Marked (11 page)

“I think your mom’s a guardian angel. Like you and me. You wouldn’t have noticed when she died. Her soul went straight to Horizon. And they probably sent her right back at that same point in time—before she died and made it so she didn’t die.”

“Okay, I’m confused.”

“Try not to think about this now, we’ll figure it out later. Let’s concentrate on our mission.” He glanced at his watch again. “We have less than thirty-five minutes.”

“How am I supposed to concentrate when you tell me my mom might be a freaking guardian angel!” Kara held her face in her hands. “All those years, I thought she was nuts. I even wished I could run away—away from the madness. And...all along...all this time...she was helping people and fighting demons. I feel like such a jerk.”

“Don’t. You didn’t know. And I might be wrong. Kara, listen to me. We’ll look into it when we get back to Horizon—I promise. But now we really have to go.”

“Okay,” said Kara. She’d have lots of time to feel sorry for herself later. She brushed her bangs out of her eyes. “Um, what’s the mission—the job thing?”

David passed her the file. She read:

Petty Officer: David McGowan

Guardian Angel: Kara Nightingale

Class order # 4321

Rank: Rookie 1
^st
year, W-1 Guard squad, (lowest rank)

Assignment: Mr. Jean Tremblay, on the corner of Notre Dame and Gosford street, sidewalk. 15:07 pm.

Crushed by a two ton concrete block, when a cable from a giant crane snaps.

Kara shook her head. She read it again. “Oh my God. That’s gotta hurt!”

David pushed open the passenger door with a pop. “Let’s go.” He whirled his legs out of the car and pulled himself up and out.

Kara struggled out of the car and gave David back the file. “Uh—you know…if we can’t stop the crane from collapsing—it’s going to get a little messy.”

“The messier the better!” David beamed. He pushed Kara’s door closed. “We’re only a few minutes away by foot. Follow me.” And with that, he turned on his heels and walked southwards on Saint-Hubert Street. Kara followed closely behind, her mind filled with thoughts of her mother.

They arrived on the corner of Notre Dame and turned right, heading west. The street was packed with the usual business types; women and men in expensive suits, carrying café lattes in one hand while chatting on their cell phones with the other. Taxis honked loudly as Kara and David zigzagged through moving cars in the crowded street. The taxi drivers making obscene gestures through their windows at the jay-walking pedestrians.

Kara smelled the exhausts fumes. “Mmm—it’s good to be back.”

David laughed. “Nothing like a good whiff of city streets to make ya home sick.”

They arrived at Gosford Street about ten minutes later. A giant crane towered over the city’s buildings. Its long metal neck reached for the sky. It rotated slowly, carrying a large load hooked on its metal cable. Men in dark blue uniforms and bright orange construction hard hats shouted over the loud thumping noises and roaring engines. The construction site spilled over an entire block.

Kara watched as a single man with an orange hat waved the pedestrians along with a striped white and black flag. His face was sunburned and cracked into a million wrinkles when he took a drag from his cigarette. A huge round belly sprouted out of him, hanging low above crooked legs. To Kara, he looked like a very ugly pregnant woman.
This guy looks like he ate his entire family
.

“Well, we have about twenty minutes to kill,” said David, as he glanced at his watch. “Enough time to get ready.” He looked up and down the giant crane, studying it for a moment. “The crane will probably rotate this way…and then the cable will snap at around there.” He pointed north. “That concrete block is big enough to splatter someone alright. Wow, that’s gotta hurt.”

Kara stood and watched the passersby, waiting for the event
du jour
. She tapped her foot on the ground. “David—you really think, with my new training, I’ll be able to handle the demons? I mean—I feel stronger, and I have these new skills…but will it be enough? David—?”

David waved at two voluptuous mortal women—who happened to be waving and smiling back.

“You’ve got to be kidding me! David!” Kara punched him.

“OUCH!” cried David, as he rubbed his arm.

“That didn’t hurt, you
liar
.” She couldn’t help smiling.

David continued to rub his arm as he grinned widely. “Yeah—well—you have
man
hands!”

The two women watched David with suspicion in their eyes. Then they stared at Kara and whispered to each other, wide-eyed. After a moment they walked away, but not before giving David the evil eye
.

Secretly, Kara hated those women—the voluptuous kind. Sculpted by the hands of a higher power, perfect in every aspect, impossibly beautiful: long silky hair, healthy looking curves in the right spots. The exact opposite of the straight lines from her tomboyish body. The boob-fairy had never visited Kara, even with all the money she had collected and hidden under her pillow. Nope. The boob-fairy skipped her house and magicked all the other girls from her high school with great looking chests. She looked down at her ordinary bosom, like two deflated balloons. No wonder David had eyes for the other girls—there was nothing to look at over here.

What happened next, was purely incidental. She didn’t know what possessed her, the words just busted out of her mouth. And before she realized what was happening, it was already too late. “Who’s Sarah?”
Oops.

David winced, clearly not expecting it. “Huh?” He turned around to face her, his face twisted in distress.

She wished she hadn’t asked and stared at a spot on his shoulder. “Me and my big mouth. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have asked.”

“No, it’s alright.” David sighed and was silent for a moment. “Sarah was a rookie, like you—and my friend. We worked on missions together. And we were really close.”

“I see.”

“No, not like
that
. We were just
friends
. But then rumors started spreading about our alleged affair—which wasn’t true. Romance is forbidden in Horizon. We’re told to be soldiers not lovers. If you’re caught, you’re banned from the legion forever—I’ve heard stories that they even take your soul away. So, anyway…the legion got involved. They tried to separate us, but we always managed to hang out anyway and go on jobs together.”

