Chosen (The Chosen Few Trilogy #1) (12 page)

Felicia slowed. I came up beside Belinda who was bouncing on the balls of her feet.

Standing in Holly’s doorway was a tall woman with eastern-European features.

“Hi,” Belinda said warily. “And you would be?”

The woman gave us a sly smile. “I would be Ashka. One of the six Destroyers of the world.”

Felicia padded to her left, Belinda fanned right. I remained where I was, merely a distraction. A heavy tension fell over us and I felt an utterly surreal mom
ent. Here we stood in a sunlit
garden in the heart of York, surrounded by the steady hum of traffic and the constant din of the everyday world, yet we might as well have been in a different dimension. A death scent of savage intentions infused the air, giving me a rush of adrenalin and a feeling of self-preservation stronger than anything I had ever known.

I didn’t take my eyes off Ashka but I was aware of every movement Belinda and Felicia made through my peripheral vision. I stopped breathing when the
killer’s
eyes fixed on me. They were dark, but even in the daylight I could see they were flecked with red. Bright with e
vil desire. I suddenly felt
vulnerable and very foolish. What the hell had I been thinking?

Holly. My friend.

Belinda said, “You made a fatal mistake coming here, you big-boned demon-slut bitch.”

I grimaced.
There was n
othing like the attitude of Belinda Janus to ease the tension.
She was the best at what she did, and I have to admit that I was perversely fascinated to see her unleashed.

Ashka took a step forward to set her balance. Confidence shone like a challenge from her hellish eyes.

She pulled out two short knives from the waistband of her jeans.

Belinda tried to taunt her again. “Only three inches, darling?”

She was playing for time. Myleene had
dispatched
a second car to help us. The Elf, Eleanor, was three minutes away. It spoke volumes for Ashka that someone like Belinda, with Felicia backing her up, was stalling until help arrived.

The smile that darkened Ashka’s face could have eclipsed the sun. “You will feel every inch, girl, believe me.”

The door behind Ashka opened and Holly stood there. “Dean? Dean, what’s-”

Too close.
No!

Everything went crazy. Ashka spun at Holly, slashing, and I saw blood spatter the white door, but then Ashka spun right back as she
realized
that both Belinda and Felicia had struck. I gaped in disbelief, hardly able to comprehend how fast they moved. Belinda
leapt
at Ashka with a flying kick, falling purposely short, then landing and spinning in one fluid movement, her trailing leg stuck out to trip her adversary. This was all designed so Felicia, coming in low, could rip at Ashka with sharp fingernails, aiming for a tendon or a vein.

Ashka backed away. She evaded Belinda’s sweep, then somersaulted over Felicia, landing poised and un-flustered.

Her movements brought her to within eight feet of me. I could count the blood-red whorls in her eyes. Then Belinda was there, assailing Ashka with a series of elbow, knee and palm strikes, each one aimed to kill. Through all her defence Ashka somehow found a millisecond to flick a knife towards Holly which Felicia incredibly intercepted. Holly was down on one knee. I could see blood on her hands. In that instant I accepted that none of this was a ‘capture’ scenario. This, and everything that was happening all over the world, was a fight to the death.

In that instant, I accepted it all.

Something inside me began to swell. I staggered, feeling nauseous.

Belinda kept up the attack, not only to keep Ashka away from me but also to buy time. The second car couldn’t be far away now.

I took deep breaths, trying to keep my breakfast down. A flare of embarrassment lit my face. God, Belinda shouldn’t see me like this. What the hell-?

Then a pleasant sensation began to pool in the pit of my stomach. I lifted my face. Energy flowed through my limbs. I felt rejuvenated,
energized
, as if I’d been given new batteries.

Six feet away Belinda and Felicia struck viciously at Ashka, but I could sense that the Destr
oyers attention was fixed
on me. She was using their efforts against them, being driven in my direction.

She had used Holly to draw me out.

Suddenly Ashka threw her head back and screamed. Raw energy lit her face as if a floodlight had been turned on inside, sending her skin almost translucent.
P
ower shot from her in a twisting bolt of black that made her hair stand on end.

“I am Malevolence!”
she screamed. “
All who oppose me will shudder and die!”

The wonderful sensation trickling through me suddenly stopped. Ashka flung her hands in the air and suddenly her body was wreathed in black flame. I felt something strike my mind, a dark comet
of
terrifying images. From nowhere
came
a vision of Lucy, a sickening vision of my daughter lying helpless, alone, her veins opened up,
and her
body dried out, a grimace of terror stretched across her white face. Her lips moved in a final breath, and I had to strain to make out that last word:
dad…

I staggered, landed on my hip. A jolt of pain shot through me. I held my head in my hands as it threatened to explode.

Lucy! No!

A headache threatened to split my head open.

“It’s her power!” I heard Belinda’s tortured voice cry. “She…she’s Malevolence. She shows you your worst fear!”

I put my hands on the ground, feeling the soft, real earth. Already the Lucy-vision was fading. A pair of feet landed softly in front of me. I lifted my head.

Ashka was right there. She said, “So you are Logan. I have come around the world to take your pathetic body apart, sliver by rotting sliver.”

