by Kim Cormack
Lexy felt a wave of dizziness wash over her and she had to remain motionless for a second. She was growing short of breath as she hollered back, “Good idea. We’re almost there, and I don’t need to drive in any more metal spikes. It’ll be easier now.”
You are almost at the top. Show them they can do it. Lexy gripped the top, and hauled the weight of her dead tired body to safety. Her brow was slick with perspiration and she was seriously dizzy. She needed energy and she needed it badly. Kayn had a hold of the ledge and she slipped. Lexy grabbed ahold of her wrist and yanked her up over the edge. They both sprawled out flat on their backs for a second while attempting to catch their breath. Kayn started to giggle. Lexy closed her eyes and exhaled.
It was difficult to convince herself to move a muscle but Lexy leaned over the edge and called out to the others, “You’ll need to wrap your hands in some kind of material. The spikes are hot and slippery.”
Lexy cracked her stiff neck as she struggled to her feet. Her legs were as wobbly as a new born fawn’s. This was not good. She looked down at Kayn. Her eyes were squeezed shut and her veins were visible. She’d been there before. Lexy knew she was the only one capable of giving Kayn energy after that climb and healing from it so she held out her hand knowing if she just did it she’d be preempting an ability related melt down. Her friend’s Conduit ability was a volatile one to say the least. The newbie Dragon opened her eyes to find Lexy standing above her holding out her hand.
Lexy whispered, “Quickly, before the others make it to the top. Don’t take too much we might have a full day’s hike through the stifling desert ahead of us.”
Kayn grinned and took Lexy’s hand and she felt her hand warm and just as she began to feel the odd sensation of her energy being stolen from her body, Lexy snatched her hand away, knowing she could only afford to give her a small energy bump.
Kayn scrambled to her feet, looked at Lexy and said, “Thank you. I needed that.” She peered back over the ledge.
Lexy wiped the sweat off of her brow, grinned and replied, “I know what it’s like.”
One by one they helped the others in those final moments as they reached the summit of the climb. Once they were all at the top they stood as a group under the broiling sun once again, staring out at the seemingly endless terrain of nothing. There was not a vehicle in sight on the lengthy span of desert road and no water supply in their near future either. She was so thirsty. Her brain was screaming for hydration and Lexy knew she had to force her mind to focus on something else. Logically, it had only been a couple of hours since her last bottle of water but the blistering heat and the physical activity made it feel like she’d been without water for days. It was an uneasy feeling to be without one of her body’s basic needs. It took her back to a dark place within her mind, a place where starvation and depravity had clouded her judgement. In these moments she always searched for Grey, for it was his job to be her tether to all that was good and right in the world. He was standing beside her when she noticed Kayn swallowing in an attempt to wet her dry scratchy throat. The fledgling Dragon began to repeatedly lick her lips, Lexy nudged Grey, prompting him to stop her from doing it. Kayn would end up with the irritation of harshly chapped lips if she didn’t. You never lick your lips while you’re walking in the desert. It was a thing.
Grey gently grabbed Kayn’s arm out of concern as he warned, “Don’t lick your lips it’ll only make it worse.”
They chose the direction they’d been driving in when they’d been forced over the cliff by Trinity. The group of exhausted immortals began to stroll down the long disgustingly sweltering deserted stretch of desert road. From this vantage point Kayn’s attire was pretty hilarious. Her damp wild mane of curls had broken free of its restraints and she was wandering through the desert barefoot, in only her underwear and tank top. Lexy watched Kayn as she tried to walk on the cement and then leapt off of it and back into the sand. Bet both the sand and the cement were smoking hot. Lexy thought about offering her the sandals on her own feet but stopped herself as she noticed that all of the Ankh that had been taken from their beds were also barefoot. Lexy winced as a wave of nausea washed over her and staggered, almost losing her footing.
Grey grabbed her, put his arm around her and whispered, “You gave Kayn some of your energy, didn’t you?”
“Guilty,” she replied. “I thought it would be better if it was me.”
