Chapter Seven
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LACHIAL LINGERED NEAR his spawn’s apartment building, making sure he was just close enough to sense her on the edge of his radar.
Jazmine was always in her apartment when he checked on her, but he suspected she’d been sneaking out at night.
He and his guards kept watch for a few hours, hoping they were wrong.
“It could be another cambion we haven’t discovered yet who’s killing the mercs,” one of his guards murmured.
“One of us would have sensed another cambion if they were in this area by now,” Lachial refuted. “Besides, the corpses all looked exactly like the aftermath of what Jazmine did to our squad member in the police headquarters.”
“The humans that were found in the dumpster had been reduced to chunks of meat,” his other guard agreed. “All of the militants who saw that mess puked their guts out.”
Lachial grinned a bit at that memory, then his mirth faded.
He didn’t know how it was possible for Jazmine to defy him.
Both Rahab’s mind control and his parental bond should have been enough to keep the cambion in check.
He wasn’t sure what he would do if she truly was roaming around Brooklyn, randomly murdering people.
How could he punish a shadow wielder who was mentally unstable?
Taking away her precious painting would probably be a very bad idea.
It could make her turn against him like his feral spawn had in past eras.
Jazmine had displayed her ability to use shadows even in a well-lighted room.
She’d successfully held Vetis at bay after he’d attempted to have sex with her.
Even Rahab had been disturbed when Lachial had told him about that episode.
“A knight has been spotted near the Henry Hudson Bridge!” a soldier reported in. “Alpha Team are to head there asap!”
Lachial rolled his eyes at the human terminology they were using now.
He took off with his guards in tow, heading northwards, then cut westward to reach the bridge.
Seventeen soldiers who’d sired cambions converged together with their entourages.
Rahab was the only one who didn’t show up.
Their commander was probably in his unofficial office in the gym, endlessly and pointlessly working out.
“I see him,” Phul said as he peered through binoculars. “He’s alone,” he added.
The human militant who’d seen a large male approaching puffed out his chest. “We’re here to back you up,” he said.
Phul glanced at the puny idiot and nodded, hiding his derision. He put the binoculars to his eyes again, watching the potential knight try to sneak across the bridge. Only one lane had been cleared. He was using the traffic in the other lanes for cover.
“What are our orders?” Xathan asked. Even he’d left the Empire State Building to join them on this hunt.
“We’ll move back and let him reach Manhattan Island,” Phul decided. “Once he’s several hundred yards from the bridge, we’ll move in and surround him so he can’t get away.”
“Can we shoot him in the legs so he can’t flee?” Vetis asked with a grin of anticipation. The opportunity to maim one of their enemies was too good to pass up.
“I’ll do the shooting, if it’s warranted,” Phul said with a stern frown. As Rahab’s second in command, the other soldiers deferred to him reluctantly. Phul didn’t want any mistakes to occur that could potentially end up with the knight dead.
“I never get to have any fun anymore,” Vetis grumbled as the soldiers backed away from the bridge.
“Tell me about it,” Lachial agreed sourly. “It would be nice to have just one day off so I can slaughter a whole bunch of helpless humans.”
The other soldiers gave the pair wary looks when they giggled together. Both of the males always had been insane and unstable.
“Move over to that building,” Phul ordered the militants who were guarding the bridge. “Pretend you don’t see the knight if you catch a glimpse of him.” The humans thought the Soldiers of Chaos and Knights of Order were just their motorcycle club gang names.
“This rival biker gang must be stupid to try to sneak into Manhattan,” a human scoffed. “Don’t they realize we’re watching every bridge and tunnel?”
Phul didn’t bother to respond and loped away from the bridge. He and his guards hid behind a building and he raised the binoculars to his eyes again.
Xathan was glad he’d decided to join the hunt this time.
He wasn’t used to spending all day sitting behind a desk or having meetings with his lackeys.
Part of him enjoyed the new role he was playing.
