When we entered the needle trees, the branches immediately began reaching for us. Ren pulled me along as we raced through. I seriously didn’t think I could keep going, but somehow I did. I could feel the thorns whipping my back and ripping my shirt.
After several minutes of running, Ren stopped, told me to stand still, and beat the trees all around me with the gada.
He leaned over, panting. ‘Sit down. Rest for a while. I’m going to try to get the Kappa to chase me into the trees. I hope it works on them as well as it did with the monkeys.’
Ren changed into a tiger, left me with the gada and backpack, and then leapt back into the waving branches. I listened carefully and heard the trees moving, trying to snag him as he passed. Then it became deathly quiet. The only sound was my jagged breathing. I sat on the mossy ground as far away from the trees as I could and waited.
I strained my ears to listen but heard nothing, not even birds. Eventually, I lay down and rested my head on my backpack. My sore body and muscles throbbed, and the scratches on my back stung. I must have drifted to sleep because a noise startled me awake. I heard a strange shuffling noise near my head. A sallow grayish-white shape lunged out of the trees toward me, and before I could even get up, it grabbed my arms and jerked me up to a sitting position. It leaned over me and drooled black spittle on my face.
I swung my arms wildly, beating on its chest, but it was more power-ful than I was. Its torso was covered with cuts oozing murky droplets; the trees had torn off pieces of its flesh. Alien eyes blinked several times as it pulled me up closer, bared its teeth, and sunk them into my neck.
It grunted and suckled at my neck, and I kicked my legs hard, trying to escape its clutches. I screamed and thrashed, but my energy quickly waned. After a moment, I couldn’t feel it any longer. It was almost as if it were happening to someone else. I could still hear the monster, but a strange lethargy stole through my frame. My vision fogged up, and my mind drifted until I felt a dreamy peace.
I heard a crash, followed by a very angry roar. Then I saw a warrior angel rise up above me. He was magnificent! I felt a slight tugging on my neck, and then a weight lifted off my body. There was a juicy splat, and the handsome man knelt beside me. Although he seemed to be speaking urgently to me, I couldn’t understand his words. I tried to respond, but my tongue wouldn’t work.
Gently, he brushed the hair away from my face and touched my neck with cool fingers. His dreamy eyes filled with tears, and a sparkling diamond drop fell to my lips. I tasted the salty tear and closed my eyes. When I opened them, he smiled. The warmth of that smile enveloped me and wrapped me in a blanket of soothing tenderness. The warrior carefully lifted me in his arms, and I slept.
When I regained consciousness, it was dark, and I was lying in front of a green-and-orange tinged fire. Ren sat nearby staring into it, looking broken, exhausted, and forlorn. He must have heard me move because he came directly to me and lifted my head to give me water. My throat suddenly burned as if I had swallowed the campfire. The heat moved deeper into my body until it exploded in my core. I was on fire from the inside out, and I whimpered from the terrible pain.
Ren set my head down gently and picked up my hand to stroke my fingers.
‘I’m so sorry. I should never have left you alone. This should have happened to me, not to you. You don’t deserve this.’
He stroked my cheek. ‘I don’t know how to fix this. I don’t know what to do. I don’t even know how much blood you lost or if the bite is lethal.’ He kissed my fingers and whispered, ‘I can’t lose you, Kelsey. I won’t.’
The burning in my blood overtook me until pain clouded my vision. I started writhing. The pain was beyond anything I’d ever felt before. Ren bathed my face with a cool wet towel, but nothing could distract me from the fire burning through my veins. It was excruciating! After a moment, I realized that mine was not the only body writhing.
Fanindra freed herself from my arm and coiled next to Ren’s knee. I didn’t blame her for wanting to get away from me. She raised her head and opened her hood. Her mouth gaped open wide, and she struck! She bit me on the neck, sinking her fangs deep into the ripped tissue.
She pumped her own venom in me, drew back, and then bit me again and again and again. I groaned, touched my neck, and then pulled back my hand to see oozing pus. Golden juices that had dribbled out of the fang punctures dotted my hand as well. I watched a golden drop trickle from my finger to meet some of the pus on my palm. It steamed and hissed. Fanindra’s venom coursed through my body. It felt like ice as it shot through my limbs and entered my heart.
I was dying. I knew it. I didn’t blame Fanindra. She was a snake, after all, and she probably just didn’t want me to suffer anymore.
Ren lifted the bottle of water to my lips again, and I swallowed gratefully. Fanindra had turned inanimate and remained coiled at his side. Ren cleaned my wounded neck gently, washing off all the hissing black blood that had dribbled out.
At least the pain was gone. Whatever Fanindra had done numbed me. I became sleepy and knew that I needed to say good-bye. I wanted to tell Ren the truth. I wanted to say that he was the best friend I’d ever had. That I was sorry about the way I had treated him. I wanted to tell him . . . that I loved him. But I couldn’t say anything. My throat was closed up, probably swollen from snake venom. All I could do was look at him as he knelt over me.
That’s okay. Looking at his gorgeous face one last time is enough for me. I’ll die a happy woman.
I was so tired. My eyelids were too heavy to keep open. I closed my eyes and waited for death to come. Ren cleared a space and sat down near me. Pillowing my head on his arm, he pulled me onto his lap and into his arms. I smiled.
Even better. I can’t open my eyes to see him anymore, but I can feel his arms around me. My warrior angel can carry me in his arms up to heaven.
He squeezed me closer to his body and whispered something in my ear that I couldn’t make out. Then darkness overtook me.
Light hit my eyelids, forcing me to crack them open painfully. My throat still burned, and my tongue felt thick and fuzzy.
‘This is too painful for heaven; I must be in hell.’
An annoyingly happy voice admonished, ‘No. You’re not in hell, Kelsey.’
As I tried to move, my sore, cramped muscles protested. ‘I feel like I lost a boxing match.’
‘You did a lot more than that. Here.’
He crouched beside me and helped me to gingerly sit up. He examined my face, my neck, my arms, and then sat behind me to prop up my back against him and held a water bottle to my lips. ‘Drink,’ he commanded. He held the bottle for me and tipped it back slowly, but I couldn’t swallow fast enough, and some of the water dribbled from my slack mouth down my chin, and then dripped down to my chest.
‘Thanks, now I have a wet T-shirt.’
I felt his smile on the back of my neck. ‘Perhaps that was my intention.’
I snorted and lifted a hand to my face. I poked my cheek and arm. The skin tingled and felt a little numb at the same time. ‘It feels like my whole body was shot full of Novocain and I’m just getting the feeling back. Here, hand me the bottle. I think I can lift it myself now.’
Ren let go of the water bottle and snaked both arms around my waist, pulling me back to rest fully against his chest. His cheek grazed mine, and he murmured quietly, ‘How are you feeling?’
‘Alive, I guess, though I sure could use some aspirin.’
He laughed softly and retrieved the pills from the backpack. ‘Here,’ he said, handing me two aspirin. ‘We’re at the entrance to the caves. We still have to go through the caves and the trees, and then climb back up to Hampi.’
‘How long have I been out of commission?’ I asked groggily.
‘Two days.’
‘Two days! What happened? The last thing I remember is Fanindra biting me and me dying.’