Dark Heirloom (An Ema Marx Novel Book 1) (28 page)

Chapter 28

We walked for a long time in the thick fog, unable to see more than two feet in front of us, and every tree we passed looked the same. Red and leafless. Leena wore her frustrations on the surface. Her fists clenched as she re-wound the wool, a scowl glued onto her face. Our little adventure must not be going the way she planned.

Although hell was nothing like I thought it would be, at least it wasn’t worse. At least Satan, or Hades, or whoever, didn’t have us chained up in a torture chamber.

“Who said we won’t be?” Leena huffed.

Damn her mind reading ability.

She snorted. “I am frustrated because we’ve been wandering these woods for hours, and if what the crone said is true, we still have a long search ahead of us. I was expecting to arrive in a field of dead people, and begin searching right away. I did not think we would have to find where the dead were kept first.”

I nodded. “Yeah, I did sort of assume we’d be surrounded by skeletons, and ghosts, and little red demons by now. Do you think we can’t get there because we’re not dead? Maybe we’re in limbo or something.”

Leena thought for a moment. “No, I’m positive we are in the underworld.”

That would have to be good enough. I tried to keep my mind clear, but I had too much space to ponder. I wondered if Leena could control her ability. Could she choose to read a specific person’s mind, or did she hear everyone’s inner thoughts all the time? Leena said Jalmari had shut her away from his mind. How was he able to turn her ability off?

Leena glowered. I shrugged and kept walking. “Sorry, I can’t help being curious.”

She spoke through clenched teeth. “I have to remind myself that people don’t speak their mind out of politeness.”

“You don’t like talking about it,” I stated the obvious.

“It has been a difficult journey.”

“Your father thought you could speak to the gods. That must have been something.”

Leena nodded. “My father convinced the city of Athens that I had been given a gift from the gods. Back then, a gift from the gods made you a little bit more than human, and people started to believe I was a demi-goddess.”

“Are you?”
Hey, there are vampyres and Nephilim, why not goddesses?

Leena shrugged. “Nothing seems to constitute as godly anymore. I would simply be a telepath. My struggles came when I met Jalmari.”

I nodded, understanding all too the well the difficulties of becoming a vampire because of him. I felt sympathetic for Leena. She had a bright future ahead of her, before Jalmari took it away.

“Do not blame him,” Leena warned. “I knew what he was, and I still loved him. I wanted him to turn me. I wanted to be with him always. I could not stand the thought of growing old and dying so soon before him.”

That was something I hadn’t considered. “You gave up everything, though.”

Leena snorted a laugh. “Hardly. The world was so different then. It was easy for vampyres to call themselves gods and demigods, and live in temples. It made life very convenient for us.”

My eyes grew wide. “Why would anyone worship a vampyre?”

She laughed. “Why not? Humans didn’t know the difference back then. The pre-Christian world worshiped many different pagan gods. Some of those gods represented death, darkness, destruction. Vampyres fit in with those aspects, and with our powers, who would dare to question our authority?”

“So, you could walk into any Greek city, claim you’re a god, and demand they build you a temple to worship you?”

“To put it simply, yes.”

I rolled my eyes. “That explains why the ancient gods demanded human and animal sacrifices.”

Leena giggled. “Why, yes, that is exactly why.”

Gosh. First Jack the Ripper, then the Holocaust, and now Greek gods. Was there any part of human history that
wasn’t
laced with vampirism?

“Not really,” Leena answered my mental question.

“So, what happened? Why did humans stop worshiping them?”

Leena wrinkled her nose in disgust. “The Inquisitions.”

We paused and huddled together in the dense fog.

“This isn’t working.” Leena’s voice was hoarse.

I nodded in agreement. I couldn’t see past my nose in the darkness. While trying to think of what to do next, a faint scratching noise, like claws against wood, floated into my eardrums.

“Do you hear that?” I whispered.

“Yes.”

Twigs snapped. The scratching sound scraped against stones and ripped bark off the trees as it quickly drew closer. We both scanned the fog for the source of the noise, but the mist was too thick. Whatever it was, it came from all sides, and circled us.

We stood back to back. I could feel Leena’s shoulders tense as she prepared for a fight. My own instincts flared and filled me with adrenaline. I crouched, ready to pounce on the first thing that showed itself.

Suddenly, the forest was silent. Too silent. My heart pounded in my ears. I sniffed at the air, trying to get some trace of whatever was after us, but all I could smell were the trees and the earth. I phased my right hand. The only vibes to brush against my molecules were those of plants. I unphased and swallowed my nerves. Something was out there, something not alive enough to give off energy.

We waited, silent, alert, and as ready as we could possibly be, which wasn’t ready enough. A thin, rope-like substance snatched both of my ankles and pulled my feet out from under me. I shrieked as I fell flat on my face. The last thing I saw was the forest turning upside down.

Someone called my name.
I’m right here
, I tried to say, but my lips didn’t move. My eyes only peeked opened. Wherever I was, it was dark, and I was glad.

I remembered a rope-like thing pulling my ankles. I remembered falling. I groaned and tried to sit up. The instant my muscles flexed, a thousand tiny prickles constricted and pierced my flesh. I gasped, wide-eyed, as reality smacked me in the face. I was caught in a gigantic briar thorn bush.

