Morning Rising (18 page)

“Stupid girl,” Demitar hissed, smile gone. He
sent a shower of rocks at Dylan. With a sweep of her hand she
pulled a wall of ice up to protect herself. The rocks snapped
against the ice, cracking off huge slivers of ice before clattering
to the ground. Dylan smiled, thinking she was winning.

As the rocks were still falling, Demitar ran
in a blur. He reached Dylan and stopped with his hand tight around
her throat. He wrenched her out of the puddle, leaving her
helpless.

“No!” As Kara ran at them, a Striker grabbed
her from behind. One hand clamped tightly just below her shoulder
and tugged her back. His other hand came to her throat, pressing
his wrist blades threateningly to her smooth skin. Kara stood
still, though her body strained toward Dylan.

“Bring her here,” Demitar commanded. The
Striker walked Kara slowly forward. “You could have had
everything,” Demitar told Dylan, as she struggled to loosen his
grip. “Money, power, control. On the word of this girl, you are
willing to lose all that? Give it to me,” he commanded another
Striker. The Striker handed Demitar a small cup shaped like an
overlarge thorn. All around them, battle still raged, but all sound
seemed to fade away as he offered the cup to Dylan.

“Drink,” Demitar said with a sly smile.

“No,” Dylan muttered, shaking her head as
best she could. She pressed her lips together and pulled her head
back.

“One last shot of thorn?” Demitar asked,
smiling wickedly at Kara as he spoke. He leaned his head forward so
his lips brushed Dylan’s ear as he spoke. “With me you could have
as much thorn as you want and any other drugs you please. We have
things here that make the drugs of your limited human world seem
like candy. I’d never deny you something you desired the way she
would.”

“Dylan, don’t! He’s trying to trick you,”
Kara pleaded, struggling against the Striker who held her. Her
every move brought his blade dangerously close to her throat. The
Striker holding her laughed at her panic.

Demitar let his hand slip from Dylan’s
throat, but she made no move to escape. She stood like stone as his
hand trailed down her arm, his cold fingers leaving a trail of
goose bumps along her flesh until his hand rested in her hand.
Demitar knelt on one knee and brought Dylan’s hand to his cool lips
in a slow, lingering kiss that sent shivers through Dylan.

“I am only trying to please you,” Demitar
said, turning his face up to look at Dylan. His mock subservience
was obvious in his expression. Kara wanted to smack it off his
face, but Dylan was still rooted to the spot. Demitar’s touch sent
shivers of pleasure and fear through her. They twisted together in
a knot inside her stomach that made it impossible to move. “Now, do
you want the thorn?”

“Yes,” Dylan said softly, staring down at
Demitar. She couldn’t look at Kara, couldn’t see the disappointment
there. It would all be over in a moment. She needed to stay strong
and focused.

“Dylan!” Kara screamed, afraid to move with
the blade still pressed to her throat. She tried to will the cup to
tip over, but Demitar held it too firmly and her emotions were too
scattered to focus.

“That’s my girl,” Demitar practically purred
his excitement. He stood up, releasing Dylan’s hand and passing the
cup to her. The moment Demitar stopped touching her, Dylan felt her
thoughts and will return. She knew what she had to do. Her fingers
wrapped around the soft wood of the thorn cup.

Demitar nudged the bottom of the cup, and
Dylan raised it toward her mouth. She brought the thorn a fraction
of an inch from her lips. She hesitated, her eyes meeting
Demitar’s.

“I’m not your girl,” Dylan hissed and
splashed the thorn onto Demitar’s face. He howled as his skin began
to bubble and blister from the substance never meant to meet flesh
in the open air.

Dylan shoved Demitar aside. He stumbled
sideways before falling to the ground, writhing in pain. Dylan held
her hand out toward the Striker holding Kara and twisted her wrist.
Wind whipped around Kara, and the Striker was sucked away from her.
His body spun in a whirlwind up into the sky before the wind
dispersed. The Striker fell to the ground with the snap of
bones.

“Dylan.” Kara ran to Dylan, hugging her
tightly. “I thought. . .” Kara didn’t want to finish the sentence.
She didn’t want Dylan to know how easily she believed Dylan would
be swayed by the promise of getting high.

