A Toiling Darkness (25 page)

The room was impressive. It was large, the
second floor taken down, so the room went all the way up to the
ceiling. It was just like a warehouse, but instead of being filled
with packaged goods, it was filled with sickly beings.

Rows and rows of beds lined the room and
most of them had occupants, each with their own wounds. Ventilation
was going strong. It did nothing to hide the stench of unwashed
bodies, weakness, and worse, the death and decay.

I glanced up at Kalen and watched as he
scanned the room, taking it all in. He swallowed.

“What...how?” He fumbled with his words,
unable to find the proper words for what he was seeing.

“There is a secret human group, been around
for a while now. They hunt us,” I whispered. Sweat was forming on
my skin as I strained to keep us hidden.

“I thought humans didn’t know about your
existence,” he whispered back, picking up on the need to be
quiet.

“They don’t. Only a select few do and they
work hard to keep us a secret. Something about mass panic or
other.” I waved my free hand dismissively. Frankly, they were a
greedy elitist group of hunters. They wanted to kill us, but above
that, they wanted our goods and the glory and power they would gain
from getting it.

“And everyone here?”

“Victims for the most part. I guess you
could call this place a hospice. They are all going to die
eventually.”

“How? Aren’t you guys supposed to be hard to
kill?” he asked.

“And how many of us have you already
killed?”

“But all this, by humans?”

“This is just in this city. These are
victims in the truest sense. Not everyone is hard to kill. For
some, water can burn, or maybe a dash of sunlight. All the hunters
have to do is find their weakness and use it. These beings here
have been tortured—used and abused until they were useless and then
tossed out like garbage.”

“Use you? For what?”

I turned and stared at him. I finally
noticed that his thumb was rubbing against my hand as if he was
trying to draw comfort from me. “Those diseases you’re so proud of
finding cures for or ways to fight them,” I pointed out to the
room. “It all comes from them. We do have immunities to some
things. Our bodies are capable of fighting back against foreign
bacteria, viruses, etcetera. Hunters like to use us for the good of
the humankind.”

My tone was cold and matter-of-fact. He
looked away, had to since my tone didn’t match my face. I knew the
pain was in there, in my eyes. I couldn’t keep it out, not from
Kalen.

“There are children and women in here.
Trying to live and knowing they won’t because of humans.” I looked
back out into the room.

Beings in nursing outfits moved between the
beds, helping where they could, trying to make the transition to
death easier.

“Some of those nurses are taking away some
of the pain and making it their own. They are suffering too, just
to make the victims’ deaths just a little less painful. Is this not
the compassion you speak about?”

A loud, ear-splitting scream tore through
the building, using the cement walls to bounce off. It slammed into
us and I had to hold on tightly to Kalen’s hand as he stumbled
back. The scream ended just as abruptly as it came, as if someone
pressed the mute button.

Kalen recomposed himself, his face pale and
hand growing sweaty. He was holding just as tightly to me as I was
to him. Both our hands were turning white. My nails were digging
into his skin, but he didn’t say anything. I wanted to ask if he
even noticed. I don’t think he did. I forced my grip to loosen.

“What was that?” he asked, his voice
breathy.

“A keener’s scream.”

“Keener?”

I thought about it for a moment and nodded,
happy with my answer. “Banshee. I’ve heard you guys call them
banshees.” Keeners, banshees, and other loud obnoxious beings
really jumbled up the human folklore for them. They were all
grouped together and called a banshee. That’s what happens when you
let Queen Baeir into the limelight. She outshined all other beings
in the screaming department, making a name for them all.

He looked at me incredulously, his eyes
wide. “Someone died?” He just couldn’t believe it. He wanted to be
angry. I could feel it in the tightness of his grasp. But who do
you take your anger out on when there is no one person responsible
around? There wasn’t even a face we could put on the hunters. They
were just as mysterious and hidden as us beings.

“Yeah, probably the keener.” Which would
explain the sudden stop.

