Exile: Sídhí Summer Camp #3 (30 page)

The burst of Sarah’s ice-cold rage took his
breath away as the explosive emotion burned through his veins.

Together, they turned toward the gateway.
Once inside, Nick took everything in at a single glance. Large,
thin monitors covered the far right wall; twenty-five feet of a
horror show in the making.

A dozen screens showed warriors at rigid
attention, waiting for an attack to come through large gateways
that stood in the distance. He noted each screen, and shoved them
to the back of his mind.

More than half of the screens showed raging
battles, warriors clashing with swords and claw. Each set of four
screens depicted a different area, a mountain pass, a large meadow,
a city, a small town… there were dozens. Only the terrain changed
the picture.

A sea of endless bodies fought in the rural
areas, but it was the urban areas that built a sense of dread in
his chest. Death and destruction filled the streets as flames shot
from buildings. Warriors were not the only ones fighting,
civilians, some in shorts and summer dresses, fought the endless
flow of men and creatures flowing from open gateways.

Glancing behind him, he turned in time to see
Sarah’s people retreat from Sídhí, returning through the gateway.
One person remained behind, the dark haired woman that smelled of a
lightning storm.

Her slender back suddenly sprouted brilliant
red wings. Spread wide, they blocked part of the forest, but not
too much. She began to glow. An instant later, pure white-fire
danced around her wings, surrounding her entire body.

The deadly flames shot outward, destroying
everything within a dozen yards of the open gate. Trees and shrubs
burst into flames. So did five bodies. Invisibility didn’t help the
umbra against a physical weapon. Unbelievingly, the glow grew
brighter, giving it a blue halo, and the umbra went from flame to
columns of ash, collapsing as they tried to escape.

The glow around the phoenix pulsed again,
appearing to increase instead of dissipate. The edge of her red
wings turned blue.

“Bea, shake it off. I need you here, now,”
Sarah said calmly.

Nick glanced at his soft-spoken mate. Her
calm, outward demeanor didn’t match the explosive emotions, surging
below her skin. Then he looked into her eyes. Her fury-filled eyes
told the true story.

The blood-winged woman bowed her head once in
acknowledgement. A shudder shook her body. Wings disappeared,
folding into thin ridges along her back. Walking backward, the
woman entered the room without turning her back to possible
enemies.

As soon as Bea cleared the opening, Sarah
closed the gateway.

“Status,” Sarah said with icy precision, her
gaze flickering between monitors. Hands clenched at her sides, her
eyes sparked with mounting rage.

“Four primary gateways have been breached,” a
white-blond-haired elf stated, motioning toward four sets of
monitors. “We are pushing them back at Red Oak Gateway, but they
have complete control of the gateways at Hot Springs Castle, Gila
Cliffs, and the West Coast Metro Gateway.”

Nick felt a hard knot of grief flow from her,
but her deadly rage never lessened.

“Aaron?” she questioned.

Nick cursed softly, remembering Shelby was in
protective custody with Sarah’s cousin. From her flashing thoughts,
Aaron lived at Hot Springs Castle.

“Unknown.”

She nodded once.

“Timothy,” she didn’t glance at anyone
specifically, but a dark haired man, sitting at one of the
computers, snapped to attention, “ten minute countdown on the
wall.”

Turning from the monitors, she looked at the
phoenix. Deadly intent flashed from her eyes as she said, “Bea, I
need a thousand phoenix per breach. I will port them directly in
front of each portal. You have ten minutes.”

“Liege,” the phoenix hit her chest with a
closed fist. “Gathering points will be at Kenai, Whitehorse,
Juneau, and Trout Lake. Send me to a central point like
Juneau.”

The phoenix disappeared.

After porting the phoenix, Sarah didn’t
pause. She turned to a hazel-eyed vampire and said, “Cory, leave
fifty men at each secure portal. I want a third of the freed-up
warriors to help with evacuating the nearby towns. Place the
remaining troops in front of the invading armies.”

In his mind, Nick envisioned the pincer move
she described.

The vampire nodded once and disappeared.

Her gaze focused on a single monitor.

