Pine Needles (Veil Realms Series) (9 page)

Narrowing my gaze at her as she places the leftover fruit and bowls in a large vine-woven basket
I pry for more answers, “Nevaeh… and the women, how many of the women live through the conversion?” My bluntness startles her as she kneels down to grab the Sispin berries that spilled from her hand.

Staring blankly at the barren dirt floor
avoiding my eyes she answers with a vacant voice, “Not many.” Worry casts over her expression as she looks condolingly over to me and adds, “They see things, and feel things beyond their control. Overriding their senses so powerfully they become unbalanced and the queen ultimately finds a means to an end. I don’t think I need to explain any further to you Selene, I’m sure you can figure it out.”

She rises holding the ba
sket, tucking in the last fruit as she speaks to me over her shoulder, “I’m going to give this to Nina, just stay seated and rest. I’ll be right back.” The second she steps through the doorway and out of the hut I grip the strongly thatched wall and pull myself up.

Surprisingly
, I stand with no hint of pain or numbness, an approving smile grows as I move my feet across the artless flooring. I guide my hands down my bare legs in pure appreciation and astonishment. With more confidence I remove my hand gingerly away from the wall and meander about the area.

I’m completely relishing in the simplicity of walking again,
thankful for every step when a sudden movement catches in the corner of my eye. On the far side of the hut a tiny rodent scampers across the floor, not quite sure if it’s a rat or a mutated hairless mouse, but what triggers my nerves is how I’m seeing it.

Heat vision? Do I now possess a sixth sense? Blinking my eyes
, focusing on the body heat of the creature, waves of red fluctuate through its body as it awkwardly runs back down a hollow gap in-between the wall and flooring. Leaning my back against the wall I slump down dumbfounded, it wasn’t a hallucinatory dream.

I rest my arm across my knees and study the mark on my inner wrist. What does it mean? What does it all mean, desperate to distinguish what is real and what is not I rub my thumb over it as if the mark would confess all my tribulations.

Hide bound boots with layered leather straps stand before me, and I sluggishly aim my sight over his heat excreting body. A light red haze emits from him, more lucid in some areas and my eyes falter back to my branded wrist. “Is this the way I’ll see from now on?”  

“Tell me what do you see?
” His words snap back to me, emotionless, and I’m uncertain what bothers me more, his lack of sensitiveness or the mark on my wrist. An urge to stand hits me and I rise up to stare at his armored clad form as I hiss out, “I can see the heat from your body.”

“And
do you see anything else?” His massive hand cups my chin and aligns my gaze to his. The golden orbs shine down on me and for the briefest moment I’m locked in his vortex, wanting to absorb what he knows, his thoughts, and his intentions. “Selene?”

“No, I don’t seem to see anything else…”  I try to free myself from his hold by tugging back, but his
sturdy hand remains immovable. Directing my eyes downward, viewing the mocha colored cloth loosely draping my breasts and hips. My once sun-kissed skin is no longer slathered in gold.

“Why did you mark me the way that you have?” My voice sounds meek and my goal wasn’t to manifest weakness, I am enraged. “Does it give yo
u pleasure to brand humans?” Boldly raising and exposing my wrist to him.

Our eyes meet as soon as he jerks my chin up once more
. “You belong to me.” Each word he enunciates precisely and profoundly and then he grasps my hand placing his wrist upright in my open palm. I soon discover he has branded himself with the same cog-like symbolism and embedded in the center is my other tear-shaped diamond. Our marks are identical.

“You have my protection, this…” he grips my wrist firmly, “is an omen, a death call if you are touched.  Do you understand
, Selene?” Reflecting over his words I gradually nod with admission. I glance over him, poised like a Titan and the decorous raiment varies over his body.  Black leather bands coating his biceps and a bloodless bone harness lines his brimming chest.

Thankful I haven’t encountered him while he wore his full ensemble and hell-have-no-mercy helmet.  I would be petrified still, just as I was when I first saw him, a Reaper from a nether world here to wreak havoc on the human race. 

My fingertips tenderly trace his mark. The indented skin and he shows no redness or irritants of any kind. As if I hold a beatified treasure I lean over and press my lips intimately to his wrist. His body stills and becomes rigid. Unsure of his reaction I remember Nevaeh’s words. Sirius has many that serve him.  I begin to speculate about his indulgences.

Finding
softness in his golden eyes I whisper, “Thank you for saving me.” His hands brace either side of my bare face. I search his features with no results, is he pleased?  Does he hold any regrets?  Can a man, a being like him carry the emotion of reverence?  

His foment fingers stroke my hair down to my chest developing a quickening inside me. Like being struck by
lightning I bolt forward clinging to his chest, so distressfully close to him. My body responds shamefully with his ruling presence, mortified with myself I quickly turn and look away.

“Sirius, when you mentioned the ‘death call’ what did you mean by that?”

His hand threads through my hair as he drops his head lower, his teeth nip illicitly at my flesh, and firing off every nerve in me. Relaxing into defeat by his touch I slant my head back exposing for him. Exposing everything that I am for him.

His breath scorches and caresses my yearn
ing neck as his voice rumbles next to my ear, “The death call is for a beheading.”

Chapter Ten

Protection

My conceiving hands
detour around his armor pining for physical contact from him, having no solution on how to discard it. I’m relinquished to only his touch. His teeth nip harder at the tip of my ear and I moan out with yearning as he forcefully nudges my head to move to the other side.

His unyielding
arm holds my body while he unravels the bland cloth from my breast, never have I felt so ready to be taken with such penetrating rawness. The carnal passion between us amplifies as I crave for his hands to touch me everywhere, but he draws back and his expression becomes severely reserved.

