Chapter 5

The coffee table was turned over, the couch had been split down the side and stuffing was everywhere. Broken glass from the backdoor was spread throughout the kitchen and the carpeted areas.

Ella was facing off with three people. A second glance told me they were the same three people who had set fire to the pawnshop. In between kicks and grabs, she shouted for Alain to grab the baby and run. But Alain wasn’t in any position to do so. He’d been stabbed in the leg and was on his back, fighting with a fourth person on his own, this one with black hair and dressed in leather.

Millie was screaming in the corner, tears running down her face. There was a fifth person standing in front of her. The woman had cornflower yellow hair down to her waist. It was all I could see of her. The rest of her body covered in leather to match the other newcomer. She had her hands up in the air and was approaching the child slowly.

I took all of this in with one glance.

Lixa burst into the house behind me and immediately went toward the screaming toddler. Smart move, freed me up to handle the others.

The man holding Alain down grabbed the knife still in the fallen man’s leg and started twisting it to the side. Alain screamed, but managed to clutch the man’s head and thrust it down into his own. The move hurt both of them, but the attacker was momentarily caught off guard. He backpedaled wildly, trying to orient himself, and by doing so, walked right into my path.

I grabbed his arm and twisted it so far up his back I heard the joints in his elbow and shoulder pop and then wrench out of their sockets. He screamed again, this time in more pain than anger, and began bucking wildly, which didn’t improve the tight hold I had on him.

Without missing a beat, I got a fistful of his hair and then slammed his head down, with all the force my upper body lent to me. His body jackknifed and then he went limp on the ground, all his limbs going boneless until I let him go and he fell into a loose heap. All that leather didn’t seem to do him any good.

I didn’t have time to pause to make sure he was down for the count. There were still four other people to deal with. I kicked his prone body out of the way. A quick glance over my shoulder and I saw that Lixa was holding off the other leather clad legion with all the ferocity I knew her to have. She refused to move away from Millie, keeping her body between the toddler and the enemy. She made a flimsy shield, but she was all the baby had.

Ella was the one who really needed help. She had been pushed up against a wall and was getting pummeled by the three arsonists.

I careened around the broken couch, smoothly moving over the stuffing and glass that scattered the carpet. Just as I was approaching them, one of the men started to turn with this smile on his face. This smile that told me how he thought this would end, and he enjoyed the moment. He enjoyed the thought that he would get to kill someone, possibly several people, and he relished the daydream. A knife appeared, sliding through the air and straight toward my middle.

I torqued my body to the side, deftly avoiding the blade by mere inches, and then continued the movement, getting momentum in the swing. I brought my arm up and fisted my hand, and that blow landed directly into his nose. I felt the bones crunch under my fist and blood poured down his face. He gritted his teeth and kept from screaming by doing so, but his eyes watered, compromising his vision and giving me the opportunity that I needed.

He came at me with the knife again and I dodged out of way. He started chasing me and I started retreating, up until I got to the lamp by the couch. I snatched it up and yanked the cord out of the base, throwing it in his face. The glass shattered and cut into his skin and he shouted once more, with more feeling. Before he could recover, I yanked the cord out of the wall and kicked his knee out from under him.

He landed face down on the floor. I straddled his back and wrapped the cord around his throat. He fought wildly, but eventually the lack of air made his movements more sluggish. I couldn’t waste more time on him so I dropped the cord, grabbed the sides of his head and twisted, violently, to the left. His neck snapped and he went limp on the ground, body spasms weakly ran through him for about two seconds before his death was complete.

Once, killing someone that easily would have bothered me. Once, it would have haunted me, to think that I didn’t even know this man. That had been a long time ago, and most of those gentler, kinder impulses had been stripped from me. They didn’t have any place in the world I’d grown up.

I didn’t bother checking him twice, but I launched to my feet and turned to the other two arsonists. They had split up. Alain had passed out on the floor from blood loss, so he wasn’t a priority anymore. But Ella and Lixa were still alive and awake. The only other man was fighting with Ella and Lixa was going up against the two women.

One would throw a punch or a kick and the other would try to dodge around to grab Millie, who was now huddled up in the corner, still sobbing. All the chaos in her house and she couldn’t even get to her parents, which was all she really wanted, I knew. That’s all any scared child wanted. She was too young to even understand what was happening in her once peaceful house.

