by J Armitage
“I think I know what do about that” Aethelu sounded extremely drowsy.
“What?” but it was too late, Aethelu was already asleep.
The bed that Anais was in was a hospital bed which meant it had wheels. She felt down with her hand, pulled the break to the off position and pushed hard against the wall. The bed moved towards Aethelu’s, hitting it with a soft bump.
Anais laid back down and held Aethelu’s hand in her own.
How could Aethelu find an extinct plant?
Anais didn’t know but she did know that they would face the future together as one. With that in mind she smiled and surrendered herself to the blackness.
CHAPTER TWENTY SIX
The next morning, Anais awoke to the sound of bird song. She’d never heard it here before, but now she could hear a sweet chirp, chirp of a robin perhaps, or another bird calling out the morning. Sunlight poured brightly through the small windows. A warmer orange hue than the previous months of hazy pink sunshine.
Anais felt like the morning held a moment of promise and despite the futility of their situation she couldn’t help but smile. She looked over to the bed next to hers and saw Aethelu still sleeping. She never looked more beautiful with the sunlight colouring her face making her look almost rosy.
Anais wanted nothing more than to wake her up, just to hear the sound of her voice but she didn’t. Aethelu needed to rest. Instead she contented herself with watching the rise and fall of Aethelu’s chest with each breath.
It was a miracle that she was even breathing at all after all her body had been put through the night before. Anais had never been so thankful for falling in love with someone full of The Light.
She spent a few wonderful moments thinking of a long and happy future with Aethelu when they finally got themselves out of their situation. She didn’t dwell too long on the horror they were facing but instead thought beyond it.
Her thoughts were interrupted by the birdsong suddenly getting louder. She snapped out of her fantasy and looked up.
The door was open which explained why the birds seemed louder. She panicked momentarily wondering if Jago had somehow got back into the grounds but then she saw Winnie just outside the door picking up a silver tray laden with breakfast.
Anais tried to pull herself up to greet Winnie. It hurt but she was pleasantly surprised to find it was remarkably less painful than it had been. She was also surprised at how hungry she felt. She was ravenous. Her stomach made a loud embarrassing gurgle to concur.
Winnie bustled in and quickly put the tray down on Aldric’s desk when she saw Anais pulling herself up. She plumped up Anais pillows and helped her into a more comfortable sitting position.
“Hungry are you?” Winnie said with a big grin on her face.
“Starving!” Anais grabbed a croissant from the tray which Winnie had passed to her. She demolished it and quickly followed it with a glass of orange juice, pulp and all.
Slightly worried that she was appearing like a glutton, she slowed down with the food and looked up at Winnie.
It was then that she noticed that the grin was still there. It was odd given their circumstances.
“Are you ok Winnie?”
“Fine, fine,” she said “Yes, good. How about you? You’ve been out for three days.”
“Three days?” Anais spluttered. That would explain why she was so hungry this morning “Why? What happened?”
“Oh don’t worry. You were having really bad nightmares and trying to toss and turn in your sleep which was aggravating your leg, making you scream out which was in turn waking Aethelu up and causing her pain as she tried to turn to see if you were being attacked. In the end Aldrich decided to deeply sedate the pair of you to allow you to heal. It worked quite well actually, Aethelu hasn’t woken up yet but when she does she’ll probably be well enough to get out of bed.”
“That’s fantastic!” replied Anais, yet again thankful for The Lights amazing healing properties.”
“Don’t be getting any ideas though,” carried on Winnie “You are not getting out of this bed for a while yet.”
Anais was getting a suspicion that Winnie was keeping something from her.
“Fine, I’ll stay in bed, but you’ve got to spit it out!”
“Whatever do you mean?”
“Whatever it is that’s put a smile on your face for the first time in months and that I know you’ve been dying to tell me ever since you walked through that door ten minutes ago.”
“How did you… Oh never mind, I’ve never been one for keeping secrets. I was hoping to tell you and Aethelu at the same time but seeing as you asked. Perhaps you can tell her yourself when she wakes.”
“Winnie!”
“Oh ok. They’ve found him.”
Anais pulled herself up quickly at this information, giving her a huge jolt of pain down her leg and upending the tray onto the floor where it made a loud clanging noise.
Aethelu stirred, moaned slightly and then went back to sleep.
“Jago? They got him?” Anais almost couldn’t believe it was true but the look on Winnie's face told her all she needed to know. “When, How? Who found him? Why didn’t you wake me up to tell me?”
“Wow, so many questions.” laughed Winnie “Firstly, Don’t worry that you have been left out of the loop. I only just found out this morning myself. Arcadia called us to let us know the news not an hour ago.”
“Arcadia? Is she ok? Is Alex?” She had a tiny moment of worry which was quickly assuaged by Winnie.
“They are all fine. They caught him in a small house just outside of Florence and are driving him back to France. There they will be picked up by Alfred and Ava in their boat and brought across the channel to the UK and then brought back up here to the manor.”
“Then what?” Anais didn’t like the sound of him being brought here but they couldn’t very well just hand him over to the local police.
