Matthew took a quick look at Kearan’s body and shook his head.
Damian and Mark shifted and they all proceeded to look around for a clue as to where Hayden might have gone while they tried to catch their breaths.
“Do you have something of hers?”
Jasper looked at Damian. “Can it be something she gave me?”
“I’m not sure. I can try.”
Jasper took the gold band off of his ring finger and handed it to the sorcerer. Damian closed his eyes, murmured the spell and looked around.
“It’s very weak, but she crossed the river to those woods.” He handed the ring back and the four of them crossed.
The first thing Jasper noticed as they entered the woods was the small limp form lying on the ground. Matthew ran to Emelly and pulled her to his chest.
“Em, love, wake up.” He brushed the dark red bangs out of her eyes and kissed her forehead. A large bump was already forming on her temple where she had been hit. He looked her over quickly to assess her condition. Her arms were scraped and bleeding, there was a bruise in the shape of fingers on her forearm, and her left eye was swelling shut. He checked again, trying to see where the blood soaking into her tunic might be coming from.
Jasper bent and picked up the dagger he had found on the ground. It was the one Matthew had gotten Emelly when they had reached Howel. It was covered in blood.
“Matthew. It’s not hers. I think she got one of them.” He cleaned off the dagger and passed it to his friend.
“Jasper, they have horses.” Steven was looking at the ground where a group of horses had left deep hoof prints in the ground as they made a quick escape.
Jasper swore under his breath. “Matthew, stay with Emelly. Damian, Mark, Steven, you’re with me.” He shifted and followed the hoof prints. He almost tripped as he was overwhelmed with the feeling of fear. It receded quickly and he was able to focus again.
They stopped when the moons were high in the sky. Jasper took the canteen from Mark and took a long drink. When his breathing had slowed enough for him to talk he turned to Damian.
“Two days. They’ll stop for a bit in two days. That’s when we catch up to them.”
“Which means we don’t stop at all.”
Jasper nodded. “When we get close, Steven and Mark, you stay behind. Damian, you’ll come with me. Hayden said Damian shields me from the blast and we live, but I’m not sure if she saw the two of you or not.”
Everyone nodded.
“Let’s see that ring again.” Damian repeated the spell and pointed in the direction the trail led. The four of them shifted and resumed their chase.
*****
The man’s hand connected with my face and my head exploded with pain. I fell backwards and landed on my hands which were tied behind my back.
Good job, Hayden, I thought to myself. Why don’t you piss off a few more of them while you’re at it?
The blond man, who had taken offense when I told him I would rather let a slimy marsh frog feel me up than to have him touch me, stalked toward me and I tried my damnedest not to flinch. I saw him wind up to kick me. I rolled and hooked one of my legs behind the one he was standing on. He fell to the ground with a thump and I was rewarded by the laughter of his friends, which I knew would simply make the beating I was about to receive that much worse.
“Geez, Donny. The woman is tied and she can still kick your ass!”
“Shut up, Tom.”
“Yeah, Tom,” another man joined in. “Is that a black eye I see on your face? Oh, no, wait! That’s two black eyes. That would be because she broke your nose!”
Tom’s nose had had the pleasure of meeting the back of my head after he’d tried to cop a feel while sitting behind me on the horse. The chorus of laughter resumed at Tom’s expense. Thankfully, this turned the attention away from me for the time being.
“Alright, everyone saddle up. We’ll stop for the night after dark. We should be far enough away by then.”
Relief flooded through me. Just a few more hours of this and Jasper and Damian would be here.
“Here, put your foot up.”
I looked up at the dark haired man with hazel eyes. He looked to be in his late thirties. I wasn’t sure what his name was, but he was the only one here who didn’t seem to like watching his friends beat the crap out of me. I noticed his bruised cheek which was not courtesy of me.
He put a hand on my shoulder to steady me and held the stirrup for me. I put a foot into it and swung on as gracefully as I could with no arms. He swung on behind me.
