Descendant: The Protector (The Descendant Series)

by Daniel W. Koch

  “I’m very sorry, Aderes, but I don’t touch anyone.” She gave me a halfhearted smirk. “It’s a phobia I’ve had since I was human. My name is Lily, though, and it’s a pleasure to meet you.”

  “It certainly is a…pleasure.”

  “I’m Dane!” the man said suddenly, grabbing my hand and shaking it violently. “Why don’t you guys come in and hang out for a while?”

  “I don’t mean to be rude, but we really should be going, Elliot.” I nudged him in the ribs and pulled my hand from Dane’s.

  “Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t know you two were in a rush. How about we just meet again some other time?” Lily suggested.

  “That would be great.” Elliot patted Dane on the shoulder. “I’ll come by in a day or two, and we can talk for a while. I’d love to do it now, but the others are waiting for us.”

  I gave them a short wave and turned back to the manhole. Without another word, I jumped down into the sewer. My splash echoed down the empty tunnel, and seconds later, Elliot’s did the same.

  “I thought I told you not to talk,” Elliot scolded me as we walked.

  “I had to introduce myself.”

  “I mean the part where you said we had to go.”

  “Listen Elliot, I need to get back to Jason as soon as I can. We can’t waste time talking with a couple of lunatics!”

  “Well, where the hell were you for twelve hours?” He stopped so he could turn and look at me.

  “That would be your wife’s fault.” I walked past him and quickened our pace. “She saw my neck and made me stay to heal.”

  “What’s wrong with your neck?”

  “There’s no time to explain that right now, but let’s just say that the Vermont house could be in danger, and I need to get back there.”

  “Okay, okay. I’m sorry.” He continued walking, quickening our pace.

  “How much further is it?” I asked after a few minutes.

  “We should be reaching the manhole any second now.” Sure enough, seconds later we found it.

  “Anything interesting up there?” I asked as Elliot climbed up the ladder to the manhole.

  “Nope. It’s pretty much abandoned, just like everything else surrounding Manhattan.”

  “Where are the others waiting?” Elliot opened the manhole and climbed out onto the street. I jumped straight up through the opening and landed next to him.

  “They’re at the elevator that leads to the tunnel.” Elliot began running, but I stopped him.

  “Elliot, wait!”

  “What’s wrong?” He turned around instantly and ran back to me.

  “I just got a really bad feeling about Jason again. I think something might have happened.”

  “How could you possibly know that?” He gave me a confused look.

  “I have no idea, I just do.” I looked down to the sewers, debating going back the other way and running to Vermont.

  “Aderes, look at me.” I whipped my head back and stared into Elliot’s black eyes. “I’m not going to dismiss this if you really feel that strongly about it, but we have a mission to do right now. What we find here may give us an opportunity to strike back against the Jagers without them knowing how we did it. We might even be able to kill Alexander and Grath while they don’t have bodyguards around them.”

  “Let’s go, then.” He nodded before turning around and sprinting away.

  We soon came upon a large construction site where Matt, Jamie, and JD were sitting around an elevator that seemed to go straight into the ground. All three of them stood and watched Elliot and me clear the rest of the distance between us.

  “About time, Aderes.” JD winked at me. “Thought you’d gotten yourself killed.”

  “Well, you never know what Althea is capable of when she wants you to stay and heal.” I let a smirk cross my face as I thought about how mad Althea would be at me for sneaking out early. I’d be getting an earful when I returned to the marina.

  “You’re hurt?” Jamie asked uneasily.

  “It’s not bad, so don’t worry about it. I promise I’ll tell you all about it later.”

  “Good,” Matt said, eyeing the elevator. “Let’s get right to work then.”

  “Okay, what’s the plan?” I asked.

  “We’ve estimated that this elevator will take us about four hundred feet below the streets,” Matt explained. “It was an access tunnel used by the humans to get into the tunnels under Manhattan, but it was closed down pretty close to when the Jagers first started to appear in 2010. Luckily for us, the Jagers don’t seem to be using it, so we think it will take us straight into the lair without them seeing us.”

