“I’ve never heard of you, and I know all of the major Dahmshed groups,” Trevor said. “De Jagers, the Vanquishers, the…”
“We keep ourselves well hidden from our enemies,” Peter interrupted. “Unfortunately, that means being hidden from possible allies as well. My question is, which one are you?”
“Speaking for Faith and myself,” Trevor began, “we are part of a highly classified government group called the Angels. Our job is to hunt down and kill Dahmshed.”
“That could be problematic,” Winston joined in.
“It could, but I never thought I’d meet a group of…‘good’ Dahmshed.” Trevor paused in thought. “I guess I’ll have to rethink my ethics.”
“You can’t be serious,” Faith hissed. “They’re Dahmshed!”
“I assure you, Faith, that if we had any intention of killing you, you’d have been dead for a few minutes by now.” Peter smiled at her. “We are on the same side of this war, and I’m sure it would do both the Angels and the Peacekeepers good to have help.”
“I agree,” Trevor said, and Faith gave him an evil look. He ignored her and went on. “Do you mind if we talk this over inside? It’s very cold out here for a human, and I’m sure this conversation could go on for hours.”
“I will not!” Faith yelled at Trevor. “These are murderous creatures, Trevor. They could lure us inside and torture us there.”
“If they wanted to do that, they would have taken us by force. I’m sure that would have been much easier.”
“Trevor’s right, Faith,” I encouraged her. “We should go if they want us.”
“It would be our pleasure,” Winston said. “But someone might need to ’elp the lad on the ground there.” Sure enough, David was still curled in a ball on the road. He seemed to have passed out.
“Can you give me a hand, Faith?” Trevor asked, but then both Peter and Winston swooped in and picked up David effortlessly. “Thanks.”
“No problem,” Peter said. “Follow us.” They led us up the road and into the dark house.
***
Jason-
“They’re in the house,” Taddi said suddenly. “I can feel six heart beats.”
“Are you sure?” I asked hesitantly. “Could it be a trick?”
“I think I can hear Peter.” This time her voice came from the doors of the cellar. She had moved so quietly I didn’t even know she had gotten up. “Yes, that’s definitely him. He just came out the back door.” A moment later, Peter threw open the doors and stepped down onto the cement floor.
“What’s going on?” Taddi asked immediately. “Are they really human?”
“Yes, they are,” Peter replied. “Although, one seems a bit odd. His heart rate barely rose when we first came out, but I’ll let you see if you can pick him out of the rest. We may have a problem with him. Then again, I could be wrong.”
“Keep an eye on him. If he could be a threat to Jason, we’d better be safe than sorry.”
“I won’t leave Jason’s side until they leave. I also want you to try to put yourself between Jason and the humans whenever possible. Winston is aware of that plan as well.”
“I’ll try my best. Let’s go.” As they led me out of the cellar, I realized I was very nervous about meeting these humans. Taddi was worried that they weren’t human, but I didn’t know what else they could be. And, if one of the humans wasn’t scared of a Dahmshed, there had to be something up with him.
“’ello friends,” Winston greeted us when we walked into the room. “Long time no see.” He was standing next to the long leather couch where four others sat. One was a woman in her late twenties. She had curly brown hair that was tied up in a messy ponytail and a pair of pointed glasses that made her look like a librarian. She and the man next to her wore the same outfit, a thick, black winter vest with a white long-sleeved shirt underneath it. They also each wore a pair of black combat pants. The man was sturdy and well built. He was probably around thirty. His face was hard and emotionless, but a pair of bright blue eyes lightened his expression.
“Hi, Winston,” Taddi waved happily. Peter walked past us and stood in front of the humans.
