Deadly Dozen: 12 Mysteries/Thrillers (213 page)

Jaw clenched, Nick ignored it. With his free hand he grabbed Lena’s hand—the one grasping the suitcase—and twisted it with all his might. The crimson glow of destructive energy enveloped them, pulsing like a star about to supernova.

The suitcase fell to the ground between them.

He was drawing from her power and feeding it back upon itself, like opposing magnetic charges forced into a confined space. Lena was becoming as immobilized as Nick.

“You’re staying right here with the rest of us!” he said.

For the first time since he’d met her, Lena’s eyes exhibited fear.

“Serena!” she called out.

For a moment, Serena didn’t respond. She and Gunther were staring at what appeared to be the eye of a cyclone, standing vertical some ten yards away. Tendrils of lightning flashed out from its center. Nick didn’t have time to wonder what it was.

When Lena called out again, Serena released Maria, who fell to the ground.

From over Lena’s shoulder, Nick saw Serena transform into a huge wolf again and charge at them. With his strength draining at an alarming rate there was no way he could keep his hold on Lena and withstand the creature’s attack.

There was only one thing he could do, and he wasn’t at all sure it would work.

CHAPTER NINETY-THREE

JUST BEFORE THE WOLF POUNCED, Nick grabbed Lena by the shoulders, threw her to the ground, then grappled and tumbled around with her.

But he
’
d cast a construct taking on her exact likeness, and apparently it had worked. When the wolf landed on them it seemed confused, the growl rumbling in her throat barely audible. Nick held still.

Hope watched in terror, her eyes moving from the struggle in front of her to the swirling vortex. Lightning crackled around its opening, sending a jolt through the stadium.

The wolf turned to look at it, then back to the two Lenas. With a hideous snarl, it lunged and clamped its jaws around the real Lena.

“Wrong one!” she cried out.

The wolf either didn’t believe her or didn’t care. It picked her up like a rag doll and shook her from side to side.

Nick rolled out of the way and opened the suitcase. Not realizing that his construct had disengaged and he no longer looked like Lena, he fumbled with the controls, trying to get to the retina scan module.

Gunther threw Lito down and rushed over to leap at the wolf, who released Lena and raised its head. It caught Gunther in its jaws, hurled him toward the vortex, then ran from it as fast as it could. What happened next took only a second or two, but the sight of it was horrific. The outline of Gunther’s physical form remained intact while his spirit essence was ripped out of his body and pulled into the vortex, leaving a shriveled mass that fell to the ground like mummified remains.

Nick found the retina scanner.

The timer on the briefcase read: 3:00...2:59...

He got up, but a heavy blow to the head knocked him off his feet.

The scanner fell out of his hand.

Lena stood over him, breathing heavily. Bloody gashes scored her clothes and skin. She kicked the suitcase aside and jabbed Nick’s chest with her sharp heel. She glanced over to the vortex, which howled like the frigid winds of Siberia. “I don’t believe this,” she muttered.

Another power-draining pulse hit Nick. It would result in a short surge of supernatural abilities, followed by more of its loss. But it began with overwhelming pain and nausea. He was too weak at the moment to move under Lena’s foot.

A large hunting knife appeared in her hand.

She glanced around, then back at Nick as she prepared to plunge the blade down.

“Such a pity...”

She thrust the knife straight at Nick’s throat.

He anticipated the cold penetration of steel into his neck.

A flurry of gray and white fur flashed before his eyes, instead. The wolf knocked Lena away and pinned her down with its forepaws. She grabbed the wolf by the neck, undeterred by its bared fangs, and threw a punch straight into its snout.

The wolf staggered, its jaws snapping.

Lena sent another blast of destructive energy into the wolf’s body. It began to tremble as though it were being electrocuted.

Chest heaving, Nick sat up and called to Hope, who was crawling over to him.

“The suitcase!” She picked it up and tossed it to him.

The wolf rolled over onto Lena, then got up and clamped its jaws around her midsection.

“Why are you doing this, Serena!” Lena cried.

Again she sent another jolt of energy at the wolf. It snarled and dropped her.

Right in front of Nick.

Nick set the suitcase down, picked up the knife that had fallen from Lena’s hand, knelt and held the blade to her throat. On the ground, gasping for air, barely moving, she was too weak or stunned to teleport away, or she’d have done it by now.

“Do it, Nikolia!” Snarling, the wolf loomed so close he could feel the heat, smell the blood emanating from her canine breath. “You’re finished, Lena.”

Lena strained. “It’s just a matter of minutes before that nuke—”

“Do you think Morloch
cares
about the bodies, the carnage? He wants their souls.”

Lena’s eyes widened with fear. “
You’re
the auditor?”

“Don’t move,” Nick said.

“Lena, you’ve failed to stop Hope Matheson,” the wolf said. “The accounts must be reconciled.”

One hand on the knife, the other on the suitcase, Nick had to try and get the retina scan over to Serena, though he wasn’t sure it would work on a wolf’s eye.

