Nano 2007- Part 10
Title- "Through the Gate"
Genre- Fantasy Erotica
Rating- PG-13 (violence)
Elaine stood next to the truck, watching the sky filling up even more thickly with the heavy dark clouds that spoke of an early snow, the wind blowing her sweater tails about her legs, whipping whatever strands of her hair had managed to escape the tight bun they were in into her face almost painfully. Her ears ached with the feeling of the cold wind against them, but she kept her eyes and her senses open as the rest of them spread out, working according to the plan, shivering and hugging herself tightly. She knew that he was coming for her, knew that he would know that the others were here. It was a disconcerting feeling, but she was ready.
Her sword was clutched in one hand, not in any sort of ready position, but she had it, and that was what was important here. She shivered again, leaning one side up against the truck, waiting. “I’m here… I came… Now where are you?” The words were murmured softly, quite nearly under her breath, and she scanned the area with both eyes and empathic senses. Waiting, just waiting….
“Right behind you.” The moment that he reached out those long fingers to touch her, the traps put in place on her by Derek and Sammi came to life, and he was immobilized. Anger overwhelmed her empathic senses, just from how close he was with his rage, and she dropped to her knees, pressing her hands to the side of her head. She was well aware that the binding couldn’t possibly last in the face of his rage and his strength, but that was the signal the others needed to get to work. Hopefully they would be fast enough.
They had moved into position while she waited by the truck, the bait of the trap, and now as she crawled away from the Hunter, the Wolf, she could feel what they were doing. At the four points of the compass, drawing on the natural energies of the earth and the crazy, wild, uncontrolled energies out here in the gate field, they each stood, joined through the bond formed as a team for this particular task only hours ago in that living room. She could feel the rush of energy gathered by them all and directed by Bryan, and she scrambled quickly, not wanting to be in the way of that when it hit.
It was sent at the Hunter behind her as she flattened herself to the ground, a very physical shock wave of pure force that shook the truck, cracking a couple of windows, flattening one of the tires. She could hear Bryan swearing as he demolished his own precious baby, and it was almost comical enough to make her laugh, but she kept her restraint and her focus, continuing to move away from the suddenly visible form lying stunned on the ground next to the battered vehicle.
She looked back over her shoulder, watching him, narrowing her eyes. His clothes were not of any fashion that this world had to offer, at least not outside of a science fiction or fantasy movie. Dark pants and a dark tunic, tall boots, a close-fitted cape that seemed to shimmer around him and camouflage him completely against the ground where he lay at the moment. Elaine could also feel the sense of a massive will from him, and a well-trained mind. Single minded and focused, just like the Hunter that he claimed to be, and smart. It gave her a little shiver, and she picked up the pace back toward Bryan, scrambling up on to her feet. He would keep her safe from that man on the ground. He just had to.
Anger overwhelmed her senses from behind, and she heard the roar of a very pissed off man, heard the massive and surprisingly quick footsteps behind her closing in, and she broke into a full sprint over the rocky terrain. She really should have stuck with slow and steady, because as she moved across the landscape, she felt a rock shift under her heel, turning quite abruptly. There was nothing she could do about it at this point, and she felt her ankle turn with it, sharply, and she cried out with the pain of it as it dropped her with a roll to the ground, clutching her leg, her ankle sprained badly enough that she was in tears. Her sword went flying from her grip to land a few feet away, and she immediately started trying to crawl for it.
“Elaine!” She heard Bryan calling out for her, heard his footsteps joining the other’s through a haze of pain. She could only hope that he managed to reach her first, but that was one of those hoping against the odds things and she knew it.
She felt those long fingers curling and twining into her hair, gloved this time, and her head was jerked sharply back, causing her to cry out with both pain and surprise. That familiar wicked voice called out to her team mates. “Stay back or I will kill her.” She gasped with surprise and fear, a hissing sound through the teeth gritted against the pain in her ankle, as she felt the cold edge of a knife blade pressed to her throat, the edge very sharp, biting into flesh in a very sincere and promising sort of way. Her hand retracted from where it had reached out to try and grab her sword, knowing that it was still a few inches out of reach.
