Portal (Nina Decker) (5 page)

Chapter 5

For a long time I fell through the bright yellow light, my stomach doing flip flops. Then my descent slowed and became gentle. Soon I was no longer falling, I was floating like a leaf suspended in the air. All around me, I could see was bright yellow light. Then I looked down and saw the ground beneath me. I was a ways up but descending. At first the ground was just a dark mass. As I got closer I saw it was the canopy of an immense forest. I braced as I passed through the branches but none of them hit me. I floated safely down to the forest floor.

I landed without a sound on the hard ground. There were trees around me. I wondered for a moment if this really was Nightfall or if the portal had simply dumped me outside the Vancouver city limits. But then I looked closer at the trees and I knew this couldn’t possibly be British Columbia. It couldn’t be any spot on Earth.

I was no stranger to woods. Vancouver may be a big city but fifteen minutes away and you’re in serious danger of being eaten by a grizzly. I’d been on nature walks since kindergarten. And I’d sat through a dozen school lectures about Our Friends the Trees. Because of all that, I knew I wasn’t in any normal forest.

It was darker and more alien than any woods I’d ever seen. It was the trees themselves that were the strange part. Their trunks were straight and tall, not twisted and malformed like I half expected. They were wide but no wider than the mighty redwoods I’d seen before. But these giant trees were closer together than they had any right to be.  Back home the old large trees were imposing but spread out from each other. That’s because they had equally large root systems. But here the massive, dark trunks were packed together. They should have been strangling each other but there was no evidence of that. On Earth, even in the thickest forest it was still the open sense. You were outdoors. Here it was the opposite. The forest was claustrophobic like the trees had closed ranks to intimidate intruders. And perhaps that’s exactly what they had done.

The canopy above me was thick but I glimpsed a dark blue night sky above me. I saw no stars or moon but there was bright silvery light everywhere. By that illumination I made out my surroundings.  The trees were so close together it was more like a being in a maze. I was on a narrow dirt path that snaked this way and that between the enormous trunks. Ivy and brambles grabbed at my ankles as I moved around. The air had a loamy and earthy odor like freshly tilled soil. The scent made me think of a newly dug grave.

I didn’t see Severin about and suddenly regretted handing him my only weapon. I didn’t know if it was safe to call out with no idea where he was but I pressed on through twisting path on my own.

That’s when I began to feel it.

It was like being back in my garden where I felt connected.  Despite the darkness and the giant tree looming that same sensation washed over me. A familiarity, a calmness. This was a feeling of true belonging. I felt a connection to this place deeper than anything I had ever known. With every step it was like I knew the soul of this land more and more. And it knew me. This was a living land and a living forest. It had a soul I could almost see with my own eyes.  That’s when the path began to widen and became more open. I could breathe better. I sensed this wasn’t an accident. The trees had decided I was not a threat and they were letting me pass.  I wanted to say thank you because I knew the trees would hear me. At the same time I thought they didn’t want to be disturbed. They were old and cranky, these trees and all they wanted was to be left alone in peace.

The canopy above parted. The night sky was still starless and moonless. This forest should have been pitch black yet there was plenty of silver light. I looked around for the source.

“Nina!” Severin shouted as he came stumbling from the path. “It was like a maze back there. Fortunately I had you to guide me.”

“I guided you? How did I did I do that?” I wondered if he had followed my scent like a wolf.

“You don’t know? Have a look.”

There was a small pool next to some rocks. I gazed down into it.

The light wasn’t coming from the moon or the stars. It was coming from me. My skin was beyond porcelain now. It was literally luminescent with a silver glow.  My hair was blacker than pitch and my eyes were a blue so bright they glowed. My wings stuck out of the back of my shirt. They were delicate as crystal and shone with their own radiance.  Purple and gold played upon their gossamer surface. They were so beautiful I wanted to cry. I remembered how weeks ago I had fought them, tried to keep them buried inside my flesh. I’d been so afraid of them and what they represented. Now I just wanted to stare at them.

I tried moving them. They fluttered at a thought. I ran my fingers along their sides. Tingles rushed over my back. I beat them some more, thinking of the insects and humming birds that buzzed around my garden. I had a sudden desire to be like them; to float among the trees and flowers freely.  I beat my wings harder and harder, but I stayed rooted to the ground. All I managed to do was create a breeze. 

“What are you doing?” Severin asked.

“Trying to fly,” I said sheepishly. I had the wings, why couldn’t I fly?

Severin laughed. I noticed he had changed as well.

His hair was shaggier. There was more of it on his arms.  His fangs were now prominent and his hands ended in claws. But when they stroked my chin they were still somehow soft and warm.

“You are radiant.”

Heat filled my belly.  Although I was pretty sure this was the wrong time and place, I wanted to have sex.  It was almost painful the way my thighs clenched.  But he knew as well as I that we weren’t safe in these woods.  Eventually someone would come for us.

I stretched on my toes and kissed him.  It wasn’t the long, deep kiss I desired, but it would have to do for now until we were safe.

We got back on the path, determined to do what we came to do.

“Do you know where we’re going?” I asked.

“I think Nightfall Palace is the place to start,” Severin said. “All of your answers are in there somewhere. There are just two problems, getting in and getting out.”

“Oh is that all.”

We walked a little further. Now that I had time to digest my new surroundings there were some questions that wouldn’t go away.

“I never expected you would be friends with Stettler,” I said.

Severin didn’t answer right away.  “The man’s hardly a friend. He’s been a thorn in my side for a long, long time.”

“Yet you trust him,” I said. “Enough to give him an important assignment. Enough to take over the pack while you’re gone.”

