Descendant

by S. M. Gaither

  His hand flew towards me, but I managed to move fast enough to catch his fist. He overpowered me easy enough, though, and then he got his fingers wrapped around my wrist and twisted it. Hard. It made a sick sort of popping noise, and white-hot pain burned up through my arm.

  I managed to fight my way out of his grasp, but it didn’t do me much good, because he’d backed me up against the wall, and he was so close I could barely move.

  When his hand shot at me again, there was no avoiding it.

  He went for my throat this time. His hand wrapped around my neck and tightened so much I could barely gag, and then he lifted me up and slammed me against the wall.

  I couldn’t speak.

  Couldn’t breathe.

  My head was pounding. I was just hanging there, vaguely thinking that this had to be the most painful way anybody could possibly die, when the claws came out.

  So it could get more painful, apparently.

  I felt them slide into the side of my neck, cutting right through the skin like it was made of air. I tried to scream, but I could barely even get a weak cough out.

  My vision started to dim.

  And then I heard what sounded like a gunshot.

  At first I thought I’d lost too much oxygen; that I must’ve been imagining that sound. But then Markus’s grip on my throat relaxed, and his body slumped against me and slid to the floor.

  My hands braced against the wall behind me as I watched him fall.

  I took several deep, painful breaths before I found the nerve to look up again.

  Kael was walking quickly toward me, a lowered gun at his side. He didn’t say anything as he approached, just bent down and grabbed Markus by the arm and pulled him toward the nearest door, leaving a trail of bloody streaks in his wake. The door turned out to be unlocked after all.

  Figures.

  He threw Markus inside the room, then turned back and grabbed me too. I was still shaking too hard to put up much of a fight.

  Kael shut the door quietly behind us and turned to me. He reached out a hand and ran it across my neck, just below where Markus’ claws had dug in. His touch was gentle, but I couldn’t keep myself from flinching.

  “It’s not that deep, at least,” he said quietly, more to himself than me. Then he looked straight into my eyes. And again I flinched. “You should calm down,” he said. “So it can heal faster.”

  “You shot him.” That was all I kept thinking, all I could manage to say.

  “Yeah.” He looked away. “He’s not dead though, if it makes you feel any better,” he muttered.

  I stared at Markus’s lifeless figure.

  “It was just one bullet. I don’t have a whole lot to spare. And it wasn’t pure silver. He’ll be unconscious for a while, and have one hell of a headache when he wakes up, but other than that…” He trailed off with a shrug.

  I don’t know what made me do it, but I dropped to my knees beside Markus and placed two fingers over his neck, checking for a pulse. It was faint. But it was there.

  “He tried to kill you,” Kael reminded me.

  “I know,” I said, climbing back to my feet. I stumbled a bit, still feeling a little shaky, but Kael caught me before I could fall.

  “Are you going to be okay?” he asked.

  I straightened up again, and managed to keep my balance this time. “That depends,” I said, massaging my hurt wrist. It felt like it was starting to swell.

  “On?”

  “On what the hell is going on here.”

  Silently, Kael stepped back to the door. He cracked it just enough so he could look out.

  “What are you doing?” I demanded. “And what was Sera doing? Why did she help me?”

  “Because I asked her to.”

  “But why? You’re the one that brought me into this place—only so you could help me escape? That doesn’t make any sense.”

  “If I hadn’t brought you here, you would’ve ended up here anyway. Either by getting captured, or storming the gates in your trademark recklessly stupid fashion. I just worked it out so the circumstances were a little more in our favor—so that I had some sort of control over what happened to you.”

  I fixed him with a hard stare. I didn’t know what to believe anymore.

  “Where is ‘here’, anyway?” I asked.

  He closed the door again and looked back at me. “This is where Emily and the others were taken. This is where your sister was taken.”

  It took a minute for the full meaning behind his words to sink in.

  “If this is…Then that means…He’s here? Valkos I mean. Here.”

  Kael nodded.

  “Where?” I started toward the door. “And why are we still standing here? Where is he?”

  “He’s probably looking for me at the moment,” Kael said. He grabbed my arm and pulled me back away from the door. “Because I think he might be starting to get suspicious.”

  The pain in my wrist might’ve been making me delusional, but I’m pretty sure Kael sounded amused.

  I stopped trying to fight my way to the door and looked up at him. “Just who exactly are you, anyway?”

  Kael stared into my eyes for a second, but instead of answering my question, he nodded toward a door on the other side of the room.

  “That gunshot’s probably not going to go unnoticed,” he said. “We’ve got places to be, and it doesn’t look like we’re going to be able to go back the way we came. I think the room this one connects to has a door to the basement. Or at least I’m hoping it does.”

  He started across the room.

  I stayed where I was, shaking my head. “You expect me to just follow you? Just like that?”

  He stopped and turned halfway around. “Yeah. And if you could speed it up, that would be great—because I don’t really want to be here when they find him,” he said, pointing the barrel of his gun toward Markus.

  “Yeah, well I don’t really want to end up like him,” I said, pointing at Markus myself.

