Master of Darkness

by K T Kaye

  “Where is she?” Jackson quickly followed Fern back to the bathroom. Jackson knelt next to his sister.

  “Angel? Angel! Can you wake her up?” Jackson asked.

  “I can try,” Fern flicked her wand. Freezing water splashed onto Angel’s face, causing her eyes to open briefly, however they then rolled over, and she collapsed once again.

  “That’s not what I meant!” Jackson exclaimed. He grabbed Angel’s head and placed it against his.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Wolf bond. I’m going to, if Angel lets me, enter her mind and see what’s going on.” Jackson pressed his forehead against Angel’s and opened his mind. Her mind allowed him in, and Jackson could see exactly what she could. The images of torture filled the wolf’s brain. After a couple of moments Jackson left Angel’s mind and pulled his forehead away from hers.

  “What’s wrong with her?” Fern asked.

  “I’m not sure. I think, she’s remembered something,” Jackson muttered.

  “Remembered, you mean the childhood she can’t remember? She’s remembered something?”

  “Perhaps. Open the door for me, I’m going to take her to the hospital wing.” Fern did as Jackson asked. Jackson lifted his sister into his arms and carried her to the hospital wing.

  “Rowan,” Jackson called as he carried Angel into the private room where Sophie was sleeping.

  “Jack, what the…? Put her on this bed,” Rowan gestured to an empty bed, once Angel was laid on it Rowan turned to Fern, “Go get Skyjack, he’s in the cafeteria.”

  Fern nodded and ran out of the room to fetch the pegacorn. Rowan turned to her husband, “What happened?”

  “I think, watching Paris get tortured has triggered a memory, a really bad one.”

  “You’ve seen it?”

  “Yeah she let me enter her mind. It’s, Rowan it’s really awful. She was being tortured. She was only a kid and she was getting…it was brutal.”

  “Angel!” Jason exclaimed in surprise as he entered. The Master of Darkness, who had a warm cup of hot chocolate in his hand, had just taken over Sophie’s guard duty.

  “Jason, can you pass me that needle and that blue vial from that shelf over there,” Rowan asked. Jason mumbled his agreement, placed his cup down, went over to the shelf and picked out the blue vial and the needle, then handed them to Rowan.

  “Thanks,” the mermaid filled the needle with the blue liquid then injected it into Angel’s neck. At that moment, Fern arrived back with Skyjack.

  “What’s happened?” the pegacorn asked.

  “She was found unconscious,” Rowan explained, “She has a fever, I need you to try and calm her body down.” Skyjack pressed his horn to Angel’s forehead. There was silence as the two healers continued working. Jason watched the pair work then picked up his hot chocolate. His rather loud slurping broke the penetrating silence. Fern then began to rant (and hit Jason violently) about how hot chocolate wasn’t appropriate for this situation, but the witch was cut off by Skyjack who neighed loudly. The room fell into silence once more. Sophie somehow managed to sleep through this strange set of events and was completely unaware of how close she came to getting hot chocolate spilt all over her bed.

  “Jackson,” Rowan turned to her husband, “I think you should call your father. After what the Piper showed her and this, he really needs to be here.”

  Jackson muttered, “I’ll go call him.”

  * * * * *

  David Night was drinking tea with the Emperor of the Paranormal Empire. The pair of them, along with the head of the Emperor’s guard and Lord Katar, were sat in the Emperor’s private quarters. The room was warm with a royal flair and large brown leather seats. A fire glowed softly in the corner and portraits hung on the red walls. David Night (who looked a lot like Jackson) was tall with brown hair and brown eyes. He sipped tea from a teacup that seemed far too small for him as Anita (the head of the Emperor’s private guard) spoke softly. Anita, who was dressed in her royal purple uniform, was an Indian fey with over twenty black belts to her name. Sat on a chair next to her was Lord Katar, the leader of the African Moon-Silver Elf clan and a member of the Elf council. He along, with leaders from the six other major elf clans, ruled and protected the Elf kingdom. His pointed elf ears were decorated with a golden cuff that matched his noble Moon-Silver red attire. The Emperor Marcus Cloelius Pompeius was a tall man with brown eyes and a head full of bouncy brown hair. He had a sharp clever looking face that was covered in unhealed battle scars. Dressed in a dashing grey three-piece suit, with light brown shoes shined almost as much as the simple gold crown that sat on top of his head.