“It’s my turn to ride with you.”
“What did you do to piss them off?”
“I’m not from here.”
“Ah. I see.” I bumped against him as the horses started off at a gallop. He tightened his one arm around me and steered the horse with the other.
“Sorry.”
“About what?”
“I’m usually the one they beat on for fun.”
“Oh.” I frowned. “So you’re letting them take shots at me because it’s giving your face a break?”
“If it makes you feel better, they said you put up a better fight than I do.”
My cheek was still throbbing from the slap to the face. “Oh, yeah. That makes me feel great, thanks.” I concentrated on moving with the horse. “So, what do you think of this place?”
“It’s cracked. Everything here is wrong. God, I miss home.”
“Do you believe in what Braw is trying to do?”
“Oh, definitely. Being able to turn into different things, that’s not right.”
I grunted and made a mental note to make sure and break his nose before the night was over. Cowardly and ignorant were not two of my favourite qualities in a man.
I tried to remember every minute detail of my dream as we travelled. When I got tired of reliving the dream, I sent my love to Jasper so he wouldn’t worry too much about my well being.
The leader of the group, the man who had reminded me of Brice, finally decided we had gone far enough. We came to a halt, my horse’s sides heaving against my legs. The man behind me jumped off and stood by while he waited for me to get off. I swung my leg around so that I was sitting sideways in the saddle. I quickly kicked out and connected with his face as hard as I could with my heel. He cried out and fell to his knees, blood spurting through his fingers.
“What the hell was that for!”
“For being an idiot when I’m having a bad day.” I slid to the ground and went to sit by the tree I knew I needed to be by. I glared at him then felt a bit of regret for my deed. It didn’t last long. I leaned back against the tree and pretended to fall asleep. Someone tied my legs together; I guess they were tired of me putting up a fight. I listened to the conversation I remembered from my dream and heard the men come towards me. The sneering man pushed me over and I felt the first rise of energy start to build deep inside of me. My hands scraped against a rock and the pain caused another flare of energy.
I held it in as long as I could and waited for the rustle of leaves that announced Jasper and Damian’s arrival. My muscles were cramping with the excess energy and my whole body felt on fire. I pushed out as hard as I could and watched as the men in front of me were thrown to the ground then looked to the side to where Jasper and Damian were standing.
Damian fell to his knees, his hands clutching his head. Jasper’s eyes widened and he spun around, a large stab wound in his back.
I fought back the urge to scream, not wanting to distract him. I saw a large branch being swung and Jasper’s head snapped back as it connected. He collapsed to the ground.
Mark stood over him for an instant to make sure he was out then stepped around him and walked toward me. My heart jumped into my throat. I saw Damian try to stand then fall again. Mark cut the ropes from my legs and pulled me up.
“Let’s go, Hayden.”
I kneed him in the groin and ran toward Jasper. I didn’t make it far before I was tackled to the ground. The
air rushed out of my lungs and I gasped, trying to breathe. A small flash of pink caught my attention on the ground and I rolled so that I could grab the stone that had fallen out of my pocket. Mark straddled me just as I closed my fist around it.
“Parker!” I didn’t know if I needed to yell his name or not, but I wasn’t taking any chances that the calling stone wouldn’t work. I felt the small rock warm in my hand and Mark’s eyes widened as a cheetah materialized beside us.
Parker didn’t hesitate before knocking him off of me, his jaws locking on Mark’s throat. The human never got the chance to scream.
Parker shifted and stayed crouched over Mark, ready. His dark brown eyes quickly glanced at me before scanning the woods.
“Miss Hayden.”
“Parker.” I smiled.
“Are there more?”
“There was one look out. I’m not sure if Jasper and Damian took him out or not. I would think that they did.”
Parker nodded and brushed some black bangs out of his face. He knelt beside me and helped me sit up. He cut the ropes from my wrists and I handed him his stone. He shook his head.
