Torment (Soul Savers Book 6) (7 page)

“Vanessa’s
and the Weres’ noses led here. It’s the only place the
Daemoni have secured,” Owen said.

Tristan looked at me.
“And you don’t sense any other Daemoni mind signatures
close?”

I checked again. “None.
The vamps and the Weres have moved even farther away.”

“So if it’s
a trap,” he said, “they’re all hiding inside, and
our mission is to flush them out anyway, not invade or fight.”

“Right,” I
said. “Create a scene, attract the Normans’ attention,
and expose the
Daemoni
as the dangerous ones when their spells
start flying everywhere.”

Owen rocked back on his
heels. “So we proceed with the plan.”

All eyes landed on me
for confirmation. I nodded. “Let’s do this.”

Everyone scattered,
taking their places. Sheree and the werewolves would keep guard,
Vanessa and Char hid in the shadows waiting on our signal, and
Tristan, Owen, and I silently skirted around the base of the large
home. I zapped electricity close to the ground to light up the
coven’s shield so Owen could possibly find a weak spot.

“There.” He
grabbed my wrist and stopped me. He pointed to a spot on the ground
covered in tiny, white granules. “Huh. I don’t think it’s
a trap. This is sloppy for their caliber, which means they’re
cocky. Too arrogant to realize they’ve made a mistake.”

“That’s a
sorcerer for you,” Tristan muttered.

“What is it?”
I asked.

Owen swirled a finger
in the white stuff, then held the tip to his tongue. He nodded. “Yep.
Rock salt. One of them must have used it for a spell or incantation
and didn’t clean it all up. It’s interfering with the
integrity of their shield. Idiots.”

“Will it
interfere with your magic?”

“Salt can help or
hinder my magic, and in this case, hinder. So we’re going to
blow it away. Our timing needs to be perfect. As soon as the salt’s
removed, their weak spot will strengthen.”

The three of us knelt
down and huddled near the small pile of salt. I held my palm close to
the shield, near the ground, and let out a slow charge of
electricity. Tiny cracks of blue light spread from my hand, lighting
up a small area of the shield, but the charge didn’t penetrate
it. After several long moments, my heart racing the whole time, the
edge that touched the salt began to crinkle and retract, like a piece
of plastic held above a flame. Owen moved his hand right next to
mine, while I continued melting a small gap into the shield.

“Ready, Tristan,”
he whispered.

From my other side,
Tristan blew a huge gust of wind, scattering the salt. Immediately,
the shield started reforming against my charge, reaching for the
clean ground. As soon as the last granule cleared, Owen shot his own
power at the shield. It increased the damage I did exponentially,
opening a gap big enough for each of us to slip through.

“I’ll hold
the opening,” Owen said. “You guys hurry.”

Tristan and I gave the
signal, and Vanessa and Char darted out of the shadows and under the
shield. I jumped to the flat roof, Vanessa right behind me in case I
needed backup. While we crept across the roof, Tristan and Char
stayed on the ground, doing their part. Once Vanessa and I scoped out
all of the conductive materials up here, we moved to the center, and
I used them to create a web of electricity across the top of the
building. The charge flowed into the structure, sizzling through
wires and metal, causing appliances to pop and spark. At the same
time, I used my other palm to push Amadis power down through the roof
and into the building. Meanwhile, Tristan was lighting up the
perimeter with fire, and Char followed right behind him, fueling the
flames with magic. The sleeping mind signatures inside sprang awake
and chaos erupted.

“
Now,
”
Tristan said into my mind.

Let’s go
,
I told Vanessa as I tried to run for the edge of the roof. Except I
could barely move. My body felt suddenly weighed down, as though the
gravity had shifted under my feet and I would sink through the roof
and into the house. All of my energy flowed like a river through my
veins and drained out of my palm and into the building—it was
being
drawn
out of my body rather than me pushing it. Then an
ice pick shoved into my brain. Gasping from the pain, I pressed my
hand to the side of my head. No, not a physical ice pick, but it sure
as hell felt like one. The sorcerers were here.

