Descendant: The Protector (The Descendant Series)

by Daniel W. Koch

  “Great. Now that we have some ground rules, I think I can begin.”

  “About time.” Peter faked a cough to muffle his voice.

  “Peter!” Aderes yelled so loudly that it hurt my ears.

  “I’m sorry. I was just joking around.”

  “Do it again, and I’ll throw you out the window.” Aderes stared Peter down. He seemed to be bothered by her eyes as well because he looked away quickly. “I’m sorry, Jason.” Aderes looked back at me.

  “It’s fine,” I said. “Just, please go on. I want to hear this.”

  “Well, it all started the summer of 1929,” she started, jumping quickly into the story. “It was about three days after my twentieth birthday, actually. I was with my friends at the park near my house. I remember a storm was coming, and it was already really dark. We had started packing up our picnic when we felt the first couple of drops of rain. On our way back to my boyfriend’s car is when I first saw…him. He was standing near the water in a large open area. I was scared; just seeing him made me want to run. None of my friends seemed to notice he was there, standing in a dark brown overcoat with a soft-crowned hat that hid his face.

  “When we reached the car, the rain was picking up, so we hurried as we packed everything up and piled in. I couldn’t help but turn and look out the back window to see if he was still there. I regretted my decision instantly when I saw him advancing on the car with amazing speed and poise. I whipped my head forward, hoping he didn’t see me looking at him. When my boyfriend hit the gas, a wave of relief rushed over me that we were getting away. I felt so relieved that I turned to look at him again, but no one was there. He had vanished, and it made me feel even worse than I had when he was walking towards the car.”

  “You do realize that’s how I felt when I first saw you?” I interrupted her.

  “That’s totally different!” she screamed at me. “I was protecting you! How dare you compare me with that…that monster?!” Neither Peter nor I said a word as Aderes calmed down, but after a few minutes I spoke up, hoping that my head would still be attached to my body after I stopped talking.

  “I’m sorry, Aderes. I didn’t know how strongly you felt about this. Please, I would really love to hear the rest of the story.”

  “Okay,” she said, giving in. She started again like she hadn’t just stopped. “I’ll skip ahead about three weeks now, but before I do you just need to know one thing. I was in the best time of my entire life. I had a boyfriend that I loved and hoped to marry; I had the greatest friends I could have asked for, and none of us had anything to do except have a great time together. The reason I need you to know this is because it’s my excuse for forgetting all about the man in the brown overcoat.

  “So we were nearing the last week of July, and all of my friends wanted to travel across the country. I hated long train rides, but I really didn’t want to be away from my friends for the month they planned to be gone. Long story short, my parents talked me out of it, and I sat home while all of my friends went to have a great time without me. I would never see any of them again.” She saw my face and put a finger up. “Don’t jump to conclusions, Jason. They all died in a train wreck. Their railcar was flipped over, and everyone was found bleeding from their wrists.

  “They never gave a good explanation for the accident. It was very odd to everyone. A large, unexplainable dent was found on the side of the train. I wouldn’t find out until later that he wanted me to be all alone so he could strike at the perfect moment, without the interference of my friends. I wished he had just taken me while they were gone, but he waited another two weeks. Those weeks were agonizing as I mourned my friends’ deaths. I don’t think I did anything except cry. My parents said I even cried when I slept. My wonderful world had collapsed in a few short weeks, but it would only get worse.

  “I wanted to stay home in my room and do nothing but stare at the ceiling for the rest of my life, but my parents wanted otherwise. They forced me to find something constructive to do, and when I didn’t find anything, they got me a job at a new furniture shop that had opened up in town.

