Covenant of the Reborn

by T. E. Joshua

  “That’s none of your business.”

  “You’re talking as if you’re a different person—someone who seems fool hearted.”

  “I’m not the same as before.”

  “You have changed? You’re still a boy in my eyes. Besides, we are of the same flesh and blood. You can never leave behind your true nature to hunt down Reborns and take life at will. You can’t keep denying what you really are, Bodaway,”

  He paused and waited for me to say something. I looked down to ponder. “Think about it,” he continued. “You believe the church or even the Schultz family would accept a killer like yourself, a man with an unforgivable past? You’re a child of Lucian, the warrior who killed that small boy in Woodland, South Dakota?”

  “Shut up!” I yelled. My dema power flared, rising up to 10 percent. I felt my eyes shape-shift. How dare he mention the boy named Tristan! How dare him!

  “Oh, I see I have touched a sore spot. Does … Natalie know?”

  My silence answered his question.

  “I’ll take that as a no. Be honest with yourself. They won’t accept you, because you’re not one of them. They’re afraid of us and of you—as well they should be. You’re an animal with a killer instinct. You’re a Naiche warrior,” Lyonell snarled. He pressed on. “They are prey for the stronger beings. Doesn’t make a bit of difference—they will die one way or another. Their God can’t protect them all the time.”

  I thought about how he had recognized Natalie as the Awakened Reborn. He didn’t have a negative reaction to her presence like Alope or I did. I asked, “What gave you reason to suspect Natalie as the one?”

  He quickly answered, “Inca Manwolf, the chief medicine man, foretold that the Awakened Reborn of the Schultz family would easily be recognizable by the letters of K and W on her clothes, dirty blonde hair, and of course the different coloring of the eyes—not to mention the scent of their god, which all Awakened Reborns carry.” Inca Manwolf had mentioned the Omega symbol. That would explain the murders of Natalie’s KW sorority sisters. That diabolical bastard had murdered four innocent girls who looked like her.

  “Of course, the dark spirits want the other two sisters dead as well, but Natalie seems to be more of a threat to the Covenant. Listen, I don’t want to kill my little brother, but if I have to I will. Give us the Awakened Reborn and we can forget this dilemma ever happened. The Lakota clan can walk away free. Father and the Tribal Council don’t have to know what happened here, and everyone lives.”

  I made no reply. The small girl continued to cry.

  “We have been watching you for some time now,” Lyonell said.

  “Watching me?”

  “Let’s just say there are more of us than you know. For the past couple of weeks, while we were in South America, I had one of my spies follow you around. He reported back to me that he seen the number nine warriors befriend a Reborn, walking around town and even partaking in getting coffee with her.”

  Surely, if someone had been following me, I would have detected them by now. I would have sensed their dema.

  “I didn’t believe him at first, but when Natalie and I touched, a spark of lightning shocked me. That’s when I got suspicious of her. I figured you were trying to deceive the Reborn, lure her into your arms, and once she let her guard down you’d deliver a quick slice through her neck. Who would have thought the number nine warrior of the Covenant would actually defile our ancestors, his clan, and his father?

  “You should have known. All seven clans of the Covenant must have five warriors. You only saw four. He’s the fifth member. He has to prove himself to me, and this was his first test.”

  The lighter remained lit as the flame settled undisturbed within my black fleece sleeve. I wanted nothing more than to blow him away, burning his flesh till there was nothing left.

  “Bodaway, brother, be reasonable. Give her to us. You don’t have to kill her. I will. We both know she will die either way. You can’t stop me if I decide to take her.”

  “I—I—” I stuttered. I wanted to say yes. But in my heart, I couldn’t hand her over. Natalie Schultz was more than a friend. She was my exodus from this life of death—an escape. Through her, there was a way out. I needed her.

  “Let’s not let a girl get between us. We’re family. I practically raised you.”

  “That you did.” I pondered, trying to think of an alternative. The dark truth was present: there wasn’t one. I knew she would die. I couldn’t stop Lyonell if I tried. But I would try. I had to try. He wouldn’t take her!

