Chapter 16
Chapter Sixteen
ARABELLA
It was late the next morning when we finally pulled into the RV park.
I felt oddly well-rested considering I had left the boys to their debate about Razar’s actions, knowing that nothing of what they said would make much of a difference.
Not only did Razar need it, but I sort of did as well.
It made me feel almost euphoric. I wanted Razar to embrace himself because I embraced him fully.
“Coffee?” Damian handed me a travel mug as I pulled past the gate, the automatic sensors letting us through, as I watched the mountains ahead grow in the darkness of the early morning air.
Despite it being daytime, the cloud cover was heavy and gray, and the trees looked so densely packed that if I had to assume, once you were inside, it would feel like night.
I was driving, and after having slept for a few hours, I was back and feeling far more alert, so I had been switching off with Damian driving most of the morning as the others slept.
We had finally arrived at the RV park that was located right near the Oceanic Forest along the base of the mountain.
I saw a sign labeling it a different name, and it occurred to me that we probably had different names for stuff like this in comparison to humans.
Interesting.
I rolled the window down slightly, and immediately the chilled air from the mountain filled my senses.
It smelled like it was going to snow. An exhilarating rush ran over my skin as I realized that I could almost sense the magic in the air.
I had no idea if this was because of my men and being stuck in the small RV with them, or if it was because I had become more in tune with my own special type of magic.
Something I hadn’t realized I had until earlier this morning, when I was driving lost in thought.
I had felt a strumming beat under my skin that was connected to the emotions I felt with my men.
At first I thought it had just been how strongly I feel for them, and while that was for sure the case, there was something a lot more to it.
I could feel myself changing because of it.
No, literally, I was pretty sure I was getting some weird side effects.
When I had grabbed Damian’s arm, warning him of a truck that was turning too sharply, he had hissed, and I had accidentally burnt his arm.
I had no idea if that was a fluke or something that was because of Blackwell, but I had a feeling things were about to change for me… A lot.
I wasn’t afraid of the change, but I knew it was unknown territory. Maybe there was more info about the sis metas and I just had to look in the right places… or find some really, really old nightmares to help out.
The imagery of the dark forest ahead of me brought me from my thoughts, the darkening shadows and endless growth appearing ominous, especially since the entire park was surrounded by a thick layer of fog.
It probably was a bit creepy to most, which was why the park was empty, but instead I found myself interested in what nightmares had made this their home and why.
“Can you feel that?” I asked as we pulled up to a slab of concrete closest to the forest, the electricity and water connection on the side of the RV that wasn’t facing the forest. We didn’t need the connection for ours, luckily, but it was good just in case.
“The terrors?” Damian’s voice was soft, his eyes on the dark trees. “Yeah, I can.”
“Should we wake the others?”
Damian shook his head and turned off the RV before placing it into its secondary mode, the top layer expanding silently as I decided to go nightmare to nightmare and cover them with blankets from upstairs.
Once I was done, Damian motioned for me to follow him towards the door.
We left the RV, and he immediately was stretching his arms above his head.
The flash of his abs had desire coursing through me, so I looked skywards at the gray skies, and a whistle on the wind had my skin breaking out into shivers, my excitement growing.
I eyed the forest treeline and thought I saw something shift.
“I feel like there are a lot of nightmares that I don’t know about,” I responded as Damian wrapped his arms around my waist and put his chin on top of my head.
“There are a lot, and some that aren’t even classified, I imagine.” He chuckled before adding, “Then there are ones that don’t want to be found…which is why they go to places like this.”
That was fair. I could also imagine that being alive for so long got frustrating.
A weird stabbing sensation grew in my heart, realizing that I was still mortal, and while my other nightmares weren’t immortal, except for Saint, they would live for hundreds of years or more…
While I died within the next hundred. I put my hand on my chest, my breathing tightening as I felt a weird sense of dread invade me.
I couldn’t think about that… No, I wouldn’t do that. Not now.
“Cherry blossom?” Damian’s voice brought me back as I snapped out of it and tried to compartmentalize that into a different part of my brain.
