Avenging Amethyst (Immortal Eyes) (26 page)

The demon saw me
coming and smiled. I launched myself at him just as he and Lucas turned to
smoke and floated away. I landed painfully on the cold ground. I growled in
anger and slowly stood up to try to go after the two.

When I turned
around, I saw the trail of smoke heading towards the group of Dimidiums that
were mere feet away from the entrance to the cavern and their freedom. I
screamed and sprinted towards them.

There were still
some remaining Zhulik and Lovac fighting in the center of the cavern and I had
to dodge all of them to get to the group of Dimidiums. The Lovac assigned to
protect them turned their heads to see the smoke had already wrapped itself
around one of the Nesmyr.

The other
Dimidiums that were nearest to the smoke scrambled to get away from it but it
wasn't trying to cling itself to anyone else. It was only after one Nesmyr. My
Nesmyr.

I froze in the
middle of the room, still surrounded by fighting, when I saw the smoke snake
its’ way around the neck of the Nesmyr that had taken my breath away. I
was a mix of emotions. Looking at the Nesmyr gave me such an immense feeling of
joy but seeing the frightened look in his eyes and the smoke around his neck
made me angry and frightened.

I could see the
smoke moving to encase his whole body and I heard him screaming for help. His
voice was beautiful, even if it was full of fear. I was back to being
mesmerized by the Nesmyr and I couldn't move from my spot. I stood frozen in
the middle of the room, while I watched the smoke swallow up the Nesmyr. He
looked directly into my eyes before he was completely consumed by the smoke. I
couldn’t breathe when I watched the trail of smoke leave through the top
of the cavern.

Once the Nesmyr
was completely gone, I snapped out of the daze again. I was about to have a
panic attack when I heard a deep voice in my head. Lucas's voice.

The Nesmyr is
not dead, yet. We are only taking him with us. If you ever want to see him
again then you'll have to continue playing my game until you can beat me. I
look forward to our next meeting, my daughter.

I repeated the
words over and over in my head again until I was sure I was going crazy. I was
panting out of anger and my vision was starting to go blurry. I looked around
the room again and saw that there were still four remaining Zhulik and three
out of the five demons still alive. Out of the eighteen Lovac that had come
tonight only seven were still standing. I didn't know if all of the ones that
were on the ground were dead or just passed out but it didn't matter. We were
outnumbered in available fighters, with three of the seven remaining Lovac
helping the Dimidiums escape.     

My gaze slid to
Felix's limp body and that's when my rage took over entirely. I shrieked so
loud that I could feel the vibration from the sound bouncing off the walls of
the cave. Then I started attacking. I didn't think about anything other than
killing the Zhulik and demons. A sudden burst of energy flooded through me and
I attacked everything in my path. I threw Lovac out of the way, not wanting to
hurt them but not wanting them to distract me either. With every kill, my
vision got more and more clouded.

The four Zhulik
were quickly dead and then I moved on to the demons. By the time I reached
them, the Lovac had already moved out of the way. I could hear Riley shouting
something in the distance. Whether it was towards me or the other Lovac I had
no clue. My rage was too strong to focus on anything other than killing these
demons.

The three of
them tried attacking me at the same time. I heard myself laugh as I dodged all
of their attacks and killed them. I killed the first two quickly but took my
time with the third one. While I had him pinned to the ground I tortured him
with my stake until he begged for death. Even then, I didn't kill him right
away. I made him suffer for a few minutes longer before I ended it.

Once I knew all
of the threats were dead, I stood up and looked around the cavern. I could only
see a group of blurry people huddled together by the entrance. I stood where I
was, panting and blinking. I couldn't seem to calm myself down or get my vision
to go back to normal.

I had given in
to the darkness and let it take over. My inner self started to panic. Deep down
I didn't want to be evil. I didn't want to viciously kill everything in my way.

But I hadn't.

I may have gone
overboard on how I killed the Zhulik and demons but I had gotten the Lovac out
of my way first. I still had enough control to distinguish between friend and
foe.

Then I heard
someone calling my name in the distance. My head shot up and I looked around to
see where the voice had come from. There was someone standing only a few feet
away from me, calling my name, but it sounded like they were on the other side
of the cavern. I could see the person slowly moving closer to me but I still
couldn't make out who it was with my blurred vision.

The person was
trying to calm me down, which seemed to make me angrier but I tried to reason
with my inner self. The threat was gone. It was time to go back to normal.
Every time I told myself this I took a few deep breaths and my vision started
to clear more. The voice that was calling my name also got louder, until I
recognized it as Riley's. That's when my vision completely cleared and I was
able to force the darkness out of my mind.

Riley knew the
instant I was back to normal and immediately closed the remaining distance
between us and hugged me.

"You were amazing.
Terrifying but amazing. I think your eyes going cloudy was the worst. I didn't
know if you would come back from that," she said.

"My eyes
were cloudy?" I was so exhausted that my voice was barely a whisper. If
Riley hadn’t been hugging me so tightly, I would have fallen to the
ground.

"Yes. They
looked like you had gone blind."

"It almost
looked that way, too. Everything was blurry and it sounded like I was in a
bubble. It was scary. I thought the darkness had taken control of me."

"I think in
a way it did but you were able to bounce back. What made you snap
anyways?"

It felt like
years since I had been standing here watching Felix fall to the ground and the
trail of smoke taking away the handsome Nesmyr boy.

"That
Nesmyr," I quietly muttered. Why did that Nesmyr have such a strong effect
on me?

