The Light, the Dark and the Ugly (12 page)

Kable took one last look at the envelope’s contents. It was a series of satellite pictures. Each one took a different view of a country farm in the middle of nowhere.

Terry’s demeanor remained stoic. “Our sources say that they’ll all be back within the next 12 hours. Would you like me to handle it?”

Kable placed the photos back inside the envelope. “Actually, why don’t we do this together?” He felt joy tickle his insides. “After all, we do make one heck of a team.”

Chapter 18

Erica’s original name was Cora. She was human through and through. At least, until the light souls chose her to become the living soul. Her protector, a recently-deceased family friend named James, suggested that she run away from her life and forget everything she’d known. Those first few lessons of flying and fighting made her consider it. There was so much joy in taking to the sky. Freedom had never been an option for her, but that's what it felt like when she soared through the clouds. The idea that she could help people throughout the world highlighted just how dull her life would be otherwise. There was only one problem.

William wasn’t the most handsome and he didn’t have the greatest handle of the English language, despite being a native speaker. But she was his. They’d been betrothed for months, and she’d only become a living soul three weeks before the wedding date. Though she was torn, and the new James told her she was making a huge mistake, Cora decided to go through with the wedding.

It was held in her family's church, a stone building that seemed to take religious tradition to a whole new level. Cora hadn’t detected anything different in William’s eyes when she walked to the altar. He looked as dopey and loving as ever. Maybe even more so. Her heart felt larger than normal, as if she could actually have it all: family, duty and love. Shortly before they were to exchange rings, William removed a concealed blade from his pocket. Cora almost didn’t see it in time, as he aimed to slice her neck. She blocked the knife with her arms at the last moment. Their friends and family gasped as the blood streamed down onto her dress. Instinct took over, and she kicked William hard in the chest. He slammed into the wall before he fled with the bloody knife in hand. When the adrenaline and endorphins had calmed for a moment, the panic hit her. She’d learned enough to know that William was dead, and that he’d been taken over by the enemy. Everything inside her crumbled, and she fought to keep the tears from mixing with the blood on her dress.

She passed by her parents at a full sprint, unaware that this would be the last time she’d see them. Cora pulled herself loose of the most restraining parts of her garb and pushed the front doors of the church open with her powers. She saw William on a distant rooftop and flew into the air after him. She landed a few buildings away and pursued by foot. They ran across the tops of several houses and merchant stores. She gained a bit of ground on him with every rooftop leap.

He’s dead. My William is dead.

The tears in her eyes converted to anger. She vowed to kill him and run away from this place. Nobody would ever hurt the ones she loved again.

As she passed by the smithery, Cora floated a blade into the air. She gripped the hilt and screamed at William.

“Enough!” Her voice carried well on a quiet evening with little in the way of wind. “I won’t tire, and I won’t stop until you’re dead.” William turned and she glared at the bloody knife in his hands. “So you may as well face me.”

William grinned in a way that was completely unfamiliar to her. He looked confident and soulless. More fear than she imagined possible spread through her. She’d put everyone she’d known at risk to be with this man. Could she possibly put a sword in his gut?

“Cora, my love.” William’s voice cut deeper than any blade ever could. “Can’t our first fight come after the bedding?”

Cora’s heart broke as William came running toward her at top speed. He easily kicked away her half-hearted swing of the sword and tripped her. Her back slammed hard on the roof. William aimed his knife at her chest, but she rolled away before he could strike. As she stood up, William kicked the sword from her hands. The blade scattered away. Cora attempted to use her powers to bring it back to her hand, but William’s gaze blocked her abilities.

“You’re too weak.” William turned the knife in his hand. “After you die, I think the first person I kill will be your mother. She’ll make a great addition to the cause.”

