AMNESIA Read online

  Amber woke up with a jolt.

  She knew those eyes; they did not belong to Wrexel.

  But who was he and who was the woman in white who seemed to float just out of her reach?

  She realized that she lay very close to Wrexel, and he stared down at her while she slept.

  “I was dreaming...” she began but a terse warning that came from his monitor interrupted her.

  “Intruder.”

  “Intruder,” the female voice spoke in a gentle, unalarmed tone.

  Wrexel glanced from her widened eyes to the monitor that lay on the ground next to him and slowly sat up to view the screen, his face impassive.

  “Status?” he asked.

  Amber stared at the monitor as her heart raced; it was the first time she had heard it “speak.”

  “One female, one adolescent male.”

  “Fifteen meters.”

  Wrexel did not make any of the drastic moves she thought he would; his gaze returned to look at her curiously instead.

  “Whom did you dream about?” His eyes narrowed suspiciously.

  She ignored the question and pointed at the device. “You said their women and children weren’t aggressive.”

  For a moment she thought he would dwell on her dream but then he shrugged. “I don’t know if the male approaching is more of a child or a man.” He stood up. “I will adopt the defensive role until I am sure.”

  “Five meters,” advised the polite female voice.

  He opened the tent flap and peered out into the cool night.

  The four moons glowed, and the stars seemed close enough to touch. “Stay inside,” he ordered, stepping into their glow.

  She almost laughed hysterically at the suggestion that she would follow him out. He didn’t “magically” seal up the canvas again and Amber glanced out into the moonlight in fear.

  He pulled the curved knife from his side and she was held spellbound as it hummed to life, lengthening and shortening as he flexed his wrist.

  He stared into the clearing unmoving until it peered out of the grass seconds later.

  * * *

  Amber reeled in horror as it slowly crept forward. Slanted lizard eyes surveyed Wrexel with open interest. It nodded its head up and down, sniffing the air to determine the attributes of its opponent. The grass pushed aside as he stood tall and upright. His limbs were in human proportion but he was covered in green-scaled lizard flesh. He was the same height as Wrexel, muscled and broad. A wide mouth opened to show a double row of sharp teeth as he swished his tail in irritation, hacking out hissing breaths… Wrexel was right.

  ‘Animal” wasn’t a good description for the creature that surveyed them with cunning at that moment.

  He wasn’t alone. Four nipples on her chest distinguished the lizard beside him as female as she crept out stealthily and stared at the two of them. Wrexel remained unmoving, staring at them both with interest. This spurred the male on to a show of arrogant bravery. He bolstered his torso out with deep, indrawn breaths and then hunched over to show his rippling muscles.

  The female did not take her eyes off Wrexel and she hissed at the male in warning, but he snapped his jaws back at her in arrogance, then flexed his neck and head. When Wrexel still did not budge, he stuck out his jaw and his horned ears flared out from the sides dramatically.

  Loud snorts broke the odd silence, and he flayed his arms, rattling talons on the end of his tapered hand. He slapped his tail on the ground and slowly edged forward an inch at a time, bobbing his head.

  He grunted as he moved, his mane flaring down his back and tail. Finally, Wrexel responded by lowering his head and leaning forward to stare at the creature in returned challenge. The young male did not relent in his show of aggression but was clever enough to lift his head and howl into the night for support.

  When his ominous bleats died down, Amber heard the monitor speak.

  “Three male intruders, 200 meters away.”

  “Six male intruders, 80 meters away.”

  “Three adolescent females, three minors, one infant...”

  “Enough, Shehin!” Wrexel hissed at the monitor with a hint of irritation.

  “Keep surveillance of the immediate area in full protection of Amber, 30 meters max for a warning.”

  Without moving his gaze from the lizard that was now bobbing from side to side and throwing its head forward in challenging bursts, Wrexel spoke to Amber gravely as she sat in numb terror.

  “In the side of your boot is a sketh.”

  “What?”

  “It’s a dagger, Amber… a Thromian knife,” he replied impatiently.

  She babbled hysterically about not knowing how to use it and not wanting him to leave her but he interrupted her. “Don’t be afraid of them and don’t be afraid… of me.”

  Amber had a fleeting moment of confusion but as he spoke, his face began to twist into unrecognizable lines. His brow furrowed into deep ripples and his eyes slanted in response. His beautiful full lips pulled back to reveal sharp canines, and when he turned to face her, she saw that his gaze glowed demonically. The hands that curved around the base of the sword now came to points, sheathing and unsheathing with a hiss. Every trace of the handsome male she had admired over the last day was gone, and a demon stood in his place.

  He ran then, at a speed that left her reeling, crashing into the long grass with one sideswipe that dropped the head of the adolescent lizard to the ground.

  Amber staggered backward, falling on her backside. She screamed in unison with the female who writhed in agony, attempting to reattach the young male’s bloodied head to his body.

  * * *

  Amber fell into the tent, trying desperately to close it and then abandoned her plans when the sounds of grunts and blood-curdling animal screams made her grasp at her boot with urgent, shaking hands. Eventually, in a compartment neatly folded along the side, she found the small thin knife that he had promised. She held it out at the female lizard, terrified it would rise up against her. Her hands shook violently. Then she nearly dropped the knife when it seemed to come alive in her hands, responding to her terror.

