The Soul Mate

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

I came back to consciousness alone. Gerik had left me. In his placed remained a whole lot of magic and no instruction manual. Like a sixth sense I couldn’t help but feel what was now readily available inside of me. Both powers, light and dark, were equally strong and dangerous in their own right and I had no idea what to do with them.

Anger flared inside me, somehow, despite everything I had done to prevent our bonding Gerik had managed it anyway. Had he always had the power to join us without the physical aspect or had it been his transformation to darkness that had allowed it to occur? I suppose it didn’t matter much now, the how’s or the why’s of it, it was done and somehow I had to figure out what to do with it.

A Skin Eater, female, wearing only her bra and underwear and looking as if she had been living in a mud puddle, jumped out from behind a nearby tree.

Shaking and afraid I began backing away, looking for anything I could use as a weapon when my hands began to glow. I stared in astonishment at the glowing white sparks and black wisps of smoke that were gathering in the palms of my hands then dissolving almost as quickly as they had formed.

The Skin Eater lunged at me, hissing as her feet left the ground. Startled and panicked, I began flailing my hands around wildly, hoping for the best.

In mid jump, the Skin Eater was suddenly flung backwards by an unseen force. It was something I had obviously done but had no idea how I did it or if I could do it again.

Scrambling to her feet, red eyes wide with confusion and fangs, she came at me again.

“Oh, fuck me!” I screamed, and shook my hands again in her direction.

She exploded in ball of fire. Orange, red and black flames ate her up within seconds leaving me staring at a pile of steaming bones.

More fire formed in my palm, freaked out I flung them straight into a nearby tree. Several startled birds flew out, leaving behind a spray of flaming leaves. Seconds later, when the entire tree burst into flames, I turned and ran.

It took me the better part of the day to find my way back to camp. When I breached the clearing, at first seeing nothing but an empty clearing didn’t surprise.

Until I noticed the wards. For the first time I was able to see them. The transparent bubble surrounding camp was now clearly discernable to my newly enhanced eyes. As I walked slowly through, I felt the wards ripple with power, familiar power. My body responded to the magic used to make the wards, recognizing it.

To my surprise they were clearly discernible to my newly enhanced eyes. The wards were one large transparent bubble, rippling with power. I sensed it pull apart and tremble slightly as I walked through them, closing instantly behind me.

The sight in front me was exactly the same as it had been outside of the wards. An empty clearing. I thought back on Jericho’s panicked words when Gerik had taken me from camp. They’d left because of Gerik, and because of me.

As I wandered the clearing, stunned at what Gerik had done to me, not only bonding us for all eternity but he’d started the chain of events that had led to my abandonment. I had nothing now, no spare clothing, no food and no place to live. The worst, I was completely alone.

How could he claim to care about me and still have done this? Because, I thought bitterly, Gerik does whatever he wants.

Approaching the back lot I found the remnants of our attackers. Piled high in what had been the place of clan meetings, parties and dances were the blackened bones of nearly a dozen Skin Eaters.

And further back, where Marcell had been buried, nineteen more graves had been hastily dug and covered. No matter how fast the men had worked, nineteen graves would have taken longer than a day to dig. Exactly how long had I been unconscious?

Unsure of what to do next, I thought about my options. I could wait here and see if the raiding party would return. Yet, if the clan was rejecting me, who was to say Xan wouldn’t as well. Or, even if he accepted the new me, what he never returned here? What if the Gypsies had some magical way of contacting each other? I wouldn’t know. No one except Xan had told me anything about how magic works and what it’s capable of and even he had just given me the basics.

The possibilities were endless. Xan could have already found out what happened and rejected me or he could have been told an entirely different version of recent events and still have rejected me. Or, he could know nothing at all and when he reunites with the clan, find me gone.

In the end, I left. I followed the well worn tracks of the raiding parties out of the mountains, coming quickly across a gravel road. After hours of walking, I encountered a small town, giving me my first real glimpse of what the world had become since I’d gone into hiding with the Gypsies.

Cars sat empty in the road, some with keys still in the ignition. Clothes and purses, souvenirs from a world that had ended, covered the street. The decayed remains of both animals and human lay half eaten on the sidewalk, in the ditches, some still in their vehicles. The shops lining the street had been looted, windows smashed, doors hanging on the hinges, some had even burned to the ground.

The world had become a graveyard.

The sound of heavy breathing had me turning. Far enough down the road that I wasn’t able to make out any distinct features, I saw a Skin Eater coming quickly toward me. Its bare feet pounding on the pavement thudded in time to my racing heart.

I took a deep, shaky breath, in through my nose and out through my mouth. I already knew I could kill it, I just wasn’t sure how exactly. Fire, I thought, and instantly a small orange and black streaked flame formed in my outstretched hand.

I threw the ball of flames the way I watched Walther and Gerik toss their magic at each other. The fire hit the Skin Eater in its midsection and instantly spread over its entire body.

The sound of another heartbeat, pumping blood faster than any human heart could, was close by. I surveyed the street and found a second Skin Eater, easily discernable as male, peeking out at me from behind the bed of a truck.

His eyes went wide with fear when he realized I’d found him. That one of these creatures was afraid of me, was enough to give me the courage to do what I did next.

Air, I thought, instantly feeling a breeze sweep over me and accumulate in my palms. As he turned to run from me, I didn’t think, just whipped the air in his direction, wanting to stop him.

In mid run, he suddenly lifted off the ground as the air I’d threw at him whipped around him like a tornado, freezing him in place.

Wary, I approached him slowly, sweaty from fear and quivering from adrenaline.

He growled at me, mostly I think, because that’s animals do when their cornered.

“You,” I demanded, sounding a lot more sure of myself than I actually felt. “Are going to give me the directions out of this fucking town.”