by J. E. Taylor
Movement to our right caught our attention, and I clenched my ungloved fist tighter. A bird took flight, and we watched it disappear. I wasn’t convinced that colorful fowl was the reason we had stopped.
Kylee went to take a step, but I pulled back on her shoulder and shook my head. The hair on my arms had already risen, and my fingers tingled. I didn’t know which direction the thing prowling around was, but its intent was clear.
We were food.
I scanned the branches above us, uncertain if the thing was in the air or on the ground. Or both.
That last thought chilled my blood, sending a slithering shiver up my back. For a moment, I wanted to spray the surrounding forest with fire, but I kept my hand clenched. We were in the forest, too.
“Bats are the only thing that live on these islands besides birds,” Kylee said. “This thing tracking us is neither of those. There’s a regular knife in the middle pouch of the backpack.” She turned her back to me. “Just be careful you don’t cut yourself rummaging around in there, okay?”
I unzipped the pack and gingerly felt around until I hit steel. I followed the cool metal to a rough handle and pulled it out. It wasn’t a knife. This thing was a machete. I grinned at her as I held it in my hand. The weight if it was perfectly balanced, and I wondered how it hadn’t sliced through the backpack. I handed it to her for a moment so I could zip up the pack.
When I was done, she handed me the machete and started moving forward again. I followed, thinking about the force field CJ had instituted around the back yard while I was practicing the other day. I wasn’t sure if Tom had something similar, but considering his mojo came from CJ, I wondered if I could do something like that to keep us safe.
I put my hand on her shoulder and she stopped.
“Keep going. I want to try something, and I have a feeling that I will need some sort of connection with you to do it,” I said.
Her brow creased.
“Force field,” I whispered.
“Oh.” She started forward again, creeping with slow progression.
I imagined a net surrounding us that was comprised of a thousand volts. I concentrated on the electrified protection shield hard enough that the light sweat on my back turned into a tacky river. My skin tingled with the effort, and the air surrounding us let off occasional sparks.
An explosion behind us broke my concentration. We spun around in time to see a very charred four-legged being flying backwards. Contact with my force field didn’t turn the creature to dust, but whatever it had been was clearly no longer among the living. Smoke radiated from it, and when the breeze shifted, the stench was godawful.
“I guess it worked,” I said.
“I guess so.” Kylee snickered, and we continued our slow trek to the top of this rainforest hill.
I tried to re-establish the force field, but I couldn’t seem to tap into the power in the same way. I kept an eye out on the area surrounding us, but I didn’t have the same overwhelming feeling of being watched as I had before that thing had attempted to attack us.
When we crested the hill, the forest thinned out, revealing a bowl-like clearing with a lake at the bottom. The breach was above the middle of the lake.
A screech echoed in the distance and I jumped.
“Shrieking eels,” Kylee said and pointed to the lake.
“Like in The Princess Bride?”
Kylee grinned at my reference and shrugged.
The terrain and position of the breach created a new challenge. At least in the subways, I was only three train tracks away from the breach, but here, it was far enough away for me to doubt my ability to close it.
We descended the hill, and that weird itch between my shoulder blades took hold. “We’re being watched.”
“I know. But I can’t figure out from where. Nothing’s coming from the breach either.”
I followed her gaze. No beings were trying to escape from this corner of hell. Which meant whatever was held there already had escaped. Who knows if they’d made it to islands beyond American Samoa at this point.
“I need to get as close as possible to that opening.” I surveyed the landscape. Where the breach was and the angle it was facing wasn’t going to help me at all. It was facing the farthest shore.
I might actually have to walk into the lake.
Another shriek filled the air. My mood soured at the sight of an eel cresting the surface of the lake. They weren’t nearly as big as the ones in the movie, but they were still unnerving to see, even at this distance. I couldn’t imagine those things swimming around my legs.
