Pulse of Heroes

by A. Jacob Sweeny

  Great, Michelle thought to herself. Now she was locked in a killer’s bedroom.

  “What does he want from Elliot anyway?” Michelle yelled angrily.

  “I don’t know. He told me that after this he would never do anything bad ever again. He said that he was going to fix everything.”

  Michelle couldn’t believe what she was hearing, “What do you mean bad? Is he going to hurt Elliot? Even if he gives him the tablet?” Michelle’s voice was shaking.

  “What tablet?” Vilna asked, sighing. “This has something to do with some woman,” Vilna explained.

  “What makes your brother so sure that Elliot will come for me anyway? I haven’t seen him in almost a month.” Michelle thought about kissing Haden in front of Rion. Surely Rion had told him about that by now. There was no way that Elliot would stand for the way she had acted. “I don’t think he’s coming, Vilna,” she said sadly. “He has no reason to. Not now.” Michelle’s voice cracked.

  Vilna understood that her brother had seduced Michelle. He had tons of other women around; why Michelle too?

  “My brother is a pig, and you know his type. They have special power over people. Elliot is the same as him. He will understand that it’s not your fault.”

  Michelle heard a sound approaching from further down the hallway. “I have to go. Hadeno’s back.” Michelle heard Vilna’s footsteps scurrying across the living room and dreaded facing Haden again.

  “Well hello there, princess of the tower,” Haden said to Michelle who was back in bed reading one of his art magazines.

  “Why did you lock me in here like this? I was very scared,” Michelle asked innocently.

  “I did it for your own safety. We wouldn’t want anything bad to happen to you, right?” he said, placing a large sack on his desk and then walking over to see which book Michelle was looking at.

  “My aunt is expecting me to be home and…”

  Haden shook his head, “No, she’s not. I called her myself and told her that you’ll be staying for dinner, and a movie, and that you’re going horseback riding tomorrow. I did tell you I have beautiful horses? One of my studs fetches 20,000 dollars for each successful insemination. And considering he takes after me, it’s like free money in the bank. I’m sure you’ll want to see him.”

  Michelle felt ill. “You’re gross,” she said in disgust.

  “Oh, by the way, your parents say hello and they bought you some special watch in Austria.” Haden had her aunt’s phone number in his cell phone; the guy thought of everything.

  “What’s that?” she asked, pointing at the sack while Haden took off his shoes and lay on the bed next to her, his arms folded behind his head.

  “That is a beautiful surprise. A gift I got for myself.” Haden sat up next to Michelle on the bed and smiled. “You can look at it if you want. But be careful. It’s very sharp.”

  Michelle jumped off the bed as soon as she felt Haden’s elbow touch hers. He could tell that she was acting differently, but then again she had just been locked in the room for a few hours so it was normal; she’d be back to her old self soon.

  “I know about what you want,” she said, opening the sack.

  Haden looked at her more intently, “Do you now?”

  “Yes,” she answered without revealing any emotion, “but I’m not going to tell you.” Just as Michelle pulled a beautiful, wide, shiny sword out of the sack; Haden appeared right behind her and startled her. She dropped the heavy sword, trying to catch it in midair, but the only thing she managed to do was cut one of her fingers, which immediately began bleeding.

  “Now look what you’ve done to yourself. See why you should listen to me? It’s for your own good.” Haden grabbed Michelle’s finger and sucked the blood away. She winced in pain while he examined it and told her that she was lucky she didn’t sever it entirely. He then scolded her to stop squirming while he put direct pressure on the cut. Haden’s eyes began to change colors and a few second’s later he let go of her finger and it wasn’t bleeding anymore. “Pretty neat, huh? If you treat me nicer I just might help you with the pain, too. I bet Elliot showed you that trick already?” he said in a taunting voice, while picking the beautiful sword up off the ground.

  “I know you’ve been giving me something in the water.”

  “That’s for your own good too. You have way too much angst,” Haden laughed.

  “What do you want with him?” Michelle asked, obviously not amused by his teasing.

