Marked, Soul Guardians Book 1

by Kim Richardson

  Kara watched in horror as five more hooded figures climbed out of the ground. The air was heavy with a mixture of rotten flesh and a hundred year old sewer. Slowly they rose and made their way to stand behind each of the warlock ghosts. Each warlock revenant stood behind a specter. Then they stepped forward into the five specters, which appeared just to have been stand—ins waiting for the real thing. There was a sudden green glow, and then the specters vanished into the cold winter air. The revenant warlocks stood and waited.

  The shadow mist disappeared. Kara’s heart ached as she watched the last of the souls that had been suspended in the mist disappeared into the obelisk.

  “That’s it...we’ve failed,” cried Jenny. David rested his hand on her shoulder reassuringly.

  But something inside told Kara that this wasn’t the end. The ritual wasn’t over yet. She stood frozen in the cold, thinking.

  She needed a diversion.

  Laughter boomed across the park. “Welcome, friends,” said an echoing voice—the same as the one she had heard coming from the rats.

  The dark warlock walked towards them. He was even larger than that big policeman that had showed up at her home. He wore a long black cloak with glowing green circular symbols and runes that shifted like liquid. He stood in front of her and removed his hood.

  Kara forgot to breathe. His skin was as rough as leather. It, too, had gleaming green symbols etched into it, as though he had been branded. His red eyes glowed as brightly as sunlight and burned Kara’s eyes as she looked at him. Maggots and insects fell from his rotten corpse and left a squirming trail in the snow behind him.

  Kara hadn’t known what to expect, but she knew right away that he was the same dark warlock that had killed Olga and stolen thousands of human souls. More than anything, she wanted to destroy him.

  He smiled, and Kara could see that his blackened teeth were sharpened into fangs like piranhas’. The bonds on her wrists slipped away, and Kara could move again.

  “We meet again, elemental witch,” he said. “I’m glad you could join us on this very festive night.”

  “Speak for yourself,” said David. “There’s nothing festive here, witch man.”

  The dark warlock studied David and Jenny for a moment.

  “Spirit walkers—we always seem to cross paths, unless I’ve killed you, of course. I haven’t forgotten what your group did to me and my kin. You spirit walkers have always thought yourselves superior to the rest of the supernatural world. You’re always meddling in things that don’t concern you—crushing down warlocks, witches, and demons. I remember the great war of the warlocks, the battle on Mordent Hill, where we defeated your lot and sent you packing. But then the white witches sided with you spirit walkers and sent me to death. You condemned me to spend my eternal life as a shadow of my past self, to linger forever in nothingness.”

  “The mortal world doesn’t belong to you anymore, spirit walkers. We will destroy all the remaining witches in this world.”

  He turned his fiery eyes on Kara. “After we finish making some necessary changes, we will avenge the blood of our kin. We will take back what was ours.”

  He lifted his arms in the air. Green flames danced from his fingertips. “Every non—magical being will be our slave. The time of the warlocks has come. We will take the world from the weak. The warlocks will rise to power again.”

  Hot anger surged through Kara. “It’s never going to happen, warlock.”

  Wergoth edged closer. “You have courage—lots of it. It is no wonder, the elemental power flows so fully in your veins. But it has clouded your judgment, made you cocky. You do not posses the power to stop me, elemental. You and your spirit walker friends will all die tonight.”

  “No one’s dying tonight.” Kara stood her ground.

  Wergoth’s face warped in an evil grin. With a twist of his wrist, his arms blazed with green fire. The five other warlocks arranged themselves behind him. Their long black cloaks trailed behind them, and as they stepped closer Kara could see their rotted flesh beneath their hoods. Their eyes burned with the same evil fire.

  In one rapid movement two of the five warlocks lifted their arms, and jets of green fire shot out of their fingers like water from a fire hose. The brute force blew David and Jenny into the air and engulfed their bodies in green fire. They hovered in the air, screaming as the green flames burned their mortal suits.

  Without a second thought, Kara ran over to her friends. She reached out to David first, but pulled back her hand in excruciating pain. Her hands were charred and covered with angry red blisters. She tried to ignore the pain and reached out again. But it was like sticking her hands into boiling water, and she could almost feel her skin slipping from her bones. She couldn’t touch them.

  Jenny’s face was contorted in a silent scream. David’s body twisted in agony. Their eyes met. She knew he wanted her to run, to leave them here and save herself. But she couldn’t. Her eyes burned.

  “Stop it! Let them go, you’re killing them,” she howled.

  She looked over to Lilith, but her sister’s expression was stone cold.

  Wergoth roared in laughter and looked back at his followers.

  “Let them go? We will never let them go. Tonight we will drink their souls —and there’s nothing you can do, elemental. You were fools to think you could survive a dark warlock’s power. We are invincible now. You spirit walkers will fall like flies. And with each fallen soul, we will replenish our strength.”

  The warlocks stepped forward.

  “Stay back!”

  Kara narrowed her eyes and made fists with her hands “Don’t you touch them! I will kill you!”

  The warlocks laughed.

  “You know, if you were any smarter, you’d run away and save yourself. Why do you care so much for these spirit walkers? They are worthless.”

  David and Jenny’s cries filled the night as they fought desperately in their green fire prisons. But the more they fought, the more they suffered. Kara knew they couldn’t last much longer. She would never give up on her friends—she would fight till the death to save them.

  “Gideon, now’s the time,” she called out to the night sky.

  Wergoth’s narrowed his eyes. He turned to Lilith. “Where’s the witch doctor?”

  Lilith paled. Kara saw fear flash in her eyes. “Uh...there was no one else with them, I swear. Just Kara and the other two.”

  In a frightening rage, the dark warlock lurched forward with lightening speed, like a shimmer of green light, and struck out at Lilith with liquid green fire. Lilith’s body lifted into the air and slammed back hard on the ground. She brushed the flames from her coat desperately. Her nice white coat had saved her from being burnt. Shakily, she pushed herself up from the ground. Her blue eyes were wide with fear.

  “Idiot!” bellowed the dark warlock. “I sensed the old fool’s presence underground—he fought my magic. He was here with them. How could you let him slip from your fingers? I was wrong about you, demon girl—you can’t even catch a weak old man.”

  “I’m sorry...let me go look for him—”

  The dark warlock lifted his hand to silence her. “No. I’ll deal with him later. We have more important matters to settle. I will not be distracted by that old fool, not when the time is near.”

  His blazing eyes focused on Kara.

  “And now for the human sacrifice,” said the dark warlock. He reached into the folds of his robes and withdrew a gleaming sword with green markings etched on the long curved blade. He walked over to Lilith and handed her the sword.

  “Kill the elemental.”

  Chapter 20

  Stars in the sky