Approaching Storm (Alternate Worlds Book 2)

by Taylor Leigh

  Roth ran his hand over the image slowly, making Tollin bristle. The idea of Roth touching Sam made everything inside of him revolt. ‘Funny how the universe works, isn’t it? So much unexplained, so many questions. Strange things in the most unlikely of places.’ He let out a shaky, snarling laugh. When he spoke, his voice was tight, so full of hate Tollin wondered how the man was still standing. ‘She’s special, isn’t she?’

  Tollin, baffled, clamped his jaws shut. He wasn’t going to say anything about Samantha Turner.

  Roth continued to stare at Sam; his breathing had become ragged, nasty. He balled his hands into fists till they cracked.

  ‘When will you learn, Traveller?’ he growled quietly.

  Tollin stared at Sam with a sickening feeling. He knew exactly what Roth meant. When would he learn to stop bringing people into his life that he cared about? When would he learn that he had to be alone?

  The transformation of Roth was morbidly fascinating. Something about the image of Samantha Turner upset the man—violently. Tollin didn’t think Roth could hate anyone more than him, but he’d just seen it. He stared at the image of Sam again, puzzled, despite his new gnawing fear. Tollin could see nothing threatening about the image. To him, it was just a young woman. Completely harmless to someone like Roth.

  Slowly, Roth tore his gaze from the image of Samantha and pressed a small button on the screen’s control panel. Tollin heard a buzzer go off in the next room. Then Roth strode towards a cart loaded down with instruments.

  The door hissed open and Tollin briefly took his attention from what Roth was gathering at the cart. Bruno marched into the room, yellow eyes narrowed to a predatory glower.

  Roth addressed him patiently, while filling a syringe with something Tollin assumed was meant for him. ‘Do you see that girl?’ Roth nodded to the image of Sam. ‘She’s in the Druid city somewhere. Follow Arkron Terrisan’s trail. She’s in on this. She’s probably harbouring her. Bring her and the ring to me. Do not let her speak to you.’

  Tollin lurched forward against the straps. ‘No!’ he cried. ‘Leave her! She can’t do anything to you! Roth, she doesn’t have the ring, I swear! Just leave her alone! You’ll never get that chair working! SHE DOESN’T HAVE THE RING!’

  Roth didn’t bat an eye. Tollin seethed, he could taste blood his mouth, metallic, tangy, like his rage.

  ‘Be careful,’ Roth continued. ‘She may have people guarding her, and…there may be forces guarding her as well. Things you cannot fight. Do what you have to do.’

  He casually flipped a switch on the wall and Tollin was filled with a sense of vertigo as the wall to which he was strapped began to slide away and tilt. His view spun and Tollin lost sight of Roth and the Blaiden man. It was humiliating and made him feel all the more out of control. The moving section of the wall continued to tilt backwards and slide forwards till it hissed to a stop. Tollin found himself staring up at the ceiling, strapped to the familiar medical table, panting in frustration.

  The Blaiden man nodded. ‘It will be done.’ He turned from Roth and gave Tollin a nasty grin, and then he was gone.

  Tollin’s mind raced. Sam, he had to contact Sam. He battled to quiet his mind, but there was no way he was getting to her in the mental state he was in now.

  ‘Avery, please, leave Sam alone. She isn’t a threat. She doesn’t have the ring, I swear. The chair is doomed to fail, just give it up!’

  ‘Ah, Traveller. If there is one thing you are famous for, it is lying. But, I do think it’s time for us all to be reunited, don’t you think? Being split is so very uncomfortable.’

  Tollin wondered what that meant. He and Sam? The stones?

  ‘We both know that Samantha Turner should never have gone to you, Traveller. I’m afraid that by the end of tonight, she’ll wish she’d never have met you.’ A horrible smile twisted his thin lips. ‘How awful you must feel. I can’t imagine; tricking her in to coming with you on some grand adventure and what will really await her is nothing but death. What an accomplished liar you are, Traveller. I am impressed. But it has to end tonight. She cannot be allowed to go on.’ His voice turned sour.

  ‘Why?’ Tollin roared. ‘She’s just a girl! There’s nothing she can do to you! She’s human!’

