The Lebrus Stone (45 page)

Zeron was trying to make him react. He must have known that, but it didn't stop him from changing.

"She is, after all, quite enchanting for such a tainted breed," Zeron said, turning to Cray, who was standing too still. Cray's eyes no longer had any depth of a soul to show he was once human. They were hooded and layered with hard bumpy skin that reminded me of scales. His abrasions seeped with a thick, black liquid. And when his mouth roared open, it flaunted long, spiked teeth just like Zeron's. A tongue ten centimeters in length shot out and recoiled back into his salivating mouth.

I didn't want to understand it and why it had to be this way. I was sickened by the way his grotesque features pulsated in time with the gigantic glands of his pulsing neck. His body enlarged and almost ripped through his clothes.

I screamed and struggled in the woman's arms. I didn't want to see what I would never forget.

"I see now what you could not resist," Zeron said. "Why you were tempted to betray your kind for this…rare blend of a species. I must sample such a delicacy."

Cray reached him at lightning speed. A flurry of hands and white flashes of teeth incited one another along the intersect of walls. A hit or swing broke them apart from each collision.

The woman dragged me up the steps, her long talons cutting into my arms. Blood oozed and heated my throat as she threw me into the arms of two large men that cogitated her command. I closed my eyes and swallowed hard, trying to shut out my craving for blood, as well as the groans and smashing all around me.

I opened my eyes once my heart rate lowered and my throat only ached. Through the gap of those standing in front of me, I could see Cray being hoisted against a crumbling wall.

He and Zeron hurtled to the ground, spinning out of control as they bit into each other and gnashed at flesh.

They dismounted and encircled one another with deep, malevolent growls, signaling perhaps an end.

But Cray crouched and somehow leaped to the ceiling. There he crawled and surveyed Zeron as a flickering shadow. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. My craving was definitely leaving me due to another onslaught of shock.

"You are one of us," Zeron roared. "Do not fight us."

"I'll never be one of you," Cray growled back, his voice nothing like how it had been as he darted about the room on all fours. It really wasn't him anymore.

Zeron climbed the opposite wall and maneuvered his way him, muttering something as a substitute to speech. All the while, his mouth frothed with black slaver that dripped to the ground, causing a suffusion of smoke to rise from the burning floor and cloud the room.

I could only hear a scuffle, then the slam of a door and various voices intermingling with a loud, crashing that sounded like a boulder swinging from wall to wall.

"Cray!" I cried, trying to find him through the smoke. I concentrated on a shuffle of feet as they uprooted and flew across the room. Arms connected and swung at an unbelievable speed.

"Cray!"

Something clanked together, just as a roar echoed from the left, vibrating through me like the ripples of an earthquake.

I had a feeling it was Cray. He was hurt.

I tried to get up from the chair, but was met with a sharp slap to my face.

Grappling for the other knife tucked away in the left pocket of my jeans, I pulled it out, slicing at the two men's backs. The guards didn't make a sound, just slumped into a heap as I clomped through the pool of cloaks.

I ran down the steps as the woman drew close, pulling at me with her spidery hands that yanked out strands of my hair.

"Cray, where are you?" I yelled, entering the smoke and the decaying smell that was making me step cautiously into the middle of the room.

I thought I'd found him, but the red dome shattered and shards of glass flew in every direction. I stayed in a crouched.

When I peeked between my arms, I saw flame red hair billowing in the wind. A young man stood overt like a soft focused illusion. Brass colored armor enrobed his shins, stomach and forearms. His nether region was swathed in brown fabric.

The rest of him was naked, almost glowing. He cradled me in his arms and lifted me from the floor before I could fight him.

"No, let me down," I screamed, trying to unlock myself from his ironclad arms.

I held out my hands and tried to weigh him down by kicking. But it just trapped me in his clutch as we rose through the broken gap of the dome; away from Cray.

I hoped Cray would be alive and capable of outliving any threat to his human self. Whatever he was had to be invincible and undeniably strengthened by the final feed to make him a complete Sha'lac.

I remained slumped over the red head's back as he flew over tree tops. He didn't look back or to his side, only straight ahead, without so much as a faint crease of concentration.

Was he a Fallion?
He had to be
.
But I was too tired to care.

Whoever he was, I didn't need his help. I was fine on my own. At least then I would be where I wanted to be: with Cray. We needed each other, and that was all that counted.

The boy shuttled to a cluster of ferns. Their rough bracken scraped at my elbows as we landed in a patch of grass.

He stepped away into an open area of uncut shafts of wheat that looked menial against hankering height. His biceps bulged under bronze armor that was tied to each of his arms and thighs, thighs that were thick with a tense line of muscle that formed with each dignified step.

His attire reminded me of a gladiator or a foot soldier to the Roman Emperor, except not as brazen. The look was softened by the silkiness of his brightly colored hair, waist length and feathery. His skin was softly aglow, like sunlight streaming through sheer pink petals. He slightly lit up the dark forest.

