Manaconda Page 4

  “I do believe you,” he told her at length. His voice was quiet, but melodic in a way that was powerful and profound.

  “Can we do anything to stop this from happening,” she pleaded, “anything at all?”

  His black eyes seemed to be focused on something far, far away. Outside the confines of this room, or even of this world. “You are absolutely certain this was more than just a dream? You must be sure…we must all be sure…”

  “Yes,” she breathed a deep sigh of immense relief. She’d known this man would be the one to go to with this crisis. “I’m positive. I could smell the blood,” she shuddered, “and I could hear their screams. I saw everything so clearly—”

  Grimm struggled to gather his wits, straightening his broad shoulders in preparation for what must come next. He worried now for his dear friends, Cady and Obsidian. Steffy was a powerful psychic and it was unlikely that her vision would be false now simply because he wished it so. And he did wish it so. Damn the Horde…he was weary of this war. “Dwell on it no more, Steffy. It will do you no good to worry.” He felt like a hypocrite saying it. “Gather the others and wait for my return here. It will take me some time to find them—Obsidian and Cady are both good Hunters, and therefore harder for me to track than most.”

  Steffy nodded, shoulders slumping as she hoped against hope that she’d been quick enough informing The Traveler.

  Grimm rose to tower over her and placed a light hand upon her shoulder. His gaze made Steffy feel dizzy, but at the same time it was comforting in its intensity. She’d gotten his full attention—it was what she’d hoped for, what she’d wanted. If anyone could find and save Cady and Sid, he was the one to do it.

  “I will find them,” he promised her, as if he’d read her very thoughts. “I will find them, this I can promise you. But…” His eyes drifted off again, focusing on that far away place Steffy could not see. “I only hope I will find them before it is too late. We must all be prepared for the worst this time…”

  Without another word, The Traveler disappeared. Steffy turned and ran to find her husband…praying under her breath to all the gods she’d ever heard of that Grimm would find their friends in time.

  Chapter Four

  Cady felt the force of the blow as if it were but an echo in her body and brain.

  One moment she was standing at perfect ease, staring into the loving eyes of her husband. The next, she was flying through the air with a starburst of pain in her mind.

  The pain was a shock, but her alarm at being caught in such an unguarded position was even more surprising, as she flew through the air and slammed into a tree with enough force to jar it from base to tip. Dimly, as though from miles away, she heard the splintering of the tree’s mighty trunk as she hit, and it was this sound, rather than any pain, that let her know she’d been well and truly injured.

  But she was a Shikar now, no longer human, and as such she healed quickly—if she but gathered her strength of will to do so. And she had a formidable will, no matter how badly injured.

  She rose unsteadily to her feet and darted a look around the clearing, addled but not utterly impaired by her weakness. At first she saw nothing but a blurry haze of trees and shadows. But then, with a cold, terrified heart, she released that not all the tree trunks were as they seemed. Regarding one oddly textured trunk, she looked up, and up, and up its great height. She swallowed a shriek, craning her neck to see the largest, most horrific creature she could have ever imagined, even in her darkest nightmares, towering over her menacingly.

  “Cady, run!” Sid shouted, but his voice was strained.

  Cady had never run from a fight in her life, and neither had Obsidian. That he told her to flee now meant that circumstances were dire indeed.

  Dire or not, she wasn’t about to meet her end with her back turned from her foe. No matter how big he was.

  Her anger was like a furnace. Her blood was hot as molten lava. She felt the wash of her power like the roar of an ocean wave that rose higher and higher until it utterly consumed her. That power burned hot from her scalp to her toes, and at her fingertips the power found release. Cady shot forth a blinding stream of fire from her hands, dousing the giant’s legs in liquid flames that lit up the dark night.

  The giant shrieked, its howl of pain so full of evil and madness that it made the very earth tremble in its wake.

