“Or so you hope…” Jay mutters.
“Say whatever you want about him, Jay, at least he didn’t take the coward’s way out by using a mixture because he’s too afraid to love,” Ameana snipes.
“Yeah right, like Rage can love,” Jay counters.
“Maybe I can’t love; what I can do is throw a good BBQ. I can make the flames nice and hot for you,” Rage says as the fire ball starts to form in the palm of his hand.
“Yo, I’m right, boss man, let’s do this!” Jay counters ready to attack.
“WHY IS THE THREE YEAR OLD THE MOST GROWN UP ONE IN THIS ROOM?” I shout.
Everyone turns towards me. I stare back at them with no apologies. I’m getting more than a little sick of the constant bickering.
“Yes, that’s right; the human is really pissed off. And from now on, you either say something helpful or shut the hell up. We’re on a mission; not on the last season of Jersey Shore!” I scold them.
The room is silent. The only sound comes from Bailey, who has grown bored of us and is now playing with her stuffed rabbit. The group doesn’t respond to my outburst, but they are no longer arguing. After a few moments of silence, Ameana is the first to speak.
“Maybe it’s easier to get her to come to us,” she says.
“How?” I ask.
Ameana raises her hand and calls for the stuffed rabbit to come towards her. It flows in the air and away from Bailey. She watches as her rabbit becomes airborne. She’s surprised at first and a little dazzled. But when she realizes the rabbit is steadily getting further and further away, she starts to cry. The earth begins to shake.
“Um…is she doing that?” I ask.
“Yeah, I think so,” Marcus replies.
“Yo, give her the rabbit back, she’s gonna cause an earthquake!” Jay says.
“Come on, Bailey, come get the Rabbit,” I tell her.
“Boo-Boo,” she says, calling out for her cherished toy.
She weeps and tries to reach for Boo-Boo but it has flown well above her head. We all call out for her to come closer. Finally, she comes close enough for us to touch her. Jay quickly tries to pick her up but before he can, her shields go back up. She sticks her tongue out at us.
Ameana lowers the rabbit down to where Bailey can reach it but she is too smart. She won’t lower her shield even to get Boo-Boo back.
“Damn it!” Rage swears.
All of us scold him at nearly the same time.
“What?” Rage asks, clueless.
“Watch your mouth around the kid,” Jay says.
“Seriously? Now we’re having child rearing classes? Can’t we just scare her into coming with us?” Rage insists.
“You want to scare a girl who can move the earth when she cries?” Miku says in disbelief.
“Miku’s right, we don’t know what she can do if she’s scared,” Marcus agrees.
“So not only do we have to take her with us; we have to get her to go willingly?” Rage complains.
“Something’s wrong,” Rio says.
“What is it?” Ameana asks.
“The Cravens; they’re scared,” Rio says reading their wave.
Marcus and I exchange a quick worried glance as he dashes to the door.
He opens it just in time to see a flock of Fire Swans hurl a river of flames into the room. Marcus shuts the door quickly but it’s too late. The monastery is on fire. Out the window, we can see the hundreds of swans circling above us, getting ready to launch another attack.
“Get down!” Marcus shouts at me.
He leaps into the air and uses his body as a shield to save me. Luckily, Rio’s shield prevents Marcus from being burned alive. I look at Bailey and fear springs into my eyes. Marcus reminds me that she can protect herself. And sure enough, Bailey has her shield up. What I’m even more thankful for is that she is not scared; she thinks of the flames as a pretty firework display.
The team races outside to battle the swans, but there are too many of them and the fire is spreading. We still can’t get Bailey to let down her shield so she can fly with us. I’m grateful that she thinks the fire is some kind of game, because otherwise, she would burst into tears and things would be even worse.
“The Cravens are dead,” Rio says as he reads their fading waves.
“That’s what they came to do; kill the Cravens so the Demons could get to her,” Marcus concludes as he takes flight to kill as many swans as he can.
“How did they even know where she was?” I ask, trying to find a spot away from the blaze.
