Blood Oath (A Gabby Girls Adventure Novel, Book Two) (6 page)

"Enough!" He looked over at Justice angrily. "Don’t test my patience. Take a walk and cool your temper. This is not the time."

Justice looked at him with frustrated eyes. He opened his mouth to argue, then snapped it shut before storming off to the back of the jet.

Jessica grabbed my arm anxiously. "What was that all about?"

I watched as the
Ares
Warriors dispersed with disappointment. The tension in the air disappeared as if by magic.

"Like, I know, but I would have loved to see that smug smile being knocked off his face," I whispered in a loud voice as I looked at Chaos meanly.

Zora clucked like a mother hen as she tucked her legs under her in the sleek black leather seat. "Okay, that was way too much
Ares
Warrior machismo. I’m going to nap and hope that this whole nightmare of a day goes away, and fast."

Jessica and Rosalinda nodded as they snuggled down into the plush leather seats, promptly falling asleep.

Not me, I was too hyped up to fall asleep. Besides, I needed to know what the
Eternals
were up to.

There was a flurry of activity as they set up something like a weird command center in the back. No one even looked at us. It was as if we were invisible. Chaos paced up and down the aisle barking orders into his iPhone. I looked at him angrily. Who did he think he was? He made her look like a complete idiot out there. Not once did he even say that he was an
Ares
Warrior and not the
Banished
, and oh, by the way, there to rescue them. No, he just toyed with her, watching her feeble attempt at Warrior fighting with mocking amusement. That was just…mean.

"You reek," someone spat nastily behind me.

I almost screamed with fright. I hadn’t even noticed Justice looming over me like the Grim Reaper.

"What?"

His gray eyes narrowed coldly as he looked pointedly at my favorite "NY Girl" T-shirt, which was splattered with
Banished
blood. "I can smell you all the way from the back of the jet,
Neophyte
. And you
stink
." He sniffed the air around her.

Okay, that was way cruel. I looked at him with outraged eyes.

He grunted with impatience. "What, are you dense?
Banished
blood reeks, and if you don’t get it off you, like, right now, you’ll be stinking for days no matter how many times you shower. Here, change." He roughly threw a huge black T-shirt at me and stormed away.

I threw the shirt on the seat next to me. Some
Ares
Warriors were watching the interchange between Justice and me, and were now looking at me with amused eyes as they held their noses, waving their hands in front of them.

I looked down at my once-white shirt, and it was filthy with blood. Grudgingly I had to admit I did stink, and bad. I rolled my eyes as I jumped up, then stormed into the bathroom to quickly clean off the blood and change into the huge clean T-shirt that hung to my knees. When I walked out of the bathroom, I watched as
Ares
Warriors looked at each other worriedly as Chaos barked into his phone.

He looked at the
Ares
quickly. "I interrupted the council’s meeting. They’re all on the line." He pushed the speaker button on his phone, placing it on the table as the
Ares
Warriors clustered around anxiously.

"Okay, Helios, we’re all here," he said briskly.

"Tell me that you captured the
Banished
this time!"

I watched as everyone flinched at the harsh sound of Helios’s icy voice on the other end of the phone.

Chaos’s jaw tightened. "No. They were gone by the time we arrived, but I ordered the Trackers to canvass the area outside of the academy to see if they could pick up any trails that might have been left."

Helios roared like an outraged tiger. All of the
Ares
looked at each other tensely. "How in the world do we always manage to get there too late? If I didn’t know better, I would think that they were tracking us and not us tracking them."

Chaos growled angrily and opened his mouth to respond before Orion stepped forward smoothly.

"Helios, you know as well as the council that the
Banished
use of the elusion spell is getting stronger and that we can do nothing about it." Orion paused. "Let’s face it; the situation is getting more dangerous. The wards around the academy were completely destroyed when we arrived. And I don’t have to remind everyone that this is the fifth attack in less than a month, and that’s just on the
Eternals
."

"This I know, Orion, but I’m looking for answers, not a detailed tongue-lashing about our ineptness. More importantly, the
Elementi
Conclaves are looking for answers, and I’ve yet to get any," Helios snarled.

Chaos’s eyes narrowed coldly. "There are no answers, Helios. The
Elementi
are not the only ones suffering at the hands of the
Banished
and
Daemons
. We’ve lost more Warriors in the last month than we’ve lost in a year, and now our
Neophytes
are being attacked. We need answers too. We’ve ordered more Guardians for the Royal
Elementi
Conclaves. We’ve stepped up the number of Gatewatchers, and the Trackers are on twenty-four-seven rotation. What else do they want us to do? Maybe if they put more of their own Warriors out in rotation, then we could actually make some progress in this war."

"Don’t start, Chaos. Now is not the time for this discussion. Besides, they look to us to do our job; failure is not an option for me or the
Eternal
Council. Please keep that in mind, or I’ll have to find someone else that can contain this situation," Helios snapped.

Chaos’s body stiffened defensively. Orion looked at him quickly, shaking his head, indicating not to respond.

