Unhidden (The Gatekeeper Chronicles Book 1) (9 page)

I
must have passed out because, when I became aware of my surroundings again, it was the smell that hit my nose first. It told me that I was still in the alley. The sounds of angry male voices came to me next. My heavy lids fluttered opened, and the excruciating pain that pulsed through my head made me question whether remaining alive was a good thing.

Relying on discipline, training, and more than a little experience, I forced the pain down deep to be dealt with later. The solid surface of the brick wall was at my back, so I used it to stagger to my feet. When my vision cleared, the tall, lean figure of Alex emerged out of the darkness at the mouth of the alley.

He entered the narrow space cautiously, eyes alert and darting around, taking in the scene before him. He held a long, smooth shaft of wood in his hand, holding it in front of him. If he was planning to bash someone’s skull in with it, that wouldn’t have been the best grip to use.
Amateur
, I thought absently.

Zane was facing Alex and hadn’t noticed my awakening, but I was blocked in by Zane on one side and the shadow demons on the other.

“Zane, let her go,” Alex said in an authoritative tone.

“You know him?” I directed the question to Alex, my voice raspy and hoarse as I tried to speak through my damaged larynx.

Both men ignored me—typical.

“Alex, my old friend,” Zane said, not sounding friendly at all. “I was wondering when you were going to show up. I knew the Council would send their favorite attack dog for her. So, what’s the play: kill, capture, torture, or maybe the Council’s favorite … manipulate?”

Alex’s eyes darted to me then back to Zane. “You have the Council wrong, Zane. I am not here to hurt her. They want her protected.”

“It doesn’t matter what they want. She belongs to Marduk, and you know it. I’m just taking her back home where she belongs. He will decide her fate.”

“That’s not going to happen,” Alex said, not sounding at all intimidated. “You know that, after what happened, this is no longer a family matter and is the responsibility of the Council.”

Confusion morphed into frustration. How dare these two Neanderthals stand there and discuss my fate as if I wasn’t even present?

While Zane and Alex were occupied in their my-dick-is-bigger-than-yours contest, I looked around for my weapon, finding it about twenty feet away, lying between the two men. I then remembered the sword strapped to Zane’s back, which was in perfect reaching distance. I had never wielded a sword before and knew that, if it came to a fight, I would lose miserably. However, all I had to do was brandish it well enough to make them think twice about attacking me, giving me enough time and space to make my way to the Glock.

The sword slid free of its scabbard in one smooth pull, letting loose a light chime. It was a large sword, not like those Japanese blades that ninjas in the movies used. This was more like Conan the Barbarian’s sword, yet it wasn’t as heavy as it looked.

Using two hands, I hefted it with only a little effort, finally getting their attention. When Alex and Zane turned to face me in surprise, I swung the sword in a figure eight, hoping I didn’t look like a complete novice.

“Emma,” said Alex, as if he were trying to calm a spooked horse. “I’m here to help you. Give me the sword.”

I snorted in response.
I know, not very lady-like of me
.

Zane wasn’t quite so accommodating. “You had your chance to die peaceably,” he snarled in his Mr. Hyde persona. “I’m done negotiating.”

Negotiating?
Was that what he thought of what had happened between us only moments earlier?

Leaving me no time to be further affronted, Zane commanded, “Take her!”

His shadow demons wasted no time closing in on either side of me. Alex made a move forward, presumably to stay true to his word and help me, but Zane blocked his path. Unworried and uncaring about what happened to the two of them, I focused my attention on the shadows.

They might not have had brains to speak of, but they weren’t stupid. They came at me together, claws bared. As they approached, I was able to get a closer look at them, although their full features never really came into focus. The most I could make out were glowing yellow eyes in long, gaunt faces, with flowing shadowy cloaks hanging from their skeletal shoulders.

I had nothing to wield against them other than Zane’s sword. Therefore, as claws slashed at me, I raised the weapon in an attempt to block them. I didn’t expect it to work against these insubstantial beings, but relief washed through me as steel clanged against talons. Their bodies might be shadow, but those claws were solid enough to rend, tear, and sever the life from my body.

