A Toiling Darkness Read online

  I agreed with Eithna then, but now…not so much. They have this companionship with other humans that I’ll never get to be a part of. They can talk to each other, make plans for the future, and not worry about hidden blades and unknown motives.

  Eventually Kalen came to a decent neighborhood, with some graffiti and homeless people, but the streets were clean and people were happily out and about, not worrying about having to be dodgy. He wandered around the neighborhood aimlessly. I was about to just give up and go be productive when he stopped and faced my direction. He squinted his eyes, trying to see. It made his eyes even darker, hidden deep in his face.

  “How long are you going to follow me?” he asked, looking in my general spot. He was about ten feet off.

  I grinned and stepped out of my little hiding spot, flinging the shadows away so he could see me. “When did you know?”

  “When I was helping the fae child.”

  “He sensed me, didn’t he?”

  He frowned. “Why? Is it so hard to think I was the one who sensed you?”

  I grinned. It irked him not being the one to notice I was stalking him. I couldn’t help it, my grin widened. Which irked him even more.

  “You’re too human,” I replied.

  “What’s wrong with being a human?”

  “Nothing,” I smirked. “Just blind and naïve.”

  If I had super hearing, I would hear his teeth grinding. He was getting angry or frustrated. I was betting on frustration. He wanted to yell at me and yet I was just a kid and he didn’t want to be seen yelling at a little girl. That was definitely frowned upon among the humans.

  “Do you hate humans?” he finally asked.

  I cocked my head to the side, thinking of the question. Did I hate humans? At one point it was an easy, automatic yes. But now? I stared at Kalen for a moment and decided to tell him the truth. “I’m more numb to them than anything else. Sometimes they interested me but most of the time I don’t care.”

  Something in my voice must have told him how hard it really was for me to admit something like that. His expression softened a little, some of the tension leaving his jaw. He was no longer grinding them together.

  “So why are you following me?” he asked.

  “Curious, I guess.”

  “About what?”

  Everything.

  I smiled a little, looking around. We were standing next to a little coffee shop, people giving us a wide birth as they walked by. Some of them casted glances at us, curious. Others ignored us the best they could, keeping their eyes focused straight ahead. The rest made use of their little phones. I think they were referred to as smart phones. Some of those devices were definitely smarter than their owners.

  “I’m curious about you,” I replied, watching as someone ran towards us, a desperate expression on her face. Kalen had his back to them so he didn’t notice them and no human was in danger so he didn't sense anything.

  Blood stained the woman’s cheek, a bruise was forming around her left eye and her clothes were ripped, blood staining the white shirt and plaid shorts. A boy ran a couple of steps behind her, glancing behind him while pushing the woman forward. And when I say boy, I mean a young adult. I think that’s what they are referred to as now.

  The desperation in them was palpable as they ran. Anyone in their way moved to the side to let them pass. None of them did anything to help—even with the three others chasing behind them. Their pursuers were about ten yards behind.

  “Troubles a-brewing,” I sang as the woman focused onto Kalen. She knew instantly he was someone who could help. Kalen looked over his shoulder and took in the scene, his body going on alert. Getting ready for business.

  “Please, help us,” the woman wheezed when she was a couple of yards away. Her grey eyes were desperate, pleading for Kalen’s help. And I knew without any thinking involved that he would too. I was beginning to learn just who he was exactly. A good guy. A real good guy—the kind that would run into a burning building to risk his life for a child’s cat. His life for a fricken cat. Inconceivable.

  I mentally sighed. This was just inconvenient.

  Kalen grabbed her right arm and tugged her into the tiny side street we were standing in front of. He didn’t even think about it, just grabbed the woman and herded the two refugees away. I followed behind as they went to the back of the cafe, where there was a small ‘Employees Only’ parking lot with only one car sitting there.

  “Please, they want to kill me,” she pleaded.

