Darlings of Paranormal Romance (Anthology) (36 page)

“
No!” She shook her head,
willing her magical powers to make an appearance, but nothing
happened. Whatever the Immortal thing was, it didn’t work on
command. In her time, Frank or someone like him would have debunked
those so-called powers ages ago. Her heart thundered in her
chest.

Jules and Frank shouted from
behind.

The sun caught in the soldier’s blade
as he raised it over his head, ready to strike. “I promise that I
shall make this as quick and painless as possible, Highness. Your
friends won’t feel a thing either,” he said with a laugh that told
her he was lying about that part.

“
No!” she screamed, her
heart pounding in her ears.

He turned to the other knights. “Get
her in position.”

Sarah glared, and a few soldiers
backed away.

“
Do not fear her!” a knight
said. “She’s merely an infant, a baby Immortal who ran away from
her teacher. She doesn’t know a thing about her powers or how to
wield them.”

How
could this be the end? Maybe I can appeal to him emotionally, make
one last-ditch effort.
She looked deeply
into his eyes as a knight jerked her to her knees. “Please stop
this! Put that thing down. You don’t want to kill me.” A burst of
heat spread through her forehead.

He stared at her, wide-eyed. For a
moment, all color drained from his face, as though he had just seen
a ghost. Then his cheeks turned red and his eyes beady.

She stared at him, frowning, wondering
what was happening to him.

The soldier’s hand waved, his sword
dangling over her head menacingly.

She shook her head.

He imitated the action, then put the
sword away ever so slowly. His voice came low, barely louder than a
whisper. “I don’t want to kill you, miss, but you’re still under
arrest.” He had a grim line perched on his forehead, his hands
clenched as though he was leading an inner battle.

“
You did it!” Jules
whispered.

She
stared at him as realization kicked in.
Maybe this Immortal ability business isn’t a hoax after
all.
She couldn’t believe it was so easy,
but ultimately, it worked! She’d somehow managed to tap into his
softer side, appealed to the part of him that did not want to harm
or kill a helpless woman. But being arrested wasn’t going to help
her situation. She knew somebody else, some heartless individual,
would just do the dirty deed and behead her in a
second.

A knight gripped her arms behind her
back. Pain surged through her body, blinding her for a second. In
spite of the burning sensation, she struggled against his strong
hold hissing, “Let go of me!” Another burst of intense heat flooded
her mind, weakening her against the pictures that threatened to
form before her eyes.

His grip loosened.

Sarah
swung around, baffled.
What is going on?
He’s listening to my commands. Where did this ability come
from?
She didn’t know what kind of power it
was, but she planned to use it to her full advantage. “You’ll
command your men to let me and my friends go. This is a big
misunderstanding. Let us go so we can bring back food for the
feast.”

His head bowed, and he looked at the
other soldiers. “My mistake, milady. You and these men are free to
go.”

Another knight stepped forward,
shaking his head vehemently. “Sir, you can’t do that! She’s put a
hex on you. Our orders clearly state that—”

Sarah
gazed into his green eyes, drops of sweat rolling down her
forehead. Anger built up inside of her.
How dare he question his superior?
She closed her eyes against the building surge of electricity
pouring through her. Her body jerked in convulsions, and she
couldn’t move.
Am I--paralyzed?
It was as if she had absolutely no control of her
body. She gasped and lifted her hands.
No…I CAN move!
As she opened her
eyes, a wind whipped through her hair and rose to a fierce howl.
Lightning flashed; thunder cracked. Ice-cold drops of rain fell
from the sky, cooling off her hot skin.

“
Seize her!” yelled the man
in charge.

“
Ain’t
happening!” she yelled back. She gasped as she gazed down at her
hands; they were glimmering, glowing with energy. Without warning,
red balls of light centered in the palms of her hands, some kind of
sparking electricity.
What the heck? Where
did the wizard-like powers even come from?
They didn’t even fizzle with the rain. It was freaky but she
decided she might as well put them to good use, especially with
soldiers bolting in her direction, swords drawn. She threw
crackling balls of fire from her outstretched hands. Dirt and
leaves exploded all around them, as if she was tossing grenades on
the battlefield.

“
We can’t take on an
Immortal with unstable power,” a knight said.

“
We’ll get reinforcements.
Let’s go!” The leader pulled on his reins and steered his horse
back toward the perimeter, his group trailing behind in a
hurry.

Sarah
blinked the dripping rain out of her eyes. She whipped a few more
balls of energy toward the departing knights just as a precaution.
The fireballs only slammed haphazardly into tree trunks, but she
had to scare them at all costs while she still possessed the weird
power; she didn’t want them to come back anytime soon. The horses
whinnied in terror, and more shouts echoed as clouds of dirt, bark,
and mud exploded high into the air.
There!
That should do it.
Gazing down, she watched
her hands instantly turn back to their normal color. She sucked in
a deep breath and tried to control the trembling in her hands. She
gazed out ahead at the billowing smoke that hung over the trail of
smoldering fires—fires she’d created with her very own hands. She
watched the rain extinguish the flames.

Jules and Frank rushed over as she
stared at the splintered tree trunks.

How the
heck did I do that?
But it didn’t matter.
The only thing that mattered was that they were alive and
breathing. She wiped her forehead with the long sleeve of her wet
cloak. Relief flooded through her as she grabbed Frank’s hand, and
they slowly walked deeper into the woods, her legs threatening to
give way beneath her, her forehead still on fire.

The rain ceased, and the sunshine
peeked out from behind a pile of fluffy clouds.

“
You did it, babe!” Frank
said. “What kind of superpowers are you sporting
anyway?”

She heaved a sigh. “I’ve got no idea.
That was just…weird.”

