Wonder Woman: Warbringer (DC Icons #1)(107)

Heroes’ blood. No ordinary man could withstand a blow like that.

“Diana!” Theo cried.

Pinon had skittered closer. She was in striking distance.

Diana shook the boulder free, swinging the lasso in her hand.

Pinon lunged at Diana, but she had anticipated the movement. She cast the lasso over the creature’s head, yanking her forward and driving her foot into Pinon’s abdomen.

The monster squealed in pain, seizing the rope with her long white fingers, her tail snapping forward. It had a pincer at its tip, not a stinger, and Diana had the briefest second to wonder why before she dodged away, barely keeping hold of her end of the lasso, snapping it snugly around Pinon’s neck.

The creature thrashed, her eyes rolling backward. Diana did not want to know what truths the lasso had revealed to make the monster scream that way. Had Jason made her from nothing, a nightmare spawned in a lab? Or had she been an ordinary girl once, before she was transformed? Diana lowered her shoulders, trying to keep her grip on the lasso.

“Give me the sword, Theo!” she commanded.

“They’re coming!” he shouted. Diana glanced over her shoulder and saw the soldiers advancing.

Nim gripped a rock in each hand. “You want some of this?” she yelled.

“You look like a bunch of jocks at a costume party!” taunted Theo.

Were they out of their minds? No, just mortal.

Two soldiers shot forward with what should have been impossible speed.

“Run!” she cried. But Theo didn’t run. He held up his sword.

Diana heard a clang as the soldier struck, and Theo stumbled beneath the force of his opponent’s blade. They were too unevenly matched.

She released the lasso and leapt toward the attacking soldier, slamming him backward. She turned in time to see the other soldier bring his sword down in a sweeping arc. Two more men were running at Nim.

“No!” she cried, but it was too late. The blade cut deeply into Theo’s side.

He fell to his knees, then slumped sideways into the water, the blood flowing from his body into the Eurotas in a billowing flood of red. No. Diana whirled frantically.

A soldier had lifted Nim off her feet and raised his sword to skewer her. But Nim swung one of her fists, the rock tucked into her hand, and cracked it hard against the side of his head. The soldier bobbled on his feet, and she struck his left temple with the second rock. He let go, and she fell on her backside in the river.

Diana seized Theo’s sword from the riverbed and sprinted toward Nim.

She heard a splash behind her and knew Pinon had freed herself of the lasso. Diana whirled, slashing out in rage. Her blade struck the creature’s side, slid along the plating of its exoskeleton. She swung again. From the corner of her eye, she caught a blur of movement, and suddenly she was on her back in the water. She gasped for air, felt something fasten around her ankle and yank her upward.

Diana dangled upside down in the air before Pinon. Now she knew what the pincer on the creature’s tail was for.

She heard a stream of high-pitched swearing. Nim. Diana twisted in Pinon’s grip and saw that one of the soldiers had grabbed Nim from behind. He was laughing, shaking his head in amusement as she struggled.

“Bubble, bubble, you asshole,” Nim said, and brought her head back. The soldier flinched as her skull connected with his face.

“Little bitch,” he growled.

His grip shifted, and Diana saw what he meant to do.

The sound was like a branch snapping. Nim’s body went limp. Diana screamed. The soldier tossed Nim aside and wiped his hands on his pants, as if he’d handled something unclean. Her small body floated faceup in the shallows, her head resting at an unnatural angle on her broken neck, her blank eyes open to the sky.

No, no, no.

Pinon gave Diana a shake, as if demanding her attention. The pincer dug into the flesh of her lower leg, but all Diana could think was They’re gone. I was supposed to protect them, and they’re gone. She should have taken the sword from Theo at the start. She should have kept Nim closer. She should have made them stay behind, somewhere safe, no matter the risk to her quest. A howl tore free from Diana’s chest, grief and rage quaking through her.

Pinon smiled that sweet, coy smile, as if the sound of Diana’s misery gave her pleasure. Her lips parted, and two hooklike barbs emerged. Before Diana could react, Pinon yanked her higher and latched her wet mouth to Diana’s throat, the barbs sinking deep into her flesh. She was made for this, Diana realized as Pinon’s lips sealed tightly over her skin and she felt her blood drawn in a rush from her body. She was engineered to bleed her victims, upside down, like pigs brought to slaughter.

Then there was only pain, the agony coming in waves as Pinon drank in great, pulling gulps. Diana could hear the click of every satisfied swallow, timed to the waning beat of her heart. She could feel her body trying to heal, her strength attempting to return, but Pinon was too fast and too efficient.

Diana thrashed weakly. In the distance, she could hear Alia’s screams, the whir of helicopter blades. She’d sworn to keep Alia from this very fate, but she had failed more terribly than she ever could have imagined. The Oracle had been right. Her mother. Tek. They’d all been right. She should never have ventured off Themyscira. She had never been a true Amazon, and now the world would pay for her pride.

“Protect them, Athena,” she gasped as the life drained from her body and her vision blurred. Mortal and immortal, weak and strong, deserving and undeserving. Protect them all. Protect Alia from the burden of her fate. Protect my mother and my sisters in the war to come.