Cloak and Dagger - Val and Timmeron (Book 1): Delta Underground Operatives by Scott Walker

Author:Scott Walker [Walker, Scott]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Firefly Tales LLC
Published: 2023-02-23T16:00:00+00:00

I opened my eyes. I was in Dominique’s kitchen. Levi’s ghostly face looked down at me in relief.

“And she’s back.”

Barely.

Dominique was still in her chair, though she was now tied up with some kind of green rope. T was leaning down, his face inches from Dominique’s.

“What did you do to her?” he demanded.

Wait.

That’s not rope. It’s vines.

And not just any old vines.

Vinnie!

A strand had wrapped around Dominique’s neck, and her eyes were half closed.

“T! It’s okay, I’m back!”

The elf turned to me, a mixture of fear and anger and relief on his face. “Silver and stone. I thought you were gone.”

I made a quick inventory of my body. Head, two arms, torso, legs. All good there. My palm and thigh ached but were no longer bleeding. In fact, there were no signs of any injuries. Just a persistent ache.

“I’m good.”

“I’m very glad to hear that,” the elf replied. “Because now I won’t mind completing this assignment.”

Vinnie’s loop around Dominique’s neck tightened until her face went red. She slapped at the vines, clearly on the verge of unconsciousness.

“T, stop it! I didn’t get all of her memories!”

The elf frowned for a moment before he stretched back into a standing position. Vinnie uncoiled from Dominique’s neck, but the plant kept her tied down to her chair. Dominique inhaled loudly, her head slumped forward.

“I don’t care,” he said. “You’re not going back in there.”

Levi drifted into view. “I’m afraid I must side with Timmeron. Going back would be suicide.”

Dominique spoke with a labored, harsh breath. “Tell…her…why.”

“That’s no longer Dominique,” Levi said.

The woman laughed, but it quickly turned into a coughing fit. “And it never will be again.”

What I witnessed next will haunt me for the rest of my life.

Dominique’s body decayed, decomposed, and mummified in a matter of seconds. A stench clouded the room.

I tasted vomit in the back of my throat, and a part of me realized Dominique’s soul was gone. She’d offered to help us, and all she wanted in return was for us to destroy her soul. As if she knew someone would come for it.

But who? And why?

I turned away from the gruesome sight.

“Vinnie!”

T’s voice sent a flutter of worry through my chest. Whatever had happened to Dominique’s body had affected the poor plant, too. Vinnie had turned a sickly brown.

T reached for one of the remaining green strands on the floor and snapped it off. He held the slender piece in his hands. I knelt beside him. The small vine continued to wither in front of our eyes.

Before I could stop him, T started doing his wood elf thing. Vinnie’s color went from a pale green to a vibrant hunter green, and the strand exploded with leaves.

“Easy, T,” I said as I placed a hand on his shoulder. Vinnie started growing, and his color became brighter and deeper. “T, that’s enough.”

I already knew without looking into his eyes that the elf was tapping his life force to save Vinnie. The plant got bigger. The pencil-thin strand was now as thick as my arm.

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