Michael looked at Jameson, and let go of Vincent’s shoulder. He dropped his hand on top of Sharlia’s.
Jameson moved his left hand and placed it on top of Michael’s cold touch.
With them there, Kenar reached in and did the same.
Only one was left, so Michael looked back up to Vincent. “I will have your hand too my friend.”
Vincent felt honored with hearing this. “I am not the head of our family my lord. The honor is yours and yours alone.”
Michael shook his head. “You are trusted among the Walkers my friend. Your hand carries as much weight as mine.”
Vincent felt like he almost blushed. If it were not for his cold flesh, he would have. Instead, he just reached in and placed his hand on top of Kenar’s.
It was now done. It was over. The war had ended with a subtle touching of the hands.
Now there was only one thing left to do.
Devish had to be removed from his wooden throne.
42
He threw him through the door and watched the wood crash down all around his clawed pawed feet. He had taken quite a beating, but he wasn’t giving up yet. The fight could still be won. The battle wasn’t over.
Kalima stood back up. He shook himself off by a using a powerful head twist that raked down his entire massive frame. Dust flew all around him. The gash on his right arm instantly healed, leaving only a reddish colored mark on his black fur where the wound was.
Devish watched this and again felt completely amazed by the true magnitude of his gifts. If only he had such strength to keep going like this.
“You do not see what I have done, do you my brother? You are so much more than even I.”
Kalima snarled with a deep and raspy moan.
Devish shook his head. “You must come back to my side. You truly are one of a kind.” He so began to regret this. He didn’t want to destroy him, but he was leaving him no other choice on the matter. He was so much like their father that it actually began to cause him pain. He felt pain for having to do what he was doing that he couldn’t describe it. Their father didn’t listen to him either. Oh, how sad this really is. “Join me again. Come back to my side.”
Kalima roared out. He followed it with a deep and powerful guttural growl that emanated from deep inside his chest. He readied himself for more pain. He prepared himself for another strike.
Devish watched him and knew what he was about to do, so he braced himself for another blow.
Kalima stopped. He felt a sudden wave of power flow through his body that it seemed to rake every muscle with energy. It even felt like it was flowing through his very soul.
Devish felt it too. He felt a calming sensation that flowed all around him that it made it hard for him to think. With it, he heard voices echo around inside his head. He heard Michael and Vincent Gorhan. He heard Kenar. He heard Jameson, the bastard son and king of the world. He heard Sharlia, and a thousand other voices erupt into peaceful conversations. With all of them, he looked up.
“What have they done?” He felt their voices and it turned his into an outright painful fear. He couldn’t believe it. He didn’t know how this happened. He didn’t know what it meant. It made his heart heat up to an overpowering ache. “They made a deal. They have stopped fighting. They have agreed to come after me.” He heard every word they said. He answered them with an overwhelming growl, “NO!”
Kalima felt nothing but joy. He even felt his human eyes move. He felt them come forward in his mind.
Devish watched his massive size slowly turn smaller. He watched the black fur vanish into whitening skin. He watched his human face return.
When he was human again, Kalima smiled. “You have lost Devish.” He heard the same voices, he didn’t know how or why, but he did. He heard what they did. He heard everything and he knew that Devish had heard it too. He could hear it in his screams. He actually saw it in his mind. “It is over.”
Devish looked at him and their eyes met. “You did this.” He heard it from his own mouth. He heard it from inside his own thoughts. He had never heard them before now, and now that he was, he hated him more than ever. He saw his love for his wife. He saw the love he felt for his own daughter. He felt his love for his human parents. He felt his love for his father, and his human mother. He felt his love for Rana. He felt his love for him.
Kalima saw this too. He also saw Devish’s mind as clear as his own. He saw the pain. He saw the overwhelming needs. He felt the love he had for their father, and the pain it caused him with taking his life. He saw everything and it only justified everything he has now done.
“You are a broken beast Devish. I can feel you. I can feel the pain that you caused them—the pain that you caused yourself.”
Devish’s eyes flashed with tears. “You dare inform me of this.” He felt his own anger for everything. He felt his own pain. He felt his own longing for everything he had done wrong, and his desire to make it right. But there was more. He also didn’t want it to end. He loved his pain. He loved his needs. He loved the taste of blood. “What do you know of my pain Kalima? What do you know of my needs?”
Kalima laughed with this, as he stepped back inside the room. He stepped over the chards of what was left of the door. “I feel everything in you, and I have only one thing left to say to you brother.” He felt the battles rage. He felt the flash of tears for himself. “I pity you.”
Devish growled again. “You know nothing.” He truly despised him. He despised himself.
Kalima laughed. “I know you my brother. I know your pain. I also know what you can be when the thirst does not torment your mind.” He saw Devish as a young child, back towards the end of the Great Walker Dying. He saw a proud Walker. He saw a proud son to an equally proud father. Yes, Satar loved him more than he ever remembered that he did. In fact, he cherished him. He loved him because he reminded him of his long-lost wife. He looked just like her. Why didn’t he see it? With the thirst racking him, he figured he knew why.
