Half Black Soul (25 page)

But, I had things to do, and fear or no, I was going to do them. It was easy enough to find the spot I'd been in yesterday, as it was just a straight walk in the same direction, but about halfway there it started to rain a little again. It wasn't a heavy downpour, but it was enough to make me wish I'd worn a rain coat. If it kept up, I was going to be soaked by the time I returned to the city.

I tossed my backpack to the ground and sat on top of it; better it get muddy than me. It still amazed me that it could be so quiet out here in these trees, especially when I knew for a fact that they were teeming with life. I knew that the city was only a couple miles away, but being out here gave me the impression of being in the middle of nowhere, and I hummed a little just to hear my own voice.

When I relaxed myself enough, I closed my eyes and slowly let my mind stretch out around me. I was hungry again, and if I wanted to be able to concentrate, then I needed to take care of that necessity first. It wasn't hard. In fact, it was even easier than it had been yesterday. This time, I didn't waste the energy on a rabbit. I called another whitetail to me first, and drank my fill of it before sending it away. Renewed, I sat back and thought for a moment about what I needed to work on.

I decided range was as good a thing to practice as anything else. The further I could stretch my mind out, the better. It was a stupid thought to entertain, because I was pretty sure that it was impossible, but I couldn't help but hope that if Alexa hadn't gone too far, maybe I could reach her. And, even though I had a nagging feeling that my sister was way beyond my reach now, I needed to dosomething to make myself feel better.

I closed my eyes once more, and concentrated on stretching that muscle out as far as it would go. It was sort of like pulling a huge rubber band out and out and out, and I was sweating after just a few minutes of it. But, admittedly, it felt good. It was such an opposite to what I usually had to do, that it was like stretching my legs out after having been sitting in a cramped space for way too long. Soul after soul fell under the umbrella of my mind; animals and plants and insects. When my mind reached the city limits of Two Rivers, I stopped pushing it out in that direction, and instead began forcing it to extend in the opposite direction. It was better to keep the souls in the city out of this little exercise.

I was impressed, though. I was pretty sure that Two Rivers was a few miles to my east, and while yesterday I had felt the concentrated buzz of all the souls there, I hadn't reached them like I was today. Today, my mind had stretched out in a circle that had to be at least a six miles in diameter. It was pretty awesome.

But, it made me wonder just how far I could go, so for over an hour, I pushed and pushed my mind toward the west. My breathing grew heavy and ragged, and I was beginning to feel lightheaded. It seemed to me that if I willed it hard enough, the rubber band muscle that was my mind would just stretch on into eternity. I was just about to pull back, and call it quits for the day, when I felt them.

At first, I thought I must be mistaken. In the past hour, I'd reached hundreds of forest creatures with my mind and thousands of tiny bugs and plant-life. So, when the souls of the supernaturals, an estimated ten miles to my east, came into range, I figured that I must have just been overexerting myself. But, when I pulled closer, I knew that I hadn't been mistaken. The pain of these souls ran too deep for any animal or insect. There were people out in these woods.

I had stood up and swung my backpack over my shoulders before I even realized what I was doing. My feet pulled me in the direction of the souls, even though my brain was telling me that I should probably be heading back to the city instead. Rather than listening to my right mind, I picked up my pace into jog. Ten miles was a long way to go, but I was conditioned for long-distance running. And, I couldn't ignore the cries of the souls that seemed to be screaming out to me. Something was seriously wrong here. I was going to find out what.

I jogged for about seven miles straight, glancing down at my watch every thirty minutes or so. If I could make it to & wherever the heck I was going soon, I might be able to get back to the city before the sun set. I knew there were no Lamias out here; the running rivers that flanked the walls around this land kept them out. But, I was in no way comfortable with being out here after dark, so I kept moving as quickly as I could manage. Branches tugged at my hair and clothing. Twigs and pine needles crunched under my feet. The trees seemed endless, and the sun stayed steady in its descent to the west. I continued to move forward.

Eventually, I came to a large lake. I found it odd that a lake was out here in the middle of the forest, but with each step I'd taken the feel of the people's souls in these woods became more and more potent. They were just on the other side of this lake, hundreds of them, and perhaps it was just the pure & anguish that radiated from all of them, but I was determined to reach them.

I spotted a rickety bridge that made a crossing point at a narrower part of the lake and headed toward it. It looked weak and weathered, and I was hesitant to set foot on it, but after another glance at my watch, I grabbed the sides of it with my hands, and started across. It swayed, and I held my breath. I could swim, but I'd prefer not to do so in a foreign lake in a foreign forest.

When I finally reached the other side, I took a deep breath. I knew where to go, but it seemed to occur to me just then that I was neck-deep in a place that I probably really ought not be. I could still see the sun peeking through the trees, and while this offered some comfort, the fact that their shadows seemed to be growing deeper and longer by the minute made the hair on my arms stand on end. I was confident that if an animal tried to attack me, I could probably control it long enough to make it go away, but I was still scared. It didn't really matter now, though. I was in too deep already, both literally and figuratively.

But, as I got closer, I began to tremble, and it wasn't because the rain had picked up. Somehow, I knew in my soul that what I was about to see was going to change things. Whatever these broken souls were doing out here, whatever the reason they were here, I was sure that it wasn't something that the people of Two Rivers were privy to. I wasn't sure if I wanted to be either. But, ignoring them, and just turning back in direction I'd come would have been the same as turning away from a burning building, when I knew darn good and well that men, women and children were trapped inside.

My movements adopted a zombie-like manner. I felt like a fly drawn to the light of a bug-zapper. A small hill loomed ahead, and I knew that the people I sought lay just behind it. I also was aware that time was of precious value, and that darkness would fall over the land at its designated time whether I took the lead out of my shoes or not. But, I couldn't seem to care at the moment. The pain from the souls made my chest ache more and more with every step I took.

