Mystics 3-Book Collection (17 page)

Zoey’s question was interrupted by a booming
siren.

The ground shook as the sound blasted
through the academy. It was like a bomb had exploded. The
operatives froze in silent terror.

“What’s happening?” Zoey shouted over the
deafening alarm.

Tristan shook his head and yelled, “That’s
the central alarm. I think we’re under attack!”

A
gent Vargas pulled
a large gun from under his shirt.

“Everyone! Stay inside the room! Nobody
leaves this room until I come back!”

And with that, he sprinted out the door
faster than Zoey thought a man his size could move.

“What do we do now?” Simon paced around the
room and pulled at his hair. “This isn’t a drill—this is the real
deal—isn’t it? I think I’m going to be sick.”

“You’re not going to be sick, Simon,”
scolded Zoey. “Just hang on. Agent Vargas will be back, and he’ll
tell us what’s going on. Meanwhile, we wait.”

The siren stopped.

They heard screams. Then a monstrous roar,
like the growl of a dinosaur, sounded just outside their room. The
ground shook as though an earthquake had hit, and then Zoey could
feel the booming thumps of something massive approaching the
room.

The door blasted off its hinges and hit the
floor with a thunderous bang. A beast the size of a bull walked
through. Its muscles bulged, but its wet red raw-looking skin
looked like it was decomposing. It had a long neck and the body of
a reptile, with four legs and black talons. It searched the room
with dull gray eyes. Zoey was horrified to think that the red
stains on the rows of pointy yellow teeth in its huge maw might be
blood from its victims. Three other little necks with angry
snapping jaws grew out from the base of its neck like a necklace.
They moved around like little snakes with milk-white eyes. If the
big mouth didn’t get you, then the backup mouths would. The
classroom reeked of rotten flesh.

Zoey’s blood turned to ice. She had never
seen anything so terrifying.

“What is that?” whispered Simon. He took a
step behind Tristan.

“A Krakenite,” answered Tristan.

“They’re killers who like to tear the meat
off their victims. I know that they don’t see very well, and that
they rely mostly on their sense of smell. They’re hostile
mystics.”

“No—you think?” said Simon sarcastically,
his voice rising. “I hadn’t noticed its big pointy teeth with blood
on them! If this is the agency’s new way of testing us, they’re
crazy! I quit!”

Zoey turned to Tristan. “How did something
so big and dangerous get in here?” she asked, but somehow she
already knew the answer.

“With the stolen interloper,” said Tristan.
His expression darkened, “Someone let it in on purpose.”

Simon threw his hands in the air. “That’s
just great! But why is it
here
? What have
we
got to
do with it?”

The Krakenite moved its large head back and
forth, as though it was trying to locate a smell. And then, moving
as one, all the monster’s heads, including the little ones, turned
in Zoey’s direction. Even though the creature looked blind, somehow
she knew it was staring right at her.

“Okay, is it me or is that thing looking at
Zoey?” said Simon, poking his head from behind Tristan.

As if on cue, the decomposing mystic
bellowed in rage and charged directly at Zoey.

But Tristan was there. He pushed Zoey behind
him, pulled a small pocketknife from his pocket, and threw it. The
blade flew straight and perforated the Krakenite’s left eye. White
liquid burst out it like the insides of a shattered egg.

The creature roared and thrashed around the
classroom. Its massive arms and tail exploded the desks in
splinters of wood and sent the chairs flying. The operatives
scattered like frightened mice, but not fast enough. Billy was hit
by a desk, crumbled to the ground, and didn’t move.

“Everyone get out! Quickly!” yelled
Zoey.

She didn’t have to say it twice. The
operatives sprinted out the classroom leaving Zoey, Tristan, Simon,
and an unconscious Billy.

The knife in its eye only seemed to have
angered the beast. Once it stopped thrashing, it settled its
remaining eyes on Zoey again. It reared and then bounded towards
Zoey at an incredible speed. Its razor sharp teeth were angled for
her head.

Zoey leaped out of the way and rolled on the
floor, but she was not fast enough. One of the creature’s smaller
jaws tore into the flesh on her left side. She cried out in pain as
wet blood began to trickle down her back. She could see it on the
creature’s teeth. Her flesh was on fire. She held her injured side
with her right hand.