Devish bowed his eyes, thinking. How does he know any of this? He is just trying to save himself from the pain. He is trying to save himself from the death that I will bring him.
Kalima shrugged with hearing this. “I can hear your thoughts Devish. I know what you think. I see your memories, and I can now see your pain.”
Devish looked up behind Kalima, and could see a small shadow come towards them to the room. She stepped through the doorway and he saw her face. He recognized her instantly.
Kalima saw her through his eyes. He also saw someone else with her. He saw Rana was behind her. He turned around and watched both of them come to him.
“Sima?” He blinked. How could she be here? It hurt him that she was. Seeing Rana, feeling her, seeing her eyes for him, he shivered with both. “Rana?” A set of tears swelled up in both of his eyes. They then streaked down his face.
Rana saw him and likewise did the same.
Staring at her, he realized that with Sima there, she must have done something with her. He didn’t know why. He didn’t know how, but he loved her even more for doing it.
Sima smiled to her father, and for everything else, she had just done.
Devish saw this, and his mind froze. It raked with the realization of what had happened and what he was seeing. He looked at Kalima’s back. He looked at the young woman, and finished with looking at Rana. He saw the look in her eyes as she looked at his brother. Her love for him was as clear as day. She no longer looked blocked. With it, he failed. She was again on Kalima’s side.
Kalima couldn’t take his eyes off from hers. “Are you, you again?” He faced both of them head on. He had to do it.
She laughed through her tears. “I remember everything.” She wanted to rush out and grab him into her arms, but stopped herself from doing it. Their last conversation was still weighing on her mind. What he told her would forever haunt her for the rest of her life.
He didn’t agree. He knew her thoughts. “I have forgiven you Rana.” He looked f
rom her eyes and down to Sima. “You coming here was dangerous.” He looked back up. Seeing the two of them standing there together, he thought he would never see it. He always wanted to but never thought beyond this simple thought. Devish never gave him the chance to consider such things.
She heard this and it made her break down. She could no longer resist his pull. She rushed to him and threw herself in to his arms.
He caught her with everything he had.
They embraced, and that embrace turned in to a full on kiss on the lips.
Sima felt true humility watching them kiss. She also felt relieved. She admired their love for each other.
Devish saw it and it only made his rage flare throughout his chest. He answered it with a full head on charge.
He took only one single step.
Sima saw him coming and stepped between her father, Rana and him. She now stared him down.
He watched her and suddenly heard a voice explode inside his mind. He had never heard it before, but he knew it was hers. He tried to fight against it and like everything happening to him on this night; he failed.
You will not harm them Devish. You do not understand the truth of what you see.
He cringed with the softness of her voice. It sounded like a songbird singing in the dawn of spring. It sounded overly sweet and revolting. She sounded like death to his ears.
“Get out of my head!” He looked at her as his eyes flared to their overwhelming and deep red shine. They grew even brighter than they usually were.
She felt his hatred and everything else that was roaming inside his head, and she felt for him. She felt his pity. She felt the need to try to break him free from all of it. She would do it if she could, but she doubted it. She doubted he would ever be sane again. She still had to try. She owed them so much for everything they had done for her.
I know your pain uncle. I know of your sorrow for all that you have done. I know that they have forgiven you for it too.
Again, he cringed. “I carry no pain. I have no sorrow. You are nothing but a child.”
She shook her head. You cannot fool me. You cannot fool them.
He heard the them part of this and it turned his mind. “Who are them?” he had to ask.
Your father Satar and your mother Permona, they have already forgiven you. Why can you not forgive yourself?
He heard their names and it immediately rocked his mind. He even began to shake some from within his own skin.
“How dare you speak their names?” he growled.
She shook her head again. They are here with me uncle. They are here with you. If you wish it, I can have you speak with them.
Her face looked so calm that it made him disgusted even more. He also felt intrigued, even if he was. “They are here now?” He of course didn’t believe her. When a Walker died, they left this world forever with no return possible. He knew this, so she had to be lying. He trusted this as he trusted himself.
She looked down.
When she looked back up again, her eyes glowed to the strongest blue color he had ever seen before. They radiated from within. It was actually beautiful. He would never admit it but it was.
She then opened her mouth to talk, but another voice came out instead of her own. It sounded like a man. He recognized the deepness in its tones. He knew who it was, and yet, still didn’t believe it was him.
“Hello my son.” Satar spoke, sounding just like he did all of those many years ago. He sounded even younger than he remembered him. He sounded smoother too.
“My father.” Devish laughed. This was a hell of a game to play against him. He had never seen the like.
Both Kalima and Rana heard the voice, and turned to it, to her, at the same time. For both of them, she continued to amaze them.
For her father, she blew him away.
“It is me my son. I know you do not believe me but it is I. I have returned through this very special girl to ask you to forgive. I am asking you to drop this fight.”
