Authors: Jenna Black
Still coughing, though not quite as desperately, Anderson managed to push himself up to
his knees. I still didn’t think he was capable of doing anything really useful like fighting or
running.
A flash of movement in the distance caught my eye, and I realized I was running out of
time: Peter was coming back. When he got here, he would kill Anderson, and that would be that.
Of course, Peter was only human for the time being. I hefted the rock, wondering if I
could put enough oomph into my throw to kill.
The thought shocked me, but only for a moment. I wasn’t a killer, but I wasn’t some
helpless damsel in distress who would stand horrified and useless on the sidelines, either. I knew
next to nothing about Peter, but if he was in cahoots with Alexis, then he was a bad guy, period. I
wouldn’t feel bad about killing him.
At least, that’s what I told myself.
“Stay out of this, Nikki!” Anderson suddenly shouted, his voice loud and clear despite all
the coughing.
I was so startled I almost dropped my rock. Dean jumped, and Peter started running
faster, but Alexis just laughed.
“You think she hung around to try to save your pathetic hide?” Alexis asked through his
laughter. “Or is that supposed to make me paranoid?” He looked straight at Anderson, not
glancing away for a moment—proving how unthreatened he felt. Of course, his cronies were
doing enough looking around; he didn’t have to. I huddled down lower behind the bush I was
using for cover.
Did Anderson know I was here somehow? Had that been an actual order? Or was Alexis
right, and he’d just been trying to distract the opposition?
The moment of indecision cost me, and by the time I made up my mind to ignore
Anderson’s command—if it even
was
a command—it was too late. Peter had drawn a gun—
my
gun, I suspected—and was pointing it at Anderson. If I managed to clock him with my rock, the
impact might cause him to pull the trigger. I didn’t dare risk it.
Feeling a little like that useless damsel in distress after all, I remained crouched behind
the bush, hoping Anderson had some kind of a miracle plan up his sleeve, because I was plum
out of ideas.
TWENTY-SIX
Anderson spat a couple
of times, then shook his head in an effort to get his wet hair out
of his eyes. He should have looked like a helpless victim, kneeling there on the ground in his
underwear with his hands cuffed behind his back and a gun pointed at his head. Instead, he
looked poised and unruffled.
“Have you ever wondered why Konstantin made a deal with me?” he asked Alexis, and
despite the dire situation, a small grin tugged at the corner of his mouth.
Alexis looked nonplused, both at the question and the casual tone, but he answered
quickly enough. “Because it was not worth our effort to squash you and your little friends like
you deserve.” He sounded very sure of himself, but both of his accomplices were visibly
worried.
Anderson’s grin broadened. “Really? Why don’t you give your boss a call right now?
You’ve got me helpless, after all, and if you have your pet kill me and steal my immortality, my
followers would most likely disperse. So call Konstantin and ask him if he wants you to kill me.”
Alexis snorted. “You trespassed on my property. I’m within my rights to kill you, and I
don’t need to ask anyone’s permission.”
Anderson shrugged. “Fine. Don’t ask him. If ignorance is bliss, you must be in heaven
right now.”
Alexis landed a crushing punch on Anderson’s nose, though he had to bend over a bit to
do it. I winced at the crunching sound of cartilage giving way. Blood spurted from Anderson’s
nose, and he crumpled to the ground. His muscles remained tense, however, so I knew he wasn’t
unconscious.
Alexis bent and wiped the back of his hand on the grass, cleaning off the blood I
supposed. Then he stood up straight and resumed his arrogant, cross-armed pose, towering over
his fallen foe.
“You and your people have been a thorn in my side for some time now,” Alexis said. “A
quick death would be too easy for you.” He pulled back his foot and delivered a brutal kick to
Anderson’s belly. Anderson grunted and curled himself around the pain.
Just how slow a death did Alexis have in mind? Enough that I had time to run for help?
