by D. N. Leo
They were in the worst possible position for an ambush. He turned his eudqi totally off, but with his human eyes and ears, he could still see the movement of the mercenaries on the roofs of the houses along the narrow street.
He could gun down a few, but he would need to save the eudqi for healing purposes because he was sure he would suffer more injuries. He wasn’t worried about himself but was concerned for Alyna. As far as he knew, she was human and had no special healing power. If she was shot, she might die.
He had no problem protecting himself. But he had no confidence that he could protect Alyna as well.
As he predicted, several mercenaries emerged at the top of the high fence. Judging by their skilled movements, he figured they must be at the top of the pay rank in the multiverse.
“They aren’t Ethesus,” Alyna whispered.
11
A lyna didn’t like what she was thinking. The movements of the assailants told her they weren’t Ethesus, but they weren’t ordinary fighters, either. She had nothing that anyone on Earth could possibly want—no money, no possessions—and she wasn’t exactly an important person.
She was a kick-ass fighter, however, and because of that, they would get nothing at all for fighting her except injuries–some of which might be fatal.
Whatever they wanted must have to do with Caedmon. She cursed herself for not having thought about this before. With his background, he was an attractive target for any scumbag looking for money, power, or anything Caedmon’s family could provide. In this stretch of town, people would kill for a simple lunch credit. The only thing that comforted her now was that if her prediction was right, and someone went after Caedmon for money, then at least they wouldn’t harm him.
Six mercenaries jumped from the high fence, landing softly like feathers floating to the ground. They didn’t pull out weapons. She stepped in front of Caedmon. She could sense his movement behind her as he attempted to get equal ground with her, so she sidestepped and blocked his way. He seemed to get the hint and stopped trying.
“You’re not locals. What do you want?” Alyna asked.
The shortest of the six to the far left answered. “Caedmon LeBlanc,” he said.
“He’s Amaraq’s client, under my protection. So the answer is no, you can’t have him.”
The short man chuckled. “You must be Alyna McCabe.”
“I hope I have a good reputation in the South. Now that I have declined your request, we would like to go, preferably in peace.”
“What exactly do you want from me?” Caedmon asked.
The short man smirked, and his green eyes flashed an unusual shade. “Your wrist unit,” he said. “But it won’t work without you, so we need the whole package.”
“Well, I’ll give you my coat. It’s worth much more. And it works without me.”
Alyna wanted to chuckle, but she figured it would probably be a bad idea, so she maintained a poker face. The short man opened his mouth and was about to respond when Alyna felt the brush of Caedmon’s arm against her side. She knew what he was doing, but it happened so fast it surprised her.
Caedmon gunned down the short man before he could utter a response.
She followed suit with the other men. It all happened so quickly there was no time to think. For her, it was just muscle memory from years of training. She didn’t know what sort of training Caedmon had had, but he was extremely fast and accurate. She shot two men on the far right and threw a knife into a third to her left. Her left hand was working much better than her right because of the injury she’d suffered in a fight with an Ethesus supreme fighter the other week. The knife entered the temple of the assailant, and he was no longer part of the equation. Only one of the shots she had fired was lethal.
She pushed Caedmon, and they both jumped behind a barrel of industrial waste along the side of the road, but the path was narrow and the bin not large enough to cover them completely.
“Three left, one of them injured. Can you handle the injured one?” Caedmon asked.
She didn’t take it as an insult, but his question did hurt her ego. She said nothing but pointed her gun and fired without looking. The injured man she had shot before dropped in midair as he tried to leap over the bin at them.
“Second time, not too lucky,” she muttered and charged out from behind the bin.
The other two were about to attack when they saw her. She lowered her gun. “Me against two of you. What do you say?”
She knew mercenaries. They essentially did what she did for a living. The difference was that she was paid to protect people, and they were paid to cause harm. Either way, they all had a code of conduct. She had issued them a challenge, and they had no choice but to take it.
As she predicted, they both lowered their guns and charged at her.
She took them on. They exchanged strikes, blow for blow. Although she didn’t recognize their style of martial arts, she had to admit they were good.
She scored several blows to their heads and bodies. If it had been a performance fight at her club, she would have been declared the winner. But this wasn’t a stage fight. After suffering several hits, they backed up against the wall. She knew their intentions—they were paid predators after all.
Both of them had their hands on their guns.
Her reaction was again pure muscle memory. She pulled her gun with her left hand and fired at the man on the left. Caedmon had already moved to stand by her right-hand side, and he shot the man on the right–her weak side.
As the mercenaries fell to the ground, she looked up at Caedmon. Tall. Calm. Dark hair. Striking gray eyes. He looked magnificent, like a warrior in some ancient movie about the time before the Great War.
She holstered her gun. He gave her back the other.
“No, you keep it,” she said.
He nodded and smiled, wincing a bit when he tried to tuck the gun into his belt.
