“Alright, I’ll go slow,” he said. “Try to watch my feet to anticipate my next step, but don’t lose sight of my sword.”
She nodded, assuming a serious look of determination. She set her feet shoulder width apart and loosely held her sword in front of her.
Mikel took deliberate steps toward her and angled his sword at her left shoulder. She hesitated to move her feet and twisted awkwardly. The flat of his blade smacked her arm, and she cursed. But she didn’t back away. He cringed, hating that he hurt her. She assumed her stance again, and he approached with the same attack. She reacted correctly this time, and her blade met his before it reached her. She squealed with delight, dropping the tip of her sword to the ground. He lunged and pressed the end of his wooden blade into her ribs.
“You don’t get to celebrate,” he said, watching her rub her side.
“Just wait until I hit you back, then I’ll celebrate, pretty boy,” she replied with a sneer.
Raphael snorted with amusement. It’d been a long time since someone commented on his looks. He knew his long, blond hair and narrow face made him appear almost feminine. He resented the comment from anyone else but couldn’t help but smile when she said it. She held no malice in her, just determination and witty sarcasm. They started again, and Mikel reluctantly hit her several more times. Her frustration continued to build, and he hoped it would create the spark they wanted. She successfully blocked several strikes in a row, and he let her confidence grow.
Mikel raised his sword over his head with his right hand, and she stepped to the right, angling her blade to block his. But rather than bringing down the wooden weapon, he summoned his sword of light and flicked the blade toward her.
She cried out and Mikel saw fear in her eyes. Had he made the right choice? Could he dismiss his sword before it reached her? He hoped so. She dropped her own weapon and made a sweeping motion with her right hand as Mikel’s sword surged toward her. A flash of light jarred his arm, and his summoned sword collided with something solid.
He smiled at the small shield of light protecting her right side. All his doubt vanished with that single action. Just as Eli had been Juana’s protector, Seraphina would be Darian’s shield. He needed one. Darian’s total disregard for his own safety had left him in Magdelin’s care more times that Mikel could count. His Sentinel had a long road ahead of her.
“You bastard!” she yelled. “You scared the shit out of me!”
“Yes, and look what happened.”
Her shield vanished with his sword, but Seraphina stared at the place it had been a few seconds before.
“How can I do it again?” she asked, then quickly added, “without you trying to kill me.”
Mikel turned to Raphael. “What did you see?”
“It was very similar to yours, only not,” he replied.
“Well that’s helpful,” Seraphina mumbled, rolling her eyes.
“Do you see the glow around your hand?” Raphael asked, pointing to the edge of her palm. Seraphina flexed her fingers. “The shield is an extension of you. It’s there now, just smaller.”
Mikel watched as the glowing ring around her hand pulsed in a steady rhythm. Her eyes shone with satisfaction, and she grinned at Mikel. It didn’t extend from her body, but she could see it.
“It’s certainly a start,” he said. “Maybe we should focus on a one-handed sword she can use in tandem with her shield.”
“I’m ready!” she quipped, retrieving the sword from the ground at her feet. It wobbled in her grasp, and she frowned.
“That’s a two-handed sword,” Mikel said, not restraining his grin. Her enthusiasm was a welcome change. “It’s too heavy for you to use with one hand.”
He walked over to the weapons rack and picked out a smaller sword.
They practiced for another half hour before Seraphina needed a break. She still couldn’t summon the shield consistently, unless she felt threatened, but she continued to make progress. Mikel was amazed at how quickly she learned. The trio went to Darian—and now Sara’s—home where she made peanut butter sandwiches. Apparently, Darian didn’t keep any other food in the house.
“How long will they be gone?” Seraphina asked after taking a long drink of water.
“Several hours, at least,” Mikel replied. “They have a lot of ground to cover between here and Rio.”
“It’s been over two hours already.”
