I heard the huge iron gates grate close behind us and the loud click of its lock told me that there was no going back.
Scared out of my wits I heard strange cooing sounds close by.
"Hey Pudge, I whispered... can you hear those weird noises?"
"No Hunk, it's just the wind! Please don't make me more scared than I already am," Pudge whispered back.
"Sorry Pudge." I felt bad for frightening my best friend. I shrugged my shoulders telling myself that I'd imagined it.
"Hunk!" Pudge whispered anxiously.
"Yes?" I answered cautiously as the bushes nearby moved suspiciously.
"Why has Swasie brought us there? Pudge asked fearfully. "The old Braden estate is out of bounds!"
I refrained from answering, as just ahead Cessiro appeared surrounded by hordes of older gang members staring defiantly at Swasie spoiling for a fight.
Cessiro's smirking face taunted Swasie and I wondered if by defying Swasie's orders to meet at the fork of the road Cessiro was finally declaring the war between them that had been brewing ever since his arrival in Braden
Intrigued, I watched, as poker faced, Swasie accepted what looked like a scribe from Cessiro's outstretched hand.
SWASIE
Dismissing Cessiro with a wave of my hand I placed the 'Scribe of Unity' inside my leather jacket. I looked at him disdainfully. The bastard thought that he'd taunt me into a showdown. Imbecile, tonight I'll show him why the Crines had chosen me over him to deliver the 'Scribe of Unity' to their enemy the Warlock Tuloosa.
Scowling I tried not to show that my mission to reunite the Crines and Tuloosa as Sissnaska had ordered was weighing heavily on my shoulders. I patted the 'Scribe of Unity' and walked on.
It was imperative that I succeed. Sissnaska would soon be returning to Earth and if I failed in having Tuloosa accept the 'Scribe of Unity', Sissnaska's sacred laboratory which lay in the catacombs deep within Tuloosa's kingdom would remain as it had done for centuries, in his control. This would enrage Sissnaska and destroy my ambition to serve by his side.
Tonight was my window of opportunity to prove my worthiness to our ruler and I wasn't about to let it slip through my fingers.
However Tuloosa's powers were legendary and I had to tread carefully. If he believed that the 'Scribe of Unity' was a ploy for the Crines to get close enough to destroy him then he would show me no mercy.
Tuloosa had to know that his real enemy was my father the High Priest Sorius, it had been he who had incited the Crines wars waged against him to protect his treacherous secret; a secret that just before I'd embarked on my mission tonight I'd tricked him into revealing.
Betraying my father didn't bother me even though it meant his certain death I'd hated him ever since I was a kid for favoring my cousin Hunk over me.
Now at last I could avenge my humiliation by exposing my father's seditious secret to Tuloosa; a secret that until a short time ago only he and William Braden had shared.
The warlock I was about to meet was our ruler Sissnaska's only son. A monster, half human half alien with the inherit powers of Sissnaska; bred by William Braden from our ruler's illicit DNA and that of William Braden's wife Isobelle De Witt in order to appease his desire to have a son with supernatural powers to rival those of Sissnaska's super race.
I couldn't believe that my father had ignored the implications of William Braden's ambitions and had committed the ultimate treachery to further his own.
To attain his ambition to become Sissnaksa's Commander in Chief my father had provided William Braden with our rulers DNA in exchange for his introduction into the high nobility of William Braden's wife Isobelle de Witt's English heritage. Through their political links with the world's leaders my father had successfully entrenched the prime of Sissnaska's super race into positions of power; thus expediting our rulers plan to rule the world.
These revelations had excited my desire to learn more and I couldn't wait to search through my father's records to uncover if Australia's political parties had been penetrated. If so a mine-full of opportunity awaited me.
Impatiently I looked up at the derelict mansion looming before me wondering what part Tuloosa would play. I failed to understand how he could be assimilated into the human race as promised in the 'Scribe of Unity' if he was this monster my father had described.
Unless...? Did he have the ability to take on the image of another?
There were so many questions and secrets for me to unravel. However I thought smugly, the first most important secret I now knew. My father's enemy Tuloosa was our ruler's son!
