The Rise (6 page)

Simon did as he was told.

My first two targets were in the village: Soraya, and her mother, Catherine. I sifted through the pot of souls there, my energy snaking around them as fast as light, like the streaks of comets, rummaging around as one might dig into a box of small things, brushing each of them with my soul’s fingers. More tears leaked from our eyes, the pain of the villagers so palpable. I found their light easily, drawn to it in a way that bugs are to the electric glow of a bug-zapper. I grabbed Catherine first, then Soraya.

Come.

No resistance. They were on their way. I could feel it. Five more to go.

I made my selections quickly, hardly allowing myself time to think about who I was calling. If I thought too hard, I would not be able to make the awful decision of who to take and who to leave behind. Simon, the Queen and I were passing through the trees now, the east wall some fifty yards in the distance.

Daniel, Gavin, Tommy, Jack-

I stopped there, remembering Jackson’s betrayal. I withdrew my mental hand. Jackson would not be accompanying us. I tried again.

Daniel, Gavin, Tommy, Patterson… Victoria…COME.

I tugged them all to me as one might pull a rope, hand over hand. Their confusion thrummed through the ropes and raced through me, but I still found no resistance. Now, they too, belonged to me. Another whisper, a tiny twinge telling me this was wrong. Another dismissal.

A few moments later, I heard twigs and branches snapping somewhere off to our left. My eyes were still closed, but I opened them when Victoria stepped out into the open. Her blond hair stuck out around her head, bedraggled along with her pink tank-top and pajama pants. Her eyes were lit up Wolf-gold, and when they met my own black ones, they filled with the same awe and wonder as my current companion’s. Without word or question, she came to me and wrapped her arm around me on my free side, holding me up straighter still. We marched on.

Far behind us now, but not far enough, King William was still fighting to wake up. I shoved him back down once more. My companions groaned as I did so. My strength was evaporating, and I was running off the fumes of theirs. They didn’t mind at all. In fact, they
wanted
me to take it. Now I didn’t need that inner voice to tell me I was heading fast over the edge of a cliff, where jagged rocks and shards of glass waited below. I had taken their free will. There was no doubt that this was
wrong.
And I couldn’t seem to care.

Patterson reached us next, twenty-five yards between us and the east wall. More awe, more wonder, more soul-swallowing. He fell into step with Victoria. Next, Tommy joined us. More question-less following. Then Daniel showed up.

He stopped when he saw us, when he saw
me,
his eyes going wide and bulging out as if some invisible hand were squeezing the bottom half of him. When I realized that this was
exactly
what was happening, my fingers wrapped around his soul, I released him. I held onto the others, but they all followed me willingly now. What I saw in Daniel’s mind hurt me. Hurt me bad.

All he saw were my black eyes, my bared fangs, the people around me gawking at me as if I had just performed the most magnificent miracle. Really, I suppose I had. By controlling them, I was letting them touch my soul as well, and they could feel the power there, and they lapped at it, so eager to be a part of it. And Daniel was afraid. He was afraid
of me.
Another stab of pain went through my heart.

We were at the east wall now. Daniel followed. I wanted to stop, to explain myself to him, but there was no time. I would not make him come. A lead weight fell off my shoulders when I saw that he was coming willingly, if not timidly.

Gavin was the Warrior at the gate, which he had already lowered. I checked the invisible rope that tethered Soraya and Catherine to me. They were getting closer, but they couldn’t move fast enough. I turned to Victoria.

Turn into your Wolf. Retrieve them. Go.

Victoria loped off, shifting into a wolf mid-run, following the thread that showed her the way, my mental grasp slapping at her hind quarters like a coach driver’s whip. The rest of us began to cross the bridge that Gavin had lowered. Two Rivers slept behind us. King William slept, too, but not for much longer. The night swirled around me, the stars above becoming white streaks in a black sky, the trees of Pine Barrens clumping together in a mass, the souls thrumming and pulsing. We crossed the bridge.

That existence in the distance, the one that seemed to me like a small sun, so glorious, beckoned me still. My new companions stopped and stared, seeing it for the first time. The same question rattled through their heads.

What
is
that?

It was moving closer, but still at a good distance away. I had no answer for this question. I knew what they knew: that it was beautiful, and that I wanted to reach it. I felt myself stretch forward to touch it, knowing that it was too far away for me to hold. But if I could just brush my fingers over it…

A huge wolf appeared from out of the trees. Victoria, her fur the pale blond color of her hair, her massive chest heaving at the exhaustion of the run she’d just taken. Soraya and Catherine sat atop her massive back, their hands wrapped around her neck and fingers dug deeply into the fur there. Victoria stopped and let out a howl that vibrated in my bones. It said:
I’ve got them! I’ve got them!
And I couldn’t help but smile, sending waves of approval toward Victoria, like patting a dog on the head for rolling over.

Wrong, wrong, wrong…

I didn’t care.

