Salvaged Soul (The Ignited Series Book 3) (12 page)

“What do we do?” Denis asked.

I spoke into my radio, “Jared, we’ve got about two hundred survivors in the gymnasium.”

“Skotadi?”

“None.”

“On our way.”

I moved down an aisle with cots lining both sides, hoping to find a villager coherent enough to speak. They all looked to be at about the same stage of illness—whatever illness it was that they shared. Looking at their reddened eyes, ragged breathing, and frail bodies, I was reminded of a movie I had seen where a whole town had been infected with hemorrhagic fever. Though these villagers weren’t actually bleeding from their orifices, the redness in their eyes resembled blood.

Belatedly, the thought occurred to me that whatever had plagued the village could have been contagious. Then I remembered that we were dealing with Skotadi-caused devastation, not the work of nature, and I suspected that the people in the next town over might have been right about one thing. The village might have actually been cursed, and this might have been the work of a seasoned Incantator.

The question remained as to why. Why this village? Unless . . .

I remembered the kidnapping of humans I had witnessed in West Virginia. We had never really discovered what the Skotadi were doing with humans there, and I wondered if the people of that small town were now inflicted with the same illness—or curse? How many other small towns were there that the Kala were unaware of? And why weren’t we aware?

We had a system, an entire department put in charge of tracking stuff like this . . .

Jared’s voice in my ear put a stop to my running thoughts. He and his team were on the other side of the gymnasium’s doors, and I instructed my guys to watch their trigger fingers as they entered.

Their reactions at the horrific sight matched my team’s initial reaction. Once they composed themselves, they spread out to help my team assess the villagers.

Jared moved to my side. “What do you make of this?”

I shook my head without a word. Other than scattered and incomplete theories, I had nothing to offer.

A gurgling noise from the cot behind us spun Jared and me around instantaneously. The man that lay there had managed to lift one of his arms, and held it out to us as if pleading for help. I didn’t hesitate to take his hand as we stepped closer.

His lips moved, but I heard nothing.

Jared fumbled under the cot and stood holding something that looked like an identification card. “Shit. He’s only twenty-four years old.”

Looking at the man’s sunken eyes and wrinkly skin, I would have guessed at least sixty.

“Attis?” Jared addressed the man, and he managed a weak nod.

Again, his lips moved, but I couldn’t make out what he said. I dropped my head to put an ear closer to his mouth, and I finally heard his whispers.

“
Bewitched by the devil . . .
”

I lifted my eyes to his, and asked, “A curse?”

His head shook fractionally. “
The children . . . seek the essence of their youth . . .
”I recalled the room filled with bodies. Though I hadn’t wanted to look closely at the time, I had noticed that most of them were small. So the Skotadi had cursed the village, and were killing its inhabitants—starting with children—because they sought the essence of their youth?

I shifted to ask him if he knew who was behind it, but an onslaught of chatter in my ear stopped the question on my tongue.

“Demigods located . . .”

“Building cleared . . .”

“Moving out . . .”

“All defensive teams maintain a perimeter,” Jared ordered over his radio. “Nobody move until the demigods are secured at the rendezvous point. Jas, haul ass.”

“On it,” Jas said.

I turned to Jared. “What do we do with the survivors?”

His brow furrowed, and his eyes were lined with guilt when they met mine. “I don’t know what we can do.”

“We can’t just leave them here.”

Jared’s gaze swept the room. Finally, he muttered, “If we can eliminate all the Skotadi, secure the entire village . . .”

Then, and only then, could we risk moving the villagers. No way could we sneak two hundred villagers out while Skotadi prowled outside. Our ‘stealth extraction’ mission was about to become a ‘locate and kill’ mission. It guaranteed more casualties on our end. I didn’t even know how many men we had already lost, and if we had the manpower to muster up a successful attack. And that was assuming Hades’ demigods didn’t show up, because it would take us at least a day to get all the survivors out.

