Hunted tgl-3 (5 page)

The screams, now jarring chords like a choir singing out of sync, rose again. More dead wingless bodies floated to the ground, arms flailing, the thuds as they landed on the ones already on the ground sickening. I watched helplessly as a black hole appeared on the ground and sucked them away. It beckoned to me, offering solace and refuge. Just one step and I’d be free of this nightmare. Just one step.

Fight, my child. Fight
. The familiar voice returned, more insistent and authoritative.

How?
I begged.
It hurts to think
.

No, it doesn’t
, she snapped.
They make you feel a pain that’s not there, a sorrow that’s forgotten and a nightmare that never ends. The power is within you to stop them. Reach deep within and find your strength. Use it to fight back
. The voice grew faint.

Don’t leave me
, I screamed.

Always with you, Lilith. Remember what I said…stop them…find the Summoners or…my weapon
.

For a moment, I was too confused to react. She had called me Lilith. Only demons used my given name. I recovered and yelled,
I didn’t hear everything you said. Who are the Summoners? And what do you want me to do with your weapon?

But she was already gone, leaving me in the endless nightmare. The screams reached fever pitch. It hurt to think. To focus. To breathe. The false comfort offered by the dark pit tugged at me until I found myself weakening, begging for it to swallow me.

I had never thought I’d die paralyzed in place like some stupid statue. I was meant to grow old with Bran, hunt, love and live until it was our turn to ascend together. Even as the thoughts crossed my mind, I searched for him in the inner recesses of my mind. Memories of the two of us together bathed in light floated out of the darkness. Memories of Grampa, Aunt Janelle, my fellow Cardinals, Kylie…

Their love, laughter and happiness penetrated the horror and drowned out the screams. The echoes of death receded as peace cocooned me in its arms like a warm blanket on a wintery night. I tried to open my eyes, but couldn’t.

“Come on, Lil,” a female voice urged.

“I think she’s coming around,” a male voice said.

I lifted my eyelids. At least I thought I did. There was nothing but blinding whiteness. I strained until the blue sky and faces inked in. Unfamiliar faces. Two women and one man. Their eyes were filled with concern as they stared down at me. Beside them were familiar faces—Bran, Grampa and Aunt Janelle, Kim, Izzy, Remy, Sykes and Kylie, but they began to fade.

“No, don’t leave me,” I cried out and reached out for them.

“Not so fast,” one of the unfamiliar women warned and pressed my shoulder down. “You had a nasty fall.”

I struggled against her hand and sat up. Black dots appeared in my eyes and a sharp pain radiated from the back of my head. I closed my eyes until the dizziness passed, then raised a trembling hand to my head. There was a huge bump the size of an egg, and my skull felt like someone was hammering it with a blunt object.

Squinting, my gaze moved from her to the other woman, then the man. They all wore black pants and matching shirts, a uniform of some kind, and had daggers in sheaths strapped around their waist and their thighs. I’d never seen them before in my life, yet they watched me with such concern.

I inched away from them and noticed I wasn’t dressed like them. I wore a bikini and was lying down on a towel. Frowning, I took in our surroundings. We were on a grassy patch by a pond in the middle of a forest. The trees were so tall and curved in such a way that was unnatural. It was like they deliberately curved to block the skyline or hide the pond.

Why couldn’t I remember where I was or how I got here? What was my name?

My gaze moved back to the woman squatting beside me. I wondered whether to ask her these questions, but survival instinct stopped me even though I didn’t feel any negative vibes from her.

I scooted backward and realized my grip was around a dagger. Intrigued, I studied it. It had a clear, wavy blade and green stones on its gilded hilt.

Seeing the dagger switched on something inside my pounding head. Memories of places and people rushed back—I saw myself entering a booth in an arena, where a familiar man with red hair called me his daughter; attempting to escape a dark-haired woman who claimed to be my half-sister; a huge black man with soft brown eyes helping me, and another with short-cropped blond hair swearing allegiance tome…

If my head wasn’t pounding, I would have laughed with triumph. My name was Lil Falcon. I was a Psi Cardinal Guardian within the Northeast Sector, and I hunted demons.

Going by my memories, we must still be on Jarvis Island. I glanced around again. The strangers continued to stare at me with worried expressions. They weren’t demons, which was a relief. Still, I didn’t know them.

Gripping the Kris Dagger, I staggered to my feet and almost fell over when dizziness washed over me. The three strangers took steps toward me, then froze when I pointed the dagger at them. “Who are you? Where are the Cardinal Guardians?”

“We are Security Guardians. I am Evangeline,” the woman with black hair and pale skin answered then she pointed at the man, “That is Javan and she,” she pointed at the other woman, “is Irin.”

