Written in the Stars of Heaven

I find it utterly astounding how fast one’s mood can plummet from Mount Everest high to Marianas Trench low. I mean, there I was, actually a little happy for the first time in God knows how long and these people had to come along and ruin it all. Lady Luck, or whoever controls the bad stuff unleashed upon me… I hate you with a fiery passion.

Why the grumbling Mel, you ask? Oh, I can assure you I have perfectly legitimate reasons. Namely, more pesky Herllow Hunters attacking the losers who’d already claimed me as their own. Now, I could stand to see Leona knocked around a little, but if it meant going with this new group, I’d just have to smack her myself. Oh, the sacrifices I make…

But I was not, I repeat not, into being taken captive again. The new Hunters could be like the last sexually overcharged moron, or into torture like Felix had been. And, of course, how could I help Nikolai free his Mommy Dearest if he wasn’t the one to bring me to his father, the king? Yeah, not working out in favor of my willingly going with this new group. Which meant Nikolai needed to get his ass in there and fight them off, which of course, he did, because Blaze and Leona weren’t doing so hot. Avan was desperately trying to help out too, but I think he was more of a liability than the aid they needed.

It was as if my Russian companion shared the same musings, though his weren’t quite as leisurely as mine. He was a super-trained almost-Keeper, while I had only taken a few kickboxing classes at the Y so I could beat Kendyll in our little brother/sister spontaneous wresting-for-the-remote matches. Translation: his defensive mind was a whole lot faster than mine, causing him to spring into action the moment he heard the commotion. Me, on the other hand… not so much. I’d even taken time to scope out the completely set up camp and be thrilled that I wouldn’t have to do anymore for the night. That is, if I wasn’t stolen by these Reapers.

“Which one of you is the Chosen One?” the tallest man called out, their leader.

Yeah, buddy. Like anyone was going to tell you who it is. What do you take us for? Imbeciles?

“You’ll never get her! Mel, be careful!” Blaze shouted, gesturing wildly at me to duck down, or something. He could have been going the Chicken Dance for all the sense I was able to make of it.

And apparently I had too high an opinion of our collective intelligence.

“It’s the short girl in the black coat! Go for her!” their leader commanded his five other Hunters, all of who were very large in stature.

“I am not that short!” I retorted, more off put for some reason at being called short than the fact that two huge dudes were advancing on me. Call it poor prioritizing.

“Hey guys,” I fake-smiled, backing slowly away. “Lovely night, isn’t it?” It was still raining heavily and damn freezing, but that was beside the point. “Gee, I’m tired. Mind if I just crawl into a tent and go to sleep?”

Two big jerks just snatched my arms into their iron grip, ignoring my conversation attempts.

“I guess that’s a no… But I’m warning you, I’ll have to lay a serious smack-down on you if you don’t let go.”

One of them had the nerve to actually chuckle at my threat. Big mistake.

Counting on the fact that these guys weren’t letting my arm go for anything, I quickly put all my weight on them and used that momentum to swing my right leg up into the guy on my left’s face. Just as I’d anticipated, he freed me to clutch at the injury, so his pal got a nice kick to the groin, causing him to double over.

“Don’t say I didn’t warn you,” I grinned down at the crying out after I sent the other down with the same treatment.

With that, I turned back around just in time for my poor cheekbone to collide with a very large, very powerful fist. The hit both stunned and pained me enough that I fell back into the mud on my butt. Yeah, there went my cockiness.

“Damn, that’s gonna leave a mark,” I whined, taking perverse pleasure in watching Nikolai swing the man around and lay his own fist into the guy’s nose.

“Are you alright?” he asked, his accent much more pronounced in the heat of battle. So hot…

“Peachy.”

“The rest are taken care of. You’re safe now.”

“What? You killed them?” I shrieked, releasing the soft hand he’d offered to help me up, sending me right back down onto the ground.

“No…” he looked at me like I was crazy for suspecting such a thing. “They’re just unconscious. We’re packing up camp and moving on, to a place where they won’t be able to find us.”

“Oh. That seems reasonab- What?!?”

Again, I let go of his hand, but this time he didn’t let me fall, instead pulling me to my feet and studying me quizzically. “What’s wrong this time?” Was that a note of amusement I detected in his tone?

“We’re moving on? As in walking more? This can’t be happening. Just kill these guys and make Blaze drag the bodies off!”

His amusement morphed into gentle laughter as he pulled me back toward the camp that was nearly taken down. Such a pity.

“You’d rather kill these people than move on?”

“Yes. Maybe. No, but I really don’t want to walk more!”

“Too bad I was the one to capture you. Any other Herllow Hunter would have killed any competition without blinking,” he told me, accent back to the normal, barely there lilt on several words.

Thoughts of vicious Reapers sucking at my neck, or taking advantage of me filled my head and I was suddenly not so opposed to walking a bit more for the night. “Um, I think I’ll stick with you guys for the time being.”

“I figured,” he said before going off to bark orders at his “troops” and other captive. Funny how Avan was treated more like a Hunter than a prisoner. In all honesty, I was too…

Nikolai really wasn’t a bad guy after all. And his devotion to his mom solidified that even more to me. I definitely wasn’t changing my mind about helping him. As much as I loathed the idea of willingly turning myself in, I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I let his mother suffer in jail. Not when I could do something about it. And I’d deal with escaping the King when I crossed that bridge.

*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*

“Are we there yet?” I moaned for the fiftieth time since we left our last camp an hour ago.

My joints were aching and my muscles burned. This was too much for one day.

“Does this place look more secure than the one we passed when you asked last?” Nikolai sighed, exasperated with my impatience.

“No. You asked three minutes ago!” Avan added.

“And you’re gonna ask again in a few more minutes,” Blaze piped in.

