Icarus; The Kindred (A Paranormal Romance)

by J. S. Chancellor

  All right, babe, it's just you. So let's pull your shit together and get Lucan out of here. No one else is going to talk you through this. Am I hyperventilating? Wow. Didn't see a panic attack coming.

  "Don't worry. Trinity will come. I know he will," Lucan says confidently.

  "Do you recognize anything about this place? Any idea where we are?"

  "No. I've never been here before. I think she gave me something because I don't remember how I got here."

  My chest feels like it's being pried open by the jaws of life and hosed down with gasoline. I cough and fight for breath for a few seconds before I can get out, "We're in Ireland."

  "And your beloved Trinity is still in the states." Iris' voice makes my wounds hurt worse. She is standing next to a framed picture on the wall across from Lucan and me. At the flip of a switch it changes from the static scene to a news broadcast. Unfortunately, I know what's coming, but Lucan doesn't have a clue.

  The blandly attractive TV reporter says, "We're here in Alexandria Virginia, with the founder of Mythos Pharmaceuticals, Dr. Tristan Thorn. Tell us, Dr. Thorn, how were you able to formulate a vaccine so quickly? And do you anticipate having enough for everyone in the high-risk areas?"

  Tristan replies in his best TV voice, "We've had fears that a virus of this scale would hit densely populated areas for the last few years due to the overuse of antibiotics. Not only have we produced enough for high-risk areas, we are providing the vaccine, Ambrosia, free of charge. You can go to any local public health center to receive aid. Emergency stations are being set up by the CDC in all metropolitan areas. Check your churches and community centers. Some are even in school auditoriums and gymnasiums."

  "Dr. Thorn, the world owes you and Mythos incredible thanks for all of your efforts. We're going live to …" Iris mutes the television.

  I hear sniffling and look over to see Lucan crying and trying his best to hide it. And I'll be screwed sideways if this doesn't piss me off more than anything Iris has done yet.

  "I'm not turning this off because I want you to see his face when he realizes the Tithe is broken." She smiles and saunters over to me.

  I am fuming and think naively that whatever she's about to do won't hurt because of how furious I am. Once again, I am woefully wrong.

  Strangely I find myself watching Trinity's expression. I'm not screaming because that would take energy that I no longer have. I'm hanging by my wrists now, unable to stand on my own two feet.

  "No! Stop hurting her!" Lucan is crying harder now. "Please stop!"

  Trinity is trying to concentrate and answer questions that are being asked by a variety of medical experts and politicians, but he knows something is wrong. And I wonder if he's trying to speak to me.

  "Mom!"

  Iris turns from me momentarily to speak to Lucan, "Sweetheart, this is the way it has to be. I don't expect you—"

  Lucan forcefully interrupts her, "I wasn't talking to you, Iris.. You can go to hell for all I care!" He tries to keep the mean look on his face but his cries soon overwhelm his bravery and he falls apart.

  My ribs give way to the force of whatever she's wielding. I can't tell what it is, just that it's pretty fucking solid. I feel it coming, the final blow. My sight starts to fade a little around the edges. On the television, Trinity jumps from his chair, his hand grazing his chest like he's having a heart attack. And I know the Tithe is broken.

  Iris laughs, pausing long enough to fully take in Trinity's panic. He excuses himself from the newscast and disappears from the camera.

  "What a shame," Iris sighs. "I thought that was far more interesting than all of his bullshit about saving mankind."

  "He will save them! And he'll save us!" Lucan screams.

  Iris laughs, "No, no. Trinity isn't trying to save mankind. He's going to trade their lives, some of them anyhow, for an army of undefeatable soldiers. Too bad he doesn't know that they'll only obey me."

  She turns abruptly, tilting my head up with the point of a blade, and says softly, "Goodbye, dear sister of mine. Trinity will be devastated to know that it was his Blood Tithe with you that made you vulnerable enough to kill."

  The last thing I see before dying is my sister as she leaves the room.

