Nightwalker

by Jacquelyn Frank

  “Of course I agree. Viève, we haven’t known you long but we know enough. You have a good and true heart. You will always be welcome here.”

  “Thank you so much,” she said, flushing warmly under the acceptance.

  “Any time. Any time at all.” Jackson’s head went up and his gaze narrowed on a point over their shoulders. “What’s this?” he asked curiously.

  Thinking Felix had done something, she turned to take him in. To her surprise, she saw someone walking slowly up the drive; coming in starts and stops, carrying something in her arms. It was a female. She had long brown hair blowing loosely in the night breeze.

  “Templar,” Kamen hissed suddenly, pulling Viève behind himself.

  Jackson stepped forward and put a calming hand on Kamen’s arm. “She’s alone.”

  “It could be a trick.”

  “My instincts are screaming at me to not trust, but haven’t we been saying that trust has to start somewhere or this won’t work?” Jackson stepped forward to greet the Templar female, Kamen following quickly behind him.

  “I…I couldn’t find you,” she said hesitantly. “Please don’t hurt me. I wish to defect.”

  “We won’t hurt you,” Jackson assured her. “All Bodywalkers who wish to come and follow the way of the Politic are welcome here.” He nodded to the bundle in her arms. “What is this?”

  She pushed the fabric aside and revealed a baby. The infant gurgled in its sleep then settled down.

  “Is this your child?” Jackson asked gently. “She looks newly born. Are you well?”

  “It’s not my child. The child is Odjit’s. When she saw it was not a boy she ordered me to kill it and dispose of it as if it were trash. I could not bring myself to do so, so I risked all to come here.”

  Jackson went very still. “Odjit has given birth?” he asked, needing to hear it again.

  “Yes.”

  Kamen stepped forward and held his hands out for the child. The Templar held on to it more tightly. “I need your word that you will not harm her. I would rather live in the wilds of the humans if that is what I must do. Only…Odjit has discovered a way, I know not how, of tracking those who would try and defect from her. I will need your protection in case she comes for me or the child.”

  “You have my promise that no harm will come to her from us,” Jackson said, making Kamen give him a hard look. But Jackson remained firm. “She is safe here.”

  The Templar struggled visibly for a moment, clearly trying to decide if they should be trusted. But she must have realized there was no choice for her in the matter really, so she handed the baby to Kamen.

  Kamen took the child and inspected her. She had the black skin of a Night Angel. Her hair was a deep, dark blue, almost black as well. She couldn’t weigh more than seven pounds and on close inspection she looked just like any normal Night Angel child.

  “Viève, go get Faith,” Jackson instructed her. Viève wasted no time running to get the Night Angel.

  Kamen and Jackson focused on welcoming the child and its rescuer.

  “What’s your name?”

  “Filomena,” she said. “But most call me Mena.”

  “Well, Mena, we appreciate that you have come here and brought the child to us. You will be under our protection from here on out.”

  “I’ve wanted to come before this, but we’re so afraid of the mistress.” She looked at Kamen anxiously. “Ever since you left she has been…she’s always had a cold streak in her, as you well know. And you…you were just as cold.” She cleared her throat of its fear for talking to him so bluntly. “But since you left she has gone through such drastic changes. She’s been vicious and cruel. And she never even speaks of the goals that made us loyal to her in the first place. The unification of the Bodywalker race used to be everything to her. Now all she talks about is destroying you all.”

  Jackson and Kamen exchanged a look over her head.

  “She has always plotted the destruction of the Politic, but she used to couch it in lies about unification,” Kamen explained to Jackson. “That is how she led so many Templars to her side. That and the promise of power through magic. She was a powerful priestess and tempted others to follow her by promising to teach them the power she knew. Even those who did not have an aptitude for magic.

  “But Odjit would promise that she could teach anyone to cast magic with power. It was a lie I never refuted. I wanted the same thing she did or what I thought she did. Unification through any means necessary. If that meant telling a few lies, what did it matter?” He looked at Mena. “I have since learned the error of my ways.”

