The Travelers: Book Two (10 page)

Chapter Twelve

Izzy couldn’t stop staring at him.

Alina was talking about something.

She heard her. She just didn’t hear the words.

She couldn’t stop looking at him.

His eyes were closed; he sat upright and unflinching as if in a trance.

Alina spoke again.

His hands rested on his knees; once in a while a finger would twitch almost imperceptibly.

It wasn’t natural. He wasn’t supposed to be so still. He wasn’t supposed to be just sitting there.

How did she know if he was okay? How would she know if something happened to him? She would never be able to get to him in time.

The low droning roar of her blood flow drowned out the sounds of the other women.

His jaw was relaxed; his eyelids fluttered as his eyes darted back and forth inside his skull. At a glance, Aaron seemed lifeless, but she noticed the tiny movements he made. They reassured her and kept her from panicking completely.

The air stilled in her lungs. She’d forgotten how to exhale; she’d forgotten how to inhale. She was back in that warehouse, rubble everywhere. The rocks slipped from under her feet and she scrabbled her way up the crumbling hill. She had to see him. Had to make sure it wasn’t Aaron. Sharp rocks cut her hands, but she kept climbing. One step forward, two back; the pile of rubble disintegrated underfoot.

She reached for his wrist.

It couldn’t be him. It wouldn’t be. She knew it couldn’t be.

The corpse turned and tumbled away from her. She reached for it…

“Isabel!” Alina repeated; a hand on her shoulder.

Izzy’s eyes regained focus and she saw her friends before her instead of the carnage of her nightmares.

“Here,” Gemma said handing Izzy a glass of water.

Izzy took one drink and made a face, “Something stronger,” she said with a sputter.

Gemma looked unsure, but Alina shrugged.

As much as she didn’t agree with Isabel’s choice to drink at this particular moment, it wasn’t Gemma’s place to argue with her. She was an adult and could be responsible for herself.

“Was that a vision?” Alina asked her as Gemma brought her a tumbler of amber liquor.

“I don’t know,” Izzy admitted, “I’ve had the same nightmare before. I just thought it was a nightmare…”

Alina frowned, “Have you been having many nightmares?”

Gemma didn’t need to hear the answer. She could tell by the shadow that came over Izzy’s eyes what the answer was. Nothing could darken such a bright spot the way that psychological torture could.

“Every night,” Izzy said.

“The same one?” Gemma asked.

“No, not always. This one is just… the worst. There’s someone in the warehouse and he’s… well… I think that he’s,” the lump in her throat made it impossible to talk. She tried to swallow past it, but found that the lump only grew larger and more painful.

She took another glance at Aaron to remind herself that he was there — safe and not covered in rubble — before she tossed back the remainder of her drink.

“Who?” Gemma asked, suddenly fearing for Carson.

Izzy looked down at her lap, “I don’t know… every time I try to see who it is I wake up.”

No one liked that answer. What was the point of seeing the future if you couldn’t see the important details?

Isabel looked down at her hands and saw more scars crossing her palms.

“Oh my God, what happened to your hands?” Gemma cried.

Izzy quickly tried to hide them, but it was already too late. Gemma had seen the evidence.

“Nothing,” she said.

“Like Hell it’s nothing,” Gemma said, snatching Izzy’s wrist to examine her palms.

She traced the raised puckered lines and Izzy winced.

“Does that hurt?”

“No… It’s just…”

“Those are from your nightmares?” Alina asked, her gold-green eyes puzzled.

“Yeah, I cut myself on some rocks and woke up with these,” she answered.

Alina frowned but said nothing.

Gemma tried to heal the scars, but the moment she tried to send healing magic to Izzy it was sent back to her like an electric shock.

“Ow!” She cried, yanking her hands back from Izzy.

“Sorry! I didn’t mean to!” Izzy said, hiding her hands in her lap once more.

“I guess they’re not supposed to be healed,” Gemma said, still ruefully rubbing her sore hand. Her entire arm tingled unpleasantly and her brain seemed temporarily overwhelmed with the electrical energy buzzing through her.

“You don’t think it’s Carson… in your dreams, do you?” she asked, afraid of the answer.

“I don’t know, really,” Izzy said truthfully. She’d been so afraid it would be Aaron that she didn’t consider the possibility of it being her brother in her vision.