With a wave, he beckoned me to follow him, keeping his face away from me, perhaps as a way not to bring attention to what I recalled was an inhumanly perfect face.

"Who are you?" I demanded, finding my voice.

He didn't reply.

"I have a right to know who you are." I tried to sound confrontational but failed.

He stopped for a second, listening for something in the distance, then continued to walk to the left under a canopy of floating heather seeds.

"Why won't you answer me?"

He nodded to the left, blatantly ignoring my barrage of questions. And no matter how much I tried to get around him, he wouldn't look at me.

He signaled at something. He didn't seem to care how I was feeling.

I forced my feet to keep following him.

"Crystal. My child," a woman cried, throwing herself at me. "Oh, Crystal, don't cry, don't cry. I'm here," wailed the woman, gently rubbing my back. Her voice and the way she held me was soothing.

I broke away to see who she was and why she was making me feel safer than I had in years, why she was easing the pressure of going through so much.

Tears streamed from mocha brown eyes and down full rosy cheeks. Her ardent shrieks of laughter burst out every few seconds between cries to the sky. Her eyes were familiar, her pretty face just as much, but it was older, less smooth for me to recall who she could be.

"Who are you?" I rasped, wiping tears from my cheeks.

She opened her mouth to speak, but the words caught in her throat, causing her to stutter.

"I-I don't understand."

"I…oh, I'm…Crystal, I'm…" she flustered.

"How do you know my name?" I asked impatiently, aware there was someone else watching me with an inquisitive expression: a middle aged man. He was medium built and with light brown-skin. Handsome.

The red head had made himself scarce, leaving the moonlight to replace his ethereal glow.

"I don't know you." I sobbed, wiping my runny nose with my sleeve, feeling tired. I needed to be alone for a while. I turned to leave, but the man called out from behind me. He sounded eager to please me. No matter what the cost. I could tell by the way his voice shook on each syllable. "Crystal, wait. Don't go. We've only just found you."

I turned and saw the man put his arm around the woman. She was crying into a wad of tissues.

"Why?" I asked,  too curious to leave just yet.

"Because we're your parents," he said, happy to say it.

"My parents died a long time ago." I scowled. "Is this some kind of sick joke?"

"We didn't die," he said. "We made Gundulla think we had so we could appear in your life when you were the age she needed. We could only try and keep you from getting pregnant. We couldn't run away with you until we figured out how to get the stone. She would only have found us with it if we fled with you. You probably wouldn't have believed us anyway."

They were serious. They even waited for me to react, perhaps weep and fall into their arms.

"You're right, I don't believe you." I stomped away, wanting to find somewhere to lie down, think, devise a plan. I had to hurry back to Cray.

"I'm sorry we stayed away," the woman said. "I'm sorry we had to leave you in care and let you deal with what happened with that…sick, sick boy. But it was the only way."

I could hear her cry louder. I hadn't gotten very far. Truthfully, I took small steps to keep hearing what they had to say.

Even if it was a lie, the thought of them being my parents soothed a dull ache. It made me feel like I could stand to take more from Gundulla.

"We're here to take you away," the woman said when I walked back to her without even realizing. "Oh, my baby, how beautiful you are." She touched my face. I flinched. She did have my mother's eyes, but she didn't resemble me like the woman in all the photos. Could Gundulla have manipulated those, too? Whatever this meant, this wasn't what I had expected this heartfelt closeness from two strangers. No matter who they were, I wasn't ready for this.

"I don't even know you, plus you're supposed to be dead."

"You have to let us explain," the man replied with a calm assertiveness, consoling the woman who had collapsed into his arms.

"You do know who we are," he added, trying not to look me in the eye.

"I do?"

The woman howled into his chest, breaking down. It made me want to re-evaluate whether I should keep questioning them.

The man took a moment to calm her with a shower of kisses. It was obvious they were husband and wife and clearly loved one another. I just didn't understand what my part was to play in such a poignant picture.

"I need to know who you are," I insisted.

"Alright." He sighed, "You've known us as Syd and Milton."

He still wouldn't look at me.

"That can't be right." I frowned.

"It's true." He kept his gaze on the bark of a tree.

"But you look nothing like them." My chest felt wound with rope.

"We were disguised."

"How could you change height, voice, mannerisms?"

"Easily with help from a Fallion. The one who brought you here has been working alongside us to stop Gundulla."

I couldn't speak; out of everything I'd experienced, this definitely had to be the craziest. Just when I thought I'd pretty much seen everything.

"Let's sit you down." The man grabbed my arm.

"No, let go," I spluttered, losing my balance.

"Please, sweetheart," the woman said.

"Ha…I…jus…" I fell against a tree.

"Understandably, it must be a shock," the man added. "We were supposed to wait. Tell you in slower detail."

"You're still serious?" I sputtered.

