Ordained (The Immortal Archives)

by Devon Ashley

  “Behind you!” he cried. The Orcux was nearing. Emily twisted her body and gave a swift kick to its knee. The movement inadvertently shifted Emily’s body weight toward Daniel. As if in slow-motion, Daniel’s weight pulled her farther and farther into the fissure. They slowly disappeared into the black abyss.

  Abby’s heart stopped. Or at least it would have if it actually beat. “NO!”

  She could hear their screams echo down the fissure. From above, Noel jumped down, slicing the Orcux‘s body in half. He rushed to the fissure and leaned in. He must have thought she had called for him when screaming out. She hadn’t even realized he was in the arena.

  “Emily!” he yelled down the hole. A few seconds later he waved Abby to go on. Confident he would protect them, she turned away.

  The Fanter demon was currently slinging Me-Ling across the arena. She was stunned upon landing. With the jerk of its wrist, a shard flew out and traveled across the room. Brit cried out and dove for his huntress, knocking her over. Abby knew if either was hit with the poisonous tip, they were done for.

  The Firnst threw Calley up against the wall and spit poison onto her neck. The sticky material acted like acid and her skin bubbled and melted. She choked on tears and blood as she bawled in pain in the monster’s grasp. The exposed muscles and blood vessels continued to liquefy.

  Abby came up from behind and grasped the Firnst’s head, covering the gills on the back of its neck, suffocating it. The demon struggled and released Calley to the floor. Its claws dug deep into Abby’s arms, trying to pull her off its only source of oxygen. The demon weakened and fell lifeless to the ground. Calley lay dead beside it.

  Unbeknownst to the Fanter demon, it was being backed into Abby by Me-Ling, who was swinging constantly at its chest. Me-Ling had become hip to the demon’s shooting darts and protected herself with a large shield. The Fantor had yet to get in a clean shot. Abby picked up a trident next to Calley’s body, stepped in behind the demon and pierced its heart through the back. It seized briefly, then fell forward.

  Me-Ling nodded her thanks and ran to help more of her friends.

  Abby scanned the room. The hunters and advisors had ganged up on the remaining demons four to one and were finishing them off. The greatest threat was the Singion, or fire-thrower, that had caused some damage in the area Christoph and a few advisors were still fighting. There were none left that required a particular method of dying. All would succumb to the hunters’ weapons.

  Moments later, all were breathless and in shock. Valerie appeared at the balcony and visually assessed the damage. Abby didn’t bother to measure the damage from where she was, but according to Valerie’s reaction, the aerial view was devastating.

  Abby rushed to Noel’s side and stared into the darkness of the fissure. “Emily!” she called out.

  Her quiet voice responded weakly, “We’re fine. I think.”

  Abby figured from Emily’s voice that the fissure was only about fifteen feet deep. Not enough to kill, but definitely deep enough to cause some bodily damage.

  Within minutes, the advisors had retrieved a ladder long enough to lower down the fissure. Emily climbed up and out, cradling her left arm. Michael and Ethan went down to aid Daniel. Emily had apparently landed atop Daniel and broken one of his legs. He was unable to climb up the ladder on his own.

  Obviously in pain, Mira and Darby tried to comfort Emily but she pushed them aside as she gawked at the sight before her. For the first time Abby did as well. There were a lot of bodies, demons and humans alike.

  Number-wise the hunters did quite well - a loss of three versus twelve. Abby was actually surprised the demons attacked with so few. Certainly they realized the hunters would have a home court advantage. She knew all too well it could’ve been far worse, had the hunters not been grouped together training at the time of attack.

  Apparently, Emily disagreed. Whether from stress, pain or finally fed up, she yelled across the arena to the advisors, paying particular attention to the Chancellor. “Is this what you wanted?! Are you ever gonna do something that actually benefits us hunters? You raise us, train us and send us out into the world ready to fight nothing but vampires. Do you see any vampires here today? Right now? In this very school?”

