Library

Chapter 21

Brooklyn

Ishould"ve known that something was off from the start.

It took us exactly two days to come up with a plan that all of us agreed on. It"s astonishing how difficult everyone can be in a group of people where everyone was used to being in charge.

Well, not me.

I don't care if I"m in charge or not mostly because I make sure that I always work by myself.

"Does it feel off to you?" Alice fidgeted next to me, tucking her face in the collar of the jacket she was wearing.

"I have never seen the place so quiet." My mate agreed with her.

Squinting as if that would make things appear better, Dominic ushered us deeper into the shadows until we all but hugged the walls of the building. We watched the area from across the street, all of us tucked into the wrecked structure of an abandoned warehouse, enjoying the smell mold, decomposing carcasses of dead animals and what unmistakably was stench of human feces.

"Maybe it's just the smell making me feel antsy." Alice muttered through the fabric of her jacket. "But we can totally make this an endurance exercise. Me, for example? I can hold my breath for like a minute straight. Now you try it, Brooklyn."

Echo stuck her head out from a few feet away to give me a look that said, ‘What in the worlds is the human doing?'

"She prattles when she's nervous." I told her with a shrug, loud enough so that only she could hear me.

I didn't care if the demons liked it or not. If babbling nonsense made my friend feel less stressed, she could talk all she wanted, and they would listen. Or they could go away. Having my mind taken over by the bloodlust and the fog clouding my head after it, so that Echo could jump me unaware made sure that I set my priorities straight.

Alice was one of my priorities.

The demons were not.

"Should we wait a little longer, or call it a night?" Rowen slinked up next to us from the back of the building silent enough my heart skipped a beat when he spoke. "It looks like no one is here."

"And you know this because you entered the area, searched everywhere and established it has been cleared out?" watching him steadily over my shoulder, I waited.

"Well, no." The witch frowned at me. "It will be hard to hide the Guardians if the place was still in use. Not even the grass is moving, Brooklyn. There is nothing there."

He lost me when he mentioned the grass because I was already fully focused on the building across the street as well as everything around it. That uneasy feeling gnawed at my stomach, getting stronger the longer I stared.

"You are absolutely right." I muttered, while my eyes were flicked frantically from one object to another. "Not a grass moves."

"I know." He sounded confused that I'm repeating his words back. "I already said that. We can spread out and start reconnaissance missions from tomorrow to find where they have holed up."

Alice replied to the witch, but I stopped listening to their back and forward. The whole situation was perturbing, but I couldn't put my finger on what exactly was unsettling me so much.

"Do you see it?" I mumbled for Dominic's ears only.

"What are you looking at?" As always, he didn't question me, only needed more detail on how he could assist me better to solve my problem.

"Nothing is moving. Literally." Frowning, I turned slowly to look at my mate.

His profile was so perfect it took my breath away, regardless of what situation we were in. I watched him scan the entire area multiple times and finally he locked gazes with me.

"You are right." A line formed between his brows.

"Look." I pointed at some wrapper a human tossed on the street that was rolling gently over the sidewalk. "There is a breeze between the buildings, but nothing moves there." My finger stabbed the air in the direction of the building.

"It's an illusion." No sooner than Dominic uttered the words, all hell broke loose.

"It's a trap." Echo shouted, just as dozens of Guardians dropped in front of us from the roof.

A dozen or so more rounded the side of the building swords drawn, and ready to end our lives. Dominic and I both reached for Alice and tucked her between us in hopes of keeping her safe. Back to back, we faced our opponents and readied ourselves for a fight.

"What is taking Samir so long?" I hissed through clenched teeth just as the first sword swung at my head.

"Let us hope they didn"t get to him first." Dominic reached over my head, grabbed the Guardian trying to stab me in the throat, picked him up and threw him at the wall like he weighed nothing. "The male is unbearable when he is being himself. I do not want to try and see how he is if he"s wounded. Or the gods forbid, they wrinkled his shirt."

