Genesis (soul savers ) Read online

  She’d heard the fighting while gathering berries this morning and waited several hours for it to end, listening—she could never watch the viciousness—with a knotted stomach as the last few surrendered. She then waited more hours for the field to clear as the survivors took their injured comrades with them and left the rest for dead. But she knew from experience there may be a few she could still help and so, even as twilight approached, she searched.

  To her right, one soldier’s chest barely lifted and fell and she quickly knelt by his side. His head and unlined face were covered with dark hair and beard, both streaked with crimson, which pooled under his temple. His eyes remained closed. When she lifted his hand by the wrist, he didn’t stir. His heartbeat came slow and faint under her fingers and her shoulders sagged with grief. He’d be dead in a matter of minutes, too far gone for her to heal. With tears stinging her brown eyes, she stood and continued searching.

  She wound her way across the battlefield, her heart sinking further with each body she passed. Occasionally she stopped to feel for a heartbeat or breath on her hand, but found none. Then, as she stepped over one dead man, another moved. Just barely—just a twitch of his finger. Cassandra hurried to his side. Please, God, let there be at least someone I can help.

  He was young, barely more than a boy, with black hair and darkly tanned skin, as if he worked in the fields. When Cassandra’s eyes traveled over his body, her stomach clenched. The lower half twisted at such unnatural angles, it sickened even her, who’d seen the worst of injuries. She pulled a berry from the pouch hanging at her hip, squished it and slipped it into the young man’s mouth. It would help alleviate the pain until death took over.

  With a heart that felt like a boulder in her chest, she reached the other side and turned to look out at the field. She swallowed the sob in her throat and scrubbed at her wet cheeks. She’d seen similar scenes over the years, but she never became used to all the carnage. She blew out a sigh heavy with grief and turned to head back to where she currently called home. As she stepped past the last body, only steps from entering the woods, a hand grabbed her ankle.

  “Oh!” she cried out and fell to her knees next to a soldier covered in mud and blood. I almost missed him! He looked at her with half-closed eyes the color of green olives. He stirred, as if to sit up, but she held him down. “Don’t move. Let me see how badly you’re hurt first.”

  “It’s just my leg,” he said, his voice rough. He pushed himself up onto an elbow, despite her protests. “And my throat. I’m so thirsty.”

  She pulled a skin of water out of her pouch and handed it to him.

  “What is your name?” she asked as she began assessing his condition.

  Sweat mixed with dirt smudged his face, but it looked otherwise unscathed, except for a small scratch on his lip and a scrape across his chin. She pushed his dark brown hair back and found a lump on his head. She removed the protective forearm braces and found bruises covering his arms, but no open wounds. His legs had been protected with braces from ankle to knee. Gingerly, she pulled his chiton up just enough to reveal a deep gash in his lower thigh.

  After draining the water skin dry, he finally answered. “Niko.”

  “You’re very lucky, Niko,” she said, pulling out another skin of water to clean the wound. Then she retrieved a bundle of cut plants from her bag and spread them on her lap. She selected the ones she needed and tore the leaves, then pressed them into the wound. The soldier sucked his breath through clenched teeth. “You seem to be the only man alive here and with barely any injuries, at that.”

  “Luck has nothing to do with it,” he said. “It’s all about skill. And I am quite skilled.”

  She looked up at his face and her herbs seemed to be already working because he managed a confident grin, causing a patch of dried mud to crack around his eye. With a spare piece of cloth soaked with water, she began cleaning his face, trying to ignore how his eyes never left hers. Each swipe of the cloth revealed more of his true appearance and by the time she reached his full lips and square chin, her hand trembled and heat crept into her face. Hiding under the grime was the most handsome man she’d ever seen.

  Her eyes dropped, skimming over his strong, warrior’s build and she blushed even harder. She was used to looking at soldiers’ bodies, assessing them for injuries, touching and prodding them. But now, for the first time, she saw more than a subject to heal. She saw someone who made her heart race and her stomach do odd little flips. And now she felt shy looking at him at all.

  “Your hair,” he said, lifting his hand. She flinched and her fingers flew to the braids on the sides of her head. His hand fell. “It’s just … I’ve never seen such a beautiful color. Like a chestnut.”

  She swallowed, her throat suddenly dry. Then she hurriedly began gathering her supplies, unable to remain under his gaze any longer. What’s happening to me?

  “I’d better be going,” she mumbled.

  “Please, don’t,” Niko said, but then he sighed. “Forgive me. You probably have a husband to return to.”

  She didn’t look up at him. She couldn’t stand for her stomach to flip anymore, an absurd reaction she didn’t understand. And she couldn’t deny his words, although she didn’t have a husband. She’d always admired the love her father and mother had shared, but never thought it possible for herself. According to her brother, most girls were married off by their fathers to men they’d never met. Father had no reason or desire to do that to her, though. He believed she would find the right man for herself when the time was right, just as Mother had found him. But she’d never even met a man properly—only those injured and dying on the battlefield, not exactly the appropriate time and place for romantic thoughts. So how could she possibly be having them now?

