Book Two: New Beginning; Sequeal to Revelations - Chp 7

The moon was full, the air was dry and the sweat was slowly drying on my back. It was still 90 F as we came ashore from our ship in the city of Alexandria but the breeze from the ocean was a welcome relief. We all took different paths using different flights, airports and destinations to get across the Atlantic. The only thing that remained the same is we all boarded the same container ship in Barcelona.

The trip over took longer than anyone wanted but it had to be done to hide our movements as much as possible. I hated being separated from Melody and Jessica but it was a must. They were both part of the second wave and would be coming ashore in one hour after the first wave set off for the Demon's lair.

Three hundred men and one woman were now moving south to one of many ancient Coptic ruins scattered around Egypt. Unbeknownst to modern archeologists, the tomb we are heading to is one of the largest underground locations that is hidden by a serious of modern structures on the surface, one of them a private compound. The underground temple and ruins was once a sacred site, but has been desecrated by the blood of innocents.

The private compound is where the Demon's armies are gathering. It is only a public view of who lives in this desert hellhole! The ancestors have been able to tell us their numbers are double than what is seen on the surface. The Demon and her Elite warriors are bunkered down under the earth hidden from all view and any type of modern detective devices. She's been sacrificing dozens of humans over the last few days trying to strengthen her army. She knows we are coming, but she does not know when or how many of us are coming.

We were cloaked by the shadows of the night and of our own magic as we rode the wind and followed the scent of blood to the Demon's door. The promise of death rode along with us and every long lost ancestor spirited us through the dark. Their silver mist forms weaved in and around us.

I was on top of a black beauty Arabian mare whose hooves silently rained down on the compacted sand. Her black mane and tail billowed like a sail behind her, as did my own dark hair. My own skin and eyes blazed as they lit up the night guiding our men like a beacon in a storm. The Sword of Truth grew brighter as our destination neared. Erik rode like death's angel on my left and Kevin was on my right. Their faces had transformed into the warriors that they were.

The stucco sand walls of the compound appeared on the horizon and we drove our horses harder. Their ears pricked as they felt the disturbance in the air as we approached closer. The compound was cloaked hiding the enemies. Only the structures were visible but I could feel their presence and their magic.

I sent a blue fireball out at the solid wood doors before we got within a hundred yards of the compound. It exploded and caught the wood on fire. "Knock knock," I whispered.

Kevin laughed a dark laugh beside me. "Take it down, Sarah," Erik commanded.

I sent two more blasts at the door then I sent a sonic wave of air that blew the weakened door inward. Their cloak dropped and their army started pouring out of the compound.

"That's better. Come and play little minions," Kevin said before he launched himself off his horse and landed in the middle of five minions. These poor fools weren't prepared for anything close to what we were bringing through their doors and Kevin cut them down in minutes.

Erik and I continued to ride past the first wave of minions and rode into the center of the compound where their next wave of men were trying to hide in the shadows and behind closed doors. I sent quick fire blasts around the compound catching anything that could burn on fire then we turned and hightailed it back out of the door.

And exactly as we planned, they chased us back outside where we could easily cut them down. Once they were outside, Arthur filled the courtyard of the compound with a dark cloud filled with solid lightening, blocking in any new waves of the Demon's army from entering the courtyard and adding to their numbers.

We dismounted from our horses and joined the battle outside. These minions had basic fighting skills but none of them had powers. They were her slaves and their only strength was the shear number of them. We would take too many casualties if we had to fight her entire minion army in one giant wave, so the plan was to control how many and when we fought them. We may be on her land, but we were going to maintain control.

I ran into the center of a group of minions who had taken Adrian off guard and twirled faster than they could see while my sword sliced through them.

"Thanks," he said and I helped him to his feet after the minions laid in a pooling of blood at our feet.

"We have each other's back. That's what we do." I winked at him then turned and launched myself into another group of men. He chuckled a dark laugh then turned his hardened gaze in the opposite direction.

By the time we had dropped the minions outside the door we saw our second wave of reinforcements on the horizon. Arthur had successfully held off the Demon's next wave of minions but it cost Arthur a great deal of energy. She had sent one of her elites outside to try to fight against him. But Arthur just grew the size of his menacing cloud driving the Elite warrior back inside.

"The second wave is almost here. When they are in place then drop your barrier and get the hell out of here. They will be on your ass in seconds," Erik commanded Arthur.

"This impressive horse rides like the wind. He'll get me out," Arthur assured Erik.

We turned as the sound of thundering horses filled the night air and watched our brothers and sisters race to join us. The first wave of fighters were now standing in formation ready for our next round of battle. As we planned, any injured man would kneel so Jessica could easily identify them. We only had twenty-five men who needed healing. The rest of us only carried minor cuts and bruises.

Jessica jumped from her horse and raced across the battlefield healing our men. Melody joined her and healed along with her. I was proud of them. Not once did they look twice at slain bodies. They just stepped over them as they moved across the blood soaked sand. When the last of our men where healed, Jessica retreated to the far edge of the second wave and remounted her horse.

When the second wave was in position and they were grouped with their partners, Erik called out for Arthur to release the barrier. I rose into the sky and prepared to blast the enemy. Derrick and Michaela stood hand in hand with Melody and were going to send and invisible wave of lava into the compound.

When Arthur released his barrier, he raced his horse to the back of the second wave to stand guard over Jessica. This would give him time to rest and keep our healer protected.

"Now," Erik yelled to Derrick, Michaela and Melody.

A sudden wall of lava burst out of the dark night sky and over took a group of about twenty men. The screams were awful as they burned and melted in front of us. I gritted my teeth and filled my hands will blue balls of fire.

