Unnatural Souls (10 page)

And as terrified as I was, my blood
began to boil. I was going to die and my brother was going to be
taken to Hell, all because of Kali and my inability to call a
stupid weapon to myself.

Suddenly I saw Ash in my mind. My baby
brother. I pictured his sweet smile, the blue eyes that crinkled
when he laughed. Then the image of him in the clearing the night I
almost died. The determination and desperation. There seemed to be
no question that he would do anything and everything it took to
bring me back to life, and he did. He didn’t let me die. If I were
killed here, my death would seal his fate for good, and I couldn’t
have that. I hadn’t worked this hard to be dispatched in some back
alley by demons just because Kali decided to throw me to the
wolves.

No. I was going to make it through
this. I was going to save him.

But how? I couldn’t kill them, and
unless I was able to focus long enough to use my powers of
teleportation I wasn’t going to be able to flee, either. I stilled
myself, trying to find the calmness deep down inside my soul. That
was what I needed—that lack of emotion. After a split second, I
felt it, just under the surface, and reached for it, hardly daring
to breathe…

There. The moment I came across the
serenity, I grabbed at it and pulled it around myself like a
blanket. I felt my power spark slightly, and my mind raced ahead of
me, trying to form a plan. There was only one option: buy myself
some time. Distract them long enough to call my weapon, or—more
likely—escape.

And when it came to distractions, I
had just the thing.

I did the only thing
I
really
knew how
to do—the moment I had my power in my hands, I called every object
on the small, dead end street to me. Every brick, bottle, and
trashcan. I focused all my power on becoming a magnet to any
movable item, and within minutes the debris began to fly around me.
I welcomed the growing craznado with a smile and turned my
attention from the arsenal of objects around me to the monsters in
front of me.

When I saw them, my smile grew wider.
The sight of the craznado had been enough to make them pause, and
the two furthest from me had even taken a few steps backwards. The
one closest to me was staring up at the craznado in what I hoped
was horror. At that moment, I willed the objects toward them,
throwing them with my mind. And they flew forward just as I’d
imagined, blasting toward the demons as quickly as bullets from a
gun. In the blink of an eye, the demons were barraged, the objects
exploding into them before they could move. A number of bottles
smashed when they struck the demons, shattering into glass shards
and drawing blood, and the bricks I’d conjured hit them with such
force that they stumbled backwards. The trashcan flew directly into
one of the demon’s knees, sending him to his face, and every one of
the monsters threw their hands up, trying to protect themselves
from the assault.

And while they were distracted, busy
battering away the objects of my craznado, I took off
running.

I wanted to teleport back home. And
though the sane part of me told me that was my only option … a
bigger part of me didn’t want to leave. That bigger part was
absolutely crazy. I could die if I stayed, and I had no defense
left—the craznado wouldn’t work a second time, I didn’t think. But
this could be my best chance at mastering the final power. And if I
didn’t take it, I wouldn’t have any way of saving Ash. I didn’t
have all night—I had to master the power, then get to the meeting
place with Michael, and then get to Ash. Before the demon
did.

So while my feet were working to put
distance between myself and the monsters, my mind was working
overtime, trying to decide my next course of action.

Good decisions were never made in a
moment of panic, I knew that. It was how Ash had ended up in his
current predicament. Hopefully, my risk would pay off better than
his did.

I skidded to a stop,
terrified that this wasn’t going to work, and almost as scared that
it
would
. I had
to let my fear go. I needed to focus. Kali and Michael had made it
clear that my powers were affected by emotions, so I needed to get
mine in check. I had maybe thirty seconds before the demons caught
up to me. My chest felt tight, and I could feel tears building up,
but I tried to tell myself to calm down. The serenity. I had to
find the serenity. I took deep breaths and started searching for
the calmness inside myself, but all I could imagine was Ash having
his soul ripped away by the demon because I couldn’t save
him.

Panicked, I tried to think of
something besides the intensity building inside my chest. My
weapon. I needed my weapon. I replayed every lecture, all of the
demonstrations Kali had given, trying to remember how to do it. But
she hadn’t been able to explain it clearly. I just had to find my
power, she’d said. I could call objects to me, I could summon my
power to teleport myself anywhere in the world, and it all had the
same premise—focus on what you want, feel the power inside, and
call it to yourself.

I could feel my power, so why couldn’t
I materialize a simple weapon?

Suddenly I heard movement
not too far behind me, and my heart rate picked up. They were
closing in on me. But I could do this. I
had
to do it.

The tightness in my chest
grew until it felt like a rubber band constricting inside of me,
wrapping around my heart. Damn it. I would
not
die here. My brother was
not
going to lose his
soul. I wouldn’t allow it. The knot in my chest squeezed until I
felt like I was having a panic attack, and the more I freaked out,
the tighter the feeling inside me became, desperation mixed with
fear. But I reached down into myself until I could feel my power,
and mentally focused on it, the warmth of it like the summer
sunshine. I let myself be surrounded by the feeling, but it was
slipping away. There were moments of cold overpowering the warmth.
Was it my doubt of my abilities? Fear that I would let my brother
down?