  When she imagined the lizard moving from her spot beside the dead adolescent, it lengthened, anticipating her reaction. The dagger hummed and glowed, filling her senses like an additional limb that had grown in answer to her mind. She stood with it extended, but the female ignored her, eventually returning with a wail into the grasslands. Amber stared at its disappearing form as the sound of fighting, thundering splashes and deathly howls echoed in the distance. She sobbed in horror, terrified that Wrexel would be killed.

  In the midst of her petrified, gut-wrenching meltdown, she was flooded by random memories.

  Firm hands covering hers had shown her how to fight and how to use the very knife she held in her trembling hands. Lessons and laughter, his teaching had been thorough and unforgiving.

  Beautiful eyes, not honey yellow but green.

  His name was Staede, and he was Wrexel’s younger brother.

  A rogue who feared nobody, especially not Wrexel.

  He had been her teacher.

  Staede.

  Amber grappled with the rising memories of being taught to fight, but also one of a telling embrace with Staede. Rustles in the bush arrested her attention and Amber’s grip on the knife tightened as Staede’s voice sounded clearly in her mind.

  Panic is death.

  Panic wastes focus.

  You cannot change your fate.

  If it is your time to die, it is your time to die.

  Fear will never alter that.

  Use what you can in your immediate area.

  Everything can work to your advantage.

  She glanced at the monitor.

  “Sheila, Sheena,” she screamed and then suddenly remembering, she cried, “Shehin, how many are there?”

  “Five have been terminated.” The cool female monotone reply came and then followed, “Six terminated.”

  “Nine terminated.
”

  Amber almost sank to her knees with relief.

  Wrexel had not been boasting. He truly was stronger than anything they would encounter.

  Her relaxation was short-lived.

  “Area intruder.”

  “Area intruder – 30 meters, male.”

  “What must I do?” she screamed, wishing that the monitor would rise up and defend her.

  Shehin did not have any advice.

  “Alert, perimeter breach, alert.”

  The sound of a deafening siren filled the air. Amber wanted to run but to where… the creatures that swam in the pond behind her?

  She shook so violently she did not think she would be able to wield the knife as taught. Her wail of despair blended with the wailing alarm of the monitor.

  “Wrexel,” she screamed, and Shehin answered, “Five hundred meters, due west.”

  “Fourteen terminated.”

  “Intruder, 15 meters.”

  * * *

  Amber lifted her knife and stared at the rustling bush in agonized terror. She was on her own.

  Memories of Staede’s voice with a thousand instructions bombarded her at once until none made enough sense to guide her.

  Hide.

  She launched for the tent flap and tried in vain to close it again, gasping with surprise and relief when it suddenly obeyed, sealing her off from the outside world.

  She stumbled backward, still shaking violently, and crouched in the middle of the enclosure. She turned around in circles, listening to the scuffles outside the canvas.

  Amber screamed when a dark shadow slammed against the sides.

  Seconds later the side ripped open in shreds, and she stood face to face with the male variety of the animal that Wrexel was fighting.

  It was twice the size of the female, with a striking fin upon its head, flared out in fiery silver as it gnashed its teeth at her and screeched in a rage. He launched himself at her and she took the full impact of his body. She landed on her back, losing the air within her lungs as she slammed into the ground. Hot, rancid breath flared against her face as he snapped down at her, almost breaking her arms as she tried to hold him off. Amber dug her heels into the grass and slid back, narrowly avoiding his bite as his teeth grazed her neck.

  Just as she thought her life would end, he was torn violently from her.

  Wrexel overpowered the lizard instantly and straddled the flailing beast. The lizard lifted his talons to grasp at him and a few seconds felt like forever as he squirmed and wrestled beneath Wrexel’s weight, slicing his arms with his long claws. Wrexel’s own nails pierced the thick skin of the lizard’s throat and blood flowed down his fingers, mingling with his own bloody scratches from the beast.

  Amber watched as he finally plunged the shortened dagger into the chest of the writhing lizard, his elongated nails delving deeper into the lizard’s neck as he twisted and flexed his wrist in its torso. It flailed and jerked beneath him and then gasped and finally died.

  * * *

  Wrexel turned his eerie yellow gaze on Amber, raking his eyes over her body to ascertain that she was not badly injured. Satisfied with what he saw, he moved to the monitor, wiping his sketh on his leg.

  “Status.”

  “Intruders fleeing,” Shehin reported, “Two hundred meters. Two hundred and thirty meters.”

  The lizards sensed they were out of their league. They began to flee as if they should have in the first place. Amber shuddered with relief but Wrexel’s mouth twisted cruelly as if angered by the report. With one last chilling glance at Amber, he said to Shehin, “Guard the perimeter.” Then he was gone, crashing through the grasslands with a savage cry.

  The hunters had now become the hunted.

