“Yes, I know. I messed up your destiny. If you are so anxious to be in battle all the time, then you need to join the Omari. Spend your days hunting and killing angels that have broken the laws.”
“They wanted me and I turned them down because I thought I was already part of a team. I should have known better than to count on you,” Bex counters.
“Seriously, what the hell is your issue with me? Everyone knows what I did. But you are holding on to it like a dog with a damn bone. Just bury that shit already.”
“Whatever, I’m outta here,” Bex says, shaking his head angrily.
He makes his way towards the exit. Swoop yells out to him. Normally Bex would not even slow down but the words that come out of her mouth make him stop dead in his tracks.
“Bex, this is Donavan. His father is Keeper of the Pathway. Malakaro has him.”
Bex turns around to face us. Randy watches as the entire demeanor of the room changes. We are all on high alert. The entire warehouse is coated with dread and doom.
“Um...guys, what’s the Pathway?” Randy asks.
“It’s ...um...” I can’t finish the sentence.
It’s as if saying it out loud will make things even worse. But I know Randy is lost and I need to snap out of it.
“The Pathway is the only way in and out of the light. Evil destroyed it a long time ago. It was rebuilt. And now for added protection, its location changes hourly,” I tell him.
“My dad maintains it. He makes sure it runs smoothly and on schedule. But most of all he makes sure to guard it against evil by ensuring that it continuously moves. But for the past few hours, the Pathway has stayed in the same place,” Donavan informs us.
“If evil found the Pathway, they could already be in the light,” Swoop says.
“And that’s bad, right?” Randy asks.
“Yes, Randy. Demon. Pathway. Bad,” East says.
“What makes you think Malakaro has him?” I ask Donavan.
“My dad got the same look on his face that the humans did before they jumped off the rooftops. He got on a Port and I haven’t seen him since. I called Swoop because we usually hook up to like...you know,” he replies.
“Yeah we know. But why are you just now telling us?” Key says.
“I’ve been looking for help, but everyone is in the light, at the meeting,” he reminds us.
“Oh no,” I reply, mostly to myself.
“What is it?” Bex asks.
“Nearly everyone is in the light; that’s why he did this. Malakaro threw the humans off the roof not as an intro but as incentive to have the angels gather. That way when he attacks there will be the maximum number of angels there to kill.”
“We gotta get to them,” East says as he jumps on his Port.
“Do you know where the Pathway is now?” I ask the Keeper’s son.
“Yeah, my dad tells me where it will be, as a backup. It’s in Bangkok. It has been for the past few hours.”
“Good, let’s go.”
*******
We land in a small town just outside of Bangkok called Amphawa, where the many sights and sounds of the floating market greet us. I’ve been to this part of Asia before with my mom. She loved showing me all the human world has to offer. This is actually one of my favorite places. When I was here, I fell in love with the city’s main attraction: the river.
There are merchants sitting inside the canoes along the banks. They sell everything from fresh seafood to fried bananas. I love their large brimmed hats and their makeshift money exchange system. They place the food in small bags, tie it to the end of a stick, and extend it out to the customers waiting on land. The customer gets the food and places the money into the tin buckets, also tied to the end of a stick.
The homes along the riverbank range from well built, three-story units with Asian-style roofs, to dilapidated one-room shacks. The women hang their laundry on modest but sturdy clotheslines, while tending to their toddlers and seeing to daily chores.
My mom and I would watch as the merchants rowed their canoes over to homemakers and offered up the catch of the day with a side of local gossip. Life among the floating market is simple, peaceful, and free of worry.
But I’m not here to visit like last time. So we don’t stop and admire or shop like I know the twins would have loved to do. Instead we follow the Keeper’s son down a dark, narrow alley spaced between two run-down homes along the river.
The fear that we might be too late forces us to move swiftly. So much so, Randy gets left behind once or twice. I debated taking him along, but he refused to stay behind and we simply didn’t have time to argue with him.
