That’s when the sound of thunder filled the forest, as if it had sprouted from the branches of every tree, and sent a violent pulse of energy throughout. The moment Penny heard the rumble of thunder, she also felt a building tension that she could sense was about to…something.
A surge of energy suddenly spread forward, out towards them. It struck Penny softly but it still took her off her feet and sent her sailing through the air. She was vaguely aware that Ray had been thrown, too. She saw Paul grabbing a tree for stability and then she hit the ground. The world was spinning and Penny was pretty sure she was bleeding from the nose. But she managed to get up and when she did, she looked ahead and nearly screamed at what she saw.
4
Saul had been right; there had been a sort of unified attempt among the Guard to cause the forest to react against them. Moorcheh happened to be the one in the front of the group and so he bore the brunt of Saul's initial attack. Saul had originally given the order to attack Benali, too, but Benali had seen them coming and had managed to move out of range.
Moorcheh realized what was happening a split second too late. Saul ran into him and it felt like slamming into the side of a tree. Moorcheh barely moved, but when Jill and then Nikki piled on, he went down to a knee. Gestalt finished off the pile, wrapping his arms around Moorche’s neck and pulling him flat to the ground.
The combined attack had been enough to distract Moorcheh’s attention from the enchantment on the forest. Saul could feel the spell break, the air growing thinner and the sense of collected energy dying off by the second.
There was a lot to take in at once. As they pummeled Moorcheh, Saul saw that the rest of the Guard were running towards them. Aimon in particular looked pissed. He was running directly towards Nikki. Saul opened his mouth to shout a warning but then watched as Nikki once again displayed the talents that Polyxia had transferred to her.
Nikki drew back both hands and clasped them together over her head. She then brought them down as if she was holding a large axe. A brilliant pink beam of light that looked like glass came pulsing form her hands and shot outward. It struck Aimon directly in the chest. He spun a half circle and went to the ground. Nikki was instantly dashing towards him, drawing her hand back again. As Saul watched, Nikki’s hand started to glow with that same shade of pink. A black border began to bubble around it, as if the light itself was boiling into some sort of poison.
Saul heard Magdeline gasp and then whisper, No. She started for Nikki, but it was too late. Nikki landed directly on Aimon’s back and brought her glowing hand down. She struck him directly in the center of his neck and for a sickening moment, her hand seemed to disappear. All there was to see was the light and Aimon’s skin as it cracked and splintered.
Aimon let out a roar unlike anything that Saul had ever heard. It sounded like something straight out of the bowels of Hell, tormented and dying.
Magdeline and Benali froze. The look of horror and pain on their faces took Saul by surprise. He’d never seen any member of the Guard look so vulnerable. As he watched, Magdeline's expression shifted; the look in her eyes spoke of murder and malice. Saul didn’t know what sort of vengeance she had planned for Nikki, and he didn’t want to know.
“The witch,” Magdeline snarled, her voice like the hiss of a snake. “She gave you her powers.”
Saul ran at Magdeline, leaving Nikki and Gestalt to kick and punch at Moorcheh as he lay on the ground. As Saul dashed away, the last thing he saw was Gestalt opening his mouth wide to reveal his fangs.
Saul made only a few quick strides towards Magdeline before she stretched her back and then fell to the ground in a heap. She was not injured or having some sort of fit as Saul had first assumed. Instead, she pummeled the ground with her fists and muttered something strange, some sort of chant. She yelled the final words, spit frothing at the corners of her mouth.
As Magdeline struck the ground with her fists, her hands began to bleed. The blood seemed to float above the ground, pooling around her fists. Saul both saw and heard a wave of energy build, as if power was being pulled directly from Magdeline's blood and channeled into the ground.
Saul opened his mouth to shout a warning, although against what, he wasn’t entirely sure. But before he could so much as utter a single syllable, the wave of energy burst forward and rocketed through the forest. It passed through the trees, not harming them at all, but knocked Gestalt and Nikki to the ground. Jill had seen it coming and had hit the ground, crawling against the wave of invisible power. Saul was clinging to a tree, fighting against the energy as if it were a hurricane. Not too far away, Kara was doing the same.
