Beguiled (Book 2 Immortal Essence series) (15 page)

A
dorvey
hopped
onto my leg, and bit the
meaty part of my calf
. Its beak tore into my flesh
. 

I shouted out in pain.

Excited by the noise,
a thousand sets of eyes looked at me, all of them hungry. One by one they came at me
. Through their hairy bodies I checked the timer.

Seven. More. Minutes.

14.
Get Off

With one
hand I pulled
the clinging
dorvey
off my calf and delivered a deathblow. As soon as it died, it vanished. Many more clung to my body. One by one I fought them off. It sickened me, all of the carnage.
But it was kill or be killed. Celestrum gushed from several places
on my body
where
a
dorvey
got a
piece of my flesh
.
Obviously these creatures were able to harm kelvieri.
I
momentarily deliberated
whether
I should let them eat me. What would happen to Ramien’s precious plan then? But I couldn’t bring myself to stop.
Chev and Dervinias
depended on me
. I
couldn’t
save Zaren.
Or my parents.
Or Sadraden.
Or Palmo.
This time I had to win. I had to save the child.

Chev’s screams
told me her labor was nearly ended
. I hoped the timer ran out before the baby was born.

Three minutes.

Do
rvey
after
dorvey
sprang at me. T
heir sharp teeth
and claws
piercing my flesh, their high-toned squeals grating against my nerves. Using Britorent, I moved quickly, killing one after the other.
Hundreds
of them
.
But hu
ndreds more
appeared
, making a
travesty
of my work.

I let out a frustrated howl. “How’s it going?” I shouted, hoping Dervinias would talk to me.

“Almost,” he said.

That gave me
little
to hold on to.

The timer said two and a half minutes.

A
dorvey
bit dow
n on my hand. I yanked it off
, and kicked it into the menagerie of
its
siblings. It got up, shook its head, and
ran away
. I wanted to watch where it went, but
twenty more
dorvey
leaped
, blocking my view
.

They’re a distraction
, T
ortevia roared into my mind.

“From what?” I huffed.

Tortevia didn’t have to answer. The remaining
dorvey
infants
quiet
ed
, the only noi
se Chev’s moaning. Even the one
s
still clinging
to me jumped of
f
and skittered away, making a path.

When I saw her, I
marveled
at
how I’d missed her. She was huge. A
dorvey
, I guessed the mother, over ten feet tall.
I wiped some hair out of my eyes.

“Get away from her,”
Dervinias yell
ed
.

“No duh.”
I shot a glance over my shoulder. I intended to stay as far from the enormous mother as possible.
But he wasn’t
talking to me.
The girl from Earth, Tawny,
circled
Chev and Dervinias.
She
spoke
, but I couldn’t hear
the words.

“Dervinias?” I shouted, hoping he could handle Tawny.

“
Don’t worry. Remember, penetrate the heart,” he answered.

How would I reach it, I
thought
sarcastically.

The mamma
dorvey
walked
slowly, lumbered really
.
Perhaps I could keep away from her until the timer ran out.

Fifty-nine seconds.

I got this, I thought. But I was wrong. Suddenly
the
dorvey
soared
through the air, closing the distance between us,
and landed with only inches between us
.
A wave of sour wind assaulted my nose.
I blanched. Stunned. Without a moment to
contemplate, the super-sized
dorvey
picked me up, and
swallowed me
whole
.

On my way down
her throat,
I felt the esophagus constrict. I guessed I was heading toward
her
stomach. Acid burned my skin.
Darkness permeated.
And the smell.
Ugh! Like putrefied flesh
.

Some light in the darkness
, Tortevia snarled softly.

A
n
indigo
light erupted from my buckle
, allowing me to see
.

You’re going to have to cut through
the esophagus to get
to the heart
, Tortevia said
.

Which way, I wondered
, and wished
Michael
was
with me
.

Now
, Tortevia roared.

I jabbed the sword downward, and began to cut. The membrane ripped away easily
,
and I fell through
,
landing with a thud on something hard.

It’s
a rib
. You’re close. Find the heart, and hurry. Time is almost up
.

I stood and looked around
.
To the left, and down I picked out the heart. It beat
rapidly
, pumping blood
through
arteries, into veins, leading to other organs
.

Life
is
precious.

Yes, it is
, Tortevia purred.

I heard the
thunder
of the crowd outside. They were counting down the last few seconds on the timer.

“Five.”

“Four.”

“Three.”

