Wraithsong (24 page)

I step forward, feeling slightly
intimidated. “Pleased to meet you,” I say, shaking her hand. I
notice a tattoo of a dove on the inside of her wrist.

“
Pleased to meet you as
well.” Skuld smiles at me warmly and then steps back. “This is
Rosson, he goes by Ross.”

“
The pleasure is all mine,”
Ross says, reaching his hand to greet Anthony and me. Ross looks
like an amateur body-builder, not too grossly muscular, but almost.
His black hair is crazy messy and he has a small nose, and small
lips, but a nice sized chin with a generous cleft in it. He’s
wearing only gray and green and I see tattoos on his upper back
peeking up from beneath his collar.

“
Mani will be here in a
minute,” Skuld says. We all sit down around the table.

I feel a little underdressed in my jeans and
hot pink t-shirt, but we’re not exactly here to impress each other,
so I try to get over it quickly. After the initial small talk,
Anthony gets down to business.

“
I’ve reserved two double
bedroom suites at a local hotel. As soon as we leave the
restaurant, we should head straight for the hotel and come up with
a strategy for our attack. Then we can go over it again tomorrow
and finally head to Wraithsong Island the day after,” he
says.

My stomach tightens. I don’t feel prepared
at all to attack anyone, and now that the big event is just around
the bend, I don’t know what to do with myself.

“
Good. We talked a great
deal on our way up, and I believe we have a good chance of
defeating Maureen and Olaf,” Skuld says.

“
What do you know about the
Darkálfars?” I ask.

“
We think there are only
six left, so we’re not outnumbered too badly,” Ross
replies.

“
The one thing we do have
on them is the element of a surprise attack,” Anthony
says.

“
Hello, I’m Mani,” a
handsome blond man says as he walks into the restaurant’s private
room. He immediately focuses his attention on me. He isn’t as
muscular as Ross, but still well built, and looks like he just
jumped off of the cover of a men’s magazine. His deep brown eyes
pierce my soul, and I feel that, just by looking at me, he can read
my thoughts, my intentions and my feelings. He’s wearing a t-shirt
that shows off his tan and toned arms, and several tattoos of
snakes and dragons.

I stand up and shake his hand. “Hi, I’m
Sonia,” I say, hoping I won’t blush. I find him extremely
attractive. Maybe that’s why I haven’t ever fallen for anyone; I’ve
only ever been around humans.

“
I’m Anthony.” Anthony
interrupts Mani and my handshake by reaching his hand
out.

“
Pleased to meet you both.”
Mani sits down no more than an inch away from me.

Anthony, sitting on the other side of me,
seems annoyed by the newcomer. I smile when I realize that Anthony
is acting jealous, and it feels like payback considering all the
crap he told me about his fictitious girlfriend.

A waitress walks in with the appetizers and
sets them on the table. I notice that her aura is normal, like all
the other humans I have met lately, but slightly more blue. Just by
looking at her, I know that she is a single mom, struggles to keep
food on the table for her and her three children, and that she is
dating a great guy who is thinking about proposing to her.

I glance at Anthony and he looks back. He
knows too; I see the sincerity in his eyes.

“
Ready to order?” the
hostess says. We put our orders in and the hostess
leaves.

“
So, I have to admit, I
don’t know a thing about Lightálfars.” Acknowledging my ignorance
up front might help ease some of my anxiety.

“
Okay, who wants to bring
the lovely Huldra up to date?” Skuld says.

“
I will,” Mani volunteers.
He turns his chair to face me. “Do you want me to start at the
beginning?” His voice is deep, his eyes flirtatious.

“
Sure,” I say.

Anthony clears his throat and interrupts our
conversation. “I think a brief history will do.”

“
Sure, sure, of course,”
Mani says. He winks at me, and I feel my cheeks flush. “In the
beginning we lived in Alfheim, one of Yggdrasil’s nine
realms.”

“
Yggdrasil?” I vaguely
remember something about that name from the Norse Mythology section
in my history book.

