Pine Needles (Veil Realms Series) (7 page)

One look and my mouth begins watering with a confectionery of sweetness, rising up on the tips of my toes and inhaling the heavenly aroma
which only teases my craving. I stroll on over to another and peek back over my shoulder at Sirius. Just as before he seems to be casing the area, in his full valorous form and I realize he has the power in one steady, secure reach he could pick a Quine fruit easily.

He never turns away from my direction which provides me a tempting view of his unarmored body, finding it strange that he remains on guard even without his slaying weapons. His still-as-death-stance makes me consider if he
is ever truly capable of relaxing while aboveground.

Hidebound thick black leather straps rest across his broad chest and back, the taut sable leather pants and boots is the only protection he wears. Not that I think someone like him can’t handle himself without all his sepulchral warrior raiment
. I’m quite positive he could do lethal damage to anything that crosses his fatal path.

My
lingering eyes rivets back over him as he looks away.

“I can sense far more than I can see.” He declares to me, mortified and plagued with embarrassment I briskly turn my head from his glistening stare. Our distance widens as my pace
quickens and I walk further out. The beautiful Quine orchard extends several yards and the unforgettable glow from the fruit slowly expels outward.

The en
tire orchard blooms a violet beauty and amplifies all around me. Surrounding me with the flourishing scent and the bursting illumined view has me hook, line, and sinker. A hint of laughter slips past my smiling lips and I instantly cover my bold mouth but it’s so spectacular that I can’t help but feel tempted by it all. I sprint over to the aurora foliage that droops downward like a weeping willow and I slip behind a tree. I plant myself here and smile up to the mythical brilliancy above me.

“Do you find this satisfying
, Selene?” His voice curiously enquires as he closes the distance between us. Pressing my body up against the tree I pay attention as he effortlessly plucks a Quine from the high hanging branch above us and hands it to me.  Before I taste the sublime fruit I allow myself to take a chance and look into his eyes.

“Yes,” I whisper out as questions propel through my own mind. I take in
his weighing expression and ask, “Do you always show so little emotions or should I ask the same of you. Do you find all of this satisfying, Sirius?”

“Yes.
To you I may not show emotion as you, Selene. In time perhaps you will understand. I have been around many different races and I have had many attempts to appease me.” 

I drop
my gaze briefly back down to the supple, radiant fruit and dwell on his words for a moment, but I don’t hold out for long and urge him to explain, “Attempt? What happens if you are not content?”

Contentiously, he tilts his head which sways his ebon hair back across his neck
he replies, “They perish, and not by my hands exclusively. Some refuse to take the viands I offer, others are unfit to endure the conversion, or the warriors grow restless and abolish them.” 

“But you are their leader. Y
ou have the ability to stop them from ending those innocent lives.” Gripping the fruit closer to my chest, my reality rears its unnerving reminder of where I am and just who I am with. The tranquil shimmering Quine trees span out adorning the orchard seems less tempting now once I’m reminded of my grim truth.

Sirius’s calming tone beckons
me as he claims, “Selene… no harm will come to you.”

He leans down and clasps his massive hands over
mine. Inexplicably, I do feel safe with him and only him, regardless of where ever I may be. I can definitely say as long as he is with me I do feel protected and unthreatened. 

“So
, why did you bring me here, why choose me if you have so many that serve you?”  

He
silently grasps my hand that contains the fruit and pulls it to his mouth and takes a bite, as he languidly chews his ambitious eyes fall lower examining my practically bare mortal physique. After his long and very obvious gawking inspection is complete he divulges me, “You are incongruous. You fight to protect yourself and others. The younger female that came with you… she is safe.”

A titillating whiff of the Quine nectar ma
kes it unbearable not to resist it any longer and before I give it another single thought I bite into the fresh piquant fruit and study Sirius just as he had seconds ago. Unashamed I swallow down my second bite and brazenly ask, “Is she one of your possessions too?”

He grips
my hand once again, only this time his firm hold is more charitable, leaning closer his mouth gains another zestful bite from my forbidden fruit. Just like a noose our gazes link onto the others’ tightening and clamping down in drawn out absorption as we devour ourselves in the last remnant of the fruit.

Chapter Seven

The Chase

“I have many that I oversee. Does it disturb you that she is one of them?” Keeping my pace next to him as we walk through the orchard I wave a dismissing hand out.

“U
h no… well wait, actually yes it does,” I rub my temples and roughly sigh out, “all I want is for her… is her safety.” Halting my steps I peer up to him. “Can you give me your word she will be kept safe? I know you’re the one that can make sure that no harm will come to her,
right Sirius
?” An unhesitating terse nod is my answer as he abruptly stops a few feet away.

In that precise moment something changes, his eyes drain from the avid golden to blood-lusting red. And panic begins to mangle
and twist itself inside me. Before I’m able to spit out his name his enforcing arms reel me around behind him, cradling my shivering body securely to his.

“Selene, remember when I told you I can sense things before I see them?” Shaking my head in reply, but obviously he
can not see it because I’m flushed tightly against his liberal back.

“Yes...” I breathe out in an intimate whisper.

“Any muscle uses electrical charges to move, each sends out a signal, I can sense them and certain ones register as prey, this is how I hunt. Once close enough to see the prey, they radiate red in my line of vision.”

His wo
rds process through my storming mind and I lower my trembling voice, “So… we are not alone?”

A Quine tree smashes to the rocking ground, spying around Sirius my mouth gapes open and my heart hits a kill-switch somewhere in me because my blood pools to my feet and horror nails my body to the dirt locking me in place.

