Of Blood and Smoke

Chapter 40

FORTY

Della

A shadow moved into my field of vision and as my eyes adjusted through the misty air, I saw a tall figure wearing a hooded cloak. “Josiah?” I tried to ask. My voice remained trapped in my head, not resonating in the room.

The figure moved closer and held out a gloved hand. Not Josiah . My heart slammed in my chest, and I began fighting the invisible hold over me. “Go away!” I yelled, but again, my voice echoed inside my mind, not breeching whatever barrier restrained my panicked shout.

“Take my hand,” the man directed me. “Josiah needs your assistance.”

His outstretched arm was suspended over me, and I didn’t know what to do. Where were Thing One and Thing Two? I could feel my abdomen contracting as I tried to sit up. I’d broken the hold once before when Josiah used to do this to me. Why wasn’t it working now?

I closed my eyes and tried to go back to sleep. This had to be a very vivid dream; this couldn’t be real. Josiah was the last person that would need any assistance. Just when sleep began to pull me under, a hand grabbed my arm. Yelping, I tried to tug it back but stopped when the stranger lowered his hood. He’d released whatever esoteric hold he’d had on me, but not my arm.

“You will come with me,” he said, his voice as casual as if he were telling me to go and pick up milk at the store.

The more I tried to wrench my arm back, the tighter his grip grew. “Get out of my house. If Josiah finds you here, he’ll kill you.”

“I’m here on his behalf.”

Reaching for my cellphone with my free hand, I almost had it before I was dragged backward, landing on the edge of the bed. The man lifted his hand toward the door for a second, and I expected it to open automatically, but it didn’t.

My scream must’ve alerted my shadows because then the door did open, and faux-Superman walked in. “Who is this guy? What’s going on? He said Josiah needs me,” I threw the barrage of questions at the guard.

“Jude, you may take her,” Kent informed him, slightly dazed and completely ignoring me. “If he is requesting her presence of course.” His brows furrowed and he shook his head as if trying to clear it.

“Where are we going? Can you confirm that with Josiah?” I asked. Kent chose that moment to step away, tugging his cellphone from his pocket. I leaned back to try and grab my phone again when Jude grabbed my waist. I face-planted on the bed before I was removed from its surface. “Let me get my phone. And get dressed. I’m not going anywhere like this.”

He placed me on the floor in front of him. “Get dressed.”

A deep sigh of relief ran through me. For a moment there, I’d thought things were going to go a lot differently. Running my hand through my hair I stepped around him.

“First,” he said. I glanced at him and stopped.

“Clothes. Now.”

I scowled at the robot. He had a very limited, and annoying, vocabulary. “Fine,” I retorted. Opening my closet door, I asked, “Where are we going?”

“You’re going to assist Josiah. Wear something nice.”

Turning around, I appraised Jude. I couldn’t tell what he was, other than he must be something similar to Josiah and Micha, and the other men I’d met. He was tall and stupidly attractive; I knew that much. I couldn’t tell what he was wearing under the cloak.

Returning my attention to my closet, I grabbed a pair of pants and a blouse.

“A dress,” Jude snapped, tearing the garments from me and tossing them to the closet floor.

Rude .

My anxiety was still heightened from the disruption of having a stranger in my bedroom and facing an unexpected turn of events. Josiah had said for me to wait for him in bed, so I’d fully expected him to show up, not to get yanked out of my room in the middle of the night by another cloaked man. He’d never mentioned anyone named Jude.

Flicking through the hangers, I asked, “How do you know Josiah?”

No answer.

I knew Josiah liked red, so I grabbed one of the many crimson-hued dresses he’d bought me and tugged it over my head before shimmying my tank top off. I reached under the hem and dragged my sleep shorts down my legs and kicked them to the side. “How’s this?” I asked Jude.

“Shoes.”

My phone hadn’t gone off once. It would’ve made sense if the device dinged with a notification, something to tell me, to reassure me, that Josiah was waiting for me and this monosyllabic man was supposed to be in my room dictating my outfit. He’d told me to listen to his guards, that they’d keep me safe if he wasn’t around, so I wasn’t positive what else to do other than what I already was.

“So, where did you meet Josiah? Do you work with him?” Jude ignored my questions.

I glanced at my bodyguard, and he was leaning against the door frame looking utterly bored. There was no undercurrent of tension in the air, I didn’t detect anything that would’ve told me I was in danger. Everything seemed perfectly normal.

“Josiah’s okay, right?” I tried again.

“Hair.”

It was getting to the point where I wanted to punch the man. Instead, I ran my fingers through my hair, untangling a couple knots and smoothing it down. I didn’t have any makeup on but that would have to be okay; it wouldn’t be the first time my boyfriend had seen me without it.

“Better.”

Throwing a dirty look at the man, I said, “Happy to hear I meet your high standards.”

It truly was like dealing with a machine. He took a couple steps toward me and held out his hands. “We’re leaving now?” I asked. My head swiveled searching for Kent. I wanted to ask him what Josiah said, if he’d contacted him by phone.

“Yes,” Jude said, grabbing my forearms.

“I can walk.”

He slid a finger to the underside of my wrists, pulled me close and everything went black.

It felt and sounded like a strong wind rushed around us before suddenly, we were in a patch of fluffy green grass. My back swayed and my legs buckled at the abrupt change of location. I gripped Jude’s arms to keep from falling over.

When I got my bearings, I looked around. We were in a lush garden with flowering shrubs full of white blossoms with a red liquid in the centers. Meandering paths wove around us, with black stone benches and statues, interspersed with a few trees. Something buzzed by my head, and I ducked, catching a glimpse of a small bird with a flash of yellow on its wing. In the distance, I spotted a towering wall that seemed to encircle us, and a faint orange fog hung in the air, wafting through the branches of the trees.

“Where did you bring me?” I kept my grip on Jude’s arm.

He turned his gaze down on me, piercing and bright. “Welcome to the Second Realm.”