“Let her go.” Bryan’s voice carried all the authority that he could muster, which really was a surprising amount, and Elaine could just barely see him at the edge of her field of vision. He was furious, the red glow along the edge of his bastard sword visible to the naked eye. Elaine arched her eyebrows in surprise, frowning at the amount of energy that he must be channeling through himself in order to accomplish that feat, opening up her senses to feel just how much that must be.
What she felt caused her to wince. That was not good, not good at all. He was going to overload his system in a very physical and spectacular way if he didn’t let some of that energy go. “Bryan…” Her tone was pleading, begging him not to do anything too stupid for her sake. He needed to let that energy go. She didn’t want to see him die just for her. She wanted him to live. He had to live, so that someone could come rescue her.
“You’re a stupid boy if you think I’m just going to let the bitch go like that. She is my prize from the Hunt and you will have to kill me to get her back.” The Hunter’s voice was triumphant, certain, and Elaine felt herself forced to crawl backwards some as he tugged hard on her hair, moving toward one of the energy vortexes that riddled this site. She thought back to the conversation she had had with Sammi about finding out what was on the other side of some of these gates, feeling suddenly that she might be finding out very shortly just what the answer to that puzzle was.
“I can arrange that.” Bryan’s voice was deadly calm, controlled, as he approached, circling as a tiger might stalk his prey. Elaine felt the bite of the knife digging deeper into her flesh, the warm wet trickle of blood down the curve of her neck, and she whimpered just a little at that pain added to that of her ankle, trying to meet Bryan’s eyes. He was going to kill her…
“You and what army? You have no idea what I am capable of.” The grip in her hair remained, but the hand with the knife was withdrawn, and Elaine saw the way that the energy gathered on the edge of the blade, almost as much as Bryan was holding, with hardly even a hint of effort from the man that held her.
“Bryan! Look out!” That shout of warning was rewarded with a jerk of her head that was rough enough to shake her vision into stars like a snow globe, and the gathered energy was tossed at her lover, a shockwave of force much like what was hurled at the Hunter as he tried to claim Elaine next to the truck earlier. She was relieved to see that her warning got off in time, because Bryan dove behind a large outcropping of rock, which shook and cracked underneath the pressure of the blow, sending dirt and smaller stones spilling out over the ground. She couldn’t see him moving after that, and a sick sort of sensation of dread grew in her.
“Come, my pet. We have much to accomplish this day.” Elaine felt herself being pulled roughly by the hair, forced to either follow or be dragged. She dug her heels in, reaching up to grab at his hand, trying to pull it from her hair. She twisted her whole body, trying to put enough pressure on his wrist that he would be forced to let go or have the limb broken, but he simply threw her down and kicked out at her gut.
She felt the sickening sensation of a boot sinking into the soft flesh of her stomach, none too gently, and the air was knocked out of her so that she couldn’t even cry out in pain. Curling up into a ball she just laid there, until he grabbed her by the hair again. She was forced to stagger to her feet and follow, doubled over, but she would be damned if she let herself be dragged across the ground that way.
And then, out of nowhere, it seemed, the Hunter had a growth on his back. A very large, very malignant Kevin-shaped growth. Once again her hair was released as the Hunter reached up to deal with the choking arm that was wrapped around his neck, going down to one knee under the force of Kevin’s weight. She crawled toward where she had last seen Bryan, toward that destroyed outcropping of rock, hoping to all the powers that be that he was all right….
Much to her horror and disappointment, she found those fingers entwined and tangled roughly in her hair once more, pulling back hard, not giving her a chance to find her feet this time. She saw Kevin lying on the ground in a pool of blood, unsure of what had happened, knowing only that Derek and Sammi now stood between her and the Hunter and the energy vortex where he was trying to drag her forcefully. She dug her nails into his hand, sharp claws trying to get him to release that painful grip, but fingernails were ineffective in the face of the gloves that he wore. She was helpless to do much of anything, but she wasn’t giving up.
