“No…” I said more softly.
“I’m sorry,” she said.
My hands were still holding the wound in Daniel’s chest. They kept the blood at bay, but I could feel the truth of her words. His heart had stopped beating. He was gone. The cold emotion of loss was finding its way through my heart. Daniel had left me. My whole world had ended. I felt tears form and then start to drop on to Daniel’s body. They started out as regular tears, salty and fresh, but they changed as they fell down my face. The moisture turned warm and bright. The tears turned in to red diamonds before landing on Daniel’s chest.
My weeping was uncontrollable. The diamonds piled high.
Daniel was gone.
My life would never be the same.
I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t think.
I wept and wept.
He couldn’t be gone. Daniel, my best friend, the only person who really ever understood me…he couldn’t just leave…he wouldn’t.
The pressure in my chest was too much. I was going to explode from the build-up of emotion.
The red of my tears filled the wound in his chest. For the first time since he had changed, Daniel bled red. The light of the diamonds filled my eyes with its sparkle. Looking at it, an idea formed. I had brought Anna back with nothing more than a cut and forgiveness. Could I bring Daniel back as well? I had to try.
Without thinking about it, I picked up the sword that had so recently been in Daniel’s chest and moved my hand across its sharp surface. A large gash appeared along the length of my hand. I moved my hand to the wound on Daniel’s chest and let the blood drip down on top of the diamonds, on top of the wound. The sound of my red blood dripping was incredibly loud to my alert ears. Every drop was a drop of hope. I willed the blood to bring him back to me. I willed Daniel to come back.
The historian was not as hopeful.
“Clare, your gift for changing people only works if they have not been taken…”
“No one understands my gift,” I said harshly. “Not even you.”
She sighed but didn’t say anything in response. She allowed me my moment of hope. I waited and I waited. Nothing happened. He remained motionless on the floor; his eyes stared at the ceiling, the light gone from his face. With each passing second, my hope dwindled. The historian was right. He was not coming back. I felt a new wave of grief take over. It was grief without hope, without emotion. It was deadening. There was nothing left of me but my body. My mind had left with Daniel. I was empty.
I took Daniel’s hand in mine being careful to not look at the ring he had given me; it was just a reminder of a broken promise. I sat without moving, a statue of pain and suffering. Finally, the historian spoke again. I wasn’t sure if five minutes had passed or four thousand. I didn’t really care.
“Your friends are here,” she said, her voice coming to me from what felt like a very long distance.
I didn’t move. The fact that I still had friends was meaningless. I wanted Daniel back. I wanted my best friend.
I felt it when Alex walked in to the room, however. She was the first inside the cave. She was quickly followed by Reaper, Margaret, Jackson, Spider, Eli and Serenity. Alex’s shock linked the space between us. It was overwhelmingly complete; it reaffirmed the pain in my chest. It sent ripples of awareness though my body. The pain of losing Daniel went beyond me. Alex set her shock and pain aside and moved to comfort me. She knelt down and put her arms around my shoulders. She wept, as she did her best to comfort me. Her tears released me. More tears fell at her touch – human tears. They slid down my face and made the world smell of salty despair.
“I want him back,” I whispered to her. “I would do anything to bring him back.”
My necklace burned with the words. My ring remained icy cold. There was no one to bind me to any longer. The ring had died with Daniel. I hated the warmth of the necklace. It was just proof of what I had lost.
“I know,” Alex replied, holding me tighter.
I felt the grief of the others surround me. I heard Reaper step away from the group and move back outside. His gait was unsteady as he walked – he was bowed down by the weight of his grief. His oldest friend was gone. Margaret and Jackson were in shock. They had never thought Daniel would be taken.
How would I tell Han and Beatrice? How to let them know I had failed to protect their son… I was supposed to be the most powerful Watcher in the world– if the prophecy Odette had seen was correct – and I had failed to protect him. I was not so powerful after all. At least I had killed Daniel’s killer. I could take them that, however fleeting the satisfaction of that truth.
I put my hand to the burning necklace as I thought of the weight of the truth on my shoulders. Its strange pulse sent shockwaves of energy through my body. For some reason, I felt as if it was trying to get my attention. The moment I put my hand on it, I heard a vaguely familiar voice. It was a choral voice, mixed in with a more masculine voice. The masculine voice was a voice from my dreams. It was a voice of comfort.
Get ready.
The voice left certainty in my stomach. Something was about to happen.
I turned back to the others. They had gathered around Daniel. Spider was weeping openly. He held on to Daniel’s left hand, his eyes shining with his tears. His mind was struggling to keep up his mental shield. His emotions made focusing difficult. Words of guilt penetrated my mind – he felt guilty about Daniel’s death. The others were in various states of grief. Margaret and Jackson held each other as they looked at Daniel. Serenity’s golden eyes were full of shock – she had finally found a situation where she couldn’t hide her emotions. I realized, as I looked in to her eyes, that a part of her had always loved Daniel, more than she had let on. In that moment, I trusted her more than I had ever trusted her before. She had never wanted to see Daniel hurt; her love for him was stronger than her feelings of duty. There was also guilt. She felt she could have prevented the death. Eli was the only one who held reserved sadness. It was sadness for a death, but not sadness for the death of a friend. He had never known Daniel, beyond what I had told him. Reaper was still outside. He was dealing with his grief in private. I didn’t know where the historian had gone. She was nowhere to be seen.
