Текст книги "Sunburst"

Автор книги: Rachel Higginson

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“I would really enjoy killing you myself,” he admitted with a sadistic grin. “I would make you suffer…. for a while. Until I got bored and your blood ran dry. But I just cannot spare the time tonight. Ah, well, at least I have the satisfaction that you will be dead. That pleases me immensely.”

Serena didn’t respond or even acknowledge his words in any way but became extremely still– I recognized this as her focusing. She easily morphed into granite muscles and steely resolve. She was now a force to be reckoned with; she was now the Sun she was meant to be.

Aliah ignored her building wrath, “Stella you’ll have to go with Seth, I suppose.”

Feeling a tad bit intimidated by the larger players in the room, my voice wasn’t as strong or as taunting as it normally was when I said, “I’m not going anywhere with you.”

“I disagree,” he smiled pleasantly at me. “I’m under a contract that I have no intention of breaking, Stella. So come with Seth now.”

“Go to hell,” I ground out, feeling my old confidence return to me.

“Gladly,” he grinned.

And then three things happened at once. Serena, in a move so silent, the sheer lack of sound frightened me, reared back her swords. Her right hand drove high above her head to bring down the killing blow; her left swung back in an effort to give her graceful momentum. She swung at the same time Aliah pulled out his sword with the speed of a Warrior in full capacity. Their blades clashed together with a resounding clash. But that was only a distraction– on Serena’s part.

While Aliah was distracted by Serena’s fierce blow, Nate lunged forward with sword arm raised and muscles bulging. I held my breath, watching the scene take place before me. He was going to kill him; Nate was going to get to Aliah’s head.

From nowhere, Seven let out a god-awful screeching sound and lunged forward. She had been watching him the entire time. Ready with her sword, she leaped over Serena, plunging her sword through Nate’s chest, all the way to the hilt. The force of her body, which was in itself shocking because of her size, took Nate back, away from Aliah and Serena. They fell together into a wall of Fallen standing around like an audience to a boxing match.

I watched in stunned horror as Seven just kept plunging the hilt of her sword deeper into his chest until her hands were covered in blood, until it spackled her face and pretty pink cocktail dress. She looked savage and insane.

Nate’s face was frozen in horror as he looked down at the wound and the blood gushing out of his chest and flowing down his body like a river of carnage.

I felt sick. I was so sure I was going to throw up; I couldn’t hold back my emotion. Then Serena broke her contact with Aliah and spun around to gape at the man she loved, her Counterpart, her reason for living and fighting.

She let no sound escape, no tear fall. She just stared on with abject horror and glowed brighter and brighter with each moment that passed. Time seemed to stand still, and even though only seconds passed, everything seemed to slow down until it was just barely moving.

Seven turned around and sucked the blood and gore from one of her fingers before moving onto the next. This time I knew I was going to be sick… I just needed…. I just….

I didn’t even know.

“Well,” Aliah broke the heavy silence. “It’s been lovely catching up. Seth, your girl.” His directions seemed pointed at me but my brain was struggling to catch up, to work properly again.

Suddenly Jupiter attacked and everything snapped back into place. I remembered the swords at my side and brought them up to use them. Seven was weaponless now, her blade almost permanently jammed into Nate’s heaving chest, as he tried to breathe around the wound and pain.

Serena spun around again, to extract vengeance, I assumed, but this time five Fallen blocked Aliah from her, and were more than happy to engage her in a complicated sword battle. And just like that, the entire space was filled with Stars fighting Fallen, Shadows joining the assault with vile creatures from an underworld I did not even know exist.

I pushed my way into the fray, desperate to get away from Aliah and Seth, and more than frantic to reach Seven and end her.

She was insane– so damn insane. She couldn’t function in real life; she wasn’t meant to be alone. She probably wasn’t even meant to be good because of this sickness existing in her even before her parents died. I had to kill her. I had to put her out of her misery.

I had to end whatever sick evil she was spreading on this planet.

She walked calmly through the fighting crowd. It wasn’t hard for her to do. We were outnumbered forty to four and Nate was currently bleeding out on the floor. The other Fallen moved out of her way as she happily licked her fingers clean of blood.

