Chapter 14

I felt alone. I had never felt so fucking alone. I should have never started following Sydney. For a period, I had tried to forget her, but then she connected to me. I should have stayed away, like I’d told myself to. But the pull had been too strong. Mostly I was dark now, but there must still be an ember remaining of who I had been. She’d known I was at her cabin. She’d felt me. For now though, she was safe and as long as I had the ability, she would remain that way.

As a Sylph, you swore an oath to never mate with a Lafoan. I'd known of only one other guard who had sworn the oath and failed it, my ancestor, and he had faced the wrath of his decision the same as I; we both had become monsters.
With a shake of my head, I stepped around the corner and out onto the sidewalk.

SYDNEY

I’d quickly become tired of scrolling social media, and instead had called Brielle. We had agreed to meet up at a new club called Joyana’s, and as I stepped through the entrance, I was immediately hit by the smell of alcohol, cigarette smoke, and sex.

Damn, it was one of those kinds of clubs! Well, this shouldn’t take long, I decided. I liked my alcohol, never turned it down when offered, and cigarette smoke really didn’t bother me much, but the careless disregard of having sex with a stranger was not my cup of tea.

The feel of a warm hand encircling my arm had my head swiveling sideways, and I found myself looking into a set of eyes shaped like mine, however, instead of the emerald green of my own, Brielle’s were a startling blue. And it wasn’t just our eyes that were alike. Everything about Brielle’s features and mine were so alike, it was eerie. Even down to the white eyelashes on my right eye, except hers, were on her left. When she arrived at the orphanage within days of my own arrival, we immediately recognized our likeness, but after a few months of trying to convince the orphanage that we were sisters—who claimed it an impossibility—we eventually gave up the notion.

I cocked my head at her, asking “So, did you know it was this kind of club?”

With a slow shake of her head, she glanced around. “Not in the least. Wanna go somewhere else?”

As I looked around, a group came in behind us, pushing us further into the club, and I shook my head. “Nah, let’s see how it goes, okay?”

Giving a nod, she continued peering around, then spotting the bar, she motioned her head. “Let’s get a drink and mingle. Oh, and by the way, you look fetching as fuck tonight, so watch out, you’re gonna have’em hittin’ on you in groves!”

With a laugh, I eyed her and her clothing; we both wore mini’s, our hair loose, flowing in smooth, black-silk down our backs, and we both wore makeup—subtle, but enhancing to our golden-toned skin.

Gesturing at her, I declared, “Twinkies!”

Peering from me to herself, she laughed. “Huh, you’re right. Guess we’ll both have’em lining up.” Then, entwining her arm within mine, we began making our way toward the bar.

###

Hours later, jarred from sleep, I jerked into a sitting position, trying to shake the nightmare I’d just endured. God, it was awful! I’d been in a time and place that had given me deja-vu, as if I’d known it well at one time, but a time long, long ago. I hadn’t been alone, either. I’d had another young girl with me—one who had looked just like me—except we’d had brown eyes, so dark, they’d looked almost black, and hair so pale, it was nearly white.

Hand-in-hand, we’d been running for our lives, Lafoa, our home, was ablaze, as well the surrounding villages. Amid the screams, torched houses and people slaughtered in the streets, war had come to our dynasty. Our father, grasping the sword protruding from his stomach with one hand, beckoned us to his side with the other. As we knelt next to him, he coughed, blood oozing from between his lips and out the corner of his mouth, then breathing labored, he placed our hands together and laid his atop them. With tears pooled in his eyes, he breathed, “I love you my daughters. Be strong,” then, as our hands became encircled within a violet colored flame, he called, “Through the seasons and years to pass, eternity forever yours, I call upon the goddess of life, that she grant thee immortality.” As the violet flames died away, he peered at us again, beseeching, “Now run my children, run to the circle and pass through to safety, for your sister has brought death to us all.”

Three days earlier, it had been discovered my sister, Lielyn, was in a relationship with Anlu, her guard—a Sylph warrior. The act was forbidden within the species, for the Lafoan species was superior to the Sylphs' and to taint the Lafoan bloodline would bring about catastrophe of irrevocable damage to all Lafoans'. My father, the king, upon learning of the relationship, had ordered both my sister and Anlu be beheaded immediately. But before the beheading of Anlu, he managed to escape into the forest. I didn't know the truth of it, but before our home had been attacked, I had heard the servants whispering in the halls that the guard, though injured, had found his way into the deepest, darkest recess of the forest. There, he was found by Vitaba, a witch within our dynasty who had been banished to the forest for performing black magic. The whispers said that Vitaba had healed his injuries, and that Anlu, wanting retribution for the beheading of our sister, had asked Vitaba to bring disaster upon the dynasty. Vitaba had agreed, but had asked one thing of Anlu in return, she wanted his soul, and that every first born son of his bloodline would carry forward his desire to mate with the royal bloodline. Anlu had immediately agreed, willing to do anything to gain his retribution, unknowing that the woman had also spelled him to an existence of as a man by day a monster by night. They whispered that Vitaba had then set about performing her spell, calling upon the God of malevolence that her spell be granted. However, Vitaba had tricked Anul for not only had she gained Anlu's soul at night, leaving behind a creature of hatred and hunger—she had gained, as well, the souls of all first born males in his bloodline after they mated with a lafoa witch carrying the royal bloodline. They were calling the awful creature Anlu had become, a Darkmore.

As we reached the ring, I looked at my sister, and she at me, and together as our father had implored, we jumped into the ring, riding the lightning to safety.

Later, as I sat, thinking over the nightmare, I realized how confused I was because of it. How could the girls in my nightmare have been Brielle and me? And why did I even feel they were? Those girls, by their clothing, had lived damn near ten-thousand years ago, in the Greek and Roman days.

I know dreams, especially nightmares, didn’t make a heck of a lot of sense, but this was not the first nightmare I’d had about the Greek and Roman days. Nor, seen events occurring that I knew nothing about at the time I’d seen them, I’d only learned about them later when I’d become curious and done some research. What did it mean? And why had I dreamed of such a horrible creature?