The Last Line Series One

by David Elias Jenkins

  Arrik gave a low thoughtful growl then turned to the old Ghoul entrapped within the vines of the tree.

  “Mr Argent. I will take that box from you now.”

  Argent seemed to panic, his eyes darting in all direction for an escape route.

  Suddenly the old ghoul turned his head to the huge viewing window that ran the full length of the room, and his jaw dislocated, dropping open in a horrible distorted oval. He began to howl in a way that was neither animal nor man, a high mournful wailing that was full of danger.

  At first Usher took this as a grotesque cry of defeat, but too late he noticed the thick armoured glass wall begin to shudder. The smoky air in the vaulted room began to haze and Usher felt a powerful thrum move through his chest. The sound froze them all as if their muscles had paralyzed.

  Argent’s face was horribly elongated and sunken and his mouth was stretched to breaking. With a supreme effort Usher raised his weapon just as the huge wall length armoured window shattered into a billion tiny crystals that imploded over them like a shower of diamonds.

  Usher watched as his teammates crouched tight behind the marble plinth that shielded them, their faces grimacing. Usher was in the middle of the floor with nowhere to run. All he could do was stare at the sharpened rain that hurtled towards him. He braced himself and hoped that a shard would pierce his brain first and cancel out the pain. In an instinctive gesture Usher bent over Ariel’s stricken form to protect him from the worst of it.

  Suddenly a massive frame was before them both, blotting out the danger. Arrik transformed into a bear in less than a second, his skin bursting and bones crunching.

  Usher sensed rather than saw the impact of the wall of glass shards as they hit Arrik’s ursine form like machine gun fire.

  The old god roared through gritted teeth and Usher saw streams of blood streak up into the air all around him.

  Usher held onto the fur of Arrik as the glass shredded his flesh, felt the tension in the god’s muscles. Then the glittering shards seem to rain down on them in slow motion, catching the light of the burning coals from the brazier in the corner.

  When the silence finally resumed, there was a moment held still in time where no one dared to breathe. Then Arrik let out a roar of pain and anger as his body rejected every sliver of glass inside him, sending it tinkling to the marble floor. Arrik waited a moment, gritting his great maw as the wounds healed, then his body altered and reshaped back into a man.

  Usher looked at him, nodded to confirm the huge man was ok, and received a gruff nod in return. Usher picked up his rifle and turned to the world tree where Argent had been hanging. The vines that had held him were cut and trailing.

  Like a swatted dragonfly that was not yet dead, Argent kicked and thrashed on the floor. Long diaphanous wings suddenly erupted from his back, flexing and twitching. The ghoul tried to stand but fell against the wall, one leg hopelessly broken and trailing. As he looked up, Usher saw that his face was a ruin, with one eye trailing down on a torn cheek that exposed his teeth in an insane half grin. Shaking his head clear the ghoul made a staggering lunge for the Seed Box, holding it in his tattered coat as if it were an infant. Usher pointed his weapon and shouted to his team.

  “Stop him! Take him down!”

  Empire One found their senses and opened fire on the creature. Argent spat at them and made a desperate lunge for the open window frame. Bullets ricocheted off the marble walls as Argent flitted and tested his wings. Usher took a deep breath and fired off a single shot that clipped the creature through one wing, sending him jerkily to the ground behind his oak desk. Usher advanced with weapon raised when to his amazement Argent got up and limped incredibly fast towards the gaping hole in the ship.

  The team kept up their rate of fire, and another round caught Argent in one of his sinewy legs, sending out a stream of yellowish fluid, but then in a final sputter of energy the old creature leapt out into the freezing night, his wings buzzing intermittently as he desperately tried to stay airborne. He took one final round from Charlie’s pistol that send him careering into the window frame and then he was off into the night, taking the eleven remaining world seeds with him.

  Arrik had lunged forward despite the bullets flying all around him, but his treasure was gone.

