Scorched Souls (Chosen Book 3)

by Jeff Altabef

  “Vision?” Aaric smirks. “Once someone passes to the next life there is no coming back.”

  “Maybe for ordinary people, but you don’t know my grandfather.” I glance at his ghost, who glares at Aaric. “If I have to make my own choice and neither of the spirits are totally correct, then maybe we should go down the center path.”

  Aaric shrugs. “The choice is yours. You are best suited to understand your grandfather’s wishes. He does not sound like a logical man.” He makes it sound like an insult.

  I ignore it and peer down all three paths, hoping to see a clue, anything that might be helpful, but see only shadows and darkness.

  Sicheii always said the Wind Spirit was benevolent, but he told me not to fully trust her. My head tells me to take the Wind Spirit tunnel, yet my heart pulls me to the unmarked path.

  I can’t turn my back on my heart—not now—so I race down the middle path with Aaric a step behind. I move as fast as I can, but the tunnel shrinks to nothing more than a small shaft. I have to stoop and squeeze forward, which means that Aaric is on hands and knees behind me.

  “It looks like we chose the wrong path,” he says. “Maybe we should retrace our steps?”

  I picked the wrong way, wasting time while my friends and family are fighting the Deltites.

  I’m about to turn back when a breeze brushes against my face. “Wait a second.” A few more feet and the shaft opens into a large chamber—a cave.

  I can’t help but smile as we enter the cavern. Even from the grave, Sicheii is teaching me lessons. I can’t give up too easily.

  Aaric follows me and swings his sword in a circle, casting light to the edges of the cave. “There is no sign of the Heart Stone, and there are no other paths. We must have gone the wrong way.”

  Rocks crash behind us. He has to jump from the small passageway or be crushed. Boulders block the small tunnel we took to the cave.

  The path has totally collapsed. Tons of rocks have closed off the way out—the only way out.

  Connor

  All the amusement vanishes from Frankie’s voice. “Those bugs’ll be on us in a minute. They’ll make pin cushions out of us if we don’t do something.”

  I grab Blake by the shoulders. “You have to stop them.”

  “Me? God, I hate the desert. Didn’t I say it’s too dangerous with the killer bugs and snakes? Didn’t I say deserts suck? No one ever listens to me.”

  “Yes, you were right. We should have gone to Hawaii. Now you’ve got to create a serious blast of wind and blow those nasty things back at the Deltites.”

  “Right.” He shakes my hands free of his shoulders. “A big, badass blast of wind.”

  The swarm starts to clear the opening in the rubble, and it looks like a wave. The clattering grows louder.

  I’ve never heard anything that sounded more evil. “Now would be a good time, mate.”

  The scorpions head straight for us, and will reach us in a few seconds.

  He lifts his arms out to his sides and air swirls around him. It intensifies as he thrusts his hands forward. A hurricane blast rips some of the scorpions from the ground and sends them flying backward.

  Still, half the bugs manage to keep coming—more than enough to swarm over us.

  He’s sweating buckets.

  Akari elbows him in the side, her voice confident. “Just do it, already. We all know you can.”

  He concentrates harder this time, the wind stronger. Not only do the scorpions disappear, but much of the bricks and debris in the street follow them—an unintended result.

  He lowers his hands and beams a bright smile. “I hope they stung the lot of them.”

  “I wouldn’t count on it,” says Troy as he points into the darkness. “That looks like trouble.”

  A half-dozen creatures appear, as if they’ve walked through a bloody portal from hell. Each one glows with a reddish ambient light. They look to be the size of giant Mastiffs and resemble canines, yet they’re no ordinary dogs. Some have two heads. One has three legs. They’re all sharp edges and lean muscle and angry snouts.

  “Those would be hellhounds,” says Barrett. “Pretty much the nastiest creatures in the known universe.”

  “Good thing I hate dogs,” says Frankie. “I’m more of a cat person.”

  “Those things aren’t dogs,” says Ayden. “They’re demons.”

