by Shen Hart
I felt the earth energies gathering around Nik. He was doing a good job. There were flickers and tremors, but he held strong and resolute. Time was immaterial and a lost sensation in that state. The earth energies formed the anchor, filling the bowl. Then the air and fire energies soared upwards in elegant streams to make the prism. I was vaguely aware of my own fire energies joining them, an inferno of passion accompanied by screams of glory. My shadows danced and twisted around them, hardening them and removing all light. They were the opposite of the angels. They would strip away their very essence of light and bind them within the prism. We had made it a semi-permeable, semi-sentient construct. It knew who they were, it knew its purpose, and it would not allow them out once they had entered.
I saw the dark glistening prism encompass the bowl and I knew they would never feel it or suspect it. The shadows hid it in plain sight. At worst, they would feel a slight chill as they passed through its boundaries, but by then it would be too late. If they tried to evaporate and escape, they would feel agonizing pain as the shadows shattered and tore apart their light. The earth would surround them and drag them back down. They would be weakened and trapped.
My teeth extended and my mind was filled with delightful images of shadows stretched tight around angels’ throats as they begged and choked, slowly losing their life force. I pulled myself back from the edge once the construct was complete. I had to remain entirely in control. I opened my eyes to see people slowly wandering into the shallow bowl before us. Each wearing some absurd robe, their energies fluttered around them, shards twisting in the wind. The angels had marked and shattered each and every one of them. The angels would suffer for what they had done.
We remained stock still, watching as the people came into the bowl. Their voices were audible on the soft breeze as we lay flat on the ground, our bodies pressed to the cold, damp earth. I relaxed my muscles as much as possible, not wanting to cause damage or tire them before I needed to move. Ryan had done the same, watching every movement while looking relaxed. He was doing well. Once the sun had fully set and the shadows engulfed the surrounding area, we made our move. We shifted into our wolf forms and kept our bodies low. The shadows caressed my fur and formed an unseen blanket over each of us. I hoped the boys would be too focused on the job to notice the drop in air temperature and oil-slick sensation in the air. It was a discussion for another time.
When we were united, we returned to our human forms. Nik and Alex were on the ridge above us with their rifles. They were standard hunting rifles, nothing that couldn’t be discarded once the job was done. They were to snipe anyone necessary while I took point and made a hole in the group for us to push through. I was going straight for Alistair to end this. Lee was acting as the cavalry, covering everyone’s backs and stopping Ryan and Dan from being surrounded. Once Nik and Alex were satisfied their position as snipers was fulfilled, they would join us and end this.
I looked around the boys and back down to the humans who were gathered before us. Some of them were standing like sentries around the edges. I didn’t like that, but it wasn’t entirely unexpected. The majority, some sixty or more of them, were clustered around the middle. I didn’t know where they kept finding more desperate fools to fill their ranks. Surely they must have passed on the tales of murder and blood. How could so many people be taken in by the angels? I focused on the job at hand. Four people were dragged inwards to the centre, and the angels arrived. It was time to move.
We kept our upper bodies low as we raced down the shallow grassy slope towards the cult. Our feet slipped a few times on the slick grass, but we kept our balance and focused on the prize before us. Alistair had found himself a pedestal of some form and was raised above the rest of the group, his hands spread before him as he began a speech. The angels were at his back, smarmy smiles plastered on their faces. Each of them in tailored outfits. A sentry spotted us. The crack of a rifle echoed through the bowl just before he fell. Someone screamed within the group of humans. It began. The sentry to our right raised his gun, but crumpled when another crack of a rifle cut through the air. My boys were making me proud.
The humans turned to face us, their faces grotesque mimicries, twisted and deformed with bulging eyes and bared teeth. The blond was leaning heavily on his brown-haired compatriot, but he was still there, playing his game. I pulled my Glocks, slowed my pace just a little, and aimed at those directly in front of me. Blood soaked through the men’s flimsy robes, but the humans launched themselves at us. Scrambling over and around each other, baying for our blood. They formed a wall between us and Alistair.