“Hey ugly! Stinky!” yelled Tristan as he
tried to get the beast’s attention.

It ignored him completely, sneered, and
turned back towards Zoey.

“Simon, get Billy out of here!” cried Zoey,
“It’s me it wants. Get out of here, now!”

She reached over ever so slowly and
unfastened her boomerang with her left hand.

“Gotcha.” Simon scurried over to Billy’s
unconscious body. He slapped him in the face to wake him up,
realized it didn’t work, and then grabbed his arms and pulled him
out of the room.

Zoey looked over to Tristan. “I’ll keep it
busy—you go get help.”

“No!” Tristan picked up a half broken chair
and wielded it before him like a shield. “I’m not going anywhere
without you, forget it.”

“It wants me, not you.”

Tristan leaped across the room and stood
protectively in front of Zoey.

“I don’t care. You’re hurt, and I’m not
leaving you. We’ll fight this thing together. Simon will get
help.”

For an instant, Zoey thought she saw a halo
of blue light emanate from Tristan’s skin, but then it was
gone—probably a trick of the light.

With an angry roar, the Krakenite
charged.

Tristan whacked the beast with the force of
a superhero. The broken chair exploded off the Krakenite, and the
beast staggered and then fell back.

“How did you—” began Zoey, in shock at
Tristan’s strength.

Tristan faced her. “We need to get an agent.
We don’t have anything strong enough to defeat it—”

But the Krakenite thrashed its tail into
Tristan, and he flew through the air like a ragdoll. He hit the
wall with a sickening crack, slid to the ground, and was still.

Before Zoey could register what had just
happened, the Krakenite swung its massive tail into her chest. It
was like being hit by a tree. She flew into the air and hit the
ground with a thud. She was winded, and as she struggled to regain
her breath she felt wetness dripping onto her face. She blinked and
looked up. The beast’s jaws drooled just above her. Its warm rancid
breath was choking her. It was going to kill her.

Her fear disappeared and the adrenaline of
anger surged through her limbs. She was not going to die today. She
grabbed her boomerang tightly with both hands.

The Krakenite opened its jaws and lowered
its head.

With strength she didn’t know she possessed,
Zoey stabbed the end of boomerang into the creature’s good eye. She
pushed it deep into the monster’s brain and twisted it. The
creature breathed heavily once and then fell on top of her,
dead.

Zoey tried to move, but it was like trying
to push a boulder. It hurt to breathe, and the smell was making her
dizzy. She was suffocating under the putrid creature. This wasn’t
how she planned on dying.

And then she heard laughing.

“What are you doing down there?” Tristan
stared down at her with a smirk. He had a cut on his forehead but
otherwise looked unharmed.

The blood was rushing to Zoey’s head.
“Can’t…breathe…help…me!”

Tristan used his back to lift the dead
Krakenite high enough for Zoey to slip out. Her jeans and t-shirt
were covered in a semi-transparent sticky substance like gelatin.
She smelled her hands and made a face. She smelled like a mixture
of bile and garbage that had stood in the sun for too long.

Tristan inspected the boomerang. It was
still embedded in the Krakenite’s skull.

“Like I said, I’ve never seen anyone use a
boomerang like that. After this, I’m sure the agency’s going to
start producing them again.”

“I doubt it,” said Zoey, still breathing
heavily. She inspected herself again. “I can’t remember the last
time I smelled like manure—”

A woman screamed suddenly.

Zoey and Tristan looked at each other.

“It came from the main hall,” said Tristan
as he turned towards the door.

Zoey leaped over to the dead Krakenite. She
pulled with all her might and yanked her boomerang out of the
Krakenite’s skull with a wet suction noise.

When she turned around, Tristan was
smiling.

“What?” she said. “You said it yourself—this
is probably the only one—I’m not leaving it to rot in this
creature’s head.” She flashed him a smile.

Without another word, Zoey followed Tristan
out the door and into the hall.