She was just out of my reach, but I pulled my sword back anyway, determined to slice through her delicate little neck. And then my feet weren’t touching the ground anymore and the cabin was shrinking beneath my rapid rise. A strong, familiar arm wrapped around my waist and held me against his solid body.

“Let me down, Seth!” I screamed even as the rushing air fought with my oxygen intake. He wasn’t glowing, there was no Light coming out of his skin, instead it was something so much darker, more sinister, something that pulled out any hope I had for him from my body and replaced it with cold despair.

“You’re going to get killed down there,” he growled in my ear. “You’re not supposed to be here.”

“Let me go!” I was hysterical. My swords had slipped from my hands when he first grabbed me and I had nothing but fingernails to claw with and pull at his skin. “They’re going to die! Let me go!”

“They don’t matter,” Seth was firm, unyielding. “It’s you that I want safe. It’s you that I’m doing this for.”

“Jupiter’s down there,” I panted. Tears were streaming down my face now, panicky sobs pushing at my chest. “I have to get back there.”

“No!” Seth shouted into my ear. “Understand why I did what I did! It was for you! And you continue to slap it in my face. I did this for you. Respect my actions!”

I could feel how dark and empty he was– how the Light had been sucked out of his skin and left nothing behind. His grip around my waist was tight to the point of pain and his fingers were digging into my side until I was sure there would be bone-deep bruises.

But if he would have lightened his grip just a fraction, I would have been able to escape.

Aliah was up in the air next to us then, “Bring her,” he ordered Seth. “If she stays here, she’ll die.”

Seven joined us next, cackling and shaking her finger at me. “Such a naughty girl. But she makes it so fun!”

“Seven,” Aliah bit out, and she instantly sobered. She went to him immediately in the air and he held her at arm’s length with his hand firmly gripping her chin. “Too close, my pet. You cannot kill. You know this darling.”

“But I want to kill,” she whined, her eyes tearing immediately. She seemed so childlike again, completely at Aliah’s beck and call. “I need to kill,” she whispered and the sound sent chills skittering across my skin.

“The Fallen will always be out of your reach; that is how it has to be. Do you understand?”

She whimpered but nodded. Aliah leaned forward and kissed her sweetly on the nose. “Now be off, my sweet. We don’t want to be late.”

She immediately obeyed and I felt the impossible tightening of Seth’s arms. At least he was affected, although I didn’t know if it was for good or for bad.

Aliah turned to me in the sky, with that same sadistic but gentle expression. “Do you see how she teeters, Stella? What a fine line she walks. So close to evil, not quite one of the monsters that surrounds her. Can you imagine her inner turmoil? She’s filled with all that glorious Light but we both know how far from redemption she is. She lives in the worst kind of limbo, wouldn’t you agree?”

I gasped, but said nothing. How could I?

“And your Seth is next. It’s only a matter of time. And then what will you do? How will you save the world then?”

I didn’t respond, I couldn’t. I had to prioritize my attack and compartmentalize my feelings. If I went with what I truly wanted, I would fly across the space between us and claw Aliah’s eyes out with my bare hands. But, I had to get back to Jupiter and Serena and especially Nate.

My fingers brushed my belt, but Seth’s grip was so tight that this was not an easy feat. Using the flexibility of a ninja, I slipped out my butterfly knife and flipped it open. Seeing I had a weapon, Seth lifted one arm to grab for it. I took that moment to jab it into his forearm right at his elbow. I drug it across his flesh, filleting it open so that blood and muscle spilled out. His useless arm dropped from my side. I let the momentum take me. I dropped down, desperate to get away from Seth and Aliah.

I heard them pursuing me, but Seth had not even let out a cry of pain. Aliah was shouting something obscene and threatening at me, but I was diving for the cabin. The whole sky was filled with Shadows now, in what looked like a black force field from above. They were solid in their awning over the cabin. And they were relentless. I could make out just one burning Light and it had to be Serena’s. There weren’t any other options.

“Come here,” Seth shouted as he grabbed a hold of my torso again.

I flipped around and used my knife on him, jabbing it into his side and puncturing some major organ. He immediately went limp and I shoved him off me.

Now at this moment I couldn’t take time to deliberate. I had one choice and that was to trust that Aliah wanted Seth alive. Seth was struggling to remain in air, but he was losing a lot of blood and I didn’t stick around to watch.

