The Soul Thief

by Kim Richardson

  Everyone’s eyes were on her. She didn’t want to tell them that she’d never led a mission before, but the clock was ticking, and she didn’t have time to worry about technicalities. Valerie had put her in charge, and she took courage from that.

  As she took in the expression on every face, she realized this was probably the first time that many of them had gone on a mission without their heads of houses to lead them. They might have been tough when they sparred back at Hallow Hall, but now they all looked like the kids they were. Even though she was a kid, too, they looked upon her as this leader now. So she resolved to be a strong leader and to hold their group together.

  “We move in,” said Alexa surprised at how comfortably she wielded authority. It felt right somehow. “Follow my lead and be on your guard. It is likely that demons and other creatures will be guarding the Hellgate.” She remembered the vile creatures that had attacked her. “I doubt it will be as easy as just walking up to it. If you get hurt, try to make your way back to the cars. You’re no good to us if you can’t fight, and I don’t want to risk your lives further if you get wounded.”

  “Wait a minute.” Rachel flashed her a glare that would probably have sent other girls running, but not Alexa. “What about Erik and the others? What about their lives? Shouldn’t we look for them first?”

  Even though she was as concerned for Erik as Rachel, Alexa knew that she had to focus on the mission. “We don’t have time to look for the others right now. Shutting the Hellgate and stopping the creature from coming out is the priority right now. I don’t know how long we’ve got, but it’s not much. We can’t afford to go looking for the others. At least not yet.” Her voice was clear and strong, but she trembled on the inside.

  Rachel threw up her hands in the air. “So we’re just going to abandon them? Is that it?” she said with an edge to her voice. “And I thought you cared about him. Cleary, I was wrong. Clearly I’m the only one who actually gives a damn about Erik.”

  Alexa flinched, and for a moment she faltered and almost lost her focus. But she regained her composure and was about to speak when Lance interrupted her.

  “The truth is, we don’t even know if they’re still alive,” said Lance. “I mean, I hate to say this, but Alexa is right. The Hellgate comes first. We can pray that they’re okay and look for them after.”

  Rachel stood still like the calm before the storm, but then she reacted. “Screw this. Screw you. I’m going after Erik. If you try to stop me,” she said through gritted teeth, “I’ll kill you.” She threw down her backpack and marched off towards the fair. And to Alexa’s surprise Karen and Lizzy followed her.

  Alexa had lost three operatives in less than a minute. Only four of them were left. Things couldn’t get any worse.

  “Rachel, don’t do this,” called Alexa. But when she started to run after Rachel, Ash gripped her arm and stopped her.

  “Don’t, bother,” he said. “She’ll fight you if you force her. Rachel is like a sister to me, and I know her better than anyone, except for maybe Erik. Trust me. She’s not coming back. Forget her. We need to move.” He let Alexa go and grabbed Rachel’s bag. “At least she was smart enough to leave us her pack.”

  Alexa knew he was right, but she couldn’t help but be angry. Rachel was as headstrong as she was. Part of her felt that she should be the one going after Erik, not Rachel. After all it was her job to protect him and keep him safe. She wouldn’t be able to forgive herself if he was hurt and lying on the ground somewhere or worse…

  Alexa had thought she had everything under control. She would stop the evil deity from getting out, and then find Erik. But things were beginning to fall apart already.

  Bitch. Bitch. She wanted to yell.

  Instead, she let her rage provide her with the strength continue. “Fine. Let’s do this. We’ve wasted enough time.” She turned away from Rachel and the others, adjusted the weight of her backpack, pulled out a long silver dagger and pointed it toward the gap in the fence.

  “Hell is this way,” she called as she led the charge, and the four of them ran towards the forest.

  CHAPTER 30

  THE SUN SET JUST AS Alexa broke through the first row of trees. A distant roll of thunder boomed over the sound of their heavy boots. It was strange there was no storm in sight.

  She followed the same path as she did the night she went after Michael. The thought of him sent a new roll of rage rippling through her. Call it angel intuition, but somehow even in the semi-darkness, she knew where she was going. Lance ran behind her, and Ash and Stephen took up the rear. While they were all capable young operatives, Alexa wished she had more of them.

