Warren opened the box. The buzz in Alexi’s head intensified into a constant hum that made her nose itch and her teeth ache. She reached out and took Savanna’s good hand. This wasn’t exactly what they had in mind when they had come here. She would be lying if she said she wasn’t afraid.
The shadows in the room leaped and moved of their own accord. The walls faded and they could see the world through them. A kaleidoscope of light exploded next to Warren. A beautiful blue skinned girl with pointed ears and delicate butterfly wings appeared out of the light.
“Warren, stop, they’ll kill you,” she said. The world spun and Warren’s power seeped into every inch of them. He looked down at her and smiled. Between flashes of light, the facade of Warrens humanity vanished. Gone was the tall skinny man, replaced by a delicate elf with long golden hair thin ears that poked out between strands and eyes made of pure gold.
“I can’t Pix, a bargain has been struck.”
She nodded. She threw her arms around his waist burying her face in his chest. She wasn’t nearly as tall as him the top of her head fit snugly into his chest. He smiled as tears of golden light slid down his delicate cheeks. He closed his eyes. His mouth moved and words Alexi could never hope to pronounce poured out of him like a song.
“Of all the things we’ve done I have to say this is the weirdest,” Alexi said out of the side of her mouth. When Savanna didn’t answer she looked to make sure she was okay. The witch’s violet eyes reflected the light of the Fae power.
“There’s a whole other world I’ve never seen… it’s hidden, Alexi… beautiful.”
The intensity of the hum expanded to drown out everything else. Alexi resisted the urge to put her hands to her ears. Instead, she closed her eyes and tried to brace herself.
Vertigo slammed into her. She dropped to one knee and vomited. Nothing came up but her stomach demanded to be let out. The sound of Savanna puking up her guts next to her was the last thing she heard before everything went black.
THIRTEEN
Sun shone through the skylight casting golden rays over John’s closed eyes, which in turn told his brain to wake up. John yawned lazily as he stretched his arms. For him, it was a luxury to wake up on his own. Since the night in the hospital with Alexi, he had slept like a baby. No nightmares, no insomnia. It had been since before the war that he could say that. He slid off the bed, wincing as his feet touched cold floor.
He checked his phone for updates on his partner. No service.
“Odd,” he muttered as he grabbed a towel from the drawer. He dropped to the floor for his daily routine. He warmed up with thirty push-ups followed up with a five-minute plank. Normally he caught up on his email while he exercised, but with the service down he had nothing to do but stare at the hardwood floor. He was sure he paid his bill, he couldn’t remember the last time his phone didn’t have service. Even the massive power outage the year before when the whole peninsula was offline he still had service.
After his exercises, he jumped in the shower. He had an hour to get ready before his shift started at nine. He decided to make it an Army shower, in and out in three minutes with everything soaped and washed.
Once he was dressed for work he scrambled two eggs and wrapped them in toast and was half out the door when his phone started buzzing.
As soon as he opened the door to his Bremerton apartment he knew something was wrong. Sirens echoed off the streets from multiple directions. People ran from their apartments to their cars, loading pets, children, and supplies. Fifteen years of service kicked in his instincts. The phone continually buzzed as he ran for his car. He hit the text to voice functions as he slid behind the wheel of his Mustang. The engine roared as he backed out. He was careful not to hit anyone as he maneuvered out of the parking lot. Once he was out he flipped the siren on and placed the light on the roof.
His phone read him the messages. Nineteen in all from the precinct. One from the hospital.
“Hospital first,” he barked.
“John, your partner is out of recovery and doing good,” the electronic voice told him. Well, thank god for small… shit! He swerved to miss a man who stumbled out of the alley. John glanced at his face as he drove past. The man's vacant eyes and haggard skin looked eerily familiar.
The rest of the messages were orders from the chief of police. All officers were to report to their precincts. The CDC would be issuing a quarantine on the city starting at noon. John checked the time, three hours and thirty minutes. He mentally crossed his fingers that the ferries were still running. Bremerton was outside the quarantine zone and he needed to get in, not away.