Cora grew hot with rage. She ran at William, ducking at just the right moment to avoid his blade. She hit him twice in the arm, and his knife fell to the ground. William blocked her next punch and grabbed at the arm wound where his blade had sliced her on the altar. His squeeze caused more blood to spill out, and the pain and wooziness threatened to slow her down. She railed against her discomfort with every last ounce of strength, kicking her former fiancé square in the leg. When he fell to one knee, she elbowed him in the side of the face, causing him to release his grip. Now his hands and her arms were stained with red. Cora planted her feet to run back to the sword, but William was up in a hurry. He pulled the back of her clothes and cinched his arms around her neck before she could turn back toward the weapon. Cora clutched at her throat as she struggled for air. His grip was too tight, and without her powers, there was no way to make him release it.

“It was a losing battle, anyway.” William’s tone was practically jovial. “Soon enough, the dark souls will take everything. It’s simply our right.”

Cora swallowed as best she could and watched the stars form in front of her eyes. Darkness flickered in and out as she crouched as low as she could.

The words she uttered came out in a croak. “How about your right to die?”

Cora slammed her skull into William’s chin. While he didn’t release his grasp, it did cause him to briefly divert his eyes. It was more than enough time for Cora. With a single, powerful motion, she sent the blade shooting through the air behind them. It completely pierced William's back and cut into her own body. Despite the sight of a sword's blade sticking through her chest, the impact was so quick that she hardly felt the pain. The sword had gone through both of their hearts. Her fiancé’s screams and a few flickers of blue light were the last things she remembered in her final moments as a human.

When her eyes opened, she was bewildered to see the bright light of the sky above. Cora felt at her chest, but it was free of the self-inflicted wound. She looked in every direction, but William was nowhere to be seen either. Cora assumed she’d landed herself in heaven. Or hell.

Both guesses were wrong. The steps she’d taken to kill William had been successful, but they’d had an effect on both worlds she couldn’t have anticipated. The mixing of dark soul and living soul blood had changed everything. Cora was no longer mortal. Henceforth, a part of her would be eternal, and her life would never be her own again.

“You okay?”

Erica leapt out of her head and back into the present. Redican was staring at her as the truck they’d borrowed kicked up pebbles along the dirt path.

“I said your name a few times. I wasn’t sure if you were awake or…."

Erica raised her eyebrows. “You can’t get rid of me that easily.”

Nobody can.

Redican smirked. “I’d never dream of it. I just wanted to let you know we were almost back.”

Erica nodded and looked back out the window. It was unlikely that Ted would end up like her, but the rules that governed all the realms were fluid. Her death had proven that. She just hoped that she’d be able to get to Ted in time before he encountered something that was just as irreversible.

Chapter 19

Ted stared into the eyes of the General, or William as he wanted to be called. If there were differences between them, then they must have all been on the inside. His appearance aside, there were many questions he wanted to ask.

William looked down to the thousands of training troops. "Could you imagine all of them on Earth?" The General frowned. "It'd be a slaughter."

Ted's stomach twisted. "It sounds like that isn't what you want."

William took his eyes off the training and walked back toward the throne room. "It's a last-ditch option, Ted. This is what your protector and the light souls have driven us to."

Ted fumed a bit at hearing him talk of Erica that way, but there was something that held him back. The raiders in the village had been light souls, and they would've killed him if it weren't for Natalie. He'd been called a weapon and a pawn in this war. What if those terms had been accurate?

Ted followed closely beside the General. "The first dark soul I met killed my friend Sandra. He tried to kill me, too."

Their feet slapped against the stone as William nodded with contrition. "I'm sorry to hear that. Please don't blame us for everything we've done. We're like caged animals at this point, and we're fighting for our own survival." He sighed. "Just look at the conditions of that village you came from."

Ted knew that he and Natalie might have died in the middle of the desert without Razellia. While the whole trial thing was touch and go, Ted had a sneaking suspicion that the village would've been on their side after deflecting the light soul raid. The people in the village seemed to have nothing but each other, and yet the light souls attacked them.

Ted licked at his chapped lips. "It's not what I expected, that's for sure. But it doesn't justify murder."

