Copula Chronicles: The Complete Collection: Origin, Descend, Ascend, Legacy

by Venessa Kimball

  Jake says, “It could be bats.”

  Daniel says something about the house, but I’m not fully listening to him. I can’t take my eyes off the sky as I count these charcoal winged creatures; two, four, eight, twelve. They are descending slowly, features and size becoming more noticeable; feathers, hooked beak, sleek yet muscular physique, as large as a human from this distance.

  Suddenly Ira roars, “Run back to the house!”

  My eyes dart to him just as he and the other Rephaim turn on their heels and run toward us.

  One of the bird-like creatures touches down behind Cale, takes its wing and swipes Cale’s legs out from under him, sending him to the ground. Ira blocks my view from seeing what happens to him next. All of the guardians pass through the front doorway just as Cale yells out in pain and the crashing sound above us strikes a chord of fear in me.

  I yell, “They are attacking us!”

  Ira is right behind me, herding us through the house. “Go! Keep running!”

  Tessa screams as the entire house shakes suddenly. Instantly, the walls begin to crack and the pieces of ceiling begin to fall atop of us.

  Corinna screams as the roof begins to crumble and give way around us. “It’s on the roof!”

  Sam screams, “We can’t stay here! We have to make a run for it!”

  Xander yells back, “Where do we run?”

  Daniel and Ezra stop ahead of us in the family room to try to come up with a plan while the mutated bird continues pouncing the roof of the house above us.

  Daniel looks at Ezra. “As soon as we get out in the open, they are going to attack.”

  Nick hollers, “That bird is going to bring this house down with us in it!”

  Ezra looks at Daniel as he speaks, “You said it was a mile to the museum and two to the mounds.”

  He glances at Sam, then at all of us. “We have no choice. We need to make a run for it just like Sam said!”

  The front of the house begins to creek painfully as the porch collapses.

  Another cracking and crunching pounce shakes the foundation again. Sebastian looks up at the structure as he yells to us, “Stay in the heavy treed areas, they can’t get to us there! They are too big to get into the overgrowth!”

  Just then, the walls around us begin to sway. It is getting ready to fall!

  Ira yells, “Out the back of the house! Hurry!”

  He runs right at our huddle, parting us, and straight through the back door of the house, taking the door and frame in his hands with him. Sebastian takes a hold of Elisabeth while Luke takes hold of Ms. Olivia, who is trying to prop a screaming Tessa higher up on her hip.

  I rush to her side and take Tessa. Instantly, Tessa wraps her arms and legs around me and holds on for dear life as I run behind the other guardians. Ezra is at my side and Nate and Xander are behind me as we run toward the heavy trees behind the house. I’m surprised a little by how fast Ms. Olivia can move at her age, but remember she is as much if not more of a guardian than I am. Elisabeth is having a harder time keeping up with us being that she is not implanted.

  As soon as we are in the open, one of the creatures lands right in front of Ira, blocking him from leading us through the heavy trees behind the house. Ira lifts the door and frame he tossed earlier and swings it around, nailing the bird-like creature in the head. The bird releases an ear-piercing caw from the assault and scuttles away, flapping its weapon-like wings and lifting off into the sky.

  More piercing caws come from behind us as two more of the creatures have come up behind us, catching us off guard. Taking up the back, Nate and Xander turn to face them, take aim, and begin raining bullets on the two mutated birds while pushing back against us to keep moving. Both hawk-like creatures begin flapping their wings. Their combined flapping pinions stretch so long; they cover the width of the rear of the crumbled house. Watching the attacking birds try to take flight, I see them up close for the first time since the attack began. The lightning continues to light the sky, spotlighting these sleek flying attackers, their wings spanning the length of a large truck. The recognition of the blackened eyes filling the sockets of the sinister birds is immediate.

  Jake yells out, “These things are occupied by Dwellers!”

  Everyone who has a gun unleashes ammunition on the two creatures sending them back up into the air. Ira roars painfully, startling all of us, “No!”