On the screen, one of the largest gateways he
had ever seen was spewing hundreds of dhark warriors. Their mouths
opened in roars of attack, but there was no sound coming from the
muted screen.

The rustle of paper and the clicking of keys
paused. As if they knew something major was about to happen, the
room grew quite as a tomb.

Knowing what Sarah was about to do, Nick
didn’t bother to hide an arrogant snarl of anticipation.

“And then there were three,” Sarah murmured
softly, a slight smile curled her lips, a smile that would have
sent any sane adversary screaming in retreat.

The image on the screen changed. The gateway,
some hundred yards wide, ceased to exist. Power from the closure
flickered outward, exploding in a white light of erupting energy.
To the naked eye, it exploded, destroying thousands of the enemy as
they tried to invade Trellick Valley.

“Oops,” she said calmly. “I must need
additional practice.”

Glancing to the next screen, the process
repeated itself without the explosion at the end. Nick understood
why. At the first gate, dhark warriors flowed through unhindered,
without any of Sarah’s people in sight. Fighting warriors
surrounded the second gateway. Exploding the gate would have killed
hundreds of her people.

The third gate closed same as the second one.
One after another, screens reflected gateways across Trellick
Valley closing, whether they were under attack or not.

As the last one closed, Sarah straightened,
and before he had time to demand she take him with her, the same
blond-haired elf stepped forward. A calm, forceful look covered his
face. His features rang a bell, but Nick couldn’t place him.

“You’re not going anywhere,” he stated.

You could’ve heard a pin drop.

Sarah looked at the man. Nick nearly didn’t
hold back a shudder as her icy rage changed into something
volatile, deadly. “Are you breaking your oath to me?”

The man’s face curled into a snarl, baring
very human teeth. “You are my liege. I will never break that oath,
but that doesn’t mean I won’t give you unsought advice.”

A flicker of humor raced through her,
touching Nick in a flood of relief.

“Dad, you’ve given me unsought
advice
since the moment I could talk.”

“True, baby girl,” Lord Trellick said, he
face softening. “Once you port the phoenix, and the fresh ground
troops began providing support, we will have a handle on pushing
the scum out of our valley. If you go out there, and you are
recognized, people might start putting two-and-two together.”

She bared her fangs in a growl, finishing the
importance of his unspoken words. “And if the elves figure out
someone ported the phoenix in, they’ll question how. And we can’t
afford to have the elves attack right now.”

Nick felt her simmering fury. He understood.
He wanted nothing more than to lay into a few of the dhark soldiers
and rip them to pieces with his claws and nothing more.

“I don’t know,” her father said, nodding
toward an image of a closed gateway. “Now, that you can do that,
I’m half a mind to chunk the entire charade and publically announce
that you are Chi’Kehra. I don’t doubt the elves of the Royal Valley
will turn against you, but some of the other elvish valleys have
very quietly started accepting mixed-race couples.”

The bright red digits on the countdown clock
changed to one minute. “We’ll discuss it after this is over, but I
love the idea. I’m so sick of all the lies,” she said, repeating
what she had told Nick days ago.

Someone handed Sarah a hooded robe. Slipping
it around her shoulders, she tugged the hood forward then pulled a
matching black facemask around the lower half of her face. Going to
her calves, the cape seemed to be made for her. If she had to
fight, the cloak’s short length would not get in her way and
accidentally trip her.

Clenching his teeth, he stifled a growl. He
knew she had to pick-up the phoenix, but he hated her going
alone.

Someone touched his shoulder. He turned. The
same young woman that had handed Sarah her cloak had an identical
one for him. Surprised, he accepted the garment with a word of
thanks.

He turned toward his mate with a question in
his eyes, not that he disagreed but the move surprised him. He’d
been half-afraid she’d try putting him in a glass bubble or in
Sarah’s case, a crystal bubble.

“I thought you might like to go with me,”
Sarah said softly, adjusting the hood of the cloak around his face.
For a moment, her eyes softened.