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Why should I trust you?”

  “Maybe,” he started, taking an angry step back toward me. “Because I saved your life just now? And maybe because it’s not the first time I’ve done it? Look—I don’t have time to explain what’s going on. And it’s too dangerous for you to know everything, anyway.”

  “Too dangerous? That’s the best you can come up with?”

  He walked back to my side and casted an anxious look towards the hallway. When he spoke again, it was in an edgy voice just louder than a whisper.

  “You need me to spell it out for you?” he asked. “Fine. We both know you still can’t keep your thoughts to yourself, so if you know what’s going on—if you know what my plans are—then so does the enemy. Got it?”

  “I—”

  “So you’re just going to have to follow my lead and do what I say, and just trust me on this, alright?”

  I folded my arms across my chest, still not willing to budge—although I had to admit Kael did the pleading look surprisingly well.

  He sighed. “I know you think you can do everything yourself,” he said. Some of the anger faded from his eyes. “I know you want to. But you can’t. Not this. If you can’t trust anybody else, ever, just please…just trust me this one last time.”

  I don’t know what I would’ve said to that, but I didn’t get the chance to say anything. Because at that moment I heard voices, and they were so loud they had to have been just outside the door.

  Kael and I exchanged a quick glance. “Look—I’ll fill you in on what I can on the way,” he said.

  That familiar feeling came back, urging me to trust him. But I couldn’t. Not this time.

  Not after what he’d done.

  But I didn’t know what else to do, so when he turned and started across the room again, I followed.

  “Are Emily and the others okay?” I asked, jogging a few steps to catch up with him.

  Kael waited until we’d reached the next
room to answer. “Yeah,” he said, heading for the far corner of the room. “I made sure they got out before I came looking for you. They went back to tell the others what’s going on, and to hopefully bring some help.”

  “How did you get them out?”

  We reached the corner, and he dropped to his knees and felt along the tiled stone floor until his hand fell on what I suddenly realized was a handle. It was almost perfectly camouflaged against the grey and white rock. He gripped it and shoved until it slid open, revealing a long staircase fashioned crudely out of rock.

  I thought about making a lame joke about heading “to the batcave, Robin!”, but I managed to contain myself. Barely.

  “I know my around this place better than just about anyone,” Kael said. He stepped down into the darkness and offered me his hand.

  I didn’t take it, opting to pick my own careful way down the steep steps.

  “When the last major war between us shifters was still going on,” Kael continued as we descended, “it was used as a fortress, and its structure’s pretty complicated—lots of stuff like hidden doors, and paths, and tunnels like this one underneath it all.”

  “Good thing I’m not claustrophobic,” I muttered as I ducked to avoid hitting my head on the low ceiling.

  “The path opens up a little more ahead,” he said.

  “Why exactly do you know so much about this place?”

  Kael didn’t answer at first. The stairs finally came to an end a few minutes later. After walking for a little bit on the leveled ground, we came, as Kael had promised, to an area that was a lot roomier.

  “Well?” I pressed. “Why?”

  “Because,” he finally said. “I was the one in charge of building it. It was a hell of a job too—most of it’s underground and cut straight out of the mountainside. It was a serious pain in the—”

  “You mean you built it for Valkos?” I interrupted.

  “Yeah.”

  “So you fought for him.”

  “I was one of the best soldiers he had in his whole damn army,” he said under his breath as he shoved past me.

  We’d come to a fork in the tunnel, and he studied both sides for a second before nodding to the right. “This way,” he said.

  “The ones in the woods,” I said suddenly, hurrying after him. “They all listened to you. And you brought me here and...You’re still fighting for him, aren’t you?”

  He cut his eyes sideways at me. “Yeah, hopefully they all still think that, too,” he said. “But like I said earlier, I think Valkos is starting to catch on. Some of the others too— like Markus. Not that we have to worry about him anymore.”

  “But you live with Eli, and Will, and Vanessa. How did you…?”

  “That was supposedly an undercover operation.”

  “So you’ve been lying to them. To everybody.”

  “I did what I had to do, Alex. And I promise it will all make sense when I get the chance to explain. But storytime’s going to have to wait, because right now we’ve got other things to worry about.” He stopped and felt along the wall for a minute, until his hand fell on what looked like a metal ladder. “This is our stop,” he said.

  I stared uncertainly at the ladder and didn’t move.

  “I’m on your side,” he said quietly.

  “How do I know that isn’t just another one of your lies?”

  “Because up this ladder is an empty storage room. And just down the hall from it is the room where they’re keeping your sister.”

  My stomach gave a funny little lurch. I stared at him, mouth open slightly in disbelief.

  “I swear, if you’re lying to me right now… I swear I’ll…”

  I couldn’t even think of a strong enough threat.

  “There’s only one way to find out,” he muttered, glancing up the ladder.

  My eyes narrowed. “Fine,” I said, stepping toward the ladder. I placed a hand on either side of it and started to hoist myself up. But the second I put pressure on my wrist, another sharp pain shot up my arm, and I stumbled and fell back against Kael, who looked down at me with a worried look.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing,” I said. “It’s just my wrist. It’s not a big deal.” I started to reach for the ladder again, but Kael stopped me.