  “All right, let’s go, then.” I motioned for the others to go first, and they began to pile into the elevator; all except for Matt. He came toward me and pushed me lightly away from the others.

  “What’s the matter?” I asked him quietly.

  “I was just wondering about Taddi,” he whispered into my left ear. “You said you were hurt. Is she okay?”

  “She was nowhere near me when I got attacked,” I reassured him. “As far as I know, she’s perfectly fine.”

  “Thanks.” He smiled at me. “I always worry when I’m not with her.”

  “Come on, you two; let’s get going,” JD called from the elevator. Matt patted me on the shoulder, and we walked over to the others. He and Taddi had been together ever since they had met in the 1200s. It wasn’t until I met Jason that I could understand why they were always so worried about each other.

  “I think we could have climbed faster than this thing is moving,” Jamie complained after a few minutes of our descent.

  “Forget climbing,” JD laughed. “We could’ve just jumped.”

  “Both of you be quiet,” Elliot scolded them.

  The doors opened, and we all exited into an open corridor. It was a small circular tunnel with train tracks to the right and a conveyer belt to the left. Although there wasn’t a single ray of light, we could all still see using what I liked to call our “backup” eyesight. Without light, color cannot be seen off of surfaces and so everything appears black, much like what a human would see at night. A Dahmshed’s backup eyesight picks up heat signatures, no matter how hot or cold, in certain colors to create a 3D image of the surroundings. With enough experience, I could decipher exactly what I was looking at.

  “So, how far did you go before I got here?” I asked as I scanned the area slowly.

  “We went all the way until this tunnel merged with another, but we turned around there,” Elliot replied. “We thought it would be too risky without you.”

  “Then, what are we waiting for? Let’s run.” I took off at full speed, leaving the others far behind.

  The ground was wet and mucky, getting my hands and feet soaking wet. I tried to stay on the metal tracks as much as possible, but they seemed to have sunk into the ground over the years. Even the conveyer belt had collapsed in most places, making it impossible for me to hop on that and run above the mucky ground. The farther I went, the wetter it became, until I was soon running through a few inches of water. I switched from running on all fours to just running on my legs so that I could keep my sweatshirt as dry as possible. The water quickly rose to about knee-height, making it harder and harder to move forward. Just when I thought I’d be totally submerged under the mucky water, I came to the next tunnel.

  The floor was about at the same height as my head; it was probably made that way to keep the water level below it. I climbed from the first tunnel up into the second and was pleasantly surprised at how dry it was. It was made completely of red brick, and there was nothing else in it. A little further ahead, the tunnel split in two directions, so I decided to wait until the others caught up. Five minutes later, I heard them trudging through the muck.

  “Hey, guys.” I waved at them from my dry perch.

  “Could you please stick with us, Aderes?” Elliot asked, although it sounded more like an order. “It’s going to get very tricky from this poi
nt on.”

  “Fine,” I sighed. “Where are we going next?”

  “Well,” Matt said as he climbed up into the second tunnel. “I think that there’s a series of mazes that we’ll have to get through. We didn’t get much farther than here, but each path leads to another two from what I could see.”

  “How the hell are we going to find this place, then?” I asked.

  “The Jagers are going to lead us straight to it.” JD smiled at me. “We saw some of them walking through a tunnel before, so we figured if we found one of them, they would lead us into the lair.”

  “About how far in did you see them?”

  “I think it was three tunnels from this one,” Jamie replied.

  “Then let’s go to that tunnel and wait.”

  “Okay, follow me.” Elliot walked ahead slowly, and the rest of us crept behind him.

  The tunnels became longer the deeper we went. They changed from bedrock to brick and some even to packed dirt. Some were lit with torches while others were as dark as the first tunnel with the conveyor belt. Luckily, none of them were as wet as the first, but some were still fairly damp and muddy. Elliot made one wrong turn, but Matt was quick to correct him and, in about ten minutes, we finally found the tunnel we were looking for. Now, all we had to do was sit and wait until a Jager walked by so we could follow it. We took position in what we assumed would be an unused tunnel that overlooked the one where the others had seen the Jagers.

