Shadow Assassins (The Second Realm Trilogy) (5 page)

“Beware, magic users,”
this time, the same elegant voice spoke in words the Shadow Assassins could understand, but it wasn’t due to the potion. Running under the current of the words was another stream of words, in the same foreign tongue as before. The two streams formed into one confusing voice.

“What the hell is going on?” Marco cried above the noise.

Evangeline scrambled to her feet. “Someone doesn’t want us crossing over. Too bad, right?”

With that, she made a dash towards the glowing portal.

She didn’t make it very far. Her hand stretched out towards the twining archway, as if she were to grab onto it and pull herself through. This time, the same shock wave that had hit them went specifically for her, in the form of a black streak of energy. It hit the angel-demon hybrid right in the side, forcing her away.

“Evie!”
Kaydee shouted as she went after her friend. She helped Evangeline stand and backed away as her friend whipped a knife from her pocket.

There was a small noise as a switch blade popped open into position. Evangeline took pride in her knives and switch blades were her personal favorite. The silver glinted in the glow of the portal. She saw the vampire back up as the silver flashed out, as vampires suffered severe poisoning when injured with silver and could smell the metal before they saw it. Not that Dirk was a concern to her. Whoever had attacked her was going to get a blade to the gut.

“Come out, you coward!” she shouted to the empty forest.

“Arrogant fool,”
the voice whispered, with the same undercurrent of foreign tongue beneath it.
“You think you can fight me?”

Evangeline was attacked once more by a black streak of energy. In the dark of the forest, the energy was almost hidden to the eye. What gave away its presence was a faint, blue-black glow that surrounded it. She found the light and lashed out...but the silver passed through the energy as if it was not more than air. While she stared in confusion, the energy again hit her square in the chest, knocking her back. She saw Kaydee reach forward to help her, but Kaydee was restrained by a tendril of black energy that wove around her arms, pulling the woman back as it bound her arms behind her.

A horrified scream escaped from Kaydee’s lips. “It burns! Oh, my God, it burns!”

Marco sprung forward to try and help Kaydee escape, but the energy binding her burned him as well. He flinched. “What
is
this?”

Kaleb saw his friends in danger and turned to Dirk, who was unarmed and not prepared for combat. “Go through the portal, Dirk. We’ll meet you at Moonriver.”

Dirk nodded and held his gaze for a moment. “Be strong. I’ll wait for you on the other side.”

With that, the vampire slipped through the portal. He glowed white as he stepped through the doorway and, instead of emerging through on the other
side, he disappeared into the white light.

A frustrated curse escaped Marco as he watched the vampire vanish. He took in a deep breath and focused inward, instead of on the chaos outside his body. Inside his mind, he found the power he was looking for, the reserve of magical energy he could feel, and tapped into it. His mind was his greatest weapon, better than any automated gun or sharp knife. He stared down at the black energy tendrils binding Kaydee’s arms and, with his mind, dove into the dark magic. All he needed was a moment to free her. As he separated the tendrils at their molecular structure, he tried not to breathe. Breathing felt as though he was underwater and he couldn’t tell if that was from his own powers or the evil magic that oozed from whatever was holding Kaydee captive.

The binds snapped and Kaydee burst free. She instantly tapped into her own magic, diving down, mentally, into the earth. The earth had unlimited power to grant her, unlimited energy that she could use. The power surged through her as if it were lightning through a lightning rod, lighting her up from the inside. The power made her hands glow a light, pale spring green. As she focused her power, the burns she had gained glowed green as well, until they were closing, healing from the energy surging through her body. As she touched Marco, the power transferred to his skin, closing and healing his wounds as well. Their gazes met and silent gratitude passed beneath them.

“Go for the portal, guys!” Evangeline shouted from nearby, breaking through the moment.

“Let’s go,” he said to Kaydee, who nodded.

“You will not go together,”
the voice hissed. This time, the black energy gathered and reformed, attacking the portal itself. It tried to penetrate the portal but was rejected. The portal warped colors, from white to a flickering black and white, a chaotic snowy pattern on a bad TV channel.