  “Why so serious? I thought you told me that you already know what I want,” he said, looking at the sword and watching the light from the window bounce off its shiny surface and reflect onto the opposite wall.

  “You want to get him back for running off with your girl. It’s some stupid male revenge thing.” Haden laughed, telling her that he was impressed because he didn’t think of her as direct karma for what Elliot did, but now that she pointed it out it made things that much better. Haden looked at Michelle’s dry blood on the sword.

  “A little blood is nothing to worry about. It has seen more than a few drops, if you know what I mean.” Michelle ignored him.

  “I still love Elliot. I know that now and I want to know if you’re planning to hurt him.” Haden angrily placed the sword back in the sack, telling her that matters between their kind had nothing to do with humans and that he owed her nothing. He grabbed her cheeks in one hand, forcing her to look him in the eyes.

  “You are the cute little mouse and he’s the big ugly tomcat. That’s all you need to know. And now you say you love this cat, do you? That’s the problem with you females. You lie, lie and lie some more. If Elliot saw the way you want me, if he saw you rolling around naked on the bed with me, do you think he’ll agree with you, that you love him?”

  “But I do. I feel it, I miss him,” she whispered.

  “Love, my dear, is not something that you have experienced, nor will you ever, because it doesn’t exist.”

  “You made me do it! All of it!” she yelled at him in frustration.

  “Nice excuse. You think I didn’t feel your heart beat faster when I took the wine glass from your hand back in my penthouse? I didn’t do anything to you. So don’t you ever accuse me of something I didn’t do! You came to me, your body doesn’t lie, it can’t.” Michelle yelled back at him that he was the ultimate liar because he acted like he was interested in her just to trap her.

  Haden laughed. “You’re very hot when you’re angry, do you know that? It’s like you have a little woman inside of you trying to fight her way out,” he said, pushing his forefinger into the middle of Michelle’s chest. “Besides, the way I see it, Elliot found something worthy in you. Maybe I was curious in the beginning,”

  “But I’m still right, you never liked me at all,” Michelle said, a lot more hurt than she wanted to be.

  “Of course I like you. I like many women. That doesn’t stop me from liking one more. Consider it like this: if Elliot’s a tomcat, think of me as a, um…” Haden looked up at the half lion half man creatures in the oil painting above his bed, “a lion… with a much more ferocious appetite. Your problem is that you have had no training and you haven’t made peace with your own desires, and that’s never too much fun in the sack.” He winked at her. “You’re more trouble than you’re worth and I have no patience to be your teacher at the moment.” In a more serious tone, Haden told her that the quicker she gets the ‘love’ idea out of her head, the more she’ll be able to enjoy her life. “It’s all just a bunch of hormones flooding your brain. How do you think I was able to make you beg for me?” Michelle turned away from him. “I recreated the concoction of hormones that flood people’s bodies when they think they are in love, which is basically lust. Might I remind you that I did it just to prove a point? Your life is very short. By the time you have any understanding about anything, nature takes its toll and will reduce you to a wrinkly ugly old prune and then one day it’s over. So enjoy your youth, I’m just trying to help you, you should be grat
eful.”

  Elliot inserted the bone dagger into his boot and fastened the three metal buckles. His spring spear was already against his hip and the borrowed sword from Rion was in the car. The plan was for him to drive out to Hadeno’s place alone. The rest would follow him in the other vehicle about 45 minutes later. While Elliot was to drive straight to the property, they were to park about a mile away and make their way on foot. The place would be crawling with Hadeno’s men, although the security cameras would be the least of the guys’ problems because they could use their fast run, which would mean that the only way that their images could be detected would be during frame-by-frame play back. They could only do it for short distances, and it took a tremendous amount of energy from them, but it did prove beneficial in many sticky situations. Elliot was confident that he could hold off whatever came his way for a while, but who knows how many guys he would have to face.