I dismissed the thought with only the briefest consideration. With my car all the way back
at the church, and the mansion at least a half-hour’s drive away, I couldn’t risk it. But the slow
death comment gave me hope. Whatever torture Alexis planned, it would probably mean some
relaxing of Peter’s guard. The Descendant still had the gun pointed and ready, but I didn’t think
he was quite as poised to shoot as he had been when he’d first arrived on the scene. Maybe if
Alexis was going to deliver a beating, he’d get a little careless and place himself between his
flunky and Anderson. And wouldn’t it be a terrible shame if I hit Peter with the rock and he
ended up shooting the wrong guy?
“I’m sure you’re not enjoying this,” Alexis said. He was panting with eagerness, getting
his rocks off on the pain he was inflicting. He delivered another kick before continuing.
Unfortunately, Peter still had a clear line of fire. “But I suspect it will hurt you more to hear
about all the fun I’ve had with your dear wife since she’s been my guest here.”
Anderson froze, his sudden stillness overcoming even the reflexive writhing. I closed my
eyes for a moment in an attempt to stave off my sympathetic horror. Behind my closed eyelids, I
couldn’t help seeing the image of Steph, the damage she’d taken, and the pain she’d endured
after less than an hour in Alexis’s clutches.
Emma had been Alexis’s prisoner for the better part of ten years, and he might not have
kept her in the water all that time.
Alexis laughed, enjoying the pain and horror Anderson couldn’t hide. “Once a year, on
the anniversary of her capture, we fish her out, and Konstantin and I share her. Even after all this
time, she still cries for you when we—”
Anderson let out a roar, like nothing I’d ever heard before. So loud my bones and my
teeth rattled with it, and so savage it froze Alexis and his cronies in their tracks. Three sets of
eyes widened to almost comic proportions, stunned by the fury of that roar.
And then Anderson moved, his pain forgotten as he lurched to his knees.
The sudden movement broke all of us out of our stupor. I knew from the terror on Peter’s
face that he was totally unnerved and that he was going to shoot. I also knew that my thrown
rock would be too late to stop him. I leapt to my feet and hurled it anyway, putting all my
strength behind it and aiming for his head.
The gun fired. I watched in horror as Anderson’s head snapped back, blood spurting from
the back as the bullet passed all the way through. His eyes glazed over, and his body started
listing just as my rock caved in the side of Peter’s skull.
There was another moment of disordered shock as everyone looked around, trying to
make sense of what had happened. Anderson and Peter lay on the grass, both staring sightlessly
into the night.
I cursed myself for waiting as long as I had to throw the damned rock. Sure, I’d been
worried hitting him with the rock would make Peter reflexively fire the gun; however, I’d known
for a fact he was going to fire it on purpose eventually, so the smart thing would have been to
take a chance that the blow wouldn’t make him pull the trigger or that his shot would miss. I’d
wanted a better opportunity, hoped for a sure thing.
And because of that hesitation, Anderson was dead, and the Olympians now had a new
Liberi
to add to their stable.
At least, they would have him soon, once Peter’s wound healed enough for him to revive.
The rock had done an impressive job on his skull, and that kind of an injury would take time to
heal. Not that that helped me a whole hell of a lot.
Alexis’s searching eyes found me, and his lips twisted into an expression somewhere
between a grin and a sneer. Now would have been a good time for me to run for my life, but I
stood there frozen by his gaze, horrified by my failure.
“I was just starting to have fun,” Alexis said with a mock pout. “But then
you’ll
be more
fun to play with anyway. I’ll show you everything I did to your sister, and everything I
would
have done if that interfering faggot hadn’t showed up and spoiled everything.”
I’d never asked Blake how he’d managed to run Alexis off that night, but now I had a
good guess. The air crackled with electricity, raising the little hairs on my arms. I could have
turned tail and run, but with Alexis so close, I didn’t see how he could miss if he threw a
lightning bolt at me. I was superstitiously reluctant to turn my back on him.
Dean squatted beside Peter’s limp body, frowning down at him. “Umm, Alexis?”