Then, in a movement so swift that Saul barely saw it, Magdeline leaped into the air and hovered in midair, her arms extended and her hair floating on a breeze that wasn’t there. She looked stunning and, Saul thought, would have been absolutely breathtaking had it not been for the fact that her eyes had turned a deathly shade of black. She bellowed, letting out a scream that he felt in his bones.
In that split second, Magdeline went from stunningly beautiful to monstrous. Her face distended and distorted and the flesh of her bones turned into something that looked both rotten and burned. Magdeline looked demonic; it was as if every evil deed she had ever perpetrated came to the surface of her flesh in one blinding moment of fury.
Saul heard Penny scream. As if that were her cue, Magdeline took off like a bolt of lightning through the trees. She left a spectral trail of white light in her wake, the tree branches around her shuddering in response. Saul wasn’t sure, but he thought such magic meant that she was likely dipping into the pool of immortal powers that the Guard should not have access to while they were in their mortal forms. If that were true, Magdeline was risking a hell of a lot— those who oversaw the Guard hardly took it kindly to their laws being broken.
Saul looked around the forest to assess the situation. In the horror that he had just witnessed, he had nearly forgotten that Nikki had killed Aimon. And with Magdeline having just disappeared from the scene, that left only Moorcheh and Benali to contend with.
Saul looked to Jill and saw that she seemed a bit shaken, but was still as confident as ever. Kara stood by her, also looking as if she could take on the world.
“Can you cover things here?” he asked. “I need to find Magdeline before she manages to escape. This needs to end now.”
He wasn’t able to get a response, though. He was blindsided by Benali while his back was turned. The creature delivered a kick to the back of Saul's leg. The attack was strong enough to cause Saul to stumble and was then followed by another—a hard right hand that carried a large rock in its clutches. It slammed into Saul's face and he went sprawling to the ground.
Nikki rushed to Saul's aide, only to be tackled by Moorcheh, bleeding intensely from the beating he had received at the start of this odd melee. He speared Nikki directly into a tree, causing her to cry out. Her head whacked against the base of the tree hard enough to make her eyes flutter and white specks rocket across her vision.
Kara was by Nikki’s side at once, throwing Moorcheh to the ground with the speed and tenacity that only a freshly turned vampire was capable of.
Saul saw only flashes of this as he picked himself back up from the ground. He saw Benali coming in for another attack but he also saw Jill taking a quick stride towards them with a large log in her hands. It was pulled back behind her head as if she was standing at home plate, prepared to knock one out of the park. She came running and swung hard, connecting solidly with Benali’s head. Benali's feet left the ground as he went sailing through the air and landed nearly fifteen feet away.
“Yeah,” Jill said with a smile. “I think we’re good.”
“I’ll come with you,” Gestalt said, stepping up beside Saul. “The bitch looked pretty ferocious when she left, didn’t she?”
“That’s an understatement,” Saul said. “And I thank you for your help.”
Saul felt a tickling sensation in his head. Jill smiled at
him and he heard her voice as clear as a bell in his mind. We’ve got them scared, she said. Whatever interference they had put between us is broken. If things go bad here, we’ll let you know. You do the same.
He nodded. Please take care of Nikki.
I will, she responded. But it doesn’t seem like she’ll need it.
“I’ll be back,” Saul called to Nikki.
Nikki was working with Kara, keeping Moorcheh busy.
“I’ll see you soon,” she called back. “Leave it to us girls to finish here.”
Saul turned and started to walk towards where Magdeline had blazed off to. As he did, he caught Nikki’s voice in his head. His link with her wasn’t as strong as the one he shared with his sister, but it felt unimaginably sweet to hear her voice in his mind.
You better come back safe, she told him. I love you.