  “I hope that you understand how important it is that this information doesn’t leave this room,” the Emperor smiled.

  “Given how important this information is, why tell me?” David asked, “Surely the less people that know, the better.”

  “Because I trust you. After all you’re just as invested in this situation as I am.”

  “Most of Jet’s research was lost in the fire,” Anita explained, “We don’t believe that he can restart his experiments, or at least it will take him a while to get back to the stage he was at.”

  “It’s quite remarkable,” David muttered.

  “It is. If it wasn’t for the fact he was working with the demons, I’d call the man a genius,” the Emperor exclaimed, “We’re looking into ways to reverse the effects but at the moment we’re having no luck.”

  “There’s one thing I don’t understand. Why my daughter? Why was she chosen? Why is Jet so interested in her?”

  “We don’t know,” Anita admitted, “Because the research and the whole facility burnt to the ground, we can’t be sure exactly what Jet was doing. All our information comes from our source and our source, sadly, does not know.”

  “There is a lot we don’t know,” Lord Katar explained, “We…”

  At that moment, David’s phone started to ring.

  “Oh, I apologise,” David went to switch his phone off but then he realised it was Jackson (who only ever called in an emergency) calling, “Actually I’m going to have to take this.”

  “Of course,” the Emperor smiled. David got to his feet and left the room. Once in the light corridor he answered the phone. He walked as he spoke to avoid the eavesdropping guards who were posted, in their full suits of silver armour, along each corridor. The werewolf alpha also had to avoid the bright blue servant spirits that dashed round the palace, never looking where they were going. As David answered, two spirits crashed into each other behind him causing a tray of tea (that had been intended for the Queen Dowager) to crash to the polished marble floor.

  “Jackson, what’s up?” David asked over the noise.

  “It’s Angel, something has,” Jackson stuttered, “She’s unconscious. And it’d be best for me to explain in person. Can you come to the base?”

  “I’ll be right there,” David then hung up, walked around the wailing servant spirits, and returned to the Emperor, “I apologise but I need to leave.”

  “Is everything alright?” the Emperor asked.

  “It’s a family issue.”

  “Ah, well family must always come first. Go, it’s alright we can finish off here without you.”

  “Thank you, sir,” David bowed and left the room.

  “Do you think he’ll keep his mouth shut?” Anita asked once the werewolf was gone.

  “David is a good man, he’d never do anything if he believed it would cause me harm,” the Emperor said carefully.

  “That may be the case, normally sir, but this involves his daughter.”

  “I could hear his phone call from here,” Lord Katar continued, his voice as smooth as honey, “His daughter is unconscious. It was his second eldest living son on the phone asking him to come to the base.”

  “She’s not dying, is she?” the Emperor asked.

  “The son didn’t say.”

  “We need her alive. Anita call your asset at the base, tell them
to watch the situation carefully. If David looks like he’s going to talk, tell your asset to silence him.”

  “You don’t mean…”

  “Kill him? No! He is a friend and the head of the biggest wolf pack in the empire. Just tell your asset to make sure he keeps his mouth shut.”

  19

  ‘David Night’

  David Night arrived at the base thirty minutes later. He was quickly passed through security and escorted, by a rather chatty banshee, to the hospital wing. Jackson was waiting for his father to arrive. Upon meeting, the werewolves hugged briefly before getting to the heart of the problem.

  “What happened to Angel?” David asked as the chatty banshee (called Bob) left the werewolves. Jackson pressed his forehead against his father’s and opened his mind. Once he had seen the images, David pulled away.

  ‘Don’t speak,’ David snapped telepathically, ‘Talk through the wolf bond, we can’t risk being overheard.’

  Jackson looked surprised but replied to David through the wolf bond, ‘It’s a memory, isn’t it? She must have been a kid in that…who would do that to a kid!?’

