Changing quickly and crawling beneath the plush duvet, the mattress moulded itself to my body; the bed was far too comfortable. The room itself had been decorated modestly, nothing extravagant but then it was just a bedroom and I suspected a guest room, the house was thoroughly impressive, the rooms were large and spacious, if you could overlook the dust in the room earlier it wasn’t that bad and I could easily stay here under the protection of Sam and the other Volcans.
Starting with the first page, the pages had turned yellow with the age of the book and it seemed fragile in my hands, carefully making sure I didn’t accidentally damage the book in any way I read the small inscribed handwriting at the beginning.
It had been written by the previous leader of the Volcan’s, his name wasn’t readable but the rest of everything he noted down was, sometimes it was typed and pieces of paper had been glued to the pages to prevent them getting lost, whereas other times when I flicked through the pages had been hand written.
Whoever the leader was, he’d had so much to say about his time and experiences being the leader, documenting the time when he’d woken up to find the same burning in his spine that I felt, and how he’d fallen once and found his wings flipped out from behind him, with no knowledge of anything that had transpired to turn him into this strange creature, he then found the others, moving with the ease of flight, and not knowing where he was going but getting a distinct feeling that he was heading in the right direction.
Again, he stated he’d found the house and had been taken by complete surprise to find the rooms had been decorated and kept up to date with the current times and fashion, saying he felt like there was someone else who was been secretly hidden away and who must have been inside the house to decorate it in such a fashion.
His experiences were horrendous when The Devourers had been ripe in the cities, taking whoever the pleased and disregarding any secrecy of their existence. He reported reading in the news of missing people which had multiplied itself every week, the worrisome situation was gradually getting out of control and he felt he was acting beyond his means. While I was reading horrified with the amount of the people going missing, and the stories he told of the dangers when he became face to face with a crowd of ‘shadows’ that he could only assume were The Devourers, all the way through his journal they were named as either the shadows or The Devourers.
The Volcans had fought admirably, using their wits, strength given to them which I hadn’t experienced yet, and their claws to battle with the shadows that resisted every step and every moment they could, taking with them another life and no other than one of the Volcans, picking them off with ease and leaving the leader to trail out until he found the next one that had been chosen and then inducting him into the clan.
One particular story intrigued me and I found that even though my eyes were tired and I was incredibly sleepy, I wanted to finish reading what he had to say about a memorable fight that had taken place and lasted for more than two days, his descriptions of his own injuries that he’d sustained were impressive.
He wrote:
The battle lasted for more than two days, each one of the Volcans tired and hungry fighting beyond their means, my own body sore and becoming weakened by the many injuries I’d sustained, my arm dangled loosely where one of them had pulled it free from the socket, one of the others had to replace it to prevent it from being eaten by them. My right side had been chewed upon when they tried to take my body and soul, hanging around in one area one time was a bad idea, but they hadn’t been expected in that designated area at that time, blood poured from me constantly washing the ground crimson, and my clothes were saturated and sticky, the blood only served the call more of them out, they seemed to thrive and especially like the smell of blood which to them seemed to equate to death.
Others of my clan had been unfortunate to find parts of their bodies dismembered, they collected what they could that remained but it wasn’t much, most of their parts had been sucked dry and all that remained was an empty sack of their skin, collected together in an untidy heap.
It wasn’t until day Three that we begun to realise we could win, we fought together, never splitting each shadow came towards us at a tremendous speed, their strength had gained and so had their numbers they bred like rats. Using our claws, strength we were built with and our wits we managed to outwit them many time, they don’t seem highly intelligent, only hungry to feed and especially hungry for Volcans, we were their main objective.
The shadows ripped in two, spilling out the souls that belonged in another world dimensional to our own, I watched them drift slowly and peacefully to the skies and then disappearing, whether they were apparitions because I was famished, I wasn’t entirely sure but I swear this to be true with my own eyes.
It took us nearly four days to complete the task of taking down every shadow, most of which in the same way as I described before, but sometimes we used the weapons that are kept in the basement of the house, our swords and sabres were our protection as well as wits, strength and our claws, for once we managed to clean the area and win the fight.
Reading, fascinated by his clear in depth descriptions of one of the longest battles he’d ever experiences, and the breathtaking images of the lost souls floating towards their place of rest, I wondered if that where Ellie was, lost and ensnared inside one of The Devourers.
I scanned for more information, and I was about to close the book when a small piece of paper floated onto the covers, wondering what it held I grabbed it, eager to read a little more before I went to sleep.
It held the same distinct hand writing of the book, reading warnings of when one of his clan had made a female Volcan, the never ending attacks were high, with the female repeatedly singled out, her blood to them was pure because she was made by a living Volcan and not handpicked by the one that decided Sam was to become the leader. It told of unsaid happenings that he’d been warned to place inside the book, with the terror she’d been inflicted, her soul was worth more them than anyone realised, and it would make them whole whenever they took a female Volcans soul!
