“I don’t deny that,” Drogir stated, his wings flapping briefly as if he were stretching. “What I am saying is we need to take this fight to Dajjal’s doorstep, before he strikes again and it is something massive. We have sent him a message no doubt, but he needs to know that we are not to be toyed with.”
Jane sighed.
“What would that entail, Drogir? More loss of Journeymen lives in addition to theirs? More loss of innocent life as we charge in to his bases in highly populated areas?”
“You act as though the world is not on the brink of discovery already,” Drogir replied. “Dajjal is parading out in the public eye, yet governments and organizations – including ours – are too frightened or unwilling to call any of this what it really is. Do you hope to change the reality of a thing simply by renaming it? I think not and think you far better than that, Jane.”
Jane started to answer, but found that she could not right away. Her eyes fell to the tabletop and she sat in silent thought.
Allete was tired; it was showing in bags under her eyes that she rarely had. Timothy was no different, propping up his weary head with an arm while he strummed the tabletop with the fingers of his free hand.
“Well,” Quileth said to break the silence. “It seems we are at an impasse, yet again”
It was then that the doors to the chamber opened and Gage entered with Adrienne at his side.
“Ah, Gage,” Jane said in greeting. “Welcome back!
The others around the table gave their own welcomes before Jane continued.
“So tell me, demons aside, did all go well with your excursion for Joey?”
Gage recounted the mission from his perspective, leaving out the fact he didn’t take his medications and therefore wasn’t down in the church with Marcus and Ty. However, he was able to provide them with sufficient information on the situation and its success. The Grail was in their possession and preparations underway to use it. In turn, Jane and the others filled him in on the Journeymen plight.
Gage found himself agreeing with Drogir, that more forceful action needed to be taken against Dajjal and that they needed to fight against the night at last.
“Well, we are in a bit of a bind,” Quileth said woefully. “A majority action is now required – something we learned and implemented after our frustrating dealings with Fenran. However as simple as that sounds, with six Council members we are now presented with another hurdle. We have a tie.”
“We need a seventh to break this impasse,” Timothy stated tiredly. “Gage, you know you want to be on the Council… why don’t you join us?”
“I ain't gonna lie: I appreciate the offer,” Gage said, bringing an arm up to rub the back of his neck as if he had just insulted someone's grandmother. “But I think ya know that ain’t my thing. I’m more the field kind of guy and will probably be that way even when I’m old and gray.”
He looked to Timothy with a tinge of embarrassment.
“No offense intended.”
“None taken,” Timothy chuckled. “Once you get ‘old and gray’ you find the number of fucks you give far diminished.”
Gage smirked, in full agreement.
The table fell into discordant ramblings, random names thrown around then discarded.
“What about Om?” asked Allete . “He has even been on the Council before.”
“Well that's going to encourage him to stay far away,” said Drogir.
“Hey…” Gage spoke up and all eyes fell eagerly on him like he had changed his mind. “Oh no, don't look at me like that; I haven’t had a change of heart. That said, is it possible for me to add my own name to the mix?”
“I don't see why not,” Quileth answered, seeing if there were any objections.
Gage took a deep breath, unsure what the response was going to be like. “What about Evans?”
Any and all sounds were silenced and Gage had no idea if that was a good thing or not.
“The vampire Evans?” asked Drogir, seeking confirmation that he didn't imagine it.
“The one and the same,” Gage answered him.
“I… well…” Jane started, clearing her throat. “Gage, there has never been a vampire on the Journeyman Council since its inception.”
What she said was indeed fact, but so was Gage’s retort.
“There has never been an alliance with them either,” he replied. “Look, y'all can toss that name out on the pile if ya want, all I'm saying is given the choices and hearing about the actions that have been performed – just ask Nathaniel or Gabriel – he has my endorsement.”
Adrienne of all people could have protested, but something in her heart agreed. She stepped up beside Gage and locked arms with him.
“I agree.”
The group once again raised their voices in discordant discussion. Gage and Adrienne listened intently hearing points both for and against. Something that continued to creep up was the undeniable results, all stemming from Evans’ great leadership qualities. At last the debate ended.
“Where is Evans?” Jane asked.
“I dunno,” Gage answered, “but ya can bet we can find out.”
“That is good to hear,” said Jane. “We have decided to ask him to join us. Once again we ask far too much of you, Gage. Please find him and bring him here.”
With that Jane smiled and Gage was free to go relax. The Council had a few more things to discuss before they could earn that luxury.
As Gage turned away, Adrienne stood firm, her arm still locked with his.
“You've only just come back,” she said in agony. “You should stay for a little while at least before heading back out on the road.”
Gage gave her a big smile, one that she knew had something behind it. “That's what I plan on doing, gorgeous. You'll be the one going to collect our lil’ biter buddy.”
A DIGITAL CLOCK on one of the sleek lab workstations indicated that it was just past ten o’clock. Many of the lab workers had already taken off for the night, except for those dedicated – or insane – few that must have discovered some kind of portal to a place where days were seventy-two hours long and there was no need for sleep.
