Taken (7 page)

“I had a vision that you might be in harm’s way, but what was odd about it was that I was in the mortal state still.”

“You had a vision in your mortal state?” Arie questioned.

I nodded.

“I completely respect what you’re saying, Cy,” Arie replied, as she grabbed his hand. “But I won’t stand on the outside while you all are in there. Just knowing that I need t
o be extra cautious is good enough. Besides, what if they planted that image so I was left here and they came for me whi
le you guys are at the hospital?
”

I couldn’t help the smile that spread across my lips. She was right and Cyril knew it too.

“My sister’s got a point,” Athen replied, his lips pressed together in a firm line. He didn’t like it anymore than Cyril.

Cyril started shaking his head, but not
before Arie popped up and sat o
n his lap.

“I’ll be fine
. We’ll all be fine. As a team,” she insisted.
“
W
here I come from evil doesn’t win.”
She winked at Cyril and nuzzled into him. She knew how to get her way.

“All right,” Cyril replied, but there wasn’t even a trace of a smile on his lips. Instead, worry framed his bro
w and his eyes carried a burden that was impossible to ignore.

“We
’ll be extra vigilant, Cy
,” I replied, grabbing a piece of paper.
“
And
you know you won’t be able to keep her out of there.”

“That I do,” Cyril replied, a hint of a grin began to surface.

“Okay
,
so here’s the plan from what I was able to see,” I said, sketching what my
mini
reconnaissance
mission provided.

“I think if we g
o in as one group and head to the tunnels that are under the city, we can take out anyone
who
is under there before we head to the protected area.” I pointed to the tunnel that I didn’t go down.

“I wonder if there’s a way to enter that tunnel system from the city,” Athen re
plied. “That might really put us
at an advantage.”

“Definitely something they wouldn’t be expecting,” Cyril seconded.

“There’s gotta be. Why else would it be going there?” I nodded in agreement.

“Let’s plan on trying to get in from
a
town entrance then. Now all we have to do is find it.” Athen said, placing his hand on my shoulder.

I laughed nervously, realizing just how close we were to getting involved with the other side tonight. The dark demons would stop at nothing once they figured out we had infiltrated their system.

“We better get on that,” I replied, shaking off
my
fatigue as best I could.

C
hapter 7

It was early evening and already
completely
dark. The town’s Christmas lights
twinkled in
every direction I looked and hope filled me
to the brim. We could take down these demons and this
town could finally be at peace…
though they didn’t
even
know they were at war.

Athen and Cyril were scouting the end closest to the town center while Arie and I were at the end with the
small
shops.

“You did not just do that?” Arie couldn’t stop laughing.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I picked up my shoe that fell off
and tapped the dirt gently out of it, doing my best not to laugh.
How I could trip on a curb
that I knew was there
.
I’d never
be able to understand how I
could fight with
the best of them, but my day-to-
day coordination
was atrocious.

“Should we try
looking near the park?” Arie asked
, trying to regain her composure. She
p
ointed
to the dark, vacant
space
at the end of the street.

“Might as well. So far we’ve struck out in the stores we’ve in
vestigated
.”

We walked down the sidewalk until it ended and
then
jogged over to the park. There were only a couple of lamp
posts
edging the property
, near the benches, and then a few in the middle where a
covered
picnic area was located.

“Did you feel that?” I asked, wiping at my forehead.

“It’s starting to snow,” Arie replied
completely giddy
.

“It hasn’t snowed this entire time
,
and then it decides to as
we are about to go underground,
” I
huffed.

“Well, hopefully it will be snowing
when we come back out as well. That is if we can even find the place to enter.”

I turned to look toward the lights and took in a deep breath. Even if it was only for a few moments, I wanted to enj
oy the beauty of the first snow
fall. The snowflakes were dancing gloriously
with the wind, and I suddenly wanted to be back home sitting by the Christmas tree.

“It’s hard to always do the right thing,” I joked, b
ut
sounded more like I was whining.
I held my hands out and caught a few snowflakes before we started walking through the park once more.

“I wonder if the guys have found anything yet,” Arie
mused
.

“What is that?” I ask
ed, walking toward the shrubbery. “It looks like there’s something behi
nd there going into the hill.”

“That’s peculiar,” she whispered.

“Yeah, it is.”

I shoved the perfectly trimmed Laurel bushes aside
to expose a cement
slab
propped on the hill.

“Bingo.” I couldn’t help but smile.

“Found it,”
I channeled to Athen.

“You did?”
he channeled back.

“Pretty sure,”
I replied back. I could feel his smile even though he was blocks away.

“On our way.”

“They’re on their way,” I told Arie. “I think this really is it.”

“Are you ready for whatever is on the other side of that?”

I shook my head. “But w
e have no choice. We can’t abandon the forgotten. It’s our duty to save the ones who can’t save themselves
whether we’re ready or not.”

“And are we ever really ready?” she laughed.

“No. Not really.”

“Nice work,” Cyril
hollered from behind.

“How’d you guys spot this?” Athen asked.

“It was Ana,” Arie chimed in.

“
No surprise there,” Athen teased.

“Hey,” Arie swatted her brother
,
and I couldn’t help but feel
satisfied
from my discovery. I might trip over my own two feet from time to time, but at least I was observant.

His lips arched into the smile I adored, and I could tell my discovery made him proud.

“It’s time.” I smiled at Athen
,
and
he
gave me a quick kiss on the top of my head.

