Shift - 02 (42 page)

I turned back to the corridor and extended my hand, pulling at the flames that lit the way. The fire wavered as I reached out with an invisible hand of magic. The torches flickered and the flames bit at the air, leaning towards me. I pushed my power down the hall and closed my fist. One by one, each flame vanished and the scent of smoke surrounded me.

Surrounded by silent darkness, I slowed my breathing and stepped forward until I found the first door. My hand slid up the smooth, metal surface to the knocker. The cold steel vibrated along my skin and I pulled it back in my hand. I opened my mind, reaching out past the door with my senses, and an assault of images raged through my mind.

I was surrounded by bright red flames. Black and blue scales towered in front of me, leading up to the massive form of an incredible dragon. Even with its mouth closed, long black teeth jutted from its lips. The dark green eyes glowed beneath a rough and jagged brow. Its neck snapped to the side and the ground rumbled as it lowered its head. The dragon looked straight at me, clouds of smoke shooting from its gaping nostrils. Its mouth opened and an earth shattering roar shot through my body.

I closed off my mind and the images vanished. I took a long, deep breath. My head throbbed with the resonating sound of the dragon’s roar and I stepped back, feeling through the shadows until I found the second door.

The rust was rough beneath my fingers and I followed it up to the handle. I wrapped my fingers around it and hesitated before opening my mind and reaching forward. Instead of images filling my mind, something tore through me and pulled me into another reality.

I was walking deep in a cave. Moist air rolled over my skin and it amplified the scent of decaying bodies. Everywhere I looked there was death. The corpses of animals and people scattered around me. Some were bare skeletons while the others were fresh kills. I walked further into the cave, and the creature I’d seen on the knocker was there. Blue blood surrounded it and its eyes stared at me, filled with a lifeless gloss. I stepped back as the blood trickled towards me; whatever this was had died only moments ago.

The cave shook and a growl unlike any I’d ever heard came from the shadows. It was deep like a wolf, but managed to have the hiss of a snake. I reached for my daggers but the sheath was empty. My stomach clenched and my pulse sped. I tried to close off my mind but nothing happened. This was different.

I searched the cave, looking for an escape, when an odd feeling moved through me. A shiver ran down my spine and the world around me wavered. The reality shifted and the roars faded. This wasn’t real.

“Sorry to interrupt.” A voice said. It was a man’s voice: deep and masculine.

My eyes followed it through the shadows until I found the glowing red eyes of a wolf staring at me.

“Who are you?” I asked, trying not to let the fear that pounded through my body come out in my voice.

The wolf’s eyes shifted, morphing into the eyes of a snake. “I’m a friend of your father’s here to deliver a warning; forget the dagger.”

“Get out of my head!” I yelled.

The eyes shifted again, this time into bright yellow cat eyes. The man laughed. “Get out? I just got here.” The creature paced in the darkness, following me with its eyes.

“Well, you’re not staying,” I said. I reached out with my other senses, touching the world around me and searching for his energy.

“Your father is very disappointed in you, Chase. You should have taken his offer and joined our cause.”

I didn’t reply. I kept my focus on finding the invader, straining my senses through the cave.

“Isn’t it ironic that your father has enlisted the help of a demon to gain your cooperation?”

I stopped searching and stared into the beast’s eyes. “Nothing will make me help him.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure. As a master…I can be very convincing.”
 

“What does that mean?”

“Whether you like it or not, you’re a part of this now. Take this offering.”

The reality wavered and a door appeared. It was an old wooden door. It creaked open, and the world on the other side kept changing. First it was a dark and empty desert. Then it was a beautiful world, full of the greenest water and the lushest plants. A warm breeze pushed through the door and wrapped around me, enticing me to follow it.

“This is your way out, Chase. I’m doing you a favor. Forget the dagger. This door is a gift, from us to you. It will take you wherever you wish to go. All you have to do is walk through it.”
 