“I guess we’ll have to just cross that bridge when we come to it.”
“I thought Alex, Cadie and Audsley were in Las Vegas?”
“They were.”
“So what took them to Italy?”
“Well they were getting nowhere in Las Vegas and as Arcadia called it, they were on a fool’s errand. I think they realised pretty quickly that they weren’t going to find him there. Too many tourists go through that city and nobody had heard of a Jago. The crossbow was apparently one of quite a few that got made and not as rare as they thought so that was a dead end. Alex spent the evenings on the internet searching Jago’s full name, just for something to pass the time I think.”
“But surely Andrew has searched and searched looking for him?”
“Yes, well Andrew has not left his room since Judith left, poor thing. I think having her here took his mind off the task in hand anyway to be honest. Anyway, as I was saying, Alex had been searching the internet trawling through hundreds of websites with any mention of the name Jago. Eventually he found an art website where one of the users had the moniker Jago. It was one of those sites where anyone can get a login and upload their own artwork. Alex was going to dismiss it. It was a site with thousands of users and it seemed weird for Jago to be idly painting whilst plotting to wreak havoc on the entire world. On a whim, Alex decided to click on his profile. Of course all the information about him was false.”
“So how did Alex know he had the right guy?” interrupted Anais.
“The pictures. They were all of the village where we lived all those years ago. Of course the village now looks nothing like it did all those hundreds of years ago but he’d named each picture with the name of the village.”
“It could have been a coincidence.”
“Unlikely but yes, it could have been. However it was enough to get Alex excited. When he saw the next series of pictures, he knew. They all showed a young girl with light shining from her.”
“It could still be just one amazing coincidence.” Anais wasn’t convinced that someone who was plotting to take
over the world would have time to paint and why would he upload them under his real name?
“Well it was enough to go on. They’d hit a blank in Las Vegas and so it was the logical next step. Audsley set up her own login for the website and contacted him on the pretence of wanting to buy some of his artwork. When he told her that he lived in Italy but would post it out to her, she just told him that she was in Italy herself, not too close to arouse suspicion but close enough to make it believable. She arranged to meet him at his house with cash for the paintings, but instead she took Alex and Arcadia and enough chain to wrap round him to stop him ever escaping.”
“What would he need cash for?” mused Anais.
“Sorry?”
“Well, why would he go to the effort of selling his paintings knowing that he was about the obliterate everyone on the planet? It makes no sense.”
“Perhaps it was all ego, made him feel good about himself, the hotshot painter. Who knows? Anyway they recognised him so it’s a moot point.”
“Mmm” mused Anais “Are you sure they recognised him? They’d not seen him in over six centuries.”
“He still had the white blonde hair and black eyes. Had not even bothered to disguise himself. Now please stop fretting. We have him! We can worry no more. It is a joyous day!”
With that she finally picked up the tray where it had fallen on the floor and made to leave.
The thought of the man with the melted face flashed across her mind. Could it really be true? It seemed too easy after all they had been through. None of it settled well with Anais, not least the thought that they were bringing him here.
At some point in the not too distant future, she was going to have to confront the man who murdered her parents, who almost murdered Aethelu and herself.
“I’ll let you tell Aethelu the good news when she wakes up.” Winnie opened the surgery door and made her way out although Anais, caught up in her own thoughts, hardly noticed.
She thought back to all the letters that Jago had sent to the house, trying to remember if any had been sent from Florence. She didn’t recall. She would go back and check the letters again when she was able to get out of bed. She knew she should be happy but there was something niggling at her at the back of her mind, something that didn’t quite add up.
She thought back for a few more minutes and gave up. It was probably hard to believe because of all the stress they had been under. It was silly to be looking for problems where there were none.
She then realised that there was no need for her and Aethelu to take a world trip to find all the pendants. It made her feel momentarily sad before she realised that they could still travel the world together, but now they could do it freely.
Free…
Anais realised that they were finally free. The fantasy of happily ever after had become a reality. She decided to stop worrying and look to the future. The future was right beside her.
Aethelu made a sound and opened her eyes. She smiled the most beautiful smile, glowing with the light from the sun. Winter was over. Spring had begun.
Now Available:
Book two of the Guardians of The Light Series
Infinite Spring
Read on for the first chapter…
Infinite Spring, Chapter One
She should not have been in the circumstances, but Anais could not remember a time that she had been happier. Standing next to her was the love of her life, and the man who had killed her parents was now safely chained up in her cellar, some three miles away. He had also murdered Mike in cold blood which is why Anais was here, stood at the back of the little church along with Aethelu and her family. To pay respects to a man who she had met only once but who had been the best friend of her girlfriend Aethelu.
As the Priest eulogised about Mike, Anais sneaked a sideways look at her.
