“Is that what I think it is?”
She nodded. “I know an apothecary. He assured me we’d have a good time.”
It wasn’t Witches’ blood but a substance that was just as coveted in Hell. They called it Elixir and it was famous throughout the realm because it contained drops of Witches’ blood that had been purified of the poison. It was how Souls got high. As long as it was properly produced, that is. Otherwise they died. It was a risk they were willing to take.
“How do I know it’s not Cider?” I asked, narrowing my eyes at Lenora. Cider was pure poison. No creature except a Witch could drink it. Better not to be too trusting.
“Suspicious, are we?”
“I like to be cautious.”
“I never would have imagined that about you,” she replied with a sardonic smile. She shrugged and tipped the vial over her lips. A droplet fell through the air and she caught it on her tongue, looking at me the whole time. “What do you say now?”
“I think I’ll drink it from your lips.” I pulled her against me in a long kiss and the Elixir enraptured my mind with its fruity succulence. The Apothecaries were skilled at removing the poison from the blood. One miscalculation and the substance became lethal. Not for those like me, naturally, but Lenora definitely would have died. The three of us drained the vial of its contents and the warm liquid soon took its effect. An intoxicating sensation, especially when combined with the ecstasy of their bodies pressed against mine.
“Can I ask you a question?” Lenora said.
“Sure thing, blondie. Ask me anything you want.”
“Who’s Stella?”
I froze. I didn’t want to think about Stella just then. Anything but. Ever since I’d lost her, I’d done everything I could to avoid thinking of her. Every woman I picked up, every risk I ran was nothing but my desperate attempt to take my mind off Stella.
“Does it seem like the time to bring that up?” Khetra asked her reproachfully.
“She’s right. I don’t want to think about her right now. She’s not important.”
“She must be important since you get so upset whenever our mistress takes on her appearance.”
I clenched my fists. “She used to be, but she died when I was still back on Earth.”
Lenora looked into my eyes. She seemed to want to tell me something. When she finally spoke, my whole world shattered into a million pieces.
“She’s out there. In Hell. I’ve seen her.”
I grabbed her by the shoulders, shocked. “What did you just say? It can’t be.”
“She’s out there somewhere,” she repeated. “I saw her in Kreeshna’s crystal sphere. The mistress has been watching her for a long time now.”
My eyes opened wide and I staggered backwards, supporting myself against the wall to avoid falling. It was impossible. I had always believed a Subterranean had helped Stella cross over, had taken her to Eden, where I would never be able to see her again. The thought that I hadn’t been able to say goodbye to her had almost destroyed me. How could a creature as pure as she was end up in Hell? “It can’t be,” I insisted, in a complete daze.
Khetra moved away, annoyed. “Sometimes mortals have dangerous desires, and the Witches know how to fulfill them in exchange for their souls.” With this, she smiled. She enjoyed that game.
I didn’t.
Stella, in Hell? She must be terrified.
My head was awhirl with thoughts, images, terrible conjectures. Before I could overcome my shock, the tower doors suddenly burst open. A Mizhya raced through them in my direction. She had a threatening air, but only a few steps later she arched her back, her eyes opened wide, and she fell facedown on the floor.
I looked up at Faust, who was standing just outside the doors. Lenora and Khetra put themselves on guard, brandishing their weapons. “Stay back, Soldier,” the latter ordered him.
He ignored them, urgency in his voice. “Drake, there’s something you need to know.”
“I already do,” I said, nodding, grateful that he had come running to tell me just as soon as he’d found out. Faust knew me well. I’d talked to him several times about Stella when I was too drunk on Elixir to keep my secrets to myself.
“You’d better hurry. Kreeshna is hunting her down.”
The blood turned to ice in my veins. I strode over to Faust. “How do you know all this? How?!”
“My Amìsha Anya told me. Kreeshna wants to bring her here and throw her into the Opalion.”
I reeled away from Faust, even more devastated than before. Learning that Stella was in Hell had been a shock. Imagining her in the Opalion was too much to bear. So that was why the Witches had been going on Hunts so often recently: they were looking for Stella. She wouldn’t last one minute in the Games.