Security Guardians guarded Xenith. Maybe we weren’t on Jarvis Island after all. “Are we in Xenith?”

The three looked at each other, obviously surprised by my question, then Evangeline said, “No, we are on Pearls Island. We guard it and the portal, but Cardinal Llyr ordered us to bring you here and keep an eye on you until they get back. If they don’t make it, we are to take you to Xenith with us and seal the portal.”

Panic washed over me. “Seal the portal? Why?”

“They are fighting powerful demons,” Evangeline said. “One of them attacked you.”

“I must help them!” I looked around.

“Cardinal Lil, you can barely stand, let alone face a demon,” Javan protested. Evangeline and Irin nodded.

They were right. Something was wrong with me and it wasn’t just my pounding head. My heart beat fast like I’d just sprinted and my skin felt like a thousand ants had crawled under it. And the fear from these three slammed into my senses. I tried to raise my shield but nothing happened. The demons didn’t just mess with my memories, they’d messed with my powers too.

The Security Guardians were telepathing each other, but I followed their glances and my stomach dipped at what I saw. An ominous cloud hovered in the air to our right, lightning churning in its core and around it. There was something vaguely familiar about it. As I watched, it exploded. Demons usually burned bright orange as they fell, not exploded like fireworks.

“What was that?” I asked.

“A new breed of demons,” Javan explained.

“One of them attacked me?”

“Yes. We were in here guarding the portal.” He waved toward the pond. “So we didn’t exactly see what happened, but Cardinal Llyr telepathed us to go and get you. Cardinal Sykes said you fainted while you were attacking the demons.”

None of what he said sounded familiar. A quick search of my memory didn’t help either. I glanced down at the Kris Dagger. It was supposed to protect and heal me, yet my head still hurt. There was something wrong with it and different about it, yet I couldn’t pinpoint what.

“How are you feeling?” Javan asked.

“I’m fine. I need to join my team.”

“No, Cardinal,” he insisted. “We have a direct order to keep you here.”

Before I could ask who had given the order, Bran appeared with Sykes, Remy, Izzy and Kim close behind him. They were all wet, the men shirtless and in their swim trunks while the girls wore bikinis. Their triumphant grins disappeared when they saw me.

“Why is she up?” Bran demanded, closing the gap between us, the Security Guardians giving him room.

“She wouldn’t listen to us and there’s something wrong with her memories,” Evangeline said. “She didn’t recognize us or know anything about the demons.”

“Or where we are,” Javan added.

I wanted to tell them to shut up, but Bran was already in front of me, cupping my face, his worried gaze searching my face. “What did you forget?”

My throat closed and tears rushed to my eyes. I refused to cry or say anything to make him and the others worry even more. “Can we discuss this later, please?”

The rest of the Cardinals moved closer, bringing with them waves of worries. Once again, I tried to raise my shield and form a barrier, but it didn’t work.

“The fiends stole her memories like the one in New York did to David Lee,” Izzy said.

I frowned. “We’ve battled these demons before?”

“Yes, a week ago,” Bran said. “One attacked a Damned Human in New York and stole his memories too then followed us to Myrtle Beach, but you got him.”

“Or her,” Kim added. “They don’t come out of the cloud even during battle, so it is impossible to tell what they are. The one in New York deflected the rays from the Kris.”

This was worse than I’d thought. No demon should escape the rays from the Kris Dagger. Once again, I raked my memory, trying to connect the words with what I knew and came up blank. I was afraid to ask how long it had been since we were on Jarvis Island.

My gaze connected with Bran’s. His emerald eyes were narrowed, a frown between his eyebrows. The others continued to stare at me as though they expected me to keel over again or something.

How bad is your head?
he asked.

I couldn’t hide anything from him if I tried. Times like this I wished he wasn’t in tune with my emotions or felt my pain.
Please, don’t tell the others. Let’s just go home
.

Okay
. “I’ll take Lil home,” he said louder.

I don’t know if I can even teleport
, I telepathed, feeling both useless and angry. I hated feeling helpless.

Don’t worry about it
. He put both arms around me and nodded to the others. “I’ll see you guys in a few minutes.”

“What about the icebergs?” Remy asked.

“We don’t want humans noticing them this far south and starting to panic about global warming and melting icecaps,” Kim added.

“I could melt them, but I might end up frying sea creatures around here,” Sykes added. “I can make sure Lil makes it home safely,” Sykes added, starting toward us. “Izzy can watch my back in case the cloud demons are keeping tabs on us and decide to follow our telegate.”

