The Beast
The pack leader relayed new orders to his pack. They were going in the wrong direction, the remote viewers had actually got it wrong. It was curious, not something that had ever happened before but the girl clearly did not know she was projecting her location until it was too late. He trusted this projection, he knew where she was. He would deal with the angry viewers later. He was becoming addicted to these communications with the girl, he knew this. Maybe it was because he never had this type of contact before, it felt intimate something that only the two of them shared.
Something had been going wrong ever since they left the motel where the prey had encountered his pack. He kept getting jumbled images and the girls scent was everywhere, the remote viewers were sending him in all sorts of directions, making erratic turns causing them to run in circles. He wasn’t sure what was happening, it did however feel like someone was messing with the tracks.
He was beginning to feel it now. He kept getting flashes of an ocean which was weird because according to his satellite navigation Tarrington was not near an ocean, it was far inland. It was very confusing. Maybe the girl was thinking about something else mixing the images. It didn’t matter, for now Tarrington was the first solid lead they had for days and that’s the one he was going to follow.
Jason
What Axel and Lily didn’t know was that Jason was able to distort and change the thought patterns of the people around him and even those far away. All he needed was some kind of connection and he had this with the Esperanzi. They shouldn’t have jumped him at the motel, he was able to get into their minds and just get a fix on the whole pack. He made a mental note to try to get into Lily’s head next time she was asleep just to get a look at the Esperanzi and figure out what he was up to.
Right now he was flashing up images of the ocean, the forest and finally mountains and snow hoping this would be enough to throw the beast off their trail for another day. The other two didn’t know that Jason had been doing this from the time he began travelling with them, distorting their surroundings making sure the things projecting from their minds were lies. He hadn’t anticipated the sleeping images, those given up freely by the unconscious mind in the relaxed state. Now he knew, now he had to start manipulating these images as well. He was determined, he was not going to let anyone get their hands on Lily.
Chapter 22
Lily
The attack came out of nowhere. We had stopped for petrol when two black cars came rolling up behind and beside us. Men came out with guns holding them at our heads and before any of us could make a move the Esperanzi were there on the guns. There was a battle going on and for a very split second we were not involved. It wasn’t long enough though and once again we all had guns pointing at our heads through the car windows.
Jason groaned when he saw these men, Axel just looked blank. I had no idea what was going on. Behind us more of these men came out battling with the Esperanzi.
“Well, well, well” said the man holding a gun to Jason’s head. They had bodily dragged us out of the car by now.
“How long exactly Jason did you think you could evade us”. Jason just glared at him, he was trying very hard not to look my way.
“And Axel” said this man, “long time no see. I thought placing you in the Library would get you out of my way once and for all”.
Axel’s expression wasn’t all that different to Jason’s. I on the other hand was just plain confused, this was starting to feel like a very bad family reunion.
“And you young lady must be the elusive and very special Lily, I am most pleased to finally meet you”. Again confusion.
“So who are you then?” I asked proud that I sounded a whole lot calmer and collected than I felt considering the gun fire and screams in the back ground.
“Introductions can wait” he said as he turned to his men “get them in the car and for Christ’s sake kill the beasts once and for all”.
We didn’t have time to get to the car. The surviving beasts were now upon us tearing at anyone who held a gun in their hands. One of the beasts was looking at me and it took me a second but I knew this one. I’d seen him in my dreams.
“See you” said a voice in my head. That’s when one of the other beasts came at me, boy was he angry he knocked me over and completely winded I couldn’t get my bearings to defend myself.
I heard shouting all around and gunfire, confusion and then I felt the shadow of something standing over me. The pack leader. He was snarling and I’m sure I heard some interesting expletives coming out of his mouth finished off with a very clear “she’s mine”.
The humans just started shooting wildly now and they were aiming in my direction, in our direction. The pack leader was taking on the humans by himself as I was yanked to standing by Jason. He was screaming at me to run but I couldn’t move. He was half dragging half carrying me away. All I could see was a figure on the ground, unmoving, blood pouring from his body. I started screaming, fighting Jason trying to get back to Axel. He was hurt, bleeding and all I could think was I needed to get to him. Standing over him were two men with guns while the remaining were fending off the last three Esperanzi.
Jason lost patience with me and hauled me over his shoulder as he ran to the car. I went kicking and screaming the whole way. He unceremoniously dumped me into the car and drove off leaving behind as much smoke and rubber as he could. I continued screaming at him, yelling at him to stop. We had just left Axel behind and I couldn’t comprehend this. Jason pushed me back into my seat and held me there with his arm. “Listen to me, stop screaming and listen to me”. He kept repeating this until I finally stopped screaming.
“Axel’s hurt pretty bad. We can’t help him, the Palace can. They won’t hurt him Lily, he use to be one of their people. He’ll get better. He told me if anything happened to him I should keep going with you”
I sat quietly, still, while I digested this and quietly said “I don’t believe you. Axel would never leave me behind”.
