"Does that mean I'm going to spend more time with you, too?" He said, winking at me. "Someone will have to train me, right?"
"Yes." John stood between us. “Me. I love to train newbies.”
John smiled and Lucius swallowed.
"I should have warned you that our parties are always lively," John said playfully.
"You really should’ve," I said, getting up from the couch. "The parties I go to don’t usually end up in someone almost dying.”
We smiled.
“Are you alright?” he asked.
“I am. Is your mother?”
"She had already liked you before, now she loves you," John said, and I pulled him closer, putting my arms around his waist.
I looked at Grace who now had Rogi's arm around her neck and she returned the look, smiling and waving.
"But surely not as much as I love you," he finished, making me look at him quickly. “Thanks for that. I don’t know what I would do if something happened to my mother.”
"You’re welcome,” I said. "I was really thinking about how to make her like me."
He laughed.
"So ,I kind of had to do that," I said, teasing and pulling him into a kiss. “And I love you too.
"I know," he replied.
After a few minutes everyone returned to the party, which continued as if nothing had happened. We convinced Lucius and Uri to be around a Chosen One in case they lost control again.
John and I were having fun like never before. Isys had brought a bottle of wine hidden and handed us glasses. Liath had made sure to check every bottle of the party the day before because he knew she would do something like that. She clearly didn’t know how Isys could be stubborn.
Amazingly, it was the first time I ever tried alcohol. I took two sips and it was enough.
"You don’t like it either?" I asked John.
His glass was almost pristine.
"I don’t like alcohol in general," he said. "Why do people like something that makes them feel sick and doesn’t do any good is something I'll never understand. I like to be focused.”
"We don’t like what happens after,” Zal said, smiling. “We like what happens during.”
I tried to get Lucius and Uri away from the alcohol so they wouldn’t make them even more vulnerable to accidents. One of Isys' friends came to Runne for a dance and she went out with him. They stood next to Eimée and Liam, who were now dancing together.
Almost an hour later I was exhausted. John and I had gone into the yard to be alone in a place with less noise. We sat on a lounger and placed a tray of mini pizzas in front of us. The pieces were the size of a coin and we had been eating and talking for a long time.
“How was your childhood? I asked.
John looked at me and put another mini pizza in his mouth.
“Why the question?” He said as he finished chewing.
"You never told me anything about it. And I want to know everything about you.”
“Well, it was great. My parents say that as soon as we left Pacem it took me a little while to adjust, but when we came to the hotel with all the other kids helped normalize things. They were always protective, as they all are, I guess.”
Grandma certainly was, "and still is," I thought.
"But despite being protective, something that made a lot of difference in my life was that they always trusted me. My dad used to say when I was little: "you were a change, I irrigated, and now the rest is up to you."
We laughed.
"I learned to make decisions on my own, and it helped me to grow up. When I gained my powers, they knew they could trust me to use it properly.”
"I'm glad to hear that," I said.
"I kind of wonder how yours was," he said, smiling. “Knowing your grandmother.
"Yes," I said. “She was great. I...”
I stopped when I heard a shrill scream coming from the hotel. It was different from the other screams that came from there. This was a cry of fear. John put his hand on my arm quickly and took us to the hall. We appeared on the back, near our table. From there we could see two people on the ground bleeding.
A large, strong man stood in the center of the room with a bloody knife in his hand. People were leaning against the wall, doing their best to stay away from him. He stared at them with his empty gaze, his hand with his knife in front of him and rocking his body from side to side. They shrugged as he turned in their directions.
The man seemed to be picking his prey. John and I headed toward him. The other Chosen Ones joined us.
"This night keeps getting better," John said.
We stopped in front of him the moment he tried to go after someone else.
"Hey, here," John said, catching the man's attention.
He turned and faced me. There was something strange about his face. He had the same expression Runne had when she was having a vision. He stared into nothing. Except that he was pointing a knife at us.
I focused on his mind to find out what he wanted, and to my surprise, nothing.
"There's nothing in his mind," I informed the others.
Maena did the same and nodded.
“What do you mean, nothing?” John asked.
"He has no thoughts," I explained. “It’s empty.”
“What does that mean?” Isys asked.
"I won’t wait to see," I said, and stepped forward.
Taking me by surprise, the man threw a punch directly at my face. I took a step back, placing my hand on my aching jaw. Seeing me dizzy, John pushed the man, beating him efficiently. I had never seen him fight for real. It was almost elegant. He was fast; used his power strategically to appear and reappear when the man didn’t expect.
Zal followed, punching him in the stomach. He took a step back, but soon returned to his position. It seemed he didn’t feel pain.
“Go help the people. Get them out of here,” I said to Isys, Maena and Runne. “We can handle this.”
Without complaining, they went to help the frightened people. As soon as I saw them pulling the injured off the floor and the others were in the hall, I bent down and started taking off my shoes. I threw them away.
