“What exactly is a farther distance?” Travis asked.
“About eighteen hours.”
Emma said quietly, “Guess we’re road tripping it.”
Travis stopped in his tracks. “Eighteen hours? We are driving eighteen hours with a dude we just met to, what? Get away from some soul eater that wants to kill us?”
“Travis,” Emma said in warning while adjusting the strap of her bag over the shoulder of her heavy black coat with the white, fur-lined hood.
“Hey, I know. Okay? I was there too,” he said, then shook his head. “But this is ludicrous. Maybe it was all in our heads. This can’t be real, and I am not going along with this.” He pointed his finger at the ground, taking his stand once more.
The urge to rub at the pressure building at the bridge of my nose was overwhelming, but I resisted. “Travis, as hard as this is to believe, you are an important figure of prophecy and I need to keep you safe. Now that the soul eater has spotted you, the dark will send more agents to come for you. They won’t stop until you are dead.”
Travis snorted and crossed his arms.
It is the great and terrible thing about belief. It is so powerful it can overcome what you have witnessed with your very eyes. Most people poured their belief into protecting whatever reality they knew, and soul eaters were not a part of Travis’s reality.
Emma came closer and put her hand on me, her voice carried a strange tone. “Calan, what’s that?”
I was about to ask her to specify when I heard it too. It was the unmistakable sound of flapping wings. Except these wings were not that of a bird. The time between flapping told me the wings were far larger than any fowl I knew of in these parts.
Travis was oblivious. “Seriously, prove to me you’re magic and all this is real, or I’m leaving.”
“Oh my god,” Emma said under her breath as she saw them too. Three of dark shapes descended from the sky, one dive-bombing straight for Travis
I leaped onto Travis, smashing him into the ground just as the knobby hands reached out to get him.
“What is wrong with you, man?” Travis sputtered. I rolled off him and jumped to my feet.
“Stay down,” I commanded. Emma was already on the ground, having ducked before I jumped on Travis.
I ran the few paces to the Jeep, threw open the back door, and grabbed my long sword before running back to Emma and Travis. Another demon flew straight toward Emma. I sprinted across the frosty asphalt in time to hack off the outstretched arms just as it closed its fingers around her hair.
“What in all that is holy are those?” Travis screamed when he finally got a look at what was attacking us. Their dull green flesh spanned out into a wingspan of six feet. Their bodies resembled that of a human baby’s except their arms and legs were much longer, with knobby joints, spindly hands, and pointed ears. Their faces were permanently set into evil grins which displayed sharp teeth. They drooled something black and viscous.
“They are the Crib. Now crawl under the jeep.” I ordered.
Travis scrabbled to his feet but a Crib swooped down and grabbed Travis from behind, jerking him off the ground. The Crib flew up and away with a screaming, flailing Travis. My heart stalled. The whites of his eyes cried out for me to help as the massive wings flapped, flying him away, and out of my reach.
Despair threatened to swallow me whole. Without the Propheros, the world was lost.
CHAPTER NINE
No. I was trained to not feed the doubtful thoughts which leave one impotent and helpless. To do so would be turning against the Light. I would not fail the gods in this life.
I raced after the Crib carrying the Propheros away from me. Travis weighed it down so his feet brushed against the car roofs in the parking lot as its wings flapped hard, trying to gain more momentum to propel it upward.
Sprinting after it, I followed until I was close enough. I leapt onto the hood of a van, then up and over the roof. I surged off the van with all the power I possessed, flying into the air. I got my shot. I took a swipe at the Crib. Its wing tore under my blade. The demon shrieked and lost air as black blood spurted from half a wing. Travis fell onto a car with a hard thud and metallic clang. He rolled off with a guttural groan and crawled under the vehicle.
Good man, I thought with relief.
The Crib’s descent was slow but sure. Then it smacked across several cars like a pebble skimming a pond before it dropped out of sight. It wouldn’t be getting up anytime soon.
