by Jasmine Walt
The second EMT laid the stretcher down on the ground, then grabbed me by the arms so he and the other guy could lift me onto it. I tried to struggle, but I was weak and dizzy, and the men held me down easily. To the onlookers, I was probably just a dazed and confused patient, in shock, unable to process what was going on.
But I wasn’t that out of it. The nausea rolling in my gut wasn’t just from the pain. These guys were bad news, and I had to get away.
“You just sit tight, Miss Palladino,” the EMT who’d dragged me from my car said as I was loaded into the back of the ambulance. “We’ll have you to the hospital in no time.”
My blood turned to ice. I’d never told him my name. How the hell did he know it? Fear punched through my veins, driving me into action, and I tried to launch myself from the stretcher. But the doors were already closed, and the space was so tight that I only succeeded into slamming straight into the EMT.
“Hey!” he snapped, catching me before I crashed to the floor. He pushed me back onto the stretcher. As his face hovered above mine, I could have sworn his eyes flashed red for just a moment. “Relax, Ms. Palladino,” he said, grabbing my arm and pushing my sleeve up. “We’re under strict orders to take good care of you. I promise.”
“You bastard,” I croaked as a needle pricked the crook of my elbow. I tried to punch him with my free arm, but he caught the blow, and then pushed me back down again. The interior of the ambulance began to swirl until the colors melded into darkness. Reeling, I tried to cling to consciousness, but my mind buckled under the influence of whatever drug he’d injected. In the next second, I was gone.
3
Brodie
I stood out in the meadow for another hour. I didn’t expect the grass to tell me anything, but I still felt there was something I needed to hear. The vision from last night had been so sparse—a mere glimpse into a terrible future. Just that fiercely beautiful woman, burning alive over a pit of hellfire, while a blond man with the devil’s eyes watched from above with a cruel smile. This vision would come to pass someday. Somewhere, out in Gaia’s great and bountiful world, that wicked man would try to kill such a bonny lass. And, for some reason, Gaia had seen fit to place me in her path.
There had been no one there to save that woman. And no one would be… not unless I got off my arse and did something.
Of course, a map would have been helpful. The vision had given me no inkling as to her location. Neither the man nor the woman had spoken, so I didn’t even know what nationality they were. Nothing besides the fact that they were Caucasian. They could have been in France, or Alaska for all I knew. All Gaia had given me aside from the vision was a whispered name—Arabella Palladino. A name as beautiful and noble looking as the woman herself.
The wind shifted then, bringing a sudden chill that summoned goose bumps to the surface of my skin. I frowned—the night had been so mild, and it was the middle of summer. I was about to head inside, away from the wind, when a different sort of cold settled over me, inside me, worming its way into my heart. Dread began to form in my stomach, a leaden weight that I couldn’t quite explain. It twined itself with anger and fear, with burning resentment, and a caged, stifled feeling that I’d never before experienced out here in the wide open.
Suddenly, I realized what was going on, as though a veil had lifted from my eyes. These feelings were not my own. They belonged to the woman who needed my help. She was calling out for aid, to anyone who might hear. Trouble had found her already. Damn! Was I too late?
Desperation filled me, and I turned back to the dancing meadow one more time. I drew in a breath, squared my shoulders, and then asked the only question that mattered.
“Where are ye, lass?”
Something slammed into my chest, and I stumbled back. Her emotions were even stronger now, as if her soul lay atop mine, joining us together. Her heart thundered in my chest. Her breath, labored and shallow, whistled in and out between my lips. Pain blossomed, bright and true, in my side, as if my rib had cracked.
And that was when I saw her. Tied to a chair in the middle of an industrial-looking room, two goons in front of her. Shark teeth and bloody eyes.
“Demonkin,” I muttered. I knew the word, knew the descriptions from those lessons I’d only half-paid attention to, though I’d never met one. The Druids did not typically concern themselves with those abominations, but we made it our business to learn about the other power players who walked this earth. As well as their weaknesses, in case we ever crossed paths.
