Guardian (34 page)

He traversed the landing strip, but just before climbing aboard the aircraft through an open cargo door he turned and stared at the tree line where she watched. Her breath caught when she realized he looked right at her. Everything in her wanted to move, to shrink farther into the trees, but she held her ground. There was no way he could see her. Impossible.

But when a slow smile spread across his face, she had to wonder.

I’m going after her, Will.” Mace brushed past Vine and headed to the door, with Raven right behind him. “Me too,” Raven said.

Upon waking, they’d discovered Nikki missing. It wasn’t until the females arrived a few minutes later and checked her room that they realized she’d been gone all night.

“We don’t even know where she is,” Glimmer said.

“All I know is that she’s in trouble. We need to find her now.” Mace’s mind ran through scenarios, especially those where Vessler had somehow gotten to her, kidnapped her. Or maybe she’d gone back to him. Her behavior following the party yesterday had certainly been strange.

Will nodded. “Let’s spread out. Glimmer and Winter, go to the lab. See if she’s there.”

The girls nodded and leapt from the living room.

“Vegan and Zero, check her parents’ house. Vine, the Omega warehouse.”

“I’ll go with you two,” Will said to Mace and Raven. “We’ll go to Vessler’s front door.”

“What if they won’t let us in?” Mace asked.

“Then we’ll let ourselves in.” Will’s apprehension was evident. “She’s at too vulnerable a place to be with Vessler. Even for a short time.”

When the pick-up truck pulled into the driveway, Mace, Raven, and Will ran toward it. It had to carry news of Nikki. Maybe she was fine, and had only gone to Krissy’s house or something. But as the guy stepped out—someone Mace remembered from Waterside High—his worst fear was confirmed. Nikki was in trouble.

Nikki peeked inside the open plane door, but couldn’t see Vessler. Voices floated out to her. From the conversation, he must be talking to the pilot who’d landed the plane. Words like fuel and landing gear drifted from the discussion.

Off to the left, another truck rumbled down the gravel road headed toward the airfield. She had to move now. Nikki stepped onboard the plane and pulled the gun from the holster. She felt queasy instantly and hoped she had the nerve to finish the job.

He was facing the pilot and hadn’t seen her yet. Vessler’s crisp white shirt was tucked into designer jeans. His gold bracelet glinted where his hand was clasped around the pilot’s chair. Nikki’s heart had stopped hammering and settled into a sluggish rhythm, making her legs and arms weaker by the second.

She’d prefer to be alone with Vessler, but this was the best she could expect. Everything was right. She tucked behind a stack of large wooden boxes, a large number of which filled the cargo space. Nikki raised a hand and swept sweat from her brow. The night’s restless sleep was playing against her. Her legs were jelly.

As if hearing her thoughts, Vessler answered, “It’s titanium, my lady.”

Nikki’s eyes widened in horror, seeing the boxes for the first time as what they really were: stacks and rows of titanium. Which used to mean nothing to her personally. But now that she was a Halfling, it was her kryptonite.

Again he answered her thoughts. “You walked right into your weakness, my dear.” Then he turned to face her and motioned for her to step out. “Come on, Nikki. You don’t hide behind boxes. You’re a warrior.”

She swallowed and stepped out. “Yes, I am. You saw to that, didn’t you?”

He sighed heavily, and she wanted to smack that condescending grin from his face. It made her feel small, like a disobedient child. “Training you has been my life’s crowning achievement.”

Nikki leveled the gun at him.

Vessler only smiled. “Really, dear? A handgun? That’s the best, most creative thing you could come up with?”

“I’m not trying to be creative, Vessler, I’m trying to get a job done.”

He angled a look over his shoulder at the pilot. “Take off,” he barked.

Nikki panicked. Take off? Was he kidding? What would happen if she fired the gun while in the air and missed? But it was too late to wonder, because before she could protest, the plane was bounding along the runway. And she felt weaker with every leaden movement. She had to think. She’d had the advantage; now it was gone.