His midsection - that had been clenched tight
with a dozen nameless emotions - relaxed until he felt almost
normal. There was no getting around his beloved was a better
fighter than he was, but he was vampire. His entire purpose in life
was to protect his mate. He grunted to himself, knowing that if he
wanted his mate happy, he better re-adjust his overwhelming urge to
protect her at all times.

She touched his face with a brief caress
before hooking the mask in place. “Thank you. I swear that I’ll try
to do the same for you.”

Sharing thoughts was turning out to be better
than…

“If you say better than sex, so help me, I’ll
throw you in the dungeon,” she said with a twinkle in her
beautiful, clear blue eyes.

The clock on the wall hit ten seconds.
Curling her hand around his arm, she ported them to the far
northern part of North America, appearing in Phoenix Valley.

Sarah appeared on a raised platform, the kind
normally seen at music concerts. There was not a chair in sight. A
breeze swirled around them, carrying the bright smell of fireweed
and mishk on the wind.

Covering the field was a sea of brilliant
colored wings, every shade imaginable from bright blue to sea foam
green. A second color edged most wings, and a few people had
tri-colored wings. Seeing burnt orange edged with bright purple, he
quickly decided not all of the secondary colors were
complimentary.

Pulling her hood back, Sarah unhooked her
mask. Additional phoenix landed. At a guess, there were a lot more
than a thousand. More wings appeared on the horizon, flying
straight toward them.

From Sarah’s mind, he heard the soft murmur
as hundreds of people called to her.
“I am coming… Don’t leave
without me... I’m hurrying... I’ll be there... Don’t leave
me…”

Shock flowed from his mate. As more people
called to her, disbelief merged with awe.
“I do not deserve such
loyalty,”
she said to him in a private whisper.

“
Would you not take your last breath
defending them?”
he asked her.

“
Of course, I would. They are my people
just as much as those who live in Trellick Valley are my
people.”

“
They know that,”
he said, gently
squeezing her arm.
“This is not simple loyalty, this is
love.”

She gave a slight nod, accepting his comment.
He thought her to be speechless. He couldn’t have been more
wrong.

“
My people, time is of the essence. I must
take those gathered, but I will return.”
Verbally and mentally,
her words literally boomed across the sky. He realized she must be
forcing power into her speech.

Damn, his girl amazed him every time he
turned around.

“
When I called, you came. You are mine,
and I am yours, but the honor you give me this day is beyond
compare.”
Beside him, he felt her take a deep breath, and she
shouted in a half snarl, half scream of fury,
“Today, we fight!
Today, we throw off the chains of evil!”

The rumble of voices meeting her words echoed
across the beautiful Kenai landscape, becoming a deafening roar.
“Today, we become a nation without the taint of the Dhark
Empire! Today, we will destroy our enemies!”

She raised her hand, the one scared with
living crystal. Crystal flowed from the thin, nearly invisible
scar, in a billowing cloud of tiny sparkling shards. The cloud
moved outward, above the raging throng of warriors. The frosty
cloud of power dispersed into a mist and rained down; synth crystal
enveloped each person on the field.

As she started gathering power for the port,
he felt every strand of hair rise up. It felt like he was standing
too near a naked electric line as the energy sizzled across his
skin. He tensed, expecting pain to strike next, but he should have
known his mate better than that.

Curling her arm around his, she soaked up the
stray flickers of power.

Realizing she planned to port, he flipped her
hood up and secured her mask.

“
Thanks, I forgot,”
she said almost
sheepishly. The emotion was so at odds with her powerful stance
that he stopped watching the gathered phoenix and simply savored
the genuine emotion coming from her.

His arm snaked around her tiny waist.

Smooth as breathing, Sarah ported him and
well over a thousand screaming phoenix high into the air above the
now closed Hot Springs gateway.

He felt them falling through the air, and his
arms tightened around her body. They didn’t drop very far before
the sky disappeared, and they appeared at Whitehorse. A roar of
welcome greeted them. When she greeted the phoenix with a raised
sword but didn’t speak, he realized she had projected her speech a
lot farther than he first thought.

She didn’t pause before porting the waiting
warriors to West Coast Metro. The next group of warriors she sent
to Red Oak, the next to Gila Cliffs.