Seirs, Soul Guardians Book 5 (22 page)

Kara tried to get Vince’s attention,
but he was looking behind him as if waiting for
something.

Lilith turned her attention back to
Kara. “You’d have thought that by now the kids would have been long
gone from here. But they’re too stupid to see danger. It’s like I
said: these monkeys were made to be food. I’m really going to enjoy
ripping their souls out.”

“
Touch them, and you die!”
hissed Kara. Her body was alive with golden sparks.

She felt a sudden blast of coolness
inside, but she ignored it. She hated Lilith more than anything at
that moment. She would destroy anything that tried to harm the
children, even if it meant dying.

But then something strange
happened.

Green current seeped out of her and
coiled around the golden vapor of her elemental force. The green
energy blazed as it overpowered her golden current, eating it like
a snake swallowing its prey. Kara stared at herself flabbergasted.
What was happening?

Lilith’s eyes gleamed at
the sight of the green current on Kara’s body. “Can it be true? My
dear
pure
angel
sister—have you been walking around with demon power inside
you?”

Lilith stepped forward and examined
Kara more closely. Her brows knitted together, and then she threw
back her head and laughed. “It explains why father had such a keen
interest in you. I never understood it until now.”

Kara felt the powers battle inside
her. She strained to keep from falling over. Her body jerked and
shivered. The warmth of her elemental power diminished, and
coolness swept inside her. She heard laughter as she drifted into
the depths of darkness. She didn’t fight it—she welcomed it. She
felt more powerful than ever, and she wanted to feel more. The
sensation was intoxicating.

Lilith’s face broke into a smile as
her eyes narrowed. “It seems we are more alike than I first
thought.” She measured Kara for a moment. “You are wasting your
power with the legion of angels. You are on the wrong team. You’ve
always been on the wrong team. You were meant to be a creature of
the netherworld, just as father said. He created you. You belong to
the netherworld.”

Kara swayed. The world spun before
her, and she closed her eyes. Lilith made sense—Kara felt a link
with the darkness, as though she knew it, and it knew her. It was
the same feeling she had experienced with the creature Morthdu, a
sense of belonging—the darkness suited her.

“
You don’t belong with the
legion, Kara,” Lilith’s voice was near. “They threw you into their
prison like garbage. Why? Because they fear you. You’re different,
just like me. Your friends abandoned you. Join me,
Kara.”

Kara gritted her teeth. Her mind was
breaking. She felt as though her body was being torn into two. Who
was she really—a guardian angel or a creature of the netherworld?
The legion did fear her because of her elemental part. Perhaps she
was always meant to be on the other side.

Kara opened her eyes. She reached into
her pocket and withdrew the Arath. It pulsed in her palm. Its power
vibrated through Kara, and she welcomed it.

“
I could teach you how to
use it,” said Lilith eagerly. “Together we could be great. We could
rule the mortals and become the most powerful creatures in all the
worlds! We could destroy the legion of angels . . .”

“
Kara!”

David, Jenny, and Peter ran towards
her from the street and then Tatiana, Roberto, and Tony.

“
Oh look, here comes my
favorite gang of angels.” Lilith snapped her fingers, and the Seirs
formed a protective line in front of her and Kara. “You’re too
late, monkey lovers. It’s over. Might as well let yourselves die,”
she giggled.

“
Kara!” yelled David again,
“What’s happened to you?”

A cry escaped her lips. She gazed at
her friends’ terrified faces but didn’t answer. Their shouts faded
as the sound of rushing power flowed through her body. It was as
though she had dived into a lake of ice-cold water and couldn’t
swim back up to the surface. Cool energy washed over her. Her body
blazed in green light, and she felt more powerful than she could
ever have imagined.

The darkness called out to her, and
she welcomed it.

Fight it, Kara,
said a voice inside her head.

Kara frowned.

You are angel, through and
through, not a demon...remember...

A warm spark of elemental power
flickered inside her. It pushed its way through the cold and broke
out onto the surface.

She remembered.

Kara could see the terrified faces of
the children—the fear that reflected in their eyes was directed at
her. They were afraid of her. This wasn’t how things were supposed
to be. She wasn’t evil. She would never hurt the
children.

Lilith beamed at her sister and then
turned to the Seirs. She raised her hands in the air. “Destroy the
angels and bring the children back to the Seir king. We’ll talk
about your incompetence later.”

The Seirs wielded their weapons and
charged . . .

“
NO!”

A blast of warm energy rushed through
Kara and escaped through her fingers. It struck the Arath like rays
from the sun.

The blue pyramid glowed golden for a
moment, and then exploded into a million brilliant blue
particles.

Chapter 20

Time’s up

T
he remaining fragments of the Arath floated in the air like a
light rain, and then disappeared into the breeze as though it never
existed.

Lilith screamed. “What’s happening?
It’s burning!” She held the other piece of the Arath before her.
Blue flames licked the edges of the pyramid, as though it were on
fire. The inside brilliance of the weapon shimmered and
intensified.

“
Get it off! Get it off!”
With a terrified expression on her face, she tried desperately to
peel it off her hand. But it wouldn’t budge. The weapon was glued
to her palm. Wailing hysterically, she stumbled backwards. A blue
ray shot from inside the Arath suddenly and hit Lilith in the
chest. Her body convulsed as it was engulfed in blue
light.

And then the weapon in her hand
burst.

Lilith’s body was thrown in the air
with incredible force. She landed hard on the ground. A moan
escaped her lips, and then she was still.

Kara examined herself. Besides the
lesions on her M-5 suit, she had returned to normal. There were no
signs of the green energy on her body. The link was
lost.