Even with tears in her eyes, Aethelu was still the most stunning woman Anais had ever met and the only person on the planet who had the capability to make her heart skip by a mere glance. Aethelu’s usual white blonde pixie hair was currently hidden under a black hat which also veiled her jet black eyes. Anais could only just about make out the usual sparkle in them through the hats veil. Her lips were the only part of her face that were totally visible and they were the only part of Aethelu that was wearing her customary shade of red. Aethelu was usually dressed head to toe in scarlets and crimsons but apart from the lipstick covering her beautiful lips, the only red she had on today was a small red heart broach that was pinned to the top of the plain black fitted dress. Anais herself had chosen a black suit for Mike’s funeral. As she looked, a tear escaped and made its journey down Aethelu’s cheek leaving a slight trail over perfect pale skin. Aethelu dabbed it with a handkerchief.
Aethelu had been friends with Mike for over 60 years although if you looked at her, you’d never guess. She, like all the Custor Lux, never aged. Aethelu had been stuck at a perpetual twenty years old for over six hundred years. The Custor Lux, or Guardians of The Light as they called themselves, had all stopped aging the night they took an elixir made by Aethelu’s father Aldric. Thirteen of the twenty that took the Elixir still lived, still retained their youth six centuries later.
Anais tore her eyes away from Aethelu and turned her attention back to the priest, squeezing Aethelu’s hand as she did so. This elicited a small smile from Aethelu, but she kept her eyes to the front of the church. Anais had hardly known Mike but she did know his killer.
Jago Cutter had killed her parents a year previously and only three weeks ago had attempted to murder both Anais and Aethelu. Mike had just been in the wrong place at the wrong time and unlike the two girls, he did not have eternal blood, otherwise known as The Light, running through his veins. Jago had broken his neck in an instant. Mike didn’t stand a chance against the power of Jago. The Light not only kept a person young but infused them with strength and speed that no normal human could hope to possess.
The Light was the only thing that had saved the girls that night. Aethelu had suffered multiple crossbow wounds including a severed artery and punctured lung. Anais had broken her leg in multiple places and was now wearing a removable leg brace.
Aethelu had already completely healed from the ordeal despite being the greater injured of the two. Anais was still on crutches. Unlike Aethelu and the other Guardians, she had inherited The Light from her father who had been one of them. She was the only offspring of a Guardian and so had half her father’s blood and half from her mother, a normal human. Because of this she looked nothing like the rest of the Guardians. The Elixir had made all their hair turn silver white and their eyes blacker than the night. Anais had taken after her mother with dark wavy hair and green eyes, although she shared her father’s tall stature.
The priest said a final prayer and the coffin containing Mike’s body slowly disappeared behind a curtain to be cremated.
Anais just made out a small, almost inaudible sob escaping Aethelu’s lips followed by a slightly noisier one from Winnie, Aethelu’s mother. That was the cue for them to leave before anyone took time away from their grief to notice them.
As Aethelu and Anais had taken the back pew along with Winnie and Aethelu’s older brothers Alex and August, it was easy to slip out quickly and make their way back to Augusts Range Rover parked by the entrance to the church. They were not attending the wake, had not been invited. Mike had been the only non-guardian to know their secret of everlasting youth and they liked to keep it that way.
The brightness of the sky belied the darkness of the groups’ emotions at the passing of their friend but underneath the sorrow there was a hopefulness for the future. No longer were they subject to Jago and his plan to kill most of the human population. He was safely chained up, no longer able to hurt them.
August put the Range Rover they were travelling in into gear and drove them through the village back to The Manor where they all lived. Anais looked out of the window at the blue sky and marvelled at her surroundings. Baildon was not the
quaint, picturesque English village she had imagined it would be but was lovely all the same. As she had grown up in Los Angeles she had a funny notion of all British villages to be full of either thatched cottages or castles. Spending a year in York before moving to Baildon had done nothing to dispel her of this notion, with its castle walls surrounding it and Clifford’s Tower, the castle keep in the centre of town. Baildon had been her home for nearly four months now and this was the first time she was seeing it.
Pretty stone cottages intermingled with more modern housing in pockets of civilisation. They passed a patch of overgrown moorland on which a couple of goats and a horse were doing a good job of eating the excess grass. On the other side of the road the moorland stretched upwards into a rocky bank where she could just make out a couple of climbers attempting an ascent up one of the cliff faces. It quickly passed and she found herself back on the road which she recognised as the one leading to The Manor.
Apart from a Christmas shopping trip and a drive to York to fetch some of her belongings, she had not been outside of The Manor’s grounds in all the time she had been living there. The reason she had been almost housebound was the same reason that Mike was now dead and she was on crutches. Jago Cutter.
His story had started at the same time as The Custor Lux although he had never been one of The Guardians. Over six hundred years ago, Jago, a co-creator of the elixir had stolen some of it just before the Custor Lux themselves took it. Indeed, he had not even known of the existence of the group until fairly recently, believing he was the only one to take the potion. At which point, for reasons of revenge or some other, he demanded more of the elixir. Elixir they didn’t have. Aldric had forgotten how to brew it but he did know that one of each of the ingredients was hidden inside a necklace owned by each of the Guardians. Fourteen Guardians, Fourteen necklaces in all. Anais, not one of the original Guardians, had inherited hers from her father when he had been killed.
