Authors: Stacie Simpson
“The one you fought in your
last sword fight.”
I took a deep breath, needing
to calm down. “Was Renee here too?”
Jasper nodded. “She came
later with someone who looked like Katerina, but I don’t think it was really
her. The disguise was good, even the smell was almost right, but there was
something wrong with the way she carried herself. I’d almost say she walked
like a man.”
I took a step towards the
opening but Grayson’s arm flew out to block my way. I glared up at him.
Undeterred, he asked Jasper, “Who else was here? Have you been through this opening?
Where did they take the women?”
“At first it was only the
fire demon and the Katerina look-a-like, but then Sergio showed up and did
something to knock Renee out. Then he blew that hole in the wall. I followed
them to the other side but I didn’t want to get lost in the maze so I came back
to get some help.”
I took another deep breath
and rubbed my hands over my face. “There’s a maze on the other side of this
hole?”
Jasper nodded his blonde
head.
“Okay, I’ll lead the way
since I have the best chance of spotting traps.” I started towards the hole
again but Grayson still wouldn’t lower his arm. “What is it now?” I asked, my
patience running thin.
Grayson met my gaze, his
black eyes reminding me so much of Rook when he was in full Guardian mode. “We
have no way of knowing how big that maze is, or if there is even a way out of
it. Sergio could have just put it there to keep anyone busy who tried to follow
him.”
“Renee is my mate. I can
sense her through our bond. On top of that, Rachel should be wearing the ring I
made her that doubles as a homing beacon and I placed a locator spell on Renee
the night I arrived at Supernova.”
Satisfied with my answers, he
lowered his arm and the three of us climbed through the hole a
nd into the fire demon realm.
~ Solomon ~
The fire demon realm looked
exactly the way most people imagined it would. Black lava rock covered most of
its jagged surfaces and no matter where you were there always seemed to be
volcanic peaks off in the distance. The sky was a fiery mix of red and orange
like the rivers of molten lava that never stopped flowing. It was dry and hot,
and one of the most miserable worlds I’d ever been to.
Upon entering the maze, I did
a quick scan for spells. As I’d feared, magic coated the tops of the walls,
making it impossible to simply hop up and find a clear path out of the maze.
Next, I tried to create a portal, thinking we’d just skip over the maze, but
that idea was a bust as well. With no other choice, we started out into the
maze. Slowly and cautiously, we followed the only passageway available. We ran
into a few spells along the way, but we managed to avoid or disarm them without
losing too much time in the process. Eventually, we came to a chamber with
multiple exits to choose from. I went with my gut, choosing the one in the
middle and we continued on. Each time we were presented with multiple
passageways, I thought about Renee and followed my instincts.
As the minutes ticked by, my
patience grew thinner, but I remained calm and focused. I had no idea what
Sergio and Dimitri had planned for the women, but I knew that losing my head
would only ensure their success. Grayson held it together well, though I knew
he was sick with worry, but Jasper was so close to losing it that I considered
sending him back the way we came.
When Jasper finally reached
the end of his rope, he stopped and wiped his brow on his sleeve. “I feel like
we’re going in circles!”
“I have to agree with him
Solomon. It all looks the same, so it’s hard to tell, but it doesn’t feel like
we’re making any progress. What if the corridors are moving like they did in
his other maze?”
I glanced around. “That’s
entirely possible. What do you propose we do about it?”
“Is there a way to keep them
from moving?” Jasper asked.
“Or better yet,” Grayson cut
in before I could respond. “Let’s not use his corridors at all. Let’s make our
own.”
I felt a grin curl my lips.
“Now that’s an idea. Making his corridors behave would take time and we’d both
be drained by the time we caught up to Sergio and Dimitri. But if we simply cut
through his maze with a path of our own, we should be out of this mess in no
time.”
“How are you going to cut
through all this lava rock?” Jasper asked doubtfully.
“Watch and learn,” I told
him.
I concentrated on the locator
spell and determined Renee was most likely a few miles away on our left.
Turning in that direction, I pulled my runic stones out of my pocket and
started chanting. When I found the right stone, I removed it from the ring and
held it up so that Grayson could examine its runes. He smiled when he realized
what I was up to and started chanting with me. Magic built all around us until
it couldn’t be contained any longer. We pushed it forward and it tore through
the walls of the maze like an invisible bulldozer. Nothing was left in its
path, not even the tiniest bit of debris.