Jared had a big decision to make, and he didn’t take it lightly. When he made up his mind, he lifted a hand to his headset to make an order, but he never got to make it.

“Team three taking heavy fire! Requesting immediate assistance!”

Everyone in the gymnasium heard the plea, and we all moved for the doors as one. Ahead of me, Jared barked out orders for every team to converge on the residential huts on the east side of the village where team three had been assigned. Except for Jas—his orders remained to secure the demigods.

Stealth was no longer needed. Not with the battle cries coming from the far side of the village. The Skotadi knew we were here.

The slapping of our feet on the blacktop echoed off the buildings and through the otherwise quiet street, giving the impression that we numbered far more than a ten-man wave of reinforcements. Rounding the corner, and catching my first glimpse of the battle amongst the crowded huts, I knew ten extra guys weren’t enough.

I spotted five Kala positioned behind the cover of a bullet-ridden vehicle, taking heavy fire from at least thirty Skotadi. Between the two groups, several bodies writhed in diamond poison-induced agony on the ground, but not enough to account for the amount of blood that had already been spilled.

“I want five guys flanking!” Jared shouted with a wave of his hand to the right.

I ducked behind a row of huts, running in the direction Jared had indicated. All four of my men followed, while Jared’s team dug in and opened fire on the mass of Skotadi from the street. We emerged on the other side of the huts in an excellent flanking position. We spread out between two buildings, dropped low to the ground, and started firing.

Already, Jared’s men had dwindled the number of Skotadi, and my men took down another six before they scampered behind cover from our position.

Through my headset, I heard Jared order another Kala team that had arrived to join and render aid to the trapped Kala team. With the cover fire supplied by the rest of us, they got in easily.

“A dozen more Skotadi coming in from the west!”

I didn’t recognize the voice, but it didn’t matter. I scrambled to my knees and spun, gun raised, as a wave of Skotadi barreled down on my team. Though my men hadn’t heard the warning I heard, they followed my lead. A collective burst of ammo from all of us took down the first line of Skotadi before the rest of them were on us. In the lead was a burly Skotadi with a shiny knife pointed at my chest.

He hit me hard, driving me to the ground on my back. The blade made contact with my vest, but didn’t pierce my skin. I drove both of my feet into his midsection and flipped him over my head. He landed with a chorus of crunching gravel and curses before I rolled on him with my own knife.

With a swift stab to the heart, I ended him quickly, and spun to assist the rest of my team. Two of them were engaged with two Skotadi in a knife fight. Jeremiah stepped to my side and we assisted them in finishing off those last two Skotadi.

When it was over, there were four of us. Caleb was gone.

“His gun jammed!” Jeremiah’s eyes darted to mine. “I saw it. Caleb’s goddam gun jammed!”

He picked the gun off the ground and smashed it against the wall in a fit of rage. I put a hand on his shoulder, but before I could offer any words, an urgent voice interrupted me through the radio.

“All team leaders, two demigods incoming. Two miles out.”

Jared followed with an immediate order. “All teams, pull out!”

I cursed as I scanned the battle scene. Their timing could not have been worse. We still had men cornered by Skotadi. Though the Skotadi presence surrounding them had been significantly reduced, it wasn’t enough. 

I turned to what remained of my team. “Hades’ demigods are coming. You know the plan. Go, get out.”

Four guys raced past us, hauling ass out of there. I recognized them as Jared’s team. Not surprisingly, Jared wasn’t with them.

I waved my hand after them, and said to my team, “Go with them. Get to the trees.” 

I didn’t wait for any of them to respond, or watch to make sure they left. I spun and raced back to the main road, where my team had split from Jared’s team.

As I approached, I spotted the barrel of a gun propped up on the hood of a parked vehicle as it fired round after round into the Skotadi. I slid behind the vehicle, coming up alongside Jared, and positioned my gun beside his. Only the slight curve of his lips hinted that he knew I was there.

From what I could see, only three Kala remained. A group of five Skotadi separated them from us. From their line of escape.

