Original Souls (A World Apart #1) (36 page)

"Maybe next time you should give us a little heads up before you use magik that affects us," Emma said while rubbing her nose. Claudia looked down nervously while the gold and purple key to wielding her magik rotated at her chest.

Corinth learned to like Claudia during their walk over to the Pavilion. He thought she was spunky. He also learned a little better why he did
n’
t like Emma. "I bet yo
u’
d complain about winning the lottery, Emma." His face was stern and defiant. She looked him up and down like she was sizing him up. "You don't have a reasonable bone in you
r—
"

"Look out!" shouted Anvard.

The Squadron members in the trees apparently had bigger weapons than the handheld dart guns. They possessed the long-range guns with wide blast radius that nearly killed Corinth's father when he tried to save him at the abandoned warehouse over a week ago.

The men in the trees were far enough away that they knew the blast radius wouldn't consume them too. Anvard knew Claudia's force field wasn't strong enough to withstand the blast. He pushed everyone out of the way as the field broke down upon collision. Claudia went down as well. Her force field absorbed most of the hit, so it was only her energy that was zapped. She fell to ground, unconscious, as the Fielder siblings simultaneously whipped out their llaves.

Corinth felt useless as he saw them prepare to go to war. He had never owned a llave of his own for very long. They always broke on him. "Stay behind me," Anvard told him. "Don't move from behind my back for anything or anyone." Corinth was in pure disbelief when he looked over to a lifeless looking Claudia, lying beneath a tree. She'd put herself at risk for them, and she barely knew any of them. "Got it!" Anvard shouted to wake Corinth from his mini-break with reality. He shook his head in the least assuring way he possibly could. With visible hesitation.

Anvard knew he couldn't stop and try to reassure Corinth. He had to survey their surroundings to find out how far they actually traveled into enemy controlled territory.

<*>

Sena. Hendrix saw Bernard go down. Her heart went out to him, but she was no fool. There was a task at hand, and she intended on continuing to bring about the pain. She already knocked two helicopters out of the airspace above the Pavilion. They were spewing a dark liquid on people trapped in the stands. She assumed immediately it was a mild dose of the serum. She knew all too well about that ratchet serum of Sebastian's. So, she knew how important this was. Just one more to go, she thought, as she raised her hands high in the direction of the third copter.

"Conteram Descendit!" she waved her wand like no other. She always thought that if you want to possess true power, you must earn it. She never wanted a llave, because she didn't want a tool to artificially generate more power for her spells. She preferred to naturally possess the strength to do whatever she willed.

And her will was strong. Many of the dozens of Squadron members in the Pavilion now recognized her as the main threat. They immediately attacked, but they were no match. They fired and fired upon her as she decimated the helicopter above.

Waves and waves of sheer force pulsated from her wand, disturbing the very winds of the air. The copter was trapped in the grip of her power. The members firing on her had no opportunity to hit their mark. Though they were surrounding her at close range with clear shots. Her focus didn't waver one bit. She kept her force field up, and smashed the copter asunder, all at once.

The first two copters she managed to guide outside of the Pavilion walls in the open fields, but no one was firing upon her then. She knew that in order to keep her focus, she'd have to let this one drop wherever it may. And drop it did! Atop the heads of some unexpected students, but a rotation's teacher was amongst them. She expertly pushed the large black helicopter to the far sidewalls, cracking the Pavilion's foundation in the process. But she saved many lives, including her own.

Sena. Hendrix didn't flinch. She immediately dealt with the men attacking her not ten feet away. "Perturbo! Perturbo!" She was in no mood for games. Her facial expression was blank, the absentee emotion necessary to accomplish the goal as she walked patiently up to her primary target. He too was focused only on her.

He kicked aside Alistair Bernard's llave, and left him where he'd shot him only a few moments ago. He decided to watch Hendrix, as she executed her own assault on the supposed aerial assault. Evan hadn't even found the slightest trace of Criston or Corinth. They were who he was here for after all.

"Hey, we haven't gotten any radio reports from the men on the outer perimeters!" Geary shouted into Evan's ear.

"They're probably dead then," Evan said, as lifelessly as any person could possibly refer to death.

"What? Those are our men," Geary defended.

"Well, now," Evan's cynical tone rubbed Geary the wrong way, "seems like the filthy ra
t
suddenly has a conscience."

"No, it's not that
,
” the rat explained
.“
I just want to make sure I get out of here alive. The less men we have, the worse chance there is of that happening. The Hyperborean reinforcements aren't scheduled for..." he looked down and checked his watch, "...for at least eight minutes. Doesn't sound long, but with that old bat flapping her wings at us," he pointed in the distance to Sena. Hendrix, "it could undo a lot of what we've done!" He was breathing hard as he watched Sena. Hendrix takeout every man in her path without even looking at them. Her eyes stayed trained on Evan, and his on her. "Plus, if we fail agai
n—
"

"No!" Evan interrupted. "If you fail again! Your little fiasco at that clothing store caused quite an upheaval at HQ!"

Geary looked at the ground embarrassed. He didn't have a lick of respect for young Evan, but his pride meant everything to him. And Evan had it crushed beneath his Valid steel toed boots at the moment. "I'm going to go see if I can find out the progress on spotting Cris and the kid," Geary said, then curiously wandered away in the opposite direction of the gates.

Evan's dark eyes lit up when he saw Sena. Hendrix about to wield her first spell against him.

"Attono," she said as she began to circle him.