  Suicidal Dream

  Blake said it wasn't a sure thing. The odds of death are greater than the odds that I will come through this, but as the darkness closes in, a single phrase repeats in my head: I will live.

  There is nothingness for a time.

  Then a light appears in the distance. It shimmers like polished silver.

  I will live.

  The light explodes, becoming a hundred glittery squares beneath my feet, a chessboard of black and silver.

  I will live.

  "Jessica, you have come home," a voice says softly.

  I watch as a figure materializes, dressed in armor the color and pitch of night. He lifts his visor and though I don't know how—I know him. Father.

  He takes me into his arms and for several long moments I breathe in his scent.

  "It is time," he says.

  I pull from his embrace. "No. I can't—"

  My father smiles sadly, "It is too late, my child. You have drawn your last breath."

  No! "Iris—"

  "Iris has given herself to the darkness. It is not the same. Do you not see this blessing for what it is? Iris will use her power for vengeance and the world that you think you love will suffer for it. Come, before it is too late."

  I take another step back. "No." I will live.

  The being who I believed to be my father morphs into a creature no mortal nightmare could bear. Ten feet tall, a red cloak sits ragged on his shoulders, his face a black void beneath his hood. Great wings stretch wide and then fold as he takes a seat upon his throne. A hand stretches out, thin-fleshed and raw, and points at my chest.

  His voice is dark and chillingly detached. "Why do you insist on carrying a burden that is no longer yours to bear?" That's when I realize this is not merely a horrific creature; this is one of the guardians.

  "I'm already changed. I'll never be who I once was and I don't care how much pain I suffer or what is done to my body. Take my life instead of theirs. Take my soul!"

  He laughs, but it is a sad and sympathetic sound, almost compassionate. "Child, the offer you make is endearing. But your soul is of no use to us. Come into the light and be free of your pain. You will not win against Iris. You cannot win."

  Tears fill my eyes. "What is your name?" I ask.

  I am greeted by a long silence before he finally says, "Caen. Why do you wish to know?"

  I approach him and though it chills me to do so, I press my hand over his. "Because there's power in a name, Caen. My son's name is Lucan."

  Caen pulls his hand away. "I have no need for his name. The wall between the worlds is a living wall, composed of the souls of those who chose to sacrifice their eternities in exchange for something finite." He gestures to the inky black depth that moans softly around us. He remains quiet momentarily for me to listen to the sound. "The souls of two royal blood immortals are worth more that the souls of every being born into your world since its inception."

  I clench my hand into a fist. "My son never traded anything! How can you rightfully claim his soul, or does Darkness need no reason?"

  "You have mistaken us for something we are not. We are neither good nor evil. We are balance."

  I am growing aware of a prickling heat that has worked its way up my back and is now licking at my neck, like the beginning of an allergy not yet fully realized. "They suffer. Listen to them! How can you hear their cries and claim innocence? You say I've been set aside, spared somehow, but from what? I can't let this happen. Give me time. I will find something of greater worth to you."

  "There is nothing of greater worth," he says simply. "This suffering you hear is nothing in comparison to that which would befall us all if the balance between the worlds were lost."

  I let the last of my pride slip away
and I kneel before him. "Caen. Give me time. What will you lose by letting me live?"

  "It is not my loss, it is yours, Jessica. If I allow you to live, darkness will covet you just like it does Iris. You do not understand. She may have won the power over the army that Lord Tristan has ushered in, but she will pay the ultimate cost for it. They will turn on her in the end and all that will be left of your world is death and agony. There is nothing left for you there."

  I take his hand and lead it to my face, rest it against my wet cheek. "Don't ask how I know this, but you were different once. Have you forgotten what it was like to love someone so much there isn't anything in this world or the next that you wouldn't do to save them? Let me try to fix things."

  Caen's hand trembles now and he whispers a word—a name, perhaps. "I have not forgotten." He pulls his hand away again and stands, towering over me while I remain kneeling. "You have three days before the Winter Solstice. There, at the gate, the creatures born of darkness will become visible to mankind and the final days on Earth will begin—payment will be due in full. I wish you luck."