  Niko’s assumption made sense, though. She appeared to be the age of a young wife who should be bearing children, but she was actually much, much older. Her explanation for not being married yet would make no sense to this stranger.

  “Those herbs will heal the cut,” she said, evading his comment. “You’ll be fine by morning.”

  He sat up all the way and she sucked in a breath. Maybe not. A bloodstain blossomed down the side of his torn tunic. He’d been lying on it, so she hadn’t seen it before.

  “You’re bleeding,” she said.

  He looked down and frowned. “I don’t feel anything.”

  He gripped his chiton at the neck and tore it in half, letting the pieces drape over the belt at his waist. She inhaled sharply again. Not at the injury—a superficial scratch—but at his muscular chest and torso. Trying to ignore the pounding of her heart and the quivering in her belly, she cleaned the wound and smeared an herbal paste over it, his eyes on her again the entire time. A pleasant tingling ran through her fingertips and up her arm when she touched him, and when he sighed, not a sound of pain but of pleasure, she wondered if he felt it, too. By the time she finished, her hand trembled once again. Overwhelmed with these inexplicable feelings—why him?—she sprang to her feet to leave.

  The sound of movement froze her in place. The sun had nearly set and she could barely see the shadows of two men as they approached the far side of the battlefield.

  “Could be the Romans,” Niko whispered. He staggered to his feet and, in no condition to fight again, limped several paces into the dark woods, gesturing at Cassandra to follow.

  They peered around a boulder and watched the men, who apparently hadn’t noticed them, as they slowly picked their way through the dead bodies, just as Cassandra had done. Not healers looking for signs of life, though, nor Roman soldiers. They must have been savages here to pillage the bodies.

  They stopped at the man with the dark hair and beard who had barely been breathing. They crouched next to him and exchanged words too low for her to hear. Then one bent closer, held his hand over the dying man’s mouth and seemed to whisper into his ear. The soldier’s arms flailed and his body bucked, as if in pain.

  Cassandra gasped. Niko clamped his
hand over her mouth.

  “They’re giving him a quicker death,” he whispered in her ear. “Putting him out of his misery.”

  Before long, the soldier fell limp against the other man, who wiped the inside of his forearm across his mouth, then held it to the dead man’s lips. Cassandra peered at Niko, whose brows knitted together, looking just as perplexed as she felt. After several moments, the two men stood and found the only other person who’d shown any signs of life—the youth with the twisted body. This time the second man stooped down and pressed his mouth against the boy’s ear. Or was it his throat? Cassandra couldn’t discern in the darkness. The youth reacted the same way as the first. They repeated their unusual ritual, then the two men left the way they’d come, leaving any loot behind.

  “I’ve never seen—” Cassandra started to say, but couldn’t put words to what they’d just witnessed. It was too strange.

  “Perhaps it’s a local tradition to send the dead down the River Styx,” Niko said. “I’ve never seen it before. But, I’ve never been left at the field for dead, either.”

  She looked up at him. “How could your comrades leave you anyway? They couldn’t have thought you dead.”

  He shrugged. “I think I was unconscious, so perhaps they thought I was. I remember a blow to my head … and then you standing next to me. But my men will be back, very soon I’m sure. I’ll be fine until then. As much as I’d rather you not, you should probably go home, before darkness falls completely.”

  Cassandra pursed her lips together, internally debating whether to leave him or not, then finally nodded. After giving Niko her last skins of water and receiving more assurances from him that he’d be fine, she hurried through the woods and across the fields in the twilight. She thought Father would be worried, but he was already asleep by the time she walked through the door of their hut. They had lived like nomads her entire life, always in the wilderness, sometimes in caves, sometimes in huts built by Father. He was a strong, vibrant man and usually didn’t turn in so early. He must have had a long day. He’s just tired. She refused to think it could be anything else.

  She tended the fire to keep them warm for the night and ate the last of the morning’s bread with the berries she’d collected before she’d come upon the battlefield. She hoped Jordan, her brother, would return with supplies soon—they had enough grain and oil for only another day or two. She lay down in her bed of furs and stared at the fire without seeing it. Niko’s face filled her vision.

  She worried about him in the woods by himself, injured. She told herself it was a minor injury and he was a soldier, that he could take care of himself. His men will find him. He’s fine. Stop thinking about him. She finally dozed off but slept fitfully. Dreams of wild animals and Roman soldiers attacking Niko haunted her sleep. She awoke before dawn and knew, before she even opened her eyes, she would go back to check on him.

  Father still snored and she took advantage of the opportunity to sneak out and back to the battlefield. She followed the light of the full moon that still hung high in the sky, skirting the woods this time. The darkness within them frightened her. Animals would be on the hunt and from the sounds, not all were small creatures. The cracks of large branches breaking made her believe something in there was big enough to eat her. But she refused to turn back. Her concern for Niko outweighed her fear.

  When she approached the tree she’d left him under, though, her heart sank. He was nowhere around. She took a few timid steps farther into the woods, peering into the darker areas where he might have found better shelter, but no sign of him existed at all. Not even blood or any indication of a struggle.

