A Fork of Paths Read online

  Despite the hurry I was in, I couldn’t help but pause mid-air and stare.

  In the center of the field was a horde of griffins. There must’ve been at least fifty, and they appeared much larger and more ferocious than the one I’d seen earlier. Perhaps the latter had been a baby.

  The chains that bound these griffins must’ve been strong to withstand their strength. Then again, there were a lot of strange things about this place—technology that I simply couldn’t fathom. Like how they could trap all those supernatural creatures behind glass in the courtyard. It made me wonder if a witch was helping them.

  As much as my mind buzzed with questions, I tore my eyes away from the griffins and continued toward the ocean.

  I still wasn’t sure how I would find my way back to The Shade once I reached the shore. The thought had occurred to me that perhaps the hunters might themselves return to The Shade and resume their mysterious watch over the island. I was not sure what exactly they had been doing observing the island even after our witches had put a stop to their motion sensor technology. Whatever it was, after the incident with the dragons, somehow I doubted that they would be heading back there in a hurry.

  My other option would be to find an airport and board a plane bound for Hawaii. Once I reached there, I would have a better chance of locating The Shade. But I did not know where the nearest airport was, or how long it would take me to find it. For now, heading to the ocean seemed like my best bet.

  At least I possessed supernatural speed. That was the only advantage I had in this situation.

  Arriving at the shore, I touched down on a beach and moved toward the water’s edge. I stared out over the expanse of water, trying to get even the slightest bearing. It wasn’t a question of if I would get lost; it was a question of when, and for how long.

  Grimacing, I was about to lift myself back into the air when my attention was drawn to the sound of scampering behind me. I turned in time to see a giant Great Dane bounding toward me, his owner walking about twenty feet behind him. As he headed excitedly for the waves, the right side of his body brushed through me, and… I felt the strangest sensation.

  Warmth.

  Heat.

  I could feel the dog’s body as he drifted through me. Others had passed through me before—humans and supernaturals alike—and indeed, I’d caused myself to pass through others, like in the case of Jeramiah after I had discovered his plan to hand my parents over to the hunters. But my encounter with this dog was the first time I had ever felt another being’s physical body. The feeling had me stunned, mesmerized for a few moments. I’d almost forgotten what the sensation of warmth felt like. I had touched River in dreams, but they were just that—dreams. They weren’t real or tangible like the wave of heat sweeping through me caused by the Great Dane.

  I was in almost a daze as I stared at the dog, who had reached the edge of the water and was barking loudly to his owner.

  I approached the mutt and moved through him deliberately. Again, I felt the heat, the physicality of his body. I bent down, thought overtaking me. What does this mean? I needed to continue on my way, but I couldn’t help but feel that I’d just made some kind of breakthrough. What exactly, I still didn’t know…

  I wonder…

  An idea sparked in me. I moved toward the animal again. This time, as he stopped jumping about and stood still, sniffing the sand, I stepped through him and stayed there, in his halo of heat. After a few seconds had passed, I suddenly felt an odd suction. As I remained rooted to my spot, I found my ethereal form sinking against—no, down into— the huge dog. As I sank, the heat of its body enveloped me and then my vision became shrouded with blackness… but it was for only a few moments. When the heat of the dog’s body fully consumed my spirit, my vision returned.

  Only, it was not my vision.

  I was seeing through the eyes of the dog.

  River

  The sight of the scar lining my abdomen caused something to snap in me.

  I’m not going to take this anymore. I’m not going to allow them to do this to me!

  I didn’t know how I would defend myself, and I didn’t want to think about what the consequences of that defense would be, but I swore to myself that the next person who tried to touch me would sorely regret it.

