04 Last

by Lynnie Purcell

  “What are you thinking?” I asked.

  “What do you mean?” he asked back.

  “You’re suspicious of something,” I said.

  He sighed and didn’t try to hide what he was thinking. He knew it would only make me angry.

  “What if Marcus sent you that dream? You had it before the historian taught you to keep your mind shut off from him. It could be a trick.”

  “You think Marcus wants us here?” I asked.

  “He wants you,” Daniel said. “And it seems he is getting increasingly desperate to have you.”

  “But how would he know when I would come? It doesn’t make sense,” I said.

  “Marcus puts things in to motion that sometimes takes years to develop. He plans and he plots. It could be that he has people waiting for you to show up…maybe he’s trying to distract us from something else he has going on…there are any number of reasons.”

  “Do you think we should go then?” I asked, finally giving up on ever finding anything in a city with so many secrets.

  Daniel’s expression was conflicted. A part of him wanted to go – to take me to a safe place – but another part of him wanted to keep looking.

  “Marcus isn’t above really planting a bomb to draw us out,” Daniel said. “That could be part of his plan as well. He could accomplish two things at once.”

  “But how does that tie in to the weapon he thinks my blood can unlock?” I asked. “Why would he attack New York when he could just find the weapon and be ruler of the world or whatever?”

  “Why do you ask questions you know I don’t have the answer to?” Daniel asked in an irritated voice.

  “I’m just trying to get the facts straight,” I said.

  Daniel sighed, and his face turned apologetic.

  “Sorry…I’m just wound up.”

  “I think we both have a right to be,” I said.

  Daniel nodded and we turned back to the street. A group of teenagers dressed up in the Halloween spirit passed us, headed toward Times Square. I realized it was later than I had thought. Night was fully upon us. We were out of time.

  “We should probably check in with the others,” Daniel said. “They might want to keep looking while we…I mean, you…”

  “Yeah,” I agreed.

  Daniel took my hand, wrapping his long fingers around mine in a reassuring way, and we followed the teenagers back toward Broadway. As we walked, I tried to reconcile our failure in finding the threat – or even discovering if the threat was real – with my fear at what was waiting for me.

  For as long as I could remember, I had feared the change. It was something that haunted my dreams and my waking moments alike. Ellen had once told me I would turn crazy with the change – Daniel told me control was possible. But control sounded harder than he wanted to admit. I knew that something would change with my birthday; a switch would be flipped forever. Controlling my anger would not be a simple task, not that I managed all that well now. If I was really supposed to inherit power that Lorian and Darian had fought for centuries to claim, could I control myself? I feared my lack of control more than I feared any physical pain or new physical abilities. I had committed myself to helping people, not hurting them. Would that be possible after the change?

  Daniel’s hand tightened on mine. The historian had taught me to keep my shield up at all times, and I was managing, but I couldn’t hide my emotions and my thoughts from Daniel. He knew without having me say anything. I tried to find the voice to tell him I was fine, to stop the worry in his eyes, but the ability escaped me. My emotions were too real.

  With my worry surrounding my senses, I didn’t pay attention to the group of teenagers in front of us. But Daniel did. He tensed as the group took off running and rounded the corner, headed in the direction we were going.

  “They’re just playing around,” I tried to assure him as his hand threatened to crush mine.

  Daniel didn’t reply. His eyes went to search the rooftops, cars, anything that could hide a person. Figuring he wasn’t paranoid by nature, I decided to look as well. Maybe he had seen something I had missed. Our eyes scouring the streets, my mind reaching out for enemies, Daniel picked up his pace. More people started filling the streets up as the night brought out the Halloween spirit – people with their kids, adults starting a night out of partying, regular people who were just trying to get home before the Halloween rush of candy-goers. There were princesses, knights, angels, demons, superheroes, and more masked people than I felt comfortable around, especially when Daniel was in the middle of being tense and hyperaware. My ears picked up on every stray sound; my eyes noticed every sudden movement.

  “This way,” Daniel urged me.

  We took a different street, two blocks down from the one we were originally going to take. The foot-traffic decreased with the turn.

