Flutter (37 page)

In the moment of distraction, Leif took his chance to
counterattack Bear, sending him crashing into the pews. Wood
splintered everywhere, and I realized too late that Leif had the
situation under control.

I looked back up at the balcony, feeling helpless as
they struggled to keep Stellan at bay. Ezra was trying to defend
Olivia so she could load her crossbow, but even when she did manage
to get a shot off, Stellan was impossible to hit.

“Hello, Alice,” Gunnar whispered, and his voice was
right in my ear.

I had been too busy watching Stellan that I hadn’t
noticed him coming behind me. I tried to look up at him, and his
hand was around my throat, one of his razor sharp nails pressing
into the skin over my jugular. I fought to pull his arm free, and
he started dragging me backwards, towards the altar.

I thought about screaming, but I didn’t want anybody
to know. They would stop and look at me, and that’s exactly what
would get them killed. Milo was crouched over Bobby, trying to
protect him, and I could smell Jack and Peter’s blood from fresh
wounds. Only Olivia had yet to be wounded, but she was dodging and
diving almost as quickly as Stellan.

So I let Gunnar drag me away. I knew that he would
probably kill me, but whatever he did to me, I had to endure it
silently. That was my only chance of saving them.

Leif was still fighting Bear, but he seemed to have
the upper hand. He knocked Bear back to the ground and grabbed a
broken piece of the pew. It had been the back rest, but it had been
snapped in half, giving it a sharp edge. Leif held it high over his
head, then plummeted it down against Bear’s throat.

There was this awful gurgling sound, but I closed my
eyes to keep from seeing the blood. I heard the crunch of bone, and
Bear’s heart fell silent. Leif had decapitated him.

“Everyone is so busy right now,” Gunnar clicked his
tongue. “It’s so boring and dull with just the two of us, don’t you
think?”

“Gunnar,” Leif said, keeping his voice low. Blood
stained his shirt and face, and he carefully stepped over the pews
towards us. “Let her go. She’s not what you want.”

“You are quite right,” Gunnar sighed. “But she is
what everyone else seems to want, and if you take a step closer,
I’ll slice her throat wide open.” Leif stopped where he was,
glaring at him. When Gunnar spoke again, he was shouting loudly, so
everyone would hear him. “What do you think, Peter? How much blood
can sweet Alice lose in one day?”

Peter and Jack froze instantly, but Stellan went for
Jack. He tackled him roughly, crashing into pews, and falling below
the balcony wall, so I couldn’t see him. Olivia aimed her crossbow,
but I doubt she could get in a clean shot if they were rolling
about together. Ezra jumped into it, trying to catch Stellan, but
he moved too quickly, even with Jack in his clutches.

“No, Peter, help Jack!” I shouted. “He needs you more
than I do!”

Peter stared at me, his eyes burning, and I knew that
he wouldn’t save Jack.

Peter leapt off the balcony, his eyes never leaving
me. He walked deliberately slow down the aisle, and I looked up at
the balcony. I could hear them fighting, Jack grunting, and how
fast his heart pounded, but I couldn’t see him.

Milo was just trying to keep Bobby from getting
killed. I saw Ezra go flying across the balcony, landing hard
against the wall, and tumbling down next to Olivia. At least Jack’s
heart was still beating. At least he was still alive.

Gunnar made it closer to us than Leif had, but he
stopped just below the steps leading up the altar. Gunnar had us
stationed right below the cross. When I looked straight up, all I
could see was the emaciated corpse of Jesus. It was rather
disturbing, and it didn’t help that a vampire was about to tear
open my throat.

“Let her go,” Peter commanded.

“
Why would I do that?” Gunnar
laughed. “It’s just so much fun watching you suffer!”

“I know what you’re doing,” Peter put his foot on the
first step of the altar. “You still think that you’re going to get
out of here alive, but you don’t really care if you do. You only
care about winning, and winning for you is destroying me.”

“Very true,” Gunnar admitted, then nodded at Leif.
“Then destroying him. The rest of them don’t really matter to me.”
His grip tightened on me. “But you know why I can’t let her
go.”

“She’s the means to destroying me.” Peter took
another step up, and Gunnar pressed his nail into my vein, breaking
the skin just enough to draw a little blood, and Peter froze. “You
want to make her suffer, so you can make me watch. Killing her is
your way of torturing me.”