He blinked. He felt tears coming into both of his eyes, but he wouldn’t have them, so he pushed the feeling back down inside his anger. He gripped that feeling as tight as he could. It felt better for him anyway, so he did so without a second thought.
“Why would I forgive anything?” he quipped.
Sima shook her head.
Satar continued with all he needed to say. “You regret what had happened that night by the river. You have hated yourself for what you did to me. You feared that I was taking a human over you. You were wrong about me. You are wrong about yourself.”
Devish continued to fight back the tears. They were harder to rid than he thought they would be, and it made him feel weak. Yes, his father always made him feel so weak when he was around him, that it seemed not to stop now even with his own death and the games that this child was playing against him.
“What am I wrong about?” he couldn’t help but to ask.
“You believed that I never loved you. You thought that I chose a human over you, and you were wrong. I wanted you to join with me together. You were wrong about that too.”
His hands began to shake. His knees even felt like they were beginning to waver. Still being in his half wolf and half bat shape it made it hard for him to stand without weaving on his paws. If he were on his human feet, he probably wouldn’t have swayed. They were so much bigger than what they now were.
“I do love you son. And so does your mother.”
Her voice instantly changed over to a woman’s soft voice. It flowed like water over a falls.
“Hello my son.” She sounded so beautiful. She sounded so strong.
He had never heard her voice before now. He didn’t know how to feel about it. All he did was cry harder.
“Mother?”
“It is me Devish. It so, so good to be able to see you for the first time since that night I left this plain. I see you have grown strong.”
“How is this possible?” He fought back the tears and yet continued to fail each time he tried. He just didn’t have the strength to put up a good fight.
“We can come through this wonderful young lady here. She has the ability to hear us as no one before her has ever done. She has allowed me to come to you.”
Devish looked at her and his eyes sparkled. Their red color now seemed to glow.
“You must stop the fight. You must stop this madness. You are so much more than this.”
He bowed his eyes. He didn’t want them to see his tears. As he did, they now dripped to the tops of his toes.
Kalima and Rana watched all of this and felt completely amazed.
For Kalima, he now felt that he understood his daughter’s true gift. She is a medium. She can find the dead and speak to them, just as she could speak to all of them ever since she was a small child. She spoke to their inner selves. She spoke to your souls. It just made him love her even more.
Devish didn’t care what she was. He just stared down at the floor. He continued feeling his body shake and moan. He continued crying. He started thinking too.
Why are they just so eager for me to stop the fight? It does not make sense. Father would have never bowed to a human. I do not care what he did with one of them. He just could not allow himself to do it.
He thought back to that night, the night that he took him from this world. He saw the human he loved again and she stood next to her brother. He saw the Wanderers. He saw Kenar.
Of course.
He looked back up.
This is his doing. He is causing this game. The anger quickly came again. This time, he felt it flush against his face. It raced to his cheek and seemingly melted away the tears from his flesh. Kenar has planted this hoax inside me. Without Rana’s protection, they can do anything—anything they want. He looked up to her, and saw the blankness and wonder written all over her face. She could be doing this herself. He wouldn’t put it past her. With her love for his disgusting brother, she would do anything, so why not this. That is it. They are using the
child to mimic all of them. They want me to stop the war. Oh, how low they have gone to do it.
He looked back to Sima.
She saw the hatred refilling his eyes. She saw it pouring out of them just as the tears dried from them. Seeing it, she let go of her gifts. She understood that the end had come just as she knew it would.
Devish couldn’t take it anymore. He rushed forward with everything he had, and just as quickly, he swung at the child with his left arm.
Rana saw him move, tried to bring out her power to stop him, but nothing came. Her eyes couldn’t even turn to their Wanderer’s blue. She couldn’t do anything. She could just stand there and watch his strike.
Kalima was likewise unable to move. He didn’t even see the eyes at the back of his mind. He looked and found nothing. Without them, he could not change. He could just stand there. He did nothing.
The swing was brutal as it struck her face. It gashed her left cheek. It shattered her eye and broke her jaw. Thankfully, it happened too swiftly for her to feel any direct pain.
Kalima’s horror magnified as he watched his little girl leave her feet. He watched her fly back and to his left until she stuck the wall just along his side of the hallway. She came to rest there. The sound of her smacking it would forever reverberate through his life. It sounded like a sack of potatoes striking a concrete floor as it fell from five floors up. It was a nightmarish sound. It was a terrifying sight, not just for watching it, but for also realizing that only after it happened, he was finally able to move.
Devish felt relieved now that she was finally gone. He felt right again. It was time to get back to what he was doing before she interrupted him.
Kalima moved towards her, but didn’t even reach her feet when a sudden flare came to his back. A blow came to his right shoulder, and the feeling of three deep punctures came with it. Then the pushing feeling carried him to the wall.
A Werewolf's Saga, The Beginning (A Werewolf's Saga Boxed Sets Book 3) Page 72