William raised his eyebrows. "Nothing ever does. Though it seems to happen quite frequently… on both sides."

Ted let his eyes drift to the floor. While he could chalk all of his kills up to self-defense, it didn't mean his hands were free of blood.

William's guards opened the doors into the throne room. Since their absence, a table had been prepared with cooked meats and sweet pastries. He wondered if the flesh and blood version of the strange animal statues on the wall had made it into this meal. Their aroma made Ted realize just how hungry he was. He salivated and swallowed.

The General didn't seem to notice. "I've heard they have a saying on Earth. History is written by the victors. We didn't even come up with the terms light and dark." He gestured to one of the chairs beside the dinner table. "It's just like your ancestors labeled themselves the Allied Forces and their enemies the Axis of Evil during World War II." William lightly chuckled. "World War. How cute."

Ted sat down in front of what looked like a Thanksgiving turkey. It was larger and darker, but the smell brought him back to November. A man wearing a faded blue jumpsuit sliced off a few pieces of the bird and placed it on a plate with several pre-selected pastries. The food was calling to him, but Ted forced himself to remember where he was and who was feeding him.

"How do you know about Earth sayings and World War II?"

The General sat across from him, barely visible through the mounds of food that lay atop the table. When he cut off a piece of the bird and began chewing, Ted took his cue to do the same. It was savory and delicious.

William took a sip of a dark blue drink to wash down the food. "Watching your world isn't difficult, Ted." He looked toward the room's side door. His mind seemed a thousand miles away. "What's hard is watching our people suffer here when there's a solution at hand."

Ted had pulled off and eaten a chunk of a sticky pastry when he realized what the General meant.

He lifted his honey-free hand to rub at his mouth and chin. "Why don't you give the people what they need? You seem to be doing pretty well in your ivory tower."

William smiled. "Feeding and clothing hundreds of thousands of people is a lot harder than wining and dining one VIP." His grin faded. "We've had to close our doors to all but a few religious pilgrims. There are thousands of villages like the one you saw in the wastelands. The people there suffer in silence far beyond my protection."

Ted thought of Vella and wondered how many girls like her didn't have a superhero to swoop in and stop a gang of raiders.

"And you want to give them a ticket out. That's why you want to possess our dead."

The General held up two fingers. "Not all of them. Just enough to reduce our numbers. Fewer people to protect and mouths to feed. It'll keep our people safe. It'll keep them from starving."

Ted thought back to the vague explanations Erica had given him upon learning the origins of his powers. She said the dark souls wanted to take over the Earth and the light souls wouldn't let them. He'd believed it was nothing but a territorial power struggle all this time. Maybe it still was, but the possession of Earth's dead would at least keep dark souls like Razellia and Vella from starvation.

Ted's train of thought derailed when he remembered all the carnage the dark souls had caused. Aside from killing Sandra and Farraday, they'd destroyed Redican's home world and orphaned him. The dark souls had killed and turned a gatekeeper, and then paired her up with Kable during the deadly rally. What the General was saying and what Ted had seen didn't seem to add up.

Ted let his utensil clang against the plate. "If your motives are so altruistic, then why start a murder spree in Treasure? Why attack the mind-reader home world? Why make Adam an ally and attack hundreds of innocent people in the streets?"

Ted thought the General would show frustration or anger at his insolence. Instead, Ted's mirror image smiled and took another drink of the blue beverage. "War is a calculated game of chess, Ted. The light souls won't ever make concessions if they think we're too weak to fight back." He wiped his mouth on a napkin. "Besides, if it weren't for all that, I wouldn't have gotten this one-on-one with you." The General leaned in, as though his next sentence wouldn't be heard by the guards who blocked the exits. "You hold a lot more power in this conflict than you think."

Ted had been on a need-to-know basis for most of the last year. Erica had held him back from the books and other powers that were in reach. Obviously, one of the reasons was the insanity that befell Adam, but perhaps she and the light souls didn't want him going between worlds because of his influence.