“Well, it looks like you’re not so mighty after all, now does it? One man should never have all that power. It’s over for you and your world. We finally outsmarted you. In this environment, you’re completely crippled, pretty much the same as everyone who goes up against you. How does that feel? How does it feel to be the underdog? The things you do for love, eh? You let your guard down for a teeny tiny smidgen of a second to quell your restless heart for her. And she’s the one who’s responsible for your untimely demise! How’s that for poetic justice?”
“You ungrateful bastard! After all I’ve done for you! You would have been nothing without me! Nothing! And this is how you thank me? I can’t believe you had enough sense to fly under the radar of the Commission as long as you did. I don’t know how you managed this and didn’t get caught, but let me assure you—you won’t get away this time. If, by slim chance, your plan works and I’m annihilated, you’d better be sure to take out the rest of the gifted ones at home. They’ll hunt you down mercilessly. You’re as dead as I am, pal,” Chace returned the sarcasm.
William’s jet black eyes pierced mine as I stood motionlessly in the weak spot. For as dismal as they were, I could still see that he was remorseful in doing this. He bound Chace as he had done me earlier and took his place near his defector and demon. I could hear the sounds of scores of feet coming up the stairs. Doctor Rush smiled, William scowled and Mark showed no expression.
“I’m sorry,” I whimpered to Chace. “I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t talk to him!” William yelled at me. “Do not talk to him!”
Chapter 24
Battle of the Gifts
Chace didn’t say anything to me. I didn’t know if it was because he knew they’d freak or it was that he hated me for getting him into this mess. He’d lived his whole life this way and in a matter of weeks I’d destroyed everything. Even the world. I was prepared to fight till my death for him, even if Mark wasn’t on my side. I stared at the doorway, waiting for the first glimpse of those morbid black eyes. And there they were.
My concentration was profound. My will determined. My fear diminished. I instantaneously threw up my shield and fired the barbs in hasty succession. Shockingly, their abilities still worked from the other side of the room. They fired knives, flames, nitrogen and a host of other weapons to no avail. One by one, the demons fell to the floor until the herds in the hallway realized there was trouble inside. The doorway was empty.
As amazed as he was, William quickly dove at me to stop my assault. He was obviously clueless as to how I managed to get past their barriers and use my gifts. He knew I had a protective bubble, but I held it strongly enough that he couldn’t get past it. Doctor Rush leaped at me, collapsing my shield with one of his abilities. I quickly jumped straight up to the ceiling, but William could stretch himself like taffy and rose to grab me. Before he was able to touch me, I suspended myself in my tunnel of liquid color. I had only a few seconds to plan my next move and had to be precise enough to land in the exact spot so my gifts would still work. I tried frantically to recall what abilities I told William I had. Apparently, he had the defectors equip him with counteracting abilities. He didn’t know I could suspend myself or he would have followed me. It was a start.
The attack replayed in my mind as if I were watching a video. Those demons could only use their abilities if they had something giving them the opening they needed to the outside world. Once more, that punch in the throat came full force. I figured it out. All of them, including Doctor Rush, William and Mark, had a blue light radiating from behind their left ears. That was how they were able to get their porthole to the outside world. I knew what I had to do.
I pulled myself out of suspension and landed precisely on the spot I had left. I was only gone a few seconds, but long enough for the next wave of demons to flood the room. I maintained my shield and fired at Doctor Rush, the only one I knew who could counteract it. My barbs did nothing. I threw fire at him and still it did nothing. I knew he was going to take me down as soon as he disabled my shield long enough to snag me. He tried to collapse it again only this time I used all of my energy on the shield and didn’t fire back. It gave me a few extra seconds to strategize. Before I reacted, a tornado overtook the room and everyone in it. Mark didn’t move from Chace’s side so it was clear to me that it was his doing. Everyone was fighting in one hundred and sixty mile an hour winds, except me. I was still secure in my bubble and Doctor Rush was carried off somewhere by the gusts.
