Indebted: The Premonition Series (13 page)

“She has already left,” Zephyr says in a soft tone. “She went with half the Undines and Preben to meet the other Dominion Powers.”

My eyes widen, “Meet them? Meet them where?” I ask, feeling completely locked out of what they have been planning.

“The Ukraine—Pirogovo, it is south of Kiev, Evie. They are meeting Phaedrus—collecting more intel on the Ifrit,” Reed replies with military precision.

“Were you going to tell me?” I ask them, and seeing their blank faces, I know that the answer to my question is “no.” “Do you know where Brownie and Russell are?” I ask when no one speaks.

Reed frowns at me. “Stay in the room, love. Don’t leave it for any reason. I’m going to go with Zee—we will be back for you. We will move you soon, then we will answer all of your questions,” Reed says, pulling me into his arms. Realizing that he is going out there without me, I cling to him tight, all of my anger at being shut out of their intel forgotten.

“Let me go with you, Reed,” I plead, not wanting him out of my sight with Brennus so near.

“I won’t be gone long. We are looking for the best way to get you out of here undetected. Once we have worked that out, we will be back,” he says, hugging me tight and then letting me go. Nodding to Zephyr, they leave in a fraction of a second.

Taking up positions outside my room, Elan and Sorin don the same kind of body armor that Reed and Zephyr had on. Soon after, the crying outside the walls of the compound dies down and is replaced by an eerie silence. Goose bumps rise on my arms as I look at the alert faces of the angels guarding me.

The tense silence stretches on until it is replaced by a strange, hissing sound from somewhere off in the distance, beyond the protective stone walls. Deep growls sound from my bodyguards. Elan sniffs the air and scowls. “What is it?” I ask, my heartbeat drumming painfully in my chest when screams of agony float to us on the air.

“Flame-throwers,” Elan answers.

“What?” I choke.

“They are burning them,” he says.

“What?” I ask in a weak tone.

“The Gancanagh are burning the humans, attempting to draw us out,” Sorin says stiffly. “It is impossible for us to watch them torture humans. We will engage them.”

More hissing of flame-throwers sounds as billows of smoke drift over the walls of our fortress.

A driving wind starts stirring the leaves and the red hanging lanterns in the trees around us, pushing my hair away from my face. Thick, dark clouds collect above us like an ominous omen of impending doom. As I gaze up at the darkening sky, rain falls in hard, pelting drops.

“The Undines are bringing the rain, trying to help,” Elan explains, while we watch the storm clouds.

Shivering from the soaking rain and the horror around me, I jump when Reed speaks to me, “The rain will also be good cover when we fly you out of here.” I gasp, feeling his arms go around me, gathering me to him. Then he whispers something to me—something in Angel.

“What did you say?” I whisper back, relieved that he’s here.

“I said, ‘I love you, my
aspire
,’” he replies, squeezing me to him. “Are you ready to go?” he asks and I nod immediately, wanting to leave as quickly as possible. Zephyr moves to one side of us as Elan and Sorin take similar positions around us.

We are just about to make our leap into the air, when the flickering of several sets of helicopter blades sound from somewhere within the black clouds above us. Dark, shooting images begin to rain out of the night, plummeting towards us at a frightening velocity. Hitting the ground, the first Gancanagh soldier pauses on one knee momentarily before he stands up, completely unharmed from having hurled out of the sky. He bares his sharp fangs as his hands move quickly to his back holster, drawing from it a wicked automatic rifle and indiscriminately spraying bullets all around the compound.

Pulling me behind him, Reed shouts a warning to the angels nearest the gunman. The army of angels immediately engages the Gancanagh as they continue to fall from the sky. Some of the angels have taken flight, plucking their enemies out of their freefall and grappling with them, tearing them apart and dropping them to the ground in pieces.

Hundreds of Gancanagh continue to fall from the sky like locusts, but they are only one wave of this assault. The stream that winds throughout the compound soon begins coughing up more Gancanagh who rush out of it, dispersing like rats from a flooded sewer.

