The Surien Series Blood Guardian (18 page)

“Like what?” Symarah asked, as they walked past the path that led to the dolphin statues.

“Pizza, fajitas, birthday cake, Doritos,” Daire answered.

“So you only stay for the food,” Symarah laughed.

“Well, there are the beaches.”

“They are beautiful,” she agreed. Symarah couldn't remember a time when she felt so content. She loved being with Daire, it felt so comfortable, so right. She walked alongside him, with the rain pouring over them, thunder rolling in the distance, she couldn't think of anywhere else she would rather be. She had always loved walking in the rain, especially at night, but having Daire there to share it with her made her happier than she had ever thought possible. Letting him go was going to be the hardest thing she would ever have to do.

“The beaches pale in comparison to your beauty,” Daire smiled as he kissed the back of her hand. It had been a very long time since he had felt like this. He had finally found what had been missing for centuries. The thought of leaving her was heart wrenching, but watching her die, again, was far worse than anything he could possibly imagine. He almost hadn't survived losing her the first time, he couldn't go through that again. It was better this way. As much as he wanted to tell her that she was Meissen, he knew she wouldn't understand. There was no sense in freaking her out, especially when they couldn't be together anyway; knowing that, though, did nothing to ease his pain. It was torture letting himself get this close to her knowing that it couldn't last, but Symarah had been right, he wanted nothing more right now than to cherish every precious second he had left with her.

“You know, I put up room-darkening shades on all my windows and the patio doors so you can sleep in my room if you'd like,” Symarah hinted.

“I thought you'd nev.......” Daire stopped abruptly, his playful smirk turned to a look of alarm.

“What's wrong?” Symarah asked, but before he could answer, Jareth appeared directly in front of them.

“Do you feel it?” Jareth asked Daire.

“Yes, but I'm not certain where it is coming from,” Daire answered.

“What are you two talking about, what's going on?” Symarah demanded.

“There is a demmic nearby,” Jareth answered.

“Flash her to the house and keep her safe; let Kassie and the day walkers know what's going on,” Daire told Jareth.

“What about you?” Symarah said. “I will not leave you out here to fend for yourself.”

“It's only one demmic, and his power is no match for mine,” Daire answered.

“Concentrate on the living room,” Jareth said, as he placed his hand on her shoulder. Just then, twenty more demmic appeared, surrounding them on all sides.

“Get her inside and then get back out here,” Daire ordered as he prepared himself for the attack. Jareth was only gone for an instant before he re-appeared, alone and ready to fight.

“Looks like you're outnumbered again, and this time you don't have Dacian here to save your ass,” Farkas sneered from behind them.

Daire turned to face him. “I'm surprised to see you here Farkas, last I heard you were being used as wolf chow.”

“Fuck you, surien. You think you're so special just because you're one of the chosen. You make me sick, all of you, pretending to care about the humans, protecting them. You're all weak. You take orders from Athena, you take your blood from her; you're all just a bunch of little bitches, Athena's bitches,” he spat in disgust.

“At least Athena doesn't bite,” Daire smirked. “Looks like Sybris took a chunk out of you before he let you go.”

“I'll fucking kill you,” Farkas growled as he lunged at Daire.

“Not today chew toy,” Jareth said as he flung Farkas backwards with a wave of his hand, landing him squarely on his ass.

“What are you waiting for? Kill them,” Farkas ordered, as he struggled to pick himself up off the ground.

Daire and Jareth were seriously outnumbered, this did not look promising. They stood with their backs together, preparing themselves for the attack, as the demmic began to rush them from all sides. Just as the demmic reached them, they all suddenly went flying backwards about thirty feet.

“What the hell was that?” Daire asked.

“I don't know, I thought it was you,” Jareth answered.

“It was me,” Kassie said as she, Symarah and the day walkers ran up to where they were standing.

“She's a witch,” Duncan told them, “a good witch.”

“What, why didn't you tell me?” Symarah scolded.

“We don't have time for this, I'll explain later,” Kassie said. The demmic had recovered from Kassie's attack and were almost on top of them again.

“Get them back in the house,” Daire ordered the day walkers.