Think like Vessler.

Nikki braced herself against one of the boxes. “Toss me your gun.”

Vessler always kept a small handgun in an ankle holster.

When he refused to comply, she screamed it at him, but he swatted the air like one swats a fly and shrugged. “Fine. We’ll play your game. For a while. Though I warn you, Nikki, I make up my own rules.”

He propped a foot on a box and removed the Robar ninemillimeter, then slid it halfway to her. It wasn’t as far away from him as she’d like, but it would have to do.

“Do you really think you’re going to shoot me?” he asked.

“No. I know I’m going to shoot you.”

“Then what are you waiting for?” He took a step closer, tightening the twenty-some-foot gap between them.

Think like Vessler. Right now, they were pretty evenly matched. She had a gun, but he had a plane in the air. What happened if she missed? Would a bullet through the plane’s fuselage cause it to crash?

“Drop altitude,” he told the pilot. “Then rise high as she’ll take us.”

The engine noise changed, and Nikki felt her body being propelled toward Vessler. Instead of fighting the momentum, she threw herself forward and crashed into his chest. He hadn’t braced for that. A desperate gasp of air left his lungs as he landed on the floor. She tumbled on top of him.

Putting the gun in his face, she pressed her free hand against his throat as she felt the plane begin to incline.

The rumble of a laugh surprised her. But not as much as the snap of a handgun to her right, cocked and ready. Vessler raised the Robar—which must have slid to him in the dive—inches from her nose.

“Here we are again, Nikki. Check.” Vessler’s training in the weeks spent at the mansion came back to her. Never allow yourself to be in a fight that’s evenly matched. Find the advantage. An opponent always has a weakness. Use it against him.

Why didn’t she pull the trigger? She wanted to, she just couldn’t.

“You can’t kill me, Nikki.”

Tears stung her eyes and her gun trembled. “And you can’t kill me. So we’re at an impasse.”

“You’re wrong.” He pressed the gun against her cheek. “I could pull this trigger easily.” And in the depths of his eyes, she knew he could. But she also sensed he wouldn’t. There was a lie hiding in his words.

“Then do it,” she bluffed. “If I’m dead, so is your plan.”

He snatched the barrel from her face. “Sadly, you’re right. I suppose you think that gives you the advantage.”

“Not really. What gives me the advantage is knowing that when I pull this trigger you die and your plan dies with you.”

Vessler laughed. “Oh, Nikki. Sometimes you think too small. You can only destroy my flesh. You can’t kill my soul or the essence of who and what I really am. It will live on to see all my dreams reach fruition. Killing me only solidifies your transformation into what you were born to be, what you’ve been trying so hard to deny.”

Cold washed over her. “Killing me will complete you, Nikki. I win either way.”

Panic crept at the edge of her conscience. She knew he was right. And when he raised the gun to her again, she almost hoped he’d pull the trigger.

The shot rang through the airplane, and Nikki felt the engine’s drastic change. Her eyes followed Vessler’s hand and the weapon. He’d shot the pilot through the back.

“What did you do?” Nikki jumped off Vessler and pressed her back to the wall of the plane that was holding steady, regardless of the loss of pilot.

“Taking the advantage, of course. You see, Nikki, you have two choices: Leap and take me with you, and we continue our chess match on the ground, or leap alone and leave me to die in the airplane that’s headed straight for downtown St. Louis … and all those innocent people.”

Nikki’s mind raced. Leap? She couldn’t leap; she didn’t have wings. A thought struck her. “A Halfling can’t leap with this much titanium.”

His face flashed shock but he quickly recovered. “No problem.” Vessler moved to the side door, unlocked its safety bar, and slid the door open. “We can jump. Your wings can open once you’re away from the titanium.”

Wings open. Ha. They were going to die. Both of them. And no matter what happened, the plane would crash into downtown St. Louis and kill hundreds of others. Hate built inside her.