He blocked her slivery, silver little stun like it never even happened. Evan didn't have any force fields up, but he knew he was much faster than her. He didn't want to pour all of his energy into a field, if only he could take her down quickly. He wasn't nearly as resourceful as she though. He didn't know as many spells in Maledictus. He wielded mainly in English. This made him extremely vulnerable. But he knew not to do that tonight. He'd use every lick of Maledictus he knew, and string it together to end this showdown swiftly.

"Adlucinatio," he tried to sweep her up in an illusion to get the upper hand. The old bat would be blind to his whereabouts, if he could manage it. But he couldn't.

She had learned spells to deconstruct illusions as a girl. This was no contest for her. "Transit umbra, lux permanet." Passes shadows, light remains. There was nothing more he could do after she defaced his attempts. Then she followed it by wiping the ground beneath them up into a frenzy. "Luto Pulverem Aura!" The dirt from beneath the artificial grass swirled around in the air, as a tornado, with Evan at the eye of the vortex. She could see him perfectly through the aura of her force field, but he was ultimately blinded, as he tried to do to her, through illusions.

Evan covered his faced staggering from side to side shouting. "Annihilate! Annihilate!" He was taking wild shots in the dark, hitting several fixtures in the Pavilion, breaking and shattering them to pieces. It was only a matter of time before he hit an innocent bystander. One of the many that were prevented from leaving through the main gate. "Annihilate!" It was more than clear to her that he'd lost his focus. Spells in English could not help him against the Grand Ministrant. A few stray blasts from his llave struck her force field, but they barely registered in her mind.

Though she knew her body was beginning to tire. Beginning to overdose. The constant strain from the vis aura, her force field, put a dent in her reserve strength. At this rate, she'd have no hopes of getting a second wind if she went down. So, in order to protect what's left of the Pavilion, she had to make sure that she wasn't the one going down.

"Duratus," from above her shoulder she pushed her wand down toward the field, and snapped it back up into the air. With that motion, so too did Evan's feet stick to the ground, then shot up from beneath him. She froze a large area of the field around him. He couldn't have possibly kept his footing. He fell down, smacked his head on the ice, but still wouldn't stop.

She hesitated to take him out, remembering him as a boy. She virtually raised him alongside Criston. She couldn't believe it had come to this. He covered his black eyes, because off the spinning dust cloud continuously being kicked up around him. The entire Pavilion would be destroyed soon if something didn't give. Though her view of his face was obstructed, she could tell that the El Muerte Vivo curse was taking a huge toll on his body. He looked stressed beyond his years. She wanted to take him in, not out.

That momentary lapse in judgment gave Geary the opportunity he needed. "Fiat Lux!" his favorite spell headed right for Sena. Hendrix head.

It broke! It broke through her force field. She'd die if the focused red beam of speeding light touched her. And she was too drained, too slow for the quick response needed to save her life.

<*>

Anvard hadn't seen such a sight in all his life. People being gunned down out in the open like animals. And he thought, who would treat even an animal with such acred disdain.

"Attono!" he shouted toward the trees. That was the only spell he gave his sisters permission to use. Emma wasn't happy with it, she wanted to crack some skulls, but she kept in line.

They went about knocking every member of Squadron out of the trees where they hid. When they couldn't be seen, it made it easy for them to pick off those below, using their vantage point as an advantage. But now that their hideouts are exposed, they're just sitting ducks. There was nowhere for them to take cover. Jumping down from the trees, before they were knocked down, was their only option. Those who chose it were simply stunned when their feet touched the ground.

After the people noticed Anvard and his sisters using a simple stun spell on the gunmen, everyone joined in. They knocked every sniper out of the trees in only minutes. Not one escaped. Then the reformed refugees went about trying to recapture the Pavilion.

They ran as fast as wind, making it to the broken down gate, as well the new gate Sen. Bernard defiantly opened. There, they only found absolute wreckage as they peered inside the fractured monolith.

On the field of the Pavilion, Evan realized the swirling dust had nearly stopped. Sena. Hendrix had no time to react to the other things going on around her. When the light beam broke her force field, so too did her concentration crack. All her spells failed as a result. Nothing was protecting her from the eminent dangers about.

Evan could see it all happening before him. He was more aware to the full extent of the situation than Hendrix herself. He remembered her face now. He knew who she was all along, but it didn't matter to him before. He had orders, and he was so insistent on carrying them out. The serum coursing through his veins was so powerful. He had malfunctioned before, so they upped his dosage. But still he remembered her, as he did Criston when he stopped the Priest from initiating the transfer of Corinth's mindful powers into the Chancellor. He saw her now. Not just for who she was, but for what she meant to him. "Retracto!!!"

It was one of few Maledictus spells he still remembered. Sena. Hendri
x’
s ex-husband taught both Cris and him that spell during their llave exercises. They exercised, and learned at the same time. They learned how to move faster while wielding magik. Criston's father, Conrad, was also an elite member of Squadron. Much higher ranked than Evan or Criston ever thought they'd be in their entire careers. But they both just wanted to be like the man they loved so much when they were boys. Evan remembered something Conrad always said about being a police officer.
"Every second counts."

Evan forced Geary's spell to retract itself. The red beam of destructive light reversed its path and collided with its wielder. Geary came crashing down to the ground, knees first. Next, while shaking with seizures, his head went plowing into the torn up dirt fields. His dead weight flopped down so hard that Evan swore he felt the earth tremble beneath him.