“Do you think we should warn them?” Gemma asked.

Alina shook her head, “We don’t really have a way to. Besides, there’s no way to know when her vision is supposed to take place. For all we know, the man in her dream could be Preston.”

Izzy hadn’t considered that possibility, but it didn’t sit well with her. When she saw that man lifeless atop the hill she felt dread. She wouldn’t dread seeing Preston dead. She would be ecstatic.

“Maybe,” she said, thinking it was best to ease everyone’s fears rather than give into the nightmares that taunted her. They didn’t need to taunt everyone.

Gemma nibbled on her fingernails without contributing to the conversation.

“I think I’m just going to go check on Carson… make sure he’s okay,” she said.

As Gemma disappeared up the stairs Izzy let out a low groan.

“I really freaked her out, didn’t I?”

Alina shifted uncomfortably, “Well, I think she’s just concerned,” she said.

“Having these stupid visions with half the information is worse than not having them at all.”

“I can see how that would be frustrating,” Alina agreed.

“I wish I could just turn them off,” Izzy said, burying her face in her hands.

“Perhaps we should turn conversation to more pleasant matters,” Alina suggested.

“He’s still okay,” Gemma called from the stairs. “Well… ish,” she amended, remembering the colorless pallor to his skin.

“Gemma, may I ask you something?” said Alina.

Gemma spent enough time around eleven and twelve year-olds to know when she was being manipulated. She didn’t know what Alina was getting at as she went to the bar and grabbed glasses and a bottle for them all. She knew the timid newcomer was up to something, but anything was better than where her head was right now.

“Suuuure,” Gemma said with more than a hint of skepticism in her tone.

“Well,” Alina said, pouring a healthy dose of fruit-flavored rum into each of their glasses, “I was wondering if you’d be able to tell me what it’s like.”

Gemma swirled the contents of her glass around, watching as the forces on the liquid pushed it into a funnel.

“It?” she asked.

Izzy wasn’t as casual with her drink; she didn’t hesitate to take a deep gulp of the sickly sweet liquor. She made a face and stuck her tongue out before she finished the glass with a shudder.

“Being an Evoker… I mean… a bonded one,” Alina corrected sadly.

“Oh,” Gemma said a hint of remorse crossing her features. She didn’t know all of Alina’s story, but she knew enough to make the assumption that it wasn’t a fairy tale.

“It’s just…” Alina smiled while she toyed with the hem of her shirt, “I always dreamed about what things would be like… Preston took that away from me, but I still want to know…”

Guilt made Gemma cringe inwardly; she had so much to be thankful for, how had she allowed herself to get so wrapped up?

Alina had this far-off dreamy look on her face as she talked about it; Gemma couldn’t imagine spending her whole life waiting for her other half only to lose the opportunity.

“Well, I don’t really know how to explain it,” Gemma said. “You know that feeling when you wake up and you’re so comfortable under the blankets and you never want to get out of bed and then you realize you don’t have to because it’s Saturday?”

“Uh…” Alina said.

“Oh, or when you go to the movies in the Summer time and you walk out of the cold air conditioning and the Sun feels like the warmest most amazing thing ever?”

Alina met Izzy’s eyes and raised her eyebrows.

Gemma frowned, she knew she wasn’t crazy.

“It’s like… just a soft furry hug that makes me feel safe and protected. I know when Carson’s wolf is out that he’ll stop at nothing to protect me. But he’s gentle, too.”

Izzy snorted at Gemma’s mushy descriptions. They sounded ridiculous to her ears, but her heart sang a different tune. Deep down, Izzy knew exactly what Gemma was talking about. When she and Aaron connected there was a warmth unlike anything she’d ever felt. It was physical, mental, spiritual, and — to her surprise — incredibly sexual. Helping Aaron unlock this whole other side to himself was something intimate that only she could ever share with him. Conceivably, he wasn’t ever going to find a secret spirit familiar lurking inside of him ever again. It was a once in a lifetime kind of thing and she felt privileged to have been a part of it.

“It sounds lovely,” Alina said, still not sure what Gemma meant.

“It is,” Izzy spoke without realizing it, “it’s hot and cold at the same time and feels like thousands of butterflies are fluttering around me. A warm jacuzzi for my aching soul,” she muttered.

Gemma and Alina both looked at her with blank expressions and then all three girls burst out laughing.

