Their faces were lifeless, and when Kara looked at their eyes, she held back a scream. Their eyes were black, not the pitch-black eyes of demons, but of empty, hollow, bottomless pits. Their souls had been taken. Their bodies were empty shells. Their faces and skin were covered with black veins that looked like tattoos and their nails had become gleaming red claws, like the claws of beasts.
They lived, but they were not human anymore.
“At least now we know where all the people went.” David waved his soul blade.
“Do you think they want to hurt us?” asked Peter. He pocketed his globe and took out his soul blade awkwardly, as though he had never held a sword in his angel life.
“Well, I don’t think they want to dance,” said David.
Jenny pulled another arrow from her quiver.
The men and women stood in some sort of catatonic state. It was almost as though they were waiting for something. Their empty black eyes were unfocused, as if they were sleeping. Kara could hear quiet guttural moans and hisses rising from them, like caged, restless animals. Maybe that’s what they were now; someone’s animals, someone’s beasts.
And just when she was beginning to think that maybe they weren’t going to move, their eyes suddenly glowed yellow with light shining from the inside, like their batteries were fully charged.
They attacked.
The mad wave of screaming men, women, and children spat and hissed like rabid animals. With their fingers extended like claws, they thrashed toward her. Their faces were distorted, as though a creature on the inside was trying to tear itself free. Some invisible switch had been turned on, commanding them to attack.
Kara was frozen in place.
She heard David yelling over the shrieks of the creatures, but she couldn’t make out what he was saying.
A black-veined little girl with yellow eyes advanced toward her. Kara wondered what she had been doing here before the reapers got to her, before they took her soul and left her like this. She stared at the charging abomination that used to be a little girl. She knew that her soul was lost forever, and she knew that she had to kill her.
The girl lunged, aiming her little claw-like fingers toward Kara’s neck. Instinctively, Kara raised her arm as a shield. The creature clawed at her arm and ripped out fragments of her cardigan and M-5 suit. The girl grunted like an animal, and then screamed in a language Kara couldn’t recognize. The creature raked at Kara’s arm again and again. Its breath was rancid and smelled of sulfur. Its yellow, animated eyes were wide in wild fury. It tore at her viciously, trying to get to Kara’s face.
Kara was barely aware of the weight of her silver-blue dagger, but in a swift and calculated swing she drove the dagger into the side of the girl’s neck. The girl let out such a loud guttural howl of agony that it caused even Kara to flinch. Blood spilled from the corners of the girl’s mouth, and she dropped to the ground.
Kara stared at the girl’s dead body. Even though she knew this was no longer a girl, but a newly created creature of the Netherworld, she couldn’t shake off the feeling that she’d just murdered an innocent.
David battled three large man-creatures. He lunged toward one of the advancing beasts, his sword crashing into its skull and sticking fast. Howling in agony, the creature thrashed and writhed as David hammered his gauntlet-clad fist into what he presumed was its face.
But even as one fell, others came at him.
Jenny stood her ground, shooting arrows like an automatic weapon. But even as dozens of the newly animated creatures fell, more scampered over the fallen and came toward her.
Kara searched for Peter in the midst of the chaos and found him slicing and dicing the horde that came at him with surprising agility and strength.
“Kara, watch out!” shouted David.
Something heavy plowed into Kara, and she tumbled to her knees. Claws scratched at her face and arms, and something bit her on the back of her neck. Kara cried out, rolled over, and kicked a man-creature in the face. There was a sickening crack, and he keeled over.
Two more creatures, a female and a male, turned on her. Blood stained their clothes, and Kara realized in horror that it was other people’s blood and not their own. Their spit flew in her face, and she retched at the sickening, rotten smell. The creatures snarled and thrashed, wild-eyed and crazed. They pinned Kara to the ground, biting and scratching her sword arm, and tearing at her mortal suit.
More weight came crashing down on her, and Kara could hear the different grunts and shrieks from the creatures that were trying to get at her. She could hardly move, and she knew that she was lucky that she still held on to her blade. Even with the M-5, she could feel her strength leaving her. They were going to tear her apart.
Kara felt a warm flicker like her elemental power somewhere deep inside her, and then it was gone. It was wishful thinking. There was nothing there.
She was able to use the memory of her powers as renewed strength, however, and willed herself to move. She used her short sword and met the teeth and talons with the clang of steel, hacking through the creatures’ soft bodies like a knife through butter. Blood spattered and sprayed Kara in the face, but she didn’t stop. She couldn’t stop.
The creatures reared back at Kara’s sudden fury. She stared at the pile of dead bodies around her, but there were still more. They hissed and growled, and then started speaking to each other in that strange language again. They were planning something.
They roared in fury and launched another attack. But this time Kara was ready.
Again and again the creatures struck. Each blow rang loudly against Kara’s dagger, and she could hear the sound of tearing cloth as her mortal suit ripped. Soon she was covered in large wounds that dripped with her brilliant angel essence.
