Shadow Assassins (The Second Realm Trilogy) (9 page)

His attention was now focused on an aura he felt, one too similar to his own. The aura was too far away to track properly, somewhere on the continent Aurialis, but he could feel the aura as a small breath of air. If he was correct, then that meant one thing.

Kaydee was somewhere in the Second Realm.

For what reason, he did not know, but he sensed she was in danger. He couldn’t have that at all.

He stood up from the ornate wooden chair he had been sitting at and headed out of his house. Maybe the annoying ice mage Leta could help him in identifying where Kaydee was.

This woman was going to shoot him. Marco knew this but he didn’t know
why.
He was obviously human – he had no pointed fairy-like ears like she did. He was just a normal, ordinary human...with the advantage of some advanced telekinetic powers.

“I’m human,” he said to her slowly, as if trying to calm an attacking animal down.

“How do I know this for sure?” the woman demanded. Her bright eyes blazed. Green like the forest around her, they promised that she would shoot him with her vicious looking arrows, more of which were on the quiver she wore.

“Because I’m not like you?” he asked. “The ears, I mean. Not the same.”

Her eyes blazed with anger, as if she found his answer insulting. He hadn’t meant for it to be, he just didn’t know how to answer her logically. Did she want him to provide a blood test or something? It wasn’t as though he carried proof of his species on his person.

Relief flooded through him as she lowered the bow and arrow she wielded. He kept his hands up, though, to show her that he wasn’t a threat and wasn’t going to use one of the weapons he was packing.

“What are you,” she said flatly, coming closer to him.

“Human, just like I said,” he spoke quickly, as to not anger her with a slow reply. She had already shot at him once for hesitating.

She stepped in closer to him, causing him to back up a step. The strange woman was suddenly in his face, her forest-bright eyes searching him over as though she could dissect him where he stood just with her eyes.

“You are not dressed like the humans I see,” she murmured.

She was much too close for his liking. It wasn’t that he felt threatened by her. At least, he wasn’t threatened as long as she wasn’t aiming a weapon his way. She was much too close for another reason though, and that was her beauty. She was much more beautiful than any woman he had ever seen. That was a tall order to fill, when it came to Marco's tastes. Kaleb poked fun at his voracious appetite for beautiful women, followed by a more obvious talent of being unable to obtain a good number of them. He was goofy and awkward, at least, that’s what Evangeline bluntly told him.

He wanted to impress the woman in front of him. Her ethereal beauty was in the fine structure of her face. High, ivory cheekbones colored with her anger and confusion and those eyes still blazed. She was not of the women he had seen on a routine basis. She was not of this world; or at least, the world he knew.

With no warning at all, the woman reached out for him, her hands dropping the weapons she held to the forest floor. Long, elegant fingers grasped his arms and pulled him closer...as her lips dropped to his.

The kiss made everything else fade away. One moment, he was in a forest. The next moment, he knew of nothing but the kiss. Her lips were soft and sweet and warm – and gone from his much too soon.

He lurched back from her, staring with wide eyes.

“You do not react as a faerie does,” she said, her own eyes widening in wonder.

“A
what?
” he asked, his voice a breathy gasp.

“A faerie.
The tricksters that inhabit this forest. They are why I questioned what you were. They take the form of others. Elves are supposed to be immune to their charms, but I was not sure if that was true or not.”

Did she just say elf?
He asked himself.

“I am an elf,” she said, as if sensing his question. She bent to pick up the fallen weapons before she spoke again, “From the Oraldine colony.”

He had no inkling as to the colony she spoke of, but he nodded anyway. “How would a faerie react when compared to me?”

At this, her ivory skin colored, but this time it was not from anger.
“Sexually. The faeries take their victims out here, those who are tricked into thinking that a friend or another stranger seduced them. Afterward, the victims are routinely eaten and disposed of.”

She spoke with the savagery as if it was another part of everyday life, albeit one that shamed her.

