by Rue Volley
“Oh I’m not.” Josh said as he grinned and his teeth glinted in the candlelight. I raised my eyebrows and looked at him.
“Did not bother me love…I cannot say the same for Johnathan.” He said.
Josh picked up his glass and drank it down in one drink. He jiggled it and smiled.
“I need my own bottle.” He said.
I cleared my throat and looked at him and then the girl walked up and started to fill my plate with all the things I loved to eat, steak, potatoes, corn and bread… the most wonderful bread, homemade. My stomach growled and I let the Johnathan thingy fade from my mind, in fact all I want right was to eat and eat and then eat some more. If it wasn’t for the fact that this dress was so light in color I would eat with my hands… but I will practice manners and not my usual shoveling that I so often do. I felt a vibration under my feet and lifted my foot and looked at Josh. He looked in the direction that Johnathan had left us.
“Someone is humping.” He said as he smiled and drank from his glass again.
“Unnecessary.” I said as I placed my fork in my mouth.
“He should… he obviously needs to.” Josh added.
I had nothing to add. I mean all I hope is that he doesn’t have that girl all sprawled out looking like me. I shivered as another vibration rolled through the room and decided to let the food take me away from that thought… the thought of Johnathan pretending and me not wanting to even know. I don’t need his drama, his emo… all his baggage, his new habits of needing blood and his lack of manners in the ‘we will never be together’ department. God... really? WTF?
I want my Johnathan back, my friend, part of my family. The Johnathan I love as a sister would a brother.
Where the hell is he?
Please return to me, please.
Chapter 8
Wicked Intention
Sam lowered Gracie to the ground at the foot of the tree and Kai stood up and smiled at her. Gracie ran to him and threw her arms around his neck and Kai smiled as he stood up with her still in his arms. Sam dropped down, graceful as ever and stood up looking around the forest and then looked at Kai and tilted her head.
“Thought you were picketing?” She asked him.
Kai kissed Gracie on the cheek and she laughed, more like a piggy squeal.
“Union sucks.” Kai said as he winked at Sam.
Sam started to walk and Kai followed.
“So… find anything?” he asked.
“Gracie found a new book.” Sam said.
Gracie crawled onto Kai’s back in a flash and he smiled and grabbed her hands as she piggybacked him.
“That’s my girl.” Kai said as he looked back at her.
“Books!” Gracie yelled out as Kai hunched his shoulders and blinked from the volume of her voice. A group of twenty black birds abandoned the trees above them and squawked as they flew off.
Sam laughed and shook her head.
“Was Rue a ‘yeller’ as a child or what?” she asked.
Kai jogged up next to her and Gracie giggled as she bounced on his back.
“No… she was quiet as hell.”
“Quiet as hell.” Gracie repeated.
“Nice.” Sam said as she looked at him and raised her eyebrows.
“Sorry… but no, Rue was so quiet that sometimes you wouldn’t even know that she was there… kinda like a ninja.” Kai said as he made a karate chop in the air and Gracie smiled. She whispered ‘ninja’ as she chopped the air.
“Well, Josh talked a lot but never yelled like someone we know.” Sam said as she nodded her head in Gracie’s direction.
“I don’t yell.” Gracie said, lowering her voice to normal level.
“See? That is the level you need to talk at honey… it doesn’t make my ears bleed.” Sam said.
Gracie placed her little finger to her lips and shooshed her.
“Oh!” Sam said as she tickled her side and she squirmed.
Sam stopped and held her hand up and Kai stopped dead, looking straight ahead.
“Wha…” he started to say.
Sam held her finger to her mouth and stepped up slowly, pulling her blade out. She turned sideways and held it tightly in her hand. Kai lowered Gracie to the ground.
