Reapers (31 page)

Suddenly, the other four groups of
angels appeared through a doorway down the opposite
hall.

“
Woohoo!” said David, as
he impaled two imps at once. “Reinforcements.”

The forty new guardians came hurtling
into the battle. Imps flew, daggers flew, and the sound of metal
hitting flesh bounced off the walls.

The imps were no match for this new
onslaught of skilled guardians. David laughed as he played
toss-the-imps with another guardian who easily sliced through them
with his soul blade. As the imps began to disappear, Kara was
filled with hope. They were winning.

She turned when she caught a flash of
gold out of the corner of her eye. Gabriel was on his knees, and
the reaper was advancing on him.

With a great beat of her wings, Kara
flew through the opening of the fallen wall and skidded to a stop
next to Gabriel.

“
Kara, get back,” Gabriel
groaned.

His body was covered in deep
lacerations. He tried to get up, but fell back, his face sunken
from exhaustion.

“
It’s no use! They’re too
strong. We should never have come. Get back, I said!”

Kara moved protectively in
front of Gabriel. She extended her wings in the hope that the
creature would mistake her for an archfiend, and that by some
miracle it would
obey
her. It was a long shot. She took that chance and stood
defiantly with soul blade at the ready.

The smell of death and the sounds of
the thousands of lost souls crying out in agony permeated the air
around the reaper.

“
Kara, get out of here!”
Gabriel cried, his voice hoarse and raw, like he was about to lose
it completely.

“
You can scream all you
like, but I’m not leaving you.”

It seemed to work. The reaper was
watching her wings and seemed to relax its shoulders. It lowered
its scythe.

Kara cleared her throat.

“
Reaper, I command you to
leave us!” she said in the most authoritative voice she could
muster. She hoped that it was enough.

It did
not
work.

The reaper raised its arms. There was
a crack, like lightning hitting a tree, and black tendrils shot
from its hands and wrapped around her ankles.

Kara desperately tried to hack at the
tight black coils with her blade, but the tendrils were as strong
as metal and would not be cut. She cried out as the tendrils burned
her M-5 suit and her legs. The poison entered her body, and she
could feel it rising into her abdomen.

Suddenly, Kara was lifted in the air
and slammed into a wall. She slumped to the floor. She opened her
eyes groggily and caught a glimpse of David as he kicked and pushed
his way to get near her.

“
No,” Kara
groaned.

She tried to yell, but she hadn’t the
strength. She kicked out with her legs, but they were pinned by the
black tendrils that were working their way up toward her
chest.

David came into view and whistled
through his teeth.

The reaper swiveled its
head.

David spun and side-kicked the reaper.
Surprisingly, the creature staggered back and dropped it scythe.
Its connection with Kara was lost.

“
David don’t—please—we
can’t defeat them,” Kara said.

“
I’m not going to let you
die. See, I think I injured it.”

But the reaper recovered, and faster
than David could move, it hurled a beam of black tendrils at
him.

The force picked David up and threw
him down to the ground with such force that it cracked the floor.
David raised his head slightly, and Kara could see the poison of
the tendrils entering the skin on his face like black
veins.

The reaper moved toward David and
raised its scythe.

“
No!” Kara hurtled herself
at the reaper with the last of her strength.

Like a linebacker, she hit
it hard with her shoulder, and they both went down. As soon as the
creature’s acidic hide touched her, the skin of her M-Suit burned
and began to wither. She could feel her
strength was failing. Her eyes began to blur, and she could
hear souls crying and could feel their pain. It was like dying over
and over again.

Kara thought she was about
to go mad. She could see her angel essence was being sucked out of
her body and into the reaper’s scythe.

For a moment she felt
release as the reaper loomed over her.
She
had almost abandoned herself to death when she realized it was
toying with her.

She had to fight back.

The thought of David empowered her
with enough strength to prop herself on her elbows. But then
something even more horrifying caught her eye and her hope
faded.

Six more reapers had appeared in the
doorway. The seven reapers. They were all here. But why?

The guardians stood in a line with
their weapons raised, but Kara could see the fear in their
eyes.

What could they do with such foes? How
could they defeat creatures that had no weakness?

Kara fell back in despair.
She had done her best not to call forth the darkness inside her or
to succumb to its power. And now it was too late. Her body and her
wings were so damaged that she could barely move. She was like a
dead bird whose wings could no longer flutter. She was
dying.

She wished silently for
her elemental power. With her arms outstretched, her face flat
against the cool floor, she waited in agony to die.

Chapter 22

A Ring in the
Sky

A
shudder rippled through Kara’s body.

Her fingers pulsed with a
new energy. It began with the tiniest sensation, a whisper of
power. It pulsed in the tips of her fingers and moved across her
hands and into the rest of her body. Though she shivered from the
pain and anguish, she could sense the strength returning to her
wings as well. The darkness throbbed inside her like cold blood
that wanted to be free. She knew she had to try and control it,
that she only needed the
tiniest
spark of dark energy.

Kara called to it to come
forth. She wasn’t sure how she would direct it, and prayed she
could still control it once it was released. She felt the power
surge, pulsating in her hands and legs. She groaned and
rose.

The reaper cocked its
head, surprised to see her stand. It wiggled its scythe, mocking
her, showing her the tool with which it was going to end her
life.