  “Lyonell,” I said.

  “Is that a yes?”

  “No. My answer’s no. She is mine … to hunt … to behead … and even to protect if I decide.”

  “So you just throw your clan under the bus and decide to protect an Awakened Reborn?”

  “Say what you want. I’m finished.”

  “You’re a killer and always will be. You’re not the same as them. We are different.”

  “Are we?”

  Then I took two steps forward.

  “Careful!” Lyonell yelled, pulling the little girl in front of him as a shield. He was testing me to see if I still had it in me to take a life. Unfortunately, I did. I stopped and knew my next move. “Like you said brother, they don’t matter. They’re nothing but insects, made to be ruled by the Covenant.”

  He smiled and laughed again. “You’re a disappointment, Bodaway. If you want to live your life as a traitor then be my guest, but I promise you, by the end of the day, you’re going to wish that you had finished off that little—” Before he could conclude his words, I held out my hand and shot off a massive fire wave toward him. He quickly dodged it and ran off into the Blackfalls woods, holding onto the little girl.

  I stopped my flame; the fire dematerialized. I darted after Lyonell. His speed was vastly superior. Normally I wouldn’t be able to keep up with him; however, the little girl slowed him down. Her weight decreased his speed while he ran deeper into the Blackfalls woods.

  “Lyonell!” I yelled.

  A few seconds later, I came out of the woods and into oncoming traffic. My brother threw the girl in front of a speeding semi truck as he sped off into the Blackfalls woods again, this time completely vanishing from sight.

  I ran toward the little girl and grabbed her as the truck driver honked his horn and swerved, trying desperately to slow down. I rolled onto the side of the road with the little girl in my arms.

  The little girl cried. She had been frightened by the deathly grip of Lyonell and probably thought I was no different. I held her in my arms as she repeatedly yelled, “I want my mommy! I want my mommy!”

  “It’s okay,” I said softly. “Are you hurt?”

  “No, mister,” she muttered.

  “What is your name?”

  “So-So-Sophie.”

  The truck came to a complete stop. The driver immediately got out of his semi truck and ran over to us. He asked, “Is she okay?”

  “Yeah, she is fine,” I said, still holding her.

  “I swear I didn’t see her until the last couple of seconds. Somebody ran across the highway really fast—I mean, it was unbelievably fast,” the truck driver said in a panic.

  “Do you have a phone?”

  “Yeah, I have one in my truck.” He ran back to his truck to get the phone. I didn’t have time to deal with the child right now. I yelled back, “Call 911!”

  “Okay,” the truck driver said while he began to dial.

  “The child’s name is Sophie,” I yelled to him. He nodded to confirm that he’d heard me.

  Lyonell was on the prowl for Natalie Schultz and my clan. I had to stop him. I whispered in the little girl’s ear, “Sophie, everything is going to be all right. Stay here and wait for help.” I released her from my arms, and she stood before me in utter shock.

  “Mister … wait.”

  I paused before disappearing behind the trees.

  “What is your name?”

  “It’s—”
I stopped myself; I had nearly said “Bodaway.” “It’s Tristan,” I answered, smiling slightly.

  “God bless you, Tristan,” Sophie said.

  “Good-bye, Sophie.”

  Then I vanished behind the trees in search of Lyonell. I sensed him heading toward downtown Blackfalls, where the Lakota and Wolf clans were. Wait, I thought, they are supposed to be leaving town. Oh no! I sensed the rising of dark energies from both clans. That could only mean one thing: a battle was beginning.

  17

  The Blackfalls Massacre

  I HEARD SCREAMS—VIOLENT CRIES OF fury and pleas for help. There I was, standing before a town that had been left in chaos: buildings reduced to rubble, cars set on fire, dead bodies scattered from one end of the street to the next. It was an absolute disaster.

  What had I done? If I had only killed her when I’d had the chance, then these people wouldn’t have died in such a ghastly way. As a Naiche warrior, I shouldn’t care. But I did. I cared enough to feel their sorrows. I had to make it right by stopping Lyonell.

