Netherworld, Soul Guardians Book 4 (10 page)

Ranab gave him a one sided smile. “The
price is your angel soul, little man. And I’m going to really enjoy
killing you myself. You see…you can’t kill us…and there’s nothing
you can do to stop us from killing you.” Black vapors snaked around
his hands. He twisted his blade playfully.

The seirs made a wall in front of the
angels. Their large bodies loomed over them. In the ominous
warehouse light, their horrid faces looked even more sinister than
Kara had first imagined. Their dark eyes gleamed with satisfaction.
Their death blades twitched in their hands in anticipation. She
could clearly see them now as demons—demons in training. Peter
shivered beside her, and squeezed closer —

A blade flew in the air. David wailed.
A death blade perforated his shoulder. The seirs laughed excitedly
like a pack of hyenas. Eagerness flashed in their eyes. They were
enjoying themselves. Kara was disgusted. She felt the cold iron
doors press against her back. They were pinned against the doors
and couldn’t get out.

A flash of metal whipped past Kara.
Peter screamed and slipped to the ground. A large death blade
punctured his thigh. The rage of her power instantly flooded
through her. The elemental power awakened. She fought to control
it. She knew if it were released, she would kill all the seirs—and
then she would die. She might get away with tripping them, but deep
down she knew that if she killed them, she would pay with her own
soul. She strained to calm herself down. She would figure out a way
to escape. She had to.

A seir stepped in front of Peter. He
grabbed a fistful of Peter’s jacket and hauled him up easily.
“You’re the most pathetic angel I have ever seen. You’d soil
yourself if you could.” The seir laughed wickedly. Peter’s boots
grazed the floor, and the seir lifted him higher. He dangled in the
seir’s grip like a puppet.

Kara drew upon her power carefully.
She reached out and tapped into only a fragment of the wild energy.
It danced around the edges of her fingers.

“
Say goodbye angel. Your
soul is
mine
.”
The seir lifted his blade towards Peter’s neck—

A thunderous crash exploded from the
opposite end of the warehouse. The front garage door blasted open
in a heap of metal. Headlights flared and blinded Kara for a
moment. She blinked as a 1940’s black Ford sedan crashed into the
parked SUV and dragged it to the side, clearing a path. The tires
screeched as the car backed away and shot forward. The Ford
swerved, tires screaming, and skidded to a stop.

Kara could smell the burning rubber.
All four doors swung open, and four men and one woman, who, much to
Kara’s surprise, was the driver, stepped out of the car. They wore
elegant dark colored suits and black fedora hats. They walked
casually towards the group, a slight hop in their step. Kara was
reminded of the gangsters from the old movies she used to watch
with her grandmother. But instead of sporting machine guns—they
wielded elegant silver swords. Who were these mortals?

Peter fell to the ground. He looked up
at Kara with a confused expression, but seemed more relieved than
anything else. Kara quickly pulled him towards her.

The seirs tensed. They shifted their
weight anxiously, and their death blades jerked and gleamed in
anticipation. Their attention was glued on the new arrivals. Saliva
dripped from their wicked snarls.

“
Ranab. It’s been a while,”
said a man with a scar that started from his left eye and ran all
the way down to his chin. “Can’t say that I’ve missed you, though.”
His voice was raspy and commanding. He tipped his hat. Stubble
speckled his square jaw.

Ranab glowered at the man and stepped
forward. “Santo. I see your scar has healed. Care for another
one?”

Santo studied him for a moment. He
pointed his sword towards Kara. “Let the angels go, or you’ll
regret it, demon lover. I think I’m in the mood for a little
cleansing. The streets have been dark of late.”

Angels?
So they could see them too, thought Kara. She regarded the
group with more interest. Their faces were pulled back in deep
scowls, but they were far less foul than the seirs. They walked
with confidence and determination. Kara saw old wounds on the
woman’s hands, like small white marks. The woman caught Kara
staring and winked at her.

“
This is our hunt,” growled
Ranab. “They were promised to us. Their deaths belong to us. You
have no right to take them!”