I knelt before her, rooted to the spot. Where was my power? Where was my
fucking
power when I
needed it? The Lucy-vision had struck hard and Ashka gave me no time to recover.

Hands wreathed in black fire reached for me. I stared into her face, into her glistening, sinful eyes, and I couldn’t look away.

Death
laughed
at me.

I heard: “
No
!”
and
Belinda landed a
kick on Ashka’s spine, sending her staggering past me. Now I saw Felicia raising herself from the ground, a haunted look on her face. Then she too launched herself at Ashka.

“Keep her off balance,” one of them said. “She can’t cast if she’s too busy to think.”

And then Eleanor arrived too. My God, if I’d thought the others were fast then the elf was a rapid freak of nature. Dealing out two blows for every one of Belinda’s she forced the evil Destroyer back across the garden towards the tree line.

I watched, awestruck. Eleanor led the attack, complimented by Belinda on her right and Felicia on the left. Working together as a unit they ensured Ashka was simply too
pre
occupied with self-
preservation to be able to fling any more incapacitating visions our way.

A moment later Ashka
took
hefty blows from three sides, which
ga
ve her that precious second
needed
to summon her fire. She fell heavily, but then black flame exploded all around her and I cringed as a devastating bombardment of mental assaults floored us all.

But this time it was different. This time I saw Belinda
.
Why?
I almost w
ept as I saw the dynamic
blonde crawling through a heap of severed limbs and plague-riddled corpses, a chain looped around her neck, and a fiery demon holding the handle of her leash, standing behind her with a wicked sword held high.

A demon?
A
terrible thought swept th
rough me as the vision fell
away.
What if this is a premonition?

In another second I raised my he
ad to see the others gaining
their feet. But Ashka was gone. She had u
sed the vision-attack as a
diversion.

She had chosen to fight another day.

I took a breath. Around me the simple hum of city traffic
and normal life
continued. How different it was here, in our deadly circle of the world.

Belinda regarded me with haunted eyes. What had
she
seen? Felicia and Eleanor stared at each other in horror. And I could hear Holly crying.

Please don’t let them be premonitions.

1
8

YORK, ENGLAND

We wasted no time bundling Holly into Belinda
’
s A
udi, then heading back to Aegis
. I asked Holly to wait for explanations. After what she
’
d just witnessed she was in no state to argue. The knife had
ripped her
forearm
open.

I sa
t in silence the whole way back. I
wonder if my latent ability had surfaced briefly.
If so, it had failed
.

“Those
damn visions nearly killed me;"
Belinda
’
s eyes met mine in the rear view.
The false vision of Lucy
’
s last breath threatened to overwhelm me.

“And Ashka’s only one of six Destroyers against us.” Felicia shivered as if trying to shake of the memory.

And beyond that was their
God.
The world was falling apart as we sat talking and planning
and hoping our powers would surface.

I
couldn’t
handle any of it right now. I sat and chewed my nails to the quick. I compelled it all to go away.

Once back at the house I found and hugged Lucy like I hadn
’
t seen her in months and then, ignoring everyone else, I took her and a freshly bandaged Holly up to my room. We sat on the bed and stared at each other in silence.

“
Nice place,
”
Holly said, meaning the house itself.
“
One of York
’
s darker secrets?
”

I tried a smile, but it didn’t quite touch my face. Holly looked even more scared. Holly was short, with flame red hair and a vivacious smile. Her spirit was strong, a glowing flame that usually roared, sometimes wavered, but could never be blown out.  I stood up and walked over to the window and spent a moment looking down at the sprawling garden
s. I hesitated, then looked
over my shoulder at Lucy.

“
Give her the low-down, Luce.
”
I said
. To explain any of it would make it starkly real.

And if some of it was real, then
all
of it was real
, and
some world-saving power existed inside me
. A power that would fail. And
it meant that Ashka’s visions could also be real.

I let it all wash over me, listening distractedly as Lucy enlightened my best friend. The excitement in her voice passed me by, as did Holly’s amazement, her disbelief, her slow acceptance. I didn
’
t even look around when a new vampire was brought into the room as final, irrefutable proof. I heard her name- Mai, but barely noticed the odd tone in my
daughter’s
voice that said this new vampire wasn’t a total stranger to her.

I made a call. Checked in with Tom. The business was scraping by.

At that moment the door opened and Belinda sauntered in. She had changed back into her leather pants and a new t-shirt. This one read:
everyone loves a woody!
I tried not to laugh, but stared, whilst trying not to.

I cleared my throat. How could I hide in my room when Belinda just waltzed in without knocking?
“
Did you want something?
”

“
Thought I
’
d let you know, honey muffin. Another one of the Eight just joined the party. Devon Summers, from Maui.
”

“
She
’
s Hawaiian?
”
Lucy asked with sudden interest. It was the only place she
’
d ever wanted to visit. Something to do with palm trees, open air malls, Waikiki Beach, Jack from Lost, Sawyer from Lost
…
you get the picture.

“
The healer?
”
A foreboding suddenly crept through me. Devon Summers had embraced her power. Mine had deserted me.