Shadow Walkers (15 page)

Allison looks at Nick, who has moved closer to Isaac. “What are you doing with my mother, you coward!” He shouts.

The Void man frowns. “Says the boy hiding behind his captain. The two of you together sure do bring back some fun memories for me. To think my two rivals would pair up against me.”

Isaac lets out a frustrated sigh. “Never know when to give up a target, huh Valus? You have absolutely no remorse. Why are you targeting us right now?”

Valus laughs. “Oh please, stop acting so innocent. You know that if anything, you
wanted
me to show up. We both know that you want nothing more than to get your revenge.”

Isaac’s brows scrunch up and his hands tightly clench around the hilt of his sword. Allison could tell that her captain was beginning to get infuriated- and she had no idea if that was a good or bad thing.

Valus chuckles. “All I want is the satisfaction of a hunt finally being finished, and my prey…
snapping
.” He looks at Nick with the last word, and Allison starts to feel worried for her friend. “You want your mother? Well unfortunately for you, I don’t feel like giving her up just yet.”

“Why torture him?” Allison shouts. Valus looks at her with his head cocked. She feels a tinge of regret for speaking out against the Void, but that doesn’t stop her mouth from running. “I don’t know what type of history you have with Nick or his mother, but you’re not gaining anything by keeping her hostage. Nick isn’t going to just do whatever you say to get her back, because he knows he can’t trust a word you say. This whole situation is pathetic and pointless. Why don’t you fight us like a man? Then we can force you to give her back.”

Valus closes his eyes and takes in a deep breath. “I expected nothing less to come from the mouth of a Marxon. You’re a lot more friendly than your father, but you’re both hot heads who don’t think twice before they speak.” He looks at the female Void to his left. “Detain them.”

Before Allison can ready herself for battle, she’s being lifted off of the ground and sent flying towards her teammates, all three of them drawing together like magnets to a fridge. She screams as the three of them collide, and immediately struggles to get off the ground. But, for some reason, she couldn’t move a muscle.

“Don’t take me lightly just because I’m not ‘Valus of the Void’.” The woman without a nose piercing says. “You three just sit tight and watch the show.”

“Let us go!” Hector yells. After realizing that neither of her teammates were moving a muscle, Allison determines that the Void woman was doing something to keep the three of them at bay.

“Valus!” Isaac screams as he lashes out to attack the Void man. But Valus easily deflects the captains strike with his katana.

“You better stop, or else I might end up killing all three of them. And I know you don’t want to see
that
happen ever again, now do you?”

Isaac looks at Valus with disgust, and Allison manages to stare into her captain’s eyes. When she got to know Isaac she realized that he was a strong, confident man. He was a member of the Midnight Order at only twenty-five years old. Before, he hadn’t shown any signs of weakness, fear, or cowardice. But now, watching him drop his sword and fall to his knees, without even knowing his past, Allison finally understood what her captain really was- a broken man. Valus and Isaac had some type of unspoken connection, and whatever it was, it left her captain with not only a grudge- but a scar on his heart.

Valus walks up to Isaac and grabs his arm, pulling it up to his level. Isaac grunts in discomfort, but allows the Void to do as he pleases. “Thank you for finally surrendering to me. It’s funny that these kids are the one thing you’re not willing to sacrifice ever since you lost Fiona. Do you think that these three are special?”

Isaac looks over to Allison, and his eyes glimmer. “They’re the three I’ve been hoping for for a very long time.” Allison didn’t understand what her captain meant, but she was too worried about his safety to decipher any underlying meaning.

Valus chuckles. “Well I guess it’s all irrelevant for you now. Whatever these brats might hold for the future no longer matters. All that is important in life is in the present. For instance…” Valus suddenly sinks his teeth into Isaac’s arm. The captain screams in pain as the Void man tears into his flesh. As soon as Valus let’s go, Isaac falls over onto his side in complete silence.

Allison screams. There wasn’t any way that Isaac’s life could come to an end so soon. Not like this- where she couldn’t even do anything to help him. There was no way she could accept what had just happened in front of her.

“What did you do to him?” Nick shouts. Allison can hear the pain in the boy’s voice.

Valus smiles. “I gave him
the bite.
And now your captain will go through a pain worse than death, and ultimately be turned into a creature of the Void.”