  “My first day on the job, I was taught the basics by a kid younger than me. He seemed very nervous and kept looking toward the back room every ten seconds, like he was expecting someone to come out and shoot us both at any minute. The next day, the boy was gone, and a note was left in very elegant handwriting that told me he had quit, and I would be in charge of the store. When I made my rounds, I found another note. This one told me to bring one of three wooden side-tables into the back room. I did it without a second thought. The handle to the door was freezing, ice cold. I opened it quickly and walked into a room that was lit only by spillover from the main store. I fumbled for a light switch, trying not to drop the side-table, but I couldn’t find one. My nerve began to break at that moment, and I dropped the table and started backing slowly out of the room.

  “It was like I was in some kind of horror movie. The door swung shut so fast and so hard I heard it crack. Then, I heard someone cry out from the other side of the room. My back was plastered to the door, and I blindly searched for the freezing door knob. My heart was pounding in my throat, and I couldn’t think straight. Someone else was in the pitch-black with me. When my hand finally found what it was looking for, I turned at the knob madly, but the door had been locked from the outside. I wanted to scream, but I kept it down, and I even tried my best to control the heavy breathing.

  “But, just as I managed to get myself under control, I lost it again when the lights suddenly flashed on. There was a boy tied and gagged in the back corner. He was facing away from me, but I could tell he was the same boy that had showed me around the store the day before. The same boy who had seemed to fear that room so much. Sweat was pouring down the back of his neck, and he jolted every few seconds like tremors were running through his body.

  “‘Hello?’ My voice was cracked and scratchy, but I was too afraid to clear it and ask again. The boy, however, began squealing and squirming. He was able to roll his body to face me, and when he did I backed against the door even more. Half of his face was the boy I had known from the day before, but the other half was gone, hidden in blood. I could only make out traces of the caved-in face. It looked like someone had smashed him over the head with a sledgehammer. I almost vomited, but I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. I heard a loud crack, then a thud.

  “‘It’s okay now,’ I heard someone say. The voice was young and rugged, and I wanted it to keep talking. It urged me to open my eyes, and I did, almost unwillingly. I want to spare you the details of his appearance, Jason, because of reasons of my own. He was standing in the corner of the room with the boy behind him. The boy’s face was now turned away from me, and he lay limp on the floor. The loud crack I had heard was obviously this man breaking his neck. I had no idea what type of sick joke this was, but the man smiled at me and walked closer. My body was trying desperately to back up straight through the door that blocked my exit. The only other way out was the door this man had walked in through, to the right of where I stood. The only problem was that he was guarding that door as he walked closer and closer to me. I yelled and screamed for him to go away and leave me alone, but he kept coming, slow and steady, seeming to soak up every moment.

  “There was nowhere for me to go, so I slid down the door and sat on the ground as the man towered over me. I was crying hard by this point, jamming my eyes closed as I tried to wake up from my nightmare. I had no such luck. The man bent down and grabbed me by the neck with one stone-cold hand. He lifted me up until my feet dangled a few inches from the ground. I could feel that I was close to his face, but I kept my eyes shut. Although when he started laughing, I couldn’t help but peek. Long fangs,” she said, pointing to her own, “were staring at me. I didn’t know what Dahmshed were at the time, but I did know that those teeth were meant for something more than normal eating.

  “He took me away by stuffing me in the back of a car and driving for hours. Eventually, we s
topped, and I was taken out of the car and thrown to the ground in the middle of a forest. He left me there as he drove away with the car. I had no idea where I was or if anyone knew I was missing yet. I started to run through the woods, but I didn’t get far before something hit me hard in the back, and I fell flat on my face.

  “I turned onto my back to see him standing over me with a wide smile, exposing his canines again. He told me not worry, that if I did as he asked, I would survive for a long time. So I followed him to an old cabin at least half a mile from where we were. When I walked into the house, he grabbed me with unbelievable speed and force. Before I even realized it, I was tied to a bed in another room of the cabin. My vision was hazy, but I could feel something at my neck. It didn’t feel good, but it also didn’t hurt. It was like my neck had a slight ache, but I knew better. He was drinking from me, and there was nothing I could do to stop it. I was tied to the bed for an entire day before I was able to snap the ropes with my arms. I had new senses, and I was so strong it was astonishing.

