“No, we’re not,” he replied. “We’re the Volcan Knights, set to redeem mankind from the shadow hunters, sworn to protect and preserve humans as much as it can be done,”
“I don’t believe you,” I said, my legs found their way to the edge of the bed, and I swung myself to the floor, clutching handfuls of the covers to remain standing, I turned to face him, gasping at what I saw.
Sam’s tears were streaming down his cheeks, his eyes wet from crying and his face collapsed into sadness and grief.
“If it was out child,” I asked, carefully. “Then what am I to you?”
“You’re my mate,” he sniffled. “Your one of us, and we have to keep you safe, you’re the only female ever to become a Volcan Knight, and it’s you the shadows want,”
“I’m a Volcan Knight?” I asked, trying to feel around in my memory, the blanket of darkness still enveloped tightly over the memories I needed to locate. “I need to leave,”
“You can’t,” he said. “We’re not here to hurt you, give me a chance to show you, please,” He continued to plead.
I wondered briefly, what would it cost me to stay here and give him a chance to prove that what he was saying was true, and how would it affect me in the long run, I couldn’t think of a logical answer, to either say no or say yes, I had always desired to know what had been my life before my memories vanished and were swallowed, and I wanted to know what had happened to my daughter, I had always assumed that I’d caused the accident which had taken her life from me prematurely, and now I had a real chance at finding out some answers.
“Ok,” I said, “I’ll stay, but I want to know everything, I want the others to be as open and honest as you are,”
“They will be,” He said, for the first time since speaking about my daughter, he smiled. “We’ve been waiting for you to come back to us for a long time, all of us taking jobs just so we could protect you,”
One thing that I remembered, and I thought they were dreams, my own fantasies about him, I would be sleeping and I would have the feeling that someone was watching me, when I opened my eyes, I saw Sam, gently smiling and then just as quickly he was gone, leaving me cold and lonely in my small house.
“It was me watching over you,” he whispered. “I needed to see if you were safe, I needed to make sure I was doing what I am here for,”
“How did you know?” I asked shocked with what he’d said.
“I read your thoughts,” he answered. “Not all of us can do that, only the leader, it enables me to makes sure I know where all of us, I channel into your mind and read the images that you see,”
“Well,” I cocked my head to one side. “If you don’t mind not channelling into my mind and leaving my thoughts alone while I’m here with you, I’d greatly appreciate it,” I finished sweetly, smiling up at him.
He laughed, the laughter crinkling the corners of his eyes, his hair swept back of his head, and his blue piercing eyes never left mine, and I could see why I would have been attracted to him, if it was true, because I still was.
“Come and meet the others,” he held out his hand for me to take. “They’re dying to see you,”
“I bet they are,” I grumbled. “I might want to get dressed first though,”
Looking down to the shirt I was wearing, which covered up to my thighs and revealed my underwear slightly, my hair a mess, my face pale from being ill, I was sure I looked a terrible sight.
“I’ll give you a few minutes,” he promised. “I’ll be right outside, letting them all know you’re coming out,”
“Oh! Thanks so much,” I answered sarcastically.
He smiled and left the room, his backward glance a mixture of emotions, I wasn’t sure exactly what it was he wanted to say to me, but there was something there that I felt and I knew in my heart it was something I had wanted to hear for a very long time, somewhere in the dark recesses of my mind, I’d been waiting for him, waiting for the truth of my life to come back to me.
Chapter Four
Dressing in the clothes I’d worn when I had tried to run away from Sam, frightened by the revelations of seeing him as a Volcan Knight, and scared by what I would find out from him and the truth.
“I’m ready,” I called, and stood by waiting for Sam to come and collect me.
I waited for a little while, sitting down on the bed, my hair neatly brushed and I felt a little more respectable than I did before, still no one came to get me and I started to wonder if I hadn’t been heard.
Leaving the room and searching the corridor, the tiles cool beneath my bare feet, and the windows shining the light so I could see, tip toeing down towards the end of the corridor, where I could hear the faint mumblings of a man’s voice, and the faint laughter that quickly followed.
I stopped outside the door, and listened intently, my ear pressed to the wood so I could hear a little clearly.
“She’s not going to be convinced that easily,” I heard Sam say. “We’ll need to tread carefully, don’t do anything to frighten her, her safety is paramount as we all know,”
“We can’t keep her here,” another said. “If they find her here she’s done for,”
“Do you think I don’t know that?” He answered. “What choice do I have? If I try to ask her to come away with me somewhere she’ll bolt and run,”
“Don’t then,” came the reply from another man. “Make her fall in love with you again, she did once and I’m sure once she remembers everything it’ll come back to her,”
The door suddenly swung open, and I fell into the strong arms of Sam, looking into his face and blushing profusely, embarrassed at being caught eaves dropping, he smiled and steadied me, setting me away from him.
“You're up,” he commented. “Come and meet everyone,”
I followed him into the room, where all the men I’d seen earlier, the same ones that I knew to be his friends, they’d visited the office many times and had always been cool and polite when they’d passed me.
