by D. N. Leo
She needed Ciaran to make sense of what had just occurred—and to think of a solution. But she wouldn’t be able to get Ciaran to think about anything else until Tadgh recovered.
Zach had taken Chloe back to the city. He had to find a way to secure her.
Tomorrow was the day of the gate opening. Madeline was sure it was going to be challenging. But she wasn’t sure how they were going to survive today.
The sun had gone down now, and Tadgh had not yet opened his eyes. Ciaran could have airlifted Tadgh to the hospital, but for some reason, he did not. He hadn’t talked to Madeline for hours while attending to Tadgh.
Ciaran worked on Tadgh and was on the phone with Doctor Thomas at the same time. It came down to a simple and final step now—Tadgh needed more blood. Ciaran and Tadgh shared a very rare blood type, but they did not store spare blood in the blood bank for convenient use overseas.
They also hadn’t planned to bleed this much, Madeline thought.
Ciaran did not waste a moment thinking. He meticulously followed the steps and procedures as instructed by Doctor Thomas. There were times Madeline thought Ciaran would airlift Tadgh to a hospital or call in a medical professional. But she knew he trusted no one but Doctor Thomas and himself when it came to medical matters.
He drew his own blood and transfused it into Tadgh. It was a lot of blood. Madeline didn’t need advanced medical knowledge to know that the amount of blood Ciaran extracted from himself was potentially dangerous.
Finally, the task was completed. Ciaran seemed to have done all he could. He sat down. Madeline approached the chair. She embraced him and kissed his tired face.
"I'd be very pleased if you’d take an hour to rest," Madeline said.
Ciaran kissed her. Madeline deepened the kiss. She knew he needed it. He needed her. Especially now. They held each other for a long moment, saying nothing.
A faint sound came from the bed.
Ciaran darted toward it. Tadgh opened his eyes. He was dazed and didn’t seem to register what was going on around him. But he recognized Ciaran.
"You've lost a lot of blood, but you should be fine now," Ciaran said.
Tadgh closed his eyes again.
"No, no. Open your eyes, Tadgh."
There was no response.
"It’s not working. I’ve missed something," Ciaran muttered and grabbed the phone. Madeline knew he wanted to call Doctor Thomas again. She doubted Doctor Thomas could do anything more at the moment.
Ciaran paused as if he’d just realized something. Then he spoke out loud, “Tadgh needed something more than blood. Something metaphysical.”
Zach arrived and entered the room. "He's not awake yet?" he asked Madeline. She shook her head.
"Ayana!" Ciaran called out while pressing the crucifix on his arm.
"Don't waste your time. I've been doing that all night. She's not responding."
"Ayana!"
Nothing happened.
"If I can't fix my brother, I won't go anywhere near your pathetic gate,” Ciaran growled to the air around him.
The air thickened and whirled. Sciphil Nine stepped out of the wind circle. It was not a holocast. He was a physical presence.
"Ciaran, the gate opening is in a few hours. Ayana cannot come. We know about the incident with Tadgh." Pete glanced at the bed.
"And what can you do about it?" Ciaran asked.
"What he did was very significant, Ciaran."
"It's most important that he stays alive. Do you have a suggestion?"
"Yes. I can give him some of my eudqi."
“Life force?” Ciaran nodded. “You’re right. That’s what he needs. What will it take for Tadgh to have your eudqi? What do you want me to do?"
"Nothing. It’s an honor if I have Tadgh as my successor. When he becomes Sciphil Nine, he will have full access to the eudqi in his tower anyway. So this is a payment in advance."
"Then he'd say yes to it," Ciaran said.
"He has to accept the role himself. You know the drill, Ciaran."
"But he can't speak for himself right now, as you can see." Ciaran pointed toward the bed.
Madeline called out for Zach. "Could you send in a sound wave to wake him, Zach?"
Zach messed his hair up. "Oh, man. He's going to kick my ass for this." Zach concentrated. No response. He tried again. No response. He shifted. "Okay, hard head. How about this?" Zach mumbled and sent in a sound. Madeline had a feeling it would be an eardrum-shattering noise for Tadgh.
