Judgement (The Twelve) (12 page)

A f
eline howl of rage hissed from the cloud that solidified into a
solid
black
mass
of a female
outline
. The thing staggered back away from Chris, where his hands had
touched; there
were now twin holes
in the shape of his hands and
he could see clearly through
the creature
to the room beyond
. Smoke shaped hands clutched at the cleansed areas, it howled again in rage but also extreme pain. In the next moment it broke apart and disappeared out of the window and was gone.

All Bulls Eye could say was, “
Well you don’t see that every day
!”

Patch crossed herself, “Amen to that!”

It was at that moment, as Chris stood there staring in amazement at his hands.
The skin had turned jet black and was totally numb to the touch. He willed them to heal and as usual they did
, gritting his teeth against the pain
. It was at this point
He realised that the house had gone quiet. Bulls Eye helped Patch to her feet and together, the three of them stepped out onto the landing. Huntress stood there with her last arrow notched
to her drawn bow. After a second, she slowly released the tension and removed the arrow. Glancing back over her shoulder, she gave them a quick once over, “First attack over.”  She stated.

Making there way downstairs, it looked as if a bomb had exploded in nearly every room, b
i
ts and pieces of furniture lay everywhere. Even the door to the living room was hanging off its hinges. Chris could see that a thick layer of ash covered
everywhere
.

Anvil
strode out of the
kitchen
into the hallway, grey ash swirled around each step
he took
,

“Bastards
put up
one heck of
a fight.”
He shook ash from the head of his hammer.

Priest was nursing a cut over his left eye, “Agreed.”
The cut healed when he mumbled a prayer.

The front room that Priest had been in looked as if a giant wrecking ball had rolled around and around several times before bursting out through the window which was not only smashed and missing its frame but several feet of brick wall.

“They sent thirty Shades and several Ghouls in through the window. I’m afraid I’ve messed the place up somewhat.” Priest was covered in ash and rotting bits of flesh.

Slash had blood dripping down from his left hand, Chris could see he had a rip in the leather sleeve high up on his
right
arm. “Good job I can throw with both hands.”
It was a joke that fell flat.

Huntress walked over to
him,” Let
me see that.”

She examined the rip, “
Looks bad or you’d be healing by now.”

Slash shrugged his shoulder, “
You know it always takes me longer to heal than you lot. Hey h
ow bad
? I’ve only got the one bloody arm.
”

She looked him in the eye, “Y
ou’ll need a new jacket.”

“Thanks a bunch.”
Slash looked slightly hurt.

Huntress playfully slapped his cheek, “Joking.
I think you’ll need a few
of our fast dissolving
stitches.
It’s a deep wound, but with the stitches it should heal by morning.
”

Whilst she was seeing to Slash, Hot Cross was talking to Rage, “See me fry them big boy.”

Rage cracked his
knuckles,” Too
busy smashing heads to look.”

Hot Cross allowed a
feeble
ark of blue electricity
to
flash from hand to hand, “I need to re-charge before they attack again.”
He walked over to a power socket and held one hand over the plug holes.

Sparks flashed up and along his arm, “Ah that’s better.”

Rage looked over to Priest
and the dried blood which moments ago was a two inch gash
,” How you let a Shade
or a Ghoul
do that to you man?”

Priest touched the
dried blood
,” Wasn’t a Shade. I walked into the hall and some idiot threw the coffee table at me.”

Rage looked embarrassed,” Was kicking Shade, he moved
into hall, I followed with table, he ducked sorry
.”

Speed
fluttered nervously around the room, “Saw you squash
dozens
against the wall Priest man. Splat! Just before the table got you.”

Chris noticed Speed’s face was flushed bright red, so did
Anvil
. “Speed go sit down, you’re overheating again. You know if you get to hot you only have a fit and we don’t need that right now.”

Speed sat
down on the floor with his back against the wall
.
Chris could actually see a heat haze coming up off his head.
Patch went into the kitchen and came back with a water bottle which she threw to Speed. He nodded his thanks,
gulping the water down quickly, “Got
too many to count.”

Anvil
asked each one for a battle report. It appeared they had destroyed
one hundred and
eighty
Shades
and a dozen Ghouls
before the rest suddenly broke off the attack.

Huntress was retrieving her arrows from the hallway, “First time so many Ghouls sent in as well.”

Chris asked Patch, “What the hell was a Ghoul.”

“Something Edge uses. He gets the bodies from the graveyards. They can be harder to kill than a Shade but move around in Real time, so he’s reluctant to use many.”

“But how
...”

Patch shushed him
and
held her hand up again
to get
Anvils
attention
,
explain
ing
about Ghost
s
arriv
al
.
Anvil
was angry she hadn’t called him.

“You were busy, just like all the rest. Besides Bulls Eye was riddling her with holes, it slowed her up some.
Besides she can’t kill me yet. Wars not officially declared.
”

“
Why did you
let her envelop you
,
I thought you where quicker than that.”

Her face went a deep shade of red. Chris guessed the answer straight away.

“I think she was
distracted
looking after me
.”

Priest tut tutted
,”
Good job Bulls Eye
drove her away.”

“I couldn’t get a shot off without
hitting
Patch
.
”

Anvil
looked confused,” Then what….”

Quickly Patch explained what Chris had done to the Dark One called Ghost. Priest blessed himself again when she’s finished
,
“Judgement.”

Anvil
nodded, “
Let’s hope t
here won’t be any more attacks tonight. Edge will be spending most of it
healing
Ghost
and he hates letting
Shadow
take charge of an attack
.
Did he get involved in the fighting?”

Priest shook his head, “Stayed outside, controlled the Shades. Ran off when Ghost was injured.”

He
walked over to Chris and shook his
hand,” Welcome
to the
team kid, excuse me, Judgement.”

Anvil slapped a hand on Chris’s shoulder, “
Tomorrow we move to a new home and you get to see Alina and Alfredo
.”

Chris looked around at Anvils people,
“More members of the team
.
I thought you said there can only be twelve?”

Slash
explained
, “
Not like us mate, different. They’re
our
blooming
tailors
!
Now will someone please stitch up this damn cut before I bleed to death
.
”

Speed slid to a stop in front of
Slash
, his hands moved in a bl
ur
of action, when he’s finished not only was
Slash’s
cut stitched but also his leather jacket.
He smiled and was gone in a blink of an eye.

Slash
started to thank him, when he bellowed, “Speed you idiot, you’ve stitched the jacket into the wound!”

Speed was
outside checking the perimeter, h
is r
eply drifted in from outside the open back door
, “You never take the
God
damn thing off so stop griping.
Now leave me alone, got to be
on point duty in case they attack again
.”

Priest
bellowed loudly
to one and all
,”
Will you all bloody well stop blaspheming!”

Chris
ignored him as he spoke to
Anvil
,”
Now will
I get to wear
Leather?”