“Just sit back and watch.” Damon says with a playful smile stretched upon his face.
The elite Void on the left laughs. “You think you can take on all three of us, you wannabe elite? You run away from mommy and still think that you can walk over all of us?”
Another elite joins in. “I’m gonna enjoy killing Valus’ little brother before he can do it himself.”
“Maybe whoever kills him will be promoted to the Queen’s Hand!” The final one adds. Hector couldn’t believe how apathetic the Void could be. They had no respect for their own kind, and viewed Damon’s life as some type of trophy. They were nothing like Damon. Their bloodlust made Hector’s skin crawl.
“None of you are even ranked Void?” Damon asks.
“So what!” One Void yells as they charge in for an attack. The other two charge in as well, and Hector feels his gut drop as one of the elites hand transforms into a blade and jabs straight towards Damon’s head. But without worry, Damon pushes the Void’s arm out of the way, and as the other two try to punch him, he ducks. He jabs both of them in their stomachs and they reel backwards. Hector smiles at how well Damon could defend himself.
“It’s a shame that none of you were ranked elites.” Damon says holding a hand over his head. “Maybe if you were, you would have stood a chance against me.”
None of the Void move from their spot. The one with a blade for an arm begins whimpering. “What is this?”
Damon walks up to the elite and smiles. “If you did your research, you would know that this is my Stitch. You all made the mistake of getting close to me, within range for me to mark you. I trained with Valus growing up, and know better than any other Void how to evade a simple attack. You had no chance trying to defeat me with brute force.”
Hector smiles. “Nice! I’m not sure what the heck you’re doing, but that was sweet! They couldn’t even hit you once.”
Damon returns the smile. “Thanks.These elites here were stupid for not figuring out my own powers before fighting me. If they did their research, they might have stood a chance.”
“You cocky kid.” The blade armed elite says. Damon loses his smile.
“This isn’t cockiness- this is just the difference between your strength and mine. Now go back to the Void where you belong.” With a snap of his fingers, the three elites suddenly combust into a cloud of purple dust.
Hector looks at Damon in amazement. “Are they dead?”
Damon nods as he cracks his knuckles. “As dead as the Void get. They’ll go back to the Void and enter the Chasm of Souls before returning their power to the Queen.” He stops and looks around the area. “More importantly, where are Zerik and Brutus at.”
Hector looks around and realizes that he hasn’t seen the other two since he shadow jumped. He activates his tracker abilities in order to trace Zerik and Brutus’ energy. After a few moments of searching, he finds Zerik’s location. Hector wasn’t exactly used to his tracker powers yet. Seeing a black marker just pointing to where Zerik was messed with his mind a little. It was almost as if a filter was just placed over his normal vision to showcase his powers.
“I found him. Let’s head that way.” Hector points in the direction of the Eros prince.
The two of them take off. Hector doesn’t dare let his guard down as they walk the streets of Eros. The Void were stronger than him, and could appear at any given second. The only thing that helped him relax was the fact that Damon seemed capable of defending the two of them. This was the second time that Hector was saved by the boy from the Void. He would never say it out loud, but a small part of Hector was insecure about being rescued so much. Being a tracker really just made him the weakest out of all his friends.
“Malia should be close to done with healing Isaac. Then we can go back to the human world and help take down the Void there.” Damon says as the two walk through an alleyway.
Hector smiles at the thought of Isaac. When he went to register for the Guard, he was sure that he was going to hate having to follow orders from some person he barely knew. But Hector actually liked his captain- they were both slackers after all. “That’s good.” He says. But as the silence fills between them, Hector grows anxious and desperate to keep the conversation going. So he asks something that’s been on his mind since he woke up.
“So Damon, why is Malia here in Eros? Did she run away too?”
Damon responds without hesitation, making Hector wonder if the boy had any sense of privacy. “No, Malia didn’t run away. My family has a pretty messed up history. My parents had Valus first. He was a prodigy, a powerful elite that quickly mastered his powers. During the pregnancy my father basically cheated on the Queen with a random elite. That’s how Malia was born. A couple years later and my father and the Queen had another baby- me. When the Queen found out that my father cheated on her, she killed him without mercy. And as a punishment for being his spawn, she sent Malia to Eros. Being half human like me, she isn’t a violent Void. Eros came to accept her after she healed many people using her Stitch.”
Hector cocks his head. “Her Stitch? That’s what you call a Void’s special power, right?”
Damon responds distantly. “Yeah, but her power to heal is only half of her ability. Though it’s the main reason that I brought you to Eros right away. She is the only one who can save Isaac. And your captain is too powerful to lose- so there was no way I was going to let him sacrifice himself.”
“Everything dies eventually.” A third raspy voice says from behind the duo. Hector quickly peaks over his shoulder at the sudden intruder. Instead of the Void he was expecting, he’s greeted by a man wearing tattered clothes. Hector studies the man’s emaciated arms and filthy face and quickly realizes that he was no threat. Though he was giving off an awfully eerie vibe.
“What did you say?” Hector asks.
