Synnergy, Chaos Time Book 3

by Marie Hall

She paused and Sable’s pulse started to pound a furious beat.

  “The dark, blue eyed one, he does not smell at all.” Alice frowned. “Had I not seen him step from his doorway, I’d have thought him as human as the other men downstairs.”

  “Hunter?”

  “If that is his name, yes.” Alice nodded. “I sense no power in him.”

  “That’s not possible. He’s the strongest of us.”

  “No. You are. He is something entirely different from us all.”

  Chapter 10: The Black Devil (Slayde)

  It had taken several hours to get to the mountain range. If it had been just him, he would have probably gotten here a while ago. But he’d forced the girls to stop and rest as often as possible. They were kneeling by a stream as clear and unpolluted as he’d ever seen. Sable was cupping water, her eyes peeled to the forest.

  She might be in human form, but the predator was never far behind. Hunter and Alice both had warned against shifting, or using any abilities, hoping to keep the element of surprise firmly on their side.

  Alice had sworn that the Enigma, as she’d called it, would sense it and flee. They’d talked for hours into the night, drafting up several scenarios, hoping to cover all bases to ensure victory this time. Hunter had been fairly certain (and though he rarely agreed with anything boy scout said, Slayde was too) that they would only get one chance at this.

  Alice had scouted out the location of the Enigma for years, never coming closer to a clue than now, the gold vein in the mountain guarded by the black devil. Slayde agreed, it had to be him.

  The sun was just beginning to set over the mountains, a deep reddish hue colored the night sky, but in the forest it was already dark. He was surprised the ease with which Sable got around. He and Arianna were stumbling on exposed roots and bedrock. She walked like it was smooth flat ground.

  Same for Hunter and Alice.

  Slayde scooped more of the icy water into his mouth. Hunter leaned upon a pale white tree, studying the forest. What was with that dude? He didn’t drink. In fact, Slayde couldn’t remember a time he actually ever saw him eating.

  There had to be some baggage, some flaw. Something. Because nobody was perfect.

  Slayde couldn’t make Hunter out. That, probably more than anything, irritated the hell out of him.

  He swallowed the water, not really tasting it. Hunter glanced at him, and as if aware that Slayde studied him. He walked over.

  “What do you want?” Slayde drawled.

  Hunter knelt down next to him. “She’s only seventeen,” he said without preamble.

  Slayde lifted a brow. “Guess you don’t know everything after all. She’ll be eighteen tomorrow.”

  Hunter cocked his head. “Hmm, I guess you’re right.” He wore a stupid grin on his face and Slayde clenched his fist wanting nothing more than to slam it into him and wipe it off.

  He glanced at Sable again. She was now standing and stretching with arms over her head and speaking in low tones to Alice. Arianna was the furthest from the pack. She was gripping the base of a tree and looked to be muttering something.

  He shook his head, their healer was swiftly becoming a liability.

  “Look.” Slayde reached for a twig, snapping it in half. “Why don’t you worry about your girl and stop worrying about mine.” He jerked his head towards Arianna. “She needs a lot more help than Sable does. Just saying.”

  The boy scout flinched for a fraction of a second, Slayde was shocked to see that something actually bothered the man. He shook his head. “Thing is, Eric.”

  His teeth gnashed. “Don’t call me by that name. You don’t know me. You don’t know anything about me.”

  Hunter’s nostrils flared. “Now’s not the time for this B.S. You want to scrap, we’ll scrap. But I swear to you,” he inched his face closer, “you won’t win.”

  Slayde didn’t know if it was the lighting, or lack thereof, but he could have sworn something moved beneath the surface of Hunter’s face. Like his face was the mask that covered the real one beneath and whatever it was, it hadn’t looked human.

  “You think I’m scared of you. I’m not. I’ve had people telling me that my whole life.” Slayde spread his arms. “I’m still here.”

  Hunter didn’t say anything for a moment. “I’m just telling you to be careful.”

