Reaver of Souls

by Stephanie Burke

  This was all his fault, and her latest information from the few loyal ones left in her father’s entourage, told word of Torn being alive, lost, but alive.

  So, now it was her job to go and find him…and make him pay. He would die slowly at her hands, drained of all his magic and lifeblood.

  But first, she had to find him. That would be a challenge. And Zultha loved a challenge.

  “I’ll get that half-breed bastard,” she growled as she again rose to her feet and began pacing. “I’ll get him, if it costs me my life. I have nothing else to lose and everything to gain by bringing him down.”

  Then she stared into the darkness around her, growing even more angered.

  “You will pay for what you have done to me and my family, Torn!” she bellowed, scaring the few observing rodents into hiding once more. “You will pay with your pain and suffering. You will die!”

  Chapter Seven

  Torn sat at the table, eyeing the assortment of food lying before him. He wanted to scratch his head in confusion, but that would have been bad manners.

  “Are you sure that they don’t eat meat?” Jack asked, eyeing Torn’s impressive frame and the collection of vegetables on the table. A body that large needed a lot of protein to maintain its tone and condition. He should know. He had lifted weights for ages and always had to use protein supplements to help build and keep his muscle mass.

  “I read it someplace,” she countered. “They don’t eat the flesh of any animal and live on dew, milk, and honey.”

  Jack looked down at his thick ham sandwich and almost felt guilty about the poor bugger having to eat grass. But the looks Torn was casting at his sandwich made him wonder if Sable’s reading was accurate.

  “Feed that man,” Jillian added as he tore into his own sandwich, ham and turkey on rye with mustard, just the way he liked it.

  Jack shook his head as he looked at his lover. He always had a lot of problems before getting the man to eat, but now he was devouring everything in sight, as if he could not get enough.

  “I don’t know,” Sable said, looking at the almost miserable expression of Torn’s face.

  She had tried to dismiss their earlier attraction, but now she knew that it was something that could not be dismissed. Was it Faeroe glamour? Was she bespelled by him? She had to look into this. After all of the years she dated and made love to men, never had the feelings become so intense and soul-grabbing so quickly.

  Finally, Torn gave into his urge to scratch his head. He heard the words going around, and understood a few. So he surmised that they were trying to get him to eat this animal fodder that they placed before him. He recognized a few similar vegetables, but for the others he was at a loss. It looked more like a special diet for his horse, than a meal for a man.

  Now what Jill and Jack were eating, that looked filling and delicious. He knew that it smelled delicious anyway. But what was the key to getting some of it?

  Finally, he pointed to Jack’s sandwich and looked up at Sable.

  “I think the meat is disturbing him,” she said, looking worriedly at Jack’s plate and the last of the sandwich that Jill was cramming down his throat.

  “Feed the man!” Jill added again as he picked up a beer and chugged back a few swallows. “He needs meat and potatoes, woman! Real food!”

  “Salad, Torn!” Sable said, pointing to the rather large bowl in front of him and ignoring Jill. “It’s good for you.”

  Torn considered this for a moment, before shaking his head no.

  “Neyt!” he replied, and pointed to the sandwich, hoping to get his point across. There was real food to be had and wanted some of it.

  “See? The meat is bothering him!” Sable decided and glared at Jack. “Eat it or I’ll toss it!”

  Jack sighed, and bent to pick up the plate, but the plaintive look in Torn’s eyes made the man want to laugh or feel sorry for him.

  “Jack,” Torn finally said, an anxious look on his face. “Neyt salad!” Frustration was evident in his every word and move.

  Jill exploded into laughter at this telling gesture. Torn was no idiot, and he knew what he wanted. And what he wanted was that sandwich, and maybe a little Sable on the side.

  “I don’t think he wants the salad,” Jack said as he handed the man the plate.

  “Thank you,” Torn enunciated carefully, remembering the word and guessing at its meaning.

  “See?” Jill crowed. “The man is starving and you give him rabbit food. Bad on you, lass,” he chided Sable, who flushed a deep red.

  Never had she let a guest starve before, but that is what she had been doing to Torn. It embarrassed her to no end.

  “The books said no meat,” she groused, glaring at Jill.

  “And when did you learn that you couldn’t trust everything that you read?” Jack added, turning her ire to him and away from Jill.

  “I learned that a long time ago, Dad,” she said then rolled her eyes as she watched Torn tear into the sandwich like a starving dog on a meaty bone.

  “I guess I’ll make another one for him and for you, Jack,” she added when she realized that the man had given up his lunch. “I’ll have the salad.”

  Men! Ha!

  After everyone was fed to her satisfaction and her kitchen righted under Torn’s interested gaze, they all retired to the living room to plan the next course of action.

  Jack, as always, went right to the meat of the matter. “Why is he here?”

  No one had an answer.

  “Okay,” he said, after a moment of silence, “why did you find him?”

  “I have no idea,” Sable sighed at last. “And it bothers me. What bad is going to happen in my life because he decided to turn up? From what I understand, fairy magic is always a double-edged sword.”

  She thought back to the feelings he caused in her body and instantly thought of Faeroe glamour again.

