02 Seekers

by Lynnie Purcell

  he said to me.

  Anna was lounging on a chair near Damian, her leg thrown over the arm. “What is?”

  “I’ve seen this one before. She barged into this very room, in fact.”

  “Hm. Maybe, I should charge double, then,” Anna said.

  “Oh, no, the standard rates apply…though it does make me curious as to how she escaped. You wouldn’t be trying to sell me something I’ve already killed, just to make a profit, would you?”

  “I do enjoy a good profit, but do you really think I would be stupid enough to sell you something you’ve seen before?”

  “Hmmmm…You say she is a Watcher? She doesn’t look like one to me. More human than

  anything,” Damian said.

  “She can block thoughts,” Anna pointed out.

  “I’ve met humans who can block thoughts. It’s not so great a thing,” Damian replied.

  “Are you trying to weasel your way out of paying me more?” Anna asked.

  “Are you trying to pretend like she’s a Watcher to get a higher price?” Damian asked back.

  “Of course not…”

  Damian looked closer at me, noticing the blood on my face. “Look at it…it bleeds red. Surely, you noticed that?”

  “I…”

  “Human, how old are you?” Damian asked me with no attempt at hiding his sneer.

  “Young enough to know a monster when I see one and old enough to not fear it,” I said.

  Damian’s body tensed. I saw my death in his tense frame. Before he could give the order to have me killed, a figure stepped out of the line of Seekers guarding the room. The figure was hooded, its features masked. It crossed the marbled floor swiftly and stopped in front of me. The person pushed back his hood, and I saw it was Daniel. My heart lifted a couple of inches, even though his face was neutral, and I saw no recognition in his green eyes – merely indifference. I couldn’t help the hope that he would help me. In the blink of an eye, he bent down and slapped me in the face, adding to the pain already radiating from my nose. It wasn’t full strength, but it still stung. I put my hand to my face in shock. He had hit me. Daniel had hit me.

  “Watch your tongue,” Daniel commanded.

  “I can’t. My nose gets in the way,” I said.

  He slapped me again. This time it was harder, a lesson to keep my mouth shut. I felt tears well in my eyes. My initial feeling of hope at seeing him fled from my heart. His indifferent face, his cool eyes, his brutal slap, let me know I had lost him. My words had forever severed something between us.

  Damian laughed, the murderous rage leaving his body. “Isra…you’ve got more patience than I.”

  Daniel turned and bowed low. “It comes with years of waiting, my lord.” Daniel gestured back at me. “This one has a lot of fire…it could serve us well.”

  “I noticed that the last time it was here,” Damian said. “Bring it here.”

  Daniel grabbed me on the arm and forced me to stand. I struggled against his hands, which felt unfamiliar and familiar at the same time. His skin on mine created an instant connection between us. His thoughts reached out to me: Clare… I shoved up a black wall against his thought, too angry to listen to him. He was one of them.

  Damian leaned forward on his throne and surveyed me for a long moment. “It’s obvious you are not a typical human. You know who we are, and why you are here. You’re not even bothering

  with the usual stupid questions that plague most humans. So, either you are a human who has encountered our world before, or you have not yet changed. Which is it?”

  Daniel squeezed my arm. I knew if I answered sarcastically he would slap me again. That

  thought was more unbearable than the actual pain the slaps caused.

  “Both.”

  Damian was thoughtful. “Both…hm.”

  The door opened and Damian glanced away, releasing me from his black stare. I kept my eyes focused on the side of his face, so I wouldn’t have to look at Daniel and feel the pain lashing at my insides. Damian’s pointed features changed as the person at the door stepped into the room.

  “Aaron. I believe we have a dilemma on our hands,” Damian said.

  “My lord?” Aaron asked.

  Damian gestured at me. “It seems you did not lock this one away securely enough…or did you get it in your head you would try and sell her without my permission?”

  “Sell her, my lord? No…no of course not. I locked her away as you asked. Ask Paul…ask

  Michael.”

  “Why do I sense a lie in your words, Aaron?”

