The Siren's Code (Siren Legacy Book 3) Page 18

  “Allow us to show you what will happen if you interfere with this,” the High Brother said.

  The ground shook, and fire radiated out of the symbols on the wall, forcing the three men trapped in the circle to one side.

  “That is not the only weapon at our disposal. If the two of you interfere with the fight, then you will find out what some of the others are.”

  Hal’s ears popped as the High Brother nodded and the pressure changed. Randall walked through the symbols, and the pressure changed again. Rage shimmered around him like a magnetic field. Without a word or sound, the man who had caused pain to so many people Hal cared about came charging at him. Stepping to one side, he let Randall smack into the barrier that kept them in the circle. He didn’t fall, which surprised Hal. As he turned, Randall pressed his arms together. The tattoos that were on both forearms pressed together to become one giant symbol. He chanted as he had when they’d first faced each other at the farmhouse.

  “Order of Talos, grant me your strength. Order of Talos, grant me your speed. Order of Talos, grant me my power!”

  The runes and markings that were etched into his skin swirled in place but didn’t form a bond as they had done previously when Randall had been completely connected to Nimue. A look of confusion flashed over his face before he schooled it into a careful mask.

  As they began circling each other, Hal waited for the mortal to throw the first punch. The kick came, and while it was powerful, it was nowhere near as powerful as he had been during the fight at the farmhouse. Nimue had to be free. His last burst of power to set off the chain reaction to break the enchantments had been successful.

  “Something wrong, Randy?” Hal smiled innocently at the man he planned to beat to a pulp.

  “What have you done?” Fury pulled at his face, white lines bracketing his mouth while his cheeks turned a mottled red.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Did you hurt her just to spite me?”

  “Who would I hurt?”

  “You know damn well.”

  “Robin is doing just fine. I haven’t hurt her at all. Quite the opposite, in fact.” He waggled his eyebrows at the other man, letting the implication speak for itself.

  “You couldn’t. Nim promised me . . .” Randall’s voice trailed off as he remembered they had an audience.

  “She promised you . . .”—Hal definitely got the feeling good old Randy had done something he wasn’t supposed to—“that only you would be allowed to touch Robin?”

  “I’m going to kill you.” He ground the words out, spitting in the direction of his opponent.

  “You can try. No one’s succeeded yet, though, so good luck.”

  Without warning, Randall turned away, walking to the edge of the circle, facing the High Brother.

  “Something has happened to my Key. When I call on the Key’s power, nothing happens. Would any of you be willing to channel your Key’s powers into me?”

  “Is what the creature says true? Did you harness your Key’s power to keep your initiate to yourself without her permission?”

  “No! Of course I had her permission.”

  “Liar!” Hal called from across the circle. He wanted to attack him, teach him the harsh lesson of not showing an enemy his back, but he also didn’t want the purple robes to attack them out of vengeance.

  “I will stand with Brother Randall,” a woman’s voice called out as another of the purple cloaks broke rank and came to stand before the High Brother.

  “Why would you risk yourself for Brother Randall, Sister Margarite?”

  “Because he has often proved to be an honorable man, and I would hate to see him lose that honor on the word of a monster.”

  “You have Sister Margarite’s support.” The High Brother nodded.

  Hal could see some kind of movement between the woman still hidden in the purple cloak and mask, and the man he wanted to punch, but Randall’s body blocked most of it. All he knew was that when the mortal turned around, the marks on his arm swirled and connected as they had at the farmhouse. At least now it would be a fair fight.

  Randall came toward him with a yell, swinging a little too wildly to be effective. Hal ducked and moved to the side, allowing the punch to pass by him without harm. The kick was unexpected and caught him in the ribs, possibly cracking one of them. It was nothing he hadn’t felt before, and he was more than capable of fighting with a cracked rib. Hell, it could be completely broken and he would still be up and moving. As the mortal came toward him again, Hal’s fist popped out, catching him on the jaw before sweeping his legs out from under him. Randall managed to stop his fall so he landed on his knees.

