Avenging Amethyst (Immortal Eyes) (24 page)

My rage burned
and I took one step forward, about to run into the room, when I remembered that
we needed to be sneaky about this. I took a deep breath and turned back to the
group of Lovac. I was nervous to talk with the Zhulik so close but we had to
have some kind of plan.

"The Zhulik
are at the end of the path," I barely whispered loud enough for everyone
to hear me. "We need to sneak as close to the edge of the cavern before we
start attacking. We need to be almost on top of them before they know we're
there. Once they noticed us, we need to be in full attack mode. I want half of
you to attack the closest Zhulik and I want the other half to run through and
start attacking the ones further away. Those that are closer to the front
should run forward while the ones behind start attacking the closer ones. Do
you understand so far?"

They all nodded
and waited for more information.

"The group
of Nesmyr are in the middle of the cavern. I need one of the groups of three to
immediately head towards them and start protecting them. Any volunteers?"

One of the
groups of Lovac who I didn't know very well volunteered to protect the Nesmyr.
Once that was all settled, there was only one more thing to discuss.

"The Zhulik
named Lucas seems to be in charge of all of this," I said, glancing at
Felix to see the surprised look on his face. "I don't know if any of you
know this, but he is the Zhulik who got my mom pregnant. He's also the reason
she was killed. I’m going straight for him."

A lot of the
Lovac gave me surprised looks, some of them even looked a little frightened,
but no one argued. I didn't think any of them wanted to go up against Lucas and
they were more than happy to let me deal with him.

"Alright.
Wait for my signal when we get to the edge of the tunnel before we start."

"What's the
signal?" one of the Lovac asked.

"When I
start running out there. Any questions?" They all shook their heads.
"Then let's go."        

Before I could
step around the corner, Felix pulled me into a quick hug. I was shocked at how
open he was being with his feelings for me, but when I looked over his
shoulder, I saw a few other Lovac giving hugs to each other, too.

"I love
you, Avery," Felix whispered into my ear, making my heart stop for a
second. I really hadn’t been expecting that but I didn’t hesitate
in my response.

"I love
you, too." And it was true. I may not have a complete understanding of
love, but my feelings for Felix were stronger than any feelings I had ever had.
I squeezed Felix as tightly as I could one last time and we both pulled away. I
tried not to let the tears wetting my eyes be noticeable and I took a deep
breath to calm myself down. I turned the corner a moment later with everyone
following me, and started quietly walking towards the cavern.

The closer we
got to the cavern, the stranger I started to feel. I almost felt sick, like I
had butterflies in my stomach but it was all over my body. I didn't know if it
was some kind of reaction to being around so many Zhulik or if it was my power
trying to take over completely. I glanced around at the other Lovac and didn't
see any unusual looks coming from their faces, so I decided it had to be part
of my power.

With each step
we took, we moved slower and slower until we were just outside of the large
cavern. We were still inside the shadow of the path, so I didn't think any of
the Zhulik could see us yet. Now that we were closer, I could hear that all of
the Zhulik were chanting. Their voices echoed off of the walls of the cavern
and gave me goose bumps.

I took a short
moment to gaze at my surroundings. There were gas lights hanging all over the walls
and not much else in the cavern. It was a little dark and musty and reminded me
of what a really large jail cell might be like.

The place where
the Nesmyr were kneeling on the ground was sunken in a little bit from the
surrounding earth and I had a feeling that Lucas planned to use it as a blood
pool like my dream had predicted. Whatever was happening was some kind of
ritual that would make life very difficult for Nesmyr and Lovac.

I also noticed
that the group of eight Nesmyr weren’t actually all Nesmyr. The magic
that I sensed in one of them was similar to the magic I had sensed in Thistle,
the fairy. Another one of the creatures gave off a different kind of magic that
I had never felt before. It was almost like every creature had their own frequency
of magic. The other six were definitely Nesmyr though.

I wasn’t
sure why there were creatures other than Nesmyr being held captive but I
didn’t have time to speculate it. I quickly planned my course of action,
took a deep breath and pulled my stake out of its holster. When I sensed the
rest of the Lovac taking out their stakes I started running. The other Lovac
followed.

We had
completely caught the Zhulik off guard. Lucas had been speaking about something
serious when I came running into the middle of his little ritual. Once the
Zhulik started to understand what was happening, all hell broke loose.

Zhulik came
running after me, trying to tackle me to the ground but I was easily able to
dodge them. My power was in control but no matter how badly it wanted me to
stay and kill the Zhulik coming directly after me I forced myself to run to
Lucas.

I could see a
bit of panic and a bit of amusement in his eyes when he saw me coming for him.
He hadn't moved from his spot or stopped talking. He was planning on finishing
his ritual one way or another.

When I reached
the bottom of the stairs to his podium he stopped speaking. I started running
up the stairs to try to stop him from completing what he was doing but I knew
it was already too late. A cloud of red smoke had started to form in the middle
of the staircase, blocking Lucas from my view. It was growing and would consume
me if I didn't stop running.

Fortunately, the
red smoke was not going to harm me. I ran into it head first and nothing
happened. Unfortunately, when it cleared up, Kamila was standing in front of
Lucas, blocking my path.

I paused
immediately when I saw her. I was halfway up the stairs when she appeared
through the smoke and looked out on what was happening below her. When she
spotted me halfway up the stairs she snarled. She looked at Lucas, who nodded
at the demon woman and she lunged at me.