  Roth strode towards Tollin, spinning a needle between his fingers. His voice had turned to a gentle, soothing purr. ‘There is so much you do not understand, Traveller. It is almost tragic to see how blind you are.’

  Tollin put all his strength into pulling at the restraints. He had power, and now he had the mad rage he needed. He had to get out. Sam was in danger. ‘You harm one hair on her head and I will show no mercy to you, Roth, I swear. There will be no second chances!’

  ‘Charming,’ Roth chuckled. ‘Your threats are duly noted. But the time for talk is over. The order has been given and I will have what I need soon enough. And just to ensure you don’t try anything,’ Roth plunged the needle into Tollin’s neck. ‘When you wake up, it’ll be all over.’

  Tollin felt the drug race through his veins and could only frantically struggle to beat it. His own heart betrayed him, pumping the alien substance through his limbs and mind dutifully. Tollin’s vision began to cloud.

  No, not now! Don’t you bloody dare fall asleep now. Sam, please hear me! Sam! You’re in danger; you have to…his mind refused to cooperate.

  Gradually, the room around him began to blur away. The sharp sting of chemicals grew distant, the blinding white lights faded to a soft glow. The cold table under him moved, as if melting, floating, and then the total darkness came, and Tollin slipped into oblivion.

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Sam was finding it hard to fall asleep.

  If her worry for Tollin and the Darkness hadn’t been enough, the storm outside certainly was. It was as if the raging elements were all fighting to decide which was the most devastating. And they were going at it with all they had. Sam normally appreciated a good storm, but this one seemed beyond all reason.

  She stared out the window, watching the rain pelt the glass. The wind tossed the trees like grass. She felt uneasy, and was unsure as to why. Inexplicably, the scene beyond the window sent her nerves tingling. Perhaps because it was hard to see anything outside; it made it impossible to tear her eyes away. Something about the darkness; something the storm was blowing in. Some dark hunger.

  It was the kind of night one felt anything could happen. She half expected to see the slick, drenched form of a little drowned child standing out there in the tempest, staring back at her.

  The wind blew harder, making everything outside dance and shift like black ghosts. The window rattled. A blinding flash of lightning lit up the black world for a sharp second. Sam’s heart gave an uncomfortable leap. She could have sworn she saw something large racing its way up the rocky slope towards the keep. Body shiny and sleek in the wet. Then it was gone.

  She chided herself. Pull yourself together, Sam! She’d just had a conversation with the Darkness, and her nerves still hadn’t settled—and they probably wouldn’t for days. She couldn’t put her finger on what exactly about it had disturbed her so thoroughly. It wasn’t as if the thing had been threatening, yet she still found herself now as if she’d been dunked in ice water.

  Perhaps it was what the thing had said that hadn’t stopped eating away at her. Her new knowledge twisted in her stomach, slowly crumbling her insides to water. All of these powerful, supernatural beings made her feel ill. There were too many of them. So many even Tollin didn’t know them all. Knowing that there were entities out there, much stronger than her, able to do anything, go anywhere, was enough to keep even the sanest person awake at night.

  Lightning flashed again. There was nothing. No sign of life. As there rightly shouldn’t have been; any creature would have been mad to want to be out in such a storm!

  She turned away from the window, shaking her head. Back to bed. Sam slid between the cool sheets with a shudder.

  Since she wasn’t sleeping, she fou
nd it all the more frustrating Tollin hadn’t contacted her. He felt distant, disconnected. She could still sense him, but his thoughts were upset and disjointed, fluttering about like a moth in a jar. It made her nervous. Something was bothering him. Something was wrong. She couldn’t make sense of it; his thoughts were so frayed she couldn’t catch hold of them. If he did not initiate it, contact was impossible.

  Thunder rumbled outside.

  Sam was drained. There was nothing left to do but close her eyes and feign sleep. Waiting up all night for Tollin was proving to be a waste of energy. He wasn’t coming. His state of mind made that disappointingly clear. And with his scattered thoughts disturbing her quiet she wasn’t sure how she was supposed to settle. Trying to relax through someone else’s bad dream was not enjoyable.

