Primal Heat 05 - Darkness Reborn

behind it all. He wanted her to use her powers to hurt him. Damn him! "No," she hissed. "You don't get to destroy me!"
    His claws tightened on her throat, and she couldn't breathe. The earth started to spin, and her arms went numb. Panic hit her, and she fought desperately. Sarah! She heard Kane's roar of outrage, and suddenly he materialized beside her. He grabbed her and started to dematerialize—
    But her body wouldn't go with him.It was the same thing that had happened with Thano and Ryland!
    "Shit!" Kane reformed, and he struck hard against Luc, but her captor simply dissolved into smoke, allowing Kane's weapon to pass through him before rematerializing again.
    "Kane! Behind you!" Kane whirled around and blocked another blow, but the Calydons were on them, attacking swiftly and aggressively. Sarah screamed as another blade came down toward her. Kane deflected it, and then someone hit him in the back of the head. And another came at her. Too many, from all directions.
    Sarah screamed as a blade jammed into her belly, trying to twist free of Luc's ruthless grip, but she was nothing more than a rag doll in his grasp.
    "Stay away from her!" Suddenly there was a roar of fury, and Ryland leapt to his feet and hurled his machete at Luc. His face was human again, his body thick with muscle as he charged Luc. "Get the fuck off the angel," he bellowed.
    But again, Luc simply dissolved himself where the machete had struck, and then he reformed, a broad grin widening on his face. "You can't beat me," he shouted. "Now is when the suffering begins, and I get what I want." He raised her up by her neck, leaving her feet dangling above the ground. "Kane Santiago," he shouted. "Come save your sheva! "
    Then he hurled her right at a team of Calydons, standing there ready with their blades. "No!" She instinctively summoned her white light, and she struck instantly, igniting the night with her light just as she reached them. But before she hit them, Kane materialized and grabbed her. "Oh, no!" She tried to turn off her white light, but it was too late, and she smelled the stench of burning flesh as Kane tore her away from them, the smoke rising from his own body as she torched him.
    Kane gasped and stumbled, and they reformed right in the middle of the carnage. Calydons descended upon them, and Kane leapt up, fighting to protect her, even as the white flames flickered on his body, and he fell to the ground. Ryland rushed in beside them, cutting down their attackers as Sarah crawled over to Kane, who was trying to lurch to his feet. "Kane! Just take us out—"
    He grabbed her and tried again, and again, nothing happened. They didn't disappear. Kane swore, and she saw that same black shadow winding around their legs, the same one that had taken Thano, the one that had made it impossible for Kane to teleport him out of there.
    They were trapped.
    Then more Calydons attacked Kane and Ryland. The moment her guardians were engaged, Luc grabbed her again, grinning at Kane's howls of fury as he tried to get to her, but couldn't, his teleporting stripped from him by the smoky tendrils. Sarah gasped as Luc dragged her across the dirt toward him and locked his claws around her throat. "I'm sorry you need to die for this," he said, and Sarah saw real humanity in his eyes for a split second. "But I have to save her."
    Her? Who? "We can help—"
    Real pain flickered in Luc's eyes. "No," he said. "You can't. There's only one way, and that is for Kane to take my place and free me from the bondage that has kept me here for seven hundred years." And with that, he whirled her around and flung her into the pit that had sucked down Thano.
    * * *
    Kane!
    Kane whirled around as Sarah tumbled through the air, heading straight for the black hole. "Son of a bitch." He broke into a dead run, straining with everything he had to teleport, but there was no response from his body. No tingling from his cells. "Shit!" He ran harder, plowing through the Calydons, not even flinching as the blows rained down. His entire being was centered on Sarah, his entire soul focused on the woman falling into the pit.
    He reached the edge of the pit and launched himself into the air. Sarah reached for him, and he caught her wrist. He tried to dematerialize instantly, and again, nothing happened. Son of a bitch! He yanked Sarah against him, locking her against his chest as they tumbled through the air. Kane looked below them and saw only a bottomless pit of blackness. Smoke