The Seven (Fist of Light Series) (44 page)

I couldn’t quite remember if you were supposed to leave the knife in the wound or pull it out. Moving my hand down to my stomach was a challenge, but eventually I found the wound from which my lifeblood flowed. Inspiration struck, and I put pressure on it, hoping to staunch some of the blood flow. My hand flopped to the ground, appreciating cement’s intricacies for the first time. Everything around me was distorted and blurred, coming dangerously close to making me seasick. Determining to plunge through the feeling, I closed my eyes, lessening the effect somewhat. Yawning, I thought I should get some rest, if only for a few minutes.

“S
weet Jesus, boy!” a voice called out.

“Go away,” I groaned. “Just a few more minutes! School doesn’t start for another hour!”

“He’s delusional,” a familiar voice said.

An irascible voice continued to disturb my sleep. “That’s because he has two puncture wounds in his gut, you idiot! He’s lost enough blood to kill him already.”

I would have opened my eyes to see what all the commotion was about, but my eyelids were too heavy from sleep. My hand groped for my pillow.

“Don’t move,” a feminine voice cautioned me, her breath catching.

“You can help him!” Jas’ said.

“It’ll kill her if she tries to heal something of that magnitude!” an angry behemoth spoke.

“And he’ll die if I do nothing,” the soft voice next to me replied with certainty. “Without him, Kasper’s plan will succeed, and I already have had enough regrets for one lifetime to continue down this path, Razor. At least he’ll have a chance to right our collective wrong.”

All conversation ceased, and I was grateful. Right as I was drifting off into a deep sleep, however, I was rudely awoken once more. My eyes snapped open, allowing me to see that my body had become an amber lighthouse. Warmth suffused me, and the short respite from the pain was a drug in itself. That pain returned for a short encore, as the other blade was pulled out of my abdomen. I tried to clutch my stomach, but my arms and legs were held stationary. The darkness that had threatened to overwhelm my body and mind lifted, and I could think clearly. Realization of my current plight came first, followed by what exactly was happening. Fortitude returned next, as I was filled to bursting with light and power. An itchy sensation coalesced into two points in my abdomen and I wished it was possible to scratch at it with all my newfound strength. A strained, pale face surfaced in my mind, as slender hands knitted back my internal organs, muscle, tissue, and skin.

My breathing became raspy, and my back arched from a sudden flash of pain. Then it disappeared and my emotions, which had been skulking in the background, rushed to the forefront of my mind. Shock arrived on scene first. Sorrow was followed by anger and then a simmering rage. The amber glow that had averted my death flickered out like a guttering candle that had ran out of fuel. The arms holding me down disappeared and the surrounding landscape brightened considerably. Piercing blue light illuminated the scene around me, and those surrounding were revealed. A crowd of onlookers backed up, possibly in fear, though for what was unknown.

Jas stepped forward. “That was probably the stupidest thing you’ve ever done!” he yelled over the crackling, spitting lightning and then clasped my arm.

I squeezed back and looked down. Razor cradled Hailey in his arms, tears streaking his face. The rock that was his personality had cracked, allowing everyone to see the delicate interior. Touching Hailey’s face, I thanked her beyond the grave, if such a thing was possible. She gave her life for mine, although some of her reasons were obscure. Some of her reticence began to make sense to me, though. She had felt something for Kasper, at some point in time. Her body began to disintegrate, the last power of her amulet dedicating itself to the eradication of her body. Razor tried to grasp the compilation, to force it back together, but it slipped through his fingers and was gone. Wiping tears from my face, I confronted those that were arrayed around me, but couldn’t determine their origins, since the landscape around me was too blurry, damn it all.

My clothes were soaked with blood and my recently acquired leather jacket was most certainly ruined beyond repair. The holes in my shirt did nothing for my image, unless I was trying to come off as a zombie. As brains didn’t appeal to me, I thought that would only be detrimental to my health.

