A Hollow Soul, page 12
“He only said that because everyone else is locked in and I and the other guards are in different parts where we would not easily hear if you called out. Is it going to be okay if we open the door? I do have other guards here at the ready in case.”
I roll my eyes. “Yes, you will all be just fine.” I take a step back. “He’s was exaggerating, he caused this you know.”
“Hmmm.” Is all I hear for a moment and then a click of a lock, and the door pushes in. Quintan and two others stand in the hallway ready to launch at me if needed.
I keep still. “Can I come out now?” I wait. “Last time I lashed out, I got tasered and came here. I would like not to go somewhere worse than this.”
He looks around in the bathroom, before landing on me, not seeing anything out of place. “Yes, let’s get you back to your room so you can sleep the rest of what you have left of the night. Don’t worry about Doug we will be handling him.” He motions for me to come forward and backs up into the guard, blocking them from me.
Shade said he trusted Quintan but I still wasn’t sure. I would have to wait and see what would come of this.
He walks me back to my room. So much has happened in a small amount of time. The girl in the other bed is passed out on her back and snoring, but that does not stop me from hitting the pillow and falling asleep quickly.
Chapter 5
“Wake up!” a loud voice booms in my ear, causing me to startle and flail about, searching for the one that has woken me up so rudely.
“What?!” I shriek and ask in a grumpy mood. After not finding anything to hit, I roll over and face the wall, pulling the blankets up over my head. “Go away,” I say, the blanket muffling my voice.
“Oh, someone wants to sleep in now, but at three in the frickin’ morning, that’s a different story! Guess since this is not an opportune time to bother you, I will not.”
No sounds emit for a few minutes. I peek my head outside of the covers. Before I can so much as peek outside the covers, the blue girl from last night grasps at the blankets that are snuggled around me and rips them off, causing me to flip over on to my other side. “Not today, Miss Perfect!”
“Hey!” I sit up, making the bed screech in reply to my movements. I shiver against the cold of the room. “Give those back. It’s cold in here!” I demand.
She smiles at that; I finally see her in full light, her whole body or what I could see of it was pure blue in hue. “Cold, nah, this is not cold. Plus, I think it is only fair for causing such a ruckus last night and keeping me awake the whole time.”
I glare at her. She stands before me defiantly, keeping a tight hold on the blankets in case I think to grab them back. She is tall and slender. Her left-hand stands poised on her hip, cocked out in annoyance. Her hair is thickly layered in a very choppy manner and short. It’s neon blue. Her gaze gives me a bland look with her icy blue eyes. “Bored now.” She pouts and drops the blankets on the floor walking back over to her side of the room.
“Who are you? And possibly more importantly what are you?” I question, edging over the bed and grabbing the blanket and pulling it back over me, to combat the chill.
She arches a quizzical brow in my direction, as she turns back. “How rude. My name is Natasha.” She smirks. “As for what I am, perhaps I will just show you, since you want to find out so badly.”
She waves her arm and suddenly her form changes the light tint of blue of her skin is now a deeper blue; her neon blue hair is now frozen in place in the shape of icicles. Her eyes instead of a piercing sky blue are now a solid blue; the whole eye is of that one color, and where the black pupil would sit in a circle, it is instead in a starburst shape. She holds up a hand and faces her palm upward, cold whisps emit from her palm as ice starts to form in the center of it. She creates an ice sphere and tosses it over to me.
I catch it with the blanket, touching it lightly. It is a dense ball and very cold. “Holy shit.” I poke at it with my bare fingertips. “That is very cool.” I chuckle.
She smirks. “Impressed, aren’t you?” She laughs. “Come on, don’t be daft, would it be anything other than cold?” She stares at me.
