Wolfgang then looked at the Damaine and said, “Hold him down.” Damaine nodded and held her hand up at James. She then moved her hand so it looked like it was gripping air, and James stood there unable to move with his arms against his sides. She began to close her fist, and he felt agony as her telekinetic grip tightened around his body.
Wolfgang moved to Savannah at a quick pace. He looked at her, and then reached his hand around her throat.
“Do you want me to stop?” he said to her, “do you want me to just let you all go?” He threw her down on the ground. Her brother Kyle started shouting at Wolfgang, cursing at him. The soldiers began hitting people with their rifles. Wolfgang took a handgun from one of the soldiers and aimed it back and forth between the captives. He stopped on Savannah, staring at her with a quiet anger. They could hear James struggling as Damaine tortured him with her telekinesis. He was now levitating in the air as she squeezed him with her telekinesis.
“You know,” Wolfgang said, “the thing that I just haven’t decided is who to kill first. I could punish the Vanguard by killing each of you in front of him. Maybe I could kill him first, crushing all of your hopes before you die. The problem with hope is, at the end of the day, you still end up with empty hands in a dark city. You still end up as the flawed beings you are.” His gun stopped at Kyle and he shot him in the shoulder. There was a red spray behind him as the round exited his shoulder from behind. Kyle fell to the ground, yelling sharply in surprise and pain. It was a shot meant to induce pain, not to kill.
Wolfgang pointed to two soldiers and said, “Bring the Vanguard over here; I want him to see this.” The two soldiers approached James, who was still being held by Damaine. She released him, letting him fall to the ground. He coughed as he lay on the ground. He felt more blood in his mouth. He felt the pain of his body, and the xeno holding him together. Despite that, red began to drip from the mask covering his mouth and nose.
“Well,” Damaine said, “you might not be able to squeeze blood from a stone, but you can squeeze blood from metal.” Wolfgang chuckled at her comment. The soldiers pulled James off the ground, each holding him by an arm.
James coughed, but didn't say anything. Don’t let them see fear, he thought. He felt the darkness in the back of his mind push at him. It began to speak to him, like it had in the underground city. They dragged him to where Kyle lay on the ground in pain. Two soldiers were holding back Savannah, who was trying to fight her way to help her brother. The men who were holding James held him near Kyle, so he could see everything. Damaine used her telekinesis to get a grip on James once again, although she allowed the men to keep their holds on him also.
She began to squeeze James again, while the two soldiers kept one hand on each of his shoulders. Their other hands each held pistols that were trained on each of his temples. Wolfgang walked over to Kyle, who was still on the ground. He put the front tip of his steel toed boot on Kyle’s shoulder where he'd been shot, and began to press downward. Kyle groaned in pain. James suddenly stopped struggling; he just stood there with a blank look on his face.
It caught them off guard, and Wolfgang moved over to James.
“Is he unconscious?” Wolfgang said, looking at the others in confusion.
“Just this once?” James whispered, “I’ll let you.” Wolfgang smiled and began laughing.
“Is this all the Hunter can do; the descendent of the Vanguards? Verbally approve of us torturing and killing his own people. You’re some piece of work. You don’t even care.”
They were all startled when James started laughing. It wasn't a normal laugh however, it was almost hysterical. He sounded insane. It rang of a metallic tone that wasn't human. The sound of his laughter had quieted the entire room; even Kyle had quieted. They were all staring in disbelief at him.
“He cares, he cares only too much.” A voice came from James that wasn't his own. It spoke with a metallic rasp, “It's why he's given me the foothold I've been waiting for.” His voice was scraped by razors, a grinding metal. The xeno suddenly covered his entire body, pulsing scales covering even his face. He no longer looked like the Hunter. He was something else. “Thank you,” he said.
Damaine let out a gasp in pain and all eyes turned to her. Her hand was struggling to stay up as she tried to maintain her telekinetic hold on James. A trickle of blood started to drip from her nose, and she suddenly started to convulse as she fell to the ground in a crumpled heap.
