The Beckoning of Broken Things (The Beckoning Series)

by Calinda B

  “Wow, that’s something!”

  “Insect love! There’s more where that came from. And this eyesight - how many lenses do you think we have in our eyes?”

  “I’ve read it’s over 30,000. It sure makes it easy to spot Armando’s drones.” He zips ahead and knocks one of the robots out of the sky.

  “I need eyes like this when we get back to human form. Do you think we could do that?’

  “I don’t know but we really need to get a move on. I sense danger in here. I think Armando’s figured out how to get into the Shadow Lands.”

  “Oh, my! What are you holding us up for? Quit distracting me.”

  Tom the dragonfly sighs and shakes his small insect head. “You got me, Betty. Now let’s go.”

  The pair zips and zings through the misshapen foliage and wavy landscape.

  “Over there! There they are!’ Crazy Betty calls.

  “Lord, no. Behind them! It’s Armando!”

  “Marissa’s disappearing. She’s going through the wall! I thought only Daniel could go there?”

  “She does things that defy us all,” Tom says, making a strange sort of dragonfly chuckle. “Look out!” Tom calls to Rafe, forgetting that he wasn’t speaking in a human tongue. “He’s got a gun!”

  The pair speeds over to Rafe and the Doberman, yelling in dragonfly.

  Rafe, the Stealth Numen, does not understand what they are saying. All he knows is that he’s been so obsessed with Marissa that he forgot to put on his high tech, bullet proof vest. Now that’s a problem.

  Chapter 35

  Every hair on my body stands at attention. My muscles have seized so hard I wonder if I’m now made of quivering concrete.

  “So. This is it, then.” Daniel states the words in a flat, dead voice.

  “It doesn’t have to be,” I say, trying to see him in this dark, dark place. It doesn’t seem to matter whether my eyelids are open are closed. Either way, the effect is the same blackness.

  “Who is he? Does he make you happy?”

  I’m feeling pretty foolish just about now. All my bold yearnings and “this is my life” declarations seem like bullshit in the presence of Daniel, the guy I feel madly in love with a short time ago…the guy who helped me restore my Light Rebel self. “I don’t think you know him.”

  “Is he a Numina?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then I know him. Let me guess. Shadow Numen?”

  “No! That guy’s creepy.”

  “Stealth Numen?”

  I wince and remain silent.

  “Ah. You’re right, I don’t know him well. But I know him. And I’ll have to get to know him better. I have no choice.”

  “And why is that?”

  “Soul binding. Everything that affects you, affects me.” He lets out a deep, heavy, strained breath like he’s setting down something enormous.

  I smile into the darkness. “Is it okay to sit down?”

  “Why wouldn’t it be?”

  “Are you?”

  “Might be. Might not.”

  I shake my head at his refusal to answer a simple question with a simple answer and slowly sink to the ground. My hand falls on a slimy creature that kind of barks and slithers away from under my palm. I yelp.

  Daniel laughs. “That was Frank.”

  “Who’s Frank?”

  “That’s just what I named him. He’s one of the Decayers. He consumes dead things with a passion. He’s like a great recycler.” He pauses. “There are different kinds of creatures down here. Consumers, Decayers, Killers, Maimers, and so on. But Frank’s just a harmless Decayer. He won’t hurt you. Unless, of course, you’re dead.”

  “Would you prefer that I were?”

  “No!”

  We sit, silent. I thought when I saw him again…not that I can see anything…but I thought when I saw him again, we’d argue and fight. We’d hurl accusations at one another. We’d state our outrage at one another’s behavior. I never for a moment thought we’d speak quietly in a place with an absence of light. It’s somehow worse than fighting. I have to feel every little emotion. I’m aware of every sensation inside. All my emotions churn and spin, like dirty clothes in the washing machine. “This sucks.”

  “Which part?”

  “All of it.” Again, we fall silent.

  A loud chuffing kind of growl sounds out, making every hair on my body stiffen like pins in a pin cushion.

  “Shit. Don’t move,” Daniel says.

  “Not moving,” I whisper.

  “Stay very still.”

  “Still as a statue.” I’m shaking. “Does shivering count?”

  “Try to quash your fear.”