“We're not hiding in the house like cowards while you and Jareth risk your lives to protect us, it's not in our nature; besides, you're outnumbered, you need all the help you can get.”

“You're no match for them, they'll kill you,” Jareth said.

“I have powers,” Kassie reminded him.

“And I'm tougher than I look,” Symarah chimed in, as she punched a demmic in the face.

Daire and Jareth had no choice but to let them stay and fight, there were too many demmic for them to fight alone and there was no time to force the girls back into the house now. They all formed a circle around Kassie, with their backs to one another.

“You work your magic while we try and fight them off,” Duncan said.

“Their powers are stronger than mine, so I won't be able to hold them off for long, but I'll do what I can,” Kassie replied, as she waved her hand and sent several demmic flying. Kassie began to chant an incantation, as the others fought to keep the demmic at bay.

“Nihil mali esse non erit transiens. Nihil mali esse non erit transiens. Nihil mali esse non erit transiens.”

Kassie's chant seemed to be helping, it was definitely keeping some of the weaker demmic away. There were only about seven or eight of them who were strong enough to get through. Jareth landed a solid strike to a demmic's abdomen, followed by an elbow to the side of his face, while Daire fought off his attacker with a spinning back-kick. Conner and Duncan were holding their own against three demmic, while Symarah was trying her best to avoid Farkas's grasp.

“You're mine princess.”

“Give it up Farkas, you know you can't kill me,” Symarah said.

“You are naive, human.”

“Maybe so, but I'm not stupid. I know you have orders not to kill me, I'm quite sure of it. I know Vaiden wants to kill me himself.”

“He may have ordered me not to kill you, but he never said I couldn't play. There are many things much worse than death, little girl,” Farkas leered as he lunged at her.

“Yeah, like listening to you yap,” Symarah said as she dodged his fist. Grabbing his wrist and pulling him toward her, she hooked her leg around the back of his knee as she punched him hard in the gut, causing him to fall to the ground. As he lay there on his back, a look of utter disbelief on his face, she jumped high in the air and brought all her weight down on him, delivering a crushing blow to his chest. Just then a rather large demmic grabbed her by the throat and lifted her up off the ground. She struggled to break free but it was no use, he was much stronger than her. Kassie needed to help her friend, but she couldn't just wave her hand and throw him against a tree, not while he was still holding on to Symarah. Instead she thought up a spell.

“Man I hope this works,” Kassie said as she began chanting her new spell.

“Let evil hands now pay the price for deeds that have been done. Remove the bone from ‘neath their flesh, returning with the sun.”

The second Kassie's spell was spoken, Symarah was free. Now that the demmic had no hold on her friend, Kassie threw him back several feet, into a large tree. The demmic was sitting on his feet at the base of the tree.

“What have you done, witch?” he screamed at her, as he stared at his hands in horror. Kassie couldn't believe her eyes, there he sat, looking at the palms of his hands, while his fingers drooped backwards toward the ground.

“I did it!” Kassie yelled in delight, “I made the bones in his hands disappear!”

“Uh, not just
his
hands,” Duncan said, looking around at all the other demmic. They were all looking at their formless hands, moaning in pain and shaking their heads, even Farkas, who was still unconscious from Symarah's attack, was lying there on the ground, hands flattened out as if they had melted from the heat.

“That is impressive.” Jareth nodded his approval. One by one, the demmic began to disappear, leaving Farkas on his own.

“What are we going to do with him?” Conner wondered out loud, as they all stood over him, fascinated by his shapeless hands.

“I'll deal with him,” an evil voice said from nowhere, and an instant later Vaiden appeared directly in front of them, holding the Atlantean dagger. He lunged at Symarah, but before the dagger made contact, Daire grabbed her, pulling her away from Vaiden's reach.

“This is just the beginning,” Vaiden promised as he placed a hand on Farkas and they both disappeared.

“Daire, you're bleeding!” Symarah said, pointing to the cut on his forearm.

“It's just a scratch, I'll be fine,” he assured her, but an instant later he hit the ground like a ton of bricks.