As he halted to take on Derek and Sammi, she managed to get her feet under her, and she kicked out at the side of his knee. She hoped to hear the crunch of bone, and she was surprised to feel her feet coming up against something that felt like metal. Was he wearing plate armor? The force of her kick was enough to send him off balance, releasing his hold on her once more so that he could deal with Derek and Sammi. She began crawling away once more, scrambling on all fours toward Kevin this time, trying to figure out what happened to him, intent on getting him out of here, safe where he could heal. Oh, that was a lot of blood. It was enough to make her sick as she went toward it, the sweetly metallic scent causing her mouth to water in a bad way.
She was surprised by a wave of heat and the roar of a rush of flame behind her, and she saw Sammi and Derek fall in front of the fiery wash of pressure, the Hunter with a hand outstretched, all five fingers rigid as he chanted in a language beyond her understanding, waiting until neither moved. Elaine felt panic rising up in her, worry for her friends, not able to sense any of them conscious. And then she saw the wolf. A silver-furred wolf, standing over Sammi’s body, distorted and dreamlike through the heat haze, but the very sight was enough to calm her slightly, give her faith that her chosen family would be okay. She blinked, and the wolf was gone, but she knew that everything would be all right with her friends.
The Hunter didn’t seem to see the silver wolf, turning and stalking back toward her. She noticed with some small amount of satisfaction that he was limping slightly from the kick to the knee. Her smirk was short-lived, though, as he closed in on her, an incantation in that same language foreign to her ears and mind, causing the earth to warp and distort behind her, rising to form a bowl around her, trapping her right where she was even though she tried to climb out, grabbing at the edges that seemed to stay just out of reach. She really did not like these powers that he was displaying, far beyond the realms of what she and her team mates had ever managed, or any of the self-proclaimed witches or wizards that she had ever spoken with.
She struck out at him with her feet again as he approached, but he was smart this time, grabbing onto her foot and twisting roughly, the motion causing her to move through the air so that she landed face down in the dirt, pressing a knee hard into her spine as he reached for her arms, grabbing her wrists none too gently and binding them behind her back with what felt like a rope, but had the coolness and strength of metal. Something else not of this world, but she was starting to finally get used to that idea. She coughed on the dust that found its way in through her nose and mouth, still trying to squirm out from under him. He just applied more pressure to his knee on her back, until she could feel her spine creak under the strain and she went still, almost deathly so.
He leaned in close, his feet hooked over her legs so that they had no way of moving in a way to hurt him, although it seemed that she could kick all she wanted if she dared to start struggling again. She felt his fingers in her hair again, her scalp already sore beyond reason from the events of the last five minutes, jerking back, exposing her stinging cut throat to the air as she whimpered slightly, truly afraid for the first time since this ordeal started two days ago. That got a low chuckle from him, welling up from deep within his throat, as he put his lips to her ear, speaking quietly. “Now will you come quietly, or will I have to go make sure that they’re all dead? I’m pretty sure none of them are yet, but that can easily be made certain.”
She tried to nod, but his grip in her hair made that impossible, and so she just spoke instead. “How do I know they’re not going to die anyway?”
“You don’t. But this way there’s a chance that they survive. Not that you’re going to see them again.” He got to his feet, hauling her up roughly with him by the hair and one arm, dragging her toward the vortex once more, and she stumbled along with him this time, nothing left to do. He had decimated their best efforts and now her friends lay dying or worse on the ground. She choked back the tears that threatened to fall, knowing that she needed to be strong for now, needed to not show weakness. She had to keep herself all right and alive so that she might find a way to escape.
She looked back over her shoulder, watching her friends as the vortex drew nearer. That silver wolf was back, and she could have sworn that she saw it wink at her, a feeling of calm coming over her at the sight of that simple, small and quite possibly imagined gesture. She knew that it would be all right. Somehow her friends would be okay and come to her rescue. That wolf would lead them…
She felt her skin tingle as the vortex approached, and the Hunter grabbed her, picking her up and slinging her over one shoulder like a sack of potatoes, stepping through into the unknown. The energy washed over her, overloading her senses, and she went limp, unconscious, as she passed captive into another world.
