Sweet Sleep (The Children of Ankh Book 1)

by Kim Cormack

  Lily followed Kayn up the stairs. The house was still sealed off; no other clan had entered. Kayn couldn’t help but wonder why?

  She knocked on her bedroom door and said, “It’s Kayn, and Lily.” They opened the door and Jenkins was staring out the window at the trucks arriving outside.

  Jenkins said, “What in the hell is going on? What was that thing? Who are those people?”

  “I’m going to have to make this fast,” Kayn explained. She told the story from her death to her joining the clan. She explained as quickly as she could and it left them both looking at her like she was buck crazy. “I love you both so much; I need you to know that, and if you don’t believe a word that I have said, I understand completely. If I was in your position I wouldn’t believe a thing I just said either. I have a feeling shit is about to get so weird that you will begin to understand the situation.”

  Jenkins said, “About to get weird? I just saw a monster eating someone. I need a rational explanation and fast.”

  Kayn smiled and said, “I wish I had one to give you.”

  Matt had been sitting on the bed the whole time in silence.

  Jenkins glared at Matt and said, “Don’t you have anything to say here? We need a voice of reason in this room.”

  Matt looked up at his sister and said, “You forgot to hang up the phone.”

  Kayn took her phone out of her pocket and sure enough she had been on with Matt the entire time. He said, “Unless my sister has managed to pull of some kind of fifty person prank involving strangers, and monsters. I would say that we are in fact screwed.”

  Lily looked at Matt and said, “You don’t know me in this life, but we have loved each other for hundreds of years. I don’t have any time to explain, but I have to do this at least once.” Lily ran straight into Matt’s arms. Kayn’s brother looked confused over Lily’s little speech and overly affectionate greeting. Kayn watched as her brother’s heart visibly leapt right out of his chest the second Lily touched him. Instead of pushing her away Matt looked into his sister’s eyes with overwhelming joy. He hugged Lily tighter. Kayn could tell that Lily belonged right where she was, with her head on Kayn’s brother’s heart.

  Matt whispered in Lily’s ear, “I’m not sure how any of this is possible, but if any of this is the truth then I’m going to die, and I’m not ready to go anywhere just yet. I just found you.”

  Lily whispered back, “I know you’re not, and I’m so sorry. I thought if I stayed away from you then you would have a chance. We will see each other again.”

  Matt whispered, “I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you … not even for a second. I thought there was something wrong with me.”

  “You guys might all be certifiably insane,” Jenkins stammered, not wanting to even entertain the idea that one thing that Kayn had said was even remotely possible.

  Lily let go of Matt and walked over to Kayn and said,” There’s an easy way to prove it.”

  She took off her fingerless glove to reveal the symbol of Ankh. Kayn knew what she was doing. Kayn showed her matching symbol to the two men and then placed her hand in Lily’s and the symbols began to glow. Jenkins and Matt swallowed back their shock. Kayn and Lily’s hands parted, and the light went out.

  Jenkins stared at them obviously attempting to wrap his mind around this situation, “Are you girls aliens? I am way too far away from the kitchen to make a tin foil hat.”

  Kayn said, “Seriously … Aliens you can rationalize, but not demons?”

  Jenkins still in shock, said, “Honestly, you kids lost me at I stabbed him in the head. Then we saw the half eaten corpse in the monster’s mouth and my mind fried. I heard blah, blah, demons are coming to eat us. Then I heard blah, blah, we are all going to die.”

  Matt was staring blankly out the window. Kayn walked over to see what he was staring at. He was looking at the lawn full of strangers sword fighting. Somebody had pulled the cherry tree right out of the ground and had smoked someone else with it sending them flying across the front lawn onto the gravel driveway. He backed up and sat down on Kayn’s bed and said quietly, “Somebody just hit someone else with our cherry tree.”

  Jenkins ran over to the window and looked as a man was still playing baseball with people and the cherry tree from out front. “Shit … we really are going to die.” He backed up and sat on the bed next to Matt.

  Lily looked at them both and said, “We do not get to choose when we die, but we get to choose how we live for the time that we have left.”