Jasper gasped, “How the hell
did you do that?”
“It’s a very old spell that
can be used to clear just about any obstruction from lava rock to enemy forces,
to large bodies of water.”
“Do you think that’s how
Moses parted the Red Sea?”
Grayson chuckled and started
jogging down our new passageway.
“It’s possible,” I tossed
over my shoulder, following Grayson. When Jasper caught up to me I continued,
“Humans often explain magical events with religion. They’d rather believe in
miracles and divine intervention, than the existence of true magic.”
Jasper snorted. “That’s why
your shows are always sold out six months in advance.”
I gave him a wry smile. “Even
my biggest fans think it’s all smoke and mirrors. They can’t figure out how I
do it, but they’re sure it’s not real magic.”
“I guess that’s the same for
all of us. They see our fangs and claws, but they never think they’re real.”
The bitter edge in his voice was unmistakable.
“That’s what keeps us safe
Jasper,” I reminded him. “The humans come to Myths and Legends for the show. If
they knew it was all real, many of them would come for our heads instead.”
“I know, but sometimes my
wolf wants to run free and it’s hard to make him understand why we can’t do
that.”
Jasper was young enough when
we were cursed that his wolf was still a docile pup. Hundreds of years later
when the curse ended, the animal inside of him was anything by docile. His wolf
came out of his magically induced coma angry and unpredictable. Now, he
struggled constantly to keep his wolf under control.
“You could run anytime you
wanted to in the forests around Supernova. Or you could go to any of our other
isolated properties.”
“My wolf wants to run near
his home, in his own territory,” he replied stubbornly.
Running near Myths and
Legends wasn’t really a problem because we could blend in with the shadows, but
once our animals came out in their physical forms, they were even harder to
control. Jasper was having enough trouble controlling his animal in human form.
He’d even attacked one of our guests shortly after the curse ended. As a result
of that attack and his continued struggle for control, he was banned from
running near the resort.
“Then perhaps you need a
transfer to another location,” I suggested.
Jasper glanced at Grayson
ahead of us and agreed, “Yeah, that might be a good idea.”
Grayson stopped suddenly and
held his hand up telling us to stop and listen.
“I don’t know where it came
from,” a male voice said from just outside the maze. “I was patrolling along
the wall, and then suddenly this section of the wall was gone.”
We rushed over and flattened
ourselves against the wall while Jasper and I both used the shadows to hide our
presence. A second later, a pair of vampires poked their heads around the
corner.
“I don’t see anyone,” the
same voice whispered.
“That doesn’t mean there’s
nobody here,” the second vampire pointed out in a deeper voice. “I’m going to
call this in.”
He reached for his phone, but
Grayson was on him before he could make the call. I took out the other vampire
while Jasper went around the corner to see if there were any more guards.
Finding no one else in the area, we hid the bodies in the maze, then I cast an
illusion spell to make the wall appear whole again.
“Where to now?” Jasper asked,
obviously anxious to find Rachel.
“Over there.” I nodded my
head towards a volcanic mountain in the distance. I couldn’t see any buildings
or activity, but I was certain Renee was somewhere in that direction.
“Now that we’re out of the
maze, there’s nothing blocking our magic,” Grayson observed. “We’d get there a
lot faster through a portal.”
I shook my head, every
instinct I had told me that was a bad idea. “That’s exactly what Sergio would
expect us to do and he might have traps in place to snare us when we come out
on the other side. I think it’s best if we do this the old fashioned way and
sneak up on foot.”
They agreed and we crossed
the rough terrain quickly, with Grayson hiding in the shadows between me and
Jasper. About a mile out from the mountain, we ran into the first patrol. The
guards were vampires, so they too were wrapped in shadows, but their evil
stench lingered in the air whenever they crossed our path. These vampires
reeked of the virus, having obviously made a habit of forgoing fresh blood.
We arrived at the base of the
mountain and located a cave. The locator spell was still going strong, telling
me that Renee was inside the mountain. We filed into the cave and spread out,
searching for danger. The small cavern was empty so we headed into the tunnel
on its far side. Following the twists and turns we wound our way towards the
center of the mountain, passing lakes of molten lava and the occasional guard.
By the time, we reached our goal we were dripping with sweat, and parched
beyond measure.