  Glancing around the empty ward one last time, I grabbed hold of the curtain again and drew it closed around my bed. Then I settled myself on the mattress, placing the blanket over me and repositioning my pillows. I closed my eyes. I didn’t know how long it would take for somebody to come and check on me, but I did know that I ought to appear asleep when they arrived. I still had to figure out my game plan, but I felt that it could only work to my advantage if they still thought me to be lost in slumber. So I waited, my eyes clamped tightly shut. I focused on easing my breathing to a slow, steady rate. As I tried to formulate a plan, I glanced at the clock by my bedside every now and then to see how much time was passing. It was early evening now, so it seemed that at least a day had passed since they had operated on me.

  As the night progressed, so did my impatience. I began to fidget, the wait becoming agonizing. I had already gone over in my mind a hundred times all the possible things that I could do to try to fight back and escape, but there was only so much I could plan in advance. I just had to wait for someone to come and then play things by ear.

  Finally, doors glided open and then closed again. Then the familiar heels clacked against the floor, accompanied by wheels rolling across the floor. I froze, adrenaline beginning to course through my veins.

  As she neared my compartment and the sounds of the wheels and heels stopped, my heart skipped a beat. I suddenly became acutely self-conscious about my breathing and the way I was lying. I also realized that my eyes had clamped too tightly shut in my nervousness. I loosened them, trying to force myself to appear relaxed.

  The curtain drew aside, and the woman approached my bed. She paused for a moment, and I imagined that she was eyeing my face. Then she touched the blanket that I’d pulled up to my chest. Clasping it, she pulled it down to my feet, then paused again, perhaps now glancing over the rest of my body. She drew in a breath before taking a step back. Metal doors creaked open. There was no metal cupboard by my bed, so I assumed that there must have been a compartment at the base of the trolley she’d wheeled in. She began rummaging through what sounded like pins and plastic containers before standing again and hovering near the edge of my bed.

  I picked up on the sound of liquid swishing, and then a kind of suction. I was horribly tempted to open my eyes, but I could not. At least not until…

  The woman’s hand reached for mine and she raised it at an angle. As another needle made contact with my skin, before it could penetrate deeper than a few millimeters, my eyes shot open. Indeed, it was Jocelyn, wearing her usual lab coat, her mousy hair tied back in a ponytail. Her eyes bulged with alarm. But I didn’t give her more than a second to react.

  My arms extended, my hands wrapping around her throat and stifling her yelp. Her right hand slipped beneath her coat and fumbled against the outline of a gun, fixed to her belt. Again, I was too quick for her. My strength allowed me to grip her by the neck with one hand while with the other I was free to knock her hand away and snatch up the gun for myself. Noticing a safety catch, I quickly slid it in the opposite direction. Then, gripping the weapon so hard the blood drained from my knuckles, I pointed it at her square in the chest and hissed, “Free my ankles.”

  Jocelyn’s face blanched, her lips quivering. I wasn’t even sure what type of bullets this gun was loaded with. I had been shot by one of the hunters’ bullets before, back in the desert after escaping from The Oasis. I’d later learned that it had been a special UV bullet, uniquely designed for ending the lives of vampires by burning them up from the inside. The only reason that I hadn’t suffered that fate was because I was a half-blood, and their technology didn’t have the same effect on me. It had just ended up lodging in my side, but if Ben hadn’t come bac
k to help me, I could’ve easily died from it. Based on the look of fear in Jocelyn’s eyes, it was clear that these bullets could do similar damage to humans.

  Reaching into her left pocket, she pulled out a set of keys with trembling hands. Then she inched toward the end of my bed. But as she lowered the key to my foot restraints, she stalled.

  “I will pull this trigger if I have to,” I whispered, pulling my meanest face. “Free me, and don’t say a word. If you make a sound or try to call for help, it will be the last call you ever make.”

  Biting her lip, she nodded. Then she removed the restraints from my ankles, allowing me to swing off the bed and stand on my feet. My knees felt shaky at first, my legs weak—from all the drugs they’d been pumping me with, no doubt—but even as I tried to find my balance, I was careful to hold the gun steadily in front of me.

  I moved closer to her and grabbed the collar of her coat with one hand while pressing the gun against her temple with the other.

