Ravens (12 page)

These hunters weren’t messing around.
They didn’t care if Kendra, or anyone else, was a new arrival or here by
mistake. All they knew, and cared about, was that they were Ravens, and thus,
mortal enemies.

The heat in Kendra’s body surged in
response to the demands of her adrenaline. The entity in her grew, lapping at
her fingertips, fully prepared to lash out at her adversaries. The energy
proved a very valuable asset—semi-separate, protective, and increasingly
obedient.

Liam didn’t settle for diplomacy. He
didn’t have time for it, though he had a lot of pent-up anger. He raised his
hands out and the white energy sparked across the door, igniting the wood and
blasting it off the hinges in a muffled explosion.

When the noise gave away their exact
location, a guard inside the house came to the door just as the door sparked.
The energy jumped from the wood to his body like a voltage shock. Unfortunately
for him, the explosion and electric energy crushed him against the back wall.

A lack of a door created a wide entryway
through which the duo could enter. They neither paused nor slowed down in their
assault. Kendra twitched her nose at the smell of cauterized flesh and ash.

The singed and disoriented hunter
huddled against the wall. Liam gave him a backhand in the air. The heat swept
across empty space and knocked him out. Other hunters emerged from the top of
staircase, and shot at him. He took them out with another flay of his wrists
and an energy outburst from his fingers.

Liam and Kendra raced to the basement
stairs. The others created their own passageway to the catacomb of electric
prison-like cells below. Ravens occupied only seven of the dozen cells. Several
surgical tables, with preserved Ravens split apart from autopsies, stood in the
middle of the room.

Kendra cringed at the stench of rotting
flesh and the sight of ghastly corpses. The so-called researchers were amateurs
at best and, by the looks of it, had not been kind enough to wait for death to
take their victims before slicing into the beating hearts of captured mutants.
Their rigid bodies were barely covered. Their wrists and ankles had been bound,
and moist cloth filled their mouths. Some were still fresh, only slightly cold,
and their skin hadn’t become taut and pale yet.

The guys freed most of the prisoners, including
a familiar face in a grown up body. They freed Julie first, and in turn, she
helped liberate others. Kendra couldn’t believe Julie was still alive and a
Raven in this cruel dimension. Her sister hadn’t changed much over the years.
She’d grown into a tall, healthy teenager, and lost the childhood chubby
cheeks. Julie retained her olive skin and black hair, her narrow nose, petite
lips, and the dimple in her lower left cheek. She wasn’t as curvy as Kendra
was, but had a fresh, willowy figure.

 When Liam entered, she ran into his
arms. They embraced, loving, sincere. Julie kissed him on the cheek. He smiled,
relieved. He never looked at Kendra that way.

Liam behaved very gentle with Julie, and
something struck at Kendra’s heart. To think he was attracted to Kendra, kissed
her, teased her, and flirted nonstop, but apparently under the guise of a guy
who loved Julie. Yeah, she was mad at him, but she sort of liked him too. All
that flirting and he wasn’t into her at all. He just used her, albeit for a good
cause, but still, this hurt!

Aside from pushing Liam, who obviously
loved Julie and Julie clearly loved him in return, away, Kendra wanted to reach
out and hug her little sister. Did Julie even remember her after a decade?

Grief, happiness, and relief tore Kendra
apart. Memories that she tried to repress over the years flooded through her
thoughts: Memories of playing as children, going to school together, having
family dinners, and, of course, that awful day ten years ago.

How many times had she slept in Julie’s
room hoping the disappearance was a horrid nightmare and she would awake with
her baby sister next to her? How many times had she talked with Julie’s toys,
encouraged them not to worry, and reassured them their friend would return home
soon? How many times had bullies teased her at school, and she wanted to either
hurt the kid or cry her way into oblivion? How often did she blame herself for
what happened? She watched her parents break down innumerable times, and
wondered if they resented her. She wondered if they could ever be happy again,
because without Julie, they didn’t have a real home.

Kendra felt the need to reach out to
Julie. She wanted to touch her, hug her, kiss her head, and never let go. Her
baby sister was alive!

