The Beholder (16 page)

“Of course,” Emily said, frowning accusingly at Jason. “Seems I can’t control him anymore.”

Tyler gave a little snort. “Huh,” he said, almost to himself. “And yet he’s still sane.” He turned to Jason. “Are you sane?”

“I’m not really sure,” he replied, smiling ruefully.

He staggered towards a window and peered outside. As he’d thought, Emily had brought them to the top of a very high building, and now he looked down on the city. “Then again, I’ve questioned my sanity for a while now.” 

In the past, Jason had watched movies of adventure, some of which were based around the end of the world. He’d never imagined he’d actually see that kind of picture in real life. But the New York he saw now was the perfect setting for such a movie. The skyscrapers stood in a broken line, some of them crumbling to the ground as he watched, forming clouds of thick white dust. Others still stood, but their windows were smashed and roofs had gone missing, as if the city had been neglected and uninhabited for a hundred years.

The sight made him angry, as did all the mystery behind it. “Can anyone tell me what’s going on?”

Tyler sighed. “They used one of the weapons in their arsenal,” he said. “Insanifictia. It’s one of the most ancient and most effective. It doesn’t even have to kill—”

“—because it turns an Unsighted person irreversibly insane,” Emily finished.

Jason spun towards his friends. “But they’re okay, aren’t they?”

“D’you think so?” Matt asked, still out of breath.

Emily nodded. “Yes, don’t worry. They’re all right.”

“Why?” Jason asked, staring at Matt and Debbie. “Why didn’t it—”

“—because I created a Fraud Energy Image around them,” Tyler explained.

Silence fell in the room as they each digested what had just happened. It was Emily who broke the quiet. “You’re getting stronger, Jason.”

He scowled, unconvinced. The last he’d noticed, she’d been carrying him around like a useless lump of black cloth.

“What was that flash over the ocean?” Matt asked.

Tyler joined Jason at the window, gazing sadly down at the devastation. “We killed one of them,” he said without turning around. “The intensity of light showed how much Energy was discharged into the outside world.”

Emily looked bothered by that. She wrung her hands and looked at the floor. Tyler hadn’t sounded particularly pleased, either.

“But that’s a good thing, right?” Debbie asked. “It can’t be bad.”

“The uncontrolled release of so much Energy,” Emily explained, “brings various forms of disaster. Especially in, let’s say, parts of the earth where there are rarified Energy zones.” She crossed her arms and started pacing the room. “It could be a tsunami, an earthquake, a deluge … anything. We’ll be lucky if no one gets killed. Thanks to Tyler, some of the explosion wave was extinguished, but—” She froze, all color draining from her beautiful face. “Oh no,” she whispered.

Tyler had paled as well, and his jaw was set. “I feel it too,” he said quietly. Jason shook his head, waiting for an explanation. “They set all their hunters free. And we’re trapped here.”

Dread crept through Jason, tingling in his hands and feet, making him dizzy. “All their hunters? That doesn’t sound good.”

Emily shook her head. “Pariah is furious. We crossed his path this time, and they are out to kill.” Emily sat beside Debbie and Matt on the couch, massaging her temples in little circles. “What are we going to do?”

“Aren’t they afraid someone will notice them?” Debbie asked hopefully.

Tyler scoffed, stepping away. “People don’t see this kind of Energy. Plus, their memory is easy to erase or modify.”

Jason leaned his forehead against the cool glass of the window, resting his hands on the dusty windowsill. He closed his eyes, listening to the quiet drumming of rain on the window. When he opened them again he realized it wasn’t just simple rain. A solid, slanted wall of water banged against the window, demanding entry. The skies wept, their tears sobbing in streams down the outward surface of the window. As if in agreement, the wind began wailing, and the window glass fogged around Jason’s face as the outside temperature fell.

Matthew and Debbie stood by Jason, their eyes reflecting the disasters they saw. Debbie opened her mouth to speak, then stopped.

A dark shape appeared in the air and hovered, darker than any storm cloud, studying the side of their building. When the shape reached the level of their window, it froze in mid-air and its blood red gaze stared into Jason’s eyes.

“Don’t move!” Emily whispered.

Five statues stood, barely breathing in the semi-dark. The room seemed dead. A second later the enemy soared away, and Tyler sighed.

“That was close! Next time we may not be so lucky.”

“Didn’t he see us?” Matt asked.

