Page 50 of The Girl He Wanted

"You can't kill me," he said. "The wind gods have already given me too much power. I paid their price, in blood, and I am stronger than you will ever be."

Did he really believe that? Did he truly think that he was being granted ... what? Some kind of divine boon that would make him superior, invincible?

"Alvin, this has to stop. We've already halted your ritual. You need to give yourself up."

There was no reply. Alvin didn't come out from behind the ventilation duct. Paige couldn't hear anything, either, which wasn't a good sign. She edged closer, her gun raised.

Paige moved around it, her whole body tense. As she did so, Alvin met her, coming the other way, his knife slashing at her arm. The sudden, sharp pain of it was enough to make Paige drop her gun, the weapon going off in an almost deafening shot as it clattered down on the rooftop.

Alvin attacked her then, his knife slashing for her throat. Paige blocked his blow with her arm, wincing at the pain, trying to dodge out of the way. She blocked a second blow, then a third, kicking at Alvin's knee. It buckled for a moment and that gave Paige a chance to get both of her hands on his knife arm.

She held on for dear life. At such a close range, it was all Paige could do to keep Alvin from stabbing her. Alvin's breath was warm on her face, his body pressing her back, his strength almost more than Paige could handle. She knew that if she gave up her grip, she was going to die. She couldn't let that happen. She had to hold on. She had to win.

Paige struck at Alvin then with everything she had. She hit him with knees and headbutts, trying to get him to loosen his grip on the knife. She wrenched at his arm and tripped him, bearing him to the ground, hoping that she would be able to twist the knife from his grip, or at least control him long enough that Christopher could recover and help.

Alvin looked up at her, his eyes blazing with hatred. "You'll never win," he said through gritted teeth. "The wind gods will never allow it."

"It's done, Alvin. It's over."

"It's not over until the Tower of the Winds is complete!" Alvin snarled.

He kicked out at Paige then, hard enough that she was sent stumbling back. Alvin wrenched clear of Paige's grip in the same moment, so that for a second or two, he was standing over her with the knife in his hand.

Paige saw her gun away to her right. She made a quick decision and dove for it, desperately seeking something that would equalize the situation. Paige felt her fingers close around the grip, and she brought it up, aiming back at where she expected Alvin to be.

He wasn't there. Instead, he was running back towards the bound form of Zelda Mackie. Paige snapped off a shot at him, but again, the storm made it impossible to aim properly, and she missed.

Alvin was behind his captive holding a knife to her throat while she tried to struggle.

"Now," he said. "Now, this ends the way it always had to end. With the Tower of the Winds getting its last sacrifice."

CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT

Paige stood across from Alvin and Zelda, tension running through her as she tried to work out what she was going to do next.

She knew that it was up to her. Christopher was down, too hurt to help. The young woman Alvin was holding at knifepoint was still bound, so there was no chance that she was going to suddenly break free.

Paige considered her options. She could try to take a shot at Alvin, but with the storm raging around them, it was more likely that she would hit Zelda instead. Her earlier shots had already gone wide because of the weather, and she couldn't risk the young woman's life.

Time was running out, and she needed to act fast before Alvin carried out his twisted plan. She couldn't let him claim another victim.

Paige took a step forward, her gun still aimed at Alvin. "Let her go, Alvin. You don't have to do this. We can work this out."

Alvin laughed. "You really think I'm going to fall for that? You're just trying to buy time. But time is the one thing we don't have. The winds require a sacrifice."

Paige knew that talking was her only option right then. Trying to grab for the knife arm would only get his hostage hurt or killed. Doing nothing would give him the time to complete his sick ritual. She had to talk, to stall, to try to find a way to either talk him down or distract him long enough to act.

Paige suspected that it wasn't going to be the former. She could try to talk him down, but she knew that he was too far gone, too convinced that what he was doing was right.

"Why don’t you tell me about the woman you're planning to kill?" Paige asked. “Her name is Zelda Mackie. Is that right?”

"Why?" Alvin countered. "What does it matter?"

"I want to know if this is random, or if you picked out your victims carefully. I want to understand you, Alvin."

Actually, Paige already knew that this wasn't random. She'd seen some of the pages where Alvin had planned this. Paige's point was to try to humanize the young woman in Alvin's eyes, to remind him that he was planning to take the life of someone with her own thoughts and dreams.

“Yes, this is Zelda Mackie,” Alvin said. “She’s a kindergarten teacher. She’s perfect for this.”

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