by Morgan Wylie
He swung his legs casually around to the front of the table, and smiled his usual cocky lopsided smile that was signature to Rylen. “Don’t you all have better things to do today?”
An external sigh was released and the girls approached the window.
“Are you all right?” asked Lola with genuine concern in her words and a sheen of emotion coating her eyes.
Rylen examined his own body, stretching and flexing legs and arms. He hopped down from the table and tested out his balance and swung a few punches toward Enock. “I am.”
“Welcome back, Rylen. Would you be so kind, to internalize your examinations and check your magic for me, please?” Doc asked officially, ready with his pen and clipboard of notes.
Rylen did as Doc asked, he closed his eyes and felt for the internal magic that was innately his. His breathing was calm and his expression relaxed. “It feels complete, Doc. I don’t feel any trace of the poison in my system, but there is something—an essence—lingering, lurking in the recesses of my mind. I can’t put my finger on what exactly it is, but it’s familiar.” Rylen frowned but relaxed his expression just as quickly.
“Keep a pinpoint on it, Rylen, and test your magic for the next few days to ensure your control over it.”
“You got it, Doc. Now can I get out of this cage?” Rylen prowled with swift, lithe paces, instantly agitated.
Enock held out his hand to halt Doc’s attempt at pushing the button that would release Rylen. Doc stopped, watching Enock with anticipation.
“What are you doing, Enock?” Vi questioned, stepping up to him.
“Just a minute.” He didn’t take his eyes from Rylen. “What’s the word, Boss?”
Rylen swiveled his head, a predatory gleam in his eyes, the eyes of his animal pent up on the verge of a shift. Rylen took a moment, recognizing Enock’s voice and what he was asking of him, to calm his beast. He hadn’t lost control in a long many years and he wasn’t about to lose it now in front of his own people. He closed his eyes, willing the animal into submission as he breathed slow steady breaths.
“Everyone but Doc needs to leave—give him some space, please,” Enock directed. He spared a glance at Gracie with a question in his eyes. She shook her head, nothing more to offer before she turned tugging Lola with her out the door; the nurse, Mai, and Vi followed behind them. Enock turned back to Rylen.
“You need to let me out of this cage, E!” Rylen’s agitation grew even though his demeanor remained expressionless.
“Not until you prove your control. You put me in charge in your absence and I’m not entirely sure you’ve completely returned,” Enock calmly rebutted as he leaned passively against the wall behind Doc’s desk and all the machines. Rylen incessantly rubbed at his ears. “Turn that damn beeping off, Doc before all our eardrums start bleeding.” Doc rushed to do just that, but Enock reached out and held his jacket, stopping any movement. “Slowly. We are trying to calm his beast,” Enock said with hushed tones. Slowly, Doc turned off all the machines and any additional external sounds. It was silent except for Doc’s breathing as Enock could stop breathing all together without it effecting him. Rylen struggled to keep control. His eyes glowed brighter than usual. Sharp pointed teeth elongated as his facial features contorted. His fingers grew, claws emerged from their tips.
“Pull it together, Ry,” Enock encouraged.
Rylen stilled. His movements slowed. Teeth and claws receded as his face returned fully human. His breathing began to calm once more, his heartbeat also. With a new peace in his eyes, he looked at Enock and nodded. “Good job, E. I wasn’t ready, but I am now. The word is: Audrey—I think it’s time for a new word by the way.”
Enock winked at Rylen and smiled, “Welcome back, Boss, but no way. I got to pick the word and it stays.” Enock turned to Doc. “Okay, Doc, you can let him out now.”
Doc hit the button that unlocked the door and opened it from the outside, stepping to the side to let Rylen step out on his own. On his way out the door, he patted Doc on the shoulder with one hand while reaching to shake Doc’s hand with his other one. “Thank you, Doc. If you hadn’t had this cage ready, we would’ve been in a lot of trouble.”
