Emotionless: (Prototype: Zero book 1)

by Shaina Anastasi

  My stomach churned.

  After introductions, I walked to the back and wondered if I was making myself obvious if I sit next to her. Then I thought about what my Master would do to me if I came home with no information, took the plunge and sat down beside her. Placing my book on the table, I shuffled in my bag but couldn’t find a pencil to use. I must have looked afraid because, after my third try of hoping to find one, a pencil came into focus and poked my nose.

  “You can copy my work. I know you will catch up.”

  “Huh...?” I squeaked.

  “You don’t have the look like everyone else here does.”

  “What look is that?”

  “Stupid,” she smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes. Just like his. “You’re a mage. What made you come here?”

  “Father . . . work.” She doesn’t know that I am a shifter, but how could she. We’re similar on the outside. I was told my father was a mage, that would explain how I can bring out my veins but still can shift into a fox. A mix, but was leaning more towards mage then creature. I am a mongrel nonetheless. “I have never been to a school. It’s scary.”

  “The way they look at you,” she tapped the book so that I would write down what she has already copied from the board. “They are the scared ones.”

  “Why?” I asked.

  “They think we’re monsters,” she laughed darkly and looked back out the window. “I have already finished today's work. Take your time and catch up. I will wait.”

  I nodded as I wrote. So far, she didn’t look like a threat the organisation was talking about. I recall that they were talking about a type zero kid, but I never expected that I would get the case. When they talk about them, it was almost as if they were a threat. A grotesque mage that was spooling dark magic around them and was suffocating the earth with it.

  It sounds like they were talking about my Master. I laughed bitterly in my head.

  However, this girl looked like a mage. I wouldn’t say an average mage. There was power. I could feel it tingle my arm that was closest to her as I worked. It was as if her magic wasn’t just on her skin but surrounded her in a comfortable blanket.

  I finished a few minutes after the bell went. I wanted to hurry up, so my work looked like chicken scratch by the end of it. When I was done, the girl took her book back, stood and gave me a suspiciously warm smile.

  “Do you want to play together?”

  “Ok?”

  “Ok?” she questioned with a tilt of her head. “Is that a yes?” she asked, and I nodded slowly. “There’s a park near the school I like going to. It's near my home so after I can take you back and heal those wounds.”

  “What!?” I squeaked, stepped back and tugged down the sleeve of my jumper. I made sure that I kept my bruises hidden. I am even wearing a turtleneck in summer. The teacher has been told that I have a skin condition and believes that I am self-conscious. “I have a...”

  “Horrible father,” she smiled. “My parents are never home either. I haven’t seen them for . . . Four months and thirteen days. But it's ok because Hopper cares for us. You will meet him. He is sweet and kind. So, like my grandfather. He is better at healing than I am, but I am learning. Don’t be scared.”

  “Why . . . Why are you so kind to me? You don’t know me.”

  “Eileen Frost. My name is Eileen Frost,” she raised her hand and smiled warmly. “Conner, was it?” I nodded at my fake name and looked away guiltily. “It’s nice to meet you.”

  Maybe type zero is a cover-up I thought, as I shook her hand. Maybe they’re using that as their excuse to kill mages legally without causing chaos amongst the race.

  He’s fast. Inhumane looking also. He grabbed my face with one swift motion and made me stumble downwards. The ground began to shake and break once I hit the ground. He snarled, and with that snarl, I absorbed every feature possible. Alienated, narrow, lizard-like golden eyes, sharpened fingernails that resemble claws and scales that were rolling over the skin. How could I miss it? We call him that every day. Lawliet is just like me, a creature that has resembled a mage all this time. It is possible if your own guardian is the master of mages.

  Typical. Activate, shattered effect.

  Before that demonic claw hand could slice my head clean off shoulders, skin turned into particles, and I drifted with the wind into another location. Rubbing at the cut along the stomach, if I weren't fast enough, he would have gutted me.

  Activate, healing rune.

