Heir of Earth (Forgotten Gods) (20 page)

A man lingered in the tree line on the far side of the clearing. He leaned casually against a tree, watching me with interest as I began to back away from him toward the trail where Sterling had disappeared. When he stepped out into the clearing, I recognized him instantly.

Fear gripped tightly around my chest, squeezing the breath from my lungs. Panic took over my body, but instead of running away like I should have, my muscles froze and my feet stuck to the clover like glue. The horror of my situation settled in my brain, my eyes opened wider, my hair stood on end— all my senses heightened like quarry facing a hunter.

Black curls hung familiarly around his face and when I looked into his eyes, my world went black and white. It felt like I was flailing backwards through a darkened, bottomless pit, into a danger too real to comprehend. Struggling to run, but held by his aquamarine eyes, looking like deadly daggers of ice, waiting to destroy me.

I knew immediately his cold, calculating glare had lured sweet Christine into danger. When his ominous orbs focused on me with a sinister grin, I knew I was next.

“Well, hello there. Remember me?” He asked shrugging away from his perch against the tree and smiling at me as if we were old friends meeting on the street.

My head jerked in two quick nods as he approached me.

“This is private property,” I managed to get out.

A smile spread across his face. “I’m sure Dayne won’t mind that I’m here.”

“You know Dayne?” I asked, hoping for a brief minute my danger wasn’t as real as it seemed.

“Everyone knows the great Dayne DeLaney,” he spit Dayne’s name from his mouth like he had bitten into a rotten onion. I briefly recalled the exchange I had witnessed at the festival. No, Dayne and this man definitely were not friends. My danger was as real as it seemed.

“You shouldn’t be here. Dayne doesn’t like anyone on his property. You need to leave.” I raised my chin into the air, balled my hands into fists at my side and stood up to my full height, hoping I at least looked intimidating.

He continued to walk toward me and was about two feet away when he looked in my eyes, tilted his head to the side like he pitied me, and said, “No.”

“No?” I questioned his answer, hoping I had misunderstood him.

“No,” he whispered again, just as easily as he had before. My feet had grown roots deep into the ground, making movement impossible. The raindrops that had felt so pleasant before were now freezing, landing on my skin and chilling me to the core. Happy sunshine had been replaced with an ominous gray mist that hung thick in the air around us. The rain ran down my face, through my hair, and soaked my clothes so that they clung to my body, exposing me to this stranger in a way that made my skin crawl with disgust.

The stranger didn’t stop until he was close enough that I felt his breath hot against my frozen cheek. The lavender smell that had clung to him at the festival was gone, replaced with the sharp, dank scent of rotting wood. My nose immediately recoiled from the scent, and I turned my head to the side and gagged.

His hand reached out, stroking the length of my hair that hung freely around my shoulders. His touch was violating, crude and completely unwelcomed. But that didn’t stop him. I closed my eyes and cringed away from him.

“I was just getting to know you when we were interrupted the other night. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you,” he said as he ran his fingertips down my arm. I uselessly tried to pull my arm away from the vile feel of his touch, like sandpaper abrading my bare skin.

With eyes closed, I pictured the last time I had seen him, leaning into Christine and obviously making her feel like she was the only girl in the world.

“Where is Christine?” I demanded, finally able to take a step away from him.

“Don’t worry about Christine. She’s happier than she’s ever been,” he said, closing the space between us again with a single step. He brushed his fingers along my cheek. “I can make you that happy, too. If you let me.”

“No!” I said through gritted teeth. His touch burned like acid on my flesh. Eyes I had once thought were beautiful laughed at me, knowing how helpless I was. In the light of day, he wasn’t so handsome after all. His blue eyes were almost white, giving them an eerie, otherworldly look. His dark curls reeked with the dank decay of a forest after a rainstorm.

He laughed at me again.

“It wasn’t really a question,” he said. His arms clamped around me, and there was nothing I could do to stop it. I forced a scream from deep inside, but my throat closed up. I fought to run away, but my knees buckled. I pushed away from him with every muscle I could summon, but my arms were as weak as wet spaghetti noodles. I flailed back and forth, trying to free myself from his arms, managing only to bend like a blade of grass.

He was dragging me into the woods, my body incapacitated by his tortuous grip. A blur of motion registered in the corner of my eyes. The next second, my body was flying backward through the air, away from the man and away from whatever had caused him to release me. I crashed into the ground like I had been launched from a catapult. The bones in my right shoulder popped, and pain shot through me like a lightning bolt.

Clinging to the ground, tears of fear and pain fell like waterfalls from my eyes. Through the fog of my nightmare came a sound so feral and malevolent I wished the earth would open up and cover me over. Hisses and guttural threats slithered through the clearing in a tone so low they whispered along the ground beneath me, too heavy and dangerous to carry through the wind like normal voices.

The rough, rotting bark of a fallen tree lay beside me. I forced my body to move and slipped over the mossy trunk, putting it between myself and the danger in the clearing.

Suffering in misery so overpowering my brain hovered on the edge of consciousness, the searing pain of my injury washed all other thoughts away. I couldn’t move my right arm. It hung limply at my side. The freezing chill from the rain was the only thing keeping me from closing my eyes and drifting away.

Slowly, it registered in my mind that a groan was vibrating in my throat. As the sound grew louder my thoughts began to gather and I knew this wasn’t how I wanted my life to end.

An adrenaline rush of self-preservation slapped my face and woke me enough to regain a few senses. I opened my eyes and peered around the tree trunk. Two men rolled around on the ground. Dark curls flew through the air as the stranger landed a blow so powerful it shuddered like thunder around us.

The two bodies twisted and turned, flying around as if they weren’t bound to the same rules of gravity the rest of the world was. My attacker jumped on the trunk of a tree and clung to it like a panther before leaping back into the clearing over his opponent’s head.

