by Nathan Parks
A small, startled screech came from her lips, the same sound a child might make when suddenly startled while getting a cookie from the jar. She looked up to see if the figure had heard her. He must have, because he had turned and was looking straight in her direction.
“I am the one talking to you.” She heard the voice again as if it were talking in a normal conversation, but it was clearly in her conscience. “You are looking at me right now.”
Her eyes widened as she realized that she was hearing the voice of the lone figure in her head. She was scared, but at the same time it all seemed natural. She refocused her thoughts.
“What do you mean, you know what I am?” she asked through her thoughts.
He started walking toward her, and she found herself backing quickly down the stairs, keeping herself facing this stranger. She saw his face as he passed through some light, and then she recognized him!
“Kadar? Yes, that was his name,” she thought. She whispered audibly, “What are you doing here? I don’t . . .”
“Understand?” he finished.
He was now standing at the top of the stairs, looking toward her as she stopped midway down the stairs.
“I know you don’t understand, but right now we don’t have time to explain it all. We have to get you out of here, or we may not have a chance for you to understand anything.”
Eve shook her head. “I have to find out what is going on with Megan.”
“She isn’t here, and right now that is all you need to know. If you don’t follow me, it really won’t matter what is going on with her or Alfonso.”
That caught her attention.
“Alfonso? What’s going on with Alfonso? What do you mean?”
Kadar winced at her voice level. He turned and looked toward the door of Megan’s apartment. He did not want to fight Denora right now. That would throw a wrench in a lot of things if he had to explain to Arioch why he was even here and why he killed off one of Arioch’s best Lieutenants. He swept past Eve as he grabbed her arm and pulled her with him.
“You’ve got to learn to keep that voice of yours down.”
Eve tried to pull away from Kadar, but he had a firm grip on her. She found herself being almost dragged down the stairs. From the top of the stairs she heard a commotion, just as a female’s voice yelled out.
“Kadar! Stop!”
“In Lucifer’s name,” he swore.
There was no way he could keep going. Denora was very quick, and he knew that she had no problem taking this out onto the streets. She always was very ready to pour things out into the mortal realm instead of keeping things behind the curtain. Kadar turned to look up at her, but pulled Eve behind him.
“Well, well, Denora, of all the places to run into you . . . and so close to dinner. We should maybe catch a bite to eat?”
Behind her Kadar could see the owner of the third voice, but didn’t recognize him.
“Oh, but then I see you have a date for this evening already. And may I ask his name?”
“Stop with your games, Kadar. I want to know why you killed my Shadow Warrior, and now you are sneaking out with a mortal?”
“Hmm . . . well, I’ll tell you what. You answer my question, and I will answer yours.”
He wanted to know who this other individual was so that he knew what he was up against. He couldn’t tell if this figure was just a Familiar or Possessed. The man stepped out from behind Denora where he was clearly visible to Eve and Kadar.
“Why don’t you ask me what my name is? I am not Denora’s puppet.” The last words were said with a sadistic sarcasm. “And if you ask me really politely, I may even treat you and your sexy delicacy there to dinner myself.”
Eve’s body went rigid as his words hit her soul with filth and degradation. “I have my dinner date already, so a sterile degenerate is not needed,” Eve answered coldly.
Kadar couldn’t help but break a smile on that one. She could hold her own ground! Once she discovered her full potential, she may be a contender for him.
“Well, I can’t answer for the lady, but I know that I don’t have time to play these games. She lives here in the building, and I had just come to pick her up for a date as she just stated. As for your so-called guard, Denora, I just needed some sport. You know us Assassin types . . . and to be an Outcast, too. I guess you can say it is just who I am.”
Denora knew that Kadar was lying, but she wasn’t sure about which part. She stood there looking down at him. She had never had a run-in with the Assassin; and most likely that was good, because most who did, weren’t around to talk about it. However, she felt there was something she was missing here.
“You are still under the pay of Arioch, correct?” she asked.
He grimaced inside. He really needed to get out of here before too much came out that he would have to explain to Eve later. He didn’t need her to know anymore than he wanted her to know.
“Denora, unless we have some unfinished business, I suggest that we cut this here. We are going to leave, and you are going to leave in the other direction. Do you catch my drift?”
He looked at her in full seriousness. He wasn’t going to have everything unravel here.
Denora looked at Kadar, her eyes squinting as she tried to figure him out. “I don’t know what you are up to right now, Kadar, but understand that I will let Arioch know that we had this encounter. I will let him decide if there is anything else to this.”
“That’s fine,” Kadar stated matter-of-factly. “Now we are leaving.”
He turned, yet still kept himself between Eve and Denora.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Denora watched Kadar and Eve walk outside and then turned to her partner. “Not her puppet?” she questioned. “Drake, let me tell you something. I have no problem slitting you right up the center of your body. Do I make myself clear?”
Drake’s eyes flashed, and he bared his fangs.