The man crosses his thin arms and lets out a sickly cough. “Everything dies. Your captain will die one day, just like the rest of you. Why does fighting even matter when in the end, it’s all for nothing?”
Hector scratches the back of his head and shares a confused look with Damon. He shakes his head and shrugs. “Okay man, thanks for creeping me out, but we need to go. Sorry I don’t have any money for you.”
As Hector and Damon turn to walk away, the man laughs. “Don’t you want to know about your past and future, Hector Avern?”
Hector stops once again and turns to stare at the seemingly harmless man. “How do you know my name? Is this some type of Invert ability?”
The man laughs once more. “No, quite the opposite actually. I know many things about you, Hector- and your name is only one of them. You have to be a little bit curious as to what’s in store for you, right? If I were you, I’d want to know why my parents abandoned me.”
Hector bites his lip. There was something about this man that made him seem formidable, but not frightening. Though either way Hector’s curiosity was already piqued. Whether or not he could trust the stranger was a mystery. But if this man could really tell him about his past, talking to him was worth a shot.
“Tell me everything you know about me.” Hector demands. Damon reaches out and grabs his arm.
“Hector, I don’t think we should just trust some random bum on the street. We’re on a mission, remember?”
The man chuckles. “Your friend worries too much. Zerik is safe for now. His death does not lie here in Eros. Now if you want to hear my tales, follow me.”
Hector exchanges a look with Damon. He feels a tinge of guilt for dragging his friend along, but there was no way he could walk away from this man. There was something about him that told Hector they needed to talk. Without further complaints, the two boys follow the stranger, completely putting their safety in the man’s hands.
* * *
The sunlight barely manages to pierce through the old tinted windows of the building Hector was brought to. Looking around, he figured that it must be some type of abandoned garage. But he knew that where they were didn’t ma
tter. What mattered was what this stranger was going to say to them.
“Speak now.” Damon snaps. “We don’t have all day.”
The man smiles and nods. Then he looks at Hector. “Serena’s ring, the Inverts want you to get it for them, right?”
Hector nods. “Yeah. On the 8th of May next year. Why?”
“Your parents were Charles Mound and Karina Avern, a Shadow Walker and Invert respectively. Serena was an Invert who believed in working with the Walkers. She held on to the belief that things that don’t willingly work together usually end up being the best combination.”
Hector squints his eyes. “What do you mean by that?”
The man shrugs. “Well think about it. Walkers and Inverts didn’t like each other. Serena believed that when two things aren’t allowed to work together or are opposed to each other, it’s because both of those things are strong willed enough to stay separated. In her eyes, only the weak things in this life would join forces without any objections. After all, when you’re weak, you want to become stronger so that you may survive. It doesn’t make sense for you to object against becoming stronger. But when two forces refuse to work together, they must already be strong enough in their own rites. And if they came together for some reason, the ultimate force would be created upon mixing what made those two things strong.”
“In other words,” Damon says, “Serena thought that if an Invert and a Walker had a child, the offspring would be stronger than the rest. The ultimate race, basically.”
Hector folds his arms tightly against his chest. Going from having zero friends to having everybody wanting to talk to you wasn’t the easiest thing to get used to. And he could only blame his Invert blood for that. “So what, my parents bred me to make some super race?”
The man nods his head. “Yes. They, like the King of Eros, believe that a hybrid race is the only thing that can open the door into Serena’s fortress. That is where her ring will lie. Your parents wanted Serena’s ring for the same reason as the King- to open a portal to the Void and murder their Queen.”
“Okay, but then why did they abandon me?” Hector asks. “Everything else sounds cool, but that part doesn’t click.”
The man shrugs. “A Void elite was chasing your parents and they didn’t want their child- the key to destroying the Void- to get harmed as well. They brought you to the Pit because they believed it was better guarded than Eros. And then your life played out until this very moment. Unfortunately, your parents were killed by the elite that was chasing them. You have met with him face to face a couple times already, so I’m sure you can take a wild guess as to who it is.”
Hector’s jaw drops in disbelief. There were only two Void that Hector has met on more than one occasion so far. And he knew that Damon wasn’t the person this man was talking about. Hector calmly says the name of the man who supposedly murdered his parents. “Valus.” He looks at Damon and knits his brow. “Valus killed my parents? Is that even possible? Valus can’t be any older than thirty.”
Damon shakes his head. “You’re right about the last part. Valus is only twenty-eight. However, you’re only seventeen. Valus would have been eleven when you were born. At that age, he had already been killing for three years.” Damon’s face scrunches up like he was just punched in the face. “I’m sorry my family is so screwed up. I know you probably hate me for being related to the two most dangerous Void alive, but I-”
“Shut up Damon.” Hector says rolling his eyes. “I could care less who your family is. It crosses my mind as often as thinking of what color my hair is. You aren’t your family- you’re Damon. The Void boy who I met at some stupid store.”
The two exchange smiles and leave the garage quiet until the mystery man coughs awkwardly. “I want to warn you now, Hector, to think about what you want out of things.”
Hector narrows his eyes. “What do you mean? Stop being ambiguous and just spit the message out.”
