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He was up again, holding his side. Hell, that was probably a cracked rib. Hopefully the next blow wouldn't shatter it and puncture his lung. Some levels of pain were too damn distracting. Blood ran into his left eye and he knuckled it away before dodging another lunge. Time for some offense.
He charged and hit Goddard full body, rolling them over and over in the dirt, squirming and punching, trying to avoid being caught in a lock with the stronger male. He'd prefer not to have his head ripped off the way Cai had done to Goddard's minion all those decades ago. He rather his own karma have some variety, some note of surprise.
His knuckles rapped a rock half buried into the dirt. Ripping it free, he hammered it into Goddard's face, driving the vampire back, making him scramble away.
They were back on their feet, facing one another, both getting tired. He noticed the other three vampires had edged closer. But the wolves had noticed, too, and had closed their own circle. Cai didn't want any of the wolves hurt. This wasn't their fight. They were here for Rand, who was...what the hell?
His wolf was supposed to be gone, carrying Dovia as far from danger as possible. Instead, he'd taken the lead position from Fane. He looked like the tip of a lethal spear, jaw snapping, his growling like the thunder of a fast approaching storm. His eyes were glowing with that hellfire light. His one gold and one blue eye. They hadn't gone full gold because Rand, human and wolf side, were channeling all that fury equally.
Cai had thought Fane looked intimidating, but that was until Rand had stepped into those paws. If Goddard made any more forward progress on harpooning Cai, the wolf was going to leap into the fight.
They'd put effort into covering Rand's strengths to help Dovia, but now, the way Rand looked, like he could hold his own with Lucifer's own hellhounds, was enough to have Goddard giving the wolf a second, uncertain glance.
You're not touching my wolf. Cai leaped for Goddard, grappling, striking him in the ribs with his one empty fist. Hell, holding onto the stake was just hampering him. Cai tossed it away and went after him with both hands. He'd plow through Gideon's rib cage like match sticks, but unfortunately a vampire's bone structure was a bit more resistant, especially if the vampire in question could twist away fast as a snake. Goddard flipped over and brought the heel of his boot down on Cai's stomach. If he'd had anything in there, it would have come up. He swallowed back a grunt of pain.
He knew how to do that, didn't he? Not make a sound, no matter his agony?
His first year as a vampire, Goddard had broken both his legs, hog-tied him in that position for hours. "Every time you make a noise of pain, you'll stay that way another hour."
It had been Goddard's punishment for Cai not moving fast enough, thinking fast enough, not being what he wanted, or being exactly what he wanted. His fucktoy, punching bag, and receptacle for Goddard's insatiable need to cause pain.
It was an ill-timed flashback...or maybe not.
Enough. Fucking enough.
The energy was there. Had been there since the start of the fight. He could use it. Should have used it at the beginning, because now, fueled by this level of rage, Cai wasn't sure how to stop it. It was an encounter between an oil spill and a bonfire.
He hurt, he was tired of all this bullshit. Yeah, he could just die, but Rand would die, too. And Rand hadn't figured out that life still had some pretty good stuff for him. Probably not for Cai, seeing as he was such an annoying prick, but he could ride his coattails. Or his ass. It was a damn fine ass. And it was bound to him for all eternity. That meant he had to take care of it. Lyssa had said so.
Fuck it. Move them back, Rand. Move them back.
Just like when he helped life take root inside of Dovia, Cai shut everything out, focused on his breathing, let the energy inside him grow. A force of creation could also be a force for destruction, couldn't it?
Goddard charged. This time, when he was nearly upon him, Cai thrust out both fists, a battering ram move. And he put all that energy of creation--and destruction--into it.
