I noticed the soldier’s eyes dart over to me. My grip on myself tightened as he chuckled. “And here I thought she had left. Who would have thought she had been right under our noses all this time?”
Raikidan looked back at me and then back at the soldier. “Look her in the eyes and tell me what you see.”
I gulped. I didn’t like where this was going. My brain told me to leave. It told me to get away from these words that were going to be spoken, but my body was frozen in place.
The man grunted. “She carries the same look she always did. Cold and emotionless, the look of a monster.”
I held myself as my chest constricted. I hated words. I didn’t understand why Raikidan was doing this. I didn’t see how this was going to help anyone.
“You’re a fool,” Raikidan snarled. “You know what I see? I see a woman who has felt pain. I see a woman who has been abused and betrayed. I see a woman who has seen the deepest pits of loneliness with no hope of escape.”
The man chuckled. “You obviously know nothing about her.”
Raikidan thrust my dagger into the man’s abdomen. “I know enough to know that not many know the real her. Not many know how normal she wishes she could be. I know enough to know she isn’t the cold, emotionless monster you claim her to be.”
“The dragon, I might like him,” the voice in my head said, surprising me.
I watched in stunned silence as Raikidan dragged the dagger up toward the soldier’s chest. The soldier cringed in pain but was unable to scream due to Raikidan’s tight grip. Raikidan pulled out the dagger and let the man go. As he did, he slashed the soldier in the chest. The soldier fell to the ground and struggled to breathe. I looked away. I couldn’t watch this anymore. It wasn’t right.
“She… isn’t watching…” the soldier whispered.
Raikidan grunted. “Now maybe you’ll know how wrong you are. Too bad it’s too late for you.”
I walked away. I couldn’t handle this. Not only was there too much blood in the air, but Raikidan’s refusal to see the truth was too much to handle. I wasn’t sure how I should feel about it. Finding a small crate, I sat down and waited. Raikidan would follow shortly, but before he arrived, I needed to make sure I was stable.
I looked up when Raikidan’s familiar footsteps approached. He was expressionless as he approached, and his left hand was covered in blood. I looked down at my lap. “He didn’t deserve that.”
“Yes he did, you fool,” the voice hissed.
“He insulted you,” Raikidan defended.
“He spoke the truth,” I replied. “I am what I am. Nothing can change that.”
He stepped closer. “His words wouldn’t hurt so much if you were a monster.”
I held up my hand. “Don’t come closer. You need to find a way to clean off your hand.”
Raikidan didn’t listen. “You’ll be fine.”
My head pulsed.
“You need to leave.”
“It’s going to be okay, Eira.”
“I’m serious!” I insisted. “Don’t press your luck with me, Raikidan. I don’t… I don’t want to hurt you like the others…”
He crouched down in front of me and touched my face with his bloody hand, sending a whirlwind of mixed emotions through me. “I see soft, warm eyes. Not cold, emotionless ones. I see a real person with wants and desires. Not a controlled machine.”
“No, you need to leave!”
“It’s going to be okay, trust me.”
My heart raced and pounded in my ears. He had no idea what he was getting himself into. I tried to pull away, but he refused to allow it.
“Please… Tannek…”
Raikidan’s thumb slipped and touched the corner of my lips. I froze as the blood seeped in and touched my tongue.
“Blood!” the voice in my head screamed hungrily.
I tried to fight the monster’s urge to kill, but it was too strong. It hadn’t been satisfied in so long. It wanted me to go for his throat. It wanted me to tear him apart, but I resisted. I didn’t want to hurt him. I don’t want to hurt him.
“Eira?” Raikidan tried to look me in the eye—big mistake.
My body lunged at him in a crazed frenzy. I pulled back just as my body reached for his throat, and instead I clamped onto his hand with my sharp teeth. I was attacking him in a primitive way I thought I’d never do again. Raikidan cringed in pain but didn’t fight back, as if he were completely okay with the situation.
