“I can’t believe we are actually doing this.” Baker said as he sat on the couch.

“Roland would be proud of us, but who thought this is what we would be doing after graduation.” I mused in response.

“We do have other things to get done while our new trainees are helping get everything started.” Shyft said.

“You are right, we still need to get down to Louisiana.” I answered sitting in a chair at our makeshift table.

“I really hope this is an easy trip.” Shyft said as he sat next to Baker on the couch. He put his feet up on the table “I’m just ready to be able to sleep in.” he added folding his arms behind his head.

“Yes, because that is the most important reason for the end of the apocalypse, your beauty sleep.” Baker said making me laugh.

“You know this takes maintenance.” He said gesturing to his body. “Get a new maintenance guy.” I said adding salt the wound of Baker’s joke. Baker and I spent the next ten minutes adding insult to injury. Shyft got up in a fake huff and said,

“Don’t hate me because I’m beautiful.” he fake swished long hair and walked away.

“So, do you guys want to sleep before heading out or do you think we should try to use the darkness as cover?” Baker said stretching as he got up from the couch.

“I’m down for the sleep thing, but that is just me.” Shyft said lazily already stretching out on the couch to lay down.

“I’m going to take another crack at the key we have so I will need until the morning and then I’ll sleep on the ride.” My brothers headed off to bed. Shade and I went upstairs to work on the key.

“So, how are you coming with your study of the key?” Shade asked as we got into the room.

“I am getting there but, I don’t dare try until I know what to do fully.” I pulled out the chest and unlocked it. I pulled the book out using my energy to protect my hands. I spent the next 3 hours mapping more of the energy weave in my notebook. Two hours past midnight I must have fallen asleep at the table.

Lightning, a deafening crack of thunder. The woman with horns was sitting in chair singing to a small demon child. She was rocking back and forth soothing the crying child.

“Calm down Morko, I have you. I know that you are meant to be a weapon against the humans, but you are just to adorable. I wish there was a way that I could keep you here with me.” She started crying. A loud horn sounds in the distance, deep and resonating.

“No! They said I had more time. I can’t let you go this soon we don’t even know if it will work.” She got out of the chair and cuddled the child and ran off into the darkness. The horn blows again deeper and louder this time. “Wingless.” A distant voice called my name. “Wingless.” The voice called again. “Wingless.”

I awoke with a start. Shade was sitting on the desk staring into my eyes. “Are you ok, what was going on?” he asked concerned.

“Nothing Shade it was just a nightmare that I have off and on.”

“No there was a definite change to your aura and I couldn’t read your thoughts anymore.” He said.

“What? What do you mean?” I asked sitting up. I glanced at my watch, I had been out for a few hours. “What do you mean by my aura was different?” I asked. Shade cocked his head to one side and said,

“It kind of felt dark and ancient.” I sat there thinking for a few minutes.

“What could that mean?” he shook his head

“I don’t know Wingless.” He jumped on my shoulder and settled down to sleep.

I sat there trying to figure out what this could mean. Slowly my eyelids grew heavy again, and I fell back asleep. Baker woke me just after 9:30.

“You ready to go brother?” He asked.

“Yeah Baker I’m on my way down.” I said groggily. I looked over at my shoulder and Shade wasn’t there. I got up from my desk, stretched, and headed downstairs. My brothers were already down there getting our stuff ready. I helped load the truck while keeping a lookout for Shade.

“Have either of you seen Shade?” I asked my brothers.

“No bruh, not since last night.” Shyft answered. I looked at Baker for his answer and he just shook his head no. I sent out a ping of my energy to try to find Shade. As I got back the response ping I got hit in the back with something and my vision went black…….

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When I woke up, I was in a white room with bright lights that hurt my eyes. I tried to put my hands over my eyes but, my hands were strapped to the bed. There was an I.V. tube running form my arm to a drip bag, probably a sedative. It would explain why my head was swimming and it was hard to focus. I also had a splitting headache. I tried to use the link with my brothers and I couldn’t get my thoughts together enough to even try. I focused some energy into my body to counteract the sedative, but instead my body felt like it was being burned from the inside out.

“What the hell?” I said out loud but not meant for anyone.

“That would be the anti magick drug.: It can’t stop magick but, it does make it so painful that no one wants to use it. I see we had to use a lot more doses on you before we felt confident that you would be compliant.” A voice came from over a loudspeaker.

“Where am I? And who the fuck are you?” I said as I strained against the straps holding my arms.

“There is no need to fight. You are sick and we can cure you. Can you tell us when you got your ability to use magick?”

I smiled “February 1692 in Salem, Massachusetts. I’m older than I look” I said sarcastically “No, wait, it was after I went to a school for magick.” I laughed to myself. “Oh wait, it was after the grey wizard recruited me for the battle of the five armies.” I gasped “No, it was after I found a dragon egg and it hatched making me a dragon rider.”

