by Ian Haywood
“Leave her be, Lucius!”
It was Alana and the tone in which she called out showed the shock her body had just gone through when she had suddenly attacked Naomi.
Lucius had no other option but to cease his physical tirade on Naomi and the disappointment on his face as he moved away from his prey showed how much he would have loved to continue hurting her.
Alana spoke once more.
“Lucius, the guards will deal with Naomi – I need you here immediately!”
The two guards picked Naomi up off the floor and sat her down on one of the more grander chairs that surrounded the General’s table while Lucius walked over to Alana like a naughty child who had just been told off, but to make up for how he was feeling right now, he took out some of his frustration on the two guards.
“Make sure that bitch doesn’t even move an inch!”
In those few seconds, Lucius suddenly realized that whereas he and the guards seemed to be able to touch Naomi without any incident, the same could not be said for Alana as everyone in the room had just witnessed what happens if she did.
“Keep her as far away from Alana as you possibly can - you saw for yourselves what she is capable of!” Lucius ordered again. “If she tries any tricks, I will personally make sure that she pays the price for doing so!”
The two guards nodded their heads and one of them showed great initiative by leaving the room to find some rope to tie Naomi to the chair.
But whereas Naomi remained still in her seat – mainly because she was almost concussed from Lucius’s onslaught – Alana was moving frantically on the floor.
Lucius immediately dropped to the floor as he noticed that Alana’s whole body was convulsing violently and even though he was physically stronger than her, even he was struggling to keep her still.
The second guard had returned and came over to see if he could be of assistance, but Lucius just sent him on his way, ordering him to continue restraining Naomi.
After what seemed like eternity, Alana’s convulsions began to slowly recede and soon Lucius could loosen his grip on her as she slowly returned to near normality.
Alana attempted to get up, but to no avail and Lucius told her to remain still for a little longer.
And as Lucius looked down to speak to Alana, he watched her look across towards Naomi and as she spotted her being tied up by the guards, he could see her physically recoil in terror and he immediately responded.
“Alana, I think that it’s best that I take you to your quarters where you can be undisturbed for a while until you feel better to continue your duties again.”
Alana was incredibly stubborn and she immediately refused such a ludicrous idea of her foregoing her duties even for a second, but as she tried to get to her feet by herself, she found that a little help would be needed from Lucius after all.
As she managed to stand, it was clear that her head was still spinning from her convulsion and at this very moment, walking unaided was not a good idea.
Lucius saw this and whispered to Alana.
“We all need a little help sometimes, Alana. I will help you to your quarters and immediately return to keep watch on Naomi and await news on the searches. I’m sure you will make a speedy recovery, but if there’s any news to report, then I will not hesitate in informing you immediately.”
Alana reluctantly knew that her body was struggling to work right now and as much as she hated to admit it, Lucius may be right in saying that a little time to herself would prove beneficial.
So, Alana slowly made her way towards her private quarters with Lucius’s assistance, neither of them realizing that they may have made a grave error indeed.
For the two guards who stood watch over the grand entrance to the secret hideout were now guarding Naomi and unbeknown to anyone, an unwelcoming figure was moving around undetected.
CHAPTER FOUR
Lucius helped Alana to reach her private quarters and as they reached the door, he went to turn away to return to Naomi, but was stopped by Alana from doing so.
Lucius had never ever seen Alana looking so vulnerable as she did right now and the last thing he wanted to do was to leave her in such a state – so her hand reaching out to him for help made him feel a lot more comfortable staying with her.
It was fair to say that Lucius would do anything for Alana – not just because he was now the Head General in her army, but secretly, he had fallen in love with her and when he thought that maybe Alana felt the same way about him, his hopes were dashed as nothing more ever materialized.
That’s why he had undertaken the mission to find Naomi and bring her back to Alana in the feint hope that his reward may be much greater than the promotion he received.
Alana had took him in when his life was in complete tatters and for that he would be eternally grateful, but something was missing – and that thing was Alana’s love.
Maybe one day she could love him the way he loved her.
And even though Alana had an air about her that would normally put the fear of God into anyone who met her, Lucius saw her in a completely different way, realizing how beautiful she really was both inside and out.
But what Lucius didn’t know was that Alana had already worked out the feelings he had for her and in her own way she was flattered, but at this point in her life, she saw the love of a man as a distraction that could make her fail in reaching her ultimate goal.
And even though she knew no romance could ever bloom between her and Lucius, Alana felt safe in the knowledge that there was someone around her who truly would defend her without question.
