Slayde, Book 2 (Chaos Time Serial) Read online

  “What?” she hissed, knowing the level of her voice was rising and that soon Hunter would hear, and so would Synnergy. Not to mention the fact that they were hiding out in the middle of a jungle. That the key to their survival was stealth, to not letting the people below know they were here. But he was just making her so damn angry and it was all she could do not to scream.

  “Yeah.” His face was all hard slashes and angry lines. “You find me in that skanked up shit hole, drag my ass out to the middle of time, and make me—”

  His breathing was hard, she didn’t want to wait on bated breath to hear him finish that sentence, didn’t plunk in a million different possibilities of what it could all mean… but she did.

  “What have you done to me?” he snarled and she heard movement to their right.

  Hunter was obviously aware of what was going on, but she didn’t care.

  “I haven’t done anything to you. We had a few laughs, thanks for that. Now let me go. Stop following me around, making me drag you everywhere. I don’t want to be around you, Slayde. I don’t want you touching me,” she wiggled hard to be released from his hold, but his grip was still absolute.

  His fury was an almost tangible presence, dark and powerful, buffeting her body so hard it made her want to wince. The face that just an hour earlier had been open and honest and full of light was now snarled and twisted, but he’d never looked more handsome.

  His square cut jaw lightly stubbled with hair was set and rigid. The sharp planes of his nose flared with each breath. The hollow of his throat sucked in and out like the opening and closing of a bellow. And his eyes were fully milky white. The fine hairs on her arms stood on edge as the palm of his hand began to glow a bright red. The crackle and snap of his power moved through the air like static cling, making everything spark with a razors edge of danger.

  She was sick. A masochist clearly, because every nerve in her body throbbed, her heart raced. But not with fear, with want so fierce it cut like an iron-sharpened blade.

  “What do you want from me?” Her words came out more like a plea, than a question, and she hated the breathy quality of it. Hated that she didn’t have the sense to fear this moment.

  But she just didn’t. Because just like every other time, she knew he wouldn’t hurt her.

  “I don’t… know,” the words seemed difficult for him to say, as if he didn’t want to utter them. With an audible swallow, she felt the shivery power emanating from inside him start to dissipate. Felt her arm hairs fall back into place as the air was no longer full of that thrumming charge of carnage and chaos. And when his eyes turned back to hers, they were as radiantly blue as the Christmas lights the staff at Fairfield would wrap their plastic Christmas trees in. “Stay with me, Sable,” he whispered it so low she was sure she made it up in her head.

  But his eyes drilled a hole into her skull with an intensity she’d never known and like Alice falling down the rabbit hole, she felt herself slipping. Knew the guards she was trying so desperately to throw up were fracturing and crumbling into a trillion slivers.

  Destiny and fate, those two words kept pounding away at her. So much of this world she didn’t understand. She didn’t understand even half of what it meant to be a phoenix. Didn’t understand a monsters obsession with taking her to his bed. Didn’t understand the secrets that Hunter obviously kept. Didn’t understand how she was going to realistically get in there and destroy a source of a madman’s power without alerting him and his hell spawns to the fact.

  But she did understand Slayde. She may not want to, but she understood the driving need to be around him. Understood the reckless desire to do things she’d never done with another soul before. Because it was an obsession she shared too.

  “Slayde,” his name on her tongue was a question, a reproach, hell… maybe it was even a prayer, she wasn’t really sure. But he must have understood, because he didn’t say anything else, just inhaled deeply and released his grip on her shoulder.

  But instead of running away as she should, she stayed. And when that hand of his began rubbing a soothing rhythm along her hair, over and over and over, and made her breathing turn heavy, she didn’t fight it. Because for tonight, she just couldn’t. To deny that she wanted this would be a lie. So she closed her eyes and she sank into his touch and she let him hold her as he’d done one lifetime after another after another and before she knew it… she was out.

