Eclipse of the Soul: The Interdimensional Saga, Book 2

by J. L. Hendricks

  “No need, they will find me here soon. In fact, I am sure they are already in the tunnels looking for me now.” I decided to put up a brave front. Fake it ‘till you make it, is a great motto.

  I was trying to use my new ability to read minds, and I thought it was working too. Because what I was ‘hearing’ was scaring the tar out of me. All of the rippers smelled my fear. It was like an aphrodisiac to them and as they started coming closer, I started shaking. My earlier bravado was all but gone.

  The master spoke up and told all of the rippers to get back and leave me alone. No one was to sample the goods. If he found out anyone had tasted my blood he would have their heads on a pike.

  He then turned to me, “But that doesn’t mean I won’t sample the goods. If you are a good girl you will stay unharmed and under my protection.” I heard him say to himself, at least until I am done with you stupid little girl. I hope you taste as sweet as my first says you do.

  I swallowed loud enough I was sure the whole room heard me. Think B’Lana, think. What do they want with me? They want information. I have to give them false info. Start thinking up some easy lies. Send them on a wild goose chase, to give me more time.

  “Let’s start small. What is your name?” If he thought he was going to get me to spill the beans this way, he was wrong.

  “B’Lana.”

  “Where is the Sennafae headquartered?”

  “Somewhere in Los Angeles.” Was my reply.

  “What is their address?” The master asked with a very bored look on his face.

  “I don’t know.”

  “Yes you do, you were just there earlier today. Tell me the address or I will take a drink from that lovely neck of yours.” The master was eyeing my neck while licking his lips. It gave me the creeps.

  “I really don’t. I’m not from this area and have only been with the fae for a few days. I would never be able to make my way back there on my own.” I really hoped he bought my story.

  I wanted to try reading his mind again, but I was afraid of what I might hear.

  “Where are you from? And how did you meet the Sennafae?”

  “Seattle, Washington. I met them here the other day when a vampire attacked me over by where you guys picked me up tonight.” I tried sneaking a peek into his mind, and he seemed like he wasn’t sure if I was telling the whole truth, but he didn’t think I was lying. They did lose a bunch of rippers there the other day.

  “Why were you with them tonight?”

  “I was just supposed to watch the feeds in the van while they were looking for you guys. They told me I could help them save mankind, so I decided to try.” He seemed to be buying it. I just hoped I could keep up the good lies.

  “I don’t understand why you are trying to take over your planet back home? Aren’t there other planets where you can go? Planets in your solar system that won’t hurt your kind?” I needed to try to distract him.

  “No, there are no other portals which are safe for us. And we don’t have space ships.” He wasn’t going to let himself get distracted.

  “First, bring me a map of LA. B’Lana you are going to look at this map and tell me the general area you were staying in with the Sennafae.”

  First brought the map over to the table nearest me and motioned for me to come over to the table. I looked down at the map and tried to play dumb.

  “I said I can’t tell you where they are. So stop asking.”

  The master walked right up to me and licked my neck. “I really am starting to get hungry again. Either you tell me what I want to know, or I am taking a bite out of you right now.”

  “Fine, I will do my best, just please don’t lick me again, that is totally digusting.” I had no idea where his tongue had been before and shivered thinking about him near me like that.

  “Where are we now? I don’t know this city so I need a reference point to start with.”

  He wasn’t dumb.

  “We picked you up here.” He pointed to the spot on the map where Joe’s Taco Shack was located.

  “Hmmm. I think they are staying in this area here.” I pointed to a spot that was nowhere near the warehouse. I hoped that they would spin their wheels checking that area out, and maybe enough would leave so that I could get out of their sewer somehow.

  “First, take a small group of scouts with you and check this out. Somehow I think that little B’Lana here might be leading us on a wild goose chase.” Both the Master and his minion looked at me and wondered if I was smart enough to misdirect them. Or if I was telling them the truth. I could see the wheels spinning behind First’s eyes. What a weird name, First. What, did they watch too much sci-fi when they first arrived?

