Release (The Protector Book 3)

by M. R. Merrick

Vincent nodded. He looked at me, shook his head, and wiped most of the blood off his face with the sleeve of his shirt.

  I looked back to Willy, waiting for him to say something else, but his expression had changed. He was no longer angry, or sad; he was focused. He began to sniff the air, catching the scent of something before a low growl escaped his throat.

  Another loud snap came from behind us. I grabbed both my daggers from the ground and the elements flared up inside me. We all stared at the shadows and I crept forward, ready to strike, when Karissa and Garrett came out of the woods.

  Out of breath, they grunted as they dragged something behind them, and a large figure folded down the bushes. Four legs trailed limply behind its body while the other two were in each of the werecats’ hands. Curved black horns protruded from its head, its throat had been half torn out, and red spots covered its light colored fur.

  Karissa and Garrett’s clothes were both in tatters, torn to bits and barely covering anything. They were out of breath and with each exhale came a throaty rumble.

  “What is that?” I asked, my pulse thumping in my neck.

  Garrett looked over the dead creature and then back at me. “Dinner.”

  ******

  Tiki and Willy helped Garrett skin the creature and cut it apart. In a few hours, the meat was roasted over a crackling fire, and we all ate in silence. The meat had a strange tang to it, but it was a welcome meal after what the trolls had tried to feed us.

  We each took turns on watch, but when it was my turn to sleep, I couldn’t. I stared up at the night sky, images of Willy’s story flashing behind my eyelids. Guilt tugged at me over the memory of what had been done to him, and then over everything I had done.

  I had forced Willy to go to Vincent’s warehouse. I had ignored the blatant fear he’d shown and made him do it. He’d ended up getting kidnapped, and now I realized just how traumatic that had been for him. Here I thought he was just an uneasy guy who was nervous around vampires, when in reality he’d suffered a horrible fate there once already.

  Willy tossed and turned, lying along the leaf-covered ground beside me, and when I realized he was still awake, I apologized. First for attacking Vincent and pretending that hurting him could make everything bad that had happened to Willy go away, then for everything else. But he never responded.

  I found myself wishing I’d never met Willy in that alley—a thought that had been recurring these past few weeks. I’d put Willy through hell, but for some reason he still stuck around. He’d said I was the best friend he’d had since Duncan, but that wasn’t true. Willy was the best friend I’d ever had, and I had been horrible to him. I wasn’t worthy of such loyalty and selflessness.

  Even though Willy didn’t respond, I knew he’d heard every word. He had stopped moving and his attempts at sniffling quietly were poor. I stared at his back and his shaggy brown hair looked black in the moonlight. It was always unkempt and in need of a cut.

  I pictured the patchy stubble on his face, his goofy smile, and his tattered and stained clothes. The image my mind had painted made me smile and realize how lucky I was. Not just for Willy, but for Rayna, Tiki, and Marcus, too. I realized I’d been blessed to have some of the most incredible people in my life.

  “Willy, you awake?” I asked, hoping he’d respond. But he didn’t. His body tensed and he went perfectly still. “You’re my best friend too, Willy. I won’t let you down again. I promise.”

  Chapter 25

  “Our clothes are in no shape to travel,” Garrett said, his torn pants barely hanging on. “I think it’s best if Karissa and I travel in werecat form today.”

  Willy stepped up beside him, no longer human. Dark red fur covered his body and colorless eyes stared up at me. His back was just below my hip and he nudged my hand with his nose.

  “Works for me,” I said.

  Power rolled through the air, and Garrett and Karissa’s beasts clawed their way to the surface. Bones cracked and shifted together, sliding across one another. The grinding joints sent a shiver through my body, and as their skin split, hair pushed between the cracks. Clear fluid dripped to the ground, and in moments, there were two black panthers standing before me. Their clothes were in rags on the ground, fierce gold and green eyes gazing at me.

  Willy kicked dirt behind him with his claws, stretching himself out. I ran my hand over his red fur, and as I touched it, it changed color. Swirls of gray appeared and faded, returning to red. I could see Willy behind his colorless eyes, but it wasn’t the Willy I was used to. It was a warrior: a confident, young wolf ready to fight for his pack.

