Night World : Witchlight Chapter 3

Keller kneaded her head quickly.Nissa was standing there, cool and quiet as always, superstarness hand on her hip. Her short mink-colored pig wasnt scour ruffled her eyeb each, barely a shade or two darker, were steady. And she was safekeeping an ironwood fighting stick with a very sharp presentation up.Keller growled faintly in relief. You couldnt bespeak Nissa to be creative-her mind didnt work that way. unless on any question of logic, she was unbeatable, and she had nerves of ice. More important powerful now, she was a superb fighter.If you wish to p couch, why dont you try me? she suggested, and whipped the fighting stick somewhat expertly a a a couple of(prenominal)(prenominal) measure. It whistled in the air, traced a complicated figure, and terminate up casu eachy across her shoulder. accordingly she slowly extended the point toward the lamias throat.Yeah, and dont leave me out. This voice was husky and shaky but still grim. It came from scum bag the c ounter. Winnie was pulling herself up. She coughed once, then stood straight, facing the vampire.Energy, orange and pulsating, fl bed between her cupped hands. Witch power.Youre alive, Keller thought. She couldnt eradicate the flash of relief.The vampire looked from one girl to the other. then he glanced at Keller, who was lying on her side, feebly trying to stir her legs work. Her tail lashed furiously. perform on the other vampire shouted. He was staggering under the weight of the dragon, heading for the door. Lets get Azhdeha out of here. Hes the most important thing.The first vampire hesitated one instant, then whirled and plunged after his friend. Together, they hustled the dragon out into the m totally.Then they were gone.Keller gave one final gasping snarl and felt herself change. This time, it felt more like a snail falling out of a shell. Her claws dissolved, her tail withered, and she slumped into her human body. head Are you okay? Winnie came toward her, a little unst eadily.Keller raised her head, desolate hair falling on either side to the floor. She pushed herself up with her arms and looked around, fetching stock.The shop was quiet It was also a wreck. Winnies impact with the wall had knocked strike most of the decorative plates and clocks there. Kellers fight with the dragon had trashed a visual modality of the shelves.There were shattered Christmas ornaments everywhere, little glittering fragments of scarlet and holly green and princely purple. It was like being in a giant kaleidoscope.And outside, chaos was gathering. The entire fight had single taken rough five minutes, but all the time it had been going on, people had been running away from the shop and screaming. Keller had detect them she had simply filed them away in her mind as unimportant. There had been vigor she could do about them.Now, there were security souricers closing in, and someone had doubtless called the police.She pushed with her arms again and managed to stan d up.Nissa. It hurt her throat to speak. Wheres the car? right down there. Nissa pointed at the floor. Directly below us, parked outside the Mrs. palm cookie store.Okay. Lets get Diana out. Keller looked at the young girl with the shimmering hair who as yet hadnt spoken a single word. Can you walk?Iliana stared at her. She didnt say anything. Stunned and frightened, Keller guessed. Well, a lot had happened in the cobblers last few minutes.I know this all faces bizarre to you, and youre likely wondering who we are.Ill pardon everything. solely right now, we exact to get out of here. Okay?Iliana shrank a little, trembling.Not exactly a hero, Keller thought. Or quick on the uptake. Then she decided she was being unfair. This girl was the Witch Child she undoubtedly had unknown strengths.Come on, Galen express to Iliana gently. Shes right it isnt safe here.Iliana looked up at him earnestly. She projectmed about to agree. Then she gave a little shiver, shut her eyeball, and fain ted.Galen caught her as she fell.Keller stared.Shes too handsome to deal with this openhearted of stuff, Winnie state defensively. Violence and all. Its non the same as being chicken.It was at that exact moment that Keller could pinpoint her first substantive doubts about the new Wild Power. Galen looked down at the girl who lay in his arms like a broken lily. He looked at Keller.You take her well surround you and cover you, Keller said, cutting him off. She knew her hair was in complete disarray, a wild cyclone of black around her. Her sleek jump suit was torn and stained, and she was clutching her right shoulder, which still throbbed in agony. But she must become looked fairly commanding, because Galen didnt say a nonher word, well(p) nodded and started toward the door.Nissa led the way in front of him. Winnie and Keller fell in target. They were ready to fight, but when the security guards with walkie-talkies motto Nissa whirling her stick, they ski bindinged away. The o rdinary people, curious onlookers attracted by all the noise, not only backed away but ran. Lots of them screamed.Go, Keller said. Fast. Go.They made it to Mrs. field without anybody trying to stop them.A girl with a red proscenium wall flattened herself against a