  The temperature had dropped as the first row of birch and oak trees fell behind her. It was like a winter night, and she felt the presence of death growing stronger all the time. It was as if a thousand souls had died at the exact moment she’d entered the forest. Were they too late?

  She pushed on. She could feel the same strange pulsing in her ears. The air was stale with rotten flesh and sulfur. The rancid scent of darkness and evil was everywhere. It clung to her skin and clothes like a thick mist, and she could taste the rot on her tongue.

  The forest became denser and mistier as they ran into it more deeply, and great veils of fog caressed her face.

  Although she wasn’t aware that mortals could sense the presence of death, the others had slowed their pace to a careful jog. Lance’s ears were erect as he searched the gloom.

  “Something’s in there.” He had read her thoughts. “I can feel it.”

  “I know.” Alexa felt it, too.

  She could only see shadow, mist and endless forest, but she recognized the dead tree trunk in front of them. She knew the clearing that led to the Hellgate was just beyond it. Even before she saw it, she could feel darkness and death. The air was growing thick with despair, rage and emptiness. They were almost there.

  By the time she heard the first twig snap, it was already too late.

  There was no wind, but Alexa thought she saw the trees sway. And then from the darkness, demons bounded out from the forest.

  Alexa flinched, and the air filled with sudden roars and the rancid reek of death. Massive claws ripped at the night air. Fangs tore at nothing. The air behind her moved, and she began to see shapes come out of the darkness. These demons were different from those she’d first encountered when she had followed Michael. The others formed a line and their daggers and knives flashed as the lesser demons danced and spun around them.

  With her superior night vision, Alexa could see them clearly now. Taut, smooth skin covered their heads, and it gathered into tight, interlocking scales as it ran down their necks. Their scaled bodies glimmered in the semi-darkness. Their lipless mouths revealed small, fish-like teeth, and their webbed fists concealed long sharp claws. They were nightmares of flesh, scale and bone.

  The forest was suddenly alive with these lesser demons. There were so many that they were quickly surrounded and outnumbered.

  “Gargon demons,” called Lance. “Deadly, but still killable. Aim for their brains.”

  The Gargons clicked and hissed as they attacked from every direction at once.

  Alexa swept her dagger in an arc, and the demons she caught with her blade howled before they burst apart in clouds of ash. But more of them came at her from every side, and although she sliced through them, still more attacked. There was no end to their numbers. Her arms ached, and she knew she couldn’t keep this up forever. Screams and howls filled the night air as the demons kept coming.

  With a great swing of her blade, Alexa sliced across the chest of the nearest demon and ripped its scaled hide open. Using the same momentum, she dug her blade under its chin and pushed it up into its brain. It howled as it collapsed to the ground and exploded into a cloud of ash.

  She saw Lance hurl himself at a Gargon and clamp his powerful jaws around its neck. It thrashed for a moment, and then it went limp. Lance tossed the body to the ground where it combusted i
nto gray ash.

  Ash had blades in each hand and swung his weapons with such controlled violence that it looked like a dance of death. Gargons burst open and turned to ash at his feet.

  Stephen didn’t look frightened at all and had a strange smile on his face. He ran amongst the Gargons hitting them with his aluminum baseball bat. His strikes were precise, and he hit the Gargons’ heads with such force that they exploded on impact.

  “Cowards! Get back here!” Stephen ran after two Gargons that had fled into the impenetrable shadows of the forest. He would be completely lost within moments.

  “Stephen! No!” she called. But he was gone.

  Alexa could smell the fear and hate, and she tasted the rancid tang of the demons’ black blood.

  Another Gargon swept in next to her, its maws open, intent on her neck. Its warm, putrid breath brushed her face. She screamed with rage and sliced off its head. Another demon came at her, and she ducked just as its webbed claw grazed her head. She came up, spun, and kicked it in the stomach, but another demon took its place.

  Alexa ducked and stabbed in a blur of scales, teeth, and claws. Something kicked her in the face, and Alexa went sprawling to the ground.