  “I would never lie to you, my lord.”

  “You know I can see through any lie, Aaron. My gift is unbeatable,” Damian said.

  “He’s not lying,” I said. “He put me in a coffin in that cemetery you like to leave people in. It was very scary.” Everyone stared at me, including Daniel. Aaron’s face was incredulous. I shrugged at their shock. “It’s true. No sense in wasting time getting all mad at him. Anna needs to sell me, so she can get back home, and I need you to buy me, so I can have some time to think about ways to kill you, so…”

  Daniel’s hand was gripping me so hard I was sure he wasn’t far from cutting off the blood

  supply. I ignored him, though, afraid if I looked at him, my whole façade of bravado would crumble. That would just get him killed. However mad I was at him, I didn’t want to see him dead.

  Damian leaned back in his chair. “I don’t know, Anna, it might take more to break this one.

  Those kids you sold me will be great for experiments…but this one. Hm.”

  “The wildest ones make the best soldiers in the end,” Anna said. “You know this.”

  “Yes, but it will take longer. A decreased price seems only fair to me. Besides, she’s technically still a human.”

  Anna jumped out of her chair. “Technically, my foot! I captured her fair and square!”

  “Where exactly?” Damian asked.

  Anna lowered her eyes. I sensed she didn’t want him to know about her swords. Though she had them tucked safely in the sheath on her back, it was obvious the others weren’t aware of their full potential.

  “Lies…lies…lies…I do hate them,” Damian said around her silence.

  “Where I found her doesn’t matter. What matters is cash. I’ve been good to you. Compensation for the ones I bring in shouldn’t be out of the question.”

  “I wonder how your boss feels about that?”

  “He appreciates initiative,” she said, stepping closer and crossing her arms.

  Damian leaned forward, and they started to negotiate back and forth about what I was worth and why I was worth that amount. Damian kept trying to downplay my benefit to the Seekers, while Anna kept mentioning my potential. I sensed their ritual bargaining was par for the course whenever Anna brought in someone to sell. The comfortable nature of it made me ill. I listened to them with growing hatred, the desire to stop them increasing with every second.

  Clare…listen to me! Daniel had finally penetrated my mental shield.

  There’s nothing to listen to, I thought back. How does it feel to sell your soul to the devil?

  You know me better than that.

  Do I?

  I don’t have time for this now. Listen to me. You have to escape. I heard from Damian today that one of Marcus’s lieutenants is coming to check on the progress of the nest. Damian’s been busy getting everything perfect, threatening the scientists… Daniel paused. Damian might not recognize you, but one of Marcus’s lieutenants definitely will.

  Yeah, I’ll just leave. I started to pull away, but he kept his grip on me. Oh, yeah, prisoner here. I forgot.

  Can you fight? he asked me.

  My whole body was trembling with adrenaline, but I knew I couldn’t fight a whole room of

  Seekers. There was only one of me.

  I can try. I won’t leave without the kids, though.

  Clare…

  No! I won’t. You may not care, but I do. I’
m nothing if I can’t save them!

  “Done,” Damian said.

  “Done,” Anna agreed with a nod.

  “Isra…take my new purchase to the initiation room, and make her behave.”

  “Yes, my lord,” Daniel said with a low bow.

  I wasn’t sure what made me do it. It could have been Daniel’s question about my ability to fight.

  It might have been my irritation at seeing Daniel bow to complete evil. Or maybe, it was my incorrigible, rebellious spirit. Whatever it was, I knew I wasn’t going to go quietly.

  I hit Daniel in the stomach as hard as I could, which turned out to be pretty hard in my irritated state, and he grunted and fell to the floor. I rushed to Anna, who was still facing Damian. Instead of attacking her, though, I went for her sword. I managed to grab one out of her sheath before she could react. Her face went from extremely pleased to hard in an instant. I swung the sword at her, figuring her to be the biggest threat in the room. She had her sword out of the sheath before the blow was complete. I didn’t waste time on being impressed, I swung at her again. Her eyes widened as she blocked me – she obviously hadn’t thought I would react so quickly to her armed state. We spun apart and came at each other again. As we did, I noticed Damian gesture the others to stay out of the fight. He was obviously curious about how the fight would end. Daniel watched with wide eyes from where he had dropped to the floor, frozen in the moment.