  Yet with time, as hard as it was, she began to drift; slipping into the strange state that hovered at the edge of slumber. Her deadened limbs lost their weight as sleep wafted around the edges of her mind. Soft, warm tendrils that muffled Tollin’s troubled thoughts. The storm outside shrank away.

  And then there was a crash! that brought her back to reality. A gust of cold, wet air flooded in and Sam jerked upright in bed, confused and disoriented. She struggled to make out the unfamiliar shapes in the dark as her heart lodged somewhere in her throat.

  The window had blown open and now it clattered as the wind threw it on its hinges. Rain blew in sheets across the floor in expanding puddles. Sam pushed the covers aside and immediately her skin dampened in the wet, chill air. Sam frowned, heart still pounding from the jolt. This draughty old house… She hadn’t remembered unlatching it…she started to slide from her bed, and then she saw.

  Wet prints on the floor.

  Giant.

  Her heart seemed to stop. Oh my—

  A numb dread settled in her stomach like hardening concrete. It took her a moment too long to know how to respond.

  Sam’s head whipped round only to come face to face with a huge man. The Blaiden from the Myrmidon base. She would have recognised him anywhere.

  The man, with an animalistic snarl, lunged for her before Sam could even think of disentangling herself from her sheets. Her brain blanked. What could she do? Scream, you idiot!

  Sam’s cry was cut off as an enormous hand clamped over her face. She tried to break from the iron arms, beating madly against his chest. Her neck gave an alarming pop as he hauled her back. Sam swung out an elbow, catching him in the shoulder, but it felt like she’d struck a solid wall.

  The man’s large fingers pressed in against her nostrils. She couldn’t breathe. Her hot, panicked pants came pushed back against her face. She bit down hard on what flesh she could. With a swear, he released her, grabbing for a better hold.

  Sam seized her chance and dove forward, screaming Marus’s name at the top of her lungs as she went. A loud crack of thunder outside informed her just how well that plan was going to work.

  The giant snagged her ankles, one hand easily encircling both of her feet and flipped her over.

  Horrible thoughts started clogging through Sam’s mind. With both her feet trapped, Sam didn’t have a lot of options besides squirm and scream. Both of which were not proving very effective.

  The Blaiden muttered something in his own language, expression incredibly irritated with her pathetic display of resistance. Sam knew she was running out of time.

  Correction. She was already out. Almost in slow motion, Sam saw the man’s huge hand ball into a fist and rocket her direction.

  WHAM! The man hit her across the jaw, and he may as well have hit her with a rock. Her vision blacked and Sam’s world spun in a stupid daze. She could feel the strong hands wrapping around waist, the sharp fingernails starting to dig into her skin, but she was no longer aware of it. She was floating in a numb sea, just beneath consciousness.

  The man pulled her from bed like she was nothing but a small child. Sam could feel her body limp in his arms, unresisting, compliant. A welcoming, heavy darkness was clouding in on her senses and Sam desperately wanted to give in to it.

  No…no, I can’t…Wake up, stupid, wake up! Dammit wake up!

  There was a crack of thunder and Sam snapped back to reality. And reality hurt. Her head was splitting with such force she cried out in misery. Reality also reminded her there was a strange man in her room. And she was in his arms. And he was carrying her over his shoulder towards the open window.

  Sam kicked out wildly, trying to remember how her limbs worked, struggling like a crazed animal.

  The man paused at the open window, seeming to reconsider his chances of getting down the straight drop with a struggling girl to carry. How he’d managed to get up that way was beyond Sam.

  She kicked at him hard; just to let him know there was no way that she was going to make it at all easy for him. With a decisive grunt, he turned and bounded towards the door. Once they were in the hall, Sam knew it was her last chance.

  ‘MARUS, WAKE UP! NO!’ She stared in frustration at Marus’s bedroom door. It was so close!

  The man growled at her angrily and brought his shoulder hard up into her sternum, immediately winding her.

  She flung one of her arms behind her desperately grabbing for an ear, eye, anything. She dug her fingernails in—trying not to think about the action—and ripped them across the man’s face. He let out a rather pleasing roar of rage and pain.

