“On how ridiculous or idiotic it is,” I replied.
“I like to consider myself more on the creative side,” Zeriel said, then discreetly moved closer to my side.
The back of his hand gently brushed against mine, in passing. It sent an electric jolt through my entire body. My heart jumped into my throat, and my muscles stiffened from the shock. The effect that his touch had on me was simply mindboggling.
“I’m now afraid to ask what it is you have in mind,” I murmured.
I didn’t even realize how close his lips were to my ear, until he whispered his reply, and I felt his hot breath against my skin. “You shouldn’t be. I think you’d actually love it.”
At that point, I should’ve kept my cool and changed the subject, or maybe dug even deeper and found out what he had in mind. But I lost it. For no apparent reason, I lost control.
“Nah, I’m cool with not knowing!” I blurted out, and raised my hand to wave him away.
My fingertips vibrated. Something happened, as the winds howled through the trees, making their crowns shiver and rattle. A sudden gust smacked Zeriel so hard, he basically flew away. He yelped as he was tossed through the air, then grunted when he hit a nearby tree.
The group came to a screeching halt. I froze, covering my mouth with both hands to stop myself from shrieking. I’d done that! I’d swatted Zeriel away like a rag doll, without any intention in the first place. My powers were definitely off, and surely connected to my emotions. There was no doubt about that anymore.
It scared me, but at the same time, I felt a sliver of relief, as I’d managed to at least identify one of the factors that influenced these strange fluctuations in my elemental abilities. In the meantime, however, I had something more important to worry about. I’d just thrown the Tritone king up in the air. Again.
He lay on his side, groaning from the pain. He’d hit his back against the burly tree. I was petrified and unable to move, just staring at him.
“What happened?” Rose asked, genuinely baffled.
Amane and Kallisto giggled, then rushed over to the side and helped Zeriel get up.
“I’m so, so sorry,” I croaked, my voice trembling.
Zeriel looked at me, both eyebrows arched upward in surprise. “I don’t know what happened. Did you just slap me?”
Elonora laughed. “Nah. The wind threw you away.”
“Oh,” Zeriel replied, then cocked his head to the side. “Seriously? After saving you earlier?”
“I… I don’t know what happened,” I said. “I didn’t mean to, I swear. It was an accident.”
“Oh, Vesta,” Rose groaned, shaking her head and feigning some kind of disappointment. “Honey, we ask the boys we like out for dinner and a movie. We don’t throw them into the bushes.”
Everybody laughed, except me and Zeriel. The Tritone king was still befuddled by what had just happened, and I was seriously tempted to split the ground open, so it could swallow me whole. I was so embarrassed, even my ears burned.
“I’m sorry,” I repeated, my voice barely a whisper.
Did everybody know? Was everyone able to see that I liked him? Was I really that transparent?
“It’s okay,” Zeriel ultimately replied, the corner of his mouth twitching.
I breathed a sigh of relief, noticing that he was more amused than offended or angry. Rose put her arm around my shoulders and pulled me closer, and we all continued to move through the jungle. Zeriel came back to walk next to me. This time, however, he kept a few feet’s worth of distance between us, probably in case I lost it again.
What the heck is going on with my abilities, though?
It wasn’t just the control issue anymore. Dreaming of the Hermessi had certainly taken its toll on me, as well. Watching those pondwaters drag Douma back had also had an impact. All of this amounted to some kind of shift regarding my elemental abilities. It had to be connected, somehow. Or at least, that was what I was beginning to suspect.
“Don’t worry about it, darling,” Rose said to me. “Sometimes your emotions take over. They can say and do more than you ever would.”
“I… I didn’t… It won’t happen again,” I replied, shaking like a leaf.
I briefly looked at Zeriel. He smiled in return, but I could tell that he was wary. Internally, I was screaming. I’d wanted to get closer to him and figure out whether he felt something about me, too, not to scare him away!
“Deep breaths,” Rose whispered, keeping her gaze fixed on my face. “If you like him, just tell him. Better out than in, I say.”
That blocked me altogether. I blinked rapidly, desperately looking for a way out of this suddenly awkward conversation. It made Rose chuckle.
