Approaching Storm (Alternate Worlds Book 2)

by Taylor Leigh

  Sam pressed her lips into a thin line. ‘Well, you’re still the one trapped to my ring and I’m the one with the Light. So for now, you answer to me.’

  The Darkness chuckled in amusement. ‘Then speak, Commander of Light, but be quick, we cannot hold these forms for long, no matter how strongly you will it.’

  Sam had been thinking long and hard throughout the day about what she needed to talk about. Now that she realised it was not a Daemon, but something worse, she’d lost track of what those questions were. ‘There’s something possessing Avery Roth. Something the Traveller doesn’t know. Is that you? More of you?’

  ‘Yes. And you must bring us back. We need to join. We are aching to be re-joined. You know what that’s like now, girl. Now you know our pain of being split. Roth feels it, too.’ The voice rolled. ‘It is so difficult to exist apart. So difficult to communicate, to survive. Roth needs us back.’

  Sam shook her head, not wanting to consider her and Tollin’s connection being anything like this thing’s with Roth. ‘If you’re so great and you’re the same as whatever’s in Roth, why doesn’t the Traveller know that? Have you done something to hide? Can’t he sense you?’

  ‘He is an ignorant fool. He always has been. Ignorant and arrogant; even more so than we thought. And that has given us time. Time to feed.’

  Sam shivered. ‘But…you’re energy, aren’t you? What have you got to feed on? Emotion?’ She was running down rabbit trails now. This thing didn’t seem to let her stay focused.

  ‘We find those lost in the void, unable to find the Light. We pull them into our self and twist them, devour them till they no longer exist. Always hunting. Always wanting.’

  Sam felt something nasty growing inside of her. A new fear—something primal—was starting to sprout. It was the fear of lying awake in bed at night when you are quite certain something is standing just in the shadows. She found herself fighting to remain calm. ‘You’re not talking about emotions, are you? You don’t feed off of what Daemons do.’

  It snarled. ‘Do not compare us to that filth! We are their god! We are their creator!’

  Sam ran her fingers through her hair, aware of the fact she was trembling. She glanced to the Light around her for comfort. ‘All right, so you’re a god. You’re their creator. Whatever.’ She pursed her lips. ‘So, why are you here? If you’re so powerful, why here? Why inside of Roth, what do you want?’

  ‘To spread.’ The thing did expand with the words. ‘That is always our goal. To spread, to infect, to feed.’

  ‘You want to cover every Realm, have I got it? And the chair thing they’re building, that’s how you’re going to do it?’

  ‘We are covering every Realm.’

  The Darkness was starting to blink out of existence, growing fainter by the moment.

  Sam shook her head. ‘But why Roth? I mean, if you are so powerful, then why reduce yourself down to just one man? What are you doing?’ Panic twisted at her insides, the edges of the cloud were already beginning to fade.

  ‘Revenge,’ it croaked. And then it was gone.

  Rising like a curtain, the Light lifted up away from her and was gone in a rush. Sam whirled round, suddenly alone. The top of the tower was completely barren now. The wind which had been blocked by the Light moments ago cut through her thin clothing.

  Sam wrapped her arms around herself and stared out across the forest. She found herself blinking back tears. The effort to talk with the monster had been more exhausting than she’d realised at the time and now she could hardly stand straight. Just when she thought things could not get any worse, she now knew they hadn’t even scratched the surface.

  The tower shook ever-so-slightly with another tremor in the earth.

  There was an unknown creature, something living against her skin even now. A hungry power that even the Daemons were afraid of. And it wanted revenge. Sam didn’t need to ask to know who the power was after.

  Tollin was in more trouble than perhaps even he knew.

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Tollin awoke from a light sleep, not sure what had pulled him back to consciousness. He could go for weeks without sleep if the need arose, but being locked in a dark cell with no stimulation besides the occasional trip to the lab was beyond boring.

  The earth rumbled. Ah, another earthquake. He’d been counting. They were growing more frequent. Tollin doubted that was a good sign.