“She’ll pit her against you,” Khetra broke in, thinking out loud. “She’ll want you to kill her in the Opalion to prove your devotion. She’ll track her down, no matter what it takes. You can’t prevent it.”
My eyes widened. This was even worse.
“She’s nasty,” Lenora said. “It would be just like her.”
“Faust, look out!” I shouted.
The Mizhya on the ground had pulled the dagger out of the back of her neck and was poised to attack my friend from behind. Faust blocked the blow and grabbed the weapon. This time he stabbed her beneath the ear—the only spot on the Damned where a dagger thrust was lethal—and the Mizhya exploded in a cloud of dust.
“You killed her!” Lenora cried in dismay.
“She tried to keep me from coming here to warn him,” Faust said in his defense.
I barely heard their voices. A deafening thought was pounding in my temples: Stella was out there. “I have to find her before Kreeshna does,” I murmured, my heart full of conflicting emotions. Fear . . . and hope. Would I really find Stella again? There was no time for an escape plan. I had to hurry or that hope would also vanish in a cloud of dust.
“Stay where you are,” Lenora warned me, guessing my intentions.
Faust blocked her way. “Step aside, unless you want to end up like your friend.”
“Try it,” the Mizhya shot back, brandishing her dagger, “and the poison on my blade will give you a taste of justice.”
Faust attacked Lenora, and Khetra darted toward me. Taking a giant leap, she whipped out a set of double sticks, which I dodged just in time. “Drake, please, don’t do anything stupid.”
“People tell me that all the time, but I never listen to them,” I replied, returning her attack.
“Didn’t you say she doesn’t matter to you?”
I managed to yank one of the sticks away from her and our weapons slammed together. “I lied. I’ve spent a lifetime trying to get over losing her, and now that I have a shot at finding her again I’m not going to miss my chance.”
Faust dealt a blow to Lenora and she crashed to the ground, out cold. He picked up her dagger and prepared to finish her off, but Khetra stopped him.
“No! Don’t kill her.” She raised her hands in a gesture of surrender.
“Believe me, I don’t want to,” Faust said, “but she’s going to wake up and tell them everything.”
“She won’t. You have my word. Don’t kill her.”
Faust shot me a hesitant glance and when I nodded, he gave them the benefit of the doubt. “All right, but I’ll be keeping an eye on her to make sure she doesn’t change her mind. The same goes for you.”
“I’ll make sure it doesn’t happen,” Khetra promised. She knelt at Lenora’s side.
I turned to Faust. “Hey, bud—”
“Don’t thank me too much.” He cut me off with a cocky smile. “I owed you one after kicking your ass in the Opalion.”
“Yeah, right.”
He gripped my fist and we man-hugged. “Admit it, it must’ve been humiliating to be defeated in front of all those people.”
I burst out laughing. “Come back and see me when you’ve gotten all that lymphe out of your bloodstream, then we’l
l see who kicks whose ass.”
Faust laughed. “I’m not giving up such a privilege for you. It was a good fight, though. But you’re still just an ex-military player.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment.” I leaned over Lenora and picked up her hooked daggers. “These’ll come in handy.” I winked at Khetra and she rose to her feet, standing in front of me. We stared at each other for a long moment. I wasn’t so sure she wanted to let me go any more. Still, what I saw in her eyes was sadness, not defeat. Finally she stepped aside.
Closing the distance between us, I locked my eyes on hers. “If they find out you let me go, you know what they’ll do to you. Can I trust you?”
“I won’t betray you. Besides, I have a greater chance of being killed if you stay here.”
I nodded, grateful, and brushed my lips against hers. Then I drove the daggers into the rock and leapt over the wall.
“Be careful. It’s hell out there,” Faust warned me.
“I’ll remember that.” I mimed a military salute and began to lower myself, but instantly plunged several yards before managing to break my fall. “Whoa!” I exclaimed, planting my feet against the wall and clinging to the daggers. “If I manage to reach the ground in one piece, that is,” I said under my breath.
