by Lainy Lane
"What?" It came as practically a scream. This was not part of what Calandra signed up for. Drake may not have been her first choice of escorts to the Underworld, but he was better than being left alone with Death.
"I do my dealings in private," Ankou offered the explanation.
"You couldn't have warned me?" Calandra didn’t take her eyes from Drake.
"Would you have been as willing to come?" He stared at the ground as he spoke.
That was beside the point as far as Calandra was concerned. Drake was supposed to guide her through this, not abandon her. Dealing with Death alone sparked a fear that could not be described in words.
"Come, dear, death does not have much in the way of patience." A few footsteps insinuated that Ankou was pacing.
Calandra gave Drake a panicked look. She fiddled with her hands in a failed attempt to calm her nerves. Drake pulled one side of his mouth up into an attempted smile, but it didn’t even reach his cheek. Calandra took a deep breath and tried to tell her body to take a step toward the veil, but it wouldn’t listen. Drake let go of her hand and it dropped to her side. Drake placed his hand on the back of her neck and pulled her closer to him. He placed his mouth directly against her ear.
"Just stay calm," he whispered, and the words landed on her skin before they reached her ears and it sent a tingling through her. "Be respectful, use everything you've learned about dealing with mind games...and breathe." It sounded as if he had changed the last part from what he really wanted to say. Before Calandra could ask what he was originally going to say, his lips were on hers. He placed a firm, but passionate kiss on her and the grip on her neck increased as he did. He seemed to be struggling to let go of her. "I'll be right here waiting when you're done."
"Ahem," Ankou cleared his throat, obviously growing more impatient by the minute.
Calandra took one last breath and forced herself through the veil. Ankou was tall and lanky, his form was no more than a dark shadow. He had no actual body. His face was sunken in at the eyes, nose, and mouth. The bottom of his figure swirled up around him, he was a cloak of dark, airy shadows.
"Calandra." The form that made out his head tilted toward her. It was odd to hear the sarcasm in his voice when his face was incapable of the taunting smirk that should accompany it.
They were standing in a room with one single, fancy chair in the middle of it. There were three doors around them, two on the opposite wall from where the veil was and one on the wall to the right. Ankou took a seat in the chair and stretched his arms over the sides, he seemed very relaxed, which made Calandra even more nervous.
"Ankou," she returned his greeting.
"What is it I can do for you?" Death apparently didn’t waste time with small talk, he was ready to immediately get down to business.
"I need to speak to my mother." Calandra followed suit and got down to it. She was, after all, unsure of exactly how long she had before she would remain dead forever.
"Why's that exactly?" Ankou brought his right arm up to his face and rested against it.
"I have questions only she can answer." Calandra assumed that keeping everything short and simple was the best way to go, which was good since she didn’t feel capable of much more than short and sweet at the moment.
"I assume you are aware of the price you must pay for this favor? Drake is up to par on how my dealings work."
Did that mean that Drake had made deals with Ankou before? Calandra pushed the thought away for the moment, she knew her time is limited, and she needed to focus on the task at hand before it was too late.
"I'm aware," she answered.
"Yet you are willing to do this just to have a few questions answered? I'm intrigued. Tell me, Calandra, what kind of questions do you so desperately need explanations for?" His voice practically cackled.
"They are personal, I do not care to discuss them with you." She winced in anticipation of his response.
"Hmm, well then I do not care to grant you your wish, my dear."
Calandra had been afraid that was where the conversation was leading. She was going to have to give him something, but she wasn't sure how much she would be able to reveal without possibly compromising the situation. This would've been another nice thing for Drake to have explained beforehand. That would’ve been asking too much.
"She knows things about my father that could be useful to me now." She decided to attempt a rather vague explanation.
"For your sake, I certainly hope it is useful. It would be a shame for such a beautifully unique soul to be sentenced to my ranks for no reason. A pity for you that is." He cackled.
"Is that a yes?" It seemed a rather immature response after such a serious statement, but given the circumstances, Calandra couldn’t allow herself to stress it.
"I have never been able to say no to a beautiful face." She imagined that he would have a smirk, similar to the one Drake often carried if he had a face.
Calandra was finally able to relax a tiny bit. "How does this work exactly?"
Ankou chuckled. "You get back to your body now." He stood out of the chair and walked over to her. "Before it's too late. Tomorrow morning, Drake will escort you to where your meeting will be allowed to take place. You will have fifteen minutes, so I'd suggest you have all of your questions laid out before you arrive so as not to waste any of your precious time."
"Thank you." There was a piece inside of her that was sure fifteen minutes wouldn’t be near enough, but she knew that arguing with Death wouldn’t be a good idea. She accepted the short amount of time he had given her and decided she would just have to make it work.
Ankou walked over to the entrance and Calandra followed after him. He reached out and touched her. "One more thing. You might want to reconsider who you trust."
Calandra decided it was best not to say anything. The situation was far too complicated to explain, and she had a body to get back to. She smiled instead.
"See you in a few years."
"What?" she exclaimed.
