Exile: Sídhí Summer Camp #3 (24 page)

Appearing on the beach with her warriors, she
turned and caught a crystal-edged steel sword Garrick tossed her.
Flipping the slender blade in her hand, she charged into the
boiling mass of dhark soldiers and screaming humans.

Leaning to her right, she cut off the hand of
a dhark warrior as the vampire slashed its claws toward a wild-eyed
girl in a yellow bikini. The teenager looked vaguely familiar, but
Sarah didn’t stop to consider it. Pushing through the fighting
bodies, she deftly chopped off the head of a feeding vampire.

Half-a-dozen steps away, Lord PhñDick, a high
lord and self-proclaimed duke of the Dhark Empire, stood over the
umbra. A single touch of his outstretched hand, and PhñDick would
disappear with the umbra. The vampire’s blood red eyes flashed in
triumph.

Surging forward, Sarah’s sword slashed out,
severing the duke’s flesh in half. Blood spurted. His pale hand,
and half his arm, bounced off the umbra’s chest.

PhñDick roared in pain. Swinging his sword
forward, he attacked Sarah in a sloppy counterstrike.

Darting to the side, she avoided his move
easily.

A blur of movement caught her attention. In a
fluid move, she twisted out of the way and avoided the blade of a
new attacker. Before PhñDick’s blond-haired general had time to
recover, she shoved her sword through his defenses, thrusting the
steel blade through his gut.

Stepping forward, she smashed the heel of her
hand into his chest, shattering ribs. Over the sounds of the
battle, she couldn’t hear a wet sucking noise, but she knew the
move had shattered numerous ribs, no doubt puncturing several major
organs including both lungs. As if to confirm her theory, blood
bloomed up both sides of his rib cage and he dropped to the ground,
blood bubbling past his lips.

As old as he was, the injuries wouldn’t hold
him long. Already, he struggled to rise.

She turned toward her original prey, hoping
she was in time to prevent his departure.

PhñDick lurched forward, his outstretched
hand reaching for the motionless body of the umbra.

Twisting on her heel, she sliced her sword
out and down, severing the umbra’s head from its body.

PhñDick roared furiously and raised his sword
against her.

Sarah knocked the blade away, not a flicker
of emotion crossed her face. On the backward swing, she laid the
sharp edge against his throat. “Drop the blade,” she said icily,
ignoring the stump of his bleeding arm as it flopped against his
side.

With uncanny timing, Sarah’s warriors gained
the upper hand at nearly the same time. The fighting around them
paused, emphasizing PhñDick’s loss with eerie silence.

Baring his fangs, he growled. “You’ve
declared war against the Dhark Empire. You, and every one of your
weakling people, will die.”

“Weak? Look around you, PhñDick. They don’t
look weak,” she said with an arrogant tilt of her head. “You are
the one that betrayed the empire by such a visible attack on
Earth.”

“To save an umbra, one of our legendary
leaders,” he spat, glaring at her.

Her lip curled, baring sharp fangs,
transforming her ice-cold features into that of walking death. “I
will never allow something as sadistic as an umbra near my people.”
She leaned closer, catching the faint, sharp smell of his fear. “If
there are more of them, I will not stop until all of them are
dead.”

“That’s not your decision to make.”

“I just made it my decision,” she said
softly, deadly. Shoving him away, she added without a flicker of
mercy in her voice. “From this day forth, anyone that assists the
umbra will die beside them.”

“The empire will destroy you,” he snapped
between clenched teeth.

“Think well before you declare war. I promise
retribution for every attack.” She smiled, knowing that in her
bloodthirsty mood it had to look somewhat deranged. “Entry into
your fortress is as simple as walking across a beach. I should know
since I’m the one who left the crystal teardrop on your mate’s
dressing table last year.”

Clenching his jaw, his face turned white and
filled with a look of wild fury. Not answering her final, verbal
blow, he ported away from the beach.

“Casualties?” she asked Garrick.

“At least twenty dead humans with another
thirty seriously injured,” he said, stone-faced.

“Send the mundanes that can survive with
medical assistance to a human hospital. Take the remaining injured
home. Get the beach emptied. I want the entire area swept with
white-fire,” she said, glancing to one of her phoenix whose wings
lay hidden in folds along the woman’s back.