I gasped, so that s what they wanted from me, they wanted my soul to become whole, there terror to humans was never ending, and they wouldn’t stop until I was either dead and my soul captured by one of them or dead from the terror they inflicted, no wonder Sam wanted me to stay here to keep me safe from them, but if he knew then why had he made me? Was his love that strong that he’d disregarded the warnings of the ones before him? So many questions were whizzing through my mind, I wanted to run and ask him now, but I decided to wait and felt a tinge of guilt if I had to wake him up.
Laying down and snuggling with a sigh under the duvet, I closed my eyes and sighed, trying to remember what life was like sleeping with Sam, whenever I tried my brain slammed the door shut and seemed to seal it closed.
Eventually falling into a deep sleep, I dreamt of others like us, their wings had been larger and their claws looked formidable, all of them were surrounded by females, their wings were golden with light white coloured feathers on the edges, the frowns and terror written across their faces, horrified by the sight of an approaching shadow.
The shadow chased the females, using buildings and any object along the way to embed itself, it couldn’t take its true form and needed their body, the shadow screeched loudly pushing itself away from the building and revealing a form of a face, no features were distinctive but the face was there, plain to see.
Again the females ran, taking with them small children, screaming with terror and fright, the Volcan males appeared and tried to battle with the shadow, lost in my dreams, being caught in the memories of others, I screamed out, terrified for the lives of the females and the children.
Seeing myself and Ellie, running away screaming pitifully, waiting for Sam, who didn’t appear, no matter how much or how hard I screamed his name, he wasn’t there, we were trapped against the back of a building, with no escape an a new onslaught of shadows coming towards us
, The Devourers blocking our only escape, I pushed Ellie behind me, her wails and screams petrified me, and I tried to battle with them.
Seeing myself become mesmerised, and The Devourer chanting my name almost casting a spell around me, capturing me immobilised to the spot, I felt myself grabbed by black arms that reached out from the wall, and then tossed aside from some unknown force behind me, losing my footing and seeing Sam standing in front of me, his face a mockery of disapproval.
Screaming at him to look behind, and I could see I was seriously injured, blood poured from deep cuts in my head and onto my face blurring my vision, seeing Ellie captured, her screams filling my ears, while Sam wrestled pitifully to gain control, and it was then I felt the shaking of something before I saw myself losing consciousness.
“Zera, you’re dreaming,”
I opened my eyes to find Sam hovered above me, his face concerned, his eyes watching me closely, there was nothing that I could say amongst the feelings of horror that my dream had shown to me, it felt like a real life situation, whether it had come from the book and the things that I’d read combined with seeing Ellie’s pictures and what I’d learnt from Sam about my life before the shadows attacked.
“Are you alright?” he asked.
“I think so,” I choked back a sob, wondering if it was normal to cry about the dream I’d experience, “I had a bad dream,”
“I know,” he nodded. “I heard you screaming,” he said. “What was it about?”
His eyes scanned the side table and he picked up the book I’d been reading, thumbing through it thoughtfully.
“Did you read this before you went to sleep?”
I nodded, unsure whether to speak, he seemed upset.
“Next time,” he sighed. “Don’t read these before bedtime, this one,” he said holding the book out to show me, “Is soft compared to the others that I have, what did you dream about?”
“It was awful,” I moaned. “There were quite a few female Volcans, I was there with them and Ellie, and then the shadow came, chasing us until it backed us into an alley way at the end of the buildings,” I said, “And then its head came out of the wall, as if it was trying to form itself, first it took me but then you turned up and fought it off, I fell backwards when we turned around it had Ellie,”
I found myself crying, and then I was in his arms.
“Do you believe your nightmare might be true?” he whispered, “I mean there’s a lot of things you’ve been told today about Ellie, do you think it might be a memory coming back to you, it not something that doesn’t happen,”
“I suppose it might be,” I agreed. “But why were there other females there? I don’t understand that part,”
He picked up the book and showed me the page where I’d marked, the page where it described the females and their power.
“I see you found the warnings about creating females,” he said, “I don’t have any proof that anything in here is true, but I’m thinking that it must be because of the sudden interest of the shadows or Devourers, whatever you want to call them, in you.”
“I doubt they’d be interested if I was just an average female, unless they were hungry anyway,” I answered. “Can you stay with me please?”
I felt suddenly afraid to be alone, my nightmare had confused and frightened me, causing me to want to be with someone tonight, in the past there hadn’t been any other option but to be alone, and I would lie wide awake shaking with fear and crying, not being able to understand what they meant, now it was different.
He climbed into bed beside me, lying next to me and opening his arms, I shuffled over to him and lay in his embrace, feeling his strength surround me, it wasn’t long until I felt sleep begin to take over me again.
“It's been so long since I’ve held you like this,” I thought I heard him whisper. “Sleep well my love,”
He’d called me ‘my love’ there was no way that it could have been part of a dream, never in even my wildest dreams had anyone called me ‘my love’, for a while I’d dreamt about a strange man that rescued me, but he was distraught and his features had always appeared obscured, I thought sleepily that the strange man must have been Sam, because of the indicators and the truth that I’d recently found out through the book and through Sam himself, whatever the reasoning’s behind the sudden need for The Devourers to want to take me there was no way I was going to let them.
