I shook my head to clear the fog, and quickly washed up and got dressed, trying not to wince at my renewed tenderness. I gave up the wig as a lost cause, snagging my phone and bracing myself to leave the privacy of the tent. I know my face was glowing red.
Mikah looked carefully bland, while Berto gave me a questioning look. He couldn’t be more confused than I was. I loved Kat. I wanted to be with her. I was determined to clean up my life. How did I end up in a three-way with Kat and a complete stranger on an hour’s acquaintance?
Tessa and Kat emerged from the tent and joined us at the table. Kat studied my face, and I wasn’t sure what she was looking for. Whatever it was, she didn’t seem to find it.
Tessa smiled like a cat in the cream, and looked more delighted than anything.
I used my phone to give me something else to look at. “That’s odd. My sister called but she didn’t leave a message.” There was a little ping then, to announce a new text message. It was from Cordie. “Code Zombie. NAD. OMW Zombie Central. Be careful. Love C.”
Tessa was reading over my shoulder. “You have a weird sister. Code Zombie? Zombie Central?”
Mikah’s head jerked around and he held his hand out for my phone. He handed it back to me after a second, and said “Call your sister back, Olivia.”
I rang her cell and heard, “You have reached the phone of Cordelia Mitchell at the Department of Public Health and Environment. Please leave a message…”
“She’s not answering. NAD means not a drill. Code Zombie is a joke, kind of. Cordie works for the people that respond if there’s a public health outbreak of some kind, or there’s need of a disaster response team. We always said she’d be on call if the zombie apocalypse ever arrived. Code Zombie means I’m supposed to take my disaster response kit and get someplace safe. Zombie Central is the CDC in Atlanta.”
Mikah was pacing. “If there’s some kind of outbreak, we don’t want to be in a metropolitan area, except our emergency supplies are at home, in the middle of a metropolitan area.”
“We can’t just head into the woods, Mikah. We don’t know what’s going on. I’m not running off in nothing but my Faire gear. Besides, Cordie didn’t say to get out of town. She said to get the zombie kit. If we need to hole up somewhere, the house is as secure as anything. We have a wall around the place, an iron gate, security, and all of our supplies.”
“Okay, here’s what we’re going to do. Berto, please make our apologies to the queen and let her know we have to leave unexpectedly and Kat won’t be doing her work shift tomorrow. The rest of us will start breaking camp. If anyone asks, it’s just a small family issue. We’re not trying to cause a panic.”
Mikah pulled out his own cell phone as he was talking and hit speed dial. “Hey Ted, how’s it going? Yeah, we’re fine here, too. I wondered if you could do us a solid? Grab your bug-out gear and go hang out at the house. Keep the gate closed to anyone else but us. We may be heading out sooner rather than later. I’ll explain when we get there. Take care. We will.”
Kat said, “Mikah, I’m going to drop a word with Korembi. They’re good people and they wouldn’t do anything to cause a panic.”
I turned to Tessa, “You’re still welcome to come with us. I don’t know what’s going on and Denver might not be the best place to be heading into.”
“I’m staying with you. What’s life without a little excitement?” She headed toward my tent. “I’ll start packing in here.”
I tried Cordie one more time. Still no answer. At least my eyes had finally settled down. I took off the dark glasses and noticed the sky. “Mikah, look. The sun shouldn’t be going down yet, and look at those low clouds. I swear the sky seems almost purple. Do you see it too?”
“Yeah, and we’re not the only ones.”
I could make out people in their camps and on the road and they were all looking up and pointing at the sky.
Oaken walked up from the druid camp to the south west. “It’s well that you’re breaking camp. We can hear the Beast Lords from our site, and Sir Mehmet is inciting his people over your ‘theft’ of that girl.” He shook his head. “Something is wrong with the energy today. We can all feel it. We’re going to cast a circle and pray for guidance and protection.”
I changed back into street clothes for the drive. Berto got back as I was breaking down the kitchen area. He and Mikah started taking down the tents. We were all moving fairly quickly—even Tessa. “Wendy thinks something odd is going on, too. She has her radio with her and says she’ll call the rangers if things go pear-shaped.”