  “A lot of the Templars are fed up with Odjit’s volatile temperament,” Mena confided in a whisper, as if Odjit might hear her even now. “Some have tried leaving and some have been killed for doing so. Has no one made it here to you?”

  Jackson shook his head. “No. No one. But that doesn’t mean they did not make it away from her. They might just be lying low for the time being. You say many of the Templars are fed up. How many would you say are willing to put an end to this constant bickering and come to the Politic side?”

  “At least half,” Mena said. “But they are too afraid to do anything.”

  “Not now perhaps. But in time they might be able to do something about it,” Jackson said.

  The baby began to cry.

  “Come on. It’s too cold out here for the child. Let’s go inside and then we will see about getting her some food.”

  “She hasn’t eaten once since she was born and that was a few hours ago.” Mena gnawed at her bottom lip. “They’ve surely noticed my absence by now. And they know I have the baby. They may even suspect I have come here.”

  “Try not to worry about it,” Jackson said, leading her toward the house.

  They were almost to the porch of the main house when Faith came bolting out the front door. The Night Angel stopped in her tracks and stared at the baby in Kamen’s hands.

  “Oh my gods,” she whispered. Then she came closer and looked down on the little face. She reached out and touched the tuft of midnight blue hair on its head. “It’s Dax’s hair,” she said with awe. “I’d recognize it anywhere.” She swallowed noisily. “I’m an aunt.”

  “Faith, there is still the matter of the child’s maternity,” Kamen warned. “Or should I say, other paternity.”

  “I don’t understand,” Mena said.

  “I will explain it to you,” Jackson said. “Kamen, Faith, take the babe inside. Have someone run into town for supplies.”

  “I have to call my brother,” Faith said.

  “Should we do that right away?” Kamen asked skeptically. “We don’t even know anything about the child.”

  “My brother is this child’s father. It was done by force, but it’s still his daughter. He has a right to know and the right to come and see her,” Faith said sternly.

  Kamen subsided. “Of course. You’re right. Go and call him. Viève and I will watch over her.”

  Viève and Kamen walked into the house with Faith, but then she pulled a cellphone out of her back pocket and went off to call her brother in private.

  “I don’t understand,” Viève said.

  “Dax is Faith’s brother. He is a very powerful Night Angel. Apep raped him in order to father this child with him.”

  “Oh my god, that’s terrible. Now he’s the father of a child he never wanted—that was gotten by violence. How will he feel about this baby?”

  “That’s something only he can decide. He knew it was conceived, knew it would be born. He has had all these months to come to terms with it. Hopefully that was long enough.”

  “Can one ever come to terms with such a heinous act committed against them?”

  “I’d imagine you’d have to, otherwise there would be no moving on from it. If he is as strong as Faith has led us to believe, he will have done so.” Kamen cradled the baby in his hands as though he were quite expert at it, seemingly unafraid to be holding an infant as fragile as
this newborn was.

  “Have you ever had children?” Viève asked him.

  “I have. In my early lives before I joined with Odjit. But I stopped once I realized I would always be leaving them behind. Either I would die or they would die and I’d move on to the next life without them, the pain of the loss mine to carry with me.”

  “If you had a child with a Nightwalker they would most likely become immortal.”

  “I suppose that would depend on how strong the Nightwalker genetics were in the child. This child is half Nightwalker, but clearly its Nightwalker traits are dominant. It is also half god. No one knows what that will mean for her. It seems reckless of Apep to discard her in such a way. Perhaps only a male child could be imbued with the power of a god. Who knows what that demented mind is thinking. It could just be a very old prejudice from a god born in times when male children held all the value, while daughters were deemed to be of little worth.”

  “What does this mean for us? If Apep suspects we have his daughter, couldn’t that propel him into action?”