Four immense creatures detach themselves from the Cimmerian shade. Coated heavily in a dark waxy hide, layered scales cache their prolonged faces, easily doubling the size of Sirius and outnumbered, our chances of leaving this place alive, is slim to none.  

The first beast screeches a bellowing that racks my ears with a shrilling pain, instantly covering them I crouch behind Sirius. The earth beneath my feet ripples as they venom
ously charge toward us.

Sirius cages
his one determined arm around me protectively as he stretches upward and rips an over-sized branch down. “Selene, when I say run… run as fast as you can back to the mound which will lead you to the underground.”  My chance to respond to him vanishes as one of the creatures lunges through the air and impales itself in Sirius’s awaiting spike.

His steadfast rigid body shields me as random swiping baneful claws furiously lash out
at him. Using the beasts’ deaden body as his own protection the others rage and roar shredding apart the lifeless carcass. Sirius’s form bows back pushing the sadistic creatures away, one razor-sharp beak clamps down on the carcass and splits it completely in two. Blood, and infernal fluid gushes out making the air fill with a plethora of decaying flesh.

Still resiliently Sirius grapples his hold on the lifeless beast and swings the bloodless body pieces into two of the creature
s hurtling in his direction. “Run!”

Forcing my feet to become mobile I leap up, and plow through the vague orchard. Outcries and spine-chillin
g shrieks reverberates behind me as I race through the trees, never taking a fleetly glimpse over my shoulder.

Not desiring to leave Sirius in such a hellish situation I almost spin on my heels debating about turning back. Knowing the thought is
highly impractical, of what use could I possibly be? I abort the very idea and speed past another group of trees. Catching sight of the mound my urgent feet seem to pick up some gustiness as I blaze a trail into the openness. I can see the mound as I close the distance, a dark overshadow soars above me, nearly meeting nose to nose with one of the miscreant beasts that has landed directly before me.

Teetering on the tips of my toes I promptly steady my weight and maneuver my body in the opposite direction. Taking flight from the orchard I canter into an extensive
jungle refuge, skimming my feet impetuously across the fevering clay-like ground. The abominating footfalls pound the earth faster and faster. The four-legged beast rides my heels and fear slices a new grisly doom in me.

I can’t out run this, and each ear-piercing scream it wails makes me want to just drop to my knees in gut-wrenching agony. An oversized withering trunk blocks my impending path, and no time to analyze how
I can attempt to mount over it. I spot a scanty hole exposing my only reprieve.

Diving under the decrepitude
log I manically dig downward for whatever cover I can find. Ducking as low as possible as the fuming, grossly gnarling beast jabs its ebonizing talons through the tremendous trunk, splicing the well seasoned bark apart, spraying giant chunks of wood everywhere.

Time is running short for me as my fragmenting shelter splinters open above. In the midst of this turmoil, I hear a flow of water ca
scading not too far off. Quietly I inch along and find a rotted out gap. There is enough space for me to pull myself up and inside the trunk. As the creature continues to lacerate and rake its defiling talons, I crouch downward and scoot through the hollow side all the way to the end of this monstrous fallen log.

Sneaking to the unobstructed opening I sacrifice all my energy into a dead run. Flinging a glimpse to my distancing background, the hellhound beast roars an explosion of rage, shifting its sinewy body in my direction and vaults over the residual tree. A much needed rush quickens my pace, as blood pumps my neck-breaking adrenaline I thrash wildly past the brimming anomalistic jungle’s canopy.

Again the sounds of the scourging talons and feet plunder after me while I try and steer my way to the water. Praying the mauling, trampling being can’t swim, closer I feel the thick dewiness weighing down the air. 

Flailing my arms constantly at the underbrush and vines making my passage, as the clashing of the water becomes deafening. I hurdle over a mass of bosky ferns and twisting roots when I see the death-defying drop off. In my next blind impulse of movement
, I jump.

Just as my bare foot leaves the
steep cliff, a slight sting grazes my heel from the flaying beast’s fleeting hold. Extending my arms out, I plunge down with the scornful wind whipping by me. I realize the possibility that I may not survive this hundred foot descent, torpedoing towards the blue bottomless basin.

Bracing myself as I hit, splashing in the up shooting waves. Submerging deeper my breath bottles inside my crushing lungs and the slew of ambient underwater sounds drown my ears. I barely can f
ocus on the clusters of bubbles as they escape from my nose and mouth. My head harshly thumps against the rocky bottom.

The
concentration of noise fades while my body floats back up, alerting concern rises making me wonder if I hit my head too hard causing the numbing sensation in my arms and legs. With eyes wide-open I view the sparkle of white light above and silhouettes of red wisps when spirit-like images swirl in an unreal illusion of Rayden which forms out of the murkiness. The figure looks so real that I imagine myself reaching out and so does the ethereal being of Rayden.

Our hands ghostly touch and somehow our bodies shift and I’m suddenly hovering above the clear blue water looking down at
him. The entire ghostly scene alters again and I’m in his embracing arms suspended over the cursive waves.

Grasping the thought that this can’t possibly be real, I reflexively cling to him cherishing the unswayable hold he has on me.  Dimming memorie
s loiter around in my conscious of our once blissful life together. Our picturistic essences’ soon begin to airily flicker away, and I’m left with only desolating darkness.

Chapter Eight

Broken

Creeping with inertia my eyes pry open barely with sight. Randomly my eyes roam and I can tell I’m lying down on a pallet of wool of some type. The scratchy callousness chafes along my neck, and I try to direct my hand up to massage the icy-cold feeling from my shoulders. But it’s unresponsive, steadily and gruelingly I trail my eyes downward terrified that I may find my legs and arms detached.