The thought of Stettler in charge of the pack made me uneasy. I had seen the pack, or a large part of it at their private retreat in the woods, the big house Stettler now had the run of. It was a large and powerful group.

But Severin said, “It’s precisely because I don’t trust him that I sent him undercover.”

“That makes sense.” The sarcasm dripped from my voice.

Severin said, “Think about it this way, infiltrating SEMA was the most difficult and dangerous mission I could give to any of my Pack members.”

I nearly stopped in my tracks. “You were hoping he’d get killed?”

Severin went on. “More like there would be an upside in case of failure. No, I wanted him to succeed. I needed him to. Regular mortals fear us greatly. They created SEMA for their protection. But the organization could easily become a weapon against all werewolves. By placing Stettler inside not only did it give me insight to SEMA and what it knows but it also neutralized a potential threat to my leadership. See this job is so dangerous that he answers to me and me alone. It’s hard enough for the two of us to get together. It takes considerable work on my part to make it happen. He can forget about trying to meet with any of the other pack members behind my back.”

Suddenly it made a lot of sense. 

“I see. It sidelines him. It’s pretty brilliant. But what about leaving him in charge?”

“It’s the same idea. SEMA still thinks he’s one of them. Remember what he said.  They think he’s taking two weeks leave to go hiking up in the mountains. If they find out he’s still in Vancouver it’ll be very difficult for him. If they discover he’s at the Pack’s house, it will be a bloody disaster. If Stettler wants to stay alive he can’t set foot out of the Pack’s compound.  The other pack members will keep their distance because he’s red hot. So all Stettler will be able to do while I’m gone is sit in the compound and make phone calls. It’s the next best thing to having him under house arrest.”

I remembered the stern warning Severin had given Stettler before we left. SEMA was an arm of the police department, but it was manned by people like Officer Coates who thought werewolves ought to be hunted down and exterminated. Coates wouldn’t hesitate to go gunning for Stettler if he knew the truth and he’d have plenty of help.

“So it’s sort of like the old mafia saying, keep your friends close and your enemies closer,” I said.

As I said that I felt a sudden chill.
That’s how he deals with his enemies. But then how close am I to Severin?

I tried to dismiss those thoughts.  Severin and I had been through a lot. He was risking his life to help me find my father. I had to trust him. I had to.

Severin suddenly stopped in his tracks and sniffed the air.

I didn’t have to ask what it was.

Severin growled, “Trouble.”

Chapter 6

Severin and I got off the trail and sought some kind of shelter. The forest path was now as wide as a city street. I silently wished the woods would close in again making it easier to hide. We ducked behind a moss covered boulder. I heard the loud beat of horses’ hooves approaching.

“Nina, hide your glow,” Severin said.

My skin was still throwing off silvery light. It would make hiding a problem to say the least.

“How?” I asked. I had never had to worry about light radiating off my body before.

Severin’s voice stayed calm and level. “Just think about it. The power is within you. It responds to your thoughts and desires.”

I took a few deep breaths and thought about darkness, deep enveloping darkness. The light immediately faded.  It was like my body was on a dimmer switch all of a sudden and I turned the knob.

The sound of horses grew louder. I bit my lip as pebbles and small rocks on the path vibrated and jumped. I kept thinking about my glow. I pictured a starless night. The light around us faded and the woods around us plunged into total darkness. The blackness covered Severin and I like a comforting blanket.

As the horse hooves came closer, a bit of a ghostly orange light pushed aside the new dark.  The light came from small lanterns and it reflected off the armor or the riders as they rode into view. There were at least twenty of them and they all rode huge beastly horses with black hides and red eyes. There was a uniformity to these animals that was unnatural. No two horses, even those from the same sire looked exactly alike yet all twenty of these mounts were identical from what I could see. That unnerved me more than the riders themselves, although they were not a comforting sight either.

Their armor was like nothing I’d ever seen or had read about. It was form fitting and inlaid with wild flame-like designs. The helmets had metallic spikes shaped like tongues of fire around the crowns. A large grill covered the face of each rider. Nothing like this had been produced in the Middle Ages or even the Renaissance.  It was more like something a Hollywood costume department would churn out. Even at this distance I could tell it wasn’t made of iron. That meant the riders were fae. 

There was another strange detail. The breast plates were so form fitting it was obvious that half these riders were women, including their leader. They all carried long spears with silver points. Four of them held the lanterns that gave off the orange light. Their leader rode slowly down the center of the wide path while the rest of the company split into two groups, each checking a side.

The boulder Severin and I crouched behind seemed like poor cover but their lanterns gave off very weak light. I thought, hoped really, they would pass us by if we stayed quiet and still. Severin’s hand found mine and gave it a comforting squeeze. But then I jerked my head up.

“Severin!” The leader shouted. Her voice was sweet but tinged with steel.  “We know you’re out here wolf. Come out now.”

I swallowed hard.
How did she know his name?

The leader went on. “Did you seriously believe that you of all people could come back to Nightfall and we wouldn’t know? Didn’t you learn anything from the last time?”

Last time?
I thought. What did she mean?  Then I realized Severin had been here before.
Why didn’t he tell me before we went through the portal?

“Come out and you won’t be harmed,” the leader promised before adding, “much.”

My heart thudded as the riders approached the boulder.

The leader said, “If you continue to play this game I can’t guarantee anything.”

I tried to calm down but all of these new questions played in my head.  When had Severin been to Nightfall? Why didn’t he tell me? Was he truly here just to help me? Or did he have ulterior motives?

I wanted to see his face to gauge his reactions, but he was covered by shadows. My eyes strained and I saw his features become clear. He looked tense and kept his eyes focused on the path. Then he stared at me, his eyes widening by the second.