Ethereal Underground (Ethereal Underground Trilogy) (27 page)

“
Ahhhhh delicious,” he said, closing his eyes and inhaling once again.  He opened them, red and intense as he looked at her, “I will help you, counterpart of Leon. Follow me and be diligent.”

She turned to look at Finlay
and motioned for him to follow. He looked at her, shocked that she was still alive and taking Arie’s hand to keep her safe. “Do not get near that thing. I’ve seen him in action and he is not to be trusted,” he whispered to the redhead, who nodded in response.

The unicorn walked ahead of them, and Ash leaned in to Annalise, “That guy is a creeper.”

“A what?”

“He’s creepy, Anna.”

“I do not care,” she whispered. She knew that the unicorn was quite odd looking but she did not understand Ash’s reference fully.

They continued to follow him, however, and she was pleased when the tunnel opened up to reveal a larger space for them to walk through. This space was scarier, though, and looking more like a jungle than man made with plenty of places for fallen to hide. This must have been more of what the whole planet looked like before the mortals took over.

She let out a sigh and used her wings to pull herself up off the ground slightly. Her feet were tired from all of the walking, it had been several hours since they had left Natara’s home. Although she was glad that they had not yet been attacked, she was very bored and needed to rest. Perhaps it had been the lack of food, since she had not eaten much for several days now, but she was thankful to be out of the manmade area and back into nature, even if there was still fluorescent lighting above and no sunlight to be seen.

Hearing a stick crack, Annalise froze
and dropped to the ground to look around, “Did you hear something?”

Ash nodded and pulled her to him instinctively, and then reached into his pocket to pull out his
blade.

Arie ran up to them, pushing her back up against Ash’s and looking around, gun in hand, “What was that?”

“Some beast I’m sure,” Finlay said and came to stand with them. He pointed ahead of them, “The unicorn isn’t stopping.”

“We do not need to lose him,” Annalise said and pulled herself away from the group
to continue forward. She encouraged them to follow her, even though they weren’t sure what the noise had been. If the unicorn continued on, he would not turn around to wait for them if there was no reason to stop. Unicorns were selfish creatures, worried about themselves and nothing else. The only reason that this one was helping was because of his connection with Leon and getting more seraph essence for himself. He would not help fight, and he would not wait up if they stopped because they were scared.

Several minutes later, a low growl made them stop again. The unicorn stopped as well and turned to them with his face still void of emotion, “That sounds like something you should take care of.”

At his words, a large black wolf leapt out of the trees. It was twice the size of a human, muscular and terrifying. Its mouth hung open, showing row upon row of fangs, two sets of golden eyes set in its face. The wolf pulled itself up onto it two back legs, showing just how monstrously tall and strong he was. The tail swished back and forth anxiously as it crept towards them.  A low growl came from its throat as Annalise backed up. She held her hand out in front of her, “Ash, that is a big creature.”

“Oh for crying out loud,” Arie growled
and stepped up beside them to aim her gun at the wolf. She pulled the trigger and sent a bullet straight into the head. It let out a shriek of pain as it fell over and began to whimper. The redhead looked over at the seraph, irritated, and continued on in front of them. Finlay stepped closer to the beast to examine it.

“This is a
lycanthrope. I’ve heard of them, giant wolf creatures, I didn’t realize they still existed.”

“That isn’t all you should be worried about,” the unicorn whispered as his eyes looked over to the left.

A ball of fire came flying at the group and Ash pushed Annalise to the ground as it whizzed by. Finlay ran forward and grabbed Arie just as another one came flying by and moved her out of the way just in time for it to miss her.

