by Rue Volley
“You let me come here,” I whispered.
Erik laughed. “Humans do have their uses, outside of food.” He looked at the boy laying on the floor, who still struggled with the blade in his shoulder. “I knew that your compassion would stir him when you refused to feed. He simply did what I expected him to do.”
Erik flashed to him and sank his teeth into his shoulder, the boy cried out and Erik rose up with blood dripping from his mouth. He grinned at me, with blood blanketing his teeth. He flashed down and gripped his blade, pulling it upward, in a blur. The boy"s body came up with it off of the floor and fell as the blade came out of his shoulder. He hit the stone and cried out again.
“Stop!” I yelled at him.
Erik wiped his mouth with his arm, gripping his blade in his hand. He looked down at the boy who was trying to crawl towards me. Erik lifted him up over his head and threw him at the hole of black water. I reached out but he flew by me so fast, I watched as he fell into the water screaming. He sank into it and light rolled out from him as he disappeared under the water.
I leaned over the edge and cried out, “No!”
Erik started to laugh and I looked back at him with hatred in my eyes.
“You didn't need to do that you ass!” I yelled at him.
He stood there with this grin on his face, that made my stomach turned.
“You need to shed this addiction you have to emotion... It really is wasted on these creatures,” Erik said as put his blade onto his back.
“He was not a „creature". He was a person, a human being, and you just killed him,” I said as I felt a vibration start to rise up in me.
“Sophia...” he said as he turned to look at her.
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Sophia raised her hand up. “She will learn, this is temporary. Once she has severed her need to care for these things, she will become the future.”
“The future?” I muttered.
“Yes…Joshua and his siblings are the past... You are the future of our people, let them go, Rue Valon,” she said to me as she stepped forward with her hands out.
I took a step back and realized that I stood on the edge of the hole. I looked down as the black water rippled. I looked back at her and shook my head.
“I will never be like any of you... You are animals.”
A murmur went through the room. I scanned it, as they all leaned to each other whispering.
“Silence,” Sophia yelled out as she raised her hands.
“We are not going to play this game any longer... As we speak, the horse you shared yourself with is racing towards your „family", as you call them. The trackers are behind them… I have all confidence that they will break through Theodore's spell and destroy the last of your rebellion to your lineage. They have poisoned you...as did your parents, by not allowing you too understand the importance of who you are.” She stepped forward, closer to me and held her hands out to me. “Embrace who you are Rue Valon…feed.”
She pulled a blade and ran it across her palm. I looked down as the blood pooled in her hand, it dripped on the floor and sank into the stone, fading away.
She held it up to me and I could smell it's sweetness. I closed my eyes and the colors all swirled behind my eyes, my stomach ached, my mouth was dry. I sucked in my breath and grabbed at my stomach, as a pain filled me.
“Stop,” I whispered.
“You cannot deny who you are. You hunger little one,” she said to me in a gentle tone, the first one I had ever heard from her.
“I can't,” I said as I started to feel weaker.
I closed my eyes, and flashes started to form behind my eyes. I felt myself waver and I opened up my eyes. I gripped my blades in my hand and looked down at the water. Then I raised my blades at her as I cried out. She closed her hand and flashed away from me. I stood there as I watched all of them pull their blades from their backs. I gripped mine and flashed around to the other side of Josh. I stopped almost to edge of the room looking out over the land. For a moment, it was peaceful and I sucked in my breath and turned around flashing towards Josh, who still laid on the mirror.
I jumped as hard as I could through the air and landed on him, he grunted and fluttered his eyes open. I looked down and put my hand on his face. He half grinned at me, like he was dreaming. I smacked him, and he turned his head.
“What the hell?” he cried out.
“You have to wake up Josh!” I yelled at him. I closed my eyes and started to focus. I waved my hand over him and I felt him start to slide a little.
“Oh shit,” I said as I sat on top of him. I looked down towards his feet and saw the water rolling under us.
Sophia and the rest of the protectors had flashed up to the circle around us and I looked out as they all had their blades glowing. Sophia stood there with a hard look on her face.
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“Come down from there,” she said forcefully.
I pointed one blade at her.
“Screw you,” I said.
Josh grunted and started to move his legs. “What the fuck?” he said as he looked down. “Oh shit Rue, what the hell are you doing here?” he asked me.
“Saving your ass,” I said as I stared out at all of them.
“Yea, looks like it,” he said sarcastically.
“Oh shut up, we have to figure out how to get off of this thing,” I said as I looked around the room.
We slid a little and I squeezed my legs against his sides.
“Oh, this is sexy,” he said.
“Oh my god!” I yelled at him. “We are going to die here if you don't help.”
“Okay, okay...give me your blade,” he said.
“What?”
“Give it to me,” he said as he lifted his hand. I placed it in his hand and he quickly sliced it across my palm.
“Ouch!” I said. He grinned at me as we slid a little more down the mirror.
“Let me drink your blood, I'm weak,” he said.
I pressed my hand against his mouth and I felt his mouth on my skin. I tightened my grip on him and he groaned. He pulled my hand away from his mouth and grinned.
