by K.N. Lee
The electric fence had no effect on him, as he quickly jumped down the other side into the public woods. How was that possible? He was immune to electricity? As Anais thought about it, she realised that was not possible. The only other solution was that the fence had been deactivated. With some trepidation, she decided the only course of action was to test her theory. She prayed she was right as she climbed the wall. If she were wrong, the consequences would be disastrous. Would she just be thrown back by the force of the electricity or totally fried? She closed her eyes and jumped off the other side. She had been right. The electricity had been turned off.
She ran in the direction Jago had taken. Unlike the last time she had been in the woods when she and Aethelu had walked down the hill, Jago had turned left and ran upwards. She followed as quickly as she could through the rain. It was not long before they both got to the path that ran alongside the tramway. Jago had also slowed, allowing Anais to catch up. He had obviously thought that he had managed to escape and now stopped. He looked around to see if he was still being followed. Anais tried to hide behind a nearby tree, but the sky was once more illuminated by lightning, exposing her. He turned and took off up the hill. Now that he was on a concrete path and didn’t have to worry about running into a tree, he was free to run as fast as he liked. As someone with The Light running through his veins, that meant he could run very fast indeed. Anais followed as fast as she could, but with an injured leg, she couldn’t hope to keep up. Still, she had to try. Guessing that he would keep to the path, she ran alongside the tram track and followed him up-hill. It wasn’t long before he disappeared into the blackness, but she kept on.
She could barely see a thing, as there were no streetlights, but she kept the concrete under her feet and carried on. Looking up, she could see a spot of light in the distance. The little station at the top of the tram was in darkness, but a streetlight showed her the end of the path. She had nearly reached the top, when she tripped over something, sending her crashing down and hitting the concrete head first. Blood began to pour from her nose, mixing with the rain which was lashing her face. It was even heavier here at the edge of the woods, as there were no trees to protect her from it. She wiped the blood with her sleeve and looked to see what she had tripped over. Through the darkness she could barely make out what it was, so she pulled herself closer. When she realised what it was, she stared in shock. It was Mike, the tram operator. His head was twisted at an unnatural angle and he was obviously dead, his unseeing eyes staring into the blackness. Jago must have run into him and broken his neck as he passed. Anais felt sick. The pain in her leg was getting worse and was now added to by the pain in her nose, which was almost certainly broken. She stood herself up but immediately felt dizzy with pain. The spinning in her head became too much, and she threw up on the edge of the path. Wiping her mouth, she took a few deep breaths. It helped to clear her head, and the coldness of the rain helped her regain her focus. Taking one last look at Mike, she once again started running, this time out of the woods and up the road she now found herself on. The road was well lit and she could see Jago ahead in the distance. The act of killing Mike had slowed him down, and once again, Anais had caught up some of the distance between them.
She started to run towards him up the road. Large houses with huge gardens stood at each side of the road, but she barely noticed as she continued her pursuit.
She passed a pub on the left and found herself on the edge of moorland. The houses had stopped, and the road ran off into the distant blackness. The streetlights had also stopped, and it was difficult to see where she was going. She could just make out Jago in the distance. He had stopped running and seemed to be waiting for her. She momentarily slowed, disconcerted by this change, but then remembered Aethelu, injured in the studio, and Mike, dead on the path. She ran the distance between them and lunged at him. His Light-filled senses were much too quick for her and he sidestepped quickly, tripping Anais as he did. Anais found herself falling once again. This time, the mud softened her fall. She turned to see Jago with his hand outstretched, offering to help her out of the mud. She ignored it, but he bent down and pulled her up by her arm. His grip on her was tight and hurt her arm.
“You really are a beautiful woman, Anais, and so full of life. You remind me so much of your mother.”
His voice, although distorted by the voice changer, was full of malice.
“Stay out of it.”
With that, he dropped her back to the floor and slammed his foot down on her uninjured leg. It gave a loud snapping sound, causing her to cry out in agony.
She saw him disappear into the blackness of the moors before her whole world went black.
Chapter 24
Memories swirled into dreams. Anais could not tell what was real and what was not. She was dancing with Aethelu, who kept standing on her feet. She shouted at her and Aethelu laughed. “What feet?” When she looked down, she had no legs and Aethelu kept on laughing. She looked up into Aethelu’s face and it was melting, dripping all over her until there was nothing left but the sound of her laughing which filled her ears.
Anais woke up and sat bolt upright in a panic. Her breathing was coming thick and fast and sweat was pouring off her. She was hyperventilating, but she couldn’t remember why. Something bad had happened, but what? Then it all flooded back to her. She took a slow breath to calm down and took in her surroundings. She guessed she was in the surgery, as it looked like the bed she had slept in the night before, but now it was surrounded by a curtain like the ones found on hospital wards. It was light, telling her it was daytime.
Her right leg was expertly bandaged and her left was in a thigh length cast, which left her unable to get out of bed. At least this time, she was not on a drip of any sort.
