Souljacker (25 page)

“The cyberhounds are coming.” As I say it, I
stare at MaXXX. He’s watching me with a look of dread on his face,
his face white like freshly fallen snow. “We can’t just sit here
and wait to die. We have to go out there. We have to make a stand,
give Diesel time to fix the bus.” Even as I speak the words, I know
it’s not going to happen. This
is
our last stand. “We have
to fight. We’re not cowards, we’re Mithos.”

At this, people rise to their feet, their
fists pumping in the air. I feel a grin spread across my face,
reckless like the beat of my heart’s wild drummer. “A few of us
have to stay in the bus and take care of the kids who can’t fight.
Gale.” I look to the eldest Mithos to find he’s unruffled. Prepared
for anything. “Can you ward the bus? Protect everyone who stays
behind?”

“Of course, Lucy,” he says and I’m a little
surprised that he knows my name. “Go kick some cyborg ass.”

As soon as our chosen fighters are off the
bus, the wards go up in a shimmer of magic. Diesel’s scrabbling
around under the hood, muttering to herself, and Fallon is pacing
the ground behind her. They both look up as the bus doors slam
closed, sealing us out and everyone else in.

“They’re coming,” Iofiel says, his voice
quiet and dark, and then his form ripples and he stands on four
legs instead of two. He lifts his head, scenting the air, and lets
out a growl. Howls rise up, barks and bays that send chills
trembling down my spine. The hair on the back of my neck spikes
up.

I look at Caddie. Her lips are curved into a
devilish smirk, eyes flashing with fire. “Always said if I’m going
down, might as well go down fighting.”

I laugh, but there’s no humor to be heard.
“Diesel, try and get the bus running again. Everyone else?” I gaze
around to the kids surrounding me and swallow back the lump in my
throat. This is it. “Get ready.” We gather around the back of the
bus, using our bodies as a living, breathing shield.

As the first hound glides out of the forest,
I know it’s Lylan in the way that makes my gut feel like it’s
filled with sharp rocks. His cyborg eye glows a menacing red in the
darkness and he lifts his lips in a show of jagged teeth. Iofiel’s
at my leg, his hackles ridged with the warning uttered from his
throat. I place my palm against his big head, feeling the sleek
warmth pouring off of him, and press my eyes shut in a quick
prayer.

Please, God, if you have any semblance of
mercy at all…

And all hell breaks loose.

Chapter 29:

Lucy

The sounds of war rise up, crashing through
the night silence like a siren’s wail. Energy sizzles through the
air, slamming into meaty hound bodies, toppling our enemies over.
Fallon yells as she picks up one cyberhound and uses him like a
bowling ball, scattering the hound pins across the street.

But as powerful as we are, the hounds are
resilient, stubborn, blood thirsty. We knock them down and they
just get back up again. It’s like they don’t even register the pain
as Caddie burns their flesh with her fire. They just grin and bear
down on us.

And we’re weakening. Fast. They’ve pushed us
up against the back of the bus. Several kids have dropped back,
trying to recoup their energy. Trying to make it so that we
win.

Power bursts through my hands in a brilliant
display of bright white, ramming into one hound until his pelt is
bloodied. His eyes are furious, but at the same time…empty. They
only know one thing, and that is to obey their master. Their
queen.

Iofiel snarls, sinking teeth into the side of
Lylan’s neck. The Alpha does his best to toss him off. They’re both
fighting valiantly, but I know it’s personal now.

My body begins to tremble with the amount of
soul I’ve given up. I’m shaking like a leaf, my knees rubbery and
threatening to buckle. My bones ache. The Need that’s been silent
for so long starts to rear up, baring its teeth to the world. I
stumble as the cyberhound I’m fighting rams into me. I barely miss
a swipe of heavy claws. Fear crawls up my chest like a giant
spider. What do I do now?

But the hound doesn’t give me a chance to
think. Whipping his head around, he bites me, his fangs diving into
my wrist and I cry out as blood gushes from the wound. I don’t
think—I can’t even begin to think—I just react: I clamp both my
hands over his muzzle, driving his teeth together, and the Need
lures his soul into my palms.

