nicolas’ initial assumption.
Weapons,
and lots of them.
The Illuminati typically used a different kind of steel, a kind with a
blade.
Guns had no true impact on the
fight, as a gunshot wouldn’t stop him or his brethren, so the weapons were for
someone else.
But who?
They’d gotten lucky earlier in the night, stumbling
across two of the original three eating in a diner across town.
All three were new recruits into the
Illuminati and hadn’t yet learned to sense the power of the Templar Knights, an
even luckier break.
Nicolas and Matthias
had watched them eat and quietly left immediately after them and followed them
out here to the wooded spot.
Matthias nudged him once more to get his
attention.
“I know the plan was to
observe, but we need to intercept those.
Who knows whose hands they could end up
in.
”
“Agreed.
Five
against two.
I like the odds.”
Matthias answered Nicolas’ sarcasm with a grunt, his
normal response to any form of humor.
“Give me ten minutes to round the clearing and get to the other
side.
Look for a flash of light.
I’ll take the three.”
“But you took the high end on the last fight.
It’s my turn to take on the triple team.”
“Only you would make a fight sound like a porn
flick.”
Matthias looked back to the
gathering of men before gazing back at Nicolas.
“It’s a skill.”