“Ooh,” I sucked in between my teeth. Make that four Skotadi left. To Jared, I asked, “How much time do you think we have left?”

“From two miles out? Less than ten minutes.”

I had been thinking closer to five minutes. Ten was better. Five to ten minutes to free the sequestered Kala and get the five of us out of this village before the hand of Hades dropped on us.

Keeping one finger on the trigger, I reached under my vest and grasped the stone Kris had enchanted with a protection spell. I hoped she had done it right, because I had a feeling we would need it to get out of there.

Chapter 12

{Kris}

I couldn’t stand to be around Micah, and he knew it. I only tolerated his presence during practices on the beach, and even then I sought Gran’s and Alec’s assistance before his. Despite that, he remained my shadow, and I had to deal with it because the supervisors insisted that he assist me with my training.

They may have claimed it was because we were equals as far as strength, but I was increasingly convinced that was only an excuse for them to monitor my screw ups and tendencies for evil through the watchful eyes of Richie.

I was determined not to let Micah or Richie hamper my progress. Every day, I felt better and stronger. I still had a long way to go, of course, but I was more optimistic than I had been in a long time. The gems I carried around my wrist seemed to have helped. Though I hadn’t admitted it to Micah, the smug smile on his face told me that he had noticed.

It didn’t take long to learn that fighting and fire yielding were my strongest specialties. I could now conjure a fire almost effortlessly, and had learned to extinguish it without causing myself or others third degree burns.

Most of our efforts were spent on practicing Incantation. I ran through multiple spells a day—usually the same basic ones. I had yet to make myself invisible, but I managed to turn my hair fire red for about an hour this morning before it faded out, and I could now move bowling ball-sized rocks a few yards—without blowing them up—using nothing more than my mind and a few precisely chanted words.

The two specialties I had yet to make progress with were charming, and summoning the dead
.
While Alec said he hadn’t figured out how to communicate with the dead yet, he had mastered the ability to charm people. Not surprisingly, that was his best specialty.

“You have to maintain eye contact,” Alec explained to me. “Don’t let them look away. If you do it right, if you hook them quickly enough, they won’t be able to look away. When their eyes glaze over, you know you have them.”

We sat side by side on the beach, facing the water, and I absentmindedly drew a heart in the sand between us with my finger. “Have you ever charmed me?”

Alec grinned. “Honey, I don’t need to use my paranormal skills to charm any girl, including you. It’s called charisma, and I have it.”

I shook my head with a laugh. “I’ll take that as a no . . .”

“It’s actually easy once you get the hang of it,” he said, pulling the conversation back to charming—of the supernatural sense. “Communicating with the dead, on the other hand, I have no idea. Nothing I’ve tried works.”

“I tried it once,” I admitted. “But I tried to reach Gran . . .” I glanced over my shoulder at my adoptive grandmother as she conversed with Micah. Obviously, it hadn’t worked because she was still very much alive. “I’m afraid to try to communicate with my friends.”

Though my eyes were on the crashing surf, I saw Alec’s head swing toward me. “The girls that died in the car accident?”

I nodded my head.

“They were your friends. What are you afraid of?”

“I don’t know . . .” Maybe that they blamed me somehow, or hated me for surviving when they hadn’t? “I dream about them enough. I don’t need to try to communicate with them when I’m awake.”

“You dream about them?”

“At least once a week,” I answered.

“You’re doing it,” Alec said excitedly. “That’s a form of communication. Actually, I think it’s the most common method of communicating with the dead.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. I learned a thing or two in my brief Skotadi education. You’re good at it without even trying. Now, all you need to work on is your
charming
.” Alec glanced at his watch. “But first, you have to help me.”

I spent the next ten minutes coaching Alec on fire yielding. By the time I left for combat class, he was producing decent flames with his hands. He needed help with aiming and extinguishing those flames, but that would have to wait for another day.