Marco sprang forward once more, determined to hold off the energy now that he had an idea of how to do it. “Go! I’ll be behind you!”

Kaleb was closest to the portal. He slipped through easily before a tendril of black energy snaked out and attempted to stop him. Marco invaded the energy at its molecular level, altering what it was and where it went. Kaleb went through safely before Marco lost control of the energy. The black energy hit the portal, causing it to go into a black and white sort of chaos again. He again pulled it back with his mind as Evangeline approached the portal.

Their gazes met and it looked like she was going to say something when the energy lashed out again, hitting her in the chest once more. She didn’t cross over so much as fall through with a yell. She went over and vanished into the portal.

“Go, Kaydee!” he shouted.

Kaydee hesitated for a moment,
then lunged for the portal even as the energy went after her again. The energy caught her by the wrist and tried to pull her back, it being no more than a blob, an inkblot floating in the air as if it had its own life and willpower. Kaydee struggled against it, heading for the portal as Marco again prepared for another assault. Kaydee too stumbled with no more grace than Evangeline through the portal.

“Foolish mortal,”
the voice hissed as Marco pulled the energy from Kaydee.

“I’m so out of here,” Marco said in response to the voice. “See you never, you freak of nature.”

The voice didn’t respond verbally, but he could feel the outrage coming from the energy, as if he had been hit with a blast of heat. The energy went after him but he was already through the portal–

...
falling
...

Into nothing more than white light.

Part Two

Fracture

Dirk emerged from the portal right where he had designated the portal to take him, in his office at Moonriver Academy. He stumbled forward, catching himself on the bookshelf that lined the walls before he fell. A book fluttered to the floor but he ignored it.

He looked around his office, ignoring the textbooks and parchment piles crowding a large, ornate oak desk and chair. His skin itched slightly. Heavy blinds covered the windows, shielding his office from daylight that tried to greet him. That was one of the more disorientating things about traveling between realms. Darkness was dominant in Moonlight Hills but here at Moonriver Academy, it was daylight out. Time had a different flow between realms.

This office was empty, still. The Shadow Assassins had not crossed over yet. It made sense, seeing as how he was the first one through the portal, but he had hoped that they were right behind him.

He couldn’t explain what had attacked them. He had never seen it before, had never experienced such a feeling of evil and dread. Whatever had attacked them was not human, not animal, not even something created by a mage. This was beyond anything he had ever studied, something that was just pure evil itself. He couldn’t describe it better than that.

Glancing back at where he had landed, he hoped that the Shadow Assassins were okay. They had seemed like they could handle themselves okay, when Kaleb had told him to cross over. He had seen it in the students here – just because the person was young didn’t mean they couldn’t handle themselves. They were all in good health and good shape and, from what he could see before he had crossed over, they could fight.

All he had to do now was await their arrival.



Emerging from the portal wasn’t so much of stepping through a doorway as it was falling from a great distance. Kaleb, the first of the Shadow Assassins to cross over, found this out quickly as he was thrown out of the portal.

He landed hard on solid ground, his chest taking the impact of the fall, the breath smacked out of him. It took a moment for him to recover. When he was able to, he sat up and looked around, squinting in the sunlight. Odd, that it was sunny here, when he had just come from a land that was dark.

Even odder...the other Assassins weren’t behind him, as he was expecting. Instead, he was in the middle of a grassy plain.
Alone. There was no one else awaiting him. Dirk wasn’t there, as he had promised to be. As far as Kaleb’s sight stretched, all he saw was golden grass as tall as his waist and trees in the distance. This stretch of plain was absolutely empty. There was no building or anything that indicated that he was near a school or even any kind of civilization.

Confusion clouded his thoughts. Dirk had said that they were going to a school he taught at. Nowhere in this forest was a school. Dirk had included no instructions as to how to travel within the portal – he had just crossed over. Maybe Kaleb was missing some key instruction on how to travel through the portal; maybe he had done it wrong?

