by Sophia Sharp
“What about my family?” Nora asked.
“They’ll recognize you,” Madison said gently. “After all, you’re still you. They might be taken aback by some of the visual changes, at first, but they’ll recognize you. I know it.”
“Are you…” Nora began, “are you speaking from personal experience?”
Madison sighed, and her eyes became heavy. “Nora, you have to understand, back when I was transformed…well, if I had come home, let’s just say I wouldn’t have gotten a hero’s welcome. It was a different time then, compared to now. There would have been no way I could have done it.” She sighed, a deep, sad sigh. “I…kept tabs on my family after the transformation, though. As time went on, I watched them age and wither, while I stayed exactly the same. It was a difficult time.” She glanced at Alexander, who was watching her closely. “Luckily, I had someone beside me then.” She flashed him a small smile. “And as the years passed and took their toll, I watched as each of my family members died. One by one. First it was my father, and my mother not long after. Less than two decades later, it was my sister, and a few years after that my two brothers. I came to each of their funerals, but kept myself out of sight. Watching your loved ones die like that, and knowing there is nothing you can do… It’s one of the most painful experiences I’ve ever had.”
“I’m sorry,” Nora said slowly. “I didn’t realize—”
“That’s alright,” Madison said, cutting her off. “There’s a reason I’m telling you this. I know you’re anxious to see your family, to let them know you’re alright. And I don’t blame you. But if I were you, I would consider leaving them in peace. They already lost you once – if you show up, only to leave again, they would lose you twice. That’s not a burden you want to impart upon them, I’m certain. And being the way you are, the only choice for you is to leave them again, a second time. If you go now, or within a year, or within two – whenever we finish what we set out to do – all you would be doing is reopening old wounds. Time heals all, they say, but not even time can make a family forget their lost daughter. Not if she comes back only to leave again. And so, I don’t think seeing your family is ever going to be an option for you. For their sake, if nothing else.”
“Wow,” Nora breathed. “I didn’t… I mean, I never…considered…it like that.” A great sadness overtook her. Did this mean she could never see her family again? Could never hear her sister’s laugh, could never smell her mother’s cooking? Could never be woken up on her birthday before the crack of dawn by her parents and sister parading into her room and singing “Happy Birthday” at the top of their lungs? When Nora left Vancouver with Hunter, being chased after by the packs of Vassiz, never once did it cross her mind that it could have been the last time she would see her family ever. But what Madison said did make sense. Could she really be selfish enough to subject her father and mother to losing her twice? Could she look her little sister in the eye after so long only to tell her they would never see each other again?
“I’m sorry, Nora,” Madison said. “I did not mean to upset you. The power to choose lies in your hands, of course, but I’m only speaking from experience.”
“Of course,” Nora said softly. She felt her eyes grow moist and looked away. Up ahead, Hunter was still picking his way through the trees, keeping watch in front for any danger. She yearned desperately to run up to him and have him hold her in his arms and tell her everything was going to be alright. But with Madison and Alexander right there…she had to be strong. Whether she liked it or not, she had been thrust into the leadership role of their entire group, thanks to that cryptic prophecy that Gabrielle told her of, and she couldn’t allow herself to be weak-willed, not in front of everybody who depended on her.
Brushing at her eyes quickly with the back of her hand, she stood up straighter and focused on the road ahead. They were still so far from having accomplished what they set out to do, and that was what she should be focusing on.
“All right,” she told Madison. “Thank you for…telling me.”
“Of course,” Madison said gently. “What you do with the information is up to you.”
“Right. But – now we need to focus on getting to Egypt. And before that, on finding Jacob.”
“Perfect,” Madison said, and Nora could tell by the tone of her voice that she understood Nora wanted to move on from their previous conversation. “Like I said before…”
Nora listened as Madison outlined her plan for meeting with Jacob. They had already gone over the plan in its entirety while they were waiting for Rafael, but it never hurt to go over things more than once. The plan thus far was for them to check into a hotel in the downtown core as soon as they got to Portland. From there, Madison would reach out to Jacob and arrange a meeting in a busy location the next day – the mall, or a park, or something of that nature. While she did that, Nora and Hunter would disguise themselves as best as possible to avoid recognition.
Next, assuming they got to the hotel without any trouble – a big if in Nora’s mind – Madison would return to give them all the location of her meeting with Jacob. They would stake out the place ahead of time and find spots where all of them could wait. Madison would make the suggestion to Jacob of where they had to go – the mere hint of a suggestion – and if he showed any signs of recoil, she would get out of there – fast.
However, if he seemed to be listening to her, and did not seem completely appalled by what she was saying, she would tell him to meet them all later that night.
“…and that’s how we can get to Egypt,” Madison finished. “Just like we planned.”
“Great,” Nora said. Just then, she noticed Hunter motioning from up ahead for them to come to him. He had stopped and appeared tense as he waited by a thick tree.
Chapter Sixteen
~A Gust of Wind~
Nora was the first to reach Hunter.
“What is it?” she asked.