“Keep it. You might need it again. I’ll go scout around and make sure there aren’t any more.”
I stood and ran to Jasper and Damian. Damian lay on his back, his arm over his eyes. Jasper was still in a heap, blood soaking into his tunic.
“Damian?” I asked as I knelt beside Jasper.
He groaned. “I’m fine. By the moons, what in the world was that?”
“We’re not sure.” I ran a green wave over Jasper and sighed with relief. “It’s only happened once before when we were crossed over.” I concentrated his energy on the wound and felt it heal.
“It happened in the other world?”
“Hmm hmm. There’s not supposed to be any kind of magic there, but whatever this is, it can happen there.” I moved to Jasper’s head.
“It’s not anything I’ve ever felt before. I would remember that.”
“We think it might be the leftover power from Braw’s staff. The Gysps told Marilynn I’m cursed until the staff is destroyed.”
I pushed the green wave where it was needed then brushed the hair out of Jasper’s face. I bent down and kissed him softly. He slowly opened his eyes, frowned and put a hand up to my cheek.
“You could have warned me, Shlova.”
I leaned my face into his palm. “You can’t honestly believe I knew you were going to get stabbed and knocked out and that I didn’t tell you.”
He smiled, pulled me down and wrapped his arms around me. I listened to his heart beat. Parker walked back into sight.
“I found this one trying to get up. He claims he’s with you.”
“Steven!” I got up and jogged over to him. His head was bleeding from a gash on his temple. I pulled him down so he was kneeling and focused the green wave on his head. He jerked and groaned.
“By the moons, Steven, I’d say you were just as surprised as I was.” Jasper grinned at him from his position on the ground.
Steven ran a hand through his white blond hair which had turned pink with the blood. “Bastard.” He looked from one dead human to the other. “Did they fight?”
“Hmmm?” I glanced around. “Oh. No. I did that.”
“One black eye, two broken noses, and the broken finger too?” Parker was taking inventory of all the injuries. I nodded and Jasper sat up to see what Parker was looking at.
“That explains why you look the way you do, then.” He sighed. “Anything broken?”
I shook my head. “I might have a couple of bruised ribs, but nothing else. My face is a little sore.” I turned to the man who had taught Jasper almost everything he knew.
“I hope you weren’t in the middle of anything important, Parker. I can’t thank you enough.”
“I was just stuck in another boring meeting. We were actually just planning the last of the preparations and getting ready to march out. Your blue bird got there two days ago.” He looked at Jasper. “Hitting them from the north is one hell of an idea.”
“So you need to get back? I can’t do displacement spells and I’m not sure if Damian is up to it yet.”
Damian lifted his head off of the ground, groaned and laid back down. Parker shook his head.
“Derrick has his orders. He knows what to do.”
We all looked up to the sound of wing beats overhead.
Hayden?
“Down here, Dodge!”
My horse angled back toward us and landed. Matthew hopped off and helped Emelly off, carrying her over to us.
“I didn’t know what to do. She wakes up, but then she falls asleep again.” He sat on the ground and cradled her against his chest.
I ran the green wave over her and put a hand on his shoulder.
“She’ll be fine. She just has a really bad concussion.” I pushed the wave into her then switched waves and pushed a bit of my own energy into her for good measure. She jerked under my hands and Matthew pulled her close. Emelly hugged him tightly.
“You’re hard on a man’s nerves, Em,” he whispered hoarsely.
Jasper chuckled and I went to sit with him. I leaned back against him.
“And you, Hun, you are hard on a woman’s nerves.”
“Hey, now! You managed to get yourself abducted first.”
“God, what are we going to do when this is all done and over with?” I looked back at him and grinned. “We’ll be bored.”
Everyone laughed.
I think I could handle bored for a while. Dodge nuzzled me and I petted his nose.
“Me too, Buddy. Me too.”
Jasper stood and pulled me up. “Let’s take care of these bodies and set up camp.”
