Sinister Seraphim of Mine (Overworld Chronicles Book 8) (26 page)

Elyssa stopped chewing her bacon and looked at me. "Huh?"

"Mom just sent me a text." I showed it to her.

"We need specifics before we rush across the world."

Shelton and Bella emerged from the kitchen, plates piled high with pancakes.

"I call dibs on a whole plate," Shelton said. "Nothing like cooking breakfast to work up an appetite."

My stomach growled and not just from hunger.
Who's attacking you? Where?
I sent the text.

The reply came back after several gut-wrenching minutes.
Battle mages, vampires. Templar compound.
Another message came through, this one with a picture of a room in the Templar compound for us to portal to.

We're on the way.

"Pack your bags," I said. "We've got to help the Australian Templars fight off an assault."

"What?" Shelton looked heartbroken. "But—but—pancakes!"

"Oh, Harry, I'll bring the pancakes with us." Bella shooed him away with her hands. "Go put on your fighting clothes."

Shelton grabbed a pancake and shoved it in his mouth before running upstairs. I followed him and detoured into mine and Elyssa's room. She was already there, a packed duffel in one hand, swords slung across her back, and her Nightingale armor on.

"You sure get ready fast for a woman." I tore off my shorts and T-shirt and put a belt of thin fabric around my waist. A touch on the seam caused the fabric to spread across my body, forming the protective armor. I grabbed a katana, my wand, and staff just in case and ran back downstairs with Elyssa.

Shelton rushed down the stairs a moment later, slinging on his leather duster. Bella emerged from the kitchen with a satchel while Cutsauce yipped and hopped, obviously hoping to get at the food inside.

"Ready?" I asked.

"Let's roll." Shelton snapped his staff down to compact size and put it in a holster at his waist.

We ran down the stairs to the omniarch. My heart pounded in my chest. Why in the world had Daelissa decided to attack the Australian Templars now of all times? Had the closings of the Grotto and Queens Gate been some sort of feint?

"We'll need to keep the portal open since there's no one else here to reopen it once we're gone," Elyssa said.

I hardly heard Shelton's response because I was too busy staring at the image on my phone. Picturing the destination in my mind, I willed the omniarch to open a portal there. The air between the arch columns split, displaying the destination exactly as it looked in the picture. I stepped forward. An arm stopped me.

"Let's make sure this isn't some kind of trick," Elyssa said.

"A trick?" I gave her a confused look. "Why would my mom trick me?"

She gripped my hand. "Someone might have captured her and used her phone to lure you through."

As usual, my tactical-thinking girlfriend was several steps ahead of me.

Ivy appeared on the other side of the portal. "Justin, why are you all standing there?" She stepped through. Her face was flushed and she was breathing heavily. "Mom sent me to wait for you."

I hugged my sister. "You're okay!"

The girl struggled free of my hug. "For now, but there's a whole bunch of meanies trying to kill us." She looked around at the group. "Don't just stand there, let's go!"

"Obviously not a trap," Shelton said. "Just a good old-fashioned full-frontal assault."

I followed Ivy through the portal and into the small room from the picture Mom had sent.

"This is an underground bunker," Ivy said. "Mom wanted you to have a safe place to arrive."

"Nothing beats underground bunkers," Shelton said, watching Bella as she set down the satchel of food.

Ivy hardly paused a beat before running up a long flight of steps. The rest of us followed. Already, I heard the sounds of battle. Explosions, cries of pain, and people shouting commands reached my ears.

We reached a small domed room. Ivy opened the door to the outside. "Over there!" She pointed across a wide grass courtyard to a tall stone wall where a woman in a flowing white dress blasted a bolt of magic toward an unseen enemy below the walls.

"Is this a real castle?" Shelton asked.

"Totally!" Ivy said.

A woman in Templar armor appeared. "Are you the reinforcements we were promised?" She looked extremely disappointed.

"Two Arcanes, a Templar, and a—" Elyssa looked at me for a long moment before shaking her head. "I don't know how to classify him, but that's his mom up there." She indicated Alysea.