I swung the sword wildly. It arced through the air with no technique and even less control.
Thrust, parry, slash
. I struggled to think through the right movements, the most solid stance, the best grip. My over-thinking made my movements choppy and uncertain, but I had been holding my own until one of the creatures saw an opening and slashed my left side.

I cried out as a spike of icy pain speared through me. Zane and Alex both paused in their fight as they heard me. I hadn’t been paying much attention to them until this point and saw they now both held wooden staffs and were sweating and panting. How were they fighting each other with sticks, while I got stuck with the actual deadly nightmares? Not fair at all.

“Don’t kill her!” Zane reminded the creatures.

Alex noticed the trouble I was having with the sword and said, “Don’t think. Let your instincts take over.”

Asshole
, I thought. How the hell did wielding a broadsword for the first time ever—and against shadow demons, no less—come as instinct to anyone?

Ignoring both men, I focused on defending myself and retrieving my gun, which was being kicked around unceremoniously by the two men as they fought each other. Why was nothing ever easy?

The area right below my ribs where I had been injured was wet with blood and becoming numb from cold. There wasn’t much pain anymore; however, I was losing the use of those muscles to hypothermia, limiting my movements as I tried to wield the large sword with two hands. The bleeding slowed as the area grew colder. Shivers set in, racking my body as my core temperature dropped a few degrees.

I blocked another slashing attack from the creature on my right and ducked as the claw of the creature on my left passed over my head. I knew they wouldn’t kill me, but Zane had said nothing to stop them from maiming or crippling me. In any case, I had no intention of allowing them to capture me either.

I went on the offensive, slicing the sword through the air, cutting uselessly at shadows. Landing another blow on the claws of one demon, it let out a piercing shriek, but whether it was in anger or pain, I couldn’t tell. It gave the creature extra motivation that it probably didn’t need, since I was losing anyway. It came at me in a fury before I could recover, slashing my shoulder.

My left hand fell away from the sword limply as a deep freeze spread down the length of my arm and up into my collarbone. The sword tip clanged on the pavement before I could compensate for the weapon’s added weight in my single hand. Although, let’s face it, if I couldn’t wield the damn sword well with two hands, there was no way I could do it with one.

With fluid grace, the second shadow demon swept in and sliced ribbons into the back of my right thigh. With a cry, I fell to my knee, my quickly numbing leg no longer able to support my weight.

’Using the sword as a crutch, I staggered back to my feet, placing all of my weight on my good leg. The shadow demons held back, knowing defeated prey when they saw it. However, I wasn’t quite ready to concede just yet.

Taking a calculated risk, I hefted the sword and flung it with a great heave at the creature closest to me. I didn’t wait for it to react, spinning, lunging toward the Glock that had come to a rest against the alley wall about twenty feet away. I landed a few feet short, crawling the remaining distance as the shadows came for me.

A cold talon wrapped around my ankle and yanked, dragging me farther from my goal. It tore through my jeans and into my calf, freezing my left leg. I flipped onto my back. If I was going down, I didn’t want the final blow to come from behind.

Limp and defenseless, the enemy rose up over me. Knowing I would be taken and tortured for God only knew what purpose until death finally took me, fear once again reared its ugly head. It crashed through me like an unending tidal wave, adding to the ceaseless cold that was creeping progressively through my body, turning me into a literal ice princess. That made me think of Jason and Daniel.

A fresh assault of despair washed over me. I would never see them again. They would never know what had happened to me. I would disappear without a trace, and that would kill them. They wouldn’t rest until they had found out the truth. And what if they did learn the truth? That would put them squarely in the crosshairs of a powerful supernatural enemy they couldn’t hope to fight, let alone defeat. They would follow me into death, and I couldn’t accept that.

The overwhelming fear transformed into overwhelming anger as I rebelled against the thought of danger coming to my friends, but I was still physically frozen, prone on the ground. The only exception was my right hand … and the warmth that now radiated from the center of my chest.

