The Changelings Part 18

I didn't stop, even when I was upon her. I ran as hard as I could, ramming my pointed stick into her chest, refusing to let go even as I felt it sink into her bag of decrepit, brittle bones.

She screamed. The unholy shriek rose higher and higher, hurting my ears with its ugliness.

A deep green glow burst from her chest where my stick had penetrated her flesh, blazing up and down to fully consume her. It touched my hand, the one that was still gripping the stick, but I felt nothing.

No blood came from her wound. Instead, a blackness began seeping out and spreading across the forest floor, causing whatever it touched to quickly move out of its way or shrivel up, turn gray, and die.

I danced my feet out of the way to keep the molten evil from touching my Converse sneakers.

The hag began to sink down, grabbing hold of my wrist and staring at me with her one good eye. "Youuuu ... giiiirrrlllll ... Motherrrr ... " A single tear welled up in each of her eyes, and for a brief moment, so quickly I thought I was probably imagining it, I saw another face there ... a younger one ... a beautiful one. But then the hag was there again. A smoking blackness, reeking of rotten chemicals.

I let go of the stick and the defeated hag crumpled to the ground. The pitch-blackness that had seeped out of her returned quickly, covering her body and boiling up over it.

I stepped back, grabbing my sweet Tony and pulling him along with me. He stumbled behind, saying nothing. When we were a few safe feet away, Tony and I stopped and stared at the ma.s.s of writhing blackness. I heard what sounded like the beating of wings and a chorus of deep, otherworldly evil screams that I know I'll experience in my nightmares for the rest of my life.

And then there was a flash of bright green light and a loud POP! ... and it was all over.

The hag was gone and my stick lay on the ground a small and black, still pointed on the end a no longer glowing green nor covered in the hag's heinous awfulness. It was as if it had never happened, except that in the place where the hag had been swallowed up by the blackness, a piece of scorched earth remained.

I thought about covering it up with dirt, but then something made me decide not to. Something terrible had happened here. As awful as she had been, she'd had some sort of life in her a and I had taken it. The b.i.t.c.h had to die; I knew that, rationally speaking. But when I thought back to that momentary vision of her, the one that appeared just before her evil light was finally snuffed out, I thought maybe she hadn't always been a hag. Maybe, a long time ago, she had been a different person. Maybe even somebody Tony could have loved a someone I'd even let him make out with.

I turned to look at Tony. He was staring at the black spot on the ground, not saying anything.

"Tony? You okay?" I wasn't sure if my old Tony was back, or if I was going to be stuck with Zombie Tony for the rest of my life.

Tony shook his head slowly from side to side.

My guts clenched and I started to feel sick again. Please G.o.d, let me have my Tony back.

"I'm not really sure what just happened, Jayne. I came down from the tree, and I saw this beautiful girl. She looked like Samantha. She was here ... and then ... I don't know. I don't remember what happened after that." He looked up at me with tears glistening in his eyes. "But I remember being really angry at you and coming after you with that axe. And I don't know why I would ever do that, Jayne. It's killing me!"

He started crying for real now, not just tears but girly sobbing too.

I went to him and hugged him fiercely for a moment before pulling away and grabbing him firmly by the shoulders. The kid needed some tough love right now, and he'd caught me at a good time. I'd just kicked a crone's a.s.s and burned her to smithereens. I wasn't feeling overly tenderhearted right at that moment.

"Listen, ya big baby a you fell in love with an enchanted hag who tricked you and convinced you I was the bad guy. Luckily, you suck at hurting people and I easily kicked both your a.s.ses, with the help of my friends, the trees and vines." I sent them a silent message of grat.i.tude through my feet on the forest floor and was rewarded with a shower of leaves and evergreen needles.

Tony grabbed me and hugged me hard enough to squeeze my breath away. "I love you so much, Jayne. I never want to hurt you. Ever."

"I know that, Tony, I know," I mumbled into his shoulder. "Just promise me that if I ever get mesmerized by some ugly-a.s.s, evil old wizard guy, you won't let me make out with him either, 'kay?"

"Um, okay."

Tony thought about what I said for a second and took a step back, keeping his hands on my shoulders. "Do you mean that ... did I? ... Oh, G.o.d, please tell me I didn't ... " His eyes searched my face for answers I could tell he wasn't sure he wanted.

I reached up and patted him on the cheek. "Thanks to me and Blackie, you're still a virgin, and you didn't make out with old One-Eye." I gestured meaningfully with my eyes at the black spot on the ground.

