Lailah’s expression changed to one of fear. How could her mum be having this affect? Val managed to lift her head enough to see the answer. Susan was striding across the grass with three Labradoodles on leads. She was backed up by Fran and Jason, both holding tazer swords.
Val felt hands grabbing her under her arms. The face of David’s Hunter was a very welcome surprise as he pulled her to safety. Now Eva and Lailah were alone under the glowing portal.
“You need to learn to behave on someone else’s planet,” Susan told them sternly. She knelt down and removed the leads. The dogs sniffed the night air and their eyes focused on the women. There was no Flo to teleport them out; they were surrounded. The dogs were on them in a few short leaps of their agile bodies.
The first leapt at Eva, its teeth sinking deep into her arm as it pulled her to the ground. In seconds the venom was coursing through her veins and she started to shake. As Eva became motionless her portal of floating prisoners began to retract. Val sensed Eva’s power fading. They would all be free soon.
The other two dogs corralled Lailah, stalking her like they would a small deer. She aimed the wand she had taken from Wendy, striking one of the dogs with a fatal blow, but the other took the opportunity to attack. It sprang forward, seizing her leg. She fell onto her knees.
“Val, don’t do any magic, they feed off of it,” Susan warned her.
Since when had her mum become this feisty alien fighter? She let the Hunter help her to her feet. Daniel was already releasing the others. Fran and Jason were warning the aliens to stay back.
“Come. Heel,” Susan called to the two dogs that were still standing. They pricked up their ears and made their way back to their new owner’s side. Val was stunned by what was happening, but very proud at the same time. Susan put them back on their leads.
Fran ran towards Val throwing her arms around her neck. “I’m so glad you’re ok. We really had no choice.” Val reciprocated the embrace.
They headed to Lailah. Fran knelt down next to her sister’s body. “We’ll get Yassmin back, don’t worry,” Val said as she positioned herself to protect them, aware that the crowd was starting to gather and grow into a mass, something that once again looked like a force to be reckoned with, Lailah or no Lailah.
The group assembled, Mike hugging his wife hard. Hadwyn and Boden patted Val vigorously on the back. Relieved to be together and relatively unscathed, they formed a circle around the wounded, trying to stay out of reach of the two remaining Novelia who seemed quite happy to sit placidly by Susan’s feet dribbling acid.
Sam made a direct line for Val. She watched as he moved closer and didn’t stop at what would have been the appropriate distance. He just kept moving, his arms reaching out for her and then he pulled her in close to him. Val wasn’t ready for this and looked up to see his deep black eyes staring down into hers. “I won’t live without you, Val Saunders.” His lips pressed down on hers. She wanted the moment to last forever.
It couldn’t and Sam stepped back releasing her, turning to address the group. “We can’t leave this situation as it stands. The humans are at great risk from these creatures and they now have no one to control them. Wendy and Belinda aren’t strong enough, so, ideas please, people.”
Zac made his way to Val’s side. “I do not wish to join mouths with you, I hope this is acceptable, but I was concerned and I’m pleased you are ok.”
“I don’t wish to join mouths with you either, buddy,” Val laughed, nudging him.
“Is it possible to create a reverse portal?” Boden asked. “Because there are too many of them for us to deal with even with the amazing Susan and her Novelia.”
Susan blushed, “Thanks.”
“The portal Eva opened was only going in one direction and that was here,” Sam said.
Hadwyn stepped in. “Val got us all off Nyteria. Why can’t she do the same here?”
“I wasn’t conscious of doing that and I’m not sure I can do it again with hundreds of aliens,” she replied shaking her head.
“What if we boosted your powers a little?” Boden looked at Daniel. “He seems powerful.”
“Yes, Val, Daniel can help you; you have similar DNA,” Wendy added, now conscious and being supported by Daniel. “Sam, is it possible for me and Mum to create some protection to allow them to work?” He nodded.
“Then let’s do it.” Belinda said as she and Wendy joined hands and Sam gave them instructions. Boden and Hadwyn began to fire warning shots at the creatures closing in.
