Evanescent (24 page)

“That’s not fair!” he yelled in agony.

“Ava!” Troy screamed, pulling me from the man attempting to kill me. And for a split second, Troy’s shout dampened the panic-side, but my blood-shift was savage with the desperation of survival. I shot free; already in position. I kneed the figure in the face as he slowly stood. Troy was again trying to restrain me, but the fury inside me wouldn’t subside. Something wanted to kill me, I tasted it with each blow and block the figure shoved my way.

The aftertaste of the blackouts felt vicious on my tongue. I would not go back!

“If you can’t hold your anger, you will die because of it!” Troy shouted in my ear and then pushed me from him. The absence of his touch was enough to sober my thoughts for a while.

I swore under my breath, my hands digging into the damp ground. I stared at the daggers by my side.
What was happening?

“Ava!” Troy was firm now. “You can’t let the Shadow get to you, whatever is feeding it – let it go.”

He knew I was shifting. It practically bent the air around us, causing everything to feel abrasive and unwelcome, like a demon’s breath entrapping us.

I drew a steady, long breath and picked up my sais. Tatos pulled me up by the waist of my denims. I turned, watching Troy’s huge biceps curl over his chest. He stood watching me carefully as the steady drizzle sizzled off my skin.

“Tatos reminds you of Enoch, that’s why I brought him along. If you cannot purge yourself of his poison, I will not allow you to fight Enoch at all.”

I ground my teeth. I could almost feel the Shadow-shift claw its way through my veins at the mere mention of his name. It wanted out. I snarled at Troy. The truth was hard to swallow, it made me mad but before my shift came over me, Troy knocked one of the sai’s from my hand. I looked up at him, infuriated by his ego.

“You think you have what it takes to beat him,” he said, cocking his head to the side. “Show me.” He stood back.

I ran at him, he was the one causing this anger. Abruptly, I found myself already in his locked arms.

“You think too much, you are too angry!” And he proceeded to maneuver me into a headlock.

I screamed.

“Calm the storm,” he said, and a smooth tingle ran down my spine at his gentle tone.

But
it
didn’t want to, my shift wanted out! I kicked into his knees, but he laughed. I squirmed in his grip. My shift would not come if he was touching me. He had to have known this. He pushed me from him. I turned in a low crouch, my leg swept out, but he leapt over it very easily causing his smirk to widen. With the other arm, the remaining sai cut at his shirt. He chuckled. “You are still angry.”

Humiliation didn’t sit well with me, not again. I spun as he came at me and on facing him again, a slight bolt to the chest knocked him to the muddy ground. This time, I hardly felt the electricity tear through my body. It came too easy. I laughed as he flew through the mud.

“Ava!” Tatos held my arms bound behind my back. I lifted myself and spun over his head, hooked my thighs on to his head and twisted him to the ground, both of us wrestling in the mud.

“You knew about Enoch and never as much as stopped him, Tatos! Do you have any idea how much it ripped me apart?” The words came from an unfamiliar place, one of fear, pain and sorrow. I was channeling the memories now.

“You are not the only one,” he said, bitterly.

Troy
came at me, going for the obvious headlock again. I turned out of it, but he was too fast and gripped my hips. I pulled and fell back into the mud. I twisted on my back laughing, wiping sweat, grime and rain from my face. I jumped up, but he knocked me down again, this time sitting on top of me.

His face was unreadable. “Let go. What has been done has passed. It’s ruining your abilities – move on.”

“And there it is, my soul guide.” I cocked my head.

He ignored me. “You thought of my next move – clever, but you were not reacting to my movements. That is how I am the victor.”

I wanted to slap the smugness from him, infuriated by him. He pushed all the wrong buttons.

“You need to control your shifts.”

“How do you do that?” I growled, as his knees pinned my arms to the ground. I lay there staring at him, my body aching for his. “You are always one step ahead of me? How?”

“Anger is predictable. Besides, when you think too much there are signs, and you open yourself to those who will listen in.”

“You are not supposed to listen in.”

“I don’t have to.”

“Tatos!” I spat. “You’re reading me, and then pushing Troy with the information.”

“We need practice, too.” He shrugged, still breathless.

Troy
intensified everything I felt, emotionally and physically. The fever gripped my chest, burned its way into my arms.

“
Betrayal
.” Tatos pushed the word into my mind. “That is what you are feeling now.”

“Get out of my head!” I yelled.

Troy
’s hands pulled my face to his. “No, because you can bet your sweet ass, Enoch will be in there the moment we land on that moon. He will get into your head every opportunity you allow him to.”

“You need to ward him off,” Tatos said, attempting to clean the mud from his face and body.

“Calm your storm,” Troy said again, his knees moving from my pinned shoulders to my waist.

I closed my eyes and quietened my quickening pulse, but something sinister and pleasant surfaced in its place. The blood-shift had sneaked in, found my weakness and started to play at my need for redemption. I smiled at Troy as his body pressed mine into the ground. There was one weakness his species held.

He smiled back wickedly. “All yours,” he said, arms stretched out, torso totally gorgeous and perfect in the glimmer of the rain.

His face came insanely close to mine, our lips just about to touch, his breath so sweet. I inhaled it like an enthralling smoke as it clung to my lungs. At that point in time, I had no idea what I was doing to him; it had become all too natural. One of the perks of carrying the Shadowing disease and being a mind-shifter in one is that they become you totally. And for the victim, there is no way out.

“No cheating this time,” he said into my ear, as if anticipating what I was up to.

