Evanescent

by Carlyle Labuschagne

  His lopsided grin left my knees weak. “See?”

  “Look at my feet, use your entire body, not just your arms, you’ll break your wrists like that.” His hands left my wrists and settled on my hips, turning my frame to face his. I was aware of where his hands were, and where they were not.

  He moved away. “Now attack, and I’ll show you that by the way I am standing now, I am always guarded.”

  I did. It felt unnatural the way my body was twisted, the blades heavy in my weak wrists. It struck me as odd, because my gymnastic training should have given me strong wrists. I moved forward, flicking the sais out, but Troy intercepted with little effort.

  “You attack like a girl. You’re not to slap someone with that thing, you are meant to stab with it,” said Tatos, rubbing his face in an irritated gesture.

  I groaned and tried again and with each move, I could suddenly feel my untrained muscles pull and burn awkwardly.

  “Now when I have a weapon, those sais can be a very good shield if used correctly.” As Troy moved back to his bag to retrieve something, I kept practicing the moves and stance I had been taught, but soon enough I found my eyes lingering over his impeccably carved eight-pack. His athletic build, lean and strong, sent sizzling quivers into my core, and melted my thoughts to a liquid mess as a wave of muscles moved in his back and shoulders while he bent to unpack more weapons.

  Tatos gave a soft chuckle.

  “What?” I am sure my cheeks were flushing.

  “Just something Kronan said.” He smiled.

  “About me?” My tone peaked.

  “He said you had trouble enduring the mental power of focus.” He chuckled again. “He just didn’t know how to grab your attention.”

  My eyes shot to Troy, he was already giving me a devilish smirk.

  “Well, now that everyone is amused…”

  “Firstly,” Troy interrupted, “you need to learn how to use these. They are your shields and your weapons.”

  He moved closer, pulled my wrists to him and clicked the runic silver gauntlets into place over each wrist. My reflection stared back at me from the sleek surface and as I twisted my wrists, I noticed the twirling patterns and symbols etched around the edges.

  “Wow,” I said. They were the broad, silver bracelets I had seen in the crate before.

  The weight of the gauntlets added to the burden of carrying heavy weapons.

  “Yeah, you should have tested them first before getting all grabby.” He motioned to the sais.

  “With the gauntlets, you can impede a strike by lifting your arm, and then you wedge your forked blade over your attackers’ blade and twist.” He demonstrated, handed back the sais and adjusted my grasp on the hilt.

  Flaring nostrils at my insinuated incompetence, I shared sarcastically, “I think I know how to hold a blade.”

  Tatos shook his head, moving closer, chest flexing.

  “Okay, big girl,” Troy said on a grin, “let’s see it then. Stab him.” He cocked his head toward Tatos.

  “What?” I spat, eyes wide.

  Tatos gave a mocking smile, flashing white teeth.

  “If you can.” Tatos lifted his eyebrows.

  I smiled with the sudden confidence in my abilities.

  Tatos stood before me, legs bent into a slight crouch.

  “Keep your feet apart, check your balance,” Troy said from the sideline.

  But instead of keeping my eyes on Tatos, my gaze drank Troy in. I drew in a heavy breath, almost tasting him on my lips.

  “Ava.” He grinned at me.

  My pulse raced.

  “Focus.” His eyebrows shot up.

  Tatos was suddenly before me, imitating a blow to my head.

  “Are you scared?” Tatos asked.

  “Are you?” I smiled.

  He chuckled, stepping away as Troy adjusted my stance by repositioning my hips. As he pulled away, he let Tatos take his position before me again.

  I hadn’t seen Tatos so animated before, he was actually enjoying himself a little too much, I thought. I took a step forward and suddenly there was a dark flash, a crack in my vision, followed by white noise, and just as swiftly Tatos’ arms crushed around me. His clasp so tight, I dropped the daggers to the ground.

  My heart raced, mind reeling to figure out what had just happened.

  “Focus!” Troy yelled.

  His eyes were dark on mine as he stood cross-armed, drops of rain trickling down his jaw.

  “F-o-c-u-s,” he spelled out with his lips.

