Dark Descendant

SEVENTEEN

Forty minutes gave me a fighting chance of making it to the rendezvous on time, but I was still going to be cutting it damn close. Despite the wintry temperature, I slipped my heels off as I burst through the front door and ran toward the parking lot. I’d run faster carrying them than wearing them, even if I ended up with a collection of pebbles buried in the balls of my feet. I stayed on the grass instead of the sidewalks whenever possible.

It was a long sprint to the parking lot, made longer, no doubt, by my fear. The cold air burned my lungs and stung the skin of my bare arms. I hadn’t even considered stopping to pick up my coat on the way out, and little black dresses with spaghetti straps aren’t great cold-weather gear.

Where the hell was Blake? I wondered belatedly. He’d been sticking to Steph like glue the whole evening. How had he let Alexis snatch her out from under his nose?

My gut cramped with fear again. Had Blake sold her out? Had he come with her tonight so he could more easily separate her from the crowd and hand her over to Alexis?

I shoved that thought out of the way. For the moment, it didn’t matter. What mattered was getting to that damn house before Alexis went to work on Steph, and it was going to be a close call. Gravel tore the bottoms of my feet, and my breath formed frosty clouds in the night air as I continued to sprint. I was so focused on my ultimate goal that I didn’t immediately notice that all four streetlights in the lot were out, not until the waxing moon slid behind a bank of clouds and made me suddenly aware of the darkness.

I stumbled to a halt just as my feet hit the asphalt. This was a country club, not some neglected inner city parking lot. If even one streetlight had burned out, they’d have fixed it within the hour. For all four to be burned out at the same time seemed so unlikely as to be impossible.

The little hairs at the back of my neck prickled, but I decided I didn’t have time to be cautious. My silver rental was parked in the rear corner of the lot, and I started forward again at a brisk jog, too winded to manage another sprint.

I made it about halfway across the lot before I ran into something like an invisible wall. I hit it full force, rebounding wildly. My arms flailed for balance, and the shoes I’d been carrying in my left hand went flying. The impact had knocked what little wind I had left in my lungs out of me, and my legs were too quivery from the long run to hold me.

I sprawled inelegantly on the asphalt, my dress making an alarming ripping sound as the skirt hiked up my thighs. I broke the fall with my hands, scraping the skin off the heels and grinding dirt and pebbles into the wounds.

When I looked up to see what I’d hit, Jamaal’s body seemed to coalesce out of thin air. I belatedly recognized the uniquely yielding properties of flesh and bone that had characterized my invisible wall.

Jamaal grinned down at me, the expression fierce as any snarl. “Going somewhere?”

I tried to draw some air into my lungs, but I hadn’t recovered from the impact yet and could only stare up at him, imploring him with my eyes to get out of my way.

“You shouldn’t have fucked with us, Nikki,” he said, the grin/snarl growing wider.

I had no idea what he was talking about, of course. I also didn’t give a damn, not now, not when Steph was in danger.

I finally filled my lungs enough to get some words out. “We can do this later,” I gasped. “My sister’s in trouble.”

He snorted, the cold air making his breath a soft white cloud like the puff of smoke from the fire-breathing dragon’s nostrils. “You don’t get to decide when we do this.”

He reached for me, and I rolled violently to my left, scraping more skin off my bare arms as I avoided his grasp. I’d torn my dress enough when I’d fallen to give me some freedom of movement, and I managed to lurch to my feet.

“Alexis has my sister!” I tried again, though I didn’t have high hopes of getting through to Jamaal. Maybe he and Blake were in this thing together, Blake to hand Steph over to Alexis, Jamaal to delay my rescue attempt and give Alexis time to …

I didn’t want to think about what he might do to Steph if I didn’t make it there in time. “Please, Jamaal!” It came out a sob, but he didn’t strike me as the kind to be moved by feminine tears. “Let me go!”

“You think I believe a single word that comes out of that lying mouth of yours?” he asked. “You’d say anything to get out of taking your medicine.”

Because of my profession, I’d taken pains to learn a fair amount of self-defense. However, I knew I couldn’t defend against Jamaal, at least not for very long. If he were an ordinary person in an ordinary situation, maybe I’d be able to fight him off long enough to make a run for it, but I couldn’t afford to run for it. I had to get to my car, and he was in my way.