I stared through the doorway as the world inside it changed, and I was tempted. I was tempted to leave and forget it all, but the moment I thought it, frustration filled me. I had to save them. I refocused my mind and reached out through the cave. My senses strained until I found his energy. His aura was dark, foreign, and filled with rage. I pushed at it and it wavered.

“Don’t do that,” he growled.

“Stay out of my head,” I said again, and this time I put all my focus into pushing him out.

His aura broke and the cat eyes faded. I stood alone in the cave and the cold air sent goose bumps down my arm. I shut my eyes and focused on closing my mind. The reality shook and vanished, and when I opened them, I was back in the corridor, surrounded by darkness. Sweat was running down the inside of my arms and dripping off my hands. I slid my fingers out of the knocker and let the water element soothe me, clearing my head before I reached for the last door.

I didn’t need to open my mind this time. I could feel power coming off the surface and drawing me closer. I reached forward and the dark steel was warm to the touch. I found the metal handprint and locked my fingers around the knocker. My knuckles rubbed the steel fingers that jutted from the door, and I shuddered as a pulse of magic moved through me. I pulled back on the silver ring and slammed it into the door. The knock boomed through the other side and the temple started to shake.

Dust and small bits of rock shook from the ceiling before the door unlatched and squeaked inward. I pushed through the opening and into a room where the smell of death was thicker than before. Skeletons were scattered over the floor, their legs broken and no longer attached to the bodies that lay across the room. Swords and battle axes lay rusted and forgotten along the floor, and an archer’s bow that once wrapped around his chest was now broken, splinters of wood sticking between his skinless ribs. The walls were painted red with dried blood and the torches were alight with flames, reflecting gold flakes embedded in the walls. Tall columns ran along each side of the room, and massive stalactites hung from the ceiling like giant icicles waiting to fall on an unsuspecting victim. In the center, the dagger floated on the air, bathed in a ray of golden light that came from everywhere and nowhere all at once. It shone from the solid ground and into the ceiling, existing completely on its own. The dagger had a blade on either side of its black leather handle. Both blades curled at malicious angles with small, jagged teeth chiseled from the base, an ideal feature for gutting its victims.
 

“And the hero arrives.” A man’s voice swirled around me. It came from the dead bodies, echoed off the walls, and it rode the stale air that lived in the cave. I searched the cavern with my eyes but couldn’t see anything.

“Who’s there?” My voice bounced off the cave walls and came back to me, as though I’d asked the question to myself.

“Come now, do you really need to ask?” Thick black smoke swirled through the room and into the golden light. As the black tornado slowed, a man appeared.

His gray skin sparkled in the light and it made his dark eyes unforgettable. Long dark hair fell against his back, matching the black cloak that covered his body. The cloak dragged along the floor behind him with blood red thread lining the edges.
 
He crossed his arms in front of him, his hands disappearing into the opposite sleeve as he moved towards me, unaccompanied by the sound of footsteps. The intensity of his gaze made me want to turn away, but I couldn’t. His face and body looked young, but his eyes were full of horror.

“You’re the soul piece,” I said.

“Correction: the dagger is the soul piece. I am Salvatore, the portion of Ithreal’s soul that is bound to the blade.” He floated around me and I couldn’t resist following his eyes. “You hunters are an interesting breed. Sad to think it was this pitiful creature that defeated my master’s army. I can feel your magic; it is weak by comparison.”

“It was strong enough to win the war.”

“Silence!” Salvatore screamed from every direction. His voice was dark, laced with the deep rumble of ancient magic that vibrated along my skin. “You are not in your pretty dimension, hunter. In Ithreal’s world, you show the master respect. Your insolence will not be tolerated. This is your only warning.”

“I’m not here to pay my respects. I’m here for the dagger.”

“I’m quite aware as to
why
you are here. You think destroying the ring will stop the second coming, but it won’t. My master has followers everywhere. They will not cease until he has been freed.”