  “Nimue sends her regards,” he said as he kneed the man in the face. The coppery tang of blood scented the air a moment later.

  The crunch of bone only built his blood lust even further, but before he could hit him again, Randall rolled out of the way and came at him again from the side. Grabbing Hal by the hair was an unexpected move, one that he would expect from someone fighting for their life, but not at the beginning of a confrontation like this. The pain from Randall’s grip was fire spreading over his scalp. He twisted to face the man and kneed him in the groin. His opponent crumpled, his black shorts not providing any sort of protection.

  If Randall wanted to fight dirty, he would fight dirty, but he suspected the mortal wouldn’t like the results.

  Before he could do anything else, Randall rolled and lunged at him, bringing them both to the ground. The wind rushed out of his lungs, and Hal lost precious seconds trying to breathe again as Randall rolled them over. He tried to get an arm lock on the scrappy man but couldn’t get enough purchase, his bigger form unhelpful when fighting on the ground. Hal was plenty strong enough, but lacked the agility his brothers had. When they wrestled, Alec and Thad usually won, able to contort themselves into shapes that were beyond him. That couldn’t happen this time, though. Too much was at stake. He wasn’t about to give Fields the satisfaction of beating him a second time. The first time, it was two on one. This time, they were equally matched. There was no reason he shouldn’t be able to kick the other guy’s ass.

  Kicking the mortal away from him, he was able to get to his feet before the other man.

  Hal could hear muttering as Randall repeated something over and over to himself. He wasn’t about to get close enough to try to hear, though. He’d seen enough horror movies to know what happened when someone did that, and he would definitely not open himself up to be bitten on the neck, or something like that. He pulled his leg back to kick the mortal while he was down. Not very sportsmanlike, but it wasn’t a game, either.

  His leg froze.

  Movement was suddenly impossible.

  Randall stood with a brutal smile on his blood-smeared face. Whatever he had been muttering had caused this. Pulling his fist back, he let it fly at Hal’s face. Pain burst over his jaw. A second punch hit him in the stomach, followed by a kick to the ribs. Hal’s body turned into a punching bag for the other man. Pain exploded like fireworks all over his body, some making more noise than others. Fields started laughing maniacally as his fists connected with ribs, face, shoulders, kidneys, anything he could reach. Kicks came into play, as well, and Hal was forced to stand there and take it.

  A particularly nasty punch landed square on Hal’s nose, and blood gushed from it, trailing over his mouth and down his chin. He couldn’t even wipe his face. This wasn’t a fight anymore. This was a beating. Magic was something most people didn’t understand. The repercussions, the price—mortals always failed to account for those in their quest for power.

  Hal reveled in the rush of magic that washed over him. Poseidon was staring at him—the power had come from the sea god himself. It had been enough to break the spell that Randall had used without alerting any of the other members of the Order of Talos to the interference. He wanted to sag with relief at the knowledge that he could move again, but that would give him away. He was sure tha
t Randall would notice that he had moved slightly, but the man was too busy feeling victorious and didn’t suspect a thing.

  Once he was in range, Hal leaped onto him, driving him to the ground with a knee digging into his opponent’s back. The singular sound of Randall’s head smacking onto the cave floor sent a chill through his bones. As much as he hated this man, he hated the loss of life more. It was why the brothers used tranquilizers when they were on missions. Of course, if someone did deserve to die, it was probably any of these people in purple cloaks. They had magical beings imprisoned and used them, used their life forces, for their own gains, treating them like nothing more than caged beasts.

  Randall wasn’t unconscious like Hal thought. The scrawny man pushed up, rolling to try to get Hal’s weight off him. That wasn’t about to work, though, and Hal just dug his knee in further before adjusting himself so he could hit a kidney. Fields grunted in pain and stumbled for a moment. For the first time, Hal noticed that the woman who was supporting him stumbled as well.