I looked down. Shit, was I high up! The twilight made it even more difficult to make out my destination. I shot my head back up to ward off the dizziness. Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath.
Come on, Drake. You got this.
The thought of Stella gave me the drive I needed to snap out of it and continue my descent. I couldn’t believe there was actually a chance I might see her again. How on earth had she ended up in Hell?
When I finally reached the ground, I looked around. I hadn’t left the Castle even once since I’d gotten there. Large bare trees with twisted branches stood guard outside the fortress, almost like living creatures haunting the grounds. Their tangled roots spread out in every direction. They looked like they were lying in wait for anyone who tried to sneak past, ready to hunt them down. To hunt me down. Maybe they really were. I would find out soon enough, because there was no other way to escape from the Castle.
Making my way into the dark wood, I peered around warily. Soon I realized the trees weren’t moving, though their trunks looked like faces twisted into grimaces of terror. I laughed to myself. “Shit, Drake. You have one wild imagination.”
Something moved behind me and I spun around. A branch was swaying slightly but nothing was there. I shook my head. “Man, I could use a drink.” Sheathing Lenora’s daggers, I kept walking. I had to get away from there fast, before the Witches came back from the Kryadon. My only hope was that Kreeshna hadn’t tracked Stella down yet. How could an innocent, defenseless creature like her be any good at hiding? I didn’t dare imagine what Kreeshna would do to her if she found her before I did.
So that was why the Witch continued to take on her appearance. She was testing my loyalty. Stella was still alive and that made her a threat. If Stella’s life hadn’t been at stake I would have been flattered by Kreeshna’s desire for my total devotion. Come to think of it, maybe for the Witch I was only a whim, like everything else. Maybe the fact that my heart had been given to another woman just made the game more exciting to her. I leaned against a boulder as I tried to get my bearings. I had no destination, but I didn’t want to end up going back up the road leading to the Castle either.
There was a snort and the rock behind me shoved me away. I spun around, on alert, and watched the rock as it rose up, growing as big as a tank.
“I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” I muttered. Slowly I pulled out the two daggers, prepared to fight. The creature turned, its rocky face inches from mine.
“Holy fuck,” I whispered, appalled. In reply, the stone-bear opened its massive jaws and hit me with a savage shriek, its mouth filled with sharp teeth.
If there was one thing I hadn’t imagined about Hell, it was that I might be eaten alive by a rock.
3
Hell Has Its Faults
When the horrible creature stopped screaming at me, I slowly sheathed my knives. “These won’t help me any. Unless I decide to tickle you.” I hoped it would understand that I wasn’t looking for trouble. Living creatures could sense certain things, right?
I backed up. “Okay, now I’m going to slowly leave and let you get back to your nap.” The beast spewed a greenish liquid in my direction. “Aw, gross! Hasn’t anyone ever taught you manners?”
It shot up, enraged. Another shriek burst from its giant mouth. There were pieces of flesh caught in its teeth. No point hoping it was a vegetarian. It was time to get my ass out of there.
“It’s been real!” I bolted off without looking back. “If I survive this I’m going to need a nice, long bath.” The animal didn’t seem to be following me, but just to be on the safe side I didn’t stop. I didn’t want to be digested by a big rock with fangs.
I spotted the mouth of a cave and slipped inside to catch my breath. In there I would be safe from that creature and from the Witches, who must have returned from the Hunt by now. What if Kreeshna had already noticed I was gone? How long did I have before she came looking for me?
A dim glow caught my eye. It was the only shaft of light in the darkness of the cave. I followed it to an open space barely illuminated by a hole in the ceiling that led outside. There was something hidden there in the shadows. I tried to move cautiously. It looked like a human shape but there was no telling for sure. When I was close enough I realized I was right.
It was a girl.
It took me a moment to get over my shock. Maybe I had gotten there too late.
Her arms were stretched out and her wrists were chained to opposite walls of the cave. Her hair hung down, blocking my view of her face, but she was clearly a teenager.