Kim met me by the bench between the beach and the village center, and trailed me as I hurried to class. Not that I was excited about class. Not anymore. But I sure as hell didn’t want to get caught coming in late.

The instructor who had taken over the class in Nathan’s absence was a tool. In a complete reversal of what I was used to with Nathan, this guy hated me—like went out of his way to have me ‘accidentally’ decapitated hated me.

Most of the students in the class were all too happy to volunteer to be the one to take the Skotadi-girl down. But I was usually paired with Tyson. He was the next Nathan. Only bigger. And meaner. And he hated me too.

I took my place in the back, behind the same two girls I had stood behind every day for weeks. As usual, they each shot me the occasional cautious glance, like they expected me to suddenly turn evil. I took the opportunity to catch and hold the brunette’s gaze the second time she looked at me. I smiled in an attempt to hide my intentions. “Will you be my sparring partner today?”

Her head spun quickly toward the blonde, whose lips curled into a grimace. One of them muttered, “Ew” before the brunette turned back to me with wide eyes. “Um, no?”

As their heads tipped together to mask their whispers, I practically heard Alec’s voice in my head, shouting,
“Don’t ask. Demand it. Take charge.”

Instructor Kand walked in, putting an end to my weak attempt at charming. He promptly split the class into pairs—grouping me with Tyson once again.

Tyson glanced over at me with a wicked grin. I held his gaze as I crossed the room to him. When only a few feet separated us, I said, “You’re going to take it easy on me today.” I stared at him a few extra seconds, willing him to succumb, and waiting for his eyes to glaze over, but they never did.

He scoffed. “I don’t think so.”

Ninety minutes later, I left class with a new set of bruises and a slight limp. Kim followed as I went back to my dorm room to recuperate. She frowned at the sight of my swollen and bloodied lip, but said nothing. It wasn’t like she could do anything about it.

I supposed there wasn’t anything anyone could really do. Alec would likely kill Instructor Kand, and Micah . . .

While he was the best option for getting results, I decided I would rather suffer a little extra abuse than speak with him any more than absolutely necessary. Besides, the bruises would be gone in an hour or two. I healed that fast.

I stretched out on my bed, and closed my eyes to get a little rest before dinner.

When I awoke again, my feet were in the ocean. The moon shined high in the sky, and bright enough to illuminate the pier to my left. I backpedaled until my feet hit dry sand.

I wore the same clothes I had on earlier, and saw no trace of my shoes. I had no recollection of what I was doing on the beach, or how I had gotten there. Goosebumps prickled my arms from the cooler night air, and I rubbed my arms to chase them away.

I wanted to turn away from the water, to return to the warmth and comfort of my room, but I couldn’t. My feet were frozen beneath me, as if stuck in quicksand. I looked down, and wiggled my toes. They worked fine, but the connection between my brain and legs wasn’t functioning.

I looked out over the water. Gentle waves rolled toward me, but I felt the pull of something bigger, something unseen, and I took reluctant steps forward until my feet met with water again. I stopped as a shadow moved into my periphery, between me and the pier, and I squinted to get a look at what had caused it.

“Alec?”

He blinked rapidly a few times before swinging his head toward me. “Kris? What are you doing here?”

“I have no idea,” I answered.

Alec turned to stare at the ocean. “Do you feel that? It’s like something is pulling
me . . .” He jutted his chin forward. “Out there.”

“I feel it too,” I admitted. “What do you think it is?”

Alec was silent as he gazed out at the water, and eventually I turned to stare with him. The sensation of being pulled forward intensified, like liquid metal ran through my veins and the ocean was a large magnet. No . . . it wasn’t the ocean. Something just out of sight, beyond the horizon, called to me—to us.

Perhaps as close as the nearby Costa Rican shore?

The sensation pulsed suddenly, causing a deep ache in my legs, and then disappeared completely. It wasn’t until then that I realized how straight Alec and I stood, and we both sagged in relief at the same time.

