A branch
snapped, and his head whipped the other way just as the reddish mountain lion
returned with a hasty entrance. Hurdling through the air into the center of the
clearing, he came to a stop on top of an old, cracked stump. Sunlight coursed
through the treetops, and one huge stream of light settled directly on his
face. He stared into the sky and began releasing strange, low amplitude sounds.
“Woh, woh, woh.” I knew mountain lions didn’t roar, but this sounded so
unnatural.
With the
absolute worst timing of anything that had ever happened in my life, I sneezed.
Three times. The reddish mountain lion’s head jerked my direction. His eyes lit
up, and he purred. Loudly. He looked at me hungrily with those evil golden eyes
and suddenly vaulted off the stump directly towards me. Shocked to be
experiencing my snapshots live, my heart banged against my chest, trying to
pound its way out. I screamed just as the tawny cougar sprang forth from the
evergreen bough. Colliding mid-air, they dropped and landed in a tangled mass
on the hard ground. I sunk my face into the moss and whispered words of thanks
to Jason for saving me. Again.
Desperate to
catch the action, my head snapped up, and I followed their every move as they
fought viciously for several minutes. Spiraling over logs and tree roots, they
hissed and clawed at each other, tearing clumps of fur from each other’s
bodies. Covered with bloody splotches and breathing heavy, they seized each
other and began slashing away with raw brutality. A loud “Rowww, rowww, rowww,”
rose between them. The savagery and ferociousness of the onslaught was
traumatizing, but I couldn’t take my eyes away.
Sinking his jaws
into my tawny mountain lion’s neck, the reddish one flung my beautiful cougar
through the air. He landed in a heap at the base of my protective wall where I
couldn’t see him. The reddish cat celebrated his victory with ear-shattering
screams. It was all I could do not to jump out and run to my fallen cougar –
Jason. I was numb. My hope had been crushed and lay dispersed among the dead
needles.
The screaming
stopped, and the cougar’s body transformed, very quickly, back into the human
form of Kieran. Leaning his head back, he drew in a deep breath and let it all
out again in an eruption of depraved laughter. With an expression of
superiority he strut, but with a definite limp, towards Jason. I panicked at
having neither one of them in my sight. Worried sick, I knew I needed to get to
Jason – if it wasn’t too late.
It couldn’t be too
late. I also needed to get to him before Kieran came after me. Grabbing two
short sticks, I stretched out on my stomach and assessed the situation below
me.
“Not a bad fight
for an
Imitator
,” Kieran said snidely and kicked Jason’s beat up human
body. “But we Shapeshifters are stronger, especially when we’ve been feeding on
Essence. Especially Guardian Essence. Those B.C. Guardians were easy prey; they
didn’t put up half the fight you did. Of course, they didn’t know we were
coming.” Kieran might be stronger, but he hadn’t escaped completely unscathed.
Blood dribbled down the side of his face, and large hideous abrasions covered
his body.
To stop myself
from crying out at the sight of Jason’s limpless form, I bit down hard on the
stick in my hand. This was the worst I’d ever seen him. His face was scratched
up, but my eyes were immediately drawn to his neck, where a deep red laceration
bled profusely. Some of his body parts looked displaced, and I imagined he had
several broken bones. He’d be black and blue from head to toe in a few days,
but that was the least of my worries. I needed to close the neck wound, stop
the bleeding, and heal any broken bones so he’d still
be
alive in a few
days.
“Hey, pretty
boy,” Kieran shouted and kicked Jason.
“Mmm,” Jason groaned
and rolled slightly to one side.
“What a waste!
If you Guardians would just feast on human Essence you’d be strong like us.” He
turned sideways and spat blood. “Of course, your loss is my gain. There’s
nothing that satiates my hunger better than the Essence of another Guardian.
Pity it won’t be as strong to start off, but once I’ve drained you of every
last bit, and you take your last breath, my strength will be more impressive
than it was before.” He rubbed his dirty hands together. “Then of course, I’ll
feast on your little Innocent who’s hiding around here somewhere – a nice tasty
treat after all my hard work.”