When I reached the top of the hill, the sight along with the feeling made me fall down hard on my knees. My heart seemed to constrict painfully in my chest, and my breath got jammed up in my throat. My eyes began to water, and within seconds, warm tears spilled over and ran freely down my cheeks. My fingernails dug into the wet earth at my sides, and my head fell forward as if an almighty hand had smacked the back of my skull.

What are you doing here?

The voice was fierce, but childish. I'd known that she was there before she'd spoken, but it didn't seem to matter. The reality before me was much too devastating to concern myself with anything other. I squeezed my eyes shut, wishing I hadn't come here, wishing the darkness behind my lids could just make it all go away. I really, really shouldn't have come here. I wanted to go home. Problem was, I had no home to go to. The silent tears running down my face turned into violent sobs.

Um & are you okay, said the girl at my back.

No. No. No. No. No. It was all I could manage.

You shouldn't be here, she said.

I lifted my head a fraction, the effort seeming to take an enormous amount of energy, and turned my face so that I could see the girl who'd spoken. Whatever was left of my heart broke into a million more pieces and fell to the pit of my soul. More sobs wracked my body.

I knew who this girl was. I didn't have to ask. I knew who all the people below me in this sorry excuse for a village were. Their souls were as open to me as a well-worn book, and their pain cut through me so deeply that it was a wonder that I wasn't bleeding. There were so many of them; slaves. Blood donors. Men. Women. Children & Undesirables. I began to dry heave.

A small hand touched my shoulder, and I cried out at the contact. My mind was free now, and it seemed to refuse to return home until I grasped every single horror that lay before me. I knew all of the souls instantly, and that meant I knew their pain. And, this little girl, Soraya, hers was the worst thing I've ever known in all my years of Soul Searching. Her pain burned me and ate at me in a way that I knew instinctively would leave nothing left.

Soraya's hand fell away, as if she could sense what her touch was doing to me. She crouched beside me. What are you? she asked.

I'm Alexa's sister, I said, and even my voice came out sounding broken.

You know who I am?

I nodded. You're Soraya.

She gestured to the village at the bottom of the hill. People mulled around down there, all of them dirty and beaten and so very, very hopeless. The contrast to the city I'd just come from was sickening. Nothing here was beautiful or cared for. Small huts used for homes were the only structures. The ground was just hard-packed dirt, turned dark and muddy due to the rain. The people wore no shoes. Their faces were gaunt and sunken. Some were old. Some were crippled. Some were just children. Like Soraya. Poor, precious Soraya, who from her soul, I knew to love my sister. Alexa had come to this place. She had come to this place, vowed to help these people, and then left. Soraya didn't know that she was gone.

You know what this is, then? she asked.

I nodded again. Yes, I know.

I cringed visibly when Soraya grabbed my arm and attempted to pull me to my feet. I didn't want to move. I couldn t. If all these people had to suffer, while I returned to the cozy life I'd known back at Two Rivers, perhaps I deserved to share in their agony. There was plenty of it to go around.

Get up, Soraya said, grunting a little with the effort to get me on my feet. When I began shaking at her touch, she released me. Okay, I get it. This is a lot to take in. But, get up. Whatever it is that you're doing seems to be too much for you. Let's get you away from the village.

From the mouths of babes &. I slowly climbed to my feet, wobbling a little and feeling nauseatingly lightheaded. Soraya seemed wise enough not to make physical contact with me again, but looking at her seemed to be even more difficult than touching her. I knew from her mind that she was seven years old, but small for her age, with dark, curly hair and big golden eyes. She had a cleft lip that did nothing to take away her beauty. And, she, like all the others down in that village, was being milked for blood. Oh God, I thought. Oh dear God.

Soraya began leading me back toward the lake. I put one foot in front of the other, drawing in harsh breaths that came easier with every step I took away from the damaged souls of the village. When we reached the rickety bridge, Soraya had to take my hand again, as I was still unsteady on my feet. I focused all of my concentration on blocking myself from seeing into her soul. By the time we made it across the bridge, I'd managed to gain some control over myself.

We sat down on a fallen tree trunk, and neither of us spoke for quite a while. The thing I kept thinking about was that Alexa hadn't told me about this. She hadn't told me that she'd met a little girl, who by the way, was Kayden's niece, and found a village full of vampires and werewolves who were all essentially blood slaves. Things started to click together in my head. The people disappearing from Two Rivers after they'd outgrown their use , the reason they all thought that a war was coming, and expected my sister to lead them in it, why Alexa had been so shaken up and disturbed while she was here, and maybe, though I didn't think this was right, but maybe, the reason she'd left. Upon seeing those poor people at the bottom of the hill, things had indeed changed for me. Bigger questions than the ones I'd come here with had presented themselves. The first one, and perhaps the most important, was why these supernaturals were being leached of their blood. I knew that Two Rivers was supplied by human blood banks, and I would definitely have known if the blood there was from supernaturals. The contrast between it and human blood is unmistakable.

Just as I knew my sister had probably done before me, I vowed to find out why. Someone at Two Rivers had to know what their blood was being used for, and I was confident that this would be one mission that I could succeed at over my sister. I would find the answers that she'd been looking for, and I would do it soon.

So, what's your name, Soraya asked, cutting into my thoughts.

Nelly, I replied.

Did Alexa tell you about me?

I looked over at the beautiful child and felt my stomach tighten all over again. I considered telling her the truth, and found that I just couldn't do it. Yes, I said. She's very fond of you.

I could tell immediately that this had been the right response, but at the same time, it seemed to worry the girl. But, don't worry, I added. I'm her sister, and she tells me things that she would never tell anyone else. Or at least I thought she did.