It was like watching a fireworks display explode at ground level. Leastwise, that's what Rand would tell him later. His fists went through Goddard's chest and came out the other side, blood and bone blurred by a shower of green and gold energy, a blaze of firelight that roared up and over, consuming them both. Cai felt the heat run up his arms, across his back. Him and Goddard, a pyre that would blaze to the gates of hell, leaving a trail of ash, and--
He was jerked back by human hands, a move that made all the things hurting in his body hurt worse. He cursed whoever the rude bastard was who'd done it. He was freed from Goddard and rolled to put out the flame as the other vampire stumbled back, screaming, trying to figure out what was happening to him. Then his eyes lighted on Cai and he ran at him again, unholy fury in his face and flame whipping around him. Goddard was a determined fucker when he was pissed.
Rand laid Cai on the ground, snatched up the dropped stake and ran at him. He was going to meet that charge. Cai shouted a weak protest, but he couldn't grab onto him.
The truce, if that was the best word for a nuclear deterrent, ended. The other three vampires leaped forward, the wolves springing to intercept, the full storm of violence erupting.
Cai tried to struggle to his feet. Rand, goddamn it. He saw Goddard's eyes light on the wolf, and the vampire's fangs lengthened. Even with the magical fire engulfing him, he was dangerous, he could--
Rand didn't hesitate. He ran into the grip of those flames, and was engulfed with Goddard. Cai caught the flash of shock on Goddard's face when Rand knocked his blocking arm out of the way as if it was nothing and shoved the stake into Goddard's chest.
His wolf was thorough. Clamping one big hand on Goddard's nape to give him extra leverage, Rand slammed the stake home so the point came out the other side.
But Goddard had one more fuck-you in him. As he struggled in Rand's lethal embrace, he turned, twisted like a pinned cobra. It made Rand stumble.
Shit. Rand!
Goddard brought his boot down on Rand's leg, right above the knee. Even through all the other noise happening, Cai heard the horrifying sound of snapping bone and Rand's hoarse cry.
Wolves could heal. Servants could heal. But Cai's magic was a wild card that could change everything. The oil and match combination had ignited and was starting to mushroom. And Rand was caught in the middle of it. His cry elevated to a scream as that green-gold fire rushed into the wound caused by the split bone punching through flesh.
Cai forced away rational argument that his body couldn't contain another blow, another wound, another injury, and focused on saving his wolf. As that pending explosion took its deep breath, ready to burst Goddard into a million teeny tiny satisfying pieces, level the forest and everything living
in it for a mile around, Cai caught the edge of it and held on.
You're my power. My fucking power, and you listen to me, goddamn it. The power of creation, turned in a wrong direction, but he could yank it back.
He would learn later the scream that ripped from his throat was something even more unsettling than Rand's, a primal noise that raised the hackles on every wolf's neck. He was jerked up off his knees, arched back in an impossible way, almost levitated off the ground. Emerald and sun beam arcs of power spun around him, Goddard, and Rand.
Dorothy in the tornado, no house to protect her. That's what he was, but he wouldn't let the tornado call the shots. As Cai grimly hung on, channeling the power into the ground, the sky, the buildings, and even through his own body from whence it had come, he had brief flashes of things.
Fire, making macabre silhouettes of the trees, bending back from the force of a lashing wind. Wolves, running against that backdrop. Taking down Brutus. No stakes, but no problem for the shifters. Tearing a vampire apart worked as effectively as a stake. Surreal.
A yell of warning and the wolves scattered. The fire reflected against steel, a flash, and Malvin's face showed an almost childlike expression of surprise. His head toppled from his shoulders. Before his body even hit the ground, Hector had likewise been decapitated, in a gruesome spray of blood. So quick and effortless, it was almost annoying.
Daegan apparently did live up to assessment of both dick and sword. Though, in all fairness, Cai had provided one hell of a distraction. He doubted anyone would remember that. He wouldn't, because while he hadn't been staked or decapitated, he felt one step away from worm food.
It was sometime later when he had that cohesive thought. Then he realized the wind had died, and there was no more flame. Just little flickers on the ground here and there. A few of the wolves had shifted to human and were stomping out anything that could leave a threat of forest fire.
There were no buildings left in the clearing. Goddard's camp had been reduced to smoking piles of ash. Occasionally something that looked like an electric charge, a quick, ground-covering bolt of lightning, rippled over those mounds. Cool.