The man sighs. “You’re special. You are the key to destroying the Void. Because of that, people will want to use you. Manipulate you. The Inverts have held your friends hostage already and forced you to answer their call for help. The Council is suspicious of you and your relationship with the Inverts. In the end, both sides view you as more of a tool than a person. And the Council isn’t beyond stripping people’s power away if they start causing trouble.”
Hector groans and stretches his arms up high. “You’re being ambiguous again. What has the Council done that I should know about?”
The man smiles. “The Council once kept a war weapon locked up and used him as their last line of offense and defense when fighting the Void. Every Walker masters one class, right? Well this man mastered all four of them. He possessed twelve Chains total.”
Hector chuckles. “Yeah right. I think I would have learned about him in school.”
“But why would you!” The man shouts. “You see, the Council members at the time took that man’s power away by using Lydia’s Ring. The man, his name is Xavier Beros, broke no laws. He was just too powerful for the Council to handle. They stripped him of his powers and outcasted him after he started questioning their views. They completely used him. And now, they’re just going to use you. That is why I’m warning you, Hector. Not everyone wants to be your friend. So tell me, your teammates all have a goal. But when you’re helping out the two sides who have both neglected you until now, what goal will you be chasing?”
Hector shakes his head. “What do you mean?”
The man laughs again, but for some reason it’s long stopped creeping Hector out. “Nicholas wants to rescue his mother from the Void, but he hasn’t even learned the truth behind his family yet, or the horrors that are to come. Allison wishes to satisfy her father’s expectations and live up to her family name. Her goal is to protect her family's honor, even if it means dealing with her father’s abusive nature. Even your captain, Isaac, seeks out revenge from the man who stole something from him. But you Hector, what are you fighting for?”
Hector bites his tongue as he ponders the man’s words. But the question sits mostly in the back of his mind. He’s more curious how this man knew so much about his team, and why some random bum wanted to give him a life lesson.
“We should go, Hector.” Damon says as he grabs Hector’s arm. “This is starting to get a little too personal for my taste. Besides, we need to get to work immediately. This was a complete waste of time. What do you think?”
Hector looks at the man once more and exhales. There was definitely something intimidating about this man, creepy even, but part of Hector trusted him. But Damon was right- they needed to leave. “Thanks for having us, I’ll remember what we talked about here while I go on my mission. Let’s go Damon.”
Damon and Hector begin walking to the only exit, and the man stays quiet until they start opening the door. Even though what he says confuses Hector, he doesn’t dare to engage in the conversation for any longer.
“The Queen is your ultimate goal. But it’s her son- Valus- who will be the one you need to put up with until you reach the Void.” He said coldly. Then he said something that made Hector think of Allison. “And the Council can’t be relied on- especially not Marcus Marxon. That man has no type of morals or regrets. He’s in it all for himself.”
Hector didn’t quite understand what the man meant about Allison’s father, but it didn’t matter. Because as soon as he finished talking the door was closed tight, and Damon and Hector were back on the streets of Eros.
Chapter Eighteen
Hector
Hector clenches his fist as he and Damon make their way towards Zerik’s location. He couldn’t help but notice how beautiful the architecture of Eros was every time they passed a large building. Everything was so simple, yet it all managed to give the impression that the whole place was a piece of art come to life.
But despite the beauty around him, his mind kept going back to the conversation he just had with a complete stranger. At first he thought that he was tal
king to some crazy homeless man, but the stranger actually knew who Hector was. That meant that, no matter how crazy he seemed, there was more to him than meets the eye. Was his message to Hector to be taken seriously? Marcus Marxon wasn’t Hector’s favorite person, but was he really untrustworthy? He couldn’t imagine how a fellow Shadow Walker could possibly be his enemy. But in any case, he knew he’d be having a talk with Allison.
Damon’s voice pulls Hector out of his train of thought. “I just want to warn you now- if Brutus comes back for us, we’ll be screwed.”
Despite his friends obvious warning, Hector cracks a smile. “Too weak to beat him?”
“Not as weak as you. And you really should be nice to me. Right now I’m kind of your own personal bodyguard. But Brutus is too tough to take on with just the two of us, so if we meet him, run.” The two are silent for a few moments before Damon furthers their conversation. “How much farther until we reach Zerik?”
“He’s just around the corner. Seems like he’s by himself.”
The two of them promptly turn at the upcoming intersection, and Zerik stands alone in the middle of the street. Upon seeing them, the Invert prince slowly walks in their direction, his expression solemn. Hector checks him out for any sign of injury, but not a single scratch marks his body.
“There you are. I was worried sick about you Hector!”
“Thanks, I’m feeling great.” Damon grumbles loud enough for only Hector to hear. Hector suppresses a laugh and nudges Damon in the ribs.
“What happened on your end?” He asks.
Zerik sighs, obviously glad that the battle was over for now. “After a quick fight, he left in a hurry back to the Void. Not sure what happened, but he said he’d have to take a raincheck on our fight.” He pauses and lets a mischievous smile stretch across his face. “But thanks to him, I was able to figure out where the gate is here in Eros. Grab on and we’ll head there immediately.”
Shadow Walkers Page 17