Skin Deep (A DarkWorld Novel - Book 1) (The DarkWorld Series)

by Ayer, T. G.

  "How long have you been here?"

  "A few hours."

  "Have you seen Greer?" I asked, glad I could change the subject, although the new subject was no less emotionally taxing.

  "What? No. Why?" All tenderness was now obliterated and replaced with pure suspicion. "What happened?"

  "A Wraith brought her here with Niko."

  "Dear God." The fear running though her face was a tangible thing. I felt it pulse right through my gut. She knew something I didn't, something horrible enough to freeze her in her tracks in spite of the imminent danger. My eyes thinned in suspicion. What was she keeping from me?

  "What do the Wraiths want? Why are they doing this?" I asked.

  "The Wraiths have been possessing Humans for decades even though it's been forbidden for centuries." Mom paused. "Can you describe him?"

  "Er … he was using my friend Anjelo's body. And he had a bronze medallion around his neck."

  "That's Widd'en."

  "Freaky name. So he's the reason there have been more possessions recently?"

  "Yes. Widd'en is a rebel. He led a small fanatical group who believed Humans are just soul-fodder for the Wraiths. He's been spear-heading a revolution in Wrythiin and some of that has overflowed into the Human world." She nodded. "Come, we shouldn't waste any more time. I think I know where we might find them." She paused, stared at my face, then headed off down the passage with me keeping pace.

  There was something about the way she looked at me, or perhaps the tears in her eyes. And the fact we stood in another dimension, fighting the same evil blood-suckers.

  I'd been a toddler when she abandoned us, I knew her more from photographs and videos than memory. The subject of Mom had been treated as if she had died all those years ago. And her departure had hurt my father so deeply. So much that he had completely withdrawn from his children.

  "I should be saying I'm sorry I left you. But I'm not." She shook her head, as if a thought had come to her and she was refusing to listen. I relished a brief burst of pure anger and hurt before I digested the words and its meaning, "At least you were safe. Until now."

  Her face tightened with anger as we hurried through the tunnels. Seemed she now remembered exactly where we were and what we were doing, and she was back to being angry again.

  "What are you so angry about?" I'd disappointed her somehow and it hurt to see the anger so bright on her beautiful face. Besides, she had no right being angry with me. No right at all. "What did I do wrong?"

  "I tried to protect you from this." Her gesture encompassed more than the gleaming black tunnel. "He was supposed to protect you."

  "Who? Dad?"

  "Iain."

  Hurt, anger, confusion. I wasn't sure which emotion was strongest, but at this point anger won. "Iain knows? He knew why you left us? That you were back and alive and well?" My voice raised to a feverish heat. Blood pounded in my veins and I fisted my hands, as if the simple action would staunch the tears which filled my eyes.

  "Not for a long time." Her eyes were somewhere else as she delved in her memories. "About a year ago, I contacted him. To see how you were going...you and Greer."

  "Why?" A year was exactly how long I'd been hunting the Wraiths.

  "Someone was hunting in the city. And I needed to make sure it wasn't either of you girls. Iain was pretty sure you were busy with your counseling." She stopped and faced me, her eyes narrowed as she studied me. "Obviously he was mistaken."

  "Nobody knows. Not even Dad." I tacked that on and was satisfied with the pain I saw in her gray eyes. What she'd done to him was unforgivable. Gone sixteen years without so much as a goodbye. She'd ruined his life and only when I watched her grief did I realize she'd gone through the very same agony she'd put us through. "Why did you do it? Why did you leave us? Was it something we did? Someone else in your life besides Dad?"

  She drew away from the barrage of questions. But, with the stone wall at her back, she had nowhere to go. The passage was still silent for a moment before she started to walk again.

  "You owe me an explanation," I said. She nodded and it surprised me. I'd been prepared for resistance or denial and her agreement was unbalancing.

  "You do need to know. Now more than ever."

  I waited for her to continue, still amazed the woman whom I'd dreamed and imagined and wished for was standing right in front of me. I was torn between the desire for my Mom to hold me close, and the infinitely more powerful need to hurt her right back, for all the pain she'd caused me over these years. What a baby I was.

