The Veil: Corruption (HASEA CHRONICLES BOOK 2)

by Stuart Meczes

  “Welcome back,” said a cold voice from nearby. “You’ve been gone for some time.” Squinting, I was able to make out a shadowy figure standing in the corner of what seemed to be a small, square room. The shadow stepped forward and morphed into the narrow, angry face of Vidar. The memory of him bursting into the joining feast to arrest me flicked into my mind. Everything that had happened after he had put the handcuffs on me was a blur.

  “You can leave us now,” he said. A man holding an empty bucket moved from his position behind me. He walked silently from the room and closed the door behind him.

  “Where am I?”

  There was a scrape of metal on metal, and Vidar’s face lowered as he sat down on a chair. “You are in an interrogation room, Alexander.”

  I felt cold sweat join the water on my skin. “Why? What happened?”

  His eyes flashed with anger. “Let me remind you.” He thrust his shoulder forward to reveal an arm wrapped in bandages that looped around his neck. “So badly broken that even with boosters it’s going to take me a week to heal.”

  “I-I did that?” I stammered.

  “Let’s stop the games, shall we, Alexander. We know you’re a traitor.”

  My stomach lurched. Traitor? What on earth is he talking about?

  “I am not a traitor,” I protested, leaning forward. There was a loud clank, and I saw that my hands were shackled in adamantine chains thicker than a roll of masking tape.

  Shit, this is serious.

  “Please, you have to believe me. The Alliance is like my second family. I would never betray them.”

  Vidar regarded me with a sneer so venomous I could have been compacted faeces on the sole of his shoe. “Trying to lie, even after everything you just did. You disgust me.”

  I tried to shift in the chair and winced as pain bloomed once more in my chest. Looking down I could see my bare torso. Three shallow holes were sitting in the centre of my chest. Small veins of purple were creeping their way around the edges. Banshee poison. For some reason, it wasn’t healing.

  Vidar seemed to understand my confusion, because he leaned across the metal desk between us and pointed a bony finger at my chest. “Your girlfriend removed the bullets, but there is still enough poison in there to keep you from using your fancy gift.”

  “I want to speak to Sage Faru.”

  “I’m afraid Sage Faru is not with us.”

  “Sage Etorre then. I want to speak to Sage Etorre.”

  Vadir’s face broke into a grin, which was made larger by the shadows the single bulb created. “He won’t help. Who do you think it was who shot you?”

  No…he wouldn’t do that. But somewhere in the back of my mind I knew it was true. A fractured image of him firing a gun sparked in my memory.

  “He also gave us full permission to interrogate you.” Vidar slid a file out of the shadows. “And provided us with this.” He opened the cover and looked down at it. “Did you know that the Alliance keeps records of all of its Guardians? Yours makes for a very interesting read. Alexander Eden, aged eighteen, born on August seventh, nineteen ninety-four. Lives with two parents, one biological – the other not. One half-brother…now Vampire.” He sucked in air through his teeth. “Tough break, kid.” He carried on, scanning the pages. “Father was Peter Eden, former Chosen, now MIA and presumed dead. I met Peter Eden. He was a good man…how far the apple has fallen from the tree.”

  I could feel my anger flare at his comment, and I took a deep breath.

  “Originally a bullied loner. Infiltration was October last year by Gabriella De Luca of Orion.” He flicked the pages with a finger. “See, I now know everything about you that is worth knowing, Alexander. Who you are, where you came from.” He placed a hand on his chest and made a mock simpering noise. “Who your girlfriend is.”

  “Leave Gabriella out of this. She’s nothing to do with it.”

  “Oh, we aren’t interested in her,” he said waving a dismissive hand. “She has been an exemplary Huntmaster and Guardian. No, Alexander, it’s you we are interested in.” He continued scanning through the pages. “The boy who defeated The Sorrow. Now I have to say that was impressive. We all thought it was indestructible. If we had met under different circumstances, I would have the utmost respect for you.” He closed the file. “Not now. Not since you became a traitor. When was that, Alexander? When did you decide that you were going to switch sides?”