  Elliot’s focus was intense and his eyes were changing hues long before he got to Alba Iulia. While he was stopped at a red light the driver in the next lane stared at him in horror. Elliot was unkempt and looked like a wildman with his hair longer than usual. That, along with his bright glowing eyes, made him look like a character from a Ray Harryhausen movie. He put on his sunglasses even though it was starting to get dark; he had no intention of providing a free drive-by freak show. He felt secure in his strength and had many victories in his background to reinforce that sentiment. But as he glanced down at the sword that Rion had lent him as a replacement for his own, his confidence slightly wavered. He knew that it was all in his mind, but there was just no substitute for the feeling of carrying his own sword into battle.

  Back when he originally forged the sword, the only one to match it was the one carried by King Saul. Which was precisely why Goliath of the Philistines had stolen Elliot’s. Goliath and Saul had been battling one another for generations, and Goliath knew that in order to match the strength of his rival, he too needed a weapon forged out of Nizabar, which was very rare even back then. Elliot had hidden his sword in one of the Canaanite port temples, but when the Philistines arrived by sea someone sold the secret of the sword for a hefty sum of gold, and Goliath set out to challenge his old adversary yet again. Elliot didn’t realize that his sword had been stolen until he saw David raise it to sever Goliath’s head. He let the Davidic dynasty keep the sword, but when the kingdom finally split he took it back, receiving with it a gift from King Solomon, an emerald encrusted dagger also forged out of Nizabar. Solomon had actually figured out the formula on his own. Afterwards, Elliot set out searching for Saul’s original sword, but what had become of it, no one knew. It had last been seen in battle when the King fell on it in a bid to end his own life after hearing that his beloved son had been killed, and it had never resurfaced after that.

  Elliot sought to clear the old memories from his mind. The things that happened so long ago were no longer real, and the people he knew ages before had become the subjects of legends. What was real was Michelle, a pretty young woman whom he had welcomed into his bizarre life despite his many reservations. A girl who ironically bore the same name as Saul’s youngest daughter. A girl he had saved from death. A girl he loved. “Oh Michelle, Michelle, Michelle. What have I done?” Elliot said under his breath, remembering Michelle wearing her Egyptian costume and how he had chuckled thinking that she reminded him of Princess Tye. When he discovered her hiding under the shrubbery at Hekademos he was very much entertained. If it hadn’t have been for her baggy camos and the way she behaved, he would have judged her to be a bit older, maybe nineteen. He should have known right then that it was The Pulse, but it had been so many years since he last encountered a woman that carried it. It was then that he felt the first little tug at his heart.

  When Elliot learned that Michelle was only seventeen he didn’t want her anywhere near him. But after she sent him the piece of glass from Leta Memmia’s brooch, something told him that he was meant to meet her. Michelle lived in a house that was built on what had previously been his land. She was like a flower that grew from a seed he had sowed many years ago. He wanted to kiss her so badly that night when he snuck into her bedroom, but he could tell that she was frightened of him and he didn’t want to scare her any more than he already had. And when she put on that dress at the store, it took all his strength not to drive her back to his private home and make love to her; he wanted her so badly. But he knew that she wasn’t ready for that intensity. And he wasn’t ready to introduce her into the adult world, knowing full well that once she stepped in, there was no going back. He wanted to enjoy her childlike antics for a little while longer. He had no problem waiting.

  Elliot could sense Hadeno crushing Michelle’s fragile soul, and floored the gas pedal. He wished he were there already. While Hadeno was nursing him back to health after he nearly died, he told Elliot that humans were like pretty insects compared to them. So Michelle was just a butterfly with beautiful wings and her days were numbered. Hadeno collected butterflies, and felt no sympathy when he attached them to his bedpost by inserting a sharp pin through the middle of their hearts. He told Elliot that whatever hurt he caused was very temporary because the humans would be dead soon anyway, so why should he fret over them. But Elliot refused to see it that way, arguing that for an insect that only lived a week, a moment of pain was like years of torment for them. Elliot cursed himself all over again. If he had kept Michelle with him, Hadeno would have had to step over his dead body to get to her.

