“I’ll take that as a compliment. And I suppose as well that I will have to trust your life to Morighent,” he sighed.
“You know he doesn’t like that name,” she said, feeling a bit like she was refereeing between school children.
“Good, I shall try to use it more often,” he smirked, his mood far more serious than his words.
“Jess,” she rolled her eyes, “that’s not very nice.”
“Come on then, let us go before we are unforgivably late,” he said, ignoring her comment.
She climbed out of her now very messy bed, deciding not to worry about trying to put it back together – she wasn’t even sure where the pillows had ended up – and grabbed a t-shirt and jeans. She threw the clothes on the bed and dug around for underwear and a bra, ignoring Jess’s disapproving look. She couldn’t deny that her life had taken a strong turn towards elven ways since she’d started dating – courting her mind automatically corrected – Jess, but there were some aspects of human culture that were too ingrained for her to ever willingly give up. Bras fell solidly in that category, despite her occasional willingness to forgo them for him.
Safely dressed she hurried downstairs to grab some breakfast. As she started down the hall she realized that Jess was not following her, and stopped, turning back towards the door. He smiled ruefully, “I am already late. I must go now and try to find a clever explanation for my tardiness that doesn’t involve the truth.”
Allie couldn’t hold back a giggle, despite her guilt over getting him in trouble, and jogged back to him, leaning up on her toes to kiss him quickly. “Go then, and I will see you later.”
“Do not doubt it,” he whispered, grabbing her shoulders and pulling her back to kiss her far more thoroughly.
Finally she pushed him away, gasping for air, “Go already!”
Laughing in that light way the elves had he slipped out the door. Allie shook her head and turned back to the kitchen again. When she walked into the room she found Bleidd sitting at the table drinking coffee, his expression brooding. She went over to get herself a mug and then reluctantly went and sat with him. The tension was palpable.
“Good morning,” she said softly, sipping her drink.
He stared at her, then sighed, “Is it? I suppose that’s a matter of perspective.”
She resisted the urge to throw her coffee cup at him, taking another long sip instead. Part of her wanted to say something accommodating, to try to sooth his ruffled feelings and sort out what had put him in an off mood, but the rest of her was too tired. “Jason is working 1st shift today. I was hoping you could bring me in to work, but if it’s too much of an inconvenience let me know so I can call a cab.”
He was not at all amused by that, “As if I would let you go off alone. At the rate your week is going you’d get yourself killed before lunch.”
“If I called a cab,” she replied stiffly, annoyed at being spoken to like a walking disaster even if she felt like one, “I would not by definition be alone.”
He rubbed his eyes. “When do we leave?”
“As soon as we’re done with the coffee would be good, if that works.”
“I am at your disposal,” he said as if that were some kind of private joke.
“Okay, what is up with you today?” she said frowning over her cup.
“I have no idea what you are referring to,” he said.
“I mean why are you acting like you’re mad at me? What did I do to you?”
“You have done nothing to me, despite my best efforts to encourage you,” he replied lightly.
“Bleidd, I’m serious. Why are you giving me a hard time? If you don’t want to go with me today…”
“I would go with you whether you wanted me to or not,” he cut in.
“Then what is it?”
“Perhaps I am consumed with worry that you seem to be on a mission to embrace your own destruction,” he said, looking down into his own cup. “Perhaps I am tired of constantly seeing Jessilaen around here, spending most of his time in your bedroom. Perhaps I simply feel something in the air today that makes me certain that blood is going to be spilled and I do not want it to be yours but I am all too well aware that you are too stubborn to stay home.”
She blinked at all of that, unable to form a coherent response. Finally he stood up, still looking tense and said, “Come on then. Let us go and see what trouble you can get into today.”
“That’s not fair,” she said stiffly.
“No I don’t suppose it is,” he agreed. “If not for you that missing girl would probably have died by now, and Jason would surely be unemployed. But you have to understand Allie that it is impossible for me to stand by and watch you keep coming so close to such dangerous things. One of these times you will not walk away.”
“I’ve already been down that road,” she pointed out.
They walked out towards his car, stopping to lock the door behind them. Finally he spoke again, as if there had not been an awkward pause in the conversation, “And you seem to have no idea how lucky you were to survive that. You should have died that night. And I am afraid that the next time you will not be so lucky.”
They walked over to his small black car, which was parked directly in front of the house. Allie opened the passenger side door before answering, “I get what you’re saying, really I do. I know you care about me…”
“I love you Allie,” he interrupted, sliding into the driver’s seat with practiced ease, “Let’s not minimize that now by saying I care, as if caring and love were equal things. I care about living here, but it’s not essential to my life. I love you. You are essential to my life.”
She clipped her seat belt, saying nothing. After a moment, as he started the car and pulled out onto the street he finally spoke again, “Does it upset you so much to hear me say that?”
“What do you want me to say?” she muttered, looking out her window. “It makes me feel bad to hear you talk of loving me so much when I’m with someone else.”
“If you do not love me Allie then tell me plainly that you do not,” he said, his voice angry. “Because it would be more of a mercy than leaving me to always sit and watch you with him, wishing it was me in his place.”
