Imperial (Insight #8)(3)

Escorts pull energy, light, dark, both—energy is not their main course; it’s their only course of any real value, though. Skilled Escorts that had evolved through time could move through The Realm and find themselves in any period of time. When soldiers marched through this Cathedral, you could bet anything that an Escort was in tow, hoping that the mass would hide them long enough for them to seep through the cracks of The Fall, cracks that recently had allowed a few pure lights through. Well, a house, too, but that was forever ago. There was no telling where the war of light and dark was at this point. And I didn’t care.

I just wasn’t going to let any line past that Fall. Mine knew better, and the other seven had no right to pass as far as I was concerned.

“Bid you goodnight, Cowboy,” I said with a slight bow.

“Happy hunting, ladies,” he said with a pull of his pipe before leaning forward on the banister.

I offered Mazing a nod, then we both vanished from sight, only to manifest at the edge of the forest.

“Caramel,” Mazing said with disdain.

Every line had a distinct aroma to its energy. Ours was something like the smell of fresh, warm honey. Caramel belonged to the one line that had landed us here: Xavier’s. Mazing thought she and Xavier’s first in command had a fever, what we call a passion between Escorts. She was wrong about that. Very wrong. Disastrously wrong, in fact.

“Oh, I’m going to enjoy this,” she said under her breath as she rolled her neck and loosened her sleek shoulders.

No fury matched a woman that was scorned. I was all for a little action, but I could vow that caramel odor had a clean scent laced within it. One that brought back too many memories and killed any appetite I might have had. I’d let her feast first tonight.

We eased behind one of the large trees and stared into the darkness. For any Escort to make it this far, they had to be top level. Their energy was so powerful that nature would sway toward them, not by choice, but by the sheer pull of their essence.

I rubbed my hands together, feeling the chunks of salt that had settled there. I could almost see them. There were at least three approaching. At this point in the forest, you could see The Fall. I’m sure they thought they were home free, that a throne of their own was moments away. Wrong.

Mazing vanished in that instant. A second later, I heard a scream and saw black smoke rushing toward the sky. I vanished, too, and appeared right behind the strongest caramel scent of the three.

The Escort was at least six-three, almost a solid foot over me, and at least three times my width. The males were always built like warriors. Good for combat, not so awesome when it came to stealth maneuvers.

Before he even had a chance to sense me, I ran my arm through his back, easily piercing his flesh. He bellowed and fell to his knees as I gripped his soul. The salt was pure agony and left him powerless to retaliate in any form or shape. I could feel his energy pounding, seeping into his flesh, infecting his vessel with one of the most deadly emotions: fear.

“You’re a myth,” he breathed.

I leaned down, and next to his ear, after I let a sinful smile come to my lips, I whispered, “This myth,” I squeezed his soul, feeling his energy pulse against my skin, “is sending you back to The Realm.”

He exhaled, “Please.”

He knew that meant that his freedom to walk the Earth had now ended. That now he must beg and plead for nourishment. That he would be pieces, not a whole.

“I believe your master stated ‘this pleases me’ once in my direction. Who am I not to return the favor?” And with that, I pulled his soul through his vessel and watched the black smoke soar through the air of the Veil. Clearly, he was an addict. That is what black smoke meant. Our souls are made of light, our essence is, but when we walk with evil, when we forsake a sacred charge, our essence dims, becomes darker. Some even have a theory that it takes on its very own life form within you. There was no surprise that anyone from Xavier’s line would be infected. They were all addicts, taking more than they ever should from the souls we were designed to protect.

I had already heard the cry of the third Escort, so I was free to take my time and consume some much-needed nourishment. Nourishment that I despised but had to have.

I held my hand over the vessel and beckoned the remaining energy into my flesh. Within that essence, I tasted the one emotion Xavier’s line was known to invoke and meant to reprieve: shock. I could sense every soul that had provided for this Escort. I didn’t take it all. I never did. Those souls needed their energy just as much as, if not more than, I did. I let the rest seep into the air with a simple command for it to return to the souls that had blindly given it away. Once the energy took its course, I called upon the flames of power to diminish the rest of the vessel.

It always takes a second or two to feel the effects of the energy, which is why Escorts are known for taking more than their fair share. As the energy absorbed into the core of my soul, I seized. Something was wrong.

I realized that my senses never betrayed me, and they hadn’t failed me tonight. Beyond the caramel, there was the distinct aroma of mint. That cool, refreshing scent was too powerful to ever be masked. Especially to me.

A warm, humming sensation reached through every shred of my soul, causing a sigh that had not left my lips in an eternity. A flash of fever raced across my skin before I could tell myself to be furious and demand that my soul despise the sensation it was greedily absorbing as if it were the essence of life itself.