Evanescent (32 page)

“I can wait for the moment you lose. It’s going to be the sweetest taste.” Troy grinned wickedly.

I pushed against the wall behind me and twisted out of Enoch’s grip, trying to take him down with me. I watched Troy take to the air as the force of Enoch’s bionic arm hit him right in the center of his wound. My vision flared crimson, and I found myself on top of Enoch clawing at his face like a ravening monster. Enoch simply stood and flung me from his back. I quickly found my legs again, ready to strike, when my very own clone came at me. All I could think about was that if she had poison on her, I didn’t want her to touch me. I managed to miss each punch, each claw grabbing for me. With Enoch so close, she did not have the ability to keep the Shadow from overpowering her. She had almost fully shifted when I managed a hard blow with a nearby iron tool to her head. I hated doing it, but she needed to go down. It was safer for her, and everyone else that way. Maya and Rion’s moans and grunts filled the tiny, gray, walled room followed by the clatter of metal tools slicing through air as they kept drones at bay. Enoch swore as Troy got a very good punch right in his mouth. Enoch spat dark blood. Looking up, I bit down harder on to an already clenched jaw. Enoch had Troy almost jammed into a wall, but it was what happened next that caused me to waver; I was just not strong enough to stomach it. From his mechanical arm, a gas excreted. I screamed and it echoed through my head, pounding into my chest. Blood rushed into all my extremities. Troy got a good solid uppercut to Enoch’s jaw, before he started choking on the deadly gas. Enoch stumbled back, released Troy to fall onto all fours, blood pouring from his mouth and nose. I rushed to Troy. When I touched him, my breath came away in golden wisps, twirling around my body and into Troy. I would heal him! Suddenly I was pulled back, slammed against something hard. My vision blurred, my flesh instantly bruised. My insides knotted together, and then froze as I stood watching it all fall to pieces. Troy’s heart was giving in.

“What did you do?” I screamed at Enoch as he found his balance.

I choked back searing tears, held my chest so tight, frightened it would cave in. The gagging and gargling noises coming from Troy turned my sanity, certain it would kill me. I ran at Enoch and slid between his legs before his arm punched down, missing my head by inches. I stood, kicking him in the back of the knee. I was going to rip his head off. Enoch stumbled, almost gave, but his metal arm came around and shoved me into the wall, threatening to crush me. Maya and Rion helped Troy from the floor. My clone got to her feet suddenly, but Maya held the clone in mid-air with only as much as a gaze. Rion pulled his dagger and flung it at Enoch, but he only gave the slightest twitch as it pierced his back. He laughed as his hand started to crush my windpipe.

Enoch shoved me closer to the wall. “You don’t listen too well. After today, you will have nothing left, and it won’t be my doing.”

My world spun upside down.

“Get him out of here!” I tried to shout. Troy wasn’t healing this close to me, his guardianship wouldn’t allow his powers to work when I was in the vicinity.

“We won’t leave you,” she shouted back, her eyes still focused on holding the clone locked in mid-air.

“I… am… coming,” I forced out.

They turned away with Troy dangling between the two of them. The clone dropped to the floor and looked back, her stare dark, yet there was something else – she was scared.

“Say your goodbyes.” I closed my eyes to the darkness.

Troy
’s scream faded, but it was too late for him to bring me back. Darkness fell. Everything fluttered away like black ash.

I had to have faith. I was meant for light, and it would always pierce the dark. I would come back from the shift, I would beat the darkness – it was my providence.