Kara’s eyes went to the
red, blistering scythe. She hated it.
If
only she could get close enough…

And then she knew. Like a memory
suddenly returning, she knew how to kill it. She couldn’t explain
it. She just knew.

With the last of her strength, Kara
moved her right wing. The black power rippled through her, and she
used some of it to knock the scythe from the reaper’s
hands.

The red sword flew into the air and
crashed to the ground next to Kara. She didn’t know what possessed
her, but she flung herself at the scythe—and stabbed it with her
blade.

The effect was immediate.

The reaper fell to its knees and
howled like a thousand dying beasts.

The scythe bubbled and steamed from
the puncture hole she had made. It glowed red hot, and Kara backed
away from the burning heat. The scythe undulated and popped like
hot magma. And then it shuddered one last time and burst into a
mess of red liquid.

For a moment nothing happened. The red
liquid evaporated. But then it was replaced by little particles
that glimmered and hovered like a carpet of the most dazzling
diamonds.

And then a great beam of light
particles shot directly at Kara.

Kara staggered back in surprise as the
strands of light coiled around her like a brilliant whirlwind. She
watched the spinning beams of light, and through them she saw
thousands of smiling faces. They looked like the transparent faces
of ghosts.

She couldn’t help but smile. An
overwhelming feeling of release and happiness surrounded her. It
was almost as though the souls who had been trapped in the scythe
were thanking her.

Thank you Kara. Thank you!
Thank you!

She could hear the voices of the
souls. The voices of thousands of men, women, and children were all
whispering their thanks and appreciation to her.

And then the souls lifted into the
air, blasted through the highest window, and disappeared into the
sky like fireworks of light.

Kara heard a moan behind
her.

The reaper’s eyes flashed red once,
and then it too melted into a red and black soup. Its howl
diminished to a whisper, and then it was silent.

“
You did it, Kara! You
figured out how to kill them.” David spun around and shouted. “We
can kill them – look!”

He pointed to the steaming red and
black puddle. “Kara did it! It’s their scythes. Kill the scythes
and the reapers die!”

He charged at the nearest reaper. The
reaper swung at him, but David blocked the reaper’s scythe and
kicked the reaper hard in the gut. The creature staggered and fell.
David leaped over the reaper without any hesitation and brought his
blades crashing down into the reaper’s scythe. The weapon sizzled
and then exploded into red soup. The trapped souls rose into the
air and drifted out of the building through the window.

David smeared the red
liquid with his boot. “Told you I’d
reap
you in the end,
soul-sucker.”

It only took a moment for the other
angels to comprehend what had just happened. The unbeatable threat
could be defeated. They turned on the reapers.

The remaining five reapers backed away
in fear.

Kara called upon her black energy one
last time, and with Ashley at her side they charged the last
reapers.

Ashley dove and twisted under the
swing of the first reaper’s scythe. She came up behind the creature
and drove her soul blade into the red metal. The scythe hissed and
melted away, and the reaper turned into a puddle of red. Ashley’s
eyes were wild, and she threw herself at the next reaper, hungry to
avenge the deaths of her friends.

One of the reapers had backed away
into the shadows and was sneaking silently away from the
battle.

Kara didn’t take her eyes off the
wandering reaper. With a great beat of her wings, she flew at it
with the force of a cannon ball. She hit it. The reaper flew
backwards and crashed into the wall. In a flash, she speared the
creature’s weapon with her own. It never had time to fight
back.

The reapers all fell at the hands of
the angels until nothing remained of them but piles of red
soup.

The guardians stood together and
watched as the grateful little soul particles floated
away.

“
We did it!”

David surveyed the carnage. “They’re
all gone. All seven. And we know how to kill them if any more show
up. I’d say this is a real win for the legion.”

Kara surveyed what was left of the
legion. From the fifty guardians who had arrived with Gabriel
perhaps only twenty remained. She wouldn’t call this a win. They
had lost many angel lives. But it was a start.”

“
You don’t look
happy.”

Kara forced a smile. “I’m…”

She wanted to say scared.

“
I’m not sure what I am.”
It was the honest truth. “I guess I don’t feel so victorious. I
keep feeling that we’re missing something.”

“
Well, I’d go for a beer
right about now.” David beamed. “Make that two.”

Kara was pleased to see that Gabriel
was still in one piece.

“
Good work,
everyone.”

The archangel’s voice was rough and
Kara had to strain to hear him better.

“
I’m very grateful to you
all. You’ve demonstrated courage, strength, and great skill and
ingenuity at defeating the reapers. Thank you. Now, let’s get back
to Horizon, to heal our wounds.”

Kara wondered if he meant to heal
their own wounds, or if they could heal and reclaim the souls of
those who had been lost in the battle.

Ashley walked alongside Kara and
smiled. It was the first time Kara had seen her smile an honest and
genuine smile. And from that moment, she knew they were
friends.

Kara found it strange that it was dark
outside the hospital. It had been midday when they had first
arrived. Had time passed so quickly?

Newspapers littered the
polished hospital floors, and Kara picked one up. The front page
read,
Strange virus leaves thousands dead.
Doctors are mystified. The Center of Disease Control and Prevention
is calling it the New Black Plague
.

She started to read a smaller article
just below it. She flinched.