by A McKay
“Give me some of that,” Slade handed him the bottle and he took a swig of the whiskey. “Okay that wasn’t as painful as I thought it would be.”
Slade looked at him like he was an idiot. Like he was risking it, all for that one shot again. "Are you bleeding in front too?” Slade asked realizing now that the old holes were not holes from the past but from the now. The wounds had healed already including the ones that the bullets were just removed from, which only meant the bullet left his body from the other side.
"Not any more, for I am,” He stopped and itched his head as he studied his abs. “highlander?”
Slade grunted a laugh out, "Ok immortal warrior,” Slade studied the rest of him, and noticed no more bullet holes, but his skinned looked warm, especially where the necklace sat. "You’re burning up.” Slade saw him cringe in pain and he flipped on to the bed trying to rub the invisible flames from his neck and back. The holes seemed to smoke, his skin melting back together. "What the hell,” Slade said looking at a scar starting to form. It looked like the skin was burned together like the old days of healing when knights burned their skin together to stop the bleeding.
"What the fuck,” A groan and deep scream of pain escaped him as he tried to roll his flames out. He screamed standing up and running to the bathroom, hearing him turning the shower on. Slade could hear it sizzling, as he walked into the bathroom.
"Fuck you, asshole,” he said as if accusing his blood brother for the cause of his pain.
“I didn’t do this to you.” Slade said, “at least I don’t think I had anything to do with it.” Slade said a little too calmly for the situation according to Zach, as he turned an evil look towards Slade.
"Fuck you," he charged at Slade and speared him. Slade fell back to the bed and rolled to the other side. The bed cracked as the big ox fell on it. Zach jumped towards Slade, and was caught by the giant’s right fist. Zach landed flat on his stomach on the bed.
Slade shook him a little bit, but got no response; he was catching some well-deserved rest. Slade looked at the scalpel that landed on the floor when he was speared. He picked it up and got the clothes from the floor amazed at the holes.
“Shit, you need new clothes.” Slade looked at him making sure he wasn’t waking up anytime soon, "You will feel fine in the morning bro.” Slade said moving the rest of his limp body onto the bed.
He started to wonder if their fathers went through the same thing. Did they know what they were? Did they have to fight every moment of every day like they had too? He stared at the fan waiting for an answer but nothing came but his eyes growing heavy until sleep took him as well.
Slade grabbed the room key and locked the door as he left. He walked to the police cruiser that he already disabled the GPS on. It wasn’t as complicated as the Sanctums, just a wire here and there. The car was the only thing left from the shooting.
He got into the vehicle and drove away. At the time, he didn’t know if he would return. Right now, he needed to clear his head. The window down, the air cool by the night air he drove through the city. His sunglasses off, not able to see the different forms people were on the sidewalk. He was sure that they were out there but right now, he didn’t care. He didn’t need to kill them anymore.
He would kill only when it was to protect now, and that was final. He stopped at a red light, prostitutes walked opposite direction seeing the red, and blues on top of their car. Soon they would change the car’s look, to make it more usable for their need. He looked to the right and saw a guerilla warfare outfit. He turned right and parked in the small lot.
The lights were on and the store was still open. He walked to the entrance. He slid his sunglasses on for a moment and looked at the cashier. “Human,” he put the shades away.
“What was that mister?”
“Nothing, just talking to myself.” Slade replied back. The clerk had a long face and black hair that stayed close but fell to his ears in the back. The normal look for a guy left in the eighties. It had a little bit of a curl that was well groomed.
“I am about to close, what you looking for.”
“New wardrobe.”
“I only got one thing that will fit you sir.” He walked around the counter and grabbed a pair of black leather pants. He then grabbed a black tank top. He was about to ask why the pants, but realized this was a bouncers outfit. “That coat looks too warm?” Slade nodded and took it off.
“I can rip the red inline out and it might fit better then.”
“You would do that?”
“For the right cost I will do anything.”
“Thanks,” Slade looked over and saw a manikin in tan tactical pants. A blue T-shirt and black military boats. He walked over to it as the man started at his coat. A sign read the outfit was made of the strongest material known to man to stop bullets and knives.
“I call it, dragon scales.” Slade quickly looked at him.
“What’s it made of?”
“I created it, I can’t tell you.”
“How much?”
“That outfit, which will not fit you, is about twenty thousand.”
“Are you able to sew that in my outfit as well?”
“No, your coat I can do something else. If you like that I have some gloves that might fit you and a guy of my statue.”
“Show me.”
He opened the counter and took out a pair of gloves, both looking like fighting gloves. “They are made from the same type of material.” He pushed them closer, “you could punch for hours and still feel like silk on your hands.
“How much for everything?”
“I could sell it all for thirty five thousand.”
“Deal.”
“If you need more materials, there is a store. Let me see here,” he grabbed a map and pointed at a road intersection. “They have more items like this over there.”
Slade handed him a card, “Swipe it, thanks.”
The man swiped it and processed the payment. Slade took seven more hundred dollars, “I was never here.”