  “Why’s that?”

  “He gets off on fear.”

  This gets me even more afraid. An enormous head comes close to mine. The head seems to be covered with barbed hooks. One of them catches my skin and rips it. I wince.

  “He didn’t draw blood, did he?”

  I pat my cheek. It’s wet alright. “I think so.”

  “Shit. He gets off on the smell of blood even more.”

  “Fantastic. What do I do?” I whisper through clenched teeth.

  “Stay calm.”

  “Right,” I hiss.

  The creature sniffs me. Sniff, sniff, sniff. Sniff, sniff, sniff. Its breath stinks and it makes me gag. A sharp, raspy tongue darts out to taste me. A shriek escapes my lips.

  “I’d get that fear in check if I were you, Marissa.”

  “I’m trying.” My eyes are watering from the stench of this thing. A cold, clammy sweat covers my body.

  “This guy and I have an uneasy alliance, at best. It would be preferable if you showed it your mastery somehow. I can’t make it respect you.”

  “Okay. Okay. I’ll think of something.” My breath is emerging slowly, as if my body has decided that it needs to parse out air…ration it, as if it might be running out. “How big is it?”

  “It’s huge. And, it’s an Annihilator, in case you wondered.”

  “Oh, that’s just swell.” My mind whirls. “Pack animal or solitary predator?”

  “Apex predator,” Daniel whispers.

  “Great,” I whisper back.

  Huge fangs gnaw on my skull. The jaw seems so big, as far as I can tell, that I wonder if I’m a bite-sized bit to this ghastly thing, like I’m a mere jelly bean. “Does it like taste testing first?”

  “Is it gnawing on you?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then, yes. I’m sorry, love, there’s nothing I can do. If I make a sudden move, it might react. It’s entirely unpredictable.”

  “Why doesn’t it just chomp me down?”

  “It likes to play with its food.”

  “Oh, that’s just great.” Razor sharp fangs pierce the skin in my scalp. “Yipes! How will I know when it’s done playing?”

  “When it starts to break skin.”

  “Oh, dear.” Of all the options I can think to do, the one that springs to mind is to start singing. My mother, a great opera singer and Light Diva, used to use her voice to calm and to heal. A good friend of mine, an animal tracker and naturalist, told me that if I ever encountered a black bear, I shouldn’t make eye contact, and I should start to sing and slowly move away from it. Moving isn’t an option right now and eye contact is impossible, so I sing. “We all live in a Yellow Submarine…a Yellow Submarine…a Yellow Submarine…”

  The creature stops gnawing on me.

  “What’s it doing now?”

  “It stopped gnawing.”

  “Keep singing.”

  “We all live in a Yellow Submarine,” I sing. “I don’t know any other words.”

  “Make them up. It won’t know the difference.”

  “We all live in a Yellow Submarine…a Yellow Submarine…a Yellow Submarine. We all want…to live in harmony…to live in harmony…to live in harmony. Daniel Navid…is still soul bound to me…and we will work things out…and we will work things out…” I feel like a dork right now, b
ut it seems to be working. The Annihilator has stopped chewing my scalp. It gives one last chuff. Maybe it’s bewildered. I would be. I sing louder. “We all live…” As I sing, I start to feel better. I start to feel happy. I start to glow. The light streaming from me illuminates the most grotesque creature I’ve ever seen. It looks like it’s been wrapped with barbed wire. Fangs fall from its lips. Long claws protrude from its front feet. It’s bigger than six black bears. It blinks its dark red eyes at me. It squints, probably not used to all this light. Still blinking, it turns its head, and slinks away from me.

  I watch it wander off, wanting to certify that it’s far, far away from me. “That…that thing was going to eat me! Gah! Daniel, that was horrifying! It was beyond horrifying.” I start trembling, as the fear leaks out of my body. “Oh, my God, Daniel! That was awful! I was freaked out! I can’t believe this is where you’ve been hiding out!” Daniel’s not responding to me. I turn to see what the matter is. He’s standing with his hands at his sides, staring at me. He’s just staring at me. And he looks way different than I remember. His body looks bigger, stronger. He’s probably close to 6’6” or 6’8” now. He was a mere 6’1” before. His chest is much wider, bulging with muscle. His face is covered with a scraggly beard and is completely somber. His brilliant blue eyes still captivate me like no one else’s.

