37
SERENA
My push struck Karessa mid-flank, sending her spinning wildly across the chamber. Her arms and legs flailed out. Her sleek wolf body looked almost like the detached rotor of a helicopter as it sailed into the opposite wall.
Rather than crumple, she actually hit the ground running. One of her legs looked wrong, and her gait was off, but she was still sprinting forward with incredible speed.
Move!
I jumped to one side, just in time to avoid her next leap. I felt the rush of air as she whizzed by, landing on her bad leg and letting her body flop to the ground to stop her forward momentum.
“Enough!” I yelled, trying to regain my composure. “Karessa, this is stupid!”
I was talking to a wolf. An actual wolf. In the back of my head, a little voice laughed at the absurdity of the statement.
“We came for Broderick’s totem,” I said. “That’s all. Give it to him, and everything will be—”
Something hit me, hard from behind. It knocked the air from lungs. Slammed me face-first into the hard rock floor.
“UNNNFFF!”
Agony flared. It traveled up through my forearms, emanating from my wrists. If I hadn’t gotten my hands out in front of me at the last moment, half the teeth in my mouth would already be scattered across the floor.
Another wolf landed over my head; a big grey one, all muscle and sinew. I recognized it immediately as Christophe, the guy Damien had pounded back in the alley.
“That’s the second time you’ve blindsided me,” I grunted from the floor. “The second time you’ve hit from behind.”
I could see the wolf was hurt too, and pretty badly. It was leaning to one side. And not just from our collision.
I rose, first to my knees, then to my feet. I knew I’d have to dig deep to push again. But I was angry. And my telekinesis was always easier when I was angry…
The wolf that was Christophe snarled, and I shoved it as hard as I could. It flew backwards, end over end, its eyes registering pure unbridled shock as it was lifted into the air and sent hurtling into the hard rock wall. It crumpled behind the last row of bookcases, out of sight, out of mind.
“SERENA!”
Damien’s voice roared through the vault. In the end, it was his yell that saved my life.
I turned, saw, and ducked… just in time to avoid the twin rows of Karessa’s razor-sharp teeth. She sailed past me, grazing my chin. I felt another stab of pain there, and dropped to one knee to keep from falling over.
But Karessa had overcompensated. She hadn’t counted on not hitting me, and so she sailed into one of the three crumbling columns that fed archways to the ceiling. Dust sifted down from overhead, and new cracks formed. I watched as she shuddered to a halt against the ancient pillar, half covered with gravel and stone.
I was beyond dizzy now — I was drained. My vision was already blurry and I could taste blood high up in the back of nose. Even so, I sighed in relief. Because standing on either side of me, I could just make out the reassuring forms of Broderick and Damien.
Thank God.
Contentment flowed through me. I felt safe. I felt—
“Stay down Karessa,” Broderick called loudly. “It’s over.”
My sexy Scandinavian was human again. He stood to my right, magnificently naked, all chest and arms and powerful core. His expression was almost sad. Reluctant, even. But he was still fully and completely in command.
From the rubble on the other side of the chamber, Karessa rose despite the order. She too was naked. I felt taken back a little bit by her natural beauty, from her stunning green eyes to the long curls of thick red hair that flowed down over her breasts. But her mouth ruined it quickly, as she curled it into an ugly frown.
“You’ve destroyed everything,” she said sourly. “And for what? For her?”
She sneered in my direction. I wanted to snap back at her, but instead I just brushed myself off.
“She’s not one of us, you know,” said Karessa. “And she’ll never be. You won’t ever make her, Broderick, even if she asks. You don’t have the courage. You don’t have the balls.”
Broderick took a step forward, totally undaunted. He stood facing his ex lover, both of them defiant, both of them wholly without clothes.
“I’m human first,” said Broderick. “Always have been. Always will be.”
“Not for long,” smirked Karessa. “Not without your—”
Her sentence died as he held up a strange metal object. It was shiny in places. Dull in others. Twisted in all kinds of unnatural ways.
He was holding his totem… and deep in my heart, I knew what it was:
The piece of shrapnel that had almost killed him.
“Goodbye Karessa,” said Broderick. “And don’t—”
There was a rumble. A shift. The ceiling, already bowed out and holding an enormous, crushing weight, seemed to ripple and move.
“Karessa!” I shouted. “Get over here!” I waved her on. “Over on this side of the chamber!”
She curled her lip at me. Laughed.
“Don’t pretend this isn’t over,” she said cruelly. “Not by—”
The ceiling shifted again. Dust rained from above, heavy and thick.
“Karessa, now!” Damien jumped in. “She’s right! Listen to her!”
She stood stubbornly defiant, both hands resting casually on her shapely hips. But her indifference was laced with worry, too. I could see it in her eyes.
“The ceiling’s coming down over there,” I said quickly. “There’s too much damage! There’s too much—”
“DON’T EVER SPEAK TO ME YOU—”
KA-BOOOOOM!
With a horrendous rush of wind and noise, the entire center section of the vault’s ceiling came crashing down! I couldn’t tell if it happened on Karessa or just in front of her… whether it crushed her beneath hundreds of tons of rock, or whether it only separated us by a newly formed, impenetrable wall of instant concrete.
“Karessa!” shouted Broderick at the top of his lungs. “KARESSA!”
He and Damien rushed forward, choking on the rolling wave of dust. A minute went by. Two minutes. By the time the air cleared, there was nothing else to see but stone and gravel.
“She’s gone,” said Damien sadly.
“Maybe.”
They both looked at me, and I shrugged.
“You know how many tunnels criss-cross in and out of this place?” I said. “Especially here, at the vault. The Order would never have built this chamber without more than one exit. Trust me.”
They sighed in unison. Each of them looked only semi-hopeful.
“Besides,” I pointed, coughing. “That bitch is resourceful.”