‘Finally, we found your kin.’ He said to Panat. ‘Kahdi’s father Aakash welcomed us into his clan. We were safe once again. His clan was much more sophisticated than ours had been. They were better hidden too. We discussed the situation and Aakash contacted the other clans. It took a while to convince the leaders that we needed to work together. But Aakash managed to persuade them. Esther helped, I told my story and together we convinced them that we needed to consolidate our strength. There was no guarantee that Azazel would stop once he had killed off everyone in his own clan. He was aware of the other clans, he knew that there were other forces. There was no saying what he was capable of. He was a loose cannon. Even more than he had always been.’
He paused again. Anadi and Panat could see the strain it caused him to tell the story. Hetty urged him on by putting her hand on his shoulder. He covered her hand with his and continued. ‘We weren’t safe, that was evident when he ambushed a group of Watchers from the combined clans. Esther was one of them.’ He pushed back a tear. ‘He killed her. Took her daughter with him. A young woman then, we have no idea what happened to her, or whether she is still alive.’
‘There have been stories of a woman who accompanies Azazel. One who is forever in the shadows. A statuesque woman of indeterminable age’ Jan added to the story. ‘Maybe she is Esther’s daughter, we do not know.’
‘He made it clear that he would search out every Watcher and kill them all. He also threatened to find the other forces. As you know that would be disastrous. All of the forces together would really mean the end of mankind. We had to prevent that. No matter what. The council had formed by then. Together we discussed the options. It was decided that Azazel had to be stopped and your predecessor was the only one who could do that.’
‘You must understand that this was a major decision for the clans. Never had they actively sought contact with any of the forces. But it needed to be done.’ Hetty had joined the narrative. ‘It was a turning point, but we were desperate.’
So Hetty had been one of the council members then too, Anadi deduced. How old were they? She had heard that the other Primal had died just before she herself was brought into the fold. No, there was something not right in the timeline here. She shrugged it off for the moment.
‘Aakash met with his charge—the Primal force.’ Joseph picked up the tale. ‘Together with the rest of the council he convinced her that it was necessary to neutralise Azazel. The rest you know. She wounded Azazel, but lost her mind in the process. Not being able to live with what she had done—she killed herself.’
‘That was when your life changed.’ Hetty spoke directly to Anadi.’When you became Anadi.’
Anadi looked at Panat. He was also mentally counting the years and trying to age those present, like she was. It was confusing. Anadi knew that the Watchers lived longer than regular humans, but here they were talking of more than one-hundred years old, and they didn’t all age the same. Some, like Hetty, were aged, others like Joseph looked as though they were middle aged. How old was Joseph anyway? He had been there from the start, from before when Azazel and her predecessor had fought. That would make him, what? More than one-hundred and fifty? Could that be true?
Hetty and Joseph noticed the confusion. ‘Are you ok?’ Hetty asked Panat. ‘Do you have any questions?’
‘The time frame confuses us.’ Panat answered. ‘How long ago was all this?’
Hetty and Joseph looked at each other.
‘Long ago’ Joseph answered. ‘More than a century.’
He let that sink in.
‘We are older than we look.’ Hetty added.
‘We gathered that.’ Panat said.
‘It’s the proximity of the forces.’ Joseph took up the explanation. ‘Since Azazel killed off my clan, we have all been subjected to much closer proximity with the forces. Initially with your predecessor, later after the fight, with Azazel.’
That surprised Anadi. What did he mean? ‘What happened with Azazel after the fight?’ she asked.
‘He was badly wounded. We took care of him. Discussed the options. Convinced him that he should change his ways and do what he was made for, work for the balance of nature. He agreed, not that he had much choice. He was badly wounded. Because his wounds were inflicted by Primal, they had the potential to end his life. That scared him. He had lived so long and wasn’t ready to give up his existence. Aakash convinced him to change his ways. To work with us instead of against us.’
‘And how long did that last?’
‘For the better part of a hundred years.’
‘And then?’
Joseph looked at Hetty. ‘Then he rebelled again.’ He said. ‘Without us noticing, he had started reverting back to his old ways.’
Without you noticing?’ Anadi was astounded. ‘You’re Watchers.’ She said sarcastically.
‘Yes, we are. But we were lulled into a false sense of security. A hundred years of compliance had convinced us that he was part of the fold.’
‘We also underestimated his powers.’ Jan added.
This really surprised both Panat and Anadi.
‘What?’ She asked.
‘He can read minds, we knew that.’ Joseph explained. ‘But he can do more. He can manipulate minds too.’
That landed like a bomb. So it was true.
‘He can manipulate minds?’ Panat asked incredulously. He was flabbergasted. And it showed.
‘Yes, he plants ideas in your mind, makes you believe what he wants. He is much more the manipulator than we thought.’
The surprises continued.