I went to help Lixa and made it a total of two steps.

The man in leather was up and moving again. I hadn’t noticed until he kicked my ankle and my leg went out from under me. I crashed into the carpet, my elbow dragging along the ground. I didn’t stay on the ground long, jumping to my feet and twisting around so that I could face off with him.

He charged at me and I slipped to the side, letting him run into the wall. I went to grab his head and pull the same crack job on him that I did his buddy, but he wasn’t falling for it a second time. With surprising speed that he hadn’t used before, he grabbed my arm and hauled me closer to his body. My legs went wonky for a second, but I managed to get them under me again.

There was a bruise blossoming on his forehead, running down his nose. His eyes were brown and dull, but they latched onto me and I knew he was pissed off. Guess guys don’t like it when you throw their heads into walls.

Who knew?

With his one good hand, he started twisting my arm, creating enough strain that pain lanced up the limb and into my shoulder. But he had one big weakness dangling on his side. Forcing myself to push the pain aside, I flexed my hips, brought one of my legs up and launched the foot into his injured shoulder.

He hollered with pain and released my arm. Relief and tingles rushing through the arm, but I didn’t even take a second to revel in it. This man was in my way and Millie, the Tiny Heartbreaker, was screaming so loud that the neighbors were bound to be awake. This needed to end, and now.

The leather clad idiot charged me again and I slipped to the side once more, I pulled a cartoon move and I kept one leg in front of him. He tripped over my leg like I suspected he would and went flying into the floor. He ended up landing on his dead comrade and that seemed to enrage the fucker to the point of insanity. He grabbed the fallen knife I had forgotten about and turned back to me. He had a shiny madness in his eyes, a redness filling his cheeks. His breaths came out in hot pants that would have plumed in the air outside.

Great.

His slashes were clumsy and it was the work of moments to slide out of his way with each one. But when I attempted to slide around him and get to the important fight, I found a knife at my skin and ready to slice me open. Not exactly how I wanted this evening to end, but I wasn’t liking my chances so far.

Then everything came to a head.

There was a loud, pain filled scream and a tiny body flew across the room and into the wall before sliding down to the floor, a motorcycle helmet reflecting the fight. Ella started screaming as well, but for a different reason. They had Millie. The leather clad woman was holding the toddler in her arms and was making a break for it, toward the backdoor.

The man with the knife smiled and dropped the weapon, following the suddenly retreating legions. They all ran through the room, baby in tow and out into the kitchen. Ella and I took off after them without missing a step. They had her daughter and a child I’ve known her entire life. We weren’t about to let them run off.

They jumped through the windowless backdoor and we were after them. Ella still didn’t have shoes on and glass cut into her feet. The scent of blood blossomed in the air, but she didn’t seem to notice.

We whipped around a corner in time to see them go through their back gate and I threw up my senses so that I wouldn’t lose them.

Only suddenly, they weren’t there. I could see them, and I had my senses up. I could feel the presence of all the people in the houses around us, Ella, Alain and Lixa. But Millie, and those legions were gone from my world of auras. I felt like cursing, but didn’t have the breath to spare. Instead, I told my long legs to move faster and they did, straining the muscles and tendons, but moving all the same.

If I lost sight of the Annihilists…

They’d be gone.

Ella was only yards behind me, her shorter frame having issues keeping up with me. In the end, it didn’t matter. I burst around a corner they had taken and saw only blond heads in the back of an SUV with no license plate. It was speeding down the road and swerving badly.

Just before I couldn’t see it anymore, the man in leather turned around and looked directly at me.

And smiled.

He might not have known it, but with that move, in that one second, he had sealed his fate. I’d find him eventually, and if he was very lucky, Millie would be fine and I wouldn’t have to drag it out.

Ella appeared behind me and looked in the direction of the car. Her mouth opened in shock and horror and she screamed for her daughter, at the top of her lungs. The only thing I could do was catch her when her world falling apart brought her to her knees.

I pulled up to the gate and punched in the code. I let Lixa get in front of the truck so that the gate wouldn’t shut her out. I had a shell shocked Ella in the seat next to me and a still unconscious Alain in the back. Lixa had a broken arm and a concussion, but when we got back to the house, she was bandaging Alain and had already turned the body and blood into ash, like a cleaner is supposed to.