"I knew wearing those shoes wasn’t a good idea," I said and ran toward the man.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
My first punch didn’t seem to work. Zal tried to hold him by the arms, but somehow, he managed to let go. I was inclined to believe that this man was possessed. He fought the three of us with a precision that looked professional.
I walked a few steps back, catching my breath.
"Now is not a good time to rest," Zal shouted.
They both looked quickly at me, and as they saw my expression, they stepped out of the way. I wasn’t messing around. I took a deep breath and ran with the all the strength I had. I was able to knock him down with the impact, and still on top of him, holding him on the floor with my knee, I punched him. When he lost consciousness, I stopped. The first thing I saw was the tear in my dress at the height of my thigh.
The joints of my hand were bleeding, but as I passed my finger I saw that it wasn’t mine. Most, at least. Blood came from the man's face on the floor. John and Zal reached out for me and I grabbed their hands. They lifted me up and stood over the body. I bent down and placed two fingers just below his jaw. I knew what I could do now. I wanted to make sure I hadn’t. I sighed relieved the second I felt a heartbeat.
I got up and Zal took my place, checking the man's pockets. He found a wallet in his back pocket and picked it up. He took the id inside.
"Charles Harris," he said, raising his identity so he could read.
Isys, Maena, Runne and the twins returned to the hall.
"You think he's ..." Isys began.
“The hunter?” Zal completed, a spark of hope appearing on his face.
In that second, we all seemed to consider, and hope, that this was the case. I started to rummage through the man's wallet, and Zal went back to his pockets. In the wallet were documents, a photo of a
lady, probably the man's mother, and a nightclub entrance.
"That's not good," Zal said, standing up.
“What?” I asked.
He held up his hand and showed us a police badge.
"No, it's not good," I said, thinking of what I'd done.
Slowly the people returned to the hall, clearly curious to know what had happened. Someone kept them away from the bleeding man on the floor.
"Is mom all right?" John asked Rogi as soon as he returned.
"She’s a little shaken, but she'll be fine," he replied.
"Why would a police officer do that?" Maena said. "No one here has drawn attention, right?"
"If we'd drawn attention, an entire team would have come," John said. "He came alone and with a knife."
"The question is why," Rogi said.
“What do we do?” I asked.
"You gave him a good beating," Zal replied, analyzing the damage. "I think he'll be off for a little while longer."
"How are people?" I said, looking back at Rogi.
"He managed to stab three people. He took them by surprise,” Rogi replied. “Two were at the entrance of the hotel and the other at the door of the hall. It was nothing very serious. Our healer can handle it.”
"So, he just walked in?" John said.
"It seems so," Rogi said. "The party was the perfect opportunity for a stranger to come in here.”
"We'd better tie him up if he wakes up soon," Maena said.
I tried not to think about the fact that I had beaten a cop and now I was going to tie him up. I picked him up and raised its arms, preparing it to put it on my shoulder.
"You don’t have to do that Liz," John said.
“Yes, I do.”
I grabbed him by the torso and, raising his arms, put him on my shoulder.
“Where should I put him?” I turned and asked the others.
Everyone looked at me with expressions of pure astonishment. They knew I was as strong as Zal, but seeing me carrying a man almost double my size and breadth was something that certainly attracted attention. And I hadn’t put my powers into use either. I hadn’t had the need. Until today.
"Oh, sorry," Rogi said, shaking his head. “You can put him in the office. We can tie him to the window bars.”
I nodded and took the man into the office.
“It's okay, people. We're taking care of it. If you can, help Carmentis. She has three patients needing attention. Thank you.” I've heard Rogi say to people from afar.
I put the man on the floor and I lowered his shirt, which by the movement had gone up. As soon as I touched the fabric I saw something strange. I raised his shirt even more to see better.
"Can’t we leave you alone for a second?" Zal said, not letting the opportunity pass.
I ignored him and continued analyzing. I saw a strange mark on the man's chest. It was a strange drawing. It looked like an old scar, but tiny black lines surrounded it as if the place had caught on fire.
“What are you looking at?” John asked, coming to me.
He stood on one knee and saw what I was seeing, and got up quickly.
"Dad," he said.
Rogi came and also had the same reaction.
"Can anyone explain what that means?" I asked, running out of patience.
"The Crown Jewels," Torim said, entering the room and staring at the man's chest from afar.
“And what is that?”
"You really need to learn more about Pacem," Runne said.
I rolled my eyes and gestured for Torim to continue.
“They are artifacts from our world.”
“What do you mean?”
“The Jewels belonged to the royal family, hence the name. Therefore, the Chosen Ones and the Council used them when necessary. Each Jewel has a purpose. The larger jewel, the round, has the power to heal, the square has the power to leave anyone prone to persuasion, thus a puppet to be used. Which I think was the case of this poor soul,” he said, looking at Charles. "And the last jewel, the triangle, gives immortality to the person who possesses it. Together the three fit into one.”
Torim went to a bunch of books and ran his fingers until he found what he wanted.