"What? I can't have a sense of humor just because I'm Death?" His voice crackled in her ears as he pushed her back through the veil and disappeared from her completely.
Calandra refused to speak on the journey back through the tunnel. Her nerves were still on edge from the deal with Ankou, and they were only increasing as they got closer to the attempt at getting her back in her body and intact before it was too late. She was supposed to have a day of sleeping ahead to recover according to Drake. Sleep sounded heavenly right now as she was feeling drained of everything and her eyes were begging to be able to close. She remembered that Ankou had said that her meeting with her mother was less than twenty-four hours away, but sleep, even if only for a few hours, was the most important thing at the moment.
"You're getting tired already?" Drake seemed to have read her mind, and he stopped walking as he asked with a concerned look on his face.
"Yes." She yawned.
Drake looked around the tunnel, and his eyes darted to all corners in a frantic display. His panic crossed the short distance between them, and Calandra felt it enter her, though she couldn’t understand what he was so panicked about.
"What?" she questioned, without as much intensity as her mind was screaming. She was too fatigued to get her entire point across.
"I might have calculated this wrong, I think we have less time than I originally anticipated. His voice grew more troubled with every word.
"Calculated wrong? Was this not important enough to double-check your answers first?"
Drake searched the tunnels for something, but Calandra had no clue what. "We have to go...now!"
Suddenly Calandra realized that the looming shadows on the edges of the tunnel were closing in on them. She was feeling weaker by the second as her fear rose.
"Calandra, you have to control your emotions, you're only draining yourself further and making it worse." He conveyed the importance of his statement in the infliction of the words.
Oh, ok, so sta
y calm even though time was running out and shadow creatures were anxiously waiting for the timer to go off and give them permission to keep your soul forever. Yeah, that sounded simple enough.
The shadows drew closer, and Calandra felt as if the walls were closing in on her even though there weren't actually any walls anywhere. Her breathing reached epic hyperventilation proportions, and her eyes refused to stay open any longer. Calandra gave in and allowed the darkness to overtake her as the world faded to black around her.
***
The light flashed in her face and disappeared instantly. It was blinding, but only momentarily and Calandra ached for it to come back. Faerie. The word echoed through Calandra's mind, and as soon as it did, the light returned. It lingered in front of her and Calandra tried to focus on it. Her eyes were still unfocused from being tired and as a result of the shock of the light. The light was blurry, and she squinted her eyes in hopes of clearing out the image, but she wasn't prepared for what she saw when everything came into focus.
There was a light coming from within the small woman that floated in the air a few short centimeters from her face. Long, transparent wings with an opaque hint of purple to them rose from her back, high above her head. They fluttered every few seconds to keep her afloat. Her skin was pale and had a luminous hint to them. Her dress was short and matched the consistency, color, and translucency of her wings which made it appear to be as much a part of her as her wings were. Her eyes were dark and bared deep into Calandra's soul as she stared at her. Her face was completely expressionless. A crown of beautiful white orchid flowers lay around the top of her head, and there were tiny lights coming off of them as well as various other spots around her body. A soft breeze whipped around her. The sweet, summer scented wind blew through her hair and Calandra could feel the coolness of it surround her. Calandra shivered as a chill shot through her.
Beautiful, opaque, pale cyan, almost white eyes stared back at her. She couldn’t see anything other than the eyes because of the way the shadow fell on her. The little Faerie suddenly fluttered right next to her ear. She could feel the small whips of air come off of her as her wings flapped back and forth.
"Faerie," she whispered in Calandra's ear. Her voice was melodic, and it took her breath away, she shouldn't have expected any less from a creature so beautiful, but it still managed to catch her off guard. She felt the tiny wing softly grace her ear, and she had to catch her breath again.
Calandra couldn’t take her eyes from the beautiful blue eyes that stared at her. They hadn’t blinked yet, which somehow didn’t strike her as odd. Their color was absolutely mesmerizing, and there was a current crossing from them to her, she felt a tingling sensation fill her as she looked at them. The Faerie at her ear moved in anticipation and shot to her other ear in a millisecond.
"Faerie," she repeated again, and Calandra felt her words as they entered her ear.
Her gasp was delayed when she saw the hand coming toward her. It rested on her elbow and sent an icy hot chill through her. Calandra knew she should feel scared, intimidated, something, but she didn’t. Somehow it all felt normal and very right. She saw the eyes slowly move closer to her, and the shadows moved with him, so she still wasn't able to completely make out his face.
"Calandra." His voice was velvety and intoxicating, the most gentle and lyrical voice she had ever heard come out of a man. Something about it calmed her and drew her in. She tried to move closer, to close the gap that remained between them, but despite her desires, she didn’t seem to be able to will her body to move.
"Come," he spoke again.
Calandra swallowed hard against the lump that had built up in her throat, she forced it down enough to be able to speak. "Where?"
"Euphoria," he said.
For a split second the shadows lifted and she saw the stranger that was seducing her with his voice and touch. He was taller than her, and his skin was perfect in every way. His complexion was pale and almost translucent. His eyes were his most distinguishing feature, but everything about him was absolutely flawless. The skin under his eyes was a shade darker than the rest. His hair was slicked back and strewn about messily in the back, it rested around his ears.
