Verenda laughed to himself, “that old woman,” he kicked his legs over the edge of the bed and walked over to the large window that blocked him from the hectic world out.
Devenaska was a busy kingdom that was built right in the middle of the desert. The city stretched out for miles around the castle, and was full of Davinains from all classes.
Verenda could only remember how he planned on ruling all of this with Laren by his side, but those were only memories. Laren had gotten sick soon after the king recovered from his illness, but she wasn’t strong enough to survive as he had done.
For what felt like forever, Verenda had been completely alone, and with his father being the king of half the world, there was never any time to spend together. His father felt so bad for Verenda that he went as far as sending women to his chambers, but they were all turned down each time. The prince just couldn’t bring himself to be interested in other women, especially not after the promise that the king of Vernasia had made him himself.
Verenda remembered the day that he had met Darrengiy in the fields, and was randomly challenged to a duel by him. Not long after that they had become friends, and one day Darrengiy gave him a proposition....
“Work by my side, and I’ll bring her back,” Darrengiy said, “I need a partner, and what better partner than my strong friend?”
“So...you really can bring her back?”
“I am the king of all the world’s Verenda,” Darrengiy smiled, “I can do anything...”
Verenda had no idea what he was getting into, and at first he didn’t care, but after the killings had started he realized that Laren would never forgive him. She would never be happy living, knowing that innocents had died on her behalf.
One day, Verenda decided that he no longer could fight by Darrengiy’s side, and ran away. He had no idea where to go, and he knew that returning back to his home would be too dangerous, so he went somewhere where Darrengiy would least expect. A world with no sand, and large beasts that stood taller than the average sized tree....
Chapter 15: Shalina-Part 4
Present time
“Verenda...” a soft voice called out to him, “...Verenda?” at first he thought that it was Laren’s voice, but when he opened his eyes, he realized that it was just Shalina trying to wake him up.
Shalina rubbed her hand through his wild hair as she watched Verenda slowly gain consciousness, “good, you’re finally waking up.”
Verenda gave her a blank stare as he remembered fighting with the group that he was with, and then being knocked out of the air by a Bift’s tail. He quickly sat up when he realized that he was no longer out there with them, and looked around himself, “Shalina, where are they? Is everyone okay?”
Shalina was alarmed by his reaction at first, but then she smiled, “they are fine. A man named Montago rushed you here.”
Verenda looked around again and noticed that they were inside of a large tree room, “where is here?”
Shalina nodded to a woman that laid in another pallet across from Verenda, facing the opposite direction, “some sort of recovery room, I guess?” she answered, “That one girl from before, Alcia, told me that she saw you here, so I came as soon as I could, and found that you were still sleeping.”
Verenda sighed and laid back down, “I was knocked out by one of those damned beasts.”
Shalina looked confused, not knowing what beast he was talking about, then asked, “So, how do you feel? You look like you’ve fully recovered.”
Verenda sighed, “I feel like a giant tail knocked me into a tree,” he answered bitterly.
Shalina couldn’t help but laugh, and for a second, she reminded him of Laren, but he knew better than to get the two confused.
Verenda laughed with her, but softly enough so not to hurt his aching body. His cuts and bruises had fully healed, but it was his bones and muscles that were going to take a little longer.
The woman across from them rolled over to face Verenda and Shalina with a tired look in her eyes, “could you quiet down.”
The two of their laughs trailed off, and they both just stared at her.
“Sorry about that,” Shalina apologized.
The woman nodded, then brought her eyes to Verenda, “it’s fine, my ears just have been feeling so sensitive lately,” she said, “I’m glad that you’re okay though. Verenda, right?”
Verenda nodded, “and who are you?”
“I’m Tasa. Montago brought you in here looking pretty banged up, but I see that you’ve healed pretty fast,” she looked him up and down.
Shalina had just remembered that Montago was the man that they walked to the village with, “oh, Montago, the jumping man,” she blurted.
