Will. Time. Fate.

by Andrew Yake

  “You were where?” The booming voice of the one-armed Pilipino interrupts my words. I turn my attention to him.

  “Some base. Benny took me there to get her scent from that gun.” I point over to the silver-plated gun in the holster of the lady I had been tracking. “By the way, what do I call you?” I say this in all sincerity because I have run out of interesting adjectives to use that are anywhere close to PG rated to describe this woman who seems on edge and willing to shoot first and ask questions later.

  “Her name is JJ.” The big guy is attempting to turn my attention back to him, but I see a slight flinch in ‘JJ’s’ eyes. I don’t not believe that is her name.

  I ask the woman again, but this time my voice is softer. “Please tell me your name.”

  Her eyes meet mine. “Why do you care?”

  “I have two people and lots of freaky things happening all around me because of you. I may have lost my mother and I think I did lose the lo…” I choke up as I remember my last moments with Hailey. I clear my throat. “a close friend.” I can feel tears starting to form, but I push them away now so that I can concentrate on the task at hand and not seem overly emotional.

  “I…” She pauses for a moment and I notice the first signs of humanity that I have seen in her yet, but more importantly I can smell that she is afraid. “I don’t really know, but I have been told that my name is Jane and JJ. Either one will do.” She crosses her arms and looks away from my eyes and stares at nothing on a far wall.

  I leave her alone for a moment and turn my attention to the youngest person in the room. “And who are you?”

  The young girl looks like she is trying to focus. She leans forward in her chair and places her hands on the table as if to steady herself. “Allison.”

  I look over at the big guy and make a raising motion with my hand to indicate that it is his turn to make an introduction. He speaks as if being forced by etiquette that he is unused to. “My name is Alex. Now, would you please go back to the part where you were on the base.” He seems impatient and I smell worry from him.

  “Fine.” I say as calmly as I can. I tell them how I had met Benny and traveled to the base. I tell them about what I had seen at the base and how I had tracked Jane to the store. I leave out the part about the guy named Matt for now. While I told the story, Alex got up and prepared some food and drinks for us. This was nice because I was famished. I continued the tale while we all ate. Once I had finished the story, I turned my attention back to Jane.

  “Jane,” I start again. “Do you have any idea why people are after you?” I take a sip from the glass of water that Alex provided.

  Jane’s eyes seemed extremely sharp as she paid attention to my every word. “You said people. That is the second time that you have mentioned that there was more than one person interested in me. Who was the second person?” Jane uncrosses her arms and sits forward.

  “I met this guy named Matt who warned me to help or stay out of the way. Mostly, he told me to stay away from Benny and that he didn’t want Benny in the way.” I say this and smell that there has been a mood shift in Allison. I glance over at her. She too is leaning forward and seems intent on what I am saying, but her feelings seem to be more of surprise than anything else. Her face gives nothing away, but her smell clues me into the possibility that she knows something.

  “What did this guy, Matt, look like?” Alex speaks up.

  I turn my attention back to Alex. “He looked pretty average, black hair, late twenties or early thirties, maybe about six feet tall. His eyes were intense and he seemed a bit off with the way that he spoke to me, but he was really nice.” I give the description and tell the group about my encounter on the street. I finish my story of Matt with the revelation that Matt told me. “Matt said that Benny was actually looking for someone or something else that he thinks Jane knows about. He was not specific as to the reason why.”

  “Let’s ask him.” Jane’s eyes sparkle as she begins to grin. I can tell that she has a plan forming behind those eyes, but I have no clue what it could be.

  “What do you mean?” I say.

  Alex snaps his fingers as if a light bulb has just gone off over his head. “The phone. That’s perfect Jane. Good thinking.” I feel confused and more out of the loop. Jane simply smiles and nods at Alex. Then Jane, noticing my look of confusion, looks over at me.

  “You said that Benny gave you a phone and that he would call you after his meeting, right?” I nod my head slowly and allow what she is saying to sink in. “So, when he calls you, lead him here.”

  “And then we ask him.” Alex shrugs his massive shoulders and then I see the crack of a grin on his lips as he runs his hand through his hair. “Maybe we ask him hard.”

  “So, you guys want him here now.” I find that I can get behind this plan, especially if it means I get to ask Benny some questions of my own about Hailey. “What’s the plan? I meet him outside and you guys take him down once he enters the store?”

  “Or,” Jane starts to speak. “Tell him that you found our base of operation and you are waiting for him to get here before you make a move.” Jane sits back and regains her air of confidence. Granted, she is able to pull the look off really well while armed to the teeth and sitting next to a metal-armed behemoth.

  The two of them, Jane and Alex, seem to be set on what they plan to do. I decide to return my attention back to Allison. She still looks wiped. I notice that she perks up some after eating some more. I watch as she takes some pills out of her pocket and pops two of them into her mouth. I realize immediately that they are narcotic in nature. I had also noticed from the smell of her sweat earlier that she had a lot of that stuff in her system. I have to say, she is one of the better-looking addicts I have seen.

  “Why do you do that to yourself?” I ask her quietly while Jane and Alex are busy talking strategy.