  Abby and Noel’s eyes met in utter astonishment. Emily had never snapped before. Their awe and silence was matched throughout the arena. The hunters appeared dumbfounded, the advisors anxious. From the looks on their faces, Abby was quite certain no hunter under their watch had ever been this vocal.

  “How in the hell were we supposed to get close enough to that fire-thrower to stop him?”

  Quite a few eyes lingered towards Abby after that remark.

  “And show me how a stake through the heart of this demon,” she sassed, kicking the Lixth at her feet, “would have injured it, let alone killed it? I see he’s missing a chunk of forehead. Perhaps it has something to do with that?”

  Emily’s venting was put on hold as she and everyone else turned to watch Michael and Ethan lift Daniel up between them on the ladder. Noel rushed over to help pull him out. Daniel grunted in pain as his leg was jostled.

  Frustrated, Emily walked aimlessly for a few seconds, shaking her head in disbelief. The pain from her broken bone seemed to be getting to her, too.

  She ended her walk as she neared the Chancellor. “You send us out into the world, not as a group, but by ourselves to different cities in countries all over the world. Did you seriously expect us to be able to kill vampires without running into anything else? The world is full of monsters. Hell, we’ve got about twelve different ones right here.”

  Abby noticed as the hunters looked back and forth at one another, appearing to agree with Emily through facial expressions.

  “Abby?” Emily called out, refusing to break her line of sight aimed at the Chancellor. “How many of these demons required special ways to finish them off?”

  There was no need for Abby to scan the room. She knew the answer without looking. “Three.”

  “And of those three, how many did you and Noel kill for us?”

  Abby had killed two of them. She assumed Noel took care of the third, for no other here would have known to kill the Razunu by piercing the spine at the back of the neck between the cervical and thoracic vertebras, which was the only soft spot in the scale-protected body.

  “Three.”

  “And just out of curiosity, how many of these twelve did you two end up killing?” She glared at the Chancellor. Surprisingly, he did not back away from her eyes.

  Abby hesitantly looked toward Noel. She could tell he didn’t like where this was going. He slowly and quietly raised three fingers. “Seven.”

  “Seven?” she huffed. “Wow. Two of them, seven demons. Well, I’m glad the twenty of us could help you out with the other five,” she ranted sarcastically.

  “All right, that’s enough!” the Chancellor bellowed. Reddened, he added, “We’re all upset by this attack. None of you would be alive right now if you hadn’t been given the training you received during your school years.”

  Most of the hunters looked away due to an upbringing of intimidation. Emily, however, looked him straight in the eye, dumbfounded by his words.

  “You’re delusional!” she stressed. “These demons kicked our ass! Abby and Noel are the reason the rest of us are still alive. Your training only kept us alive long enough for them to sort out the mess!”

  “Emily!” yelled Ethan, stamping forward. “You will stop this right now!”

  “I’m not taking orders from you anymore!” she yelled back. “Any of you!”

  Ethan approached Emily with fury in his eyes. With only four steps, Abby put herself directly in his path and caused him to stop abruptly.

  “Emily,” Noel said in a calm manner across the arena.

  She obediently turned her attention to him.

  “We need to set your arm before it swells any further.” He motioned for her to join him as he headed for the main entrance door
s. She followed without hesitation.

  The room was left in silence. Abby approached the Chancellor for a private conversation but made no attempt to lower her voice.

  “I suggest you start the induction process for Emily’s replacement. I guarantee you, when this is over, she’ll have no intention of following your orders anymore.”

  “You did this,” he said coolly. “You turned her against us.”

  “I didn’t do a damn thing. Your words, your actions, or lack thereof, is the reason this is happening. If you hadn’t sent her out there to face Eraticus alone and unprepared she wouldn’t have known you were worth hating. You had to know that if any of these guys,” she motioned to the hunters who were listening to her every word, “had lived through that ambush, they would’ve been pissed off too.”

  Abby looked each advisor in the eye before they turned away in fear. “You turned her against you.” As she left, she paused beside Ethan. “And you,” she said forcefully to him, “if I see you approach her again with malice in your eyes, it’ll be the last thought you ever have.”