“Well, umm.” I look down at the ice and hesitantly raise my eyes back up. She is still staring at me. “I’m sorry, I am new to all this and what it entails, and I am sorry if I am supposed to know what you are just from that trick, but I don’t,” I say carefully not wanting to upset her especially if she could just freeze me or throw ice balls at me, let alone what else she could do. “I understand you have powers, and you look really wicked.” I give her a compliment, hoping to entice more information from her.
“Flattery will get you everywhere.” She smiles, but rolls her eyes when I move closer smiling eagerly at her. She raises her eyes regarding the ceiling and sighs deeply, wings explode from her back. “Might as well get all the surprises out of the way.”
“Whoa.” I get up and move around her, dropping the ice chunk on the table beside the bed. “Do those just lay down when you aren’t using them? Do you have some sort of spell that hides them otherwise?” I fire off rapidly. Her wings are huge compared to her slight frame. “They are beautiful,” I whisper, giving her no time to answer my previous questions. I reach out a hand to touch them.
“Hey, watch it!” She flutters them, casting a cold breeze on me as she flies away and turns, keeping them away from my searching hands. “I don’t come poking and prodding at you, I would appreciate the same courtesy.” She glares at me.
“Sorry.” My head falls as I take a step back, putting my hands up in surrender.
“Stop that,” she spits. “It’s like you are a child!” she yells. “Don’t you know you are never supposed to apologize or thank a Fae.” She gives a pointed look. “I will let that one pass since you are new here, but strike apologies and thanks from your vocabulary unless you like going into debt with certain Fae. Then, of course, you can be my loyal servant.” She gives a mean pass over me and points a finger. “Go ahead, apologize.”
I give an audible gulp, but only understand half of what she is saying. “I was held captive or have forgotten most of my life so excuse me for not knowing any of this. Fae—is that what you are, like a fairy? Aren’t you supposed to be tiny then?” I pinch my fingers together, showing the appropriate size.
“Fae, not a fairy like you hear about in stories. I am not your fairy godmother, I will not grant you wishes, and be glad I do not freeze you right here on this spot,” she grinds out, setting herself down and stomping a slender foot, making her point.
Her wings glitter. Dark blue veins cascade over the icy white expanse of the wings, looking as if lightning hit in the middle of a winter snowstorm. Her lips are black now, as if they have been frost bitten by her cold exterior. Her fingertips are also tipped in blackness. I wonder if her toes match them, socks cover her feet from view. She twitches her fingers back and forth. Her hair clinks and makes chiming noises as the icicles move back and forth with her head movements.
I cock my head, expecting something cold to come after me. I scrunch away and wrap my arms around my middle, trying to trap the heat inside. The shapes of her wings are the shape of a butterflies, except they are rigid and sharp at the end points.
“So, you’re like this Fae monster. What does that entail?” I lean back against the edge of her bed.
She scoffs at me and is taken aback.
“Think of me, if you must, like a child. I literally know nothing of this world and the creatures that inhabit it. I was just thrown into all of this literally yesterday,” I make the excuse for myself. I stand back up and drop my hands. “I think I am doing pretty well compared to freaking out about everything, which is what I am internally doing but you all seem to think the smallest issue anyone has is a major cause for alarm.”
The temperature suddenly drops in the room more so than before and the moisture in the room crystalizes coating the floors and walls in an icy sheen. “I get that you are new and all but before you call anyone a monster you might want to be sure you can take them in a fight or make sure that is what they want to be called,” Natasha comments frigidly. She licks her lips, and a black tongue emerges.
“Your tongue is black like your fingers and lips,” I say, aghast.
She eyes me, and ice forms from her hand once again this time in the shape of a small spear. “Yeah, what of it? If they were pink like yours, it would have frozen and broken off long ago.” She eyes me and plays with the sharp point of the spear, licking it for emphasis. “I am going to need you to stay on one subject and not jump around in this conversation.” She points the sharp ice spear at me and takes a bite of it as if it were a lollipop.
I breathe out and see my frosty breath. I wrap my arms back around myself, hugging for warmth. “Okay, I get it, you’re the queen of ice. Can we make it less cold in here? You know, some of us like being warm.”
