Evigheden

by S King

  As I reached for the door to the side entry, I stalled in opening the thing. Whatever this man was going to tell me would be the deciding factor in my fate. But there was still a possibility I wouldn’t come out of this alive. Still, with that knowledge there was only one face I kept seeing in my mind.

  Why the hell was I seeing Demir in my mind? It wasn’t like we trained together or even grew up together; hell, the more I thought about it, the more I frowned on the situation.

  Demir and I had spent the past almost ten years trying to kill each other. Maybe it was because our positions as sect leader. Maybe it was due to our innate thought process of being the only king in the jungle. But why had we never been able to succeed in our quest if it was so important to be on top?

  The front entrance buzzed to let me know someone was coming out of the building; I jumped away from the side entrance and stole a peek at who the exiting party was. To my surprise, it was Lovett, looking a little pissed off and downright confused. Forcing another round of stupid and useless questions to fill my head as I ducked back behind the building and pulled the door opened.

  Like most of the laboratories in Castlehedge, Francis Metropolis Lab Corp was sterile smelling and locked down like a bank vault. Brightly lit hallways, secured doors, people in crisp pressed white lab coats mingling over analytics and data reports.

  It was nauseating at its fullest; I forced down the urge to throw up and bolt from the facility. Just standing in the hall, I was feeling like my anxiety was going to take over my senses and force me to blackout with the memories. Too many times had I been walked down these very halls for tests and scans, needles and diagnostics. How in the hell was I going to get through this nightmare?

  Somewhere in the haze of my mind, I heard Demir telling me you can do this. It’s something that must be done. I shook my head to clear the phantom voice and started forward; if I knew Yoon the way I thought I did, I knew he was going to be in his specialty lab at the end of this very hall. Thankfully, I had cut the power to the security breaker and knocked the guards unconscious before Lovett had shown up and sent my brain into a tailspin. Other than a few scientists walking out of their labs, away from me the hall was mine.

  I cleared the rest of the hall, stopping in front of Dr. Kuri Yoon’s laboratory. Unlike at the courts, nobody welcomed me or beckoned me forward. Instead, there was an eerie silence flowing through the hallway and with it, the stare of the grim reaper at my back. Granted, Yoon was probably busy playing with his chemistry set, lost in thought and I was probably just being over dramatic.

  Gripping the door handle, I had to take another deep breath; I wasn’t going to admit to myself I was a nervous wreck. Nor was I going to show any weakness to the man who had torn me into shape.

  I stepped into the lab and instantly saw Yoon leaning over his desk with his glasses resting on top of his head and a pinch in his brow. With a few strands of silver hair being the only exception, he looked exactly the same as the last time I had seen him.

  “Where is my damn report?” He snapped, not looking over his shoulder.

  I slammed the door and prepared myself for a surprise attack, “long time no see, Dr. Yoon.”

  For the first time in my life, I had finally gotten the satisfaction of seeing the psychotic scientist look surprised.

  He tried to stand up straight, but failed thanks to the slight hunch in his back, “Luminous River?”

  “Surprise bitch,” without giving him any indication I was going to make a move. I waited for his brows to furrow and his head to tilt before I did something I had been wanting to do since the beginning.

  The beaker flew in the air, crashing into his shoulder as I tossed up a copper coil and kicked it into his stomach to make him jerk forward.

  “What’re you doing!” He stumbled into his metal table and stared at me, too shocked to fend off the attack.

  “You have to answer some questions for me and I’m not leaving here until I get those answers.” My voice wasn’t my own and I knew something in me had shifted to the point of scaring even the man who had forced me to become the heartless bitch I was.

  “Like what!”

  “Why was I created?” I already knew the answer, but I wanted to hear it from the head honcho himself.

  A slow, creepy smile covered his face as he staggered around the table to put some more distance between us. “You know then? You and Demir? Finally?”

  “Don’t act like you don’t know what’s going on.” I snapped, “why did you ruin us?”

  “Ruin? Is that what you think? We ruined the two of you?” A laugh that sounded like something from an early 1900s movie ripped through the room louder than a scream. “You two are the future! Your stamina, your ability to handle pain, the way you’re able to do any and everything without a second thought towards danger! You think that’s ruining you?”

  “We didn’t ask for this!”

  “No, but your parents did,” something lit his dark brown eyes like a fire in the desert.

  The excitement was maddening, even for the sanest of minds. However, the look in his eyes made me want to kill him even more.

  “They saw the vision, think about it my sweet, sweet child,” he outstretched his hands toward me and shook his head, “no sickness, ever, not even a runny nose. No mental health problems, everything those weak and pathetic people who walk during the day suffer, you and all the others don’t have to worry about any of that.”

  “You’re sick,” I breathed, frowning as I took a step back.

  “Think about it, Luminous, you can die simply from old age and nothing more. Your kids!” He moved around the table and started toward me, “yours and Demir’s kids will be the very definition of perfection.”

  “What will you be when I kill you?” I had picked up a shard of glass, sharp enough to cut a diamond and clutched it tighter in my hand as I took another step back.