“
Yes, the world tree, or
the universe, as people call it today. There were nine realms all
together. Midgard, where the humans lived, was one. Valhalla where
the gods lived, was another. Helheim, where the spirits of the dead
resided, was another, and so on.”

“
Oh, okay.”

“
Alfheim, the realm where
we lived, was the fairest of all the realms. But when all the
realms were destroyed in an inter-realm war, only Midgard remained
in this universe. Valhalla was thrust into another galaxy and was
renamed Heaven. The old gods all died and a new God was crowned
King of the heavens. Helheim remained here on earth and is still
here and where all supernatural beings go when they kick the
bucket. The reason we cannot see it though, is that it’s in another
dimension. At the end of the war, only two humans were spared, and
those two humans were Adam and Eve. Darkálfars and Lightálfars also
remained on earth.”

“
So you were the three
remaining Lightálfars?” I ask.

“
No, in the beginning there
were thousands of Lightálfars, and Darkálfars in fact, but over
time, the wars with the Darkálfars slowly erased all elves from
earth, sending them to Helheim, the realm of the dead.”

“
We destroyed the
Darkálfars, and they destroyed us,” Ross says. “But we wanted
peace, not war, and freedom, not captivity, for humans. That was
the difference.”

“
So this war between the
Lightálfars and Darkálfars has been going on since the beginning of
our world as we know it?” I ask.

“
Don’t they teach you
anything in the Huldra Academy?” Ross interrupts.

“
Sonia
just
turned eighteen on Sunday,”
Anthony comes to my defense.

“
Oh, so she’s like a
complete greenie? She really doesn’t know anything then, does she?”
Ross’s voice is condescending.

“
No,” Anthony says. “Only
what I’ve taught her.”

I feel extremely inadequate, to say the
least, and Ross isn’t exactly killing me with kindness. “I’m sorry
I don’t know…” I say.

“
Sonia, you don’t have to
apologize, that’s just Ross. He’s a real jerk sometimes and though
he’s thousands of years old, he still hasn’t learned how to behave
around a lady,” Mani says, taking my hand and stroking it
softly.

Ross chuckles, like he’s entertained, and
like he’s proud of Mani’s description of him.

I feel uncomfortable that Mani is holding my
hand, but I don’t want to be rude to Mani, so I don’t object.

“
Do Lightálfars have any
supernatural powers?” I ask.

“
Do we have any special
powers?” Ross spews. “My, you
are
ignorant, aren’t you?”

Mani shoots Ross a stern look. “Just let me
tell the story, will you?”

Ross leans back into his chair and smiles
mockingly. “Go ahead then.” He gestures with his hand to have Mani
continue.

“
We are not bound by
physical limitations like you are.” Mani lifts up his glass,
releases his grip on it and it remains hovering in
mid-air.

“
Wow,” I say. “Anthony,
look!”

Anthony looks over, but he doesn’t seem
impressed.

“
Show off,” Skuld laughs.
“That’s the least impressive thing we can do. Sonia, what he’s
trying to say is that the physical world you see does not limit us.
Gravity does not limit us. We can control physical objects with our
minds, we can see through them, and we can even warp
time.”

“
However, for each
supernatural quality we have, the Darkálfars have a
counter-quality. They can create anti-gravity barriers and they can
prevent us from controlling or manipulating objects too,” Mani
says.

“
The only thing we have on
them, is that Darkálfars cannot block our ability to warp time,”
Skuld says.

“
That’s amazing!” I’m
spellbound by their powers. “How long can you warp time?” Thinking
of my dad, I wonder if they can you go back years or
decades.

“
We can warp time for about
a minute. That’s our limit, we’ve found,” Skuld says. “And only
once every twenty-four hours.”

“
Can Darkálfars warp time,
too?” Anthony asks.

“
No, but they have another
ability we don’t. They can shape-shift,” Ross says.

“
Into what?” I
ask.

Skuld shakes her head, her blonde hair
reflecting the lights above. “Basically into any mortal being.”

