Sinjin

  It was the same question I’d repeatedly asked myself. “I don’t know,” I managed, just as a wave of nausea overtook me and I had to breathe deeply through my nose to calm down. Once I regained my composure, I stood up and noticed my sister wearing an expression of bewilderment. Apparently, she must’ve thought there was a reason, or some kind of a plan responsible for the disappearance of my people.

  “Okay,” she started, clearly turning to other subjects. “I also need to know what you’re capable of,” she continued as her eyes met mine. “I know Elementals can vanish into thin air. I also know you can metamorphose into other creatures as well as influence people’s emotions. But can you perform spells?”

  I didn’t want to answer, so I tried to keep my mouth shut tight, but before I could stifle it, my voice broke through. “We can’t perform spells like witches can. And when we disappear, we are actually in exactly the same place, but you just can’t see us. It’s like a magic trick—we simply trick you into thinking we’ve disappeared but we really haven’t.”

  “Are you the only one of your kind who is also a sensitive and capable of reading minds?” she inquired.

  “Yes,” my voice answered, much to my own anger and dismay. “And I’m also the only one of my kind who can heal.” I clamped my lips shut tightly and closed my eyes, trying my best not to reveal any more of my secrets. I didn’t know what the deal was, but ordinarily, I would have been way too strong to fall for a cheap spell like the one I was currently under. I hadn’t been eating recently, so I could only guess that my strength wasn’t up to par. Or maybe the room was reinforced with so much magical energy that trying to fight it was futile.

  “Can you see the future or the past?” Jolie continued.

  Shutting my eyes as tightly as I could, I slammed my upper teeth into my lower jaw, grinding my teeth while my hands balled into fists at my sides. Don’t speak! I yelled at myself. “No.”

  “Can you influence the future or the past?” my sister continued.

  “No,” I replied, suddenly feeling unnaturally dizzy. When I opened my eyes, I found the room swirling around me. My heartbeat raced and I could feel beads of sweat appearing on my brow. I continued to fight against the magical barrage but I was getting weaker—I could feel my strength diminishing. Whatever magic I was encountering, it definitely had the upper hand. And that could only mean one thing …

  “Have you been in contact with Luce since becoming my prisoner?” Jolie continued her interrogation. As she scrutinized me, I felt the immense power she possessed emanating from her, through her eyes. It was her magic that was reinforcing whatever charm she’d put on the ice water. She continued to bombard me with her magic, and I strove to fight back, but in my weakened state, I soon realized she was far more powerful than I realized.

  “No,” I answered, blinking back tears of frustration and anger. I tried to focus instead on my next move. Closing my eyes, I mentally chanted the mantra that had been drilled into me since my first memories of childhood.

  The health and welfare of the tribe exceed those of the individual.

  “Can you reach Luce?” Jolie demanded. “If you wanted to get in touch with him, do you know how?”

  “No,” my voice automatically responded as I squeezed my eyes shut even tighter and started the process.

  The health and welfare of the tribe exceed those of the individual.

  I had to access the contaminant using only my mind by picturing the image of the vial which was filled with a dark, sludgy liquid. The reality of the contaminant would prevent me from answering anymore of Jolie’s questions. But, of course, there were side effects. I tried not to worry about the side effects and, instead, focused on the safety of my people. The protection of the tribe was of prime importance.

  Even at the cost of my own life.

  “Can Luce reach you?”

  “Yes. At least, I think so,” I answered as the sweat started pouring down my face and the small of my back. Imagining myself reaching for the contaminant, I visualized holding the vial in my figurative hand while I popped the cork top off as quickly as possible. Lifting the vial to my mouth, there was no time for hesitation. My thoughts had already been infiltrated and breached, which meant our secrets were accessible and my entire tribe was now threatened.

  The health and welfare of the tribe exceed those of the individual.

  I pictured myself swallowing the contents of the vial, and immediately felt something dark and painful clutching hold of my stomach. I gasped in response and opened my eyes only to see Jolie looking at me quizzically.

  “Are your physical strengths superhuman?” she asked. “Do they include the strength and speed of the Daywalkers?”

