Marked for Vengeance (28 page)

Her
desire reached through its cage, setting itself free, and curled around his
dying body, pulling her into him in one visceral, rebellious motion until his
lifeless lips pressed to hers. Tears streaked her face, dripping onto his. She
wanted him to make it
so
badly, and give her a chance to make everything
right again.

From
somewhere inside him, a soft moan escaped, and her kiss deepened. He couldn’t
possibly be coherent enough to realize what was happening, but perhaps –
despite his anger with her – it was his soul’s way of recognizing her act of
love.

After
holding her lips there for a heavenly moment, she withdrew, caressing his face
with her hand one last time. “Stay alive for me,” she said and gently pushed him
into the cavern. His body slowly disappeared into the darkness, and she wiped
her tears. Her momentary bliss left as quickly as it came, realism taking its
place. She had been careless with her choices, and it led to a lot of
heartache. He now barely clung to life, and his son was missing. She had a lot
to answer for on the other side.

Breaking
her moment of mourning, the prayers began to fade. Her eyes raked through the
forest to see the trees rustling as the barrier retreated inwards, toward her,
the gateway mere minutes from closing. A small part of her wanted it to so she
wouldn’t have to face her Elders, but the whole of her knew it would be the
only way she might get to see Isaac again. He was the only thing that tied her
to this life anymore. Everyone else that she loved, that meant something to her,
was gone.

Remembering
the moths that once clumsily danced around the light pole outside of Isaac’s
building, she decided to follow her only light left into the darkness. She
leaned forward onto her hands and crawled into the space.

As
she broke through the white ribbon of the ‘finish line’, she imagined all of
their loved ones cheering her on to a quiet victory.

CHAPTER
14:

A
Moment to Grieve

When she stepped
through the gateway, time held its breath, and the forest around her faded into
complete darkness. Gravity released its hold and gifted her joints with a weightless
reprieve.

As she hovered
in the thin air, all of her past memories replayed in her mind; her birth into
her first lifetime, her newly created body sent through space to make it to
Earth. Her and her brethren side by side, gliding through the tight,
unsaturated air, the atmosphere burning through their tough skins for the first
time, changing it into something supple and fragile, something more like a
human’s. A blinding light flashed, and she awoke in an alleyway in Germany,
disoriented and curled into the fetal position. She panted as her very first
breaths of oxygen poured through her human lungs and flooded her body, her head
spinning from the sensation.

Her memories
flashed forward, replaying her other births into the world and her experiences;
a montage of people and places, memories and memoirs, most of them pleasant,
but a lot like life, some were agonizing like her last visual of Isaac as he lay
comatose on the ground.

The images faded
away, and the darkness around her brightened from a wall of stars that rushed toward
her. Before her body met the burning balls of fire, something pulled at her,
and if she was able to have any point of reference would swear her body moved
forward as her stomach plunged upward into her throat. The stars streaked by in
long rays of white, hot light, their warmth soothing the gashes on her skin.

Once through, the
darkness settled, and her body lowered onto plush, dewy grass. She wiggled her
toes atop the spongy earth as her body surrendered to gravity once more.
Where
are my shoes?

Humid air
brushed over her exposed legs, and the darkness lifted away. She blinked into the
daylight as her eyes readjusted. Figures stood in front of her with the sun
shining behind them, and when they came into focus she searched their faces for
recognition. None of them appeared to be like her with their normal, human
eyes. They were all women, beautiful women, and they stared back at her as
though she were a foreign entity. Beyond her observers rolled chartreuse hills spotted
with thick bushes, and hazy, grey mountains lifted above them in the distance
whose crowns kissed the feathered clouds. To her right sprawled a field of tall
grass with violet wildflowers as far as she could see.

Alyx looked down
to examine her clothes. The blue jeans and long sleeve black shirt that the beasts
had torn to shreds were traded for a short, black spaghetti-string silk dress –
the same thing the other women wore – and felt soft against her skin. She
lifted her arms, studying them in amazement. Her wounds appeared to be a week
old, and the scabs had flaked away. The gateway must have healed them. Her body
felt revitalized and strong again, as though she had slept for an entire month.

