Once Lost Lords (Royal Scales, Book 1) (40 page)

“That’s all there was,” I said while anger
gradually built. Rage at being used, being pushed, with the need to
make someone pay for all of it.

“This isn’t enough to be a body, Jeff! Do you think we’re
stupid?” Daniel said. He might be punched first. The agent
deserved a sound thrashing.

“Agent Crumfield makes a good point. There’ll be no more
lies out of you, Jeff.” The fourth man held that button up high
as if elevation implied a larger threat.

“Don’t.” I shook my head.

“I’m afraid I’ll have to if you don’t come
clean.” The man kept shaking and rolling his letters. I was
trembling from anger that was only kept in check by a future full of
bullets. “All our sources say you have Elo’dorian, and
Arnold Regious should be close to him.”

“That’s him.” I pointed and tried not to scream.

“Don’t play stupid. It may suit you, but I won’t
believe you’re this ignorant. You monsters are all together on
this.” The fourth man said with his stupid chubby face.

“What the hell is going on, Crummy?” I asked. Only Daniel
wasn’t around anymore. He must have slipped off into the
darkness behind the others.

“Agent Crumfield is one of us and will lead the faithful
forward. We’ll be ending you now. After all, thanks to him we
know your weakness.” The blubbery man didn’t even notice
Daniel’s absence, instead he moved one finger towards the
trigger. “Last chance.”

“I don’t know…” He cut me off and depressed
the button. There was a sharp click and two explosions. Or maybe it
was one.

An arrow flew by unnoticed until the zip of noise caught up. The
first gun-toting guard had time to turn and fire into the trees, but
it wasn’t enough. Another feathered shaft slammed into his
neck. Blood and lifeless thuds told me Evan’s grandfather
hadn’t aimed to wound. I didn’t care.

That little click of noise, like the decaying beep from a fire alarm,
signaled the end of everything I owned. All that I owned was gone. My
arms were shaking and something needed to pay for it. Daniel? No.
Daniel’s favorite saying, the one he’d been telling me
all along for a reason, don’t shoot the messenger. Crummy
wasn’t the one who had pressed the button. The blubbery fourth
man would go first.

“Monster! Filth!” The man was screaming into the woods.
“I’ll shoot you myself! Crippled, weak, you’re like
he said you’d be!”

Only thirty feet away was the man who had ended it all. A spike in
anger overwhelmed me so suddenly I barely had time to register my
actions. The coherent part of my mind was taking note of the
remaining man and his desperate struggle to pull out his sidearm.

Anger told me quite clearly that he recently destroyed everything I
owned. My head pounded. Each heartbeat magnified with intensity,
demanding retribution. Revenge. Something swift and sudden. Something
that would be clearly understood. I would light this man ablaze and
plant his head on a spike as a warning to everyone. To never touch
what was mine again.

Both lights had fallen to the ground, illuminating me as I closed the
gap in one leap. A rush of air buffeted away from me pushing towards
the ground. Another gathering of force caught around me as I slammed
into the other man. Inertia threw off the landing.

The man had been trained enough to aim his sidearm and pull the
trigger.

Screaming. Growling. Heated and venting all the rage I had. One
side of my face was twisted in a snarl, the other passive and
detached. This was for vengeance, but it was also a matter of course,
an example must be set. Vague sensations of pressure accompanied a
sudden movement which sent the man’s body flying away with
excessive force. Moments later it would land near the convoy, but his
head was still in my hands, sizzling as one side of his face charred.

I performed exactly as warranted. Now the dead man was unimportant.
My body twisted to hurl the remaining head towards Daniel’s
armored trucks. Flames outlined their vehicles and made for easy
targeting.

My arm itched and head went fuzzy. Things started slipping out from
under me. The ground spun and trees laughed from above. The fire was
important somehow. The sensation from jumping over thirty feet to
kill a man triggered buried memories that were slipping away.

I stared into the distance watching battlefield chaos. Wheels were
melting, cars aflame and overturned. Fire in the distance was
important somehow. The heat grew in intensity as moments passed by.
Crackling of branches and groaning wood accompanied howls and
gunfire. Secondary explosions went off on other vehicles.