  Usher heard Isaac making the radio call already asking for air support to help track Argent, as Usher and Arrik ran to the very edge of the shattered window.

  They stood there, broken glass crunching beneath their feet as the night wind howled in onto their faces.

  Arrik’s deep voice rose over the gale.

  “You still think I should go home, little soldier?”

  Usher was breathing hard, the cold biting into his face. He couldn’t see Argent in the dark but knew that like a cockroach he would somehow make it to safety and survive. Not only that, now had he had the means to create eleven more world trees anywhere on Earth. More doorways that would allow all the filth of the Unseelie Court to crawl through and wreak havoc. They were no closer to stopping the darkness.

  Usher could not think of a single mission where everything had gone to plan. That was the reality of live operations. All the training, the planning and the equipment to create the illusion of control in essentially unpredictable situations and the most they could do was improvise. Winging it with their hearts in their mouths and hoping to come out of it alive.

  Usher glanced at the huge bear-god next to him. They could use the power he had, Arrik would make a formidable ally.

  “Yes.”

  Usher heard Isaac call to him from across the room. He moved across to the marble plinth that was sheltering his team, struggling to keep his feet on the broken glass. As he reached them he saw Ariel resting up on his elbows, looking pale and confused. Brock shrugged his big shoulders.

  “Little fella’s tougher than he looks boss.”

  Usher knelt down beside Ariel.

  “Dr Speedman? Ariel. How you feeling?”

  Ariel slowly sat up and then winced and put his hand to his field bandaged head.

  “Ah. Bit shaky. My ear, how does it look?”

  Usher bit his lower lip.

  “See for yourself. It’s over there on the floor.”

  Isaac stifled a laugh and flipped a cigarette into his mouth. Ariel peered across at the streak of ragged flesh that lay amongst the carpet of glass and groaned. Usher put a reassuring hand on his shoulder.

  “Welcome to the army Ariel. You’ve got your first scar. Won’t be the last.”

  Then Usher looked up to his team. “Strommy. Charlie.”

  The two soldiers readied for orders. “Yes boss.”

  “Set the charges, this ship’s a risk we can’t allow and it has an appointment with Davy Jones.”

  “Yes boss.”

  The two soldiers went to work setting powerful explosive charges to destroy the world tree and sink the Proteus once and for all.

  Ariel managed to sit up and rest his back against the plinth.

  “Usher, it’s gone. Arrik took his power back, I can’t feel it anymore.”

  “I know, it seems you’ve made a friend. You’ve got a story to tell the boys back at the lab.”

  “I need to speak with him.”

  Usher nodded and turned to the window and immediately noticed that the world tree had changed. It was no longer a twisted and blackened lightening tree pulsing purple and blood. Now it had cooled to an ashen grey like an ancient willow tree. The bubbling tarry membrane in its hollow was gone and Usher had to blink before he realized what he was seeing.

  He stood up and slowly walked closer until he felt cool rain and mountain air on his face. In the hollow of the tree, Usher was looking on a pale grey sky laden with brooding clouds that hung above a range of mountains greater than any he had ever seen. Lightning flashed and thunder rumbled and the air was thick with the smell of ozone. Usher had seen many things in his career but he still stood slack jawed as he looked upon a window to another realm. Nothing as dark and n
ightmarish as the Unseelie Court, this place was full of the wild elemental magic of nature itself. In the sky above the mountains, winged beings swooped and soared, Valkyrie that reminded him of Ursula.

  Even as Usher watched in amazement, the tree began to wither and die, like a thousand seasons passing in a few seconds and the hollow started to close, cutting off the world beyond.

  “I’m sorry Ariel. It looks like he’s gone home.”

  40

  Mission Closed

  Fifteen minutes later the team were taking off from the deck of the Proteus into the howling wind. They immediately set about field dressing wounds, trying to control the shakes now that adrenaline had gone, smoking cigarettes and in taking simple sugars.

  As the helicopter moved further away from the stricken bio-weapons laboratory, Usher and Ariel looked back out of the window.