“Yes, and so far it seems to be working,” Gunnar
smiled, but there was an unease behind it.

“If I die, you lose.” Peter bent down, picking up a
titanium arrow off the top step of the altar. Olivia had been
shooting them all over, and a stray one had landed a few feet from
us. I felt Gunnar’s confidence falter for the first time. “I want
to die. If I die before she does, I don’t see anything. I don’t
suffer at all.”

“I’ll still kill her,” Gunnar insisted nervously.

“You’re gonna kill her either way, according to you.”
Peter pointed the arrow towards his own heart, pressing the tip
against his chest. “But this way, I’m not destroyed. I’ve gotten
exactly what I’ve wanted, and you haven’t.”

“You’ll die knowing she’s going to, and that might be
enough for me,” Gunnar said with false cheer. Peter’s idea unnerved
him. Testing him, Peter pushed the arrow into his chest, not deep
enough to hurt but enough to draw blood. “How do you propose I make
you suffer then?”

“Let her go, and we’ll battle it out, hand to hand,”
Peter said. “The way real men fight. If you catch me, then you can
let your surviving henchman do away with her while I watch. I’ll
suffer even worse because it’s my idea.”

It was a horrible idea, and that’s exactly why it
appealed to Gunnar. I saw no way that it could work out where
either of us lived, but Peter was just buying time. He really
didn’t care if he lived or died, but he wanted to give me a chance
to run away. I wouldn’t, though, not when he and Jack and everyone
were still here risking their lives. I would never leave without
them.

“Peter, no! This is stupid,” I said. Before I had
been fighting Gunnar, but now I hung onto his arm, trying to keep
me to him.

“That’s why I liked you, Peter,” Gunnar laughed. “You
were brilliant. If only you hadn’t killed my right hand man. We
would’ve been so happy together.” With that, Gunnar threw me and I
landed roughly in the pews.

Leif helped me to my feet, and I shook off the pain.
It faded quickly, but things still hurt. Peter and Gunnar were
squaring off, staring at each other as Gunnar taunted him. Peter
showed little emotion, and I hoped that he was planning
something.

The noises in the balcony hadn’t gotten any better,
but from what I could tell, everyone was still alive. Leif and I
stood unsurely in the broken pews, neither of us knowing how we
could really help the situation.

“Oh, come on, Peter!” Gunnar groaned. “I didn’t spare
the girl so we could have a staring contest.”

“I’m sorry to disappoint you,” Peter said dryly.

Peter stood on the altar steps. Gunnar wanted Peter
to come to him, but when he wouldn’t, he tired of waiting. He dove
at Peter, more to get the fight going than to actually hurt him,
and Peter deftly jumped out of the way. He leapt over the sacrament
table, and as soon as he landed, he jumped up again, grabbing onto
the giant cross hanging on the wall. He scrambled to climb up,
using Jesus as footing, and Gunnar just stared at him.

“Really, Peter? Are you that much of a coward?”
Gunnar looked dubiously at him, and I was wondering the same thing.
“I had expected so much more than this.”

Gunnar had his back to us, so I took a step forward,
planning to attack him, but Leif put his hand on my arm. I looked
at him, and he mouthed “not yet.” Apparently, he had a better
understanding of Peter’s plan than I did.

Peter climbed higher up the cross, and to my
confusion, he started pulling at the bolts that held it to the
wall. He started on the right arm of the cross, and then when they
were free, he moved onto the top.

“What are you doing?” Gunnar asked. “Is this some
kind of suicide attempt?”

“Something like that,” Peter said and climbed to
start loosening the left arm.

“I can slaughter the girl right now, if you like,”
Gunnar offered.

Peter glanced back at me, but he didn’t stop trying
to free the bolts. The cross started to sway and groan, but he kept
pulling at it. Once he got broke the bolt from the arm, there was
nothing attaching it to the wall except for the bolts at the foot
of the cross. Peter hung onto the arm, with his feet pressed
against the wall and started to push off.

Because the cross was still
connected at the bottom, it should’ve just swung down, moving like
the hands of a clock until it hung upside down, with top resting on
the floor at the 9 o'clock position.
But
Peter pushed hard against the wall, forcing it swing down and away
from the wall. The cross groaned and as it swung down and out, like
a crazed pendulum.

