Pine Needles (Veil Realms Series) (17 page)

I
see the headstrong conviction in him. Sending him a wary smile I brush back the messy strand of his own hair. “What if they can’t fix me, Rayden? What if, after everything is said and done, there is no cure,” I contest quoting my fingers around emphasizing the word
cure
. “…would I still matter to you?” I don’t want to keep worrying like this, with him it was always so easy to just be. To love him and him love me back it was so effortless like breathing, neither one of had to think about it, we just loved each other wholly and completely. I drop my head resting against his warm chest, the moment I feel him thread his fingers through my hair I let out a pent up sigh.

“What kind of question is that, Selene?”

“I don’t know, I guess I’m just afraid.”

“You’re not going to lose me
, Selene, with your super powers and my brawn, we are a force to be reckoned with,” he teases.

I laugh as he
merely rolls us over and pins me down. His body weight prohibits me from going anywhere. My laughter suddenly dies off. I huff at my tangled locks of hair trying to disguise the smile I’m hiding behind my false scowl. Straddling my hips his hands efficiently lift my arms above my head and he grins. “I bet you can’t push me back now.”

I struggle
and strain to jerk my hands free but he’s right, with my hands clasped together I can’t exert any force. Pathetically, I grunt and squirm one more time and finally I leer up at him and grumble, “Okay, almighty one. You have me, now what?”

His over boastful smile grows
exaggeratedly and he places my arms, one at time, around his neck and leans down caressing our mouths tenderly together. His soft manipulating lips persuade me to shamelessly fist his hair hard and press him closer to me. This kiss, his kiss expresses everything, how much he loves me, how deep his desires run and this time when our lips meet it’s different. A tiny piece of heaven cleanses away the hell and he salvages what’s left of my soul. It seems like a million lives ago but he triggers the most intimate memories I’ve almost forgotten. This feeling, the christening of our love and the longer I lay here with him the more my memories raid. 

“So… you really can see their hearts beating, through their body
, kind of like infrared?” Rayden inquires while we slog through the undergrowth of the forest.

“Yes,” I answer wiping the sweat from my brow
, the midday sun is mostly blocked from our view but the humidity is ungodly. Traveling the ever changing terrain from inclining foothills to flat barren landscape we search for Tiffany and Louisa.

“It’s some type of defense me
chanism,” I add matter-of-factly, glancing in his direction.

“And Tiffany…was she
… uhm. Does she see things differently too?”

“No, she wasn’t converted.” I stop dead in my tracks and lock eyes with him and
shed light on the topic. “That’s the one thing I protected here more than anything, Rayden. I wanted Tiffany’s safety, she’s too young and vulnerable she doesn’t deserve any of this madness, no one does but I promised her I would get us out of here.” 

His ambitious face says it all
, he’s has the precise same drive as I do, it’s one of the reasons I fell head over heels for him. He cocks his head to the side motioning for us to keep moving.

“Well then let’s find her and get the fucking hell out of here,” he orders with a sidelong glance at me. I don’t hesitate when I fall in sync with his footsteps letting him lead us onward. I watch and listen for any threats and answer Rayden’s
queries as we walk.

“This land was a little over
three quarters the size of the Sindale, nothing resembles it now. There are no buildings, streets or cars, just the people that lived here. Do you know why Selene?”

“I’m not entirely sure of the construction of this land
, Rayden, but I was told this area, the area that is inside the veil will evolve to suit the Manannuki.”

“And they are?”

“They are a different race from the red planet but their world shifts into other dimensions. Ruling as they need to survive one realm to the next.”

“Fucking invaders
,” he growls out.

I shrug not knowing what else to say and I can’t explain how they convert
ed me because if I know one thing about Rayden is if he knew exactly
how
Sirius kept alive he would be dangerously irate.

We come to
a familiar clearing permeating with natal Alltrite and Sispin fruit when I hear a voice calling out. Barreling past all the foliage Tiffany runs toward us, “Selene!” Capturing her breath she pulls back her long bangs and says, “Where have you guys been?!”

Rayden and I both stare at each other expecting the other to explain but Tiffany cu
es in on our blunt faux pas looks. She takes up where she left off and offers us a couple of fruits she was carrying in her other hand.

“We were looking everywhere for you but the rain made it so hard to see that we took shelter
right over there…” She says pointing in the opposite direction. I follow her course and right across the path from the vineyard of fruit is the pine grove and
the veil
. Flickering and perfectly transparent through the columns of majestic pine trees. “I made us a cover from the weather with what I could scrounge up, mostly broken limbs and branches, Louisa’s uh…” She sneaks a worried glimpse over her shoulder again before she continues.

“Louisa’s what?” Rayden
jumps in asking with concern drenching his tone.

“I think she’s broken her leg, she’s not taking it too well at all but I guess neither would I.
It’s been hard on all of us but she’s been a little on the overemotional side. Crying for you Rayden, I’ve tried everything to calm her down but…”

Rayden makes
an urgent step forward without really thinking and I know he just wants to make sure she’s okay. He turns to me and before he opens his mouth to explain I nod urging him. “Go, go on and check on her. She needs you.” We watch him duck under Tiffany’s makeshift shelter. Once he’s out of sight I turn to get a good look at Tiffany.

“You okay?”

“Yeah, I think so. I’m just tired Selene, I stayed up most of the night. I kept feeling like we were being watched, you know by those creatures. I didn’t dare mention it to Louisa though. Nevaeh has never described anything like that to me before.”

I cup her weary face
. The dark puffy circles under her innocent eyes are so prominent. I let out a huge sigh and hug her tight. “It’s going to be all right Tiff, we’re almost there.”