"The Nesmyr
that was taken by the smoke? Why would he make you give in to the
darkness?"

I shook my head,
about to say that I didn't know when I finally understood. My eyes widened and
just as I was about to tell Riley my suspicions, I passed out from exhaustion
and shock.

I could feel
myself waking up but I squeezed my eyes tight and tried to fall back asleep. I
was lying in a bed and it was so warm and fluffy that I never wanted to leave
it. Especially since I could feel how sore all of my muscles were.

Unfortunately,
my body wasn't obeying my mind. With each minute I became more and more awake
and alert of my surroundings. I could hear some people quietly talking in the
background. It was virtually quiet besides that. I could smell the antiseptic
and cleaning products. When I opened my eyes, I was greeted with the color
white everywhere I looked. White walls, white floor, white beds. I was in a
hospital.

But it wasn't a
human hospital. All of the people I could see either had purple or sapphire
blue eyes. This was a hospital for Lovac and Nesmyr. I was back at
headquarters.

I rolled over in
my bed to lie on my back and get a better look at what was around me. My head
was throbbing so hard that I hardly remembered what had happened before I
passed out but I didn't think any headache could completely erase the memories
from my mind.

I tried to
remain calm and not burst into tears but I still felt a few warm drops escape
my eyes. None of the staff had noticed when I woke up and rolled over but when
I sniffed a little, all eyes were on me.

"She's
awake," I heard someone whisper. "Call the council."

No one came over
to see how I was feeling or offer me a glass of water. In fact, they all
avoided me. I didn't understand until the Lovac sitting in the bed next to me
leaned over to explain.

"They're
afraid of you. The rumors going around about what you did in the caves have
gotten so morphed that a lot of people think you've basically become a Zhulik.
A lot of the Lovac that witnessed what happened have been trying to convince
the others that you're not crazy or evil. They won't believe us until they hear
you officially tell the story and Nia confirms that you’re telling the
truth."

"Great,"
was all I could say. I appreciated the help from the other Lovac but it was
ridiculous that the Nesmyr didn't want to believe them. I was almost positive
that my eyes were still purple, so there was no reason for them to believe I
was a Zhulik.

A large group of
people came rushing into the room then. I recognized most of them as council
members but there were a few others with them. I saw Riley hiding in the back
of the group and my thoughts went to Felix. Was he alive? Was he okay?

Rema was the
first to approach me. "How are you feeling?"

"Like I was
stepped on by an elephant," I said, honestly.

"At least
you survived this though. I don't think you would’ve survived being
stepped on by an elephant."

I appreciated
her trying to lighten the situation but it was a failed attempt. I tried to
give her a full smile but I just couldn't manage it in this situation. She saw
that I wasn't in the mood for jokes and got right down to business.

"I know
you've had a long and exhausting night and are nowhere near being recovered but
we need you to tell us everything that happened last night. Everyone has heard
bits and pieces but you're the only one that knows the full story."

"I need to
know if Felix is okay first."

Rema nodded.
"We managed to save him. He was almost dead when we found him but he's
recovering in intensive care right now. We can take you to see him after we
hear what happened."

"What
about the others? How many Lovac survived?"

Riley stepped up
to my bed this time and took my hand. "We lost three Lovac total. Axel was
one of them." I saw tears in Riley’s eyes and my heart sank. I knew
some Lovac had to have died but I was selfish and hoped I hadn’t known
any of them. I nodded and took a shaky breath before I told them what happened.

Starting with
Lucas's plan to create me, take over the world, his joining up with Kamila and
what she had been doing over the past twenty or so years with Dimidiums. All of
the Lovac that were huddled around my bed shed some tears at the thought that
their Dimidium might have been murdered by a crazed demon but a lot of them
looked relieved to know that the "curse" had been broken. I guess
Riley was right about my involvement in that.

I told them
about the fight and how Felix and I managed to kill Kamila but she created a
spell to bring an army of demons to this world through a portal made of her
ashes. I told them about getting the portal closed and having only a few demons
to fight as opposed to hundreds.

Then I told them
the worst parts. Felix passing out and a demon running off with Lucas and
taking a Nesmyr with them. When I spoke about the mysterious Nesmyr boy, I
could tell my voice changed tone and my eyes were wet with tears. The council
seemed to notice the change too.

"There is
something special about this Nesmyr to you, isn't there?" Rema asked.

I blushed and
considered lying to them about my suspicions but I knew Nia would call me out.
She had been nodding in agreement with everything I had said and I planned to
keep it that way to clear my name. "I think he might be my Dimidium."

Everyone was
speechless. They weren't expecting a Lovac to find a Dimidium so soon after
everything they learned.  Riley was the only one would didn’t look
surprised.

"What did
the Nesmyr look like?" Gladys asked, breaking the silence.

I described the
boy to her as much as I possibly could. With each description her eyes widened
even more. Once I was done, an angry and almost frightening expression was on
her face. That’s when I realized who the Nesmyr was.

"Ivan,"
we both said at the same time.

"That
Nesmyr your Zhulik father stole is my grandson," she said, spit flying
out of her mouth with every word.  "And because he just happens to
be your Dimidium he's going to die now. You should have stayed in Wyoming to
rot."

Then she stormed
out of the room and left the rest of us in another round of being speechless.

"She's
wrong," I finally spoke up.

"What?"
Rema asked.

"She's
wrong about Ivan dying. I won't let it happen. Lucas won't either. If he wants
me to keep playing his games he'll keep Ivan alive and I plan to keep playing
until I can kill him. I know I can beat him."