Seirs, Soul Guardians Book 5 (20 page)

The king laughed out loud. “Yes!
Yes...I can feel it. I can feel the change. This is extraordinary.
Your essence is stronger than I had anticipated...it has more
power,” he laughed hysterically. “Soon I will become the most
powerful demon of all!”

Kara shuddered. Pain erupted all over
her body. A gush of icy cold current surged through her. Her skin
burned in the coldness. Golden mist began to coil around the tubes
like vapors. She lost the strength to hold up her head. It slumped
forward. Her M-5 suit was melting into brilliant golden particles.
Soon she would be nothing but a pile of golden dust.

The oracles’ warning echoed
in her mind,
if she hurt any more mortals
it would be over
. But what did it matter
now? It was pretty much over. Lilith was on her way, and she would
get the other piece of the weapon. Kara couldn’t even feel the
crystal timer against her chest anymore. She wondered if it were
still there or if it had vanished already, knowing that she had
failed. It had given her a sense of urgency, and now she felt
nothing.

Her soul was dying.

Suddenly, like a light switch, a surge
of elemental power escaped her body. She hadn’t called upon it—it
just came about, as though it had a mind of its own. She felt its
warmth leave her.

Now the king would truly become
powerful, another madman to rule the netherworld. Hungry for power,
soon he would take the mortal world, and then Horizon.

The Seir king closed his eyes. A
gratified look marked his face as he sucked in Kara’s essence. A
soft golden glow bathed his iron limbs and torso in golden
light.

Suddenly, the king’s eyes snapped
open. A strange terrified look dotted his face.

“
Something’s wrong.” His
body jittered and twitched. “Something’s not right—” the king
screamed as his body convulsed violently. Golden tendrils of mist
coiled around him. He looked like a mummified Egyptian king. Black
liquid like a fountain sprayed out from knobs and mechanical parts
all over his body.

“
Stop the connection! Get
these off of me! Get them off!” wailed the king as black liquid
oozed from his mouth and his eyes.

The three Seirs jumped to their king’s
aide. They fought to keep him still as they desperately tried to
pull out the plugs from his body.

“
Get them off, you fools!
Get them off!” screamed the terrified king.

“
They’re not coming out,”
cried a Seir as he yanked at the plugs. “It’s as if they’re melted
into the openings—they won’t come off.”

The king bucked like a crazed bull,
his body spraying black liquid onto the floors and onto the faces
of the Seirs. “Get her out of the chair! Stop the
connection!”

The Seirs ripped the tubes out of
Kara’s body. They snapped open the iron shackles around her wrists
and ankles and hauled her out of the chair. She stumbled to the
ground.

Mistake number three.

The king’s frantic wails echoed around
the great cave like a frightening storm. More Seirs came to their
king’s aid, as they desperately tried to stop the
bleeding.

Kara was hauled to her feet. “Fix
him!” ordered a Seir as he pushed her in front of the king. “You’re
an angel—save him—or I’ll kill you!” He raised a blade to her
throat.

Kara held back a smile as she stared
at the horrified Seir king. She shook her head. “I’m already dead.
What he needs is a doctor—preferably Dr. Frankenstein. I’m just an
angel. I can’t save him . . .” The king’s screams drowned her
voice.

“
Told you what would
happen,” she whispered under her breath. A Seir pushed Kara out of
the way, and she bumped into a side table.

The Arath twinkled in the light.
Looking around to see if anyone was watching, she grabbed the
pyramid. Instantly, a shock of power stung her palm. She gritted
her teeth as a cold chill rippled through her. She felt it
reverberate all the way from her head to her toes. The ancient
power seemed to welcome her—she could feel it.

She knew the legion had hidden these
weapons because they were dangerous. Stealthily, she pocketed the
Arath. She didn’t know what it would do to her.

In a state of panic, the Seirs were
doing their best to save their king, pulling out tubes and wires,
and trying to empty him of her golden essence. They had forgotten
about her.

Time to go
Kara
, she told herself.

With one last look upon the agonizing
pain on the Seir king’s face, she turned on her heel and
ran.

She stumbled down the platform and
staggered out of the room. She blinked the black spots from her
vision and hoped she was going the right way. She heard footsteps
behind her and flattened herself against a wall, squeezing herself
between tubes and wires. The sound of steps tapered off, and she
stumbled deeper down the hallway. She couldn’t see where she was
going and used the wall to steady herself. Where was the entrance
again? The sound of the Grimmer’s engines roared behind her. Was
the entrance in this direction? She didn’t recognize the way. She
was nearly blind and exhausted.

Hope renewed her strength—the weapon
was in her pocket, and she still had time to get out, if only she
could find the way. She stumbled through a tunnel. Had they gone
this way? As her eyesight improved, she saw the lower levels below
and the faint green light from the strange spheres. She held on to
the side of the tunnel and walked slowly, the sounds of the king’s
screams echoing behind her. At least she was going in the opposite
direction . . .

Something caught her foot and Kara
fell forward and down a flight of stairs. She landed hard on a cold
stony surface and rolled to a stop. Sighing angrily, she pushed
herself up . . .

Fifty pairs of tiny eyes stared at her
through a large iron gate.

Chapter
18

Freedom Run

“
A
ngel, help us!” the children pleaded and tears streaked down
their dirty half starved faces. Small hands reached out between the
bars clawing at the air between Kara and the gate.

“
Please help
us!”

