Synergy (See #3)(90)

She smiled faintly. “Yep.”

“The place Bianca took you from was destroyed,” Draven offered.

An eerie wind screamed through the dark forest. The shadows around us began to mummer amongst each other, and shifted nervously. I could feel evil approaching. I could feel the hatred that we had survived this in the air. I scanned the darkness for any sign of a threat. I didn’t see one, but I sure as hell felt it. When the shadows began to vanish I knew I was right. Evil was forthcoming.

The others were debating on how they had gotten here. I doubted anyone beyond me and Draven knew how hazardous it was for us to stay here another second.

“Can we focus, please?” Olivia bit out.

Ok, maybe she’d caught on. Thank God.

“Right,” Draven said. “This is where you are – asleep. This is a shared dream by all of us, and now…” he said as he walked over to Drake and Landen and put his hands on their shoulders, “it’s time to wake up.” And with those words, they both vanished.

The vague bedroom vanished along with Landen and Drake. The ghostly forest encased us. Draven reached back for my hand, then looked at Willow, Brady, and Olivia. “Step back. This vision is closed. You’re standing before an altar. Before the waking bodies of Drake and Landen.”

“Nothing is over,” I heard Bianca say.

She’d appeared behind me. I turned defensively, hearing Willow say, “I thought I killed you,” through gritted teeth.

I pushed Draven behind me, not wanting him anywhere near her. I felt Willow and Olivia come to my side.

“Killed me?” Bianca said as she smiled devilishly. “Dark shadows won’t hurt me. They are nourishment to me. What were you trying to do? Choke me or something?”

“End you,” I said coldly. She wasn’t the evil I felt in the air. There was someone else here. I just couldn’t see them. Bianca was their servant. In my mind that knocked her down a few notches on my most wanted list.

Bianca slanted her head and smiled at me. “My best friend. Why couldn’t you just stay on your side? Why couldn’t you just let them go? Why did you have to seek out more?” For a second I almost thought she was telling me to run because she cared about me. Because the friendship we had in the past really did mean something to her. But then my mind reflected on all the foul moves she’d made. Hurting Draven was high on my list, but so was what she did to Willow’s family. To the people they lead. She had no heart. I doubted she had a soul.

“More of what?” Willow asked, holding her arm out, not letting Brady or Olivia come face to face with her.

“I don’t even know what to call you. A plague that is stopping evolution,” Bianca said as she looked over us with disgust in her eyes.

“Evolution into what?” Willow asked, mocking her tone.

Bianca stepped forward and took in a deep breath. “You’re a little too late to the party. A few million years late. Everything is in motion. My kind will overtake the universe -- asunder, that is your future. Pieces, not whole lights; that’s what will be left.”

“You are a disgrace to your race,” Willow said smugly. “I’m going to figure out where the real you is. And when I do. I’m going to kill you slowly.”

“Stand in line.” I seethed.

“OOOO...I’m terrified,” Bianca said as she laughed. “Listen, I’m a distraction. Bravo you do have one brain cell that helped you figure that out. But what you will never understand with your infantile mind is what I’m a distraction from. You’ve been marked. You crossed the line.”

“What line is that?” I asked.

“You’re holding the heirs of the darkest Escort that has ever existed. His only fleshly little children. He wants them back and he always gets what he wants.”

“Wake!” Draven yelled, and instantly we were back.

Draven reached his arm around me and pulled me to his chest. I could have sworn Landen and Drake were still lying in the bed, but at that second Landen was at Brady and Olivia’s side, trying to make sure they were OK. Willow was by the window with Drake.

“They must have stopped time,” Draven mumbled to me. I looked curiously up at him. “I’ll tell you later,” he said, nudging me. I followed his stare and saw Aden and Madison on the couch. She was distraught.

Landen told Brady to go home and tell his family to prepare a big meal, that we were all starving. He left without an argument. Chrispin, Marc, and the others came in the room to relish in the victory, but I couldn’t focus on them. The sight of Madison was breaking my heart. I could tell she wanted to run, and I was prepared to run with her.

“How long did you stop it this time?” Alamos asked, looking at Drake.

These people amazed me. Was there a power they didn’t have? They could stop time, heal, control Mother Nature, see and use energy as weapon. Not to mention the fact that I was pretty damn sure a phoenix was in or apart of Landen. Oddly that little tidbit was a secret to all of them. Even Landen himself. I feared our fate now more than ever. The bigger the weapon, the bigger the enemy.

“Long enough to figure out that you invoked mourning. To understand where all our new friends came from,” Drake answered, glancing around the room, then settling his eyes on Madison.

Their stare silenced every argument. That is until Madison broke away from his pull, stood, and left the room. I followed her, leaving everyone else behind. She walked briskly toward the room our things were in. I didn’t try to talk to her until we were all alone. Several people were in the hall, eager to see that this trial was over, that the prince was awake. That Landen was awake.