by Amy Freeman
“How will you be fine?” Anna had argued. But Sam would not concede.
By the time they got to the dance building she had finally decided the absence of Trin’s shield didn’t mean Ashbel had found her. It simply meant she was back to where she had been before. She just needed to lay low, which was probably easier to do with Trin gone, since his energy intensified her own. Trin would be home tonight. She just had to get through the next few hours and she believed she could do that. She entered the dressing room and dressed for the show. Her phone was on silent as it began to ring in her bag. First Trin, then Anna; both attempts unheard.
She followed the other dancers up to the stage performing the first half without incident. At intermission she raced downstairs to check her phone. Pulling it from her bag, she saw several missed calls from Trin and Anna. She called Anna first. She picked up right away.
“He knows.”
“How? Did you tell him?”
“Sam, he felt it when it happened. He called me right after I dropped you off.”
Sam’s head fell forward. Of course. Of course he would know.
“He’s coming home right now,” Anna said.
“Did he finish the meet?”
“Sam, what is wrong with you? Who cares if he finished the meet! Trin sounded really upset. He’s convinced you’re in danger. Look, I’m here in the building. He asked me to keep him posted if I saw anything out of the ordinary, but I don’t know what to look for either. What are you expecting? Is it him?” she said. “Are you expecting him to show up?”
She put a hand to her forehead, not wanting Anna anywhere near this. “Yes.”
Anna paced. “Okay. What does he look like?”
“No. Anna, you have to leave right now,” she said. “You can’t be in the middle of this.”
“I’m not going to get in the middle of it, Sam, but if I see him at least I can let you know.”
Sam lifted her head, exhaling in exasperation. “He has black hair and green eyes, built like Trin. You’ll know if you see him. His essence is the same, only the sight of him will scare the hell out of you.” Sam couldn’t see the color draining from Anna’s face, but there was a pause on the other end of the line. “Anna?”
Anna’s voice dropped. “I’ve seen him.”
Sam’s heart fell to the pit of her stomach. “What?” she whispered. “What do you mean you’ve seen him?”
“He was outside our dorm the day you freaked out in rehearsal, standing across the street, looking at me,” she said. “I could feel him staring. I couldn’t look away. He reminded me of someone. Now I know it was Trin. He reminded me of Trin.”
Sam’s voiced brimmed with hysteria. “Where are you right now, Anna?”
“I’m by the front entrance—” Anna’s voice cut off in a clipped cry.
“Anna?” A desperate moment of silence passed. “Oh, Sam...he’s here.”
Sam gripped the phone, heart hammering, throat tight. Anna ducked into an alcove, peering past the column. “He’s outside in the parking lot...” Her voice dropped to a whisper. “He’s looking right at me. He knows I know you. I don’t know how I know that, but I do. He knows who I am...”
“Anna, don’t move,” Sam said. ”Stay right where you are. I’m coming upstairs.”
Anna’s voice quivered. “Okay. Sam...”
“What? What is it?” Sam begged, racing for the stairs.
“Please hurry.”
“I’m coming!”
Anna looked toward the stairwell at the far end of the hall in anticipation of Sam’s arrival. The hall was dark and empty, leaving her utterly helpless against the monster outside. She turned her head to see if he was still there. Insidious green eyes stared back, inches from her face, gleaming above a sinister grin. Her scream cut off as his powerful hands, at either side of her head, snapped her neck with effortless precision. Her lifeless body dropped to the ground at his feet just as Sam rounded the corner.
The warrior stood at a distance in the corridor, his energy exploding throughout the hallway intimidating every exposed surface in its path. An unrecognizable shriek rose in Sam’s throat as she collapsed to the floor, reaching out in vain for her beloved friend in uncontrollable sobs.
Ashbel stood, imposing, incomprehensible, his aura a confounding tapestry of pain, hatred, torture, and sorrow—energies collected from countless unspeakable events in human history, stolen and implemented into an impervious wall of anguish no one could hope to fight, elements jamming into each other like a dark halo of misfiring synapses.