  The first explosion that went off on deck lit up their faces. Orange flames shot up into the arctic night. The second charge took out the control tower and Argent’s office, which collapsed down onto the flaming deck. The third charge tore a hole in the hull and the ship lurched as icy water poured in. By the time the seventh explosion went off, the Proteus was half submerged beneath the waves, cracking the sheet ice as it went. Before long it was just a fading orange glow lighting up the horizon.

  Ariel and Usher exchanged glances. Usher felt there was a shared understanding between them, this mission had changed them. Both had held power in their hearts, magic that humans were never supposed to carry. It left a residue. Usher felt as if some small part of the Feral was still swimming in his blood. He wondered with fear if it would ever resurface. He knew Ariel felt the same after holding Arrik’s power inside him. Usher could see something had changed in the young scientist’s face, a new seriousness and maturity. His mind had been expanded in ways he had never imagined, he had held ancient magic inside him and it had altered him irreparably.

  They nodded at one another acknowledging this shared evolution, then Ariel leaned in. “Major Usher. You know this isn’t finished. Next time we might have no idea where those world trees will open or what will come through them.”

  Usher nodded. “Well, then you better get your head in the books and start studying, because whatever comes through I need you to tell me where to shoot it.”

  Ariel gave a half smile, winced and gingerly touched his bandage. He nodded then leaned back in his seat and within a minute had fallen into an exhausted sleep.

  Usher rolled out his shoulders and settled back painfully into his seat. As the adrenaline subsided he felt all his old wounds crackle back into life. He almost missed the power and resilience of the Feral in his blood. Now he felt about twenty years older than he was and it got harder every time, while his immortal enemies just got stronger.

  He glanced up at his team and knew they were feeling the same. Battle worn and ragged, he knew all they were looking forward to was decompression weekend where they would inevitably get into a fight and wake up with the wrong woman. They weren’t complainers, dripping to anyone who would listen. They were soldiers with a job to do. Whatever was going to crawl through from the Unseelie side they would deal with it together.

  Usher popped his headphones in and selected a playlist from his i-pod. He leaned back and closed his eyes and as the music began he allowed the first flicker of a smile. Not happiness. Acceptance of the challenge ahead.

  Let them come.

  BLOODMIST

  BY DAVID ELIAS JENKINS

  All Rights Reserved Copyright © 2014

  PROLOGUE:

  7 years ago: Northern England.

  Corporal Thom Usher woke from sleep and immediately knew his family was in danger.

  He sprung from bed and reached for the Glock pistol he kept in the bedside cabinet. Usher kept a personal protection weapon because in his line of work no one was ever truly safe.

  He glanced at the digital clock next to the bed. 3:40am glowed in red LED.

  He padded from the bed in his shorts, his skin still tanned like a strip of leather from a six month tour of Iraq.

  He looked around the dim room and saw his shirt slumped over in the wash basket like a stricken comrade, his wife’s lipstick collection laid out like little bullets on the dresser. He knew that that he was at home on British soil but the fear would not go away. He was in a detached suburban house in a sleepy area of the United Kingdom yet the soldier in him knew that he was under attack.

  There was someone in the house with them.

  Usher heard his wife Marie whisper urgently and place a hand on his leg.

  “What is it? Thom are you ok?”

  For a moment Usher felt shame at his post deployment paranoia, yet the hairs still prickled on his arms. He gave her hand a reassuring squeeze and whispered back.

  “I don’t know. I think I hear someone in the house. Stay here and get ready to call the police if I shout out ok?”

  Marie wiped sleep from her eyes and sat up in bed, her brow creased in concern when she saw her husband’s hand.

  “God Thom is that the gun? Please be careful, it’s probably just Seth getting up to the toilet. Are you sure you haven’t just had a bad dream?”

  Usher brought his breathing under control.

  She probably right. I can’t let my seven year old see me this strung out.

  “You’re probably right honey. Maybe just pop my head round the door, make sure he’s ok.”

