Thirteen Forgotten Worlds (Seam Wardens Book 1)

by Brant Williams

  “But of course, mademoiselle,” Olmus said with a passable French accent and a wink at Alexa. He started walking through the maze of doors.

  Alexa covered her face with her hands. “Kill me, now.”

  “Oh, you cannot mean that,” I said with my own horrific French accent and offered her my arm. I sounded like a bad version of that talking candlestick from Beauty and the Beast. “We are going to the city of love.”

  Alexa laughed and took my arm. “Don’t encourage him,” she said. “It only makes it worse.”

  “I heard that,” said Olmus.

  The Sasquatch led us through the maze of doors to one that was wooden, red, and had a rounded top.

  “This is it,” he said. “Make sure you both touch the door knob before leaving so that either of you can open the door on the other side to get back.”

  Alexa saw the look of confusion on my face. "The doors only open to the palm print of those registered to it. By putting your hand on the knob, you essentially register that you are leaving and that you have permission to open the door from the other side."

  “It prevents blanks from accidentally wandering into our headquarters,” said Olmus. “Which used to happen more often than you would think.”

  Alexa and I each took a turn placing our hand on the door knob. It glowed slightly at our touch, and we heard a mechanical click. I turned the knob, and the door opened into a daylight lit alley. The street was narrow and made of cobblestones. We walked out of the alley and into the sunshine.

  It was a beautiful, sunny day. I looked around at my first view of Paris and felt an immense sense of age all around me. The buildings were much more ornate than those I was used to seeing in California. I had been to other countries before, but this was my first time in France.

  Alexa smiled and took in the view around us. I could see a visible change come over her. She seemed more relaxed and at peace than I had seen her since cadet training had started. Clearly, she loved it here.

  “What do you think?” she asked.

  “It’s beautiful,” I said. And I meant it.

  Alexis walked us to the entrance of the Paris underground subway. I was impressed that she knew how to navigate it so well. We bought tickets and headed out for our first stop at the Louvre.

  We spent the next several hours walking through and looking at pieces of art that before now I had only ever seen pictures of – the Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo, the statue of Nike, and many others. It was incredible to see them in person. Strangely, the Mona Lisa was much smaller than I had thought it would be. I had envisioned it as this massive painting that was larger than life, but in reality, it was not that big.

  After the Louvre, we went to the Eiffel Tower and took the elevator as high as we could and looked out over Paris. It was a spectacular view. Since the day was clear, we could see for miles in all directions.

  After the Eiffel Tower, we took in the Arc de Triomphe and Notre Dame Cathedral. They were both almost overwhelming to see in person. When I thought about the history behind each of them and all the events that had happened in Paris, it was a lot to take in – especially since we had traveled through so many big landmarks in a single day.

  We rode the subway as much as we could, but we still had to do a lot of walking. Fortunately, with our enhancers, we could go at a fast walk – even uphill – almost indefinitely without getting tired.

  By the time we had finished at Notre Dame, it was getting late, and we would need to go back to the Seam Warden headquarters soon. But instead of heading back, we stopped on a beautiful stone bridge and watched the Seine River flow through the city.

  Neither of us said anything for a while and simply stood there enjoying a moment of calm in what had been a fantastic, but very busy day.

  “I love this place,” Alexa finally said.

  "It's beautiful," I said. "But why Paris over other cities?"

  Alexa blushed. “I just do,” she said.

  I could tell there was more to the story than that. “You don’t get off that easily,” I said. “Come on. Spill.” I smiled at her, but that just made her flush an even deeper shade of red.

  You have to love the involuntary physical reactions of redheads. It makes it so much easier to tell when they are embarrassed and therefore keeping something back.

  I waited and looked at her patiently until she gave in.

  "Fine," she said, a note of resignation in her voice. "But if this gets uncomfortable, you can't blame me. You're the one who asked for this."