  Without a second thought for her own safety, Cady ran swiftly in the direction of Sid’s cry. When she reached him, what she saw stunned her. At the feet of yet another giant Daemon lay her husband, bleeding upon the ground. His stomach had been deeply lacerated by the monster, who was already raising its enormous, taloned hand to administer another strike.

  “Nooo!” Cady screamed mindlessly, racing to reach her mate before the blow fell.

  Obsidian’s eyes met hers, full of the fire and power of his indomitable spirit. Even in such a hopeless situation, he was a formidable warrior to the end. “I told you to run, woman,” he rasped, reaching for her. But it was too late.

  The Daemon struck.

  Cady screamed again, tripped, and fell flat on her face. She roared her anger and growing panic, struggling to rise. Her nose was broken, blood was pouring down her face, but she neither felt the pain of it nor cared. She regained her feet again at last and raced the last few sprinting steps that separated her from her husband and the Daemon who dared attack him.

  With an audible snick, her Foil blades burst forth from her knuckles, and she used them to launch herself at the Daemon’s back and climb her way up it. Sinking the blades deep, viciously twisting them as she shimmied her way up, she felt a mad grin twisting her bloodied lips. “Hijo de puta! How do you like that shit, huh?”

  The beast roared, kicking the body of her husband as it flailed to reach behind its back and grab her. Cady’s heart nearly stopped as Sid flew across several feet of ground, his form limp and lifeless. Her rage increased a hundred fold and with it, her adrenaline.

  “You fucking bastard, you monster, you goddamned Daemon!” she roared, stabbing her Foils deep into its black, slimily-scaled hide. Over and over she stabbed it, her attack so fast and so uncontrolled that even the Daemon seemed shocked by it. “Die, die, die, pendejo! Die!”

  The monster was twenty feet tall if it was an inch and packed full of strength and vicious power. It tried to shake her off its back, like a dog would shake itself free of water, but Cady held on, fueled by her rage and her terror. Her Foils were both sharp and poisonous, but the Daemon was so large and so strong that it appeared completely unaffected by the venom of her blades. Cady valiantly made her way up higher on the beast’s shoulders and, raising her arm back for a deadly swipe, she brought her blades down with the intent to stab them into the thick neck of her foe.

  Perhaps the blow would have killed it, perhaps not. She would never know. For her blow never connected. She had forgotten about the other monster. And now it made its presence known to her, sending her flying through the air with but a swipe of its hand.

  Cady flew through the trees once again, traveling many yards away from the clearing now, coming to a jarring rest at the base of a great, old oak. Now both of the Daemons were focused upon her, the ground shuddering with each step they took towards her. Weak, angry, and afraid—for Obsidian more than for herself, because if she died here he would be left wounded and completely unprotected—she refused to believe he was dead. She felt the bitter taste of hopeless defeat fill her mouth. In a last desperate attempt for survival, she let her power take over. Let it consume her. Let it become all that was left of her will to fight and to triumph.

  Cady freely and gladly fed the flames that seemed always to lurk beneath the surface of her skin. Knowing it was madness, knowing also that she had no choice, she allowed the fires of rage and battle to consume her. She let loose all of her control, uncaring if the resulting inferno flattened her, the forest, or even the entire town, just so long as it killed these Daemons. Just so long as it saved Obsidian, and maybe e
ven herself, from total defeat.

  The fire burned. The flames roared. Her vision blurred with the heat of it, and her blood threatened to burst from her veins like a violent eruption of lava. Cady screamed with the pain. It was too much power for her to hold, to control. She had to set it free before it killed her.

  From out of the darkness, Obsidian streaked forth, Foils at the ready, to hack and slash at the legs of one of the Daemons. That he was alive and whole nearly stunned Cady into losing the last desperate hold she had on her power.

  “Obsidian,” she whispered in awe and relief, tasting the blood in her mouth like sweet, salty syrup.