“Everybody, this is Taddi and Jason.” Peter pointed at us. “Guys, this is Faith, Trevor…” He began to go through the row of people, starting with the two I had been studying, and then continuing on. “…Theron…” Theron looked like he was in his early twenties. He had green eyes and reddish-brown hair that covered his ears and forehead. He wore a white coat and gray snow pants. “…Emeric…” Emeric was the last on the couch. He was about the same age as Trevor, but there was a playful look to him. His big nose and small brown eyes almost made me laugh; none of his features seemed to fit his face. “…Lukas…” Standing next to the couch was a tall, gangly man that looked only a little older than I was. His long, black, dyed hair reached past his shoulders and almost hid his piercing grey eyes. “…and finally, David. You’ll have to officially meet him when he wakes up.” The last man, who looked about forty, was passed out in an armchair in the corner of the room. A pair of giant, horn-rimmed glasses lay in his lap. He was a short but skinny man that looked like he might live at home with his mother.
“Hello, everyone!” Taddi said happily. Although none of the humans spoke, she quickly ran around the room and shook each of their hands, except for David’s, of course. I followed her to be polite. The humans smiled at me and said their hellos. They all seemed nice, but Theron was the nicest of all. He stood when I reached him and gave me a pat on the shoulder before he sat back down.
“Well,” Trevor cleared his throat. “I believe Peter and I should talk about a few things.”
“There’s plenty of time for that tomorrow.” Peter smiled politely. “I would personally like to hear how and why you came to this house.”
“That’s kind of a long story,” Trevor said as he looked down at the floor. “But, I guess if you’d like to hear it I’d be glad to tell you.”
“Perfect!” Winston glided over to the front door. “Why don’t you begin, and I’ll be back with some food for you all shortly.”
“All right.” Trevor watched Winston shut the door behind himself before he began. “I guess it all started when Faith and I were separated from the other Angels. We had gotten caught up in a mess between the Jagers and the Knights of Obscurity and things were getting hectic.”
“Who are the Knights of Obscurity?” I whispered quietly to Taddi.
“Friends of ours,” she replied, and Trevor continued.
Chapter 11
Angels and Demons
Trevor (Three Days Ago)-
“Faith!” I screamed as loud as I could. “Watch out!” A Jager landed directly behind her and grabbed her around the neck. Using his other hand, the Jager quickly threw her gun and bag off the edge of the cliff.
“Surrender or she dies!” he laughed. I knew that she was dead either way, so I quickly leveled my assault rifle to his head and fired. The bullet hit him square between the eyes, and he fell to the ground. Faith ran toward me immediately, and I gave her my handgun.
“Thanks,” she said with a sigh. “I thought we were both dead.”
“No problem.” I winked at her. “Let’s get…”
“Faith! Trevor!” Chris interrupted me. He was standing on a hill that overlooked the fight on the other side. “Helicopter in five!”
“Roger that!” I yelled back to him, and he ran down the hill, disappearing from view. I turned back to Faith. “Let’s go.” She nodded and we ran up the hill to where Chris had just stood. The fight below was still raging between the Jagers and the Knights of Obscurity. Unfortunately, the outlook was still grim for us. Enzo and Tad were back to back, both unloading clip after clip of ammunition into the bodies of oncoming Jagers. Some dropped and stayed down, but others fought against the searing burn of the holy water-coated bullets and kept their advance.
To my right, I could see Chris rejoining Courtney and Sky who were holding cover for Enzo and T
ad. Faith and I ran toward them, but three Jagers leapt into our path. I recognized one of them from his picture, but the other two were unknown to me. The one I knew was Grath; he was second in command of the Jagers and very high on our hit list.
“Kill them,” he ordered the other two Dahmshed. I tried to raise my gun, but my reflexes were no match for the oncoming Dahmshed. He swiped the gun from my hand and threw it down the hill. As I was lifted into the air, I looked to my left to see that Faith had lost her gun as well. We were both unarmed now, and I didn’t think any of the other Angels realized what was happening.
Luckily, I was wrong. The Jager clutching my neck dropped me when his head exploded in a rain of bullets. The same happened to the Dahmshed holding Faith, and I turned to see Chris running towards us with his gun blazing. Now Grath was the only Jager left, but when he saw Chris, he ducked down and sprinted into the trees on the other side of the battlefield.
