Wraithsong

Chapter 25

  “We’ll be in New York in about thirty minutes,” Anthony says. We have driven over eleven hundred miles in less than fourteen hours, only stopping a couple of times to use the filthy gas station restrooms along the way. I text Ashley to wish her a great summer vacation, and explain that I’m already on my way up to Kensington. When she said she would miss me and to stay in touch, I started to cry because from here on out, I know things will be very different.

  On our way, every time I meet a person, I notice their aura and see their whole life story. Each individual I encounter has a lifetime of memories as rich as Karl’s. I feel bad for some, for they have grown bitter, letting life’s hardships keep them from all the goodness around them. Others have taken the bad and turned it into a learning experience, and yet others, have taken the bad and turned it into something beautiful.

  It’s nearing midnight, and my legs feel so stiff that I have to get out of the car before they wither away forever. Finally arriving in New York, Anthony pulls into the Bergdorf Goodman Plaza parking garage. He parks on the seventh floor and we head for the entrance. “I’ve reserved a private room in the restaurant where we’ll meet the Lightálfars.”

  “I’m starving.” I scan the restaurant as we wait to enter the private room. Mauve chairs stand handsomely at each perfectly set table. A large brown leather couch stands by a low table in the center of the bar room and in front of a large abstract mural. The mural separates the bar from the dining area and serves as a station for hostesses.

  “May I have your name?” the hostess asks Anthony.

  “Jensen.”

  “Welcome back,” she says, checking her computer screen.

  “Thank you. It’s always a pleasure to be here.”

  I wonder why he’s been here before, and how many times, and why he didn’t mention it in the first place. I also notice that the hostesses’ aura is darker than other people’s I’ve seen. I blow it off, thinking that maybe it’s just the dim lighting.

  “I hope your meal is enjoyable.” The hostess grabs a couple of chestnut-brown menus, smiles, and signals for us to follow. We pass the marble countertop bar, and several tables decked with crisp white tablecloths and fancy silverware. A plate here must cost at least a hundred bucks.

  The hostess shows us into a smaller room set up for a private party. “Can I get you started on any drinks?”

  “Sparkling water for me,” I say, parched after such a long trip. I tried not to drink so much on the way so that we wouldn’t have too many bathroom breaks. Anthony pulls out a white framed, mauve-cushioned chair and bids me to sit. The window gives me a perfect moonlit view of Central Park.

  “Same for me,” Anthony says. “Can we get started on the appetizers immediately? Deviled eggs and the ahi tuna. Does that sound good, Sonia?”

  “Sure, I’ll eat anything,” I say.

  “Enough for five people, please,” Anthony says to the hostess.

  The hostess leaves and comes back with our sparkling water. “The rest of your party just arrived and they say they’ll be in shortly.”

  “Great,” Anthony says. After the hostess leaves, he sits down beside me and rests one elbow on the tabletop. “I called the Porter Hotel Central Park before we left and reserved two double bedroom suites.”

  Just then a man and a woman enter the room. I can’t see their auras at all, so I gather they must be Lightálfars.

  Both Anthony and I rise to greet them. “Nice to see you again, Skuld,” Anthony says, shaking her hand. “I’d like you to meet Sonia.” The word I think about when I see Skuld is fair. Fair as in pale skinned, and fair as in beautiful. Her straight blonde hair reaches her waist, and her eyes are an intense green. She’s wearing white jeans, white heeled slouch boots that go up to her mid-calf, and a tightfitting white tank with rhinestones. Her lips are full and glossy, her cheekbones pronounced, and she looks like the ideal woman with curvy hips and a round bosom.

  I step forward, feeling slightly intimidated. “Pleased to meet you,” I say, shaking her hand. I notice a tattoo of a dove on the inside of her wrist.

  “Pleased to meet you as well.” Skuld smiles at me warmly and then steps back. “This is Rosson, he goes by Ross.”

  “The pleasure is all mine,” Ross says, reaching his hand to greet Anthony and me. Ross looks like an amateur body-builder, not too grossly muscular, but almost. His black hair is crazy messy and he has a small nose, and small lips, but a nice sized chin with a generous cleft in it. He’s wearing only gray and green and I see tattoos on his upper back peeking up from beneath his collar.

  “Mani will be here in a minute,” Skuld says. We all sit down around the table.