Tony dropped his hands from my shoulders and rubbed his stomach absently. "I feel sick." He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, looking highly distressed. In a way, he'd been violated, so his reaction was totally understandable. But I hated to see him dwell on it.

"Come on, let's grab our bags and go. I know the right direction. I saw the second waypoint from up in the tree. It shouldn't take us long to get there."

I asked the trees for Tony's axe back. It came sliding out from under some brambles and stopped at Tony's feet. He stared at it for a minute, not immediately retrieving it.

"Come on, Tony, let's go. We don't have a ton of daylight left, you know."

"Maybe I shouldn't have a weapon."

"Listen, I know you're afraid you're going to try and use it on me again. And to be honest, I am a little p.i.s.sed that you almost did, because apparently you've figured out the secret code that gets this f.u.c.ker working like a freaky-a.s.s lightsaber a but I know it wasn't your choice and you kinda sucked at it anyway, so it doesn't matter. Pick it up and let's go. Stop feeling sorry for yourself."

Tony gave me a dirty look and then picked it up, walking over to stand next to me. "You have a terrible bedside manner, you know that?"

I smiled. "I know."

Tony put his arm around me as we started walking. "That's one of the many qualities I love about you."

"I know that too."

We walked through the forest in the direction of the waypoint, reaching it in less than an hour. I walked up to the obelisk and tied our flags to the iron ring. There was only one flag on this one a a yellow one.

Tony and I stared at it for a while.

He was the first to comment. "Do you think the hag got to the person who had the pink flags?"

"I don't know, Tones. Maybe."

It was a sobering thought. Dardennes had the nerve to call vampires, gnomes, killer dwarves and a wicked corpse-like hag 'obstacles'. We'd only made it to the second waypoint and we'd already encountered this much. What would be next? And would we survive it?

CHAPTER NINETEEN.

I got down from the tree I had climbed in search of the third waypoint, caressing its trunk as I stepped away, sending thank yous out through my mind.

"The next waypoint is way the h.e.l.l over that way," I said, gesturing to the west. "I could barely see it. It's next to a lake, on its far side."

Tony looked up at the treetops. "Well, it's probably about five o'clock. We can either keep walking or find a place to camp for the night. It's up to you."

"I think I'd like to stop for now. I'm a little tired after having defeated Evil and all, so maybe we can walk until we find a good spot and then quit for the night? Maybe even make a fire this time?"

"Sounds like a plan," agreed Tony, his voice telling me he was tired too.

We walked for close to an hour and then came to a very small clearing in the midst of the dark woods. "How about this spot?" asked Tony.

"Fine with me." I dropped my backpack on the ground and sunk down to my knees. The pine needles and old leaves were like a carpeted floor, soft and a little bit bouncy. "You know, before coming here, I'd never really spent much time in the woods, other than that trip to North Carolina I took with my parents."

"Yeah, me neither."

"Except for the evil creature part, I really like it here." I knew I must be going crazy to feel this way, but it was true.

"Well, I think you belong in the woods," said Tony, getting food out of his backpack.

"Belong here? How so?" I was trying to decide if I should be insulted, seeing as how this forest's inhabitants were not only bloodthirsty but also pretty d.a.m.n ugly.

Tony looked at me like I was missing something. "Well, duh. You talk to trees. h.e.l.lo."

"Yeah, well there's that. I'm sure it's just this forest, though a there's magic here obviously. I don't talk to trees at home." I wasn't sure if it was a good thing or a bad thing that I was accepting the presence of magic in my life so readily now. Seems like it should have been a tougher pill to swallow.

"I wouldn't be too sure about that," said Tony, mysteriously.

"What do you mean?"

"Don't you remember? That day with Brad Powers?"

"Of course, I remember the day a how could I forget? But I guess I missed the part where I talked to a tree."

"When Brad pushed you, all those leaves just fell down all over. You looked like you'd jumped in a pile of freshly-raked leaves, but they weren't there to start with. They only fell after you did; the tree shook them off. At the time I thought it was the wind or something like that a but after having seen you here, I think it was you talking to that tree and just not realizing it."

I thought back to that moment, which seemed like it had happened last year but actually had taken place less than a week ago. My, how time flies when you're fighting repulsive, supernatural creatures in an enchanted forest.

Tony could be right, but I didn't want to consider that possibility right now. I had been thinking all along that as soon as this test or hunt was over, we would be able to go back to our normal, mundane lives. To imagine that I might still be talking to trees when we were back in Florida was more than a little unsettling.

