Resurrection (2 page)

Darryl Carter was watching her and enjoying himself immensely. Red, his nickname for Maddie, had been his best victim so far. She was so perfect in all her actions. He even liked those little whimpers and whines she was making. He’d let her sit like that for a while. He thought about his next shot and where he wanted it to be. He had already put one in her thigh and one above her clavicle. He laughed as he thought how ingenious he was…the crucifixion of Red! Maybe his next shot would be to her other leg; or better yet, maybe he’d stretch her arm up and put one in there right through to the tree. Yeah, he kind of liked that idea. She was loads of fun, this one. He loved that feistiness of hers.

The weirdest thing happened next. Two balls of light flew toward him from the distance. If he hadn’t looked up at that moment, he probably would have missed them. He was glad he caught them though as they were an unearthly sight. Maybe they were falling stars, meteors or something. They soared across the sky with great speed. If Darryl could have known what they really were, he would have taken off running and never looked back.

Darryl was mesmerized. The bright glowing orbs were beautiful, and they continued to come closer and closer. Then, five feet in front of Red, the balls of light suddenly stopped and hovered there momentarily. Darryl was amazed and stupefied. He had never seen such a thing before. Suddenly, the two orbs elongated and turned into two of the biggest dudes Darryl had ever seen. Things weren’t looking so good anymore.

* * * * *

Therron and Rykerian teleported directly in front of Maddie. What they saw was bone-chilling. At first glance, they weren’t sure if they had arrived in time to save her. She did not appear to be breathing. Her face had been beaten to the point of distortion; it was swollen, bloodied, and unrecognizable. A few feet to the left of Maddie stood her abductor. His gaze snapped back and forth between the brothers. They made an impressive team—tall, dressed in the traditional black uniform of the Guardians, and fully armed with weapons of mass destruction unknown to any human.

They were dressed identically in solid black. Their shirts and pants were form fitting, and their boots came up to their knees. They wore long black capes, and their hands and wrists were strapped with unusual looking apparatuses. Darryl didn’t quite know what to make of them.

“Rykerian, take care of Maddie,” Therron growled with undisguised rage. “I will handle the human.”

Therron turned toward Darryl. “Tell me who you are and why you have done such a thing to her.” His tone was vicious.

“I’m a hunter, and it’s what I do. If I were you, I’d back away and leave here, or else, you might end up looking like her.”

Darryl was not backing down. His Red, as he liked to think of her, had gotten away from him once. That was NOT going to happen again.

“You do not know of what you speak. This female has done nothing to you, and yet your cruelty toward her is beyond comprehension. That is not acceptable to us. Now, tell me this instant why you have done this terrible thing to her,” Therron’s anger seething through every pore.

Darryl wasted no time. He grabbed his crossbow and fired a shot directly at Therron. What happened next defied all logic—in Darryl’s world, that is. The broad band went straight toward the target, hit directly in the kill zone, bounced off and hit the ground right in front of them. It was almost like it hit an invisible wall.

Darryl was unaware that the clothing the two men were wearing was constructed of fibers unknown on Earth. They were densely woven, contained temperature-controlling sensors, and were impenetrable to any kind of weaponry on Earth. In other words, the men were completely bullet and arrow proof.

“What the…?” Darryl released round two. Same results. So he went for three. Now, he was looking at three broadband aluminum arrows lying in the dirt directly in front of him.

“Who are you?
What
are you?” Darryl asked with mounting fear.

Therron, tired of this game, grabbed Darryl by the throat lifting him off the ground and reached into his mind for the answers he sought. Along with incomprehensible strength, Vesturions were born with the superternatural Power of Telepathy, so it was a simple matter for Therron to find out what he needed. What he discovered was a convoluted mass of depraved hatred, evil, and other thoughts that left Therron gasping. And, what do you know? Darryl was a serial killer. His vile mind was utterly warped with the violent acts he had committed.

Since Therron knew he would not get any straight answers from this monster, he decided to deal with him in a different manner. Using his supernatural Power of Command, Therron demanded answers.