Jason moaned
again, and I fought to maintain my strength of mind. Even though I was rigid
with terror, anger propelled me into a standing position. As Kieran leaned over
Jason with his hands outstretched, I jumped. Plunging downwards, I refused to
close my eyes and lose sight of my target this time. I jabbed the sticks
straight into Kieran’s back and landed feet first on the ground. A surprise
attack gone right. Finally!
Howling like a
madman, he fell face forward onto Jason. Hatred commanded my every move.
Without hesitation I kicked Kieran in the face like my foot was made of steel.
The force behind my kick sent him spiraling backwards. Rage consumed me when I
looked down at Jason’s damaged body. I clenched my fists and advanced on Kieran
again, slamming him with another powerful kick to the head. His face wrenched
sideways, and he stopped moving.
Immediately, I
turned my attention to Jason. His breath was shallow and his face pale. I knelt
down beside him and placed my hands on his neck. I knew he was at his weakest,
so I mentally prepared myself for nothing more than a trickling of Essence. But
when I didn’t feel any flow at all, my body started quivering, and I fought
back tears. If I hadn’t seen him roll over moments before, I would have thought
he was dead. What I felt wasn’t physically painful; it was more shocking. For
some reason, this time I could feel his suffering. Closing my eyes, I focused
and ignored his pain. I shared with him my strength and energy. As my fingers
tingled, I could feel my Essence surging into him fast and unyielding.
“Jason,
Jason! What’s happening? Answer me please!”
Madison was trying to contact
him telepathically again.
“Come on Jason.
You need to answer,” I whispered. His eyelids started fluttering just as brutal
hands clamped onto my shoulders. Flinching, I lifted my hands away from Jason’s
bloody neck.
“Owww, what
the…” Kieran yelled. Shocked that he was up again, I whipped around. Kieran
gazed back and forth between his hands and my face several times before his
lips formed a slow smile. “How fascinating,” his voice cracked as he looked at
me sideways. Although not much taller than me, his build was definitely more
muscular and stocky. His small eyes were a vibrant hazel. From far away he
might have looked like Adam Levine, but up close he was greasy-looking and
intimidating. Either his facial hair grew in clumps, or he’d shaved hastily
around his goatee. His predatory stare, profoundly unwanted, made me extremely
nervous. He glanced down at Jason, and I instinctively moved to block his view.
“Get back,” I
growled. Not that I was going to be a lot of protection when this crazy dude
morphed back into a mountain lion, but I was prepared to take whatever measures
necessary to protect Jason.
“This just gets
more stimulating by the minute,” Kieran said with a chuckle. “I do believe I
have one very genuine and powerful Amethyst standing before me. This makes my
trip to the Northwest a total success.” Smirking, he cupped his chin and shook
his head. I didn’t know what to make of his odd behavior, but when he took a
step towards me, I instantly put my hands out to stop him.
“Don’t touch
him,” Jason said in a raspy voice. Glancing down, I shot him a surprised look.
He was talking; that was good.
“Ha, ha, ha. Oh
no! Don’t listen to him. Please, go ahead. Touch me – anywhere you want.”
Kieran reached his arms out and wiggled his fingers before me. Trembling, I
looked at my hands, now covered in blood – Jason’s blood. Apparently, I didn’t
have control over who I healed. If I touched him, I’d heal his injuries. Talk
about screwed! How was I going to defend myself if my touch only enabled him?
“I wouldn’t
consider touching you…you filthy…vile creature,” I said venomously. Then I had
a random thought, well probably not so random. It was more like I’d just fit
the last missing pieces into a puzzle, one that I’d been working on for weeks.
Now that I could see the whole picture, everything made sense, and it wasn’t
very pretty. “Why don’t you touch me instead,” I said hesitantly, waving my
hands in front of his face like he’d done to me. If my suspicions were right, I
had one defense after all.
“Oh, I like it!
She still has a sense of humor. How intriguing.” He laughed mirthlessly but
made no attempt to reach for me. Looking me in the eye, he said scornfully, “I
don’t feel like playing with fire right now.”
A strange,
queasy feeling overtook the pit of my stomach. So that was it. If I touched
him, I healed him. If he touched me, it hurt. A lump formed in my throat, and I
looked down at Jason with a sick feeling. His aqua-marine eyes flickered back
at me with a measuring look, and I knew. I knew the heat that had always been
between us had been real. I just hadn’t known that for him it was hot.
Painfully hot.
