Katharine watched as the former Tracker pulled something small and slightly round out of one of the five pockets that sat on her jacket. She recognized it by the lettering engraved on it and the scattered nooks hugging the edges. It was the same object Ash was playing with on the aircraft when they were heading to the Anchorage. Katharine’s eyes widened as she realized that Angelina must have taken the crest off of Ash, more like ripped it off. He clung to it the way a human would cling to a million dollars.
Like Ash had, Angelina ran the coin between the crevices of each individual finger. It flipped like hotcakes as it bounced off the edges of her knuckles. As it reached the end of her hand she flipped it high into the air and caught it between her thumb and index finger as it made its descent. She smiled as the cold metal touched her skin.
She cupped the pendant in her hand and rose to her feet as two snarling Descended entered the room from the pathway. They looked identical to the one that attacked Katharine in the quarry the night her world changed.
They stood in the doorway brooding and terrifying. Their clawed hands clasped behind their backs like soldiers waiting for command. It was then that Katharine realized, Angelina was their leader and they were awaiting her command.
“Dovedite ga u,” Angelina said speaking in the same language Katharine heard many times since she arrived at the Anchorage. The two creatures exited the room to do whatever bidding Angelina had just required of them.
While Katharine could not understand what Angelina had commanded the Descended to do, Davon clearly could. His face was pale, flat and his body clenched beneath his bow and arrow like a frightened child facing down his deepest fears.
The Descended returned dragging a male figure between them. Their charred arms held him upright but allowed his head to fall flat sending his dark hair falling in front of his face. His body appeared broken with bleeding gashes covering his arms and legs. Blood pooled behind him as the Descended dragged him deeper into the room. They threw him on the floor beside the fire pit. His head landed a few inches in front of Angelina’s feet. Davon’s face flushed with anger as the seemingly lifeless body fell to the ground and it took only a moment for Katharine to realize why. Angelina knelt before the body and pulled the dark hair out of his face revealing Katharine’s worst fears, it was Ash.
She lunged toward him without a thought as to the former Tracker who was probably responsible for Ash’s morbid condition. Katharine stroked his hair as the tears began to race down her cheek. He always appeared paler than most to her but the white reflection of his face as he lay motionless on the ground sent a cold shiver down Katharine’s spine.
Bruises and bloody gashes decorated his face. Blood pooled around his mouth as he began to make gurgling sounds. Relief flooded Katharine’s face. Ash was alive. She placed her hands under his head and gently placed it in her lap figuring he’d be more comfortable resting on her boney legs then pressed against the harsh ground.
Behind her, Katharine could hear Angelina giggling like the schoolyard bully who had just knocked over a child three times smaller than him. The sound of her laughter made Katharine’s skin boil.
“How could you do this to him?” Katharine shouted with pure anger. Davon appeared almost as surprised by this as Angelina was. No one suspected that the Tracker who had seemed so afraid moments earlier would be shouting and screaming in a blind rage. “I thought you loved him.”
Angelina knelt down forcing her face to come only a few inches from Katharine’s. With her sitting so close, Katharine could see that her predecessor’s pupils had a black ring around them that seemed to be growing the longer she stared. Pushing Katharine’s hand off Ash’s head, Angelina began to pet him as though he were her pet. She smiled as his hair ran in between her fingers and fell back against his face. Katharine kept her eyes locked on Angelina afraid that if she were to look away, even for a second, something terrible would happen to her or to her Guide.
Davon had grown uncomfortable by the girls’ proximities and began to inch toward Katharine keeping his arrow aimed purposely at Angelina’s head. “As I said before, that’s close enough Angelina.” The former Tracker smiled and continued to keep her close proximity. “What did happen to you that led you to this place? When I last saw you, you were begging for Ash’s freedom. You loved him once, did you not?”
Angelina backed away from Katharine and rose to her feet slowly keeping her hands raised in the air to show Davon she was not going to make any sudden movements. She began to walk around the room aimlessly, pacing for no reason at all.
With every step she took her eyes remained on Ash and Katharine. She looked at her former Guide with the strangest mixture of love and hatred that Katharine had ever seen. She didn’t look like the mastermind behind a plan to end the entire world; she looked like a normal teenage girl, someone Katharine could have easily been friends with had she not been so clearly deranged.
She couldn’t understand why but there was a part of Katharine that felt sorry for Angelina. She wondered if what happened to her when the elders found out about her affair with Ash sent her over the edge. Love had a way of making people crazy sometimes.
The Descended who had carried Ash in the room stood in the doorway with their hands folded in front of them like two bodyguards blocking the entrance of a dressing room meant for some famous musician. They reminded her of the two bodyguards she and Molli encountered at the P!NK concert when they tried to sneak backstage once the concert had ended.
Davon continued to follow Angelina’s every move, with his arrow ready to fire, as she made her way around the perimeter of the room stopping when she reached the farthest corner from where Katharine remained with Ash’s head buried in her hands. She slid down the wall till she hit the ground raising her knees against her chest and holding the pendant tight in her hands. She lowered her head and whispered something but she was so quiet no one could understand what she had said.