I could actually hear them calling the quarters at the druid camp. That was odd, because normally they were too far back in the woods for us to hear anything. The wind must have been blowing just right, except I didn’t feel any wind. Tessa and I were taking down the shade tent over the table when I heard heavy footsteps coming our way. Just great. That’s all we needed.
“Boys, we’ve got company.” I can’t believe they didn’t hear it. It sounded like a herd of oxen breaking through the underbrush.
It was Sir Mehmet, along with four others dressed in minotaur garb. Luckily they weren’t as big as Derek, but they were still big enough.
Mikah stepped between them and me and Tessa. “My apologies, gentlefolk, but we are unable to welcome guests at this time. Necessity draws us away. We mean no offense.” He gave charm and grace his best shot. He would have fared better with a big rock.
“Do what you want,” Mehmet growled, “but the girl is staying with us.”
Mikah dropped all pretenses of Faire-speak. “You’ve already had this discussion Derek. The lady doesn’t want to go with you. Let it go before we have to call someone.”
After that, everything happened too fast.
Derek bellowed and charged at Mikah, shoving him hard into a tree. “Stay out of it, pretty boy, unless you want to play, too.”
Mikah turned his head. “Berto, run and get Kat and the Trolls. Hurry!”
He gave one horrified look, and took off through the trees. They made a half-hearted effort to catch him, but he was too fast.
I stepped forward. “Back off, cow-shit for brains. You’re already down for assault, Derek. Don’t make it worse.” They had the brawn, so I was going for the bravado. I would have preferred some brawn.
Sneaking a look at Mikah, it was clear he was in trouble. His eyes were glazed and he staggered, trying to pull himself up.
“Rogath, Hagar, bring me my slave. Chagal, Gax, you grab that one.” Derek gestured at me. “We’re going to teach her a lesson about poaching other people’s property.”
Tessa held a butcher knife from the kitchen box in front of her, and I drew my belt dagger. In retrospect, I should have screamed, but I still believed we’d fix this. Stupid, stupid, Olivia.
Tessa made a few stabbing motions at the two approaching her, but I could tell she really wasn’t prepared to stab anyone, and I wasn’t either. The problem was that they could tell, too.
“Stay away! You can’t get away with this!” she hissed at them.
They easily batted away her knife. The taller one stuffed some kind of gag in her mouth, and dragged her back toward Derek. She clawed wildly at him until the other one pulled her arms behind her back and held her by the wrists. No one but me could hear her muffled screams.
I was backing away from the two coming at me when a twig snapped behind me. I howled in pain and dropped the dagger as someone jerked me roughly backward by my own hair. The person behind me covered my mouth with his hand, and dragged me toward the Beast Lords’ camp. I grabbed at anything I could reach to try and slow them down. The other two pried my hands loose from the picnic table and lifted me bodily. I bit at the hand over my mouth and thrashed wildly, but they were too strong.
Mikah tried to pull out his phone, and Derek slammed a fist into the side of his head. Mikah dropped again, and this time he wasn’t getting up. Derek growled, “I told you to stay out of it.” Grabbing Mikah by the ankle, he dragged him alon
g with the rest of us.
* * * *
There were even more of the Beast Lords waiting when we got to their camp. I saw Beast Lords as bears, big hunting cats, wolves, one hyena, and even an eagle. Augra didn’t help them, but she didn’t try to stop them either.
They tied me to one tree, hands bound behind my back. They tied Tessa next to me, bound the same way, except she also had a strip of duct tape over her mouth. Her eyes were huge and tears were running down her cheeks. Derek dropped Mikah to the ground and tied him to one of those heavy metal picnic tables. Mikah was breathing, but he looked awfully pale, and his eyes were closed.
My head pounded and I shook with fear. I had a pretty good idea what Derek meant when he said he’d teach me a lesson for interfering with Tessa. It was the same lesson evil bullies had used against women throughout the ages.
I heard several someones running toward the camp, and there seemed to be a lot of shouting from Korembi and Berto and several others in the Troll contingent. “Derek, mon, this has to stop. De rangers already been called. You only makin’ things worse, mon.”