  Fire raged in his belly, but he ignored the anger buzzing through his veins. “I’m not gonna break her heart.” Why had he said that? That was none of Hunter’s concern.

  He narrowed his eyes and stood. Slayde swore he was going to walk off, but then he paused and glanced down at him. “I never said you’d be the one to do it.”

  He left, leaving Slayde to wonder what that meant.

  Chapter 11: The Black Devil (Hunter)

  Hunter watched her. It was dark as sin out, the time when monsters came out to play and something was playing with her.

  Arianna was pale, two nights of little to no sleep. While the rest of them had talked shop, she’d been laying down in the corner of the room. He knew she’d listened, knew what it was she was supposed to do. But the thing was, he didn’t trust she had the stamina for this. She seemed so frail.

  No one cared. No one looked after her. They all had their problems and not enough room to take hers on.

  But he saw her.

  He clenched his fists.

  God, he saw her. He saw everything about her. He saw the white glow, that at first had been one soul but was now more and closing in on her. Like the sticky strands of spider webbing, it wrapped around her. Choking her. Killing her.

  He closed his eyes.

  He’d thought ignoring her would help. But it hadn’t. It was making everything worse.

  She stumbled hard over a rock and seconds before she dropped to the ground he was there. He couldn’t stop himself. He didn’t want to. The touch of her silky soft skin had his body trembling.

  “Synn,” he choked out, wanting to say so much more. Wanting to tug her into the shelter of his body, wrap her in his arms and never let go.

  “I’m fine,” she snapped. There was still power in her body, it rolled off her, that crystal resonance so deadly to others but like a tender caress to him. The scratches on his face, neck, and back started to seal shut.

  “No, you’re not,” he ground out between his teeth.

  The others weren’t that far ahead and must have heard. They turned to look. He waved them on.

  “You need to stay back. Stay here. I’ll go up with the others and—”

  She shoved him off her. Brown eyes glinted back at him. They used to turn molten when they looked at him, now she looked ready to claw his eyes out. Her hair was greasy. She hadn’t washed in days. Why had he neglected her this bad? He grabbed her elbow, but she jerked out his grip.

  “Dejame in paz!” she snapped at him.

  “No.” He pulled her back to him. “No. I won’t leave you. There’s death around you, Synn. I won’t let you do this.”

  She curled her lip. “What do you know of death?”

  More than she would ever know. He walked with death. It was his one constant in life.

  “Synn, please. Stay here.”

  Her dress was stained with black patches of spilled liquor. She smelled awful, all he wanted to do was wrap her in his arms and take her away from all of this. He should never have brought her here. She wasn’t ready. Might never be. Last time her parents had died she’d healed, she’d mended. With him. Had that been where he messed up? But it didn’t matter now, because she was starting at him with hate in her eyes.

  “You’ll not take this from me,” she barked out at him and then bolted like a scared rabbit after the others.

  Hunter was left gripping air, her ominous words echoed through the still woods.

  Chapter 12: The Black Devil (Sable)

  Alice glanced over her shoulder. The black irises almost completely obscured the brown. “We’re almost here. Do ye smell him?”

  Sable sniffed the air. It
smelled of damp leaves and musk. Not wholly unpleasant, but still she couldn’t stop the shiver. “No.”

  “Ye will.” Alice grabbed a large boulder and stepped up, a couple of pebbles skidded down the mountain incline.

  She scratched the back of her neck and stopped to peer over her shoulder. Something was watching them. Not human, it was stalking them actually. She wondered what types of animals walked these forests.

  Running from a predator was a bad idea, but it was creeping her out. She jogged to catch up to Alice, but she still felt it watching them. Watching her. Her skin tingled.

  “Talk to me,” she said.

  Alice looked at her. “About what?”

  “About anything. Just take my mind off this.”

  “Did you know that the average dog has over two hundred and twenty million scent receptors?” Alice’s lips quirked. “Twenty five times more than humans.”

  “No.” Sable grinned. “How do you know that?”

  Alie tapped her nose. “I don’t just look like what I shift into; I am what I shift into. That means when someone passes wind, I smell not only the stench but the beans, tack, and pork belly they ate to make it.”

