Cadence squirmed. Thom was tall, strong limbed, and neatly toned. His skin glowed healthily, a cross between a sports model and a biker, and exactly like all the men she had dated before Calix. Cadence licked her lips; what did it matter as long as she was attracted to Thom? She would be immortal. Immortal!
‘I know you adore this look.’ Thom read her mind again. ‘You enjoy a bit of danger, don’t you, Cadence?’
Cadence gasped; there was no point in denying it. Besides, she reasoned, she had already promised to be his. If she was to spend eternity with him, there was absolutely no use in feeling guilty about it. ‘I do,’ she admitted. ‘And you like the way I look?’
Thom pushed her legs apart. ‘I do,’ he growled, hungrily kissing her mouth and pushing his tongue into it to meet hers.
Cadence flicked her tongue against his and pressed her body against the tautness of his bare skin, wrapping her legs around his back. ‘Show me your world,’ she panted, ‘I want everything you have to give me. Make me immortal.’
Thom threw his head back and screeched but Cadence was deaf to the unearthly wail, all she heard were the hungry moans of a passionate lover.
* * *
The view before Calix rooted him to the spot. He rubbed his eyes to make sure they were working properly and this was not a trick. Cadence, her body covered with a sticky sapphire liquid, writhed naked beneath an immense blue-tinged man with a mane of black hair tied in a ponytail that hung halfway down his naked back. Draugr, Calix thought, repulsed. He jumped as Thom’s face twisted in his direction. Eyes flared from the Draugr’s contorted face, jagged teeth gleaming as Thom threw his head back in mocking laughter before lowering his mouth to Cadence’s face, covering her lips with his, but all the while keeping his gaze locked mockingly on Calix.
Cadence eagerly wrapped her arms around Thom’s hideous neck and arched her back, wantonly pressing her nakedness into him. The stench of decay wafted from the Draugr and the smell, coupled with the sight of Cadence clearly enjoying the intimacy, made Calix retch. Calix mentally slapped himself, he couldn’t be sick. He was a ghost. As was Cadence. The thought made him feel even sicker. He knew Thom was controlling Cadence, twisting her to his will but it didn’t make him feel any better about it.
‘Cadence!’ Calix shouted, refusing to be afraid. He was already dead, how much worse could it get?
When she didn’t respond, he reached down and picked up a clump of the onyx earth and aimed it at her. It missed and hit Thom on the head, causing him to screech. Calix picked up another piece and this time hit Cadence on the cheek. She shook her head, her eyes finally focussing on him.
‘Calix?’ Surprise lifted Cadence’s eyebrows. She turned back to Thom and screamed.
Thom laughed. ‘Do you not want me now you see me as I truly am? Foolish woman.’
Cadence kicked out against Thom, sliding from underneath him.
‘You agreed.’ Thom grabbed her hair, twisting it painfully until she faced him. ‘You wanted all I have to offer.’
Cadence recoiled from his decaying breath. ‘Not if you look like this!’
Thom screeched again, causing Cadence and Calix to cover their ears in agony. ‘You cannot take it back now, the union has been consummated. You belong to me!’
Calix forced his legs to work and hurried over to Cadence and the Draugr. ‘She can take it back, she can change her mind!’ He didn’t know what to do. Bran hadn’t prepared him for this.
Thom released Cadence, and laughed. ‘She cannot.’ He shuddered into the human form of himself and gently stroked Cadence’s head. ‘She is mine.’
The Draugr’s voice lulled Cadence and she swayed against him, gazing at him adoringly. ‘I am yours,’ she whispered. ‘For eternity.’
Thom sucked at her lips, unfazed by his and Cadence’s nakedness in front of Calix. ‘When she returns to her body the transformation will be complete and she will be the same as me.’
‘Yes,’ Cadence whispered.
‘You will be powerful, strong, and immortal, Cadence.’ Thom changed back into his normal form. ‘And you will look like me.’
Cadence’s eyes snapped open. ‘L-l-look like you?’
Thom loomed immense in his height above them. ‘Part like me,’ he amended. ‘You are, after all, female.’
‘She will not be a Draugr!’ Calix seized the opportunity to grab Cadence and pulled her to him. Her spirit hand felt different in his, cold and dry. ‘You will not have her!’
