Hunter Hunted (The Eternals Book 2)

by Richard M. Ankers

  * * *

  Alba had believed she'd be safe within the auspices of the Rhineland. That was how she and I first met. She fled the evil that was her family to what she hoped would be a better life. Instead, she found me, and fell in love. A cruel circle of events that ultimately led to her death.

  I hadn't really believed her tales of Hispanic life until Raphael happened upon our doorstep one day and demanded her return. He claimed it his parents' wishes, but Alba knew better. Raphael was, and always had been, infatuated with his sister, sickeningly so, and still was. My refusal to agree to his demands had not gone down well with either he, my neighbours, the ruination of several gardens, nor with several fellows who'd aided me in his departure. A most unhappy experience for all involved parties.

  The fact he treated me so well the second time around was beyond suspicious. As my erstwhile brother-in-law had suggested, to an Eternal, it had all happened in less than the blinking of an eye.

  * * *

  “Take a seat.” Raphael waved his hand in the general direction of an enormous, wooden table laden from head to toe with food, real food! A motley assortment of about thirty male and female Hispanics sat around the thing in absolute silence at my entrance.

  “Evening,” I offered in a way to break the ice. One particularly swarthy character, who if I wasn't very much mistaken had a tan, but that was surely an impossibility, looked me up and down and then burst into hysterics. A chain reaction of raucous laughter soon echoed around the grand dining room until silenced by another dismissive wave of their master's hand.

  “This, mi amigos, is the one I have told you about.”

  For some unknown reason, I felt the need to nod to the host of Hispanics at Raphael's introduction. I soon wished I hadn't.

  “He is, or was, the best blackmailer, most underhanded operator, and, of course, fighter, I have ever met. He is also my sister's keeper.”

  “Husband,” I corrected.

  “Whatever,” he added, as Sunyin stumbled into the room and straight into my arms.

  I pulled a spare chair from between two mean looking fellows and helped Sunyin into it. The two busty females left him to my care and took up a seat either side of where Raphael stood at the head of the table.

  I ignored the looks the assemblage cast, for Sunyin shook again so violently that his chair's legs rattled against the tiled floor.

  “He doesn't look too good, Jean. I'd suggest an apple, or perhaps a chicken leg, or even a glass of beer,” Raphael beamed.

  “Like all Eternals,” I said, not wanting to give his true form away, “Sunyin does not need to eat.”

  “What a strange thing to say, are we not eating?”

  “Well, no,” I answered honestly.

  “Show the man we Hispanics can feast as well as anybody ever has,” he instructed. As one, the assembly tucked into the piles of food.

  I watched as fang split meat, sucked juice from what I knew from history to be varied fruits, drank liquid of brown, not red. It should not have been, could not have been, but was. These societal cast-offs were eating because they could, not just for show. And throughout all the tearing, ripping, and chewing, not for an instant did Raphael take his brown eyes off of me. He observed, predatory.

  I did not have the same luxury with poor Sunyin. The blind monk trembled so wildly that even with both hands applying pressure to his shoulders, I could not stop him. The mists that were his eyes seemed to roil like a sea fret, his head lolling back against my abdomen. I removed a hand to reach for a glass of liquid, but the moment I did Sunyin rattled himself off of his chair. I followed him onto my knees, but in truth knew not what to do. So, I did something which in the past I would never have done in front of those I mistrusted: I showed compassion.

  “Sunyin,” I whispered. “Sunyin, what is wrong? You must tell me. How can I help you if I do not understand what is happening?”

  That drew jeers from the crowd, but I did not care. Sunyin was the kindest man I had ever met, and I should have taken his place in a heartbeat if I'd had one to do so. But I did not, and could not.

  “Is there something the matter with your man?” Raphael called over.

  “Nothing I can't handle.”

  “Are you sure? That doesn't look the case, amigo.”

  “Quite sure,” I retorted, taking Sunyin's shuddering hand in my own. “Pray tell me, old friend, what can I do?”

  “Je…”

  “What, what is it, Sunyin?”

