That amulet will lead them straight to her.”
“To who?”
“The Dragon Queen. She came to me, like a blessing from heaven. It is through her touch I
was able to last this long.” His grip loosened on her hand. “I don"t have time to explain the
details of her existence, but I will tell you this… through her demon blood lays the ultimate power.
The amulet was made for her by her heavenly mother. Its purpose is to suppress the beast within
that her demon blood brings about.” His eyes slid close. “This amulet must be given to Demetri
Bithanos.”
Jade"s eyes grew wide. “Demetri Bithanos? The Xsonri?”
“Yes. Get the amulet away from here and find Demetri. Trust to give it to no one but him.”
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Her mind became clouded by a maelstrom of emotions as she tried to grasp
his words. She was to seek out the deadliest vampire in the world, the very
creature known for slaying Andausians without cause.
“Calm your fears. He may be an unpredictable creature, but I have faith he will not harm
you or your teammates. Now, listen carefully. Beneath this temple is a passageway to an
underground room. In that room, you will find the humanoid, Fabian. I hid him there when I
arrived at the temple. He has in his possession the queen"s spiritual tools. Activate him and he will
help get you and the team out of this place.”
“Yes, Father,” she wept.
“Oh, you will get through this. Remember, you and the team have the strength of battle
angels. Use it to defeat the chingi.”
She dipped her head, trying to search for the strength he spoke of, but found
nothing but pain. “I love you so much, Father, so very much.”
“I love you too, my warrior princess.” Faintly, he lifted his hand and pressed his
palm to her forehead. “And with my last bit of strength, I will pass a gift onto you. The transfer
will be painful, but the outcome will be rewarding.”
Behind the caress of his words, a searing sensation coursed through her
body like a shock wave. The aching need to cry out wrenched her gut, but she
squeezed her eyes shut and held it in.
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For a brief moment, the agony subsided, and then within seconds, there was
an eruption inside of her. It knocked her on her back. Sharp needles of pain
slammed into the core of her being. Every muscle in her body spasm and jerked.
She rolled onto her side, curled up into the fetal position and prayed the transition
would end soon.
Finally, to her relief, it did.
Once the agony abated, she sat up and opened her eyes. She almost
screamed at the sight before her. A pile of ashes lay where her father"s body had
been. Unable to breath, she eyed the silver cross sticking out of the ashes, then
through a hooded glare, she brought her eyes up to meet with Blaze"s.
Her war sister was crouched next to the pile, her hands out, ignited in blue
flames and tears rolling down her face. She had released a new level of her ability
at the wrong time.
“Why?” Jade asked in growl, curling her fingers into fists. “Why"d you do
that?”
Blaze looked at her, grief burning in her silver-rimmed gaze. “Because, he
asked me to,” she murmured in a soft, shaky voice as the flames faded from her
hands. “He didn"t want us to have to carry his body out of here.”
Jade looked down at the ashes, and nodded.
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What could she say? She couldn"t be mad at Blaze for granting her father"s
wish.
Blaze nodded back then handed her a large, empty water bottle.
Jade retrieved the silver cross from the ashes, placed it in her pocket, then
sat the plastic container down. While silently praying, she willed his ashes into
the bottle.
Moments later, Jade stood, twisted the top on then handed it to Spade, who
slipped it in his bag. She glanced around. No gunfire. No demons. Everything was
sound.
“What happened?” she asked, glancing at Steel.
“I don"t know, but something"s up,” he answered quickly, his eyes shifting
about. “Demons don"t just give up like that. We"re in trouble if we get hit with another attack like
that last one. I don"t even have to ask to know ya"ll are all out of holy rounds.”
They all confirmed with a nod.
“I know this is a bad time to say this but, we have another package to get before we can
leave,” Jade informed.
“Fabian,” Quest mumbled. “I can sense his artificial blood. He"s underground.”
“Well let"s find a way down there, and fast,” Steel ordered.
Quest pointed his gun down the black corridor. “They"ve got this way shot. There
are three other ways out.” He turned the barrel toward the main room. “Through there.”
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“Then we have no choice. Let"s move.”
They ran through the bloody mass of body parts, making their way through
the hall. Near to the end of the room, a deep powerful growl rolled a tremor
beneath the hard wood floor. They lost their footing and toppled into the carnage.
Before they could get back on their feet, the men were hauled up and slammed into
the wall.
Jade and her sisters stood fast, prepared to take the brunt of the attack.
Another thunderous growl made the foundation quake, once again, sending
them to the ground. Before she could gather with Copper and Blaze, the huge head
of a demon erupted through the wood floor and clamped down onto her leg.
A scream got caught in her throat. She anchored onto a piece of the
shattered flooring to keep from being dragged under.