  “Gross.”

  She nodded and shared a small chuckle. “What is your world like, Sable? Are there differences to what is here?”

  Sable slipped on a chunk of rock. Alice grabbed her by the arm. “Careful, the moss around here can be quite slick as times.”

  “Thanks.” Sable tucked a sweaty strand of hair behind her ear. Alice didn’t look winded in the slightest. Her breathing was nice and even, Sable on the other hand was sucking air while trying not to hyperventilate at the same time.

  “My world,” she said after a moment. “Well, you’re right on the cusp of the first car.”

  “Car? What are those?”

  She scrunched her nose, trying to figure out how to translate something that seemed so simple to her, but beyond belief for someone used to horses and wagons. Duh, of course. “It’s a wagon with wheels, but no horses to draw it.”

  “Really?” Her eyes were wide, filled with wonder. “How is that possible? Magic?”

  “No.” She smiled. “Magic is nothing but science unexplained.” She glanced at Hunter from the corner of her eye, finally understanding.

  “True enough I suppose.” Alice nodded.

  “It’s components that run independent of humans, but still needing a power source of some type. They’re very fast. We could have traveled from the brothel to the Lord location in under an hour in one of those.”

  “Unbelievable.”

  Sable nodded.

  Alice was silent for a moment. “I’d love to see that someday.”

  “Maybe you can, Alice. Maybe you could come back with us.”

  “I don’t know. The future seems a frightening thought.”

  “Yeah, but so was the past. And I did it.”

  Alice’s lips pressed tight. “Once I finish this mission, I’m free.”

  “See, no reason not to.”

  Alice placed a hand against her cheek. “I can’t believe I’m even entertaining this asinine thought.”

  “Besides,” Sable lifted her brows, “you have to teach me how to do some spell casting. Could I learn that?”

  “With practice, absolutely. It’s a simple spell really.”

  Sable smiled, thrilled by the possibility of learning more about who she was through Alice’s years as a shifter. Hunter would be happy. How could he not? Alice would be an asset to the group.

  Alice shoulder bumped her. “But first, let’s kill the Enigma, yes?”

  “Agreed.” And there was no doubt in her mind they would.

  Alice increased her pace, forcing everyone else to. After thirty minutes of power walking Sable’s calves started screaming. She’d never walked so much in her life. She wasn’t exactly out of shape, but she wasn’t exactly an athlete either. Wishing for the hundredth time she could turn phoenix she trudged on. The soles of her feet burned and cramped.

  The sun had set about an hour ago. Everyone was quiet again. Even the woods were quiet. Only in the absence of sound did she realize it’d gone, earlier there’d been chirping crickets and birds. Now there was nothing. Even the breeze didn’t stir.

  The night was thick with moisture. Sweat beaded on her forehead. She licked her lips and tried to ignore her heaving lungs. But it wasn’t only her lungs giving her fits, her stomach was knotted and hurting so bad that pain radiated down both legs. Her vision became pinpricks of light and she had to stop and hang on to a sapling with arm muscles trembling from fatigue.

  This was weird. Wrong. This wasn’t a normal case of being out of shape.

  “Hey.” A warm hand was on her back, on her face. She melted into Slayde’s touch. “You okay, Nix?”

  She hissed as another hot flash ripped through her midsection, stealing all the breath from her lungs.

  “Nix?” he asked again, his voice filled with worry.

  Counting in her head, praying the pain would go away, she couldn’t answer him. She got to ten before the waves of cramps started to ease and she could finally take a breath. She was sweating something horrible, it dripped off her nose. She wiped her nose with the back of her hand and stood up. Her breathing was still heavy, but her vision had come back. She blinked and gave him a tremulous smile.

  “I’ll be fine. Just give me a minute. This climb.”

  It wasn’t the climb and she wasn’t sure why she wasn’t telling him the truth. Maybe because she didn’t want him to think she was crazy, but this pain was strange.