“No, I would have never known that.” She rolls her eyes again and throws the spear up and down, catching it easily in her hand. “You like stating the obvious a lot.”
“Look, I’m sorry, Okay.” I whine.
“What did I just tell you, slave! You now owe one debt of my asking.” She ticks off one finger. “Hope you do not piss me off anymore.” She looks down her nose at me.
“Ughhhh. What am I supposed to say instead of those words then?” I give her an irritated gaze.
“Not my problem. That is for you to figure out, just hope you don’t come across any Fae whether they be light or dark, or else you will get more than you bargained for.” The temperature warms back up, but the ice does not melt in her hand. It appears as if she pulls the cold closer around her instead of letting it out in the whole room. “If you want to be in debt to my kind, then keep saying those kinds of words.” She shrugs. “Hmm, what should I ask of my debt? Or should I hold on to it until later?” She smiles to herself as she thinks.
“Wait.” I brush against her fingers that are holding the spear. I bite back a screech of pain.
“Don’t touch.” She breathes out.
I breathe on my chilled fingers. “I-I—Okay,” I say simply. “What I wanted to ask is—you said light and dark Fae? Is that like the light and dark factions, kind of like for witches? Quintan said something about them yesterday.” My face scrunches in thought. It feels good to be able to remember the previous day’s memories.
“No, witches have their own factions, but they are similar. There are sides taken. Most are divided depending on their base power, though many of the dark factions work with dark Fae, and same with the light and light Fae, though it is frowned upon since we are all tricksters at heart. Fae, though, are from a different world than this one, and there are many other sides other than just light and dark.” She smiles. “Fae came here though, since your world is rich in magic and other things that were needed at the time. Most of us had to pick a side based on our powers and what they gravitate towards,” she says dismissively. She smiles, showing sharp pointed teeth. “Wanna guess what side I belong to?”
“Let me guess dark?” I say, crossing my arms in front of myself over my chest.
“I wish.” She shrugs. “Dark side in this world’s context is made up of Spring, Fall, and Dark Fae, the most volatile of us and any of those that belong to those courts. There are Fae that are mixed breeds and have to make a choice and aren’t really liked in any of the courts. Winter, Summer, and Light Fae belong to the light side,” she says. “Many Fae have decided to come here instead of our own world to get away from the courts politics plus it doesn’t help that our world is shrinking substantially.”
“Fae, who knew?” I walk around Natasha to grab the comforter off my bed and wrap it around my shoulders. “So, if you are not born to this world, you are given a side? The choice is made for you, dependent upon your gifts?”
She squeezes her fist, and her form begins to diminish and hide the more prominent features, looking more human. The room warms back up and the frigid temperature stops cascading off her. She withdraws the iciness from the floor and walls just leaving a little bit of a wet sheen to everything.
“My expertise is in ice. Fae usually have one of the elements as a base power or a derivative of the elements.” She smooths her wings down and shakes her head, breaking the ice from the hair and leaving it full and luscious, the hair returning to normal. She twinges her head to the left and cracks it.
“Is that uncomfortable changing forms?” I ask.
“A bit, but you get used to it after a while. The thing that really doesn’t grow on me is keeping my wings down and hidden.” She rolls her shoulders.
I nod in understanding. “Is that all there is—Fae and witches? Or what kind of other creatures are there.”
“If you can dream it up it probably exists. Wolves, vampires, the snot monster, dragons, all of it.” She twists away and flicks her fingers back at me. “Just know each group of ‘monster’ has their own beliefs and ways of working and you will not come across every one of them.” She uses her fingers to quote the monster word rolling her eyes. “Things used to be easier here when there wasn’t traveling between worlds, but it is getting harder to distinguish the line with the travel.”
“What are you doing here at this place? I know and get why I am here; did you do something wrong?” I edge.
