“Gather your weapons and meet at the van.” He looked at each of us, either not noticing, or completely unfazed by the charred target. “A monster’s been spotted at the Hemlock Center.”
CHAPTER TWO
“Who spotted it?” I asked once we’d gathered in the van. “Not a human, right?”
“A witch,” Darius replied, putting the van into drive and starting towards the Hemlock center. “Ever since breaking the news to the local witches that the portal to Kerberos is in Kinsley, and that it’s weakened, we’ve had a watch rotating in the areas nearby. They’ve been told to tell me if they spot anything unusual so I can gather the team that’s trained for this and they can handle the situation.”
“Little do they know that ‘the team’ is still in high school,” Chris muttered.
“Only the Head Elders can know about the five of you for now,” Darius said. “Your abilities have never been seen before. We don’t know how the general witch population will react. It’s best to keep this all under wraps until we’ve figured out the best angle for how to break the news.”
“At least they know about the portal weakening,” Kate said. “So they could put the protection spells around their houses and work spaces.”
“But protection spells only work in permanent locations,” Danielle said. “When they go anywhere else—like in their cars, for instance—they’ll be sitting ducks. And I don’t know about your parents, but mine have no idea how to fight. They wouldn’t have stood a chance against the harpy.”
“Centuries of safety have definitely left most of us unprepared for battle,” Darius agreed. “Which is why the gods have gifted the five of you with your powers and your strength. Now, before I forget, I packed some water that’s been infused with yellow energy. Drink it to help you focus in the upcoming fight.”
Chris was sitting in the way back, and he used his power to float the water bottles up from the trunk and pass them out to everybody. I took mine from him and downed it. The yellow energy rushed through my veins, and my mind instantly felt crisper, my senses heightened, as if I was ready for anything.
Darius turned the van into the drive that led to the Hemlock Center. Even though it was only late afternoon, the sun had set early since it was February, so it was already dark. I’d never been inside the Hemlock Center before, but looking at it today, the three-story asylum-turned-school-turned-abandoned building was creepier than ever. With its rotting gabled roof and surrounding gnarled trees, I wouldn’t have been surprised if it were haunted.
“The creature was seen entering the Hemlock Center about thirty minutes ago,” Darius filled us in as he parked in front of the entrance. “According to the witches on watch, it hasn’t left, so we’re assuming it’s still inside. It was described as resembling a hound, but with two heads and a scorpion tail.”
“Orthrus?” I gasped. “But that’s—”
Blake looked at me, his eyes panicked, and I stopped myself from finishing the sentence. Because Darius’s description sounded just like Orthrus—the hound that Blake and I had killed after it had attacked us on the playground last month. But no one knew about that, because it had happened while Blake and Danielle were still together, and we didn’t need Danielle to question what Blake and I had been doing together on the playground so late at night. Nothing had actually happened between Blake and me—we’d only been talking—but it was doubtful that she would believe us. So we’d kept quiet. There was no need to stir up drama now.
“Didn’t the harpy mention something about sending Orthrus to kidnap you, and how he wasn’t successful?” Kate asked.
“Yeah.” I nodded, as if that was what I’d been about to say. “I guess that’s where I’ve heard the name before.”
“Then it’s safe to assume that Orthrus has been hiding around here for a while,” Darius said, twisting around to face us. “The five of you need to take care of Orthrus and get out of there. All you need to do is to impale his heart. With all of your training this past month, this should be easy for you.”
I chuckled at how confident he sounded. Because last month, when Blake and I had fought Orthrus at the playground, we’d barely made it out of there alive. If it hadn’t been for some quick improvising where we’d turned a monkey bar into a javelin, the hound would have easily turned us into a late night snack.
“Five against one?” Blake smirked and looked out at the building, leaning forward as if he couldn’t wait to go inside and fight. “Why do you all seem so nervous? Of course we’ve got this.”
With that, we got out of the van, gathered our weapons, and headed inside.
CHAPTER THREE
The door to the Hemlock Center creaked as it opened, and I held my breath when I peeked inside. It opened to a huge room, two stories tall, with second floor balconies overlooking everything. The inside was dark and musty, the tiles cracked, the remaining pieces of furniture dilapidated and faded. Wind drafted in through the broken windows, and some tree branches had even crept their way inside, as if nature were trying to reclaim the deserted building.
“Do you see anything?” Kate whispered from behind me.
“No.” The hairs rose on the back of my neck, and I adjusted my bow, prepared to grab it at a moment’s notice. “Should we just… go inside?”
“I’ll lead the way.” Blake stepped up and opened the door further, strolling inside. “It seems clear,” he said. “But have your weapons ready, just in case.” He removed his gun from the holster, as did Kate with hers. Chris had both knives out and ready, and Danielle unsheathed her katana.
We walked inside in the circle formation Darius had taught us, our backs facing each other to make sure that we had all sides covered. My heart beat so fast that I could barely breathe, and my hands shook around my weapon. I would be no good in a fight if I were this nervous. So I imagined blue energy, feeling it surround me, and pulled it into my body. My heart slowed down to a steady pace as calmness overtook me, and my steps felt steadier—stronger. Combined with the yellow energy I’d drank in the car, I was more focused than ever.
