Seirs, Soul Guardians Book 5 (4 page)

“
Why would anyone leave a
car running in the middle of the night, with the keys inside?” She
shut the door.

“
This place gives me the
creeps. It doesn’t feel normal.” Peter adjusted his glasses as he
measured the rows of abandoned homes. “Where did they all
go?”

“
It’s as if they all
vanished into thin air,” said Jenny, as she inspected the
street.

“
Uh...guys...where’s
David?” Kara whirled around on the spot. “He was here a minute ago.
David!”

After a moment, David sauntered out of
one of the houses with a beer can in his hand. He gulped it down
and chucked the can away. “Ah...nothing like the taste of a cold
beer on a night like this.”

“
We don’t taste anything,
we’re angels—remember?” said Kara a little annoyed.

David shrugged and grinned. “I
forgot.” Peter laughed and seemed to relax a little. She knew David
was only trying to help him calm his nerves, and she was thankful
it was working, even though he was acting like a fool.

Kara brushed the bangs from her
forehead and sighed. “I don’t know what happened here, but we don’t
have time to investigate right now. We have to find the
castle.”

The four of them hurried past the
houses. Further down the street, a clearing in the trees appeared.
Dirleton Castle stood proudly on a rocky outcrop and looked down
upon the village. It was a giant medieval fortress made of stone.
Dark and gloomy, its massive towers cast shadows in the brilliant
moonlight. Amongst mature trees and vast manicured gardens Kara
could see a bridge under a large archway that led up to the main
entrance to the castle.

Peter gazed at the castle with a
critical eye. “It looks like a pile of stones. You think there
might be ghosts in there? I’ve always wondered if they actually
existed. Imagine all the stories they could tell us; it would be
really interesting.”

“
Don’t be stupid, ghosts
don’t exist,” said Jenny while she checked her hair for
bugs.

“
I’m not so sure about
that.” Kara studied her friends’ faces. “We’re supernatural and we
exist. Then who’s to say ghosts aren’t real? Maybe they
are.”

“
I bet they
are
real,” said David
excitedly. “Maybe there are some ghost knights riding around the
courtyard on ghost horses!” David galloped widely on an imaginary
steed, neighing loudly as he circled around Peter.

Kara shook her head and chuckled
softly. “Come on guys, let’s try to be serious. Let’s get to the
bridge.”

A tall iron post with a
black and white sign stood before them. David walked up to the
sign. “
Dirleton Castle, open to
visitors.
Well, there you go, an
invitation to the party. Let’s go, it’s this way.”

With David in the lead, the others
followed quickly behind. They ran up a twisting pathway in the
direction of the main entrance. Once up a small rise, they scurried
up to the bridge. Kara curled her fingers around the iron railing.
Its icy metal stung her angel flesh. Hundreds of years ago, a giant
drawbridge would have protected the gatehouse, but now it was only
a simple visitor’s bridge. The tall archway loomed over her like a
giant black mouth, waiting to suck her in.

“
Ew...what’s that horrible
smell?” Jenny screwed up her face and pinched her nose. “Smells
like rotten meat and barf.”

“
I can hear voices...like
screams or something.” Peter glanced behind his shoulder nervously.
“I have a bad feeling about this.”

Kara drew a soul blade. “Those aren’t
the noises of ghosts. I don’t know what’s waiting for us in there,
but be prepared. And remember—we can’t kill any of the Seirs. Just
try to get out of their way, and look for the children.”

“
Easier said than done.”
David brandished two soul blades. He twisted them with his wrists
and a wicked smile materialized on his lips. “I just wish I could
mess them up a bit. You know... a little payback for angel-napping
us.”

“
I know, but you can’t.
Don’t do anything stupid, David, this isn’t the time.”

“
I’ll try.”

“
Ready?” Kara studied the
gleams in her friends’ eyes. They each took a turn and nodded. “All
right. Let’s go.”

