Approaching Storm (Alternate Worlds Book 2)

by Taylor Leigh

  There was a commotion near the front of the club. They all turned to look as several black-clad, official looking figures pushed their way through the crowd.

  ‘We’ve got company,’ Tollin remarked darkly.

  Marus stood up. ‘I’ll handle this, you two, head for the back. Take the keys.’ He tossed a set to Tollin. ‘I’ll meet you outside the city gates!’

  Sam gaped at him. ‘They don’t look like they’re in the mood to talk!’

  Marus grinned widely. ‘You kidding? I love it when things get rough! That’s when I’m at my best.’ He winked at her again.

  Tollin groaned and grabbed Sam’s hand. ‘Come on!’

  Chapter Ten

  Once again, Sam was running. It appeared to be a common occurrence when one was in the presence of Tollin. They dodged through the bar. Tollin pushed out the employee entrance, cast about and then dashed towards a familiar, sleek black vehicle. He clicked the keys and the machine glowed to life, all shining red stripes and powerful engine. Tollin smiled in satisfaction and pulled the passenger door open, motioning for Sam to get in. She slid in on the leather seat and watched Tollin hurry around the vehicle. He slid in and started it up. The machine roared with power.

  ‘Haven’t driven one of these in a while!’ he confessed. ‘This could get interesting!’ He spun the steering yoke and the machine growled down the crowded street, headed back up into the higher layers.

  She stared ahead at the intermittent street lamps blinking by. She felt little comfort knowing where she was at the moment. She knew only a few streets in the city and the thought of leaving her familiar settings was frightening.

  A set of beams flashed from behind them. Sam whirled round in her seat and groaned. ‘I think we’re being followed.’

  Official lights blinked on.

  Tollin’s expression had morphed into stone. Sam noticed his jaw clenched tightly, the tendons were working in his neck, like worms beneath his skin.

  ‘Myrmidons?’ she squeaked, watching the vehicle behind them make a hard turn.

  Tollin drummed his fingers on the yoke. ‘I’d wager. They’ve been snooping around this city for ages. No doubt they’re a bit overexcited about everything happening tonight. You’re causing a lot of commotion.’

  Sam braced herself as their vehicle rounded another tight turn. ‘What happens if they catch us?’

  ‘If I hadn’t found you you’d be in the same condition as your father, or worse, most likely. These people don’t care, Samantha. They will hurt you if they can.’

  ‘Why?’ Sam cried. ‘I didn’t know anything about the ring!’

  ‘They don’t want you. They couldn’t care less about you. That ring is part of a much larger puzzle. It’s a key to a doorway, and that doorway will appear in a few months’ time.’

  Sam clawed at her seat and tried not to look out the window as the buildings flew past. She had no idea where they were, or what Tollin was talking about.

  ‘Right, I’d say now is a good time. What is this doorway, and the anniversary you keep bringing up? What the hell is happening to me?’

  Tollin shifted gears and typed in something on a small red screen in front of him. A small representation of the road they were on sprang to life and an icon for their vehicle and the one behind them blipped brightly, like red and blue cat and mouse.

  ‘I can’t tell you much now, Sam,’ Tollin huffed, ‘the short version of a very long story is that ring you have wrapped round your finger has the ability—or curse, I should say—to open up a certain very powerful portal, if put in the right circumstances.’

  Sam stared at him. ‘What kind of circumstances?’

  Tollin shook his head. ‘As I said; long story. All I want to say right now is there are certain barriers between this world and all the other dimensions out there and most of the billions of life forms don’t have the ability to get through. But sometimes Daemons do, and they’re weak. And sometimes they possess things. From there it’s simply a matter of finding some clueless human, like yourself, and possessing them—which thankfully didn’t happen in your case, bravo, I’m impressed! Once humans are possessed it’s just a trick to manually open up one of those portals and Bob’s your uncle! Daemon invasion!’

  Sam stared at Tollin. His words went bouncing off of her skull. He was mad. That was the only explanation for his ramblings. ‘What? What are you talking about?’ she cried.

