Reapers (13 page)

The smoke and darkness muffled the
last of the light, and she knew they would be covered in
darkness.

She thought she heard a scream, but
she realized it was just the wind blowing through the
buildings.

Five blocks further down the strip
they passed dark street corners that stank of gasoline, and cars
ablaze in tall yellow and orange flames.

And still, they found no
one.

Kara forgot about her
curious disintegration and focused on this new threat. Although she
didn’t have her elemental abilities anymore, she didn’t feel like
anything was
missing
either. The more she pondered, the more she thought it
strange. Shouldn’t she
feel
different? Maybe she wasn’t meant to feel
disconnected. Maybe she wasn’t part elemental anymore. Maybe she
was just a regular angel, like everyone else.

Just like everyone
else
, she thought as she stared at her
hand and remembered the golden electricity that had once danced
along her fingertips. But now it was just a plain hand.

The sharp pain erupted on her back
again. She flinched and stumbled forward.

David was at her side before she had a
chance to blink.

“
If you say it’s only an
itch again, I might have to tie you up and check you myself.” And
then he added, “Not that I would mind, actually.”

Kara smiled, but she felt uneasy.
“Well, whatever it was, it’s gone now. I don’t feel anything
anymore.”

“
But there
is
something
wrong.”

“
I’m not sure I’d call
it
wrong
, but I
did feel something like a sting on my back.” She looked up into
David’s face. “It’s probably nothing serious, so stop
worrying.”

David watched her. “But it
could be
really
serious.”

“
If it was serious, I’d be
in a lot more pain, which I’m not. I’m perfectly fine.

“
Yes, you are
fine
.”

Kara rolled her eyes, but her smile
widened. “Let’s keep moving, lover boy, before the others think
there’s something really wrong with me.”

As they made their way forward, the
smoke cleared for a moment. A mass of people, men, women, and even
children, hundreds of them, stood like statues in the street and
blocked their way.

Their faces were lifeless, and when
Kara looked at their eyes, she held back a scream. Their eyes were
black, not the pitch-black eyes of demons, but of empty, hollow,
bottomless pits. Their souls had been taken. Their bodies were
empty shells. Their faces and skin were covered with black veins
that looked like tattoos and their nails had become gleaming red
claws, like the claws of beasts.

They lived, but they were not human
anymore.

“
At least now we know
where all the people went.” David waved his soul blade.

“
Do you think they want to
hurt us?” asked Peter. He pocketed his globe and took out his soul
blade awkwardly, as though he had never held a sword in his angel
life.

“
Well, I don’t think they
want to dance,” said David.

Jenny pulled another arrow from her
quiver.

The men and women stood in some sort
of catatonic state. It was almost as though they were waiting for
something. Their empty black eyes were unfocused, as if they were
sleeping. Kara could hear quiet guttural moans and hisses rising
from them, like caged, restless animals. Maybe that’s what they
were now; someone’s animals, someone’s beasts.

And just when she was beginning to
think that maybe they weren’t going to move, their eyes suddenly
glowed yellow with light shining from the inside, like their
batteries were fully charged.

They attacked.

The mad wave of screaming men, women,
and children spat and hissed like rabid animals. With their fingers
extended like claws, they thrashed toward her. Their faces were
distorted, as though a creature on the inside was trying to tear
itself free. Some invisible switch had been turned on, commanding
them to attack.

Kara was frozen in place.

She heard David yelling over the
shrieks of the creatures, but she couldn’t make out what he was
saying.

A black-veined little girl
with yellow eyes advanced toward her. Kara wondered what she had
been doing here before the reapers got to her, before they took her
soul and left her like this. She stared at the charging abomination
that used to be a little girl. She knew that her soul was lost
forever, and she knew that she
had
to kill her.

The girl lunged, aiming
her little claw-like fingers toward Kara’s neck. Instinctively,
Kara raised her arm as a shield.
The
creature clawed at her arm and ripped out fragments of her cardigan
and M-5 suit. The girl grunted like an animal, and then screamed in
a language Kara couldn’t recognize. The creature raked at Kara’s
arm again and again. Its breath was rancid and smelled of sulfur.
Its yellow, animated eyes were wide in wild fury. It tore at her
viciously, trying to get to Kara’s face.

Kara was barely aware of
the weight of her silver-blue dagger, but in a swift and calculated
swing she drove the dagger into the side of the girl’s neck. The
girl let out such a loud guttural howl of agony that it caused even
Kara to flinch. Blood spilled from the corners of the girl’s mouth,
and she dropped to the ground.

Kara stared at the girl’s
dead body. Even though she knew this was no longer a girl, but a
newly created creature of the Netherworld, she couldn’t shake off
the feeling that she’d just murdered an innocent.

David battled three large
man-creatures. He lunged toward one of the advancing beasts, his
sword crashing into its skull and sticking fast. Howling in agony,
the creature thrashed and writhed as David hammered his
gauntlet-clad fist into what he presumed was its face.

But even as one fell,
others came at him.

Jenny stood her ground,
shooting arrows like an automatic weapon. But even as dozens of the
newly animated creatures fell, more scampered over the fallen and
came toward her.

Kara searched for Peter in
the midst of the chaos and found him slicing and dicing the horde
that came at him with surprising agility and strength.

“Kara,
watch out!” shouted David.

Something heavy plowed
into Kara, and she tumbled to her knees. Claws scratched at her
face and arms, and something bit her on the back of her neck. Kara
cried out, rolled over, and kicked a man-creature in the face.
There was a sickening crack, and he keeled over.

