Blood Oath (A Gabby Girls Adventure Novel, Book Two)

by T. L. Clarke

  "Is it true?" Jessica rushed to say in one breath.

  Thallo looked at her curiously. "Is what true, Jessica?"

  She twisted her blonde hair anxiously. "Is it true that there will be boys at the academy?"

  Thallo sighed loudly. "Okay, where in the world did you hear that? I was saving that info for the flight over."

  Jessica’s eyes darted guiltily at Rosalinda.

  Thallo stormed over to the middle of the room and angrily jammed her hands on her narrow hips as she glared at Rosalinda. "Rosalinda, exactly where did you hear that?"

  Rosalinda’s eyes darted around the room nervously, stopping at me.

  I snorted, giving her a disgusted stare. "Don’t even look at me. You told us, so don’t even try to act crazy now."

  Rosalinda cleared her throat nervously. "Well, I kind of overheard the Circles talking this morning."

  Thallo’s eyes flashed heatedly. "Really? Are you really going to give me that lame-butt excuse?"

  Rosalinda sputtered angrily, looking at her tensely as she flipped her long black hair over her shoulder. Even I flinched because I’d never seen Thallo as angry as she was right now. She was fighting mad, and I couldn’t figure out why.

  She smiled icily. "Rosalinda, do you know what I think happened? You lifted the Circles’ thoughts and got that information."

  Rosalinda looked around the room nervously as everyone looked back at her accusingly.

  Thallo pointed angrily at her. "We never, and I mean never, use our gifts against another Circle. Is that understood?"

  Rosalinda looked at her contritely. "Sí, yes, understood."

  "Good, so let that be rule number one." She looked at them pointedly before taking a calming breath. "Now, I advise all of you to get some sleep because I don’t want to hear any whining in the morning. We have a very tight schedule, and I’m not going to let any of you put the success of this mission in jeopardy." She quickly spun on her heels, opened the door, and stormed out with a loud bang.

  "Well, that was interesting…Thallo just had a mental meltdown of major proportions," I joked as I quickly walked over to my bed and pulled off my comfy dark chocolate sheepskin-lined suede boots, plopping down with a sigh. "But I still think it was way not cool to mind lift, Princess Rosalinda. Stealing thoughts, I mean really, that’s like shoplifting. Jeez!"

  Jessica looked at Rosalinda uneasily. "You do realize that you just got us in trouble, right? I mean, Thallo looked like she was going to rip out your heart and eat it for breakfast."

  Rosalinda looked at us angrily before storming over to her bed and jumping in. "Look, I said that I was sorry. What else do you want me to say? Besides, I didn’t even know that I was doing anything wrong." She fluffed her hair, then snatched her blanket. "Two Circles were just standing around talking about something to do with Ms. Vineswell, and I just picked up a bit of their rambling thoughts. I didn’t do it intentionally. Jeez, I’m learning how to use my gifts, just as you are, and I don’t know how to control it yet. I mean, isn’t that why we are going to Transcendence Hall, to learn how to use our gifts?"

  Jessica smiled at Rosalinda reassuringly. "Okay, Gabby Girls, let’s cut her some slack. She’s right about us still learning how to use our gifts, so there are bound to be some mistakes along the way."

  Zora took off her glasses. "That’s all good, but don’t make that mistake again, okay?"

  "Whatever, I won’t do it again, so can we drop the topic already?" Rosalinda pulled her blanket over her head with a snap of finality.

  Her rudeness was so unbelievable. I looked over the top of my blanket at Jessica and Zora with a look of utter disbelief. "I’m not even going to say anything."

  Jessica hopped into her bed and snuggled down. "Good, then don’t," she responded sweetly.

  I tucked my comforter around me. "But that girl is just plain rude."

  They groaned painfully.

  "You just had to add, didn’t you?" Zora responded as she reached over and turned off the lights.

  Jessica giggled, "It just wouldn’t be Gabi if she didn’t."

