Beguiled (Book 2 Immortal Essence series) (14 page)

Palmo.

I
shoved
snakes out of my way, and moved. With some relief I saw him, tr
ying to fight the snakes off. They
rammed
into him, ripping away
chunks of flesh
,
before swimming
off, making room for another.
It surprised me he
continued to fight
. He always acted like a simpering chump, a boy who used others to fight his battles.

Both of Palmo’s feet were
almost gone
, as was one of his hands, and part of his face,
yet he courageously continued to
struggle.

Determined, I grabbed him and pulled him above the water. “Use my what?” I asked softly,
worried he wouldn’t
be
coherent enough to understand
.

“Fist,” he murmured
.

“Thank you, Palmo.” I ached
at
his
misery
, wishing
for a way to keep the snakes from eating him
. But for every one I killed two more took its place
. “I’m so s
orry I can’t do more. I’ll get us out of here though. Okay?
”

He didn’t respond.

Letting
him
go
, I ducked under the water,
heading
toward the doo
r. The gold
glimmered
against
the bloodied wate
r. I noticed the gaping mouth on
the face at the base of the tree and understood
my fist needed to go in its
mouth. How easy!

The moment
I inserted my fist,
the door vanished and I was sucked through the opening.

Falling.

Falling.

Falling.

13.
Smells Like Teen Spirit

I don’t know how long I lay on the ground, staring at the sun.
One sun. Not two. Which meant I wasn’t on Kelari. Or I was, but Ramien made this place, wherever I was, different. The ground
beneath me felt soft, and I guessed I was on grass, but I didn’t know for sure. Nor did I care.

Images of Zaren and I
together
floated
through my mind
like phantoms.
Our first
date.
H
e took me to the forest
of Heid and we had lunch near Misty
Falls
. The exhilaration and comfort I felt in his arms. The way he stroked my hair when we talked.
The smell of his warm skin.
The first time his lips touched mine
. We were in
my bedroom doorway later that night.

Right before he kissed me he said, “Every night, as long as I live, I’ll kiss you here.”

“Why?” I asked, though I didn’t mind. He could kiss me anywhere he wanted.

“So you’ll remember doorways can yield happy memories too.”

“Zaren,” I whispered.

He was dead. 

Because of me.

“You completed your first test. Barely.” Ramien’s voice
filled my ears
, sending away the phantoms
.
“Round two won’t be as easy.”

The air changed
, filled with
a
crackling
energy. A buzz.

“
You better get up
.” A girl, slightly familiar, stood over me. “
You’re it
.”

Rolling onto my hands and knees, I pushed myself
to my feet
.
“What?”
I brushed off my backside, noting the way my clothes
were
crunchy from the saltwater.

“The game,” she answered, bouncing on
the balls of her feet.

“Where am I?” I asked, turning in a circle
, taking in my surroundings
.

“
School
, silly,” she bubbled.
Upon closer inspection I noticed her left cheek was bruised, her shirt was torn, and her knuckles were bloody.

“What’s the object
of
this game?”
I as
ked, searching for a weapon
.

“Don’t get killed.” She
smirked before
she evaporated
.

I rememb
ered who she was.
The girl who
kicked me
in the shin
during
gym class.
Tawny was her name. This was the Sough High football stadium—from Earth, I realized, stunned.

I
stood
in the middle of an enormous grassy field. Bleachers filled with people surrounded us, b
locking out anything beyond
.
An
electronic scoreboard
stood
at one end
. Giant halogen
lights
encircled
the field
like sentr
ies guarding the outlying areas. G
oal posts
were at either end of the grassy arena
. A light mist hung in the air along with the acrid sweetness I’d grown to associate with Ramien.

An announcer’s voice
bellowed
from
loud speakers. “Welcome. Welcome. Let’s give a big round of applause to our newest player
s
.”

The crowd roared.

Players? I
examined
the field
. Chev lay on the ground next to
a body I guessed was
Palmo. Dervinias
kneeled next to Chev.

“
You have
one rule in
Slaughter
b
all
.
”
The announcer
paused and chu
ckled. “Survive until the timer runs out.” A big
gong
sounded, and ten minutes popped up on the scoreboard
and began counting backward
.
The crowd cheered, a
deafening
frenzy. I looked around, wondering what to do
.

Several
fist-
sized ba
lls
began falling
from the sky
like rain
. I dodged
, and watched them land.
Within seconds the ground was covered
with them.