“Oh man, that was so cheesy I could barely keep a straight face,” Gemma said with a giggle as she took another sip of her drink.

“You? What about Miss ‘Saturday morning blankets’?” Izzy teased.

Gemma’s face reddened, but Alina laughed with her and they all dissolved into giggles again.

“Thanks, Alina, I needed that,” Gemma said with another laugh.

Alina answered with a closed smile, “Descriptions of the transition are always absurd. It’s different for everyone, but it’s consistently unexplainable.”

“How do you know so much about all of this?” Gemma asked.

“My parents,” she said, “Well, my Aunt and Uncle. They were my parents though, really.”

Gemma nodded her understanding and Izzy asked, “Was your Uncle a Traveler, then?”

Alina nodded, “He was. There wasn’t always a frenzy,” she said.

“Somehow, this darkness came here. It cursed the Travelers and Evokers… made them more susceptible to negative forces while making it all the more difficult to find each other. There used to be great joining parties for new couples. My Aunt… she was the historian. She passed to me the knowledge of our kind, but the darkness closed in before my training was complete. For a long time,” she paused to clear her throat, brushing at disobedient tears.

“For a long time, Travelers fought the darkness. But more and more of them were tainted by the frenzy. It became a plague that nearly wiped them off the planet. What the frenzy missed, Preston Waters destroyed. He came to power and started picking off Travelers wherever he found them…”

“How long has this been going on?” Gemma asked.

“The darkness started years ago. It was slow at first, but it seems to be gaining strength exponentially.”

Izzy found her gaze drifting back to Aaron. What would he have to say about all of this? He was more of an analyst than her. He should be the one studying the history and patterns of Waters. Izzy didn’t know the first thing about combat or magic. She could make a mean Cosmo, but how was that going to help anyone?

Chapter Thirteen

Black blood oozed over his gleaming white talons as Aaron swooped down and latched onto the lion’s massive shoulders. The lion howled in pain and swiped at the bird on its back.

Only a few minutes earlier, Aaron had flown through one of the shattered upper windows of the warehouse — he was pretty sure he could fly through it regardless, but it still felt unnatural to go through walls.

He found Carson quickly, remembering Izzy’s instructions and nudged his friend with a powerful wing.

Carson’s blue eyes fluttered but didn’t open all of the way. He was fading quickly. Aaron saw that bits of the wolf’s tail were already completely erased. There had to be something he could do.

“
Tsk tsk tsk
,”
Aaron heard from behind.

“You Travelers are all the same,” Preston continued in a sing-song voice, “You all just can’t
wait
to play hero,” he laughed.

Aaron narrowed his golden eyes and launched himself into the air, out of Preston’s grasp.

“I was certainly hoping that you’d make this fun for me!” Preston called after him.

The beating of his wings provided the steady rhythm he needed to focus his thoughts.

He couldn’t give in to PTSD now. There was too much on the line.

Preston shifted and transformed into the formidable black lion Aaron remembered. This time, the tables were turned and the bastard was in
his
sights.

Aaron dove.

Preston stood on two legs and swiped at him.

Razor sharp claws came far too close to his wings than Aaron would have liked.

He darted down again, trying to pull Preston away from Carson.

The lion swatted at him again, a heavy paw clipping the end of his wing.

Aaron spiraled out of control; he scurried to right himself and managed to turn just before colliding with the corrugated wall.

Preston roared, revealing fangs more than capable of eviscerating him.

From his vantage point, Aaron saw his friends entering through a loading bay. He had to keep Preston distracted.

Like a mother Robin protecting her nest, Aaron went after the lion, pecking and darting at him, luring him further and further away from his captives.

Ty urged everyone forward with a silent hand gesture.

Trick spotted Aaron engaged in battle with the lion and marveled at the quick movements of such large creatures.

“Holy shit,” he said, forgetting himself.

Dez growled and shoved Trick before shushing him.

Trick ducked his head and pursed his lips together as Ty led them forward. They planned to remain undetected for as long as they could. Only once they were engaged would they start fighting. It wasn’t the most popular plan with the other two, but Ty had to remind them that they had no clue how many men Preston had.

“Okay,” Ty whispered, “up these stairs and to the right, try to stay down.”

They were going to be exposed, no matter what. All they could do was hope that Preston was too preoccupied to notice.