“Honey, I’m not blind,” she added. “Just tell him. Our circumstances considered, you might not get another chance.”
I nodded slowly, then watched Rose let go and get back to the front of our group, with Ben, Kallisto, Amane, Ridan, and Samael. I was left with Zeriel again, my body burning from the inside and my breath broken.
Rose was right, though. After all, I’d been thinking it, too. Sooner or later, these feelings of mine were going to come out, maybe even more aggressively, given my elemental fluctuations. Perhaps it would all go back to normal if I told Zeriel how I felt.
Better out than in, right?
Elonora
At some point during our trip, I wound up walking with Kailani and Hunter, while Leah kept an eye on Douma and Nevis held Dmitri back. I was dying to know what they were talking about, but they maintained a reasonable distance from the rest of our group and whispered to one another. They were both making efforts to make sure I didn’t hear them, and that just made me all kinds of uneasy.
I’d broken into a cold sweat when I remembered I hadn’t had the chance to tell Dmitri about the little white lie I’d told back at the Shade party. In all fairness, it was, by far, the least important issue that I was faced with. Hell, it didn’t even matter at this point. Not only because of our hostile environment and rescue mission, but also because I was clearly developing feelings for Nevis. Clinging on to the notion of me liking Dmitri just to keep Nevis away seemed… useless and downright infantile.
My biggest challenge was to gather enough courage to tell Nevis how I felt. There was none for me to scrape together. Not even a bit. However, Nevis and Dmitri had been talking for quite a while now. It couldn’t all be about my faux feelings for Dmitri, I figured. Besides, the half-wolf was smart enough to pick up on things and maybe even back me up, if Nevis told him about what I’d said back at the party.
I shook my head slowly, trying to get those thoughts out of my mind and simply not care. We had bigger fish to fry, and I’d already pushed Nevis away earlier. In hindsight, that last move was still ridiculously dumb, but my knee-jerk reactions were simply the result of wounds that had yet to fully heal. Part of me was still terrified of letting someone in. My heart wanted it, but my pragmatic little brain seemed to think I wasn’t ready yet.
Shifting my focus back to Kailani and Hunter, I noticed the stolen glances and the golden threads in their auras. These two definitely had something going on between them, though I couldn’t put my finger on what it was, exactly. Something was budding, and it had a whiff of love to it.
I couldn’t help but smile. Hunter and Kailani had practically grown up together. They’d spent most of their time in each other’s company. When Kailani wasn’t at home or visiting the Witches Sanctuary, she was at Hunter’s. I knew that, deep down, she had feelings for him. She’d had those since she was a kid, but she’d never pursued them.
Hunter, on the other hand, had always eluded my “emotional scanner” over the years. To be honest, I was still confusing affection with love—they weren’t always the same thing, and, as a sentry, I’d yet to identify all the color shades for each feeling. A thread of gold, for me, could be love or affection or even pure joy, depending on the circumstances. The tones varied a little, but they were too subtle for me to properly g
rasp. Yet.
In this case, however, the way Hunter and Kailani looked at each other had changed. Something had definitely shifted between them, and I knew she would tell me all about it, once we were alone.
“Lenny, how is the group looking, on the emotional spectrum?” she asked me, keeping her voice low.
I looked around, checking everyone’s aura, especially the Faulties. “What do you want to know?” I replied.
“Have you spotted anything interesting or, I don’t know, abnormal in the Faulties?” she whispered.
She seemed to have the same suspicions as I did. It didn’t come as a surprise. Kallisto’s initial betrayal had scarred us all, and, given how desperate the rejected Faulties were to get back to Ta’Zan, even Leah and Samael could still be playing us. They’d given us no reason to think that, of course, but neither had Kallisto when we’d first met her.
We had a hard time trusting anyone fully, but for good reason. Strava was a hostile world, where dog ate dog, then moved on to eat everybody else, too. Even after all the fighting we’d done together, I couldn’t overlook the potential threats—specifically, any personal interests that Kallisto, Samael, Leah, and even Amane might have been keeping to themselves. Amane had a habit of withholding information. That much we knew.