The closer to the shore we got, the more active the eels seemed to get and the more my hair stood on end. I handed Kylee the machete and ungloved my second hand, then secured the charmed material in my pocket.
I clenched and unclenched my hands, focusing on the power inside me, sharpening it like a blade, letting it build until I thought my entire form would explode. I led the way to the edge of the water with Kylee covering my back.
Sparks tingled over my skin as I held on to the growing ball of flame within my form. I was shaking when I waded into the lake. Water started to bubble around my feet. I didn’t want to hurt the wildlife in the lake, so I threw my first burst of fire at the tear, sending everything I had in one major blast.
Any doubt that I could close a portal at this distance evaporated along with the breach and half the trees on the other side of the lake. I took a shaky step back and fell to my knees. My reflection in the water startled me. It wasn’t just my wings that were flaming, but my whole form radiated fire. The flames faded, and nausea rolled in. I had never unleashed that much power at once. Hell, I didn’t even know I had the ability to release something as devastating as what I’d just witnessed.
Every muscle trembled from the release, and my stomach lurched. I swallowed bile and crawled ashore, then collapsed at Kylee’s feet.
Kylee knelt down and pressed her fingers to my neck, feeling for a pulse.
I turned my head. “I’m alive,” I whispered. “Just drained. Give me a minute.”
She stiffened. “You don’t have a minute.”
With effort that left me dizzy, I lifted my head. Our escape route was lined with Kapua. Rows of monsters at least five deep crept towards us from all sides except the side of the lake I’d torched to a crisp, which was on the other side of the eel-infested lake.
Kylee helped me up, backing us up into the lake. “Now would be a good time to put up that force field again.”
I had nothing left. My hands weren’t even sparking, and I was on the verge of passing out. I didn’t even know if I could make it to the other side of the lake that Kylee was dragging me towards. I couldn’t even conjure up panic.
I stumbled alongside her.
“If you can’t put up a barrier, you better be prepared to fight,” she whispered and offered me the machete.
Don’t let them see that you are drained. They saw what you did, so use that.
Her thought thundered in my head. I shook my head at the machete and straightened, extending my arms out wide enough to encompass both ends of the massive group of monsters. I kept my hands fisted with my palms facing them.
They halted and a thrill kicked at my adrenaline, sparking something inside me. These weren’t beasts with a choice of who they were. They also did not have a sense of humanity in them. No morality, no compassion, just killing machines. As the assessment of these things flowed through my mind, so did the darkness inside me, powering the inferno.
The shrieking eels grew closer, sending another tendril of fear to my core. But I couldn’t worry about what essentially was a water snake, not when I had an army of things with sharp teeth and claws that could cut us in half.
Kylee screamed and went down on one knee, hacking at the water. Blood rose to the surface. Scales wiped against my leg and I wanted out of this mess. Now. Hot panic flowed through my body like lava, causing a wave of pure destruction that crashed out in every direction arou
nd us, annihilating Kapua and eels alike. When the dust settled, we stood in an empty crater that had been the lake surrounded by a wasteland of ash.
I took a shaky step away from Kylee, and then the world went black.
Chapter 16
A dull humming whine filled my head. I turned, pulling the covers over my head. I just wanted the noise to stop. I wanted the pounding pain biting my temples to go away.
I cracked an eye to find the source and destroy it, but I wasn’t in our little cabin in the woods. Even the bed I was lying in was foreign to me. I forced myself to sit up, and the room spun, sending me back onto the mattress.
When a dog’s head popped up next to the bed, I jumped back. He looked as worried as I felt.
I glanced around again, trying to think beyond the pain threatening to shut my eyes again. The whirring sound continued.
The plane.
Those two words opened the flood of memories, and I stared at the dog. Levi. And on the heels of the dog’s name, Kylee.
“Is Kylee okay?” I asked. My voice croaked with sleep.
Her calf was torn up pretty bad, but she’ll live. Which is more than I can say for those vile Kapuas.