  He tried to focus on the man in front of him. Grabbing his arm and pulling him into a lock, he was prepared to dislocate the man’s shoulder. Blood was on the woman’s purple robe, dripping from under her mask. Hal’s mind reeled at the possibility that occurred to him.

  The man wasn’t just siphoning magical energy off this woman; they had tied their abilities and life forces together. She wasn’t just supporting him magically, but physically as well. Any damage Hal did to Randall was also inflicted on this woman to some degree. The idea turned his stomach.

  Could he justify this to himself? Murdering Randall in a fair fight, yes. The additional murder of a woman he had no information on, no. He knew he should just write her off. After all, she was a member of the Order, but what if she had been like Robin, forced into it? He had killed enough people in his long lifetime that he should be numb to it, but he wasn’t, and the idea of taking this woman’s life was too much.

  That didn’t mean he was going to let Randall turn him into a punching bag again.

  With that thought, he dislocated his opponent’s shoulder. The woman cried out in pain, falling to her knees, clutching her shoulder. Hal felt sick. He didn’t want to do that, but he also had to stay alive long enough to figure out how to get out of there.

  Randall staggered to his feet, his arm waved with the movement, completely out of his control. At least if he was going to get punched again, it was with the man’s less dominant hand. He backed away when he should have been pushing his advantage, but the pained sounds of the woman who had bound herself to Randall still rang in his ears.

  Fields began to circle him again, hitting out with his functioning hand but rarely connecting. The hit that almost took him down he didn’t see coming, too focused on the woman he had injured. His opponent’s fist connected with his head, just behind his ear, leaving his brains scrambled.

  Darkness floated around the edges of Hal’s vision, but he kept moving as best as he could, knowing now that this fight would only end when one of them was dead.

  Chapter 22

  They had decided that rescuing Robin’s family was paramount. Since they knew Randall was out of the country, security might be a bit more lax. After all, when the cat was away, the mice would play, and if their suspicions were right, then the cat was not somewhere he would be reachable; at least, not for a while. It didn’t make Robin feel any better, though. She wanted both her family and Hal back, and she hated having to pick whom to rescue first.

  “Let’s go over it again.” Alec’s somber voice broke into her stream of thoughts.

  She blinked, taking a deep breath before diving in. “Thad will jump Nimue, and Dem will jump me to the alley behind the hotel to the west of the Eclipse building. Nimue and I will arrive within five minutes at the church across the street. You and Ellie will arrive at the donut shop on the other side of the building.

  “We will circle the building and wait for you at the park next to the church. Nimue will evaluate the wards and verify that she can break them. Ellie and Alec will circle the building while Ellie evaluates the amount of electricity she will be able to handle. When we all meet at the park, we will confirm that the plan is a go. Nimue, Dem, and I will enter the building as she pulls down the wards, while at the same time, Ellie will siphon all the electricity she can, redirecting it back into the grid.

  “Thad will remain outside, apart from both groups, as our ace in the hole. Once inside the building, Dem will nicely ask security for the keys, and we will make our way down to the floors below the building proper. Nimue will continue to work on removing any magical obstacles, and Dem and I will search for my family. Once we have them, Dem will jump my little sister and my mother out to the church across the street, where Alec and Ellie will be waiting. When Dem returns, we exit through the main building. As soon as we are out, Ellie lets go of the electricity and Nimue puts the wards back up. Then we all meet back here. Alec will handle Ellie and my sister, Dem will jump me and my mom, and Thad will jump Nimue and my dad. Clear?”

  Nods all around.

  “Then we sleep for a week,” Alec mused. “Jumping two people is going to wipe me out.”

  “No. Then we go get your brother.” Anger whipped through Robin at the thought of them leaving Hal out there.

  “I meant after that.” Alec rubbed the back of his neck, not meeting her eyes.

  “Fine.”