  "Then tell me what do you have to do with all of this?"

  "My Mage-power is the ability to kill Wraiths. Something almost unknown for normal people. Or Walkers. But recently Widd’en found out there was another Hunter just as powerful as I am."

  I stared at her, understanding dawning on me. "And I'm that Hunter."

  "It's passed down through the women in my family. I'm powerful, but I think you are far more powerful than any one of us." She shook her head again, as if unable to believe her own words. "I tried to protect you. Knew it was probable either you or Greer would inherit it. I thought if you both stayed in the colony then you wouldn't ever have to find out. Seems you did. Is it only you?"

  "If Greer has it she has never said so. Besides, she doesn't speak to me much. There's something really wrong with her."

  "What? Is she sick?" Mom's forehead creased with worry.

  "Not exactly. She's Pariah."

  The shock on my mother's face was worse than what I’d seen when she'd first laid eyes on me. "What? No. Oh, poor Greer. When-"

  "Her Change time came late. Or that's what I’d assumed. I've been gone two years now, Mom. After my own Change. Greer's time hadn't come when I left. Still, nineteen is not too old so I never knew what happened."

  "Your father...he would’ve been angry and upset when you left." She turned away. The gleaming black of the stone wall was suddenly more interesting than the painful revelation about her daughter. "Seems I did a terrible job of protecting you girls."

  "I could’ve used my mother during my Change-Time." I was still angry she hadn't been there to support me through the confusion and pain, like all the other kids moms.

  "I wouldn't have been able to be with you, Kai. It wouldn't have been allowed."

  "For Ailuros's sake, why not? All the other kids had their Moms." Until that moment I'd thought I was above the immature whining of a teenager. Apparently not.

  "I am not a Skinwalker, so why would you ever have expected that." Her eyes narrowed again and I stepped closer and sniffed her. I had to give her credit for submitting to such a personal investigation, even if it was her own daughter doing the sniffing. I breathed in the scent of my mother. The sweet odor of perspiration hung over her. Nobody fought with such tenacity without breaking a sweat. As odors went it wasn't at all repulsive. The spice of her blood was a soft frankincense, calming and not at all like the spice of a Walkers blood. My ears caught the pounding of her heart, so unlike mine that it was the final confirmation of what my mother really was.

  Human.

  What had she been up to all these years? The knowledge she was a powerful hunter in her own right was as much a revelation as her species. Why did my father keep this bit of information from me? Did Greer and Iain know what she was? Confusion riddled my brain.

  My turn to take a step back. This whole thing was too much to absorb. When I saw my mother's expression I paused. Hurt warred with disappointment in her body and the set of her face. It was too late. My action may have seemed like a rejection but it wasn’t, and it was too late to convince her she was wrong.

  ***

  Chapter 40

  From the sound of the crunching boot steps coming toward us, I knew we had to leave. I wondered what would’ve happened to me had I arrived in this dimension a mere foot to the right. I'd have been permanently solidified within the dull black rock. I only had a second to shiver at the horrifying thought.

  Then th
ey arrived. We fought valiantly. Now I knew their weak point I used my needles to incapacitate as many guards as I could. Mom, too, managed to take down a good number herself. But they were relentless. They kept coming and it soon seemed like it was an entire army we fought. Two to one odds quickly became four and just as quickly progressed to six, which was when the fight was over for Mom and me.

  Pretty much man-handled, wrists held tightly behind our backs, we were marched along dank darkness broken by the flickering blue-white flames of torch-light. None of the guards had pulled any of their punches and we were both sore in dozens of places. Mom was going to have a shiner tomorrow morning. If we saw tomorrow morning, that was.

  More torchlight, and then the black dirt gave way to well-swept ground, the jagged rock facings to smoothly planed surfaces. Someone had decided to do a little bit of interior decorating. I swallowed and choked on the thought. It became much easier to cease with the hysteria when I was viciously jabbed in the ribs by the nearest guard.