Mikel watched her rub her chest. He looked at Raphael, knowing what she was feeling. He had almost suggested Darian not leave. With their bond being only a few hours old, it shouldn’t be painful for them to be separated. In another few days, that would change.
“It’s a very small thread, but there nonetheless,” Raphael said. “Hopefully, he’s too distracted to notice it.”
“What are you talking about?” Seraphina asked.
“The bond between you and Darian is complicated,” Mikel answered. “The discomfort you’re experiencing right now is because of the distance between you.”
“This discomfort is not new,” she replied. “Looking back on it now, it only surfaced when he was nearby. I didn’t realize it at the time though.”
“That’s interesting,” Raphael said, his eyes lighting up. He drummed the table with his fingertips, then looked at Mikel. “We wouldn’t have known that with you and Aneera since you aren’t a Watcher and Sentinel. With Juana and Eli, he was brought to us early.”
“Are you suggesting the bond was already there, even before the ritual?” Mikel asked. He hadn’t thought of that, but it made sense. They were destined to be together. Why wouldn’t they already have a connection?
“Possibly,” Raphael replied. “I didn’t think to look for it when she first arrived.”
“Wait.” Seraphina held up her hand. “Are you saying you can see this link between us?”
Raphael grinned. “I can see the way magic interacts with everything. Your bond is another form of magic.”
“So, right now, there’s what? A little line floating across the world between me and Darian?”
“Yes,” he replied.
Seraphina’s eyebrows rose with disbelief. It did sound unbelievable, even to Mikel.
“What if someone walks in front of me and crosses the line?” She frowned. “Never mind, that’s a dumb question. Mikel and I ran circles around one another earlier.”
Mikel was surprised she let it go. He expected a dozen more questions from her, but he wouldn’t press it. She needed time to absorb everything, and they were already rushing her more than any normal person could handle. Good thing she wasn’t normal.
“Do you feel up to seeing what else your shield can do?” Raphael asked.
She sighed. “Yeah, I guess. Let’s go.”
Chapter 19
Darian
Twenty warriors and scouts arrived in what used to be their safe house in Rio de Janeiro. Sunlight filtered through the broken roof and the shattered remains of the north facing wall.
The scouts carried daggers tucked into their vests and handguns strapped in shoulder harnesses. Their fights were always up close and personal. If they did it right, the enemy never even knew they were there.
The warriors carried an eclectic assortment of weapons ranging from swords and axes to pistols. Several of them even had rifles hanging from their shoulders.
“Well, that’s unfortunate,” Stephen said, pointing at the hole in the wall as they spread out through the two-room apartment.
Darian looked out into the street. Abandoned cars lined the narrow road, and dead bodies filled the spaces between them. All the nearby buildings sustained some form of damage, and several smoldered from dying fires. Vultures and crows already gathered, and Darian’s stomach churned.
“Eva. Stephen.” The pair of scouts joined him at the open wall. “Make a circuit to the east, then meet us at the north road leading out of town. This is strictly recon. Do not engage anyone. If you find survivors, mark their location, and we’ll come back to them.”
Th
ey both nodded and stepped over the crumbling wall as they pulled their concealment around themselves and disappeared.
“Claud and Ali. Same instructions, except you’re circling west, then north.”
They disappeared too, and Darian turned to Adalina.
“Fran and I will follow in your wake and make sure we have no unexpected visitors.”
She turned to her men and they formed a loose, staggered line as they filed out of the building. Darian pulled the air around himself, disappearing with the rest of his scouts. He drew one of his long daggers and held it at his side, picking his way through the debris. The smell assaulted him as they approached a group of bodies. He covered his nose and mouth, looking down at the corpse closest to him.
A man around thirty years old leaned against the wheel well of an old pickup truck. His emaciated face was covered in bleeding sores, and his milky eyes stared into the dead street. Darian’s stomach rolled, and he struggled to keep from vomiting.