I felt Ryan falter behind me. I pushed forwards. I had to give him that extra second.
“They are not people.”
I began shooting, with both Glocks aiming for their chests while I charged forwards. I needed to form the hole and get us to Alistair as quickly as possible. There was no time for careful aim. Gunshots raged around me, screams filled the air. We were soon surrounded by thrashing bodies, frenzied creatures that had once been people. I was trying to save my ammo despite dual wielding. It had to have a purpose. I also couldn’t afford the time to reload. It was a fast-paced drive forwards.
Ryan snarled, but I kept shooting, keeping them as far back as I could while we pushed forwards, closer and closer to our goal. Two large men stood between us and the ritual. The chanting had already begun, and I’d lost sight of the angels. A kunai flew past me and hit one of the men just above his collarbone, bringing him to clutch at his throat. He coughed and spluttered. He fell to his knees, and two of his fellows clustered around him. They sank their fingers into his flesh and began ripping at him. My heart skipped a beat. That was what they intended to do to us.
I was out of bullets. I threw one gun away--it was of no use to me then. I almost skidded to a stop as I smashed the cult member in front of me in the back of the head with the butt of my remaining gun. She fell to the ground. I jumped over her prone form and stood in the middle of their circle, looking for Alistair. The circle remained concrete and formed by a group of humans who chanted incessantly, their eyes glazed. They bore grey and green marks on their robes distinguishing them from their frenzied compatriots. My instincts kicked in, leading me to reload while I looked up. Ryan was close at hand, guarding me as I did so. Dan and Lee formed the barrier between us and the masses that were trying to break into the circle and get to us. Lee had drawn his blades and was a blur of motion. He never stopped moving, dancing and spinning, ducking under the humans’ grasping hands only to knock them backwards with a hard kick to the ribs. Dan was much more brutal and measured. The confidence he had with his gun shone through as he broke a middle-aged man’s collarbone with the heel of his hand before he glanced to his right. In one swift motion he extended his right arm and shot the woman who lunged at him between the eyes.
I didn’t have time to watch them, or feel the pride swelling within me. I looked around the circle for Alistair. He wasn’t on the pedestal. The humans that weren’t fighting continued to chant around me, the dull drone of the hive mind. Ryan had joined Lee and was quickly working to free the four victims while Dan was left to take on the insane creatures. I couldn’t think of them as humans any more. Their skin had taken on a sickly pallor and they clawed at anything within reach. Some of their numbers sank beneath them, and screams tore through the air.
Some of the creatures were also chanting. Their lips moved, continued to spout the words mindlessly while they flailed and tried to claw at Dan and the outer circle. I drew my blades and slashed at a middle-aged woman when she threw herself at me. She was clumsy in her movements, her eyes were slightly glazed, and her lips kept moving. Then the chant stopped, and the creatures lost whatever guise of control they may have had. The woman slipped on the grass and tumbled to my feet. I wasted no time in stamping on her throat. She clawed at my leg, but I slammed my heel down on her temple and she stilled.
The circle disintegrated. There was no protection between us and them. I saw
a flash of olive skin and threw a petite man aside as I took off after Alistair. Two angels were at his side. They flickered a little, but our prism stood strong. They roared and screamed angelic curses as shadows surrounded them for the blink of an eye before they vanished once more.
Ryan glanced at me and remained at my back while Lee moved closer to Dan, trying to keep the creatures away from me. Dan’s wolf had pushed forwards, his lips were pulled back and his teeth extended as he broke a man’s eye socket with a left hook before he shot the man directly behind him.
The angels snarled and stopped to face me. The creatures refused to get too close to them, leaving me with room to work and assess the situation. Their faces were contorted with rage and flickers of fear. Alistair slipped away into the chaos as I brandished my blades, having already holstered my gun. The blond barged past his brother, his white teeth bared as his eyes blazed. He was feral and out of control, his psychopathic bloodlust driving him onwards.
