Evigheden

by S King

  “I found something else, well actually, Greenaway found something else.”

  At the mention of my not so former supervisor a spark of hope lit up my mind, “what is it?”

  “Since you’re on this jolly train,” I could hear the laugh in her voice and smirked, “there’s another scientist that was a part of creating you.”

  “So you’re telling me I was designed by three different scientists?”

  “They didn’t call you Silver Angel for nothing, babe. After your parents agreed to help unify the guards, the courts pulled in their best scientists to design the perfect match for a Mr. Demir Losett.”

  “What’s the scientists name?”

  She shifted through something for a second before huffing out a breath, “Kuri Yoon.”

  “Don’t tell me it’s the one I’m thinking of.”

  “Ok, I won’t.”

  “Karina.”

  “Yes, it’s the one you’re thinking of and it’s the same one who used to train you to the bone. Happy?”

  “Not exactly,” I blew out a hard breath and closed my eyes for a second.

  The very man my best friend had mentioned was the same one who had been a second father figure to me. Whether I liked it or not. Still, given the situation I was currently in, I didn’t think too much about what I was going to do and simple stored the name in my memory bank and turned my attention back to the house. Inside the dining room, the honor guard was having a stare down with my parents.

  “Let me ask you a favor, Rina.”

  “Ooh do I get to blow something up?”

  I rolled my eyes and shook my head even though she couldn’t see me, “no.”

  “Set something on fire?”

  “No.”

  “Someone on fire?” A hopeful hitch hit her voice.

  “Karina,” I snapped, watching one of the members raising a gun to my father’s head, “get my parents out of here. I don’t care how you do it or where you put them, just get them out of Castlehedge, ok?”

  She huffed out a breath, “yeah, I can do it, but I still think it would be better if I blow something up during the process.”

  “Hey, you never know,” I said scanning every level of the house, trying to find the quickest way in without causing one of the trigger happy idiots from shooting my parents on accident.

  The last thing I needed was to cause a scene while trying to get my parents to safety. They had enough on their minds with Inessa’s death and didn’t need my own death added to it. Granted, I was going to probably be killed sooner rather than later at this rate.

  “True, anyway, I’m getting out of here. Everyone had left for the night and I got everything from your locker and desk, where do you want me to drop it off?”

  “My apartment,” I narrowed my eyes on one of the members showing the leader his phone. For the time being my parents were safe thanks to the caller on the screen.

  “Wait, back up, hold on a minute, what do you mean your apartment?”

  “Karina please, I don’t have time right now to think of anything else and we’re not meeting the guys until this time tomorrow night. Just do me this favor, ok?”

  The leader had taken the call and was shooting my father daggers with his eyes. Whoever was on the other end of the phone, the leader didn’t care for the orders being handed down and made sure to let my parents know with his glaring attitude. At least, he knew enough to not pull the trigger on his gun without the permission of the shot-caller on the other end.

  “Yeah, yeah, ok. Whatever.” She hung up and left me to my own devices.

  As the night around me fell silent, my muscles tensed readying themselves for my mind to give the command and jump into action. But as I learned in these situations, I knew better than to jump into the line of fire head first. I needed the perfect opportunity and waiting never got anyone killed any faster.

  Counting back the time, I had reached five minutes when the gun lowered from my father’s head, my mother slumped in her chair with relief and the guard members left my childhood home. My parents were safe, but I still couldn’t do anything.

  My whip was in my pack with Karina and unfortunately, I didn’t have any back up whips—or weapons for that matter—on me or in the near vicinity.

  I had to be careful not to make any noise as the members neared and walked past the tree line where I was hiding. Their own foot falls silenced my shuffling routine around the tree, away from their wandering eyes. While their voices passed around in their small half-circle.

  Still I didn’t move until the members were out of earshot and eye sight; the last thing I needed was for the HG to bust a U and come gunning for me, literally.

  Crossing the front lawn, I slipped around to the edge of the property before looking over my shoulder to make sure everything was calm for the time being.

  “Luminous,” my mother shrieked, bolting from her chair as she saw me coming in the house.

  I staggered backward when she crashed into me and held me tightly, “are you two ok?” Looking over my mother’s shoulder, my dad sagged in relief when our eyes locked.

  “Where have you been?” My mother asked, stopping my father from saying anything.

  “I’ve been dealing with a lot of stuff,” keeping them in the dark was the best for the time being.

  “So have we!” She stepped back from me searching my face for something to tell her I was very much alive. But if I had to dig deeper in that gaze of hers, I knew she was really looking for the reason for why I turned out the way I had. Scientists or not.

  I averted my gaze and cleared my throat, “listen, Karina is going to be here in a few to move you guys to a secured location. I can’t protect either of you right now and keep air in my lungs. So, just do me this favor and go quietly. Ok?”

  “What’re you going to do?” For the first time my father spoke.

  Like with my mother, I kept my answer short, “I’m going to fix all of this.”

  “Is it true?” Unshed tears glisten in my mother’s eyes as she stared up at me from her shorter stature.