Snorting, I kept fighting, trying my best to keep the Guardians away from Alice. To her credit, she was not cowering behind us. Every chance she gets, she will reach her hand out and send a blast of demon magic at our attackers. Each time she dropped one on the ground, she would giggle, pump her fist in the air and shout ‘Bingo'.

"Wasn"t bingo what old humans play?" Dominic asked at one point.

"I wouldn"t know. She is the only human I know." I told him in earnest.

Echo and Chester yet again stood back-to-back, executing, perfect fighting styles, combined with the use of their magic, and again, I was left disappointed that I couldn"t just stand and watch. Maybe after all this was over, I would ask the female to show me some of the moves. Their technique was immaculate and effective. Piles of bodies grew around them, but the sea of attackers never stopped.

"Brooklyn." Alice's shriek made me duck instinctively and cold sweat trickled down my spine when I felt the blade cut the tip of my ponytail. "Die!" My friend screamed and slammed both of her hands onto the Guardian's chest.

Bright light illuminated the night, giving everyone a sinister feature from the shadows dancing on their faces as the demon magic wove through the Guardian from the inside out. But Alice was not done. Stepping over the few bodies we collected around us, she started moving into the sea of attackers, pressing her palms at the center of their chests. By the time they realized what was happening, we could see an end to the cluster.

As the group around us thinned, I wish I couldn"t see what"s behind them. My mouth cried out. I watched as rows and rows of witches lifted their arms and prepared to chant.

"Dominic let me deal with this, get Alice out of here." I shouted through the screams hoping beyond hope that he would listen.

"I"m not leaving you alone." My mate snapped. "She"s safer here with us."

"Yeah, because you know nobody needs to ask Alice." My friend chirped from right next to me. I didn"t even see she was there as I fought my way to her. "Oh look, Alice in person and she can speak for herself. Why thank you, Brooklyn. I am perfectly fine here."

"This is not a time to be difficult, Alice." A fist connected with the side of my face and bright light exploded behind my eyelids. The taste of blood filled my mouth. so I kicked blindly in front of me before spitting at whoever clubbed me in the head. "That hurt."

"There it"s fixed." Alice drawled after she shriveled the Guardian and turned them into a mummy. "I just learned this, it"s less messy." She grinned. "Didn"t you say they placed the demon magic on the door to keep Rowen out?"

"Who?" I kept fighting, and I couldn"t keep up with her train of thought.

"The demons, Brooklyn. Are you paying attention?" Her eyes widened while she was looking over my shoulder, and I didn"t need a warning to know a Guardian was there/ Bending forward, I tackled my friend, and both of us rolled over dead bodies to escape the two swords that clang loudly on the concrete where we stood not a second ago.

"Thanks." Alice panted.

"Don"t mention it." Jumping to my feet, I offered her a hand and pulled her up to her feet. "If you won"t let Dominic, take you away, can you please hide. I can"t fight Alice if I"m worried that you are going to get hurt."

"Or, I can do this." She glared at me stubbornly and turning her back to me she lifted both arms. Red light burst from the center of her palms and formed a dome that grew in size and pushed the Guardians away.

My jaw unhinged and I stared dumbly with my mouth wide open. My friend created a barrier between us and our attackers. The Guardians stabbed at the dome, kicked it, tried to punch through it ,but nothing worked. The witches stopped holding hands and gathered in a circle conversing animatedly, wondering, can they break the seal?

"Alice, no." Echo was trying to fight her way to us. "Don"t do that it, will kill you."

The panic I saw in her eyes nearly doubled me over. The demon female was horrified, and I look at Chester, who confirmed that something was terribly wrong. Not wanting to wait and see what happens, especially, since Echo said it could kill my friend. I did the only thing I can think of. With all the strength I had in me, I tackled Alice again.

She didn't even scream. The moment I collided with her, her arms dropped down like a string that has been cut off and she crumbled on the ground exhausted. Dominic was right there ready to fight so he can keep us safe, and I had time to check her pulse. She was alive. And the fact of hearing her heartbeat made me lightheaded.

