After that he started forward again, and moved slowly enough that we were all quiet. We could hear a soft murmuring coming from up ahead, and the closer we got the louder and more distinct it became. It was a woman's voice speaking to someone. That much I was sure of.
Talon looked over his shoulder at us, signaled for us to stay as close as we could, and to be quiet. All of us did exactly that though, without him even needing to say it. Everything was too quiet and awkward right now; I knew something bad was going to happen… I could feel it all over again.
Talon held up one of his hands, it was a signal I'd learned a few weeks ago, it basically meant stay where the hell you are. He looked around the corner, I was the closest one, and didn't care to listen to him. I just wanted to find Tom and know that he was okay.
When I looked around that corner I was shocked. There were all the missing guards, Layre was bound at the woman's feet, and she was no longer Morana. She was a stunningly beautiful woman, so pretty it almost hurt to look at her. Almost.
Amamai? I thought to myself guessing.
All of the men, who were in there, were frozen in place staring at her, spellbound. Tom was standing next to her, practically throwing himself on her, his eyes were glazed over, making me think of a Zombie's, and Amamai only laughed and leaned into Tom's kisses along her neck.
“We shall wipe these fools from existence.” She announced proudly to the group of people who stood there.
There was a quick roar of agreement following that. Talon even agreed, and I stared at him horrified. Pulling him back and turning him towards me, his eyes went slowly from glazed over to their natural brown color, and he looked confused. Almost as if he didn't know why he was looking at me now.
“What happened?” He demanded in a hushed but harsh voice.
“I think, when you looked at her you were spellbound by her, literally.” I told him, swallowing hard.
“Why weren’t you affected then, obviously you were looking to.”
“Because, I’m not a man, nor am I interested in women.” I replied to him, giving him a slightly dirty look.
He stared at me for a long moment, mulling it over in his mind and then locked his jaw. “How the hell do we fight someone we can’t look at?”
“By not looking at her.” I spoke instantly. “By listening to what someone tells you, and trusting them with your life.”
“What on earth are you planning in there Raine?” Dolphus asked me.
“Dolphus, come here for a moment.” I told him, motioning him towards me with my hand.
Dolphus walked over to me as fast and silently as he could, looking at me with the fierce look of a warrior. Something I didn't see in Dolphus a lot of the time. Something I admired in him at times like this.
“I want you to look at her,” I started to explain to him, smiling weakly. “I want to see if you’re affected too.”
He rolled his eyes, showing me what he thought of my plan. He peeked around the corner at Amamai, and then went completely rigid for a moment. I wasn't sure whether to panic or not, and was growing worried until he turned his head and looked back at me wide eyed. “She’s so pretty it’s devastating.” He told me in a pained voice.
Smiling uneasily, I let out a sigh. “Dolphus. Nickel and Talon, they’re going to have to depend on us.” I said to him, frowning just slightly.
“We’re the only ones who can look at her head on, aren’t we?”
I nodded my head to him in return, shifting my eyes slowly towards Talon and Nixon for a moment. Then I looked back around the corner at everyone, there were so many people there that it was insane. This was something she'd planned out…
“So, let’s find Nixon and Fang from here, that way we can go at her three on each side, and then from there we’ll attack and get Layre and Tom back.” Dolphus sounded excited, and ready to go on. “Eyloff’s right there.”
I looked to where he had pointed his finger and saw sure enough, Eyloff. He was practically next to us, staring straight at Amamai and agreeing with every word she said.
He would be the easy one to grab, if we could do it fast enough and quietly enough. It'd be bad if we didn't have him, Nixon, or Fang with us. At least one of three meant we stood a better chance. Now the only problem was snatching him.
“So, I take it Talon’s going to step down and make Raine captain for this?” Nickel asked happily, I could hear the smirk in his voice and wanted to shake my head.
Looking back at them, I saw Talon scowl but stay silent before looking over at me. “I suppose so.” I answered him instead, frowning at Talon.
“What’s the plan then, General?” Nickel smiled happily. He was enjoying this all too much, but then again, when did he ever get to screw with Talon like this.
“Nickel you and Talon stay here for a moment, Dolphus and I will grab Eyloff so we can move in with another set of hands. I think this just may turn into a battle against our own comrades.” I grimaced at that thought, fighting the people I loved… I didn't like it one bit.
“Great.” Talon let out a low growl, as he listened to what I was saying. I had to agree with his tone about this one though; I didn't want to do it.
“Hurry then, she’s getting ready for something.” Nickel said, growing tense as he stood up straighter, listening.
I nodded my head, and looked at Dolphus. We slithering along the sides of the walls, and watching Amamai as she spoke. Taking care to be silent we got to Eyloff, and while she was still busy we grabbed him, covering his mouth with our hands and dragging him back to Talon and Nickel.
