by Jaymin Eve
“How could you kill, Marl.” Her shrieking noises became words as we got closer. “He was all I had. You should have killed me long ago, Mother, because now it’s my turn to hunt you.”
Mother? Oh, holy eff.
Chapter 7
Sapha’s mother was on the ground, hands held in front of her as she tried to fend off the mad-as-hell half-Walker. The shadows were going nuts, rising high above our heads and starting to swirl in a mass of angry and tumultuous swirls. This was going to be bad, so very, very bad. I knew it.
“We have to do something, Abbs.” Talina pushed her hood back so I could see her stricken features. “She’s going to kill them all, and I know she’ll regret that. We’re not killers, not for no reason.”
Delane also lowered her hood. “I’ll stop her,” she said, already marching toward the Dronish half.
Uh, shit.
Fury’s voice came from a cloaked figure about three feet from me. “Great, now you have to stop Delane and Sapha.” The Crais half hooked her thumb in the hood to push it back, the dark material perfectly framing her red skin and white hair. “I’ll draw the Drones and leave the Walkers to you, Supes.”
And before I could ask her to clarify this amazing plan she’d just pulled from her butt, she was surrounded in her flames. The surge of power blasted across the space and thousands of … single eyes … turned in her direction.
It was freaking eerie.
They didn’t rush her. Instead it was as if her power had enthralled them. The Drones started to stride slowly in smooth movements toward Fury.
I didn’t wait around. I needed to do something now before she was overwhelmed. We could fight a few of them, but thousands … no hope.
Delane was almost at Sapha. The Dronish half was still screaming in agonized shrieks, over and over, her pain spilling more and more power into the air. I was worried the mass of shadows was going to hit us before we could reach her. I needed to project something from a distance, to slow Sapha’s release of power.
There was only one thing I could think of that might work. My dream energy.
Gathering tendrils of power from my core, I reached for the part of me which was linked to Lallielle. The dream weaver. I sent that energy straight in the direction of Delane and Sapha. I was still running, only stumbling a little as every living entity before me stopped what they were doing, freezing into battling statues. It hadn’t affected those behind. I wasn’t strong enough to halt all tens of thousands of them, but still I’d subdued a large portion of the Drones and my two half-Walkers.
“Talli! Fury! Ria!” I screamed as I ran toward Delane, just in case they hadn’t noticed my plan.
I had to dodge the frozen Drones or push them aside when there was not enough space.
Finally, I made it to my statue-like half-Walkers. I scooped up the Nephilius half. Damn, she was heavier than she looked. All that solid muscle. She flopped over the opposite shoulder to where Cerberus rested – thankfully no weapons stabbed into me – as I plowed toward Sapha. I was just going to have to go with the whole knock-her-out-and-convince-her ploy. We were heading back to First World. We had no choice.
I could hear pounding steps behind and relief flooded me to see Ria scoop up Sapha. At least we weren’t at risk from the shadows any longer. The moment I’d projected the dream energy, the shadows had dissipated. Clearly they needed Sapha’s conscious energy.
“Hurry,” I shouted again. “Hold onto me; I’ll trace us.”
Ria used her free hand to latch onto my wrist, and Talina was right there also. So we were just waiting on Fury.
“Move your butt, fire-girl,” I yelled.
She was moving, but something had woken in the Drones. Their snail impression was over. They were now high-tailing it after her. If they reached her before she got to us, we were in so much freaking trouble. I threw my tethers out then, letting the power of six flow through me.
Holy. Shit. Balls.
Six was like … wow. We were gods or something. It was intense and almost too much for me to handle. I wanted to go crazy, shoot fireworks into the sky and smash every single Drone into pieces. Cerberus nudged me, one of his heads licking up my neck. With this movement, and trickles of his ancient-feeling energy, a sense of self and clarity came back to me. I was Abigail, not a god, and not someone who had the right to choose life and death for any creature.