His eyes rose from Anna to Sam, gazing upon her, owning her. His mind clamped down on hers like a steel trap. The endless stream of tears flowed as she stood against her will, his narcissism on display as he prolonged her unspeakable agony, witnessing the death of the only sister she had ever had, the only one who understood and supported her. Sam was broken, just the way he wanted her.
A blast of familiar energy tore through the environment from behind her. The powerful current hummed, electrifying every molecule as it reached its target—Anna’s lifeless body on the floor. Sam turned. A large man stood at the end of the hall, regal, fearless, his beautiful energy ripping through the atmosphere. Mikhail. Her fists clenched, chest heaving with desperate hope.
The Elder moved toward Ashbel. Sam watched, confused, terrified. Ashbel’s eyes gleamed, rising fury spilling from his hollow eyes as he ramped up his venomous assault. Mikhail zeroed in on Ashbel like a hunter to prey. Ashbel’s insidious aura pitched, fragments of warped energy dropped like cinder from its construct, shooting to Anna’s body, locking in Mikhail’s shield. Ashbel’s jaw tightened, eyes wild as his aura gleamed, intensifying. Mikhail hedged, wincing in pain, but continued, undaunted, tearing at Ashbel’s aura, dismantling it bit by bit, each fragment joining the new aura building around Anna. Mikhail worked faster, eyes strained, clenching his jaw in a mix of pain and determination.
Sam’s chest heaved with heated breath, unable to understand Mikhail’s actions but knowing it was killing him. Anna had died because of her, and now Mikhail would die too. A fire ignited within her. Mikhail dropped to one knee in exhaustion, still extracting and placing Ashbel’s energy onto Anna, expending enormous effort to withstand the crushing energy Ashbel unleashed to destroy him, sucking the life from him.
Fiery blue lit Sam’s eyes. She had watched Anavi die. She had watched her best friend die. She would not stand by and let Ashbel kill again in her presence. Harnessing her anger, pain, and rage she locked in on Mikhail, focusing. Shimmering golden light sprang up in her aura, dancing around her like tiny electrical currents. The frenzy of light grew, spreading, reaching, finding Mikhail, swallowing him up.
Mikhail lifted his eyes to Sam as her glimmering energy danced around him. His eyes filled with awed humility, and he disappeared. A violent shock wave of energy rippled through the environment. Ashbel seethed. Sam lurched forward, yanked by his maniacal fury, stumbling, losing her balance. He pulled her in, his aura spinning, colliding, saturating her with agony, grief, hatred, and fear. As the gap closed between them his eyes flashed, uttering a phrase in Russian and her pain ceased, the agony and unbearable sadness gone—numb, sedated, slipping into a deep sleep. She fell into him, his muscled arm holding her against his chest. Raising a hand to the side, a vortex sprang open in the fabric of the air. A rushing sound, and the portal sucked them in—gone.
CHAPTER FORTY TWO
Ablack truck barreled into the parking lot of the dance building, coming to a screeching halt. Trin threw the door open as a blinding flash of light erupted just inside the entryway and half his heart vanished with it. “Sam!” Sprinting through the lot with Anvil right behind him the two warriors reached the door. Trin nearly ripped it from its hinges to get inside. A figure lay in a heap on the floor. First confusion, then all-consuming despair rushed him.
Anna lay dead in front of him, traces of Ashbel’s unmistakable energy swirling about her everywhere. A helpless sound emanated from th
e back of his throat as he dropped at her side, uttering a broken prayer in Russian. Reading nothing in her vacant eyes, his own filled with tears as he felt the crushing weight of what he had, from the beginning, feared more than anything...failure. He lifted his eyes to Anvil, unable to speak.
Anvil’s eyes blazed in solemn fury. “I will track him, Trinton!” Anvil disappeared in a flash of light.
Sam was gone. Ashbel had come in his absence. He had taken Sam with him and killed her best friend. The brutal slaying had been for no other reason but to intimidate Sam; to break her, to crush her. The residual devastation saturated the atmosphere. In anguish, Trin touched a hand to Anna’s head. A startling vision erupted in his mind; earth-shattering information the tribe needed. Trin drew back, shocked.