  Jenkins looked at Kayn. As she sat between the men on her bed, her vision blurred with tears.

  She said, “I wish I could tell you that if I’d died that day things would be different.”

  Matt stammered, “Don’t you dare say that. Don’t you even think it.”

  The siblings embraced and held each other. Kayn buried her face into her brother’s shoulder. She whispered, “I’m so sorry.”

  “If it is my time to die … so be it,” Jenkins stated, “Thank you two kids for letting me move into your house and allowing me to be a part of your family.”

  Jenkins hugged Kayn and then patted Matt on the shoulder. Matt pulled him in for a hug and it pushed him over the edge. He began to sob. The sad goodbyes went on for a few more seconds until something large was hurled against the bedroom window.

  The glass cracked and it drew their attention to the situation at hand. A second object was thrown and the glass shattered and sprayed across the room at them. They had all reacted by cowering and covering their eyes. Lily jumped up and ran over to the window and looked out.

  She whirled around and scolded, channeling Grey for a second, “Enough of this mushy crap.”

  “We choose how we live not when we die. Our objective as a clan is to keep Kayn in Ankh. All of these other clans are here for her; those demons that ate the guy in the back yard. They are here for her. So you two men keep Kayn safe and in this room until I get back. No matter what is going on in the rest of this house. No matter what is going on outside this window. Kayn stays protected as long as she stays in this room. We are trying to buy time. Picture an invisible clock on that wall and when it runs out all of this craziness disappears. Kayn, do not get suckered into leaving this room. For anything, or anyone.”

  With that Lily walked up to Matt who sat on the bed and grabbed his hair, guiding his face toward her into a kiss so intense and heated the room felt like it was on fire. She then turned around grabbed a stuffed animal and brushed the jagged edges of the broken glass off of the bedroom windows frame, leaving a completely stunned Matt sitting on the bed with his sister and his father figure.

  “I love you. I will see you again in twenty years or so,” Lily yelled, as she jumped out the bedroom window and landed on the Triad who was swinging the tree. She sat on him, pinning him with her knees and stabbed him in the chest with her dagger.

  Matt had jumped up to stop Lily but ended up just watching her in awe from the bedroom window. He said, “Is it wrong to be this turned on right now?”

  “That may very well have been the grossest moment of my life. Thanks for that, Matty,” Kayn said as she stood beside her brother and Jenkins who had also joined them at the window.

  They watched Lily go all warrior princess on the Triad and Trinity battling on the front lawn.

  “Ditto,” Jenkins said and cuddled Kayn up against him. “That girl is the same age as your sister.”

  Kayn said, “Actually, Lily’s a couple hundred years old.”

  Jenkins said, “That’s not better.”

  Matt seemed to be deep in thought for a second and then he took action, “Let’s block the door with some furniture or something.”

  Kayn laughed, “I have a feeling that’s not going to work; you did see that guy swinging a large cherry tree around like it was nothing, right?”

  “Point taken,” Matt said. Lily was swinging the tree now and it looked like she just got a home run as a girl went soaring into the bushes.

&n
bsp; She said, “Never mind, you’re probably right Matt. We should try and block the door, even if it only gives us only a few more minutes together. A wise person told me even a few minutes can change the game.”

  Kayn made eye contact with one of the men on the lawn who grinned back at her and pointed at her showing his friends where she was. Kayn stepped away from the window, but not fast enough as half a dozen arrows flew through the window. She yelled, “Down get down,” and they all dove beside the bed.

  Kayn stammered, “Did anyone get hit?”

  Matt said, “One grazed me. I’m okay … I think.”

  Kayn didn’t want to scare him. She knew what that meant. He had less than an hour to live. Her heart ached in her chest. She glanced at the clock on the wall. She said, “The arrows are drugged Matty. How do you feel?”

  He said, “It stings a little bit, but I’m okay. I don’t think it got me.”

  Kayn said, “Let’s block this window first, you guys.” Don’t cry, she couldn’t cry. It’s better if Matty doesn’t know.

