Chapter 38
With a loud gasp, Bo woke up from the darkness. She found herself inside a car. It looked old, and had not been properly cleaned for a while. Dead bugs stuck on the wind shield, and the side windows were all open.
She immediately turned around and looked for Tamsin. The Valkyrie was sitting on the driver's seat, with her hands on the steering wheel. Bo saw her eyelashes flutter, before she opened her eyes. The Valkyrie gasped hard, reaching for her dagger. She gripped the hilt tight, and turned to face Bo.
" Are we in?" Bo asked her, pulling out her dagger too.
Tamsin nodded. She looked around, and frowned when she saw all the fast food wrappers and empty drink bottles on the back seat. She pulled her backpack from the back and checked the contents inside, making sure everything she packed was there.
" How did your backpack get here?"
" We are allowed to bring one pack with us. Once you've packed your equipment, you put the amulet pebble you got during the trial selection with your stuff, and it will be projected to the trial grounds with you." Tamsin said. She then checked the glove box of the car, and found some napkins, an old flashlight, a map, and a note.
" What does it say?" Bo asked her.
" Tomorrow afternoon, 2pm, the place marked on map." Tamsin read the note out loud to Bo, as she checked the marked spot on the map. It was about five or six hours drive. " We should have plenty of time." She said.
" So we just go to the place the note tells us to go to?" Bo asked.
" Well, that's the only clue so far. Let's look around and make sure everything is ok first." Tamsin said. She opened the door and got off the car. Bo followed her.
It was hot outside, feeling like the middle of summer. They were on a dirt road, with no one around. Farm lands and orchards were scattered all over the place. A few cows were resting under the shades of the trees far away from them. They looked at the two curiously, with their ears twitching. Bo remembered that when they were at the trial selection ritual, all she saw was parched lands, dried grass and dead trees, but right now everything was at least still alive.
" So...where are we, exactly?" Bo asked, " Are we still...on earth?"
" Think of it as...some virtual space. It's hard to explain, but everything happening here, or will happen here, or happened here, is real, in this world." Tamsin said, " So for example, if we speed, and if there is a cop around to catch us, we'll get a ticket."
" Good example..." Bo said. She paused for a while, because she felt a little different. She looked at her hands, then she turned around for a few times. " So we are...humans now?"
" Well, we are still stronger and faster than them, but we don't have our abilities." Tamsin said, " Why? You feel different?"
Bo closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She realized that the hunger which had followed her for her entire life was gone, as if it had never been there. She laid a hand on Tamsin's arm, trying to push some charms into the blonde, but it was like she was drawing energy from an empty pool. Nothing was coming out.
Tamsin looked at her, with a smile forming on her face, as if she found what Bo was doing funny.
Bo tilted her head. She stared at the blonde. Her blue eyes looked almost transparent under the bright sunlight. With the hint of smile on her face right now, she looked so peaceful and amiable. A stream of warmth passed through her body, into her heart. Bo couldn't tell what it was, because for the first time in her entire life, she was staring at someone she loved without the presence of her hunger. Someone she loved, now she could finally confirm, that she was in loved with the Valkyrie, and that was not because of her succubus nature, or anything else. She was in love with her, and that was all.
Bo pulled the other woman closer for a kiss. A joyful and light feeling exploded in her heart when their lips touched. All she could feel was pure affection, and the sweet taste of the Valkyrie's lips. She kissed her hard, pulling her closer by grabbing her waist.
" Alright, enough, we are not here to make out..." Tamsin pushed Bo back a little to break the kiss. She thought once they both lost their abilities, making out with Bo would be different, because the succubus would not be a sex demon while they were in the trial. She always convinced herself that she had fallen for Bo because of her succubus charms. She thought when they both lost their abilities, her affection for the brunette would fade away, or vanish, or at least become less. But she was wrong, everything felt even more real and stronger right now, and sweeter. She got turned on by the kiss more than ever, and that scared her a little.
Bo stared at Tamsin. She wanted to say something, but she didn't. She just stayed quiet for a while.
" Well, let's get going. We need to find a gas station, and probably get some food." Tamsin said to Bo as she opened the door.
" Wait, so we still need to pay for shit here?" Bo asked.
Tamsin rolled her eyes at Bo, " Yes, this is the Rebirth Trial Grounds, not a Communist farm."
" Do they take...credit cards?"
" I really should have given you the Valkyrie rebirth trial 101 lecture last night, instead of..." Tamsin said, biting her lip. " If this place is set as somewhere that takes credit cards, yes. If it isn't, then no."
" Ok. What if we had been dropped in some freaking sixteenth century hell hole, where would we have found money to pay for stuff?"
" I normally pack some universal currency, like gold, silver coins and stuff." Tamsin opened the backpack and showed Bo a little pouch of coins. " But if they didn't take these for currency, we'd have to figure something else out."
" Damn, this feels like one of those video games..."
" Except that you don't really die in video games." Tamsin said, " Let's go, succulet."
An hour later, they stopped at a gas station on the side of the road. It looked old. A hand written sign was leaning against one of the pumps, claiming ice and cold drinks were sold inside.
" Wow, two dollars per gallon. Can we stay here?" Bo said, reading the price on the screen of the pumps. Then she turned to Tamsin and continued, " You know, we can open a private investigation business here, or something..."
Tamsin rolled her eyes at Bo. " If we get out of here alive, I am so gonna tell your pet that you tried to ditch her over the two dollar a gallon gas price."
" Oh, so you are totally not against opening a private investigation business with me here, and you are just worried that Kenzi will be left alone? Do you think we can bring Kenzi here?" Bo teased Tamsin, with a smile on her face.
Tamsin sighed. " Why don't you just go get some drinks and food for us, while I gas up the car? And then you can do some day dreaming."