Julie thanked Liam before glancing at
Kendra. Their eyes briefly locked. Julie looked away first. The expression on
her face reflected confusion as she rejoined her friends to help the others.
She gave Kendra a quick, casual glance, like a stab to Kendra’s heart. Julie could
recognize Liam in a crowd, but not her own sister.

Kendra had to shake it off. After all,
Julie hadn’t seen her in a long time and the last thing she expected was to see
her now.

Tears formed and clouded her vision.
Liam watched her and gave her a faint smile of encouragement. This smile was
actually sincere instead of taunting, sexy, or baiting. Kendra shook off the
joy and anxiety from seeing Julie again.

Once they freed the remainder of the
prisoners, Lou and Mark moved past Liam, leaving Julie’s side, and ran up the
basement stairs. They scavenged the remainder of the building for hunters.
Meanwhile, Liam and Nathan led the inmates outside. Some of the weaker ones
stumbled, but the stronger ones aided those in need. No one ran off because, in
this world, any Raven with a conscience was tied to his brethren better than
blood.

Mark and Lou ran out after the rest when
they finished their business. Nathan lowered one of the weakest Ravens onto the
rocks several feet from the front porch. The others followed Lou to the boat,
anxious for their freedom. They would take this as a lesson well learned.

“Nathan, scan the house. Is there anyone
left?” Liam asked.

Nathan placed his fingers on his temples
and checked from one side of the building to the other. He then moved his eyes
from the top of the house down to the basement and to any lower catacombs.

He shook his head. “Just the fallen
humans and the dead Ravens.”

Liam smacked Nathan on the shoulder and
said, “Great, you get Julie and the others outta here. Head back to town, we’ll
meet you there. There’s not enough room for all of us in your car, some of
those Ravens need to get a seat first.” He spoke to the rescued prisoners, “The
stronger of you will probably have to catch a ride on the train to get out,” and
back to Nathan, “I’m going to destroy this place.”

Kendra stared at him in disbelief.
Destroying them wasn’t right. He can’t just kill all these humans. Could she
idly stand by as Liam burned them alive?

Liam called Julie over to hug her. He
kissed her tangled hair and muttered in a gruff tone, “Stay out of trouble,
kid.”

“Thank you, Liam,” she whispered.

He released her to Mark, who drew his
hand to her elbow. She didn’t leave without glancing over Liam’s shoulder at
Kendra. She creased her brows as if a spark of memory formed in her thoughts.
She parted her lips, but before she could say anything, Mark led her through
the woods to run after the others.

When they were out of sight, Liam
swerved to face the house. His eyes blazed white and sparks swirled down his
neck, arms, and hands. His skin crawled with heated fury.

“Liam, you can’t destroy the house.
There are people in there!” Kendra argued.

Liam gave her a look, startling her with
the anger beneath the energy in his eyes. “Kendra, there are three types of
humans in this world: ones who like us; ones who haven’t taken a stand and pose
no threat; and ones who hunt us. They kidnapped Julie and others for their
research. They started this, and I’m ending it. It’s just that many less who we
have to worry about coming after us later or recruiting more humans with their
propaganda. Kendra, it’s us or them. Kill or be killed. This isn’t a game. This
is war. This is life.”

Kendra couldn’t argue with his logic.
These humans killed several Ravens. Their bodies rotted in the house as proof.
If these humans survived, they would only gather their numbers and hunt the
Ravens, especially the band who led the rescue today. No law would imprison
them for this horrid crime. Laws here didn’t apply to crimes and murders against
Ravens.

Kendra shook her head, but allowed him
to continue. How could she get used to these things? She didn’t know which was
worse: feeling barbaric for killing the enemy, or not feeling anything at all.

Liam turned from Kendra and faced the
house. He held his arms out, palms facing the building. White lightning formed
around his body. The energy ran from his hands and raced for the house. Upon
contact, the energy seeped into every wall and crevice until Liam had no more
to give. The energy left him. The last particles leapt from his fingertips and
hurried to meet its counterparts, lighting up the entire house.

