Sweet Sleep (The Children of Ankh Book 1)

by Kim Cormack

  Chapter 33

  Redemption and Sacrifice

  “Kayn, come downstairs. We have Kevin,” Glory yelled. There was no reply, and they were pressed for time.

  Glory said, “Mel, check that boy’s pocket for his cell phone.”

  Melody discovered it in one second flat and tossed it to Glory.

  She caught it with one hand and said, “Kids now a day’s. They always have a cell phone on them somewhere.” She opened the text messages and scrolled down to Kayn’s name.

  She read aloud as she texted, “This is Trinity. We have Kevin. We are going to burn the house down. Come downstairs, the clock is ticking.” Melody shook her head and said, “That is not how you make friends.”

  ~

  In the attic, Kayn felt her pocket vibrate and took her phone out. Was it over? She read the text message and tried not to register her reaction to Jenkins. She felt something bubbling up under her skin. She couldn’t hide this; it was a debilitating mix of panic and rage that had to be released. She swung her arm and everything on one side of the attic was flung up against the wall and splintered. She was going to lose him. He was going to be taken by another clan. She sat in silence attempting to calm her racing pulse. She couldn’t look at Jenkins. She was afraid that she would see fear in his eyes. She shut her eyes and took a few deep breaths, and she glanced up at him. All she saw in his eyes was a fatherly concern.

  She stopped her hands from shaking and replied, “Be right there.” Jenkins sat in front of the opening, He was deliberately blocking Kayn’s exit. He said, “Not a good message?”

  She decided to tell him the truth, “Trinity has Kevin. They will burn the house down. If they mark him Trinity first, then I will be Ankh, and he will be Trinity. I will lose him. I can’t lose him. I need to be wherever he is.”

  “They could be bluffing to get you to come out of the room,” Jenkins said.

  “The only good part of all of this was that we could be together. I’m the Conduit, and I have no idea what that means. To me Kevin is the more important thing. All I know is that I love him, and I have to be wherever he is. I don’t care if it’s with Trinity, or with Ankh. I would follow Kevin into the bowels of the Triad. I just can’t lose him too.”

  Jenkins seemed to understand, and he moved out of her way. Kayn leaned over and hugged him tightly. She whispered, “Thank you. I love you Jenkins.”

  He whispered, “No … Thank you, and I love you back.” Jenkins held onto her. They both knew this was goodbye.

  She said, “Make sure you stay up here until we are gone. Do not say anything to anyone about this. I will find a way to get in touch with you.”

  “I have a bad feeling about this,” Jenkins pleaded with her.

  Kayn whispered, “Haven’t you ever risked everything for love?” She looked Jenkins straight in the eye, unflinching, and nodded her head at him. She said, “We will meet again.”

  Jenkins said, “Yes, right now … until we meet again.”

  Kayn hopped down from the attic and unlocked the bathroom door. She took a good long last look at her bedroom. She placed her hand on Chloe’s comforter as she passed by it. She opened the bedroom door. Nobody stood between her and the top of the stairs. She hoped that it really was Trinity downstairs. If she had to switch clans, Trinity was definitely not the worst option.

  Kayn paused in front of the last picture in the hallway that hung as a gut-wrenching reminder of all that had been taken from her. She stood looking at the smiling faces of her dead family and wondered if she would always remember them or forget them completely as time drifted by. This was the last time she would gaze at the pictures on these walls as a reminder. She smiled for a second through her tears. In her memory, she saw all three of them as small children running down the hallway squealing in fake fright as their father chased them pretending to be a monster. Then they would run into their parents’ room to hide under the covers for that was always the safest place to be. There was no safe place for Kayn now, was there?

  Matt was that toothless child in the last picture that hung beside Kayn and Chloe in the hallway. Don’t think about him right now. You have no time to grieve. Matt had stayed strong for her when she had no strength left to give him in return. Matt was not gone. He had no mark of a clan to keep him from his destination. He would be reborn.