  He’d clawed at all of the metal panels in the cell till his fingers bled, but working in almost complete darkness with no tools made it impossible to get at any of the wires to work with. It was just a dull, metal box. And so far it was proving fairly impervious to his attempts to break out.

  He sat up stiffly against the wall, rubbing his head. The uncomfortable, creeping sense of worry that did not leave him in consciousness snaked back.

  He was not so concerned about himself; he’d been in tight spots, but the Myrmidons had gotten their hands on a bit of important information—most of it hidden in his blood. He knew their science wasn’t advanced enough to do much with it, but this was exactly why his kind weren’t allowed outside of their own Realm. No, he wasn’t in trouble with the Myrmidons, but if any dragons found out about this incident…he winced.

  He found himself for the millionth time fretting about Samantha Turner.

  She was too close, too wanted, too unprotected.

  His ears pricked up at the sound of footsteps heading down the hall his direction. Tollin swung his legs to the floor, body tensing. He had to admit: he was slightly desperate. Whoever opened that door had better be armed to the teeth. He was growing tired of the dark cell. A change in surroundings would be nice. Surroundings like escaping down the hall. That sounded good.

  The Blaiden man—Tollin had taken to calling him Bruno, for lack of his real name—threw open the door.

  Disappointment hit him like a sledgehammer. Wasn’t much chance of dodging past that.

  Reluctantly, he pushed aside his frustration. No point agonising over it. He mentally went about accepting another round of painful testing.

  ‘Ah, some company, finally!’ he cried, squinting in the sudden light. Irritating and cheeky was always a good way to hide disappointment and growing misery.

  Bruno snarled and without replying, reached forward with one of his paws and grabbed Tollin by the hair, yanking him forward. Tollin yelped in pain as he was dragged from the cell, shoes slipping against the metal surface. Bruno gripped the back of his jumper and hauled him up the stairs. He felt like a doll in the man’s hands.

  Tollin kept his eyes constantly roving the hall as Bruno marched him forward. Not many escape opportunities had presented themselves to him, and though being trapped in Bruno’s crushing grip wasn’t the best of escape attempt moments, if Tollin saw his chance, he was as sure as hell going to take it.

  Unfortunately, Bruno seemed to be a mind reader as well as a complete meathead and kept his iron hold on Tollin ruthlessly. Tollin could barely keep his feet under him as the giant paraded him down the hall. By now, Tollin knew the way well. He was on his way to the lab.

  The walk was shorter than Tollin would have liked—though his hair follicles appreciated the break—and he was thrust into the laboratory. He went staggering across the floor from momentum, but before he had chance to swing round and make a run for it, his guard was on him again.

  Bruno shoved Tollin roughly up against the wall. Tollin couldn’t wriggle free from the giant’s powerful grasp before a solid clamp snapped around his wrists. The other restrains swung forward, sealing him against the wall.

  Bruno gave him a nasty sneer and then turned for the door. Tollin glowered at the man as he left and then went to absently tugging at the metal restraints. It didn’t do much good; he’d experimented with them countless times.

  He huffed his breath in boredom. There were times he’d been locked in for hours without anyone coming to see him. For someone who constantly needed stimulation, it was agonising. He’d rather have Ro
th experimenting on him than be left alone.

  Luckily, he didn’t have long to wait, for not five minutes after Bruno had left, Roth strode in.

  Tollin flashed what he hoped was one of his most irritating smiles. ‘Time for my yearly physical already? I could have sworn I just had one!’

  He watched Roth closely as he went over to one of the panels and started reading the information scrolling by. Not irritating enough, apparently. Tollin wrinkled his nose.

  The man—or what was inside of him—puzzled Tollin. When someone was possessed, they weren’t always possessed. They were still themselves on the inside, sharing their bodies with the invading parasite. But Roth hadn’t shown any signs of that yet. When Tollin looked into Roth’s eyes, he couldn’t see Avery. There was no sign of the man at all, it was as if he’d just been…stripped from his body and he was nothing more than a shell now.