I raised my sword high above my head and dove. With a
th
w
unk
, the blade
buried deep
into the heart. Blood spurted me in the face. My hands
became
soaked in it.

Another life ended.
B
ecause of me.

Shaking, I pressed the blade in furth
er.

The
dorvey
evaporated, and I
tumbled
into darkness.

15.
Killing Me Softly With His Song

A furious heat raged against my skin. I opened my eyes, and immediately knew where I
was
.
On t
he bridge from my dream.
Its
reflective
surface
mirrored
the fiery lava boiling below. My hands gripped the railing. If it’d been glass, it would’ve shattered.

A nauseating sweet smell filled the air, and I knew Ramien was close. He appeared to my left.

“Round two was most interesti
ng, don’t you think?” he asked
simply, as though
we discussed
the weather.

“If that’s what you want to call it,” I gritted out through clenched teeth.

“Letting the
dorvey
eat you. Exquisite entertainment.
” He patted one of my hands and I flinched.

“Glad you enjoyed it, Ramien.”
I wasn’t going to tell him I didn’t let her eat me. She
s
prang so
swiftly I
had
no
time to react.

“I did. I did.”

“What happened to Dervinias, Chev, and her baby?” I mostly worried about Chev and the baby? Had they survived?

A shadow crossed over his face. “A strange turn of events.” He shook his head.

“Are they alive?” I persisted.

“Oh, no. Dervinias and Chev
erly
are dead. The
dorvey
made quick meals of them.

“The baby?”

“So, so strange,” he answered.

“Is
. T
he
. Baby. D
ead?”

“A very curious turn of events.”

“Tell me.”

He shook his head.
His confidence faltered.
“I’m not quite sure.
No matter,” he said, dismissively.
Angling his back to me
, he
raised his arms out to his sides. The palms of his hands faced upward. “This last round will be the most difficult of all, I think.”

I snorted. Deep down I hoped he was wrong. Though my body
didn’t tire easily
, emotionally, I was exhausted.

Just as in my dream a movement in the lava caught my atten
tion. I peered closer, and
as before, she burst from the water.

The girl with the ruby lashes.

The girl who reminded me of my sister.

Amberlee.

As I thought her name, she opened her eyes.
I sucked in a breath, afraid of what Ramien had planned. Wondering why she was a ferrikat.

“On one side we have your sister, Amberlee.
Isn’t she beautiful? Only a ferrikat can navigate lava without much pain. She has been doing my bidding. And she’s been most helpful.”

I leaned over the railing. “Let her go,” I shouted.

He snorted, as though my words were nothing more than a minor irritation. “
On the other
side, we have
Michael. The boy the gods believe is your soul mat
e.
The boy who is more similar to you than you know.
The boy who loves you harder, stronger, and with more commitment than I’ve ever witnessed.
Which will you save? Which do you love more?”

At Ramien’s words I
peered at Michael. He
lay on his back, the medallion at his throat shimmering in the light. His eyes were closed, his face peaceful, as though he slept.
Or
he was
dead.

My stomach turned.

“What do you mean, which will I save? Michael
may say he loves me, but he
already belongs to you. He’s your son. Why do you think I’d choose him over my sister?” I bit the words out, hoping my traitorous heart wouldn’t give me away.
The
truth was, even though my heart longed to save Michael, I would pick
Amberlee. She was family.

A cruel smile warped his face.
“I
see. So you choose Amberlee? You don’t care that she’s backstabbed, connived, and conspired to have you killed? If you’d like I can show you all she’s done.”

I shook my head.
“It doesn’t matter.”

“
Really?” Ramien looked unconvinced. “
Oh well. Before you make your final choice, let’s talk about Michael.”

I
guessed
Ramien
was trying
to
manipulate me. I knew he wanted me to ask him what he meant, and how
he
knew those things about Amberlee. I knew
,
he knew
,
I wanted to know.

“You say Michael already belongs to me.” He laughed, and I noticed some of his arrogance slip
ped
. “He is my son, but that doesn’t mean he agrees with my
goals, my plans
.
” He rubbed his hands through his hair,
slicking
it
out of his face
.
“
He is ferether, like me, as you know. He is also
kelvieri. His mother, Catherine.
” He spoke her name with a hint of kindness, and I was surprised. “She was still kelarian when she became pregnant. On her sixteenth birthday I encou
raged her to go to the gods, to receive her right of immortality. I g
ave her a special drug that made her forget her pregnancy, our relationship, and the plans we had together.” He paused and sighed. “Getting her pregnant was all that I needed, all that I wanted.”