Catching movement behind the creature, I was shocked to see another one approaching at a run from the line of trees. This one was smaller and more decayed, one arm gone altogether, causing it to wobble from the lack of balance.
‘Ford!’ I screamed, hoping I could rely on this stranger, ‘12 o'clock incoming.’
Ford flew past the original creature and me. It flayed at him ineffectively as he passed. Watching the creature I held the blade tightly and aimed for his head again, ducking around his claws. This time I hit home; ripping off his lower jaw completely, exposing his tongue as it lashed around at the back of his throat. I did a stamp kick to its chest, and it went down onto its back.
Ford yelled a warning, ‘Don't let it scratch you — it's fatal!’
Oh, fuck, now he tells me as I was riding the creature’s chest down to the ground. I jumped back quickly, and then before it could regain its feet, I jumped back onto the creature, landing with both my feet at the apex of its shoulders and arms, pinning its arms to the ground. My boots squelched into it, and a burst of gas, smelling like shit and death, escaped from the trauma I was creating. I screamed, hacking my knife into its neck. It met little resistance till hitting the spinal column with a crunch. The Ka-bar wasn't a little pocketknife, though; I sawed up and down and passed easily through and out the other side, decapitating the fucker.
I pushed back and away, expecting it to rise and still come for me, but its body remained there, thrashing around, arms flailing ineffectively, looking still for flesh to rend.
I glanced towards Ford and saw that he had things under control. That baton of his was a deadly piece of equipment. He had already lopped off its remaining arm, and as I looked up I saw the tip of it enter into the back of its head, exploding out the other side neatly. Pulling the baton free he swung and hit it again, back down onto its head, caving in the rest of its inhuman features. The revenant collapsed, hitting the ground, body squelching disgustingly, flopping around in the dirt like a grounded fish.
‘Well, that was fun!’ he said, laughing breathlessly.
I stood there, hands on my knees with my knife held loosely in my palm, panting with the sudden exertion.
What a fucking psycho, I thought, though admittedly his muscly arms and tats were impressive. Well, a girl can look, right?
CHAPTER 10
Ford laughed again. ‘Don't pretend to be squeamish now,’ he said as I involuntarily pulled a face at the sound of the rapidly rotting corpses.
‘Ummm, fuck you, mister,’ I retorted icily. He looked at me brazenly for a brief second with what looked like, I kid you not, a glint of hope in his eyes.
Oh god, this jerk’s a piece of work if he thinks that I meant that comment.
‘Pfttt in your dreams, buddy. Now would you like to explain how you knew what these undead pieces of shit were?’
He bent over the smaller revenant and snagged an ear off its misshapen crushed-in head, wiping his baton on the ground to remove some of the slime. He waltzed over to the other one that I finished off and pulled an ear off that one too.
‘No, actually, I wouldn't, lady, but a thank you might be in order.’
‘A thank you?’ I asked incredulously. ‘I think I did my fair share of the killing here, and considering I didn't even know what these things were, I pretended. I handled the situation just fine. And what in the name of all seven fucking hells do you need their ears for, huh?’
‘Hey, missy, I think you’re the one that owes me an explanation. What the hell were you doing out here in the first place? Looking for anything in particular? It seemed that you were searching among those boulders, hey.’
I turned away. I’d had enough. I didn't owe this creep anything, let alone an explanation of my movements.
‘Hey, hey, don't turn yah back on me. Answer me.’ Ford strode forward and grabbed my shoulder in an attempt to yank me back around. I grabbed his hand, twisted and bent at the waist and flung him over my shoulder. He grunted in surprise as he went flying for the second time that day.
Hah, stupid bloody men think that they can get what they want when they want, like big spoilt kids. This guy wasn't winning any popularity contests with me right now, even considering how hot he was.
He landed on his back with a hard grunt, and amazingly started laughing his ass off. He rolled there laughing like a woman hadn’t just beaten him. He looked up at me with, oh god, with what looked like admiration in his dark brown eyes. Shit.