  Uncomfortable? What on earth was she talking about? What could possibly be a reason for liking Paris that would make me uncomfortable?

  “I came to Paris for the first time shortly after you left to go live with your uncle,” she said. She turned away from me and looked out over the city. “My parents took me because I was so upset that my best friend had left me and they hoped it would cheer me up. I missed you so much that all I could do was think about how much fun we would have had here together. I even went so far as to imagine your reaction to each of the places we went. Somehow my imagining you with me got tied up with my actual feelings for the city, and every time I came here since that first time I’ve thought about you and what it would be like if we ever came here together.”

  “So, you like Paris because you’ve always imagined the two of us coming here together?”

  Alexa turned her back to me. “I told you it would make you feel uncomfortable.”

  “Uncomfortable?” I said. “Hardly.” I reached out and took her hand and turned her around to face me. “Quite the opposite. You totally made my day.”

  Her expression showed genuine shock.

  “You aren’t the only one who has those feelings,” I said. “Yes, I forgot you for eight years, but looking back, I don’t think I ever really did. My one serious girlfriend looked way too much like you to be a coincidence. Now that I have my memory back, I realize that I was attracted to her because she reminded me of you on a subconscious level.”

  “Oh.” Alexa looked down at our hands still linked together. I could feel the softness of her skin and the warmth of her hand in mine. I was probably sweating like a pig, but Alexa didn’t seem anxious to pull her hand away.

  We stood there awkwardly for a moment while a group of German tourists walked past us arguing loudly and talking animatedly. For a brief moment, I thought I smelled peppermint. Were they all eating mints or was this some strange German cologne I was unaware of?

  We waited for them to go past, but before they had gotten far enough away that I felt comfortable resuming my conversation with Alexa, two of them got into an actual fistfight and began punching each other. Their companions seemed to be excited to watch and cheered them on.

  Peppermint. Fighting. That sounded familiar to me. Hadn’t we learned something about a creature that had a lingering smell of peppermint?

  I looked at Alexa, and she seemed to be on alert as well.

  “Do you hear a buzzing sound?” she asked.

  I stopped for a moment and realized that I did. It was too faint for me to have noticed before it was pointed out, but once she did, I could recognize it.

  I nodded.

  “Tanincore?” she asked.

  Tanincores were creatures that fed off of strong emotions – particularly violent ones. They were nasty predators that had a taste for adult, male humans. They used their emotional manipulation to generate anger, and once their prey was full enough of tasty hormones, they would attack. Their tongue was hollow and had sharp points on the end. They used the tongue like a needle to inject a liquefying venom that dissolved the victim’s internal organs. Then, they used it as a straw to suck out the insides and leave the outer husk behind.

  It was a very painful way to die.

  “It all fits,” I said. “Fighting, the smell of peppermint, the buzzing.”

  It was only recently that the Seam Wardens had figured out what the buzzing was. Tanincores were completely blind, and they used a type o
f sonar, like bats do, to identify the objects around them. The frequency of the sound they emit isn't one that we can hear with our ears, but it does register as a buzzing in our heads.

  We began scanning the area to see where it could be. Their field of influence wasn't large – maybe a couple of hundred feet at best – so it had to be close by.

  I noticed a dark creature lurking in a nearby doorway. I motioned to Alexa and pointed. There it was, crouched down in the shadows intently observing the fighting men.

  Alexa pulled out her Boom Sticks from a transdimensional pocket in her boots and rushed toward the Tanincore.

  I pulled out my Boom Sticks and followed closely behind.

  The Tanincore felt us approach and fled from the shadows down the cobblestone street. It was roughly the size of an adult human and humanoid in shape, but it had four arms and a head that somewhat resembled a pig's except that it had no eyes and large pointed ears. Its skin was gray and baggy, seeming to sag off its bones. It looked like a bloated corpse that had been left in the water for weeks.

  But the thing was fast.