  “What?” Don’t ask about the judges. Don’t ask about the judges, I kept thinking to myself.

  “Those judges? The scientists? Did you kill them?”

  I contemplated the question, debating with myself if I should cover the truth with a lie or just tell them the truth. But I didn’t know if this was going to be the last time, I saw them and I didn’t want to leave them with a lie should this be the last time we were together.

  Clenching my jaw for a second, I looked between the two of them, “I’d prefer not to answer that.”

  “Oh my god,” my mother covered her mouth with a shaking hand and backed away from me.

  “We don’t have time to discuss this right now, get your things together and wait for Karina. I don’t have much time on my own clock.”

  My mother didn’t need to be told twice to basically get away from me; she bolted from the dining room and ran up the stairs to the bedroom she had shared with my father for the past nearly thirty-five years.

  “Do you regret it, Luminous?” My father asked having sat down in the chair again.

  “What?”

  “Killing the judges?”

  “If I regret, I’ll regret but for the time being. I’m just trying to stay alive and see tomorrow.”

  He nodded in understanding and stared at the table, “what is your plan?”

  I raked my fingers through my hair, listening to my mother softly cry as she rushed around the upstairs bedroom. “I need to settle a few scores and then,” I shrugged, “I don’t know maybe bring Castlehedge’s nightlife to its knees.”

  “How?”

  “I don’t know, and you don’t need to worry about it either.” I had never taken a snappy tone with my father and didn’t like how the words had come from my lips, but I couldn’t deal with the judgement in either of my parents’ eyes right now.

  He took a deep breath and clasped his hands on the table, witho
ut looking at me, “you know everything?”

  “Are you referring to the agreement you and mom made with the courts? Or the fact I was never really a wanted child but a pawn in this sick game?”

  A muscle in his brows twitched as my words hit home; the resentment of finding out why I was here had bubbled to the surface as soon as I saw the unparalleled fear in my mother’s eyes when I refused to answer her questions.

  Attacking my father wasn’t on my game plan for the night, but he had brought up the subject and I wasn’t going to miss an opportunity to confront him.

  Granted, it wasn’t the first time I had seen that look on their face or feel the coldness she directed toward me when I talked about the guard. It was as if I were a bittersweet curse to the River family and nothing more. Not a beloved daughter or a loving sister, but a tool to advance the family’s accolades.

  “Luminous,” my father said in a hollow voice, pulling my mind from the memories of how each of them looked at me like I had two heads when I achieved something in my training or in my station. “This is not what I—we had wanted for you.”

  “No, you just wanted me to marry someone that has been hellbent on killing me since day one.”

  He flinched as if I had slapped him; I didn’t mean for my words to be as harsh as they were, but I knew we needed to clear everything from the slate before we said what might have been our final goodbyes.

  “We thought it would make the world a better place,” he answered honestly.

  “By creating a child specifically based off the genetic profile and attitude tests and whatever else of another person, dad. I’ve never been able to maintain a normal relationship with a man since I started dating. And why is that?” I pointed out the window behind him, “because I was not meant to be with anyone else except for him! Do you not understand how that feels? To know I had been living a hard-enough life when it came to the tests, trainings, scans, everything only to learn I was nothing special! I’ve never been anything special except for in the eyes of the courts because I!” I slapped my chest harder than I meant to but kept spewing my inner most feelings out on the dining room table I had spent countless hours at.

  “I was made to be someone’s possession! Not once did either you or mom give me a fucking hint about what my final destination would be! I had to learn it from the people that had designed my DNA and genetic makeup!”

  “Luminous, what we did was—”

  “For the greater good,” I shook my head, refusing to allow the tears to fall. “Yeah, I get it, dad. You don’t need to keep repeating your stance on the subject. I heard you clear the first time.”

  Turning my attention to him, I steeled my nerves and pushed the emotions back to the bottom of my heart where they would remain until I took my final breath.

  “Get only what you cannot live without and be ready to leave when Karina comes. We’re running against time and the last thing I need to be worried about is the Honor Guard coming back for either of your heads.”

  I turned to leave the same way I had come in when his voice made me stop.

  “I’ve always loved you, Luminous. No matter how you came into this world or what had to be done in order to get you here, I have always and always will love you.”

  A muscle in my jaw ticked and for a moment; I thought about telling him to fuck off or just walk out of the house without saying anything. But that would only force a guilt on me I didn’t need right now.

  Looking over my shoulder, I smirked, “I love you too, dad. I’ll see you on the other side of the moon, ok?”

  His gentle eyes brightened with unshed tears as he whispered, “I’ll be waiting for you, baby girl.”

  §§§§§

  It was two in the morning and I was feeling like death had wrapped me in its cold embrace, trying to drag me down to eternal sleep. Stretching my eyes, I stared at the laboratory that had been like a second home for me when I was growing up.

  Dr. Kuri Yoon was a middle-aged Asian man with thick black hair like he was in his twenties still. The only sign of his true age was written in the lines etched in his forehead and around the corners of his eyes. He was shorter than me by several inches but smart as a whip—and quick as one too if I were being honest.