The woman wasn’t all Gaia saw fit to show me. The vision shifted, revealing a city by the sea with great buildings and shining lights. Much more modern than Inverness, the closest town to where Agnid and I lived. She was in America, out on the western coast—I could feel it. I could feel her. And although the woman and the city faded from my sight, it left something I’d been longing for ever since I’d laid eyes on her, etched right into the back of my eyelids.
A map.
4
Arabella
A splash of water shocked me back to my senses. My eyes flew wide, and I sputtered as icy liquid slid down my skin and beneath my collar. Blinking hard, I fought to clear my vision. After a few seconds, the two EMTs who’d hauled me into the ambulance swam into view. They stood a few feet away, arms crossed as they studied me. We were in what looked a lot like an empty, abandoned warehouse.
“Ah, good. You’re awake.” The dark-haired man who’d pulled me from the wreck stepped forward, a cocky smile on his face. He was still dressed in his EMT uniform, but his eyes glowed an unholy red, not the grey I’d seen earlier. That strange darkness brushed up against me again, and I blinked. Was I hallucinating?
“I was wondering if we were going to have to resort to fire.” The man lifted his palm, and a ball of flame whooshed to life above his hand. My eyes about popped out of my skull, and he gave me a wicked smile. “Too bad the water worked after all.”
“That’s some magic trick,” I choked as my heart thundered in my chest. Instinctively, I tried to cross myself, but my arms were tied to the sides of the wooden chair I was sitting in. Panic tightened my chest as I realized my legs were bound as well. What the hell was going on here?
“All right, you guys have had your fun,” I blustered, putting on a brave face, as if I wasn’t scared out of my mind. “Now tell me where the cameras are so I can wave to Mom and Dad.” My voice cracked a little, and I swallowed hard.
The second EMT laughed. He was blond, with the same glowing eyes as his companion, and he would have been considerably more handsome if he hadn’t just exposed a set of sharp, green-tinted fangs. “This isn’t some kind of reality-TV prank, Arabella.”
The panic rose to my throat, tightening like a noose around my neck until I could barely breathe. “How do you know my name?” I asked, keeping my voice low and even as I forced the emotions back down. I decided not to ask about the shark teeth or the glowing eyes—there was only so much I could handle right now. Besides, between the pain and the drugs they’d shot me up with, I was probably hallucinating like nobody’s business. That made a hell of a lot more sense than monsters, or aliens, or whatever my whacked-out brain was trying to convince me I was seeing right now.
Redeye shrugged. “Don’t act so violated. You’re really not that interesting, especially for a Sentinel. We know a lot about you,” he said. “More than you know about yourself, by the looks of things.” He stepped closer, lifting his hand so that the fireball danced only a few inches from my face. “But there’s something we need, and you’re the only one who knows where it is. So, if you want to get out of here alive, you’d better cooperate.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” I snapped, trying to ignore the heat emanating from Redeye’s palm. But the orangey-blue flame dancing in his hand was intense, and my right cheek was getting hot enough to fry an egg on. My eyes watered, and a tear began to trickle down my overheated skin. The flame seemed awfully real for a hallucination.
“Hey,
knock that shit off,” the blond snapped, raising his hand. A jet of water spewed from his palm, dousing his partner’s flame and splashing me in the face. “She doesn’t remember anything, so there’s no point in interrogating her. Our orders are to wait for the Master.” He pinched the bridge of his nose in what looked like irritation. “You know how he is about her.” He shook his head. “Besides, you get all antsy when you get aggravated in that body. It’s not very becoming.”
“That’s bullshit,” Redeye growled, conjuring another flame in his hand. I swallowed as I watched the exchange—it was getting more difficult by the second to convince myself that this shit wasn’t real. “She might know something about the Infinity Key. If we can get to it before the Master does—”
Blondie blasted Redeye in the face, who went stumbling back into a cloth-draped machine. “That sounds a lot like disloyalty,” Blondie growled, his red eyes flaring as he stared the other man down. “The Master brought us here, gave us the chance to taste sweet air unlaced by hellfire. We should not be so hasty to betray him.”