But I could distract the Drones long enough for Fury to make it to us. Let’s hope I didn’t have a fighting, kicking and screaming shadow-Sapha on my hands by then.
I sent out plumes of power in different directions. Water went one way, fire another, wind started to swirl in the darkness and from someplace far away I could feel the plants responding. There was life here, just buried deep. And then, for the first time, shadow filled our combined power. It was graceful, like air, but with a sense of heaviness, as if there was more there: secrets, darkness. It was interesting and eerie all at the same time. And it clicked into place another piece of our puzzle.
My plan sort of worked. The Drones all split into different directions, following the power. I knew that Fury could trace herself back, but I was not leaving without knowing she was safe, and this way we’d all end up in the same place. The girls still faltered sometimes with their tracing ability.
“Go, Abbs. I’ll trace myself back to the beach house,” Fury shouted as she ran.
I shook my head. “I’m not leaving you …”
My loud words trailed off as Fury closed her eyes and disappeared. Okay, she’d decided to save the back-and-forth arguing. I hoped she would make it to First World. Closing my eyes, I found a tether close to the front of my house and, reaching out for the glittery strand, I took the rest of us to safety.
As I hit the ground running, the others let go of me, and I struggled to hold the suddenly shifting Angelica over my shoulder.
Knowing her level of discipline, I hoped Delane would quickly orientate herself.
Shit! Lina.
I hadn’t even stopped to think of the sacred animal. Cerberus nudged me then, and as I glanced down at him I noticed Lina was tucked into my hood. Thank the gods she hadn’t been squished by Delane.
I lowered the Angelica to the ground. Her eyes were half open, the black irises darting left and right. Ria gently placed Sapha next to her. At that point the sacred animals bounced off my shoulder and within seconds were large again. They took a step back, as if they were leaving us to our little girl-fight.
Fury’s voice distracted me. “She’s going to be so pissed off at you.”
I was relieved to see her emerging from the front door of my house.
“We’ll need to do major damage control just to get her to listen,” Fury continued.
Talina, who must have ducked into the ocean to refresh, ran up to me. She threw droplets of water around. “Should we tie her up?”
I bit my lip. “Something tells me she’d appreciate that even less than the kidnapping.”
Ria’s plant life was surrounding her again and she looked much more content as vines twirled around her arms and legs. “Maybe this will be fine,” she said. “We’ll use reason and logic to convince her that she must help us.”
Delane had both eyes wide open now. Talina reached out and offered her hand to the Nephilius half, but the warrior got to her feet without any assistance. She wasn’t rude about it, though, bestowing Talina with the semblance of a smile. All of us stood around Sapha.
I stared at the flickering eyelids of the Dronish half, the jewels embedded in her dark skin sparkling in the sunlight. I just knew she was going to be the toughest half-Walker to bring into the fold.
She came awake in a fast motion, her eyes fluttering open right before she slammed both hands over them and started to scream.
“What’s that light?” She repeated the words over and over. “Burns. I can’t see.”
Talina was wringing her hands together. “We need to move her inside. The sun’s too bright for her eyes.”
/> I was moving toward her when Ria stepped in. “I can help with that.”
With a flick of her wrists the Regali queen raised her hands above her head and vines started to rise and swirl around us. The sacred animals stepped back even further. They had obviously decided to wait on the outside of whatever Ria was creating.
I swallowed loudly; a cage of greenery swirled and twirled up, surrounding us in a dome. Darkness descended as the plants interlocked, blocking most of the light. The space inside was thankfully not that small. There was plenty of room between us and the edges of the ever moving wall of green. But still, it kind of felt like being eaten alive. I paused at the sounds of growls rocking through the air around us. The moment I was cut off from his sight, Cerberus wasn’t happy.
“I’m okay, Cere,” I said loudly.
The low rumbles slowed before dying off all together.
