Nighthawks (Children of Nostradamus Book 1)

by Flagg, Jeremy

  Dwayne put his hand on Conthan’s shoulder. “Conthan, we’re going to be fighting. This isn’t a video game. It’s life or death.” He patted Conthan on the chest. “Do you get what I’m saying?”

  “It’s kill or be killed,” Skits said, her voice void of her usual playfulness.

  Dav5d realized Conthan had never contemplated the idea of killing another living person. Dwayne’s expression was relaying the dire situation. Dav5d noticed the slight stiffness in Conthan’s spine and a minor angle change in his shoulders; regardless of his ethical issues, he was prepared to defend his companions.

  Conthan nodded in response but never said he would kill aloud. He didn’t like the idea. He was an artist, a person who tried to create beauty. Dav5d knew this lifestyle was foreign to him.

  Skits punched him in the arm. “These fuckers deserve no less.”

  Dav5d didn’t care for their more forceful ways, but he was certain there were times when no other options were present. It was a reality each of them faced, and even Conthan, hearing what was expected, was internalizing the discussion, trying to uncover what boundaries he firmly drew in the sand. Dav5d suspected that when it came to his companion locked away at the facility, Conthan would be capable of far more forceful tactics than even he realized.

  “It’s the world we live in,” Dwayne admitted. The man held out his hand, waiting for Conthan to return the gesture. As they gripped hands, Dwayne smiled. “You’re family now.”

  Skits rolled her eyes. “Are we going to have a feeling circle now?”

  “Ready, Alyssa?”

  The girl looked up from the screen. Her eyes were a milky white. She jumped up and down, shaking her arms, loosening her muscles. As her irises emerged from the pools of white, she nodded.

  “I am the shit,” she barked, standing up from Dav5d’s computer screen. “A little refresher course to keep me on my toes.”

  “It’s up to you now,” Dwayne said.

  Conthan looked down to his hands. He had been able to make the portals a dozen times this morning. Opening them had almost been easy, but the destination of the other side was erratic at best. As the first and second were mislocated, he grew angry and his abilities began to work against him. Dav5d was impressed with his determination. This group, the Nighthawks, had rescued him and he was determined to not let them down.

  “I’ve got this,” he said to himself.

  Dav5d watched as Conthan flexed his hands, attempting to call his powers. The kid did as they practiced earlier, focusing on the sensation in his skull and slowly trying to drag it outward. His breathing slowed as he attempted to focus. He shivered from the chill of the portal, a black empty hole nearly six feet tall suspended in air.

  “Now to Vanessa,” he said.

  Dav5d knew Vanessa had been attempting to make Conthan’s job easier by giving him contextual clues to her location. At this point, she was more aware of his abilities than he was.

  His muscles tensed as his abilities tried to force open the other end of the portal. He wasn’t sure what was happening, but it felt as if every inch of his body was on fire.

  “He’s straining,” Alyssa said.

  “He’s opening a portal further away than he’s done before,” Dav5d said.

  She looked from Dwayne back to Conthan, who was beginning to sweat. “Keep focusing,” she encouraged.

  He grunted and fell to one knee. Alyssa reached down to help him but paused as he opened his eyes. Dark obsidian orbs shone where they would have been. “Holy shit,” she said, stepping back.

  “Done,” Conthan gasped. “Go quick.”

  Dwayne grabbed him under the shoulders and they both pushed through the darkness. Skits and Alyssa quickly followed. Dav5d watched the portal blink out of existence as quickly as it had appeared. He looked back to the hotel that housed the handful survivors of their clan. “Godspeed.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  May 19th, 2032 8:46AM

  Alyssa ducked below a swinging pipe and slammed her fist into her assailant’s neck. She grabbed the pipe from the falling man and used it to block an oncoming fist from a second assailant. With the butt of the pipe, she cracked the man under the jaw, shutting his mouth and sending him to the ground.

