03 Saints

by Lynnie Purcell

  “You were curious about the girl?” Anna asked, meaning me.

  “I must say that I was,” he agreed. “She has become quite a legend among my soldiers. The legend intrigued me.”

  Lorian finally turned his brown eyes to me. The full magnitude of his stare struck me. There was so much…power; an incomprehensible sense of strength that left me breathless. I felt my heart race faster, but I returned his stare with one I hoped looked as cold as Anna’s. Something about the stare affected him. His eyes widened, almost as if he recognized me as well, and he frowned. Whatever he was thinking, he didn’t speak the words out loud.

  “I came to challenge you, not discuss the girl,” Anna said.

  “You came to die,” Lorian said. “There is no other reason to challenge me.”

  Anna didn’t disagree with him. She handed me the spare sword and forced me back to the wall, out of her way.

  “Do what you must,” she told me. “Even if that means running.”

  “Yeah…right,” I said.

  I pulled the sword out of the sheath and held it up in front of me, like Jackson had taught me so many months ago. Anna stepped forward, her sword still in its sheath. Her body was tense but she maintained her calm. Lorian was amused by what he saw.

  “I will play,” he said, “but only because you were once my most loyal solider.”

  He finally stood. My initial impression – that he was the tallest Watcher I had ever seen – had been wrong. He was the tallest anything I had ever seen. Seeing him stand was like watching a mountain rise out of the ground. He was well over seven feet tall and looked as if he was still growing.

  I hastily shut my open mouth and watched as he pulled a sword off the back wall. I hadn’t noticed the sword during our conversation, but I noticed it now. It was long enough to fit Lorian’s height and had a sense of weight I knew my sword could never match up to. It was a wonder Anna wasn’t trembling just looking at it. It took all of my willpower to keep my knees steady.

  He moved the desk out of his way with a gentle tap on the side. It stopped sliding with a bump in to the far wall. As it hit the wall, I heard an explosion from outside the house. It was near the jails and rattled the pictures on the walls. Another explosion rocked the quickly descending dusk – this one was on the other side of the house.

  The fight had started.

  Lorian didn’t even look. “Part two of your plan, I take it?” he asked.

  “Mmmhhh,” Anna agreed.

  “Lovely,” he said.

  Lorian was done with talking. He stepped forward, though Anna held her ground. Their swords met midair. Anna’s sword was out of her sheath before I could blink. The clang of steel on steel rattled my teeth. Anna kicked Lorian away from her and their swords met again. They didn’t move very much; both were stern statues, unwilling to give the other ground. It was like two gargoyles trying to knock the other off their perches – stone against stone. Behind them, more explosions rang out, followed by the sound of gunfire and people yelling. I heard running on the stairs and knew the guards had come to check on Lorian.

  I moved to the door. If they came to help, there was no way Anna would win. I reached the door just as it was thrown back. The two guards took in the sight of Lorian fighting Anna, and me standing in front of them with a sword. They looked shocked.

  The man stepped in front of the woman and came at me. I ducked under his massive sword then followed through with a strike of my own. The weight of the sword slowed him down. He couldn’t react in time. My sword hit him in the neck. His knees gave out, and he fell back, gravity pulling him off my sword. The woman was next. She was more cautious; her strikes were more precise. One of her strikes was at my hand. I dodged the worst of the cut but the edge nicked the edge of my hand. The red blood made her more confident – she knew I was human. She swiped at me, extending herself, and I spun the sword out of her hand. She held her hands up in surrender. I contemplated options. I realized I didn’t want to kill her.

  “Run…” I told her.

  She hurried down the stairs, and I slammed the door on her retreat. I turned back to Anna’s fight. She was still locked in an endless game of strike, defend, strike, neither giving up ground.

  It was something Lorian did not have patience for. He got tired of playing nice. Rules were for the Saints. As his sword connected with Anna’s, he flicked his hand. It was a small gesture, but Anna finally moved. Her feet skidded backward from the invisible force he had hit her with. She didn’t need a gesture to return the favor. Books and sharp items rose off the desks and flew at him. Instead of trying to fend off all the items, he disappeared.