  We ran behind the Tanincore trying to keep up and find a way to stop it. I was using three of my enhancers to keep up with it, so Alexa must be doing the same. It would have outrun any Seam Warden with fewer enhancers. I thought about using my Boom Sticks, but the creature kept weaving in and out of people, so I never got a clear shot.

  The Tanincore seemed to be headed roughly north, into a more crowded part of the city. If it got lost in a crowd, we would probably never find it.

  I increased my speed to five enhancers. This was the most I had ever done in a real test over a long period of time. The scenery around turned into a blur as I increased my speed. I wove in and out of buildings, roads, people, doing my best to pass the Tanincore.

  We approached a squat, wide building and instead of following the Tanincore around it, I took a chance and diverted several enhancers to my strength and leaped to the top of the building, ran over the roof, and jumped back down to the ground. I arrived several seconds before the Tanincore, my Boom Sticks at the ready.

  I fired off three powerful blasts in rapid fire succession. The first one missed, but the second and third hit it in the chest and shoulder, knocking it backward and into a wall.

  The Tanincore screeched loudly – I felt a painful vibration throughout my entire body – and charged directly at me. I got off another shot with my Boom Stick, but the creature dodged it and tackled me to the ground.

  The fall to the ground knocked the wind out of me, and I had a hard time diverting more enhancers to strength. The Tanincore sat on top of me and opened its piggy jaws wide. A huge tongue slithered out of its mouth. It was just as I had seen in the pictures – a wide tube with sharp edges used for drilling into flesh.

  The tongue shot toward my chest, but I grabbed it and squeezed. My main goal was to keep it from puncturing my skin and injecting deadly digestive juices into me. I wasn't sure how well my enhancers could handle that.

  I eventually recovered from my fall and was able to divert more enhancers to my strength. I tightened my grip and felt the Tanincore’s tongue compress in my fingers. I squeezed as hard as I could.

  With a loud bang, the Tanincore was thrown off of me and flew twenty feet smashing into the side of another building. I still held a three-foot section of its tongue gripped in my hands with one end ragged and bleeding.

  I looked up and saw Alexa with her Boom Sticks at the ready. She had shot the thing from behind, and the combination of its momentum and my grip strength had resulted in ripping the tongue out of the Tanincore’s mouth.

  Alexa ran to the Tanincore where it struggled feebly, blood pouring out of its mouth. The hideous monster made a gurgling noise and, unbelievably, started to rise.

  Alexa made three quick, tightly-focused blasts with her Boom Sticks, and the back of the creature's head exploded, black fluid painting the wall behind it.

  The Tanincore twitched for a moment and then fell still.

  I diverted my enhancers to healing – something I probably should have done while struggling against the Tanincore – and felt better almost instantly. I jumped to my feet and joined Alexa where she was staring down at the dead creature.

  “I somehow still feel bad even when I know the only other choice was for us to die,” she said.

  I held up the Tanincore’s tongue and showed her the sharp end with the serrated edges. “Well, if it makes you feel any better, the thing was trying to stick this into my abdomen and liquefy my organs. So, for what it’s worth, I’m glad you picked me over the Tanincore.”

  Alexa wrinkled her nose. “You know you can let that go now, right?”

  I shrugged. “It's kind of fascinating, really.”

  Alexa shook her head. “Fine, do what you want, but I want to make it very clear that I’m not holding your hand again until you’ve found some antibacterial soap.”

  I quickly found out it's really hard to resume a romantic moment after chasing down and killing an organ-liquefying monster. Our moment had passed, and we both decided to call it a day. We headed back to the Seam Wardens' headquarters with a stop past a bathroom where I could wash off the "monster tongue cooties" as Alexa called them. For a girl as tough and capable as she is, she sure was squeamish about monster fluids.

  With my skin now clean, we walked down the streets of Paris holding hands. We took the subway and found our way back to the door we had come through. We paused outside for a moment, and I thought Alexa wanted me to kiss her, but before I could quite work up the nerve, she turned away and opened the door back into headquarters.

