Chapter 9

Cameron’s heartbeat echoed the sounds of his feet as he ran toward the school, the rhythm filling his mind as he reminded himself of his goal: one breath, two steps, one breath, two steps.

While his teammates were fighting for all their lives, he had the last kid to grab. Unfortunately, while they had coordinated to come while all four were free, they couldn’t guarantee that all would be outside at the same time. They had gotten lucky with the three, ignoring the Hytroxae daemon component, now, he had to get the last one.

More blatantly than ever, it was clear that the human realm was dangerous, yes, daemons were out there, but now, humans were going to be searching for answers. Hiding in plain sight would be more difficult than before, and they would be automatically demonized since their introduction included the disappearance of children. This mission could not have gone worse.

His mind flashed back to when he was a child, the foggy memories of a city turned into a battlefield behind his eyes. Blood soaking into the ground, eyes once full of life staring sightlessly into the sky, eyes of gold, silver, and black, staring down at him while the old man beside him had his throat slashed open…

Mission. He reminded himself sternly, reaching the glass door of the cafeteria. He tried pulling at the handle, but it didn’t move. He shrugged, drawing one of the bronze blades strapped to his back and slamming the pointed hilt into the large window beside it, sliding it back into its sheath as the glass fell to the blacktop.

He carefully stepped through, the newly emptied room still buzzing with the life of three hundred students, their lunch trays still scattered across the tables. Outside, he could hear the sounds of battle, but it was the slight brush of fabric along a wall and an echo of an intentionally quiet footstep that caught his attention. He could almost see the man on the other side of the wall he was walking along, preparing to catch him off guard where the walkway wrapped around into the stairway.

Cameron moved his hand slowly to the weapon at his belt, his ears peaked to listen for any more movement. The ticking of a clock nearby matched his heartbeat as he crept forward, his mind straining for clues as to where the other boy would have gone.

“Hands where I can see them!” The man spun around the edge of the wall, dressed in a classic blue security uniform. Cameron recognized the human weapon in his hand as a taser, not dangerous, but incredibly uncomfortable and a possible end to his freedom.

He stopped, mind whirling at what to do, they couldn’t stay for much longer. His fingers tightened on the cord at his waist, his right hand stretching defensively. He tugged the cord free, quickly shooting it out to wrap around the protector’s ankles. When he tugged, the man tumbled to the ground, Cameron quickly moving to kick the taser out of his hand.

“Look,” Cameron flexed his jaw, glancing at the window as he heard a scream, clearly belonging to Elaine. “I get you’re trying to do your job, but so am I.” He didn’t expect the man to listen, but it didn’t feel right to not say anything at all.

The protector lunged at him, despite the thick cord looping around his ankles, grabbing Cameron by the side and knocking him to the ground. He tackled him to the ground, arm pressed tightly against his collarbone. Cameron blindly grabbed at an end of the cord, pulling it loose enough to twist it upward. He slammed his knee into the man’s gut, swiftly tying his hands with the free end while the protector was still caught off guard.

“I really am sorry about this,” he got to his feet, the pain in his chest burning with his heavy breathing. He stopped, the sounds of the sirens coming in through the shattered window. He cursed under his breath, frustrated at his only option. They would have to come back for the last one. He knew that outside, one of his companions had been injured. He could feel it, preparing himself for the worst as he ran back through the broken window.

Instead, he found a strangely empty battlefield. Elaine was kneeling, frozen in place with her sword in hand. Ryan and Eleanor were blinking uncomprehendingly along with the three rescues, and Jacob was still, fallen to the ground with large gashes along his back, the only sign that the Hytroxae had been there at all.

“We need to go now,” He blurted after he caught his breath. “Elaine, grab Jacob.” He looked at his teammate, unsure if she had heard him, but continued. He looked at Ryan and Eleanor. “Take them to the van, I wasn’t able to get the other, security is too tight.” It wasn’t completely the truth, but there was no way they were going to find him in the little time they had. “We’ll have to come back for him.”