Yes, life had been boring in high school. I sat around every day in cla.s.s, waiting for the world to come to me and offer me something more. Now here I was, getting exactly what I had wished for a something a lot, lot more than just geometry and homecoming dances. But I was in a way regretting the fact that I hadn't appreciated before how easy my life was. How uncomplicated it was. So, I had a molester in my house? Nothing a swift shot of my softball bat couldn't fix. Now instead, I had ... this. Whatever this was. I had wished for a more interesting life, and now I had it a in spades. I had only myself to blame for what was happening to me right now. Dammit, I hated being adult about things, and that's what this felt like. It was all so serious and gut-wrenching and annoying. What a drag.

While I bemoaned the direction my life had taken, Tony got a fire started. He'd found plenty of dry pieces of wood lying around the forest near us. Even the rotten wood still had a vibration to it, although it was more like echoes and shadows than the electric energy I usually felt from a living tree. My green friends didn't seem to mind the burning of their already dead parts. The night air was getting cooler, so the warmth they generated felt awesome. Thank you, Green Forest.

Tony and I finished our dinners and then laid down by the fire, using our backpacks as pillows. We were head to head, keeping our bodies parallel to the fire.

"Jayne?"

"Yes?"

"Did I kiss that ... thing back there? You can tell me. I won't freak out."

"No, Tony, you didn't. You wanted to, but I wouldn't let you."

"That is just so disgusting. I can't stop thinking about it."

"Yes, well, now you know how I feel about that a.s.shat boyfriend of my mom's."

"Now I'm sorry I didn't shoot him."

I laughed out loud. "You're awesome, Tony. Thanks for being my friend."

"Thanks for forcing me to be yours."

"You're welcome." I was smiling when I said it. I had good taste in friends. Tony was proof of that.

A few minutes pa.s.sed in companionable silence before Tony said, "Do you think we should sleep in s.h.i.+fts?"

"No need."

"Well, if I were a blood-thirsty creature, I'd probably wait until we were sleeping to come in for a snack."

"Yeah, but we have guards on our side and I'm too tired to stay awake all night a or even part of the night."

"Yeah, too tired from fighting Evil, I know."

"Yeah, and don't forget, I'm tired also from battling you, trying to keep you from making out with Her Hagginess or chopping me into little pieces with your axe."

Tony groaned. "Please, don't remind me!"

I snorted. "Sorry. I'll stop. We will never speak of your cadaverous girlfriend or murderous ways ever again."

"Thank you. And so who are these so-called guards that are going to protect us from the night creatures, anyway?"

I gestured above our heads. "They are."

"Oh. Cool. Good idea." Ten seconds later, Tony was snoring. Poor kid was exhausted.

I couldn't help but feel flattered that he trusted in my abilities and ideas so completely. It was a heavy responsibility, though. Dammit, but this hunt was causing me to come to all sorts of annoying and rationally mature realizations, perish the thought. I wondered briefly if it was it too late to wish for my old life back.

But then I knew a the truth was that I didn't really want things to go back to the way they were. The life I had right now was seriously f.u.c.ked up, yes; but there was no denying it was different than anything I'd ever experienced before, and no one could ever call it boring. And something told me there were going to be some other things to discover tomorrow and the day after. At least I wasn't sitting in a cla.s.sroom drawing on my hand and doing the same old thing over and over again, wis.h.i.+ng life could be different.

I put my hands on the ground, digging my palms and fingers into the leaves, pine needles, and soil beneath me. I stared up into the treetops, deeply inhaling the forest air and then letting it leave my lungs with a slow, controlled exhale. The serenity came to me softly but surely. I could smell the trees and the earth, feel the breeze and the pulsating energy that surrounded us. I sent my message to the living things growing in the Dell or wherever we were in the Green Forest, knowing now that my link to them was with the earth and even in the air around us. I was wired and wifi, and it was f.u.c.king awesome.

Protect us from those who wish to hurt us.

I received an answering feeling of shelter and security. Love. I knew the trees would let us know if the bad guys were coming. I wasn't sure exactly how that would happen, but I trusted that it would.

I realized later that I probably should have been more specific and maybe included a wider range of potential issues in my request a but I was new to this tree-whispering stuff and could never have known what was going to happen while we slept.

CHAPTER TWENTY.

We woke to a cold, dewy morning, the fire having long gone out. I stretched my arms above me, yawning without opening my eyes. My hand made contact with Tony's head, waking him up. I slid my leg to the side, intending to sit up, and it made contact with something hard. Not a tree. Something warm. Another body. For a second, it didn't compute. Tony was behind me, not on the side of me. What the ...