  "Thank you," I say, my words obscured through tears.

  "Do not thank me, child. If you fail to escape your immediate surroundings in time, you will be in unbearable agony and may remain so until it is time again for you to meet me here."

  I nod slowly, realizing that the mild heat I felt before has started to burn. Fire.

  "Are you certain?" he asks, offering his hand to me. "I can stay some of the pain of your immortal wounds, but cannot take them away."

  "I will live," I whisper.

  Lucan is crying and screaming and apparently untied because he is tugging at the steel bands at my arms.

  "Lucan," I have to force out his name because the pain in my chest is unbelievable, just as the guardian said it would be. I can feel everything that Iris did to me, including the searing pain that runs across my eye and down my cheek.

  Lucan jumps back, his eyes wide. "You were dead. You didn't have a pulse."

  I nod and draw another ragged breath. "You have to get these off me." Either that, or we're going to have to saw off my newly indestructible hands and I really don't want to know how that feels.

  It takes Lucan a second shake himself from his shock and say, "I've looked all over the room. There isn't anything to cut the steel."

  Crap. Couldn't the guardian have reminded me about this?

  Despite the rising temperature in the room, I am chilled by the sound of yet another voice in my head. I have renewed sympathy for schizophrenics. Use the power, Jessica, but use it sparingly. The more you use the dark gift, the more it will call to them.

  "Stand back, Lucan." I don't have the slightest idea what for. Aren't people with powers supposed to go through training or mentorship or something? Caen, help me out here. I don't know how to use it.

  Close your eyes and pull from the energy in the room.

  I do as he says and while one would expect this to go swimmingly, I haven't the faintest idea how to "draw" anything from thin air. Um, we really don't have time for me to stand here meditating. And damn it, I hurt.

  It is like drawing blood. Use your mind and focus on a central point—try your chest and concentrate. It will come to you as soon as you let go.

  I try again and this time, I figure it must look pretty cool because little man seems mildly impressed.

  "Holy crap! Wait, this is a good thing, right?" Lucan asks.

  I open my eyes as the bands fall away. "Yes," I say. Then add as a whisper, "Unless you're Iris." Thank you, Caen.

  The room we're in is small but not bereft of your run-of-the-mill torture room accoutrements and it makes me wonder how I could seriously be related to someone cruel enough to arrange a room like this.

  After manhandling open a steel door, opposite the direction the smoke is coming from, we exit into a tunnel. That's when it occurs to me that we're either below ground or in a mountain. There is electricity—cables are everywhere and water pipes seem to extend the length of the tunnel we're in.

  "Is that dirt?" Lucan touches the wall and it crumbles below his fingers. "It is. We're like, underground."

  "Yup. Looks that way. Come on." I grab him by the hand and we run for a short ways before smoke starts to catch up with us from behind. What if we're running into nothing but more earth? What if Iris blocked the only way out of here?

  Lucan starts coughing, and I press him to me, trying to block some of the smoke with what little of a shirt I have left. "This sucks," he says. "When are you gonna blast us out of here?"

  "I don't think it works like that." Though it's not a bad idea. Too bad my powers don't function that way. I do, however, recall Iris taking a dive out of a window. "Let's pick the pace up a little, huh?"

  He nods as best he can while still hacking and we keep going, taking one turn after another until finally we come to another door. I let go of Lucan and bear all of my weight against it until it opens and we step into a shallow room with a gaping hole at the far end. I walk ahead to see that it opens up to the ocean below. Very far below. We're on the side of a cliff.

  "You got wings hidden in there somewhere?" Lucan points to me.

  "No," I say. Smoke has started to trickle into the small room. I shut the door and lean against it to think.

  "What are we going to do?" He is really giving his best effort at staying calm, but his voice is wavering and I know he's frightened.

  Iris did accomplish an unrealistic feat. Though two stories and two hundred feet are two very different things. I walk back to the precipice and look down.

  "Are you serious?" Lucan asks.

