The Blood Bearers tried to go for them and fell away in screams of pain.
Zaid looked at Vaughn and nodded.
Then they saw who Vaughn knew to be Calia and a man of the Band—and a creature that dwarfed even them, pushing his kind out of the way without regard.
Vaughn charged.
He was Band and unafraid.
The creature grinned and met him head-on.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Jim
Things are getting saucy.
Two of the Band had just entered the forest, weapons out, covered in what smelled like fresh blood.
Their irises flashed in the gloom, the metal of their short swords dimly lit by the filtered moonlight that pierced the canopy of the forest.
The sounds of the Tree Men rose in pitch and intensity. Jim wanted to cover his ears, but worse than that—he wanted the fuck out of Dodge. He was not cut out for this, hadn't signed up for it.
He glanced at Adahy and Elise. Adahy wore an expression of cautious relief. Jim couldn’t understand why.
The Band looked insane with all the total body war paint but… they were taking down the Tree Men, who'd pretty much said they were after the girls. And as for the guys, they'd probably sink their sharp chompers into them and bleed them out—getting all vampy and shit.
In a normal world, Jim would have been all hog to take samples from these guys. But he wasn't willing to forfeit his life. Yet.
Ulric rose like a monster, got a load of the advancing Band, and surged toward them. The other tree guys writhed on the ground, and he ignored his own kind leaping over their prone forms as he moved like a locomotive toward the Band.
Adahy and Philip didn't fool around. They chased after him.
Jim watched, fascinated, as the huge men, with vision that must have been catlike, ran after the two-and-a-half-meter tall Ulric.
Not me. Jim was the shit at defense, but he wasn't taking his chances with Ape Vamp.
Ulric crashed into the first of the Band, and they went down in a heap of blood and limbs.
Here's my chance. Jim grabbed Elise. “Get Calia, and let's get the hell out of here. I think they're weaker outside the forest.”
Just a theory—damn.
“Calia!” Elise said urgently as Calia stood transfixed and still weak, watching Philip join the fray. “Let us go—escape!”
Calia seemed to wake up and jogged to their position. She gasped and gulped, hands at her sides. “I am still not strong. I have taken that creature's blood yet I feel I am just well enough not to knock at death's door.”
It was probably true. She'd really been on the border of recovery.
Jim didn't ask permission. He grabbed Calia around the waist in a modified fireman's hold and dumped her over his shoulder.
They ran. Or rather, Jim walked quickly with Calia over his shoulder and Elise by his side. At least, while the Band and Adahy were fighting Ulric, he could get the girls out. Then, if the Band beat Ulric's fang ass, Jim would be outside the woods and moving toward that bridge Pathway.
Jim was sure only he knew the pulse sensor and how to activate it for the yoke that would take him back to his earth—the sane earth.
They moved with slow and steady progress to the forest's edge. Jim could make out the strangled shadows of pasture grass beaten and abused by the unforgiving winds and temperatures outside the safety of the woods and kept his gaze locked on that. Just a few more steps.
Then Jim felt eyes at his back.
He turned, and Calia's dead weight shifted, threatening to topple them both. He pinwheeled then righted himself. Fuck.
She groaned at the jerkiness of his movements, and Jim ignored the stab of guilt—which was easy to do as he caught Ulric's eyes following their progress even though he fought three of the Band simultaneously.
Ulric seemed impervious to whatever the Band had done, while all of his kind lay sick on the forest floor. Time to go. Faster.
He heard crashing all around him.
“Jim!” Elise screamed in a panic.
“Run!” he screamed back at her, and she did, outdistancing him easily.
Jim picked up speed, using his underdeveloped senses as best he could. But they'd been bred out of the men of Jim's world and weren't close to the surface. Did he even still possess those instinctive traits?
The answer was Yes. Jim slung his body low, reacting to a trace of some smell, movement, or sound, and a hand missed him by centimeters. The air from its passing left a wave of pressure above Jim's head.
He burst from the woods, frantically looking around for Elise.
Jim whirled to face the border of the forest, chest heaving and Calia threatening to roll off her perch. He grabbed the back of her thighs, pinning them more securely with his arm.
Jim about dropped her when he saw Elise.
She was trying to crawl onto the meadow. But it was as though the forest had hooked her and was reeling her in like a fish.
“What? Elise—get out of there!” Jim took a hesitant step forward. His motions were stymied by Calia's presence in his arms.
Maybe… Jim threw his coat on the hard snow and gently laid Calia down.
He jogged to Elise's position and met dozens of eyes, glaring from two meters away.
Great.
But they didn't venture out. Jim had an overwhelmingly childish urge to flip them off.
He restrained himself, ignoring the sounds of a fight that would have put the UFC to shame and dragged Elise farther from the forest.
She cried out, “Hurts! Jim—no!” Elise clutched at her guts like someone was scooping them out with a spoon.
“What? What hurts?” Jim asked frantically, his eyes searching for injury.
Behind him, Calia made sounds of agony.
What the fuck is going on?
*
Adahy
Adahy did not stop until every bone in Ulric's body was broken. He stomped on the collarbone.
Ribs.
Legs and arms.
