“Tony has agreed to give his blood to open the portals,” Lisa told Cush and Elora as they walked into the motel room.
“Can I be the one to cut him?” Elora asked as she took a seat on the edge of one of the beds.
“Feeling bloodthirsty, Sis?” Oakley asked her as he looked between Elora and Cush.
She shot him a snarky grin but didn’t dignify him with an answer.
“I’d prefer to cut myself, but thanks for the offer,” Tony told her with a gentlemanly manner that, had her heart not belonged to another, might have her swooning after him.
She nodded and smiled at him, more out of habit than a desire to be flirty. She felt a large warm hand on her neck and then a familiar presence in her mind.
“Do I have to tell you that you are only allowed to act out your violent tendencies towards me?”
She nearly rolled her eyes but caught herself and cleared her throat instead. “So you would let me cut you?”
She felt his chuckle more than heard it and it made her shiver.
“As deep and as often as you want.”
Elora coughed as his words entered her mind and she nearly fell off the bed. If not for his hand on her neck, she would have been on the floor. She turned to look up at him and the wicked grin on his face was enough to tell her that his comment had been anything but innocent.
“I’ve created a monster,” she told him.
He shrugged and his face was back to its blank, emotionless self.
“Okay, so back to the human cutting himself,” Rin suddenly interjected as everyone stared at the interaction between Elora and Cush.
Elora looked at him with a wry smile.
“Is there a special place that this needs to be done?” Oakley asked.
Cush shook his head. “There was nothing in the book that said it had to be at a specific location. I imagine we just need to have something that works as a portal, a mirror or something that holds a reflection.”
“So we can just do it here in the motel room?” Lisa asked.
“Don’t see why not,” Cush answered. He pulled out a dagger from one of his many hiding places and Elora found herself fighting back a grin. Her man was hot; that’s just all there was to it.
Tony took the dagger from the warrior and walked over to where the mirror hung. “Is there anything special that I need to say?”
Cush thought back to the book and what he had read—what he had purposefully failed to mention to the others. There was something that had to be said. But if Tony uttered those words, he would be bound in the portal—forever stuck between realms.
“Okay man I know that face. That’s the same face my father had when he told me about the dark elves and how my family was bound to serve them for all eternity. What is it, Warrior?” Tony asked finally.
“There are words you must speak, but if you speak them you will be bound between realms.”
“What?” Elora blurted out. “You didn’t tell us that part before!”
“Would it have changed whether we had gone after Tony?” he asked.
Elora considered him and then shook her head. “No,” she looked over at Tony. “I’m sorry, but one life isn’t more important than the human race.” Really what she wanted to say was that one life wasn’t worth never seeing her best friend again, never knowing if she was safe and if Lorsan was gone, but she figured that sounded much more selfish.
“I agree,” Tony told her and then looked back to Cush. “Tell me what I must say.”
“It is the language of my people so just repeat what I say as you run the knife across your skin and let your blood drip on the mirror.” Cush didn’t know what would happen to those so close to the one opening the portals so he pulled on his magic and put a shield up to make sure that none of them were sucked in with Tony when the portals finally opened. He began reciting the words he had memorized from the book and Tony’s voice followed as he brought the dagger down on his forearm, slicing effortlessly into his flesh. The blood welled up immediately and it was deep enough that it began to flow freely. Tony pressed it to the mirror as he continued to repeat what Cush was saying.
Elora’s hair began to blow around her and the lights in the room began to flicker as Tony’s blood ran down the mirror. Then, just as quickly as the air had come, it was gone. And Tony was still standing there.
“I don’t get it,” she spoke up as everyone but Cush stared slack-jawed at the human. Cush was frowning. “Did it work?”
Cush walked over to the mirror and pulled Tony’s arm away. He slowly put his hand to the mirror and pushed. The group collectively gasped as his arm went right through it. Elora wanted to grab onto him for some reason. She had this horrible feeling that something was going to latch onto him from the other side and not let go. And as if her nightmares had been heard by someone, Cush suddenly jerked his arm back. She could tell he had been pulling against something.
“Cush!” She grabbed him and pulled him back, turning him to face her. “What happened?” She refrained, somehow, from patting him down everywhere to reassure herself that he was in one piece. She really was becoming such a girl.
“The portals have already been opened. But they’re being watched,” he told her solemnly.
“What does that mean?” Oakley asked.
“It means that if we go through the portal we aren’t going to be safe. I just put my arm through and someone grabbed it,” Cush explained. “It’s extremely difficult to monitor the portals, but it can be done with someone who has a lot of power.”
Elora looked at Cush and then at Rin because the two warriors were staring at each other and she could see the same frustration mirrored there. Here were two men accustomed to taking action, to protecting those in their care, and they didn’t have a clue how to help themselves.
“Surely they can’t be monitoring every portal everywhere,” Elora pointed out.
“I don’t really want to take a chance to find out,” Cush told her meaningfully.
“So what do we do now?” Elora asked, frustration evident in the deep tone of her voice. “I mean Tony’s over there bleeding to death, we’re in a booty call motel, our vehicle’s been blown to hell, the dark elves know we’re around somewhere because we just burned their little farming operation to the ground, and we can’t even go have fun in Vegas because the creepy elf Dr. Evil is there. It seems to me like we just don’t have a lot of options here.”