Copper and Blaze jumped onto the beast"s head. Agonizing shrills rattled
the walls as Blaze seared its eyes and Copper sawed at its neck, her battle knife
flashing with unnatural speed.
It tugged on her with urgency, gradually pulling her down. The weight was
too much. Clenching her teeth, she tightened her grip. The splintered wood bit
into her palms and fingers, drawing blood. With the pain darting up from her leg
through her body, she wasn"t able to hang on.
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The howling beast retracted his head through the floor, taking the three
women with it.
Released from the dark hold, the men jumped up and ran to join their
sisters, but the opening in the floor sealed swiftly, shutting them out.
“Fuck!” Quest launched his pistol across the room and kicked a bloody arm
out of his path. “They got our chicas, buey!”
Steel kneeled and punched the ground. It dented, but remained intact.
“Some dark force is holding this floor together.” He rammed at the floor repeatedly,
but wasn"t able to break though. “Ladies, talk to me!”
No answer.
“They"re injured, Steel. They won"t tell us, but I feel it.” Quest squeezed his eyes shut,
trying sense their energy. “They"re running solely off their spiritual energy. The only reason
they"re still in this battle is „cause of that charge we got earlier, but I don"t know how long it"ll last.
We have to get them out of there.”
Steel groaned and punched the ground again. “Shoot, I knew we should"ve fused!”
Quest gritted his teeth and was about to release another angry rant when
something caught his a
ttention. He dropped his sight back to the spot where the
demon dragged the women under then he was drawn back to where they entered
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the room. Squinting, he retraced their steps. His brisk walk turned into an eager
jog. Steel and Spade were on his heels.
“Talk to us, dude.” Spade groaned. “Please tell us our kitties are still alive.”
“Alive and kicking demon ass.” Quest reached back and Spade handed him a belt
of M67 fragmentation grenades. “I smell demon bloodshed. The girls are on the move.”
Rapid explosions shook the ground. Dirt and wood rained down from the
ceiling in the dim subterranean corridor.
“The boys are close.” Copper slammed a dark creature back with power kick to
its chest. “I see a door!”
“That has to be it!” A strike of Jade"s bladed whip severed the demon"s head.
“That"s the room father was talking about!”
Picking up speed, they raced to the large steel door.
Jade winced at the pain throbbing in her injured leg. She had taken on a
slight limp, but she wouldn"t allow it to slow her down.
She willed the door open. They hurried into the dark room and slammed the
barrier shut behind them. A still darkened figure was in the center of the room.
Copper flipped on the surefire flashlight attached to her automatic. “Bingo,”
she called out with a smirk.
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Fabian, the humanoid sat in a chair, his elbow propped on his knee and his
chin resting on his fist, like the statue of the thinking man. Professor Poljolt, a
scientist for the ministry created the dark-haired, brown-eyed android in the exact
image of his late son, who"d died in a plane crash about three years ago. The
deranged, yet brilliant scientist created Fabian with hopes of healing some part of
his aching heart. His hope had been in vain. A year after Fabian"s creation, Poljolt
aimed a pistol to his head and committed suicide. Soon after, the Holy warriors got
a hold of Poljolt"s creation and turned him into a weapon for the light.
“You can"t even tell he"s a machine. He looks exactly like a human,” Blaze
murmured, circling the chair. “Hey! I found more ammo.” Crates of ammunition
and extra automatics were stacked behind Fabian"s chair. “Thank you, Father.”
As they loaded their guns and strapped on extras for their brothers, Jade
glared at an oversized silver firearm propped against the corner of the wall.
“That"s a right nifty piece there,” Copper commented.
“Most likely Fabian"s.” Jade focused on chambering rounds to resist the urge
to touch it.
“Speaking of Fabian, let"s go ahead and get that bad boy fired up already.”
Jade looked at the doe-eyed French boy and called out, “Code 61085 Parana.”
Fabian lifted his head and stood, oddly not with the stilted motions of a
robot, but with fluid movements of a human being. Standing perfectly still, they
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allowed him to scan each one of them from head to toe for identity confirmation.
Once complete, he properly saluted them as soldiers.
“Lieutenant Niomi Hamiway of Sector twelve, you activated my system
under attack code 61085 Parana.” Fabian crossed the room and hoisted the huge
automatic like it weighed nothing. “I am detecting strong demon activity beyond
this room. We must move.” He wrapped the strap of the gun around his shoulder
and stood at the door, prepared for battle.
Jade positioned herself behind him. Attached to his back holster were two
sheathed, arc-shaped swords. An iridescent glow shone from exquisite weapons
and highlighted the small room—the spiritual tools for the Dragon Queen.
Copper and Blaze flanked her. She could feel the heat of their power rising
along with anticipation of what waited on the other side of the steel barrier.
