Embers (The Wings of War Book 1) (15 page)

The black hair, darkest eyes, and high cheekbones…

My eyes widened in shock and my heart stopped beating all together.   

The guy from my dream
was
real.

Genesis 16:7

Now the angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, by the spring on the way to Shur.

Sawyer ~ Seventeen

G
arrett was losing it.  I ran my fingers through my hair in frustration.  He was the one after all, who’d preached to us all these years that we were a more advanced species.  We were stronger, healthier and more graceful than the cattle around us.  That’s what he called the humans,
cattle.
 

We certainly weren’t acting as if we were a more advanced civilization.  Our behavior was barbaric. 

I pressed on the gas pedal and sped down the mountain to pick Ivan up from the school.  The whole situation with Ivan was a joke in itself.  Whoever heard of a Growler going to school?  It was another one of Garrett’s ideas.  I figured the kid should have stayed in the compound with Lutz and Cray.  They could have taught him what he needed to know, but here I was driving down to the pathetic little town every day to chauffeur the kid. 

The road was rough and I bounced on the seat, my thoughts drifting back to the incident a month earlier.  It was still difficult to wrap my mind around the fact that Kimberly, Donnelly, Cray and Renna had attacked the locals.  I chilled at the memory of the human’s eyes as he waited for death to come to him.  I’d used my powers to calm his mind, to make it easier for him, but the glint I saw in the depths of those eyes told me that he was aware of what was about to happen to him.  

I didn’t have the time to completely trance him.  I would forever be haunted by the knowledge that the human had suffered, even if it was greatly reduced from what it could have been—from what the others had wanted it to be.

There was nothing I could have done to stop it.  Even though I was powerful, the numbers were against me.  I might have stood a chance with the women and lion together, but with Donnelly thrown into the mix, it was impossible.  He was the strongest of our group, and he was completely loyal to Kimberly. 

As I continued down the dusty, gravel road I remembered back to the time when I’d first met Garrett and he’d brought out my true nature.   

It had been a hundred and forty six years, but I could still picture it as if it was yesterday. I had been lying at the edge of the woods, near an open field in Blue Springs, Tennessee.  Night had fallen and the sky was moonless, as dark as ink.  I was parched with thirst and my skin was tight with dried blood. The blue coat I was wearing was in tatters and didn’t help much against the cold night air. I had been too weak to move or even call out, even though I could hear my comrades in the distance celebrating.  It was an easy victory for our side. The enemy was just a rag tag group of exhausted soldiers.  Most of them were a good shot with a rifle, as I had unfortunately discovered, but they were undisciplined and their leadership was weak. We’d won the battle easily, but there are always casualties in war, even on the winning side. 

My horse was lying a few feet away from me. All these years later, I can still recall the sound of her labored breathing—and how my only thought at the time was desperately wanting to be able to get up and put the mare out of her misery.  She’d been a staunch ally, my constant companion through the hell I’d been living in for more than a year.

I figured someone would eventually find me, or I’d just die out there alone with my horse.  It didn’t really matter—I was just so very tired.  The sound of a Whip-poor-will calling nearby was comforting when I’d closed my eyes.  It seemed as if I laid there in a semi-dream state for quite some time.  Images of blood and gore and the faces of my friends who had fallen played in my mind.  I had been ready for death.  I wanted the pain and the pictures to stop.

In that state of mindless darkness, I’d been startled to feel hands on me, probing my neck and head.  Then there was a face, inches from mine, hovering, and I’d thought how strange it was that the person was sniffing me. 

I had wanted to tell the man to please shoot my horse, but I couldn’t get any words out when I opened my mouth.  For a minute or two, there was no sign that the man was there at all.  I started to think that I might have dreamt him.  I was brought back to consciousness suddenly when his mouth latched onto mine.  It felt as if my guts were being sucked up through my throat.  Just when the realization hit me that my soul was literally being taken from my body, the pain stopped, and I was drowning in darkness.

I had woken a couple days later in a shack hidden deeply in the wooded hills, lying on a lumpy mattress.  To this day, I can still remember the sharp musky smell and the rough fibers of the old woolen blanket that covered me.   

Then I saw the four pairs of eyes watching me in the dim morning light. They glittered out from their faces, distracting me from seeing the features of the people.  I’d shivered, remaining still as a stone.  I’d been unsure of my own voice, nervous—no, frightened. I’d been damn scared of those shimmering eyes.  

At last, one of the men had walked over and sat on the edge of the bed, causing my body to tilt.  I had grabbed the edge of the mattress with my hand, holding myself away from the stranger.  He had appeared to be middle aged, with light brown, wavy hair, and he smiled in a fatherly way.  In that moment, his eyes appeared normal, and I’d relaxed. 

With a strong English accent he had said, “I am Garrett Hammond.” He motioned to a waifish, blonde haired woman in the corner.  “This is my lovely wife, Sarah.” He paused, and then pointed towards the other two people. “This is Charles Remington and his wife, Mary.”

They had stayed in the shadows, rendering it difficult to make out their features. 

“This is the first day of a new and higher existence for you, my son. I have awakened your inner spirit and now you are one of us, reborn,” Garrett said in a silky voice.

With all the effort I could muster, I’d whispered roughly, “Us—what are you?”

“You will understand in time,” he promised.

The same chill that had swept through me that day so long ago at his strange words lifted the hair on my neck, once again. 

Later, I learned that when Garrett was attempting to consume my soul, something unfurled inside of me that had been dormant my entire life.  Something that would have stayed locked away if he hadn’t found me that night on the edge of the battlefield.  I was the first one Garrett awakened, but more followed.  When he realized his ability, he sought out others like me and that’s how our family began. 