The lion howled in pain, drawing their attention. Aaron's talons were buried in its shoulder. Thick tar-like blood dribbled out of the lions wounds onto the ground with a loud
plop plop plop
.

The commotion drew out some of Preston's more curious henchmen. Three shadow-man hybrids emerged from a back room and took in the scene before them.

Ty was the closest.

A gelatinous-looking man turned on him. His eyes bulged from his round head and his many chins gave him the appearance of having no neck. The fat man closed his meaty hands into fists as big as Ty's head and charged him.

Ty ducked, letting out a startled squeak of surprise.

The fat man never lost momentum -- he collided with the railing and bounced back.

No. He didn't bounce back. His body impacted the railing with a gurgle and when he snapped back, his face came through the back of his head.

The fat man windmilled his arms and turned his legs with a wet slopping sound and just like that his back became his front.

Ty looked the man up and down, the color draining from his face rapidly.

The fat man's skin bubbled and moved -- giant black boils popped as they reached the surface, a nasty dark gas emanated from the boils.

"Uh... you are seriously gross," Ty said to the man, whipping out his blade.

The lion's paw swiped at Aaron again and he took off flying. His wing was bent from one impact and he found it difficult to maintain his altitude.

Still, he limped higher and higher, intent on going for the beasts eyes.

He flattened his wings against his body and fell through the sky like a missile.

Preston's powerful hind legs propelled him into the air.

Aaron realized too late that he miscalculated.

Trick drew the attention of the fat man's friend -- Ugly Bob. Ugly Bob had gotten his nickname long before the shadows warped and distorted his features. Now, his arms hung almost to the ground, stretched like bubble gum, and his mouth seemed four times too big for his head. On top of that, he had more teeth than a great white in that giant mouth of his, each one filed to a needle-sharp point.

"He's not kidding, you guys are revolting," Trick added, trying to keep his lunch down at the sight of Ugly Bob's right ear melting from his head.

He gagged, thinking that it was really unfair that Aaron got to fight the cool lion and he was stuck with Ugly Bob.

Dez didn't care who he was pitted against. He just wanted to get in, bust some skulls and GTFO. He was so ready for the fight that when he saw his opponent he was completely caught off-guard.

A man no taller than his knees faced Desmond.

He had to laugh. This was really how they wanted to divvy up the fight?

The fat man glorped at Ty.

Ty swung his dagger at the man, the very tip slicing through his gelatinous exterior. More boils bubbled to the surface, simmering in earnest at the injury.

Ugly Bob swung one fist at Trick while his other ridiculously long arm snaked around him. Trick couldn't get close enough to the guy to hurt him. His arms were nearly five feet long and acted pretty well as a barrier.

The little man spun like a top, blades whirring like a lawn mower. Dez took a step back, suddenly rethinking his laughter.

Long whip-like tentacles shot from the little man's wrists and wrapped around Dez's forearms.

Dez dug his heels into the ground but the tentacles pulled him closer and closer to the little man's spinning knives.

Trick slashed at Ugly Bob's rubber arms to no avail. Each time he thrust his blade out, Bob managed to pull away. Meanwhile, he grabbed Trick by the ankles and lifted him high into the air, dangling him above his massive jaws and rows upon rows of deadly teeth. Trick's knife slipped from his grasp and clattered against Ugly Bob's teeth. Bob crunched the dagger as if it were his favorite breakfast treat and swallowed the pieces before turning his attention back to Trick.

Ty swiped at the fat man again, his arm flailing wildly into the space he dare not look at. The tip of his dagger sliced through the fat man's enormous belly and he hissed and squealed as he tried to retreat.

Ty turned to help Trick and Dez, both of whom seemed in dire straits.

"Go get Carson!" Trick urged with no regards to the thousands of teeth ready to tear him to shreds.

Ty hesitated.

The ear-piercing shriek that came from the fat man made it impossible to think.

He glanced back at his friends.

“Go!” They shouted in unison.

With one last quick look back at them, Ty darted off to free Carson.

Fat man glorped and sloshed his way to his compatriots. One of little man’s tentacles joined him where his skin oozed and bubbled the most. Ugly Bob contributed one of his stretchy arms to the cause and like a Transformer straight out of Hell, fat man slurped them all into him until they formed one giant ugly beast.

The last thing Aaron saw was a mass of long sharp claws coming for his face. By the time he opened his wings to avoid it, it was too late.