"Here," he said, turning the pages and turning the book over to me.
There was a picture of the Jewels. It was the same as the one on Charles's chest.
"I wrote this little book myself," Torim said proudly. "It's just a few important things about Pacem. I talk about the dwarves, of course...”
"Sorry," I said. "Are you saying there's a jewel that can give someone immortality?"
"As long as the person has the mark, of course," he explained. "And as the Guardian, the person who lives only to take care of the Jewels, passes them to the next Guardian when he reached a certain age, it was never used. We knew it was too much power for one person.”
All this information was spinning so hard in my head that I had to sit down. I put my head between my legs and closed my eyes. The first thought that came to my mind was, "This is not over yet." This is not the hunter.
I felt John sit beside me. He put his hand on my back and rubbed it gently.
"I think we can take him," Zal said.
“What?!” I raised my head quickly. "He's definitely coming back here wondering what the hell happened."
"He won’t remember anything, my dear," Torim explained.
"It will just look like a strong hangover," Rogi added.
“You see?” Zal said. "You still say alcohol is a bad thing."
I remembered the note from the club that was in his wallet.
"Here," I said, returning the wallet back to Zal. “Take him to this place. He won’t suspect anything.”
He nodded and started to lift him off the floor.
"But before you should wipe the blood on his face," John said.
"Well thought," Zal said.
I left the office quickly and started up the stairs. I went back to John's room and took out the Runne drawings on the bedside table. I still hadn’t examined them, and even though they seemed to be nothing, I had to at least try. There had to be a way to finish this once and for all. More innocent people got hurt — one by my hands — and I wasn’t going to stand still anymore.
I want to see Grandma again every day, I want to talk to Emma without having to lie to her. I want to have a relationship with John that doesn’t involve constant fear of being killed. I looked at my leg and remembered that my perfect dress was now in the same condition as my mind. Torn.
Now that the adrenaline was leaving my body, I began to feel the pain of the punch on my face. John returned to the room a few minutes later and I saw that he had a compress in his hand. Smiling, he sat next to me and held the compress on the left side of my jaw.
He had an expression of curiosity on his face. He seemed to be unraveling a mystery in his mind.
“What are you thinking?” I asked.
“Nothing important. I just can’t understand why the hunter would send anyone here.”
"And how does he have the Jewels?" I said.
“There was no way he could accomplish anything. There are too many of us here,” John said, still seeming to sort something out in his mind.
"That’s probably why he didn’t come himself. If he had, he probably wouldn’t have left here just with a few bruises,” I said, my head perfectly imagining the punches and the sound of his bones breaking.
I didn’t want to admit to myself that some of the punches were mine.
"What about you, Detective?" He said, now returning to his normal state. "Why do you think he did that?"
I quickly began to think about the cop shows I watched. When a detective had a case to solve, he goes looking for leads. In those leads, he’ll find the motive, and if he’s lucky, the culprit. But the culprit can’t commit the crime if there is no victim available. The victims were always the first step.
I narrowed my eyes, surprised at the discovery.
"He's hungry," I explained
. "And we cut his food supply."
John gaped slightly.
"He couldn’t find Chosen Ones in the streets like before, so he came back where he knew we would be," he said.
"But it's still stupid," I said. "He couldn’t kill anyone. And why send someone else? Why not send the Dagger too? He always kills with the Cadere Dagger, doesn’t he?”
"Yes," he replied. "But what if it wasn’t for that?"
“How so?” I asked, taking the compress and placing it on the bedside table.
"Like you said, he had to know he couldn’t do anything. So, I think the cop was a distraction.”
"He wanted us to think he was the hunter," I said.
John nodded.
"If we thought he was the hunter, all right, problem solved," John said. “We would take care of him and go back to live our lives normally.”
"Until someone got killed again."
"Which makes me think he's more desperate than we thought If we thought he was dead and then a body appeared the same way, we would go back to quarantine quickly.”
"So, whatever he needs, he needs it soon," I said, wincing at the gloomy thought.
"You talked about motive," John said. “I think we should focus on that. We never find out why we are the targets or why he always uses the Dagger.”
"We could do more research on the Dagger. Did you do that?”
"No. We were more focused on trying to find him. But you're right. Tomorrow we can talk to Torim.”
I got up quickly from the bed, the tear on the dress giving me more mobility.
“Tomorrow? No. I'll do it today,” I said. "I won’t sit around waiting any longer."
"Liz, everyone is exhausted," he said, standing up. "I'd say you do too. It's been a long day.”
“And? I already took a punch today, staying awake for another few hours won’t be a nuisance.”
He looked at me with raised eyebrows, crossing his arms.
“Fine!” I gave up.
"Don’t worry," he said, coming closer. "Tomorrow we'll take care of it. Together.”
I nodded and laid my head it on his chest. I took a deep breath before releasing him to go change my clothes. I tied my hair in a bun.
The Chosen Ones: Red Smoke Page 25