While the men moved all of the dead into a pile, Emelly and I set up the blankets and started the fire. I set a few extra bags under Damian so he was propped up and could see what was going on.
“How are you doing?”
“I think I need a good night’s sleep and I’ll be fine.”
Jasper appeared holding a small cup of jeckden and handed it to Damian who took the shot and nodded.
“Thank you.”
“No, thank you.” Jasper put a hand on the sorcerer’s arm before standing. We sat down and passed the bottle of jeckden around.
“So, Emelly.” I looked across the fire to her. “What the hell happened?”
“We went for firewood. Kearan, Mark and I. Mark said he’d seen some really nice logs by the edge of the woods. I thought, well, there were three of us.” She looked up at Matthew apologetically. “When we reached the field there were six or seven men waiting for us. One of them knocked me on the head and threw me over his shoulder. I wasn’t unconscious, just dazed. I saw Kearan and Mark running up the hill and I thought it was great that they had gotten away.” She closed her eyes and leaned against Matthew’s arm. “When they reached the top, Mark grabbed her, pushed her toward the edge. She fought back, but he pushed her down and it looked like she might have hit her head. He pushed her again and she screamed.” She shook her head, tears running down her face. Matthew pulled her against him.
“Shush, now.”
“When they got me across the river I managed to get loose, but one of them tackled me. I got my dagger out. It’s like a blur. I’m not even sure what happened.”
“We think you got at least one of them.” Matthew brushed the hair out of her face. “You did good.” She shook her head.
“No, I didn’t. They left, or I thought they did. I saw Hayden and I called out to her. By the moons, Hayden, I’m sorry! I should have known better.”
I got up and hugged her tight.
“I’m so sorry”
“It’s ok. Who knows what they would have done to you if they hadn’t gotten their hands on me.”
“But look at you! The whole left side of your face is black and blue! Plus there’s your ribs; I can tell they’re sore.”
I smiled. “If it makes you feel any better, your face didn
’t look much better than mine does before I healed you.”
I looked across the fire at Jasper who was talking with Parker. He laughed and shrugged then seemed to go into some sort of explanation. He looked in my direction and smiled when he caught me looking at him. I smiled back. I got up to check on Damian who was snoring quietly. A green wave revealed he was doing fine and I expected him to be mobile again by morning.
Dodge looked up from the patch of grass he had found.
“Hey, Buddy.”
How are you doing?
“Oh, I’m a bit sore. I’ve been worse. How did you find us?”
I remembered you said in your dream you had been travelling for two days when Jasper caught up to you. Since you had said the trees had green leaves, I knew you weren’t in the Blue Woods and that you hadn’t made it to the Wedelven River. Plus I was sure that they would take the long way around to the west since they would be pretty stupid to go anywhere near Sageden. His laughter rang in my head. Honestly, I was just lucky. Though it helps that I can feel which direction you’re in.
I hugged his neck and gave him a pat. “Well, I’m glad you made it. It’ll be nice to ride a good horse tomorrow.”
He laughed. That one they put you on was a bit rough, was it?
“Ugh. It was like riding an egg beater.” I rubbed his ear. “There was something I was meaning to talk to you about. It’s not for certain, mind you. Just something Jasper and I have been discussing.”
He nodded.
“We’ve been thinking that maybe we would go back once this is all done. Cross over for good. I mean, we’d come back to visit and stuff, but we would buy a place there. If that happened…”
I would come.
“But you would lose your wings.”
He swished his tail. Hayden, I’ve only had my wings for two years. I’ve had you for fifteen, almost sixteen years now? Besides, if I get the urge, I can always cross back over and go for a rip.
I burst out laughing. “You’ve had me? I seem to recall you were my birthday present.”
He snorted. And you were mine to watch over from the moment I was born. He nuzzled my face. I go where you go, Hayden.
I hugged him tightly. “Ok. But it’s not for sure.”
Destiny (The Chosen One Trilogy:Book Three) Page 14
