The Legacy (The Darkness Within Saga Book 1)

by JD Franx

  He’d come to Sam’s Bay four years ago from his childhood home, a small farm about eight hundred miles away. The first six years of his life had been average for the most part, but everything changed when his twin siblings were born. Then he’d found out he was adopted, but his parents claimed they had no idea where he’d come from and refused to tell him how he’d come to be with them. It bothered him, but never enough to push the issue. Like some things were, it was just something to think about another day.

  His father, Thomas Symes, ran a farm just outside the small town of Rockton, South Dakota. He grew some grain and vegetables and kept a handful of livestock. If nothing else, Kael believed his father taught him the value of hard work. His mother, Karen, helped on the farm, though she also spent a fair amount of time with the gossip hounds in town. The twins had always seemed to have their parents’ attention while he’d gotten very little. Though Kael tried desperately to be a good son, nothing he did ever seemed to measure up. His parents always expected more than he would ever be able to give. The twins, on the other hand, could do no wrong; what little they did was always perfect. Kael could never understand this change in his parents after his siblings were born. He’d left the farm when he turned sixteen and never looked back. He hated farming, and because of the distance, he rarely saw them any more. It didn’t bother him, they never really felt like family anyway.

  Lost in reminiscence, Kael didn’t notice Max had arrived until he thumped the table with the palm of his hand. “You know, you’re going to be the only person to wear out a lighter without ever lighting anything.”

  “If you don’t watch it, Sheriff, the first thing I light will be the backside of your blue jeans,” Kael shot back.

  Maxwell Soryn, who stood just under seven feet and whose hulking frame was mostly muscle—an intimidating figure topped off by a meticulous buzz-cut and piercing brown eyes—roared with laughter as he sat down across from Kael, pouring a beer from the pitcher Kael had ordered. “How you feeling? Winter’s coming fast. Gonna make it through another one?”

  Kael ran his good hand over a head of close-cropped black hair and down to his left shoulder, gingerly rubbing the constantly aching joint. “I plan on it. You should know that by now,” he answered, with an air of confidence he didn’t really feel. At twenty years old and just on the short side of average, he was in decent shape, aside from the useless left arm and the ugly scars marking the places on the left side of his chest and shoulder that still throbbed and sparked, especially in cold weather. The pain was a never-ending reminder of what happened that night. He’d never forget what happened. He didn’t deserve to.

  FOUR YEARS AGO

  Kael and Ember had been in Sam’s Bay less than a month, when walking home from a Gypsy circus in the downtown market district, they were attacked by a small group of thugs. Max and most of his deputies were at the city’s centre, making sure there was no trouble as the large crowds left for home. While everyone was at the circus, several groups of young men and women from a street gang that Max and the mayor had shut down and removed from the city months before had returned with a plan to bring chaos in the hope of making the sheriff and new mayor look foolish, allowing the gang to re-establish a hold on the city.

  The four members who found the young couple gave no warning before they attacked. Though no great fighter, Kael wrestled a boy armed with a gun, no older than himself. As they fought, the gun went off and the boy dropped like a stone, dead before he hit the ground, the bullet tore through his heart. The look on his face as he died would be burned into Kael’s brain until his own last day.

  When the other gang members saw their friend killed, each pulled a gun and aimed at the couple. Kael yelled at them to leave, even begged, knowing that although he pointed the dead boy’s gun at them, he would never be able to pull the trigger; it wasn’t in his nature. Not sure what else he could do, he grabbed Ember and stepped in front of her, shielding her with his body, just as all three thugs opened fire. He was hit once in the front of his left shoulder and twice in the chest, the bullets ripped holes through his left lung and destroyed his shoulder joint. Senses flooded with pain, he did all he could to drag her down underneath him as he fell. Before losing consciousness, he whispered for her to play dead.