  He shook his head, smiling manically as his eyes glazed over, “your children will be perfect, gorgeous even! We can train them to be better fighters than you or Demir.”

  “Death is not to be regretted but living in this world is so lonely.” I breathed.

  The old saying was something of a mantra between the two of us. When Heinz wasn’t busy babying me after a sparring session. Yoon would come in and tell me to never regret my life when it was over. No matter how hard I thought life had been on me, death wasn’t to be filled with regret or feared.

  Whether I was lonely at the end or not, it didn’t matter because I had nothing to be regretful for. That was the promise and explanation the man in front of me had made so long ago. And that was only one of a few sayings my mentors had left me with.

  Yoon stalled in his approach and frowned at me, “you remembered?”

  “Like the day is long,” I whispered before driving the glass through his jugular and watched the light leave his eyes. “You will never touch my kids, or anyone else’s Kuri Yoon.”

  A blood-filled smile broke across his face, “you finally did it, my sweet girl.”

  I ripped the shard of glass from his throat, “don’t worry, I’ll dance on your blood in my red shoes and won’t stop until the end.”

  “Good girl,” he wheezed as blood bubbled up in his throat.

  Dr. Kuri Yoon was one hardnosed son of a bitch that brought the wrath of God into this world and in my bones. But he and I shared a secret only the two of us knew; as I watched his body fall to the floor, I smirked on the promise he had made me and Karina.

  “With my death, you and Karina Rizzo will be freed from the fear of death.”

  I just hoped with his death, the promise would be fulfilled after everything was said and done. For now, however, I was going to visit my old stomping grounds for the final time.

  Chapter 18 Young Lovers

  For reasons I had yet to figure out, I found myself pacing in the back alley behind Luminous’s apartment. The sun would be up in a few hours and then maybe the four of us could get some much-
needed sleep. Granted, I didn’t know where that sleep was going to come from; Dristan and I had fought our asses off on the lack of sleep we had been operating on for the last almost…I didn’t even know how many days, hours, or minutes it had been since we got a solid night’s worth of sleep. And frankly, I didn’t care.

  Right now, I just needed to make sure she was going in to get her stuff and then come right back out. That’s all I needed, and since I was here already…it would only make sense for me to stay beside her while we waited for the moon to rise again tonight. For the third time in twenty-five minutes, I had checked my watch in comparison to the silent street.

  “You’re not going up,” I ordered myself, confirming it was only going on four in the morning. Congratulations, Demir, you’d gone a whole two minutes without checking the watch, I mentally scolded.

  I started pacing the alley again, trying to think of anything that could possibly make this situation better. Karina’s words had haunted me to the point of no return.

  Demir is the only one with a fighting chance, she had said to Lumi. And damn her for being right. There was no way in hell I wasn’t entirely exiled from Gold, but Lumi? She’d never wear Silver colors or her position title again. The sad part of the situation was simple. Why was I thinking about what I could do instead of working with Gold to support her?

  Movement in my peripheral stopped my pacing routine and forced me to narrow my eyes on the person blindly walking past the alley. Had it not been for the look on her face, I would’ve asked her what the hell was going on. But judging from the lost and utterly exhausted ghosts dancing in her damning eyes it was best to just leave Lumi alone. However, that didn’t stop me from following her at a sedate pace.

  Of course, I made sure every alley, corner, darkened building and rooftops were free of any guard members. It was one thing to come after me and Dristan for the hell of it but given the look on Lumi’s face and her slumped shoulders I wasn’t going to allow anyone to take advantage of her distracted disposition.

  When we came to Silver’s court yard and she sat down on the limestone bench in front of the thousand-year-old oak tree, I kept to the shadows to give her some peace. What had happened to force her to come here, of all places, when Silver, Gold and Honor Guards were hunting us like sport?

  Sure, this was her old stomping grounds, but outside of Karina, I didn’t think any of her former subordinates would protect her should she face danger. Granted, I didn’t know the ins and outs of how Silver operated when one of their senior officials was accused of murder.

  I leaned against the building, watching Luminous as I let my mind travel. I needed to tell Luminous the truth before we found ourselves isolated from our friends and everything we had ever known. I knew that, but something kept telling me to wait.

  “Boss,” I didn’t flinch as Slade’s voice came to my left.

  “What’s wrong?”

  He cleared his throat, coming to stand beside me, “Dristan finished shopping.” He handed me the small, gun metal gray wrapped box.

  “He’s hellbent on acting like everything is fine?” I raised a brow at the box, wondering what in the hell my best friend could’ve gotten me.

  “That’s from you for Luminous,” Slade pointed to the box and nodded Luminous, “what’s going on here?”

  “I don’t know,” I admitted, somewhat curious about what hid underneath the paper.

  He twisted his mouth, “word on the guard is Miss. River killed one of your old trainers and scientist.”

  My eyes snapped up to him, “which one?”

  “Yoon, I think,” he shoved his hands in his pockets, “she’s on a roll.”

  “She’s earning her order,” I mumbled and narrowed my gaze on Luminous still sitting on the bench.

  “Earning her death is more like it.”