Genre- Fantasy Erotica
Rating- PG-13 (violence)
Elaine stood next to the truck, watching the sky filling up even more thickly with the heavy dark clouds that spoke of an early snow, the wind blowing her sweater tails about her legs, whipping whatever strands of her hair had managed to escape the tight bun they were in into her face almost painfully. Her ears ached with the feeling of the cold wind against them, but she kept her eyes and her senses open as the rest of them spread out, working according to the plan, shivering and hugging herself tightly. She knew that he was coming for her, knew that he would know that the others were here. It was a disconcerting feeling, but she was ready.
Her sword was clutched in one hand, not in any sort of ready position, but she had it, and that was what was important here. She shivered again, leaning one side up against the truck, waiting. “I’m here… I came… Now where are you?” The words were murmured softly, quite nearly under her breath, and she scanned the area with both eyes and empathic senses. Waiting, just waiting….
“Right behind you.” The moment that he reached out those long fingers to touch her, the traps put in place on her by Derek and Sammi came to life, and he was immobilized. Anger overwhelmed her empathic senses, just from how close he was with his rage, and she dropped to her knees, pressing her hands to the side of her head. She was well aware that the binding couldn’t possibly last in the face of his rage and his strength, but that was the signal the others needed to get to work. Hopefully they would be fast enough.
They had moved into position while she waited by the truck, the bait of the trap, and now as she crawled away from the Hunter, the Wolf, she could feel what they were doing. At the four points of the compass, drawing on the natural energies of the earth and the crazy, wild, uncontrolled energies out here in the gate field, they each stood, joined through the bond formed as a team for this particular task only hours ago in that living room. She could feel the rush of energy gathered by them all and directed by Bryan, and she scrambled quickly, not wanting to be in the way of that when it hit.
It was sent at the Hunter behind her as she flattened herself to the ground, a very physical shock wave of pure force that shook the truck, cracking a couple of windows, flattening one of the tires. She could hear Bryan swearing as he demolished his own precious baby, and it was almost comical enough to make her laugh, but she kept her restraint and her focus, continuing to move away from the suddenly visible form lying stunned on the ground next to the battered vehicle.
She looked back over her shoulder, watching him, narrowing her eyes. His clothes were not of any fashion that this world had to offer, at least not outside of a science fiction or fantasy movie. Dark pants and a dark tunic, tall boots, a close-fitted cape that seemed to shimmer around him and camouflage him completely against the ground where he lay at the moment. Elaine could also feel the sense of a massive will from him, and a well-trained mind. Single minded and focused, just like the Hunter that he claimed to be, and smart. It gave her a little shiver, and she picked up the pace back toward Bryan, scrambling up on to her feet. He would keep her safe from that man on the ground. He just had to.
Anger overwhelmed her senses from behind, and she heard the roar of a very pissed off man, heard the massive and surprisingly quick footsteps behind her closing in, and she broke into a full sprint over the rocky terrain. She really should have stuck with slow and steady, because as she moved across the landscape, she felt a rock shift under her heel, turning quite abruptly. There was nothing she could do about it at this point, and she felt her ankle turn with it, sharply, and she cried out with the pain of it as it dropped her with a roll to the ground, clutching her leg, her ankle sprained badly enough that she was in tears. Her sword went flying from her grip to land a few feet away, and she immediately started trying to crawl for it.
“Elaine!” She heard Bryan calling out for her, heard his footsteps joining the other’s through a haze of pain. She could only hope that he managed to reach her first, but that was one of those hoping against the odds things and she knew it.
She felt those long fingers curling and twining into her hair, gloved this time, and her head was jerked sharply back, causing her to cry out with both pain and surprise. That familiar wicked voice called out to her team mates. “Stay back or I will kill her.” She gasped with surprise and fear, a hissing sound through the teeth gritted against the pain in her ankle, as she felt the cold edge of a knife blade pressed to her throat, the edge very sharp, biting into flesh in a very sincere and promising sort of way. Her hand retracted from where it had reached out to try and grab her sword, knowing that it was still a few inches out of reach.