“Liege,” the phoenix nodded an
acknowledgement, no doubt understanding the fire would destroy
every trace of crystal-enhanced blood.

“If I am needed don’t hesitate to call me,”
she said.

“Wait!” a husky, female voice yelled over the
cries of the wounded.

Glancing to her right, she saw the girl in
the yellow bikini. A frantic-eyed man carrying a camera on his
shoulder trailed behind her. Too late, Sarah recognized the
teenager.

Erin Rathbone’s mass of curly, red hair
bounced around her shoulders as she weaved around bodies and
hard-faced warriors. The teen was Hollywood’s current glamour girl,
the sweetheart of the media that could do no wrong.

Sarah did not want to speak with her. “No
comment.”

“Oh, come on, you saved my life…,” getting a
good look at Sarah’s cold features, the girl’s voice ground to
halt. Her face blanched of all color.

“Miss Rathbone, I am in no mood for polite
conversation.”

“You know me?” the girl said with a look of
wide-eyed innocence.

Sarah glared at the girl. She could easily
port away, but perhaps answering a few questions would calm some of
the hysteria. She snorted to herself. Right. Nothing short of
dosing every mundane on Earth with valium would stop the
hysteria.

“Who doesn’t?” Sarah asked, forcing a slight
(and hopefully) non-threatening smile.

“Oh, wow, um, thanks.” Erin’s apparent loss
for words didn’t last long. “Who are you people? And what was that
thing? Was it big foot?”

Sarah almost nodded yes, but quickly thought
better of it. If the umbra had their way and if the foreseen future
came-to-pass she would need the human’s trust. Lying to them
wouldn’t build that trust.

“No, it was not big foot. That creature was
an umbra. A thousand years ago, they were hunted to extinction, or
so we thought.”

“Why? I mean, why make an entire species
extinct? Surely, the animals could be controlled some other way,”
Erin asked, tucking a stray curl behind a small, shell-shaped
ear.

“Do not let their appearance deceive you.
Umbra are very intelligent, sentient beings. They are not animals.
To the very last one, they were sadistic, war-loving creatures that
wanted all other races to serve them as their slaves. An umbra
would think nothing of slicing the skin off a newborn baby just to
hear the child’s parents beg for mercy.” She watched the girl’s
face turn slightly green. “That is what an umbra is like.”

“Are there more of them? Will they invade
Earth?” she asked, shuddering.

“The one I killed is the only one I have
seen, but there could be more. If there are, we will destroy them,”
Sarah stated firmly.

“What about the vampires? I mean, they were
vampires, right? They had fangs and claws, and they killed part of
the movie crew and several of the extras,” Erin said. Sniffling,
she wiped a tear from her face. Sarah wasn’t certain if it was good
acting or if the girl was truly upset, perhaps both.

“Not all vampires will attack on sight.”
Sarah paused, wondering how far she should go, especially on
camera. She knew that every mundane on Earth would eventually see
the video. With a silent sigh, she accepted the responsibility and
opened her mouth, slowly extending her fangs.

She had to give the girl credit. Her face
blanched pure white, but she didn’t run. She even grabbed the
cameraman’s arm when he turned to flee. “Murray, don’t you dare
run. I won’t condemn her just because she has fangs, not after she
saved my life.”

“Good choice. Now, I must leave. My people
have a job to do. As a ‘thank you’ for my saving your life, please,
don’t interfere with them.”

The moment the girl nodded, Sarah felt a
burst of fury as Nick’s emotions flooded her brain. She ported to
the tunnels where she left him.

Blood covered the tunnel.

Umbra surrounded her.

Twin swords
appeared in her hands. Slashing the blades in an outward arch, she
sliced through umbra on either side of her.

Nick’s howl of rage reverberated down the
tunnel and through her brain.

Killing another umbra that appeared on her
left, she turned, and the blood in her veins turned to ice.

Nick struggled against the combined strength
of three umbra as they forced him toward a gateway.

She surged forward, but it was too late.

Kicking and growling, Nick fought them, but
the creatures yanked him through the gateway. As Nick’s bloody shoe
cleared the barrier, anguish burned through her.