  That didn’t seem possible. At least Tollin couldn’t think of an instance of that happening. Daemons weren’t powerful enough to completely remove a human soul from its body. Sure, they could completely take over; make it so the human almost ceased to exist, but no Daemon could destroy the soul of a human. No Daemon could possess a body and keep it as its own without anything else inside of it. The rules were that no Daemon could kill a human by possession. Both Roth was inexplicably gone.

  Tollin leant forward, trying to see what Roth was looking at on the screen. ‘You know,’ he drawled after a moment, not liking the only noises being the machines beeping and the air recirculating. ‘For a Daemon, you’re really an odd one. How many are content to just sit back and work side-by-side with humans. I’ve never seen the likes of it. All of these experiments, the careful calculations; keeping this team together, all working towards opening a portal for your little friends…Such self-control, such rationality…You going native? Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone.’ He winked.

  ‘Daemon?’ Roth rumbled, lifting his eyes to stare at Tollin. ‘You still think I’m some dirty Daemon sent here to cause trouble for you? You think I’m here to help the Daemons? You actually think I give a damn about those pathetic, weak, little mutants? They’re filth! Worse than humans, if that is possible. The very suggestion offends me.’

  Tollin was taken aback. That was not the response he’d assumed he’d get. The thing inside of Roth didn’t want to be considered a Daemon. Whatever was living inside of Roth must be delusional, confused, as Tollin had initially assumed.

  ‘Why…’ Tollin went on slowly, ‘why, if you don’t care about Daemons, would you be so focused on this whole gateway thing, then?’

  Roth smiled thinly. ‘It is not my goal to let things in, dear Traveller. It is my goal to get out. And this gateway will do that for us. There will be so many paths to take. The only thing to do will be to step forward. We have almost all we need, now.’

  Tollin sniffed. ‘You think this thing is going to be some sort of train station for you? Daemons don’t think that far in advance, I’m fairly…impressed. But what would one little Daemon want with a train station? You’re only one entity. Unless you simply fancy travelling, what good does any of this do you?’

  ‘There’s no explaining this to you, Traveller. We do forget…’ Roth continued to study Tollin, seeming to guess at what he was thinking. ‘I did want to drag this out longer, but it seems a shame to keep you in the dark as long as I have. We cannot let you die without knowing. It would make my long imprisonment worth nothing.’

  Tollin’s spine went tight as Roth marched towards him. His stomach slowly did a loop but he bristled challengingly; it was his only real defence. Whatever Roth was, he had to understand Tollin had certain gifts. It should give him hesitation. Tollin was not a good person to trifle with.

  Still, even though knowing the attack was coming, even though none had ever come close to succeeding before, Tollin still felt his nerves tightening with something disturbingly close to fear. Fear because he didn’t know what Roth was. While most Daemons would have hung back nervously, Roth seemed to have absolutely no qualms about attempting an invasion. His eyes actually held a gleam of anticipation at the prospect.

  He only had half a second to prepare before Roth lunged forward like a striking snake, clamping his hands roughly on either side of Tollin’s face. He could feel Roth’s fingernails digging into his scalp. Tollin clenched his teeth in a snarl; his body automatically starting to fight the inevitable. He pushed his head against Roth’s powerful grip, locking eyes with the thing inside of him.

  From there, Tollin focused on building up his will into a climbing wave. As he felt the first tendrils of whatever was inside of Roth push at his defences, Tollin slammed all of his mental power against it. Hopefully with strength enough to send whatever darkness was inside of Roth crawling back permanently damaged.

  It wasn’t as powerful as Tollin would have liked but Roth certainly did not appreciate the resistance; he clearly had had enough.

  Roth slammed Tollin’s head back hard enough for him to see stars. An uncomfortable, compressed groan emanated from the sides of his skull. Tollin groped at the edges of his consciousness to keep from losing it completely. He struggled to rebuild his walls, frantically scrabbling to stop up any cracks in his armour. Losing wasn’t an option.

  ‘You can’t possess me,’ he growled through his teeth. ‘NOW, GET OUT!’

  Roth’s eyes blazed black. Tollin’s insides curled. He had never seen such hatred, not even from a Daemon, this…whatever it was, was practically sweating blood over its rage towards him. Roth’s hand clamped around his throat, crushing in on his windpipe.