  “No, Elementals don’t share any of their qualities,” my voice replied before it choked itself off. My throat went suddenly dry and began swelling until I couldn’t get any air into my lungs. Jolie stopped her litany of questions and seemed to consider me with a much more cautious expression in her big blue eyes.

  “Bryn?” she asked timidly, but I couldn’t respond. I couldn’t breathe. I reached for my throat and clawed at it, as if my body were rebelling over the decision I’d just made to sacrifice myself for the survival of the tribe. I felt myself slumping over. “Bryn!” Jolie yelled as she reached for my shoulder. She pushed me back up into a sitting position, but it was no good, I couldn’t get any air. My vision grew fuzzy and cloudy. “What have you done?” she screamed.

  The health and welfare of the tribe exceed those of the individual. I thought the words.

  “Oh my God!” she yelled as she shook her head and her mouth dropped open in obvious shock. You’re killing yourself! she exclaimed telepathically to me.

  Closing my eyes, I suddenly felt Jolie shaking me. I opened my eyes again, but failed to focus on anything, much less her. She appeared as a blur, like a moving haze of color. The numbness in my fingers was extending to my hands and feet before climbing up my arms and my legs.

  Rand! I heard Jolie’s voice in my head. Rand! I need you!

  What’s wrong? his voice immediately replied in her thoughts, and likewise, in mine. His English accent was very thick. Where are you, Jolie? What’s going on?

  I’m with my sister in the guesthouse and she’s done something to herself using magic …

  What did she do?

  I don’t know! Jolie snapped, her voice cracking. I think she’s killing herself!

  I’ll be there momentarily, came Rand’s response.

  I collapsed against the bed as Jolie screamed. I could hear the sounds of the guards jumping to attention outside my door but they weren’t able to enter. I wasn’t sure why. Instead, my attention shifted back to my sister as she held my head between her hands. I could suddenly feel her radiant power engulfing me. It felt like pure warmth, like rays of sunshine suffusing me, and filling up the void left by the contaminant. When I opened my eyes, I could see her figure surrounded by an intensely bright white light. It nearly engulfed me, drawing me toward the cocoon of its power. But the contaminant was very strong and powerful in its own right, so it continued to struggle against her glaring brilliance.

  Accept my power into you, Bryn, Jolie ordered. Accept my life force. It’s the only way I’m going to be able to save you!

  No! I answered as I shook my head against her power. I kept trying to force the brightness away, but it was like pushing against a steel wall. Jolie’s power continued to grow exponentially stronger, while mine was decreasing by the seconds.

  “Jolie!” Rand’s voice bellowed at the same time the door flew open and banged into the wall. Seconds later, he was next to us, and lifting me into his arms. My head flopped to the side as he took a seat on the bed. Jolie knelt alongside me and the two guards watched helplessly from the hallway.

  “I need your power, Rand,” Jolie explained in a panic-stricken voice. “Whatever magic she used, it’s very strong. I tried to disengage it using all of my own abilities, but it’s too tough. I need yours too.??
?

  “Okay,” Rand said as they both fell silent.

  Barely a second or so later, my body bucked as if I’d just been electrocuted. Rand tightened his arms around me as he and Jolie sent their magic coursing through me. The power surging from within me was like nothing I’d ever felt before. It was indescribably vibrant and I sensed it chipping away at the contaminant, extracting the liquid death from my body. The numbness in my arms and legs was replaced with warmth. My heart pounded in my chest as my lungs suddenly expanded with air. I was overcome with the idea that my blood was now coursing through my entire body on fast forward, as if it were speeding to each cell where the contaminant was doing its best to kill me. The combination of Jolie’s and Rand’s magic invigorated my blood cells, reinforcing them with renewed strength and unsurpassed vitality as their power neutralized the liquid death.

  “No!” I ground out as the oxygen of life continued to infiltrate my lungs. I took a huge, gasping breath, and my body eagerly tried to restore itself, in open rebellion to my mind. I gritted my teeth and held my breath, determined that their power wouldn’t defeat mine.

