Rebirth of the Seer

by Peter W. Dawes

  At first her eyes widened, her expression befuddled, but as I relinquished my grip, Chloe stammered, turning a pallid shade of white. “F-fifteen minutes? Maybe less? It was right before I came up to see you. I, uh… it was what made me think to check up on you.”

  “Bloody hell.” Spinning around, I regarded the hospital building while running my fingers through my hair. My mind reeled. “Fifteen minutes. That is too long. Surely he…” I trailed off, sensing fear take hold of me and twist my stomach into knots. It was the same fear I harbored when I carried Monica from the Council, inspiring the same determination. Without another thought, I dashed for the doors and damned the consequences of using my vampire speed in front of the human populace. If anyone watched my sprint into the hospital, I paid them no mind. I needed to get to the third floor, and fast.

  Bypassing the elevators, I slammed past the obstruction between me and the stairs and continued my upward ascent. My feet vaulted them two or three at a time, even when I passed a male nurse who stared as I bounded past. Within seconds the last flight of steps was all but a memory. The door opened and a hallway was all stopping me from reaching my watcher.

  That was when I spied him standing next to the nurses’ station.

  I skidded to a stop. He stood straight and smirked, as though he knew without needing to be told who I was. ‘Blasted seer instincts, ’ I murmured in my mind as he brushed back the folds of his coat and freed a crossbow from a sling. Already loaded, it only needed to be raised. His smirk turned downright vicious.

  “There you are, little vampire,” Julian said. “Your executioner has come to deliver your punishment.” Nurses screamed and ducked for cover. Time stood still as he pulled the trigger and a bolt sailed to intercept its target. I had milliseconds to register one last, fleeting thought.

  ‘Son of a bitch. Why does this keep happening to me? ’

  Chapter Five

  My sunglasses nearly flew off as I spilled onto the floor and slid into a wall in my effort to avoid the projectile. I reached up to adjust them, avoiding the chance to make a bad situation worse. Julian had already caught me unaware. Facing him blind would ensure the next shot did not miss.

  I clamored to my feet with less grace than normal. Our eyes met and both of us regarded each other with what appeared to be the same posture. He resembled the mental image Chloe had donated, but this time I saw the emerald green eyes and had all the confirmation I needed. If the weapon in his hands did not reveal his identity, the smug, self-righteous way he eyed me read of a company man. Monica’s warning echoed ominously when I caught sight of the sword strapped to his waist. One way or another, he would be certain I did not walk away from this encounter.

  We would just have to see about that.

  He narrowed his eyes when I attempted to probe his thoughts in all their jaundiced honesty. The being before him was evil and attempting to confront him directly – with me unarmed – would be nothing short of suicide. When I sensed him return the favor, I used the chance to duck around a corner, out of his line of sight. “Is that anyway to greet an adversary?” I asked, pressing my back against the wall. The sound of Julian reloading sent a few humans scurrying away from the unfolding confrontation. They paid me no attention as they rushed past. “You shoot a bolt at him before he can even arm himself? Not very sporting of you.”

  “I didn’t come to fight, I came to kill.” His accented speech made him hard to understand and I was in no mood to play translator. The amusement in his voice only served to anger me further. “Now, are we going to play wild goose chase?”

  “I think you mean cat and mouse. Where the fuck did you learn English?”

  “No need to be insulting.”

  “No, of course not. You only came here to murder me.” The sound of Julian’s footsteps caused my posture to stiffen. Quickly, yet deftly, I slid along the wall, headed for the corridor which ran parallel to my new nemesis. “Julian, you are a seer, but so am I. Can we not discuss this matter like civilized creatures?”

  “You are no seer.” Julian continued to advance. “The High Council itself handed me this assignment.” The precise phrase within his surface thoughts was, ‘To stop your threat against humanity. ’

  “Now, would that be right? To deprive the world of my smiling face and leave it with you to fill the void?” I reached the end of the hallway and slipped around the corner. “I would not ask such a task of you, these are hard shoes to fill.”

  “The world will learn to do without you.”