‘You cannot change her back!’ Thom’s laughter filled the void, echoing deafeningly around them. ‘Cadence is mine, just as Kaelia will be!’ He reached for Cadence at the same time as Calix sensed a pull at his spirit, and Thom’s hands closed around nothing but empty air.
* * *
Bran lowered Calix’s body to the ground. ‘It’s done,’ he said. ‘He’s back.’
Calix coughed and spluttered, twisting onto his side and dry-retching. Kaelia rubbed his back, soothing him.
‘Where’s Cadence’s spirit?’ Kaelia directed her question at Bran, who was pacing around them, eyes searching.
Bran threw a bolt of violet light towards a tree and the light instantly illuminated the naked, trembling ghost figure of Cadence. He sent a fizzing stream of light towards her again, keeping her in a steady hold. ‘I’ll keep her spirit here,’ he told Kaelia. ‘You wake Jade up.’
‘Why?’ Kaelia stood up anyway.
‘We need her to take Cadence’s spirit inside her.’
Calix, who was now sitting up and looking pale, interrupted. ‘Why can’t Cadence’s spirit go back into her own body?’
Bran’s tone was condescending. ‘If Cadence’s spirit returns to her own body, all Thom has to do is take her and wait for the transformation to be complete. If we keep her spirit separate from her body, we can find the bloom of a Rosealrium bush to reverse the curse.’
‘I don’t understand.’ Calix’s legs shook as he stood. He stumbled over to Cadence’s physical body.
Bran, maintaining the steady stream of light capturing Cadence’s spirit, exhaled in exasperation. ‘Kaelia,’ he barked, ‘wake blondie up. Dimwit, listen up. You need to find a bloom from the Rosealrium bush. You will place the bloom in the mouth of Cadence’s body and send her spirit back. The bloom will absorb all of the Draugr’s magic, thus returning your girlfriend to normal. In the meantime, Jade will act as a vessel for Cadence’s spirit and keep it safe. She will have to cast a Sifar spell around herself and Cadence’s body to hide from the Draugr and you, Calix, will have to return quickly with the Rosealrium bloom or Cadence will be lost and she will become a Draugr.’
Kaelia helped a dazed Jade to her feet and quickly filled her in on the events.
‘It’s my fault!’ Jade wailed, her eyes filling with tears.
‘No, it’s not,’ Kaelia soothed. ‘You couldn’t help it.’
‘Actually,’ Bran said. ‘It is Jade’s fault. She was the one who let the Draugr turn her into his blood slave. She’s the reason Cadence is in this situation.’
Jade burst out crying. ‘I’ll do anything to save her!’
‘Good.’ Bran beckoned her to his side. ‘Open your mouth and shut up.’
Jade struggled to stop crying and opened her mouth obediently. Bran bolted a ball of light at Cadence and sent the ghostly figure hurtling into Jade. Jade gulped and closed her mouth, swaying slightly. ‘I feel funny.’ Her voice had an odd echo to it.
Bran chuckled. ‘Of course you do. You’re both inside one body. You’ll have to learn to put up with one another until the dimwit returns with the bloom.’
Jade screamed, clutching her head in agony. ‘Cadence doesn’t want to be in here. She wants to be with him!’
Calix rushed to her and awkwardly patted Jade on the shoulder. He wanted to touch Cadence more than anything but not when she was in a Jade-wrapper. ‘Cadence, can you hear me? You’ll be with me soon. I’ll find the bloom and save you.’
Jade snickered, her voice echoing wi
th the undertone of Cadence’s voice. ‘I don’t mean you!’ She pointed behind them. ‘I mean him!’
The other three turned to where Cadence pointed with Jade’s finger. Thom stood tall and menacing within the trees. His laughter reached them before he had a chance to. Bran immediately sent out a tirade of violet light balls, forcing the Draugr to fall to the ground. Kaelia slipped beside Bran and, without hesitation, linked one hand with his, adding her light to his until the pair of them forced Thom to retreat underneath the earth.
‘Is he dead?’ Kaelia held onto Bran’s hand.
Bran shook his head. ‘All we succeeded in doing was to send him back to his own realm. He could return any minute.’ Reluctantly, he broke contact with Kaelia and barked instructions at Jade and Calix to form a protective sphere, like the one encasing Mortiswood Academy, around Cadence’s body and Jade with the spirit of her friend still inside her.