  An hour later, the protective charm around the manor had been re-applied, though for what purpose, Abby couldn’t imagine. No longer would any of the advisors or hunters lax into a false sense of security. The demons were being carried outside to the incinerator and the fallen hunters were being taken to the kitchen storage cooler. The clinical office only held one mortuary cooler, which of course was given to the dead advisor.

  Abby paused in the middle of the arena floor, completely oblivious to the bodies moving around her. The blood smear on the floor drew her in, hypnotized her. It was the same spot she began her attack on Nathaniel when she was younger.

  Noel gently touched her shoulder from behind. The untimely attack had been their wake-up call. He held her tight and pressed his cheek into her forehead. Their petty arguments and temporary distrust in one another would be forgiven and forgotten.

  Emily and Daniel, like many others, were injured and currently getting treatment from Michael, who was also the in-house doctor. Daniel’s left leg was broken and he had a slight concussion from the fall. Emily landed partially over Daniel, so her injuries were less severe. Her left forearm was broken and her right arm had been sliced open as she tried to grip the rocky wall during the fall. All in all, the two were lucky to have landed on the flatter side of the fissure.

  Abby and Noel decided to leave them be and tend to their own wounds. Their cuts were minimal, but with no immune system, wounds could easily lead to infection.

  Noel hugged her hand and led her through the hallways. A voice boomed from around the corner and stopped them dead in their tracks. “You have one job. One job! To see the future and tell us what’s going to happen!”

  Surprisingly, Noel reacted before Abby and ran down the hall first.

  “We lost three people today because you couldn’t produce the future!”

  Abby only had a split second to take in the scene before Noel interfered. Jayden had Valerie cornered in the room. She was practically in tears.

  He slammed Jayden’s face into the wall. “What the hell is wrong with you?” Flabbergasted, Jayden was unable to respond. “Valerie, you’re done here.”

  She rushed behind Abby for safety.

  “Who the hell do you think you are? You’re nothing. You’re the Chancellor’s assistant, which means you do jack.” He released Jayden but kept him pinned just as he had done Valerie. “Do you know what would’ve prevented these deaths today? Besides the fact that you don’t properly train your hunters cause you knew Eraticus would kill them, you weren’t even competent enough to perform the protection barrier properly. The only reason you’re taking it out on Valerie is cause she wasn’t there to cover your ass. You want to blame someone for today’s tragedy? Try laying it on your own damn doorstep!”

  Noel turned back to escort Abby and Valerie from the room. Jayden still hadn’t moved by the time they left.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Emily had buried herself deep in the foliage in the conservatory. Off the beaten path, she sulked in the rough, not caring that the ground was damp from the sprinklers. Her left forearm was broken and wrapped in a hard blue cast. It had been this arm she landed on when she fell into the darkness with Daniel. Her other arm was heavily bandaged and her body in general was scratched and bruised all over.

  But it was the arm in particular that concerned her. Hunters genetically healed very quickly, but she feared her broken arm may not heal in time to help Abby. And although Abby had the ability to heal, she wasn’t sure if she could mend something this bad, nor would want to draw attention to herself in front of the Order.

  Emily heard the greenery rustle. The sun was still shining brightly so she figured it wasn’t Abby. Sure enough, one by one, all the surviving huntresses were pushing through the plants. First Darby and Mira, then Me-ling, Anita and Giselle.

  “You don’t really think you get to disappear after that, do ya?” Darby asked, sitting down next to Emily.

  As the rest joined them on the ground, Mira jumped back up. “Dude! This is wet!”

  Mira wiped her wet bum. Giselle, the only one still standing, ripped an elephant ear from the plant and sat on it.

  Dumbfounded, Mira stated, “Why didn’t we think of that?”

  Darby pulled her back down to the ground. “We’ve survived worse. Now sit down or Emily will start yelling again,” she warned with a smile.

  “Seriously,” Me-ling said. “You can’t keep that stuff bottled up inside you like that.”

