The Final Showdown - The Moon Trilogy - Book 3

Chapter thirty-two:

   Rachel watched Scarlett, crouched with one ear pressed against the door. She held up four fingers.

   Three fingers. Her other hand inched towards the doorknob and twisted it slowly. Locked.

   Two fingers still in the air. She reached back with the hand that had tried the knob and grabbed hold of Alex, who grabbed Sam, and so on.

   One finger. A breathless anticipation was hanging like a thick fog in the air. Rachel couldn't suck in a breath if she tried. This was the moment they'd been waiting for.

A certain sort of deafening silence hung around Rachel's ears.

   That last finger was suddenly gone, and the scenery was gone along with it, replaced by a surprisingly... normal living room. Couches, magazines collecting dust on an ugly coffee table...

   "Fan out." Scarlett hissed. "He hasn't left yet."

   Thankfully, Ellie knew how to follow orders. She was actually... okay at this. Rachel begrudgingly let her do her own thing.

   After all, she had to focus on her own search. No checking up on their stowaway and no Clarity to worry about. Not here, anyways.

   She crouched and walked and peered behind doorways. This was a pretty big house, but thankfully only one story tall. She just had to get through these few rooms and make sure that Eric wasn't lurking around in any of them. He couldn't get away, now. Not this time and not any other time ever again.

   "I've got him!" the shout rang like a gunshot through the dead-silent house. Footsteps like thunder, racing towards the source of the shout as one entity. Had that been Sam's voice, or August? No, it was Alex, she was sure of it.

   It turned out to be Sam, after all. And Rachel was the first person to rush to his aid, even though he clearly didn't need it.

   Eric Lance probably wished he had his own team to back him up, right about now. His arms were held in the air and his dark-ice eyes revealed nothing as they stared blankly back at Sam, who was making his own feelings very clear with a glare. That glare said it all, really.

   This was the guy who caused so much pain for so many people. How many? Thousands upon thousands, directly and indirectly. So much pain. Rachel almost couldn't help adding her own glare.

   Alex arrived next, through a doorway directly adjacent Eric himself. They had him flanked on one side, and now the other as Scarlett and August pulled up opposite Alex. The final showdown... in a kitchen. Who would have thought?

   Xenia and Ellie crowded up behind Rachel.

   They finally had him. No funny business this time.

   A cold breeze slunk through a glass door that led out onto a narrow balcony, which stood directly behind Eric. Thankfully, Alex saw the escape route at almost the same time as Rachel, and he moved to block it.

   Eric winced, the expression hardly more than a twitch of his pasty face. His eyes were blank but somehow full of fire at the same time.

   How were they going to end this? Were they really going to kill him? for months, Rachel had wanted nothing more than to make her ancestors proud and sink her fangs directly into this guy's neck, but now that the actual opportunity arose... everyone was hesitating, not just her.

   Even Ellie, who had just joined their little expedition, made no move.

   "Well?" Eric barked out, his voice bitter and pinched. That wild fire danced behind the cool façade that he always wore so studiously. "Aren't you going to do it?"

   "We aren't you." Scarlett's voice was pure ice. "We never will be."

   "I won't allow it." he hissed in reply, the flame breaking through the iced-over gaze and twisting his face into a grimace. "I will not allow it!" it came out as something close to a scream this time.

   He was insane. Actually, certifiably insane. She took an involuntary step back at his outburst, all expression slipping from her face.

   Rachel was about to share that realization, so concrete in her mind now that she'd finally seen it, but before she could... Eric bolted.

   He had nowhere to run, but he ran anyways. A strangled shout filled with unintelligible, angry words streamed from his mouth as he ran. Where was he going? His escape routes were all blocked off.

   The balcony. Alex realized the same thing, again at the same time as Rachel. He had a split second to act, and she could see the decision flicker over his eyes just a moment before Eric was about to collide with him...

   He stepped out of the way, his wings crushed behind him as he squeezed himself against the kitchen counter. But Eric didn't stop or even try to adjust his course.

   He ran. "I will not allow it." the words made themselves clear among the jumble.

   Then he was outside, over the railing. Scarlett disappeared in a moment like a blink, hardly more than a flicker of movement in the corner of Rachel's eye. Time stood still. A second, then two, then three, on and on.

   Silence.

   "Did he just—" Ellie's words dissolved as she blinked, her eyes glued on the balcony where Eric had just disappeared.

   Scarlett materialized, then. She crouched in the middle of the room, notably alone. If she had been trying to save Eric, she appeared to have failed. Rachel wasn't sure if she was happy to see that, or not.

  Her eyes remained resolutely on the floor in front of her, and she didn't make any move to stand.

   "Did you... catch him?" Sam asked haltingly, taking a short step forward.

   She shook her head, eyes still downcast. "He's gone. Finally."

   But even Scarlett didn't seem all that overjoyed. No one was quite happy, even though this exact moment was what they'd been aiming for, all this time.

   No, not this moment. None of them had been quite prepared to kill him. They'd only ever wanted to stop him, and whatever scheme he had in store for the world.

   "Something was wrong with him." August murmured, and Rachel wondered if he'd meant to speak the words out loud or not.

   "Well, obviously. He was off the rockers!" Ellie took a slow step closer to the balcony, craning her neck as if she could see all the way to the ground that way.

   "No, something else." August shook his head. "His thoughts didn't make sense at all. And it wasn't just normal crazy." he sighed.

   "Sounds like you're off the rockers, too." Sam mumbled, pushing past Ellie to actually peer over the edge of the balcony.

   August rolled his eyes and stepped forward to offer Scarlett a hand up.

   Scarlett used the hand to pull herself to her feet with a soft thanks.

   "Well, at least this solves the problem of what to do with him..." Alex ran a hand through his hair, clearly still shocked from the near-collision with crazy Eric.

   "We could have had him put in prison." Scarlett frowned.

   "For what? We don't exactly have much proof..." Sam was clearly attempting to be gentle. They all knew, after all, that Eric had been something of a father to Scarlett.

   "We could have made something up." she shrugged helplessly. "But we should get out of here, anyways. Someone must have called the police, by now."

   The group, almost as one, converged on the middle of the room to teleport. Scarlett took one last look around, her eyes brimming full of something nameless. Then, the familiar blink of darkness as they teleported.