Kara ran up the rise on the bridge.
Her rage increased with each stride; it surged through her like a
tidal wave. Her elemental power danced on the edges of her fingers.
She had learned to control it better. It wasn’t wild anymore but
soothing and tame. She wasn’t sure how she did it, but now she
could keep it boiling inside her and ready. Lilith was going to pay
for taking the children, and for ruining her angel life.

Straining her M-5 suit, Kara bolted up
the rest of the bridge and charged through the gateway and into the
courtyard.

Soft light glowed from torches that
lined the walls. Hundreds of men and women fought each other in the
large open courtyard. Their bloodied hands reflected hideously in
the moonlight. They cut and tore at each other’s flesh. Broken
bodies lay on the ground, drenched in pools of blood. Moans and
guttural grunts reverberated throughout the courtyard. The mortals
all turned as one and faced the angels. Madness gleamed in their
eyes. Kara heard Jenny gasp behind her and Peter shrieked. Sunken
faces twisted in unrecognizable masks of anger. Blood rolled off
their arms and legs as they paced around in a feral distemper. The
stink of blood rose in Kara’s nose.

David stood by Kara. “Now this sight
is a little disturbing. I feel like I’m stuck in a b-rated zombie
movie. It’s as if the entire village has gone mad—and they forgot
to bathe.”

Kara nodded absentmindedly. Her mouth
was sewn shut. The grip on her dagger loosened. She stared at the
horror before them without blinking.

A man with a mask of blood broke from
the mob and stepped forward. He pointed a dirty finger at Kara and
the others. “Kill! Kill them! Kill them all!”

David cursed loudly.

Kara stepped backwards.

With a thunderous roar, hundreds of
bloody mortals stumbled towards them.

Chapter 3

An angry mob of
mortals

“
R
un!”

The angels split up. Kara
rocketed down the eastside of the courtyard as the others
disappeared from view to the west. She hurtled over debris and
large boulders as she ran deeper into the castle.
Fragments of the north
and west curtain walls outlined what remained of the large
square.
Shadows veiled the deep corners of
the courtyard, and Kara blinked through the impenetrable darkness.
She raised her hand in front of her face and kept running into the
thick blackness—not looking back—trying not to imagine the horror
that followed closely behind her. She lowered her head and ran
harder.

Something caught on her boot. Kara
stumbled and fell hard.

A grunt sounded behind her.

Kara whirled around. A filthy man in a
torn and bloody white shirt shuffled towards her. His eyes
glistened with the ruthless look of a killer. He flailed his arms
in front of him as though he were sleepwalking. Dark blood oozed
from a large gash across his chest.

The man lunged.

The bitter odor of his sour breath
stung her nostrils before she rolled out of the way. As she pushed
herself up, excruciating pain exploded in her calf, and she went
down again. The man clung to her leg with his teeth, as though her
calf was a piece of corn. He pulled back his head with incredible
force and tore off a piece of her mortal suit.

Kara cried out in pain as the man’s
teeth pierced her mortal flesh again. She kicked out madly and hit
the side of a crumbling wall with her boots. A shower of pebbles
and dust fell down onto them. She kept kicking. The wall quivered,
and a large rock fell onto the man’s head with a sickening crack.
He went down like a dead tree.

She froze. She had just killed a
mortal. Frozen in fear of what was going to happen to her, she
waited. Wails echoed into the night, and Kara waited.

The man lay on his side. His chest
rose and fell almost imperceptibly—he was still alive. Swiftly, she
patted herself down and peered through the darkness for any
irregularities. Everything seemed in its place. She was still
standing; she hadn’t vanished into oblivion.

Without a second thought,
Kara ran back towards the main entrance. She felt renewed strength
from her M-5 suit and soared over deranged mortals as though
jumping over hurdles in a hundred meter race. Angry shouts
of
kill
and
destroy
followed her as she ran on. Cold fingers groped at her, but
Kara pressed on harder.

