Magick (The Unwanted Series Book 1) (7 page)

Chapter Eight

I
walk past the bathroom facility, to the side of the clearing just about 20 feet from our tents. I can somewhat make out my friends, and I wave to show I’m okay.

I’m not okay. What the hell am I doing? I wiggle my fingers to test my magick, but nothing happens. I flex my hand and try again. I clutch my hand to my side and walk into the woods just beyond the trees, and when I hear the earth give way to something off to my left in the distance, I ask meekly, “Who’s there?” I don’t recognize my own voice, sounding like a little girl.

No one responds.

“Who’s there?” I say, louder this time. Again, nothing, but there is a rustling in the canopy of the trees.

It could be an animal. It could be… an animal.

The sound is getting closer. It’s approaching.

I turn toward the campsite, and all I see is the forest. I went too far. I turn left, right — my sense of direction is gone. How did I get this far into the woods?

What the hell am I doing out here? I clench my hand and feel nothing. No light, no magick.

Pop.

Snap.

Tree branches are breaking.

I’m out of time. Someone or something is coming toward me!

I jog forward. There is a faint light on my right, and I head for it. That’s when I hear it.

A deep voice, full of menace, says “Little witch” I freeze. “Little witch, come play with me. I promise not to kill you quickly. That way we both can enjoy it.”

My body is moving of its own accord because my mind is locked up, I’m not thinking just moving. I’m clumsy and touching the rough unfriendly trees, turning around and around, pure panic setting in. I flex my hand and again no magick. I hear him, he’s huffing through his nose like an animal. The glowing light on my right is getting brighter, away from the threat.

Fight or flight time.

I run at full speed. Screw this!

There is an anguished cry of an animal behind me. I run as fast as I can without tripping on the uneven forest floor. My heart is pounding, I can’t see well, my breathing is labored, and I don’t seem to be gaining any distance on the light.

He’s gaining on me.

Smack.

Something hits me in my shoulder, and I’m on the ground.

“Aaaahhh!” The pain sears like a hot iron.

SHIT!

I know I’ve been stabbed with something, but if I lay here in pain I’m dead. I know it. No time. No time. Keep moving. MOVE! I scramble and claw to my feet and turn.

There he is! Death has come for me. He’s real: a dark-skinned skyscraper with massive horns that raise above his head like a bull and long claws that look deadly. His red glowing eyes straight from hell mesmerize me. His powerful muscles ripple like a body builder. It’s like a movie, but nothing I have ever seen before. He’s real, this is freaking real.

He stops in front of me, smirking. “Little witch doesn’t know how to play yet… I see.”

His fangs show white against his dark black skin. His smell is of an animal. He has a belt with various types of knives and other weapons. I favor my shoulder and left side as I scoot away.

“This isn’t as satisfying as I had hoped, but your heart will taste good either way!”

He jumps for me. I brace for impact. I’m dead for sure.

It happened so fast… the unbelievable! A ball of white light hits Death’s chest and throws him back against a tree. He’s down.

Scrambling on my butt, I turn and leap up to run, but halt, face to face with a warrior. He’s in armor, that is dark and sleek covering his body. Have I seen him before? He is up close to me. He is the most gorgeous guy I have ever seen. His wavy hair and hazel eyes, smart assessing. From full flight to completely stunned, I can’t move.

His commanding voice is but a whisper: “Stay quiet and hide.”

My knight in shining armor who’s here to help me? I nod, wince and touch my bloody, throbbing shoulder. Something is stuck in it — a knife, a branch, a freaking Mack truck! Gah, the pain it pulses all over my back and side. I try to control my breathing so that it’s quiet, but I’m starting to shake. I have no control. I hope this warrior is a good guy who doesn’t want me equally dead, or I’m in big trouble.

Death laughs.

“Ah, the Guardian comes to protect his little witchy queen wannabe, does he? Finally, an opponent worth my time!” The creature huffs again and again, as if smelling the air.

The gorgeous guy vanishes from my side. I hide behind brush at the side of two trees and try to be as small as possible without causing more pain in my shoulder and back, hugging my knees. I close my eyes. I try to slow my breath to find my magick, but where the hell is it? Pain overrides everything. I tug on my hoodie’s zipper my cotton shirt is sticky with my sweat. I touch my shoulder and feel blood.