  Sid slashed his enemy over and over, drawing a river of black, corrupt blood from its vile flesh. The Daemon turned to swat at his attacker and tripped. It was a small stumble for a being so large and powerful, but it was enough for Sid to gain a brief upper hand. He moved with such speed and agility that Cady, eyes still blurred from the strain of holding her power in check for a few precious seconds longer, couldn’t clearly see him. Unfortunately, this kept her from paying proper attention to the second Daemon, who advanced upon her with surprising stealth considering how large he was.

  While she watched, unaware of the danger that lurked, Sid sallied forth with his razor sharp Foils and opened a gaping wound in the chest of the brute. Another swipe of the blades. And another. And another. And finally, at last, Sid had the creature’s heart in his hands. The giant fell with a mighty crash. It echoed like a sonic boom through the clearing as it landed.

  But not before taking one last swipe at Obsidian.

  A talon, three feet in length and at least as big around as a man’s fist, lodged deep into Obsidian’s midriff, and then the Daemon fell still.

  Sid made no sound. He merely sank to his knees, still clutching the heart of his fallen foe in his fists. As if the effort to move were took all of his remaining strength, he turned his head to lock gazes with Cady. Time stilled. Silence reigned. The light of his Shikar-yellow eyes dimmed and he fell to his side in the grass.

  Cady screamed his name as her heart shattered into a thousand icy shards. The Daemon that stalked her moved to strike, but Cady saw him just in time to roll out of its reach. At last she released the fire of her rage and pain to engulf this remaining monster, who was so close now that she could have reached out and touched its tar-like flesh. The murky orange-red hue of its eyes seemed to hold some surprise as Cady’s flames shot forth in liquid streams to burn them completely out of their sockets.

  Screaming again as the power seemed to burst forth from her very skin, Cady felt, rather than saw, the enormous fireball that shot from her outstretched hands into the very center of the Daemon’s chest. The release of so much power all at once made her very bones feel as if they had caved in upon themselves. She was an Incinerator, but not one as strong as this. Her level of abilities had never burned so hot or so fierce as they did now, when the hopelessness of the situation was at its peak.

  Obsidian was dead. She could feel it in her heart. In her soul. He breathed no more. And without him…she had no will to fight anymore.

  Her injuries consumed her. Both physical and spiritual, she was utterly and mortally wounded.

  With one last mighty roar, the Daemon fell. Like a Titan cast into Tartarus, it crumbled towards the earth, knocking over trees and bracken while its chest and heart burned to dust within its own breast.

  Cady didn’t care. There was no triumph in her heart. She had no more strength or will to even move, and as the Daemon at last crumpled to lie still upon the ground, she found herself pinned beneath the crushing weight of one of the beast’s limbs.

  Turning her head, trapped at the angle that she was, she could not see past the destruction of the park clearing to glimpse the still form of her husband. Her body and her heart were broken. Her spirit crushed as surely as the lower half of her form beneath the Daemon’s weight. As her breath rasped in her bruised chest, she wondered, almost calmly, what would come next?

  The Daemons were back. And they were stronger than ever. She would surely die here, just as Sid had. Who would find them? Who would carry the news back to the Shikar Alliance of their defeat and passing? Would they know the truth—that the Daemons had managed somehow to pass unnoticed until the last moment, when they struck?

  Cady was a Hunter as well as an Incinerator. She had the gift of knowing when these monsters lurked near. So, too, did Obsidian. Why hadn’t they felt the warning of their enemies before feeling the first blow? So many questions, none of them with easy or ready answers. If only they’d been more careful. If only they hadn’t underestimated the Daemon Horde. If only…

  “Oh Sid,” she whispered, tasting the bubbling blood in her mouth with every word. “My love, my heart, my life…” Her head roared. “Armand.” She felt the sting of tears, but not much else anymore. Each breath hurt worse than the one that struggled into her lungs before it. “Oh baby, I did so want to see you become the man I know you’ll grow to be…Armand.”

  If only he could hear her. If only Sid could have survived the attack, to live and help their son learn the lessons only a father could teach. To remind their son every day how much his Mommy had loved him. To show him the ways of a warrior—courage and selflessness even in the face of danger or death. But Obsidian was no more. And if the fates were kind, she knew they’d be together again in the afterlife.