“We should go see if any will come and talk to us and tell us about Hate,” I said, speaking quietly as I tried to change topics in my head.
Damian immediately tensed and shook his head. “We have no control ability out here; we need to be far more careful than usual. Neutralizing a threat isn’t as easy as it normally would be… Especially because the nightmares out here will be a different type of breed.”
“How so?” I turned into him and found his eyes. Instead of their normal light gold, they were nearly black, and his face was uncharacteristically serious. His jaw was tight and I could see the concern there, vibrating through every element of his being. He was legitimately worried.
I reached up and cupped his jaw, and I let out a surprised sound as his tail wrapped around my waist. I knew I should have expected it by now, but his touch was so damn possessive that it turned me into a puddle of desire.
“They aren’t in society for a reason. They don’t want to be around humans or anyone else,” he explained and exhaled, looking down at me, his eyes widening on his tail. “Shit, sorry—”
“I like it,” I immediately stated and blushed. “I really like it… Feel free to do it anytime you want. Seriously.”
His eyes flared with heat. “Yeah?”
“Yeah.” I brushed my lips against his gently, the ground vibrating as something shifted the trees behind us, causing both of us to snap our heads over.
It was pretty cloudy right now, making the ominous treeline look shadow-filled, but not dark enough to miss the tall, willowy terror that was standing at the edge of the forest. My eyes widened at the thin, almost humanoid form that had intricate antlers coming from the top of its head and green smoke circling around its pale white body.
There were no discernable features on it, and when it raised its arm, its long skeletal fingers motioned us forward.
“That would be an absolutely fucking not,” Damian said on a chuckle at the same time I said, “Let’s go.”
I looked up at his shocked expression. “Seriously, Damian, I have a good feeling about this. What if it’s important?”
“We aren’t doing this alone,” Damian insisted.
“The others need sleep,” I argued. “We won’t go into the forest, let’s just go towards him. I completely trust in your ability to keep us safe; let’s just get into talking distance.”
Damian examined my face and exhaled, nodding and leading me forward.
His tail was still wrapped around my waist, the tight tension on it signaling that he would move me out of the way immediately if he had to.
As we drew closer, exhilaration pulsed through me, and my toes curled with excitement at meeting a new terror.
The scent of moss carried on the air, and Damian shifted the closer we got to the treeline, his stature not only growing but his skin turning into cracked black stone pulsing with hot pink energy, his tail growing in size as well.
I didn’t complain, though, running my fingers over it as he literally just lifted me off the ground, our height difference becoming too much.
The terror looked down on us as we approached, and when we grew close enough, it knelt so that it was a bit less overwhelming.
“Hi there!” I offered as the terror’s blank eyes moved from Damian to me. “Do you not talk?” I asked after a second.
Damian offered a frustrated look at the terror. “You have about two seconds until we go the fuck back.”
A rumbling of the ground had me looking down, which made me miss the transition that the terror went through, shrinking down into his human form.
My eyes widened on the old man who stood in front of us, his linen shirt and pants at odds with the forest behind him, his moss-filled green hair coming down to his waist. There was something about the man that was almost regal as he stepped forward from the line of the forest, the trees seeming to bend in our direction.
“Why do you come to my forest?” The man’s voice was rough and seemingly unused, the mist intensifying around us.
“We’ve come to find someone,” I replied as Damian let my feet graze the ground and I offered the man a small smile. “We didn’t mean to intrude.”
Damian let out a low rumble as the old man narrowed his eyes. “No creature in this forest is a friend of yours, human.”
“I didn’t say we were looking for a friend,” I pointed out and put my hand under my chin from where I had them crossed on Damian’s tale. “He’s actually a god terror.”
The man tilted his head slightly. “We have only one god terror in these parts, and she is not the one you seek.”
“Is it Peace?” I asked eagerly. “If so, Hate may be visiting her, and then we’ll get to talk to both of them at once.”
The man looked towards Damian and back at me. “You interact with nightmares with no fear.”
My happiness chilled at that, and I told him the truth of why that was. “The real monsters are not nightmares.”