Embers

by Karen Ann Hopkins

  I watched in silent horror as the smoke pluming from the logs, ignited and a whoosh of flames climbed up Sawyers legs. With only a second to examine him, I caught the image of his destroyed body; his face was nearly unrecognizable.

  I can’t heal that…

  I had had enough. One last time, please, power, come to me! I stretched my arms out and called the flames to me. They came. They flowed together into a single stream, hurrying to my body. The force of the energy slammed into me, knocking me to the ground, dirt and ashes breaking my fall.

  It was done. The fire had left Sawyer, but that was all I could do. The forest still burned all around, the reek of the smoke still permeating the air. I struggled to keep my eyes open as slits. I wanted to see what happened, knowing that when my eyes closed, it would be for the last time. I’d used too much of the power, and now it was eating me up from the inside, slowly devouring me.

  The Demons quickly made their move. A tall, lean female, who under normal circumstances would have been a gorgeous woman, and her polar opposite, a small, red haired one, converged on me, snarling.

  When they reached me, the tall one grabbed my arms, and even though my skin was burning holes into her hands, she dragged me to the other Demons with inhuman strength.

  With a battle screech, she whipped me through the air. I did close my eyes then, waiting for the impact. I landed with a thud and a burst of pain across my back. But at least I was at the base of Sawyer’s pyre. I decided that if I had to be thrown somewhere, this was where I wanted to be, my last visage of stubbornness playing out.

  All at once, three things happened. I heard Sawyer in my mind cry out, ‘Oh God, Ember. No!’ and then he screamed in fury, and broke the chains that bound him. The third thing was a giant black blur shooting by me, smashing into one of the Demons.

  The bear furiously tore the Demon limb from limb with its powerful jaws that not long ago were mere inches from my face. Body parts were flying everywhere, a spray of blood splattering the ground, me and the logs. It was gruesome, but my belly was sound, almost giddy in fact, that the bear had come to our rescue.

  Gunshots began ringing out, blasting echoes shattering the smoky air. Lutz was near enough that I got a whiff of the muskiness of his fur before he shook his mighty head and reared up to his full height.

  Hair tingled on the back of my neck and I stopped breathing. The bear was an awesome spectacle, so grand and brave. But even the supernatural beast couldn’t survive so many bullets. We were all going to die, if not by teeth or bullets, then by fire. As if to agree with me, the flames engulfed the closest building, turning it into bonfire in seconds.

  I had about given up any hope, and was trying desperately to stay conscious a little while longer when the throbbing pain suddenly left my body, and darkness began to pepper my mind.

  When the blackness was almost complete, I felt the light brush of his skin.

  Sawyer had made his way to me, and that knowledge jump-started my brain, opening my eyes to a razor sharp view of the world around me. Just as his hand was about to grasp mine, a dark haired Demon grabbed him, hauling my guardian away from me.

  Where Sawyer found the power, I don’t know, but he did, slamming his own weight into his assailant, the two hitting the ground together.

  The world was utter chaos. Screaming, cursing, gun blasts, all joining the crackle of fire in the air. The bear fell to the ground, and the Demons converged on the mighty creature, climbing over its jerking body as if they were ravenous ants.

  I turned away—I couldn’t watch them biting him.

  I looked back at Sawyer. He was motionless on the ground. The Demon who had attacked him was walking straight for me. There was an ugly leer on his face.

  “So Watcher, did you think you could come to our own territory and defeat us?” He screamed at me in a strong British accent. Then he laughed, an appalling noise coming from his pale lips.

  I was numb. Sawyer was dead. Nothing mattered anymore. I couldn’t move if I wanted to. It was over, life was over, and I didn’t even care. At least now I wouldn’t have to worry about the end of the world or my place in trying to stop it.

  I tried to draw some of the power, just enough to engulf me in flames before the Demon reached me, but it wasn’t there. I wasn’t strong enough to wield it and it left me alone, in renewed pain with a breaking heart. Tears began to roll down my face again, this time in frustration.

