Unleashed Fury (BloodRunes: Book 1) (44 page)

He seemed taken aback by her conviction. He
set his lips firmly together and nodded once. “You're right. It
wouldn't be right to hide. We'll go to Treymayne and we'll tell
them what we know.”

They discussed the details of their plan for
a while, deciding to try the crossing over the mountain at the
northern pass, likely to be less heavily guarded as it was itself
so treacherous. Natural dangers didn't scare Layna nearly as much
as what they had after them. They would have to cross the Great
River as well, but once they reached Treymayne they would be
safe.

There they could pass along their information
to the Treymayne officials, and to leave it in their well-equipped
hands to deal with the growing threat of a reawakening of the Dark
Age. When they had a tentative plan of action, they each took to
their beds, though uneasy thoughts kept them all awake well into
the night.

Layna eventually fell to sleep and tumultuous
dreams overtook her, visions of black clad figures doing
unthinkable deeds.

Their cloaks seemed to flow together, forming
a raging black river, and she felt as though she was being washed
down it, unable to gain any control over her motion.

She was thrown up onto the shore, coughing
violently as she crawled on all fours away from the dreaded water.
Her hand hit something cold and hard and she gasped in horror as
she saw that it was Gryffon, bleeding profusely from a terrible
wound, deep red blood forming a stream of its own down into the
river, turning it all the same dark red.

A mirror appeared and she saw herself in it,
smiling evilly under a black hood, holding a dripping dagger.

Layna's dream self screamed and threw the
mirror to the ground, shattering it, only to raise her hands in
horror as they too dripped with deep red blood.

The eyes in the mirror shards watched her,
knowing laughter behind them. A terrible scream pierced her very
being, and she tumbled into a black abyss.

Darkness. She was surrounded by
darkness.

Where was she?

She tried to move, but she
couldn’t. Her legs pumped wildly underneath her, but the black
shadow surrounding her persisted and she remained in utter
darkness.

“Hello?” she called out. Her voice
sounded empty, and it echoed off of unseen walls.

“Hello?” came a voice calling back
– her own echo again, but eerily delayed.

And then another, a demonic
growling hiss.

“Hello.”

She screamed and tried to flee
with terror filling her senses, and this time she was practically
thrown forward into a tunnel of light.

She fell faster and faster into
it.

Her eyes adjusted to the
brightness and she looked into it happily, glad for the comfort
that light offered. The comfort soon turned again to fear as she
realized that it was filled with snakes at the end.

Their glowing red eyes were
looking up at her hungrily. They squirmed around each other in a
massive ball of slithering mouths, open wide awaiting her fall into
their midst.

She recoiled and tried to
backpedal her way out of the tunnel, but it had turned upright and
she was now in a free fall towards them, completely helpless to
stop her descent.

They swirled around one another
faster and faster in their excitement and then pressed into one
another, forming a new shape.

A huge dragon rose out from the
living nest and opened its mouth wide, swallowing her up. As
darkness closed in around her again, the giant jaws clamping shut
around her, she felt strangely calm.

Then she was at Mila’s. And
Gryffon was there. Mila was trying to tell her something, but no
sound was coming out. She heard only silence. Mila was waving her
arms wildly about, and a look of terror appeared on her face as
Gryffon took a step towards her.

Her limbs moved involuntarily and
she saw herself raise her arms towards Gryffon, whose easy smile
wavered at her motion. She felt the power well up inside her, and
could sense its fatal purpose. She tried to scream for Gryffon to
get away from her, that she couldn’t stop what she was doing, but
she was as mute as Mila.

Gryffon just gave her a puzzled
look and cocked his head to the side. The power was nearly
radiating from her now and she could only watch in horror as her
own hands flew forward, throwing the destructive energy at
Gryffon.

His face barely had time to
register his surprise before it twisted into agony, and his shirt
melted away to reveal his mark, burning brightly as it greedily
soaked up the energy. The stream of power held steady between them,
feeding into the mark, which glowed brighter and brighter and then
horribly started eating away at his flesh. He screamed and
screamed, but the world remained silent.

She felt tears escaping her, and
had to blink them away to see clearly as Gryffon’s body was rent
apart by the gaping black hole in his chest. Even after the life
had left him, the power flowed from her and she felt sobs wrack her
body.

Mila came to stand by her, and she
looked at her pleadingly, wondering why she had not stopped
her.

Mila solemnly held up another
mirror. In it, she could she herself, a grotesque grin on her face,
so out of place with her eyes puffy from crying. Her eyes looked
mad, and tiny fires danced in her pupils.

As she watched, the eyes slanted
and tilted to become more like a cat’s, and her skin turned a deep
blue, sprouting scales. A long snake’s tongue flicked out beneath
the grin, and she caught a glimpse of canine teeth.

She started to itch and she clawed
at her skin, ripping away her clothes only to realize that the
scales had sprung up all over her body which was molding itself
into something she didn’t recognize.

She threw her head back and let
out a howl as pain exploded in her back, and two wiry wings tore
out of her and beat the air, throwing Mila back against the
wall.

She could feel that she was
growing, and she was suddenly aware of a hunger. A hunger that
couldn’t be denied. Mila was pulling herself to her feet, and she
lunged at the woman, biting her head off in one neat swipe. She
swallowed it whole and went back for the rest, catching the body
and ripping it apart with expert speed before it even hit the
ground.

It hardly dulled the ache of the
hunger.

She looked around and realized
that the house was growing smaller around her as she took her true
form. She burst it apart with a mighty thrust of her wings and blew
fire from her snout to incinerate the rest.

Then she took to the air, looking
for food.

No part of her remembered what she
once was.

Layna woke with a start. She was covered in a
cold sweat and her breathing was coming in rapid shallow pants…they
needed to find help, and soon.

* * *

Continue the trilogy:

Those Who Fear the Darkness
(BloodRunes: Book 2)

Leoht (BloodRunes: Book
3)

BOOKS BY LAURA R COLE

The Eleventh World Saga:

BloodRunes Trilogy

Unleashed Fury

Those Who Fear the Darkness