***
A warm breeze was the first thing Alexi noticed, it washed over her skin leaving goosebumps in its wake. Her skin warmed from the kiss of the sun, something soft and cool was beneath her. Where was she? She tried to think of the last thing she remembered but something was in the way. It was hard...
She jumped up, drawing her sword reflexively as the memories poured back into her. The shop. The Fae.
“Savanna?” she called out.
She blinked several times to clear her vision as she spun in a circle to get her bearings. She was next to a small pond with reeds growing out of the shallow end. Alexi blinked. The wind scattered her hair in the sun. She planted her sword in the ground to reach behind her and bind her locks in a ponytail. The surreal scene wavered for a moment. Like a drop of water. Grassy fields and sun-soaked land stretched out as far as she could see.
A shadow coalesced in the water. Alexi caught it from the side of her eye. She turned and looked closer, but the light from the sun made it difficult to see anything in the water but the sparkle of light on the surface. She stepped toward it leaning forward as she walked. The ground around the pond sucked at her feet. The mud squished as she walked, but she paid it no mind. The shadow fluttered beneath the surface as she drew closer to the pond. It swayed back and forth each time she tried to focus on it.
Curiosity nagged at her, something about that shadow was important. She could almost see a face in it. One more step and her foot sank deep into the mud that was the edge of the pond. Still, she couldn’t see it. She had to know what it was!
“Alexi,” Savanna’s voice echoed quietly from behind her. The surface of the water broke as two green, slime covered hands burst forth and latched on to her coat. Alexi gasped as she plunged into the freezing cold water. Air exploded out of her lungs. More hands grabbed her shoulders and hair. They pulled her down to the dark below. Alexi kicked out with her feet, hitting something solid for a moment.
Her head breached the surface and she gasped for air.
Savanna was there her hands pulling her up while cold hands reached up to her from below. The stench of mold and rotting wood filled her nose. She coughed up mud as Savanna pulled on her arms from one side and Warren pulled the other. She kicked the mud and reeds from her feet.
“Thanks,” she said when they were ten feet from the water.
Savanna knelt beside her and gently wiped away the muck from her face.
“You look a mess,” Savanna said to her.
Alexi smiled and took a moment to look around. The illustrious plane of sun and grass was nowhere to be seen. Instead, they were deep in a dead forest surrounded by trees with no leaves and no underbrush.
“I don’t know about you, but I don’t think I’m going to ever want to come back here,” she looked up at Warren with a shrug, “Just saying,” she said. The dead forest smelled worse than the bog she crawled out of.
Warren glanced around, his eyes darting back and forth as if he were looking for something, “This isn’t my home… I don’t know where we are, but this can’t be the Emerald Isle.”
Alexi heaved herself up with Savannas help. She shook the mud from her fingers and hair. She found her sword only a few feet away and pulled it out of the mud. The blade was covered in gunk and slime. She wiped it off on her pants.
“Our goal hasn’t changed,” Alexi said with a nod to Savanna. “Warren
, if you had appeared where you planned to, which way would you go?” she asked.
Warren scanned the horizon from the hills in the distance to the unending forest of trees behind them. The forest of trees didn’t block sight, but it did cast dark shadows which stretched into each other. He closed his eyes for a moment and pointed toward the hill in the middle. Alexi found a point she knew was a quarter mile away, then in her head doubled it once, then once more and she hit the hills.
“It’s about a mile… through all this.” She shrugged to the landscape around her.
“Things work differently here, be on your guard with your thoughts, your feelings, and your words. Walk where I walk and do not step off the path,” Warren said. She noticed the grimace on his face as he turned to the hills.
“What path?” Savanna asked. As she spoke a path of sand and dirt raised out of the swamp in front of Warren. It formed under his feet as he walked. He went a few feet and turned around, “This path,” he said.