  "Whatever," I responded dryly as I looked around the dark room with finality. This was finally it; we were off to a new life at Transcendence Hall, leaving Vineswell behind for good. Well, that was if all went well. But what if it didn’t, or worse, what if I was the only one who flunked out of Transcendence Hall? I snuggled down in my comforter as the question nagged me until I drifted off to a restless sleep.

  chapter

  TWO

  Death lingered greedily, slithering around me. The stinging dark energy flowed through me, shocking me over and over, the pain brutal, all culminated by the bloodcurdling screams, my bloodcurdling screams.

  Searing pain pierced through my slumbering body with pulsating razor-sharp jabs followed by feelings of desperation then hopelessness. It was smothering like a pillow as I peered unwillingly through wide-open eyes, paralyzed by fear as his perfect face glowed with youth and vengeance. His golden eyes, flecked with a bit of sky blue, narrowed coldly as he kneeled menacingly over me. His pristine white T-shirt was shredded as if he had just been mauled by a wild animal. His shoulder-length golden blond hair blew roughly in the wind as violent flames engulfed his body, but did not burn his flesh.

  I gulped nervously as waves of nauseating pain flowed through my body all thanks to the heavy pressure of his knee biting into my chest.

  Who is he? And what does he want? I thought over and over like a broken record. I licked my cracked lips nervously as I stared with fascination at the mark on his chest, etched over his heart. It was etched with such painstaking beauty, with such precision, that I had to pinch back the urge to touch it with awe. It was the beautiful mark of a bright red and green dragon, eating its own tail, that looked vibrantly alive.

  He looked at me with such terrifying rage. "You are not the Akasha. What have you done with her?"

  Confused, my thoughts were jumbled. My mind was saying that I didn’t know him, but my heart was saying something completely different. I felt myself reaching up to touch his beautiful dragon mark like it was something that I’d done so many times, like it was so familiar, so mine. His face hardened as he flinched away from my touch, his eyes showing disgust.

  I felt hurt, like he’d physically slapped me. "Why are you doing this? You know who I am." The words that tumbled out of my mouth were so familiar, yet so strange.

  His eyes softened slightly. His finger gently trailed along my cheek. "I see traces of her, but this is a path that I cannot stray from." With malice-laced eyes, he reached expertly across his shoulders and pulled out two wicked-looking swords from the leather sheaths attached on his back by the slings. The swords, combusted into flames, making him look like an avenging angel, all glowing and shining, with soulless eyes.

  A feeling of anxiousness knotted deep in the pit of my stomach. I had to stop him. I didn’t know how, but I knew that my next move was very important. "You mean that you will not stray from your path. There’s a big difference," I responded softly but with strong intent in my eyes. "I am the tie that binds the Elements together. And now, I am bound to you, for eternity."

  I honestly didn’t know where these words were coming from. It was like I was reading some sort of ancient script: Say this, not that. Stop. Repeat.

  His eyes turned blood red, his face twisting angrily. "Your wicked magic will not work on me, Eternal. The choice is simple. Break the curse." His voice was smooth like honey, coaxing and very mesmerizing.

  I laughed bitterly. "Using the enthrall spell will not ease the pain of my final decision." Part of me was quaking in my shoes, but the other part was irrationally calm. The conflicting emotions were tearing me apart. I looked at him with more calm than I was actually feeling as I continued, "I cannot give you what you want. The curse remains until sacrifices are made."

  What in the world was I saying? I was practically sealing my death by telling him no. The Gabrielle side of my brain was screaming to just t
ell him what he wanted to hear to save my life, but the soul that was currently possessing me was saying quite the opposite.

  Tears slipped down my cheeks. "What shall your sacrifice be?"

  "You," he responded in a voice laced with pure venom.

  I watched unflinchingly as his swords roared with flames, slicing smoothly into my body. Fire encircled me; wicked flames licked my skin without mercy, burning me from the outside in. I gasped with pain, banging against the shell of my body with all my might, but I was unwillingly trapped inside of the fiery tomb of pain. I silently begged for escape as the heat smothered me, until the rational part of my brain screamed furiously that this was just a dream; just wake up, and it would be over. Or would it?

  "Gabi!"

  I heard my name being called, but it was distorted and warped, like it was being called through a wind tunnel.

  "Gabi, wake up."

  I woke up frantically with strands of long, thick, curly brown hair sticking to my moist cheeks like glue and Jessica hovering over me, wringing her hands, with panic-filled baby blue eyes.