“See you on the other side.” I exhaled into the reflection of my face on Enoch’s metallic shoulder plate, and released the shift. This time it flooded in, waves overpowering me, the power had me, pleased me, it was like taking a hit from something so sweet and numbing. I smiled as everything dulled over, and the black curtain of the blood-shift wrapped its shadow around me. At least there was no fear, and the shock on his face as Enoch registered what I was about to do in front of Troy was precious. But instead of the blood-shift it was something else, it took me with flashes of every single emotion, thought, feeling and sense I had ever had the grace to feel. For one second only, I bared my soul before it imploded, replaced by something hungry, and with a hollowness that nothing could fill. He thought I would never shift in front of anyone but him. The time had come, and I was ready to show Troy all of me, even if by then it was too late. Failure was all I had known and I let it all go, accepted that my actions had led to that moment, to me losing everything; the good and the bad. That moment was what Enoch had meant when he had said that he would take everything from me. I had just realized I would be the one that was the cause of my own destruction. And I would do it again, just to see to it that Troy was unharmed. The cold filled my heart. Unhinged from all reality, I drew in the shift. With dangling feet against the wall, I pushed against it taking Enoch with me and slammed into the opposite wall with the crushing of bones. My body moved of its own accord. I cartwheeled away from Enoch, picked up sharp tools from the floor, and kept them flying toward him as he descended upon me, his bionic arm shielding him from each sharp, glinting object. I ducked beneath his swing, but my hair caught on the sharp metal cuff and with my downward movement it ripped, making me howl out in pain and rolling over on the floor. Crouching, I waited for him to come and get me, but noticed instead he was holding his ears. My scream was like a siren. Stones and dust engulfed us from above. He came at me once again, I spun, rolling off his back, punched into the wall and pulled out a sharp shard of rock as the wall obliterated beneath my fist. Time burned past in what felt like an eternity, and I drew in my last sober breath. I flew through the air, a handless cartwheel, my legs locked around Enoch’s neck. I flung him to the ground and shoved the shard into the side of his chest, unprotected by the bionic plate. I twisted the fragment, my blood dripping into his. He grinned, coughing blood. I looked up, took a sharp breath, and released all I had ever felt right into the spike pegged into him. As emotions raked through me, I felt it; the pain of anger, love, loss. It all rippled through me with sorrow and I released it all into him, unraveling it all. For the deceit – I stabbed him, for my anger – I stabbed, grief – I stabbed, for making me a fool – I stabbed, for my remorse, my death, my failures; stab, stab, stab. He would feel every last raw emotion I had ever had, the pleasure and displeasure of feeling. For Troy – I stabbed. I knew that because of the short time I had experienced feelings, the intensity was extreme, this was my design. If I had trouble as the White Devine to bear it, it was going to kill Enoch. The shockwave obliterated everything in its path. It felt so good as it released me. I watched dark smoke clash with golden light, a fire show of my inner turmoil. I was ready to give in, and in order for me to beat our kind I had to let go of everything. Yet, there something holding me back. Faintly, I heard Maya shout out and looking up, I barely registered they had all come back for me. As the shift started to dissipate, a surge hit me – I, once again, had the hollow numbness as my only companion when everything around me crumbled. I didn’t want to be this. This time, however, the shift used me, caught me off guard. A pulse-wave rippled through the air, and pushed everyone from their feet. I had no control! I didn’t mean to. Troy’s eyes pinned mine. The roof caved. I had tattered all of me. I had fallen to the Shadow.

We followed after Troy and found him standing in a room soaked in his own blood, a spear hurtling straight for his chest. Immediately my eyes found my sister’s, dangling from Enoch’s grip, screaming. Protecting me from the oncoming spear, Rion cupped his body over mine. It flew over us, whistling through the thick, dark air before it slammed into the wall behind us and fell to the floor, landing two steps down. Rion looked at me with big, blue eyes brimmed with concern. I nodded that I was fine as he held my face in his hands, unconvinced. My heart raced to my throat trying to make sense of the scene unfolding before us.

“I said I am fine.” I wiped moisture from my face.

That’s when I saw what he was looking at. We were covered in a dark-green, radiant poison, the afterglow unmistakable. Ava had explained something like this to me before. It came from the Shadow. This kind of magic was
the
first magic. The darkest, the birth of it all. Pure and cruel. It was designed to torture minds and souls. The kind the Zulu king used on his people. On Ava.

Rion was mad, his blue eyes cut through me.

“Don’t worry.” I swallowed.

We had no time to ponder our fate. Suddenly, Rion shoved me to the floor and took on the first droid, a long line of cyborgs eagerly fighting their way to stop us and save their master. I crawled to the room, and shivered in fear when I saw Ava and her clone suddenly going at each other. Troy and Enoch beating each other to death wasn’t a new sight for me. I grabbed what weapon my hands could find and went to Rion’s aid. I ducked a metal arm as it slammed into the wall next to me, dirt and pebbles exploded in my face. I spun, lifted myself by jumping onto Rion’s back as he ducked a flying fist. I took to the air, and came down on the drone slicing into the back of his neck. I spun back, heart racing, pulse burning. Smiling, seeing my training in action was elating. Rion took one more drone out before we simultaneously ran for Troy. A dreadful scream filled the large, stone room, brining my attention to more glowing pods lining the walls in the next room. Those creatures, their limp bodies suddenly afloat. Could we save them before it was too late?

“Rion!” I shouted, seeing Enoch pin Troy to the wall, a deadly gas escaping his metal arm. We covered our mouths with our shirts, and then ran for Troy as he fell to his knees. He heaved, blood gurgling from his mouth.

Rion’s eyes flared, illuminating blue irises, his panic was well met.