“What?” Alexis snapped, obviously annoyed to have his gloating interrupted.
“He doesn’t seem to be healing.”
“What?” Alexis said, and this time he sounded more surprised than angry. He turned to
look at Peter’s body.
I’d have taken advantage of his distraction to run like hell, only I took one last glance at
Anderson first. His eyes, instead of staring sightlessly at the sky, were focused on the two
Liberi
.
As I watched, a smile curled his lips, the expression so sinister as to be almost evil.
Anderson reached out with one leg, hooking it around Dean’s ankle and yanking him off
his feet. With a cry of surprise, Dean fell, and Anderson rolled until he was straddling him. His
hands were still cuffed behind his back, but Anderson leaned back and tucked those hands just
under the waistband of Dean’s pants, making contact with his bare skin.
Dean let out a shriek of pain, his back arching as he tried to buck Anderson off of him.
But Anderson held on tight, bracing himself with his legs and using his grip on Dean’s waistband
as an anchor.
When Anderson had used his Hand of Doom against Jamaal, Jamaal had passed out after
only a few seconds, and I expected the same thing to happen now. The surprise and his friend’s
screams had momentarily kept Alexis from attacking, but surely a lightning bolt would be on its
way any moment.
Figuring that even in the handcuffs, Anderson had a better shot of taking out Alexis than
I did, I decided to take one for the team. With an incoherent battle cry, I launched myself at
Alexis. If he was busy fighting with me, he couldn’t electrocute Anderson. Surely Dean would
be unconscious any second now, and then Anderson could turn his attention to the greater
enemy.
Dean was still shrieking, his voice high and thin with agony. If he weren’t already
starting to go hoarse, Alexis might not even have heard my own cry.
Alexis whirled toward me, and I knew the lightning bolt was coming. I’d semi-resolved
myself to taking it, but at the last moment I threw myself to the side. The quick dodge kept me
from taking a direct hit, but even a near miss with that kind of power was enough to stun me.
I hit the ground with a thump, too disoriented to soften my fall. My limbs felt like jelly,
and my head hammered and rang with pain. I wanted to just lie there, maybe slip into soothing
unconsciousness so I wouldn’t have to hear Dean’s piteous screaming anymore.
I blinked away the afterimage of the lightning, expecting another blast at any moment but
unable to muster the strength or coordination to get up. I looked over my shoulder, thinking
maybe Alexis was going to strike at Anderson now that he’d temporarily disabled me.
Alexis was indeed staring at Anderson, but he showed no sign of tossing a lightning bolt.
Instead, he stood there in slack-jawed horror, his face a mask of fear. Muscles still weak and
quivering, I forced myself to sit up and see what had put that look of terror on Alexis’s face.
Dean’s body was glowing cherry-red as Anderson continued to straddle him, teeth bared
in a truly savage snarl. A thin, keening wail rose from Dean’s throat, but the sound was growing
thinner by the second as the glow intensified. Anderson was glowing, too, his skin radiating a
white light that made me squint.
“You’re next,” he growled at Alexis, the snarl turning into a smile that was no less
savage.
Alexis looked like he was about to wet his pants. I know I would have if Anderson had
looked at me like that. Of course, I’m pretty sure that in spite of my fear, if I’d been in Alexis’s
shoes I’d have mustered the courage to throw one more lightning bolt in an attempt to save my
friend from agony. But Alexis always chose to look out for number one, so instead of trying to
help Dean, the cowardly bastard turned tail and ran.
Anderson turned to me, no longer looking anything like the unprepossessing normal man
I’d first met. He seemed to have grown in size behind that white glow, muscles bulking up as he
put on what I’d guess was another six inches or more in height. His blah-brown hair was now
snow white and shoulder length, and his medium-brown eyes were like twin white stars in his face.
“Stop him!” he ordered me, his voice resonating differently in that suddenly deeper,
broader chest.
I wasn’t in any shape to chase after bad guys, but I wasn’t crazy enough to defy an order