  “Je…”

  “Please, help me to help you?” I begged, as his legs thrashed against the floor.

  “Jean,” he managed.

  I offered my ear to his laboured speech.

  “It…is…fate…” Then the thrashing stopped. Sunyin was dead. Not dead, as an Eternal terms the word, but gone forever.

  No sooner had I thought the words than the monk's body crumbled before my eyes. It was like centuries forced into seconds. The ravages of death stripped lairs from him at a pace accelerated beyond all reason. Sunyin's skin peeled away, then turned to dust like ash on the wind; his bones crumbled to chalk until all that remained was the robes he had worn and the shirt I had gifted him. It was not how things should have happened. It was all so wrong. Humans should not have decayed that way; I was sure of it. More important still, it was too inglorious a way for so great a man to pass from the world.

  I couldn't help the tear that fell from my eye. The thing landed with a splat and merged as paste with all that remained of the one who'd been Sunyin.

  “Do you weep, Jean? Does the fearless slayer cry? Does he who is supposed to offer strength to my sister, show only weakness? Tut-tut, amigo, you are not the man I thought you to be.”

  “I'm sorry to disappoint you,” I said getting to my feet.

  “No need to apologise on my account,” he chuckled. A few of his cronies felt able to do the same.

  “Oh, I am not apologising to you, Raphael, not at all. I am in fact apologising to the man who has just left us. I'm apologising to his soul as it leaves for grander pastures. You see, I know he had one, the best one, and I feel only pity that it passed on under the watchful glare of scum like you.”

  I didn't even bother to wipe the liquid from my eyes. I did not care who saw it. I did not care what they thought. For none of them could have lighted a candle to the man I'd known as my friend. My only friend.

  “How wrong you are! How wrong you've always been! How misguided! How foolish! How played! You see, Jean,” Raphael ranted, “we are as much men as your…whatever-he-was, was to you. In fact, now we are more so. We eat what we want. We drink what we want. And, when we can stand in the light of day, we shall be all that humanity ever was, yet still Eternal. Do you understand, amigo? Do you?”

  Raphael bristled with spite. He all but shook with anger. However, that did not change the fact he remained there, a table's distance between us. In that moment, in that instance of clarity, he confirmed my suspicions: Raphael still feared me. For all his posturing, all his pretence of superiority; for all his attempts to portray himself and his followers as human, they were not and neither were they like me. The advantage was mine.

  My calm unnerved Raphael. The Hispanic twitched, his eyes would not meet my own; they betrayed him. His own misgivings transferred to his followers. The whole thing was self-perpetuating, a circle of cowardice. I decided it time to strike, whilst still I could.

  I would have too, if not for the jiggling, corpulent entrance of the Marquis de Rhineland followed in chains by the misty-eyed, wastrel figure of Sunyin?

  The Marquis said nothing, he did not have to. A tug of steel, and a wail of pain from the man wrapped in chains had me beaten. What's more, he knew it.

  “Ahhhh! Jean, Jean, Jean, will you ever learn? How long will you remain blinkered? How long before you begin to see the bigger picture? Raphael, myself and… others, have been so busy whilst you waltzed your way into eternity.”

  “Really, Marquis. Well, I hope it's soon, for you
r sake.”

  “Ever defiant, ever in the dark, but not for much longer, methinks.”

  “Oh, God, you're not going to regale me with your master plan, are you? Are you so stereotypical, my robust friend? Are these the lengths you must stoop to for pleasure? I can see from the eyes of our female companions that you do not get it from elsewhere.” I cast a cursory look to those sat around the dining table. It had the desired effect. Two giggling tarts fell silent at my glowering.

  “Look about you,” said the Marquis, surprisingly undeterred by my refusal to submit. “You now look upon an apex predator, perfection in progress. These men, and women,” he added with a smile to one of the busty beauties, “are more than you could ever dream to be, dear boy.”

  “If that is true, then why am I not dead, eh? Why go to all this trouble to get to me? Why?” I bellowed, smashing my fist against the wooden tabletop sending plates and food flying.