  “How long did it take for you to see the Jagers the first time?” I asked after we had sat in silence for a good fifteen minutes.

  “Almost immediately,” Jamie replied. “They were walking by just as we came around the corner. If we had been any sooner, I think they would have seen us.”

  “So how long do we plan to wait?” I asked, looking straight at Elliot.

  “As long as it takes.”

  “Jason may not have that long,” I retorted quickly.

  “Listen, Aderes, we may be launching a full-scale attack on Alexander right now. If you think Jason is truly in trouble, I need you to leave before we get in too deep.” Elliot looked at me with wide eyes and his nostrils flaring. “Decide now, because the Jagers could walk by at any moment.”

  “Fine, I’ll stay.” I slumped down onto the hard dirt ground.

  “Thank you.”

  We sat in the tunnel much longer than I had hoped we would. It had to have been at least two hours before I heard a noise that sounded like laughter. I alerted the rest of the group, who hadn’t heard anything yet, and we set ourselves up. Elliot, JD, Jamie and Matt all hid around the corner behind us while I lay flat on the ground behind a small pile of crumbled bricks. My job was to follow closely behind whoever was coming, since I would be harder to detect than the others. As for the rest of the group, they would be right behind me in case I needed backup.

  “…after him?” The words were hard to hear at first, but as the Jagers got closer they were much easier to comprehend. There appeared to be only two, and it sounded like they were talking about Jason.

  “There’s a rumor going around that he’s like that damn Falko,” the second Jager said. “Alexander’s probably just trying to make sure that another Sterk isn’t created.”

  “That’s total garbage!” the first spat. “Only a crazy person would believe such nonsense! Falko is the one and only; there could never be another.”

  The other one didn’t respond, probably feeling stupid for his dismissed theory. Only a few seconds after their conversation ended, I saw them walk by my tunnel. I made sure there were only two of them, and then I ran out into the new tunnel and followed behind them. If they turned around, I would be spotted and have to kill them, which would make us have to wait for another Jager, so I slowed down and tried to keep my distance. Every chance I got, I would wait around a corner so that there was no way for them to know that I was there, then I would run to catch up and do the same thing again.

  I noticed that the tunnels were becoming much more improved as we went. Most were made of brick or square blocks of stone, but every once in a while, the Jagers would lead us through a wide, black marble tunnel held up by thick pillars and lit with torches. There was no way the humans would have created those for an unfinished subway tunnel, so I knew we were getting closer to the lair.

  After an hour of following the Jagers, I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned swiftly with my hand out and ready to pin whoever had touched me, but it was only Elliot.

  “Is anything wrong?” I asked him quietly.

  “Yes and no,” he whispered.

  “What is it?”

  “We were in this tunnel about forty-five minutes ago. I think these two Jagers are just patrol. They won’t lead us to the lair,” Elliot explained.

  “I thought this place looked a little familiar.” I looked around at the grey stone blocks. “Although, most of these tunnels look the same.”

  “I’ve been marking the walls.” He pointed to a small X that was etched into the stone. “I think we’re just going in random circles around the outside of the lair. We should try and find those marble tunnels and stick with them. They’ll probably lead us closer.”

  “Okay, go get the others. I’ll stay here.”

  Elliot ran back down the tunnel and came back with the rest of our group a few seconds later. We immediately went in search of a marble tunnel. Even with five of us, though, we wandered around for about a half-hour until I finally spotted one of the lit tunnels. We ran for it and followed it for about ten minutes until it abruptly ended at the entrance to three new tunnels. Each of them was made from stone blocks.

  “What now?” JD asked.

  “One of these should lead to the next marble tunnel,” Matt thought out loud.

  “But, which one?” Elliot walked over to each, scanning them very thoroughly.

  “It’s the one on the right,” I said suddenly, and everyone looked at me.