I fought to stay in control of my body, the frenzy slowly taking over. I was too weak to stop it. I don’t want to kill him. I was starting to lose touch with my reality.
Raikidan pulled me into his lap and held on to me tightly. “Fight it, Eira. You’re stronger than it is. I know you are.”
“Blood.”
I wanted to believe him. I wanted to have the strength, but I couldn’t find it.
“Death.”
He spoke quietly into my ear. “You’re not the monster you think you are. Monsters are ugly and weak. They destroy others out of fear. You are beautiful and strong. You told me you feared nothing.”
I froze. Not even the frenzy could get me to move.
“You have the strength to stop it,” he whispered.
I wanted the strength to stop. I wanted to stop hurting him.
“I believe in you.”
“He’s lying. Destroy him before he can turn around and hurt you.” The voice was back to hating him.
Shutting my eyes, I fought for the will to stop. My mouth unlatched suddenly and I shoved his arm away. My eyes flew open, and my breath came slow and ragged.
Raikidan pulled me closer. “I told you, you aren’t a monster.”
I wasn’t sure I could believe him as I stared at his bloody hand—the mark I left clearly visible, and the taste of his blood fresh on my tongue. How could I not be a monster? Sure, I had been able to stop myself this time, but what about the next time? I thought I had this under control. I thought the shamans could help me. But all we did was suppress it and make it worse in the end.
I wiped the blood around my mouth away and buried my face into his shoulder. “You’re wrong. I wouldn’t have hurt you at all if I wasn’t.”
“You would have killed me if you were,” he replied. “I wasn’t going to stop you, Eira.” I looked up at him. “I wasn’t going to defend myself. I had tried to hurt you when we first met, when we fought on the riverbank. I regretted it after. I shouldn’t have tried to hurt you in anger.”
I stared into his eyes and he smiled at me. He really believed I was a good person. I wanted to be. I really did.
I went to reply, but the sound of scraping metal drew my attention elsewhere. I stood up, with Raikidan’s help, and crept closer in the direction of the noise. I froze when a tiny figure moved from the shadows and into the light. “Arnia…”
She looked terrible. Her beautiful hair was gone, and her face was bruised and bloody. She had obviously been tortured before she was able to escape.
“Arnia…” I stepped closer to her.
My advance triggered something in her mind and she stumbled over to me. I caught her in my arms as she threw herself at me and began to sob. I wasn’t sure what to do for her, so I did what I would do if Ryder was upset. Stroking her back gently, I hushed her.
“I–I thought I’d be taken b–back,” she sobbed. “I–I thought… I thought y–you guys weren’t going t–to find me in time.”
“Arnia, it’s okay. We’re here now,” I encouraged. “You’re safe.”
Raikidan placed a hand on my shoulder. “We need to get out of here.”
I nodded and looked at Arnia. “Arnia, do you have the strength to open a small way out?”
She shook her head. “N–no… I used up what I had left to seal mys
elf in here and the hide from those two soldiers I accidentally sealed in with me.”
I nodded. “All right. We’ll figure something else out, then.”
“I could burn a hole in the wall,” Raikidan suggested.
I nodded. “It’s the only—what the—”
The wall adjacent to us began to creak and warp. Suddenly a section broke off and flew away. Ryoko was left standing in front of the gap with a smile. “Good. I found you. Seda said she lost you two because Arnia was too close. Now let’s get out of here. The scanners were picking up strange movement east of here a few moments ago. The military may be coming back to check the area.”
I nodded in agreement. “Good idea. C’mon, Arnia. We’re going to get you out of here.”
Arnia stumbled over her feet several times before we even made it outside. She was so weak, which meant Jaybird couldn’t be doing any better.
“I’ll carry her,” Raikidan offered. “She’s not going to make it much farther on her own.”
“All right.” I attempted to hand Arnia off to him, but she held on tight to my vest. “Arnia, it’s all right. You’ll be safe with him. I promise.”