“I don’t have time for this,” I muttered under my breath as my heart kicked frantically behind my ribs. I had no hope that I could fight Jamaal off in hand-to-hand combat. That meant I had to try to reason with him. But how could I reason with a half-crazed death-god descendant who was convinced I was the enemy?

I held up my hands in a gesture that was supposed to indicate surrender, hoping Jamaal would take a step back from the edge. “Look, I don’t know what you think I’ve done this time, but—”

“I heard you talking to Maggie,” he replied, stalking toward me, muscles bunched to pounce, eyes practically glowing with his hatred.

It took me a minute to figure out what he was referring to. When I did, my eyes widened. He was talking about the day I’d found Emma’s ring. I suppose he’d been eavesdropping. I’d speculated at the time that Jamaal would jump to the worst possible conclusion if he found out, and it looked like I was right. I backed away from his approach but forced myself not to run, despite the dangerous intensity of his expression.

His lips pulled back from his teeth in a snarl. “I’m glad Maggie didn’t tell Anderson. Glad she left you to me.”

“I know you don’t want to believe it, but I found that ring in the pot, just like I said.”

He shook his head hard enough to rattle his beads. “The truth is your boss Konstantin sent you to kill Emmitt, then ordered you to spy on us. You’ve been leading Anderson on, telling him you would find his Emma, but you never had any intention of finding anyone, did you?”

Sweat dewed my skin, despite the cold. Every moment I stood here talking to Jamaal was a moment I lost in my race against time. If only I’d thought to bring my gun.

“If it’s within my power, I swear I will find Emma,” I said. “But right now, I have to help my sister. She’s an innocent bystander, Jamaal, whatever you might think about me. Please let me go to her, before Alexis hurts her.”

Jamaal turned his head to the side and spat like there was a bad taste in his mouth. “Don’t try to sell me that crock of shit! Blake is with her, so Alexis wouldn’t get within a hundred yards of her. You think you can lie to us, kill one of our own, and I’m just going to let you run away? True, I’d catch up with you eventually. But I’m tired of waiting for my pound of flesh.”

I wanted to scream with my overwhelming frustration. In the distance, a car engine gunned, and headlights headed down the main driveway toward the gates. This lot was too far away from the clubhouse for anyone there to hear me if I screamed, but maybe when the car got close enough, I’d be able to get the driver’s attention.

I sucked air into my lungs, preparing to let loose the longest, loudest, most blood-curdling scream in the history of the universe. Tires squealed as the car I’d spotted gunned the engine again, hurtling forward at a speed that would do a NASCAR driver proud.

Before I managed to get any sound past my lips, Jamaal’s fist connected with my jaw.

He’d been well out of arm’s reach when I’d allowed my attention to stray to the approaching car for that brief fraction of a second, but that moment of distraction was all he’d needed. His punch lifted me off my feet and threw me backward. Pain exploded through my head, my vision dancing with fireworks as my legs turned into jelly.

My back slammed into one of the parked cars, foiling my second attempt to force out a scream as the impact knocked the air from my lungs. The scream probably wouldn’t have done me much good anyway, I decided as I sat on my butt and tried to blink the fireworks away. The car I’d been hoping to flag down was going so fast I expected a sonic boom to follow in its wake. It was well past us by the time I staggered to my feet to avoid Jamaal’s next attack.

My head was swimming from that first punch, but my desperation helped me hold on to consciousness. If I blacked out, Jamaal would be on me in a heartbeat, and I’d never make it to Steph in time.

Something trickled over my upper lip. I brushed at it with the back of my hand. Blood. For the moment, I was glad it was dark, or I might have gone even more lightheaded with the sight.

Jamaal was grinning like a madman—which is pretty much what he was at that moment. As he closed the distance between us, both his hands clenched into heavy, dangerous fists. He swung at me again, his right fist aiming for my nose. This time, I managed to duck. Unfortunately, I wasn’t prepared for the follow-up from his left, which caught me right in the gut.

