Stricken (The War Scrolls Book 1) (22 page)

“Because of you, they killed Cromiel,” the Halfling said, rage in his voice.

“And sealed the fate of the Fallen.” Halphas laughed loudly. “Had it not been for that…we never would have known about the virus. Or you. None of this would have happened.” He paused. “You know, our friend here never managed to make your brother scream before he killed him. I bet you’ll scream for him, though, won’t you? Just like you did for his brother.”

Aubrey struggled in the Halfling’s hold, terror for herself finally setting in.

***

“Stop!” Killian shouted, grasping on to a tree trunk when his legs threatened to buckle beneath him. Sweet Heaven,
La Morte Nera
worked fast. He’d known that all along, of course. After seeing it time and again, how could he not? But it was different when his body was the one being viciously attacked. He felt the disease working through his system like a foul poison, turning blood to acid in his veins.

He had a feeling the way fear and adrenaline pumped through him wasn’t helping slow the spread of infection, but he couldn’t shut out the fear, either. Not with Aubrey out there, in the clutches of a demon and a Nephilim outcast who wanted God only knew what.

If they didn’t find her soon…

“There are werewolves ahead,” he groaned when Jason jogged toward him, a question in his eyes. “At least six.”

He couldn’t be sure if there were any more than that. There were too many voices, too many distractions. Even the sound of Zee’s heartbeat was beginning to confuse him.

They had to find her soon.

“Infected?” Jason asked.

Killian shook his head, uncertain if the werewolves were infected or not. They weren’t close enough yet for him to be able to tell.

“Dammit.”

Jason called out to the rest of the Elioud, sharing the news.

They accepted it without complaint.

Killian had never fought with the Elioud at his back, but he was grateful for the chance now. They might not have seen Aubrey in a long time, but they still considered her one of them. And they defended their own. Like Killian, most knew they probably wouldn’t survive the virus. They’d come to terms with that when the first of their friends had been infected. Nothing they’d seen in the weeks since had changed that opinion any, but they were ready to face whatever lay between them and Aubrey, whether it was a pack of infected werewolves or a demon army.

Too damn bad they were going to die. It would have been nice to know that, when he was gone, she would have these Elioud shifters standing between her and the rest of this world. Without them, she’d be alone. Completely defenseless.

That burned worse than the virus.

“The virus works fast,” Jason said, catching Killian’s eye when he stumbled over a root. “Anthony was gone in a matter of hours.”

“Yeah,” Killian muttered, pushing away from the tree and adjusting the hellcat in his arms. He probably shouldn’t have brought the kitten, but he couldn’t leave him behind to wander out through the broken door. Besides, Aubrey would want to see him when they found her.

“Let’s go.”

Jason took off again, running in a diagonal away from Killian for several yards before straightening out.

Killian ran as quickly as he could.

It wasn’t fast enough. He couldn’t stay upright and maintain his usual speed at the same time. It would seem that the humans had gotten it right after all: dying really did suck.

Chapter Twenty-One

Aubrey felt weak, completely drained, as her captors slowed to a walk. She’d fought hard to get free to no avail. The Nephilim giant had paid her no more attention that he had Zee when the kitten attacked his leg.

That was humiliating and fury-inducing at once.

Aubrey was tired of being weak and unable to fight back. The Nephilim, death, disease, demons. It seemed as if her life were nothing more than one big lesson in ineptitude after another. She wasn’t strong like Killian or fast like Aaron had been. She wasn’t brilliant like her father had been or beautiful like her mom. She was just Aubrey. The tiny bit of angel blood running through her veins was, apparently, the only thing special about her.

Killian had bonded with her because of it. The demons wanted to exploit it.

Sometimes being human sucked.

She gasped for breath as Tomiel halted, ending the jarring torment she’d endured for the last few hours. Her gasp turned to a whimper when a massive shadow slipped from beneath the trees.

The shadow broke into smaller shadows.

Nine werewolves.

Aubrey had never seen a werewolf before. Funny considering she’d run with Elioud shapeshifers and fallen in love with a Warrior of Light, but true nonetheless. Werewolves were new to her. They looked a lot like the Elioud did, except humanity didn’t shine in their eyes.

Violence did.

“Alaric,” Tomiel sneered, dropping Aubrey to the ground.

She landed hard on her hands and knees, pain shooting from her wrist up her arm.

No one paid her any attention when she whimpered.

One of the werewolves lifted his muzzle. He was huge and appeared to have as little love for the Halfling as the Halfling did for him. They circled carefully around each other like rival gangs. Aubrey couldn’t see clearly in the darkness, but she had a feeling the expression on the werewolf’s face match the look of disgust on Tomiel’s.