“Let her go.” Bryan’s voice carried all the authority that he could muster, which really was a surprising amount, and Elaine could just barely see him at the edge of her field of vision. He was furious, the red glow along the edge of his bastard sword visible to the naked eye. Elaine arched her eyebrows in surprise, frowning at the amount of energy that he must be channeling through himself in order to accomplish that feat, opening up her senses to feel just how much that must be.
What she felt caused her to wince. That was not good, not good at all. He was going to overload his system in a very physical and spectacular way if he didn’t let some of that energy go. “Bryan…” Her tone was pleading, begging him not to do anything too stupid for her sake. He needed to let that energy go. She didn’t want to see him die just for her. She wanted him to live. He had to live, so that someone could come rescue her.
“You’re a stupid boy if you think I’m just going to let the bitch go like that. She is my prize from the Hunt and you will have to kill me to get her back.” The Hunter’s voice was triumphant, certain, and Elaine felt herself forced to crawl backwards some as he tugged hard on her hair, moving toward one of the energy vortexes that riddled this site. She thought back to the conversation she had had with Sammi about finding out what was on the other side of some of these gates, feeling suddenly that she might be finding out very shortly just what the answer to that puzzle was.
“I can arrange that.” Bryan’s voice was deadly calm, controlled, as he approached, circling as a tiger might stalk his prey. Elaine felt the bite of the knife digging deeper into her flesh, the warm wet trickle of blood down the curve of her neck, and she whimpered just a little at that pain added to that of her ankle, trying to meet Bryan’s eyes. He was going to kill her…
“You and what army? You have no idea what I am capable of.” The grip in her hair remained, but the hand with the knife was withdrawn, and Elaine saw the way that the energy gathered on the edge of the blade, almost as much as Bryan was holding, with hardly even a hint of effort from the man that held her.
“Bryan! Look out!” That shout of warning was rewarded with a jerk of her head that was rough enough to shake her vision into stars like a snow globe, and the gathered energy was tossed at her lover, a shockwave of force much like what was hurled at the Hunter as he tried to claim Elaine next to the truck earlier. She was relieved to see that her warning got off in time, because Bryan dove behind a large outcropping of rock, which shook and cracked underneath the pressure of the blow, sending dirt and smaller stones spilling out over the ground. She couldn’t see him moving after that, and a sick sort of sensation of dread grew in her.
“Come, my pet. We have much to accomplish this day.” Elaine felt herself being pulled roughly by the hair, forced to either follow or be dragged. She dug her heels in, reaching up to grab at his hand, trying to pull it from her hair. She twisted her whole body, trying to put enough pressure on his wrist that he would be forced to let go or have the limb broken, but he simply threw her down and kicked out at her gut.
She felt the sickening sensation of a boot sinking into the soft flesh of her stomach, none too gently, and the air was knocked out of her so that she couldn’t even cry out in pain. Curling up into a ball she just laid there, until he grabbed her by the hair again. She was forced to stagger to her feet and follow, doubled over, but she would be damned if she let herself be dragged across the ground that way.
And then, out of nowhere, it seemed, the Hunter had a growth on his back. A very large, very malignant Kevin-shaped growth. Once again her hair was released as the Hunter reached up to deal with the choking arm that was wrapped around his neck, going down to one knee under the force of Kevin’s weight. She crawled toward where she had last seen Bryan, toward that destroyed outcropping of rock, hoping to all the powers that be that he was all right….
Much to her horror and disappointment, she found those fingers entwined and tangled roughly in her hair once more, pulling back hard, not giving her a chance to find her feet this time. She saw Kevin lying on the ground in a pool of blood, unsure of what had happened, knowing only that Derek and Sammi now stood between her and the Hunter and the energy vortex where he was trying to drag her forcefully. She dug her nails into his hand, sharp claws trying to get him to release that painful grip, but fingernails were ineffective in the face of the gloves that he wore. She was helpless to do much of anything, but she wasn’t giving up.