For the first time, I realized we were next to Farrah’s rose. The case had been shattered and the rose petals were scattered around Daniel’s unmoving body. The white and the red created a strange shroud around Daniel. I ignored the destruction and focused on the truth I felt in my gut.
“Step back,” I told my friends.
They looked at me in shock. They could not understand why I would force them away from Daniel. They wanted a moment to say ‘goodbye.’ They wanted a moment to come to terms with their grief.
“Step back!” I said more urgently.
They moved back. It was not just my warning that made them finally listen. Daniel’s body had started to convulse. He shook against the floor, causing cracks in the stone. The movement was similar to a person being electrocuted. It was violent and uncontrollable. His eyes closed with the movement; his face contorted with the pain.
After a moment of shaking, he stopped moving again. His body was silent for a brief moment then he jumped up, as if forces beyond his control urged him to move to his feet. His eyes finally opened. They were green and perfect, just the way I remembered them. He looked confused, though. He was unsteady, without focus. The confusion and the green of his eyes did not last long. In the next instant, the green turned to white, and his whole body started to shake in a much different way.
Bone-crunching sounds filled the air. His face moved and distorted. The bones rearranged themselves under his skin. Pop! Pop! Pop! Bones realigned themselves to a more canine frame. His soft skin turned scaly and black. The scales were razor sharp. His clothes ripped to pieces as his arms and legs grew beyond the limitations of the soft fabrics. He grew larger with the change. The sound of bones crunching continued to fill the space. Finally, everything went quiet. The whole change took
thirty seconds.
He was a Nightstalker.
He stood at least nine-feet tall. His eyes shone with the milky white color and drool dripped from his mouth on to the stone, causing acid burns to form. A deep growl sounded from his throat. It was guttural – it was angry.
His eyes focused on me.
I actually took a step back out of fear. There was just so much hate there, so much unchained emotion. His muscles shifted and, in a flash, he jumped toward me. He tackled me, his claws digging in to my skin. I kicked him off me on instinct. He hit the ground behind me with a roll. More stone cracked with his fall. Instead of turning to finish the fight, he ran out of the hole the Seekers had blasted in the wall. His focus was only forward. His sharp nails carried him out of sight quicker than I thought possible.
I moved to the door, to follow his course, and saw that Reaper was on the ground. He looked shocked but unharmed. He had moved out of Daniel’s way in time to prevent a fight. He looked at me for an explanation. I could not give him one. I was too focused on the feeling of Daniel. He was running toward the north – he was getting further away as I watched. I could not let him go. I started to move toward the stairs, prepared to run for as long as necessary, but Alex had reached me. She put a hand on my arm to stop me.
“Let me do it,” she said.
I looked at her with ‘no’ written across my face.
“I can catch him faster than you can,” she added. “Trust me?”
Her words were logical. She was uniquely able to catch him – her ability to change made it possible. And I did trust her.
I nodded, and her blue eyes turned steely. She stepped out of the cave and on to the ledge that separated her from the stairs. Reaper looked between us with dawning awareness of the situation. Our actions were giving him an explanation. He knew the Nightstalker was Daniel. Alex rolled her shoulders once and took a deep breath. Then, without warning, her whole body expanded and shifted. Her change was much quicker than Daniel’s change had been – it only took her two seconds to switch from girl to beast. It was obvious she had been practicing without my knowledge; she had worked hard to learn control. It was what she had been doing while I had been training with the historian.
She looked back at me, her milky white eyes reflecting a promise to find Daniel. She inhaled deeply, taking in Daniel’s scent, then took off running. She jumped across the buildings and made her way north without any hesitation.
As soon as she was gone, I leaned against the outside wall of the cave and sighed. I touched my necklace, wondering at the voice I had heard. Where had the warning to move come from? And why had both voices sounded so familiar? When my hand connected to the diamond, I heard the voice for a second time.
It is settled.
The words left me with a strange feeling of regret.
Chapter 19
“What just happened?” Reaper asked around the strange voice and the regret in my gut.
“I’m not really sure,” I admitted.
I felt a sharp pain in my body at my words. I looked down and realized the daggers were still in my stomach and legs. The adrenaline was gone. I had nothing but pain.
“Was that Daniel?” Reaper asked me.
“Yes,” I replied.
“Did you change him?” he asked.
That part was confusing me. Daniel had been gone. My blood had changed him, but I was not sure that I had brought him back. The voices convinced me I had not been responsible.
“I think so…” I said. “But he was gone…I don’t know what brought him back.”
“And you think Alex will catch him?” Reaper asked.
I pulled the daggers out of my stomach and leg. Reaper flinched as I did. It was as if he could feel my pain. I threw the knives to the ground and looked up at him. He looked surprised by my casual way of pulling out the knives.