He pulled her close and gave her a protective smooch on the forehead. A light breeze moved across her skin and the moment became beautiful. It felt like they were wandering through heaven together instead of trudging through the broiling desert on a journey towards nowhere.
A couple of hours passed by uneventfully and they were now holding hands instead of hugging because the scorching heat of the afternoon sun made being in close confines with anyone torturously hot and not in a sexy way. The only reprieve from the hellish heat was a light breeze that tossed up the sand every once in a while. This was both a good and bad thing because it blew sand into her eyes and left a thin layer of it stuck to the perspiration on her forehead. On the bright side it kept the sweat from running and she didn’t need to wipe her forehead as often. Lexy’s legs were working on auto pilot and her throat was painfully dry. It hurt to swallow. Lexy heard a noise and looked up at the sky. There was a buzzard, circling the group. Lexy smiled because she knew she could be hallucinating. There might be nothing there at all. Kayn had been shaky for a while and was obviously having problems when she started to panic and hit the sand like there was an air strike.
Zach knelt beside her in the sand and said, “Seeing things already? We could be walking for many more hours, perhaps even days.” He took her hand in his and whispered, “Take some energy from me. I’ll be okay for a while. We’ll make finding shelter and water our priority.”
She looked at her Handler and whispered, “I can’t. I don’t want to hurt you. You can’t heal as quickly as some of the others.”
“It’s my duty as your Handler,” Zach replied as he held out his hand to help her up.
Lexy smiled as she thought about how far Zach had come in accepting his new role as Kayn’s Handler. Her Handler had left her side and ran up ahead so he could catch up with Frost. She was just casually strolling through the desert next to Lily who could look sexy anywhere. Right now she looked like a seductively curvaceous exotic model from a cologne commercial.
Frost and Grey were now so far ahead of the group that they looked like specks. They were obviously searching for a shady place to wait for the arrival of the others. If they even knew they were in trouble. Lexy felt her pocket and she still had her cell but the juice had run out shortly after the mysterious text she’d received the night before. She couldn’t even charge it because her charger was back at the hotel room with the rest of her belongings.
Kayn staggered up ahead of her and it looked like she was about to go down. Zach grabbed her by the shoulders, successfully stopping her from falling. He held her against him and whispered, “Do it. You have to.”
They couldn’t do that. One of them would end up having to carry Zach. Knowing Grey was too far ahead of her to catch her and scold her, Lexy piped in, “Not you, Zach. We’ll start rotating between me and Melody.”
Melody appeared to be fine. She held out both of her hands towards Kayn and asserted, “Me first. You probably can’t stop cold turkey after the amount of energy you took this morning.”
Kayn took both of Melody’s hands, Lexy looked away. It was a creepy feeling when someone siphoned your energy.
Melody whispered, “That’s enough Kayn. I still have to be able to walk.”
Kayn abruptly let go of Melody’s hands, surprisingly still coherent enough after her feed to follow orders, she said, “Thank you. I needed that.”
Melody grinned at her and replied, “No problem, Hun.”
Their attention was drawn to the road ahead once again as Grey let out a hoot and began to sprint back down the road towards them. He st
opped, spun around and pointed towards the horizon. I’ll be damned. There was a building in the distance. Frost took off ahead to get a closer look. At least now there was a possible end to their stroll through this sweltering hell on earth. Everyone’s spirits perked up a touch as the others began to joke around about what the building might be. Lexy’s stomach turned and she grimaced. Here we go again. They walked for another hour before it became obvious that the structure was a motel. They picked up their pace. As they came closer they could see that there was massive industrial looking fence surrounding it. Lexy’s stomach clenched again and she sighed. What fresh hell was this? There were a few cars parked out front, but they were older models with a thick layer of dust covering them. This place had obviously been abandoned for quite some time. The hotel’s large stained double doors swung open with a high pitched squeal, and it startled everyone. Frost was standing there grinning.
Lexy glared at their pretend leader. Well, spit it out already.
Frost announced, “I have good news and bad news. Which do you want first?”