“Zera,” The man closest to me jumped from his seat and enveloped me in a bear hug, squeezing me tightly, “I’m Ethan,”
“Nice to meet you,” I managed to squeeze out through my squashed lungs. “Can you please let me go?”
“Sorry,” He replied, instantly releasing me. “I’m so happy your back with us, we all missed you,”
“Easy Ethan,” Sam muttered the warning in his eyes clear. “Remember not to overdo it,” He warned, “Sorry Zera. Ethan’s the eccentric one of us,”
Everyone laughed, and the introductions continued.
Firstly Ethan, then Regan and finally Mike, all of them seemed the same, pleased to see me and they all recalled who I was and what I stood for, if only they would tell me it would make a big difference in how I viewed my life and my world.
“Nice to meet you all,” I said, quietly watching them all. “So there are only four of you?” I asked.
“Five,” Sam corrected from beside me. “Your one of us, which makes us five,”
“How do I know that’s true?” I questioned. “How do I know you’re not making this up to have fun out my situation?”
“Because we would never do that,” He replied, “Your scar, does it burn sometimes?”
“How’d you know about my scar?” I gasped, “It always burns, and the pain is unbearable sometimes,”
“That’s your Volcan wings,” He replied, easily speaking about me in front of everyone else, “They’re trying to get out and spread, it happens, when you’re ready I’ll show you how to channel yourself so you can join us in flight, the shadow part of us, I’m afraid you’ll have to learn,”
“This is so unreal,” I commented, I didn’t feel as though I wanted to take all of this in, not right now, “We can talk about properly later,” I said instead.
“Right,” Regan said. “Gotta go,”
“Where are you of too tonight?” Ethan asked. “Another date?”
“Yep,” He replied, straightening his clothes and tidying his hair in th
e mirror. “The girl in the next house, she’s hot,”
“I better make a move too,” Mike announced, “And I think,” He said thoughtfully, “Ethan didn’t you say you wanted to come back to mine tonight to finish our card game,”
“Nah...I’ll stick around here for a while,” He replied.
“No,” Mike corrected, pointedly looking at him. “You said you wanted to finish the game, didn’t you?” He prompted.
“Eh...Yeah ok,” Ethan answered. “So I did,”
Without realising it they had all decided to leave us alone, to talk I suspected, it seemed a little strange being here and amongst these strange creatures that I hadn’t known existed until a few days ago, but I needed to hear more about what had happened and why my memories were so blocked, and in light of the truth I may be able to piece together aspects of my life that had been locked away until now.
I watched them all leave, happily talking between themselves, and waving goodbye to me when they left the room.
“Take care of her,” I heard Mike say. “Try not to tell her to much, remember the doctors warned about her never regaining her memory if she gets frightened,”
“I know,” Sam muttered. “I’ll try to tread carefully; we can’t risk losing her, especially not with the threat of the shadows becoming larger,”
“That’s true,” Ethan slipped in. “But she needs to know where she stands in all of this, and why she’s so important to our cause, Sam have you thought about taking her home?”
“That’s not going to happen right this minute, they know where she lives, if she’s here then I can protect her properly, I don’t want to risk losing her like last time,”
“You know whets best,” he agreed. “Let us know if we’re needed,”
“I will do,” Sam said.
I heard the door clicking softly shut, and Sam’s footsteps heading back towards me in this room, his face when he appeared round the doorway was concerned, and he looked at me his eyes softening when he saw I was looking at him and then back at the picture of my daughter that was on the fireplace.
“Where did you get that?”
“I told her she was my daughter too,” he commented. “Didn’t you believe me?”
“It's a little hard to take in when you’ve woken up to find your boss is a creature, and then to be told that your one too,”
He laughed. “I guess so,” he said. “Would you like a drink?”
“Tea please.”
I knew it was going to be a long night, I had so many questions to ask him about what had happened to create our separation and my own separation of my mind, he had a considerable amount of explaining to do.
Sam left to make the tea, while I remained in the room, I got up of the sofa to have a look around, he had many books, most of which looked old, unused and had gathered dust, did he ever do any dusting? Or was it supposed to look like this in this room, the rest of the house from what I’d seen already looked clean.
He’d collected photographs, on his wall I saw pictures of him and the others, their faces laughing as they posed for the camera, and the slightly to the left a picture of me, him and our daughter.
Her smile made me want to weep, I missed her so much, but his smile was overwhelming pride, his eyes were looking at me in one picture, the love and longing was plain to see, and I wondered why my memory had chosen to close off the life I’d shared with him, what was wrong with it? Was he that bad that my head had deliberately blocked him out?
“I see you’ve found my wall of memories,” he said softly behind me, “I remember when that one was taken,”
Sam pointed to the family picture of us and our daughter, I felt the tears prickle behind my lids when he started to explain the family day out that I’d painstakingly planned for weeks, and how it had been fun and loving.
“Sam,” I sniffled. “What happened to her?”
“What do you remember?”
