I looked around the old world streets of Amsterdam and shivered. This section of town wasn’t exactly the tourist destination I’d learned about in Geography last year.
We were away from the waterways in an old part of the city that housed empty streets, rundown buildings with crumbling Stucco and clear neglect. The night was especially dark and lonely. As busy as the center of the city was, this lone island of forgotten buildings and disreputable inhabitants seemed somehow locked away in a parallel universe.
The especially thick night acted as walls that closed us in. I couldn’t make out the rest of busy city or the lights I knew lit up everything just beyond the obscure boundaries of this evil place.
Shadows sifted and slithered over and around everything. A lamp post stood snaked with them. Broken windows and doorways were portals for them to come and go as they pleased. They had infested this section of town and made it their own. And now only the vilest of creatures ventured into this nest of Demons and Fallen.
“On my count,” Serena whispered.
I nodded and raised my swords. She stuck her head around the corner and watched the comings and goings of the warehouse Nate had scoped out.
Nate and Serena had shown up on my doorstep as soon as I got home from school today. My parents were still away and I hadn’t heard from Jupiter. Neither had Nate and Serena and that was why they had paid me a visit.
Apparently, Jupiter hadn’t checked in with anyone for an entire week. We were all concerned. My parents could be home tomorrow or have a couple weeks left on their journey; there was no way to tell. And there was no way to track Jupiter since he wasn’t one of us and didn’t carry our distinctive attributes.
I was getting worried. This wasn’t like him. He always checked in with me. If not for his safety then for mine. But I hadn’t heard anything from him. Not even a note or phone call.
I’d checked out the Omaha apartment complex several times, wondering if something had happened while he’d been watching out for the child. But I could find nothing that indicated he was still in the area. I’d even broken down two days ago and asked Jude for any information he had on Jupiter’s whereabouts. If Aliah had found Jupiter I just wanted to know; I wanted to know if something terrible had happened to him or if I should still look for him.
Jude had been no help, at all. In a desperate attempt at any information, I’d even thrown on some flirtatious charm in hopes that I could play his alleged infatuation with me.
It hadn’t worked.
Either Jude really didn’t know anything about Jupiter or he was into that whole tough/abusive love thing.
Which wouldn’t have surprised me at all.
When Nate and Serena showed up I had expected the worst, but they didn’t have news either. We couldn’t even be sure that Jupiter was still on planet. He could be anywhere by now.
The worst part about his disappearance was not knowing whether he wanted to be missing or if he had gone against his will.
Either way, I’d decided I couldn’t wait for my parents or Jupiter to do something about Zia, the kidnapped Star. I didn’t know what Aliah and the traitor planned for her but I didn’t want to find out. I needed to grab her and get her back to the Lower Realm- even if I had to take her myself.
I had just decided to head back into Omaha and see what I could do about the blessing, strong enough to keep Stars and Warriors out, when Nate and Serena showed up and asked me if I wanted to go hunting.
Serena had followed her instinct to Amsterdam and Nate and I had followed Serena.
Now, Zia huddled in a filthy room just down the street.
On Nate’s first pass over the dilapidated building, he had seen a second child. There was a little boy as well. My parents had been too late. The traitor had already gotten his second child before my parents could warn the Council. Or that’s at least what I was assuming happened.
“Is Aliah in there?” I asked Nate.
He shook his head. “No, but I’m guessing that’s who they’re waiting for. They seem to be in some kind of standstill.”
Serena glanced over her shoulder at us. “Don’t worry about killing everything tonight. Let’s get the children and get out as fast as we can.”
“Before the big bad shows up,” Nate agreed.
I was all for that. Serena started down the street and we followed silently in her wake. We were as dark as we could be with repressed Light and tunnel vision for the task ahead. We had to wait for the very last second before we could burn and hope we could kill swiftly enough to still make it to the children before someone tried to move them.
Without my Light, I was little more than human. I stumbled along the debris littered street and nearly stabbed Nate in the back when I tried to right myself. I could hardly see three feet in front of me, and every window on the warehouse had been blacked in. Or it was actually pitch black inside, since no light escaped onto the street around it.
Shadows swirled at my ankles and sent jolts of ice cold pain through the soles of my feet to the very center of my chest. They hadn’t attacked yet, probably because they were deciding what and who we were.
They would figure it out in a just a few seconds and then I knew they wouldn’t be so passive aggressive.
I felt like an amateur whenever I tagged along with Serena and Nate. They were vetted soldiers. They had experience and stamina and skill. I was still getting used to my weapons and had contemplated steroids recently.
Not really… but my puny muscles needed some major beefing up. Okay, they weren’t exactly puny. And when I stood next to other girls my age, human girls, I looked anything but meek. I had the kind of muscle definition you could find on a UFC fighter. And it was gross.
But the other day, I couldn’t even make a dent in Jude’s skeletal frame. He hadn’t acted like he could even feel my best attempt at breaking his ribs. How was I supposed to take down Aliah, Lucifer’s second in command, if I couldn’t even bruise the emaciated, demon orphan?
It was giving me a complex.
