Empower

by Ashley Stambaugh

  Luckily for Melina the sun still set pretty early during the wintertime, and before she knew it, it was dark out.

  “Are you ready?” she asked Dean as they both put on their coats.

  He took a deep breath, then exhaled loudly. “Yeah. I hope the elders were able to convince Victor to come down here.”

  She nodded. “Me too. They should be here soon.”

  And right on cue there was a knock on her door. She rushed over and opened the door to find all four elder guiding angels standing there.

  “May we come in?” Walter asked.

  “Of course,” she said, looking slightly confused. “But where’s…”

  Just then a tall, muscular man with dark, chin-length hair and a neatly trimmed beard stepped out from the side of the doorway. He had a dim glow emanating from him just like the other elders did, only his was a soft red instead of white.

  “Victor,” Melina said as she stared at him in awe.

  “And you must be Melina,” he said. “I’ve heard a lot about you. It’s an honor to meet such a unique human being.”

  She gave him a nervous smile. “It’s an honor to meet you, too. Would you like to come in?”

  “As much as I would love to sit and chat with you, I don’t think time is on our side,” he said. “I’m sure the demons are already attacking more humans, so the sooner we get out there the better.”

  Melina nodded in agreement and turned back around to face the others. “Are you all ready?”

  “Let’s do this,” Dean said.

  “Where would you suggest we go first?” Walter asked Melina.

  “Downtown,” she said. “That’s where it’s the worst.”

  “All right,” he said. “Lead the way.”

  Melina gave him a small nod and then quickly glanced upward. “Please stay close, Henry.”

  She closed her eyes and within a flash, teleported out of her apartment. When she reappeared, she was in a dark alleyway in the downtown area. A few seconds later, Dean and all of the angels appeared behind her. Melina stepped out of the alley to take a look around and saw that it was just as chaotic as it had been earlier that day.

  There were people yelling and screaming at each other, people getting into fights with each other, people crying, people breaking things. And they all had solid black eyes.

  “This is madness,” Victor said as he walked up beside Melina. “But where are the Noxin demons?”

  Melina looked around. He was right. There weren’t any Noxin demons. At first she was confused, but then she realized that the demons weren’t going to be hanging around humans whose souls they had already taken.

  “The demons have already taken a part of these people’s souls,” Melina said. “We need to find some humans who still have their entire souls. Then we’ll see some demons. Come on,” she said as she took off down the sidewalk.

  As she walked, she constantly looked around her, trying to find a restaurant or store to check out, but they all appeared to be closed. And all of the people they came across had black eyes. Then suddenly she heard a woman scream from across the street.

  Melina jerked her head in that direction and saw a small convenience store with its lights still on. A split second later, the front door flew open and out ran a very frantic and terrified looking young woman. Her hair was flying around like crazy and her eyes were huge as she glanced over her shoulder.

  Just then two men in long, formal trench coats came rushing out of the store behind her. They both had long, greasy dark hair, and for a split second, Melina saw their eyes flash red. “They’re Noxin demons,” she said and then immediately started to scan the area. There. Up ahead of where the woman was running were two more demons in their demonic forms hiding out in an alley. “It’s a trap. They’re chasing her right into the path of those two other demons in the alleyway up there.”

  “The demons in the alley must be stealthed because I don’t see them,” Victor said.

  “We have to help her,” Melina said and then took off across the street. Victor ran beside her, and the others followed close behind.

  Most of the street lights had been damaged and weren’t working, so it was difficult to keep track of the demons in the dark, but Melina knew where they were going so she kept running after them with full force. Then all of a sudden she heard one of the demons chasing the young woman growl loudly as he lunged forward and tackled the woman, forcing her into the alley. She let out an ear-piercing scream and then fell silent.

  “No,” Melina said as she picked up her pace.

  Several seconds later she came upon the alley and saw that the demons had dragged the woman all the way to the end of the passageway where the only illumination was the light coming from the moon. It appeared that the two demons who were in their human forms had morphed into their demonic forms because Melina saw four sets of glowing red eyes. She also saw that they were all taking turns sucking out part of the woman’s soul.

  “No!” Melina screamed as she darted toward them. “Leave her alone!”

  One of the demons turned to face her and let out a low, menacing laugh. “It’s too late.”

  High-pitched shrieks came from the demons behind him and within a second they all disappeared in a swirl of black smoke.

  Melina rushed over to the young woman lying on the ground and knelt down beside her. “I’m so sorry,” she whispered.

  Dean walked up behind her and pointed down at the woman. “If she wakes back up, then you have your proof,” he said to Victor.

  Victor gazed around at everyone and said in a stern yet calm voice. “I know you may be annoyed with my stance on needing absolute proof before I have my warrior angels attack, but if this woman does wake up, then yes, I have my proof. I have my proof that the Noxin demons are indeed stealing human souls and not just darkening them. And because of that I know to tell my warriors to not destroy the demons because if they do, they’ll also be destroying a part of these humans’ souls. And if that happens,” he said as he turned and looked at Melina, “then not even you can save them.” He paused and then said, “Now I think that knowing all of that is worth waiting for, don’t you?”

