Chapter Thirty-Three

NATHEN

 

Something tickled the edge of Nathen’s conscious racing mind. Everything moved both too fast and too slow. Lost in a euphoric feeling of rage, an almost sensual pull dragged him to the next figure as bullets pelted him, passing through—their sensation mildly tingling. The two shooting at them disappeared into the house, leaving them with two. August mumbled incantations, and one fell to the ground, its legs breaking and bending in wrong ways. The other one catapulted itself up toward a vehicle that had started to pull away.

Nathen staggered when Cameron’s scream shuddered through him. The one on the ground stopped moving as if it had a battery pack that ceased to fuel him. Before he could think too much about that one, he sensed a commotion and glanced over to see the other creature had landed atop the truck, its scythe-like blade of an arm sliding effortlessly through the roof and into Maria, pinning her to the seat. The blood rage that had fueled Nathen, and to a lesser extent, August, seemed to suddenly emanate from Cameron. Cameron stood nearby, eyes opened in horror; but the creature poised as if suspended in time.

Then a guttural cry filled the night as the thing’s human head snapped back. Nathen could taste its blood on the air, though nothing had touched it. Blood poured from its eyes and ears as it slumped over.

Nathen’s momentary confusion was interrupted when August jumped atop the creature between them, pinning it to the ground. Nathen, more by inertia and instinct than conscious choice, sprang on the tangled mess of August and the creature. He clutched hold of its arm and started pulling it toward himself. It did nothing to defend itself and Nathen loosely understood, Cameron had done something to its mind. August dragged the creature up, and with a synchronized motion, they both pulled parts of the thing outward. A hideous mixture of ripping cloth, snapping bone, and a gurgling noise from the creature’s throat, preceded an explosion of red mist, which covered them, and hit Cameron dead-on.

Gore covered all three. Nathen and August were partially naked, with wounds already healing, and from time to time fragments of bullets ejected from their bodies.

August rushed to Cameron, who stood rooted, staring in horror at the corpse of the creature that lay across the roof, his mother still impaled. Serge slumped inside, barely awake and Alfonso and Julia were out of the truck, tugging open the door. August held Cameron as he slumped to the ground.

“Nathen, go help. Pull that thing off her,” August quietly urged.

Nathen swayed with the aftereffects of adrenaline, his head whipping around looking for another thing to attack. He climbed atop the truck and growled as he snapped the creature’s arm from its body. The truck’s roof groaned when he pitched the body into the night, away from sight.

After crawling into the truck, Nathen lifted Serge out, then gently laid him on the ground. Inside the cabin, he went to snap the scythe from Maria, but noticed what was left of the creature was shrinking. He watched in fascination as the once huge half-man/half-spider thing’s arm shrank and fell from Maria, its remaining parts returning to what Nathen could only assume were their natural state. All that was left was a large tarantula leg. Blood seeped from Maria’s shoulder. Nathen knew she would die if the wound wasn’t closed so decided to do what he did for Cameron. He knelt beside her, cradling her in his arms, vaguely aware of Julia asking what to do when he bit into his arm and let his vitae flow down into her mouth.

Cameron’s mind had shut down entirely. Perhaps he had passed out? Nathen wasn’t sure. He stayed focused on watching Cameron’s mother with her long ebony hair, some of it flowing over the side of his leg and trailing across the ground, some of it matted with blood across her face. She didn’t move or make a sound, though the wound slowly stopped bleeding, then closed.

He knew from Cameron it took a while to heal, and Cameron hadn’t woken up for almost half an hour when he had been close to death. He embraced the woman in his arms and carried her to where Cameron lay curled in the fetal position on the lawn.

“Babe, we need to go. There is no telling if more will come. I’ve stabilized her. She’s still alive but not waking up.”

August picked Cameron up and nodded for Nathen to join. Together they nestled mother and son in the rented SUV. Syn piled in beside them, resting her head on Cameron’s shoulder and holding Maria’s hand.

“Hey, something’s going on in the house,” Nathen pointed out, seeing movement through the downstairs window though the upstairs was clearly engulfed in flame.

August deposited Serge in the truck bed and then dashed past Nathen toward the house.

“I’ll be right back. I need to see what’s going on.” Nathen addressed Alfonso. “Please stay here and keep watch.”

Inside, they were met by a chaotic scene: two figures in military gear were engaging Paige and deflecting her attacks from where she was prone on the carpeted floor. Blood stained her tattered clothes and the lower part of her right leg was missing. Nathen hefted a heavy statue and chucked it at one of the creatures, hitting its torso and pushing it back. With surprise, Paige flashed a half smile.

August flew through the air, landing atop one of the creatures, digging his claws deep into the thing’s neck as he let out a furious howl and bit down, his fangs sinking into his foe’s shoulder. The other creature arced its arm into the air, the hand instantly morphing and becoming a scythe-like blade. Nathen choked in horror as the thing’s blade connected with Paige’s neck and severed her head from her body. Everything seemed to slow down at that moment as Paige’s structure slumped. Decomposition started immediately, and her form began melting.