  To say the good scientist and I didn’t have the best of working relationships would be putting it mildly. He had been the main driver behind a majority of the scars littering my ribs and across my back; with his sharpened bamboo stalk shaped into a sword and a wicker whip. He used both weapons to mold me into the dangerous weapon I was currently—or formerly, rather, for Silver. Without his relentless training sessions, that quickly turned to just downright pummeling matches, I wouldn’t be able to remain focused on my task.

  I clenched my teeth together as I remembered the way he would punish me for not having my footwork together during my whip training days.

  “Your footwork is off again!” Yoon yelled as he sidestepped the attack from my whip.

  Bracing my hands on my knees, I looked at him through my lashes, “I’m doing everything you taught me how to do.”

  “No, you’re not,” in a split second, he was across the hard mat and was swinging his own whip in my direction. But I couldn’t move out of the way, I couldn’t dodge the attack fast enough.

  The wicker slashed across my exposed back and forced me to grit my teeth together in order to not curse or show weakness. If I wanted a more powerful lashing, screaming in pain would get me just that.

  “Again!” He twirled his own whip in his hand as we began our back-and-forth dance. Circling each other like two lions fighting for the right to be king; he knew my movements and I was still learning his.

  I faked a left, spinning out of the way and lashed out with my whip coming at his right. But Dr. Yoon was ready for it; he ducked left and scorched my thighs with his own right snap. The pain rocked me hard enough to fall to the mat and lose my grip on the whip.

  “You will never be a fighter if you let go of your weapon!” He shouted as another crack rang through the air as the wicker came stabbing into my ribs. “Keep a steady grip and I would not be beating you right now!” Another lash across my shoulder blades.

  The sound of tires crunching on the pavement forced me to jerk away from the memory and focus on what was going on in front of me. I narrowed my eyes on the black Honda coming up the long winding entrance and stiffened as I recognized the driver.

  His ash gray hair was combed back from his face and unlike any other night, he was wearing a suit with a tie. Like he was interviewing for a job or already had a position that required him to dress like a dancing monkey. Unlike any other night—or day—his eyes looked clear from resolution and acceptance. What the hell was going on?

  I grabbed my phone from my pocket, keeping an eye on the driver of the car as I dialed my best friend.

  “Yeah?” Karina answered after the first ring.

  “I need you to tell me I’m not crazy right now.”

  Something ruffled in the background before she said slowly, “why?”

  “I’m watching Lovett going into the facility.”

  I was met with silence. The kind of silence that told me even Karina wasn’t believing what I was telling her.

  “Wait, what?” Something dropped in the background. Probably one of her tools for a Russian Heart bomb; it didn’t matter if I told her no explosives tonight. Karina was a pyrokinetic through and through. Taking her bombs away was like taking a child’s favorite toy and not giving it back. The situation became uncontrolled and not worth the fight.

  I nodded, ignoring the need to ask her what she was doing and watched as Lovett got out of the little Honda and straighten his tie.

  “He’s getting out of his car now and about to walk into the facility.”

  “Do you think that’s where he’s been this entire time?”

  “I’m beginning to wonder,” I admitted.

  Lovett had been MIA since we last spoke at Mad Devil and he delivered the news t
o me about Inessa. Since then? Even Karina wasn’t able to track down the third musketeer that was swiping a key card in front of a glowing green access pad beside the reinforced door.

  She mumbled under her breath to herself before saying with something between her teeth, “how do you want to handle it?”

  “I don’t know—what are you doing?”

  “Russian Hearts, want a few for the show down tonight?”

  I had to smile at the offer but shook my head nonetheless, “no, thank you. Are my parents safe?”

  “Of course,” she spit before continuing, “I picked them up shortly after you left. By the way, your dad looked like someone slaughtered his cat, what the hell happened between you two?”

  I was moving through the unguarded tree line as she spoke and stalled at the edge of the property, “he really looked that bad?”

  “Yeah, like really bad, Lumi. I don’t know what you said to him, but I can tell you right now. He looked awful.”

  I rubbed a hand over my face and sighed, tilting my face toward the sky I tried to think of a way I could handle Yoon, Lovett and evade the Honor Guard before I met up with Dristan and Demir. How the hell was I going to throw my dad in this shit show too?

  “Look, don’t worry about it, I’m sure he’s going to be fine. I mean if you really think about it, why wouldn’t he look like dog shit? His oldest was murdered and his baby is wanted by two of the most powerful branches in our government. It would be hell on anyone.”

  “I know, you’re right,” I shook my head, regaining my focus on the situation, “just…if you get the chance can you make sure he’s ok.”

  “Yeah, when I’m not trying to get dead myself.” If we were face to face, I knew she was probably rolling her eyes.

  “Thanks Rina, love you like a thousand Saturn stars.”

  “Love you like a sunset fuck on an Italian beach,” she quipped, leaving me with the sound of her laughter as we hung up.

  I didn’t know how I was going to get beyond this without her right next to me. Karina and I had been best friends since before I could remember and after tomorrow night came, I was going to have to cut off all contact with her in order to keep her alive.