  I had expected Alexa to drop my hand once we entered Headquarters, but she continued to hold it as we walked down the halls. She only let go when we reached the place where the boys and girls barracks separated.

  “Well, thanks for going with me,” she said. She had turned to face me and was standing very close. She looked at me expectantly.

  I was anything but a ladies' man, but I could read this non-verbal communication clearly enough. I leaned in to kiss her, and… she turned her head and gave me the cheek.

  Seriously?

  I pulled back in surprise, and she laughed. When I started to ask her why she had done that, she grabbed my head in her hands and kissed me.

  I quickly shut up.

  One kiss turned into three, and then ten, and at some point, they all blended together into one long kiss. I wasn't quite sure when that happened as most of my higher brain functions had turned off at that point and all I could think about was the sensation of her soft lips on mine and how good it felt.

  When the kiss finally ended, I pulled back and couldn’t speak for a moment. Alexa gave me a wicked grin and patted my cheek before turning around and walking into the girls’ barracks.

  I didn’t move at first while my brain tried to restore rational thought. I had just been denied a kiss, then seriously kissed, and then left.

  What was all that supposed to mean?

  Girls were really confusing.

  I walked into the boys' barracks and saw that Kevin was watching TV with Gabriel. Watching was not really the word I would use. He was flipping through the channels so fast, I couldn't figure out what was on the channel before he had already gone to the next one.

  I sat down on a couch and allowed myself a moment of relaxation.

  “How was your date with Alexa?” Gabriel asked with a sly smile.

  "It wasn't a date," I said, but I said it mostly out of reflex. It was clearly a complete lie, and all the cadets knew that. Our trip to Paris had totally been a date, and it even ended with a kiss – as odd as the circumstances behind it were.

  “Sure,” said Kevin. “We totally buy that. Just you and Alexa headed off to Paris for a day by yourselves.” He continued to flip through the channels. “Did you at least get some action?”

  “Sure,” I said. “There was plenty of action.”

  Kevin pulled his eyes from the TV and lo
oked over at me. “Seriously?”

  “Yeah,” I said. “We fought and killed a Tanincore. I ripped its tongue out of its mouth, and Alexa took it down with her Boom Sticks."

  “Not the kind of action I meant,” said Kevin and he turned his attention back to the TV.

  Of course, I knew that, but I wasn't going to tell a guy like Kevin anything about what happened with Alexa. He would just turn it into something dirty.

  The television stopped on a picture of Brooklyn Stone walking into a large building with huge, arched double doors. Above the doors, stone letters read "Meadowherst Clinic.”

  I only somewhat paid attention to the reporter telling us that Brooklyn Stone had checked herself into the Meadowherst Clinic for symptoms of fatigue and exhaustion. Which we all knew was PR speak for a celebrity going into rehab.

  Given the way she had been behaving lately, a stint in rehab was hardly shocking news. But what was shocking was what I saw in the picture – which claimed to have been taken early this morning.

  The tattoo on her right forearm was gone. Instead, she had a similar looking fractal pattern tattoo around her left calf.

  I then realized what I was looking at. Brooklyn – Amy – hadn’t developed a drug problem and gotten a tattoo.

  She had been given an enhancer.

  13

  I Go To Rehab

  The next day, I met Alexa for breakfast. We sat together at a small table in a remote corner. Unlike the last time we had tried to eat together, the rest of the Cadets got the hint this time and left us alone.

  Did that make us an official item?

  “I have a problem,” I said.

  Alexa looked up from spearing a piece of sausage on her fork. She raised an eyebrow. “What kind of problem?”

  “I just found out that a normal has been given an enhancer. What should I do?”

  Her eyes widened, and she set her fork down. "An enhancer? Are you sure?"

  “I’m pretty sure.”

  “Who is it?”

  “Remember me telling you about my one serious girlfriend who reminded me of you?”