His foot rose to finish the creature's face, and Philip commanded against it. His low voice resonated with fear and alarm.
Philip's tone arrested Adahy's attempt to squish this male like a bug, for though he had made Elise well, Ulric's hidden motivation was now revealed: He had made the females well only to enslave them.
Unforgivable.
Adahy turned suddenly as Jim came running through the woods. His young eyes were wide with shock and horror.
Tree Men split to let him through, making no move to grab him. He ran through them without fear.
The females were not with him and a thrill of fear tore through Adahy.
He straightened, moving to meet Jim.
Philip and he followed with the two of the Band whom they did not know. They were not foe, having engineered a sound beating of Ulric.
They were the Death Bearers and had come to release them from their imprisonment with the Stone Giants.
“The women,” Jim gasped. “They're—something's wrong.”
Adahy scrambled to understand. He heard “women” and “wrong.”
He put together that something additional had occurred. Maybe the healing of Ulric was a temporary measure?
None of it made sense.
As Adahy thought it, he was immediately remorseful. He should have culled his wanderlust and kept to the sphere, eschewing Outside for Elise and the safety provided therein.
He looked behind him, and Ulric was gone. No time to waste. With healing abilities like that, Ulric would sweep his Giants to him and reconvene to attack once more.
Adahy and the three of the Band ran past the Giants. They shied away from the blood of the dead.
The screaming of the women brought Adahy from a jog to a sprint. He and the other males tore through the forest like an arrow pulled through stubborn flesh.
The tree branches gave way and they were suddenly on the open, snow-covered meadow.
Blood was sprayed as if someone had th
rown it from a distance. It was smeared as though…
The women had crawled.
They had tried to make their way back to the forest.
Adahy ran to Elise, turning her over.
Bubbles of blood burst their thin spheres and she said, so softly Adahy had to lean next to her mouth to hear it, “Ulric.”
Jim rushed up. “See? God, what's with this effing blood?”
Adahy understood nothing. What was clear was Elise was now suffering something other than the strange illness Jim had identified.
He hauled Elise into his arms, and she was limp. Slipping away.
Adahy groaned, tightening his arms around her.
I cannot lose her.
Adahy would not survive it.
He raised his head and searched the forest.
There, in the center of Giants, stood Ulric—unmarked. Broken bones healed. A wide grin broke the face Adahy had almost stomped.
“Bring them,” he called, indicating the women.
Commanding them.
Adahy shook his head. Philip held Calia beside him, just as obstinate.
Calia's pale hand floated up to land softly on Philip's chest. “Take me to him, Philip. His blood… has done something.”
“Do not go near them!” one of the Death Bringers shouted. “We have endeavored to save the females, not hand them to the Blood Bearers!”
Adahy looked at the male who had spoken. Immediately, Adahy sensed he was of the clan of Edwin.
“It is too late. He has shared his blood with them both.”
The other male stepped forward. “Do not.” His eyelashes were stuck together with the blood of others.
Adahy understood now what he must do and was grief stricken. “We are without choice.”
The males did not understand Iroquois. And Adahy was too overcome to censor his language.
What language could not explain was that by taking the blood of the Stone Giant, the females were now inexplicably tethered to Ulric.
If they chose life, they chose the leader.
There was no room for Adahy or the Band.
His feet were frozen in place for a space of moments, his heart bleeding for Elise.
Then Adahy walked toward Ulric.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Jim
“Whoa—no, guys. Let's just wait a sec. Ulric is a bad dude.”
He watched the men of the Band keep walking.
Okay, nobody's listening.
Swell.
Jim put his fingers at the corners of his mouth and whistled so shrilly birds rose from their roosts.
Philip and Adahy stopped, looking at him. “Hey guys, he wants the girls—alive. Negotiate.”
Philip blinked.
Must be some kind of thrall state. Everyone was working without all cylinders running.
But the Band covered in blood weren't.
Jim jogged to them, and their daggers were suddenly exposed and deadly. Jim choked down his fear.
“Calm down, guys.” He pointed at Adahy and said in Iroquois, “Hold on.”
Adahy stopped but didn't look happy about it.
“You make the Red Men words?” one of the foreign Band asked.
“Badly.” Jim studied them for a heartbeat. “So, tell me you have a plan.”
His expression told Jim he struggled with Jim's way of speaking. It was not a time for finesse, though, with Fragment on the left, ape vamps on the right. They were kind of desperate.
“I am Vaughn, and this is Zaid. We have come to meet with Calia and Edwin to return with them to the Clan of Massachusetts.”
Jim waved a hand in dismissal. “Edwin split.”
Zaid said, “What say you?”
“Bring the women!” Ulric commanded, and Adahy and Philip moved as though jerked.
“What?” Jim peeled off a shout. “Nuh-uh, guys.”
Ignoring Jim, they drew two meters away from giving up Elise and Calia.
Shit.
Jim looked at the new Band. “How come you two aren't puppets?”
Zaid seemed to understand him better than Vaughn and answered first, “We wear the blood of the dead. It is protection against Blood Bearer's.”
“Oh yeah?” Jim swiveled his head, Adahy and Philip were almost to Ulric. “Have any more?”