  Anna moved with the skill of someone used to sword fighting, used to carrying out a secret war with only her sword as a companion. I moved like Jackson and Margaret had beaten the lesson of survival into me. It was a lesson I was suddenly appreciating. We blocked and parried, coming together then dancing apart again. I slowly pushed Anna back. She gave ground grudgingly, my anger making me fierce and deadly. Three steps into her retreat, she started using her talent of levitation. Chairs, pictures, anything that wasn’t in use, flew at me. I ducked under what I could and let the rest hit me, indifferent to the pain. Cuts and gashes formed, but I kept my attention on Anna – to me, beating her was the same as freeing the kids.

  Had I known he had planned on killing her anyways, I wouldn’t have fought Anna. I would have attacked him first. Damian, however, was devious. I forced Anna to retreat to the center of the room. There, in the floor, was a secret door. Damian pushed a button on his fancy throne, and the floor opened. Anna dropped down into a dark pit. I skidded to a stop inches from the edge, all the furniture falling to the ground at her fall. From below, I heard the sound of deadly growling of Nightstalkers and Anna screaming in anger. The trap door shut again, cutting off the screams. I turned around to face Damian, some of anger ebbing away at the shock of his actions.

  “She should have charged double!” Damian laughed, clapping happily. “You really are

  something. She comes pre-packaged Isra! You won’t have to spend half as long training her.”

  “Yeah…no kidding…I mean…Yes, my lord,” Daniel said.

  I started toward the throne, the sword in my hand thirsting for violence. It had been cheated out of Anna’s blood, but it still hungered for payment. Looking at Damian, I was eager to oblige.

  Damian gestured negligently to one of the figures lining the wall. That figure stepped forward, and a surge of energy flew out and hit me. It threw me against the opposite wall. I dropped the sword as I hit the wall, and tried to catch my wind. Another figure bent down and retrieved the sword, before I could get my hands on it again.

  “Silver chains for her, I think,” Damian said.

  “I’ll take care of it,” Daniel said, taking hold of me again.

  “Good man,” Damian said. “Once she’s secure, come back here. We have much to prepare for.

  Nguyen arrives soon.”

  “Actually…he is here,” a new voice declared.

  A tall man stepped through the open door. Aaron, who had slunk back to the threshold, moved out of the way to make room for the newcomer. I would have recognized him anywhere. His face belonged in one of my nightmares. The Asian man who had attacked us near King’s Cross

  finally had a name: Nguyen. Daniel’s grip tightened as he, too, recognized the man who had attacked our car so many weeks ago.

  “And he is impressed you have managed to find the one person in this world Marcus wants

  above all others.” Nguyen smiled at me. “Clare, it’s good to see you again…I knew I hadn’t seen the last of you.”

  Chapter 20

  Damian stood up from his throne, his face confused. “You know her?”

  Daniel’s body language shifted as Nguyen switched his eyes to him. Daniel stepped in front of me, protecting me from Nguyen, knowing that the charade was over. There was no way we could convince Nguyen that Daniel had honestly joined the Seekers.

  “Yes, I know her. Why is he not in chains?” Nguyen demanded, pointing at Daniel.

  “Isra?” Damian asked. “What do you mean?”

  “Isra…I think not. Daniel, isn’t it? Yes, I believe that’s what Marcus said your name was. He is Marcus’s enemy.” Nguyen’s eyes turned hard. “Did your gift for seeing the truth not extend to him, or was Marcus’s faith in you misplaced?”

  “I-” Damian searched for an answer.

  “Chain them!” Nguyen commanded Damian’s men.

  Daniel had already started forward. I looked around for a weapon, but I only saw the others closing in. They were hooded, their faces obscured, but I could sense their deadly intentions. It would be the chains or death. The Watcher who had taken my sword led the pack, his hand firm on the silver blade.

