With a solemn nod of her head, her attention returned to the competition. I continued to watch her freckled face out of the corner of my watery eyes. Raquel had become important to me in more ways than I could count these last two years. She really was like a little sister. I didn’t want her to worry and I certainly didn’t want to leave her behind.
“Look.” She pointed down to the arena. “Ashley’s in the final battle against that chick from Australia. She’s got her work cut out for her.”
Sure enough, Ashley was climbing into the ring, her golden braid glistening in the afternoon sun. I groaned inside. If Ashley won, there would be no end to her bragging for the next few months—or even years. As much as I wanted my friend to win, I wasn’t looking forward to her gloating.
The round began to the raucous cheers of the crowd and I forgot my selfish complaints. This whole thing was such a great idea. The manor had been so dreadfully sullen lately, as if no one remembered how to have fun anymore. They needed a reason to pull it together. A reason to remember what life was about. The games would do just that.
I rested my chin on my knees and gazed down at the ring. Gabe was standing next to Noah Brown on the north side. The two of them seemed to be having a pleasant enough conversation, even shaking hands at one point. I smiled as I watched them. Although it was no question I would be rooting for Gabe, I had come to enjoy Noah’s friendship. He was certainly better company than some of the other newcomers.
As if on cue, Georgia came strutting around the ring and approached her son. The bile in my stomach jumped up my throat as I watched her kiss him on the cheek and pull him into a hug. Tensions had yet to calm between us. My solution was to avoid her at all costs and hers was to ignore my very existence. It was working out well for us, if not for my father and Gabe.
A prickling feeling began on the back of my neck as the round continued. I swatted the sensation away, rubbing the muscles with the pads of my fingers. Still, it continued to grow until all the little goose pimples on my arms stood at attention, sending shivers down my spine.
“Raquel...” I swallowed hard. “Do you feel something?”
She looked up at me, her mouth slightly open. “What do you mean?”
“I feel...” A twinge, more intense than all the others, jolted my stomach. I sprung to my feet and glanced wildly around. “Something’s going on. We need to check it out.”
“We’re in the middle of the last round and Ashley is losing.” She pointed to the ring. Ashley had just been tossed to the ground and was scrambling to her feet. “We can’t miss this.”
Ignoring the match, I looked back over my shoulder at the mansion. It had been practically abandoned due to the excitement of the warrior competition. No curtain stirred. As I continued to watch for movement, something caught my eye in the forest just to the east. It was a man, tall and lanky, standing on the edge of the grassy expanse. Soon, another person joined him, this one a woman. And then another, and another, until a line twenty strong stood shoulder to shoulder looking in, their eyes trained on the mansion.
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“Raquel.” My voice faltered as I stood.
“What?” She kept her gaze focused on the match.
“Look.” I reached down and turned her head toward the invaders. With a shaky hand, I pointed. “Are those ferals?”
With a quick intake of breath, she stood next to me, her jaw dropping. “What are they doing here? We killed them all.”
Panic began to course through my veins as the first feral stepped across the invisible barrier of the manor. The defenses were down and there was no telling how many more ferals hid in the woods. The only weapon I had was a small dagger I’d taken to hiding in my left boot. Certainly not enough to take on a small contingent of demons. Still, it was more than most of the Nephilim gathered outside. Most of them were completely unprepared.
“We have to sound the alarm!” I shouted.
My feet pulled me forward, before I even got a confirmation from Raquel. There was no way I’d be able to get anyone’s attention over the noise of the crowd. They were too far away. Our only chance was to sound the alarm. The very alarm that was tucked away inside the manor.
Gritting my teeth, I shot forward with all the speed my body would allow. I could only hope that I would reach it before the ferals. With so many people sitting clueless in the stands, they’d be sitting ducks for an attack.
We couldn’t lose anyone today. Not again.
Chapter Ten
I made it into the Manor with just moments to spare. The ferals were hot on my tail. Yanking open the door, I sprinted inside. A figure ran next to me. I tensed and reached for my dagger, only to breathe a sigh of relief when I recognized Raquel’s lithe form.
We were in this together. We had to reach the alarm.
“Go on ahead,” she yelled as ferals began to pour in the door behind us.
I hesitated for only a moment. As much as I wanted to help her fight, our number one priority had to be in alerting the rest of the Nephilim. Plus, it wouldn’t help to have another one of my demon attacks. Praying that she didn’t get overwhelmed, I continued my spree up a side staircase and onto the second floor administration hall.
Luke had shown me the alarm once before during our father-daughter sessions. It was housed in a little room only a few doors down from his office. In many ways, the Nephilim had maintained mostly ancient methods of fighting and fortifying their home, but the alarm was one of their first forays into the modern world. It blasted through the hundred or so speakers wired across the property, sure to wake anyone up from the deepest of sleeps. The last time it rang out was when a feral army invaded the manor grounds last summer and killed many of our friends. The memory was burned in my mind, a reminder of the depravity of demons and their never-ending thirst for violence.
The sounds of fighting broke out not far behind me. Raquel’s shouts of victory were music to my ears as I raced down the hall. If I remembered correctly, it was the tenth door on the right. An unassuming door, easily mistaken for a janitor’s closet. It was just within my reach.
A hand clasped my wrist and spun me around. Before me stood a man of average height with a black beard and eerie red eyes. He jeered and reached for my arm again, moving with inhuman speed. A feral.