  “Lead the way.” I smiled, and Willy went ahead on the path.

  Garrett’s massive form sprang up beside me and moved ahead to walk alongside Willy. In even the shortest strides, his massive form moved gracefully.

  The navy blue sky had begun to lighten, and the stars had all but faded. The moon was no longer within sight, and streaks of dawn rained above the forest.

  Tiki, Vincent, and Veronica were behind me, and although I’d expected them to talk, they remained silent. Vincent and Veronica’s eyes were focused and searching the shadows.

  We walked for hours until the darkness had completely faded. Orange streaks from the sun broke into the navy sky until a warm magenta hung though the canopy above us. An odd twinkling poked through like a diamond beneath a light. It wasn’t glints of orange stars, but rather white lights that flickered and made the sky sparkle.

  I jumped back and stopped anytime I felt something touch me. This time it was the bright red feathers that surrounded the core of a yellow flower. It struggled to move alongside me until its stem wouldn’t stretch any more. Its touch had been soft, just as the feathery petals appeared, but it was unnerving.

  Even though I tried to keep to the center of the path, the flowers still managed to sneak up on me. My sudden stops made Tiki, Vincent, and Veronica bump into me on numerous occasions, and I could practically hear Vincent holding back whatever idle threat came to his mind.

  As the flower’s feathery petals broke away from their core, red, yellow, and blue feathers swirled in the air around us. When the path widened, the plant life became sparse, but everything was in pristine condition. Very little of the growth around us had been stepped on, and there seemed to be an absence of weeds. Everything was perfect and beautiful, as though someone spent their days maintaining an enormous garden.

  As the sun warmed the air, creatures that resembled butterflies fluttered through the air. They were everywhere, moving in swarms of different colors and designs. They made strange humming sounds as they swirled around us, and each one carried a different note. Humming in unison like a well-orchestrated choir, their song brought the forest to life in an entirely new way.

  The song was welcoming and gentle against my ears. Their sound was soft and the flowers seemed to move with their song. Streams of orange rays shone down on the brightly-lit forest from above, and I felt as though we were entering untouched territory of a forgotten world.

  Rai burst through the leaves and her orange beak opened, swallowing a half-dozen of the creatures all at once. The others released a high-pitched squeal and their gorgeous colors and gentle song vanished into the woods. Rai chirped, fluttering through the air and landing on my shoulder.

  “Nice,” I said, glaring at her. Rai responded by tilting her head and then pecking the side of my face.

  “Oh wonderful!” Tiki exclaimed, running forward.

  “What is it?” Vincent asked, squinting as a beam of light shone over his eyes.

  Veronica’s eyes opened wide, but before she could ask, Tiki was smiling in front of us. He pointed to one of the plants on the side of the path.

  Its neon green stems produced purple flowers with feathered petals. A number of bright yellow seeds sat in the stigma of the flower and Tiki reached inside and pulled them out.

  “I was wondering when we’d see one of these,” Tiki said, popping a few seeds in his mouth. “Eat them. They will
give you energy.”

  Nobody moved. We all watched as Tiki pulled the seeds out and continued to eat them.

  “We’ve been walking for hours. Trust me, you need this.” Tiki picked a handful of seeds and extended his arm to me.

  I took a pinch of seeds from his palm but held them over my mouth. I looked back at Tiki, who urged me forward with a smile and a nod before I dropped them in. My teeth crushed the seeds, expecting them to be crunchy, but they were soft and filled with a sticky liquid.

  They burst between my teeth and unleashed a flavor I’d never experienced—sweet and sour at the same time, with an aftertaste that vaguely reminded me of mango. Although they were a completely different flavor and texture, they reminded me of the berries from Drakar.

  “Huh, that’s pretty good,” I said, moving to the flowers for more.

  Rai chirped. I picked a handful, cupped them in my palm, and gave one seed to Rai, who devoured it immediately. I held the rest out for Willy and his snout dove into my hand and ate them all at once.