  The Demon was almost upon me when there was suddenly a body between us. The newcomer’s head was covered with thick, black hair and was turned away from me. There was a huge shotgun in his hands that he pulled back and raised it to his eye.

  The gun went off and kicked back very close to me. The explosion momentarily silenced the world to my ears, and I pressed my eyes shut for a second. I opened them just in time to see the Demon that had killed Sawyer get knocked backwards from the impact that hit him squarely between the eyes.

  The Demon hit the ground and didn’t move again. But there were other Demons, and they kept coming.

  I pressed myself lower as a bullet grazed my back, and another hit my leg. My savior kept shooting, aiming at the Demons and finding his mark most of the time, but they continued advancing as if the bullets didn’t bother them at all. They hooted and hollered all kinds of vile things as they neared.

  The stranger suddenly turned his swarthy face to me, winked, and in almost the same motion, slung the gun over his shoulder and lifted me into his arms. I instantly realized I didn’t fear this Demon, but I didn’t want him to take me from Sawyer either. I feebly attempted to struggle. My limbs wouldn’t respond. He just held me tighter and ran faster. I could hear the other Demons coming after us, and I closed my eyes. The nasty, noisy bunch could be tracked on hearing alone—no need for eyes or supernatural powers.

  The stranger ran with me, skirting the fire and going deeper into the woods. Finally he stopped, gently placing me on the ground behind the trunk of a giant Poplar tree. He pulled a gun from his waistband and started shooting again, using the tree as a shield. The Demons pulled up, ducking behind the trees, shooting back. Their movements were the same as the bullets whizzing around. I didn’t know how my rescuer was managing to target any of them.

  “Pretty Watcher, if you have any magic left in you, now would be the time to use it.” He glanced down at me speculatively.

  “I’m sorry. I’m finished.”

  “I once knew a watcher to shake the earth. Do you not have a little earth shaking in you?” He said it in a humorous way and I instantly liked him.

  “I haven’t learned that yet.”

  “Pity.”

  The incoming shots were frighteningly close. The Demons would be on us in seconds.

  Through the dizziness and smoke, I suddenly saw something moving down the hillside that renewed my faith in God, and gave me hope.

  Revelation 5:2

  Then I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, “Who is worthy to open the scroll

  and to loosen its seals?”

  Ember ~ Forty-Five

  It was Ila, but it wasn’t Ila.

  She was young, her hair bright gold and flying around her smooth, round face. She was mounted on Cricket, and they were racing down the hill together. Behind them were Angus and Ivan in his wolf form. I had to blink several times to be sure that the image didn’t disappear. But it was real. Ila had come for me.

  Angus veered off and met me a moment later. He licked my face, and it was the sweetest slobber fest I’d ever received. Ivan appeared by my other side in his human form.

  “You look most terrible, Ember,” he said, kneeling down.

  “Sawyer is dead, I think. You have to go to him in the compound.”

  Ivan’s eyes held mine for an instant, and then he was a wolf again, and he was gone.

  When Ila reached us, she vaulted off Cricket, and my horse came to stand next to me. Cricket dropped her head to my face and snorted, blowing her grassy breath over me. The sweet scent
of alfalfa tantalized me, reminding me that there was another place, not too far away, where all was right and good. I wanted to go to the place again.

  “There are two Watchers? That, I did not anticipate,” the swarthy Demon said in a pleased voice as he stopped to reload his gun.

  Ila smiled at me and said, “All will be well, dear child, don’t you worry.” She bent down and kissed my forehead and then my cheeks. Her touch worked some healing in me, and I shakily sat up.

  “Please be careful.” I held her hand, not wanting to let go. As shocking as it was to see her young, she was still the same Ila to me.

  “I love you, Ember,” she said, holding my gaze for a second before leaving me. I crawled to the side of the tree to watch her. Her entire body glowed, and she seemed to be floating above the ground.