  His left lung collapsed from the bullets. It was a close call; had the calibre of the gun been higher, or had the bullets been hollow-points, the trauma and blood loss would have certainly killed him. As it was, after surgery, an infection and a case of pneumonia made it almost a year before he was fully on his feet again. After rehabilitation, he was left with no use of his left arm and severe nerve damage in his shoulder that affected the left side of his upper body. His lung capacity had dropped by about fifteen percent. If Max and three of his deputies hadn’t found them when they did, both Kael and his wife would have died, shot dead by rabid animals.

  All the town’s deputies were trained under Max. Since the attack, he’d made a point of having Kael practise hand-to-hand combat with the deputies as best he could. Max had spent hundreds of hours at the gun range with Kael as well. During their time together, Kael had come to believe that Max could sometimes move faster than was humanly possible, certainly faster than his eyes could follow. The city’s law enforcement couldn’t be trained by better.

  Even so, during the night of the raids, the gang was responsible for seven deaths and numerous beatings and thefts. Of the three dozen or so members who’d come that night, only five managed to escape with their lives. All five were now on death row. Max, having seen Kael and his wife fall while chasing another group, refused to leave their sides as they’d come under fire from a second and third group trying to flee. After the gunfire had stopped, only three of the criminals were alive, and Max’s deputies had captured the other two.

  Max, Kael, and Ember had been close friends since that night, only growing closer as the years passed. Swamped by grief, Kael had turned to the church in an effort to come to terms with taking a human life. He found some solace in the words of the Bible. Most Sundays, Ember was there by his side, supporting him as she always had.

  A small part of Max would always carry the guilt for what happened to Kael and many others that night in his city. He told Kael repeatedly that he should have known better, been faster. On nights when the two sat up late talking on his and Ember’s front porch, Max confided in Kael that they knew the gang wouldn’t give up a small, overlooked ocean port so easily. His department had worked with the mayor for two years before she was elected. The Sam’s Bay Police Department and the former mayor had been so thoroughly corrupted by the gangs’ influence that the city council had approached his county sheriff’s department for help in bringing them all to justice. Two years later, they had their arrests and convictions. All fourteen members of the police department were found guilty and sentenced heavily. So was the former mayor. Max and his deputies were asked to take over the duties of the local police department until such time as he could set up and train a new local police force. The new system was nearly in place; by year’s end, Sam’s Bay would have a police department to be proud of thanks to Max and his deputies.

  “How’s the wife?” Max asked, calling Kael back from his memories. Getting no response, he gently bumped Kael’s good arm. “Kael? Come back, man.” Kael shook the nightmare memories from his mind.

  “Yeah, sorry. How’s Ember, you asked?”

  Max nodded. “I hear she’s been spending a lot of time with Karena.” Karena Lyma was the city’s most sought-after surgeon and specialist. Ember had been friends with her for several years. The job Kael had taken almost three years ago as an apprentice to the town’s jeweller meant Ember no longer had to be at his side helping him and had given her more time to spend with Dr. Lyma at the health clinic. Shortly after she started, and with Dr. Lyma’s recommendation, Ember was accepted into the local university to study ELM, extended life medicine. The radical difference in healthcare between the upper and lower classes had always bothe
red her. Only the rich had access to medicine and technology that could double the average lifespan. She and Dr. Lyma hoped to combat these inequalities together.

  “Sometimes I think she and Karena are sisters, the way they act,” Kael said, smiling. “She should be here soon.” He always looked forward to seeing her, even after only a few hours apart. Kael knew he never would have made it without her. Raised in the same small town, the two had been inseparable from the time they were three years old, and he’d loved her in one form or another since they were five. When he’d left home at sixteen, she’d gone with him. They hadn’t even had to discuss it; leaving her behind would have been the same as leaving without his soul.

  It was near supper time and he still hadn’t seen her come in, but he asked Max to go ahead and order for the table while he went to the bar for more drinks. He got back to the table just as she walked around the side of the walk up bar.

  She was in his arms in only seconds, hugging him as she whispered in his ear. “I missed you. How do you feel?”

  “I’m okay.”

  “You’re a terrible liar.” She smiled. “That’s all right. Karena sent something with me today that might help.”

