The Vapor

by Nathan Parks

  ◆◆◆

  Tanisha watched her husband’s face disappear from her phone, and she leaned back in her chair. Her notes were scattered all around her. Usually, her work brought security and peace; but at this moment, the words, papers, and information that lay out in front of her did anything but that. She always attempted, as a student of history, to keep an open mind. She understood that history revealed itself in pieces; and because of that, much of it was left to the interpretation of the one analyzing it.

  Years ago she had learned to allow her mind to remain open, but this . . . this was so “out there” that she wondered if it was a false narrative. It wouldn’t be the first time that a historical find that seemed so bizarre and outlandish turned out to be exactly what it seemed.

  “It has to be,” she whispered to herself, “but what does your gut tell you, Tanisha?”

  She closed her eyes and leaned back. If there was even the slightest chance that any of this could be true, then who would believe her? What did she do with it? Who did she show? She really hoped that Gerault could shed some more light and even more answers.

  She needed to get her stuff together. This was going to be more than just a small trip.

  Chapter Seven

  The only sound that could be heard at the moment was the beeping of the medical equipment and the whirring of the printout on the girl’s vitals. Without any knowledge of anything else, one would think that this was just an ordinary hospital room in which a patient slept peacefully; but the figure standing right outside the glass wall, peering in, didn’t feel at peace. She felt anger. That anger had been rising for some time within her. It was something that she had been able to package up and use at the right moment in time for the right purpose, but that was getting increasingly difficult every day. Tonight, it was really hard.

  She felt she was not only losing control but also losing any sense of sanity and authority. For the last five years, it seemed that more and more the Arch Council was stripping her authority away; and with each passing day, she felt more and more secluded.

  “What do you make of it, Leah?” Gideon asked as he walked up beside her and nodded in the direction of the teen girl lying in a comatose state. “Did you see Serenity and Chad’s report?”

  She placed both hands against the panes of glass and then leaned her forehead in between them. “I did.”

  “And?”

  “I don’t know, Gideon. I just don’t know. I am so tired. I have been tired before, but this is different.” She turned and leaned her back against the glass wall and crossed her arms. She looked at him, her hair hanging down around her face, but he could still see the weariness. She looked at her friend of so long a time and just wanted to let it all go. She couldn’t, because she was his leader . . . but she wanted to. She wanted to let him know everything that was in her right now.

  “Gideon, from the start of all of this I felt separated from the Council and Scintillantes . . . ever since the whole deal with Eve. Then I felt that they were using me . . . or I should say using us.”

  Gideon had been on Leah’s team long enough to know that he just needed to let her talk. He could see the inner struggle within her, and he also knew how dangerous it was for an Eternal to hold in so much; it was the thin line they walked. Questioning was never wrong; but anger, rage, and bitterness could become seeds of rebellion. At that point . . . well, a Clan somewhere would gain a new member, or the Eternal would become a Vapor—something not aligned to the Clans but no longer welcome in the realm of the Eternals. Usually, an Eternal who turned now did not last long. They usually had enough enemies within the Clans, who didn’t care if they were Fallen or not, that they would be killed.

  “Leah, why all of this tonight?”

  She closed her eyes and allowed the rhythm of the medical instruments beeping to clear out her thoughts. “Why?”

  She finally opened her eyes and turned to look at him. He would make a great Alliance leader one day—well, that is if he could get rid of the tinge of rebel in him . . . but then, again, maybe that is what made her such a good leader.

  “The Council has called me to a meeting tomorrow. They are making the final say on my leading this team.”

  Gideon stood there quietly, very sober. With everything that had been going on, he had forgotten that the Arch Council was supposed to give their final judgment.

  It had been five years since they were given the orders to protect Eve and to keep her from the Fallens. They had done so but to the Arch Council maybe not as well as they expected. The female Nephelium was now considered a rogue, the first Jerusalem Breed that chose not to align with the Alliance or Jah.

  It also didn’t help matters that her Watcher—one of the last, if not the last—had been killed. Since that time, it had seemed that everything they had handed to Leah and her team had set them up for failure, a way to ensure that records were kept to finally have enough evidence to strip her of her authority and leadership . . . an exile without being exiled.

  “Any possible clue?”

  “No, no one is talking. I have reached out a few times to Nemamiah, but there is a wall of silence. I am worn out, Gideon. I have dedicated the mass portion of my existence for all this,” she stated as she looked around. “Don’t misunderstand me; I would do it again, but I just don’t know how much more I have left. It does not feel as if we have accomplished a lot.”

  “Yeah, but that is the hard thing about what we do. Many times, it is not about what we can see we accomplished but what we can’t see that we prevented. How many generations have been saved from Clan enslavement because we have been the front battlement to a world unknown and misunderstood by the very ones we protect?”

  She listened to his words and then exhaled a long sigh as she ran her fingers through her hair, turning and looking back at the young girl inside the med tech room of the Sanctum.

