AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Yssak tapped me on the shoulder. “What do you want me to do?”
I pointed at the door. “Keep everybody out unless someone named Chase Johnson or Iris shows up. And guard Delilah. We’re going over physically. So you’re her only protector over here on the solid side of things.”
Yssak nodded and patted his dagger. Neither Smoky nor Vanzir asked who he was as we readied ourselves for the crossing.
Smoky spread out his arms, and Camille walked into the shelter of his left, while I hesitantly stepped into the umbrella of his right. While I liked Smoky well enough, I sure wasn’t as entranced with him as my sister was.
As I slipped under his outstretched arm—the man was six four and towered over me—the musky scent of dragon hit me full-on. Just one more reminder that he wasn’t human. You could slice and dice and rearrange the pieces, but in the end, the puzzle formed one huge-ass, fire-breathing, hot-blooded, white and silver reptile wannabe.
Smoky glanced down at me, almost as if he knew what I was thinking, and smiled softly. “Let’s go take care of Delilah,” he said.
As I huddled in the crook of his arm, staring across his chest at Camille, who looked right at home, I realized that except for going through the portals and being out of my body during my death, and again during the ritual when I broke my bonds to Dredge, my sire, I’d never really ventured out on the astral consciously. I was trapped in my body, though at times in my dreams it felt like I went wandering all over the world.
Camille slid one hand across Smoky’s stomach to touch my own, which was firmly planted on his side in the least obtrusive place I could think of while still maintaining contact. She laced her fingers through mine, and I gazed into her eyes, grateful that she could read me so well.
“Don’t be nervous—we’re going over in body. You’ll be fine,” she said. “This is nothing compared to riding through the Ionyc Sea. It’s no worse than stepping through a portal.”
“Uh-huh.” I didn’t like relying on anybody else for my transportation, but we had no choice. And if she was right, well . . . I’d been through enough portals to know what to expect.
Smoky’s aura began to hum. Even I could hear it, and I was about as head blind as one of half-Fae blood could get when it came to auras and energy signatures. Demonkin, I could sense, and other undead, and physical manifestations like the scent of fear or arousal or heat. But magic—be it Moon or dragon—was beyond me.
I shivered as the world began to fall away, deconstructing itself everywhere but within the shelter of Smoky’s arms. Camille was wrong. It wasn’t like crossing through a portal. Stepping into a portal was like planting yourself between two magnets that yanked body and soul apart and put them back together again somewhere else in the blink of an eye. In the portals, there was the briefest second of feeling like the world had torn itself apart and you with it. But this was different.
Everything outside the barrier that Smoky had erected was nebulous and insubstantial. The shed and Delilah and Yssak slowly faded out of view into a gray mist that sparkled with silver and white points of light, dew glistening on cloud banks.
And then we faded in somewhere else. The mist was still thick when Smoky opened his arms, and Camille and I stepped out of his shadow. It swirled around our ankles, our knees. Vague shapes in the distance resembled twisted, malformed trees.
“Where the hell are we?” I asked, hesitantly stepping forward. The ground—or whatever was under the mist—felt firm enough, but there was an ethereal feel to the air. I quickly turned, staring at Camille. “Can you breathe? Is there oxygen here for you? I can’t even tell.”
She gave me a slow nod. “Yes, it would seem so. This isn’t . . . like the Ionyc Sea. I’ve been in-body on the astral plenty of times before, especially when I run with the Hunt. But . . . this is different. I don’t know how to explain it. It’s almost as if I don’t need to breathe.”
Smoky cleared his throat. “The astral planes are part of the Ionyc Lands, and all of them work on very different principles than Earth and Otherworld. We’ll be fine as long as we don’t step off into the sea. Or unless we hit a patch of rogue magic. Just keep your eyes open for anything that sparkles in an unusual way—especially containing red or orange swirls, which usually indicate sorcery. A number of the shadow sorcerers come to play here.”
“Okay . . . so where’s the creature—” My words drifted off as I noticed a dark shadow to our right. It was hard to tell how far away it was, considering the lack of perspective here on the astral, but it looked for all the world like the demon squids we’d been facing. Only here, we could clearly see what it looked like, and the sight didn’t give me any comfort.
The thing was huge—far larger than it had appeared on the other side. Black, with a bulbous head that was so bumpy it reminded me of either a giant brain or a cauliflower. And two of its tentacles were attached to a silver cord that led to . . . crap! There was Delilah. She wasn’t on the astral, but with the creature connected to her, she appeared in a wispy, ghostlike manner.
“There—it’s sucking her life out of her!” I let out a low growl. “Let’s rip it to shreds.”
Just then, Rozurial and Vanzir appeared next to us. I motioned to Delilah, and they nodded as Camille and I moved forward.
“Wait—let me look for dangers first—”
Smoky’s words were lost as we raced forward. Somebody was fucking with our sister, and that was enough for us. As we raced in, Camille prepped some sort of spell while I quickly calculated the best angle from which to attack the demon. I didn’t want to hurt Delilah, so we had to detach it from her before we started whaling on its butt. That meant severing those tentacles that were sucking the energy out of her silver cord.
As if she’d been reading my mind, Camille sent a bolt of energy—much brighter on the astral than it usually was—toward the upper part of the demon’s feelers. The bolt met its mark, and a brilliant flash severed the appendages from the giant mantle that protected the overstuffed head. As Delilah’s cord retracted and she disappeared from sight, the Karsetii let out a loud shriek and smoothly turned to face us.
“Bring it on, girl,” I whispered, waggling two fingers.
Apparently, the thing was listening. It veered away from Camille and headed directly toward me. I steeled myself for the impact and, as it swung one of its feelers in my direction, I raced forward and leapt in the air, kicking at its head. Unlike at the Avalon Club, this time I landed a hit. Score one for the home team!
My foot landed square under the giant eye, one round pupil swimming in a sea of white. The body of the Karsetii wasn’t nearly as squishy as it looked. In fact, if I’d been alive, I probably would have broken my leg. As it was, I left a nice, tidy imprint on the thing’s forehead.
It roared and lashed out again, this time catching me on the side as I dove for cover. A shock wave raced through my body and sent me into a spasm as I landed, rolled, and came up into a crouch.
Ignoring the pain, I called out to Camille, “Watch out for those tentacles. They land a nasty jolt that would probably drop you in your tracks!”
She nodded as she geared up for another spell. “Gotcha!”