She could hear someone moving about on the other side of the curtain, so she called out. Seconds later, Rafe opened the curtain. It was not a face she was expecting to see, and she was caught off guard.
“Good morning.” He brought a cloth to her head, which cooled her forehead.
“Aethelu?”
“You forget, my dear, the lesson I taught you the first time we met.”
She thought back to when he slashed his throat in front of her and coated her in blood. Was he saying Aethelu managed to survive her major blood loss and injuries?
“She is ok?”
“Why don’t you see for yourself?” He pulled the curtain back and there in a twin bed was Aethelu, asleep, but looking a lot healthier than she should in the situation.
“Her injuries were severe, but once we removed the arrows, she began to regenerate. She’ll be as good as new in a few days. She’s on some pretty heavy painkillers, though, so she’ll probably sleep through most of it.”
“She’s going to be fine!” Anais said softly to herself before tears sprang to her eyes.
“Yep. It takes a lot to knock us down completely. Unfortunately for you, you only have half The Light blood, so it’s uncertain how long it will take your leg to get better. Probably a lot quicker than a normal human, though. Your left leg has already begun to heal quickly. Aldrich had to reposition your right one and put a metal rod in to secure it. On a normal human, it would take a few months to recuperate completely, but Aldrich thinks it will take about a month with you. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.”
“How did you find me?”
“August woke us all up and let us know that you had gone running off into the woods after Jago. Alex and I tried to follow you. I’m afraid we expected you to be on the grounds somewhere so we wasted quite a lot of time searching in the wrong place. Eventually, Andrew noticed that the electric fence had been disabled, so we continued our search out of the grounds. I found you just in time. Your broken bones weren’t your biggest enemy, hypothermia had begun to set in. If we hadn’t found you when we did, you would have probably died from exposure. I think you have The Light to thank for your survival.”
Anais thought back to her journey through the woods.
An image of her tripping came back to her.
“Mike!”
“We found him. He was already dead. There was nothing we could do.”
“Did you bring the body back here?”
“No, we made an anonymous phone call to the police. We really can’t afford to get involved with the authorities. He has a wife and grown children who can deal with the funeral arrangements.”
Anais was silent for a while.
“So he escaped then…again.”
“Yes, unfortunately, but we did find this,” he picked up an object from the cabinet. It was the crossbow. “Jago must have dropped it as he ran through the woods.”
Anais thought about it and realised he didn’t have it with him when he stepped on her leg. She shuddered to think of the damage he could have caused if he had still had it.
Rafe continued “It’s pretty rare apparently which should give us some clues as to his whereabouts.”
Anais looked at it closely and now that she could see it in the light she could tell it was a very fancy piece of weaponry, too fancy, really. Made out of wood, it was all swirls and intricate details. She’d never seen anything like it before. It seemed odd. Why not just use a normal crossbow?
“Strange, huh?” Rafe echoed her thoughts. “Judith was the one to recognise it, giving us a major clue.”
“It’s African?”
“No. She recognised it from a film. It’s a prop from a fantasy film from a few years back. Audsley looked into it and it seems Judith was right.
Apparently, only a few of them were ever made and were all sold to wealthy private memorabilia collectors or given to some of the actors in the film. None of the crossbows worked in real life so this one is either a copy or an actual prop that has been modified for use. Fascinating isn’t it?”
“So, when you, Alex and Arcadia go to find Jago, you have a lead to follow?”
“Alex and Arcadia left last night. Audsley took my place and went with them. She knows a lot more about film memorabilia than me, so it seemed the right thing to do.”
“Alex has gone?”
“Yes,” said Rafe rather irritably. “Audsley said she knew someone in Las Vegas that dealt in film props, so they booked the first flight they could get to Vegas and toodled off.”
Anais felt bereft at Alex leaving.
“He didn’t even say goodbye. Did he say anything about me before he left?”
“No, he did not. He had too many more important things on his mind, getting the four of them to the airport in time for their flight, to come and see you.”
“Four? I thought Alex was just going with Arcadia and Audsley?”
“Yes, they are. Judith went to the airport with them. She flew home this morning.”
“Why?”
“After last night, Father insisted she return home immediately. Andrew is quite beside himself. I tried to make Father see sense, I mean it’s hardly as if Jago is going to attack again. He’s already proved his point. There was really no need for Judith to go, but Father was adamant.”
Rafe seemed angry, and Anais remembered that he had been in love with Judith, too.
“You loved her.”
Rafe stared at her in shock. “How did you... Oh never mind, Yes, I was in love with her, not that I could do anything about it. I had my dear brother warning me off and then Andrew there all the time with her. What does it matter now? She is flying to Kenya as we speak. I’ll probably never see her again. If Jago gets his way, the whole of civilisation will be wiped out within a year, Judith included.”
He was hiding something. A quiver in his voice betrayed him. Anais suspected he was taking it harder than he was making out. Nevertheless, Rafe’s words jolted something in her memory.