  I was astonished. He was the first Watcher I had met that had two abilities – the first Watcher beyond me.

  He reappeared next to me. His large sword was at my throat. I froze. Anna looked between us, her eyes uncertain. She straightened and her eyes became cold again.

  “What are you waiting for?” Anna asked. “Kill her, and let’s get on with this.”

  I scowled at her. I should have expected as much.

  Lorian pressed his sword harder in to my throat. A trickle of blood started from my neck. But then Lorian hesitated. I wasn’t sure why. From the hardness I had seen in his face and the stories I had heard, I would have thought he would kill me without hesitation. From his hesitation, it was clear he wasn’t capable of using me as a distraction. He had to find another way to get to Anna.

  I felt the shift in his body and knew what he was about to do. He gestured with his hand, knocked Anna back, and shifted in to the world of darkness. Only, he did not go alone. I felt the pull of darkness and went with him. It was an unconscious act, but an act all the same.

  The second I was in the darkness, I heard the voices calling my name. The voices were intense; there was awareness to the call now, as if they not only knew my name, but my purpose as well. The awareness was startling. I remembered Sara’s warning to keep moving, to think of a destination, but I couldn’t help the impulse. I felt Lorian trying to pull me out of the darkness, but I refused the pull. I was left in the dark. I was alone, lost and confused. There was no way out.

  The voices called my name again.

  “What?” I asked the nothingness. “What do you want?”

  There was a moment of startled silence. Then the voices called out again.

  Your hand…I want your hand.

  I felt a cold, electric touch. I accepted the touch, sensing the need in the voice. It was an impulse I couldn’t deny. My necklace burst in to light at the touch. It was no longer cold and sullen. The light gave me a direction.

  In the next moment, I was out of the darkness. I hadn’t gone far. I was across the room. Lorian was next to me, his sword raised. But he wasn’t the only one who had come through the darkness with me.

  The electric touch I had felt in the darkness had come through to the world of light. The touch came complete with a person. Not really a person an…angel. It sounded ridiculous, but there was no other way to explain the woman holding my arm. She had a blindfold over her eyes and large, black wings coming out of her back. Her black hair went to her feet. She took her hand off my arm and took my sword from my hand in the same fluid motion. My necklace stopped glowing when she dropped her hand.

  Anna saw the woman and Lorian at the same time. The shock of seeing the woman made Anna’s reaction slower, even though she was aware of Lorian. It was only a second’s difference, but it was enough. Lorian’s sword cut deep in to her neck. He pulled the sword out, and she dropped to the floor.

  Even as Anna fell, the angel was moving. My sword in her hand, she swung at Lorian. Lorian ducked under the blow and the fight took a more serious turn. Lorian, his eyes wide with fear and recognition, made fire come from his hand. The fire whirled around the angel, but it did not harm her. He followed the fire with ice, wind, even the building rocked with the power he generated. He might as well have been trying to stop the tides for the good it did him. It was like his fight with
Anna, only the shoe was on the other foot. The angel was a tide that could not be stopped.

  I crouched down at Anna’s side as the pair tore up the room. I didn’t like her, but I couldn’t let her just bleed out on to the floor. I pressed my hands against her wound without thinking. My hands looked tiny against the size of the injury. I thought she was dead, but when she felt me, she moved. She opened her eyes and turned to look at me. Her dark eyes were penetrating.

  “I’m sorry,” she whispered.

  I felt the life slipping out of her body. I knew she was dying. There was nothing I could do. Nothing, beyond forgiving her and letting the past go.

  It was like swallowing sand, but I said, “I forgive you.”

  And I meant it. I didn’t want the pain of hating her in my heart any more. It was too a heavy burden.