A full possession to the point a mortal became a Halfling, a being that cannot separate from the Possessor except through death, usually took years, but Drake’s had taken only hours. He now held every characteristic of a Fallen, except that he was not supernatural or immortal. His face was emblazoned with new tribal artwork in honor of his master.
“Denora, let me tell you something,” he seethed. “I am not a mere Familiar, and you don’t have to like me, but you will be working with me. You do not even know what I am capable of, so do not tempt me. As a simple mortal, I had no problem with disfiguring or maiming the whores that wouldn’t do what I wanted them to do, and that taste is only enhanced now.”
They stood face-to-face for a moment, and then Denora disintegrated in front of him. No matter what he became, he still was limited by mortal law; and he could walk back to The Vortex.
Kadar and Eve quickly made their way several blocks down the street before Eve refocused herself and suddenly stopped. This was it! She was done! She was finished, and that was that! She didn’t want anyone to talk, or explain, or say that she may not understand. All she wanted right now was sanity and her life back.
“Ok, first of all, who in the world are you? And don’t tell me your name again or any schmooze! All I know is I met you a couple of days ago, and now you keep turning up in my life. All of a sudden you materialize in front of me, talk to me through my thoughts, and talk your way out of a fight with some sick, perverted duo. I don’t know who you are, where my friend is . . . and what in the world are you talking about when you said something about Alfonso?”
Her words tumbled out of her mouth in the same jumbled mess as her thoughts within her head.
Kadar loved this! She was trying to be so strong, yet, she was so vulnerable. She was exactly where he needed her right now. She needed him, and he had all of the “right” answers to help her out of this “crisis” . . . and it didn’t hurt any that she really was so much more striking when she was so determined!
“I have a lot of answers, but we have to find a better place for me to g
ive them to you. I am sure that Denora is already in front of Arioch, and he is going to send someone to find out what I was doing there.”
She didn’t think she wanted any more words, any more explanations, but she began to have second thoughts. “Well, maybe I should stay around so that I at least can find out what you were doing there, also.”
“Trust me.” He shook his head. “You would rather find out from me than from them. Denora is not a Familiar. She is a true Fallen, demon, vampire--whatever she is, she is evil. If he sends her back to try to find me, you wouldn’t last long. She hates mortals, I believe, more than she hates the Alliance.”
Eve’s head shot up. “What do you know about the Alliance? Who are you?”
“I am like you, Eve.” Kadar’s voice softened.
That was the last thing she wanted to hear right now. She turned and walked away. She didn’t have anything more to say. She just wanted out! Someone just please show her the exit!
“Eve, just listen to what I have to say! I know about Leah and the Alliance. I know about the Fallen and the Jerusalem Breed. I know everything, but ask yourself why haven’t they told you about me?”
She turned and looked at him with disgust. “Even after I say I am done, you still are going to play games? Listen, Kadar, I don’t owe you anything, and I don’t even know you enough to be subject to this cat-and-mouse play! Why didn’t they tell me? Well, because I am starting to believe that no one out there really knows what is going on, and they all are loonies. Or maybe all of this is true, but for some reason everyone is like a cat on catnip when it comes to me. The way I look at it is if I am so important that people keep stumbling over themselves around me, then I must control the ball; and you all will start playing my game.”
Wow, she was continually showing better skills than any of them most likely imagined. He didn’t know why he had counted her naive, but he stood corrected. He also saw he was losing the upper hand quickly. Time to switch gears.
“Eve, I am sorry. You are right. You are important, but the only way that you can realize how important is to have all the facts.”
“And I am sure you are prepared to give them all to me? Leah supposedly told me everything I was supposed to know; yet, here you are saying you can give me all the facts. I know nothing about you! So, why should I believe any of you? You each say you can tell me all the facts!
“Only a couple of days ago I was simply a tattoo artist with my own studio, minding my own business. Now, supposedly, I am this huge piece of an eternal puzzle that was thought to have been missing.”
“Is that what they told you?”
“Sure. Are your facts better than theirs?”
Kadar took a breath in order to break the momentum and bring it back to his control. He stopped for a second, and then looked up at her with all the sincerity that he could muster.
“Eve, they must have told you that you are a Nephelium.”
She started to say something, but he stopped her. “Just let me say this, and then you make the choice. I will not force you to do anything.”
She motioned for him to go ahead.
“Most likely they told you that you were the only Nephelium left, and that they wanted you to help them hold off some kind of supernatural battle or something like that. Eve, they aren’t telling you everything. It isn’t that simple. It is never just that simple. I am a Nephelium, and I was there at the café that night because another of our kind told me you would be there. We are trying to bring all of us who are scattered across this globe back together.”
“Us? How many are we talking about?”
“We don’t know. Some of what they told you was probably true. They most likely told you about how we came about and about our heritage.”
She shook her head. “We are supposedly descendants from some god and his worshipers,” Eve started, “and then we got thrown out from some supernatural family tree. We have been killed throughout the years, and now all of us are supposed to be . . .”