“There’s a Fallen warrior, a Nephilim, following us,” Halphas said as the Halfling hefted Aubrey by her arms and tossed her over his shoulder again.

She didn’t even bother trying to fight him off. It wouldn’t get her anywhere.

“He’s infected. You know what to do.”

Aubrey cried out at that, another bolt of pain for Killian ripping through her. He wouldn’t stand a chance against nine werewolves.

The werewolf snarled in response.

“Kill any he infects, and catch up when you’re finished.”

The werewolves broke away, seemingly dissolving into shadow.

Aubrey closed her eyes, tears falling for Killian.

***

The stench of werewolf grew stronger, completely overpowering Aubrey’s scent as Killian and the Elioud continued to race through the trees. They’d been running for hours, and he couldn’t tell if they were gaining ground or not. He wanted to rip the marsh apart—though, he was no longer sure if that was his desire or the virus talking.

He was burning up.

Acid seeped from his pores like sweat.

Every step was a little bit harder than the last.

His focus faded in and out. Half the time, he couldn’t even hear Jason’s soft commands before they skittered away like bugs on an overturned log.

“They’re less than a mile ahead,” he panted, weaving drunkenly through the trees as he tore a strip from his shirt. He wound it into a sling as best he could and settled the hellcat inside before freeing his knives from their sheaths.

The rest of the Elioud ran harder, closing ranks until the spear point they’d been running was little more than a tight
V
on Killian’s heels. Anger and excitement rippled around them. Their paws hit the ground as one, sounding like a war drum in his head.

The thoughts of the werewolves began to bounce back toward him in discordant hums.

He focused as best he could, trying to make sense of the images trickling through.

Aubrey. They’d seen her. Less than half an hour ago.

A little of the tension raging through Killian lessened. She wasn’t physically injured. Not yet. That fact didn’t ease the bloodlust boiling like lava through his veins, though. The two who had taken her were going to pay. He was no longer sure if that was him or the virus talking, either.

“Soon,” he gritted out, holding the knives loosely in his hands as the hellcat mewled.

“Are they infected?” Jason asked, once again running at his side.

“No.”

Jason relayed the message to the rest of the Elioud, freeing them to tear through their counterparts with fang and claw. “Don’t stop moving,” he commanded. “Mow through them.”

Killian picked out the dark shadows lying in wait beneath a thick press of trees ahead. Nine werewolves spread out in a line like a living wall. They knew Killian wasn’t alone, but it didn’t matter.

Jason shifted to wolf form in midstep.

A defiant roar ripped through the night.

The werewolves didn’t stand a chance as Killian, Jason, and his shifters hit them like a tidal wave, flinging them aside as if they were little more than puppies before falling on them with fangs bared.

The werewolf in his path didn’t even have time to make a sound as Killian hit him. His knives cut through the air, slicing deeply into the demon’s throat and hitting bone. Zee hissed in his sling as Killian leaped over the wolf and spun around. The werewolf hadn’t even hit the ground when Killian slipped his knives back into their sheaths, grabbed him, and slammed him hard into a tree.

Bloodlust and the virus roared through him in tandem.

It was strange. Killian had seen the infected fight before. He’d fought those infected before. But he didn’t rage wildly as they had. He was completely focused, his need to free Aubrey stronger than the virus even if his body was not. Just as the shifters who had tracked her down had been.

At least he now knew why they’d been able to retain some of their humanity.

Desperation was a harsh mistress, but sometimes she worked in your favor.

The tree shook beneath the force of the werewolf hitting it, blood spurting from the demon’s injuries. Killian didn’t even bother to wipe it off his face before he spun to grab another of the wolves by the scruff of the neck.

Jason leaped, his fangs sinking into the demon’s stomach as Killian held him aloft.

Blood flowed like a river as Jason tore the wolf wide open.

Killian let the demon’s body fall and began to run again, the animal’s dying screams and Zee’s frightened hisses driving him onward.

***

Screams and howls ripped through the night as Aubrey bounced roughly on the Halfling’s shoulders. The sound sent chills racing up her spine. Killian had found the werewolves.

Only…those weren’t Killian’s screams.

They were animalistic, as if the werewolves were being systematically ripped apart.

Aubrey closed her eyes and prayed for Killian to hang on.

***

As quickly as it had started, the fight with the werewolves was over. The Elioud were on Killian’s heels before the last body hit the ground. The werewolves hadn’t stood a chance against their combined fury.