Tadgh screamed, convulsed, gasped, and opened his eyes.
Ciaran charged to the bed. "Tadgh, listen and say yes. Can you hear me?"
Tadgh was dazed. But he nodded.
Pete approached. "Tadgh LeBlanc, I now name you the successor of Sciphil Nine. Do you accept?"
"What the fuck?" Tadgh whispered.
"Just say yes, Tadgh." Ciaran shook him before he passed out again. "Say yes."
"What?" Tadgh was confused.
"Kyle is going to kill Jo. The only way you can save her is to accept this offer. You hear me?" Ciaran signaled Pete.
Pete repeated, "Tadgh LeBlanc, I now name you the successor of Sciphil Nine. Do you accept?"
"Say yes, or Jo will die,” Ciaran said.
"Yes, I accept,” Tadgh said.
Pete reached out and burned a thumbprint into Tadgh's right forearm.
Tadgh passed out again.
Chapter 13
Jo opened her eyes and found herself in a small cell. It had been hours since she was snatched away from the mansion, away from her friends. The air had gotten colder as if the sun had gone down. There was no window in the cell. Her internal compass told her nothing regarding her whereabouts.
Jo looked at her dead cell phone, feeling hopeless. Kyle must have killed all of the phone network signals. Nobody would be able to track her now.
She ached everywhere and could not move her right arm.
Kyle had run for a long time at an incredibly supernatural speed. Jo had no idea how much ground he had covered—the world had been a blur when he ran. Jo remembered the strong wind and the electrical currents piercing her body.
If it were nighttime now, in a few hours, it would be another day—the day of the gate opening.
How was Tadgh? Was he alive? She needed him to be alive.
The heavy door slid open, and Kyle sauntered in with a tray of something that resembled edible food. His face reflected an extremely harsh life of over a hundred years, Jo thought.
He was tall and had the frame of a once-upon-a-time warrior. He was certainly very strong when he carried her, which was especially surprising after looking as if he had disintegrated on the ground.
"Do I look like I want food?" Jo asked.
"Young lady, you have to do what I say if you want your boyfriend to stay alive."
"What else can you do to him apart from the very obvious—use me as blackmail? He got you good, Kyle."
"By sacrificing himself? Do you really believe it was wise to do so? If you could go back in time, and you had a chance to stop him, would you still have let him do that?" Kyle smirked at Jo's silence.
He sat down next to her and tended to her injured arm. Jo shrugged him away. He grabbed her arm and held it still.
"This is infected. The wound was opened, and a very nasty chemical that your human body can't handle has gotten in there. I'll get someone with medical skills to tend to you. But our resources at this station are limited, so you won’t see anything fancy.”
"Which station?"
"You don't want to know, young lady. By the way, although my staff are not as pretty as you are, they're harmless. Don't be scared."
"I'm not on Earth? What the hell?"
Kyle shook his head. "You're better off not knowing. We’re leaving soon. So eat your food and get your arm tended to."
"I'm not eating your food."
"Then be hungry."
Kyle turned to leave. Jo spoke to his back.
"Tadgh turned your lifet
ime work into shit, didn't he?"
Kyle stopped at the door and turned around slowly to face her. “You two are a perfectly matched couple. You are the only score I couldn’t complete. I raped your soul, but you survived. You didn’t kill yourself. You intrigue me, Jo. And that stubborn boyfriend of yours . . . when I tell him to kill, he lets people live. When I tell him to stay alive, he kills himself.”
Kyle chuckled and shook his head. “The thing is, your individual actions will not help the greater cause. Ciaran is the key to that. His weakness is that he’s human. And there’s not much he can do about that.”
He started to laugh. “He can’t let go of human emotions, and that’s what will destroy him. So I’m going to use you guys to dangle in front of Ciaran until the opportunity’s ripe. Then I can destroy him with pleasure.”
“Why?”