I didn’t want to leave with Sykes and Izzy. It would be so humiliating if I couldn’t teleport. I felt bad enough a demon got the better of me, but the extent of my injuries was something I wanted known to only to Bran and me for now. I didn’t voice my reluctance, but Bran felt it.

“Thanks for the offer, Sykes, but I have her.” Bran put his arms around me.

“Some of us should go with you and watch your backs in case the fiends pull a fast one,” Sykes insisted.

Bran paused as though considering it, then he nodded. “Good idea. Remy?”

“I concur. The two of you,” he nodded at Sykes and Izzy, “go with them. Kim and I will start working on those icebergs. We’ll move them closer to the island and away from any cruise ships out there. I may not be able to melt them, but I can keep them submerged.”

“About the things the students left behind,” Bran said, looking at the Security Guardians. “Could you take care of them?”

“Of course, Cardinal,” Evangeline said. “But when you return, we have to discuss what to do about the students and the teachers.”

Bran nodded. “We’ll check with Mrs. D at HQ about that.”

Listening to them made me both confused and angry all over again. I had no idea why they were discussing icebergs, students and teachers. The portal to Xenith was on Pearls Island, which was in Bermuda, hardly the region for icebergs. After facing Coronis, the Queen of Demons, and battling hordes of demons in back alleys, fighting demons didn’t terrify me as much as when I first started hunting. Having one screw with my memories and powers was something new, different and bad. I was scared to learn just how much memory I’d lost and what abilities I couldn’t control anymore.

R
elief raced through me after we left the island and appeared on top of some building. No demon followed us. I mentally checked off teleporting on the list of ‘possibly screwed up abilities’ as we looped our route, even though something was different when I was in this energized state. I wasn’t sure whether that was good or bad.

The house was quiet when we appeared inside my bedroom. Bran leaned back and grinned, dimples appearing on his cheeks.
You did great
.

His smile was forced and tinged with worry, but I pretended not to notice and gave him a toothy smile.
I know
.

Let me take a look at your head
. He walked around, parted my hair, and searched for the bump. I exchanged an uneasy smile with Sykes and Izzy, who had followed our telegate and were watching us from the doorway with worried expressions.

It is not healing
, Bran added, his hand gentle and cool on my throbbing bump.
See if Izzy can take care of it
.

I didn’t like that suggestion—I didn’t want Izzy and Sykes to know something was wrong with my dagger and my powers. Like all Guardians, I self-healed most superficial wounds, but the dagger usually enhanced that ability. I still gripped the hilt, hoping for a miracle or a tug as we linked. So far, I felt nothing. Nothing was bad.

“Lil?”

From Bran’s scowl, it wasn’t the first time he’d tried to get my attention. Izzy and Sykes also continued to watch me. They’d eventually know the truth. Besides, my head was killing me.

I shoved the Kris Dagger in its sheath. “Izzy, could you take care of my head?”

She nodded and entered the room then gasped when I turned and Bran showed her the swelling. “Lil, this is huge. It should be gone by now.”

“My powers are off.”

I felt rather than saw her hand hover near my wound, then there was warmth and the pain disappeared. The pounding inside my head didn’t go away though. Refusing to panic, I made eye contact with Bran, who looked like he wanted to punch something. Once again, I wished he couldn’t feel my pain.

“Is that better?” Izzy asked, drawing my attention away from Bran as she entered my line of vision.

“Yes, thanks,” I lied smoothly. “Thanks for the escort too, guys, but I’d like to rest now.”

No one made a move to leave, making me feel worse. I hated being the cause of their worry. Unfortunately, something always happened to me to give them a reason to worry. This time, there was nothing they could do about it.

I glanced at Bran.
Please. They won’t go unless you leave
.

“Could you guys head to HQ and tell Mrs. D what happened?” Bran asked. “I’ll join you shortly.

“Sure, but first, I have something to say,” Sykes said as he sauntered to where the three of us stood and elbowed Bran and Izzy out of the way. “Give me room.”

He gripped my shoulders and looked me straight in the eye as if trying to read my thoughts. Thankfully, he couldn’t. His love and concern flowed to me though and I bit my lower lip to stop myself from saying something reassuring. Bran was in the room, watching Sykes with annoyance. Sykes had never bothered to hide the fact that he loved me. Maybe not as passionately and completely as Bran, but he loved me in his own way.

“You are going to be okay,” Sykes vowed.

“Of course she is,” Bran retorted.

Sykes ignored him and added, “You remember me, right?” He peered at me. “The guy you secretly have a crush on.”

I giggled.

“Don’t believe anything they,” he jerked his thumb to indicate Bran and Izzy, who were shaking their heads at his antics, “tell you about me. Remember this face.” He pointed between his eyes and turned his head left then right to give me side profiles, blond hair sweeping his broad shoulders. “This is the face of your number-one fan.”