“Yes,” I replied.
I focused on Reaper’s face. I realized that it was strange that he and the others had come to find us. I could tell from the position of the sun, only a half hour had passed since we had arrived. Reaper had not expected us back for hours. I ignored the expression on his face and focused on the question.
“What are you doing here anyways?” I asked.
“Alex was in a panic,” Reaper replied. “She said she felt something was wrong. We had to find you…so we did. The others wouldn’t be left behind.”
“Oh,” I said.
I looked over my shoulder and saw the others were listening in on our conversation. I gestured for them to join us. Their stares were strangely fearful. I was not sure where the fear came from. I was not eager to ask.
“Daniel died…” Jackson said. “I should have been here to protect him.”
“It was my fault,” Serenity added. “I thought if I followed Odette’s orders, followed you to New York, I would prevent everything that is happening now. I would prevent the explosions, the chaos…everything. I was wrong. I should have told you, so you could be prepared.”
“No, it’s my fault,” Spider said. “Odette told me he would die, and I did nothing to prevent it.”
We all stared at him. Our expressions demanded an explanation. Spider gave in to the explanation.
“When I met with her in private, Odette told me that Daniel was my brother,” Spider said. “In the same breath she said I would lose a brother before the fight with Marcus was through.”
“Daniel’s your brother?” I asked.
“According to her,” Spider replied.
“I thought you knew your father,” I said.
“He must have lied…or else my mother did,” Spider said. “Odette said she had no doubt. I’ve been around a lot of liars, and I could tell she was telling the truth.”
“Why didn’t you say something?” I asked.
“I was afraid he would hate me,” Spider said. “It’s not exactly an easy thing to hear that one of your parents got busy with another woman a hundred years after abandoning you to the streets.”
His eyes flicked to Eli for another explanation. Spider had been afraid that Daniel would choose to abandon him, as Eli had abandoned all of the kids. He was afraid to put his emotions out there and trust in a brother for the second time.
“He would never hate you,” I said. “Daniel isn’t like that.”
Spider’s face was dominated by guilt.
“He might now,” Spider said. “I should have warned him.”
“Maybe, maybe not,” I said. “Warning him wouldn’t have stopped him from continuing to fight. He wouldn’t have taken the warning seriously, considering it originated with Odette.”
“I…” Spider’s voice trailed away.
I knew it would take more than my words to convince him of the truth. Daniel and Spider would have to talk…when Alex caught him.
“Where did the historian go?” I asked after a brief pause of silence in which we all tried to come to terms with the present state of events. “Did she leave?”
It wouldn’t surprise me if she had. She was so strange, so hard to get a read on. She made her own path and being attacked might have made her feel as if it was time to move on from the home she had formed. She survived by knowing when it was time to leave.
“I didn’t see her come out,” Reaper said.
That didn’t mean much. She could have easily gotten around him without being seen.
“I am here,” the historian said.
I turned back. She was framed by the entrance of the cave. She had the sword I had brought her in one hand and a high-powered rifle in the other. The expression on her face was one of cold anger. My eyes lingered on the weapons.
“Are you okay?” I asked her.
She thought carefully about her response before she replied.
“I must admit that I have justified many things under the guise of wanting peace and quiet. I have stayed here in the shadows, killing any who would dare seek me out. The truth is that I have hidden from my duties for far too long. The time now is to
fight. I had worried you were not the proper side to stand on. I trained you in hope that I would figure out your true nature. I have, and I wish to join your fight. And I wish to give you something to help you in your cause.”
“What?” I asked.
The historian gestured us to follow her. She moved to the side of the cave where her books were kept, only the wall was no longer there. It was pushed to the side and a dark cavern filled the space. I stepped closer and saw that the cavern was a hundred times the size of her living space. Inside was a large collection of swords and armor. They were all made of silver. Their glittering ranks were highlighted by torches spaced at regular intervals. I felt my jaw drop. Where had she gotten so many weapons?
“You did not think I lived in a mine for the scenery, did you?” the historian asked me. “I wanted the silver to make weapons. I knew this day would come.”
It was proof she had been more prepared for my arrival than I had thought. It was possible she had let me live, knowing who I was and what it meant for the future. The historian always took the long view – she had no choice when her world was so dominated by history. That fact resonated. I remembered the picture we had found in my house and the fact that I had not gotten the chance to show it to her. It was question she might be able to answer.
“Do you know why Marcus came to you really?” I asked. “Do you know what he is hunting?”
“Beyond you?” the historian replied.
“Yes,” I said.
Her multi-colored eyes were strangely afraid.
“A sword,” she replied.
“What does it do?” I asked.
She sighed. Her expression had turned enigmatic.
“Everything,” the historian replied.
“Care to be more specific?” I asked.
“The sword was forged out of the pit of hell with the blood of one of the holiest of angels. It grants the owner eternal life, power, and control over the very fabric of the world. Its powers go beyond that. It was hidden after the first unmaking by your ancestors. This was centuries even before Farrah was born. It was always her task to protect it from the world. It was something that not even her brothers knew about.”
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