I thought again of my brother, and
then the demons came into view. This was it. My time was
up.

The pressure in my chest clamped down
so hard I screamed out. The terror that had been building inside of
me reached its limit, and I desperately made one last attempt to
call my weapon. I reached deep down, clinging to the warmth of my
power with everything I had, and, pleading for help from Heaven,
called for my weapon once more, my mental shout hoarse with
need.

That’s when it happened.

I felt a stronger pulse of power than
I ever had before. And then the heat intensified tenfold. In the
next moment, the tightness in my chest snapped, like a bolt of
lightning had just hit me square in the chest. And then the
pressure was gone. There was no pain, just a buzzing of
electricity, of power that shot outwards.

A brilliant blue light illuminated the
entire street for a split second before fading into a soft glow. A
glow that covered my hands.

None of this had slowed the demons
down, though, and when I looked up, I saw snarling faces and
grasping hands. They weren’t going to let me get away. They were on
me. And before I could move, one of them reached out, grabbing my
arm.

I swung out at him without thinking,
my hands still glowing.

As my fist flew forward, I felt an
object materializing inside it. Then a second object appeared in my
other hand. It all happened so fast that I didn’t have time to
think—I just grasped hold of them. When I did, I felt my power
coursing through my hands … and then through the weapons
themselves. Suddenly I could see them, the moonlight glinting
across a shining blue blade, and what I’d originally meant to be a
punch to the demon’s gut ended up being much more.

A blade, driven right into its
belly.

Shock rocked through me and time
seemed to slow, my heavy breathing deafening in the now silent
alley. All the demons had stopped in their tracks.

The monster in front of me looked down
to where my hand was. I ripped the blade from his gut and he
glanced back up, his eyes and mouth going wide. A moment later, he
turned to dust. Just like when Kali hit a demon with her
hellfire—or when Michael slashed at a demon with his
blade.

The other two demons were still frozen
in place, staring at where their friend had once stood.

I just gasped and stared at the blades
in my hands with awe. This was it. I’d actually succeeded. My
weapons. My angelic weapons were here … and they were glorious. I
wanted to scream, to run to Michael and demand that he save Ash
immediately. Three months, but I had done it in the end. I’d
achieved all my powers, and I’d finished in time. My heart was
overcome with joy.

The sound of footsteps broke me out of
my excited stupor, though, and I remembered that as thrilled as I
was, I still had two demons left. And they clearly had no intention
of letting me go. They were no longer looking at where their dead
friend lay, ashes on the street. They were looking at me. And
running full speed toward me.

ALSO, THEY APPEARED
to be pissed.

“
You’re going to pay for
that,” the first one growled.

When it darted toward me, all of the
training Kali had given me rushed to the front of my mind. Thank
goodness she hadn’t waited for me to be able to call a weapon to
myself before teaching me how to use one. We had practiced
hand-to-hand combat, and we had practiced with blades, too. Those
lessons were second nature, now, and I hurled myself into a fight I
knew with every ounce of my being that I could win.

He threw a punch at my
face, but I ducked to the side, tucking one blade into my belt as I
went. When I stood up, I grabbed his arm and dodged his next blow,
then yanked him past me with the hold I had on his arm. The
momentum of his body caused him to stumble off balance, swaying
forward, and I quickly swung my free blade around, bringing it down
in the middle of his back. There was a sickening sound, the feeling
of driving a knife through a body, but I pushed past my revulsion
of stabbing something—even if it wasn’t human. This was for my
life, I reminded myself. This was for
Ash
.

I could hear the demon gag, blood
coming out of his mouth and splashing onto the pavement. Within
seconds, though, he was dust.

I made a mistake then, and paused with
my back to the last threat, both shocked and elated at this quick
success. So I wasn’t ready when the third demon tackled me from
behind. We went flying forward, toward the wall of the alley. I
instinctively released the blade in my hand, knowing that if I fell
on it I’d be done for, and it went soaring down the street into the
shadows, the clinking of metal on asphalt echoing into the darkness
a moment later. Then we were on the ground, rolling together to
break the fall.

He recovered quicker than I did, and
in the next instant he was on top of my body, smiling down at me
with razor sharp teeth. The look on his face promised pain—and
revenge for his fallen brothers—and terror once again rocketed
through my body

No. This couldn’t be the end. I’d just
learned how to call a weapon to me and taken out two demons all by
myself. And I was going to be damned if all of that was for
nothing. I could finally go to Michael. I could save Ash. I could
see this thing finished—and deal with Michael’s war
later.

But not if I didn’t get out of this
alive.

Horror built in my chest again, but I
didn’t feel anything behind it this time. It was pure fear. I
scratched and kicked at the monster—to no avail. I couldn’t get to
my other blade, and if I didn’t do something I was going to be dead
meat.

Which meant I had to find another way.
Lucky for me, I had other weapons. And there was a never-ending
supply of debris in the crumbling town. Arching backward, I spotted
a pile of bricks down the street, and with a gasp, reached for my
power to call them to me. I just needed the demon to let go of one
of my wrists long enough for me to grab the blade I had tucked into
my belt.