Annalise looked up to see a large, dark-skinned fallen stepping into view.
His head was bald and he wore a long brown coat that was tattered and torn. He appeared to be angry, fireball sitting in his hand, a lighter in the other. The third ball came flying at them. In response, Annalise pulled together a ball of water and flung it at him to put out the fire. The fallen continued to come at them as he threw balls of fire that they had to dodge. Annalise was terrified and knew she probably made him even more angry when she had put out his fire. She continued to send water towards him, trying to get him to stop, as the others ran forward to fight. Arie was the first to reach him, much to Finlay and Ash’s dismay; she dodged a flame and reached out to cut him with her silver knife. The fallen let out a menacing yell as he backhanded Arie, sending her to the ground.

Ash called out to her and she didn’t answer, so Annalise ran over to her and dropped to the ground beside her. She turned her sight away from the others as they began to fight the fallen to tend to their friend.

“Arie?” she questioned, her hands going out to shake the young girl. When she didn’t answer, the seraph placed her hands over her and began whispering her blessings to heal her before any more damage could be done. The fight going on behind her worried her, she did not want Finlay or Ash getting hurt, but there was nothing she could do to help as long as she was healing this girl.

Arie took in a deep breath and sat up, knocking Annalise over to the side. She continued to breathe hard as her eyes went to the seraph in shock, “Thank you. That
fallen is tough. I couldn’t even get a hit in.” Her words paused as she heard Ash cry out. She pulled her gun from her pocket and aimed it at the fallen, jerking the trigger back and hitting him right between the eyes.

“Moons, I really wanted to save these bullets,
”
she mumbled. Annalise jumped up and ran over to where they were to see Ash holding his arm.

“Are you okay?” she asked frantically,
as she grabbed him and looked at him with worry. She didn’t know what she would do if he were hurt and she was unable to help him.

“I’m fine, just a scratch,” he said, and showed her the spot on the edge of his arm where the fire ball had burnt the side of it.

“I will heal you,” she said quickly, set on her actions and placed her hands over his arm.

He put a reassuring hand on hers to make her stop and look at him, “No time for that, we
gotta go before he gets up.”

“Already got that covered,” Finlay said.

Annalise looked over at him to see the fallen’s wings in one hand and the bloody silver sword in the other. He dropped the dark feathered wings to the ground and plunged the sword into the fallen’s heart. Annalise looked away, not wanting to see the carnage they had to create in order to stay safe. She knew Finlay was not bothered by it, being one to battle fallen and other creatures on a daily basis.

Ash grabbed her hand and pulled her behind him quickly as he went to join the unicorn, “Get us to safety. We need to rest.”

“And what will I get for this?”

“You have my essence, do not get greedy. Leon would not be happy,” Annalise reminded him, eyes serious as she looked into those red orbs.

The unicorn nodded in understanding as Arie and Finlay joined them and continued on forward. They continued on for another couple of hours before turning to the right and going into a nearby cave. Once inside, the unicorn turned to them, “This will keep us guarded until you have rested. We will hear the fallen if they come.”

Finlay came in behind them with several pieces of wood, and began to build a fire in the back of the main cave. It appeared to break off into different caving systems, but being here in the back would help them to stay safe until they could figure something else out. “Anna, can you make something to give us a warning if they come?” he asked as he brought forth a large portion of a tree for them to sit on. He laid it down to form a square around the fire pit and looked at her.

“Um, sure,” she said, unsure of what she could do. 

“Go with her,” Ash
told Arie and moved to help Finlay get the fire going.

Arie sighed to show that she was not okay with this but
did as she was asked. The two of them continued back to the front of the cave in silence, neither of them sure what to say to each other.

The girls reached the front of the cave and the seraph looked around, “Any ideas?”

“You could make a waterfall or something.”

The blonde looked over at the redhead, unsure if she was being serious or facetious. She could tell the girl was being honest, and continuing to think of other things to come up with. Annalise focused her energy on creating a thin but hard stream of water to go across the bottom of the entrance to the cave, creating a moat of sorts to make sounds if someone entered, as well as water flowing from the roof of the cave and into the moat to circulate.

“Looks good, blondie.”