  “As I stood in the room admiring my new eyesight, he came for me. I began to attack him with my new abilities, but he was so much stronger and faster then I had ever thought. I was on my back only a second after my first punch at him.

  “Again he told me that if I did as he asked, I would live. So I did what he told me to do, and in doing so, I learned of a whole new world hidden from the rest. I was his servant for sixty-three years, five months, and ten days. I learned how he led a large group of Dahmshed through a man named Alexander, and how we were more powerful than any of them. When I asked him why we more powerful, he told me this: ‘We are the Sterks, my daughter. We are the Sterk Dahmshed.’

  “He went on to tell me that Sterk was the Dutch word for strong. When he and his family were altered into Dahmshed in the 1300’s, they became these Sterk Dahmshed. As he grew and altered others, he watched them turn into Sterks as well. They were less powerful than him, so he could control them. But he told me that as they aged, they became harder to keep, so he killed them. Then, he didn’t say another word. He had let something slip that he knew he shouldn’t have. He had just told me that I was marked for death.

  “Three days later I was told to meet with him for something very important. I knew what he was going to do, so I had to try and run. I ran long, and I ran far, trying to keep my trail hidden as I went. A few regular Dahmshed would find me every once in a while, but I could take care of them with no problem. He never came himself, but I knew he wanted me dead.

  “This next part may sound weird and a little stupid, but for a few years I lived with a pack of wolves. When I first found them, they were in total distress. A small group of humans was antagonizing the alpha male. I watched closely as they trapped him in a circle and took turns firing their guns into his grey fur. As he fell to the ground with one sad yelp, I leapt into action. In three seconds, I tore around the group of men, my arms grabbing out at their weak human necks and breaking them like toothpicks. Soon, all six of the humans lay dead at my feet. I quickly turned to the alpha male, hoping that there was something I could do. When I picked him up in my arms, I could see nine bloody holes in his beautiful coat. The other wolves circled around me as I sank my teeth into his neck in one last attempt to save him, even though I knew that animals couldn’t be altered. He died in my arms only a few seconds later. The rest of his pack seemed to feel his heart stop beating just as I did, because every one of them threw their heads back and began to howl in unison.

  “A few hours later, the wolf pack watched as I buried their leader and prayed for him. I cried like he was a brother I had known since birth, even though I had known him for only seconds of his life. I was so connected to him and his entire pack that I decided to join and live with them. It wasn’t long before I realized they had adopted me as their new alpha leader. They followed me wherever I went, slept wherever I slept, and hunted whenever I hunted. For the years I spent with them, I drank the blood of the animals that they killed to eat.

  “Living with them changed me in many different ways. First of all, it’s where I developed how I run. As I spent more and more time with the wolves, I became like them. I walked on all fours, ate the same food, although not the same parts, and even howled to other packs under the full moon. The best part of it all was that he never found me.

  “I can’t say the same for Elliot, though. I had to be over ninety years old, and had been with the wolves for ten of those years, when the Peacekeepers came across me. They saw me hunting one day and came to me. I hadn’t seen a human or a Dahmshed for a couple of years, so I was very defensive. I had also never known there was such a thing as a good Dahmshed. Elliot and the others eventually convinced me they meant no harm, and we became friends.”

  Peter laughed. “If that’s the way you tell that part of the story, how much of the rest of it was bullshit?”

  “What are you talking about?” I asked, and Aderes closed her eyes and looked away from me.

  “When we met her, Jason, she freaked out on us. It took all twelve of the High Members, plus Elliot, to hold her off. She almost killed us, and she nearly ripped Johnathan’s head off; it’s the reason the two of them still have a feud. Then, it took five months for us to win her over.”

  “Okay, Peter, thanks for interrupting,” Aderes broke in.

  “Well, if you aren’t going to tell the story right…” Peter said but didn’t finish his thought.

