Seirs, Soul Guardians Book 5 (21 page)

The polished metal sides of the
Grimmer were covered with transparent tubes oozing black liquid, as
though it were a living creature being pumped with blood. The green
light covered their faces in an eerie glow and made the children
look even sicklier. From what she could see, no Seirs were around
at the moment. The gloomy hallway was empty. Perhaps they were all
attending their dying king. It was perfect timing.

“
Well, there’s no time like
the present,” said Kara. “Let’s go as quietly as we can. Maybe the
Seirs won’t see us . . .”

“
Stop them!” A group of
Seirs came thrashing down the tunnel, their blades at the ready.
“Don’t let them get away!”

“
. . . maybe not.
RUN!”

Kara was surprised at how fast the
children ran. They knew this was their only chance of escape, and
they pushed themselves with everything they had. But the Seirs,
heavy treads echoed behind them, and Kara knew that sooner or later
the Seirs would catch up to them. The children’s burst of energy
would only last a few more minutes, and then their starved bodies
would run out of fuel.

The two great iron doors stood ajar;
the Seirs had forgotten to close them. She could see the stone path
that led to the lift on the other side of the doors. She stole a
look behind her . . .

The Seirs were almost upon them. The
children would never make it to the lift.

Kara balanced the two children on her
shoulders while she dislodged a pipe from the wall. Black liquid
sprayed her face. She ignored the disgusting warm liquid that
dripped down her cheeks and waved the pipe around like a baseball
bat. She waited for the rest of the children to pass her by. She
waved to Vince and tossed him the pipe. “How good is your
aim?”

Vince beamed. “Very good. I’m a
baseball pitcher in my high school.”

“
Good. I can’t hurt any of
the Seirs, but you can. Try to hit the first one on the head. Do it
now.”

Vince raised his left leg, arched his
back, and pitched the pipe at the oncoming horde of
Seirs.

Smack
. It hit the first Seir right across the neck, and he
stumbled and fell flat on his face. The other Seirs were taken by
surprise and tripped over him crashing to the floor.

Suddenly a volley of pipes and pieces
of metal shot through the air from behind her. Kara whirled around.
The children were hurling scraps of metal at the Seirs. It was
payback time for the kids. Kara smiled proudly. She couldn’t do
anything to the evil mortals, but watching the Seirs get their
butts whipped by a bunch of kids was just as satisfying as doing it
herself.

The Seirs ran for cover as the barrage
of metal projectiles assaulted them. The children hurled their
weapons furiously until the Seirs lay beaten on the ground and
didn’t move.

“
I’m impressed,” said Kara
as she surveyed the children’s flushed faces. “You guys did really
well. That should give us a few seconds before they send more. Come
on!” She urged the children to follow her through the
doorway.

“
I WILL KILL YOU ALL!” came
a terrifying howl from inside the Grimmer, as though the vessel
itself had spoken. The children halted, too spooked to keep going
as the voice boomed around them.

“
I WILL FIND YOU AND KILL
YOU!”

“
Keep going.” Kara led the
children forward. “Never mind that. Don’t look back. We can’t stop.
Go, go, go!”

Once through the doorway, they climbed
up a stairway made of jagged rocks. The lift stood at the end of
the steps. Kara waited until the last child had stepped onto the
lift and squeezed herself in. She pulled the iron gate across and
pushed the red lever upwards. With a jerk, the lift started to
climb. The children held on to each other and sobbed with relief.
Kara wished she could join them in a good cry.

With a sway and click, the platform
settled and stopped. Kara swung the gate open and stepped off the
lift. Cheers of joys echoed around the walls as the children raced
down the hall and kicked the door open at the other end. She
couldn’t help but be caught up in the children’s elation, and she
ran along with them and out the door.

The oracles would probably not be
happy with her—but if rescuing starving tortured kids wasn’t part
of being a guardian angel, then she’d rather not be one. The
mission might still be a success: she had the Arath, and she had
rescued the missing Sensitive children. She only wished she could
have shared the experience with David and the others. It would have
been especially fulfilling to get to tell Elder Otis herself—to see
his face light up would have been the cherry on top.

The moon shone like a white sun in the
starlit sky. A cool breeze caressed Kara’s face, and the smell of
rain was in the air. The children jumped and danced into the
street. Having had a bag over her head when the Seirs had
angel-napped her, she had no idea where they were. She knew they
were still in Rome, but she had no clue as to where.

The little ones squirmed on her
shoulders, and she lowered them carefully to the cobblestone road.
Children ran up to Kara and kissed her on the cheeks, thanking her
for saving them.

Kara sighed. This was the best part of
her job.

“
Thank you, Kara,” said
Vince. She hadn’t realized that he was taller than her. “We would
have died if it weren’t for you. Thank you for
stopping
to help us.”

A tinge of guilt wavered inside
her—she had hesitated when she had first seen the children. Vince
had seen it, too. With a shrug she stared at the ground. “It’s part
of the job. I’m just glad it’s all over now. ”

Suddenly, Kara was propelled backwards
with extreme force and she hit the ground in pain. Tiny green
sparks danced around her body. The sound of high heels clicking on
the stone road neared her, and she rolled onto her elbows and
looked up.

An open toe red shoe was planted in
front of Kara’s face.

“
Hello, dear sister,” said
Lilith. “Thought I’d let you leave without saying goodbye? I don’t
think so.”

Chapter 19

A struggle
Within

T
he moon shone on Lilith’s white leather pantsuit, making it
look like milk.

“
Thought you’d leave with
my toy, did you?” giggled Lilith as she watched Kara carefully.
“I’m so disappointed with you, Kara. I thought we were sisters, and
sisters don’t steal from each other. It doesn’t belong to you; it’s
mine. You wouldn’t even know how to use it.”