“It’s hard to explain to a human. And I don’t feel quite compassionate enough at the moment. But I have to admit that living among you guys for a long time, I’ve gained a bit of sentiment. So the short version of the answer is that Eudaiz belongs to me. Not to Bran, and thus not to Ciaran. And I will take back what’s mine.” He turned on his heel. “You can kill yourself to avoid being a burden to your friends. But again, let me get this through your thick skull. Your individual sacrifice can only harm the bigger picture.” He walked out and slammed the door closed.
Chapter 14
"Now what?" Ciaran asked Pete after Tadgh had accepted the successor position and passed out again.
"Where is the blood you’re going to transfuse into him?" Pete asked.
"Already done."
"Well, do some more then."
"How much blood do you have to give, Ciaran?" Madeline asked although she knew it would make no difference.
"What blood type do you need?" Zach asked.
"The freak type, Zach. Don't worry. You won't have anything that matches,” Madeline muttered.
Ciaran dragged the reading chair over to the bed and sat down.
"I have to do it directly. Not enough time to do it any other way." He connected all the necessary tubes into Tadgh’s arm and his own. The blood started to draw, running from Ciaran to Tadgh. When the transfusion settled, Ciaran said. "How do you give your eudqi, Pete?"
Pete pointed to his right wrist.
"Madeline, there’s a connector right there, on top of the pole. You have to use the needle—and be careful to keep the air out. Take blood from Pete, please."
He didn’t ask if Madeline was able to do it. There was no one else he could rely on. Madeline nodded and performed the procedure.
The needle drew something from Pete's wrist. Something other than blood. It was a half-transparent silvery substance. It ran into the tube and mixed with Ciaran’s blood. When there was enough, Pete pulled the needle out himself.
"That's enough to do the job. With his physique, he'll be as strong as superman. You have to distribute it throughout his system."
"You mean pumping it in using my blood?”
Pete nodded.
"How do I know when to stop?"
"He'll let you know." Pete smiled.
Madeline waited. Each minute felt like a decade. Ciaran sat back in the chair.
"What was significant about what Tadgh did?" Ciaran asked.
"We just found out new information about Kyle. What Tadgh did had to do with the metaphysics of Eudaiz and the Black Rock."
Ciaran raised an eyebrow. "Interesting,” he said.
Zach mimed, "What the fuck?" at Madeline.
She shrugged. Within the short period of time she’d been with Ciaran, that was not the weirdest thing she had heard.
Pete continued. "To put it simply, while Eudaiz is built on a solid eudaimonic moral principal, the Black Rock is built on chaos. The core of their chaos theory is that if they can corrupt our moral ground, they can take over Eudaiz. Kyle betrayed Eudaiz for the Black Rock. His assignment was to prove that it was possible to corrupt innocence using his talent, which he achieved via Madeline. Tadgh disproved Kyle’s result by killing himself under the influence of Kyle's control."
Ciaran laughed. "Backfire."
Pete nodded. "That means everything that Kyle achieved in the last three decades has been ruined. This has discredited him with the Black Rock, which is his only supply source. He has no other choice but to infiltrate the Daimon Gate tonight. If he makes it to Eudaiz, he’ll devote his life to destroying it."
"Now that sucks,” Zach moaned.
"We'll deal with him," Ciaran muttered, feeling quite queasy. His vision wavered. He shook his head and willed his eyes to open. Madeline saw the signs of exhaustion but said nothing.
"How much longer do you have to keep the blood flowing, Ciaran?" Madeline asked.
They heard a faint sound from the bed. Then Tadgh opened his eyes. He glanced around and grumbled, "What the hell is going on here?"
Ciaran pulled the needle from his arm. He went to the bed and pulled the tubes and needles from Tadgh.
"You were a bit sick. That's all. You're fine now. Can you get up?"
"Yeah . . .” Tadgh said.
It was incredible to see, given the condition he was in before, Tadgh sat up by himself. He winced with pain from where the stab wound was, but he got off the bed easily by himself.
Tadgh stood, looked around the room, looked at the thumbprint on his arm.
"Jo." He let out a gasp. "Where’s Jo, Ciaran? You said she's going to die.”