  “Changing the subject . . . I read the complete team’s report, but I still don’t understand why it is I have a teen girl lying inside my med room.”

  Gideon stood beside her, his dark hair ruffed up and his arms crossed. He was wearing a pair of his most comfortable jeans, ripped at the knees. It accented his smoking-gun shirt. The shirt had been an anniversary gift from Jackie whom he started dating soon after he had rescued her from The Vortex. Many had frowned upon their relationship, one between an Eternal and a mortal, especially one who did not adhere to much of the beliefs that dictated the movement of the Alliance. However, they had pushed through the naysayers; and many who were against it had moved on to other things about which to complain.

  “All I know, Leah, is that there was activity in that place tonight, but it wasn’t anything like I had seen before. It balanced on organized and unorganized. There were all the signs of a nest: the organized part. I mean, there were cutting instruments, hallucinogens, a feeding room, and Fallen. That is about where the organized part stopped, though.”

  “Well, none of that is news. We knew it was a nest. Was there any doubt that the property had been purchased by the Fallen? We just didn’t know which House. We have our suspicions that it was Hecate but no real proof.”

  “That is the thing, Leah. We still don’t know. There were no clear or visible signs of a specific House. I am afraid that our hunch could be true; we are looking at the rise of the next generation of a new House or a mixture of something more.”

  The glass doors to the room opened silently and smoothly on unseen mechanics as Leah and Gideon moved into the room. Leah began to take a closer look at the young girl lying there.

  She looked like she was about 15 or 16 years old and would have been eye-catching if it weren’t for the makeup streaking her face and the scratches on her body. Her hair was long, dyed black and pink. Leah could tell that, even though the girl would most likely deny it, she cared what others thought about her because her fingernails were painted very neatly and well taken care of.

  She looked up at Gideon. “So, what was the unorganized part
?”

  “You mean the part where we know the Clans are now scattered more than ever, but the Familiars are multiplying? Could it be the part where the Arch Council will not let us do anything about stopping what clearly is a reformatting and regrouping of the Houses? Stop me if I am getting close! Maybe it is the part that the Arch Council has clearly just decided that mortal man is expendable, and the place I call home is no longer worth trying to protect. Nope, just allow it all to be fodder for the Clans.”

  The door to the room slid open again as Serenity walked in to check on the readouts for the young girl. She sarcastically pushed her way into the conversation between the two leaders, “There wasn’t a single Clan insignia there but way too much Clan activity for my liking; and if someone can explain the firepower and bloodthirsty creatures, then I would be happy. If anyone would like to explain why it is that activity is at the highest point ever since the Clan War began but we are seeing less actual Clan War and more like a free-for-all bloodbath, that would be helpful.”

  Leah ignored the sarcasm and looked back at the patient. “All of that we can take a look at, but that still doesn’t tell me what she is doing here.”

  The Alliance leader turned the girl’s hand over to check her wrist; but just as both Gideon and Serenity had indicated, there was no Clan insignia. It could be that she hadn’t been indoctrinated yet or hadn’t sworn allegiance to a Master. She may have only been invited by a Familiar, a friend.

  “Serenity thinks she is possessed?” Gideon’s voice seemed almost presenting a question instead of an answer. He knew that Leah was going to go off on that remark, but it was the truth.

  He was right. “Possessed?! You are telling me that you brought a mortal here who could be aligned with an unknown Clan . . . and you brought her into the Sanctum?”

  Serenity spoke quick and tough. “Well, what did you want me to do, Leah? If you had seen what I had seen, you would have . . .”

  The Angel turned with eyes blazing. “I would have left her! I would have made sure that whatever I saw . . . no one else would have to! I would have . . .”

  Serenity never backed down from Leah, sometimes walking the line between obstinacy and insubordination. “Kill her? Is that what you would have done, Leah? Is that what you are saying, oh, Angel of Mercy? Is that what your ‘years of experience’ have shown you? Well, let’s just say I’m glad I am the mortal with emotions.” Serenity knew she had, most likely, crossed the line with the last comment, but she didn’t care.

  Leah’s jaw was clenched. She took in a deep breath and quietly walked up beside Serenity as she read off the medical charts and recorded them in the file she was preparing. “I don’t care why you are here, or even if you are an Eternal, Fallen, or mortal; but as long as you are standing inside this building, you WILL remember that I am the pinnacle of the leadership chain. If that can’t be remembered, then you know where the door is: it’s the thing on hinges that you walked through to come in here today.” She turned her head to the side and saw that Serenity had stopped what she was doing and was just staring at the ceiling. “Do I make myself clear?”

  Serenity didn’t speak and only bitterly nodded her head.

  Leah pushed away from the countertop against which she was leaning and once again began to study the young girl lying in the bed. “So, tell me about her. What do you know? Where are the signs of possession, and why bring her here?” She spoke not so strongly now . . . more of a “let’s-get-down-to-business” tone.

