Marked, Soul Guardians Book 1

by Kim Richardson

  Kara sprinted down the tunnel to keep up with Gideon. It was the weirdest thing—chasing an old man with a white afro who ran upside down along the dark ceiling of an abandoned New York subway tunnel. Gravity had new meaning for Kara. Only a witch doctor could run upside down. She had no idea what a witch doctor was, or what they did, but she was very grateful his disgusting orange tonic had cured her.

  Gideon had explained to her that he was on another magical plane, and that on that plane he was right side up, and therefore Kara was, in fact, upside down. She decided not to press the matter. He had made it clear to her that she needed his help, and Olga had said the same.

  After running down the tunnel’s grime and through strange wet puddles that Kara would rather not think about, they reached Gideon’s house. And of course it was upside down.

  It was the weirdest house Kara had ever seen. It was nestled on the ceiling of the tunnel. Its orange walls appeared to be made of canned goods and metal plates, and it had a row of round widows on the roof. It looked like a mix between a space ship and a gigantic pumpkin.

  Gideon disappeared behind the front door. He reappeared moments later with a wooden staff that had bells attached to it, and with a selection of leather pouches that hung from the leather belt around his waist. He had also wrapped an old fur cloak around his shoulders. The poor foxes’ heads leaned across his shoulders, their glass eyes fixed on Kara. She cringed but decided not to say anything about how wrong it was to wear fur nowadays.

  Gideon beamed at Kara. “Here we are. I’m ready to rid the world of this dark business. I might be a little rusty—but I’m sure it’ll all come back to me if the stars want it to.”

  Gideon strolled towards her with a spring in his step. His pouches bounced around his belt.

  “Uh...Gideon, you think you can come down on my plane for a while? I think I’ve twisted the muscles in my neck from staring up all the time.”

  The witch doctor smiled. “Stars! But of course! I can see how having us both on the same plane would make matters simpler.” He snapped his fingers and with a puff of white smoke, he landed with a thud beside Kara. “Is that better?”

  “Yes, thank you,” said Kara. He was a head taller than she when he stood beside her.

  “I’m supposed to rendezvous with my team on the corner of Broadway and 42nd street at around 3:00 pm. So, if you’re ready, we really should be going.”

  Gideon’s smile disappeared. “Oh yes, the spirit walkers. Such unnatural creatures, you’re lucky Olga didn’t vaporize them or cook them into her famous Spicy Spirit Stew.”

  Kara frowned and wondered if that was what Olga had been sautéing in her cauldron.

  “They’re not unnatural. They’re my friends—and guardian angels—and they’re trying to help us fight the dark warlock. They’re on our side, you know. I care about them.” Kara fought to control her irritation.

  “The dead should stay dead,” said the witch doctor matter—of—factly.

  “So...how come the legion doesn’t know about you?” said Kara, trying to change the subject. “You obviously have magic.”

  “The legion? You mean that interfering spirit—walker legion? Why would they? They’re nothing to me. I’m just a witch doctor. I can do a few basic spells, like cast a veil, but I mostly I create remedies to protect others against dark magic. I’m more of a potions master. That’s what witch doctors do—make magical medicine. I’m not powerful enough to be considered a real threat to anyone.”

  He frowned, and when he spoke again his voice was full of contempt. “I don’t care for the dealings of the spirit walkers—I’m sorry to say.”

  Kara decided to drop the topic. It was no use arguing with a stubborn old man, who probably hadn’t had a conversation with a real person in years. And she needed his help to find the way out of the underground subway tunnels. She looked down the tunnel. “So, how do we get to 42nd street from here?”

  Gideon’s smile returned. “Easy, I know a shortcut. I know all the secret passageways down in the tunnels. I’ve lived down here for over a hundred years. This way.”

  He walked down the tunnel talking to himself and counting the walls.

  Kara laughed and ran to join him. They walked side by side for a few minutes until they reached another tunnel that crossed their path.

  A sinister laugh echoed throughout the tunnel.

  Kara froze mid—step.

  Suddenly, the walls of the tunnel shifted and instead of an opening, they stood facing another wall.

  “Oh, ya want to try that again, do ya?” Gideon reached into one of the pouches on his belt and then threw a handful of red powder at the wall.

  “To the stars!” he shouted. The stone wall shifted and disappeared. The same tunnel stretched out before them again.

  “Come, come, before the tunnels change again.” Gideon raced down the tunnel like a wild man being chased by a tiger.

  Kara started to follow him but halted.