She realized that the few-thousand-credit outfits he’d been wearing weren’t designed to carry weapons. “Just put it here,” she said and took the gun and slid it into his jacket pocket. “The safety’s on, so it won’t discharge involuntarily. But you’re not exactly shabby at handling a gun, so I guess you know the basics.”
Caedmon nodded and absently moved his hand to his side. She could only hope her men had left no marks on his elegant body. She could only hope there were no severe internal injuries.
“What hurts?” she asked.
“Huh?”
“Apart from the external bruises I can see, do you have any internal injuries caused by my men? If so, I’ll take you to the medical clinic.”
“No, it’s nothing. Just some scratches. What are we going to do with these bodies?”
“Leave them. The trucks will get them in the morning.”
“You mean the garbage trucks?”
“Kind of, but these pick up industrial waste. They’re paid to collect both private and industrial waste.”
“But these are humans. And they’re dead. Won’t people ask questions?”
“Who would ask? And ask what?” She had no idea what he was talking about. In her town, if people didn’t protect themselves, they’d be killed. When humans died, they became waste—literally. If the death happened inside the household, it was private waste. But this was a public footpath, so it was considered industrial waste.
He looked baffled, and she shrugged. “Let’s get you home,” she said.
He nodded and strode ahead. She followed, still not understanding his concern about the waste issue.
Suddenly, there was a sound. It sounded like metal bars scraping against each other. And there were the strange noises of things communicating with each other in a language she didn’t know. She had no idea what it was she was hearing, but she was sure it wasn’t human.
12
Bang.
The Keymaster was so startled by the loud noise that he almost fell off his chair.
Bang.
“That’s enough, child!”
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Bang. Bang. Bang.
He left the workshop where he was working on the stone for the Scorpio key and went to the backyard to see what she was up to. The Thunder Child was building something that looked like a gallows.
“Planning to hang some criminals?” he asked.
She giggled. “No, Keymaster. This is so you can hang a blade to cut stone. Given that you’re having such difficulty carving the bloodstone…”
“Child, you don’t have to worry about that. It’s my job to cut the bloodstone. I’ve done this for hundreds of years. All stones are different. And yes, this bloodstone is stubborn. But there’s no stone I can’t cut.”
“I know, but this machine will give you some assistance. Watch…” She pulled a lever, and a steel blade came crashing down from above with incredible force, slamming into the stone base below it.
Keymaster’s head rang with the sound, which bounced from his left ear to his right ear and then back around his head.
“Child, don’t do that. Why don’t you leave the key-making business to me? You’re still young. Go pick some flowers.”
“Can I go into the woods?”
“Hmmm…”
She reached for the lever again.
“Okay, sure,” he said quickly. “You can play by the woods. But be sure to come home before dark.”
She grinned. “Yes, Keymaster.”
“What do I always tell you?”
“Don’t play with creatures in the woods, don’t talk to strangers, and don’t engage in eye contact with any creature from the magical world. If anything attacks, don’t run. Turn on the safety lock, and call for Keymaster,” she said solemnly.
“Very good. Where is your safety lock?”
She pushed aside the little cloak he had made her to show him the lock underneath.
He smiled. “Go play.”
She grinned, and then her tiny shadow ran a zigzag all the way up the hill toward the wedge of woods she liked.
He returned to his studio.
“Oh no!”
The shard of bloodstone he had worked on had returned to its original shape.
13
C aedmon went back to the foyer of the building where he was staying. The sight of Alyna standing next to a grand marble column reminded him of his wife, Sedna. The flashback hit him unexpectedly, and he was totally unprepared for it. He knew what his physical reaction would be with such an emotional hit. Weeping in public was unacceptable in any universe, so he immediately turned away and hurried into a nearby restroom.
He had met Sedna at a museum in London where there was an exhibition of Eskimo history and artifacts. She was a high-end antique buyer, and he was researching the cultural development of Eskimo tribes. At least that was his cover. He needed to obtain the Scorpio key, and she was the upcoming leader of the mage tribe that held the key. But their relationship wasn’t all a ploy. They loved each other, and before he knew it, they were married.
He felt the heat of the blast again as if it exploded in his mind right now–the blast that had robbed him of his family.
He didn’t know what had happened, but before he knew it, security had entered the bathroom. When he came to his senses, he saw that the mirror in front of him was shattered, and there was blood all over his hands.
He was angry. The heat rising inside him wasn’t the heat from the blast that had killed Sedna but heat from the urge to seek vengeance. He had never experienced this before. The heat consumed him. Waves of pain pounded and echoed in his head. Blood threatened to erupt from his veins. His vision blurred. He could hear Sedna screaming in agony, but he knew that even if she were in excruciating pain, she would never utter a sound.
He hated. The word hate had never been in his vocabulary. His father had always said he wasn’t capable of hate. Even his twin sister did better than he in expressing negative emotions. That was why his father said he could never be a true human—because he didn’t know how to express and control his emotions.
But the hate invaded his mind now, and it totally took him over. He couldn’t control his emotions, and the rage burst from him like a volcano.