  Maybe he had passed through the hall of souls already? She imagined his first breath as a newborn. The beautiful music of his very first crackling cries. She took a deep breath and exhaled. She willed her breath to find a way to follow him into his next life as a soft kiss upon his newborn skin. She placed her hand on the picture and remembered the words that would always stay with her and bring her strength … We are all immortal.

  Kayn took her last private steps down the hall. She remembered Frost’s words about turning the sadness to anger, and she took a deep breath. She blinked back the foggy tears that threatened to cloud her eyes. It was a little ironic that the plush carpeted stairs that had been a monumentally happy thing in her life would be the end point of her journey. These stairs that had so many memories would be the last steps that she took as Kayn Brighton. She had grown up running down them and jumping into the arms of her father as he came home from work. She had slid down them on her stomach with her siblings for fun. Strange things cross your mind when you are absolutely terrified.

  They would believe that she was strong because she would show them nothing but courage. Trinity would see her as the warrior that she would someday become. Fake it till you make it. She heard her mother’s voice whisper in her mind

  Kayn stood at the top of the stairs. She was a beacon of vengeance. Her eyes filled with unbridled anger. Her expression changed as she looked at Kevin’s body lying at the Trinity’s feet. The fury turned to an expression of agony that she could not disguise. It said: I’m really just a girl, in love with a boy who has died. Too much humanity and desperation still survived behind her exquisitely tortured eyes. Kayn bled emotion so raw and so powerful that it rendered the Trinity speechless.

  “We didn’t kill him,” Glory stated, “he was already like this when we got here.”

  Kayn said,” If you have made Kevin Trinity. I will go with you too … willingly.”

  The Trinity looked at Kayn as though they were confused by what she had said. They checked Kevin’s hand and the symbol of Ankh was no longer, but there was a fresh brand of Triad on his chest.

  There was still fighting going on right outside of the front door. Someone staggered through the doorway and passed out from the arrow in his back. One of the Trinity girls said, “Seriously?”

  Kayn was sure she had seen Lexy run past the doorway. She had counted the pulses in her hand. She had been certain they were all gone.

  Glory said, “Leave the kid marked Triad. There’s no way you can heal him. Then kill them both marked to Trinity and have the strength to heal them both and then yourself. There is no time. Thorne will kill me, if you don’t come back. You know what to do. I’m going to make sure they are still waiting,” with that the Trinity bolted out of the doorway.

  Kayn stepped down the first stair, “Did you just say he was marked Triad? Where are the Triad?”

  Melody said, “I think they are all dead on the front lawn.”

  Kayn ran down the stairs right past Melody as if she were not even there. She knelt down beside Kevin. Seeing the mark of Triad scalded into his chest, she pulled him to her lap and cradled his lifeless body in her arms.

  Kayn begged Melody,” Bring him back and make him Trinity. I will come with you. You can kill me later.” They hadn’t had enough time to go where they had been destined to go together. They were supposed to be together, weren’t they? They were supposed to do this together. Ankh was written across Kayn’s soul. Triad was written across Kevin’s.

  She looked up with pleading eyes at the Trinity and said, “Bring him back.”

  Melody shook her head and whispered, “There’s no time. I am a new healer.
If I have to bring him back to life and mark him Trinity, it’s going to take more than the two minutes, we have left.”

  An incapacitating noise dropped both girls to the floor. They covered their ears and screamed in unison until the excruciatingly painful sound abruptly stopped.

  Melody said, “It’s over, I’m sorry … there’s nothing I can do. That was the line in the sand. I’m not supposed to alter anything now.”

  Kayn’s eyes were blinded with tears, and she cradled Kevin’s lifeless body in her arms. Kayn stroked his hair out of his face, and kissed his lips, tasting the salt of her own tears.

  She pleaded with Melody, “I can’t lose him too.”

  Those were the magic words that reached in and seized the Trinity Girl’s heart. She latched on to the humanity that she had left, and whispered, “Screw the rules.” She grasped Kayn’s arms and said, “You have no idea what I’m giving up to do this for you.”