He tastes different, wild, feral under my
skin. His magic spins around me, weaving a web of energy that
settles and pools at my core. The hound’s eyes widen with shock as
I stare down at him. Heat burns through me, a fiery pit of Hell,
and he lets out a pitiful whimper. I look into his canine eye, the
iris a brilliant green, darkening with each ounce of power that I
take.

They widen for a moment, then the spark of
life, however dark or wrong it might’ve been, winks out. The hound
sinks lifelessly to the ground and I drop him. I can feel his
energy reverberating throughout my body. I’m horrified and back
away from the cyborg corpse just in time to hear Iofiel scream.

Blood splatters the ground as Lylan rips at
him, flipping him deftly and pinning him to the ground. Iofiel
kicks with his hind legs into the gut of the bigger hound, but the
beast is too fast. All I can see are the bone-white fangs sinking
into Iofiel’s throat, killing my boyfriend.

Without thinking, thanking God for giving me
the boost, I fling a blast of power at Lylan. It collides with his
body and he spins, spiraling out of reach. Iofiel scrambles to his
feet, albeit sluggishly, and flees behind our faltering line of
defense.

Caddie’s shaking violently, as are several of
the other kids. She looks to me, her dark eyes wounded and spent,
and then doubles over and retches up bile onto the cement. She’s
over-exerted herself. “Get back!” I yell, but she shakes her head.
God, she’s going to kill herself.

“We can’t keep this up!” Lake’s disembodied
voice cries. Then he fizzles and becomes visible again just in time
for a hound to maul him. He doesn’t have the chance to yell out.
Caddie and Josh scream for him and try and pry the beast off their
friend.

I can’t stop this madness.

The hounds are winning.

No one else can recharge like I can. They’re
using everything they have inside of them, and it’s not enough. I’m
the only one who can take soul and use it as a power source when I
grow weak.

I’m their last hope and there isn’t enough of
me to go around.

My heart thumps steady in my chest.

I’ll give it my best shot, even if I have to
drain every last cyberhound to protect them.

I lunge back into battle, each attack more
furious than the last. The hounds rebel with snapping fangs and
even though I’m strong, my Need sated, my body is breaking down.
I’m bleeding from gashes and bites and with each crimson drip that
hits the pavement, I start to fail.

I reach out and snag a hound’s leg, but he’s
faster. He twists around and clamps his jaws around my arm, biting
down with enough force that my bones grind together and I scream,
half in fury and half in pain, as I drain him.

Then from behind me, there’s a blinding white
light, like something descended from Heaven. The hounds recoil as
energy bursts forth, slamming past me and ripping the hound from my
grip. Shrieks of pain bolt through the air, but I can’t keep my
eyes open: I’m falling, down, down, down into the blackness around
me.

I’m sorry…

***

The first thing I see when I open my eyes is
Iofiel. Worry lines stretch across his brow, but when our gazes
lock, all the tension seems to flood out of his body. He sags
against the bed, gripping my hands in his so tightly that his
knuckles bleed white. “I thought I’d lost you.”

It all floods back to me in a rush of twisted
memories: The Mithos’ last stand, protecting the kids on the bus;
the cyberhounds’ ruthless attack; blood slicking my skin as I tried
to stay upright and stable. I glance down at my arms and see that
the bites and gashes are gone. My skin is perfectly pale once more,
without the flaw of scars. “Am I dead?”

Iofiel chuckles and shakes his head. “You’ve
been unconscious for a little while. Faela put you in a coma so you
could recover fully, without emotional trauma. Lucy, you really
outdid yourself. You were…”

Foolish? Insane?

“Striking. A warrior goddess, taking down
hounds left and right.” A smile graces his lips. “You were willing
to die to protect us…”

I rub my face with both of my hands, then
push a couple strands of hair behind my ears so they quit tickling
me. I look away from Iofiel to take in the surrounding room, done
in warm browns and golds, like a beautiful autumn forest is right
in the room with us. Light filters in through gauzy curtains and
leaves streaks of sunlight across the floorboards.

I remembered the burst of white light coming
from behind, the way the hounds had recoiled…

“Where are we?”

“We were saved by Faeries,” Iofiel says and
it’s as if he can’t believe it himself.