I moved closer. She wore a white dress splattered with dark patches, the blood of the Damned. The largest patch was in the center, where a long piece of wood protruded from her abdomen. “My God, what did they do to you?” I gulped. It was a gruesome sight. The girl moved her dangling head and I almost jumped out of my skin.
“Hey, you awake?” Without thinking twice, I took hold of the wooden stick buried in her flesh and pulled it out. She inhaled noisily, as though she hadn’t had air in days. “Who did this to you?”
She raised her dark, weary eyes to me, but they instantly shot to something behind me and filled with terror. I spun around, the stick still in my hand, and froze. Skeletal men had crawled in through the hole in the ceiling and were creeping down the walls like giant spiders. I must have ended up in their nest and the girl was their meal.
“Stop right there!” I ordered them, backing toward her protectively. The cave filled with the grunts of the creatures, who continued to creep down the walls. To my amazement, one of them spoke in a raspy voice: “It is not wise to defend the Unholy.”
“I’ve met Unholy creatures and this girl is definitely not one of them,” I blurted. But then I noticed that the girl behind me was sniffing me. I turned around, horrified. Her eyes had become two dark pools, her gaze possessed, and her teeth those of a shark, smeared with black blood. “Holy fuck!” I shot away from her and all the creatures leapt to the ground, trapping me. “Okay, my bad.”
I had to pay more attention in my attempts to identify the Damned. As for the intentions of the shady characters surrounding me, I had no doubt: it was not good news. “What do you say I slink off and leave you guys to your disgusting dinner?” I looked around for a way out, but there wasn’t one.
“You will go nowhere.” They emitted a strange noise again, one that sounded like the hissing of an angry cat.
“You are both our prey. Two is better than one. There are many of us. We must eat,” one of the more sociable ones explained, almost like it wanted to convince me.
My grip tightened on the stick. “Sorry. I’m not on the menu today.” I spun the weapon around and struck the scrawny Soul full in the fac
e. It was pretty easy to send it sprawling on the ground, as light as it was. Standing over it, I drove the stick into its skull. “Though I’m sure I taste delicious.”
“Uh-oh.” The smile died on my lips when another skeleton crept out of the shadows and confronted me, angrier than ever. It let out a shrill shriek that echoed through the cave and the entire swarm rushed at me. “Okay, bring it, you bags of bones!” I struck left, right, and center without a second’s pause. I knew that if I stopped they would overpower me. I was outnumbered but had no intention of dying, knowing that Stella was out there, alone and defenseless. I had to find her and protect her.
One of the creatures jumped on me and knocked me to the ground at the Unholy girl’s feet. I struggled, trying to shake it off. It was snapping its teeth rapidly, hoping to bite into my face. Touching it was horrific. “Man, you’re disgusting.” Taut skin covered its skeleton and its black eyes were sunk deep in their orbits. “Now I get why you want to eat me.” I shoved it away and heard its bones snapping.
Standing right behind me, the Unholy girl writhed in her chains, drawing my attention. From my position all I could see was up her skirt. I covered my eyes with my hand. “Beg your pardon, miss.”
I shot to my feet. This time I was the one to attack. I advanced to the center of the cave and took them on one by one, determined to annihilate them all.
Suddenly they all stopped.
“What is it? Tired already? I can keep going all day long. Come on, bring it!”
The skeletons didn’t move. Another creature emerged from the darkness. It was like them, but bigger. Something was showing beneath its skin. I squinted and was left sickened. It was the shape of an entire creature it had devoured. “Man, are you nasty.”
With a bound, it pounced on me. It was far heavier than the others—it must have been their leader—and I struggled to keep it away. It bit my shoulder and I cried out in pain. Hearing my cry, all the creatures in the cave let out a squeal of delight and rushed at me. I knew I was done for. My immortality would be fucked if they ate me. Christ, what a shitty end I had in store for me.
Dark Tournament_A Romantic Fantasy Adventure_Touched Saga Spin-Off Page 3