Gunnar took a step back, so Leif growled and jumped
towards him. He didn’t actually attack him, but Gunnar stepped
closer to the cross again and his attention was diverted to
Leif.

Peter jumped off the cross, and Gunnar turned around
to see what was happening just as the top of the cross flew through
his neck, cutting his head off. I shrieked as his head flew across
the room, and his body collapsed a moment later. Peter barely
jumped out of the way as the cross swung back, and he ran over to
me and Leif.

“Gunnar!” Stellan shouted.

He paused and Olivia fired another arrow at him, but
she narrowly missed. He made a play for the edge of the balcony,
and Ezra tackled him before he could make it over.

While Ezra held him back, Jack jumped off the
balcony. He landed on the ground and did a roll thing, that made
him look much more badass than I ever knew he was. When he stood
up, he was holding one of Olivia’s metal arrows in his hand,
holding it pointed towards the balcony.

Out of nowhere, Stellan came to a halt next to Jack,
the arrow protruding right through his chest. He had jumped down
from the balcony with his eyes fixed solely on Peter, meaning to
avenge Gunnar’s death, and he hadn’t been paying attention to Jack
standing in the middle of the aisle. He had impaled himself on an
arrow, and he sputtered, blood coming from his lips, then collapsed
back on the ground.

I rushed over to Jack and threw my arms around him.
He hugged me tightly, and I pressed myself to him.

Olivia jumped off the balcony and walked over to
Stellan. She kicked him once with her foot, then pulled a machete
out of the back of her belt. With one fell swoop, she sliced off
his head, and blood splattered onto Jack and me.

“Sorry,” she smiled at me. “I just had to be sure.
You don’t want any damn vampires coming back on you.”

Honestly, I didn’t even really care. I could feel
Peter’s eyes on me, and he had saved my life. I wasn’t angry with
him, but I didn’t love him. I loved Jack and I was thrilled to be
in his arms again. I stood on my tiptoes and kissed Jack
softly.

“What the hell happened?” Bobby shouted.

Jack laughed, pulling away from the kiss. I didn’t
mind, though, because I loved hearing him laugh. Apparently, Bobby
had just woken up, and he was surveying the carnage in the
church.

“Hey. That guy tried to kill me! Why is he here?”
Bobby pointed to Leif, and Milo tried telling him that Leif was our
friend now. The answer seemed to satisfy him, but he still looked
confused. “Where is Jane?”

- 36 –

After scouring the cathedral, Milo stepped out the
front doors, and that’s what we had needed to do all long. Jane was
lying on the front steps. She was shivering and completely out of
it but still alive.

The park across the street was swarming with cops and
ambulances, thanks to the mangled body the lycan had left there.
Milo had on a zippered hoodie over a tee shirt, so he took it off
and laid it on top of Jane. He made an anonymous 911 call saying
there was an injured girl on the front steps of the church.

This time, I thought the best solution for her was
staying away from vampires. She needed more help than we could give
her.

After that, we left in a hurry. Olivia went back to
her place, and Leif disappeared into the night. I’m not sure where
he’d go, but he assured me he’d be alright and he’d see me again.
Peter had driven his Audi, and Milo and Bobby volunteered to go
with him. It was only a two-seater, but Bobby didn’t mind sitting
on Milo’s lap.

Since Jack had taken the Lexus, Ezra had been forced
to take the Lamborghini, which he generally thought to be too
flashy to drive around. Jack sat shotgun, and I curled up on his
lap, resting my head against his chest.

On the ride home, I realized that the cathedral had
constant staffing. Ezra explained that when he’d arrived, he’d
charmed them into leaving. With his charisma and good looks, he
could convince humans of anything. I suspected there might be
vampire glamour along with that, but I didn’t ask.

“Oh my god, it’s never felt so good to be home,” I
sighed when we walked into the house. Jack grinned at me, squeezing
my hand. The night had felt longer than any other one before. I
just wanted to go up to bed with him.

“Tomorrow is going to be another long day,” Ezra
said, following us in. “I’ll have to spend all day trying to
convince the police we had nothing to do with this.” Ezra went over
to the fridge and got a bag of blood out of the bottom of the
drawer of the fridge. All the blood used to be kept in the
basement, but Milo and I were pretty lazy.