But the wild, leaping color around us slowly became softer and hazier, like veils across the horizon. Until we burst out of the line, into bright blue skies filled with puffy white clouds and startled birds.
Who were less startled than us when we abruptly plummeted for the ground.
“Augggggghhhhhhhh!” the vampire screamed. “Augggggghhhhhhhh!”
The shield remained in place as we fell, which surprised me. I was under the impression that they did not work outside the lines. But then, this was a fey shield. Perhaps they were different.
“Augggggghhhhhhhh!” the vampire screamed some more. “Augggggghhhhhhhh!”
We hit the ground and bounced, what must have been fifty feet into the air. And then did it again and again, while also rolling down a steep incline. It was covered in flowers, predominately purple with a few yellow and white ones mixed in.
Beautiful.
“Augggggghhhhhhhh!” the vampire yelled. “Augg—bump—auggggh—bump—aughhhhhhh!”
We finally rolled to a stop.
I found myself slightly dizzy, but mostly unharmed.
The same could not be said for the vampire, who continued to scream, albeit weakly. I shook my head to clear it, which did not work as well as I would have liked. I still felt as if I was surfing the biggest storm in history, with my stomach doing flips inside my body. It was not a wholly unpleasant sensation, but it did make it hard to move about.
I did so anyway, crawling across the gory floor to gather up the body parts that belonged to my companion. It was easy to tell them apart, as his were smaller than those of the fey. I finished and looked up.
And saw him lying on the bottom of the shield, near the control mechanism, panting and shrieking softly whenever he found enough air. He was covered in blood, his eyes were wild, and he was trembling all over. I needed to get him somewhere safe, as I did not know if the fey could track their device.
But first, I had to deal with more pressing concerns.
“Hold still,” I said, tugging on what remained of his tuxedo.
“Ahhh!”
“I know it hurts. I am sorry.”
He stared up at me in apparent shock. His eyes searched my face, as if looking for something. Probably signs of the woman he knew, which he did not find. Dory was not here; I could feel her absence like a missing lung, leaving me breathless. We had never been apart, not even when I took an occasional mental flight away from our body. There had always been a tether there, a strong, unbreakable connection to my other half.
But not now.
It made me feel dizzier than the ride, and more than slightly horrified. I did not know what had been done to us, but this was not the time to think about it. This was the time to survive; thinking would come later.
The vampire seemed to feel the same. He tensed as if bracing himself. And then he nodded.
I held up one of his severed arms and looked at it. It had lost the sleeve, but the arm itself was more or less all right, except for the raw, red meat and shattered bone at the end. The fey hadn’t cared how much damage they did, merely wanting to put him out of commission. I felt anger well up in me, red hot and burning, but tamped it down.
Later.
We would have our revenge on whoever had ordered this, but for now, I needed to heal the vampire.
“Ray,” I said, suddenly remembering. “Your name is Ray.”
“Raymond Lu,” he said, his lips white. “I’d shake your hand, but . . .”
“You will in a moment.” I regarded the arm again.
It was weakly moving, but not in any purposeful way. A master should be able to control his body parts, even when they were not attached, but Raymond had lost too much blood. He was almost exsanguinated, and that . . .
Would be very bad.
We had avoided exiting through the other end of the portal, and had thereby missed the reception that undoubtedly awaited us. But we weren’t scot free. I paused, looking about.
We’d come to rest on the side of a hill, where a goat trail from below divided and created a small plateau. To our right and below was a verdant valley with a large river running through it, and bright green fields with grasses so long and thick that they moved like water under the breeze. To our left was a dense old forest, with tree trunks as big as houses and a canopy so solid that I did