Behind his head, inside the frame of a gateway, she caught a flicker of movement. Hissing through her teeth, she stalked to the gateway.
A helicopter flew through the bright, blue sky. A single glance told her she wasn’t looking into a Sídhí valley, not with the call letters of a wildly popular mundane news agency appearing on the side of the machine. Below the helicopter, on a beautiful stretch of beach, a swarm of people surrounded the sprawled body of an umbra.
A shiver of dread raced up her back.
“I threw his wretched body onto Earth?” Nick questioned disgustedly. Spitting out a curse, his self-condemnation hit her. “If the media are just recording, and not doing a live report, we might contain it.”
She wished she could agree with him, but it was too late. She shook her head, pointing to the people. “Look how many have their cell phones out. There are probably dozens of pictures and video going viral across the web.”
“A hoax? We could implant the idea in their minds,” he suggested desperately.
Slowly, she nodded. “That might work. Let me contact my first response team.”
“There isn’t time,” he grumbled.
“A single mental warning and they will be armed and ready to fight,” she paused, sending out a mental alert to her men a thousand miles away. “Red alert, boys and girls, there is an umbra in the mundane world.”
“Liege, we know about the creature. The media are streaming live video,” said Major Garrick Moran.
“Then we make it look like a hoax. Send someone to that big museum in Royal Valley and take the wax statue of the umbra. Be ready…” her words jerked to a halt.
Without warning, a dozen armed men and women appeared around the curious crowd. The few people that had been looking behind them screamed. The screams quickly turned into howls of terror as vampires from the Dhark Empire, flashed fang and claws.
His hand clenched around her arm. “That umbra knows you’re Chi’Kehra. We can’t let it fall into the empire’s hands,” Nick snapped.
“Agreed,” she said, while her thoughts raced a mile a minute, spending precious time she didn’t have. I can have my men there in an instant. Nick’s not trained for this kind of warfare. I don’t want to hurt his feeling. I can’t lose him, not now. If he goes, my attention will split, putting all of us in greater danger.
“Hush,” he put a single finger over her lips. “Go, stop them, and come back to me.”
Understanding flickered through her. He had been reading her thoughts.
At the last minute, she yanked Bowie from its secure position under her shirt. Handing him the weapon, she stepped backward.
The bit of crystal tracker ID embedded in the bodies of her men worked just as well as a lock for her power. “Porting in two seconds, one second, porting,” she warned each of her people. As she spoke the last word, she grasped each splinter of synth crystal embedded in their bodies, and teleported the group of hardened warriors onto the beach, making it appear to any observer that they ported under their own power.
Appearing on the beach with her warriors, she turned and caught a crystal-edged steel sword Garrick tossed her. Flipping the slender blade in her hand, she charged into the boiling mass of dhark soldiers and screaming humans.
Leaning to her right, she cut off the hand of a dhark warrior as the vampire slashed its claws toward a wild-eyed girl in a yellow bikini. The teenager looked vaguely familiar, but Sarah didn’t stop to consider it. Pushing through the fighting bodies, she deftly chopped off the head of a feeding vampire.
Half-a-dozen steps away, Lord PhñDick, a high lord and self-proclaimed duke of the Dhark Empire, stood over the umbra. A single touch of his outstretched hand, and PhñDick would disappear with the umbra. The vampire’s blood red eyes flashed in triumph.
Surging forward, Sarah’s sword slashed out, severing the duke’s flesh in half. Blood spurted. His pale hand, and half his arm, bounced off the umbra’s chest.
PhñDick roared in pain. Swinging his sword forward, he attacked Sarah in a sloppy counterstrike.
Darting to the side, she avoided his move easily.
A blur of movement caught her attention. In a fluid move, she twisted out of the way and avoided the blade of a new attacker. Before PhñDick’s blond-haired general had time to recover, she shoved her sword through his defenses, thrusting the steel blade through his gut.