  “Somehow I don’t think the Order would like you hanging out with me right now. Bad influence, ya know.”

  “To hell with them,” snapped Giselle.

  Emily turned to Anita and Giselle. She was so out of it she hadn’t realized they weren’t in the arena during the attack or the aftermath. “Where the hell were you two?”

  “Susan had us getting some training equipment left behind in the children’s building,” answered Anita.

  “We heard the attack, all the rumbling,” continued Giselle. “The advisors there locked down the building and told us to stand guard in case whatever was happening here made its way to them.”

  “And did it?” Emily asked. No way the children would have survived.

  “Yes, actually. But just one,” Anita replied, as Giselle nodded along in agreement. “It smashed its way through the front doors where we were positioned.”

  “Ugly, smelly thing with tentacles growing out of its head.” Giselle scrunched her nose in disgust.

  “I don’t think it was expecting any legitimate hunters to be there at the time. It went down rather easily between the two of us. It wasn’t nearly as threatening as some of the demons you guys got.”

  Emily frowned. “So the protection barrier didn’t hold up there either? What the hell is going on? How are they getting through?”

  “I don’t know,” said Mira. “All I know is I’ll be sleeping with one eye open from now on.”

  Emily perked up. “Calley,” she gasped toward Mira. “You’re all alone now.”

  Mira shook her head in disagreement. “No, no I’m not. Me-ling and I are going to bunk together now,” she said solemnly as the two wrapped their arms around each other.

  “But seriously, Emily,” Darby insisted, “really cool the way you laid into the Chancellor like that. Even the guys are impressed.”

  “Finally, one of us got to tell ‘em off,” Giselle added dreamily.

  Emily tried to hold back the smile, but couldn’t. “I wasn’t done bitchin’.”

  “No need,” Mira replied bluntly. “Abby pretty much finished the speech for you.”

  “I do like the way they recoil into themselves every time she comes near them,” said Me-ling happily. “I hope I’ll be able to scare people like that one day.”

  Giselle turned to Anita with pursed lips and a shaking head. “Every time. How do we keep missing all the good stuff?”

  Anita laughed s
hortly. “I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. On one side, we dodged a bullet not being there. On the other, I really hate that we weren’t there. Maybe Calley and Constance would still be here if we had just stuck around two more minutes.”

  “Don’t think on that for one second,” Emily stated firmly. “Their deaths are not your fault. They’re not any of our faults.”

  After two hours of chit-chat, the cloudy sky darkened. Still going strong, the girls only paused when Abby pushed through the greenery.

  “Hey,” Emily said as she stood over them. “How’d the cleanup go?”

  “Well, you know me. Nothing I like better than disposing of dead demon bodies,” she replied sarcastically. “Uh, the Order brought in pizzas for dinner if anyone’s interested. Guess they weren’t up for cooking tonight.”

  “Cool.” Giselle sprang quickly to her feet.

  The others were a little slower to follow, seeing as how they all sank into the wet ground. Emily remained situated where she was. She hadn’t been particularly close to the two women that died, but the thought of eating while they lay lifeless in a refrigerator just sickened her.

  “It’s the least those jerks could do,” complained Anita.

  “Are you coming?” Darby asked Emily.

  “No. Abby and I need to talk privately for awhile.”

  The girls said their goodbyes. As they left, Abby got a peek at their backsides. “Well, at least they match.”

  “Yeah.” Emily adjusted her own wet bum in the ground.

  Detecting her discomfort, Abby offered a reprieve by suggesting they switch locations.

  “Nah. I’ve managed to make myself a nice little hole in the mud. Pull up a leaf,” she said, waving her hand towards the plant Giselle was sitting on.

  “How gracious of you,” she cringed sarcastically, sitting down carefully to avoid the same fate. “So, first demon battle since Eraticus. How ya holding up?”

  “That’s not why I’m in here.”

  Abby raised her eyebrows in a distrustful manner. “Alright, then why did you come here, before the girl brigade showed up that is?”