Desire (Legends of the Kilanor Book 3)

by Jared Stone

  “Dude, what!?” he snapped.

  Lucian breathed out a sigh of relief. Looking around his roommate, he could see Sabrina still lying in Blake’s bed with the covers pulled up over her body. She glared at him angrily.

  “Blake, you gotta get away from her!” Lucian urged. “She’s some kind of demon monster thing!”

  Blake stared at his crazed roommate, then looked back at Sabrina lying unthreateningly in his bed, then looked back at his roommate. “Dude, what are you talking about?” Blake asked him. “What happened to Natalie?”

  “That’s what I’m telling you!” Lucian practically screamed. “Natalie turned into some kind of monster and tried to kill me! I bet Sabrina’s trying to do the same thing!”

  Stepping out into the hallway, Blake closed the door until it was only open a crack behind him. “Look, man…,” he whispered, “you came at a really, really bad time. Things were just about to get good, and I’d really like to get back to that, if you don’t mind….”

  “But Blake, Natalie seriously morphed into a clawed creature and tried to kill me!” Lucian insisted. “I had to blast her out of the sky, and then she liquified into some sort of puddle thing! I’m telling you the truth! With everything that’s happened lately, is that really so hard to believe!?”

  Blake stood there for a moment with a disgruntled look on his face. “I seriously hope you’re wrong about this, man,” he said.

  “I’m not,” Lucian stated with certainty.

  Blake sighed. “So, what do we do? Go back in there and, like, kill her or something?”

  Lucian swallowed nervously. “Let’s just try to make her leave first,” he said. “Tell her we know what she is, and, if she gets out now, no one has to get hurt.”

  Blake looked at his roommate quizzically. “Alright,” he agreed. “Let’s hope that works.”

  Turning back around, Blake stepped into the room with Lucian directly behind him. Both boys stood just inside the entranceway, staring at two empty beds.

  “Where’d she go!?” Blake exclaimed.

  “Skreeeeeeeee!”

  A shrill cry pierced the air from behind them as something leapt down from the ceiling onto Blake’s back. Flailing around, the boy slammed his back into the open door, swinging it shut with a crash, then teetered forward across the room. A flurry of beating wings and swinging limbs was all that could be seen as the two of them struggled.

  “Get off of me!” Blake cried, reaching up and wildly smacking at the claws that slashed down onto his shoulders.

  Lucian ran forward and jumped up, grabbing onto one of the beast’s flapping wings in his descent. This effectively yanked the creature off from Blake’s back and onto the floor. Lucian stumbled backwards just before a clawed talon slashed across his face, and he collided with one of the wooden desk chairs hard.

  “Agh!” Blake moaned, laying one hand over the claw marks in his shoulders. The creature on the ground propelled herself upwards with her wings once again, lunging at the boy. But Blake had had enough.

  “Raahhhh!” he cried out, swinging a fist through the air. His knuckles collided with his attacker’s face, sending her back down to the floor. But Blake wasn’t finished yet.

  “You dumb! Stupid! Monster!” he cried out, jumping on top of her and slamming his fist repeatedly into her writhing form. With each connection of his fist, his enemy became less and less recognizable. Black ooze began flying everywhere around him, but Blake still wouldn’t stop.

  “Damn! You! Straight! To! Hell!” he continued, reducing everything beneath his pounding fist to the consistency of jelly. As he did so, his whole body became consumed in the eerie glow of a dark aura, growing in intensity with every swing. Finally, his knuckles collided with the floorboards, breaking one of the boards in two beneath the sloppy black puddle.

  “Blake, stop!” Lucian cried out to him, rushing over and grabbing onto his roommate’s shoulders. “Blake, she’s gone! It’s over!”

  Blake pounded his fist down one last time and left it there, surrounded by the pulpy black mess that had once been Sabrina. He panted heavily, with his face contorted into an expression of residual rage. After a few seconds of deep, heavy breathing, he looked up at Lucian as the glow of demonic energy faded.

  “Damn monsters,” he spat.

  From inside the closet, Lucian could hear Gus’ claws scraping wildly, trying to escape from where Blake had imprisoned him. Lucian was just about to go let his friend out of his makeshift cage when he heard a knock on the main door.