Henry and Ty were no exception, still in the lab already prepared to burn the midnight oil with a candle that was burning from both ends. In short, it was going to be a very long night, but they were so close to rescuing Joey from his plight that it drove them on. As did the aromatic smell of lemon and peppermint, which Henry had sprayed into the room to invigorate their minds, promote clear thinking, and stimulate concentration.
He could have used a few extra whiffs of lavender to calm his nerves, too.
“Careful now,” Henry said sharply as Ty was placing the Grail into a scanning module. “I finally got everything calibrated to those horrendously rigid specifications you gave me.”
“Henry I know what I'm doing,” Ty snipped, clinking the metal chalice against the glass walls of the unit by accident. “Why are you so nervous anyways?”
“Nervous?” Henry asked. “I'm far from nervous Tyler. I suppose I am jumpy, but it's more due to excitement. This particular thing happens to be the unknown for me and learning new things always gets the gears grinding.”
“That could be taken in so many bad ways, Henry,” Ty replied, not really wanting to visualize Henry grinding anything. “Can you make sure I'm centered?”
Henry moved over to a nearby console and started keying in something on the soft-touch keyboard.
Inside the scanning box, tiny blue lasers beamed down from the top and there was a high pitched whine. Two of them changed hues, shifting to a deep purple. Ty used them as guides, adjusting the Grail slightly until all four were blue once more.
“Thank you Henry,” he said, closing the door to the unit. “Begin scans.”
Henry keyed in a few more things and the beams vanished, replaced by a grid that slowly revolved around the Grail. As they moved, a digital representation appeared on the screens.
“Excellent,” Henry stat
ed, looking at the full render on his own monitor. “Shall I try to activate the runes?”
Ty nodded and there were a couple of flashes within the scanner, the light quite bright. Shielding his eyes Ty looked over to a nearby screen as hidden runes and wards appeared, scattered over the entire surface of the cup.
“Bingo,” Ty said jubilantly. “We have our next set of breadcrumbs.”
Diligently the duo began to compare the symbols against what they knew from lore and from textbooks – the stacks of which were starting to overrun the lab much to the disapproval of Hudson, the librarian.
A lot of them ended up leading to dead ends, similar in so many ways to things they were seeing but just different enough to be wholly new.
As Henry continue his due diligence on the symbology, Ty took to his notes on the antidote itself, searching his vast collections of known cures that would counteract poisons. It was all quite promising when he began, but as the clock struck two in the morning, turned out to be a bust.
Just as he was about to give up and call it a night, he pulled one more book Henry had lugged from the library and looked through it. There were a lot of really clever things contained in that tome and things that he realized were missing or cut out of similarly themed books. He closed it again to read the title: The Unequivocal Collection of Arthurian Legends by Alden Kingsley.
“Kingsley was pretty damn thorough,” Ty perceived, opening the manuscript back up to where he last was. As he perused and continued to turn the pages, he stumbled upon some references to the Grail – an Arthurian staple – but also a healing elixir that could be placed into it that would heal all wounds.
Following the leads from that book, Ty made it across several other obscure texts until he found something amazing in another document. He was unsure how the two entries could be in any way related, but stranger things were known to exist out there, so it was worth a shot.
“Henry,” Ty called, “come and take a look at this if you’re at a place you can.”
“Of course,” he replied, setting down the riveting book he was reading: Alchemical Symbols and Their Origins.
“What have you got Tyler? Something promising?” he asked, donning his glasses.
Ty nodded, though halfheartedly.
“Unsure just yet. Take a look at this and tell me what you think,” he said, pointing to the page he had open. “I’ll form my opinion then.”
Henry looked down and tipped his glasses forward slightly, the lines of handwritten text coming into focus. “Hmmm, this looks like a list of ingredients. What for?”
“For our cup over there,” Ty said, growing more enthusiastic, though keeping himself composed.
“Oh, goodness gracious,” Henry said.
“Right?” Ty said with fervor. “From the looks of it I would say it’s for some kind of tonic, though given the crushed bones – likely for the collagen – and that massive amount of arrow root, it's going to be some rough and chunky swill to drink. You think this is could be our antidote?”
“It's the most cohesive list of anything we've been able to find,” Henry said, “and beyond sticking every potion known to mankind in that cup it's a good starting point.”
“Exactly what I was thinking,” Ty replied.
“May I ask who wrote that book?” Henry enquired, now obstinately curious, “and how did he know about said list, when everyone else seems to have omitted what actually went into the cup?”
“I don’t know how he knew, but it was written by someone named Kingsley. Alden Kingsley to be precise,” Ty replied, gesturing over to the stack of books where he had left it on top. “Are there any Journeymen with that last name? Not that we need to speak with them now – apocalypse and all – but it may be a fascinating topic to learn about given the time.”
“Not that I know of, but I’ll note it so we can follow up after all this is sorted.”
“So, should we start collecting these now,” Ty asked, “or wait until a more decent hour in the morning?”
Henry was already looking at the list again, knowing Ty’s question was merely a formality. They both knew damn well that neither would be getting any sleep until this potion was brewed.