She laughs. “Hell no. Apparently my parents have a problem with my attitude or something like that.” She walks over to her closet and ruffles through it, pulling out clothes and discarding them.
“So, you didn’t kill anyone?”
She stops what she is doing and gives me a hard look. “No.” Her gaze studies me. “Others that are here, yes, but I have not. What are you in for? Since you now know all about me.” She places the clothes back in the closet. She closes the door once they are all put away and leans up against the closed door as if guarding it.
“Don’t worry your clothes are safe.” I shake my head and sit back on my bed, the cover cocooning me in warmth. “I am still not sure what this place really is. I was in a human institution and a spell ended up killing someone, I think and so I was caught and brought here. I was supposed to go to an insane asylum type place.” I fidget with the edges of the blanket. “I’m not really sure a lot has happened and I barely understand any of it.”
“You killed someone?” She asks in wonder. She looks at me with untrusting eyes. “You don’t look like you could kill someone.”
“Looks can be deceiving wouldn’t you say?” I smile to myself. “That is why I am guessing I was brought here because I don’t know if it was me or something just placed on me, I am not even sure what I am. I have been surrounded by witches, so I thought that is just what I am, but no one is sure and has no answers for me. Then last night I had claws. I dunno.” I bite at my lips.
“Were you raised a witch? Have you tried doing a spell? Or witch-like things?” She quirks her head to the side.
“I…don’t remember.” I hang my head in shame. “I have this shadow that follows me.” I show my wrist with the arrows crossed. “But they don’t know if it is a spell that was put on me or if I created it myself. I have no memory of much of anything other than these last couple of days and what I have been told.”
Natasha walks over to me and takes my wrist gingerly in her cool hands. “Don’t worry, my body only gets cold when I want it to. Or at least mostly as long as I have my emotions under control.” Her fingers rub over the tattoo. “A shadow protector that shows up as a tattoo?” I nod my head. “Does it always take this form or picture?”
“No, it’s the first time I have seen it out in the open like he is, and like I said I don’t remember anything from the past so not sure if he has been other things.”
“It’s a he?” I nod once again. “Well, this symbol usually means friendship; can he not communicate with you?” She releases my wrist and gives me a questioning look.
I pull my wrist closer to my eyes to inspect it. “Yeah, his essence feels male maybe I just associate it with a he because he is big and scary. In my memories that are not my memories he is a friend down the street that is a male, so I just continued with that.” I shrug. “Friendship you sure?”
“Yep. So, he’s not able to speak?”
“No, communication is something we are working on.” I roll my eyes. “Sounds like we are in a weird relationship, doesn’t it?” I laugh. “He can give yes or no answers by shaking his head but that is about it, I have only talked or seen him two or three times that I remember.”
“Have you tried sign language?”
“No, I don’t know how to do that.”
“There are books on it in the library,” she says as an afterthought. “You can at least learn the alphabet and speak to each other that way, that way you can learn more from him. Not sure if it will help but better than nothing.”
“True. Yeah, I have time at the library I think today and will have to check it out as well as everything else, I have to learn.” I lie back hitting my bed already wanting to curl up in a ball and sleep away the day.
“No rest for the wicked.” She chuckles as she takes the blanket away from me. “I am here if you have questions. I’m not a total bitch only on every day that ends in Y.”
“Great!” I throw my hands out to the side raising up back into a sitting position. “Hey, what about people that don’t want to be a part of a side either dark or light? What happens to them?”
She throws the blanket to the side and brushes her hands over her jeans, as if there were a speck of dirt or something on them. “Their lives are short and hard lived. No one likes change and no one sides with them much to help.” She smiles sadly. “I have heard there are places for them, but they are far and few between, and it is even harder to find people to help them. Rogue’s is what they are called and are shunned by all.” She swipes her thumb across her neck, showing the image of a beheading, or death. “Or they travel to other worlds if they can make it, hoping for a new life.”
