Forstaken (6 page)

“Dear child,
it is not really so much about what you are, as it is about his kind.”

The riddles were making her feel
nauseated again. He paused and looked up into the air of the car space as if
trying to select the most appropriate wording. She’d always been scolded for
her temper, and now her patience was wearing more than a little thin.

Another beat
passed, maybe two. Still he didn’t complete the sentence.

“Well, what
kind is
he
then?”

Nadia searched
her recent memory and couldn’t think of anything odd about Byron, except his
fear of other doctors. It had always seemed more than odd to her that he’d been
afraid of other doctors when he was one himself. But that didn’t mean that he
was a monster, did it? And if she was a monster, wouldn’t a doctor know that?

“You really
don’t know, do you?” Dagger looked at her. A hint of pity in his eyes vaguely
disguised the pure glee he was feeling. The same way some of those other foster
kids would look at her with their taunting
I
know something you don’t know
glares.

Nadia squeezed
her fists into tight balls. This might be her long lost uncle, the only link to
her missing memories, her childhood, her true heritage, and her mother. But she
had the sudden violent urge to knock the crap out of him where he sat wearing
that unbelievably stupid black cape.

“Your man is
not really a man. He’s a merman. A creature of the sea. The prince of Goddess
Vellamo’s kingdom. And, well, he’s dead.”

Chapter Nine

Shadee and
Byron sat at the opening to the small cave, their shoulders pressed together in
the tight space.

“You’ve
brought me to a beach cave, when you know my final flux is only a few hours
away?” Byron was having trouble keeping his breathing steady as he fought an
internal battle against his true nature.

“Hey, I can’t
help it if the mage lives in a crappy cave by the water. I didn’t pick her home,
and I’m sure she doesn’t exactly tune in to current episodes of
House Hunters
.”

Byron smirked
at his new cohort, but it took all his energy to remain in full human mode at
the moment. He could hear the waves crashing against the shoreline down below. The
sea called to him. It tried to lure him home early. It wanted him, and in a
short time, he’d have to submit to the calling whether he’d found Nadia or not.

“
Where is she
?” His voice came out from
behind thin-pressed lips.

“The Forstaken
is whom you seek?” The voice echoed from somewhere inside the dark depths.

Byron cut his
eyes over at Shadee, but he didn’t seem to be following the question either.

“We are
looking for Nadia. She’s been taken by Dagger, the ancient demon,” Shadee said,
calmly, as if he were ordering a drink from the local barkeep instead of asking
an invisible elderly woman for a psychic reading.

Byron had the
sudden longing for his simple life at sea. There, at least, he knew the ways of
all things. There was honor and code and a hierarchy. There he could
respectfully ask from help from Louhi, the matriarch hostess of the Underworld.
If he had time, he’d go to her. She’d know what to do.

Demons,
vampires, mages – they weren’t part of his world.

He longed to rid himself of it. But
to hold Nadia one last time, perhaps make love to her, it was worth any
frustration. If only he could fight the flux a little longer. Maybe.

“Who is this
Forstaken? Does she mean forsaken? Is that this Dagger guy?” Byron finally
spoke out. Unhidden urgency riddled his voice.

A beat or two
of silence from inside the cave.

“
The Forstaken
is whom you seek, and she
is at a precipice. She must decide between the past and the future.”

Byron stood up
and took a few steps deeper into the cave. Shadee grabbed his arm and pulled him
back.

“Are you
crazy, man?” he stage-whispered.

Byron looked
back at Shadee. His eyes glowed amber in the darkness of the cave.

“I don’t have
time for riddles. I need answers.”

The old
woman’s voice spoke again.

“The Forstaken
is whom you seek. She’s the only one who can save you. She’s nearing the shrine,
but before the daylight breaks, she’ll be dead.”

Shadee pulled
Byron’s arm again. His motion meant for Byron to follow him, to leave.

“But I don’t
understand any of this. What is she talking about?” More than a little panic
had begun to settle through him. None of this made sense. What did any of this
have to do with him and Nadia?

“Let’s go. Don’t
piss her off, man.”

Byron gave one
last glance toward the pitch-black of the cave’s interior and then reluctantly
retreated from the cave.

“Leave the
money there.” Shadee pointed to a small reliquary at the cave’s edge. Byron dug
into his pocket and extracted the wad of cash. They’d stopped at an ATM, and
Byron had withdrawn the maximum it would allow.

He put the
cash in the opening. He didn’t know why he was paying a voice in a cave to tell
him absolutely nothing, but he had no use for the money now anyway. His life on
land was as good as over.

When they
reached the car, Shadee headed to the trunk and popped it open with his remote
keyless entry device.

Byron followed
him there. The trunk was full of equipment and weapons, everything from surveillance
equipment to crossbows. An arsenal meant for a very active private investigator
or some sort of animal hunter, he wasn’t sure which.

“What are you
doing? Who is the Forstaken? What does this have to do with Nadia?”

Shadee
withdrew several weapons. He eyed Byron up and down and then handed him a long
sword with a hand carved hilt and an etched handle. Then he strapped several
weapons to his body and velcroed a gun to his ankle. He tucked something
resembling a taser into his pocket. Lastly, he removed sharp, wooden stakes
from a velvet covered case and stuck them inside the back waistband of his
jeans.