  “They want to sacrifice her in a ritual to get in touch with a very old soul,” the boy wheezed, keeping the woman behind him. He was in his early twenties with moppy black hair and a roundness of the inexperienced.

  “You mean let the soul possess her,” I said. “You guys are necromancers.”

  “Please. Help us,” she pleaded, ignoring me and trying to appeal to Kalen’s weak side. It worked.

  We heard muffled voices, Kalen stiffening up as feet pounded against the asphalt. When they came to where the side road opened up into the small parking lot, they spotted us off to the side. One of them snickered.

  “Hiding behind a human?” the man in the lead growled. He wore a big bushy black moustache I wanted to pull off, and his hair was long and scraggly. Hygiene was not his top priority in life.

  “Who are you?” Kalen asked, stepping between the woman and her attackers. The boy with her stood beside him, ready to fight for her. I just stood off to the side, watching it all. As long as Kalen didn’t die, I could care less about what happened. He was my ticket to his master.

  The guy jerked his head and the fight broke out. No reason to delay the inevitable. Kalen took two of them, including the leader, and the boy took the third one. Kalen moved with deadly expertise, all his punches and kicks hitting his target. He dodged as if dancing and his face was completely blank as he went into his fighting place.

  I knew that place intimately. It’s a place where emotions are nonexistence and all that matters is you and your targets. You become numb to any pain, you ignore all distractions as if they weren’t there, and you zone in on your objective. I used to live in that place nearly every day. It can be a very comfortable, safe place.

  When fighting among beings, one thing is sure to always happen. Someone brings into the fight their magic. It was the equivalent of bringing a gun to a knife fight. In this case, when the boy was knocked out on the ground, the one he was fighting stopped and knew they were losing. Kalen was a strong foe to deal with. Stubborn too. He had one guy down on the ground and the other barely on his feet.

  The man looked at Kalen and made a quick decision. I was the distraction he needed to force Kalen out of his fighting place. His lips moved soundlessly. The air grew cold and I could feel a wind as it blew around the alley. Except it wasn’t a wind. They were souls. The bastard was going to use souls to try and harm me. Not that it would...but still. It was going to hurt like a mo-fo.

  Ha, ha. Mo-fo. That one always makes me smile.

  Oh right, souls. Mind back on track. Check.

  Kalen noticed the change in the air too because before I knew it, he was between me and the man casting the little spell.

  “Move!” I yelled, already too late.

  Three things happened at once. The man threw a blade at the same time as when he let go of the spell, sending thousands of whispering souls straight towards us, and I misted in front of Kalen, taken the brunt of the spell and the impact of the blade. My body moved on its own, knowing the spell could potentially kill Kalen and I couldn’t let that happen just yet.

  The spell sent me backwards, into Kalen’s arms. All my senses went on the fritz, blinking in and out. I knew Kalen yelled my name. I knew a woman screamed. And someone died. I just didn’t hear or see any of it. My body went cold, filling to the top with thousands of screaming torturous souls. Each one of them begging for salvation and crying out in vain.

  Save us.

  Help me.

  Save us. Help
me. Save us. Help me. Save us. Help me.

  Save us. Save us. Save us.

  Help us.

  Their begging drowned me. A part of me wanted to reach out and help them. Instead I found my inner strength and pulled at it, tugging as the souls tried to tear it away from me.

  No. I won’t do it. I refuse.

  I screamed, not out of pain, but out of anger. This was my body. There was no room for them.

  None.

  It took a good amount of power. I collected it all within me, and then used it to push all those damned souls out.

  They put themselves in that situation, doing things in life and being punished for it afterwards. They had no right to take their suffering out on me. I have my own suffering to deal with. Who knows, maybe one day I’ll be just like them.

  Just not today.

  I felt each soul leave from every pore in my body as I casted them out. It was like forcing them through a pasta machine. Slowly, my senses cleared up enough to know I was on the ground and Kalen was above me, shirtless.

  Nice.

