Forbidden Devotion Ch 03

Author's Note: I want to thank all of you for taking the time to read my stories. A lot of work goes into writing so thanks for reading and being a fan if you are. It took me longer than anticipated to release this chapter in the series but I hope it was worth the wait. Some aspects of this chapter mimic my own life at this time especially when it comes to being honest with yourself despite the difficulty of it for it makes you better in the end.

Anyhow, do enjoy...

*****

Jayden and Ilana made their way in the heart of Nadine's Forest. A cloud of yellow, plague-inducing pollen had settled in the forest. The trees and their branches, the flora, and the ground were coated in the powdery spores. The pollen smelled like a sweet earthiness, as if to lull its victims into a false sense that all was normal, or to give them one last whiff of a divine aroma before the end.

There were hacking, strained coughs, and groans coming from the infected that laid across the forest's floor both nearby and echoing in the distance across the woods.

On a normal day, the forest would be bustling with elves creating wooden goods for Nevin. The bangs of hammers, the chatter of the inhabitants, and the rustling of wildlife through the flora were once the norm. Furniture, wooden planks for building, silver (wooden) ware for eating, and even clothes crafted from materials found in the forest would be sold to the rest of the land for them to make a few coins of silver and gold. For the forest to be closer to a mortuary than a place of bustle and toil was eerie and rattling to the soul as one was in a land of corpses and soon-to-be ghosts.

Every voice in Ilana's head was trying to tear her away and drive her back to the exit while vibrations emanated from her inner hysteria.

It was too late to turn back. She and Jayden were already exposed. The contagion that frightened their eyes had settled within them.

Ilana concentrated with an inward focus to detect any signs of abnormality but all was well though it really wasn't.

If there was to be any hope for her people, she had to stare the reaper in the face knowing he could claim her or the knight by her side at any moment.

Up ahead was a plague victim lying prone using the last of his strength to moan and outstretch his hand. Ilana and Jayden raced to the infected and kneeled to examine him.

Aside from the obvious respiratory issues, his skin was mimicking the hue of the lethal pollen and growing green lesions.

Ilana recognized the being. It was an elf or something like that. It would have been easier to tell if not for the imperfections.

Ilana was beyond mortified and had to resist believing she was looking at her future.

With fingers that couldn't stay still, she extended her hand towards him.

"Help...me, please..." he begged.

Jayden rushed towards her and ripped her away. "No! We don't know if it's safe!"

They crashed to the ground and Ilana made a useless effort to wiggled free of his grasp.

"Let me go! We should make him feel comfort as long as he has time!" she pleaded with a push to escape his arms.

"We don't know what this sickness does! I'm sorry for him but we should visit Remi first!"

He was right but the essence of her benevolence came upon her.

They watched in horror as the elf's face planted into the dirt with his hand falling with it. And like that, he became one with the angels.

Ilana clamped onto Jayden and whimpered into his chest. She couldn't bear to witness the fate of one of her own even if she couldn't have called his name.

"Come on. We have to find a way to help the others..." Ilana forced through tears as she climbed to her feet with Jayden's assistance.

Jayden was still focused on the fresh corpse. "Did you know him?"

Ilana was already three steps in the opposite direction and halted before a fourth. "Sigh, no, but he was a part of us."

"I'm sorry. Maybe I should have let you use your power to heal him like you did me?"

"I got lucky last time. I'm not a natural healer like Remi. It doesn't come so easy for me like my other gifts."

"Oh...well, we'd better keep moving..." Jayden said joining her at her side.

Ilana glanced over at her fallen brethren. The idea of anyone else sharing his end...no, there wasn't going to be another thought about that.

They continued their steps until they reached a fork in the road.

Ilana rooted herself at the three-way intersection and came to a barrier holding her in place. Jayden instinctively looked at his guide and inquired about the matter.

"What is it, Ilana? Which way?"

She strained through her terror to form an audible sentence. "I...I'm scared. Did we do the right thing coming here?"

Jayden took her hand and oriented himself in front of her. "This wasn't a decision we made lightly. No matter what happens, we'll be together. Maybe we get to save a lot of people before fate comes with whatever she has in store. Besides, you get to see your sister. How long has it been?"