Upon a careful scan of the Faulties, I noticed doubt, among other things.
“Leah is grieving,” I muttered. “Her aura is bright red. She’s in a lot of pain. Samael, too, but not as bad as Leah. They’re both suffering over Rasmus’s death, for sure.”
“Well, I believe it’s safe to assume they formed some pretty strong bonds in order to survive out here in the wild,” Hunter replied. “They’ve stuck together and trusted each other in an environment where Faulties will stomp other Faulties if it gets them closer to Ta’Zan. Especially with us parading around as the perfect way to a potential reward.”
“Yeah, that makes sense. Besides, the three of them seem like they really didn’t want to cause much trouble, even back at the waterfall,” I said.
Kailani chuckled softly. “Mm-hm. They definitely didn’t want to start a fight. It’s one of the reasons why I went out to talk to them. Do you think they can still be trusted, Lenny?”
“I think so,” I said. “There’s no fear directed at us. They’re wary and concerned, but never when they look at one of us. It’s only when they check their surroundings and when they see Douma. Their emotions are pretty specific. I like that about them, because it makes it easier to identify their attitude toward any other person.”
“Good.” Kailani sighed, nodding slowly. “It means my instincts weren’t glitching earlier when I first approached them.”
“No, I don’t think so,” I said, then looked at Kallisto. “She’s harboring some kind of suspicion toward Amane.”
“Kallisto?” Hunter asked.
“Yeah. I mean, she and Amane seem to be getting along better than before, but there is still a lack of trust lingering between them. Kallisto’s is more pronounced. Amane exhibits fear, too, when Ta’Zan’s and her sister’s names are brought up,” I explained.
“Do you have any idea why Kallisto is suspicious of Amane, though?” Kailani asked.
I shrugged in response. “Not really, no. Not now, anyway. I will find out, though. Or figure it out. We’ll see. I always do,” I whispered, then gave Kailani a confident smirk.
“Kallisto never kept her distrust of Amane a secret,” Hunter said. “Maybe she knows that Amane isn’t telling us something. Either way, the two need to be monitored.”
“Oh, rest assured, I’m on it,” I replied. “Not letting either of them out of my sight until we figure out their endgame. Personally, I’m inclined to believe Kallisto, in that she’s really coming around. She fights by our side like she’s got nothing left to lose. That says something, for her to put her life at risk like that. Amane, on the other hand, knows that Ta’Zan wants her alive, and she might still have an agenda where we’re concerned.”
“Think it’s got something to do with her sister, Amal?” Kailani asked.
I gave her a brief nod. “It has to. Ta’Zan could use her as leverage against Amane if he wants to. We should keep that in mind, going forward.”
Loud bangs erupted in the distance, at least three or four miles behind us. They echoed across the night sky, like faraway thunder. We all stopped for a moment. I looked back, using my True Sight to see if we’d been tailed. There was nothing there, not even glimmers of mirrors—I was well aware that the Perfects could try that trick again, if they wanted to, especially since it had already worked the first time around.
“They’re up and at it again,” Amane said, frowning as she stared at a distant, yet undetermined point deep in the jungle. “They’re looking for us.”
“We need to keep going,” Rose replied. “They won’t track us so easily, since Kale’s already teleported us twice to different islands just to confuse them.”
Kailani took a deep breath, then narrowed her eyes as she looked ahead. “I can see the beach from here,” she said, then took several steps forward.
I followed her gaze and, with my True Sight, was able to see the neighboring island. It was extremely close and was a great opportunity to further conceal our tracks. “Can you see the island?” I asked Kailani.
“No, I’ll need to get closer. Once I see it, I’ll zap us out of here,” she said.
Amane took out a fistful of shimmering black dust from her leather pouch, then scattered it all behind us. It was the same gimmick she’d used before, to throw the Perfects off her trail.
“Remind me again, how does this work?” Ben asked her.
“It’s a combination of powdered charcoal and some cave crystals,” Amane explained. “They absorb liquids and smells from the air and from the ground. It’ll make it harder for the Perfects to catch our scent.”
