We had to run at a full sprint all the way back to the base. When we got back, I was happy to see that Robert and James had made it back. As we walked up, I grabbed Robert around the wrist in greeting.
He reciprocated my greeting, and I asked, “What news, brother? Did everyone make it out safely?”
Robert thought about it for a second. “We had one injury. Desmond is with the healers now, and they tell me he should make a full recovery. From the report that I heard, he was walking by an empty cart when four Berserkers slammed through the cart into him. He was able to kill them all, but not before they seriously wounded him.”
I felt anger build up inside of me, and without thinking, I had started to pull power from the air around me. Sarah laid a hand on my shoulder, and I let the power flow back out of myself. Robert gave me a knowing smile. Although I could tell by his face James wanted to run, to his immense credit, he did not even step back. A true Lycan to the core, he was unwilling to show any weakness. I knew how he must have felt. He was probably only used to feeling the smaller pulls of the Gifted around him. I always forgot how different it must feel to them when I pulled the magic into myself in such large quantities. And I had to remind myself that only time and proof of our actions would be able to heal the chasm of mistrust between our people. Since coming to America, Adam had done everything humanly possible to start repairing that rift.
We left Robert and James and made our way into the main building, heading directly for Adam’s office. His door was open again in anticipation of our arrival. It was strange how he always knew when we were coming. Most of the time, he preferred to have his door closed and to let his assistant screen visitors. Over the last couple of years, whenever we had come, his assistant had not been in the front room and the door was always open to us. We entered the office taking our normal chairs and waited while Adam finished reading what I thought could only be the reports from the warriors that had returned before us.
I must have been fidgeting, because he looked up and snapped, “I would have preferred to finish reading these, but since that is clearly not possible, you might as well tell me what has you all wound up.”
I had been unaware that I had been moving or making noise at all. “Uhh, yeah, sorry about that, sir, I just was trying to think of what I was going to say. I have never seen anything quite like what we have seen tonight.”
He looked at me in disbelief. “Speechless for the first time ever?” Adam and Sarah both gave a little chuckle. “Maybe your better half can tell me what you witnessed then.”
I looked over to Sarah, and she started to fill Adam in on what we had seen at the warehouse. She recounted all of the night’s events in perfect detail. She told him about the entire ritual and what happened after it was finished. Every so often, he would look to me when he thought something might be wrong or not completely believable, and I would just nod my head to him and look back toward Sarah. She had been speaking for about thirty minutes when she finally finished our report.
Adam sat back in his chair, and I heard him mutter, “A Naga. And not only that, but one with three heads.”
Adam turned toward me. “And you say it transformed from this large creature into three separate ones?”
I looked over at Sarah before answering. “Not three separate creatures sir, into three different women.”
“Anything interesting about them, anything that stands out?”
I smiled for a second and caught a punch in the shoulder from Sarah.
Adam started to chuckle. “So they were good looking, I take it?”
I looked back over at my lover and realized it wasn’t the best time to look at her. I caught the death glare. “Ahh, some people might say so. What really stood out for me was that they were all the same height, same build, and same age as far as I could tell. The only difference was their hair color. The bone of each of the serpent’s heads was a different color. As women, it became the color of their hair.”
Adam stood up and went over to his bookshelf. He pulled down a dusty old tome that had obviously not seen much use over the last ten years. “I will call you back here in the morning. Go and get cleaned up and get some rest. This will not be an easy task. I’m not sure if I will find anything on the ritual, but I might just be able to track something down on the Naga. This kind of blood magic and sacrifice can only be used to pull something from hell itself. I want to figure out what it is and how to stop it.”
We didn’t ask any more questions. It was obvious our meeting was over. Adam didn’t acknowledge us as we stood to leave his office. His face was buried deep into the tome. Sarah and I headed out the door and back to our new little bungalow.
When we got back to our apartment, we went into the kitchen before cleaning up. Our metabolisms burn much faster than that of a normal human. Sarah’s is normally about twice as fast, but that can accelerate when she changes. Mine is almost normal except for when I use large amounts of magic; then it increases rather dramatically. Holding that illusion in place for so long had really done a number on me. The staff had made a few meals for us and had them staying warm in the oven in our kitchen.
I started to heat up the sauce on the stove, and Sarah pulled a loaf of garlic bread from the fridge. She opened up the oven to check on our pasta and chicken dish, and slipped the garlic bread inside to crisp. When the sauce was hot enough, I slathered it over the top of the pasta and chicken and separated it into two huge bowls.
With two steaming bowls of pasta and a loaf of garlic bread between us, we started to dig in. I felt better as the food erased the effects that my magic had on my body. I could see Sarah was starting to feel better as well. We ate in silence, ravenously stuffing our faces until we both pushed our chairs back from the table. I was satisfied that my hunger was fully satiated, and I leaned back with a hand on my belly.
“I hope that you did not eat yourself into a coma again,” Sarah said with a playful smile. “I was looking forward to a shower before bed.”
My energy level immediately perked up.
