“Why not just tell us now?” Malachi stood up and demanded. “You know more than you let on and many things hang in the balance that can affect you as well.”
Meena laughed with amusement. “Oh, little monster, things have “affected” this world and “hung in the balance” since the beginning of time. It’s up to you to keep winning.”
“I know nothing of my mother; could you please tell me anything about her?” I pushed Malachi out of the way, and begged without so much as a twitch of concern or understanding. Meena ignored me.
She raised her hands as her black hair curled around her face and shoulders like snakes. “Now go little ones, and seek the answers you need to find!”
White light and flecks of gold glitter exploded behind Meena, as Malachi and I were jolted off of our feet and through the now large tent opening. I expected to hit the ground with a thud, but we didn’t. I felt Malachi slip his hand in mine as my eyes focused on our surroundings. Just like Meena had promised, we were back at the night market, and it was still busy. Except this street wasn’t garbage-lined or filled with questionable looking people. This looked like a market.
Bright panels of material were draped over poles, strands of lights crisscrossed the walkway overhead, and venders displayed dresses, shirts, scarves, and bolts of material of every color and texture imaginable.
“What’s at the end of Textile Street?” I asked standing next to Malachi as he examined his pockets.
“I’ve never been down it—never had the need to.” He pulled out his dagger he had thrown towards Meena. “Well, at least she gave me back my dagger as promised.”
“We should hurry,” I said, pulling on Malachi’s sleeve.
“Wait,” he said, grasping onto my hand. “It could be a trap, and we don’t want to walk into one of those. Meena might have given us information and,” he flipped my arm over exposing my hexmark, “she added to your mark, but we can’t just trot down the street blindly expecting nothing to happen.” He smiled at me with a raise of his eyebrows. “You’re a greeny, spell-struck, and too trusting. What if Meena is using us to pay off a debt to someone or is working for demons? But, I guess I can’t expect you to know of such things. You are just a mindless girl monster, and one who doesn’t pay attention to her surroundings. You—”
That did it. I slapped him across the face in one quick motion that got the attention of few peddlers. I’ve never done that to anyone, much less a boy I barely knew. My expression said otherwise as I squared my shoulders and glared at Malachi who put his hand to his reddening cheek with a look of shock.
“I’ve spend years in institutions and foster homes.” I stated. “I think I know a few things about paying attention to my surroundings, and if we are going to stand here and talk about it, we are only going to draw attention to us. We might as well shout out our names and let them know we are here. What we need to do is blend in.”
Malachi slowly released his hand and glanced around as the on-looking peddlers went back to their business—the show was over.
“Fine,” Malachi hissed grabbing hold of my wrist as he glared at me with his blue eyes now darkened. “Textile Street is a long winding one filled with clothes—try not to get distracted, and keep up,” he said with a tug.
I knew I shouldn’t have slapped Malachi, but he struck a nerve with me. I didn’t have a childhood—I survived a childhood and think I know a few things. I didn’t tell him, but I knew we could trust Meena. I don’t know why I did, and Malachi was right about going into things blindly, but my insides, I felt, had always guided me and they told me to trust Meena. This, of course, I couldn’t expect Malachi to understand. Now I felt bad for slapping him.
Malachi and I wound our way through the maze of people. I found this area intriguing and wished I could explore it under different circumstances. Peddlers walked through the crowd, some selling gold jewelry, and other with silk scarves looped over their arms waving them like flags as they cried out in a language I didn’t understand. Malachi pressed forward and pushed most of the peddlers out of the way as I tagged behind him like a dog on a leash.
The pathway suddenly narrowed, and overhead was a canopy of leaves. Grapevine-like limbs that looked like they sprouted out of the windows from the buildings that lined this part of the street, reached upward supporting the airy leaves overhead. Incense filled the air along with festive music that came out of several of the buildings.
“We’re just about there,” Malachi said, just as something dark covered and wrapped around us like a big, silky blanket.
Malachi let go of my hand, and then I heard the sound of violent ripping. Several hands pressed against us and the sound of laughing surrounded us. Malachi twisted and turned, and I nearly fell to the ground when he finally sliced through the material. We were encircled by a few of the peddlers wearing dark clothing and smiled back at us talking among themselves in their language. None of them seemed to be threatening and showed no weapon as Malachi twirled around pointing his dagger towards them. They laughed even harder with amusement.
“What do they want with us?”
“Let’s not stay to find out,” he said, charging at them “Move!” Malachi yelled, grabbed my wrist tightly, and extended his dagger as he did.
They parted with hands in the air and more laughter as if we were no threat and they were just trying to capture us for amusement.
“How fast can you run?” I asked as I glanced back at the men who didn’t come after us, but stood and watched.
“What do you mean? I thought I was moving fast under these conditions.” Malachi suddenly stopped and I nearly ran into him as Ayil, a man dressed in dark clothing and a cape stood beside a younger boy dressed the same way.
They both had wavy white-blonde hair with flecks of silver in it and stood on either side of Ayil.
“I thought you sealed the portal,” Malachi said to me as he held out his dagger towards them.
