Hidden Wings (17 page)

We stood in the middle of the road, in the light of the fire.

There was a lot of movement within the thick, dark trees. Who, or what, was making the noises… I had no idea. There were no signs of Alaine or the others, but I knew the Darkling were out there; watching, waiting.

I had a strange feeling that something was about to happen, and I was an unarmed target. It was a horrible feeling; a feeling that suddenly made me nauseous.

Where was Kade? He was supposed to protect me.

Alexander’s raven-black hair waved lightly in the cool breeze. A single bead of sweat glistened as it trickled down the side of his face. He sniffed the air, slightly crouched, with his sword gripped tightly in his hand. His eyes were focused, intense, fully blackened and gazing into the darkness, ready for whatever was coming.

The heat of the fire warmed my icy cold skin. Kade’s jacket had gotten lost when I was tossed from the Hummer, and my hoodie was a thin layer of worthlessness, leaving me shivering. I slowly inched my way closer to the flame, as close as possible without burning myself. Darkling didn’t like the light, so I was pretty sure they wouldn’t sneak up from behind me.

“I thought we were going to the other Hummer,” I whispered.

“We were, but I lost my key. It was probably when I did that awesome somersault over Kade, trying to avoid his blade,” he responded without looking back, but I saw his cheek rise with a grin.

“Oh, okay,” I whispered again. I don’t know why I was whispering. It’s not like it mattered.

I guess it was because I didn’t want to break his concentration because my life was now in his hands. But, I liked being in the light anyway. I was starting to hate the darkness and all the terror that was associated with it. It was better to see what was coming, rather than have it sneak up and kill me. I didn’t like surprises like that.

My eyes strained down the dark dirt road. About a hundred yards away, the faint glimmer of the second Hummer’s bumper winked its location to me. The rest remained shielded in the darkness. Hopefully the Darkling wouldn’t see it and blow it up too. That was our last mode of transportation.

Alex sniffed the air again, obviously concerned with whatever was lurking in the darkness. His knuckles turned white as his grip tightened around the handle of his sword.

He then spoke two spine-chilling words.

“They’re coming.”

A strong smell of death whirled in the wind around me, stinging my nostrils. It was a familiar smell. An evil smell. A smell that alerted me the Darkling were near.

“Emma, whatever you do…don’t run,” Alex warned. “Stay close and I’ll protect you.” His words offered little comfort, but I was thankful he was willing to protect me.

“Okay,” I breathed in agreement.

Suddenly, a Darkling shot out of the darkness, and in a screaming blur, knocked Alexander backwards. They tumbled to other side of the road and disappeared into the darkness. I could hear them fighting, but now, I was completely alone, vulnerable, a spotlight in the darkness with no one to protect me.

As I turned, another Darkling stepped into the road. I froze. Its black eyes were steeled on mine, and there was nothing I could do. It had me locked, a victim of a rabid monster. Its lips curled, revealing sharp, corroded teeth. I slowly backed toward the opposite side of the road.

Alexander told me not to run, but he wasn’t here, and I had no other options. It was run… or die.

The Darkling glared at me… threatening. It move closer and with a snap, it flew at me.

I was thrust to my back, the air completely knocked out of my lungs. I gasped for breath, and braced myself for the fall with my bare hands, which were being raked over sharp rocks. Pain and helplessness surged through my entire being.

In a blur, Kade flew out of the darkness and kicked the Darkling in the chest. The Darkling flew backwards and hit the ground with force. It jumped back to its feet, growling, locking eyes with Kade. It pulled a small blade from its side and leapt toward him. Kade jumped and met him in the air, and his force knocked the Darkling backwards.

In a split second, in mid-flight, Kade unsheathed his sword and thrust it forward, piercing the blade deep into the Darkling’s chest. Its blood-curdling scream sent chills up my spine.

Kade withdrew his blade, and with ease grabbed its hair and severed its head from its neck, and then casually tossed it into the trees.

I should have closed my eyes, but watching him engaged in battle was both horrifying yet breathtaking. He was my real-life knight in shining armor, determined and unwavering in his responsibility to save my life. My heart felt like it was going to explode right out of my chest.

He turned to face me and paused. Sweat glistened on his brow, his eyes began to soften and then changed from pure black to hazel.

In a few quick steps he was at my side.

“Are you alright?” he asked.