When she looked
back up at her audience, their intrigue had turned to disgust, the judgment in
their eyes unmistakable. Unsure if they meant to direct it at her, she turned
to see what they could have possibly been gawking at, and her mouth dropped. She
stood at the edge of a new forest of towering silk oaks and fiddlewood trees,
which covered a sea of bushy bright green ferns with a comforting shade. Between
her and the foliage floated a large convex bubble that displayed the dark
mountain of Brasstown Bald.
The gateway.

Like a round
mirror, the portal dangled above the ground, displaying the dark, motionless forest
her and Isaac were just a part of. The visual through the gateway was as clear
as if she were still there.
They saw me kiss him.

Her final
moments on the ground with her Marked had played out for them like a movie on a
widescreen TV, and whoever these women were, they must have known that it was
unimaginable for her to do such a thing.

She couldn’t
muster the courage to turn back around and face them, and fantasized about
running through the large bubble to escape the embarrassment when a voice
called to her in a familiar, chiming tone. “Alyx, over here!”

She peered over
her shoulder guardedly, disbelieving in what she had heard, and shot a
skeptical glance where the voice had come from -- behind the disapproving
crowd.

The top of her
blonde head bounced up behind the women, and she busted through the middle. Alyx
blinked in disbelief and turned to face the person who had practically bounded
up the hill to get to her, probably the best person she had ever known –
Cindra.

She watched in
astonishment as her long-lost friend sprinted toward her in the same short,
silk dress. Her once messy hair fell gracefully around her shoulders in lively
golden locks, her face glowing, and body statuesque. All of her clumsy
awkwardness had vanished. She was now this magnificently stunning creature.

Alyx’s heart
soared when she realized what she saw was not a mirage, and her arms opened for
her friend to plow into them. Practically knocking her over, Cindra wrapped her
arms around her and twirled her around. She sat Alyx on the ground and studied
her face with sparkling eyes. “My Alyx,” she cooed. “I was so worried!” She
brushed the back of her hand over the healing gashes on her cheek and leaned
back in for another hug. “I’m so glad you made it.”

Alyx was still
in shock, but the relief she experienced in that moment lifted her spirits. As
her friend embraced her, she closed her eyes to soak it all in; as alone as she
just felt, standing by herself in humiliation, Cindra had swooped in to save
her.

With their
bodies locked together, Alyx watched another woman follow in Cindra’s footsteps
up the hill. Her light brown, curly hair bounced as she ran, and her ice blue
eyes gave her exotic beauty a palpable sense of purity, almost hypnotizing. She
too busted through the other women that still gawked at the ‘disgraced
Protector’, and by the way she looked at Alyx with fondness, she figured both
her and Cindra must have been somewhere else, not watching her shameful kiss
with Isaac.

Cindra released
her neck and clasped the bend of Alyx’s arms. “What happened to you guys? Your
Marked is down at the human camp now being worked on by the doctor.”

When Cindra said
“the doctor”, Alyx grinned. Maybe Isaac really
would
make it.

“There we go,” Cindra
said with a chuckle. “I thought your face was broken for a minute.”

Alyx cleared her
throat. “I’m sorry,” she said as her hand covered her heart. “I’m a little
shell shocked.”

“It’s ok. We all
were when we first got here.”

She stared at
the ground between them and brushed her foot over the carpet of soft grass. “Did
you see us before we came through?” she asked timidly, verifying that her
assumptions were right – that Cindra didn’t see ‘the kiss’.

“I saw you guys
coming, and then my Marked needed me at the camp so I left. But I just
had
to get back up here and see you!”

Her Marked!?
“S-so you’re a
Protector too?”

Cindra flashed
her trademark grin. “Yes, we have
a lot
to talk about.”

“I’d say.”

As Alyx
processed this news, the pieces of her memories on the other side of the
gateway tumbled together to form a clearer picture.
That
must have been
what Cindra meant in her letter, that she would see her here. But how did she
know?
And why didn’t she look like her? Her eyes were their usual, hazel
brown.

