Silverblood Demons (Daughters of Darkness Book 1) (16 page)

I wasn’t sure if our paths would ever cross again, but I had guessed that hidden somewhere inside that Greatcoat was a treasure that only Mr. Parfitt himself knew of, but I
was
sure about one thing, he had many adventures that still lay before him. As I spun downward, I caught sight of Owen one last time, he was looking at me and with a mischievous smile nodded his appreciation.

Now, I had a race against time, Ophelexa no doubt had already used her own channels to return to Sarturas. She would be joining Sarine to initiate the start of the mass rape ‘
Impregnation Ceremony’
of the millions of helpless girls. Their only hope lay in our hands. I had a deep and anxious feeling in my gut, something was telling me that we were not going to come out of this in one piece.

Chapter 18

It was going to take us several hours to get to Sector One in our effort to trap Sarine and Ophelexa, not just because of the distance but there was now a civil war raging across parts of Sarturas. Being familiar with our destination, Xenakaz had taken the lead and just to be cautious, instead of making our way directly there, we had decided to fly through remote areas that appeared to be undisturbed, but lost our way a couple of times.

Looking around I was comforted to some extent to have my sisters and Amber with me, but this time we also had Jasmine with us and it was her new gift of being able to transform glass into virtually anything she wanted that allowed us some hope of seeing our plan succeed.

By this time I had already started missing Sin-dy, especially after she told me that it was making her feel bad that my girlfriend Enya “
deserved better from both of us
,” She was right, but my feelings for her were getting stronger every day and as we were flying I looked down at the burgundy wrist-cuff she had given me.

***

After texting her that I knew what to inscribe on the wristband, she texted right back that she could hardly wait to see it. We made a second date and this time it was to meet at her apartment.

“Come in quick,” Sin-dy pulled me in and slammed the door shut behind me. “Sorry about that, I have nosey neighbors and they ask a lot of questions.”

“Yeah, sure, no proble−” Sin-dy was more forward than me, and had given me a wet kiss right on the lips before I could finish speaking, it made me feel electric throughout my entire body and I felt like the luckiest guy in the world. “I’m not sorry about that though,” she teased, “are you?”

I kissed her again and smiled. “That was the best kiss I had in my life, did you know you taste like vanilla?”

She giggled, took my hand and showed me around her apartment. “And, that’s my bedroom.”

Still a little shy, I tried to change the subject of the bedroom. “Oh I brought these for you,” I gave her three roses, one red, one yellow and the last one was lavender. “I saw you looking at them at the flower stand before we went into Aquarius the other night.”

“I love them Kylar, do you know what this color means?”

“I think it means . . . ” She was looking at me with her lips ever so slightly moist and they had lavender lip gloss on them, the exact shade of the rose she was holding up. “I think it means, love at first sight” We said together, but I said it out loud and she had spoken it without saying it.

Sin-dy looked incredible that evening as she walked around getting the table laid for us to eat and showing me how she had learned to make Origami napkin swans. I’d
never
felt like this before about anyone. She had an apron on that looked so cute, it read,
“Make me laugh and I’ll be your friend, take my breath away and I’ll be true to you.”

***

“Kylar look!” Elektra was pointing into the distance and as we got closer, hundreds of lines of buildings that stretched for miles began to come into view. They looked like they were military encampments and there was what looked like guards at the entrances and a few other creatures patrolling its perimeter and interior roadways. I signaled to Xenakaz who immediately turned and waved us down toward a stream, we landed and made our way under the bridge that connected to a road right into the enclosure.

“Why do we have to stop?” Amber inquired.

Xenakaz was nervous as he came back down from the bridge. “This is new, it wasn’t here last year, something’s going on that I don’t understand.

Kira was peering over the embankment and questioned, “Well what’s more important than us getting to Sector One right now? Whatever this place is, we can’t allow it to delay us for too long.”

Jasmine was deep in thought. “I think, it’s, it’s where all the girls will be transported to, for them to be . . . ”

Elektra moved over to Jasmine and held her hand. “What makes you say that?”

Jasmine sat down. “Amber, do you remember me telling you I overheard my Tutella talking to Ophelexa?”

Amber blinked and began to think back. “Yes, you told me Ophelexa said something like, “
they can be held for nine months.
”

“Dad?”

“We’re not going anywhere,” Elektra looked at me, “until we raze this place to the ground.”

Jasmine and Amber were confused but they knew something bad was supposed to happen in the buildings. For the rest of us, there was no doubt what the houses of horror were meant to be. The impregnations were going to happen right inside them.