Lead us to the van, Camillia,
I commanded, and as one, we all moved forward, entering the thick stand of pines and being consumed by the darkness that dwelled there. The only light now ahead of us that strange, tiny sun far off in the distance, miles and miles away. I reached for it again, its pull magnetic. It was too far away, so I drew in the energy that radiated from me and forced it to come together in a direct, whole beam, aimed at that tiny sun. And I touched it, for just a tiny moment, I touched it, and I
cared.

Then I felt the souls of the people who I had taken with me, the people I had
taken,
go rigid with fear.

A pack of some fifteen Lamias appeared from all sides of us. I released a hiss that bounced from tree to tree, ear to ear, and the Lamias reciprocated with howled hisses of their own.

Alexa

Kayden handled the Mercedes the way he handled his sword, weaving through and around cars, zipping by with the speed and grace of a beam of light. By the grace of God, my Mother had fallen asleep in the back seat, so I didn’t have to listen to her words, fuel to a fire that was already ablaze with in me. I knew we had to hurry. The tight knot in my gut was proof enough of that.

I reached out and placed my hand on Kayden’s thigh, as thick and hard as a tree trunk, and felt his tense muscles relax a fraction along with my own. Both of his hands gripped the steering wheel as if strangling it, the knuckles on his fingers standing out white and bloodless.

That’s when it happened.

Something touched me. Not like the physical sensation of contact with the skin, but the sensation of something reaching deep within, touching what could not be touched, skimming the very surface of my soul. My body jerked and my knees banged the glove compartment hard enough to make me gasp and wince. The tiny hairs all over my body stood on end, soldiers at attention to this uninvited assault on my soul. I took a moment to catch my breath. When I looked over at Kayden, I saw that his body had gone stone-still as well. He had felt it, too. At the speed we were going, it was a wonder that we weren’t stuck in a ditch somewhere.

It took me a minute, but I slowly realized that the touch I’d felt had been familiar to me.
Very
familiar to me. My lungs stopped taking in air, a small, pain-filled gasp parted my dry lips, releasing the last of it. Nelly. Something was wrong with Nelly. Somehow, she had reached out to me. Somehow, she had Searched me from over a hundred miles away, and something was
wrong
.

“Kayden,” I said, and that was all. Kayden’s foot smashed the gas petal to the floor. Our bodies slammed back against the leather seats. I reached up and put my seat belt on, wishing that we could lift the Mercedes into the air and shoot off through the space separating me and my sister, like some spaceship built for warp speed.

“Kayden,” I repeated, and my voice broke on the last syllable, cracking like a heartsick child’s.

“I know,” he said, through clenched teeth. “I know.”

I bit down on my lower lip hard enough to taste blood, looked over at the speedometer, and felt terror, cold and sharp sweep over me. The needle on the dashboard was pushing 120 mph.

And it was not fast enough.

Nelly

I stood rooted to the spot, as if the soles of my tennis shoes had sprouted arms and dug themselves deeply into the earth. Around me, my companions had frozen as well, some with mouths agape, others with eyes as wide as saucers. The Lamias had us encircled and were subtracting from the circle’s diameter inch by precious inch. My nine followers huddled near me, Gavin at the ready, his Warrior’s sword clutched in his cold hands. Tommy and Daniel had taken up positions on either side of me, their stances fierce and protective. Simon still held Bethany, but looked as though he would toss her aside to protect me if need be. I realized that a second circle had formed around me; Queen Camillia, Simon, Tommy, Daniel, Gavin, Victoria, Patterson, Catherine and even little Soraya had fanned out to keep me from harm. This warmed my soul, but my temperature rose further still. These Lamias were a threat to my people. And no matter if my actions were right or wrong, they were
my people.
I’d brought them here, I had to protect them.

I felt myself move forward, pushing through the shoulders of Tommy and Daniel, who shivered as I passed. Tommy’s hand reached out for mine, and his soul cried out to me as well.

Please. Let us protect you.

I turned my head so that I could look into Tommy’s cool blue eyes, and they softened when he met my gaze, nearly transfixed by the gleaming, endless blackness he found there.
Shh,
I told him, I told all of them.
It will be okay.

I wasn’t as sure as I hope I sounded, and of course, they knew this. Our souls were linked together like the chain of a charm bracelet, locked arm in arm, each individual thrum of feeling and thought rolling through us as one, rippling like disturbed water. They knew as well as I that I was slipping down some sort of deep slope, some dark road.

The Lamias moved in.

Having faced Lamias before, their speed didn’t surprise me. I will admit that a flicker of fear flared somewhere deep in my stomach, and I couldn’t be sure if it belonged entirely to me or to my comrades collectively. Yes, I had faced Lamia before, but Alexa had been by my side. I pinched the fear out as one might snuff the flame of a candle between thumb and index finger. My companions’ minds eased as well. They trusted me. They trusted me
too much.