  They crouched down together and pushed the dresser on its side. Shoved it across the floor and laid it up against the window.

  More arrows came whirling through the opening and Matt yelled,” Get down.”

  Jenkins said, “Just stay away from the window. We will get hit by an arrow for sure attempting to stack something on top of that dresser.”

  Another group of arrows whizzed through the opening from a different angle and one stuck into the wall inches from Jenkins head.

  Jenkins said, “Shit … that was close.”

  Kayn bolted across the room to her desk. She flipped it and smashed it into manageable pieces with her fist. She was taking a chance at breaking her arm doing it because she had not been very strong until this moment. Kayn had felt a strange, amped up adrenaline release moments earlier as she watched the arrow narrowly miss, Jenkins’s head. She took a chance.

  Matt stammered, “You’re like a superhero or something.”

  “Or something,” Kayn laughed as she threw the wood from the desk at the window opening until there was enough to block the hole above the desk.

  She looked at her makeshift blockade in front of the window and laughed, “That might stop the arrows.”

  Matt looked at his sister and said, “What do we do now? I can’t help but have the feeling that blocking the door will be pointless, after what we just saw you do to your desk.” He slurred his speech a little as he spoke. Kayn looked at Jenkins and they both knew that Matt was beginning to feel the effects of an arrow that had barely grazed his skin.

  “Let me look at your arm,” Kayn said.

  Matt only had the teeny tiniest cut. Kayn ran to the bathroom and grabbed the bottle of antiseptic and a face cloth. She soaked the face cloth and pressed it on her brother’s arm. She wasn’t sure what she was trying to do. Maybe, she could absorb some of the poison?

  Jenkins whispered, “What is on those bloody arrows, Rhino Tranquilizers or something?”

  Kayn replied quietly, “If they are meant to take down one of us, I would imagine it’s not the dosage you give to a rodent.”

  Matt was waving his hand back and forth in front of his face. He giggled and then sighed, “There are pretty rainbows on my fingers.”

  Jenkins looked at Kayn and said, “This is probably for the best. He’s not upset about his impending death anymore.”

  Kayn got down in front of her brother and said, “Hey Matty, let’s go to the bathroom. She sat him on the closed toilet like a chair and handed him a magazine. He opened it and seemed amazed by its contents.

  Kayn shut the door behind her brother and said, “He’s all good.” She chose to leave the Matt will be dead soon part out. Her mind couldn’t allow her to think it. Kayn remembered the brains before brawn speech and gave it to Jenkins as the two of them began to build a few creative weapons and traps in the bedroom. She would keep Jenkins busy and make him think that he could save her. She watched him scurry around spouting off brilliant trap ideas. She was already dead. They would all be dead.

  ~

  Downstairs, the interior of the Brighton home had not been breached. Frost stood at the picture window in the living room keeping an eye on the action in the front yard.

  Kevin was watching the action that was happening outside in the back yard. Kevin looked out the kitchen window at Lexy. She was kicking ass and taking names. She was amazing. He had never seen someone fight like this before. Each time she was hit by an arrow she ripped it out, broke it in half, and screamed with fury. She needed some music. What was Jenkins washing dishes to? Kevin turned on the iPod in the kitchen. He cranked the volume thinking it might confuse the fighters outside and help Lexy out. Achy Breaky Heart began to blare through the kitchen. It carried out over the back patio speakers. The entire fight out back paused for a second. Everyone stared into the kitchen.

  Lexy mouthed the words, “Do not make me die to Billy Ray.”

  Kevin smiled and turned it up even louder. Lexy shook her head and grinned. Kevin was laughing so hard Frost came storming down the hall.

  He scolded, “So glad you are taking this all so seriously, you little shit.” Then once he looked out the window he had a hard time containing his smile. Lexy was shot with two arrows. She tore them out of her shoulder and leg like they were annoying her. She healed instantly.

  Frost patted him on the shoulder and said, “I happen to enjoy this song, as a matter of fact I once won a bet by listening to it on repeat for a damn week. But, I think we all agree, it’s not a kick ass motivational battle anthem. Well, not Lexy’s kick ass motivational battle anthem. I would be fine with it. Trust me though, you do not want to piss Lexy off.”

