Darkness of day, p.29
Darkness of Day, page 29
“You’re overconfident.”
“You’re dead.” Jelani came at him, slashing left, right, diagonal. He stabbed and retracted, using a series of attacks to put his enemy off balance. To his credit, Remy avoided most of the attacks, suffering a few glancing slices that seared his flesh.
“I’m going to kill you,” Remy growled.
“Sure you will,” Jelani growled back, kneeing Remy in the groin, then connecting a roundhouse punch to the side of his head.
When Remy fell, Jelani reversed the grip on one of his daggers and drove it down. Or tried to. A woman with dusty brown hair tackled him at the waist and they both went down. He rolled to his feet and leaned to the side. When she overextended herself in a follow-up attack, he kneed her in the stomach and drove his dagger into her back.
A short distance away, Remy was moving toward the opposite side of the roof. No you don’t. Jelani started toward him, but then he saw that Yako was surrounded. The Hunter was amazing, fighting off four enemies at once. But more were moving in. Even Yako’s skill could not see him victorious against the group that remained.
Jelani looked back and forth from Remy to Yako, then cursed and went toward the latter. He heard Remy laughing as he went to help his ally. Jelani sheathed one of his daggers, snatched one of Yako’s shurikens from the ground and launched it Remy’s way. The laughter was bitten off by a muffled curse that told Jelani he had scored a lucky shot.
And then he was with Yako. He drew his second dagger again and together they cut down their enemies. Yako dove right, and Jelani leaped in, bearing a pursuing enemy to the ground. Another vampire came at his side. Yako glided over Jelani and buried his sword in the other’s chest, just as Jelani dispatched his foe.
Jelani came to his feet and leaped at Yako’s back. The Hunter’s intuition was remarkable, and he sidestepped to the left, cutting down an enemy to his side at the same time Jelani drove his foot into the face of the man who had been facing the Eldest Hunter. The man staggered backward and Jelani finished him with a series of thrusts and swipes of his two silver daggers.
Both men back-stepped till they were back to back, and Jelani glanced over his shoulder. “Is it just me, or is this getting a little easier?”
“Four Hunters accompanied Remy,” Yako answered. “Our enemies here are not warriors, but fodder.”
“Maybe we should tell them that. They might stop.”
“They would be fools.”
“You’d kill them anyway?”
“Yes.”
“What—” Jelani deflected a thrusting sword. He swiped his right handed blade down, cutting the stabbing arm, then brought his left blade around and across the attacker’s throat. Their remaining enemies hesitated and Yako was immediately off, bounding in the direction Remy had gone. Jelani sheathed his daggers and went after him.
45
Impossible. That was the only word that came to mind when Remy thought of his failed attempt to bend Jelani to his will. The fledgling was his creation. It was impossible for one’s own creation to deny his will. Something was wrong.
He looked over his shoulder and saw two of his four remaining Hunters trailing him. They would stand against Jelani and Yako, while the two at his sides would stand with him if it came to a confrontation. Not that Remy was worried about that. It would be more convenient for that scenario not to come to pass. Better to deal Yako a crushing blow by allowing him to see his power crumble around him, then the High Council can see to his formal uncreation.
They were moving toward the shipyard when Remy turned west. They would make their way back toward Stanley Park. Let them find him there. Tiny droplets started to fall and in minutes, rain poured from the sky. Remy smiled as the drops spattered across his face. The better to obscure their passage.
He looked over his shoulder again and his smile fell away. In the distance he could barely make out two figures giving chase. Damn. He hadn’t expected them to do away with the distractions Remy had left to occupy them. He didn’t know whether to be smug or irritated by his new creation’s prowess.
In the end, it didn’t matter. There was no way Yako was going to get his hands on Remy, so there definitely was no way his own creation would take him down. He still wondered how Jelani managed to deny him. He wondered if Yako had anything to do with that … or that female half-breed. The latter was even more unlikely. That she was half human negated any possibility of that being the case.