We had a glorious walk-in shower. The shower size was abnormal, but so were the people who used it. The shower was large enough that it could contain Sarah when she was changed. Some of our engineers had been working on new designs for fun, so the number of shower heads it had was also abnormal. It was an open, tiled room about six feet wide and eight feet deep. Three shower heads dropped from the ceiling and two from the left wall and two from right in front of us. It helped to wash away the gore from some of our dirtier missions, but recently we’d started using shower time for something besides washing the dirt away.
I got up and followed Sarah into the bathroom. By the time I made it in, she was already shrugging out of her shirt. I moved up next to her. “Let me help you with that.”
I pulled her shirt up over her head so her arms were held in place inside of the shirt and playfully kissed her neck. She let out a little sigh of pleasure and then used her strength to rip the shirt in half, freeing herself. The next thing I knew, my shirt was ripped away exposing my chest, which she kissed while undoing my belt. I reached behind her and unclasped her bra as my pants fell away. Stepping out of my pants, I reached into the shower and turned on the water to let it heat up. By the time I turned around, Sarah was completely naked. Every time I looked at her, I realized just how lucky I was. Pulling her toward me to share the warmth of the shower, I completely forgot about everything else for the next thirty minutes.
In the morning, I woke feeling fully rested and completely satisfied. With a contented sigh, I rolled over to admire the beauty lying next to me. I loved her from the deepest part of my soul, and I knew no matter what, that nothing could ever change that.
Without opening her eyes Sarah laughed at me. “It is not polite to stare you know.”
I grabbed my pillow and tried to hit her with it, but she had already dodged out of the bed. My mouth fell open as I took in the full view of her body again.
She laughed at me again
and then with a serious tone said, “A gentleman wouldn’t stare.”
I threw my pillow at her and said, “Good thing I am not a gentleman.”
She caught the pillow out of midair and tossed it at me, and while I was lifting my arms up to deflect it, she snuck back under the covers and on top of me. I knew we didn’t have a lot of time before we had to meet Adam, but I was going to make the most of it. After we’d finished making love, it was time for another shower.
This time, I let her go in first and followed after I heard her drying off. Once we had dressed, we picked up our gear and headed out the door to find out what information Adam had dug up on our newest monster.
10
John
When we got to Adam’s office, the door was closed and his assistant was there to greet us. He pointed toward two comfy chairs in the waiting area that I had never noticed before. He walked over to us and started to talk in a hurried tone.
“Adam is in a meeting now, but he will be done shortly. He asked me to apologize for making you wait. Can I get you something to drink?”
I was still feeling a little sleepy after our morning exercise. “I’d love a cup of coffee. Do you want anything, Sarah?”
She smiled at the assistant and said, “Just a glass of water for me.”
The assistant disappeared for a few minutes and came back with our drinks. After we took them off of his tray, he went back to his desk and started reviewing some papers.
The door to Adam’s office opened, and I was surprised to see Robert and James walk out. Sarah and I stood up, and I went over and embraced a smiling Robert. Sarah moved around me to give James a hug. I looked over and shook James’s hand while Sarah switched with me to give Robert a large hug. I could tell they were dying to tell us something from the ear-to-ear grins on their faces, but before they could, Adam called to us from his office. I shook Robert’s hand one more time, and Sarah and I headed into the office.
We took our customary seats across from Adam, and for once, he was not reviewing papers and making us wait for something. “I assume you saw Robert and James on your way in. I do not want to ruin the surprise, but I have to tell you what I just granted them. They are leaving today for Seattle, Washington. I have put them in charge of our Washington field office.”
Adam held up a hand to stop me from speaking. Sarah and I had been working toward heading up an office for some time. As Adam’s best agents, we thought for sure the next opening would be ours. It seemed we had been passed over for Robert and James. As much as I liked the two of them, I was feeling a bit jealous of their promotion. To her credit, Sarah did not even flinch. I knew she must be feeling the same turmoil that I was, but she always handled it much better than I did.
Adam stood up and slowly started pacing behind his desk before he started to speak again. “I know that you were expecting to be the next members of the Ascendancy to be granted a field office for our expansion. Frankly, there is no team that I have under my command that is more deserving or better qualified, but I need you two here until we figure out what is going to happen with the Fallen and the new monster you uncovered. What we face now is going to be more challenging than anything you have faced in the past. If we come out of this alive, and trust me when I say that will be no small feat, then we will finally have the West Coast under our control. We will finally be able to focus on the coming Demon war with all the other Pretenders stepping aside.”
Adam moved back to his desk and sat down again. “I hope you understand when I say I could not have my two greatest warriors sitting in an office directing others when they are needed out in the field. I will be your support here, and you will have access to anything you need. After this is over, I will grant you the position of your choice.”
I looked over at Sarah and smiled. I loved the thought of a challenge, and I was cocky enough to always think we could win. Sarah looked back at me and gave me the slightest nod of her head, and when I turned back to face Adam, I felt the thud of her fist in my shoulder.