“Thank the gods,” I said to myself in a prayer of gratitude. Yet my body was stiff with an unnamed urgency.
“Calan,” Emma called out.
I turned around to see her running for her life, two Cribs gaining on her.
“Emma, run toward me,” I shouted, racing straight at her.
I was six feet away when one spindly mottled hand grabbed ahold of her hood and jerked her back and down. Emma gagged and choked as she was slammed onto her rear. A few more steps and I cut off the arm holding her hood. The Crib howled and flew away. The other Crib dive bombed me and clawed at my face with its dirty jagged nails, digging into the flesh of my cheek and scraping up until warm blood seeped out of my stinging wounds.
I couldn’t get a good swing at it as the Crib hovered just over my head and behind me. It pulled out a chunk of my hair out and aimed to drive those same jagged, dirty fingernails down at my eyes this time. I had no leverage to stop it from blinding me.
The body of the Crib jerked with a pronounced thump, slamming into the back of my head. A thwack this time and the demon tumbled mid-air over my head into a large silver truck, cracking the windshield on impact.
Turning, I found Krystan, now in a bulky zebra, faux-fur coat that hit the tops of her high boots, panting. Her eyes looked like they might pop out of her head. She wielded a baseball bat tarnished by a smudge of black ichor. Demon blood.
“What in the hell was that? Am I dreaming? Is this a dream?” She looked dazed, and a pitch of hysteria wavered in her voice.
“Krystan, duck,” Emma screamed just as the Crib with the amputated arm dropped from the sky and grabbed Krystan’s hair. On instinct, she dropped the bat and reached for her hair as it abruptly pulled her several feet off the ground.
I had it this time. I jumped up on the nearest car and plunged the sword straight through the Crib’s chest. It screeched in agony. Krystan dropped the two feet back to the ground, landing in a crouch. She rubbed the top of her head. The Crib spewed black blood from its mouth. I dodged most of it but some of it spattered against my ear. It fell back onto another car, wings spread out as it took its last breath.
From behind me, I heard the same thwacking sound as before, only to find Emma had picked up the bat and was mercilessly beating the last Crib into a bloody black pulp on the asphalt.
She yelled with every swing of the bat. “Don’t you ever come after my friends, you big, ugly baby monster. I’ll show you who you’re messing with.”
Krystan came to stand next to me, still rubbing the top of her head. She watched Emma with me for a moment as we stood in awe of her fury. Then Krystan shrugged at me as if to say, it should have known better than to mess with Emma. I returned a look of silent agreement.
Krystan’s boots hurriedly clip-clopped over to Emma. “Sweetie, sweetie, that’s enough. The big bad baby is dead. Ya done good.” She gently tried to extract the now ichor-covered bat away from Emma whose shoulders heaved up and down from the exertion of the beating she just gave.
“Travis,” I yelled. Seeing that Krystan and Emma were okay I realized I had to make sure the Propheros was unharmed. “Travis,” I ran back toward the car I’d seen him disappear under. Spotting his unmoving feet beneath the vehicle, an icy block of fear weighed down my chest.
Dropping down to the ground, I found Travis looking up at me with bug-wide eyes from under the car, still breathing and seemingly unharmed.
“Okay,” he said softly, “So I think I’d like to stick with you. If you don’t mind me
tagging along.”
A laugh of relief escaped me as I dropped my head and reached to pat him on the shoulder before helping him out from under the car.
We walked back over to the girls. Krystan’s arm was thrown over Emma. Krystan said in a shaky voice, “Okay, so when you all let me believe you were running from the mafia, we all meant to say.…”
Emma looked up at her apologetically. “We are being chased by evil spirits and demonic forces.”
“Ah-huh, so this has nothing to do with all the psychedelic drugs I tried last month. That’s reassuring. Sort of-” Krystan muttered to herself while pressing the heel of her palm to her forehead. “I need a drink. I need many drinks. I need enough to drinks to kill all the little brain cells that just witnessed and retained what happened.” Then she glared at Travis. “And this is all somehow Travis’s fault.”