  “What is it?” I asked. “Did you see something?”

  “A feeling,” Daniel replied tersely.

  “That’s helpful,” I said.

  “A feeling that I’ve been here before, and it did not end well,” he replied.

  “Oh…” I said.

  As he said it, the group of teenagers appeared around the corner in front of us. They were wearing masks over their faces, but as we caught sight of them, I wondered how I could have possibly missed the fact that they were much more graceful than the average teenager. They were Watchers. From the wicked smiles on their faces and their menacing body language, I knew they were Seekers. They were Marcus’ people, and they had found us…again. Daniel was right – this whole thing was a trap.

  Daniel stopped walking. His eyes searched the road for a way out. I realized they had herded us to this spot – it was perfect for an ambush. Daniel and I started to back away. Running was better than fighting them all. But the first group had been joined by a second. More Seekers stepped out from behind us. Daniel and I shared a look full of meaning. He lowered in to an aggressive stance, and I pulled out my dagger. If they were going to try to take us, they would have a fight.

  “They’re feeling a bit naughty,” a female voice called out.

  “Tsk...Tsk,” a male voice replied.

  They moved closer with the words, circling back and forth across the street in a strange dance of movement. It was a deadly dance, deadly in its uniform chaos. They were trained, but not in the way I was used to the Seekers being trained. They moved and danced rhythmically in and out of the shadows falling against the buildings. It was as if they were circus performers designed with murder in mind. Daniel and I moved so that we were back to back, so I could keep an eye on one side of the street and he the other.

  “Are you going to cartwheel us to death?” I asked. “Or did you plan on fighting?”

  Laughter sounded throughout the streets. It was ghostly, repeated back to us a thousand times. Then, as one, the group disappeared. There was no hint of movement – they were simply gone. The second after they disappeared, the street went dark. There was no precursor to the dark, no warning. Even the buildings had gone dark. I saw the streetlamps from the streets intersecting ours, but they seemed a long ways off. Too far. My eyes focused on the dark, allowing for the change in circumstances; adapting as the historian had taught me.

  I looked behind me to Daniel’s side of the street. His group was gone as well. I started to ask Daniel what was going on, when I felt a new rush of movement; it was coming from both directions. Through the dark, I saw a flash of silver moving directly at my face. Daniel and I hit the ground at the same time. The knives disappeared with the miss. I stood again and felt a rush of movement in front of me. I flinched back as a Watcher appeared in front of me. She was unlike any Watcher I had ever seen. Her skin was distorted by black scales similar to a Nightstalker’s. The scales continued along her neck and arms. The mask that covered her cheeks and nose was a reflection of the black scales. It looked as if she was wearing a costume of scales. I knew the truth. Her body was not normal – she was not a typical Watcher.


  She reached out to grab me. I slashed out at her hand with the knife. It cut in to her. Black blood hit the sidewalk. I tried to follow through with another hit to her face, but she disappeared. This time, I was able to see the rush of movement. She was not a walker – she was something else. She was something I had never seen before.

  Behind me, I felt Daniel dealing with a different attack. Three Watchers had circled him. One of them had a talent with darkness – not just creating darkness but also using it to their will. The person had formed a whip out of the darkness and was lashing it at Daniel. His shirt was ripped in the places where the whip had connected. He had managed to dodge the majority of the blows, however, even as he fought the other two Watchers hand-to-hand. I was prepared to help him, figuring I had scared the other Watcher away, when a feeling unlike any I had ever known swarmed my body.

  It was the feeling of total, complete pain

  It was not like being shot, which I had lived through twice. It was not the pain I had endured while in prison. It was my entire body feeling as if someone had turned it inside out, set it on fire, while simultaneously electrocuting me. My vision swam as I tried to keep my feet. The knife in my hand dropped to the ground as my hand lost its strength to hold it. My knees buckled; I tried to hang on. I had to stay conscious to help Daniel.