He was snarling, protesting and growling against Dolphus's hand but we kept moving. Once we got him around the corner, we made sure to cut off Eyloff's eye contact with Amamai and watched as his eyes changed from glazed over to yellow. His anger that was seeping from him at this point was aimed at Dolphus, and no one else.
“What was that for?” He snapped at Dolphus, he looked like a rabid dog. Smiling was something I couldn't help, Eyloff was back and that made us stronger.
“You were under a spell, and you need to help us.” Dolphus started to explain to him, frowning deeply before his voice became thick with nothing but sarcasm. “Or you can die with whoever else gets caught in Amamai’s plans, she did after all capture Layre and the others.”
Eyloff looked between all of us, he was startled as hell. I couldn't blame him for that, he probably had no idea what had happened to him. “Wait, what?”
I watched as his facial expressions changed while we gave him a quick rundown of what was going on. He went from startled, to angry and then finally outraged.
“How can I fight if I can’t watch the woman? Can I trust you to warn me?” He asked me as quickly as possible, and then looked to Dolphus.
“You’re my guardian, and you honestly think I wouldn’t have your back?” I asked him, letting out an annoyed sound. “If it’s that bad depend on Dolphus, like I told you, me and him are the only two.”
“I’ll depend on him then.”
“You’re such an ass.”
“Get used to it.”
Rolling my eyes, I pushed away from them. I looked back around the corner for Fang and Nixon. It didn't take long to spot them, but I was nearly mortified by who was standing with them. Everything became that much harder when I realized what was going on there.
Nixon's father and Raven were standing next to them. His father, Heath held Bliss tightly in his grasp, and Raven held his sister Pandora. Their mother was nowhere to be seen, but they were clearly in the way of harm, since the kids were struggling like they were…
“Oh god…” I managed to whisper, staring wide eyed still.
“What’s wrong Raine?” I heard someone ask, I didn't turn at first to look, just kept watching the scene.
I turned around suddenly, and started moving towards the small group I had back here now. “They have Nixon’s little sisters and they’re being held by Raven and his dad… Fang and Nixon are next to them.”
“We could grab them all at once, but they could kill the girls with their bare hands. We’d have to get Fang and Nixon, then them.” Nickel started to suggest to me, his eyebrows were furrowed in concern.
“I know…” I stared down at my hands, my eyes slowly drifting over the sword that was clutched tightly in my hands. The knuckles began to turn white as I gripped it tighter, and started to shake my head. “We need to move fa-”
Talon grabbed hold of my arm, pushed me back against the corner, and left me stunned and worried for a moment. “Get me over there, now.” He practically hissed every word into my ear. I could feel my hairs standing up on end along my arms and neck.
Staring at him I only saw anger in his blood red eyes. I knew I couldn't argue with him right now, nor did I want to, these were people we all cared for. I knew his reasoning for being like this was simply Nixon and his family, what felt like his second family.
He didn't want the only people that he'd finally grown close to, and trusted, to be harmed. Talon didn't want to lose what he'd kept so close to himself, even if he tried to hide it from us sometimes. He was in the same position I was over my brother, we were worried and wanted them to be safe.
Chapter 12
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“Keep your eyes on my back, don’t look anywhere else, follow me and don’t look at anything.” I told him, breathlessly. Without any hesitation, I took off around the corner. We moved like cats, slinking slowly, weaving around everyone till we got to the point we finally wanted to get to. Everyone was still cheering and talking around us as Amamai brainwashed them. If we didn't make it out of here, we were going to be the first to die.
“In less than an hour, we shall sacrifice our four chosen, and in return take down this place!” Amamai shouted into the group, sounding almost like a crazed warrior. “The blood spilled of a human, a vampire, and enough dhampire blood to equal that of a full grown dhampire!”
As soon as I heard that, I almost froze where I stood. I noticed out of the corner of my eye Talon did freeze. Looking back at him I saw his expression was unreadable, but he spoke in a nearly silent voice, I couldn't make it out at first but then I realized what he'd said. “She doesn’t mean…”
Swallowing hard, I stared up at my brother and then Layre… Bliss, and Pandora. This wasn't something I would let happen if I had my way, I was going to find something somehow. “We have to stop this, Talon.”
“I’m going to rip that so called goddess into pieces and burn them.” Talon hissed, pushing me forward roughly and hissing at me again. “Go!”
I moved on without a second thought, not even bothering to be sneaky about it anymore. We made it to Fang and Nixon quickly, well as quickly as I could manage without tripping and knocking over anyone. Talon moved next to me keeping his gaze down and grabbing Nixon, nearly shaking him to death. I could hear him growling under his breath but he didn't give up on what he was doing.
All I could do was watch him, hoping that Nixon snapped out of this, and came back to reality. “Snap out of it, now!” He nearly screamed in his face, I took hold of Fang and turned him towards myself. I kept repeating his name, and started shaking him a bit trying to get his attention. Then, I heard Amamai scream.