‘During the last decade of the supposed cooperation, he had been building up his own group of acolytes and strengthening his financial position with the sale of drugs and arms. He camouflaged what he did, made us think it was all legit. We fell for it—hook, line and sinker. The finale was when Azazel killed Aakash. He murdered not only Aakash, but most of the council as well. Leaving us without leadership. Once again he was free to do whatever he wanted.’
‘How come he didn’t kill you?’ Anadi asked Joseph. Blunt as ever.
‘So that I could suffer more.’ Joseph answered.
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
It was all too convenient.
There was something very wrong with the story.
I couldn’t put my finger on it, but I just kept coming back to why Joseph was still alive. Something there just didn’t fit.
So, Azazel can manipulate someone’s mind. That’s a surprise. And not a welcome one. It threw a wrench in our plans. Now we had to contend with that as well as the fact that he can read them. How in hell were we supposed to get the upper-hand? It looked as though all the aces are in his camp.
Ok, he couldn’t read my mind. So maybe he couldn’t control me either. He would have to get inside my head to be able to do that, and according to Panat he couldn’t.
But then again. They hadn’t known about his manipulative talents, so how seriously should I take their conviction that I couldn’t be read? It’s confusing. And irritating. They were supposed to help, but bit-by-bit I was getting the idea that I was better off without them. They were definitely susceptible to Azazel’s talents, and in that they were a liability. Even Panat. Though I did enjoy his company, I didn’t need the distraction.
I had to get to Azazel.
Or did I?
Talk about manipulation. What was happening here?
What was really happening?
The fur on my back pricked through the skin. My instincts screamed at me to leave. To get the hell out of here. Leave them to take care of their problems. I hadn’t signed up for this. I didn’t sign up for anything. The whole Force thing.
To be frank, I wanted nothing to do with it.
But was that realistic?
I was in over my head.
But did I have to stay? Did I want to stay?
It was riling me. And that was not a good idea. Not with me. The tension was growing. I had been a good girl for a long time. N
ot killing for weeks, more than a month even. More than I’m used to. But it was starting to take its toll on me and on my patience. Soon I would need to kill something. Or more precisely—someone.
Another distraction to worry about. My life has never been easy, or straightforward, but since Bharat came up, it just seems to have gotten more and more complicated with each new day. All I wanted was some peace and quiet.
Well, that flew out the window when Barkley Smith entered the prison visiting room months ago. Life was going down the shit-hole in a hurry. It’s enough to anger anyone. And me, I have a bad temper to start off with. Especially now.
Panat felt my anger. He put his hand on my arm, felt the fur beneath.
‘We need a break.’ He said. ‘There’s a lot to digest.’
‘Yes.’ Hetty replied. ‘There is. Take some time.’
‘If you have any questions, look for us and just ask. We will help if we can.’ Joseph added.
Yeah right. I thought but stayed silent. Though it took a lot of restraint. Something that I didn’t think I had any more of left.
Panat stood up and walked to the door. I followed him. Not looking back at them.
We walked out of the underground structure. Though the old farm house and into the forest surrounding the buildings. I needed fresh air. And I needed to kill something.
Panat was silent, he watched me. Unsure of what was happening.
I paced through the forest, kicking up the broken branches that littered the dirt path.
I let the anger out. Grabbing a large branch, I smashed it against an even bigger tree, shattering the branch completely. I hit the tree again and again with my hands. I let the claws rake down the bark, slashing deep furrows in the tree trunk. I half roared out my frustration.
Panat just waited it out. He sat down on a fallen tree trunk and watched me rant and rave.
It was just as well that we were so far away from any town or village. The noise I was making would definitely cause people to wonder what was going on.
Not that I cared. I needed to get rid of the tension.
‘So change.’ Panat said.
I looked at him dumbfounded. ‘Change?’
‘Yes’ he continued. ‘Change. Go hunt a deer or something like that. Try to stay away from livestock if possible, it would be difficult to explain. But there are a lot of deer and wild boar around here. Get it out of your system. Then we’ll talk after that.’
He seemed so pragmatic. So together.
But maybe he was right. I needed to do something. Demolishing trees was not doing it for me. This way it would cost the whole forest before I felt any better.
I started to undress, throwing my clothes to the ground. The fur rippled through my skin and before the last piece clothing touched the floor of the forest, I was fully changed,
‘Don’t roar, please’ Panat asked. ‘The sound carries and we won’t be able to explain that.’ He was so matter of a fact. It registered. I stayed silent.
Turning, I set off down the trail. Looking for blood.
Two hours or so later, I returned to where Panat still sat on the log. He had folded my clothes, but otherwise the scene was exactly the same.
There was blood on my fur. I’d killed a boar. A big one. He at least satiated my bloodlust and hunger for the moment. Not that it would last for long. Killing animals never really satisfied the Primal Nature. But it was better than nothing. My frustration was still there, though now, it was controllable.
I changed back and dressed, cleaning off the blood first with my tee-shirt. I guess I would need a new one.
