by Wall, Nathan
“Do you?” Madame Patricia replied, the floor rumbling. “The many cogs in this machine are working overtime, and if one of them doesn’t get cast out soon then they all break. Sorry to say, but that’s you.”
“You won’t treat us like that.” Austin stood in front of Lian and his eyes took a fierce shape. Athena stood in front of Madame Patricia. “Don’t make me go through you.”
“Have you lived a good life?” A static-charged purple glow slithered over Athena’s body. Just as she and Austin were about to exchange blows, Jarrod jumped to his feet.
“Enough!” he yelled with such force that his skin turned blue. A blinding light beamed from his eyes and fingers, and the aurascales slowly swam to the surface of his skin. His voice was hollow. “The bickering ends. The secrets end. No more darkness.”
“I see it,” Madame Patricia said with a breathy voice. “The thing William feared.”
“I see it every day,” Jarrod replied, grinning.
“Perhaps one issue at a time?” Athena slowly stepped away from Austin and Lian with her hands up.
“Sounds like a plan.” Austin nodded, pulling Lian away.
“Start with Lian’s kind being collected,” Jarrod said, pointing at Madame Patricia. “That is the most pressing issue.”
“My kind are ancient beings. The truth of creation as you know it was a partial myth. The one you call God worked with us, the Architects, to fashion a new place for the most powerful item in all of the many realities: the human soul. The ability to tap into its power can enable you to complete limitless feats.” Madame Patricia walked over to Jarrod and stood toe-to-toe with him. “We are the most powerful beings known, but we tremble at the might of a soul. So you can see why Heaven would deem you worthy of assassination. You have to be put down.”
“I said start with Lian’s kind.” Jarrod didn’t blink as he leaned in towards Madame Patricia’s face. “Get there.”
“I am.” She smiled. “Ra, a fellow Architect, is collecting those born with powers. I’m not talking about half-breeds like Maya or Harold. I’m talking about powerful individuals like Jaden and Lian. You see, the special abilities those like Harold exhibit don’t come because of the angel in their bloodline. They come from the human side in them. Angels aren’t the supernatural ones. They’re bound by science. The human element is supernatural, but only when those traits are unlocked with comingling of bloodlines with angels. So when pure humans like Lian and Jaden are born, yet exhibit powers, it baffles us. Their proximity factor seems unique,” she said, pointing at Lian and her brother. “The closer they are, the more in sync their abilities, and the more powerful they become.”
“So why does this Ra want us?” Lian asked. “What does he gain from it?”
“Aside from the obvious collection of scarce resources, I don’t know,” Madame Patricia replied.
Jarrod could see she was lying. The same denial he used to see in the mirror was plastered over her face. Her glance in his direction asked him to hold it back. Why? He was not her puppet. Did she think she could control him? More games. Games were getting old. This wasn’t a safe place for them to be. Just flat out lies and other ways to keep people under her thumb, that’s all this debate was. A big spectacle.
Slit her throat. Put her head on a spike. The urge to punch through her ribcage bubbled and burned with Krakatoan force. No, that wouldn’t solve anything. Who cared? It would feel good. It wasn’t about feeling good. But who said things like that? The cycle needed to end.
“You do know,” he growled. The veins in his arms radiated blue energy. The glow was reflected off their faces. Suddenly he felt himself unable to push it back. The only answer was to run from everyone. “You feel something… The truth about Jaden and Lian.”
“They’re unique, yes.” Madame Patricia nodded.
“Tell us,” Athena insisted. She took her surrogate mom’s hand. “We can stop Ra.”
“When Jaden and Lian are close, their bond amplifies my own abilities. Whatever they are, when they’re together they’re like Architects.” Madame Patricia stared at Jarrod. “If I can sense it, then so can Ra. He must be collecting gifted like them in the hopes of duplicating the process. You see, he can’t have her and her brother.”
“So you’d give him me?” Lian asked.
“Yes. One is better than both,” Madame Patricia replied bluntly.