"I don't know where she is. Kyle’s got her. I was preoccupied with you—”
"So nobody is looking for her? You told me I had to accept this Sciphil role to save her. Now you don't even know where she is? You bluffed me into accepting the Sciphil deal, didn't you, smart brother?"
Tadgh shoved Ciaran. Ciaran staggered back and fell onto the bedpost.
Tadgh was surprised that Ciaran fell so easily.
Madeline stepped toward Tadgh and gave him a slap across the face, sending him reeling into the wall behind him.
"Half of the blood in your body is Ciaran's. He located the substance that saved your life. All that because of your stupid heroic moment. I don't care how many universes you saved or destroyed. I don't care who you think you are, or what you’re entitled to. At the moment, you are a dickhead."
"How long do we have until the gate opening?" Ciaran asked Pete.
"Four hours,” Pete said.
"I'm going to need one of those for myself,” Ciaran said dryly and walked out of the room. Madeline scurried after him.
Zach shrugged. "I'm worried about Jo, too. But I agree with Madeline about you. If I rephrased what she said, it wouldn’t be as gentle. If I repeated what she did, no amount of superhero juice would keep you standing." Zach walked away, leaving Tadgh and Pete alone in the room.
Chapter 15
The cell door slid open. Jo crawled into a corner to guard herself against the two creatures strolling in.
They walked on two legs, so Jo assumed they were at least at the ape level in the food chain. But their bodies were hideous, Dr. Frankenstein-looking creations. Although Frankenstein's work wasn’t pretty, Jo thought, it was no comparison to what she saw now.
One creature had a combination of multicolored skins. The other was made of the face and body parts of many different animals. The body parts looked as if they were the leftovers from a cannibal’s meal.
They said nothing. They grabbed Jo, ignoring her physical protests and verbal insults. One held her down, and the other treated her arm. They finished quickly. As much as Jo hated to admit it, she felt an instant relief from the pain.
A moment later, Kyle entered. "We have to leave now. I normally travel on foot, but I don't want to hurt you again, so we'll take the capsule this time."
"The capsule?"
Kyle did not answer. He snatched Jo, pulling her out of the cell, and shoved her into a round, metal cabin that indeed looked like a capsule. There was no window, so Jo could not orient herself. In what seem
ed like only a few seconds, the capsule opened. Kyle pulled her out of the capsule, and they walked into a dirt tunnel that went underground.
Upon their exit, they climbed up the stairs of a basement where hay was clustered and tools were piled up against wooden panels. When they came out of the basement, she saw a familiar sight—a farmhouse and a barn. And farm animals. Jo was sure they were Earth animals. They looked friendly, which was a bonus. She had never had a good relationship with cows and sheep. But at the moment, she loved them. She smiled graciously at a cow nearby.
A car was parked in the distance. The driver got out and opened the door at the back for Kyle and Jo. Further away, Jo spotted a line of ten cars and saw armed men standing around. If they were Kyle's men, then her friends would be outnumbered at the gate.
These men were worse than the soldiers at Fountains Abbey. The soldiers had been human—these men were not. They were like zombies, but maybe slightly better-looking. Jo no longer had her phone. She didn’t know how to alert Madeline and the others about this little army.
She stumbled on her heels and fell next to one of the zombie-ish men. As he crouched to help her up, she snatched his phone. When they got to the car, Kyle opened the door for her. He reached his hand out and said, “Give it to me.”
“Give what?” She played dumb.
“You don’t want to upset me now, Jo. Give it back.”
Jo grumbled some profanity and shoved the phone into Kyle’s hand. She got into the car and sank into the passenger seat. Kyle stepped in after her and sat next to her with a crooked smile on his face. Jo shifted and moved away.
“I’m not that scary,” Kyle said.
“Nope. Not at all. You’re a saint. I bet my life on it,” she said and looked out the window.
She tried her best to keep a neutral expression and show a small sign of vulnerability. On the inside, she was doing a victory dance. In addition to the phone, she had also stolen a pocket knife from the zombie gangster and was overjoyed to feel its weight in her pants’ secret pocket.