“Damn it!” Chris yelled. “I thought I had him!” He stopped running toward us and looked down the hill. I followed his gaze to see Enzo and Tad running up to Courtney and Sky.
“You three, let’s go! Thirty-five bravo!” Enzo ordered us in his thick Italian accent. “The chopper is almost here.” We all ran across the top of the hill to take cover. Chris made it first, but before Faith and I could get there, four more Jagers blocked us.
“Chris!” I yelled. “We need some help here!” I heard his gun firing, but then the sound was drowned out. The Mi-17 helicopter came into view, flying low over the trees. It circled once around the large field before settling a few hundred yards from Enzo, Tad, Courtney, Sky, and Chris.
The four Dahmshed in front of Faith and me were momentarily distracted by the helicopter, so we escaped as fast as possible down the hill to the cliff edge. There wasn’t a good way to get ourselves to the helicopter from there, so we hid behind some large rock formations. The four Jagers ran after our friends, who were quickly boarding the chopper, but they didn’t make it in time to catch them. The helicopter lifted off the ground just as the Dahmshed reached it.
“We can’t let it leave without us!” Faith yelled to me over the roar of the helicopter. “We have no weapons!”
“There’s no other way!” I said as the helicopter flew over our heads and away from the battle. “I have a bag of stakes. They’ll have to do until we can get in touch with the others.” I handed her my bag so she would feel more at ease, then I peeked around the rock. The four Jagers had left the top of the hill and were nowhere in sight.
“What are we going to do now?” Faith whispered.
“Everything looks clear. Let’s make a break for the woods.” I grabbed Faith by the hand and pulled her out from behind the rock. We raced across the rocky cliff edge toward the trees, away from the battle. I kept glancing behind us to make sure we weren’t being followed. Everything looked fine, so we continued into the woods.
***
We had been walking for a few hours and night had overcome the day. The moon lit up the dark streets of Bloomfield, Vermont. We had just arrived in the small town, and it seemed to be abandoned of all human life. Just ahead of us was a large intersection. Faith and I would have to make the decision to go left or right on Route 102, or go straight into New Hampshire. Neither of us knew where we should go to get help. There were many towns up north where Dahmshed had made their homes, and we didn’t want to accidentally walk into one.
“Did you hear that?” Faith asked suddenly. “I think it came from that building.” She pointed to a red and yellow Tudor house in the intersection. I could read the white sign that was hanging on the side, “The Old Town Hall.”
“What did it sound like?” My question was answered instantly, but not by Faith. There was a loud scratching noise and then a sharp yelp emanating from the front of the building.
“Rogues,” Faith and I said simultaneously before darting behind the nearest building on our right. We each grabbed a stake from the bag that Faith was holding, then started to inch our way around the back of the building so that we could see the Rogues. Sure enough, there were three of them pacing back and forth in front of the town hall. All of them looked young, based on their more-animal-than-human features. They had very canine-like traits, walking on all fours with their back legs bowed, long snouts, and grey fur. Teeth almost four inches in length jutted out over their bottom jaw. They were big, maintaining human size, but they were also extremely skinny. The fact that they were unable to get into the town hall was also a big giveaway that they were underdeveloped. Although they were very cunning and decisive, they were young and unable to have complete human thoughts, so they wouldn’t be able to figure out how to enter a building through alternate means.
“What’s the plan?” Faith whispered. “They seem to want to get inside. There are probably humans in there.”
“That’s our job, isn’t it? To save humans from creatures like these.” She nodded, and I got down on my stomach. Faith followed my lead, and we began to crawl across the cold, wet grass. We stayed low until we were as close as possible. They were now just across the street, and if the wind shifted direction, our scent would give us up. I gave Faith a signal, and she moved up the street so that she was still in the grass, but also directly in front of the town hall. I crept ahead into the street, being very careful to not make any noise that would alert the young Rogues of my presence. Luckily, their single-mindedness kept them concentrated on trying to get into the building. If we had been dealing with Rogues any older than they were, Faith and I would have been caught before we even knew they were there.
