Guardians (Chosen Trilogy Book 2) by David Leadbeater Read Free Book Online Page A

sprawling. Then Cheyne was half a dozen steps away, her lips moving, her fingers waving in errant patterns like a child scrawling on a chalkboard.
    The ground underneath the demon became a wave. The thing pitched forward, landing face first. Cheyne looked like she was performing another spell that, by the pushing motions of her hands, might even bind it to the ground. My own power was pumpe d and ready to join with Johnny’s, but we held off, giving Cheyne the chance to end this quickly.
    We should have known better. The suited figure feigned a struggle then, when Cheyne started to push forward, rose quickly to its feet. A power wave shot out from its body, felling everything around and traveling vertically up the sides of the pit. I felt it pass me by and shoot up into the balmy night.
    Giles shouted, “Stop him!”
    Cleaver dived head first. The demon leaped over him. Johnny and I unleashed our own wave of power, funneling it so that it struck Asmodeus in the chest and knocked him to the ground. He landed atop two writhing bodies, making them cry out. Again Johnny and I struck—the power rising readily between us—and again Asmodeus wilted. I heard Johnny laugh. Probably not a very good idea.
    Then Cleaver hit the demon, smashing its already broken arm, and hurl ed the body over his shoulder. His shotgun appeared in two hands and he lined it up over his bended knee, finger already tightening on the trigger.
    “Say bye —”
    Asmodeus exploded into action so quickly he defied sight. The movement was so fast; so beyond the physical capabilities of the body he inhabited, it shredded skin. Cleaver hit the floor, shotgun pointed up toward the sky, and Asmodeus barreled into Cheyne. I flung my power in the demon’s direction, striking only the side of the sinkhole and dislodging a large chunk of masonry that tumbled end over end.
    Asmodeus was on his hands and knees, snarling up at us like a trapped, dangerous dog, only a million times more threatening.
    Lucy.
    I couldn’t help it. Her safety overrode all. I turned slightly, then felt something hit me. It was a train, or a car, surely not the man in the suit. My chest exploded in agony. I fell backward. Two feet planted themselves near my head and I stared up into dripping jaws and molten eyes.
    “As I said. Weak. Pathetic. Garbage.”
    Again, my body shuddered in nightmarish reaction. One of the boots lifted and I rolled out of the way just in time. I struggled to my knees. Behind Asmodeus I spotted Lucy. The demon had ignored her, disdainful, not realizing she was an elemental and one of the Chosen. I saw a dancing wall of water split into several flowing funnels as her eyes turned white. I saw Ethan’s fangs elongate at her side.
    Then Johnny flew past me.
    “No!”
    When I say flew , I mean it literally. His wheelchair had somehow been lifted into the air and propelled at terrible speed, high in the sky, fast becoming a speck. It was almost as if a bungee cord had somersaulted it up from the ground. Natalie screamed and ran forward. I stared helplessly.
    “No.”
    My heart skipped. I had a second to wonder if I might somehow save Johnny by calling up a cushion of air, a force-field or some damn thing, but then Lucy unleashed her water bomb and we were all smashed off our feet.
    Our companions made it over the edge of the sinkhole, back in to the fray.
    I coughed, tried to clear my eyes. The demon still stood, though was hunched over and dripping with water. I saw it send a regretful glance toward the members of Aegis climbing over the edge of the hole and then that terrible smile came back.
    From a jacket pocket it produced a tiny box, some kind of trinket box overlaid with emaciated scrawls. It looked ancient. It looked like an artefact.
    Damn! We were too late.
    “The end draws near ,” it hissed. “Prepare yourself.”
    It shot away, scrambling on all fours but traveling faster than a car, a nightmare vision of scurrying arms and legs dashing up the middle of