Soul Guard (Elemental Book 5) (23 page)
Read Soul Guard (Elemental Book 5) Online
Authors: Rain Oxford
Once again, Langril appeared. “Congratulations to you
both for surviving. Today is the day you are tested. If you are powerful
enough, you will join my followers. If not, you die. Either way, it’s a good
day for you.”
The younger brother looked excited, while the older
one was apprehensive.
* * *
I was standing in a cave, in waist-high water, where
the light was actually coming from a huge fountain in the middle. The fountain
had a deep blue light in the center of it which illuminated the entire cave.
Although I couldn’t feel the water, I could hear and smell it just fine.
Langril was standing next to the fountain with the
boys. Twenty of his followers surrounded them in a wide circle, all dressed in
black robes with their hoods hiding their faces. “I don’t want to be a soul
guard,” the older brother whispered.
“Yes, you do. Give me your name.” Langril took the
boy by his shoulders and held him right against the falling water of the
fountain.
“Lystan.”
Langril pushed him into the water and held him under.
After a few seconds, the child started struggling, but the older wizard didn’t
relent. Then the water turned red as blood and the boy stopped thrashing.
Langril released him and the teenager stood, wiping water from his face and
hair. The water turned back to blue. “You did well.” He hugged the boy as if he
was proud, and the boy’s face lit up. He probably didn’t even remember the
touch of another person except for his brother.
The younger brother tried to get in the way. “My
turn!”
Lystan stepped aside.
“Give me your name.”
“Kea.”
Langril pushed him underwater like he did to Lystan,
but the boy didn’t struggle and the water didn’t turn red. After about three
minutes, Kea started to thrash and Langril let him go. When Kea stood, Lystan
tried to hug him, but Langril put his arm out to stop the older brother. “Kea,
you do not have the power to be a soul guard.”
The boy’s faced drained of color. “But I want to be
one. I want to go to Earth. Please! Let me try again!”
Langril glanced at one of his followers, who pulled a
sword from the folds of his robe.
“Please!” Lystan screamed. “Give him another chance!
He’s not as old as me; maybe his powers are just developing late!”
Langril held up his hand and his follower stopped
advancing. “There is one way he can gain power.”
“I’ll do it!” Kea promised.
“You need to kill other wizards to gain their power.
Kill five people who are more powerful than you and return to me with their
hearts. In fact…” he looked around at his wizards. “I may have too many
followers as it is. Make a place for yourself. Five powerful wizard hearts, or
the heart of just one of my followers.” He put his arm around Lystan’s shoulder
and forced him to follow. “You have earned some food.”
Kea was left in the cave with twenty of Langril’s
followers. The scene changed again to Kea alone in the cell and bleeding.
Lystan appeared at the bars this time. “I convinced the master to spare you
until you’re older and can try again.”
“I couldn’t kill anyone,” Kea said. His voice was
quiet and hopeless, as if each word was a struggle. He wouldn’t even look at
his brother.
“That’s not a bad thing. Killing isn’t the only way
to get power. It can’t be. I’ll figure something out. You can trust me.”
“Why? You got in. You don’t need me.”
“I’m not going to let him kill you. I’ll get you in.”
* * *
Several years passed. Kea was now about fifteen. He
wasn’t a weeping mess on the ground, though. He paced the cell like a restless
animal, running his hand over the bars as he passed. Langril appeared out of
the darkness. “My, you’ve grown.”
Kea was bigger than his brother had been. He was
still malnourished, but he managed to develop some muscle anyway. He was
nearing six feet tall with long hair that was wadded into an old cloth band.
Instead of answering, he growled at Langril.
The wizard just smirked. “How often has your brother
visited you in the last three years? Twice? Not very supportive, and now he’s
forgotten you completely.”
Kea stopped pacing.
“He’s found a human to make a deal with. He’s even
going to have a baby with her. Do you think he ever thinks of you?”
“You said I can gain power by killing. I’m ready.”
Langril pursed his lips. “Maybe. Like I said; bring
me five hearts. You have three days.”
Everything went black for a second before I appeared
with Kea on a dark street. I followed as Kea wandered the streets. From his
cautious exploration, I suspected that he didn’t even remember his life before
he went into the cell. When a group of six people turned onto the street and
Kea saw them, he growled. Four of them laughed, but one pulled a knife.
“What’s your problem, boy?” he asked.