____________________________

Even as she ran, Elaine was empty. Her colorless eyes were locked ahead on the distant figures, dwarfed by the large, featureless, block of a building. She could see her brother being pressed into the ground; his opponent crouched over him. Her feet raced under her, her wedge-heeled boots hitting the uneven grass in a way that should have been painful, but barely registered.

Part of her knew that this was potentially dangerous, that the boy lashing out could be a detriment to the retrieval they had been sent for. That voice was screaming for her to care that her brother needed help, that he was unarmed and out of practice, who cared if it exposed their existence to humans, that war could erupt because she decapitated a schoolboy. Another part was happy to see him getting what he deserved, abandoning her, and more importantly, their mom. He wasn’t there, and he had chosen to be.

Her thoughts were enraging, urging her forward, but it was useless. Voices in the background of the despair, her sister’s words echoing in her head louder than any others: she’s gone. She felt nothing as he retaliated, bashing his head into the boy’s like he had done to her in a few ‘practice’ sessions.  He regained his footing, his hand hovering where his sword used to hang; the action a spark of familiarity in a blur of careless details.

She pushed herself forward, the weight of her sword comforting her in a way that would probably be strange to another. She narrowed her eyes as the strange boy rose to his feet, and though they were too far away to see details, his stance alone spoke of deep aggression. It was clear words were being exchanged, though what they were remained unclear. It was then that a faint green haze surrounded the boy, as his body began to stretch and shift. His head split apart, morphing into three distinct sections as its three lizard-like heads.

Her first true feeling in days struck her; fear. It wasn’t for herself, but for Jacob. Everything fell away from her, the voices of the others behind her, the other students around them, and the fact that they were in the humans’ territory. It was gone as she reached over her head and drew her weapon, her breath stuttering as her feet pounded faster against the ground. She wouldn’t lose him too; as angry as she had been, with an abyss in her heart, she couldn’t.

He just stood there, looking up at the beast, one hand in his pocket. Her heart leaped, her thoughts whirling in terror about what that meant. She wouldn’t put it past her brother to accept his fate, he had done so in actual battles, and now he was unarmed. She questioned his caring for what had happened, his absence glaring in her face while she mourned, but could it be that this was the loss that pushed him over the edge he had been bordering on?

She skidded to a halt as a golden sword sprung into vision, seemingly out of nowhere. A red gem glinted in the afternoon sun, the blackened hilt curving up and around his hand. She could hear the others stop behind her, but her eyes were locked on the blade.

It couldn’t be.

“Where did he get that?” Cameron’s voice was tense, his large frame looming behind her.

“The lost and found?” Ryan murmured, more strained than usual. Normally, this comment would have earned him an elbow to the chest, but all she could manage was a sideways glance before refocusing on what was happening.

The daemon had lunged for him, Jacob skillfully dodging and slashing the beast. The golden blade sparked with the telltale red of blood, matching the gem at the hilt well.

“Doesn’t matter right now,” Cameron’s voice hardened. “Proceed with the plan or do the best you can.”

Beside her, she was aware of Ryan raising his bow, a large arrow ready to fire as he aimed it straight ahead. His action shook her free of her shock, sending her feet back into motion. Ahead of her, the beast swung at Jacob, knocking him gracelessly to the side. She was close enough to see the mask of concentration on his face, a thin veil over the prominent panic that was consuming him.

He was sloppy, which was to be expected, after not even practicing for six months, not to mention everything else. The problem lay in that he didn’t have time to readjust, much less adapt to a whole new weapon, and that missed time was likely to get him killed.

Elaine hardly flinched when the blonde girl to his side was flung backward, not even the daemon seemed to pay her a second thought as it rounded on Jacob once again. Above her head, Elaine heard the distinct whistle of Ryan’s arrow, followed shortly by the resulting scream of pain from his target. Elaine’s lips unconsciously curled in a momentary grin, bringing her other hand to rest on the hilt of her saifas.

She met Jacob’s eyes, him being awkwardly crouched on the ground with his blade outstretched in an unfinished swing. She watched as his face twisted, many emotions flashing in his eyes as he looked at her.

She tore her eyes away, reaching down within herself, beyond the void, and into the boiling anger that she had shoved down. The fury toward whoever was responsible for her mother’s disappearance, outrage at her father, for being as indifferent to the loss as he was to a stranger’s, with Jacob for not being there, because maybe, just maybe, if he had been home, instead of off on some human school, their mom could have still been with them.