“Never again,” Dylan assured her, squeezing
her tightly.

“You.” Demitar clung to Kara’s ankle, still
clutching his burnt face with his other hand. She pulled back her
leg and kicked his face. Blister’s oozed under the contact and he
screamed in deeper agony as he fell back.

“Kara,” Baron called. They turned to see he
was in the open, free of Strikers for the moment.

They ran to him, almost colliding with him in
their eagerness. Ivy and Glint ran up from the other direction.
Kara twisted from side to side looking for Alster. Around them,
Strikers were moving in. Demitar forced himself to his feet, and a
Striker moved to heal his face. Demitar flinched as the Striker
laid his hands on his face. As Kara watched, Demitar’s wounds began
to heal. Alster was nowhere in sight and they were running out of
time.

“Where is Alster?” Kara asked, looking around
frantically. She didn’t like the guy, but she wasn’t about to leave
him to die.

“He was still fighting when I got away.”
Baron coughed. A large wound split open his side, but Kara knew it
would heal quickly. He held his side, wincing as he forced the torn
flesh together to heal.

“We have to get him,” Kara insisted.

“No.” Baron shook his head. “If we do we’re
all dead. Alster wouldn’t want to risk your lives. We all knew what
we were getting into when we started this.”

Kara gaped at Baron. She never expected his
voice to grow so cold. She thought he was the type to never leave a
friend behind in battle. Baron met her stare with a stony look.

“We have time,” Dylan argued. “We can take
them, their forces are half down.” All around them, Strikers lay in
the street. Some were dead, but most only injured for the
moment.

“No, we have to go.” Baron grabbed their
arms. “I’m sorry but your lives are worth more than all of ours
combined,” Baron said, pulling the girls close. “Follow my trace,”
he said, looking down at Glint. Glint nodded and reached up to take
Ivy’s hand in his.

Seconds later they were surrounded by nothing
but dim light in the middle of the desert. Sand and bare rock
stretched as far as Kara could see. Baron let go of their arms and
collapsed to the ground. He put his hands to his side and focused
on healing himself before he bled out. Dylan dropped to his side
and held his wrists in support as he worked. Kara stared out over
the desert, watching for Glint and Ivy to appear.

Seconds later, Kara saw Glint and Ivy appear
a few paces away. A small oval of the night shimmered, the colors
of the world fading inside it until Glint and Ivy popped into
existence. The world within the oval snapped back to normal. Ivy
turned in a circle until she spotted Kara. Ivy and Glint hurried
toward her.

“Where are we?” Kara asked. There was no sign
of the city lights in the distance.

“More than halfway to the gate,” Ivy
answered. She dropped beside Baron and held his hand, smoothing
hair from his forehead as he worked. Baron gripped her hand in one
of his.

“Any reason we didn’t just do this to get out
of the city?” Dylan asked. “You know, instead of the fighting? It
might have saved us an awful lot of fucking effort.” She sat back
heavily on the ground, exhausted down to her bones. Kara fell down
beside her, their shoulders touching.

“Can’t inside the city,” Baron shook his
head, wincing at the movement. He let go of Ivy’s hand and gripped
his wound again. It had stopped bleeding and was beginning to knit
back together. “Demitar put a damper on it. People with my power
can only move a mile at best within the city. Even Glint and the
rest of those creatures are hampered by it. I can only move two
people at most anyway.”

“I can’t believe we left Alster,” Kara said.
She shook her head and glared at Baron. “We should have tried to
help him.”

“It was for the best. He would have done the
same thing,” Ivy said. “Saving you and Dylan was all he
wanted.”

Kara knew that was true. She had no doubt
Alster would have risked anyone’s life to save Dylan and her. It
was that very fact that made her so worried. She never trusted
Alster and was prepared for him to be the liar that Glint
predicted. Now she was worried about Baron. With Alster most likely
dead, it seemed like Baron would be the one to betray her after
all. The thought made her sick to her stomach. She prayed it would
be someone else.

Beside Kara, Dylan laid back in the sand and
shut her eyes. Kara watched Ivy soothing Baron a moment longer
before lying down beside her. It would be a while before Baron
could heal a wound that size and she was exhausted from the fight.
Glint shuffled over to sit beside Kara and patted her hand gently.
Lying there in the quiet of the desert, it was almost possible to
believe they weren’t in danger. One glance at Baron made it clear
they were far from safe.

