by Isis Rushdan
Ptolemy’s body stiffened. Serenity waited for him to alert the others to whatever concerned Spero but he said nothing. He didn’t even gaze about to check the area as usual. He stood calmly, gazing at the floor.
Micah settled on three scoops of Belgian chocolate and Beset had a scoop of strawberry cheesecake. “This is delicious,” Micah said with surprise.
“It’s not as sweet as I expected,” Beset added. “I like the combination of textures.”
How strange their world must be, so contained and isolated from everything she found familiar. Serenity glanced at Ptolemy. “Is Spero going to meet us at the car?”
“No, we’re going to wait for him here,” he said in a flat tone.
They ate their ice cream silently, off to the side of the food court, as people gawked. They had their backs to the wall, which made it painfully obvious how many eyes were on them. Spero was still nowhere in sight.
She dug into her second scoop, when the soldiers suddenly tensed and their heads flicked up, disturbed by something. Micah, who leaned against a column, stood erect and looked directly at a slight man, wearing dark clothing, holding a camera.
The man walked in front of a food stand. He did his best to look inconspicuous. She couldn’t sense his presence, but against the backdrop of so many humans his aura stood out. A flame burned inside of him, giving him a subtle glow.
He was a golden banner, billowing in a sea of gray. He was Kindred.
Ptolemy took two steps forward in the opposite direction, and Serenity shifted her gaze to another man, lanky and tall, hovering in front of a clothing store. He wore sunglasses and pretended to stare at the mannequins in the window. Every now and again he glanced at them over his shoulder. Micah threw his ice cream in a trash bin, but remained fixated on the one with the camera.
The two strangers didn’t act as if they wanted to attack. Although Serenity was in a heightened state of awareness, she wasn’t afraid. In terms of stature, she never would have noticed them and perhaps that was the point. Their mannerisms were a different story. How clumsy they seemed in their pathetic attempts to blend in.
Ptolemy walked toward the one by the clothing store. The man turned to face him, then took off running. Ptolemy didn’t hesitate to pursue him. At almost the same time, the one with the camera dashed off with Micah close behind.
The commotion incited a wave of chatter. Everyone in the food court looked about, but eventually fixed their gaze on them. Serenity stood with Beset and Talus at her side. A moment later, Spero hurried toward them from the direction Ptolemy had chased one of the strangers. Within seconds, he was in front of them.
“Scouts. Ptolemy got one,” Spero said.
“Sekhem?” asked Beset.
He nodded. “There’s a third one.”
Spero led the way to the car. This time Serenity was oblivious to the stares. She looked past all of them and searched the area. They were finally out of the mall and hustled through the lot. Just as they reached the Hummer, he appeared.
He stood five rows away, staring straight at her. He didn’t try to hide and once they made eye contact, he strolled over with a blank expression on his face. Spero stepped several paces forward and stopped. Beset and Talus stood in front of Serenity to block her.
The man wore a NY Yankees baseball cap and a Mets jacket. The bizarre combination alone made him stick out.
Serenity stayed behind Beset and Talus with her back to the Hummer, but stepped to the side so she could see through the small gap in between their shoulders. He was three cars away and raised his hands.
Spero lunged and reached for him, but the stranger knelt on the ground between two vehicles before he could be forced. He removed his cap and an odd smile spread across his thin, tan face.
He put his hands behind his head, and Spero shoved him onto the concrete. The stranger turned his head to the side so he could still look at her. Spero jammed his knee into his back.
“I will gladly give my life to have my curiosity satisfied and know one thing,” the stranger said softly.
No one responded.
“How have you avoided detection for so long? Why didn’t we know about you until now?” he asked grimly.
“I was lost among the humans.”
“Don’t talk to him!” Spero warned. He pressed the stranger’s face into the pavement.
“Please, may I speak to her for a moment before you take my life?”
Spero looked at Serenity. She nodded.