  Had the angel and Lorian not come dangerously close – and forced me away from Anna – I would have taken stock of the electrical feeling in the hand pressing against her wound. I would have realized what it meant.

  A surge of energy rippled the ground near me as Lorian threw yet another talent at the angel. I rolled away from the blast and ran for the door. The Saints had moved to the house, and I heard the other bodyguards downstairs fighting with people on the stairs. Help was close. I just had to get to it.

  My hand on the door knob, the whole house shook with an explosion. I hit the ground hard, my face slamming in to the wood. The shaking lasted for a long time. I groaned and looked around to see if the world had ended, or if it was okay to get up. The world hadn’t ended, but I wasn’t sure about the getting up part. Half of the house had fallen away. I had landed at the edge of the boards, inches from falling. Further down, along the edge of the boards, was a scene straight out of a movie.

  The angel had finally won the fight. Lorian had fallen to one knee, the explosion rattling even him. The angel stood over him, the sword in her hand.

  “By order of a sacred pact made in the holiest of places, I fulfill my duties. Lorian, son of Michael, I banish you to hell.”

  Her voice was the same choral voice I had been hearing in the darkness. She raised her sword over his head.

  Lorian looked past her and connected eyes with me. The chocolately brown spoke of a secret. “Farrah,” he said.

  The angel struck him in the neck and his head flew off and hit his desk. His body toppled to the ground.

  The angel turned to face me, her sword dripping red blood on to the ground. Her face was uplifted into an expression of grim accomplishment.

  I trembled at the sight. For the first time in my life I had no sarcasm, no words to cover my fear. I was terrified. Was my head next?

  Chapter 19

  The angel lowered her sword.

  “Clare…” she said.

  The way she said my name was less like a person saying a name and more like she was defining me. In a word, she knew. She knew everything there was to know about me. It was as terrifying as the scene I had just witnessed.

  I was tongue-tied. It wasn’t just the idea of her killing me – her whole being radiated with a power that went beyond my comprehension. She seemed to understand my inability to speak.

  “I am in your debt for your help in releasing me from that prison,” she said. “When I have finished my duties, I will fulfill whatever command you have of me.”

  Her words released my tongue.

  “Um…that’s okay…” I said. Her kind of ‘debts’ looked rather deadly from where I was sitting. “I was glad to help.”

  “A debt must be repaid,” she said, ignoring my refusal.

  “If you say so…” I said.

  “I do,” she confirmed.

  “How did you know my name?” I blurted out. “How come you wanted me to get you out? Why not Sara or Shawn? They’re in your world all the time…”

  “Only you or one of your kin could have pulled me out. It was the curse that bound me when Lorian and Darian put me in that purgatory.”

  I was intrigued beyond my terror. “I don’t understand,” I said. “My kin? What does my family have to do with it?”

  “I have no time for explanations,” she said. “Darian will have felt his brother’s death. I must move quickly, before he takes to ground and my task is made harder.”

  “But…”

  “Call my name…Nemesis, when you have need of me,” she said. “I will come. My debt binds us.”

  The sword still in her hand, she turned to the broken wall and stretched out her black wings. They were twice as tall as Lorian had been while standing. She flapped them once, sending a shockwave through my body. She flapped them again, and she lifted in to the air. Another flap and she was gone.

  I heard the sounds of fighting temporarily pause as the others watched her fly off. The silence was eerie after the explosion and yells that had been ripping through the night. When she was gone, the fighting resumed. The sight of her lingered in my mind. I had never seen something so terrifying, yet so devastatingly beautiful. Despite the bandage over her eyes, she was the most beautiful person…creature I had ever seen. The power of her voice lingered longer than the vision of her. It was a voice I would not forget soon.

  I set my head against the broken boards and let out a long sigh of relief. For the first time in my entire life, things had gone right. Lorian was dead – my mission was accomplished. I had taken my revenge. There would be no more people captured in Lorian’s name. And if Nemesis wasn’t lying – which I didn’t think she was – there wouldn’t be any more people captured in Darian’s name either. Did that mean the war was over?