  “Can I trust you and Dristan to keep her out of your path?”

  “I have nothing against her, judging from the money he spent on your—” he cleared his throat, stopping himself before he could say something stupid. “On Luminous, I know Dristan isn’t going to do anything against her.”

  “Is that all?” I pushed off the edge of the building, keeping my eyes trained on Luminous standing up and staring at the tree in front of her.

  “Watch out for the guard members on your way out of town.”

  “Thanks,” I shoved the small box into my breast pocket and stood straight, prepared to follow the woman in front of me to the ends of the earth.

  “By the way,” he started turning away and rubbed a thumb over his chin. “Where are you going?”

  Military silence had been the rule of any guard when it came to never disclosing a location. Whether it was your own or an informant, never discuss anything; given our current situation, I couldn’t say anything about Luminous or my location. Even if Slade had proven himself to be somewhat trustworthy.

  “I don’t know,” I said honestly, and I didn’t know where we were heading.

  “Wherever you’re going, be careful,” Slade said before shaking my hand.

  “Thanks for your help,” I nodded, keeping my eyes on Luminous.

  Slade walked away from me, leaving me to my own vices. Luckily, Luminous walked away from Silver’s courtyard and started down the street, with the rising sun’s rays breaking over the horizon.

  I followed her again at a sedate pace and narrowed my eyes on an upcoming alley. Something moved to the edge, forcing my senses to focus on the person hiding in the alley.

  Luminous apparently saw the same thing because her steps faltered for a moment. I was about to jump in between the two when another flash from another alley across from her stabbed at my peripheral.

  Grounding my teeth together, I ripped my sword from the sheath and ran to the other alley as Luminous charged toward her own alley.

  “Why can’t you just leave people be?” I asked the offending party.

  Naturally, as they always do, the guard member turned around with a shocked expression. Unlike the last few members I had encountered, he was an equal to me in looks. Shoulder length hair, a close shaven beard, covered in muscles, and a determination dancing in his eyes like he was really prepared for the fight ahead.

  “You’re not supposed to be here, but I guess two birds and what not.”

  I grunted in agreement and twirled the sword in a loose circle, “what’re the odds, right?”

  “Gold first,” he offered me the first swing.

  Now I knew how Luminous felt when I offered her the first swing. It was a challenge meant to be answered and one I wasn’t going to back down from.

  “I insist, Silver before Gold,” my face went hard as I prepared my attack.

  He blew out a hard breath, losing all calculation he had before my underhanded offering, the Silver member charged me. I had to give it to the Silver member, who ever had put in the time and effort to train him knew what they were doing. His footwork was on point and as the sun continued to light up the sleepy street, he forced me to move back further into the alley, essentially backing me into a corner.

  Our swords clashed and tinged with every strike. The only time we halted in our match was when Luminous and a female guard member I recognized fell from the sky and faced off. Luminous had a cut under her eye from the curved clip blades in Shallon’s hands.

  “You don’t know what you’re doing,” Shallon breathed as she dropped into her attack stance.

  Luminous smirked, tightening her grip on the rattlesnake whip, “that’s a new one.”

  Haphazardly, Shallon swung on Luminous. When she missed, a tense moment passed between the two women before Shallon did the unthinkable. She spun on her wedged heeled boots and bolted down the alley.

  The Silver member and I looked at Luminous as she let her head fall back on her shoulders and those harsh gray eyes stared skyward.

  In a bored tone she asked, to no particular person, “why do they always run?”

  I considered the question, trying to find an
answer for her. But she didn’t wait for a response and simply ran in the opposite direction and hooked a right out of the alley, leaving me and Silver to stare at each other in shock.

  “You saw that right?” He asked nodding toward the direction Luminous ran.

  I shrugged, “women.”

  “Makes sense,” was the only thing he said before charging me with his sword and nearly landed a fatal blow to my jugular had I not dodged the attack.

  In the distance we heard the crack of Luminous’s whip but didn’t stop what we were doing. With every onslaught I tried to make, Silver matched me. And vice versa.

  “You do know if I don’t kill you, honor will. Right?”

  I wiped the sweat from my brow, mentally preparing myself for his next attack, “I’m aware, yes.”

  “Luminous is dead either way, you’re aware of that as well, right?”

  “Maybe.” Another lunge forward.

  “The guards are offering you an out, Losett.” He ducked.

  I dropped, rolling away to come up in a crouch, “such as?”

  Clang. Our swords shook with vibration from the force of our strikes. When we were eye to eye, he dropped his voice and searched my eyes before giving me a solution.

  “Kill Luminous and all of your problems go away.”

  “As a retribution gift?” Clang, ting, clang

  “Something like that,” he slammed his back against the wall to dodge my fatal blow. “The courts will make you an honorary judge if you do.”

  “And if I don’t want to be a part of the board?” I kicked off the wall and spun around.

  Our swords slammed against each other as our faces came too close for comfort yet again.

  “You’ll head all of the guards.”

  “That was the plan all along wasn’t it?”

  “Possibly.”

  “Why do the courts want Luminous dead?”

  “Aside from the obvious?”

  “Sure.”