“I command you to answer my questions. Who are you and why have you done these things to her?” Therron demanded to know.

Darryl, now under Therron’s influence of Command, another supernatural talent Vesturions possessed, just stared at the giant, like a deer in the headlights. He finally said, “My name is Darryl Leon Carter, and I’m with the Special Forces on a mission.”

“Of what kind of mission do you speak?” Therron asked, recognizing that he was dealing with a psychopath.

“I’m on a Special Forces mission for my Commander,” Darryl answered back, powerless to do otherwise, locked in Command’s grip.

“Who is your Commander?” Therron demanded.

“I don’t know his name, but I am to meet him tomorrow.”

“Continue.”

“He paid me $10,000 to make sure she didn’t make it out alive.” Darryl attemped to laugh, but Command’s control over his body made it next to impossible. “He got taken though, because I would’ve done it for free,” Darryl tried to smirk.

“Did he tell you why he wanted her dead?” Therron was still reeling with shock over this maniac.

“Nope and I didn’t care. Like I said, I would’ve done it for free. She got away from me once, so she owes me.”

Therron put the pieces together and realized this was the monster that hurt Maddie in the past.

“Well, Mr. Carter,” Therron began, “I am here to inform you that your mission is now over. You see, that young woman is as close to me as my baby sister. You have not only hurt her once, but you have hurt her twice. I do not like it at all, Mr. Carter, when someone hurts my baby sister. Do you understand me? So, I am just going to have to do something about that,” Therron said viciously.

Therron extended his arm in Darryl’s direction and pointed to his
shadar
—the weapons that were strapped to his hands. “You see this? Well, Mr. Carter, right now, you are wondering what I am doing.”

“How did you know...?”

Before Darryl could finish his question, Therron interrupted him by saying, “Mr. Carter, I hate to tell you this, but I can read your mind. That’s right. I am aware of every nasty, disgusting thought you’ve had. And please, my baby sister’s name is not Red.”

Therron circled Darryl like a predator getting ready to strike his prey.

“Let me tell you something, Darryl Leon Carter. You should be extremely scared right now. Oh, I can sense you are beginning to feel a little fear, are you not?” Therron commented, delving into Darryl’s mind.

He held up his arm pointing to his
shadar
and continued, “Where I come from, this little device on my hand can wreak more havoc than the worst kind of weapon your military has in its arsenal. That’s right, Darryl. We are talking bigger than your nuclear warheads, and guess what? You are going to experience firsthand, exactly what it can do. Go ahead, Darryl. Try to run away. I know you want to. I can promise you, though that you shall not get very far,” Therron goaded. Therron had released Darryl from Command, although Darryl didn’t notice it for his fear was too great.

Darryl made a move to try to run away from him, but Therron held up his arm and said, “Immobilize.”

A large, distorted bubble-like cloud was released from the
shadar
, the device that was attached to his hand and wrist. The cloud descended over Darryl, completely enveloping him. He could still be seen, although the bubble gave him a blurry, warped appearance.

“Now try to run, Darryl. Go ahead. Give it a shot,” Therron taunted.

Darryl found himself locked within the bubble, unable to escape. His panic gripped him like jaws of steel.

He started screaming, yelling obscenities, begging Therron to release him.

“It does not feel very good to be held prisoner, does it Darryl? No? I thought not. You know what we do to people like you? Where I come from, we tear them apart…piece by piece! So now, I just want you to think about all those young women you killed and their families you devastated. All the time you were having fun playing your sick games, people were suffering. Now, I want you to suffer, Darryl. I want you to squirm the way you made your victims squirm. It is not much fun, is it?”

Therron was still circling the bubble while he spoke.

“Now, Darryl, you know when I told you how powerful my little friend here is? Let me give you a tiny demonstration.”

Therron pointed his
shadar
at Darryl’s backpack and discharged it. A bolt of energy was released, and it hit his backpack, thoroughly disintegrating it.

Darryl looked on in horror. Never in his life had he seen anything like it. He had seen lots of things too, since he been in the military. He’d seen bombs, missiles, heavy artillery, but he’d never seen a weapon that could literally dust its target, leaving nothing behind. He was in shock.