Suddenly, Serena lit up in a blast of heat and energy. Her swords swung high and slashed down in a lightning fast move. A body dropped to the ground at her feet and a head bounced on the cobblestone and rolled away. There had been no sound besides the slice of her blades in the warm air. She had executed her kill so perfectly that the heat of her blades had immediately cauterized the flow of blood before one drop had been spilt.
Impressive.
It didn’t matter if there was sound or not, though. The brightness with which she burned was its own kind of alarm. And as bright as she was, in another second that Light was muted. A dark, swirling tempest circled around us. Shadows whirled in a clustered tornado of evil. Their thin, wispy bodies blocked out any view of the street or warehouse and warred with Serena’s inner Light.
I felt their cold presence; I felt the sting and stab at my skin. I squinted in order to see through their mass of bodies and glimpsed the Fallen exit the warehouse and approach us threateningly. They held their swords ready with their grayish Light making halos around their bodies.
The Shadows picked up speed; the whipping wind rang in my ears. I looked up to the wide opening but couldn’t see beyond the circling demons. My swords felt hot in my hand and my skin tingled with anticipation. Excitement welled up inside me and vibrated in my bones.
This. This is what I was born for. This was my purpose.
Everything around me emanated evil and violence, begging me to kill it… end it. And I would.
Happily.
Briefly I thought back to my first few kills. I had hesitated and allowed myself to be plagued by guilt.
No more. I didn’t even have to weigh my conscience to know it wouldn’t matter how I felt. Bloodlust and justice reigned severely in my veins and my swords felt the call to carry them out.
I wasn’t a novice anymore. I wasn’t a Starling in training, scared by her own shadow and intimidated by the Darkness that loomed ominously over her world.
I was the future Protector of Earth.
I had been through battles. I had killed. I had fought the worst kinds of monsters and I had survived.
And if that weren’t enough to build my courage, I only had to think of Seth.
The Darkness was no longer just my enemy. He was the man I loved.
And that made these insignificant demons infinitely less intimidating.
“You’ve wandered into the wrong part of Hell,” a gravelly voice taunted from beyond our imprisoning tornado.
Nate and I immediately lit up to show our support and the Shadows shrieked and scattered in response. They gathered again but with a wider girth. They were careful to avoid our combined Light.
“It’s not so bad,” Serena threw right back. “It just needs a little bit more Light.”
That was our signal. Our Lights expanded and burned straight through the Darkness. The Shadows fled and the Fallen covered their eyes. We were united into one, blazing hot ball of pure fire and our enemies had no choice but to yield to our power.
Unfortunately, because we loved the planet we served and didn’t want it to internally combust, the brightness we fought with could only last a second. As quickly as we turned up the heat, we were forced to extinguish it. And while we had an advantage, it only lasted a second.
I pushed forward and immediately swung the katana in my right hand. It hit steel before I could complete my arc. My left hand came up next and it, too, met the fast swing of my enemy’s blade.
Shadows returned to nip at my heels, but my Light was bright enough to keep them mostly at bay. It was the Fallen in front of me that posed my greatest threat.
No, the three Fallen Angels in front of me.
My arms moved as fast as the wind; my wrists circled in fluid, melodic movements. My feet were swift and my body completely in-tune with everything around me. My blades continually clashed with other blades as my body turned into the deadly weapon it was meant to be.
Two of the Fallen hung back while a slender girl with quick reflexes and faster swords fought to take my head. I was sure the other two would have jumped in, but the flinging blades kept them back. They would be no help to their comrade if she took their heads while they tried.
As I stepped forward, she blocked me with a sharp parry to my left. I bent backwards as the sword sliced the air just over my chest. I felt the hiss of the wind against my throat and the heat of her blade as it skimmed over me.
She didn’t stop moving, even after her arc finished. But unfortunately for her, I didn’t either. My body swung through and my left hand lifted high into the air as soon as I was upright again. Her momentum had carried her arms through to the other side of her body and left her momentarily open. My sword crashed down to meet that unfortunate spot, right where her neck met her shoulder. My intensely sharpened blade sliced straight through her skin, muscle and bone in one, perfectly executed strike.
Her body slumped and her head toppled off in the next second. I took a step over her awkwardly tangled, headless body and met the next set of swords.
This was going to be a long night.
The next Fallen proved more difficult than the tiny girl I’d recently felled. A giant of a man, his arms were as wide as my waist, and his boulder-sized head seemed to sit directly on top of his shoulders, missing the neck that should be in between. His swords were thick and heavy, and those same muscles I had been feeling insecure about lately trembled beneath his strength. He struck out in a much less graceful way than the girl, but his hits were so weighted that with each, clumsy strike, I stumbled back and felt my will weaken.
Still, I attacked relentlessly. I was much faster than him, and I had to assume, smarter. He towered over me, a big, lumbering troll. His dark hair hung in greasy clumps around his mammoth shoulders and his thick lips curled into a sadistic smirk.
If this man could, he would enjoy killing me.