  ***

  Hands shook her and she blinked, for a second confused by the smell of overly ripe fruit and the wet heat clinging to her skin, because she’d been in the hospital again and fat bastard had been leering, breathing his heavy, phelmy breaths and she wasn’t sure whether Mexico and Slayde was the dream or the devil nurse was.

  Heart banging against her ribs, she rubbed her eyes and exhaled heavily when the monochromatic walls of Fairfield faded back into the blackest corners of her mind.

  “Slayde?” she whispered, trying to acclimate her vision to the darkness spread out like a sea before her. She rubbed her eyes. “You promised to—”

  “It’s not Slayde,” Hunter grumbled, “he’s left.”

  “What?” she asked shock making her come instantly awake. “Where’d he go?”

  “Most likely to the source.”

  “Oh my God,” she mouthed. “That freaking dumbass idiot.” But she wasn’t angry so much as she was suddenly terrified. For him. They had no idea what they were getting themselves into. Why had he just run off that way?

  Hunter snorted in agreement. “Idiot’s gonna get himself killed, a Lord isn’t just anyone. It’s the darkest, wickedest type of killer there is. It’s a demon, Sable. With powers that rivals all of his.”

  ***

  In no time they were down the tree. Hunter had them creeping around the city. The shortest way to the pyramid would be through the city itself. She knew that. But he didn’t want them to get caught. And it made sense, it made so much sense.

  But the anxiety was hot and angry and worming a hole through her gut. Even as she ran she kept biting on her lip, because this wasn’t right. Slayde shouldn’t have done this. He shouldn’t have left.

  He’d promised to wake her. And maybe that was why she was so pissed, because he’d lied and deep down, she’d known he would.

  She should have seen this coming. But she hadn’t, because when you really didn’t want to see something, it was easy to gloss over the facts staring you right in the face.

  Taking her to the swamp, having her tell him about her life, it was all a distraction. Lungs hot and heavy, sweat pouring down her brows, she ran harder and faster than she’d ever run in her life. A stitch had worked its way up her left side, breathing at this point felt excruciating and while the trees were zipping past and she knew she was running as fast as she possibly could, it also felt like they were getting nowhere.

  The route Hunter was forcing them to take was adding a good mile and as stupid and insane as she knew it was, she was tempted to say screw it and just cut through the city. So what if they saw her? She could take care of herself.

  And just as she was ready to take that step back and head in the opposite direction of where Hunter led, somehow without her seeing him stop or turn, he was right beside her and gripping her arm tightly.

  “Don’t,” he said, and he wasn’t even panting.

  Gasping, she stopped, bending over as she sucked in air. “This isn’t fast enough,” she panted. “Take us through your portal, please. If he gets caught—”

  His eyes were steely, boring into her with an intensity that made her flinch. “The second I do, the Lord would sense it and then he’d really be screwed. I know you want to get him. Dammit, I do too.”

  She shook her head, because she didn’t want to believe there was a being so powerful that if Hunter ported it would all be over. “But you just ported to me, you just—”

  “And it was stupid,” he growled low, but hard enough that she felt the rumble of it move through her chest and she found herself wo
ndering yet again what Hunter really was. “But so was what you were about to do. You want a shot at getting to him, you follow my lead.”

  He dropped her arm, and in her dizzy state, she stumbled back a little. Sable didn’t actually sense threat of violence from him, but ever since getting to Mexico the Hunter she’d known before the G.R. (great rift) no longer seemed to exist. He was cold, hard, and fiercely determined.

  Rubbing her arm up and down, she sucked in air like a bellow and even though she wanted to do the alpha dog peeing on the hydrant style posturing with him, she knew it was a stupid waste of time.

  With a growl, she clipped her head once. “Fine. I’ll follow. But I swear by all that’s holy, we better get there in time.”

  Chapter 2: A healer never kills

  Synnergy’s arms and legs were pumping, keeping rhythm to the beat of her heart. Forwards. Backwards. Thump. Forwards. Backwards. Thump.

  Trees shot past in a blur of dark shadows. Overhead a bird’s wings flapped. Branches poked her in the face. Cutting her cheeks, splitting them open. Breath in. Breath out. Lungs expanding, sucking in wet oxygen. It was lovely. It was agony. She still lived. They were dead.