Thinking of Remi always did bring a soft grin across Ilana's lips. "It was maybe a half year ago since I came when I wasn't on business from the capital. I always promised we would go swimming in the lake or pick flowers together but because of me, it never happened."

Jayden clenched her hand harder. "

Hasn't

happened. Why don't we go in and make sure you can keep your promise, hmm?"

Ilana nodded. "Okay, I would like that but how do you stay so positive? Aren't you scared, too?"

"Of course, I am. I'm just trying not to think about it. I'm more afraid of losing you."

Ilana radiated with light and caressed his scruffy cheek. "Aww, maybe no one else has to be lost. How do you feel?"

"I haven't keeled over yet but I'll feel even better once we get moving."

"I don't know what I'd do without you, baby..." Ilana said as they pressed their lips together causing any thoughts of imminent danger to be cast into the wind.

Jayden slipped his arms around her waist and brought their bodies into each other's. "Mmm, we could do this all day but we should, um, find your sister."

Ilana felt his quivers from their connection and was satisfied. "It's this way..."

With despair in her heart, she detached from Jayden while pointing and stepping on the northern trail. He followed at her left hip and surveyed more of the carnage.

Ilana shuddered at the numbers of wood elves that were clutching to their last gasps. Some were on a knee holding their chests, others were bracing themselves on trees as they were the only things between them and hitting the dirt. Another few had thrown themselves into the vegetation alongside the walkway perhaps to find some level of comfort at the end of their lives.

Ilana wanted to believe she could do something about the horrors but this was beyond anything imaginable.

As she was taking in what still seemed like a horror movie, the worst thing she could envision—or hear was happening.

Jayden started wheezing and straining for air with a hand rubbing his chest.

"Gasp...my chest...'cough'...'cough'...God!"

Ilana threw her arms around him and cried. She was shattering with torment in a way she never had.

"Jayden! No, not you!" Ilana said with Jayden leaning on her. She was struggling under his weight but nothing was going to stop her from keeping him upright and steady.

"I feel like I swallowed flames of hell! Oh, shit!"

Ilana said, "We're not far from my sister's clinic! We can make it!"

"Says you! Can I just keel over now? It's got to feel better than this!"

In a brief show of playfulness, she hit him in the gut. "Shut up! What happened to the 'fighting to the end' speech?"

"It

is

the end! Didn't you know? At least it feels like it. Ugh..."

Ilana pulled one of his arms over her shoulder and held him around his back to shuffle him along. "It's just a little cough. No big deal! Happens all the time when you catch a cold."

"How about when you catch death?"

Ilana stopped for a second but kept going. "Shut it, Jayden! You're making it and that's the last I'm going to hear about it."

Jayden was dragging his feet along the dirt. "I know. I should be more serious about this. Just trying to cheer myself up."

"You have a strange way of doing that. Anyway, we're almost to Remi's..."

A few minutes later, they arrived at the clinic. It was a wooden building with a sign above that appropriately read, "Clinic" with a red first aid cross next to it. The door was wide open with the bright green glow of lantern light shining from within. Also, there was steady coughing and wheezing coming from inside. It began to sound like the clinic was a place to get sicker and not well but it was certain Remi was doing her best.

Jayden, still being helped along by his love interest, stopped at the entrance. "It's really bad in there. I haven't seen anything like this before. I hope we can do something to help everyone."

Ilana said, "Me too but we can't doing much helping out here. Let's go in..."

She said it as though she knew they needed to enter but she wasn't thrilled about being around such a larger number of the sick all at once. It was saddening as she had so much love for these elves. She hadn't sensed she'd contracted the plague by some miracle but she had to reluctantly continue pressing her luck.

They took a step inside and in an instant, turned away from the calamity before them.

There were about ten cots, each with an elf on them in various stages of the infection.

Some resembled unrecognizable mushes of flesh while other elves had only the hacking and the lesions along their arms, legs, and face. Some looked as though they'd already gone to their homes in the sky. There was a powerful medicinal smell like the aroma in an Earth hospital with a mix of the earthiness of herbs.