  Without warning, a hand reached out of a metal car door and tugged on my pant leg. It was bloody, and a jagged points of bones bulged from the skin. I knelt down and pushed the door open. There he was, a dying officer of the law. A piece of a rusted metal pipe had pierced his side. He didn’t have much time.

  “Officer,” I uttered, reaching down to pull the pipe from his side.

  “No,” he gasped.

  “But you’ll die.”

  “I’m already … dying.” Then he hardened his eyes as if he had seen me before. “You look like them the ones who killed everyone here.”

  “I’m not them, but I will stop them,” I said.

  Then his last expression crossed his face: he smiled. His head lowered down to his chest, eyes emptied of any sign of life.

  “Good. Good,” he struggled to say.

  “Officer?” I said, but he never looked at me again. He was dead.

  Then I saw a name: Jacob Conner. He had a picture of his family on the dashboard. A smear of blood ran across the photograph. I picked it up and saw his beautiful wife and two children, one boy and one girl. They looked happy. He would never again see their faces, leaving his children without a father.

  “He didn’t deserve this,” I muttered in anger. “None of them deserved to die this way!”

  I stood back and placed the photo on his lap. Looking around at the smoke and fire before me, I killed the flames and veered toward the dema energy ahead of me. Downtown was a path of destruction. Even Baker’s Bookstore had been destroyed. Hundreds of books lay scattered in the streets. Some books had been partially burnt to a crisp. This was the second place I had encountered Natalie a few weeks ago. How dare Lyonell! How dare him!

  “It’s time to end this,” I spat in hatred as a red aura of dark energy covered my body.

  At once, I raised my dema to a mere 30 percent. I was entering the second pillar of awakening, and I had planned to keep it that way, though I knew I might need to use more to keep up with Lyonell’s superior speed and strength. If I had to push my limits even further, so be it.

  The red aura erupted from my body as I yelled and darted deeper into downtown.

  Emerging from the cluster of brick buildings, I saw the university ahead of me. A dome of smoke from fallen debris covered the campus and the west end. I sensed them close by. My clan’s energy was low. Hopefully they were still alive. No, I couldn’t think like that. Maybe they were suppressing their dark energy low enough for the Wolf clan not to sense them. They could handle themselves against Falsha, Bors, and Sean, but not Lyonell. He was too strong of a warrior.

  As I walked upon the dome of smoke, I spotted more bodies, both dead and alive. A woman lay near a manhole in pain, screaming out for help to anyone who would answer her desperate cry. From the corner of her eye she saw me walking out of the mist. She yelled in fear, thinking I was one of those who had harmed her.

  “No! Stay away from me!” she hollered.

  I placed my finger over my mouth. “Shush! I’m not one of them. I’m not going to hurt you.”

  She glared back. “You’re not?”

  “No.”

  “Help me, son. They’re going to—” Then a blue beam of light explored from her body. I covered my eyes, and when I looked again, she was scattered in pieces along the concrete. Bone fragments were covered in blood and guts. Her brains began to cook like meat from the intense heat of the energy beam.

  “Lyonell!” I yelled, blaming him for all of the chaos.

  I raised my demon energy to 50 percent, entering the third pillar of awakening. My teeth began to erupt in pain and my skin began to boil. I rushed inside the dome of smoke and followed Lyonell’s dema.

  There he was, placing his foot down on another officer. The man appeared to have been nearly beaten to death, and one of his arms was broken.

  There I waited to attack him as I listened carefully nearby, hiding within the smoke.

  “Get off me!” the man cried.

  “Foolish Anglos, your guns are pathetic compared to our abilities. You Anglos are all the same with your no socialist mind-sets and your capitalistic world view. You care nothing for the red man, the true people of these lands, not then and not now. Our people were here first, the former masters of this great continent. The Naiche people will rise to power over your worthless western order.”

  “You will pay,” I heard the officer spit out.

  “I am Lyonell Lakota! I answer to no one!” He began to push his foot deeper into the officer, who yelled out in agony.

  “That’s it!” I exclaimed.