"Bloody good," the woman said, relief evident on her face. "I'm Commander Taylor. We need the Arcanes on our southern wall." She glanced at the swords on Elyssa's back. "We've got a breach in the east wall. Can you help there?"

"I'm on it." Elyssa gave me a quick kiss. "I love you. Go forth and kick ass."

"You too."

She sped away.

"Which way is south?" Shelton asked.

Bella gripped his arm and turned him in the right direction. "Let's go blow up some bad guys."

Shelton gave me a look as Bella led him off. "I just hope these guys don't have a wheelbarrow and a holocaust cloak on them, or we're in real trouble."

"What about me?" I asked.

"The battle mages are concentrated outside the north wall where Alysea is." Taylor nodded her head toward it and started jogging there. "If we stand a hope of repulsing the vampires, we have to stop the battle mages, but I need most of our Arcanes to hold back the horde of vampires threatening our flank."

I ran up a series of ramps to the wall walk—the walkway at the top of castle walls. I'd fought so many battles in fake castles thanks to my live-action role playing days, I felt my inner nerd wake up and rejoice despite the deadly reality of the situation. Arcane Templars lined the walls, but none of them seemed to be doing much more than ducking as bolts of magical energy flew overhead.

Mom saw me coming. With one hand, she threw up a shield as a flurry of magical attacks sizzled through the air, some flying wide of us, others burning gouges in the stone parapet. She smiled. "Son, I'm glad you could come."

I looked over the battlements and felt my eyes bug. "What—how?" I couldn't find the words to ask the question for a moment as I looked down at hundreds upon hundreds of battle mages. "Where did Daelissa get so many of them?"

"I have no idea." Mom winced as a massive sphere of boiling green energy splashed against her shield. "They're using aether generators to project shields and increase the distance they can cast spells. I'm not having much luck stopping them."

My eyes found a large flying carpet near the back of the attacking mages. A large tarp covered whatever was on it, but it was evident from the shape that it was tall. "What's that?"

"Probably something awful," Ivy said.

I projected a shield of Murk to give Mom a break and looked down at the formation of the attackers. The castle walls looked about thirty feet high. The bulk of attackers stood about fifty yards out. I knew from experience the distance lessened the damage of their spells. The further they had to travel, the more the aether in the spell dissipated until it completely unraveled. Their aether generators gave their spells the extra power they needed to hit us.

Several Templars appeared, carrying a large black box with a pull cord on it. One of them jerked the pull cord and started it. "We can't spare another aether generator to help with your shields," the man said.

"Shouldn't a Templar compound have lots of these?" I asked.

"Sabotage." The Templar scowled. "Someone destroyed most of them just before the battle started."

"There are apparently those who don't like the idea of us joining the Borathens," said another man next to him. He flicked a switch on the generator. "The shield is in place. We've got to get the rest of the units positioned before it's too late."

Ivy clenched her hands. "When can I start blasting, Mom?"

"You'll only tire yourself for no good reason," Mom said. "I've tried punching through their shields, but it hasn't done any good."

"Why haven't they just rushed the place?" I asked. I watched as one of the attackers pushed a shield generator to the front line and left it next to several others. A horn bellowed and as one, the mages began pushing a row of generators forward while the carpet with the hidden object drifted toward the front.

My stomach knotted. "I shouldn't have opened my big mouth." I switched to incubus vision. Shimmering domes came into view as the magical energy of the shields became visible to me. Lines of shimmering aether connected the shields to the generators. The secret doomsday device beneath the tarp grew closer and closer. I noticed it did not have a shield around it, at least not yet. Once it reached the front line where the generators were, it would be completely covered.

Fifty yards was a long ways away, but I had to know what was under that tarp. Aiming at one of the tethers, I channeled a thin beam of Brilliance. It lanced forth and singed the grass just in front of the carpet. I corrected my aim and worked it back and forth across the tether. Someone in the ranks of the army below shouted. One of the figures raised a staff and threw up a shield. Just before it intercepted my beam, the tether broke.

With an intense force of will, I blasted a wall of Murk forward. A great wind resulted, blowing back the hoods of battle mages and capturing the tarp over the mystery object like a parachute. "Come on," I breathed. "Show me the money."