Remi was zipping from patient to patient feeding them some kind of green concoction from a wooden bowl, maybe an herbal remedy. She would also place her hands together upon some of their torsos and concentrated causing her hands to give off a light green radiance. It was her natural gift to heal but it seemed with the perspiration pouring from her and the way her chest was pumping, she was about to collapse and become a patient herself.

Remi was a couple inches shorter than Ilana and had her fluffy forest green hair pulled into a ponytail with some stray tresses dangling to frame her face. Her skin was a light brown sugar color as most of the wood elves were a shade of brown in hue. Resting on her bridge but sliding on perspiration were tiny specs that accentuated her above average intelligence quotient.

She may have been apt at cures, remedies, healing, and anything found along spines and their pages, but her skills mostly ended there. That didn't stop her from trying anything for the sake of fun no matter how ridiculous she wound up looking. With the tasks of daily wood elf life, there wasn't always time for recreation but any chance to sneak some in, she would take.

Remi was always the star in Ilana's envious eye. Ilana may have made it as the king's advisor but she could never shake loose her past where she looted pockets and homes not out of malice but to live another day. It was the wiring between Remi's ears that brought her to this moment. Nadine reminded Ilana that everyone had a role to play whether they once rifled through other's possessions but later became someone of importance to mark the world with their grace or they were Remi.

Remi was still her best friend forever and sisters. What more could an elf want from a sis?

Remi caught a glance at the two standing in the doorway and came to halt in a snap.

She bounded towards them nearly breathless. "Sis, why? If it was any other day like a couple days ago, I'd be falling over happy to see you but..."

Ilana jerked her into a hug mid-ramble and their attachment made her feel as though the plague couldn't touch them.

"I'm happy to see you, too," Ilana said releasing the embrace but still holding her hand. "We came to see if we can help stop the illness going around because we have a bigger problem."

"Bigger than this?" Remi said sweep her hand across the room at the victims before them. "Oh, I'm just dying to hear this. Oops, wrong word!"

Jayden, between moans, said, "Ugh...dark...elves..."

Remi's full attention seemed to settle directly on Jayden when the bass from his throat resonated in her ears. "And who are you, handsome creature?"

Jayden fixated on Remi just the same. "I'm Jayden but you can also call me sick. Grr..."

Remi shrugged. "They call you 'sick'? What kind of a nickname is that?"

Ilana put an arm around her sister. "Um, maybe it's better to be serious right now?"

"Oh, right. Sorry," Remi said dropping into a tone more appropriate for the circumstances. "Okay, so why did you risk coming here again? I'm sure the knights at the entrance didn't throw a party about you being here. I'm not too thrilled either. What would the king think?"

Ilana felt some fire blazing in her direction and left Remi's space. "The dark elves are coming back and you know what will happen once they do. We need the golden bow and arrows I hid here. Jayden warned us but the king wouldn't listen so we're traveling together to get the artifacts to fight them ourselves. So, I'm sure the king would be happy that I'm here if he knew what was going on. If I choked to death on pollen, now he would celebrate that."

Remi shook her head in disbelief. "The plague wasn't enough? Now, Nevin wants to throw dark elves at us, too." She turned her focus back to Jayden. "She must really trust you to leave Ellistas to travel the world with you. So, I'll trust you, too. You'd better not abuse it!"

Jayden grabbed at his chest and groaned. "I'll...try...not to. Can you help me?"

Ilana jumped in probably before Remi heard his plea for assistance.

"Sis, would you believe he's also a human? He traveled all the way here to help us but the king wants to kill him."

Remi grazed Jayden's arm. "A human? Wow, he's cute. The elders made humans sound like snorting, razor toothed frogs. We won't let anything happen to him."

It didn't escape Ilana's attention that Remi was taking a liking to Jayden and he appeared to have a level of mutual interest on some level. Ilana had to resist a jealous spirit rising deep within as it wasn't the time to entertain such notions.

Ilana eased between Remi and her love interest and slipped into a hug with Jayden. "Oh, he's nothing like that. He's as lovable as they come."

Remi held her hands together in front of her and was overcome with giddiness. "Aww, that's so sweet and adorable!"

Jayden cleared his throat and lifted his voice over the sisters. "Hey!" And like that the elves' words vanished and they snapped to attention and looked at him. "I thought we were being serious? I could use some help here, please! Not only that, we have a forest to save! So, can we act like we care about that for a minute?"