wall as they thrust their way behind the counter and into the sanctum full of industrial-sized ovens in the back. A gangly male child dropped a tray with a clang, and lumps of raw cookie dough scattered on the floor.And then they were bursting through the back entrance, and there was the car, a white limousine illegally parked at the curb. Nissa whipped out a key set up and pressed a button, and Keller heard the click of doors unlocking.Inside she said to Galen. He got in. Winnie ran around the car to get in the other side. Nissa slid into the drivers seat. Keller ducked in last and snapped, Go even as she slammed the door.Nissa floored it.The limousine shot forrard like a dolphin-just as a security truck sped up from the climb up. A police car appeared dead in front of them.Nissa was an handsome driver. The limo swerved with a squeal of tires and peeled out of another of the position lots exits. A second police car swung toward them as Nissa dodged traffic. This one had lights and sirens on. Nissa gunned the engine, and the limo surged forward again. A freeway on-ramp was ahead.Hang on, Nissa said briefly.They were passing the on-ramp-they were knightly it. No, they werent. At the last possible second, the limo screamed into a ninety-degree turn. Everyone inside was thrown around. Keller clenched her teeth as her wounded arm hit the window. Then they were shooting up the on-ramp and onto the freeway.With a little patter, cats paws of rain appeared on the windshield. Keller, aptness forward to look over Nissas shoulder, was happy. With icy rain and the low, gray fog, they probably wouldnt be chased by helicopter. The big limousine roared past the few other cars on the road and Winnie sat look out the rear window, murmuring a spell to confuse and delay any pursuit.We baffled them, Nissa said. Keller sat back and let out her intimation. For the first time since shed entered the mall, she allowed herself to unstuff minutely.We did it.At the same moment, Winnie turned. She pounded the backseat with a small, hard fist. We did it Keller-we got the Wild Power We Her voice trailed off as she saw Kellers face. And, uh I guess I disobeyed orders. Her pounding was self-conscious now she ducked her strawberry-blond head. Um, Im sorry, Boss.Youd better be, Keller said. She held Winnies gaze a moment, then said, You could surrender gotten yourself killed, witch-and for absolutely no good reason.Winnie grimaced. I know. I lost it. Im sorry. But she smiled timidly at Keller afterward. Kellers team knew how to read her.Sorry, too, Boss, Nissa said from the front seat. She colorful a glance at Keller from her mink-colored eyes. I wasnt supposed to leave the car.But you thought we might contain a little help, Keller said. She nodded, meeting Nissas eyes in the mirror. Im glad you did. The faintest flush of pleasure colored Nissas cheeks.Galen cleared his throat.Um, for the record, Im sorry, too. I didnt mean to charge in like that in the middle of your operation.Keller looked at him.He was smiling slightly, hesitantly, the way Winnie had. A nice smile. The corner of his spill the beans naturally quirked upward, giving him a hint of mischief in all but the most serious moments. His green-gold eyes were apologetic but hopeful.Yeah, who are you, guy rope? Winnie was feel him up and down, her dark lashes twinkling. Did troll Daybreak localize you? I thought we were on this mission alone.You were. I belong to Circle Daybreak, but they didnt send me. I just-well, I was outside the shop, and I couldnt just stand there His voice grumbled. The smile died, too. Youre really mad, arent you?he said to Keller.Mad? She took a slow breath. Im furious.He blinked. I dont-You stopped me. I could charter killed himHis gold-green eyes opened in shock and something like remembered pain. He was killing you.I know that, Keller snarled. It doesnt matterwhat happens to me. What matters is that now hes free. Dont you understand what he is?Winfrith was looking sober. I dont know. But he hit me with something powerful. Pure nil like what I use, but about a hundred times stronger.Hes a dragon, Keller said. She saw Nissas shoulders stiffen, but Winnie just shook her head, bewildered. A kind of shapeshifter that hasnt been around for about thirty thousand years.He can turn into a dragon?Keller didnt smile. No, of course not. Dont be silly. I dont know what he can do-but a dragon is what he is. Inside. Winnie suddenly looked queasy as this hit home. Keller turned back to Galen.And thats what you let loose on the knowledge domain. It was the only chance to kill him-nobody exit be able to take him by surprise like that again. Which means that everything he does after this is going to be your fault.Galen shut his eyes, looking dizzy. Im sorry. But when I saw you-I couldnt let you die.Im expendable. I dont know who you are, but Im willing to bet youre expendable. The only one here who isnt expendable is her. Keller jerked a thumb at Iliana, who lay in a pool of pale silver-gold hair on the seat beside Galen. And if you signify that dragon isnt going to come back and try to get her again, youre crazy. Id have died happy knowing that Id gotten rid of him.Galens eyes were open again, and Keller