But once it was out, he felt peace. The haze of strange visions and pain and the images of blood and gore cleared a bit, revealing the room he was in. Things cleared enough for him to see that the blood and gore wasn’t just a part of his visions. It was real. It was as if the two guards who had grabbed him from behind had exploded into pieces.
From the corner of his eye, he saw Alyna step through the door. He looked at his shaky hands, bloody from cuts from the broken glass of the mirror. Then he looked at her. “I…I don’t know what happened,” he said.
She stepped out of the room and glanced down the corridor. Then she pulled him outside and slammed the door closed.
“Where’s your compartment?” she asked.
He pulled out his key card and gave it to her. It glowed with a map of the building and identified the desired compartment.
“Let’s go,” she said and pushed him along the corridor, following the shiny arrow on the key card. “Like I told you before, the two dead guards are now just domestic waste. Nobody will question the bodies. But the way in which they died will be questioned. You have to give me an explanation for this. But first, let’s get you cleaned up.”
They stood in front of his compartment. She swiped the key and pushed the door open. She pushed him down onto the sofa in the living wing then went into the bathroom to get some wet towels, water, and a first-aid kit.
When she came back to the living room, his head was clearer.
“Do you think my energy caused the two guards to explode?”
She pulled a footstool over, sat opposite him, and started cleaning the blood from his hands and shirt.
He looked at his shirt. “It’s probably not worth cleaning this.” He took it off and caught her glancing at the bruises from the fight with her men. He was glad he had repaired ninety percent of the broken ribs. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been able to keep his face impassive while she cleaned him up.
“It didn’t hurt,” he said.
She arched an eyebrow. “Is that so? What about this?” she said and pushed her palm right at the spot of his broken ribs.
He winced.
“I won’t force you to go to our medical clinic, especially if you aren’t exactly human. They wouldn’t care for that. But you have to get this fixed at a medical center—”
There was a knock on the door.
She stopped talking, went to the door, and looked at the security monitor. “There’s a Barbie here looking for you.”
“Excuse me?”
“A stunning blonde is looking for you.”
“I don’t know who that would be.”
Alyna looked into the monitor. “Who’s there?”
“Leanne. I’m Caedmon’s executive secretary. Here are my credentials.”
Alyna looked at the screen then at Caedmon. He nodded. Alyna unlocked the door.
Leanne stepped into the room like a breath of fresh air, and she zeroed right in on the injuries to Caedmon’s upper body.
“I knew it. I knew this would happen when I found out that Mr. Tann advised you to go to the North side.” She rushed over and shuffled through the medical kit.
“It’s all right, Leanne. It was just an accident.”
Alyna approached and pushed Leanne’s hands away. “Don’t chip your nails, Leanne. I’m Alyna by the way. I’m the head of security at Amaraq. And I apologize…Caedmon’s injuries were a misunderstanding.”
“Of course. It was truly a misunderstanding, Alyna. I’m new in town, and things are a little confusing for me. Sometimes things aren’t what they appear to be,” he said, locking eyes with Alyna. He knew she had questions about the incident in the restroom, but he didn’t have any good answers for her.
Alyna nodded. “All right, get some rest, Caedmon. I’ll see you again some other time if you’re still interested in our business after this.” S
he nodded a goodbye and left.
Leanne grabbed a towel and got down on all fours to mop up the muddy shoeprints Alyna had left on the carpet and the floor.
“You don’t have to do this, Leanne.” Caedmon crouched to pull her up from the floor.
“No, no…don’t touch me. I’ve just touched the dirty floor, and you have open wounds.”
“It’s just a few scratches. No big deal.”
“I don’t know how developed the LeBlanc’s pharmaceutical products are in Mid-land London, but here, the species of bacteria and virus have mutated so drastically that there would be no cure if you were infected.”
“Okay, I’ll try to stay clear of all sources of possible infection.”
She nodded. “It’s normally fine if you’re healthy, fit, and strong. But when you’re injured, or your body is weakened for some reason, you have to be careful.”
“Can I ask you a question? You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to.”
“Sure, anything.”
“How open are people here to creatures that aren’t…human?”
“You mean the supernatural?”
He nodded cautiously.
“We all know that supernaturals live among us. They come and go from different places. But on Earth, humans are the majority. People don’t like to mix with supernaturals. I can’t speak for others, but if I see a vampire, and he doesn’t want to stick his fangs in my neck, I could care less that he exists. But normal people don’t like them. So if you know any supernaturals, tell them to be careful.”
“Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For dropping by. For checking on me.”
“It’s my job.” She smiled. “Alyna likes you.”
Caedmon chucked. “She considers me her responsibility. Or maybe worse, a liability.”
“Amaraq is a mage operating organization. You know that, right?”
He nodded.
“You asked if humans discriminated against supernaturals. The answer is yes. But mages don’t trust humans or any other creatures. So the line between who is discriminating against whom is very thin.”