Portal (Nina Decker) Read Online Free

fused together, and his arms stiffened, bent like aging tree branches.  His face and head were swallowed up by what looked like living, breathing foliage.  His feet, now roots, broke through the concrete floor and fixed into the earth. It all took maybe five minutes.  And in the end, Ralph Donnelly turned into a tree.
    “Jesus Christ.”  One of Severin’s lackeys’s murmured.  While the other turned, ran to a corner and vomited.
    I had to fight the urge to retch.  It was hard to look upon the grotesque transformation but I figured I owed it to the man to do just that.  I reached out to touch him but stopped just inches away.  I knew my hesitation came from guilt.  Guilt that I had somehow done thing to him. That I had tortured and killed him. Because that was exactly what had transpired.
    Obviously, Severin didn’t share my guilt as he eagerly ran his hands over the grayish trunk of the tree that had been a man named Ralph Donnelly.  “Amazing,” he murmured as he circled the tree.
    “Amazing? What the fuck Severin?  A man just solidified and turned into a tree right in front of us.”
    “I realize that Nina, I’m not blind.”
    “How can you seem so…so pleased?”
    “I’m not full of pleasure, love.  I’m full of awe.  This kind of power astounds me. I knew the fae to possess powerful ruthless magic but this…this is on a whole new level.” Then he laughed and it made me want to rip his face off.  He turned and looked at me.  “I wonder if you could do something like this.  If you possessed the right magic.”
    That took me back.  “Jesus, why would I even want to? This is sick and twisted.”
    “Sick and twisted it may be, but it did give us our portal.”
    “What?  I don’t think I heard you right?”
    “Our portal.”  He tapped the tree.
    I stared at him, certain he was putting me on.
    “He said he was the way.”
    “That doesn’t mean…”
    “Nina, you know the fae don’t do anything without reason.  Friend or foe didn’t send this man to you for nothing.”
    I turned away from him and paced the room.  I didn’t want to accept that he was right.  The thought of it made my gut roil again.  “This isn’t right.  You shouldn’t have taken him out of the hospital.”
    “No one could’ve helped him.  You know that.”  He came to me and stroked my arm.  “He would’ve turned into a tree in the hospital and we wouldn’t have access to him. He’d forever be a science experiment with people dissecting him and examining his parts.  Here, at least, he can serve a purpose.”
    “I didn’t realize you were so cold.”
    He dropped his hand and moved away.  “I’m sorry you think of me that way.”
    Sighing, I rubbed a hand over my face.  I was tired, hungry and still in a state of shock ta what I’d just witnessed.  I hadn’t meant to take it out on Severin.  The urge to strike just consumed me.  It was either that or implode.
    “I’m sorry.  I’m just…”
    He gave me a small smile, then grabbed my arm and pulled me to him.  He opened his arms and enveloped me.  I sighed into his chest, grateful for the solid weight of him.  For his strength.  He kissed me on the top of the head.  “You don’t need to apologize, love.”
    I hugged him tighter, drawing him into me, inhaling his now familiar smell.  He had a way of making me clam. This was likely one of the many reasons he was alpha of his pack.  Although I wasn’t a werewolf, I wasn’t human either. So, maybe somewhere don our long line of ancestors we converged into one being.  Which was why his beast could calm whatever humanity lay deep inside me.
    After one final squeeze, I pulled back and turned to look at the Ralph Donnelly tree.  My stomach still churned at the thought of what he had to do next.  “So, how do we get in there?  Saw or ax?”
     
     
    Chapter 3
    Six hours later, Severin and I were ready to go through the portal to Nightfall.  Leaving a few of his pack members to