“We still won’t be there either.” Of course, Leona had to put her two sense in, just like the rest of them.

“You know what, you guys are jerks. I’m going on strike. No more talking from me!”

“Thank God!”

“Hallelujah!”

“Someone get the record books!”

“Finally!”

Ok, so maybe I deserved that. I’d probably get tired of someone else asking the same question every couple minutes. Hell, I’d probably lose my cool and sock them in the face. So I was fairly fortunate that the only new injury I’d sustained was the quickly darkening bruise the other Hunter had given me to match Felix’s.

Narrowing my eyes, I trudged on in uncharacteristic silence. If they wanted quiet, I would give it to them.

Two Minutes Later…

“Are we there yet?” I asked, brushing water out of my eyes. It still hadn’t stopped raining and I’d grown tired of that damn hood.

“Melani, we will be there when we get there!” Nikolai snapped. “Please, stop asking!”

“Testy! Man, you’d think I committed a huge social offense here. Nope. Just lots of repetition.”

“I don’t think you fully grasp the level of annoyance that projects,” Avan told me, patting my shoulder.

“I don’t think you grasp the fact that you’re a prisoner and can certainly be treated as such,” Leona pointed out.

“Hey hey! Let’s just sing a fun song, or something,” Blaze suggested, before I could bite Leona's head off.

“Um, I think that’s such a good idea after the last time,” Avan muttered.

“This will be great!” he said, ignoring our mild protests.

“Sweet Jesus…” I said when he broke into an off-key rendition of Divinyl’s, I Touch Myself

“I don't want anybody else
When I think about you I touch myself
Ooh I don't want anybody else
When I think about you I touch myself

I touch myself
I touch myself
I touch myself
I touch myself
I touch myself
I touch myself

I honestly do
I touch myself
I touch myself”

“I-I don’t even know what to say to that…” Leona murmured, dazed.

“For once, I agree with her,” I said, “I don’t approve of the image you just provided us all with Blaze.”

“Ahh, you guys know it was amazing! I’m totally the next American Idol. Or Animus Terra Idol? Whatever. But I rocked that song!”

“Keep tellin’ yourself that, bud,” Avan shook his head.

It was actually pretty hilarious, the look Nikolai wore. It was a mix between utter revulsion, amusement, and embarrassment. His tan cheeks even showed a little red. Now, if only he were smiling… That sight would have been perfect enough to make me pass out all over again! Only this time I’d be having dreams of making out with my Russian hottie friend and it wouldn’t be painful in the least.

“Whatever. Hey look, there it is!” the Reaper exclaimed, pointing to my left. All that was there were a lot more trees…

“Uh, are you sure, big guy?” I inquired. “I’m pretty sure that’s just more barren wasteland.”

“Didn’t I tell you that we were going somewhere discrete?” Nikolai grinned, almost mischievously.

“Yeah, but those are trees, Boris. Not some super secret hiding place.”

“So you think,” was all he said, gently cradling my elbow in his hand to steer me off the barely-there path.

As I did my best not to trip over fallen branches, I had yet to see this amazing area that was supposed to hide us all. I was kind of betting that everyone had lost their minds. That is, until Nikolai shifted us a few feet to the right and angled my body just so.

My eyes widened in shock at the meadow that had miraculously appeared out of nowhere. The grass, though soaking wet from the continually pouring rain, looked soft and sweet, the ground perfectly even. This was the ideal camping location. Anyone who actually cared about that sort of thing would have had an aneurysm, they were so happy. Me, I was merely relieved to be done moving and thrilled to have a comfortable spot to sleep. And also a little confused. This wasn’t here when I’d been walking in a different angle.

“How..? What is this place?” I stammered, probably more astounded by this than the “cool kids” back home would have permitted.

“Magic,” Nikolai said mysteriously, letting go of my arm. “Like it?”

“Dude, I’ll like anywhere that I could get a good night’s rest!”

“I always knew you didn’t have very high standards…” Leona grumbled.

“What’s up your ass?”

“I’m a bit more discriminatory than you, I’m afraid. So the answer to that would be; nothing.”

“You bitch!” I hissed at her, any trace of contentment I’d once had now long gone. I was pissed.

“Both of you, shut up,” Nikolai commanded, glancing back and forth between us. “Go set up your tents. We’re up at dawn.”

Avan and Blaze left to follow orders. Leona and I stayed and glared, Nikolai still inspecting us, quite perplexed.

Poor boy, had no idea what this was about. But I did. She was jealous that our stunning Russian had started talking to me casually. Wait, what did he just say?

“What did you just say?” I screeched.

His brows knit together, wondering what my latest problem was. “We’re leaving here at dawn?” He said the statement like a question, not seeing the issue with it. Clearly he was demented.

“Yeah, that’s just not going to work out for me. We’ll get what, like three hours of sleep? I don’t function well in such ridiculous situations, Boris.”

“You don’t function too well otherwise either,” Leona muttered under her breath, leaving to join the others.

“Ignore her,” Nikolai shook his head. “But we are leaving at the crack of dawn. My mother can’t wait forever.” The last part was quieter than the rest. Apparently I was the only one to know such personal information about him. Cool.

But still. Dawn? I sighed, going to help Leona with our tent.

I got why he was trying to hurry this, but pure torture was unnecessary. And I wasn’t too pleased about the fact he was so eager to get rid of me either. Yes, I knew it wasn’t personal, but it was my impending imprisonment he was rushing. I’m sure he hadn’t even thought about this from my perspective. I was willingly walking into the unknown, which was very possibly extremely bad. Knowingly, I was allowing him to lead me to a place where I would only be wanted for my visions. What would become of me once they’d gotten all they could? I’d wager anything that Nikolai’s mind was solely on the freeing of his mother, never having considered my fate.