The silence from Nick doesn’t shock Allison, she had the same reaction when she saw the bite in action. The process of going from Walker to Void- practically dying and then reforming your own physical shape- that was what the decaying process was. The captains who returned to the Pit were abnormal for showing so much strength after receiving the bite. After watching her captain just collapse to the ground, Allison now understood why the Council believed Captain Calum had a chance of surviving the process. Just the bite alone was enough to knock you out, and that man had somehow managed to push through and walk around.

Valus smiles and starts walking towards the three young Walkers. “Now Nick, stay quiet as you die. I want to enjoy the silence of my most anticipated kill. Amber, grab him and-”

The Void man stops talking when a cloud of purple smoke suddenly appears in front of him. The entire area is suddenly enveloped by a purple cloud, and Allison can only fear what was to come next. When the smoke clears, another Void is standing in front of Isaac. The man lifts her captain off of the ground and begins running towards her group.

“Damon!” Hector says as the boy runs as fast as he can to the three, who were still unable to move an inch.

Allison notices that the three enemy Void were standing still, Valus with his mouth still wide open. “What did you do?” She asks with a slight smile on her face.

“I gave them a taste of my Void power. Now shut up and hold on tight, we’re going somewhere crazy.” Their Void ally says as he waves a hand in front of Allison. Before she has the chance to explain their situation, she feels her body untighten, and finds herself able to move once again.

“Thanks.” She whispers. “Now what are we-”

“Damon, you cocky little brat!” Valus suddenly screams. The Void man was visibly ticked off as he ran towards Allison’s group. The other two Void were still frozen in place for some reason.

Panic shows on Damon’s face as he stretches his hand out, “No time to explain, grab on or get killed!”

Allison and the others take no time to consider between trusting Damon or facing Valus of the Void. The three young Walkers grab onto Damon’s arm, and with Isaac tucked to his chest, the five of them suddenly disappear from the world- and chaos- surrounding them.

Chapter Fifteen

Allison

“Think she’s dead?” A voice says in wonder as Allison begins to regain consciousness. Something pokes her face and she opens her eyes only to see Hector jabbing her with his finger. He pulls his hand away and smiles sheepishly. “Oh, hey sleepy head.”

Allison sits up straight, her head light as a cloud and the room spinning around her. “Where are we?” She asks as she puts a hand on her head, trying to keep it upright.

Another body comes over to where Allison sits- it was Damon. The Void boy frowns. “Hey, take a second to relax and calm yourself, I know that after jumping with a Void you’re probably exhausted.”

The room finally comes into focus for Allison. “No, I’m good. I just need to sit here for a minute. Now fill me in on what’s going on. Where are we? What happened to Isaac? How long have I been-”

“Oh god, do you have an off switch?” Damon asks as he holds a hand out to stop her. “I Void jumped with all of you, and you guy’s passed out due to it. Don’t blame yourself, it happens to anyone who jumps using the Void method. And Isaac is right over there.” He points to Allison’s right, and she looks over to see her captain.

Isaac is lying down on a table, with a hand placed on his bare chest. A woman with tied up black hair sits next to him, as well as Nick. The young Walker shoots her a smile. “He’s doing great, don’t worry about him.”

Allison shakes her head and lets out a heavy breath. “What’s going on? And who is she?” She points to the woman next to Nick.

The woman smiles at Allison and giggles. “My name is Malia, I’m Damon’s sister.”

She shoots Damon a quick glance. He shrugs. “That’s right. We’re both half Void and half human, so you can trust her.”

“I don’t get it.” Allison says flatly. The last thing she remembered, Valus was lunging at them with his sword drawn, and then Damon grabbed them all in order to escape. And it all happened after Isaac received the bite fro Valus. Nothing was making sense. Another friendly Void seemed impossible, but Damon was living proof that not all of the Void were monsters.

Damon seems to sense her confusion, because he sighs and pats Allison on the shoulder. “Don’t freak out when I tell you what’s going on, okay? I didn’t have any other choice but to teleport you away from the human world, or else Valus would have murdered you. There was no way we could have survived on earth without Isaac. That’s why I brought us here. Well, and one other reason.”

“What does this place have to do with Isaac?” Allison asks, confused by Damon’s ambiguity. “And how long were we out? Why are none of you answering me!”

Damon bites his lip and looks at Nick and Hector. When Allison follows his gaze, the others look away. Hector shrugs. “Just tell her.” Allison feels her gut drop and her skin grow cold. What on earth was going on?

Damon sighs and crosses his arms. “After Void jumping, you three passed out. It’s just today that the three of you woke up. If we’re including the day that I took you from Valus, this is the sixth day since you left the human world.”

