02 Seekers

by Lynnie Purcell

Jackson had followed us up the stairs. “I’ll go steal some stuff from the hospital,” he offered.

  “All right. You know what to get?”

  “I think I can manage,” Jackson said. He reached out and very gently ruffled my hair. “Learn to use those feet. They’re great for not falling down.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind,” I said.

  Jackson’s answering grin was lopsided. He turned and started back down the stairs. Daniel shut the door behind us, shutting out Jackson’s departure. “He won’t be gone long,” he assured me.

  “How bad is it?” Beatrice asked, stepping out through the door which led to her lab, her warm brown eyes full of worry. Her auburn hair was thrown into a messy bun and her youthful face was tight with anxiety.

  “I’m okay,” I said.

  Daniel sighed, annoyed. “She’s not okay.”

  “Come sit down,” Beatrice said. I followed her to the long dinner table, and heard her ask in her best mother voice, “Daniel, dear, what happened to your shirt?”

  “Clare’s using it. I’ll go get another one.” He kissed my hand and released me. “I’ll be right back.”

  I nodded and sat, setting my heavy head on the table. I didn’t care the table was antique and beautiful, I just cared about resting. Beatrice didn’t comment about me dripping blood on her table like she normally would have. She simply reached out and rubbed the arm that wasn’t

  holding the pieces of Daniel’s shirt in place. Her hand was warm and electric; it told me I would be okay, though she kept a solid wall between our thoughts. Something I was grateful for. I wasn’t in the mood for thoughts. But even through the wall, I could sense her agitation and fear.

  She hesitated for a moment, searching for ways to keep me conscious. “Han would have come

  down but he’s testing some of the more recent blood we took from you. He thinks we might have discovered something quite interesting.”

  “Interesting?” I asked dreamily.

  “Yes. Very. I was getting quite vexed at your blood to tell you the truth.” She said it as if she thought I would take offense at her hating my blood. “I had a tiny moment of…irritation and I slammed the sample down a little too hard. It broke and mixed with another sample I was

  working on for a friend of mine. I started to clean it up when Han noticed the most bizarre reaction. He checked in the microscope to be sure, of course, and he was right!”

  “Right?” I asked.

  “Yes! Your blood changed the blood I was working on. More than that…it got rid of the cancer cells I was trying to isolate. And your blood did all this without changing! It would seem you have a sort of…auto response mechanism.” Beatrice frowned. “But the merging wasn’t quite

  right…it seemed tenuous, breakable…like it didn’t want to complete its hold on the second

  blood.”

  “Because I hadn’t given it permission,” I said dreamily.

  Her science talk, while interesting, wasn’t enough to keep me awake. A dark cloud of wonderful rest swirled around my eyes, and I felt it pull me down. I closed my eyes.

  “Clare!” Daniel’s voice was sharp.

  I jerked out of the darkness and found Daniel again. He wore a black crumpled shirt, which looked as if he had picked it off the floor, and his face was worried.

  “Sorry,” I apologized when I saw his worried face.

  “Don’t apologize. Just don’t fall asleep.”

  “Okay,” I said.

  He made me put my head back on the table and started cleaning the wound with a small first aid kit. His hands were certain, confident. “It’s lucky you didn’t fall harder. If you had, I don’t think you’d be walking.”

  “Lucky?” I questioned.

  “Han is about to call for you,” Daniel told Beatrice. “He wants to run a theory past you about Clare’s blood.”

  It was a kind dismissal, but a dismissal all the same. Beatrice nodded and stood, not taking offense at the fact that he wanted to be alone with me. She touched my arm again. “Let me know if you need anything.”

  “Thanks,” I said into the table.

  We were left alone and, for a long moment, we were silent. Daniel checked the wound for debris and cleaned it thoroughly. Through our touch I heard him going over technical, medical terms I’d only read on WebMD.

  “How do you know so much about medicine?” I asked to keep my mind away from sleep and the

  pain, wanting to hold true to my promise of staying awake.