“Thanks…I suppose,” Annalise said and gave the girl a tired smile. They returned to the back of the cave where the others were. The unicorn had piled himself up in the corner and was already asleep. Finlay and Ash were sitting across f
rom each other, the fire burned bright between them, but their discussion stopped once the two girls came to take a seat with them.

“
You did a great job,” Arie said. She put her hands out to warm them and scooted closer to Finlay.

Annalise left some space between her and Ash, still unsure of how to act now that they were alone. She looked across at Finlay, “Are you sure we are safe here?”

“That’s what the albino monster over there said,” he joked and pointed at the unicorn, “I say, we have a fun time while we rest.” His hazel eyes twinkled as he reached into his clothing and retrieved a large flask and took several gulps of it. “Ale?” he said and offered it to Ash. He took it from the seraph and downed quite a bit of the liquid before he handed it back.

“Don’t forget me,” Arie said as she snatched the flask from Finlay’s hand before he could object and finished it off.

“Niiiiiice,” Finlay commented as he took the flask back , clearly surprised that Arie could drink that much and keep up with the guys.

It made Annalise feel uncomfortable as realization dawned on her that she was the only one here that was going to be of any sound mind in a few minutes. She knew how
Finlay's ale worked; it was strong but took several minutes to kick in.

“I am absolutely starving,” Arie said, her hand going to hold on to her stomach.

“Oh,” Annalise exclaimed and reached for her bag at her side, and then handed it over the fire to the redhead, “Natara gave me this and I completely forgot about it. I apologize. I am not used to having those around that need to eat.”

“Thanks,” the mortal said as she took the bag from her and dug through it to find something appetizing. Finally settling on something, she took a bite and let out a satisfied sound. “So Annalise has a counterpart, what about you?” Arie asked Finlay suddenly, curiosity peeping in her voice.
She passed the food bag around for everyone else to look through.

“I do not think-” Annalise started, wanting to tell her not to ask because things like that were personal. It was a depressing story and they all needed to be as positive as possible, considering the situation they were in.

“It’s ok, it’s ok,” Finlay insisted and patted his knee dramatically with his hand. He looked over at the redhead and took her hand, “You may need a tissue for this one. Too bad we don’t have any.”

Annalise frowned because she knew that the story really was tragic, that he was heartbroken when he lost his counterpart. She couldn’t imagine losing Leon. It would cut her to the core and she wasn’t sure if she would ever recover. Especially with these new mortal emotions. Moving closer to Ash, she hoped that would help her ease her concern, she knew she was putting off a large amount of
feelings at the time. He pulled her closer to him and wrapped an arm around her to warm her up.  She was very cold, now that the lights had turned off outside of the cave, the temperature had dropped drastically. She was thankful of the covering her clothing offered now, since it was so cold in the cave.

“Prisscylia was her name. Reaping was her game,” Finlay started and laughed at first as he spoke of her, “We were together for
hundreds of years, me the lessened version of my current playboy self, and she was very similar to Annalise here, but more aware of what went on in the world. We would drink ale and talk for hours, go out on our separate duties and even spend some time in the Ethereal Underground. She didn’t judge me for the things that I did, but supported me in whatever I decided to do. I did the same for her. ” He paused and Annalise could see the sadness coming over his face as he took a deep breath to continue on, “I didn’t know just how much she meant to me until she was gone.”

“Oh, Fin,” Arie whispered and reached
out to grab his hand.

“She was supposed to be at a reaping the same time I was guarding a charge. We decided that after she captured the soul, we would go party it up in the Underground. She wasn’t so sure about the plan, because she wanted to get the soul back to the Grand Hall as quick
ly as possible. But it had been a busy week and I convinced her that she should come on when she was done, because she needed a break. I got sidetracked with some floozy on my way to meet her, someone my charge had been spending time with. By the time I got there, the fallen had taken my counterpart. I could feel them torturing her once they removed her wings, but I couldn’t find her. I looked everywhere, enlisting Leon’s help to find her. When we finally found the place where she had been held captive, it was too late. They had…”