It was the first time she’d said that to Saul. The fact that he had heard it in the confines on his own head, shared through the ethereal matter of their minds, made it mean so much more.
I love you, too, he said, and started running towards town.
5
Saul and Gestalt arrived in town by coming out of the forest roughly half a mile away from Main Street’s main intersection. Red Creek was beyond quiet; it sounded and felt as if they had stepped into a ghost town straight out a really bad Western. The windows of many of the stores were shattered. In the distance, smoke rose in tendrils into the sky.
“I’m so sorry for my part in all of this,” Gestalt said.
“We don’t have time for apologies,” Saul said. “Besides… I know how persuasive the power of the Guard can be. You were blinded and you were looking out for yourself. Those are both understandable.”
“Still… this destruction… much of it is my fault.”
Saul still held an enormous amount of anger toward Gestalt. After all, he spoke the truth: the state of Red Creek was mostly due to the trick Gestalt had pulled, trying to gather together a Rogue army and turning nearly the entire town into weak vampires. But more than that, Saul was very aware of the fact that the vampire that was now fighting by his side had once killed his father under the command of the Guard.
If they made it out of this ordeal alive, Saul was sure that they would have words with one another. Perhaps they could bury their past; but that was only if they could manage to defeat the Guard.
The thing that alarmed Saul the most was that the further into town they went, the more his ghost town analogy seemed to prove correct. The only human essence he could smell was dead and decaying. He feared that Red Creek had been entirely wiped out—if not by Gestalt’s failed plans, then certainly by the Guard’s presence and influence. He could only hope that there were others like Mrs. Hudson, Nikki’s old boss — people who had managed to leave town before it was too late.
It was with that thought in his head that Saul and Gestalt rounded a corner onto a side street and saw the grey mist. It was sitting low to the ground, coiling like something that was alive. Vague shapes rose from its wavering surface, like reluctant fish breaking water.
Magdeline was standing at the end of the street. She had stripped off her clothes and was standing rigidly straight with her arms extended. From what Saul could tell, the mist was coming out of her in the way sweat would drip form the pores of humans. The entire scene made Saul feel very uneasy. Magdeline had them here, separated from the rest of the group, using whatever magic her immortal self was capable of.
And from what Saul could tell, it was some dark magic indeed.
“I don’t know what you’re doing,” Saul said, “but you have to stop, Magdeline. Two of your members have fallen. When we left, a third was quite close behind. You’re going to lose. It’s just a matter of how gracefully.”
Magdeline said nothing in response. She simply smiled at them and flexed her arms. Her flawless body seemed to gleam in the mist as it continued to pour out of her.
Saul took a step forward, ready to beat the sorceress to death with his bare hands if he had to. When he did, he felt something grab his leg. He looked down into the mist and saw what looked to be a human figure that had been drained of all muscle and bodily fluids; it was a husk of a human, peering up at him with malice.
Saul kicked it away easily; it felt like kicking at a mound of mud. No sooner was his leg free than another one was on him. And then another. The mist was thick with them, their hollow bodies writhing beneath its translucent cover.
Behind him, Gestalt was having the same problem. He was fighting one of the peculiar bodies while another one was clambering up his right leg.
“You claim this is your town,” Magdeline said. “Your territory. So let’s see how you feel about having to face the souls of each and every person you were forced to kill after they were turned into Rogues.”
The weight of what Magdeline said sank in as Saul looked down into the mist. The creatures—or, as Magdeline had called them, the souls—were so weak that they couldn’t even stand. They were pulling at him not so much to drag him down into the mist, but to climb up his body in the hopes of standing.
They weren’t powerful at all, but by the time Saul had realized exactly what was happening, there were four of them on him, not only slowing his progress, but starting to claw at his legs and gnash their teeth, trying to bite. One sank its teeth into his left leg, tearing straight through his pants and into his skin. Saul let out a hiss and reached down, planting a firm punch along it face. The shape of the thing disintegrated at the punch but as it disappeared, there were two others in its place.
