Whispers

Battles

After the ambulance drove away and the police began dispersing the crowd, Lucius insisted on walking Karina home. She accepted his offer without question like everything was back to normal. Like she didn’t almost lose her life that night. Lucius flinched at the thought. He suspected Karina of putting on a brave face. He wished she didn’t.

Instead, he focused on compiling a mental list of what he had to do once he was sure she was safe inside her room. Hunting down the whisperer who wanted Karina dead took top priority. He didn’t believe for a second that Karina considered taking her life. She wasn’t that kind of girl. But a part of his mind also juggled the possibility. He couldn’t help himself. It was an occupational hazard. Most people who took their lives didn’t fit the profile, leaving their family members baffled in the end. Maybe he was just, as Tomas said, in denial.

“What time is it?” Karina asked after about a block of silence.

Lucius glanced up at the sky. “Around 12:30 give or take a couple of minutes.”

“You can tell all of that just by looking up at the stars?”

“Yes.”

Karina rubbed at her forehead. Her mask slipped a little. From the time they left the accident site to that moment, Lucius wondered how long she could keep up the pretence of small talk. From what she said next, not long at all.

“I don’t get what happened to me. I remember going to sleep. Then, the next thing I know, I’m waking up in your arms. Do you mean I’ve been doing this every night?”

Lucius stopped abruptly and put his hands on her shoulders. “Karina, I know you’re freaked.”

She blinked. “I’m not.”

“No use denying it. But,” he interrupted before she could speak again, “will you promise to let me handle this? I can’t explain right now, but when I get all the answers, I promise I’ll tell you everything.”

Karina braved the distance between them and wrapped her arms around his waist. She looked up at him and said, “Thank you for keeping an eye on me, for saving me from that car.”

Lucius bent down until his forehead rested on her shoulder. He let himself feel a pinch of relief that he had gotten to her in time. She was safe; alive in his arms.

“How touching,” someone said from behind them.

Lucius’s muscles coiled as he lifted his head and turned to face who spoke. He eased Karina behind him. He felt her peek around his shoulder without leaving the cover his body provided.

“Janika,” he said, venom dripping his pronunciation of her name.

“I have to say, Lucius, you're slipping.” Janika sneered. “Who would have thought the whisperer with the most anal retentive personality when it comes to whispering would actually defy a job.”

Lucius’s eyes flashed. “Are you saying Karina was a job?”

“To think, I thought to make you my lover,” Janika said, ignoring Lucius’s question. “After this little fiasco,” she pointed at them, “it’s unlikely to happen now. A whisperer as powerful as you saving a pathetic human. How you have fallen, Lucius.”

“Lucius, who is she?” Karina asked from behind him.

“Kari—” Lucius began, but Janika cut him off.

“Little girl, I'm here to make sure you die today, so if I were you, I’d step away from behind him and come here. I can make sure it will be quick and painless.” Janika wriggled her finger at Karina.

“As if you'd get past me,” Lucius said.

“Lucius?”

He hated that fear made Karina’s voice tremble when she called his name. He wanted to take her into his arms and whisper that everything was going to be okay, that nothing would harm her when he was there. But he had to keep his attention on Janika. She was unpredictable at the best of times.

“So, how would you like to do this?” she asked. “Personally, I don't want to hurt you, Lucius—”

“Come now, Janika, you don't have to lie to me,” Lucius cut her off. He had to play her game if he wanted to save Karina. He hated the situation he was in, but . . .

She shrugged her bony shoulders. “Alright, I do want to hurt you. But it's beneath me.”

“Right.”

“Alright! Not beneath me.” She sighed like an unconcerned socialite caught stealing a necklace from a*****e. “So, where do you want to do this? I’ll give you that much. Your In Between or mine?”

Lucius grinned. “Mine.”

Janika disappeared.

“In Between? Lucius, what's going on?” Karina asked.

He faced her. Their gazes locked and loaded. “The In Between is a parallel plain where whisperers can settle disputes without affecting the human world.”

A knot surfaced on Karina’s brow. “Whisperers?”

Lucius gritted his teeth. “I know it’s too much information right now. When I get back from dealing with Janika, I will tell you all about who I am. But right now, I need you to go home.”

Determination replaced the confusion on Karina’s face. “I don’t get all of this, but that girl who looks like Madonna in drag seems really dangerous. You’re taking me with you to this In Between, wherever it is.”

Despite his overwhelming need to keep her safe, a smile lifted the corners of his lips. His brave Karina, ready to battle a hundred armies. Then, like a gray cloud covering the sun, he frowned.

“I don't know if I can fully protect you if you come with me.”

She framed his face with both her hands. “We're doing this together or not at all.”

“Okay,” Lucius said in resignation. He rationalized that if she was with him, he could make sure no one harm came to her. “Close your eyes and don’t open them until I say so.”

Karina did as she was told, and Lucius teleported them to his In Between. He wasn’t sure he wanted Karina to see his innermost self, but she might as well know what she was getting herself into.

“You can open your eyes now,” he said.