Arnia eyed Raikidan cautiously. I had never seen her so timid before. It was obvious the people who had tortured her were male. She would have no other reason to be afraid of Raikidan if it weren’t so.
Raikidan extended his hand to Arnia, and she hesitantly took it. Being careful not to scare her any more, he lifted her up in his arms and cradled her. Arnia relaxed when she realized he wasn’t going to hurt her.
Seda appeared over the top of the warehouse. “All of you, get out of here! They’re coming.”
“Seda, get the other group to distract them as best as they can while we escape,” I ordered. “Ryoko, go find Rylan and meet up with us. If the other team isn’t able to hold them off, I’ll need you two to help act as another distraction.”
Ryoko and Seda nodded. “Right.”
They both left and I set a quick pace through the maze of warehouses. Ryoko and Rylan finally caught up with us, and it took us a while to figure out how to get out. We nearly ran into three groups of soldiers on the way, and each time, Arnia would begin to whimper, almost giving away our position.
Once we were in the back alleys, we were able to move faster. Unfortunately, it did nothing to keep our distance from the pursuing soldiers.
“They have a Hunter,” Seda informed me. “You’re going to have to be clever to get rid of it.”
“Great,” I muttered. “Seda just told me they’re following us with a Hunter. We need to think of something to lose them quickly.”
“It’d be wise to run around aimlessly and make sure we backtrack several times,” Rylan advised.
“But we don’t have that kind of time,” Ryoko objected.
“What if you two took something of ours and ran with it?” Raikidan offered.
Rylan nodded. “That would work. It would give you and Laz a chance to get out of here.”
The four of us stopped running and I removed my jacket. I handed it to Ryoko and she slung it over her shoulder. Raikidan set Arnia on her feet and removed his vest. He handed it over to Rylan and then took Arnia’s hand. “They need this glove.”
She nodded and let him take it off her. I hated seeing how submissive she had become. She was never like this before. I didn’t understand. What had they done to her?
Raikidan tossed Arnia’s glove to Rylan and then picked Arnia back up carefully. Each group wished the other luck and parted ways. Raikidan stuck close to me, and I touched Arnia’s shaved head from time to time to encourage her to stay calm. It pained me to see her exposed numbers. I didn’t like knowing she had been humiliated so badly.
Arnia cringed. “Jay is in trouble…”
I channeled my communicator’s signal to Aurora’s. “I need a status report.”
“The other groups finally found Jaybird and are now trying to get him out,” Aurora informed me. “But they’re not doing so hot. The military decided to bring out their own psychics, hindering our advantage.”
“Perfect,” I muttered. “Just keep tabs on them and give them a hand when they need it.”
“Will do. I have Ezhno giving me a hand with this, so they should be able to get him out, no problem, if they listen to us.”
“Good. See to it.” I cut the connection.
Arnia screamed when a wall burst near us.
“I found you!” a soldier’s voice bellowed.
“Go, go, go, go!” I told Raikidan as I pushed him forward.
We took every corner we came across in an attempt to lose the soldier. Every time we thought we had lost him, the soldier would crash through the buildings to close the distance. We took another turn and stopped in our tracks. We were faced with a dead end and no time to turn around. Arnia was visibly shaking now. I couldn’t bear to see her like this.
“What now?” Raikidan asked.
“I don’t know,” I said. “I could climb these walls with ease and you could fly over them, but we wouldn’t be able to bring Arnia. We might have to fight.”
“We might not have to.”
My brow rose. “Say that again?”
Raikidan placed Arnia down on her feet. “I was once told if a dragon concentrated hard enough, he could transfer some of his shapeshifting ability into someone else for a short period of time.”
“A dragon?” Arnia breathed.
“Yes, Raikidan is a dragon,” I told her. “But you must promise not to tell anyone.”
Arnia nodded vigorously. “I promise.”
“Good. Now, Raikidan, what do you mean by you were told? Have you not done it yourself?”