  I may have been angry with Daniel – angry at his lies – but I didn’t want him dead. His lies didn’t change how I felt about him. I reached out and touched him on the arm before he could commit to a fight. Not like this. They’ll kill you.

  Perhaps, he was just trying to placate me, or he could sense the others behind us, but he stopped moving forward. While his body didn’t relax, the murder disappeared from his brain. Nguyen smiled as if he had heard our exchange. He gestured the others forward, his eyes telling us he had wished for a fight. Two Watchers grabbed Daniel on either arm, tearing him from my grip. The hooded Watcher with the sword grabbed my arm, forcing me toward the door.

  Nguyen stepped closer to Damian and said over his shoulder to the man holding me, “Put them in the same room, so they can say their goodbyes. I’ll be in shortly... after I’ve dealt with Damian.”

  My hooded captor nodded and dragged me out of the room, past Aaron who was staring at me

  oddly. With my gift of super hearing I was able to hear Nguyen dismiss the others in the room, then lay into Damian with strong words, which questioned Damian’s intelligence and ability to lead the nest. Despite the apparent evil of Nguyen, I smiled at his words to Damian.

  The room we were taken to was much further down in the maze of sewers and tunnels than I had previously explored. We walked – were dragged – for a solid thirty minutes. The door on the room had three silver locks, and was so thick it could have withstood four nuclear blasts and come out looking shiny and new. They had a single flickering light in the center of the large room, and dark shadows encroached on the light. But it wasn’t the shadows that worried me; it was what I could see in the light. Two sets of silver chains were bolted to the hard silver floor.

  They were far enough apart that, when we were locked in them, Daniel and I couldn’t touch.

  They fitted the chains around our wrists, keeping our arms behind our backs, and left without a word. Daniel was not so silent. He swore at our captors and made sure they had a hard time locking him down, but he didn’t give way to the full brutal nature of his anger. I knew it was act, though I didn’t get why he bothered.

  When they were gone, he stopped cussing and stared at me for a long moment. I stared at the ground, unable to look at him, etching the smooth lines of the silver floor into my brain. My face was still throbbing from where he had hit me, and our last real conversation was running t
hrough my head. Despite my anger at reliving the conversation, all I could think was how happy I was to see him again. That made me mad.

  “Where are we?” I asked finally, hating the way I loved his eyes on me.

  “This is where they take the people in the prisons…once their usefulness is over. This room is designed for Watchers. Further down is where they keep the Nightstalkers corralled, and where the others do their killing…I mean, training.”

  “Terrifying Geography 101. Never thought I’d get that class,” I said.

  “I’m sorry I had to give it to you,” he said. He stepped as close to me as his chains would allow.

  “Clare?” he whispered, his voice different with the emotion coursing through it.

  I looked up. His green eyes had lost the defensive protection I had noticed earlier. They were more Daniel than even when he had rescued me from the crypt. Vivid green burned into my soul, scorching me.

  “I’m sorry,” he said.

  “For hitting me or for being a big, fat, lying liar?” I asked.

  “Both…and more.”

  I went back to staring at the ground, not sure how I was feeling or if it was fair I had to face those feelings in such an unusual place.

  He strained against his chains as he tried to reach me. “You might not want to be with me…” It sounded as if he would rather say anything else in the universe than that. “But I’m asking, no, I’m begging, that you forgive me. Know that I never meant to lie to you…I was just afraid to tell you the truth…afraid you would leave me for it.”

  “And what is the truth exactly?” I asked.

  His answer was immediate. “I used to work for Odette…sort of. I did jobs for her that correlated to my mission of protecting people. She gave me information, leads, and help, and I helped her deal with things she trusts only a few to deal with. But I stopped working for her when I met you.”

  “She sent you to King’s Cross?” I asked.

  “No…I decided to go on my own.” He was silent for a moment, thinking his words over

  carefully. When he spoke again he spoke quickly, as if he thought saying it fast would make easier. “She did tell me that in King’s Cross I would find the answer to bringing Marcus down…