“Evie, stay behind me,” Reed says in an intense tone as he grasps me by my upper arms, staring into my wide eyes. I manage to nod to him. He drops his hands from me and pulls a long sword from a sheath strapped to his back. Everything takes on a surreal tone after that. I try hard to stay with Reed, who is moving like a graceful assassin, slicing through evil, undead corpses as they approach us, trying to get at me. The Gancanagh have the sheer numbers on our encampment, but the angels are ferocious, tearing the limbs off of their enemies. Their strategy seems to be to maim the Gancanagh and then move on, leaving the wounded undead to stagger around until they can be completely destroyed.

Reed is a machine when it comes to killing Gancanagh; it’s almost like the Gancanagh are moving in slow motion next to him. He is so much faster than any of them. Even when they rush at him
en masse
, he easily finds the weakness in their attack and cuts them all down. I don’t even think he really needs his body armor because not one of them gets close enough to touch him. It would be impressive if it weren’t so utterly terrifying.

Looking around me, I see that Zephyr is creating his own mayhem, slashing and carving up our enemies as they approach us. Zee is also shielding some of the Undines who are spraying the Gancanagh nearest us with jets of water that far surpass the power of a fire hose. Safira is near us now, too. She is concentrating on driving the water up from the stream and sweeping hordes of Gancanagh back into it, freezing the water so they can’t get back out.

As I watch Safira work, I look beyond her, to the stream and the Gancanagh who are near it. A petite figure just emerges from the water where it is not yet frozen. I can’t see very well through the rain, but this Gancanagh doesn’t resemble the other massively strong looking soldiers. This figure is feminine and well…girlish. She slips in the mud, staggering forward towards our position. She falls down and crawls away from the others, looking around her in desperation. “Evie! Where are you? Help me!” Molly’s voice calls to me in anguish.

“Molly,” I whisper, the shock of seeing her here is overwhelming me. A tall Gancanagh moves up just behind Molly then, pulling her roughly to her feet by her upper arm. Molly struggles to get away from the soldier holding her, but she stops when he backhands her across the face, letting her fall back down to the ground.

Reacting out of instinct, I dart away from the protected area behind Reed and run as fast as I can towards Molly. Hearing Reed calling my name, I can’t stop. I have to try to help the person that has been like a sister to me for most of my life. Intending to kill whoever it is that just hit Molly, I pluck an automatic weapon out of the hands of a Gancanagh soldier as I speed by him. Drawing the weapon up to my shoulder, I begin spraying bullets at the Gancanagh who hit Molly.

The bullets from my rifle aren’t reacting like they should. Instead of hitting my target, the bullets careen around my target, refusing to kill him. Nearing them, I see Molly cowering on the ground, her face turned away from me. Through the haze of the rain, recognition and dread hits me at once. Brennus stands only a few feet from me, hovering over Molly.

“Ahh,
mo chroí
,” Brennus breathes, like he is immensely relieved to see me here. “Ye look grand.”

I don’t answer him, but instead I lift the rifle in my hands, shooting the gun until the trigger clicks, indicating that I have emptied the magazine. At nearly point blank range, I should’ve hit him easily, but the bullets swerve around him, like they are intentionally avoiding him.

“Dat gun is enchanted, Genevieve,” Brennus says in an easy tone, like he’s amused by my reaction to him still standing. “Ye don’t tink I would come in here and be banjaxed by me own arsenal. Dat is na me style atall.” Turning to Molly on the ground, he offers his hand to her, saying, “Tanks me wee lass.”

Molly takes the hand that he offers her, popping up off the ground with a soft giggle as she turns her face to me, smiling. “Eaves, you’re so gullible,” Molly says teasingly, her beautiful smile marred now by her sharp, snake-like fangs. “I swear, you should’ve seen the look on your face when I called for help. You looked so sad! Cheer up! We’re going to have such an awesome time from now on.”