Ty found Carson just where Isabel said he would be. He was completely translucent now and fading more with every second.

“Don’t worry buddy, I’m going to get you out of here,” Ty said.

A cursory look at the lock told him that it was a newer electrical model — one that Ty had never seen before. Of course, leave it up to Preston-fucking-Waters to have the latest and greatest in technology.

He set to work hacking the lock to the best of his abilities; sweat beaded on his forehead and trickled into his eyes. The thundering of his heart beat was rivaled only by the sounds of the battle raging behind him. Carson faded still, the heavy shackles sucked the life right out of him.

The lion let out a triumphant roar and Ty looked back just in time to see Aaron falling to the ground twenty feet below them.

“Shit shit shit,” he muttered, his hands shaking too much to type. This wasn’t his area — he didn’t get into fights with monsters and see his friends get slaughtered. He was a nerd. He sat behind a desk all day and avoided people whenever possible.

The monster that faced Trick and Dez now was an abomination; a mass a flailing limbs and sharp teeth, the creature seemed to be at war with itself.

Dez took the opportunity to free himself of the searing hot tentacles that wrapped around him. He tossed his knife expertly into the air and the point came down and sliced through the tentacle; he caught the knife and freed his other arm as the little man’s extra appendages shrank and withdrew into the writhing mass of shadows.

Trick wasn’t so lucky.

Ugly Bob’s huge mouth split into a grin as he lowered Trick towards the gaping maw. A long forked tongue slithered out from behind his thousands of teeth and slid along Trick’s cheek, leaving a trail of acidic saliva in its wake.

“Ugh! Ew, god damnit,” Trick cried while he tried to wriggle free of Bob’s grasp.

“Just eat me already, you fucker!” He taunted.

Bob’s grin changed — the corners of his mouth flattened and he looked down at his chest in confusion.

Dez lunged at the amalgamation of bad guys and thrust his dagger into the creature’s back.

Ugly Bob’s mouth let out another deflating shriek like fat man’s. Light poured from the wound and began to burst through the bubbling black surface.

“What’s the matter?” Trick asked, “Eat something that didn’t agree with you?”

The remnants of Trick’s knife shuddered and rebelled against their confines. The shards exploded from the creature, a blinding light filled the warehouse like an atom bomb before fading away leaving only a puddle of sticky goop where the three henchmen had been.

Trick landed in the puddle with a wet
slorp
and struggled to pull himself upright.

“Ugh… no amount of showers are going to get rid of this feeling,” he complained, sloughing off handfuls of the stuff.

Dez just shook his head and hauled Trick to his feet.

“Hostages,” he reminded.

Aaron lay on the cold concrete floor of the warehouse — dizzy, disoriented and in a world of pain. He tried to pick himself up, but lightning bolts shot through his wings and made him wince. His head swiveled in an attempt to see what was happening with the rest of the fight. Preston was… where was Preston?

It was his job to draw fire. He couldn’t let his friends down now.

Aaron picked himself up gingerly; he’d fought through worst conditions. Okay, so maybe not, but he could make it. He thought about Izzy and his promise that everything would be okay. He couldn’t let her down.

The lock clicked open and Ty breathed a sigh of relief. He frantically pushed the chains off of Carson and only then wondered how they were going to physically remove the wolf.

Hot moist air moved the hairs on the back of Ty’s neck. He froze.

Not wanting to make any sudden movements, Ty slowly turned his head until he saw it: the lion, only feet away from him, ready to pounce.

His eyes darted back to Carson who, in the absence of his shackles, was regaining some of his trademark glow.

Preston roared and lunged at Ty.

Izzy. Izzy. I’m doing this for Izzy,
Aaron reminded himself with every painful beat of his wings. He and the owl were united on that front; neither of them would risk her safety.

He saw the hulking form of the lion tackle Ty. Was he too late?

Preston lifted a massive paw for the kill shot.

Aaron mustered up every bit of strength he had and dove at the lion. He pulled up just in time to sink one of his sharp talons into the lion’s eye. Preston howled in pain and staggered back as tar-like blood poured out of his mangled eye socket.

Ty scrambled to his feet and pulled Carson along with him; a sharp pain in his chest told him that the lion likely cracked a rib or two, but he silently thanked Aaron for saving him.