Gabriella Poole - Blood Ties (Darke Academy)

Jake ignored her, his arms encircling Isabella protectively.

‘He’ll soon have plenty of time to ponder all those precious files he worked so hard to dig up,’ snarled Vaughan. ‘Did you really think you

managed to hack the FBI site on your own? We just needed an excuse to nab you, punk. Too easy. We fed you those files, just like we’re

gonna feed you to the Soil. Wanna call your lawyer again, sonny?’ His lip curled into a mocking sneer.

Jake’s voice was a low, determined growl. ‘You’re gonna get hell from your Council, you sick bastards. And when they find out what

you’ve done, they’ll do my job for me.’ He stared up at Katrina, hatred burning in his eyes. ‘You will pay for killing my sister.’

‘We must begin,’ Brigitte growled with a feverish urgency. ‘Ignore the boy. What the Council doesn’t know can’t hurt their delicate

sensibilities.’

She seized Isabella’s hair, wrapping it round her gnarled, grey fingers and dragging her to the lip of the hole. Seizing him in a headlock,

Vaughan hauled the choking Jake after her.

With her free hand, Brigitte reached over the pit, moaning as the red glow caressed her skin.

‘The power! Oh gods, I feel it already!’

Katerina and Vaughan looked on, their breath rasping with excitement.

‘The dead of centuries … Feel them, daughter! Feel their energy! Fed to the Soil, preserved forever, alive forever, for us!’ Her voice rose to

a hysterical, throbbing cry. ‘We are the true Few! There is no weakness in us, no taint of mercy. We alone have the strength to feed the

Living Soil, and feed from it. Feel its power! How could the Council have renounced it? HOW?’

Brigitte reeled as she shoved Jake to the brink of the pit, dizzy with anticipation. ‘Fetch the half-breed,’ she hissed, still staring

mesmerised at the gouged earth. ‘We’ll deal with her next.’

Cassie was unable to move.

If you want to stop this, darling girl, you’re running out of time …

What can I do?

Use the Soil, Cassandra. Turn their own power against them! The energy is all there – there in the Soil itself. You just have to reach out

and take it!

It wasn’t a conscious decision. It wasn’t a real thought at all. At Estelle’s prompt, Cassie took a deep breath and, ignoring the spike of

pain that brought, simply closed her eyes and let the rage take over.

Her drained helplessness was forgotten, her exhaustion swamped by the force that zinged, blistering hot, through her veins and sinews

as she drew the energy from the Soil through the air and into her lungs. It was more powerful than any feeding, more powerful than the

Tears, even. Surprise barely registered as she felt her damaged rib begin to heal. The darkness turned vermillion and, swifter and stronger

than before, the Cassie of Carnegie Hall was back. With a howling roar, she leaped to her feet.

‘STOP!’

The three monsters turned on her, momentarily stunned.

‘Oh, don’t you ever learn?’ Katerina gave a vicious snarl, but it was Vaughan who sprang at her first.

Poor, pitiful fool!

Cassie laughed, tightening her fists at her sides. She hadn’t moved an inch towards his flying form, when she felt the power rip through

her and then out and beyond her, hammering into Vaughan, stopping him in his tracks.

YES! Show him! HE ASKED FOR IT!

Distantly she heard Vaughan’s howl of pain and terror. He was still metres away, scrabbling at his neck, trying to loosen her invisible

stranglehold.

No use.

She smiled. He was screeching hoarsely, wasting what breath he could get. Baring her teeth, she forced him back. His feet and legs

kicked and flailed at the ground but he couldn’t stop her driving him back, and back, to the lip of the pit. Then, lifting him into the air, Cassie

flung him backwards into the squirming, nightmarish open grave.

Vaughan let out a bellowing scream, groping at the lip of the ragged hole, trying to scramble back up the red earth walls. But he couldn’t

keep his footing, not in that roiling maelstrom of living corpses. As he stumbled, blood-soaked hands reached up for him, clutching his legs,

his arms, his neck. For long seconds, Cassie watched as he struggled, his screams growing softer and more muffled as he was swallowed

by the pit of flesh.

But then came a rumbling, like an earthquake deep underground. The gaping hole began to shift, the bloody mire bubbling violently. It

seemed that Vaughan’s entry was unwelcome …

‘NO!’ Brigitte’s scream pierced the night. ‘He’ll destroy it!’

She flung herself at the open earth, reaching wildly for Vaughan’s hand, clutching vainly at the air. But it was too late. He was gone. And