by Jaymin Eve
Lina and Cerberus wandered up to us and stood to the side.
I glanced at my faithful hound. “What’s up, Cere? Are you two planning on coming to Dronish with us?”
Both of his heads nodded at me while his four eyes locked in with that intensity which I was coming to see was all animal.
“But won’t they feel your energy?” I said, looking from the hellhound to the unicorn.
And then, I swear they looked at each other and started laughing. They didn’t really make a noise. It was more about how their heads jerked around and snorts emerged.
“Are they laughing at you?” Fury said as she stepped forward. “That’s freaking awesome.”
I couldn’t help my own smile. Even though at times they were ferocious beasts, they were also pretty adorable. “I think we better gather some information on our animals also.”
Josian was supposed to have helped us, but he was busy at the moment.
As a group we wandered across the grassed area and into the wide open entrance of the Doreen war council tent. I was having some trouble with the fact that my father was no longer the princeps. I wasn’t sure what this new leader was going to demand of his people. I hoped he wasn’t the same sort of crazy dictator as Que, but to think that someone thought they had the power to control me was … well, crazy. I was no one’s sheep. I would not cow down to anyone. If you wanted to lead me, you needed to gain my respect. I didn’t know this new leader, so for now I would lead myself, utilizing the wise council of my friends and family.
Okay, I wasn’t great with authority.
Five men and three women were in the room. They were scattered between two tables, scrolls and maps and parchments spread out in every direction. A board was erected at the back of the space, with images and information pinned to it.
Eight pairs of eyes locked on us when we entered. The largest of the men, who had been standing near the board, narrowed his eyes at me.
He straightened and stepped closer, stopping about three feet from us. “Don’t bother to announce yourselves. Just stroll right on in.” His tone was hard, biting as it washed over me. And straight away it had my energy roiling inside. “Now get out of the tent and follow protocol.”
“I’m sorry, what?” Fury said. “Did I just hear you correctly?”
She turned astonished gray eyes onto my face, but before I could verbalize my own version of ‘what the eff?’, Cerberus was suddenly huge, filling the tent, and both of his heads were doing that ominous growl which reverberated along the ground and had every hair on my body standing on end.
Guess he didn’t like rude-ass Walkers either.
The man, who had dark-red hair, not as potent as my own but in the same shade, took a step back. I knew it was Gerry. I could feel the mantle of leadership on him now, even though there hadn’t been time for an official ceremony. Besides, who else would think they could come at us so aggressively?
“Cere.” My voice was calm as I laid a gentle hand on his leg. He was filling most of the space in the tent. Luckily the ceiling was high or he’d have knocked it down on top of us. “It’s okay, no need to eat him just yet.” I settled my eyes – which I’m sure were as hard as the emerald stones they mimicked – on the arrogant man.
“I’m not sure what you think your role in our life is, but I’m … we’re not one of your subjects.” I let some of my power leak into the room as I spoke, and I wasn’t the only one. Tendrils of fire, water, earth, and air trickled along with my own. “We’re original powers, half-Walkers with a far bigger responsibility than princeps of a Walker clan. You will show us respect, or I’ll do everything in my power to remove you from leadership.”
And I would.
Rightfully it should be Josian here. Due to unfortunate circumstances I was stuck with this unknown leader during a time of war. Which was a right old pain in the ass.
He swallowed hard. His breathing increased for a few moments as he debated what he was going to say. I knew he wanted to slam me down, put me in what he thought was my rightful place, but … he was hesitating. Which told me everything. He wasn’t sure he could take us on. I could guarantee he was no match.
“Why have you come here?” he finally said. “I mean, what can we help you with?”
Much better. I exchanged a glance with Fury. She was grinning from ear to ear.
Ria was the one to answer. “We need information on Dronish and on the sacred animals.”
I had no problem with the Regali half stepping in. I wasn’t the leader of the half-Walkers; we were a team. I might have called some of the shots in the past, but we were all powerful in our own right. And I respected the hell out of every single one of my friends.
Gerry’s lips thinned as he gathered a few papers. “I have to leave, but the others will fill you in on any information you need.”
He edged past Cerberus and strode out of the tent opening, no doubt the only action he had right then to take a little bit of power back. The moment he disappeared from sight my hellhound shrunk back to his horse size and took his place beside Lina.
A beautiful woman who had been standing near the largest table dropped the papers in her hands. “Sorry about Gerry,” she said as she started to move. The light filtering through the tent highlighted the purple streaks in her black hair. “I’m Heidi, and I’m happy to fill you in on both the sacred animals and Dronish.”
Striding over to us, the long-legged female Walker indicated we should exit the tent. It was time to gather some information.
Chapter 6
We were standing in the shade of the large temporary shelter. We had to watch our words, as there were many milling around in hearing range. Not that any of this information was classified, but still, we erred on the side of caution.
Heidi wasted no time. Her mild accent was easy to understand even with the rapid chatter she seemed fond of. “The sacred animals are built of original energies. They’ll bond with each of you half-Walkers and they’ll be a source of protection. They’re each strong, powerful, and absolutely lethal if you wrong them.” She glanced at our two beautiful creatures. “Don’t underestimate them because they stand here looking domesticated. They’re the very definition of wild and won’t hesitate to deliver swift and brutal death to any that threaten their Walker.”
