Rise of the Mare (Fall of Man Book 2) (7 page)

It wasn’t until I stepped further
into the village center and into the light of the moon that I saw
they were different.

They were black, as I knew the
Savages to be. While their bodies were distorted in gargoyle
manner, their wings weren’t large and their flesh was light. Almost
as if they were… fresh.

That was it. They were fresh
Savages.

I knew Savages to be starved and
turned Ancients who never rejuvenated because they were too far
gone.

These were new. They weren’t as
smart. That had to be the reason they descended upon us. The ones
in Angeles City feared me and avoided being where I was. Unless…
they couldn’t sense me because I was projecting.

Was it my fault, like Nito had
warned?

Or was it Nito’s doing?

Surely she wouldn’t send her drones
to destroy their food supply?

There were so many, hundreds. They
flew by me, taunting but not attacking. Every chance I got, I swung
outward.

They landed on homes, ripping the
roofs, trying to get what was inside.

Some villagers ran, but my focus was
soon on just the Savages.

They encircled me. I was ready.
Talking a stance, like Davis had taught me, I put my full focus on
what I held in my hand. I spun, struck, killed.

I was pelted by them, they came for
me and I combatted them with ease.

When I had finished the first group
that had come to me, I set my sights on the ones that were
attacking, get them, then destroy the Day Stalker, they
created.

“Vala.”

I spun to see Wynn, the newest
educator, whom I had met briefly.

“What are you doing?” I said. “Get
inside!” He was carrying a sword and diligently fighting against
the Savages as well.

I had forgotten the Savages hated the
Ancients.

“I am doing the same as you,” he said
as he swung his sword.

He and I were the only ones battling.
There were too many to end it with ease. Cries of pain and fear
carried to us and more than anything, I wanted to destroy them all,
to scream out like I did in Angeles City. I couldn’t, because I
knew I could kill more than the Sybaris.

I saw a Savage on the roof of the
Watson home, only his wings were exposed. Just as I took aim, he
leapt from that roof with Mrs. Watson in the grip of his back
claws.

She screamed, struggling to free
herself. The Savage arched forward, widened his mouth, and took a
huge, gaping bite from her back. It lifted its head, flicking the
flesh back and forth to get it into its mouth, and then as it flew
from the roof, it dropped her body.

“No!” I pointed out, swung once, and
the Savage squealed painfully, withered into a ball, and landed on
the ground. “Behind you!” I shouted to Wynn.

Assured he was handling the Savage
that was upon him, I turned to fight another. When that one was
dead. I spun back around, only I was too late.

Mrs. Watson had risen and lunged at
Wynn. She tore at the flesh between his neck and shoulder.

Even though he was an Ancient, I
didn’t want to take a chance of killing him. So with the end of the
broom pointing out, I ran fast to Mrs. Watson, driving the end
directly into her head. I felt every inch of it crushing so deep
through the bone of her skull, pulling it out wasn’t easy.

Wynn was hunched over, breathing
heavily, and black blood was pouring from his wounds.

“Are you all right?”

Hands to his knees, head down, Wynn
nodded.

“Good. I …”

With a high pitched growl, he lifted
his head. I had never seen or even believed that a Day Stalker
could transform an Ancient.

Wynn’s eyes turned gray, his face
distorted, and his teeth grew like those of the Savages.

His mouth was wide and as he lunged,
he ran into the broom. Stuck there, his arms flailed about, mouth
snapping at me. I bellowed out with my strength to rip the handle
of the broom up and through his body.

For as much strength as I had, for
all my abilities, I was till human. I was tiring, losing my breath.
No amount of adrenaline was enough to fuel me.

It had to end, however, there was no
way to do so without taking a chance and blasting them all. I had
too much to lose by doing that.

Just as I had that thought, I heard
my mother scream.

It ripped through my being and I saw
my mother racing from our home with a Savage attacking her from
behind.