  Michelle had no idea why Haden was showing her the rest of the house. Was this all part of his game, to win her over only to reject her again? She started picking up on the pattern, and realized that Haden enjoyed his power to control how she felt; she was growing wise to his wiles. The house had many rooms, and while Haden explained how he had recreated many of the same elements from the original castle that stood in ruins on the top of the hill, Michelle’s eyes constantly scanned the place for any door or window without bars. Michelle saw what she assumed to be Vilna’s bedroom and asked Haden where Vilna was and if she was all right.

  “I sent her away. She was getting on my nerves,” he said shortly.

  “How can you send her away from her own home? You’re not the boss of her. My brother has no right to tell me to leave my home.” Haden ignored her and instead led her to another beautiful bedroom, only this one was more feminine in décor than she had expected.

  “Is Vilna like you?” she asked, while her brain was hard at work trying to make sense of something that had just occurred to her.

  “What do you mean like me? Of course she’s like me. We’re related.”

  “No, that’s not what I mean. Is she like you and Elliot? Ancient?”

  “We’re not ancient, we’re different. Elliot didn’t tell you all that much about our kind, did he?” Michelle didn’t know anymore. He had told her some, but they hadn’t discussed the subject endlessly. Elliot didn’t like to talk about it. “There are no females like us. Vilna is an ordinary girl. She’s my daughter,” he answered, disinterested. Michelle looked at Haden in surprise, but it all made sense. She had picked up on something strange in the way those two had interacted. The way he treated her was too domineering for a brother.

  “Why did you lie to me? You told me yourself that you never lie,” Michelle questioned him, and was surprised to find herself suddenly pushed up against the wall.

  “I don’t owe you anything,” he said, then let her go. “Besides, it’s rather difficult to pass Veli off as my daughter now, considering that she’s 19. How old do I look? Not even ten years her senior.” We do it to make things easier for our human children. It’s something we tell everyone, not just you.

  Although Haden’s explanation was reasonable, Michelle began to wonder about the other things he had told her about his family. What about Vilna’s mother? Was she alive? Was she the woman with the beautiful laugh? The woman who Haden had spoken to on the phone? Maybe she was just one of the many women that Haden kept. Maybe Vil
na was not his only child. Haden again explained that she had passed away.

  “She died giving birth. This used to be her bedroom. Wouldn’t you like to have a nice bedroom like this?” he asked. Michelle’s stomach turned. “I have all daughters now,” he told her in a cold voice. “They’re older and they have their own children already. I don’t keep in touch with them.” Haden had made sure that they had plenty of money in a trust fund; that’s as far as his fatherly duties went. Yuck, Michelle thought; she messed around with somebody’s grandpa.

  Haden laughed when he saw the look on Michelle’s face. “Oh, like you haven’t been messing around with that Elliot of yours. He’s almost as old as I am, and I don’t think it bothered you then.” Haden had a point. Elliot was Xander’s grandfather! Michelle was in a world of pain.

  “So you don’t have any sons at all?” she asked, observing bars on these bedroom windows too.

  “Elliot didn’t explain that to you either?” Haden led Michelle to another wing of the house. She noticed that there was a glass door in the kitchen leading to the outside. “Then I was right. He was never serious about you. You were just a plaything, not uncommon for him. I say this without any trace of malice.” Michelle didn’t know what to say. Slowly but surely Elliot was being revealed to her as someone that she didn’t know at all. Haden showed her another room. “We can always make this one yours,” he said, looking around. “A nice big bed over there, a mirrored dresser…”

  “What? I’m not staying here. I’m going home. I have to go back to school. You told me I would be able to leave. You promised!” Haden got angry.

  “You’ll do as I say!” He then calmed himself down and smiled. “You never know, you might decide you like it here. We know you’re attracted to me, that’s always a good start. Once you’ve given me what I want I’ll let you go, but meanwhile you’ll be treated well, and I don’t think you’ll want to leave.”