“Dead?” Kadar supplied.
She nodded.
He loved it. Either Leah had forgotten to tell her the difference between the Nephelium and the Jerusalem Breed or all this information was just getting jumbled in her mind. It didn’t matter, because he was right on target.
“Eve, you are not alone in this. You have so much to still learn; but we, the rest of us, need to come back together in order to stand as our own family.”
“A clan, you mean?”
“Well, yes, of sorts. All I know is there are a lot of things going on, and you need the answers.”
She stopped for a moment, trying to process all of this. “What I don’t get, though, is if there are more of us, then why does it seem that I am so important to everyone? Why aren’t they after you? Everyone is giving me answers, but no one is giving me answers that make sense! I mean that freak of a lady back there knew who you were.”
“That is a whole other part of this altogether, Eve,” Kadar explained. “There are more important things we need to discuss right now, such as Megan and Alfonso.”
In all of this, Eve had forgotten why she had even come over to Megan’s apartment.
“Talk to me. I am getting tired of these games and everyone popping up in my life with these illusions of fantasy. I don’t even know right now whom to trust or even what to trust. Where are Megan and Alfonso?”
“Not here, Eve. There are too many chances of being discovered. Let’s find a different place, and then I will answer any of the questions I can. We do have to hurry, because we are going to have to take some steps in helping those two out.”
Eve kept her guard up, but she figured that right now he was a doorway to answers. She felt a drawing to him that seemed to fit, even though she could not understand it.
Answers? Well, maybe there weren’t any straight answers. Choices? There seemed to be a lot of those, but which were the right ones, she wasn’t sure. She did know that right now there were two friends that seem to have fallen outside the loop of everything, and she didn’t like that at all. They could mess with her all they wanted; but start messing with those she cared about, especially Alfonso and Megan, and she was going to do something about it.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
He smelled dust and dirt, but all he could see was the blackness of the light-void room around him. His arms were numb, evidently from their being secured outstretched by chains for so long. He thought he could feel dried blood upon his face.
He may be what some would say beyond his prime, but Alfonso still had a lot of his physical and mental strength with him. He was not sure how long he had been unconscious, but he knew he had to be smart about whatever he did next. He had heard the stories about what the Fallen had done to the Brotherhood and the things they were able to do to get a Watcher to spill secrets. He wasn’t sure if he was here because of the secrets he may know or because someone had realized who Eve was. He hoped the first, because if it was the latter, then they all were in more danger than they knew. None of the Alliance had believed that the Fallen knew about Eve. However, if they did know about her, the one in the most danger was Eve herself. They would truly kill her.
Alfonso just stopped really thinking for a moment and cleared his mind. He needed to become aware of his surroundings and try to see what predicament he was actually in. He stretched his neck to one side and then the other and tried to relax his shoulders and arm muscles to see if he could relieve some of the pressure on them, and then he just listened. At first there was nothing but the sound that rushes in one’s ears when they are alone in a closed room and the darkness holds them close. He could hear the sound of his own breathing and his pulse within his ear; but other than that, there was no sound.
He tried to focus his eyes to pick up any visual stimulation that may give him a clue of what his prison was and if he could discover the identity of his captors. He was pretty sure that it had to be part of Arioch’s group. He didn’t think that Adremalech would send any more of
the clan into the territory of one of his Lieutenants, and the Alliance had already started believing that there was a good chance Arioch was about to strike for some reason.
Alfonso couldn’t make anything out visually, not even a crack around a door that would offer any suggestion as in which direction the entry was. All he could tell was he was in an enclosed area that smelled old and earthy, almost like the lower areas where the Brotherhood would meet in secret in Rome.
Leaning his head against the wall to his left, Alfonso closed his eyes. He wasn’t sure why he did that other than for symbolic purposes. He began to dwell on his inner thoughts.
“You know, Jah, the Watchers have done Your work since before the day You chose the 12. From the exile, we have been there. We have followed You, rarely questioned You, and, for the most part, the majority of us have stayed faithful and true. Why, in all of this, have You allowed our numbers to dwindle and for us to be taken out in such a fashion? Do You not reward those who do Your will? Do You find Your true followers so expendable?”
Alfonso opened his eyes, but nothing had changed. He returned to his form of questioning and controlled his breathing even more, blocking out anything that would be contrary to what he was praying.
“I feel that You are not who You have promised. Have we been simply mortal fools, pawns within Your cosmic game of chess? Do You truly care?”
There it was! A small hiss. If he had not been concentrating, he would have never heard it, but he knew what he was listening for. He continued.
“Here I sit in a time of need, and the world is dark around me. Where are You?”
The old man kept his breathing in a relaxed state, ensuring that the only thing that his mind was dwelling on was the line of questioning and doubt.
“You use us for Your whims, and then You throw us to the dogs.”
He was sure now! There was a flutter in the darkness over his head, but he couldn’t allow any feeling of satisfaction come over him or this would not work out the way it was supposed to. One more element should set everything in motion.