Vessler, who’d snaked to the opposite side of the plane, had noticed her emotional shift, if his smug look was any indication. But what she couldn’t understand was why he was so willing to give up his life.

“You’re such an evil man.”

“Oh, I’m not evil. You are, Nikki—bouncing from one side of the war to the other. You’re the worst kind of evil, because you justify playing on both teams and never really choose a side. You know what that means? The rest of us have a purpose; we all serve a greater power. But you, selfish little spoiled Nikki, you only serve yourself. You’re already on the way to being the general who will lead my dark army, and the best part is you don’t even realize it because you’re too busy manipulating people into doing what you want.”

Out the front window, she could see land, the first signal that the plane was slowly going down.

Nikki’s knees buckled and she dropped to sit on the floor. “If I’m so evil and destined to serve you, maybe it’s best we both die. Right here, right now.”

Shock replaced the calm on his face. Vessler leapt toward her, but Nikki raised the gun and fired. His hands clamped his leg as he crumbled.

“God, please forgive me,” she cried, throat closing on the words.

Vessler jerked a cabinet open and dragged supplies from inside. He found a bungee cord and tied it around his wound to stop the bleeding. Why would he do that? We’ll both be dead in another five minutes.

“Nikki, please. Leave me here, but you can jump.”

She chanced a spiteful look at him.

“Go, Nikki. You deserve to live.”

“A moment ago I deserved to die.”

“Live, Nikki.”

“With the fact that this plane will kill innocent people? No, Damon.”

He didn’t want to die. She could see it in his face, the way he struggled to stop the blood flow. But she wouldn’t be bluffed this time.

Again, they were at a stalemate. Think like Vessler.

Vessler loved his life. Yes, if she jumped alone, it would ensure her turning into a dark creature, but he’d be dead, at least physically. No, there’s no way he’d give up his life that easily. Nikki’s eyes drifted to the pilot, now slumped over a board of controls with blood seeping from the wound to his back. Then her eyes found Vessler’s.

“You want me to jump because you can fly the plane.”

He tried to cover his reaction, but his nostrils flared. She’d found him out. “I’ll survive, you’ll land the plane, but my willingness to let you go down will be my ruin? That’s what you’re gambling on.”

Fire burned in the depths of his inklike eyes.

But, being Vessler, his loss of composure was only temporary. “If you don’t jump, we’ll crash. And all those deaths will be your fault.”

“It won’t matter. I’ll be dead too.”

“No, you won’t. You’re a Halfling, Nikki. You’d be amazed at what you can survive.”

Was he right? She couldn’t be sure. Could she live with the deaths of innocent people, with innocent blood on her hands? With renewed vigor, she lifted the gun so it was aimed at his chest. “Land the plane.” She had to find his weakness.

“That’s an empty threat, my lady. If you shoot me, I can’t land the plane.”

She cocked the gun. “Land the plane, Vessler.” Then she saw it. Hurt in his eyes when she called him Vessler. Nikki saw her opportunity and softened her voice. She was his weakness. “Land the plane, Damon. Please. Don’t you want to watch me fulfill my destiny? Don’t you want to be there? To be able to smell the scent of fresh kill on my flesh and taste the vengeance you’ve worked for?”

He was like a deer caught in the beam she was casting. It was working.

She angled a step closer and chanced a glance through the front window. The earth was moving closer, green blobs becoming individual trees. She had only another couple of minutes at the most. “Please, Damon.”

But a fierce flash of resistance overtook him. “No. You’re not as strong as I thought you were.”

She frowned.

“You couldn’t even shoot me—at least not to kill.”

The flash of the gun surprised her, and she stared at her hand as if it belonged to someone else. She’d pulled the trigger. Her aim had dipped to his opposite leg, and now Vessler crumpled over to grab the new injury, his gun flying from his hand and landing behind a box.

She hadn’t meant to shoot. Had she?

When his face came up to meet hers it was red with anger, and sweat poured from him like the blood pouring from his new wound. Hands slick with both, he reached for a strap to tie around his newly wounded leg.