saw a flicker in them at the dont know who you are.But at the end, he said quietly, Im expendable. And Im sorry. I didnt thinkThats right You didnt And now the whole world is going to suffer.Galen shut up and sat back.And Keller felt odd. She wasnt sorry for slapping him down, she told herself. He deserved it.But his face was so pale now, and his expression was so bleak. As if hed not only understood everything shed said but spread out on it in his own mind. And the look of hurt in his eyes was virtually insupportable.Good, Keller told herself. But then she remembered the moment shed spent inside his mind. It had been a sunlit place, warm and open, without dark corners or shadowed crevasses. Now that would be gone forever. There was going to be a huge black fissure in it, full of horror and shame. A mark he would carry for the rest of his life.Well, welcome to the real world, Keller thought, and her throat tightened and hurt. She stared out the window angrily.See, its really important that we keep Iliana safe, Winfrith was saying quietly to Galen. He didnt ask why, and Keller had noticed before that he hadnt asked why Iliana wasnt expendable. But Winnie went on notice him anyway. Shes a Wild Power. You know about those?Who doesnt these days? He said it almost in a whisper.Well, most humans, for one thing. But shes not just a Wild Power shes the Witch Child. Somebody we witches have been expecting for centuries.The prophe cies say shes going to unite the shape-shifters and the witches. Shes going to marry the son of the initiatory House of the shapeshifters. And then the two races will be united, and all the shapeshifters will join Circle Daybreak, and well be able to hold off the end of the world at the millennium. Winnie finished out of breath. Then she cocked her strawberry-blond head. You dont seem surprised. Who are you, guy? You didnt really say before.Me? He was still looking into the distance. Im nobody, compared to you people. Then he gave a little wry smile that didnt authorise his eyes. Im expendable.Nissa caught Kellers eye in the rearview mirror, looking concerned. Keller just shrugged. Sure, Winnie was telling this expendable guy a lot. But it didnt matter. He wasnt on the resistance side and anyway, the enemy knew everything Winnie was saying. They had identified Iliana as the third Wild Power the dragon proved that. They wouldnt have sent him if they hadnt been sure.But still, it was time to get rid of this meddling boy. They certainly couldnt take him to the safe house where they were taking Iliana.Nobody tailing us? Keller said.Nissa shook her head. We lost them all miles ago.Youre sure?Dead certain.Okay. excise any exit, and well drop him off. She turned to Galen. I hope you can gravel your way home.I want to go with you.Sorry. We have important things to do. Keller didnt pick up to add, And youre not part of them. Look. Galen took a deep breath. His pale face was agonistical and exhausted, as if hed somehow lost three days sleep since hed gotten into the limo. And there was something end to desperation in his eyes. I need to go with you. I need to help, to try and make up for what I did. I need to make it right.You cant. Keller said it even more brusquely than she meant to. Youre not trained, and youre not complex in this. Youre no good.He gave her a look. It didnt disagree with anything shed said, but somehow, for just an instant, it made her fee l small. His greeny-gold eyes were just the opposite of the dragons opaque ones. Keller could see for miles in them, endless light-filled fathoms, and it was all despair. A sorrow so ample that it shook her. She knew it must be costing him a lot to show her that, to hold himself so open and vulnerable. But he kept looking at her steadily.You dont understand, he said quietly. I have to help you. I have to try, at least. I know Im not in your mannequin as a fighter. But I He hesitated. I didnt want to say this-At that moment, Iliana groaned and sat up.Or tried to. She didnt make it all the way. She put a hand to her head and started to fall off the seat. Galen calm her, putting an arm around her to keep her propped up.Are you all right? Keller asked. She leaned forward, trying to get a look at the girls face. Winnie was leaning forward, too, her expression eager.Howre you feeling? Youre not really hurt, are you? You just fainted from the shock.Diana looked around the limousine. She seemed utterly confused and disoriented.Keller was struck again by the girls unearthly beauty. This close, she looked like a flower, or maybe a girl made from flowers. She had peach-blossom skin and brumous iris-colored eyes. Her hair was like corn silk, fine and shimmering even in this dumb light. Her hands were small and graceful, fingers half curled like flower petals.Its much(prenominal) an honor to meet you, Winnie said, and her voice turned formal as she utter the traditional greeting of the witches. Unity, Daughter of Hellewise. Im Winfrith Arlin. She dimpled. But its really Arm-of-Lightning. My familys an old one, almost as old as yours.Diana stared at her. Then she stared at the back of Nissas mink-colored head. Then her eyes slid to Keller.Then she sucked in a deep breath and started screaming.