“Helfen Sie mir, ihn zum schwachen Punkt zu bekommen!” Mark screamed. It was German for ‘help me get him to the weak point.’ He shouted again only this time in Italian, obviously to confuse the demons, “lo scudo non funzionerà. Io ti proteggerò.” I quickly translated in my head ‘the shield will not work. I will protect you.’
I released my shield and bolted over to Mark and Chace. We had only seconds to move him before we were on the receiving end of the demons’ abilities. We pushed and pulled him through the wind, rain and flying debris, while Mark fired at the demons. Neither of us had the ability to release those restraints. I hoped Mark was sure that Chace could get out of them on his own as soon as he reached the fault. The tornado abruptly stopped and I was clenched in William’s arms. “Stop fighting it, Lexi!” he screamed as he paralyzed me where I stood. He picked me up and laid me on the floor in the corner of the room so as not to get in the way. His eyes flashed green as he tucked something in my pocket. I was only a few feet away from Chace and, through all of the madness, he shouted, “It’s not your fault. We’ll get out of this, I promise. I won’t die without the answer you owe me.” I could do nothing but feel proud of him and feel the intensity of his love for me that he spoke with his eyes. Even at a time like this, he wasn’t crumbling. He was the same old Chace. My love for him was never in doubt. But now there was no question that I couldn’t live without him. If he was eliminated, they would have to take me, too.
I couldn’t see how close we managed to get Chace to the fault. I didn’t know if Mark was able to do it without me. I still heard the fighting, so I knew the demons hadn’t won. The battle moved right in front of me. I had no idea what Mark was doing to them, but the demons were dropping like flies. Mark raised his arm and the door slammed shut. He turned his gaze to me, frustrated that I could do nothing to help him. There were still a dozen or so demons left to contend with before the rest forced their way back in. Doctor Rush wasn’t one of them. There were only two things that could have happened. He was either a casualty or he had fled for backup. I never wished anyone ill in my life, but I was hoping for the former. He seemed to be my biggest threat at the moment and more demons and defectors would pose a greater problem to three incapacitated gifted ones.
When the last demon fell, Mark scurried over to Chace and started pushing him to the fault again. He was only a few inches away from where I was when the door burst open and demons were flying, running and firing things at him. Mark started spinning himself like a drill and bore a hole through the floor. He grabbed my ankle and pulled me through to the lower level while surrounding Chace with excruciatingly bright lights. As soon as I hit the floor, he said “It’s gonna hurt a little, Lex, and it takes about five minutes to work.” Mark pierced my neck behind my left ear with a spike several inches long. I wanted to scream out in pain, but I held back. It was nothing compared to what he and Chace had been through. The left side of my neck throbbed with excruciating pain. I could feel the hotness spreading through my head and the gadget attaching itself to my blood vessels. “You’ll be safe here until it takes effect,” he said as he surrounded me with the shroud of lights as he had for Chace. “When it does, you can use your abilities. If counteracting paralysis isn’t one of them, you still won’t be able to move but you can use your other gifts to defend yourself. At least one of us will be back for you, Lexi.” He blinded the demons that followed him. I kept still so they couldn’t find me. At least until I could use my gifts and get rid of them.
The smashing and explosions coming from the level above me got louder. I wanted so desperately to help Mark and the time for my newly injected blue light was dragging. He was defending himself against throngs of demons and keeping them away from Chace at the same time. I knew he couldn’t last much longer, especially if Doctor Rush came back with more troops. I felt a little woozy and assumed it was the effects of the bright lights, so I closed my eyes and hoped for a miracle. I didn’t have the five minutes it took to get access to the outside and use my gifts.
I heard Paige’s voice calling my name. Terrified, thinking I had fallen asleep and dreamt Paige’s call, I hurriedly tried to suspend myself, but I didn’t move from the barrier of lights. I was relieved to know I hadn’t slept long enough to miss the five-minute deadline.