  I feel a little underdressed in my jeans and hot pink t-shirt, but we’re not exactly here to impress each other, so I try to get over it quickly. After the initial small talk, Anthony gets down to business.

  “I’ve reserved two double bedroom suites at a local hotel. As soon as we leave the restaurant, we should head straight for the hotel and come up with a strategy for our attack. Then we can go over it again tomorrow and finally head to Wraithsong Island the day after,” he says.

  My stomach tightens. I don’t feel prepared at all to attack anyone, and now that the big event is just around the bend, I don’t know what to do with myself.

  “Good. We talked a great deal on our way up, and I believe we have a good chance of defeating Maureen and Olaf,” Skuld says.

  “What do you know about the Darkálfars?” I ask.

  “We think there are only six left, so we’re not outnumbered too badly,” Ross replies.

  “The one thing we do have on them is the element of a surprise attack,” Anthony says.

  “Hello, I’m Mani,” a handsome blond man says as he walks into the restaurant’s private room. He immediately focuses his attention on me. He isn’t as muscular as Ross, but still well built, and looks like he just jumped off of the cover of a men’s magazine. His deep brown eyes pierce my soul, and I feel that, just by looking at me, he can read my thoughts, my intentions and my feelings. He’s wearing a t-shirt that shows off his tan and toned arms, and several tattoos of snakes and dragons.

  I stand up and shake his hand. “Hi, I’m Sonia,” I say, hoping I won’t blush. I find him extremely attractive. Maybe that’s why I haven’t ever fallen for anyone; I’ve only ever been around humans.

  “I’m Anthony.” Anthony interrupts Mani and my handshake by reaching his hand out.

  “Pleased to meet you both.” Mani sits down no more than an inch away from me.

  Anthony, sitting on the other side of me, seems annoyed by the newcomer. I smile when I realize that Anthony is acting jealous, and it feels like payback considering all the crap he told me about his fictitious girlfriend.

  A waitress walks in with the appetizers and sets them on the table. I notice that her aura is normal, like all the other humans I have met lately, but slightly more blue. Just by looking at her, I know that she is a single mom, struggles to keep food on the table for her and her three children, and that she is dating a great guy who is thinking about proposing to her.

  I glance at Anthony and he looks back. He knows too; I see the sincerity in his eyes.

  “Ready to order?” the hostess says. We put our orders in and the hostess leaves.

  “So, I have to admit, I don’t know a thing about Lightálfars.” Acknowledging my ignorance up front might help ease some of my anxiety.

  “Okay, who wants to bring the lovely Huldra up to date?” Skuld says.

  “I will,” Mani volunteers. He turns his chair to face me. “Do you want me to start at the beginning?” His voice is deep, his eyes flirtatious.

  “Sure,” I say.

  Anthony clears his throat and interrupts our conversation. “I think a brief history will do.”

  “Sure, sure, of course,” Mani says. He winks at me, and I feel my cheeks flush. “In the beginning we lived in Alfheim, one of Yggdrasil’s nine realms.”

&nbs
p; “Yggdrasil?” I vaguely remember something about that name from the Norse Mythology section in my history book.

  “Yes, the world tree, or the universe, as people call it today. There were nine realms all together. Midgard, where the humans lived, was one. Valhalla where the gods lived, was another. Helheim, where the spirits of the dead resided, was another, and so on.”

  “Oh, okay.”

  “Alfheim, the realm where we lived, was the fairest of all the realms. But when all the realms were destroyed in an inter-realm war, only Midgard remained in this universe. Valhalla was thrust into another galaxy and was renamed Heaven. The old gods all died and a new God was crowned King of the heavens. Helheim remained here on earth and is still here and where all supernatural beings go when they kick the bucket. The reason we cannot see it though, is that it’s in another dimension. At the end of the war, only two humans were spared, and those two humans were Adam and Eve. Darkálfars and Lightálfars also remained on earth.”

  “So you were the three remaining Lightálfars?” I ask.

  “No, in the beginning there were thousands of Lightálfars, and Darkálfars in fact, but over time, the wars with the Darkálfars slowly erased all elves from earth, sending them to Helheim, the realm of the dead.”

  “We destroyed the Darkálfars, and they destroyed us,” Ross says. “But we wanted peace, not war, and freedom, not captivity, for humans. That was the difference.”

  “So this war between the Lightálfars and Darkálfars has been going on since the beginning of our world as we know it?” I ask.

  “Don’t they teach you anything in the Huldra Academy?” Ross interrupts.