Emily and Tyler glanced at each other, then Emily smiled weakly. “Nope,” she said. “This apartment is hidden in the same way the estate is. Instead of us, the Darksighted saw a Fraud Energy Pattern of a middle-aged couple and their dog. Tyler’s idea.”

But Jason wasn’t convinced. He was positive the hunter had been staring directly at him. Every instinct in him screamed,
“Get out of here! Pariah is coming!”

He turned from the window. “We need to get out of here. Pariah is close!”

Four pairs of eyes stared at him. Debbie shook her head, looking like the last thing she wanted was to go on the move again. “Jason, the hunter didn’t see us,” she said. “He’s gone.”

“Yes,” Jason agreed, speaking slowly, knowing to the marrow of his bones that he was right. “For now. He’s gone to alert all the others that we’re here. They will be here in less than a minute.”

Emily collapsed to the floor with a gasp of pain, and Jason lunged forward to catch her, but Tyler stopped him just in time. As her lips moved, golden words started writing themselves around her, carving letters into the floor and onto the walls.

Darkness descends to eclipse the Light

Death will take the lives of many, sparing no one.

In deaths of the Doomed, Light shimmers:

The Light that will set the Beholder free.

A thick fall of hair hid her face as she spoke, and Jason watched helplessly, wishing he could stop her chanting, stop the torture he saw in her eyes. Instead, he nodded with grim satisfaction, knowing his words had been proven true.

“We need to get away from here,” he repeated slowly, trying to ignore the panic that roared through him. “They’re coming for us.”

Chapter 29

Emily recovered quickly, then she stared directly at Jason. “We’ll go by motorcycle, you and I.”

Jason frowned. The motorcycle again? Now that he knew they could fly, it seemed ridiculous to resort to slow, regular modes of transportation. But Emily’s expression was set.

“Okay. Where is it?” Jason asked.

Tyler grinned. “I parked it in the basement. Emily had a feeling we might need it.”

“What about us?” Debbie cried.

Emily glanced towards the window again, checking, then went around the room, folding up the black flying cloaks and goggles in case they were needed later. “Tyler will take you,” she told Debbie, stuffing everything into a bag she pulled from under the couch. “It’ll be less risky this way.”

“Where are we going?” Matt asked.

“McAlester’s. That’s our only chance,” replied Emily.

McAlester’s was a safe house then. That explained a lot. Why else would McAlester have hired a trio of little known designers to work on his beautiful restaurant? Slightly disillusioned, Jason realized they hadn’t just been brought in for their talent. Being in his building allowed McAlester to watch them and make sure they were out of danger.

Matt apparently reached the same conclusion. “So Mr. McAlester is one of you.” He smiled and shook his head. “I’m hardly even surprised about that.”

Tyler confirmed Matt’s theory with a smile and a slight nod.

“Amazing,” Jason whispered, then focused on Emily. “But the motorcycle isn’t fast enough if we want to outrun them.”
Ultrafast, yes, but only according to human criteria.

She shook her head once. “Believe me, we’ll make it. Right now it’s safer to ride a bike than fly, and you’ll need it again pretty soon anyway. Plus we need to save our Energy.” She blanched suddenly, then whispered, “They’re here!
Go!
”

The apartment shook as if it had been bombed, and the walls crumbled. Emily grabbed Jason by the sleeve, and the room vanished. They fell, plunging straight through the apartments below, but there was no evidence of any destruction as they broke through the floors. Evidently, the owners didn’t even see them. At one point, Jason thought he’d actually landed right on top of one of them, then fallen through the floor without the man even noticing. In what seemed like no time at all, they touched down on the floor of the cool basement. The motorcycle waited nearby, its smooth lines standing out against the dimness of the place.

Tyler held Debbie’s hand, standing to the side while Emily pushed Jason towards the bike. Jason caught a glimpse of Matt running in a different direction, but he didn’t have time to see where he’d gone. He threw himself onto the motorcycle, then waited for Emily’s reassuring grip around his waist.

“Key?”

Tyler tossed the key into his palm, and Jason switched on the ignition. The motorcycle growled with enthusiasm, and Jason’s mind filled with confidence. He was in his element again. The back wheel screeched and they shot towards the exit, roaring into the very heart of the worst storm New York had ever experienced.

Before they reached the outside, Emily yelled, “I scanned the streets. There’s no traffic outside. None at all. The Unsighted have all been removed. As soon as we get outside, the Legates are going to pursue us, so you better keep this baby moving.”

“But what about—”

“Just drive. I’ll take care of the rest.”