Sam turned to him and made hand gestures to him, something they had come up with over the years as they had played around in the woods. Sam loved to go all military and she insisted that Kai learn how not to speak when they played their war games in the forest. Kai nodded to her and scooped Gracie up in a flash and held her tightly to him. He flashed away from Sam and back towards the house. Sam stood up slowly and scanned the forest, she heard a twig snap to the right of her and flashed in a blur in that direction, coming down on a figure hunched over something on the ground. She knocked the prey to the ground and had her blade to the girl’s throat before you could have taken half a breath. The girl’s eyes widened as Sam held her there pinned to the ground with her knee.
“Who are you and why are you here?” she asked the girl.
The girl swallowed hard and stared at the glowing blade stretching up towards Sam’s face, the green color lighting up her face.
“Cali… my name is Cali.” The girl said in a stutter.
Sam leaned in and smelled her; she had a mixture of human and rogue stench to her.
“You are rogue?”
The girl nodded and kept her eyes fixed on the blade.
“Better tell me why you are here, unless you would rather die without me knowing… I can so live with that by the way.” Sam said.
“No... No, please… I am looking for my brother.” The girl said.
“Who is your brother?” Sam asked.
“Alexander… his name is Alexander.” The girl said.
“What?... How did you get through the protection spell?” Sam asked.
“What spell?” the girl asked.
“Oh shit.” Sam said as she stood up and jerked the girl to her feet. Sam rolled her in front of her and placed the blade to her throat in one fluid motion, she held her hand up and a light pulsated from it. She let the light shoot up towards the sky and it kept going, disappearing into the clouds. She looked up and narrowed her eyes hoping to see the light bounce off of the invisible dome they had created over Calvary, preventing anything from crossing over into the town.
“Shit, shit… shit.” Sam said as she rolled the girl from her and she fell to the ground. Sam looked at her and waved her hand.
“Bind.” She said and the girl’s hands were immediately wrapped in white light. She struggled a little and Sam shook her head.
“Behave or I will tighten it and take your hands off.”
“Don’t…please don’t.” Cali said, sounding sincere.
Sam tilted her head and stared her down.
“Don’t act all cute… that is not a rogues way.”
“I... I don’t know what a ‘rogue’s way’ is.” Cali said as she stared at her hands bound in light.
“A rogue’s way is death and destruction.” Sam said as she stood over her pointing her glowing blade at her heart.
Cali looked up the blade and into Sam’s eyes.
“I was human and then I was bitten; now I am hungry all the time… I can’t help it.” Cali said as she continued to look beaten down.
“I don’t care about your life story, I care about the shield that is now broken.” Sam said as she glanced at the sky.
“It was Alex… he can...” Cali started to say.
Sam scooped her up in a flash and threw her over her shoulder and started to flash at supersonic speed back towards the house. All she needed was one reason to not trust any of those unexpected children in their home and she had one… a big one. A child, who appeared to be innocent but could undo a protection spell? No good. Nowhere near good at all. All Sam could think of was her family; all she could see was something terrible happening and a feeling of dread weighed on her heart. She flashed up to the front of the house and skidded to a stop, dropping Cali on
her side and let her roll. Sam pulled her other blade and crouched down low to the ground, ready to battle whatever Gracie had allowed to enter the house. She heard laughter and stood up, tilting her head. She heard children running in the house, as if a game had begun. She took a breath and looked to her left and Cali was gone, light still sinking into the ground from the binding she had shed and left behind.
“What the?” Sam started to say. The front door swung open and Kai ran out, the two youngest girls chasing him. He laughed and jumped down off the porch and they chased him into the yard. He stopped and his hands started to glow, and so did the girls. Kai looked at Sam standing there all ready for battle and tilted his head. The two girls jumped on him and he rolled laughing as they proceeded to tickle him with small bursts of light on his sides.
Sam looked and him and raised her eyebrows as he laughed and rolled to his side.
“What the hell are you doing?” she asked him.
“Getting my ass kicked apparently.” Kai said as the girls hit him with another round of light that made him laugh harder.
“Get up.” Sam said to him as the three of them laughed and rolled on the ground. “NOW!”