The creatures stared at the brilliance of her essence, admiring it, pleased at the damage that they were doing to her. Yet, she still fought them off. She plunged her dagger blade into another creature’s throat. The beast gave a blood-curdling squeal of agony and crumpled to the floor with a howl that faded into silence. With all of the strength and fury that these creatures elicited from her, she was relentless in her slaughter of the innocents. She struck over and over until all the creatures had screeched in agony and lay dead at her feet.
Kara heard a cry and turned around. Jenny was backed into a corner, yelling, screaming unintelligibly, and firing arrow after arrow into the creatures’ heads. Kara ran into the tangle of creatures, and Jenny continued shooting.
The first came at her with wild eyes and screeching mouth. It swung its arms so erratically that it was no trouble for Kara to dodge. She kicked another rushing creature in the head, and then stabbed them both in the necks. With unmatched speed, she gripped her sword and came out swinging again. She knocked another creature down and ran her dagger through its stomach. She turned on two man-creatures who came from behind and killed them both with her dagger, while she fought off a third with her other arm.
Finally, only one man was left. His breath was ragged, and his eyes were wide with madness. In a flash, Kara threw her dagger. It hit its mark. The creature cried out, fell to the ground, and lay still.
Kara wiped the blood from her blade. The blood of the murdered men and women was wet on her jeans. She felt terrible. She pitied them. They couldn’t have helped themselves. It was as though they were in a trance. Their minds were not their own, and they had acted on direction from another power, like puppets on a string. They had lost their minds all together.
“All my souls,” said Jenny, overcome with sorrow.
She stared at the mass of crumpled dead bodies. “This is a massacre, a bloody massacre. Look at all their faces. Some of them were kids! We killed kids! How could we have done this?”
They were dead. All of them. Kara felt overwhelmed by a pain in her chest. She tried not to look at their empty, lifeless faces. If this was the reapers’ doing, then she knew that reapers stole the souls of mortals and transformed them into fighting zombies.
“We did this because they left us no other choice.” David’s voice sounded suddenly.
Kara looked up to see David and Peter. They were still intact, but their clothes and M-suits were ripped and torn, and Kara could see glimpses of their angel essence through their many wounds.
“Don’t question yourself, Jenny.” David sheathed his soul blade. “You did what you had to, what we all had to. There was no other way.”
“But maybe there was?” said Jenny; her lips quivered, and she looked like she was about to weep.
“There wasn’t.” David shook his head. “They weren’t human anymore. None of them were. They were monsters, creatures, killing machines. Didn’t you see the blood on their hands? Their clothes? Who knows how many innocent people they killed before we—”
“Killed them,” finished Kara. Her voice felt strange, like it wasn’t her own. She knew what was rattling inside her. It was plain cold fear.
David moved toward her and took her hand. “They weren’t alive, Kara. Didn’t you see their blackened eyes? Their souls were already taken. These things weren’t human anymore.”
“He’s right,” said Peter, and he wiped the blood from the creatures off his face. “I’m pretty sure these were denomites.”
Kara let go of David’s hand. “What are denomites?”
“Think of them like parasites from the Netherworld. They need a host body to stay in this world. They’d die without one.”
Peter bent down and inspected one of the dead bodies. “They came into these bodies and used them as shells, hosts.”
“So the reapers control these denomites?” David kicked over one of the dead, as if looking for something attached to it.
Peter shook his head. “I don’t know. Could be. But it could also be demons or any other force from the Netherworld, something powerful, really powerful. It takes a great deal of power just to break through the veil, let alone infect so many people at once. I’ve never heard of an attack of this magnitude. This could be the beginning of something far worse.”
“We’d better get back and report this to Ariel,” urged Jenny. “She’ll want to hear. Plus, she’ll need to send another team to clean up this mess before mortals from the neighboring cities come looking for their loved ones. Somehow, we have to make this right.”
Although they had eliminated this threat, Kara felt defeated. “I just wished we could have saved at least one, just one soul. We couldn’t even do that! What’s the point of being guardian angels if we can’t even save one miserable soul?”
David reached out to her again. “Kara, don’t torture yourself; this is not your fault. It’s nobody’s fault.”
Kara brushed him off. “Don’t—”
A scream echoed down the street.
Startled, the group froze and waited, listening, watching each other and waiting to hear the sound again. Had they imagined it? But the scream came again, a terrified girl’s pleading scream.
Before Kara knew what she was doing, she ran toward the sound.
“Kara, wait!” cried David.
But Kara was focused only on the sound of a girl’s scream. She had to save her. She needed to save at least one mortal to relieve the guilt and shame she felt for killing all those innocent people. She had to do this, no matter what. Save the soul…
The gray, billowing smoke crowded around her, and Kara could only see darkness and the soft light that spilled from the many fires that marked the strip like a runway. She tore down the street, praying she was heading in the right direction. Don’t die, she pleaded. Please don’t die.
Another series of the strange sharp pains she had felt earlier erupted between her shoulder blades, but she ignored them. Her only thought was to save the girl.
Her M-5 suit had taken a real beating, and she was beginning to tire. She had to find the girl soon.
She didn’t know when the view had changed. She just kept running. The gray smoke snuffed out the buildings. She didn’t know if she’d gone too far. The endless buildings that rose all around her all looked the same.
