A Darker Shade of Sorcery - - (leveled readers .txt) 📗

impaled his pack mate and they both fell to the ground in a heap.

Tyrell flipped to his feet, throwing an exploding ball of ice at the remaining werepanther, knocking him out cold, literally.

Only Arantay and Merak remained, fighting each other so fast their movements were too hard to follow.

Abruptly the werelizard got through Arantay's defence, his claws raking across his chest, causing a fine arterial spray.

Brooke saw Merak flicker out of existence in a blur of motion, and then he was right behind her.

His scaly hand clamped down and snatched a handful of her hair. Screaming in both pain and anger, Brooke balled her fist and punched the werelizard as hard as she could.

Merak's reptilian head recoiled and he let go of her, but her hand was in searing agony, as if the bones had been smashed to fragments.

Arantay's red eyes blazed brighter than ever as he reappeared, seized Merak by the throat and threw him through the air with unparalleled strength.

“To us,” Tyrell called out.

As she and Arantay retreated, Lok and Tyrell appeared to be working their sorcery together as a truck rose into the air with a huge groan.

49

The wounded shifters fled from the scrapyard as the truck crashed to the ground, where they’d stood mere seconds before.

Brooke gasped, spotting the deep gouges across Arantay's chest knit together as he moved towards her.

“Well, they won’t be coming back for round two.” Lok grinned maniacally. “Did you see this girl's punch? She's got some balls. Metaphorically, I mean.”

It took a second for Brooke to realise Lok was talking about her.

“Can't you get through one mission without a fight?” Tyrell berated him.

“Hey, this one wasn't my fault; you saw.”

Tyrell sighed, checking what looked to be a broken nose with his hand. “Maybe we should've worn armour after all,” he said. “Padrake did describe this mission as low-risk, right?”

“He didn't count on the shifters,” Arantay said. “We’ll have to tell him a pack has allied with Dark-Venators.”

“Let's go then,” Tyrell agreed. “Hopefully we can still land in the forest; the Masters are sealing off portal access soon.”

The strange instrument Tyrell produced in his hand lit up with an eerie blue light.

Brooke opened her mouth to scream for help, hoping someone would rescue her from these madmen, but Arantay took hold of her face with both hands and looked into her eyes.

“It’s okay.”

Brooke trembled beneath his grasp, shivering with fear.

“We’re not the bad guys,” Arantay whispered.

“C’MON,” Lok shouted, his voice distorted for some reason.

50

As Arantay stood and helped her up, she saw the blue light had changed into a portal that crackled and sparked, like contained fire and lightning.

Brooke noticed Tyrell and Lok had vanished. Lok’s voice must've distorted when he jumped into that…thing.

And Arantay intended her to be next.

Without a word he hurled Brooke before him, throwing her head-first into the swirling tempest.

Chapter 4- Realm Of The Demon Hunters

It felt like her body was being wrenched apart in every direction. A roaring inferno whirled around her; thousands of vivid colours blinded her. She fell to the floor with a thud.

51

As she hit the ground, Brooke heard raucous laughter. She looked up at Lok, trying to cover his mouth as he chuckled.

They had landed in a dark forest with distorted and twisted trees, leering over Brooke like deformed giants.

She opened her mouth to scream again when a noise at her side made her jump out of her skin. Arantay emerged from the now closing portal, landing gracefully beside her.

Where am I? What was that…thing? She needed to get back. She wanted to go home.

Brooke felt tears on her cheeks and her breathing became choked.

“Sssh.” Arantay tried to place a hand on her shoulder again.

“No!” She screeched, crawling away from him. Brooke noticed his nails were obsidian black, and she didn’t think it was nail varnish.

“Get away from me,” she cried. “What are you?”

“Death,” Lok answered menacingly.

Brooke looked at him in horror.

“Haha, just kidding.”

“Don’t make it worse, Lok,” said Tyrell.

Brooke shook her head violently, refusing to believe any of this could be happening. Was the fight with those animal people real? What are they going to do to me?

“Can we hurry things up? I’m hungry,” said Lok.

Arantay growled under his breath, making Brooke scrabble further away from him.

Lok also reacted to the growl, showing something akin to fear and taking a step back. “Sorry, Tay.”

52

“Please don’t hurt me,” she moaned.

Arantay cocked his head to the side quizzically. “I told you we weren’t going to hurt you.”

“Seems your powers don’t work on her too well,” said Lok.

“Her ability to resist is outstanding,” Arantay agreed.

What the hell are they talking about?

“So are we gonna carry her kicking and screaming then?” Lok asked, trying to hide a smirk.

“I don’t want to hurt her,” said Arantay.

“It’s me or Tyrell she’ll hurt. Look what she did to his arms,” Lok said.

As Tyrell stood with his arms crossed, Brooke noticed the shallow cuts she’d made with her nails when he'd restrained her earlier.

“Oh.” Tyrell had apparently forgotten.

Brooke watched in shock as Tyrell temporarily held a hand over each arm. When he finished, his arms were unfathomably unblemished, the cuts vanished. Tyrell repeated the procedure on his face, healing his broken nose.

