Chapter Forty-Three Pax #3
“Oh God,” Aria said as we pushed our way through the havoc. “We have to find Ambrose. There’s too many of them to fight off. We have to get around them, cause a distraction somehow.”
She closed her eyes for a beat before they whipped open with a new severity. “Keep pressing forward. He’s here . . . I can feel him.”
A loud engine suddenly roared over the commotion, and shouts of terror echoed over the crush before it was riddled with cries of pain.
“What the fuck is that?” Timothy bellowed, turning a worried glance my way.
I struggled to see over the heads of the people.
My heart sank like a rock to the pit of my stomach. “A tractor.”
A big fucking tractor that someone was using to bulldoze the throng as it came in our direction.
Ellis slashed the belly of a woman who tried to claw at his face. Then he turned to me, belief in his eyes. “Do something.”
I gulped, not wanting to leave Aria’s side for a second.
“We have her,” Josephine promised.
I met Aria’s gaze for a beat.
An eternity.
My love pouring out before I gave a succinct dip of my chin, then ducked out of the huddle and ran for the edge of the sidewalk, where there were fewer people.
Here, the buildings were closer together, what likely amounted to their main street. The road was narrow, but angled parking spots were situated in front of the shops and restaurants.
I ran alongside them, jumping over garbage cans and flowerpots and dodging any fucker who tried to get in my way, shifting my body so I could glide around them, ignoring the assholes who were busting out windows and wreaking whatever havoc they could find.
One objective in mind.
Metal screeched as the tractor tore through the cars that had been left in the middle of the street, busting through them as well as any people in his way, both Laven and the deranged.
A man sat at its helm, his skin bubbling and blistering, appearing as if he were getting ready to explode. Nothing but evil twisted his malicious face, no thoughts other than the one that had taken over his mind.
“End her.”
“End her.”
I could almost hear it radiating from his spirit. Crawling out of the vile depths of his being.
I was not going to let that happen.
I finally made it far enough up the sidewalk that the tractor was nearly parallel to me.
It was old, the color a faded yellow with a big metal scoop attached to the front, no tires but instead those giant metal tracks that marred the ground.
Thank fuck there was no cage on it to protect the driver.
Turning on my heel, I began to run toward it. Winding between two degenerates who were so far gone they were fighting each other, I jumped onto the hood of a car in front of me and used it to propel myself over the heads of the fiends who writhed around the tractor.
I landed with an oomph on the back fender that covered one of the enormous metal tracks.
I didn’t hesitate to throw myself on the bastard’s back, knife drawn and ready to drag it across his throat.
But he flailed. Motherfucker was stronger than I was prepared for. He pushed to standing, and he swung me left to right as he dug his nails into my forearms.
Adrenaline surged, aggression curling through me as I tried to hang on. To end this monster, another who would do anything to hurt the one person who meant everything to me.
The one who meant everything to humankind.
Everything depended on her survival.
And that love poured out with the hate. With the violence that thrashed inside me. “You piece of shit. I’m going to end you,” I growled in his ear.
“No, she’s mine. She’s mine.”
He roared, a sound that wasn’t human, a booming of the Kruen that reigned inside him. He clawed at me, and I fought, trying to tighten my hold, but he managed to rip my arms free.
With a bellow of rage, he tossed me off.
I flew backward.
I fought to regain my balance on the small metal platform when I landed, but the momentum was too great, and I tumbled over the backside. I barely caught myself before I fully hit the ground, elbows hooked on the metal frame of the tractor and my feet dragging on the pavement behind me.
I fought it.
Fought with all the strength I possessed, reminding myself of my purpose.
Of the one thing I’d been sure of when I’d first sought Aria out.
I’d accepted it from the beginning.
My fate already sealed.
I would gladly give my life if it meant she got to live.
If there was a chance for peace and harmony.
Something better than this horror that had become our lives.
Something better than the horror that had become this world.
Muscles straining with the effort, I clawed my way back up. No doubt, the driver had believed me long gone and was back to focusing his ill intent on plowing through the cars and people in his way.
And I could see them just up ahead.
The ring that surrounded Aria.
At least a hundred Laven, who had gathered around her to create a barrier of protection.
Gratitude squeezed my chest in a fist. A sudden overwhelming thanksgiving that almost made me want to weep.
I could feel their goodness radiating against the evil that encircled them.
As they moved below the cover of foulness that churned and swelled over them.
The ones who walked in darkness.
Willing to sacrifice everything.
And I knew I stood in those ranks.
I would give it all.
Without giving the fucker the time to anticipate my return, I fisted a handful of his hair and jerked his head back, and I dragged the knife across his throat before he even knew I was there. Blood gushed, and I tossed him off the seat.
He toppled off the side of the tractor, just another monster getting consumed by the swarm.
I jumped into his seat, and I fumbled around to find the brake, hitting it hard once I did.
The tractor ground to a halt.
A couple of the demented tried to climb onto the tractor in their hunger to get to the wicked destination they were heading toward, and I stood, kicking them off as they scrambled to get on from all sides.
Then they were right there, twenty feet in the distance.
Aria and the rest.
Nothing but a living, thriving ring.
Aria caught my eye from the middle of it.
Energy crackled. Riding between us on a keening bow. Invisible but so bright it was blinding. A mark forever written on my soul.
Hope blazed from her.
Belief.
Faith.
Conviction.
I swore she scored it into me, and I turned and sat back on the seat.
I gripped the old gearshift, and metal groaned and protested as I tried to put it into reverse.
Took me three times before I got it; then I backed up, smashing into a car behind me as I turned it around in the middle of the street.
By the time I finally got it righted and was facing the other direction, Aria and the rest had made it to me, and I began to drive the tractor up the center of the road, clearing a path as we moved up the street.
I didn’t slow.
I ran right over the depraved who came sprinting my way without thought while I shouted warnings at Laven to get out of the way.
Laven who gathered and gathered, quick to come to the realization that they were meant to stand with us.
Each of us tied.
Strength in our unity.
Something that scum Ambrose had tried to keep hidden.
But that tether was too powerful between Aria and me for him to keep it bottled up. For him to keep it from us.
Because she and I? We were meant for this.
I carved a passageway for the slew of Laven who now marched together; then we all stopped when we’d made it to what appeared to be the town square.
It was a large, rambling park with an assortment of benches and a playground on the opposite side of a big, grassy circle.
The road looped around the entire area, and four roads jutted out from its juncture.
Right smack in the middle of it was a gazebo.
And the sky?
It was open directly above it.