Stepping forward, she smashed the heel of her hand into his chest, shattering ribs. Over the sounds of the battle, she couldn’t hear a wet sucking noise, but she knew the move had shattered numerous ribs, no doubt puncturing several major organs including both lungs. As if to confirm her theory, blood bloomed up both sides of his rib cage and he dropped to the ground, blood bubbling past his lips.
As old as he was, the injuries wouldn’t hold him long. Already, he struggled to rise.
She turned toward her original prey, hoping she was in time to prevent his departure.
PhñDick lurched forward, his outstretched hand reaching for the motionless body of the umbra.
Twisting on her heel, she sliced her sword out and down, severing the umbra’s head from its body.
PhñDick roared furiously and raised his sword against her.
Sarah knocked the blade away, not a flicker of emotion crossed her face. On the backward swing, she laid the sharp edge against his throat. “Drop the blade,” she said icily, ignoring the stump of his bleeding arm as it flopped against his side.
With uncanny timing, Sarah’s warriors gained the upper hand at nearly the same time. The fighting around them paused, emphasizing PhñDick’s loss with eerie silence.
Baring his fangs, he growled. “You’ve declared war against the Dhark Empire. You, and every one of your weakling people, will die.”
“Weak? Look around you, PhñDick. They don’t look weak,” she said with an arrogant tilt of her head. “You are the one that betrayed the empire by such a visible attack on Earth.”
“To save an umbra, one of our legendary leaders,” he spat, glaring at her.
Her lip curled, baring sharp fangs, transforming her ice-cold features into that of walking death. “I will never allow something as sadistic as an umbra near my people.” She leaned closer, catching the faint, sharp smell of his fear. “If there are more of them, I will not stop until all of them are dead.”
“That’s not your decision to make.”
“I just made it my decision,” she said softly, deadly. Shoving him away, she added without a flicker of mercy in her voice. “From this day forth, anyone that assists the umbra will die beside them.”
“The empire will destroy you,” he snapped between clenched teeth.
“Think well before you declare war. I promise retribution for every attack.” She smiled, knowing that in her bloodthirsty mood it had to look somewhat deranged. “Entry into your fortress is as simple as walking across a beach. I should know since I’m the one who left the crystal teardrop on your mate’s dressing table last year.”
Clenching his jaw, his face turned white and filled with a look of wild fury. Not answering her final, verbal blow, he ported away from the beach.
“Casualties?” she asked Garrick.
“At least twenty dead humans with another thirty seriously injured,” he said, stone-faced.
“Send the mundanes that can survive with medical assistance to a human hospital. Take the remaining injured home. Get the beach emptied. I want the entire area swept with white-fire,” she said, glancing to one of her phoenix whose wings lay hidden in folds along the woman’s back.
“Liege,” the phoenix nodded an acknowledgement, no doubt understanding the fire would destroy every trace of crystal-enhanced blood.
“If I am needed don’t hesitate to call me,” she said.
“Wait!” a husky, female voice yelled over the cries of the wounded.
Glancing to her right, she saw the girl in the yellow bikini. A frantic-eyed man carrying a camera on his shoulder trailed behind her. Too late, Sa
rah recognized the teenager.
Erin Rathbone’s mass of curly, red hair bounced around her shoulders as she weaved around bodies and hard-faced warriors. The teen was Hollywood’s current glamour girl, the sweetheart of the media that could do no wrong.
Sarah did not want to speak with her. “No comment.”
“Oh, come on, you saved my life…,” getting a good look at Sarah’s cold features, the girl’s voice ground to halt. Her face blanched of all color.
“Miss Rathbone, I am in no mood for polite conversation.”
“You know me?” the girl said with a look of wide-eyed innocence.
Sarah glared at the girl. She could easily port away, but perhaps answering a few questions would calm some of the hysteria. She snorted to herself. Right. Nothing short of dosing every mundane on Earth with valium would stop the hysteria.
“Who doesn’t?” Sarah asked, forcing a slight (and hopefully) non-threatening smile.