  But she twisted and was up on her feet in a moment. She drove her blade through the Gargon’s skull and into the blood-soaked ground.

  And then it hit her. This was a distraction. The demons were trying to keep them from reaching the Hellgate. They had lured Stephen away on purpose.

  “Lance! We need to get to the Hellgate!” she bellowed. She’d lost sight of the white dog in all of the commotion. And when she whirled around she realized that Ash had disappeared as well. “Ash! Lance!” she screamed, as she punched and kicked the demons that kept pouncing on her. Her bravado vanished as she started to be afraid. Were they all dead? Was she on her own?

  The Gargons drew closer.

  Too many demons were attacking her all at once. She couldn’t make a break for it. She would have to hold on where she was in spite of the fact that her inferior body wasn’t suited for this type of fighting and was wearing down.

  The muscles in her arms burned with the effort of swinging her dagger, but still Alexa fought on. Her angel senses perceived the pulsing of death in the darkness. It was close. She had to make it to the Hellgate.

  She followed the direction of the pulsing and bolted in the forest. She heard the thump of feet behind her and ran faster. Branches sliced open the sensitive skin of her face, but she didn’t stop.

  The Hellgate. The Hellgate. The Hellgate.

  The howls and hisses from the demons lessened as she moved deeper into the forest. She knew they were still following her, but she had outrun them for the moment.

  She could see broken branches ahead of her. Something large had come crashing through before her. She ran for the spot, but her boot caught on a tangle of roots, and she pitched forward onto her face.

  She spit out a mouthful of decomposing leaves and whirled around to see why she had fallen.

  She froze. She had tripped on a body.

  Santo lay in a puddle of blood. A soul blade was impaled in his chest, and his lifeless eyes stared at the starry sky. The head of House Gabriel was dead.

  CHAPTER 31

  ALEXA DIDN’T KNOW HOW LONG she sat staring at the man who’d been kind to her. If she’d been a Sensitive, he would have been the man she would have wished to follow.

  She would revenge his death. There was no more doubt in her mind that Michael had been the culprit. Demons couldn’t use soul blades. The metal was poison to them in the same way that death blades were poison to angels.

  “May the souls forgive me,” she whispered a small prayer for Santo, and then she gripped the hilt of the blade in his chest and yanked it out. She placed her fingers on his face and closed his eyes gently.

  Michael was going to pay for this. She was going to enjoy seeing the life fade from his eyes, just as he must have enjoyed watching the life fade from Santo and all those innocent girls.

  If Santo was in Mystic Forest, Erik must have been here, too. She vowed to find him.

  She heard the familiar grunts and hisses from the lesser demons. And from the foul smell, she knew they were close.

  She took off in a sprint towards the Hellgate.

  Bastard. Bastard!

  The sounds of battle echoed behind her, but she didn’t have time to turn around to help them. Erik must be in the forest somewhere. And Michael must be here, too. She was going to kill him.

  She didn’t see the dark shape until she crashed into it.

  “Alexa?”

  Erik jumped back as Alexa swung her blade and almost sliced his chest.

  Alexa blinked. And then she blinked again. Her knees shook as relief washed over her. “Erik? What the hell are you thinking? I almost killed you?”

  It was him. He was alive. He was red-faced and covered in a sheen of sweat, but he was alive.

  “Where are Matt and the others?” she asked. She looked over Erik and could not see any injuries.

  “Don’t know,” said Erik. “We got separated when the demons attacked—get down!”

  Erik pushed Alexa behind him and swung his long silver sword into the chest of another Gargon. He dug his feet into the soil and started destroying more demons as fast as they arrived.

  Erik cursed. “They’re everywhere!” He noticed that the soul blade in Alexa’s hand was still dripping with blood.

  “I need to tell you something. I’m sorry, Erik, but Santo’s is dead,” she said before more Gargons attacked. “This is Michael’s blade. I took it out…I took it out of Santo’s chest.”

  Erik shook his head in disbelief. “Can’t be.”