  Aderes waited a few seconds before returning to the story. “I said goodbye to my pack and left them to be with the Peacekeepers. I’ve been here ever since.” She finished and let me take in the story for a few minutes before asking, “Any questions?”

  “Yeah, actually I have a lot,” I said.

  “Well, I’ll answer as many as possible.”

  “So first off, how can you remember all of that?”

  “How could I not? It was so traumatic that it just got plastered into my head forever.”

  “Okay, I guess I can understand that. I can remember every word spoken the night you came for me. The night my family was lost.” There was a short pause so I asked another question. “Do you know why he came for you?”

  “No idea,” she said, looking up at the ceiling. “He could have been watching me for a while, or it could have been my family line, or it could have been a hundred other reasons. I never found out any of them.”

  “Anything else, Jason?” Peter asked after another pause.

  “Yes, about Alexander. That Dahmshed, Grath, talked about him being their leader the night he came for me. You said that this Sterk Dahmshed was Alexander’s leader.”

  “My kind are hated, Jason,” Aderes said. “Sterk Dahmshed, that is. No regular Dahmshed wants to be led by them; they’re jealous of the power. So he leads his army through Alexander.”

  “Okay.” I thought it over. “That brings me to my next question. Who is he?”

  “He,” she said with a growing anger in her voice, “is an evil man. I figured you would get that from everything I just told you.”

  “Yes, but what is his name?” I asked her. She just looked at me, and I knew she wouldn’t speak it.

  “Falko Van De Hemel,” Peter said suddenly, surprising me. Aderes hissed at him, and her face scrunched up in disgust. “I’m sorry, Aderes, but I told him we were giving him answers, not more questions.”

  “Thanks.” I smiled at Peter. “And I have one more question.”

  “Go ahead,” Peter said nicely when he realized Aderes wasn’t going to talk anymore.

  “Has Fal…” I didn’t finish his name because I saw Aderes’s eyes narrow. “Has he made any more of your kind?”

  “No,” she said quietly. “After I escaped him, he hasn’t dared to make another Sterk Dahmshed that I could turn against him. There are also no others left besides him and me.”

  “What about the rest of his family? You said they were altered with him.”

  “There was a falling out, a battle for power. From what
I know, they tore each other apart until only he was left.”

  “That’s a relief,” I said, just as the front door burst open to reveal a soaking wet Elliot.

  “Aderes, Peter!” he said with a rushed voice. “Come now, Bart just found Rogue markings!”

  “Where?” Peter asked.

  “When?” Aderes stood quickly.

  “Come with me, and I’ll tell you all I know.” Elliot flew from the doorway. Aderes and Peter followed right behind him, and I was left alone, very afraid that a Rogue was going to kill me.

  BOOK TWO:

  DAHMSHED

  Chapter 7

  Discovered

  Jason-

  The Rogues appeared shortly after the Dahmshed. No one really knew where they came from, which isn’t very different from the Dahmshed, but there was one big difference. The Rogues had no trace of past existence. Once studied, the Dahmshed were traced back thousands of years, maybe even more, but the Rogues just kind of came from nowhere. Conspiracy theorists believed they were some type of Dahmshed experiment gone wrong, or right, depending on how you looked at it.

  Like Dahmshed, they’re altered from humans, but when they’re the human part, they’re all human. They have a beating heart, their senses are normal, and so is their strength and speed. But when they shift into what most people call their “animal-form” they become beastly with fur and sharp teeth. They also become stronger and faster. Although they’re no match for a Dahmshed, the Rogues in their animal form can destroy a human in seconds or, with only a single bite, alter a human into one of them.

  The rain kept pounding away at the roof as I sat and watched a movie in the main room, constantly thinking about the Rogues and how they could have slipped past the Peacekeepers. I had been waiting for someone to come and talk to me for over two hours, and I was getting very impatient. I almost got up to leave multiple times, but that could have been dangerous. Finally, a little dark-haired boy entered the room.