Portal (Nina Decker) (3 page)

Thankfully neither one had to happen, as we were sprung from quarantine an hour later.  We were told that we hadn’t been infected with whatever pathogen had gotten to Ralph.  I could’ve told them that but I was pretty sure no one was going to believe that he’d been cursed by an ancient race of immortals called the fae.

Surprising me again, Severin met me outside the hospital.  He opened the door to his Porsche convertible for me.  I slid in, touched that he thought to have the top already down for me.  Once he was in, and pulled away from the curb, I asked, “Were you able to find where they sent Ralph Donnelly?”

“I did one better.”

What that meant, I found out when he parked outside a rundown warehouse in a not so nice neighbourhood.  “What are we doing here? What is this place?”

“It’s a building the pack owns.”

“For what?”  I got out of the car.

“For pack business.”

I followed him into the warehouse.  It was dark inside save for some lights at the far end.  That’s where he led me.  As we neared, I could make out a few things.  Some spotlights set up in a circle, some chairs with a few of Severin’s pack sitting in them, and in the center of it all, was a metal cage.  Inside the cage, sitting on a cot, rocking back and forth, mumbling under his breath was Ralph Donnelly.

Shocked, I glared at Severin. “What did you do?”

“You wanted to know about Ralph Donnelly, well here you go.”

“I wanted to know where they moved him, not for you to kidnap him.”

“Semantics, my love.”

“Jesus, Severin.”  I approached the cage and demanded, “Open the door.”

One of his lackeys jumped up and unlocked it for me.  I went in and cautiously approached Ralph.  As I neared, I could see that the vine had gotten longer, leafy, and others had joined it.  Other changes had occurred as well.  His skin no longer appeared humanly pink, it was gray and in some areas a dark brown.  The texture of his skin had also changed.  It wasn’t smooth any longer; it looked rough, like, I hated to say it, bark.

If I didn’t know any better, and I did, I’d say Ralph Donnelly was turning into a tree.  I didn’t know how that was possible, but it was happening right here in front of me.   It was impossible to deny the evidence.

My fae ancestors were more powerful than I had ever imagined them to be.

“Do you think it’s a message to me?” I asked Severin who had joined me inside the cage.  “Because I don’t think it was a coincidence that he came into my hospital.”

“Neither do I.  The fae don’t do anything without reason.”

I wanted to say, “Neither do werewolves,” but I refrained.  Now, was not the time for a conversation about the politics of either side.

When I stepped into Ralph’s frame of vision, his head snapped up and he looked directly at me.  I flinched, taking a step backwards.  His gaze was so intense it sent a chill of fear through me.

“Can you see me Ralph?”

“Yes.  I see you, Nina Decker.”  His voice was soft, whimsical almost, as if it came from somewhere else.

“Do you know what’s happening to you?”

“Yes.”

“Did someone do this to you?”

“I am a gift for you.”

I blanched at that.  My stomach roiled in disgust.  I glanced at Severin to see if he shared my horror of what the man had just said.  He didn’t.  He wasn’t even looking at me.  But at Ralph with avid interest. As if the man was a grand experiment and he the brilliant scientist.  It made my stomach knot even more to see that look there.

“From who?” I asked Ralph.

“A friend in Nightfall.”

“That’s rich,” I laughed.  “Friends in Nightfall.  I have only enemies there.”

“Maybe he means your mother,” Severin suggested.

“Not likely.  She doesn’t want me to find my father. She’d be the last person who would help me.”

I looked into Ralph’s milky white eyes.  “Give me a name.”

“A friend, that is all you need to know.”

“Fine.  How are you a gift?  Do you have information for me?  A way to help my father?”

“Yes.  A way.  I am the way.”

I smirked, hating these word games.  “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

But instead of answering, Ralph bolted to his feet, lifted his arms into the air, and opened his mouth.  “I am the way!  I am the way!  I am the way!”

Then with his eyes bugging out, I watched in abject horror as the final touches of his transformation took place.

His skin hardened to nearly stone.  His legs fused together, and his arms stiffened, bent like aging tree branches.  His face and head were swallowed up by what looked like living, breathing foliage.  His feet, now roots, broke through the concrete floor and fixed into the earth. It all took maybe five minutes.  And in the end, Ralph Donnelly turned into a tree.

“Jesus Christ.”  One of Severin’s lackeys’s murmured.  While the other turned, ran to a corner and vomited.

I had to fight the urge to retch.  It was hard to look upon the grotesque transformation but I figured I owed it to the man to do just that.  I reached out to touch him but stopped just inches away.  I knew my hesitation came from guilt.  Guilt that I had somehow done thing to him. That I had tortured and killed him. Because that was exactly what had transpired.

Obviously, Severin didn’t share my guilt as he eagerly ran his hands over the grayish trunk of the tree that had been a man named Ralph Donnelly.  “Amazing,” he murmured as he circled the tree.

“Amazing? What the fuck Severin?  A man just solidified and turned into a tree right in front of us.”

“I realize that Nina, I’m not blind.”

“How can you seem so…so pleased?”

“I’m not full of pleasure, love.  I’m full of awe.  This kind of power astounds me. I knew the fae to possess powerful ruthless magic but this…this is on a whole new level.” Then he laughed and it made me want to rip his face off.  He turned and looked at me.  “I wonder if you could do something like this.  If you possessed the right magic.”

That took me back.  “Jesus, why would I even want to? This is sick and twisted.”

“Sick and twisted it may be, but it did give us our portal.”

“What?  I don’t think I heard you right?”

“Our portal.”  He tapped the tree.

I stared at him, certain he was putting me on.

“He said he was the way.”

“That doesn’t mean…”

“Nina, you know the fae don’t do anything without reason.  Friend or foe didn’t send this man to you for nothing.”