The more savage part of him longed to call on his sword and go into battle again.
It was good to get a break from his daily drudgery for once.
All of the aliens were tense as they waited for their foe to draw closer. He was taking his sweet time to cross the structure. The male was creeping along and being cautious rather than using his speed to sprint across it in a blur of motion.
“Hurry up already,” Vetis whispered in annoyance, tapping his foot impatiently.
“I bet he isn’t even a knight,” Lachial said. “He’s probably just a large human thinking he can sneak into the city without being caught.”
“What makes you think that?” Vetis asked.
“Knights don’t usually skulk along that slowly,” Lachial pointed out.
“Will you two shut up!” Phul hissed, turning to regard them with a glare. Vetis mimed zipping his lips shut while Lachial snickered beneath his breath.
Shaking his head that he’d been lumped with these morons, Phul watched the male slowly draw closer. He had to be six foot six and was muscular. His face was hidden by a ballcap.
Finally reaching the island, the male paused and cautiously glanced around. His huge shoulders slumped in relief that he hadn’t been caught and he began to lope along the street.
“Move in!” Phul shouted and dozens of soldiers raced towards their quarry.
The male froze in shock and quaked in terror when he saw guns pointed at him from every angle. “Don’t shoot!” he pleaded, holding his hands up. “I’m unarmed!”
“Told you,” Lachial said smugly to Vetis. “He’s just a pathetic human.”
Phul scowled along with most of his fellow soldiers, disappointed that they hadn’t caught one of their enemies. “Take him to be processed,” he ordered, then pulled his walky-talky out of his pocket. “False alarm, Lord,” he reported. “It was just a human.”
“I want Alpha Team to meet me at the gym in two minutes,” his commander ordered.
“Here we go,” Vetis said with an eyeroll. “We’re going to get reamed because it wasn’t a knight. He’ll blame us for Jazmine’s mate still being a no-show.”
Lachial was glad he didn’t have to face their boss alone.
He sprinted back to 5th Avenue and sensed his offspring was inside her apartment.
Jazmine could have crept out and killed some humans while he’d been away.
He guessed he would find out if she was responsible if any dismembered bodies washed up on the shore again.
Vetis’ prediction turned out to be correct.
Rahab was furious that the new captive was just a lowly human.
He raged at his men while he paced up and down, castigating them for not finding their progeny yet.
The others who’d found and lost their younglings to the knights also copped a vicious diatribe.
Xathan, Phul and Lachial exchanged glances during the long tirade.
They all knew their commander was cracking, but there was nothing they could do about it.
None of them were brave enough to try to call on Anarchy for his help.
The entity would probably smite them down for daring to bother him.
This dimension wasn’t the only one where war between Order and Chaos was raging.
There were countless Earths where battles were being won and lost by champions from both factions.
“Get out!” Rahab snarled when he was done. “I’m tired of your continual failure!”
Xathan was the first one out the door. He mentally shook his head at how unstable their leader had become.
They’d only been on Earth for nine months so far.
How was Rahab going to keep himself together long enough to win this final war?
Phul had been forced to search for their boss a dozen times or more after he’d gone on a rampage by now.
One of these days, Rahab wouldn’t be able to snap out of his rage.
Once that happened, he would kill everyone he saw, including his own squad.
Everyone in Alpha Team was having similar thoughts as their guards followed them back to their previous locations.
One main reason stopped them from mutinying.
Chaos might decide to wipe them all out if they murdered his chosen champion.
If that happened, their foes would achieve ultimate victory.
So far, they hadn’t even been embroiled in a real fight with Amaros and his crew during this final war yet.
Lachial checked on Jazmine again to find she was still in her home.
It was late and he was tired, so he decided to head to their base.
His entourage was glad to call it a night.
They split up to visit the females they preferred to use, but Lachial headed to his apartment alone.
He wasn’t in the mood to emotionally torture one of their captives.
He took a shower, then lay down on his king-size bed to brood about his troubled offspring.