A cool breeze fluttered over him and he caught the scent of burning wood. Unless it was a wildfire, that burning meant that someone had to be nearby. Unfortunately, he wasn’t sure what qualified as
nearby.
He could wind up wandering for hours, weak and alone, before he found someone, assuming that someone was friendly in the first place. A little stealth might come in handy.

Sighing, he forced the growing panic to the back of his mind and sat down in the tall grass, unsure if there were people watching. Once he had calmed himself, he sifted through various animals in his mind, searching for a form that would help him.

His body began warping, slowly at first, before changing into an animal better suited to his environment. He would prefer a big cat, such his usual tiger form, but he wasn’t sure of what kind of environment or people he would pass by. Something subtle, like what he was transforming into, was more appropriate.

Feathers burst from his skin, punching through the clothing he wore. When he was younger, he didn’t know how to retain his clothing when he shifted forms and ended up naked when he shifted back into his human form. Now, he trained his mind to consider the clothing as a sort of skin over his actual skin, and the feathers that burst forth didn’t even rip through the cloth. He didn’t worry about weapons. When Marco and Evangeline were arming themselves, he didn’t pick anything.
With less to carry, there was less to worry about as he transformed.

His body shrank down and
his bones restructured themselves in a series of cracks and pops, forming what wasn’t there before. In no time, he had transformed from a human adult male to a full grown male falcon. He shook his feathers and stretched his wings, testing his body, before he rose up into the air.

Help had to be around here, somewhere.

As a bird, he made faster time through the empty field, following the scent of burning wood. He wove through the forest trees with ease, able to pick out paths easier than he would have if he were an ordinary human. The falcon’s instincts guided him and tried distracting him. This forest was active. Devoid of anyone he could see, but active. He could hear mice scurrying in the brush under him and for a moment, he almost wanted to give in and track one down. The animal instincts of what he transformed into were always there in the back of his mind. It took training to sort them out and push them aside.

He had no idea of how far he had traveled, but he knew he was alone, still. He hadn’t heard any of his friends calling for him and there was still no sign from Dirk. As far as he was concerned, he was lost.

He settled on a tree branch to rest for a moment. Bird forms were always hard for him to hold, especially when he was flying. Whenever he exhausted himself, it was always more difficult for him to find his human shape again. Shifting back to human form would be a good idea, at least for him to rest.

As he fluttered to the ground, he concentrated on returning to his human form. The falcon body grew and warped, wings forming back into arms; beak reforming into a separate nose and mouth. He landed on his booted feet and stumbled forward, catching his balance with human hands. All that remained from his transformation were a few spare feathers flying around him; the equivalent of losing a few strands of hair. Back in human form, exhaustion settled over him, as if he had been running the distance from the open field to his spot in the forest.

A soft growling came from behind him.

He whipped around, instantly alert and preparing to shift into an animal once again. Before he could shift, a black panther emerged from behind an ancient oak tree. It snarled at him.

He could only stare, not out of fear of being attacked, but of awe. This was no ordinary panther. While different from him, he sensed a familiarity to the sort of magic the panther exuded. This was shape shifter on some level; maybe not on the same level as him, but this animal definitely had some human in it.

In...
her
, that was. As he observed the snarling cat before him, he got the distinct sense that the animal was both female and partially human. Before he could alert the panther that he wasn’t a danger to her, the panther pounced, right for him.

He tried to avoid the great cat, but there was no avoiding the collision. He expected the heavy weight of the cat, the heavy muscle,
bone and slashing claws. Instead, what he found was a naked human woman pinning him to the forest floor, a dagger in her hand, at his throat.

“Shifter...” she growled.



Evangeline’s scream ripped through the portal as she tumbled through an empty, white void and landed unpleasantly...on a barn.

Make that,
through
a barn. She crashed through the wooden roof, through the second story and into a bale of hay, cursing and yelling. There was an unpleasant chorus of noise that echoed her arrival, as horses reared up in fear, yelling their disapproval. The noise blended with the pain and confusion and she was sure that she was about to pass out.