“I want you to think about how you are going to feel when I discharge my friend here on you.” Therron left Darryl to check on Maddie.

Rykerian crouched down next to Maddie and got his first glimpse of her injuries.

“Great Deity, how could this have happened?” He was repulsed by what had been done to her.

Maddie felt something tugging her back from her hazy place. She heard words and then felt something softly touch her face. She again heard that animal whining in the distance. She wished it would stop, because the noise was very disturbing to her.

“Maddie, it is Rykerian, and we have come to get you out of here,” he whispered, stroking her cheek. Rykerian was unhinged by her appearance, and those whimpers she was making were taking him to the edge.

He quickly popped the cap off the syringe of pain medication and pumped the full thing into Maddie’s thigh. Her breathing was uneven and wheezy, and her moaning was unnerving. He didn’t dare touch her until the drug took effect, as her pain must have been excruciating. She was clearly unbalanced by it. She was still conscious yet unaware of her surroundings. The horrifying sounds she was making...sweet Deity above, please ease her pain quickly, he thought. It was sickening him, and he was trying to fight it off. He needed to focus and assess her condition.

She had two arrows that went clean through, one in her chest and the other in her thigh. The problem was they were embedded in whatever was behind her, literally crucifying her to the ground and the tree. The arrows were the broad banded kind, so they couldn’t be easily extracted.

Rykerian had never seen anything like this done to another being. It was truly heinous. Rykerian was suddenly overcome with nausea and found himself becoming violently ill. Moments later, slightly recovered, he forced himself back to Maddie to assess her injuries.

Although he could barely hold his hand steady, Rykerian began the scans.

The holographic images that popped up from his
shadar
weren’t very promising. Her left orbital socket was badly damaged. Her face was nearly unrecognizable. The arrow near her clavicle was perilously close her carotid artery. Any slight movement in the wrong direction would result an arterial rupture. It had also pierced the tip of the upper lobe of her lung, which was contributing to her difficulty breathing.

The arrow in her thigh had penetrated the edge of her femoral artery. Because of its location, it was stemming the flow of blood. If he moved it, though, she could bleed out in a matter of minutes. Two. Huge. Problems.

She had sustained at least 4 broken ribs and what also appeared to be internal bleeding in her abdomen. By this time, Rykerian was shaking with the horror of it all.

“Therron! THERRON! You need to get over here and FAST!” he screamed.

Therron rushed over to him after he had immobilized Darryl Carter, and asked for Maddie’s status.

“Rykerian, are you sure you can handle this? I know this is tearing you apart right now. I could get Tesslar to take over,” Therron asked. Therron knew how Rykerian felt about Maddie.

Rykerian felt he was in love with Maddie, even though she was his brother’s mate by all intents. Rykerian hadn’t planned on falling in love with her; it had just happened, much to his dismay. There was no harmful purpose on his part, just sadness for what could never be.

“No time. I will deal with it,” Rykerian said between clenched teeth. Suddenly, they found themselves thrown on their backs by Rayn’s thoughts. The intensity of his telepathy was jerking them around like puppets on a string.

“Bloody hell, he is going to kill us if he does not cease doing that.”

Rayn was communicating with them via telepathy, but his emotions were so strong that his thoughts were very nearly exploding in their minds. The force of them was literally knocking them over. Rykerian immediately hit him back, giving him a mental update on Maddie’s condition.

“He is going crazy!”

“I know. He has every right to. He is helpless to do else.” Therron now had the scanner, and he was inspecting the images of Maddie’s wounds.

Shaking his head back and forth, he said, “Rykerian, we cannot fix her here. There is nothing we can do for her. If we try to move her, you know what is going to happen. She will have mere minutes before lights are out—permanently out. We do not have the capability to heal her or to treat her here.”

“How the bloody hell did this happen? How did that monster get through the veil? This is not supposed to happen...EVER! Our veil is supposed to protect us from any outsiders entering here. There must have been a security breach.”