Val watched as a veil of light surrounded them, not dissimilar to the one Excariot had created with the coven. Daniel moved closer to her. “So what should we do? I’m new to this?” he said.
Val looked at him and smiled. “Thank you, Daniel. You took a huge risk bringing the Novelia here and facing Eva.”
“Val, I love Wendy and they lied to me. When they made me burn down your bookshop I knew I was doing the wrong thing.”
“Guard instincts. It’s in our blood.”
Wendy called out. “Val, we have a problem!” She was pointing outside the protective dome.
Val could see the mass getting closer to the barrier between them. “What?”
“Oh my God!” Fran screamed and sprinted to the edge, placing her hands on the glowing wall that was keeping them safe.
Then it became horribly clear to Val: Sam was on the outside. How had that happened? “Wendy, take it down. NOW! Please, take it down,” Val begged, feeling more fear now than when she had believed her own life was about to end.
“If I do we can’t put another one up Val. It’s not that simple.”
“Boden what can we do?” Val pleaded.
He looked around him, but the shield was all encompassing. Sam looked at them through the glowing haze as the first wave of aliens got the courage up to attack him. With his sword extended in one hand and a plasma ball in the other he defended himself.
“Why isn’t he teleporting out? We need to get him.” Val’s blue spark flashed, and as she reappeared she found herself standing in the same spot, she couldn’t get out. “TAKE IT DOWN!” she screamed at Wendy.
She watched them piling on top of Sam. He pushed them back, but it was just a matter of time.
“Val, you need to teleport the aliens out of here, they’re going to kill him.” Zac said to her, his voice, as always in these situations, was even and persuasive. “Are you going to allow them to do that, Val? Are you just going to stand there and watch?”
She rounded on him furiously. “How could you say that to me!” she yelled.
He merely smiled and nodded.
Then she knew why. Her body was heating. She couldn’t see Sam any more, through the wall of flames that surrounded her. But it wasn’t enough. Desperately she turned to Daniel. “Take my hands,” she ordered. He didn’t question her, placing his hands onto hers.
“Stand back,” Hadwyn warned the others. “It’s going to get bright in here.” His helmet covered his head. The others turned away.
In Val’s mind at that moment there was no longer any anger, no desire for revenge, just an overpowering need to protect Sam. She gripped Daniel unaware of the pain she was causing him with her flames. Then she felt his energy surging through her. She felt like a Catherine wheel ready to spin. The others watched as her light grew. Mike grabbed Susan and turned her face into his chest as he turned his head away. Fran and Jason had crouched on the floor together. Outside the protection of the bubble, Sam was down on the ground, under a pile of aliens.
“Come on Val, come on,” Boden whispered to himself wondering how Sam could possibly survive the onslaught.
Suddenly the protective barrier that had been keeping the alien creatures out was broken. Beams of light shot out from Val’s body, hitting each individual alien flinging them skywards. The mass of creatures covering Sam was torn upwards, so high they disappeared. Val was now vibrating and Daniel seemed to be the only thing anchoring her to the ground. The light that had caused them a
ll to cover their eyes was growing in ferocity, faster and faster. Aliens that tried to run were grabbed by the light and thrown into oblivion.
Zac called out to her as he edged his way cautiously in her direction. The creatures where now growing thin on the ground, the light dispersing, as one by one the creatures rose into the atmosphere and disappeared. As he got closer, the final few shot into the air. “You can stop, now,” he told her. Daniel’s face was full of pain from his severely burned hands. Seeing that she hadn’t heard him, Zac touched her flaming arm quickly, pulling it away sharply and, at last, her head turned towards him. “Val, Sam’s safe,” he reassured her. “We’re all safe, stop.”
She couldn’t feel her body as she came down from wherever she had been in her mind. “Daniel!” She looked at their hands, hers perfect and his burned and blistered. “I’m so sorry. Wendy!” She called for help, but it was already there.
Hadwyn moved in, lifting Daniel off the ground as his weak body gave in to the shock and pain. Then Wendy was beside Daniel reassuring him it would be ok.