Zach rolled his eyes and sighed, “Always the good news first. Let’s just make that the new rule. We all have the same queasy sensation. I’m pretty sure we can all hazard a guess at what the bad news is.”
Frost grinned and started his little announcement, “Well, there’s food in the freezer. The kitchen is stocked up, the water is turned on and nobody lives here, but I think I know why this place was closed down. Saying it’s haunted, would be an understatement. I know you’re all exhausted, but we’re going to have to clean house before we can relax. I found a couple of creatively deceased workers. They were probably killed by the entities that are stuck in here. I also found police tape from a crime scene. So, I’m running under the assumption that the workers were in here cleaning up after something that happened. The main entry is thick with dark matter. Do you three remember the dark entity that was in that house before your Testing? Well, there’s at least a dozen of those demonic entities in there. I know it’s probably been a while since Astrid and Haley have had to deal with these things, but you never forget dealing with these assholes. We are going to have to work first so we can play later, and by work I mean take a small scenic stroll through hell.”
And that was where she stopped paying attention. She knew the drill. Grey started to walk towards one of the dust covered old vehicles. Lexy sprinted past him, knelt down, picked up a boulder, effortlessly heaved it at the window and smashed it.
Grey sparred, “See, this is why we never have nice things. The bloody door is unlocked.” He opened the door. Lexy shrugged, and climbed into the backseat. She grabbed the water and passed each of them a bottle.
Grey scrunched up his face and noted, “If bottled water has been in the heat for too long it’s supposed to be like poison.”
Lexy wiped the layer of scum off of the lid and passed one to Grey and chuckled, “Suck it up Buttercup. It’s liquid, and if I have to kill myself in five minutes, I’m going to need to drink this nasty stuff first.”
Frost added, “One more thing. I found the workers in the freezer. I opened the door with no problem. It was just locked. I bet they hid in there from whatever evil shit came after them and were locked inside. They’re dead and frozen solid. So, they don’t smell. That’s always nice, especially if we could be stuck here for a few days, while we’re waiting for the rest of our clan to show up. After we’re done here, we’ll drag them out of the freezer and burn the place. It would probably be fair to make the assumption that nobody’s come looking for these guys.”
Lily shimmied past Frost at the door, obviously wanting to sneak a peek inside. She came back out with a solemn expression on her face and didn’t say a word.
Excellent, this was going to be fun.
Grey chimed in, “A situation messed up enough to render Lily speechless. This, I’ve got to see.” He stepped inside and hopped back out a second later. “How in the hell did that happen?” He laid his hand on the side of the building and said, “Obviously, we’ll need a plan of some kind. There’s no way our usual routine will work for that many.”
Kayn tried to slip past Frost to get a look at what they were talking about. He blocked her passage and said, “You’ve been in a volatile state ever since you siphoned all of that energy this morning. You should stay out of this one.”
Frost walked over to the side of the building, grabbed a few bags of salt, tossed one of them to Grey and announced, “I found these in the kitchen. They didn’t attempt to stop me from entering, or exiting the building. We can create a circle in the doorway and see if we can disperse them old school demon style. It won’t kill this kind of entity, but it might scatter them? It’ll be easier to take them out one at a time.”
Frost walked into the building and poured the circle of salt. He stood in the center of it while Lily held the door open, and called the rest of them into the building. They all walked inside and dove into the spiritual safety of the circle. Kayn had also entered the building, ignoring Frost’s wishes. He hadn’t noticed her standing there yet. Kayn whispered, “Shit, how is this even possible?”
Frost glared at her, but obviously decided she might as well stay, because he didn’t order Kayn to leave. The entire ceiling was a snaking web of black intertwined spindly spider legs of energy. They writhed around, moving through each other, entangled limbs reached out towards them, beckoning them closer, willing them to become a part of the darkly twisted dance of vile entities.
They all began to join hands and as Melody reached for Kayn’s hand, she took a step back and exclaimed, “Look at me. I’m going to take your energy the second you touch me.”
