Night Elves 2: Dangerous Obsession

by Nelissa Donovan

  The youth’s smooth face creased with concern. “But—how will we do that?”

  The woman smiled sadly. “Do not worry, Taos’a. That is my concern.”

  As the woman turned, Eristta gasped. The raven-haired elf looked like her. So close…except for her eyes. They, like the youth’s, were pure silver.

  Like—

  The Unhcegila.

  As if handed the answer to a master puzzle box, the edges suddenly clicked and the lid sprung free.

  Chapter Sixteen

  “Ser! You cannot maintain the shield!” Selena brushed dirt and soot-matted hair from her face and tried once again to reason with her husband. “We cannot fight her this way! I must change!”

  “No!” Serosen’s growl thundered through the glade despite the screams of terror. Despite the roar of the dragon. The cracking of bones. The pall of death and destruction.

  Selena stared at her brave Night Ranger. He was near to collapse from shielding as many of their warriors as he could while their mages peppered the beast with every spell imaginable.

  So far, none had made a dent.

  He is right. The Phoenix’s soothing presence filled Selena. I cannot guarantee our bonding would not irreparably harm the child. This is why I have stayed away, Selena. Why I have let you have this time.

  They are dying! There must be something we can do!

  Selena felt the Phoenix’s ripple of distress. There is, daughter. Pray. Pray that She can be reached in time. Pray that we have done the right thing in bringing Her here.

  The Phoenix’s words brought an audible gasp from Selena. You…you brought it here?

  Not directly. But we knew it was a possibility. We did not warn you. Or try to stop its arrival.

  Selena cursed in Spanish and flung her longbow aside. How could you? I don’t understand!

  Sighing, the Phoenix’s sense of isolation reached Selena, dampening her anger—slightly. It was a gamble. The sorcerer is powerful, Selena. Things are progressing much quicker than we had anticipated—hoped for. Alone, we cannot defeat him. We need allies. Powerful ones. Ancient ones.

  The dragon? Selena looked skyward, again awed by the creature’s overwhelming strength, and devastated by its horrible inhumanity. “I don’t know how to tell you this, but I think the only thing on this ancient creature’s mind is ripping each of us to unrecognizable shreds.”

  Silence. Selena felt the Phoenix’s presence recede, and she snorted in irritation. She was okay with not knowing everything, but this was something she would have appreciated a heads-up on.

  A sudden concussion rocked the ground. Selena recognized the sensation—a portal had been opened.

  She felt Serosen’s mind touch hers: It is nearby. Go, Selena. Find the source. Perhaps it is Red Claw, or Eristta!

  I won’t leave you!

  You will, mi’awen. For our daughter. Go. Now.

  With her lover’s firm shout echoing within her mind and heart, Selena fought back an angry sob and mounted Amerald. Digging her heels into his side, they shot across the smoldering plain in the direction of the pulsating doorway.

  * * * * *

  There was no choice. With Garethan holding the reins to her psyche, pictures of Red Claw’s homeland flowed freely once she’d been released from the spell of the pendants. A history and memory activated by her touch and the sorcerer’s tainted magick. The words the shaman taught her rolled off her tongue despite her desperate efforts to stop them.

  The concussion of the pendant’s power slammed through Tir na n-Og and into Eristta’s feet, to climb up her torso and erupt from her hands, ripping a seam in the air large enough for an army to march through.

  She heard Garethan hiss in triumph. “Very good. Now, hold her there, maintaining the doorway until my return.” The sorcerer chuckled. “The effort, will, of course, deplete your danu awen, but I am confident that your combined energy will sustain the doorway long enough for me to complete my task.”

  Eristta could only grit her teeth as the currents funneled through her. Rich, earthy scents undulated from the terran world into Tir na n-Og, bringing back the sensations that filled her as she ran through Red Claw’s forest. Cool soil. Warm, bright yellow sun. The spectacular energy that rippled from the ground, the sky, and the snowy peaks that speared the crystalline blue heavens.

  The dragon.

  She’d resided in those mountains. And it had been her presence that had followed Eristta as she ran. No doubt the pendants’ combined pull had woken her…driven her to investigate. But it was impossible that the dragon knew the truth of her heritage.