Finally we get to a field just off the main street. Donavan points to the small beam of light just ahead. But he didn’t need to do that. We knew we were in the right place because of the hordes of demons standing at the base of the cylinder-shaped Pathway.
We hide behind a tree and scan the area.
“What are they doing?” East asks.
“Who cares, let’s go after them,” Swoops says.
“We can’t just run in there. There’s hundreds of them and six of us,” Key says.
“Um...seven. I’m here too. You know, if you...need me,” Randy says, smiling bravely at her.
“Yeah, that’s not gonna get annoying,” East quips.
“What is that?” I ask Donavan as I move in for a closer look.
The demons place an object on the base of the Pathway. It is a football-sized glass tube with a red and black liquid inside it.
“It’s a bomb called Gova. I’ve seen something like it before. Once the red liquid touches the black, it goes off and shreds anything in sight with a soul,” Bex says.
“They’re going to activate it and send it up into the Pathway,” Key concludes.
“Once the Pathway lights up, it means it’s about to transport something into the light. If that happens, we’ll only have seconds to stop it,” Bex tells us.
“They can’t blow anything up unless my dad agrees to it; he’s the Keeper. And anything that goes up or down the Pathway does so with his permission. He would never agree to anything like that,” Donavan says.
“I don’t think they gave him a choice,” East says, signaling to the still figure on the ground a few yards away.
“Dad!” Donavan screams and goes out to help his father.
“Donavan, no!” Swoop yells.
But she’s too late; our position is blown. The hordes of demons turn their attention towards us. The Powerballs descend upon us with full force.
I take my bracelet off and throw it at Randy. He’s surprised when a bubble-like prison springs out from it and encases him. It’s called a Holder and I place Randy inside it to prevent him from being attacked. But it also prevents him from helping us in any way. That really upsets him. Yet, I don’t have time to explain anything to my friend. I take to the air with the group.
“Whatever happens do not let them get the Gova inside the chute,” I order.
Swoop whizzes by with inhuman speed and kills half a dozen demons. She snaps their necks in two and they fall to the earth below. A pair of demons, seeing this, launches dark smoke from the palms of their hands. The smoke forms four ghastly serpent-like shadow creatures that lunge towards her.
“Swoop, look out!” Bex shouts.
Swoop ducks just in time to get out of the way of the massive Powerball Bex had thrown. Thankfully it missed
“Cutting it close, huh?” Swoop says.
“Who says I was aiming for them?” Bex jokes.
“Hey, a little help here?” East shouts as a slew of demons chase him with lightning.
Bex tackles them, and along with Swoop’s help, they subdue them. Bex turns his attention towards his girlfriend only to find that she does not need any help. Key turns almost two dozen demons into bloody “works of art.”
I raise my hand and Pull as many as I can. They are dying fast but lots more are coming towards me. East takes on the new wave of de
mons. He uses his force field to surround them and drain them of their energy. The demons kneel down to the ground, too weak to remain standing.
I tell the group to cover me as I head for the demons near the base of the Pathway. They hurriedly try to set up more Gova. One of the demons tells the other that they are running out of time.
“We’re supposed to send three up there,” the demon reminds his partner.
“There’s no time. Two is fine,” the other demon replies.
They agree, but that’s the last thing they do on earth because I Pull the life force from them. However, they already placed the bomb at the center of the Pathway.
“The Pathway is glowing, it’s taking the bomb into the light!” Bex yells.
I look around for a way to stop the Pathway from lifting the bomb. But there’s no way. The bomb is lifted several feet in the air. It begins its ascent. The entire angel race will perish, including all our parents.
Without thinking, I scan for the other two bombs; I find them not too far from where the dead demons lay. I race towards them and grab hold of them desperately. I shake them and watch as they fuse together. The group calls out and asks what the hell I’m doing. I have just armed two massive weapons.