They passed from building to building, heading west. Remy was careful to give Coal Harbour—and by extension that towering pureblood—a wide berth as they passed the area by. His clothes were soaked through, and his sandy blond hair was plastered to his head. He looked over his shoulder again and saw that the two were drawing closer.
He increased his pace, and hope drew nearer with the thick vegetation of the huge park. Again he looked over his shoulder, and again, he saw that his pursuers were closing in. He drew his silenced handgun and fired. The two pursuers dove away out of sight.
Remy smirked and continued on, passing through the tree line and entering the dark woods of the mini rainforest that was Stanley Park.
Despite the irritation of losing Remy, Jelani couldn’t help but marvel at the fact that he had just literally dodged a bullet. He had actually seen the tiny black missile coming right at him. It was an odd sensation. They were traveling fast, but just slow enough that he could see them clearly and move out of the way, like someone at a distance throwing a rock. He felt eyes upon him and looked to see Yako regarding him with an expression that looked like disapproval.
“Reserve your self-discovery for later.”
Jelani shook his head at the other man. “Ever serious.”
“Ever alive,” came the retort, then Yako was gone.
Jelani sighed and went after him.
All at once the rain started coming down in sheets. Pissing rain, as they said here in Vancouver. It was one of the many terms people used here that reminded Jelani that Canada seemed like a cross between the UK and the US.
They traversed rooftop to rooftop until the buildings ended. They dropped to the sidewalk, speeding across the remaining distance until they were in the woods. Yako leaped into the trees, and Jelani followed.
Though vampirism had enhanced his existing abilities, it didn’t necessarily give him new ones. Try though he might, Jelani could not match the perfection Yako exhibited as he passed from limb to limb, sometimes leaping higher, sometimes dropping a full twenty feet and leaping forward upon touchdown. It was all Jelani could do to simply keep up with the Hunter without stumbling and falling to the ground.
After a few minutes, Yako stopped and held up a hand. Jelani stopped in a tree just behind him. In a rare show of force, the rain intensified and the roar of the showers was deafening. Then something odd happened.
Jelani had always enjoyed the rain. Despite the frequent complaints by most Vancouverites that there was too much rain and it was depressing, Jelani had always loved it. Something about the countless drops of water falling from the sky gave him focus; made his thoughts more keen. That focus amplified.
He closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them again, and found that Yako was staring directly at him. “Left,” he heard himself say. One of the Hunter’s eyebrows twitched. Jelani knew the Eldest Hunter enough by now to realize it was an indication that Yako was impressed.
Yako nodded in agreement of Jelani’s estimation. They moved through the trees, Jelani still struggling to keep up, but managing. Every time a change in direction was needed, they acted in unison.
Finally, they came to a stop and waited. Remy was nearby. Again, Jelani closed his eyes, allowing the relentless drops of rain spattering against his shaven head to sharpen his focus. In one fluid motion, he drew one of his daggers and launched it up to his right. As soon as he released the blade, he leaped up after it.
There was a cry of shock when the dagger found its mark and an instant later, Jelani was there, snatching the weapon free and cutting the Hunter across the neck and torso. He fell from the tree, decaying on his descent.
Jelani’s instincts saved him yet again. He dropped from the limb. He heard the muffled sound of a gun firing, and a shower of bark rained down on him. He dove to the left just as more silver bullets came for him.
As soon as he landed, Jelani was set upon by two Hunters. These two carried swords instead of guns. Fortune was with Jelani, for they were no better at moving through the trees than he was. They passed from limb to limb, but as long as Jelani kept moving, they could not directly engage him.
From somewhere in the darkness, he heard the sound of silver clashing, and then a scream. Yako had dispatched another Hunter.
Jelani landed and sidestepped just as one of his pursuers landed beside him. He swiped a horizontal cut that the other man blocked, then brought his other blade in. Again, the Hunter turned and blocked the attack. This one was more skilled than any Jelani had fought so far and the other was closing in.