  Even as he smiled at Marie he never relinquished his grip on the weapon.

  Usher felt terrible for his wife whenever he returned from a tour, whether Northern Ireland, Iraq or some Sub Saharan revolution, because all she got was the fallout. The Army Intelligence Corps got to have Usher at his most efficient, courageous and determined. The world saw nothing but the soldier. They never had to deal with the nightmares, mood swings, phobias, paranoia and niggling injuries. That was all down to Marie and she never complained, not once. Usher ran a hand through her tousled blonde bed-hair and kissed her forehead.

  “It’s probably nothing Marie, just give me a minute to check the house and garden ok?”

  Marie yawned and nodded, stroking the back of his hand.

  Then they both turned around as the bizarre sound echoed through the house. Insectile and harsh like the secret language of locusts. Marie sat bolt upright.

  “Thom was on earth was that?”

  Usher already had his gun raised. He gestured Marie to stay put then he moved slowly towards the open bedroom door and claimed the corridor with his pistol. He turned back once to see his wife with the covers bunched around her, holding her mobile phone and staring at him intensely. Usher nodded to reassure her then moved out of the room.

  His eyes began to adjust to the dim moonlight filtering through the blinds of the upstairs landing. He could hear the floorboards creak as he walked across the carpet towards his son’s room. Usher blinked and rubbed a hand across his eyes.

  Seth’s door was slightly ajar and a pale light was spilling out. Once again Usher heard the low alien whispering and it was coming directly from his son’s room.

  Usher felt his own heart beat faster and he fought to control his breathing.

  With deliberate steps he moved towards the bedroom door. He stood there in a moment of hesitation, caught between his training and his heart.

  I can’t burst in and point a gun at my son.

  Usher lowered the weapon and took a deep breath and then swung the door wide open.

  His mind took a few moments to register exactly what he was seeing. Despite all the horrors of war he had seen on all four continents, Usher just stood there slack jawed staring at the creatures in Seth’s room.

  Despite the fact that he was standing in Britain in the twenty first century in a suburban housing estate, Goblins were stealing Usher’s son.

  That is the only word Usher could think of to describe them.

  The hunched creatures had spindly black limbs glistening with barbs like cruel armour and clever
bony fingers like long crab legs that worked incessantly. They had long peaked ears studded with jagged bone talismans that hung around their ancient wrinkled faces.

  Two of the creatures had Seth hoisted up by his hands and feet whilst another busily spun some kind of dimly glowing gossamer around him. They whispered to one another as they worked in their strange hissing language.

  When Usher opened the door, they very slowly turned around to regard him with sickly yellow eyes. As Usher’s mind struggled to adjust to the existence of these beings from an old fairy tale, he looked to his son being trussed up like a spider’s meal and it jolted him into action.

  He raised his weapon and adopted a stable firing position. Despite his whole body shaking, in as calm and authoritive a voice as he could muster he spoke to the nearest creature.

  “Whatever you are put my boy down right now.”

  The lead creature cocked its decrepit head and stared at the pistol in fascination. Then the nocturnal eyes flicked up at him and a disgusting smile spread over its face, showing a handful of tiny crooked teeth. It stepped forward with its arms outstretched in a gesture of mock courtesy, and in a hoarse voice that seemed to struggle with the words, whispered.

  “Thank you… for your… family.”

  All disbelief ran from Usher’s skin like sweat under a cold shower and he raised his pistol at the creature’s chest.

  “How can you be real?”

  Usher fired three rounds at less than five feet into the foul creature’s hollow chest. The room lit up like daylight from the muzzle flash and the stench of cordite filled the air. Behind him Usher could hear Marie start to scream at the creatures to put down their son.

  To Usher’s horror the bullets passed through the goblin creature as if through a dry husk. He stared at the three perfectly grouped holes in the wizened skin waiting for the blood to issue forth, but instead a stream of tarry black smoke issued forth, stinking of sulphur.