  “I have no idea what you're talking about, Jean. As per usual, you have blundered into somewhere that you are not wanted. Actually, that is a bit of a lie, as poor Raphael here has wanted you in physical nearness for quite some time.”

  “Two of you that way inclined, in one room, at the same time, who would have thought it.”

  “Joke all you want, Jean, but now that we have you, although earlier than planned, you shall aid us in claiming the one thing we need.”

  “You need,” Raphael corrected.

  “And by default, all of us.”

  “If you say so.”

  “I do, Raphael Santini, soon to be Lord of all the world.”

  “I beg your pardon, boys, but exactly where in your schemes do I fit in if it's not for butchery?”

  “Why, to draw out Linka, of course. Her solar resistance will be the last piece in the puzzle of Eternal evolution. That day will come sooner still, thanks to you.”

  My talons had scratched a set of three-inch grooves into the tabletop before I could control my anger. The Marquis believed himself so wise, yet knew so little. What disturbed even more was the fact Merryweather appeared to have done only as I'd asked of him. He had indeed brought me to the Marquis as requested, and not at the behest of either of my two antagonists. However, I had no intentions of sharing my thoughts with them.

  “Now, now, now, what to do about Linka?” the Marquis continued his monologue.

  “We have, Jean,” Raphael snarled, turning on his compatriot. “Alba first, as you promised.”

  “I have not forgotten my promise to you, Lord Santini,” the Marquis replied with a difficult bow. “I would not have gone to all the lengths I have, otherwise.”

  Raphael gave the Marquis a long hard stare but turned his attention to eating a slab of meat, instead.

  “I presume the man who has passed away was another of your genetic duplicates?” I sought to stall for time, though I knew not what I had to gain from it. There was no way out of my situation. Even if the absent Aurora should have materialised like a ghost, I doubted the two of us able to subdue all of Raphael's horde.

  “Congratulations!” the Marquis roared and started to laugh.

  I looked away, not because of his condescending attitude, but due to the rolls of blubber that rippled below his many chins. The man disgusted me.

  “For once in your life you are correct. That abomination was my only duplicate of this sorry specimen, the original Sunyin, unfortunately for me. But I'm glad he pried you away from the Nordics in time.”

  “In time for what?” I replied giving no indication that, in fact, he hadn't.

  “Before he disseminated, of course. They all do sooner or later. I've told them many a time to eat, take on water, but they don't, so what do they expect.”

  “Not much of a father to them, are you? Not much of anything, really. I rather think the reason they don't eat is that you've already scoffed it all.”

  “Think you're very clever, don't you?”

  “Not really, but cleverer than you,” I taunted.

  “Cleverer than me!” the Marquis boomed and tugged on Sunyin's chains to procure a whimper of pain. “Could you have mastered the sciences of humanity: no! Could you have developed a blood so fine that the Hierarchy would destroy kingdoms for it: no! Would you have had the foresight to see a future where all that was would be rendered pointless: no! All they have done is clear the table for Raphael,” the Hispanic grinned on queue, “to take over the planet. Could you, Jean? You are a little man in a big man's world, that is all. You are a crow with clipped wings.”

  The Marquis frothed at the mouth such was the venom in his words. He was loving his moment in the spotlight.

  “You are a one-time, petty, blackmailing thug who did only what his parents wished him to. You are a deserter of wives and murderer of women, which you couldn't even do right, as well as a general bore. That's what you are. Whereas I shall be Chamberlain to the Earth.”

  The Marquis tried to look triumphant, but only achieved in looking fatter than ever.

  “Cat got your tongue, boy?”

  “That was a lot to take in. Seems like you've got it all accounted for.” I scratched my head and faked an abject expression. “Then again,” I said.

  “Then again, what?” the Marquis interjected.

  “Well, the way I see it, is this: Raphael, and your good self, still cannot go out in the sun; there is now a power in Europa that is greater in anger than ever there was before; Linka is not in your possession, and I'm still very much alive and kicking. Call me old-fashioned, but isn't that abject failure?”