The other man turned around slowly and pulled himself up to his full height. His arms moved away from his body, cocked at his side like battering rams ready to fly. He slowly raised his head and the terrifying beauty of Dayne glared back at the man just as he had the night of the dance.

The man struck at Dayne like a snake, grabbing him around the neck and slinging him to the ground again. They fought for the top of the pile, pinning each other to the ground with a force so strong I felt the earth quake beneath me with every blow.

“No!” The word escaped from my lips. Dayne’s head snapped around. The hard lines of anger changed to soft curves of concern when he heard my voice. The curly haired man took no pity on him, landing a blow so violent the trees trembled in its aftershocks.

Dayne crumpled to the ground in front of my eyes. Without missing a beat, the stranger stepped swiftly over his body and continued toward me. I scrambled away from him as quickly as I could, but it was no use. He grabbed my right arm, his grip like the jaws of a hungry lion, biting into my flesh and tearing my bones apart. I crumpled, just as Dayne had, in agony at his feet.

Once again, he began to drag me along the ground. I watched the once beautiful tufts of clover passing by me as my eyes rolled back in my head. I was about to pass out from the pain when another blur of motion flew past us and the stranger stopped.

“Leave her.” The authority was back in Dayne’s voice, dripping with an anger so threatening the man actually released me. I fell to the ground, a pitiful pile of human suffering.

“You have no authority here, Dayne.” He growled as he stepped away from me.

“I said leave her.” Dayne’s shoulders heaved with labored breath, but he didn’t back down.

The man flew at Dayne again, and he moved quickly to the side. The stranger plunged headfirst into a tree, but jumped up immediately as if he had hit the softness of a pillow. They faced off again. This time Dayne’s back was to me.

The man charged again. Dayne braced himself for impact. He spread his feet apart, one behind him, and one in front. He lowered his head, and both hands went out in front of him, mumbling in a low voice like he had in my dream the night Hannah had gone into labor. The man stopped in his tracks when he saw what Dayne was doing.

“Why do you defend her? Is she yours?” The stranger asked Dayne. Dayne stopped and looked up at the man. An almost imperceptible nod jerked his head.

“You have not claimed her.” The stranger said, as if it meant everything.

“I am human, remember?” Dayne said to my attacker with a calm that defied logic.

“Then I apologize,” the stranger said with a sideways tilt of his head and disappeared into the woods.

Waiting until he was satisfied the man was gone, Dayne turned to me. He was by my side in a heartbeat, bending over me and assessing my injury.

I whimpered in pain, unable to form words and not knowing what I would say if I could. I had a million questions flying through my head at that moment. What I had just seen didn’t happen in the real world. It only happened in Hollywood movies. But the pain that radiated through my body choked the breath out of me, and I couldn’t focus on words to ask a question.

“Tell me its another dream Dayne.” I said through my tears. His eyes closed and he grabbed at the back of his neck with his free hand in frustration. Deep lines of worry carved his normally placid brow as he looked down at me. His head shook two times in a helpless way before it began nodding.

“Yes, it’s all just a dream, Faye.” His hands traced over my chest and he bent down to me. For a moment I thought he was going to kiss me, but instead the cool breeze of his breath washed over me, and as if by magic, my pain began to subside. A groan that wasn’t my own rattled my throat.

“What was that?” I asked, wiggling my arm at my side, but still too woozy to understand what was happening.

“It’s your dream, Faye. When you wake up this will be nothing but a fuzzy, distant memory.”

“Only a dream?”

“That’s all you’ll remember, Faye. Just another forgotten dream.” His hand lingered over my eyes, and I fell lifelessly into his arms.

I woke up hours later
in bed with my brain already struggling to recall how I had gotten there. The world was foggy and I could barely see, but I smelled the familiar scent of Rose’s garden wafting in through my window and the cozy comfort of familiar sheets cradled my aching body.

My eyes fluttered open, and I struggled to regain the gift of sight. Rose’s hand rested against my cheek, her sweet voice coming to me from somewhere far away.

“What happened?” I asked, surprised at how foreign my voice sounded to my ears.

“You fell off your horse, sweetheart. You’re pretty banged up, but the doctor says you’ll be just fine. Nothing broken. You dislocated your shoulder and have some nasty bruises. Do you remember what happened?”

I rubbed my head, trying to recall, but quickly gave up when it hurt my brain to think so hard.

“There was a fight...Dayne...” I said, remembering only bits and pieces of the day.

“Ummmm…I think that’s the concussion talking.” Rose bit her lip as she looked at me with worry. “Dayne said you were out of it and fought him pretty hard on the way back to the barn after he found you unconscious in the woods. The doctor said its common to have total memory loss after a fall like that. ” She patted my arm.

“But I didn’t…he didn’t…” I let out an exasperated sigh and shook my head, trying to force the pieces into place. But nothing made sense. “The doctor said I wouldn’t remember?” I looked up to Rose.

“Very common. The brain goes into defense mode after a blow like you had. Good thing you had your riding helmet on or you’d be at the hospital right now.” Rose eased me back down to my pillow, tucking the blanket under my chin. She hummed gently, smoothing the wrinkles from my brow with her warm hand.

I felt a cold nose sniff along my arm and reached out for the familiar wiry coat.

“What’s Cotton doing here?” I asked. Rose had never agreed to let him past her den before.

“He was whining at the door a few hours ago. Started searching the house for you as soon as I let him in. He hasn’t left your side since.” Rose said as she rubbed the little head beside me. “You rest. I’ll go make you some tea.”

Rose refused to let me out of bed for 48 hours and insisted on pouring every herbal remedy she could think of down my throat. My head hurt too much to read, so I passed the hours playing with Cotton and trying to convince myself it had all been a dream.