  Dead.

  Dead.

  Dead.

  A ripple of blue. Hunter. He was keeping close. He didn’t want to. She saw it in the way he looked at her. Like he hated her. Needed her.

  Heart hurt so bad. Not physical. Emotional. Mama. Papa. Dead. Because of her. Always her.

  Arms pumping faster. Why did she care? Because she was a healer, she kept reminding herself. You heal. You bring back to life that which was dead.

  But what about her? Who would bring Arianna back?

  Hot wind, like the silken touch of a lover’s hand drove through her hair. Her blood sang in her veins. Pumping, pumping. Had to get to Slayde. She didn’t care, but the pale one did. The one with the ghostly eyes who saw things no one should see. Sable scared her. But not Slayde. He seemed in awe of her. Amazed by her.

  Was that why he stole away? To save her?

  But what about Arianna? Who would save her?

  Arms pumping faster. Cold. She felt the cold. The night was a shroud, dark and mysterious. A time for monsters to come out and play.

  She followed the blue glow around the maze of trees. Stones cut into her bare feet. The pain. It felt good. Kept her from losing herself to the madness of the voices.

  “A healer never kills. A healer heals,” she chanted, repeated it over and over and over. “A healer never kills. A healer heals.”

  “But you killed me, didn’t you?” a ghostly white specter floating beside her accused. His ephemeral white body was littered full of holes from the crystal resonance she’d thrown at him. He trailed beside her like an obedient puppy.

  She raised her voice. “A healer never kills. A healer heals.”

  He laughed. The sound wrapped around her heart like an iron fist, squeezing, squeezing, squeezing. Pumping her full of pain. Of poison.

  “And me.” Another voice. Another ghostly white body full of holes.

  “And me.”

  “And me.”

  More and more voices.

  Her father told her. Warned her.

  “Follow the blue lights. Follow the blue lights,” she chanted softly. The strange, beautiful man called Hunter. He with his blue eyes and dark hair, he would save her. He would save her from the madness. She knew it. Because when she was around him the voices were silent. She could breathe. Could think.

  Ghostly fingers tracing along her skin. Cold sweat on her forehead. Tears in her eyes.

  “A healer never kills...” she repeated it over and over and over.

  Because if a healer ever killed, the souls of her victims would haunt her forever.

  Chapter 3: The Lord Part 1 (Hunter)

  Hunter was torn, pulled in two directions. They needed Slayde. They had to protect him from his own idiocy, but something was wrong with Synn. He knew it, felt it in every fiber of his infinite soul. So he jumped, short distances, here and there making sure to keep her always in sight. He knew he shouldn’t do it, he’d told Sable as much. But there was a plan, a plan she may not understand. But he always had a plan. He hadn’t created this one, in fact, Slayde had done it for him.

  But once he figured out what’d happened, his plan A, had turned to plan B. He’d been taught long ago, always have a plan. A directive that’d served him well through the years.

  The truth was, he could have transported them inside the pyramid an hour ago, when Slayde’s disappearance had been discovered.

  But the end always justified the means.

  Synnergy shivered, shoving harder through the shrubs like the hounds of hell were nipping at her heels. Tossing a glance over his shoulder to make sure that Sable followed, he picked up his speed incrementally, giving the appearance that he was as worried as she.

  He wasn’t.

  There was a time for everything under the sun. A time to live, and a time to die… and there was even time to distract. Slayde was now their distraction.

  Finally he could see the shadowy silhouette of the pyramid ahead. Everything was eerily silent. His internal bearings were like a compass of time. It was well past midnight.

  The people were asleep. The land—a living relic of the dawn of one the greatest civilizations ever known—was so silent it made him want to shiver. He’d learned tomorrow there was to be a festival to their revered god Quetzalcoatl, blood would be the proffered sacrifice. And though it was the peak of night, the land itself seemed to buzz with anticipation for the coming feast of the gory. It hummed along his skin like static electricity, causing the fine hairs to rise.