“What?” Travis said, throwing his hands up and waving them in fierce denial. “I did not do this. I just wanted to try a new whiskey today and took too freaking long to decide. Some mist-like ghost thingy came after us. I think its superman’s fault here.” He pointed at me.
Emma’s words were sharp. “Yet again, Travis, not a great way to treat the guy who saved our asses twice in one day.”
“Yeah, Travis,” Krystan said, eyeing the now soiled broad sword I still held at my side. “Don’t forget to give me props for saving your greasy ass too.”
Travis ignored her and looked at me, nervous now. “You know what I mean, man. Seriously now, I’m gonna be like white on rice with you. I will do whatever you tell me to, Yoda.”
“Yoda?” I asked.
“Is he for real?” Krystan asked, her head rearing back and looking at me like I’d grown another appendage.
“Believe it,” Emma said with a sigh.
I suspected I was being insulted again.
“Travis, you need to know the truth,” I said, turning away from the feelings that arose at having Emma tease me. “They were indeed coming after you. I’ve never seen demons attack so openly. This is unprecedented.”
Krystan eyed the damage that many of the cars sustained in the fight. “No joke. It’s gonna be impossible blaming this on a hail storm.”
I continued, ignoring her. “You are the Propheros. The soul eater claimed you to be so back at the liquor store. You are a figure of great importance and the object of a prophecy written a thousand years ago that says you will prevent the coming darkness.”
Travis’s face emptied of emotion and blood. Then he leaned over and threw up. The girls stepped back, though they were already out of range. I went to his side and patted him on his back until he was done.
When Travis straightened, he wiped at his mouth, his body shaking from more than the cold now. “How in the hell am I supposed to do that?”
With the ultimate sacrifice.
I couldn’t tell him the truth though. It wasn’t my place.
“Only my Masters can direct you to fulfill your destiny. I am only here to protect the Propheros as well as the innocents from the manifestations of the Stygian.”
“The who from the what?” Krystan interrupted.
“The manifestations, like the soul eater and the Crib we just fought.” I explained. “The Stygian is the dark realm from whence they came.”
Krystan looked at Emma, mouthing the word ‘whence’ silently. Emma shrugged.
I went on, ignoring their silent communication. “It is best compared to what you would know to be hell.”
Emma swallowed. “Flying demon baby creatures, yeah I could see them being from a special kind of hell.” She didn’t notice that splotches of their ichor had flown up onto her face and hair.
It was distracting. I wanted to wash it off her. Take her away from the darkness and put her back in the light where she belonged. But it was too late.
Emma caught me staring and returned my look with an unreadable expression.
Krystan put her hands on her hips. “Wait, so why is my girl involved in Travis’s prophecy crap?”
I didn’t look away from Emma. “We were attacked by a soul eater. It has her scent and it will come for her no matter where she goes now, like a bloodhound. Just like Travis, it’s best she stays under my protection.”
Krystan scowled and floated her fingers around in the air. “So, do I need to come be under your protection, too?”
Turning to Krystan, I said, “No. The Crib are dead and the soul eater does not have your scent. Just lay low and keep an eye out for anything strange.”
Krystan saluted. “Aye aye, captain.” Despite her strange, casual response, her eyes were wide enough to swallow the rest of her face, and her hands shook. “On that note, I’m going to visit a more densely populated city where there are far slower meat snacks lumbering about than me.” She laughed, but it was only to cover up the clacking of her chattering teeth.
I’d seen it more times than I cared to count. Krystan was going into shock. The totality of what she witnessed slamming into her, breaking down her mind and the rules of her world.
Emma gave Krystan a big hug. “Thank you.”