“Val,” She heard her mother’s voice. Susan was with Mike holding two empty leads. It seemed that even the Novelia had been cast out by Val’s power. But to where?
Moving felt odd. Her legs seemed almost reluctant to take her. Her body ached from the sheer power that had been surging through her. She glanced from David’s Hunter to Boden; they were making sure that every last alien had gone. Then she spotted Jason and Fran kneeling next to a body - Sam. She moved as fast as her legs would go, tears already streaming down her face as she reached them. She couldn’t lose him, she wouldn’t lose him.
Fran moved backwards to let her in, and Val threw herself onto his still body. “Sam, don’t leave me. You said you wouldn’t leave me ever again,” she sobbed.
“Ok,” he exhaled.
Val sat back. He struggled to open his eyes, a pained grin on his lips. “Then we have a deal.” She pushed forward kissing him with a confidence she had shied away from before.
“Time and place people,” Jason coughed.
“Honestly!” Fran grabbed Jason’s arm and dragged him away.
Val stroked Sam’s hair out of his bloodied face. “How?”
“What?”
“How did Wendy’s force field miss you? Were you busy looking at the view? How on Earth did it happen?” She slapped his chest in annoyance.
He coughed. “I told her not to include me. Don’t be angry, Val. It was the only way to get you to the maximum of your potential. I know it was a crazy trick, but it worked.”
“Idiot.” Val pushed at him and he winced in pain. “Don’t you ever do that to me again.”
“Well, after all this it won’t be necessary.”
“I wouldn’t count on it. Two major players are missing. We have two soulless bodies over there, but Delta and Flo weren’t here. And where did all the creatures go?”
“I don’t know, but I’m sure Zac will know if they’re on Earth. We need to get back to my house.” Sam started to lift himself up. “We have a Prison to take care of.”
CHAPTER 16
Breakfast TV
They had left Mistley Heath; Val hoped for the last time, taking Lailah’s and Eva’s bodies with them. Teleporting back to the house was their quickest option so they left the truck in a secluded area and trusted it would be safe until they had time to return.
Sam’s house was eerily quiet when they got back and they all moved around in silence, exhausted by the trauma they had just lived through. There was a definite sense of relief, but also a sense of apprehension about what would be waiting for them back at the Prison. Sam instructed them that Mike, Susan, Belinda, Jason and Fran should remain at the house and wait for them to return. Wendy had taken the healing book to help Daniel with his burns.
Zac had gone to pack the rest of the Dellatrax for transport back to the Prison and the Hunter was back with his Guard David. Eva and Lailah were laid out in the lounge on mattresses and the rest of them we’re gathered in the kitchen. Val looked out of the window to see the sun rising. Another day on planet Earth; how very different it could have been.
Susan fluttered around Val with a damp piece of tissue. “Look at this scar. You’ll have to get Wendy to get rid of it.” She rubbed off some of the dry blood.
“Stop.” Val gently took Susan’s hand away from her head. “Ok Mum, what were you thinking?”
“Well, looking after you of course,” she said retreating to her comfort zone by putting the kettle on and pulling out cups.
“What possessed you to go and risk getting the Novelia after everything we told you about them?”
“David’s Hunter came to us and told us that there were a lot of aliens massing in one place. He guessed that with the loss of communication that you were losing the fight. It was him that came up with the idea. He said that the Novelia wouldn’t hurt us because we were humans, but that they could kill Lailah and Eva, but we would need to be careful as they could kill you lot as well. He told us they feed off power so if we could get to the Heath and stop you from using your magic, then we stood a good chance of sorting them out. But Daniel took the greatest risk. Teleporting us all, the Novelia could have bitten him at any time, but he didn’t care. You know, Val, he’s just a boy.” She shoved a coffee in front of her daughter.
“Well, you were awesome and I can’t tell you how cool Boden and Hadwyn think you are; I’m going to have to pull a serious stunt to impress them now.”
“I think you already have. When will you leave?” Susan asked pouring milk into a jug.
“Soon; maybe an hour,” Sam interrupted, piling the astrology charts together.