She realized that she was shivering, not from the cold, but from a panic that consumed her with a desperate need to make amends for the shame of the massacre.
I have to save one.
She halted in the middle of the street and listened for any sign of the girl. And just when she thought she had failed, she heard a faint whimper.
Kara bolted in the direction of the whimper. Her M-5 suit still enabled her to run at supernatural speed. She turned right at the next block and headed down what appeared to be an alleyway. A giant wall of smoke materialized in front of her, and she tore through it. She couldn’t see more than ten feet in front of her. The rest was lost in shadow.
“Hello? Are you here? I’m here to help you,” Kara’s voice cracked, and she didn’t care to mask her desperation.
“Just—just say something, so I can find you. I can get you to safety, if you’ll only tell me where you are—”
Something collided with Kara from the back and flew into the air. She went sprawling on the ground and rolled over. Her blade fell from her grip. The blow would have broken her back, if it weren’t for her M-5 suit.
She was disorientated. She felt something brush the side of her leg. A girl lay beside her. She was still and cold. Her eyes were black and lifeless.
Kara felt a presence nearby.
She looked up at a black-robed figure who loomed over her.
Chapter 9
Reapers
Kara stared, transfixed both in awe and in fear. The creature stood seven feet tall and wore a flowing black robe that rippled like tendrils of black smoke. Underneath she could see fragments of a body that was corrupted by shadow and darkness. Its face was hidden behind a heavy hood that was as dark as night except for two glowing red eyes. It exuded an aura of fear.
It held a great scythe in the rotten flesh of its exposed hand. Kara screamed when she looked at the blade.
The gleaming red blade was covered with the faces of thousands of souls. Horrified, Kara could hear their faint cries and could feel their pain and suffering. It was as though they were begging her to set them free. Panic gripped her. She couldn’t breathe, and she couldn’t look away from the screaming souls.
Although it didn’t speak to her directly, she could hear the reaper’s voice in her mind. It was a voice like blackness, the voice of death itself.
Come to me, said the voice. Come to me.
Then the darkness and death came at her. Kara felt her essence breaking as coldness washed over her like a thick fog. She could feel her mind clouding as the blackness came nearer. The creature had some sort of hold on her, and she was transfixed and couldn’t move.
The Reaper leaned closer. Its robe enveloped her in swirls of black smoke that felt like gangly fingers gripping at her. It was so close to her now that she could see a haggard face beneath the hood. Its exposed rotten flesh was coated with the faces of pleading souls.
Kara tried to scream, but her voice wouldn’t come. She couldn’t look away.
Its wet, gaping hole of a mouth contorted into a grin. The reaper lowered its scythe, aiming it toward her chest, slowly angling it, as it decided where to cut her. Red and black mist coiled from the scythe and reached out to Kara. She could feel it burning her M-5 suit. Tendrils of mist insinuated their way into her body. She thrashed and kicked, but it was no use. Her strength was failing, and her eyes began to blur. Her angel essence was being drawn out of her body into the reaper’s scythe. Soon she would join the other captive souls. The reaper’s hideous dark hide seemed to ripple with excitement as it prepared to strike.
And as the reaper raised its scythe above its head, ready to strike her down, ready to finish her completely—it hesitated.
It lowered its scythe and pulled back. It cocked its head to one side, as though it was contemplating whether or not to kill her. Something about Kara had stopped it.
The hesitation was all she needed.
With the connection lost, Kara’s energy returned. She rolled away and jumped to her feet. With a quick move of her hand she threw her blade directly toward the reaper’s face. But the beast was unimaginably fast and easily caught her blade, inches before it hit its face. He tossed it aside, and in one giant step it was on her again.
“Kara! Duck!”
Kara fell to her knees.
Two silver arrows and a soul blade perforated the reaper’s chest. Kara spun around, hurdled over the dead girl’s body and landed near her fallen weapon. She grabbed her silver-blue blade and turned to see David, Jenny and Peter running toward her.
The reaper seemed mildly surprised at the three weapons sticking out of it. It barely glanced at them. Wrapping its rotten, emaciated fingers around the two arrows and the blade, it pulled them out easily, as though they were nothing more than a nuisance, and tossed them to the ground. Black liquid oozed from the three small wounds and spilled out over its hideous rotten body. It turned and faced its new foes.
David hurled a red orb through the dark sky, and it crashed against the reaper’s body in an explosion of red light. The creature disappeared in the explosion of light. But when the light dissipated, the reaper stood unscathed.
Incredulous, David swore loudly and hurled a glowing white orb.
The orb hit its mark and exploded at the reaper’s feet, showering it in brilliant white light. For a few seconds the reaper disappeared into the giant ball of white light, but when the light dispersed, the reaper stood unharmed yet again.
“Our weapons didn’t make a mark on it! What in the souls is this thing?” cried David, his eyes wide.
He pulled out a second soul blade from his jacket and brandished it in his hand skillfully. They waited.
Even though Kara couldn’t see the reaper’s face, she knew it was smiling, mocking them. It stood still and waited for another challenge. Its robe billowed in the wind, as if it, too, were calling them to try again, teasing them.
Reapers Page 9