There was no thought in his movements, just pure instinct and a need for revenge. His shoulder and ribs were wrapped in gauze and bandages. I spun my blades in my hands. It was enough to draw his eye and distract him. A slightly risky move given the split second it would take me to position them to attack him, but worth it. I kicked and my foot connected with his injuries. He howled in pain. His brother slashed at me with his own blade. I ducked under his thoughtless attack and sidestepped his brother, giving me a little more space between them and me.
Alistair was behind them somewhere. I needed to end him. I couldn’t take on both angels alone. I’d killed angels before, and though one was injured his madness and bloodlust was only making him more dangerous. The shadows giggled in my ear and reminded me of the delicious images of angels suffering. I bared my teeth and allowed the shadows forward, bringing them around me and letting them have their fun. They slipped out around my blades and filled my mind. A cold calculating predatory sense settled over me. I was ready to end them.
I lunged forwards at the blond who was clumsy in his rage. He stepped sideways to avoid my blade, and his brother moved in to make the most of my open ribs. I flashed them a grin as I danced away and slashed the blond’s cheek while avoiding his brother entirely. The shadows laughed and the angels roared.
Lee came to my side, and we began the dance proper. He understood how I worked. He could feel the cool shadows around him. Together, we were unstoppable. The angels moved as a unit, keeping us from being able to go after Alistair. I hoped the boys had him pinned down somewhere. Rage was quickly growing in the angels while the humans became more desperate around them. The scent of blood and terror filled the air in a sickly, unseen smog. The angels moved erratically, their growing fury making them more reckless. They constantly drove forwards, the blonde more arrogant in his broad swings and reckless thrusts. They kept themselves firmly rooted the ground, giving them more power while slowing them down. The blond flailed and twisted his arm, thus changing the arc of his arm halfway through his swing, adding another half second to the time I had to avoid the blow.
His brother was relentless in his attempts to push us back into the ravenous masses of creatures. He leaned into every attack and took a step forward at every opening. I danced around them, forcing them to move and lose the power they gained from remaining rooted in their stance.
I held back my scream of agony as one of their blades sliced across my arm. The blond’s desperation made him harder to predict. Warm blood trickled down and made the handle of my own blade sticky. I made eye contact with the blond. It was enough to make him pause for a brief second. I used it to sink my blade deep into his stomach, twisted, and yanked it back out again. He dropped to his knees. I plunged my blade into his neck. His eyes glazed over almost immediately. Three left.
I danced with Lee. Together we pushed the brunet back. We attacked him from both sides. Lee was almost up on the balls of his feet as he landed multiple shallow cuts on the angel's upper chest and shoulders. I focused on deeper cuts around his lower abdomen and finally had an opening to slice open the back of his knee. I felt the blade go through the tendons before it hit the bone. The angel screamed, and I left him to Lee.
Dan took Lee’s glory from him. He took aim and got a clean head shot on the angel. We didn’t have a chance to question anything; the creatures had no reason to hold back. I rushed and slit the throat of a young man with glazed eyes and a blood-soaked robe. He deserved a better death than being pulled apart by his fellows.
Ryan was back at my side once more. He broke a man’s ribs, and I grasped the cultist’s head and drove it down onto my knee before leaving him to crumple. I needed to free myself from the chaos and find Alistair. I had to finish it. Ryan shot the woman who charged at us from the side. Blood covered her chest, but she kept running before she stumbled and fell at Ryan’s feet.
The shadows pushed out around me. The creatures backed away. They were broken and claimed by the angels, beings of light. The creatures were repelled by their absolute opposite. I grinned at them, an empty predatory expression of satisfaction. I took pleasure in their terror.