  “Where’s your shirt?” I coughed, hacking out another soul, distracted by all the hard ridges of his body. I followed them from his collarbone, down the defined lines to his abs and then to his hips. All the delicious looking muscles were bunched together as he leaned over me. He didn’t even know the kind of affect he was having on me. I was still a woman after all. He was so damn oblivious.

  Blood was splattered on his shoulders, slowly dripping down his chest. I checked again. No wounds. Good.

  “Stopping the bleeding.”

  I tore my eyes from his chest to look at his face. He was in freak-out mode. His face pale, eyes big and mouth tight. Why?

  I tried to sit up, only to be pushed down again.

  “Stay down,” he growled and put more pressure on my stomach. I looked down and realized he thought I was going to bleed out or something. He was genuinely scared for me. I stared at him, trying to figure out why. Where was his foundation for this fear?

  I finally gave him a genuine smile, the muscles around my mouth confused at the new way it was being used. “No worries, doc. I’ll be fine.” I grabbed his arm and tried to get him to move, but he wouldn’t budge. The wound didn’t even hurt. I healed fast, faster than most beings. It made that simple knife useless. There was no way it was even going to put my life in jeopardy. To a human, this wound was on par with being just a scratch, maybe a really bad paper cut. Definitely not life threatening.

  “You were stabbed, you’re not fine.”

  “Kalen.” My voice was cold now. If he didn’t move his shirt, it was going to become part of my body. The last thing I wanted was to walk around with part of a shirt embedded inside of me. “Move your hand.”

  He glanced at me before looking back at where the wound was. Slowly he drew his hand away, taking his blood-soaked shirt with him. The shirt even made a sloshing wet noise. Ick.

  Kalen drew in a breath. “Wha-how?”

  “I’m not human, remember?” I said, feeling tired. Kicking out all those souls took a whole lot of power and now I was using the rest to heal myself. “I’m harder to kill than even you.”

  Kalen was speechless, not sure how to react. I just stood up, looking around the alley. Two men laid dead on the ground, the third was gone. Their boss-man was not one of the guys on the ground, meaning more would probably attack later on, after regrouping and a little more planning than just chasing them through the crowded streets of Rheems.

  The woman was checking on her little savior.

  “Chris,” she said, patting his face lightly.

  “Tracy? Are you okay?” The boy, Chris, sat up with alarm, taking in the scene. Tracy let out a small sob as she wrapped her arms around him, so relieved that he was okay.

  “Where’s the boss-man-dude?” I asked, looking at Kalen.

  He stood up slowly, leaving the shirt on the ground. I reached out to the shadows and called to them. They responded, going towards the shirt, wrapping itself around it. I pictured my small apartment and in moments the shirt was gone. So was any blood that was staining the asphalt.

  “What did you do?” Kalen asked, watching me carefully, as if I might all of a sudden turn into a raging beast. Did that little move scare him? I frowned a little.

  “A lot can be done to a person with just their blood,” I said simply and asked again. “Where is the guy who was in charge?”

  I jerked my heads towards the dead bodies.

  “He got away.”

  I cocked my eyebrow. “And how exactly did he get away?”

  His voice was angry when he responded. “You were on the ground bleeding. What else was I supposed to do? I picked you over him.”

  Me over him?

  My face scrunched up a little. “I don’t understand.”

  “You were on the ground, bleeding. I decided your life was more important, so he got away when I decided to help you instead,” Kalen talked even slower and louder.

  “I’m not deaf, Kalen! I just don’t understand. You should’ve chased him,” I snapped at him.

  “When someone generally sees a child on the ground, bleeding from their stomach, they usually pick them over chasing the bad guy.”

  “I’m not a child.”

  “Apparently,” Kalen snapped right back at me. After a moment he sighed and went to rub at his face and stopped just as his fingers were about to touch his skin. He jerked his hands away and wiped at his jeans, trying to get the blood off him, like it was going to burn him or something.

  I took in a deep breath and let out the tension in my body. It was best to dwell on what he was saying later on. I came before someone else? I shook my head. No. Just no. It never happens.