  “Bryn!” Jolie yelled as she gripped my face between her hands again and forced me to look at her. “Breathe! Just breathe, damn you!”

  I wasn’t sure if her words acted as a command but I felt myself inhale another deep breath before salty tears began to leak from my eyes. “I’ve failed,” I muttered as soon as I could speak. As my wits returned, I realized the enormous mistake I’d just made. “I’ve failed,” I repeated before dropping my gaze to the white coverlet on the bed I had yet to sleep in. Rand stood up and gently lay me down, but my sister didn’t budge.

  “You haven’t failed,” she argued as she ran her fingers through my hair and breathed a few sighs of relief. “You’re alive! Thank God! You’re alive!” I could hear a hiccup in her voice, as if she were choking back her own tears.

  “Jolie,” Rand said, his voice soft and gentle, “I believe she needs some time to herself.”

  “Okay,” Jolie said with resignation as she stood up. Moments later, the sound of their footsteps told me they were approaching the door. After the door opened and closed, I heard a key locking me in my prison.

  Alone again, I closed my eyes and indulged in a rare sob. The breath of life, now filling my lungs, betrayed me and the path of destiny I’d chosen. I cared nothing about myself, but I’d failed the tribe.

  I’d failed my people.

  TWO

  The third day I spent in captivity was basically the same as the previous two days with one exception: I actually got some sleep after Jolie and Rand left me to my solitude. Following Jolie’s little magical stunt and my consequential attempts to commit suicide, which, of course, were thwarted, I was understandably exhausted.

  I was drained of energy, but my brain was a war zone of clashing thoughts and feelings that continually collided into each other. I couldn’t stop thinking about nearly taking my own life. Even after being taught to accept and prepare for suicide, if the situation warranted it, I wasn’t prepared. Not by a long shot. And, worse, I didn’t know how I felt about nearly losing my life. Was I happy to be alive? Yes and no. Should I have been happy to be alive? No, I didn’t believe I should have been. Any way I looked at it, I’d failed Luce, thereby failing my people and ultimately, myself.

  You are a warrior first and foremost, Bryn, I reminded myself. Death in the line of duty is respectable, admirable even. It was what should have happened. It was the right thing to happen.

  But was it really the right thing to happen? I argued back and forth in my mind, and soon a rebellious anger began burning inside me. I mean, where the hell was Luce? He left me on the battlefield after making sure all the other tribespeople were taken care of. And where’s he been since I was taken prisoner? He hasn’t reached out to me once! He’s powerful enough to communicate with me, and yet, nothing!

  Never doubt the actions of the Supreme Elder, my alter ego retorted. Luce is never without a plan, or without a method. He will come to you only when the time is right. And when he does, you’d better beg for his forgiveness. You’d better hope he forgives you for being such a complete failure.

  Yes, I was a failure, a role I wasn’t accustomed to. Ordinarily, I proved myself the ultimate warrior and healer. I was highly respected in my community as an Elemental with exceptional powers and abilities. I was strong and proud. People envied me as much as they respected me. I hated to think what those same people would think of me now.

  Look at yourself, I thought. You felt nothing but relief when your feeble attempts to take your own life didn’t work. You’re weak! Insipid! You failed at the one duty that could have protected the entire tribe from the evils of the Underworld. Instead, you recklessly divulged most of the tribe’s secrets to your sister, who will, no doubt, use them against you! Against your people! I gulped down feelings of remorse as my inner diatribe continued. Now look at you! Sitting in the same place where you cried your eyes out last night like a little baby. Cried like a little baby, then slept like one all night while the future of your people lay in peril.

  I disgusted myself.

  The moonlight streamed through the windows, although the storm outside was just as bitterly cold and furious as it had been the previous evening. Lightning lit up the dark clouds, and moments later, a volley of thunder shook the entire room.

  I jumped up from where I’d been sitting on my bed and started pacing the room, feeling like a caged tiger. It wasn’t my nature to sit still and do nothing. And after three days and three nights of it, my sanity was now jeopardized.