Kea didn’t move, not to attack them or to hide, until
they were just a few feet away from him. When the guy with the knife made a
threatening gesture and a loud noise, as if trying to scare off a dog, Kea
attacked. The man wasn’t expecting it, so he went down. Kea bit and scratched
at him viciously, until his knife sliced Kea’s arm.
Kea realized in a split second what the knife was
for, so he bit the man’s arm until he could wrestle the knife free. When he
stabbed it into the man’s neck, the strangers all took off running. No one was
willing to help their fallen man.
After cutting out the man’s heart, Kea searched the
streets for an hour with the heart in his hand, looking for something to put it
in. Finally, in an abandoned grocery store, he found a cloth sack.
Fortunately, the scene changed again. Now we were standing
in the main room of the Dothra castle. Kea was covered in blood as he handed
the sack to Langril. The older wizard sat in the thrown chair, just like Astrid
had— arrogantly. His followers surrounded them and Lystan stood to his right.
Lystan was no longer malnourished, but he wasn’t as tall as Krechea and he was
still thin.
Langril took one of the hearts out and licked it.
“This one is good; a mother of three with more than enough magic.” He took
another one out and licked it as well. “Yuck, an enemy of mine. Oh well, he was
still powerful.” He did this again with the next two hearts. When he pulled out
the final heart and licked it, he scowled. “No, this won’t do at all.
Pathetic.”
“What’s wrong with it?” Kea asked harshly.
“This is the heart of a vermin with no more magic
than a newborn.” He made a motion with his hands and one of his followers drew
a sword. “You have failed your task.”
“No! I can get another one!”
“You’re out of time.”
“Please, no!” Lystan begged. “Let him kill one of
your followers!”
“I already gave him that opportunity and he failed.
However…” He made another motion with his hand and the follower handed his
sword to Langril. The curved blade pulsed with a sinister red glow. “Since he
means so much to you, you can kill him yourself.” Langril said, holding it out
for Lystan.
Lystan’s face went white as a sheet. “No.”
“You don’t tell your master ‘no.’ Do you know who
tells their master ‘no’?”
“Vermin.”
“That’s right. And what do we do to vermin?”
“We kill them.” He took the sword hesitantly. “I
can’t kill my brother, though.”
“I’ll make it easy for you. You two will go into that
room there,” he said, pointing to a door on the south wall. “You will kill him
and come out victorious, or I will kill you both.”
The followers moved without instruction. Two of them
grabbed Lystan, who didn’t fight as they dragged him to the room. When three of
them grabbed Kea, he punched, kicked, and bit them every step of the way. I
appeared inside just as they slammed the door shut. Lystan dropped the sword
and hugged his brother.
“What are you doing?” Kea asked.
“We need to think of a way to get out. I’m not going
to kill you.”
“But the master said to. He’ll kill you.”
“No, he won’t. I’ve made a deal with a vampire from
another world. She wanted to stay on Earth and so did I. We found a loophole so
that we both can. We just need to have a child.”
“So you have a child?”
He grimaced. “No. It’s not that easy, apparently.
We’re having a difficult time with it, but that’s why the master can’t kill me;
he wants her soul when she dies. He can’t get it until I fulfill my part of the
deal, which was to make it so that she can stay on Earth.”
“But then he’ll get her soul when she dies.”
“Vampires are immortal. Now, let’s figure out how we
can get you out of here. It’s all true. Earth has sunlight and it’s the most
wonderful thing there is. There’s food and drinks. People are friendly and
don’t care about power.” Lystan started to search the room for some crack in
the wall or other means of escape. “There are a ton of secret passageways in
the castle.”
While his back was turned, Kea picked up the sword.
“I know how.”
Lystan turned to his brother and Kea stabbed the
blade into his stomach. Shock and horror spread over the older brother’s face.
“Why?” he whispered, his voice weak with pain.
“You and the master taught me something I will never
forget; people with power are happy. I’ll take your power and that will be
enough for me to be happy.”
“It doesn’t have to be like this,” Lystan said.
“Yes, it does.” He twisted the blade.
I closed my eyes. I had seen some gruesome murders in
my life, even from the eyes of the murderers themselves, but this churned my
stomach. This time, I felt a change in the air, so I opened my eyes. I was back
in the main room and Kea was coming out of the small room, covered with blood.
He held up his brother’s heart.
“I got a fifth heart.”