"Well —"

He was interrupted by clanking and a rustle of trees. Wisps of red hair emerged from the greenery. Plants and shrubs bloomed beneath twined feet as the tall figure stepped forward and stood five yards from where we were sitting. "Everything they have told you is true," he said.

"I don't believe any of you. And who are you?" I asked the red head, unable to stop admiring the fine armor on such an intricate body.

"We must leave," he replied in a now very monotonous tone for someone so majestic.

"I'm not leaving," I said, trying to sit up. "I don't know you, any of you." The woman began to cry again; something in me twisted.

"You have no choice," the boy exclaimed, prickled as a thistle.

"Like hell I don't," I said, struggling to a stand.

"Please, Crystal," the man begged. I could detect a sourness to his plea. "You're not safe. You have to come with us. Don't make us have to force you."

"I have to get back to someone. They might…need me." I tried not to look at the woman's anguish as I stepped away.

"He is one of them now," the red headed boy said.

"No, he's isn't," I lashed back, instinctively sure  Cray wasn't going to become as ruthless.

"He is an enemy," the boy said. "And you are to leave with me at your will or I shall have to bind and force you."

There was no longer anything pure about his voice. It was invidious.

I rejected his refusal to let me leave, and stalked away, huffing and puffing my way through the trees.

"Please, Crystal, don't go," the woman called. "We need you." The sureness of her voice made me wonder if I should stop and listen, if only to hear what I wanted.

It wasn't long before I tripped and fell into someone's arms. Fingernails pinched down on my sweaty skin; iciness entered my veins.

"Quench your thirst, did I?" Judith cackled.

I yelped. She stood before me like an ancient relic.

"Why, you inexcusable harlot," she said. "You think you could simply suck the life out of me? I will come to no harm, my pretty little fiend. No harm at all."

She dragged me through the woods with her super strength. I tried to twist around and kick her in the groin, but she kept one of my arms locked behind my back. She shifted us in and out of fallen tree trunks. A strange odor hit my nose and she came to a stop.

"Stay where you are," an odious male voice said. Two of the greenest eyes looked down at me. The rest of him blended into a mixture of red and bronze.

One arm was outstretched in front of him; his hand was flowing with blue smoke. Judith fell back and slipped unconscious against a large rock.

The red headed guy gripped my hand and pulled me up by the waist, sending wave after wave of exhilaration to rise in my chest like an electric pulse. It felt familiar, like I was recalling it from a forgotten dream.

"Who are you?" I mumbled in a daze.

As usual, he didn't answer me. He breezily moved through the forest as he held me against his hip
. I
lifted my head and stroked the glowing formation of his cheek. It tingled and the light soaked into my fingertips, filling me like a cool spray of water that tasted like the sweetest ember in my mouth.

He stopped and let me flail to the ground. He stared at me. His face was just how I recalled at Agermont. Unquestionably beautiful, an artistic real life sketch of someone magical.

Two extra faces appeared as I tried to stand. I brushed away hands trying to imprison me into an embrace.

"Oh, Crystal," the woman cooed.

"Give her some air," the man yelled, pulling her away.

"We must leave now," the red head ordered, and began leading the way.

This time I followed him. Leaving did me no good the last time. Cray was untraceable. Where would I start? Jess? Maybe Jess would know.

"I have to go back to the manor," I announced.

"That is the last place you want to return to," the man said.

The woman nodded. "We're too close to the manor as it is. We need to get you to the cusp."

"Yes," the red head agreed. "The cusp, as you know, has been closed for centuries to humans after Gundulla and her clan turned against us." He came to stand in front of me. It was difficult to tear my gaze away from his magnificence. "It has even been closed to descendants to Fallions such as yourself. Today I had convinced the leaders of Shimmarian to let you through. All three of you. They now see that taking you home rather than having me finish you myself is for the best. Honorable. Druviz Owal called to them so that they could be reminded of our true meaning. To love, not hate. To be brave not fearful."

Druviz Owal? The Fallion god.

"Why do you care about saving me?" I asked him, knowing I was staring with my mouth hanging open. I couldn't help it. I was in awe.

He bowed and took my hand to kiss it. I instinctively blushed.

"The purest never hinder from the purest path, Ny Ok."

"Ny what?"

"It means, My Lady. You are what they would call here on Earth, royalty."

I looked to the man and woman. They smiled excitedly. If they were my parents, it made them royalty, too, didn't it?

"Me? A royal?"

The red head nodded and kissed my hand again. "I am here to serve and protect. Our leaders wish you to accept their apologies for turning their backs on you."

I didn't know what to say. Even though I should have been as excited by all this. Mystified even, I kept thinking that if we were this close to the manor, it wouldn't take me long to find it, sneak in and find Jess, explain what had happened and why I needed to get back to the Dia'ac. It had to be worth a try.

"Not so fast," said a screechy voice that could only belong to Gundulla. "I'm not finished with you yet."