  “Maybe when we get home we’ll start jogging.” Slayde’s grin was strong and sure, but worry still gleamed in his blue eyes.

  His comment had her lips quirking, even against the dull ache. He’d said we. “Yeah maybe. Thanks.” She nodded. “I’m good now.”

  Slayde still looked worried, but at least he didn’t argue with her, only hovered beside her.

  She turned to Alice. “Well, lead on.”

  Alice nodded and walked on. After a while Slayde drifted further and further back. When he was well in the distance, Alice leaned in and asked, “Same pain as before?”

  She peeked over her shoulder. Slayde wasn’t looking at her; he was peering into the woods. The moon was heavy and pregnant with light, the trees were blue-black shadows and she knew without a doubt there was nothing there. Anymore.

  “It ebbs and flows.” She edged closer to Alice. “I feel it most when I sense...an animal.”

  “An animal?”

  “A presence?” Sable shrugged. “I don’t know. Something’s stalking us and when it does, it hurts.” That sounded so lame.

  Alice smiled. She was wearing pants and a shirt, same as Sable, but unlike Sable, hers hugged her very curvy figure. Alice had said walking in a dress in the middle of the woods to go do battle with a demon wasn’t proper wear. Sable had jumped all over that, until she realized she looked like a little boy in her clothes. Which was stupidly vain, and should be the least of her worries right now.

  “You’re right. We’ve been followed since the stream. Your visceral reaction to the creature is quite interesting.”

  “Creature?”

  “Sniff the air,” Alice ordered, ignoring Sable’s question.

  “I’ve been sniffing. All I smell is the forest.”

  “Sniff it again and again and again. You’ll smell it.”

  She huffed, but did as told and tipped her nose up. This time she didn’t have to take a deep breath, she smelled it instantly. And it was something she’d smelled before.

  She’d assumed the first time she’d smelled this scent that it’d been due to walking through a lava filled earthen tube. The rotten eggy stench of sulfur.

  “We’re getting closer.” She winked. “That is the trick, phoenix, follow the stench.”

  The further they walked, the stronger it grew. Until she had to cover her nose with her shirt just to take a proper breath. It was hard to know
exactly how much longer they walked with no sun to track the shadows by, but before she knew it, Alice placed a finger against her lips. They all stopped.

  Still the world was static. Tomb like. As if nature sensed the intrinsic danger that dwelled here. It was so empty of sound it echoed with it. Her eyes widened, she looked all around, wishing her head could rotate like an owl’s. Or maybe like a phoenix, if she could freaking shift! She so wished she was in bird form right now, she’d feel a million times better and much less creeped out.

  Heat pressed against her back. She molded herself along the tensile strength of Slayde’s body, needing his touch right now. Though he sometimes aggravated her, she was grateful to have him here.

  His fingers worked magic, rubbing the tension out of her neck.

  Ahead, was a large jagged mountain that seemed to stretch to infinity into the sky. The night cast it in shades of purple and muted browns. A large black opening in the rock seemed to indicate there was a cave here. And what was it with these Lords hiding in rocks?

  There could be no doubt that he was here though, the smell of rotten eggs was everywhere.

  “Stinks like that freakin’ pyramid in Mexico,” Slayde muttered.

  She nodded.

  Alice held up two hands and gestured to the left. No more time to think, to worry and wait. The time was now. She shook her hands and hopped on the balls of her feet like a fighter entering the ring. Showtime.

  Hunter stepped up, holding tight to Ari’s hand and with a clipped nod, jerked the healer off to the left. They disappeared behind a copse of trees.

  Alice looked at her and Slayde and jerked her head toward the right. Slayde intertwined his fingers through hers and squeezed it gently.

  She felt like her body was a tuning fork. Both vibrating and tense at the same time with her barely suppressed need to scream just to ease the nerves spreading like an oil slick in her gut.

  Much like the eye of a tornado, eerily calm before catastrophic danger struck, she knew they were seconds away from finally meeting the Lord. From finally seeing his face and hopefully, this time it would be his blood staining the ground.