  Lucian and Blake both froze.

  “Yes?” Lucian squeaked out.

  “Everything okay in there?” someone called out from the second floor hallway. “I thought I heard a fight or something.”

  Lucian cautiously took a few steps toward the door. Reaching out for the handle, he twisted forcefully and popped it back open again. There, in front of him, stood another student from their floor, wearing pajama pants and a ripped t-shirt with a cartoon character on the front. His long red hair reached his shoulders, and in his hand he held an energy drink. Lucian just smiled at him.

  “Yeah. Everything’s fine in here. Thanks!” Lucian said quickly, with only his head sticking through the crack in the door.

  The other student leaned slightly to the right and peered inside. From his vantage point, he saw a room completely covered in black splatters, with another boy kneeling, panting in a puddle of unidentifiable black ooze. Blake raised one of his muck-covered hands in greeting.

  “Ooookay….” the red-headed student said. Slowly stepping away, he slinked back down the hall, undoubtedly with more questions than he had arrived with. Lucian closed the door once again and let out a sigh of relief.

  “What the Hell do we do now, man?” Blake asked him dejectedly, shaking his head and staring down into the puddle at his knees. “It’s like, everywhere we turn, something’s trying to kill us.”

  Lucian stepped carefully across the sloppy floor and finally opened the closet. Gus came scampering out immediately, jumping up on Lucian’s leg with great concern. Seeing that his friend clearly needed some comforting, Lucian picked the puppy up and held him in his arms.

  “I don’t know,” he admitted to Blake. “But I think we need to go along with Schuntz’s plan now, before anything else comes to finish the job.”

  Blake nodded. “Yeah, I think so, too,” he agreed.

  Walking over and sitting down on his bed with Gus in his lap, Lucian pulled his crystal pendant out of his shirt and held it between his fingers. Professor? he thought, directed toward Schuntz. Professor, are you there?

  Yes, Mr. Aarden, Schuntz’s thoughts echoed back almost immediately. I am here.

  Professor, I think we should follow through with your plan, Lucian informed him. Blake and I just got attacked by some kind of creatures again, and I don’t know how much longer we can just sit around and wait. We’ll go with you to Hellam and look for the key.

  A wise choice, Mr. Aarden, Schuntz responded. Even through the mental waves, Lucian could sense that the professor was greatly pleased by this decision. I had already purchased three airline tickets for us tomorrow morning, in fact, with the hope that you would make the correct decision. The flight leaves at 8:00.

  Lucian was surprised at the fortunate foresight and assumptive actions of his professor. Alright, then, he thought. We’ll be there for it.

  Lucian dropped the crystal from between his fingers and looked over at Blake.

  “Well, we fly to Pennsylvania tomorrow morning at 8:00,” he informed his roommate.

  “Wow, that was quick,” Blake said, still kneeling on the disgusting floor.

  “Yeah. Apparently, he already bought the tickets,” Lucian explained, still just the slightest bit irked by the professor’s presumption. “So we’ve gotta get up early tomorrow. My mom gets up really early during the week anyway, so I’ll call her in the morning to see if my parents can take Gus for the weekend. It’s probably not a good idea to take him along wi
th us. I’ll just have to tell them that I have to go on a school trip or something that I forgot about until now. In the meantime, I guess –”

  Lucian stopped his sentence short with a horrified look flashing onto his face. He pulled out his phone and checked the time. It was 9:50.

  “Damn!” Lucian exclaimed, jumping up and looking around frantically. “Damn, damn, damn!”

  “What? What is it?” Blake asked him, now equally frazzled.

  “I told Sam that I’d be over at 10:00 tonight,” Lucian said hurriedly, racing to the closet and yanking off his shirt. “I’ve gotta rush over there!”

  “But, dude,” Blake protested, looking around at the disaster area they once called their bedroom. “You can’t just leave me here to clean all this stuff up!”

  “I have to! Sorry!” Lucian insisted, hopping around on one foot as he tried to slip on a clean pair of sneakers. “This makes us even for sticking me with Natalie earlier!”