  Kevin pressed the screen and changed the background music to Domino by Kiss.

  Lexy tore another arrow out of her stomach and winked at them.

  Frost said, “Much better. She might not seriously wound you now.” Kevin and Frost watched the fighting unfold for a minute and then he told Kevin to follow him down the hallway towards the front door.

  Kevin whispered, “Shouldn’t we be outside helping them?”

  Frost looked out the living room curtains at Lily. He smiled and laughed aloud. He said, “This is what we do. Lily is getting tired. She will go down soon. Lexy on the other hand will keep fighting until she has fifty arrows in her.” Frost shut the curtain.

  “You didn’t answer my question, “Kevin said.

  “We are the next round of defense. They are buying us time. They are our first line of defense. We are the second line of defense. They know who is important and who isn’t in the other clans. This fight is going to time out. There are government factions that monitor our kind of energy. There is a black out bubble over this entire area. No witnesses will remember a thing. Everyone in this damn town will have lost a few hours of time. We have to correct anyone inside the bubble. We will all be incapacitated by a sound. That means game over. We grab our dead and run.”

  Kevin said, “What creates a black out bubble? How long does it last?”

  Frost replied, “That is a story for another place and time.”

  Kevin was looking through the window. He turned around and said, “I think Lily just died.” Kevin and Frost’s hands began to glow, then they went out; they lit up and pulsed three times.

  Frost said, “Don’t freak out. They are all dead, but Lexy will not stay dead for very long. Lexy is going to hop back up in a few minutes. It’s our turn now. We just have to stall them downstairs for as long as we can.”

  ~

  Upstairs in Kayn’s bathroom Jenkins and Kayn were wrestling with Matt as he attempted to eat a tube of toothpaste. It took them a moment or two to realize that it was absolutely ridiculous to fight with him. If Matt wanted to spend the last moments of his life eating toothpaste, they should just say go to town and leave him in his happy place.

  Kayn could feel her heart beating just a little faster. Her skin began to prickle and she could he
ar her blood race through her veins. Her hand began to pulse with light. Her mind whispered Hide … you have to make Jenkins hide. If they don’t know he’s here, maybe he won’t have to be corrected. Kayn said, “We need to hide.” She would allow him to think it was her that needed to hide.

  Matt was off in his own little world. He was sitting in the shower singing a lovely little tune about diarrhea from when he was a child. He had opened a bottle of shampoo and started to squeeze it all over his clothes and his hair. He complained, “It’s in my eyes, help … help me.” He slipped around in the shower stall.

  They both looked at Matt knowing there was no way he was going to be able to climb up into the attic at the top of the bathroom closet. Kayn glanced at the clock on the wall and she knew his hour was almost up. Kayn got down on her knees beside him to help him. She grabbed the towel from its place on the wall and flashed back to the visions she had seen of Chloe’s death. For a second she thought about ripping the bar off of the wall and knocking him unconscious so they could haul him up into the attic. There was no need to do that. The poison would kill him. He would be quiet soon. Kayn wiped the shampoo out of her brother’s eyes and touched his sticky cheek softly. She blinked away her tears and plastered a giant smile on her face.

  Jenkins touched either side of Kayn’s face and said, “If Matt were coherent. He would want you to get your ass up into the attic and hide.”

  “I know he would,” Kayn whispered. She decided to tell Jenkins what she had left unsaid. “Matt only had an hour to live. The countdown started as soon as he was grazed by that arrow. He has maybe ten more minutes. I just don’t want to leave him until the end.

  Jenkins began to tear up and he looked away from her so she couldn’t see.

  ~

  Downstairs Kevin and Frost’s part of the fight was only beginning … Frost had been listening to Kevin’s thoughts as he plotted the most epically stupid mistake of his life. Frost contemplated biting his tongue, but his conscience made him speak, “Do not even think about going with Triad like a naive idiot—not even to try and save your family. Triad will wipe your memories … every single last one.”