The Ultimate Sacrifice, Talia Jager [novels to read .TXT] 📗

married, have a couple of kids, and not live too far from my friends.”

“What about a job?”

“I’m not sure yet.” I had no idea what I wanted to do and always put off thinking about it. “What about you?”

“I want the same things you do. As far as a career, I like computers and writing, so maybe something in those areas.” He shoved a whole cookie in his mouth.

“Do you think we’ll get out of this mess?”

“There’s always hope.”

I nodded and examined the daggers we had been given. When I looked closely at the handles, I saw that they had been made to match our tattoos. I picked up the one with the infinity sign on it. “They match,” I said to Daxton.

“Oh yeah,” he said, picking up the one covered in stars. “Cool.”

“Do you often go places with your gift?” I asked.

“Depends on how you define often. Not every day. Maybe once a week?”

“I think that’d be a neat gift to have. It would be cool to escape the stress whenever I wanted.”

He put his hand on mine. “I’ll take you wherever you want whenever you want.”

“I may take you up on that.”

At the first sign of dawn, I showered while Daxton woke the others up. They took turns getting ready. I figured I better shower now because there might come a time when showers wouldn’t be available. We had some food delivered before we took off in the car. We kept heading south.

We stopped at a rest area for a bathroom break and to stretch out a little. After I left the bathroom, I saw Mira sitting at a picnic table. I could tell she was crying from the way her body was shaking. I hesitated, not knowing if I should go to her or give her space.

I looked around for Auralee and found her under a tree. Reading her shirt, I smiled. It said, Friends are chosen family. So true in our case. Auralee? She looked over and our eyes met. I motioned to Mira. Does she need space or me?

She pointed at me.

I walked over to Mira, sat down and put my arm around her. No words were needed. I held her as she cried on my shoulder.

Zane noticed what was going on, but I shook my head, not wanting him to come over. This was something Mira needed to do on her terms. The way she’d acted toward his gesture yesterday, I was guessing she didn’t want him touching her right now. Never having been violated that way, I couldn’t imagine what she was going through. After a few minutes, she wiped away her tears and murmured, “Sorry.”

“Sorry? Don’t be sorry. You’ve been so strong, Mira. You went through something none of us have experienced and you haven’t had time to deal with it because of all this. It’s okay to take that time. I’m always going to be here for you.”

“Thanks.”

“Wanna talk about it?”

She looked down. Her eye wasn’t as swollen, but the bruises had turned a deep purple. “I don’t know. I can’t put it into words yet.”

“I’m here when you need me.”

“I know.” We sat there until she was ready to get back into the car.

On the fourth day, Noe yelled for us to pull over as we were driving. “What? What is it?”

Her eyes were searching for an answer. “We mustn’t head too far east. Just south. Okay?”

“Okay,” the rest of us replied.

That night in our hotel room, we spread the map out on the bed. “I think we’re about as far south as we should go,” Zane said.

“I agree.” Daxton examined the map. “If Noe says we shouldn’t go further east, then we should stay here.”

“For how long?” I asked, twisting my hair around my finger.

“I don’t know,” Noe said. It was odd to get that answer from her. She shook her head and shrugged. “I’m not seeing anything yet.”

We stayed inside most of the time with two of us always on guard. Mira took care of anybody’s questions and got us whatever we needed.

Three days later, we bought a disposable cell phone. We all sat close together, put the phone on speaker, and called the number. The phone rang twice, a voice answered, and passwords were exchanged.

“How are you all?” Mr. Eaton asked.

“We’re fine,” Mira responded. “Things there?”

Mr. Eaton hesitated. “We’re noticing some strange things but nothing big. I think they are sending out scouts, trying to find out what happened, and figure out how to find you. You must stay away. Stay alert.”

“We will,” Mira promised.

“Throw the phone away, call back in a week,” Mr. Eaton said. We immediately drove a few miles away, destroyed the phone, and then tossed it in a Dumpster in a vacant parking lot.