Thirty feet or so ahead of them, Magdeline began to laugh. She was still standing absolutely still, the mist pouring from her in a way that, if it was not threatening his life at the moment, Saul would have found rather beautiful.
Then Gestalt began to scream.
Saul turned to see what was happening and saw that one of the souls had somehow managed to clasp onto Gestalt’s head. A second was doing the same as Saul watched. The two were pulling forcefully, their arms like taffy. They made screech-like sounds as they pulled. Gestalt was doubled over, about to lose his balance. Saul figured that no matter how strong Gestalt might be, he was going to die for sure if he went under the mist. Saul felt that the same was true for him, as well.
Working on instinct, Saul reached into the mist and felt something grab him right away. In response, Saul clutched the shape that had grabbed him and pulled it up hard. He freed the dry and husky shape of one of the souls from the mist. Holding it was like trying to weigh moving water; its substance was incredibly light but there was a force inside of it that was made of pure energy, trying everything it could to harm Saul.
With a roar of frustration, Saul heaved the human-like shape forward, towards Magdeline. She looked surprised that Saul would have even thought of such a thing. It took her off guard and she had to move quickly in order to dodge the morbid projectile. As Saul had hoped, her sudden movement had the same effect as distracting the Guard’s unified front in the forest. When Magdeline’s concentration broke, the mist started to evaporate. He could see that the shapes, too, seemed to be fading out.
Gestalt was still fighting off the few souls that clung to him, but Saul figured that he could take care of himself. He took advantage of the moment and took off in a mad dash towards Magdeline.
She saw him coming and send out a blast of the same sort of pinkish-white light that Nikki had used against Aimon in the forest. Saul tried to jump out of the way, but the attack was too fast. It struck him in the right side and he instantly felt as if some very large animal had bitten him. He screamed as he went airborne and crashed hard into a building along the side of the street. The air rushed out of him and he struck the ground in a heap, gasping for breath.
Saul tried getting to his feet right away but the impact had simply been too hard. He had to allow himself a moment to catch his breath and to get his bearings again. He couldn’t remember a time where he had ever been hit so hard.
Yet as he tried to recover, he was very aware of the fact that Magdeline was bearing down on him again. She had leaped into the air and seemed to be flying at him. It wasn’t until the last moment that he saw that she had something in her hand—a metal spike that looked as if it had been torn from a car’s bumper.
She was only a few feet from him and Saul could not move. All he could do was watch the metal stake glisten in Magdeline's hand as she started to bring it down towards his heart.
Mere seconds before she made contact, Magdeline was struck in midair. The shape that struck her was quick, but Saul recognized a human form and then Gestalt’s face. The Rogue collided with her just before the metal makeshift stake made contact with Saul. Gestalt and Magdeline went rolling in a heap into the same building that Saul had just struck.
Even after they hit the building, they wrestled one another as Gestalt did everything he could to get the stake out of Magdeline’s grip. Saul managed to slowly get to his feet, staggering forward. His head hurt and his back ached as if a small bomb has gone off along his spine. Approaching the battling duo as fast as he could, Saul used every ounce of rage and strength he could muster and threw a hard kick into Magdeline’s side.
Magdeline fell off Gestalt and when she did, Saul reached down and picked her up. He didn’t know if it was an enchantment or not, but when his hands touched her flesh, it wasn’t violence on his mind, but sex and passion.
With a yell of disgust, Saul lifted Magdeline over his head and threw her down incredibly hard to the ground. Her body bounced, leaving an indentation in the asphalt; still, it was but seconds before she began to get back up.
Saul turned to Gestalt, hoping to help the Rogue up. What he saw made him pause.
Gestalt was still lying on the ground. The metal spike Magdeline had held protruded from his chest; it had been shoved through his heart. The Rogue was already motionless, and his blood poured freely onto the sidewalk. His eyes were glossy and blank, staring into the sky.
VEILED Complete Boxed Set Page 57