  “Med school. Lost a bet to Jackson in the sixties. But he lost a bet to me not long after…he had to join the circus for two years. Best two years ever,” he said with a chuckle. “I didn’t miss a performance.”

  “Dr. Adams?” I asked. “That’s great. Fantastic.”

  “What?”

  “Next, you’re going to tell me that you’ve built rockets for NASA, hung out with Albert

  Einstein, and invented the telephone,” I said dryly.

  “I would never take credit for inventing the telephone,” he replied.

  “I hate you,” I said.

  “Liar.”

  “I never lie,” I said.

  “Everybody lies. Sometimes, you have no other option.”

  “There’s always an option,” I replied.

  His hands lifted off my skin, and he set his elbow on the table. There was a long moment of isolation between us, then he stroked the side of my face with the hand not resting on the table.

  He started talking; picking topics he knew would keep me awake. Though our conversation was interesting, it wasn’t enough to take away the severe pain. When Jackson returned with the medicine, I was more than ready for pain relief.

  “Margaret is with Alex,” he told us. He was in a pair of stolen scrubs, his long hair tied back. He looked every inch a professional doctor. “She called Ellen, but no one is picking up.”

  “That’s because she left her phone at home,” I said. “She always does when she goes on a date with Sam.”

  “I’m sure she’s fine,” Daniel said. “We’ll keep calling.” He stepped behind me with a needle and a small vial. “You’re going to feel a sharp sting.”

  “I already feel a sharp sting.”

  “Then, you’re going to feel it worse,” he said.

  “Awesome.”

  The needle going in wasn’t worse than the pain of the cut, but I still had to grip the table to keep from crying out – added pain was the last thing I was hoping for. But, it wasn’t long until the pain receded, the shot working its magic. Beatrice and Han came downstairs as Daniel finished sewing me back together again, the medicine relaxing me to the point of near sleep. Daniel moved me to the sofa, careful to lay me on my side, and they started talking about the attack in more detail. I heard them going over plans for keeping my family safe. I didn’t get the chance to tell them I was planning on drawing all the bad guys away by going somewhere else, by hunting down the lion stalking us all. I passed out before I could.

  I’ve had some sucker punches of nightmares. One reoccurring one was Daniel turning into a

  demon and facing a whole battlefield of Nightstalkers against black, lighting touched skies. That one always guaranteed I would wake up covered in sweat and gasping for air. I did wake up, gasping for breath and covered in sweat, but the nightmare was different. The fear was less from an action, or from losing a loved one, but more from a feeling of malice that had been associated with the images.

  In the dream, a man with yellow eyes looked out of a tower very high somewhere. Below him

  was a barren stretch of land that had no trees to break its arid, thirsty landscape. His tower room was etched into the mountain we were looking down. In the distance, I saw a stretch of

  snowcapped mountains. I watched as the yellow eyed man surveyed his realm – whose white

  hair and face was oddly familiar. The wasteland wasn’t as deserted as I had originally thought. A mass of Watchers and Nightstalkers seethed around the l
and, training, preparing, hurting,

  carrying out his will. He turned back and looked directly at me, a smile playing along his delicate lips. Our eyes connected and I knew, I felt, he was aware of me.

  That’s when I woke up.

  My eyes raked my unfamiliar surroundings searching for an enemy, my thoughts still lost in that dry, arid landscape. Sharp moonlight streamed through glass doors. The sofa I was lying on was comfortable, but definitely not my bed. My clothes were different, warm pajamas from my

  house. I looked up and saw an elegant painting decorating the ceiling, which was very tall. It took me a second to recognize Daniel’s living room, the man’s yellow eyes piercing me through my dream. How could a set of eyes affect me so?

  I stood, thinking that if I could look out at the moon, look at something pure, the image would fade. I stumbled over to the glass door, fumbled with the latch, which felt overly complicated in my dazed state, and went out to the large veranda. I plopped down on the stone steps that led out toward the Adams’ flower gardens and took a deep breath. Crickets chirped happily, and a soft breeze billowed around, chilling me slightly around the heat of the evening. I wrapped my arms around my body and breathed in the damp air.