“I don’t,” I said. “That’s just it, the doctors told me she died in a freak accident and it was unavoidable, she was dead on arrival, there was nothing they could do,”
“I know, that’s not strictly true though,”
“So tell me?” I asked, quietly thinking this was all a dream.
“She wasn’t supposed to be taken, I made every effort to save you both, the shadows descended and took you, I fought back before they could drain you but when I turned around they’d already taken her, our baby Ellie,”
“What do you mean ‘drain me’?”
“One of the things the shadows do, that’s what Barry was talking about the other day, he’d obviously witnessed it,” he explained. “They seek the human bodies in order for them to survive, we can keep them at bay that’s why we were sent years ago to fight them and stop them ravaging humans from earth,”
I felt my knees grow weak, the thought of anyone or anything draining my daughter was enough for me to cope with, gently and with the care I hadn’t felt in a long time, Sam helped me to the sofa to sit down, his expression guilty for not being able to save Ellie.
“What else do they do?”
“Are you sure you want to know everything tonight?”
“Yes,” I nodded, not entirely sure whether I did or not, but since he’d already started I needed him to finish, if there was a chance to beat the shadows then I wanted to know about it, my daughter’s life would mean something.
“They suck the human soul, crunching their way through the entire body, and leaving behind an empty skin suit,”
“Is that what they did to Ellie?” I didn’t want to know what she looked like when she’d died, but I needed some answers to fill the void in my head.
He nodded, shaking his fists with anger.
“I tried so hard to stop them, the others arrived but it was too late, she was already gone,”
“And her soul?” I asked softly.
“They took it,” he said. “Believe me if there was anything I could have done at the time to stop them then I would have done it, but they were too strong for us, what they really wanted was you,”
“Why me?” I asked, feeling shocked, my head felt like it was exploding.
“Because there has never been a female volcan before, you’re the first,” he said. “They believe you have been made because your special, what they don’t know is you were created by me because I couldn’t bear to live my life without you,”
“Why did you make me? How did you make me?”
He chuckled softly, maybe for something to fill the empty space between us because it didn’t quite reach his eyes, there was so much guilt tinged with the sadness and loss of our child, that he felt responsible for, he’d been outnumbered that day and hadn’t stood a chance by the sounds of it, to save our child, it wasn’t his fault.
“When a volcan chooses his mate,” he coughed, discretely looking away from me and then back again. “He makes love to her, and in the process scratches her with the claws you saw earlier, it’s the mark that ultimately changes the human form to be able to morph into what we are, if her body permits and accepts the changes then it’s over in a matter of minutes, the pain is horrible to watch,”
“What if the body doesn’t accept the changes?”
“The she dies,” he said flatly.
“So it’s like a gamble?”
“No, not really, we know when we meet someone whether they’re compatible to be one of us, usually its someone from our own world but you were different, you seemed surreal most of the time, you captivated me from the first minute I saw you and I couldn’t think of my life without you, that’s how I knew you would accept the changes or I wouldn’t have risked taking your life and ultimately being the person to murder you,” he watched me closely, his eyes not leaving mine, looking deeply, waiting for my answer.
I sat; mulling the information through my mind, trying to figure out whether my head remembered anything at all, nothing came to me. My head remained as blank and uncompromising as it had ever done before, leavin
g me little and few options.
“So,” I said. “You thought I was compatible with you, where does leave us now?”
He shrugged. “I honestly don’t know,” he said. “It depends entirely on you, but I have to tell you since you were released from the hospital the shadows have followed you, relentlessly,”
“Have you been following me?”
“I’m afraid so,” he answered, looking away sheepishly.
Remaining with him would be my better option, starting again with him, I didn’t know about that part yet, I still needed to gain some kind of clarification and the story about the shadows seemed to be a little extravagant.
“What about work?” I asked, “I have to return at some point,”
“No, too dangerous,” he answered, shaking his head. “Do you trust me enough to be able to stay with me?”
I supposed I did, so I nodded in response.
“Good,”
“So, who’s going to explain to work that their chief and another member of staff are taking some time off?” I wondered voicing it so he heard me.
“Zera,” he replied, patiently waiting until he had my full undivided attention, “I have to go to work but you can’t, it’s far too dangerous, your safer here, this house will protect you providing of course,” he faltered. “That you don’t go out,”
“What? You mean I can’t even go for a walk?”
He sighed, rubbing his eyes.
“No, I meant you can’t you leave the grounds, there’s plenty of places to walk to here, I promise you won’t get bored,” he said. “Do you still like to cook?”
“Did I used to cook then?” I wondered again, “I don’t remember that, but then I haven’t really tried much back at my place,”
“Well, see at least here you can have a look around, and maybe you’ll pick up some memories.” He pointed out.
I wasn’t entirely happy with the restrictions placed on my movements; it seemed considerably over protective of him. After all, for some time now I’d been free without the knowledge of these creatures or the knowledge of who I was, the facts still remained though that they’d painstakingly watched over me to keep me safe from the shadows.
Volcan Knights Page 4