  “What happened exactly?” David asked aloud before saying through the wolf bond, ‘Don’t say anything about Angel remembering aloud. It could put her in danger. What made her remember this?’

  Jackson, who had never felt this angry before, hissed aloud, “I’m going to kill whoever did this to her.”

  ‘Jack, talk through the wolf bond! And calm down!’

  ‘Calm down! Pops, she was getting tortured!’

  ‘It’s awful Jackson, I completely agree. But us getting angry won’t help this situation, so tell me exactly what happened,’ David added sharply, ‘Anything about Angel remembering say through the bond, the rest say out loud.’

  Jackson quickly explained what had happened. David growled slightly when Jackson mentioned the torture of Paris but made no other noise. The werewolf alpha remained silent until Jackson was finished.

  “Okay,” David said simply before adding through the wolf bond ‘Does anyone know about Angel’s memories?’

  ‘No. Not exactly.’

  ‘Good, no one can know that Angel has remembered part of her past. I can’t tell you the reason right now. I’ll explain everything soon, but just know that Angel remembering puts her in serious danger.’

  “What is Skyjack doing about the situation?” David asked aloud.

  “I’m not exactly sure,” Jackson muttered aloud then added through the wolf bond, ‘Danger? Why? Do you know? What happened to Angel before you found her?’

  “Can I see Angel?” David asked, ‘I have some idea. I need to do some research to find out if what I’ve been told is true or not.’

  “This way,” Jackson led his father into the hospital wing and guided him to Angel’s bed. Skyjack had his horn pressed against Angel’s forehead. The tip of his horn was glowing a soft blue. Fern was sat with Jason (who had finally finished his hot chocolate) next to the sleeping Sophie’s bed. Jackson quickly asked Skyjack for an update.

  “She’s settling down,” Skyjack explained, “Nice to see you again David.”

  “Wow! You two look identical!” Fern exclaimed staring at Jackson and David.

  “Pops, this is Angel’s friend and squad mate, Fern,” Jackson introduced, “And that’s Jason Dragonheart, the Master of Darkness. And the fairy with the blindfold on is Sophie Day, another member of Angel’s squad.”

  “Dragonheart, it’s been a long time since I’ve met anyone by that name,” David muttered thoughtfully.

  “You’ve met someone with my name before?” Jason asked.

  “A long time ago. It’s an honour to meet you,” as David gently shook Jason’s hand he muttered in surprise, “Huh, that’s interesting.”

  “What is?” Jason asked nervously.

  “It’s nothing, just your scent, it’s similar to someone I know.”

  “Is that bad?”

  “No, it’s just normally people with similar scents tend to be family, but that can’t be the case here. Anyway it’s nice to see that the Master of Darkness has returned,” David released the confused Jason’s hand and turned to Angel, “What happened to her exactly?”

  “Her body went into an extreme state of fear, but I’ve been able to calm her down,” Skyjack explained.

  “Why was she like that?” Fern asked.

  “It could be an aftereffect of the fight against Mr Jet’s followers,” Jackson announced suddenly, giving Skyjack a look, “She was pretty badly beaten up.”

  “It…yes…that seems likely. If she fought a warlock, this could be a delayed effect of a spell,” Skyjack lied, “Angel was too busy after the fight, taking care of everyone else and running about for the Colonel, that she wasn’t able to recover. I need to continue with my rounds. I’ll send Rowan over to keep an eye on her.” With that Skyjack left.

  “So I guess for now we just wait and see,” David muttered pulling a chair next to Angel’s bed

  “You two can go,” Jackson dismissed Jason and Fern, “I’ll watch Sophie. You two should go take a break, the questioning you went through earlier was pretty intense.”

  “But Angel,” Fern started.

  “I’ll message you the moment she wakes up,” Jackson promised, “Actually can you do me a favour, could you tell Roger and Ethan what’s happened and ask them to come here?”

  “And what exactly am I saying happened?”

  “That Angel has collapsed due to a delayed spell.

  “Would you like me to go tell the Colonel that?”

  “Would you do that?”