“She did, but it wasn’t very strong, and we easily passed through it,” the man said.
“Please, April and Malachi, we aren’t going to hurt you. It’s really important that you listen to us.”
They were blocking our passage, and Malachi started to back up towards the amused group of locals behind us.
“This is Isaiah and Edan Tollwick,” Ayil said, motioning towards them. “They are the angels I was talking about, and they are here to help us.”
“This is a dangerous place and you,” Isaiah fixed his dark, green eyes on me. “You have a lot of strength in you, and just had your hexmark added onto.” He raised his eyebrows. “I can smell it and so can others that are not trying to help you.”
“You want to help us, but what does that mean? You angels are the all the same—out for yourselves.” Malachi tightly grabbed a hold of my wrist. “When I say run, run,” he muttered at me.
Edan chuckled. “We heard you, monster.” His bright, green eyes flickered with agitation. “We are angels and have exceptional hearing, so, be wise little monsters, and come with us. You are wasting our time, and I’ve a meeting to attend that’s much more important than your lives.”
Isaiah let out a sigh, and glared down at him. “They are important if not more important than what you have going on right now.”
Edan crossed his arms and set his eyes on us with a discerning look.
“April and Malachi, I mean no harm and many, many things are at stake now.” Ayil held her eyes on Malachi as her voice pleaded with reason. “There are bad angels, Malachi, but they are not.” She motioned to the Isaiah and Edan. “I’ve known them for years and trust them. We are in a dangerous place that makes your safety vulnerable. We need to find Seth and Nessa and get all of you back to my home.”
“Why didn’t you tell us about this earlier—you’ve been nothing but secretive.” Malachi kept stepping backwards as Ayil, Isaiah, and the impatient Edan stood where they were.
“Time’s wasting!” Edan finally stepped towards us. “Go with us or die here!�
�� His eyes were filled with green flames as he pulled a silver dagger from inside his cloak pocket.
“Run!” I yelled pulling Malachi with me.
I wasn’t sure if he could run as fast as me so I gave him some of my strength. I let it pass from deep inside of me, through my arm and out my fingertips to Malachi’s hand that I held tightly. I’ve never done or thought I could—it just came to me in a voice instructing me—Ezra’s voice.
I picked up speed as Malachi ran beside me towards the now shocked, local mob that tried to capture us earlier.
“Take the wall—there isn’t enough room!” I yelled to Malachi as I jumped towards the wall.
We parted like two speeding airplanes, and I watched Malachi glide across the brick wall as if he was on even ground. His eyes were wide, and filled with fear and disbelief. Even in our dire circumstances, I couldn’t help but to smile at his reaction.
I too, easily glided on the wall and to the open walkway, but there was also someone who was equally as agile as we were. Edan followed behind like an angry dog with his eyes bearing down on us.
Malachi and I joined hands. “I’ve never done this before,” Malachi said as we cut through the crowd.
“We’ve got company,” I nodded behind us. “We can’t outrun him all night.”
Malachi’s face paled, and then glanced at me with a smile. “There’s a place we can go, come on!”
“Where?”
“A portal,” he said, with glee as if he suddenly remembered.
“You said you’ve never been here before.”
“Yeah, but Ezra has—come on!”
We took a hard turn to the right, and I nearly tripped on my own feet at the sudden change in direction. The walkway had less people, but many panels of colorful material that hung on sections of rope that looped from building to building. The long panels filled the walkway, nearly reaching the tops of the buildings to barely touching the ground. It was like we had entered a forest.
Malachi ran as if he had done it before many times, and pushed the panels out of our way followed by voices that protested us being here in a harsh, foreign language. He held onto my hand tightly as the sheets slapped against us splattering watery dye on our clothing and skin. I heard Malachi laugh and yelp as we darted through the wet sheets like we were traveling through a rainbow maze.
My outstretched arm barely held onto Malachi’s dye saturated hand. All I could see were bits and pieces of Malachi as he twisted and turned through the material that slapped in my face. The air was filled with chemicals that now started to burn my eyes along with the colorful water that mixed into a muddy brown and dripped from our locked hands. I had hoped we had lost Eden, but we didn’t. Glancing over my shoulder, I caught glimpses of him and his eyes that were fixated with determination on us. We were losing ground, Eden was gaining on us, and if we didn’t find an escape soon, he’d be practically on top of us.
“Malachi!” I yelled as we picked up speed. “My hand—it’s slipping!” I dug my fingers into his palm.
“Just about—”
Panels of the bright material twisted around us like rope. We lurched forward in a fall. Malachi wrapped his arms around me as we were cocooned in the colorful panels and a blast of golden glitter. I heard nothing but only my heart beating practically out of my chest. It felt like we were floating through water, but I could breathe, and wasn’t wet as the panels entangled through our legs. The bright material floated around us as if being carried by water. We had to have fallen into a well or pool somehow, and didn’t realize it. Whatever I was breathing in was cool, and the stench of chemicals was gone. Suddenly, my chest began to hurt—it had to be water. I began to kick my legs as Malachi tightened his arms around me.