She stumbled to the ground and before
I could even make it close, the Savage began to tear her apart,
using its mouth and claws.

I screamed all the way over to her,
watching as the flesh from her back and arms flew upward and out.
My mother looked at me, her hand extended out and then she stopped
moving.

Her blood drizzled from the
creature’s mouth and he stared at me with a taunting glare as he
chewed on her remains.

Empowering the stick as a heated
force, I arrived at the Savage and struck down. He didn’t divide or
cut, he exploded. It was more than my concentration of energy on
that stick. It was my energy and emotions projecting.

I knew my mother would rise within
seconds. As heartbreaking as it was, I wanted to cry out, drop to
my knees and embrace her, mourn for my mother, apologize, tell her
despite it all I loved her very much.

Though I felt the loss of my mother
deep in my chest, I did not, for a single second, want to see her
rise.

So I took a stance above her, waiting
and watching for the first sign of return to life. The second I saw
her hand move, forgetting all around me, I drove the stick down
into my mother, ending any suffering.

Holding that position, I broke
down.

“Vala!”

Scream.

No.

It was Sophie.

“Vala!”

I looked behind me to the house and
realized that wasn’t where her cry came from. As soon as I realized
it was above me, I looked up.

A Savage had her high in the air,
clutched in its hold, and with my sister screaming and squirming,
the Savage flew off with her into the night.

That was it.

That was all it took.

I stepped from my mother’s body into
the center of the village, extended my arms, and repeated an action
the last Mare before me had done.

Villagers ran and screamed, chased
and attacked.

Savages flew about our village in
victory.

I wanted them all dead.

I nodded them all dead in one fell
swoop.

With gut wrenching emotions, I cried
out. It was so full of energy, windows broke, the Savages around me
simultaneously exploded. As I stood amidst the raining guts, blood,
and limbs falling down all around me, I dropped to my knees in the
silence of the aftermath and sobbed.

I
guess it could be considered fate. Davis had taken me off of night
watch at Lyons Estates and put me on the city watch. There were no
Day Stalker spotted and knowing they’d more than likely hit the
outlying parts, we focused on moving people to get them ready for
the nightly Savage hits.

Even after the sun had set, hours
later, nothing happened. No Savages at all. It was as quiet as when
Vala walked a beat.

I used the armored car to check on
different stations. The beach was clear, the garage was quiet, and
I went to Davis’ home. I knew he wouldn’t be sleeping, since no one
really had gotten any rest.

Imagine my surprise when I walked in
and saw Vala.

It was weird. I saw her, ran to her,
and then realized she didn’t look right. I thought she was a
ghost.

Had she died? That’s what I wondered
and then Vala told me she was letting us know she had arrived in
Akana.

For some reason, Davis couldn’t hear
her, but I conveyed to him that she was fine and that Nito was
stopping at nothing to get her. That didn’t surprise me.

What did surprise me was the fact
that Davis wanted me to withhold the truth from Vala. He didn’t
want me to tell her we were attacked by Day Stalkers, that a horde
of them were on their way. I had to tell her everything was fine,
when it was anything but.

I had a bad feeling all the way
around. On our end
and
Vala’s. Perhaps it was just uneasiness that she was
going to be chosen in a ceremony the next day, given to a Sybaris
and living in their city.

On my end it was the combination of
wanting to not sit idly by combined with the pressure of keeping
people safe.

Things were coming to a head, I could
feel it. I just didn’t know what that all would entail. I did know
one thing: Davis heard me.

He heard me when I talked about going
after the Day Stalkers, finding the Savage nests, and taking them
out before they could strike.

The Savages would be easy. They slept
at night. We only needed to draw them into sunlight. Why we never
did it in the first place, I still didn’t know. From what I saw, we
were going to do it now. Davis had a map, and was working on
putting together the best teams to send out.

It was about time.

I deeply mourned the loss of my mother. It was heartbreaking, yet,
a part of it did not seem real. My soul ached and there was nothing
I could do until daylight.