Jelani doubled his efforts, but the Hunter matched him. He felt a burn along the side of his forearm where the silver sword had cut him. The Hunter snarled and feinted left, then came in straight. Jelani saw the move for what it was and went in the opposite direction.
He was at an awkward angle for a killing blow, but he managed to hop upward and connect his knee with the other man’s face. The Hunter’s head snapped back and he fell from the tree.
Jelani dropped to a crouch and ducked a horizontal cut at his head, then turned and deflected a stab at his face. The tip of the sword passed inches in front of his eyes. His hands were a blur as he fought to keep the sword away. This Hunter was even more skilled than the one he’d just knocked from the tree. Just a few moments into the fight, Jelani found himself overwhelmed.
He stabbed with one hand, then retracted and brought the other around for a downward slash. The Hunter deflected the first and cut Jelani across the chest before he could complete the second attack. The pain was so fiery, so acidic, it drained strength from Jelani’s legs.
He slipped off the limb. The treetops fled but the Hunter was directly over him, sword in a two-handed grip, poised to run Jelani through the moment his back hit the ground. He slammed into the earth so hard, his back bounced off the ground and his head snapped back. But the end of his life did not come.
A few yards to his right, the one who had bested him was now embroiled in a struggle against Yako, but with the aid of Remy as well. Jelani was surprised the coward had actually chosen to fight. He thought the odds were in his favor, no doubt.
Jelani ignored the molten pain arcing across his chest and started toward them, but then he heard someone coming from behind. He turned and fell back. The first Hunter he’d dislodged from the trees had found him. His movements slowed by the silver injury, Jelani was barely able to defend against the other man, much less offer any kind of offense.
He heard a grunt that he knew came from Yako. Jelani rolled away from his adversary and managed a glance over his shoulder. Yako was still fighting, but he had taken several injuries. He heard Remy’s voice, taunting.
“Such a shame, all this wasted talent. I was hoping to keep your former target and maybe make a subordinate out of you … well, that’s a lie. I was actually planning on tormenting your former target and killing you. Looks like I’ll just have to kill you both.”
Jelani ducked a swipe at his head and kicked out, connecting his foot with the other man’s face. He fell backwards, rolling to his feet in a defensive posture.
“Such a shame,” he heard Remy say again. “All that vengeance and burning fires of retribution, extinguished in one stroke by yours truly.”
Jelani thought of his life for these past months. He thought of the lives of his friends. He thought of Alisha and Wen. He thought of Daniel. His best friend. His brother.
If Jelani’s anger was an expression of color, there was no red dark enough to wash it through. The rage inside burned through all other emotions and even fed upon itself, until all thoughts fell away and his mind quieted. His body took control and years of training in his human life, enhanced by his new existence came fully to bear. Sparks lit the darkened woods as Jelani parried and blocked. His movements became faster. His arms were cobras, his hands were the mouth, and his daggers, the venom-filled fangs.
Again and again, the cobras bit, and again and again, the venom poisoned his enemy. The Hunter’s movements began to slow as Jelani’s movements grew faster. The pain of all he had lost guided him, and soon his enemy was a smoking corpse, decaying upon the wet forest floor.
Jelani turned and saw that Yako still fought. He raced toward the trio, veering left. Though he might not be able to control Jelani’s mind, Remy must still be able to feel his thoughts on some level. Just as Jelani was going in for a killing strike, Remy fell away and to the side.
Jelani missed his mark, but it was enough to give Yako the instant he needed against the remaining Hunter. Jelani knew that Yako would soon overwhelm his adversary, so he focused on Remy. The cravenly Hunter must have known the same, for he fended Jelani off just enough to draw his gun.
He fired off several rounds and Jelani was forced to dive aside. When he came to his feet, Remy was in full flight. Jelani gave chase, passing through the trees, not letting his enemy out of his sight. Closer, closer. Remy was fast and dexterous, he was good at changing directions on a dime, but Jelani had gained these same attributes the moment Remy had turned him. There would be no escape this time.