  As I felt my knees buckle, the woman with the scales came back in to my line of sight. She was a flash in the dark – she wrapped her hands around my arm without pause. My necklace burned bright at the touch. She dropped her hands and screeched. It was the most terrible sound I had ever heard. I stumbled away from her, my hands not strong enough even to move to protect my ears from the sound. I felt another warm touch on my hand as I stumbled. Daniel. The necklace did not resist his touch.

  Through the haze of pain, I saw him pick up the knife I had dropped. Next to the knife were two bodies. Their eyes were wide open; blood ran from their wounds. Other shapes pressed in on us from the dark, threatening us with their circus-like stealth and their strange laughter. Daniel wrapped my arm around his shoulder and used his considerable strength to keep me on my feet.

  Then, the laughter died down. It was replaced by the sounds of fear and of sharp steel cutting in to flesh. It was difficult to focus around the pain, but I saw a person step through the darkness with the grace of a seasoned fighter. A second person followed after the first. I wanted to react, to do something about the new threat, but the only thing keeping from face planting in to the sidewalk was Daniel. I didn’t have the strength to react the way I normally would have. The people stepped closer and I saw that they weren’t Seekers. Serenity and Eli had found us. Serenity held dual, curved daggers in her hand, while Eli was unarmed.

  “Come on,” Serenity urged Daniel.

  Daniel pulled me along the sidewalk at her urging. Serenity moved in front of us, while Eli stayed behind us, guarding our retreat. At one point, Daniel had to help me step over a row of bodies – the Seekers Serenity and Eli had taken care of. Finally, light returned to the world. It was exceedingly bright after the darkness of the street. Regular people moved along the sidewalk in search of tricks and treats and things far more pleasurable than a deadly fight in the dark. They were happily oblivious to the violence that had taken place only a street away.

  “How did you know we were here?” Daniel asked.

  Serenity sighed. “Odette…it was the last mission she had for me. To be here for Clare’s birthday. I am glad I listened.”

  “Oh, of course,” Daniel replied.

  “We need to get her to a safe place,” Serenity said.

  “I don’t think she can make it too much further,” Daniel replied.

  A group of adults wearing superhero costumes passed us. They were loud – their conversation littered with laughter and old stories. I fixated on their conversation feeling as if they were under water. Or was it me who was under water? Was I swimming in air? The pain was worse. My body was unraveling. I was unraveling. I couldn’t take much more. My body alternated between sweating profusely and being very cold. My head pounded in time to my heartbeat. It was a drum of agony. My skin itched, burned and crawled. There was another feeling – a feeling as if another being was trying to escape my skin. Serenity and Daniel kept their weapons in hand, trusting to the nature of the holiday to keep anyone from looking too closely.

  “I know a place near here,” Serenity said. “It’s about two blocks over.”

  I sensed Daniel’s hesitation. But there was no telling where the other Seekers had gone or who was following. I couldn’t walk to the place in-between in my state. We were out of options.

  “Fine,” Daniel said.

  I couldn’t understand what was happening to me. Had one of the Seekers done this to me? Why was I in so much pain? When would the pain end? I just wanted it to end. This was the sort of pain that rooted its way down to a person’s very soul. My throat was locked down –words escaped me. But I had Daniel’s touch. His mental shield was down for my sake; he was trying to offer me what strength he could.

  What’s going on? I asked around my pain.

  The change…Daniel replied.

  It’s not time, I argued. Ellen said I was born at ten.

  Ellen has a notoriously bad memory…Daniel pointed out.

  It hurts…I confessed.

  It won’t last forever, he promised. I’ll be right here...

  The pain took me over again, despite Daniel’s soothing thoughts. I was immediately wrapped up in the grand punishment of my kind. I lost track of space and time as we walked. There was only one reality – pain. I was aware only on the edges of my awareness as the brisk wind cut off and we went inside. Daniel carried me up several sets of stairs, pausing only at a closed blue door. Serenity opened the door for him and ushered us inside. Eli quickly followed after us.