He snorted. “I barely found a reason to shapeshift, let alone find someone to practice forced shapeshifting on.”
I chuckled. “Good point. Do you think you’d be able to try once to see if it’s possible?”
He nodded. “It’s the only reason I suggested it. I won’t guarantee it’ll work, but it’s a shot.” I nodded and waited. Raikidan took Arnia in his arms and held her close. “This might feel a little strange.”
Arnia began to shake again, but a few quiet encouraging murmurs from Raikidan stopped them. Raikidan rested his chin on Arnia’s head and closed his eyes. I watched his face muscles tense with effort as he tried to do the impossible. I nearly gasped as both he and Arnia began to shift. The process was slow but unbroken. I stared when it was finally done. In front of me were two small rainbow boas. Snapping out of my awed daze, I scooped them up and wrapped them around my neck.
The boa I figured was Raikidan moved until he was securely attached to me, but Arnia was a little slower to react. I didn’t doubt the new body she was being forced to take was hard for her to use, especially with her lack of energy. Once she was finally in a good spot, I grabbed her discarded uniform on the ground and rushed for the wall. At the same time, the pursuing soldier crashed into the alley.
Picking up my pace, I scaled the wall with ease and jumped the rooftops. The soldier roared in anger as he couldn’t follow, and I laughed. We were in the clear as long as I could get us back to the house, and getting there undetected wasn’t going to be easy. I could hear the soldiers rushing around and could see the searchlights they were using to attempt to flush us all out.
I ducked behind a chimney when soldiers climbed up on a nearby roof and shone a searchlight in all directions. The light shone over to where I was hiding, and stayed there for some time before moving away. I didn’t move even when the light went out. It didn’t matter if I needed to get Arnia back to the house or if Raikidan could hold this shifting technique for much longer. I couldn’t chance us getting caught.
When I didn’t hear any soldiers after waiting for a little while longer, I crept out of my hiding spot. Unfortunately, I
wasn’t as alone as I had first thought. The soldiers were no longer on the other roof, instead, they were on the same one as me.
“Stay where you are!” a soldier ordered as he held a gun at the ready.
I stared at the three soldiers for a brief moment and then took off for the building next to this one. The soldiers warned me they would shoot me if I didn’t stop, but I wasn’t about to stop for them. I cleared the gap between the two buildings just as they began to open fire on me.
“Shit!” I ducked behind a pillar and only stayed out of the line of fire long enough to make a quick judgment call on the direction I should head. The bullets ceased to rain on me when I managed to get a few buildings away, but I wasn’t out of the thick of this yet.
Other soldiers heard the gunfire. More searchlights appeared and soldiers began climbing up on more roofs. I was forced to slow down, as I had to sneak around undetected. I ended up having to resort to using the alleys to get around certain buildings because of the heavy soldier traffic. I actually couldn’t believe the number of soldiers out here searching. I had never known Zarda to expend so many resources to search for a defect. But maybe it was because he knew Arnia and Jaybird had connections to the rebellion. Maybe he figured we’d be helping and he could get more of us if he did put out the resources for the search.
I scaled a wall and scurried on top of a roof. As I did, Arnia begin to squirm. I touched her to reassure her, but she continued. I realized what was going on. The forced shapeshift was wearing off.
“We’re almost there,” I whispered. “Just hold on.”
“Eira.” I looked around in surprise at the sound of Raikidan’s voice. “Eira, Seda is connecting our minds for me. I don’t want to sound pushy, but you need to move faster. I can’t keep this up for much longer.”
“I know, and I’m sorry it’s taking so long,” I replied. “I’m going as fast as I can. I expended a lot of energy back there. Please, just hang on a little longer. We only have a few more blocks to go.”
“I’ll do what I can.”
I cleared the jump for the next roof and stumbled on my landing. I really was losing energy, far too much for this. I didn’t understand. Righting myself, I continued on. There wasn’t time to think about it. I had to keep going until my feet couldn’t keep me up anymore.
Pieces Page 20