K: The Awakening (The Shadow Chronicles Book 1)

by K. R. Fajardo

  Fighting back the tears of pain, Citera reached over with her hand and ran it down her rib cage. That’s what you get for goading the Enforcer you idiot. , she chastised herself, cringing as her hand ran across a deformity. Slowly one by one her senses began to return and she could make out the sounds of a scuffle and voices near where she had landed. When she was finally able to recover enough to look up, she was shocked to see Jaron and K holding a very angry Enforcer against the wall. He was fighting against them with every bit of his strength, but the two of them, even in their weakened states, held him firmly in place.

  “Jarod, snap out of it, this is not who you are,” Jaron pleaded with his friend.

  “Let me go! I will not be insulted, especially by this spoiled child,” he growled as he continued to struggle. The commotion had awakened the rest of the house, and the various members were beginning to gather in the hall. Dirik stood at the top of the staircase, watching in disbelief as the pinned Enforcer struggled to escape his friends’ grasp. He waved for Citera to join him at the top, but when she tried to stand the pain radiated through her side causing her to collapse back to the floor. Realizing she wasn’t going anywhere on her own, Citera instead glanced down past the Full-bloods blocking the way and could see her father, stumbling up the hall, followed closely by Rigar.

  “Citera! Are you all right?”

  Dirik joined her on the stairs and assisted her to her feet. “I’ll be okay, Dad,” she answered, clutching her injured side.

  “You won’t be when I get done with you.” The Enforcer laughed darkly as he continued to fight against those subduing him.

  “Jarod, calm yourself, she is only a child,” Jaron snapped before addressing K, “You have to knock him out, I don’t have the strength and it’s the only way to stop him once he gets like this.”

  K said nothing in response. Instead she reached up and ripped open the front of Jarod’s shirt, exposing his bare chest. She remained calm and silent, while she and Jaron continued to hold him effortlessly against the wall. Jarod must have realized something was about to happen and made a last ditch attempt to free himself by throwing his full weight forward as he kicked out against the wall. The suddenness of the movement took Jaron by surprise, who lost his grip momentarily and crashed into the wall behind him. But K held on, and no matter how hard he struggled, he could not break free of her grasp.

  Jaron recovered quickly from his spill and regained control of the other side. Jarod, realizing he wasn’t going to break free, resorted to cursing and swearing at the lot of them, but K, unphased by any of his tactics, silently placed the palm of her hand against the bare skin of his chest and looked deep into his eyes. “I’m sorry, this is going to hurt.” Then she closed her eyes and spoke to him in a language Citera had never heard.

  Whatever it was she said had an instant effect on Jarod, and they all watched as he immediately stopped his struggling. All the anger washed from his face, and was replaced with a look of utter terror. He seemed to be paralyzed, as if he had witnessed the greatest horror of his existence; eyes locked in a straight forward glare, his body rigid and frozen. Citera was starting to think that K had placed him under a trance of some kind, until he suddenly let out a blood curdling scream. A scream that resonated with pure agony and terror as it echoed throughout the clinic sending chills through them all. Citera clutched her ears as she and Dirik huddled down on the floor. It seemed as if the sound would never end, but then just as suddenly as it started the sound stopped and a deathly silence fell over the clinic.

  When Citera looked up, Jarod was lying on the floor unconscious. K, exhausted by whatever she had done to him, had fallen back against the wall behind her and was struggling to hold herself upright. And Jaron stood, seeming somewhat confused as he continued to scan the calamity surrounding him.

  Mikel managed to push his way past them to reach Citera and Dirik in the narrow stairway.

  “Are you hurt?” he asked, rubbing his hands down her side while at the same time studying the wound to her neck.

  “It hurts to move,” she answered, wincing as his hand moved over the spot where it hurt the most. “I fell hard onto the stairs.”

  “Your ribs are broke.” Rage filled his voice as Mikel turned his attention to the pack of Full-bloods at the bottom of the staircase. “Pick him up and all of you get out of my clinic,” he demanded, pointing at the unconscious Enforcer.