I had trouble seeing through my tears, but Derek seemed much bigger and hairier than I remembered, and he had horns. I blinked wildly and forced my eyes to focus. He had giant horns, and he wasn’t wearing a mask. “They’re my prizes. Get your own,” he growled at Korembi.
The forest was alive with animal noises, and the air was filled with purple clouds and swirls of purple ground fog. I don’t know how I saw this in the dark, but something small with a bright feathered crest was sneaking toward me. It looked like a compy. Now I knew I’d lost it. Maybe I was actually in the hospital already? I saw another compy, and then another, but no one else seemed to notice them. They disappeared behind us, and something started chewing at the ropes. I tried not to wince when sharp little teeth grazed my skin every now and then.
The world seemed to ripple, and even Derek’s group rocked back a little. What the hell? It was still dark, but now I could see everything. There were people beyond the trees, and smaller creatures moving along the ground and higher up. I heard a screeching hiss, and a large creature rushed toward us from Korembi’s camp. How did something that big move with so little noise? Frantic, I gave my hands a jerk and the rope finally separated.
Energy pulsed through me, wanting to get out. “Derek, you bastard. You’re going to pay for this.”
I pulled myself up as he charged toward me, bellowing incoherently with rage. Oh my god. He was freaking huge. I jumped out of the way at the last minute, backpedaling through the trees, and he grabbed the axe from their wood pile like it was a child’s toy.
I shouted, “Stop,” and tiny balls of blue light flew from my hands and slammed into his massive chest.
He staggered and I smelled burnt fur, but he was still coming. His axe began its fatal arc toward me when a seven-foot tall dinosaur skeleton—a freaking Utahraptor—leaped onto his back. Its claws dug deep, and there was so much blood. He howled and tried to bring the axe around, but he was no match for the raptor. It was a born hunter, and tonight Derek was its prey.
Derek thrashed around, slamming back into a tree and trying to knock the raptor loose. He gave it a jolt, but it had too good a grip. It hissed again and reached around Derek, opening his belly like an overripe melon, spilling gleaming entrails onto the ground. He screamed, and I hoped to never hear that sound again. The raptor screeched, shaking Derek like a doll. There was a sharp crack and Derek went limp and silent.
The creature bent to feed, snout buried in Derek’s gut. I stared in horror at the muscles and flesh regenerating on the skeletal raptor. The compys scampered over to the body, waiting for some kind of signal from the raptor, eagerly jostling each other for the scraps.
The world froze in time for one horrible second, and the only sound was the wet feasting of the dinosaurs and several people sobbing. Korembi said, “Stella?” and the raptor, now flesh and blood, cocked her head and looked at him. She shook her body, settling her feathers, and then stalked over to him, gently butting his chest with her head. Her eyes followed Berto as he came toward us, but she made no move to attack. She made a chirruping noise at Korembi, and returned to Derek’s remains.
I fumbled with Tessa’s ropes, nearly chewed through by the compys, and finally got her free. She braced herself and yanked the tape off of her mouth, wincing at the hair it took with it, and pulling out the washcloth they’d used to gag her. I stumbled my way to Mikah and Berto. The remaining Beast Lords, now truly part Beast, watched, but kept their distance.
Berto had tears in his eyes. “He’s breathing. He just has to wake up. You hear that Mikah? You need to wake up now.” He looked at me then, and his eyes got wide. “Olivia?”
“What?”
“I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore. Olivia, look at your arm.”
I did, and rubbed my eyes again. My arm was gleaming obsidian. The hair straggling over my shoulder was fine, and white as snow. My ears had finally stopped itching. I touched one ear cautiously. It was elongated and came to a delicate point, sticking out through my new hair.
Berto and Mikah looked normal to me, but Tessa was not quite herself. She had tiny, ivory horns peeking out of her hair. The pupils of her eyes were vertical crimson slits. Her bodice was mostly tatters, and leathery black wings curved up from her back. A barbed tail lashed back and forth with agitation and excitement. She gave me a wicked look, and suddenly I wanted her again—as urgently as the first time. If we were doing a dungeon crawl, I’d have said she was a succubus. As soon as the word popped into my head, I knew I was right.