The door across from me in the examination room opened and three doctors came in. Two of them were pushing carts that held many terrible looking devices.

“Well let’s hope that you can keep that sense of humor after we have finished with you. You are strong let’s hope that keeps you alive.” The doctor in the lead started sorting the different implements. There were hypodermic needles, hammers, saws, rib spreaders, and some devices that I couldn’t even identify.

The two other doctors started attaching different leads to heart rate, blood pressure, and brain activity monitoring devices. They prepped two of the syringes that held an amber-yellow liquid.

“This will paralyze you from the neck down but it will not stop the pain. You will not enjoy this, but it is for your own good. We will get out the diseased energy and then you will be cured.” He seemed to be enjoying this. He raised his hand and one of the assistant doctors handed him one of the syringes. He inserted the needle into my arm and slowly pushed the plunger. As the amber liquid entered my bloodstream I felt pins and needles throughout my body as I slowly stopped being able to move my arms and legs. Even my chest was hard to move so my breaths came in short bursts. After the drug had taken full effect the doctor grabbed a device off the cart that had 20 or so needle like arms on it.

Attached to arms was a device that had a small round, glass ampule that acted as a handle and a receptacle. He walked next to my side and attached the thing to my chest the pain was intense. Then he pushed a button on the side of the device and the pain increased to incredible levels. It felt like someone had started sucking out my insides with an industrial vacuum. I felt like I was on the verge of blacking out. I gave moving my arms again and found that they could move if I pushed hard enough. The doctor grabbed the other syringe and came to my bed. As he leaned over to inject the syringe into my arm, an alarm sounded and the walls shook violently.

The doctors looked around nervously. The lead doctor said,

“What the hell was that?” A knock at the door caused them to jump. The door opened and a security guard came in quickly.

“Dr. Holland, we are under attack, we need to get you out of here and back to HQ safely.” He started to escort the Doctor from the room when the wall behind my chair exploded inward in a shower of debris. My brothers jumped through the hole in the wall. Baker ran at the security guard, grabbed his gun, and bent the barrel with his bare hand. Shyft ran up to me on the exam table, removed the device on my chest, and cut the straps that were restraining me.

“Wingless, what did they do to you?” he was looking me over to make sure I wasn’t hurt anywhere else.

“I’ve been drugged with some type of energy avertion substance. I can’t focus my energy without being in excruciating pain.” I said

“We need you back on your game. What can I do to help you?” he said hastily.

“It is hard for me to think clearly but you can try to burn the drug out of my system.” He looked at me suspiciously.

“I don’t know if I have that kind of control. Wouldn’t that cause a lot of pain?” I looked at him pleadingly.

“I don’t really care about the pain as long as it can get rid of the drug so I can focus again.” He looked at me with pity and said.

“Ok I’ll try but, if it gets to intense stop me.” With that he put his hands on my chest and gathered his energy into his hands and focused it into my body aiming for the drug in my blood. I felt my body start to get hot and then the pain started. I fought the urge to scream so I didn’t break his concentration.

Baker was still at the door of the room keeping the security guys busy. He had several layers of his energy each with different purpose at the door. Some seemed to block incoming fire and the others seemed to act as an offensive barrier meant to harm anyone that tried to enter. From what I could see a few of the guards that had showed up some time in the breach were covered in shallow cuts. The pain from the fire energy coursing through my body was increasing and I couldn’t hold back. I let out a scream of pain,

“Don’t stop I can feel my focus returning.” My eyesight was clearing and I could feel the faintest touch of my energy at the back of my mind. A few minutes more of the pain and Shyft stopped his energy.

“That’s the best I can do without making it more painful.” I sat up on the table and flared my energy. It wasn’t 100 percent but I could make due.

“I’ll be fine to help us get out of here. Let’s go. Did you find Shade?” I asked my brothers.

“We can talk about that later Wingless.” Baker and Shyft helped me to the hole in the wall and we made our escape. The truck was parked about a quarter mile away from the satellite research station. Once we were in the vehicle Shyft took the wheel and sped off. I dozed for most of the trip letting my body clear out the rest of the drugs. When I woke up I could feel that my body was clear. I cleared my throat.

“So now tell me what happened to Shade.” Baker looked back sadly.

“When Sector 9 found us at the shop they attacked him to keep him from warning us. He was fatally wounded.” I couldn’t help but feel a wave of sadness and I felt my eyes grow moist. “I know Wing, but we did find a few of the sector 9 soldiers dead where they attacked him. He went out fighting and didn’t go down easy from the look of it.”

“Im going to miss him, he asked if he could stay with me after I figured out how to separate him and the book.” I spent the rest of the trip in a depressed mood. Three days went by on the trip down to Louisiana