Another flash. He pulled away from Anna. As his hand broke contact, the visions stopped. He stared. Mikhail’s energy entombed Anna’s body. Trin scanned the darkened, deserted hallway, searching for the Elder. He could not sense him anywhere, except within the gleaming halo surrounding Anna.
Trin turned back, placing a hand to her face. A solid vision ignited, a replay of everything that had happened. Ashbel, with Anna dead at his feet. Sam locked in his grip. Mikhail risking his life, extracting information, placing it safely within the sacred energetic shroud of a deceased human spirit, a barrier no predator could cross. Trin’s eyes stung with tears.
He watched Mikhail fall to his knees in pain, still fighting to save Sam and deliver the missing information needed to save his people. His sorrow shifted to awe as he watched his vulnerable mate throw her energy around Mikhail. Her aura gleamed and shimmered around him, and then Mikhail vanished. Trin’s blood pulsated like fire through his veins, stunned. Sam had saved Mikhail. He didn’t know how she had done it, but Mikhail was not dead and he was not here.
His heart thundered in his chest, his eyes gleaming ice blue as a plume of light ignited deep within him and began to burn; unfathomable energy kindled by his birthright, to exact justice for the Veduny people. That was his calling. It was what he was created to do.
His blazing eyes gazed down at Anna. “No,” he uttered in his native Russian. “It will not end like this.” A shimmering light erupted, starting at the top of his head and ending where his feet made contact with the earth, sealed in the Veduny warrior aura.
He took Anna’s hand in his, retrieving the last bit of information he needed. He watched Ashbel enter Sam’s room. He stretched out his hands reaching for Sam, igniting Trin’s shield. At first he was enraged, then he felt the pendant, its energy singing to him.
He watched Ashbel take the pendant and disappear. He watched him jump time to the last Olympic Games. Trin had volunteered to be part of a series of tests to prove he didn’t use any performance enhancing substances.
Trin reeled in amazement as he saw the nurse draw six vials of blood from his body. He watched her take it and leave it in a lab. He watched Ashbel appear seconds later to submerge the stone of Sam’s pendant. He resealed the vial, rinsing the visible blood from the pendant, knowing the workmanship would be stained, knowing it would be enough.
He watched as Ashbel returned to Sam’s room, left the box in plain sight, and disappeared.
A single-minded message rang out from Trin’s mind with a calm ferocity, echoing throughout time and human consciousness seeking the mind of his target, knowing he would receive it. Я найде тебя, где бы ты нибыл. ... I’m coming for you...
An unstoppable fury raged. Ashbel would have to kill him to stop him; and Ashbel was no match for Trin. Not now, not ever. He slid his strong hands underneath Sam’s best friend, lifting her into his arms, taking an energetic scan of the surrounding area. He was alone.
He pushed through the doors of the dance building. Ashbel had officially called him out. He had unleashed the one and only Veduny who could bring his brutality to an end. His arrogance would be his demise.
Trin’s purpose for being had just begun and before he was finished he would see everything Ashbel had destroyed restored to its fullness. Every betrayal, every brutality, every heartache he had caused would be rectified and put to rest. The Veduny people would soon see their day of reckoning and he would not stop until he saw it through. Carrying Anna’s body through the parking lot, the clouds gathered above him in the blackened sky. Thunder crashed, and rain began to fall.
PART TWO: THE RECKONING
CHAPTER FORTY THREE
Aflash of light temporarily broke the darkness, only temporarily, only for a second—dissolving into a cover of black and a foreign memory of moving forward through freezing water. Another flash ignited before her eyes, this time bearing structure, an image of...something, but she couldn’t make out what.
Small angles of cold hard stone pressed cornered edges into her back as she tried to gain a sense of where she was. Exhausted confusion consumed her. She could remember nothing. Even her identity eluded her. The air around her was so thin. Another image of pushing through water; she could see nothing in front of her but had a perfect sense of where she was going, swimming forward through black icy depths and then gone again.