  No one said anything. They just nodded in agreement. And then they waited.

  Melina stayed by the woman’s side, eagerly waiting to see what would happen. Then, just a few short minutes later, the woman gasped loudly as she bolted upright. Melina jumped up and took a step back to give her some space.

  The woman’s eyes grew wide as her brow wrinkled in confusion. She began to look around at everyone when suddenly her eyes turned pitch black and within a second were back to normal. Her expression hardened and her eyes narrowed as she looked up at Melina. “What did you do to me?” the woman yelled.

  Melina shook her head. “I didn’t do anything to you.”

  The woman let out a frustrated grunt as she pushed herself up off the ground. “Get out of my way!” she snarled and then pushed her way through everyone and ran off down the street.

  Melina stared after her for a couple of seconds, then turned to look at Victor. “Can you help me stop this now? Please?”

  He gave her a simple nod. “My warriors are ready. All I have to do is call them down here. But we need to make a plan first.”

  After several minutes of discussion, they had finally worked out a strategy. Victor and his warrior angels would attack the Noxin demons, stopping them from taking the souls of any more humans. They would also be keeping the demons out in the open so Melina could release the human souls they had already taken away from them. They knew Henry would come protect Melina if need be, but Dean and all of the elder guiding angels would also be prepared to give extra protection to her with their light shields.

  “But what about the demons who are in stealth mode?” Melina asked. “How will you be able to see them to attack them?”

  “You would think that they would run away scared when they saw all us warrior angels,” Victor said. “But it’s actually just the op
posite. It’s like they can’t resist the temptation to be violent, and they all come rushing to fight us.”

  “Wow,” Melina said. “Okay then.”

  Victor looked around at everyone. “You’re all clear on your roles then?”

  They all nodded.

  “Good” he said and then turned back to Melina. “Are you ready?”

  She glanced down at the ground as she thought about how serious the situation had become. It wasn’t just her friends, the people of her town, and the angels who were depending on her, but also the entire world. Because if she failed, the Noxin demons would keep going, moving from city to city, until they had gotten to every single person. And she was the only one who could stop that from happening.

  She swallowed hard and looked back up at him. “Yes. I’m ready.”

  “Okay,” he said. “Then it’s time.”

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  After Victor and the elder guiding angels changed back into their angel forms, Victor took a step forward and looked up at the sky. “Warrior angels,” he yelled in a stern, clear voice. “Descend!”

  A loud rumbling noise like thunder reverberated all around them. Then, very slowly the entire sky began to fill with a brilliant red glow. Melina kept her eyes on the sky, and her jaw dropped in awe as she saw hundreds of warrior angels surrounded in bright red auras flying down from the scarlet-tinted clouds. As she continued to watch, a wall of soft purple light started to fall down all around them. Was that some sort of barrier? She blinked her eyes a couple of times, then suddenly they widened in realization. It was from the angels of concealment.

  A swarm of Noxin demons in their demonic forms instantly started to flood the streets. The warrior angels flew at them with full force, and they all collided with each other in a big flash of red light. The demons hissed and shrieked as they started to claw and gnash their teeth at the warriors’ light shields.

  “Let’s go,” Victor said. He turned around and rushed forward to join the battle when all of a sudden a tall, slender woman with long black hair, dressed in a dark red coat, stepped out in front of him, causing him to come to an abrupt halt.

  “You must be the great and powerful Victor, am I right?” she said as she eyed him up and down.

  Victor’s forehead creased as he crossed his muscular arms over his broad chest. “Let me guess. You’re Maura.”

  Maura’s eyes lit up as she gave him a mischievous grin. “So you have heard of me? Well, then I guess we can skip the pleasantries.”

  Victor let his arms fall down to his sides as he took a menacing step toward her. “Move out of my way, demon.”

  “Oh.” Maura raised her eyebrows and started to gesture around. “So you think that I’m just going to let you pass right on by me so that you can command your angels and help destroy my fellow Noxin demons?” She let out a small chuckle and shook her head. “No, no, no. That’s not how this is going to work.”

  Victor cocked an eyebrow. “Really? So how’s it going to work?”

  Maura just laughed as she started to morph into her demonic form. Once the hazy black smoke had completely taken over her body, it was only a matter of seconds before it cleared away, leaving a newly transformed Maura. She glared at Victor with her blazing red eyes as she snarled and hissed at him. Her lips had curled back, showing off her razor sharp teeth, and her hands were held out to her sides so that her long, pointed claws were aimed straight at him.

  “Okay then,” he said. “If that’s the way you want to do it.” His light shield burst out around him as he let out a loud shout and charged at the demon.

  Maura cried out, too, and lunged at Victor. They instantly crashed into each other, causing an explosion of red light all around them. Victor pinned her up against the side of a nearby building and grabbed her by the shoulders. As Maura started to growl and thrash about, Victor picked her up and slammed her down on the concrete sidewalk. She screeched in pain, but quickly clambered back to her feet and threw herself at Victor again, trying her best to break down his shield with her long, sharp claws.

  As Victor and Maura continued to fight, Walter turned to Melina and yelled out above all of the shrieking and shouting, “Come on, Melina! Let’s go!”