As he halted to take on Derek and Sammi, she managed to get her feet under her, and she kicked out at the side of his knee. She hoped to hear the crunch of bone, and she was surprised to feel her feet coming up against something that felt like metal. Was he wearing plate armor? The force of her kick was enough to send him off balance, releasing his hold on her once more so that he could deal with Derek and Sammi. She began crawling away once more, scrambling on all fours toward Kevin this time, trying to figure out what happened to him, intent on getting him out of here, safe where he could heal. Oh, that was a lot of blood. It was enough to make her sick as she went toward it, the sweetly metallic scent causing her mouth to water in a bad way.
She was surprised by a wave of heat and the roar of a rush of flame behind her, and she saw Sammi and Derek fall in front of the fiery wash of pressure, the Hunter with a hand outstretched, all five fingers rigid as he chanted in a language beyond her understanding, waiting until neither moved. Elaine felt panic rising up in her, worry for her friends, not able to sense any of them conscious. And then she saw the wolf. A silver-furred wolf, standing over Sammi’s body, distorted and dreamlike through the heat haze, but the very sight was enough to calm her slightly, give her faith that her chosen family would be okay. She blinked, and the wolf was gone, but she knew that everything would be all right with her friends.
The Hunter didn’t seem to see the silver wolf, turning and stalking back toward her. She noticed with some small amount of satisfaction that he was limping slightly from the kick to the knee. Her smirk was short-lived, though, as he closed in on her, an incantation in that same language foreign to her ears and mind, causing the earth to warp and distort behind her, rising to form a bowl around her, trapping her right where she was even though she tried to climb out, grabbing at the edges that seemed to stay just out of reach. She really did not like these powers that he was displaying, far beyond the realms of what she and her team mates had ever managed, or any of the self-proclaimed witches or wizards that she had ever spoken with.
She struck out at him with her feet again as he approached, but he was smart this time, grabbing onto her foot and twisting roughly, the motion causing her to move through the air so that she landed face down in the dirt, pressing a knee hard into her spine as he reached for her arms, grabbing her wrists none too gently and binding them behind her back with what felt like a rope, but had the coolness and strength of metal. Something else not of this world, but she was starting to finally get used to that idea. She coughed on the dust that found its way in through her nose and mouth, still trying to squirm out from under him. He just applied more pressure to his knee on her back, until she could feel her spine creak under the strain and she went still, almost deathly so.
He leaned in close, his feet hooked over her legs so that they had no way of moving in a way to hurt him, although it seemed that she could kick all she wanted if she dared to start struggling again. She felt his fingers in her hair again, her scalp already sore beyond reason from the events of the last five minutes, jerking back, exposing her stinging cut throat to the air as she whimpered slightly, truly afraid for the first time since this ordeal started two days ago. That got a low chuckle from him, welling up from deep within his throat, as he put his lips to her ear, speaking quietly. “Now will you come quietly, or will I have to go make sure that they’re all dead? I’m pretty sure none of them are yet, but that can easily be made certain.”
She tried to nod, but his grip in her hair made that impossible, and so she just spoke instead. “How do I know they’re not going to die anyway?”
“You don’t. But this way there’s a chance that they survive. Not that you’re going to see them again.” He got to his feet, hauling her up roughly with him by the hair and one arm, dragging her toward the vortex once more, and she stumbled along with him this time, nothing left to do. He had decimated their best efforts and now her friends lay dying or worse on the ground. She choked back the tears that threatened to fall, knowing that she needed to be strong for now, needed to not show weakness. She had to keep herself all right and alive so that she might find a way to escape.
She looked back over her shoulder, watching her friends as the vortex drew nearer. That silver wolf was back, and she could have sworn that she saw it wink at her, a feeling of calm coming over her at the sight of that simple, small and quite possibly imagined gesture. She knew that it would be all right. Somehow her friends would be okay and come to her rescue. That wolf would lead them…
She felt her skin tingle as the vortex approached, and the Hunter grabbed her, picking her up and slinging her over one shoulder like a sack of potatoes, stepping through into the unknown. The energy washed over her, overloading her senses, and she went limp, unconscious, as she passed captive into another world.