“Lexi! Where are you?” I heard Paige call me again. I knew I wasn’t sleeping, but I was worried this may have been a demon trick. One of them could have known she was my best friend and was able to capture her voice just as William had done to me. I stayed silent and motionless.
The fighting was still raging above me. I had to stay alive, not only because I wanted to, but simply because Chace and Mark were trying so hard to keep me that way. I couldn’t let them down by falling for another trick. My mother always used to say ‘fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.’ Those old clichés were annoying at best, but she was usually right. This was one of those times.
“Lexi! Damn it! Lexi!” she shouted again. There was no way she could be here. It was definitely a trap. I still had a few minutes before I could try to use my gifts again. I was hoping the demon pretending to be Paige didn’t find me by then.
But then, through all of the chaos, I heard the tune reminiscent of a time only Paige herself would know. “You know that I could use somebody,” she sang in a high-pitched tone, just like we used to do. I knew it was Paige. I didn’t concern myself with how she got there or how she knew I was there. Still paralyzed, I couldn’t answer her. I moaned as loudly as I could, trusting she would know it was me.
I looked into the bright barrier of lights that was protecting me from the evil lurking outside them. Paige would have to get past them somehow. I feared for her. Another one of my loved ones risking their life for me. I shouldn’t have answered her call. I would have done better to wait until I could defend her and myself against these monstrosities.
“Mark, no!” I heard Chace scream. “They’re not demons. Stop!”
Mark called down to me through the hole in the floor. “We’re still alive, get up here as fast as you can. I’m sending your friends down.”
Friends? Now I was really worried. Was he being sarcastic or did I really have friends, as he called them, here to help? The shadows looked like they were coming through the lights. I tried again to use my gifts, which were still not functioning. I couldn’t have been there more than a minute or two and I trusted that Mark’s blockade would hold the demons for the entire five minutes. It wouldn’t have been them coming after me; it had to be Paige.
I moaned again as loudly as I could until she stood before me. The other figures popped out from the lights behind her. It befuddled me to see Vera and her sisters emerge from the other side of my protective shroud.
“Listen to me, Lexi. We can help you! We’re not gifted and we’re not demons of any sort. You know you can trust me,” she said as she was rifling through a small pouch she had attached to her hip. Vera clasped my head while Paige held a vile with sweet smelling liquid under my nose. Vera’s sisters began chanting over me with their eyes closed and their hands joined together. One of them sprinkled an awful smelling, dried out substance that had the consistency of tree bark around my head. Vera dripped oil along the length of my body as she continued to beckon the spirit world for help.
“Concentrate and move your legs,” Vera commanded. I focused and moved my legs. “Paige?” I shrieked as I rose to my feet, checking to see if I had all my faculties. “How’d you get past the demons on the other side?”
“No time to explain, Lex. We got a real struggle going on upstairs and we gotta go! Can you use your gifts?”
I stopped the demons outside from breathing. “Yeah, they work now,” I said in amazement. I still didn’t have it in me to kill, so I let them breathe again after they passed out. My blue light was on and I had enough strength to leap to the hole with each of the women on my back. One by one, Vera and her sisters squeezed through and Paige was the last to go. I surveyed the situation below and concluded that those demons would be out cold for a while. I covered the hole with flames to be sure they wouldn’t get up too soon. There was no time to make sense of, or even think about, what had just happened. I had to get to Chace. While fighting my way over to give him the final push to the fault, a spear flew at Paige’s head and I couldn’t get to her fast enough. “Paige!” I screamed. The words no sooner left my lips than the spear was stopped in midair, less than a thread from Paige’s temple.
“I got it, Lex, I got it,” she said and she casually grabbed the immobilized spear and threw it on the floor. “Don’t worry about us! Get Chace on his feet and get rid of these damned things, will you?”
I summoned every ounce of strength I had left and hurled Chace to the fault. He immediately disengaged the invisible bindings and jumped to his feet, knocking me over. He threw his body on top of mine to shield me from the spinning razor blades that grazed the back of his shirt. “I got this. I’m good,” I yelled as I threw up my shield again.
