Destinata (Valguard) (21 page)

Some of the people looked like they actually believed her, others looked at her in disgust, and some even looked at her with fear but none of it mattered because they had made up their minds. They were taking Charlie to the Valguard in a bid for their freedom, whether they believed her or not she knew they felt it was their only chance.

“You’re not fooling any of us Charlie! You’re one of them, why would we believe anything you say?”

“If you won’t believe anything I say then why are you believing what
they
say?”

“Because,
they
are the ones with the power not you. What are you in this war? One half-human, one Valguard traitor and two human traitors. You are nothing and you’re deluding yourself if you think you will ever be able to win.”

Jill was right, they were nothing and there was no way they could win but that wasn’t going to stop Charlie from trying.

“Fine! You want to become the first lot of lab rats for Lucas Corp. and their army of Valguard’s that’s just fine by me but I won’t be joining you.”

“You will do…”

Charlie mustered up every ounce of Valguard strength she could spare, twisted her arms out from behind her back and thrust Jill’s body into the air where she came crashing down upon a nearby tree. She was on her feet in a split second and running to where El’ and Matt’s captors had them sitting at their feet having stopped to watch the verbal altercation between herself and Jill. After seeing Charlie throw Jill five meters into the air, no one was even remotely thinking about trying to harm her now. She took her friends under the arm, helped them off the ground unbound their wrists and set off further into the forest in search of the small tingle that would alert her to Zane’s presence nearby.

She found Zane back at Kara’s gathering supplies of weaponry. It was obvious that he was going to make his way back and try to fight off every human that stood in his path to Charlie and his good intentions made her smile in a way that she hadn’t in what felt like years but had really only been a few weeks. After all, it only been about four weeks since the day Zane had told her that she was the destinata, it seemed such a short time but felt like a lifetime.

“What you got there?”

Zane spun around so fast that she wondered how he didn’t get dizzy and fall face first onto the floor, the look of shock on his face comical.

“Charlie, what are you doing? I was coming back for you.”

“I can see that. But as it turns out, the damsel in distress didn’t need saving today.”

Rushing to her side he scooped her up in his arms and spun around on the spot before gently placing her back on her feet.

“How? Did they let you go?”

“In a manner of speaking. I pushed Jill off me to get away and they let us leave. I think they were too scared to do anything else.”

“Why were they scared if you only pushed a woman off you?”

“Because she threw that woman at least
sixteen foot in the air! It actually was pretty terrifying to watch Charlie, your eyes glowed red for a second and then you threw her. For a moment there I thought you had gone full Valguard on us.”

“Red? That’s new.”

Everyone’s eyes were on Charlie now, looking for an explanation.

“Hey, don’t look at me, it’s not like I can see my own eyes you know.”

They let it drop after that and started back out the door to the clearing and their savior.

In the distance they could hear the faint, distinct sound of helicopter blades cutting through the air. The sound gave them the motivation and the energy to pick up the pace a little to get to where their rescuers would land and pick them up before taking them on the short trip back to Raine, back to civility.

They reached the clearing before the helicopters and Charlie took the opportunity to slip in a new set of contact lenses, not wanting the first thing the Rain
e police saw to be her bright purple glowing eyes. Zane took a set of his own and did the same and then came to wrap his arm around her and wait for the choppers to come in.

It took another ten minutes for the air crafts to find the spot they had been given precise coordinates for and to hover above them shining their spotlights directly over the clearing. Charlie, Zane, El’ and Matt all moved underneath the spotlight and waved their hands frantically in the air to signal that they were in the right spot and could land now but instead of lowering the helicopter to the ground Charlie saw something fall from the mid-section and land at her feet. Knotted rope. They wanted them to climb? Charlie was exhausted and she knew that if she was El’ and Matt had no chance but they would try anyway. Maybe whoever was in the helicopter’s middle would pull them up to safety without having to climb so far. She could always hope anyway.

El’ went first, everyone wanted to make sure she was safely inside before they moved and once she was up they sent Matt after her. Charlie waited for Matt to poke his hand out of the helicopter before having an argument with Zane about who would go next. She won. Zane climbed the thick rope with ease and once inside waved his hand to say it was safe for Charlie to climb on up. A wave of relief washed over her then. They were safe. She had finally done something right.

She was about ten
meters up when she heard El’ cry out something indistinguishable and quickened her pace wondering what exactly could be going on inside a helicopter that would warrant a scream for her best friend. She reached the top and was pulled to safety by a young man about Zane’s age, only once she was inside the helicopter she realized that she hadn’t been pulled to safety at all. Her friends were all lying face down on the floor their limbs stretched out at weird angles. They weren’t dead; she could see the faint movement of their clothes as they breathed slowly. They were unconscious but why?

She turned furiously to the man who had lifted her inside the plane ready to scream
at him for answers but was met with a toothy grin and a metal object to the head. Everything around her seemed to be spinning and in her effort to stay conscious she grabbed hold of the man’s shirt before sliding to the ground. She heard a ripping sound and thought surely it was her head tearing in two but as she looked down at her hand she saw that she held a small piece of cloth, a logo from the mysterious man’s shirt. Embroidered in the center of the deep blue material were the letters L and C inside a perfect circle. Everything started to fade as she crawled to clutch Zane’s hands. The last words Charlie managed to utter before sliding into unconsciousness beside Zane was…

“I love you.”