As the next group of men came through the doors lightening from Ben and Sean started raining down in the courtyard. I sent balls of fire at the men who escaped through the front door. Tim started pelting balls of ice at others. Troy shook the earth and started crumbling the walls of the compound. Nicole started growing vines that snaked through the compound and strangled anyone they met.

The dark night was filled with streaks of blue fire, white lightening and red lava as we demolished the outer compound and any remaining armies that were above ground. Sonic blasts of sound knocked over the last of the walls and we all fell back into formation as we waited for the Demon's next move.

The night fell silent as we watched the compound burn and the smoke grew thick covering the light from the moon above us. We stood motionless for thirty minutes without so much as a whisper of the wind to fill the night with its sound.

"She is dividing her army and bringing half of them out 300 yards to the West while a after wave hits us from the ruins of the compound." The ancestors spoke to Erik through me.

"Our third wave is on the horizon. It's time to circle up." Erik called out. The word was past along to all of our men and women and we all fell into the circular formation.

I watched as our third wave joined us and fell into the very center of the circle. This is the round of fighting that I knew would cause us to finally lose some of our own people. The Demon was sending her Elite warriors after us now that we've destroyed her minions who were nothing more than human slaves. She would not show her face yet. She is going to hide in her lair and wait for us to come to her, but before we can do that, we must wage war against her real army, not the decoys she sent to toy with us to give us a false sense of security, pride and inflated egos.

We warned our people repeatedly over the last few days when we prepared for this war. We discussed the psychic battle that we would all be facing as well. This was not just a physical battle. It was also a battle of the mind. Only the strong minded and quick witted are going to survive this night. If you begin to think you are invincible and let the enemy play wounded then that is when they will turn back around and strike you in the jugular. We cannot fall for any of the games or mind tricks.

For me, she is going to use my mother and father against me. If she captures my loved ones, then she will use them to get to me. She knows my weakness, but she knows that I know hers as well. Yes, I will lay down my life to save my loved ones, but tonight I have no plans on dying. Tonight I plan to drive this sword through her chest before I remove her head from her shoulders.

I have replayed every nightmare scene in my head over the last few days to grow numb to her tactics and games. I know exactly how she killed my mother and she will not use that memory against me. I know how my mother protected and saved me from her. Luiciana was not able to enter the chambers under our house because my mother had enough power to seal the door. She melted the metal hinges and locked me inside. Luiciana did not have enough time to take down the door.

My father trained as a protector so he could protect me. The Elders refused to provide a protector for me because they were unaware of the full danger on my life and they did not know who my mother really was or who I was really meant to become. But my father knew, so he protected me. He taught me the song that would summon the ancestors. It was the legacy that I had to learn and he made sure I had it memorized by the time I was two.

Luiciana had my father killed so she could get to me. She manipulated Laurence into helping her. She knew he had a dark heart just like she did, so she had him give her inside information of the counsel. He was not willing to kill me or turn me over to her because I was his leverage over her and his ticket into being an Elder.

After my father was killed, and Laurence was promoted to an Elder, he had full reign to do as he pleased. He tried burying the truth of his half sister Luiciana but Luiciana would not go under ground. She wanted power just like Laurence wanted power. Soon she had killed too many people and eventually her true identity was revealed. As soon as the connection was made, Laurence claimed he did not know he had a half-sister, but the rest of the Elders insisted I get assigned a protector. Since only the Elders knew where I went to school they allowed me freedom when I was away at school but when I was home I was to remain under Erik's protection. Erik knew there was a threat against my life, but he was not informed who the threat was.

But Luiciana had left her calling card years before that was hidden away in our attic. She left many traps throughout my home hoping to kill me, but her biggest memento, which was one of many that she left me, was within my mother's chest. She placed a photograph of herself standing with my mother and Uncle Laurence. She has the same dark hair and same general facial features as my mother but even as a child, you can see the evil that lives within her heart. She glared at the camera and kept space between herself and my mother. Body language tells you everything and she hated my mother. My mother was only two years younger than she was and Laurence was two years older than Luiciana.

My grandfather fathered her with a woman named, Margaret, who lived in Spain. The woman was a scholar and studied ancient religions. Luiciana was pampered and learned a great deal from her mother about ancient religions and the dark powers. Her mother warned her to stay away from the dark power and it's seductive pull, but Luiciana was too filled with hate and jealousy to ever listen to her mother's warnings. Instead, she listened to how she could build her powers and destroy everyone she thought of as an enemy.

She followed in her mother's studies and hid her real reason for her desire to learn. When she finally knew more than her mother and gained as much information as she could from her she set out on an archeological dig with her mother in tow to a never before discovered ancient Christian tomb and alter. Once they found the entrance to the underground chambers, her mother was busy documenting everything they found that she never saw the knife coming down into her chest.

Luiciana placed her mother on the alter then performed her first dark magic spell and called forth a pure dark evil, a real demon who once was a fallen angel cast out from heaven. She bound her still breathing mother and gagged her then offered her mother's power and soul to her new dark master. Luiciana carved open her mother's chest and removed her still beating heart. When she had finished her dark ritual, the tomb was forever desecrated and Luiciana was forever bound to her dark master.

Her dark master cannot step foot on earth, but he can manipulate his pets into doing his bidding. Luiciana is his only direct minion and his only link into our world. Once she dies, his power and hold that he has will be lost. Not only for my own vengeance, which is reason enough, but to stop an even greater evil, she must die tonight.

I whipped my head up when an orange glow started to light up the smoke filled skies. They were coming.