Nathen jumped into the fray and grabbed hold of the scythe appendage, now about to land on August’s back. He wrenched it down and braced a foot against the joint, cracking it in two and pulling it free. The figure howled in pain.

A loud crack above him alerted Nathen to a darkened, bulging ceiling. Out of pure instinct, he tackled August around the waist and hoisted him, before diving out the window with lightning-fast speed as the inferno came crashing down to engulf the room behind them.

“Paige!” August protested.

Nathen embraced him. “I’m so sorry” was all he could manage, acutely aware of August’s anguish.

August collapsed in Nathen’s embrace, shuddering as he cried, though no tears fell. “She’s gone,” he whispered to Nathen, shaking his head in disbelief. “I…felt it.”

After a time, Nathen tugged him toward the SUV. August stumbled after him, his attention still on the house as flames swallowed it and the roof collapsed sending sparks into the sky. In the distance he could hear sirens.

“We need to go,” he managed to say, urging August toward the SUV’s driver’s seat.

“What happened?” Syn asked, having secured people in the SUV. “We’re missing Paige…”

Nathen shook his head and braced himself for another outpouring of emotion, surprised when Syn gave a curt nod. “Come on. I’ve got Maria’s keys.”

Nathen noticed that everyone else filled the SUV: Serge and Maria unconscious in the back seat with Cameron still in shock and holding his mother. Julia sat in the passenger seat and Alfonso was in the very back, leaning over and whispering to Serge.

Nathen remained quiet on the ride back as he and Syn followed in Maria’s car behind the SUV. He focused on the link between August and Cameron. Their grief and shock were his own, but he realized he could remove himself from it, or delve into it as much as he wanted. It was an interesting feeling to be able to understand his men’s emotions. To understand exactly what they were going through. That area had always been a mystery to him. He struggled to understand what people were thinking or feeling or how to react to it. His brother Jake had told him that he was a jerk sometimes when they were kids when he hadn’t responded when Jake or their mom were upset about something. But he never understood. He focused on a memory where Jake had started yelling at him when he hadn’t called to tell their mom he was playing video games with his neighbor friend. He hadn’t answered his phone when his mother had called and his mother was prone to thinking the worst. But from Nathen’s perspective, where else would he have been? He always played with his friend, so it wasn’t logical to get upset and think that he was dead just because he didn’t answer his phone. And he couldn’t understand why his brother had been so angry about his mother being upset. None of that made sense. But now he could understand it all. He could feel August’s anguish. Paige had been like his mother, and August had had some kind of magical link to her—now severed as if it were a limb, an almost physical pain.

Cameron had shown Nathen the night when he thought his mother had died the first time. It had been an image that had come unbidden to Cameron’s mind many times and had plagued him for almost a decade. And he had just seen it happen again. Cameron’s thoughts were dulled, as if he were sitting in a white plane of fog and would have to slog through to make meaning of things said to him.

Nathen didn’t like to be in the position of caretaker. He had always had someone take care of him. But he knew that he had to care for his men. And for everyone else in the vehicle in front of them. And Syn too. Using his phone, he booked more rooms at the hotel that HR had set up for them. Once they got there, Nathen gave Syn a key card for her room and then used his vampiric speed to get Serge to his and Alfonso’s room. He returned and together he and August got Maria and Cameron up to the presidential suite where Julia joined them a few minutes later. They arranged Maria on one of the double beds and Nathen watched as Cameron curled up next to his mother. He imagined what Cameron must have looked like as a child and a pang of sadness tugged at his chest.

Julia fell onto the second bed and Nathen and August quietly left for the other bedroom.

Once they were in the main bedroom, August stepped to the window, his head bowed onto it as he stared out at the night. “I can’t believe she’s gone,” he whispered.

Nathen stood next to him, looking out the window. “I am sorry for your loss. I can feel you through the connection.” He wrapped his arms around him. “Cameron is hurting too. I am not sure why his mother won’t wake up. I thought maybe my blood would help her.”

August leaned back into Nathen’s embrace. He didn’t speak for a long time, and when he did, he said, “Paige was my creator, my captor, my lover, my mentor, and my friend. Our relationship had run its course, and I should have moved on decades ago. We get comfortable with contentment, and it is sometimes very hard to strike out and find a new way. It’s easy to get stuck in self-blame, but the fact is that we all are responsible for our own choices, even if it’s just choosing how we are going to think about something. I will miss her wisdom and guidance, and there’s a lot that I will not miss.”

He turned in Nathen’s embrace so he could run his hands up Nathen’s sides. His long chestnut curls fell to the side as he tilted his head. “I feel Cameron’s shock, his fears. But he seems to be a man who has been ruled by fear. That is a mortal’s peril. I don’t know what’s going on with his mother. Perhaps a night’s sleep will help. I need to step out though. I need to let the rest of the coven know if they haven’t already felt it. We need to make arrangements for the library and artifacts. Perhaps there’s something in there that will help Maria. You should stay here and watch over them.”

Nathen bobbed his head and slowly released August. “Yes, I think that’s a good idea. I’ll watch over Cameron.”

Nathen returned to lie next to Cameron and rub his back wordlessly through their link, sending waves of adoration. Cameron didn’t respond, though Nathen felt silent assent.