Kara cringed at the horrifying sight.
Children with red wet eyes stared at her from heads too big for
their bodies. Their clothes fell loosely around their grey-greenish
sickly looking skin like clothes on a clothesline. Some children
clung to the iron gate, while others gripped the sides of their
prison walls, their legs shaking with the effort to stand. Those
who couldn’t stand cowered in corners, their wet eyes sunken into
their skulls. The smell of ammonia permeated the damp air, and
there was the stink of something else that Kara didn’t want to
think about.

They could see her. They knew she was
an angel. These were the missing Sensitive children. She tried to
move, but her legs were stiff and glued to the ground.

The oracles’ warning echoed into her
head.

For the sake of the entire
mortal world, sacrifices are inevitable.

The oracles had known she would be
faced with this situation with the children. They had foreseen that
the children would be there, and they expected her to leave them.
Getting the weapon back was more important. She only had a few
hours left. The fate of the mortal world depended on the little
blue pyramid in her pocket. But what Lilith planned on doing hadn’t
happened yet—and these children were right in front of her, begging
for her help.

“
Angel! Angel help us!”
cried the children.

They were only a few years younger
than her. She couldn’t let them starve in their own filth. These
were innocent kids whose only sin was that they had a speck of
angel essence in their veins. Kara could see red puncture marks on
the sides of their heads and over their arms. There was only one
reason they could be in the cave and covered with needle marks—they
were being bled. She had no idea why the Seirs were bleeding them,
but there was no denying that it was evil. They must have tried to
escape because defensive scars were slashed across some of their
faces and arms. Kara dug her nails into her palms. The children
were being used like a blood bank for a vampire Seir—left to starve
in a dark cave, alone and terrified.

“
Angel, please help us!”
they pleaded. A little girl with blond curly hair let out a loud
sob and fell to the ground.

Kara cursed silently and ran to the
gate.

She wrapped her hands around the
padlock and pulled. Her vision blurred momentarily, and she
steadied herself with the help of the bars. Weakened by the amount
of essence that had been drained from her, she knew she couldn’t
pull the lock apart. She needed something to smash it. She found a
rock the size of her hand near the left side of the gate. She bent
down and grabbed it.

“
Okay, everyone, stand
back.”

The Sensitive children all took a step
back, their eyes never leaving her.

Kara raised her hand in the air, and
with an arc she brought it down on the padlock as hard as she
could.

Snap
. The lock shattered and fell to the ground in
pieces.

She pulled open the iron gate. It took
a moment for the children to register what had happened. She took a
few steps back as the children escaped their cage and flocked
around her. She was shocked at how skeletal and light they felt as
they hugged and held her. Though half starved and drained of blood,
excitement and hope flashed in their eyes.

The little blond girl interlaced her
fingers with Kara’s. Her blue eyes beamed, “I knew you would save
us,” she said with a little lisp. “I knew you wouldn’t let us
die.”

Kara held back a sob. She squeezed the
little girl’s hand gently. “I’m going to get you guys out of here,
if it’s the last thing I do. I promise.”

She looked to a group of older kids.
“Do any of you know the way out? I can’t remember, I think I’m
lost.”

“
I know where it is,” said
a half-starved boy with dark circles under his clever brown eyes.
He took a step forward. “But even if we get back up to the main
level, it’ll be packed with Seirs. They will see us trying to
escape.”

Kara put a hand on his shoulder. “Then
we’ll have to run, and hope they can’t catch us.”

She took a moment and measured the
rest of the group. They almost looked as though they were about to
topple over than run for their lives. Two of the smallest children
sat on the ground at her feet. They were exhausted.

“
I can carry these little
ones easily.” Kara looked at the others, “Can the rest of you
run?”

Heads bobbed in agreement. “Good. I
know it’s asking a lot of you, but we can’t stop. We stop...we die.
Do you understand?”

“
Yes,” answered the
children in unison.

Kara turned to the boy who knew the
way out. “I’m Kara. What’s your name?”

“
Vince,” said the boy, and
he shook Kara’s hand.

“
Okay, Vince, you’ll have
to show us the way. Can you do that?”

The boy nodded and made his way
towards the bottom of the steps where Kara had first fallen. She
was glad to see the older kids clutching the hands of the little
ones. She picked up the two little ones easily and hoisted them
onto her shoulders. She tried not to think about how long it had
been since they had eaten.

“
Wait a minute,” Kara
called back and stepped deeper into the cell. “There are children
still sleeping in the back, we need to wake them—” Kara’s words
caught in her throat at the look of grief in Vince’s face. He shook
his head and looked at the ground.

The children had done their best to
cover them with pieces of their clothes. How horrible it must have
been to witness them die.

Her knees buckled, and she strained to
stand. But then anger pulsed through her body and awakened her
elemental power. It sizzled and popped on her mortal skin like
golden electrical current. She knew her blackness itched to be
released. She felt its power. It wanted her.

The terrified children stared at her.
Kara felt ashamed—the last thing she wanted was for the children to
fear her. She suppressed her anger, and the elemental power drifted
back inside.

“
It’s okay, I’m all right
now. There’s nothing to be afraid of.” Kara did her best to look
calm, even though her anger still bubbled inside. She looked to
Vince. “Lead the way.”

Vince nodded and leaped up the stone
staircase. Kara wondered if his sudden burst of energy was from the
hope of escape. She prayed the others had that same
stamina.

The children followed him up the
staircase, their limbs flailing as they did their best not to fall.
Kara waited at the bottom, and then when the last of the children
had disappeared into the shadow above, she wrapped her arms around
the little ones on her shoulders and ran up the stairs.

When she reached the top, Vince
pointed towards the side of the giant digging machine. “It’s that
way—straight across to the other side—you’ll see those big doors.
You can’t miss them. That’s the way out.”