  “B…”

  “One more thing, Marquis, before you spit your dummy out. Don't ever talk of my parents again. Anything I did for them was for the greater good of us all. If they'd been listened to, we wouldn't be in half the mess we are. Only an idiot would say differently.”

  “Really.”

  “Really,” I replied, and cast him such a vehement scowl it should have cut through stone.

  Raphael was the one to break the impasse by throwing a bone from his food at Sunyin, then giving the Marquis a big, thumping pat on his broad back.

  “Good for you, Vincent, you stood your ground. I'm really very proud of you, and all you've done. But, at the want of sounding pushy, amigo, I am getting impatient to see my hermana. So wrap up your little toy,” he indicated to the bedraggled Sunyin, “I'll see to mine,” he indicated to me, “and we'll be off. Entender?”

  “You what?” I spat.

  “Understand,” he said. “Obviously, you don't, but the Marquis does, so I declare him the winner on points. Now,” he said addressing his flock. “Tie that bastardo up. Oh, and make it hurt.”

  I didn't resist. What would have been the point? But never for a second through all the spitting, cursing, taunting and beating, did I take my eyes of the Marquis and his prize. He would not evade me again and I wanted him to know it.

  Chapter Ten

  -

  Tan

  My reflection receded into the dark depths of the Marquis' frog-like eyes. The fact several Hispanics towed me across a hard, tiled floor had no bearing on anything. He'd got the message; the clinking chains around Sunyin's weak frame confirmed that much. However, I endeavoured to press the point.

  “Sunyin. Sunyin, it is I, Jean. Do not worry, he dare not harm you. After all, his corpulent life depends on it.” It was mostly bluster, and Sunyin heard not a word of it, but the Marquis did and that was its purpose.

  One of Raphael's men kicked out, an impolite be quiet. I did not care; their pathetic chuckles drove home my words. It was not me they joked about.

  The mob dragged me into the next room and deposited me in unceremonious fashion against the far wall. If Sunyin noticed, he did not show it. The old monk couldn't lift his head, he was so weak, a ghost of the man I remembered.

  “Un momento.” Raphael commanded his men to stop and came running after us. “I forgot to give Jean this.”

  He booted me full in the face, the bottled venom of several centuries co
mpressed into one swift kick. The last laugh was mine though, I felt nothing. I was already dead.

  I stirred to the musty smell of damp. Raphael had had me deposited in a chamber that possessed the home comforts of a badger: soil floor and excrement. Charming! It appeared I was in yet another cell, in yet another fool's residence. But wakefulness prompted memory and the image of a trembling Sunyin was foremost in my mind.

  “Su…” I attempted to hail my friend but was silenced by excruciating pain. It took a moment to reset my dislocated jaw, not an easy task when bound, resolved by a swift explosion of face to wall. I then tried again. “Sunyin,” I hissed into the darkness. “Are you there?” There was no reply. The cold silence of my personal tomb swallowed my voice. “Sunyin!” I said again, but louder. But the man I called for had disintegrated before my eyes and his real father would not be far from the Marquis. Poor Sunyin, even his copied self was a better man than any Eternal. I could not imagine the fear he must have felt on finding himself flying through the Arctic wilderness whilst searching for something formed from the shadow of his real self's faith. However, being bred to hunt down a specific quarry was something I related to.

  I think I must have slipped the coils of lucidity then, for the next moment, my mind had travelled back in time to the once glorious New Washington.

  * * *

  I would never forget the day we stood before our new home, Alba looking radiant, as always, me in my usual black. Seeing her head slump to her chest in resignation, chestnut hair falling from the bun she'd placed it in to cover her eyes, hurt me.

  “What is it, my love?” I'd said. “Does this not please you?”

  “You know he will come for me now I'm revealed.”

  “You'd be noticed if covered by a sack and I at the other side of the world, your beauty shines so brightly.”

  “I'm being serious, Jean. Raphael will find me.”

  “Let him try.”