  Tollin clenched his teeth together and punched the ceiling of the vehicle with one hand. His next sentence came out in a hurry. ‘Oh, it’s a long story, Sam! Look, you were under the influence of the thing in that ring. You can’t deny that. Dark powers are growing. The little thin spots between Realms are all growing thinner. And this anniversary makes it worst of all, considering we have the Myrmidons working against us.’

  Sam pressed the palms of her hands over her eyes. ‘This is crazy. You’re crazy. I don’t even know what the hell you’re talking about. Daemons? And why are these mercenaries so desperate to get the ring? Why would they want Daemons to come back? And what is a Realm? I have no idea what you’re going on about!’

  ‘Later!’ Tollin hollered.

  Sam bit her lip and stared out the windscreen. Her heart almost leapt to her throat. Tollin was racing along a small road. It was packed dirt, lined only by the ugly backs of businesses. That wasn’t what made her shrink back in her seat, however. Straight ahead, in the middle of the road was a great shining red wall. The energy barrier around the city. Her unease grew as she realised Tollin wasn’t turning away.

  ‘Um, what happens if we hit that thing?’ she asked, her back arching in mounting terror.

  ‘At this speed? We’ll most likely be vaporised,’ Tollin didn’t look away; instead he increased the speed of the vehicle.

  The hair on the back of Sam’s neck stood on end. ‘Then what are you doing?’ she cried. ‘This your plan for saving me?’

  ‘We have to get out of the city,’ Tollin said tersely. ‘See that instrument panel in front of you?’

  Sam could tell her answering groan was not very reassuring to him.

  ‘I need you to press that red button when I say so,’ Tollin’s grip grew tighter on the yoke.

  Sam couldn’t tear her eyes away from the wall, looming up like a great wall of blood. The energy barrier was only twenty metres away—and closing.

  ‘Get ready!’ Tollin snapped.

  Sam stared at the panel before her in mounting panic. There were several red buttons in the same general area. She hesitantly moved her hand towards one, too terrified to look up again.

  ‘THE OTHER ONE!’ Tollin shouted. ‘NOW!’

  Sam slammed her hand down on the button.

  Her eyes snapped up against her will for the moment of impact. Her spine curled up. Would they be smashed flat, or simply be vaporised? More importantly: how badly was it going to hurt?

  The machine responded to whatever she’d done. Sam watched as four red rays of light shot out from the front of the automobile. The fingers of light hit the wall at four corners and pulled the energy barrier apart, leaving a perfectly square gap. She barely had time to admire this feat before they shot through the hole and were on the other side, out of the city. Sam whirled round in her seat and watched the box sliding shut quickly behind them.

  ‘Illegal upgrades. That was money well spent. Marus never could be happy on the right side of the law,’ Tollin chuckled to himself as he swerved the vehicle off onto a small dirt road leading up a rocky crag of the mountain that bordered the city.

  Sam stared over at him in shock, struggling for breath. ‘You could have warned me about that!’

  ‘I would have mentioned something, but you kept going on about Daemons.’ Tollin shrugged.

  Sam gaped at him. ‘You—’ She didn’t even know what to say. She turned round in her seat again and watched the dark road behind them. ‘We’re safe now, yeah?’

  Tollin debated that for a moment. ‘Safe as in no-one following us? Probably
not. Only government vehicles and illegal fitted machines have the right energy code to open the barriers, and since they’re illegal too, they’re probably right behind us.’

  ‘But I don’t see anything…’ Sam scanned out the back.

  Over the past few hours, puffy clouds had rolled in across Scrabia’s sky. Scottorr was hidden from sight and the darkened desert made the head beams shine all the brighter, which is exactly what Sam saw snaking up the narrow road below them.

  ‘They’re following us, yes?’ Tollin asked, a twitch in his voice.

  Sam swallowed and nodded. ‘Yep. What now?’

  Tollin shifted gears on the vehicle again. ‘I’ve still got a few tricks up my sleeve. I’ll be extremely impressed if they’re able to keep up with me on these roads.’