“He hasn’t left you behind”, Jason sighed. “We left him behind, but this is what he wanted and this is what’s best for you”
“This isn’t best for me” I said. I was containing my anger now, I was so ready to lash out and physically hit something, or someone. “We have to go back”.
“We’re not going back. Lily you have to calm down. Axel will be ok and I’m taking you home so that you will be ok.” Jason was still highly strung from what had just happened, I could hear it in his voice, he was trying so hard to stay calm and I knew he was doing it for me. I wasn’t trying to shield my emotions, Jason knew exactly how I was feeling.
“Lily right now we caught a break and we have to put as much distance between us and them, we have to keep going. We will find time later to sit and talk about this if that’s what you want”. OK he was beginning to sound condescending, I didn’t imagine at the time that he never had to deal with a situation like this before and hysterical girl wasn’t his forte.
“There’s nothing to talk about, we’re going back for Axel”. Sigh again. When Jason wasn’t angry or annoyed with me he just sighed a lot. I didn’t have time to reflect on that then, but now, I couldn’t begin to imagine how much his life changed over the last few days.
“If you try to stop me Jason I’ll just run away”, he laughed at this, actually laughed and the scowl on my face just livened his mood all the more.
“Do you even know where they are taking him Lily? We don’t even know if any of them are going to survive. For all we know the Esperanzi are killing them all right now”. Because that was going to make me feel better, until this moment I hadn’t thought of that.
Jason was driving very fast, I noticed a few minutes ago he was playing with his magic watch so I know that he had cloaked us so we wouldn’t be detected by high way patrol. “I can’t leave Axel behind” I said again.
To my surprise Jason simply replied “I know??
?. We drove on in silence for a while longer. I closed my eyes and concentrated on Axel, it took a while and there was only a spark but there was something tangible, something of Axel that I could take a hold of.
“Axel I’m coming back for you”. I felt him smile then and heard a very faint “no, go with Jason”. I shook my head, “no, I’m coming back for you” then nothing. The little spark was gone, but I wasn’t alone. There was a pair of goldy brown eyes watching me. The pack leader was still alive.
Jason spoke then, softly he said “I promised your father I would keep you safe and take you back to his home. I have to keep that promise Lily. I have to take you there now”. Again, I shook my head “Axel is my father. He’s the one I have made a promise to and I’m going to get him back”.
“Drive all you like Jason, drive until you feel safe and when we stop you and I are going to work out a plan to rescue Axel. And if you won’t help me then we can part ways and I will do it by myself”.
With this declaration I sat still faced staring ahead as I felt Jason turn and give me a cold hard stare. Surprise, surprise, he was angry with me again.
Chapter 23
Lily
We had been driving for four hours straight only breaking to fill up with petrol. Neither of us spoke for the last two. Jason was exhausted. You only had to look at his dark circled eyes to know how tired he was. It was time for a break. Neither of us noticed anyone following us and considering we were cloaked and our Traveller tech would have been very noticeable to anyone tracking it, we were still all alone. This just made me more worried wondering what exactly had gone on back at the petrol station, I never did believe that no news was good news.
Jason finally made the executive decision to stop for the night. He drove into a motel which had a car park out front and back. He parked us out back and mumbled something about ditching that car and stealing a new one in the morning. Great, now I was also to be an accessory car thief. The lady that checked us in actually winked at Jason as she handed him the key.
“What the hell was that all about” I asked. I was still silently seething, the expression on my face speaking anger loud and clear. “She thinks we’re an item…you know, together” said Jason, he sounded really tired.
“Why is that” I demanded. He just snorted and shook the single room key. So once again I ignored one of the lessons Axel drummed into me over and over again – no matter what type of mood you are in your head, always be aware and pay attention to your surroundings – how many times had he drilled this into me and here I was completely distracted by my own anger that I hadn’t noticed Joshua booking us into the same room.
“You have got to be kidding me” I screamed “I don’t even get a little privacy?” and alone time I really needed alone time.
He turned to face me and scowled at me “no” he said. “I want you where I can see you. You are not going to run away from me. We are going to shower, sleep and talk about everything in the morning. Then we are going to come up with a plan about what happens next, we are going to agree on it and then we are going to carry it out. Is that ok with you?”
I just wasn’t in the mood. I really just wanted to aggravate Jason as much as I could, push him to his limits, I was lashing out, feeling helpless. We had reached ‘our’ room by now and he hurriedly turned the key in the lock.
“Actually what if I’m not ok with that” I said as I followed Jason into the room. He slowly, gracefully – you know – the way predators look graceful when they are about to pounce on their prey, yep that move made me take a sharp breath.
“Actually” he said carefully, slowly. “I don’t care. We are going to do this my way. I’m tired and I need to sleep. So do you. We will talk about this in the morning”.