I quickly left down the path I came from, snatching my backpack off the ground on the way. He yelled out some expletive, but I wasn't interested in what he had to say right now, so I blocked him out. I had a funny suspicion that this wasn't the last I would see of him anyway; he looked like a clinger.
Halfway down the faint track, my side vibrated making me jump. Geez, I was still a little bit on edge after the fight. I groped for my mobile, having tucked it into my side pocket. Pulling it out, I looked at the caller on the phone’s ID. Crap, it was Bruce. I debated whether to answer or not. Oh shit, I flicked it open.
‘Yup, hello, Brucey.’
‘Ha, what's going on, Deirdre? Just checking to make sure yah alright.’
‘Yeh, yeh, everything's fine, just out for a little drive, you know, to sweep away the cobwebs from being at home half the day. I have been behaving as promised.’
‘Good to hear — just keep a low profile for a bit longer. We haven't had any more reports of anything so far, but if you see anything yourself, well, give me a ring straightaway, okay?’
‘Will do. Should I call your private number or ring the station?’
‘Just call me directly. I don't want this going to the station. I'm out on patrol as well, so I can respond pretty much straightaway. And, Dee Dee, I know you won’t do anything foolish, will you? In case you do stumble upon anything, just stay in your car and call me, okay?’
‘Sure, sure, Bruce, I do anything foolish, pfft, never,’ I laughed, hanging up on him. I knew he'd hate me doing that; give it to the man is what I say.
I arrived at my car, sighing with relief that it had remained undiscovered. I bleeped the car’s alarm, deactivating it.
Approaching my car, my palm started getting itchy again. I groaned, recognizing this itchiness now as a warning of danger. I paused noticing something odd about my tinted passenger window. It was ballooning out, the glass fluid-like and malleable. I hopped back a bit. Fuck, what now? I almost growled. The window glass enlarged dramatically, all the other glass from the other windows disappeared, all shifting and flowing adding to the passenger window opening. The glass roiled with one last heave and then shifted into a vague human visage. The face, supported by my car window glass, hung there. I recoiled as its enormous mouth slowly grinned, dare I say, in an evil way? It certainly wasn't here to offer me its best wishes and a bunch of flowers.
‘Warrrderrr,’ it crackled, the words grinding together like nails scraping down a blackboard. I winced, stepping back to get some distance from it, as I had no idea what the fuck this was.
‘You are already becoming a nuisance to my plans. Who would have thought you'd be so strong already?’
‘Who are you?’ I yelled, crouching defensively, kicking myself for not bringing my gun.
‘I am your worst nightmare, brought to life, Warder. I am death incarnate. I am a necromancer of vast power and my master is very unhappy with the appearance of you here, now. You are not meant to be. And I will ensure that you suffer, Warder.’
The necromancer’s face shivered at those words and exploded with stunning force, spraying dagger-like shards of lethal tinted glass at me. I dropped to the ground, reacting automatically, lying flat, head down to protect my face, tucking my arms in close to my sides, trying to cover as much of my exposed areas of flesh as I could. I knew this would not be enough; the glass slivers were about to hurt me very badly.
I pushed myself down hard, and felt my wrist throb with Earth’s energy, the ground instantly engulfing me. I sank rapid
ly into its embrace, just as I felt the first of the black glass hit above me striking the ground unmercifully. I felt a dozen horrid sharp stabs of pain; the longer glass pieces had managed to go deep enough into the ground to reach my body. Earth had blunted the impact but not enough. I cringed in pain; shit, I was seriously hurt, each piece grated in my back. I was now completely under the ground, the glass bombardment muffled.
The impacts on the ground stopped, and Earth under its own accord released me slowly, pushing me up and leaving me lying there on the surface, face down, I lay motionless for a minute getting my breath back. As I breathed a sigh of relief at my luck my scar throbbed again, in time with the throbbing wounds on my back; I felt a gentle wave of energy enter me, followed by another stronger wave that pulsed through me, slowly pushing out the thick glass shards that were sticking up out of me.