  As I look after him, his mouth is gaping; his roars muted, but face still bearing the pain. His eyes are locked on something he sees around the side of the house in the open yard. Taking a few steps to see his line of sight, I see Errol lying on the ground grabbing his chest, his hands reddened from the gash across his chest. The hawk creature is hovering over his form, flapping its wings, watching its prey. Errol’s head is turned toward Ira. He opens his mouth to try to speak. Instead, he releases a gurgle and mixture of blood and saliva from his mouth. Ira thunders toward him and my immediate reaction is going with him, but Ezra grabs my arm, “No! Leave them!”

  Leave them? Is he crazy! They have been protecting us! Now one of the brothers is dying! I turn on Ezra’s grasp yell over the shower of bullets, “We can’t leave them!”

  I’m about to run to help when I remember I have Tessa in my arms.

  As Ezra pulls me back toward the woods, I watch Ira crumble to the ground next to his brother, ignoring the bird-like predator standing over them both.

  Nate suddenly yells, “Xander, cover me!”

  CHAPTER 32: AKHA

  Jesca

  Before I realize what’s happening, Nate is running toward Ira and Errol with Xander behind him showering bullets on the predator hunched over Ira and Errol. Jake and Nick both follow Xander, pouring ammo into the sky at the hawk-like creatures hovering.

  I watch Ira pull Errol into his arms as he cries out for his other brothers. “Cale, Lathan, Seth!”

  They don’t acknowledge his call as they try to fight off the attacking bird beast. Seth has wrangled one to the ground. He is sitting atop its back and pulling up on its neck until the deep crack of its neck leaves the hawk lifeless in his arms. The raw Dweller begins detaching from the mutated hawk just as Seth grasps the slithery mass and rips it in half. Cale and Lathan are holding their own, trying to keep from the deadly wings that have taken down Errol.

  I watch Ira put his head down to his brother’s chest, listening for life. Suddenly, another winged predator’s screech comes blaring down on us. Monica and Ezra fire on it, but the hawk comes at Monica with stealthy speed and takes her in its talons, lifting her off the ground and into the sky. All of us yell as soon as she is taken as Daniel, Sebastian, and the other guardians hold their fire from fear of hitting Monica. The hawk’s screeching caw doesn’t beat out Monica’s painful scream. Even though the creature has captured her, its talons buried deep into the flesh of her shoulders, she manages to lift her rifle, rest it at the base of the birdlike beak, and fire. Feathers explode from the beast’s body as it tailspins to the ground with Monica in its clutches.

  Ezra takes Daniel by the shirt and yells, “We need to go after her!”

  Another screech warns us before a hawk-beast drops from the sky, swooping down on us. We all rush into the overgrowth before it can take hold of any of us.

  Ezra and Daniel are arguing about going after Monica, while I’m watching Nate try to pull Ira from Errol’s still body. Xander, Nick and Jake hail bullets into the air sporadically to hold back the Dweller-occupied hawk like birds. Seth, Cale and Lathan have moved in closer to Ira and their fallen brother, but are still trying to swat off the winged beasts. The sky opens suddenly, releasing the rain that has been threatening. The sky continues to light up with heaving lightning and deafening thunder as the ground quickly saturates, but the winged Dweller beasts don’t relent.

  Elicia comes by my side and says breathlessly, “Here, give her to me.”

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nbsp; I look into her eyes, questioning why she is taking her from me. I see the fear she holds in her eyes for Nick; she loves him.

  She whispers to me, “Get them out of there.”

  Her simple words light a fire in me. I hand Tessa to her and run out into the open. I hear Ezra and Sebastian yelling for me to come back, but I ignore them, only focused on Ira, Errol, the other guardians and Rephaim. I slide to Ira’s side and rest my hands over his as they lay upon his brother’s bloodied chest. “Ira, he is gone! Please, come with us!” I yell.

  In a flash, Ezra is at my side, yelling at me, “You stupid, stupid girl! It is you they want! Go back with the others!”

  I meet Ezra’s angry eyes and shout at him, “No! I won’t leave them!”

  I wedge my face in between Ira’s gaze and Errol, “Ira! I need you to get up!”