James had been hunched over, his shoulders and head held down by the two guards at his sides. He raised his head in a quick motion, glaring at Wolfgang with a metal face that looked like a monster. The pulsing metal xeno covered his face in metal scales, making it more angular. They could see his mouth with sharp fangs. His was still chuckling, and he bared his teeth at them. His face moved and flexed unnaturally. The raised collar of his jacket became longer and twisted, as did the rest of his features. The soldiers at both his sides hesitated for a moment, pulling back instinctively as he raised his head. They quickly gained their composure, moving their pistols to his temples and starting to squeeze the triggers. Yard-long metal spikes sprouted from all over James’s body in an instant. Both men were pierced fatally all over by the organic metal spikes.
As soon as it was clear the two soldiers at his sides were dead, the spikes shrank back into his body. There was a grinding sound of metal running through flesh as they shrank out of the two soldiers. Both dead men fell to the floor.
“I’ve missed this,” the xeno said as he held up one of his long and spindly claws to inspect the. "Now to follow my end of the bargain.” The xeno had now taken over James. He ran at Wolfgang with his claws extended. Wolfgang held up his hand and shot a telekinetic blast at him. The xeno-possessed James held up his arms in defense, moving backwards on the ground a few feet as he struggled against the blast. Wolfgang reached out with his mind, trying to break him telepathically. The xeno-James glared at him with his large silver eyes, fighting back with his own telepathy. A strain appeared on Wolfgang's face, and he struggled until something broke in him, and he shrank back as blood started dripping from his nose. As he fell to the floor, the xeno leaped at him.
Dante yelled for the soldiers to start shooting again, which was quickly followed by the firing of their automatic weapons. Any rounds that hit him simply bounced off, and he kept moving towards Wolfgang undeterred. Wolfgang was on his knees, and the xeno-James rolled into his chest.
Wolfgang was knocked on his back with xeno-James looking over him. He grabbed Wolfgang by his arm and quickly dragged him to the wall where he began to climb up, pulling Wolfgang behind him. Although Khaleel was somewhat stunned by the transformation he had seen in James, he noticed something out of the corner of his eye. The one of the fallen who was dressed like a business man, with the ponytail and glasses, had gone over to Damaine and was carrying her out of the warehouse. Khaleel realized that James had surprised everyone with the situation. He knew he then had the opportunity.
He elbowed a distracted soldier in the face. The man gasped, grasping his bloodied nose as Khaleel pulled the gun from him. Two other soldiers trained their weapons on him, but hesitated as he held his weapon at them. Without warning, Wolfgang’s unconscious body crashed into the two soldiers, knocking them onto the ground. An inhuman metallic scream came from xeno-James as he leapt at the rest of the soldiers. He grabbed two men with his claws, piercing them as he gripped them. Six soldiers began firing at him through the chaos, but were taken down quickly by the rest of the resistance group, who had picked up weapons from the other fallen soldiers.
“Fallen,” xeno-James shouted loudly, “where’ve you gone to?” Dante, Medea, and Lucien had left with their attachment of troops. They had obviously seen the futility of fighting James in that state. The xeno-James arched his back, looking around. It was obvious he was using his other senses as well, but it was too late. They were gone.
He turned and saw
Wolfgang on the floor, unconscious. There was blood dripping from his face onto the concrete and his arm was twisted in a painful direction. Xeno-James moved slowly and deliberately towards him, hunching over the man. Wolfgang was still breathing, and xeno-James slowly moved his claws around man’s neck. He smiled maliciously as he gripped Wolfgang’s neck, about to squeeze and tear. Khaleel stepped towards him.
“Hunter, we need to leave.” Xeno-James hesitated as he heard him speak. "Civic Protection will be here any second in force. Hunter!” Xeno-James finally turned to look at him, still in a rage. He dropped Wolfgang and grabbed Khaleel by the neck. A blade extended from his other hand and he pulled it back ready to thrust it into Khaleel's eye.