They’ve got
me!
I managed to scream out to Vanessa, but I couldn’t be
sure she heard me through the block on my mind.

She was already on the
edge of the roof, ready to jump, but caught herself when she looked
over her shoulder at me. She spun and charged, slamming into my body.

“Oof.” The
sound came out of my mouth involuntarily as Vanessa knocked me down
with her full strength. Damn, vampires were like freakin’
boulders. But it worked.

“Are you good?”
she asked as she helped me up.

I nodded, keeping my
hand fisted to protect the sorcerer from reaching my power. We ran
for the edge of the roof and jumped. I landed on the balls of my feet
only inches from the flames that already reached two-thirds up the
side of the building. We ran past Owen, and he followed us out into
the street, where we turned and watched under the protection of his
cloak.

Over a dozen mages
poured out of the house, a couple of them running to douse the flames
with magic, but Char’s spell prevented them from extinguishing
the fire easily. In fact, every time they tried, the flames only grew
higher, casting a bright orange glow over the neighborhood. Good
thing her spell would also keep them contained to only this building.
The rest of the mages searched for us.

“Come out, come
out wherever you are,” a female warlock taunted, her gaze
sweeping side to side as she tried to locate us.

The fire must have lit
up the Normans’ windows or perhaps the loud roar of the blaze
woke them. Several came out of their residences in nightclothes and
wrapped in blankets. They only stared wide-eyed at first, taking in
the scene of a massive fire, the flames casting dancing shadows on
their faces. As hoped, some had their cell phones out, filming the
scene. Then the mages started shooting spells that blasted into the
street. The Normans screamed and ran.

A spell shot toward a
fleeing child, and I jumped behind the girl, blocking the hit. But
although I was still under the cloak and shield, the ricochet showed
the mages exactly where we stood.

“Go,” Char
ordered. “Get Alexis out of here.”

Tristan, Owen, Vanessa,
and I took off down the street, Owen keeping a cloak over us while
Char protected Sheree and the wolves. They weren’t far behind
us, but needed to serve as a distraction to give us time for me to
escape. I’d insisted on coming, but since the sorcerer had
indeed been with the coven, I was in too much danger to stay. Vanessa
had been right about my electrical power being a weakness. We hadn’t
come for an all-out fight anyway and didn’t need to strengthen
them with my power. Or put the Normans’ lives in any more
danger. Our only choice was to run.

“
They’ve
exposed me!
” Charlotte called out.

I glanced over my
shoulder. She and the Weres were behind us, their shield and cloak
gone. Spells shot at them, and the wolves spun around and took off
running, snapping and growling, back toward the Daemoni. Sheree
followed, letting out a loud roar.

No!
I yelled at
them.
Retreat. You’re almost here!

Char reached us just
then, and Owen pulled her into our protection. The were-animals came
sprinting down the road, spells shooting at their heels. People
screamed from behind windows as they watched the beasts run by.

“Hurry, Owen,”
I muttered as he worked at creating the portal. He finished just in
time to protect the Weres, and then we all scrambled through the hole
in the air to safety.

We fell into the sea.
Although he could create a portal to
leave
the island, he
couldn’t create one that entered the island within its shield.
We swam for land and collapsed on the beach near the mansion.

“Nice job,”
I said, congratulating everyone as I pushed myself to my feet.

“I think our
mission was accomplished,” Char agreed. “That was cutting
it close, though.”

The sky began to
lighten overhead, and a spectacular sunrise probably lit up the water
on the other side of the island. But we didn’t have time to
watch it.

Owen jumped to his
feet. “Let’s go see if it paid off.”

Except for the wolves,
who’d already transformed and left for their homes in the
village, the rest of us hauled ourselves to the mansion. Blossom and
Jax greeted us inside the foyer.

“No problems
here?” I asked.

She shook her head.
“No. All’s good.”

We gathered in the
media room just in time for the morning news to come on across
Europe.