“That it is,” he replied.
He looked back at Cyril. “Ready?”

“As I’ll ever be.”

Athen and Cyril
went
up to the concrete square and each took a
corner
, tossing
the block
to the side with one swing.
I walked up to the entrance and saw the gentle glow of lanterns
, but there were no demons in sight — at least no yet.

I turned to look at Athen and nodded.
I wanted to go in first.
He touched my shoulder as
I ducked into the tunnel.
The tunnels walls
were
compacted soil
with support beams in place every few feet, which is
where the lanterns hung. A well-
worn track was dug into the floor
from the dark demons footprints. This tunnel was actively used
,
and I would be surprised if I didn’t run into a dark demon or two.
My movements
were muffled
by the dirt walls that acted as insulation. B
ut that also made it more difficult to detect if any others were
hiding
around any of the corners.

Cyril and Athen slid the concrete door back over the opening and Arie followed behind me.
My heart was beating quickly. Coming up on
a fully functioning operation
was always the hardest part.
Seeing them before they saw us was crucial
to success
.

I crept along the tunnel and slowed once I came upon the first T-section. Athen had caugh
t up with me and was by my side as I slid my body along the dirt wall.
The tunnel wasn’t lit with any lanterns
,
and I didn’t feel the presence of any demons, but I couldn’t depend on that alone.

I stepped toward the opening, readying myself for whatever I might find and was relieved to see absolutely nothing but a collapsed tunnel.
Mounds of dirt with a few support beams
sticking out
proved to be an important reminder
of what else could go wrong underground.

“That’s not comforting,”
Athen channeled.

“No it’s not,”
I replied back in our silent speech.

I continued down the main tunnel
with Athen next to me and Cyril and Arie behind us. A slight vibration
could be felt coming down the tunnel
but
mostly
silence remained.
My pulse quickened to a pace that told me we were almost there.
I could feel the wickedness
in the air like
it was something tangible and it was.

A
sour odor began
surfacing, not u
nlike the one Arie and
I
stumbled upon. As a white d
emon, none of us should encounter the same watery eyes and dry cough that nagged us
in our mortal persona.

I looked over at Athen and he
smirked, crinkling
his nose in dist
aste
,
and I couldn’t help but chuckle internally as he tried
to lighten the mood
.

We walked a few more steps
,
and chanting
could be heard in the distance
. The activity was
a
live
and well
.
We all stopped and Cyril nodded his head at Arie. She was going to lag behind for a few minutes and jump in once needed.
I’m sure
Cyril was hoping
she’d stay put, but neither of us ever waited on the sidelines.

Athen and I slowly
snaked our way th
rough the tunnel with Cyril a few steps behind
. As we approached the
room that
had
I scouted out earlier
,
my adrenaline began pumping. This was it — our time to shine.

I looked over at Athen and he mouthed, “I
love you…be safe.”

I smiled and mouthed, “Love you too,” before I
inched along the wall leading into the opening.

Everyone that I
saw
had their eyes closed as they were humming along to
a song I didn’t recognize
.
The
re were
flames in the center of the room
that threw off so much heat it was almost
unbearable
. Through the flames, I spotted an outline of a dark demon
, dressed in a black robe with
arms
raised to the ceiling. He had to be the leader of this ritual.
It was only a matter of time before he felt our presence, if he didn’t already.

I leapt toward a dugout in the dirt wall, landing
quietly
as I steadied myself for my next move
. I glanced at Athen who had managed to sneak to the opposite side of the room.
His startling green eyes
glowed across the space
, no doubt signaling
which
side we were on.

Cyril was crouched in the entry,
patiently
waiting for the moment that someone lunged toward him.
Once I disrupt the circle the action should begin.
A surge of excitement ran
through me
,
and I knew the time had come.

There were about thirty dark dem
ons surrounding the flames.
I nodded at Athen and dove into the
three demons closest to me
, taking them by surprise.
I ripped the hood off
one
and shoved my elbow into
his
throat
.
The black mist began to escape from his shell as t
he demon next to him
reached up to grab me, but I used his arm and
cracked
the
third demon
standing next to him with it. I
completed a
roundhouse
kick into the remaining demon’s chest
, watching him drop
. The black mist escaped from all three bodies as I
saw
Athen soar over the crowd of dem
ons, landing next to the leader — their Master.

“You think you two can destroy this?” the Master demon yelled, pointing at
his
fellowship
with pride.

“I can make the earth move,”
his
voice growled,
“
t
he skies cry, and the oceans crash all
by
my command.”

His glowing red eyes stared right through Athen
.
None of the dark demons in the room moved. They were waiting for a
signal
from their
Master
.

“Do you really think you can stop me?” he asked, a sardonic laugh surfacing.

“I
know
we can stop you,” I snarled, my fingers itching to take him out.

“It’s not only me you need to stop.” He grinned. “Thi
s buil
ding has a heart, a pulse.
Only taking us out will do nothing to stop my living creation from thriving
, growing
. This building has a soul, in fact.”

“A soul?” Athen
snapped. “You can’t steal souls from o
thers and expect to recreate a giant one
.”

“But I already have. That’s the problem with you white demons. You underestimate the power of our side.
In fact,
I’ll give you a little proposal. I
f you let us continue our activities and just move along, I’ll forget this ever happened. I’ll let you out of here as you came in, that is
…
intact,” the Master continued. “If you’re foolish enough to try to fight, well then I can make no guarantees.
”