Chapter 13

By the time the slightly darker night sky
fell into place the group was miles from where they started. Baron
paused shortly after they began walking and asked Glint to go back
to look for Fay and Lockler. After much coercing from Kara, the
creature left them.

Trudging through the desert in the
afternoon’s faded light had been depressing and lonely. If Kara had
been with only Ivy and Baron, she was sure she would have succumbed
to her darkest thoughts. When Kara felt herself slipping into
despair, she took Dylan’s hand. The touch of her skin on Dylan’s
was enough to chase all the dark thoughts away.

The terrain was inhospitable and few signs of
life blew across the sand. Where the sand fell away, there was only
smooth rock jutting upwards to create small, jagged mountains and
plateaus. These were more difficult to cross than the sand. Baron
tried to transfer them past the first plateau, but was too
exhausted. They flickered in place, the world darkening then
reappearing, but they went nowhere.

The gray stone was smooth from years of
buffing by wind and sand. Only occasionally did tough patches of
thick grass push through cracks. These patches of grass were thick
and offered suitable handholds for climbing. Baron led the way,
finding the best path up the smooth stone. Ivy flew ahead, offering
advice from above. Still, the trek was grueling. Sweat soaked
Kara’s shirt in the cool desert night. Beside her Dylan was tight
lipped as she pushed herself forward.

Baron pushed himself to his limit and beyond.
He was tired and ached from the wound to his side. It was deeper
than any he’d healed before and the new skin was tender to the
touch. Already tired from transporting Kara and Dylan to the
desert, healing his wound had taken more out of him that he would
admit.

Kara could see the pain in Baron’s eyes when
he glanced back at them. None of them even mentioned him taking
them to the top of this last mountain. They knew he couldn’t. When
Baron finally flopped to the ground at the mouth of a small cave,
he was covered in a thin sweat and almost shaking from the
exertion. Dylan and Kara collapsed beside him, breathing heavily
and aching for a drink. Only Ivy wasn’t tired by the journey.

The cave was carved ten feet back into the
mountain and tall enough for them to stand inside. As the night
grew colder and the wind began to pick up, it was clear that they
would need the shelter. For the moment, the wind and cold were
welcome. Ivy flitted off the mountain top almost as soon as they
arrived. She returned quickly with a pile of sticks and brush for a
fire.

They sat around the pile of sticks while
Baron tried, unsuccessfully, to light it with a piece of flint.
When his frustration seemed to be getting the best of him, Dylan
put her hand on his arm. He looked up at her in surprise.

“Let me try,” she said. Baron nodded and
leaned away. Dylan shut her eyes, gathering her focus. When she
opened her eyes, they glowed black for a moment before a spark
erupted at the center of the pile and the fire ignited. Dylan
smiled.

“Three of your four true powers,” Baron said
approvingly. He fed more sticks to the fire, watching it grow. “I’m
impressed by how quickly your powers have returned to both of
you.”

“Isn’t it the same for everyone?” Kara
frowned. She edged closer to the fire. The wind cooled the sweat on
her skin and now she welcomed the fire’s heat.

“For most it would take much longer,” Ivy
said. She warmed her small hands over the fire. She wore the same
thin dress as the night before; Kara thought she must be half
frozen, but Ivy didn’t seem bothered. “Some never fully recover
from the loss of their memories.”

“Is that why Alster was so focused on her
powers returning?” Kara asked. She stared in the hypnotic
flickering of the fire as she warmed her hands. A circle of light
was quickly spreading around them. It felt like safety, though Kara
knew she was no safer within the light than outside it.

“Perhaps,” Baron said. He slowly nodded his
head, far away in his own thoughts. “There have been many times
where I wasn’t sure of my uncle’s intentions.” He dropped another
stick into the fire. The fire snapped as the stick broke and flame
climbed higher.

Kara opened her mouth to voice her own
concerns, but was interrupted when Glint appeared on the other side
of the fire. Lockler and Fay stood holding his hands, getting their
bearings before letting go.