Humans believed that if you could hear a
banshee scream, then a member of your family was going to die soon.
It was an interesting lore, just completely wrong. They screamed
because they communicated that way to each other. Anyone not a
banshee just didn’t have the right translator for their language. I
met a man once who acted like a translator. He said they sounded
like they were singing and it was beautiful. I could only go off by
what he said because to me, it was like they were scratching their
nails against a chalkboard, only about a hundred times worse, and
doing it right inside my ears.

Kalen stepped forward, still holding my
hand. His eyes were focused on a young woman on one of the beds.
Her eyes were closed and I gave her another day or so. She looked
like a teenager. Her hair was thin enough to see a pale white
scalp, barely a shade lighter than her face. Her lips used to once
be big and luscious. Humans described them as kissable. Not
anymore. They were deflated and a weird shade of pink, more like a
greyish-pink. Spots of rot dotted her skin. If we looked closely
enough, we could see a white flash of bone. She was rotting from
the inside.

“How can a human even do this?” Kalen asked.
I could feel his need inside him. He wanted to help.

“You used to work in a hospice,” I said.

He looked at me surprised by the answer.

“How’d you know?”

“Woman’s instinct?” I shrugged.

“How’d you know?” he asked again.

I sighed and looked back out into the room.
“Your eyes, and your emotions. You want to help, probably already
thought of a thousand different things you could be doing right
now.”

“Of course I want to help. Seeing others
suffer is hard. Don’t you want to help them?”

“No, I don’t. I won’t get anything out of
it.”

He looked at me hard. “Are you sure it’s
humans who did this?” It sounded like he was trying to blame me. I
didn’t rise to the bait.

“Witches are humans. They like to work with
the hunters. Their organization has some really powerful witches in
their care.”

“Is this what you wanted?” he whispered. “To
destroy the line I created between humans and beings?”

I kept my voice low and my eyes on that
girl. Her chest was barely rising, her breaths coming out ragged.
“Humans are not the only ones who suffer.”

I nearly lost the hold I had on the shadows
and it took almost everything I had left to keep them. If we were
revealed, all these beings would try to run away and most of them
couldn’t even get out of their beds. I made that mistake once. I
walked into a hospice and caused a massive panic. Even at full
health, these beings were weak. But like this they were hurting and
scared, and my presence didn’t help. Then again, back then I was in
my real human form. Maybe the reaction wouldn’t be so extreme this
time. I didn’t want to find out though. So I clenched my teeth and
held onto those shadows, drawing them closer around us.

Kalen was silent long enough that I had to
glance over at him. He was staring down at me, his face soft and
filled with a foreign expression. I wanted to say it was a mixture
of pain and pity, but that just didn’t cut what was deep in those
eyes.

“You know this personally, don’t you? That’s
why you didn’t care about what happened in the park.”

I looked back at the room, at the nurses
moving between each patient, looking haggard but determined.

“Darkness, am I right?”

“We all have our stories,” I snapped at him.
His eyes widened and he tried to step away. I held onto him
tightly, unwilling to break the connection. Touching him made it
easier to hide us. He stopped moving away.

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s not your apology I want.” I yanked on
him hard and headed back out of the room. I was at my limit. We
quietly left the room, leaving all those beings behind to suffer.
There was nothing I could do anyways. I was busy fighting for my
own survival. When we got just outside the gate, on the other side
of the barrier, I let him go. It felt like I was letting go a part
of myself. My hand was still warm from his touch and the place he
rubbed with his thumb tickled.

I walked away, wanting to just lay down and
go to sleep. Each step was hard and only Kalen’s presence kept me
moving.

I am not going to show weakness in front of
an enemy.

I pushed through the exhaustion.

Kalen followed behind quietly, lost in his
own thoughts. Minutes passed as I just kept walking, one step at a
time, back to my apartment.

“Where is that necromancer you’ve been
keeping with you?”

A couple seconds passed and I just kept
walking without looking back at him. I was tired, I just wanted to
sleep and recharge. My apartment was only a couple blocks away.

“I killed him.”

That made me stop in midstride. I turned and
didn’t miss the betrayal in his eyes.

“Oh?”