  My vision swirled again, in a very different way than head trauma, as I looked out over the dark.

  A buzzing whine started up around the swirling. I put my hands over my ears and waited for the sound to pass. The noise increased in tempo contrarily, swirling with sounds – a scratching tap, clinking of glass, soft music playing, the sound of a squirrel scampering around, the soft pad of deer through the woods, whispers, more whispering, then:

  “I very specifically told you not to come here! I told you I would call you with my answer. I don’t need a sitter, and I don’t need Odette meddling in my life more than she already has!” I heard Daniel say from…somewhere.

  “But your choices affect us all, Daniel, dear,” a sultry voice replied with a hint of a French accent. The voice was feminine and undeniably attractive. “The girl is too important to risk on your stubbornness.”

  “Is that why you’re here? Did you come to get a look at her? I won’t allow it. She’s not Odette’s plaything, either.”

  “Odette is not playing a game, merely trying to prevent what you have seen. Besides, phone calls are too easily traced. What we have to discuss should remain between us, I think.”

  “I haven’t made my choice. I told you that already,” Daniel said.

  “Odette says otherwise,” the woman said.

  “Oh, and what does the ‘all powerful’ seer see?” Daniel asked scathingly.

  “She has seen that the proposition I have brought before you will come to pass. You can’t resist.

  It means lives saved, and it means continuing your mission of atonement. But when you decide to go matters as much as if you go. If you are not there by Tuesday everything you hope for will die.”

  “I don’t need vague hints and cryptic messages from some two-bit pawn of a meddling Elder, who has nothing better to do than to try and coerce me to join her hapless crusade,” Daniel said.

  “Odette is your friend, Daniel. It is Odette who has protected the girl...who has made her presence felt against a full out attack on your people. You should also keep in mind that in this world you need powerful people backing you. You need allies, not enemies, and your list of enemies seems to grow by the day.”

  “Was that a threat?” Daniel asked.

  “A reminder.”

  “Serenity…you can take you ‘reminders’ and shove them up your entitled ass,” Daniel said.

  “I’ve never heard you be so ungentlemanly. You must be upset.” I heard the sound of high heels on stone as the woman ‘Serenity’ started walking. “I can help take you mind off your worries…

  just like the old days.”

  “You never took my mind off anything.” His words were harsh, a rebuke.

  “Darling, I would love to play this game with you all night, but I must be going. The offer stands. You know where to come if you decide to listen to common sense.”

  I heard a much closer sound in front of me and looked up. Out from the tall hedges Daniel and a woman appeared at the bottom of the steps I was perched on. “It was lovely to see you again,”

  Serenity said as they paused near the shrubbery.

  I peered through the darkness, wanting to see the owner of that decidedly feminine, sultry voice.

  Someone inside the house obligingly turned on a light. It cascaded through the window, casting its shade on the hard stone. I didn’t like what I saw. Her face was elegant and beautiful, the dark ebony skin unmarked by time. Dark black hair trailed down to her thin shoulders. She wore a dark purple dress with black shoes I would look ridiculous in. The sultriness I had heard in her voice carried over to her form, filling out the dress with unrelenting curves.

  “Enchanting,” Daniel said, pushing away the hand she had placed on his arm.

  She smiled. “I’ll be waiting.”

  He nodded and didn’t reply his face twisted into indecision and anger. She glanced up the steps at me, obviously aware of my presence, and I saw her eyes were a sharp gold. They cut through the darkness eerily, like a wolf’s. She smiled at me and bent toward Daniel to give him a

  goodbye kiss. Then she was gone, leaving Daniel to the company of the wind whispering

  through the hedgerows, the pale moonlight, and, of course, me.

  He waited a minute – his hands tucked in his pockets as he stared after her – then he started his slow way up the stairs. He paused on the third stair up, his eyes large, finally noticing me. I would have found his expression of surprise and boyish alarm amusing had I not been seething around the headache.