  “I got you, now you die!” Tatos yelled, and gave his version of an evil cackle.

  “Come on guys!” Troy yelled. “We don’t have much time.”

  For just one second, there was a gap in his grip as his arms shifted. The dark flash hit me again, but more subtle this time, leaving a metal taste in my mouth. Panicked and burning with desperation to get away, I twisted out of his grasp, simultaneously elbowed him in the stomach and kicked down with a crushing stomp to his foot, and then my head hit his hard as he came down. The flashes were a warning – something was coming for me. My time was up here. The thought was mechanical and resonated with a hot, chill into my bones.

  “She’s a slick one!” Troy boasted.

  “Again.” Tatos jumped to his feet.

  It all happened so fast.

  “Weapons!” Troy yelled.

  I felt threatened suddenly, turning as Tatos came at me, but all I could see was an empty face. As the dark flash and white noise came at me again, I sliced the amethyst pendant from my wrist, the purple glow slowly fading as I turned back to face him, kicking the pendant into the grass. The figure was upon me when I sliced its arm, but he spun and hit me with the long bow in my knee, forcing my leg to give way to the brutal force. Before I fell, I twisted over the ground and kicked him in the groin, my other leg twisting over and taking him down with me, the sharp, silver blade piercing the soft flesh of his neck.

  “That’s not fair!” he yelled in agony.

  “Ava!” Troy screamed, pulling me from the man attempting to kill me. And for a split second, Troy’s shout dampened the panic-side, but my blood-shift was savage with the desperation of survival. I shot free; already in position. I kneed the figure in the face as he slowly stood. Troy was again trying to restrain me, but the fury inside me wouldn’t subside. Something wanted to kill me, I tasted it with each blow and block the figure shoved my way.

  The aftertaste of the blackouts felt vicious on my tongue. I would not go back!

  “If you can’t hold your anger, you will die because of it!” Troy shouted in my ear and then pushed me from him. The absence of his touch was enough to sober my thoughts for a while.

  I swore under my breath, my hands digging into the damp ground. I stared at the daggers by my side. What was happening?

  “Ava!” Troy was firm now. “You can’t let the Shadow get to you, whatever is feeding it – let it go.”

  He knew I was shifting. It practically bent the air around us, causing everything to feel abrasive and unwelcome, like a demon’s breath entrapping us.

  I drew a steady, long breath and picked up my sais. Tatos pulled me up by the waist of my denims. I turned, watching Troy’s huge biceps curl over his chest. He stood watching me carefully as the steady drizzle sizzled off my skin.

  “Tatos reminds you of Enoch, that’s why I brought him along. If you cannot purge yourself of his poison, I will not allow you to fight Enoch at all.”

  I ground my teeth. I could almost feel the Shadow-shift claw its way through my veins at the mere mention of his name. It wanted out. I snarled at Troy. The truth was hard to swallow, it made me mad but before my shift came over me, Troy knocked one of the sai’s from my hand. I looked up at him, infuriated by his ego.

  “You think you have what it takes to beat him,” he said, cocking his head to the side. “Show me.” He stood back.

  I ran at him, he was the one causing this anger. Abruptly, I found myself already in his locked arms.
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  “You think too much, you are too angry!” And he proceeded to maneuver me into a headlock.

  I screamed.

  “Calm the storm,” he said, and a smooth tingle ran down my spine at his gentle tone.

  But it didn’t want to, my shift wanted out! I kicked into his knees, but he laughed. I squirmed in his grip. My shift would not come if he was touching me. He had to have known this. He pushed me from him. I turned in a low crouch, my leg swept out, but he leapt over it very easily causing his smirk to widen. With the other arm, the remaining sai cut at his shirt. He chuckled. “You are still angry.”

  Humiliation didn’t sit well with me, not again. I spun as he came at me and on facing him again, a slight bolt to the chest knocked him to the muddy ground. This time, I hardly felt the electricity tear through my body. It came too easy. I laughed as he flew through the mud.

  “Ava!” Tatos held my arms bound behind my back. I lifted myself and spun over his head, hooked my thighs on to his head and twisted him to the ground, both of us wrestling in the mud.