  With the pipe held out ready to strike, she spun about to a man holding a gun pointed at her. She tried to calculate if she could use the lead pipe to block the bullet. She took a step back as a line of white light flashed and hit the guy in the chest. She turned to see Dwayne emerge hand outstretched as he held Conthan.

  “I had him,” she said with a sneer.

  “Not a solo mission,” he said. “We work together.”

  “Such a wise brother,” Skits mocked quietly.

  Conthan raised his eyebrows at Alyssa, her chest heaving as she breathed in and out rapidly. The two men on the ground next to her were breathing but not moving. She pointed to the seared fabric on the third man and the burn marks covering part of his body. “They’re not going to be so kind. Do what you must.”

  “Gun?” Conthan asked, pointing to the weapon.

  The other three shrugged their shoulders. Dwayne held up his hands. “I blow up ammo.”

  Skits held up her hands in a similar manner. “I focus plasma”—she smiled—“and blow up ammo.”

  Alyssa just rolled her eyes. “I’m a living weapon. No guns.”

  Conthan picked it up and checked that the safety was off. “So basically I’m the wimp on the team.”

  Skits patted him on the shoulder. “Somebody has to be.”

  Dwayne examined the room while the two exchanged quips back and forth. “Be creative with your abilities, Conthan, they’re more powerful than you give them credit for.”

  “If they work.”

  “Where are we?” Alyssa asked.

  “We’re in the hotel the Outlanders use as their base of operations. A conference room?” he asked, examining the room. “We need to find where they’re keeping Vanessa.”

  Conthan realized it was the room he had seen in his dream. Based on the number of people scattered across the floor, it appeared Vanessa had put up a fight before being captured.

  Conthan touched his forehead. “Vanessa, can you hear me?”

  “What are you doing?” Skits asked with a perplexed look.

  “Isn’t that how telepathy works?”

  “You don’t need to speak out loud. You’re such a newb,” she said.

  “Sue me.”

  They ran over to one of the massive doors leading outside. Dwayne held up his fist, signaling them to stop. “If she’s here, I can’t hear her. That means there must be a dampener where she’s being held.”

  “Dampener?”

  “Keeps us from using our powers.”

  Skits hand began to burn blue. “Nope.”

  “It has to be the Warden,” Conthan said. He tucked the gun into the small of his back as if it were a bad action film.

  “Look at him, getting all brave,” Skits said.

  Dwayne peeked around the side of the door leading toward the mezzanine. There were hundreds of doors, and behind any of them, there could be a wave of Outlanders ready to shoot. The hotel was a giant circle, story after story, and at the center, balconies looked all the way down to the ground floor. He gestured to a man holding a gun several stories above them. Dwayne ducked and pointed across the way. “They’re expecting us.”

  “How would they know we’re coming?”

  Dwayne raised an eyebrow. “He’s got a point. Vanessa never told them she was a telepath. They wouldn’t know the cavalry would be here. Something isn’t adding up.”

  “Telepath,” Conthan said.

  “He’s getting annoying,” Skits said.

  “He’s most likely right.”

  “Then why are we hiding?”

  They turned to Conthan. He just pointed out the window. “Wouldn’t a telepath be able to tell we’re here?”

  “Shit,” they all said.

  “They took her,�
� said a voice in the room.

  Conthan’s head tilted for a moment as he eyed the girl. “I recognize her from the dream.” She was sitting against the far wall, cradling her arm. She appeared to have been shot through it. She didn’t make any effort to move.

  “Who took her?” asked Alyssa.

  Conthan kneeled next to the woman. The blood had soaked through her military jacket and hoodie, coating her limp hand in crimson. He leaned her forward and took the layers off her. He began tearing at the sleeve until he had a long enough band to tie around her arm. Conthan noted the burned numbers on her skin. She was one of the people the government threw out of the States. She was forced here, not so different from his own situation.

  “The Outlanders,” she said through a hiss.

  “Why?”