Unable to stop myself, I reached out and caressed one of the vines, and then turned to the Regali half. “You have a wicked power.” I let the smallest of grins cross my lips, and she returned my gesture.
“I know.”
Sapha’s shrieks had ceased the moment the vines had enclosed us, but she continued to breathe in long ragged draws. And she hadn’t opened her eyes again.
I crouched down closer to her. “We’ve blocked the sun, Sapha.” My voice was low; I was trying not to startle her. “Breathing will get easier. There’s more oxygen here, but the lightheadedness will fade soon.”
Her Walker side would kick in and adjust her vitals so that she was no longer disoriented. Eventually she seemed to calm. Her inhalations and exhalations smoothed out. She removed the hand from over her eyes. Her pupils darted around, taking in the cage above our heads.
Finally she locked onto my face. “Where have you brought me?” Her clipped, accented words were sharp, and she used them like weapons, flinging them at me. “How could you steal me away from Dronish? I need to avenge Marl, kill my mother, and put an end to that vampiric race once and for all.”
Fury cleared her throat and tilted her head to the side. “You want to kill every single one? But they’re your people; you’re half Drone.”
At this point we were met with twin beams of red, her anger spilling over as she captured each one of our gazes. She got to her feet, her disorientation disappearing under pure rage.
“They are nothing to me. Nothing!” she shrieked. “My mother tried to kill me. They would all have killed me for my energy. They need to be destroyed for their own good, and the good of anything innocent that crosses their path.”
I took a step closer, getting in her face a bit. “That might be true. Possibly they’re of no use in this star system. But what makes you think that’s your decision to make? If they’re not supposed to exist, then they won’t; that’s how the great balance works. It’s not your job or mine – we don’t have the right or the power.” I wasn’t sure what words to use to make her understand.
Her lips thinned out, her hands clenching into fists at her side.
“Are you trying to tell me that, if the Drones are supposed to die, time will simply take care of that problem? That this war they’re in will most probably destroy them?” She’d understood the most important part. “I don’t accept that.”
Okay, maybe not.
“What about Marl?” Ria took over the negotiations.
Sapha snarled, an actual animal snarl. “He’s dead.”
Ria’s beautiful features softened. “I know he is, but there must be so many young like him, young who are pretty innocent. You would damn them all?”
Sapha’s eyes squished tightly closed, and her swallow was audible.
“Are the Drones innately bad?” Fury asked.
Great. Seemed as if now we were going to have the bluntest person, besides Lucy, trying to convince her.
“What do you mean?” Sapha’s expression was blank again now.
“I mean, you seem to be hell-bent on punishing them for something that’s simply their nature. They have to consume energy to live. It doesn’t seem as if they try to be evil. They’re surviving. It’s their nature.”
Sapha blinked a few times in rapid succession. And I could tell that she had never thought of it in that manner before. Score one for blunt.
“Stop talking!” she finally shrieked, clutching her head.
“Lower the vines,” I said to Ria.
She raised her hands and, reversing her previous actions, started to retract the cage above our heads. Slowly, the sunlight filtered through the gaps.
As the beams of light washed through our group, Sapha was distracted from her outrage. Then, the stunning ocean came into view, the tranquil blues and greens of the water mixing with the white wash of waves.
Sapha almost fell to her knees, her gaze locked out into the distance. As she stumbled I caught her, my hands sliding across the dampness of her skin. Her head swung around and the stricken expression told me everything. She was so far out of her depth. She’d lived in darkness, alone. She did not know how to handle the emotion.
“There is so much power here. Life forces are so strong.” Her lithe frame shook.
“You don’t have to be alone any longer,” I said and, with instinct driving me, I gently encircled her with my arms.
Sapha resisted the hug at first. I could actually feel the warring inside her. She wanted to shove me away, but despite the tension, she did not move from my arms. It took her quite a few minutes, but with a whoosh of air she relaxed and pretty much fell into me. I held her tighter.