  “It means a lot that you two keep trying,” he whispered back.

  “We’ll get there,” she said, kissing his cheek.

  “Gee, you two,” Max said with a chuckle from the table. “Skipping to dessert?”

  “Not yet, Max,” Ember said, flashing the sheriff a wink and smiling as she turned back to Kael. “Though you owe me dance, babe. If you feel better than yesterday?”

  Remembering his promise from the night before, and knowing how much she loved to dance, Kael bowed slightly.

  “Fair enough.” Taking her hand in his right, he limped as he led her to the centre of the patio where Jenny Tinker recently had a raised wooden floor installed for dancing. Taking the two stairs one at a time, Kael stepped onto the dance floor with a sigh. Another couple already dancing, arm in arm, smiled and moved to the far side, giving them room.

  “All right, love?” Ember said, joining him.

  “Fine,” he said, taking her into his arms. The melody playing through the bar’s overhead speakers was slow enough for Kael to match with easy movements, his limp lessening as the two danced nose to nose.

  “You’re still a terrible liar, you know.” She giggled at his mock hurt expression. “I got my MCAT scores back this afternoon...” Laughing, Kael twirled Ember out, away from him, before gently pulling her back into his arms.”

  “Let me guess, Doctor, you aced it?”

  She shook her head. “You don’t ace an MCAT, babe...”

  “So you keep telling me.” He frowned. “All right then, what percentile?”

  “One.” She laughed whole-heartedly. “I scored in the top one percent. Karena said that with such incredible scores and her sponsorship along with the hours I’ve spent working for her at the hospital, the University of Washington will definitely accept my transfer to Extended Life Medicine.”

  “What about the program that will let you do the six-week internships in other states?” Kael asked, remembering their countless late night discussions. It was the sole reason she originally wanted to apply at the University of Washington, that and the fact Seattle was just across the bay from where they lived. The ELA research facility in Alaska was her eventual goal and the internship program would get her there. It would put even more distance between them and her father. Eight hundred miles was no longer enough. The last time he showed up Max and another deputy had to escort him from Sam’s Bay with strict orders not to return.

  “I’ll have to apply, like everyone else, but Karena’s mentor is head of the electorate committee. Hopefully, they’ll accept me.” Kael could see the whirl of emotion in her eyes.

  “You did it, love,” Kael said, still smiling. “I knew you would. It won’t be long and we’ll be in Alaska.”

  “We made it, babe, together.” She rested her head on his chest as they danced. Kael held her for several minutes before carefully easing a small box from his front pocket, holding it in his right hand as he stared at it.

  “You remember what I told you the day we got married?” he asked. She nodded, but said nothing, seemingly content to dance quietly. “We never had the money for rings, but I promised you someday... Today is a great day to be someday.” As she lifted her head from his chest, he held the small black box between them.

  “We still don’t have money for rings...”

  “John has been letting me work an extra half hour at the jewelry shop for the last couple months to pay for the gold and gems. I worked on your ring myself when we’ve been slow at work, well John did the settings...” He opened the box, turning it towards her.

  “Kael!” she gasped. The white gold ring was crowned by a single half carat diamond and circled by smaller tear-drop shaped brilliant blue topaz gems two rows deep. Circling the ring’s shoulders, the tear-drop gems had been set off centre from each other, resembling a flowering blue rose. Kael had set gold filigree within the ring’s band, as if the rose grew from vines of pure gold. Even with the store’s owner, John, helping him, it had taken months to create the ring he’d spent a year designing. It would take him several more months to finish paying for it. Her reaction was worth every agonizing hour he’d spent hunched over the molds, torch, and clamps while making it.

  “You didn’t have to...”

  “I wanted to, Ember. I was waiting for the right time. And you’re right, we made it. On our own. I love you.” She kissed him, he felt her body pressing against him as hard as she could. After everything they’d been through, it felt good. She always felt good.

  “Come on you two!” Max shouted. “Food’s here.” Kael chuckled as Ember laughed.