  Six creatures stepped from the shadows at the edge of the tunnel. They had eight scaly legs and tails like scorpions. They were the size of small ponies. Their sharp venomous claws ripped the ground under their feet. They smashed their tails against the walls and shattered the rock like it was made of soft clay. Their glowing red eyes were focused on Kara. Glowing runes covered their backs, and the smell that rolled off of them was a mixture of sulfur and bile.

  Gideon screamed and jumped back, swishing his staff before him.

  “Get back, you devils!”

  He tripped on his own legs and went down. Desperately, he pulled at one of the bags around his waist. “Don’t come any closer, or I’ll turn ya into a bowl of spider chowder!”

  Kara pulled out her blade and ran towards the old man. She reached down and pulled him up just in time to avoid being skewered by one of the insects’ scorpion tails as it pierced the ground a centimeter from her boot. They dashed down the tunnel with the giant spiders scurrying after them.

  Kara stopped and turned around to face their attackers. Her soul blade twinkled in the yellow light. Six against two—it wasn’t fair, the odds weren’t good. She knew her only chance was to act quickly. She didn’t have time to think of a plan. Her instincts just kicked in.

  One of the giant spiders charged at Kara, its tail slashing side to side, aiming at her head. She ducked and swung her blade towards the underbelly. As soon as the blade touched the soft tissue, green ooze spluttered to the ground and splattered in Kara’s face. The spider shimmered and shrunk back to the size of Kara’s palm. The runes disappeared.

  In the corner of her eye she saw Gideon throw a red vial at one of the creatures. It exploded in a ball of liquid red fire on contact. The spider wailed and flung its charred body against the wall of the tunnel, convulsing. It slumped to the side, and then it keeled over and shrunk back to its normal size. The witch doctor rushed over and stomped the spider repeatedly with his rubber boots.

  Gideon prepared a new tonic as another oversized spider advanced in his direction. Two more spiders launched their attack on Kara. She stepped back, rolled to the side and swung her blade into the first creature’s head with a satisfying crack. She tried to retrieve her blade in time to fight the second—but not fast enough. With a powerful whack from one of its legs, it caught Kara in the chest, and she went crashing into the wall with a horrible crunch. The force squeezed the breath out of her.

  She scrambled to her feet, her vision blurred from knocking her head on the wall. She stood there breathing hard. She couldn’t tell whether two spiders were coming at her or one. She blinked. The spider’s eight glowing red eyes burned with hatred. It opened its mandibles and a glowing green web shot from its maw. Kara leaped to the side, but too late. It caught her in mid—stride and flung her around. She crashed on the ground. Her arms and legs were pinned awkwardly to her sides by the sticky web. Green vapors rose from it, and the smell of sulfur burned her nose. She couldn’t move. She could hear Gideon yell as he fought the other s
pider.

  A hairy—scaled leg rolled her over, so that the giant spider’s ugly face was a few inches from her own.

  “Ah...a little help here, Gideon,” she called, her pulse racing. No answer.

  The spider opened its maw to bite off her head. Her fear quickly turned to anger. Her instincts kicked it, and a cool energy surged through her, wanting to be released. She was buzzing inside. Her hair lifted on end. The ground groaned beneath her. And then the air around her was alive with electricity.

  The spider lowered its head.

  Crack!

  An electric silver bolt shot out of Kara and blinded her for a second. The creature wailed—then quiet, nothing but the smell of burnt hair. A blob of green ooze sizzled and popped on the ground. A single tiny leg was all that remained of the giant spider.

  She moved her arms and legs. She checked herself. The web had melted away; only a few sticky green fragments remained as stains on her jacket. She stood up. The electricity was still vigorous inside her, and the pendant pulsed.

  “Now that is power.” Gideon smiled as he adjusted one of the pouches around his belt. Kara spotted the last spider, squished like a rotten tomato behind him.

  “Never saw anything like it before, and I’ve seen a many great things in my time, so the stars can tell ya. Your magic is quite extraordinary—powers from mother earth materialize as silver electricity from your fingers—beautiful and deadly. And that’s what it’s going to take to bring down the dark warlock.”

  Kara didn’t feel very powerful at the moment. She knew they were wasting precious time. The dark warlock kept throwing obstacles in her way. He was hoping to keep them down here for a while, even if he couldn’t kill them. She knew what he was planning.

  She searched the ground with her boots and bent down to retrieve her blade. It was covered in green slime. It was disgusting—but it was the only weapon she had, so she wiped the blade on her jeans and put it in her belt again.

  She looked up. “Let’s get out of here before more giant insects decide to make us lunch.”

  Gideon nodded, his white hair bounced on the top of his head. “Agreed. This way.”