  “Garethan!”

  The sorcerer slowly turned, and Eristta’s gaze cut to the side.

  Selena.

  She leapt off the galloping Amerald, hair whipped in the gusts of pure energy that poured from the doorway. Her attention flicked to Eristta, bare and glowing. Selena’s beautiful face registered no shock or distress, and Eristta knew the Phoenix was present, helping to keep the hot-tempered terran composed.

  Dully, Eristta felt her bond-sister’s probe, but Garethan’s spell retarded any true connection. Instinctively, Eristta’s attention was drawn to the slight swell of her abdomen, and concern for Selena and the child she carried flared.

  No!

  Too late. With Garethan’s fingers still deep within her, the sorcerer pulled her fears from her, and Eristta cursed herself.

  He turned his back on the portal and faced Selena. “My dear, Selena. How nice of you to come and see me off. Perhaps I can visit your old, how do you say it? Stomping ground?” His flaccid smile brought fresh chills of disgust to Eristta’s heart and she struggled once more. She couldn’t let Garethan harm her niece or bond-sister.

  Goddess, please, help me!

  Garethan chuckled as he stepped closer to Selena. “A perfect ending to a perfect day. I do think, my dear, that it would behoove me to take you along into this crass little world. Your knowledge could prove useful.”

  “I do not think you would relish my company, Garethan.”

  The Phoenix’s voice reverberated through Eristta, despite the sorcerer’s bindings.

  “Your presence is…less, Phoenix,” Garethan murmured, his gaze fastened on Selena’s belly. “Do you think it wise to merge with your pet in her current state?”

  Eristta watched as emotions rolled across Selena’s face, and the elfin princess knew her bond-sister was likely to explode at any moment.

  I can’t let this happen! Red Claw…my love. I need you!

  Garethan raised his hand. Tentacles of crimson writhed above his palm as his eyes boiled tar black. “Come, Terran. Time to return to the soil that formed you.”

  The threads slithered from his palm toward Selena, and Eristta screamed in fury.

  Light! Blinding…

  So bright Eristta was forced to shut her eyes. Heat scorched her face and stung her brain with its intensity.

  Forcing her eyes open, Eristta gasped.

  “Darous!”

  Her shout actually exploded into the air. The firewhit darted between the sorcerer’s magick tendrils and Selena, disrupting the spell and temporarily blinding Garethan.

  Was it possible?

  Eristta wiggled her spirit form within her body. The bonds were loosening! Physically, she was unable to free herself, but she could speak. She could direct her thoughts.

  Darous!

  The firewhit zipped to her, his pear skin still glowing painfully bright, his gossamer wings vibrating so rapidly Eristta could scarce see them. His keen gaze narrowed, and his hands went to his hips as his mind brushed hers. Pulling out memories. Drawing from her the events that had transpired the past hours in an instant.

  Do not tell me you believed that troll spawn’s lies?

  Shame burned through Eristta, as well as pure joy at her friend’s return. There is no time for that, Darous. Can you free me?

  In the effort of maintaining the gate, Eristta’s strength was flagging. Her heart thumped low and hard
as it worked to keep blood moving through each extremity. To sustain the energy pouring out of her.

  “You!” The inhuman growl ripped their attention back to the sorcerer who advanced, his expression gray with wrath.

  Darous’s eyes widened and he rocketed skyward, a torrent stream of dark magick trailing him.

  A sudden whirlwind knifed through the clearing and whisked Darous out of harm’s way. Dust motes sparkled with copper within the spinning cloud as the firewhit tumbled free to right himself several leagues from their position.

  Eristta’s attention snapped to Garethan. The sorcerer’s focus was fixed on the dust cloud, his gaze narrow, his nostrils flared. A tingling started in Eristta’s heels, and eased up into her legs. At the junction of her quim, a familiar vibration elicited a tiny gasp and Eristta’s heart soared.

  Red Claw.

  Her gaze cut back to the swirling, sparkling cloud. How?