  “Marshall, take B’Lana to my quarters and make sure she is comfortable and that no one touches her. If anyone touches her…” The Master took his right pointer finger and drew his grotesquely long nail across Marshall’s throat deep enough to make it bleed.

  “Yes Master, as you wish.” Marshall said while almost bowing to the master. He grabbed my arm and walked me to the Master’s room. He locked me in and stayed outside my door. Thank goodness he didn’t come into the room with me.

  I took this time to try out my psychic eavesdropping skills. I was trying to reach out to First and see if I could hear him. He must have been too far away as I couldn’t make contact. I started to wonder if I had to make eye contact or be in their presence in order to hear their thoughts.

  Next I tried the Master. He must have been closer as I could just barely hear his thoughts. ‘Sarsen, go speak with the dressmaker across the street from Joe’s and see if the Sennafae are still in the area. And bring me back a snack, that girl is making me hungry.’

  It seemed that I had to be within a certain range to hear their thoughts. That was good to know.

  The master must have walked away as I couldn’t “hear” him anymore. So I tried to listen to the ripper outside my door, Marshall.

  Marshall was one depraved ripper. He was standing there thinking about the last girl he drank. He kept remembering how sweet her blood was. He thought that the sweetest tasting blood came from girls under sixteen. I decided he needed to die, and soon.

  I stopped listening to Marshall and tried to find more rippers. I needed to see how many I could identify and determine if I could try to break out of that place or not.

  I could sense about a dozen rippers all thinking about blood. One was complaining to himself how they never got enough to eat. All of the humans they captured had to be turned and they couldn’t drink all of their blood during the transformation process. Only the most senior rippers could drink from the good specimens. The guy I was listening to was only allowed to drink from the elderly or crippled. He didn’t like the taste of their blood.

  He started thinking about drinking my blood. He realized a lot of the team was out in the sewers looking for the Sennafae. He thought he had a chance to come and take me. He even figured he could get Marshall on board if he offered to share me and no one would even know. Oh how gross that thing is! These… things…or vampires, rippers or whatever… need to die! All of them!

  Chapter Four

  I heard another ripper coming towards Marshall so I looked around the room for a weapon I could use against them. My hope was that the door would get opened and I could kill them both and run away. I found a silver letter opener and put it in my belt. Then I saw two curved swords attached to a plaque on the wall.

  I grabbed the plaque off the wall and quietly tried to take the two swords out of the scabbards. It was difficult as they were attached pretty well. It looked more like a trophy then swords. I just hoped they worked.

  I could hear the other guy getting closer and decided that I had to get at least one of the swords out of the scabbard. It was louder than I wanted, but just as Marshall unlocked the door, the other guy walked up.

  “Hey Marshall, did the Master let you taste that sweet young thing in there yet? I heard she was sweeter than a baby.”

 
“Hey Mick, no we’re not allowed to even sample her. She belongs to the Master. If you try anything I have orders to kill you.”

  “Marshall, all we have to do is bite her in the leg, we can each have one leg and take a quick bite. No one will even know. The bite won’t even be seen as long as she keeps her pants on. I bet she will even enjoy it, come on. Let’s go have a quick taste!” Mick was licking his lips while Marshall was seriously considering it.

  I heard him thinking he’s right, if we tie her up and take her pants down and bite her leg, not even the master will know. He only bites the neck so he will never see the marks.

  I had both swords in my hands and opened the door so quickly they didn’t even realize what I had done until Marshall’s head was lying at the feet of Mick. I ran towards Mick as he started to run away.

  Marshall had been armed, but Mick was not. As he ran he turned back and looked at me with eyes wide open. He was completely shocked that I had killed Marshall so quickly.

