Universal Warrior: Before Red Morning Read online

I’m staying with you.”

  After a moment, Jayden nodded. His wings exploded out from his back; Bethany’s a moment later. Jayce and Darryl had finished helping Grace onto one of the animals; she took the reins of the two Pegasus at her left as Jayce and Darryl mounted the last two.

  Lightning split the sky as if signaling that now was the time.

  Jayden crouched. “Go!” He commanded, “Don’t stop till you reach Mount Olympus!”

  Darryl, on his mount, was out first, Jayden a few feet behind. Grace was next, accompanied by her two Pegasus. Jayden and Bethany exchanged quick looks before rising, as one, into the storm.

  Jayden had barely cleared the room when something barreled into him like a mad bull, nearly cracking the right side of his ribs and sending him tumbling through the air. Jayden winced and took hold of the thing that tackled him—Timothy—and did his best to wrap the larger ex-Angel into a headlock. Timothy was still stronger. With his arms firmly around Jayden’s midsection, he began to squeeze, forcing the air from his lungs.

  Fighting for every breath and twisting through the sky, Jayden’s wings phased out. He saw three black voids shoot up past them, ignoring them as they streaked towards the others.

  Ethan was leading them.

  Bethany, several yards away, stopped flying and looked back at what was coming. Jayden managed to fire a thought her way: Keep going!!

  There was something very wrong with all of this. Jayden was having trouble staying awake, as though all of the energy was being leeched from his body. He’d been hit harder than Timothy had hit him. Even as he was thrown about like a sheet in the wind, he couldn’t understand why the only thing he wanted to do was sleep.

  Timothy rose up, pushing his hands into Jayden’s face as the two began to fall. Jayden took his wrists and tried to wrestle the former Angel off him, to no avail. “Heya, Jayden.” Timothy seethed, “Been a long time. How you been?”

  “Oh…you know…” Jayden murmured. Even speech was an effort. “…can’t really complain as long as dad’s not around. But you don’t have that problem anymore, do you?”

  Timothy chuckled. “Nah, none of us do, and you could’ve made life so much easier if youda just gone along with it--”

  Jayden frowned, unsure of what he was seeing. The rain just off of Timothy’s back, where his wings should’ve been, shimmered. The storm still avoided him and he was bone dry.

  Jayden realized what he was looking at. Timothy’s wings were black. They emanated a low hum, and Jayden could feel his energy being drained by them.

  Without another word, Jayden raised his right fist up and brought it crashing down perfectly on Timothy’s jaw. The boy’s head shook as he became still, looking at Jayden in complete and utter disbelief. His eyes then rolled back into his head and he fell, landing hundreds of feet below in the raging Atherean.

  Still falling, Jayden felt his energy slowly return, now that he was away from those damned wings. He concentrated, took a breath, burst his wings, and rocketed off towards the others. They were so far away that they were barely visible, and Jayden could only sense Ethan and his remaining friends.

  Bethany had stopped flying; Jayden couldn’t see her wings, but she appeared to be writhing against something that Jayden couldn’t see in the storm. As Jayden drew closer, he made out her attackers with horror; Zachary and Adam. The former held her from behind, pinning her arm at the small of her back and wrapping his forearm around her throat. Adam laughed atrociously, taunting her as he tried to get under her shirt.

  Jayden’s head began swimming as he came within a few yards of Adam; those wings had leeched onto him.

  Nothing was going to keep Jayden from this. He’d been denied the opportunity for vengeance the first time they’d attempted this.

  Adam barely had enough time to turn and acknowledge Jayden with wide eyes before the latter rammed into him, propelled by the aura in his wings. His father had hit him like this once; it was like getting hit by an oncoming carriage that was on fire. Adam was out cold before he even began to fall.

  As Zachary realized what was happening, Bethany took hold of his hand and sank her teeth into the webbing between his thumb and index finger. Zachary screamed in agony as Bethany tore his arm away from her neck. If she was feeling the effects of his wings, she wasn’t showing it. Eyes bloodshot and enraged, she whirled on her assailant and raised her knee, slamming the bone into the tender area between his legs. She struck him so hard that even Jayden winced; there had been a cracking sound. “DON’T YOU EVER TOUCH ME AGAIN!!!!” She bellowed above the storm.

  Frozen and motionless, holding his groin, Zachary fell to the Atherean.

  Bethany then swooned as her wings went out.