  “Dude, that doesn’t count anymore!” Blake argued. “You ended up killing her!”

  “It still counts!” Lucian stated as he grabbed his keys and headed for the door. “I’m really sorry, but I can’t miss this! Just do what you can to clean up and I’ll help you later or whatever!”

  Lucian yanked open the door again and hurried out. “Thanks!” he called out behind him before the door slammed shut and he was gone.

  Blake just remained kneeling, once again staring at the black puddle beneath him. Gus carefully hopped down from the bed and walked over to one of the gooey splatters on the floor. Sniffing it briefly, he then reached his tongue out and began lapping it up.

  “Ew! Stop it, dude! That’s gross!” Blake said, finally pushing himself up to walk over and pull Gus away.

  * * *

  Lucian found himself racing across campus for a second time that night, hoping he wouldn't sweat too much in the process. It took him somewhere between five and ten minutes to reach the front door of Sam's frat house, and he paused briefly at the bottom of the steps to catch his breath. Reaching up and fussing with his hair to make sure it was all still in place, Lucian then ascended the stairs and knocked on the door. His heart was still beating rapidly, no doubt from a mixture of exertion and nervous adrenaline. This was only intensified when he heard the deadbolt unfasten.

  Sam opened the door, looking as fabulous as usual, and Lucian couldn't help but smile. "Hey Lucian," Sam said smoothly.

  "Hey," Lucian said bashfully, trying not to seem out of breath. He honestly still had trouble accepting the fact that the gorgeous older guy would somehow be interested in him.

  "Come on in," Sam offered, stepping to the side so Lucian could pass through the doorway. Lucian took a step forward over the threshold, only to be grabbed by Sam as soon as he did so. Pulling the boy close to him with both hands, Sam planted another kiss on Lucian's lips, sending the same shockwave of sparks jolting through Lucian’s system as soon as they made contact. The two of them stayed locked in the kiss for quite some time, until Sam finally let go and allowed Lucian to step back.

  "Everyone's out tonight," Sam said, closing the door behind Lucian. "So now we've got the house all to ourselves."

  "Okay...," Lucian whispered. In hindsight, he didn't know why he felt the need to whisper that.

  "Feel free to sit," Sam urged, motioning toward the couch in front of the TV. "Can I get you something to drink?"

  "Ummm, water?" Lucian requested.

  "Ha, okay," Sam said with a chuckle. As Sam headed into the kitchen, Lucian shifted around nervously, growing tired of everyone judging his drink choices that night. Figuring he had better seem more relaxed, he headed over to the couch and slowly lowered himself down onto the plush cushions.

  "Here you go," Sam said, handing a glass to Lucian. Lucian thanked him and set the glass down on the table beside him.

  "So, what do you wanna watch?" Sam then asked, grabbing the remote off of the footrest in front of him and plopping down directly next to Lucian, so that their arms were basically overlapping. "We’ve got a bunch of channels, or we can stream whatever you want. Anything you've been wanting to see?"

  Lucian shrugged. "I'm good with anything," he said. He had always been terrible at making those sorts of decisions.

  Sam laughed. "Okay then," he said, turning on the TV and pulling up the menu list of options. "Let's just scroll through and pick one...."

  Sam began to scroll through the list, momentarily stopping on a few available movies and reading the descriptions. Lucian was honestly more preoccupied with watching Sam out of the corner of his eye than anything happening on the screen. He just found the older boy so unbelievably attractive and charismatic. He had no idea why someone like Sam would ever be interested in him, and he was sure that he must be missing something.

  "Oh!" Sam suddenly exclaimed, breaking Lucian's stream of thoughts. "I just remembered: I got you something."

  Sam pushed himself up off the couch and walked into the other room. Lucian sat quietly, wondering what he could be talking about. Within a minute, Sam came back holding something.

  "I saw this the other day, and it made me think of you," he said, sitting back down and opening his hands before Lucian. In his palms was cupped a series of wooden beads all strung together in a long, coiled circle. Symbols were carved into the beads' surface, and Lucian thought they must be Chinese characters.