“Sage probably got a vision,” Rio replies as he shields Miku and Jay.
Rage and Ameana take to the sky and tackle two swans at a time. Once Jay and Miku are free from imminent danger, they too take to the sky.
“We have to get her out of here, there’s no telling what the Demons will do to her,” I shout up to Marcus.
“You have to find a way to get her to let you in, Emmy, or else she’ll die here,” Marcus replies.
I look off into the distance and see a dark cloud, moving too quickly to really be a cloud. The sky has been invaded by thousands of Demons.
The team turns and sees the Demons have taken over every inch of the sky. And for the first time ever, I see fear in their eyes. I don’t think it was for their own lives, but for Bailey. There is no way her shield will hold up against thousands of demons.
Once they find her, they will take her to Sage, or worse - to Lucy, since the power she has inside her isn’t technically supposed to exist. In order to get rid of the Lyris, they will have to kill Bailey. An action I’m certain Lucy would not only commit to, but enjoy.
I rush back into what’s left of the monastery and plead with the little girl to come with me. I offer her candy, tell her we’ll play games, anything and everything, but Bailey does not want to go.
What’s worse is that the ‘fire display’ is no longer fun for her. In fact, the sight of the swans spewing fire causes Bailey to cry. At once, the earth begins to shake. What’s left of the roof starts to crumble.
The monastery is all but gone now. We are out in the open. The Demons all swoop down and flock towards Bailey. Her shield is holding but she’s crying really hard now, causing the ground beneath us to crack open.
I pick up whatever discarded bricks and pieces of wood I can find and bash the Demons on the head. Some of them, already hurt from dealing with the Guardians, fall to the ground. Others aren’t hurt by my attack, just pissed.
One Demon comes after me, his jagged teeth dripping with what must be poison. He tackles me to the ground, grabs me by my neck, and smiles as he moves in to rip a chunk of flesh from my face.
I close my eyes and brace myself for the agony and blood soon to follow. I feel a heavy weight fall down onto my chest. I open my eyes and the Demon is on my chest, staring up at me, lifeless. All I feel is a soft wind blow. I breathe a sigh of relief and silently thank Jay for the quick rescue.
“We can’t fight this many of them,” Ameana shouts to her leader.
“Has she lowered her shield, yet?” Marcus replies.
“I’m working on it,” I shout.
“Emmy, hurry!”
I run to the center of what used to the monastery, where Bailey is now having a full blown tantrum. The mountain begins to split apart. Bailey’s temper is going to kill us all if we don’t calm her down.
“Bailey, it’s okay sweetie, don’t cry,” I beg.
It does no good at all. I repeat it several times and tell her that everything is going to be okay. It does not help in the least.
“I can’t get her to let me in,” I shout up to Marcus, who has a Swan and a Demon in each hand.
“Figure something out, there are more Demons coming,” Marcus orders.
What am I supposed to do to get this girl to lower her shield? I mean we’ve tried everything. All of us have approached her and she won’t let any of us in.
Actually, we all haven’t approached her…
I called
out for Rage in the sky. He swoops down beside me.
“You have to try and get her to lower her shield,” I tell him.
“What, me?”
“Yes, you, you’re the only one who hasn’t tried to talk to her,” I reply.
“Yeah, that because Demons freak the hell out of kids.”
“Yes, but we’re out of options,” I reply.
“This is crazy. She’s just gonna cry harder and bring the whole mountain down,” Rage objects.
“Look, it’s worth a try; just say something to her.”
Rage looks over at the weeping child inside the force field like bubble.
“She’s gonna freak out, human,” he insists.
“Just do it!” I order.
He shakes his head and swears at me. Then he walks up to Bailey, still very angry and glares at her.
“Rage, say something,” I encourage.
I know it’s a long shot but I am officially out of ideas.
“I don’t know what to say!” Rage counters as yet another massive chuck of the mountain crumbles.
“Damn it, Rage, say something!” I roar.
Rage, officially irate and fed up with Bailey, turns to the toddler, grits his teeth and growls at her.
I close my eyes and wait for Bailey to cry even harder.