“Oh, wow, um, thanks.” Erin’s apparent loss for words didn’t last long. “Who are you people? And what was that thing? Was it big foot?”
Sarah almost nodded yes, but quickly thought better of it. If the umbra had their way and if the foreseen future came-to-pass she would need the human’s trust. Lying to them wouldn’t build that trust.
“No, it was not big foot. That creature was an umbra. A thousand years ago, they were hunted to extinction, or so we thought.”
“Why? I mean, why make an entire species extinct? Surely, the animals could be controlled some other way,” Erin asked, tucking a stray curl behind a small, shell-shaped ear.
“Do not let their appearance deceive you. Umbra are very intelligent, sentient beings. They are not animals. To the very last one, they were sadistic, war-loving creatures that wanted all other races to serve them as their slaves. An umbra would think nothing of slicing the skin off a newborn baby just to hear the child’s parents beg for mercy.” She watched the girl’s face turn slightly green. “That is what an umbra is like.”
“Are there more of them? Will they invade Earth?” she asked, shuddering.
“The one I killed is the only one I have seen, but there could be more. If there are, we will destroy them,” Sarah stated firmly.
“What about the vampires? I mean, they were vampires, right? They had fangs and claws, and they killed part of the movie crew and several of the extras,” Erin said. Sniffling, she wiped a tear from her face. Sarah wasn’t certain if it was good acting or if the girl was truly upset, perhaps both.
“Not all vampires will attack on sight.” Sarah paused, wondering how far she should go, especially on camera. She knew that every mundane on Earth would eventually see the video. With a silent sigh, she accepted the responsibility and opened her mouth, slowly extending her fangs.
She had to give the girl credit. Her face blanched pure white, but she didn’t run. She even grabbed the cameraman’s arm when he turned to flee. “Murray, don’t you dare run. I won’t condemn her just because she has fangs, not after she saved my life.”
“Good choice. Now, I must leave. My people have a job to do. As a ‘thank you’ for my saving your life, please, don’t interfere with them.”
The moment the girl nodded, Sarah felt a burst of fury as Nick’s emotions flooded her brain. She ported to the tunnels where she left him.
Blood covered the tunnel.
Umbra surrounded her.
Chapter - Sídhí
Twin swords appeared in her hands. Slashing the blades in an outward arch, she sliced through umbra on either side of her.
Nick’s howl of rage reverberated down the tunnel and through her brain.
Killing another umbra that appeared on her left, she turned, and the blood in her veins turned to ice.
Nick struggled against the combined strength of three umbra as they forced him toward a gateway.
She surged forward, but it was too late.
Kicking and growling, Nick fought them, but the creatures yanked him through the gateway. As Nick’s bloody shoe cleared the barrier, anguish burned through her.
Roaring her rage, she charged past the remaining umbra. Slicing her swords right and left, it didn’t take long to cut the black furred beasts down in the restricted space of the tunnel.
Not sparing the dying umbra a second thought, she raced through the unknown portal.
On the other side, more umbra attacked her. Ducking and cutting outward, she sliced one in half. The second monster lost a leg.
Straight ahead of her, some ten feet away, umbra struggled to hold Nick. Her heart clenched at his lack of natural weapons. With him so near the gateway, he had no claws or fangs, but that didn’t stop him.
Somehow, he had managed to retain a grip on Bowie. Slashing the long knife outward, an umbra lost the use of an arm.
The twang of a bowstring jerked her attention back to her enemy. She dropped and rolled, just barely avoiding an arrow through her back. A glance behind her showed a dozen armed umbra rushing her. Another twang, multiplied by ten, sang through the air.
She ported, appearing behind the big umbra that held Nick by his neck. Thrust. Twist. She gutted the creature. A single slash and she beheaded the second umbra. The third monster attacked.
Nick slashed Bowie across the creature’s thick throat. Blood spewed from the severed artery.
Sarah grabbed Nick’s arm and ported them two hundred feet straight up. They started dropping immediately.
