Fractured Soul (13 page)

I rolled my eyes. “I’m just kidding.”

“No, you’re not, and even if you were, there are other things too. Britt was short-tempered and moody, like you, especially at the end. She lied too.”

“So what are you saying?”

“Something’s going on with you, and I just don’t want to see what happened to her, happen to you. You’re not being yourself, and it worries me.”

I stepped closer to her, heat burning my gut. “How would you know? You don’t know me.”

“Maybe not, but I do know Auras, and you are not acting like one.”

Every nerve ending vibrated within my body. “And you’re not acting like a Lizen. Shouldn’t you be making a bed or something?”

She stared at me for a moment, then blinked as if holding back tears. “Right. See you.”

After she left, I stormed up to my room and slammed the door. Why did everyone think I had to be such a goodie-goodie just because I was an Aura? Did being at Lucent mean I couldn’t have any fun? I took a deep breath. The smell of my room, a rich, metallic blood odor, no longer made my stomach roll. It made my mouth water.

I slumped against the wall and slid to the floor. I stared at the window, waiting for the inevitable night to come. Hours passed. I was practically willing the light from my room. I was so transfixed that I didn’t answer when I heard May knock on the door and call my name. And then, slowly, as the sun set, darkness crept toward me. I smiled.

The moment my room was entirely black and I could hear no movement from within the school, I opened the window. The faint sound of hundreds of heartbeats rose from the forest. They seemed to be calling me. The creatures of the night.

I leapt from my window and hit the ground running. I kept to the shadows, avoiding light at all costs. After jumping over the rock wall in one bound, I tore through the forest, searching for the one thing my body seemed to want. The desire was so strong, it overrode the voice screaming warnings in my head. I thought of Christian, but I couldn’t stop.

A strong heartbeat lured me to the left. I stopped and listened. The rhythmic beat betrayed a large animal hidden within a nearby clump of trees. I stealthily made my way to its secret spot. Within ten feet a deer bolted, but I was faster, spurred on by the new and powerful force within me. I tackled it to the ground, my knee on its gut, my hand pressing its head to the ground.

I stared at its struggling body beneath me in both awe and horror. I had taken it down. I had the power to destroy its life. The vein in the animal’s neck pulsed. I wanted to stop that pulse.

I closed my eyes tight.
I don’t want this
, I tried to convince myself.
This isn’t me
. But . . . if it wasn’t, then why did every part of me want to destroy the life in my hands?

My eyes opened.
What did it matter anymore?
With both hands I lifted the deer’s head and prepared to twist.

I screamed a terrible cry to prevent myself from hearing the sound of the deer’s bones breaking, but my scream was cut short when something slammed into me, knocking me to the ground. I tried to get out from under it, but whatever had pushed me off the deer was much stronger. I swung my legs up to try and kick at it.

“Hey!” a deep voice said.

I continued to fight much like the deer had beneath my grip moments ago.

“What’s wrong with you?” the voice said.

I continued to struggle until I felt the entire weight of my attacker cover my whole body. His strength felt like a concrete wall bearing down on me. In my ear, I heard, “Stop fighting. I’m trying to help you.”

I gasped for air. If I stopped moving, then I’d have to face what I’d almost just done. “Please just kill me,” I whispered.

My attacker sat up, legs straddling my waist. His arms pinned my hands to the ground. “What did you say?” he asked.

I opened my eyes. Liam, the Vyken who’d turned into wind, stared at me in shock. I turned my head away. “What do you want?”

“I was stopping you from doing something stupid. What is wrong with you?”

Tears stung my eyes. “I don’t know.”

He moved off my body and sat next to me, still staring. “What’s your name?”

Before I could stop myself, I whispered, “Llona.”

Liam waited a few seconds before he said, “From the moment I met you, Llona, I felt there was something different about you.”

That was the last thing I wanted to hear, especially from a Vyken. “I have to go.”

“No way. We need to figure out what’s going on.”

“What does it matter?”

“You’re not a full Aura, are you?”

“Of course I am.” How could I admit that I might be something else?

Liam frowned. “It’s not possible. A Vyken wouldn’t dare.”