“Oh, no.” I choked.

“What did you do!” I heard Ava shout to Enoch.

As we lifted Troy from the floor, the clone came at me. I gave her the most hateful, harmful glare I could, resulting in my stare lifting her off the ground where she dangled mid-air. With my mind, I imagined a cord holding her there. Ava was saying something when Rion pulled out a dagger. I had to keep my glare on the invisible rope around the clone’s body, she was a mad force to reckon with. Shifting my weight to hold Troy’s heavy body upright, my stomach twisted at the haggard breath leaving his lungs.

“Get him out of here!” my sister screamed.

I suddenly understood why she would even suggest that we leave her there. Troy could not heal when so close to her. I had totally forgotten what Mom had told me regarding the bond between guide and soul, but it’s the bond between the ignited and its flare that was at stake. I could see it in their desperate eyes. Rion’s dagger flew through the air with a soft spin of the hilt. I waited to hear it strike its intended target, while I kept my eyes on the clone, my telekinesis was astounding recently. Somehow, Enoch’s presence changed her. She was not herself. Enoch laughed and said something to Ava. I turned, feeling secure in my abilities to have tied the telepathic rope. I saw the clouds draw in my sister’s eyes, the charge build within in its dark, gray depths. Something was intensely off. Some awful event had taken place between her, Enoch and Troy. I could feel the pain ripple inside her. Whatever she had done, I was sure we could fix it. She didn’t have to feel that way.

Troy’s fist grabbed at my shirt, frantic to go back.

I shouted to her, “He won’t leave you!” I didn’t want to either. “I am coming,” Ava’s hoarse voice returned.

As we exited the room, Troy’s breathing almost stopped. Over my shoulder, I stared into Enoch’s back. Dark blood dripped from the dagger pinned beneath his shoulder blade. I stared at the familiar black hair, wide shoulders, and deep angle of his cheekbones, of a brother I once had. I couldn’t hate him, because he was gone – replaced.

I blew out a deep sigh for a loss I will never understand.

“Let’s get Troy to safety. As soon as he heals, we can come back for her,” Rion said.

Nodding, I let the clone go with a pull of my mind and we turned, suddenly rushing to get Troy to safety. We would then return for Ava, I was not going to leave her. I knew what Enoch was capable of. Ava’s mind was weak for him and I had to protect her, I hadn’t the first time around. I would now, followed by me killing her for not listening to me – ever. Troy’s arm hung over my shoulder, barely keeping it together as we moved into the corridor.

“Thank you,” Troy breathed, hardly audible, but it was a sign his healing had begun. His warm blood had seeped through my cloak and shirt, the warmth and stickiness caused me to gag. I was never one for blood, could never stand the smell, or the sight of its goriness. I swallowed deep tears, wanting so badly to cry. I had never seen Troy so broken before. We walked over the metal bodies of immobilized drones, blue light fractured and turned in their reflection. The glow of the tubes faded as we turned the corner. We started down the stairs. Ava’s clone followed silently behind, and only the hasty shuffle and scrape of our boots against fine, golden sand and the grinding of small, gray pebbles, echoed down the narrow passage. Rion grunted, readjusting Troy’s arm around his neck.

“He is heavy,” I said.

“Where are Dave and Tatos, I thought they were right behind us?” Rion asked out of frustration.

There was silence for a while, and my thoughts were all that kept me from the aching stitch in my side.

“How did you manage to get away from Enoch?” I asked Ava’s clone.

“I don’t know what you are talking about,” she retorted, harshly.

I snorted, carefully stepping down the stairs in the grimly, lit, descending tunnel.

“I know, okay, I am not stupid. You’re haltered to him, just like she is. You are all connected through the disease.”

“How do you know this?”

Her boots shuffled, her breathing suddenly heavier as she sped up.

“I am just trying to state the obvious. You made a decision to follow us, to not kill Ava, who you obviously need to in order to take her place beside Troy. That’s what you are here for, isn’t it. For Troy?”

“What are you saying?”

Rion’s eyes met mine. He shook his head.

“You can’t be that stupid, can you? You just demonstrated once again that your mind is stronger than your tie, than the Shadowing disease. You can withstand it, and so can Ava. There is hope.”

“There is none. It is inevitable. The only antidote is in Troy’s blood. I will turn, and so will Ava. He can’t possibly cure us both.”