Tasa looked up at Shalina, “...yes?”
“Oh, um,” Shalina blushed, feeling embarrassed, “he seems like a nice guy.”
Tasa nodded, “yes, he can be sweet.”
They all sat there in an awkward silence for a moment when Shalina broke the silence, “so, what happened to you? How did you end up in here?”
Tasa sighed and touched the small cut on her head, “I passed out. I was a bit...exhausted. That’s all,” she explained, trying not to sound weak, “it was no big deal.”
“Oh...”
“Oh, yeah. No big deal,” Verenda said.
Shalina and Verenda nodded their heads and pretended that passing out from exhaustion in a village, high up in the trees, was no big deal.
“Well, I’m glad you’re okay,” Shalina said.
Tasa nodded, then sat up and forced her body onto her feet.
“Do you need any help?” Shalina asked.
“No,” Tasa said leaning on the wall, “I can do it,” she started limping for the exit.
“Should you be leaving right now?” Verenda asked, “You still seem badly injured.”
“No, I’m okay,” She continued for the steps, “I just need to walk it out,” Tasa limped her way through the exit, and up the steps.
“She’s worse than me,” Verenda chuckled.
“Oh, so you’re stubborn as well? I hadn’t noticed,” Shalina said.
“Yeah, you just haven’t known me long enough.”
“Well, I’d be happy to take all the time that I need to get to know you better,” she laughed, “since I’m free to do as I please now.”
Verenda smiled up at Shalina and admired her deep sea colored eyes. He was slowly being drawn into her beauty when Montago’s voice boomed from upstairs.
“Tasa! What are you doing up here!? You should be back down there getting some sleep. I mean, you have barely recovered!” Before Tasa could respond, Montago had swept her off of her feet and carried her back down to her pallet.
After Montago sat Tasa down, she slammed her hand against the floor, “Montago, I need to start walking and moving around again! I feel useless, like I’m getting weak. And what if I need to protect myself? I don’t want others risking their lives for me anymore,” Tasa pouted. Montago is the only person that she would ever act this way with, because with others she always put up a tough girl act, “Montag-”
Montago got down on one knee and placed his finger on her lips, then he leaned in and kissed them, “it’s so cute when you’re upset.”
Shalina had thought back to Darrengiy, and how he would be so gentle with her. Even after learning of his lies and betrayals, she began to realize just how much she had missed him. It’s not like she’s actually seen the side of him that Verenda had told her about, and he had never harmed her in any type of way, so all she had was her memories of him being a gentle soul that did his best to keep her happy.
Shalina turned to look down at Verenda, who was watching the other two as well, with a sad expression on his face. She could tell that he had something traumatic happen to him in the past, or that he had someone once, and felt bad for him. Verenda was such a sweet guy, and let’s not forget that he’s incredibly handsome.
Without really thinking about it, Shalina reached down and ran h
er fingers through his soft hair again. Verenda slowly turned his head to face her and looked a little confused, causing her to snatch her hand away, “sorry, I wasn’t thinking...” she looked and felt embarrassed that Tasa and Montago had caught her in an awkward moment.
Montago laughed, “They remind me of us, Tasa.”
Tasa laughed with him, “yes, the beginning stages of a long lasting love.”
Shalina could feel her face turning red, and clenched her teeth, “no… I-”
“I’m just joking with you,” Montago said laughing, “calm down.”
“I wasn’t,” Tasa shrugged.
Verenda had just smiled at the two, the up at Shalina, who wore a tight smile with a red face. He couldn’t help himself and burst out laughing.
“What? What’s so funny?” Shalina asked in a panic.
“Your face!” he laughed loudly, causing his own to go red, “oh, goodness. Relax Shalina, I know that you don’t have those kind of feelings for me,” he continued to laugh.
Shalina didn’t know why, but that last statement hurt her feeling’s a little, “yeah” She laughed, “right.”