Screaming in agony, my hands twitched uncontrollably. I felt every serrated inch of glass slide out, cutting the inside of me, to land heavily on my back. Almost passing out, I screamed one last time as the last one exited my flesh. I gaped like a landed fish. Fuck that hurt. A final surge of healing energy passed slowly through me, the wounds puckering and closing.
It seemed that I would be harder to kill, but that didn't stop me from getting hurt in the process. That crazy witch bitch was right. A thank-you card might be in order, yak, yak.
I eased myself up out of the earth, and a cascade of dirt and jagged glass slid down off the back of my body. Moving carefully, I made sure I didn't have any remnants on my clothing and looked through my curtain of hair at my car. Fuck, that was going to cost a penny to fix — the glass was completely gone from all four windows.
Glancing around at my feet, I discovered I had another problem. I found myself surrounded by a glistening mass of glass. Most had landed pointy end down, though in the area around where I had laid the glass had crumbled and appeared to be reabsorbed back into the ground, thankfully, but it was the edging of the rest of them spread out like a miniature dark forest that had me concerned. It was a sea of serrated knives that would cut my legs to shreds trying to negotiate through them. I looked at my scar thoughtfully. Most of the things Earth had done for me were relatively automatic on Earth’s part. I think it was time for me to start testing the extent of my abilities, consciously.
I placed my palm, scar down, on the ground and looked at all the glass around me. Glass was a part of Earth, a composition of sand given shape and color. I concentrated on the glass, willing Earth to break down the glass into its base form. I felt a slight trembling beneath me and all the glass quivered and then simultaneously crumbled, creating a weird black Rorschach pattern around me. I concentrated more, wanting the evidence of my car windows to be reabsorbed back into the ground. Earth moved gently, the sand and metal oxides present in the car’s dark tint, slowly drained into the earth surface, disappearing and leaving the ground area around me as it originally was, though maybe just a bit, um, neater looking.
I smiled, satisfied. I felt placing my palm on the ground was a bit easier than not touching it, but now I knew that I could access Earth’s energy both ways. I had the gut feeling that it would also be beneficial to me if I perhaps sat down at some point and maybe strengthened my connection with Earth. It felt alive and eager to assist me.
CHAPTER 11
Tolerating the overly windy drive, I arrived home, showered and freshened up, even managing to get an afternoon nap in, not a common practice of mine, but a welcome one today. I woke refreshed, sensing the day turning over and early evening taking up its duty.
After today's fiasco, I made a point of going downstairs to my basement and taking out the assortment of guns I had locked away in a vertical gun safe. Since leaving the force I had kept my gun skills fresh by going out to a local shooting range. My skills were still above average and I intended to keep them that way, now more so after such a string of life-changing events.
Geez, I wasn't just human anymore, but even though the sorceress said I was harder to kill, and even after the fact that I now was acquiring some amazing abilities, I wasn't going to stop using guns. My mistake was being complacent today and not taking at least one handgun with me. Serrated knives were one thing, but guns were going to be my best friend. They had saved my ass more than a few times from perps. Even just catching a glimpse of my carrying one can cause enough hesitation to give you that edge in confrontations.
I got out my little 9 mm Ruger P94, which wasn’t a bad pistol, but I generally favored my .32 Remington 51. It was much lighter and concealed beautifully. It didn’t carry as many bullets but I wanted the pistol hidden with less chance of anyone spotting it over a few extra bits of ammo. I checked to see if it was loaded, ensuring the safety was on, tucking it behind my back into my slacks. I pulled my light grey camisole out, and presto, Deirdre was seemingly unarmed.
Making my way back upstairs, I felt a distinct trembling throughout the whole of my house’s foundation. I gripped the stair balustrade and scrambled up to the kitchen, holding on to the steel island bench, wondering whether my night would stay sane — hell, my freaking week for that matter.
I looked around confused not quite sure of the source of the earthquake, if that's what it was. The white tiles beside me crackled, a few popping with sharp retorts, startling me. They bulged, stretching and expanding, and amazingly enough started rising, gathering themselves into a humanoid form. Agrona shook herself, standing there gasping, with her white grout-lined lips, her pupils glistening in the overhead lights delicately etched with the tiles’ faint pattern; her hand reached out to support herself on the steel oven.