SMASH. Thud.

A loud crash sends a tree falling next to me, and a white ball of light illuminates the forest. Then I hear the clanging of metal. Swords? Someone falls hard.

Should I run?

“You can come out now, Willow.”

He knows my name?

I slowly stand, then bend forward just as quickly, I wobble. Blood pools down my side. My shirt is soaked. Fear turns into anger. I walk over to the animal-death-creep thing and kick him in the groin.

“Asshole!” I yell. My hand starts to light up with the scrolling design. Jezz, finally!

In his unconsciousness, he takes it like most males and curls to the side.

The gorgeous guy smirks. “Um… okay, then.” Shaking his finger at the creature, he says, “No children, then, Tertium.”

“Tertium? This thing has a name, and you know him?” I take a small step back holding my left arm steady.

His head tilts to the side. “Yes, by reputation only. He’s not a ‘thing,’ he’s a demon blood warrior.” He says this like it’s a well-known fact.

I shake my head, not believing what just happened.

He continues, “For simplicity, he’s an assassin. Although not a very good one.” He kicks over at the demon’s feet. Then he throws a stone to the ground, which unfolds and grows, the light focused on Tertium.

Tertium opens his eyes and focuses on me. “More will come. Your father will pay too, little witch. The demons will feast on his heart for all the glorious dark—”

Suddenly he’s gone. The light is shrinking back to its stone shape.

The gorgeous hero sticks out his hand. “Enough of the mysterious. I’m Rhydian, and your father sent me to watch over you.”

Watch over me? Rhydian doesn’t look that much older than me. Wow, that face. I clear my thoughts, with the pain pulsing in my shoulder.

I gesture to where Tertium just vanished. “Thank you for that.”

“Yeah, Tertium isn’t much of a threat. All bark, and not much bite. Whoa!” He winces at me and points to my shoulder.

“It’s bad, isn’t it? It freaking hurts like nothing I’ve ever felt before.” Although the pain is starting to fade, but so is my vision and balance. I think I might pass out.

He’s behind me. He moves my hair to the side and is touching my back, looking at my wound. I can barely feel him there, just the throbbing. “It’s gonna hurt for a second, but I can heal you quickly enough. Ready?”

Hell no!

“Okay,” I say in an exhale, and hold onto a tree partly to brace myself and partly to stand. In a moment my back and shoulder erupt in sharp pain and I scream white knuckling it on the tree. My arms shake then steady themselves.

Then Rhydian’s hand is pushing into my wound, and soothing warmth takes over, followed by tingling. That iron blood smell is abating with the smell of antiseptic. It’s like my muscles are stitching back together and the warm is soothing. The pain is gone, like novocain is rubbed inside all over. I straighten and wipe my face of tears and possible snot, just a few moments ago I survived my first assassination attempt.

“You did well. It’s healed,” Rhydian says.

Facing him, I feel embarrassed for some reason. Surly a warrior like him sees these kinds of wounds all the time, just not the girly screaming kind, “thank you.”

“Of course.” His armor seems to disintegrate before my eyes with a push of his wrist band. He is revealed in regular clothes now. Dark jeans and a gray long sleeve cotton collared shirt that hug his biceps and lean frame. He looks like a college student, maybe early 20s. His hazel eyes have specks of yellow. I feel strangely at ease with him, but I don’t know him. I have got to stop staring.

“Have we met before?” I ask.

“I know your father, Aiden — Mr. Warrington. He and my family are friends — I’m a Guardian assigned to you.” His friendly smile is off putting, only because it makes him even more attractive than his serious versus I’m going into battle look. He continues, “I don’t think we’ve formally met until today.”

A little creepy. If only his face, those eyes weren’t so damn… okay, focus. My father.

“Does he know I’m here?” I snap unexpectedly. Did he send him to drag me home, since I wasn’t supposed to leave the house?

“I haven’t spoken to him in several days.” His brow creases in concern.

“He doesn’t know I’m here!” I shout out. “Rhydian, right?” He nods to confirm I have his name right. “You don’t need to…”

I can hear the faint calling of my friends. They sound worried. “Willow, where are you? Willow?”

How the hell am I going to explain this? Explain him. I look down at my bloody shirt, then up at Rhydian, and across the flattened the forest. I sigh in defeat.