  “Yes, but such a world is a travesty to fathom.” I took a deep breath and shut my eyes, searching for Monica’s fate in Julian’s immediate thoughts. Gods, how I hated being stuck in such a position. Her doctor had not even granted her a chance to wake from being sedated yet. Opening my eyes, I frowned. “She has done nothing against you,” I said once I determined he had not yet harmed Monica. Still, orders for her execution accompanied mine. “Her hands are clean.”

  ‘She aids an evil being and an enemy of the Council. She has aligned herself with the dark forces. ’

  “I don’t make the orders, and I don’t change them on the words of a dead man,” he said, although the words unspoken resonated with far more impact.

  I frowned reflexively. “Do you even think about this nonsense before you execute someone? The girl has not aligned herself with anything but me and I would gladly relieve her of duty if it meant she would be spared.” Pausing several yards away from another hallway, I brought my hand to my head, fingers kneading my temples. Too many things were vying for a voice inside a mind I could not seem to quiet. “Julian, you know as well as I do that no evil resides within her. Allow her to mend and restrict your vendetta to me.”

  Just as I began to hope him capable of reason, I sensed his sneer. “Your tricks will not work on me, little vampire. My orders will be carried out as given. Now, let’s get this over with.”

  “Fucking ironic that I am the one attempting to save a human.” Sighing, I glanced around, forced to ad lib my plans again, only now, without the sanctity of my thoughts. With a few long strides, I reached the intersecting corridor and peered around this corner, thankful that the hospital staff had taken the hint to get out of the way. Having successfully circled the floor, the other side of the nurse’s station became visible. Monica’s room was on the opposite side of the building, just beyond where Julian first shot at me. It would take everything I had, but maybe…

  I acted just as soon as the notion was conjured, knowing that to pause would only give Julian a head start. Racing with reckless abandon, I passed a row of shut doors leading to other patient rooms. The final turn ahead of me closed in just as Julian sprang to action and moved to intercept.

  A few brave humans risked the chance to peek as I leaped over the low wall marking the front of the nurses’ station. Their heads turned with the entire motion, and mouths hung agape when I landed cleanly on the other side. Julian whipped around the corner where I had just been in time to catch me exposed. I lifted a hand on instinct, focusing on the seer with every ounce of determination my frantic mind could muster.

  The burst of telekinetic energy impacted Julian. It threw him back and onto the floor, his head bouncing off the tile and inspiring a groan. I stared long enough to watch the events play out, and then made my final charge. The door to Monica’s room was still several feet away when Julian came to a stand. I spied the black space between her door and its frame and thanked the Fates for the mercy of not needing to wrestle with the latch.

  Despite my immortal reflexes, though, each second seemed infinitely longer. I hit the door with my shoulder and rebounded slightly as I made it through to the other side. A significant click and a warning sense of rushing air coincided with my surge into the dark. I dropped to my knees in time to see another bolt sail over my shoulder and sink into the wall in front of me.

  Twisting to one side, I kicked the door shut behind me. My legs wobbled as I stood – a symptom I attributed to nerves – and my h
ands shook as I secured the lock. We had no easy way of escape. I made it into the room fast enough to save Monica, but without a planned exit strategy. My chest rose with a shaky breath. “Time,” I said, “I need time. Bloody fucking hell, now what?”

  A pound against the wooden barrier broke me from my thoughts. I swallowed hard and spun to face the room, seeing the chair where I had conducted my vigil and dashing to it the moment half an idea came to mind. It wedged nicely beneath the handle when I slid it over and permitted me precious seconds to form the next part of my plan. “Weapons first. Monica second. Son of a bitch, how are we going to get out of here?”

  I jumped with the next forceful thump against the door, but resigned myself to ignore the rest. Had I a pulse, my heart might have been lodged in my throat, but the fright served enough of a purpose to speed my actions along. “Monica, my dear,” I said as I dashed to her. “I regret disturbing you, but we cannot stay. Let us hope your doctor was competent.”