  “I’m not a demon type of guy either,” says Frankie. “Cats, on the other hand, are really nice.”

  The hellhounds dart toward us all at once. They move like a pack of panthers—graceful, swift, and powerful—hunters surging toward their prey, which just happens to be us. Even the three-legged one moves incredibly fast.

  I grab Troy and yell, “Stay in teams of two!”

  A heartbeat later, the first demon is on us, and Barrett slices into it with a smooth stroke. Frankie is by his side and intercepts the next beast when it leaps for Barrett’s throat. He hacks with both axes and brings the creature down in a flurry of blood and cries, some of his own blood mixing with the beast’s.

  A hellhound the size of small horse gallops straight for Troy. The demon’s body looks gaunt like a Greyhound, only five times larger, and the head resembles an extra-large Doberman, with two extremely strong and pointy rows of teeth. A long, nasty trail of foam slathers from its snout.

  Troy brandishes his sword at the thing and the monster slows.

  “Sit!” he shouts.

  I manage a chuckle. “Seriously.”

  The hound from hell hesitates for a second, which makes me think that maybe his ridiculous command worked, but the beast had just been gathering itself on its haunches. It launches itself forward.

  Troy ducks and rolls out of the way a second before the monster would have ripped open his chest with those massive jaws.

  I nick the hellhound’s back with the tip of my blade, which only serves to draw his attention. It lands on the ground, spins to face me, rears on its hind legs, and slashes its front paws at me like a horse.

  My competitive juices start to flow as adrenaline pumps through my veins. “Come on, you bugger. Let’s have it out!”

  The monster doesn’t need any encouragement from me. It jumps straight for my throat.

  I don’t have time to lift my sword so I grab its neck with my left hand to keep those teeth from my flesh. The demon snarls and snaps at me, and I smell rotten meat. It digs sharp nails from its front paws into my shoulder and my skin burns. The animal’s fury brings its teeth ever closer to my neck, and disgusting drool splatters against my face. I drop my sword and use my second hand to hold off the inevitable.

  Even with both my hands on its neck, it still inches closer.

  Just as I’m thinking I really don’t want to die as this hellhound’s lunch, Troy slices into the creature’s neck with his sword.

  The demon’s eyes roll backward, I yank off the head with one massive heave, and the apparition explodes in a burst of light.

  Troy spins and a three-foot tall beast leaps at him. He blocks the teeth with his forearm and screams in pain.

  I snatch up my sword and slice the demon in two.

  Breathing heavy, I spin and survey the rest of us.

  Blood flows down Ayden’s face, but he’s chopping at a monster and dispatches it with an explosion of light.

  Barrett whirls and slices into another demon.

  Frankie’s shirt is ripped and stained with blood, but he’s smiling.

  Akari must have torched one because it burns and then bursts like a firecracker.

  Blake limps badly and holds one off with his sword, swinging wildly at it.

  I move toward him to help, but Akari’s faster. She slices the animal in half.

  That’s the last of the hellhounds. We’ve survived the onslaught, although clearly worse for the effort.

  I don’t know what they’ll throw at us next, but we need to go on the offense, so I glance at Akari. “Start operation Blind the Wankers!”

  She smiles and faces
down the street. A fireball the size of a small SUV erupts on the other side of the rubble, followed by a greenish light. A Deltite must be shielding her energy from them, but that’s okay; we didn’t expect her fireball to damage them.

  A few twangs sound from the roof of the museum, and the whistle of arrows soar through the air. At least one scores as someone screams.

  Akari creates a second eruption a few seconds later, and that one’s followed by another series of twangs and whistles, and another scream.

  “Take that!” shouts Blake. “This is our planet.”

  Before those words die into the night, an intense chill freezes the air and something hard smashes by my feet. I look up and the night is filled with icicles the shape and size of daggers, and they explode all around us.

  Barrett points to the museum. “Meet me at the entrance! Form a semi-circle!” He’s the first to reach the doorway and creates a force field above him that deflects the ice daggers.