The motorcycle leaped from the basement and landed in a nightmare. Bolts of lightning carved through the blackness, possessing the city’s skies. The rain was a solid, gushing waterfall. As Emily had said, no one was in the street, and no traffic was stuck in the storm; the labyrinth of New York’s streets looked desolate and lifeless within the deluge.

They rode into the street and turned right. In five seconds the speedometer showed nearly a hundred miles per hour, but it seemed to Jason they were barely moving. The rain dragged him down, pulling at his heavy, wet clothing. If it hadn’t been for the endless forks of lightning, he wouldn’t have had any idea where he was going. It was as if he were driving blindfolded.
Must be nice to be able to see in the dark,
he mused, thinking of Emily. Streams of water got in his way, making riding even more difficult, and though he accelerated all the time, it seemed to make no difference.

Suddenly Emily’s hands released his waist, and the bike darted forward more easily, as if it were a stallion whose reins had been cut. The rush of water seemed no longer to be a problem, because the vehicle glided smoothly along the road between two completely separate streams that didn’t touch him. The dial hand switched to one hundred and thirty, and Jason glanced back at his passenger. Her hands were stretched to either side, her Energy aimed at the violent downpour.

Though it was easier to move now, the atmosphere grew more oppressive with each second. McAlester’s was still far, maybe a mile or two, and he should have been relieved that there were no hunters in sight. Strangely, that fact made him even more nervous. Where were they?

As quick as lightning, a vision flashed. It was short, but the picture was clear. Hundreds of hunters clung to the skyscrapers, like bats on tombstones, biding their time before they dined on their preys’ blood.

They are here, watching us.

Did Emily see them? Why were they just watching? Why hadn’t they attacked?

“Emily! The hunters are—”

Jason glanced back and saw to his horror that Emily no longer rode behind. He was alone on the motorcycle. Emily was above him, just ahead, performing elaborate maneuvers. As torrents of water tumbled over her, she shot upwards with a dizzying twisting movement, turning the rain into a spiraling foam. As he watched, she blocked the enemies’ hail of Energy blows and sent waves of her own blue sparks in response. The sky now swarmed with hunters, closing in around Emily. The impressive, intimidating army had been lurking in the dark, waiting to strike a lethal blow.

But Emily wasn’t easy to intimidate. She moved with quickness and grace, rising higher and rotating in the air like a figure skater. The sparks she threw hypnotized, creating a sight so spellbinding Jason didn’t want to look away.

Then, when it appeared she’d had enough, she froze, quickly absorbing all the Energy within reach. In the next instant, the air around her exploded like a supernova, and the hunters close to her were blown away.

When the sky blazed, Jason was brought out of his daze, and he remembered he was still moving tremendously fast. For a second he felt disoriented, realizing the speed was too high, but he swallowed the panic, steadied his hands, and kept going.

He figured the incredible light of Emily’s explosion would have been visible within several hundred miles, but there had probably been no witnesses to the splendor, other than the Sighted. The bright light lasted for half a minute at least, then died away, to be replaced by a veil of mauve. The nebula settled over the city, creating a perfect night sky with constellations of tiny stars embedded into it. Emily was an artist; heaven was her canvas.

It was still raining—though the deluge had dwindled to little more than a drizzle—but when Jason gazed into the sky, he no longer thought it beautiful. The hunters had reappeared: countless black, poisonous dots piercing Emily’s nebula. They approached on all sides, infuriated and thirsty for revenge.

It was time to get away. The engine roared, but he could go no faster. No matter how hard Jason tried to move away from the swarm of hunters, they were getting ever closer.

The sound of another engine came from behind, catching his attention. He recognized the purr of Debbie’s VW Beetle, and when he glanced back he saw Matt behind the wheel, Debbie in the passenger seat, and Tyler … standing on the shining hood. His long, fair hair flew in the wind, and his black leather cloak billowed over the roof of the car. He was staring at the sky, at Emily, the pallid skin of his face glowing with the mauve that inundated the night. His light gray eyes had changed, and now they somehow glowed a pale blue, like two opaque pieces of the moon. The mask of Tyler’s face twitched as he stared straight ahead into the distance, his expression changing to one of curiosity. Jason followed his gaze.

A fork of lightning—followed by a devastating peal of thunder—shook the skies and illuminated something massive standing far in the distance. At the sight of it, the hunters stopped in mid-air, as if an invisible glass dome prevented them from unleashing any further revenge.