“That might not be a bad idea,” Austin said, drawing surprised and aghast looks from everyone around him, especially from Lian. “Trust me. It’s not as bad as it sounds.”
“Bait.” She put her hands to her hips and squinted at him. “You’re going to fish with me on a string?”
“You don’t know what it is you’re up against.” Madame Patricia laughed boisterously. “Ra would skin you alive, and that would be just getting started.”
“What if we find the other ones like her?” Athena asked. “We could get them before Ra does and return them to Madame Patricia for safe keeping. With Lian’s powers and the research already done by that detective, how hard could it be?”
“Plenty hard.” Madame Patricia sat at a table with her back turned to the group.
“We have something he’s afraid of,” Athena said, standing behind Madame Patricia. “We’ve got Jarrod on our side. Teach him how to control his powers and he can stop Ra.”
“That’s where you’re wrong,” Jarrod said. Everyone turned to him. “This can’t be controlled. It sinks its noose into me tighter each day. You don’t have me.”
“Jarrod’s right, you know,” Madame Patricia added. “He’s a different breed: simultaneously human and angel. When you were a child, Sanderson saw the raw power. Whatever your mother did kept you from learning to cope. By now, you’re a nuclear bomb of pent up energy. Even if you wanted to control it, you couldn’t handle it all at once.”
I can, the voice in Jarrod’s head said. Lian gave him a weird look as if she heard something.
“Jarrod?” she asked.
“You guys are on your own. There’s nothing more I can do for you.” Jarrod headed for the door despite the pleas from his friends to help.
“It’s just as well,” Madame Patricia spoke up, stopping Jarrod in his tracks. “With the Assassins on his heels, he’ll be dead soon anyway. No sense in bringing that sort of heat down on the rest of you.”
“You may think you’re being a colossal cunt,” Jarrod said, turning around, “but I couldn’t agree with you more.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Jarrod IV
The wind howled up the hill causing the long blades of grass to bow at its command. A salty chill filled the air. The smooth, cloudy skies blocked out the moon and stars. There seemed to be no end to the black, lifeless water, and only the gentle stirring of the tide upon the sands lifted its voice. Jarrod’s breath froze every time he exhaled. He rubbed his arms feverishly to warm himself as the stiff breeze along his skin numbed the shredding ache of the aurascales inside his body. When his efforts to warm up proved to be futile, he relented and allowed the aurascales to crawl over his skin to regulate his body temperature. They no longer prodded at him for release.
“There are no answers out there.” Athena approached from behind. She noticed his aurascales. Hers also formed, seemingly as a precaution. Their heads remained uncovered.
“And they’re in there?” Jarrod kept his focus ahead, pointing over his shoulder with his thumb at the Progeny Lounge. “This isn’t my journey. Only thing I’ll find in there is another version of someone else’s truth.”
“Time is relative, remember? Not truth.” Her voice was soft, yet exuded confidence. Jarrod glanced at her, his eyes saying ‘bullshit.’ She continued. “A skeptic...”
“A realist,” he said, cutting her off. “When you’ve been through what I have and seen what I’ve seen...”
“Oh, I am sorry. I did not realize you were the preeminent authority on sob stories and the universe.” Athena crossed her arms, scowling at him while shaking
her head in frustration. “Twenty plus years on Earth...”
“Twenty-three, now.” He grinned, disrupting her train of thought in order to humor himself. Her nostrils widened. The residual ache of her cross-hook upon his chin reminded him to not irritate her too much.
“Whatever,” Athena said, raising her voice. She stomped the ground and turned to leave, but stopped and looked over her shoulder. “I did not come out here to freeze my ass off.”
“I’m sorry, wait,” he laughed, grabbing her wrist. She pulled away, still marching. He ran to catch her and stood in her path. “I’m an asshole when I’m nervous. And frustrated... and sad, and sometimes happy... Pretty much all the time. Shit, I suck.” Her eyes enlarged, leaning forward and awkwardly inspecting him. Jarrod leaned back to increase his personal space. She was being straight up weird. “What are you doing?” he asked.