  The idea startled me. No war meant…freedom? We’re we free?

  No, that wasn’t right. Marcus was still out there. I couldn’t imagine him simply lying down and giving up his quest for power, with his two biggest rivals out of the way. If anything, Lorian’s death just made his life a whole lot easier. I cringed at the thought. Somehow, I always fell in to his traps.

  Almost as if fate, or chance, or whatever, had heard the thought, I realized that not all was well on my right side. Anna wasn’t dead from her wounds – in fact, she was getting better. It was not the sort of ‘better’ I took comfort in.

  I turned at the feeling of her shaking. It rocked the whole floor. The shaking grew worse; it moved beyond shaking. I heard snaps and pops as bones started to rearrange themselves under her skin. I recognized the symptoms of the change. She was changing in to a Nightstalker. But how was that possible? How could she turn so close to death?

  It was only then I remembered the cut on my hand. I raised a trembling hand and stared at the wound I had gotten while fighting. I had given Anna my blood, even as I had forgiven her for what she had done. I had given her more than forgiveness.

  Her pale skin started shifting in to patterns of dark scales. The patterns moved around her body, as the popping and cracking continued. It didn’t take long for her to change over, a minute at the most, but it felt like the longest minute of my life. As soon as she was fully in Nightstalker form, she scrambled to her feet. Her eyes were covered with a white film and her body was full of dark, powerful anger. I didn’t know which was worse – the anger, or the idea that I had just given her an ability I had promised to never share again.

  Anna growled at me, her anger finding a home in the person who had cursed her. She took a step closer, to attack, and the rest of the floor gave out under her weight. I fell, pieces of wood and glass grazing my arms and legs as I did. I landed on the grass outside, the hit taking my breath. The world was covered in a haze as wood fell around me. The world was a swirl of debris and muted sounds. As I tried to recover my wind, the ceiling from Lorian’s room fell on top of me.

  It was a different world of darkness. It was a world of muffled sounds, strange smells, and the dreadful sense of pressure. While the roof’s fall had been stopped on another part of the house, the sense of weight around me was still impressive. My first thought was of panic. The situation mirrored my stay in a cozy, unwel
come crypt. My second thought was to control the panic and hopefully shift in to the in-between world and reappear somewhere that wasn’t being occupied by a house. If I had done it once, I could do it again. Before I could find the peace of mind to focus on control, light appeared. The light grew brighter and a hand reached down to help me up.

  I took the hand and found someone I had not been expecting. Grace, her sunny face marred with dirt and blood, and her blonde hair pulled back in the wind, was my savior. Grace did not immediately let go of my hand. Behind her was Ghost. He looked nervous. Grace just looked pleased. Her coral eyes bored in to mine with a strange intensity.

  “Are you okay?” she asked me.

  “I feel a bit like the Wicked Witch of the East, but I’m fine,” I said.

  “Oh, good.” She tugged my hand firmly. “Come on, Daniel was looking for you. He’s been worried sick.”

  “I…” I started to protest.

  She was already pulling me along.

  If a house hadn’t just fallen on me, an Angel had just promise me any favor I wanted, after killing Lorian, and Anna hadn’t just turned in to a Nightstalker, I would have realized something was weird. In my befuddled state, I didn’t. The only thing I could really think about was Anna. Was she under the house as well, or had she escaped out in to the chaos? I scanned the fighting as Grace pulled me along, but there were several Nightstalkers running around and none of them were close enough for me to see their eyes.

  When we were on the cliff side of the house, away from the fighting, Grace stopped. I came back to reality with our abrupt stop. The spot she had chosen was not only out of the way of the fighting, it was the most hidden spot on the grounds.

  “Where’s Daniel?” I asked suspiciously.

  “He’s inside the house, fighting his way to your side as we speak,” she said. “Or so he thinks.”

  I sighed, accepting her words as proof that nothing would ever be easy, not even falling out of a house.