I chuckled and immediately regretted it. “Thanks, Sykes.”

“See? She remembers me.” He smirked.

“Of course I do, silly.”

The smile disappeared, his hazel eyes darkening. “As soon as we come back here, we’re going after the fiends that did this to you and making them pay. No one hurts one of us and gets away with it. Meanwhile whatever you don’t remember, I’ll be available for mind-blends, memory retrieval, or whatever you want so you can relive everything you’ve forgotten through
my
memories. Okay?”

Tear prickled the back of my eyes, but I managed a nod. Bran snickered, but this time I shot him a censuring look. He wore that arrogant look that said the gates to Tartarus would open before he let Sykes mind-blend with me. Ignoring him, I hugged Sykes. “Thank you.”

“Okay, no slobbering over me.” He teased, then leaned back, shot Bran a defiant look, and planted a kiss on my forehead. “Let’s go, Izzy.” He added in a gruff voice and teleported.

Izzy gave me a tiny smile. “He was really worried that you wouldn’t remember us. David Lee lost most of his adult memories.”

“Who’s David Lee?”

“The Damned Human the demon attacked in New York.”

“I could never forget you guys, Izzy.” I hugged her too. “Your voices pulled me out of that dark, horrible…place.” The words poured out of my mouth, yet when I tried to grasp the memory to support it, all I got were white-hot slashes of pain across my skull.

“You remembered something?” Bran asked urgently, his eyes searching my face.

I tried again to search for the shadow of the memory and winced at the pain on my temples. “I don’t know. Maybe.”

“How much have you forgotten?” Izzy asked.

Bran shook his head. “Let’s discuss that later, Izzy. She needs to rest.”

She shrugged and left. I released a breath I didn’t know I was holding, sat on my bed and glanced at Bran. “What kind of demons are we dealing with?”

“We don’t know.” Bran settled beside me and covered my hands with his. “Today was the second time we met them. First encounter was a week ago. We told the Cardinals what happened. Something about the demon bothered them enough to put us on a lockdown while they searched for them. You picked up on their unease right away, though.” Bran tucked a lock of my hair behind my ear and tilted my chin. His emerald eyes were shadowed. “How much have you forgotten?”

“What year and month are we in?”

“August. You’re turning seventeen in about two weeks.”

I’d lost about four months. “The last thing I remember is entering Valafar’s booth on Jarvis Island.”

Surprise flashed across Bran’s face. “That’s not bad.”

“Compared to the guy Izzy said lost most of his memories, I guess I am lucky. Still so much has happened. Are Kylie and I still friends?”

“Yes. You grandfather didn’t erase her memories yet, so you two do
stuff
whenever we’re not busy.”

“Stuff?”

He grinned. “Girl stuff—you know, shop, talk, watch movies. We’ve even double-dated.”

“Really?” Only Bran could put up with Kylie’s incessant chatter for me. Kylie was my best friend, but our friendship almost got destroyed when I froze a cup in front of her then tried to B.S. my way out of telling her the truth by claiming it was a Gypsy trick. In the end I had to tell her who and what I was when we learned she had the ability to channel our energies and thoughts, and hear our telepathic communications. Humans called people like her psychics. We preferred the term ‘mediums’. Humans weren’t supposed to know about our existence, but her case was different.

Something else occurred to me. “Did we get the List?”

He smiled. “Yes, and we’ve canceled most of the contracts. We have fifteen more to go and those are all Runners.”

“Runners?”

“Humans who’d rather run than cancel their contracts.”

“Why would they do that?”

He chuckled. “Because they can. We’ll discuss all that later. Right now, I have to go.” He cupped my face and gently brushed my skin with his thumb. “I know your head still hurts, so rest until we get back. Maybe you might get more fleeting memories like you just did.”

I hoped so. “Okay.”

He pulled me into his arms. “We’ll find out what’s wrong with you and fix it, Sunshine. I promise.”

That was something about the men on my team. They always believed they could fix everything. Maybe this was something I had to fix by myself. “Are we going after the demons?”

He shot me a determined look. “Oh yeah.”

Panic followed his words and I immediately felt terrible. No matter how strong or evil a demon was, I’d never been scared of hunting until now. Not knowing what I could or couldn’t do didn’t help either.

“About mind-blending, I was going to suggest it before
he
did. You will blend with me. Not Sykes or anyone else. I don’t know what crazy crap they’ve been up to this summer, especially him. He still changes girlfriends every week.”