  * * * * *

  Roth’s radio spat static and he glanced over at it from his computer screen. A voice was coming through and he couldn’t make it out. With a sigh of irritation he pushed himself away from the computer and rolled to the opposite desk where the radio sat. He picked it up and adjusted the frequency till the voice became clearer. He couldn’t tell whose voice it was from the agency, but it sounded rather annoyed.

  ‘We searched the house, the girl escaped. No sign of an artefact, but we have two agents in pursuit of a vehicle fleeing the city. Brock Turner is dead.’

  Roth swore. Fools, they could have brought him back alive. Brock might have had some valuable information. ‘I hope you haven’t left any evidence that can be traced back to us.’

  ‘We weren’t responsible. He was dead when we arrived.’

  Well, that was an interesting coincidence.

  Someone would obviously look into that. Scrabians loved bloodshed. Though Scottorrian murders were common, they still received publicity. Too much publicity for Roth’s liking.

  More words came and Roth tried to make it out through the static.

  ‘We’re searching the house now but there’s nothing.’ There was a pause. ‘The city cameras picked up a match on Samantha Turner in the Night District. She was spotted entering a club with a man. They both left the club before we could get to them. We have a team in pursuit now.’

  Roth nodded irritably. The competency of idiots. He glanced at his screen as he typed in the information. One side showed Samantha Turner’s face and all of her information. The other image was of CCTV footage, tracking her and a tall, unidentifiable male walking through the crowd. He swallowed, not liking the fact another person was involved.

  He thought for a moment. ‘Right, well keep an eye on the house, if the fleeing car carries the artefact—assuming it is with Samantha Turner, or Brock’s murderer—we’ll find out soon enough. If that artefact gives off another blast of energy we can track it, we just have to be patient.’

  ‘Roger that. Amy wanted me to let you know that you need to be ready when she gets back. She’s got someone she wants you to meet.’

  ‘Well, that makes me worried. If anything else happens, inform me.’

  ‘Will do, sir.’ Static took over the radio.

  Roth set the radio down and stared into space for a moment. It seemed unlikely that it would be reported as anything more than a random crime. Perhaps Mr Turner had enemies, even if he wasn’t exactly a well-known public figure.

  Roth rolled back over to the computer and brought up the information he had on Brock. New to the planet, that could be motive for murder. Scrabians were paranoid and xenophobic; one of them could have decided that they wanted to have some fun with the new person in town. Wouldn’t be the first time it had happened, ancient prejudices were hard to break. Could have been some save-the-planet nutter who was against filtered water or something.

  The theories felt wrong. It seemed too much of a coincidence to have him in close contact with the artefact and then end up dead. He was just going to have to entertain the possibility that someone else was monitoring energy spikes in the city and knew what they were looking for. Someone else must want the artefact, and that worried him. If that key fell into the wrong hands, who knew what would happen. He and the Myrmidons had been working with the artefacts for years. They were the only ones capable of handling the power that the artefacts possessed. If the artefacts did in fact lead to supernatural gateways and creatures—which is what all of the ancient texts pointed to—then it was imperative that he and his team get control of them.

  He shuddered at the thought of an unknowing citizen—a citizen like Samantha Turner, a mere child—being caught up in this chaos. Someone who didn’t know what they were doing could accidently unleash unknown raw power, and then even the Myrmidons wouldn’t be able to stop it.

  He glanced up at the frozen shot from the camera of a blurry image of Sam and the figure entering the club together. If this person knew about the artefact, then things were only going to get worse.

  * * * * *

  Tollin was punching more buttons on the dashboard, only momentarily glancing at the twisting road. They were very high up on the crag by now. Sam could just see the city disappearing behind a jagged peak behind them. The road they were on was not a comforting one. It wasn’t built for vehicles racing at such a pace, and especially not with Tollin’s maniac driving. Sam was amazed they had survived this long.

  Her eyes were fixed on the rear-view mirror, waiting to see the blaring headlights, like the eyes of some subterranean monster, to come shining around the next tight turn. Marus’s vehicle took another sharp turn and swerved around a huge boulder that had fallen from the mountain side. Sam began to realise why only government vehicles were allowed outside the city, it was deadly—especially with Tollin behind the yoke.

