The Rise (21 page)

Peeking out of his shirtfront, nestled in a thick patch of course hair, the bartender had a silver chain around his neck. On the chain, glinting in the bouncing lights of the strobes was a small medallion shaped like a sun. I stared down at it and was slapped in the face with something like horror, though the reason why I should be horrified was beyond me. My body was still riding the last waves of ecstasy that the little green man’s soul had given me, my head pleasantly light, and what felt like enormous power thrumming though me.

Remember the sun,
a tiny voice that I didn’t recognize whispered. I stared down at the medallion, trying to reach that little memory that lay on the outskirts of my mind, straining for it hopelessly.

And then the shrieks of the Lamias were bouncing off the walls, and a hissing shriek of my own was tearing up my throat and issuing alongside theirs. I moved, and found myself standing atop the bar, my bare feet cold on its wet surface. My subjects silenced when they saw me there, staring up at me with black eyes and blood-smeared faces. I ran my eyes over the scene in front of me, pride and something else that I wasn’t sure I understood made my chest swell out. My pack had fed, and they had fed
well.

Human bodies lay sprawled everywhere, their eyes staring wide and sightless at the ceiling, their extremities bent and twisted at unnatural angles, like bloody dolls tossed around the room by children. The flickering lights of the club brought alternating images to focus when they lit certain corners and filled waiting shadows. Red lights flashed over a woman with a beer bottle still clutched in her dead hand, her throat torn open like a birthday present, wrapping ripped and scattered carelessly, a scream still hanging on her dead lips. Blue lights illuminated a the body of a young man impaled over a pole that stuck up out of the floor for dancers to swing on, face down, long brown hair and limp legs and hands reaching toward the ground. And yellow lights, purple, green, white.

Among the bodies my subjects stood stone-still and silent, their pale skin painted with scarlet, ropes of it hanging from their gaping mouths and dangling from their teeth. I could see in the dark pits of their eyes that most of them had not fed like this in ages, and some were too young to have ever fed like this at all. More pride spiraled in my full stomach. I raised my arms high, staring down at all of their glorious faces.

Another shriek, high-pitched, like that from the vocal cords of an enormous bat ripped up my throat once more, filling the silence that had fallen over the room as completely as death. And in return, my pack called back to me, their approval and loyalty clear in the screeching, scratching, screaming voices, thousands of soulless cries filling the night air like the laughter of children.

Now I thought about the sun again, about how we would need race its soon-to-be dawning, hateful light back to the darkness waiting within the mountain.

Alexa

Thin rays of glimmering sunshine danced behind my eyelids, and I opened my eyes and sat bolt upright. At first, I couldn’t remember where I was, and the panic of waking up in an unknown place flashed through me before the events of the past day came back to me. I brought my hand up to rub my face, but thought better of it when I saw that my palms were still raw and red, the skin peeling away like rolled up flesh carpets. I threw my legs over the edge of the bed and found my feet.

Looking down I saw that I was still wearing Kayden’s huge gray t-shirt, and it hung just past my knees. I glanced around the room, looking for Kayden. He wasn’t here. I shrugged, convincing myself that he couldn’t have left for good, and shuffled into the bathroom, flipping on the light. The mirror above the sink showed that my dark hair hung in a wavy mess over my shoulders. The darkness under my eyes had faded away a little with the night’s sleep, but I still looked tired. I washed my face and brushed my teeth with a spare toothbrush I found wrapped in plastic in the cabinet behind the mirror.

When I went back into the room, looking around for a clock to see what time it was, a gentle knock sounded at the door. I looked around for something to cover myself with, but just like last night, there was no magical bundle of clothes waiting for me. Tugging Kayden’s shirt down, I padded over to the door and threw it open.

The girl standing in front of me wasn’t someone I knew. She looked to be about my age, maybe a year or two older, with long midnight black hair pulled back into a loose braid. Her face was strikingly pretty, with full lips and blue eyes that stood out like crystals in her pale face. She smiled, a little shyly.

“Who are you?” I asked, wondering if that was a rude way to answer the door.

Her smile faltered a little, and her blue eyes flicked down to something in her hands. I breathed a heavy sigh of relief when I saw that it was a pile of clothes. “They told me you might need these,” she said, and her voice was deeper than I would have expected, almost husky.

I stepped to the side, waving an arm for her to enter. “Sorry,” I said. “I’m Alexa.”

The girl walked hesitantly into the room and placed the clothes on the bed. “That’s okay,” she said. “They told me that you might not be in the best of moods this morning.” She held out her hand. “I’m Sasha.”

I held up my tattered hands, showing her there could be no handshakes today. “Nice to meet you,” I said, trying not to roll my eyes when she gaped down at the silver on my arm.

“Oh,” she said, “that’s beautiful. I’ve never seen the Sol Liliums in real life before. Well, I guess that’s probably obvious. But the pictures I’ve seen don’t do them justice.” Her blue eyes met mine. “May I?”

I sighed. “Uh, sure.”