Langril’s eyes were wide with shock, as if it was any
more horrific than sending Lystan in to kill his brother. “You killed an active
soul guard. Do you have any idea what you’ve just done?! You lost me the soul
of a pure vampire
before
he was able to get her pregnant! I wanted that
vampire! Now I’m going to have to get her to make a deal with someone else!”
“It doesn’t matter. I’m powerful enough now to be a
soul guard.” He approached Langril, ignoring the shocked followers. “I’ll make
a deal with the vampire.”
Langril slapped Kea across the face. “You will never
be a soul guard.”
I could see something in Kea’s eyes as he just
snapped. He growled. “Then I will become even more powerful than you, rip out
your heart, and take over the soul guards.”
“Kea, you will kneel.” The power in the wizard’s
voice caused his followers to tremble, but Kea just smirked.
“That was your first mistake, Master. My name is not
Kea.” One of the followers reached for him, but he vanished in a sudden cloud
of darkness.
Henry was trying to pull me up, but I was too
disorientated. When Darwin handed me a glass of water, I realized Rocky was
there. “How bad was it?” I asked.
“You stopped breathing for a minute, but no heart
failure, thanks to Rocky.”
Darwin slipped my ring into his pocket, but I decided
not to say anything. I wasn’t ready to have another vision for a while. I
wanted to drink a gallon of water, eat, and go to sleep in my soft, clean bed.
Instead, I handed Darwin the water and passed out on the floor.
* * *
The next time I woke, it was to yelling. “Get the
hell out of my way! You know I can kick you out of the school.”
I sat up with a groan. My head throbbed with both
sharp and dull pain, but I had actually had worse. At least it meant I was
alive. “Remy, don’t shout.”
“Don’t shout?!” she shouted. “Don’t shout?!” she
yelled louder. “I came up here because you were supposed to meet me in the
dining room an hour ago to find you passed out on the floor and these two
protecting you, not even telling me what happened, and you tell me not to
shout?! Of course I’ll fucking shout!”
Henry growled. I was still on the floor and someone
had stuffed a pillow under my head. “I had a rough vision, that’s all. Sorry I
missed you at dinner. Did you see your attacker?”
“No, and my father just returned. Vincent blabbed
that I was attacked, and now my father is ready to kill them all.”
I grabbed my chair to help pull myself up. After a
moment, the world stopped spinning. Remington was at the door, no longer
fighting to get in, Darwin was by his desk, and Henry was between Remy and me.
“Let me take a look in your head and we’ll work on
finding him before your father kills everyone.”
She grimaced. “I hate it when you do that.”
“Or…” I said, turning to Henry. “We can leave it up
to the sketch artist.” He considered it before nodding. “Great, you do that, I
need to go talk to Vincent.”
I left the room without waiting for a response. By
the time I made it outside, I was feeling much better, and the cool breeze
helped even more. I searched for the library this time instead of Vincent,
since I knew he would return to it eventually.
With this method, I found the set of stairs that led
to the library easily. When I entered, he was nowhere to be found, so I decided
to look at the books. After about half an hour, I turned around and made a
sound of surprise I would forever deny.
Vincent, standing only two feet away from me,
frowned, but didn’t comment.
I cleared my throat. “You shouldn’t sneak up on me.”
“I will try to remember to bang some pans and stomp
my feet when entering the room next time.” He went to his desk and sat on the
desk instead of in his chair. “We need to talk about Keigan.”
“I say we let the shadow man have him.”
His eyes widened with surprise. “Really? What brought
this on?”
“I had a vision. Langril is the reason the shadow man
is the way he is.”
“What do you mean?”
“I saw when the shadow man was a child. He went by
Kea, but I’m ninety-five percent sure it was him.” I told him the story, making
sure to use the nickname so that Krechea didn’t overhear us. When I was done,
Vincent looked thoughtful.
“That was it? That’s all you saw happening between
them?”
“Well, I haven’t been at the visions thing as long as
you, so yes. I know there’s more because he went after Langril’s daughter, but
I don’t know how much. So, what do you want to talk to me about?”
“Keigan has something very dangerous planned. He has
come up with a way to block me from seeing his plan, though. We need to have a
way to stop him no matter what he does. I don’t propose we kill him or let the
shadow man kill him, but we need to be able to if he tries to do something
horrific.”
“I take it you have something in mind?”