Hell. What had I been doing?

Everything felt unreal. My subconscious tried to flee repeatedly
towards home, to check on that which was mine. Things I gathered over
a lifetime of work. Personal belongings that meant more to me than
anything rightfully should.

“Boy.” Words sprang from nearby, but they were lost in
the aquarium landscape my senses had become.

“It’s not safe here. We’d best hightail it.”
The man said. No matter how much I tried to bring myself to the now,
those extra senses unfurled and re-wrapped over and over. My vision
was broken in a strange kaleidoscope of images.

Too many words pushed together. It felt like forever before
everything registered. Half hearing, half tactile sensation imparted
by vibrations. Both at one time overloaded me with a mismatched
comparison. Teeth ground as my mind tried to reconcile what was
happening amid the anger.

Who would dare? Violation. Trespass. Danger to collection.
Fire. Screaming. Fly. Need to check. Need to feel. Pink Meat pressed
thing.

My jaw clenched tight while I tried to focus, fighting against a
strain that threatened to burst me apart. I had to concentrate on
sending my senses out. To get away from myself before everything was
ruined.

Swelling in my throat died down but didn’t vanish. Rationality
barely kept the lid on my boiler frustration. My focus stopped
swimming and head ceased its denying shake. I cast my senses out
quickly, spiraled across the landscape. Using myself as an anchor for
everything I owned.

“Boy, we need to go. Wait…” Someone said.

I could feel a man’s hand reaching over to loosen my grip. One
of the firearms was deforming in my grasp, either from heat or
pressure. An accent twang cursed from pain. Steam rose from my skin
and poured out from between my lips.

“Shit.” The older man said in the distance.

Quickly I flew out over a mental landscape, trailing after the thick
bundle of links to my home’s possessions. My apartment, my
basement, my storage of items. Cheap swords, rare comics, action
figures and goodness knew what else. Each one a thin thread bundled
together to form a link. Stuff that shouldn’t matter but
somehow did.

“We’ve got to bind that up.” The words were
muddled. Indistinct. It felt like Evan’s grandfather, but I was
too torn up to care.

My mind neared the sixty-mile mark. That was enough to nearly reach
the city line. The horizon of other sight loomed ahead as a wall of
white. That wouldn’t stop me this time. I would push past the
barrier and see the truth of home.

Evan’s grandfather kept speaking about things that didn’t
matter to my strung out mind. Useless sensations flooded by. Muted
howls echoed among the trees. Dozens of voices shouting at each other
with demanding tones that felt like utter babble. There were too many
voices and vibrations in my way.

The land felt alive. Rain clouds had appeared. Their drops collided
with the energy contained within each swaying tree. There was more
than that. Tiny creatures huddled in foliage. Birds sat in their
nests with heartbeats giving off ghostly images from each pulse.

Explosions sent out shock waves. Air rippling by tingled against my
skin. All this fed into my senses as I stood at the edge of my mental
perceptions trying to bash down the immovable wall. I had to see my
home and find out what happened. The upper range of my mind taunted
me with indifference.

There was a grunt of confusion in my ears that must have been Evan’s
grandfather back at my body. More vibrations ripped through the area.
Gunfire answered against the hum of growls and snarls. Explosions
overpowered the other vibrations for a moment.

Delirium fed me terrifying possibilities. Each pop of air might be
another object in my home being reduced to ashes. I mentally threw
myself at the wall of haze again and rebounded off. My mind was
roaring in protest. The wall shifted slightly, a foot, maybe two.

Physically both knees hurt for reasons I couldn’t understand.
Then a jolt of pain shot through both palms and the side of my face.
Daniel had lured me out too far away from everything I owned. Evan’s
grandfather was speaking again, almost frantic. It sounded like he
was cursing then ran off somewhere.

Every attempt at the mental wall was accompanied by a sharp, spiking
pain. My cries of frustration were useless and the ghostly world I
viewed was slowly changing colors. Reds, oranges, swirling crimson
and touches of white flared across everything. The wall remained
unmoved, the limit on what I could track. No matter what things my
body managed to do while enraged over protecting my stuff, even my
abilities had a finite range.