Karina gasped, her wide eyes taking in the bloody lake and stormy skies. Withered pines resemble gray skeleton fingers reaching up from the ground like corpses fighting their way out of a grave. The grass had dried to pus yellow and the air smelled of sulfur.

Janika leaned against one of the pines, filing her fingernails.

“A tad overdramatic, don't you think?” she said without looking up at them.

“Appropriate, if I do say so,” Lucius replied nonchalantly. “But if you want green meadows and hopping bunnies, I can oblige.”

“Don't treat me like a child, Lucius.” She glared at him, a rattler ready to strike.

Raising his hands as if she had a gun pointed at him, he shrugged. He hadn't had the chance to replenish his residual energy stores. He was coming into the fight severely underpowered.

“I'm bored. Let's get on with it,” Janika said. She held the nail file aloft and it morphed into a scythe. Its ivory staff resembled a unicorn’s horn. A giant pink bow, its ribbons curling to the ground, joined the staff to a wide, arched blade of midnight metal with blush floral etchings on its surface.

Lucius sobered. He stretched his hand out toward a still speechless Karina and encased her in a glass bubble. She fell to her knees as it levitated a foot off the ground.

“Lucius?” Her voice echoed within the sphere, sounding hollow to his ears.

“As long as you’re in there and I'm alive, she can't hurt you,” he said to her.

“Is that an invitation?” Janika twirled her scythe, first in front of her then behind her like a majorette at the head of a parade. “Because I'd be happy to oblige.”

Lucius made a fist. The black wood shaft of his scythe stretched out, ending at a silver stud and a transparent blue blade that resembled ice. Misty wisps rose from the flat of the blade with its holes of descending size from base to tip. He gave Karina one last assessing look. The worry on her beautiful face broke his heart. She had to stay alive, and he would do everything in his power to save her. He smiled at her reassuringly before focusing on Janika.

He widened his stance and waited. Janika did the same. A tense moment passed between them. Then, like a whip crack, they both pushed forward. Their collision produced a loud bang like a grenade exploding. Their blades rubbed against each other, screeching like nails on a chalkboard.

His mock battles with Desmond were nothing compared to what he faced with Janika. Her intent was clearly to kill. He felt it from the prickly aura surrounding her every time they were close enough.

He executed backflips away from Janika’s initial attack. His cat-like agility and predatory grace had him dancing circles around her. But Janika wasn’t all bark. She matched each step with counters of her own. He briefly wondered who she sparred against. The girl held her ground.

In a blink, they were back on opposite sides of the lakeshore. Janika swept the blade of her scythe over the grass and a slice of air hurled itself toward Lucius. He avoided it by leaping over the attack. A second and third followed which he dodged, not realizing a fourth came in their wake. It hit his hip, sending him plummeting from the sky like a wingless angel. He braced himself, but before he touched down, Janika hovered over him, slicing at his chest. A massive shockwave, like a bomb detonating, sent pines toppling over. The ground rippled.

The dust hadn't even settled when Lucius—face bloodied, clothes ripped, intense pain rippling through him—rushed Janika and landed a solid punch on her jaw, producing a sonic boom as she flew into the hillside. He quickly called upon thunder by raising his scythe, sending electric daggers Janika's way, further leveling the landscape.

Despite the ferocity of the attack, Lucius knew it wasn’t over.

He stumbled forward, using his scythe to keep him upright. Pain radiated everywhere on his body. He might have seriously underestimated Janika’s strength. And as if proving the truth in his thought, Janika walked out of the rubble, dusting off her skirt and top as if she merely slipped and gotten back up.

“Is that the best you can do? I’m a little disappointed,” she said, tossing her scythe from her left hand to her right. “I think you succeeded in annoying my dry cleaner.”

“Just getting warmed up.” Lucius wiped away the blood streaming over his eyes. He returned all his weight onto his legs despite the agony the action caused. He needed a plan; one that would hurt. Then it hit him.

“Good.” Janika licked her own blood off her bottom lip. “I’d hoped you'd give me a challenge. It's been awhile.” She charged—her blade aimed at Lucius's throat.

Lucius somersaulted several times, dodging every advance Janika made, which produced an annoyed shriek from her. She lunged and a tug-of-war ensued when their staffs locked together. Janika disentangled herself with a kick to Lucius's abdomen. Its force sent him slamming into a large pine, splintering the dead tree into toothpicks. Janika tapped the crystal stud at the base of her scythe on the water's edge and a foghorn blared. A tornado touched down from the stormy sky and it headed toward Lucius. The funnel engulfed him, whirling him around like a rag doll. He closed his eyes and teleported himself away from the tornado.

When he reappeared, Karina whimpered. Panic laced his every breath. He searched and found Janika standing outside the bubble protecting the girl he loved. He wasn’t afraid to admit it to himself now. He had known from the moment he saved her that night. He was in love with Karina Wilson and he would die before Janika could get her hands on her.