I tried my
hardest to dodge her attack but she morphed into that red smoke and entangled
me in it. I had tried to jump off the stairs but I was suddenly embraced in the
thick cloud of smoke and being dragged up to the top of the podium.

When I was at
the top of the stairs, the smoke thinned and Kamila appeared again but I was
still trapped. Lucas was standing in front of me, red eyes trying to burn a
hole through my head.

"Hello, my
child," he said. His voice was rough and had a chill to it that gave me
goose bumps. He was standing so close to me that I could smell the blood on his
breath.

When I didn't
answer him he continued speaking.

"You're so
young and yet you're already so wise. You're perfect for my little games."

My curiosity got
the best of me. "What games?"

He looked
amused. "Didn't you wonder why a Zhulik as old and powerful as myself
would be stupid enough to impregnate a psychic human and let her live? 
I'm sure you were told that only young Zhulik do that."

"It might
have crossed my mind," I said, trying my hardest not to sound too
interested. The truth was that this thought had crossed my mind multiple times.

"Well, I've
been alive for thousands of years and after all the killings and all the power
I've taken, I seem to have grown bored with life. I considered ending it all
but then I decided to have some fun before my time is up. That's when I met
your mother. A beautiful woman and the strongest psychic powers I had ever seen
in a human. I thought it would be fun to create a being with her and see what
kind of powers it ended up with. I wanted a child that actually stood a chance
at beating me. I must say, I waited eighteen years for this and I am highly
disappointed."

"I could
take you down in a heartbeat if you didn't have a demon slave."

Kamila looked
offended. She glared at me, snarled and lunged at my throat with her claws.
Just before she made contact, Lucas intervened and pulled the demon away from
me. The whole time I could feel the grip of the smoke loosening.

"This
exquisite being," Lucas said, "Is a demoness and a queen. Her name is
Kamila and we are going to rule this world together."

"What are
you talking about?"

"Well,
while I was waiting for you to become old enough to challenge me, I started
thinking of other ways to have fun with life. I started thinking that it might
be fun to try to take over the world. Starting with the Nesmyr and Lovac and
moving on to other magical creatures and then humans. I knew I couldn't do it
on my own, so I made a deal with Kamila. She would sacrifice some of her lesser
demons to make my army of Zhulik more powerful and in return I would kidnap
creatures for her to feed on. Not just any kind of creatures though."

"What do
you mean?"

This time Kamila
spoke. She sauntered up to me, her auburn hair following around her, almost
touching to floor. "Dimidium," she spoke with a strange accent.
"The light in their blood makes them so much more delectable."

My eyes widened
in understanding. These two were the reason that Lovac hadn't found their
Dimidiums in such a long time. They were kidnapping creatures that were meant
to be with Lovac and killing them before a Lovac could actually find them.
That’s why there were more than just Nesmyr being kidnapped.
They’re all Dimidiums.

"How do you
know they're actually Dimidiums?" I asked, hoping they were lying.

"Oh that's
easy," Kamila hissed. "Every magical creature gives off their own
unique aura. Demons from my plane have a better ability to see and feel them
than those that live here. I've been practicing and enhancing my ability to do
this for quite some time. I've learned that if two people have identical auras,
then they are meant for each other. I started Lovac spying and finding their
Dimidium before they could. I soon became addicted to the taste of Dimidiums.
It's a shame they're so rare."

"Once I
learned that Kamila could do this I sought her help," Lucas said.
"She agreed but only if I could capture every Dimidium she led me to.
Since she is only able to cross over to our world on certain days, she would
have more time to feed if we did the Dimidium capturing for her."

"You're
both sick," I said.

"Well, my
dear, that's what happens when you give yourself over to the darkness. You
could join us if you gave yourself over to it too." He smiled at me, a
menacing smile that gave me goose bumps again.

I glared at him.
"Never." I was trying to sound brave but I was actually terrified.
Lucas and Kamila were powerful and they could kill me at any minute. I wasn't
ready to die. I needed to find some way to get out of the smoke binds and take
Lucas down.

"That's a
shame," Lucas said, interrupting my thoughts.  "I shouldn't have
expected you to say yes, though. There hasn't been a Lovac that's accepted the
darkness in years. I always thought it was a better option than going insane
and dying but who am I to speak for them."

"I
don’t know how anyone could think that was a better option."

"Most Lovac
have been brainwashed into thinking that way, but at least we're still alive
and enjoy life. We just look at it differently than you do."

"In a sick,
twisted way."

"It's still
better than being dead, my dear."

"Not to
me."

"Well,
then. It sounds like you want to die. Shall we let our little games begin then?
I'm sure it won't take long before you're killed."

"I have
one more question," I said, trying to distract them long enough to get
out of the smoke binds before they released me.

"Hmm?"
was all Lucas said, looking bored.

"Why did
you kill my mom?"

Lucas and Kamila
both laughed at this. "She was in the way. She was never supposed to
survive in the first place. We could have started our little games so much
sooner if she hadn’t kept you hidden all of these years. When I found out
she had been in a car crash, I didn’t have the time to take advantage of
the situation so I sent Kamila. It’s a shame. I would have loved to see
the look on your face when her heart stopped beating. Kamila assures me it was
priceless."

My blood was
boiling now. My mother was dead because she protected me and I would make these
creatures pay. I started to writhe in the smoke bonds and Lucas looked
intrigued.

"It looks
like you’re ready for our little games to begin. This won’t take
long."

"You have
no idea what I can do," I spat. I was giving myself completely into my
power and the smoke was having a hard time containing me. I didn’t have
to wait long for it to disappear completely, though.