expression was blank, though he held a severed hand in his right palm. I gasped as I realized, seeing the stump of his left arm, that it was his own hand. He held the wrist of the detached hand against the stump and a second later, his fingers waved, then closed into a fist and opened again. Holy crap! He reattached his hand! Can we all do that? But I immediately forgot the thought as a Daemoni jumped at him. He grabbed her by the shoulders. His head dove toward her throat. And that's when I noticed his teeth. Especially his eyeteeth. Have they always been so long? So pointed? Rina instantly changed views.
I recognized Ian, standing away from the mayhem, his dull red hair shaking around his face as he cackled at the scene. Then a round object suddenly flew at us. I flinched, expecting it to actually hit me. It landed at our feet. We looked down to see a human head rolling to a stop. My stomach jumped. Acid burnt the back of my throat.
From another view, we watched from farther back, at the house. I heard the Amadis fighter's thoughts as he told Rina he was injured, but he could be her eyes to see the full scene. He looked down. His leg ended in bloody shreds where the knee should be. He held it in his hands, but they looked more like… claws . Then there were several popping sounds and his head snapped up. He focused on Tristan. I forced myself to watch.
Tristan fought off several Daemoni as dog-like creatures appeared all around him. Dogs or wolves? I couldn't tell from this viewpoint. They were definitely larger than any canine I'd ever seen, a few nearly as tall as Tristan. He shot power at them. Some fell to the ground. Others soared back several yards. The creatures continuously sprang and lunged at him. At first, he could keep them off. He whacked at them with his arms. He kicked them across the meadow. He blasted them with his force. Owen shot his power at the creatures, too, trying to keep them back.
But more popped into existence. Pop! Pop! Pop! Dozens of them.
I gripped the chair's arms, suppressing the irrational urge to run out there and help. Not that I could do anything against these…these beasts . But I felt so useless just watching the horror.
Daemoni and their creatures continued appearing all over the estate's lawn. They swarmed onto Tristan. Oh, no! Oh, God, no! There's too many! I cried out as a creature lunged at Tristan and grabbed onto his arm with its mouth. Its teeth dug into his skin, not letting go. Then a second one attached to his other arm. Another Daemoni jumped on his back.
Then there was Edmund. He glanced briefly at Tristan, then strode toward us, toward the mansion. He waved his hand and several creatures followed him.
But not enough to relieve Tristan. He fought off creatures while eyeing Edmund. His eyes narrowed and his chest lifted. He heaved a breath of exasperation.
Then he looked right at us.
His eyes bored into our seer's, through Rina's mind and into mine, as if he knew I could see him. And our eyes locked. Rina switched to his thoughts. His lovely voice reverberated in my head.
'I love you, ma lykita. '
We flew through the air and tackled Edmund.
And then we went blank.
Rina switched back to the mind of the soldier near the house. The meadow was nearly empty. A few stragglers disappeared with pops and now everyone was gone. Including Tristan. My eyes flew open.
'Where'd he go ?' I screamed, jumping to my feet. I looked wildly around the concrete room, disoriented for a moment. Mom and Rina finally opened their eyes, too.
'They are all gone,' Rina said quietly. 'I cannot find any thoughts out there. Nowhere in my range.'
'He's gone to meet Lucas, hasn't he?' I cried.
Rina nodded.
'Will they make it back?'
Neither Rina nor Mom answered me this time. They stared at the floor. Tristan hadn't gone alone—every Amadis fighter out there went, too. Which meant there would be more fighting.
I fell back into the chair and dropped my head into my hands. I pressed the heels of my palms against my eyes, trying to push away the scene replaying on the backs of my eyelids. The heavy weight of it all…the bodies dropping, convulsing on the ground, some completely still, dead…pressed down on me, trying to crush me into the chair, into the floor.
'Is this who we are?' I asked quietly. 'This is what we do? Fight deadly battles?'
This was what I waited so long to find out? That we were really no better than our enemies?
'When we need to, yes,' Rina said, taking a seat. 'We try to prevent these kinds of atrocities. We prefer not to fight. We are good , Alexis. But we are the Angels' army on Earth. We must do what they need us to do. For them. For God. Just like in biblical times, just like David and the others. We must fight for what is right.'
The Angels' army…the phrase bounced around my skull. It should sound empowering, but all I could think about was the fighting. The blood and pain. The deaths. My hands pressed against my belly as I tried to draw hope from the tiny lives inside. But I only felt despair. What kind of world am I bringing them into? What kind of lives would they lead?
Mom and Rina had been right all along. I was not ready for this. The Ang'dora would make me more like them and better able to comprehend and accept. I hoped. Right now, my feeble human mind could not relate.
I had to focus on something that made more sense—that was more within my grasp of understanding.
'Is this why we moved all the time?' I finally asked Mom. 'I always thought it was the men. Were we being hunted and I just didn't know it?'
Mom sighed. 'No, honey. The Daemoni never bothered us until they discovered you and Tristan together.'
'Oh. So, then, why did Owen come into the picture? He was around almost a year before the Daemoni knew anything.'
Mom didn't answer at first. She pursed her lips and stared at the concrete wall for several moments. 'Remember how I knew Tristan was close before you ever brought him to the store?'
It only took a moment to understand. 'Owen didn't come to protect me from the Daemoni. He came to protect me from Tristan.'
Mom nodded. 'At the time, I thought you needed it.'
I chuckled darkly. 'And I thought you tried to set us up.'
Mom chuckled, too. 'Actually, I'll admit I thought he was a better choice for you. But I was obviously mistaken. That weekend I went away, I went to see Rina and she was still adamant the two of you belonged together. I guess I knew it all along somewhere in my heart. I didn't try as hard as I could have to convince you or Tristan to stay apart. Of course, my power wouldn't have worked anyway. It can't be used to change what's meant to be.'
'I do not know why you tried so hard to prevent it, Sophia,' Rina said. 'But at least it brought you to me for a personal visit, after so many years of your absence.'
'You know we stayed away for Alexis's good,' Mom said. 'But now it looks like we will stay close. Today will not be the end.'
'No, it will not,' Rina murmured.
Thick silence filled the small room.
'So why didn't the Daemoni bother us all those years?' I asked Mom to keep the conversation going. I needed a distraction.
She shrugged. 'They don't fare well with me and they gave up coming near me.'
'Why?'
'Tristan isn't the only one I brought over to the Amadis. In fact, Lucas is the only one I didn't convert, given the opportunity.' Despair colored her tone. For some reason, she still grieved over him. I hadn't realized the extent of her power of persuasion—or why she had been given that gift.
'We moved so much for many reasons,' she continued. 'We wouldn't have been able to stay in one place for too long anyway—people would notice I don't age. But that never became an issue. Sometimes, it was just because of who we are—like when you fell off the slide when you were in kindergarten and the cuts that should've needed stitches healed on their own, or the fleabag who tried to molest you and I nearly killed him, or the boy you sent sailing across the yard. Other times, though, you're right, it was the men.'
'I never understood that. How come you always left them?'