She searched for her friends
frantically. The veil of darkness lifted slightly as she passed the
large arched entryway. Jenny and Peter stood on a partial wall. A
throng of enraged mortals threw themselves repeatedly at the wall
below them. Foaming from their mouths, they wailed angry
unintelligible gibberish. They smashed at the stone border with
their fists, and rocks and dust poured down on them in sheets of
grey. The wall cracked. An entire edge of stone slipped and
crumbled down toward them. Jenny screamed as she jumped out of the
way. Peter took her hand in his, and they retreated further into
the corner, their eyes wide with fear.

David appeared suddenly behind the
mortals.

“
Hang on, people. I’ll
distract the zombies,” he called out. With a sinister look in his
eye, he jumped in the air and waved his arms like a mad man. “Hey,
hot guy over here!”

The mob turned slowly towards his
voice, and he pointed to himself. “That’s right, these good looks
are killer. You wanna piece of me?” David smacked his behind.
“Yeah? Then come and get me!”

Heads twitched and limbs flailed in a
jagged line dance. With a cacophony of rasping moans they focused
their maddened eyes on David.

And then they lunged.

“
Crap. They’re smarter than
I thought.” David laughed hysterically as he turned and sprinted
away from Jenny and Peter, but towards Kara. The bloody murderous
throng followed closely behind him.

“
What are you doing?”
Kara’s eyes widened as David approached her. “You’re bringing them
straight to me!”

David ran past her. “Sorry!” He
galloped ahead into the shadows of the courtyard. “It was the only
thing I could think of to get them off Jenny and Peter,” he yelled
back.

With a frustrated sigh, Kara turned
and ran to catch up. She stole a look behind her. The seething mass
of mortals still thundered towards them. Their mad wails gave her
goose bumps. It was like a nightmare in which a horde of zombies
chased her through the streets of her hometown. But this was no
nightmare.

How could the entire village have gone
completely mad? Who had done this to these poor people? How was it
even possible?

A name burned on the inside of her
forehead.

Lilith.

“
What’s your master plan,
genius?” Kara followed David around the edges of the massive
courtyard. Roars filled the air behind them.

“
Me?” David yelled as he
ran. “I don’t have one; I thought you did. You’re the one with the
brains, not me.”

“
That’s just great! So what
did you think? That we’d just run around the castle forever and
hope they’d fall over—dead of exhaustion?”

“
Hey! That’s a good plan.
That way we don’t have to hurt them.” David’s white teeth gleamed
in the moonlight. “I knew you’d think of something, babe. Let’s go
with that.”

“
That’s not a plan, and
don’t call me that.” Kara gritted her teeth as she ran. “We need to
think of something better.”

David easily soared over a large
boulder. “Well, let me know when it comes along. I’ll be right
here...running.”

Halfway across the courtyard, Kara’s
temper started to flare. “I can’t think of anything while I’m
running around like an idiot. We have to stop
somewhere.”

“
Okay, hang on.” David
looked around desperately and then pointed. “There. We’ll climb up
to Peter and Jenny.” Jenny and Peter waved frantically at them from
above the broken wall.

Kara nodded. It wasn’t the best plan,
but she needed to stop running in order to think. She stole another
look behind her. The demented mortals shuffled onward like gruesome
marionettes.

David swung up against the wall and
climbed it easily, as though he was a champion rock climber. He
reached the top and pressed his hands on his hips, looking around
proudly as Jenny and Peter rushed to greet him.

Kara drew herself up over the edge. A
hand wiggled in front of her eyes. David beamed down at her. “Take
my hand, milady. Rescuing you is my life’s purpose.”

Grudgingly, Kara wrapped her hand in
David’s, and he pulled her up onto the ledge in a tight embrace.
Their eyes were locked. David’s eyes danced mischievously, and his
lips curled dangerously close to hers. She felt herself leaning in
. . .