  Taking hold of her wires one by one, I quickly pulled the electrodes from her frail body as delicately as possible. Machines protested, especially when I removed the heart monitors, but I ignored their cacophonous racket in favor of moving on to her IV. The beeping and continued banging gnawed at my nerves. I barely summoned the concentration to fashion a makeshift secondary bandage from my watcher’s sheets. Once the dressing was secure, I reached over and ripped the cords for the machines from the wall.

  “Come out, little vampire,” a muffed voice taunted. “You have nowhere to go.”

  “Fuck off, Julian.” I fought a scowl. When Monica’s chest continued to rise and fall in the same rhythmic pattern, I indulged in a calming breath and left her alone for the time being. A shallow closet housed my collection of weapons and as I ran for it, I stripped my suit jacket and threw it onto the ground. The shoulder holster slid on effortlessly and securing each knife into their proper slot took a matter of seconds. Fastening my sword into place last, my arms threaded back through the sleeves of my jacket with ease. Returning my attention to Monica, I studied her and frowned. “Consider yourself blessed you are lost in slumber, witch. This would sting if you were conscious.”

  I wrapped Monica’s blanket around her body. The pounding had become more dire and vexed me just enough to inspire the compulsion to challenge Julian directly. We would not be exiting through the hallway, though. This only left one avenue of escape.

  I barely completed the thought when the pounding ceased. A flicker of fear coursed through my veins like quicksilver, but the decision had been made just as soon as I managed to consider it. Grabbing the metal intravenous pole, I held it horizontal and charged for the window with all my might. The glass buckled and cracked, but failed to break and a second attempt merely made the fissures worse. Drawing a deep breath inward, I gritted my teeth and made one last vie for our escape, not bothering to even steal a glance downward to assess the leap I was about to make. Our time had expired and we could not afford to hesitate.

  I do not recall if I yelled when I slammed the metal into the glass again. This time, shards of window showered downward, creating a berth too narrow, but a berth just the same. I beat on the edges again and again, causing more and more glass to spill on either side of the hole, until an expanse wide enough to accommodate us opened up before me. If Julian yet stood on the other side of the door or had already started for the ground floor I had no way of knowing, but I could not chance it either way. Lifting Monica in my arms, I focused on the violated window and ran for the sky before us.

  Clearing the exit required me to duck my head and gather Monica tight against my body. Once we made it through, however, the world seemed to pause for half a second. I weighed the distance between us and the ground, kicking my legs just as gravity propelled us toward the street. It would not have been the first time I sailed from such a height, but the injured girl in my arms required me to make a last-moment adjustment to how I bore the shock of impact. My knees buckled. Pinpricks of agony rocketed up my spine.

  But we landed safely just the same.

  A crowd of dazed mortals stared at us as I cast a quick glance back to the hospital. No sooner did I spy the exit than I saw Julian charge through the automated doors, his crossbow in hand. Without bothering to study him further, I sprang upright and launched into a mad dash, ignoring the ache radiating through my legs with each step I took. By the time I disappeared down a narrow street, it faded in the backdrop.

  We sprinted far faster than I ever recall running; even swifter – or so it seemed – than I had when I brought Monica to the hospital in the first place. Despite being weighed down by the limp body of my watcher, I wove through alleyways and across busy streets to more concealed parts of the neighborhood. It had been years since I navigated the same roads, and yet it seemed the same collection of humans sat on their stoops enjoying the dying embers of the evening. I had been a mortal searching the cosmos back when I wandered these streets before. Now, I was praying for that very miracle Chloe had told me about.

  Unfortunately, The Fates made it clear our bid for safety would not be easy. As I turned down another street, I saw a figure headed for us, who had – in what may well have been an exhibition of sheer, dumb luck – managed to use the main thoroughfares to head us off. “Fuck.” I swiftly turned around and ran in the opposite direction of the seer giving chase. Julian, however, had closed the gap and the sound of a crossbow being fired reached my ears a few seconds too late.

