Read Online A Toiling Darkness by Jaliza Burwell - Free Book Online Page B

could
help. Kalen looked over his shoulder and took in the scene, his
body going on alert. Getting ready for business.
    “Please, help us,” the woman wheezed when
she was a couple of yards away. Her grey eyes were desperate,
pleading for Kalen’s help. And I knew without any thinking involved
that he would too. I was beginning to learn just who he was
exactly. A good guy. A real good guy—the kind that would run into a
burning building to risk his life for a child’s cat. His life for a
fricken cat. Inconceivable.
    I mentally sighed. This was just
inconvenient.
    Kalen grabbed her right arm and tugged her
into the tiny side street we were standing in front of. He didn’t
even think about it, just grabbed the woman and herded the two
refugees away. I followed behind as they went to the back of the
cafe, where there was a small ‘Employees Only’ parking lot with
only one car sitting there.
    “Please, they want to kill me,” she
pleaded.
    “They want to sacrifice her in a ritual to
get in touch with a very old soul,” the boy wheezed, keeping the
woman behind him. He was in his early twenties with moppy black
hair and a roundness of the inexperienced.
    “You mean let the soul possess her,” I said.
“You guys are necromancers.”
    “Please. Help us,” she pleaded, ignoring me
and trying to appeal to Kalen’s weak side. It worked.
    We heard muffled voices, Kalen stiffening up
as feet pounded against the asphalt. When they came to where the
side road opened up into the small parking lot, they spotted us off
to the side. One of them snickered.
    “Hiding behind a human?” the man in the lead
growled. He wore a big bushy black moustache I wanted to pull off,
and his hair was long and scraggly. Hygiene was not his top
priority in life.
    “Who are you?” Kalen asked, stepping between
the woman and her attackers. The boy with her stood beside him,
ready to fight for her. I just stood off to the side, watching it
all. As long as Kalen didn’t die, I could care less about what
happened. He was my ticket to his master.
    The guy jerked his head and the fight broke
out. No reason to delay the inevitable. Kalen took two of them,
including the leader, and the boy took the third one. Kalen moved
with deadly expertise, all his punches and kicks hitting his
target. He dodged as if dancing and his face was completely blank
as he went into his fighting place.
    I knew that place intimately. It’s a place
where emotions are nonexistence and all that matters is you and
your targets. You become numb to any pain, you ignore all
distractions as if they weren’t there, and you zone in on your
objective. I used to live in that place nearly every day. It can be
a very comfortable, safe place.
    When fighting among beings, one thing is
sure to always happen. Someone brings into the fight their magic.
It was the equivalent of bringing a gun to a knife fight. In this
case, when the boy was knocked out on the ground, the one he was
fighting stopped and knew they were losing. Kalen was a strong foe
to deal with. Stubborn too. He had one guy down on the ground and
the other barely on his feet.
    The man looked at Kalen and made a quick
decision. I was the distraction he needed to force Kalen out of his
fighting place. His lips moved soundlessly. The air grew cold and I
could feel a wind as it blew around the alley. Except it wasn’t a
wind. They were souls. The bastard was going to use souls to try
and harm me. Not that it would...but still. It was going to hurt
like a mo-fo.
    Ha, ha. Mo-fo. That one always makes me
smile.
    Oh right, souls. Mind back on track.
Check.
    Kalen noticed the change in the air too
because before I knew it, he was between me and the man casting the
little spell.
    “Move!” I yelled, already too late.
    Three things happened at once. The man threw
a blade at the same time as when he let go of the spell, sending
thousands of whispering souls straight towards us, and I misted in
front of Kalen, taken the brunt of