The tarp flew up just enough to flash a tall silver tower ringed with coils of shiny copper. My heart stopped. "An interdictor."

"A what?" Mom looked confused.

I spat out a quick description. "If we don't destroy that thing before they activate it, none of us will be able to channel magic."

"They'll be able to use magic but we won't?" Ivy said, her face in shock. "That's not fair!"

"It's too far away," Mom said. "And the shields—"

Several hovering catapults, which had been concealed behind the interdictor, fanned out into formation. Mages vanished behind the interdictor and returned with glass spheres the size of boulders affixed to the ends of their staffs. Blue fire raged within each of the globes. The attackers deposited the glass balls into the cupped arms of the catapults. A horn sounded and the mages wheeled their staffs toward the castle. The catapult arms swung forward and the fire-filled spheres arced toward us.

I instinctively knew the aether generator shield wouldn't protect us and enclosed us inside a sphere of Murk. Explosions shook the wall. Templars cried out as blue fire consumed them or the concussions threw them from the wall. One of the spheres landed directly on my shield. The echoing boom deafened me for an instant. Cracks formed in the shield.

I gritted my teeth. "We've got to do something. Their attacks were just to keep us occupied long enough for them to get their siege engines in position and activate the interdictor."

"What's the range on it?" Mom asked.

I shrugged. "A device that large might cover half a mile, or two miles. I have no idea." I looked around at the injured and stunned Templars on the wall near us. "These people are going to die if we don't do something to stop those catapults.

"I can help," Ivy said, eyes bright. "Stop channeling the shield."

I looked up to be sure another volley of spheres weren't about to crash down on us. The sky looked momentarily clear, so I did as she asked.

We looked over the parapet just as the attackers sent another wave at us. The shimmering globes hit the top of their arch and came down. Ivy wiggled her fingers, narrowed her eyes, and balled her fists. Her eyes glowed and her forehead pinched with concentration.

I watched as the deadly globes fell toward us. While I might save Mom and Ivy with another shield, other nearby defenders would be killed.

Ivy aimed her fists skyward and blasted a globe with a beam of Brilliance. The explosion ignited another sphere right next to it. Ivy blew apart nearly every projectile before it hit, causing the energy inside to dissipate harmlessly in the air. She couldn't stop them all, though. Three of them crashed atop the wall walk, sending at least one person flying off the wall and into the courtyard below.

The interdictor reached the shield generators and the mages threw off the tarp revealing the towering Tesla coil beneath. In an act of desperation, I shot a beam of destruction at it. The energy hit the shields, causing them to warp and shimmer, but try as I might, I couldn't pierce them.

"Retreat!" I shouted to the remaining defenders. "Get off the walls now!"

The Templars regarded me with confusion. They obviously wondered who I was and what gave me the authority to signal a retreat. Mom sent a flare of red energy flying high over the wall. Without a word, the Templars retreated.

"We've got to take out that interdictor." I ran down the ramps with Mom and Ivy close on my heels. "The only way I know how is to directly attack them."

"Suicide," Mom said. "I could hold a shield against their attacks for a short period of time, but what if they switch on the device?"

"We'd be chicken-fried angels," Ivy said, lips twisted in a frustrated look.

A young Templar ran toward us as we reached the bottom of the ramps. "Commander Taylor said they've closed the breach and driven back the vampire horde. She wants to know why you signaled retreat."

I gave him the quick list. "Every Arcane we have is about to become powerless."

His eyes filled with horror. "We can't stop that many battle mages."

"Go tell the commander," Mom said. "We've got to figure out something."

I spotted Elyssa running toward us. She was covered in dark blood, though none of it seemed to be hers. "I saw the flare," she panted. "What happened?"

"They have an interdictor and more battle mages than I can count. Hundreds at least." I blew out an angry breath. "We won't be able to channel magic." Once that happened, we were good as dead.

Chapter 25

Elyssa grimaced. "An interdictor and hundreds of battle mages?" She raced toward the ramps. "Let me take a look."