“You’ve only heard Herut’s voice, their sanctimonious ideals polluting the truth. With my last breath, I beg of you. For the sake of your own kind, don’t relegate us to a future of human mediocrity. We can save humanity from its selfish devices and rescue this planet from their destructive hands. Herut would have us fall from glory and strength to wipe a little pain from our souls. They cannot see it’s within the roots of our suffering that our greatness flourishes, hand in hand, our blessing and our curse. You have the power to ensure Kindred thrive for generations. Or you can destroy all that we are and ever hope to be. The redeemer cannot be born!”
Unable to speak, Serenity stared at him, her mind reeling from his words.
“How did you find her?” Spero growled.
“Did you think you could hide her forever?” He laughed. “I know my fate, but the others will escape and report back. And when they do a firestorm the likes of which you have never seen shall rain down upon—”
Spero moved his knee to the stranger’s neck and pressed down hard, turning his head until a crunch resounded. A chill raked her skin. She gaped at the dead stranger and her soul felt the rumble of the avalanche coming.
Micah ran across the parking lot. He held the digital camera the stranger had earlier.
“Did you take care of it?” Spero asked.
Micah nodded. “Ptolemy left one alive for interrogation.”
Spero stood and scanned the parking lot. “The van at the far end of the lot. The one away from the security cameras.”
Micah tossed the camera to Beset and ran off toward a red and white van parked several hundred feet away. A moment later, he pulled the van around.
Spero tossed the dead body inside. “Take Lady Serenity back to the house while we clean up,” he said, throwing Beset the keys to the Hummer. “Don’t stop for any reason.”
Jumping into the SUV, they roared out of the lot seconds later. Beset drove with Talus up front. An anxious shiver ran up Serenity’s spine.
They’d gotten all three of them. She took a deep breath and contemplated the stranger’s last words. She didn’t want to rule the world or to carry the heavy hopes of anyone on her shoulders. She wanted to be free to love, without the prospect of death looming overhead. “Those scouts back there weren’t very good.”
Beset glanced at Serenity in the rearview mirror. “They were lower level, not battle-guard.”
“And definitely not Paladins,” Talus added in a relieved tone.
“Why would they send them? I mean, why wouldn’t they send real soldiers?” Serenity wondered.
“It’s normal to send lower level warriors for simple reconnaissance or surveillance. At Herut, we always send one battle-guard as a team leader for something like this. I’m sure they had orders not to engage and Sekhem probably didn’t expect they’d encounter battle-guard of Herut. It’s a good sign they sent those oafs on their own. It means Sekhem is uncertain.”
Her nerves were raw, but they were minutes from the house. She stared at her left hand and rubbed her bare ring finger. Life was capricious. No longer did she have to worry about a dull existence, smothered by a secure routine, dying a slowly. Now she had to find a way to hang on to the greatest love she’d ever known and hoped she lived long enough to enjoy it.
This was her new life as Kindred. She sucked in a deep breath, holding her stomach. If Cyrus had endured this for more than two hundred years, handling mercenaries and battling monsters without her, surely she could do it with him. All she had to do
was plug into that feeling of invincibility she had whenever he held her, ground herself in the sense she could accomplish anything with him at her side. Her chin trembled as she exhaled, calmness returning.
She glanced out the window. The foliage was rich and vibrant. Ripe colors painted the trees: russet, gold, burgundy—sapphire. She blinked once to be sure.
A single battle-guard warrior, already shifted with wings spread, burst through the tree line in broad daylight, headed straight for them.
Her jaw dropped as she screamed, but there wasn’t any time. She caught a glimpse of cold, shimmering blue eyes just before he rammed the vehicle.
The deafening sound of the car tumbling overshadowed her screams. The Hummer bounced, then rolled. Her arms flailed and her head jostled. The seatbelt locked in place, cutting into her chest. The car continued to flip. Her head knocked against the seat, the window.
Acrid bile pooled in her mouth. She pressed her lips firmly together to keep from puking.