“Well, you called it,” Doc chuckled. “Though I didn’t realize it was for you or that you would die in there… that was some definite excitement.” Both Enock and Rylen gave the doc a quick sanity check.
“Gracie?” Enock asked, not realizing that Rylen had prepared for this moment. “It would help us out next time if you could let a few more of us in on plans that include you poisoning yourself and potentially the entire Lair if it doesn’t work.”
“Next time I will, buddy.”
Enock shrugged a shoulder. “Just sayin’ is all.” They both laughed as Enock embraced Rylen and beat his fists brotherly on his back.
“Why is the safe word Audrey,” Doc asked curiously.
“Maybe someday Enock will tell you, but it has something to do with a lovely actress he fell in love with as a kid,” Rylen slapped his friend on the back as he let out a playful laugh, relief at being alive evident in his tone. Enock glared at Rylen.
“So we’re telling secrets now are we?” Enock asked with playful sarcasm as he put his finger and thumb to his chin deep in thought. “I know I can come up with some good ones to share, just give me a minute.”
Rylen punched him in the arm. “Come on, we have some damage control to deal with and I need to know what I missed.” They left Doc in his lab scribbling more notes on his clipboard as they walked past empty sick beds where lifeless bodies had been earlier. Rylen surveyed the beds, his magic picking up on the trace of the poison that had left its mark. Staring at one of the beds that held traces of life, he asked, “What of the kid—the one that saved the others?”
“He’s gonna make it, thanks to you,” the nurse, Jeanette, interjected from where she was straightening new sheets on one of the beds. “I think they are being fed in the kitchen. Doc wanted to get him up walking as soon as he could to return his strength.”
Rylen nodded and Enock hit the button on the intercom system just inside the door before they left the medical wing. “Rug time!”
Rylen shook his head and simply laughed. “I still can’t believe they let you get away with call words like that. They’re not kindergartners, E.”
“And yet they simply respond and don’t fight me on it too much,” Enock laughed as he spoke. They walked out of the medical lab and headed to the Throne room.
CHAPTER TWENTY
In the Throne room, everyone stood around or sat on the various chairs and even floor cushions they kept in there for such occasions. The assortment was a patchwork of mismatched colors, sizes, and styles. Most of the members of the PAC had been called back to the Lair when the others came back from the mission, so all together about thirty people milled about, waiting for a report. Rylen and Enock came through the door and the room burst into applause. Enock slipped off to the side of the entry, allowing Rylen the spotlight. Rylen hushed the group with a killer smile and hand gestures to settle them.
“Thank you. You’d think you were glad to have me still alive.” He laughed at the hoots and hollers erupting from around the room. Rylen looked around the room at his people, his family. He was suddenly serious, then finished his words with a wink. “Contrary to what some may think, it’s not that easy to get rid of me. I plan to be around for quite some time still.”
Lola moved up next to him and touched his arm briefly. When he stopped to look down at her, she whispered, “They want to meet you.” Rylen nodded and Lola left through the doors into the entry area.
“It seems we have some guests to introduce ourselves to,” Rylen announced as he gestured toward the slowly opening doorway. “I will fill you in on the details, but for now… this is the group of survivors that the team tonight rescued from the Fairfax group.” Rylen looked at the rag-tag group of people entering the room. Their clothes were torn and disheveled, but they had been cleaned up. One woman,
probably in her thirties, another girl close to her twenties, and the young man who created the bubble for them to survive also in his early twenties, if not late teens, came walking in unsure and huddled close together. Behind them hidden and holding the hands of the older woman, were two younger children—one girl and one boy—each barely in double digits, if not still single ones. Fear surrounded them, but they continued to walk into the Throne room, speculating and observing everything before them.
“Please come in. You are safe and welcome here,” Rylen began as he ushered them to the table near the gaudy throne at the end of the room. After each was seated, the children scooted their chairs closer to the maternal woman who protectively drew them near. Rylen looked them over. “Did you get to eat?” They quietly nodded. “After the meeting, we will send someone to find clean clothing for you and rooms for you to rest in until you are ready to go home.”