He stopped. This isn’t me. The words echoed in James’s mind as he fought for control once again. The xeno withdrew after a short struggle, and he was James again. His face turned back into the normal Hunter guise, except his eyes were no longer covered by the silver metal. He looked around himself, seeing the dead bodies as if for the first time. He then saw what he was doing, what he was about to do. He'd been about to kill Khaleel. Though he held the man’s throat, there was no fear in Khaleel’s eyes.
Khaleel watched him, watched the change in his eyes and face. He'd never seen anyone’s eyes turn from such a rage, to as intense of a despair as had James’s just now. He let go of Khaleel’s neck, shrinking away.
“Where did the fallen go?” James said quietly.
“They left,” Khaleel said, “you outmatched them. I’m sure Civic Protection will be here any minute.” They could hear a distant sound of sirens, and knew they were coming closer.
He looked down at the body of Wolfgang, who was unconscious. There were several downed soldiers littering the floor, dead and unconscious. As he scanned the room, he saw Savannah crouched over her brother, helping him up. He was in pain, and James remembered the gunshot wound on his shoulder. James bent down and put his hand over the wound, examining it with his mind’s eye. Small tendrils of the xeno moved from his hand into the wound. They began knitting Kyle’s flesh together on the inside. It took only a moment, and the bleeding stopped. He pulled his hand away. The wound was still open, but James had helped to hurry along the healing.
“We’ll take him to the facility, but he should be fine.” James picked up Kyle, holding him over his shoulder, and turned to them. “Come on. Let’s go.” Khaleel nodded and the group left the warehouse.
*****
A large force of Civic Protection arrived only a few minutes later. Dante, Medea, and Lucien were the only ones to return with them. They were gone long enough to give the Hunter and his people a chance to escape. They didn't want to reawaken the creature inside the Hunter they'd just witnessed.
Over a dozen of the guards had been killed, and both Wolfgang and Damaine were injured. They all knew that if they'd stayed they would all have been killed, for Wolfgang and Damaine were the strongest with telekinesis, and the Hunter had easily taken them down. He could have taken any of the Civic Protection that also there. They didn't know what to do now. Dante knew it would be up to him. He would have to take down the Hunter. Now it would not be about strength, but cunning.
“A surprising move,” Dante said under his breath as he watched the soldiers work, “but this is far from over.”
62
James led the group with Kyle over his shoulder back to the underground facility, hiding their presence using his mind’s eye. He made sure they weren’t followed, which took extra time. The others were surprised when they all entered the base and saw Anna and one of the doctors, an older man, waiting for them just inside the entrance.
“We’ve got a place in the infirmary for him,” Anna said as James approached them.
“Good,” James said. He carried Kyle in, heading to the infirmary. Savannah followed them with a look of concern on her face. Khaleel was still surprised that everyone was waiting for them.
“How did they know?” he said out loud to no one in particular. Alicia, who’d been quietly standing off to one side, approached him.
“He told me,” Alicia said. “I knew something was wrong, so I asked James. He told me that Kyle was shot in the shoulder, and that I should tell Anna.” Khaleel nodded, remembering that James could communicate telepathically.
“I guess I’m still not used to it,” he said as he held the back of his head with one hand, avoiding eye contact with the little girl.
In a few moments, Kyle was on a table with a doctor examining him. The older man then commented how the wound looked much worse on the outside than on the inside.
“It’s almost as if he’s already healed from the injury on the inside,” the doctor said with a shake of his head. James looked at Kyle, who was staring at him in disbelief. James put his hand on the young man’s good shoulder, and smiled assuredly. Kyle smiled back, and then looked up at the doctor silently.
James walked out of the infirmary, where Savannah was standing and waiting.
“He’ll be all right. He just needs some rest, and time to heal.” She nodded her head, but looked at him, still upset.
“What was that,” she said, “back at the warehouse? What happened to you?” Khaleel and some others stood next to her, all looking at James. Their eyes said they were all thinking the same thing.