  “I am not eating that,” Veronica said. “I’d rather starve than eat seeds from some foreign plant. Perhaps someone is willing to open a vein?”

  “Good luck with that request,” I said.

  “No need,” Vincent replied. “I brought us a snack.” He reached into his back pockets and pulled out two small bags of blood. “I had no intentions of eating only…whatever it was we ate last night.”

  Their fangs dropped from their mouths and the milky white of their skin became clear. Black veins rippled beneath the flesh and their eyes filled with black. A minute later the bags were empty, only a few stray red drops lingering in the corners of the molded plastic.

  “How far exactly must we go?” Vincent asked, his pale complexion returning as he wiped smears of red from his mouth.

  “I don’t know. I wasn’t exactly given a detailed map,” I said.

  “Well, you have other commitments, Mr. Williams, so I do hope it isn’t much farther.”

  “Well, those commitments are temporarily on hold. There are bigger things on my plate at the moment,” I said, looking down the path. A chill shot down my spine and goose bumps covered my arms.

  “You can talk end of the world all you like, hunter, but to be truthful, I just don’t care. All I want—”

  “Shh!” I said, holding my hand up.

  I wanted to call upon my earth element and feel the forest around me, but I knew I couldn’t. Whatever was happening to me, I couldn’t risk using my magic and making things worse.

  “Did you just shush me?” Vincent asked. “He shushed me! I resent that.”

  “Shut up!” I said in an angry whisper. I pulled my dagger from its sheath and Vincent gasped.

  “My gods, you do overreact, don’t you?”

  Vincent rolled his eyes and a low growl came from the werecats. Willy sniffed the air and his eyes moved to the left. His lips curled and bared sharp, white teeth.

  The shifters moved to the edge of the path all at once, their paws pressing into the dirt as they stalked forward with silent power.

  A soft whistle sounded and a piercing force hit me from behind. I dropped to the ground and everyone took cover. Aches pulsed in my shoulder, quickly spreading to my neck before a cooling sensation soothed my skin.

  My vision became blurry and I reached for my shoulder. I felt something soft, and it was almost too much work to look. I felt lethargic and tired. I wanted to lie back in the moist dirt and become lost in the imagery of the forest.

  Purple and red lines fluttered across my vision, bringing an unnaturally large smile to my face. Strange noises and sounds echoed around me. I heard the snapping of jaws and low growls. There were more shouts but the words were a mess of sounds that reverberated in my head. I didn’t care. I wanted silence and to swim through the rainbow in my mind.

  I fell back on the ground, yellow and purple smears fluttering in front of me. The colors adorning the woods were beautiful and they danced along the trees to a melody in my head.

  The butterfly creatures reappeared, breaking through the colorful montage that cascaded over my vision. One fluttered down and a dozen legs danced along my nose. If I focused, I could see its large, yellow eyes. It sang again in a high-pitched melody. Deep hums started after that, and the music moved over my body as it flew away in a blur of pink and orange.

  I stared up at the forest above me, smiling as the music consumed me. A mix of light and dark greens made a kaleidoscope of the trees and dropped in and out of focus. The colors swirled together in a mesh of beauty, and then there was nothing.

  Chapter 26

  Warmth rolled over my skin and my eyes opened. I blinked once, then twice, trying to clear the haze in front of me.

  I stood up with ease and raised my hands above my head in what should’ve been a rewarding stretch, but instead, a tingle shuddered down my spine. I looked down to find my feet bare and hovering above the dirt.

  My eyes panned the forest around me. Feather petals swayed on the flowers and the trees sighed with the wind. I turned on the spot, looking for my friends, but everyone was gone.

  Skid marks in the dirt told me something had been dragged through here. I took another look around but the feeling in my stomach told me to follow the marks.

  As I walked, my legs felt strange—fuzzy, but not as though they’d fallen asleep. It took a moment for me to recognize the familiar pang in my stomach and the tingle that moved over my mind; I wasn’t in my body. I had astral projected.