Alana had now opened the door that led into her private quarters and still kept a grip on Lucius’s arm.
“Please help me inside.” She asked gently.
Lucius was seeing a side to Alana that nobody else ever had or ever would experience and it was well-known that nobody was to ever set foot into Alana’s private quarters, whatever the reason may be for doing so.
And as he helped Alana to make her way inside, Lucius was shocked to discover that her private quarters were no different from any of the other General’s rooms in the barracks.
In fact, some of the Generals had managed to acquire a lot more luxuries in their rooms while Alana seemed quite content in living without any.
Lucius aided Alana to sit on the edge of her bed and he expected to be ordered out of the room, but instead Alana looked up at him and asked him a question.
“What happened to me out there, Lucius?”
“For the life of me, I don’t know.” Lucius replied, “But I can tell you that I for one would not like to see it repeated again!”
Alana gave a wry smile.
“Neither would I. You seem incredibly concerned for my welfare, Lucius. As you can see, we’re not all infallible, but I can assure you that it will be an incredibly long time before death gets its hands on me. Remember, we are immortal after all.”
“But there are still many ways immortality can be taken away, Alana.” Lucius replied.
“Well, what you just witnessed out there proves that you should never under estimate anyone! I really thought that Gereziac’s daughter could cause us no harm whatsoever, but after the incident a few moments ago, we must remain cautious of what she is capable of. The last thing I need right now is to lose the best man that I have in my ranks.”
Lucius looked down at Alana and replied in the sincerest tone he had ever spoken.
“You will never lose me, Alana.”
But whereas Lucius thought that this may be the moment that he had longed for alone with Alana, all of his hopes were quashed in a split second as Alana suddenly took her gaze away from him and the two shared an uneasy silence.
Lucius was thinking about leaving the room, but Alana suddenly spoke to him, not making eye contact as she did so.
“I would like to thank you for your loyalty, Lucius and also for the way you showed compassion for my wellbeing, but I should expect no less from any of my Generals. We have spent years build
ing an army that is feared throughout the lands and in doing so, we must not give into our inner feelings and emotions.”
“I fully understand, Alana.” Lucius replied.
“We don’t want any of the men thinking I have any personal favourites within the ranks – isn’t your promotion to Head General not enough for you, Lucius?”
Lucius wanted to shake Alana and tell her how much he wanted her, but reality had dawned on him that Alana was certainly not going to give him that chance so he would have to keep his personal feelings towards her hidden away.
Lucius needed to leave the room fast before the hurt he was experiencing right now got any worse by being so close to Alana, so he spoke sharply.
“I need to check on my men to see if they have any news, Alana. You try and get some rest and join us when you are feeling better.”
Alana immediately felt the change in Lucius’s tone and replied with authority, reminding him not to step out of line.
“Lucius, I cannot find fault with anything you have done for me so far, but I will offer you one piece of advice while you and I are on good terms – tell me what to do again and you and I will fall out very quickly. Have you forgotten who gives the orders here? Now, continue with your duties – I will join you soon.”
Lucius’s feelings had gone from hurt to anger, but there was no way he could vent his frustration out on Alana, so all that he could do right now was leave and stay out of her way for as long as he could in order to cool down.
As he walked along the corridor, he did think of taking his anger out on Naomi once again, but if he did go too far, then he would once again incur the wrath of Alana and that certainly wouldn’t end well.
Maybe Zephal had been found by his men by now and it could only be a small matter of time before the son of a bitch is brought to him.
Then he would personally make sure that Zephal never darkens his door again.
All is fair in love and war.
Lucius’s love is dead – but war is where the fun begins.
CHAPTER FIVE
The last place that Lucius wanted to be right now was anywhere within the confines of the secret hideout and maybe a bit of time out around the beach would be advisable until he calmed down and felt like returning inside.
But he would have to walk through the very room where Naomi was being guarded right now and Lucius knew that it would take every ounce of self-control not to hit out at her if she just as much looked at him the wrong way.
He had seen her being tied to the chair and that made it a little easier for him to get out of the room and into the labyrinth of tunnels without even engaging with her through sight or speech.
But he need not worry about that.
As he opened the door, Lucius’s expression changed from authoritive to one of complete and utter horror – so much that he froze to the spot with shock.
The two guards were still in the room, but they were most certainly not doing what they had been ordered to do by Lucius – in fact they were unable to do anything at all.
There was blood splattered over nearly half the room and scattered indiscriminately across the marble floor were numerous body parts which belonged to the two guards.
