Five: Out of the Pit (Five #2) (13 page)

don’t know how long I slept there. Only one window graced the walls of the library and it was covered with thick curtains that blocked out any light. I slept the deep sleep of the dog-tired, no dreams, no position changes.

I awoke to Johnathan’s voice and soft touch on my shoulder. “Paige, what are you doing in here?”

I opened my eyes, too in love with his voice to remember to fear that my sight might be gone again. I smiled up at him. I lifted a hand to his face and something dropped from my chest to the floor.

Johnathan bent to pick up the framed picture of Trey. He frowned. As the realization of what he held hit him, the frown turned to a flash of anger.

“
My
face was the last thing you wanted to see before you fell asleep, huh?” He flung it across the room, the glass frame shattering as it hit a shelf of books.

He jumped to his feet and ran from the room before I could even find my voice to explain.

“Ugghh,” I groaned, punching the couch. “I can’t take this anymore!”

“Take what? What’s wrong?” Alec stepped into the library.

“Nothing. Nothing’s wrong,” I huffed.

“Yeah, sounds like it.” He plopped onto the couch next to me.

“Disney lies, that’s all.”

“Huh? Now I’m really confused.” Alec shook his head.

“You know, the whole ‘happily ever after’ thing. Relationships are hard. I just want things to be easy for a little while. I can see again. The Incubus is gone. John is no longer tainted by a Demon. And yet, things are worse now than ever.”

“What’s the problem now? Do I need to have a talk with Johnny?”

I sighed. “He’s just having a hard time getting over the Incubus thing. I don’t blame him, I’d be hurt, too…”

“But, none of that was your fault. He can’t hold it against you. You were under a spell… right?”

“I
was
under a spell. Johnathan knows that, it’s just still hard, what he saw last night. That kinda stuff is hard to erase. Then he… misunderstood… something, just now.”

“What?”

I hesitated. Would Alec be mad that I was looking for similarities between him and Trey? Probably not. He hadn’t seemed too freaked out about the idea last night. “I fell asleep while I was looking at a picture of Trey. I was just trying to decide if I could see any resemblance with you. Johnathan woke me and the picture was still in my hand. He got the wrong idea and stormed out of here before I could explain.”

“So, did you see any? Resemblance?”

I laughed. Leave it to Alec to pick out only the part about him. “Maybe. Would you be upset if I did?”

He shook his head. “Nah. If being the offspring of an Incubus is good enough for Merlin, it’s good enough for me. It would be nice to know for sure, though.”

I smiled and punched his arm. “I would have guessed ‘Troll’ for your dad before Incubus.”

“Troll, huh?” He lunged for me, but I anticipated it. I rolled off the couch and into a crouching position. He missed me by a hair and tipped the couch over with the momentum he carried. Before he could untangle himself from the cushions I jumped over the upturned couch and landed on his chest. He was too much stronger than me to pin him down using strength, so I threw a binding spell at his arms, they stuck to the floor like super glue.

Alec bucked me off with his hips. I rolled to the side and stood in one fluid motion, taking a fighting stance. While his arms were still stuck to the floor I smiled wickedly and said, “
Oblimo
,” which is, ‘to cover in slime’ in Latin. I’d looked it up specifically for an occasion such as this, and specifically for use on Alec.

Slime, the color and consistency of moss mixed with snot, mixed with mud, splattered him. It. Was. Awesome. He turned his face just in time to avoid a mouthful, but otherwise, it covered him head to toe.

“Oh. You’re dead.” Alec struggled to free his arms.

I turned and ran out of the library. I looked behind me to see how close he was and I ran into something hard… Alec.

“How in the heck?” I said.

He smiled before he easily took me down and put me in a head lock. I snaked my hand between his arm and the side of my head then activate my shield bracelet, thrusting his arms away from me. I scrambled on the hardwood floor, but he grabbed me by the ankle and dragged me over to him. I swung an elbow at his slimy face. He evaded and my elbow hit the floor.
Ouch
.

“What are you two doing?” Halli ran up and tried to separate us. “And what is this nasty stuff all over you?”

Alec and I both started laughing.

“I figured the son of a Troll would enjoy being slimed,” I said between laughs.

“I must say, you surprised me with that one,” Alec said.

“And you surprised me with… whatever you did to get in front of me just now. How
did
you do that?”

He shrugged, fake hubris oozing off of him like the slime. “I portalled. I’ve been practicing. It works for offensive attacks and defensive retreats. Pretty cool, huh?”

“Super cool,” I said. I added in a whisper, “Thanks Alec. You’re a good friend.”

He whispered back, “I’ll go have a talk with Johnny Boy. Don’t worry, he loves you, he’s just more prone to losing his mind than the rest of us.”

“Go take a shower. That stuff reeks.” I shook a blob off my wrist. I looked down at my slime covered clothes and sighed. I didn’t have a change of clothes here. I’d have to go back to the cave to get them. “Hal, do you feel like walking back to the cave with me to get our stuff? I need some clean clothes.”

“I’m just gonna borrow some clothes from my long lost papa,” Alec joked. “I can portal out to the old homestead and get your stuff for you if you want.”