  I brought the shadows over and let them crawl all over Kalen who just stiffened. When they fell away, my blood was off of him.

  “I’m serious about the blood,” I said. He just kept quiet.

  Chris and Tracy were back on their feet, watching us carefully. Chris stared at me, pondering over some thought he just couldn’t quite put together.

  “Thank you so much for helping us,” Tracy said, looking over at Chris fondly. “We should probably get out of here.”

  So that’s how it was. I smiled a little. They were all lovey-dovey with each other and Chris couldn’t let her be used like that. She would have been fine—eventually.

  “I should walk you back, in case anyone else comes,” Kalen said, being the gentleman that he was.

  Tracy seemed just as surprised with his attitude as I was. There just weren’t many true gentlemen around anymore. “Are you sure?” she asked, probably trying to decide if she should be suspicious or not.

  “It’s no problem,” he replied, smiling. It was a soft, open smile and transformed his entire face, making him less predatory.

  Chris jerked back, finally becoming very alert. “I know you,” he said, swallowing. He pulled his precious Tracy behind him.

  “Know who?” Tracy asked.

  He pointed at me. “Her.”

  “I know me too.” I smiled up at him.

  “You’re Darkness.”

  I curtsied, lifting up my dress a little. “The one and only.”

  Tracy looked between us, confused. Chris looked at Kalen then back at me, his eyes dropping down to where I was stabbed. My poor dress was definitely ruined. It was one of my favorites too.

  “The rumors about you have to be true.”

  “Then it makes it easier,” I smiled, showing my teeth. When I spoke again, I weaved in the threatening tone with a hint of magic to drive it home. “Kalen is under my protection.” The air around us shifted, accepting my official words.

  Chris stepped back, looking at Kalen again for a moment, swallowing again.

  “Under protection?” Kalen sputtered. “I don’t need someone to protect me.”

  I turned to him. “You have no idea what you’re saying.”

  Protection from a being meant any threats to those they we
re protecting go to the being instead. I pretty much claimed Kalen, telling Chris that if any harm came to him, I was hunting his ass down and destroying it. When I’m done, there will be nothing left of his ass to hand back over to him.

  “He doesn’t want your protection,” Chris pointed out. I rolled my eyes.

  Men—stubborn mules to the max.

  “I could care less what he wants. If any harm comes to him, consider yourself dead.” I smiled, making myself look just like a child. It had the affect I wanted. Chris swallowed, paled, and was ready to make a run for his life.

  “Darkness! Enough,” Kalen growled. I just stared at Chris, smiling.

  “I understand,” Chris finally said.

  “As long as we are on the same page.” I turned to Kalen. “I have shit to do. Don’t get yourself killed.”

  He glared at me, angry. I shrugged.

  He was in a new world. He was going to be used, no doubt about it. Looking at Chris, I couldn’t help but think he was the one who was going to be doing the using if Kalen didn’t toughen up soon. Necromancers were never up to any good.

  I watched as the shadows engulfed Darkness. She was still smiling at Chris, her blue eyes cold enough that even polar bears wouldn’t be able to withstand her stare. When she disappeared it was as if my body wanted to go back out into the city and keep looking for something.

  What was it about her? She wasn’t Akhlys. She was just a child, a little girl. Nothing like the being my master wanted me to find.

  “Do you know what she is?” Chris asked and I turned to him with a frown.

  “I think I’m beginning to figure it out.”

  Chris shook his head. “It’s better to just avoid her, save yourself the trouble.”

  “Why? Who is she?”

  Chris shrugged and pulled Tracy into his arms. Tracy looked at me with such sad grey eyes that I wanted to ask her what was wrong. I bit my tongue and followed as we made our way back down the side street, getting back to where people were.

  “Where do you live?” I asked them.

  “Not far from here,” Tracy replied with a small voice. She looked exhausted, and definitely still scared. I didn’t blame her.