“Tracks.” He pointed up ahead into the thick undergrowth. At first glance, Nora couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary, but then she noticed a single bunch of twisted grass blades. And then another bunch, not far off. And then more, and more, going on and on just like footprints in the snow. Except that whatever – or whoever – had made these was walking very lightly on its feet.
Alexander was next to arrive. Taking one look at Hunter, and glancing briefly at Nora, he directed his attention immediately to where the two of them were looking. He nodded to himself as he saw what they saw.
“Who do you think did it?” Nora asked.
“Not sure,” Hunter replied quietly, “but whoever it was, they were here very recently. Otherwise I wouldn’t have picked the tracks up.”
“How recently?” Nora asked, feeling a growing sense of apprehension.
“Fifteen minutes ago, maybe less.” Hunter looked to the side as Madison arrived. “Madison should be able to tell us more.”
“You’re right,” she said, after taking a few moments to look at the broken grass. “Whoever it was, we barely missed them.”
“Do you think…” Nora gulped and lowered her voice even more, “…do you think it was more of the Vassiz?”
“Could very well be,” Hunter answered. “We’ll have to step warily from now—”
He cut off as a black gust of something swept in rapidly from the side to engulf him completely. And just as fast as it had appeared, it was gone. Before Nora even had time to react, much less think, Hunter was missing.
“Hunt—” Nora started to yell, twisting around to look behind her. But then something hard knocked into her side and sent her flying. As she flew, dazed from the unexpected attack, she saw the same black gust appear very quickly around Madison to whisk her away, and almost immediately after, around Alexander. And both of them were gone.
Nora hit the trunk of a tree with tremendous force. Her shoulder slammed into the bark, and she cried out as a stinging pain ran up and down her arm. But she had no time to worry about pain. As she fell to the gr
ound, her Vassiz instincts kicked in – really kicked in, like she was back in the thrill of a hunt – and she righted her fall, landing deftly on her feet.
Her first reaction was to figure out what was attacking her, and from where. She had to know the threat. All her senses opened up to let in the stimulation of the surrounding world, and she surveyed everything around her. She saw nothing at first. She strained her ears, but not even the sound of the wind rustling through the dried forest leaves could be heard. She looked to all sides, up into the trees, and down into the brush for the threat. There was nothing.
What was that shadow? She didn’t know. But she knew it had taken Hunter, Madison, and Alexander. Even though the darkness didn’t touch her, something did, and she had no idea what it was. It moved so fast she didn’t see anything, even as it slammed into her side.
She scanned the ground in front of her. Everything was so eerily quiet. Too quiet. Suddenly, she realized something – where was Gray?
Discretion wasn’t on her side. Whoever had attacked her group knew they were there, so it wouldn’t do much good sneaking around trying to avoid notice. Gray had been behind them right before they found the tracks…
If it were the Vassiz attacking her, they wouldn’t have picked up on Gray. Which meant he should still be here, somewhere. But she couldn’t even hear him.
As fast as she could, she dashed back toward where Gray had been. Before she had even taken three steps, she saw him.
He was about thirty feet away, staring strangely right at her. Or maybe through her? It was like he couldn’t see her at all. Abruptly, he lifted his paw and swiped at something in front of him with immense force. At the same time, he roared – but Nora didn’t hear anything. His paw hit…something…and rebounded back hard. Nora blinked. There was nothing there.
Gray stood on his hind legs and again tried to paw against whatever was in front of him. Again, his limb rebounded back as if he had hit a concrete wall.
Nora ran toward him. Just as she was about to reach him, she slammed head-first into an unforgiving surface. She fell back, rebounding from the invisible barrier like she’d just run full-steam into a solid wall. She’d run with such speed that it took her a few moments to shake away the pain – and the shock – that had come from hitting the wall. It was like a barrier of air had been somehow set up, hard as rock and completely invisible.
She got to her feet, and keeping her hands extended in front of her, she walked over slowly to the place where she’d slammed into the barrier. She stood only a few feet in front of Gray, but as close as she was to him, he made no sign that he noticed her. In fact, he now had both his front paws leaning against the outside of the imperceptible wall that separated them. The way his paws pressed up against it reminded Nora of a glass dome.
She reached out carefully with her hand to where his paw was. And about two inches before she could reach him, she felt the surface again. The same hard, invisible material she had run straight into. It was cold, but completely smooth. She ran her hand along it, and realized it was slightly curved. By the feel of the curve, she could say that she was on the inside of the barrier. She looked up toward the sky. She could see the clouds as clearly as before, but…every once in a while, she caught a bit of a shimmer running across where she guessed the top of the surrounding dome would be. It was like someone had placed an enormous glass bowl over her. She didn’t know how big it was, but suspected the barrier was solid all the way around. Which meant she was trapped.
She heard a noise behind her and whipped around. It wasn’t noise from close by, she realized, but rather, from farther away. From right about where Hunter had found those tracks. And it sounded like somebody moving through the trees.
Quickly, Nora ran to a nearby tree trunk and pressed herself against it. She moved silently, with more grace than whoever was trampling through the woods.