“Could you not do that?” he said.
“Do what?” I asked him.
“Press down on me like that...”
“I can't help it…” I cried out and wrapped my hands around his neck, as we started to slide down further.
He grunted and tried to push himself back up with me on top of him.
“This is not the way I wanted our first time to be,” he said with a laugh.
“Oh my god, shut up!” I said in his ear.
Josh looked out at the protectors surrounding us, they all started to chant.
“Oh shit,” he said.
I pushed up from him and looked out at the room. “What?”
“They are going to release me into the water,” he said.
“You mean us,” I added.
“Yea, us...doesn't matter. The binding will end and this mirror will tilt up, we will fall.”
I pressed back down against him as we started to feel the mirror shifting.
“Give me the blade!” I yelled at him.
“What?” he yelled out ,as the chanting became louder.
“Give me the damn blade!” I screamed at him. He placed it in my hand and I reached down and started to cut the leather on his chest.
“Really…? You want to do me now?” he said with a wicked grin.
“No...” I cut through it and pulled it apart on his chest.
“This is going to sting a little,” I said to him.
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I closed my eyes and a symbol started to appear behind my eyes. I placed the blade against his chest and started to cut him, not to deep, just enough to etch the symbol into his skin.
“Oh my god,” he cried out. “You are a naughty girl.”
I opened my eyes as he leaned down and looked at his chest. “Now, cut me!” I said as I gripped onto him, the mirror was slowly tilting upward and we started to slide
.
“Do it now!” I screamed out.
He reached up and tore my leather open, he smiled as he saw my chest.
“Oh my god...do it Josh!” I screamed at him.
He placed the blade against my skin and I bit my lip. It stung as he traced a symbol into my skin.
“What is the plan here?” he said.
I looked down at the water... “We are going in,” I said.
“What...? No, no...no,” he said. “We will die Rue!”
“I hope not,” I said as I looked down at him. “But just in case…”
I leaned down and pressed my lips hard against his. He reached up and held the back of my head. I opened my mouth as I back away from him. I could see a blue mist trailing from his lips to mine. He opened his eyes. The mirror tilted at a sharp angle and we started to slide to the end of it. Josh reached out and grabbed my hand.
We fell off the edge and he grabbed me, pressing me against his body as we saw the water quickly coming up from below us.
“I love you,” he whispered in my ear, right before we hit the water hard, sinking below it's surface.
******
The horse stopped mid gallop, he skidded to a stop. He raised up and turned around, instinctively galloping in the other direction. One of the trackers flashed by him and he took a sharp turn hitting the girl mid air with his side. He huffed and pushed on. He flashed across the open field as two more flashed behind him. His coat was swirling with blue, bright, and thick. He slowed down and one of the trackers flashed almost passed him, he turned and raised his hooves hitting him in the chest, the boy rolled away from him to the left. He pushed on, breathing hard, his hair flying behind his head.
He came to cliff and jumped out into the air hurling towards the water at the bottom, he pulled his legs in and hit the water going under with a huge splash behind him, he raised up and I had my hand gripped to his hair. I reached behind me and grabbed at Josh, pulling him up onto the horses back.
I choked out black water and sucked in my breath, it burned in my lungs.
The horse kicked his legs and drug us to the the sandy beach on the side of this lake. I crawled onto the sand and rolled onto my back coughing. I rolled over and saw the horse push himself up with Josh on his back, Josh started to slide off and I ran to try to cushion his fall, it knocked me down too. I sat there looking down at him and yelled his name.
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He laid there motionless and I shook him. He started to blink his eyes and coughed up black water from his mouth. He blinked a few more times and reached up to touch my face.
“Rue,” he said, as he coughed out more water.
I backed away from him as he leaned over and I saw water trickle out of his mouth. My horse dug his hooves into the sand and started to move back and forth.
“We have to go now,” I said. He pushed himself up and looked around.
“Where the hell are we?” he asked.
“A lake that I dug symbols into before I got to Valon,” I said.
“Good girl,” he said.
I walked to the horse and he leaned down on one knee. I grabbed his hair and pulled myself up. Josh looked at me and shook his head.
“When did you get a horse Rue?”
“I found him, well kinda stole him on my way here,” I said as I reached down.
Josh took my hand and pulled himself up behind me. “We have to move,” I said.
The horse shot off down the side of the lake.
******
We rode for an hour before we stopped to rest. I needed to eat and so did Josh. I could feel his grip on my sides getting weaker. We stopped in a clearing in the woods and he jumped down, he reached up and the horse knelt down, letting me slide off of him. Josh raised his hand and rubbed the side of his head.
He huffed and kicked the dirt.
“He is beautiful,” he said, as he stared into his eyes.
“You like horses?” I asked.
“Well yea, look at them,” Josh said as he pet his side.
I smiled and looked down.
“What?” he said.
“Oh, I don't know...I just didn't know that you liked anything,” I said as I looked around.
“Yea...I'm not a robot,” he said as he glanced at me.
“Well, we need to eat Josh...my stomach is killing me.”