My father was a fool for trusting me I sniggered to myself. He was damned if he let Tuloosa live, and damned if he didn't. I sniggered with smug satisfaction.
"What are you looking so smug about Swasie?" mocked Cessiro as he walked up beside me.
I stared him down defiantly. I loathed every breath that overbearing bastard took. Ever since his sudden appearance among the Crines he'd used every opportunity to tear my authority down. I'd begun to think he was a spy assigned to watch me.
Or worse he could be an 'Usher'. The 'Ushers' were a faction of the 'Secret Society of Crines' whose powers were foreign to me and in my quest to uncover their secrets I'd made many enemies among them.
I looked intently at Cessiro; the 'Ushers' were loyal to my Uncle the High Priest Ury. If Cessiro was an 'Usher' and had followed me to the 'Ministry of Genetics' in my search for my cousin Hunk's lineage, then I knew I was in danger. Without fail, the 'Ushers,' in order to protect my Uncle would eradicate me if they knew I'd discovered the proof of my Uncle's unlawful child recorded centuries ago by James Braden in the ancient book of the 'Genetic Coding of the Ancients'.
There in black and white was proof of my Uncle's illicit affair with the clone of Isobelle de Witt Braden bred centuries ago by her son James from his dead mothers DNA.
I was convinced that this female child had lived and that James Braden with my Uncle's knowledge had her raised secretly by a family living far away from Braden.
And if as I believed my Uncle had married one of her bloodline and not one of Sissnaska's super race then Hunk not being of pure alien blood would no longer be a threat to my ambitions.
However proving that Hunks mother my Aunty Clarisse was not of Sissnaska's super race was not going to be easy. The records, which logged the breeding of Sissnaska's super race, were locked away in my father's safe in his study. The combination of which was in the language of the 'Ancients', a language that I'd failed miserably in learning.
Incensed by my thoughts I had an overwhelming need to inflict pain. I turned my gaze to those wimpy friends of my cousins and watched with glee as they shriveled before me.
Relentlessly my eyes sought the one who nervously flicked his pocketknife back and forth.
Nick cowered under my threatening gaze and immediately hid the knife in his pocket. Sniggering I watched him look sheepishly around him seeking comfort in those who shared his fear.
However all averted their eyes and Nick trembled as I maliciously sized up this new recruit who thought he was the perfect human specimen.
This analogy amused me no end, as soon, Nick would be neither human nor alien, but a lowly humanoid, an Underling; a disposable commodity to be used by his masters the Crines, for the eradication of the human race.
Smart arse! I thought hatefully. Enjoy what little time you have left imbecile! I've earmarked you to become a 'Gizmo' along with that dumb friend of Hunks, Pudge. The role of a Gizmo, a mere tool for students of wizardry to practice on, would be perfect for those, two, I sniggered to myself.
Blatantly I laughed out loud at the delicious thought of my cousin being forced to practice his spells on his best friend, along with the other wizardry students at the 'Crines University of Wizards'.
"What's so funny Swasie...care to let me join in the jok
e?" inquired Cessiro slyly.
Unnerved by Cessiro's cagey tone I feared once again that he was an 'Usher' and had been tuned into my mind. I turned away from Nick sparing him the pain I was about to inflict upon him and dismissively strode ahead.
I could hear the fearful gasps of the uninitiated members behind me as silvery beams of moonlight cut a path through the dark skies revealing their first glimpse of the sinister looking Braden mansion.
Washed in moonlight, the mansion stood bare, stripped of pretension, its evil exposed for all to see. The dark secrets of its past blatantly etched in each nook and cranny, its tall towers standing defiantly against the passage of time.
Using my x-ray vision I scanned the tallest tower for the thirteen demons that dwelt there. Satisfied I observed them preparing for the sacrament of 'Rebirth' which would waken the thirteen year olds dormant alien genes and destroy their human traits. This ancient ritual was one I most enjoyed; as those not bearing the mark of scarlet snakes, the sign of their alien maturity were mine to exterminate.
This was a pleasure I never tired of.
The distant sound of Braden's town hall clock striking the first hour of the new day told me that there was no time to waste. In two hours time at the sacred hour of three I was to deliver the 'Scribe of Unity' to Tuloosa.