  Melina nodded, and after they all had brought up their light shields, they took off running into the battle. Bursts of red flashes were everywhere as the warrior angels attacked the Noxin demons with huge glowing swords made of red light. Even though Victor said that he had told his warriors to not destroy the demons, they certainly weren’t holding back. As Melina looked around she saw several demons crawling along the ground, struggling to get back on their feet.

  “Melina!” Walter yelled. “The demons will retreat soon! Now’s your chance! You can do this!”

  Melina nodded and looked back at all of the angels and demons battling it out. The sight was overwhelming. They were spread out all over the place, and there were hundreds of demons. Could she really release the human souls from all of them? She took in a deep breath and briefly closed her eyes. She couldn’t let self-doubt take her down now. The fate of her world as she knew it was dependent on her.

  She opened her eyes and tried to muster up as much strength and confidence as she could. Almost instantly she felt the warm sensation start to race through her body as the anger in her flared up. She could see the white, fiery light starting to shine out from her hands, but instead of instantly throwing out her light beams, she held back and let the power continue to grow stronger and stronger. The amount of Noxin demons was daunting. She would never be able to attack all of them at once. But if she could build up enough strength behind her powers then she at least might be able to target a good portion of them.

  After several seconds passed her hands started to shake as flames of white light swirled around them. It was time. She focused in on the demons closest to her, then let out a loud grunt as she thrust her hands out in front of her. Multiple beams of fiery light shot out from her palms, hitting at least fifty or more Noxin demons simultaneously right in their chests.

  As the demons shrieked and groaned in agony, soft white lights slowly started to rise up out of each of them. Most of the lights disappeared, but others flew straight into the chests of some of the nearby humans. Melina watched as they froze in place and the blackness in their eyes faded away. Looking lost and confused, they frantically gazed around then took off running in different directions.

  Melina let out a sigh of relief. It had worked. She had restored the souls to those people. Now she just had to make sure she got to the rest of the demons still relentlessly attacking the warrior angels. She balled up her fists at her sides and let the power in her build up again. But just as she was about to throw out more light beams, Maura threw herself in front of her. Melina gasped as she jumped backward.

  “No!” the demon screamed. “I will not let you ruin everything!” She lunged at Melina and started gnashing and clawing at her light shield.

  Dean and the elders all rushed toward Melina to try to help her, but they were stopped by a group of demons who instantly started to attack them.

  As Melina strained to keep up her shield, she glanced over to where Victor was and saw that he had also been ambushed by a swarm of demons and was struggling to fight them off on his own. She turned back to Maura and gritted her teeth. “And I will not let you continue to hurt anyone else!” She threw her arms out to her sides and stomped her foot down hard on the ground, causing her light shield to pulse out around her.

  Maura flew backward and out of sight while everyone else was knocked down to the ground. Melina seized her chance and shoved her hands out in front of her. Beams of white fiery light came shooting out of her palms again, hitting all the demons around her. The demons screamed, and just as the soft white glows started to rise up out of them, Melina’s light shield was suddenly attacked by three other demons. The sudden surprise knocked her out of her concentration, causing her light beams to disappear before they had released all of the
human souls.

  “No!” Melina screamed as she watched the soft glows sink back into the demons.

  Just then a blinding golden yellow light burst out beside her and there stood Henry and Merrick. Henry immediately threw shots of yellow light at the demons attacking her shield as Merrick ran off to help Dean and the others.

  Confused, Melina looked around at the demons assaulting her shield. How had they not been hit by her light beams? Then it dawned on her. She must’ve already released the human souls from those demons, so her soul releasing power had no effect on them.

  Melina clutched her stomach, thinking she might get sick, when she realized what that meant. Every time she released the human souls from a demon then that demon was free to attack her when she was trying to release souls from the other demons. And she had released the human souls from more than fifty Noxin demons. Henry was currently fighting off three of them, but where were the others?

  Just then a horde of Noxins came rushing at them from all sides. There were hundreds of them, and her powers weren’t strong enough for her to release the human souls from all of them. At least not all at once.

  She looked around at everyone else. They were all still battling their own set of demons. They couldn’t handle anymore. She squeezed her hands tightly together and let her power build up inside of her. The only thing she could do was buy them some time. When she felt her power was strong enough she pulsed her light shield out, knocking all of the demons back onto the ground.

  Within a few seconds, the demons were back up on their feet, but by that time more warrior angels had appeared and started attacking them with their gigantic swords of red light.

  “They don’t have any human souls!” Melina yelled.

  “Destroy them!” Victor shouted to his warriors as he thrust his light sword straight into the chest of the last demon attacking him. The demon let out one last ear-piercing shriek before exploding into a cloud of black smoke, leaving behind only a small pile of ashes on the ground.

  Loud shouts and cries came from the rest of the warrior angels as they charged at the demons. The Noxins retaliated, but their movements were frantic and uncalculated as they started thrashing around like crazy. Melina couldn’t help but smile. If the warrior angels would continue to destroy the demons after she had released the souls from them, then she wouldn’t have to worry about them coming back to stop her from releasing the souls from the rest of the demons. She could still save everyone, even Tessa.