Redeye slowly wiped the water off with the sleeve of his jacket, the lines of his face taut with suppressed rage. “Funny how we’re talking about loyalty,” he snarled. “Considering that we’re working for a man who has hunted our kind in the past. Who even the Demonkin won’t accept. Why should we assume he won’t turn on us?”
“Because he needs us too much,” Blondie snapped. “Besides, we should be grateful for the opportunity, not try to backstab him by attempting to get to the Infinity Key first.” He glanced briefly in my direction. “He’ll tear us both in half if there’s so much as a bruise on her face. I’m not going to let you put our lives in danger just because you can’t control your bloodlust.” His nostrils flared.
“Excuse me,” I interrupted before Redeye could fire back. “But what the hell are you two talking about?” The Master? Infinity Key? Had I landed in some kind of fucked-up comic book?
“None of your business,” Redeye hissed, his eyes flashing. Strangely, I wasn’t afraid this time. Maybe I’d been pushed so far that I’d maxed out on my fear level. Or maybe the pain made me loopy and brave, because instead of lapsing into terrified silence, I just grinned at him.
“Actually, I thought it was my business, since you seem to think I know something about all this,” I taunted.
“So you do remember!” Redeye glared at his partner. “The Master has been lying to us about her condition. If we can just get the location out of her…” He lifted his hand, lighting another ball of flame.
“I’m not so sure she does,” Blondie warned. “Don’t give her any information. If the Master finds out—”
“He won’t,” Redeye insisted, drawing closer, and the ball of panic rose in my throat again. He could easily sear the flesh off my bones with that thing, and I liked my skin where it was, thank you very much. “By the time he gets here, we’ll be long—”
The double doors burst open with a loud crash, sending mid-afternoon light spilling into the chamber. I squinted against the harsh glare, and managed to make out the silhouette of a tall, broad-shouldered man. My gut tightened instinctively as a tingle of recognition spread through me—there was something familiar about him.
He stepped out of the light, allowing me to see him better. He was dressed in a tailored suit, visible beneath the long, black coat he wore open. Platinum hair, slicked back from a face that was all sharp planes and edges—handsome, but harsh. His eyes were a pale blue that seemed to stab through my defenses and straight into my soul. As I met his eyes with my own, a cocktail of emotions punched me so hard that I let out a strangled cry. Fear, hurt, anger, adoration—they ripped through me like a savage wind, leaving me raw and aching, sending me tumbling into an abyss, and then—
“Arabella! Arabella, come back, damn you!”
Powerful fingers dug into my shoulders, shaking me hard. Those blue eyes were now mere inches from my face. Daggers of pain stabbed hard into my side, and I cried out.
“Stop it! You’re hurting me!”
“Hurting you?” He stepped back, confusion in the hard lines of his face. Blood trickled from the cut on my head, which must have opened again, and his skin turned white, eyes snapping with cold fire.
“What is the meaning of this?” He rounded on Redeye and Blondie, who suddenly looked like they were about to shit their pants. “I told you to bring her to me unharmed. Yet here she is, bleeding! What have you done to her?” He stalked toward them, his long black coat whipping out behind him.
“W-we didn’t do anything to her,” Redeye stammered as he and Blondie backed toward the nearest wall. “She was already injured from the car accident—”
The man didn’t even let him finish. He only flung out his right hand. My mouth dropped open as a harsh, golden glow burst from his palm. The light rippled and lengthened, stretching itself out into a golden mace, with spikes jutting from a glowing ball at the end of the staff. Horror spilled through me as he swung the weapon, slamming the spiked ball straight into Redeye’s gut.
I fully expected blood to gush from what had to be a nasty wound, but none came. Instead of tearing into his flesh, the mace emitted a shockwave that rippled through my kidnapper. Redeye fell to his knees, a scream unlike any I’d ever heard ripping from his throat. It sounded like a thousand agonized souls crying out for deliverance, instead of the scream of a single man. Golden light began to emanate from his body as Redeye shrieked, the glow dancing and flickering around him like some kind of strange flame.