Chapter Six
Waking up in the morning, yawning and still sleepy I stretch in the luxurious bed and felt to the side for Sam, bitterly disappointed I found the space next to me empty, he’d already left for work and I was alone in the house until he returned home later on.
Climbing out of bed, feeling slightly bereft and lonely, I didn’t know the house all that well even after the tour last night, but I wanted to read more of the diaries that had been left behind the ones that contained the history of the Volcans and it would hopefully shine more light on how to rid the world of The Devourers. It seemed incredible that after all this time Sam didn’t know how to banish them, but after the one book last night they did appear to breed in a dramatic and enormous fashion, which would explain why when I’d read the papers or the reports that came into the station there were so many missing people or unexplained deaths.
Once while I was working, I overheard Sam arguing about a serial killer another chief thought was running riot amongst the cities, he’d been pointing out facts and of course I hadn’t known what Sam was, but he was doing his job and protecting the secrets of the Volcans, convincing the other chief that he was creating a mountain out of a mole hill and there couldn’t possibly be any links between the disappearances or the deaths.
I dressed quickly, excited to get started with another book, they had intrigued me and I found I wanted to discover more about the Volcans, I didn’t believe that Sam had no idea about much surrounding the shadows or the history of the Volcans, I just thought he was protecting me as best he could.
The shrill ringing of the phone brought my attention round, and I dashed out into the hallway to answer it.
“Hello,”
“Hey you’re up,” Sam’s voice, cool and gentle swept across the telephone line, “Listen, I was thinking how do you fancy having a meal tonight?”
I laughed.
“Who’s cooking?” I asked, knowing he’d told me that I used love cooking before, I found when I was living alone that I wasn’t very good at it and I was easily distracted, forgetting about the pans on the cooker and then burning the meal which then prompted me to call for a take-away.
“I’ll cook,” he promised. “Not unless you want to surprise me, but it’s entirely up to you, I would like to show you my culinary talents if that’s alright with you,”
“I’ll go with that,” I grinned, “When will you be back?”
“About six, there’s something going down at the minute that I’ve got to deal with,” he said, “Oh, I told everyone your off with stress caused by everything that had happened with Barry, they all send their love and best wishes,”
I chuckled, knowing it was a blatant lie; I was off because it wasn’t safe for me to be anywhere else but here, according to Sam anyway. And to be honest, I didn’t want to be anywhere else, here I felt closer to Ellie and I could try to figure out my life.
“That’s ok, I mean if like you’ve said I am safer here rather than at my house, I don’t mind staying here,” I said, “And besides if you’re cooking as well it’ll save the neighbours hearing my smoke alarms every night,”
He laughed, and I could imagine his cheeks crinkling at the corners and his eyes lighting up, he certainly was handsome and for a while I’d always felt an attraction towards him but I’d shrugged it off, passing it as simply he’s my boss and nothing more.
We said out goodbyes and hung up. I found myself smiling walking through his house, searching for the study, finally finding the room and the books that I wanted to read, my stomach grumbled loudly reminding me it was breakfast time a
nd I needed to eat something, sighing I headed back inside to find breakfast.
After a while and a long drawn out search of the cupboards I settled down to read, complete with my cereal and a lesson in Volcan history, what else could be any better than this?
I read lightly, some of the sections didn’t make sense and were scribbled delicately, so much so they had become unreadable where time had faded the ink, but still the parts that I could read were pretty much the same as the one from last night.
Dire warnings about female Volcans, exactly the same as before, the date at the bottom of each entry showed me it had been written before the one I’d read last night, which meant that the history of female Volcans were doomed, and my life was definitely in danger, but if Sam knew this then why did he make me? I didn’t understand why he would take the chance, especially if he loved me as much as he did, it didn’t make sense.
I lounged around for a little while, enjoying the freedom and no restraints of work, it was nice, even more so being in new surroundings which I explored thoroughly. I watched the clock for a little while, wondering if it would tick faster and then I could have some company, seeing what Sam had in the kitchen he didn’t seem to cater enough to make a meal so I didn’t think it would hurt for me to travel to the supermarket.
Grabbing my purse and coat I headed outside, the bright sunshine shone down and scorched my eyes making me shield them, looking around where people milled about going about their daily business, nothing seemed unusual, but I felt a certain presence surrounding me and I wasn’t sure what it was.
A creepy feeling began to spread down my back and the burning I had forgotten about began to creep back making me clutch my back in agony, so much pain and I remembered what Sam had said about my wings trying to get out and be free, but why was it happening now?
I continued to walk, watching around me and steering clear of any dark areas, afraid that it might contain shadows, especially the evil shadows I’d been reading about, I felt the eerie burn and my hairs started to stand up, it felt like someone was watching me but when I spun around there wasn’t anyone that looked like they were paying the slightest bit of attention to whatever anyone else was doing.
Volcan Knights Page 6