“It’s ok,” I heard his voice in my head.
“We fell in water! We’re drowning!” I screamed.
“No, you’re not,” Malachi’s voice easily overrode my panic, and I gave him a perplexed look.
“It’s a portal, and there you’ll find my love,” a voice said that sounded like Malachi’s, but I knew wasn’t his words.
I felt a sudden calmness, and let the beautiful panels float around us as my eyes met Malachi’s bright blue ones that nearly matched the sea of material we floated in. I placed my hands gently on his cheeks. I could still see a faint red spot where I had slapped him earlier. He pulled closer to me as our lips barely touched.
Our entwined bodies twisted and turned through the sea of glitter and material until I heard an explosion and felt the hard ground underneath us.
Malachi was on top of me, and gazed into my eyes. He studied me for a moment as if summing everything up, and then slightly smiled.
“You have beautiful eyes, too,” he said suddenly.
“What?” I breathed.
“Ahem,” said a voice that sounded like Nessa. “Nice portal entrance.”
Malachi and I both turned our heads towards her as Seth bent down with a smirk on his face. “It’s about time you got here. Welcome to Shangri-La.”
Seth
“Bringing a souvenir from the night market?” I asked picking up a green section of material that was twisted around both April’s and Malachi’s feet.
“Where are we? How did you get here?” Malachi stood up and looked around at the garden that surrounded us. “More importantly, how did we get here?” He turned to April for an answer, and then to me. “The last thing I remember was running through drying panels of material, and…” his eyes shifted back to April, “almost losing you.”
April shook her head as if trying to get rid of the memory. “You were the one leading the way.” She huffed. “I thought you knew where you were going.” April stomped in front of him as she threw to the ground a small pink section of the material they brought with them. “And more importantly what about Edan following us—they seem to pass through portals…”
Malachi gently cupped his hands around April’s cheeks as a look of surprise filled her eyes. “Are you alright?” He asked softly with concern.
April didn’t reply at first, and then nodded. “Yeah,” she said.
Slowly Malachi removed his hands from April, and slipped his hand into hers. April had a mixed expression of shock and contentment. Nessa and I watched as she nudged me with her elbow and smiled. We watched the spectacle without word.
“It isn’t what you think, Nessa,” Malachi said, glancing over at us. “We found the woman—the gypsy woman—the one that completed April’s hexmark.”
I looked at April’s intricate hexmark. “It’s a strong one, and I’ve never seen before.”
“The gypsy woman said you were both in a safer place and,” he shook his head. “I think…”
“Ezra helped us,” April finished what Malachi had trouble with.
I looked at her, at her eyes trying to find a hint of Ezra, but she wasn’t there.
“So this is Shangri-La?” Malachi asked looking around. “So how did you guys get here?”
“By an angel that lives here,” I said, pulling my eyes from April’s. “She was looking for us and was the one we tracked to the portal in Iethia. She’s an earth angel, and she saved us from two demons at the market.” Malachi raked his fingers through his wet hair. “They are gaining strength, but have no more serum. That is what they were looking for.”
Suddenly the portal that was nestled between the tall shrubs, began to glow and hum with someone passing through it. We stepped back as Malachi drew his dagger and glanced at me.
“Oh, and we had Ayil and her two sidekick angels that tried to capture us,” said Malachi pointing his dagger towards the portal.
Not sure who to expect, I drew mine as well.
A translucent, white mist filled with flecks of gold, slowly thickened as a single form took shape.
“It looks like they’re alone.” I stepped closer to the portal knowing they would be a little disoriented at first.
Malachi joined me as the effects of the portal faded.
�
��It’s Edan, the younger of the sidekicks.” Malachi rushed up onto the platform and grabbed him, jerking him to the ground and shoving his dagger in his face.
“Why did you want us? What were you going to use us for?” He demanded.
“Get off of me you crazed baboon, or the demons will try to come through the portal!” Edan yelled slipping his legs out from Malachi just as the portal began to hum.
Edan said something under his breath that I couldn’t understand and waved his hand in front of the portal. It stopped, dropping whoever was in there in a void—the dark places between portals.
“I had two of them practically gnawing at my heels as I chased you two idiots down the street. And now, we can’t use this portal because it’s infested with the little creatures.” He shook his head as he gazed at the portal.
“You still didn’t answer our question,” I said, stepping up beside him. “What do you want with Malachi and April?”
Edan turned around with an arrogant gaze and smirked. “Well, let me ask you this. What are you going to do with a contained demon, more demons coming after her, and the serum meant to enhance monsters is now being consumed by demons, and they are gaining enough strength to come out of their shells. How are you going to handle that?”
Before I could answer this obnoxious angel, a voice answered for me.
“—with the help of an earth angel—that’s how.” Yolanda, the angel that brought Nessa and I here in her buggy at the night market, said standing under the shrub that had grown and was manicured into a tall arch. “This is our portal platform, or one of the many that are here. We control them, so, don’t worry, when we get tired of you we’ll shove you through one of them.”
Dancing With Monsters Page 14