  Kayn’s life force travelled a warm and sedating path up both of Kayn’s arms, to her chest and her heart. She felt the warmth of all of the love that she had for Kevin magnified to the very core of her being. Kayn collapsed to the floor. Melody had to take as much life force from Kayn as she could without killing her completely. Melody became nervous when she saw Kayn drop. Knowing that she was still brand-new at this, she prayed that she hadn’t taken too much of Kayn’s entity.

  Overwhelmed by the intensity of the love that she had absorbed, Melody almost fell with her arms around Kevin. She held him tightly and felt the warmth of Kayn’s life force travel from her body through her arms as if she were an extension cord for the transfer of Kayn’s being to Kevin’s empty shell. The air shone around them like the afterglow of a light bulb. She had given them the chance to say goodbye. Melody crumpled to the floor beside Kayn. The two partially immortal girls drifted off to dream in the land of the … almost in-between.

  Only a moment or two went by before Kevin’s eyes opened and he gasped a giant breath of air just as the Triad sent to gather their clan’s bodies walked through the open doorway.

  A bitter, rough-looking girl spoke, “Well, hello, Kevin. I’m not too interested in telling you my name yet because you will never remember it after your Grandpa gets through with you.”

  “I wonder what happened here?” a younger guy said.

  They were all obviously still winded from the action. Kayn sprawled on the ground beside Melody. They were still breathing. They looked like they were fast asleep.

  “Grab the boy, he belongs to us,” she said, pointing at Kevin who was still stunned. “Chuck him in a tomb.”

  One of Triad’s henchmen swung Kevin over his shoulder. The harsh looking girl walked over to Kevin’s head and tilted his face towards her.

  She whispered, “Is one of these girls the Ankh girl we came for?”

  “No,” Kevin murmured. “They are both Trinity.” Kevin dangled over the man’s shoulder.

  As he tried to speak again, the blonde girl blurted, “Oh, shut up already! I am not the girl you want to spend time bonding with.” Then she snapped Kevin’s neck again silencing him completely.

  Kayn woke up, and she whispered groggily, “No don’t …” The man carrying Kevin over his shoulder stomped on Kayn’s face killing her instantly.

  The clans were all there for cleanup. It was a time when the lines had been drawn, the game had been played. There was usually a victor and a loser, but today it was kind of a strange tie.

  Markus smiled as he stepped through the threshold of the missing door. The girl they had lost to Trinity last year was lying next to Kayn. Her name was Melody. They had been about to claim her when Trinity stole her.

  Orin stood above Markus and said, “Take her, Trinity is already gone.”

  Markus glanced around the room. He said, “They wouldn’t leave a healer behind.”

  Orin said, “Well, it looks like they did.”

  Arrianna walked in and backed Orin up by saying, “If you don’t take her, Triad will.”

  “Kayn’s dead; put her in a tomb,” Markus ordered pointing at an unrecognizable Kayn, and then added, “Just take your time waking her up. Triad has Kevin now.” Arrianna and Orin each grabbed an end of Kayn’s body and they carried her out the open doorway.

  Arrianna whispered, “Tell me why I just lied to my boyfriend. I think Trinity is still cleaning up in the bushes.”

  Orin explained, “She’s my daughter.”

  Arrianna helped Orin haul Kayn’s body up the ramp and into the back of the rig. She said nothing for a minute, and then she said, “All right then, that sounds like a good enough reason to me. I never officially saw Trinity, they were already gone.”

  They placed Kayn inside a tomb and Orin placed his hand on the side of the tomb and it ground shut. Arrianna and Orin walked down the ramp and back towards the open front door.

  Arrianna looked at Orin and said, “When you come back to work next year, we will have three healers.”

  Orin said, “You mean four healers.” Orin looked like he was nowhere near old enough to have sired a teenage daughter. Orin was a thousand years old. He was one of the original seventeen Children of Ankh. They entered the house just in time to witness the moment Melody switched clans.

  Melody was starting to come to. Markus picked up her hand and examined it and said, “Well Miss Melody, Trinity left you behind. It looks like you’re not fully sealed to Trinity. Ankh or Triad?

  Melody opened her eyes and whispered, “Ankh.”

  Markus smiled at her and said, “I am sorry, honey, but this is going to sting.”