  “No gifts without a payment, is it?” Jill said, looking unconcerned as he lounged in a chair near Torn, who sat in a stiff-backed chair, head swinging from person to person like a fan in the stands at a tennis tournament. “He has demanded nothing of me and I feel as if every blot on my mind had been…cleaned up a bit, I guess. It’s a wondrous thing. I haven’t felt this well in ages.”

  Jack looked carefully at his friend and lover and had to sigh in agreement.

  When he had first met Jillian, the man was so depressed he seemed to be on the verge of suicide. Yet he was strangely attracted to the prematurely silvering man, and had always been here for him, offering a shoulder to lean on and a pair of arms to embrace. But never in the years that they were in a committed relationship had he ever been able to make the man feel this good without sex. He was almost ecstatic, loving life, and it showed on his face.

  “I see no harm in Torn,” Jack added then got back to his earlier point. “He can’t be a fairy. I still can’t believe it.”

  “Then what is he?” Sable asked hotly. “An alien from a different dimension?”

  Torn tried his best to follow this conversation and had to fight to hold back the resentment that he could not understand a word that they were saying. It made him feel like a child. He also thought that it was rude to speak about a person as if he wasn’t there, because he was sure that he was the topic of conversation as his name had been mentioned several times.

  Annoyed, he let a small tendril of his power seep out into the room; just enough to read more than the body language that he was interpreting.

  If he was reading them all correctly, Jill was happily defending him, Sable was confused, and Jack was worried.

  He already knew that Jill and Sable offered him no harm, so he directed the tendril to the large dark-skinned man. He gasped as his energy suddenly shot out of control again. The bright purple/white bolt hit Jack in the center of his chest, just as he opened his mouth to say something, and trapped he and Torn into a magical tunnel of power.

  Torn opened his mouth on a silent scream as the power exploded against his wil
l, and leapt towards Jack.

  Jack lurched as if shocked then his body arched out of the chair as the cleansing began.

  Hate! He felt hatred surrounding this man, the hatred of others. He felt that this man was forced to do things that he hated, to save others. That much they had in common.

  He felt the warmth and love for the man, Jill, and the loving concern for Sable. He also felt the scars from years of abuse at the hands of his…parents? No! His father!

  He could empathize.

  But what he was feeling now was insane! He felt as if he were being torn in two as Jack’s dark past flooded his mind.

  The pain!

  He grabbed his head and slid to the floor, curling into a fetal position as all the dark emotions, fears, angers, and hatred slammed into him.

  Tears flooded his eyes as he read the torment that Jack hid so well underneath his calm mask. He felt and suddenly saw the names that he was called, the fear that he lived with.

  Then his body arched and shook as he felt each of the physical blows delivered by someone that he had loved and trusted.

  He felt the mistrust grow, and how the man had shut himself off from the world. How he ignored the taunting of others because of his race and…Jillian?

  Then he felt the overwhelming love that the man had contained deep within himself, how he gave his all to his friends and family. Even more than that, he considered Sable and Jillian his only family.

  Torn latched onto the love, using it to pull him from the deep pit of despair that he entered into, flying with Jack’s inner pain and anguish. Slowly, he pulled himself upward, concentrating on the light and good, freeing himself from the pain as his body absorbed the darkness into his already tortured soul.

  Jill and Sable sat stunned as the energy bolt shot from Torn and entered Jack. They both tensed as a purple/white bolt of light surrounded them both. Not knowing what to do, Sable nervously jumped to her feet, walking first towards Jack, then Torn.

  “It’s okay,” Jill said as he returned to his seat. He too had leapt to his feet as the energy bolt shot past him, but now, recognizing the feel of the power, he relaxed and took his seat.

  Sable chewed her bottom lip, wondering what she had brought into her home, among her friends. All kinds of alien horror movies began to swirl through her mind. Was he actually an alien, bent on world conquest, changing people one person at a time?

  She looked over and Jill, who raised one mocking eyebrow, and tossed that notion aside. There could only be one Jill, and he was sitting on her couch. But what was happening in that tunnel?

  Torn was lying, fetal position, on her floor, a look of pure torment on his face. As for Jack, well, his pain-filled look was lessening.

  As she watched, his body began to slowly slide back into its chair, his face softening more than she had ever seen it before.

  The tunnel of light began to fade and just as abruptly as it lashed out, it dissipated.

  “Jack!” Sable called as she rushed over to his side. “Jack, speak to me!”

  “Sable?” he asked, slowly blinking his eyes as if he had just come out of a trance. “Sable, have I ever told you how much I love you?”

  Sable’s laughter was half sobs as she reached out one shaking hand to caress Jack’s smiling face.

  “I always knew, Jack!” She laughed and sobbed. “That is why you brought me to this cold rainy country with you when you left the U.S. I always knew!”

  “But I never said it,” he replied as he struggled to sit up properly and adjust his clothing.

  But their next words were cut off by Jill’s sudden call.

  “Guys, I think we have a problem!”

  Sable turned to where Torn lay, but he wasn’t moving.

  “Torn!” she called as she raced to Jill’s side and dropped to her knees.