  “He’s given birth now. The burden on his powers has been lifted. Once he regains his strength you can bet we will be the first thing on his to-do list. We cannot sit here and wait for him to act against us. I must use my location spell, find Apep, and bring the battle to him before he is expecting it or is prepared and recovered from giving birth. We must do this right away. I must speak with Marissa and Jackson right away.”

  “Here. Give me the baby and go speak to them,” Viève said, holding her hands out. He gave her a dubious look.

  “Have you ever handled a child?” he asked.

  She hesitated. “Well, no. They wouldn’t let me touch the babies in the house.”

  “All right, I will show you,” he said, gently handing her the baby and showing her how to support its head in the crook of her arm. She cradled the baby to her breast and the warmest sensation slipped through her. She had never thought to ever hold a child. Would she hold one of her own? she wondered. It would most likely be a half-breed like her—even more diluted than she was. But, she realized, that wouldn’t matter in a place like this. Here where everyone was accepted. She could easily raise a child here. And she wouldn’t have to do it alone. There would be any number of people to help.

  But there was a lot that had to happen between here and there, and thinking of children with a threat like Apep around was not a good thing. But it was nice to dream all the same. She had never been much of a dreamer, her world based in a very hard reality, but now she had the freedom to hope and dream and it was a good feeling. She’d been having a lot of good feelings since coming there.

  For now, she basked in the warmth of the child. Kamen seemed reluctant to part from her at first, and she didn’t know why. Perhaps he did not trust her?

  “I’ll be fine. I won’t hurt the baby,” she said in a whisper.

  “I am more worried about the baby hurting you,” he said.

  “She’s just a baby,” she said with surprise.

  “She’s part of a malicious god.”

  “She’s innocent of that for now. And here we give people the benefit of the doubt, remember?”

  He sighed and nodded. “I’m going to talk to Jackson before I gather the components of my spell. He will have to coordinate troops from all of the Nightwalker races and get them to converge at the same place at the same time, which is no small undertaking. But we need to strike now. We needed to strike yesterday when the god was still weak.”

  “And do what? Kill him with a baby inside of him? No, we couldn’t do that.”

  Kamen frowned. “Better one life than hundreds.”

  “That is a very cold way of thinking,” Viève said, matching his frown.

  “But it is a practical way of thinking. Do you disagree with me? One life versus hundreds?”

  “No. I don’t disagree,” she said quietly. “Anyway it’s a moot point now.”

  “Indeed it is. Go. Sit down. This house has grown so big inside that I fear it will take some time for me to find Jackson and then our rooms again.”

  Kamen walked away, leaving her alone with the baby. Viève walked into the living room where Faith had gone to have her phone conversation.

  “I love you too,” she said into the phone, then she hung up and stuffed the device in her back pocket. She looked up at Viève. “He’s on his way. He’s not far from here. He should be here in a few hours.”

  “Would you like to hold your niece?” Viève asked, holding the baby out to her. Faith hesitated, but then she took the child in her arms. She cuddled her close, cooing at the child when she fussed.

  “She must be starved.”

  “I’ll go find someone to go to the market. Maybe Kane. The Mind Demon that can teleport. Walmart should still be open at this hour.”

  “All right. We’ll need formula, bottles, diapers, wipes…the whole shebang. She doesn’t even have a diaper on,” Faith said after a quick check. “She’s barely been cleaned off. We’ll need something to bathe her in and some infant soap. Powder…clothes. Oh my gods, we need it all.”

  “I’ll go with him. Together we should be able to get everything relatively quickly.” Viève brushed a thumb over the baby’s cheek. “I’ll be right back.”

  Viève went in search of Kane.

  Chapter 21

  Dax arrived about three hours later. They were having a gathering outside in front of the main house, each race reporting in about the readiness of their people to join in an attack against Apep and the Templars. According to the Templar defector, Apep had been gathering human magic users as well. Necromancers, as the First Faction called them. Like a cult they had gravitated to him, having Templars teach them in the ways of magic. The Demons were used to dealing with these people. Magic corrupted humans, even making them smell like garbage to a Nightwalker nose.