I hold her as she cries softly in my arms the burden of this place i
s taking a tremendous toll on her and I’m not even sure the spine crawling nightmares of this world will ever leave her. I can only hope and pray she can heal from this and live a somewhat normal life. Forget all the horror she’s seen. “Come on… I think Rayden is ready to get out of here,” I say nudging her gently, she pulls away wiping her tears from her pale cheeks. Rayden carries Louisa in his arms and a pang of jealousy hits me. I have no right to be resentful toward her, no right whatsoever but having the thought of them two together hurts. He needed someone and she became the comfort he needed at the time. I eye her bloody crippled leg. Her slivers of clothing barely resemble clothing, mud packed carefully over her body, like Tiff’s, to keep the bugs at bay.

I quirk a brow at Tiffany and whisper, “You did good Ti
ff, I had to do the same with Rayden.”

“She really hated me after the mud
business but the insects were leaving huge welts on her, did they bother you?” she asks giving me a curious once over.

“
No, I think they could sense I’m—” 

We edge closer to the veil and
my words instantly dry up as my heart slams against my chest drumming louder and louder. It’s so blatant my ears ring and I start to swallow profusely. I quit walking. The veil glistens with ripples of light swaying across the unworldly barrier as I crane my head slowly back searching for the top but it’s endless. Tiffany breaks the silence first.

“Okay… we’re here. Now what?” She glances at me for my reply but I can’
t answer because my mouth is too bone dry to open. “Selene, what’s wrong?”

Her
hands kindly clasp my shoulder shaking me from my inertness. I quietly prod and foster the idea, “Rayden? Is it safe for us to go through?”

I
make every effort to overlook Louisa taking comfort in his embrace as she nuzzles her gloating face in the crook of his neck. He pays no attention and retorts, “Try throwing something through it first.” He nods at the carpet of pine needles dispatched at our feet, speckled with pinecones of varies sizes.

Tiffany bends down and co
llects a few pinecones. She inhales deeply and sends me a hopeful smile. “Ready?”

I signal with
an eager nod. “Ready.”

She throws one through the pellucid
mysterious veil and it sails right on through and bounces a few times before it finally rolls to a stop. No one moves or twitches a muscle, not even Rayden. We all stand waiting for the cone to self-destruct.

“Okay, try another…” Rayden prompts. Tiffany chunks three cones this time and each one glide
s perfectly through the veil still intact. They’re not mutated or dissolve into some type of goo. We’re not given anymore time to debate it any longer because a hair-raising howl in the background grabs our immediate attention. 

I wheel Tiffany around and shout, “Go!”

She gives me her confused expression at first and starts to rebuttal, “But wait, why me fir—” 

Rayden
plows between us ordering her as he makes his way through the veil carrying Louisa, “Come on, Tiffany, move it!” Their bodies blur and uncloud as they stand on the other side. Tiffany quickly follows suit and I watch her take in the world she once knew. She spins enthusiastically around and laughs. The laugh is a sound I’m not familiar with from her and it is mesmerizing and beautiful all at the same time. My heart thrashes helplessly inside me while I close the distance between me and the veil.

My hands ball into fists at my sides trying to prevent them from shaking when my eyes catch the veil change, it happens for
only a millisecond and I blink a few times to make sure I’m seeing it right. It does it again, and this time I comprehend what’s happening. It’s solidifying.
Is it reacting to me, my nearness to it?
Two more steps and I can practically breathe on it just like glass. Lower, the dissipating substance flows faster, I have enough room to duck under but I pick up the sounds of helicopter blades rotating just outside the veil. The trees bow back evading the treacherous rotors as black fully clad soldiers descend through the tree canopy. Their eyes glowing red with some type of vision goggles. Each one swoops down on their quick rappel lines from the helicopters hovering high above. Hundreds land within seconds. Their laser sights begin training on anything that moves. A new type of panic sets in me and I watch in horror as they surround Rayden, Louisa, and Tiffany.

Rayden does something unexpected
. He hands Louisa carefully over to a medic standing by and begins conversing with one of the heavily armed men.  He appears calm until he turns back and notices that I am still inside the veil and it is closing. I step back and he charges forward fists slam left and right into the veil as he screams, “Why Selene? Why?!”

Each word cuts me open like
a serrated knife and I can’t bear to watch him ram himself against the barrier. He’s fighting the inevitable. The veil is sealed no matter how much fight he puts into it and simply put there’s no going back for either one of us.

I grip at my chest holding all the pain inside and I shout back, “I can’t Rayden… I can’t have them dissect me like I’m some kind of science experiment!” If tears could possess me now I would be blinded by them.

“Goddamnit Selene! Goddamn you! You can’t do this to us!” My heart breaks wide open when I see the tears stream down his face. He falls down to his knees still beating on the veil. I force myself to move my legs and take a step forward. The second I do all the high tech guns are aimed directly at me. The red laser lights reflect back off the veil but it’s enough validation for me, I’m nothing more than a vile specimen to be captured and anatomize. I take another step and drop to my knees facing Rayden.

“I’m not human any
more Rayden… I don’t belong there.” I bite my lip to keep it from quivering and press my hand against the veil.

“You fuckin
g don’t belong over there, Selene!” he bellows furiously out. His voice rises over the brash propelling blades and chaos going on behind him.

“
No… You don’t get it Rayden. I don’t belong anymore, I’m not human. Can’t you see that? Please Rayden, please just take care of Tiffany for me, promise me, please… promise me,” I beg him searching his eyes for any hint of forgiveness for what I’m about to do. I can’t take much more of this and I know I will have to force myself to leave, to walk away from him, to remember him so torn by my betrayal. He’ll never understand and all I’m left with is this feeling like my soul has been ruthlessly gutted.