  Ira shakes his head from side to side slowly. The screech of two more hawks diving for prey pound my ears with their deafening sound. One has swooped down and buzzes Ira, Ezra, and me. I hear Cale cry out behind me and wheel around to see the other hawk’s talon’s wrapped partially around one of his swollen biceps, blood trickling down his arm. Cale has grabbed hold of the flying beast’s beak to keep it from administering a deadly strike, but he can’t hold on for long. Nate, Xander and Jake are holding their fire on Cale, aiming for the other beast that is diving in for Ira’s mourning form.

  Without a second thought, I let my pooled-up anger build within and force the energy from me straight at the creature. With the sound of a sonic boom, a wave of light shoots straight from my body into the hovering beast, forcing it to release Cale with a hard thud to the ground. The storm of bullets track the Dweller hawk as it rises swiftly into the darkened sky. The screech caw of the birdlike Dwellers prepares me for another strike as the creature heads straight for me.

  Ezra yells, “Jesca! Get down!”

  Again, I focus all of my energy into the center of my core, let it spiral and build, then will it out from me directly to the flying Dweller. The strike deflects the attack and the beast’s wings take it higher into the sky.

  Ezra is there just in time to catch me by the shoulder as the drain from using my life force kicks in. He yells, “You have used too much energy. You can’t keep this up! It is taking too much out of you, Jes!”

  Lazily, I look at Nate and Xander sporadically firing into the sky to keep the beasts at bay. To my right, Seth, Cale and Lathan are standing guard for any other attacking beasts. Ira is still hunched over Errol’s unmoved body, staring at his blood-soaked chest.

  Ezra is yelling at all of them, “We need to pull back!” He tries to move Ira. “Ira! You have to help us get my daughter to the mounds! Get up!”

  He isn’t listening to him. I move away from Ezra and close in to Ira, getting a good angle on him. I ball up my fist and swing with all my might at Ira’s face. I make full contact with his jaw and he barely flinches as I yell at him, “Ira, help me!”

  I come at him with my other balled-up fist now, again putting all of my remaining energy into it. Ira flinches from the hit this time, detecting my assault.

  I yell at him, rain soaked and swatting the water falling in my eyes, “Please get up! We need to get out of here!”

  Ira blinks a few times then looks up at me. Ezra is yelling for me and the others to pull back, but I don’t move, not without Ira.

  Suddenly, he does something unexpected. Ira lays his head down on his brother’s chest and closes his eyes. Jake yells, “What the hell is he doing? Ira, get up!”

  Ira lifts his head swiftly and looks at me, wide-eyed. “It is dull, but there is a pulse!”

  Seth shouts back at Ira, “We can’t save him, brother!”

  Appearing to ignore Seth’s words, Ira continues to kneel before his brother and says, “We can try!”

  Jake looks down at Ira, then at Errol’s expansive chest covered with his blood and the evidence of the filleted gash by the Dweller hawk’s razor-sharp wings. “We have no supplies! No way of helping him!” yells Jake.

  Nate comes to kneel across from Ira and yells over the roaring thunder, “I can try to heal him!”

  No! He can’t.

  Xander and Ezra scold him at the same time, “No!”

  Ira looks at Nate and shakes his head. “I won’t let you.”

  Ezra fires two more shots into the sky then looks down at Errol as he says, “Do you see the size of him! If you try to heal him, it will drain every ounce of energy from you! Energy that you will need!”

  Ira agrees, “I won’t let you use your ability, Nate!”

  Nate shakes his head and looks down at Errol. “You all have risked your lives for us, Ira! It is my choice!”

  All of a sudden, Ira shakes his head and pulls his dagger from its sheath. Nate scrambles to his feet and moves away from Ira, not sure of his intentions with the blade. Ira makes them known as he raises the dagger over his head, stares down at his brother’s body, and cries, “It is my choice!”

  The sharp crackle of thunder shakes the earth beneath us just as Ira strikes down in one swift motion, burying his blade deep in Errol’s chest. Ira’s head hangs between his arms, his hands glued to the shaft of the blade. Nate, Xander, Jake and Ezra have stopped firing their weapons and are looking at Ira, shocked by his decision.