“How do we even begin trying to destroy this place?” Kira contemplated.

My mind was racing. “I’m not sure−”

Elektra cut in, “We have to create a distraction, something really epic so most of them aren’t here, then it’ll give us a chance to destroy this pile of filth.”

Xenakaz spoke up. “I can do it. I’ll start by destroying a few buildings at the far end. As soon as they realize who it is, they’ll want to capture me and take my head to Sarine, but I’ll lead them as far away as I possibly can.”

“But we need you to show us the way to Sector One.” I said. “Sin-dy is the only other person that has been there.”

“Besides,” Kira said. “We can’t capture Sarine and Ophelexa without your help.”

It seemed like an impossible situation. Sin-dy had described her ordeal to us at Sedah Hall where Ophelexa had tortured her, but only Xenakaz knew how to get there. Even if he managed to lead the creatures away from the encampment we’d still be at a loss to find it without him to guide us.

“Dad, I remember Sin-dy said something about using Crystal Mountain as a landmark, I always remember that kind of stuff, she headed east toward it after leaving Sedah Hall, if we knew where that is, then we could go back west from−”

Xenakaz interrupted. “Yes, of course! Amber’s right, and I can tell you where Crystal Mountain is from here, if I lose my pursuers I’ll catch up with you at Sedah Hall and . . . ”

Xenakaz stopped talking for a moment, he was looking down and seemed to have something else on his mind.

“What is it?” I asked. “Do you think it’s a bad idea?”

“It’s, Qirvana, if I die, she’ll be trapped at Rock Island with Heraclese.”

There was complete silence as we began to realize that there was still so much to accomplish and so much that could still turn tragically wrong. Xenakaz had Tulaqan ‘The Sword of Retribution’ in his belt and his hand was on its hilt.

“Amber,” Xenakaz unbuckled the sword and scabbard then handed it to her. “Tulaqan is yours, wield it wisely, it is formidable.”

She took the sword from Xenakaz, then placed it over her shoulder and hung it from her back. “None of us here will allow Qirvana to stay imprisoned,” Reaching back and pulling Tulaqan from its sheath, Amber turned the sword downward with its tip in the ground and cupped her hands over its pommel. “I swear this to you, on Tulaqan, and as your friend, that as long as I am able, she will be freed.”

One by one we all agreed and Xenakaz nodded his appreciation. “We should do this now, there is no more time to waste.”

Making our way around from the bottom of the small stone bridge we stood at the top, looking down toward the encampment. “Don’t do a thing until at least an hour, or you’ll be heard destroying this abomination,” Xenakaz said.

He flew away from us and headed for the rear of the buildings, it wasn’t long before we could see flames and hear explosions at several structures. Then after a few minutes a skirmish with freakish looking creatures ensued for a short time. The battle heated up and Xenakaz started to draw them away. Pretending he was losing, he had to escape drawing the guards behind him, he took off into the sky and away from the encampment, it worked.

We did exactly as Xenakaz had instructed us, after waiting for an hour we cautiously entered the compound, the prize of Xenakaz’ head and the rewards it could reap for its vanquisher was too much of a lure, everyone had gone.

Before setting about the task of destroying this hell within Hell we decided to enter a few of the buildings. There were rows of prison cells, destined to have been where the mass rapes would have taken place.

Destroying this whole encampment was going to take quite a while and if there were any of Ophelexa’s forces in the area they would hear the noise and we’d have to battle with them too, we had to think of something else, something that would decimate this place quickly.

“Any ideas guys, how can we do this without being here for hours?” I asked.

“Yeah, the sooner this place burns down to the ground the better,” said Elektra. “It may even buy us some time, the bastards won’t have anywhere to take the girls to−”

“Hey sis, remember how mom and dad told us how, by ourselves we were strong but together we were stronger?”

“Um, yeah! Do you mean when they showed us how to make those little squalls using my heat and your ice?”

“Yes! That’s what is was, well what about if we−”

Elektra cut in. “Did it on a massive scale?”

“This would be really dangerous, but if we could create a lot of heat on the ground and I started freezing the air above the encampment . . . ”

I guessed what my sister Kira was trying to do, she wanted to make a volatile weather system, the hot air from below would rise and then collide with the cold air and possibly create a storm.

“I could use my electrical shots to start burning a lot of the buildings,” I said.

Elektra started to make fireballs in her palms. “I could toss these into a lot of them.”