Two days later, we were all walking back to the hotel from the store when Noe stopped dead in her tracks.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“They’re here,” she whispered. “Why didn’t I see it earlier? They’re waiting for us. They know we’re coming. There’s no escape,” she rambled.

“What do we do?” Mira asked.

Noe’s forehead was scrunched up and the corners of her mouth were turned down. “I can’t see!”

“Where’s your dagger?” Mira asked Zane.

“In the room,” Zane said.

“Mine too. UGH! Stupid!” Mira yelled.

I turned away from them and faced the hotel while they were all discussing what to do. The hair on my arms stood straight up before I could even see any demons. Seconds later, one stepped into my view and I felt a shudder ran through me. A sulfur-like scent filled the air and made my stomach lurch.

The demon looked up and our eyes met. Looking into his eyes was like seeing into the windows of hell. I swear I could hear screams trying to escape. I felt nauseated, frozen in fear. It continued to stare at me, sending shivers down my spine, and I felt goose bumps all over my body.

The demon was a cross between a cat and dog. Most of its body looked like a cat, except for its nose, which looked like it belonged to a bloodhound. Its eyes were like slits and red light poured out of them.

My mouth was dry, my breathing was fast, and my heart was pounding so loud I could hear it. Get a grip, Kassia! I closed my eyes long enough to break free of the hold I felt like it had on me.

I twisted my hair up out of the way and opened my eyes again. “I guess we have to face this and figure it out ourselves because they’re coming,” I said to the group.

They all stopped talking and looked past me. The field was filled with black, shadow-like demons. I turned back toward my friends and yelled, “Go now!” If I was going to do the only thing I could do to protect them, they couldn’t be close by. Mira started to argue, but Noe grabbed her and yanked her backwards. I turned to face the demons that wanted me so badly.

The closest ones were the crosses between a cat and dog. Three of them were getting ready to pounce only a few feet from me.

I focused all of my anger and hatred and let the power rise up in me. I knew from killing those people that the power in me could be strong enough to kill anything here. I just had to feed my power with enough hate.

I could feel the power quickly taking over, building to its peaking point until I could no longer control it. I released it, letting it pour out of my mind, fixating it on the cat-hounds—my name for them—and watching them squirm in pain. After a few seconds they dropped to the ground. I kept at it, taking down a few at a time, but it wasn’t enough. There were so many of them! I tried to branch out and get more demons at once.

The next batch of demons were deformed and hideous. The sulfur-like smell coming from them made the bile rise in my throat. One of them lunged forward, claws out and mouth wide open. He was so close I could see his pointy teeth. Quickly focusing on him, I watched as he dropped to the ground, letting off an ear-piercing shriek that made me cover my ears until he was gone.

Just when I got my power back up, pain shot through my lower left leg, but I couldn’t break my focus again to look down. Keeping the tears at bay, I sent more demons dropping to the ground. The smaller ones stood less than two feet tall and were shaped like people with a head, body, arms, and legs. They, too, were all black with empty, soulless red eyes.

One of them was on my back now, ripping into my skin with its razor-sharp teeth. Crying out in pain, I reached behind me and grabbed whatever it was attacking my back and threw him. With lightning speed, he came right back at my side before I got a chance to move. If I lived through this, I needed to take up some kind of self-defense course.

If I wasn’t mad before, I was really mad now. My head pounded and my body tingled. I was shaking uncontrollably. My hands flew up to my head, and I rested my fingers on my throbbing temples. Releasing the power I had left, I commanded them to die.

The rest of the demons fell to the ground, except the stupid one that was chomping on my leg. I yanked him off. He was all black, but had slits for eyes and holes where ears should be. His body felt firm, but I didn’t feel any bones. I gave him my death stare, and he went limp in my hands.

Throwing him to the ground, I looked around at all the demon bodies. I felt sick. The bodies looked like they were melting into the earth, like they were being sucked back down into hell. My own body felt weak and strangely calm. I lost consciousness before I hit the ground.