  They ran down the tunnel and up a slope. Kara could hear and feel the vibrations of subway trains. Gideon led her down two more tunnels, turned right, waited for a train to pass, then ran up to the platform. Kara kept up with him, but her rapid breaths were like razor blades in her throat. They climbed up the platform and hoped no one had spotted them. This was New York after all. There were more bizarre things in this gigantic city than a scrawny teenaged girl covered in dirt and blood climbing out of a subway tunnel. She figured she would blend in just fine.

  Her jeans were stained with her own blood, and she did her best to cover herself with her jacket. As they made their way across to the exits, Kara couldn’t help but notice the strange looks she and Gideon were getting—mostly the witch doctor. His big hair and strange attire called for attention. Kara hoped they wouldn’t attract the wrong attention—getting stopped by the cops now would stop the mission. They couldn’t afford hiccups of any kind.

  The sign above the two tall glass exit doors read 42nd street. Kara pushed open the doors and stepped onto the sidewalk.

  42nd Street towered over them. Billboards with screens the size of small shops lined the streets that thronged with locals and tourists. She smelled roasted peanuts and asphalt.

  But there was something very different this time.

  A green glowing mist on the ground slipped through the crowds. It snaked around cars and avoided buildings. Stealthy, it crept along the street. Searching tendrils rose from the mist and coiled around a young man. It enveloped him like a cocoon and strands of it disappeared into the man’s mouth. The next moment, the mist reappeared with a brilliant white sphere. His soul, Kara realized in horror. Hundreds of these brilliant spheres floated in the mist and disappeared out of sight like runway lights in a fog. The young man’s skin started to glow with green runes, but he kept walking—oblivious to the fact that his soul had just been stolen.

  The mist crept back onto the ground and launched itself at its next victim.

  “Oh dear! May the stars help us,” said Gideon.

  Kara could hardly breathe. “What is that mist? It’s taking their souls.”

  Gideon lowered his head. “That, my dear, is shadow mist—dark warlock mist. It is dark magic of the worse kind. Only a powerful warlock, rotten to the core, can conjure it. He uses it to steal souls. We’re dealing with a madman.”

  “It’s everywhere. We have to stop it!” Kara started forward, but Gideon held her back.

  “There’s nothing ya can do to stop it now. If the mist touched ya, you’d lose your soul, too.”

  “So what can we do?”

  “We must stop the connection—kill the warlock, and the mist will disappear.”

  Kara watched in silence as the shadow mist rolled through the crowds, sucked out their souls, and left them like broken shells. Their expressions became sullen, and Kara knew they would sicken and die without their souls—just like her mother.

  The shadow mist flowed their way. In a minute or two it would be upon them.

  “We cannot stay here for very long,” said Gideon. He hit his staff three times on the cement sidewalk. “I don’t want that nasty thing near me.”

  Kara glanced at her watch: 3:05 p.m.

  Where were David and the others? She wasn’t that late, David would surely have waited for her?

  “Well, I must say things have changed since the last time I was up here.” Gideon’s eyes bulged as he stared at the billboards and skyscrapers. “These tall buildings weren’t there in my days.” He poked his fingers in his ears. “And it’s very loud!”

  Kara felt sorry for Gideon. 42nd street must be quite a contrast to his solitary world. She looked up at the sky. It was snowy, overcast and grey. Normally Kara would have thought this was beautiful, but the darkening sky meant that it would soon be dark—the warlock was going begin his ritual.

  Her heart raced.

  “The warlock has been busy here,” said Gideon, watching the crowds like Kara. “We’ve already lost more souls than I can count—terrible business this is, just terrible.”

  A dark grey cloud moved unnaturally fast towards the city. Sundown was rapidly approaching—and Kara still had no idea how to defeat the warlock.

  “We must act quickly,” said Gideon and shook her out of her trance. “He will begin his ceremony at sundown. We will defeat the dark warlock together.”

  She looked at the old man. “But how? If he’s as powerful as you say he is, how can we do it?”

  “Just as the witches and witch doctors have done before. We must join our strengths together. I will do what I can—but it is you who must defeat him. I am not as powerful as you. Your powers are the key to his destruction. It’s the only way, Kara.”

  Kara shifted nervously.

  “These powers of mine as not as simple to conjure as you think. As a guardian angel I got used to them, and after a while I was able to control them. But now, in this body, I’m a complete mess. It’s like I’ve forgotten how to do it. They’re different somehow.”