She looked up. ‘I did not enjoy that, stupid human. You are very lucky Ghob wants to see you now, or I would be extremely happy to take out my discomfort on you.’
I gasped, looking at my kitchen floor, the tiles forming the outer layer of her body, came from the rest of the kitchen, including the concrete underneath them, leaving a bare layer of compacted earth around us.
‘What have you done to my kitchen, goblin?’ I spat. ‘And just for your information, from now on I am “Warder” to you, not “human”, not “Deirdre”, Warder, as I see we’re not going to be friends anytime soon, and only my friends get to call me by my first name. Do you understand?’
Agrona stared at me, chuckling quietly. ‘I wouldn't get too comfortable in those shoes, Warder,’ she sneered. ‘It's a dangerous title to have at the moment.’
‘Pfffftt, today I have fought off revenants and had a necromancer try to kill me. So you know what? Bring it on, rocky,’ I said, putting as much derision and contempt into my voice as possible, ‘because I think I'd give you a run for your money.’
‘Money, running — what drivel are you talking about?’
‘Forget it. Where's Ghob and what does he want now?’
‘I don't know. He does not share his movements or thoughts with many, Warder, though I have been asked to demonstrate a form of earth training for you, so I suspect he might have more of that in mind.’ Agrona put out a porcelain hand. ‘Come, your first "training" is earth travel, and Ghob has asked me to show you the basics so that we may go to him quickly.’
‘You mean, hold your hand, and go with you? Where? Under the ground, like when you just rose up?’
‘Yes, yes, it's how the majority of Earth elementals travel. We enter the earth, and through our magic create a pathway that can take us anywhere that we need to go. It’s also how we move into our domain. We also use it for defense and illusion, when the need arises.’
‘How can I trust you to get me to Ghob? What if you just leave me somewhere encased in rock? I don't think I'm okay with that thought.’
She raised a defiant chin and pronounced, ‘Ghob has entrusted me to deliver you to him, and I will, much to my disgust. I do not like this situation either, as I am not usually a delivery service. I am a warrior, and Ghob's second-in- command. But I will bring you with me and arrive with you intact.’ She grinned wickedly and added, ‘Th
ough I do hope you’re not a fast learner’.
Shit, I thought, panicking slightly. I wasn't claustrophobic or anything, though the thought of sinking into the earth and being completely encased far down wasn't my idea of a fun time.
‘Ghob insisted on this mode of travel. He has felt you pull on Earth's power several times, and believes that you need to learn this. So, come, there is no time to waste. He does not like to be kept waiting for too long.’
I glanced at her outraised hand like it was a mottled scorpion about to thrust its stinger into me. I didn't trust Agrona for a second. She had shown me nothing but disdain and appeared to have as much compassion for humans as a human had for contact with a leper.
I sighed. I didn't usually hesitate this much when difficult situations arose, but I’d never imagined having to travel through solid Earth before now, had I?
Looking Agrona in those blank white orbs of hers, I whispered, ‘If I even suspect you of any sort of mischief, I will gladly pay you back threefold, Agrona. Do you understand me?’
She stared, unflinchingly, and smiled. ‘I will do exactly as Ghob commanded, Warder,’ she hissed. ‘But I will not be responsible for your mental safety; that is entirely up to you. Traveling underground is something even your mother balked at.’
‘You knew her?’ I said quickly, instantly fishing for some information.
‘Yes, though we never saw eye to eye.’
Geez, I wonder why, I thought. Agrona had the personality of, hmmph, a rock, and not a friendly one at that.
‘Enough with the questions,’ she barked at me. ‘Give me your hand and let's go before Ghob gets impatient.’
Agrona grabbed my hand, squeezing a little too hard. I tried to press back, but her hand was composed of concrete and tile, so it made no impact on Agrona.
‘Close your eyes, Warder. I have heard that it helps with the transition from air to earth, though it's up to you. I have no concern for your comfort.’
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