“Any ideas, Dervinias.” I stepped
over
one of the round balls, accidentally kicking another.
The ball
was hard, like a shell, instead of pliable, the way a ball should be. Dervinias didn’t answer, and as I got closer I realized why. Chev panted, the sure sign
she was in labor
. Her body
bled everywhere. A rattling escaped her lips every time she breathed.
Portions of her clothes
were gone as were some of her fingers. I wanted to look away, but I couldn’t. She was
in this mess
beca
use of me, and I had to help
. “What can
I do?” I bent down next to Dervinias
, and patt
ed an undamaged
spot on
Chev’s forehead.

He didn’t answer.

“
I’m sorry.” I indicated his brother’s corpse. “Did you love him?”

“I barely knew him,” he choked out.
Then with a sigh, he touched m
y arm, and said, “I’m sorry too . . .
for Zaren. I know he loved you.”

I nodded, forcing myself not to crack, not to crumple into pieces. At
Palmo’s side
, I leaned over and clo
sed his vacant eyes. “Thank you,
”
I whispered, pushing back a lock of his white hair.
Palmo’s
body
trembled
and vanished.

“It’s my fault,”
Dervinias
cried. Tears ran down his cheeks, and though I knew he’d committed many abhorrent crimes, I felt a pang of sympathy. I understood what it meant to be responsible for the suffering of others.

I patted Dervinias uneasily.
“
I know the baby is coming, but there’s
a timer for
,”
I blew out my breath in frustration and continued, “
Slaughterball
.” I picked up one of the balls near my knee. “I don’t know what to do. Honestly, I’m worried I might not care enough to do anything.”

His eyes found mi
ne. They were filled with
fear
. “
I
know you’re hurting. I get
that you want to mourn, and you should. But not right now. Please.” His gaze moved to Chev, and I followed. Chev looked frail, like a paper cutout of her original self. “Fight, Venus. If not for you or me, then for her.” His eyes pleaded with mine.

I clenched my teeth together tightly, biting
off
the grief ready to burst at the slightest whim. “I’ll fight.
I
won’t give up.”

His face relaxed slightly. “Thank you.”

“Chev didn’t ask for this. But if we get out of this mess, you owe me.”

“Agreed.” He
grabbed my hand and pulled me
into a
self-conscious
embrace
. As quickly as h
e hugged me, he pushed me away.
“Listen very carefully.
Those are
n’t balls, but the shell of a
dorvey
infant.”

“
Um,
w
hat’s a
dorvey
?” By the look on Dervinias’s face I knew I should be afraid, but I’d never heard of the creature.

“The
y are the guardians of the
rhlanges
, the inhabitants of—
”

“Mars,” I finished
for him
. I’d heard of the
rhlange
s
before
. Not the friendliest sort
.
They lived
near
the planets’ core
.
“These
dorvey
, they’re mean?” I asked,
though I guessed if Ramien
created them as part of his game, they would be.

“Vic
ious protectors of their youn
g.
”

Chev let out another cry.

“How do I fight them?”
I asked hurriedly.

He pulled
a
sword from
the sheath on his
back.
I recognized it immediately.
It was Zaren’s Ostwallow sword. The one
he gave
Michael
to kill Dervinias
.
The one Michael
left on Earth.

“
I had other plans for this, but . . .
”
Dervinias
held it out for me to take
.

“If we make it out of this
alive
,
I’ll expect you to fill me in on those plans.
”

“Promise,” he half-heartedly smirked. “
If you meet a
mamma
dorvey
, you’ll have to pierce its heart
to kill it
.” He gave me a pointed look.

“Okay.”

“
Now get your alien a
ss
on that field
and slay some
dorvey
hide
.”
He placed a hand on Chev’s bloodied
cheek.

“I will,” I said, gripping the sword in both hands. Its death song hummed
against my palm
s
, ho
noring me with a connection, filling
me with its strength.

When I turned
toward
center field
I knew I
’d need it. Thousands of
dorvey
rolled out of the
ir
shells.
They looked like the
strange monkeys
from the picture
on the golden door
. Long, hairy brown arms and legs.
Empty, soulless eyes.
Instead of a monkey’s nose and mouth they had curved yellow beaks. Webbed wings beat against their backs.
Sounds similar to the
chirp
of a
baby bird came from them. Above the cheeping was
Chev’s screams. The baby would come soon.