The fragmented information skirted her periphery. With intense mental strain she chased after answers, only to have them dissolve in seconds, leaving her even more exhausted than she was before. Panic took root as she realized she couldn’t move, her body heavy. She couldn’t remember what had happened. But worst of all she could see nothing. No shadows, no light—absolute darkness. Potent lethargy disabled her body and senses, then the flashes of light and visions of black icy water. None of it made any sense.
She fought for discernment. The images were the only hope she had of gaining information about her current situation; each one encoded with answers, a person or a place. The crushing darkness offered nothing. She began breathing in what little air surrounded her in an effort to piece together a possible location. The air was cool and damp, the scent earthen. Samantha Shields. Her name would come, but nothing else.
She struggled for more. Dance. She was a dancer. Then his face floated into her mind.
A flood of warmth, comfort, and recognition dawned within her as the memory of Trin returned, her soul mate, her comforter—then the rest. A crushing dread weighted her imprisoned psyche as physical pain crushed her heart.
She had struggled so hard to remember, but now she wanted nothing more than to recede into the blissful ignorance of amnesia. At least there she wouldn’t remember. She wouldn’t know. The image of Anna’s lifeless body resonated in her mind.
Black pain consumed her, irrevocable despair. She knew where she was. No one could reach her. Not even Trin. She began a descent into utter hopelessness.
Samantha...
A muted voice pierced through the darkness. The downward spiral of despair ceased.
Samantha...listen to me.
Sam’s heart pounded, straining to hear as she held her breath.
You are not alone...do not be afraid. This is a trick of the mind. You are more powerful than what he has done.
The voice wasn’t clear. The tone and pitch were muddled and difficult to make out. She was certain this was due to her hazy state of consciousness. Her mind raced trying to figure out who this was and where they were. Everything was still so clouded, so imperceptible.
Do not struggle against it. This is only as real as you believe it to be. Be still and take back your mind. It is more powerful than you can imagine. With your mind you can do anything.
Sam listened and found herself growing calm. The voice spoke the truth and knowing she was not alone gave her hope. Quieting her pounding heart, her frenzied mind remembered the techniques Trin had taught her. She began to breathe. A tranquil shift stirred. The only control Ashbel had over her was what she gave him. He was a master of the mind; but so was she. It required only faith. The binding fog began to crack.
CHAPTER FORTY FOUR
T rin pulled into the parking lot of Sam and Anna’s dorm as the setting sun ca
st a rosy orange glow on the horizon, leaving the higher skies dark. He scanned the area. Finding himself alone he climbed out, opened the back door. With grieving arms he lifted Anna’s body from the backseat, resting her to him as he closed the door. He did another scan and quickly made his way to the building carrying her inside. Within the confines of the darkened apartment he felt the intruder. The presence ambushed his senses and his grieving mind prepared to attack.
“Trinton,” The voice was weak, but he knew it. Squinting through the room, he found a dark figure sitting in a corner chair.
“Mikhail?” Indescribable relief flooded through him, questions coming faster than he could process.
“Bring the girl here,” Mikhail said. “I am all right. There isn’t much time.”
Trin walked through the room setting Anna gently on the couch and took a seat opposite Mikhail. “He killed her best friend,” Trin whispered. “It wasn’t enough to take her from me.” He looked up. “Sam. She brought you here?”
Mikhail nodded. “Samantha’s power is remarkable. Her compassion and love is unparalleled. I do not know if she could have saved herself. She did not try. She is a threat to Chernobog if I have ever encountered one. She is still alive,” he assured Trin. “I am certain she would have come to me if she were dead.”
Trin shook his head. “Anavi couldn’t.”
Mikhail leaned forward, still weak. “There are things I haven’t had a chance to tell you, Trinton. We have a duty to perform, and there is still time.”
“I have to help Sam.”
Mikhail paused. “I know where she is,” he said. “Anavi was killed during a solstice. This gives the alexandrite its full capacity to capture the essence it craves. Ashbel has taken her to the next occurring solstice in his time, I am certain of it. Chernobog needs every bit of power he can claim to execute a feat of this magnitude without Gea’s blood.”