  “How do you know?” Matt asked. “Are you sure?”

  “Look,” I walked over to the tunnel and pointed to a stone block on the ceiling. “There’s a small circle in black marble.”

  “Very good, Aderes.” Elliot smiled and patted me on the back as he walked past me. “We should find the lair very quickly now.”

  We moved down the stone tunnel and eventually came upon a marble one. The same trick was used for each new tunnel, but we were able to find the black circle every time. There were about ten marble tunnels before we came to a new challenge. A large metal gate was closed between us and what looked like the beginning of the lair. The gate would be easily lifted, but there was one other problem. Four Jagers stood on the other side looking in our direction, and with the gate in place, I wouldn’t be able to kill them before they could alert someone else.

  “Great,” JD sighed. “How’re we supposed to get past them? We spent all of this time for nothing.”

  “No we didn’t.” Elliot smiled and looked at me. “Pulse.”

  “I don’t think so. That’s way too risky.”

  “What’s that?” Jamie asked.

  “Pulsing is a trick Aderes can use to get us past those guards,” Elliot answered her.

  “No it’s not. I won’t do it.” My voice was quiet, but stern. “It’s very unreliable, and it takes a lot out of me. If I try it, and it doesn’t work, I may not even be able to run away, never mind stay and fight.”

  “It will work. I believe in you,” Elliot said as he peeked around the corner to look at the gate and the four guards.

  “Pulsing barely effects humans, what makes you think I can do it to Dahmshed?” I demanded.

  “You’ve never tried it on a Dahmshed before?” Matt asked me.

  “Falko wouldn’t let me; he said I’d end up dead. Pulsing drains my energy enough when doing it to humans,” I explained, “and even when I do it to humans, they can still come out of it. I used Pulsing on the guards at Jason’s school when I was watching him, and it didn’t work on some of them. Dahmshed are even mor
e resistant to it.”

  “So then, it would be totally pointless if she tried it,” JD agreed with me. “We’d all get caught, and Aderes wouldn’t even be able to help us fight.”

  “But she can do it,” Elliot insisted.

  “How could you possibly know if it will work or not?” I asked him. “Do you really want to blow everything that we’ve been working for?”

  “Aderes, you just have to try.” He seemed so sincere.

  “I…I don’t know, Elliot.” My mind was reeling with each possible outcome of what might happen if I tried to Pulse.

  “Let’s just say for a minute that this does work,” Jamie said. “What would actually happen to those Jagers?”

  “They’d be put into a hypnotic state,” I replied. “They wouldn’t be able to see me, and they’d have no recollection that I was ever there.”

  “Just you? Would they be able to see me or the others?”

  “It depends on the severity of the Pulse. Falko was able to bring me and two others past a group of humans without them seeing us,” I explained. “But, he’s a lot more powerful than I am.”

  “I say you go for it,” Jamie said, narrowing her eyes. “If Falko can do it, I bet you can too. Just concentrate and stay optimistic; if you keep telling yourself you can’t do it, you won’t be able to.”

  “Too much is riding on this,” JD said. “What would happen to Jason if we get killed here?”

  “I’ve thought about that already.” I clenched my hands into tight fists, trying to get the mental picture out of my head. “I think if we were to die, it would give Jason reason to become a Dahmshed. There would still be hope without us.”

  “So then you’ll do it?” Elliot asked hopefully.

  “We didn’t come all the way down here to stop now, did we?” I let out a nervous laugh as Elliot’s mouth curved into a smile. Jamie and Matt were unaffected by my decision, but JD seemed very apprehensive. He didn’t speak up, but I could see the fear of death in his eyes.

  “Go as soon as you’re ready, then. There’s no time to waste.” Elliot gave me a wink.

  He made it sound so easy, but it was probably the hardest thing I’d ever had to do. Even though there was really nothing to prepare, I gave myself a few seconds to clear my mind and think “happy thoughts.” Then, I walked out from behind the corner and straight up to the gate. When the four Jagers saw me, they all took a defensive position.