  Somehow my fae speed kicked in along with the strength and I caught up to Mick and swung my sword at his neck with my right hand while he was running away from me. The sword cut through his neck but got stuck on the wall to the left. It stopped me very abruptly and I lost hold of the sword as it was sticking out of the wall. The sword was stuck in the seam between two red bricks. Mick lost his head but Lancer would have yelled at me for how sloppy the cut was and for losing my sword in the process. I guessed that those swords hadn’t been sharpened in quite some time. But they worked. Now to find my way out. I thought as I pulled the sword out of the wall and started looking for an exit.

  I was using my psychic abilities to listen for anyone around me. As I heard the rippers’ thoughts, I would either hide or take a different tunnel. That didn’t work for me every time. One guy must have been brain dead.

  I turned a corner and literally walked right into him. He looked a little different from the rippers I had seen so far. He had this glazed look about him, like he was a zombie ripper or something. As I was reaching for my sword he brought his hands up to grab my neck and said, “Blood, I want blood.”

  He was a little slower than the regular rippers so I took the sword in my left hand and drove it right through his heart. He let go of my neck and slumped over my sword. I pushed him back off the sword and cut his head off using the sword in my right hand and cleaned the blood off on his pants.

  While I cleaned the blood off my sword, I got a closer look and figured he must be a nosferatu, or a hybrid ripper. They had major bloodlust and only wanted to drink everyone they came into contact with. I hoped there weren’t any more of them.

  I was more careful finding a way out after that. I still ‘listened’ for any rippers who were thinking near me, but I also used my eyes and ears to see if there were any more nosferatu. It seemed that they were really brain dead. I saw a couple more but could not pick up any thoughts from them.

  It took me about thirty minutes but I finally found a ladder to a manhole that would open. I had seen two manholes so far but they would not budge. They must have been sealed shut. Once I climbed up and out, it took me a while to figure out where I was. Ash had made sure that I memorized his cell number so I looked for a phone. The area I was in was not safe at all, and I was very glad I still had both of those swords with me.

  There were very few people out on the streets, but I did catch a few staring at me. Once, a guy started walking towards me until I made my swords visible to him. He turned and walked the other way. I thought I heard him thinking about trying to rob me.

  It was about three in the morning when I walked up to a liquor store with a pay phone that worked. Ash picked up on the first ring. He was so excited to hear from me. Everyone was out looking for me, including the Commander. He had even called in two more squads from Sendryl Command. He told me to stay on the phone while he radioed in that I was safe. When Ash relayed my location Lancer said he was only a few blocks from me so he would come and get me. I stayed on the phone with Ash the entire time. He asked me what happened but I told him that I would brief everyone all at once when we got back to HQ. It was a long story and I did not want to tell it more than once.

  A truck drove into the parking lot and headed straight to where I was at. Lancer put the truck in park and ran straight to me, picked me up and hugged me so tight I couldn’t breathe.

  “Can’t…breathe…” I said as I hit him on his shoulder trying to get him to let me go.

  “B’Lana, I’m so glad you’re ok. Did they hurt you?” He said as he loosened his grip on me but kept his arms around me. He had never been so touchy feely with me, not even when I woke up from the transformation.

  After I woke up from the transformation, Lancer hovered by my bed for three days. As did Ash. They continued their bickering but when talking to me they were very sweet. If I wanted anything, they would fight over who got to get it for me. Once I was allowed out of bed, both of them were right next to me every time I got up and left my room. It was as if they had some sort of a sixth sense about my movements.

  Right around the fifth day, Lancer went back to his old ways and was very gruff with me. He only visited me once or twice a day. He was very adamant that I get into training right away.

  After about a week of training I started to notice an increase in speed along with strength. This in turn caused Lancer to be even tougher on me during training. Ash was only allowed to train me once. Lancer came back from a recon mission to find me and Ash on the floor wrestling. He did not like the way Ash was training me so he forbade me from training with Ash again.