She winced. “If I could tell you that and have you go on and live a happy life I would.”
“But you can’t” he pressed.
“You know I can’t,” she whispered. “Even though I should. Gods know if I could tell one lie in all my life I would tell you that I didn’t love you.”
“It’s such a paradox Allie that if only you were more elven in your approach to these things it would not matter, because he and I could both find a place with you, and yet it’s your humanity that is part of what I love,” he said sadly.
“You know there’s polyamorous humans too,” she sighed. The car was turning off onto the side street next to the road her store was on.
He looked at her out of the corner of his eye, but said nothing. They pulled into the parking lot of the store and he parked next to the back door. The tension was still sharp when they got out, Allie fumbling with her keys to find the one to unlock the door.
She stepped up to the door, hating feeling so uncomfortable around him. He stepped up with her, one hand on her shoulder. She tried to think of something to say to fix things, but she just couldn’t give him what he wanted without compromising her own principles. Even if she was making both of them miserable. All three of them really since Jess also hated the way she was unable to flatly refuse Bleidd. She reached up with her free hand and ran her fingers through her hair, fighting the urge to pull a chunk of it out.
There was a sound like a loud firecracker and almost simultaneously she felt a sharp, burning pain lance through her left arm. She jerked her arm down and in towards her body. At the same time she felt Bleidd’s emotions swing wildly from anger to fear and panic, then his full weight was hitting her pulling her down. She fell with him to the ground next to the steps, stunned.
&nbs
p; His body was pinning her to the ground, the concrete steps close to her side. The gravel that lined the verge between the building and the asphalt bit into her face and arms. She twisted around working her way out from under him, her brain finally grasping that the sound had been a gunshot. Struggling to her knees, she found Bleidd unconscious, bleeding profusely from a single shot just below his right shoulder. Completely panicked, she rolled him over, struggling to move him.
The exit wound was worse than the entrance, a gaping hole in his chest. She could hear a terrible sound every time he tried to draw a breath, a bubbling gurgle, and the amount of blood he was losing was terrifying. “Jess!” Allie screamed in her mind, heedless of everything but the fact that Bleidd was dying in front of her. “Help! Bleidd has been shot I don’t know what to do!” Even as she thought it she yanked her cell phone out, dialed 911 and dropped the phone. Jason had told her once if they received an open call they’d send a car even if no one was on the other end. She hoped it was true.
Jess’s voice blazed into her mind, furious, “Where are you? How badly is he hurt?”
“In the lot behind the store. It’s bad, it’s really bad. I think he’s dying. What do I do?” she knew she was hysterical but couldn’t calm herself. His face had started to go gray. He was bleeding to death and he couldn’t breathe. She felt a sudden, overwhelming certainty that he would be dead before anyone could get here to help her, and she sobbed. Her mind raced to think of something, anything she could do.
“Brynneth wants to know where he was struck?” Jess’s voice cut through her panic enough for her to remember some basic first aid. She pulled off her shirt and pressed it to the chest wound trying not to think about the way the blood immediately soaked the material.
“In the back, on the right, but the, where it went out in the front is worse. He’s losing a lot of blood and I don’t think he can breathe,” she thought back. Unbidden a page from the grimoire appeared in her mind, a spell to heal by using the life energy of someone else….
“Bryn says to hold pressure on the wound.”
“I am,” she thought back desperately. The gurgling sound had lessened, and dimly Allie was aware of a voice on her phone; she ignored it.
“We are coming Allie.” Jess was still speaking but she ignored him too. Watching Bleidd carefully she was certain he had stopped breathing.
No. No, no, no, no….she thought, her mind running in circles. She could not let him die. Not like this. Not because of her. She thought of the spell from the grimoire again, but she knew the spell was at the absolute limit of her ability. And it would mean…
His body shuddered once and went still. Without another thought she started the spell, her lips silently moving in the pattern of the chant, her hands tracing the symbols over his body. The original called for using a human life – since she would not do that her mind cast about for anything else, anything she could substitute, and the image of birds came into her head. The chant changed as she called the life energy to her. It was harder than she’d ever imagined such a thing would be and she started to sweat as she fought to pull what she needed to herself. When it worked the energy came in a huge wave almost overwhelming her. She was afraid if she lost it now she wouldn’t be able to even try again. Quickly she directed the energy into the framework set up over his body, before she could lose control of it.
It fell into Bleidd and his whole body glowed, like light reflecting on water. It was not like any healing she had ever seen or felt before. An instant later his body convulsed and then he drew a long shuddering breath, then another. The color returned to his face, and he groaned.
Allie fell backwards, the concrete step scraping her back. She was so exhausted she could barely keep her eyes open and she knew she’d be useless for any magic for at least a week. Looking down she saw the tiny bodies of the little wrens that had been living over her doorway, now cold and dead, lying next to the building. She sobbed, her head falling forward, stunned by what she had done. Looking down she saw fresh blood high on her left forearm and she reached out to touch it. It was warm and flowing and it occurred to her that the bullet that had hit Bleidd had also struck her in the arm.