“Not just any Faeries.” Out of the corner of
my eye, there’s a glimmer and then a woman with a head of violet
ringlets steps into the room, appearing out of thin air. She’s
petite, barely five feet tall. Half of her face is obscured by a
porcelain masque, painted with shiny silver and golden leaves. Her
eyes are more brilliant than polished amethyst and as she looks at
me, it’s like I can’t breathe. I’m not into girls, but she has to
be the prettiest woman in the world.

Then she smiles and holds out a delicate hand
and the spell is broken. Her fingers are soft as moth wings as I
touch her hand. “I am Faela, queen of the Seelie Court. I welcome
you home, to Omega City, little Souljacker. And just in time,
too.”

I blink. Her words are lost on me. Are Seelie
somehow better than Unseelie? “I don’t understand.”

“Your powers are unique, highly needed by our
people in this dark time. Not many have been created and you are
necessary to fulfill the prophecy.” Her pale eyes are glittery with
excitement, her hands clasping together in front of her.

“Created?”

“You are Mithos.” She nods. “Perhaps I should
start at the beginning.”

“No, ya think?”

She waves a hand and an ornate chair appears
beside her. Instead of sitting down gracefully, however, the woman
swings the chair around and sits on it backwards, her arms braced
over the high-arched back. She smiles.

“Once, a long time ago, all Faeries were
Seelie. We lived peacefully together in our clan, in our kingdom
weaved from spells and enchantments. Our magic was as pure as the
sunlight that dapples the forest floors. I can’t tell you that we
were all “good”, in the sense of the word, but we surely weren’t
evil.

“I was princess to the Seelie Court, ready to
inherit the throne upon choosing a mate. My mother became impatient
with my hesitation to choose a king…but I wasn’t swayed by any of
my suitors. And then
she
appeared.”

Faela goes quiet for a moment, one fingertip
gently stroking the porcelain of her china-doll masque. “Vashna.
She was of a lower-class family, but it didn’t matter. She was
witty and sharp-tongued and so darkly seductive. The moment our
eyes met, my heart sang for her.”

“We fit together perfectly, our lives
meshing. I was gold like the sun, Vashna silver like the moon. I
brought her back to the castle with me. Mother tried to fight it,
me loving another woman, but my heart had made the decision for me.
We made our announcement and, much to the chagrin of my people, I
was crowned Queen of the Seelie, as was Vashna. My lover, my mate.
Goddess, I loved her.

“When a rogue came to us, appealing to be let
back into the kingdom, I’ll admit our decision was…swayed by her
beauty. She was young and where Vashna was dark, Hime was pale and
angelic. Her parents had committed their crime against the kingdom
before Hime was ever conceived. She was born a rogue, but craved
the companionship that the other Faeries could offer. And Vashna
and I both wanted her: We shared everything else, why not a
consort? Hime showed an interest. Things went well. For awhile.

“But she wasn’t who she made herself out to
be. Hime fed us lies with her cunning wit; she made me believe, if
only for a little while, that Vashna was trying to overturn the
throne, that she didn’t truly love me, and that she was out to get
me. She told Vashna similar tales about me—she told me of a
propechied girl who would come between us in the end. Vashna
stopped trusting me and the rift between us grew. She broke our
mate-ship and it nearly tore my heart from my chest.

“Then I caught Hime in a lie—I got the truth
from her, slowly but surely. She turned out to be an assassin,
hand-picked to destroy the royal house. She’d decided that it would
be more interesting to let us kill each other. After receiving her
sentence—to have her magic stripped from her very core, a torturous
process to the Fae—Hime then took her own life. In the end, she was
the girl of prophecy…

“I tried to fix her wrongs. I pleaded with
Vashna to see the truth, but by then…” Faela shakes her head, a
hand pressed to her mouth, words slipping between her fingers. “She
was too far gone. Vashna broke away from the Seelie, to form her
own court of dark and sinful followers, and the Unseelie were born.
It only got worse from there.

“The two courts fought for control, the Fae
in a state of disarray. Vashna hated me, but I still loved her…and
love was my downfall. After one final battle, the Seelie were
broken, my people scattered, half of them killed. I nearly died
myself and when I did come around, I knew I could never come back
as queen of the Seelie Court, so long as Vashna had the power to
destroy us. I let myself be believed as dead, hoping it would end
her reign of terror.”