  I rubbed my eyes tiredly. "Don’t ask me how, but I think I just witnessed my own death."

  I felt hollow, empty as the words escaped my stiff lips. Suddenly, a sharp pain pierced my chest, my hand unconsciously seeking the pained spot. My hands stilled as I felt the puckering of my burnt skin. Oh. My. Goodness. I started to panic, frantically rubbing the raw, puckered skin until it miraculously smoothened back to its baby soft skin.

  Okay, relax. It’s just the residual from the dream. Breathe, Gabi. It’s over, I thought, coaching myself just like Grandma Celeste had taught me when I told her about the crazy dreams that I’d been having lately. She said that calming and controlling my mind was the only way to push out the spirits who sought to summon and control me through my dreams.

  Either way, I hated the icky feeling of knowing that all this madness had started the minute that we decided to accept our gifts and legacy, and as if on cue, the floodgates of crazy had just opened up.

  Now I was dealing with a whole lot of crazy, including my gift for moving things with my mind, what the Eternals call Telekin. And when I thought that it couldn’t get any worse, of course, it did, with the whispers—chilling, faceless whispers. Yes, like I said, the floodgates of crazy were wide open. But between my gift for Telekin and the chilling whispers, hands down, I hated the latter the most.

  First, the whispers started out very faint and lifeless, and now they were loud and demanding, like right now, multiple female voices converging into one as they clearly whispered, "Do not be afraid. The Akasha is the key to fate and destiny."

  There it was again, that "Akasha" thing. Why couldn’t they just leave me alone?

  The whispering continued. "Accept your journey. Find the talismans. Bind the Eternals and Elementi. Keep the four immortals bound to the pits of the Underworld."

  Okay, this was really freaking me out. After the nightmare, I was just not equipped to deal with this right now. Then, to my relief, the whispering stopped cold. Mental note to self, call Grandma Celeste immediately. Only she could help me figure out this messy gift.

  Jessica’s porcelain-doll-like face twisted with fright. Her body slowly flickered back and forth from opaque to translucent like a broken light bulb, which always seemed to happen when she was scared out of her mind. It was what we jokingly called her malfunctioning gift.

  I put on my best "I am not freaking out, and everything is okay" face.

  "What’s wrong, Jess?"

  And then I heard it, bloodcurdling screams followed by the booming thumps of Vineswell girls frantically running outside our room door. I bolted straight up in my bed, quickly looking around the room, spotting Zora and Rosalinda sitting up in their beds staring like they had just seen a ghost.

  I turned quickly to Jessica, studying her panic-stricken face. I asked breathlessly, "What’s going on?"

  She bit her bottom lip nervously. "I don’t know…We were sleeping, and then we heard lots of screaming and running in the hallway."

  Rosalinda pulled her blanket up to her chin, allowing her long, silky black hair to float around her protectively like a cloak. "I locked the door." She pointed over at the door. "I definitely don’t want whatever’s out there in here."

  The nonstop commotion of loud thumps, followed by terrified, shrill screams, made my skin crawl. I could smell the scent of death hovering in the air, the deaths of Vineswell girls, classmates I had just sat in class with this morning. I wanted to pinch my nose to block out the puke-inducing scent. Okay, great, another freakish gift appearing out of nowhere, add that to the fantastic gift list.

  Then I heard it again. The faceless whispers sounded frenzied. "It all begins with Darealist. Accept your journey. Find the talismans. Bind the Eternals and Elementi. Do not wake the four."

  I closed my eyes, trying to calm my heart, which was pounding so loud that I could practically hear it thumping. Okay, just ignore them, and then it will all go away. I waited the usual couple of minutes for the whispers to stop. My eyes widened with shock when I felt the soft caress of cold air cloying at the top of my head.

  Okay, this was new. I tilted my head up, dreading what I might see; I blinked quickly at the strange wispy white tendrils floating above my head like fluffy clouds. It gathered, then scattered, pulsating with some sort of freakish energy. Milky tendrils dripped from it, attaching itself sickeningly first to my head, then to my shoulders, pulling and tugging. Panicking, I quickly flicked them off, but the more I flicked, the faster they reattached greedily.