  “You knew about Enoch and never as much as stopped him, Tatos! Do you have any idea how much it ripped me apart?” The words came from an unfamiliar place, one of fear, pain and sorrow. I was channeling the memories now.

  “You are not the only one,” he said, bitterly.

  Troy came at me, going for the obvious headlock again. I turned out of it, but he was too fast and gripped my hips. I pulled and fell back into the mud. I twisted on my back laughing, wiping sweat, grime and rain from my face. I jumped up, but he knocked me down again, this time sitting on top of me.

  His face was unreadable. “Let go. What has been done has passed. It’s ruining your abilities – move on.”

  “And there it is, my soul guide.” I cocked my head.

  He ignored me. “You thought of my next move – clever, but you were not reacting to my movements. That is how I am the victor.”

  I wanted to slap the smugness from him, infuriated by him. He pushed all the wrong buttons.

  “You need to control your shifts.”

  “How do you do that?” I growled, as his knees pinned my arms to the ground. I lay there staring at him, my body aching for his. “You are always one step ahead of me? How?”

  “Anger is predictable. Besides, when you think too much there are signs, and you open yourself to those who will listen in.”

  “You are not supposed to listen in.”

  “I don’t have to.”

  “Tatos!” I spat. “You’re reading me, and then pushing Troy with the information.”

  “We need practice, too.” He shrugged, still breathless.

  Troy intensified everything I felt, emotionally and physically. The fever gripped my chest, burned its way into my arms.

  “Betrayal.” Tatos pushed the word into my mind. “That is what you are feeling now.”

  “Get out of my head!” I yelled.

  Troy’s hands pulled my face to his. “No, because you can bet your sweet ass, Enoch will be in there the moment we land on that moon. He will get into your head every opportunity you allow him to.”

  “You need to ward him off,” Tatos said, attempting to clean the mud from his face and body.

  “Calm your storm,” Troy said again, his knees moving from my pinned shoulders to my waist.

  I closed my eyes and quietened my quickening pulse, but something sinister and pleasant surfaced in its place. The blood-shift had sneaked in, found my weakness and started to play at my need for redemption. I smiled at Troy as his body pressed mine into the ground. There was one weakness his species held.

  He smiled back wickedly. “All yours,” he said, arms stretched out, torso totally gorgeous and perfect in the glimmer of the rain.

  His face came insanely close to mine, our lips just about to touch, his breath so sweet. I inhaled it like an enthralling smoke as it clung to my lungs. At that point in time, I had no idea what I was doing to him; it had become all too natural. One of the perks of carrying the Shadowing disease and being a mind-shifter in one is that they become you totally. And for the victim, there is no way out.

  “No cheating this time,” he said into my ear, as if anticipating what I was up to.

  His breath on my skin, left mine aching to draw more air. I arched my body into his, felt his heart racing beneath his rib cage. I pushed him from me. He jumped back and away, looking very confused. I grabbed my sai from the mud, stood as my skin dampened, suddenly cold and shivering in his absence, allowing the snare that became me to sharpen its claws into my pray. I ran for Troy faster than I had anticipated, suddenly heightened by my new ability, but he grabbed the arm holding the blade and swung me around him. As he spun, his leg connected with mine and I almost lost my balance. I pulled him in closer. Troy was still in motion, trying to pin me down when I slipped out of his grasp, touching every weak spot on his body with mine. The world around us non-existent as a dark smoke wrapped itself around us, robbing Troy of all his senses in its alluring wake. My lips brushed against his ear sensually. Everything stopped when I landed on top of him, my knees pinning his arms to the dirt. His smile grew. Somehow, I had used my ways to push his moves. Like a chess game, I set him up for a fall. I radiated, reveled in the ability. That was what I had become, that was my poison against the male species. My body, my feminine ways, would drive their behavior and turn their minds.

  “What were you thinking about?” he asked, his hands gliding over my hips, goosebumps riding their way up and over my body.

  “Nothing,” I panted. “I just worked with what I have in my favor.”

  He raised an eyebrow. “Exactly.” He pushed the dagger from my grip, and it fell with a soft thump to the mud. He stared into my eyes with a taunting smile.

