Marked, Soul Guardians Book 1

by Kim Richardson

  The 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.

  Kara tried to get Vince’s attention, but he was looking behind him as if waiting for something.

  Lilith turned her attention back to Kara. “You’d have thought that by now the kids would have been long gone from here. But they’re too stupid to see danger. It’s like I said: these monkeys were made to be food. I’m really going to enjoy ripping their souls out.”

  “Touch them, and you die!” hissed Kara. Her body was alive with golden sparks.

  She felt a sudden blast of coolness inside, but she ignored it. She hated Lilith more than anything at that moment. She would destroy anything that tried to harm the children, even if it meant dying.

  But then something strange happened.

  Green current seeped out of her and coiled around the golden vapor of her elemental force. The green energy blazed as it overpowered her golden current, eating it like a snake swallowing its prey. Kara stared at herself flabbergasted. What was happening?

  Lilith’s eyes gleamed at the sight of the green current on Kara’s body. “Can it be true? My dear pure angel sister—have you been walking around with demon power inside you?”

  Lilith stepped forward and examined Kara more closely. Her brows knitted together, and then she threw back her head and laughed. “It explains why father had such a keen interest in you. I never understood it until now.”

  Kara felt the powers battle inside her. She strained to keep from fall
ing over. Her body jerked and shivered. The warmth of her elemental power diminished, and coolness swept inside her. She heard laughter as she drifted into the depths of darkness. She didn’t fight it—she welcomed it. She felt more powerful than ever, and she wanted to feel more. The sensation was intoxicating.

  Lilith’s face broke into a smile as her eyes narrowed. “It seems we are more alike than I first thought.” She measured Kara for a moment. “You are wasting your power with the legion of angels. You are on the wrong team. You’ve always been on the wrong team. You were meant to be a creature of the netherworld, just as father said. He created you. You belong to the netherworld.”

  Kara swayed. The world spun before her, and she closed her eyes. Lilith made sense—Kara felt a link with the darkness, as though she knew it, and it knew her. It was the same feeling she had experienced with the creature Morthdu, a sense of belonging—the darkness suited her.

  “You don’t belong with the legion, Kara,” Lilith’s voice was near. “They threw you into their prison like garbage. Why? Because they fear you. You’re different, just like me. Your friends abandoned you. Join me, Kara.”

  Kara gritted her teeth. Her mind was breaking. She felt as though her body was being torn into two. Who was she really—a guardian angel or a creature of the netherworld? The legion did fear her because of her elemental part. Perhaps she was always meant to be on the other side.

  Kara opened her eyes. She reached into her pocket and withdrew the Arath. It pulsed in her palm. Its power vibrated through Kara, and she welcomed it.

  “I could teach you how to use it,” said Lilith eagerly. “Together we could be great. We could rule the mortals and become the most powerful creatures in all the worlds! We could destroy the legion of angels . . .”

  “Kara!”

  David, Jenny, and Peter ran towards her from the street and then Tatiana, Roberto, and Tony.

  “Oh look, here comes my favorite gang of angels.” Lilith snapped her fingers, and the Seirs formed a protective line in front of her and Kara. “You’re too late, monkey lovers. It’s over. Might as well let yourselves die,” she giggled.

  “Kara!” yelled David again, “What’s happened to you?”

  A cry escaped her lips. She gazed at her friends’ terrified faces but didn’t answer. Their shouts faded as the sound of rushing power flowed through her body. It was as though she had dived into a lake of ice-cold water and couldn’t swim back up to the surface. Cool energy washed over her. Her body blazed in green light, and she felt more powerful than she could ever have imagined.

  The darkness called out to her, and she welcomed it.

  Fight it, Kara, said a voice inside her head.

  Kara frowned.

  You are angel, through and through, not a demon...remember...

  A warm spark of elemental power flickered inside her. It pushed its way through the cold and broke out onto the surface.

  She remembered.

  Kara could see the terrified faces of the children—the fear that reflected in their eyes was directed at her. They were afraid of her. This wasn’t how things were supposed to be. She wasn’t evil. She would never hurt the children.

  Lilith beamed at her sister and then turned to the Seirs. She raised her hands in the air. “Destroy the angels and bring the children back to the Seir king. We’ll talk about your incompetence later.”

  The Seirs wielded their weapons and charged . . .

  “NO!”

  A blast of warm energy rushed through Kara and escaped through her fingers. It struck the Arath like rays from the sun.

  The blue pyramid glowed golden for a moment, and then exploded into a million brilliant blue particles.

  Chapter 20

  Time’s up