The Forbidden Trilogy(269)

Beside him lay Hunter, the sphere rolling away from his outstretched hand. He pulled himself up and looked at Lucy, sorrow in his eyes. "I'm sorry. I thought I could beat him."

Her heart thumped so loud it nearly deafened her, as they all looked to the jungle.

Beleth walked out from the trees, his wound healing with each step.

Hunter struggled to stand, using his sword for support. "That black blood of his fixed-up the wound, and he fought as if all new and shiny. We have to leave, now."

Lucy nodded and picked up the sphere. She passed it to Hunter, who tried to take it, but then dropped it, looking even more exhausted. It drained him. She picked it back up and stared at it, and another thought hit her. I still have the serum.

Beleth's wings erupted from his back and he dove up and forward, closing the distance.

"Distract him," Lucy commanded Hunter.

Luke straightened his back. "I'll help too."

He still limped, but his eyes burned with determination, and Lucy didn't argue. She pulled a protesting Simmons with her, running farther away, toward the cliff.

Beleth landed in front of Hunter and Luke, the earth beneath his feet shifting and cracking. "I'll make it quick." Not a boast, but a mercy offering. His hand formed into a blade, his wings still out, and he struck at the two men.

Luke threw up a shield, defending against the blows—one blow after the other. They were too wounded and too tired to really fight.

Lucy left Simmons near the cliff. "Wait here, and don't let him get you." Probably unnecessary. If nothing else, she could count on the woman's own self-preservation to keep her alive.

She ran back toward Beleth, making sure to stay behind him. If she could catch his wing with the serum, they could win this.

The agent who'd been knocked away finally stood and drew a hand gun, circling Hunter and Luke and aiming at Beleth.

A black tail whipped out from behind Beleth and tripped the guard. When he retracted it, Hunter jumped forward and cut off the tip. It fell and squirmed on the ground like the lizard tail.

The agent scrambled back, sweat breaking out on his face, and unloaded his gun into the beast of a man.

Beleth hopped away, releasing Luke and Hunter.

Lucy backed away as well, making sure to stay behind him.

Beleth thrust his hand-blade into the earth again, and Luke screamed. "Move!"

Everyone jumped away, except for the agent, who took aim at Beleth as the blade pierced through the earth below him and impaled him through his chest. Blood trickled out of his body and mouth as Beleth pulled his blade back, and he fell to the ground, dead.

Lucy's stomach turned with bile. Somewhere in the back of her mind a macabre scoreboard ticked off one more body count to add to the horror tally of this mission. Innocent lives lost—too many, and too morbid, to count.

She inched closer, moving in on Beleth as her brother grew weaker with each blow. Hunter charged, his face a mask of fury after watching another friend and colleague murdered—fury that would turn to grief when this was over. So much grief.

This was her chance, her one shot while he was distracted by Hunter's blade and Luke's powers.

She sped up, nearing Beleth and his squirming piece of tail. It moved, withering, totally grossing her out, but she ignored it and raised the serum, ready to stab him in the back.

Before she could land the blow that could save them all, the piece of tail, squirming on the ground, leaped at her face like an acrobatic jelly fish, and opened up like a web. It covered her face, her eyes lost in darkness.

She screamed and reeled away, stabbing at the thing with the syringe. When that didn't work, she dropped the syringe and clawed at it with her hands, trying to rip it off as she instinctively walked backward, fleeing from something attacking her.

"Lucy!" Her brother cried out, but it sounded so far away.

Her face burned as if acid had been poured onto it. Was the thing eating her? Oh, God. She fell backward, landing hard on her butt, and shooting pain splintered off from her tailbone. She grabbed her knife and tried cutting the black thing off her face, worried she would cut into her own flesh, not knowing where it ended and she began.

Then it fell off.

Her face burned in pain. The world was too bright. She touched her cheeks, expecting to feel raw flesh and bone, blood and gore, but it felt fine, normal.

A shadow loomed over her. Beleth.

She had to stop him. She looked around for the syringe, but it lay too far away, draining into the earth. She'd been a fool, and in her moment of panic she'd lost the only useful weapon they had to defeat him and get away.

Luke and Hunter lay on the ground, maybe dead. No. She couldn't think that. Never. Everyone she loved could die: Luke, Hunter, Sam and her baby. The people she loved more than anything in the world would all die if she failed.