Authors: Lynnie Purcell
“Do not hesitate to kill…they will not hesitate. You must do what you can. Your friends won’t be far behind us, but it is up to you to survive. I am not your keeper.”
“The day I trust you with my life is the day hell freezes over and demons go bobsledding,” I said.
“Mmmhhhh,” she said noncommittally.
I played with the ring Daniel had given me as we rounded a bend in the road and the house appeared. The jewel alternated between warm and cool as if Daniel was at my side chastising me for my stupidity and warning me to be careful in the same breath. The necklace I wore at my neck had a different reaction. It was cold, a stone – a strong sense of…anger radiated from the gem. Could it sense Lorian nearby?
We passed plenty of guards on our way around the drive, many of whom turned to stare as we passed. Some even tightened their grips on their weapons, though none attacked us. Anna’s face was impossible to read. She was cool, the same as when she had brought me to the house the first time. I hoped with all my might that history wasn’t trying to repeat itself. I wished that, for once, things were as they appeared.
She stopped the car directly in front of the large stairs. A couple of the guards at the stairs came forward to open my door, but she urged them to stay back with a negligent wave of her hand.
“This one is for Lorian.”
“Is that the girl who escaped on the Nightstalker?” one guard asked.
“Yes. The one who killed Mama Dot,” Anna agreed.
They stared.
“Boogety-boogety-boo!” I said. They looked surprised at my words. “Staring is rude,” I added.
Anna had claimed the swords. “Leave the car alone. I have need for it again,” she said as she grabbed my arm and marched me toward the stairs.
“Of course,” the first guard said, still staring.
Anna’s touch was not gentle. I felt my bones ache from her fingers clasped around my arm. She didn’t give me time to stand on my own two feet – she let her strength carry me up the stairs and through the front door. She paused just inside the door. I thought it might have been to give the Saints, who were hopefully watching, time to catch up to her arrival. It also gave the people inside time to realize who was at their door and what she had with her.
There were two more guards on the stairs and around twenty people spread throughout the large, open rooms the bottom floor of the house consisted of. The rooms were a study in large; it was large times two. White tile was everywhere and tall columns separated the spaces, creating the illusion of separation. The stairs the guards were in front of, arched around to a second level that crossed the large rooms and disappeared down a long hall to the left of where I was standing. If it hadn’t been for the armed Watchers, the deadly stares, and the feeling of terror in my gut I would have thought I was in a Disney castle.
“Anna?” a guard with short brown hair and a large beard asked incredulously.
“Yes?” she asked back.
“We thought you were dead,” he said.
“You were wrong. I have a couple of gifts for Lorian,” she said. She lifted the swords and me as proof.
Neither of the guards moved. “We have orders to not let anyone up.”
“Oh, that’s fine,” she said. “I know how much Lorian loves to wait.”
The guards looked at each other uneasily. The second guard nodded at the first, and they stepped to the side. Anna smirked at them and pulled me up the stairs. As soon as we passed the guards, I sensed a change in her. Her calm and cool slipped a bit and her anger started to well to the surface. It made me realize she hadn’t been lying about her anger toward Lorian.
At the end of the second floor corridor, there was another set of stairs. These were made of hard stone as well and had two guards at the bottom. The guards were different than the first set. They were sitting in chairs and held massive swords across their laps. They didn’t appear to have moved since the first Ice Age. One was a man, the other was a woman. Anna stopped in front of them without a word. She waited. I fidgeted. They stared.
I was wondering if we were going to stand in front of them forever, lost in a strange staring contest that could possibly go on forever, when the woman finally looked to her partner. He nodded and the woman gestured us up.
At the top of the stairs was a door. It was simple, unadorned. It was intimidating. I couldn’t help but wonder what was beyond it. The wonder left butterflies in my stomach. Anna opened the door without hesitation and pulled me in after her.
My first impression left me second-guessing long held opinions. For a room that housed one of the most notorious of our kind, it was almost…peaceful. With dark wood, large windows, and simple furniture, it was a room I could have spent hours simply being. The largest piece of furniture was an antique desk the color of the wooden floor.
Behind the desk was the tallest Watcher I had ever seen. He was sitting calmly in his chair, his hands on top of an old book as we entered. He didn’t look up when we unceremoniously opened his door, but he did hold his hand up, a gesture for us to give him a minute.
Anna patiently obliged, seemingly in no hurry to begin. He finished reading the sentence he had been on, tucked a ribbon between the pages and shut the book. He looked up at us. Again, my reaction was not the one I would have thought I would have at meeting Lorian. There was a familiarity; a striking sense of me knowing the shape of his face and the warm, chocolately brown of his eyes. His short hair was a warm auburn and his skin was tanned, almost Middle Eastern.
His brown eyes were the oldest looking eyes I had ever seen. Even Beatrice and Han, who both held wisdom beyond their youthful appearances, couldn’t hold up to the simple measure of time in Lorian’s eyes. His face was smooth and unlined, his features beautiful and soft, yet, there was hardness – a hint of purpose in the shape of his mouth and the glittering light in his eyes. He was not to be messed with – and yet, here we were, ready to kill him.
Anna did not seem nearly as impressed by his appearance or struck by the same familiarity his features left in the pit of my stomach. Her eyes burned with cold fire.
“You’ve come to try and kill me,” Lorian said to Anna.
It wasn’t question, more like he wanted her to understand that her actions would have repercussions. His voice struck another chord. It was like I had heard it in a dream…or another life.
“Yes,” Anna agreed.
“Very clever, walking through the front door as you did. Bold. Very much like you. No one has ever gotten this close. No one beyond my brother, Darian, and that was a very long time ago.”
“You were curious about the girl?” Anna asked, meaning me.
