Horizon, Soul Guardians Book 3 (17 page)

She looked at David’s body. She had to
concentrate hard to see him. He was almost completely invisible.
She could make out pain on his face. Suddenly, miniscule pieces of
his body started to detach themselves. He was coming apart.
Panicked, Kara pressed her body against his, hoping to hold him
together. Her arms were breaking apart too. Kara shook. She
wouldn’t let them die.

Kara used the only power she had left.
She let all her anger flare inside her. She felt the elemental
power answering her call. She willed it forward, and grasped it.
Her vision exploded in golden hues. A golden light danced at the
tip of her fingers. She gently pressed against David’s shoulders
and golden beams coiled in and around them as they stood. Soon
their bodies radiated a brilliant golden color. She could finally
see David’s face more clearly. He was frightened, but he managed a
smile. Kara thought he looked beautiful highlighted in gold. Her
plan seemed to be working. Their bodies were staying
intact.

There was a sudden loud crack. Kara
and David were thrown to the ground. The bond with the elemental
power was broken. Kara sensed the elevator had stopped moving. She
pushed herself up on her elbows as the doors slid open.

Loud wails sounded all around them.
Blasts of red and white illuminated the sky. The smell of smoke
entered the elevator. Kara blinked through a heavy grey haze. The
vast desert in Operations was in flames. The tents were on fire.
Sounds of battle were everywhere.

The war had already begun. They were
too late.

Chapter 13

A war of Angels

“
K
ara! Let’s move!”

But Kara’s body wouldn’t budge. She
stood frozen in place, staring out onto a massacre. The normal blue
skies of Operations were dark and covered in a grey haze of smoke.
Flickering embers rained down from the skies and blanketed the
desert in a blanket of flames. Everywhere she looked angels were
being ripped to pieces, their bodies evaporating into showers of
brilliant crystals. A thunderous boom resonated around them. Black
lightning from the sky hit several angels. Their bodies exploded
and were swept away in the fiery sand storm.

“
Kara!” David pulled Kara
out of the elevator by force. She snapped out of her frozen trance
and stumbled along. A deafening crash shook the ground. Kara felt a
sudden sharp pain at her side. She fell to her knees and turned
around. A mountain of concrete ruble was all that was left of the
monumental elevator. Fire and smoke rose in streaks from its broken
shell.

David pulled Kara to her feet and
dragged her with him in a run. Powerful winds slapped her face. A
flurry of sand scratched her eyes. Kara made her eyes into slits
and tried to see through the oncoming sand storm. Her foot caught
on something, and she nearly fell. She regained her balance and
looked at what made her trip. The fur of a dead chimpanzee who had
been covered in blankets of sand rippled in the strong winds. She
recognized his face—Chimp 5M51. She wanted to scream.

After a moment, she felt David’s
presence beside her. He looked horrified. She followed his
gaze.

Out in the distance, piles of metal
and wood sprouted from the desert like fractured bones from a
ruptured abdomen. Remnants of the elevators and their operators
were spread out for miles. Some were ablaze, while others lay in
silent piles of rubble. She understood now why they couldn’t access
Horizon as they had before. The demons had destroyed the elevators
and killed the operators. Then she caught a glimpse of some
terrified black and brown primates hiding behind boulders. She
prayed the demons would overlook them.

A distant laugh caught Kara’s
attention. She looked up into the darkened skies. Massive wings cut
through clouds of smoke and beat the skies above her. A two-legged
creature with a long snake-like body and reptilian head banked
easily through the clouds. A long, sharply pointed tail rippled
behind it. Its body was covered in yellow and red flames, and
somehow Kara could see through it. The demon swooped towards the
battlefield. It glided through clouds of smoke and dove suddenly
towards a group of guardians. A figure was riding the demon. His
wicked laugh caused a chill to roll up Kara’s spine. She recognized
Asmodeus. He sat upon the beast, his blood-red suit rippled in the
wind. His arms were raised in the air. Black lighting from his
hands struck the angels below. Kara knew they didn’t stand a
chance. He was merciless. With a sharp popping sound, their bodies
exploded in a blur of white dust.

Asmodeus roared in laughter. She
watched him raise his arms again. Black electricity blasted out of
his hands and struck the ground. A tremor passed under Kara’s feet.
The ground shook and the desert was split by a crevice that
extended out of sight beyond the red hills.

Kara couldn’t see a bottom, and she
watched in horror as hundreds of angels fell wailing down into the
abyss.

David pulled her into a run with him.
Kara held on tightly to David’s hand, afraid to let go. His soul
blade was brandished in front of him.

A shadow covered the ground—the
eagles. The guardians of Tartarus dove through the blackened skies
like missiles. They ploughed through a horde of demons and ripped
them apart easily with their razor sharp talons. Demons wailed as
the eagles tore out their innards and crushed their skulls with
their feet.

A massive demon with large fly-like
wings charged at the eagles. It grabbed one by the neck with its
large maw. Kara heard a snap. The eagle fell limply to the ground.
More insect-like demons took to the skies and launched another
attack. Large golden feathers rained down on Kara and David as the
eagles wrestled against the new breeds from the Netherworld. The
sky was alive with the horrifying sounds of flesh being ripped
apart. Kara feared for the eagles.

“
Kara, we have to move! We
can’t stay here.” David yelled over the howling winds and the wails
of the eagles and demons.

Kara wiped the hair from her eyes. “I
know … but where are we going?”

“
I don’t know. Let’s keep
moving until we find someplace safe. We’re going to get killed if
we stay here. Come on—” David urged her on.

Kara’s feet sank into the red sand as
she sprinted down a gully behind David. The sounds of battle
blasted into their ears from every direction as they ran, urging
them on. The horror of it all pained her. She had failed to warn
the Legion before the attacks. What would happen to
them?