Not knowing what to say, I nodded. “Stand back,” I shouted.

The empty space around me increased in magnitude, providing me with some wiggle room. I moved away from Razor and his burden, and looked up at the sky. That roiling, spiteful Darkness still hung sullenly in the air, tainting the sky with its existence. Kasper would be wreaking havoc in the city, but I knew one way to get his attention. My anger only fueled me, as I siphoned off power. There seemed to be an inexhaustible supply within, and I knew whom to thank for that. Some of the excess was being released in the form of sparks and arcs of lightning.

“I’ll be right back,” I said.

“Not again, are you crazy!?” Jas shook his head, and I felt silent agreement emanate from his back, where Jeeves waited.

“
Little bit
.” I mouthed the words and held two fingers a smidge apart.

After gritting my teeth and rubbing my hands together, I forged a beam of lightning with my will, lengthening, spitting and hissing all the while. I called Air, the now-familiar vortex surrounding my body, caressing it. The ground around me cracked and split as a portion of the lightning grounded itself. The supernatural extension of Kasper sensed my presence and spiraled down menacingly toward me. As I wrought lightning, ravens of Darkness flocked down in a spiraling tornado, cutting through the air with preternatural speed. My feet lifted off the ground and the surrounding Air rocketed me off toward the unnatural cloudbank above. Before the tornado could make contact with the ground below, I entered it, lightning encasing me in a matrix, a sphere of Light and power.

Finding him in the streets would be next to impossible to do without getting myself killed,
again
. He would come to me, if only I pissed him off enough for his logic to override his intelligence. The ravens attempted to disrupt my defense, but even in numbers they discovered the task too costly to be of worth. Tendrils snaked out to latch onto my body, attempting to pull me apart with brute strength. The ball of lightning that I had surrounded myself with deflected every instance of attack enacted by the snaking tendrils. Slackening the power I had committed to my flight, the Air obeyed, and I hovered amid the Darkness. With a screech that came close to bursting my eardrums, the entire weather system crumpled inwards upon itself, attacking me from all angles.

Pressure built up on my shielding, as each wave of Darkness was expunged from this world. Sweat beaded on my brow, and for a transient moment the thought of déjà vu occurred to me. I released the dam on my power, allowing me to access it in droves. The air around me recoiled, shook, and protested outright. Lightning streaked outward in a spherical formation, its surface area increasing rapidly as more and more power was committed to its expansion. An unearthly scream echoed, increased in volume and seared itself into my mind, battering down my defenses, slicing through them like butter. Still, I forced my power outward, and the lightning obliged. Bit by bit, the Darkness met my expanding matrix and was destroyed.

Stretching my senses outwards, I scrounged for Kasper and felt his pulsing taint moving toward me. From all angles and directions, there were enemies, called from their destructive acts to end me, and those associated to me. Although technically that was my intent, the other side of that coin was that there was a horde on its way to wipe me off the face of the earth. Wincing, I slackened the power I devoted to keeping me hovering and plummeted downward. Flying had never been on my bucket list, but damn it was fun. A thicker partition of Air kept the wind from blinding me, but my clothes billowed around me as if I was standing in front of a high-powered fan.

The ground below met me within seconds, and I packed Air to cushion my fall. Going by guesswork and extrapolation, I figured a column of Air could be utilized to slow my descent and then cushion the remaining momentum. I was in a hurry, which meant that it had better work, or I’d need another healing session, which was now out of the realm of possibility. I pulsed Air before me and braced for impact. Newton’s law kicked in, and my downward fall slowed enough for my padding to do the rest of the work. I bent my legs and crossed my fingers as I touched down, creating a spider web of cracks in the pavement and sending out a shockwave that bent shrubs and small trees backwards.

My eyes scanned those around me, for our numbers had grown exponentially.

“Caleb,” Bill Tanner stepped forward from a crowd of men and women.

“Director?” I asked incredulously. The orphanage director was the last person I’d expected to see today.