  “Lancer I have never been so happy to see anyone in my whole life! Thank you for coming so quickly.” I said as I hugged him, tightly.

  I wasn’t sure, but it felt like he kissed the top of my head. Then he smelled me. “Um, B’Lana, you really stink. Did they have you in the sewers all night?”

  I laughed as he said that and told him, “Yes, and I really want to go home and shower before everyone shows up and starts interrogating me.”

  “I think everyone will be back before us, but I’ll do my best to make sure you get a shower before anyone questions you.” He said as he laughed.

  It turned out I was south of downtown LA and a good twenty minutes from the warehouse. We had to stop and get rid of the swords just in case they had a tracker on them. Which turned out to be a good thing as the master was smarter than I gave him credit for. His team spent the next few days combing the area where we dumped the swords.

  It took us over thirty minutes to get back to the warehouse with our detour. And everyone was there waiting for me to arrive. Ash was the first to greet me. He did the same as Lancer and he grabbed me up in a big hug and swung me around while saying how happy he was to see me.

  When he put me down he kissed my cheek but then plugged his nose, “B’Lana I am going to throw you in the shower and hose you down. Your clothes are going to be burned, shoes included. I can’t believe how badly you stink! I’m going to need a shower just from touching you… Hmmm, there is a drought going on here, we should probably share a shower. I can wash your back your for you.” Ash gave me a wicked smile as he said that and winked. Which caused butterflies to start swirling in my stomach.

  I hit him on the arm and told him, “Never in a million years buddy. Get your head out of the gutter.” When I turned to walk inside Lancer was staring at me and then he turned around and walked away.

  I thought that was weird but then thought maybe he couldn’t handle my stench. I hoped he was going inside to tell everyone to leave me alone until after I showered.

  I went straight to my room and grabbed some clean clothes and headed to the shower. No one stopped me, thankfully. I took a long shower and washed my hair three times before getting out.

  Once I was fully clothed and had brushed my teeth and hair I went out to see everyone else.

  “Commander, I hope I don’t stink anymore.” I said as he picked me up and hugged me. Mercifully, he didn’t sq
ueeze me like Lancer and Ash did.

  “B’Lana I’m just glad you are back in one piece. But I have to ask, did any of them drink your blood?”

  “One guy did, but he didn’t bite me. He hit me to try and keep me in line and that caused my nose to bleed. So he licked the blood off my face.” I shivered just remembering what First did.

  I saw Lancer from my peripheral vision and he seemed to tense up as I said this. His hands were at his sides in fists and I could hear his teeth grinding. He appeared to be very angry at what happened to me. I thought it strange that he would be so upset and then realized what they really wanted to know.

  “But no one bit me. A couple tried and I killed them. That was actually how I got away.”

  A tall man I had not seen before entered the room. Everyone stood at attention and the Commander saluted him. He was at least six feet four inches tall with dark brown hair and brown eyes. He was wearing forest fatigues and black combat boots.

  “B’Lana, I would like you to meet General Avex. He is the one who is in charge of all off world teams. He would like to hear about your capture tonight and then ask you some more questions about your transformation. He specifically wants to know about any special abilities you might have developed.” The Commander was very formal when he spoke to me.

  “Sure, if everyone is here and ready I will start from the beginning and tell you everything I know about tonight.”

  I went and sat down on one of the new couches we bought earlier this week with Lancer on my right as Ash took the spot to my left. I waited as everyone took a seat. The room filled up with fae I had never seen before. I was looking around to make sure that all of the guys from my squad were there.

  “Where’s Mason? Last I heard he was injured.” I wondered if he was in the infirmary still.

  “B’Lana, Mason didn’t make it. He was stabbed through the chest when we were fighting the rippers behind Joe’s. He lost too much blood by the time we got back here. While you were being kidnapped two more rippers ambushed us and Benden and I barely survived their attack. I was able to kill one of them, but the other one got away.”