“He was only leading me around, hoping the
beings he brought me to would kill me. I guess I was getting too
close to the guys who are taking the children and he didn’t want me
to.”

“Before you killed him, did you at least
find out who he was protecting?”

Pain crossed his handsome face and I wanted
to be able to take it away. That necromancer made Kalen cross over
another line he made. If this kept up, he would lose that
innocence. Did I want him to lose it? I can’t say for sure. I just
didn’t want him to die and if that meant becoming cold and hard,
then so be it. Right?

If Kalen didn’t kill Chris, I would have
done it. And knowing Kalen, he made it as quick and easy as he
could. I wouldn’t have. That boy wouldn’t be anything but skin and
bones when I was done with him, maybe even still alive, unable to
move, no warmth capable of touching him. It would have been so
easy. And I wouldn’t be so damn tired afterwards. I would be full
of energy.

“I did.”

“And yet you’re here instead of going to
him.” That must take some huge restraint. To waste time with me
when he can go save those children he desperately wanted to
protect.

“It’s a man who works for a warlock. I want
the warlock.”

“Use the servant to get to the monster?”

“Something like that.”

“Who’s the loc?” I asked, pushing
further.

Kalen paused, trying to decide if he should
tell me or not. “Devon.”

I cocked my brow, completely taken by
surprise with the information. What were the chances that there
were two warlocks in the city with the same name? “No, shit.
Really?”

“Yeah.” His face lit up with hope, making
him look boyish again. “Why? You know him? You know where to find
him.”

I let out a small laugh. “Yeah, I met him a
couple of times. Shy little bugger.”

“Do you know where he is?”

I nodded.

“Tell me.” Kalen got even more excited. He
hopped from foot to foot, all ready to head out.

I shook my head, hating to have to
disappoint him. “Not tonight.”

“Why?” He narrowed his eyes suspiciously.
His mood swing made me laugh.

“Because tonight he’s busy with Lord Kay’s
party bash. He’s one of his lackeys. Tomorrow, I’ll bring you to
him.”

“Do you know where he lives?”

“No,” I replied, still confident. Finding
beings was easy for me, especially someone like a warlock.

“Then how can you bring me to him?”

I smiled, letting my cockiness get the best
of me. “I have my ways. Tonight, rest. Take a break. You’ll need to
save your strength.” I started walking again. He followed closely
behind, his pace twice as fast as mine so while I walked quickly,
he simply strolled.

“You can’t bring me,” he said.

“Why?”

“It’s too dangerous.”

I laughed loud enough for a homeless man to
look at me like I was the crazy one for once. Kalen didn’t like my
reaction too much either. To think he still worries about my
safety. “A loc won’t even be able to lay a single finger on me.
Don’t worry.”

“I don’t like it.”

“You don’t have to,” I replied. “You just
need to follow me if you want to find those kids.”

We stopped in front of my apartment. The
irony of him walking me to my home wasn’t lost on me. He probably
wanted to make sure no one tried anything on me. If only he
realized others needed protection from me, not the other way
around.

“I’ll meet you at the harbor tomorrow night,
around midnight.”

“So late.”

“I love the night.” I smiled and went into
my apartment, leaving him to stare after me.

The room was an off white with nothing on
the walls, or on the tables. It was more like an empty office space
instead of a living room. Usually homes had something, anything, to
give a little clue into the life of the occupant. Even my apartment
had some clues into my life, like all those picture books I
collected. Seeker’s living room had nothing, spotless, probably too
clean. There were no worries about dust bunnies coming out from
under the chair.

I wanted to wander around, see if there were
more in the other rooms or if they were just as blank as this one.
I stood up and started pacing.

I slept half a day and then the other half
of the day was spent looking for Seeker’s house. If I were in my
other form, it would have taken maybe an hour, tops. This form
limited me too much. Kay was right, after all this stuff with Kalen
and his master ended, I had to stop hiding like this. I had to face
everything. For the first time in nearly two hundred years, I felt
that I could do it too—face Eithna’s death and everything I’ve done
up to that point. I needed to if I wanted to be whole again.