  Hunter knew Sable was angry. The bird was silent, but after he’d told her of Slayde’s escape her eyes had grown cold, snapping frost fire. She’d run faster than he’d ever seen her do it before; there’d been murder in her eyes.

  For the Lord or for the arrogant ass, he wasn’t sure. He didn’t know what was going on between those two and it worried him. Worried him because he’d never told her, but she’d never asked and he knew she’d eventually figure it out from her visions. Honestly, he really didn’t want to get involved.

  But the truth was when the phoenix had given Slayde her tear, she’d also given Slayde a slice of her physical soul. That was why a phoenix tear was so rare, a phoenix would never choose to divide itself up like that unless it trusted and loved beyond all reason. Her life was literally tied to his. If anything happened to Slayde, Sable would not only mourn his loss, but eventually die of a broken heart.

  Which was why he had no intention of the letting the dumbass die. But he would let Slayde be the rat to the Lord’s snake.

  Sometimes time jumping was such a crazy paradox, the fact that the phoenix had done it in the future didn’t seem to matter. He’d studied how the two were interacting. Slayde would move, Sable would blink. Sable moved, Slayde was right there. Two separate pieces, but sharing part of a soul. The intensity of their burgeoning relationship was already strong and he doubted either one was fully aware of why yet.

  He found himself cursing the ignorant red headed asshole all over again. They needed to get to him to survive the position he’d put himself. That was just it. Not that he cared about the bastard. If he could, he’d have left Slayde to die. But she was too important. It was why he’d sent Sable to find Slayde in the first place, the bird had always fought better when the Hulk was around.

  He glanced over his shoulder and studied Synn whose legs were ripping up the turf.

  He wanted to help her. He wanted to hold her. To touch her. But he couldn’t. Not again. He clenched his jaw, reaching out his hand and scraping it down the rough edge of the pyramid, using the pain to ground him. He stopped running. They were here.

  A snapped twig sounded off to his right. Sable walked into a circle of moonlight. Her eyes danced with threads of spun silver, angry breaths scissored through her lungs.

  “Are you sure he’s here?” she as
ked forcefully, and he could still feel the sharp sting of her anger. “What if he got taken? Hunter,” his name ended on a wail.

  She seemed desperate to believe he hadn’t done what was so obvious to him.

  “He’s here,” he said slowly, his eyes intently focused on Synn’s curved high cheekbones when she stopped next to them. Her chest heaved and the whites of her eyes gleamed bright. Her honey skin was slick with sweat.

  “Follow me, don’t touch anything, don’t say a word. This place is booby trapped.”

  Sable wrapped her slim arms around herself, shivering for an instant. Synn stared at him; she nodded once, all of it mechanical. Automatic. She wasn’t hearing him. Not really.

  He walked around to the entrance of the pyramid. It wasn’t protected or guarded, didn’t have to be. There was a Lord inside, the people’s shaman. A man of awesome, fearful power. A being able to call the gods to them and say who’d live and who’d die. None dared to trespass here.

  None but them.

  He stepped inside as the darkness curled around them. There was no light, not even a tiny source of glow. He’d learned the route by counting his breaths. For the last two days he’d traced and retraced his steps, knowing when they came back they couldn’t light a torch.

  Two hundred and forty seven breaths forward and then turn left.

  He licked his lips.

  Ninety-three breaths and then right.

  His ears started to ring.

  Ten forward and stop to hug the wall as he walked forward for sixty-seven breaths to avoid the earthen hole full of writhing, hungry crocodiles.

  A pebble skidded and fell into the hole. Thudding slaps of tails and the snap of jaws was punctuated by a sharp gasp. It was Synn. He stopped moving, his pulse pounded so hard it threatened to burst a vessel. Had she fallen in? Adrenaline was pumping hard. His muscles ached and filled with blood. For two seconds he forgot to breath. He almost pulled away, almost called her name. Then he heard a whisper.

  “Grab my hand.” It was Sable who said it.