  “I’m afraid we can’t do that,” Jaron responded calmly, glancing down at his partner and K, who had finally given up and collapsed onto the floor. “Neither one of them is in any shape to travel at the moment.”

  “I couldn’t care less. He almost killed my daughter, and the only reason he is here is because he wants her.” Citera had never seen her father so angry, his hands trembling with barely contained fury as he continued to stand off against Jaron, who, although he wasn’t the Enforcer, was not someone she thought needed to be underestimated. “Dirik, go and find the patrols and tell them there are several undocumented Full-bloods that have broken into the clinic. That should get their attention.”

  “Don’t move, messenger boy,” Jaron growled, staring both of them down. Without hesitation Rigar jumped him from behind, wrapping a thick arm around his neck. But Rigar’s weaken condition was no match for the tall mass of man whose size was rivaled only by that of his fallen companion. In a swift movement, Jaron bent over, tossing Rigar over the top of him, slamming him with a loud crash into the floor. Rebounding swiftly, Rigar jumped back to his feet and launched his full weight into Jaron, and the two of them locked into each other at the foot of the stairs.

  Seeing his window to take leave, Dirik made a dash for the door only to have K appear in front of him. He skidded to a halt, slowly taking in the thin, frail looking woman dressed in a hospital gown blocking his path. “You really don’t want to do that,” she stated coldly as her gaze pierced through him. Dirik looked over his shoulder at the fallen Enforcer, then turned once again to face K. Dropping his gaze, Dirik wisely took a step back.

  “Everyone, stop this,” Citera screamed as she stared at the mayhem she had created. Turning to her father she began to cry. “It wasn’t his fault, it was mine.” She looked down the stairs at the unconscious Enforcer. “I provoked him, on purpose. He tried to walk away, to get away from me, but I wouldn’t let it go, I just kept pushing and pushing him until he snapped.”

  Mikel gently wiped the tears from her eyes, a confused crease forming on his brow. “But why would you do that? He could have killed you.”

  “All I could think about was Janil and what he did to her.” Citera sobbed, pleading with her father, “You can’t call the patrols, like it or not we are as much a part of what is going on here as they are.” Looking around at the group whose eyes were all locked on her, she continued, “We all know too much, so if the patrols come they will arrest and kill everyone here.”

  “Not everyone,” Jaron answered gruffly, pushing Rigar away from him. “K cannot die and that is why they want her. She is the one they have been searching for decades to find, the very reason why they do the inspections. If they get their hands on her the Shadows will lock her in that Tower for eternity, drawing off her power to strengthen theirs, and securing their reign until the end of time.” As he spoke Jaron moved over to K, offering her his arm for balance which she gladly took. “That is why he has served them for so long, all these years he has been searching for K in the hopes we could find her first and prevent them from getting their hands on her.”

  It was a shocking revelation that left them all speechless. No one had wondered more than Mikel why they did inspections, and more importantly why they only inspected clinics that treated Full-bloods. But if what Jaron was saying was true, it made sense, it all made sense.

  “I know we have invaded your life and you have no reason what-so-ever to trust me, but I am afraid, giving the current circumstances, you are going to be stuck with us for a few days, just until K is in better condition to be mov
ed. Once she is, we will leave and you will never have to see us again. Believe me, this situation is not optimal for us either.”

  “Maybe we won’t see you,” Rigar growled, pointing at the Enforcer, “but what is to stop him from returning?”

  Jaron glowered at Rigar. Even in the darkness of the hallway the tension between the two angry males thickened the air around them. “I can make no guarantees on his behalf. He is going back to the Tower when we leave and back to his duties.” He removed his attention from Rigar with a look of disgust and refocused on Mikel. “What I can promise is that if he does return here, it will have nothing to do with what is happening here now. We would not be so foolish, the things you know makes you as dangerous to us as we are to you.”