“You need to take this seriously, John. We are facing something new. Not only that, but they have the following of the strongest group of Fallen we have ever seen.”
Rubbing my shoulder, I looked at her before looking back at Adam. “You can count on our support in this, Adam. Now why don’t you tell us what we have gotten ourselves into?”
I sat back in my chair still massaging the shoulder Sarah had hit, the pain bringing me into complete focus. That was the thing about Sarah. No matter what, she always knew exactly what I needed to be great, and she never hesitated to do what needed to be done to keep me focused. I stopped rubbing my shoulder and sat back in my chair looking over at Adam, waiting to see just how much trouble I was going to be in with Sarah for agreeing to help.
Adam leaned forward and opened the dusty tome we had seen him remove from the bookshelf last night before we left. He opened it to a marker he had placed in it and looked over at us. “So we know the creature has two forms: that of three beautiful women, and that of a large Naga with three heads. So last night, I did research on the Naga in general and found that it is not normal for them to have multiple heads or to be able to shift forms. The Naga traditionally remain half human, half serpent.”
He looked over at us just to make sure we were following along and paying attention to what he uncovered. “So I started to dig deeper into the Naga’s history to see if there was anything else that I could find. I found a legend in this book that I thought might be exactly what we were looking for. It is a second-hand account of a time when I was not yet in America. Granted, this happened much further east of here, in the swamps in what is known as the South.” He picked up the book and handed it me. I held it out so Sarah could read it at the same time.
The Legend of La’ Habnara
Excerpts from the journal of Thaddeus Williams
New World, Day Three
The five of us are still acclimating to being on dry land after our long voyage across the ocean, but our enthusiasm for our grand adventure has not waned. Having never traveled outside of England, the length of time it took to cross the ocean was something of a shock. I did my best to keep track of the days, and I think our voyage on the Fortune lasted just over two months. The fresh fruit and vegetables had lasted only the first week of the journey. After that, salted beef was our only fare. That took some getting used to. The only blessing we had was a stop toward the middle of our journey where we were able to take on fresh water. Our water had already started to grow foul in the large casks, and we were happy to have clean drinking water again. The conditions for our journey were not what we were used to, but from eavesdropping on the sailors’ conversations, I could tell it was far better than what most people endured.
We joined with the hunters on our third day in the New World. Our party had been sent to follow and document the huntsmen and verify the existence of the Naga, snake people, as the locals called them. Our parents thought it would be a great diversion for us to get out and see more of the world while also contributing something to our houses. We were sent with very clear orders to verify the existence of the Naga, as our word was above reproach.
In England, Naga boots, purses, and belts had become the height of fashion among the wealthy members of the Gifted. The wealthy would pay top dollar for Naga-skin items, but verification of the actual Naga race had been hard to find. It seemed they did not exist in Europe, and a few of the wealthy had become worried it was just snake skin and that they had been taken advantage of. Our parents, the heads of the wealthiest families in England, had come together and hatched a plan. They wanted to send us into the Americas to help calm the whispers that they Naga did not exist. Our families sent word to the huntmaster that we would be coming and what we required for our mission. They had also sent us with a considerable sum of money to barter for the skins already on hand.
We were highly doubtful of the existence of the snake people, having never heard of their existence from any reliable
source. Our parents were hoping that we could see one to verify, but I was also under the impression that even if we did not, we would share a tale about seeing the mysterious creatures anyway. The price of the items sold was too good not to continue, even if the merchandise could not be wholly verified.
New World, Day Five
On the night before we would first accompany the hunters into the wild, they held a feast for us. We ate unsalted meat and fresh vegetables to our hearts content. After being at sea for so long, followed by the 2-day trek to their village, the fresh food and water was a blessing. We decided it would be proper to share something of our own with the hunters due to their kindness and had our steward bring us a case of wine from our personal stockpile aboard the Fortune. We opened the bottles and shared them freely around our fire. My friends and I were in a fine mood. We felt the excitement as the second part of our adventure was beginning.
We continued to share the wine with our hosts for many hours. The men seemed pleased to have been gifted with so much of the alcoholic drink. As we continued to pour our hosts as much wine as they could drink, we started to ask them questions about the Naga. They told us many tales about hunting the snake people and how they celebrated after a successful kill. They also told us that they had hoped to be able to present us with a Naga for our examination when we came ashore, but they had not had a successful hunt in many weeks. They explained that they had been forced to scout further and further into the swamps in hopes of finding and killing more, and that we would be headed out to their furthest outpost. Thinking from a pure business perspective, I suspected that they might be laying the groundwork for upping the prices on the skin that we had come to negotiate for.
As they chatted on, telling their wine-enhanced tales about the challenges of the hunt, all I could think was that it surely couldn’t be that hard to track down something with the mind of a beast. The men told us that their scouts had only seen small hunting parties of the creatures recently. The hunters were too great of a threat to engage in direct combat. They assured us that even though they had not been able to successfully hunt one of the creatures in many weeks that our order could still be filled… for a price.
Ascendancy Origins Trilogy Page 8