It seemed like every demon on the planet came to join in the fight. For every one we got rid of, two more showed up. Chace had to fight from the fault since there was no time to inject him with the hookup to the outside. But now the three of us had full use of our gifts and a little help from our friends. My confidence grew. I had faith that our mini-brigade could take down these demons, black or white, with ease.
Every word I had ever heard about Chace was true. He was a superb and skillful fighter. He managed to pin a handful of demons to the wall while whisking away the ten who were behind him in a sandstorm and spewing a poison mist at the ones who were coming through the door. He never even broke a sweat. He was a one-man army.
Vera and two of her sisters were spreading some powder around the perimeter of the room while Page and the other two sisters guarded them. I heard them say that no demons would come within ten feet of that powder. Whatever it was still intrigues me. They were interrupted by the occasional outnumbering of demons to gypsies and quickly defended themselves with gypsy tricks. They seemed to have some sort of protection around them, too, and didn’t need my help.
The demons went after Chace with everything they had. A flock of white demons, surrounding one of the scarce, black ones, charged him. It looked like the white demons were using all their abilities at once on Chace so he was distracted enough to let the black one go in for the kill. Mark and I had our own demons to fight and couldn’t get anywhere near him. The gypsies and Paige were holding their own by casting spells and using potions and things to defend themselves. The place was like one giant free-for-all.
The demons quickly fired all their abilities at Chace as he stood on the fault without much mobility. One tried to destroy all of his senses, to which Chace responded with one quick burst of energy hitting that demon and a few others at once. There was an invisible one that attacked him, but Chace could still see him somehow and threw him head first down the fiery hole. Another one turned into a grizzly bear that spat a fiery, blinding liquid from his nose. Chace body-slammed him as effortlessly as swatting a fly. He had disarmed every white demon that came his way until the black one stood alone. That one turned himself into a hundred black crows that covered Chace from head to toe. They tried killing him by simultaneously draining all the blood from his body. Chace released a film over his skin that made the crows fall to the floor in unison before they even scratched him.
A demon came down from the ceiling, inflicting Chace with excruciating pain while anot
her doused him with a sticky substance that lifted him off the fault and smashed him into the wall. Chace was stuck there, with no way of using his gifts to defend himself. Mark fought off his immediate attackers and quickly drilled another hole, only this time, in the much thicker wall. The night breeze came rushing in, carrying everything Chace needed to conjure up his gifts. He bounced out of the gook that attached him to the wall and stared into the fearful eyes of his attackers. He pointed his finger at them, and as he moved it across the room, they followed, until they disappeared through the wall.
The three of us stood in a strong line, our backs against the wall with demons to the front, left and right of us. No words were spoken, but we instinctively knew how to fight as a unit. It almost felt like we were one person, with one brain and many talents.
Chace sent the ones to the left smashing into the walls. Mark froze the ones to the right in one quick movement. I sucked the energy out of the ones in the middle who immediately dropped to the floor. And then there were no more.
Chapter 25
After the Fire
In silence and sweat, we stood there, waiting for more to arrive. No one came. I glanced at Chace, who looked to be sizing me up. I wanted to hurl myself into his arms, but was afraid of what he would do if I did. I had done so much damage by keeping secrets from him. It could have cost him his life. It could have cost us our world.
Chace just glanced at me, then shook his head and let out a huge sigh of relief. He pulled my waist to hold me in his arms. I laid my head on his chest and quietly wept. “I’m so sorry, Chace. If you never forgive me, I’ll understand.”
“Shhh! Lex, it’s okay. We’re all okay,” he said as he pushed my tear-soaked hair off my face.
“All? Oh, jeeze, Paige!” I screamed.
“Over here, Lex.” A nonchalant voice came from the other side of the hole that was still shooting out smoke and flames.
The Dragonfly Prophecy Page 22