“Yea, okay.” He knelt down and pressed his hand against the ground, he stood back up and looked out into the woods.
“There are wolves out there.” He pointed out towards the forest.
“No…I mean food, not blood Josh.”
“Oh…well, I don't really track that... Fruit just kinda hangs there, I don't have to chase it.”
“So, you feed on wolves?” I asked.
“That and other things, anything that could possibly kill me,” he said as he walked towards me.
“Oh,” I said as I looked away from him.
“Wait,” Josh crouched down and felt the ground. “There is a tracker coming, looks like food is coming to us.”
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“I am not doing that,” I said as I looked around and lowered to the ground.
“Well...this isn't the time to be picky Rue... It won't be blood, just a burst of energy, an adrenaline rush.”
“I can't believe you are talking about this like it's a rabbit...it's a protector coming this way.”
“Oh so you hate rabbits?” he asked as he felt the ground again.
I stood up. “No…I do not hate rabbits, it was just the first thing I thought of.”
He laughed.“Sounds like a deep seeded problem.”
“Stop Josh...how can you joke around...? We just almost died, like an hour ago?”
I started to walk to the horse who was getting anxious.
He flashed to me. I felt the air blow my hair forward and he stood far to close for comfort behind me. I stood still waiting for his sarcasm. He grabbed my arm and spun me around.
“You infuriate me... You should have stayed at home, safe like I told you...”
I looked up at him and he didn't look mad, in fact he had a softened look to his face now.
“I couldn't let you die Josh...I couldn't,” I whispered.
“And why would that be?” he said.
I pulled my arm from him and pulled myself up. I held my hand out to him and he grinned as he pulled himself up behind me, and we moved on.
We rode for another ten minutes before I started to feel weak. I leaned forward and Josh grabbed at my sides. The horse came to a stop and Josh pulled himself down, pulling me with him. I could barely keep my eyes open. My stomach ached, but I didn't have the strength to eat...I just didn't.
Josh touched my face and pulled out his blade. He cut his palm and pressed it to my mouth. I grunted and tried to push his hand away from me, but some of his blood entered my mouth and I sucked my breath in and groaned opening my mouth up to his warm blood. I let it flow down my throat and I could feel him tense up against me. I raised my hand and pressed it harder to my mouth and Josh groaned.
I opened my eyes and everything had a shimmer to it, including his face as he stared down at me. I pulled his hand away from me and looked into his eyes. He leaned closer to me and I could feel his breath at my mouth. I still had his blood in my mouth and his heart beat rapidly against me.
I reached up and touched his face, blue traced on his skin from under my fingertips. He closed his eyes and drew in his breath. He leaned in and let his lips barely touch mine. It was gentler then what I expected it to be. Josh was so aggressive normally, I expected him to press against me so I would feel a sudden need to struggle away from him. He gently let his lips trace mine, and I closed my eyes…tasting his blood sweet in my mouth. He backed away from me and pulled me up. I felt lightheaded.
He suddenly pulled his blades and a blur of white flashed by me, and Josh disappeared with it. I screamed out and watched as they rolled to the side, blades flashing. I felt a vibration in my whole body as another tracker flashe
d up to me and the girl stopped just as she sliced her blade by my face. I leaned backward and twisted, almost knocking myself off balance. I heard a cry come 344
from the direction that Josh had rolled too, and I flashed to his side. He stood up, blood all over him. The tracker lay motionless at his feet.
He reached behind me and spun me out of the way, as another blade flashed by me. I fell this time, just as I watched Josh bring his blades up and the tracker fell to her knees. A bright glow came from his hand and he slammed his hand into her chest. She screamed out and arched her back. Josh threw his head back, and turned his head to me in a blur.
“We have to go now!” he yelled at me.
He reached out his hand and we flashed to the horse, who waited. Josh jumped onto his back and reached down as the horse started to move, he grabbed my arm and drug me up with one lift. We raced out of the forest and into an open field, I looked behind us as I saw more coming...
I placed my hand on the horse"s side and we started to flash forward. Josh sucked in his breath and held onto his hair as we flew across the field at lightening speed. We raced until we could see that an end was coming. He gripped the horses hair and urged him forward, I knew we were going to jump and I didn't know if we would survive...
Josh yelled out to me, “When we hit the air, I need for you have your blades glowing! Focus on the symbol you etched on me. You have to throw them into the water before we hit!”
I pulled my blades out and closed my eyes, I felt the energy start to flow from my hands into the metal, I visualized the symbol before me and pushed it into the metal. I looked down and they both were swirling with every color, a bright symbol etching into the metal before my eyes.
“I think I did it!” I yelled out to him.
We hit the edge and the horse cried out as we started to drop through the air. I squeezed onto Josh's sides, as tightly as I could.
“Throw them into the water now Rue!” he cried out.
I held my hands out and threw them with every ounce of strength that I had in me. I watched them hurl towards the water"s surface before us.
“Do not let go of me…no matter what!” he yelled.
I buried my head against his back and wrapped my arms around his chest, right before we hit the surface.