  To his alarm, Tollin began to feel his resolve start to crumble under the force. Just when he thought the will of the entity couldn’t get any stronger, it did, crushing in on his skull, forcing all of his strength inward. Sent him scrambling to reinforce barriers. His brain was aching from the effort. It was pushing against him, stabbing its tendrils through the cracks in his determination. Tollin was starting to cave.

  He could feel sweat sliding down his back. This had never happened to him before. He’d never encountered a will so strong. Blinding pain roared through his brain, enough to make him cry out. Roth struck him in the gut hard and Tollin doubled over as much as he was able. Another fist hit him across the face. Black spots popped over his eyes.

  Panic started to flood his mind, making his resolve waver. This couldn’t be happening to him! It had never happened to him, yet this power was overwhelming. It was impossible.

  As dominant as Tollin’s own mind was, this quashed it. And it kept coming, as if it were feeding off of some huge battery of energy, bent on crushing Tollin’s determination like an eggshell. His brain screamed in agony. He was going to lose his mind.

  Light pierced through his head in blinding agony. Screaming, resisting.

  And then, suddenly, the pain was gone. The presence left Tollin’s head as if it had been sucked out by a straw.

  Roth released Tollin with a chuckle and walked calmly away, back to the monitor. Tollin let out a heavy gasp of pain and sagged against the restraints. His head dropped low against his will to his chest.

  Through blurry eyes, he watched a small jewel of coppery red drip from his nose and splat to the floor. He swallowed air deeply, chest heaving. He felt like he’d been running for days on end. His eyelids drooped beyond his control to stop them. Blacking out, Tollin realised, was a very likely possibility if he didn’t get control of himself fast.

  ‘I hope now we understand each other better,’ Roth said from across the room. His tone had that aggravating quality of a chiding parent disciplining a child.

  Tollin stared at the growing bloody pool at his feet, fighting for breath. He didn’t understand Roth better now. It was quite the opposite. He had absolutely no idea what was inside of Roth. What creature would do what it had just done—expend such energy for no reason other than to make a point? What kind of Daemon could leave Tollin in such bad shape as he was now?

  Fear ate away
at his belly.

  He was facing something that, as impossible as it was to accept, might be stronger than he was. It was something he did not understand and had no idea how to defeat. And that terrified him.

  ‘So,’ Tollin swallowed. He mentally winced at how ragged his voice came. ‘Why not just possess me? You’ve proven you’re incredibly powerful. Why do you even need me?’ He wasn’t sure Roth was capable of that. Perhaps if Roth tried, both of them would simply cease to be.

  ‘Oh, no,’ Roth said, distracted. ‘That will come, but not yet. You still have your uses.’

  ‘Right,’ Tollin regarded him with hooded eyes. ‘Because that bloody chair of yours works so well. It seems like it would be much easier—if you’re looking out for yourself—to just possess me instead of going through all of this rot trying to synthesise my DNA. What are you waiting for?’

  Roth’s eyes held a glint. ‘Since you’ve lost your ability to jump on your own, there isn’t much appeal in stepping into your scrawny skin, is there? You’re more useful to me from the outside. Don’t want to lose you just yet.’

  Tollin glanced away from Roth. Was Roth telling the truth? Or was he just afraid to go that far? Daemons never attempted it, thanks to some of his unpleasant gifts. Maybe Roth was held back by that same fear. Perhaps he was just better at hiding it.

  ‘Now,’ Roth purred, ‘we must turn our attention to more pressing issues. The anniversary is this week; did you know that, Traveller? And it’s a pity for us to experience it alone.’

  He typed in a few keys and the computer flashed with the bio page of Samantha Turner.

  Roth stared at the blurry image of Sam for a moment. He had gone dead still. At the sight of her, Tollin’s attention was pulled from his injuries. She looked so young in the photo. Beautiful. She was distracted by something; laughing, long blonde hair was blowing in the wind. He wondered when the picture had been taken. The day they had been in Miol Mor?