His body darkened, returned to normal.
He grabbed Kendra’s wrist, and took her on a wild sprint away from the
building. The house rumbled and sparked, then exploded. White and yellow heat
ruptured, disintegrating everything and everyone inside. The humans would’ve
burned to a crisp, writhing and squirming in anguish until their blood boiled.
Fortunately for them, most were unconscious before the explosion.

Liam yanked Kendra in front of him,
pushed her as he threw his body over hers. She hit the ground face first. Dirt
lodged in her nostrils, and smeared the majority of her face and the entire
front side of her body. The friction scratched her skin. She didn’t budge
beneath the near two hundred pounds of muscle that protectively wrapped around
her. The heat washed over them, singed the back of Liam’s shirt, but missed
Kendra.

When the noise died and only a crackle
remained in the otherwise silent night, Liam pounded his palms into the dirt on
either side of Kendra’s head and pushed himself up. Kendra rolled over and took
Liam’s hand as he pulled her to her feet. She wiped the dirt from her face and
clothes, and followed Liam to the shore. She kept her chin low and blinked away
warm tears, tears for Julie, not the humans.

They endured a quiet ride back to the
docks once they left the island. Fog rose from the warm, placid water and
encircled the boat.

What to do now? Julie was at home here.
What if she refused to travel back? How could Kendra go home to her parents and
leave her sister? Not a day went by she didn’t think about Julie. Not one
anniversary passed that her parents didn’t break down. What would her parents
think if Julie traveled back? Would they believe this sixteen-year-old girl was
their daughter who disappeared a decade ago? Could they accept the truth or
would they think she was an imposter and both girls were crazy? Portals
delivering them to parallel worlds and giving them super powers didn’t sound
like normal reasoning.

If Julie didn’t go back with her, could
Kendra go back without her? Could they revive the sisterly bond, which had once
been so strong? Regardless of the answers, how could Kendra choose? Could she
go back to her grieving parents and leave her sister again, or stay with her
most beloved sibling and lose her parents, causing them more misery? A simple
resolution to this dilemma did not exist.

They approached the docks. Liam jumped
out and helped Kendra. They ran across the harbor and toward the train station.
The other Ravens must’ve caught the train that left half an hour ago, but
another train would come soon.

The two waited on the rooftop above the
train center. Kendra sat with knees to her chest and arms wrapped around her
legs. She stared down at the tracks in intense thought. She had to return to
her parents and her world, but she didn’t want to leave Julie. Kendra had
closure, and she could move on…happy because her sister was happy.

Liam sat several feet from Kendra on the
slanted roof. She felt him watching. Strands of her hair blew in the wind. She
even shuddered once or twice.

Kendra wondered if he even understood.
When he first made contact with Kendra, he told her he thought his imagination
ran wild. When he realized she was real and on the other side of the portal, he
said his heart ached for so many things. He longed to be with his parents, his
family. Maybe he understood.

Kendra was happy, relieved, joyful to
have Julie safe again, but she also felt hurt that Liam didn’t care about her
at all.

Things never seemed simple. 

Liam was a liar, a manipulator, and a
killer, not exactly the good guy.

They diverted their attention to the
sound of the train. They waited patiently until it stopped, unloaded, and
started up again, then moved to the edge of the slanted roof and jumped onto
the last boxcar as the train gained speed. They landed on their haunches like
felines. Kendra didn’t need Liam’s help this time, and she wasn’t in the mood
for his flirtatious behavior, not that he offered it. Now that he had Julie
back, there was no need to seduce Kendra to help him.

They swung over the side of the
door-less car. Holding on to the edge and swinging their feet down, they jumped
and landed quietly in the nearly empty boxcar. There were dozens of twenty-five
and fifty-pound burlap bags of rice at the back, which provided something more
comfortable than the hard, wooden floor. Kendra wouldn’t have to sit on a
barrel and stare at Liam staring at her. All she wanted was to say goodbye to
Julie and go home. She could find peace.