Seirs, Soul Guardians Book 5 (9 page)

“
Quick, get in.” Santo sat
behind the wheel and gestured with his hand impatiently.

Without a moment’s hesitation, Kara
and the others climbed into the back seat.

Santo pressed the gas pedal to the
floor, and with an earsplitting squeal the car sped forward and
disappeared down the street.

Chapter 7

Elder Odis

S
anto had killed the engine and told them they would make the
rest of the journey on foot. He had been very quiet along the
drive. The only piece of information he had given them was that the
safe house in downtown Toronto had been compromised, and that he
was taking them to another one. His reluctance to give them any
more information made Kara uneasy.

Santo led the way along the winding
gravel road. Kara and the others crunched along behind him. Blue
Jays and Chickadees chirped happily as they swung from tree to
tree, and Kara wondered if they were announcing the arrival of
angels in their forest. A light rain slipped through the branches
of thirty-foot high hemlock trees and wild raspberry bushes lined
the road on either side. Kara loved raspberry pie, especially her
grandmother’s. She’d give anything to taste the sweetness of it on
her tongue just this one time.

The smell of earth and pine filled her
nose as tall grasses swayed back and forth in the soft breeze. Kara
was glad to be out of the city, with its rowdy noises and stuffy
exhaust-filled air.

Mosquitoes buzzed around Jenny’s ears
searching for blood. She cursed and smacked at her own face.
Somehow the bugs enjoyed her essence, but not the
others’.

Even Santo seemed immune to the bugs.
He strode ahead of them purposely, his face pulled in a tight
scowl. Kara watched him as he scouted the land, his hand clutched
around the hilt of his sword at all times. His suit and fedora hat
seemed out of place in the wilderness, but he carried himself
easily, as though he had been here countless times before. She
realized that she couldn’t even hear the sound of his boots
scraping the stones in the path. His steps glided over the gravel,
soundless, never touching. She wondered where he had been brought
up. Santo was indeed a great mystery.

After they had walked for half an
hour, the road veered to the right, but Santo continued straight
through and crossed a wild field. David and Kara shared a look, and
then followed quickly behind. Within moments the wall of trees
ended, and a light grey sky peered down at them. It was as though
giant doors had opened and let the sky in. The darkness of the
forest lifted, and Kara felt her mood rise.

A single log cabin sat on a small
rise. Hidden amongst the tall hemlock trees, it was the only
manmade edifice for miles. It looked out of place in the middle of
nowhere. Large logs formed a wraparound porch that was littered
with handmade chairs and broken flowerpots. Red and blue striped
curtains were drawn over the windows. The smell of onions and
cabbage reminded her of her grandmother’s cottage. The eerie
similarities made her tense.

Santo stepped up to the front porch.
Strips of red paint peeled from the front door. Dried leaves slid
around the porch in tiny whirlwinds. The floorboards creaked under
his weight and sounded like the creepy music from an old
organ.

Kara climbed up the steps two at a
time. “Santo, what are we doing here? You haven’t said much since
we got out of the car.” She kept her voice low and hid the anxiety
in it. He had saved her and the others many times, but the fact
that he was silent and keeping things from her now made her
nervous.

“
You’re here to meet Elder
Otis,” said Santo casually.

Kara looked confused.

He elaborated further. “There are
elders amongst the Sensitives, the wisest and eldest of our
members. The elders are the leaders of our groups—they lay down the
laws—and we abide by them. Our world is divided into seven
districts, and each district is governed by an elder.”

Kara pondered this new information. Of
course being somewhat new to the entire GA thing, she wasn’t as
educated in terms of the supernatural as her comrades. Their calm
expressions told her that they already knew. She felt a little
annoyed.

“
I had no idea.” Kara’s
eyes followed Santo’s deep scar across his face. He caught her
looking, and she looked away abashed. “So...what does he want with
us?” she blurted out, hoping to make the uncomfortable situation
disappear. She looked at a piece of peeling paint on the
door.

“
That’s all I can tell you
for now. He asked to speak to you directly, Kara. I don’t know
anything else.”

Kara frowned and looked at the others.
David leaned on the front railing and crossed his arms over his
chest. He raised his brows questioningly. Jenny and Peter only
shrugged. What was going on? Why did this elder want to speak to
her personally?

Santo knocked twice, then
once, and after a beat, once again. The curtain in the front door
window swayed and then went still. After a moment, there was
a
click
, and the
front door screeched open.

A man with a deep frown and large
square jaw moved in to the threshold, his broad shoulders grazing
the edges of the door. His dark tailored suit revealed his bulging
muscles, and the hilt of his sword glimmered in the light. His eyes
were hazel, as he surveyed the group for a moment. Kara felt he
looked more like a wrestler than a Sensitive. He curled thick
fingers into a fist and raised his right hand before Santo. A
golden ring in the shape of a dagger shone from his finger. Santo
did the same, and both men touched fists and then lowered their
hands. Kara noticed that Santo wore exactly the same kind of ring
on his right hand. She wondered why she had never noticed it
before.

“
Welcome back, Santo,” said
the big man, in a booming voice that matched his
physique.

“
Thank you, Tabbris. It’s
been a while, my old friend.”

Tabbris smiled. “It’s been far too
long. Come, Elder Otis has been expecting you.” He backed away from
the door and cleared a path for the others.

“
The big guy must be the
body guard,” whispered David in Kara’s ear. She shifted her weight
and rubbed her hands on her jeans. This new territory was making
her edgy.

“
Come.” Santo walked
through the entrance, and Tabbris shut the door behind them. Like a
redwood tree, he stood tall and proud with his arms crossed on his
large chest and his back to the door. Kara shared a sidelong glance
with David and then followed Santo.