“Oh, and this is
Willow,” she said as she waved her hand toward the exotic woman.

Alyx nodded and offered
her hand for a shake.

“Nice to meet
you,” Willow said sweetly with a Spanish inflection. 

As they greeted
each other, Alyx sensed the others staring at them intensely. She turned her
back to prevent their abhorrence from disrupting their reunion.

Her mind raced
back to Isaac. If Cindra knew he was with the doctor, she
must
have seen
him. “Is Isaac going to be ok?”

Cindra’s brow furrowed,
and she dropped her head while picking at her fingernails. “It’s hard to say,”
she said in a low voice. “But it’s not good, though.” 

Alyx stormed
between her and Willow to head down the hill, in the direction Cindra suggested
the human camp was stationed. “I need to see him.”

Cindra’s strong
hand grasped her upper arm, jerking her back. “Not right now!” she said with a
heavy desperation. “He’s still passed out, and they need their space to work on
him.”

“I need to see
that he’s ok!” she said and pulled her arm away, surprised that her friend was
so against it.

She cut her eyes
to the other women cautiously and stepped toward her, lowering her voice even
further to keep their conversation private. “He’ll be
fine
.”

“I thought you
said that it was ‘hard to say’!” she barked, too annoyed to regard her friend’s
attempts to stay quiet.

Cindra gently
seized her hand and stroked the top of it. “I know you’re worried, but let’s
give them some space. You’ll be able to see him soon enough.”

She glanced down
the hill and scowled. “If you say so.”

Cindra’s eyes brushed
over the sky. The sun descended in its usual subtle curve. “Let’s escape for
awhile and talk in private,” she said and gripped Alyx’s hand tighter. “This
might be the only chance we have. We have to be back at this very spot at dawn to
meet with the Elders.”

Alyx opened her
mouth to protest, not wanting to be too far away from Isaac.    

“We’ll be back
by sunset,” Cindra said to Willow, cutting Alyx off, and took off running to
the South through the flowered fields, tugging Alyx along without her full consent.

* * *

Once Alyx
accepted that Cindra was going to get her way, she let go of her hand and was
finally able to enjoy the body that she was given. Her long legs stretched
forward with each spring and boosted her through the tall grass and flowers. She
estimated they sprinted around sixty miles per hour as the field went by in
blurry streaks of green and purple.

Even though her
feet and legs were bare, her durable skin remained unaffected by the whipping
of the grass and the stones along the ground. She might as well have been
running on soft, lumpy carpet. As they continued South, she gazed over the
horizon, allowing her eyesight to stretch its legs, as well. It zeroed in on
two vivid red birds skimming the tops of the flowers, whose violet petals shivered
from the draft beneath their black and white trimmed wings. As her and Cindra approached,
the birds flew higher into the sky to avoid the two strange intruders. She
smiled as aggravated chirps escaped their hooked beaks, slicing through the
air. Their afternoon flight had been rudely disrupted.

She expanded her
gaze farther to a butterfly in the distance. Its blue, watercolor wings flapped
shakily against the stiff breeze. Alyx forced her sight in closer and could now
make out the veins that weaved throughout them like a delicate lace.
Beautiful.

Focusing back on
her body, Alyx’s endurance amazed her. She had always been in fairly decent
shape, but as fast and agile as they were now she fully expected to be gasping
for air at this point. Her heartbeat had lifted, and her breathing deepened,
but her body wasn’t close to being exhausted yet. If she never had to use her
shield again, she would be just fine with that; it seemed to be the only thing
that truly drained her to the point of collapsing.

They broke over
the top of a small hill, and the horizon presented a sparkling, emerald ocean
that lay beyond where the land dropped off to a cliff. She stopped to stare in
awe. It was the first time she had ever laid eyes on the sea, and through her
new eyes it appeared as though someone had scattered pieces of glass over the
rippled waves. Her hearing detected the sound of them as they grew larger,
rolling and crashing against what sounded to be massive rocks.

“Keep going
straight!” Cindra shouted as she sped by, and Alyx took off running again to
catch up.