“The entire list looks strikingly… common,” Henry observed, a little dismayed that it would be that easy to find them all. “Most of these should be in our potions stores or if not, in one of the city’s many markets.”
A smile at last broke through Ty’s indifferent expression and he looked genuinely excited. Not only for Joey, but his brother as well. His heart was indeed beating faster, any semblance of being tired disappeared. It all nearly lead to him forgetting the price for using the Grail, but yet again that could wait until they had the cure in hand.
“Let’s go!” he said to Henry. “We have some brewing to do!”
GAGE HAD SOMEHOW fallen fast asleep on one of the most uncomfortable chairs in existence, purchased in bulk by the Order for their hospital ward. Marcus was trying to let him rest up, all while blocking out the incessant snoring that was assaulting his ears. The task was turning out to be impossible and for the first time since taking a turn on this side road, he felt jealous of Joey, lying on that hospital bed looking quite content.
Regardless, he held onto Joey’s right hand forcefully, rubbing the nubs of his pinky and ring fingers while thinking about the future.
“We’ll be able to get back on the right path soon,” he whispered to him. “All things considered, I don’t think we are that far off.”
Joey continued to lay there, motionless.
“Jesus Christ, you always manage to have the worst luck with things, don’t you?” Marcus continued in a low voice. “Lucky for you there’s family and a great support system surrounding you just for such times. Though when you’re back up and about you really should try to make less use of it; we all need a break.”
Marcus let go of Joey and moved his hand up to his face, healed up and fresh as the day he first laid eyes on him. God he was so gorgeous, but what shone through more than anything was his innocence. Gently, Marcus’ fingers traced the soft lines of Joey’s cheeks, mingling with his furry beard which – thank goodness – had recently been trimmed.
“This is so close to being solved, baby,” he whispered. “I cannot wait to see those brown, button eyes of yours open up so you can see me again, open your lips so I can… taste you again. I miss you so much it hurts, everywhere. I know that Ady does too, and maybe even that lug Gage, although you’ll never be able to tell with him snoring up a storm over there. I’m surprised you’re able to sleep through it all.”
He spent a few minutes brushing fingers through Joey’s hair, regarding the rough edges that had been singed while in Eaves Green.
“I shouldn’t have suggested you cut this either, it was so much better when it was –”
Alarm klaxons started blaring and a voice came over the speaker system.
“Alert! Enemy forces are inbound! Alert!”
Gage woke up with a start, the klaxons still ear-piercingly loud. At last they faded but the vocal broadcasts continued.
“Dajjal cannot be that stupid!” Marcus proclaimed, racing to the window to see if he could see anything. Gage rose and spun around, joining him.
“I don’t think he is tryin’ to win at this one,” Gage murmured. “This is meant to be a message, similar to the one I was trying to urge the Council to do. Maybe Ady can convince Evans to come back with her and…”
Gage was interrupted by a brief flicker of orange, followed by a massive boom. The room shook, Marcus bracing himself by slapping his palm against the window.
“What was that?” Gage asked. “An explosion?”
“Yeah, but something tells me it wasn’t just a random natural gas explosion,” Marcus declared. Pressing his face to the glass he tried to get a better look, but it was difficult to see anything from the view they had. “From what I can tell it looks like it’s down at Columbus Circle, maybe the museum past it? We need to get
a better view.”
“Courtyard?” Gage suggested.
“No… it still faces east. We need to go to the rooftop!” Marcus set off quickly, pausing to glance at Joey. “It’ll be okay J. Gage, come on, I know a way!”
The two of them sprinted from of the room then down the hall, passing the door to the stairwell on the left.
“Marcus!” Gage shouted. “Don’t we need to go up? The lifts are down with the emergency.”
“No, there’s no direct roof access that way; we need to use the lifts,” Marcus replied, reaching the elevators. He pressed the call button but the lift was non-responsive.
“See, told ya so,” Gage said as he reached him. He pressed the button one more time for good measure.
“No matter,” Marcus said, holding out a hand. His palm glowed faintly and the doors slowly crept open, the elevator car sliding right into position just as the doors opened fully.
“I don’t think I’ll ever get used to that,” Gage commented, again impressed.
“Honestly, Gage, me either. Magic is fun, but scares the living shit out of me.”
“Gimme a pistol or machete any day of the week,” Gage said, following Marcus into the lift. “Both of which I don’t have right now…”
Marcus was occupied, removing a panel located beneath the array of floor buttons. Inside was a black keypad with strange yellow symbols on it. Marcus began pressing them in what seemed to be a random order.
“Why’s the roof got so many protections?” Gage asked, unsure he wanted the answer.
“You’ll see,” Marcus replied cryptically, keying in the last of the symbols right after. The elevator doors slammed closed and the lift journeyed up, fast.
The unit stopped as quickly as it started, sending Gage and Marcus both tumbling to the floor as the doors opened back up, revealing an expansive rooftop. As they composed themselves, eventually stepping out, Gage saw many monstrous statues scattered around the place.
“Don’t touch any of them,” Marcus warned. “We definitely aren’t prepared for such a thing.”
Then Hell Followed (Journeyman Book 5) Page 11