I pushed myself to fight with speed and agility. He was too big to fight tightly. All of his swings and strikes were oafish compared to the swift cut of my katanas. I managed to tear open his forearm from elbow to wrist, but he hardly noticed the gore. When he swung at me with both swords, I ducked easily underneath them and managed to shove my blade into his thick gut. Unfortunately, I lost one of my swords and he hardly seemed bothered by the blade’s new home in his small intestines.
When he jerked back, I lost the grip on my protruding katana and stumbled back. I tripped over the body behind me and sprawled backwards on the cobblestone. He grinned at me with deep-set eyes that seemed like black holes in the dark night. He only maintained one sword, a long, thick broadsword that was wider than both of my katanas together. He raised his arms overhead, two hands held tightly to the hilt. I saw him start to bring them down before they got too far; I rolled out of the way just as the steel smacked the ground where my head had laid not a second before.
I jumped to my feet and swung out at the backs of his knees. I felt the depression of my blade as it sunk into his soft flesh and the slickness with which it sliced across his kneecaps. He tumbled forward, not because of pain but lack of ligament. My blade had cut nearly all the way through.
It wasn’t made from steel forged in the Lower Realm, but it was very nicely sharpened and did the job exceedingly well. Both of my katanas had been blessed by priests to withstand the heat of my Light, but neither of them burned the way a Lower Realm blade could.
I wouldn’t receive my real sword until I turned eighteen. Until then, I would make do with these.
As if that were a hard thing. I loved my katanas as much as I loved my parents, or almost as much. They were like my children. They were an extension of me, a part of my body and soul. They were what stood between death and me always.
That meant I would have to dig out my other baby from the beast’s belly. Yuck.
I lunged for the handle, but the giant hadn’t lost his fight, just his legs. He swung back and caught my arm. I was quick enough to flinch away but not before I felt the tear of skin and the hot trickle of blood. Pain seared my left bicep and I felt my fingers go stiff and useless. I swallowed against panic and pain and forced myself to focus on the battle and not my own needs.
He could stab me a thousand times and I would not give up fighting for those children.
Not until he took off my head.
The butt of his hilt backhanded me across the cheek and I staggered sideways. His sword was there again in my hip, a slice right across the bone. Fresh pain bubbled through me and I cried out with frustrated fury. When he pulled his sword back I faltered sideways again, off balance from the change of momentum.
With all his might he pulled his arms back like he was winding up a baseball bat and swinging for a homerun. He let loose with all his pooled power and aimed for my throat.
My short life flashed before my eyes in a disappointing series of selfish events. I lunged forward, pushed off the ball of my foot and at the very last second flipped backward over his blade. I felt the vibrating power of his strength and deadly weapon slice underneath me but I managed to avoid the blow completely. And as I landed with my own arms raised high, I swung my capable blade through his neck. His face had turned with his sword and his thick jugular left open for my blade.
I used every ounce of muscle and supernatural strength I had left in me, but still my katana only made it halfway through him. His head tilted to the side in a gory display of my weakness. His mouth dangled open while blood flowed grotesquely from his mouth, coating his teeth and the thick tongue that lolled from the corner. His eyes were frozen open, exposing dark pupils that bugged out from his disfigured face.
I pulled back and swung again, pushing my blade through another two inches. Sweat dripped from my forehead and my body trembled from the fatigue of it. I yanked my katana free and burned to a brighter degree. This time, with aid from my Light, my katana finally cut through and the ogre’s head dropped from his body.
I kicked at his shoulder until that too lay lifeless on
the ground and grabbed for my other katana, still buried in his gut. I had to leverage my foot on his chest to finally pull the thing free. I really lodged it in there.
I decided to start referring to that particular katana as Excalibur.
Just as I pulled Excalibur free and went to wipe the gore on the dead man’s clothes, a flash of silver winked out of the corner of my eye. I ducked low, lunged to the left and came up with both swords swinging.
I was thrust into another one-off against a Fallen equally as strong as the giant but immensely faster and smarter.
I matched him blow for blow for as long as I could. His dominance became obvious quickly and it was all I could do to move fast enough to keep him from gutting me. He faked me out in a side step and it cost me a long gash in my thigh that just missed my femoral artery. I managed to push him back while his sword pulled free from my leg; I tried to take advantage of the half-second reprieve to collect myself. But I stupidly put weight on my injured leg before it had a chance to even start healing and my thigh gave way into a collapsed knee.
I stumbled and fell to the ground. I ignored the biting pain and rolled to my back just in time to raise my sword and deflect his latest hit.
“Do you know who I am?” I shouted at him. This guy meant serious business. He was going to kill me. I should have expected that. I should have known better. But the contract had apparently made me temporarily insane. Even if he fought me, I had assumed it was to merely keep me out of the warehouse or protect his own neck.
I hadn’t truly realized my own head was in danger of falling off tonight.
Dang it.
“I know who you are, Starling,” he sneered. “Do you know who I am?”
He had paused with the tip of his blade at my throat and the tip of mine at his groin. “A nameless Fallen that used to have a place in a real army? A traitor that’s been relegated to guarding small children instead of fighting legions in space? A disappointment? A coward? A-”
He took a step forward and cut off my comment with the pressure of his blade. “Enough,” he growled.