Seirs, Soul Guardians Book 5 (16 page)

“
Kind of,” yelled Kara,
trying not to betray her emotions. “I felt a bit of its power just
before, but it’s gone now. It was like a vibration. But I wouldn’t
know how to use it. It’s not like any weapon I’ve ever seen
before.”

She picked it up with her other hand
and held it in the light for the others to see. A myriad of colors
shone from the Arath. It was incredibly beautiful.

Mortals shook their furious
heads at her, calling her a thief in many different languages. She
would have to add
thief
to her list of occupations now.

“
Better put it somewhere
safe for now.” David looked over his shoulder and clenched his jaw.
“I saw a Seir in the crowd a few minutes ago. I can’t see him
anymore...but I know the clown’s in here somewhere, and I’m sure
there’s more than one.”

Even with the mortals leaving the
dome, it was still large enough to hide half a dozen
Seirs.

Kara nodded and dropped the Arath into
the front pocket of her jeans. “I saw him too, but he vanished just
like the other one. It’s as though they’re playing a game of
hide-and-seek. It doesn’t make any sense—they’ve never hidden
before—they’ve always just attacked.”

“
I don’t think they’re
hiding,” said David. “I think they’re planning
something.”

Kara frowned. “Like what?”

“
Uh...guys? We’ve got
company,” yelled Jenny, her eyes wide as she pointed towards the
entrance to the Pantheon.

A group of large men in navy blue
uniforms trundled through the great brass doors. Their hats had
gold badges, and guns hung from white belts tied around their
waists. The scowls on their faces were frightening.

The alarm ended.

A ringing echoed in Kara’s ears, and
she wiggled a finger in her eardrums to try to get the annoying
noise to stop. But the humming remained. She heard shouts and
screams—the mortals seemed even more agitated now that the Rome
police had arrived. They slipped and fell on the slippery marble
floor. A few tourists were filming Kara with their smart phones.
She wondered if they had caught everything on their
cameras.

Snap,
snap
. Kara was blinded suddenly by the
flash of a camera. She blinked away the black spots, and when her
vision cleared she could see a young girl standing in front of
her.

“
Alison, I got her!” she
squealed. She waved her phone over her head and ran back to a group
of giggling girls.

Kara flipped her hoodie over her head.
But it was too late.

The police officers were all looking
her way. One of them studied the screen from his phone. He looked
up and measured Kara for a moment, and then back at the screen.
With a stern look on his face, he held his phone up for the other
officers to see.

“
Che è la ragazza,” Kara
heard him say, his voice echoing against the walls of the dome. Now
that the Pantheon was nearly empty, it sounded as though he stood
right beside her. His dark eyes never left her. “Lei è il
terrorista
.”

With his hands in his pockets, Peter
spoke with the side of his mouth. “I don’t speak Italian, but I
know he just called you a terrorist.”

“
I knew this day was going
to suck,” said David. “And I still haven’t had the chance to kick a
single Seir’s butt.” He sighed and smiled. “Life is just not
fair.”

Tatiana rushed over. “This is not
good, my friends. The police think you’re a terrorist, Kara. They
think you’re responsible for the outbreaks around the world. But
how can that be?” She gave Kara a suspicious look.

“
I know, I heard, I’ve
seen—it’s a long story.”

“
They will shoot you,” said
Tatiana, her face grim. “And us, if we get in their
way.”

Kara turned to see David smiling and
posing for the same group of girls that had snapped pictures of her
moments before. Typical. She rolled her eyes and looked
away.

“
We can’t let them shoot
us,” whispered Peter. “For one thing, we’re being filmed—bullets
can’t harm us—they’ll see that as soon as they start
shooting.”

“
He’s right,” said Jenny,
eyeing the officers. “We can’t be seen getting shot. If this gets
out on the net—our cover will be blown.”

“
Not to mention our jobs,”
said Peter.

“
Then we better get a move
on; they’re getting ready,” said Kara.

The police officers drew their guns.
The commanding officer barked out orders in Italian—the officers
charged.

“
Let’s go!”

Kara bolted across the dome. In the
corner of her eye she saw Tatiana, Tony, and Roberto split apart
and charge the police. Angry shouts echoed around the dome, but she
didn’t stop to see the outcome; she only prayed they wouldn’t get
shot.

With Jenny, David, and Peter running
alongside her, the angels tore across the marble floors.

“
Stop!” Kara heard someone
shout behind her in a heavy Italian accent. “Stop, or we shoot! We
shoot!”

Kara glanced over her shoulder. “It’ll
be easier if we split up—”

Bang!

A bullet grazed her cheek.

“
Are they mad? We’re not
even armed!” shouted David as he jumped over a stone
bench.

Bang! Bang!
BANG!

“
Down!” cried
Kara.

The four of them fell to the ground
and flattened themselves against the cold marble floor. A whoosh of
bullets passed over their heads. A volley hit the floor next to her
face and bounced back up.

Kara reached out and grabbed a spent
one. She compressed it between her fingers. “These are rubber
bullets! Why are they shooting at us with rubber
bullets?”

“
Probably because real
bullets would ruin the building,” said Peter, and he pocketed a few
rubber bullets.

“
If they can’t kill us with
these things, why are they shooting at us?” asked Jenny.

Peter examined the bullet closer.
“They would definitely knock a mortal unconscious or break a few
ribs.”

“
It’s our lucky day, I
guess,” laughed David. “They can’t kill what’s already
dead.”

The floor vibrated against Kara’s
chest. Boots echoed around them. She pushed herself up onto her
elbows. The police officers were only a few feet away.