“And you risked
that
just to see if I was one of them?” he asked, incredulous.

“I had to be sure.”

He frowned in disapproval. This woman before him didn’t seem like one to wantonly give into sexual desire. She seemed to be the total opposite in fact, modest and hesitant to explain the savage ways of the creatures that inhabited this forest.

“This forest can drive one mad,” she added, seeing his frown. “Several of my brothers were lost in this forest, only to go mad from the trickery of the faeries. It is not wise to be here longer than absolutely necessary.”

“Well, I got lost in here too. If you’re looking for the way out, why don’t we travel together?”

It was a bold proposal to give the woman who had been threatening his life only moments before. She didn’t seem to be a danger to him anymore, with him having proven that he wasn’t one of the killer creatures she spoke of, but it was still a risky move.

She nodded. “I know this part of the Feynid forest well enough for us to leave.”

“Feynid,” he echoed. “Is that where we are?”

She nodded. “You are not from this region, are you?”

“Try this
realm
,” he said with a smirk.

The two began their journey out of the forest. As they did, Marco filled her in on who he was and where he came from. She seemed
thrilled by the thought of a modern First Realm. She asked him to describe it and he tried not to sound so cynical or demeaning. He mentioned that there was still war but it was fought with weapons far more deadly than her bow and arrow. He touched on how women were confident and strong, taking to less traditional roles as head of house and having an independent job outside of the family. These small things that seemed so average to him seemed beyond what she had access to now. While she was no doubt confident and strong, he had a feeling that she would still be married to a man who thought the sun and moon shone out of his ass and that he could deny the world of either if he wished.

That was at least how
Evangeline described
his
behavior sometimes, and that his behavior set feminists back centuries. Evangeline was exaggerating of course, but it was her equivalent of an affectionate hug.

Marco even impressed this woman with his pocket knife. She had never seen the mechanism the folding knife worked with and he showed her how he had been using it, to free himself of the forest’s confines. She complimented his world and his own innovation.

She was incredibly kind. She reminded him so much of Kaydee, in the gentle way she spoke with him. She was no Kaydee though, as she had been ready to shoot him before.

As they came to a small clearing, the woman turned to him. “I apologize for my rudeness. We have been traveling together for some time and I haven’t even asked for your name.”

He smiled at her and folded his pocket knife. “You’re fine, I forgot too. I’m Marco...Marco Martinez.”

She repeated his name,
then introduced herself as Camira Caleo, of the Oraldine colony to the west of the Feynid forest, some distance away.

“If your colony isn’t anywhere near here, how did you get lost in the forest?” he asked.

She turned away from him, uncomfortable at his question. She continued through the clearing and Marco had to run to catch up with her.

“Did I say the wrong thing?”

“No, it’s not that,” she said slowly, as if trying to choose her words carefully. “I am...to be wed to the leader of our proud warriors soon, but I cannot stand D’jerik. A brave warrior he may be, but he cares not for me or my interests, just his status among his fellow warriors. It is a bad match, but I can do nothing to stop it.”

“Were you running away?” he asked.

She stopped walking near a large pine tree. She was silent for a moment, before she finally replied, “Running away is the coward’s way out.”

That wasn’t a
no.

Before he could pressure her into giving him another answer, he froze. He hadn’t meant to, but he thought he had heard the sound of female laughter. Not just any female, though, but
Evangeline.
Evangeline had her sarcastic sense of humor and her sarcastic, derisive chuckle. That wasn’t what he had just heard; what he had heard was Evangeline, laughing pure free and unfiltered, as if she didn’t have a care in the world. Being absolutely carefree was a tall order for the angel-demon hybrid. The sound wasn’t one heard often, if it was heard at all.

“Evie?” he asked.

“What?” Camira asked, oblivious to the laughter he was hearing.

“Evie!
Er...Evangeline, one of my friends. I just heard her a minute ago!”