  Up ahead, on the left, standing just where the solid wall ended and the long drop to the foyer began, was an old, rusted suit of armour. Sam hadn’t ever paid that much attention to it, but now she’d never been so glad to see it.

  As they approached, Sam swung her body out as far as possible and hit the armour with the strength she had. The metal tower wobbled for a moment and then leaned to the left before tipping over the railing and smashing to below with an incredibly loud, echoing CRASH!

  Despite her situation, Sam found herself grinning in satisfaction.

  ‘Enough,’ the man slung her off of his shoulder and slammed her up against the wall. Again, Sam’s world blurred as her forehead cracked against the wall.

  I guess this is it. I’m sorry, Tollin. I couldn’t save you. The Guide was wrong, it wasn’t my destiny. I’m so sorry…

  He spun her round and knotted a fist in her hair, pulling her head back to slap a blade against her throat.

  Sam was out of options. In desperation, she tried her one attempt left. She flattened herself against the wall and she squeezed her eyes shut. Then she jumped up and kicked her feet off of the wall, shoving with all of her might into the man. Her desperation came with a flash of yellow light.

  It surprised her attacker and in the narrow hall he had nowhere to go but back. He stumbled, smashing through the railing.

  He had released Sam, and now she stood frozen, still pressed against the wall, shocked as the man precariously wobbled on the edge. His eyes bulged as he lost his balance; his arms went wide, in one last-ditch attempt to save himself. He knew he was doomed. But still he caught hold of one thing; the front of Sam’s shirt, yanking her towards him.

  Sam let out a yelp and spun; trying to grab hold of anything she could, but it was too late. He had her; arms and legs wrapping around her body in one last desperate attempt to crawl back. She couldn’t break free, and as the man tipped from the solid ground to open air, pulling her down with him.

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  They both fell.

  Sam didn’t even have time to scream. The man’s arms clenched tightly around her back choked any of that out of her. She closed her eyes as she saw the floor loom up at alarming speed. She braced herself for the inevitable impact, making herself go as limp as humanly possible. She could feel him struggling beneath her, trying to turn over in some way to land better.

  In the end he didn’t have time.

  The impact was agonisingly solid, even if Sam had a body beneath her softening the blow.

  There was a sickening crunch as they hit and the man’s grip around her wen
t slack. She stared at the floor, dark and blurry, hidden by his shoulder. Sam was dazed, unable to fight back if the man suddenly picked himself up and hauled her out the door. She wasn’t sure she’d ever be able to move. All the fight had completely fled her in the fall.

  She was still alive.

  The surprise of the realisation hit her dully. No screaming pain came from her body. Nothing felt broken. She didn’t trust it; wasn’t sure how long her state of painless stupor would last.

  ‘Sam!’ Marus shouted from somewhere above her.

  Sam groaned as she started to wake up to her senses; the breath had completely abandoned her lungs; her whole body ached, her teeth, head, back. Bloody hell. It took her a moment of stupid contemplation before the sharp clarity of her situation rushed back to her mind.

  With a gasp she rolled off of the unmoving form of the giant. She scrabbled away from him on her palms and heels, unable to pull her gaze away. Her eyes flicked to his skull. It was split wide and an ocean of red was slowly growing across the flood. Sam could feel it under her palms, seeping into the seat of her pyjama bottoms. She didn’t stop moving till she was at the foot of the stairs.

  Behind her she could hear the bump! bump! bump! as Marus hurried down them. He grabbed her by the shoulders. His touch finally brought some breath back to her lungs.

  ‘Sam? What happened?’

  Sam swallowed; she wanted to tear her eyes away from the body, her stomach turning. She could see grey matter spilling out. He’d been alive just moments before…that could have been her.

  ‘I’m fine, fine. I’m not hurt.’ Deep breath. ‘Don’t fuss.’

  Marus stared into her eyes. Sam offered him a quavering smile and he pulled her into a crushing hug. Sam buried her face into his shoulder, inhaling his comforting scent. He held her for a long moment and Sam wasn’t too keen on it ending. Tears were starting to well in the dump of emotions that now decided to batter her. Her body, tense from adrenalin, had left her physically and emotionally drained.