  The drizzle was constant and soft against my warm skin. I felt his hands slide onto my thighs, the heat rush over my entire body, and then he was on top of me again, his face inches away from mine. He moved closer, straddling my lap.

  A cold ache erupted through me. Cool water dripped from his face onto mine with a sizzle. He pushed me harder into the wet ground. My stomach flipped at the gesture.

  “You are trying to beat him at his own game.” He leered.

  I twisted my face into his arm and bit into his flesh. He let go, and I smashed him into the ground. He smiled. We stood, circling each other. He had a dagger in his hand, I had the other, my mind felt light, hazy, numb and beautifully dark. My eyes fell on his grin. When he came at me, I twirled out of his reach pulling his body in my orbit, worked the gravity around us to pull him in and I was suddenly behind his back, kicking his feet from under him.

  “You learn fast,” he said, a naughty smile playing on his lips, “but not fast enough.” He smirked, just before he landed face first in the mud, pulling me with him, the tip of the dagger at my throat again. Now he’d worked my gravity. There was just no way of beating this guy! A dark flash gripped me again, this time with more terror and torment – it had attained what it was after, and my time had finally come to an end. I felt my life drain from me, leaving me dizzy as my blood-shift left me.

  “What?” Troy and Tatos said simultaneously, my body rigid, hairs standing on the back of my neck, then the zing through to my arms lifted them to the sky pointing to what was coming our way.

  “I am sorry.” And with that, the heaviness took me to ground. “They know everything,” I said, trembling in the mud.

  “What are you talking about woman?” Tatos shouted at me.

  Troy looked at me, and I was sure he knew right then what had transpired. What I had done.

  “Get ready,” I said, guilt fixing me to the very spot.

  The sky cracked open with a loud snap, and dozens of fireballs slammed into the ground a short distance behind the trees.

  Tatos grabbed his bow and arrow.

  “How’s that gonna help?” I panicked.

  “Calm down. Focus, Ava, your mind is your weapon in this battle,” Tatos insisted.

/>   “Where is your necklace?” Troy asked hastily.

  I fumbled in one pocket and then the other, we looked all around, seeking the only thing that would keep us safe from me shifting again. I was not ready. I didn’t know how to control the thing inside of me.

  “Stay close, this is your test run. You can do this. If you panic, you know what happens.” Troy was fully aware that the chaos in my mind brought on the pandemonium of the blood-shift, blissfully unaware that moments ago I was entombed in its lust.

  I just stared at him blankly, my mind not gripping on to anything but the panic-side.

  “Okay?” he asked, holding my left arm before him, trying to snap me out of it. But, he didn’t know what had me so entrapped. It was my end, I could feel it. My blood sang with destiny’s cruel fate.

  “Ava!” he shouted. This was not the time to freeze. He pulled out a dozen star blades, sliding them into his harness, handed me the two sais, and slipped two narrow blades into each of my boots. He still had no idea what was going on. That I had brought them here, that I was his enemy. Troy just stared at me, completely oblivious.

  “Whatever it is, it will be okay,” he tried to reassure me.

  The forest seemed to ignite with an ugly, orange-green flame, black smoke rose and then darkened as rain pushed it back down to the earth, causing a wall of dark mist. A bolt sliced the dark sky above, bright colors exploded with the flash over the landscape. The crack opened the skies upon us with a flood of water.

  “Are you doing this?” Troy asked.

  I looked to the black, angry sky.

  “I… I.”

  He nodded. I understood what I suspected all along. The dark powers were becoming stronger.

  “Did those things just drop out of the sky?” Tatos asked.

  Troy nodded. “You need to push a message to the others.”

  “Already have.”

  Troy moved to stand before me. His midnight glare feral and hungry, seeking the figures moving through the smoky barrier.

  When the ground started to shake, Tatos yelled, “Stampede!” Releasing two arrows at a time into the gray haze descending from above. The arrows disappeared into the fog with a wide arc, then upon colliding with the raindrops on their way back down, turned them into shards of ice, causing a ping against metallic bodies, giving away the exact unseen distance.