by Kunego, Chad
“I’m beginning to think it was just random chance that those two sites lined up like that. Maybe the second warehouse has nothing to do with this mess.”
“Maybe, but we really don’t have anything else to go on. We’ve still got those plain-clothes sitting on that Blythe woman, so other than that, this is all we have.”
Cora sighed.
“Yeah, I know, but I’m not sure how many more places that smell like week-old piss I can deal with before I feel the urge to shoot the next homeless person on principle alone.”
Frank chuckled, “What, you aren’t enamored by it. I remember reading about a scientist that stated urine was loaded with pheromones… You know, the stuff that gets people all hot an’ bothered.”
“Yeah, well I think my nose must be on the blink then, ‘cuz the only thing that smell makes me want to do is flush my nose with bleach.”
As they came to a stop, Frank squinted at the building.
“Hey, what’s that?” he said, pointing at the side door.
Cora squinted, trying to figure out what her partner saw. After a few seconds, she noticed that there was a broken chain dangling from a partially-opened gate leading to the back of the building.
“Well, since we’re here, let’s go check it out.”
They both got out of the car and padded quickly over to the side of the building, trying not to make any noise. Reaching the gate, Frank squatted down, picking something up off the ground. He held it up to the light, showing a lock that was recently cut, the edges still shiny in the failing light. Frank held his finger to his lips as he stood up, slowly easing the gate open further. He carefully squeezed through the gap and glanced around again before waving her after him. The two of them made their way silently around to the back of the building, frequently stopping to listen for any sounds that seemed out of place. Reaching the corner, Frank took a quick peek before pulling his head back.
“I don’t see anyone,” he whispered, “but I see a door about half way down, just past the loading docks.”
Cora nodded before slipping past him, sliding along the wall until she reached the door. She waited for Frank to stack up behind her before she tried the knob and found it unlocked. Glancing back at her partner, she held up her hand with three fingers sticking up. She waited for him to nod before drawing her sidearm at the same time he did. She ticked off three seconds before gently grabbing the handle with her left hand, slowly turning it until it stopped. Pausing again to listen, she gently pulled until the door opened far enough for them to squeeze through.
She paused just inside the door to let her eyes adjust while Frank did the same. As an afterthought, she pulled out her tactical flashlight and held it in her off hand, resting her shooting hand over her wrist to stabilize it. Glancing back, she nodded with satisfaction that Frank had done the same. Taking a deep breath, they slowly started to work their way deeper into the building. Turning a corner, she noticed a head-high mound up ahead. Turning back, Cora gestured toward the mound. After nodding in understanding, she slid forward again, moving more slowly as she approached. When she got to within twenty feet, she could make out the contents of the pile in the dim light.
She quickly put an arm over her face to keep from gagging.
“Jesus,” she whispered.
“Well Cora,” he said, “I get the suspicion that a seven foot tall stack of dead bodies qualifies as a strong enough piece of evidence to get a search warrant, don’t you?”
Suppressing the urge to both vomit and slap her partner, she swallowed back the tide of rising bile.
“I’d hope to god it does, but I can’t help but wonder if it’ll take at least an eight foot stack to convince the Chief…”
Looking around, Frank added as he clicked on his flashlight, “I think there might just be enough leftover bodies laying around to make that an eight foot stack after all.”
“Damn…” she said under her breath, trying to make sense of the carnage strewn around her. “How much worse can it get…?”
Chapter 26
Samuel stopped at a nearby gas station. After a few minutes of talking, the attendant finally let him use the phone to call John. After a few rings, he heard the other end pick up.
“Shining Path bookstore, Karen speaking… How can I help you?”
Samuel cleared his throat.
“Hi Karen, this is Samuel. Blythe told me John might have found something out about my, uh, jewelry?”
“Yeah, he did, actually. He’s not here right now, but he left a note about what he’d found. Apparently, a local professor by the name of Donald Waide wrote a book about ancient cultures. What caught John’s eye was a sketch of a piece of armor that looks surprisingly close to what you have on your arm. He actually works up at the local university in the, uh…”
He heard the faint sound of papers being shuffled in the background.
“In the philosophy and religious studies department. John noted that if you called before three, to tell you that you might still be able to catch the professor before he leaves for the evening. Apparently he has a class until four.”
“Thanks Karen, I owe you both. Hopefully he’ll be able to give me some answers about this thing strapped to my arm.”
“No problem. I look forward to watching you whoop the hell out of Cliff again at our next get together.”
“Sounds like fun. Listen, could you call Blythe to check on her? She had a run in with her ex and the police were called. I dealt with it, but had to leave before the cops showed up. I just want to make sure she’s doing okay.”
Samuel heard nothing but silence on the phone.
“Karen… Are you still there?”
“Uh, yeah… So you were at Blythe’s apartment today…?”
“Yeah… Listen, I gotta get going if I’m going to have the chance to catch this professor. Just promise me you’ll call her, alright?”
“Sure, uh… no problem. In fact, I’ll call her as soon as I get off the phone with you.”