My fate was sealed.  There was nothing I could do about my own bad luck, but I might be able to help the humans.   If I made a good argument, perhaps Garrett could be persuaded. It would be difficult though, now that the hunger was up in the compound.

Over and over, I practiced the dialogue I might say in my head while I drove into the steadier stream of traffic entering the town.  

I’d been nominated by the others to transport Ivan since I was one of the few in the compound who wasn’t bothered by human contact.  For the most part, I just ignored them, but today might be more problematic since I hadn’t fed for a while. 

I shook away the creeping emptiness that pained me for an instant with a toss of my head. 

I’ll just pick the kid up, and we’ll be back on the mountain in no time at all, I convinced myself.  I took a deep, shuddering breath.

With only a trembling grip on my hunger, I pulled up to the usual place where I waited for Ivan.  Feeling very old, I watched the youngsters bustle by the vehicle.   

I had been nineteen, not much older than these kids, when Garrett had found me. 

The sounds of their voices pierced the steel of the truck, carrying to me visions of the long hazy days when life had been simpler.  The teenagers were happy, without serious thought or dilemma.  They didn’t have to work the land each day to provide food for their bellies, or watch their favorite little sister die slowly from an infection that an antibiotic would cure nowadays. 

Nor did they have to raise a rifle to their eye and send a bullet flying across a field on a cool autumn morning, piercing the skull of a person they didn’t even know, a person who had his own family and friends waiting for his return. 

I blinked.  I tried hard not to let the thoughts of the war invade my mind, but sometimes they came trickling in and for the oddest reasons. 

These kids are nothing like I was.

As I observed them through the tinted windows, I felt the sharp stab of envy.  What I wouldn’t give to be one of them.  Garrett was wrong about the humans.  The fact that their lives were shorter and more fragile didn’t make them less than us.  It made them more. 

At that moment, the desire to have died in that Tennessee field hit me like a bullet.  My muscles became weak and my bruised heart began beating wildly.  The unfairness of it all had caused a thick layer of hardness to cover my soul many years before, but sometimes the cocoon tore a little.  First, I had to experience the war-between-the-states, and then I had been unlucky enough to be found by one of my own kind. 

Now, fourteen decades later, I was still breathing, still existing in a constant state of depression, and never moving forward. 

The worst part of it all was having nothing to anticipate.  The usual cycle of growing up, marrying, raising children and eventually becoming an old man was stolen from me.  It didn’t matter how pathetic the lives of some of the teenagers who passed by the truck were.  At least they would experience the seasons of life. 

A light flashed near the school and my gaze was drawn to the front doorway.  I spotted Ivan, but immediately I dismissed him, focusing instead on the creature walking beside him.  She was completely different than the other youngsters milling about her.

There was brightness around the girl that none of the others possessed.

The light seeped into me, erasing all the previous thoughts of self-pity at my circumstances.  I was mesmerized by the girl.   

As her steps brought her closer, my eyes skimmed over her.  Her hair was long, a shiny chestnut color, the same as a horse’s coat.  She walked with the confident strides of a panther, matching the wolf at her side.

My heart quickened and my breathing matched it.  It was a shock to be reacting this way to a human.  My kind wasn’t attracted to humans.  We ate their souls.  That was it.

Seconds ticked by until Ivan and the unusual girl were near enough that I could see her satiny skin and luminous sky blue eyes.  Against all good sense, I lowered the window.  My first inclination was to use my power on her, to will her to come closer to the truck. 

I desperately wanted to touch this strange girl.   

She stopped a few feet away. Her eyes captured mine first.  They were flashing, and oh, so alive.  I initiated the pull from my body, the way I would attract prey.  She was faltering, about to come to me, when suddenly she jumped back
. 

The girl broke the connection on her own accord. I held her gaze as warm desire swelled inside of me. 

I found myself speaking without thought, “So, Ivan, who is your pretty friend?”

Before he could reply, the girl’s posture changed.  She was angry and openly glaring at me.  She jerked away from Ivan’s touch, choking out, “Bye,” before turning briskly and marching into the parking lot. 

Why was she trying to escape me?  She couldn’t have known what I was.  But

then again, she shouldn’t have been able to break my trance either.

Ivan slamming the truck’s door snapped me back to myself. “What are you doing, Sawyer? You should have left her alone.” 

Ivan was upset, and he didn’t hide his emotions well. 

He was right.  I wasn’t any better than the others in the compound.   Sure, I wasn’t interested in her soul, but did that really matter? 

Undeniably, there was something about the girl that pulled at me.  Even now, with her out of sight, I felt the invisible strings winding through the parking lot to her.

For the first time in forever, I experienced the flutter of anticipation, blood coursing through my veins in a sudden surge of life.  The thought that happiness was truly within reach lifted my black spirit, making me feel as if I was an innocent human teenager all over again.

Without much thought, I drove to the back of the lot and watched the girl’s pickup pull onto the roadway.  I slid out behind several other cars, keeping my eyes locked on the red truck.

“What are you doing now?”  Ivan demanded.

“I’m going to apologize to your little girlfriend for my bad behavior.” 

“Ember is not my girlfriend.”  Ivan was angry, if the crimson color on his face was any indication. 

“So that’s her name.”  I murmured, “
Ember
.”  It was an unusual name for an unusual girl.

“You had better leave her alone or I will hurt you,” Ivan threatened.  His lip curled up and his eyes were blazing.

I didn’t want to push the kid too far.  He had his own abilities, which I shouldn’t take lightly.  Even though the girl was a few years older than him, he obviously had a crush on her.  How could he not, given my own crazy reaction to her.