Steven Montano - Black Scars

The spirits were tearing each other apart.

Cross stepped up to Cole, who still lay on the ground. She was conscious, but she had a deep cut over one eye, and blood poured down her face. He took Cole by the arm and tried to her on her feet.

A bullet took Cross in the back of his left thigh. Pain blazed through him like a wildfire, and he nearly fell. The bullet had been meant for Cole’s head, only he’d inadvertently stepped in the way.

God damn Mercer again, he cursed. The sniper fired on them from somewhere out there in the darkness, maybe from one of the many elevated alcoves that peppered the walls like dark honey combs.

“ Run!” Cross yelled.

Even with her hands bound behind her back, Cole leapt to her feet and raced towards where Danica had fallen.

Maddox charged at him. Cross had forgotten the Doj. The shotgun blast had torn apart the giant’s armor, and blood and white bits of stomach meat covered his chest, but the wound seemed to have done little to quell the giant’s stamina. The spirit’s melee had caught Maddox at its center: scars from steaming claws, ethereal teeth and cold fire covered the giant’s flesh and made him a steaming and bloody mess. Even then, the giant held his great blade high, and his square jaw clenched as he charged the mage who’d shot him.

Cross ducked beneath the sword blade, only to collide with the giant’s knee as it crashed into his chest like a cinder block. Cross didn’t even know he’d fallen. His leg was already going numb. Maddox’ shadow loomed over him.

A sharp crack sounded through the air, and a bullet from out of nowhere took off the giant’s ear. Maddox staggered back and howled in pain.

Thanks, Dillon.

Cross rose, stumbled, and pulled his spirit close to his chest. He couldn’t use her to levitate like a witch could, but he fell into her for a moment like a pair of welcoming arms, and he let her ethereal form take some of the weight off of his wounded leg.

More shots rang out, this time from outside of the coliseum. Cross limped to a low stone wall and tumbled over it, almost dropping his shotgun in the process. The pain in his leg was fierce.

Cross sat on the ground and put his back against the stone. His spirit hovered over him like a protective shield. He felt her anger and impatience, but somehow she realized that he needed her close, likely because she sensed his pain.

Thanks, he thought bitterly. Too bad it only took my getting shot for you to stay put for a minute.

Cross readied the shotgun. Everything went quiet.

He carefully looked back over his shoulder to where the fighting had taken place. He saw his dead horse, torn apart by bullets and arcane energies. Lucan was nowhere to be seen. The vampire hovered all alone, untouched by the battle, bound and gagged and surrounded by the same flaming chains that provided the only light in the thick gloom. Cross actually felt sorry for the vampire for a moment, trapped there in the midst of all of the chaos. He wasn’t sure how the undead had thus far escaped the battle unscathed.

He saw a flicker of movement near the vampire. Cross aimed his shotgun in that direction when Keegan came out of the shadows behind him, machete in hand. Cross couldn’t turn in time.

A bullet took Keegan in the back of the head, and he stumbled and fell.

Danica and Cole appeared from behind a nearby chunk of stone. Danica held a smoking Colt Python in her hand. She still bled from her side, and if not for Cole supporting her weight she wouldn’t have been standing at all. They both looked exhausted beyond measure.

“ Cradden,” Danica said. “He took Keth.”

“ Which way did they go?” Cross asked.

“ Through the far alcove, straight across.”

Cross ripped a piece of cloth out of his pack and quickly tied it around his leg. The bullet had gone clean through, and he’d already lost a fair amount of blood. The wound stung, and even just shifting his weight made him wince with hurt. His spirit swam beneath his arms like ghostly crutches. She poured energy into him, melted into his blood like warm vapor. He felt her mend the torn flesh and stitch his skin back together. It would take time to properly heal, but with her stabilizing him Cross knew that he wouldn’t have to worry about further blood loss or infection.

If only she could make the damn pain stop.

He looked at the women. Though she looked like she’d had a brush with death, Lara Cole forced Danica Black to sit down. Cole dutifully opened Black’s armor jacket, lifted her shirt up to clean her belly, and pulled a strip of cloth from her own undershirt to help stem the bleeding. She smiled at Black. Her expression was sturdy and stern, yet tender.

Cross was suddenly very jealous.

“ Do we still have a deal?” he asked Black. She gave him a venomous look. “Look, Dillon and I just saved your girlfriend’s life. Twice. And for the record…it hurt.”

“ What deal?” Cole demanded of Black. She had a husky voice, hard-edged, and her tone was just as poisonous as Danica’s.

Oh, yeah, you two make a lovely couple. I bet you’re tons of fun to hang out with.

“ Yes,” Black said. “We still have a deal. And Cross…thank you.”

Cross reloaded the Remington, returned it to its shoulder strap, and pulled out his pistol.

“ What are you doing?” Black asked him.

“ I can’t let your brother take Lucan. It’s too dangerous.”

Black’s contemptuous look turned to something like fear.

Good, Cross thought. That means you might finally understand how serious I am about this.

“ Don’t hurt him,” she said coldly. “Don’t hurt my brother.”

“ Screw that,” Cole said angrily. Black winced as Cole less than delicately cleaned the buckshot wound in her side.

“ What are the odds that Cradden can undo Lucan’s safeguards?” Cross asked. “Can he release Lucan’s spirit?”

Black looked at him uneasily. Understanding seemed to dawn on her.

“ Cross,” Black said. “There’s something you should know…Cradden owes a lot of money to a man named Talos Drake.”

“ I figured he was in debt, or something…” Cross stopped as realization dawned on him. I know that name. “Wait…Drake. Is he a smuggler?”

“ Yes,” Black said with a nod.

“ And a slave trader,” he added.

Black looked at him guiltily.

Love makes you do crazy things, I guess. Like putting everyone else in danger to save the one you care about the most.

Cole glared at Black. She clearly knew the name as well as Cross did.

“ You stupid bitch,” she told Danica. Black didn’t argue; she just kept her eyes down.

Warfield had mentioned the name Talos Drake to him in the past. The man was a black marketer she claimed she’d never do business with again, not after what had happened to him.

Because now Talos Drake is a vampire, and hardly anyone knows it, but he’s also second-in-command of the Ebon City of Krul. Shit.

Lucan Keth was dangerously unstable and vulnerable, a warlock with the highest level of raw power that Cross had ever seen held by a human being. For all Cross knew, Lucan was somehow tied up in the same damn prophecy that had landed he and Dillon hip-deep in trouble, searching for the means to destroy an evil that no one understood.

But Lucan’s role in the prophecy didn’t matter, not right then. The fact remained that Lucan Keth was incredibly volatile and dangerous…and he was about to be delivered right into the claws of the Ebon Cities.

The vampires? Cross wanted to scream at Black. How could you agree to give him to the vampires?

But he didn’t say another word — he just set off after Lucan.

The tunnel beyond the alcove was pitch black and filled with broken stones. Cross limped through inky darkness. His spirit held the bullet hole in his leg shut and regenerated the damaged tissue with her spectral form; if she hadn’t, he wouldn’t have been able to move at all. She reminded him of that fact by letting him feel most of the pain.