  We were pushed through a carved archway leading to an open circular room. Pillars of black rock held up a ceiling as smoothly planed as my cheek. Taking pride of place in the centre of the room was a perfectly round pool of dark and oily liquid. The pool was bordered by blue flames, similar to those of the torches light. Blue flames danced at random on the surface of the pool. It was actually quite pretty, and had I been unshackled I would’ve jabbed myself in the ribs as punishment for such blasphemous admiration of these evil creatures.

  The tour ended at the edge of the pool. I craned my neck to see over the six foot creatures who formed our guard. Mom did the same. A shuffle of movement and they parted like a sea, and melted into the shadows to reveal on lone hooded figure. I was so over these pretentious hoods. What in Ailuros's name were they hiding beneath those cowls? Nothing worse than the corpse of the Cougar Walker I’d found, surely.

  A silence blanketed the room and only the tiny fluttering of the blue flames dared to disturb it. Each of the guards seemed frozen in place. I looked over at Mom and she raised her eyebrows. Perhaps some kind of hive mentality. I hadn't heard any instruction given to them, but their simultaneous shut-down implied they obeyed a command only they heard.

  My heart clenched when he turned. The gleaming medallion which hung on his neck confirmed it was the Wraith who'd possessed Anjelo's body. Then I was awash with relief. If I could find where he was keeping Anjelo I could save him.

  The Wraith's face was lit by the blue pool-lights. The face beneath the cowl was nothing even my imagination could’ve created. It was the visage of a specter or a ghost; skeletal, white skin clinging to fleshless bones, in a face framed by a fall of white hair. His sunken eyes were black and shining like the viscous pool which we surrounded. His mouth was a round, dark orifice and my nightmares filled in the blanks with rows of hideously sharp, yellowed teeth. The medallion glinted again on his chest, and I was reminded that he had my sister and uncle hostage.

  The Wraith turned his head slightly to address my mother. His almond shaped onyx eyes studied her while his awful mouth curved in a terrible smile. "I cannot believe it." His voice was low and rumbling and totally out of place because of its essentially Human quality. If I shut my eyes I could imagine a classmate to be enunciating those words. "Finally we have captured the elusive Celeste."

  I did a tiny double take - I'd almost forgotten my mother's name. She'd been 'Mom' for so long it was hard to imagine her as having another identity, despite her absence.

  "And you came right to us. How helpful." His voice echoed around the bare rock walls. "To what do we owe the privilege of this visit from the mighty Celeste?"

  Hatred poured off him in waves. Mom must have done some real bad things to him for that level of animosity. Then he looked at me.

  "And the offspring of the great Hunter. You came. Just as I expected you would." He smiled that smile again, this time wider. This time I saw the teeth of my nightmares. Less teeth but still sharp and ugh. "Earth-Worlders are so predictable. So driven by sentimentality."

  "What have you done with Anjelo? Where are Niko and Greer?" I wasn't sure I'd voiced my thoughts until I heard my voice echo around the cave.

  "What have you done with them?" Mom questioned him again. This time with a little more strength. I was still quaking in my boots, hellishly afraid to challenge this horrible creature. "Widd'en, I swear if you've hurt even a hair on my daughter's head I will kill you."

  "Oh, my dear Celeste. Do not tell me I have the pleasure of the presence of both your daughters, now?" Widd'en laughed the sound grating on my ears.

  Mom's face fell as she realized her mistake. He hadn't know that Greer was her daughter, but she'd just handed him more power.

  He flicked his wrist and the guard beside me disappeared through a nearby arch. Mom's guard took a few short steps back, the better to keep an eye on both his captives. Seconds passed before my guard returned, dragging a bound and disheveled Greer. Trailing him was another guard carrying Niko over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. My heart moved to my throat as I took in Greer's swollen face, and the look of surprise, then confusion and shock she threw Mom from across the hall.

  The guard bearing Niko tossed his burden to the ground and took a step back. Widd'en nodded at the pair who bowed and left in silence. A movement of air behind us revealed Mom's guard was also making a quick and silent exit. What was he up to and why get rid of the guards?

  Niko landed at the edge of the pool, so close to the flames that pale blue shadows flickered on his arm. Widd'en kicked him in the ribs. Hard. Mom and I gasped, shocked, flinching on behalf of my uncle.