Without another moment wasted, Fabian kicked the door down. As soon as
it hit the ground, snarling creatures attacked. Fabian released fire. Four inch, silver
coated holy rounds made dust out of the demons in seconds.
Swiftly making their way through the shadowy subterranean tunnel, they
trailed the battle android, guarding the rear.
They approached an illuminated oval opening. The perimeter of the oval was
charged with what looked like static electricity, but it felt like raw energy.
Fabian stopped short of it and stared, his head tilted.
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Standing a few feet behind him, Jade peered at distorted reflections of her
and her female comrades in the mirror-like substance, which waved like water
within the voltaic border.
An incredible energy stream flowed through her body, stunning her
momentarily, and then it dissipated. Subconsciously, she moved closer to Copper
and Blaze. Glancing at them, she noticed they stared at the phenomenon wide
eyed, slightly baffled. A confirmation they felt it too.
Oblivious to the shift in their demeanor, Fabian turned from the spectacle
and continued his jog down the wide, dim lit corridor. Jade shook off the odd
sensation, as did Copper and Blaze then ran to catch up with him.
“Okay, that was weird.” Blaze admitted.
“Fabian, what was that?” Jade asked, picking up speed to stay in pace with
him.
“An outer realm portal,” he casually replied.
“An outer what!” she exclaimed, slowing down.
heard him right. It"s a portal to another realm.”
Blaze came up aside them. “Which means our situation just got a lot worse.”
“You"ve got to be freakin" kidding me!”
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“Negative Lieutenant. That is how the demons are entering this world.”
Fabian cocked his gun and shot another demon in their path.
“Whoa! Brakes!” She jerked away from Copper and looked in direction of
the portal. “We have to close that thing! We can"t just run out of here and leave it
open!” She shouted in a rush, her African accent becoming more pronounced. “I
don"t know how we"re going to do it but we have to!”
Fabian turned and looked at her, a robotic gleam in his eyes. “Negative—”
“Hundreds of demons are crossing over into our world with ease and killing
humans by the thousands! We have to find a way to close it, Fabian!”
“Negative. We do not have the resources to close the portal. Please keep up,
Lieutenant, you must not fall behind.”
“Come on, Jade. We"ll find a way to put an end to this shite later. Right now we have to keep
our energy going and leg it out of here fast.”
In the blink of an eye, four demons appear through the portal. The large
creatures looked around in confusion, caught sight of them, and charged. She put
her hands out in an attempt to push them back, but they somehow dodged her
stream of force. Still advancing, they scaled the walls then faded out of sight.
“Fabian!” she shouted, blindly swinging her whip at the invisible demons.
Fabian whirled around and pointed the massive gun at them. “Get down.”
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When they hit the ground, Fabian opened fire, launching the elongated
bullets at the creatures, uncloaking them a second before they dissipated.
“Let"s move.” Fabian
turned and commenced his trot toward the end of the
corridor. “We are near the exit.”
They were swift to get to their feet and follow him.
“Am I the only one who thinks the android looks yummy right about now?” Blaze
quipped, darting her eyes at Jade with a quirky smile.
Leave it to Blaze to break the tension. With the uncertainty of the passage
out and the safety of their brothers, a little banter was needed.
Jade"s released a breathless giggle . “Mm hm, especially while he"s handling that big
gun. Definitely a turn on.”
“Hey, does anybody know if he has a tool? And if so, does it get stiff?”
Girlish giggles erupted from them as they struggled to keep up with
Fabian"s long rapid strides. He shot a glance over his shoulder. The humorous
smiles fell from their faces and were replaced with tight-lipped grins.
A wall came into view at the end of the corridor. Attached to it was a
rickety ladder. Their way out. Relief fell over Jade, that was, until she saw the
numerous glowing green eyes waiting for them at the exit.
Fabian cocked his gun to fire…then paused.
“Fabian, why—”
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He spread his arms out and pushed all three of them against the wall. A loud
explosion followed by shrieks rung in her ears. Once the clamor ceased, Fabian
stepped back.
“Ay, ya"ll alright?” Spade shouted, appearing through the cloud of smoke and
debris. “Hey Fabe, nice piece.”
Once at the ladder, Fabian climbed up first. After a few anxious moments of
constant gunfire and squealing demons, Fabian poked his head through the exit
and confirmed, “Coast is clear.”
“Ladies first,” Steel offered, holding the weak ladder steady for them.
Finally above ground, they sprinted behind Fabian until the huge temple
was only a small sight in the distance. They paused to catch their breaths and
unload their gear.
“Thank God,” Jade murmured, winded.
Due to the fact she"d literally pushed her spirit energy to the limit, she
wasn"t sure how much further she could"ve gone without collapsing. Adding to her