  In that moment, I wasn’t sure who was more terrified—Jocelyn or me. Although I’d been forced to use a gun before, during Ben’s and my voyage from Egypt to The Shade, I had never been properly taught how to aim. I prayed that I would not have to use this one on Jocelyn. Besides my inexperience, the gunshots would trigger a dozen alarms. And on the subject of alarms, I spotted several CCTV cameras positioned around us on the ceiling—one I was certain was angled enough to spy on my compartment. All it would take would be a casual glance from one of the hunters monitoring the cameras, and a whole horde of them would come rushing into the ward. I pushed Jocelyn roughly against the curtain, where I guessed we’d at least be less visible. But I had to move fast now.

  Still careful to keep the gun pressed against her, I whispered against Jocelyn’s ear, in a voice barely louder than a breath, “Now, you’re going to tell me which of the keys on your chain belongs to your vehicle.”

  She shook her head in an instant. “I don’t own a vehicle.”

  The keys hung half in, half out of her pocket. I picked them up with one hand and looked them over. One was half covered in thick, black plastic. It so obviously belonged to a vehicle, I was shocked that she had even bothered to lie to me.

  I slid the key into the pocket of my pajama shirt, then tightened my grip on her, pressing hard against her larynx.

  “Are you telling me this does not belong to a car?”

  “It does,” she wheezed. “But not my car.”

  I breathed out in frustration. “I don’t care whose car it is. I have the key, and now I want you to take me to it.”

  “O-Okay. I-It’s outside, in the main parking lot.”

  Outside. Just the thought of stepping outside sent shivers running through me. My pajamas were so thin and my feet were bare. Just standing without my blanket in this ward was already painful enough. I had half a mind to ask Jocelyn to give me her shoes, but she couldn’t go roaming around the facility without them. It risked drawing too much attention. I, on the other hand, was looked on as nothing but an animal here, so nobody would give a second glance to my bare feet.

  “I’ll warn you one last time before we leave,” I breathed, my stomach twisting itself into knots as I thought about what I was about to attempt. “Don’t dare try to yell, or catch anyone’s attention as we pass by. Remember, I have nothing to lose. If I sense that you’re leading me in the wrong direction, or if I suspect you’re even close to stepping out of line, I will fire a bullet into the base of your spine, which will either kill you or, perhaps worse, paralyze you for life.” I glared at her menacingly. “I wouldn’t take that risk if I were you.”

  Jocelyn inhaled a sharp breath before nodding again, apparently having lost her voice.

  “If somebody talks to you, you respond casually and end the conversation as soon as possible. You must act normally as we walk, as though you are escorting me somewhere. Stick close to me, and don’t try to drift more than half a foot apart. If I sense you drifting further, I’ll dig the gun harder against your back as a warning. There will be no second warning.”

  “A-All right.” Jocelyn began moving shakily to step outside of the curtain, but I held her back.

  “Wait a moment,” I murmured.

  We would be in fuller view of the CCTV cameras once we moved out into the main ward area, and before we stepped out, I needed to hide the gun—but not too hidden so that Jocelyn might see me as less of a threat to her life. I eyed the clothes that she was wearing. Beneath her lab coat was a beige cardigan. Roughly pulling off her coat, I tugged on her cardigan. She slipped it off and handed it to me before pulling her coat back on. I bundled the cardigan around my right forearm and pulled it lower down so that it also covered my right hand that held the gun. If I kept my hand close behind her back, even if we passed by someone in the corridors, on cursory glance it should be hard for them to tell that I’d taken Jocelyn hostage—providing she didn’t decide to mess things up.

  “Okay,” I whispered, drawing in a deep breath. “Let’s go.”

  Positioning the gun against her back, I nudged her outside the curtain so that she could lead the way. The two of us exited the compartment and emerged into the vastness of the main ward.

  My mind raced and my throat dried out as we moved toward the exit. Assuming we made it to the parking lot, I would have to figure out how to drive. I’d only taken a few driving lessons in my life, before things at home became too hectic and our money ran dry. I hadn’t been able to continue learning, and I could only hope that once I sat in the driver’s seat, I would remember enough to get by.