  That’s what I am afraid of. Mikel thought, surprisingly managing to hold his intense stare. He didn’t know this male, nor did he know K. What he did know was that the pair of them were companions, if not friends, with one of the most dangerous and volatile people in Vanteria, and that alone was enough to make him suspicious of their claims. But if he had to be honest with himself, what choice did he have. It wasn’t as if he could physically force them to leave, and Citera was right in her evaluation of the situation, calling the patrols would be fatal to them all.

  “So what do we do now?” Dirik asked innocently of no one in particular.

  Jaron frowned down at the kid and huffed out a sigh, allowing the tension to release from his corded muscles. “I think we should all get some rest, it has been a long day and everyone is exhausted. If you like, in the morning, I will try and answer any questions you may have about all this.” He paused, glancing down at Jarod laid out on the floor. “I would, however, appreciate some help moving my rather large friend here.”

  Mikel frowned down on the large man blocking half the hall, then at Citera. She shrugged slightly, grimacing with the movement. “I won’t be much help.”

  “You don’t move,” He commanded. Kissing her on top of her head, he stood, “So how do you want to do this?”

  “If the two of you don’t mind helping K back to her room,” Jaron answered, gesturing to Dirik and Mikel, “I’ll need Rigar to help me with Jarod. I can’t carry him alone, not in my current condition.” He bit out.

  Mikel walked down the stairs to take K’s hand but hesitated a moment, second guessing whether or not he wanted to touch her after what he had witnessed her do to the Enforcer and what he himself had already been through. Dirik still, standing toe-to-toe with her, waited to see what Mikel’s next move would be.

  “I’m not going to hurt you,” K reassured the nervous pair, her voice quiet and reassuring. Mikel moved forward first, followed by Dirik. Uneasily, the two of them took ahold of an arm on either side, and together the three of the made their way back down the hall to her room.

  “You must be Mikel,” Citera could hear K talking to her father in the distance. “Glad to see you are better and I apologize for what happened.”

  As the three of them disappeared into K’s room, she could hear her father’s reply, “Never mind that, I should have listened to you when you told me not to touch you. And thank you. Thank you for helping save my daughter’s life.”

  Jaron watched until the trio disappeared and then turned his attention to Rigar, “Are you going to help me?”

  Rigar looked down at the man who had given him so much grief lying helpless on the floor. “Why should I? What we need to do is finish him while we have the chance.”

  “You will have to go through me first,” Jaron replied, glaring at Rigar.

  “Why do you defend him? Look at what he has done, what he would have done had you not been here to stop him. He is walking stick of dynamite, one spark is all it will take and he will one day destroy everyone and everything around him!” Rigar yelled angrily.

  “Are you going to help me or not?” Jaron snapped, ignoring his last statement.

  “We will,” Mikel said coming back into the hall. “Let’s try to get him in that one over there.”

  He pointed toward the room across from the stairs. Jaron nodded. After holding Rigar’s angry stare for a few moments longer, Jaron broke it off and took his place at Jarod’s head. Running his arms underneath Jarod’s, he lifted the bulk of the weight while Dirik and Mikel, positioned on either side, hoisted up his legs. Together they stumbled and grunted; somehow managing to drag the Enforcer into the small room, then stopped and stared at the elevated bed.

  “And how do you suppose we get him onto that?” Dirik groaned, attempting to catch his breath.

  “I’ll get his torso on the bed, after that we should be able to drag him the rest of the way up,” Jaron answered, sweat beading on his brow. The man truly was doing all the work. “Let me pull off his jacket, if I loop it under his arms, it will give me some extra leverage to pull him up with.” It took the three of them working together to peel off the fitted leather jacket, which they then threaded under his arms, and after a great deal of effort the three managed to pull the full mass of the Enforcer up onto the bed.

  “Do you have bonds for this room?” Jaron asked Mikel as he pulled off Jarod’s gloves and boots. He stashed them and a bag in the closet, before grabbing ahold of what was left of Jarod’s bloody, ripped shirt and tore it off of him.