Vaughn produced an animal-skin flask.
Jim grabbed the kidney-shaped container and sprinted to where Adahy and Philip walked.
He prayed he was in time and that his hypothesis was correct.
The blood sloshed inside of the flask as Ulric—unsuspecting—watched Jim come.
Jim didn't know why he was immune to vamp boy, only that it was awesome that he was.
He moved in front of the Band.
Man, they are big dudes.
He uncorked the flask, and the stopper popped off the top, dangling from a braided string of leather.
Jim flung the mouth of the flask at the girls. First Calia, then Elise.
Nothing happened.
Then Elise sat up as though awakened. “Stop!”
Adahy didn't change.
Fuck me.
Jim tossed some of the blood at Adahy. It hit his forehead like a slap and he flinched.
Then his feet stilled.
Jim whirled to see that Philip was at the border of the woods.
Ulric leaned out to take Calia. Philip's eyes were blank, devoid of expression.
Jim didn't have time to overthink stuff.
He threw the blood between Calia and Ulric.
Steam rose where it hit Ulric's flesh.
In the next instant, Calia sat up and was hugging Philip, who immediately regained expression on his face.
It was a pretty good bet Ulric was pissed off, judging by a baring of teeth and narrowed eyes. A bulging vein in his forehead beat in time to his heart.
“Yeah!” Jim shouted, dancing in the snow as he shook the empty flask in the sky, spare blood falling like false rain around him. “Take that, asswipes!”
Then the Fragment showed up.
*
“Edwin!” Calia tried to slip from Philip's embrace.
“No,” Philip said. “Look at them.”
Yeah, look at them.
This was really beginning to suck.
Fragment lumbered up the hill, carrying a beaten-beyond-recognition Band.
It was Edwin. The only way Jim knew was the black hair. The face that lifted to meet their stunned gazes had one eye swollen shut, but the other was a glaring orb of borrowed sun.
Jim's throat tightened at the sight. He couldn't—Jim didn't think anyone could be beaten that badly and live.
Apparently, the Band were very hardy stock.
Jim turned around slowly.
Ulric hissed at him, his fangs elongating, unnaturally long arms hanging by his side.
His wrist looked like acid had carved designs on it.
The dead man's blood would leave a scar. Fresh like that, it'd been eating a pathway into his skin—keeping him from Calia.
But now the Fragment had her brother.
And what did they want?
Well, as it turned out, they were a consistent bunch of fuckers.
They wanted the women.
It seemed like everybody did.
*
Elise
As she saw things, it was a choice between the evil she knew and the evil she did not. Especially in the case of the Fragment. They would confiscate her and use her for the cycle of torturing and healing of their enemies. And rape her for sport. It was a vile existence—if one could call it such.
Elise shuddered at the potential. She turned and met Ulric's eyes, blood like acid smoking against his flesh where Jim had thrown it. His kind stayed at the edge of the forest.
Then she looked at Adahy. “I cannot, Adahy.” Grief filled her like a cup, running over and spilling everywhere her thoughts touched.
His grave face studied hers, seeing all that Elise did not say etched upon it. “I
know.”
Her gaze fell on the twenty of the Fragment, then the four of the Band and Jim.
They would overwhelm them with numbers.
It was the Fragment way.
Elise did not stay as Edwin's body was dumped on the snow between the Band and Fragment.
She made her way to Ulric.
*
Jim
Things were so way out of hand.
Elise apparently made a decision to face Ulric and the Tree Men rather than deal with the Fragment.
Adahy left the Band and went after Elise.
He wouldn't live—there was no way the Big Feet would let him. They wanted the women.
Jim was prized as one of the most innovative men of his field of study, renowned for leaps of logic.
MacGyver-ing shit to death.
Maybe he could pull something out of his ass that would save them all.
And just like that, in the simmering cauldron of chaos, Jim had a tight idea.
Get one enemy to fight the other.
*
The Frag was a bunch of pervs. So—not a smart group overall. He'd just use the girls as bait.
Jim ran to Elise.
She tried to shake him off, making a beeline for Ulric, who wore a shit-eating grin like a uniform. That guy. Elise told Jim she'd made up her mind, that there was no other way.
Tears ran their course down a resigned face.
Jim whispered sweet nothings in her ear—tales of waging war with feminine wiles.
“It is perverted.”
Jim nodded. Hell yes, but probably it'd work.
Her eyes were cautiously hopeful.
They rushed back to Calia as the leader of the Fragment toed Edwin's body and Calia groaned.
Jim ran up to her. Clearly, she was still weak from pox and the separation weirdness of Ulric's blood magic, and now seeing her brother near death was a real stressor.
Jim took her by the shoulders, and Philip looked ready to kick his ass. “Hang on, big guy.” Jim leaned close to Calia, a woman who'd nearly torn off his balls mere days ago. Now it seemed like forever.
Her eyes got big as he told her his plan.
Grumbling and tension rose all around them. The Fragment were going to make their move against them. Jim could feel it in his bones and was startled by how much more instinctive he became every minute he stayed in this world.
savage 06 - the savage dream Page 15