  “I’d forgotten how beautiful you are,” he says quietly. “Or maybe you’ve grown more beautiful since I last saw you.”

  “Thank you. And you! Wow!” All the love I’ve ever felt for this man intensifies, throbbing in me like my own pulse.

  “Come here.”

  “You come here.”

  “Let’s meet in the middle.”

  We scoot closer to one another. Daniel’s tongue darts to the corner of his mouth in a familiar gesture that has always turned me on. This time is no exception.

  “You’re not going to stay down here forever, are you?”

  “Not if you don’t want me to.” He reaches out to push a lock of hair from my face.

  “I don’t. But I also don’t have all the answers. I can’t say to you, ‘Oh, everything will be as it was before,’ because I don’t know that to be true.”

  “I know.” He swallows, hard. “I don’t either.” He brings his face close to mine. “We’ll have to figure it out eventually.”

  “Yes.” His lips are close to mine, so close that my breath bounces back to warm me. I lean in just a little and our lips touch, tentatively at first. His lips are soft and sensual, like I remember. He tastes the way I remember. But I also taste something darker…something dangerous…I taste his power now. It’s intense, almost to the point of overwhelming. It’s intoxicating. My core lights up with pleasure, and I bring my hand to the back of his neck and pull him close. Our kiss grows savage, as if we aim to consume one another. I can feel light streaming from me, and if I know Daniel, he’s sucking it in, like manna from heaven.

  He moans, like he’s a starving man being allowed to eat again.

  I groan, like I’m having the best meal of my life.

  We both freeze at the sound of rapid gunshots beyond the obsidian wall. A yelp or yells or some distant cry of fright follows.

  “Did your father just shoot my dog?” I shout. “I’m going to cut his balls off with my bare hands!”

  “Not if I get to him first,” Daniel roars.

  We both stream from the Night Numen’s world, as if it was the most natural thing to do…as if there was never any lock down in here, imposed by Daniel’s father…as if it was as easy as breathing. Maybe, I think, it actually is. I am, after all, a Light Rebel.

  Chapter 36

  Daniel and I shoot from the wall faster than a bullet. We encounter a bizarre scene. Armando has some kind of machine gun trained on Rafe. Rafe’s hands are in the air. Sober is holding a bloody paw aloft, whimpering. Crazy Betty is fanning herself furiously with a scarf. Tom has his arms around her. Two cats with sparkling, jewel-encrusted collars are trembling in a nearby tree.

  Eyes trained on Armando, Rafe shouts, “Your dog saved my life.”

  “He’s good that way,” I yell back.

  Armando’s head whips around. “Where did you two come from?”

  Rafe disappears like a wisp of smoke.

  “Over there,” I call.

  “How did you get out?” Armando yells to Daniel, stunned.

  “I just did. You know, now that you mention it, it was easy. I didn’t even have to think about it. Must be my alliance with the Light Rebel. Or maybe it’s because you’re so weak. Or maybe…” He rubs his chin thoughtfully. “Maybe it’s because I’m the one who claimed El Demonio’s powers, not you.”

  The old man splutters. His jaw drops. His face turns a purplish red. I wonder if he’s going to have a heart attack.

  “You!” he shouts. He trains his machine gun on Daniel. “You miserable cur. You’ve been down there testing out your powers, haven’t you?”

  “So it seems, Father, and guess what? They work just fine.” He reaches a hand out to the side and plucks a warped oak tree out of the ground like it’s a weed. “Want to have a go?”

  “You’re no match for an M4. And I’m sure you remember I’m a sharp shooter with deadly aim.”

  “Go for it,” Daniel says, with eerie calm.

  “You can’t stop a bullet can you?” I whisper.

  “Not sure. We’ll see,” he whispers back. “You’d better step away just in case.”

  “I’m not leaving your side,” I hiss. “I can take him with the Naked Truth.”

  “What?” Daniel asks bewildered.

  “Not me, naked. My sword. I named it the Naked Truth.”

  “My gun is aimed right at your heart, dear boy of mine,” Armando yells.