I wasn’t too sure about the mind-blend thing either, but I wanted him gone so I could take inventory of my powers. “Okay. No one but you.”

“You are giving in without a fight?” he asked in disbelief.

I smiled. “No, I’m trying to get rid of you.”

He chuckled. “You wish.”

“So I can rest,” I finished.

As soon as he left, I set out to confirm something I thought I’d seen when I teleported, something that had me a bit worried. Visualizing the kitchen, I willed myself there.

My teleport was definitely different. I could slow down and see other psi energies around me while I was in my energy form. I studied the kitchen. The energies pulsed and grew stronger until I recognized objects. Two cups sat side-by-side inside the sink, indicating Grampa and Aunt Janelle had been home earlier. Flowers on the kitchen counter and dining room table filled the air with their fragrance. A new garbage can was by the garbage disposal. I couldn’t identify it until I materialized. It was a blue recycling can, probably put there by Aunt Janelle. As an Earth Cardinal Guardian, she loved nature and was big on saving the earth.

As I teleported back to my room, I slowed down again. Moving through the wall felt weird and ticklish. Something was different about my bedroom too. I hovered near the ceiling and drew from my old memories until something clicked—I had moved my furniture around. I materialized and walked around, noting the changes. The lime and lemon cover was new and so were the dresser, lamps, and the draperies. I even had a DVD/VHS player. A digital frame sat on my dresser, the photographs changing every few seconds. One showed my mother laughing, then another of her with a baby with a mop of red hair. Me? I lifted it up and studied the pictures. I must have received Valafar’s present.

Mom appeared happy in the photographs. Valafar too. In fact, they looked like normal, doting parents. Not that I knew anything about regular parents. Grampa had raised me by himself and he was a demon hunter.

Putting the frame back, I pulled the dagger from its sheath and placed it on the bed.
Come
.

It didn’t move. It usually obeyed me.

Extending my hand toward it, I recited the words I used when I’d first commanded the dagger.
By the Order of Goddess Xenia and the Principalities, I command you, Kris Dagger, to come to me
.

Nothing. My dagger, the most feared and coveted Nephilim weapon, just sat there like an ordinary kitchen knife, the link between us gone.

Refusing to panic, I moved on to my other abilities. Placing the computer chair at the other end of the room, I stepped back. Just a small lightning bolt to melt the leather seat, something Remy could fix later, I told myself.

Several large bolts appeared from thin air, zipped across the room and incinerated the chair with a blinding explosion, leaving behind a giant hole on my bedroom floor. Oh, crapola. That was too easy and over the top.

A pounding came from the front door, causing me to jump. A psi scan told who my visitors were—Security Team. I raced to answer the door. A man and woman stared at me with scowls. “Yes?”

“The psi-dar detected an energy surge in your house, Cardinal Lil,” the man said. “Is everything okay?”

My face warmed, but I tried to give them a relaxed smile. “Oh yeah. I had a little accident, that’s all.”

“Do you need our help?” the woman asked.

Then the entire enclave would know about it. I didn’t think so. “No, thanks. It’s nothing. Really. I already took care of it.”

They didn’t look convinced, but nodded and apologized for disturbing me, then left. Exhaling, I closed the door and headed back to my bedroom. For a moment, I just studied the charred carpet. I could see the guest room under my bedroom through the gaping hole. Those were some serious bolts. Giggling, I mentally checked off energy abilities.

Moving on, I lifted things around the room, starting with lighter then moving to heavier objects until I finished with my bed. Once again, the entire exercise was effortless. All my abilities were heightened, but my connection with the dagger was gone. It didn’t make sense.

I got a wad of sticky notes from my desk drawer and quickly scribbled what I could and couldn’t do, how many months of my memories were gone. On the last pad, I added what I’d told Izzy word for word. Just in case I met the same demons and more of my memories got erased, I’d have these notes for reference.

Feeling better, I went to my closet to get a fresh towel. As I turned to reenter my room, the box tucked away on the top shelf caught my attention.

Instead of heading to the showers, I grabbed it and sat on the lounge. Two manila envelopes were wedged between layers of white packaging foam. A memory teased me, but it disappeared fast, before I could grasp it. I pulled from the last envelope pictures of me with my parents. They were the same pictures that were on the digital frame on my dresser.

I reached for the second envelope. It had VHS tapes inside, which explained the VHS player. Popping one in, I pressed play and watched, smiling at some of my antics, frowning at the others. I was a healthy baby with riotous red hair. Who would have guessed Valafar loved to read to me when I was a baby? But my favorite part was when he videotaped me asleep in my mother’s arms while she read. She had a beautiful voice, yet I couldn’t remember hearing her voice before or watching these movies.