“Remember how I told you Logan once stabbed him in
the chest and it didn’t hurt him?” he asked. I nodded. “I think that’s because
he missed the heart. I thought Keigan was just figuratively heartless, but I’ve
done a lot of thinking and reading. I think he actually removed his heart to
gain immortality.”
I gaped. “That doesn’t make sense. You can’t live
without a heart to pump blood to your organs.”
“A
human
cannot. Dothra wizards can vanish
into shadow. There is nothing earthly about them. In fact, this particular act
has been theorized quite a lot. Supposedly, the gods could do it. I imagine
Keigan would take that as a challenge.”
“You think he
removed
his
heart
so that
he couldn’t be stabbed?”
“I think he cannot be killed no matter what happens
to him. If he did accomplish it, then only by destroying his heart can we
defeat him. This is the darkest magic I have ever heard of, taking blood magic
to a new low. It requires tremendous sacrifice.”
“After what I just saw, I wouldn’t be surprised at
all. That doesn’t mean I’m going to side with the shadow man, because he’s
pretty sick as well, but it was Langril who made him that way.”
“Then we need to find his heart. Can you find it with
a vision?”
I shook my head. “I’m visioned-out. That last one
caused my familiar to show up, which probably meant my own heart was in danger.
Can’t you do it?”
“Like I said, he’s doing something to block me.”
“Why you and not me?”
“Maybe for the same reason he tried to draw me into
Draumr.”
“Kadin.”
“What?” he asked, frowning.
“He pulled you into Kadin, not Draumr. Didn’t you see
the symbol on the door?”
“Of course, but his intention was to bring me to
Draumr. He mistook the doors. He chose Draumr and tried to take me so that no
one could get to him.”
That’s what Langril said, but how did Vincent know
that? “You don’t remember anything that happened from the moment he took you
through the door to the moment you appeared behind me?”
“No. I remember it being very bright and then
appearing back in front of the tower with you, Heather, and those vampires.”
Then Langril didn’t tell him about the mix-up. “So
how do you suggest we find out where his heart is? And that is probably the
weirdest question I have ever asked. Would Heather know?”
“I doubt it. His heart will probably be enshrined
somewhere only he can get to.”
“Like his castle in Dothra?”
“No. He wouldn’t risk any of his followers turning on
him. If only he had someone he absolutely trusted.”
“Like, someone who owed him something?” I asked.
He studied me for a second. “I take it you saw
something?”
“Last semester, when he was training me to fight the
shadow man, I had a vision using his red foam ball. In it, I saw him make a
deal with Heather’s mother when she was a little girl. I don’t know what the
deal was for, but she must have meant
something
to him since he had a
child with her.”
“Maybe she does know.”
“But Miranda is dead.”
“Right, but if she made a deal with Keigan, then it
would have been for her soul. Do you know where we can find something of hers?”
“The red ball belonged to her. It was important to
her. Are you thinking she’s in Dothra and that we can find her?”
“Whether she is or not, I don’t plan on bringing her
back. The dead should stay dead. I have something else in mind.”
My instincts told me this wasn’t going to be good.
* * *
Without explaining, Vincent asked me to get the ball
and meet him in the infirmary. I made my way back to the dorm room without
paying attention, which was why I ended up being slammed against the wall. My
instincts probably would have warned me if it weren’t someone I saw very often.
“Stay away from Remington,” Alpha Flagstone growled,
twisting my arm.
“What the hell are you talking about?” It couldn’t be
helped that my response wasn’t very intimidating, since my face was pressed
quite firmly against the stone wall.
“It’s not that difficult a concept! She’s mine and I
don’t share.”
“I really wish she was here to hear you say that.”
He twisted my arm again until I was certain he would
either dislocate my shoulder or break a bone. Then a jaguar’s roar echoed in
the hall, a sound much more dangerous than a wolf’s howl, at least in my
opinion.
Flagstone released me, turned to the threat, and
shifted. An instant later, shredded clothes littered the ground beneath a
massive black wolf. I didn’t see Henry, but I sensed movement right before my
invisible friend crashed into Flagstone. Wolf and jaguar growls filled the
stone hallway. Darwin ran around the corner, saw the scuffle, and skidded to a
stop.
“Why is Henry attacking a professor?” he asked
worriedly.
“Because Flagstone attacked me.”
“Oh. Get him, Henry!” He held out his hand. “Give me
your mobile and I’ll phone in an alibi.”