I turned away from him and paced the room.  I didn’t want to accept that he was right.  The thought of it made my gut roil again.  “This isn’t right.  You shouldn’t have taken him out of the hospital.”

“No one could’ve helped him.  You know that.”  He came to me and stroked my arm.  “He would’ve turned into a tree in the hospital and we wouldn’t have access to him. He’d forever be a science experiment with people dissecting him and examining his parts.  Here, at least, he can serve a purpose.”

“I didn’t realize you were so cold.”

He dropped his hand and moved away.  “I’m sorry you think of me that way.”

Sighing, I rubbed a hand over my face.  I was tired, hungry and still in a state of shock ta what I’d just witnessed.  I hadn’t meant to take it out on Severin.  The urge to strike just consumed me.  It was either that or implode.

“I’m sorry.  I’m just…”

He gave me a small smile, then grabbed my arm and pulled me to him.  He opened his arms and enveloped me.  I sighed into his chest, grateful for the solid weight of him.  For his strength.  He kissed me on the top of the head.  “You don’t need to apologize, love.”

I hugged him tighter, drawing him into me, inhaling his now familiar smell.  He had a way of making me clam. This was likely one of the many reasons he was alpha of his pack.  Although I wasn’t a werewolf, I wasn’t human either. So, maybe somewhere don our long line of ancestors we converged into one being.  Which was why his beast could calm whatever humanity lay deep inside me.

After one final squeeze, I pulled back and turned to look at the Ralph Donnelly tree.  My stomach still churned at the thought of what he had to do next.  “So, how do we get in there?  Saw or ax?”

Chapter 3

Six hours later, Severin and I were ready to go through the portal to Nightfall.  Leaving a few of his pack members to stand guard, Severn had dropped me off at home so I could prepare, while he’d gone off to do the same thing.  When he’d returned I was prepared to go into the depths of hell to get my father back.  I’d dressed for combat, with olive green cargo pants, black t-shirt and big black boots.  I looked like an army brat. Severin was clothed equally as threatening.  But he also brought some accessories.

I gawked at the long bow draped over his shoulder. “Who are you? Robin Hood?”

“We need a weapon, and since we can’t bring any iron through, I thought this would do us.”

I ran my fingers over the polished wood. “It looks old.”

“It’s about five hundred years old,” he said with that sly glint in his eyes.

“It’s lovely.” I saw that it was a true English longbow made from sturdy yew.  It had the tell-tale blend of blonde and dark wood.  “It’s in perfect condition. Where did you get this, off the Mary Rose?”

“You seem to know your ancient weapons.”

“That’s what years of research on the fae will do. I hung out with Wiccans and LARPers. Everyone thought it was my geek phase but I approached this as serious study. I learned a little bit here and found a dead end there. I decided the best source of information came from people who were into real medieval history and folklore. Recreationists, Ren Faire enthusiasts and such. By the time I graduated from high school I could list all the mistakes in Braveheart. ”

“You didn’t keep it up?” Severin asked.

“By my sophomore year in college my father got worse. I decided to concentrate on medicine. By junior year I switched to nursing. That way my dad would always have a caregiver. One who wouldn’t ask uncomfortable questions.”

“I wouldn’t have expected anything less from you,” Severin said. Then he held the bow in front of me and I marveled at it.

A dozen of details flooded my mind. I’d always been a great student. What I studied stayed in my brain. I ran my fingers along the stave. The yew was the preferred wood of bow makers. One side was light blonde the other darker, one type of wood was flexible the other provided strength. This was the weapon that dominated the battlefield during the Hundred Years Wars.  It was so successful the English kept using them right through the Elizabethan Age. When Henry the Eighth’s flagship the Mary Rose sank it carried hundreds of these bows. When the wreck was rediscovered they found the bows were still perfectly preserved because the water at that depth was nearly free of oxygen.

I shook my head at how much of that had come flooding back to me with one touch.

Severin drew back the bow string. His chest and shoulder muscles flexed and I felt a warm surge between my thighs.  Jesus, I was a geek.

“You’re right,” he said. “This did come off the Mary Rose. That ship carried hundreds of longbows bu
t few of them were this special.”
             
“Special?”

“The yew tree this bow was made from was marked by the fae. So it was more than an ordinary tree. And this is more than an ordinary bow.”

He tossed it to me.

“You try it.”

I had drawn a bow before. My first two
years in college I had to take a sport so I decided on archery. I was even pretty good. But if this was a true Tudor longbow it had a draw weight of a hundred and fifty pounds which meant it took a hundred and fifty pounds of pressure to bring it to a full draw. Fortunately you didn’t draw a bow with only your arms. Proper technique used the back, shoulders, almost the entire upper body.  It was more like a bench press.  Still that meant I would be bench pressing a hundred and fifty pounds.

“I work out a lot. But not that much,” I explained.

Severing just smiled.  “Try it.”

I shrugged and pulled back on the string.

It was just like trying to press a Nautilus machine set to one fifty. My form was a little off but even after I made my adjustments it was still hard.  I pulled with my shoulders, back and arms but it still wasn’t enough. I grunted and strained. Sweat beaded on my brow. The string cut into my fingers. Finally I let it drop.

“It’s too hard,” I said.

Severin calmly picked it off the ground and handed it back to me. “You’re pulling with the wrong muscles.” He reached out and with the tips of his first three fingers to touch the center of my stomach. “Use what’s in here.”

I felt another burst of warmth from inside me. But this was only half desire. The other half was my fae body awakening. I felt uncomfortable. This was a part of myself I’d always kept under wraps. I had spent my life avoiding my faerie half. I didn’t want to be labeled as a freak. I didn’t want to be carted away from my father and thrown into some government laboratory. And I didn’t want to admit that my mother was some dark fae princess.