He had just about come to the conclusion that making like Speedy Gonzales and vamoosing in hopes they’d follow was his only option, when a guttural cry erupted from the cross street. Who the hell?
Risking exposure, he ducked his head back out, then sucked in a breath. That was Gabby, knife drawn, and running all out at the pyro.
Fuck. No…
“Gabby!” He leapt up from his hiding spot, then cursed and ducked as his own knife sailed toward his head.
That was just so wrong: a merker using a Paladin blade against him. He hoped the cost had been a nice burn on the fucker’s hand at least.
Valin was torn between ghosting to where the pyro was patiently waiting for Gabby to get close enough and grabbing for his knife, but his decision was made when the second merker simply disappeared, only to immediately reappear directly in front of him.
Fuckingcraptastic. A teleporter? Boy, was Senior going to be pissed to find out Karissa wasn’t the only one with those skills.
Knowing the merker would simply be on top of him again the moment he reformed from the shade, Valin dove for his knife, simultaneously tossing out a warning to Gabby. <<Get back! He’s a pyrotechnic!>>
He hoped to hell she heard, prayed even harder that she’d actually fucking listen to him and get the hell out of here, but he didn’t have the time to make sure as his hand had barely closed around the blade when the second merker was on top of him, its iron-heavy fists pummeling into him like goddamn battering rams.
He rolled away, ignoring a sharp crack from his lowest rib as one of the blows grazed his side just right, and scrambled to his feet, quickly putting some distance between them. He’d barely had time to settle his grip on his blade when the merker flashed in directly in front of him. Luckily Valin had anticipated that and got in a good stab to the merker’s midsection. The merker roared, immediately flashing. Only the stupid fuck forgot that anything touching him went with him, which meant both Valin’s knife and Valin went with Star Trek boy too. A split second and a disorienting fifty feet later, Valin and the merker staggered away from each other, each clutching at their most recent wounds.
“Wanna try that again?” Valin asked, stalling as much for a chance to clear his head as anything else.
“Want to die so soon?” The merker sneered back, then, rude bastard that he was, charged before Valin could retort with his own quippy comeback.
Probably not a bad thing; would have been pretty lame anyway.
Valin crouched, readying for the impact, only at the last second the merker flashed out. Instinct had Valin spinning, his blade rising in a defensive arc. Good thing too, as the merker reappeared a couple feet in the air behind and above him. Because of his quick thinking, gravity turned into his friend and the merker received another hole in his body, this one a deep gash across his thigh as Valin continued to spin out from under him.
With the merker howling obscenities, Valin risked a glance toward Gabby, then wished he hadn’t as his heart came to an abrupt halt in his chest. As he watched, she leapt onto a car, pushed off, her body twisting, feet flying out like a fucking ballerina as she whizzed over the pyro’s head, the arc of flame chasing her through the air. One of those feet connected, the audible crack of bones fragmenting a welcome sound in the pandemonium of the dual fight. Sensing the second merker bearing down on him, Valin rolled out from under another attack. Valin barely caught the movement of the pyro slumping out of the corner of his eye.
Still, he needed to end this.
On a gamble, Valin heaved his knife into the air, the sharp blade all but disappearing from sight as it sailed up, up, up into the darkness. It was hard to miss the merker’s what-the-fuck expression. For a split second pure shock rooted his feet to the spot as it tried to decipher why Valin would toss away his only weapon.
“So I can kill you, fuckwad,” Valin muttered. He knew he had to time this right. The knife reached the pinnacle of its arc a good dozen stories up and began to fall. He waited. The one thing that could screw up this plan would be if the merker looked back his way, but the stupid shit never took his eyes off the knife to see Valin shift. If Valin had enough substance to shake his head, he would have as he watched the switch from confusion to determination cross the merker’s face as he prepared to teleport. Valin thrust his essence across the expanse toward the knife. The next part was tricky and he had to concentrate hard to twist just enough of his ghostly substance back into semi-solid mass. The knife settled into the shadowy form of his outstretched hand.
Pulling deep from his own energy stores, he kept the blade aloft, thrusting the knife forward before releasing the agonizing hold he had on the rest of his substance that wanted to follow his hand’s example and reform. It all took but a split second. Just long enough to drain the hell out of him, but long enough for the ultimate payoff. The merker popped back in. But because Valin had shoved the knife’s trajectory that foot and a half forward before fully reforming, the merker’s hand didn’t grasp onto the knife, but rather Valin’s arm—which, what do you know, happened to be attached to the blade now lodged deep in the merker’s chest.
“Sayonara, A-hole.” Valin smiled, calling forth the light that had been infused within the heavenly forged blade. Like lightning, it shot down the sharp-edged metal into flesh. The merker roared, his iron hands clamping down around Valin’s forearms. Within its chest the blade continued to burn away at the merker’s blackened heart. Unfortunately, like all things wonderful in Valin’s life, this moment of joyous fuck-you was rudely interrupted too—by the hard-ass smack of reality called gravity.
Oh yeah, hitting the ground from that far up was a bitch. He tried to take away some of the shock by absorbing the impact by bending his knees, but that didn’t stop the blast of you-stupid-fuck agony from shooting up his legs and driving a railroad spike of crap-that-hurts through his back and into the base of his brain. The only good news was it seemed to have a similar effect on his half-incapacitated buddy. The merker crumbled, his grip falling from Valin’s arms and his body slipping from the blade as he fell ass backwards, his skull cracking most satisfyingly as it struck the asphalt. And yeah, minus the fact that his entire body was still cursing him out, things didn’t get much better than this.
Valin smiled, straddling the merker, who was sprawled like an offering before him. Lots of practice made short work of the next step, and seconds later the merker’s smoking skull lay detached from its body, the creature’s soul obliterated with His light.
Damn, that had taken way too long.
Heart thudding, Valin spun, his gaze immediately searching out the dark shadows where the pyro had fallen. It was still there, only shit, so was Gabby, her slim body sprawled over the crumpled form of the unconscious merker.
“Gabby!” he choked out. Had she been hit by that last blast of fire? Images of her charred body flashed through his brain, pumping adrenaline through his system so that all pain and exhaustion were forgotten. The jolt allowed him to sprint across the expanse as fast, if not faster, than he could have in ghost form.
Scared to death of what he might find, he grabbed onto her shoulders and pulled, only to meet resistance.
“Gabby?” He tugged again, then recoiled as she snapped her head around and hissed at him. Wild eyes, blood-drenched fangs. Holy fucking hell, was she feeding from that thing? His question was immediately answered as she turned back to her meal, fangs flashing as she lunged at the merker’s already gaping throat and sank in. The shock had him standing there like a dumb-ass, not moving, hardly breathing, just watching. He wasn’t even aware of time passing until the world started to spin and he had to consciously draw in a long pull of air.