  “Sonia just turned eighteen on Sunday,” Anthony comes to my defense.

  “Oh, so she’s like a complete greenie? She really doesn’t know anything then, does she?” Ross’s voice is condescending.

  “No,” Anthony says. “Only what I’ve taught her.”

  I feel extremely inadequate, to say the least, and Ross isn’t exactly killing me with kindness. “I’m sorry I don’t know…” I say.

  “Sonia, you don’t have to apologize, that’s just Ross. He’s a real jerk sometimes and though he’s thousands of years old, he still hasn’t learned how to behave around a lady,” Mani says, taking my hand and stroking it softly.

  Ross chuckles, like he’s entertained, and like he’s proud of Mani’s description of him.

  I feel uncomfortable that Mani is holding my hand, but I don’t want to be rude to Mani, so I don’t object.

  “Do Lightálfars have any supernatural powers?” I ask.

  “Do we have any special powers?” Ross spews. “My, you are ignorant, aren’t you?”

  Mani shoots Ross a stern look. “Just let me tell the story, will you?”

  Ross leans back into his chair and smiles mockingly. “Go ahead then.” He gestures with his hand to have Mani continue.

  “We are not bound by physical limitations like you are.” Mani lifts up his glass, releases his grip on it and it remains hovering in mid-air.

  “Wow,” I say. “Anthony, look!”

  Anthony looks over, but he doesn’t seem impressed.

  “Show off,” Skuld laughs. “That’s the least impressive thing we can do. Sonia, what he’s trying to say is that the physical world you see does not limit us. Gravity does not limit us. We can control physical objects with our minds, we can see through them, and we can even warp time.”

  “However, for each supernatural quality we have, the Darkálfars have a counter-quality. They can create anti-gravity barriers and they can prevent us from controlling or manipulating objects too,” Mani says.

  “The only thing we have on them, is that Darkálfars cannot block our ability to warp time,” Skuld says.

  “That’s amazing!” I’m spellbound by their powers. “How long can you warp time?” Thinking of my dad, I wonder if they can you go back years or decades.

  “We can warp time for about a minute. That’s our limit, we’ve found,” Skuld says. “And only once every twenty-four hours.”

  “Can Darkálfars warp time, too?” Anthony asks.

  “No, but they have another ability we don’t. They can shape-shift,” Ross says.

  “Into what?” I ask.

  Skuld shakes her head, her blonde hair reflecting the lights above. “Basically into any mortal being.”

  “Hey, greenie, ever heard of werewolves or vampires?” Ross asks me as he’s chewing on a toothpick.

  “Yes…”

  Ross just nods his head. “Exactly.”

  All those creatures are just Darkálfars? “So there are no werewolves or vampires, only Huldras and elves?”

  “Bingo,” Ross says.

  “That’s not exactly true, Ross. There are other creatures in Helheim that could come to earth, and have in the past.”

  “Yeah, but they’re not here now, and we don’t want to overwhelm the greenie. But one thing you do need to be aware of,” Ross says, glaring at me, “is that Darkálfars can shape-shift into people you know too.”

  “That sounds tricky,” I say.

  “It is tricky. That means anyone can be a potential Darkálfar. They can even create a fake human aura around them, so there is no way of telling the difference,” Mani says.

  “There’s also Olaf, who can sneak into anyone’s mind and steal information, if you’re not careful,” Anthony says.

  “We believe Maureen has bestowed Olaf with more supernatural abilities. I see him as our number one threat besides Maureen.” Skuld eats a few appetizers.

  “What supernatural powers does Maureen possess?” I ask.

  Skuld props her elbows on top of the table and leans forward. Watching her, I think she moves more like an angel than an elf.

  “She is a Huldra like yourself, but her powers far exceed yours, Sonia. Not that you can’t grow your powers to be as strong as hers, but she has had thousands of years to develop them,” she says.

  I don’t disagree with Skuld, but when someone else says that I’m weak, it feels so much more harsh and real.

  “We’re going to have to protect you,” Mani says. “Since you’re the new kid on the block. I’ll make sure you’re safe.” He smiles and then touches my knee under the table.

  I wonder if he flirts like this with all unsuspecting girls, or Huldras.

  The original hostess comes in with three others, but they are not carrying our food.

  Guns. They’re carrying guns!