Levi’s thoughts whispered in my head, like he knew just how bad my head was pounding. His tongue lolled out the side of his mouth in what I understood was his way of smiling.
“How long have I been out?”
“Two days.” The answer came from the doorway.
I turned. Kylee leaned against the doorjamb, looking exhausted.
“Two days?” I gasped and threw the covers off me.
Kylee put her hand out and limped across the room to the side of the bed. “I already called Alex for you. I told him you were okay, but we had a setback.”
My eyes widened. The last setback I’d had opened all these breaches.
Kylee seemed to understand my train of thought. “You didn’t have a seizure like you did at their house. You just expended all your energy. I mean all of it to the point you were having difficulty just maintaining your breathing. Valerie told us what to do. And these planes are stocked with medical equipment.” She smiled. “We got you hydrated, and that seemed to get everything else in order and then we let you rest.” She waved at the bed.
“And what about you? The last thing I remember was you screaming.”
Kylee shrugged. “An eel took a bite out of my leg just before you went off like an atom bomb. I’m just glad I wasn’t swept away with the rest of the island.”
I stared at the bed covers. “How did we get back?” I asked after a few beats of silence.
Kylee glanced away and sighed. “I dragged you to the beach on the other side of the crater and got back to the dingy from there. I wasn’t playing with the quicksand again.”
“But the beach we landed on was isolated between a bunch of rocks.”
Kylee smiled. “I had to decide on whether to leave you on the beach while I went and got the boat, or try to make the swim with you and come back for our gear. I’m a strong swimmer, but I didn’t think I could get you to the boat, so I left you with the gear. I didn’t think you’d be in danger considering you leveled the entire island, but it still left me on edge until I got the boat onto that shore.”
“And when we got back to where the plane was?”
She chuckled and Levi slinked out of the room. “Leviathan did not wait for us to get back. He convinced Josh to let him out. When we got back to the island, there weren’t any left. Needless to say, Josh was pretty freaked out by what he witnessed. He’s no longer clueless to what is out there, and he forced me to tell him what we were doing. What this trip was all about.”
“Did you tell him about me?”
“I said you were special like the Ryans. He seemed to understand that more than I expected. But I didn’t explain who your father was. I think that might be a little too much for his mind to wrap around.”
I burst out laughing. I could relate. It wasn’t easy for me to digest either. “Thank you,” I said, still laughing.
She nodded. “I didn’t tell him what I was either.”
My stomach growled loud enough to be heard over my laughter.
“Come on. There is food in the pantry in the main cabin.” She handed me a bathrobe that had been hanging over the end of the bed.
I slipped it on over my grubby skin and climbed out of bed slowly. She offered me her arm, and I took it. I wasn’t steady enough to make this trip on my own. Once I was settled at the table, Kylee whipped up a breakfast that had my mouth watering. Eggs, bacon, toast, and a side of strawberry-filled crepes.
“Just eat slowly,” she said and put a plate and a glass of orange juice in front of me.
I heeded her warning and savored the meal, choosing the proteins before the sweets.
She carried a plate and a steaming cup of coffee to the cockpit and knocked before she entered.
Josh looked over his shoulder at me as he took the offerings from Kylee. He sent me a smile and a nod and turned back to the task of flying us to our next destination.
Kylee sat and pulled out her tablet. She stared at the location and then put her head back on the seat. She looked as defeated as a prize fighter who’d lost the match after making it to the very last round.
I swallowed the last bite of my food. “What is it?”
She sighed. “Think you’re up for a little mountain climbing?”
I stopped drinking my juice. “Excuse me?”
She glanced between her watch and the tablet and then turned it towards me. The red dot was far enough in the mountain range for me to swallow hard. I mean, I had hiked in the hills around the cabin I grew up in, but that didn’t compare to true mountain climbing. I guess I should’ve been glad we weren’t heading for Mount Everest.
I looked over the tablet at Kylee. “Are you going to be able to do that?”