  After all, what would any heaven be like, if she didn’t have him there to argue with all the time?

  A strange sort of peace engulfed her. Like the thick warmth of a familiar blanket, long loved and used. Would she, a woman long without peace in her life, at last feel the safety of Death himself as he came and took her in his arms? It seemed so perfect, even in its irony, and Cady felt her cracked lips smile.

  “I’m coming soon, my love…”

  “Not too soon, I hope,” said a voice not too far from where she lay.

  As if in a dream, Cady turned her head to see a tall, hooded and cloaked figure standing over the place where she felt sure her husband had fallen.

  “Grimm,” she whispered in sudden, unexpected relief.

  The man turned to her, reached up, and lowered the deep hood that concealed his features. The man revealed to her was a stranger with clear, deep pools of golden light for eyes and the face of a fallen demigod.

  “Don’t you touch him, motherfucker!” she cried out brokenly.

  He regarded her solemnly for a long, silent moment, before bending down to the ground where Sid lay. Cady could not see what he was doing, there was too much brush and disheveled earth between them.

  “Goddamn it, I told you to leave him the fuck alone,” she screamed.

  The stranger rose once again, and this time he stalked towards her on feet that made no sound and left no footprints. “Do you kiss your mother with that mouth?” he asked haltingly, as if unused to speaking so many words at once. As if the phrase, or the very words themselves were unfamiliar to him.

  This stranger was no stranger to her…she realized with a jolt of surprise and confusion. This was the man who had saved her but a year ago, from a horrible wounding at the hands of a Daemon.

  “Who are you?” she asked, almost fearing his answer.

  The shining-eyed savior reached out to lay one of his hands upon her. A soft, warm tingle suffused her form from head to toe. It was as if he reached inside of her to fill up all her hopeless emptiness and hurt with bright, golden, healing light. All the pain and injury of her physical form faded, as if it had never been. She barely felt the weight of the Daemon on her legs now, and had no discomfort as she lay upon the hard ground.

  “Why are you helping me like this? Just who in the hell are you?” She gritted out, reaching out to grip his wrist in a furious hold.

  “I am who I am and that is all you need know.”

  “Fucker, I hate riddles! What did you do to Sid?”

  “Your mate is healed, as are you.” He rose with a graceful movement that would h
ave shamed even the greatest Shikar, and reached out with both his hands for the gigantic form of the Daemon that still pinned her.

  “Aaargh!” Foils sliced through the stranger’s middle as Obsidian streaked out of the darkness behind to attack.

  “Nooo!” Cady called to warn Sid away, even as her heart and soul rejoiced in stunned disbelief that he was alive.

  But she needn’t have bothered with the warning. As the Foils cleared the form of the man—slicing completely through him in a blow that should have left him in two separate halves—naught but dust flew forth from the wound and he was left completely unharmed. The stranger turned, motioned oddly with his hand, and Sid fell back onto the ground again.

  “Damn you—”

  “He is unharmed.” The man turned back to the Daemon’s corpse, laid his hands upon it, and closed his burning bright eyes.

  The giant turned to a fine dust that immediately scattered upon a sudden, strong gust of wind. Cady choked, eyes and throat stinging from the unexpected dust storm. She scrambled to her feet, avoiding the stranger completely, and lunged for Obsidian, who was already rising from his position on the ground.

  “My love, my love,” she cried over and over, raining kisses down upon his face even as the dust and her tears mingled with the blood that still covered their forms. “You’re alive!”

  “Get behind me,” Sid pushed her back, eyeing the stranger menacingly.

  “No Sid, he saved us. It’s okay.” She ran her hands over him from head to toe, seeking out injuries and finding none.

  “Who are you?” Sid barked imperiously at the stranger, swatting Cady’s hands away and pressing her behind him as best he could. “I don’t recognize you, yet you look like a Shikar.”