“
Hey, greenie, ever heard
of werewolves or vampires?” Ross asks me as he’s chewing on a
toothpick.

“
Yes…”

Ross just nods his head. “Exactly.”

All those creatures are just Darkálfars? “So
there are no werewolves or vampires, only Huldras and elves?”

“
Bingo,” Ross
says.

“
That’s not exactly true,
Ross. There are other creatures in Helheim that could come to
earth, and have in the past.”

“
Yeah, but they’re not here
now, and we don’t want to overwhelm the greenie. But one thing you
do need to be aware of,” Ross says, glaring at me, “is that
Darkálfars can shape-shift into people you know too.”

“
That sounds tricky,” I
say.

“
It is tricky. That means
anyone can be a potential Darkálfar. They can even create a fake
human aura around them, so there is no way of telling the
difference,” Mani says.

“
There’s also Olaf, who can
sneak into anyone’s mind and steal information, if you’re not
careful,” Anthony says.

“
We believe Maureen has
bestowed Olaf with more supernatural abilities. I see him as our
number one threat besides Maureen.” Skuld eats a few
appetizers.

“
What supernatural powers
does Maureen possess?” I ask.

Skuld props her elbows on top of the table
and leans forward. Watching her, I think she moves more like an
angel than an elf.

“
She is a Huldra like
yourself, but her powers far exceed yours, Sonia. Not that you
can’t grow your powers to be as strong as hers, but she has had
thousands of years to develop them,” she says.

I don’t disagree with Skuld, but when
someone else says that I’m weak, it feels so much more harsh and
real.

“
We’re going to have to
protect you,” Mani says. “Since you’re the new kid on the block.
I’ll make sure you’re safe.” He smiles and then touches my knee
under the table.

I wonder if he flirts like this with all
unsuspecting girls, or Huldras.

The original hostess comes in with three
others, but they are not carrying our food.

Guns. They’re carrying guns!

The hostess points her gun toward Anthony,
and she pushes my chair to the floor so I tumble off of it, and
shoots Anthony in the chest. Blood splatters everywhere.

“
Anthony!” I’m in absolute
shock. He falls on top of me, his body lifeless. The hostess kneels
down and aims the gun at my head. I think my life is over. My mom’s
beautiful face flashes before my eyes and I feel so sad that I’ll
never get to see her again. I see my dad’s kind face too, see him
picking me up after I fell off my bike when I was five, kissing my
injured elbow, telling me everything will be fine because Daddy’s
here. I see Anthony in the greenhouse, wearing his faded jeans and
his Liverpool shirt and then I remember the first time we kissed,
how wickedly wonderful it felt, and how much I care about him—more
than I thought I did.

Before the hostess can shoot me, Mani shoves
her to the side. “Let’s warp time.”

Though I don’t quite register what Mani
says, I nod. A light so bright that it blinds me flashes in my
eyes. Suddenly, I’m back in my seat, taking a sip of my drink. It’s
as if the past few moments never happened.

“
Can Darkálfars warp time
too?” Anthony asks, clearly oblivious to the fact that he was just
shot in the chest and died.

I gasp, and grab his arm, my hands shaking
violently. I remember sitting here before—or after this. “You’re
alive!” He looks confused by how frantic I am, but I know we have
less than a minute to get out of here, so I act immediately. “We
have to run! The elves just warped the time back about a minute,
and the hostess is coming for us, and she has a gun!” I yell. My
mouth is parched and it’s hard to swallow.

Anthony catches on right away and joins the
elves, who have already gotten up, and look as if they’re searching
for an alternate exit door.

“
There’s only one way out,”
Mani says, pointing to the door.

“
How did they find us
here?” I ask. It takes everything in my power to keep it all
together. The image of Anthony’s dead body is still fresh in my
mind, and it refuses to go away.

“
No use in contemplating
that now. If we stop to think, we’ll be dead.” Mani grabs the gun
he has in his black leather boot and lifts it up near his face,
ready to shoot if needed.