“
I’m not going to use it,”
growled Kara. “And neither are you.”

Lilith narrowed her eyes.
“Always
so
eager
to help family, aren’t you, sis? You’re so incredibly
annoying.”

Kara pushed herself on her
knees and held her arm over her wounded abdomen. She sneered at
Lilith, “You’re no family of mine—
sis
.”

Lilith smiled. “Right, because all you
deranged angels prefer the stink of mortal flesh. I never
understood why the monkeys have to smell so bad, and the ghastly
liquid that oozes out of their faces—it’s utterly disgusting. Urg.”
She grimaced and shuddered.

Vince stepped forward, but Kara shook
her head and glared at the boy. The last thing she needed right now
was for Lilith to hurt the children. She wanted to keep Lilith’s
focus on her, not on the kids.

Vince narrowed his eyes and nodded. He
whistled loudly and ran down the block. The rest of the children
followed him like a wave. Lilith ignored the running children and
kept her eyes on Kara.

Kara reached inside her shirt and
pulled out the crystal timer. Her eyes widened. She had less than
an hour to get the weapon back to Horizon.

“
What’s that you got there,
sister dear?” Lilith raised her brows. “You don’t look like the
jewelry type. Did your
boyfriend
give that to you? Oh...how sweet. Angels and
their forbidden love affairs—now that
is
pathetic.”

Kara kept her poker face on so that
Lilith wouldn’t see the panic she felt inside.

A loud crash sounded behind
Kara.

A mob of Seirs rushed through the door
from which Kara and the children had escaped earlier. They spilled
out onto the street like evil black water, corrupting everything
they touched. Their death blades hung at their sides as they made a
large circle around her and Lilith. The hatred in their eyes
matched Kara’s. They wanted payback for what happened to their
king. She wondered if he was still alive.

“
They don’t look very happy
to see you.” Lilith extended her long red manicured fingers towards
Kara. “You’re finished. Give it to me,” she ordered.

Kara glowered. “Never. You’ll have to
come and get it.”

Kara screamed as her body was hurled
into the air, twisting and burning in green and blue lightning.
Like a lasso it wrapped around her, and then smashed her hard to
the ground. Kara rolled over and blinked the dust out of her eyes.
She could smell her M-5 skin sizzle and pop as green and blue
sparks danced along her body. She felt like burnt toast. Even with
just one piece of the Arath, Lilith’s power was
extraordinary.

Kara was in trouble.

She struggled to her feet and saw the
weapon cradled in Lilith’s hand.

Lilith caught her looking at the Arath
and smiled. “It works differently on angels than on mortals. You’ve
only tasted a small fraction of its power. I’m just getting warmed
up, you see.” She tossed a long strand of white hair behind her
shoulder. “To think the archangels had this weapon and never used
it properly! Fools. Mortal-loving fools. They are so inferior to
us. Father always said so.”

Kara could see no options for escape.
She knew she would have to fight Lilith—and by the looks of it, her
half-sister had the upper hand. Kara was injured and outnumbered.
It would take a miracle to escape with one piece of the weapon, let
alone both of them.

Lilith circled Kara, keeping a safe
distance between them. “Don’t think I’ve forgiven you for what you
did to my father—because I haven’t.”

Kara sighed loudly and
shook her head. “Here we go again about
our
precious father. He was more of
a madman than a real dad.”

Another blazing charge of blue and
green current surged at Kara, and she was smashed to the ground
again. She was burning inside and out. Sparks of green and blue
current, like hundreds of knifes, stabbed into her skin. She could
hear Lilith’s laughter, and her temper rose.

Her elemental power flared into life
and filled her with renewed energy. Her power fed on her hatred for
Lilith. Images of dying angels and tortured children flashed in her
mind’s eye. All her emotions came together. Elemental power soared
through her like a gush of warm water, and she embraced it happily.
She ignored the warning in her head as she felt the darkness inside
her waken as if from a long sleep. It surged into her like a rush
of adrenaline. She focused on Lilith.

Kara was up on her feet in an instant.
Her elemental energy snaked around her body and covered in a mist
of golden vapor.

She was ready.

“
Ah...now look at you, all
golden like an Oscar statuette.” Lilith manipulated the weapon
gingerly. “Don’t assume you can stop me with your golden suit,
because you can’t, dearest sister. With the help of this little
pyramid here, I am a hundred times more powerful than you. I’m
going to crush you like a bug.”

Kara sneered and blinked the golden
energy from her eyes. “We’ll see about that.”

“
Is that a threat?” mocked
Lilith, her dark eyes gleaming silver in the moonlight. “You can’t
stop me, it’s too late. Look around you, the city has already
fallen—and soon the rest of the mortal world will be
mine.”

Kara frowned. What was Lilith talking
about? She strained to listen as distant shouts reached her. Two
blocks away, enraged mortals attacked each other with their bare
hands. Lilith had already poisoned the city.

Kara was too late.

Lilith giggled at Kara’s shocked
expression. “You see—humans are like cattle. And I’m going to farm
them for my demons. They stink. What better use could they be than
as food for my family.”

Kara could hear the crystal
timer emptying itself.
Tick tock, tick
tock...

Time was running out.

“
Humans are food. Plain and
simple.”

“
I’ll kill you before you
hurt any more mortals.” Kara’s elemental power blazed around
her—but she stopped short.

Much to her horror, Vince and some of
the other children had reappeared down the street. What were they
doing back here? She focused her energy on Lilith again—she
wouldn’t let her hurt the children.

Lilith followed her gaze and laughed
as she clapped her hands excitedly. “An audience! How wonderful.
This is even better than I could have wished for. Hello, little
mortal Sensitives.” She waved at the children who cowered against
the buildings at a safe distance.