  The cut stitched together when the wind breezed strangely than the standard current I place it under with creature magic. Twisting body to the breeze, I raised a hand and created an ice shield brace around arms when Lawliet came into focus. He smacked his boot into them and sizzling steam built. I took a few steps back when he raised his arm and backhanded me across the face.

  Why is he impossibly fast?

  Trying to gain ground, I went to move when Rokk came from the side. It came out of nowhere, as he slammed a fist into Lawliet and he went toppling sideways.

  “Nice,” I praised.

  “Get Eileen and get out of here,” Rokk shouted over the howling snow. “I will slow him down enough for you to make a clean exit out of this fucked up place.”

  “Are you sure you’re going to be ok.”

  “This dick has it is coming for him,” Rokk smirked darkly.

  Nodding, I took a step and was behind Eileen. I grabbed her arm when a horrid growl tore through the night. Her shaky breaths escaped into frost when I scooped her in my arm and let her head collapsed against my chest.

  I am sorry Eileen, for what I have done. However, master’s words were absolute, dead or alive.

  The moment was short-lived. Manipulating the wind, I created it stronger so I could escape. Then I realised that Lawliet uses the same technique. The stronger the wind, the faster he can move. It was my fault for what happened to Rokk, as Lawliet sliced his arm upwards. Blood danced with the snow and mingled between the muffled agonised cries of Rokk. Holding Eileen carefully, I stepped back slowly, as I followed Rokk’s arm that was now limp in the snow. The dragon was well past his breaking point as he knocked Rokk unconscious. Blood was seeping everywhere.

  As much as I disliked Rokk, he understood the motives behind what I was doing as well as Charlie. He doesn’t deserve to bleed to death in the cold snow. Therefore, I released the hold I had on the violent wind, dropped it down to its usual subtle breeze so that Lawliet cannot appear so quickly.

  Except, when I took a step, billowing flames gushed towards me and was bursting in the direction I was about to run. Stiffening, I didn’t want to make sudden movements as I watched the flames swarm around him with the rise of his hands. They circled, morphed into an enormous wall of fire, and I went rigid.

  His fire is so hot that it not only melted snow but also dried the sopping grass underneath. Steam was rising as well as burning smoke, as he burned whatever was hidden under the snow. If he keeps going, the flames will spread towards us and burn the one being he came here to protect.

  Suddenly, lightning zapped around the sky and was zipping and curling through the darkened clouds above. A flicker of a blink and a small child slammed into the ground. His hand was pressed against the back of Lawliet’s head while the other one held his rotten wood staff I assume was nothing more than a stick he found on the ground. Electricity curled around the flames, disintegrating them from where they burst. The inhumane dragon snarled at Head Mage for a moment until he tapped the stick down. It was calming him and letting the white veins dull into nothingness.

  “I apologise for what I am about to do,” said a formal voice from behind me.

  Whirling, he already had a hold of my arm, bent it awkwardly and slipped Eileen into his arms while he slammed me into the ground with one swift motion. That damn shape-shifter was standing over me, and his eyes were locked onto Eileen.

  Angered from their interruption and realisation that the plan I once thought would work break, I stood and shouted at th
em. I was screaming at all the despicable shifters and mages who have gotten into my path all this time.

  “You don’t deserve her! You all don’t deserve to be there for her when all you keep doing is bringing her lies and misery!”

  Scrunching my eyes up and screeching the words, an earth-shattering rumble came from the front, and I bent backwards when a silver light of a blade sliced sideways. It was gleaming in the moonlight. Stumbling to a fall, a wash of ink black hair came into focus right before the tip of the blade. Creating a hurricane of ice shards and wind, I appeared feet’s away from the blow of the sword that was stabbing into the burnt ground.

  “And you believe you don’t or won’t,” wings twitched and shined pitch black and raised into flight. Her arm was extended, while the other, that was looking oddly broken was wrapped around her waist. The clothes she wore was a dead giveaway. Valkyrie. The last of her kind, Valeria, stared daggers at me. Her eyes dilated, and lip curled, as she said, “Piece of shit.”