“It’s not in his blood,” I corrected her. “It
is
him.” As I spoke, the knowledge was instant. The Ignited one was a part of the White Devine. They were of one, two pieces that needed to find their way back together in order to…
They
were the weapon. I caught my breath as the puzzle pieces fell into place. Troy coughed, haggard and painfully, bringing my attention back to him, fueling my need to get back to my sister. To let the two be together finally, as it was intended to be. We slowed to a stop, finding a smooth wall beneath a faint, golden lamp, to rest and recuperate for just a moment. Every second that passed grated at me, tearing at the seams of the very fabric that held our fate together.

“I feel better now,” Troy said.

But when he tried to stand, his knees buckled.

Rion caught him. “Give it more time,” he said, leaning him back against the wall.

Troy
took one more deep, unkempt breath. His head turned to meet my concerned glare. “Let’s go.” His eyes glossy and distant, but the fire behind them was slowly returning.

“Not yet,” Rion insisted.

Troy
shoved Rion from him, wiped blood from his bruised and torn mouth. The poison had ripped his very skin, and cut into his lungs. I was glad we had rushed him out when we did. His gray, long sleeve, almost a total blood-soaked rag, hung in tatters from his wounded body. The clone came closer. His body grew rigid. “Not you,” he uttered, looking down at his ruined shirt.

She stood back, clearing our path back up the stairs. I hoped our few seconds was enough. Abruptly, a piercing shrill rang out. Our hands covered our ears in futile attempts to drown out the ear-splitting siren. Once we recovered from the paralyzing effect, Rion and I threw punitive glances at each other. The ground started to shake beneath our feet. I looked up to find Troy already at the top of the stairs we had just come down from. Rion and I sprinted up with every ounce of energy we could muster. My pendant glowed as I drew in more vitality from around us, but the glow was also warning me. It was calling to her. As I entered the room, it was so dark it looked like a black wall had suddenly risen up before us. I called for Ava, and turned to Troy who tried to hold himself upright against a pillar. His healing had suddenly stopped as he came near the room again, the effect of Ava’s proximity immediately visible. I smelled it, the dark, before there was a flash of light, or warning. As Troy suddenly grabbed on to the wall to steady himself, he shouted something, but the rumble in the walls and the caving in of the roof was deafening. I lifted my arm, sheltering my eyes from the blazing light and flying debris, riding the wave of some invisible force. It came at us, radiating from a solid, black, smoky figure. The smell was choking, the wave rippled, bent and shoved the air into us, growing as big as a tidal wave; we flew back as it overpowered everything in the room. I grabbed on to Rion as an anchor, my nails tearing back from his flesh as I tried to hold on to the wall to stop us from flying down the steep stairs. Ava’s clone managed to use a drone’s body to block the passage. We all smacked into each other, and then landed three steps down with loud moans. With a lot of cussing, Troy was back up and heading into the room. I pushed the clone from me and we were up, trying our very best to get back into the room. I pushed past them all, noticing more drones and cyborg creatures coming toward us from the other side of the narrow hall. The entire place shook, and very faintly I heard Tatos and Robert call to us. I pushed on, eager and desperate to get Troy out of the room, as well as bring my sister with us. I watched through falling rocks and gray, chalk clouds as pillars of falling wall came down, powdering everything in a dull shimmer. The dark, smoky figure in the center of all the destruction was Ava; Enoch was pinned to the ground between her legs. She lifted a shard into the air and screamed again, her eyes locked on ours, dark, liquid tears burned down her skin. The scream pierced our ears. We had been too late, she had shifted. As the shard hit Enoch straight through his metal, chestplate, sparks flew, a golden glow turned gray, and the room turned cold as the pulse-wave brought down the roof between us and her. Seeing the Shadowing disease possess my sister was an ugly image, one I would not easily forget. Her very skin changed color, her eyes dark and empty. I pushed my hand out to stop Troy from running right into the falling boulders. As they struck the floor, the pounding was so loud I couldn’t think at all. Swiftly, Tatos was through the wall of cyborgs blocking him, and pulling us all into the safety of the tunnel.

“Now!” Tatos shouted, and pushed an image into my head.

I grabbed Rion’s hand for extra strength, grit my teeth and felt the tingle turn to a sting, and then it almost felt as if something was trying to force its way out of my throat and through my chest. Another pulse-wave rippled through the air as I screamed, feet anchored to the ground. I just needed to get past the first barrier of pain, and push the invisible wall I held back as hard and for as long as I could, acting like a shield. A tidal of pulse-waves forced its way over, into and through everything in its wake. Walls shook and stone started hailing down on us, the entrance was blocked, but my ability allowed me to push the upsurge back into the echoing darkness. The fortress rumbled like the inside of a beast’s belly in aching turmoil. I turned to see Troy leaning against the wall, drawing sharp, ragged breaths.