“Gone…” The mumbling sounded familiar, my voice
coming from miles back.

Among the sea of energy that spun over all the living things near
where my mind hovered, there were two more cords. One rainbow of
colors went to Evan. A purple lacing blotched with blood lead to
Kahina. They were mine just as surely as the inanimate objects in my
basement. I wouldn’t fail again. If they were all that
remained, then they would get everything I had.

I recalled my mind with a shudder. The extra sensations of arms
barely settled from agitation. A moment later and the feedback from
everything surrounding hit me. Dirt grated against the skin where my
face was planted. Arrows burrowed holes in the air as they flew out.
Teeth tore into padded armor designed to prevent purchase. Screams,
so many screams intermingled with burning bits of forest.

It was difficult to stand up. The woodlands surrounding me felt
realer than my own skin. Bullets chipped portions of trees in the
distance. Fire licked at the ground and steadily climbed higher.
Trees were being reduced to cinders as an inferno swept across them.

Hell.

I stumbled towards the camp. Evan was that way. Kahina was close.
Evan’s grandfather had taken off into the distance, likely
putting his arrows to good use. The sensation of zips in the air had
started to dim, but never actually lost pace. Only my extra awareness
was starting to fade. Muddy thoughts came up with an action plan.
Find Kahina and Evan, make sure no one got to them. Get Daniel the
hell out of here, quickly, before he felt the need to call in more
friends to play. Other concerns started pelting my mind, growling
from alien thoughts. It felt like something huge in the back of my
mind was uttering warnings. I had to focus.

The sensations from my surroundings finally ceased. The lack of extra
sensation caused me to gasp and take one giant breath of air. The
last detached sensation was one of feet thumping across the landscape
in my direction. They felt too artificial for wolves. These were more
like rubber.

“Jay!” A female shouted.

I turned to see Julianne and gave a weak wave. My other hand was
pressed into my forehead to relieve the pressure of a budding
headache. Throwing my mind at that white haze had been a bad idea.

“Jay, we’ve got to go help,” She said.

“That man blew it all up.” Now perhaps wasn’t the
best time for bad news but I was exactly thinking straight. The loss
of home still pulled at my mind.

“What?!” Julianne halted her run nearby and shouted.

Her voice and lingering gunfire didn’t help my headache. I
tried to recall the weight with those footsteps. They weren’t
Julianne’s.

“That man,” I gestured where he had been before I
launched him. There were just splatters of blood left to show a human
had been present. “Pressed a button to blow up the whole
apartment place.”

“God damn it, Jay! God fucking damn it.” She was kicking
now. Gunshots seemed to accent each swing of her short legs. “A
newly turned pup would have more sense than you.” She paused
and I swear her ears perked up. “Wait, what the hell is that…”

Another gunshot went off, much closer this time. I heard Julianne cry
out and looked over in time to see her fall while clutching her side.
Blood was seeping out. A nightmare, this was all unreal. No one’s
life fell apart this quickly. Not my life. Not again.

“We’ll blame that one on you, eh big guy?” A voice
I had never heard came out from the shadows near Julianne’s
felled body. “Oops. Bad guys got too close. Casualties of war
being what they are.”

The voice was a whisper of noise belonging to a figure that was
difficult to make out. Black clothes laced with a thread that felt
purple. A third dead Sector agent was thrown onto the ground.

I felt lost while looking around for anyone who could help a bleeding
woman. Where was Evan’s grandfather? Where was Julianne’s
grandfather, or Thomas, or anyone who could help her? I’d never
laid claim on Julianne, never tried to or wanted to. She was my boss
and a friend. The short bartender was also a confidante when I got
too drunk.

But none of those things would send me into a rage. Julianne wasn’t
someone I had laid claim over so my mental switch just sat there
doing nothing. No amount of anger would prevent her from dying.

“I think we’ll clear up another little problem as well.”
The whispering voice leveled a gun in my direction. For the third
time in one day, I was going to be shot.

Options ran through my muddled head and came up with a useless
response. I had nothing. No tools, cross, silver, bullet proof vest
or heavy mesh, only cloth and skin.