* * *
‘I can’t abandon you.’ Calix hugged Kaelia ten minutes later once the spell was complete and the Sifars were safely enclosed within it. ‘I promised to stay with you for as long as I could.’
‘You must save Cadence.’ Kaelia hugged him back. ‘And I have to carry on with my journey. I must find out what has happened to my mum and free my grandmother’s spirit. It has taken me too long already. I dread to think how tortured my grandmother is.’ A thought of Bay, his soft, brown eyes, his lopsided smile, his unswerving loyalty as her long-time friend, cracked her heart. ‘Plus, I have deaths to avenge.’
Bran folded his arms across his slender chest. ‘I hate to break up such a touching scene but the human needs to move if he wants to be a hero. Tick tock.’
Calix clenched his fists. ‘You can be a real dick at times, Bran.’
Bran shrugged. ‘I’d rather be myself than a weakling like you.’
Calix squared his muscular shoulders. ‘Why don’t you fight me like a normal man, without hiding behind your powers? We’ll see how strong you really are.’
Bran glared at Calix. ‘I could kill you with a flick of my hand. No, wait.’ He laughed. ‘I already did.’
‘You bastard!’ Calix gritted his teeth and pushed up against Bran.
‘Enough!’ Kaelia wedged between them and shoved them apart, using more force with Bran. ‘Find the Rosealrium bloom and save Cadence,’ she told Calix. ‘Do you know where he can find one?’ she asked Bran.
Bran looked away and ran a hand through his hair. ‘There’s a castle, a days run away from here. Rumour is Rosealrium bushes flower there.’
‘A days run?’ Calix picked up his bag. ‘I thought Rosealrium blooms were hard to find.’
Bran’s eyes glinted. ‘Rumour is there’s a terrible beast guarding the castle, protecting its blooms because they are its most precious treasure. No-one has ever made it out of the castle alive.’
‘But it’s all rumour, right?’ Calix pulled the motorbike up and checked it was intact from where he had dropped it before.
Bran shrugged. ‘You’ll have to find out.’
‘And how will I find it?’ Calix kicked the machine into life.
Kaelia nodded at Bran, who sighed. ‘Give me something to draw on and I’ll sketch you a map. I’m doing this for you,’ Bran told Kaelia. ‘I don’t care if they all die.’
* * *
Thirteen
Calix roared off on the motorbike in search of the Rosealrium bloom leaving Kaelia alone once more with Bran. She followed him to where he had hidden his own motorbike. She couldn’t shake the feeling of being watched and, hoping it was the Vallesm, looked around but only trees swayed in the gentle breeze, their leaves whispering secrets she could not hear.
Bran handed Kaelia a motorbike helmet and jumped onto the machine. Patting the pillion behind him he lowered the passenger foot-pegs and kicked the machine into life.
‘Don’t think I’ll enjoy this.’ Kaelia pushed the helmet on her head and climbed onto the back of the bike. ‘I’m used to riding my own bike.’
‘Shut up and hold onto me.’
Kaelia grasped the bar behind her and positioned herself against the back rest, pushing her feet securely onto the foot-pegs. ‘You’re a flirt.’
‘If you’re frightened,’ Bran chuckled. ‘I don’t mind you getting closer.’
Without waiting for an answer, he expertly veered through the trees and straight out onto the tarmac road leading away from Mortiswood.
The road ran along the edge of the woods and joined a motorway. Bran pushed the motorbike to its limits, jauntily swerving in and out between cars. If motorists honked their horns in annoyance, Bran stuck his middle finger up at them and played up some more. Kaelia would have been terrified to be a passenger before but not now. Now she had powers and knew how to use them, she was stronger, faster, determined. Bran reached the service station in record time and drew up in its car park. His hair stuck up at odd angles once he removed his helmet.
‘Why are we stopping?’ Kaelia tugged off her helmet and shook out her long, copper curls. ‘I want to get this over with.’
Bran gestured for her to jump off the bike and waited until she had done so before replying. ‘I don’t know about you but I’m hungry. I’m not venturing into Niflheim without a full belly. If you don’t want to eat, fine, wait out here but I’m eating and I could murder a mug of strong coffee.’