  At once, I charged after him, tackling my brother to the ground. We flew headfirst into an oak tree in the middle of the west end. Scattering dozens of fallen leaves as the branches and twigs fell on top of our heads. They were covered in black dust from the rubble.

  I swiftly recovered from the fall and lit my lighter to burn him to death. I had to end this quickly. I released a wave of flames. The orange fire burned a path between us. He dodged the wave of fire and reappeared to the side and began his attack. He punched my abdominal muscles and got in a few hits to the face, causing my mouth to bleed. I stepped back in a daze.

  Then Lyonell retrieved his sword. I did the same.

  “Can you wield that weapon like you used to when we were younger?” he asked. Even though I remained at the third pillar of awakening, I didn’t detect the rise in his dema. Was he purposely holding back?

  “You’re about to find out!” I raged and attacked him.

  I swung, clashing our blades together in an all-out assault. Every blow I made he matched. I swung at his neck, hoping I’d cut his head off. In the nick of time, he barely caught my sword with his own.

  “Wow, Bodaway. You’ve gotten faster—or are you using more of your dema power than you should? That’s dangerous. Don’t awaken, little brother,” he mocked me. “How many of your clan warriors are you willing to sacrifice to protect an Awakened Reborn?”

  “Quit talking and fight!” I yelled.

  “You know you can’t save her from me.”

  “That is up to me to decide. She’s mine to kill or protect. Only mine,” I yelled in anger. He was pushing me to want to kill him even more. The thought consumed me.

  “Then I guess I have to up the stakes a bit,” he said darkly and suddenly raised his dema. He entered the second pillar of awakening and shoved me back. I fell against a statue near the Manchester Library, ripped my fleece and a cutting my shoulder. I could feel my skin getting even hotter, burning with intensity. I didn’t want use my dema for too long, lest I awakened.

  “I am going to enjoy scalping her pretty head.”

  I gazed up at him. His eyes had shifted to yellow with the snakelike slits for the pupils. His teeth sharpened and his skin burned. He almost didn’t look human, more like the demon within. He had entered the third pillar.

  “I haven’t used this much power since our encounter with the ki
ng of the witches.”

  “You won’t lay a hand on her,” I refuted, getting to my feet. I lowered my sword and lit a fire from the lighter. I dared not use an energy wave against him. He would simply manipulate the light to do his own will.

  Then a burst of fire emerged from my palm. The wall of fire swallowed Lyonell, who shielded himself by summoning up a wall of dark energy to block the intense heat from burning him alive.

  I increased the speed and depth of the fire as I took small steps toward him. He was completely protected by an energy shield.

  “It’s useless against me. The only way you can beat me is by brute force, and we both know that you’re not stronger than me,” Lyonell said as the fire continued to descend upon him.

  “You’re right, brother.” Then I used the fire to push Lyonell back, deeper into the cloud of smoke. His body rolled, masking my presence as I vowed to look for Natalie and the others.

  Then I sensed them—or at least Liyah. She was behind me.

  James, Aaron, and Alope were near. They had raised their power, but to what degree, I didn’t know. They must be fighting Bors and Falsha. I didn’t sense Sean Winddick.

  My wall of fire had subsided as I sped away. I only had a few seconds to lose him. I veered back toward the Manchester Library and leapt over the fallen debris. “Liyah! Natalie!” I hollered after smashing the front doors open. There was a crowd of students encamped in the corner of a hallway, hiding behind a broken desk. They began to run—frightened of me because I did resemble the ones who had killed their peers. But I had no time to worry about them.

  “Natalie!” I hollered.

  Nothing, no one else was present. No one responded.

  “No … no …” I repeated warily. “Where is she?”

  Then I turned back around, and my brother was gone, as well as the energy shield. I walked back outside, standing in front of the library, pondering my next assault. My brother smiled hideously and then became unsettled. He looked to his left. His smile died as another warrior emerged from the dust surrounding us. It was the spy of the Wolf clan; the one Lyonell had spoken about. He was weak, weaker than Alope and Sean—a third-class warrior. He was quite unpleasant looking and dressed like a bum.