A fleet of guardians appeared before
them a hundred feet away. They formed a strong line above a rise.
Forty sturdy men and women, all clad in armor, waited to do battle.
Their long silver swords and daggers hung at their sides. Kara saw
bows strapped across a few of the women’s shoulders. Some also
carried glowing red and white orbs in their hands. Kara immediately
recognized them as the firestones and moonstones. They showed no
fear. These were the real warriors, Kara told herself. They were
ageless, experienced soldiers ready to fight till the true
death.

Movement caught Kara’s eye. She
turned.

Ten higher demons walked casually in
the red sand. Their identical faces bore no expression. Black smoke
coiled around their death blades and rose around their arms. Kara
found it strange how clean their grey suits appeared, considering
the dirt and smoke everywhere. Their clothes showed no traces of a
struggle.

The demons reached the bottom of the
hill. Kara heard someone call out an order, and the angels’ line
broke in half. She watched as the guardians stormed down to meet
the higher demons head on. A young guardian about her age ran with
her blade held out before her. Long red hair spilled out behind her
as she ran. She launched herself at the nearest demon. With her arm
held high, she leaped into the air and brought her blade down in a
long curving arc, aimed at his neck. Kara was sure she had him.
There was a sudden blur, and the young woman screamed. Kara caught
a glimpse of a blade landing in the sand. The higher demon’s blade
was impaled in her abdomen. With a flash, he forced the blade down
like cutting through a loaf of bread, and pulled her apart with his
hands, as though she was nothing but paper. Her body plopped to the
floor in two severed pieces. Kara watched in horror as the demon
crouched down and ingested the angel’s soul. It shivered in delight
as it rose.

The murder of their fellow soldier
didn’t slow down the rest of the fleet. They attacked hard, and
with everything they had. Screams and the sounds of metal hitting
metal rose up around them. A soul blade punctured the back of an
unsuspecting higher demon. It cried out and reached behind its back
trying to free itself from the pain. With its attention disrupted
momentarily, another angel skewered it with its blade, followed by
another, and then another. Finally, the higher demon fell to its
knees. It smiled. It took its own blade and slashed it across its
neck. The body rose up in black flames and soon disintegrated into
a pile of dust which the wind blew away. Kara had never seen a
higher demon die before. She felt satisfied and disgusted at the
same time. But that was the only one. The remaining nine had killed
the guardians. Their bodies were spread out on the ground, soulless
and empty.

Kara heard another battle cry. The
last of the angels charged. Kara winced at how easily they lost
their lives. The angels fought back with everything they had, but
they were no match for the higher demons. She had to do something.
She felt herself lean forward—

“
What do you think you’re
doing?” David pulled Kara towards him. “You can’t do anything for
them now. It’s too late. We have to get out of here!”

Kara shook her head and tried to pull
free from David’s iron grip. “I have to! This is my fault. I have
to save them! I can’t just stand here and watch while they all get
killed. Let me go!”

“
No. It’s suicide. I won’t
let you!”

Kara’s anger flared inside her. “Let
go of me, David!”

She yanked her arm free. “We have to
do something!”

Before David knew what she was doing,
Kara pushed him hard and stole his soul blade. She ran before he
could stop her. She heard him call out her name a few times, but
then his voice was lost in the sounds of battle.

She let her fury loose,
recalling all the deaths of the innocent mortals and angels.
Come
, urged Kara. She
felt the tingle of power scurrying through her. She felt it come
alive and surge down to her finger tips. It wrapped around her like
a warm blanket. Kara embraced it. She felt the wild elemental
energy fueling itself on her hatred for what the demons had done to
Horizon, and on her hatred of what Asmodeus had done to
her.

A demon nearby severed a guardian’s
head and laughed as it kicked it like a ball. Kara rushed towards
the demon, her blade ready, and her elemental’s golden power
dancing on her finger tips. She reached out—

A sting exploded in her back. Pain was
immediate and overwhelming. She cried out and tumbled to the ground
on her knees.

Laughs echoed all around
her.

She reached behind her and felt three
handles. She knew instantly that they were death blades. Her hand
burned as she wrapped it around a handle and pulled it free from
her back. She tossed the blade and reached out for
another—

Something kicked her in the face. Kara
went sprawling to the ground. She could feel the blades’ poison
spread through her, eating at her core like acid. Black vapors
coiled around her body. She had to get them out soon or she would
die.

“
Well, well, well. What do
we have here?”

Kara blinked through a gust of sand. A
higher demon stood above her. Its white skin wrinkled into a
devilish grin. Its black bottomless eyes mocked her.

“
Thought you could use that
power of yours, did you?”

The higher demon laughed, and Kara
cursed her own stupidity.

“
I think it’s time to put
an end to the famous Kara Nightingale. My lord has had enough of
your … interruptions. You cannot escape from your true death, my
dear. Your special powers cannot save you now.”

The demon drew another death blade. He
licked the blade and grinned. In a flash, he threw the blade
towards Kara’s face—

Something silver caught the death
blade in midair and deflected it to the side. Another flash of
silver and a series of sharp noises—she heard a scream, and a
silver blade punctured through the back of the demon’s head and
came out through its eye socket.

A figure in black flew over Kara and
landed before the wailing demon. With one strike, the figure
beheaded the demon. Kara watched as the head hit the ground with a
thump. The demon’s body went up in black flames as the other
demon’s had, and it dissolved into a cloud of black
dust.

Kara felt a pressure on her back, and
then a release. She knew instantly the blades had been removed. She
rolled over.

The figure behind her was slightly
built and dressed like a CDD field agent with black pants and top.
Kara figured she was female. Soul blades were secured in leather
sheaths tied around her thighs and ankles. Her long black hair was
pulled back into a tight braid.