It was the hardest thing I had ever done, but I took off again, without looking back. Aliah let out a string of aggressive obscenities in my direction, but I ignored them all and shot through the wall of Shadows, feeling every burn and pain straight to my bones. My friends were in trouble and not even Seth could keep me from them.

Chapter Eighteen

I landed on my feet and was swept into battle before I felt the ground underneath me. I only had my switchblade with me but my swords were somewhere on the ground. I just had to find them.

I was disoriented and emotionally destroyed, but I had to fight. I had to find a way out of this for us.

I didn’t know if it was possible… there was just so much Darkness.

Serena was completely surrounded. I couldn’t even see her body or form, just her Light. Then came the sound of her swords slashing away at her enemies.

Jupiter was somewhere with her, too, but I couldn’t make out either him or Nate. I assumed one of them was protecting Nate, but it was impossible to tell. Serena’s Light was too dangerous and hot for Jupiter to function near, but too many sounds of death and gore made it difficult to really be able to pinpoint anything.

My dagger flew around me, but it wasn’t enough. I burned bright, as bright as I could before Jupiter wouldn’t stand a chance anymore. He had to get out of here. And he needed to take Nate with him. We had more of a chance if we could remove our weakest links.

And if I could find my swords.

Shadows were cutting at my arms whenever I swiped at them, and my bag of tricks with the small blade only went so deep. They were everywhere. Swarming, cutting, slicing, destroying.

This was Hell. This was it.

And I saw no way out.

I tried to cry out to Serena or Jupiter, but it was almost impossible to make coherent sound come out of my mouth. I was fatigued and on the verge of losing control of my Light. Usually this was a containable force inside of me that I occasionally lost control of in small amounts when I wasn’t paying attention. Currently, it was a living, fire-breathing dragon inside of me, desperate to protect myself. But if I let my Light out it would destroy Jupiter and the surrounding forest.

Not that I cared a ton about the trees over my own life, but something as unexplainable as heat that just disintegrates everything around it, is not easily explained to the human world. And my job wasn’t to confuse them and raise questions, my job was to protect them.

“Jupiter!” Serena’s voice cut above all the other sounds of battle. Then words came from her mouth in a different language that I didn’t understand. Her instructions were rapid and commanding. I didn’t speak the old language, but I was almost positive her commands were the same as my thoughts.

I continued to fight, but I was losing. My Light burned bright but soon enough the Shadows were braving exposure to slash at my arms and neck. I needed my swords.

Jupiter shouted back something in the same language and then I heard the intensity of the battle increase. Jupiter was fighting to get to Nate and pick him up. I moved toward the sound as quickly as the Shadows would let me, which wasn’t very fast since I had to take the time to kill everything in my path.

I finally found Jupiter, still fighting, still trying to cover Nate. There was no way he could fight off the Shadows and deal with a fading Nate. It was asking too much of his multitasking skills.

“I’ll fend them off, but you have to get him out of here,” I grunted through a breathless, raspy voice I didn’t even recognize. Pain so deep and searing, felt to the marrow of my bones, cascaded over me; I felt like I was bleeding from every pore.

“Where is your weapon?” Jupiter panted back.

“Somewhere on the floor,” I admitted, waiting for his scolding.

But it never came. Instead he said, “I’m going to give you my sword, but then I will have nothing. Cover me until I can get Nate out of here.”

“Alright,” I heaved on a determined breath.

“Stella,” his voice was grave and eerily calm. “Get out of this alive.”

I smiled despite myself but didn’t answer; I couldn’t spare the strength. All at once the hilt of Jupiter’s long, heavy sword was pushed into my hand and I went to work. This weapon was so different than mine. Where my blades were light and thin, this one was extremely weighty and thick. The tip came to a V-point and the hilt required me to hold it with two hands.

I adjusted it to a comfortable position while still swinging it around, but truthfully I felt out of control with this foreign thing. It was so much bigger than anything I had held and even though my muscles were well developed after hours and hours of practice, I was still swinging it around wildly and without any kind of obvious skill or precision.

But it did its job.

No matter how flailing my moves were, the blade still sliced through flesh and landed killing blows. And that was the most important thing.

I felt Jupiter move behind me in an effort to pick up Nate. And I protected them as best as I could.

There were so many factors working against us that my anxiety only sky rocketed, despite the weapon I now had.