“Hold on,” I said. “Henry, let him up.”
The jaguar suddenly became visible as he backed away
from the wolf. Flagstone stood tall, even though his right foreleg was
bleeding. “Alpha Flagstone, you attacked first, so you’re going to have to
shift first if you want him to change back.”
Flagstone growled, but shifted.
“Henry, shift,” I said. He snarled. “Henry!”
Finally, Henry relented and shifted. “Why did you
attack Devon?”
The wolf addressed me instead of the jaguar.
“Remington and I had a fight.”
“And you were with Hunt when Vincent told him she was
attacked and I was with her.”
“Yes.”
“Great. That’s exactly what I need right now. If you
have a problem with your relationship with Remington, you figure it out with
her. As long as you two are still together, I’m the last person you have to
worry about. You should be working out who attacked her, not attacking me.”
“I know,” he said.
“Then why the hell did you attack him?” Darwin asked.
“Because he wanted to fight and he can’t fight with
Remy,” I answered.
“That’s completely illogical!”
“He’s an alpha wolf shifter. You should understand,
since you are a wolf as well,” Henry said.
“That’s actually not just wolf shifters,” I
corrected. “When some people get upset, they just want to fight, and they have
to find someone who can take it.”
“But Dad’s a wolf shifter and he never takes his
frustrations out on his friends.”
“Your father punishes his pack members when they do
wrong, but none of them are strong enough to take it if he doesn’t pull back,”
Henry said.
“Did you get a sketch of Remy’s attacker?” I asked.
“I did. She took it to show her father.”
“Okay. We need to get back to the room and get
Langril’s red…” I stopped when Darwin held up the ball. “Okay then. Alpha
Flagstone, I suggest you go help your girlfriend find who attacked her.”
He looked like he wasn’t sure whether or not to argue.
He probably didn’t believe me that I wasn’t trying to take Remington away from
him. Then again, Alpha Flagstone was usually very level-headed. I suspected
there was a lot more to their fight than he said. In fact, Hunt might have had
a hand in it.
No matter how Flagstone and Remington worked out, it
sucked for both Flagstone and Hunt. Dating any one would be difficult for
Flagstone as Hunt’s familiar, let alone Hunt’s daughter. As great as they were
together, I could see it going up in flames and creating a horrible rift
between all three of them.
“Devon?” Darwin asked. I realized Flagstone was gone
and I had been lost in thought.
“We need to go meet Vincent in the infirmary. Henry,
let me know if someone is close enough to be overhearing us.” On the way, I
explained to them everything that had happened in my vision, followed by
Vincent’s theory that Langril was able to remove his own heart. I finished just
as we reached the door to the infirmary.
“I don’t think we can trust Langril or the shadow
man, but it seems to me that Langril has changed,” Darwin said. “If you have to
choose one or the other, would you rather side with the one who was a level-ten
bad and is now a level-five, or the one who was a level-one and is now a level
eight?”
“The one who isn’t trying to kill people.”
“Then I’d bet on Langril, because we know the shadow
man has killed. At the same time, prevention is better than reaction.”
“So you suggest we give him a reason not to cross
us?”
“Yes. I think you should go through with the plan,
but did you notice that Vincent---” he was cut off as the door opened.
“Devon, come in. You two might want to wait outside.”
“Nah,” Darwin said, slipping past him into the room.
The infirmary was set up as usual, except that the
exam tables were against the wall and there was a circle made of dried roots
and herbs on the floor. Dr. Martin set five fat black candles inside the circle
and then wrung his hands with nerves when he was done. “I haven’t done this
before,” he said.
“You know how to do it,” Vincent insisted.
“Do what?” I asked.
“Did you bring the ball?”
Darwin pulled it out of his pocket and tossed it to
Vincent. Vincent stepped into the circle, placed it in the middle, and stepped
out. “We’re going to ask Miranda where Keigan’s heart is.”
“You want to… what?” Darwin asked.
“Andrew has a better skill than medicine,” Vincent
said.
We all looked at the nervous physician. “The reason
Keigan had to save me from Dothra was because Necromancy creates a sort of
aura. Only a certain type of person can be a necromancer, but all Dothra
wizards seem to think they can become a necromancer just by killing one of us.
It’s not a type of power so much as a type of soul. We use magic just like
them, but
we
are different.”