He let go of her hand. “You’re burning
up, Sarah. Are you running a fever?”

Beads of sweat rolled down her back.
Her clothes were soaked in an instant. “I feel like I’m being
sautéed in a frying pan, like stir fry. I haven’t a clue how to
work these powers. I’m navigating through them blindly. Wish you
guys had the Web somewhere,” she said to Jules. “I could Google
them.”

“
Web? I am not sure what a
spider would be able to do for you,” Jules said, causing Sarah and
Frank to roll their eyes at one another. Then he averted his eyes
to the ground and said in a whisper, “But Victor could teach
you.”

Frank rolled his eyes again. “Just
drop it, will ya?”

Victor
! His sapphire-blue eyes
flashed in her head. She could hear his voice roll across her mind,
repeating those precious wedding vows to her in the sweetest and
most sincere way: vows he intended to keep, at least for that first
day. She remembered how her hand had trembled as he’d placed the
ring on her finger, the touch of his lips, the way he’d held her,
the passion they’d experienced in such a short time. Her heartbeat
spiked.
He probably didn’t know what to
make of me—a woman who talks back, talks of things he’s never heard
of, and runs away.
But she couldn’t forget
that he had a dangerous side, and he might just kill her the moment
he captured her. She needed to focus on saving her friends, finding
her sister, and getting the heck out of Dodge. She didn’t have time
for Superpowers for Dummies 101, instructed by Victor the
Conqueror. “I’m going to take a rain check. Now let’s go find my
team. We have an execution to stop.”

“
Follow me then,” Jules
said. “The village we are headed to isn’t a pretty sight. Just to
warn you, the people living there will beg you for money, food, and
anything they can get their hands on. They are starving, for their
cattle have died in the drought, and the ground is too dry for
their crops to grow.”

Sarah let out a slow breath. “That’s
awful. My heart goes out to them,” she said, and it truly did.
She’d been supporting charities since the second she’d received her
very first paycheck, clear back when she was sixteen. In spite of
the fact that some of her pursuers thought her evil, Sarah had a
heart of gold and wanted to help the less fortunate.

Hours later, they arrived. Within
minutes, a little boy ran up to her with dirty cheeks and greasy
hair. “A visitor!” he shouted. “Can you spare me anything to
eat?”

Sarah knelt down, her heart melting at
the sight of his big brown eyes. “What’s your name?”

“
Edward.”

She handed him a gold coin and
whispered, “Use this to put something in your tummy, Edward.” She
watched him as he scurried away, smiling, then turned back to
Jules. Edward didn’t strike her as a boy from a poor country with a
swollen head and belly, eating from trash piles, yet she couldn’t
help but offer some token of support. “Jules, what does the face of
hunger look like?”

“
You just hugged it,”
whispered Jules.

Tears welled up in Sarah’s eyes. She
vowed to somehow help this village, even it meant giving away all
her gold.

A red and
orange sunset glowed in the sky. Sarah took a deep breath, hoping
they had made it in time. Her friends were to be executed at
sunset, and she still blamed herself for their predicament.
Why did I have to pick the Sabrino Cave area to
hold those stupid expeditions?
Liz had
disappeared from that same place, yet she risked the lives of her
team by dragging them there. Waves of guilt washed through her as
she watched peasants with sunken cheeks walk around the village
square in simple robes and cloaks. Jules wasn’t kidding: The
villagers were absolutely starving. She noticed that small stone
buildings lined the streets, and she wondered if her friends were
meant to be executed in a jail cell or put on
display.

She noticed a red-haired woman
squinting in the dust, rocking a crying baby. Her frightened blue
eyes glistened with desperation. A little barefoot girl with the
same long, red hair clung to her mother’s side. Her bony arms and
legs stuck out from baggy clothes. A shabby dress covered in
patches of dirt hung from her shoulders.

“
Jules, is there any milk
for the babies?” Sarah asked.

He shook his head, wearing a grave
expression. “Without cattle to give it, no.”

The woman pulled on her sleeve.
“Please help me and my little ones. Do you have anything to eat?
Anything? I cannot bear to watch my children die.”

Sarah’s heart sank. She had never
witnessed world hunger in person, and suddenly all those
infomercials and commercials had a whole new meaning for her. “I
don’t have any food, but I have money.” With shaking fingers, she
reached inside her bag and pulled out a few gold coins.

“
Oh, thank you for your
kindness, miss! You have given my children a few more days to
live!” Tears streaked the woman’s face as she bowed at Sarah’s
feet, kissing the tattered hem of her robe.

“
Please,” Sarah said,
helping her up, meeting the surprised expression in the woman’s
gaze. “Go with God…and feed your children and yourself.”

The woman nodded and darted off down
the cobbled street, pulling her daughter along.

“
I see a crowd gathered
over there.” Frank pointed. “We better check it out.”

Weaving through the crowd, Sarah
peered closer. Adam, Steven, and Beth were all bound to long wooden
stakes in the ground. A group of townspeople surrounded them,
shouting obscenities and waving torches. Sarah’s mouth dropped; it
was medieval torture at its finest, being burned at the stake.
“This is outrageous! I cannot let them roast my
friends.”

“
Better hurry up then,”
Jules said. “Do you have a plan to save them?”

Frank craned his neck. “It’s hard to
see with all these people. We’re just going to have to wing it.
Maybe you can use those powers of yours, Sarah.”

Sarah took a closer look. A pile of
wood was arranged by their feet, along with small bundles of sticks
and straw. One spark, and her friends would be doomed. She shook
her head. “I’m not sure, Frank. I don’t know how to control it yet.
What if I accidentally ignite them? I already feel awful enough
about this. I could never live with that.”

Jules touched Sarah’s arm. “Tell them
you’re Princess Gloria.”