“We’ve
received a red alert for another supernatural terrorist,” an
anchorwoman reported from behind a standard news desk. A picture of a
man with white hair and a white goatee, but fairly young looking
showed on the screen. Lucas. I almost squealed. “This man,
Lucas Emerson, is reported to be the actual ringleader of the recent
and continuing attacks on the human race. He is considered powerful
and very dangerous. If you see him, please alert your local
authorities immediately. Do
not
approach him yourself.”

“Good thinking to
keep the Normans away from him, Blossom,” I said. She gave me a
proud grin.

We watched the news
come on in every country, reporting the story Blossom had submitted.
The Amadis had people in the media, and we knew a couple of
executive-level contacts. Since the Daemoni obviously controlled the
news, though, I hadn’t been certain our people would be able to
air the story. They’d come through for us.

We celebrated our
victory for several hours, until the east coast of the U.S. finally
began waking up. The morning news shows began with our story.

“Um … hold
on for a moment, folks.” The news anchor, in the middle of
reporting about Lucas, pressed a finger to her ear and nodded before
looking back at the camera. “I apologize. There’s been
some kind of mistake.”

The channel cut to a
commercial. When the news program returned, the scene had changed
from the anchor at her desk to several people at the front of what
appeared to be the White House pressroom. The podium displayed the
president’s seal, although he wasn’t present. I
recognized the vice president, however, as well as the woman who had
held the conference the other day.

And I also recognized
Lucas.

He wore a suit with a
red, white, and blue tie, looking like a professional businessman
rather than an evil warlord of demons. My stomach sank.

“Fuck me,”
I whispered under my breath. “He’s in the
White
House
?”

“We apologize for
this last-minute calling of the press, especially at this early
hour,” the woman said into the microphone. “However,
false news has already been spreading around the world, and we needed
to put an immediate stop to it. Madam Vice President?”

The other woman with
Lucas nodded and stepped up to the podium. “News stations
around the world in earlier time zones than us have been reporting
false information about a fine gentleman, Lucas Emerson, who is here
with us now. The story proclaimed Mr. Emerson as leader of the
supernatural terrorist group the Amadis—”

I shuddered at the
thought. We most certainly had not said that in the news release we
submitted.

“—which has
been attacking, murdering, and terrorizing humans around the world.
It is believed the news story was submitted by the Amadis themselves
in a blatant attack of libel and scandal on Mr. Emerson, who is a
well-respected defense contractor serving several countries,
including the United States of America. I can personally vouch that
Mr. Emerson is not associated with the Amadis in any way, and is, in
fact, helping us build defense systems against the supernatural
creatures.”

Several snorts sounded
around the room. My heart stopped as Lucas stepped up to the
microphone.

“I have known
about the Amadis group long before its blatant attacks and have spent
much time, effort, and resources on trying to defeat them,” he
said. At least that wasn’t a lie. “Now I am working with
militaries around the world to train and prepare them to fight these
abominable and unnatural creatures. With diligence and determination,
we
can
defeat them, and they know it is only a matter of time.
Therefore, they are grasping at straws by accusing me of their own
atrocious acts. Consider the pen name of their leader—A.K.
Emerson. She has previously claimed that she is my daughter.”

He looked directly into
the camera now, as though he looked directly at me. Which was exactly
what he intended.

“Rest assured
that I would
never
produce such scum. She is deluded. You have
seen her insanity on camera in the past during interviews. And this
instability makes her more dangerous than any enemy man has ever
faced. This footage proves that she must be stopped immediately.”

Lucas’s face
faded out as a video played, showing a nighttime scene of a home on
fire, people screaming in fear and running chaotically through the
street. Lights flashed across the screen and blasted into homes. Two
wolves and a tiger ran down the road, looking feral as they appeared
to be chasing innocent Normans. The scene cut to daytime with
authorities investigating the sight. Four charred bodies, two the
size of a child, lay in the street, the camera focusing in on the
gruesome image. Then the scene changed once again.