All three of them stopped immediately and stared at her. Sam pointed her blade at the two girls.
“Who is Cali and what the hell is she?” Sam asked as her blades pulsated in her hands.
The youngest girl stood up and swallowed as she rubbed her hands and the light faded in them.
“Cali is Alex’s sister.” She said as the girl on the ground behind her shook her head. Sam looked at her and in a flash had the girl to her feet and was staring her in the face.
“I would suggest that we go inside, I want answers now.” Sam said.
Kai rubbed his hair and stood up slowly, glancing into the forest.
“What the hell is going on Sam?”
Sam stared at the girl and nudged her blade in the direction of the door.
“I just ran into a girl, said she was Alex’s sister. I think she undid the protection spell over Calvary.” Sam said.
Kai looked up at the sky and shielded his eyes.
“What?...no one can do that.” He said.
Sam shook her head and looked at him.
“I know.”
The girls ran up the steps and into the house, Sam and Kai followed ready to conduct the interrogation that obviously needed to be done. Sam stopped as she stepped into the door and waved her hand over it. Symbols started to glow and lit up her face in red as she closed the door behind her.
***
Johnathan stumbled as he tried to hold Alandra up. Not that she weighed anything at all to a protector, but the poison that was slowly inching its way through his veins was making him weaker with each step that he took. He fell to one knee and she hit the ground in front of him and he scooped her back up quickly and gritted his teeth as he struggled to stand.
“Damn it.” He muttered as he felt his lungs contracting. He glanced around and realized that they were indeed in Valon, but on the outskirts of the city. He didn’t feel anything, no humming, and no vibrations in the ground. It was as if the city was asleep or perhaps dead. He had heard rumors of the city dying; he had heard that all protectors had abandoned her. He told himself that it probably was not true, but there he was, in a city that should make him feel closer to what he truly was and nothing. Silence. He looked up and saw a building. It looked worn down as if it had stood for a hundred years with no one attending to it. He walked up to the door and pushed it with his foot and almost lost his balance as he did. He stumbled into it and looked around. It looked as if it had been someone’s home, someone who simply stood up and walked out. This must have been a home to a host of Valon… human, perhaps a small family. He looked around the room and spotted a couch, old black leather, dulled from weather but still intact and decided to lay Alandra down on it. He had to rest before he fell. Falling down with her might mean that he would not be able to get back up and that was not an option. Not dying here in an abandoned city, his city that he never claimed as his own anyway. He laid her down slowly and she muttered something, he couldn’t understand her and he sighed and stood back up, swaying on his feet. He took a deep breath and slapped himself in the face.
“Get it together.” He whispered. He looked down at his hands and saw all the cuts on his skin, the bleeding had stopped but now long black streaks had begun to form… running up his wrists and almost reaching his elbows.
“Fantastic…” Johnathan said as he touched one of the streaks and hissed as it burned.
He looked down at Alandra and saw the same thing creeping up her arms too, only it seemed to be moving at a quicker rate with her. Perhaps it was her human blood that made her weaker, and his demon blood that helped his body to fight the dead blood from putting him to sleep as it had her. Alandra cried out and grabbed her stomach, rolling onto her side and gritting her teeth. Johnathan flashed to her side and knelt down next to her, touching her face. He wiped the sweat from her forehead with his fingers and wiped it on his pants. He looked down and noticed blood, not his… hers. She was bleeding and he stood up and gritted his teeth as he felt his stomach ache, and old ache… one he had felt before and had fought off so many times.
“No.” he said as his muscles tightened in his jaw. He looked back at the door and knew he had to find a blade. Perhaps he could find one within the city, knowing that he may not be conscious long enough to search for Josh’s house.