  He stepped in front of me and lifted both of my wrists so he could compare them side by side.

  “It’s not that bad,” I said impatiently.

  “The one on the left is about twice the size of the other one. I’m no doctor, but I’m pretty sure that’s not okay.”

  “I’ll tough it out,” I said, vainly attempting to shove my way around him.

  “Did Markus do that to you?” he asked.

  I shrugged. “It could’ve been worse.”

  “I should’ve put a few more bullets in him,” Kael muttered, looking back like he was thinking about going and doing it.

  “Yeah, well maybe you can do that later,” I said, finally managing to slip around him.

  “Hang on.” He put a hand on my shoulder and stopped me again just as my foot hit the bottom rung. “It’s a long way to the top.” Before I could argue back, he suddenly grabbed me and literally threw me over his shoulder.

  “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

  “I’m carrying you. Deal with it.”

  “You know, I would say this is heroic of you, but for some reason it just strikes me as more barbaric than anything else. Only you forgot to club me over the head first.”

  “Keep it up and I might just do that.”

  “You would.”

  “Just shut up and hold on.”

  I obeyed, but only because he darted up that ladder so quick I didn’t even have a chance to think about doing anything else. It might’ve been a long way to the top, but we scaled it in no time at all. Once we reached the top, Kael placed a palm on the solid looking ceiling and shoved. The stone moved and light flooded in, blinding me for a second.

  Kael pushed the door the rest of the way over and we climbed up and into an empty room. I jumped off his back as quick as I could and followed him to the door.

  He glanced up and down the hallway a few times and then motioned for me to follow. We moved quietly until we reached an adjacent hall, at which point Kael stopped and turned back to me.

  “Your sister’s at the end of this hall.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a handful of silver bullets. My hands flew to my ears, trying to block out the buzzing as I watched him mess with the gun. “These aren’t just coated—they’re pure silver,” he said.

  “Does that not give you a headache?” I asked.

  “You get used to it after a couple centuries,” he said with a half-smile, rolling the now-loaded chamber shut and handing the gun to me. “Here. Just in case.”

  I took it with shaking hands. “What am I supposed to do with this?”

  “Aim it? Fire it? That’s what I would do—considering it’s a gun, you know?”

  “I know what it is, smart ass—”

  “But you don’t have a lot of bullets, so don’t get too crazy.”

  “I’ve never fired a gun in my life,” I told him.

  “Well in that case, make sure you don’t aim at anything close to me,” he said offhand, glancing around the corner as he spoke. Then he turned back and fixed me with a serious stare. “Okay. I’ll be right back. You stay right here and don’t—”

  “What? No way! I’m coming with you!”

  “Could you be any louder?” he asked, looking anxiously around the corner again. “And no, you’re not coming with me,” he added in a strangled whisper. “Not yet. Your sister’s not alone in there, and I’m going to have a hard enough time convincing whoever’s standing guard to let me take her. If you’re with me it’s obviously going to look a lot more suspicious.”

  “But I—”

  “Hopefully this won’t take long. There’s a tunnel that leads outside in the last room on the right down there,” he pointed toward
s the end of the hall. “If I’m not back in ten minutes, or if it sounds like things are going badly, you take it and don’t look back. Got it?”

  “Kael, I’m not going to—”

  “Actually, maybe you should just wait for me near that tunnel?”

  “I won’t know what’s going on. I won’t—”

  “If you do stay here, don’t talk to anybody, and don’t go wandering off. If you need to hide, I think most of the rooms along this wing are unlocked, and if you—”

  “Okay. I get it,” I finally snapped, shaking my head in frustration. He obviously wasn’t paying attention to anything I was saying, and we were wasting time here. “Will you just hurry up and go and get back already?”

  He nodded but didn’t move.

  “What is it?” I asked.

  There was a strange look in his eyes that I couldn’t quite make sense of. “Just…I’m serious about what I said. If you need to get out—get out.”

  “I know.”

  “I probably shouldn’t have brought you in here—”

  “It’s okay.”

  “—but if I hadn’t, then they would have known, my cover would have been blown, and I—”

  “Kael?” My voice was a little louder than I meant for it to be. Both of us took a second to check the hallways nervously, then I bent closer and finished in a harsh whisper: “Why are you still standing here? If you don’t go get my sister, I’m going to.”

  “Right.” He started to turn away, but hesitated one last time. “Just…please don’t do anything reckless,” he said.

  Before I could help myself, I gave him a small smile. “Please. When have I ever done anything reckless?”

  He frowned, but he didn’t say anything else. And then he turned and disappeared down the hall.

  18

  willing

  Save for me, the hall was completely empty now that Kael was gone.

  Which was good, I guess, but it was also making me uneasy.

  Because it didn’t make sense for it to be like this.

  If Valkos’s forces really were growing, then where were all of the people who should’ve been standing in our way?