  She shook her head. “They weren’t themselves. I can’t explain it.”

  Conthan was learning when something amazing happened and nobody had words to explain it, there was only one answer. “Telepath.”

  ***

  Vanessa stared at the two humans in front of her. A Latino man and a white woman stood there, holding guns against their chests, but with the slightest effort her eyes would see what her mind knew: the individuals in front of her were vacant. A specter hung in the air, manipulating their bodies as if they were marionette dolls.

  “Why are you doing this?”

  “Doing what?” they said together.

  “Holding me?”

  Both of the humans laughed in unison. She was startled by how they spoke, their voices almost perfectly in sync, as if they were merely extensions of one God-mouth. Her arms were bound to a pole behind her back while ropes reached from the ceiling to her wings, securing them in place. It wasn’t enough that the Warden had her restrained, he put more innocent lives guarding her, assuring any escape would result in their death.

  The woman walked up to the angel and caressed her face. “I would think somebody as removed from humanity as you would understand why I do it.” She stood up straight, smiling at Vanessa’s discomfort. “I do it simply because I can.”

  The pressure started at the base of her skull like two hands were attempting to squeeze her head. The Warden pushed against her mind, forcing her to guard her thoughts. He might have her restrained, but she had spent her entire life protecting herself from the thoughts of others. She couldn’t go on the offensive, but she could defend against him indefinitely. “You will never break me.”

  “You think I need to touch your mind to do that?”

  The two laughed again at the expression flashing across her face. The woman got close to Vanessa, her mouth nearly touching the angel’s lips. She quietly whispered, “Who said I was even after you?”

  Vanessa realized her hubris would be her undoing. She had assumed she was the one the Warden was after. She could see the look of delight in the woman’s eyes. Vanessa let a neutral affect settle on her face. “You’re after my people.”

  The woman nodded. “I currently run the largest prison for powered people in the world. Doesn’t it strike as you as odd that a Child of Nostradamus would want to dominate his own kind?”

  Her eyes swallowed her emotions as she tried to see the Warden’s expressions through his vessel. “You’re building an army.”

  “At my possession are hundreds of the most deadly people on the planet. I am an unknown warlord.”

  “The government will stop you,” she said.

  The man laughed, and this time his laughter was cut with a mocking edge. The two Outlanders spoke in unison. “Who do you think put me in this position?”

  Her face didn’t give away her thoughts, but the silence spoke volumes. The two began again. “I became the Warden because the president trusted my service.”

  “You manipulated the president?”

  The laughter grew to a crescendo. She imagined him sitting in his office, his eyes staring off into space as he manipulated the Outlanders like puppets. Her imagination put a sick smile on his real body’s face. “You still don’t understand, do you?”

  Vanessa didn’t need to process the information. Instead, she knew it was time to fight back. She stopped struggling and let a calm flow through her muscles. The unblinking humans stopped laughing at her change in demeanor.

  She smirked at the two hosts. “Warden…” Her smirk unfolded into a smile. “You’re a monster.”

  She stared across the room, letting her mind see beyond the wall. “Do it, Dwayne.”

  ***

  Electricity surged through his body, ripping from the surface of his skin and projecting outward. From near the top of the hotel, the floors below were in view. He clapped his hands together and they stung with the impact. The electricity continued to hammer a balcony below where gunners were hiding.

  His body acted like a battery, and in one act it wanted to dispel the entirety of its charge. It was easy to stop the bolts when the battery was topped off, but as he reached further, scraping every ounce of power, the on switch began to stick. The light shot wildly toward his target, knocking against walls, shattering brick, smashing windows and causing the balcony to collapse. The Outlanders fell to the ground as his powers stopped their hearts on contact. It was lightning in every manner except the source.

  His abilities would kill him if he gave into the euphoria he experienced every time he called his powers to the surface of his skin. He closed his fist and willed the lightning to stop.