First, Jupiter could fly, but he wasn’t supernaturally strong. He was in shape, but not superman and Nate was heavy. Nate was a warrior, all muscle, tall, thick and currently dead weight. And on top of it all, I wondered how Jupiter would even hold him because his wound was in his stomach and I imagined Jupiter needed to hoist him over his shoulder

Plus, the Shadows incessantly attacking didn’t do anything to make the situation easier.

While Jupiter struggled behind me, I covered myself in the black, sticky ooze of the Shadows felled by my blade. I was relentless, if not a little clumsy and brutal while pushing past the exhaustion and pain. My arms were trembling by now, my legs numb. My vision was almost completely obscured by goo and blood and sweat.

The hard truth was– we were losing.

Serena’s Light was so bright I could feel her heat on my skin, and I desperately wanted to match her intensity. But there was no way I could without seriously injuring Jupiter or even Nate whose full abilities were not at his fingertips.

I somehow heard Nate behind me over the gory sounds of battle. The sound was memorable in the macabre and traumatizing kind of way. He was struggling to breathe as blood curdled in his lungs. It was the ugliest sound I had ever heard, the ragged intake of breath and then hissing outtake. I heard the liquid in his windpipe and lungs with every breath.

The sound twisted my heart and urged me to fight harder, be stronger, kill faster.

But there was no dent to be made in this constant stream of Shadows. And the only reason we weren’t completely overtaken was the little damage our Light did. Also, because the Shadows were solid, organic beings, they couldn’t converge on us at once– in some messed up, stupid way, they had to wait their turn.

“This isn’t working!” I finally screamed at Serena.

She said nothing right away but her Light pressed against the limitations of this world as she pushed it further out. Jupiter screamed in agony behind me– a sound that would also carry over into my nightmares. I heard a thump and an “oof” of air being released. I glanced back for just a moment to find that Jupiter had blacked out, and through my special night vision I could see his skin blistering and red, his clothes melting away.

My clothes were starting to melt now too and I was positive even Serena’s leathers had to be close, if not completely disintegrated.

“Jupiter passed out, Serena!” I yelled desperately. “Your Light is too bright!”

She screamed out a battle cry of frustration but pulled her brightness back barely and continued fighting. And still the Shadows kept coming. And now that both Nate and Jupiter were incapacitated behind me, I couldn’t hold off the Darkness for much longer. Nate might survive… but Jupiter would die.

Unless I did something now, Jupiter would die.

Our only option was retreat.

But how would we get out of here?

“Serena, you have to take them! Find a church, go back to the farm, find some place to hide!”

“No!” she screamed back. “I cannot leave you!”

“You have to! They will die if you don’t!” Each word came with the price of a deeper exhaustion and impossible breathlessness. But I had to explain. “I can’t lift them. I’m not strong enough to carry them both back. And you’re faster than me. If you don’t take them we all die. Serena…. you…. have…. to go!”

Each of my words was punctuated with a swing of the sword. Shadows were relatively simple to kill; stab them in the chest/heart region and they died. But there were so many of them that it was never ending. And I was feeling the effects of their bone-chilling evil in every blood vessel and atom in my body.

“Just so you know,” Serena bellowed. “I’ll follow you’re plan, but I do not like it!”

I smiled, despite myself. “Then go! Get out of here!”

She fought her way over to me. We both had to dim our Lights even further when she got close enough to where the true meat of it– that which was closest to our bodies– touched. We were even stronger together, which was normally a good thing, but not with Jupiter hanging out behind us face down in the dirt.

“I don’t even know if I can get out of here,” she panted.

“Just get them and go. I’ll cover you the best that I can. You have to get Jupiter out of here, though or I’ll start him on fire.”

“It’s annoying that he’s not one of us,” She grunted.

And then before I could say anything else or give some kind of heartfelt goodbye speech, she dropped one of her swords at my feet, tucked the other one into the sheath at her side and scooped Nate over her shoulder and then Jupiter.

Out of the corner of my eye I watched her totter to the left. Her Light would make her stronger but she couldn’t use it while she was holding Jupiter. I lunged in front of her, determined to block as many of the Shadows as I could and she struggled to take off.

She was carrying the weight of two full grown men with maybe twenty percent of her ability aiding her.