Walkers crave touch. We cherish the strength of another’s energy, using it to recharge our own. And something told me, in the world of Drones trying to kill her, Sapha had never had much love or touch. I let her decide when the hug would end, even though it went more than a few beats over uncomfortable for me.
Cerberus nudged my side and I knew the hound wanted to get in on the action. I reached out and patted his closest head. Sapha pulled back at that point. She didn’t seem thrown by a dog with two heads. Although she kept wary eyes on him as she stepped back.
Her eyes continued to be drawn to the ocean, even as she started talking again. “I think maybe you need to tell me everything, from the start, and don’t lie to me. I will know.”
I exchanged a glance with Talina. Her gentle expression almost creased into laughter, but I knew she would never laugh at another so openly. She was too nice. Fury, on the other hand, was not so much. Attitude was something Walkers had inherently, and it amused us when the half-Walkers got their ’tude on.
I interrupted Fury’s chuckling by starting the story.
I explained about my life on Earth, how I found First World, the Seventine, prophecy, seven worlds, and the big battle that was ensuing. I went into a little detail about the lalunas, but left Josian out of it. It didn’t really matter to the story, and she was already so untrusting. Each of the half-Walkers had their chance to speak. They told her about their worlds, the destruction they had seen because of the laluna and the Seventine, and described the bond and powers we had together.
Delane finished by explaining about our ability to trace, thankfully not giving her detailed instructions yet. Sapha was already a massive flight risk.
By the end of the conversation, the Drone was still calm. “Show me something,” she said. “Something that proves even one point of this story.”
I didn’t wait for any ideas. I threw out my tethers and connected to the five females standing around me. For the first few moments the rush of our power was almost deafening. It took me a while to orientate myself and come back from the power high. I wasn’t even sure what it would be like when all seven of us came together. Probably we’d explode from sheer energy.
We’re connected, I said. And in this form I can control the power, elevate all of our gifts, or just an individual one.
I sent power along the line to each girl, one after another.
I’m fire, Fury said as the blue flames rocketed into the sky.
Water. Talina was next, her whirlpools swirling.
Air. Delane’s whirly wind was scary.
Earth. Ria didn’t really need to demonstrate after the vine cage, but the shooting of greenery all around was still pretty awesome.
I was about to add conduit, but Sapha spoke first.
Shadow. Her mental voice was low and shaky.
I sent energy into her and the dark mass of eerie blackness left her body and swirled above our heads.
Holy mother of all. I was speechless. Our powers were … remarkable. And I still couldn’t decide who had the most awesome.
The six of us spent the rest of the afternoon using our elemental energy. Both separately and tethered together. It amazed me that the more we used our gifts, the faster and stronger we became. Like a muscle that needed to be exercised, we were building strength and force.
“Enough!” Fury finally bellowed, collapsing back onto the sand. “I’m starving. Feed me now, Supes.”
I laughed, and clutched at my own stomach as it too growled in protest. I raised my eyes to meet Sapha’s gaze. The Dronish half was still standoffish, prickly. Although, her pleasure when her power was elevated had been clear. Not to mention, there was something else brewing in her red eyes, something she was pondering.
“Using our powers requires us to increase our sustenance intake. You must be starving, Sapha?” I softened my gaze. “Do you want some food?”
She stared at me blankly, the stones around her eyes flashing in the sunlight of First World.
“What’s food?” She blinked a few times.
Everyone in the clearing stopped dead. I opened and closed my mouth a few times. Sapha hadn’t been kidding us. She stood there, her expression expectant, waiting for our answer.
Finally I recovered. “How do you recharge your energy?”
I took a step closer, which caused her to take a step back. Okay, still didn’t want me in her personal space.
Her eyes flicked between my face and Fury’s – who’d come to stand beside me – as she tried to answer. “I use the energy in this land. The sun, the ground, every grain of this rough dirt …” She kicked out at the sand. “I am so full of energy I need for nothing else.”