  I could most likely make it, but would I be able to break his fall? I sigh and wonder if telling him is a good idea or if I should do this like ripping off a bandage.

  "No way," he whispers.

  Bandage it is. I close my eyes to gather the guts and then, with more speed than I've ever had, I grab him and hold him tightly in my arms as I leap off of the cliff.

  When Two Are One

  I twist just after we are in the air to make sure I am below him when we hit. He's screaming and I feel bad, but then again, it was this or death. He'll thank me later.

  "When I say so, I need you to hold your breath. Okay?" I yell, hoping he can hear me.

  "What?" he yells, then screams some more.

  "Hold your breath when I tell you."

  "We're gonna die! Why am I gonna hold my breath?" More screaming.

  "Lucan, you're gonna be fine. Hold your breath when I say."

  "Now?"

  "No, in just a second."

  "Now?"

  "No, just … now! Hold your breath now!" And we hit with more force than I anticipated. Since we're on that subject, I'd better stop anticipating things since I'm nearly always off.

  It takes me a minute to surface and discover that being a kick-ass immortal doesn't make me immune to choking. I am spitting up water and looking around frantically for Lucan when I hear him a few feet away.

  "Hey! The shore's over here! Come on!" He turns and motions to the shore, which isn't too far from where we are. It takes us about five minutes to reach the rocky beach.

  I crawl onto the sand, still spitting up water. Lucan seems totally fine and is rearranging his PJs.

  "Holy snot, that was sick! Can we do that again sometime?"

  I laugh and then groan, laying face-first on the sand. "I am guessing from your excitement that you're okay?"

  He pauses, feeling his arms and legs before answering, "Yup. Uber."

  "You German now?" The pain in my chest and across my face is sharpening. I'm beginning to understand that it is going to wax and wane and that absolutely nothing I do is going to lessen it.

  He laughs, sounding hauntingly like Jacelynd. "Uber means very."

  "I'm so uncool for asking, I suppose."

  "Nah. You're immune for a while after jumping off a cliff like that. So, what do we do now?"

  A few options flit through my
head before I come to the conclusion that not only do I still have no idea where we are, I don't know where the others are either. I was too wrapped up in reminiscing on the way there from the airport to pay attention. I don't even know the phone number there or any of their cells. The only one I know that would do any good is Trinity's. And that still doesn't sound like a good idea, all things considered.

  I prop myself on my elbows, my lower body still being rocked by the waves. "We need to find a gate that leads to another world. I know, don't look at me like I'm retarded. I didn't think this stuff up. So … you're a bright kid, any ideas on where we should start looking?"

  "You're asking me?" He seems almost honored by the idea. "Mom … I mean Iris … used to never ask me for my input on anything."

  "Well, I'm not Iris. And I know how awesome you are. I even know what kind of music you like."

  "No way," he laughs. "What's my favorite band?"

  "Hmm. Cross between Ben Folds Five, Flogging Molly and Linkin Park."

  "Righteous," he whispers. "What's the meaning of life? No, wait, who killed JFK?"

  "I don't know everything. Besides, your iPod is at the castle."

  He picks up a handful of wet sand and throws it at me, hitting me on the top of my head. "Loser!"

  I laugh, the pain momentarily subsiding and playfully return the sand, and we launch into a few-minute-long sand-throwing war that ends in me tickling the crap out of him.

  "Uncle, uncle! Stop, I'm going to pee my pants," he giggles.

  I stop and sit up as the pain returns. "I've missed so much of your life."

  He remains prone. "Nah. We're immortal, remember? Besides, you don't have to fool with all the gross stuff, like potty training and diaper changes. And I've been told I had legendary dumps even as a baby!"

  I smile weakly, then without asking his permission I pull him up to me and hug him for all he's worth. To my surprise, he hugs me back.

  "You know, we look kind of silly. What we're wearing." He tugs at my shirt, which truly looks scary.

  "Yeah. I have a penchant for destroying clothes. I'll have to see about getting some help with that." I laugh and tousle his hair, like I did outside of Callmadus.