  Summer and Ayden dive next to him, and Troy, Frankie, and I jump under the shield a moment later.

  Akari loops her arm under Blake’s shoulders and helps him limp under the protection.

  Landon appears out of nowhere and slips under the shield right before an icicle the shape and size of a spear would have skewered him right through the middle.

  The chill disappears.

  “What’s next?” huffs Frankie.

  The SUV and the truck start to rock and lift off the ground. Other bits of metal join them. Pipes are pulled from buildings, poles are uprooted from the ground, and other pieces, sharp and deadly, join the rest to create a swarm.

  “Looks like one of them can control metal,” Barrett explains in a voice that is way too calm for the moment. “My shield won’t stop all that from crushing us, and Blake’s wind won’t do the trick either.”

  Akari points at the gathering mass. “Fire won’t work. Time for you to step up, Connor.”

  No kidding. I’ve never done anything like this before. In the past, I’ve always touched the object before liquefying it. That’s not an option now... unless I want to be shredded like a block of cheese.

  I summon all the energy I can find and thrust my hands out, projecting, imagining liquefying the gathering storm. The objects around the edges turn and start to rain down, but that’s not enough. I’ve barely dented the mass of metal.

  The storm stops gathering in front of us, ready to explode at any second.

  My time has run out. I don’t think I can stop it.

  Then I think of Juliet. I don’t know if she’s helping me somehow, but suddenly I feel electric, more powerful than ever before.

  The swarm surges toward us.

  My body shakes with the effort, and just when it seems we’ll be crushed, liquid splashes against us instead of sharp, jagged metal. A wave soaks us, but that’s a whole lot better than the alternative.

  “Nice job,” says Troy. “I never had any doubts.”

  “Brilliant.” I bend at the waist, feeling drained from the effort. “That makes one of us.”

  Frankie points into the night. “It’s about time! Looks like they’ve summoned up the nerve to fight us.”

  Shapes glide toward us from the darkness, the moon shedding just enough light to see their outlines in the darkness. Six Deltites drift toward us like shadows, and each of them pulls a crystal sword from under their robes. The light from their blades flickers against their faces, adding some detail to their features. All but one wears full-length black robes that swirl about them. Two step in front of the others, including the one wearing the robe with a splash of white for the hood.

  I recognize them both: the devil with the white hood is Vladic, who escaped from the house yesterday, and the other is the Deltite from New York—the one who took Juliet—Aaric’s brother.

  Vladic waves his sword at us. “Look at you. Cowering together as the inferior species you are. All we want is Aaric and Juliet. You can scurry away like rats, and we will let you live out your miserable lives.”

  I glance at the others. I’d gladly trade my life for Juliet’s, and I know they would too. No cracks form in our armor. No one even considers abandoning her. We’ll make a stand—for her, for humanity, for ourselves.

  I shout, “You’ll never get her in time. They’ll have the Heart Stone soon. You’re too late!”

  Vladic laughs as if he knows an inside joke. “The Heart Stone won’t save any of you. Even if Aaric finds it, he is not strong enough to wield its power. It will consume him. Only multiple Alphians can control a Heart Stone this powerful, and he is alone. You will all die here tonight for nothing. But don’t worry. We will make Aaric and this Juliet Wildfire Stone pay for their traitorous ways. Their screams will ring throughout history.”

  I glance at Aaric’s brother, hoping to find doubt in his eyes, but his face is a plastic mask that tells me nothing.

  Vladic has to be wrong. Juliet still has a chance. I’ll die to give it to her. “Thanks for the chin wag. I will so enjoy killing you.”

  “Have it your way then.” Vladic sounds bored, as if talking to a bunch of clueless kids.

  It only makes me more furious.

  Frankie must feel the same way. “They don’t look so tough,” he growls. “They wouldn’t last one night in the Bronx. Whoever kills the most of these things wins. I get credit for two of those damn dogs.”

  Akari steps forward and points her sword at Vladic. “Only six. You had better get some reinforcements.”