  “Yes, it is!” She swung her blade into the eye of another Gargon, kicked it away, and pulled out her weapon. “He’s been feeding the Hellgate with souls.”

  “What’s a Hellgate?”

  “That black rift I told you about. Michael has been feeding it with the dead girls’ souls. He’s bad, Erik. If he isn’t controlled by a demon, then he’s in league with the Netherworld. Wasn’t he the one who lured you here? I don’t have time to explain. Just trust me on this. Where is he? Where is Michael, Erik?”

  Erik looked up at the dark sky for a moment, like he was trying to get his bearings. Raising his sword, he pointed behind Alexa. “The last I saw him he went that way.”

  Alexa followed his gaze in the exact direction of the Hellgate.

  Suddenly loud crashing came from behind Erik and another mass of Gargons barreled through the trees towards them.

  “Come on!” Alexa pulled Erik into a run with her.

  With her head still swimming with emotions, Alexa ran towards the throbbing pulse of the Hellgate. They crashed into the clearing, where a circle of dead grass grew around the giant oak tree with a cleaved opening at the base. The same flat stones with markings that she couldn’t decipher circled the foot of the trees. And inside that that cleft in the tree was ageless breathing blackness. Evil incarnate. And it now had a name. Hellgate.

  A tall man stood by the abomination, and she recognized him immediately. It wasn’t Michael.

  “What? Were you expecting someone else?”

  The angel Ryan turned and smiled at Alexa.

  CHAPTER 32

  ALEXA NEARLY DROPPED HER BLADE. “But…how…why?”

  A dozen Gargons surrounded them, but with a flick of his wrist, Ryan halted the demons and they stepped back into the forest shadows.

  “It was you?” Alexa stared at him in disbelief.

  Ryan the bully. Ryan who always picked on me. Ryan the guardian angel.

  “It was,” said the angel.

  “You killed all those girls and fed their souls to that,” she said. The Hellgate rippled like black blood when she pointed at it.

  “I did.”

  “But that’s impossible,” said Erik. Alexa saw that the horror and fear in Erik’s face mirrored hers. “You’re an angel. You can’t kill mortals. It�
�s physically impossible for you to harm us.”

  Ryan let out a long and annoying sigh. “We can and I did. The Legion wants you to think we can’t. That if we harm one of you, what? We’d burst into flames? Ridiculous. Think about it. There’s nothing stopping us but a damn code, a book of rules. But in reality, we can do whatever we want. There’s nothing to prevent me from tearing your heart out from your chest, mortal.”

  Alexa stared at him with dread. “So you’re Darknight.”

  Ryan lifted his chin proudly. “I am.”

  “So, it was you all along,” said Alexa as evenly as she could. “You sent the Higher demons after me at the morgue.”

  Ryan’s face lit up. “How perceptive of you. You see, your nosing around got in the way of my plans. I couldn’t have you messing them up. I had to get rid of you. What I was doing was too important. You wouldn’t understand.”

  Ryan looked at her backpack for a moment before he turned back his attention to the Hellgate. “Won’t be long now. You’re too late, you know. Your bag of tricks won’t work. My master will kill all of you.”

  Alexa cringed at the words, and horror slammed into her. “But their eyes. What happened to their eyes?”

  Ryan looked at Alexa. “A mortal cannot look upon an angel’s true self and live. Their eyes burn from the intense white light, and it kills them instantly. They died when I revealed myself to them. And then I took their glorious innocent souls to my master.”

  “You sick bastard,” Alexa growled. “How could you? You’re an angel!”

  “Not for long.” Ryan stared lovingly at the Hellgate.

  Anger coursed through Alexa. “You broke the greatest law of all. Even I know that. All this cruelty…and for what? How could you do this? You swore an oath to protect them, not to kill them.”

  “Screw the oath!” yelled Ryan. He moved towards them. “I’m tired of living like a slave, doing the Legion’s bidding. It’s like they think these monkeys are superior to us?” He looked disdainfully at Erik and spat. “Ludicrous. It’s insane. The Legion is a joke. We are the superior beings. This world belongs to us, not them. And we’re going to rid it of these parasites.”