A hammer forged of light appeared in his hand, illuminating the night with its purity and power. “I have been called that, among other things. I confess that I was not completely honest with you. I operated the orphanage pertaining to Adams High due to the honeycomb of preternatural beings that attended the school.” He leaned on the gigantic hammer, holding it possessively. “I lead a secret sect devoted to expunging Darkness from the world in service to God. We,” he pointed at the fifty or so men and women arrayed behind him, “serve the Light and the Lord in our capacity of Paladins.”

“Did he just throw out the G word?” I asked of Jeeves.

“Don’t be naïve, boy. There is power in all Faith. These men—” he paused, “
and
women are genuine followers of God.”

The crowd behind him produced weapons out of thin air, swords, knives, maces, bows, and spears made of light. “We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.”

“The Will of God!” the chant was taken up.

I gazed questioningly at Mr. Tanner. “The hammer is a representation of The Will of God. It holds unparalleled power to those leaders’ of the Order that have been blessed with it.”

“After you jumped off a building like a lunatic,” Jas snapped, still sore, “We found these delightful fellows, and Bill introduced them to us. They’re here to help, and in the nick of time, too.”

Jas’ voice came to me, within my mind. “
First, what happened with your parents
?
And second, when did you learn to fly
?”

“
Later
,” I promised.

An eagle swooped down from the sky to land next to me, and Simon appeared. “They’re coming from all directions!” he said. “The shadowhounds and The Chosen, and they don’t look like they want to have a friendly chat. Caleb,” he nodded to me, “Glad you made it.”

A sense of urgency spread through the crowd. “Me too.” I gazed at Razor, who seemed to have come to terms with what had to be done.

“Form a perimeter! We fight the spawn of the Dark, tonight!” Mr. Tanner’s voice cut through the night.

I gazed searchingly at the man who I had perceived as nothing more than a director of an orphanage, despite his redeeming, commanding temperament. “Can you hold them back long enough for Jas, Razor, and I to take down the others?”

The Pack protested, Henry being the most vocal. “We’re coming with you!”

“They’ll be slinging around power like Taco Bell on Free Taco Tuesday. I can’t protect you and fight at the same time. Stay here, and help the Order, they’ll be in need of your unique skills.”

Already, I could feel The Chosen and the hounds that traveled with them. They had been spread thin, but they were coming together at six points and would hit hard. I fervently hoped that the assembled personages faith and weapons of light would be enough to stand against those who had the power of the elements at their disposal. The shadowhounds would no doubt be at their side, but I worried less about those ferocious beasts. Surely the light at their command would be enough to dispel them. The Pack shifted into their animal forms, with the exception of Jas. Nodding, I reached within myself and felt for my power, which was still flowing as deep and swift as the Mississippi.

“Right. Jeeves!” The sword appeared in Jas’ hands, its hilt a fluorescent blue.

“My brethren will hold as long as required,” Mr. Tanner assured me. “Therefore, I will be with you, where I am needed most.” He hefted his hammer, and I readily agreed.

“Razor, are you with us?” I enquired tentatively.

He flexed the earthen pseudo-flesh of his arm and the ground fractured around his feet. “I am prepared to wipe this city off the face of the earth in order to make Kasper pay for what he has done!” His eyes met mine, and they were full of molten rage.

Razor’s axe appeared in his hands, and he raised it, challenging all those who stood against his might. We were the only four standing in the center of the Square, for everyone else had moved to set up a perimeter at the entrances. Scattering my senses outwards, I searched for the collection of Darkness that would point me in the direction of Kasper and Friends. I needed to direct his attention at myself, or he would bowl over everything in his way to get to me. That, in turn, meant that I needed to anticipate which direction he was coming from. Turning slowly in a circle, I extended my left palm out, and brought my internal eyes to bear on the city around me. After spinning 180 degrees, I felt him and his entourage. They stood out from the rest by virtue of their vast power, as well as their corrupted taint.