She tried to get a sense of who was making the noise. She could do it, she knew, based only on the sound waves that they produced and her instinctual understanding of them. She had done it once before, when she and Hunter came across the hunter and found Gray. But as hard as she tried, she couldn’t quite get the same grasp on it as before. It was like there was an…interference…that blocked her from figuring it out.
But she could tell they were still quite a ways away. She snuck a peek from around the tree she was using as cover, and seeing no one, bolted to another tree closer to the source of the noise. She was extremely careful not to make a sound – she didn’t know who her attackers were, but she had seen what they did to her friends.
She could tell by the direction of the noise that whoever was making the sound was not moving toward her, but rather to the side. Good. It meant they didn’t know where she was yet.
Just as she was about to step out from the tree to stalk a little closer, she heard a voice, hushed but still clear to her ears.
“Where on hell’s earth did she go?” It was a man’s voice, although not particularly deep.
“I don’t know,” another voice answered. The second voice was also a man’s and irritatingly grating. By the tone, it sounded like the owner of the second voice was subservient to the owner of the first.
“Dammit man, she’s the only one we need!”
“I know, I know. But I did exactly what I was told to do!”
“How hard was it,” the first voice growled, “to capture one little girl, when I took care of all the rest?”
“It wasn’t like that,” the second voice contended. “The pendant…it should have worked against her.”
“It worked when I used it against the others.”
“I know! But it didn’t with her. Maybe mine’s defective.”
“They’re the same bloody thing!”
“Then I don’t know what happened. It just didn’t work against her.”
“What the hell do you mean it didn’t work on her? She’s a bloody Vassiz for Christ’s sake, and the device works against all of them. All of them!”
“You don’t need to remind me,” the second voice answered sourly. “We’ll find her. It’s not like she could have gone far, not with the little surprise we put up.”
“Right.” Nora heard a chuckle from the owner of the first voice. “She’s in here somewhere. Probably cowering in fear after seeing what happened to her friends. Hah! Just wait until she figures out what will happen to her…”
Nora stopped listening, and let the voices drown out. She was cowering in fear, was she? She would show them the truth of that. But first, she had to figure out what these…pendants…were, that the two men mentioned.
She waited as the sound of movement shifted away from her. Whatever the pendants did, they did not seem to give her attackers a greater ability to track her. Good. If she was careful, she could still take them by surprise.
Slowly, she moved away from her spot by the tree. She crouched low, careful to let the top of the shrubs and bushes hide her. The two men were still walking together – two Vassiz, if she didn’t know any better – and they were still going in the wrong direction. She needed to get closer, to take a look at them. Had they been responsible for the black cloud, or was that someone else? What else could be hunting her in this domed trap?
Chances were there’d be no escape from the inside of the barrier without confronting her attackers. But if she could just find Hunter, Alexander, and Madison, see that they were still alive…
No. Nora shook her head. They had to be alive.
Carefully, Nora picked her way through the trees toward her pursuers. And slowly, little by little, she began to get closer to them. Every now and then, she picked up on bits of conversation:
…
“Maybe she got away?”
“Impossible. She was right there when we set the barrier.”
…
“Well, where can she be then?”
“Just keep looking. Keep your eyes peeled for any movement.”
…
And so on and so f
orth. Her attackers were so completely preoccupied with looking for her, it hadn’t occurred to either that she might be looking for them.
Suddenly she heard them stop. She dropped to the ground silently, praying she hadn’t been seen.
“Did you hear that?” one of them asked.
“Hear what?”
“I thought there was something…behind us.”
Nora’s heart jumped to her throat. Had they heard her? She couldn’t remember making any discernable noise, but she had let her mind wander for that brief moment…
“Like what?”
“I don’t know. But I was sure I heard something there.”
“Well, let’s take a look.”
Nora’s pulse started to race. She heard the two men turn around and move toward her. She didn’t think they’d seen her just yet, but if they came closer, she had nowhere to hide. With a renewed sense of purpose, she started to crawl on all fours to an area where the forest thickened. If she could get to the denser area in time, she might escape notice…
They were walking back, moving faster than before. Nora crawled along the ground, scampering to get away. Her clothes caught on the twigs and sticks that littered the forest floor, and she couldn’t avoid leaving a track. If the two men were focused, there would be no way they could miss her.
Suddenly, less than a dozen feet away from her, Nora heard something small scamper through the bush. It was some sort of animal and had jolted away at a dead run.
Her pursuers heard it too.
“A damn squirrel?” one of them growled. “You turned us around for a squirrel?”
“I told you I heard something,” the other countered. “How should I know it’d be a rodent?”
“Next time,” the other one continued, in a heated tone, “you need to be sure you’re not wasting our time chasing squirrels!” Nora heard him turn away noisily and start back into the forest farther away. The other one followed.
Nora lowered herself onto her belly and rested her forehead on her folded hands. After a few seconds, she breathed a deep sigh of relief. Saved from discovery by a squirrel. Who would have thought?