With that last thought, she charged forward, flipping her sword in her hands before plunging it clear through its clawed foot, the feeling of it sliding in through flesh and scraping the edges of bones sent a shiver through her. The smirk on her lips grew bigger as she pulled it free, her ears ringing with the resulting roar above her.

She flipped her blade back to its upright position, arcing it in a powerful upward drag across the beast’s right shoulder as she spun away from one of its heads snapping down to where she had been standing seconds before. She quickly caught her breath, her heart pounding in her chest; alive in a way it never was outside the thrill of a real battle.

She lifted her sword again, looking up at the daemon’s heads, a plan forming behind her narrowed eyes. She slashed the beast, reaching down and drawing her dagger with her other hand, her legs bent in preparation. She pushed off, flipping over the back of the beast, lodging and dragging the jagged blade over its spine and down its elevated body to return her feet to the ground on the other side.

She regained her balance, splattering the daemon’s blood on the grass in one hard shake before shoving it back into its holster. Turning to immediately find wide golden eyes staring into hers once again, looking slightly up from his height of being a single inch shorter than her, full of emotion and with that stupid look he got when he had no defense for himself. She knew her eyes hardened, nor did she care to stop them from doing so. She didn’t have anything to say to him either, especially not when she could tear something apart instead.

Elaine raised her sword again, levying a deep, long, horizontal cut along its flank, slicing from the back of its front leg to the back hip, harshly intersecting the last wound, leaving a loose flap of skin hanging over its delicate insides. Her teeth ground into each other, lips curled back in the beginnings of a snarl as she glared back at her brother.

“Look,” he started, absently swiping at the daemon’s left head as it charged toward them, obviously not paying attention. “Ria, I-”

She shot him a look, one filled with poison and as a reminder that this was the worst place to hold this conversation. She could see him shake his head while she prepared to leap up again as if that were enough to clear the distractions from his head. She could tell he had caught onto what she was doing, managing to slide underneath the daemon to hit its vulnerable underside, at the same time she flipped up to plunge her saifas into its back, right below the junctions between the heads.

The roar was deafening, Elaine wincing as she kept her grip on her hilt, even as the daemon shifted underneath her. Her breath stuttered as she heard a yelp of pain, the distinct weight of a body crashing into the ground, and the subtle ding of a weapon beside them.

She turned, fast enough that her neck ached, and her braid end whipped forward to hit the side of her neck, a soft sting as her heart dropped in her chest. She heard her own voice, cracked with what could have been anger or despair, or maybe both, calling his true name. Jacob was lying there, eyes closed, chest down with greenish-brown stains streaked across what she could see on the right side of his face. The black jacket he was wearing had three distinct tears, red dampness becoming visible as she felt tears burn in the edges of her eyes; a feeling that had grown very familiar.

She blinked them back, her jaw locking in time with her hands locking around her blade, pressing it further into the daemon. She felt her power stir inside of her, heat flowing from the air around her, through the bottoms of her boots, and the blade. She could see the beginnings of frost growing on its rough scaling, her shallow breaths visible while her insides burned.

The center head, which up until this point hadn’t been overly active against her assault, turned, its teeth bared. She grinned up at it, her thumb loosening just enough to move. The resulting click was music to her ears, she could feel the daemon’s muscles contract and shift as the hidden curved blades of her weapon were released, curling back to latch into its flesh. Its scream echoed across the field and it was clear to everyone present what was about to happen.

Elaine pulled up with all her might, her heels pressing into the scales under her. The saifas began to move, each pair of blades being revealed, covered in different layers of blood, muscle, tissue, puss, and bone fragments.

She paused, sword dropping to be held by her side as she caught her breath, muscles aching slightly from the effort of the killing blow. The daemon was staggering under her, though she kept her footing. Her ears were filled with the noises of it dying, defeated whines of anguish that fueled her satisfaction.

