Primal Heat 05 - Darkness Reborn

vomit, as it deserved to be.
    Luc looked up sharply. "Tonight? It can't be tonight. Santiago found the river, and Sarah's strong again—"
    "He did?" Enraged, Warwick whirled his mount around toward the fountain. It lay in a pathetic pile of crumbled stone, so dry he could taste the dust on his skin. "Where—" Then he saw it. The massive hole in the ground. Furious, Warwick urged Deathbringer over to the opening. Beneath it flowed the pure, clear water that kept Sarah alive, giving life to the angel who had to die.
    Warwick reached beneath his cape and pulled out his wand, a supple, pliant stick of highly polished wood from the tree that marked the grave of his beloved Audrey. He summoned his magic into the wand, and violet and silver sparks crackled violently from the end of it. For a split second, he almost hesitated, grimly aware that if he destroyed the river completely, it wouldn't affect only Sarah, but the entire earth would be profoundly impacted.
    The he laughed softly at the irony of his thoughts. "Sacrifice one to preserve the greater good," he said bitterly, mimicking the Order of the Blade mission statement that still made fury and disgust burn through him. "No longer," he said. "Today it is sacrifice the greater good to preserve one."
    Then he pointed his wand at the river, and he invoked the power of the demons in his incantation. A bolt of light streaked from the end of his wand, and neither he nor Deathbringer flinched when the earth erupted in a shriek of agony, and then collapsed, burying the river beneath a ton of rocks so tainted that they bled black as they fell into the water.
    He spun his mount back toward Luc, who was clenching the rose petals in his hand. "Now, it is up to you. Do not dare to disappoint me."
    A slow, insidious grin stretched across the face of the creature masquerading as a man. "Have no fear, my lord. It will be done." He turned his head away from Warwick, scenting the air. Then he stiffened and went into high alert.
    "Did you find him?" Warwick asked, stroking Deathbringer's shoulder as his mount shifted restlessly.
    "I did. He is mine." Then the demon-man dissolved into a tendril of thick, noxious smoke that immediately streaked through the night and disappeared into the woods.
    For a long moment, Warwick did not move. He simply closed his eyes and breathed in the silence of the night, the freshness of the air, the freedom of the breeze rippling over his skin. Anticipation hummed through him, and he smiled, the first true smile he'd felt in over seven hundred years.
    Slowly, he shoved up his sleeve and looked at the markings on his arm. The brand of his own weapon, the battle axe that he hadn't bothered to call out in over five hundred years, since he'd walked away from the Order and their mission. And there, woven into his own brand was the name Audrey, carved there with his axe the very last time he'd ever called it out.
    He raised his arm and pressed his lips to her name, unable to suppress the same well of grief that had been haunting him so relentlessly for so long. But this time, with the grief was the raw, unbridled promise that her death would finally be avenged. After centuries of planning, her time, their time, had finally come.
    He raised his arm to the heavens, reaching up toward the stars that mocked him with their levity. "Tonight, it begins, Audrey Beckett. Tonight, it begins!"
    Then he grabbed the reins, whirled his mount to the right, and then the two of them galloped into the night, swallowed up by the darkness, soon to be far, far away from the hellhouse, long before the nightmare was unleashed.
    * * *
    The moonlight vanished the moment Kane and his team stepped over the edge of the cliff into the crevasse. It was total and complete blackness as they skidded down the rocky shale, down toward a destination they couldn't identify. The air was thick and noxious, making it feel like they were trying to breathe a fetid swamp itself.
    Sarah coughed, and he tightened his grip on her wrist. Talk to me, sweetheart.
    I'm okay so far. Just hard to breathe.
    Kane wrapped his arm over her shoulder and tucked her against him, holding her face against his chest. Better?
    Sarah's body shuddered with relief. Yes. Excitement rippled through her. I've never been able to come in here before.
    Kane tightened his grip on his flail as they descended deeper. He reached out with his senses, searching for any sign of life, but he could sense nothing. Just the overwhelming