  The hostess points her gun toward Anthony, and she pushes my chair to the floor so I tumble off of it, and shoots Anthony in the chest. Blood splatters everywhere.

  “Anthony!” I’m in absolute shock. He falls on top of me, his body lifeless. The hostess kneels down and aims the gun at my head. I think my life is over. My mom’s beautiful face flashes before my eyes and I feel so sad that I’ll never get to see her again. I see my dad’s kind face too, see him picking me up after I fell off my bike when I was five, kissing my injured elbow, telling me everything will be fine because Daddy’s here. I see Anthony in the greenhouse, wearing his faded jeans and his Liverpool shirt and then I remember the first time we kissed, how wickedly wonderful it felt, and how much I care about him—more than I thought I did.

  Before the hostess can shoot me, Mani shoves her to the side. “Let’s warp time.”

  Though I don’t quite register what Mani says, I nod. A light so bright that it blinds me flashes in my eyes. Suddenly, I’m back in my seat, taking a sip of my drink. It’s as if the past few moments never happened.

  “Can Darkálfars warp time too?” Anthony asks, clearly oblivious to the fact that he was just shot in the chest and died.

  I gasp, and grab his arm, my hands shaking violently. I remember sitting here before—or after this. “You’re alive!” He looks confused by how frantic I am, but I know we have less than a minute to get out of here, so I act immediately. “We have to run! The elves just warped the time back about a minute, and the hostess i
s coming for us, and she has a gun!” I yell. My mouth is parched and it’s hard to swallow.

  Anthony catches on right away and joins the elves, who have already gotten up, and look as if they’re searching for an alternate exit door.

  “There’s only one way out,” Mani says, pointing to the door.

  “How did they find us here?” I ask. It takes everything in my power to keep it all together. The image of Anthony’s dead body is still fresh in my mind, and it refuses to go away.

  “No use in contemplating that now. If we stop to think, we’ll be dead.” Mani grabs the gun he has in his black leather boot and lifts it up near his face, ready to shoot if needed.

  “We’ll have to exit this way.” Skuld opens the door and looks both ways. She has a small silver pistol in her hand. “The coast is clear.” She signals for us to come and we all steal toward the parking garage.

  “Stop!” I hear the hostess yell behind us. I don’t look back, but instead pick up my pace and run as fast as I can toward the exit.

  “To the car—follow me!” Anthony grabs my hand, hauling me along. The Lightálfars are able to shoot down the two others, and then they follow us into the parking garage and run toward their car.

  Bullets zoom past us, and the few people who are in the restaurant are screaming. “Call 911!” I hear someone yell, but I’m not going to risk my life to try and find my phone in my purse. Besides, the hostess is only after us anyway and will hopefully not shoot at any late-night customers.

  Sprinting into the parking garage, I rummage through my purse to find the car keys. When I can’t find them, I pour the contents of the purse out onto the asphalt and pick up my phone, wallet and keys, leaving everything else on the ground. But before I’m able to move on, the hostess catches up with me, and shoves me to the ground. The keys, my phone and wallet go flying through the air, landing a few yards away. I also see that the hostess has dropped her gun. I hop to my feet as quickly as possible, just like Anthony taught me, and try to reach the gun. But the hostess pulls me back, comes at me and I duck. Once I stand up straight, I thrust the base of my hand into her nose with all my might. She screams and grabs her nose, thick, red blood oozing from it. Refocusing her attention on me, she lunges toward me and locks her arms around my waist. As I plummet to the ground I accidentally kick the gun and it skids across the concrete, ending up underneath one of the parked cars. Falling down, I hit the concrete, my head slams against it, and I let out a cry. Anthony is right there and pulls the hostess off me, flinging her in through the revolving door we just exited. He has already picked up my belongings and we dash toward the SUV.

  Right when I lock my door, the hostess appears in front of the window, aims her gun toward me and shoots several rounds. I duck, expecting the glass to shatter, but only loud thumping sounds can be heard instead.

  “Did your mother have bulletproof windows installed?” Anthony asks, revving up the engine.

  “She must have.” Thank you, Mom!

  Anthony backs up, the hostess still firing bullets at us. Then as Anthony drives forward and is about to mow her down, she vanishes into a swirly smoke of blackness.

  “A Darkálfar!” Anthony yells. “You know what this means, right?”

  “Maureen knows we’re working against her and that we’re in contact with the Lightálfars,” I say, barely able to speak. “And we no longer have the element of surprise on our side.”