Her wry smile followed by a half-hearted shrug told me all I needed to know. I might need to do this one on my own.
“Levi will be coming with this time,” she said. “Just in case we need a sled ride down the mountain.
“I’m not a sled dog,” he said from his station on the floor.
The fact he spoke aloud really screwed with my mind. Josh glanced back and after he looked at the talking dog, his gaze found mine. His nonchalant shrug brought home just how odd things were getting.
“You’re talking now?” I asked.
“I no longer have to hide my ability to communicate within this… thing.” He huffed and laid his head on the ground.
I cleaned up my plate, stowed it back where Kylee had gotten it, and then went into the cockpit.
“Do you mind?” I asked, pointing at the co-pilot seat.
“Not at all.” He took a sip of his coffee.
The blue expanse of ocean stretched out before the window. I studied the view, noting how the colors differed. I guessed that had to do with the depth of the water at different points. It was mesmerizing.
“So, Kylee explained what you two were doing on these…” He waved out the window, clearly unsure of whether to categorize them as adventures or not.
“They are adventures in a way,” I answered. “Just not the kind of adventure I ever thought I’d be tackling.”
He laughed. “I’ll bet.”
His mind swarmed with questions, but he didn’t seem all that surprised that I had read his mind. Instead of shooting question after question at me, he glanced at me. “You really know how to fly a plane?”
I blew out the air I had just inhaled. “I’ve never flown, but Tom did, and when he died, I inherited his gifts and his memories. So, essentially, I know the motions based on his memories, but honestly, I’m not sure I could mimic them.”
“Gifts like whatever magic he used to get us from Europe to the US in the time that even a fighter jet can’t do?” He glanced at the control panel.
“Yes.” I didn’t deny it. Since he was in as much danger as we were, as evident by the attack in Am
erican Samoa, I thought he deserved the truth, however disturbing it might have been. “But I have some of my own, too.”
He just grunted and finished what was on his plate, then washed it down with coffee. He wiped his mouth with a napkin.
“Well, if you wouldn’t mind manning the cockpit, I’m going to clean this and hit the head.” He smiled and didn’t wait for me to say yes or no. He unbuckled and left me to monitor the autopilot.
I did not expect that. As my gaze jumped from instrument to instrument, I rubbed my palms on my bathrobe. With my heart beating in my throat and a silent mantra telling me that I had this, I reached for the control wheel. I hesitated before I plowed on and touched the yoke.
I knew I shouldn’t worry since autopilot was on, but that didn’t lower the sudden sense of responsibility I had for the other three living beings on the plane beside me. I wished Alex were here to hold my hand and calm my nerves.
The pull started but I resisted. I couldn’t let my spirit leave. Not while I had this kind of obligation. The yank back into my form was jarring and I twitched, knocking the yoke. My gaze jumped to the control panel to make sure I hadn’t done anything, like disengage the autopilot. When everything registered as status quo, I leaned back in the seat with an exhale.
“It isn’t really that stressful,” Josh said and took the pilot’s seat.
It is when you almost leave the plane.
I just smiled up at him. “I think I’m going to go clean up and put on some clothes.”
“Sure. I just have one more question. What are you and what are the Ryans?” He stared at me.
“I’m a Nephilim. The Ryans are descendants of Nephilim.”
“Nephilim.” He said the word like he didn’t know what it meant, and the crease between his eyes along with his thoughts confirmed his confusion. “I’m assuming that is good?”
I smiled and shrugged. “A Nephilim is the offspring of an archangel and a human. My mother was human.” I turned, leaving him to digest the fact that archangels existed.
I picked up my phone and suitcase and slid into the bedroom to find clothing and take a shower. Just like the last time, the hot shower felt good. When I finished, I pulled out layers to wear. Underwear and bra went on first, followed by leggings and a tank top, and then I slid my jeans on and chose one of the thick sweaters Alex had picked out and pulled it over my head.