  As thunder and lightning shook the sky, Jayden dashed and caught her, and she moaned, forcing herself back to consciousness. “It’s their wings.” Jayden explained, “Their wings take away our ability to fly.”

  “And stay awake.” She added. She looked up. “I can’t sense Jayce or Darryl anymore.”

  “Ethan may already be on them.” Jayden rumbled, “We have to hurry.”

  Trails were no longer a concern as brother and sister hurtled towards their family, hoping they weren’t too late. Jayden knew firsthand how ruthless Ethan could be. It had been his own impassioned testimony that had resulted in Ethan’s exile.

  That’s not true. Bethany reached to him unexpectedly, Ethan’s committing parenticide got him exiled. You just told the truth.

  Jayden looked to his right and caught a reassuring, yet stern glance from his younger sister. He smiled, nodding. She returned the gesture and continued to ascend.

  The five Pegasus came into view, lightened by the occasional eruption of sky-blue sheet lightning. The Pegasus were flailing, not flying. Grace was struggling to stay on her panicked mount. Jayce and Darryl had obviously figured out Ethan’s secret, because they were giving him a wide berth. A single Pegasus at the center of the conflagration raged and thrashed violently, whinnying so loudly that it could be heard several miles away. Although neither Jayden nor Bethany could see him, they both knew that that was the animal Ethan was struggling with.

  Jayden was shocked when Grace suddenly sprung from her mount and leapt onto the one Ethan was trying to kill. The elder had surprise on her side, but Ethan was completely ruthless.

  “No…” Jayden breathed, accelerating.

  He ignored the growing dizziness and exhaustion that began to overtake him, keeping Ethan squarely in front of him. He ignored Darryl’s warnings—Jayden already knew the threat—and came to within a few yards of Grace and Ethan. Grace was trying to throw him from the Pegasus. Ethan looked at Jayden as though he’d been awaiting his arrival.

  Ethan smiled. It was the same smile he’d flashed just before he’d committed one of Heaven’s ghastliest crimes.

  There was a horrid thwacking sound, like something solid tearing through flesh. A Pegasus horn ruptured through the back of Ethan’s right forearm, and the Zeneca’s watched in horror as he plunged the horn through Grace’s midsection.

  Grace didn’t even have time to gasp. Killed on contact, her body instantly turned to glass. “Old hag…” Ethan snarled, singlehandedly tossing the woman off of the Pegasus.

  Rage overpowered dizziness; Jayden couldn’t keep his wings going, but had built up enough speed to rise up and hammer Ethan in his chest with both knees. “You murdering bastard!” Jayden spat, “What in Amen’s name is wrong with you?!”

  Ethan was knocked back through the air but recovered quickly, black wings flourishing as long drops of rainwater arced away from him. “Jayden. Come on.” Ethan said coldly, “You have any idea how old Grace was? I just did her a favor.”

  Bethany was appalled, her hands clasped to her mouth as Jayden ignored the imminent danger of the horn and let gravity do the work. He fell into Ethan, grasping his right hand as the two began to wrestle. “A favor?!” Jayden echoed, “She was my friend! She never hurt anybody!”

  “Ye
ah, yeah, but she would’ve.” Ethan nodded. It bothered Jayden that Ethan wasn’t putting up much of a fight. “Sooner or later, Jayden, everyone turns.”

  For just a moment, the two former friends looked one another in the eye. There was a time when Jayden identified with Ethan. The two had been close. “Even you?” Jayden asked.

  Before Ethan could answer, Bethany appeared behind him. She wrapped her arms around his neck, surprising him and dragging them both towards the Atherean.

  Without bursting his wings, Jayden put both arms out in front of him and allowed himself to plummet, grateful that the rain was no longer pelting him in the face.

  Ethan was toying with Bethany; it was taking everything the girl had to keep the Pegasus horn away from her face, but she was losing the battle. “Sweet little Bethany…” Ethan whispered, “I am really gonna miss you.”

  “Well, I never did like you all that much, so it’s your loss.” She growled in retort.

  The words seemed to genuinely sting Ethan, who hesitated just long enough for Jayden to land on top of him, hands on his throat. “Stay away from my sister, you monster.”

  They were less than fifty feet from the surface of the Atherean. The impact would hurt. But it would hurt Ethan more.

  “Jayden, you short-sighted little fool…” Ethan seethed, “My mission was never the Pegasus. We’ll take them when we’re ready.”

  Jayden scowled. “Then why’re you here? Why’d you come