  "He wasn't much help." Widd'en shrug was non-committal. "Not much help at all."

  With those words he gave Niko a second, more powerful kick. The blow was enough to shift Niko nearer to the edge of the pool. So much that his torso tipped over the edge into the black murkiness. The weight of his upper body dragged the rest of him into the pool. We watched the scene as if in slow-motion.

  As his body disappeared below the surface, Mom cried out and ran to the edge of the pool, peering over the flames. She stayed well away from the water. The black, oily liquid gave no sign of my uncle’s body floating to its depths. I hoped he had been dead before his fall. How was I going to tell my father he no longer had a brother? That I’d been unable to save him? Mom's despair was somewhat comforting; at least she felt the same way. Poor Greer - she'd been much closer to Niko than I had.

  Greer's face was a study in anger, but I saw no grief. I saw an angry, hardened woman where my sister should’ve been.

  "Widd'en. You bastard," Mom cried in anger.

  "Oh, my dear, why? What was so special about him?" He looked straight at me, gleaming black eyes piercing straight into my soul. "Ah. The most powerful Wraith Hunter to ever grace the dimensions." He sketched a bow, though a look of abhorrence swallowed his face. I got the feeling he didn't like me very much.

  Mom rose quickly and took a stance in front of me. "Leave her alone."

  "I have a proposition you may be interested in, Celeste." Mom waited in silence. I did not like the sound of this proposal of his. Didn't trust him at all. "Since I have both of your lovely daughters, how about you decide which one of them will stay with me and which one gets to return home." He grinned and licked his lips with a tongue as black as night and forked like that of a snake. Yikes.

  Mom's face lost at least three shades of color. What a nightmare of a choice. One I didn't intend for her to have to make.

  "I don't trust you," Mom said as she shook her head.

  "As a show of good faith I shall open the portal. You choose the daughter and she may leave any time she wishes."

  Mom glanced at me. It was plain she did not believe him. In that second I knew she meant for us to use the portal and leave as soon as we got the chance. But it meant she would remain behind, in the captivity of Widd'en. Every bone in my body rebelled against this idea. I was still fuming at her defection, fuming at the
revelation she'd contacted Iain but not me. I was so angry at all the lies, it didn't matter much her reasons. She'd hurt so many people with her stupid choices.

  I looked at Greer who, in spite of the cloud of hate enveloping her, understood Mom's intention. Greer gave a slow, long blink, letting Mom know she understood and would do as she asked. Traitorous bitch.

  How could she be so calm about abandoning her mother when we'd so recently gotten her back? Unless she suspected Widd'en wouldn't keep his promise and she intended to get out while she could. Obviously, the most important person to Greer is herself. Whatever she said and did, I had always known that deep within, she was numero Uno. Lie upon lie was wound around her at every chance. And now she had the ultimate opportunity to give me what she considered my just desserts.

  I was the Alpha child.

  She was Pariah.

  That was no fault of mine; it seemed I bore the blame anyway.

  Greer had sided with Niko, her need to find a way to fully transform overriding all else. No point asking her now why she had so effectively betrayed her people. I knew she would leave the moment she got the chance, but I refused to let the hurt control my actions. Unless I did something, Mom would end up trapped here in Wrythiin.

  Widd'en smiled that horrible smile of his; well pleased with himself. He grabbed the medallion from around his neck and flung it forward where it hovered over the centre of the glistening pool. Soon an expanse of blue light shot through the hole in the centre of the rune-inscribed seal. Neither Mom nor I were the least bit impressed by this light-show. Greer on the other hand had been pulled from the lab back to Wrythiin through an already open portal.

  I had to get Mom out of the Hall and figure a way to get Greer out too. It would be more difficult with Greer on the opposite side of the pool. With the portal open, Widd'en now beckoned Mom forward.

  "I don't have all day, Celeste. Have you made your decision? Daughter number one," he waved a hand at Greer. "Or daughter number two."

  I was certain he had no plans to keep his promise. Which meant I had to save Mom right now.