  It caused an eruption of bubbling laughter to escape lips, as I leant down and howled with it.

  “Valeria, the last, is working with a mage and shape-shifter, the two beings she hates the most. Did you forget what happened with that other type zero you messed with? How much did he pay you to help him out?”

  “I do not answer traitors,” Valeria, shifted into a stance, the sword at her side in one hand swirled with essence and wind power.

  “Why aren’t you as strong as the rumours?” I questioned, and her eyes hardened. I narrowed at her other hand, where it is still crossed on her other side and was wrapped around her stomach that seemed to be stained with blood that was soaking out of her armour. “Why do you have the same wounds as Eileen Frost?”

  Crouching lower, the sword expanded and a layer of rushing wind I assume would be as sharp as blades glowed around the outside of it. Valeria is a dangerous creature. She is known to ignore shape-shifter more than mages for the pure fact that she absolutely hates mages for what they have done to her previously. It now has suddenly dawned on me that they both have the exact same motive of being here and that is taking Eileen Frost from me.

  “I understand now,” I smirked. “You’re the reason from all those years ago. You saved her. How? What rune did you create to bring her back from death?”

  “Eliminate,” she sneered and then disappeared into the gears of time. Unlike Eileen, I cannot track where she is when she is inside of it. The Valkyrie is a highly-trained swordswoman, once she locks onto her target, there is no point preventing your death. She will find you, and she will kill you.

  I raised hands with a smile on my face. There is no matter anyways on how I am going to die. I did this with knowing the fact that I will not survive at the end. The poison was already coursing through my veins from the cut of my own knife. Closing eyes, I waited for the bite of her sword that will slice through my waist, and a moment later after she has, she would have already landed on the other side. The blade would be dripping with my tainted blood.

  Strangely, the scene played out in my head, but it never happened. Instead, lightning struck down. The flash caught my attention, and I opened eyes to see Valeria materialise. Her sword was touching my coat that flapped in the wind. Not that far away, Mika was sitting on Lawliet, staff raised and charged with electricity.

  “Even knowing he has done many horrible things, in my eyes, Spencer is still a student at my school.”

  What?

  “I do not listen to you and the sympathetic reasoning’s you come up with,” she moved a foot forward and then growled as the pressure of a stick staff stabbed into me, forced me back and then flicked up to knock the sword out of Valeria’s hands. It flew up, disintegrated and then back into her hands as she clutched it into a sword like the motion of gripping the hilt. “Move, Mika Frost.”

  Frost? Surprised by the last name, I looked around and noticed I wasn’t the only one. The rabbit Elijah, also known as Hopper furrowed brows with confusion as he leant down to rest Eileen back on the snow to tend to her wounds.

  For Mika, to have the Frost last name, he would have had to be related to Chantelle Frost. Mage families claim the last name of the female considering they can keep the species going and produce life.

  “Using last names now. How tedious,” Mike turned towards me while he still aimed the staff at her and said, “I don’t know why you’re doing this, but if you stop now, you can always come back to the Academy and start fresh. You’re young. Don’t let the mind of the organisation corrupt you further. I can protect you.”

  “He tried murdering Eileen!”

  “Would someone who was cradling Eileen protectively want to kill her?” Mika questioned.

  “Don’t throw your ill minded logic at me,” she growled. “She bled, I felt the pain. He is an enemy that needs to be eliminated.”

  “And if you try, I will have to place you responsible for my actions that will come after,” Mika said firmly. “Step back, Valeria, I do not wish to harm the one who is under contract with Eileen. I am curious, however, as for how that deal came to be but unfortunately, we have other matters to attend. Spencer, I can protect you from the organisation. I have hidden Lawliet almost his whole life, and I can easily hide you. It is no trouble.”

  “Why?” I said through clenched teeth. “Why are you so nice after everything I have done these past few weeks?”

