Compelled (6 page)

The hairs on the back of my neck rose and a low growl rumbled in my throat.
 

“What the hell is that?” Tyler whispered, putting down his backpack.
 

“There’s another altar in the corner.” Raj’s hands formed fists. “That altar isn’t for me.”

The creature, still cloaked in darkness, hissed.

“Is that thing what’s connected to the altar?” I asked as my wolf claws cut through my fingertips, ready to fight.

Raj nodded, never glancing at me.

Chapter 6

Raj was the first of us to advance forward.

He had no hesitation, practically walking scent-free. What came for us, though, smelled like an old carcass left out in the scorching summer heat. For over a week.

As my eyes adjusted to the darkness, what was clouded in mystery materialized into glistening skin with hints of serpentine scales. Lidless eyes, devoid of emotion, stared us down.

“Raj, what are you doing?” Tyler muttered.

“Defending what little I have left,” Raj said.

Everything happened too fast.

Raj leapt on the creature, large fists swinging and punching. The sounds of hissing and hit flesh echoed through the walls.

My heartbeat thundered in my chest, but I was ready to help. I walked toward the fight, but Tyler stopped me.

“It’s got big teeth. Hand-to-hand combat isn’t wise.” He dug into his coat pocket and pulled out a metallic box that was about the size of his outstretched palm. Using his other hand, he slid the top cover off, revealing a tiny axe inside.

Was he gonna pick its teeth with that?

My claws were a lot bigger than his axe.

He plucked out the axe with his fingertips. In one second, it was minuscule; in the next, it grew to the size of my torso.

Holy shit! That was awesome.

Armed with the axe, Tyler bounded in with a war cry.

Raj continued to wrestle with it. Indentations from Raj’s invisible hands revealed where Raj grasped it. His control was slipping as the snake-like creature’s tail wrapped around his leg and continued to head up Raj’s body toward his neck. Before the thin tail reached its destination, Tyler came in swinging, delivering a sharp chop to the creature’s backside.

A throaty hiss filled the room as blood splattered the walls.

“What else you got, you son of a bitch!” Tyler swung again at the thicker body closer to the head, which continued to thrash and writhe until it slipped from Raj’s grasp.

Raj shouted. More blood dripped on the floor from somewhere, but I couldn’t see where. With a roar, Raj clasped his hands together and brought them down fast across the top of the snake’s head. The creature was flung onto the rocky floor with a hard thud. Not deterred, Raj pummeled the head until only a mushy heap was left.

Chest heaving, Tyler held his blood axe close by and watched.

Raj staggered from the head, not breathing as fast as Tyler. He clutched something and appeared to hold back a grimace.

“Are you all right?” I reached for him, but he shrank away.

“It bit me.” Raj added a grunt in an unfamiliar language and frowned in the beast’s direction.

I tried to look closer, but all I could see was dark red blood running down something behind Raj.

“Did it bite one of your arms?” I asked.

“Yeah,” he finally admitted.

“Is it poisonous?” Alarm rose in my voice.

“I’ll be fine.” He tried to give us a reassuring nod. “I’m tougher than I look.”

“How about we clean it, at least. I have a medical kit, nothing too fancy, but since I like things sterile…”

Raj’s right eyebrow rose. “You got alcohol?”

“And cute little band-aids with fluffy puppies on them.”

He laughed, his chest shaking.

Tyler looked at me with an amused expression.

“If you feel uncomfortable about germs,” I said as I opened my backpack, “you can always apply the first-aid on your own.”

We setup shop near the entrance to the cave and got Raj squared away. He angled himself away from us as he worked, but he appeared satisfied once the job was done.

Once I packed up my bag, I couldn’t resist asking Tyler about the axe.

“Oh, that’s
A Battle Axe in a Box
,” he said.

“I’ve never heard of those before.”

“We can’t exactly carry a full-size battle axe around in public. So the dwarves worked with the wizards and they helped us construct these boxes to carry a weapon for emergencies.”

“How neat.” I watched him wipe off the axe and place it back inside its carrying case. That thing took man-portable weaponry to a whole new level.