  I wove to the side and caught the bolt in the back of my left shoulder. Hissing with pain, the wound burned in a manner only explained by an infusion of silver, which could weaken me the longer it remained in my body. I dodged right, down another narrow street, barely avoiding a car speeding toward us. The driver swerved and a group of pedestrians swore violently at both me and the vehicle, but failed to get much in Julian’s way as he pursued.

  My fangs descended and I groaned. Holding Monica became more of a challenge, but I finally caught a break when I crossed a bustling intersection and forced Julian to wait for traffic to pass before he could continue. The lull gave me a chance to reach behind and pull the bolt from my shoulder. Although it would leave him a breadcrumb, I threw the projectile down when it began to singe my hand. A few swift turns and one final, push brought us deep into the thick of a dilapidated row of houses. A group of men on their front porches watched us disappear down another alley and away from sight.

  Rounding a set of garbage cans, we advanced a few paces forward until I spied an open window leading down into a basement. The scant knowledge I retained about the area reminded me this was a portion of town notorious for gang members and drug addicts sleeping off their chosen poison in one of the many abandoned houses. Gingerly, I crouched and shoved the window as far open as it could manage with my foot. I clutched my watcher tighter, and carefully, I slid my legs through the passage and lowered us down into the basement. My knees buckled slightly when I hit the ground, inviting a fresh burst of pain. We had made it, though, and I silently hoped for a chance to figure out how to make it back to the safe house unnoticed.

  I sighed and glanced around the basement. A mattress lay in the far corner, reeking of booze and cigarettes and things I dared not try to categorize. It gave me a place to set Monica down, though, so I laid her gingerly atop it and motioned for the window again in an effort to make our hiding place more secure. A short ledge by the window granted me enough leverage to pull myself up. With a quick jerk, the window shut again. Gravity brought my feet back to the ground and I dusted off my hands once my task was finished. The sight of Monica, however, provoked me to frown again.

  My knees ached and my shoulder burned, but they would mend when I sought sustenance. My watcher, however, was much worse for the wear. Crouching, I could not help but curse myself for underestimating our adversary. Now, I saw with my own eyes how selfish I had been. Whatever punishment the Order had in store for Monica, I doubted it entailed being hunted like an animal. Like a monster. Like me.
I opened my hands and stared at the palms which should have been stained crimson red by now. The High Council had condemned me as a powerful threat, whereas before I had been a formidable, if uncertain, evil.

  And now, an innocent girl had to suffer the consequences.

  I shut my eyes, feeling my fangs snap back into place. Indeed, I thought, if my powers as a seer were not enough to spring them into action, laying waste to six of the Order’s elders had assuredly raised their ire beyond the breaking point. Lowering myself to a sit, my mind spun dizzy with the epiphany that Julian might be the first of many challengers yet to come. I should not have been so daft as to drag Monica from the meeting room.

  “Flynn, silence your thoughts before they give us away.”

  My head snapped up, eyes opening to behold the most peculiar thing I had seen in a long while. Monica peered back at me, her gaze meeting mine weakly as she visibly held a grimace of pain at bay. I motioned to stand, but she shook her head and glanced from the floor back up to me. I read the instruction; she wished me to remain seated and keep my mind veiled from the prodding of our enemy. Nodding, I indulged a few steadying breaths and opened a direct psychic channel to her.

  ‘I apologize for the rude awakening, ’ I said, ‘but we have a seer chasing us. I did not wish to move you. My hand was forced. ’

  Monica furrowed her brow. ‘I figured seer when I heard you thinking about the Order. The Council sent him? ’

  I nodded. ‘Yes, one arrived just as you suspected. The son of a bitch has been shooting crossbow bolts at me for the past half hour. I am sorely tempted to make an exception to my moratorium on killing humans, especially after the bastard sent one flying into my shoulder. ’

  Her eyes flicked to my arm before a wince forced her lids to shut. She breathed shakily. ‘God, it hurts, Flynn. What happened? ’

  Flinching, I felt my stomach knot and sighed. ‘Lewis plunged the stake meant for me into your chest. You have been recovering for a few days now and shall need a lot more rest when this fiasco is finished. ’