Gagging, desperate for air, I collapsed to the ground once again. I retained just enough brain power to roll, this time avoiding a vicious kick from Jamaal’s booted foot.

I pushed myself up to my hands and knees, scanning the parking lot to regain my bearings. My car was only a few yards away. I lurched to my feet and flung myself toward the car, but Jamaal caught me in a flying tackle before I took more than two steps.

Despite my breathlessness, I did manage a rough imitation of a scream of frustration as I went down once again. I kicked out blindly and got lucky, hitting Jamaal in the nose by the crunchy sound of it. He absorbed the pain with no more than a stoic grunt, but at least it distracted him enough to let me get to my feet again.

I had closed the remaining distance between myself and my car before I realized the fatal flaw in my plan. My evening bag, which had been draped bandolier-style across my chest while I ran, had come off sometime during the struggle. My car keys were in that bag.

Blood continued to trickle from my nose as I turned to face Jamaal once more. His nosebleed looked even worse than mine, but I saw no sign that it bothered him. He had drawn a knife from somewhere—his boot, maybe?—and was brandishing it in the occasional glimmers of moonlight that escaped the clouds.

I swallowed hard, tasting blood in the back of my throat. I hurt everywhere, from the punches, from the barefoot run, and from scraping off skin as I rolled around on the rough asphalt. My dress was in tatters, most likely indecent. Jamaal stood between me and the evening bag, and I was so hurt and exhausted already I didn’t know how I could hold him off a moment longer. But I had to. Somehow.

Jamaal wasn’t going to let me go. He’d long ago closed his mind to me, decided I was a traitor and that I was lying about Steph. Which meant that if I wanted to get into my car and drive away, I had to take him out.

It occurred to me that I’d been handling my fight with Jamaal as if I were no more than human. Perhaps I was shrugging off my injuries better than I might have before, not worrying that they would cause permanent damage, but I had abilities now that I hadn’t had when I was mortal. And maybe those abilities would help me now.

If Jamaal closed with me, I was a goner, and probably would have been even if he didn’t have the knife. So I didn’t dare let him close.

I started darting glances left and right, quick glances that were meant to suggest to Jamaal that I was picking out an escape route. Only I knew better than to think I could escape. I edged around the car at my back, giving myself room to move. Then, I feinted to the left.

Jamaal had been thinking of me as little more than a puny human female himself. A not-too-bright one at that. When I feinted, he fell for it, lunging forward on what would have been an intercept course if I’d really been making a run for it.

Instead, I took advantage of his distraction and threw myself forward, heedless of the pain that seared my already tender skin as I slid face-first across the asphalt. My hand closed around the discarded shoe I’d caught sight of when I’d been pretending to look for an escape route. I rolled over onto my back.

The feint hadn’t bought me much time. I hadn’t expected it to. Jamaal had checked his charge and now whirled to face me.

I hesitated for a fraction of a second, a part of me horrified by what I was about to do. But it was for Steph, and it was necessary. Wincing in anticipation, I took aim and hurled the shoe at Jamaal’s face with as much force as I could muster.

I had gambled that my throwing would be as accurate as my shooting had been. The gamble paid off.

Not surprisingly, Jamaal didn’t immediately think of a thrown shoe as a dangerous weapon, and he made only a halfhearted attempt to avoid it. But my supernatural aim could make a dangerous weapon out of a lot of ordinary objects, and those heels were fashionably pointy.

The spiky, three-inch heel slammed into Jamaal’s eye and lodged there. He screamed, a sound full of pain and rage. Even a tough guy like him wasn’t able to retain his calm after having his eye put out. He fell, wrenching the shoe out of the bloody socket and hurling it away. His hands clasped the wound and he bent over until his forehead almost touched the asphalt, unable to suppress his agonized moans.

Sobbing in pain, in terror, and in horror, I limped to my evening bag to get the car key. Jamaal was still down when I collapsed into the driver’s seat and started the engine. My stomach wanted to take a minute to empty itself out, but I’d run out of spare minutes about ten minutes ago, and I swallowed to keep my gorge down.

Trying not to look at Jamaal and what I had done to him, I slammed the pedal to the floor and pulled out of the parking lot at top speed.