  The most noticeable part of our surroundings was the dark wood that was everywhere and mannequins, which were thrown everywhere in a grim graveyard of plastic humans. There was openness to the space, room to breathe. There was also an air of neglect. The building was abandoned. We went up another short flight of stairs, and Daniel finally set me down. Eli stayed in the room down below – to keep guard over the door.

  “I had a clothing shop here in the sixties,” Serenity said. “This room is soundproof and will serve your needs.”

  “Thank you,” Daniel replied.

  “I will make sure the others did not follow us and, if they did, I will take care of them,” Serenity promised.

  Daniel nodded and lowered me to the floor. The movement was torturous, but no worse than the two blocks I had just faced. My body automatically formed a ball on the floor. It was instinct. I did my best to keep the fact that everything would be okay in the front of my mind. The pain would end – this was not going to last forever. The thoughts were not as strong as the pain.

  Daniel moved so that he was in front of me, so that I could look him in the eyes. He put a hand on my cheek and did his best to shelter me from some of the pain. It took the edge off, but even he could not stop what was happening to me. Every second was a buildup of a darker pain. It grew and grew until I was certain it was the end of me. I let out a scream. It was the only way to articulate the feeling in my body. I let out another and another, the screams tore through my body as much as the pain. Time ended with the pain.

  Occasional flashes of awareness came through the pain.

  I heard Daniel call Reaper on the phone, even as he held me close. But there was no answer – no one picked up. I heard Daniel have a brief, worried conversation with Serenity. I could tell they were talking, but the words were foreign. I did not understand them. Once, I threw up, though I had not eaten in months. There was more screaming – more articulation of the pain. Around the pain, I felt a slow change. It was as if my body was rearranging itself, preparing for something more than I could have ever hoped. It was not a change my body welcomed willingly. A couple of times, I felt the pulse of my father’s necklace. It was like
a heartbeat – a reminder of the light at the end of the pain-filled tunnel. I clung to it, and Daniel’s touch, and waited for the world to begin again.

  I was not sure if it was moments later or days when the pain finally died down. Time had lost all meaning. The pain was not the end of the ordeal, however. For the first time since hearing about the change, I understood Daniel’s fear of what would happen. He was right to want me in a place better suited for solitude. As the pain dwindled, I felt something I was as equally helpless to stop. Anger. Overwhelming, utterly terrifying anger surrounded me. I was suddenly in a rage – the rage blinded me. I couldn’t see beyond the veil of anger. I wanted to kill. I wanted to feel the rush of combat and ultimate victory. I wanted to tear the world apart. My body moved in response to that anger; it demanded I find a way to take out the aggression.

  As I moved, the necklace burned hotter than I had ever felt it burn. The necklace was warning me to calm down. The burning against my skin cut through my senses. It woke me to the fact that things were not right. I was not right.

  I finally realized Daniel had moved on top of me. He held me down. It took all of his strength to keep me in place. He had marks on his face – marks that suggested I had hit him. Around us, the room was a wreck. One of the interior walls had been torn down. The ceiling was in shambles. Fire marred the dark wood. Daniel’s eyes reflected his fear – he couldn’t hide it. I wondered how close to winning the fight I had come. Close enough. The necklace kept up its steady burn against my skin. It warned me to behave. Daniel’s touch told me something else; it reminded me of the person I was. I stopped struggling and willed my body to relax. As I did, I took stock of my body. I didn’t feel normal. It was as if another being had taken me over, leaving only my history and my experiences as proof that I was still alive.

  The biggest change was my mind. It had grown – there was no other way to put it. The barriers that had limited me were gone. The scope of thought was frightening. The capacity of my thoughts went beyond multi-tasking – I could think of dozens of things at once without losing track of one of them. I could sense power and a lack of fear. I would always find a way to do what I wanted. My brain told me so. I had also found a profoundly logical way of thinking. I could assess, make the best choice in all the facts presented and react accordingly in only a second’s time. I understood what Beatrice had once said about a second being an eternity to a Watcher. It was as if the world stood still while I contemplated my next move. In comparison to the overwhelmingly analytical part of my mind, there was burning anger – it festered in the background, taunting me with its warmth. It was easy to feel drawn to the anger.