“You mean you aren’t keeping us here?” the young man spoke up cynically.
“No, you are free to go back to wherever it was you were taken from. I do not make it a practice to keep people against their wills,” Rylen answered.
“Thank you, sir. You have no idea how much what you did for us means. You… saved us,” the older woman spoke, her lips quivering and silent tears streaming down her face. She clutched the hands of the two youngest now watching her tenderly. Rylen crouched down in front of her.
“Are these your children?”
“No.” She took a breath. “They were orphans to begin with, on the street right in front of their care facility when they were taken.” The woman, now bolder, told her own story. “I have a husband and a home. I was out walking the dog in the park one night. The next thing I knew, I was hit on the head and woke up in that place.” She searched his eyes. “Why? Why did they do this to us?” She cried again, this time more loudly.
Lola and Vi had moved in closer to the small group, hoping to provide comfort if it was needed. The little girl, reached for Lola’s hand and let Lola place her on her lap. She looked about seven, with big blue eyes filled with wonder, lacking the fear that the boy of about ten showed. They each had sandy brown hair and a spattering of freckles kissing their cheeks, with all the appearances of siblings.
“We don’t know for sure, but the organization—if you can call them that—that took you has a personal vendetta against anyone with magic and their mission is to rid the earth of it,” Rylen answered.
“I don’t have a home to go back to,” the girl probably in her early twenties said. “They burned my home down and everything in it because I wouldn’t go with them easily.” She didn’t seem too upset by the loss of her home, but more proud that she had fought.
“You’ll stay with me no matter what, Kelsey,” the young man said as he reached over and held her hand under the table. She blushed but nodded at him. “I’m Ricky, by the way.” He shot out a tattooed arm to Rylen and shook Rylen’s hand when he reciprocated. Ricky had dark hair with waves, ending with soft curls that wrapped around his ears complete with ebony plugs in each. Ricky appeared tough and could care for himself and apparently Kelsey, but he had kind eyes and would no doubt do just that. “This is Kelsey next to me. The two little rug rats are Jasmine and Jessup, they’re brother and sister.” Ricky motioned to each person as he introduced them. “And this lovely lady who has taken care of them and us is Mona.”
“I’m Rylen,” Rylen pointed to himself and then to each of his inner circle. “This is Lola sitting with Jasmine. That’s Violet. We call her Vi. She thinks she’s a princess—watch how she walks and speaks,” he whispered to the little girl and winked at her when he saw her beautiful smile. “Everyone in this room is a part of the PAC and I call them family.” Rylen gestured his hand toward the rest of the room encompassing all there. “There are others not sitting here with us who are also a part of my personal team, like that brute over there,” he pointed to where Mather leaned against the wall by the doorway. “That’s Mather and that guy on the other side of the door is Enock. They look big and scary but they really are like big teddy bears,” Rylen spoke specifically to the children wanting them to feel safe.
The youngest, Jasmine, looked from Rylen to the other guys. She slid off Lola’s lap and leapt into Rylen’s arms, hugging him tighter than he had ever been genuinely hugged. His heart melted right then. He remembered the first time he had seen Gracie, she hadn’t been much older than this little girl, but she had the same tenacity and spirit in her. He instantly bonded with her and knew he had to keep her safe always. Jasmine released Rylen without so much as a word then ran to Mather and did the same with him and then again with Enock. The big burly men were reduced to mush by the slight girl. Rylen watched her brother, Jessup, as he stood protectively near his sister with his arms crossed and glared at two of the most dangerous beasts in the room as they gathered his sister up in their arms. He would make a good protector one day.
“Rylen, what happened out there tonight?” Mai asked from the back of the room, most in the room nodded their heads wondering the same.
Rylen sighed and ran his hands through his hair, still at odds from the chaos of the night’s events. “The mission went as planned. We found the location of those who had been trapped, only it wasn’t nearly as many as our intel led us to believe…”
“There are more,” both Ricky and Mather interrupted at the same time.
