Page 7 of Whispered Warnings: Part One

River’s nose wrinkles, “This all smells wrong. Really wrong.”

“I can feel it, my magic wants to put the barrier up again,” Ransom replies, his gaze slipping over to me for reasons that I am unaware of.

Griff’s fists clench, as his skin ripples with the first sign of his shift before it calms again, “My gargoyle wants out, it’s not safe.”

When he speaks, his voice is harsher like rocks tumbling down a mountain, and it does something to me that makes my eyebrows rise and my thighs clench before I manage to control my reaction to him.

Holy damn. That made total sense. I stand by that sentence, but only because I am still dealing with the after-effects of his voice.

Doc’s muscles are tense as he moves up onto the balls of his feet like he is ready to fly into fight mode at a moment's notice. “There is no desire coming off them at all. Every single living thing has some kind of desire running through them at all times, a desire to eat, sleep, move.”

“Those things count as desires that you can feed from?” I ask curiously, distracted despite the situation.

Doc smiles, and nods, but keeps his attention on the bodies surrounding us, “Yes, they are all small forms of desire, but they are always there, present in all living creatures. It’s why it is easy for us to survive, desire is everywhere. We need a big hit to truly stave off the hunger. It would be impossible to survive on these small desires alone.”

“You said living,” Raiden points out, “they aren’t living. They all received wounds that killed them, they all died.”

Doc hums thoughtfully and nods, “Yes, I think you are probably right.”

“Let’s call Ty and get some backup out here. I don’t like the way that they are just standing and staring into space,” River says. “Do you think that they are even aware that we are here?”

“I have no idea,” I reply because no one else does.

“Hey Ty,” Evander says, and I listen to his side of the conversation as he asks for back up, says that the other agents are dead, and gives a very quick run down of the situation.

“You didn’t tell him about me,” I say, a question in my voice.

Evander shakes his head, “No, I didn’t.”

That’s it, that is all he says on the matter. If I know Evander, if he is anything like he used to be, then he is going to want as much information as he can possibly get, before he does anything. If he does anything.

“What did he say?” Raiden asks.

“They should be here in ten,” Van replies.

Magic suddenly builds in the air, and the guys all fall into defensivie crouches, as I do the same. That isn’t magic that I recognize and it is too soon for it to be the help sent from Ty.

I watch in horror as the bodies start to melt. That is the only way that I can think to describe it. Flesh falls off them in wet clumps, landing with a squelch that has bile burning my throat as I force it back.

“Oh god,” I mutter.

It just keeps sliding off them, first skin, and then bloody muscle underneath falls to the floor with a plop. The smell is rancid, rotting, but more. I have been around more dead bodies than anyone should be, and I have seen them at varying states of decomposition, and none of them smelt like these do right now.

I can’t help it, I gag and bring my hand up, covering my mouth and nose with the long sleeve of River’s shirt and breathing through my mouth. The smell is still there, it’s still rancid but thankfully I can at least control my gag reflex now.

Within moments, we are surrounded by bloody skeletons, their organs having followed the rest of them and landed on the floor in bloody heaps. Suddenly, they all collapse, landing in a heap of bones on top of their quickly blackening flesh, and then everything is suddenly alight.

This is no natural fire; this is a fire of magical means, and it feels almost coerced. I don’t know how the fuck fire can feel coerced, but it does. At least to me.

“Fuck,” Griff curses, “we need to get out, the fire isn’t only burning bones, it’s spreading.”

“I can hold it back for a short amount of time, but I can’t hold it back for very long,” Evander says as his magic flares to life. Scales ripple across his corded forearms as he blasts water at the flames.

“They are magical flames; it’s going to eat everything in its path and quickly!” Doc replies, “You are strong but not strong enough to fight a magical fire of this size by yourself.”

Chapter Three

Neith

---