“Shit.” He muttered as he realized that he had to hurry, before he fell victim to the poison, or she did… which looked as if that would be the case, her dying before him. Not acceptable. He was the one who decided to climb out and she had simply followed. His decision… one he could live with, but not watching a girl die because of it. If one thing is true, Johnathan would not allow his demon blood to take over his actions, he had spent years trying to be more of a protector… even more human, drowning out the blackness of his most dreaded side. The one that made his stomach and teeth ache when he smelled blood, the one who hated, the one who if he allowed its takeover would swallow his compassion whole.
No… he would find a blade and save himself, but most importantly Alandra. He glanced at her and she moaned and curled up in a ball. He stood up straight and clinched his fists as he ran towards the door and hopefully towards salvation.
Johnathan stepped out of the house and the wind picked up and blew leaves around his feet. The season had changed in Valon, something it had never experienced before. The once majestic city now housed animals and debris. Masking anything that made it the beautiful city it once had been. Johnathan looked to his left and saw that the building stretched on, he could see that at the end of it, it opened up into a square. He sighed and clinched his fists, knowing that he would have to go deeper into the city. Hopefully it was as abandoned as it appeared to be. Alandra had mentioned ‘children’, what children? Valonians did not reproduce, but humans did. Could they perhaps be the left over humanity that was left behind here? Mutated in some form? Had rogues invaded the city walls after it had fallen and changed whoever still dwelled here? Johnathan started to walk slowly, along the wall of the building. He held his hand out, trying to feel any life and felt nothing. Still and breathless, the city stood. What a change in once what was the center of life, home to the creator and home to the people that he hated to call his descendants. Most hated of all… Caine. His Father, who had abandoned him and then had returned only to try to use him to kill the world, Johnathan closed his eyes and tried to push all the thoughts out of his head. If he was to be successful he had to be ‘on point’ as Josh would no doubt be yelling at him right now.
He came to the end of the building and stopped, peeking around the corner and watching the empty square, full of debris and fallen tree limbs. It looked as if a bomb had gone off here… and perhaps it had. He had heard rumors that his Father had killed the protectors and then himself. Some badass he had turned out to be. Suicide? Please. Johnathan bi
t his lip as that thought crossed his mind. Caine, killing himself? No way. He couldn’t see it happening. Caine seemed to be too wrapped up in self-preservation to jump at that cowardly ending to his reign of terror. Johnathan cleared his throat and stepped out into the square. He straightened his shoulders up and felt a slight pain in his muscles. The poison was taking its toll on his mortal shell. The human part of him. Eating away at it like fly’s in a garbage can. He swallowed hard and started to walk across the square. He held his hands out, trying to feel anything that may have a heart beat and felt nothing. No life, no protectors, no humans. Most importantly, no demons, those he would feel strongest of all. Just like him. He blinked as birds swooped overhead and squawked at him. Didn’t cause his heart rate to jump, but just made him over cautious for a moment. He looked down at his hand and saw that the light pulsated dimmer, with each beat of his heart. Could he really be dying? How odd a feeling to be having. Protectors do not experience death really. Only humans have the privilege of feeling the life slip from them. For protectors it is swift and semi painless, but Johnathan was not pure and for him death does have a feeling of dread… or perhaps relief.
He stopped at the fountain and looked at it. Liquid energy no longer flowed from it, shining in the sun. Now it lay dormant, dry. The white stone statues of majestic protectors from the past looked weathered and old. Something that was an eerie sight to see. Johnathan leaned up and stared into the statues face. It looked older now, black streaks running down its once flawless cheeks. The boy stood there with two blades in his hand, held down at his sides, looking out over the city… a true protector, one that was supposed to be forever. He narrowed his eyes when he started to recognize the statues face and then looked to his right quickly as he thought he heard something… a voice calling out… weak and in the distance. He slowly looked up as he realized that he was staring at the tower. It reached into the sky over him and he had to lean back as he looked up her side and saw windows open, and could hear a strange howl. Perhaps it resembled a voice. Perhaps the wind running through the towers now empty hallways and rooms. The center of the universe to protectors. Valon's Tower, home to all protectors in the city, home to the council, home to the towers mirror that hovered over the black water…