Damn that Akon.
But Bailey didn’t cry harder. In fact, there was no sound at all. I open my eyes and find the corner of Bailey’s lips turned up in what looks like the beginning of a smile. Then the smile turns into something I never thought possible: laughter.
She found Rage’s growl funny. Rage, taken aback, does it again. This time not only does Bailey laugh, she growls back! To her, this is yet another game. They are competing to see who has the best ‘fake’ evil growl.
Bailey is so engrossed in Rage, she forgets about the Demons flying over head.
“What the hell?” Rage says to me.
“I don’t know, I think she likes you,” I offer, still in disbelief.
“Don’t be stupid. No one likes Demons. Especially little girls with bunny rabbit dolls,” he rages at me.
“Well, you’re wrong,” I reply.
“She giggled once or twice, that doesn’t mean she likes me.”
“No, but that does.”
Rage turns around and finds Bailey has lowered her shields. She is now standing by his leg, reaching out to him with her chubby little arms, waiting to be picked up.
Rage looks back at me with utter panic; I signal for him to pick her up. He picks her up as if she were a bomb about to go off at any second. He keeps her as far away from his body as possible.
He reluctantly looks at her face. She smiles brightly and hands him her rabbit.
“Boo-Boo,” she says, making introductions.
I look on in complete astonishment. Around us, the world is collapsing; Demons are closing in.
The team is outnumbered and overwhelmed. The very ground we stand on is quickly disappearing beneath our feet; but none of that matters to the three year old Lyris. For Bailey, this day is a good day; today is the day she befriended the First Akon.
CHAPTER TWENTY THREE:
WHO DID THIS?
We barely got out of the monastery alive. Rage held Bailey in his arms and took off in the sky.
The team and I soon follow. As we flee the Demon infested area, power balls were never too far away. Had it not been for Rio’s shield blocking us, we would have never made it. Now we head to Greenland, so Bailey can use her power against the Goumy.
This is imperative, because Judging from the latest news Rio is getting via cell phone, things have gone from bad to dismal. Only two networks are still broadcasting. In all parts of the world, people are terrified of what they are rightfully calling “The End.” Some small remote islands have already disappeared under water, such as the Galapagos, the Falklands, and Attu Island. In addition, major cities are faced with five alarm fires, brought on by the down power lines and the severe weather.
New York City is ravaged by hurricanes and earthquakes. London has lost thousands of people due to a sudden, unnaturally brutal heat wave. Tokyo is reporting the death toll in the tens of thousands.
If people aren’t dying from the elements, they are dying from sheer panic. Thousands have taken to the streets in an attempt to head out of the cities. The fear and hysteria causes them to turn on each other. There are reports of people being trampled to death by crazed mobs attempting to flee.
We are on our way to Greenland when Marcus makes us land on a mountain top, somewhere in Hungary. There’s a row of small one room cabins with a pile of wood stacked high along side each one.
“Why are we stopping?” Ameana asks.
“Winter texted me, Sage has all the routes to Greenland covered. He knows we’re coming,” Marcus replies.
“We still have to face them,” Rio says.
“Yes, but we’ll need a plan. We can’t just walk into a mob of Demons, not with Bailey. And besides, we’ve been flying for hours and she needs to rest,” Marcus points out.
We turn and look at the toddler. Her eyes are bright and alert. But it has been hours and we have no idea when was the last time she ate.
“Marcus is right. She needs to rest and eat. Um…actually both humans need to eat,” I point out bashfully.
Rage puts Bailey down on to the ground. He watches her as if to see if she has come to her senses and is now afraid of him. That is not the case. Bailey looks up at Rage and smiles.
“We go play now?” She asks.
“No,” he says, sounding a lot like her when she had her earlier tantrum.
“What’s your name?” She asks Rage.
“None of your business,” he snaps.
“Uh oh, that’s not nice. You gonna be in trouble,” she warns him.
“Look, you little super power mouse, I’m not your friend,” he informs her.
She bursts into tears immediately. Then the ground under us starts to rumble.