“Sssft,” I heard from Faith’s position. Two of the Rogues turned toward us, and their ears flickered back and forth, but they soon turned back around, thankfully dismissing the noise. I looked back at Faith who was pointing at the second story window of the town hall. Looking down at us through the window were two human figures. I waved my hand to motion them to go downstairs. They moved from the window, but I couldn’t be sure if I had gotten the message across.
When I turned back to Faith, I gave her a second signal. She obeyed quickly by standing up and running in a crouch into the middle of the street. Kneeling down, she looked at me, waiting for the third and final signal. Reluctantly, I gave it to her, and she turned and bolted toward the New Hampshire border. The Rogues picked up the noise instantly and bounded on after her. I couldn’t watch to see if she would make it because I had my own portion of the plan to complete.
I jumped to my feet and ran across the street to the town hall. I tried the door first, but it was locked, so I ran to the nearest window and broke the glass with my stake, raking it around the edges a few times to clear all of the glass away. Then, I lifted myself up and inside of the building. I stood and let my eyes adjust to the new darkness.
“Hello?” I called into the quiet house. “Is anyone there?” As I walked forward, I heard a loud creak come from a floorboard in the corner of the room. I turned quickly to see a man run from the shadows with an axe in his hands. I ducked down, and his first attack missed my head by less than an inch. His next swing came from over his head, and I narrowly avoided it by jumping to the side. Now my back was to the wall, and he was already getting set to strike again. This time, he flung the axe head square at my face, but when I dodged it, it buried itself into the wall. Unarmed, the man had lost his advantage, so I pounced on him, and we both slammed into the floor. He tried to struggle, thrashing around and throwing wild punches, but I whacked him across the face, and he stopped.
“Please don’t alter me!” he begged. “If you have to do anything, just kill me!”
“Wait a minute; you think I’m a Dahmshed?” I asked, confused.
“You’re not?” He looked at me hopefully with his small brown eyes.
“Of course not. If I was, you’d know it, trust me.” I stood up, and helped the man to his feet.
“Then who are you, and what the hell are you doing here?” he demanded.
“I’m Trevor, a mem
ber of the Angels. My job is to help save people like you.”
“Well, thank God for that. David and I thought we were done for.” He wiped his forehead and sighed. “I’m extremely sorry for that, by the way.” He pointed at the axe that was still in the wall.
“Emeric?” A small, shaky voice came from the hallway. “What’s going on?”
“It’s all right, David,” Emeric said. “He’s one of the good guys.” A small man with horn-rimmed glasses peered around the corner.
“Where’s the other one?” he asked. I whipped my head around and looked out the window. Faith was nowhere in sight, but I could hear the Rogues yelping.
“Both of you,” I ordered them, “come with me right now, and stay close.” I leapt out the window and ran into the center of the intersection. I saw Faith perched in a tree with two of the three Rogues circling her. The third was lying on the ground with a stake sticking out of its neck.
When David and Emeric finally managed to climb from the window, I ran toward Faith as fast I as could go. As I gained ground, I quickly formulated a plan. It wasn’t complete, a million things could go wrong, but I kept going anyway. Finally, I reached the bottom of the tree and launched myself at the nearest Rogue. We crashed into the ground, and I began jabbing a stake into its neck over and over again. I heard a loud thud behind me and turned to see that Faith had landed on the other Rogue. She had taken a second stake from the bag and stabbed the Rogue straight through the eye.
“That was amazing!” Emeric exclaimed as he and David reached us. “I’ve never seen anyone kill one of them before!”
“Thanks?” Faith looked at him oddly. “I think.” I stood up and walked over to the others.
Descendant: The Protector (The Descendant Series) Page 16