  The clock had started ticking the moment I threatened Jocelyn. I feared that it wasn’t a question of if I would get caught, but when. Even if I managed to control Jocelyn enough to make it to the vehicle, I could not keep control of her forever.

  I forced my mind back to the present moment. Jocelyn’s pace was too slow for my liking. I gave her a nudge with the gun, which made her speed up. We exited the ward and emerged in a wide corridor outside. She took a right turn until we arrived at a set of elevators. We entered one, and then she punched the number “2”. The second floor.

  I furrowed my brows and my stomach dropped, as I was already feeling suspicious of her. “Why the second floor?” I asked. “I told you that I need you to take me to the parking lot.”

  “That is the fastest way to the parking lot,” she replied in an unsteady whisper. “It’s located outside a building a few peaks along from us, and the fastest way to get there is to travel along the walkways.”

  I relaxed a little. Of course. In all the stress I was under, I’d forgotten that these buildings were perched among a number of different mountain peaks, all interconnected by those terrifyingly transparent walkways.

  After exiting the elevator on the second floor, I looked left and right anxiously, thankful that I couldn’t spot any hunters walking about. My palm was beginning to feel uncomfortably sweaty against the grip of the gun.

  Jocelyn took a left, and we walked to the end of the corridor where, indeed, we arrived at the opening of a walkway. Passing along it, we arrived at another corridor, which eventually led to another walkway. A trio of male hunters were walking along it toward us. I held my breath as they passed, relieved that Jocelyn didn’t try anything.

  “How much longer?” I whispered, as the hunters disappeared from sight.

  “Not much longer,” Jocelyn replied in a strained voice.

  After what felt like the sixth walkway, I finally spotted the parking lot through the glass walls of the building. I heaved a deep sigh of relief. Although the feeling didn’t last long. Even if I managed to figure out how to drive the car away from here, there would surely be some security barriers to get through. I doubted anybody could just drive to and from this place. I realized that I might have no choice but to take Jocelyn with me, and she would have to give some excuse to the security personnel as to why she needed to drive away with me… And then what? Even if we managed all this, where on earth would I even g
o? I hadn’t the first clue of how to make my way back to The Shade, and I was quite sure that no one on the island knew where I was. They would have noticed that I was missing by now, but they wouldn’t have seen me being dragged away by the hunters in their submarine.

  Heck, I didn’t even know where I was.

  I shook myself. I had to stop thinking so far ahead and just take this one step at a time. Once I got in the car and got it to start, then I could begin thinking further into the future. At least I would be one step closer to escape than I was an hour ago—however pathetic or small that step might be.

  We entered another elevator, and this time, she pressed the button for the ground level. We descended and when the doors glided open, my heart beat faster as I realized that we were going to have to pass through a reception room. Surely there would be more hunters in there. Now more than ever, I needed to keep Jocelyn under my control. As we reached the double doors, which Jocelyn proceeded to march through, I pressed the metal against her back again as a reminder that I meant business.

  Moving further into the reception area, I spotted three women sitting behind the wide desk. Each of them looked up from their computer screens at once.

  To my angst, the blonde woman spoke up. “All right, Jocelyn?”

  I’d been praying that the receptionists wouldn’t bother to make conversation. As Jocelyn turned to face the woman, I had to work hard to make my stance look natural as I kept my right hand close to her back.

  “Yes, thank you,” Jocelyn replied. I winced internally at her uneven voice. I suspected that she was not deliberately trying to give my game away. She was genuinely terrified—as I would be in her position. There probably wasn’t much she could do to control her tone. Which meant that this conversation had to end. Now.

  From the slight frown on the blonde woman’s face, I got the chilling suspicion that she had already caught on that something wasn’t quite right. I racked my brain for what I could possibly do to hasten the closure of conversation without making things look even more suspicious.