In the moments after the attack,
after the Savages were destroyed, the surviving Akanians returned.
The cried out in the night through their sorrow and cursed my
name.

A part of me wondered if something
had occurred when I reached my eighteenth year. Since turning
eighteen, I had fled my home, watched my horse die, and witnessed
friends slaughtered.

Now, my family was gone.

Was it me?

I thought much about that as I
gathered belongings and trinkets of memories while waiting for
morning. I fell asleep only briefly. The stench of the Savages
flowing into the house was overwhelming, and I knew what morning
would bring.

The stench of rotten was soon
replaced with burning as the sun’s rays hit upon the remains,
causing them to disintegrate.

My mother was infected with Sybaris
blood, she was a Day Stalker, even though I relinquished her from
it.

Stepping from my home, I saw the
smoke rise from her body as she began to burn.

Akanians attempting to retrieve their
loved ones found themselves facing flames, screaming out once
again.

“Get out! Leave!” they shouted.
“Haven’t you done enough!”

“Gods help you. Nito surely will know
what to do.”

Yes, Nito. The mention of her name
drew anger from inside me like I had never felt.

I had planned to leave, wait outside
the walls of our village, then a line of vehicles drove in. The
Ancient Sybaris had arrived… too late.

Eight Ancients, plus two Elders
emerged. Nito was not present. While it may have surprised others,
I expected her absence.

Iry rushed from one of the vehicles
and ran to me. “Vala, are you alright?”

I only stared at him.

“We received word that your village
was attacked.” His eyes shifted down to my mother’s body. “Oh, oh,
Vala, I am so sorry.”

“I am too.”

“Sophie?”

“A Savage flew off with her.”

Iry closed his eyes. “Vala, I am
sorry.”

One of the Sybaris announced that
those who survived should gather their belongings and they would be
moved to the next village.

“I don’t understand how they made it
beyond the Elder gatekeepers,” Iry said.

“They didn’t come from the west,” I
replied. “Iry, they were… different.”

“What do you mean?”

“They were flesh colored, not
blackened. They looked…”

“New?”

“Yes.”

“There is only one way that can
happen.”

“How?”

Iry shook his head. “I’ll tell you
later.”

An Ancient approached, telling me,
“Hurry along. You have your things, I see. We must move.”

I exhaled and looked at Iry. “Choose
me.”

“Yes, without a doubt.”

“No, choose me now. Claim me,
whatever they call it. Take me quickly. I need to get to the city
of the Ancients now.”

“Vala, you know I will.”

“I need to find Sophie.”

Iry stepped back with a saddened
look. “Vala, the Savages took her. You know what they do. They… you
know what happens.”

“No. Sophie’s not dead.”

“How do you know?”

“Because I have the ability to
project and follow, to go to a place I have been or to a person I
know. I locked onto Sophie and followed. I wanted to find the nest.
To see where it was. They didn’t take her to feed, nor did they
drop her there.”

“Where did they take her?”

I hesitated before answering, making
sure no one else was listening. “To Nito. Nito has my sister.”

It was a fight to behold. Never in all my days of dealing with the
bloodthirsty walking and flying damned did I see something as
magnificent as a Day Stalker and Savage go head to head. Two hours
before dawn in what we considered a relative safe time, I made my
way back to the beach to check on those there.

My plan was to check on it, get some
rest, then head to the old Hanson Book Barn where we store
explosives in the basement. I was pretty excited about going on the
offensive with the Day Stalkers. I knew there were a lot, but no
more than we could handle.

After my beach expedition, my
adrenaline was pumped.

Suddenly, Davis’ original plan to let
the Stalkers and Savages take care of most of the problem seemed
brilliant. It was a plan I had paid little attention to and Vala
had dismissed as passive and, well, cowardly.

The proof was in seeing it.

There were three breeds of
bloodthirsties, they all hated each other, and they all were
fighting for the same thing.