“Bex, Key, when I give the signal, aim all your power at the Pathway. Then everyone take cover,” I shout at them.
I hurl the bombs at the Pathway itself and give them the signal. The impact of both the Norus’ powers and the Gova causes a nuclear-sized explosion to erupt. It chases after us like an angry tidal wave. We run for our lives, literally.
The roar of the explosion, right behind us, tells us we won’t be able to get enough distance before it catches up with us. The group and I exchange a look of pure fear and terror. Without needing to communicate, we all know the only course of action: duck under anything we can find.
The only thing around us is a run-down house with a series of tattered canoes attached to it. The wave of fire and pressure that has been ruthlessly pursuing us is now seconds away from landing on top of us and killing us all.
I leap into one of the canoes, turn it over so that it is shielding me, and I brace myself. The rest of the group follows my lead. Three seconds later, just as we take cover, the wave hits on top of us and lets out an earth-shattering roar as it engulfs everything around it. The explosion rings out to all of Thailand.
The floating market is at peace no more...
We crawl out from under the rubble and debris. There are small fires blazing around the homes, plants, and canoes. All around us the humans are running for their lives, confused and fearing more terror is yet to come.
I am weak with relief when I see that everyone in the group is relatively okay. The Holder that was protecting Randy held up, although it did send him flying several feet in the air. I pick up my Holder; it turns back into a bracelet. Randy is set free.
“Randy, are you okay?” Key asks.
“How. Awesome. Was. That?” he replies, wide-eyed.
“Yup, the human is just fine,” East says.
“I can’t believe it! That was such a rush! I LOVE THIS!!!!” Randy says, too excited to stand still.
“Randy, you realize you were just thrown several thousand feet in the air by a raging inferno, right?” East asks him.
“A thousand feet huh? Wow, that’s pretty...high. I don’t know if—” Randy faints immediately.
It takes about fifteen minutes for Randy to wake up. When he does, he finds the group and I looking down at him.
“What happened?” he asks.
“You fainted,” Bex says.
“Oh. Was it a manly kind of faint? You know, the kind the hero does after he’s overcome overwhelming odds?” Randy asks, filled with hope as he looks towards Key.
“Yes, it’s the kind of fainting heroes do—after they discover the pretty dress for the ball they bought has a rip in it,” East says.
“Very funny. Anyway, I’m better now, so please help me up,” he says.
I give him a hand and he stands on his own, although he looks pale and not quite his natural color.
“What you did was so cool, Pry. You knew you couldn’t stop the bomb so you destroyed the path where it was headed; genius,” Randy gushes.
The whole team avoids eye contact with me. Randy looks around at them, confused.
“What is it? Why aren’t you guys happy? We just stopped the demons from going to the light,” Randy says.
“Yes, we did. But I closed the Pathway,” I reply softly.
“So?”
“So, no demons can enter, but no angel can exit.”
“I don’t get it,” Randy admits.
“What Pryor wants to say is that the angels who could protect us, like our parents and the Council, are stuck in the light with no way to come back,” Swoop replies.
“Wait. Pryor, you mean...?”
“Yes, Randy; we are alone.”
CHAPTER SEVEN: FLESH & FOOLS
“So you feel that The First Noru’s actions were not motivated by a desire to save her parents as she would have us believe, but from her subconscious need to punish them for not telling her about her connection to the new evil?” the interviewer asks.
“Exactly, Robin. Pryor isn’t thinking about the bigger picture. She’s only fourteen and she can only fixate on her emotions. She destroyed the Pathway because of her unresolved anger at her parents.”
“So you’re saying there was no plot to destroy the Pathway by the new evil?” the interviewer pushes.
“None at all.”
“So what happens now, Dr. Monroe?”
“Well, now the unruly group is going to have to deal with what their selfish leader has done. I mean, really think about it: The only ones who could have protected the Noru until they came into their full powers are gone. It’s very likely Pryor Cane has doomed not only herself but her whole team...”