“I take it we’re
in for a fight?” Byron said, suddenly feeling a little hyped about the idea of
taking down the dirty demon who’d stolen his girl.

“Yep. We are
in for the fight of our lives, man. Well, the fight for my undead life anyway.”

Shadee slammed
the trunk and took off in the direction of the cliffs.

“How do you know where to find
them?” Byron followed suit, but his mind was buzzing with the words of the
mage.

The Forstaken. Must make a choice. The shrine. Dead
near dawn. What did it all mean?

Shadee
interrupted his thoughts. “Let me take the lead. You hang back and back me up
only if I need it. You got it?”

“I can hold my
own. I’m no vampire’s back-up.”

Shadee stopped
his forward march and turned to look at Byron. His face was no longer grinning,
and he suddenly didn’t seem quite so goofy. He seemed like a wise warrior ready
for battle. The change in demeanor surprised Byron.

“You don’t
understand. We must save the Forstaken, or she’ll be the end of us all.”

“For the last
time, who is the Forstaken?”

Shadee shook his
head slowly and had the grace to look down at his boot covered feet before
giving Byron the worst news he’d heard all day.

“Your
girlfriend. She’s the Forstaken, and Dagger’s bringing her here to kill her.”

****

Nadia listened
as the man who claimed to be her long lost uncle, brother to her long lost
mother, spoke of Byron. He told her Byron was a man of the sea and was not
allowed to live on land longer than 1000 days in a lifetime. She did the math
in her mind. She knew he’d been here at least that long by now. She didn’t want
to believe Dagger. It was incredibly farfetched, and she knew Byron better than
anyone, didn’t she?

But still,
what reason could Dagger have for making up this insane story?

They’d ridden
in the limo for over an hour and were now at the base of Cliff Briar. She knew
the area well. She’d spent an excruciating day doing a bikini calendar photo
shoot with her squad mates here just last summer. She didn’t recall it seeming
this ominous. Of course, they hadn’t done the shoot in the early morning hours
in the pitch dark, either.

After his
revelation about Byron, which he recounted with unbidden joy, they’d both grown
silent. Now, as the car halted, she turned to him. Placing her hand on his
hand, she noted the cold, fetid feel of his skin.

“What are we
doing here? Why can’t I go home?” She tried her best at sounding calm and
casual. She’d had enough surprises for one day. All she could think of was
going home and waking up from this nightmare.

“All in due
time.” He smiled and then exited the car, shutting the door behind him and
leaving her in darkness.

She waited. Heard
him speaking in hushed tones to someone. She assumed it was the driver. Then she
began to chew her fingernails and waited. Her eyes closed, and she began to
replay some of the images from earlier.

A pale-faced woman, with long dark hair. She bent over
Nadia and smiled. “You must never think of us. We’ll do our best to erase this
life from your memory, but if it ever comes back to you, you must forget you
ever knew us. You must live, sweet one. You must live for us.”

Nadia watched the beautiful woman with the
caramel-colored eyes and tried to understand.

“Why, mother? Why can’t I stay with you and father?”

The woman kissed her softly on the forehead. Nadia felt a tear drop
onto her face. Her mother was crying. “Because you’re special, Nadia. You must
be protected.”

****

“Okay, this is
bullshit.” Byron had listened to enough crap over the past couple of hours. He
was tired of riddles and mages. He didn’t know if he could take another minute
in the company of this vampire doofus. His frustrations had reached their limit,
and yet the vampire marched upward toward the top of the cliffs, ignoring
Byron’s requests for information, ignoring his protests for answers.

Byron had had
more than enough.

He unsheathed
the sword and whacked Shadee across the back of the legs with as much force as
he could muster. He used the flat side of the blade. His intent was not to cut
the man’s legs off but to get his attention.

Obviously,
some of his sea powers were already returning, and the strength behind his blow
had been a little more forceful than intended. Shadee went flying forward about
ten feet and landed in a pile of weapons.

The sound of
his landing was a sickening thud, but he was back on his feet, fangs lengthened
and his own blade drawn, in a matter of seconds. He faced Byron, his eyes
glowing in the moonlight.

“Pull yourself
together. If you want to save your girl, this is the only way to do it.”

Byron started
to feel the twangs of guilt for smacking the cowboy, but then he remembered
being nearly poisoned to death by this very same vampire earlier today; and the
guild subsided.

“You know I do,
but I need some answers. You want me to back you up in a battle, and I don’t
know what the hell is going on. It is taking nearly all the energy I have left
to battle my flux, and you’re marching off to some war I have no knowledge or
insight into. You’ve got to give me something.”

Shadee
straightened his arsenal and dusted off the knees of his jeans. He didn’t look
happy but seemed to be considering Byron’s request.

“All right,
look. I know you’ve been living under the water for the better part of your
life, and I guess you’re out of touch with the whole supernatural world and
all. I don’t really have the time to go into all the details right now because
if we don’t get up here to this shrine and kill this Dagger motherfucker then
it will be the end to all of my kindred, and I can’t allow that.”

Byron absorbed
the information, and it sounded like a great plan. Kill the asshole that held
his woman captive. But this was not enough information to go on. He was bound by
honor, trust, and the Code of the Sea-gods. He couldn’t exactly just start
killing people, even if they were ancient demons.