Ilana gasped and shook beneath his thunderous voice. She'd never enraged him that much and she wasn't sure if she wanted to again.

"I'm sorry," Ilana apologized. "I got carried away. Remi, can you do something for him?"

Remi took a step forward and placed her hands upon each of his pecs. "I'll try. I don't know how my abilities work on humans. Hadn't had the pleasure of meeting one until now..."

Jayden sighed from her physical contact. "Thanks for trying. That's all I ask."

Remi offered a partial grin and shut her eyes. She was touching his chest with the tips of her fingers. She slid to his six-pack and his love handles. Jayden bit his bottom lip to contain his reaction to the tickles from his sensitive side. It was like she was searching for something and feeling around for it.

Ilana knew what she was doing as part of her gift allowed her to detect abnormalities in living beings but she wasn't particularly happy about the enjoyment Remi seemed to get pleasure from feeling him up. Again, it wasn't something Ilana was going to acknowledge, but she would store it away for later.

Remi continued exploring his physique. "Hmm, you do have the plague but your body is resisting it. Your immune system is much stronger than any of ours. I don't know anything about human physiology but I would guess that you'll experience lesser symptoms than any of us or if you croak, it will be longer after we're gone."

Ilana snickered. "Humph, at least that's not a grim diagnosis..."

"Sorry, that's all I have," Remi said as her hands emitted a green light. "This should make you feel better for a little while..."

Jayden sounded like he was soaking in a hot bath. "Ah, I feel like a new man."

Remi's abilities faded to her apparent surprise. "I don't know how much longer I can keep this up."

Ilana walked over to catch Remi as she was having trouble holding herself upright. "Sis! Not you, too!"

Remi was like a wet noodle. "No...not yet. I have to keep healing myself to keep the sickness away but between healing my patients and myself, I'm exhausted. Even I can't keep this up forever."

Jayden, along with Ilana, kept her upright on her feet.

He said, "Can you tell us what the illness is and if there's a cure?"

Remi pulled away from the two and used more strength than normal to sustain herself. "You probably guessed it's caused by all the pollen flying around." She rested her chin on a thumb and gave her head a tilt. "The curious thing is the flowers that caused the outbreak aren't native to this forest."

Jayden drew a conclusion. "Someone planted them. Someone who has a grudge with your people."

Ilana's light bulb flashed on. "The dark elves! It has to be!"

"More of a reason to get rid of them," Jayden said. "So, what do you know about the disease?"

Remi paced the room while checking on the elves slipping from this world. "It seems to destroy the body's vital organs. When you breathe the pollen, it attaches itself to your kidneys, liver, lungs, and finally the heart. If you haven't died before it makes it that far, don't worry. It will finish you there. When it gets on the skin, well, you've seen what that can do. I don't want to suffer like that. Can you put an arrow in my eye before that happens? Please and thank you."

Both Jayden and Ilana were visibly petrified.

Ilana followed her sister but at a distance to give her room to attend to the patients. "And about the cure if there is one?"

Remi kneeled to hold a cup of her special green remedy to an infected elf's lips. "Looks like one out of four won't need a cure. They have a natural immunity. That's the good news."

Jayden folded his arms. "And the bad?"

"The bad news is three out of four do need a cure."

Jayden smacked himself in the temple. "Wow, I came to the same conclusion! Very good math, Remi! So, I'm assuming you don't have one?"

Remi scooted to the elf on the next cot and used her abilities on his torso. "Yes and no. What I mean is yes, I have a cure I think will work. Nadine gave it to me. It hasn't exactly been tested because no, I haven't concocted it yet. I'm missing an ingredient. Just one but it's nothing but a fancy healthy juice drink without it."

Ilana followed in her sis's shadow. "Where and what is it? We can fetch it for you."

Remi made her way to the next elf in line. There wasn't a movement, a flinch, or a rising and falling chest. She pressed her ear to his heart and sighed of despair.

She pulled the blanket of the deceased from the foot of the bed and draped it over the fallen.

Her disposition degraded further. "It's a purple Echinacea flower. Actually, several of them."

Jayden shook his hands in anxiousness. "If it's around here, let's not waste time. Let's get it!"