  “Of course, they are in that cabinet,” Mikel replied between gasps of air. He looked perplexed by the question. “Are you really going to restrain him? You don’t think that will make him angrier?”

  “I think everyone will rest better if they know he isn’t a danger. Besides, I won’t take the chance of him waking up still enraged,” Jaron answered, digging in the cabinet and pulling out the restraints. “I’ll stay in here with him tonight, so if he wakes up and he is back to normal then I will release him.” Jaron held out a pair of restraints to Mikel. “Here, help me.”

  Mikel wasn’t going to deny the fact that having the Enforcer restrained and guarded for the night would let them all rest easier. He took the restraints from Jaron and worked quickly to fasten them to his arm and leg on one side while Jaron worked on the other. Once all the restraints were secured, they stepped back to look at the Enforcer, who despite everything that had happened, appeared to be resting peacefully.

  “That will do for now. I will reinforce them in a little bit, after everyone is settled.” Jaron pulled on each restraint checking their resilience. “These alone won’t hold him.”

  Citera had somehow managed to make her way down the stairs and came limping into the room. Mikel came to her side and assisted his injured child the rest of the way into the room and into a chair. Carefully he ran his hand along her side and down her ribcage, sending a wave pain radiating through every bone. Citera quickly sucked in a large breath and bit down on her bottom lip to prevent herself from yelling out loud. “Your ribs are definitely broken.” Mikel shook his head. “Citera, what were you thinking provoking him like that?”

  “I wasn’t thinking, I was upset and angry. I heard you talking to him earlier and heard what he said about Janil.” She held her head in her hands fighting back the tears, she really needed to get a grip on all this crying. “I kept imagining her alone, in that Tower, scared and knowing what he was going to do to her.” She paused, looking over at him on the bed. “What he did to her, and I wanted him to suffer like she did.”

  Jaron listened quietly before turning his attention back to his friend. “Well, you got what you wished for,” Jaron interjected somberly, leaning against the bed; it was apparent that the ordeal had taken a toll on his already drained body. “Look, I am sorry for what he did to your friend and there is nothing I can do or say that will ease that pain, but I promise you he had no other choice, he either does what they say or he pays the price. And as far as what he said to you,” he sighed, “Jarod has never been very good at dealing with people, not even when he was younger. Then after he was taken away by the Shadows and they began to ‘train’ him to be the Enforcer, well, he shut down completely.”

&nbs
p; Jaron looked over his shoulder at his friend, thinking of all he had endured over these years. “Since then he has done nothing but build walls between himself and the world around him. He had to, it was the only way he could prevent himself from going mad doing the things that they forced him to do.”

  “I don’t know what came over me.” Citera stared at the Enforcer, unconscious and strapped to the bed. “What did K do to him anyway?”

  Citera watched as Jaron worked to try and make his friend as comfortable as he could, but the exhaustion on his face gave away his weakened state. “He will be all right. Anyway, he needed the rest, although this definitely wouldn’t have been my preferred method of getting him to take a nap.” Jaron braced himself against the bed in an attempt to regain some strength. “As for what K did to him … well, she has the ability to draw off her past experiences and uses them to inflict pain and fear onto anyone who comes in contact with her skin. I have seen her kill men using this same technique. Their hearts simply gave out after only a few seconds, unable to bear the pain any longer.”

  “That’s what happened,” Mikel muttered, his eyes growing wide with the sudden understanding. “When I came back inside after he left, I found K awake but in tremendous pain. I tried to give her something to help, but every time I got close to her she kept pulling away and signaling me not to touch her. I didn’t understand why, and when I finally did manage to grab ahold of her arm, it was like I was transported to another time and place. I saw a vision of myself tied to a chair while a man in uniform came toward me with a knife and brought it down across my eye.” Mikel reached and touched the spot where he had felt the blade come down, the same place that K carried the scar. “Blood went everywhere and I blacked out.” Mikel glanced from Citera to Jaron. “I have never been so scared and felt so helpless in all my life.”