My heart squeezes tight, looking at the beautiful monster in front of me that used to be my friend. Her hair is much longer than I remember her wearing it, but it’s the same chestnut brown. Her skin, always pale like mine, is now nearly milk white and flawless.

She had played me to get me away from Reed. I begin edging away from them, but I have to stop as my back comes up against a solid wall of ice that blocks my way back to Reed. I turn, pressing my hands to the thick wall, trying to push through it. The rain has suddenly stopped falling as I use all of my strength to try to crush the frigid fortress surrounding me.

“Safira is an old…acquaintance of moin,” Brennus says, indicating the barrier cutting me off from all of the angels. “I told her ta take yer advice when da time came—freeze da
aingeals
in a block of ice ‘til we have gone. She wants ta save dem from ye. She tinks ye’re evil,” he says conspiratorially and then he shrugs. “I might have helped wi’ dat a wee bit. I told her dat ye’re really me spy. ’Twas all very simple after dat.”

Turning back to face him and adopting a defensive posture, I say, “You’re going to have to kill me here because I’m not going with you.”

“I did miss ye so,
mo chroí
. Ye’re such a challenge. I canna leave ye here for da Ifrit ta claim. Dey are such nasty craiturs. So we will be going home now…” he says, opening his hand to me. Bringing his hand up, he blows some dust that is in his palm and it floats around me like sparkling glitter, coving my wet skin and sticking to me. Trying to wipe it off, I begin to sway on my feet as black spots swirl in my vision.

“Don’t do this, Brennus, please…” I plead weakly, losing all of my strength so that I can’t fight back.

“Alfred was right about one ting. Ye are very beautiful when ye beg, Genevieve,” Brennus says, catching me in his cold embrace before I fall to the ground. “Soon, ye will never need ta beg me for anyting. I’ll give ye everyting.”

As I look into his light green eyes, I mutter, “Don’t want you…”

My eyes flutter open, focusing on an enormous, carved Buddha head. It’s lying next to the crumbling body of the statue, having toppled to the ground beside it. Everything is hazy as I float in the half conscious realm between sleep and wakefulness. The statue head looks as if it’s asleep on a pillow of vines and it occurs to me that I must still be in China, or maybe Tibet.

When I lift my head, the room around me shivers and whirls so I lay it back down on the bed, cursing a little. I close my eyes, but that makes me feel dizzier, so I open them once again, trying to focus them on something. The doorway is across the room from the bed, leading directly outside. Its opening is so large that it spans almost the entire wall of the room and is flanked on either side by folding doors that can be moved into place to close the room off from the outside world.

I scan the world outside this room and discover a wide, sweeping terrace of stone, crumbling with age. Lush forest with dense trees forms the landscape and the strangest looking stones I’ve ever seen surround the terrace. The stones resemble enormous trees. It’s as if some sort of ash covered the trees at some point thousands of years ago, petrifying them and turning them to stone.

As I move my head on the pillow, I see that this room is very much like the one I shared with Reed. Exposed wood beams arch above my head like the bowed bottom of a ship.

“How is yer
ceann
?” Brennus asks quietly from somewhere nearby.

As my heartbeat kicks up and the organ in question lodges somewhere in my throat, Brennus whispers something softly to me in Gaelic—something that sounds soothing while the bed moves under his weight. He reaches out and gently strokes my wing that responds to his touch by fluttering lightly.

“
Póg mo thóin
, Brennus,” I reply stiffly, using the Gaelic Russell taught me to tell him to “kiss my ass.” “I don’t know about my
ceann
, but my head is aching you evil a-hole. Do you have any idea how much this hurts?” I ask as I hold my head in my hands, feeling it throbbing in pain. Then, I reach back and slap his hand away from my wing as a deep, rumbling laugh issues next to me for my brash response.

“Yer
ceann
is yer head,
mo shíorghrá
,” Brennus replies with a grin in his voice. “’Tis sorry I am dat yer head hurts ye. I forget jus how delicate ye are yet. I must’ve made me spell a wee bit too strong—ye have been out for hours—much longer dan I intended.”