  I knew there was no way out of this. Whatever this man thought I had done meant he had it in for me. The only choice I had was to come clean.

  “Vidar—”

  “Interrogator Calis to you,” he sneered.

  “Interrogator Calis. Please, you have to understand. This isn’t me. Something happened after I destroyed the Sorrow. It…connected to me somehow. It’s been affecting me. I…I can’t control some of the things it does.”

  “Oh, I know.” His reply was so cheery it caught me completely off guard.

  “You know?”

  “It’s all your girlfriend would go on about after your little stunt last night. She was practically hysterical. So we tried all forms of possession tests on you. They all came back negative. At first I thought she was lying to protect you. Then we came across that big old tattoo that just won’t stay still. Not to mention your little pots of miracle cure.” He wafted the file. “There is also a report from Sage Faru in here discussing his concern about these markings that appeared after you killed The Sorrow, but after five months he concluded they were benign.” Vidar clicked his tongue. “Guess they weren’t so benign after all.”

  I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “So if you know that The Sorrow is affecting me, then why are you doing this to me?”

  He slammed the file down. “Because I don’t care! As far as I’m concerned, you and this darkness you blame everything on are one and the same. It is you, you are it, blah, blah. I couldn’t give two shits which one carried out these terrorist attacks. As far as I am concerned, you are both traitors.”

  I shook my head. “You’re insane.”

  “No. I just take my job very seriously.”

  There was a knock at the door. Vidar stood up and disappeared into the shadows. He re-emerged a moment later carrying a heavy metal briefcase. Grinning at me, he set it down on the table and opened it up – the top hit the desktop with a harsh, metallic thud. Inside was a myriad of tools and vials, each one undoubtedly used to cause as much pain as possible. He started pulling out the tools, laying them down with delicate precision on the tabletop.

  “When Miss DeLuca was down here, we had to keep some of our more…creative interrogation methods a secret.” He leaned forward with a dark grin, the light making his smile too wide and full of teeth. “She’s not here now, though.”

  He set the last of his tools down and closed the case. “So, here’s how this is going to work. We are going to play a game called ‘fact, question, answer.’ It has very simple rules. I tell you a fact that I have learned and then ask a related question. You give me the answer. If you don’t, well, then…” He flicked the handle of a curved blade. “Then it all becomes very tense.”

  I nodded to the briefcase. “Does Sage Faru know that you torture your interrogation subjects?”

  “Sage Faru does not need to know the ins and outs of how we get results down here. He only knows that we get results.”

  “He will when I get out of here.”

  Vidar started laughing. “Alexander, my boy. What makes you think you are getting out of here?”

  Something in his voice told me he wasn’t lying. I swallowed a lump that had formed in my throat. Vidar picked up a syringe and dipped the needle in a bottle of pale purple liquid. Carefully drawing it out, he tapped the plunger and a few beads of the iridescent substance splashed onto the table. He stood up and moved over until he was standing right next to me. Leaning over, he waggled the syringe in front of my face. “Diluted Banshee poison. It won’t kill you, but you’ll wish you were dead.” He gave a dark laug
h. “Ready to begin, Alex?”

  “Screw you.”

  He grabbed my hair and yanked my head back, exposing my neck.

  “Fact number one. I have three sworn confessions that you organised the attack on a restaurant named Indigo. I want to know why.”

  Horror filled me up. What the hell is he accusing me of?

  “I-I didn’t organise that attack!” I spluttered. “Jesus, my brother was at that restaurant!”

  “Not what I wanted to hear.” There was a sharp burn as he jabbed the needle into my neck. Liquid fire poured through my veins. I screamed as I burned from the inside. The agony was unbearable. I screamed until my throat became hoarse. After what felt like an eternity, the pain subsided, leaving me feeling cold and fatigued.

  “Why did you organise the attack?”

  I could barely speak. “I didn’t.”

  He pressed the plunger again and pain filled me up. It was almost too much to bear. I jerked up and down, my legs shaking uncontrollably. Inside, the creatures were stirring. Vidar pushed more of the poison into my artery, and my body was consumed by fire. Then, when I couldn’t take anymore, a voice that wasn’t my own escaped my throat.