Three silhouettes stood perfectly still in the middle of the dark road ahead of them, visible only when bolts of lightning slashed the skies. Their auras throbbed, radiating a dark, malevolent red that felt thick and powerful even at such a distance. Jason felt instantly sick, as if someone had dealt him a terrible blow to the stomach, and he braked to a stop.

Matt braked, too, and Tyler was carried forward by inertia. Instead of crashing to the ground, he controlled the slide and soared gracefully into the air, then landed gently on the ground.

Jason assumed the thunder came from the sky, but soon realized the noise came from the trio ahead. The moment his motorcycle stopped, the silhouettes stirred and began walking towards them. Emily landed between Jason and the Darksighted, blocking the path to what the Dark Ones sought. The distance between the two sides was shrinking, and the Dark Ones’ auras grew more tangible, vibrating through Jason’s body and making his left shoulder prickle with invisible needles. Jason looked towards the sky and saw the hunters still hadn’t moved. Some hovered above them, but many others had taken up posts on the skyscrapers where they appeared to be awaiting orders.

The most frightening thing about the three approaching figures was their calm and insidious manner. It was impossible to predict what might happen. Jason watched intently as the man in the middle stopped and raised his hands. The sleeves of his black robes tumbled loosely back, and fallen rainwater hissed into a froth at his feet.

“Emily Ethan,” he pronounced genially. “We meet again.”

Emily stiffened. “Alas, we do, Damien Bale. Perhaps someday I’ll kill you and spare you the trouble of crossing my path again.”

Damien’s eyes narrowed in disapproval, and he shook his head purposefully, his long black hair swaying from side to side. “I came here on Pariah’s order. You and your friend killed Erica Hamilton. Pariah demands an apology.”

That was a woman?
Jason wondered.

Jason didn’t see Emily’s face, but her voice was calm and steady. “She attacked, and we defended. They were sent to hunt and kill us. What should we apologize for? Saving our own lives?”

Again Damien shook his head. “Pariah sent the servants to hunt and kill
them
.” Damien raised his chin at first towards Jason, and then to the people in the car, his stare fixed longer than necessary on Debbie. A chill of revulsion slithered down Jason’s spine. “You got in our way, Emily. Could you be so kind to explain why?”

“You know perfectly well why,” Tyler burst out. “Give Pariah our warm regards. Funnily enough, we’re not inclined to stay here any longer.”

“Calm down, my friend.” Damien didn’t bother to look at Tyler, as he was apparently unimpressed by the outburst. “We won’t touch you. We require only one of your company in exchange for Erica’s life.” He sighed, overly dramatic, as he watched Emily. “She was an excellent fighter, wasn’t she?” The man’s expression hardened. “So now, Emily my dear, which one would you like to give up?”

Emily’s fists bunched at her sides. “We won’t give up anyone,” she hissed.

“You go too far,” Damien scolded. “You don’t want to anger the greatest Darksighted in history, do you? Come now. Just do as I tell you, then say farewell for a while.”

“You’ll have to kill us first,” Tyler spit.

“And me as well,” came a new voice.

William McAlester came from behind Jason, gave him a reassuring nod, then stepped to the front to stand beside Tyler and Emily. He no longer looked like the good-natured manager of McAlester’s Jason had known him to be. His expression was different, the lines hard and concentrated, as if carved from stone. As he passed, clad in a black sleeveless T-shirt and trousers, Jason swore he felt a breeze emanating from the big man.

“Ah! Look who’s here!” the girl to the right of Damien crowed.

Damien’s eyes flashed with recognition. “I’d hoped to never see you again.”

Calm and seemingly unafraid, Mr. McAlester nodded once. “Good evening, Catherine.”

He turned to Damien and addressed him in a cold, impersonal voice. “Take your people away from here. You cannot kill in this territory. No trespassing will be tolerated in the Guarded Road.”

The man on Damien’s left growled. “I hate to admit it, but he’s right. However, the Guarded Road rule is only valid for twenty-four hours.”

Damien hesitated, reluctant to leave. But he had no other options. “Fine.” He leaned closer to Emily, his burning red eyes flaring at her. “See you later,” he said, spitting on the road by her feet. Emily didn’t budge, and Damien grinned. “It doesn’t matter to me when we kill you. But here is your warning: you have one day. After that, we’ll be back. If you and your friends don’t show up, we’ll destroy New York and all its citizens.” He straightened and flared his nostrils as if scenting the air, then gave Emily a conspiratorial wink. “Don’t worry, dear Emily. The end is near.”