“Jasmine, you could blow out all the glass windows so the flames would get out quicker,” Amber excitedly said.

Suddenly we heard crashing sounds and began to take defensive positions, but it turned out to be Jasmine, she was already at work smashing glass in the building we were in. “Do you mean like that? She asked.

Amber looked at me with a smile on her face. “That’s perfect, right dad?”

“Yeah, perfect, just like you two.”

“Let’s do it sis, bro.” Elektra started to walk out with one arm around Amber and the other arm around Jasmine.

We all flew up above the buildings and began the work of torching the encampment, after a while the immediate area, about a half mile radius was burning like a gigantic bonfire.

“Your turn sis,” Elektra said.

“Go back to the bridge guys,” Kira said. “You can watch from there, and be ready to leave, if this works we need to get out of its way.”

“Be safe aunt Kira,” Amber said, as she blew a kiss.

With the fire raging below us, we left and headed toward the bridge. Kira began flying in circles around the blaze, slowly at first, leaving a series of ice in her wake. She went faster and faster, freezing the air as she went. Little by little she began going higher and higher and suddenly we heard crackling, the storm was brewing, another crackle…buildings began exploding below her.

Then she started moving in an elliptical pattern. Amber and Jasmine were jumping around, they were so excited they were screaming at the top of their lungs. Kira continued the elliptical flight pattern, she was trying to drag the Tornado she was creating down toward the rest of the buildings. On and on she went until finally the storm took on a life of its own, so strong, that it knocked Kira away, but she was okay and headed back to the bridge. The five of us stood there and watched the show that we had put on.

The Tornado was somehow using all the metal prison bars inside the buildings as a conduit and its suction and spinning power was smashing one building after another. It passed us and tore up all the buildings and landscape in its path, we had succeeded beyond our wildest expectations.

After lots of hugs and high fives we knew it was time to get away before any weird creatures could respond to the wreckage the tornado had caused. Xenakaz had let us know which direction to go in to find Crystal Mountain, and that was our next stop.

My head was buzzing from the explosions and the heat, or so I thought, but no, it was something else, it was Sin-dy! I could hear her!

Chapter 19

We were heading away from the destruction and I know she tried talking to me. “Sin-dy, can you hear me?” I kept trying but couldn’t connect with her.

About an hour later our landmark appeared in front of us.

Elektra signaled to me. “Bro, we should rest when we get there.” She pointed ahead of us at Crystal Mountain.

A few minutes after and we landed high up on a plateau, it was surreal, an almost see-through mountain. I had seen crystal in its natural form before when Sin-dy and I went on a trip to Wiltshire County in England, on a spiritual retreat, not far from Stonehenge. If you had dug even a few inches down you’d unearth shards of crystal but they were cloudy looking, nothing like this, we could see several feet into it.

My sisters were lying down on their backs exhausted. Amber and Jasmine were examining her new sword, its pommel was carved into the shape of a Grphyn head with its lion body wrapped around Tulaqan’s hilt.

Standing on the edge of the plateau I looked west, toward the direction we would soon be heading.
Was this, along with everything that had happened up until now another dream?
I dismissed the thought from my mind as Amber came and stood alongside of me. “What are you thinking dad?”

“Oh, just that I’m the luckiest dad ever and that I can hardly wait for us all to be back home.”

“I want to call somewhere home, it’s been like living a lie here, all these years.” Amber was talking, but not really to me, more like just talking to hear herself saying out loud that she felt disconnected from reality. “Maybe one day
my sisters and I can just be sisters, instead of puppets in someone else’s evil play.”

There was something different about her tone, almost like a trace of bitterness. Hugging her tight we both stood there gazing ahead at the horizon, somewhere out there was Sector One, where Sedah Hall is located and for now, that was the next act in this ‘evil play
.’
“Kylar.” I looked over to my sisters, they had their eyes closed.

“Sin-dy!?”

“Yes, it’s me! Kylar, I’m back, is everyone okay, where are you?”

“Yes we’re all fine, we just got to Crystal Mountain, can you come here? We’ll wait for you.”

“I have so much to tell you Kylar, I miss you.”

I could see everyone was looking in my direction, they couldn’t hear us but they knew I was talking to Sin-dy and had smiles on their faces. “Me too, how long before you get here?”

“I’m not sure, but don’t go anywhere without me.”

“Well, please be careful, there’s a lot of fighting going on and by now half of Ophelexa’s army must be looking for us.”

“I’ll get there as fast as I can, love you.”