“I am now.”

He reached for my hand and lifted me to my feet. His touch sent needed warmth through my frozen limbs. I wanted to wrap my arms around him and tell him how thankful I was for saving my life, but I hesitated.

“Where were you?” I asked, almost breathless.

“Trying to find the others. I had to take care of another Darkling in the woods. I did have an eye on you the whole time,” he noted.

“Did you find Alaine?”

“No, and I couldn’t find the others either. Maybe they already went for Caleb.”

Alex ambled out of the darkness, wiping his blade on his pants.

“I hate those damn Darkling. Their blood is like freakin’ tar. It’ll take a whole damn day to clean this crap off!”

“Quit whining. What’d you kill…ONE? I’ve already killed three… but then again…who’s counting?” Kade jested.

“Obviously you! But we’ll see who has the most kills by the end of the night.”

“You’re on,” Kade agreed with a wide grin.

“Are you two serious?” They were actually trying to make a game out of this? Did they even care about dying? It seemed like they’d dealt with the Darkling before, like killing them just was a normal routine. Maybe it was. Maybe I was getting worried for nothing.

If I was supposedly three-quarters angel, then why didn’t I have any special powers? I was healing fast, but that was about it. I was still humanly slow and very breakable. And if I was breakable, then I could easily die.

I glanced at my cast, smeared with dirt and blood, and suddenly missed my parents, my home, Lia and Jeremy.

“We’ve got company,” Kade said.

I snapped out of my slump, as three Darkling appeared out of the darkness, crouched, slowly stalking towards us. Each carried some type of weapon.

Kade immediately stepped in front of me, pushing me behind him. The fire was extremely close to my backside but I didn’t budge.

“Emma,” Kade breathed.

“Yeah?”

“Just stay right here.”

That was the second time I was given that command. Did they really think I wanted to run into the darkness?

“Okay,” I answered. I was frozen with fear anyway. There were three Darkling and three of us, but I was completely worthless.

“Hey Kade,” Alex called, readying his sword.

“What?”

“The least amount of kills has to clean the other’s blade.”

“Deal,” Kade answered, crouching, readying for battle.

They were making the ‘murder the Darkling’ a game, while my sanity was barely hanging on by a thread. But, maybe…if I thought about it the way they did, I’d stay sane.

“Hey, I’m in!” another voice hollered from the darkness. We all turned to see Dominic do a double somersault from the trees. He landed directly in front of Kade and Alex, wielding two smaller, curved blades. They looked thin but super sharp, and had fresh Darkling blood dripping from it. “So which one of you girls is gonna clean my blade?” he said raising his eyebrows to Kade and Alex. He then turned and winked at me, making me blush. Dominic had just evened the playing field.

“You wish,” Alex huffed. “And, Dom, my blade will need some sharpening after this.”

“You’re dreaming little man. I’m not cleaning your big ass blades,” he said.

I was just about to tell them that the Darkling were getting closer, when Dominic turned and ran at full force towards the Darkling. In one swift, fluid movement, he jumped forward in a perfect spin, effortlessly beheading two Darkling heads. It was fast, like poetry in motion.

Dominic was a cross between Kade and Malachi. He was tall, over six feet, but was muscular and ripped. He was fair, his features strong and defined, his eyes were jade green. His hair was a light ash color, which fell right above his shoulders.

Alexander charged after Dominic, with abandon and vigor. The last Darkling ducked under Alexander’s sword, pivoted and plunged his blade into the back of Alex’s shoulder. Alex yelled dropped to the ground, and writhed in pain. He reached back to remove the blade, but it was just beyond his reach.

Kade charged toward the creature, leapt in the air, and as he came down, plunged his blade into the Darkling’s shoulder. The Darkling dropped to his knees and took hold of the blade, and slowly extracted it. As he did, he glared at Kade and let out a horrifying laugh. Kade stood in front of him with a smirk, and slowly shook his head.

“Hey, Dom… I think he’s got too much weight on his shoulders,” Kade yelled.

“Well bro, maybe you should help him out!” Dominic flung one of his blades to Kade, and within a second, the Darkling’s head was sliced off and rolling on the ground, its eyes still open.

I dropped to my knees, lightheaded, and realized I’d been holding my breath. I’d never witnessed so much death and gore in all my life. This world…was a dark, macabre world. A world I was not used to. Sure there were murders in L.A., but I’d never seen them.