“Can they come to Dronish with us?” Delane asked. “Or will their energy be detected?”
The edges of Heidi’s lips curved into the slightest grin. “They’ll not be detected unless they want to be. You don’t have to worry. They can be whatever you need them to be. Take them with you wherever you go now. They can hold their own even against the Seventine. They’re a gift and it’s only by the grace of the mother that they’ve come back to us.”
It was probably in response to the lalunas overstepping their place in the star system.
I wondered why Cerberus had never left pixie land. I had no doubt now that there had not been enough power to hold him there, so why had he stayed? Was there a reason we were yet to uncover? Or had he been waiting for me? It couldn’t be a coincidence that it was only after I found him that the other animals started to appear.
“What are the other sacred animals?” Fury asked.
And I could just see that she was hoping she’d get something big and badass as a companion. Probably a dragon, knowing her. A match for Dune’s dragoona.
“I can’t tell you. They change shape and structure over the years. What they were at the beginning isn’t what they’ll be in the end.”
Helpful.
“And Dronish; not a lot is known of this world anymore. Walkers can’t occupy their world for too long or we’re mobbed by literally thousands of the inhabitants. They’re vampires of a sort. They drain the life-energy of others to survive. Parasitic in nature, when their hunger overcomes them they lose all reason.”
Talina’s emerald hair wrapped comfortingly around her as she entered the conversation. “What is the climate of the world? What do we need to prepare ourse
lves?”
“They’ve drained the energy of all but one moon,” Heidi said. “So it’s dark, freezing and there’s not much oxygen, but you’ll have enough initially and your bodies will adjust quickly enough. The inhabitants – Drones – are … different. You’ll be immediately recognizable as aliens.”
“What do you mean: different?” I narrowed my eyes at her.
They weren’t going to be real vampires, right? With fangs. Surely that had been created on Earth.
Heidi shook her head. “They have only one eye, and a long sucker which extends out from their mouths and attaches to whatever they’re draining.”
Great, I’d prefer the fangs. And could I have a minute here to say … what the eff?
“I would recommend using a hood or cloak that hides your faces. Since they’re a secretive and sneaky race, they won’t find this odd.”
And it would help with the cold.
“How’re we going to find this half?” Talina’s brown eyes were so wide they looked huge. “This world sounds like it’s going to be the most difficult.”
“Actually,” I said, “I have a bit of a plan this time. When I tether to all of you I can feel the other unknown girls there. I think that if I’m close enough I might be able to trace where the power is coming from. So providing we don’t get mobbed and captured …”
I trailed off, and Heidi jumped in to speak again.
“I’ve seen you all use your power together once – very impressive, by the way – and that type of energy will be felt by every Drone in no time. I would make sure you’re not too close to the main city, and don’t stay tethered for long.”
Delane interrupted. “The most time-efficient path would be for us to call all of these … Drones by using our power. Then when we have them all there, we’ll easily find the half-Walker. She’ll look different.”
Fury threw her hands in the air. “Yes, but how do you plan on getting her to leave without us all being suckered by their little … sucker things? We need time to explain everything to her, convince her that she needs to help us.”
“And hope like hell she’s not as difficult as Fury was,” Talina snorted.
Fury flipped her off but didn’t argue. She knew she’d been an asshat.
I wasn’t sure what way to go with finding the Dronish half. This was the sort of thing that I usually decided on the spot. I was a bit of a ‘wing it and hope for the best’ kind of Walker. Which was not something that sat easily with Delane or Ria. They were strategic … planners. Talina and Fury were different again. The Spurnian was flexible, go-with-the-flow, and she trusted me implicitly. The Crais half was hotheaded. She always threw herself in without thought.
“I’m sorry, I’ve no idea how to help you with that decision,” Heidi said. “But I wish you all the luck. We’ll continue the fight back here.”
I reached out and halted her before she left. “What’s Gerry’s problem? He should have no grief with us yet.”
She pursed her lips, her eyes roaming my features. Finally she answered. “He doesn’t feel that he rightfully earned the mantle of Princeps. Gaining the leadership in this manner, especially from someone like Josian, who’s so beloved, well, it’s made him overcompensate in trying to bring all of Doreen under his command.” She rubbed at her forehead in a rapid movement. “He hasn’t said anything, of course, but my guess is that he’s afraid that no one will take him seriously, respect him. So he’s kind of going off the deep end.”
She turned her head to take us all in again. “And you five are really outside of any command. We all know that in the end you trump us, which he’s fighting against.”
She shrugged and there was so much written in that movement, so many unspoken words.
“Good luck. I wish you the best on this voyage.” She went back into the tent.
“Well,” Ria said, looking around, “looks like we’re going to need some coats.”
I loved the way they voiced no further concerns about the new Doreen princeps. I could feel that the half-Walkers agreed with Heidi. He did not control us. No one controlled us. I just had to make sure our masses of power never went to our heads. We couldn’t lose our good intentions; we had to stay grounded. Which, considering the level of power each half-Walker added to our group, was going to get harder in the next little while.
