Earth - A little while ago

Kane

I watched from an office building roof some hundred yards away from where David walked toward a taxi rank, Jamie slung over his shoulder, and the other two lads, who’s names I don’t remember even if I’d ever known them, hurrying behind.

I patted my coat pocket for perhaps the hundredth time to be sure that the two phones were still there. ‘Stop doing that,’ I muttered, as I pulled my hand away.

Tomas was down below wearing blue jeans, a white tee-shirt, and a really good looking blond wig - Carthia had told him that he looked ridiculous, and how he had blushed at that, but in reality I believed that she thought he looked good but was too embarrassed to say so.

Tomas was the least likely to be recognised and so he’d mingled with crowd inside, and the followed them outside when Jamie and the others had been escorted out by the bouncers.

There was quite a crowd watching as David marched toward the taxi rank.

So tomorrow’s the day I’ll give Jamie the phone, a task to look after Alex, and put the fear of god into him just as Alex had said, I thought, as my mind wandered a little.

Slowly the crowd began to disperse, some going back inside and others wandering off elsewhere, leaving Tomas sat on a low wall bordering small shrubs, a smile on his face knowing that his night was coming to an end, and that he’d soon be back with the others.

He was a shy lad, but more than dependable, and absolutely besotted with Carthia who, on face value, cared nothing for the boy. I knew better.

Thomas scanned the rooftops, knowing that I was there somewhere, but judging by the look on his face he hadn’t been able to spot me.

I stood, my movement catching Tomas’ eye for he too stood looking directly at me, a smile on his face as he raised his arm to wave.

At that very instant, a movement and a glint of light between two building fifty yards behind Tomas caught my attention. It was only a flicker of light, a reflection of a street light on metal, I thought, but it was enough to set my hackles standing.

The alleyway between the building was almost completely in shadow, but staring, I could make out a figure facing directly toward Tomas.

‘Shit!’ I muttered, as I lowered myself over the eaves of the roof, and then dropped to the pavement below, and then I was sprinting toward Tomas over a hundred yards away.

‘To me!’ I shouted. ‘Run to me, Tomas!’

For a split second confusion filled Tomas’ face, and then, as the figure behind him stepped from the alleyway, his face drained of all colour as his head slowly turned, as if terrified of what at what he would see if he looked back toward the alleyway.

Luke casually walked from the buildings toward Tomas, and yet his every stride seemed to cover yards.

He will reach Tomas first, my mind screamed at me. ‘Tomas!’ I yelled, filling my voice will the terror and command gifted me by my old master. ‘Run!’

Without thought, a knife appeared in each of my hands, and left them at the same instant, flying toward Luke.

Finally, as my knives flew past him, Tomas turned back to me, and broke into a run.

It all happened in an instant, almost as if time stood still. Luke seemingly sauntering toward Tomas, a maniacal grin on his face, Tomas and I sprinting toward each other, and my knives hurtling toward Luke.

I knew that they would do nothing, would not even touch him, but they would be a distraction, I hoped to give me time to get Tomas away.

And then, in that frozen instant, I knew that, as my knives stopped in mid air inches before Luke, I would not reach Tomas in time.

One knife clattered to the floor, as the other turned seemingly of its own volition and hurtled toward Tomas.

‘I shouted, ‘No!’ as I bent all my will to control the rogue knife, my knife.

The knife took Tomas from behind, knocking him to the floor just a few yards in front of me.

I screamed at Luke, incomprehensible words, as I knelt and picked up Tomas.

Luke stopped, just feet in front of me. ‘He is but the first,’ he gloated. ‘The master, your master, Betrayer, has decreed that I kill them all on by one until you return to him’

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Again I screamed, battling against my fury and need to destroy the one in front of me, the one I has so often thought of as an innocent, and taking the motionless Tomas to Jain and Jalholm so that they might save his life.

The last I heard was, ‘Run, Betrayer. Run back to those I will kill next,’ as I activated my rod and left the evil behind.

I rushed to one of the sofas and gently laid Tomas on his side, my knife protruding from his back. ‘Jain, Jalholm, I need you now!’ I bellowed.

‘What is it? Tomas! No!’ Carthia cried from the doorway, as Jalholm came running, Jain on his heels.

Jain pushed Jalholm to one side, and dropped to his knees in front of Tomas, his hands already moving, forming some kind of magic.

‘The knife, Kane. Remove it when I say. Not before, but do it the instant that I say!’ he commanded.

Carthia had knelt beside Tomas too, tears streaming down her face, as she cried, ‘Tomas. No Tomas, please do not die. Please stay with me.’

‘Hush, Child,’ Jalholm said gently, as he took her hand, and beckoned her to stand. Let Jain work his magics, as he did for you. All will be well, you’ll see.’