The car slammed into something and Beset’s window exploded.
Nauseated and dizzy, she could see the sky and grass through the shattered windshield. Terror kept her senses sharp. The car was upside down.
She depressed the button for the seatbelt, but it didn’t release. She reached out with her left hand and touched the bark of a tree trunk. Her right hand grazed glass below her. Beset’s head moved slowly in front.
Talus was free, turning in the front passenger seat. “Are you all right?”
Blood rushed to her head. “I’m okay, but I’m stuck.”
Talus crawled into the back seat next to her. A midnight blue fist punched through the window. The warrior grabbed Talus by her ankle. She kicked with her other foot but to no avail. He dragged her through glass shards out the window as she reached for Serenity.
Coughing, Beset stirred. A second later she dropped, free of her seatbelt.
The warrior threw Talus to the ground in front of the car. She sprang to her feet, but as she turned, he grabbed her by the neck. Her legs dangled in the air as she tried in vain to pull his hand from her throat.
Beset kicked out the cracked windshield, crawled through the opening and tackled the warrior while he still gripped Talus, strangling the life from her.
As they toppled to the ground, Beset put him in a headlock from behind. Her skin shifted and wings exploded from her back tearing her shirt to shreds.
For some reason, she didn’t seem exposed without her shirt. She looked as natural as Abbadon in shifted form.
Talus kicked the warrior and clawed at his face.
Serenity tugged at her seatbelt, unable to get loose. Her temples pounded from hanging upside down. Her heart felt lodged in her throat.
Talus broke free of the warrior’s grip as he thrust his elbow into Beset’s stomach, forcing her to release him.
The warrior spun on one knee and punched Beset in the face. The blow left her dazed for a second, then she flew into the air, kicking him in the head.
Talus ran for the Hummer. Then she skidded to a halt, her face panic-stricken as she looked up.
Something heavy landed on top of the undercarriage. The steel roof of the vehicle screeched and crunched against the ground. Was there a second one? Would it crush the car and her with it?
Beset hurled several shiny pieces of metal in the air at whatever was on top of the car.
The Hummer rocked from weight wobbling side to side. A cobalt warrior fell to the rocky earth twenty feet from the busted window.
Yanking on the jammed seatbelt, Serenity stayed fixed on the warrior who’d fallen, wondering if he’d rise. Her heart punched at her chest. She had to get free.
Talus crawled through the front of the car and ripped the strap of the seatbelt. They climbed out over broken glass together.
In mid-air, Beset fought the other warrior. A sapphire blur of punches, kicks and flapping wings. She slipped something from her utility pocket. A double-sided hammer.
She struck the warrior with ferocious speed. Several blows to the head and torso, and he fell to the ground.
Near the damaged vehicle, the second warrior rolled to his side, pulling serrated stars from his chest. He drew a sword from a scabbard strapped to his back.
Blinding barenpetium gleamed in the light.
Beset landed in between them and the warrior. Holding her arms out, she guided them backward, looking around as if searching for something.
Both warriors of Sekhem got to their feet. Brandishing swords, they closed in.
In a blink, Beset ripped a door from the Hummer. Serenity and Talus stayed behind her and maneuvered to keep the tree and the frame of the vehicle to their backs. Holding the door by the handle, Beset hoisted it up like a shield. Talus drew a dagger.
Metal clanged on metal as the warriors struck the door.
“It won’t hold,” Beset said, straining under the weight of the attack. “Find my kushar.”
“What?” Serenity asked.
“Looks like a short spear,” Talus said as she crouched low, slicing the Achilles tendon of one of the warriors. Then she drove the blade into the other’s foot.
Grunts and howls erupted over the clanking sound.
Serenity ducked into the husk of the car. Crawling on broken glass, she found a black duffel bag. She stared at a plethora of weapons unable to pick out the right one. Dumping the contents, she sifted through the objects.
Talus snatched a set of one-pronged rods, juttes.