“Thanks”
§§§§§§§§§§§§
After getting directions from the gas station attendant, Samuel took off running. From the directions the attendant had given him, he only had around twenty minutes to cover approximately eight miles before the professor’s class got out. He had to slow down a few times when he noticed the odd sensations again, but the sensations faded quickly enough that he didn’t lose too much time. He got to the university a half-hour later, not even breathing hard. After asking a secretary at the front desk where the professor’s office was, he took off at a jog again.
As he approached the office, he noticed an elderly man locking up an office door. Hurrying over, he called out.
“Professor Waide?”
“Damn it, why can’t anyone ever pay attention to my office hours,” the gentleman said under his breath as he slowly turned toward him.
“What is it?” the professor snapped as he looked at him.
“I have a question for you about something in a book you wrote…” he started before he noticed the man growing pale.
“It’s you…” he whispered, pointing a shaky finger at Samuel.
“Huh?”
The man turned back to his office door as Samuel slowed his approach. With shaky hands, he managed to unlocked it after the fourth try. He glanced back at Samuel as he walked into his office, turning the lights on. The professor turned back toward Samuel, waving him in with a look of awe etched on his face.
“You really are here, aren’t you. You’re not just a hallucination caused by a tired mind, are you…?”
“Uh, yes…” he started off hesitantly, “I mean yes, I’m really here, and I’m really me. I was hoping you could answer some questions for me.”
“Of course, come in, come in,” he said, the trepidation in his voice slowly turning toward excitement. He closed and locked the door behind them. Almost as an afterthought, he turned back and closed the blinds as well.
“Follow me,” he said,
dropping his cane in his haste to reach his desk, not even noticing the several stacks of books he knocked over in the process.
As he reached his desk, he glance back toward Samuel before smiling broadly and hurrying around to drop heavily into his chair.
“You really are here,” he said again excitedly, “you don’t know how many decades I’ve waited and wished for this day to arrive…”
“You know me?”
“Know you, no… Know of you and your kind, oh most definitely.”
“What do you mean? My kind? I don’t know what you’re talking about…”
“Oh yes yes, they did mention you claimed to have lost your memory…”
“They?”
“Yes, a couple of detectives actually stopped by earlier asking questions about you as well. I didn’t tell them much, I promise you. They’d never believe me anyway.”
“The police were here?” he asked, slowing his approach to older man’s desk.
“Yes, a detective Blanchett and a detective Giani. They were most interested in you and the event that happened at the warehouse.”
“Uh, maybe this wasn’t such a good idea,” he said, slowly backing toward the door.
“Wait! Please stay. Nobody knows you’re here or that anyone’s looking for you except me. I have so many questions I want to ask you.”
Samuel paused, struggling with the choice of staying and possibly getting caught, or leaving and having risked coming here for nothing. He wasn’t sure where he’d be able go since he wasn’t sure it’d be safe to go back to Blythe’s apartment, or the shelter for that matter. After a moment, he slowly sat down in the chair across from the other man. The professor breathed out a sigh of relieve, the tension visibly draining out of him.
“So what can you tell me about this,” he asked sliding his sleeve up on his left arm, “and do you have any idea how to take it off?”
§§§§§§§§§§§§
“Can I… Can I touch it,” he asked reverently.
Samuel cocked his head to the side slightly as he held his arm out.
“Sure…”
As soon as the professor touched it, he yanked his hand back slightly before reaching for it again.
“It’s flexible!”
“Why wouldn’t it be?”
The old man ran his hand softly up and down the metal before he sighed, looking up at Samuel before remembering that Samuel had asked him a question.
“Wait right here for a second,” he said, getting up and hurrying over to a wall hanging, snatching it aside to reveal a large safe. The man visibly concentrated as he tried to quickly open the safe, redoing it twice before it finally opened. Grabbing a bundle and hurrying back over to the desk, he haphazardly unwrapped it, revealing a match to the one on his left arm.
Samuel looked at the vambrace, feeling it tugging at his memory like he’d seen it before. Even though it was quite similar, he noticed several differences. For one, the color was different. This one was different shades of red and copper. Also, this one was more spiky, angular, and muscular looking, with fins stretching off the side of the head where the ears would normally be. This one also had horns. As he continued to look it over, Samuel’s vision blurred slightly, revealing glowing lines that were crimson red in color. A slight squeezing sensation caused him to glancing down at his own vambrace. He noticed similar lines, but they were an electric cobalt blue, just like the sword sheathed in it had been when it extended at the hospital.
He suddenly felt an almost-physical thump as he saw an after image roll off his vambrace, matching and reflecting a similar response from the one in the professor’s hands. The professor’s feet got tangled in his chair as he stumbled backward. The vambrace tumbled to the floor as the professor tried and failed to catch himself before falling into a heap on the floor. Samuel eyes went wide as he alternated looking between the vambrace and the professor.
“You felt that?”