The man pointed to the sign, still took the money. The sign read exactly what he said. “Confidential is our law.” He looked back at the clothes, “Give me thirty minutes, and I will have them done.”
10They didn’t speak much, when they both woke up some time past ten. As they opened the door, the sun burned their eyes; Slade threw his sunglasses on instantly while Zach just squinted. It felt like they just woke up from a hangover.
He came back late that night realizing if he left now, he would not be any better than before. It was a bond that he would not separate ever again. It was time to start the assault against the agency. He was going to find this weapon that he was sure the dragon was hiding. He would win with the help of his brother.
Slade first looked at Zach’s clothes and then himself. “Shit, we need new clothes, if we go out like this, people will be looking.”
“They look at you already, you’re a giant.”
“Well they will take another look at us, due to the bullet holes.”
Zach climbed inside the Jeep, and from underneath the cloth by the tire well he pulled a familiar box out. On the side it read Rob Wesley, and Zach went and pulled another on out from the other side that read Zach Preston.
“Where did you find these?” Zach asked.
“Made them last night.”
They started to slip on the clothes, the clothes bringing something out inside Slade that he thought he lost. He was the meanest and strongest piece of shit when he was in this uniform, something he was close to in the Sanctum’s outfit but not totally. Zach’s pants tucked inside his boots, Slade soon copied and tied the boots tight enough to make it look like he was cutting his blood off to his feet. Slade shut the crates and pushed them back to their hidden place without the effort that Zach did pulling them out.
“You know I sort of missed being a sniper,” Zach turned to look at Slade, both sitting in the back of the Jeep. “You know, we haven’t done this kind of work
since we joined the force right after the army.”
Slade was making sure everything was out of his pockets before he set both his clothes and Zach’s on fire. He lit a lighter that was inside his crate, the clothes soon started to burn. Before Slade could turn to Zach, a cigar was help up in front of Slade’s face.
“This is the part I missed the most,” Zach said watching the flames burn their old lives away.
“Agree,” Slade took the cigar and lit it with the lighter while Zach used the flames from the fire. Slade took a breath of the smoke from the cigar and blew it over his debit card from the agency.
“Thanks to the dead Sherriff for having these in his glove department.”
“May he rest in peace.” Slade said now seeing why Zach felt like he did the day before. He must of saw himself in the dead officer’s spot.
“How much you got on that thing?”
“Depends”
“What do you mean it depends?” he asked looking around to see if anyone noticed them yet with having a fire in the middle of nowhere.
“On how much the ATM has at the time?” Slade answered back rolling his head back and forth to crack his neck.
“So what is the catch?” Zach was reading Slade like an open book.
“When we use it, it will be like a beacon.”
“I see,” his face started to grin, “it’s been a night of nothing, maybe we can make some excitement. We need the money. The Jeep needs some things fixed if we plan on using it this hard.
Slade looked at the Jeep; he didn’t see anything that was wrong with it. “What are you talking about?”
“I have a plan that might help us.” That’s all he needed to say. They didn’t survive their sniper missions and the encounters they have had by doubting each other.
“I guess I’ll go and find an ATM.”
“You know, one of these times, you’re going to let me drive.”
“I will make a deal, when I get so injured, and can’t move my legs, or arms I will let you drive.” He started to crack his knuckles, “remember what happened last time.” He put his hands up and smiled.
They walked to each side of the vehicle. Slade put the car into reverse, and then forward and left the parking lot.
It took only a couple of minutes to hit the metropolis area of the town, and traffic was a problem. Go and stop, people honked at them for no reason, Slade couldn’t remember being called number one so many times before with hand gestures.
They approached an ATM located by a big bank tower; Slade figured this would have the biggest return for their risk.
"How does it work?" Zach was about to walk in front of the ATM. Slade put his hand in front of him and stopped him.
"The camera on these can take our pictures and send it instantly to the Sanctum. The magnets imbedded in us don’t make us invisible to everything. I’m pretty sure also by now they have us on the police most wanted list." Zach looked around as Slade stood to the side of the machine, and gave a bag to Zach. He stood on the other side with it. “I used it yesterday; hopefully that guy’s machine doesn’t send it until Monday since it was the weekend.”
Slade put the card in the machine, and the machine flashed, and then said approved. The first bundle came out, and Zach put it in the bag. Another bundle and another bundle came out. "Dude, how much will this give us?" Zach started to look like he was robbing the machine with that much money coming out. It surprised Slade that the people were so into themselves that no one called the police or looked at the giant and the small man standing by an ATM with a big bag full of cash.
"Till the machine runs out." They stood there for ten minutes until the machine flashed error, saying it ran out of money. The card shot back out. Slade was pretty sure they wouldn’t be able to use it again, and tossed it to the sidewalk.
“It sure would be funny if a civilian picked it up and started to withdraw money from machines everywhere.” Zach looked at the card with greedy eyes. Then he looked at the bag "Dude they have like twenty k here.”
“Okay,” Slade started to put a plan in his head, the days of working secretive for so long was about to pay off. “We need to stretch this money out,” Zach just nodded in agreement, “to get the Jeep ready, how much?”