  Amber sat in stupefied silence but then recoiled when two large, knee-high birds hopped out of the grass toward the corpses. They ignored her, dipping their heads and tearing the flesh from the lizards like hungry vultures. She held out her knife, but they continued their meal, oblivious to her. Their blood-dripping beaks made short work of the lizards. They stopped only to snap at each other and shake their small black bodies as they fed.

  She wondered if anything bigger would come out of the grasslands and she moved closer to Shehin, but all that the monitor reported for the remainder of the evening was the number of fatalities that Wrexel was racking up. Amber wrapped her arms around herself, telling the monitor to be quiet when it became too much.

  Protected and safe from the creatures she feared, she realized she remained in the hands of another.

  What was Wrexel and how safe was she with him?

  On and on the fighting went until Amber, overcome with exhaustion, fell into a fitful sleep as she lay in midst of the ruined tent.

  * * *

  She awoke with a jolt a few hours later. Shocked that she had dozed off, she gazed around her urgently. She was alone. The sun slowly rose in foreign sky, and not a sound was heard in the early morning air. Her mind scrambled over the strange dream that had been oddly comforting just moments before she awoke. The unknown woman with long dark hair, dressed in angelic white had held her, comforted her, and told her that she would live through this, she was too important to die. She had a purpose of great importance, yet to be fulfilled.

  At least this time it did not fade into erotic content like the last time, when she dreamed of being intimate with both Wrexel and with the man she now realized was his brother Staede.

  Intimacies that her memory slowly revealed as not merely a dream but reality. She reeled with confusion as she tried to make sense of the two reminders of her past. She had been so certain she was currently intimately involved with Wrexel. Her dreams and ensuing fragmented memories told her this was not entirely true.

  Was she involved with Wrexel, or his brother Staede?

  She tried in vain to find more memories but with the exception of embraces with them both in contexts unknown, she could recall very little else.

  Her head began to pound with the effort, so she stopped her frantic musings and focused on her surroundings instead. The morning was misty and cool without the protection of the tent that now hung in tatters around her. She lifted the thin blanket from her knees to cover her shoulders. Her body was stiff from lying on the hard ground all night. She was surprised she slept at all! Perhaps somewhere inside, her conscious had assured her she was safe and that Wrexel would not be defeated by the lizards or allow her to come to harm.

  The sun hovered low, rising slowly into the sky and the mist remained thick and ominous. Amber shivered. The loss of Wrexel’s presence was both a pleasure and a torment. Her mind still tussled with two opinions of the man who fought for her the night before. He protected her from horrible creatures, but that didn’t detract from the fact that he was a creature too. Questions burned within her mind but no answers rose up to quell her fear or curiosity.

  She heard a rustle and held her breath, sighing with relief when he came out of the grasslands. His long dark hair was wet against his broad shoulders, and fresh cuts and scratches marred his chest and arms, blending in with his tattoos. He was back to his former handsome self, but the memory of his twisted features from the night before made her stomach clench. She pulled the blanket tightly around her as he walked forward.

  He was naked to the waist, and she was confronted with the flesh image of strength only hinted at before. He was perfectly defined, not an inch of fat upon his large frame. As he hunkered down over his bag, she allowed her eyes to roam over the tattoo she had seen beneath his collar. It wound from his neck, down over his chest and across one shoulder, made up of myriad colors that glowed. Symbols and jagged interweaving lines, some of which seemed to be some kind of panther with red eyes. She followed it down to where it disappeared into the pants that hung low on his hips. Wrexel’s body was perfect, but it wasn’t smooth.

  Amidst the fresh wounds, he had several scars, probably from battles much like the one he had fought last night, but the two that stood out the most ran from the
center of his rib cage to his pelvis. Thick and raised as if flesh had been torn from his body in a neat line and then replaced. Her eyes moved from the small, thin bar that pierced one nipple to a broad tattooed black band etched into his right bicep. She frowned when she saw it twist and move as if something was alive beneath the ink. She realized then that she had been staring at him for longer than she should and that he was watching her watching him.

  She flushed and tore her gaze from his perfect frame. “You bathed.” She stated the obvious.

  He gave her a knowing smirk and then dropped the jacket onto the small backpack he had been carrying for the last two days.

  “The grasslands clear just west of here and there is a section of water protected by rocks. I found it to be surprisingly warm. Would you like me to take you there to bathe?”

  She nodded eagerly, and they walked through the ankle-high grass until they reached the pile of rocks and the pool he promised.

  Her disappointment about its size lessened when she saw that it was clear and creature-free.

  A small stream of water flowed from the grass, keeping it fresh. She ran her fingers through the slight trickle and found it to be slightly warm.

  “You can rinse your clothes; they’re designed to dry in 15 minutes. I’ll return in 20; Shehin is on the rock beside you.” His voice faded as he disappeared.

  * * *

  Wrexel looked back for a short while, watched her remove her pants and then her jacket. He moaned when she reached for the bottom of her bra.

  He turned his back, knowing if he saw her lush, full breasts, he would break through the grass and take her in the water she was so eager to bathe in. He cursed and rejoiced at her memory loss again. If it changed things between them, it would be worth keeping his hands off her.

  He clicked the wrist monitor that had urgently summoned him for the last twenty minutes.

  “What?”

  Whyle’s form rose up in front of him.