It was a chaotic scene. Bloodied bodies lay
scattered everywhere. Another Krakenite’s severed head lay several
feet away from its body in a large red puddle. The smell brought
tears to Zoey’s eyes. The walls and floors were smeared in blood,
as though someone had thrown buckets of red paint around. She could
hear cries and moans. Those who were still alive were busy
attending to the wounded or covering the dead with pieces of
clothing. She didn’t recognize any of the dead.

Agent Barnes and Agent Lee came running down
the hall to Zoey and Tristan.

“Simon said there was another Krakenite?
Where is it now” said Agent Barnes urgently as he brandished a
large double barrel rifle,

“Dead,” said Tristan. “Zoey whacked it good
in the skull with her boomerang.”

Both agents gave her a look of surprise, and
Zoey gave them a little smile. “It wasn’t as cool as Tristan says,
but it’s dead.”

“You’re bleeding.” Agent Lee handed Zoey a
handkerchief from inside his jacket.

She took it and pressed it against her
wound.

“Thank you,” she said awkwardly, not used to
Agent Lee being kind to her. Maybe he had forgiven her about the
kick.

“Guys!” Simon collapsed beside them. He was
breathing heavily. “Oh, man, am I glad you’re okay. I thought the
Kradelite had finished you both. That would have clearly
sucked.”

“Krakenite,” corrected Tristan.

“That’s what I said,” said Simon.

“But how did you do it? Did you get it on
film? Please say that you got me some cool shots?”

Agent Barnes heaved his rifled on his
shoulder. “According to Tristan, Little Red here took care of it
for us. Nailed it right in the brain—dead. I would have paid money
to see that.”

He winked at her, and Zoey felt the blood
rush to her ears.

Simon’s jaw dropped and his eyes widened.
“You
brainorized
it? Coooool.”

Then he lowered his voice. “You think I
could take a picture of you and the Kranelite side by side?”

“Maybe some other time, Simon,” said Zoey
feeling a little self-conscious. She really didn’t want to go near
another Krakenite for a while, its smell made her dizzy.

Agent Barnes’ face was flushed and sweaty.
He wiped his brow with the back of his hand. “I’m glad you guys are
safe. Ew!—This is a real rotten mess. We need to dispose of these
Krakenites’s bodies before they stink up the entire hive. How many
casualties?”

“Six dead and ten injured,” answered Agent
Lee. He turned towards the dead Krakenite. “The way it was sniffing
out a particular scent—my guess is they were looking for something
or someone.”

Tristan and Simon both looked at Zoey. The
Krakenite
was
looking for her—but why? Why did it want to
kill her? She had never even seen one before?

“We all know how they got through the
Nexus,” continued Agent Barnes. He hadn’t noticed the strange looks
Simon and Tristan had given Zoey.

“Who knows what else will be slipping
through to our world? There are worst things than Krakenites in the
Nexus—much, much worse.”

Agent Vargas arrived with bloody towels in
his hands.

“You three,” he pointed at Zoey, Tristan,
and Simon, “come with me. The injured need help. And I need all the
help I can get.”

The three of them followed Agent Vargas down
the main hall to an area where the wounded had been placed in a
row. All her classmates, even Billy, were attending to the wounded.
Billy’s head was wrapped with a bandage, but he seemed okay
otherwise. Women and men cried over the dead bodies, and Zoey felt
a pain in her chest—they had died because of her.

“Here,” Agent Vargas gave them towels and
bandages. “Wrap them up as best you can—tightly, to stop the
bleeding. Help is on the way.”

Tristan and Simon went to help the wounded
right away, but Zoey couldn’t move.

Screeching resonated down the hall and she
turned around. Two men in white uniforms rushed in pushing
stretchers on screeching wheels. They stopped beside a woman whose
abdomen was bleeding profusely. They lifted her up gently, placed
her on one of the stretchers, and then wheeled her away down the
hall and around the corner.

“Where are they taking them?” asked Zoey,
her mouth dry as she tried to swallow.

“To the medical bay.” Agent Vargas rushed to
help lift a young man covered in blood up onto the other
stretcher.

Zoey had no idea they had a medical bay. She
had never seen it or heard anyone talk about it before now. She
stared at the wounded and couldn’t shake off the feeling that she
was responsible for the attacks. It felt like a bad dream. If it
were true that the Krakenites had come to kill her—
why
were
they trying to kill her? Who was she to them?