  “I’m in pain.” Her words and tone suggest that I have struck a nerve.

  I decide to change the subject. “Earlier when I was talking about Matt, you seemed like you knew something about him.”

  “I did no such thing.” She is lying to me and being defensive. I see her eye movements shift to where Jane is sitting and talking with Alex.

  “It’s okay. I just want to know. It could be important.” I scoot in closer to Allison.

  “It’s nothing, alright.” I remain silent and wait for her to continue. She sighs, “I met a guy like you described in a dream. He sounded crazy and said some stuff about Jane.” Her voice became much lower as she spoke. Allison shifts uncomfortably in her seat and glances up at Jane who is lost in conversation with Alex.

  I take my cue realizing that she will probably not say much else in the present company. I motion to her. “Care to go for a walk? I want to look at some of those guns in the other room.”

  Allison rolls her eyes at me, but she does stand up. “Sure.”

  “Hey, don’t go too far.” Alex stops talking with Jane and looks at us as if we are about to bolt out the door.

  “Don’t worry. I just thought that Allison would benefit from going to check out the weapons with me in the other room.”

  “Yeah, but you need lessons in how to fire a gun first.” Jane chuckles at me. I feel my ears getting red with the feeling of embarrassment with the fact that I had been disarmed by her twice. I turn from the table and walk out of the room with Allison.

  ******

  Zack and Allison left the room while Jane and Alex continued to laugh at Zack’s obvious embarrassment over his weaponry skills. Alex turned his attention back to Jane and stopped laughing.

  “You know that he is dangerous, right?”

  “What are you talking about? I have been able to disarm him multiple times now. And hey,” Jane pointed toward her hip. “I am not exactly operating at my full potential here.” Jane’s playful mood was dampened by the serious expression on Alex’s face.

  “He may not know exactly what he is, but soon enough he will wolf out and you won’t be
able to take him so easily, or possibly at all.” Alex looked down at the ground and shook his head.

  “Alex, tell me what happened to me.” Jane scooted her chair in closer in anticipation.

  “That’s the thing. I don’t know what happened to you. I only know what John told me and I told you all of that. Oh, that reminds me,” Alex pulled a cell from his pocket and punched in a number, “I haven’t heard from John.”

  “You talked to him yesterday.” Jane seemed unconcerned.

  “Yeah, but that was before I found out that the wolf and that Benny character were at the base. The fact that they did not encounter any resistance and I didn’t get a call from John about it concerns me.” He let the phone ring six times before hanging up the phone. “That’s not good, but we don’t have time to go looking for him right now.”

  “Fine. We can’t go looking for him. That means I get no answers directly from him about me, but you can tell me more about what you remember about the last time you saw me. You suggested that I had changed.”

  “You changed, alright.” Alex leaned his massive frame forward so that his elbows were on the table. “You had this really strange look in your eyes. Matter of fact, it was the day we went after Eliyahu.”

  “Eliya who?” Jane said with a puzzled look on her face.

  “Eliyahu. The vamp that you shot in the face.”

  “Oh.” Jane smiled at this. “How did I change on that day?”

  “Well, you had always been able to do some simple magical stuff ever sense I have known you, but it was usually like protection and masking charms. You know, like those things I told you about before.” Alex made a motion with his metal hand as if he was motioning to something behind him. “We could tell that you had a gift for the stuff, but you were not like the other magic users that we had met in the past.”

  “How’s that?” Jane asked with curiosity.

  “Well, to put it simply,” Alex shifted in his seat as if talking about this was making him uncomfortable. “You didn’t try to kill us, for starters. You also wanted to work with us.” Alex watched for any expression change on Jane’s face. When he saw none, he clarified. “We hunt your kind. However, we hunt anything that is dangerous to humanity.”

  “There are lots of things that are not monsters that are dangerous to humanity.” Jane sat back slightly with the thought that Alex and his team would probably have killed her in any other situation. She suddenly realized why Alex had been so standoffish toward her all this time. “Wait, what did I do to you?” she nodded her head slightly toward Alex as she spoke.

  Alex looked her in the face. “Well, the arm thing for one, but that saved my life. The thing is this, on the night that we tried to get Eliyahu we were getting our asses handed to us.”

  “Tried?” Jane raised an eyebrow.

  “Yeah, tried. There were way more of those things than we had anticipated. We were going off of intel that you had given us.” Alex looked up at Jane with a pained expression. “You were wrong. It was a trap for us and we fell for it. At first, I thought you had set us up, but then I saw the look on your face and I knew that it had taken you by surprise also.” Alex paused and took a sip of water before he continued. “You were hit hard. I didn’t expect you to live. There was a lot of blood coming from your head, but I guess that isn’t enough to stop you or that was what caused the transformation. A second latter your body disappeared and you reappeared next to Eliyahu. You waved your hand toward John, Max and me. We were all thrown back from the battle and pinned against a wall. I figured that you were gonna kill us all.” Alex looked as though he was back in that place as he continued the story.

