Nephilius - A Walker Saga Book 5 (27 page)

“
Short
story, I’m a half-Walker –” Their
sharp
intakes of breath cut me off for a moment. “And I have only
recently enlightened.”

“
Impossible
,” Lasandra
breathed.

“
Oh
, I assure you, I’m very
possible.” I pushed back some free strands of hair that were
annoying me. “There’s been a bit of a battle going on while you
were stuck down here. Que was part of a few crazies involved in the
release of the Seventine. I’ve been trying to clean up his mess.
Four of the Seventine are free and roaming around.” And tormenting
me. “And right now we’re on damage control before all of them are
free.”

They gasped over and over, in repeated,
breathless motions. Caty actually started to cough and choke on her
shock.

Crap, we didn’t have time for them to fall
apart. I needed focus.

“
Show me
this grounding thing.” I gentled my tone
.
I wasn’t completely unsympathetic. I knew it was a lot to take in.
Although they couldn’t really be shocked by Que’s
involvement.

Lasandra
pulled herself together first, reaching out a hand to place on her
daughter
’s shoulder. This seemed to calm
Caty, who I remembered Brace had said had been very protected and
spoiled. She was more delicate than her mother. I could see that
straight away. I supposed any mate of a princeps – especially Que –
would be an expert at handling crazy situations.

Lasandra and
Caty moved to stand on either side of me
.
They reached out and clasped each of my hands.

“
Okay
, start drawing the energy
into yourself again. Open your mind to us, and we will siphon it
off and ground it down into the earth we stand on.”

Sound
ed simple enough.

“Alright, here I go.”

I threw out
the tether again and the warm, intoxicating power flooded through
me. Sometimes I felt like a god when this happened. A reality check
was often required. Thankfully I
generally had Lucy and her blunt mouth around. This time as
I started to feel the overload it dissipated. I realized that there
was a slight sucking sensation flowing from my hands. Like last
time, the stones started to flicker out one by one. And they
continued on more and more. We moved past the halfway point and
there was no stopping us now.

I wondered
if maybe the half-Walkers and I should be practicing something like
this. Not grounding the energy so much, but more me absorbing large
bodies of power and seeing if the girls could take the excess into
themselves. Spreading it around so I had extra to use against our
enemies. And were there any stones, like these purple ones, where
we could store additional energy for the final
battle
?

All important things to know before we faced
the Seventine.

Finally
, we were almost done.
There were three stones left. As they flickered out, I felt the
exhaustion in my limbs. I wasn’t sure how long we’d been standing
there, but I would guess a very long time. And then finally the
last stone gave a final flicker and its light died. Lasandra and
Caty took that remaining sliver of energy and dispelled it down
into whatever it was that we stood on. The world of Nephilius, I
think.

And then
with a rumble, everything around us began to shake. The three of us
cried out and tightened
our grip on each
other’s hands. Was the cage part of the foundation of this world
and now Utopia was falling apart? We huddled together, helping to
balance each other.

“
Something
is happening
,” Caty cried.

In that
moment a shock of adrenalin, followed by a flash of realization,
flooded
through me.

And I woke up.

I was no longer in Utopia. My surroundings
were dark, except for some beams of what looked like moonstale.

I was flat
on my back, laid out on a smooth but freezing cold
surface
. It felt like metal. My eyelids
blinked rapidly as I tried to clear the black dots that were
plaguing my vision. As I attempted to sit up, I realized I couldn’t
move my body. What the hell was going on? I could wiggle my fingers
and toes. This action released a flood of tingles from the iciness
that must have seeped into my numb limbs. Twisting my hands side to
side, I felt the chafing burn of restraints on my wrist. What the
eff? I was tied down. I bit back my panic, claustrophobia clawing
at my insides as I controlled my breathing.

In. Out. In. Out.

I concentrated on that simple action. And
eventually I calmed.

I cleared my
throat, preparing to scream out, but at the last minute I
hesitated. Maybe I shouldn’t tip my hand yet
. I wasn’t exactly in a position to fight back, and more
than likely the only ones to come running would be the bad guys.
Instead I closed my eyes and mentally reached for my energy. But I
was pretty much depleted, as if I’d been drained to the point of
running on wisps.

This was so not good. Had that happened in
the Utopia world? Or had I been in this room the entire time?

Pushing past
my empty energy
, I searched for my golden
cord. If I connected with the girls, they might be able to help me.
Thankfully it was still there, a little frail looking, but
workable. I sent it out to the half-Walkers and almost immediately
their essences filtered into my empty well.

Why did you cut the tethering earlier?
Fury screeched at me.
The image you sent me didn’t work. I tried to trace to you,
and Brace tried a doorway, and neither sent us anywhere.

I groaned as
her shrill tone echoed around my mind.
It was because the Utopian world was either protected
by energy or … not real at all.
I cut her
off. I needed to explain what had happened before I was interrupted
again.
Or it was an illusion
or something. I’m tied down in a dark room. I can only see a bit of
filtered light above my head, and there’s a cold table under my
body.
I was bloody freezing my butt off,
literally.

How are we going to find you, Abbs?
Talina sent warmth toward me. Could she feel this icy cold
deep inside me?

I had no
idea how they were going to find me
.
There were no real images to send them. Everything was too dark and
hazy for me to know where I was.