" Ok." Bo nodded. She went into the store. The door bell rang, and the owner came out from the back. He stared at Bo, with an indifferent look on his face. Bo frowned. She had not seen such look on a man's face for a long time, especially when he was staring at her. Then she realized that her succubus charms were gone now. She shook her head and smiled.
Bo got out with some drinks and road trip food. She saw that the blonde was cleaning out the trash in the car. The blonde pulled her hair back and made a messy bun on the back of her head, before she started to clean the wind shield.
A weird feeling filled Bo. She barely felt like they were in a strange place, with strange people, with a trial to complete. It just felt like this was an ordinary hot summer day, and they were on a road trip to somewhere. It was just Tamsin and her, and the wind seemed still right now. She just stood a few feet away from the blonde, watching her.
" What are you looking at?" Tamsin frowned.
" Nothing. Now I think I'm sure of it." Bo said.
" Huh?" Tamsin frowned again, looking at Bo. She wanted to ask her what she was sure of, but she thought that could wait, and they did have bigger fish to fry right now, so she said, " Put the case of water in the trunk, will you?"
" Oh, yeah, sure." Bo said. She almost forgot that she was holding a lot of things in her hands. She put them all on the ground, and tried to open the trunk, but she couldn't. She grabbed the edge firmly and shook it, but it wouldn't open at all." I think this damn thing is either too rusty to open, or just broken." She said.
Tamsin sighed. She took out her tool kit and forced the latch to open. Once she opened the trunk, both of them were shocked. They saw Two unconscious teenagers stuffed in the trunk of the car, one male, one female. Both of them were young, about 16 years old. Their clothes were dirty, and there were a few bruises on the girl's cheek and elbows. One of her knees was injured lightly, and it looked like it had just stopped bleeding. Both of them had their hands tied up behind their backs, and feet tied up together.
" Shit!" Tamsin cursed, " What a fucking surprise!" She quickly checked their pulses, and sighed with a relief. " They're alive." She said to Bo.
" We need to get them out of there." Bo said. She dragged them both out with Tamsin's help, and pulled them to rest under the shades of some trees beside the gas station. Tamsin sprayed some icy cold water on both of their faces, trying to wake them up. Bo tapped their faces, but they seemed to be in deep sleep.
" Shit. They might be doped or something." Tamsin said, frowning. She was trying to figure out something to do here, when she saw the boy's eyelashes flutter. She immediately leaned forward, grabbing his shoulders and shaking him. " Hey, hey, wake up. Wake up."
The boy opened his eyes. He looked exhausted, and parched. His face was all red, and he was breathing heavily. " Water..." He mumbled," Water..."
Bo handed him a bottle of water. The boy grabbed it and downed it. Water spilled on his clothes and dripped from his chin. He drank like he had never had water before.
When he had finally quenched his thirst and caught his breath, he sat up and pressed his back against the tree. " Thanks." He said.
" Are you ok?" Bo asked him, looking into his eyes. Although his eyes couldn't fully focus on Bo's face, he still nodded.
" So, what the hell is going on here?" Tamsin asked him, crossing her arms in front of her chest, " Are we supposed to call someone, asking for ransom or something?"
The boy shook his head. He seemed surprised. For a moment they thought he was going to laugh at what Tamsin just said, but he didn't. He paused for a moment and said," No, no ransom. We are...the tributes."
" Huh?" Bo asked.
" Did you just say tributes?" Tamsin said.
The boy nodded. He asked for another bottle of water before he started to talk again. " We are the tributes...for something that is causing the drought here."
" What do you mean by something? And I don't see signs of a drought here." Tamsin said. She looked around, as if she was trying to persuade herself.
" You guys are not local, aren't you?" The boy asked, looking at them.
" No, we're not, so you better explain every detail to us right now, before we stuff you back into the trunk."
" That's what I figured." The boy said, " The locals are too cowardly to do the courier job, and that's why we were in your car. You are to deliver us to that...thing."
" So what exactly is this thing?" Bo asked.
" No one knows. Every several years, we have this huge drought. The only way to resolve it is to provide tributes to the thing that causes it." He said, " My friends told me that it is a monster or something."
" Oh my God, this is the fucking twenty first century already, and here people are still sacrificing children up to monsters to avoid a drought?!" Tamsin exclaimed.
" It's how it works here." The boy said. He paused for a second and then continued, " My name is Jacob, and that-" he pointed at the girl, "-is Emma."
" Very nice to meet you." Bo smiled to him, " Would you like another bottle of water? And, give us a few minutes?"
Jacob nodded. He grabbed another water and started to drink.
Bo pulled Tamsin to the side, and asked her, " So what do we do now? We can't send them to this...whatever the fuck it is...right?"
" I know. We probably need to kill this damn monster." Tamsin said, " We need to figure out what it is first. God, I wish Trick was here..."
" Yeah, but we need to get those two kids to a safe place first."
Tamsin sighed. She looked around with her eyes narrowed. " I guess we could put them in a motel or something." She paused for a second or two, and cursed in a low voice, " Fuck! This is so not what I pictured. Maybe that's why no one has ever come out alive from this particular trial, 'cause Valkyries don't know shit about babysitting."
" Let's just put them in a motel, and ask the motel owner or whoever there to watch them for a while." Bo said, " Then we'll go kill this monster and get out of here."
" You know damn well this shit isn't going to be that easy to fix." Tamsin said with a serious look on her face, " But I guess right now, it's the only route we can take."
A/N: Thanks for all the support :) And finally Bo and Tamsin are in the trial!
I've seen a couple reviews concerning about me abandoning Trivial Days and By Your Side since I have a new story up. I want to assure everyone that I'm not abandoning either stories. Although, I might update them a little bit slower than before, so please bare with me.