  The bullets were flying at her, but they bounced off an invisible shield she held around her. When she stopped, her voice boomed out unnaturally loud, causing me to shiver at the sound.

  “Garrett and Sarah Hammond, I’ve come for the harvest. Today you will reap what you have sown.”

  “That was a long time ago, Watcher. I thought you to be dead,” Garrett shouted, stepping away from a tree. Eight other Demons followed suit, most of them bleeding and injured.

  My Demon bodyguard scooped me up into his arms before I could protest. “We have to get further away, trust me.” He waited for me to agree, which was nice. When I nodded, he swept into action. “Can you sit on the horse?” He asked urgently.

  “Yes, it’s my horse,” I said, irritated with the question at first. Then it dawned on me that he meant because of my injuries. I was hurting all over and none of my body parts seemed to be working right, but I wasn’t going to tell him that.

  “Good.” He placed me on Cricket’s bare back, since Ila hadn’t bothered with a saddle, and then he leaped up behind me. Cricket didn’t have any reins either. In theory I should be able to manage to use my mind to direct her, but she was such a difficult mare sometimes.

  Cricket rose to the occasion and responded easily, whirling around and galloping back up the hill. Angus followed. When we reached the summit, the stranger whispered for me to stop the horse and I did.

  “You will not want to miss this,” he said, sliding off the horse and helping me down. He seemed excited all of a sudden. The fact that he got his jollies from a situation as crazy as this made me wonder all the more about him.

  I could stand now, but he still braced me with his arm as we both looked down into the hollow, waiting for the fireworks to begin.

  Ila stood very still, and her arms were raised wide. A person stumbling upon the scene would have believed that she was an angel, her golden crown of hair startling against the brown and green of the forest surrounding her. The wind picked up, blowing down the ridges and entering the hollow with mounting speed. The sky darkened as graying clouds slid across the sky to obscure the sun in an action that would never have occurred so swiftly by normal weather conditions.

  A flash of lightening splintered the air, striking a huge tree where two of the Demons were standing. The tree snapped and the monsters attempted to flee, but they were unable to out run it, as it seemed to fall with a sense of purpose. It toppled to the ground, crushing them with a horrendous crash.

  The other Demons turned and ran, all except for Garrett and the blonde Demon by his side. The two of them seemed resigned to their fate, ready to go out in a blaze of glory. They weren’t running from anyone. They were just that type.

  The Demons that attempted to escape couldn’t move quickly enough. The wind flowed around the hollow at incredible speed, beginning to take form, thickening, and picking up all debris in its path. And there was Ila, standing in the heart of it all. But the wind wasn’t affecting her. She was rooted to a safe port in a dreadful storm.

  The rushing air made a baleful noise, rocking my ears, whipping the hair against my face roughly. The Demon jerked me to the ground, bracing us against a massive tree. He’d been right, if we hadn’t moved, we’d be in the middle of the tempest right now. Angus pushed his head under the crook of my arm, whining and shaking. Cricket, in a fit of equine terror, bolted away into the woods, to a place far away from Ila’s storm. I let her go, willing her to safety.

  His voice tickled me, seeking, Ember? It was so weak, barely a whisper in my mind.

  But he was alive…

  Tears fell from my eyes in relief. Although my mind wanted to stay with him, the scene before me broke the connection.

  The wind was black, and the roar deafening. The shape that Ila gave the air was a tornado, held in place and controlled by her. One by one, the remaining Demons were swept up into the furious atmosphere.

  But still, Ila continued to build the storm, growing it to a size that was frightening. Was she losing her rein on the power, or was she just that upset?

  I wanted to leave the storm behind, to go to Sawyer, but when I started to rise, the Demon huddled beside me gripped my arm, shaking his head, no.

  When I thought the sound couldn’t get any louder, the earth groaned, and I began to scream. The ground shook, and the trees tore from the dirt around us, collapsing, falling in explosions of leaves, branches and dirt.

  The Demon shielded me with his body, and I peeked out from under his arm to see it happen.

