Shadow Guardians: The Promised
Chapter 22

Uriah didn’t have much of an idea of what was going on behind him. She’d only carved out the outer trees, keeping a defensive line around herself and what was left of the servant’s cabin.

Which was nothing but loose planks floating in the air.

A pine whirled towards him, and he brought up his right forearm, sending it ricocheting in the opposite direction.

Up ahead, he recognized Mari, between the floating planks, levitating two feet off the floor herself.

She seemed static in the air, which must have been the greatest illusion of all time, considering what was happening around him. There was no emotion at all on her face.

He paused to catch his breath. Through their bond, he could feel her weakening and something more threatening than that. Gods, look what they had done to her... Wrath skyrocketed in him. And in her. Uriah frowned. Was he influencing her?

“Hey Nancy!”

Uriah’s spine straightened. And he slowly turned around, facing the very unfortunate soul who dared come in his way.

Rip seemed out of breath but charged toward him with a sword and a smirk on his mug.

As he brought the blade down, Uriah caught it between his palms. It sliced into his flesh, but he was too hyped to care for the pain.

He ripped the sword from his hands and rammed him into a nearby tree.

After a grunt, that fucking sneer twisted Rip’s face again. “There are others, you know,” he choked out as Uriah had him by the windpipe. “So... many... you sent away. They’ll come for you.”

Rip’s knee connected with Uriah’s groin, springing a groan from him, and he reflexively released him.

But Uriah wasn’t the weak youngling anymore. For some sick reason, the pain was motivating.

Rip jumped for the fallen sword, but Uriah caught him by the ankle and dragged him back. They wrestled on the ground.

Rip had him on his back and punched him right in the jaw. “She feels nice, you know,” Rip mocked. “She let me feel her thigh, and if it weren’t for these assholes I worked for, I would’ve torn that sexy whore leather dress off her.”

And that was when he signed his death warrant.

Uriah’s eyes went wide, crazed. With a roar of unbridled wrath, he pushed his weight against Rip, slamming him to the ground, and he pounded his face until it was little more than bloodied pulp.

“I” Punch “Wish” Punch “You” Punch “Would” Punch “Disappear into hell!”

The ground beneath them shook as another fissure tore the earth open, mere feet from them, as if Mari had heard Uriah’s utterance.

Rip was still sneering, and it infuriated him so much that he tore his limbs off, one by one, as he had with the corrupted nosferi. With fangs as sharp as his blades, he shredded Rip’s jugular. Blood spewed all over his face; he looked like a rabid caveman.

He dragged the hunk of flesh that was left of Rip and the little consciousness in it towards the gorge and flung him right into it, watching as he fell down into the darkness from the edge.

“There are more coming!” Ophelia yelled to the others.

There was no break between demons and nosferi. A second of lost concentration could end your life. They were pouring out from behind every leaf, it seemed.

Zachiel launched his last three throwing stars at the creatures. He hadn’t had time to fetch them again before more appeared.

“Fuck, how many are there?!” Draven asked, spinning just in time to lacerate one right in the pie hole with his blade.

Suddenly, all the demons and nosferi seemed to stop, and they ran away from them towards Marionette.

The crew swiveled, thinking something bigger must’ve sent them off. Behind them appeared a male vampire wearing sunglasses. Leather-clad, keeping a casual stance with his hands in his pockets and a big grin on his face.

Zachiel frowned.

“Who’s that?” Arlena asked.

Ophelia sniffed the air, and her face dropped. “Oh, not this again.”

“Seriously?” Zachiel uttered. “Terronth? Do I even need to ask how you did this?”

More demons ran past them, shrieking in terror.

Terronth’s head went back as he laughed heartily.

Well, it was more of a cackle than a laugh.

Everyone stared at him in shock.

“Shit, did you hear that?” Draven asked. “That’s the most evil, sinister fucking laugh I’ve ever heard...”

“Are you sure that kid’s on our side?”

Zachiel and Ophelia looked at them and could only lift their shoulders.

“Been wondering that myself...” Ophelia admitted.

Torrenth observed his hand as it faded away. “Aw,” he pouted. “Out of time. See you all back home.”

Ophelia shook her head, and said the only thing she could think of. “Stay out of the ice cream drawer...” Maybe this would be the one and only time he would actually listen to her.

He threw his head back and laughed some more.

Okay, maybe not.

As Terronth faded, a demon came running toward him, too blind with panic to see where it was going.

A massive warhammer appeared in his hands.

Terronth gave one mighty swing, and the demon ashed just as he vanished.

Zachiel scanned the surroundings and finally saw the true number of enemies they were up against. “He’s rounded them up; they’re all going in towards her.”

“Well, then, so should we.”

They followed the terrified spawn, slicing them down as they went.

The gorge in the earth had closed back up, and Uriah heard the demons approach from all corners.