I caught sight of Nik over the crowd. His fist connected with a creature’s face, which almost shattered upon impact. My heart was pounding in my ears. More gunshots went off, and a fresh set of panicked screams cut through the air. I pushed through the panicked humans, with Ryan at by back. We stepped over broken bodies and I gutted a woman who sank her teeth into my leg. I looked around the darkness, trying to find some sign of Alistair.
Howls of fury and agony ripped through the air over the chaos of the creatures and gunshots. We had managed to get out of the crowd out into the open space. I stopped in my tracks, searching for the source of such a sound. Even the creatures stopped for a brief moment, all eyes searching. I finally saw the black-haired angel and Ark. The angel was on his knees before Ark. I ran up to my elf, who held the elven staff before him. Electricity sparked from the silver-tipped end. A manic glee was spread across Ark’s face before the angel screamed again.
He stood grounded and connected to the earth. I could almost see the energies around him vibrating and gathering around him, all pushing into the staff. The elf was using his healing energies to shatter every nerve in the angel’s body. The angel remained defiant, Ark allowed him to almost stand before he grinned and slowly pointed the staff at him. He gestured with the tip down over the angel’s body. The angel slowly fell to the ground, tears streaming down his face as he screamed. It was an unearthly, agonising sound unlike anything I’d heard before. How he managed to stay conscious through that level of pain was beyond me. The shadows were proud of Ark, and danced with pride when the angel crumpled, blood trickling from his mouth and eyes, his body limp and lifeless.
I stopped a few feet away from Ark. “You weren’t supposed to be here.”
He grinned at me, his eyes slowly returning to their usual brown from the violet they had been. “They damaged my network. They screwed up the balance. I wasn’t going to miss this.”
I simply nodded and smiled before I continued my search for Alistair. Ark casually sauntered down into the fray below us, his staff extended before him. I felt Ryan pause as he observed Ark’s staff change from a traditional wooden Bo staff with silver filigree sigils into an elegant naginata sword.
I shrugged and shouted over to him, “Energy work, it’s a wonderful thing when you know how.”
Ryan smiled at me. We paused halfway up the slope and looked down over the chaos below, searching for Alistair. I caught sight of Nik towering over most of the humans that were left. He thrust the butt of his rifle into some man’s head. There was a visible hole left when the man fell before him. Nik’s style lacked elegance, but he had the strength to make up for it.
I scanned the crowd, trying to pick out Alistair and saw Alex and Lee fighting the remaining angel. Their styles clashed, but they managed to overcome it. Lee’s quick-footed dancing kept the angel distracted while Alex used a more staid, powerful approach to break t
he angel’s ribs and wrist. I looked away, trying to focus on my final goal.
I heard a manic scream cutting through the air. Alistair was running across the grass, his eyes wild as he screamed a jumble of words and noises. That was what he had come down to. The supposed god-slayer, the human who stood alongside angels. I glanced back to see that Alex stood over a bloodied heap that had once been the final angel. This was it. The moment I’d been waiting for, and I was disappointed.
“Join me, Thalia! We’ll be something great together. We don’t need the angels.”
I cocked my head to one side and watched as he approached me, his designer shirt splattered in blood, tight against his body. I couldn’t believe that I had thought him worthy to stand at my side. That the pathetic fool that ran at me in that moment had thought he could take down the gods. I held my hand up to stop Ryan. It was my moment. I felt no fear, no uncertainty. As he got closer I raised my gun and calmly took aim.
“Sorry sweetheart, I have bigger plans.”
I squeezed the trigger. The sound of the gunshot rang in my ears. Time slowed as blood blossomed through his shirt. His face contorted as his legs buckled and he fell into the grass. It was over. The great godslayer whom we had chased and hunted for so long had fallen, with a single bullet in a moment of uncontrolled insanity.
I really hope that you enjoyed Feathered Touch. Book 3, Shadow Strings, will hopefully be published in the autumn of 2015. Reviews are important to authors, and if you could take two minutes to leave a short review on Amazon, I’d be grateful.
