Miss Nobody Ch 61 Bk 02

Chapter 1

Pretty Bird

2am Early Early Morning Day 29

I curled myself into a ball on the forest floor and tried to keep my mind blank. Every inkling of thought sucked into the abyss of my darkened brain.

Kieran was on his feet, circling me, searching the dark forest for anything that wanted to cause us harm.

We had no weapons, so I wasn't sure how we would do anything but I didn't care anyway. Let the bears come and devour me, the pain searing through my very being.

He knelt down beside me. "We need to keep moving." He continued quietly, "I feel like a sitting duck." He helped me to my feet and pulled me behind him.

I was unaware of how long we walked until we stopped and I shivered.

Kieran pulled me down next to him between some large boulders and we shivered together. His arms wrapped around me, I savored the warmth from his skin and hated myself for feeling any pleasure when I had just killed two men and my boys were out in the world without me.

Tears stung my eyes and Kieran pulled me into him. "We'll find them."

I nodded and wiped my tears away. I wanted to believe him, wanted to trust that we would find our way out of the forest. Not get caught by Jonny and Diego's men. Killing the leaders of a gang had to have some repercussions. I wanted to believe that I could keep my boys safe from humans, demons and...Magic.

"When I was looking for ways to break the spell on me, I came across a Magic book about talismans, symbols like runes." He looked at me. "The symbols could block Magic or give someone specific powers." He finished somberly. "The book's instructions say to write it on your skin with a permanent marker, candle wax if you were brave but if you know anything about Magic you know that's utter bullshit." He shook his head. "Ones who are serious about it would tattoo the symbols or...other things." He trailed off.

I lifted up the side of his shirt and trailed my fingers gently over his branded markings on his side. "Or burn them," I whispered. "You did this to yourself?"

He ran his hand through his short hair. "All but one."

I released his shirt and tore at a leaf to keep from thinking about everything that evil bitch put us through. If I ever got out of this, I was going to fucking kill her. It didn't matter that she was my mother.

"I know you hate me."

I gave him a look. "You beat me so hard I forgot everything about myself and was in a coma for four months." I said matter of fact.

He grimaced.

"You've stabbed me." I looked at him. "A couple of times." I tore at a decaying leaf by my foot. "And I'm not even sure that's the worst of it." What had happened between us in the past wasn't easy to think about, but with time the memories had faded and it all seemed like lifetimes ago. What had happened during the Portal Ritual brought my memories back, but I wished there were memories I could forget.

He knelt in front of me, taking my hands in his, brushing away the sharp dead leaf particles. "I'm sorry."

It was the most genuine apology I had ever received. I could hear it in his tone and felt it in my very core.

"I'm sorry I wasn't strong enough to fight the mind control. I'm going to make it up to you."

His emotions overwhelmed my own. Keeping him blocked from my thoughts and emotions used a lot of energy, which I gladly used to keep myself distracted from the worst of my thoughts. I focused on the steel block around my brain, making it thicker and thicker with each minute. The spell his mother did on us backfired and I was getting real tired of this mind-meld bullshit. I could barely handle my own emotions, feeling his was too much for me. I hated the things Kieran had done to me. But I also knew it wasn't his fault. My mothers hired Magic did her dirty work, and Kieran was caught in the crossfire. She was after me, destroying my life, everyone else was just fodder for her.

"I'm just going to say it, I'll do anything in my power to help you get them back." He sat next to me. "My mothers money belongs to you as much as it does me, maybe even more so. When I kill that cunt, everything will go to you anyway." And I'll be completely free, I caught him saying in his head.

"If she has a Will it won't matter." I tore apart another leaf.

"She doesn't." He put his arm around my shoulders. "She's vindictive, spiteful, hates you, but-" He pulled me close to him- "There was a reason she paid to have her dirty work done."

"It's not just the money," I whispered.

"I know. We will look in all the books for ways to keep them safe. We'll build them a sanctuary. Somewhere safe from...everything. We're going to need it too, if we're ever found out here. We'll use the runes if we have to." He laughed. "You killed the Zantana brothers, their men will come after you. It's best we get as far away from Moonlit Mountain Lodge as possible. There's supposed to be some cabins out here for hikers. We'll find a map and make our way out of these mountains into town, catch the train out of here." His mind continued formulating his plan.

I would've been okay if I was never found, if I was left to rot out here for eternity.

"Rot. Rot. Rot," a voice sounded from a nearby tree.

A knocking noise. Tap. Tap. Tap.

"Rot. Rot. Rot," the voice said again.

I grabbed onto Kieran in fear but the voice didn't sound human. It sounded mechanical. The words had the same cadence each time. Like a recorded message played over and over.

Kieran didn't move and I followed his gaze up a large tree trunk.

A massive black Raven perched on a large branch. "Rot. Rot. Rot." It cackled from above.