“The sixth!” Allison shouts. “What about the mission? The Void are acting out their plan tomorrow and we got knocked out for almost a whole week? What are going to do when-”

“Hey, calm down for a second.” Damon puts a hand on her shoulder and locks eyes with her. Allison wants to tear her arm away from him and yell at him for touching her. She might have trusted him a little bit, but that doesn’t mean she had to enjoy working with a Void. But instead of fighting, she finds herself sighing. Damon pulls his hand away and continues talking. “On the bright side, the monster guarding the Invert gate in the human world has been destroyed. We know where the Pit’s gate is being guarded in the human world as well, but the Walkers are having a hard time actually getting to it.”

“Oh great. One down, three to go. In a day.” Allison says bitterly.

Damon snaps his fingers and points at her. “Yeah, but the Council knows where the gate in the Pit is as well, and the Void have yet to actually invade there. Considering the manpower that’s in the Pit, they’re probably going to strike there last out of fear of inciting a huge fight.”

“So we still have a chance of stopping them.” Allison says, letting some of the stress finally leave her body.

“Yeah.” Nick says. “Once Malia here finishes healing Isaac, he should wake up and be ready to go. Then we can leave here and go back to earth.”

“You mean you can cure him?” Allison asks, turning to face the Void woman. Everytime she looks at her she is reminded of Valus. If she didn’t know any better she would say the two were brother and sister.

Malia smiles and nods. “Yes. The bite is something that the elite can give, but it is also something that the one who gives it can stop from progressing. However, since Valus and I share the same blood, I can also stop the process. The whole process takes a few days to cure someone completely, but I started healing him the second you all came here. Thankfully, my Void powers also revolve around life, so they help speed up the healing process faster than Damon could revert it.”

Allison looks at Damon with a wide range of emotions. The more she talked with this boy the more she found herself not wanting to work with him. “You’re Valus’
brother?
”

Damon shrugs. “It’s not something I’m proud of. We might share the same blood, but Malia and I are the only truly sane ones. I despise him just like the rest of the Void.”

“Wait a second.” Nick says. “If Valus is your brother, then he’s half human too, right? Why is he the only one of this sibling trio that
doesn’t
hate the Void?”

Damo shakes his head. “I don’t know. There are too many mysteries surrounding that man for me to fully understand him. You would think that he would be like me and Malia, but for some reason he works with the rest of the Void and follows our mother’s orders without batting an eye. It’s almost like he’s-”

There is a sudden knock on the door. Allison begins to focus her energy in case a fight was about to break out. She had no idea where she was, so she wasn’t going to take any chances. Damon walks over and opens the door without worry, and Allison begins to calm down. Three figures stand in the doorway.

“We heard you all talking and were delighted to finally speak to our guest of honor.” A man with a crown on his head says flatly. His eyes dart back and forth between the people in the room. “You all look so confused. Well, would you like to come out and see the palace?”

“Palace?” Allison asks as she looks at her teammates. “Where are we guys? I want to know now!”

The man with the crown laughs. “You all haven’t told her yet? How rude of you as her teammates.” The man outstretches his arms, almost smacking the two people next to him. “Welcome to Eros- home of the Inverts.”

Allison’s jaw drops in disbelief. She looks at the Void boy with contempt. “The
Inverts?
You brought us to our rivals own playing field?” Her frustration was starting to get the better of her. Too much had happened in just the few short moments after her wakening.

The boy with the crown, who couldn’t be much older than Allison, smiles. “Don’t worry, young Walker. We’re not going to hurt you. In fact, we were excited that one of you came here. It’s an honor to see one of our own come back to us. Welcome, Hector Avern.”

Allison looks at her teammate, who looks just as confused as she was. Allison scoffs. “Wait, you just wanted to see Hector? That’s why we came here?”

Damon holds his hands up in protest. “That’s not all! Malia lives here in Eros, and I needed her help to heal your Captain in the first place. It just so happens that they wanted to see Hector as well. But this is the only place we could have come to for safety.”

“So now they can convince Hector to join their side?” Allison asks with her eyebrows raised.

The boy with the crown laughs. “Well, we have a feisty one here. Everybody follow me and we’ll go somewhere where we can discuss our wager with you all.”

Allison wants to bicker, but she knows that the odds are stacked against her. Instead she and the others follow the three Inverts out of the room. Allison didn’t see how any of this could end well, but she had no other choice to go along with things.