  “Marissa, move!”

  “No!”

  “Then you might be dead in a few,” he hisses back. “Now, go!”

  “Son, do you think that’s a good idea?’ Tom calls.

  He always calls Daniel son.

  “I’m going to adopt you, Marissa, no matter what,” Crazy Betty yells. “We’ll get through this together.”

  Adopt me? Where did that come from?

  “We need to see if my father is nothing but a windbag,” Daniel states. “I suspect that’s the case.”

  “Ha!” Armando says. He peers through the gun sight. Takes aim. “It’s been great knowing you, boy.”

  The cock of a different weapon echoes through the warped forest, with an odd, reverberating click. “Put the goddamned gun down, Armando.”

  He whirls around to see Gabriela, holding a 12-gauge shotgun up to her shoulder. She’s pointing the gun right at him. “I knew you’d come to your senses, woman. Put the gun down, and no harm will come to anyone.”

  “Like hell I will. You drop your weapon.”

  Boy, gone is the soft woman I met in the rainforest and in the mental hospital sanctuary. This gal is a firehouse.

  “Now dear…I never intended to hurt our son. I was only trying to flush you out of hiding.”

  “And I was only buying time. Drop your weapon.” She positions her finger on the trigger.

  Armando slowly places the machine gun on the ground and holds his hands up. “Easy, dear. We can work things out.”

  “No, Armando, I don’t think we can. I have something else in mind.”

  Armando shrugs. “You can kill me. Go ahead. That won’t stop the soul binding. I’ll just catch you next time around.”

  “That’s where you’re wrong. Just what do you think I’ve been doing while I was away from you?”

  “I don’t know. Hiding, I’d guess.”

  “I’ve been doing research. I’ve poured through every book, every article, every story there is on the matter of soul binding. There’s one way for a soul binding to be broken.”

  Armando’s eyes narrow to slits. “No, there isn’t.”

  “Yes, there is.” Gabriela calls to me. “Light Rebel, do you have that thing I gave you?”

>   “I do, I have it in my pack.” The pack that I have no idea where it is.

  Rafe appears next to me and hands it to me. “Thanks,” I whisper, smiling at him.

  He glares at me and blurs into nothing without saying a word.

  I sigh. Always more shit to deal with. I fish around in the backpack and find what I’m looking for. “I’ve got it!”

  “Give it to Armando.”

  I saunter up to him and hand him the gold ring.

  He looks puzzled. “What is this? It’s your wedding ring, isn’t it? You can’t just break a soul binding by returning a piece of metal.”

  Gabriela smiles. “I can if it’s returned by a Light Rebel, and then I say this phrase.” She lifts her chin and a stream of forcefully delivered Latin rolls from her mouth. “Revoco ex hac ligare eam ad futura! I revoke this binding from here to hereafter!” Several pops ring out and tendrils of light, like slender cords, pull from Armando’s body, snaking back to Gabriela. “That feels better. I feel more like myself again.” She raises the gun once more. “And just in case that doesn’t work,” she says. “Boom!” She pulls the trigger and shoots her ex-soul bound husband clean through the chest.

  His body twists and he staggers backwards from the force of the shot, slamming into a tree. His mouth flies open. “What have you done?”

  “What I should have done a long time ago. I’ve undone the soul binding and left you quite wounded. I hope I didn’t kill you though. I thought you should suffer a bit in this lifetime. If you don’t bleed out, that is.” She drops the gun to her side.

  We’re all stunned. I stand alongside Daniel, staring at the writhing sorcerer. His body stills and slumps to the ground, whether from death or from faint.

  Crazy Betty fans herself. “Lord have mercy! This is a day to end all days. Where’s my little pea pod? Mama needs some comfort.”

  Buddy the Ghost Dog trots up to her and leaps into her arms.

  “Gabriela, it’s good to see you again,” Tom says, sauntering up to her.

  “Will you take this, please? I never want to see it again.” She thrusts the shotgun into Tom’s hands, shuddering.

  “Mother,” Daniel says, striding toward her. “I thought I’d never see you again.” He wraps her in his arms, and I’m sure two distinct sobs erupt from each of them.