  The old witch doctor smiled warmly. “That’s normal. It’s just harder to channel your power as a mortal than a spirit walker. Humans are born with a barrier that keeps them from being in touch with the other supernatural planes. They live on one plane only, while witches and warlocks can access all the planes and get power from each of them.”

  Gideon looked at Kara. “But you’re unique. You’re more sensitive to the different planes—like a witch, but differently, in a more organic way. Your use of the earth’s energies. Your power is in the earth. You were born with the ability to summon it. Ya just need to focus harder on channeling it. Didn’t Olga teach ya how to channel your power? She gave ya her pendant.”

  Kara looked to the ground. She couldn’t meet his eyes.

  “There’s something I haven’t told y
ou about Olga.” She told him how the dark warlock had found them out and killed Olga. When she was finished she looked up, but Gideon had turned his back and was silent. She wished she could have saved the old witch. Perhaps she should have tried harder.

  “Kara!”

  Kara turned towards the voice. Her heart tried to jump out of her chest.

  David squeezed through the crowded sidewalk. His radiant smile sent butterflies into her stomach. She felt weak at the knees. His dazzling angel skin was hard to look at. She did her best to suppress her emotions and to act normally. She rolled her leather bracelet around in her fingers. It had brought her luck.

  “Sorry we’re late,” said David as he planted himself at her side. He went to grab her hand, but stopped and raked his hair instead. He looked to the ground awkwardly. “Someone messed up back at CDD and Vega’d us to 48th street instead of 42nd.”

  Jenny appeared seconds later and smiled when she saw Kara.

  “And we’ve been trying to avoid touching the weird green mist that’s all over the city,” she continued. “I know we’re in our M—suits, but I still don’t trust it.”

  “Hey watch it!” She yelled at a man who had knocked into her. She steadied her bow and quiver behind on her back.

  Kara searched over their heads. “Where’s Peter?”

  Jenny’s smile disappeared. “He...he had to stay a little longer in the Healing—Xpress than the rest of us. Peter was really in bad shape.”

  Jenny’s voice cracked. “They say it’s a miracle his soul survived the jump back to Horizon. They’ll have to grow back his angel legs.” She wrinkled her brow as she stared at Kara’s pants. “What happened to you? You’re covered in blood!”

  Kara tried to brush it off. “It’s nothing, just a few giant warlock rats and big ugly spiders.”

  “What warlock rats?” David leaned in and inspected her. “Are you still hurt? What about those headaches and nose bleeds?”

  Kara avoided his eyes. “No more headaches, actually—Gideon helped me out.”

  Gideon turned at the mention of his name. They all noticed the old witch doctor for the first time. Jenny laughed softly to herself.

  “Who’s grandpa?” said David raising his brows as he stared at the fur cloak. “I’m pretty sure Broadway is that way, old man. I believe they’re doing a new version of Cats.”

  “I don’t like your tone, spirit walker,” said Gideon. He frowned, and then he moved his fingers in the air as though he was doing some wacky sign language to fight off the evil spirits. “Yes, I know what you are. I might not have the magic of a warlock, but I can still see through your veil. Ya should show more respect to the living. This is our realm.”

  “Look who’s talking,” snickered David. “You look about to kick over anytime—”

  “David.” Kara glared at him. “This is Gideon, the one Olga told me to look for. He’s a witch doctor, and I owe him my life. We need his help on this mission.”

  David leaned closer to Kara. “What happened to you after we were separated?” He looked into Kara’s eyes. “Tell me.”

  After she had explained what had transpired in the tunnels, David’s demeanor quickly changed. He patted the witch doctor on his fur jacket. “Well, at least you’re on our side, gramps.” He made a face and picked some fur from his fingers.

  Gideon’s eyes widened, and he backed away from David, clearly not happy to have been touched by a spirit walker. He did some more signing with his fingers towards David. Then he said, “The shadow mist is approaching, we must leave now.”

  A shadow passed over Manhattan and Kara knew that time was running out.

  Kara stared at her watch. “It’s 3:15. Sundown is at exactly 4:39. That gives us just about an hour and a half to find Cleopatra’s Needle—and by some miracle defeat the Dark warlock.”

  “Any ideas how we’re going to do that?” asked David.

  Kara shrugged. “I guess it’ll come to me when we find this place.”

  “But where do we begin?” said Jenny looking nervous. “New York is one of the biggest metropolises in the world, how are we supposed to find Cleopatra’s Needle? And what the heck is it anyway?”

  “That’s simple,” interrupted Gideon. “It’s an ancient monument of incredible power. And it’s in Central Park.”

  Chapter 17

  Cleopatra’s Needle