“When will you be back?”
“I don’t know; I can only promise I will keep Val safe.”
She gave him ‘a look’ one that warned if he didn’t, he would be extremely sorry. “I’ll hold you to that,” she said seriously, then finished filling the mugs. “Who wants a drink?”
They chorused their orders and sat at the counter. “Put the TV on, Dad.”
“Do you have the sports channels?” Mike asked as he took the remote.
Val tutted. “Seriously, we’ve just saved the world from an alien takeover and you want to watch golf!”
“It’s therapeutic,” he grumbled. “Now I’m going to make you watch the news.”
“I’m not sure which is more depressing?” Val whined, sipping the drink Susan had passed her.
The widescreen TV strapped to the wall lit-up and there, in full HD with surround sound, was Delta. She was dressed to kill and talking to a presenter on Breakfast News. “Eamonn Holmes,” Susan squealed. “I love him. What’s going on?”
“Mum, shh,” Val instructed. “Turn it up, Dad.”
“So tell us, Miss Troughton, what exactly has been happening? We have been watching these videos posted yesterday on Youtube of some children being approached by an aggressive female dressed in black and a strange docile male. The most disturbing fact is that they seem to appear from thin air. Now we also have this film, taken from your house, and we can see that this is the same woman we saw in the Youtube video, shooting in the street this morning.” The footage began and it was immediately apparent that Delta had been filming them as they left the garage, but because the aliens weren’t visible on the footage, it made it look like they were just randomly shooting in the street.
“Well Eamonn, where do I start?” Delta flicked her long blonde hair for the cameras. “I thought this woman was a good neighbour, so you can imagine how shocked I was to see this. However, I can’t lie and tell you I didn’t have my suspicions. Her family, Mike and Susan Saunders,” at this point she held a picture of them up to the screen, “mistreated her from a young age. She would beg me not to tell anyone. I just wish I had done something to help her back then, maybe then these things would never have happened.”
A mug smashed on the kitchen floor, making them all jolt out of their silent horror, “Liar! You little…” Susan�
�s outburst was a shock to them all. She was shaking with anger.
“So you’re saying she comes from an abusive background. But how did she do this? It looks like she appears by magic.” One of the children on the bus had been filming his friend doing air guitar when Val arrived. “She then goes on to kidnap the driver and threaten the teachers.” They played another clip of Val running down the bus.
Val defended herself, “I had no choice.”
Delta lifted a tissue to her eye wiping away a tear. “I know you’ll think I’m mad, but she’s been mixing with some really dangerous people, as you can see from this film, Eamonn. Those men in the video she’s with are so scary. I haven’t slept in weeks and this is going to sound crazy, but I think they have been mixing with…” she took a deep breath, “…witches. I think she may have been used for experimentation, or rituals I think they call them, along with some of our other friends.”
“Goodness me, that does seem a very farfetched allegation, although we can see on our screen something out of the normal is happening. Now you have kindly supplied us with photos of these suspects which the police have agreed for us to show on our website. Do you have any more information for the general public?” He patted her hand over the desk.
“Yes. The last time I saw them they were doing some kind of ceremony. I think live animals were involved.” She hung her head mopping her crocodile tears. “They took my puppy.” She held up another picture of a tiny Chihuahua. “Just don’t go near them,” she sobbed.
“UNBELIEVABLE!” Sam slammed the charts down. “Get on that website now Jason,” he ordered.
“On it already,” he said standing in front of a silver laptop at the table. “Looks like she’s got pictures of us all.”
“Finally, Delta, before we speak to our military expert, Captain Smyth, are the police following this up? Do you know if anyone has been arrested or if they’ll just disappear again?” Eamonn grabbed his earpiece. “I’m sorry to interrupt; we’re just getting some breaking news. It seems that there is yet another video of this particular girl.” Eamonn nodded. “We now have some more footage of her trying to harm some tourist on a roller coaster in Skegness and we are going live to the woman who was actually on it with her.”
Nyteria Rising (The Thirteenth Series Book 3) Page 14