  Before she could question more, Eristta watched in astonishment as the whirlwind swooped upon Garethan. The sorcerer constructed a shielding spell not a moment too soon. Burning a fierce orange, the cyclone slammed into the sorcerer, nearly knocking him off his feet even with his shield in place. Blood-red sparks arced where the two collided, and Garethan snarled with fury. “How could you have possibly…”

  His words faded as the cloud engulfed him, shield and all. Eristta felt his shout in her mind: You only delay the inevitable! You save your elfin whore, and sacrifice the sanctity of your homeland in her stead!

  Eristta watched in frustrated dismay as Garethan fought free of the whirlwind and ran for portal.

  “No!”

  Eristta’s and Selena shouts rang as one. Eristta reached for her bond-sister. Do not change, Sister!

  I must stop him!

  “No. Stay where you are, Selena.”

  Eristta cried out at the melodious sound of her lover’s voice so near. The hands that held her went from warm to hot, and pieces of Red Claw’s familiar energy flooded her. Fed her.

  “Hold firm, Eristta.” His words—soft. His breath sweet on her neck. “His bonds are thickly entwined with your energy. I cannot sever them without harming you, wastelakapi.”

  Holding back a sob, Eristta shook her head. “It matters not! We must close the doorway!”

  “No, Ohitika waniyetula ishta. We must let him go.”

  Her lover’s words made no sense! “What are you saying?”

  Eristta watched in shock as Garethan leapt through the radiant portal. She could see him on the other side, his flaxen hair flowing in the strong breeze; his crafty face slick with triumph. You may close the doorway now, princess. I do believe I’ll be staying for a time.

  Red Claw! We cannot let him—

  Shhh… Red Claw’s mind-touch eased Eristta’s agitation, and it was at that moment, she felt the sorcerer’s bonds loosen, then fall away.

  Without the support of the pendants’ energy, Eristta collapsed, her mind and spirit reeling from the depletion of her danu awen. Sturdy arms caught and lifted her free of the ground.

  The doorway closed with nothing more than a gentle pop, as if reluctant to give up its connection to its sister world.

  As her gaze lifted, joy and despair filled her equally. Red Claw—alive and whole. Garethan—trapped in the terran world.

  Eristta looked fully upon her lover. Red Claw’s eyes were no longer the warm, rich mahogany that spoke of soulful knowledge. Glints of hard carnelian sparked within their mysterious depths, and Eristta knew he was not the same man forced from her side only hours before. With a shaking hand, Eristta cupped his sculpted jaw. “What has he done to you?”

  Her lover smiled, and the feral quality sent disturbing yet titillating shivers through Eristta’s abdomen and quim. “Not now, wastelakapi.”

  Her bond-sister’s rushing advance forced them apart. “Eristta! Red Claw!”

  Eristta smiled warmly. “I’ll be fine. But you look like centaur fodder, sister.”

  Shrugging, Selena turned her attention to where the doorway once stood. “This is very, very bad,” she murmured, her brows pinched in worry.

  Her azure eyes locked with Red Claw’s and Selena raised arched brows. “This entire scenario is beyond disturbing, but right now we have another pressing issu—”

  Selena’s words died as her gaze shifted to the forest. “Dios mios.”

  Eristta didn’t have to turn to know that Selena had noticed the snaking line of golems heading down the crested rise and into the valley. The valley that held the rear guard of their forces. The army that was currently being slaughtered by a revenge-driven mutant dragon.

  “Okay. We have numerous pressing issues.”

  Gently releasing and setting Eristta back onto her feet, Red Claw nodded, his expression dark. “Ones we cannot solve without assistance.”

  “The faeries?” Selena asked as she pulled her short sword.

  Eristta stood shakily. “There are no faerie to give support,” she said, her focus still on Red Claw. Still wondering at the wild fluctuation of his energy. “I’ll explain later.”

  A jolt knifed through Eristta’s arm and she gasped. Looking down, she realized the pendants were still gripped tight in her fist. The one she’d used to open the doorway for Garethan had blackened, its crimson sheen faded as if passed through fire. It was dead. Lifeless. The memory and power infused into the once living bone returned into the currents. But the others glowed softly, as if sensing the demise of their brethren. As if understanding that the tides ran high, and that the possibility of transformation was upon them.