Rylen’s eyes shot up, surveying both of them. He nodded at Ricky to explain. “Where are they?”
“I don’t know exactly, but I know at one point we were all in the same warehouse then they split us up, sending others in a different direction,” Ricky said.
“Poppy stayed behind because she thought she could help them from that side,” Mather said with a flat tone. “She believed she knew where the others might be kept.”
“You let her stay?” Rylen inquired, no malice in his words of simple curiosity.
“She refused to go with me,” Mather growled. “Lucius called final.” Rylen watched his friend for a moment longer.
“It was the right thing, if she thought she could do something on her end.” Even though it was the right thing, it still didn’t make it easy on their team to have one of their own in the hands of mad men. Rylen looked to the ceiling, deep in thought.
“What happened to the rest of the captured then?” Vi asked.
“They were all dead.”
A heavy silence blanketed the room.
“They were brought back and properly put to rest,” Enock explained since Rylen was unconscious for that part of the cleanup.
“What happened to you, Boss?” one of the guys, leaning against a side wall, not on the Special Ops team for the mission asked.
“He is the leader. He did what was necessary,” Lucius said straight out as he pushed the door wide open and strode inside. Gracie walked slowly beside him, a hand on his forearm as he led her. Her eyes were just settling like they do after she gets a vision.
Rylen approached Gracie with swift, smooth strides. She looked up into his eyes, squinting slightly and smiled. “It worked. You’re alive.”
Rylen returned her smile with a small one of his own. “It did. Now what do you see?”
“Poppy. She was at a computer again. She seemed scared, but also sure of what she was doing. I think she’s trying to send us a message.”
Rylen petted the top of her head and ran his hands down either side of her face. “Thank you, Gracie. Go get some rest. Lucius, see to it she gets to her room, please.” He kissed the top of her head and moved back into the room. Just as they left, a frantic Tom rushed into the room, out of breath his chest heaved up and down.
“Boss! I got…” Tom breathed deeply trying to catch his breath. “I got another one of those cryptic messages.”
“Good, Tom. What is it?” Rylen asked with patience he was quickly running out of from all the upheaval that his family was experiencing.
“In the machine… it’s translating, but not finished. Just
wanted you to know as soon as I got it,” Tom panted.
“Go secure it, Tom. Let me know as soon as it’s ready to be read.”
Tom nodded and turned to run back out the way he came in, a force of nature—or in his case, technology.
“Oh and Tom, next time just use the intercom to page me to HQ.” Rylen smiled as it dawned on Tom that he could’ve given his information in a much simpler manner. For someone so technologically advanced, sometimes it was the simple things that evaded him. Enock just shrugged at Rylen and shook his head with a smile after Tom had passed him on the way out. Snickers from all around the room could be heard, but truth be told they all liked and respected Tom and that was why he was a part of their team.
“The rest of you, be on guard. Watch your backs, especially you magic users. Watch each other’s backs. The Fairfax Alliance is in our area and they are hunting. They’ve already proven they do not hold any of our lives sacred and will stop at nothing until we are wiped out.” Rylen paced in a tight space, a deep frown piercing his forehead. “I’m missing something. I can’t put my finger on it, but I will figure it out. Keep your eyes and ears open to anything that seems out of the ordinary and report back immediately.” He stopped and stared at each of his people. “Be ready for impromptu missions. I do not want to put any of you at risk, but we will do what we have to to stop these bastards from preying upon our people, whether a part of this Lair or not.” There were shouts of agreement and hollers of we’re with you and you can count on us heard from around the room. Overall it was a rough looking crowd, but they looked out for their own. Inspired, Rylen tightened his fists and pumped them to get the energy in the room up more than it already easily was. “No one comes into our backyard and messes with the PAC and those under our protection.” Invigorated shouts of support erupted from an enlivened group as they stood to their feet, a fight ready to be waged. Fire and hatred—centuries strong—flared in Rylen’s eyes, and he had magic to back it up.