  “If it would help, I could take you all to the lake after. It will help rejuvenate your abilities.”

  “That would be amazing,” Dem said, surprising Robin. “I can handle lots of jumping, but moving two people at once multiple times is going to be draining, even for me.”

  They were all dressed somewhat casually. Ellie and Alec even had maps of Boston in their hands so they could be convincingly lost tourists should the need arise. Robin had half expected everyone to be outfitted with fatigues and weapons, but that would just draw attention. Her outfit, along with Nimue’s and Dem’s, were a little more business than casual. Their hope was once Dem knocked the guards out and they were in possession of the security badges, they would be able to move through the building without notice.

  “Ready! Break!” Aster chimed in from the doorway, plastering a wide smile on her face that didn’t reach her nose, let alone her eyes, as she clapped and pumped her arm like a cheerleader. When Alec and Thad had forbidden her from coming, she had let out the bluest streak of words Robin had ever heard. In her gut, she wanted to agree with Aster—she had just as much right to deliver a blow to Eclipse as anyone. That being said, she had no fighting experience and no skills that made her presence there a necessity and not a liability.

  Lately the petite blonde never seemed to be able to bring herself to fully enter a room; at least, not while everyone was together. The first night she stayed there flashed across her mind’s eye. Aster had seemed much happier then. Maybe something had changed, but Robin didn’t have time to worry about what that was right now. She sighed and took a swig of the water in front of her. They needed to get going, and she needed to get her mind focused.

  “Everyone ready?” Robin asked, looking up.

  She caught Dem scowling in Aster’s direction before his gaze reverted to her and he nodded. Something was definitely going on with Aster, and now she suspected Dem may be involved as well. A mystery for another time, she reminded herself as she brought the schedule to the forefront of her mind once again. She assessed the group in front of her. She had never been more grateful to have stumbled into this strange group of friends who were becoming more like family to her.

  Mr. Scowl himself extended a hand to her, his midnight blue eyes flat, his face betraying nothing. Nimue took Thad’s hand, and the four of them jumped to the alley behind the hotel. The smell of rotting food assaulted her senses before she even opened her eyes. The hot late summer sun beating down on the trash made the odor that much worse. They walked around to the front of the hotel, crossing the street to get to the park.

>   Nimue’s eyes widened with amazement as she took in everything around them. The cars, buses, giant buildings, swarms of people—none of it would be familiar to her, and Robin wanted to kick herself for not thinking of warning the poor woman.

  “You okay?” She nudged Nimue with her shoulder as they walked toward the front of the church, the big stone building looking tiny in comparison to the monstrosity that was the Eclipse building. The shiny tinted glass looked black in the sunlight as Robin glanced over her shoulder, trying to shake the feeling of being watched.

  “I’m fine. I knew the world had advanced much while I was away. While this is more than I initially thought, I did glimpse some of it while running with you.”

  “Running? Is that what we were doing? Felt more like flying to me.”

  “Yes. Well, that was a mistake on my part. I am sorry for that, Robin. I don’t think I ever said that before. It was not my intention to harm you in any way.” Her violet eyes pierced her with their sincerity.

  “I know you didn’t.” She smiled kindly at the other woman. “So shall we take a walk around, see what you think?”

  “Yes, let’s. So far, I don’t see anything alarming.”

  Dem was silent behind them as they began walking. Robin slipped her arm through Nimue’s so she was more able to guide her and they wouldn’t be separated. They crossed street after street, weaving in and out of the crowds of people, most of whom took one look at Dem and moved as far away as the sidewalk allowed.

  “You all right back there?” Robin asked over her shoulder.

  “Fine.”

  The one-word reply didn’t surprise her. He was their guard, and he took his job seriously.

  The walk took much longer than she would have liked, given the circumstances, but as they approached the park once more, she could see Ellie and Alec’s heads together as they sat on a bench at the far edge of the park, one map open across their knees.