King Hall (Forever Evermore 1)

Nikki and Gideon were both dead.

Tears instantly cut unrelenting, brutal paths down my cheeks. I stared at my best friends. When they woke… Oh, God. I didn’t want them to go through the gut-wrenching agony. Not them. Not my best friends.

Lifting Pearl protectively, I placed her on my lap. I rocked her softly. Sobbing on her golden hair, I rubbed her back gently, and my blurry vision found Ezra.

He was doing much the same, holding Jack’s back against his chest with his hand over his best friend’s heart, staring down at it. In slow increments, he gazed up at me. His spring green eyes held the same grief for them as mine did.

Our sorrow was deep for our late mates, but time had muted it somewhat. Jack and Pearl’s anguish was going to be so new and horrifying and profound that they would willingly drop into the bottomless pit of hell to escape it, just as it had tortured us.

“Wait!” Antonio’s voice boomed throughout the room, deep and commanding. Furiously blinking through misery-filled tears, I saw the Kings and Cahal on their feet, rushing toward the door with weapons in hand. From the ground, Antonio thundered, “One more! Get down!”

Cahal stalled, and then moved with Vampire speed, blurring, when the Kings didn’t listen, knocking each one to the ground and diving on top of their bodies haphazardly.

The next second, an explosion rocked the building so fiercely I screamed, holding Pearl tight as I fell on my side, Ezra landing next to me, protecting Jack as I was Pearl. The blast was so close it hurt my ears, ringing in pulses, and I watched as Ezra’s mouth opened wide.

He roared in my face, covering his own, much more powerfully sensitive, ears.

Reaching out a shaking hand, I covered one of his hands with mine, trying to help him, and gritted my teeth as the explosion reverberated in jarring shocks. Dust flew into the room, clouding the space deep gray. I choked on it and tried to breathe shallowly, but that didn’t offer any relief. Only when the dust started billowing out through the broken window was I able to breathe again, my lungs and eyes heavy and burning.

Ezra coughed as harshly as I did, and he lifted my hand I had laid on his, holding it between us as we peered around from the floor. The Kings and Cahal were beginning to rise, Mrs. Jonas and Vivian were watching from the ground under Mrs. Jonas’s desk, Antonio was lifting to his knees and digging through the duffels, and Pearl and Jack’s parents were slowly crawling to us. They had been on the far side of the room when the first explosion went off and had been trying to make their way here ever since, eyes steadfast on their children.

Antonio stopped their progress and started handing each of them weapons, shouting orders, “Go with the Kings. They’ll need your help.” They looked to Pearl and Jack, and Antonio barked, “They aren’t dead! Unconscious. Not dead. Go!”

They nodded when shots were fired outside on the lawn, adding even more screams.

The Kings and Cahal stared at the doorway. Outside of it, what had once been the hallway was completely demolished. It appeared like part of the building had collapsed.

King Venclaire said to no-one in particular, “There were heartbeats out there.”

As one, the Kings quickly nodded their thanks to Cahal for saving their lives.

Cahal shook his head, and pointed at Antonio, who had ordered it in the first place.

“Time to go!” Antonio barked, pointing at the broken window. “Our exit.”

Curses of rage and screams of suffering were growing nearer, and everyone holding a weapon took a fortifying pause before they started piling through the window. Antonio waited until the last one was gone before he turned to us where we were laying Pearl and Jack in a corner of the office farthest away from the window and any stray bullets.

My heart was racing like mad, scared shitless, and I was heartbroken for my best friends, but there were Mysticals dying out there. My numb shock of this actuality had worn off. It was time to act. To fight.

Antonio moved in our direction. He kissed my forehead, wiping away my drying tears on my dust-gray face. “Don’t go anywhere, Lil. Stay here. Get the gun I gave you this morning, and shoot anyone who enters through that window. Understand?” His voice was quiet, but it held a certain finality you didn’t argue with.

But, still… “I can help,” I jabbed a finger at the window, “out there.”

He bent, face level with mine. “You leave, and Jack and Pearl might die in this room.”

My lips pursed, but I gradually nodded. He was an Elder. In this situation, I trusted the Elder. Plus, he had never steered me wrong before.

He straightened, turning to Ezra, and stared him down. “I once asked you if you were good enough.” Cries of torment flooded the air outside. “You never answered.”

Ezra’s voice was void of emotion. “I’m good enough.” A simple statement of fact.

“Time tells all,” Antonio whispered, before setting a hand on Ezra’s shoulder. He peered at me, but tightened his grip on Ezra. “Do not shoot us. Only anyone that enters through that window.”

I nodded once.

Antonio’s eyes glowed, and they disappeared.

I blinked.

Antonio had just taken Ezra by means of his vanishing act. Transversing. I knew they were outside in the action while I had been left in here. My jaw clenched, but a quick glance to Jack and Pearl and I knew I was in the right place.

Dashing to the desk, I opened the drawer where I had stashed my gifted gun. After grabbing it with only a slightly shaking hand, I positioned myself on the floor in front of Vivian and Mrs. Jonas where they still hid under the desk.

Straightaway, Mrs. Jonas blathered, “He didn’t tell me what to do. I’m getting the hell out of here.”

“Stay down,” I ordered, gun aimed at the window, where I could see Mys and Com attacking each other, their battle coming closer. “You go out there and you’re dead.” It was pure pandemonium. Like a stampede, but with weapons.

“I’m not going to stay in here and be a sitting duck,” she hissed, and pushed out from under her hiding spot, standing. “I’m going.”

“Mrs. Jonas, don’t be stupid. Get under the damn desk,” I pressed, eyes never wavering from my duty.

“Like I’m going to listen to you,” she snarled. A hail of bullets from a machine gun fired from somewhere outside, rocking her body, her blood flying out behind her. Making not a sound, she was dead before she hit the floor.

“Mrs. Zeller,” I hissed, trying hard not to gag, or gawk, at Mrs. Jonas’s corpse, “don’t you f**king move. You stay right under that desk. If you don’t, I’ll hog tie you down.”