Katharine and Davon exchanged a telling look before he turned full force in Angelina’s direction. “What was that?” He said full of anger.
Angelina raised her head, her face red and wet with tears. Her entire body shook as she sobbed with her cries echoing throughout the room. “He was the only thing in the world that mattered to me.” Her voice was broken and barely allowed for the statement to leave her lips.
Her eyes caught Katharine’s gaze and locked for a brief moment before turning back toward the pendant. “I loved him with every fiber of my being and sometimes I think I still do.”
Davon scoffed and started in Angelina’s direction. The Descended that had been standing guarding the door moved to stop him but Angelina raised her hand for them to stand down. Despite the look of death in their eyes they did as they were commanded to do and remained at their post at the door
“You say you love him yet you do this to him?” Katharine said waving her hand over Ash’s broken body forcing Angelina to see the damage she caused.
Angelina looked at her former lover’s broken body but stopped just before she reached his face. It was then Davon began to notice that Angelina hadn’t looked at Ash, she’d glanced in his direction and glared at his body but not once had she allowed her eyes to look upon his face. Something wasn’t right.
“You don’t understand little Tracker,” Angelina leapt to her feet and began waving her arms around wildly. “I was devoted to the cause, devoted to the garrison and everything they wanted me to do, to become, and I was punished, sent back to this place with memories ripped from my mind.” She placed her hand on the arrow pointing at her head and pushed it aside as she calmly walked past Davon and made her way back to Katharine.
As she knelt down beside the new Tracker Ash was beginning to come too. His eyes fluttered as though dust particles had found their way inside his pupils. Katharine held his head tightly in his hand removing any attention she had been giving to Angelina.
Slowly Ash’s eyelids pulled back giving way to his sparkling green eyes sending jol
ts of joy soaring throughout Katharine’s body. She smiled gingerly and stroked his face as though she had been doing it her whole life. His skin was rough from the bruising and the gashes but as her hand brushed against his cheek she felt that same safety she always felt upon his touch.
As his eyes met Katharine’s, Ash slowly raised his battered arm and touched her chin gently pinching it slightly before losing all strength in his arm as it fell flopping to the ground. She motioned for Katharine to help him sit up so he could see his surroundings but as he scanned with his eyes he saw that Angelina was kneeling beside Katharine.
As though the mere sight of her ignited all of his bodily strength, Ash leapt to his feet and grabbed the sword that was hanging from Davon’s, who had rushed to his side as his eyes open, weapons belt.
The sword glistened as the flames reflected off the cold steel. Ash held it inches from Angelina’s forehead. She remained in the kneeling position closing her eyes and placing her arms spread out at her sides. They spread widely and reminded Katharine of the wings she’d seen on the elders just before they took flight. Her predecessor was welcoming Ash’s violence against her as though it were what she wanted all along.
Ash lashed forward sending the sword searing past Angelina’s face slicing her cheek slightly. He pulled back on the sword and threw it to the ground. As the blade crashed to the ground Angelina opened her eyes allowing the tears that had been buried under her eyelids to come flooding out. Katharine had been so taken aback by Ash’s sudden awakening that she remained completely still and remained on the ground where Ash once lay.
“Do it Ash. Please kill me,” Angelina begged grabbing the sword and forcing it back into Ash’s hands. Still kneeling she leaned into the sword that sat inside Ash’s closed fist. He looked down into the eyes of the woman he once loved so deeply and realized he was looking upon the face of a stranger. He pulled the blade away from Angelina and handed it back to Davon who placed it firmly back inside its holding place upon his belt. “No! Please do it, kill me.”
Ash ignored her cries and lowered his hand for Katharine. She placed hers within his and allowed him to help her to her feet. He was still uneasy on his feet and stumbled as she used his weight to pull herself upright. She wrapped his arm around her neck to provide him with support so he could steady himself. Davon placed himself on the other side with his arrow always aimed in Angelina’s direction.
“I don’t understand, what happened to you? What has led you to this?” Ash’s tone was sympathetic but the kindness he always had when he spoke of Angelina had disappeared.
Davon stared at his partner and saw the look of love he had always carried with him had faded out of his eyes. Angelina was no longer in his heart; she had been replaced and could never find a place inside it again. He couldn’t help but smile.
“What the elders did,” Angelina started, “it was worse than death. They didn’t just erase you from my mind they erased half of my life from my memories. I damn near lost my mind. I barely even knew who I was. I wandered around trying to piece the missing memories back together but nothing worked. I had given up hope until she found me,” she explained.
The word she shot through Davon and Ash like a bolt of lightning through a lonely tree in a meadow. They knew the she that Angelina spoke of. It was beginning to make sense, their former Tracker was working with Serena.
“She told me she could give me my memories back if I helped her find something. What did I know? I had no memories of the Descended or the Guides, I just knew I wanted my memories back. Little by little she gave them back to me, even the ones about you,” Angelina said speaking only to Ash, “but by that time it was too late I was hers.”