The elf’s eyes widened.
“Her?”

Marco didn’t catch how her voice held a tremor of fear in it. He had already separated from her, pushing away from the path they had been walking through to a side path of tangled roots and thorns. He ignored the thorns as they ripped through his jeans and whipped at his arms and face. Evangeline’s laughter was closer, drawing him in...
he had to be close to her, now. He faintly heard that elf girl calling out to him, but really, who was she to him besides a few minutes’ pleasant company? Evangeline was his long-time companion and to hear her sound so happy was a rarity. Marco wanted to see why she was so happy.

“Marco!” Camira called out again.

He paid the voice no mind. All reasonable thought was gone from his mind. All he wanted to see was Evangeline, happy and carefree for the first time in too long–

He stopped in his tracks as he saw his friend in front of him. She was wearing an odd white dress and her hair spilled down her shoulders in tangled, wild waves, but her eyes were bright and her lips were stretched into a smile – a true smile, at that, not just the mocking smirk she wore most times.

“Evie!” he yelled across the field to her, despite her usual dislike of the nickname.

Instead of harassing him over the disliked nickname, the Evangeline before him turned and gave him a beautiful smile. How did he not see the beauty in her face before? All he remembered
seeing before was her sarcasm and the cruel-but-affectionate teasing she gave. She was
beautiful
, here.

Compelled to join her, he crossed the field to her, where she was whirling around and laughing as though amused by something he could not see. The white dress she wore billowed out behind her, a flag marking her joy.

“Evie!” he cried out again.

Join me.
The words weren’t physically spoken, but Marco felt as though she had said the words that wove through his mind. Her words were silky smooth and seductive, making his heart beat faster, making him want to be next to her desperately.

He lunged forward desperately, reaching out for her. She turned to see him reaching for her and smiled again. She reached out to him as well, her hand grasping his. A mild electric shock went through him as they made contact. She felt so right to him–

His thought process cut off abruptly as she pulled him to her and pressed her lips to his. The kiss was a surprise, but a welcome one. She took the kiss further, pushing him back until he felt the mossy hardness of a tree against his back. Not that he minded. Evangeline could have pushed him onto a bed of nails and he would have thanked his lucky stars for her touch...



The Feynid Forest was not a good place to be separated in.

Camira’s heart pounded unpleasantly in her chest as she followed Marco. Marco had abandoned her quickly for who he thought was his friend. Camira knew better. She should have warned Marco better. In her hesitation, Marco was now in the hands of the creatures she was trying to avoid.

Faeries were not like their cousins, the fairies thought to be extinct. They were two similar sounding creatures, but two creatures that were like the sun and moon in comparison. Fairies were gentle in nature, focused on healing and their earth-based magic.
Faeries
on the other hand...

She shook her head as she followed the clumsy trail Marco had left behind in her wake. The Feynid Forest had been specially set aside for the faeries that inhabited it, as a way of corralling the creatures into this one spot, instead of having them run rampant throughout Aurialis.

Faeries were tricksters. That much she had explained. What she didn’t explain clearly was their ability to invade their victim’s mind, searching for sexual preference and people that play a special part in their victim’s life. They transformed into that person, looking to trick their victim until it’s too late. A faerie had obviously burrowed into Marco’s fragile human mind and sought out the form it now took, this woman named Evangeline.

Speaking of Marco and Evangeline...there they were. What she saw was a sight that made her stomach turned. Marco was being pressed back to a tree by a faerie. She was sure now that elves were immune to faerie charms, as she saw what they really looked like. The woman in front of Marco might have looked like the woman named Evangeline to him, but to Camira, all she saw was a wild figure maybe four feet tall, with slightly green-tinged skin and long, wild and tangled hair of varying shades of green and brown. Eyes like a
cat’s focused on Marco as the creature bared a mouth full of sharp, pointed teeth. This creature would be going in for the kill soon.