“Dare what?”

“Come here.” He reached for me.

“No.”

“Quit being difficult. Come here.”

“Don’t tell me what to do!” The anger, always at the surface, bubbled over. I turned to leave, but suddenly Liam was behind me, his arm around my chest, and with the other he was trying to force my neck to the side.

“No! Please! Don’t bite me,” I yelled. I couldn’t move from his crushing grip.

“I’m not going to bite you, fool. Just hold still.”

Because I couldn’t do much of anything else, I did as he asked. His grip relaxed. With his free hand he swept my hair back and drew in a breath. “I’m so sorry, Llona.”

The way he said it, all sincere-like, made me sick. No one was going to feel sorry for me.

“We have to talk,” he said. “You need help. You’re turning into a Vyken, but you can beat it if you let me help you.” His eyes were big, and he looked frantic.

“I will never need the help of a Vyken.” My hands balled tight.

“Its poison is in your blood. It’s changing you.”

I fixed my hair back over my neck. “You’re lying.”

“Am I? You’re in denial, Llona. You can feel the evil destroying you, making you do things you wouldn’t normally do, say things you wouldn’t normally say.”

I stared at the ground, not wanting to believe.

His voice lowered. “I’ve been where you are. It’s a dark and lonely place.”

I looked up at him. “I won’t listen to your lies.” I turned and ran away.

His voice carried into the forest behind me, “I’ll be here!”

I don’t know how long I ran, but I didn’t stop until my legs gave out. I fell hard; my knee smashed into a rock hidden within the tall grass. I gritted my teeth and immersed myself in the pain. It was a welcome distraction from an even greater torment. But after several minutes, the pain subsided, and all I had left were Liam’s words. I rolled over and tried to throw up, but nothing came out.

I dropped onto my back and stared into the night sky. As much as I didn’t want to believe Liam, he was right. I may not have known that I was turning into a Vyken, but I knew there was something inside me, taking hold. A dark and dirty seed had been planted, and its roots had begun to grow.

*  *  *  *  *

I lost track of time, lying on the cold ground, when the sound of a snapping twig made me sit up. The forest was quiet, except for . . . I listened closely. The soft rustling of leaves and grass. Something was coming my way. I scrambled over behind a nearby tree and waited.

After a minute I peeked around the trunk. Not far away a form moved in and out of the shadows. I couldn’t sense if the thing was Vyken or human, but the moment it stepped into the light of the full moon, and I saw its face, I knew it was a Vyken. And by its slender form, I guessed a woman, but I couldn’t tell by the face, which was missing half of its leathered skin. The other half was a rotted skull with a green, moss-like substance clinging to the cheekbone. The bone was a dirty yellow, the same color as her two rows of broken teeth.

She looked around and sniffed like she was searching for something. Her eyes jerked to the tree I was hiding behind. I ducked farther behind it and held my breath, my heart pounding and sweat breaking on my brow. Any other day I would’ve jumped at the chance to fight, but I was still too afraid of what Liam had told me and of what I already knew. Was I seeing my future?

“I smell you, Aura,” the woman said. Her voice was deep and raspy.

I left my hiding spot and ran as fast as I could, crashing through the forest, arms outstretched. I pushed my already exhausted legs hard as I hurdled over, under, and around what felt like an Amazon jungle.

The Vyken chased after me, making a strange sound with her throat, almost like a pig grunting. I looked back at her and saw that the sound was from the wind moving between exposed cords on her neck where there was no skin. The sight and sound of her made me find a second wind, and I sped up.

Bursting through a tall bush, I moved to take a step but found nothing but air. I fell, more like bounced, end over end down a steep hill. I didn’t stop moving until I landed in cold water. I sucked in air and quickly stood up. In front of me was a lake the size of a football field. Moonlight stretched across it like a lit-up road. I looked around. Other than a steep incline around the water’s edge, most of which was covered in trees and bushes, there was no easy way around it.

I thought about climbing back up the hill, but even as I thought it, I heard the female Vyken coming closer. Having no other choice, I moved farther into the cold water until, once again, my foot found no ground beneath me. A sharp drop-off plunged me into the water. I gasped at the shock of it and swam backward to keep my eyes on the top of the ridge.