She opened her mouth to speak further but she was interrupted by a second female voice yet another one Katharine did not recognize. Only this time the sound of the woman’s voice flooded Ash, Davon and Angelina’s faces with fear. They turned around almost in unison to look upon the face of the one they knew was speaking. Katharine turned to see a golden haired woman with a perfectly formed body standing in front of her.
Despite her companions terrified looks the woman before her did not frighten Katharine; in fact there was something calming and familiar about her. Katharine knew she had seen the woman before but could not figure out where. She had seen so much in the last few weeks everything began to blend together like a child’s finger painting. The woman was wearing a red strapless dress with a slit gliding up the side of her leg so high it didn’t leave much to the imagination.
The woman slinked toward Angelina, smiling aggressively as she walked past the others in the room. Angelina stood up as though it had been commanded of her telepathically. She kept her gaze tightly locked on the floor afraid to look the woman in the eyes.
“I see it did not take long for you to break my dear Angelina,” the woman said stepping closely behind Angelina and running her fingers through the other girl’s hair. “Were you surprised?” She was talking to Ash now. “I really wish I could have been here to see your face when you realized that your precious Angelina was working for me. Oh that would have been a sight to see.”
There was a rustling behind Katharine like the sound of hundreds of footsteps marching outside the door and a few entering the room. She went to turn to see what all the commotion was but was startled into submission by the sound of Davon’s voice.
“Serena? How are you alive right now?” Davon shot a look at Ash that sent shivers down Katharine’s spine.
She hoped to never be on the receiving end of that look. Serena laughed wildly and removed her hand from Angelina’s hair, an action met by a sigh of relief from Angelina’s mouth. The Tracker was terrified, far more so than Ash and Davon.
“You mean Ash didn’t tell you? When you went gallivanting looking for the blade I slipped right out the back door. You Guides aren’t as difficult to slip past as you might think,” Serena replied all too proudly. She winked at Katharine who was startled by the gesture. “I assume this is the famous Tracker, the one and only left?”
Katharine shifted in place trying to show she was not afraid but the grasp she had on the back of Ash’s shirt let him know otherwise. Gathering his strength he removed himself from her crutch and once again removed the sword from Davon’s weapons belt.
“Don’t you look at her,” Ash said pointing the sword in Serena’s direction, a gesture that was met by another wild explosion of Serena’s laughter. Angelina glanced at him; her face spoke the words she could not say. Her heart broke watching him defending another, watching his eyes look at Katharine with all the love he once had for her. She had sacrificed so much to regain her memories and yet in that moment she wished the memories of Ash had never returned.
As though she could see inside Angelina’s mind Serena began to taunt her with Ash’s heroism toward Katharine. “Does it pain you to hear him defend another? Do you ache to be that Tracker at his side again?”
Angelina remained silent returning her gaze back on the concrete floor trying not to allow Serena’s words to enter her heart. Ash glanced at the woman who once took up residence in his heart and he felt pity for her. No matter what she had become, the elders ripped a part of her away from her and he would always remain plagued as being the cause of it. Even then standing in a room that was now filled with the Descended and with Katharine at his side, Ash remained hurt by the events that took Angelina away from him.
“Well this is getting to be all too gushy for me. What do you say we turn it up a notch?” Serena said raising her hand in the air signaling the Descended lining the walls to attack.
Ash pushed Katharine aside roughly. She landed on the ground with all of her weight falling on her hip. She screamed in pain. He glanced at her and meant to run to her to make sure she was okay but before he had the chance one of the Descended was on him. Its claws dug into his shoulder sending agonizing pain running through his body.
He used his force to swing the sword in his hand up and drove it straight
through the creature’s head, skewing him the way a chef would skew meat to create a shish kabob. It fell to the ground with yellow ooze pooling underneath it.
Ash pulled the sword from the creature’s head and swung it to the side hitting a second Descended across the throat, slicing a deep gash into the creature. It too fell to the ground surrounded by its own blood.
Davon was fighting off a few Descended that were attacking him at every possible angle. He was quick with his bow and arrow but even quicker with his blades throwing them into each of the creatures that hounded him. One of the blades landed inside the eye of one of the creatures while the other housed itself in another’s shoulder. Davon swung at the creature that lashed at him and landed a thunderous punch to its face knocking it to the ground unconscious and out of commission.
Katharine crawled into the corner of the room and watched as the Guides and the Descended engaged in battle. It was almost like a mystical dance with arms and legs moving in ways she never knew possible. The Guides were fluid in their motion using their weapons almost as frequently as they used their fists and legs.
Ash had a tendency to use his head to slam against the Descended to send them stumbling off their feet with enough gravitas that enabled him to slice into them with his sword. Lacking his bow and arrow Ash was left with no choice but to kill them while Davon used his arrow to send those he could spare back to Purgatory.
The dance continued for what felt like hours but Katharine could see the number of Descended beginning to dwindle down until there were only a few left. She was beginning to have hope that perhaps they would win; they would succeed in preventing the Descended from reaching the doorway, something that somehow seemed to be forgotten among the chaos. If the end goal on both sides was to find the doorway Katharine wondered why no one was trying to find it.
Into The Light (The Fallen Shadows) Page 23