“You said you were an asshole,” she replied, smelling him. “Funny, you only half smell of feces.”
“Wait, what?” Jarrod smelled his armpit. “No, I was joking. It’s a figure of speech.” Athena giggled, putting her right hand over her mouth. Maybe humor and jovial sparring weren’t completely lost on her after all. “You’re joking,” he said, giving her fake applause. “Very well.”
“I am not ignorant of sarcasm, metaphors or modern idioms.” She stood rigid. Her tone and facial expression were serious. Even though the moment was light, Jarrod still got the impression she felt the need to prove herself.
“Of course.” Jarrod nodded in agreement. “If you didn’t come out here to freeze your ass off, then why did you come?”
“To get a look at you and your armor.” She pointed at his aurascales. “I was told stories about you. Well, not you in particular.”
“About who, then?” His words were quick, his heartbeat quicker. The eerie itch scratched and clawed at the back his mind the longer he powered the aurascales. He suppressed it.
“I am not so sure I am best qualified to tell you these things.” She tried to avoid eye contact. Jarrod wouldn’t let her. “Madame Patricia should be the one.”
“I want to hear it from you.” He put his fingers to her chin and moved her face up. His thumb rubbed the side of her cheek and elicited a smile. There was a force between the two attracting him to her. His aurascales wanted to bond. They tried persuading him like a devil on his shoulder. “Something about you says you’re more honest than Madame Patricia. I don’t know if we should trust her.”
“Nonsense. She has always taken care of me.” Athena shook her head, having none of that talk.
“It’s just a feeling I have. You can’t really help those.” Jarrod stepped away and folded his hands behind his back. His heart still belonged to Claire even though there was a primitive allure about Athena. He knew there was another hand at work. He could sense it. “The more we work together, if that happens, then maybe I’ll trust her more. But right now my gut says she’s hiding something. My gut is rarely wrong, except on the occasions it says ‘have that 17th deep fried taco’. In which case it punishes the shit out of me. Literally.”
“Another joke.” She smirked. “Crude humor and self-deprecation. Harold has taught me about that. Quite funny.”
“Typically you’re just supposed to laugh.” Jarrod shrugged. The self-awareness of this chick was off the charts.
“You say your feelings persuade your rationality when it comes to the Madame, but there should be a line at which logic is transcendent.” Athena stood by his side and looked out over the waters. The tone in her voice carried the sort of conviction radicals exude in their black and white views of the world. Jarrod knew there were only different shades of gray. Immediately, big signs urging caution when working with Athena and the others flashed brightly in his mind. “Have you never closed your eyes and fallen into someone else’s arms?”
“We did that in high school.”
“I mean metaphorically.” Her brows furrowed while her nose scrunched sideways. She didn’t seem impressed.
“Yes. I know.” He chuckled and folded his arms. “That just makes you dependant on someone else. If you really want to get by you need to brace yourself for the fall and learn to dust yourself off.”
“But you would not need to fall.”
“You always fall.” His words shut her up. Not in a delicate, contemplative sort of way either. Her face was stunned. An awkward silence accompanied the salty chill. “You don’t have to take it personally. It’s just my opinion.”
“What if someone was strong enough to lift you up?” she asked. “Would you have faith then?”
“If they were strong enough then what do they get out of lifting me up?” he replied.
“Maybe they are just with you in battle?” Her voice was stressed and agitated.
“Then fight by my side, not behind me to lift me up.” He was done with the debate. None of what she said was going to change his mind. What did she have to gain out of trying so hard to alter his opinions anyway? “The people with the most hidden are the ones behind you. Why would I want them propping me up? If I allowed myself to count on them then I’d be helpless when I fell.”
“What if there was no ulterior motive?” She stepped in front of him and lowered her head. She was tall for a chick—they were roughly the same height. “You would expect those not on par to stand as equal?”
“Better than using me as a shield. That does neither one of us any good in the end. Stand on your own feet.”