“I need to speak to Aldrich. Now!”
If Rafe was surprised by this sudden turn in the conversation, he didn’t show it.
“He has been up all night performing surgery on you and dealing with Aethelu. He just retired about an hour ago.”
“Wake him up. Please, it’s important.”
“He’s not going to be happy.”
“Just do it!” She raised her voice. She didn’t have time for an argument. He looked like he was about to say something, but thought twice and turned on his heel before disappearing out of the surgery door.
As she waited for Aldrich to arrive, Anais watched Aethelu breathing softly. She looked so peaceful although that probably had something to do with the drip attached to her arm. Now that the blood had been cleaned up and the arrows removed, she really did look like she was going to be ok. If Anais hadn’t seen the extent to which she was injured, she would never have been able to tell that Aethelu was hurt at all. She even had a slight colour to her cheeks. Anais breathed a sigh of relief. She didn’t know how she would survive without Aethelu. She was part of her now.
Anais pulled herself up and experienced agonising pain shooting through both her legs, each competing for the most painful. She held her breath and waited for the agony to subside. Eventually, it lessened and she was able to pull herself into a sitting position.
Footsteps alerted Anais to Aldrich’s arrival. He was wearing pyjamas and slippers and had black circles under his eyes from a lack of sleep.
“Are you ok? Do you need more painkillers?”
“Jago knew about the babies. He knows about you trying to make an antidote and he says it won’t work. He’s got another virus. If you manage to cure the first, he said he’d just let the second one loose.”
“You’re sure that’s what he said?”
“Yes. He said he’d kill all your children one by one if you don’t start working on the Elixir.”
Aldrich sat on the little chair between the two beds, lowered his head into his hands and started to weep. It was disconcerting to see him cry. He had always seemed so strong.
Winnie chose that moment to walk through the door. She appeared just as disturbed by Aldrich’s loss of control as Anais felt.
“What is it? Is it Aethelu?” She rushed straight to her daughter’s bed and was mollified to see her youngest child breathing.”
“Aldrich?” She turned to him, concern in her voice.
Anais repeated what she had told Aldrich moments before.
Winnie held her hand to her mouth in shock.
“How could he possibly have known?”
“I’ve been thinking about that” answered Anais. “He has keys to the house.”
“He can’t have. What makes you think he has keys?”
“When he came into the studio he was silent. I had locked the door behind me. The only two ways he could have got through that door were if he broke the door down or if he had keys, and we would have heard him if he’d broken in.”
“Oh, good lord!” Winnie looked around her as if she expected Jago to jump out from behind a curtain.
“Did the cameras capture anything?”
“No. We had Andrew watch back yesterday’s footage, but he said that something had blocked the camera in the studio. Oh! Do you think Jago has been breaking the cameras?”
Anais thought back to Aethelu covering the studios camera and blushed. It had seemed like a good idea at the time, but now she regretted it.
“No, I think Aethelu might have covered it by mistake.” Winnie did not need to know the real reason it was covered.
Aldrich wiped his nose and eyes with a handkerchief he brought from his pocket.
“What are we going to do, Winnie?” he sounded defeated.
“We’ve run out of options, Aldrich. We have to give him what he wants.”
“What about Arcadia, Alex and Audsley. They have a chance of finding him.”
“I think we both know that the chance of finding him is extremely slim. They’ve all flown to Las Vegas on some wild goose chase, even though we know he is in this country now. For all we know, he could be in the grounds as we speak.”
“August took Baker and thoroughly searched the grounds. He’s gone. I’ve asked And
rew to sort out the security again. He managed to get through the electric fence. Honestly, I’m glad Judith has gone home. Now Andrew can put all his concentration into the security, instead of parading around the grounds with her. There have been too many lapses in security for my liking, and it’s just not like him.” He sounded tired, his voice flat.
“Be easy on him. He’s found love for the first time in his life. You remember how that feels, don’t you? Now he’s lost her. The poor boy is beside himself.”
Aldrich spoke wearily “Andrew has upped the security a number of times, and still, Jago gets in. We don’t know where, we don’t know how, and somehow he has managed to avoid turning up on any of the security cameras. He travels through this house like a ghost whenever he pleases, and nothing Andrew has done seems to make any impact.”
“I’m aware of that, Aldrich, but I don’t think we should put so much pressure on Andrew at the moment. I found him crying in the library this morning. I don’t think we can count on him right now. I’m not losing another child, Aldrich. You are going to give Jago what he wants and the consequences be damned.”
Anais opened her mouth in shock. She had never heard Winnie speak like that before. She was fierce and Anais was unsurprised when Aldrich quelled under her steely gaze.
“Ok, Winnie. I’ll give him the Elixir, but I don’t know how.”
“You have some of the Elixir already brewed?” Anais was incredulous. “You said you’d forgotten how to make it and all this time you had some? You’ve been lying to us all?”