  Torn lay as still as death, his breathing shallow and labored. His dark golden skin was now pale and appeared almost as thin as paper. His mouth hung open slightly, slack, and tremors shook his large frame.

  “What is happening to him?” Jack asked as he struggled to his feet and lurched across the room towards the strange man who had…altered? No, cleaned away some of his darkest pains and fears.

  But no one had an answer.

  Torn lay trembling and cold to the touch, his very essence seemed drained away.

  “Torn,” Sable whispered as tears filled her eyes again. “Don’t die. What have I done?”

  Chapter Eight

  Terror sucked in a deep breath as he felt his life force being pulled and twisted. He tried to rise up from his bed, but the pressure was too intense for him to handle. With a groan, he collapsed back beside his mate, Nello, panting heavily, his face molted red.

  “Terror?” Nello called out, fear making its way into her delicate voice. “What is wrong, my love?”

  Reaching out, she placed her hands over his rapidly beating heart, feeling his life muscle strain and pound. Sweat began to bead up on his naked body as his eyes grew wide in comprehension.

  “Torn!” he gasped. “My son is in danger!”

  * * * * *

  Nello raced through to the dimensional port, desperate to reach the Magic Realm and her father.

  She sucked in her breath as she entered the room, the place where the portal was kept stabilized. She felt the pressure, felt her ears pop, and breathed in the rapidly swirling air.

  Her hair whipped about her face, covering her anxious eyes, whipping the blanket, all that she wore, around her bare legs. She gripped the blanket tighter and pulled fistfuls of her hair out of her face. She felt the temperature drop, but paid that minor inconvenience no heed. She had important work to do, life-saving work! She needed all of her wits about her, her concentration pure.

  “Father!” she called, knowing that her father would hear her no matter where he was. “Father, I am coming home for a time. I need your help!”

  “What help of mine do you need, daughter?” the cutting voice questioned. “What do you need of me? Everything that you are and everything that you will become is there, in the mortal plane. What use will I ever be to you again?”

  “Father!” she called, shocked. “You would treat me this way? Your only daughter?”

  “I have no daughter!” he called back.

  “I am your daughter, you stubborn old fool! And you owe me! Do you hear me, old man? You owe me!”

  She screamed as she felt her precious time slipping through her fingers. Now, only her father could help her and he decided to play childish games.

  “I owe you?” The anger that rumbled in that voice reverberated around the small room, making the stone wall shake and tremor.

  “Yes, you owe me!” she screamed back, asserting herself, proving that she was his daughter. “First you deprive me of my husband and son for far too many years. Then you curse my child, your only grandson, because of who I mated, based on half-truths and falsehoods. Then you almost kill my family because of lies that some power-mad people told. You owe me more that you can ever repay, Father!” she sneered.

  “Trifles,” the voice returned. “Trifles compared to what you left me with!”

  “I left you with yourself!” she screamed. “I left you with time to think about all of the bad you have done in the guise of protecting me, protecting the realm, and protecting your own selfish heart!”

  “Nello,” the voice growled. “You go too far!”

  “How far is far enough, Father?” she screamed. “How much? Depriving a woman of her honest and true mate, her life, her child? And if you do not help me now, I will lose him permanently!”

  “I am punishing the mortals who told those lies and manipulated me,” he groused. “What more can I do?”

  “You can help me find Torn!”

  There was a beat of silence and Nello grew fearful that her father would refuse his help.

  “Father?” she screamed, her eyes frantically trying to pierce the swirling orb of color that made up the center of this room. “Fath
er?”

  “Why should I?” he finally asked. “He is nothing but a nuisance anyway.”

  “He is my son and your grandson and heir!” she screamed, her eyes narrowing in rage. “He is a part of me, the best parts of me. And to see him die is to see a part of me die, never to be reborn!”

  “Nello,” he soothed. “You can have other children, children of this realm. Why waste your time on the cursed one?”

  “It’s best you remember who cursed him!” she snarled back. “Never mind, Father. I can see I have wasted precious time trying to convince you to do what is right and just. The sad thing is that you are a worse monster than you could ever paint my Terror to be! You are a lonely, foolish, old bitter man, and may you rot in that realm that you love so well!”

  “What do you need?” the voice called out urgently, trying to halt her leaving.

  “I would not respond to you if my need wasn’t so dire and my time quickly passing.”

  “I know of your disdain for me, daughter,” the voice sighed. “Tell me what you need and I will grant your wish.”

  “I need to know where Torn is and I need to know how to reach him.”

  She would not say thank you. He had so many debts to repay that saying the words would just add more to what he owed.

  “Very well,” he sighed, and then there was a bright burst of light as the glowing swirling orb in the center of the room began to change.

  It pulsed as if taking on a light of its own, growing, changing, and solidifying.

  “Touch this and it will take you where you need to go,” the solemn voice said. “Anywhere at all.”

  There was an almost wistful quality to the voice now, and it trailed off.

  “And those who caused this mess?”

  “The pit of agony, Nello,” he said. “Recompense is being taken, no mercy shown.”

  “The least you could do,” she said quietly, not giving in an inch.