  “Because if I were in your position, I would have done the exact same thing,” he smiled and then done something strange what reminded me of Eileen at a time like this. Raise his hand towards me. “Fear not, child. There is nothing you should be afraid of if you were in my care.”

  “You don’t understand,” I spat, darkened blood coughed out of my mouth. Time is almost up. I at least wanted to take Eileen away from here and to be placed under protection before I died. “I had to make it look like I killed her. If I didn’t, and if she just ran, they would hunt her down. You don’t know Nysa, Orjan and Shion as I do. They won’t stop until she is dead.”

  “Orjan?” Mika whispered I believe it was mainly to himself.

  “They would not have known if you did not report such a matter,” Valeria sneered disgustingly at me.

  “They would have. They were closing in. I thought if I had done things my way, made them believe my motive of reporting her was for revenge, maybe I could fake her death and give her over to Destiny to conceal her presence and hide her. If I did that and then died shortly after, they couldn’t pry in a dead man’s memories. However, Lawliet was too persistent. You all were too persistent for a bunch of mages and creatures that have pushed her further to any truth about her identity. You’re all cowards.”

  Feeling the stabbing pain, I stepped forward and covered mouth with hands and tried to suppress the blood that coughed up and slipped through fingers. It is too bad that I have failed.

  “You’re a coward also,” Lawliet stood shakily and rubbed the back of his neck. “I wouldn’t have hated you half as much if I knew the reason for all of this bullshit, but you kept it all to yourself, afraid to trust anyone else. I bet Rokk and that bitch Charlie didn’t know your own methods of what you were doing, did they?” I flinched at his words and his smirk broadened. “Eileen Frost isn’t just your problem. We all fucking grew attached to her enough to want her safe also. If you just grew a pair, maybe this would have turned out differently.”

  “Wise words for a dragon who was a second away from bringing hell on earth,” Mika said joyfully. “Besides all the unnecessary swear words, Lawliet is right. We all cherish Eileen. Now, can you be a good little student and let me tend to your wounds.”

  “No,” I said stubbornly. “She still has time to go.”

  “Are you even sure Destiny would take her in?” Valeria asked and released her grip on the sword.

  “She would,” Mika responded with a mysterious smile. “The damn creature may be hard to get along with, but she is also honest and loyal. If she knew Eileen was coming and was told to kee
p her hidden and she agreed, she would not back down on her word.” He turned to Lawliet and said, “Get rid of the letter when you’re able. You will be visiting a friend of mine. She will protect the both of you wholeheartedly. Spencer, where was she going to meet you?”

  Angered that Lawliet is going with her, I nodded in agreement. I knew that I didn’t have time on my side to argue reasons that I didn’t want him along with her.

  “Central City. Top of the clock tower.”

  Mika snickered. “How ironic of her. She never changes.”

  Valeria, on the other hand, wasn’t pleased with me still, as she raised her hand to grip the sword. “Shall I kill Spencer now?”

  “Valeria,” Hopper whispered. His hands were still on Eileen who was laying on the ground and was being healed by him.

  “Don’t,” She said in a hoarse voice. Her wings flinched upwards, about ready for flight. “Don’t.”

  Elijah merely lowered his gaze away from her and towards Mika who is clearly being stubborn about the notion of my death.

  “He isn’t dying,” Mika shook his head. “Don’t look surprised, Spencer. I am a master mage after all. I can heal almost all poisons if they have not infected the heart yet. I promised I would never let a student die while on my watch. I am not going to break it –”

  “Where’s the Droid?” Lawliet asked.

  Hopper, who had his arms lowered, was healing the ground instead. Darting eyes around, I breathed a soft laugh, like darkness, only death can describe crowded around my back. Turning around, she was there, head up and neck arched. White veins shun brightly, wrapped around her body and was curling around the arm that began to rise. Everything about her was entirely different from before. Her stance, veins and even eyes held the indescribable power that even a breath coming from her could send shocks of magic through the air. Not only had that, but the feel of biting coldness touched my face and was draining the essence of mage magic from my system that I had left to conceal my own identity.