  The tornado began to rise and below it, the earth split in two, sending giant chunks of earth, rocks and trees flying upwards. The tornado caught the debris and lifted it all up into itself.

  The whole world quaked, shuddering with effort before Ila finally dropped her arms. The single movement caught my eye in all the destruction, as if it was a seashell you saw from a distance, glaringly bright in the sand, wanting you to find it. With that movement, the tornado crashed into the earth, widening the devastating hole. The roar of the wind was gone, but giant pieces of debris rained down from the sky, smashing into the ground all around us. Still the Demon lay atop me, protecting me from the onslaught.

  When the crashing noises ceased, my protector rolled to the side, coughing from the dust-filled cloud covering the entire hollow and the ridges around it.

  I was coughing too, and I tried to look around properly, but there was too much soot in my eyes. When they watered enough to give me vision, I saw that both the Demon and I were completely covered in the dust. Angus sneezed next to my face, and I hugged him briefly, my hands probing his body, but finding no injuries.

  I stood up in disbelief at the apocalyptic scene that surrounded us. There were no trees left and part of the hillside had dropped into the gaping hole in the ground. It was as big as a high school football field.

  Is this what the entire world will look like when it ends?

  I pulled away from the Demon and started down the hill to Ila, but downed trees, boulders and huge clumps of earth blocked my way. I soon learned that I didn’t need to worry about reaching Ila. She came to me. When I looked up, she was suddenly standing there before me. She was completely clean and untouched, but to my horror, and in front of my very own eyes, her youth was slipping away. Her hair was turning white, the wrinkles were creasing deeply into her face, and her body was shrinking. I ran to her, using the little bit of power she’d given me when she’d touched me earlier. When I got to her, she fell into my arms.

  I softly laid her down. The Demon appeared at my side with a frown on his face. “Ila, tell me what I should do to help you,” I demanded frantically.

  Her voice was weak, but clear. “My dear, there is nothing you can do for me, but there is something I can do for you. Listen to me closely, for this is important. You must search out a Watcher named Insepth. He will teach you what you still need to learn of the earth power. He can guide you to other mentors. I think this Demon at your side knows of him.”

  “Yes, I know Insepth. I believe I can find him,” the Demon answered.

  “Good, it’s a small world indeed.” She was satisfied.

  I glanced at the Demon, and wondered why Ila would
have thought he knew her friend. Ila then took a sharp breath and I turned back to her.

  She looked herself now, only older. Her voice was feeble as she said, “Ember, I waited for you to come to me, knowing my time here was ending. You are of my blood, and I must tell you now before it is too late that Montery, was the sire of your birth line. Also, there can’t be two powerful Watchers of the same line, sharing an element for very long. It throws off the balance. So you see, it was destined that I would have left you shortly anyway.” She grasped my hand and held it to her heart. Tears streamed into the grime on my face as I looked into her eyes.

  “Ila, you can’t leave me. I need you,” I cried.

  “No child, you are capable without me, and you will have friends to help you through the dark days ahead. And Sawyer will be with you. But you must go to him now. We mustn’t tempt Fate too much. I will give you a gift before I go, and you should use it to heal your guardian. Be brave, my dear, for once I impart the last of my powers upon you, I will be gone.”

  I nodded, unable to speak. But I understood. The chill of inevitability washed over me.

  Ila closed her eyes, and squeezed my hands tighter. A light began to flow into me, sunny, warm and powerful. It was only a small amount, and when it ended, I felt completely well. All my wounds were healed.

  But Ila wasn’t breathing anymore. I sucked in the wail that wanted to spill from my mouth, remembering Sawyer. He needed me. I quickly bent to kiss Ila’s forehead and then spoke to Angus, telling him to stay with her.

  “We have to get to Sawyer,” I said, running by the Demon. At a speed that defied logic, and before I could protest, he gathered me up in his arms. He jumped over the obstacles in our path and dashed up the hill to the other side.