We made it to the center of the room, and I glanced around, ready for Orthrus to rush in at any second. If he did, I would be ready. But everything was still.
“What now?” Danielle asked, her voice shaking slightly.
“Now we bring the ugly dog out to play.” Blake stood straighter and looked around. “Hey, Orthrus!” he yelled, his voice echoing through the empty mansion. “We know you’re in here.”
“Come out, come out, wherever you are!” Chris added.
We waited, on high alert, but nothing happened.
“He might not be as dumb as we think,” Kate said. “Maybe we have to look for him.”
“And break formation this early?” Chris asked. “Didn’t Darius say to stay in formation for as long as we could?”
“It doesn’t do us any good if we’re standing here doing nothing,” Blake said. “There are four doors leading out of this main room. Let’s each check out one of them. We’ll just look around from the doorways—we won’t enter alone. Nicole, you stay in the center and keep watch.”
“Sure,” I said, although I wondered—why did Blake want me to stay in the center and do nothing? Was he trying to protect me because he cared about me? Or did he think I was the weakest because I didn’t have power over a physical element?
He wouldn’t be so quick to think that if he knew what I could actually do with my element. That if I managed to get close enough to Orthrus to touch him, the hound would be dead in a second.
“My area’s clear,” Chris said, shutting the door. “At least what I could see of it.”
“Mine, too,” Kate said. “Nothing in there looked like in had been touched in years.”
Then I heard something from up on the balcony—a low, rumbling growl. I raised my bow up, an arrow ready to shoot in the general direction. “Did any of you hear that?” I whispered.
Chris stepped next to me, his knives ready. “Hear what?”
he asked.
Another growl rumbled through the second floor, louder this time. Then the familiar figure of Orthrus stepped onto the balcony—all two growling, drooling heads of him. He snapped his jaw and narrowed his eyes at us, lowering himself down to the ground as if getting ready to pounce.
“Don’t even think about it,” Blake said, raising his gun and shooting straight at the hound.
The shot should have been perfect—straight in the chest—but the hound flicked its metallic scorpion tail forward, pinging it against the bullet and sending it boomeranging in our direction. I didn’t have time to process what was happening before Chris’s hands were outstretched in front of him, and the bullet was floating in front of my eyes.
He plucked it from the air and dropped it to the floor. “Lucky for you, I’ve been practicing that with Kate,” he said to me. “Because I’m not sure your healing powers would have been strong enough to fix a bullet to the brain.”
“Let’s not test it out,” I said, letting an arrow loose and sending it straight to the hound. It buried itself in its foot, below where its tail could reach, and the head closest to it let out a long howl. “No more guns tonight,” I said to Blake and Kate. “We can’t have bullets flying around everywhere.”
“No arguments here.” Blake shoved his gun into the holster and pulled out his lighter, flicking it on and balancing a fireball in his hands. “I’m better with my powers, anyway.” He sent the fireball flying at the hound, but the hound leaped off the balcony, and the fire hit the wall behind it instead.
The hound landed in the center of the floor, the tile cracking beneath its paws. It looked around at us again and growled. Then it darted for the broken window, preparing to jump.
“Not so fast.” Kate raised her arms, and a tree fell in front of the window, blocking the opening. “We’re not letting you get away that easily.”
Danielle was beside the hound in a second, swinging her sword in its face. But it flicked its tail up, the metal clanging with the sword instead. Then a knife came flying at the hound, hitting straight in its neck—Chris. It howled, and Danielle used the opportunity to make a huge swinging arc with her sword, right through the injured neck. Blood spurted around her, and the head plunked to the ground.
She stared at it, her mouth dropped open. But the hound was still alive with one remaining head, and it swung its tail at the sword again, sending it flying out of Danielle’s hands. The tail must have sliced Danielle’s arm as well, because she screamed and grabbed her wrist, which was gushing with blood.
Blake threw a fireball at the hounds face, and although it quickly fizzled out, it gave me enough time to run to Danielle and push her out of the way before the tail could take a stab at her again. Blake continued to throw fireballs at the hound, and Chris threw another blade at the stump where the second head used to be. But I couldn’t help them now, because I needed to heal Danielle. Hopefully they would be able to hold off the hound until we were ready to rejoin the fight.
I rushed to Danielle and pried her hand off her wrist, looking at the wound. “It got you in the vein,” I said, although it was hard to see, because of all the blood. “You’re losing blood fast. I need to heal you now.”
“Okay.” She nodded, her face pale and her breaths shallow.
I pressed my palm against the gash on her wrist and closed my eyes. I imagined what the cut must feel like on my own wrist—the split skin, the searing pain, the faintness she must feel as the blood left her body faster than it could be produced. Then I pictured white energy, until I could feel it radiating around me, and pulled it into my body. It charged through my veins, the light coming out of my palm and surging into Danielle’s wound. My hand warmed as the magic knitted her skin back together—I could feel the energy deep in my bones. Once it cooled, I lifted it and opened my eyes to inspect my work.