  The left side of the road was growing steadily steeper as they zoomed on until it became a treacherous cliff. Sam unfortunately being on that side, had a clear view to just how high they were. Perhaps forty metres or more of a straight drop. The right side of the road was far from safer: the jagged rock wall of the mountain pressed in, seemingly inches from the side of the vehicle. Boulders stabbed out on the right and on the left the decrepit guardrail gave way to a sheer plummet.

  Tollin’s eyes held a maniacal gleam as he turned to face her. She wished he wouldn’t have looked at her. The road turned very sharply to the right around an avalanche of slate.

  ‘Get ready,’ he said, a bit breathlessly.

  ‘Ready? Wha—?’

  In one lightning quick movement, Tollin unstrapped her, grabbed her round the waist and threw open the driver’s door. Sam hardly had time to scream as he vaulted from the speeding vehicle with her and landed in the ditch, just missing the scattered rocks on the turn. He tucked Sam in close to his body for protection as they both rolled roughly to a stop. The desert and sky became a tumbling blur, blocked by Tollin’s body wrapped tightly about her.

  Sam realised she was hyperventilating, breathing in grains of sand. She pushed her face from the ground. Tollin was draped over her back, breathing slowly, not moving.

  The roar of the second engine startled her. It rounded the corner and disappeared into the thick night air.

  Sam struggled beneath him, finally recovering from her shock. ‘You could have warned me about that!’ She sat up. ‘Does terrifying me just get you off or something?’

  Tollin scrabbled away and raised his hands in the air, slightly defensive. Sam dusted herself off. ‘Right, sorry. Didn’t really realise I was going to do it till I saw the opportunity.’

  ‘Well, I’ve had just about enough for one day,’ she muttered, trying to ignore Tollin’s sharp look. He said nothing. ‘How’d you get that to—?’

  ‘Autopilot,’ Tollin said, monotone.

  Sam noticed that while she had hardly suffered a scratch, Tollin was bruised and bloody. He must have taken the worst of it for her. She winced slightly, feeling for him. Perhaps it was just a trick of the light, but she could have sworn his blood shone with a metallic glint in the gloom. She looked away quickly, honestly not wanting to know.

  In the distance, s
he could see the two vehicles, a long way off, streaking down the narrow road on the next ridge.

  ‘Where is it going?’

  ‘I sent it to the next largest city. It will keep going till it runs out of petrol.’ Tollin stood. ‘Come on, we can’t stay here. The desert is not a hospitable place to be.’ He held out a hand to her and Sam took it, standing shakily.

  Tollin started walking, rolling his shoulders and neck, trying to get the kinks out.

  ‘But where can we go?’ She wrapped her arms around herself, looking round the narrow road.

  ‘I know a place not far from here,’ Tollin spoke over his shoulder; he was trotting up a small path tucked neatly among the rocks.

  Sam watched him go. ‘Any more surprises you feel the need to warn me about?’

  Tollin flashed a smile back to her. ‘None to my knowledge. Come on!’

  Chapter Eleven

  Sam liked the outdoors as much as the next person. On Scottorr she had always been one for venturing out of the city, though the weather rarely permitted such excursions. She didn’t mind the rain, but cold was not her cup of tea. With all that being said, Sam was now mulling over the fact she was hardly prepared for the situation Tollin had thrust her in.

  It hadn’t been a very long walk to Tollin’s destination, and in all honesty, it wasn’t half bad of a place. A large basin in the rock, obscured by high stone walls, pocketed with caves. Through the centre of the basin ran a river, which fell far below, to a forest of spongy, ugly trees.

  While she staggered in exhaustion, her companion still had a spring to his step; as if a night of blowing up temples, rescuing girls and leading an automobile chase was part of his daily routine.

  Tollin guided her to one of the lava tubes, where a makeshift, long-abandoned camp was set up. There were several well-worn sleep cots shoved up against the rock walls, one of which Sam fell into with a moan of exhaustion. She was so drained she didn’t question why it was there.