Cleaning was the ability to turn dead matter into ash. An ability designed by demons to make sure battlefields didn’t litter their perfect world.

Ella had to be sat down at the kitchen table until she came back to herself. When she did she was spitting mad. That anger came in waves and when it was gone, she was that shell shocked woman again. I was the one who packed their bags and a couple of things for Millie, cuz we were getting her back, and then I put them all in the truck.

Lixa parked in front of the house and stumbled over to me. She had her arm down by her side, but still wanted to help me get everything in. Thankfully she didn’t have to help long. Henrik and Reggie came out, took one look at her and ushered her inside with Alain and Ella. Then came back to me.

“What happened?” Reggie demanded.

I told them the whole story. My anger at the kidnapping was mirrored by them and we were left with nothing to take it out on. Henrik didn’t get angry often, but the fire in his eyes was enough to make even me blink.

“They weren’t the only house hit,” Reggie eventually said. “Henrik went by to get some stuff for the children, and all the houses with children were ransacked. The only one who was kidnapped was Millie. I’m both thankful for that and wishing I could wring her parents’ and the Annihilists’ necks.”

I felt like sitting down. Suddenly, I was just exhausted.

“Everyone else is okay?” I asked, needing to hear the words.

“Yes,” Reggie assured me. “We have room for everyone as long as they don’t mind doubling up with their children and mates, or friends.” She shook her head. “We were so fucking close to winning that one.”

“Yeah… we were,” I said. Part of me wanted to get angry with Millie’s parents again, but I didn’t see the point. They’d made their choices, and those choices had consequences. Getting mad wouldn’t bring their daughter back, wouldn’t make things easier, or change our path. I used to get angry at everything, but doing that just became exhausting the older that I got. I shouldn’t have felt this tired at my age.

We took the luggage inside and up the stairs to Alain and Ella’s room. There was a crib in there for Millie and that stung like hell. We set the bags down by the bed and started to leave.

Ella stopped us before we got very far. “She’s just gone…” she said. “She was in my arms and now she’s not.”

We looked back at her, but it was Henrik who spoke. As heartbroken as I was for her, I didn’t think for a second I could make this better.

“It’ll be okay,” he said. “They aren’t going to hurt her, you know that. We’ll get her back.” It was the only comfort we could offer. Legions didn’t kill each other’s children. Nope. When the enemy left behind anyone younger than fourteen, they were taken in by the ones who killed their Family and were raised as that person’s child. It created problems, sure, and it wasn’t foolproof. But we couldn’t kill the children. Fourteen to sixteen? They were left to find their allies. Anyone over sixteen was an adult. And fair game.

Ella nodded, but didn’t seem to feel any better.

I wasn’t surprised by that.

We left her alone and went back downstairs. The three of us stood in the living room, staring at the blank screen, the wall, the couch, pretty much anything that wasn’t each other. Still trying to come to terms with everything that happened tonight. I could still smell smoke and blood and hear Millie’s screams.

That tightness around Reggie’s eyes was a clear indicator to her own quiet panic.

Finally, I said, “There’s something else. I almost forgot. Their signatures disappeared.”

“What?” Reggie asked.

“I couldn’t sense them. I couldn’t track them. They were right in front of me, I could see them, but I couldn’t sense them.” Tracking was the most common ability amongst legions, and the most reliable. Everyone had an aura, unique to them, with it’s own special flavor depending on their race. Legions had been designed to hunt, to kill. Tracking helped us do that. Some of us could sense those auras. It was different for everyone. Some saw color, some just knew. My cousin, Billy, felt people like strings in her head. I saw them as dots on a black background, surrounding me. Or, I should have been able to. Their signatures disappearing? Not good.

Reggie took a deep breath and said, “That’s it. We aren’t playing by their rules anymore. Asire, do you mind putting yourself in a little bit of danger?”

“Never stopped me before,” I said.

“Then I think you should call us in some help.” Her brown eyes locked onto my black ones and there was no mistaking what she meant. My cousin, the best tracker in the country. The one I wasn’t allowed to see, by penalty of death.

That constant ache in my chest gave a twinge and then seemed to soften. In my mind I saw Millie running at me and yelling my name. My phone had charged in the car during all the madness and I took it out immediately. I hit the familiar picture and waited two heartbeats before it was picked up by a cheerful voice.

“Billy?” I said. “I got a favor to ask of you.”