Kayn’s veins were raised and visible. She had an idea. Lexy dropped her hand from the others, and said, “This morning, when you took the energy from everyone else in order to break those chains, created to immobilize an immortal, how did you know what to do?”
Kayn replied, “It felt like logic. I knew I could channel someone else’s energy and make myself stronger from the Testing.”
Melody’s eyes lit up as she said, “Oh, you should have seen her in the Testing. She created this ball of energy, tossed it at that Kevin’s girlfriend and blew her into a million pieces.”
Frost nodded and asked, “Do you think you can do that again? Lexy and Melody can save their energy and disperse them, after you’ve scattered them.”
Kayn nodded and replied, “I’ll still need to use energy from you guys. I was feeding from the walls of the Testing. I have no idea how many of you it would take. When we destroyed these things the last time, you had to allow it to feed from one Healer and then send a jolt of energy through the other. What if we tried the same thing with one of the Healers, and then I send the jolt of energy. I can send more of it. Maybe, even enough to take them out two or three at a time. Lexy can come in after and heal us. Then, we’ll go and deal with the rest.” Zach was extremely agitated. That was a first. Their connection was becoming stronger.
Zach met her eyes and firmly stated, “Absolutely not! You don’t know how to control this. Frost was right when he suggested you should sit this one out. Go and wait outside, Kayn. We’ll join up and send a jolt of energy. That will separate the cluster on the ceiling. We can take them out one at a time after that, if we have to.”
Kayn scowled at him.
Grey squeezed Zach’s shoulder and said, “He’s her Handler. If Zach feels like this might be too much for her, then it probably is. It’s not worth the risk. How about we stick with the original plan? We can bring her in once we’ve exhausted all of the other possibilities.”
Kayn said, “Fine, I’ll wait outside.”
Once Kayn left the building Lexy looked at Melody and said, “Which role do you want?”
Melody grinned as she replied, “Hmmm, do I want to hang from the ceiling like a warped demonic marionette while demons feed on me or do I want to be an energy bomb today? Either way I die. You decide.”
Lexy grinned and s
aid, “How much fighting do you want to do? The bomb usually gets up faster.”
“It’s decided then, I’ll be the marionette,” Melody volunteered. “You’re a better fighter. The practical decision is obvious.”
Lexy knew her pain tolerance was much higher and being fed from hurt when it was by a writhing hoard of dark entities. There were some jobs that unfortunately only a Healer could do and this was one of them.
Melody didn’t hesitate as she stepped forward and raised her arms in the air beckoning the demons to feed from her. They were moving slowly. She sang, “It’s dinner time you dirty soul sucking bastards.” Melody was lifted into the air suspended by writhing wriggling spider web like entities.
Lexy spun around and her Handler was there ready to offer her his energy. She grabbed his arms and looked deeply into his eyes as her hands heated and where she would usually stop she kept going until he crumpled to the floor. Zach offered up himself next and once he dropped she leapt up into the air, grabbed ahold of Melody’s legs yanking her down about a foot as she dangled there, Lexy shrieked as she forced the mass amount of healing energy that she’d taken into Melody and with a blinding black mist the inhabitants of the ceiling exploded. Lexy dropped to the stairs with an ungraceful thud and before she lost consciousness she felt what was left of her demonic foes snowing down from above.
Lexy stirred with an epic dark energy induced hangover. She glanced up sensing she wasn’t alone. Melody’s body was a couple of feet from her and Kayn was standing on the stairs, touching her fingertips together and slowly separating them. A pastel yellow haze had formed between them. She manipulated it into an enormous glowing orb of what looked like pure energy. This was trippy as hell.
Lexy sat up, and her eyes widened as she spoke to Kayn, “What do you have there?” Kayn grinned at her, but remained distant. Well, shitty. She was in both Conduit mode and Dragon mode. Where was Zach? Kayn continued to mold the hypnotizing orb of energy between her fingertips and Lexy decided to just let her get down with her Conduit Dragon bad-self and see what she was capable of when nobody was there to pull her reigns. Lexy looked at her and prodded, “Show me what you can do with that light before our wardens wake up.”