"We are all tired and, frankly, a little on edge, Helios. We are all doing our best with a limited pool of trained
Eternal
Warriors, and we can’t train our
Neophytes
fast enough; between trying to protect our own and trying to protect the
Elementi
Conclaves and the Gates, we are simply stretched thin, and our enemies know this," Orion stated firmly.

"I know this, Orion, but we are still chasing our tails, and in order to survive, we need solutions. Our survival depends on it," Helios responded with a tinge of frustration.

"Any survivors?" a woman’s voice interrupted sharply.

Chaos’s face was grim. "Just Thallo and the
Neophytes
."

There were sounds of people gasping and shouting on the other end of the line. "Impossible" and "By the Goddess" were peppered with the screams of outrage and anger.

"Silence! Let’s keep calm," Helios barked. "Are you telling me that all of the students, professors, and seasoned
Eternals
sent to protect the
Neophytes
were killed?" His voice was cold, almost frighteningly so.

"Yes," Chaos responded quickly.

"This is Thallo, and I’m still at the academy. We’re still assessing the damage, but I can confirm that there are no other survivors."

There was an awkward silence that droned on for minutes. Tension filled the air before someone from the council spoke. "This is

Queen Nemesis. How could this have happened again? The
Banished
are systematically attacking our academies by thwarting our protection systems, the
Elementi
wards. They never had the power to render them useless," she stated sharply.

Justice snorted sarcastically, "Obviously they do now."

Chaos shot him a "please shut up" look. "The
Banished
powers and numbers are increasing. This is a fact that we’ve ignored much longer than we should. We need to change our mode of defense. The stuff we’ve been using for centuries is no longer working; they are gaining strides in the war."

"I agree with Chaos. They have bypassed all of our security measures by destroying all of the wards; this possibility was unheard of just months ago," Thallo said with frustration.

"And the possibility of them attacking our academies was also improbable just months ago, but here we are talking about the fifth attack, this time on our students and professors," Orion stated matter-of-factly.

"I have always thought that having academies for
Normals
was a bad idea. It is a security risk that we can ill afford." Queen Nemesis spat.

Helios growled loudly. "Please allow Queen Harmonia to speak now, Nemesis."

"Thank you, Helios." Queen Harmonia paused delicately. "You, as well as the council, know that the academies are our gift to the
Normals
, Nemesis, a way to give back to them for those who keep our existence secret. To close them down would be suicide, and an act of disrespect to the
Normals
. This is not a topic appropriate given the current situation, sister," Queen Harmonia finished calmly, then paused. "Thallo, I sense uneasiness in your essence. What are you not telling us?" Her voice had an almost mesmerizing singsong quality.

Thallo cleared her throat noisily. "They sent…" She paused. "They sent Pallas to lead the attack."

My eyes widened when the council erupted into sheer hysterics. Sounds of chairs scraping back mixed with angry screaming and shouting that was so loud, even I wondered what the deal was with this Pallas. Were they talking about that crazy-looking lizard man? Even the coldly remote
Ares
Warriors shot each other looks of concern at the mere mention of the name.

Chaos just stood there stiffly. The only trace of response was the thick vein pulsating rapidly against the inky mark that covered the left side of his neck.

"Why would they send Pallas to lead an attack on an academy filled with teenage girls? That makes absolutely no sense!" Queen Nemesis shouted above the roar.

Thallo cleared her throat noisily. "He was there for the Akasha."

Just the mention of the Akasha sent everyone crazy again. Wait, Akasha was what the whispers kept on repeating over and over again. And what that psychotic blond guy kept on saying in my nightmare. I stopped cold, looking around worriedly. Please let this all be some big, weird coincidence. My nerves were already on edge, and honestly, I was one step away from going hysterical along with the council.

"Everyone, please, let’s stay calm." Helios paused. "Okay, Thallo, we need to be sure of what you’re implying here, for if this is accurate, it will have untold ripple effects not only for the
Eternals
, but the
Elementi
." Helios’s voice was frighteningly soft. It was as if he was trying to control himself—barely.

"There is no
implying
. This is an outright fact. They sent Pallas for the
Akasha
." Thallo said every word like she was talking to a three-year-old. "You should also be aware that he knows what the
Neophytes
look like. And more importantly, he’s marked their scent."

My skin tingled apprehensively. Yep, they were talking about that crazy man who had sniffed the air like a rabid dog.

Chaos’s body tightened. "This is definitely not good. We must take precautions now. If Pallas has escaped from the Underworld, we are in a world of trouble. Wherever he walks, destruction is sure to follow."

"Don’t be ridiculous. The existence of the Akasha is just a stupid myth, a bedtime story that
Eternals
and
Elementi
tell their children at night," Queen Nemesis responded coldly.

My body stiffened involuntarily. There was something about this Queen Nemesis that set my teeth instantly on edge.

Chaos and Orion looked at each other quickly with some unspoken message passing between them that I couldn’t quite catch.

Helios snorted derisively. "Let’s be clear, Nemesis. The Akasha is a prophecy, not a myth. Besides, the Underworld would not have gone through all this trouble to send their best Warrior after a myth. Regardless of what you or anyone believes about the existence of the Akasha, the Underworld obviously wants her, and that fly in the ointment makes this whole situation dangerous for everyone, including the
Elementi
."