Two more creatures, a
female and a male, turned on her. Blood stained their clothes, and
Kara realized in horror that it was other people’s blood and not
their own. Their spit flew in her face, and she retched at the
sickening, rotten smell. The creatures snarled and thrashed,
wild-eyed and crazed. They pinned Kara to the ground, biting and
scratching her sword arm, and tearing at her mortal
suit.

More weight came crashing
down on her, and Kara could hear the different grunts and shrieks
from the creatures that were trying to get at her. She could hardly
move, and she knew that she was lucky that she still held on to her
blade. Even with the M-5, she could feel her strength leaving her.
They were going to tear her apart.

Kara felt a warm flicker
like her elemental power somewhere deep inside her, and then it was
gone. It was wishful thinking. There was nothing there.

She was able to use the
memory of her powers as renewed strength, however, and willed
herself to move. She used her short sword and met the teeth and
talons with the clang of steel, hacking through the creatures’ soft
bodies like a knife through butter. Blood spattered and sprayed
Kara in the face, but she didn’t stop. She couldn’t
stop.

The creatures reared back
at Kara’s sudden fury. She stared at the pile of dead bodies around
her, but there were still more. They hissed and growled, and then
started speaking to each other in that strange language again. They
were planning something.

They roared in fury and
launched another attack. But this time Kara was ready.

Again and again the
creatures struck. Each blow rang loudly against Kara’s dagger, and
she could hear the sound of tearing cloth as her mortal suit
ripped. Soon she was covered in large wounds that dripped with her
brilliant angel essence.

The creatures stared at
the brilliance of her essence, admiring it, pleased at the damage
that they were doing to her. Yet, she still fought them off. She
plunged her dagger blade into another creature’s throat. The beast
gave a blood-curdling squeal of agony and crumpled to the floor
with a howl that faded into silence. With all of the strength and
fury that these creatures elicited from her, she was relentless in
her slaughter of the innocents. She struck over and over until all
the creatures had screeched in agony and lay dead at her
feet.

Kara heard a cry and turned around.
Jenny was backed into a corner, yelling, screaming unintelligibly,
and firing arrow after arrow into the creatures’ heads. Kara ran
into the tangle of creatures, and Jenny continued
shooting.

The first came at her with wild eyes
and screeching mouth. It swung its arms so erratically that it was
no trouble for Kara to dodge. She kicked another rushing creature
in the head, and then stabbed them both in the necks. With
unmatched speed, she gripped her sword and came out swinging again.
She knocked another creature down and ran her dagger through its
stomach. She turned on two man-creatures who came from behind and
killed them both with her dagger, while she fought off a third with
her other arm.

Finally, only one man was left. His
breath was ragged, and his eyes were wide with madness. In a flash,
Kara threw her dagger. It hit its mark. The creature cried out,
fell to the ground, and lay still.

Kara wiped the blood from her blade.
The blood of the murdered men and women was wet on her jeans. She
felt terrible. She pitied them. They couldn’t have helped
themselves. It was as though they were in a trance. Their minds
were not their own, and they had acted on direction from another
power, like puppets on a string. They had lost their minds all
together.

“
All my souls,” said
Jenny, overcome with sorrow.

She stared at the mass of crumpled
dead bodies. “This is a massacre, a bloody massacre. Look at all
their faces. Some of them were kids! We killed kids! How could we
have done this?”

They were dead. All of them. Kara felt
overwhelmed by a pain in her chest. She tried not to look at their
empty, lifeless faces. If this was the reapers’ doing, then she
knew that reapers stole the souls of mortals and transformed them
into fighting zombies.

“
We did this because they
left us no other choice.” David’s voice sounded
suddenly.

Kara looked up to see David and Peter.
They were still intact, but their clothes and M-suits were ripped
and torn, and Kara could see glimpses of their angel essence
through their many wounds.

“
Don’t question yourself,
Jenny.” David sheathed his soul blade. “You did what you had to,
what we all had to. There was no other way.”

“
But maybe there was?”
said Jenny; her lips quivered, and she looked like she was about to
weep.

“
There wasn’t.” David
shook his head. “They weren’t human anymore. None of them were.
They were monsters, creatures, killing machines. Didn’t you see the
blood on their hands? Their clothes? Who knows how many innocent
people they killed before we—”

“
Killed them,” finished
Kara. Her voice felt strange, like it wasn’t her own. She knew what
was rattling inside her. It was plain cold fear.

David moved toward her and took her
hand. “They weren’t alive, Kara. Didn’t you see their blackened
eyes? Their souls were already taken. These things weren’t human
anymore.”

“
He’s right,” said Peter,
and he wiped the blood from the creatures off his face. “I’m pretty
sure these were denomites.”

Kara let go of David’s hand. “What are
denomites?”

“
Think of them like
parasites from the Netherworld. They need a host body to stay in
this world. They’d die without one.”

Peter bent down and inspected one of
the dead bodies. “They came into these bodies and used them as
shells, hosts.”

“
So the reapers control
these denomites?” David kicked over one of the dead, as if looking
for something attached to it.

Peter shook his head. “I don’t know.
Could be. But it could also be demons or any other force from the
Netherworld, something powerful, really powerful. It takes a great
deal of power just to break through the veil, let alone infect so
many people at once. I’ve never heard of an attack of this
magnitude. This could be the beginning of something far
worse.”

“
We’d better get back and
report this to Ariel,” urged Jenny. “She’ll want to hear. Plus,
she’ll need to send another team to clean up this mess before
mortals from the neighboring cities come looking for their loved
ones. Somehow, we have to make this right.”