Free B00724AICC EBOK by A. J. Gallant

new king. We know it’s buried in an old grave somewhere in England, and we know you know where.”
    And again Zacharia laughed and shook his head. “It’s buried in your ass, why don’t you get your friends to dig for it?”
    Matt chuckled but then quickly regained control.
    The room went silent, and all muscles tensed. The cat stood up on Zacharia’s knee and hissed, ready for battle. Stephen glanced at Luke to his left as their blue eyes met, and then at Matt on his right. Zacharia slowly placed his hand on his sword and showed them all a smile that unnerved them. The uncertainty of death hung in the air. Zacharia was fully aware that he probably wouldn’t survive the battle but he was okay with that fact. He was confident that he would take some of them with him.
    “ I can smell it.”
    “ Smell what?” Luke asked.
    “ That horse tranquilizer that you’ve brought it an attempt to curtail my velocity.”
    Luke pulled out the large syringe filled with brown murky liquid. It was his turn to smile. “Just give us its location and you live.”
    “ The morons want the location of a fictional object,” he said to Moon Diamond. “It’s over there, no I mean over there, no it’s right here.” He pretended to hold up an invisible object. “I should place it for sale on eBay.
    “ Kill him!” Stephen commanded.
    Zacharia grabbed his sword as he blurred into Luke with the forced sending him flying backward into the rock wall, the syringe smashing into several pieces against it. The cat jumped into Stephen’s face and tore chunks of flesh out of it, then sank its claws into his right eye; he screamed in pain as he grabbed the animal and smashed it against the wall so hard that a piece of it dislodged and fell to the floor. The cat meowed but appeared unbowed. Stephen’s injuries healed rapidly but it hurt like the fires of hell.
    With swords unsheathed, the battle commenced with a fury. Sparks flew as blades made contact. Zacharia swung his sword at Luke’s neck and he barely managed to duck in time as a tuft of hair from the top of his head fell to the stone floor. Matt swung his samurai sword with all his considerable might just as the Siamese launched and dug into his back, giving the arc of the swing enough error to enable Zacharia to avoid decapitation. The cat was turning out to be considerable trouble as it bit painfully into his back.
    “ Die you bastard!” Joshua screamed out in fury, but then took a magnificent slice from Zacharia which opened his chest and spewed blood all over Joshua. The pain of healing and bones reattaching made him take several steps back.
    Stephen, Luke and Noah attacked simultaneously. Stephen was kicked up and into the wall with such fury that it caved in the back of his head and the pain was excruciating as the plates reformed in his skull. He grabbed a halberd as he discarded his sword, believing that the extra reach would give him the advantage. Matt was distracted with the scene and Zacharia seized his opportunity, cutting his head off and he turned to dust. His skeleton fell to the floor with not a bit of meat on it; the cat bounced off it preparing for the next victim.
    “ Matt! NO!” shouted Joshua. They had had a turbulent relationship but had also planned on taking a trip together to Europe when it was all over.
    Everyone paused to stare at the skeleton, a brief but palpable moment of reflection. Time seemed to change as they stared at the lifelessness of it. Only seconds earlier he had been so dynamic and now they would never see his face again. Luke’s dark brown eyes blinked rapidly in anticipation. Stephen blurred and drove the halberd into Zacharia’s chest and pushed him against the wall, and then Joshua and Noah joined him for added leverage, and he was unable to move. The cat attached itself to the back of Noah’s neck and commenced to dig in, but Luke grabbed it by the back of its neck and held it.
    “ Last chance.” Stephen slowly nodded.
    “