Alex appeared at Carthia’s side and, hugging her close said, ‘Jalholm is right, Sister. Come sit with me over here, and let Jain work.’

As they sat on the opposite sofa, I paced back and forth, my hands clenched tightly into fists, and my teeth grinding in fury at what had happened, at what I had allowed to happen. How had they found us? How had he know where we would be? I had been too complacent, too confident in our measures for safety, and now Tomas was paying the price. I fell to my knees and hammered the floor with my fists, screaming furiously at the futility of my life.

‘Now!’ Jain’s voice bludgeoned its way through my tantrum, and my knife immediately vanished from Tomas’ now bare back, leaving a momentarily open wound which for an instant gushed blood, until Jain’s magic brought the skin together, leaving barely a scar.

Carthia sobbed, as she pulled free of Alex’s arms and again knelt before Tomas, gently running her hand over his face. ‘Please, please don’t leave me,’ she cried, as her eyes looked to Jain knelt beside her. ‘He will be well, won’t he, Jain? Please say that he will live.’

Jain’s eyes held a sadness I had seldom seen before on anyone’s face. ‘I have done all that I can, Carthia. All we can do now is wait… and pray.’

I carried Tomas to one of the bedrooms with Jain in tow to ensure I didn’t jostle him too much, and Carthia alongside me, fussing so much that it was almost as if she wanted to carry Tomas herself.

Jain checked him over one more time, and as soon as he left Carthia lay on the bed next to Tomas, her arms around him protectively.

‘I’ll stay with him,’ she said, not looking up at me.

‘And I’ll stay with you, Sister,’ Alex said from the doorway.

So Alex sat in a chair next to the bed, and I left.

Back in the living room, Jain and Jalholm stood as soon as I entered.

‘What happened?’ Jalholm asked, as I beckoned them to sit, while I began to pace back and forth.

I didn’t answer his question. ‘How is he truly, Jain? You said that we should pray.’

Jain looked pained as he answered. ‘The wound is healed… but there is a poison, an evil of some kind in his system from—’

‘From my knife!’ I said, before he could finish. ‘Can you cure him? Will he live?’

‘Perhaps. It is as I said earlier, now we must wait. He is young and strong, so perhaps his body will defeat that which is trying to kill him.’

‘Is there nothing you can do? Either of you?’

Jain shook his head. ‘I have exhausted all of my healing skills. The evil, poison, call it what you will, it defeats me.’

‘And you, Jalholm?’

‘I can lend my strength, my magical strength to Jain, but I know nothing of healing, I am sorry. Truly I am.’

‘So we just wait!’ I said, angrily, as my hands once more clenched so tightly that had I not been enhanced, my bones would surely have fractured.

Silence reigned for a moment until, almost under his breath, Jalholm said, ‘Tell us what happened, Kane. Perhaps there is something in that telling that will help Tomas.’

So I told them, not once but multiple times as Jain and Jalholm questioned and probed through my every word and action, and that of Luke’s.

As I finished, Alex came into the room. ‘Carthia sleeps,’ she said, not waiting for our inevitable questions. ‘She holds Tomas tight, and sleeps. I think the shock has exhausted her.’

And so I went through what had happened again.

Alex listened to what I’d said, but seemed far more interested in what Jain said of the poison that afflicted Tomas.

She had sat throughout the telling, but now stood and almost mirrored how I had been as she paced around the room.

‘What is it, Alex? Do you have an idea?’ I asked, praying that she knew of something that could be done.

She stopped and faced me. ‘We take him to hospital,’ she said. ‘You can do nothing, Jain, but perhaps this poison is something they can cure. You have your magics, but they have science… and you said yourself, Jalholm, how our science is far in advance of that of Ellas. So perhaps they will have an antidote… antibiotics or such like. It’s got to be worth a try, hasn’t it?’

‘You’re a bloody genius, Alex,’ I said, as I hugged her. ‘I’ve been away too long, I didn’t even think past Jain’s magic.’

‘Where? Where’s the best hospital to take him, one that deals in poisons?’ I asked, even as Alex rushed to Jalholm’s study where his equipment and more importantly his computer was kept.

Half an hour later, I held Tomas in my arms, Jalholm next to me, and the others arranged around us, and we all travelled to the hospital for tropical diseases in London. That had been almost the first hit Alex had come up with, and after only a few moments research she decided that we could do no better.

All of us marched into the hospital reception; I would not leave any of them alone after Luke’s chill threat.

Jalholm’s reluctant use of compulsion on almost everyone we met resulted in Tomas being rushed off for a full toxicology screening, and then as Jain had said, all we could do was wait. Carthia was devastated as she was not allowed to accompany Tomas.

It was the one instance that Jalholm refused to compel the staff to allow her. ‘In this they know best,’ he said.

So we waited.