***
Calandra walked through her house, the house back in the mortal world, and everything from the past few weeks seemed to have been a crazy and all too realistic dream. She still felt the same light breeze wrap around her and smelled the succulent sweet scent along with it. She kept hearing a small noise against her ear, it sounded like tiny wings beating. She walked outside and let the brisk chill of the air overtake her. It didn’t smell the same as the breeze that had been following her.
She walked a little way into the woods and allowed her mind to wander. Brush crunched under her feet as she walked along the narrow trail that she had walked so many times before. Her nerves began to calm, and her heart rate and breathing leisurely returned to normal. The wind had stopped around her, the trees and brush were too thick to allow it to pass through this part of the woods. Everything was calm, she stopped walking and turned around to face the tree behind her.
The goose bumps raised on her skin before the wind hit her as if it had been some sort of premonition. The soft, chilly, sweet smelling breeze wrapped around her suddenly. No wind should have been able to reach her where she was, yet it swirled against her skin and forced chill bumps to raise on her arm. She saw the same iridescent Faerie from earlier out of the corner of her eye. Calandra turned to face her, and she disappeared, but she could still hear the soft pitter patter of her wings flapping and a quiet giggle. Calandra searched all around her, she spun in circles, trying to find the little Faerie again, until another smell overtook her.
The bittersweet smell of woods burning; musky mixed with bark mixed with smoke and brush. It hit her so strongly that she found herself searching around for a fire. Something about the smell made her want to find it, she felt drawn to it like a moth to a flame. The scent was more bitter than sweet, more darkness than light, more danger than anything. Subconsciously she knew that, but her body didn’t want to listen to the warning her head was trying to give. The smell grew stronger and her nose tingled from it. She walked, in somewhat of a daze, to the creek and sat down next to it. Her eyes locked on the water and refused to move from it. She watched it flow gracefully over the pebbles and stones that mixed into the dirt beneath it. It made the rocks glimmer as it passed over it, the sunlight streaked in through the tree limbs and reflected onto the water in a beautiful light spider web that shimmered across the water as it filtered underneath it.
Calandra reached down and placed the tips of her fingers in the water and allowed it to silkily wash through her fingers. The coolness of it made her breath catch in her chest. Her eyes began to close and bask in the feeling of Mother Nature when something caught the corner of her eye. She turned quickly and sees a female figure with long bright red hair, pale skin, and leaves covering her body flash in her view quickly before disappearing altogether.
She gasped and brought her hand back to her body. She blinked rapidly, trying to clear her sight and looked around frantically for her. The pleasant burning evergreen scent had vanished with the woman, and Calandra found herself surprisingly sad in its absence. She leaned against a tree a few feet away from the side of the creek and rested her head against it. A calm overtook her, and she relaxed into the setting around her. She breathed in the crisp, cold air that now smelled of fresh bloomed lilies and babbling creek water. She heard small patters of beating wings to her right and relaxed into the ambiance around her.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Given Away
Calandra awoke with a lingering desire inside of her that felt as if it had been building for years and was suddenly desperate to find a release. Maybe it was simply an after effect of returning from the dead, a symptom of being alive again, but there was a passion forming inside of her that she needed to find a way to express immediately. As if on cue, Drake walked into the room wi
th a smile on his face. He ambled over to the bed, keeping his eyes on her along the way. He seemed to know exactly what her thoughts were. He leaned down over her and placed an arm on either side of her upper torso and smoldered his lavender eyes into her.
Without a word, or waiting for permission, he closed the distance between their lips, and she felt his tongue crash into her mouth. She opened it willingly and pulled him against her. Heat rose off of his body and filled her, setting her desire on fire and bringing it up a notch. His hands roamed through her hair and tugged at it slightly. She felt a burning sensation in her chest, lust trying to force its way out of her, yearning for his body to be even closer to her. She wrapped her arms around him tighter. Aching to feel his skin brushing over hers, she pulled both of their shirts up slightly to feel the heat spread against their skin to skin contact. Drake wrapped his legs around her waist, grinding his hips against her. A moan escaped, without permission, and sent a new spark of passion streaming through her.
His hand moved to her waistline, and he trailed a path along her leaving a burning ring of fire across her. His kiss moved from her mouth and down to her neck. Her arms searched along his back for more; more skin, more muscle, just...more. Just as Drake's fingers started to trail up her side and close to her chest, Calandra's eyes shot open and she realized what she was doing. Breathlessly, and with more force than she have needed to build up, she pulled away and pushed Drake’s body off of hers.
Calandra had no clue what had gotten into her. Drake lay on the bed next to her just as out of breath as she was. Her skin was still searing slightly, and the coolness of the air around her now that Drake wasn't touching her made her feel as if steam would start rising off of her any second.
"So now that I'm back and we don't plan to remove me from my body anytime soon, am I allowed to have think about everything?" Calandra decided it would be best to pretend as if nothing had happened. That was much easier than discussing what she had just allowed to happen, what she had initiated.