Page 10 of Bite of Passage
“No.”Gemma jumped to her feet.The red-haired wizard lunged and sliced Skarde with some sort of fire sword.Skarde, still able to fight the spell, moved enough that the sword only grazed his side.
The wizard’s cackle reminded her of something from a horror movie, but the jagged rotting teeth he flashed on screen were disgusting.That must smell revolting up close.
“Get off your knees,” Gemma yelled.Now it seemed the spell was in full effect.
She moved toward her fifty-inch screen with her hands out as the camera shot slowly zoomed in on Skarde like she might be able to touch him.There was so much pain in the strain on his face.“There’s got to be a way to break the spell.Why aren’t you wearing the hexenspiegel to counteract spells?”
Skarde’s eyes widened as they stared her way.She couldn’t interpret his expression.
Did he hope to die?
“You will not choose to die.Not tonight,” she said out loud, believing in her heart he could hear.
The wizard’s monologue droned on about how he was going to be the one to take down the infamous Skarde.He boasted about how powerful that would make him.The bastard might accomplish it, but not because he was better.The vampire had given up.Perhaps he was tired of everything about his life.Maybe he was tired of being hated and alone.
“You’re not dying on my watch,” she whispered.
Skarde had dropped his crossbow about ten feet behind the wizard in a place the mage couldn’t see.The vampire needed a partner on these missions, someone to grab the crossbow and shoot this soliloquizing weirdo.
The wizard raised his staff and aimed for the kill shot.
“No!”She pressed both hands on the screen as if doing so might keep her from seeing Skarde’s death.
Something pushed on her from all sides.It wasn’t painful.It felt as if someone had tucked her into bed with the sheets tight.
Then she fell.Fast.Her stomach bottomed out as darkness surrounded her.There was no wind, but she held up her hands and screamed, although it sounded dull.
Was she passing out?Had she whacked her head and put herself into a coma?
Down, down, down she fell until…Boom.
The belly-flop landing knocked the breath out of her.
She pushed to her knees and held up her hands to protect her head, fully expecting to die from her TV crashing down on top of her.
Nothing hit her.Her scrubs-clad legs soaked up wetness from...what?She hadn’t peed herself.
“What stinks?”she muttered, slowly opening her eyes.The stench, way beyond that of moldy wet leaves, reeked of something dead and thoroughly rotten.
Wet mud coated her hands.She shivered as cold wind whipped through her thin scrubs.
She was in the show.
“Impossible.”She pinched herself hard.Wake up.
Nothing happened.Her hands were still muddy.Her butt became increasingly sloshy.The air still stank of something rancid.
She couldn’t be in the show.She didn’twantto be in this show.Things got killed here.It even smelled like death here.
A scream worked its way up her throat.
Skarde’s gray gaze locked onto her.
Holy mother.That was Skarde freaking Blackman.In the flesh.The scream stalled in her throat.All that came out was a garbled wheeze.
The wizard muttered and paced, breaking her staredown with Skarde.She glanced behind her to see a shimmery area—that must be some sort of magical doorway through which she’d fallen.
Run for the shimmer.Get out of the show.