Just then the hunched-over female appeared. I took a deep breath and dipped beneath the water’s surface. A few feet away I spotted a branch attached to a fallen tree lying at the bottom of the lake. I swam over and took hold of it to keep me from floating up.

Through the clear water, I could just barely make out the Vyken’s form as she made her way down the incline. When she reached the water’s edge, she paused and scanned the surface. After a moment, she turned and began to move back up the hill. Just in time too because my lungs were burning.

I was about to push up when all of a sudden she stopped and turned back around. I bit the insides of my cheek to keep from instinctively taking in a breath.

She returned to the water’s edge, and what she did next had me frantically looking around for an escape. Her black boot slid onto the water’s surface, and as soon as it touched it, the water beneath her foot turned to ice. Another step. More ice. An ice bridge was being created wherever she moved. Ten more steps and she’d be standing directly above me.

Although I was terrified, my lungs no longer cared. I let go of the tree branch and began to float up, but just as I was about to break the surface and gasp for air, something took hold of my ankle and pulled me down.

I fought against the tight grip around my ankle since all I could think about was getting air, but when my feet touched ground, and I felt arms spin me around, I was surprised to see Tessa, her hair swirling in the water around her. She signaled for me to relax. I signaled back that I was going to pass out if I didn’t have air. She shook her head and rolled her eyes.

What did that mean?

Tessa patted my chest and gave me the thumbs up sign. I looked down at my almost non-existent breasts and raised my arms as if to say,
huh?

She laughed and tried again. Pretending to breathe, she patted my chest and gave me a thumbs up again. I think I was starting to catch on. I was so busy trying to communicate with her that I didn’t notice I no longer needed air . . . as long as she was touching me. It was like she was transferring air into my lungs. I smiled big.

Tessa’s smile disappeared, and she pulled me close, pointing upward. Up above the Vyken’s icy footsteps passed overhead until we could no longer see her. We waited several minutes before Tessa began to move to the other side of the lake, pulling me with her. The bottom was squishy and threatened to suck us in with every step. Because of this we moved quickly.

This far down, the water was surprisingly clear, giving me a spectacular view of this strange underworld. Schools of fish swam by us, some large, some small, but each of them beautiful in their own way. They reminded me of people. Tessa looked at me knowingly. This deep in the water her scales seemed to be glowing, and I wondered if she was more comfortable down here than up above.

As soon as we surfaced, I sucked in air. “What was that?” I asked right away.

“Which part?”

“All of it. You, what the Vyken did, the breathing. I feel like I’ve just entered the Bermuda Triangle.” I followed her to shore and, like her, began to ring out my clothes. A slight breeze made me much colder than I’d been under the water.

“I’ve never seen a Vyken do that before,” Tessa said. “Maybe she was some sort of water creature that got turned into a Vyken. Pretty scary, though.”

“Terrifying.” I flipped my hair upside down, careful to keep my bite marks on the opposite of Tessa, and squeezed the water from it. “So what was that cool trick you did in the water?”

“All Lizens and anyone they touch can breathe underwater, but please don’t tell the Auras.”

“Why?” I rubbed my arms to try and get warm.

“We’ve given them so much already, but there are some things we want to keep to ourselves.” Moonlight shimmered against her green scales.

“I get that. Your secret is safe with me.”

Tessa began to walk, half pull, herself up the steep incline toward the forest. “So what were you doing out here anyway?”

“I was—” I shook my head, realizing that something else had to be said first. I hurried after her. “I owe you a huge apology. We had such an amazing afternoon, and then I blew it. You were right about what you said earlier. Something is going on with me, but I’ll figure it out and make it up to you somehow.”

“Will you take me out again? Maybe to see a movie?”

“Easy enough. I’d love to.”

“Then you’re forgiven.” She smiled and started walking again. “So, seriously, what were you doing out here?”

I thought of Liam. “Running.”

“You shouldn’t be out here.”

“Should you?”

She stopped moving and turned to me. “No, but my life is not as valuable as yours.”