“I must say that I was,” he agreed. “She has become quite a legend among my soldiers. The legend intrigued me.”
Lorian finally turned his brown eyes to me. The full magnitude of his stare struck me. There was so much…power; an incomprehensible sense of strength that left me breathless. I felt my heart race faster, but I returned his stare with one I hoped looked as cold as Anna’s. Something about the stare affected him. His eyes widened, almost as if he recognized me as well, and he frowned. Whatever he was thinking, he didn’t speak the words out loud.
“I came to challenge you, not discuss the girl,” Anna said.
“You came to die,” Lorian said. “There is no other reason to challenge me.”
Anna didn’t disagree with him. She handed me the spare sword and forced me back to the wall, out of her way.
“Do what you must,” she told me. “Even if that means running.”
“Yeah…right,” I said.
I pulled the sword out of the sheath and held it up in front of me, like Jackson had taught me so many months ago. Anna stepped forward, her sword still in its sheath. Her body was tense but she maintained her calm. Lorian was amused by what he saw.
“I will play,” he said, “but only because you were once my most loyal solider.”
He finally stood. My initial impression – that he was the tallest Watcher I had ever seen – had been wrong. He was the tallest anything I had ever seen. Seeing him stand was like watching a mountain rise out of the ground. He was well over seven feet tall and looked as if he was still growing.
I hastily shut my open mouth and watched as he pulled a sword off the back wall. I hadn’t noticed the sword during our conversation, but I noticed it now. It was long enough to fit Lorian’s height and had a sense of weight I knew my sword could never match up to. It was a wonder Anna wasn’t trembling just looking at it. It took all of my willpower to keep my knees steady.
He moved the desk out of his way with a gentle tap on the side. It stopped sliding with a bump in to the far wall. As it hit the wall, I heard an explosion from outside the house. It was near the jails and rattled the pictures on the walls. Another explosion rocked the quickly descending dusk – this one was on the other side of the house.
The fight had started.
Lorian didn’t even look. “Part two of your plan, I take it?” he asked.
“Mmmhhh,” Anna agreed.
“Lovely,” he said.
Lorian was done with talking. He stepped forward, though Anna held her ground. Their swords met midair. Anna’s sword was out of her sheath before I could blink. The clang of steel on steel rattled my teeth. Anna kicked Lorian away from her and their swords met again. They didn’t move very much; both were stern statues, unwilling to give the other ground. It was like two gargoyles trying to knock the other off their perches – stone against stone. Behind them, more explosions rang out, followed by the sound of gunfire and people yelling. I heard running on the stairs and knew the guards had come to check on Lorian.
I moved to the door. If they came to help, there was no way Anna would win. I reached the door just as it was thrown back. The two guards took in the sight of Lorian fighting Anna, and me standing in front of them with a sword. They looked shocked.
The man stepped in front of the woman and came at me. I ducked under his massive sword then followed through with a strike of my own. The weight of the sword slowed him down. He couldn’t react in time. My sword hit him in the neck. His knees gave out, and he fell back, gravity pulling him off my sword. The woman was next. She was more cautious; her strikes were more precise. One of her strikes was at my hand. I dodged the worst of the cut but the edge nicked the edge of my hand. The red blood made her more confident – she knew I was human. She swiped at me, extending herself, and I spun the sword out of her hand. She held her hands up in surrender. I contemplated options. I realized I didn’t want to kill her.
“Run…” I told her.
She hurried down the stairs, and I slammed the door on her retreat. I turned back to Anna’s fight. She was still locked in an endless game of strike, defend, strike, neither giving up ground.
It was something Lorian did not have patience for. He got tired of playing nice. Rules were for the Saints. As his sword connected with Anna’s, he flicked his hand. It was a small gesture, but Anna finally moved. Her feet skidded backward from the invisible force he had hit her with. She didn’t need a gesture to return the favor. Books and sharp items rose off the desks and flew at him. Instead of trying to fend off all the items, he disappeared.
I was astonished. He was the first Watcher I had met that had two abilities – the first Watcher beyond me.
He reappeared next to me. His large sword was at my throat. I froze. Anna looked between us, her eyes uncertain. She straightened and her eyes became cold again.
“What are you waiting for?” Anna asked. “Kill her, and let’s get on with this.”
I scowled at her. I should have expected as much.
Lorian pressed his sword harder in to my throat. A trickle of blood started from my neck. But then Lorian hesitated. I wasn’t sure why. From the hardness I had seen in his face and the stories I had heard, I would have thought he would kill me without hesitation. From his hesitation, it was clear he wasn’t capable of using me as a distraction. He had to find another way to get to Anna.
I felt the shift in his body and knew what he was about to do. He gestured with his hand, knocked Anna back, and shifted in to the world of darkness. Only, he did not go alone. I felt the pull of darkness and went with him. It was an unconscious act, but an act all the same.
The second I was in the darkness, I heard the voices calling my name. The voices were intense; there was awareness to the call now, as if they not only knew my name, but my purpose as well. The awareness was startling. I remembered Sara’s warning to keep moving, to think of a destination, but I couldn’t help the impulse. I felt Lorian trying to pull me out of the darkness, but I refused the pull. I was left in the dark. I was alone, lost and confused. There was no way out.
The voices called my name again.
“What?” I asked the nothingness. “What do you want?”
There was a moment of startled silence. Then the voices called out again.
Your hand…I want your hand.
I felt a cold, electric touch. I accepted the touch, sensing the need in the voice. It was an impulse I couldn’t deny. My necklace burst in to light at the touch. It was no longer cold and sullen. The light gave me a direction.
In the next moment, I was out of the darkness. I hadn’t gone far. I was across the room. Lorian was next to me, his sword raised. But he wasn’t the only one who had come through the darkness with me.