Less than an hour later we were ready to leave again. We’d procured very long, thick, heavily insulated hooded coats. And also gloves, boots and thermal underclothes. Right then, on First World, I was sweating my butt off, but apparently even with all the layers we’d still be cold on Dronish. On top of that we were strapped down with weapons. Which was Delane’s contribution to the outfits. Apparently you can never have enough weapons.
I glanced at the other four. “You all ready?” I could not make out their faces buried deep in the heavy hoods, but the nods answered my question.
Cerberus and Lina both let loose their calls: one was a bark, the other like a horse’s whinny. I took that as agreement that they were ready too.
I retrieved the mental image that had been gifted to me earlier by Brace. Arotia, the last city of Dronish. This was where all the surviving Drones should be, our best bet to find the half. I called a doorway and it appeared before us. The dark, scary vortex was familiar territory now, and as a group we stepped forward to traverse the vacuum. I didn’t hesitate to make the final leap out into the unknown. Dronish. The vampire planet.
Here we come.
On the other side it took a few moments for my senses to adjust. It was so cold that it literally felt like there was no warmth at all in this land. The air was heavy and musty, and on top of that it was so dark that at first I couldn’t see anything. But eventually my eyes adjusted – Walkers could adapt to anything – and I started to see the world before us. I had opened the doorway just off to the side of Brace’s image of Arotia. It was a strange-looking town, small and circular with a large wall surrounding it in a protective manner.
From our vantage point – outside and up on a slight incline – there looked to be only ten or eleven large buildings inside the barriers. They towered high into the air, similar to the skyscrapers that had once dominated New York City. Cerberus trotted next to me, and just as I was about to reach out and pat him, he started to shrink. He continued, getting smaller than I’d ever seen him go before … smaller than a normal-size dog ... then smaller than a kitten.
Eventually he stopped; he was about the size of a little bird. Crouching down, I held out a hand to him, and he ran up my arm and rested inside my coat on my shoulder. Sort of snuggled into the crook of my neck. Hidden by the huge hood.
“Unbelievable.” Fury’s voice sounded from a cloak to my right. “He’s undetectable now.”
I glanced over at Delane. Lina was no longer at her side; she must have shrunk too. No wonder Heidi wasn’t worried about our animals going with us. These creatures were even more adaptable than Walkers.
Ria’s voice was shaky as she stumbled closer to me. “This world is more than cold. There’s almost no plant life here. I want to call them to me, but I barely feel an iota of a living environment.”
“I’m guessing they need more warmth and sustenance than that sliver of moon is providing.” Talina pointed toward the smallest speck of moon.
We spun around as Delane took off to the side. In a flash of movement she had her sword in her hand. As we started to follow her, I pulled my own samurai-style sword free, a weapon I was proficient in but had never had much training.
Delane was fast, pulling ahead.
We continued to follow as she cleared a few of the planes and came up on the side of a mountain. It was here that she dropped down and started to move on her forearms and knees. Army-style crawl. The dark cloak blended her right into the ground.
The four of us followed, getting low to the dehydrated ground also. I knew I wasn’t the only one wondering what the hell the Angelica was doing. But as I continued climb-crawling and my head rose over the to
p of the crest, it all became startlingly clear.
Shit.
Delane had ears like a goddamn eagle. She’d heard the sounds of battle that none of us had even remotely picked up. The Drones were at war, and I mean majorly at war. There seemed to be a mass of fighting going on. It was weird, though. They didn’t have any weapons, instead they were …
“Oh, my freaking giddy Earon.” Talina burst out. “What the hell is that thing that just came out of its mouth?”
We could see them quite well from where we were positioned. Some of them drifted close to our spot as they fought amongst each other. Heidi’s description of them was all too clear, but despite knowing of the sucker and single eye, seeing it was an entirely different thing.
Of any of the planets, the inhabitants of Dronish were the strangest I’d seen, and that included the Spurnian fish people. The Drones were tall and thin, that ultra, ultra thin, without one ounce of shape, muscle or tone. Almost as if they were just skin draped over a piece of cardboard. They wore long shapeless sheets over their bodies, leaving their heads and arms exposed.
Their skin was translucent, which meant I could see there wasn’t much beneath it in the way of blood or organs. Some – I guessed they were the males – had weird stones embedded into their bald heads. The other more feminine ones had these random tufts of hair on their heads. Oh, and they had just one large, blood-red eye. But the final and most disturbing piece of the freakish cake was the tongue-like projection which extended from their mouths. When they attacked, this sucker would attach to whoever they were battling. That was how they fought, with their tongues.
Gross! And on top of gross: what the eff?
I held my breath as I watched one such attachment scene right in front of us. Within moments the one who had the tongue attached stopped struggling, before fading right out and collapsing into nothing. Pretty much disappearing right into the black sheet. The other one, who was rolling his ‘tongue’ back into his mouth, was suddenly flush and full of life. Slicks of oil seem to roll right off its weird-ass face. Right, well the vampire name was starting to make sense, but I guessed it wasn’t blood these suckers were after. Energy.