As though it were burning him alive.
The golden light finally subsided, and Redeye slumped forward on his hands, breathing hard. His skin had turned paper white, and his dark hair clung to his temples as sweat rolled down his cheeks, dripping from his chin onto the cement floor. His limbs shook, and I was amazed he didn’t collapse altogether.
“You know I’m not interested in excuses,” the blue-eyed man said in a clipped voice. “I expect you both to use your heads when carrying out my orders. You two should have healed her—you had plenty of time for it.” His gaze snapped to Blondie, who stood at attention. The kidnapper was utterly still despite the fear in his eyes and the sweat beading on his upper lip. “Next time I won’t spare you. Now go fix him up, and then come back here.”
“Yes, Master,” Blondie said quickly. He hauled the nearly unconscious Redeye to his feet, then draped the man’s arm over his shoulder and dragged him outside.
The one they called ‘Master’ turned back to me, a puzzled frown on his handsome face. My heart clenched, still full of the writhing mass of emotions that had hit me earlier. I sucked on my teeth, trying to understand what it was about this man that inspired such a visceral reaction. It was almost as if I’d met him before…but I knew I hadn’t. There’s no way I’d forget a man like this. An aura of power crackled around him, making him seem larger than life, and that stunner of a face would make any woman sit up and take notice, even if there was a darkness lurking beneath. Maybe even because of that darkness. Lots of women found that sort of thing mysterious and alluring. I didn’t think I was one of those women, and yet…
“Did you hear anything that I said when I walked in here?”
“Huh?” I blinked, thinking back to the moment he appeared. “What are you talking about? You didn’t say anything to me.”
“Yes, I did.” He pressed his lips together. “I greeted you, then asked you if you remembered me, but you didn’t say anything.”
My face flushed as I realized I’d had another seizure. That car accident must have screwed me up—I’d never seized twice in one day. But I wasn’t about to admit my weakness to this stranger. I’d just let him wonder what had happened.
“You just stared back at me,” he continued slowly, and my heart began to beat faster. “And there was this vacant expression in your eyes, as if you weren’t seeing me at all.”
His long fingers brushed against my chin, tilting my face up to his. My skin crawled even
as something in my chest tugged toward him—as if there was a rope that bound us, connecting me to him. “Such beautiful, golden-brown eyes,” he murmured. “I remember when you looked at me with love brimming in their depths, not fear.”
“Stop touching me.” The words burst from my lips, sharp like a whip crack. I couldn’t stand these strange feelings—the simultaneous longing and revulsion that pushed and pulled inside me. The touch of his hand only made it worse, made it harder for me to think. And the pain still throbbing in my rib cage wasn’t helping things.
His hand fell away, and I sighed with relief. But then he grabbed the front of my shirt and ripped the top two buttons open, sending them clattering to the floor.
“Hey!” I threw myself back in the chair as fear hit me hard. “Get off, you creep! I don’t want anything to do with you or Demonkin or whatever else is going on here!” The chair almost toppled to the ground, but he reached out with his other hand and steadied it. His hand stayed exactly where it was, unmoving and unflinching.
“They’re not Demonkin, dear. The Demonkin lords, much like the people you and I once served, felt they were above me. They felt they were beyond me. So, I found a different way of doing things, and I added them to the list of people who would pay for underestimating me.”
My heart jackhammered in my chest, and I waited for him to rip my shirt the rest of the way.
Stay calm, Arabella, I told myself. If he was going to rape me, he’d have to at least untie my legs at some point. That was when I’d attack.
But he didn’t rip my shirt the rest of the way. Instead, those long fingers traced the skin just above my collarbone. I knew what he was looking at—the strange, blotchy birthmark that covered the skin above my clavicles. Strangely, it began to burn and tingle, almost as if my body sensed the wrongness in this man, and was rejecting him.