“Thank you, Dr. Monroe. When they come back, they may be doomed but they are always at the forefront of fashion. Next on ‘Up!’ The top ten outfits worn by the Noru twins this year. And how you can get their look for less.”
“Turn it off,” I instruct Randy.
“Sorry, I just can’t believe you guys have your own channel,” he says as he turns the TV off.
“The ‘Up!’ Network; all crap, all the time,” East replies.
Earlier, we dropped Donavan off at his house. He was so shaken by the loss of his dad, we had to stay with him until the rest of his family arrived. Afterwards, Swoop suggested we stop to find out the latest on the Pathway explosion. We ended up here, at an electronics store, just outside London.
It had only been a few hours since the Pathway blew up, but everyone in the Angel world knows, thanks to blogs, Twitter, and TV. Someone even has footage up on YouTube already.
While the media is mostly uninformative crap, we did learn something: It will take some time before the Pathway can be rebuilt since most of the Paras who had built it were stuck in the light. And the Pathway can’t be constructed from above.
“So when I just press ‘00’ on the TV the station comes up?” Randy asks.
“Yeah, you have to know it’s there to see it—just like with our wings,” Key replies.
“How did they know so quickly?” Randy wonders.
“Well, when you screw up in the Angel world, it takes no time for everyone to find out,” I reply as I head out of the store in utter misery.
“Pry, it wasn’t your fault. You saved everyone in the light,” Randy reminds me as the group follows me out.
“What I did was separate my friends from their parents,” I reply.
“East’s mom is still on earth,” Key says.
“That’s right. So if any of you want meatloaf with a side of ‘why can’t you be more like your sister,’ come see me,” East adds.
“No thanks. I’m usually full from the bottomless bowl of ‘Your sister is perfect’ stew that’s always being served at my house. It keeps me pretty full most of the tim
e,” Swoop says.
“Mom and Dad don’t think I’m perfect. And the reason they are always on you is because you need to be more responsible,” Key says.
“Again, what’s wrong with living in the moment?” Swoop insists.
“Isn’t that what people say right before they stumble into an all-night chapel in Las Vegas?” Bex asks East.
“Followed by the inevitable question, first thing in the morning: Who are you again?” East jokes; they share a laugh.
“Face it, Swoop, you could use a little structure,” Key says gently.
“Why, so I could be like you and have designated underwear for the dates of the week?” she teases.
“She does that?” East asks Swoop.
“Yup. Monday panties, Tuesday panties...”
“I’m not that neurotic. I can be just as wild as you,” Key counters.
“What are you gonna do? Wear Friday panties on Saturday? Shocking,” Swoop replies as she places one hand on her chest and the other over her mouth, as if shocked.
“Leave my girl alone, Swoop. She knows how to live in the moment. Just yesterday she had a sneeze that was only planned two weeks in advance,” Bex says.
“Oh, okay Bear, keep it up and you’ll never get close enough to even look at my calendar,” she says, calling her boyfriend by the playful nickname she gave him years ago.
“EXCUSE ME! WILL YOU GUYS STOP JOKING? I DESTORYED THE DAMN PATHWAY!!!” I blurt out.
“We know,” East says softly.
“This is bad, guys,” I plead.
“We know,” Swoop confirms.
“I put us all in even more danger.”
“We. Know,” Key says.
“Why aren’t you guys pissed?” I ask.
“Pry, we hate that it happened but...”
“Key’s right. We lost our parents for a few days or maybe even a few weeks. But if you didn’t do what you did, we’d lose them forever,” Swoop agrees.
“The media acts like I wanted this to happen,” I reply.
“The media blows. You did the right thing,” East says.
“Yes, but you guys should still be worried,” I remind them.
“We are, very much so. But given what you have to do when we get home, we figured we should keep our worries to ourselves for the moment,” Key says.
Voracious Vixens, 13 Novels of Sexy Horror and Hot Paranormal Romance Page 99