“Most of the guards we passed
had canteens dangling from their belts. Maybe we should go back and see if
they’d be willing to share,” Jasper suggested, leaning forward with his hands
on his thighs. Of the three of us, he was the worst off both physical and
mentally.
“If we interrupt their patrol
patterns, we’ll tip our hand to Sergio,” I reminded him. “Then he’ll move Renee
and Rachel - or worse.”
He tipped his head up to
glare at me with the blue eyes of his wolf. “And if we don’t get something to
drink, it won’t matter if we find the women or not. We’ll never make it out of
here alive.”
He had a point. The heat was
exhausting, and without water, none of us would be much of a challenge for
Sergio or Dimitri. Deciding it was worth the risk, I wrapped a portal around
one of the fountains on the Myths and Legends grounds. It was in an isolated
area, so there was little chance there were any humans around to see it go
missing. When the fountain appeared before us, we drank from the water pouring
into the basin. Then we splashed water on our heads and necks to help us cool
off. Once we were all refreshed, I sent the fountain back through the portal to
the human realm.
We were steps away from the
room where I believed we would find Renee when Grayson said, “Rachel is not in
that room.”
I tilted my head to the side
as I studied the demon before me. “You’re sure?”
He nodded once. “I can feel
something... I can’t explain it, but if you’re right about her being a conduit,
then I believe she is down that corridor.” He pointed to our left.
“I feel her as well,” Jasper
said, surprising us both. “She is definitely down that passageway.” He jerked
his head towards the same tunnel Grayson indicated.
I tried to get a lock on the
ring I made her but kept coming back to Jasper. After a few tries I finally
asked him, “Was Rachel wearing the ring I gave her?”
Jasper reached in his pocket
and pulled something out. Then he held his hand out in front of him with his
palm up. There in his palm was the ring I made for Rachel. “Bloody hell Jasper!
How is that ring supposed to help keep her safe if it’s in your pocket?”
Jasper sighed. “She was too
angry with you after the watchtower. She put it on to go through the portals
but otherwise she wanted me to hold it. She didn’t want you to be able to find
her.”
I scrubbed my hands other my
face. “Let’s hope the two of you are right about where she is, because without
that ring we don’t have a quick way to track her.”
“She is there Solomon,”
Grayson said, pointing towards the tunnel on the left again.
I met both their eyes and saw
that they were determined and ready for battle.
“I’ll wait five minutes
before I open that door,” I promised them. “When you have Rachel, open a portal
and get the hell out of here. If anything goes wrong, find your way out of here
and go back the way we came.”
They agreed and disappeared
down the dark tunnel. I waited the five minutes, and hoped they were in place
before I opened the door. I wanted them to have a chance to escape before I
went through that door just in case all hell broke loose on the other side.
When I finally opened the
door and crept inside, I was met with total darkness. I sensed Renee and moved
quietly in her direction. She was sleeping on a pile of furs in the far corner.
I knelt down beside her and brushed her hair away from her face. As far as I
could tell, she hadn’t been harmed - not physically at least. There were no
visible bumps or bruises, but there was a spell making her sleep.
I tried to wake her, but none
of my spells worked. Then I remembered the spell Sergio placed on Renee’s back.
It was tied to her will. What if this spell was also tied to her will and for
some reason she didn’t want to wake up?
I slipped into her mind and
found her sitting on a sofa with me. We were cuddling close under a blanket
while we watched
Pulp Fiction
. She looked so happy and content, leaning
against me while I combed my fingers through her hair. The thought of
disturbing her was so repugnant that I almost lost track of why I was there.
Shaking my head, I rushed
over and blocked her view of the TV. “This isn’t real Renee.”
Her head came up and she
blinked her eyes a few times. “Of course it’s not,” she replied sleepily. “But
as long as I stay here I can be with you.”
“That is not me,” I told her,
thrusting my arm out towards the Solomon on the couch. “That is a figment of
your imagination. If you want to be with me, then you’ll have to wake up.”
“I watched you die Solomon.”
Tears slid down her cheeks and her eyes glazed over while she relived the
memory.
I fell to my knees in front
of her, grabbed her arms, and shook her until her eyes cleared. “That wasn’t
real Renee. Whatever they showed you it was a lie. I’m still alive and I want
you to wake up and be with me.” She started to shake her head, but I gave her
another hard shake and shouted, “Feel me! Feel the truth Renee! I will never
leave you, not even for death!”