I gulped, my emotions heightened by hearing Sin-dy’s voice. “Love you too, see you soon.”

Kira walked over, hugged Amber and looked at me. “Sin-dy?”

I was surprisingly calm, almost reflective. “Yeah sis, she’s on her way−”

She kindly interrupted. “We’ll wait for her.”

From behind us we heard. “Yuck.”

We turned to look at Jasmine, she had Tulaqan and somehow there was blood on its pommel.

Elektra took it from her and checked Jasmine’s hands, she was fine, but some drops had landed on the crystal plateau we were on.

“Kylar, look.”

Kira was pointing at the blood, it was seeping into the crystal and multiplying.

“I’m so sorry Mr. Kylar, I−”

I cut in. “Just call me Kylar, Jasmine, it’s alright.”

We all started to back away from the area below our feet, the drops moved in bursts and they were increasing in volume.

“They’re taking on a shape dad,” Amber said.

She was right, the blood was trying to take on the form of an animal.

Elektra handed Tulaqan back to Amber. “You’re bleeding!”

She was puzzled. “I must have cut myself without realizing it.”

The blood continued to fluctuate and almost seemed alive, as though something was trapped inside, like a creature trying to break out of its cocoon.

Amber held up Tulaqan. “Dad, the eagle head, its eyes, they’re looking at me.”

“Put it down Amber!” She placed the swords tip into a small fissure, standing it up in the crystal. “It’s a Grphyn, eagle head and lion body,” I said.

The blood inside the crystal below our feet was still fluctuating.

“What should we do then?” Kira asked.

“Well somehow there’s a connection between the Grphyn and the blood, but I don’t understand it,” I replied.

Jasmine spoke up, she was on to something. “Maybe it bit you Amber, to let us know it’s alive.”

Kira guessed. “Then, it wants us to release it, it’s trapped and doesn’t know how to get out?”

“Yes, that must be it, but how?” Amber asked.

“Maybe a spell or chant of some kind?” Kira asked.

We tried hard to come up with ideas but after continuing for quite some time, we were unable to unravel its mystery, we were stumped.

Jasmine had been thoughtfully listening to us. “How do you spell Grphyn?” she asked.

“G-r-i-f-f-i-n, G-r-y-p-h-o-n, or G-r-p-h-y-n. I think there are lots of ways, why Elektra asked?”

“An acronym!” she jumped up. “If we knew how to spell its name, maybe that would be a clue to releasing it, if that’s
really
what we want to do.”

“Most titles or names around here are in Latin and the only Latin I know is the tattoo on the back of my neck,” Elektra said. “Let’s just start with spelling Grphyn with the first letter, ‘G’ what−”

“I know,” Amber cut in. “We had to learn Latin growing up. I think they made us learn it just to keep us busy and out of trouble, but anyway, Tulaqan is a sword, in Latin it’s ‘
G
ladius
’ ”

There was something familiar to what Amber had just said,
where did I hear that before?
I could see Elektra was thinking about it too, she kept saying ‘
Gladius
’ under her breath.

“What could ‘R’ stand for Amber?”

“I don’t remember dad.”

“P?”

“
P
atrocinor!”
Jasmine exclaimed. “It means ‘
to protect
.’ ”

“Good work Jasmine,” Kira said.

“Oh and I know another one,” Jasmine jumped in, the ‘N’ could be ‘
N
ievus
’ which means ‘white or snowy.’ ”

“Sometimes ‘Snow or White’ could be used to denote virgin,” Kira said.

“So, we have
G
ladius ‘
R
’
P
atrocinor ‘
H
’ ‘
Y
’
N
ievus.

“Wait there’s no ‘Y’ in the Latin alphabet,” said Amber.

“Then the ‘Y’ is there just to help us pronounce the word in English?” I asked.

“I have one more dad, the ‘H’ it could be Honor, like respect or virtue.”

“Kylar, that time back at the cabin, after you used your powers for the first time, do you remember−”

I cut Elektra off. “It was Aunt Victoria, on her deathbed, you’re right, her last words were…‘
G
ladius
R
eVera
P
atrocinor
H
onor
N
iveus
’

The sword moved. “Did you see that!?” Elektra called out.

I replied “Yeah, but I wasn’t sure.”

“Well it did, what does the acronym mean?”

“Um, yes!” Amber excitedly said. “I know what it is, ‘
Sword-In truth-defend-the honor of the virgins
.’ Say it again, in Latin dad.”