I needed to get my head on straight. Change my thinking. It was either them, or me. These things were evil. They wanted to kill me. They deserved to die. Maybe if I pretend they were the bad guys in Jeremy’s games of “
Call of Duty”
or “
Gears of War”
, where I’d shot, sliced, and killed opponents without batting an eye, it would work.

Dominic and Kade assisted Alex over to where I was.

“Take it out!” Alex demanded through gritted teeth.

Kade was about to pull the blade from his back when I yelled, “Wait! What if it hit a main artery? He could bleed to death!”

“This? This is barely a scrape,” Kade answered, yanking the blade from his shoulder like it was nothing.

Alex cringed in pain. “Damn. I thought I had that one,” he said, slowly rising to his feet.

“Nope. I got it, and that’s four for me,” Kade snickered.

“No, no, no! We’re starting from scratch! How do we know you killed four?” Dominic rebutted. “So…I’m in the lead with two awesome kills, which everyone had the pleasure of witnessing… Kade, you’ve got one… and Alex… zero.”

“That’s bull! I just killed one! See his leg right over there… just off the side of the road?” Alex huffed, pointing to the silhouette of a lifeless Darkling leg. “You saw it, Emma? Right? Emma?”

I didn’t respond because I was suddenly distracted by the humongous terror approaching. I pointed, speechless. It was the monster Darkling heading in our direction.

“Holy shit!” Alex shouted.

“Alright, alright! Now, don’t go getting your panties in wads! So the deal is…whoever kills King Kong gets
three
points,” Dominic challenged.

“No, whoever kills this one, takes it ALL,” Kade countered. They all nodded in silent agreement, and took off toward the Darkling. I was fine with that. I had three, deadly assassins protecting me now.

“Emma. Emma.” Someone called my name, but it was quiet, and I could barely hear it over the guys’ battle cries.

“Emma,” the voice called again a little louder.

As I turned, Alaine came walking out of the dark trees, but stopped near the edge of the road.

“Emma, come quickly! Come to me!” she urged, waving me over. My heart skipped a beat, thrilled to see her alive. I started to run toward her when Kade suddenly jumped in between us. He held his hand up to me.

“Emma, don’t.”

I paused, wondering why he wouldn’t let me go to her.

Kade faced Alaine and with two quick steps thrust his blade through her heart.

She grabbed his arms, her eyes wide with pain.

“What the hell are you doing?!” I screamed in horror. I couldn’t believe my eyes.

Alaine fell to the ground, gasping for air. I could hear blood gurgling in her throat as she tried to breathe. I ran to comfort her, but Kade held me back.

“What the hell did you do?! You killed her!!! Why would you kill her?” I screamed as hot tears streamed down my face.

“That’s not Alaine, Emma!”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“Look at her eyes; they’re all black. And the smell. This is a shifter. A Darkling shifter. It’s not Alaine,” he repeated, slowly loosening his grip on me. I fell to my knees a few feet away from her. It looked like my aunt, an exact replica, but he was right. Her eyes were completely black, and the stench of Darkling wafted in the air around us. If it weren’t for that fact, I wouldn’t have believed him… It was crazy. Her hair, her features, her clothes… everything was exact. Damn, this was terrifying.

“Do you think she’s okay? Alaine?” I asked, trembling. “Is she still alive?”

“I don’t know,” he answered sadly.

The shifter suddenly jutted its hand towards me. I gasped in horror and fell backwards, barely avoiding its touch. Kade reached down and lifted me back to my feet. He then walked over to the shifter and pulled his blade from its chest. It screamed, grasping its heart, and within a few seconds, stopped breathing. As soon as it did, its eyes turned a glossy white, and it slowly shifted back into its true, hideous form. A Darkling. How deceptive. How terrifying. And to think I almost ran to it. I shivered in fear at the thought. That was much too close, and now I knew I had to be even more careful and aware of the dangers around me.

Kade turned back to me, wiping his blade. He reached into a pouch on his side, and pulled out a gun. A 9mm handgun. I knew exactly what it was because my dad owned one. He’d kept it in a safe in his bedroom, but whenever he cleaned it he’d let me hold it - without the bullets of course. He’d promised me that one day he’d take me to a shooting range, but it never happened, nor would it ever.