The professor nodded wordlessly as Samuel got up to retrieve the vambrace from where it had fallen. As he touched it, he felt a sudden surge of power drain out of him, first racing down, then flooding back up, his arm. Without warning, an ear-splitting screech/roar emanated from the vambrace on the floor. Stumbling backward, he saw the dragon uncoil, shaking it’s head before looking around. It glanced up at the professor, hissing at him, before its gaze locked onto Samuel. Like liquid metal, the miniature dragon leaped at him, almost too fast for him to follow. He fell backward over the chair as he tried to get away, lifting his right hand to defend himself.
The dragon latched onto the palm of his hand with one clawed grip before flowing around it in a sinuous motion, gripping his right arm tightly. Rearing it’s head back to look over its shoulder, it whipped it’s tail back, slashing the sleeve of his jacket up to the elbow. Using it’s hind legs to kick the fabric out of the way, it stretched backward before settling down on his forearm, the tail spiraled up out of sight around his right bicep. The dragon’s head settled down gently on the back of his hand, the horns retracting slightly before laying down flat along the back of its head.
Letting out what sounded like a contented chirp, the dragon’s metallic tongue flicked out, licking his middle finger before the fins on the side of it’s head wrapped around the edges of his hand. Finally, what appeared to be the pommel of a sword slid out of the dragon’s mouth, extending down his finger, mimicking the handle position on his left hand. As the sword handle came to a stop and latched on, the dragon’s glowing eyes glittered deep crimson before becoming inert, the body imitating the posture and appearance of the vambrace on his left arm. Coming back to his senses, he tried to yank the vambrace off his right arm as he stood back up, but it seemed to clamp down more tightly. He suddenly got an odd thought in his mind.
>MINE!<
It was like a bomb went off in his head, the pain dropping him back to his knees. Through teary eyes, he saw the eyes glitter again.
>MINE! You’re not going to leave me again.<
Pain continued to spike across his mind, like rusty nails being pounded in with a sledgehammer.
>Always the bossy one…<
He heard it in a different mental voice. He tried unsuccessfully to form words as the pain continued to build. Without warning, a new pain like a roaring fire surged through him. A memory slammed into his mind, knocking him senseless as he tipped backward into unconsciousness.
Chapter 27
He walked down the dusty hallway slowly as he carried Amitiel in his hands reverently. Lilith had finally won out, causing Amitiel to be discarded and left behind. Samuel couldn’t bear the thought of wearing her again, not after what had happened with Genevieve. As he approached the King’s Chamber, he felt Amitiel squirm in his hands, but he resisted her attempt to bond with him again. After witnessing the aftermath of her being worn by another, he feared he might succumb to the same impulses Genevieve had.
As he entered the chamber, he glanced around, noting that all the safety precautions were in place and active, only waiting on him to set her on her final resting place. With the way he’d designed it, he knew that there would be no way for her to escape by herself for all eternity. He could sense that she knew it as well. As he approached the pedestal, she mustered enough energy for one final attempt to change his mind, mewling while looking up at him.
He looked down at her with a sad expression, stroking her head one last time as he place her on the pedestal.
“I’m sorry Amitiel. If there was any other way, I’d do it. But for the safety of this world and Aerth, I can’t risk it. Not after what happened with Genevieve. I wish there was another option.”
A tear traced it’s way down his face as he stared at his friend one last time before turning away, ignoring the plaintive cries as he left the chamber. The risk of her bonding to him again was just too great a risk. One that, if it only involved him, he would have gladly taken, but the safety of at least two worlds now rested upon his shoulders alone. Even though the Creator had give
n life to Genevieve for him, to help ease his burden, had instead turned her back on all of them. Now he’d have to seek another way to protect all of creation.
As he closed up the front of the pyramid, he felt a heavy weight press down on him. Resting the palm of his hand on the structure, he sent out a telepathic message to Amitiel, letting her know that he’d always remember her, and if the Creator willed it, then maybe someday they would be reunited. With that, he sent a pulse of energy through the structure, priming all the safeguards to keep her from escaping under her own power. He glanced back down at Raguel, the Peltae and Peleus bonded to his left arm. Samuel felt him stir, sunk in his own regret at the necessary actions his master and friend had taken. He animated, his blue crystal eyes focusing on Samuel.
Samuel could feel the anger and sadness radiate off the dragon clutching his arm, and couldn’t bring himself to disagree. He understood his friend’s decision to take a vow of silence until the day he was able to be reunited with Amitiel. He could respect that. He might have done the same if the situation had been reversed. He patted Raguel as he stared at the pyramid for a few more moments, then he turned away, walking resolutely into the arid land, a part of himself lost forever.
§§§§§§§§§§§§
Samuel gasped as he suddenly came to, glancing wildly around the room before realizing he was still in the professor’s office. The professor had only just started to come around his desk when Samuel sat back upright.
“Are you alright my boy?” the professor asked, concern etched deep on his face.
Samuel slowly got to his feet as he nodded, trying to get his bearings. He looked down at his right arm, the memory washing over him again.
“Amitiel, I remember you…” he whispered.
>And I remember you too. You left me alone for so long…<
Samuel could feel the hurt/anger/pain/longing in Amitiel’s mental projection. The pain from the projection caused him to collapse back on the floor. As tears of pain started streaming down his face again, he sensed confusion emanating from her.