As he moved down the street, everyone he passed looked the same as the first. This must have been the illness the man on the radio spoke about. He sprinted across the street and entered the open-air market. Dead mice, dogs, and cats littered the ground. Some looked like they died while trying to steal food from the open bins of fruit and grains. The same oozing sores appeared as welts beneath their fur. The smell of rotting fruit and dead, bloated bodies finally overwhelmed him, and he emptied his stomach.
He wiped his face with the back of his hand and quickly moved through the market and into the street once more. Adalina’s group still picked their way north, and he noticed the same disgusted expression on their faces. He sprinted until he was fifty yards ahead of them and escaped the center of town. The smell of death eased, as did the number of bodies.
The once-clogged street opened into a neighborhood lined with single-story homes. He approached the first house and tested the door. It pushed open easily, and the putrid smell of death assaulted him again. He back-peddled away from the house and continued, each home the same as the last. He hoped their deaths were quick but doubted it. The toxins he’d seen in the past were well known for the agonizing pain they inflicted on their victims.
He circled back to Adalina’s group and dropped his concealment.
“All I found was death,” Darian said.
“Yes, it’s gruesome,” Adalina agreed.
“The other scouts should be meeting us in a few minutes,” Darian continued. “How do you feel about continuing north into the next town?”
“Absolutely,” she replied. “These people look like they died from whatever plague ran through here, not from a demon’s blade. Raphael’s radio friend said the demons were on them. We should follow that trail to the end.”
“I agree.”
Darian’s scouts joined them on the main road fifteen minutes later. Their pallid expressions were not encouraging.
“What did you find?” Darian asked.
“Nothing alive,” Stephen replied.
“Same here,” Claud added.
“It doesn’t look like there was a fight,” Eva said. “They all died from that disease. Do you think it’s contagious?”
“No,” Ali answered. “It’s a toxin, likely released with the bombs.”
Everyone turned to the man who left the Middle East several decades before.
“You’ve seen it before?” Darian asked.
“Not like this, but something similar,” Ali replied. “It was used on my family’s village in the eighties. Everyone exposed to the toxin died within twenty-four hours. It quickly dissipated, but not before killing those in the initial exposure.”
Darian frowned. How did the Csökkent get their hands on the quantity of toxin required to do this much damage without any of the world’s security agencies catching on?
“Let’s keep moving,” Darian said. “We still have demons to find.”
The group teleported just outside the next small village, twenty miles closer to Santuario but still over a hundred miles away. They were met with the same scene as Rio. A deathly silence settled over everything.
“Shouldn’t we burn all the bodies?” Eva asked. Her nose wrinkled at the swarming buzzards overhead. “Won’t the scavengers be poisoned by this toxin as well?”
“Let’s find the demons first,” Adalina answered. “Hopefully, they don’t know we’re looking for them. Stopping now will only give them more time. It would take days to gather the bodies, and as much as I’d like to see them properly buried, we don’t have the resources to do it.”
Eva nodded, but Darian could see the pain and indecision painted on her face. While he shared her concerns, he agreed with Adalina. They needed to reach the demons first.
They passed through two more villages before reaching the one at the base of their mountain. Gunshots shattered the silence, and Darian pulled his hand over his face; the signal to his scouts to disappear.
“We’ll go in first and disable any scouts or stragglers,” he said to Adalina.
He didn’t wait for her reply, knowing she would be right behind them. He watched his scouts fan out in front of him, Claud and Ali on the right side, and Stephen and Eva on the left. They rushed towards the center of town as more gunshots rang out. The sound echoed off the brick walls, making it difficult to hear where it originated from.
Darian and Fran followed Eva and Stephen to the left, skirting behind a small shopping plaza. Two more shots popped just ahead, and they slowed. They reached the edge of the building and saw six men huddled behind a metal dumpster. One leaned out with a handgun and fired two more shots towards the motel in front of them.
“Human is good,” Stephen whispered. “Shall we join them?”