  “As proof we were on their side.”

  Vidar removed the injector and moved around so he was facing me. He grabbed my chin and wrenched my head up. “Explain.”

  The voice continued to speak. I had no control over it. Vidar was speaking to the source of my darkness.

  “We made contact with the Sons of Sorrow weeks ago. We met one of the factions in a shitty little estate, where they exist undetected by humans. And believe us, there are many factions still in existence. But this one has ties to something much more dangerous. We told them who we really were. They didn’t believe us, so after we killed a few of the insolent ones, we told them we would prove our allegiance to Hades. When the boy’s brother told us he was going to that place, we took control and organised the attack. He was the sacrifice to prove that we were loyal.”

  “No!” I screamed. Mikey…it was my fault! Oh my god, he got bitten because of me. I descended into hysterical sobs. “Mikey, I’m so sorry…please forgive me.”

  Vidar locked his fingers tighter around me chin. “Stop snivelling, boy. I don’t want to hear from you.” He searched in my eyes. “The other one, I want to speak to you.”

  “Us. We are a collective.”

  “Fine us. Talk, or you all get the needle again.”

  “You will regret this.”

  “Talk.”

  “The attack would have worked, but then your stupid whore witches had a premonition of the attack and those Guardians ruined it.”

  Vidar nodded. “Thank you for answering my question.”

  He sat down on the desk, and for a long moment he was silent. “If I may, I’d like to tell you all a little something now,” he said finally. “I had this niece. Sweetest girl you could ever meet. Not a Chosen or anything like us, just a really lovely girl who was going to Oxford University to study law. She was heading off abroad to travel for a few months before she started in the autumn. To earn a bit of last-minute cash before she left, her waitress friend got her a job as door hostess on the opening night of a new restaurant. That restaurant was called Indigo.” His teeth clenched together. “She won’t make it abroad now. My brother buried her in Chapter Hill cemetery a few days ago.

  Oh god, this is why he hates me so much. She was one of the innocents killed in that attack. I shook my head. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t know.”

  “Shut up, boy! I don’t want to hear from you.”

  My shoulders shrugged involuntarily, and I felt my lips spread into a smile. “Oh well, see it as a favour. I bet the dead slut would have been a shit lawyer.”

  Vidar smashed his fist into my jaw. Yellow spots bloomed behind my eyes. A dark laugh escaped my lips. Inside I was beside myself with guilt and shame. Stop, please just stop it.

  “My nieces’ death is funny to you, is it? He slammed the injector into my neck and jammed his thumb all the way down on the plunger. “Keep laughing now.”

  I screamed as my insides turned to acid. My stomach lurched, and I leaned over the chair, vomiting onto the floor. The pain continued to burn for what seemed like a lifetime. When it subsided, I sank my head forward and wept for my brother, for what I had done, and for all the people I’d hurt.

  I am a traitor.

  27

  Gabriella

  Sage Faru returned to the base that morning.

  After leaving Moon’s Edge, I’d had nothing left to do other than go to bed and try and get some sleep. It was impossible, and I’d spent the next five hours staring at the ceiling and thinking about what that sinister creep Vidar might be doing to my soulmate.

  Eventually I’d given up and climbed into the shower, which did little to make me feel better. Unpeeling the dressings on my hands, I ran them under the warm water and inspected the damage. Only tiny pink lines remained – the booster I’d taken before bed had done its job. As I leaned out and dropped the rags into the bin, I vowed never to let myself lose control like that again. In the last few weeks I’d been acting irrationally and making mistakes, and I knew it. But people depended on me…Alex depended on me.

  I’d forgotten to buy any food over the last few days, so my fridge was empty, and despite everything I was hungry. Throwing on some old clothes, I headed downstairs to find something for breakfast from the kitchens. It was then that I saw the first sign of Faru’s reappearance into our world. A Golem was stationed by the side of the Nexus entrance whilst two workmen replaced the glass that I’d smashed. If I hadn’t been so shocked to see the clay giant, I probably would have felt guilty for my act of vandalism.