Below them, a thick forest spread outward as far as the eye could see. Rugged mountains surrounded the area.
Sarah ported them to the north, gain-and-again, jumping through the sky in twenty-mile hops. Hundreds of miles away, the forest gave way to a wide meadow of swaying grass. Seeing a small hill, she ported them to the treeless top.
She didn’t have time to speak before Nick demanded, “Are you okay?” Sliding his hands down her arms, he quickly checked her upper body for injuries before moving to her legs.
Something inside her melted. Blood all over him and his first thought was for her.
“Yes, I’m fine. Are you?”
Pulling back, he issued a soft growl and touched her cheek gently. “You’re sure none of the blood is yours?”
“Blood?” she asked. She looked down, and sure enough, blood splattered her clothes. “No, I’m fine. You?” she asked again, looking him over from head-to-toe.
“I’m fine, but we played right into their hands. I was watching you talk to bikini girl when one just appeared in the tunnel,” he said through gritted teeth.
“They had an umbra hidden In Between, watching the gateways?” she asked as a soft growl rumbled through her chest. She’d left him in a tunnel with umbra and hadn’t even known it. “If there was one hidden there the entire time, why didn’t they attack you when you killed the umbra? Or rescue the injured umbra after you dumped it on the beach?”
“The creature grinned at me and said I did a good job,” he said disgustedly. “I think the dead umbra was considered an acceptable loss.” His lips curled into a bitter grimace. “After the creature called for the others, he told them ‘don’t kill him, he’ll draw Chi’Kehra through the portal’.”
“Well, their archers didn’t do the job. Give me a second, and I’ll alert my guard. We’ll permanently fix the umbra problem,” she said smugly. She sent out a tendril of thought, seeking the familiar minds of her guard.
Her search met silence. Sucking in a shocked gasp, her smirk of satisfaction fell from her face.
“Sarah?”
“Yeah, I think, I know why they wanted me to go through the gateway.” She looked at him, feeling sick to her stomach. “We aren’t on Earth.”
“You mean we’re in a valley?”
She shook her head slowly. The pit of dread in the middle of her stomach grew. “I think we might be on Sídhí.”
Air hissed between Nick’s teeth. “Sídhí? You’re sure?”
“I should be able to detect thousands of people who are familiar to me, bu
t I only sense two. I marked Miranda and her guard with a shard of crystal,” she said quietly. Looking into the distance, she nodded. “My sister is that way about twenty-five hundred miles.”
“Then we go that way. We’ll find our way back to Earth, but not until we have your sister back,” he said softly. “First, let’s find some water and wash off the stench of umbra blood.”
“Agreed,” she said with a relieved sigh.
She moved them across the landscape in short hops, searching for a source of water. It didn’t take long before they approached a narrow creek. In the distance, a large body of water shimmered along the horizon.
Nick closed his hand around her shoulder, stopping her from porting again. “Near water we have a better chance of running into people.”
“True,” she said with a slight frown, “but we both need a good dunking to get all the blood off. Two inches of water won’t be much help, not before it turns to mud.”
“If you can take us closer, we could look for any sign of people before approaching the water.” Stopping, he looked at her curiously. “Can you do a mental scan this far away?”
“Yes and no. If I know someone’s mental signature and I put enough energy behind the call, I can talk to him or her on the other side of the planet.” She chuckled, sounding rueful. “I could actually make everyone on the entire planet hear me. Without a personal signature, I can sense a large group of people, but a single person might slip through.”
“Same as a vampire, but on a larger scale,” he said with understanding. “Let’s port closer and take a look around.”
A few hops later, they appeared under the widespread limbs of a furble tree. Blue leaves fluttered in the brisk breeze. At the bottom of the hill water surged forward, crashing against sparkling, blue-tinged sand.
She searched the expanse of water but when she couldn’t see the opposite shore, she huffed in complaint.
Nick chuckled. “Yeah, I agree, it looks like an ocean.”
She looked up at him in surprise.
Exile: Sídhí Summer Camp #3 Page 18