“Rigel...” He announces as he
his sight bores into mine as if he is infuriated. Stunned, I rummage through my mind for words. I careen around his lofty frame and just a foot inside the hut, standing beside the entrance, is where the warrior with ever-white hair and grey-cased eyes awaits. Sirius, fully aware of the moment as he stepped into the hut and alleviation settles through me.

But it is apparent Sirius is far from
at ease as he pulls me closer. “The queen summons you, Sirius.” He turns on his heel and treks back through the narrow unevolved archway.

“Selene
, we are going to take a different passage back to the mounds” I begin to quickly fumble with the torn cloth tying it around my neck, doing all this as I still maintain my focus on Sirius.

“We are not to go back to the Quine Orchard?”

“No, there are too many menaces,” he states as he takes my hand and positions my first two fingers through a thick leather loop supporting a ten inch vile looking dagger. The handle itself is made of rich ebony and the tip of the aggressive looking blade is curved forward much like a hook.       

I take caution of where it rests against his hip while he guides us outside. Stenciled rays of light shine between the bands of trees, I grip the edges of my garm
ent, eluding the spastic, gnarly roots that screen the ground.

Sirius
’s pace is unhurried which gives me the allowance to keep up with him. The trees easily surpass the tallest skyscrapers and the refreshing air mopes with a sweet perfumy smell. Watchful and alert Sirius probes with his roaming eyes down the trodden path.

Step by precarious step I follow him to a misty terrain, the mugginess makes it difficult to grip his leather loop. After a few feet we come to a stop
. Flowers accent the scope of the surface. Hanging from countless bulky grey tainted limbs are ruby-shaped pitchers, with the most defined colors I have ever seen.

Lurking in I reach up to touch the top rim of the prodigious plant as flies gather like bees with vivacity. The rim of this giant flower bears fanged-like teeth over the edges and the prophylactic mammoth-size cup underneath admits a void as flies enter, but never come out. 

“Be cautious Selene, the Banatoo Blood Tar will eat flesh.” Reflexively my hand jerks back, and I watch as he kneels down withdrawing his dagger and cuts the leaves off. Clasping a handful he offers me the green foliage as he says, “These… you can eat, but never the bloom of this plant.” He rolls a leaflet between his fingers and takes a bite.

Warily I inch the leaves to my lips, the odor turns foul and bile begins to flourish in
side me, swallowing hard I hold my breath and take a bite. The more I chew the better the taste becomes. Sirius’s impeccable face exposes an authentic smile.

“Intolerable?”

“No, it’s actually sugary tasting. It reminds me in a way of eating a mint leaf.” Taking another bite I regard him as he cuts more leaves from the rotund plant.

“They eat Ketibals
. Their scent lures them in and once the Ketibals reach the top, the Banatoo masticates their bodies. A poison is produced to digest the remains.”

I shift tensely from one foot to the other
as I ask, “The Ketibals are what?” Raising his full towering height he offers me more of the rancid leaflets, I shake my head in dismissal.

“Rodents…
tonsured rats that thrive here.” He takes a bite of the leaves and crunches up the stalk between his teeth before he continues, “The Banatoo is part of their main food requirement, but they too must be aware, and not become the sustenance for the plants.” 

A broad humanistic image lingers in the distance
as his figure positions sagely beside a group of trees. Infrared waves of current radiate through him. Gripping Sirius tightly, blanched and on-edge I gasp out, he gestures with only a nod towards the trees, “Do you see Rigel?”   

“I think so, is he following us?” Sirius motions a hand upward and Rigel advances forward
without a word.

“He and many of the other warlords are guarding the area. Selene, your ability to perceive with your eyes is an armament for your survival now.  Our realm drifts inconsistently from one to another. In time we will return to the realm of Narvar
. On this golden desert planet there is a beast known as the Yatora. Its body is armored in various layers from its thick spine over its head and down to his gaping mouth of jagged sharp teeth.

The tail is that of a keen whipping blade and the claws are massive enough to crush a skull.  It is the deadliest creature I have faced.  It is dangerous because it knows how to use its weapons and defenses.  You must assimilate the same with yours, for your survival here.”

The other ungoverned warlords move without sound, but I am able to see them deploy further into the heaping foliage. I sweep my eyes over everything, from the trees, to the ground, and to the other plants as we travel by briskly.

My
sight filters things more dynamically, much more in-depth, I have a perfect view of a living being several yards before me. The vital quiver of their beating heart almost hypnotizes me, but Sirius’s strong gait pulls me from my infatuation.

My fingers curl firmer around his as he leads us onward, nearing a clearing where the path splits in two different directions Sirius points to his right
he announces, “Over there is natal Alltrite and Sispin fruit, if you ever need nourishment and I am not with you, then these fruits are safe. Nevaeh prepared a drink for you, she used the Alltrite and Sispin fruit. They are extremely tart and combining them together becomes more intoxicating as you consume it.”

I glance over to the left, a grove of pine trees span out and the translucid veil shimmers between the columned pines. “What is over there?” Inquiring him as I aim my finger towards the
pine grove, his hand clasps mine while he evenly views over me.

“Nothing.”

Tugging my hand behind him he urges me to follow. “Come, we need to keep moving.”

I peek back over my shoulder as we step up our pace and watch as the shapely pine trees disappear behind us.
We continue weaving in and out of the thickset shrubs and low-hanging vines. The fallen hefty branches break like a twig under Sirius’s feet. I stumble and side-step over the remnants of his trail. 

A large thorn covered leaf impede
s his way, but he roughly pushes through without noticing. I reach out not wishing to have its thorns against me but before I touch it, the overgrown leaf moves as if of its own accord and yet it didn’t.

Bewildered
, I extend my hand out to the next leaf waiting for its thorns to pierce my skin and to my skeptical eyes the leaves swing back out of the way by some physical force. Mimicking the same movement with my hand I thrust it forward along the path.