  He’s back.

  I stormed up the stairs and bowed down in front of his portrait. A few seconds later, I felt the grip of his mind, and I almost wept with joy.

  “Gabriella. Sage Etorre has just come to speak with me. Is it urgent?”

  “Yes sir, it is.”

  “Very well; please come in.”

  A few seconds later the picture swirled around, and the steps descended towards where I knelt. I didn’t stop running until I was in his office. Sage Etorre was studying an almost-finished Golem that Sage Faru was working on. They both turned to me.

  “I am surprised you aren’t with Alexander. After we have spoken, please go and collect him. After all of this horror at least I believe I actually have some good news.”

  “I can’t. He’s being interrogated by Vidar. They accused him of treason, and they are probably torturing him.” I pointed a finger accusingly at Sage Etorre. “And you let it happen.” I almost spat the words.

  “What?” Sage Faru cast the carving knife onto the table and turned to Etorre. “Sage Etorre, is this true?”

  “Yes.”

  “Why did you not tell me?”

  “I was getting to that. A lot has happened while you were gone.”

  “Dear Elementals,” said Sage Faru, moving across the office. “We must stop this now.”

  Sage Etorre moved in front of us. “You can’t do that, Sage Faru. Alexander has been accused of treason, and they have proof. He attacked a dozen people and put them in the Recovery Centre. He almost killed your lead interrogator!”

  “He is not a traitor!” shouted Sage Faru. “He is possessed.”

  I barged past my old Sage, trotting after Faru, who was sweeping down the corridor at the speed of a tornado. Etorre turned and followed us, his cape swirling like a magician’s prop.

  “Impossible. Chosen cannot get possessed.”

  “This one is.”

  “Then you must let the interrogation take place. To find out what the Lamiae knows.”

  Sage Faru whipped his head around. “He is not possessed by something as inconsequential as a Lamiae, you fool. He is possessed by The Sorrow.”

  The Sage faltered in his steps. “My god, The Sorrow?”

  “Everyone in that interrogation room is in grave
danger.”

  “That marking we all spoke of? It is possessing him?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then you must call a meeting of the Sages immediately. This must be discussed.”

  Sage Faru ripped down the stairs. “The time for discussion is over. This is a time for action.”

  28

  Alex

  Vidar slapped the side of my face, hard. “No time for reflection now, boy, I need answers.” He leaned in towards me, his menacing eyes glaring into mine. “There was an attack on the Obsidian, whilst you were on it no less. Why?”

  Through my sobs, the darkness replied. “The target was meant to be your precious Sage. We took control and sent the Soldiers of Sorrow our coordinates from the boy’s device. We told them to send Succubi, but they sent those asinine Wendigos. They just attack. We were never intended to be the target.”

  I felt so sick. I didn’t know what to do. All this time we had been talking about traitors, but I had never imagined for a second it was me. Even with everything I had been going through. My own body and mind had betrayed me.

  I wanted to die.

  Vidar nodded. “Now we are getting somewhere.” He set the empty injector on the table and picked up one of the curved blades. Spinning it in his hand, he stared into my eyes.

  “There was an attack on this base two days ago. The perimeter sensors were deactivated so that the SOS could enter here undetected. Was that you?”

  The darkness remained silent. I tried to speak, but I had lost control of my voice. Vidar stood up. “Was that you?” he repeated.

  Silence.

  “Very well.”

  He began to slice the blade along the lines of the tattoo. I wailed as my flesh sizzled and purple smoke lifted from the wounds he carved on my chest. “STOOOP!” I screamed.

  “Not until one of you answers my question. Was it you?”

  He had carved a ten-inch line from my shoulder down to my stomach. Blood oozed out of the wounds and onto his hand.

  “I’m guessing that you might enjoy the boy’s pain. But I’m also guessing you need the body in one piece. You got my niece killed. I won’t stop until he is a lump of meat. I’d suggest you answer my question soon.”