Bring us to you.
Ria’s calm
washed through me.
You’re
connected to us; we can all trace. I’ve been thinking about how we
should grow our powers. I believe there has to be a way that you
can trace us to where you are.

Ria had a
very logical mind
. She seemed to process
all information and continue to work it over until she’d exhausted
every scenario. And what she said made sense. But right then I was
struggling to find energy. My only hope was to borrow the other
girls’ energy.

I’m going to try and bring you here, but
I’ll need some of your energy. I’m fully drained.

Take what you need.
Ria spoke for
them all.

I started
out slowly, sucking as much as I could without severing the ties.
My center started to fill and there was so much more power than the
last time I’d done this. It was amazing how much one more
half-Walker added to our power
; it
increased tenfold.

Okay, hold on
. I’m
going to try and yank all of the cords to me.

In my head
the cords looked like a single rope that split off four ways
further down the line. Each of these four ropes connected me to my
friends. With a deep breath I grasped a hold of the main rope and
yanked with all of my mental strength. But as always the cords just
stretched
. They were malleable, and they
did not shift the girls at all.

I don’t know how to do it.
I
groaned as weariness pressed on me, forcing my eyes shut as sleep
started to claim me. I wrenched my wrists against my restraints,
the pain helping to keep me awake. Why was I already feeling
depleted? It was as if I couldn’t keep any energy inside, even when
I was siphoning it off the girls.

Don’t pull the cord, just move us
,
Ria said.

I wasn’t
sure exactly what she meant, but again there was hazy darkness
closing in on the sides of my brain. I was about to pass out again.
This was my last chance. I sucked down their energy
again
, and then instead of grabbing the
cord I used my borrowed power to attach to the girls. Closing my
eyes, I sucked in a deep breath before expending every bit of
strength inside me to bring them to my location.

This
exertion allowed the darkness to claim me and I lost a few moments
of time before I could open my eyes again. As consciousness
returned I realized I was alone in my head
; the girls were gone. With a muffled cry, I wanted to
smash my head back to the table I was on. It hadn’t
worked.

“Hang tight, Supes, we’ll get you out of
here.”

In
unison
, understanding and excitement
flooded me. I flicked my head to the side and almost cried as
familiar masses of white hair came into view.

“Fury.” My voice rasped over the word and a
few tears did prick my eyes. I wasn’t alone.

“
Yep, you
did it,” she said
, flashing her white
teeth. “You brought me, Talli, Ria …” She flicked her head before
leaning closer to my ear. “And let’s not forget tall, dark and
stick-up-her-ass.”

My lips turned up in the corners.

“Didn’t I say something similar about you
when we first met?” My low husky laugh was pretty rough. I needed
to clear my throat.

Fury didn’t
miss a beat. “My attitude was cute, unlike
Delane’s
, which is annoying.”

I didn’t
remember her attitude being cute at all. Fury turned her head away
from me then
. I heard murmurs as she
started speaking to someone.

“
Trace back
and bring everyone here,” she finally said
, before turning back to me.

I struggled
with my bound hands again
. My old
claustrophobia fears were still beating at me. I needed to get free
soon or I’d freak out again.

Fury
fumbl
ed with my hands. And I felt someone
else at my other side. Flipping my head over, I locked eyes with
Talina.

“Talli.” I smiled at my friend. She laid a
gentle hand on my forehead, some of her calm diverting the panicked
thoughts I was having.

“
I can’t
unlock them, Abbs
. It’s some type of
energy bracelet. I think they’re what’s draining you.” Strands of
her emerald hair draped over me, which was strangely soothing
also.

“Shit, we need to get them off her before
she’s drained dry.” Fury’s cursing drew my attention again.

“
Are there
others in the room with me?” I asked. Were Brace’s family
there? Had they really been in
Utopia?

“
There
’re a lot of Angelica and
Walkers in here.” Another voice, this time Delane. I couldn’t see
her, only hear the words as she continued. “Well, I assume the
others are Walkers. Their marks are on display.”

Her voice
seemed to open my eyes to the fact that Talina and Fury
wore their marks; I hadn’t noticed in my
disorientated state. I took a moment to wonder what clan Delane was
from. There were three options: Kaos, Gai or Laos.

Then her
face appeared over me, short black hair framing exotic features,
and
across her left side bright yellow
bursts of light. Golden sunbeams. Laos with Tatiana as her
princeps. I didn’t know Delane very well, but I thought she’d like
being in the clan with the only female princeps. I studied her
closely.

T
he Laos marks were different to
the others. The beams covered so much more of the left side of her
face, seeming to burst from her nose outwards. I’d always thought
they were really interesting marks. They seemed to send warm
feelings through me whenever I saw them. And right then I could use
extra warmth.

Delane
stayed above me while I listened to the mutter and curses as the
girls tried to break the bonds
. I was too
weary to even turn my head and see what they were doing. So much
for the big, bad conduit. Right then I was pretty much
useless.

Wait, had
Fury said something about Brace coming here
?

“
You need to
get rid of the moonstale
,” I said, my
words sounding slurred.

Fury and Talina stopped what they were doing
and appeared above me again.

Fury spoke
first, and like a great friend didn’t ask me why. “They have the
stones placed around the perimeter
. We’ll
move them away.”

“
Be right
back, Abbs.” Talina brushed my hair away and was also gone.
Delane must have followed her.