  She lifted her hand. “Red Claw. The pendants. They—”

  Red Claw stepped back. Multiple expressions flowed across his normally stoic countenance. “No.” His hand cut the air. “They are yours, Eristta. Put them on.”

  Tingling traveled up her arm. “Shaman, their power does not belong in my—”

  Growling, Red Claw balled his fists and spun, putting Eristta and Selena to his back. “Put them on!”

  Eristta’s jaw dropped. She was quiet for a moment, then tied a knot in the thong and slipped it over her head. As the dragon claws settled against her bare chest, a strong sense of need filled her. A pull. The desire to seek the question, as if she were the answer.

  Her eyes scanned the heavens, and Eristta knew exactly what she had to do.

  Chapter Seventeen

  She was safe. His beloved was whole. Essentially unharmed.

  The power…take it!

  Yes!

  We are hungry. Take it all.

  No! Not that one. The other. The bright one. Get closer. Let us taste her.

  Gritting his teeth, Red Claw strode away from his love and his hunt brother’s wife, heading for the line of golems. Twenty paces and he was there, blood boiling, mind nearly fractured in his attempt to manage the desires, needs and commands of the energies that fought for supremacy within him. Where there had once been many nether energies, there were now only three or four powerful ones. They’d consumed all the others.

  The noxious golem paid him no mind until Red Claw reached out with lightning hands and broke his neck. The golem fell like a tree, massive legs thudding into the soft earth. The venomous creatures around him turned their glassy-eyed attention his way and within seconds, Red Claw dispatched four more, his hand smoking from the fissures of magick he drove into each golem’s ripe body.

  He had to find ways to bleed off the forces. Control them, until he found a method to expel them entirely. But there wasn’t time for that now. Garethan’s forces were on their way to decimating the largest combined force of fey assembled since the Great Separation. Tee’amon would simply be the icing on the cake.

  After shredding ten more, the warrior turned his focus away from killing.

  Eristta.

  In the fading afternoon light her ebony hair shone nearly blue, her slender, naked body glowing. His gaze went to the string that hung around her regal neck, and he sucked in a breath as the desire to possess them
returned.

  He knew now their true origin. He’d always suspected the claws were not from any Earth creature. That no gifted bear left them behind for a young Oglala warrior to stumble upon in his quest for knowledge and power.

  Mato had led him to the pendants when he’d been a young man, still trying to find his place within the tribe. Back then, the spirit bear’s presence was intermittent, but after finding the pendants, Mato stayed with him for longer periods of time, eventually merging with his awareness until they operated as one.

  Until recently.

  Red Claw wondered where the great bear was now. Since leaving the world between worlds, he’d not sought his presence, nor expected it. His mind was a bit crowded at the moment. Even so, Red Claw wished for Mato’s consummate skill at controlling and funneling power. The shaman felt on the edge of madness.

  Under his narrowed gaze, Eristta mounted Serosen’s stallion, and after pulling Selena up behind her, she looked his way. Her violet eyes glinted with silver, and Red Claw felt her danu awen pulse with power and purpose.

  And fear.

  Fear for him.

  Go, wastelakapi, Red Claw mind-spoke softly, keeping his touch distant. Not giving the energies an opportunity to feel his beloved.

  As if sensing the reason for his distance, Eristta simply nodded and mind-spoke to the stallion. At her words, they sped across the grassy plain, Amerald easily avoiding the snarling, grasping hands of the golems. As they galloped, Selena swung her sword one-handed, slicing beasts like a scythe through wheat. He watched until they had successfully crested the rise and disappeared from view before turning his attention back to matters at hand: how to rid himself of nether spirits that demanded power—sacrifice.

  * * * * *

  Eristta let Amerald choose his path, as her focus was on other things. The golems had already spilled into the valley, and frenzied fighting had begun. The bulk of their army had doubled back to support the rear, but in the few minutes Selena had been away, the dragon had managed to injure many. Clerics scrambled to attend and remove those fallen, while Serosen still shielded as many as he could.