Zach started to count off his fingers while they started to head back to the Jeep, “I don’t think we need to extend it or put different tires on it, but with the equipment and remodeling of the interior I think it might help us out if we put a little bit more volume on it.”
“Fine, I will take the money I have left, and get that book, the one that told us about the ancient tribe.”
“We need to stick together, I’ve seen to many movies, where people separated and then someone is kidnapped or killed.” Zach said looking deep at Slade’s eyes, not knowing what he saw, but something made him nervous.
“Of course,” Slade tried to remember where the library was and if there were any buildings around it. “I will have you watch the entrance,” Slade remembered yesterday’s ordeal, “Try to shoot the agents before they shoot at us this time though.”
“My thoughts exactly,” he said looking at his Jeep, “I will drop you off and park it away from the library.”
“See, I let you drive.” Slade said hopping in the passenger seat.
Zach didn’t hesitate, he just hopped in the driver seat, adjusted the wheel and the seat. He looked in the back and saw the guns, and pulled out into the busy street. At the stoplights, Slade could tell the tension was getting greater, and then Zach asked finally “what is the book going to tell us?”
“I don’t have a clue. Maybe it will have the answers of our fast healing, maybe it will tell us of the kingdom, and maybe it will tell us the secrets of life. It could tell us nothing, but something was different about that book. It seemed old, like older than any other book out there.”
He just nodded, “The question is; are we following our father’s footsteps, and going to be killed by doing this?”
Slade saw the pain in his eyes, not knowing how to respond. His mind raced through the possibility that it might be a trap, a trap set up already by their destiny; maybe they would both die in vane. “I am not dying without taking them down with me!” Slade said aloud not to just convince Zach, but to convince him as well.
***
Slade stood in the shadows of the buildings across from the library staring where he was kicked out of earlier. He was also giving Zach time to get in position. Slade studied the movements in the building; nothing seemed alarming in the building, no agents, no set up.
At least at first it didn’t seem different, but then Slade saw the black car with its all tinted windows parked to the side of the building, hiding in the shadows as he was. No one seemed to be in the car, they were in the library, which threw a roadblock in his plans. He was glad he didn’t go just crashing in at his first glance, they were here and waiting. If he went in there and that woman started to yell at him, the agents would see him. He couldn’t risk that problem; he had to find another way around the dilemma.
His mind rushed through different solutions, but all of them ended with a huge shoot out. That caused many deaths that he wasn’t going to give to the Sanctum anymore. Every time he thought of that, his necklace seemed to burn on his collarbone, and he had to tell himself no innocent people were going to die from the actions. He was about to walk to where Zach was suppose to be on top of the building scoping the entrance out. Ready to forget the plan he started to walk, when his necklace seemed to pull him back to the library.
“I can’t get the book,” he said to himself and then he saw a girl that appeared to be hanging around the library. A thought came to him, what if he could convince a bystander to get the book for him. Everybody could be bought, and this would avoid a shoot out. The necklace burned and pulled to the woman. He started to walk to her, something about her made him nervous. Slade knew it couldn’t have been such a small woman causing his nerves to ratter but the agents making him nervo
us.
Her shoulder length hair curled at the ends. It was a dark brown almost black in color. Her skin was pale showing that she lived in a city all her life. Her lips red, her eyes seemed red when he started to walk up to her. She was wearing a white tank top with a blue soft fabric vest on. Her blue jeans were tight and tucked into her knee length black boots.
His necklace seemed to fade, as they got closer. Before he was within ten feet of her, she turned and stared at him sense his presence. His first impression was that she had the most evil, hatred eyes he had ever seen, a glare of death that only a woman could achieve. Then it was wild, and then beauty, a beauty that he never seen in another woman before. It was a strong sense, something crossed between what he saw in the dragon and… He stopped thinking, again he was comparing to the damn dragon. A dragon that had his mind in wrong place, a dragon that was going to kill him before they met again.
“Sorry mam, but I am in a pickle.” Her expression went soft, and almost too helpful for his taste. “Could you go in the Library and grab a book for me, I can’t go in there, the” shit he needed a reason instead of saying he was kicked out.
He sure, as hell couldn’t tell her, those guys in there are secret agents and they want him dead. He wanted them dead for the safety of the world. “I’m allergic to their carpet.” He wanted to hit himself in the head for that, but one thing he learned about lying is to just believe it yourself which is actually dangerous, because you can’t tell the difference later on.
“Allergic to the carpet?” She asked scratching her head, “I guess, I could help you, but you must help me.”
“Sure, anything,” he guessed some strangers still believed in helping another person.
“Take me on a date,” making Slade want to run away. She was hot, very hot, but he wasn’t planning a date. Again, his massive size didn’t get him laid much, maybe he should. A one-night fuck wouldn’t hurt him would it? Zach would do it in a heartbeat.
“I would love to, but,” he paused, for a second, “my cousin and I are on a tight schedule though.” He would be damned; he was able to refuse an easy fuck unlike his brother.