  Panicked, I looked over at Jessica, who looked back at me like I had lost my mind. Involuntarily, I twitched my shoulder. "Why are you looking at me like that? Don’t you see them?"

  Rosalinda looked at me nervously. "Umm, see what, Gabi?"

  I looked at them incredulously. "What do you mean what?" I flicked at the icky tendrils again. "Please tell me that you see those things." I pointed to the now brightly pulsating tendrils hovering above my head and attached to my body.

  Zora cleared her throat noisily. "Honestly, we don’t."

  Clamping my mouth shut angrily, I stopped flicking because now I just looked like some crazy person swatting at imaginary things. I slowed my breathing and tried to relax, closing my eyes just like Grandma Celeste instructed me to do when I needed to get my powers under control. Silently I repeated in my head, Leave me alone—now. I waited for a few seconds, and then I felt the icy tendrils unattaching themselves…slowly, seemingly very reluctantly.

  Breathing a sigh of relief, I opened my eyes only to see Jessica, Rosalinda, and Zora looking at me very curiously.

  I shot them a very annoyed glare before rolling my eyes dramatically. "No! I don’t want to talk about it."

  They looked at me uneasily, then shrugged dismissively.

  "Okay, so what are we going to do about the chaos and carnage taking place right outside our door?" I asked quickly.

  Rosalinda shot me an irritated glance. "Absolutely nothing. We’re just going to sit here and wait it out. There is no way I’m putting myself in danger for those humans, I mean Normals."

  "That’s truly very touching, Rosalinda," I spat venomously. "In the face of danger, let’s ignore the fact that Vineswell girls are being slaughtered right outside our door." I paused. "You’re right, let’s just sit here and do nothing and wait for our turn to die," I finished sarcastically.

  I was so sick of Rosalinda, better yet Princess Rosalinda, the nickname I had given her just to annoy her. There was no way that I was just going to just sit there and listen to Normals—humans with no supernatural powers—being slaughtered like cattle.

  Jessica shot us a disapproving stare as she twirled a long strand of golden blonde hair around her finger nervously. I could tell that she was on the verge of a total nervous breakdown by the way her body flickered between transparent and solid as if it didn’t know whether it wanted to stay or go. And our arguing, which we always seemed to d
o, was not helping the situation. We had more important things to worry about—like the pandemonium taking place right outside our bedroom door.

  I looked at Jessica sharply. "So how long has it been going on?"

  "It couldn’t be more than fifteen minutes." Jessica looked over at Zora for confirmation.

  Zora nodded before abruptly bolting from her bed and heading toward the door.

  Rosalinda threw her pillow at her head, but missed. "Zora, don’t you dare open that door," she whispered urgently.

  Zora picked up the pillow and tossed it back, but she didn’t miss, as it smacked Rosalinda dead in the face. "Relax. I’m not going to. I just have to know what’s going on out there." She pressed one palm against the door, her body stiffening as her eyes glazed over. "Blood… Death." Her voice was almost robotic as she slowly pressed her other palm against the door. "Mission…retrieve the Akasha…Everyone else must die." She inhaled sharply, quickly pulling her palms away from the door as if they had been burned.

  She spun to look at us with glassy eyes. Abruptly, her body sagged against the door. She looked at us, disorientated. "What happened? What did I say this time?"

  I was always amazed by her almost freakish gift. With just one touch, she could reveal the past, present, and the future, when her gift was not malfunctioning, that is.

  I responded dryly, "That we’re in a whole lot of trouble."

  My stomach rumbled sickeningly from sheer anxiety as I jumped out of my bed and bolted for the window. I blinked with utter disbelief. There were bodies, lots of lifeless bodies, both students and professors, scattered across the lawn. My heart sunk with the gravity of the scene. Oh crap. How could something like this happen at quiet Vineswell Academy?

  I felt the anxious presence of Jessica, Rosalinda, and Zora surrounding me as they watched with horror. Instantly, we all knew the balance of our fairly new world was crumbling beneath our feet. Tears rolled down Jessica’s cheeks as I wrapped my arms around her comfortingly, but there was no way that I was going to allow myself to be sucked into sadness. I just had this sinking feeling that I shouldn’t— that I couldn’t.