Page 93 of Protector Unmatched

“No!” she screamed. This couldn’t be happening.

The dagger, Daphne…

She could clearly hear his words repeating in her head.

She jumped up, her heart pulling her in Pearce’s direction, her head steering her the other way, toward Batman, who’d overpowered Harcott. Batman’s back was already to her as he was heading away from the battle, the prized source dagger in his hand.

“Fuck!” she cursed. All Stealth Guardians and vampires were engaged fighting a demon, or even two. And nobody was following Batman. She had to do something.

She was still holding her shield and was about to pull out the dagger Pearce had taped to its back when she had a better idea. She held the shield with both hands, then twisted it, dropped her left hand, and untwisted with her right, aiming for Batman’s back as if she were throwing a Frisbee. A rather large Frisbee. It whizzed through the air and hit Batman squarely in the back of his knees.

He tumbled forward and hit the wooden floor of the stage with a thud. From the corner of her eye, she saw Harcott getting up.

“Your whip, James,” she yelled at him, and pointed to Batman. “Use it!”

Harcott understood immediately, grabbed his whip, and ran toward Batman, snapping it as he approached to stop the demon hiding behind the mask from fleeing. Daphne barreled toward him from a forty-five-degree angle, but Spider-Man, who’d come out of nowhere, blocked her.

Something blue entered her field of vision from the left, and a split second later, Enya was tackling the demon to the ground. “Get the dagger, Daphne!” she yelled while she traded blows with Spider-Man.

Daphne jumped over a low crate in her way. Only three more yards and she reached her shield. She snatched it from the floor. Just in time, because Batman was getting to his feet again, the source dagger still in his hand and now aimed it at her.

“James! Now!” she called out, hoping Harcott’s skills with the whip were as good as he’d shown earlier.

The whip cracked through the air, its tip snapping just outside her shield and wrapping around Batman’s wrist, jerking it back. The motion made the demon lose the dagger. It clattered to the floor, slithering toward a Wookiee with green eyes. With Batman trying to free himself from the bullwhip around his wrist, Daphne knew she didn’t have much time. She tossed her shield at Batman and dove for the dagger, sliding on the floor, her hands stretched out. Her hand found purchase around the weapon’s hilt, just as a Wookiee lunged for her. She made a half turn, her dagger arm in front of her, and scrambled to jump up.

The Wookiee couldn’t stop his forward motion. The impact drove the dagger into his chest. All Daphne could do was hold on to it and twist it, as the creature froze in mid-motion and stared at her in disbelief. Then she felt the warmth of his blood run over her fingers. With her free hand, she pushed against him, and the hairy creature fell backward.

The bloody dagger in her hand, she pivoted and saw a clear path to where Pearce lay wounded. She raced toward him, praying, hoping that it wasn’t too late. When she reached him, the battle still raging around her, she fell to her knees.

“Pearce, oh God, please don’t leave me.”

His lids fluttered, and his lips moved. “Daphne…”

“I have the dagger. I have the source dagger. What do I do now? Pearce? What do I do?”

He managed to open his eyes, but she wasn’t sure he could even see her. His gaze didn’t meet hers. “Stab me with it…” His voice was so weak that she couldn’t be sure she’d heard him right.

She wiped the dagger on his clothes, cleaning off the demon blood. “Are you sure? But you’re…” She could see it: he was dying. He was taking his last breath. “Oh God.”

“Do it, Daphne. Do it.”

Tears clouding her vision, she gripped the dagger tightly in her right hand. It trembled. She couldn’t do this, couldn’t cause the man she loved even more pain.

“Do it,” he mumbled.

Tears streaming down her face, she plunged the dagger into his existing wound and let out a sob. She looked at Pearce’s face. His eyes had fallen shut again, and his head rolled to the side.

“No!” she screamed between sobs. “No! Pearce, no!” She reached for his cheek, bending over him, but then she felt heat emanate from his chest wound. Stunned, she drew back and saw light stream from the source dagger into Pearce’s body. And slowly, as if by magic, Pearce’s body expelled the dagger, pushed it out of the wound until it dropped flat onto his torso.

With a gasp, Pearce drew in a breath and opened his eyes. “Daphne.”

She threw her arms around him, tears streaming down her face, but now they were tears of joy. “You’re alive.”

“The vision came true, but we had it all wrong.” Winter’s vision hadn’t revealed that Daphne had stabbed him with the source dagger, the only weapon that could save a Stealth Guardian’s life. “I should have known that you were meant to save me all along.” He kissed her.

Applause erupted, pulling them apart. Daphne spun her head in the direction it was coming from and stared at the audience assembled in front of the main stage. At some point during the battle, somebody had lifted the curtain. How much the audience had witnessed, she didn’t know.

“Shit,” Pearce said.