Santo gave him an impish grin. “Oh,
but I do have a right. I don’t care who promised you what, demon
lover. You’re not going to hurt any of these angels. I think it’s
high time we taught you seirs a lesson.”

A large vein throbbed on Ranab’s
forehead. His black eyes glinted with hatred. “They will die if I
say so! You are outnumbered. We will destroy you easily. And you
have a woman with you. Ha! We will kill her, and then we will take
what is ours. We will feast on the souls of angels
today!”

Santo smiled. “No angel is dying
today.”

He swung his sword in the air and
charged. Instantly, the others followed suit, and five swords
gleamed in the air. The ringing of swords echoed in the warehouse.
The seirs rushed forward and met them. The sounds of metal hitting
metal resonated around them. A flash of a sword perforated the
abdomen of a seir, and he fell to the ground under a flailing black
coat. The clang of metal and wails erupted throughout the
warehouse. With bloodlust in his eyes, Santo swung his sword at his
attacker. The seir never had a chance, dropping like a stone before
another took his place. He dove with his weapon. Santo lifted his
sword and blocked the attack. The seir curled his fingers into a
fist and hit him hard into the face. Santo staggered back. Blood
dripped from his mouth. He spat. The seir snarled and leaped into
the air. Santo kicked outward and smashed him in the gut. The seir
began to choke and gag.

The woman parried and blocked her way
through two seirs. She twisted around and brought her weapon down
in an arc. A seir went down. The other sprang forward and kicked
her in the face. The woman stumbled backwards, blood spattered the
ground. She wiped her jaw with her hand and charged. She knocked
his death blade out of his hand with a single blow. The seir stood
for a moment, his hands clamped into fists, but then he backed away
and retreated.

Ranab swore and retreated with the
rest of his group. They disappeared behind the entrance of the
warehouse. Kara hoped to never see their ugly, white faces again.
She heard a moan and kneeled down next to Peter. She turned his
body around and searched for the death blade with her fingers. She
felt the hard sting of a handle and pulled the death blade from
Peter’s thigh. Then she forced David to kneel and pulled another
blade out of his shoulder.

Despite the pain, David yelled
triumphantly, “Yeah! That’s right! Run away like the scared little
girls you are. See you at the circus, freaks!”

Kara shook her head slowly and
stumbled towards Santo. “Thank you for helping us, we are in your
debt. Your fighting skills are really impressive. Do you mind me
asking…who are you people and how did you know we were
angels?”

Santo smiled and turned Kara gently
around to release her wrists. Her arms fell to her sides. “Ah!
Thank God. I was beginning to think I’d stay like that forever.”
Light shone from the cuts around her wrists. She rubbed them gently
with her hands.

“
I guess you haven’t been a
guardian for very long?” Santo sheathed his sword in the black
leather scabbard that hung from his belt around his waist. He gave
Kara a warm smile.

Kara’s face tingled, and she was glad
she couldn’t blush. “Um…a little over a year, I guess, if you count
by mortal years.”

She studied his face. His scar was far
uglier up close. It had healed a darker olive color than his skin
and had a rough texture to it like leather. His thick black lashes,
deep brows, and short black hair had been hidden under his fedora.
If it hadn’t been for the large scar across his face, he would have
been very, very handsome.

Santo’s dark eyes sparkled. “We’re a
secret mortal society. We’ve been fighting alongside the legion for
centuries. The angels call us sensitives, because we are sensitive
to the supernatural around us. We see and understand things that
other mortals can’t without training and education.”

So these were the sensitives. Kara
smiled in spite of herself. If she hadn’t been picked as a
guardian, being a sensitive would have been her second choice. She
was very glad to finally meet them. She thought they looked badass
in their suits and swords, and she could easily imagine herself
fighting alongside them. Santo seemed to have read her mind and
smiled at her again. She was extremely thankful she had no blood to
flush her cheeks.

“
We are very grateful for
your help. We were in a very bad situation, to say the least,” said
Peter, with a tremor in his voice. “We would have been dinner if it
weren’t for you guys.”