Alexi grabbed Savanna’s hand to follow. After a few minutes of walking Alexi when nothing leaped out at them, Alexi relaxed a little. After the pond, she expected everything here to try and kill them. Now, following Warrens path, it felt safe. If she closed her eyes she cold almost imagine the place she had seen when she first woke up. Lush and beautiful. Now all she could see is the dead land and smell the putrid air.
“I thought the Emerald Isle was beautiful? Legends tell of a place with such splendor and wonder that mortals never wish to leave,” Savanna said suddenly, “Those that do spend their remaining days in depress—” she stumbled over a root that swiped at her foot. Alexi kicked it as they hurried by, “This strikes me as more of a nightmare than a dream,” she mumbled.
Warren looked back behind them with concern plainly on his face. Alexi glanced back as well in time to see the root slither off the path like a snake.
“I banished some time ago—this isn’t the place I remember,” he said. Here on the Isle Warren looked like his true self. Alexi couldn’t imagine a more breathtakingly beautiful man. Not in a masculine way, but as a piece of art. When he spoke his words were light and airy, even when he was worried.
Alexi could see why. If it was half as beautiful as Savanna made it sound, it was like his home was ruined. Whatever could do this to the Fae… the people Illyana was afraid of. The people the Arcanum wouldn’t deal with… what hope would a witch, a vampire, and a disgraced elf have?
“How long ago?” she asked.
“Time means different things here. We don’t experience it the way you do. You think of it as a river, flowing only one way. For us, it is more of a constant now. There is no past, or future, just an eternal present.”
“Sounds lonely,” Savanna whispered.
“When you're with people you love it isn’t,” he replied.
“Who was that with us, the girl in blue who warned you not to come back?” Alexi asked. She used her sword to push another root that reached for her to the side.
“A friend, I should have listened.”
They continued on in silence. Savanna’s good hand gripped Alexi’s tight as they walked. Despite the loose way in which the trees initially appeared they were growing thicker as the hills grew closer. The trees swayed back and forth, and when Alexi blinked they would move. She looked behind them. The path vanished a few feet back. Far more trees were behind them then she remembered.
“Warren…”
“I know,” he replied.
“What do we do?”
“Run,” he whispered.
***
The creaking of branches and the sound of the wind through tree limbs chased them as they ran. Each time Alexi turned her head to look, they were closer than the last. The tree’s covered the horizon to the left and right. Masses of them with their spindly branches and hundreds of roots seeping into the fen. Mist swirled up from the water encroaching on Warrens path. Her feet made little eddies of vapor as she moved through it. No matter how hard they ran, they didn’t get further from their pursuers.
“Stop!” Alexi called out as she grabbed Savanna’s shoulder and forced her to slow down. The witch dropped to her knees, sucking in huge gulps of air. Warren simply turned neither breathing hard or sweating. His hair wasn’t even out of place.
“We must continue on,” he said.
Alexi turned to keep an eye on their pursuers while she spoke, “Savanna needs a rest. Besides, were not getting anywhere, look around you, does any of this seem familiar?” she asked. Warren scanned their surroundings. Alexi turned into him, trying to read emotions from him. The warmth of life she felt from him was more subtle than that she got from a human, but it was there. Briefly, the thought of feeding on him crossed her mind. Once she fed on a demon in a desperate attempt to weaken it. The bitter taste stuck with her for days. Warren, she fancied he would taste sweet. She shook her head, now wasn’t the time to be thinking of food.
“In truth, Alexi, none of this makes sense. We should be at the Dun by now, feasting with the court on heart and wine. The Un have rules for visitors, even prisoners,” he said the last part quietly.
Alexi dare not take her eyes off the tree’s to look at him now. The path vanished behind them as the trees grew ever closer. There wasn’t anywhere to go.
Alexi jumped as a thick hard root brushed her foot. She slashed down with her sword severing it in one slice. As one, the trees stopped swaying and the silence was overwhelming.
“Oh shit, I think that was a mistake,” Warren muttered.
“They’re the ones terrifying the crap out of us, I’m not concerned about what offends them… whatever the hell they are anyway.”
“Treefreelings, spirits that live in trees. They don’t normally move and are usually quite happy to see visitors. I’ve never seen them so—angry.”