“Just use it,” I screamed over the sound of gore and shrieking around us. “We’re all dead if you stay. He has a better chance if you get him out of here. Just dim-out as soon as you can.”

“You’re right, Starling,” Serena shouted back. “When did you get so smart?”

I grinned at her, but then I got Shadow blood in my mouth so I wiped my lips against my shoulder, which was actually covered with more goo. Bleh.

She didn’t say goodbye this time either, just lit up, stood up straighter and then burst through the cover of Shadows like the biggest, brightest firework. She exploded upwards. I allowed myself to watch until she reached the brightest atmosphere that Jupiter could stand and then dimmed to a tolerable level for Jupiter.

I didn’t know where they were going but I truly hoped there was a sacred building around. The movies had gotten that part right about all things evil. If a place was sacred or blessed than they could not enter. That was trickier than it seemed.

Not every church or religious building had been blessed, so you had to pick them out carefully. And not every blessed building was an obviously religious place. Like my home.

That Seth had stayed at just the other night.

Which meant he wasn’t entirely evil.

At least not yet.

Focus.  

When I felt Serena was a safe enough distance away I paused with my sword at my side and let my Light burn. My clothes wouldn’t completely burn away, but they would melt to my body. It was painful, but necessary, just like the Light.

And I chose not to worry about those small details right now. I just enjoyed the Light. Every part of me became swallowed up in the brilliance and purity of my golden essence shooting from every part of me. My body tingled with the heat, my hair lifted off my shoulders, moving in some supernatural way that kept it out of my face and I was nothing but a bright, burning ball of pure, raw Light.

I wasn’t even close to burning as bright as I could, especially if I was off planet but the shrieking around me increased to a deafening roar and the structure– all those pieces and parts that weren’t part of the hallucination caught fire.

Now it wasn’t just my Light, but the flames licking at anything they could reach, spreading out beyond the cabin and to the surrounding forest.

My sword burned brightly in my hand, the silver blade heating to a fiery red, but the quality remained. Yep, Jupiter’s sword was definitely not from this planet.

I held my Light, feeling more alive than I ever had in my entire life, until I was positive I would at least have some breathing room before the remaining Shadows attacked. The house crackled and snapped around me, as beams caught fire and slowly fell apart. The walls collapsed in heaps of ash and brokenness with some debris falling at my feet, some scattering into the fires beyond the dig-out of the basement. I stayed like that for as long as I could, until I felt evil retreat and the shrieking stop.

When I was certain I was alone, I reigned the brightness back; it was like I was a candle and someone simply blew me out. One minute there was a Light bright enough to see from space, the next, just an empty forest clearing that was on fire. But other than that… no Shadows or other hellish creatures.

The night was still black and the forest still creepy, but whatever was left of that evil receded into whatever portal of Hell they escaped from. I looked up at the fire blazing around the edges of where the house once stood. I was in the basement still, my feet on charred, dusty dirt. My swords lay in the center of the room, seeming randomly placed. The walls were completely blackened and charred, if not completely burned to dust, and the cabin had been completely decimated around me.

There was no love lost for the death of this particular cabin though. As a general rule, cabins like this belonged solely in scary movies.

I needed to do something about the fire. Or at least call someone who could do something about it.

I had powers, but they weren’t all-inclusive. I couldn’t switch from Lava Girl to Aquaman or anything.

I picked my way through the debris and gathered my swords along with Serena’s discarded one. I had Jupiter’s as well. And despite my better than average coordination, it was awkward carrying that many sharp weapons.

I swiped the hair that had escaped my ponytail back– it was filthy and covered in ash. Then I let out a long sigh. That wasn’t the end of this. That was more like…. half-time. And my friends…. Jupiter and Nate were both seriously injured. Hopefully Nate would be better soon, but…. Jupiter. There was no way to tell if he’d survive or not. I needed to find them.

An overwhelming sadness settled over me and I took a few more breaths to find control of my emotions. Because at the root of my heartache and intense pain wasn’t just Nate and Jupiter, wasn’t even mostly Nate and Jupiter. While I was worried and anxious for them, the worst of my pain came from Seth.

I had attacked him. I had cut him. I had left him free-falling in an effort to get away from him!

What was wrong with me?

What was wrong with him!