The mortals who had been fighting
stopped and clutched their heads, perplexed. Some cried silently at
the horror of what they had done, but mostly they walked away as
though nothing had ever happened, as though it had been only a
dream.

The sound of battle filled the night
air once more as the Sensitives crushed the Seirs. Kara saw their
pallid faces disappear as men and women in black with fedora hats
chased them through the maze of buildings until no Seir
remained.

David rushed over to Kara. “Kara, what
was that? Why were you covered in green? You scared the crap out of
me.” He pulled her into a tight embrace, squeezing her gently
against him.

Kara let herself fall into his arms,
enjoying every minute of it, not knowing when she was going to
disappear. She didn’t care how it looked in front of the
Sensitives, who were probably aware that romance was forbidden to
the guardians. Her head fell into the nape of David’s neck, and she
closed her eyes for just a moment, pretending that she was just a
regular mortal girl with the guy she so desperately wanted to
love.

But Kara knew that dreams didn’t
always come true.

As she held on to David for another
moment, she wondered how upset the oracles would be that she had
destroyed both weapons accidentally. She doubted that they would
have kept them to use on the mortals. In the end, she was glad the
weapons were gone. No other angel or demon could use them against
the mortals now, and that was a good thing. The children were safe.
The weapons were destroyed, and her mission was
accomplished.

The last crystals were dropping
through the timer on her chest.

At last Kara pulled away from
David.

“
What happened to you guys?
Why weren’t you at the fountain? I looked everywhere.”

“
I’m sorry, Kara. It was
Lilith.” David glanced over at Lilith, moaning in pain on the
ground.

Kara frowned. “What do you mean? Did
she capture you?”

David shook his head. “Not exactly. I
feel like such an idiot telling you this. I can’t believe I fell
for it, I should have known...”

“
Known what?”

“
She was
you
.” David looked into
Kara’s eyes, and she felt herself tense.

“
You’re not making any
sense,” said Kara. “She can’t be me,
I’m
me.”

Jenny and Peter appeared at their side
and Kara looked at them and smiled.

“
The white witch morphed
into you,” said Jenny. “She looked exactly like you. We all thought
it was you. She tricked us and led us on a wild goose chase around
the city.” Jenny glowered at Lilith still on the ground. “If she
didn’t look so dead, I’d kick her.”

David edged closer. “But I
knew something wasn’t right. You...weren’t
you
...if you know what I mean. She
couldn’t really pull it off. And after two hours of running around
the city, she finally showed herself to us.”

“
So, what happened?” asked
Kara, and she tried to imagine another version of herself. Did
David like that one better?

“
She laughed and
disappeared,” answered Peter. “Completely psychotic. After looking
for the real you for hours, we met up with Tatiana and the others.
They told us that the children had escaped the clutches of the Seir
king with your help—but
you
were still in danger.”

David grabbed Kara’s hand and squeezed
it lightly. “I’m sorry that I wasn’t there to protect
you.”

An electrical current fluttered from
her hand all the way to her toes. She squeezed his hand back and
gazed into his eyes. “It’s okay. As you can see, I made it out in
one piece.”

“
I’m glad you did.” David
gave her a lopsided grin. “I hear you had quite an adventure
without me.”

Peter stepped closer, his eyes wide.
“What was the Seir king like? I’ve only heard rumors about him. Did
he have a crown? Was he as old as Elder Otis?”

A shudder passed through Kara as she
remembered the foul tubes protruding from the king’s insect-like
flesh and iron body.

“
He was a creature of the
worst kind, and I hope never to see him again.” Kara glowered as
she stared into space.

“
Oh.” Peter pursed his lips
and was silent.

David let out a sigh. “Well, things
will get back to normal, now. The kids are safe, and the weapon’s
gone. Everyone’s happy. I’m throwing a party back at the legion.
Yup, I’m doing it, and they can’t stop me. It’s going to be a
killer party!”

Kara bit her bottom lip and grabbed
the crystal timer with her other hand. “David, I have to tell you
something.”

A terrifying scream filled the
air.

Lilith wiped her face frantically. She
lifted her hands for everyone to see. “What is this? What’s this
liquid coming out of my eyes?”

Kara let go of David’s hand and edged
closer to Lilith—and stopped dead in her tracks.

Lilith’s eyes were blue, a sparkling
blue. Tears spilled onto her cheeks, and her skin was a natural
pinkish mortal color.

“
Why isn’t it stopping?”
cried Lilith as she rubbed her eyes. “It keeps coming out. It’s
disgusting!” She wailed.

A smile appeared on Kara’s
lips. “Those are tears. That’s what happens when people cry.
When
mortals
cry.”

Lilith froze. She stared at the tears
on her hands. “No, you’re crazy. I’m a demon princess! I’m not
mortal, you stupid monkey-lover. This must be a temporary glitch
because of the Arath. It’ll go away. You’ll see.”

Kara laughed. “You’re now mortal
through and through. Demons can’t cry; even angels can’t cry. It’s
one of the advantages of being mortal—to feel emotions. You’re
mortal, little sister. Get used to it.”

“
Impossible!” spat Lilith.
“That makes no sense, I can’t be mortal. There must be an
explanation for this. It’ll go away, I’m sure of it.”

Kara examined Lilith closer. Her hair
had become more blond than white. Her face was flushed from crying,
and her chest rose and fell as she gulped down buckets of air. “I
think that when the weapon was destroyed, it must have changed you
into a mortal. It’s the only explanation that makes
sense.”

David grabbed Lilith’s hand and poked
her palm gently with his blade. She cried out. A blob of red seeped
from her palm. He looked up and beamed. “Blood. She’s mortal all
right. Kind of ironic, don’t you think?”