The tree’s moved as one. Like a crowd that decided to riot at the same time. Warren screamed for them to run. Alexi heaved Savanna to her feet and pushed her along the path. Roots, branches, and small threads of fibrous growth lashed out at them from the mist. Alexi hacked with her sword. Yellow ooze bled from the larger pieces, while the smaller ones wilted under her onslaught.
Savanna screamed which sharply turned into a gurgle as a whip like root wrapped around her throat. She reached out for Alexi as she was jerked into the mist. Alexi clasped her sword in both hands and with a deep breath, charged. She roared as she leaped into the swirling mist. A wall of wood collapsed around her, suffocating her in wood and moss. She bashed away with her sword slicing the blade through wood and vines. Her arms ached from the strain as she put every ounce of strength she had into each swing. Fear threatened her, but she pushed it back with an image of her friend trapped and alone.
Above the din of her own frantic attack, she could hear Savanna chanting. Alexi broke through the wall of fiber to a small clear circle. Savanna’s clothes were in tatters, her skin scored with a hundred different nicks and cuts. She held her dagger out, the blade embedded a quarter inch into her thigh. Small plants and bits of tree’s writhed in black flame on the ground around her. She looked up at Alexi and nodded back the way she had come.
Alexi didn’t want to take her eyes off of her friend but she also needed to turn around. She grasped Savanna’s arm with one hand, then led her back the way she came. The destroyed tree limbs acted as a path back to Warren. He waited, feet still on the raised ground of his summoned path.
“You could have helped,” Alexi said unable to disguise the venom in her voice. His eyes flickered with hurt.
“Had I stepped off the path it would be lost and we would all be dead. Let’s not waste the opportunity you have bought us,” he turned back to the path. Alexi shrugged off her coat and wrapped it around Savanna. That left her in just a cream colored V-neck, but the cold hardly bothered her. The slight tingle of shame on her cheeks did. She spoke thoughtlessly, forgetting in the moment the reason they were even here.
The tree’s retreated from the path. Not far enough for
Alexi’s liking, but enough. Savanna’s black fire danced around on the ground in a circle. After a few minutes of walking, Savanna pulled the dagger from her leg.
Alexi gulped sweet smell of Savanna’s blood reminded her of her hunger.
Alexi pointed to her friend's leg, “Let me stop the bleeding?” she asked. Savanna shook her head violently and stepped away.
“Sorry Alexi, I don’t know what the infection would do to you at this point. You might be immune, you might not,” she said. She tore off a bit of her already ruined shirt and fastened it around her wound.
Alexi said nothing. Shame and embarrassment crept into her cheeks. She turned away to keep Savanna from noticing it. Occasionally, when she wasn’t thinking about it, Alexi let herself believe she was normal as if she didn’t need to feed on the blood of others to survive. Then she would smell it and her mind would run rampant with desires she could barely control.
She picked up her pace to walk next to Warren. She told herself it wasn’t to distance herself from her friend's blood.
“How much further, Warren? We’ve been walking for hours,” she said. Any change of subject would be welcome.
“I told you before, time has no meaning here. Yesterday, today, they’re all the same the only thing that changes is the seasons. We’ve been walking for days, months, years, and seconds. Or not at all,” he said with a knowing smile.
“I will slap the shit out of you,” Alexi growled.
He held up his hand to silence her. Alexi held her tongue. Savanna moved in close and leaned against Alexi’s back for support. Hunger swelled up in her again. Alexi didn’t want to feel the way she did. She certainly didn’t want to presume that she could feed on Savanna whenever she wanted. Which was exactly what she had done.
Alexi opened her mouth to apologize but clamped it shut when she heard the swoosh of leather wings from above. A gust of air washed over them that cleared the mist and forced Alexi to lean against it to not be blown over. Before the fog re-asserted its dominance, Alexi saw a vast citadel of stone and metal with little flags that flew at every corner.
Blood Sacrifice (Faith of the Fallen Book 2) Page 12