  "I bought it at an antique shop," Sam continued. "The guy there said that these are prayer beads that used to belong to a famous Chan monk hundreds of years ago. They were handed down through the lineage teaching of his disciples until the last one of them died protecting the monastery from an attack. That's how the legend goes, at least. As soon as I saw it, I thought about how much you love different religions, and I knew I had to get it for you."

  Lucian's eyes grew wide. "Wow! It's so cool!" he said, deeply touched by the generous gesture. "But that must have been so expensive! You didn't need to do that!"

  Sam just smiled. "You just let me worry about that," he said, reaching out and laying the beads in Lucian's hand. "Just a small thing to remind you how much I care about you."

  Lucian felt tears welling up in his eyes. Leaning over, he kissed Sam again. This time, Lucian was even shocked by his own assertiveness. But Sam didn't seem to mind at all. He leaned back, letting Lucian crawl forward until he was basically on top of him. Lucian then felt Sam's hand sliding up the side of his leg, then underneath his shirt to his bare back. Lucian broke from the kiss as a shiver shot up his spine. He gazed into Sam’s crystal clear hazel eyes.

  “Thanks for being normal,” Lucian suddenly blurted out. As soon as it came out, he didn't know why he had said it. But now it was out there.

  Sam chuckled in confusion. “Huh?” he asked.

  “I don't know…,” Lucian admitted, embarrassed. “I just mean, thanks for being so normal. You know…, nothing weird about you or anything….”

  Sam was silent for a moment, looking amused. "Let's go upstairs," he then responded with a grin.

  Lucian was perplexed. "What's upstairs?" he asked.

  Sam just laughed. "My room," he stated.

  Before Lucian could even say anything else, Sam had grabbed him by the hand and was pulling him up the stairs.

  7 - Extinguishment

  92 CE: Egypt, Roman Empire

  Argus trudged through burning, ankle-deep sand as he ascended one of the countless dunes all around him. With the sun beating down on him from above, he readjusted the fabric he had wrapped around his head like a turban to shelter him from the harsh rays. Although it was only morning, the temperature had already skyrocketed as soon as Helios peeked the tip of his head over the horizon. Argos reached up and wiped the beads of sweat from his brow. He and his company had spent a few days traveling in the desert by that point, and he was very tired and ravenously hungry. His two companions walked ahead of him, completely engrossed in their conversation.

  “So, you are Judean, correct?” asked the taller of th
e two. As he walked, he leaned upon his long wooden staff that rose up from the sand beneath him and ended in a jeweled knob by his head. With each step of his leather boots, his long blue cloak trailed behind him. The curly blonde hair on top of his head was covered by a fur-lined hood which protected his pale white skin from being scorched by the merciless sun. Though dressed head to foot in furs and fabrics, the man seemed to neither tire nor overheat.

  The short man by his side nodded. “That is correct,” he affirmed. This second man dressed much more modestly, with a simple white robe covering his dark brown form and nothing but sandals protecting his feet. All three of these men appeared to have been on this earth for no greater than 30 years, though their conversation and advanced wisdom would lead any observer to conclude otherwise.

  “And do you adhere to the religious practices of that region?” the man in the blue cloak continued. “This worship and faith in only one god?”

  The man in white nodded. “I do,” he said.

  The man in blue looked perplexed. “How can that be,” he asked his traveling companion, “when I have communed with many different gods myself? Odin. Loki. Thor. None can tell me that these gods whom I serve do not exist.”

  The man in white looked back at him calmly. “Why is the belief in one eternal source from which all things arise incompatible with the existence of other beings known to us as gods?” he asked his taller friend. “Yahweh is not a singular being; He is all beings. He is not a distinct consciousness; He is all consciousness. He is not somewhere out there; He is everywhere.”

  The man in blue smiled. “You no longer speak of gods, but of mystical forces of nature!’ he asserted.

  “Oh, Eriker, let the man be!” Argus called out from behind the pair. “He may have his beliefs, and we may have ours!”

  The man in blue stopped walking and turned around. “My name sounds quite funny on your Latin tongue, my friend!” he joked. “It is Eiríkr.”

  Argus came to stand next to the men. “Eriker,” he tried again.