Elaine suddenly found herself falling, as a yellow flash filled her vision. The feeling of her entire body weight landing atop her folded left leg sent a shock of pain through her, her right hand maintaining her grip on her surprisingly clean blade, with no sign of the battle that had just taken place.

She looked around, jaw tight as she pushed herself back to her feet. She absently brushed her gloved hands over her suit, the sudden silence in the air allowing for the brush of material to reach her ears, even with the remaining ringing from the cries of the daemon.

She glanced around for a moment, meeting each of her teammates’ eyes before settling on Jacob. He was still, sprawled where he landed with the golden sword resting just beyond his grip.

Her eyes burned as she pushed herself up, leaving her weapon behind, now unable to look away. She swallowed, approaching him slowly, her face unmoving while her thoughts screamed. Her ears buzzed, the distant sounds of sirens joining the cacophony of her heart pounding in her chest, and her quick, shallow breaths. Her whole body hurt, but this time it wasn’t from the battle. Images flashed behind her eyes, his body now joined by the identically motionless, bloodstained body of her mom.

       She gritted her teeth, aware that Cameron was saying something behind her, but it didn’t matter. She was going to lose him, just like she had lost their mom. She would never hear his annoying nickname for her again. She wasn’t going to have her brother back, and she would remember most that he would die while she was still angry at him for this idiotic venture.

Elaine bent down beside him, flipping him over and pulling him into her arms. His face; features so like their mother’s, was marred from the impact. She grabbed his sword, jumping as it quickly retracted into a small golden rod that she proceeded to shove into his pocket. She could feel the warm pooling of his blood on the leg he was propped on, but for once she didn’t care.

They had never been apart before he had left, she had only been in the world for twelve minutes before he was there too. He couldn’t leave her right after she got him back, not after they had already lost so much.

She lifted him, glancing at the large span she would have to carry him with the police likely to arrive at any moment. She began to move, locking her jaw as his weight pressed down on her, making her new wounds sting. Behind her, a scream rang out, but she didn’t turn. She pushed on, her breath coming heavier as she went.

She looked back as a second scream rang out, seeing a large creature rising into the air with the blonde girl grasped in its talons. She blinked uncomprehendingly up at it, before looking back to the others. Ryan had already prepped an arrow, only missing by a hair as it rose higher. He had begun to prepare another as a strange glow surrounded the girl, stopping when he saw it.

White light stretched unnaturally across the blue sky, hitting the creature. Everyone still out in the schoolyard flinched and covered their ears as a bolt of lightning came out of nowhere above them. Elaine could only do her best to keep Jacob in her arms, the deafening bang echoing in her ears.

On impact, the beast disappeared with the same yellow flash that the last had, and the girl was left free to fall three stories to the ground not far ahead of where Elaine had stopped.

She was miraculously still breathing, the ends of her hair smoking slightly while she lay in a heap on the ground. Elaine glanced back to the others again, noting that Ryan was now holding her sword, gross, before going to Cameron. He was clearly stressed, which despite the situation, was still surprising. He rushedly gestured for her to keep moving before bending down to lift the girl himself.

Elaine turned, continuing on her earlier path, her nerves spiking as the sirens continued to grow louder. They had just reached the van, Eleanor rushing ahead from where she had been ushering the two strangers forward, to open the side door for them. Immediately Elaine shoved Jacob inside, climbing in after to pull him into the back with her.

As she secured him in, the blonde girl was pushed back on her other side. The other two strangers were placed in the center while Ryan climbed back, hoisting himself over where she was crouched to hop into the trunk and dropping her sword as he did so. Elaine glared after him while rising to her seat in the center of the back, begrudgingly securing the blonde girl right as Cameron started the car.

“Let’s go!” His voice was rough, the whole car jostled as he pulled onto the road. He kept one hand on the wheel as he pressed the button she had grown to know well, the telltale shifting of the outer appearance of the van rippling back over the vehicle as they drove down the road, the line of police cars turning toward the school a block behind them allowing at least some of tension to drop as they sped away.

Behind her, Ryan turned, beginning to survey the two injured. Elaine closed her eyes, gripping her brother’s slack hand tightly in her own. They were going home now, and Ryan was going to do what he could as a healer on the way, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that something more was going to go wrong.