Just as Jelani closed in, Remy turned and fired. Jelani was expecting it. He had already moved to the side as Remy drew the gun, and he brought his right dagger around and down, slicing a deep gash in the other man’s arm.
Remy cried out and dropped the gun, cradling his injured arm as he ran. If he had been at his best, Remy could not have outrun Jelani and now he was injured. Jelani kicked his feet out from under him and sent the other man rolling to the ground.
Jelani savored the moment of the kill, not by stopping and taunting his prey. He savored the moment, not by circling his felled enemy, not by delaying the moment, but by drinking in the fear in the eyes of his re-creator as he came down on him. This would end now, and quickly—
A huge form bounded out of the trees and crashed into Jelani. The impact was so hard, it sent him flying away until he slammed into a thick redwood. Far more durable than his human body had been, the vampiric Jelani was not killed, but he was still jarred by the impact. He shook his head and came back to his feet, running toward this new enemy. He skidded to a stop when he saw it. What came stomping into view was the size of a grizzly bear. Jelani wished it was a grizzly. But it wasn’t. It was a werewolf.
The beast stalked toward him, then rose up on its hind legs and stared down at him with eyes as black as pitch. Jelani looked up into those eyes, more than a foot above his head. For the time being, Remy was forgotten as he faced this new and more dangerous foe.
He readied the daggers that suddenly seemed quite inadequate against the seven foot werewolf. He lowered his stance and circled to the right. The werewolf tracked his movements. The long muzzle drew back to reveal a row of jagged fangs that would give a shark pause.
Jelani took the last moments he had to consider his enemy. The wolf’s weapons were its fangs, its claws, and its size. There were only so many ways it could attack; slashes and bites. He waited for the wolf to make the first move. He didn’t have to wait long.
The beast dropped to all fours and bounded toward him. Jelani waited till the last possible instant, and dove aside. While his body was horizontal, he slashed out with one of his daggers. The wolf howled at the burning bite of the silver.
Jelani was fast to his feet, but the wolf was faster. It slammed its huge head into him and sent him flying, then leaped high into the air. Jelani hit the ground and immediately rolled out of the way. As soon as the werewolf hit the ground where he’d been, Jelani jumped at its side and buried both daggers in its flank. It howled again and spun, throwing Jelani away. He hit the ground and was on his feet and diving aside yet again as the beast bore down on him.
Jelani spun and slashed it across its injured side, then leaped up as it curled its body around and snapped at him. He kicked it in the face, pushing himself away, then turned and ran.
He couldn’t win this fight. He had stabbed and slashed the thing multiple times with his silver daggers, but all it seemed to do was anger the thing. Thought these fuckers were allergic to silver, too.
He heard the thuds of heavy footfalls as the werewolf pursued. He passed through the trees, using every skill and ability he had gained from Remy’s essence to help him escape. He managed to keep his distance for a while until the thuds grew more distant, then fell away.
Jelani took to the trees, leaping from branch to branch. It was slower, but he’d never heard of the giant wolves navigating the treetops—
The massive wolf tackled him mid-flight. Jelani’s back hit the ground hard, every bone in his body vibrating upon impact. With an intelligence beyond any normal wolf, the lycan held his arms pinned beneath its giant claws.
It growled deep in its belly and opened its maw, blasting Jelani with its hot, acrid breath. He struggled to get free, but he might as well have been trapped under a mountain. As that gaping maw filled with fangs came down at his face, he managed to lean just enough away that it missed his head. Still, the jagged teeth found his shoulder, tearing through flesh.
It wasn’t silver, but it still hurt, and Jelani hollered as the beast bit down harder. He felt the weight on his arms lift, but it didn’t matter. The beast hoisted him from the ground by his torn shoulder and shook him side to side like a chew toy. The pain was unbearable and Jelani thought his arm might be ripped off.
The werewolf threw him a dozen feet to crash into another tree. As soon as his feet touched the ground, the wolf plowed into him with the top of its head, knocking him back into the tree. It moved away and Jelani simply rolled to the ground. He screamed when the huge teeth bit into his shoulder again.