Truthfully, that move was enough to help me keep my mouth shut. I stood my ground defiantly. At least I did in my head. In reality I was probably slouched and flushed because I noticed Jason sounding a satisfied grunt as he turned towards the bathroom. That’s when I gained some clarity and shot passed him
“Oh no you don’t, I’m taking first shower” and with that I slammed the bathroom door shut and turned the water on to hot so that I could scorch the day’s events off my body and out of my mind.
When I walked out of the bathroom half an hour later Jason didn’t even look at me. He just brushed past me and closed the door to the bathroom behind him. I took the opportunity to jump into bed and pray I was fast asleep before Jason came out. The truth is that I was exhausted and shaken, if I had entertained the idea of taking the car and running I couldn’t, not physically anyway. It didn’t help when Jason cracked open the door and laughed a little saying “if you think you’re going to find the keys to the car to run away think again, I have put them somewhere you just won’t dare go fishing for them” and quickly closed the door.
I wish I had the energy to pick up something heavy to throw at that door. I didn’t like arguing with Jason, a thought for another time when I wasn’t so tired and worried about Axel. I also wasn’t asleep when he came out of the bathroom, but I pretended to be, I wasn’t about to give him the satisfaction of thinking I was waiting for him.
We hadn’t discussed our sleeping arrangements and I had burrowed into the right side of the bed pulling the covers up as high as I could. I felt his weight sink into the bed next to me although, Jason being all politeness didn’t come under the covers, he chose to sleep on top of them instead. I didn’t have the energy to think about why I was thinking about this so much instead of sleeping, I also didn’t have the energy to think about how comforted I felt knowing Jason was beside me.
The Beast
The pack leader was the only Esperanzi left. He had felt the girl communicate with the man on the ground, the one that had been shot. There was desperation to her and him that the beast didn’t quite understand.
The beast had sauntered over to Axel, he lay alone while all the others were distracted by the remaining number of Esperanzi. The pack leader lowered his nose to Axel’s body, he smelt his blood, his heart beat was faint. That’s when Axel reached out to the beast, he whispered into his mind “protect her” before his mind became completely blank. ‘I’m not supposed to protect her, I’m supposed to capture her and keep her until Gentech come to get her’ thought the pack leader quite surprised by this event.
His comrades were all but fallen, the last only moments from death, and with this realisation the beast noticed all guns turn to him and that’s when they started firing. The beast ran, as fast as he could as he felt searing pain through his hind leg and left flank as they caught the bullets fired on him by the humans. He continued running.
The men with the guns pursued for a few minutes but eventually just stopped turned around and retreated. He didn’t know why, not for him to question. He just kept running until he reached a farm that looked to have little or no activity. He could hide here for a little while and mend his flesh wounds. Satellite check in would be coming up soon and he needed time to heal. He would wait for orders. The pack leader was the only Esperanzi left and all he could hear in his mind was “protect her”.
Chapter 24
Gentech
“What the hell is going on?” The director’s expression reflected the thoughts of everyone at that table. “This is turning into a shambles. We should have retrieved the girl by now and had the entire team of Esperanzi back in the pens. Instead we have one beast left and no girl”
To say the silence was deafening was an understatement. Everyone was too afraid to speak, everyone but the Library guy, he raised his hand while everyone looked on astounded. He turned up to Gentech headquarters two days ago, the only reason he was sitting at this table right now was because he was the only one who knew the girl and might lead to some insight.
“She will go to save Axel. She won’t leave him alone, it’s a stupid move but she’s actually brave enough to think she c
an pull it off”. He lowered his hand and cleared his throat just watching for the director’s response. He gave up his allegiance to the Palace the moment Gordon confined him to quarters and told him to ‘shut up and stay out of it from this point on because he’d messed up so much already’.
All the Curator wanted was to play with the important players, the one’s that made the decisions and ran the show. He believed he was on his way when he was promoted to Library head but after years of isolation he again thought he would win his way back into Gordon’s good graces when he discovered Lily’s unique blood properties, but again that wasn’t enough. So he schemed and talked and schemed some more, finally breaking out of his confinement. No one cared about him anyway, no one would miss him so he decided to try Gentech. He wanted someone to listen to him, why else would he be here betraying Lily and Axel like this.
The director considered the Curator a little longer while a snigger or two could be heard around the table. “You seriously think she’s going to try for the Palace. I thought she didn’t know anything about her background”.
“She doesn’t” said the Curator “but he does” he said as he pointed to the corner of the screen showing the spot where Jason was carrying Lily away to safety.
“He’s a Palace boy. My guess is he’s going to help her get Axel out”. The director looked from the Curator to the screen and back again. He didn’t trust this man, didn’t trust anyone that switched sides, but at this point he didn’t have anything else to go on.
“Anyone else got anything to add” said the director. Everyone at the table was quiet. The remote viewers had been relegated to another room as their skills were being thwarted and tracking the girl was unsuccessful. Their squad of beasts were all but dead and his options at this point were all out combat with the Palace trying to get to the girl or using the Library man’s input to form his next plan. Fantastic, thought the director, who would love to have my job right now.