“So, what happened to her?” Kara asked softly. “Did she—die?”

David stared at the ground. “After we’d completed one of our missions, we decided to hang out longer on earth. It was Friday night, so we went to a few clubs. You have to understand something—we were all mortals once, and sometimes we still long some of those mortal feelings, the naivety and carefree attitudes. We wanted a break from our responsibilities. Anyway—we had a few too many drinks, we both made some new mortal friends of the opposite sex—and we forgot who we were and how long we’d been out.” He was silent for a long moment before speaking again. “And then when they came—we were weak and unprepared.”

“Who came, David?”

“Demons. I fought them off me, but when I reached Sarah—it was too late.”

The images of shadow demons devouring Sarah rose up behind Kara’s eyes. She took a moment to process this. “I’m sorry, David. You must have been in a lot of pain.”

He stared out into the crowds of people wandering the streets. “It was a long time ago. But I live with it every day.”

She couldn’t think of anything to say. She watched his pain in the creases of his forehead and remained silent.

Sometime later, David spotted the crane’s cable starting to give way. Smaller wires snapped and curled away, leaving the cable thinner and weaker. “Okay, get ready Kiddo. Here it comes.” He pointed north on Gosford. “I’ll try to stop the crane from moving this way—you look for Mr. Tremblay, he should be walking on Notre Dame Street, coming towards us.”

“Right.” Kara glanced westwards on Notre Dame Street. “It would help if I knew what Mr. Tremblay freakin’ looked like!” She stared at the tiny crowds of people wandering the street.

“Look for the one with the name tag—Mr. Tremblay.”

Kara sighed. “Very funny, smart ass.”

“I know.”

“David, w—what about the shadow demons?” croaked Kara. She remembered her last encounter with them. “What am I supposed to do if I see one?”

David plopped his backpack on the ground and zipped it open. He rummaged through it and handed Kara a small fish net and a salt shaker.

“What the—?” said Kara, bewildered. She took them. “Is this a joke?”

“Nope.”

“You can’t be serious? Have you
seen
what shadow demons look like? How am I supposed to protect myself with this?” she cried, as she waved the fish net in the air. “I’m going to get killed!”

“No you won’t, you’re with me. Stop freaking out.”

“I am freaking out! I’m not out here to catch
butterflies
!”

“Just relax…”

Kara couldn’t believe how cool David was. This had to be some sort of mistake. “Why can’t I get I get a proper sword like you? Did you pack the golden one I used for training?”

David zipped up his backpack and threw it over his shoulder. “Nope. You don’t have the proper training yet. I don’t want you to hurt yourself.”

“Hurt myself! Are you
serious
! I’m going to get
killed
!”

“You’re over reacting. Stop screaming—you’re making a scene. Look—the mortals are looking.” He curled the corners of his lips. “Ah—women.”

“You saw what I can do—you know I can use a blade! Come on!”

“This discussion is over, Kiddo. Nothing’s going to happen, just keep Mr. Tremblay out of harm’s way. See, we have plenty of time to stop the crane and—”

David’s jaw dropped. His were eyes focused on something.

“David? What’s the matter?” Kara followed his gaze. He was staring at a mortal man across Gosford Street. The man was in his mid thirties, tall with powerful shoulders. He wore an expensive looking grey suit, tailored perfectly to his muscular body. His white hair was cut short and styled neatly. His skin had a grayish-blue tint to it, like a few hours old corpse. To Kara, he looked like a regular business man, except—

He has black eyes.

Like endless black pits, it was like staring into two black holes. And the man stared back at them. In the pit of her non-existent stomach, Kara felt something was wrong. He stood there without moving, watching them.

“David. The man with the black eyes—he’s a demon right? Like the ones my mother—David?”

David’s terrified expression sent panic waves in Kara’s body.

“David!” shrieked Kara, “Say something!” She frowned. Another man wearing the same grey suit with the same short white hair emerged slowly from the crowd and stood but a few feet away from the other man. His eyes were as black as midnight, and he was identical in every way to the other black-eyed man.

“I don’t understand?” David said. “How did they find us so fast—?” he whipped his head towards Kara. “How is that possible?”

“Why are you
looking
at me like
that
? I didn’t do anything!”

“It doesn’t make sense…”

“What doesn’t make sense, David? You’re scaring me!”

He pressed his hands on Kara’s shoulders. “Listen. I don’t have time to explain. We won’t have time to save Mr. Tremblay anymore—but we
have
to save the soul, you hear me?”

Kara turned her head. She could see the crane’s jib was pointed in their direction now, the cable holding on nearly by a thread. “But how?” She looked down and waved her sad fish net. “With this?”

“Do exactly what I say and you will. Do you understand?”

She nodded. She glanced back at the black eyed men. A third one emerged. He crossed Gosford Street, coming towards them. Kara looked around at the faces in the crowds. “The mortals can’t see them. David, what are they?”

“They’re called higher demons,” said David, “and I can’t fight them alone with you here. Okay, here we go—”

SNAP!

The cable broke. A large concrete boulder fell from the sky. It reached the man called Jean Tremblay and crushed his entire body in half a second. It was like dropping a heavy book on top of an egg. People screamed and ran for cover, away from the rubble of concrete and body parts, for all of Mr. Tremblay’s limbs lay severed from the rest of his body, which was flattened under the concrete block like a juicy raspberry pancake. Mortals threw up their lunches. They stared at four perfectly cut limbs resting by the block of concrete, as though cut from giant scissors. Within seconds, light covered the skin from Mr. Tremblay’s arms and legs. A shower of little glowing particles flowed from his dead body and hovered a few feet in the air above the concrete boulder. They came together slowly and formed a ball.