Tertium would have been easier to explain, if he wasn’t trapped inside a stone.

Emily runs through the trees in front of us, looking determined. She slides to a halt, looking directly at Rhydian, with her eyes squinted.

In a quick movement, he grabs me, and she steps forward standing tall, waves then blows me a kiss.

What the hell?

Awkward… it’s like she knows something that I don’t. Like that dream in the psych rehab…

In a nanosecond, Emily’s in front of us, and then she’s not. I feel a change of footing, and I stumble backward. Rhydian is holding me from behind protectively. It feels to intimate and I try to give room to our bodies. The whirlwind of force pushes me forward and backward, he holds me steady. Everything is blurry and I can’t see anything solid, it’s various whites and grays smeared together in a fog. Time is folding into itself, into me, and outward, the pull-the push the sensation of weightlessness. I lean forward and my feet are on solid ground again. I feel the immediate absence of Rhydian’s arms and body. We are no longer in the forest. Instead, I’m in a room surrounded by large men.

What the hell?

Chapter Nine

L
arge men gather around Rhydian and me. Where the heck am I? They’re intimidating, muscled, tall, one with bruised knuckles. I step backward away from them, only to run into another. Are these friendlies? They look to be about Rhydian’s age.

They surround us.

“Okay, guys, back off. Give her a little space,” says Rhydian.

There are three of them. The one with dark curly mopped hair asks, “were you in a battle? Is she hurt?” He points to my side, where my hoodie is stained with blood.

Rhydian explains what happened and that he healed me. They back up, and the one with bruised knuckles turns around and sits in the lazy boy chair. I’m in a living room of some kind. The logs on the outside wall gave away that we’re in a log cabin. There is a small fire in the fireplace lighting up the room and giving off heat. It’s the only thing comforting and familiar in the room.

I turn to Rhydian. “Where are we? Who are these…guys?”

All except the one in the lazy boy chair smile at me.

“Guardians,” Rhydian says in a low voice.

“Hel-lo,” I sputter to them. All return the greeting, except the one in the lazy boy. He seems to be sizing me up.

“How about we get you cleaned up.” Rhydian says and guides me out of the room toward the stairs that are just outside the living room. I don’t know why I’m blindly following him, except that if he wanted me dead he could have done it back in the woods. He said my father sent him and I believe that, totally sounds like my over protective father. I don’t know where I am, if I am to get home I’m going to need Rhydian to take me back.

When we get to the top of the stairs Rhydian turns right in the hallway. I yawn and cover my mouth. In both directions there are closed doors. He opens a door and I walk in, past me he opens a door across the room that reveals a bathroom.

“Thank you,” I say.

I go to close the bathroom door, when Rhydian stops me.

“Willow, there are shirts and clothes in the dresser over there. Feel free to use this room, if you want to lay down… anything. I’ll be down stairs.”

“Can’t you just take me home?” I ask.

Rhydian looks at the floor, “no, I have instructions to keep you away from there right now.”

“Instructions?” My voice hitches. He’s still avoiding my eyes. “What? What is going on?” He doesn’t answer right away. It’s unnerving I go to the sink with the door open and wash my hands and splash water on my face. Patting my face dry I turn toward the bedroom and Rhydian is sitting on the bed.

He looks at me and says, “we’re off grid. Your father and mine feel there is a coo of some kind going on at the high coven. As soon as the coast is clear, I’ll get you to your father.”

“He didn’t tell me any of this.” I pull the hair tie from my wrist and put my hair up out of the way. I unzip my hoodie and take it off. It’s completely ruined. I gaze over my shoulder and see my shirt is looking just as bad as the hoodie. Pulling open the dresser drawer I find tee shirts folded. I grab the black on top and walk into the bathroom to slip it on.

“When did you talk to my father last?” I ask from the bathroom.

“It was my father who contacted me, when I was on my way to find you.” He says back to me.

The shirt was three sizes too big. I gather it on the side and tie a knot so it fits better to me. I walk out and Rhydian stands up fast. I shake off the fact his eyes are wide and looking me over, probably because I still feel a mess.

“I need to call my friends and let them know I’m okay. I totally disappeared on them, they probably called the police.” I paced the room thinking about Daniel and how I left him. The strange reaction of Emily. Oh God, how am I going to explain any of this to them.