“I won’t let that happen.”

Salvatore laughed, and it was pure evil, cackling around me. “I love your ambition, but let us be realistic. Ithreal commands an army larger than all the gods combined. Not to mention, the very sight of his true form would reduce even you, a hunter of the Circle, to a pile of ash. I’ve been forced into this pitiful shell for you. Your weak eyes cannot handle even my purity!”

“We did it once. We can do it again.”

Salvatore frowned and floated towards the dagger. “I’ve spoken to no one in hundreds of years, and somehow, you manage to bore me. On with the trials.”

“What trials?”

“Surely, you don’t expect to just
take
the dagger. You must first complete the trials of Ithreal.” Salvatore grabbed the double-sided blade and spun it in his hand. “For thousands of years, the most powerful of creatures have come in search of this. Those who were lucky enough to find it are dead, which brings us to you.”

“What do you want me to do?”

“You ask as though you have a choice. You have made it this far, and as such, you’re options are limited. You do the trials and die. Or you refuse, and I kill you.” Salvatore chuckled and placed his hand back in the light, releasing the blade to float in the golden rays. “This temple, with its winding halls and mysterious doors, is unique for each who enters it, as are the trials. Let’s take a look at what’s in store for you, shall we?”

His cloaked form glided towards me and power latched onto me. I tried to step away, but I was paralyzed. Salvatore’s hands slipped from the cloak, his skin vanishing and turning into streams of black smoke. He reached towards me and the tendrils shot into my body. My back arched as pain rippled through my insides like someone took a chainsaw to my soul. His hands twisted and my elements came to life; all four pushed through my body, trying to balance the pain with magic.

Salvatore shredded through my insides and pulled himself from my chest, the slate gray color coming back and reforming his hands and fingers. He smiled, wiping his hand down the front of his cloak. “You are lucky. Your trials are quite simple. For you, there are only two.”

Salvatore snapped his fingers, and a tornado of black smoke swirled into the room. The stench of decaying flesh was thick as the wind picked up, spinning with the smoke until it hit the floor. A pureblood demon with jet black eyes stared at me and I recognized it immediately: vampire.

Its hair was ratty and gray with patches of bald spots throughout its scabby scalp. A clear, slimy armor covered its dark gray skin, except for a small white spot on the front of its throat that looked like a scar. Different sizes of fangs filled its mouth, and long, scrawny arms hung down around its knees. The gangly claws that jutted from its fingers dragged along the ground leaving white scratches on the stone floor, and small teeth-like bones stuck from its jaw and forehead.

I grimaced as the beast slapped its lips together and a thin black tongue slipped between them. It roared the most horrific sound and charged towards me, moving faster than I could follow.

Talons tore into my back and launched me across the cave. My body spun and I felt the wall break beneath me as I hit it. Pain ripped through my body at the force, leaving rocks and dust to shower me. The vampire grunted from across the cave, and I pulled a throwing knife from my sheath.

I jumped to my feet and the demon roared its primordial sound, standing patiently while I charged him. I snapped my wrist, sending the dagger flying, but the vampire’s claws cut through the air, deflecting it to the floor. The demon grunted and swung towards me. I tried to block, but talons tore through my shirt and split the skin, splattering blood across the floor. The burning sensation was instant and so was the pain.

I leapt towards the vampire, tackling him to the ground. His hands slammed against me from one side to the other as I fought to pin him down. His skin was cold and slimy, forcing my hands to slip off. A knee came up and hit me from behind with strength I’d never felt and I flipped over his body. Dust wafted around me as I hit the floor, and I tried to roll to my feet, but the demon was too fast.

His claws rained down on me, one swipe after another. Blood spilled from my arm, then my chest, and finally my face. Black dots filled my vision and adrenaline exploded through me. The air element came to the surface and blasted him back, sending him to the ground. I knew I couldn’t kill him with my power, but that didn’t stop me from holding it back.