Korembi came up to us, eyes still on the raptor. “I think Stella be fine now, mon. Our first raptor. Ain’t she a beauty?” He looked me over. “I’d say you be making a fine Dark Elf yourself, Olivia. Maybe we wake up tomorrow, and maybe we don’t, but I always knew I was Troll to the bone, mon.” He drew my attention to his companion. She looked like a Seal Point Siamese—all creamy fur darkening to rich brown around her hands and muzzle, delicate pointed ears, and she was wearing Kat’s clothes. I stared, and it was Kat staring back at me from the delicate feline face.
“Miss Kitty? Oh my god.”
She hugged me tight. “Olivia, what are we going to do? I’m a cat. I can’t be a giant cat. And dinosaurs don’t just show up and eat people, no matter how much they deserve it.”
If anyone needed a drink right now, she did. What was I saying? We all did. “We need to get out of here. We need to get home.”
Berto stroked Mikah’s forehead, whispering quietly. A soft golden glow followed the wake of his hand, and the broken skin on Mikah’s forehead visibly knit itself back together. Mikah’s eyes fluttered open, and his face glowed with love as he gazed up at Berto. “You fixed my headache. I always said you have magic hands.”
None of Derek’s people tried to keep us from leaving their camp. I think seeing their leader being eaten by a Utahraptor had a deleterious effect on their morale.
My jeans were loose, and too long on my new body. Elves really were smaller. The strap from my quiver would be pressed into service as a belt the second we returned to our camp.
The druid camp was surrounded by a shimmering gold dome. I hoped they were okay, but I wasn’t going to stop and ask.
We were putting the last few things in the cars, and suddenly I couldn’t stop laughing. I laughed until I couldn’t breathe, and only stopped when Berto gave me a shake. “They sent Cordie to the CDC. I don’t think there’s going to be a miracle vaccination for this one.” I snapped a selfie and added a quick text to Cordie. “Hey, sis. Vaccinate this!”
Report 2
Interoffice Memo
To:Dr. Wxxxxx
From:Dr. Hxxxxx
Oh my god! I told you he was losing it. Dr. Fxxxxx is locked in his lab. There are flying rats in the hallways. We can’t cut the power. Why aren’t those boneheads from Special Forces doing anything? Can’t they break down the door? If you don’t come out of your offic
e, I swear I’m going to have them break down your door. Come on. Hide under your desk later.
To:Dr. Hxxxxx
From:Dr. Wxxxxx
Screw you! I’m a chubby walking teddy bear. I’ll hide under my desk if I want to.
Chapter Seven
Campers, We Are Leaving!
I really wanted to get out of here, but this night wasn’t quite done with us yet. With my amazing new vision, I could easily see a young boy standing on the dark road just outside our camp. “Who’s there?”
Seth, Wendy’s oldest son, rushed into our campsite. He had one of those small dragons on his shoulder, but this one was looking around and making crooning noises. His eyes got huge when he looked at us, but his need outweighed his surprise. “You’re still here! Mom says we need Berto. Something got my dad and his leg is hurt real bad.”
While Berto got his medical kit from the van, I grabbed my archery gear. “Let’s go,” Berto told Seth.
“I’m going with you!” I told him. “You can’t go alone, and someone needs to stay with Kat and Tessa.”
“I’ll stay,” said Mikah. He got his own archery gear out of the van as we left with Seth.
Last time we went to the pavilion loop, it was a short walk in broad daylight. While I could see everything as clear as day, I still jumped at every shadow.
Seth kept his flashlight aimed at the ground and was practically running. “You have to hurry!”
Wendy was ghost pale when we got to her camp. Mike had a blood-soaked towel wrapped around his lower leg and his lips were grey. Berto was all business now. “Wendy, I need your help. You can do this.”
Ignoring Mike’s muffled groans and focusing on the forest around us, I put the light to my back and moved a little way into the darkness. With an arrow nocked but not drawn, I scanned the night for anything coming this way. Wendy hadn’t said what got Mike, but it attacked his leg, so I kept a watch close to the ground.
Forging Day (Crucible of Change Book 1) Page 6