Kaelia burst out laughing. For some reason the normalcy juxtaposed with her perception of Bran, was hilarious.
‘What?’ Bran demanded. ‘I do eat, you know.’
Kaelia struggled to curb her guffaws. ‘But you’re, well, you know what I mean!’
‘No, what?’
‘Really old!’
Bran rolled his eyes. ‘Older than you, yes, but do I look my age?’
Kaelia snorted. ‘What, thirty, thirty-five? I’ve never considered it before but you look about thirty. How old are you exactly? One hundred and thirty?’ She prodded his cheek, testing for a youthful spring back.
Bran held her hand against his cheek, faint stubble prickling into her skin. ‘Plus another three hundred.’
‘I hope I look as young as you do when I’m over four hundred years old!’ She corrected herself, ‘Not that I’ll ever be as old.’
Bran seized the moment and pulled her against his hard chest. ‘You’ll always be beautiful no matter your age.’ Coal black eyes caught her reflection. ‘And, yes, you will live a long life the same as I have.’
‘Shut up!’ Kaelia broke the eye-lock first. It made her uncomfortable how Bran saw through her eyes and into her very being. She shuddered, pushing past him. A wall of emotion hit her, knocking her backwards and she gulped. It was the service station. The place she had last seen, and lost, two people she loved.
‘What’s wrong?’
Kaelia pointed at a parking space close to shrubbery surrounding the parking bays. ‘That’s where my mum parked when I last saw her,’ she whispered. ‘And where she disappeared from.’
The past months fell away and Kaelia envisioned her mother’s car parked, her smiling face peering through the windscreen. Loss wrapped itself around Kaelia as she walked to the parking space and stared at the tarmac, tears swimming in her eyes. Grief burst the dam; tears carved bitter tracks over her cheeks. Memories carried her towards the sloping grassed area leading to the cliff top. Time lost all meaning; she blindly trod the route to where she had last seen her friend Bay. She didn’t hear if Bran followed, nor did she care, right now he no longer existed.
Ghosts of remembered words wove around her.
“Kaelia,” Bay had whispered as his lips sought hers. “I love you. It’s only ever been you. I was stupid to not have realised it sooner.”
“Me too,” Kaelia had replied dizzily. “Both love and stupid.”
Kaelia closed her eyes against the fractured images, recalling the powerful wind that had knocked her down before scooping Bay into its ferocious hold. She could still hear his screams as he plummeted over the cliff edge.
B
ran’s voice filtered through the memories. ‘Are you okay?’
Kaelia gazed up at Bran without seeing him, only then realising she was on her knees in the grass, unfeeling of the damp clinging to it. Her eyes, still caught in the past, watched in horror as the ghostly image of Bay played out the fateful scene from six months ago.
‘Kaelia!’ Bran clicked his fingers in front of her face, rudely pulling her back to the present. ‘What’s wrong with you?’
Kaelia ignored the hand he offered to help her to her feet, not wanting to succumb to the seduction of the power that resonated between them both whenever they touched each other. ‘Nothing.’ She bit her lip, stilling its wobble. Returning here brought painful memories to the surface, memories she had thought she had dealt with but clearly had not. Not wishing to share the story of Bay with Bran, she turned away from him and hurried towards the service station. She could feel the armour rising around her; it sucked fluidity from her, inserting a ramrod of tension around her spine as she stormed off.
* * *
Bran sensed Kaelia’s invisible armour; she could easily shut him out again. He reached her in a flash, not caring if anyone witnessed his use of powers. He grasped her shoulders and forced her to face him.
‘I know I can’t replace those you’ve lost but I will help you to find your grandmother’s spirit and I won’t give up until we find your mother too. I know what it is like to be alone. All you have to do, is trust me.’ He hooked a finger under her chin, lifting her moist eyes to meet his unwavering gaze.
Kaelia bit her lip again. Bran’s touch provided her with a well needed euphoric boost. Light fizzled from his fingers, intertwining with tentacles of her own power, feeding from each other.
‘I’ve been so scared,’ her words tumbled over each other, ‘I was a child when my father was killed. I ran away when my mum disappeared. I ran away again when my grandmother’s spirit was taken and hid in the stupid academy because you told me to!’
Mortiswood: Kaelia Awakening (Mortiswood Tales) Page 21