“I’ll stay here and continue to heal Isaac.” Malia says as the door closes.

Allison tries to alleviate some stress by focusing on the path she’s taking. The Inverts lead her group through a beautiful hall, which was lined with mirrors and had chandeliers hanging from above. The floor was made of a strange material. It didn’t seem to be glass, but it perfectly reflected everything above it. Crystal clear statues decorated the entrances to all of the rooms they passed. As much as she hated being there, Allison couldn’t deny the palaces beauty.

They approach the end of the hallway and enter through the only door in front of them. Allison is instantly stunned by the beauty of the room. The same reflective material the floor was made out of and many colorful crystals decorate the room, which itself seemed about as big as the Guards HQ. Tables line the center of the room, and at the very back, Allison can make out an altar. As they get closer to it, Allison sees that a man sits in a throne made of the same reflective material as everything else, though it was also studded with gems. He wore a crystal clear crown with the glass-like material studded into it like jewels.

The boy with the crown- his had an obvious lack of jewels- stops at the front of the altar. “Father, the guests have awakened.”

The man in the chair only waves, and Damon sits. Allison wonders how many times the boy has seen the gesture. The Walkers follow his lead and sit down at one of the tables. When the silence permeates throughout the group she bites her lip and decides to take a shot. “So are you the king of Eros?”

The boy with the crown- who now stands next to the man in the throne- laughs and looks at the man next to him. “Such impolite manners from the Walker girl. Yes, this is the King of Eros- Vladimir. And I, the prince, am his son. My name is Zerik. When speaking to royalty, try to hold your tongue, girl.”

“My name is Allison.” She says flatly.

“Walkers names aren’t a concern to me. I have other worries here…” The prince of Eros’ gaze drifts away from Allison and towards Hector, and she wonders if he really thought so little of her presence. The thought that he was underestimating her just because she was a Walker infuriated her.

Hector coughs awkwardly once he realizes all eyes were on him. “What’s up?”

The prince smiles. “Oh, Hector. I’m sure that your life so far has been a hard one. But don’t fret, for we have much compassion for a fellow Invert. Even if your other half is… sub-par.”

Allison slams her fist down on the table. “What do you have against us? I know that we’re Walkers, but we haven’t done anything to you! Why are you treating us Walkers like we need to be enemies? I thought the Walkers and Inverts were over their rivalry.”

“Such a brash tongue, brat.” Zerik says. “You aren’t our enemy, and I don’t hate you. For the life of me I just can’t find a reason to justify valuing you as my equal. Don’t take it personally.”

Allison stands up and glares the Prince of Eros down. Her anger very rarely gets the better of her, but her family pride and the pride of all Walkers was on her shoulders. “If you think you’re so superior, fight me.”

The prince laughs and puts a hand on his forehead. “This girl thinks she can defeat me? Okay, fine. I’ll show you how out of my league-”

“Enough, Zerik.” The King says. Allison feels chills run through her body. The King looks at his son and shakes his head. “Explain to Avern why we wanted to see him.”

Zerik frowns, but doesn’t say another word to Allison. She doesn’t further the argument, but she knew that she couldn’t let this go so easily. It was obvious that Zerik disliked her and the other Walkers for some trivial reason. She would have to show this kid up, one way or another.

Zerik looks at Hector and smiles. “You were abandoned in the Pit and separated from us at such a young age. The rest of your kind disgust me, but you’re very special. We wanted Damon to bring you here to face you with a very special proposition.”

“Which would be?” Hector asks. Allison can’t help but wonder how Hector felt about being the center of attention in their rivals homeland.

Zerik smiles even wider. “Join us. Take my hand and join the royal family, become a king of Eros and rule over the Inverts with me. And together, we can crush the Void.”

Allison laughs. “You’ve got to be kidding me. You really expect Hector to just throw away his other half like that? Hector, tell this idiot what’s-” Allison stops once she notices Hector’s curious expression. There was no doubt about it- Hector was actually contemplating this guy’s ridiculous offer. Allison grinds her teeth and points at Zerik. “Leave him alone! I want out of this stupid meeting immediately. Nick, let’s go back to Malia and Isaac.”

As soon as Allison turns to exit the room, a hand grasps her left arm. She looks up in shock to see one of the guards staring at her blankly.

“That won’t be happening.” Zerik says cheerfully. “You Walkers are under arrest until Hector comes to an agreement with us. Take those two to their cells.”