Looking down, a deep indigo light pulsed from under the thin material of my torn top. It was radiating from the amulet. I had been wearing the thing around my neck for days, had probably examined it a hundred times, and I hadn’t gotten any closer to understanding its use or significance. Now, at the time of my greatest need, it had chosen to come to life. Was that what triggered it?

I reached a shaking hand inside my top and pulled it out. The light pouring forth intensified and spilled into every corner and crevice of the alley. The shadow demons that had been looming over me screeched and wailed more sharply than any other sound they had previously made. Just when I thought my eardrums would start bleeding, the creatures disappeared. Whether they had fled to safety or had been obliterated, I couldn’t say, and I didn’t really care. I was simply relieved to be rid of them.

The light in the amulet gradually died out as if it, too, knew I was safe from harm. When all was dark again, an intense weariness flooded through me. All of my energy reserves had been depleted, and I was running on fumes. All I wanted to do was close my eyes and sleep for days, but I still had Zane and Alex to deal with.

Digging deep into sheer will and determination, I pulled myself along the cold concrete floor to where my gun still lay. Grasping the Glock in my hand was probably the same feeling a child had when snuggling a security blanket. I propped myself into a sitting position against the alley wall and placed the gun in my lap.

While debating whether I even had the energy to lift it, I finally got a good look at what was happening between Zane and Alex , and I was completely unprepared for it.

Although both men were bearing long, wooden staffs, they weren’t using them to bludgeon each other. Instead, odd-looking symbols that covered the smooth polished wood were glowing brightly, throwing what looked like blasts of energy at each other. Streams of white hot lightning flew from Zane’s staff, only to crash into an invisible barrier erected in front of Alex that shimmered almost imperceptibly when struck. A few motes of liquid fire splattered to the ground, alighting the drier pieces of trash, which burned out quickly. Alex returned in kind with a volley of ice shards that Zane countered with a wave of his staff, redirecting them to harmlessly hit the alley wall.

The energies being thrown around the tight space of the alley formed themselves into swirling ribbons of flame, jagged forks of ice, and glittering bursts of dust and ash. For a time, I could do nothing except gape at the power, intensity, and sheer magnificence of the attacks.

Blinking rapidly, I attempted to pull myself back to the reality of the situation. Looking more closely at the two men, I realized neither appeared to be in very good shape. Zane staggered on his feet after deflecting the last attack, looking for all the world like he was about to pass out. His skin was pale and glistening with sweat, looking like thin parchment stretched over hollow bones. Dark circles hung under his eyes, and he was breathing heavily.

Zane pulled it together and countered, throwing another attack at Alex, who fell to one knee, cradling his arm when the energy hit the shield he had been holding in place. Deflecting the blow had clearly caused him physical pain, even though it had never actually touched him.

This was ridiculous. These two were at a stalemate, and they couldn’t keep up the volleys much longer. Someone was going to throw a blow that the other would no longer be able to avert, and then the battle would be over. However, it was impossible to guess who would luck out in the end. I didn’t like those odds, and I was prepared to fix the game in my favor.

Zane had tried to kill me and come very close to succeeding. I knew he wouldn’t give up until he had completed his mission; as a result, my life would be in danger as long as we both kept breathing. I wasn’t certain where Alex stood, but he hadn’t yet posed any threat to me. If he did, I would take care of him at that time, but until then, I had no good reason to kill him.

I wrapped my weak fingers around the handle of the Glock and raised my arm. Between the exhaustion and the uncontrollable shivering from the shadow demons’ icy attack, I was struggling to take steady aim. When I got a clear shot, however, I took it.

The sound of the Glock’s discharge was a loud crack, painful to my ears. Although the gun was fitted with a suppresser, in the enclosed space of the alley, the sound of the shot was magnified and reverberated off the walls.

My aim had been off. I hit Zane in the shoulder instead of the head. He went spinning with the force of the bullet and slammed into the opposite wall, dropping his staff and clutching his wound, blood leaking out from between his fingers. He looked at me wild-eyed and in pain as I kept the weapon aimed at him. However, I simply couldn’t hold it any longer.