It was time to go. The light that extended into the cave came from an opening to the outside. Raj helped Tyler move the boulder wedged into place over the opening. Sunlight flooded the room and I rushed outside to get out of the stale air. The sun was low in the sky. Over here in Russia, the day had already passed and the evening would creep up on us soon.

Just a few steps onto the rocky ground and I knew Derbent was the beginning of something wondrous. A pleasant breeze brought scents of a beach not too far from us. The wind whipped my hair into my face, but I didn’t care.

Tyler had already left my side. He’d abandoned his shoes and was already barefoot in the water.

“By Tadth’s left nut, this water is cold.” The dwarf scrambled from the shore back to us.

The breeze turned bitterly cold with the stench of fish, but it was refreshing compared to the cave. It reminded me of visiting the Atlantic Ocean.

“This is the Caspian Sea, right?” I asked.

Raj was in the middle of putting on a fresh pair of gloves. “Yep, isn’t it beautiful? It’s been at least ten years since I’ve walked on this beach.” He glanced at Tyler. “Get your shoes on. We don’t have much time to catch the last train to Mahachkala. It will be packed with workers, so we need to hurry to buy a ticket.”

From the shore, we headed inland past the brick homes of fishermen, craftsmen, and peddlers. Many of them weren’t in the best shape with crumbling brick and rusted tin roofs. The stench of dried fish was just as strong here.

Now that we arrived, suddenly everything inside me froze as I took in the land of my ancestors. The open road into Derbent left a pleasant breeze on my face, yet every step felt like I carried lead in my shoes.

“Keep going, Nat,” Raj said at my side with encouragement.

Nothing I imagined compared to this. Seeing the signs in Russian and Arabic. Smelling the citizens walking down the street. Everything was alarmingly familiar, yet so foreign at the same time.

Interestingly enough, not a single spellcaster was in sight. I scanned the streets ahead and spotted all sorts of fairies, a hobbling brownie in a bright purple coat, and a shape-shifter in broad daylight selling flowers in a basket. That would be unheard of in New York.

“So we’re in the southern part of Russia?” Tyler asked. “It’s been a while since I’ve brushed up on my geography.”

“It’s a part of the Republic of Dagestan. It’s kind of like a country within a country. There are so many things I’d like to show you, like the fortress close to here. It was built long after my altar had been constructed around 900 A.D.” Raj pointed inland where the land jutted up into hilly terrain. In the distance, I spotted a castle-like structure with old crumbling cream-colored bricks. In one blink, I could almost imagine the past, beyond a time even my grandmother had seen, when this place had been used as a stop on the Silk Road.

We weaved through the narrow streets until we came to the main road, by far, a lot more modern with enough space for cars and delivery trucks. Women and children passed us, scarves covering their heads. The children smiled and me, and I couldn’t resist smiling back.

“So do you know who built your altar?” Tyler asked as we walked. He was rather chatty this afternoon.

Raj smiled. The memory must’ve been a pleasant one for him. “A trader, traveling along the silk road from Barygaza, in what you would now called Baruch, and he delivered goods in Derbent. While he was here, he found an alcove tucked along the rocks. He made a noble sacrifice of two goats and thanked me for his good fortune during his journey.”

“That’s pretty cool, Raj,” I said.

Eventually, we reached the busy train station. A large crowd had gathered here, both in the lines and on the platform. These must’ve been the workers Raj spoke of. As we waited, I learned Raj could speak multiple languages, including Russian. His accent was barely perceptible. Tyler, on the other hand, only knew a handful of expressions—including how to ask for a taxi and where the nearest airport was, the standard vocabulary for traveling models.

I didn’t expect us to make the train with so many people, but, by the time we made it on board, we entered a train filled to capacity.

“How about you two sit near the window and I’ll take the aisle seat?” Tyler offered us a knowing grin.

We settled into the seats for a relatively short two-hour ride to Mahachkala. Compared to Derbent, Mahachkala was far larger with several train tracks instead of one.

It was the trip from Mahachkala to Moscow that was exhausting. As much as we wanted to see Mahachkala, another city off the Caspian Sea, we had another trip to take into Moscow. When we bought the three tickets to Moscow, my stomach dropped out of my gut and rolled away from the ticket booths.