  “Sure, the Colonel doesn’t scare me,” Fern smiled, “And I’ll drag the Master of Darkness with me, that way if the Colonel gets mad, Jason can turn into a demon and eat him! Come on demon-boy,” Fern grabbed the protesting Jason’s arm and dragged him out of the room.

  “That witch is clever. She saw right through you,” David muttered, “She didn’t fall for the delayed spell story, will that be a problem?”

  “No,” Jackson explained, “Fern will play along with it until Angel wakes up, then she’ll beat the truth out of us.”

  * * * * *

  Fern dragged Jason to the Colonel’s office and banged on the door, despite the protests from Helena the ghost.

  “You can’t do that!” the ghost screamed, “You shouldn’t do that!”

  “I know I shouldn’t, but I’m going to anyway,” Fern smiled before banging on the door again.

  “I’m here, what’s all the fuss about?” the Colonel’s voice echoed down the corridor. Fern and Jason turned to see the Colonel stood behind them.

  “Ah, sir!” Fern exclaimed, “Captain Night, the female one, has collapsed. The healers reckon that Angel was hit by a spell during her fight with Mr Jet’s followers. They say Angel has been fighting off the effects of it since then, but those effects have now caught up to her. She’s being treated in the hospital wing. She’s unconscious at the moment. The healers are trying to work out exactly how much damage the spell has caused.”

  “Is she…? Hmm, okay, keep me informed,” the Colonel muttered before walking straight past Fern and Jason, entering his office, and slamming the door in their faces.

  “Rude. Come on Jason, let’s go back to the house,” Fern grabbed Jason’s arm and pulled him down the corridor.

  “You know, I am perfectly capable of walking by myself,” Jason exclaimed.

  “If you say so,” Fern muttered, releasing her hold on Jason’s arm. The pair walked silently through the Colonel’s gothic manor house. The Colonel’s manor was very dark; the walls were painted a deep green and the furniture was black. The floors were wooden, and they creaked under their boots. Not much of the inner personal rooms of the manor were visible, they were all locked away behind heavily wooden doors. The Colonel’s office was on the ground floor. No one in the base’s history had seen beyond that. What lay upstairs remained a mystery.

  “Do you think Angel will be okay?” Jason
asked as they stepped outside and walked past the building in which the hospital wing was situated.

  “Yeah she’ll be fine. She once got bitten by a zombie but managed to survive, so this is nothing.”

  “Why is the spell only affecting Angel now?”

  “Are you stupid? Some spells don’t affect you till a couple of days after you’ve been hit by it. Everyone knows that!”

  “Hey, I’m not stupid! I haven’t lived in this world for very long!”

  “Well if you want to keep living in this world, you better start learning some common knowledge.”

  “Well, Paris was tutoring me.”

  “Then it’s no surprise you’ve learnt next to nothing!”

  “How well did you know Paris?”

  “Clearly not well enough,” Fern muttered, “I’ve known him for nearly ten years. We joined at the same time, but I was put into Hurricane Squad for training and he was put into Earthquake, so I never had much contact with him. We were then put into different active squads to begin with. I used to be in Wildfire Squad and Paris, I think he was put into Tornado, anyway I was moved into Lightning Squad and, I think about a year later, he was also moved up. It wasn’t until then that I actually spoke to him. I never liked him.”

  “Ten years? You’ve been here a while. How long have you known Angel?”

  “Six years or so. I was her mentor when she was a trainee, or at least I was to begin with, then they swapped things round and made Alexander her mentor instead. Ah, I forgot you never went through training! Every trainee gets a mentor, someone from one of the active squads. The mentors are meant to answer questions and help the trainee out.”

  “Oh okay, so Angel’s been at the base for six years, then…”

  “Yeah I’m pretty sure I just said that.”

  “Has anyone ever told you that you’re really annoying.”

  “Yes, multiple times.”

  “That’s nothing to be proud of.”

  “I don’t know, being annoying is a skill. Not everyone can be as good at it as I am.”

  “Whatever! What I was trying to ask was how come Angel is captain when you’ve been here longer?”