“It’s what I do, boo. Love you,” Krystan said, holding Emma tight, her eyes clenched shut for several long minutes. When she released Emma, she whipped around, heading to her vehicle at the far end of the lot. She threw up a middle finger for Travis as she walked away. He seemed disgusted by the gesture. I didn’t understand why. I’d ask later.
I wondered if Krystan would be okay. Often, I left right after having done my part as people devolved into the throes of shock after they witnessed the unexplainable. I was told not to linger after a mission was complete and to immediately return to the Temple for further instruction. Why now did I care how Krystan would process information?
I shifted my weight to catch Emma looking after Krystan’s retreating form, one hand gripping the other while worry tightened her face. As if sensing my observation, Emma dropped her hands and forcibly relaxed her shoulders back.
“So,” Emma said, now eyeing the still oozing bodies of the Crib. “Road trip?”
CHAPTER TEN
The car drifted lazily into the next lane, then lurched as Emma jerked the wheel.
“Do we need to pull over?” I asked gently.
Emma had been driving for just under an hour when I noticed her eyelids droop with fatigue. Travis was already snoring loudly in the back once again. I was learning his stress response was to pass out.
She trained her bloodshot eyes on the road ahead. “Um, no. Maybe if you could just switch me in about half an hour.”
I had been dreading this moment. I toyed with the hilt of the sword which stood between my legs. “Emma, I can’t drive.”
“Why? Because it’s hard to protect us and drive at the same time?” She sighed. “I guess that makes sense.”
I kept my eyes on the hilt as I traced the designs of stars and ornate circles on it with my thumbs. “I mean I don’t know how to drive. I never learned.”
I felt her stare but didn’t meet it. It was just one more thing I lacked. I didn’t drive, I’d never tried the wine I bought from her, I didn’t understand most of the references she and Travis made, and I didn’t have a soul. Before now, I’d never been self-conscious of what I was. I’d always known I was less-than. Unworthy. But being around Emma brought it into a whole new light and it blinded me with its harsh glare.
“So magic and sword play, that’s what you’re good at,” she said as if trying to make sense of me.
I wasn’t a puzzle though. Far from it.
“Yes.” I was surprised by the bitterness of my tone.
“And taking people at their word,” she added with a side-long look.
I didn’t respond to that one, unsure of what she meant by it.
“Not everyone does that you know,” she said quietly. “Most choose not to trust anyone and assume everyone is always lying to them. Hell, some are even hoping to catch people in their lies just to prove themselves right for shutting eve
ryone out. People can find a perverse comfort in proving to themselves they are alone and others are only out to get them.”
“Having faith in others is imperative when cultivating faith in the greater good.”
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“To avoid suffering, we must have faith in our place, in the people around us, in the greater design.”
She shrugged. “Yeah, I guess that’s why organized religion is so popular. We all want to avoid suffering and everyone tries to find different ways of doing it. Except everybody gets hurt in life at some point, then we begin to build walls around ourselves.” She cast another curious look at me again. “Except you. You don’t seem to do that.”
I frowned. “That’s not self-preservation. It’s separation. People separating from each other is like turning away from the Light.”
“Maybe,” She shot me a look. “But sometimes someone is out to get you.”
Emma pulled the jeep over to the side of the road and flipped off the lights. Unbuckling her seat belt, she twisted her body so she could face me. The blue glow from the radio illuminated her as she studied me. Again, when she looked at me it was like truly being seen and my heart pounded with excitement.
“You don’t have walls or protection around you. You’re guileless and open yet…” she bit on her lip a moment, as if chewing on a thought instead of her lips. “Somehow separate.”
I swallowed hard. “I am a Chevalier. I am a servant.” Emma had turned the engine off and with it the heater, but the air seemed to warm around me under her intense stare.
After a few moments, she replied, “So you’ve said.” Before I could respond, her eyes batted away from mine. “Why are you making yourself separate from me?”
I lurched forward. “I’m not.”
Prophecy Girl (The Five Orders Book 1) Page 5