“No. I think the walk’ll do me good. Plus I want to
see
it. I want to see everything. You with me, Halli?”

“Yeah, I’m always with you, Paige. Let me go grab my jacket.” She started down the hallway but turned back to add, “You
have
to teach me that slime spell. Awesome.”

I walked with her back to our rooms so I could get my jacket, too. I touched Johnathan’s closed door as I walked past, pausing for a moment to see if I could hear him. No sound came from inside. I moved on to my room and retrieved my jacket. I almost decided not to wear it because when I whisked it around my shoulders, I caught a strong odor of the leaves from the trees Johnathan had destroyed. I braced myself against the wall as a small wave of dizziness swept over me. I cringed as thoughts of Trey, thoughts I would rather have stayed buried, came to my mind.

After a short recovery period, I decided it would be stupid to freeze just because of an odor.
The fresh air will get rid of the smell.
I put my arms through the sleeves and met Halli in the hall as I fastened the buttons.

“You okay?” Halli asked.

“Yeah, fine. I’m excited to see everything. Let’s go.”

I hurried past Johnathan’s door without a second glance.

The early afternoon autumn sun felt good on my face. The chill in the air felt good, too. I couldn’t believe the beauty of Moab. The mountains, rocks, and dirt really were red. Main Street looked much as I’d pictured in my head—small souvenir shops interspersed with hometown restaurants, a book store, small hotels, and lots of jeep rental places.

It didn’t take long to get outside of town. I was surprised I found this landscape beautiful, having come from the Pacific Northwest where you couldn’t go anywhere without seeing a forest of trees. There were no real trees in sight, only an occasional scrub oak clinging desperately to a cliff face or growing in the cracks of a huge, ancient rock wall. Sagebrush was even sparse there. But, the red sand and the striated rock-mountains were beautiful examples of ancient life.
How many thousands of years did it take to create each band of color flowing through these rocks?
It was like an artist’s paintbrush had created the landscape surrounding me.

Halli led the way to our cave home. I was a little shocked. Even though she and the others had tried to explain to me what it looked like, it was not what I had expected. The sight that met my eyes truly was just a humongous pile of enormous boulders in the middle of a flat expanse. Some of them looked like they’d grown from the ground and others looked like they’d fallen from the sky. I freaked out a little as we entered. I looked up at the boulders that seemed to be precariously balanced upon one another and wondered when one might shift and bring the entire thing down on top of us.

The rocks were almost perfectly arranged to separate the cave into small rooms. I followed Halli into our room and changed into semi-clean clothes. We packed up our dirt covered possessions and went back outside, backpacks bulging. I took a few steps then stopped short, Halli bumped into the back of me.

“Were these here a few minutes ago?” I squatted to get a closer look at the tire tracks and footprints.

She stooped to see what I looked at. “No. I don’t think so. The only tracks I’ve seen anywhere near here have been from our group. That’s one reason we chose this spot, because it was off the trail.”

The hairs on the back of my neck stood up. “Let’s follow them. Something doesn’t feel right and I want to make sure whoever made these tracks isn’t still hanging around.”

The tracks came close to but didn’t go into our cave. The wards we’d put up still held firm.

I shrugged my backpack straps higher onto my shoulders and walked in the direction the tracks led, Halli close beside me. They took us around the edge of a high outcropping of rock and through a small slot canyon a jeep would have barely fit through. The narrow way opened up into a small bowl, surrounded on each side by tall cliffs. The bowl spanned about fifty yards.

A menacing feeling raced through my veins. My heart rate sped up and my senses intensified. I looked to my left as soon as I entered the bowl and instinctually pushed Halli behind me.

There was a black jeep parked there. Leaning against the jeep were two men. I heard a noise to my right and spun around. There were two more men, one leaning casually against the cliff face and the other just rising from where he sat on a rock.

Halli moved so we were back-to-back; she faced the jeep and I faced the other two men. The man that had been sitting on the rock took a step toward me. “Well, hello there, girls. It must be our lucky day to have two such perty females find us in such a desolate area.”

“You girls all alone?” one of the men behind me asked.

My voice was steady as I answered. “Sorry for our intrusion. We’ll just be on our way now.” I turned back to the narrow trail and drew in a sharp breath. Another man stood right behind us. He must have been hidden in a crevasse nearby or we would have seen him before reaching the open area.

He stepped even closer. He reeked of alcohol and cigarette smoke. His bloodshot eyes raked up and down my body, then Halli’s. “Why don’t ya stay and play awhile, ladies? Come on in to our little hideaway here and let’s have a talk.”

e was big. He towered over me by at least a foot. A piece of greasy hair fell over his eyes as he lunged for me at the same time as I grabbed for my summoning necklace—that wasn’t there. I’d left it on the bathroom counter. I wasn’t prepared as he tackled me to the ground. I landed hard, with the grease ball on top of me. My breath came whooshing out and the pressure in my chest incapacitated me. I couldn’t breathe. Panic overtook me for a moment before I realized the breath had just been knocked out of me and my respirations would return shortly. The Big Greasy Giant laying atop me didn’t help the breathing problem.