“You two! Get those girls away from them, the rest of you, seize them!” She cried, pointing at us. I could feel the blood leaving my face.
The panic started to take over me, and just as the others began to charge toward us I felt Fang's hand move. It lashed out, grabbing a vampire that stood behind me, and his eyes snapped down to me. “What, in the name of the gods, is going on?” Fang growled at me, and then threw the vampire off to the side.
Nixon was next to me almost immediately, throwing two more vampires off to the side. I pulled my sword up, turning and shouting out for Dolphus and the others as I started fighting alongside Nixon, Fang and Talon.
I saw a demon smile in front of me. It was a sickly smile, he was too pale looking, with eyes that had no pupils or iris's, they were simply black. Within a second of looking at him, I fell to the ground gasping for the air that I seemed to lack now.
I clawed frantically at my throat as it began to close. It felt like someone was choking me with their bare hands. I thought I was going to pass out, die even, until the air rushed back into me again and I started gagging and coughing as I felt my lungs expand once more.
I could breathe again, but I had no idea what had just happened. I assumed it was the magic demon's possessed the magic that I now hated with every bit of my soul. When I looked up to see what stopped it, I saw that Nickel was next to me with a worried expression on his face.
“This is bad,” He started to murmur to me, looking around at everyone. “Demons, vampires, half demons, hell dhampire’s.” He leaned down and helped me up. His gaze fell back onto my own and I was frightened again. “You realize we demons have magic.”
I nodded my head, trying to find words to speak again, almost afraid that if I did I'd be without oxygen once more. “Try to pinpoint the demons, does Fang have magic?” I asked him, looking at what was going on around him and searching for the others.
“Some, he’s got enough to knock a few out.”
Grabbing my blade tightly I looked for the Goddess and my brother. The others were out in the middle of this mess now, I knew they were doing what they were trained for, fighting to protect innocents. Even if the ones they fought were innocents too. “What can we do, if we can’t kill them?”
“Maneuver around them, get to the source.” He told me, nodding his head as if agreeing to his own thoughts.
Talon ended up back by me, his eyes were a deeper red than before, and I was wondering where the blood around his neck and face had come from. This was getting bad, worse than I thought it was going to get.
He had rips all over his shirt and pants, flesh was exposed with newly healed cuts and he had dried blood all over him. There were even a few jagged scar's on him that must have been from the worst injures that just healed up. “Think you can get me and Nickel up to Amamai?” He asked me, staring at me with those piercing eyes.
“I believe so.” I told him, looking for her. It didn't take long for me to spot her slim figure, dragging Layre by the hair beside her. “There! Follow me.”
I took off without wasting another second of time, beating my way around dozens of bodies and focusing only on the Goddess. I snorted to myself, recalling that she was in fact a Goddess. She was more of a Nightmare to me; she belonged in hell more than she did anywhere else. She herself was a demon.
“Dead ahead don’t look up!” I shouted back to them, as I kept running.
Talon ended up brushing past me at a speed my eyes couldn't follow. He went straight to the girls, and I saw Amamai drop Layre. She moved towards Talon and I yelled something that my brain couldn't even comprehend, or hear, but whatever it was Amamai stopped dead in her tracks.
She looked over at me smiling wickedly. I knew I was in deep shit then, and just stared back at her. I didn't feel fear, I just felt strong and ready to fight. To get everyone to safety. Even if it meant sacrificing myself to do so.
Nickel flew past me towards Layre and Tom. I stared Amamai down, still moving closer to her with each step. I felt like I was almost floating on air as I moved. Nothing around me was real anymore, it was like the only things that existed now, were me and her. Face to face.
“Don’t tell me, you are what they sent to kill us off?” She started to laugh, it was a bittersweet sound that was like nails on a chalkboard to me. “This is priceless, a weak human girl!”
With that I felt my lips tug into a smirk, and the more she laughed the more it changed into a snarl. Lunging at her, I watched as a ribbon of blood started to swell from her shoulder. She wasn't quiet fast enough to move away f
rom my blade as it struck her, and she stared at the cut.
Her lips peeled back into what looked like a wicked smile that sent chills down my spine. Dipping two fingers into the cut, she licked the blood that was now running down her arm and stared straight at me. “You’ve got nerve girl.” She hissed, still watching me closely. “But, nerve only lands you on your death bed with me.”
“I will take you down with me.” I smiled at her, tilting my head to the side slowly.
She laughed at me once more, and then she lunged at me. Her nails suddenly looked too sharp, and her own beauty practically dissolved before my eyes, into something so disturbingly and unnatural it was frightening to see. I flew back, landing so hard that I couldn't help but cry out, white hot pain started to flare throughout my body, and tears stung my eyes.
Book of Curses (The Renning Chronicles) Page 15