Total Eclipse

Jo! Cherise yelled from the other side of the food court. Get out!

I wasnt about to, because not only was Cherise still inside, so was David. Hed stopped moving, in fact, and turned to face the south entrance. The food court was u

Then there was a sound like nothing Id ever heard, and Kevin came flying from around the corner, driven back like a limp rag doll. He hit the ground unconscious, or dead, and rolled to a flopping, boneless stop against the far wall. Cherise screamed and did some broken-field ru

I headed for David. He was very still, tense, gasping in shallow breaths that told me he probably had cracked ribs. Or, God forbid, internal injuries. Blood was a thick, dark stain spilling down the side of his pants, dripping over his shoes, and spreading on the floor.

Dji

Thats not possible.

Except it was.

A Dji

Tall, strong, dark-ski

Rahel.

But she was no friend of mine. Not anymore.

Cherise made it to Kevins side and tried to drag him out of the way. A fireball blasted out of Rahels hand, heading straight for them. Cherise screamed and shook Kevin to try to wake him, but he was out completely. . . .

Sheer instinct guided her, and desperation, andI strongly suspectedlove. She flung out her hand, and the fireball smashed down on themand flared around them in a white- hot glowing blast, diverted to gouge steaming chunks out of the wall on either side.

Rahel stopped, cocked her head, and considered Cherise for a second before renewing the attack. Again, Cherise blocked it. Barely. When Rahel ended the fire stream, I saw Cherise collapse back against the wall, weeping, shaking, unable to summon up the energy to even put a brave face on it.

Rahel raised both hands.

No! I screamed, and flung myself forward, swinging my arms over my head and jumping up and down. Over here! Fresh meat!

What the hell do you think youre doing? David hissed. Rahel turned her head and locked on us with those white, blind, shimmering eyes, and I felt panic well up in my throat, strong enough to choke me.

I had no idea what I was doing. Except buying time for my friends to live another moment. And maybe that was enough. Right now, in this one instant, I had a kind of shining clarity of purpose that I didnt understand, and really couldnt have said was sane, exactly.

David took my hand in his, and Rahel turned to face us. Pieces of the mall were falling apart behind her, smashing and shattering. Choking dust and smoke flooded the hall, and the neon lightsno, all the lightswent out.

We were going to die in the dark.

I could still see Rahels eyes in the dim glow of the distant skylights overheadunblinking and predatory, the eyes of something with no purpose but destruction.

Shed lost herself to the madness of Mother Earth, who was lashing out against what had hurt her, with no rational thought. There was nothing David or I could do to reach her. I thought about Rahel lying in the hospital bunk on board the ship, and I felt tears burn in my eyes that werent due to the smoke and dust. Id thought wed lose her then, but at least she would have died as herself.

I wished I was dying as myself. My old self. That would have been . . . better.

Rahels lambent eyes blinked.

She didnt fry us.

David? I whispered. Is that her, or?

I dont know, he whispered back.

Whatever internal battle went on, Rahel lost it. She raised her hand, palm out, and I knew we were going out not in a blaze of glory, but just in a blaze.

Fire streaked at her from her left and slammed into her with overwhelming force, knocking her sideways and to the floor. In the sudden lurid light, I saw that Kevin was turned on his stomach, still flat on the floor, but holding up a hand and burning the holy hell out of the Dji

He cant, David said. He cant do that!

What, act like a flipping idiot? He does it all the time! I yanked on Davids arm, trying to get him to move with me. We need covercome on!

No, he cant do that, David said, and I watched as Kevin continued to pour more and more power through his body, crushing Rahel down. Jo

I knew, in a blinding flash, what he meant. Oh crap. No freaking way. It made a weird kind of sense, but . . .

Kevin surged to his feet, and his eyes flared into colors that shouldnt have been possible in a human. Hot, fluorescent green. He bared his teeth and walked toward Rahel, pummeling her now with massive pieces of concrete he levitated up from the wreckage.

You think you can take me, bitch? he said, and laughed. It rolled through the devastation like thunder. You think you can hurt us? Think again!

Something in Kevin had woken up. Something terrible and powerful and raw.

And it wasnt just Warden powers, no matter how powerful; there was something else inside him.

Dji

Can he kill her? I asked. David was shuddering slightly now, taking in the full extent of what had happened. David! Can he?

Yes, he said, in a faint, distant voice. If he doesnt stop.

I let go of Davids hand and lunged forward, vaulting over the debris, ignoring the resulting scrapes and bruises and cuts as I scrambled toward Kevin.

And when I got there, I slapped him across the face. Hard.

Kevin blinked, shocked, and turned those eerie Dji

Then he backhanded me ten feet across the floor.

Hey! Cherise yelped, and stepped in front of him as he tried to come after me. Enough! What are you doing?

Cherise brought him back to himself, enough that he dropped his attack against me and looked back at Rahel, who was buried under a mess of rubble, motionless. When he blinked this time, his eyes faded back to their normal color, and he staggered and almost fell. I rolled slowly to my feet, feeling every twinge myself. Id been lucky he hadnt shattered bones. If there had been a wall in the way, Id be drowning in blood.

David was picking his way slowly toward me. I motioned for him to stop, and looked at Kevin and Cherise. We have to go, I said. Now.

They both nodded, clearly not sure what the hell was going on anyway.

We left Rahel where she layalive, I presumed, though she wasnt stirringand our bruised little band of heroes limped out into the parking lot of the mall.

Which no longer looked like a parking lot.

Cars were twisted and smashed, rolled over on their sides and tops, some torn into scrap. People wandered helplessly, looking shell-shocked and confused. One woman, clearly not thinking at all, kept pointing her key-chain remote at one wreck after another, trying to identify her own car, as if it would matter.

Shivering clumps of people were huddling for comfort. Nobody was screaming now. It was too overwhelming, and there was nowhere to go. The woods beyond us were on fire, and smoke darkened the sky. So did roiling black clouds, streaming in from the south.

My God, Kevin breathed. It sounded like a prayerwhich was new, coming from him. Its really happening, isnt it?

The Mustang was sitting right where wed left it. The Dji