  Panic and fear rushed through me and I broke into a sprint down the path. Feathers flowed past me as they drifted in the air and pastel colored plants lit up the path. Pink, blue, and yellow flowers waved their petals and reached towards me as I rushed by.

  I heard voices and the sound of music ahead. I pushed myself faster than I should’ve been able to go and the world disappeared behind me in a blur.

  Dark orange skin covered the backs of two men. I thought to slow my pace and quiet my footsteps, but I knew they couldn’t hear or see me.

  There was a crowd of people walking in pairs down the path. They each held a long stick over their shoulders, using three-fingered hands to support it. The sticks supported wooden cages filled with bodies—my friends.

  I recognized the scarred and tattooed skin as mine immediately and focused on reentering my body, trying to connect with it, but nothing happened. I crawled up into the cage and saw a long arrow jutting from my shoulder. Yellow and purple feathers decorated the arrow’s tail. I tried to lie down inside myself, matching my exact position—still nothing.

  Frustration welled up inside me and I dropped through the bottom of the cage onto the earth. Strange sensations brushed over me as people walked through me.

  I climbed to my feet and watched them walk away. I screamed in anger but still they continued down the path, slowly being swallowed by the forest undergrowth.

  “Strange that you chose this moment to let us in.” Riley’s voice startled me and I reached for my daggers, but there was nothing to grasp.

  “Please, son, you should know by now there is no need for violence between us.” Riley stepped from the glowing shrubbery, the Dark Brothers walking on either side of him.

  “How did you get in here?”

  Riley’s blonde hair was neatly trimmed around his ears and his sideburns were gone. The bright blue of his eyes had become more corrupt. The thin black lines that had swirled in the blue were gone. Now his eyes were void and filled with darkness.

  “You welcomed me with open arms, Chase.”

  “Sure, and this is where you make me an offer to join you on your future throne? To rule beside you as father and son should? Save your breath.” I searched the area not with my eyes, but that invisible part of my soul. I wanted to find Riley’s energy, just as Chief had taught me, and expel him from my mind.

  “I am not. You were given an opportunity to come freely and you declined. I told you I would not make that offer again. No, in fact
, you’ve become quite useful to me, Chase. And I plan to keep you around. At least until the invocation is complete. After that, well…my mercy has limits. We’ll see how you behave then.”

  I shook my head. “The invocation isn’t going to happen. I told you I’d stop you, and I will.”

  “Oh, it will happen,” Darius Sellowind said. He walked towards me and power bubbled around him. I remembered that energy all too well. “It has been far too long since Father blessed us with his presence, Brother.”

  “Brother?” I laughed. “We’re not family. You follow Riley like lost puppy dogs, doing his bidding and forcing your own kind into slavery.”

  “You speak of what you do not know,” Darius said, his power spiking to life. Magic swelled and the air picked up around us, blowing Darius’s waist-length hair behind him. Dark veins spread across his pale skin and blackness filled his eyes.

  My legs gave out and I gasped as the pain twisted inside them, as though I was in my physical body and the bones were breaking beneath the skin. I dug my fingers into the dirt, trying to fight off the pain.

  “That is enough.” Drake grabbed his brother’s shoulder and pulled him back.

  The pain stopped, but my leg throbbed.

  “Yes, of course,” Darius spat the words at him. “I’d hate to hurt our precious future.”

  “I am your future,” I said. “I’m the last thing you’re going to ever see.”

  “Save the hero act for your comrades, my boy. It holds no merit here.” Riley moved between the Brothers, but I could feel Darius on the verge of coming at me again.

  “What do you want then?”

  “It’s simple really. It appears you’ve stumbled across something else of mine. Ironic how the things I need happen to fall into your hands. You have the book, and I need it.”

  “What book?”

  “Your ignorance bores me, son.”

  “I don’t know what book you’re talking about, Dad.”

  Riley sighed. “The 11th Dimension. You have it. I know you do. Arian coaxed it out of that precious little witch of yours. I want it. Let’s not make another useless bout of this. Just tell me where it is.”