“Slash her throat open, Nikolai.” Serena said. “Before her strength regenerates. Kill her and I’ll disarm the nuke.”

A quick glance at the clock.

2:20...

2:19...

2:18...

CHAPTER NINETY-FOUR

NICK PRESSED THE KNIFE AGAINST LENA’S NECK. Its handle felt warm in his hands.

“Do it, now!” Serena growled. “You know she wouldn’t spare
you
.”

True, but could he trust this wolf in human clothing?

Before him, just above his eyes…the dark vapor. The wolf stood over him.

“Nick...” Lena’s voice sounded faint. Her eyes sought no sympathy. They did, however, bare the look of someone lost and resigned to her fate.

With just over two minutes to go, he had to act.

Now.

In one swift move he spun around and plunged the blade into the mass of fur standing over them. He wasn’t sure where he’d stabbed the wolf, but it backed away, snapping its jaws at his face. For reasons he couldn’t quite understand, he grabbed Lena’s hand, pulled her up, and pushed her away.

“Get out of here.”

The vortex swelled. A thunderous crack of lightning made the wolf back away further, still eyeing Nick and Lena. It stopped baring its fangs and used its teeth to pull the knife out of its shoulder.

Lena was staring at Nick. “Why—”

“Never mind why. Go!”

With a perplexed look, Lena said, “May you live to regret this.” Then she vanished.

The timer!

A minute and ten seconds...

If only he could get close enough to Serena.

The wolf wasn’t there.

Dammit, where is she?

The answer came from behind—tearing through his shirt with blunt claws. Glaring at him with Serena’s terrifying eyes, the wolf snarled, its fangs red with blood.

Then something astonishing happened.

Using its fur as handholds, Hope scaled the wolf’s back, the hunting knife’s handle between her teeth. She then proceeded to stab at its neck, over and over. The wolf spun around and tried to snap at her but couldn’t reach. It started writhing violently. Any minute now, Hope would be thrown off.

But before that could happen, a pale vapor appeared and instantly resolved into the form of a tall, dark-haired man.

Harold from Angel Resources.

He did not look pleased.

Serena, though more than twice his size as a wolf, backed away, oblivious to the vortex raging behind her.

“Morloch...”

“Where is she?” he said.

“Forget Lena, she was never—”

“I will determine how the accounts are settled!” The Serena-wolf backed even further away. “You were supposed to apprehend her if she failed. Now it is
you
that has failed.”

Serena stopped just a few steps from the vortex, which began pulling at the fur on her back.

Hope held on but was starting to rise up in the wind. Nick called out to her. “Get down!”

She rolled off the wolf’s back and pointed to the suitcase, then to her eye.

The retina scan.

59...

58...

57...

Morloch lifted a finger—pulsing with a crimson glow—and pointed it at the wolf.

“The accounts must be reconciled.”

“Morloch, please—” Serena said as he disappeared. The vortex expanded, charged lightning spider-webbed into the air. The wolf dug its claws into the ground, forelegs trembling with exertion, snapped at Hope, and clamped its fangs on her midsection. As she lifted her off the ground, Hope let out an agonizing scream.

“Hope!” Nick shouted.

She stabbed wildly with the knife. The wolf thrashed about with Hope impaled on its teeth. But the vortex began to pull its physical body backwards into the blazing aperture. Just as its hind legs entered, Hope stabbed the knife into the wolf’s left eye socket, and dug furiously.

It opened its mouth, dropping Hope to the ground.

A howl filled the stadium, then died as the vortex swallowed the wolf completely. All around, cries of pain and terror rang out. All throughout the stadium, spirit forms were being sucked out of the Hernandez and Suarez gunmen, and into the vortex.

But Hope, lying on the ground, held out Serena’s bloody eye to Nick in her right hand.

He knelt down with the retina scanner.

15...

14...

13...

“Oh, God. Hope!”

“Hurry...”

He took the eyeball from Hope, pointed it at the retina scanner.

10...

09...

08...

“It’s not working…the lens is cracked!”

Hope’s eyes fell shut. With a sigh, she dropped her head.

And then Nick remembered something he’d learned from Lena. A long shot, but his only chance.

“Hang on!” He backed up a couple of steps.

06...

05...

Please, just one last surge.
He focused every bit of remaining energy into what he was about to do.

02...

01...

00...

CHAPTER NINETY-FIVE

THE NUKE DETONATED. Searing heat blasted through Nick’s entire being. With every bit of strength remaining, he contained the explosion within a globe of his own destructive red energy. He had never experienced such intense pain and burning before, but he would not release it. Not unless his own body turned to ash.

Limbs shuddering, Nick fell to his knees.

Outside the red energy dome, Hope lay on the ground, bleeding, dying.

He started to feel himself lose containment of the nuclear energy.

No! Not yet!

Then he felt it.

The sharp pain in the eyes.