  I can’t help but grin. She’s the smallest of us, but she’s definitely the toughest. There’s no way I’d want to fight her.

  Vladic’s eyes turn to slits and his face into a blood-chilling scowl. “Your blood is not fit for our swords.”

  Dozens of other bodies move from the darkness, carrying ordinary swords. These aren’t Deltites. These are the enhanced humans.

  “Kill them!” he orders.

  The Deltites stay put as the enhanced humans race toward us.

  So much for us humans being on the same team.

  We’ll never defeat this many, but they’ll have to pry this sword from my cold dead body to get past me.

  Juliet

  Aaric dusts rock fragments from his shirt and shakes debris from his hair. “There are tons of rubble there. Even with the Heart Stone we could not clear it out of the way. We will need a new way out.”

  “It can’t be a coincidence that the tunnel collapsed just when we reached the cave.” I study the chamber and instantly recognize it as the one drawn on the hides. My mental image matches up perfectly with this space, and hope reignites in my chest.

  “We’re in the right place.” I brush my hand against one of the walls. “Look, these are the gold flecks from the first hide we found in Roundtree’s apartment.”

  “Okay, if we are in the correct cave, the Alphian in the picture stood here.” He moves toward the center. “The beams from his eyes were directed at that wall over there.” He points to the wall directly in front of himself.

  I rush to the spot where’s he’s pointing, wipe the dust away from the wall with my hands, and find a series of unfamiliar etchings. “What are these?”

  He smiles. “Those are Alphian words. It reads, ‘Only pure blood chosen to lead may pass through.’” He wipes away more dirt underneath these strange words and reveals a symbol. “These three interlocking circles represent the three moons of Alpha. It is our emblem for the home planet.”

  My heart races. We’re so close. The Heart Stone has to be locked behind this wall, held secret for centuries. Maybe I can still save the others and prevent my nightmare from coming true.

  “The third Book of Wisdom was hidden on Devil’s Peak,” I say. “I had to cut myself and smear my blood against the stone before I could access the vial. This has to be the same.”

  I slice my thumb on the edge of my sword and reach over to the wall, but he grabs my hand.

  “Hold on a second. If we make a mistake this cave will surely collapse, and
we will be crushed.”

  I pull my hand free. We don’t have time for a lengthy logical debate while the others could be dying above us. “It says we need to use Chosen blood. I am the Alpha. It has to mean me.”

  Aaric shoots me one of his arrogant I-know-everything grins. “That is not exactly what it says. Remember, Barrett’s father etched these words. He had no faith in you Chosen. The whole point of the Heart Stone is to destroy the planet when you fail. He did not want you to possess it. He would leave this test so only he or someone close to him could pass.”

  “Great,” I mutter. “He’s not here and we have to do something.”

  “He probably never expected to return, and Barrett certainly was not born yet.” He grins. “Still, he could have calibrated the lock to open for someone in his bloodline.” His eyes narrow as he considers it for a moment. “Yes, that is what he would have done, and since my blood flows from the Clan of Aarvlic just like his, the rock should open with my blood.”

  I’m not sure he’s right, but I have to admit it sounds logical. Barrett’s father was a logician like him, so he’s the best one to decide what to do here.

  He slices his palm on the edge of his blade and presses it against the three circles. At first nothing happens, but then we hear a cracking sound.

  I look up, expecting to see the cave’s ceiling start to collapse, but it holds as a door-sized portion of the stone wall swings away from us.

  The opening reveals another cave, this one smaller, with a new tunnel that must operate as an exit on the far side. A stone pedestal stands in the center of the chamber, and atop it lies a perfectly round crimson crystal the size of my palm. It looks like a blood-red diamond, and starts to glow as we step toward it.

  Aaric reaches the pedestal first and pauses.

  “Grab it.” I say. “There’s still time to save the others. You can use it to chase away the Deltites!”

  He glances at me and shakes his head. “I cannot control the power of this Heart Stone on my own. It is too strong. It will overwhelm me.”