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

Chapter Nine

At the next pit stop, Mira approached me hesitantly. “You’re not really thinking about suicide, are you? Do we have to put you on some sort of twenty-four-hour watch?”

“I don’t see her killing herself anytime in the near future,” Noe said as she walked by.

“I don’t want to die, Mira, but I don’t want you to die either. I feel like this is the only way to protect you.”

“I understand that. It’s almost sweet. Except it’s not! We’re talking about death.”

I mashed my lips together. “Okay, listen. This is the only thing I can think of to keep you guys safe. If we can come up with a better plan, great, let’s do it. But if not, if there are no more options, if it comes down to it, then we go with my plan.”

After a moment of silence, she answered, “We won’t need your plan. Somehow, we’ll figure it out.”

I hoped she was right.

It was time to call in to the institute. After passwords were exchanged, Mr. Eaton asked us how we were. Mira filled him in on everything that had happened in the past week. She described the demons and how I had killed them all. She even told him I was threatening to kill myself to save them. “If they found us a second time, they’ll find us again.”

“I’m afraid you’re right. And now that they have your scent, they’ll do it quicker. We’ve had some here and they were dealt with. I’m sure that’s not the last of them. They will send more. The faculty is on high alert.”

“What can we do? How do we stop them?”

He didn’t answer right away. “I don’t know.” It was odd hearing the headmaster of a school admit he was clueless.

“Is there anyone who might know?” Daxton asked.

Again, silence, then, “Vala. If you can find her, she might be able to help you.”

“Who the hell is Vala?”

“She is a shaman, an oracle. She’s the greatest of her kind. You must find her.”

“Any idea where?”

“She likes the quiet and elevation. The only places I’ve ever heard of her living were in the mountains, away from civilization.”

“That doesn’t narrow it down enough.”

“I’ll see if I can find out more. Good luck.”

We hung up, destroyed the phone, and tossed it. “Find the shaman,” Zane muttered while eating lunch. “Shit, how are we supposed to do that? If they wanted us to save the freakin’ world, they should’ve given us better gifts.”

I laughed out loud at that one. He looked up, embarrassed that I was actually listening. “Sorry.”

“S’okay.” He rubbed his temples. “We’re smart, we’re gifted, and we’re clueless. How does that make sense?”

“Maybe we should find other gifted people?”

“And tell them what?”

“I don’t know. What about faeries?”

“Nah, they’re too peaceful. They’ll only get involved if it threatens them directly.”

“Well, we still have our gifts. Zane, you can talk to animals. Maybe they know something. Mira can get people to talk or think about something, and then Auralee can read their minds. Noe can keep her eye on the future.”

Daxton then said, “Once again, I have nothing important to offer here.”

I took his hand, but I wasn’t sure what to say or how to comfort him.

“We can’t wait to talk to Eaton again. We need to find this shaman sooner,” Noe told us.

“Okay. We need to head up, huh?” I asked. “Anyone know the highest points around?”

“In this country…I think California, Colorado, and Washington,” Daxton said.

“Of course, we’re driving away from there, and that’s where we need to be!” Mira shouted. “UGH!”

“So, we drive back, find the highest points, and hope that the shaman is there.”

“Sounds ridiculous.”

“Do you have a better idea?”

“No.”

“Well then, let’s turn around and try to find this lady.”

Noe had that faraway look in her eyes again. “Noe?”

She didn’t say anything for a few minutes. “We will find her, just not sure when.”

“That’s something.”

Back in the car, we headed west. The plan gave us all something to think and talk about. Even if it didn’t work, it was a plan, and that was more than we had an hour ago.

As I watched out the window, tree after tree passed by. Could the shaman help us? Would she? I didn’t know anything about her. I wondered if they’d taught about her in classes while I was daydreaming. Why hadn’t I paid more attention?

We continued to drive, stopping only for breaks and at night to sleep. “We’ll see demons today,” Noe said one morning.

“Great,” I said back sarcastically.

“Does that mean we’ll survive it?” Mira asked.

Noe didn’t answer. Instead, Auralee said, “She’s trying to make sense of what she’s seeing. It’s hard for her. She can’t see them clearly. She thinks it’s because they’re pretty stupid beings, and they only do what they are told to do.”

I let that sink in. The demons were stupid and under orders. “Can she tell who is ordering them to get me?”

“Not yet.” Auralee ran her hand up the back of her hair and rested it on top of her head.

“Well, it would be nice if she could speed that up.”

“Kassia!”

“Sorry…just frustrated.”

“We all are,” Auralee said as she patted my hand.

It was almost more nerve-racking knowing these demons were going to show up than wondering if they might. We were extra aware and alert. Noe was quieter than usual as she tried to concentrate.

Halfway through the morning, she opened her eyes and pointed out the window. “Up there. See them?”

We all looked ahead of us. Sure enough, three demon cat-hounds were watching for us. As we passed, they ran alongside the car. It only took a minute to speed ahead of them, but it shook us all. “Was that all of them?” I asked Noe.

“No,” she said quietly.

Awesome. We’d see more. “This day just keeps getting better,” I said.

We drove until the car was almost out of gas. We literally had to stop although none of us wanted to. We found the biggest, brightest gas station we could and stopped there. Staying together we first got gas and then went inside to the bathroom.

People were giving us strange looks. We tried to smile and look normal. I saw a couple people chuckle after reading Auralee’s shirt. Today, it read, If you die in an elevator, be sure to push the UP button.

“They’re here,” Noe whispered. “Out there.”

Looking outside, we realized we were surrounded by a number of demons. The good news was there weren’t as many as there had been in the field. “Excuse me, ma’am, do you see anything weird out there?” Mira asked a middle-aged lady.

The lady glanced out the windows. “No. Are you kids okay?”

“Yes, we’re fine.” She smiled.

“So, regular people can’t see them.” Zane stated the fact out loud.

“Or maybe the demons don’t want humans to see them,” Auralee speculated.

“What do we do?”

“If we wait, more will come,” Noe said.

“So, we go,” Zane said.

“How do we get to the car?”

“Use our daggers?”

“There are cameras all over this place.”

They looked at me. “Can you do anything?”

I walked up to the windows, facing the demons head on. I glared at the one who looked like he was in charge, and I felt the power within me rise up. Die, you bastard. But he didn’t. I was just as close to him as the ones I had killed in the field. It had to be the window. Somehow the window blocked my gift from getting to him. I had to go outside.

“No, Kassia,” Auralee said.

“Yes,” Noe said at the same time.

I couldn’t look back at them. I hadn’t put my power “away,” and I’d end up hurting everyone in the store. Slowly, I made my way to the door. It was hard trying to keep the power up while doing something else. Multitasking wasn’t easy. I pushed open the door and stared straight at them.

A few of the demons let out a high-pitched shriek that sent chills down my spine as they fell to the ground. The little ones in the back were rushing toward me with their speedy little legs, but I was taking them down pretty easily. The bigger ones lasted a little longer, writhing in pain on the ground, before dying and melting into the earth.

Finally, the demons were all gone. I