His breath on my skin, left mine aching to draw more air. I arched my body into his, felt his heart racing beneath his rib cage. I pushed him from me. He jumped back and away, looking very confused. I grabbed my sai from the mud, stood as my skin dampened, suddenly cold and shivering in his absence, allowing the snare that became me to sharpen its claws into my pray. I ran for Troy faster than I had anticipated, suddenly heightened by my new ability, but he grabbed the arm holding the blade and swung me around him. As he spun, his leg connected with mine and I almost lost my balance. I pulled him in closer. Troy was still in motion, trying to pin me down when I slipped out of his grasp, touching every
weak
spot on his body with mine. The world around us non-existent as a dark smoke wrapped itself around us, robbing Troy of all his senses in its alluring wake. My lips brushed against his ear sensually. Everything stopped when I landed on top of him, my knees pinning his arms to the dirt. His smile grew. Somehow, I had used my ways to
push
his moves. Like a chess game, I set him up for a fall. I radiated, reveled in the ability. That was what I had become, that was my poison against the male species. My body, my feminine ways, would drive their behavior and turn their minds.

“What were you thinking about?” he asked, his hands gliding over my hips, goosebumps riding their way up and over my body.

“Nothing,” I panted. “I just worked with what I have in my favor.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Exactly.” He pushed the dagger from my grip, and it fell with a soft thump to the mud. He stared into my eyes with a taunting smile.

The drizzle was constant and soft against my warm skin. I felt his hands slide onto my thighs, the heat rush over my entire body, and then he was on top of
me
again, his face inches away from mine. He moved closer, straddling my lap.

A cold ache erupted through me. Cool water dripped from his face onto mine with a sizzle. He pushed me harder into the wet ground. My stomach flipped at the gesture.

“You are trying to beat him at his own game.” He leered.

I twisted my face into his arm and bit into his flesh. He let go, and I smashed him into the ground. He smiled. We stood, circling each other. He had a dagger in his hand, I had the other, my mind felt light, hazy, numb and beautifully dark. My eyes fell on his grin. When he came at me, I twirled out of his reach pulling his body in my orbit, worked the gravity around us to pull him in and I was suddenly behind his back, kicking his feet from under him.

“You learn fast,” he said, a naughty smile playing on his lips, “but not fast enough.” He smirked, just before he landed face first in the mud, pulling me with him, the tip of the dagger at my throat again. Now he’d worked my gravity. There was just no way of beating this guy! A dark flash gripped me again, this time with more terror and torment – it had attained what it was after, and my time had finally come to an end. I felt my life drain from me, leaving me dizzy as my blood-shift left me.

“What?” Troy and Tatos said simultaneously, my body rigid, hairs standing on the back of my neck, then the zing through to my arms lifted them to the sky pointing to what was coming our way.

“I am sorry.” And with that, the heaviness took me to ground. “They know everything,” I said, trembling in the mud.

“What are you talking about woman?” Tatos shouted at me.

Troy
looked at me, and I was sure he knew right then what had transpired. What I had done.

“Get ready,” I said, guilt fixing me to the very spot.

The sky cracked open with a loud snap, and dozens of fireballs slammed into the ground a short distance behind the trees.

Tatos grabbed his bow and arrow.

“How’s that gonna help?” I panicked.

“Calm down. Focus, Ava, your mind is your weapon in this battle,” Tatos insisted.

“Where is your necklace?” Troy asked hastily.

I fumbled in one pocket and then the other, we looked all around, seeking the only thing that would keep us safe from me shifting again. I was not ready. I didn’t know how to control the thing inside of me.

“Stay close, this is your test run. You can do this. If you panic, you know what happens.” Troy was fully aware that the chaos in my mind brought on the pandemonium of the blood-shift, blissfully unaware that moments ago I was entombed in its lust.

I just stared at him blankly, my mind not gripping on to anything but the panic-side.

“Okay?” he asked, holding my left arm before him, trying to snap me out of it. But, he didn’t know what had me so entrapped. It was my end, I could feel it. My blood sang with destiny’s cruel fate.

“Ava!” he shouted. This was not the time to freeze. He pulled out a dozen star blades, sliding them into his harness, handed me the two sais, and slipped two narrow blades into each of my boots. He still had no idea what was going on. That I had brought them here, that I was his enemy. Troy just stared at me, completely oblivious.

“Whatever it is, it will be okay,” he tried to reassure me.

The forest seemed to ignite with an ugly, orange-green flame, black smoke rose and then darkened as rain pushed it back down to the earth, causing a wall of dark mist. A bolt sliced the dark sky above, bright colors exploded with the flash over the landscape. The crack opened the skies upon us with a flood of water.

“Are you doing this?” Troy asked.

I looked to the black, angry sky.

“I… I.”

He nodded. I understood what I suspected all along. The dark powers were becoming stronger.

“Did those things just drop out of the sky?” Tatos asked.

Troy
nodded. “You need to push a message to the others.”

“Already have.”

Troy
moved to stand before me. His midnight glare feral and hungry, seeking the figures moving through the smoky barrier.

When the ground started to shake, Tatos yelled, “Stampede!” Releasing two arrows at a time into the gray haze descending from above. The arrows disappeared into the fog with a wide arc, then upon colliding with the raindrops on their way back down, turned them into shards of ice, causing a ping against metallic bodies, giving away the exact unseen distance.

“Ready,” said Troy, standing with legs and shoulders grounded, fixed, awaiting the onslaught. I nodded, and my heart leapt at the sight of the droids emerging through the bushes, breaking through the barrier of dark smog and onto the stretch of open land before us. They were giants compared to those who had raided the city. When two droids were struck by the shards of glassy ice, they staggered, forcing the enemy line to slow. This bought us some time to compose. One of the droids stepped forward, removing his helmet. I gasped. It was Enoch, he was here.

Troy
looked at me, read the horror on my face.

“What, what are you seeing. Him?” he hissed.

I nodded.