  “He always has great timing, doesn’t he, babe?”

  “Since the very first night we met him,” he replied. He took her hand and they headed back to their table.

  Ember kissed the top of Max’s head as she and Kael sat down. “What have you been up to?”

  Max slid their plates across the table and poured himself another beer. “I am off duty tonight, mom,” he said, seeing the look Ember gave him. “It was a long day.”

  “Yeah?” Kael prompted, taking a bite of french fry.

  “Yup. Took a patrol car out to Gretta’s Bridge this afternoon to check on Old Man Sampson. After his ridiculous claim yesterday, I wanted to make sure he was all right.”

  “Oh?” Ember asked.

  “Yeah. He said he saw a tornado that somehow burned a big-assed hole right through the stone wall of the bridge, last night just before dark.” He shook his head.

  Kael sat stunned. Everyone knew about the old man. Henry Sampson was strange, but he certainly wasn’t crazy. “What did you find?”

  Max shrugged. “Big hole, melted stone, just like he said. Lightning, maybe. Or some kids with a cutting torch. Who knows? It was kinda weird.”

  “Poor man,” Ember sighed. “He needs help, Max.”

  “I know. But he has no one left here, and there’s just no county or state resources to help without the family to assist. Even if there were, Henry’d shoot our asses full of buckshot if we tried to take him from that farm of his.”

  Kael’s mind immediately set to wandering on how to help the old man when suddenly he realized he felt strange. His vision bugged out, blurring, and his hearing was fuzzy. The steady drone of conversation from the bar quickly turned to a buzzing, making his head hurt. Closing his eyes made it worse.

  “Kael, are you all right? You don’t look so good,” said Ember, getting up.

  “Don’t feel so hot either,” he managed, grasping his head.

  “What’s the matter?” Max asked. Lifting Kael’s plate, he took a quick sniff. “Your food off?”

  “No,” he groaned. “My head...” Opening his eyes was a mistake. Pulsating bright lights haloed every person on the bar’s patio.

  “Hell, Kael, you look downrigh
t terrible,” Max offered. “You were fine a minute ago… Whoa... What the fuck!” he added, clearly seeing something Kael couldn’t as he got up to help.

  Kael tried to rise, but only succeeded in falling over backwards as a wave of dizziness swarmed him. Scrambling to his feet, he cried out as intense sparks of pain shot from his left shoulder down into his fingers, the likes of which he hadn’t felt since the night he’d been shot. His vision swirled violently, he stumbled, barely able to stand as his stomach flipped, almost making him throw up. A thunderous crack echoed from somewhere behind him, the vibration so intense he thought every bone in his body would shatter. Before he could even wonder what was happening, an invisible force grabbed his feet and arms, dragging him backwards, though he could feel no physical touch on his clothes or skin.

  He looked over his shoulder. Not ten feet behind him, and closing fast, was the mouth of a shimmering black vortex, like the top of a tornado lying on its side. A sideways tornado, just like Henry Sampson said.

  “Lightning my ass, Max,” he muttered.

  Turning forward again, Kael saw pure terror etched on Ember’s face, saw Max trying to push his way forward to help, but both seemed to be moving in slow motion.

  Not knowing what else to do, Kael shouted, “I love you!”

  The vortex yanked him off his feet and sucked him in. Mustering every ounce of strength he could, he instinctively reached out with his right arm grasping for Ember and Max. Incredible pain bloomed inside his body, as if his flesh had been flayed from his bones, exposing raw nerves to the air. To his surprise, the savage agony passed quickly and two crackling, dark purple streams of energy formed at his elbows. Slithering down his arms, the energy burst from his hands, snaring Max and Ember by their waists. Kael stared helplessly as his closest friend and his wife were pulled into the maelstrom with him. Inside the vortex, the sizzling lines of energy coming from his palms reacted with the swirling currents of the cyclone. Ripped apart by the incredible energy inside the tornado, their bodies disintegrated before his very eyes as the twister slammed shut on his world.