‘What’s your take on it all?’ I asked him.
‘I don’t know. It’s a lot to take in, and sometimes it seems a bit contradictory to other things that they told us before.’
‘Do you trust them?’
‘Do you?’
I thought on it for a while. Did I trust them? My instincts didn’t, that was for sure. But why? What was it that was eating away at me about all this? What was getting my hackles up?
‘No’ I answered. ‘No, I don’t.’
‘Yeah’ he surprised me. ‘I don’t think I do either. There’s something wrong in all this, I just can’t put my finger on it. What it is exactly. But there are gaps in the stories. Strange things they don’t explain.’
‘Like Joseph being the only one who survived all the massacres.’ I added.
‘Yes, like that. And the fact that he always somehow seems to come out on top. I want to trust him, he’s well thought of in all the clans.’
We mused on that for a while. I joined Panat on the log. It felt good. There was an easy intimacy between us. I guess the trip had helped to create it, but it was also the shared suspicion and the way we thought. We’re both the questioning types. Not content with believing what the elders told us. We’re I suppose rebellious, but in a good way. We ask questions. And then question the answers,
‘So where does the money come from?’ I finally asked what had been bothering me for a long time.
‘Good question.’ Panat answered. ‘Our clan has a number of investments, real estate and industry, that kind of thing. They generate a lot of the income. Other than that, we have a mine in the mountains—gems and semi-precious metals. The other clans have similar properties.’
‘How did they get them?’
He looked at me somewhat confused. ‘What do you mean?’
‘Where did they get the mines and the real estate from? They needed money to buy them, so where did that come from?’
He was quiet for a while. ‘I don’t know.’ He finally admitted. ‘It just seems as though it was always there. The clan was reasonably prosperous when I was born, so I’ve never known anything else. I guess I never thought to question it. It was just there, a given.’
‘Have the clan’s fortunes grown much in the meantime? I asked.
‘Yes, I think so. We have been able to buy the most recent and state-of-the-art technical equipment, the stronghold in the mountains has been expanded and we seem to have other places all over the world. So yes. I’d say that we have become richer.’
‘Is the increase explainable?’
‘I can’t explain it, at least not all of it.’ It was sobering.
‘Joseph said that Azazel was into drugs and weapon trafficking. Surely that’s not the basis of the income?’
‘It can’t be.’ Panat didn’t want to contemplate the possibility. ‘I have known these people all my life.’ he continued. ‘I’ve trusted them. They can’t be criminals.’ I hoped he was right.
‘Who handles the money in your clan?’ I asked.
‘Kahdi.’ he said.
‘Is he trustworthy?’
‘Yes, he is. I would stake my life on it. His father Aakash was a good man, Kahdi is too. A little old fashioned, but a good man.’
‘And Joseph?’ The big question.
‘I always thought so.’ Not so convinced anymore.
Standing up, we decided to go back to the house. They would miss us, we had been away for hours. It was also getting cold. A drizzle had started. Combined with the cold wind, it was becoming uncomfortable outside. Panat pulled up the collar of his coat and we started back.
‘We have to be careful’ I said. ‘We don’t know who we can trust.’
‘It can’t be that bad.’ He answered hopefully.
‘I hope you’re right.’ I said, quickening my pace. The drizzle had turned into a steady rain.
CHAPTER FORTY
‘How are we going to go about this?’ Anadi asked. They had reconvened the next morning. Hans and Sarah were present this time as well. The hierarchy or structure here eluded Anadi. She had no idea what some of the people’s roles were. So she just sat, and waited to see what would unfold.
She’d calmed down a bit, at least on the outside. The change yesterday had done her good. She was able to control her emotions a bit more, and the murderous urges were manageable. She forced the doubts to the back of her consciousness
for now, and got on with the mission. Internally though, she was still in turmoil. Should she trust them? Yes or no? The questions remained unanswered. And they were stacking up. Instead of finding answers, she was collecting more and more questions. This was not how she had planned it at all.
She would have to wing it. Be guarded, but accept the help that the clans were giving her. So here she was again, back in the meeting, gathering information.
‘Let’s hear what Hans has found out, then we can determine what the appropriate next steps would be.’ Jan took control of the meeting. He nodded to Hans who was standing next to a streamer with his laptop in his hand. Hans tapped some of the keys and photos appeared on the screen.
‘These are pictures of the most important acolytes that we know of’ he started. ‘We think there are a lot more, but these are the ones we continuously keep an eye on. We think they have some influence within Azazel’s organisation.’
‘Do you have an educated guess of the total number of followers?’ Panat asked.
‘That’s a bit difficult.’ Jan answered. ‘We know he has an inner circle of about twenty people. Some of them very influential in politics and business, but there are also the “foot soldiers” as we call them and the “hangers-on” All-in-all we’re looking at a number somewhere between one- and two hundred.’
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