Sunlight bounced off a long blade with etchings. Serenity grabbed the two-foot spear and hurried back to the fighting. Beset dropped the hammer-like weapon in favor of the kushar.
A sword sliced through the door, tearing it in half. Talus faced the warrior who had deep cuts in his chest. He lunged, swinging at her head. With skilled moves, she used the juttes to fend off his strike.
Beset smashed the remaining piece of the door into the other warrior and advanced. She raised the spear and lowered the makeshift shield. As the warrior charged, the spear in her hand elongated.
With a lightning twirl and a single swipe, she brought him to his knees. His head slipped back and fell from his neck.
Talus grunted as she defended against the relentless attack. The warrior pinned her to the tree, leaving no room for her to maneuver.
Beset took to the air and swooped down on the snarling warrior, saving Talus. He pivoted, meeting her spear with his sword.
As they ascended, their fluid movements were too fast to follow. The spear dropped from her hand, but Beset pulled something from her boot and brought it down hard into his chest.
The warrior fell. His sword clanged against rocks off to the side.
Beset floated over him, coming down on the grass beside him.
The warrior wrapped his hand around the black handle of the blade stuck in his chest and yanked it out. With a monstrous roar, he bolted up and flew at Beset.
His hands clamped on to her shoulders and he shoved her backward. Their bodies locked together in a fierce struggle as they mowed down several trees until Beset’s back slammed to the ground. Crouched on top of her, the warrior wedged the blade into her throat.
Serenity sensed ripples of Cyrus’s energy stream, drawing closer. The faint undulations were distant, but deepening. She searched the sky.
The warrior hovered over Beset’s body and pushed the blade through her neck into the soil with his foot. Then he turned and faced Serenity.
Savage ire sprung up in her. She could feel Talus’s energy stream vibrating behind her. Fear fused with rage and Serenity reached out for Talus’s pool of energy. There was no web this time. Her life force latched on to Talus in pulsating tendrils.
A jolt of static electricity clipped her as they connected. She took a deep breath and drew on Talus’s energy, sucking it in and funneling it into her own stream.
Her heart throbbed in her chest and she focused on the white-hot fury burning in her blood. Energy in her core bubbled as she drew in more from Ta
lus. She rooted herself in the feel of her own power and strength.
One day she would die, but it wasn’t going to be today and not at the hands of that monster. The warrior’s face contorted into a look of repugnance and his eyes narrowed. With a flap of his wings, he lifted off the ground. As he flew at them, she held his vicious glare and discharged a brilliant burst of energy from her core.
The wave slapped the warrior and propelled him backwards. He sailed through the air, his body tearing down trees until he slumped to the ground.
She inhaled short gasps, the sound of her ragged breath mingled with the hammering of her heart in her ears. The warrior’s head popped up, followed by his body. His sapphire lips curled back, revealing ivory teeth and he snarled.
He charged forward, ascended in the air, and let out a guttural howl that echoed in her bones.
Electric heat gushed up in her and she dug deep in her core. Her energy stream held steadfast to Talus’s and she channeled the surge into a bristling knot in her stomach.
She didn’t want the warrior to die. She wanted him to suffer as he died.
With everything she had, she projected a burst of energy. The air crackled as a magenta ball of plasma crashed into him, but it didn’t pass through him like one of her waves.
Enmeshed in the middle of the churning ball, he plummeted. He flopped in the dirt, howling.
Bolts of magenta energy lacerated him and blood poured from the wounds in his chest.
The gleaming ball deepened to a bright purple. It pulsed with each breath Serenity took.
Blood seeped from his eyeballs and skin. She held on to her rage as she watched him die, and not until his blood-soaked body stopped twitching did she release her focus.
The plasma ball dimmed and faded.
She put her hands on her knees and inhaled deeply. She was queasy, but wasn’t going to be sick. As she stood upright, she was invigorated.
He was dead…and they were alive.
She turned to hug Talus, but she lay on the ground—unconscious.