“Well, that's my magic depleted for the day,” he said, exhaustion thick in his tone.

“I barely had any left after the Shifters.”

“This isn’t real,” she mumbled breathlessly.

Brooke tried to get up and run, but Arantay was there to catch her, moving faster than the eye could follow. One hand cupped her chin, his touch gentle as a whisper.

“Maybe we should wait until they’re sober to take them,” Lok said.

“Nearly all new recruits react like this, no matter the circumstances,” said Tyrell.

“I didn’t,” Lok said proudly. “Well, not as badly anyway.”

53

“I was terrified,” Tyrell admitted. “I broke Henry’s jaw when he tried to take me.

He and Luka had to use magic to make me stop fighting.”

“We’re lucky she’s not a badass like you then, aren’t we?” Lok replied sarcastically.

“Let’s get her to the Fortress,” Arantay interjected. “The sooner she knows the better.”

Know what? What the hell are they talking about?

Before she could do or say anything else, Arantay had picked her up. Brooke clung to his neck instinctively but was about to make a break for it again when she met the full force of his gaze. His eyes bored into her like two scarlet stars.

Slowly, her fears ebbed away.

“Good thing we didn’t have to deal with any Dark-Venators this time,” Tyrell said.

“If they’ve forged an alliance with the Shifters, they might recruit some of the wolf clans too.”

“Who cares?” said Lok. “I’ll fight ‘em all.”

Arantay held Brooke tight. His chest was cold and hard as stone.

“Haha, imagine if we’d taken the wrong one, that would really mess her up,” Lok said.

“We’ve got the right one. Can’t you sense how strong her aura is?” Tyrell said.

“Yeah, I’m just saying it’d be funny if we transported a normal human by accident…”

“You have a sick sense of humour,” Tyrell interrupted.

Lok chuckled. “It would be funny though.”

Normal human? The thought broke into her calm for a second, but vanished when Arantay readjusted her position.

54

The hold Arantay had over her must’ve been powerful, as she was barely surprised by the three moons in the sky. The middle moon was a dark shade of blue, with an emerald and a lilac brother on either side, and multi-coloured stars flecked all around.

The trees were also different. Many were a vibrant green, but more were silver and violet. Brooke saw a cluster of bright orange trees to her left and a smattering of bone-white trees in the distance. Moments later, she realised giant mushrooms stood high above too and that many of the mushroom spots and tree leaves were glowing in the dark.

Lok and Tyrell chatted casually; or rather Lok talked whilst Tyrell added the occasional remark, but Arantay remained silent. After an age, the labyrinth of giant trees began to thin, and the light from the moons softened the dark. In her dreamy state Brooke didn’t realise they had left the forest until it was far behind and they were walking across fields upon fields of multicoloured long grass instead.

“Do you reckon we’ll get a decent mission next time?” Lok asked.

“Bringing in recruits is one of the missions Vanderain values most,” said Tyrell.

“The masters have to really trust you to assign them.”

“Yeah, but they’re boring, mate. To be honest, we’re better equipped to be hacking apart demons anyway. Especially Tay, what with his… abilities.” Lok sniggered, shooting a glance Arantay’s way.

“Still, it’s nice to return to Earth once in a while,” Tyrell said, walking through a patch of pink grass that reached his chest.

“No it isn’t,” Lok said. “Earth sucks. On my last mission, me and Lyella took on orc vampires who rode clockwork manticores. The one before that I battled slug dragons. Now, they’re missions worth my time.”

“Enough,” said Arantay. Brooke was stirring at Lok’s words.

55

She saw where they were heading and gasped.

Out of the darkness loomed a Fortress of marvellous spectacle and immense size.

Brooke couldn’t believe buildings so huge and yet so beautiful could've been built.

The tops of the glimmering spires were so high they appeared to pierce the star strewn sky above.

There were five castles, connected by a vast spider web of bridges from all sides.

Each mesmerizing castle was different, but all were white as snow.

“Wh-what is that?” she murmured.

“Veneseron,” Arantay whispered, smiling as he looked upon it.

“I bet that bloody gnome hasn’t saved us any food,” Lok grumbled, apparently oblivious to the beautiful Fortress.

“Sniglog will rustle us up something,” said Tyrell, looking delighted to see the Fortress again too.

Brooke had no idea what time it was, other than the dead of night. Her companions were the only people outside the Fortress as they approached, although countless castle windows burned a myriad of bright colours.

The grass on the fields had turned purple as they neared the first castle. Tyrell and Lok hurried up a set of stone steps excitedly, with Arantay trailing behind, carrying Brooke with ease.

She noticed the steps were flanked by marble monsters, statues of things with weird, ugly faces. Some were winged, some horned, and some she didn’t recognise as anything she’d ever seen before.

The steps led towards two thirty-foot-high golden doors, with a gargoyle perched either side.

56

“Happy hunting, boys?” said a shrill voice, accompanied by the sound of grating stone.

“Yeah, we got her,” Lok replied. Brooke had the distinct impression he’d addressed one of the gargoyles- and the gargoyle was the one who spoke first!

Arantay turned away before she