She stepped into the large room. The
air was hot and smelled of mold and damp carpets. The only light
came from two small table lamps tucked away in the far corners.
Pots and pans hung from a wooden beam above the small kitchen that
occupied the right side of the cabin. A woman busied herself
stirring a large pot over a hot stove. She wore a white apron over
her black pantsuit. Her grey hair was pulled back into a tight bun.
She looked up briefly as they entered, her green eyes sharp, and
then returned to her pots.

A group of Sensitives sat in chairs
around a large stone fireplace in the middle of the living room.
The logs sat untouched. Their grim faces were hid under the rim of
their fedora hats. Kara half expected to see her grandmother
knitting by the fireplace. But the rocking chair sat
alone.

An old man lay comfortably on a small
couch positioned near the rear windows on the left side of the
cabin. Covered in a red and black wool blanket, he looked more like
a mummified corpse than a living man. Long wispy white hair edged
his nearly bald head, and blue spidery veins laced his
scalp.

Kara was still uneasy, but the strange
scene was compelling.

Parchment-thin skin covered his sunken
face, which almost disappeared into thousand of wrinkles. His long
white beard grazed the floor. His skeletal arms were folded on his
chest, which rose and fell in an imperceptibly slow rhythm. Kara
had never seen anyone so old, so ancient and still
breathing.

Century old intelligence reflected in
his eyes as he watched Kara from across the room. She shifted
uncomfortably on the spot and laced her fingers behind her back.
With tremendous effort, the old man raised a bone-thin finger.
Shaking, he motioned for Kara to come forward.

Santo pressed a hand on her back and
pushed her forward gently. “Go, Kara. It’s all right; he doesn’t
bite. And please address him as Elder Otis.”

Obediently, Kara stepped forward. She
stole a look behind her and watched David, Jenny, and Peter take
seats in a nearby couch. David’s worried expression made Kara feel
worse. She crossed the room cautiously, afraid that any sudden loud
noise would make him explode into a cloud of dust.

She stopped at the edge of the couch
and looked into his blue eyes. She tried to smile, but her lips
were numb. Feeling like an idiot, she tried not to
stare.

Elder Otis smiled, exposing his pink
gums. His eyes disappeared under a wave of wrinkles. “It’s nice to
finally meet you, guardian angel, Kara Nightingale.”

His voice was rough and nearly a
whisper. Kara had to lean forward to hear him better. With a
shaking hand he patted an empty space beside him. A large golden
ring with a lion’s head and emerald eyes wrapped his bony index
finger. It probably fit him years ago, but now it rolled to the
side and looked two sizes too big.

“
Thank you.” Kara sat very
gently, afraid that she might crush him under her weight. Elder
Otis kept smiling and stared at her for a long moment before he
spoke again.

“
I’ve been waiting to meet
with you, Kara.”

With her eyes wide, Kara raised her
voice and articulated each word carefully. “Me, Elder Otis? But
why?”

“
It’s okay, child. I’m not
deaf,” laughed the elder. He started to wheeze and then coughed.
Kara sat frozen. Immediately, the woman from the kitchen came with
a glass of water. She held it to his mouth and helped him take a
few sips. He waved her off after a moment. The woman put the
half-full glass on a side table, gave Kara a stern look, as if this
had been her fault, and shuffled off. Kara shifted towards the edge
of the couch. She rubbed her palms against her thighs.

“
I’ve been waiting to meet
you, because
you
are very
special
,” continued Elder Otis. He smiled again, and his pink gums
reappeared. “You see, the prophecies speak of an extraordinary
angel that will come in a time of great misery in the mortal
world

” He raised
his emaciated hands and laced his fingers as he continued,
“

an angel with
tainted powers, with a rare combination of dark and light energy,
who will save the human race from total annihilation.

“
And you, my dear...are the
one.”

Chapter 8

A tiny Prophecy

“
U
h...uh...” was all Kara could muster.

She closed her mouth and
scratched the back of her neck. She remembered Morthdu’s blazing
green mass and the warning:
The darkness
lives in you.

An angel with dark and
light powers—was
she
this angel? Could there be truth in what this old man was
saying? Was her elemental part to blame? Was it dark? She shook her
head slowly. She had enough pressure on her shoulders with the
missing kids and with Lilith’s latest atrocities; so much weighed
on her already. And now, according to the old man, the fate of the
mortal world rested on her shoulders.

Her leg bounced up and down and she
couldn’t stop from shaking. At first, she had thought they had
accompanied Santo all this way because they had some insight into
the whereabouts of the children, or maybe even Lilith. But so far
this wasn’t it. What was this old man talking about? She hadn’t
planned on sharing fairytale prophecies with a two hundred year-old
corpse, no matter how delicate the situation is or how odd. They
were wasting precious time.

The elder’s eyes glistened
with certainty. They locked onto hers, and followed her every move.
His irises shrunk and nearly vanished. Kara leaned back. It was as
though he was trying to read her mind. She averted her eyes. She
didn’t want to upset the old man; he looked frail enough as it was.
From the confident smile on his face, she could tell he was
positive
she
was
this angel the prophecies spoke of.

She wasn’t even convinced she actually
believed in prophecies. Part of her didn’t want to admit what the
old man was saying could be true. It was all just crazy. Maybe
there was another angel with tainted essence. They couldn’t all be
pure-blood. Could they?

The room was silent, as if everyone
was waiting to hear more about this prophecy, or just Kara’s
reaction to it.

Though it was very unsettling, she met
his eyes again and tried to read his face. Could this elder know
about her elemental power? Did the legion share delicate
information with the Sensitives? Did all the Sensitives know who
she was?