We gathered around Tulaqan while the blood below the surface of the crystal was moving around under our feet like one of those old lava lamps that were popular back in the sixties. “Are we sure about this?” I asked.

“Yeah bro, go ahead,” Elektra said.

Nervously I repeated the words. “
Gladius ReVera Patrocinor Honor Niveus
”

There was nothing. “Say it louder Kylar,” Kira said.

“
Gladius ReVera Patrocinor Honor Niveus!
”

Again, nothing. “Mr, I mean Kylar,” Jasmine said. “The sword doesn’t belong to you, it belongs to Amber.”

“She’s right,” Elektra agreed. “Go for it Amb’. ”

Amber put her fingers up to her hair and started twirling it into a ringlet. “I think we should all step back.”

Then as we looked on at the blood and the sword, she spoke out the words that had been a mystery to me for all these years.

“
Gladius ReVera Patrocinor Honor Niveus.
”

The fissure that Tulaqan was in began separating a little more, so Amber grabbed the sword and held it with the blade flat and sitting horizontally across both her opened palms.

She repeated the sentence once more.

The Grphyn head stirred and the blood that had been moving under the crystal made its way to the now wide open crack. Then, the Grphyn separated away from the sword hilt and began crawling up Amber’s wrist.

“Amber!”

“It’s okay Aunt Kira, I trust it.”

The Grphyn continued until it wrapped itself around her upper arm and stayed there. A mist, or maybe its soul? flooded from its mouth and entered the fissure. The plateau beneath us started to vibrate, the blood and the mist combined and began spraying upward out of the crack and into the air above.

It twisted and turned as it danced its life into the huge and powerful shape of a magnificent Grphyn. Soaring into the sky and spreading its eagle wings up and around it went, then to our surprise it took off into the sky, and it was gone.

The five of us stood there scanning the skyline. “Ungrateful−”

“Aunt Elektra, he’ll be back, he’s just stretching his wings.”

Elektra turned to face Amber. “He looked ferocious, I hope he’s one of the good guys.”

Touching the metal Grphyn wrapped around her arm. “I know she is,” Amber said, quietly to herself.

After destroying the encampment earlier and witnessing the birth of a Grphyn, things had caught up with me, I was feeling beat. “We should all get some rest until Sin-dy gets here,” I said.

Jasmine had some dry-food, like Freekah cakes and nut bars that she handed out to us. The calm of the moment was enough to ease my mind as I closed my eyes.

***

“That was delicious, I’m stuffed,” We had finished dessert and I apologized for being such a klutz and messing up the Origami swans. Sin-dy laughed. “Next time
you
can make them.”

“Next time?”

“Yeah, at your house, unless . . . ”

“No, I’m such an idiot, yes, we will.”

We were curled up on her couch and she reached over and put her finger on my mouth to stop me stammering like a fool.

“Kylar?”

“What is it?”

“You said you had the “right words
”
for the wrist-cuff I gave you, can you?”

I snapped open the studs and handed it to her.

“No, can you read it to me?”

I snapped it back on and didn’t need to look at the inscription. We snuggled a little closer.
“Our souls are the vessels that only we, ‘
Kylar & Sin-dy
’ can fill with desire.”

Sin-dy pulled up on my shirt and eased it over my head, throwing it down on the carpet. She stood up, un-zippered the back of her skirt, then taking my hand she led me to her bedroom, as the door closed, I knew that there would really never be anyone else for either of us.

***

“What is that?” I asked. Something was in the distance and it was approaching fast, not knowing if this was ‘friend or foe’ we moved around to the far corner of the plateau.

“It sounds like it’s mad, whatever it is,” Kira said.

Screeching and roaring it headed back to us, just like Amber had said. It
was
the Grphyn and its incredible eagle eyesight had picked us out, there was no hiding from it.

Moments later it reared above us and turned to land on the plateau, we were speechless, none of us could say a word. The only sound that did come out, was from the Grphyn, it curtsied before Amber. “Mistress, the lady is here.” It turned to one side and to our amazement, Sin-dy, dismounted from its back.

Amber was the first to collect her senses. “Sin-dy! You’re safe.”

“I found her a few thousand miles from here,” the Grphyn said.

Seconds later we had all embraced Sin-dy. “You look like crap,” Elektra said. “But we sure are glad to see you again.”

“Yeah, I’ll tell you all about it later,” she said. “But if it wasn’t for my ride I’d still be hours away.” She turned and patted the Grphyn’s feathered chest.