Lucius had seen death on more than a number of occasions and some of those were extremely gruesome, but nothing prepared him for seeing two of his own men massacred within the walls of what had been a secret location for such a long time.
And another horrifying sight met Lucius – Naomi was nowhere to be seen.
The chair that she had been tied to was still there, tipped to its side with the rope that had once held her just strewn across the blood soaked floor.
Lucius looked around the room just in case someone was still hiding out in there and as he did, he caught a glimpse of General Azaac’s body who Alana had killed earlier and immediately noticed that his decorative robe that Alana insisted her Generals wore was missing from him.
But Lucius hadn’t noticed that Alana had followed him into the room, be it a lot more slowly than he had managed and even though the pain that she was experiencing from walking was immense, she still mustered up enough strength to stand in front of Lucius.
It was at this point that she spoke to Lucius, not turning around.
“Is that all you are going to do, Lucius?” she said sharply, “Just stand there like my shadow?”
And with that, she turned around and the look on her face immediately told Lucius that the conversation he was about to have with Alana would not be a pleasant one and in his present mood, he knew that he had to be extremely careful how he handled it.
“This is all your fault, Lucius!” Alana shouted while pointing her finger directly into Lucius’s face, “You had to insist that I go to my private quarters and by doing so, not only did you cause the deaths of two of my best guards, but also managed to lose us Gereziac’s daughter as well – the one thing that you and I worked so hard to bring here in the first place! I have seen some of my men do some foolish things in the past, but what you have managed to do right here is nothing short of imbecilic!”
Lucius remained silent as Alana continued her tirade.
“We cannot continue like this anymore otherwise we are going to become laughing stocks throughout the ranks! We already have most of your men searching for Zephal’s body which suddenly disappeared from our grasp and now Gereziac’s daughter has also been taken from our secret hideout! Whoever took her is certainly able of looking after their self as you can plainly see for yourself what they are capable of – what was achieved here was no mean feat! You know how well our men are trained, Lucius. But what really makes my blood boil is how they managed to infiltrate us so easily!”
And as Alana took a breath, the room began to echo with the sound of heavy footsteps and both she and Lucius turned their attention to the large open doors to see who was about to enter.
It was some of Lucius’s men and they were about to bring more bad news.
Lucius started to walk over to them and as he did so, he noticed that all of the soldiers waiting for him were now staring at the gruesome scene inside.
But not one man dared to ask what had happened.
“You bring us good news, I hope?” Lucius asked one of the soldiers.
“Alas not, General.” came the reply, “We have searched everywhere along the beach, the sand dunes and the cliff top and there is no sign whatsoever of anyone living or dead.”
Lucius nodded his head slowly, before speaking again.
“Gentlemen, if there was nobody within the vicinity whatsoever, how do you explain what has just happened in here? There is someone freely moving around us and they are causing some serious mayhem! Zephal’s body was definitely on the beach and Gereziac’s daughter was tied to a chair in this room to stop her from escaping and now they have just vanished into thin air without any trace. We also have a couple of dead men showing us that whoever is doing this is not afraid to kill anyone who gets in their way! You need to go and find whoever is doing this and I can assure you that when you find them, Gereziac’s daughter is bound to be with them. Bring them all to me and I will deal with them personally! Leave no stone unturned and even search through the whole of the barracks and I personally give you permission to check the General’s quarters if you have to – but don’t return unless you have good news for me, do I make myself clear?”
The soldiers present all responded by nodding their heads and turned around in unison to leave the room.
But Lucius immediately stopped two of the soldiers who were at the rear of the group and ordered them to keep guard over the main entrance.
The two men had no choice in the matter and they took on the duties with extreme caution as they could both see what had happened to the other two who had done so before them.
Lucius looked back at Alana, who hadn’t moved from the spot that she was standing in when he left her to address his men and he could see that the anger in her face remained.
Deep down
Lucius knew that he had made a grave error in leaving the same two guards who had been guarding the main entrance to keep watch over Naomi because he was more concerned for Alana’s welfare, but he didn’t expect something as horrific as this to happen, especially inside their secret hideout.
He could never hate Alana for her reaction towards him, but he knew that since taking over the position of General Azaac as the Head General of Alana’s army, he would unfortunately be the one who would have to bear the brunt of Alana’s anger.
And he knew all too well how careful he had to be – General Azaac’s headless body by the table reminded him of that.
CHAPTER SIX
The mental toll of everything that was happening around him was really starting to get to Lucius, but he dared not show that in any way in front of Alana as she may see it as a sign of weakness – so he had to think quick on his feet in order to win back some sort of respect from his leader.