"You will be the death of me, Alice." I told her and she weakly nodded.

"I'm an idiot sometimes." she mattered under her breath.

"We have a bigger problem." Dominic said from above us.

TI looked up to see that he was not watching us. The look of fear on his face curdled the blood in my veins. Slowly and fearfully, I followed his line of sight to find Frederick staring right at us with a look of pure hunger on his face. It took me a second to realize that no, he was not looking at us. He was looking at Alice. And when his eyes locked on mine, the sinister smile he offered me makes everything abundantly clear. We were not leaving this place tonight. Not if any of them are alive. Because Frederick had no intention of leaving without Alice. We dangled a bone in front of a starving dog.

He was going to eat us alive to get to it.

"What have we done?" Hands shaking, I looked up at Dominic. "Dominic, what have we done?"

Numbness spread through me as more and more Guardians and witches started gathering around us. This was it. This was where we died.

"If we give them what they want, we can fight another day."

Through the fog in my mind, I looked around to find the owner of the voice that spoke. I had to blink a few times to understand what my eyes were seeing. Rowen was crouched next to Alice helping her stand up. My brain couldn"t understand what was happening. All I could do was breathe and battle against the white noise in my ears. It sounded like I was standing too close to a moving train, and it was making me dizzy.

Dominic tucked his hands in my armpits and lifted me up. Like a ragdoll, I dangled in front of him until he talked to me, and his warm embrace helped calm me a little and slow down my heartbeat. I didn"t care if I died. But I knew that none of my friends would walk out alive.

I couldn"t bear seeing my mate die.

Tingles spread through my arms and legs, and I stupidly looked up at Dominic to find him watching me. "What is he doing?" I asked him as the witch started walking away with Alice.

I tried to follow so I could take my friend back, but my legs were too weak, and Dominic was holding on too strong. "Are you listening to me?"

"Trust me that this is for the best." He sounded confident, but his hand was shaking when he cupped my face. "We will get her back."

"Who?" Why was nothing making sense to me, and where did Rowen think he was taking my friend?

"Please, Brooklyn, just breathe." A tear rolled from the corner of his right eye." The most important thing is to keep her alive for now to keep all of us alive."

I had absolutely no idea what he was talking about. I don"t remember being hit or stabbed that bad that I couldn"t logically reason what was happening around me.

Too late, I realized that everyone had stopped fighting, and that Echo and Chester had forcefully planted their bodies against Samir's chest to hold him pinned to the building. Too late, I heard his outraged screams. And threats he was throwing at Frederick"s face.

"I will end everything you hold dear, Frederick." Samir screamed so loud tendons were standing out on his neck.

In slow motion, my head turned so I can see Frederick. And that"s when my heart stopped. I watched numbly as Rowen handed my friend to my archenemy and a triumphant smile bloomed on his face.

"I do thank you for the priceless gift, Brooklyn." The scum bowed mockingly to me, snatched my friend, and disappeared in the sea of Guardians surrounding him.

"Alice!." My brain finally caught up with what was happening just as the witches lowered their arms, and I realized that they have been holding me docile. My scream was full of pain and torment. But there was absolutely nothing I could do to stop my friend from being taken.

"We will get her back, Brooklyn." Dominic held me tight and rocked me back-and-forth, repeating the same thing over and over. "We will get her back, I promise."

But he couldn"t promise anything. All of them stood there and let my friend be taken but now they were ready to make promises that they couldn't keep. I saw everything clear now. This was a trap because the Council knew we were coming. There was no doubt that I was getting my friend back, but before that I had one thing to do.

I had every intention on finding out who betrayed us and set the whole thing up.

And when I found them.

They will be cursing the day that they were born…

Comments

0 Comments
Best Newest

Contents
Settings
  • T
  • T
  • T
  • T
Font

Welcome to FullEpub

Create or log into your account to access terrific novels and protect your data

Don’t Have an account?
Click above to create an account.

lf you continue, you are agreeing to the
Terms Of Use and Privacy Policy.