Sasha ran her fingers lightly over my arm, and I almost shivered at her cool touch. The soft tips of her fingers trailed up to my shoulder, lifting the sleeve of my shirt and pausing over the silver sun there. I did my best not to fidget, feeling the way pregnant women must feel when strangers come up and rub their bellies, slightly uncomfortable.

With a sigh Sasha let her fingers drop to her side and stepped back. The way she was looking at me made my discomfort grow, but I couldn’t seem to put my finger on the reason why. I glanced around the room, as if searching for something to say in its corners. “Uh, you can have a seat if you want,” I said.

A brilliant smile lit up Sasha’s face. “Okay,” she said, as if she had been waiting for the invitation. “We are having a little celebration tonight in honor of your arrival,” she said, “so I brought you a dress for tonight and regular clothes for today and some new underclothes as well.”

I walked over to the bed and stared down at the pile she’d brought in. “Thanks,” I said. I lifted the item on top, which was a long silver gown with thin straps and silky, shimmery material. I had to stop myself from rolling my eyes again. Underneath I found the underwear she’d promised and slipped them on, more discomfort stirring in me when I realized Sasha was watching me.

“I’m sorry,” she said, noticing whatever look was on my face. “It’s just that you are so much more beautiful than I expected you to be.”

I raised an eyebrow at that. “Um, thanks, I think.”

“Do you like the dress?” she asked. “I picked it out myself. Your Libra had very…precise knowledge as to your measurements.”

My cheeks grew warm at this. “Are you a Searcher?” I asked.

She nodded. “Yes. He picked out those other clothes, so if you don’t like them, it wasn’t me.”

I looked down at what was left on the bed. A pair of jeans and a black V-neck t-shirt. I tried to hide my smile. The dress, I hated. The things that Kayden picked out were perfect. I slid my legs into the jeans and tugged them up, struggling a little at the stiffness of them. I looked down to see that the jeans grew smaller as they reached the bottom. “What the hell?” I said.

Sasha jumped up from where she’d taken a seat in the armchair and hurried over to me. “Here, let me help you,” she said, hesitating as she met my eyes. “They’re called skinny jeans. They’re supposed to fit like that.” When I didn’t make a move to stop her, she gripped the hem of the jeans and gave a strong tug. I breathed a sigh of relief when the jeans were all the way up. They still weren’t as comfortable as the old jeans I usually wore, but not as bad as I had at first thought.

“Kayden picked these out?”

Sasha’s cheeks turned a light pink. She tucked a loose strand of dark hair behind her ear. “Well, actually, what he said when I asked him what you’d want was, ‘jeans and a t-shirt, preferably black’, but well, I couldn’t help myself.”

I didn’t know what to say to that.

She rambled on. “And these look good on you. Look how they hug the muscles in your legs.” She walked over to the bed and held up a pair of black boots with a very short heal. “And they’ll look even better with these.”

I couldn’t help a smile, even though something about Sasha, about the way she spoke and looked at me seemed…off, though I still couldn’t put my finger on what. I stepped forward and took the boots. Even I had to admit they looked pretty bad-ass.

I sat down on the bed, pulling on some socks and the boots, and Sasha sat down next to me, so close that her shoulder brushed my own. When her fingers came up and pushed the hair out of my face, my hand shot out and caught her wrist instinctually. I am not someone who likes to be touched, or taken off guard by it.

I released her when I saw that a little fear had seeped into her crystal blue eyes. She rubbed her wrist where I had grabbed her, and for the second time, I found myself apologizing. “Sorry,” I said. “Reflex.”

She smiled at me again in that way that made me slightly uncomfortable. “You’re strong,” she said, her voice a little raspy.

I stood from the bed. “Uh, thanks.”

“Will you let me braid your hair?”

“What?”

“Your hair. Can I braid it?”

I thought about this for a moment, trying desperately to think of a good reason to refuse this strange request. When none came to me, I shrugged. “Okay, I guess.”

Sasha beamed and patted the bed next to her, gathering the long blue dress she wore around her to make more room. I hesitated before sitting down in front of her. Then her fingers were in my hair, tugging and pulling and braiding. The silence was making me uncomfortable, so I searched for something to say. “Do you, ah, work here or something?” I asked.

“Work here? No. Silvia is my mother. She told me about you arriving last night, and I volunteered to come bring you some clothes. I wanted to meet the Sun Warrior I kept hearing about.”

“Oh,” I said. “Where is everyone else?”

“Having lunch in the sitting room, I would think. Some of us wanted to wake you up, but your Libra made it pretty clear that he would personally kill anyone who tried. He’s pretty intimidating when he wants to be, isn’t he? Despite that angel’s face of his.”

I shrugged. As if the mention of him had summoned, the door to the room opened, and Kayden stepped in. His eyebrows rose when he saw Sasha and me on the bed, her fingers still wrapped in my hair. I lifted my shoulders a little, and a half smile tugged up his lips.

“She likes the boots,” Sasha told him, a little smugly.

Kayden looked at my attire, his golden eyes rolling from my boots to my tight jeans and lingering at the point of the V on my neckline. “I like them, too,” he said.