He turned to me, his mouth dropped open, but he said nothing. For a long time, we just looked at each other, caught in our own thoughts. After a minute, Alec dropped an arm over my shoulder and steered me away from the water.

Several more minutes passed in silence as we made our way to the trail that led us to the village center and the dorms, before Alec said, “Let’s keep this between the two of us. At least until we figure out what just happened.”

“Okay.”

That was probably best. We were already the black sheep on the island. The others would only regard us with more caution if they knew we were being summoned to the ocean in the middle of the night by some unseen force. Speaking of . . .

“How did you get out of your room without Bruce seeing you?” And how did I get past Kim?

Alec shrugged. “I have no idea.”

In order to keep them in the dark, we needed to get back into our rooms the way we had left. The only way I knew how to do that was to climb up the building using the balconies as Nathan had done. I had always wondered how hard it had been for him to do that.

As it turned out, it wasn’t that hard.

Considering the peculiar walk on the beach the night before, my day started off uneventfully. Breakfast with the usual gang, Incantation practice on the beach during which I managed to change Alec’s hair color to bright yellow for ten minutes, lunch, then another hour of specialty practice before combat class.

Class passed in the same manner as usual, but the moment it was over, my day changed drastically. I knew something was up when I saw both Micah and Alec, and Bruce and Richie, waiting for me outside the classroom.

I didn’t have a chance to ask before Micah rushed to my side with an explanation. “Callie arrived about twenty minutes ago.”

“Callie?” I pushed past him, eager to see my best friend. “Where is she?”

And what was she doing here? She was supposed to be back home with her family, and adhering to a sentence of lifelong grounding under the watchful eyes of her parents and two Kala guards entrusted with the job of protecting her from Skotadi.

Alec put a hand on my shoulder to stop me. “She’s sick, Kris.”

“What exactly do you mean by
sick
?” I looked back and forth between Alec and Micah, and didn’t like what I saw in their eyes.

“Remember when Callie said Lillian put some sort of spell on her?” Micah started tentatively, and my stomach hollowed at the mention of it. I hadn’t forgotten, but when nothing bad had happened afterward, I thought Lillian hadn’t completed whatever it was she had been trying to do. “They think Incantation is behind Callie’s sickness.”

“And it was likely Lillian,” Alec added.

As if I needed another reason to hate that woman. She had tortured me, almost killed Nathan . . . and now she had infected my best friend with some Incantation-induced illness?

I raced toward the exit. “I assume she’s in the Infirmary?” I shot the question over my shoulder.

“Yes, but . . .”

I spun on Micah, gritting my teeth. “But what?”

“They might not let you in,” he answered.

My laugh resembled a witches taunting cackle. “Oh, they’ll let me in, because I’m with you. You’ve gotten your way with everything else. What’s stopping you now?”

Micah’s lips tightened as his eyes flashed with anger. Finally, he muttered, “Fine. Let’s go.”

As Micah led the way through security at the Infirmary, Alec filled me in. From what he had heard, the Kala guards assigned to protecting Callie noticed that she was showing signs of an illness shortly after she returned home. Her parents had taken her to numerous doctors, but no one had been able to help her. The guards started to suspect Incantation was behind it a few weeks ago, and started to make arrangements to bring her here with the hope that the Kala might know what to do. So far, everyone was baffled by what they had seen.

The moment I walked into her room, I understood why.

The girl I saw now was nothing but a ghost of my best friend, with ashen skin and sunken in, bloodshot eyes. The prominence of her elbow bones hinted at the thirty pounds she had lost. Despite that, her chapped lips curled into a small smile when she saw me.

“I’m guessing from the expression on your face I look as bad as I feel,” she rasped.

I choked out a laugh as I swatted a tear away from my eye. Running my hands through her dry hair, I repeated a phrase she had said to me on more than one occasion. “You could use a few highlights.”

Callie started to laugh, but covered her mouth when it resulted in a fit of coughing. When she recovered, her voice was hoarse, forcing her to whisper, “So I guess that bitch did something to me after all.”