  The crashing sound of exploding windows was silenced. For a moment there was a calm throughout the hotel. Dwayne dropped to his knees as the first bullet flew through the air. He looked down to his hands and saw the heat radiating from them. He felt sick, as if he might throw up. He took a deep breath and pushed the feeling aside. “Here we go again.”

  ***

  “How can you…”

  Vanessa turned her head as the wall exploded inward. Her captors were hurled against the adjacent wall. The shadow clinging to their bodies dissipated for a moment. For a moment they were themselves again. The darkness returned and clawed its hooks into the humans’ backs.

  The woman turned toward Vanessa, holding her rifle level with the angel’s chest. Before her finger pulled the trigger, Vanessa flexed her wings, ripping the ropes from the ceiling. She dropped into a crouch and spun on the pole, using her wing to send the woman out the hole in the wall.

  The man’s eyes showed a moment of fear. She hoped it was the expression the Warden was wearing sitting in his office. She smiled as she pulled at the ropes, tearing them apart. She leaned forward, crawling on all fours. The sound of her nails dragging across the floorboards filled the air between the sounds of distant gunfire.

  “You tricked me.”

  “An arrogant man tricks himself,” she said, lunging at him.

  The man tried to reach for the knife on his belt. She grabbed his hands and slammed her forehead into his, leaving a bloody mess. She leaned in close to his face. “We’re coming for you.”

  “Do your—”

  She spun the man’s head, cracking his neck. She threw the body across the room and wiped the blood from her face. She let a scream erupt from her mouth. The sound of the guttural cry echoed in the ears and minds of every human in the hotel.

  ***

  “Get me close,” Alyssa said to Skits.

  Conthan watched as Skits held out her hands as if they were ready to perform a karate chop. In the blink of an eye, the air around them began to show radiant heat, and a second later the air around her hands burst into a dense blue fire. Alyssa stepped back from the intense flare pouring out of her friend’s body. Skits moved her hands in a circular pattern, the plasma looking like liquefied glass hanging in mid-air. As the girl moved her arms faster, the plasma took a disc shape.

  “On it,” she said, kicking the door open and charging down the balcony.

  Conthan sat the human woman down on bench. Her arm hung in a poorly constructed sling. “Are you going to be okay?”

  “Can yo
u save Vanessa?”

  “I’m going to try.” He hesitated before leaving her. “How do you know her name?”

  “Long story. She can do stuff in your head. She saved me.”

  “Me too. Why aren’t you like them?”

  She shrugged.

  “Stay here. We have some saving to do.”

  As he ran out to the balcony he heard a woman screaming from above. Her body was launched from several stories up, hurled down the center of the hotel to the ground level. It thumped against the ground and stopped moving.

  “Holy shit,” he said. It wasn’t a game. People were dying. There more who were going to die. He thought of the gun at his back. He tried to imagine himself pulling the trigger.

  “Warden,” he hissed.

  Alyssa threw a knife, landing it square into the chest of a gunman. They were near the top of the staircase leading to the banquet rooms below. Scattered about were men and women with rifles. The Nighthawks were very outnumbered.

  A horrific primal scream shook the walls of the hotel. The cry sounded like a woman in distress but the echo in his mind told him Vanessa was pissed. He glanced up just in time to see her launch from the balcony. Her wings stretched outward as she plummeted toward them at a brisk pace. She pulled up just before hitting the floor, knocking two gunmen onto the faded carpet.

  Conthan balled his left fist and the tingling started coursing through his body. He charged toward Alyssa and Skits as they fended off two attackers. A third man stepped from behind a pillar, holding a rifle. Conthan pulled out his gun and began to squeeze the trigger. The weapon jerked upward with each trigger pull.

  None of his shots hit the attacker. He chucked the gun with all his might and let his balled fist open. A small dark hole appeared in the air, consuming the gun. A split second dragged on for an eternity. The open hole in the air was like an explosion through his body, forcing the second void to appear next to the creeping assailant. The gun emerged, clubbing the guy on the side of his face.