  Gideon waited for a moment for Serenity to speak up; but when she didn’t, he started. “Well, we know her name is Victoria; she is 16 and recently had a birthday. We got that from the driver’s license in her pocket.”

  “. . . which could be a fake I.D.”

  “True,” Gideon conceded, “but I don’t think so. Serenity and Chad found her in the receiving bay of The Warehouse.”

  Serenity interrupted, “After Chad and I left the room to find Gideon, we heard what sounded like several Fallen voices all at once. It was almost like they were arguing—yet not with each other—with . . . I guess, her soul,” motioning to the sleeping girl.

  “Did you not see her in the room?”

  Serenity shook her head. “No, she was back in the shadows and evidently hiding; because when we left, there was no movement or sound at all.”

  “Ok,” Leah stated flatly, insinuating that she was getting impatient for some facts. “So, if you didn’t see her, then we can conclude that there could have been an Overlord also not detected there.”

  Serenity purposely ignored the sarcastic question and continued describing to her what she could remember. “Chad and I rushed back in there, ready to go at it again; but we didn’t see anything. Then suddenly, we heard the worst scream that I have ever heard to come from the vocal cords of any human. I am telling you, Leah, it made my skin crawl.”

  “Chad described it as the manifestation of horror and insanity wrapped into sound waves and decorated in a shroud of pure evil,” Gideon read directly from a small notepad in which he had written quick notes for his report. “He said that at that moment it was as if this girl’s body was flung into the center of the room, and . . . well, the best way he could describe it, it was as if there were creatures trapped inside of her, trying to come out all at once.”

  Serenity shuddered. “Leah, I have seen Possessors try to break free from a mortal, but this was as if there were several at one time. It wasn’t like they were trying to break out, but they were trying to stretch her skin in order to make more room! It was like they were trying to . . . well, not just be in her but be her.”

  The Angel brushed away some of the young girl’s hair from her face and began to silently listen . . . listen as only an Eternal can for the sound of an immortal. There was nothing. She detected no movement or even a murmur below the conscious level.

  “Ok, so let’s forgo the argument right now on why you brought her here. I understand you felt it was best; but if she is possessed, we must ensure that whatever is inside of her does not escape from this room. We have to bind it to the Abyss, and we also need to get her back to any family that might be looking for her.”

  Serenity looked up at Gideon, not sure how to proceed. “That is the strange thing, Leah. I have read all the diagnostics that would indicate any activity within her. There is nothing. There is no indication that there is anything supernatural going on here. None of the readouts reveal any double activity that would conclude that there is a Possessor inside of her. It is as if whatever was there is gone.”

  “Then why is she still here? We need to get her to one of the hospitals where we have a network, and then . . .”

  “She is still here, Leah, because none of us ever saw anything leave her. We think that, somehow, whatever is inside of her is deep—almost dormant—and may be waiting.”

  Leah looked to Serenity for any other words. “Do you have any test showing this?”

  Serenity shook her head in disappointment. She knew what Leah was going to say. “No, but that doesn’t mean . . .”

  “Doesn’t mean what? Doesn’t mean that we could have something just lying inside this girl waiting for us to turn our back?”

  Serenity stared at Leah for a moment and then turned her eyes over Leah’s shoulder to stare at the wall. “It doesn’t mean I don’t know what we saw, but we will get her to a hospital or to one of the safe houses. She is sedated, so she will not remember any of her time here.”

  “Do it now,” Leah stated with authority and walked out, leaving the other two with the young girl.

  Serenity turned and, with one hard push, shoved all her paperwork and notes off the small rolling table that she had beside the bed. “I am tired of it, Gideon! This is not what I signed up for when I joined the Alliance. I think she forgets that we mortals have a choice to be here or not be here! I give two flying hoots if she doesn’t; but I do, and . . .”

  Gideon’s voice was strong and steady as he spoke. He knew mortals tended t
o allow their emotions to rise hard to the surface. Heck, what was he thinking? So did Angels. “Serenity, I don’t know what has been up with her lately, but she does have a point. Could she have put it to you better? Probably, but she is right.”

  She placed both hands on the edge of the chrome table as she leaned over it and just tried to calm herself. She had not only been a great fighting member of the Alliance, but she had used her medical expertise to really add another dimension to the Sanctum and the work of the Alliance.

  “I will have Chad drive her to the hospital tonight. A few of the Alliance network should be working tonight, so they will know to take her and not ask questions.”

  “Sounds like a plan. You let me talk to Leah, ok?”

  Serenity just nodded.

  Chapter Eight

  She closed the door to her living quarters behind her as she turned on the lights. Her body felt worn down, and her mind screamed for an “off” switch that seemed to be hidden within the riddle of existence right now. Leah didn’t even feel like loosening the straps on her boots. All she wanted was a shower, bed, and . . . honestly, a chance to hope again.