“Yes, but let’s not do it concealed.”
Darian released the air surrounding him, as did his scouts. They crouched low and darted towards the group of men. Darian called out to them in their own language, trying not to startle them. He didn’t relish the idea of being shot.
They all turned at once, and Darian stared at the ends of four rifles. He raised his hands and spoke quickly.
“We’re here to help,” he said. “We have two other teams in town looking for the enemy.”
Relief spread across their faces.
“How many of you?” a man with dark, curly hair and matching beard and mustache asked.
“Twenty,” Darian replied.
“It’s not enough. You seen the monsters?”
“Yes.” Darian paused. “We’ve fought them before. Have you been able to kill any of them?”
“I think we wounded one, but we haven’t tried to find the body.”
“Do you know where the demons are?” Stephen asked. “And are you the only survivors?”
The man turned from Darian to Stephen, then back again. It seemed like an odd time for introductions, but the local’s suspicions needed to be quelled.
Darian held out his hand. “I’m Darian, this is Fran, Stephen, and Eva.”
“Juan.” He shook Darian’s hand and pointed to the men beside him. “My sons….”
The sound of clashing steel and a fierce battle cry interrupted them. Darian recognized Adalina’s shout.
“We should go,” he said to Stephen and Eva.
Eva pulled both of her long daggers and disappeared. Stephen followed her lead, and Darian watched the surprised expressions of their new friends.
“Stay here, and try not to shoot anyone who looks human.”
Juan nodded and snapped his mouth shut as Darian disappeared as well.
The scouts raced towards the sounds of battle emanating from the next building. Darian stopped at the corner and peered around the crumbling brick. Fifty or more demons flanked Adalina’s warriors, pinning them against the brick facing of the local bank. Claud and Ali appeared on the opposite side of the fight and looked across at Darian. He nodded, knowing they could only see his outline.
“Let’s even up the fight,” Darian whispered.
The scouts drifted in behind the demons like lions stalking their prey, silent and unseen. Darian sliced one of his daggers through the tendons of the nearest demon’s knees. The creature howled in pain and fell back into the Watcher’s other blade, piercing its heart. Darian twisted away from the collapsing monster and moved to the next. He leapt into the air and buried both blades into the back of the demon’s neck, using his own considerable weight to pull the creature to the ground.
The other demons finally realized they were being attacked from the rear and turned away from their battle with the warriors. Dropping his concealment, Darian sliced through the black, scaled armor of six more demons as he ran past them. Their howls rose into the air, and they turned their blazing red eyes towards the Watcher.
He grinned, satisfied they took the bait, then knelt on the rough pavement a dozen yards away with his blades crossed. He closed his eyes and drew the hot, dry air into his body, funneling it towards his palms. The demons’ hooves pounded in time with his beating heart as battle rage filled him. Bright blue flames ignited around his blades, and when he could contain the heat no longer, he lunged towards the oncoming wall of horned creatures. He swept his daggers in a wide arch, and a wave of fire preceded him as he fell on his prey.
Sizzling flesh and cries of pain filled his ears as adrenaline overtook his other senses. Everything else in his life faded away. The drama with Seraphina, the expectations from Mikel, and his uncertain future as the true Watcher disappeared with his lust for battle. He cut through the half-dozen monsters in front of him and raced back towards the ongoing fight with the warriors.
Chapter 20
Seraphina
“I had no idea that would happen. Honest!” Sara exclaimed as she stumbled backwards in the arena. She tried to be sorry, but her newfound power thrilled her.
Mikel stood to her left, rubbing his shoulder and grinning. “Clearly, I didn’t either.”
“Well, if you would’ve kept alternating sides, you know – left, right, left, right.” She ticked her finger back and forth. “I wouldn’t have been caught off guard, and you wouldn’t have a sore shoulder.”
Sentinel's Rise: Book 1 - The Watcher and the Sentinel Series Page 13