“So, we’re at an
impasse,” I said uncertainly to Kieran. Shifting my stance, I waited. I didn’t
have a special ability like everyone else. Apparently, my own best defense was myself.
This was getting complicated.
“Actually,”
Kieran said, taking a step closer to Jason, “you have a choice to make now.”
My face
hardened, and my shoulders stiffened. “I don’t know what you mean,” I said with
a hint of alarm.
“You see your
boyfriend here…” He pointed, and I noticed several silver rings on his stubby
fingers. One was an especially large snake head wrapped around his thumb joint.
Scratching his goatee, he silently contemplated for a moment. “Well actually,
he’s probably not your boyfriend, because a relationship between an Amethyst
and a Guardian is
flaming
impossible, isn’t it?” He laughed.
My chest
tightened. With all this new information, I still had a lot to sort out.
Unfortunately, things were not looking too good for me at the moment. “Just get
on with it.” I grimaced.
“Like I was
saying before I so rudely got off track – you have a choice. I can reach down
and draw the Essence from him until he’s dead,” he smiled impishly, “while you
watch helpless and virtually defenseless. I mean you can try to pull me off of
him or whatever. But you know as well as I do, the minute you touch me, it only
makes me stronger.”
“I won’t let you
near him,” I seethed. I would die before I let him touch Jason again.
“Or,” he winked,
ignoring my outburst, “you can choose to share your Essence freely with me. You
can heal the inconsequential injuries I sustained during my recreational bout
with your friend here. It would be like a really good fix. Just might satisfy
my craving for a couple days…and then I wouldn’t need to bother with him. What
do you say?” He looked pleased with his offer.
Jason moaned and
tried to sit up. “Alex. No.”
“Hmm…Alex,”
Kieran purred. “It’s decision time. You have five seconds: 5…4…3…2…”
“Fine,” I said
angrily.
“Fine, what?”
“Fine, I’ll heal
you. But I have a condition of my own.”
“Of course you
do. But that’s okay, I admire a shrewd mind. What’s the condition?”
“We move away
from him,” I said and looked at Jason, who was staring at me with despair and
shaking his head. Gazing up at Kieran again, I said, “I don’t want to be
anywhere near him when we do this. He needs to be out of sight.”
“Ohh, I get it.
Out of sight; out of mind.”
“Not quite,” I
snarled. “But if we’re in agreement, let’s go. I’ll follow you.” The sooner I
got him away from Jason, the better.
“Sure thing my
little peddler.” Kieran snorted and started walking. He stopped almost
immediately. Glancing back at Jason, as if he was an afterthought, he remarked,
“It was fun. Let’s do it again sometime. Actually, I’m sure we will, and I’ll
be looking forward to it because next time I won’t let you live.” With that he
started whistling and scrambled up and over a dead tree.
“Alex, please
don’t do this,” Jason choked out. He flinched and tried his best to get up, but
he wasn’t strong enough yet. “Don’t taint yourself with his Essence; he’s pure
evil.”
I leaned down
and touched his forehead. “Jason, I’ll come back. I promise. Keep your eyes
open for Andrew.”
“Alex, let’s
go,” Kieran called out obnoxiously. “Deal was that you heal me, not him.”
I whispered to
Jason, “Talk to Madison. How long until she gets here?” I stood up.
His eyes
narrowed and his mouth opened in surprise. Giving me a very funny look, he
whispered, “Five minutes tops; stall him, but don’t touch him.”
“I’ll try,” I
mouthed back and turned to follow Kieran, who continued whistling loudly as he
led me into the dense forest. We waded through thick, low-growing shrubs, the
only sound coming from the branches snapping under our feet. Eventually, he
stopped. The chains hanging from the belt loops of his torn black jeans rattled
as he jumped straight up. That giant leap landed him square on his feet, about
six feet up, on top of a big old stump that had a huckleberry bush growing out
of it.
He turned around
and looked down at me. “Must suck being an Amethyst sometimes. Can’t jump great
heights. Can’t run with super speed. And no experimenting with new abilities
every time you link with a different person.”
Looking at him
with new perspective, I tried hard to look bored. In actuality, I was soaking
up all this new information like a sponge. “Being an Amethyst has its
advantages,” I said snidely and wondered what they were because I could really
use them right about now.