  “The look in your eyes was that of a crazed person. You snapped your fingers or something and all the other vamps disappeared. The only people left was the five of us. Then you tossed Eliyahu to the ground using your mind and pinned him to the ground. We moved in for the kill, but you said that his time hadn’t come yet and so we staked him. John, of course, shot him a couple times for good measure, but I think that was more out of frustration than anything else. Anyway, when you wouldn’t let us take him out, I had an even harder time trusting you. You basically threatened all of us with death if we ended his life. From what we just saw, you could do it. It was different than other monsters we faced because we knew you and you knew all of our secrets. We had worked so closely with you that we considered you to be part of our team. We wanted to find a way to bring you back to the way you were, but you disappeared for a while after that. You never told me what you did during that time and I did my best to stay out of your way.”

  Jane sat back taking in the story and trying to see if any of what was said resonated with her. She seemed disappointed that no flickers of memory came to her. It was as if she was hearing the story of some other person.

  ******

  I walk with Allison into the light of the next room. I glance over at the door and shiver at the thought of what else may be lurking in those rooms. I return my attention to Allison. “Would you mind telling me the rest of what you weren’t saying back there.” I use my thumb to motion behind me.

  Allison sighs and walks toward the rows of books, running her fingers along their spines. “He told me that she is basically in need of protection. The way that he said it suggested that he thinks she may end up being super powerful if she ever gets her memory back.” Allison’s eyes focus as though she has received a small shock or something from one of the thick old looking books.

  Allison keeps her eyes on the book and continues to speak, “He told me that I would know when I needed to leave her, but basically implied that when that happens I may not really have a choice.”

  “Oh, how did he imply it? What did he actually say?” I watch her as she keeps her focus on the book and shifts the placement of her hand so that her palm is now resting on the spine.

  “It wasn’t what he said, but the tone that he used. Mostly, he talked about knowledge and understanding in the most unintelligible way possible. It was like he was struggling to stay grounded in reality.” Allison’s voice starts to trail off as she continues to become more distracted by the book.

  I look closer at the book, but it only looks like an old book to me. True, I can tell that it is old by the way that it looks and smells, but other than that I cannot make anything out on it. The writing that is on the spine is in some foreign language. “You alright?” I say to Allison. She glances back at me and is about to answer, but that is when my phone starts to ring.

  I answer it with a hushed tone as if I am trying to be very quiet. I put my finger up to my mouth so that Allison knows to be quiet. She simply rolls her eyes at me, takes the book off the shelf, and walks away. “Benny? Where the hell have you been?”

  The speaker of the phone makes his voice sound even more nasally than it does in person. “Slow down, pup. S’alright. What’s got yer panties in a ruffle?”

  “I think I found her.” I whisper into the receiver.

  I hear Benny sucking on a cigarette and breathing out. “Oh yeah?! Who’s a good boy?! I’m proud of ya, pup. Where ya at?”

  “I followed the scent to an army surplus store. There was nobody there, but I found a passage that took me to a bunker underground. She’s with someone.”

  “That taint surprisin’. I’ll be there soon. You just keep that precious nose out o’ trouble.” Benny hangs up the phone after I give him the location’s address. I smile. I turn and head back to the room where Alex and Jane are to let them know that we are going to be having company soon.

  19

  The memory

  Alex’s rendition of what happened during his last encounter with me has given me a great deal to consider. For example, should I go into the back where we left the fang and get more information. Although, that may be difficult seeing how I kept shooting him in the face. From what Alex told me, I was not acting out of character. Then again, I know that I don’t have the full picture and that fang may be able to tell me the rest of that
particular story. Not knowing who I am and what I’ve done is a real bitch!

  I find that I am looking forward to getting into the fray of another fight. I am very good at it, or I have been only dealing with people who are worse at fighting than me. It comes so naturally to me. Probably because of muscle memory. Alex told me that I have studied fighting as well as magic. I wonder if there is something magical about my gun. I run my fingers along the silver handle and trace them along the engraving. I feel the hum once again. As my fingers continue to go over the symbol etched into the silver I see something in my mind, a memory of a person.

  Aiyanna, you did this for me? I push myself to remember her. I pull my gun from the holster and set it on the table in front of me. Alex says nothing to me, but I can tell he is mildly curious about what I am doing. He seems to get that way when a person pulls out a gun around him, but I think he can tell that I am studying it and there is no intent to use it just now. He clears his dish and glass from the table as I continue to focus on the design etched into the handle. I focus on the design only momentarily before I turn my attention to the hum that I feel when I touch the gun. I know that there is something there, just beyond my mental reach. The more I touch the gun and look at the design, the closer I feel that I get to uncovering my first real memory. I see a bright flash in my mind.

  “I have a surprise for you.” The sweet sound of her voice fills my ears. I am in a city loft style apartment. It is spacious and the walls are brick. The feel of the apartment is a mixture of industrial and modern. It feels like home. I see ancient Native American art and weapons hanging on the wall as decorations, but I know that they also serve a purpose. I smell flowers.

  I turn to see a mirror on one of the large posts in the loft. It is above a table that has an arrangement of freshly picked flowers. I know that I actually went out to pick them. I don’t care about flowers in general, but she does and so I care about her happiness. I love her. I see myself in the mirror from a distance and I am shocked by my appearance.