Through their bond, Draven let him know that they had about a hundred incoming.

Uriah raked fingers through his hair and pivoted, searching for solutions.

Then he remembered walking with Acheron and rubbing holy oil on the trees.

The idea came. He turned to look at Mari, and he wasn’t even sure if she could hear anything he said.

“Mari! The trees are blessed!” He yelled.

She seemed to understand what he was getting at because all around him, spear-sharp chunks of trunk broke free from the trees left standing.

Uriah’s eyes turned, and he could see them, see where they would emerge.

He didn’t have to say a thing; she saw with him.

The spears broke free from the trees and flew in all different directions.

“Get down on the ground!” He yelled into the forest and hoped they would listen.

For the next few minutes, he could see nothing but light erupting from various points in the forest as demons were struck.

He heard a beast roar somewhere near the river, though in victory and not pain.

Mari loosed a second round of makeshift spears.

And then all became very quiet. Uriah realized that she’d burned through the last drop of his blood.

Uprooted woodland fell from the sky in loud crashes to the ground.

The crew emerged unscathed, though dirty as hell.

Planks fell behind him, and Uriah turned and ran to Mari, who’d now sunk onto the floorboards—the only thing remaining of the cabin.

When he came to her, she was convulsing and struggling for breath.

“Oh no, no, no... not here...” But there was nothing he could do to stop her transition.

He kneeled by her side and held her, cradling her head in his arm as pain beset her. Her delicate face twisted in agony, and her head jerked to the side.

“You have to breathe, baby,” Uriah said, seeing she couldn’t take in a full breath.

And then he remembered his vision; just as her jerking stilled in his embrace, her eyes closed.

“No... no...” He held her tighter to him. “Please, beauty, don’t do this to me.” Uriah couldn’t keep the shake out of his voice.

Seeing she wasn’t responding, he pressed his ear to her chest.

Nothing.

Panicked, he laid her down, placed his flat palms on her chest, and started pumping.

He hadn’t noticed the others were behind him.

“Please,” he pleaded. “Please,”

He listened again, but still nothing. He continued pumping, maybe even hard enough to bruise her.

“No!” He yelled, furious and anguished at the same time. Tears rolled down his cheeks, and right now he couldn’t be bothered with who saw them. “Wake up, Mari. Come back to me.”

Everything he was felt like it was fading away with her; nothing in life mattered beyond her.

“Marionette! Wake up!” He broke down and slumped forward onto her chest, crying like a child while the world around him fell away into meaninglessness.

The overcast clouds opened a tiny amount, allowing a thin stream of sun to pass.

Uriah was too far gone to feel a presence by his side until she opened her mouth to speak.

“Sorry I’m late!”

His head snapped up, eyes teary and swollen.

“Amielle?” He asked, sounding as if he didn’t recognize her.

She kneeled quickly, threw her hair over her shoulder, and rubbed her hands together. “Would you lift her up a bit?”

He stared at her in heartbroken confusion.

“Hurry! Hurry!” She scolded, as if it were obvious. “Move it, Romeo!”

Uriah did as she asked, and Amielle’s hands started to glow.

She pressed both of them to Mari’s shoulder blades.

And while that was going on, Uriah finally caught on to what she had said. “You were late?! What? You were supposed to be here?”

“I was held up, okay? Now be quiet, I’m concentrating.”

He bit his cheek.

Mari gasped in his arms as her heart started again, and he startled, gaping at her in shock.

For a small moment, she seemed almost peaceful, like she’d just woken up. And then the convulsions started again.

The first of her bones snapped, and she screamed, throwing her arms around his neck and pulling him down.

“I swear I’m keeping a grudge for a century, Amielle,” he ground out.

Amielle smiled and lifted a shoulder. “That’s okay, I have a century. She’ll be fine now; I’ve pumped enough power into her to make it through. I have to leave.” She glanced up at the closing clouds.

“Wait, you can’t...”

“She’ll be fine! I promise! Just let her feed when she’s able.”

The opening in the clouds vanished, and so did Amielle.

“Goddamnit,” Uriah muttered, holding Mari tightly while she shuddered in his arms.

The others took seats on fallen trees near the ruins of the cabin. And Magnus and Katherine emerged through what was left of the forest.

Draven and Zachiel raised eyebrows, seeing he was walking upright, albeit with difficulty, and Katherine helping him.

“How are you not a boneless lump of pain?” Zachiel asked.

“Had a visit from an angel,” Magnus answered, sinking down onto a fallen tree. “She even brought me clothes.” He winked at Z, who sighed.

“I tried,” Zachiel said.

“Guess now we wait. It’s kind of peaceful here when the spawns of hell aren’t tearing the place up.” Katherine said. “Maybe she can put them all back in the way she took them out.”

They sat there, making idle conversation filthy and bloody, while Mari whimpered and occasionally screamed in Uriah’s arms.

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