Page 3 of Tethered to the World
He helped her when she’d needed it most.
She could do no less.
Annora was conscious of the men gathering around their fallen comrade, pulling him to safety, each of them eyeing her like she was the devil…and they weren’t far from wrong.
The shadowy figure was screaming at the top of his lungs, throwing his fists at the men around him, but no matter what he tried, he continued to remain insubstantial. She watched him try to cram himself back into his body, then give up, his eyes locking on hers.
“What the fuck did you do?” he snarled, but real fear tinged his voice.
“A life for a life.”
“What?” His eyes dropped to the body in front of her, then bounced back up to hers as he began to back away. “Fuck you.”
He turned to escape, but there was no running from death.
She could heal injuries, even delay aging, but she couldn’t beat death, not without someone paying for it. No matter what she did, it would return and eventually win. Annora set her hand on the ground, then watched as a dark shadow curled out from her touch, stretching toward the ghostly man.
He backed up, terror widening his eyes. Before he could escape, the darkness curled around his legs and slipped inside his body. The golden specks swirled, gathering into a globe the size of a baseball, then slammed out of his chest, leaving behind only enough glitter to keep him alive.
Barely.
The only things keeping a person’s spirit in this realm were the golden flecks, something she discovered by trial and error over the years. As more and more winked out of existence, the ghostly shape flickered in and out of sight, his face a silent scream of terror. He was slowly being pulled into the afterworld, where his screams could be heard by the creatures who dwelled there, where his soul would be consumed and damned to hell.
The glittering, swirling mass in the globe came to rest in her palm, and she gently pressed the ball into Rufus’s chest, watching it catch fire, then explode outward. Rufus gasped, his back arching, and she lifted her hand away from him, watching while his injuries knitted shut, his body arching in spasms of pain.
She staggered to her feet, swaying for a second as the room spun around her. The process always took something out of her, leaving her hollow and exhausted.
Rufus was in his late sixties, but kept himself in such good physical shape she never thought of him as old. He was too active, too full of life. When he staggered to his feet, his clothes soaked with blood, he looked like something that crawled out of a horror film.
He touched his neck, where his throat had been almost completely ripped out, and ended up smearing the blood around the completely healed skin. The wound no longer flapped open, blood no longer gushed down his chest. He inhaled deeply, no longer drowning in his own blood. He looked younger, his shoulders straighter, his hair not so gray, his wrinkles gone, his skin almost youthful.
He glanced at her, but she couldn’t make herself meet his gaze, see the revulsion in his eyes at what she’d done…or the greed at the thought of what her abilities could mean for him. She cursed herself for not making her escape sooner and dashed for the door.
The wolves snarled, quickly moving to block the exit, and she skidded to a halt, nearly ending up on her ass. She glared at them, gritting her teeth. “Get out of my way.”
She could easily slide into the afterworld and slip past them, but there was something waiting for her, something dark that was hunting her. Every time she entered the afterworld it found her faster each time, and she had no interest in meeting whatever was waiting for her in the darkness.
She would rather face down a pack of slobbering wolves.
The wolves hesitated at her command, until the one who’d confronted her when she first entered the room gave a jerk of his chin, and she found herself surrounded in seconds.
“You might be able to beat one or two of us, but you won’t be able to take us all.”
Annora huffed…it was just her luck to encounter intelligent wolves.
“No, she might not be able to take on all of you, but I’m sure she and I together can make a pretty good dent.” Rufus casually grabbed one of the wolves by his shoulder and practically threw him across the room. Then he was standing at her side.
Experience told Annora that he wasn’t protecting her…he was protecting an asset, someone he planned to use.
She edged away from him.
She would not become a prisoner again.
The wolf flashed his teeth, some of the others nervously whining and licking their lips. Then he gave a nod and pointed to the man on the floor. “Fix him.”
She glanced at the prone man, then at the pale, ghostly form hovering near its former body and shook her head. “You won’t want him to return. Trust me, he won’t be the same.”
The wolves snarled, two of them lunging toward her, but Rufus stepped between them. He then looked down at her, ducking to meet her eyes, concern lining his face. “They’re not going to let you go unless you do as they say. He dies, they will hunt you down no matter where you go.”