Tyrell limped. Jason bled from a gash across his side.

Simon’s shoulder was probably broken.

Not one of them stopped moving forward.

They were completely focused on Aubrey.

There had never been much love between the Elioud and the Fallen. Like the Nephilim, they were a painful reminder of the Fallen’s shame. Killian had never given it much thought before. He’d put them down when he had to and let them go when he didn’t. For the first time, though…he felt an overwhelming affinity for them. They would save Aubrey or die trying.

Pride in these fierce humans rushed through him as his field of vision narrowed.

He staggered and fell hard.

Zee yowled in fright as the ground rushed up to meet them. Killian caught himself on his hands and knees before he landed on top of the hellcat. His vision was black around the edges, and he felt as though he was on fire.

Jason came rushing back into his narrow line of sight, no longer in wolf form. He was bare-assed naked again. Killian laughed at that, remembering when he and Dahmiel had fought the same way once, weeks before they’d found Aubrey.

Aubrey. Oh God.

“I can’t…” He hissed through his teeth as pain seared through his brain. Each breath stabbed like a knife. It hurt. God, it fucking
hurt
. He retched, his entire body shaking as he spat blood onto the ground. “Go,” he ordered Jason. “I can’t. You need to—” He gagged again, his body convulsing with the force of it.

“Screw that,” Jason barked, grabbing him by the arm and hauling him to his knees. The shifter got right in Killian’s face, his expression severe. “Not until we find her, remember?”

Aubrey.

“She needs you, St. James. Get up.”

Aubrey needed him.

Killian pushed up from the ground and fought his way back to his feet. It hurt like nothing else, but Jason was right. He had to find Aubrey. He pushed everything but her down and tuned it out. The pain in his head. The acidic feeling in his veins. Everything but the green-eyed Elioud girl he’d fallen in love with. She needed him.

“After,” he groaned.

Jason tossed an arm around his shoulders, supporting his weight.

They ran.

***

Aubrey was so focused on the litany of prayers whispering from her lips that it took her a moment to realize her ribs no longer screamed in protest with every bounce.

The Halfling had stopped running again.

Aubrey cracked her eyes open and looked around. They were in a clearing of some sort. Trees and marsh spread behind them as far as she could see in the bright moonlight. She laughed hysterically as she noticed the drop-off to the right and the vast body of water to the left.

“Shut her up!” Halphas snapped, his head moving back and forth as if looking for some other way out of the deathtrap he’d run them into.

The only way out was to jump or to head back the way they’d come.

Even over the rush of water, Aubrey heard the shuffling of sound as someone ran in their direction.

Killian.

The Nephilim’s grip tightened on Aubrey’s thigh, his fingers digging in like a vise.

She screamed in pain.

A howl split the air open wide in response and then another and another.

Aubrey wanted to cry as hope surged through her. Killian wasn’t alone. Jason and the boys were with him. Instead, she screamed again when the Halfling threw her to the ground. He and Halphas spoke rapidly, too softly for her to hear. But she didn’t need to know what they said.

Rage burned through Tomiel’s expression. Shock through the demon’s.

Neither had expected the Elioud to help Killian, and it was too late to backtrack now.

They were penned in.

Aubrey slithered backward, inching away from them as quietly as possible. She knew she’d never be able to run, that they were probably going to kill her before Killian got there, but she refused to make it easy for them.

She might as well not have bothered at all.

As another round of howls split the night apart, closer than before, the Nephilim grabbed her by her arm and jerked her to her feet. Aubrey screamed as her bone snapped beneath his hand.

“Shut up,” he shouted, wrapping his arm around Aubrey’s throat and backing toward the drop-off.

Halphas moved with him, his arms spread as if preparing to fly.

Aubrey watched them with a certain, grim satisfaction. At least if she was going to die, these two were going with her. She only hoped Killian got to her in enough time to save himself. “Please, please, please,” she mouthed, every thought in her mind focused on his survival. Her own no longer seemed to matter.

***

Killian stumbled more than ran. His arms windmilled wildly. He’d already taken out several small trees, clipping them hard with his shoulder as he listed side to side. He kept pushing himself forward, though, Aubrey’s screams and Jason’s panted commands driving him on like a whip cracking inside his skull.

Whatever the Halfling and the demon were doing to her and whatever they had already done to her…he knew the Elioud would repay it tenfold.

“Faster, St. James,” Jason demanded, urging him forward like a drill sergeant.

It would almost be a relief to Killian when Jason stopped dragging him forward and killed him. Every command the Elioud leader barked at him fucking hurt.