When the moment of nausea passed, she sat up. The horses were still making an unholy noise, looking as though they would die of fright. She didn’t bother to calm them down. Many wild animals feared her, and it wasn’t because she was bigger than them or that she was going to hurt them at all. It was a part of
that sixth sense animals had, one that told them when to run for shelter when a storm was going to hit and even part of what helped domesticated dogs alert their owner to illness. Animals feared her instinctively, unless she spent a large amount of time with them. It was a part of her nature at work, as a half demon, half angel.

Aware that there were no humans to question her arrival, she snuck out of the barn.
Or,
tried
to. Her entire left leg limped along behind her. It was the most she could do with it. Putting too much weight on it hurt. She limped out and surveyed the land. There was open land before her. Farming land, it had to be. There was a lack of large farming machinery, but that was a part of what Dirk had said, right? No machinery functioned correctly on the Second Realm, or at least, not the machinery she was used to. Instead, there was an abundance of horses and related horse-drawn plows.

What
wasn’t near her were the other Assassins or the vampire who had ushered them into this world. She considered going to the house she saw in the distance, but instinct told her that she would find nothing of use there. Humans feared her instinctively as well as animals. Some ignored the instinct, but most, especially those in tune with their intuition, kept far away from her.

Looked like she was alone, for now.

She glanced back at the barn she had ruined. The humans in the house would no doubt want an explanation as to why the barn looked as though it had been hit by a meteor, but there was no time to stay and explain. She didn’t even know if the people who inhabited the barn were friendly or not, especially towards her.

Pulling her gaze away from the ruined barn, she headed for the open field. She was awfully vulnerable running exposed in a field such as this, but she could see the wooden fence that edged the end of the property. Following the fence might take her to some sort of road.

Luck was on her side as she crept along the edges of the fence. There were no animals to announce her presence or humans to demand that she leave their property. She found a dirt road and followed it, without any idea of where she was going or who she was going to encounter. She hadn’t been expecting any cement sidewalks, exactly, but she had to wonder about the kind of city she might find. The dirt road looked well-trodden by horse hooves and many feet. It was relatively clear, with only some trees lining either side of the road. No cities anywhere, just the paths of horses and carts. If she had to guess, she’d say the horse was the fastest form of transportation around here.

In no time, the dirt road led to a large stone wall. It was the sort of stone wall that guarded a village or, no, a
castle
. As she approached the wall, the castle came into clear view, towering above her and stretching towards the clouds. The white stone castle shone with bright green banners. Men in armored suits patrolled on horseback while villagers in plain looking garments went along their daily business, trading and doing business in the market place that stood just inside the castle walls.

Men in armor.
Giant castle. It was as if Evangeline had been sucked back in time. When Dirk had said there was no modern technology here, he had obviously meant it. These people were still stuck in an age where kings and queens ruled and knights in shining armor were commonplace. Suddenly, her own outfit seemed horribly out of place. She slipped behind a large oak to observe further. There was not one woman wearing a pair of pants or even a shirt. Noble women wore elegant dresses of elaborate silks, while the commoners wore what comparatively looked like scraps. Her outfit, what Kaydee had playfully named
faux-military,
was an obvious hint that she was not in the correct place.

“You there!”

She jumped as she heard a man’s voice behind her. The voice was in her native tongue and she couldn’t tell if that was due to the foul potion she had downed earlier, or the fact that the man speaking to her actually spoke her language.

“Excuse me, my lady!”

She turned at that. Behind her was an elegant black horse dressed simply with a saddle, despite the decorative bridle. What got her attention away from the stallion was the man atop the horse – he wore no armor like the patrolling men outside did, but he was of noble stature. His outfit was composed of fine silks and bright colors, but there was also a long scabbard at his side. She eyed the sword that was thankfully sheathed, wondering if he had any notion of fighting her.

“Miss, your attention,
please?”

He spoke with a slightly European accent, or at least, that’s what came to her mind. His voice was light, non-threatening and surprisingly...friendly. She dared to meet his gaze and was startled to find that his eyes were of a bright, sharp green she had never seen before, just as brilliant as the emerald banners that adorned the castle.