At the back of the group, a short guy with black hair stood by himself. I think his name was Tim something. The shadow-wraiths swirled around him. I had my target. With my mind I reached out to Tim, and two dark hands emerged from the shadows, wrapping their black fingers around his forehead.
In my head, I gave him a command. Come up here and pick this lock.
Tim’s body jerked, but he walked toward the doors with stiff, robotic movements. Without asking, he pulled a bobby pin from Shanda’s hair.
“Ouch.” She screeched, shoving him in the shoulder.
But her push didn’t seem to faze Tim. He just ignored her, sliding the bobby pin into the lock as the wraiths of darkness moved his hands. A minute later, the doors popped open like magic.
“Good job, Tim,” someone yelled out.
Tim held out the bobby pin to Shanda, a vacant expression on his face.
“Thanks, I guess.” She folded the bobby pin and stuck it back in her hair. “Is this what you were talking about?”
I swallowed back the bile rising in my throat. “I’m guessing this is only the beginning.”
The rest of the group marched into the library, with Shanda and me rushing to catch up. But Tim’s feet refused to budge.
“C’mon Tim.” As soon as I motioned for him to follow, Tim finally walked into the library, always ten feet behind me.
A strange feeling trickled down my spine, like a dozen bugs were crawling along my back. My dinner curdled in my stomach. I couldn’t take much more of this dark power wielding. It was definitely the creepiest thing I’d ever done.
Bluurgh, blurrgh, blurgh. The siren hammered my ears, echoing up every aisle.
“Great, you set off the alarm.” Shanda pointed at my feet. Sure enough, a red laser dotted the ankle of my black pants.
In a mad dash, the group herded back toward the front door. Someone called out in the crowd, “Wait.”
Two dozen feet halted.
Tim pushed past me and typed some buttons on the keypad. Suddenly the beeping stopped, and we all just stared at him.
“Did I do good?” His once robotic face had puppy-dog written all over it.
“Yes, that was good.” I gave him one slight nod. “Let’s find this Nexis book.”
“Now it’s your turn to follow my lead.” Shanda hissed in my ear, then turned to the initiates and raised her voice. “Everyone fan out to different stacks and look for the book. It’s probably really old.” She waved her arms like a flight attendant and everyone scurried off in all directions.
“Good thinking. Way to take the heat off of me and Tim here.” Was it bad that I wanted to reach out and pat his head? Yeah, controlling real live people was definitely way too creepy.
“If it’s really old, the book is probably in the ancient mythology section. Over there.” Tim waved us over to the back corner.
“Show us.” I snatched Shanda’s arm, following him until we reached the glass doors of the back section. Covered in shadows, of course.
Tim pressed some buttons on the keypad lock, and the doors opened. No glass shattering tonight. There really was no turning back, not now. I had to see this through if Shanda and I had any prayer of not getting caught. I inched my way into the dark room.
Pungent odors of old leather and aged parchment clung to the air. Every shelf was made of the same cedar wood as the chapel library. How were we going to get out of this one in ten minutes? More like eight now. I couldn’t think for two anymore. I needed my full brain back. Closing my eyes, I released my hold on Tim. He exhaled the biggest sigh of relief. When I opened my eyes, the dark powers left him in one huge breath. He looked with vacant eyes, a daze expression on his face.
“You check this aisle. I’ll check the back row.” I gave him a reassuring smile, hoping the mind-control-free instructions would help his mind function again.
Maybe I had one more trick up my sleeve. Couldn’t the dark Seer powers lead me to things? If so, time to test out my theory.
Shadow wraiths, where is the book we seek? Tendrils of smoke hissed past my feet, climbing up the shelf to my right.
I tiptoed down the row, holding up my cell phone for light. I followed the skinny black wraith, running my fingers across every spine until something pricked my middle finger.
“Ouch.” My finger throbbed its own little heartbeat as drops of blood hit the carpet. I pressed my thumb against the wound.
“Where’d that come from?” With my left hand, I wrangled the book off its shelf. Caramel leather bound together the rough-edged parchment, an embossed seal in the center. I touched the metal lines raised in a symbol I could’ve sworn I’d seen before, an angry-eyebrowed jack-o-lantern with a mouthful of fangs. The metal burned my fingertips.
A distant thud crashed around in the dark. Something smashed down on my foot, crushing my big toe. In my mind, I released the shadow tendrils. The dark shadows twisted into shades of gray and dissipated into thin air.
The dim colors of the library returned to normal.
Heaving in a sigh of relief, I bent over to pick up the book. The pages fluttered in front of me, to a chapter on the Nexis Semigod Nations, the same name they used at the initiation. According to the author, the sect was actually a collection of clans across many countries, called Nexis Nations.
Nexilim, as they preferred to call themselves, believed that God used the flood to wipe out all the Nephilim because they had grown too powerful, almost god-like. These half-angel beings were so powerful they ruled humanity. A drawing in the book depicted a figure with broad shoulders standing a full head and shoulders higher than any man.
The Nexis