“I swear to Omnis you better say you’re sorry, or you will be,” Marcus warns Rage.
“I didn’t come to babysit,” Rage swears.
He and Marcus are about to get into it, with Bailey weeping loudly in the back ground. But then Ameana calls out to her boyfriend.
“Thomas, you’re making her cry,” she says.
Rage looks instantly sorry. It’s not that Ameana spoke to him with anger or even firmness. The emotion behind her voice was disappointment. Ameana sounded genuinely hurt and disappointed that ‘Thomas’ would neglect the feelings of a child.
“Okay, okay, super mouse. I’m sorry,” he mumbles.
“You are sorry?” She asks between sobs.
“Yes, I am.”
“Say sorry to Boo-Boo, too,” she insists.
Rage is about to say something rude but then thinks better of it and apologizes to the rabbit, as well.
“Now, tell her your name,” Jay says, enjoying this a little too much.
“My name is Rage,” he says, gritting his teeth behind a fake smile.
“Hi Ray,” she says.
“No, it’s Rage.”
She tries to sound out his name but she seems to have a problem with the ending. No matter what she tries, ‘Rage’ sounds like ‘Ray.’
“Fine, I’m Ray,” he says, shaking his head.
“My name is Bailey and I’m this many,” she says proudly, stickling out three fingers to show us her age.
“Great, mouse. Glad to hear it,” Rage replies.
“You call me mouse,” she says, giggling.
“Bailey, are you hungry?” I ask.
“Yes, can we have hot dogs? Boo-Boo loves hot dog with a lot, a lot, a lot of ketchup,” she informs us.
“After flying for hours for the first time, this kid isn’t throwing up or anything. Now she wants hot dogs? Yeah, she’s got super powers,” Rio says.
“Okay, you can have hot dogs,” I reply.
“And cookies?”
??
?Yes, and cookies.”
She starts to do a dance-wiggle type thing that lets us know she’s happy.
“Is Ray going to eat with me?” She begs.
The team is dying to laugh at how uncomfortable Rage is right now.
“Yeah, sure,” he says begrudgingly.
Marcus tells us to each pick a cabin and that after our meeting, the team will recharge.
“How’d you know this place would be here?” I ask.
“Winter texted me this location. She’s gonna join us as soon as she gets more info on the Sage’s movement,” he replies.
We each pick a cabin. Bailey picks the one with Ameana and ‘uncle’ Ray. When Jay and Rio encourage Bailey to call Rage that, she does, I laugh so hard my sides hurt.
Later, Rio and Miku go to town to get food for the humans and warmer clothes for Bailey, since she left without a coat. Thankfully, Rage’s wings are like wearing fur; they keep her warm. I would have frozen many times, had it not been for the warmth of the Guardians’ wings.
Marcus says the team will be meeting as soon as the twins come back. Meanwhile, we have nothing to do but make fun of ‘Uncle Ray.’
Bailey insists on sitting next to Rage at the only table in the room. We watch as she fills him in with very important information, such as Bailey’s favorite color (yellow), Baileys favorite bed time story (The Three Little Pigs) and Bailey’s favorite nursery rhyme (Itsy Bitsy Spider).
When Ameana and Rage have had enough of us laughing at their expense, they kick us out of their cabin. Once outside, we laugh even harder as we hear Bailey instructing ‘Uncle Ray’ on how to properly hold his hands up while singing ‘Itsy Bitsy Spider.’
Just as we are about to walk away from their cabin, Jay grabs me by the hand to show me something through the window of their cabin.
Oh my Omnis, Rage is on all fours, giving Bailey a pony ride. I think no matter what happens from here, I’m going to die happy. Jay records it on his cell. Marcus can’t stop laughing and I’m pretty sure I’m going to remember this moment forever.
The Twins come back and bring the food to Ameana’s cabin. The only way Bailey will eat is to have Rage beside her. The two of them have hot dogs, juice and three cookies. I tell Marcus I didn’t know Demons could eat. He says food is not necessary for them, but they can if they wish.