“Why are you so standoffish?” She reached for his face and he jerked away. “We mean only to help. You should know you are uniquely in a position to help us and others. In turn we can help you.”
“I don’t need your help. And if you knew a thing about me, you wouldn’t want mine. You’d want to run as far as you could.”
“I’m a capable person.” Her words struck a chord. Maybe that’s what his aurascales were trying to relay. He may be powerful enough to destroy those closest to him, but Athena was more than capable of holding her own and knew what it was like to bear the burden of the armor.
“That you are.” He nodded. “But I think at this point I’m better off solo. My friends are grown ass people. They can decide to stay with you or leave.”
“But not to follow you?” she asked.
“Now you’re getting it.” He gave her a ‘thumbs-up’ and brushed past her on his way to the water line. He knelt and sifted his hand through the damp, clumpy sand. His armor shielded him from the jarring cold of the sea, but relayed to his mind the understanding of what he would be feeling with bare skin.
“You are either supremely arrogant or ignorant. It seems like a perfect combination of the two.” She stood over him and shoved him into the water. He kicked himself off his back and stuck his landing. His wet hair hung over his scowl. “You are oblivious to what looms over you. There will be a time when you need someone.”
“Tell me what’s out there, then,” he said, but he continued speaking before she could get another word in. “Oh yeah, that’s right. That’s up to the Madame to discuss. Only problem is, that old broad is playing her own game. But I won’t be one of the cards in her hand.”
The area around him grew bright with a bluish hue. His aurascales beamed. Athena’s eyes widened and she stepped away from him. She raised her arm to shield her eyes from the glare.
“The lives of many who cannot fend or fight for themselves depend on us. We could use your help.” She backed up and stumbled, but continued to crawl away from him as he pursued. “Your aurascales are raging. I mean you no harm.”
“Why don’t we work our way up to that part? Working together, that is.” Jarrod snatched up her hand and pulled her off the ground. His armor returned to a neutral state. He hadn’t meant to send Athena the wrong message by scaring her. In fact, he was sympathetic to their cause. The whole reason he joined the Army Rangers was to help those who couldn’t defend themselves. He thought about what she’d said. He wanted to hear more, but first needed to have som
ething answered. “You called them aurascales, why?”
“That is their proper name.” She tepidly accepted his support in standing.
“That’s funny, I thought we named them.” Jarrod rubbed the back of his head, pondering. His thoughts began connecting dots he didn’t think could be there. Jarrod thought back to when he was training to be a Double-Helix agent. Jackson had said Elliot named the armor. How could he have known they were called ‘aurascales’? “Does the name Elliot Foster ring a bell?”
“No. Should it?”
“I guess not.” The calm luminescence of their aurascales reflected off the rippling water. The radiance of her purple sentient armor caught his eye. “You look familiar. Not just your armor, but everything about you. Your eyes, your hair, even your face speaks of someone I could swear I’ve met before.” He thought she looked like she could be related to Jackson. “Do you know Maya?”
“I have heard the name.” She nodded.
“Are you like her, or are you like me?”
“If I had to choose, I suppose I am like you.”
“You’re a clone?” he asked. His words visibly shocked her. “It’s OK, I know what I am. A lab experiment of something ancient. My mom always called me her little angel. I didn’t think she meant it literally.”
“I guess that must be a lot to comprehend. To not really believe you have a purpose, to think you are...”
“An abomination of mankind?” He sat down and picked up a smooth stone. His thumb glided over the surface of the rock and then he threw it into the water, skipping it over the waves.
“My existence started a war. Those who killed my parents called me an abomination.” She sat beside him. “I was the heir to the throne Maya sat upon. I would have never caused the destruction she did, no matter what past transgressions the fates inflicted upon me. People are quick to excuse the behavior of mad individuals because of their tragic upbringing. I think some people are just evil and have no reasons.”
“That’s what scares me,” Jarrod said, drawing stick figures in the sand. “I believe that too. Can’t change human nature, right?” He looked at her and smiled. She stared into his eyes.