She heard sirens wailing in the distance, and dimly she could hear Jess speaking to her, his voice desperate. She wondered how much of what she had just done he had been aware of. And then the ground was rushing up to meet her face and everything went dark.
*******************************
Amy lowered the rifle slowly, frowning. She was worried that she may have accidently hit the young woman, which would be bad. Her instructions had been explicit. But the unexpected opportunity to use the warning shot she was supposed to be firing not just to frighten the woman but to take out one of them had been irresistible. Wasn’t the whole point of what they were doing to rid the world of the horrid Fairy creatures? Obviously it was better to do it completely with the magic ritual the group was working on, but surely shooting one of them when she had the chance was good too, Amy reasoned.
She stepped back further into the narrow space between the abandoned house and the old garage, trusting the overgrown lot between her hiding space and the back parking lot of Between the Worlds to disguise her movement. Even with such perfect cover she needed to get the gun broken down and get out of the area before the police arrived. She had shifted the rifle to one hand when she felt a blade pressing hard against the side of her neck, and a melodious voice said, “Drop the gun, now.”
She complied immediately, too shocked at first to be afraid. The blade bit into her neck, and she flinched away from it as blood began to seep down, soaking her shirt. A hand grabbed the back of her neck roughly, holding her head in place. “Move again and you’ll be dead before you draw another breath.”
She froze, holding herself perfectly still. What is this? Amy thought, finally starting to be afraid, What is going on?
“I really don’t care if you killed that meddling bastard who has been making our plans so difficult to implement,” the voice went on, “But killing the girl would ruin everything and I just can’t allow that.”
“I didn’t,” Amy whispered, trying to speak without moving her head. Still the blade cut deeper into her neck and angry tears joined the blood flowing down into her collar.
He switched the blade from the side of her neck around to the front, pressing it against the skin under her ear on the other side. She held completely still, feeling the sharp edge slicing into the delicate skin. “I know you didn’t, you foolish human cow, but did you miss her by accident or by design?”
It took her a moment to work through what he had said; it was hard to focus through the pain. “No I wasn’t aiming for her. I was just supposed to scare her.”
“You have no doubt accomplished that,” he hissed, “and in doing so made our job that much more difficult.”
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
“Not as sorry as you shall be,” he whispered, and she started to shake at the dark promises in his voice.
“Please don’t hurt me,” she begged hopelessly.
“Oh my foolish little human I am going to hurt you very much indeed,” he said and then laughed. She sobbed slightly, the blade cutting deeper into her neck.
A second voice spoke from somewhere behind her, “Stop playing with her and ask her why she was trying to frighten Allie in the first place.”
“Oh Allie is it?” the first voice said archly, “Perhaps you’d rather handle the questioning, since you care so much about the mixed blooded bitch we are here to kidnap and bring back to be tortured for information. Unless you’ve decided on a different course?”
“Stop ranting like an idiot,” the second voice said coldly. “We are here to accomplish a purpose. I told you before that there were others who also had a purpose for the girl, but you would not listen. Well now you see the proof of it. We need to know who they are, why they are acting against her, and what they seek to accomplish.”
“Foolish child. I
already know who they are and what they seek,” the one holding her sneered, his hand on her neck tightening until she whimpered. “They are part of the group enacting the rituals from the book that was destroyed, and they also seek to learn what she knows and use it to their own advantage. Is that not so?”
At the question she felt her stomach drop. She could not betray the group. She swallowed hard. He pressed the knife into her neck, splitting the skin until she cried out. “Answer the question, or you will pray for death long before I give it to you.”
The second one spoke again, ignoring her plight as if it didn’t matter at all to him, “She is using a spell from the book even as we speak. Something dark and glorious. I wish I could be close enough to see it well – it would be a useful thing to know.”
“Much closer and you’d be dead,” he said wryly. And then to her, “Answer the question.”
She trembled, as he squeezed her neck harder, pinching the nerves until she couldn’t bear it anymore, “Yes! Yes, we are trying to fix the world.”
He relaxed his hand slightly and she felt a wave of relief go through her. In the distance she could hear sirens. Good, the police were coming. At this point she’d rather face arrest for shooting an elf than keep being tormented by whoever was holding her.
Behind her she heard him cluck his tongue slightly, “Alas for you little human I hear the sound of your police rushing to see what damage you have wrought. That will surely spoil my fun and there is no way to drag you out of here that won’t attract too much attention. How fortunate that we are in such a secluded spot.”
Without another word he pushed her head forward with the hand on the back of her neck and drew the blade across her throat with brutal efficiency. He flung her to the ground as she choked, blood spraying the wall of the old garage. As she lay there, everything starting to fade, she heard his voice one last time, “No more wasting time or she will get herself killed while we delay. We will move and be done with this.”
******************************
The first Guard vehicle pulled into the parking lot at speed, its siren wailing, followed immediately by the second. Close on their bumper, responding to Allie’s 911 call, was a very bewildered Ashwood patrol officer who knew only that there had been an emergency call made from this location. Before the vehicles had entirely stopped Jess had already vaulted out and was running towards the two bodies lying near the rear door. Brynneth was close on his heels.
Lost in Mist and Shadow: A Between the Worlds Novel Page 30