“Okay, we need to move,” Rose interjected. “We still need to find Raphael, and the Perfects are looking for us again.”
“Ugh, including Abaddon,” I mumbled, feeling slightly queasy. “Of course, provided they didn’t already take him back to Ta’Zan for flipping out like that.”
“Ta’Zan is well aware of what monster he let loose,” Amane replied. “I doubt he’ll care until we’re brought back to him.”
That encounter with him had scarred me for life. I had never met anyone as vicious or as violent as Abaddon. Not even among the daemons and the Maras.
We followed Rose through the jungle, putting more distance between us and the Perfects. Once our feet touched the white sand, we linked hands. Kailani could see the small island less than a mile away from our location. We disintegrated into a trillion little particles, unrestrained by the limits of time and space for just a moment.
We reappeared on the neighboring island. The night sky lit up in the distance, where Perfects flew around, flashing like falling stars as they searched the area for us. Knowing Abaddon, it was only a matter of time before they’d find us again.
With him tailing us, we had to get to Raphael before a second encounter with the Perfects that had been assigned to hunt us down. It was safe to assume that, at this point, fully regenerated and with his memories back, Abaddon was already pissed off. After all, we’d cut his head off and run away. I doubted that Araquiel and the others in their crew had any kind of control left over him.
He was coming for us, and he wasn’t going to let anything get in his way.
In the meantime, I was equally determined not to let him or any other Perfect hold us back from our mission. My grandparents, my brother, my friends and elders… they all needed me to push through and save them. Heck, my team needed me.
So let him come after us again. I’ll find a way to cut his head off. Over and over, until it stays off.
Derek
One of the few aspects of our situation that helped me retain my sanity was the view of the sky, especially at night. During the day, the diamond glass panels were slightly blurry, filtering the sunl
ight so as not to burn the Maras and vampires in captivity, myself included. As nightfall settled over the land, however, the panels cleared up and gave us an ample and rich panorama of the sky.
I spent hours counting the stars, wondering whether there was any life on the planets that orbited around some of them. Were they peaceful creatures, or were they bloodthirsty warmongers like the Perfects? Were they curious and kind, like the fae, or cultured and gentle, like the Imen? Did they venture out into the great unknown to discover other worlds, like the Druids? Or were they lonely and fearful of alien visitors, like the humans?
Such thoughts made the passage of time feel smoother between Isda and Monos’s visits. Sofia was my balance, though. I looked to her whenever I felt lost. Whenever I got the urge to claw at the diamond glass walls. Despair was a heavy emotion to deal with.
I was still mulling over Vivienne’s description of her vision. She hadn’t had one in years, even decades. It matched Lucas’s and Kailyn’s dreams. Given what we’d previously learned about the Hermessi from Harper, I had to wonder if the dreams and Viv’s vision were connected to these forces of nature. Then again, it didn’t make much sense. If the Hermessi were reaching out, I understood why they’d done so through Lucas and Kailyn, as they were fae. But had they also affected Vivienne’s vision, or had she simply tapped into that stream of their consciousness, without their influence?
Until I understood how my sister played into this, I couldn’t determine a pattern of behavior from the Hermessi. If they were, in fact, trying to establish contact, then we were on to something. But only time would tell, and I wasn’t sure how much of that we had left, given how quickly Ta’Zan moved forward with his projects and mass production of Perfects.
Sofia found me by the wall, looking up at the starry sky. She sat next to me, without saying a word, and put her arms around me. I held her close, pressing my lips against her forehead, thankful to feel her skin against mine.
“I know we’re usually out and about at this hour,” I murmured, then looked around the dome. Most of the prisoners were asleep, with the exception of Maras, vampires, and our founders’ club. Jax and Hansa, Jovi and Anjani, and Varga were up, too. Poor Heath, still in recovery, was in bed, lying on his back and snoring like an old sailor. I couldn’t help but smile. “I’m not used to being trapped and unable to get out, obviously. Just trying to pass the time.”
A Shade of Vampire 63: A Jungle of Rogues Page 21