CHAPTER 13

“Can you heal him, Jareth?” Duncan asked, as he placed Daire's lifeless body on the couch.

“I'm not sure, I don't know what's wrong with him,” Jareth answered, as he rolled up Daire's shirt sleeve and examined the wound on his arm.

“I thought the dagger was deadly to Atlantean gods,” Symarah said, barely able to control her panic.

“Only if the wound is deep enough. This cut is superficial, there's hardly even any blood,” Jareth said. He placed his hand over the wound to heal it. “I can stop the bleeding but he will still have a scar.”

“If the cut is superficial, then why is he unconscious? Kassie questioned.

“I think Vaiden tipped the dagger with a sleeping potion,” Jareth answered. “I've done all I can, he should only be out for another five or ten minutes.”

Jareth collapsed into a nearby chair.

“Are you okay?” Conner asked, handing him a bottle of water.

“I'm just weak. Healing a god is draining, not to mention flashing five people from the backyard into the living room all at once. I'll be fine in a few minutes.”

“Is everybody okay?” Daire asked in a groggy voice as he struggled to sit up on the couch.

Symarah hugged him so tight, he almost passed out again.

“We're all fine, we are just thankful that you are okay,” Duncan said.

“I don't understand though, if Vaiden was trying to kill you with the dagger then why would he need a sleeping potion?” Kassie asked.

“Maybe he thought you would be easier to kill if you were asleep first,” Conner suggested.

“It is unlikely that Vaiden would give up so easily. He must have had another motive,” Jareth replied.

“Or maybe he just didn't expect us to fight back so well, I mean we kicked ass,” Kassie said. “Did you see Symarah knock Farkas out? That was awesome!”

“What about you with that spell, all the bones in their hands were just gone. That was so gross … impressive, but gross,” Symarah laughed. “What was that other spell you were chanting? It was in a different language.”

“It was old Latin. Roughly translated it means evil shall not pass, no harm shall be done.”

“Why did you say it Latin?”

“Spells are usually more powerful when spoken in Latin, or at least they always have been, until tonight.”

“I'd say that disappearing bone spell was way more powerful than anything I've seen you do so far, which is saying something because I've seen you do some pretty impressive stuff,” Duncan smiled admiringly at Kassie.

“I don't know, maybe the spell is most powerful when spoken in its original language. That is the first spell I've ever come up with on my own, maybe it packs a stronger punch if you create it yourself.”

“That makes sense, a spell won't be as strong if you're borrowing it from another witch,” Daire agreed.

“I think you girls did more damage than any of us,” Conner smiled.

“We did kick some serious demmic ass,” Kassie agreed, “especially Symarah.”

“I didn't do all that much, I only fought one person,” Symarah replied modestly.

“You did well Symarah, I'm proud to say that all of your hard work is paying off,” Jareth complimented.

“Still, as Vaiden said, this is just the beginning; we haven't seen the last of him, and next time he'll be ready for us,” Daire reminded them.

“He's right,” Symarah agreed, “we need to find him and end this before the premiere party. There will be too many innocent people there to risk it.”

“What premiere party?” Daire asked.

“The one I told you about over a month ago, for my second movie in the series. It's in two weeks.”

“You will have to cancel,” Daire said.

“Like hell I will; I've worked too hard for this, and I'm not going to let Vaiden or anyone else take it away from me.”

“Why do you always have to be so obstinate?” Daire scolded.

“I don't know; why do you always have to be so bossy?” she replied.

“Ding, ding, ding, back to your corners,” Kassie chided. “We'll just have to get rid of him before that.”

“Well, we only have two weeks, so we need to figure the riddle out as quickly as possible,” Jareth told them.

“What riddle?” Symarah and Kassie asked in unison.

“Dacian managed to obtain a riddle, written by Vaiden, while he was interrogating Farkas,” Jareth answered, “but we have yet to decipher its meaning.”

“Well, it's almost dawn and we are all overdue for some much deserved rest, so I say we hit the sack and figure all this crap out tomorrow,” Kassie said, as she let out a huge yawn.

“I second that,” Duncan said as he followed Kassie toward the stairs.

And with that, they all headed off to bed.