“
Glad we could help, little
one,” said the woman. Her crimson lips spread into a smile of
encouragement. Her fierce blue eyes were compassionate, and she
moved behind him and cut his bonds. Then she did the same for
David, who seemed a little too pleased to have such a pretty woman
rescue him. Kara sighed and rolled her eyes.

Seeing that his charms had no effect
on the pretty woman, David walked over to the 1940’s Ford sedan
instead. He stretched out his arms and fell face forward onto the
hood, his cheek on the cool surface. “Whoa—this is an awesome car!”
He stroked the hood gently with his hands. “She’s a real beauty—I
think I’m in love. I’m finally home baby.” The sensitives all
gathered around the car smiling, but mostly they laughed at
David.

Peter tried to follow David to the car
but tripped and fell. Kara rushed over to his aid. His skin was
nearly translucent. White light broke out from tiny holes all over
his body. His skin looked like a thin slice of Swiss cheese. It was
breaking apart. It wouldn’t hold him together for much
longer.

Kara gave him a reassuring smile.
“You’re going to be fine, I promise,” she whispered to him. “I’m
going to get you out of here, Peter.” Peter forced a smile, but she
could tell he wasn’t buying it.

Kara pulled Peter to his feet and
wrapped her arm around him. “Come on. Let’s get out of this
stinking place.”

Chapter 8

The Council’s Decision

A
fter an excruciatingly long debrief at Counter Demon
Division, Kara, David, and Peter were to report back in person
before the High Council. Ariel had ignored Kara’s constant
pleadings to let her go alone on a mission to save Jenny. The
archangel informed her that she was regrettably obliged to follow
the commands issued from the High Council. She flatly denied Kara’s
request and told her it was a suicide mission, even though Kara had
been to the netherworld before. Kara and the others were summoned
to the High Council immediately. Furious, Kara had stormed out of
CDD, knocking down chairs and a selection of holographic screens on
her way out.

Kara had remained silent all the way
to the Council of Ministers. From the elevator ride with four small
red monkeys who decided to play tag with Kara’s head, to the final
wild ride in a sky-car that nearly tipped over, Kara couldn’t help
but shiver as she remembered Jenny’s terrified face. Lilith had
taken Jenny on purpose. She knew Kara would do anything in her
power to save her friend. Even if it meant risking her reputation
with the legion and her own soul to save her friend—she would do
it. Kara had seen the glint in Lilith’s eyes before she jumped
through the Rift. Lilith had big plans for Kara. But those plans
meant that Kara would have to venture into the netherworld one more
time.

It was with a regretful spirit that
Kara followed the others from the sky-car. They tipped the driver
with one of David’s shoe-laces and watched him sputter away on his
cloud-like contraption. An oracle greeted them
immediately.

“
Ah! Miss Clara. There you
are at last!” The oracle rolled towards them crushing concrete
pebbles under the weight of his enormous crystal ball. The oracle
danced above the sphere and flailed his arms around excitedly. His
wispy white hair swayed like tall grasses above his head. He beamed
at the sight of them, but quickly recovered with a serious
demeanor. “You’re late! Hurry! Hurry! We mustn’t keep the Council
waiting. They are very anxious to hear your news.”

“
I’m sure they are,”
growled Kara.

She glimpsed his large toes and long
yellow nails peeking out beneath his glimmering silver robes. They
looked remarkably similar to Mr. Patterson’s toes. An ache rose
inside her. Kara longed for her mortal days at the bookstore when
none of her friends was being tortured by an evil
stepsister.

The oracle arched a bushy eyebrow. He
was silent for a moment, the blue in his eyes gleamed. “Well of
course, why wouldn’t they be? Asmodeus has another daughter.
Dreaded business this is, after what we’ve suffered—so many dead
angels—so many dead souls—such a massacre in Horizon.”

A wave of sadness washed over the
oracle’s face. He turned his back to them and stared into space.
His blue eyes glazed over suddenly, and then he recited in a
monotone voice. “And out from the darkness she will be unleashed
into the worlds…and only from the same darkness can she be
undone…”