“That's right, girly, be afraid,” Janika poked the bubble with her forefinger. “I'm coming for you next. It shouldn't be long—” Her eyes widened, choking out blood.

Karina screamed.

Lucius pulled on his scythe, which he embedded between Janika's shoulders. It left a gaping hole in her chest, soaking her shirt crimson.

“I thought I told you to stay away from her,” he said in a harsh command.

“How?” Disbelief replaced Janika's previously cocky demeanor.

“I know a thing or two.” He snapped and the tornado Janika had summoned subsided. “You forget who my mentor is. My domain, my control.”

“And you forget who I am.” Janika plunged her hand into Lucius's stomach and twisted her wrist before yanking back, his blood like a red glove on her hand.

Lucius fell to his knees, covering the wound that bled like an angry volcano with his hand. Crimson streams leaked from between his fingers. Pain, like jagged rocks, sliced through him mercilessly.

“Lucius!” Karina cried out.

Ignoring her, Lucius drew a square in front of him and it opened a portal that connected to the holding area for souls at the Crossroads. It was time. He made a mental note to never leave his house without a full store of residual energy, recalling the time of his first encounter with Janika outside Dee’s office. He was pretty weak then too. He guessed he deserved having his ass handed to him on a silver platter for being careless both times.

“How dare you!” Janika yelled when she realized what he was doing.

“If I can’t beat you, I'm going to make sure you hurt for a long while.”

Lucius drew circular symbols in the air with shaking fingers. The wind that had calmed down when he’d destroyed the tornado picked up again. He only read about this procedure in one of the history books, and even then, it was a theory. No one really tested creating a vortex out of excessive residual energy. It was like the energy blast Travis had explained when they viewed Sasha’s body, but times a hundred.

“Lucius, what are you doing?” Karina asked, terror in every word.

Janika couldn't move, fighting against an unseen force. She cussed like a sailor returning from months at sea.

“This is where I bid you farewell,” he said.

Lucius turned to Karina, one hand on his wound, the other splayed over the souls, smoky tendrils seeping into his fingers. He had no choice. He had to send her back because there was no knowing what the consequences of the blast were. His heart broke at the fact that he might never see her again, or have the chance to tell her he loved her. But so long as she returned home safe, he would have fulfilled his promise to protect her.

Karina shook her head. “Whatever it is, I can't let you do it.”

“You don't have a choice.”

He closed his eyes and teleported Karina back to her house. He couldn't hold Janika in place any longer. Not that he needed to be reminded of his impending death by letting her go. He concentrated on funneling as much energy from the souls in the holding area as he dared. He severed his hold on her. She laughed like a maniac. Then she closed her eyes, and when they opened again, they were as black as a moonless night with a yellow slit running down the middle where the irises should be.

“You actually thought you can hold me?” She continued laughing—a cackle that reminded him of a bird in pain.

The advantage Lucius had of significantly reducing Janika’s powers because they battled in his domain dwindled. He wondered if adding lighting and thunder in the background as a counterpoint to her laughter would annoy her the way the sound of her voice scratched at his eardrums. It would certainly drown her out. But as tempting as pissing Janika off was, he couldn't afford to waste any of his energy anymore.

She began to advance again, scythe slashing inches from the ground. He used the staff of his scythe as a shield. He summoned another thunderbolt and aimed it at Janika. He panted, attempting to regain his increasingly elusive breaths. He blocked Janika's roundhouse kick with the blade of his scythe and countered with a punch to her solar plexus. She doubled back.

Lucius returned his concentration to siphoning energy from the souls. His heart fell when he realized what he suddenly faced. Janika had stopped fighting.

She released her scythe, where it floated in front of her. She spread her arms wide and tilted her face up. Her lips moved rapidly, murmuring in a language that sent tingles down Lucius's spine. He swallowed and redoubled his efforts in infusing residual energy into his body. At seventy-five percent capacity, it wouldn’t be enough. He needed more.

According to his calculations, he needed a hundred and fifty. Enough for an overload. The wound Janika had inflicted on his abdomen had healed as a result of his feeding, but it still left him weaker than he should have felt. He suspected poison, injected through her nails. She wasn’t above playing dirty.

The clouds parted and beams of light streamed down, igniting the blood lake. A rending, like paper being shredded, pierced Lucius’s ears. His heart pumped so hard, it hurt. He severed his link to the souls and clamped his hands together. Not enough. He hadn’t reached his target goal, but it would have to do. If only to damage her significantly that healing took time. He gathered the energy between his palms and parted them as the sphere he created expanded.

Janika opened her eyes, her summoning halted.

“Lucius!” she screeched. “How dare you try that on me?”

“Only because I think you're special.” Lucius sneered.

“Don’t be a fool!”

A vortex opened within the ball of energy he accumulated. It sucked everything in its path, including Janika. Despite her efforts to stand her ground, using her scythe as an anchor, the force pulling her forward triumphed. She screamed when she lost her footing, grabbing at her scythe, but it was too late. The hole swallowed her like quicksand, resulting in an explosion that engulfed Lucius in searing light and blinding heat.