  “You’re up…” he began cautiously. “I thought you would be out for the rest of the night.”

  “Did you?”

  He rearranged his expression and came up the rest of the stairs. “How do you feel?”

  I pointed to where Serenity had disappeared, my face a question. I wasn’t in the mood for his distractions.

  He made a face and explained quickly, “She’s an old friend. Knew Jackson from the Second

  World War. He was stationed in France. Lied about his age to get in the army, and met her

  during a mission with the French Resistance.”

  “Where’s Jackson?” I asked. “Surely he wouldn’t want to miss out on seeing his ‘old friend’?”

  “He’s…” I saw a lie forming.

  I shook my head. “Forget it. If you don’t want to tell me who Serenity is, or why you have to be somewhere by Tuesday then just….just forget it.”

  I stood up, my anger overriding my pain, and went inside, to cut-through to the front of the house. I would find a way home, even if it meant stealing one of the cars. It was better than being lied to. He ran after me and caught my arm, blocking the way. His green eyes danced with black anger. “You have no right…you have no idea what I’ve put up with…what I’ve had to do…”

  “That’s right. You know why? You’re not telling me a damn thing!”

  “You can’t think of a single reason why not, huh?!” he snapped back. “Like the fact that you do stupid stuff without thinking?”

  My hands clenched and unclenched in anger as a thought occurred. The pieces of his actions and this meeting merged together into a situation that made sense. “You’re going to leave, and you want to leave me here, don’t you?”

  He didn’t reply. His eyes bored into mine in sudden fear.

  “Don’t you?!!” I yelled.

  “I don’t know!” he yelled back.

  Beatrice and Han appeared in the door that led to their tower lab, their eyes alarmed. Jackson hovered on the massive steps that lead upstairs. “Is everything okay?” Han asked.

  “No!” I growled. I stomped past them and opened the door. Daniel caught up with me again, but I threw his hand off.

  “You’re not leaving like this,” he said.
The black was gone from his eyes. They were more panicked now, less upset. He saw I was serious and something about that terrified him.

  “To hell I’m not!”

  He put his hands in front of me in the air, a peace offering. “What do want me to do? I’ll do it.”

  Beatrice and Han disappeared back up the stairs giving us space. Jackson lingered a moment more, his eyes curious.

  “Tell me the truth!” I demanded.

  He crossed his arms and sucked in a harsh breath. “Serenity was here because she is one of my contacts. I went to meet her…instead of helping Beatrice, like I said I was.” His nostrils flared, and his hands clenched in anger. “She has found a way for me to find out why Marcus is after you, and possibly get enough information to find out where he is.”

  “And?” I demanded impatiently. “What’s the plan?”

  “Can we sit like civilized people first?”

  I still had one foot out the door. I realized it probably wasn’t the best way to find out

  information. I nodded and followed him back to the living room. I sat on the sofa, my arms crossed and my feet ready to move in case I sensed another lie. He perched on the edge on the coffee table, so he was facing me. He looked down at his strong hands for a long moment,

  collecting his thoughts. “Marcus trusts no one, a byproduct of his youth, but he’s always

  practical. In cities all across the world he has nests, which are a collection of Seekers. It’s where he does his recruiting and training for that city, and it’s where he holds other Watchers to sell them on the black market. In New Orleans his old recruiter met an unexpected end through….an encounter. Stupidity on his part; he messed with the wrong group of people. Marcus is in need of a replacement.”

  “And you’re going to be the replacement?” I asked.

  “No, of course not. Marcus picks out replacements personally. He would know me in an instant.

  The man that Serenity thinks they are going to choose is relatively new, but brutal, a perfect candidate to lead the Seekers down there.” He paused thoughtfully. “The thing about the men Marcus chooses is that they are, to a fault, paranoid. They spend a lot of time right at first securing their power in the nests, getting rid of old hands – allies are always needed. Serenity suggested that I let myself be recruited, then worm my way up to the new leader’s ear.”