  I can’t keep the tears from streaming from my eyes as I watch rain hammer Ira’s body splayed across his brother now. Tessa! She can’t see this! I survey the woods and hope that someone has shielded her from seeing the scene I just witnessed. I can’t see anyone through the rain and heavy trees.

  I feel Ira’s body move next to me and turn to see him rise from his brother’s body, his dagger hanging from his hand as he looks up into the sky above. The hawk creatures are circling above us, again coming lower and lower, preparing for another attack. With the shadows of light and dark dancing between lighting strikes, I can’t get a good count on how many hawk Dwellers remain. Even with the guardians and Rephaim having killed three, the numbers are still too many if they descend upon us now.

  The drain in my body has taken its toll. I can stand on my own two feet, but I can feel my body trembling from the exertion and I don’t think I could pull enough energy again if I needed to, not this soon.

  I yell at all of them urgently over a roar of thunder, “We have to get into the woods!”

  Ira bends over to lift his brother into his arms just as a feathered Dweller swoops down toward us. Seeing it coming and unable to muster any energy to save him, I brace for the worst when a blaze of fire assaults the sinister Dweller beast. The blaze is coming from two distinct directions; two guardians—Jake and Nick are using their Pyrokinesis.

  Without missing a beat, Ezra, Xander and Nate continue to assault the descending bird with bullets until it glides over us in flames. The Dweller-ridden mutation slides into the side of the destroyed house that was once our safe house.

  The beast flails in flames catching the entire structure on fire.

  I look up into the sky and see the hawk like Dwellers rising farther above us, still circling, planning their next attack.

  Ezra bellows, “The house is going to blow!”

  Ira leaves Errol’s body and we all pull back with our eyes both on the sky and on the billowing smoke and flames soaring from the house. Ira strides toward the heavy brush as I run alongside him. As we get closer to the overgrowth, the guardians come into view and Ms. Olivia rushes to me. “Come, you have used too much of your energy.”

  She leads me under the canopy of trees and deeper into the woods. Ezra continues to yell at all of us, “Move deeper into the woods! It is going to blow!”

  Just as he gets the words out, the house explodes, shaking the ground below us and sending the guardians to the ground. Waves of fire and smoke, blossom into the sky, shrouding the hawk like creatures from sight. I catch sight of Shiva’s silvery co
at as she runs ahead of Ms. Olivia and me.

  The rumble of the explosion dies, but the quaking and kindling fire continues, falling farther and farther behind us. I angle my head to make sure everyone is following behind us. Sebastian is escorting Elizabeth and she doesn’t look well, wheezing, barely catching her breath. Nick is at Elicia’s side, holding her close. The remaining Rephaim are behind the rest of us as we come to an opening in the woods. I look above us to make sure we are covered enough to keep the remaining mutated bird Dwellers out if the explosion hadn’t warded them off already.

  The rain hasn’t slowed, but the heavy canopy of trees we are under is shielding us from the heaviest of it. Everyone huddles into the small meadow.

  Ezra looks up into the canopy of trees and says, “The rain might keep the creatures away. Their feathers will get too wet and they will have to perch.” Brushing the rain from his face angrily, he gnarls, “Giant, mutated, Dweller birds! I thought animals couldn’t survive, Daniel!”

  Daniel doesn’t take well to Ezra’s attack. “We have not seen wildlife in one year, Ezra!”

  Ezra paces then yells bitingly, “Now! Of course it is now!”

  He moves toward the edge of the meadow continuing his nervous pacing, “We need to find her. We have to find Monica.”

  Daniel walks over to him. “Ezra, she is gone. We don’t even know where to look.”

  Ezra holds his gun up, looks away from Daniel angrily and narrows his eyes on the Rephaim, “Lathan, come with me.”

  He turns to leave with Ezra, when I charge over to block him from walking any farther. “Stop, Ezra!”

  Ezra’s eyes narrow on me and widen. “She could be alive out there!”

  I remember the talons’ grasp on her before it crashed into the woods. She couldn’t have survived both the pressure of the carcass falling on her and the vice grip the talons had on her shoulder. I shake my head. “She isn’t alive. You know as well as I she couldn’t have survived.”