***
Verenda opened his eyes to see Shalina curled into a ball next to his pallet and sighed, realizing that there was no other pallet available for her. He turned over to his side and watched as she slept peacefully, remembering all of the times that he had watched Laren sleep
Both of the girls were equally beautiful, and what great luck he had, running into a girl that was just his type, with long blond hair and blue eyes. He was just so afraid to move on, that he couldn’t let himself. And who’s to say that she would even consider being with him anyways? He was a half demon that agreed to work with a killer in order to bring his first love back to life. Not to mention that they just met.
Shalina shivered and tucked herself into a tighter ball. Verenda then took the initiative to throw his sheet over her shivering body and move in a little closer to share his body heat. At first he felt weird being so close to another woman, but her soft breathing and flowery scent made him feel comfortable enough to fall back to sleep.
Shalina could feel the warmth of someone breathing down on her forehead and looked up to see Verenda closer to her than he was before she fell asleep. She grabbed the sheet on her shoulder and pulled it up to her neck, then moved in closer to him and nuzzled her head against his chest. She figured that since he had already moved in closer to keep her warm, he wouldn’t mind if she did the same.
***
BOOM!
Shalina had jumped out her sleep, early the next morning, from feeling the room that she was in suddenly shake. She quickly sat up and looked around to see that she was alone, then started to panic and got to her feet.
The tree shook again and she was knocked back into the wall behind her, “Verenda!” the shaking had knocked her off of her feet and onto her hands and knees. It sounded as if the tree was being rammed into over and over by a strong force.
Verenda came running back down the stairs, fully recovered, and with his staff in hand, “Shalina,” he grabbed her by her arm and pulled her to her feet, “get out your knife. We have to get out of here.”
“What’s happening?” Shalina asked as she was being pulled up the stairs.
“The Moorenofs. They’re attacking us,” he said quickly.
“Who? Where’s Tasa? Is she alright...” they had finally made it to the top of the steps and onto the platform, which looked like it was ready to fall apart.
Shalina’s mouth dropped in shock when she saw what was happening to the once beautiful village. Some of the trees had collapsed to the ground, or were leaning against another. The large platforms were up in flames, and the bridges were either completely broken in half, or unsafely leaning to one direction.
The villagers were running about, trying to find a safe escape from the attacking moorenofs, and tall Bift’s. She spotted some warriors fighting against the attackers, but most of them were either climbing down trees, swinging from bridge to bridge, or trapped on a platform that was ready to collapse.
“V...vascana...” Shalina said, still shocked by the sight of the village. She gripped the sword tightly and wished that she knew how to use it, so that she could help save those people. She wished that she could control her Verna.
“Shalina-” Thunder boomed unexpectedly, followed by a heavy rain that quickly put the fires out. Verenda knew that this was Shalina’s doing, but was pretty sure that she didn’t know.... “We need to get out of here,” he grabbed her by her arm and pulled her in close, then he released his wings and jumped off of the platform before it fell apart.
They shot straight down to the ground and had landed firmly on their feet, “are you okay?” Verenda asked, pulling away from her and dropping away his wings.
Shalina’s eyes were wet with tears, but not one of them fell, “yeah,” she nodded. She looked around and saw that most of the villagers were right behind them, but landing so hard on the ground that they cracked it, and then sprint off through the woods.
The villagers were coming down like the rain itself, and Shalina was afraid that one of them would land on her. She started running off behind Verenda with her sword ready to slice open any enemy that threatened her.
They followed the crowd that literally ran in the same direction, and figured that they had another village somewhere. Verenda thought about returning to his home, but it was in the complete opposite direction, and it was too dangerous to run against the crowd.
Moorenofs were also running, and attacked any villager that they could get their hands on. When one jumped out to slice Verenda, a strong force knocked it out of the air and slammed it hard onto the ground.