Thousands of thin vines wrapped a cocoon of thorns tightly around my limbs and body, holding me prisoner. I screamed in utter horror. The screaming made me tense. Tensing made the vines constrict tighter, the thorns dig deeper into my flesh, like barbwire. I couldn’t stop screaming.

“Shhh… Oh!” Leena moaned.

“Where are you?” I inflicted more pain by trying to turn my head to see her. My lungs erupted in protest until I hardly recognized my own voice. “What the hell is this?” Pain tore into my flesh. A warm liquid seeped down my body, only it was wrong. Instead of dripping down toward my feet, it dripped up toward my face.

I’m hanging upside down?

“Yes,” Leena groaned. “Be… quiet.” Her voice was low, but not calm. The strain in her words showed, and I realized she was making an extra effort to hold her temper. I tried my best not to scream.

What is going on?

“We’re… caught… in… thorns.” Each time Leena spoke a word, the vines snapped and constricted. I heard the sickening rip of flesh, heard her gasp, and smelled the blood as it ran down her body.

“We can… phase.” Fire coursed through me as new wounds were torn open.

“No…,” she whimpered. “I… tried. Thorns… for miles… They… get you… as… soon as… you… stop. No… end.”

“Then how… ” I tried to ask, but was jerked silent by the pain.

“Don’t… speak.”

Duh
.

I glanced around without moving my head. I could tell from Leena’s voice that she was nearby, but I couldn’t see her. She must have been behind me. Layer after layer of thickly woven branches and vines surrounded us with a gut-wrenching web of torture. The branches lay so thick, light couldn’t reach us.

If we were going to get out of this, I had to be able to communicate with Leena. Of course, I realized all I had to do was
think
and she’d hear me. Leena, however, would have to go through considerable pain to talk back. I would have to form my thoughts carefully so she wouldn’t have to speak more than necessary.

Think. Think, think, think!
The old woman. She warned us this would happen. She also told us how to get out. What had she said to do again?

“Dig… down,” Leena groaned.

That’s right.

Of course, that involved moving. But if it meant we’d get out of this bush faster, then it would be worth it.

I tried to wiggle loose, but I felt light-headed as blood rushed to my brain. When I tried to bend, a dozen thorn-covered vines shot out and rolled me up like a burrito. Thousands of thorns tore my clothes, ripped my flesh open, and jerked strands of hair off my scalp.

I screamed and struggled as blood ran down the length of my body, until I couldn’t move another muscle, hostage to a pain far worse than anything I’ve ever felt before. A mixture of sweat and blood rolled down my face as my muscles gave out, and I hung there, panting. It was then I realized Leena hadn’t made a sound. Was she all right?

“Yes.”

Thank God.

“Something’s… wrong.”

Oh really? I couldn’t tell.

“Straight… doesn’t…  go… forward.” She cried out in pain, then clamped her jaw shut. The old woman’s voice flashed through my mind.

Paths don’t go straight here.

Suddenly, I understood. To go forward, we had to turn around and backtrack. So, to go down, we really had to climb up.

Leena huffed. “Yes.”

But, why would the old woman tell us not to climb up, if up was actually up this time, and down was down? Unless we were somehow hanging right-side-up and the gravity was upside-down? I was confusing myself.

Never mind, just go with it.

I tilted my chin to look up at my feet. Nothing happened, which was a major improvement. I tensed my stomach and tried to do a sit-up. The thorns that were already latched onto me poked deeper into the folds of my stomach, but no new ones shot out, and nothing constricted.

This seems to be working
, I thought for Leena’s benefit.

“Yes,” she agreed, though her voice was small.

I attempted to do another sit-up and some wiggling. The vines began to loosen their grip. A few layers fell off and receded into the darkness. After several minutes of slow progress, my hands and arms came free. Pieces of plant material still clung to my biceps and forearms, as the thorns were in too deep.

I worked quickly to untangle the rest of my body, but then realized my mistake. If I completely undid the vines, I would only fall deeper into the web. I stopped unwrapping myself and focused on figuring out a way to climb through the mess. It wouldn’t be easy. The vines were no thicker than rose stems, but with triple the amount of thorns. Grabbing a hold of them to pull myself up would be impossible without inflicting more pain.

Leena called out. “Give me your hand.”

I twisted my neck to look at her. She hung from a handful of vines like it was a thick, prickly rope. Blood ran down her arm as she gripped it. That wasn’t the worst part. Quite a bit of plant and thorn material was embedded in her sides, her arms, and her bare legs. One length of vine stuck to her collarbone, wrapped around her neck, and slashed across the left side of her face from jaw to forehead. Her left eye was forced closed by a couple of the thorns that dug through the lid into the eyeball.

“Oh, God, Leena.”

Her right eye glanced down self-consciously. “It’s not that bad, now come on.”

I took her outstretched hand. She pulled me to her, and I grasped the vines, wincing as the thorns dug into my palms. Every last fiber of my being screamed in protest but, somehow, I was able to pull myself up the vines. I was positive that if I were still human, I would have died a long time ago. I was sure it was the Nephilim in me that kept going.

Leena huffed and puffed below me. She had to be every bit as sore as I was, and with only one eye to use. Guilt wracked at my heart even though I knew there wasn’t anything I could have done.

“How are you holding up?” I asked.