“Good as new.” I smiled at my success. “How do you feel?”
She held her cool gaze with mine, her face hard with determination, and said, “Ready to fight.”
We stood up, and I kicked the hound’s decapitated head out of the way like it was a soccer ball. Danielle grabbed her katana, and I held onto my bow, checking how the others were progressing. They were holding the hound off, but barely. Blake was shooting fireballs at it whenever he had a chance, and the stump where the one head had been was charred to a crisp. Chris was attempting to get close with his knife, but the hound was quick with its tail to fend him off. It knocked one of the knives out of the air, but Chris called it back using his power.
Kate stood back, staring intently at a marble column. She held her hands out to it and it tipped over, heading straight toward the hound, although the hound jumped out the way, skirting the column by inches. The column boomed when it crashed to the ground, pieces of the floor tile breaking off and flying up into the air. The hound used this distraction to run up the stairs, where it stared down at us from the balcony with its one remaining head, snarling and pawing at the floor.
I steadied my weapon, ready to shoot.
“Hey, Nicole,” Blake said, and I glanced at him to see what he wanted. “Catch.”
He threw a fireball at my arrow, setting it ablaze. The hound jumped over the railing, and with no time to waste, I released the flaming arrow, sending it straight into the hound’s heart.
It howled and crashed to the ground, its head bent at an unnatural angle, the light in its eyes gone. Blood pooled on the tile around it. Then, just like the first time we’d killed it—when it had been just Blake and me with a monkey bar in the playground—it flickered a few times and disappeared completely.
All that remained was the scorched arrow, alone in the middle of the floor. I walked to it, retrieved it, and placed it back in my quiver.
Danielle joined me and kicked around the air, as if she still expected the hound to be there. “It’s gone,” she confirmed, sheathing her sword. “That means we killed it, right?”
“We did more than kill it.” Chris laughed and gave Kate a high five. “We vanquished it.”
My eyes met Blake’s, my heart leaping into my throat when I saw that he was already looking at me, his expression grim. Because the flickering and disappearing was the same thing that had happened the first time we’d killed this monster. We’d agreed not to say anything about that night, but after what had just happened, the others needed to know the truth.
He nodded, which I took as a sign that he agreed.
“I don’t think we killed it,” I said, still staring at the spot where the hound had disappeared. “Because I’ve fought this monster before. We thought we’d killed it then. But somehow… it came back.”
CHAPTER FOUR
“What do you mean that you’ve fought it before?” Kate asked. “That’s impossible. The only monster we’ve ever seen was the harpy. And we killed it together.”
“It’s a long story…” I said, not knowing where to begin. Because the story started with Blake asking me to sneak out with him late at night, on the week I’d first moved here. And during that week, he and Danielle had still been together. How could I tell them about what had happened without hurting Danielle?
Luckily, I didn’t have to, because Blake jumped in first. “Do you all remember the first night we met at my house, read the prophecy, and realized that the five of us had elemental powers?” he asked. “The night we went to Sophie’s diner, and she helped us decipher the prophecy?”
“Of course,” Chris said. “How could we forget?”
“That night, Nicole and I couldn’t sleep,” he continued. “We were texting, and we both wanted to practice using our powers. Instead of practicing alone in our houses, I suggested that we practice together. Since we didn’t have a training center back then, we went to the playground here.”
“Hold up.” Danielle held up her hand, her eyes narrowed. Another draft of wind blew in from the broken window, and her hair swirled around her face, making her look even witchier than usual. “The two of you snuck out to pr
actice in the middle of the night without inviting the rest of us?”
“You all were sleeping,” I jumped in. “And you’d all known about being witches for your whole lives. I’d only known for a few days. I needed the practice. I was just grateful that Blake had offered to help.”
“The playground’s been destroyed for weeks—since those kids committed arson there.” Kate looked at Blake, and when her mouth dropped open, I figured she’d put it together. “The harpy said something about sending Orthrus after you. The two of you didn’t fight that thing by yourselves… did you?”
“We did.” Blake nodded, his expression hard.
“It took a lot longer than it did tonight, and there were a few times when I didn’t think we would make it,” I said, speaking quickly as I relived the terrifying night in my mind. “We didn’t have any weapons, but we did have Blake’s fire power. We were just trying to run away from the hound—we figured if we could get to the car, we could hightail it out of there—but we ended up trapped on top of the monkey bars. I asked Blake to burn away the wood to get one of the bars out, and then I threw it at the hound, right through its heart.”
“Nice.” Chris grinned. “I wish I’d been there to see that.”
“The hound flickered and disappeared, just like it did right now,” I said. “We thought we’d killed it. But apparently we didn’t. Because it came back.”
“And when were you going to tell us?” Danielle asked, resting her hand on the hilt of her sword. “Or were you going to keep this secret forever?”
“We wanted to tell you.” I stepped back, out of range of her sword. I didn’t think she would take a swing at me, but it couldn’t hurt to be safe. “But since Blake and I had been out there alone, we didn’t want you to get the wrong idea…”
Elementals 2: The Blood of the Hydra Page 2