“
Up! Quickly!”

They hauled themselves to their feet
and ran, their M-5 suits giving them an easy twenty pace lead. A
sudden pressure hit Kara in the back—and then again. Rubber bullets
ricocheted off her and fell to the side like ping pong balls. Kara
tried hard not to laugh. The officers would eventually realize that
something was wrong with them.

Kara stumbled and pretended to be
hurt. Moaning, she wrapped her hand around her middle and slowed
her pace a bit. She met David’s puzzled expression and
winked.

David’s face brightened. “You’re a
swell actress, Miss Nightingale. You should be on Broadway. Can I
have your autograph?”

“
Don’t make me laugh,
David. We are on camera—we should look as if the bullets
hurt.”

The others caught on and slowed their
pace. The police officers fired their rubber bullets at them,
hardly ever missing their targets, but the angels kept on running.
Angry shouts echoed behind them in Italian as they ran. The
officers were livid; soon they would figure out something was
amiss.

“
We can’t keep on
pretending,” said Peter, as he dodged a bullet. “We have to get out
the front doors.”

Kara knew he was right. “Let’s split
up; then it’ll be harder for them. It’s me they want, anyway. I’ll
lead them on while you guys make for the exit. We’ll meet back at
the fountain.”

“
There’s no way I’m leaving
you alone, I’m coming with you,” said David, his face
determined.

“
No. Go with them. I’ll see
you guys in five minutes. And take Thor and Poochie with
you.”

David looked hurt, but the others
nodded.

“
On the count of three...”
Kara slowed down. “One...two...three!”

The angels split.

Kara doubled back and ran directly at
the wall of police officers. They were almost upon her. At the very
last moment, she sidestepped. Parrying bullets, she pushed her M-5
suit just a little. Stunned expressions marked their faces as she
blurred past them. With thuds and the sound of flesh hitting flesh,
the officers crashed into each other and fell down like pins in a
bowling alley.

They scrambled back onto their feet
rubbing their limbs and shouting. As far as she could tell, only
their pride had been hurt. Kara stood and smiled at them for just a
moment. It infuriated them.

They came at her with renewed fury,
brandishing their guns before them. Bullets hit her in the chest as
she stumbled back, still acting the part. In the corner of her eye
she caught a glimpse of purple hair near the great brass doors.
Jenny had made it through the exit.

Her plan was working. If the policemen
only chased her, the others would be safe.

Kara waited until the men were close
again, and then took off around the dome. Once she saw David
disappear through the doors, she ran one last time around the
Pantheon. She dodged as many bullets as she could before making her
way towards the exit.

The giant brass doors came into view.
Without any tourists to compromise her real identity by snapping
away with their smart phones and cameras, Kara pushed her M-5 suit
and rocketed out the doors. The police officers scrambled behind
her, bewildered by her speed.

Kara ran into the square. It was
packed with mortals. Music blasted, tourists were dancing, and the
smell of beer and food filled the air.

Kara stood by the fountain and looked
around.

But David and the others weren’t
there.

Chapter 14

The Betrayal

“
D
on’t panic.” Kara scanned the square. Mortals sat and leaned
against the fountain with drinks in their hands, enjoying the
festive air. She ran around the fountain, twice, searching
frantically for the others. Nothing. They weren’t there. She
started to panic. What had happened to them? Did the Seirs take
them? Maybe there was another fountain?

Angry shouts interrupted the festive
music. The same police officers from the Pantheon had seen Kara.
They pushed men and women briskly out of their way.

Without a moment’s hesitation, Kara
merged into the crowd. She slipped into a group of teenage girls
her age and followed them. She stole a look over her shoulder—the
police officers were at the fountain. They circled it, barking at
the tourists to get out of their way as they waved their hands in
the air dramatically. As she strolled with the group, Kara searched
for her friends. What was going on?

She felt afraid. She knew her friends
would never leave without her. Something must have happened.
Perhaps they were ambushed by the Seirs and had to jump into the
waters? No, there were too many mortals around—it would have been
too risky. So where were they? What had happened to
them?

“
Vi è il terrorista!” The
police had spotted her. They pushed through tourists as they ran
across the square towards her.

Kara groaned. She knew she couldn’t
stay in the square—not with the Arath in her pocket. Her friends
had obviously split. She decided that she would look for them
around the city before going back to Horizon. While her priority
was to get the weapon back safely, she thought she still had lots
of time to look for them.

She slipped away from the girls and
stealthily disappeared into the flow of humanity. Keeping her face
hidden beneath her hood, she left the square and the policemen
behind.

Soon the festive noise of the square
was replaced by the sounds of busy restaurants and cars. The Arath
dug into her mortal flesh with every step she took, a constant
reminder of the urgency of her mission. She gave herself twenty
minutes to search for them, before she headed back to Horizon.
Resolved to find her friends and the children, Kara took a left
turn at the end of the block, and crashed into two police
officers.

Kara smiled apologetically. “Scusi,”
she said, remembering the little Italian she learned from her
friends back home.

She studied the men—these weren’t the
same police officers that had just chased her out of the Pantheon.
These guys were different. Maybe they weren’t looking for a girl
terrorist.

She lowered her head and stepped away
from them, but sudden strong hands grabbed her by the arms and
pushed her up against a stone building. Her head smacked against
the hard stone.

“
Hey, watch it.” Kara’s
anger flared.

She struck out and pushed the officers
hard with the palms of her hands. The men flew backwards as though
pulled back by an invisible rope. But the police officers recovered
quickly, too quickly, and they didn’t seem shocked by her super
strength either. Strange? Who were they really?