My heartbeat faster but not from fear, from excitement. My first instinct was to reach out and pet the giant bird but I stopped myself. It could take my finger with its large beak as easily as a twig snapped.

"It's so pretty," I whispered, entranced by the oil slick feathers that shimmered under the moonlight.

The bird stared at me but stayed still as I slowly approached it, hand outreached, ready for my fingertips to glide along the smooth feathers.

I was close enough to touch it and let out my breath before doing so. When the bird didn't move I took it as permission and brushed the back of my fingers along the wide chest of the bird. "Pretty bird," I whispered in awe.

It bowed its head and closed its eyes.

I gently rubbed the back of its neck and down between its large wings.

The bird purred and pushed its body into my hand like a puppy. "Your Majesty. Your Majesty. Your Majesty," it croaked. It shook its body and I removed my hand.

"Is that your name?" It made perfect sense that there would be an oversized Raven in the woods named Your Majesty.

"King. King. King." It repeated.

"Oh. Your name is King." That seemed to make even more sense and before I knew it I was petting the bird again.

A scorching pain lashed its way down my arm. I pulled away from the bird as a thin line scraped down my skin, closely followed by indescribable pain. I tried to keep myself from screaming out. A small bead of blood seeped from the cut. Another line about an inch away from the first appeared and the pain made bright stars flash in my vision. A sharp pinch at the top of the cuts and my skin peeled down my arm.

The bird's caw covered my scream as the incredible pain fired through my body. I screamed until my throat was raw and I choked up blood. I prayed for the darkness to take me, to make the pain stop. There was nothing but a wild, all consuming heat.

I came to, drenched in cold sweat, several chunks of skin missing from my arms.

The large Raven cackled next to me, it lifted its beak to the sky and swallowed down a chunk of my flesh.

I connected with Kieran and the pain doubled as our minds found each other.

Kieran tried to shut me out, his mind working to block me from the torture he was receiving. He was using old incantations in an attempt to keep the pain from reaching me.

Focusing on him helped me and I tried to sense where he was instead of the pain. 'He was inside a small room. It was cold and dark, the smell of mold and decay pungent in my nose.

Kieran was strapped tightly to a solid wooden table. There was movement out of the corner of his eye and his heart beat faster in his chest. His fear tasted like burnt amber.'

My heart pounded in terror with him.

'An oozing shadow loomed over him. Dripping onto him and his open wounds. It dragged a bony fingernail drenched with dirt and blood down Kieran's upper arm, cutting the skin, a bead of blood seeped from the cut and the shadow licked its rotting mouth with a forked tongue. It had no lips, just a thin slit covering layers of sharp jagged teeth. Its tongues slithered about as it cut a strip of skin from Kieran.'

The cut from the nasty fingernails hurt but not as much as the peeling. My vision swirled in fear.

The monstrous thing pinched the top of Kierans' cut in its pointy fingernails and pulled slowly. The flap of skin peeled from Kieran's body. He didn't feel a damn thing as he chanted under his breath.

I screamed as the skin pulled from my arm.

The frightening being paused mid-peel and turned its ear-hole toward a sound from the forest. It pulled at Kierans skin again, slowly, tearing a scream from my throat.

All I could think about was the hate I held for Kieran. I hated being connected to him. Suffering because of him.

The creature laughed, a sickening, wet sound. "Two for one?" It disappeared from Kieran's view.

"Run." He yelled in my head. "Hide. Don't let it catch you, Ruby."

His commands brought me back to the forest floor, damp with sweat, blood dripping down my arms, strips of open skin stinging from the air. I scrambled to my feet, dizzy and wanting to succumb to unconsciousness but Kieran's words spurred me forward, pushing my legs to move. I made my way through the woods, tree to tree, not knowing where I was going but Kieran guided my path.

"Get to the river, follow the water," he instructed before our connection snapped closed. Kieran was doing his best to block me from his torture while trying to regulate my body temperature as he layed on the table being skinned but it was getting to be too much for him.

I stopped and gripped the tree next to me, catching my breath, trying to hold onto a cohesive thought. Trickling water pushed through my panic and I went to it with Kieran's words echoing in my brain. I was close to a small flowing creek, ankle deep but too wide to jump over. I bent down and cupped a handful of water in my hands, lifting it to my mouth before seeing the ghastly figure of Kieran's captor's nightmarish reflection.

Fear plunged me into the water and I splashed in the icy coldness trying to escape the monster. I searched for a way to escape or a branch to swing, a rock to throw. A small grouping of Amanita muscaria mushrooms were next to the bank and I crawled to them. Shoving them in my mouth and swallowing them almost whole.

I turned onto my back, my mouth full of poisonous mushrooms.

The scary thing dripped oily goo over me as it sniffed down my skin. I tried to block out the smell, the squelching noises emanating from it, the pure terror making the poison mushrooms race through my bloodstream.

It screeched and disappeared in a spray of dark gloop.

I thought of the Gravedigger as my vision blurred and my organs shut down.