“The trip is 38 hours long?” I gasped. “Isn’t there some kind of magical portal or carpet or phone booth we can jump into and materialize in St. Petersburg?”

Tyler shrugged, not caring. “Apparently not. We get to travel
human
style.” He wagged his eyebrows as he said “human style.”

“The price for a
kupe
is more, but it’s the best option for us,” Raj said, offering money to the cashier to pay. I tried to slip some money into his pocket, but he pushed my hand away.

“What’s a
kupe
?” I asked.

“You’ll see.” Raj led us toward the train platform. “It’s a much better option than the
platzkart
for you and me. Just trust me.” He sighed as if the next thing he had to tell me pained him. “You should also go to the bathroom before we get on. Freshen up. Maybe even bring your own toilet paper products.”

My mouth formed an “oh.” So there would be very public bathrooms ahead of me for a while.

After we got on the train and passed through a few cars, I got drop-kicked even harder into reality. The
platzkart
was nothing more than an open dormitory-style room with bunk beds. As we walked down the aisle in the dormitory, we passed the assorted men and women talking, sleeping, and eating. Many folks held hearty conversations in a haze of cigarette smoke not far from a few babies that screamed/cried/babbled while their older siblings fought over God knows what. My loud Russian family gatherings quickly came to mind.

Several languages reached my ears, not only Russian but Arabic and a few I didn’t recognize. One thing became apparent, though. There wasn’t any privacy. None. A goblin, hidden under his glamour, scratched a balding spot on his wart-covered head, while an older man slept on the bench across from him. None of the humans disturbed a brownie, who perched on a high bed and gazed at everyone who passed with malcontent. Normally, brownies stood no taller than most dwarves, but they could be malicious when they wanted to be.
 

A grumpy, grizzled conductor showed us where we needed to go after checking our tickets. By the time we reached a door with the number on our ticket, I was quite convinced. Our room was a much better option for supernatural creatures who needed a door with a lock. I didn’t want to wake up in the middle of the night in the
platzkart
section with some dude trying something. He’d get the fright of his life after I bit him in the ass.

The
kupe
wasn’t the biggest space, but it was private with a locked door. From the door to the window, there were four bunks facing the aisle: two on the bottom, which doubled as seats, and two on the top. Against the window, there was a tiny table.

After grabbing some Russian tea, we settled into the bunks. Tyler offered to take one of the bottom ones so Raj and I could sleep on top.

“The bottom ones are used as couches too, so I’m sure you’ll be more comfortable with those,” he said with a grin.

Tyler even helped Raj and I wipe the place down with disinfectant. There was nothing we could do about the bedding though. One whiff told me they had been washed, but not to the degree I would clean them. Raj merely took his place on a bare bench, lay on his back, and closed his eyes. What puzzled me, as I watched him fall asleep, was when he crossed his arms over his chest.
So where did the other arms go?

Night came quickly as the train rocked us into slumber. Tyler left one of the smaller lights on and he read for a bit of time. I, on the other hand, couldn’t find sleep. What was Thorn doing right now? Were my parents freaking out? Would I come home to Aggie lining up to kick my ass?

I turned on my phone, but turned it back off just as quickly. I had no reception to check for messages.

Up in my bunk, with only my coat as my blanket, I drifted off, only to wake up again and again.

When the sounds of someone stirring underneath me made me twitch, I brushed it off and turned over on my side toward the aisle, only to notice that Raj was on the top bunk and Tyler was fast asleep with his book over his face below him.

So who the hell is under me?

The sounds of the intruder snoring floated up to me. Should I wake Raj and Tyler? Would the intruder hear me and attack us? I glanced at the door. It was locked as we had left it.

Slowly, as to not make too much noise, I angled myself over the edge and peeked. It was now or never, if it were truly a threat, it would have eaten us already. Something slept all right on the bottom bunk.

Our new roommate was sprawled on the bunk with one of the blankets provided on the train. His hairy limbs were too long for the blue blanket. His dark red hair partially obscured his face, but revealed a single eye where there should have been two. How the hell did a cyclops get in here after we’d locked the door?