Page 56 of Awaken the Dragon
“What the hell is that?” Ziva yelled.
“I have no clue, but in a minute, it will cut off my circulation!”
“Oh no it won’t! Hold on!”
Ziva slammed her foot down on the gas and the truck lurched forward before its tires screeched over asphalt. With half her ass on the seat, one leg inside the truck, and her fingers clenching tightly to the door, Shola was pulled in two directions like a horrible tug-of-war game. Ziva kept driving, and the sludge held its grip, until Ziva hit the corner.
“Fuck!” Ziva yelled when Shola swung out of the truck, holding tight to the door, her legs flying into the air when the sludge finally released her.
But Ziva continued to drive fast while Shola’s fingers kept their grip on the door that continued swinging away from the truck. It was when Ziva made a left turn that the door swung toward the truck and Shola was able to fall onto the seat, pulling her legs up tight beneath her. The door slammed and Shola’s head fell against Ziva’s arm.
“I can’t drive with your head bobbing against me, Shola,” Ziva quipped.
Shola adjusted herself in the seat and was about to give Ziva a snide remark, but she caught a glimpse in the rearview mirror and bit back a scream. That metallic sludge that had been wrapped around her leg had cumulated until it formed the silhouette of a person over ten feet tall and wearing a hood. It extended its arms revealing skeletal hands from beneath the sleeves of the robe and opened its mouth to release a horrific screech that had the windows of the truck exploding around them.
“Shit!” Ziva screamed. “What the hell was that?”
Shola couldn’t speak. Her throat burned, and her eyes remained fixated on the mirror even though the sludge man had dissipated after his angry cry. Her fingers began to shake, the rush of energy she usually felt at the expulsion of power not present. In its place was a weight so heavy that she couldn’t even lift her shaking fingers from her thighs where they’d been resting. Her shoulders trembled and recalled the feeling of her leg being pulled down, taken and restrained against her will. That sludge man wanted her.
Warrick wanted her.
And Shola just wanted to be free.
In a startling second of clarity she realized she wanted to be free of this destiny, of the mandate to kill, of this entire existence that had more to do with someone else’s past mistake than her present happiness. It was unfair and unjust.
It was her fate.
“We circled back just in time to see two vamps coming out of a side door at the club. Man and woman attempted to run to their car, but amazingly that vehicle was burned to a crisp right before their eyes,” Steele said with a haunting smile.
“Did you burn their bloodsucking asses too?” Reece asked.
“No,” Magnum answered. “I had some questions for them.”
“But they weren’t in the mood to answer. Instead, they thought it might be nice to snack on us, so the woman made a dive at Magnum and went straight for his jugular. He tossed her so far down the alley she slid into a dumpster before being covered by some shiny metal liquid,” Steele said.
Magnum agreed with his brother’s account of what had gone down and added to it. “The guy thought he had a better chance at hand-to-hand combat with Steele, but that didn’t work to his advantage. He was bleeding and cradling a chest full of broken ribs by the time he managed to squeak out the name Hoan. That’s who he said Warrick was working with. A demonic named Hoan.”
“Why didn’t you bring him back here? We could have held him for ransom, or at the very least, beat more answers out of him,” Aiken said.
“That weird ass glossy crap got him too. It was thick and wrapped around dude’s body like a chain, pulling him straight down into a sewer like garbage,” Magnum announced.
“What the hell? Now we’re fighting glossy metallic crap?” Reece asked.
“No,” Theo said, pushing himself away from the doorjamb where he’d been leaning while listening to them talk.
They’d all joined in the conference room once they returned, in pairs since that was the way they’d gone out together. There was only one pair missing, or at least one part of the pair. Ziva and Shola had been together, but Shola wasn’t here. Ziva was sitting in a chair staring off into space while the others talked. Bleu had gone out alone, and he hadn’t returned yet, but Theo had been in touch with him through the communicator. He was safe and had information on the Royal Blood and Camden’s quest to be recognized.
Theo had gathered his own information tonight. Dark and dangerous information that wasn’t going to bode well for any of them, especially him.
“That metallic sludge and that eerie smoke that accompanies it is the demonic Hoan. He was banished to the Spirit Realm a thousand years ago,” Theo told them.
“Then how did he get back, and why now?” Reece asked.
“The Convergence,” Steele said. “He’s the one who wants the power to rule the realms. He’s older and undoubtedly much stronger than Camden.”
“Right,” Theo stated. “Hoan can converge the realms, he just needs enough evil support on each one to combine the power and turn it to his rule. And if he’s working with Camden he probably didn’t kill the two vamps you saw in the alley, just got them out of the way so you wouldn’t kill them.”
Aiken nodded. “So how and when do we kick his ass?”