  I have to get out of here! I thought.

  The only sounds in the room were my footsteps and the occasional loud interruptions of thunder. The flashes of lightning were the only sparks of light in my otherwise dark room. Glancing at the clock on my bedside table, I noticed it was now midnight. It looked like I was about to endure another sleepless night. Great.

  When I spied the tray of food sitting beside the clock, my stomach growled out loudly. It was my dinner: the one Jolie had brought me earlier, which I’d refused and was still refusing to touch. There was no way in hell I could eat or drink anything after what happened the last time I trusted my sister. Now I knew better. Now I would starve before I subjected myself to anymore of Jolie’s magic which would force me to spill my guts, thereby endangering my people again.

  I’d been fooled once but I refused to be fooled twice.

  The thunder shook the room again and I approached the window. I never got tired of the view: a craggy mountain face that overlooked the tumultuous sea below. Admiring the vistas outside was the only thing I could do to keep from losing my mind.

  “Poppet’s sister.”

  I gasped and my stomach rode up into my throat as my heart started pounding. In a split second, I wheeled around to face my unexpected visitor, taking a fighting stance even though I was unarmed.

  “At ease,” the seductive voice of Sinjin Sinclair, a vampire and my sister’s chief protector, announced with an amused smirk. His English accent seemed even more pronounced than I remembered it.

  I didn’t smile back. I wasn’t happy to see him. “Haven’t you heard of this new concept called knocking?” I asked sarcastically while inhaling deeply so my heartbeat would return to normal. As much as I disliked Sinjin, he wasn’t any threat to me. At least, not right now. I shook my hands out and regulated my breathing, trying to reduce my fight or flight adrenaline rush. What was more, I didn’t want Sinjin to assume he’d taken me by surprise because that wouldn’t bode well for my reputation as a warrior.

  “Perhaps I might have knocked if you were a guest of the queen’s, rather than her ward,” the vampire responded haughtily. He took a few more steps into the room before closing the door behind him. His eyes never strayed from mine, and I stared at him just as intently.

  The lightning pierced the sky again and illuminated Sinjin for a few seconds. And I was begrudgingly reminded of how strikingl
y handsome he was. He was exceptionally tall, maybe six foot four inches or so, with very broad shoulders, a wide chest that tapered into his waist and long legs. He had an athletic physique. His hair was as black as the thunderclouds outside, but when the lightning shone on it, I swore it reflected shades of dark blue. His angular jaw and full lips, combined with the shadow of stubble along his jawline and his cheeks gave him a mischievous look. Or maybe Sinjin’s roguishness was completely reserved for his eyes, which were, in a word, magnificent. The color matched the sky on the sunniest of days, if someone were to add a drop of aqua to the otherwise blue. Not only was the color of his eyes distinctive and beautiful, but so was their almond shape. Fringed with long, black lashes, they matched the darkness of his nearly too heavy eyebrows.

  It was a shame he was a vampire, and thus, the bane of my existence.

  “What do you want?” I demanded, feeling my teeth gnashing of their own accord. I didn’t like the way he was looking at me—like a predatory beast just before it pounces …

  “Hmm,” Sinjin said, tapping his long fingers against his chin artfully, and pretending to ponder my question. “World peace, perhaps a trip to Paris, or the chance to win Britain’s Got Talent?”

  “Really?” I asked, frowning as I shook my head to show him I was anything but amused. But my reaction did nothing to disrupt his incessant smile. “I was hoping you were going to say a stake through the heart!”

  “Did someone wake up on the proverbial wrong side of the bed?” Sinjin inquired, quirking both of his eyebrows at me curiously.

  “In order to wake up on the wrong side of the bed, that implies that I would have had to sleep first,” I grumbled while I returned my attention to the dark view outside my window, turning my back to Sinjin. I wasn’t sure why but I suddenly found it strangely difficult to look at the vampire any longer.

  Don’t ever turn your back on a vampire! I reminded myself as I wheeled around to face Sinjin again. And you’re wasting an opportunity here! You should be taking every chance you’re given to find out as much as you can about your keepers!