Verenda saw what had happened, but couldn’t worry about that right now. All he was focused on was getting Shalina to safety, not that she really needed it with all the power that she had.
A large Bift slowly stepped into their path further ahead, and he wished that Shalina knew how to control her Verna enough to take it down, but she didn’t, and now they had to take another route.
Verenda came to a stop with Shalina right behind him, “we have to go in another direction,” he said as he tried to ignore the villager’s screams and cries for help.
“Verenda!” Someone called from behind, “Verenda!”
Shalina looked back and saw a familiar face running in her direction. She couldn’t remember exactly where she had seen his face, but it was recent.
“Zyas?” Verenda turned to face him.
Running with Zyas were Tasa and Montago, followed by Alcia, Marian, Tren and...
“Angel?” Shalina stepped back and bumped into Verenda.
Angel slowed down once he reached them, and frowned at Verenda. What was Shalina doing here with him? She was supposed to still be trapped in Darrengiy’s castle.
Shalina and Angel held eye contact for a long moment, because neither of them knew what to say to each other.
Alcia looked from Shalina to Angel and immediately knew their connection, but couldn’t focus on that for long after seeing that the Bift ahead of them was running right in their direction.
“Come on, Angel!” Zyas yelled. He yanked on Angel’s arm to snap him out of his trance. Angel looked back and saw Shalina still watching him with eyes full of hatred, then felt a burning sensation start in his chest. When he turned away to continue on running, he could taste blood in his mouth, and realized that it was Shalina that had caused the pain. She hated him because she thought that he was the reason she no longer had a home, or a family. She believed in a monster, instead of him.
Verenda hesitantly took Shalina’s hand, and together they ran for safety away from the charging beast.
Shalina watched as villager after villager had fallen to their deaths, and began to feel more pain in her heart than anger. These were innocent people being killed by vicious demons, which showed no mercy to one human soul. She shook her head and looked ahead, at the back of Angel, who was m
uch further away by now.
She watched as large flames burst from Marian’s hands and feet as he fought the Moorenof’s back, then there was Tren, who could knock a demon down with one hard punch, and Alcia, who manipulated the dead’s blood to slice through her oncoming enemies.
Angel stayed close to Tasa and defended her the best that he could, while Montago jumped from demon to demon. He had great swordsmanship that developed from long years of practice, but unlike the others, he used no power.
Shalina wondered how someone with no power at all could destroy her whole village. Her answer came soon when she saw him use one swipe of his sword, and blew two Moorenof’s into dust. That was all the proof that she needed. He was her enemy.
The thought of Angel doing that to her family and home infuriated her, and watching so many people die right in front of her added oil to the fire. Without noticing, she caused the wind to pick up so strongly that it blew all of the Moorenof’s back, and even scared away the Bift’s.
“Shalina!” Verenda called out as he planted his feet firmly onto the ground, while trying not to be blown away.
Shalina had come to a halt with glowing eyes looking directly at Angel. Angel had turned to her with a worried expression on his face, and she couldn’t understand why she was feeling so hesitant. This was the same guy that killed her family, and took everything from her...Right?
“Shalina, stop!” Verenda yelled. When he notice the remaining villagers around him being blown by the ferocious gust of wind, he knew that Shalina would never forgive herself if anyone were killed.
“Stop...” she heard a familiar woman’s voice echo, “Shalina...”
Shalina tried to control her shaking as she stared Angel down, hoping to send him flying away with the demons around them, “Angel!” she screamed.
Verenda took one hard step after another to get to Shalina. He didn’t understand what was going on with her, but if she didn’t stop soon, then a lot of innocent people would end up dead.
“Stop this!” the voice yelled.
Shalina looked down at Angel’s pulsating sword and frowned. The voice was coming from his sword, and she could feel it. Somehow she felt a connection with the soul that was calling out to her, and it was drawing her to the sword.
Angel's Blade: Power (Angel Series Book 1) Page 19