I floated to the surface and surveyed the forest fire raging around me. It seemed to be dying out as it moved into the forest. It wasn’t dry here– in fact it was the opposite. Everything was wet and mossy; no sun warmed the ground or dried out the ground. The fire was losing steam. That was a good thing.

But still it made a ring around me, almost a perfect circle, and the trees above had been cleared from my destruction so that this was now a proper clearing.

I felt him before I saw him. Instinct and something deeply still connected to him sensed his presence.

He stood on the border, a part of the fire, but untouched by it. I turned toward him and stilled.

He had begged me not to give up on him. He had made me promise.

But we were only a few weeks in and everything had already fallen apart. I tried to imagine the next fifteen months and what they would be like, but all I saw was Darkness, death and pain. And what about beyond that? That was if I lived past my eighteenth birthday.

How would Seth heal from this?

Tears slid from my eyes, unwelcomed and confusing. I loved this man. And he had set me and my friends up for death. Maybe not him specifically, but he was a part of it.

And didn’t stop it.

Could he have stopped it, even if he wanted to?

More confusion.

When I locked eyes with him, he stepped out of the fire and walked slowly over to me. His Light, or non-Light, or whatever the Fallen had in place of Light receded and he stood before me just a boy– just Seth.

More tears fell, faster and quicker and completely unbidden. I didn’t want him to see me this broken, wretched, and fragmented without him.

“I had to see.” His voice was stripped and desolate. His already vacant eyes were almost black with whatever emotions were running through his body. He looked savage standing in front of me, savage and achingly beautiful. “I had to see if you made it.”

“I did,” I whispered. He was breaking me all over again, twisting me, clawing at all of my important parts and organs until there would be nothing left of me. I couldn’t go through this over and over again. I couldn’t let him destroy me like this every time he was with me and every time he wasn’t.

His hand reached up to run a finger over my cheek. It trembled as he touched me so gently. And when the curve of his finger touched my skin he closed his eyes against the simple sensation.

We were only standing an arm’s reach apart but it felt like miles between us– miles and miles and miles of miserable distance, where he stood on one plane of existence and I stood on another.

He slowly opened his eyes and drank me in like a man deprived of every vital sustenance. His eyes caught fire then, just like the one raging all around us. Branches snapped with the heat of the fire, grass and dirt crackled as it went on and on. And that was exactly what felt like was happening to my body. He was burning me up slowly, methodically and when he was finished I would be nothing but ash and dust.

I saw a trace of something other than emptiness in him and I knew it had to do with me. Like he said, I was his tether to whatever goodness was left inside him. I was his anchor.

I dropped the four swords I was still holding at my feet. They hit the black, charred ground with a clank and bounced away.

I jumped on this moment, hoping to bring out whatever of his former self I could. “Jupiter and Nate were pretty severely injured tonight.”

“I don’t care,” he answered plainly. He took a step into me and towered over me. “I don’t care about them.”

“You should-“

     “The only thing I care about is you.”

“But they’re your friends,” I insisted.

“Stella, let me be clear. There is one thing in my life I live for, one thing I survive for… and that is you. There is no one else. There will be no one else. It’s you. And I’m lost without you.”

The tears fell harder and a sob hiccupped in my chest. “I stabbed you tonight.” I cried. My eyes flickered over his still open and raw wounds, but he didn’t seem to notice them at all. I realized the fire might not have touched him, but he was covered in dried blood and dirt. He looked beat up and it was all my fault. “Seth, I stabbed you!”

He yanked me against his chest and wrapped his arms around me so tightly I had to struggle for breath. It wasn’t a sweet or gentle move, he was brutal and rough and not at all himself.

But at the same time he was. He was the same boy so devoted and loyal to me that he was almost blinded by it. He was still intense and commanding, still vulnerable and broken. He was Seth in the most important ways and that broke me even deeper.

“And you’ll probably stab me again,” he chuckled darkly. “Keep me contained, Stella. You have to keep me contained.”

I lost the battle with my emotions completely then. Whatever hold I had on them disappeared and I sank into his chest a heap of tears and sobs and loud, grieving cries. He tightened his grip and held me, just held me.

My chest was so tight and pained that I thought for sure it would explode. My eyes burned and my throat was raw from an eruption of emotions.

“I need you too!” I shouted at him. “What about me? What am I supposed to do without you?”