  Markus took out his ring and rebranded the palm of her hand with the symbol of Ankh.

  Melody cried out in agony, waking up completely. The healers as a rule never stay down for long.

  “My name is Markus, and you are now Ankh,” Markus announced in a fatherly voice.

  “Just do it,” Melody whispered, then shut her eyes tightly knowing what came next.

  Markus leaned forward and swiftly snapped her neck. He had always found that to be the most civilized way to murder someone. Markus walked up the stairs to Kayn’s room. Entering he found the entrance to the attic. Markus pushed it open with Jenkins sitting directly on top of it. He was flung across the room as though he was as light as a feather. Markus dragged his body through the opening and closed it behind him. He sat down on top of it and smiled in greeting.

  “Are you here to kill me?” Jenkins said, prepared for the worst.

  “When we leave here, we have to blow up the house. We have to dispose of the evidence. If you attempt to flee, and another clan catches you it will be a much harder death. If you survive, and anyone finds out, they will come to correct you and anyone you are close to. I don’t want to kill you, but it will be fast ending. She is waiting for you. She has always been waiting for you.”

  Jenkins’ heart leapt. His eyes overflowed with the tears that he had managed to put to rest because of the Brightons.

  “Is she here with me now?” He whispered.

  Markus spoke softly, “I have a feeling she has always been close by. Sometimes when someone passes on the people they love are in so much pain that they can’t bring themselves to leave. Once they have missed the opportunity to move on. They can forget how too.”

  Jenkins sobbed, “My little girl … she’s really here with me?”

  “If you go now, she may go with you. You can go home together,” Markus said with a peaceful smile. Markus observed the child as plain as day. She was sitting in the corner of the attic. She was trembling, afraid for her father.

  He looked directly at the small blonde nymph with an upturned nose and whispered, “Come here my child and you can go to sleep tonight safe in your daddy’s arms.”

  She seemed to know that he was telling the truth as she wandered towards them both and tenderly stroked her father’s face. Her hand moved through him and Jenkins sneezed. Jenkins could sense her there now. He sneezed three more times and his heart filled to the point o
f rupturing with love. He whispered, “Come home with daddy sweetheart.”

  Markus made eye contact with the tiny, cherub-faced, child and said, “Hug your Daddy and you will be together.”

  The child melted into her father. Jenkins was about to sneeze when Markus swiftly snapped his neck. Markus crawled back towards the opening to the attic. He took one last look at Jenkins who lay slumped in the corner. On his face, he wore a smile, for in his last moment he had felt his little girl in his embrace. He had seen her smiling face, and he understood that they would be together again.

  Markus then began to set fire to the bedding in the house. He turned on the stove burners without lighting them and then opened the hall closet on his way out the door. The glazed over eyes of Kayn’s brother, Matt, stared back at him. “Rest in peace, Matthew. I will take care of your sister as if she were my own child … I promise.” With that Markus walked out of the Brighton house.

  They drove away in the trucks together with most of Ankh healing in their tombs. In the distance, the Brighton house exploded, lighting up the night with brilliant flames.

  Chapter 34

  Don’t Wake Me. I Don’t Want to Leave This Dream

  As quickly as his life had begun, Matthew Brighton’s life had ended. He saw a blur of movement before him and then nothing but motionless silence … darkness. Mathew had woken up in some incredibly strange places. It had been the story of his life. It occurred to him that he might be dead. This was not what he had expected. Whatever he was wearing felt more than a little bit constricting. There was a loud hollow click, and a song began to play. He recognised it as, “The Glory of Love” by Peter Cetera. His mother had played that song in the car as a child. He’d loved that song. He had been sure that he had heard it somewhere before.

  Matt felt dizzy as his memory began to whirl through a million experiences. It came to a stop as brightly colored lights nearly blinded him; he squinted in the bright light. Matt was at a dance with no other people. Cheesy decorations with an amazing amount of silver and gold were everywhere. Matt walked over to the punch bowl on the table and thought; tell me this is spiked because I really need a drink. He grabbed the scoop and helped himself.