“That was something you shouldn’t have seen,” James said, “none of you. It was something I’ll have to deal with.”
“Although you saved us, you also lost control.” Khaleel’s voice had a stern concern. He was right, and James knew it. “It’s the creature, isn’t it? It’s got its personality, doesn’t it?”
James stood quietly, staring at them with no expression. He was hiding his surprise. He thought he’d done a better job of hiding it until that night. He turned back to the hallway, walking to the exit. “I’ll be back in a little while.” He left through the doors into the underground sewers.
In only a few minutes Kyle walked slowly out of the infirmary, with a bandage over his shoulder. Savannah took him by his other arm and helped him sit down in one of the chairs nearby.
“Where’d he go?” Kyle asked.
“I don’t know,” Savannah said, “but I hope he’s all right. There is something beneath the surface, something that isn’t right.”
“There’s a lot beneath the surface.” Khaleel said. “I just hope when it spills over again, it spills in the direction of Civic Protection.”
63
James walked through the streets of Old District. He’d changed his appearance, making his coat shorter and a dark brown color. He also changed the color of his hair using the xeno. Not that it mattered, it was dark out and Civic Protection was probably frightened of him. He walked around for a little while, eventually turning into a nearby alley. He sat against the wall quietly to himself.
Although he had washed the blood off himself an hour ago, it still felt like it was on his hands. He remembered the moment he’d killed all those Civic Protection soldiers to save Alicia. He’d lost control then. This was an entirely new level. He’d almost killed Khaleel. I thought I could hold it in check, control it, he thought as he mentally acknowledged this setback to himself. Is this a regression? He stared at the ground with a sullen look.
“Hey kid,” a voice said from outside the alley, “you all right?” James looked in that direction, and saw a man in tattered clothes. He had a shopping cart he was pushing that had a mixture of clothing and other items. James recognized the man immediately.
“Bill!”
“What?" Bill seemed confused that James had recognized him. "Not many people know me around here. I had just changed my route cause of those CP patrols. Come closer so I can see you better, son.” James approached the bearded old man.
“Interesting times, aren’t they?” James said.
“Well,” Bill said, “James. Didn’t think I’d ever see you again. At least you’re
wearing clothes this time.” James nodded with a slight grin.
“So what do you think about the resistance?” James asked.
“Oh, you mean with the Hunter and everything? I don’t know. Hasn’t really affected me or my friends. Guess it doesn’t really matter who’s in charge, my role’ll stay the same.” The old man chuckled at himself.
“Bill,” James said, “do you remember when this city first began?”
“No.” The man had a sullen look as he answered.
“Do you ever wonder what life was like before the collapse?” James was now walking along-side the man.
“There are plenty of remnants of what’s left, even if it’s just in our minds. In mine, in yours. In the elderly in this city, what’s left of them.”
“What do you mean?” James said.
“Well, every Sunday morning there is a group that gathers. They don’t know why, but they do it just the same. They get together and play music. Some play instruments, and some just hum along. Some just stand there with their eyes closed and their arms raised in the air. None of them understand why. They just do it.” He paused for a moment, sighing.
“So much has been lost in this city. You see it in the eyes of everyone. Even Civic Protection. They’re dead, just like everyone else. As long as they fight against you, you won’t win this war.”
James stopped as he heard the man. Bill knew he was the Hunter. Bill walked a few more steps and stopped, still facing away from him.
“As long as Civic Protection is against you, you won’t win.” Bill turned his head towards James. His eyes, James could see, were different. The pupils were the familiar slit that all the fallen had. “Do you understand me, Alex? Civic Protection is a part of this city, too. You need to learn the truth.” Suddenly James felt light-headed. He fell to one knee, looking to the ground for a moment, almost blacking out.
He regained his composer quickly, looking back up as he stood. Bill was gone, only his shopping cart left. James struggled to understand what this meant.
City of Twilight Part II: The Fallen (The Vanguard Chronicles Book 2) Page 9