  She blew out an exasperated breath. After hours of nightmares and little sleep, she’d worried for nothing. His comrades must have returned and taken him back to their camp. Relief that he was safe finally washed through her, followed by a twinge of disappointment. She’d been hoping, more than she’d realized, she’d see him again.

  She looked out at the battlefield, expecting to find fewer bodies. If they’d come for Niko, surely they’d taken their dead, as well. But the shadows of the bodies in the pre-dawn darkness seemed to show the same scene she’d left last evening. Then they’ll be returning soon. Which meant she needed to leave.

  As she turned, someone in the middle of the battlefield suddenly sat up. A surprised gasp escaped her throat and the man turned his head toward her, the moon’s light illuminating his face. Her eyes widened. She recognized him: the dark bearded man the other two had mercifully killed.

  As he stood up, so did another. The boy. The one whose legs and back had been so twisted and broken, he couldn’t possibly be alive. But there he stood.

  Both soldiers sniffed the air in her direction and let out a feral growl. Then they started toward her, their legs and bodies jerking clumsily, as if re-learning how to walk.

  Cassandra’s throat worked hard to swallow the lump in it. “Can I … can I help you?”

  They continued lurching toward her. As they came closer and she could see their faces more clearly, her heart raced even harder. Instead of brown or green or any normal eye color, theirs were red. And glowing.

  “Thirsty,” the boy said, his voice too old and broken for such a young face.

  “Need … blood,” the man croaked. His hand clutched at his throat while the other reached out, as if to grasp her shoulder though they were still several paces away.

  Hunger flared in both of their eyes and their upper lips lifted, revealing teeth that looked more like an animal’s than a human’s.

  Cassandra cried out. Then she spun around and ran.

  Their halting footsteps pounded behind her. She imagined feeling their ragged breaths on her neck, though she had too much of a lead to truly feel it. But her peplos slowed her down, the ankle-length tunic twisting around her legs. She glanced over her shoulder once. The soldiers were gaining on her, their awkwardness seeming to fall away with each step they took.

  Not caring how inappropriate it was, she hitched the bottom of her peplos to her thighs, freeing her legs. She dug her feet into the ground and sprang forward as hard as she could. She knew she ran faster than most people—speed was one of her family’s unusual abilities—but she couldn’t outrun these … these undead men.

  A hand brushed against her shoulder and she screamed. She cut sharply to her right and tore through the woods, forgetting her earlier fear of the beasts that roamed within. She had worse worries now. She thought. Something crashed through the trees to her right. She glanced over to see yellow eyes and a mouth of sharp teeth bounding through the woods next to her, keeping her pace. It suddenly veered left, cutting her off.

  She skidded to a halt, dirt and leaves spraying in the air. A wolf taller than her stood in her path, its hackles raised and its lips pulled back from teeth longer than her index finger. Its yellow eyes burned into her with a wild hunger and a line of drool hung from its fang. The two men … creatures … whatever they were … slowed their steps behind her, whether because they feared the wolf or thought they had her trapped, she didn’t know.

  The animal growled. The men hissed. Cassandra spun to her left and took off running again. She broke through the edge of the woods into a clearing near home, jaws snapping right behind her. The sky had lightened considerably with the coming dawn but, looking over her shoulder at the three beasts chasing her, she didn’t see the looming figure in front of her. She grunted with the collision, the body hard and unmoving as she slammed into it.

  Chapter 2

  “Cassandra?” Jordan barked, grabbing his sister by the shoulders just as she plowed into him. He’d dropped everything when he heard the crashing through the woods, but hadn’t expected his sister to be the one making all the noise. Then two men and an unusually large wolf broke through the tree line, all of their eyes full of hunger and lust. Jordan pushed Cassandra behind him and drew out his sword.

  The wolf halted in its tracks. Its yellow eyes locked with Jordan’s and a strange feeling the wolf
somehow knew him brushed the back of his mind. With a thunderous growl, the beast suddenly turned and lunged at the men, hitting one and knocking him to the ground. The other soldier grabbed the wolf’s neck and threw it to the side. Jordan’s brow lifted at the display of inhuman strength. Impressive. The wolf snarled again and attacked the second man. He raised his arm in defense and the animal’s snout latched on. The three became a snarling, growling and hissing ball of swinging arms and snapping jaws.

  Jordan grabbed Cassandra’s upper arm and lifted her to her feet. As they slowly backed away, the sun edged above the horizon, flooding the clearing with its brightness, and the fight ceased immediately. All three of the combatants looked to the sky. The men cringed and their hands flew up to shield their red eyes, while the wolf whimpered and ran away. The men’s bodies sagged, as if suddenly and completely exhausted. They exchanged a puzzled glance before loping off into the darker woods. Jordan noticed how neither of them had a single scratch or any blood from the wolf’s teeth or claws.

  “Let’s go,” he whispered, still staring after the strange men. He wanted to chase after them—to find out who or what they were—but Cassandra still trembled at his side. “Come on.”

  She ran as though she were still being chased. Jordan followed on her heels, resisting the urge to pass her, staying behind just in case the others came back. They flew into the hut and slammed the door behind them.

  “Father!” Cassandra gasped between pants as she braced the door with a stripped tree limb. “Father, you’ll never believe—”