Roaring her rage, she charged past the
remaining umbra. Slicing her swords right and left, it didn’t take
long to cut the black furred beasts down in the restricted space of
the tunnel.

Not sparing the dying umbra a second thought,
she raced through the unknown portal.

On the other side, more umbra attacked her.
Ducking and cutting outward, she sliced one in half. The second
monster lost a leg.

Straight ahead of her, some ten feet away,
umbra struggled to hold Nick. Her heart clenched at his lack of
natural weapons. With him so near the gateway, he had no claws or
fangs, but that didn’t stop him.

Somehow, he had managed to retain a grip on
Bowie. Slashing the long knife outward, an umbra lost the use of an
arm.

The twang of a bowstring jerked her attention
back to her enemy. She dropped and rolled, just barely avoiding an
arrow through her back. A glance behind her showed a dozen armed
umbra rushing her. Another twang, multiplied by ten, sang through
the air.

She ported, appearing behind the big umbra
that held Nick by his neck. Thrust. Twist. She gutted the creature.
A single slash and she beheaded the second umbra. The third monster
attacked.

Nick slashed Bowie across the creature’s
thick throat. Blood spewed from the severed artery.

Sarah grabbed Nick’s arm and ported them two
hundred feet straight up. They started dropping immediately.

Below them, a thick forest spread outward as
far as the eye could see. Rugged mountains surrounded the area.

Sarah ported them to the north,
gain-and-again, jumping through the sky in twenty-mile hops.
Hundreds of miles away, the forest gave way to a wide meadow of
swaying grass. Seeing a small hill, she ported them to the treeless
top.

She didn’t have time to speak before Nick
demanded, “Are you okay?” Sliding his hands down her arms, he
quickly checked her upper body for injuries before moving to her
legs.

Something inside her melted. Blood all over
him and his first thought was for her.

“Yes, I’m fine. Are you?”

Pulling back, he issued a soft growl and
touched her cheek gently. “You’re sure none of the blood is
yours?”

“Blood?” she asked. She looked down, and sure
enough, blood splattered her clothes. “No, I’m fine. You?” she
asked again, looking him over from head-to-toe.

“I’m fine, but we played right into their
hands. I was watching you talk to bikini girl when one just
appeared in the tunnel,” he said through gritted teeth.

“They had an umbra hidden In Between,
watching the gateways?” she asked as a soft growl rumbled through
her chest. She’d left him in a tunnel with umbra and hadn’t even
known it. “If there was one hidden there the entire time, why
didn’t they attack you when you killed the umbra? Or rescue the
injured umbra after you dumped it on the beach?”

“The creature grinned at me and said I did a
good job,” he said disgustedly. “I think the dead umbra was
considered an acceptable loss.” His lips curled into a bitter
grimace. “After the creature called for the others, he told them
‘don’t kill him, he’ll draw Chi’Kehra through the portal’.”

“Well, their archers didn’t do the job. Give
me a second, and I’ll alert my guard. We’ll permanently fix the
umbra problem,” she said smugly. She sent out a tendril of thought,
seeking the familiar minds of her guard.

Her search met silence. Sucking in a shocked
gasp, her smirk of satisfaction fell from her face.

“Sarah?”

“Yeah, I think, I know why they wanted me to
go through the gateway.” She looked at him, feeling sick to her
stomach. “We aren’t on Earth.”

“You mean we’re in a valley?”

She shook her head slowly. The pit of dread
in the middle of her stomach grew. “I think we might be on
Sídhí.”

Air hissed between Nick’s teeth. “Sídhí?
You’re sure?”

“I should be able to detect thousands of
people who are familiar to me, but I only sense two. I marked
Miranda and her guard with a shard of crystal,” she said quietly.
Looking into the distance, she nodded. “My sister is that way about
twenty-five hundred miles.”

“Then we go that way. We’ll find our way back
to Earth, but not until we have your sister back,” he said softly.
“First, let’s find some water and wash off the stench of umbra
blood.”

“Agreed,” she said with a relieved sigh.

She moved them across the landscape in short
hops, searching for a source of water. It didn’t take long before
they approached a narrow creek. In the distance, a large body of
water shimmered along the horizon.

Nick closed his hand around her shoulder,
stopping her from porting again. “Near water we have a better
chance of running into people.”