  They could only hope that the necromancers didn’t have any Demons on their side. Necromancers had spells that could “summon” a Demon if they knew the Demon’s power name. Then they could bring that Demon’s power to bear against his compatriots. A Demon that was summoned could not be recovered or cured. Once it was corrupted it remained so until the Enforcers, Bella and Jacob, destroyed it. It was a waste of life and a tragic loss. It also meant that they could end up fighting against any of the elements, except Fire. There were only three Fire Demons in existence and all were accounted for. The Demon King Noah being the most powerful Fire Demon alive.

  And Noah was on his way there.

  Dax flew on electric red wings and lowered himself to the ground. He was an imposing figure, broad in the shoulders and narrow in the waist. Muscle defined every inch of his naked body.

  “I never realized so many Nightwalkers eschewed clothes,” Viève whispered to Kamen.

  “As far as I know it’s only the Phoenixes and the Night Angels,” he replied.

  Jackson stepped forward to greet Dax, but Dax’s attention went straight to his sister, who was holding a fed, cleaned, clothed, and diapered infant in her arms. She held the child out to her brother.

  For a moment it looked as though Dax was going to shun the child. There was definite emotion working its way through his tense body. But then Dax held out his arms and Faith gently laid the baby in them.

  “She doesn’t have a name,” Faith said quietly.

  “I will give her one,” Dax said, his deep voice rolling over them. Then he held up the child for all to see. “This is the daughter of Dax. She is destined for great things.”

  It was clearly a ceremonial act, something from the Night Angel culture. A show of acceptance and responsibility for the child. There was no telling what the future held for the child, no telling who and what she would become, but that was true of any child. What was clear was that she would need guidance. She would need strength. Dax would be exactly the one to give her both. He was a powerful and important Night Angel. He stood high in his father’s house—his father being the ruling Night Angel of the North Ameri
can continent.

  “Congratulations, Dax. You’re a father,” Faith said proudly.

  “Let’s get this child somewhere safe,” Dax said.

  “I believe the safest place for her is here. In the middle of all of us. There’s no telling if Apep can track her. At least until we move against him once and for all. Which will be very soon,” Jackson said.

  “How soon? I want her safe,” Dax said, holding the baby tighter.

  “I’m hoping tomorrow at dusk. As soon as the sun goes down,” Jackson said. “We could use however many Night Angels you can spare.”

  “I’ll put a call out, but on such short notice I don’t know how many you’ll be able to get,” Dax said.

  “We’ll take what we can get. Mena’s been telling us how many strong the Templars are and it sounds like they aren’t more than three hundred. The human necromancers are much less than that. But I’m not as worried about them as I am about Apep. He’s the great unknown. All we can do is hope he is still weakened by the birth,” Jackson said.

  “Noah and Gideon, the Ancient Body Demon medic will be here shortly,” Kane said. “Gideon is bringing more medics with him. He and his medics will be able to handle any injuries that come our way. At least for the Bodywalkers. They have human bodies and Demons can heal humans. Whether they can heal the other Nightwalkers remains to be seen. So far healing across races has proven difficult for them.”

  “We’ll take whatever we can get. Felix, you’ve been in contact with the Doyen via phone, what does he say?”

  Felix had been leaning indolently against a column on the porch but perked up when he was addressed.

  “The Doyen can’t possibly mobilize any reasonable force on such short notice,” he said, his smile sly. “But if the Templar Kamen were to transport them, we could provide six more Wraiths.”

  “Kamen needs to conserve his magic. The Mind Demon Kane can help you, provided they are not too far away.”

  “That depends, is Nevada too far away for you to travel?” Felix asked.

  “No. I can do that,” Kane said. “But I can only transport one at a time. If we had a stronger Mind Demon here they could transport more people more efficiently.”