Crow - The Awakening (70 page)

"All I want to do is find my parents," he said to no one in particular. He almost hoped Asherah would reply. "Is that too much to ask?" He sat up and leaned back on the tree behind him. Things were getting way too weird for him. "Who am I?" He remembered who Asherah said he was. He was her life-mate, and he was special. Steven didn't understand what either of those statements meant. He looked out into the bright darkness of the forests, stood up, and paced around the tree. Everything seemed to be trying to distract him from the one thing he had obsessed about from childhood. He wanted to know who he was, to find his parents and know he was real, know he was wanted.

Instead, he had been distracted by a fantasy, denied answers by his godparents, tormented by terrifying nightmares and chased and shot at by some sort of highly trained military organization that really wanted him because they thought he was some sort of alien. "I'm nobody!" he yelled into the darkness. Looking down, he saw one of the tropical dandelions that had reminded him of his fantasy so many times. He looked around. Usually when he saw that plant he saw Asherah. "Asherah!" he yelled. He cried her name again and got no response. "You were going to show yourself to me!" It did not belong there in the forest, and yet there it was, happily growing under one of the trees. "You were going to tell me why I'm somebody!" He angrily kicked the flower and when he missed he reached down and pulled the plant up by its roots. "I'm nobody!" he yelled into the forest, holding the plant up as if it was proof.

He slumped down, frustrated and dejected. "People are treating me like I'm somebody. Hurting others to get to me. But I'm no one. Just one of billions. I can't even be crazy right." He put his head on his knees again, totally wiped emotionally.

He remembered his mission though. He had to get to the apartment. Brandon was probably waiting for him by now. But he's safe and not going anywhere. Steven leaned back. He was going to succeed. Once he got his hands on his technology, these guys were toast. He would render them to using pencil and paper when he was finished with them and they would never again be able to use technology. But the fact that he had to go through such effort just didn't make sense. Steven remembered all the warnings his godparents gave him about these people. But why? Why were they so motivated to capture him? What does he have that they could possibly want? That they were willing to kill to get? Laurence called him an alien. Was he joking? Surely. But now Asherah was hinting at similar. Was he going mad, or was everyone else instead?

Asherah looked down and saw a pine cone. It didn't belong there in the tropical jungle. The trees on the other side had become much more corporeal. She picked it up. If she wanted, she could take it to the cave with her and put it with the other pine cones she had hidden there, a physical reminder of Steven. He was near. But he wasn't alone. Someone was stalking him, the same man that had been chasing him all this time. Asherah's joy at finally being able to freely embrace her true love turned to fury. Every step of the way she had been interrupted in joining with her life-mate, and now someone was out to ambush him and take him away from her yet again.

Becoming predatory, Asherah blended into the forest. She could see through the fracture now and walk among the trees. Steven was very close. She could feel him so strongly and it was almost intoxicating. She fought to maintain her focus, fought the overwhelming urge to run to him. Then she saw Steven jump down to the ground. Her heart jumped. She wanted so badly to go to him and grab him and never let go. Her heart ached at the missed opportunity. He was in danger and she was the one with the element of surprise. If she went to him, they both would be in danger. If she contacted him, he would look around and also be in danger. Crying in frustration, she ducked behind a tree, peeking out to watch him tend to one of his wounds. She hugged the tree as she listened to his torment and doubt, weeping silently as she restrained herself.

The plants located Asherah's target. But he was not in the forest. Grass didn't have much power and was not a suitable defender. The man was coming up the dirt road, sticking to the shadows. But she knew where he was, because the forest did. Growling quietly, she crouched down and began to hunt the hunter, using the plants to hide her. He appeared to have some sort of device on his head that allowed him to see Steven in the dark. He could have seen her too but she was off to the side and he was focused on his prey. Smiling cruelly, she enjoyed the irony of it as she silently approached him. Her frustrations were coming to a head, building up in her like a coiled spring as she stalked him like a predator. Her diminutive fangs were far less developed than those of Lohet or Migalo, but they were big enough to rip through his flesh like a razor and she was prepared to use them.

He stopped. Asherah froze, then slowly ducked behind a large tree. The girth of the tree hid her well and he continued his stalking, slowly pulling out what looked like a steel stick. He was intent on battering her life-mate and that simply was not going to happen. She started approaching the intruder again on a silent intercept course. As she reached the edge of the forest she stopped, blending with the underbrush as he walked by just inches away.

A feeling of euphoria enveloped Asherah as she coiled and prepared to strike. As she had so many other times before during Steven's torments, she was fulfilling her partnership with her life-mate, even if he didn't realize it, by defending him. This time in person. Asherah borrowed some of his strength as she steeled herself for the attack. Then, like the snap of a stick, all of her energy was released in an instant and she erupted from the underbrush, roaring at the top of her voice as her fingers clawed into the flesh of the intruder and her teeth found their mark on the back of his neck while the ferocity of her attack knocked him down. In her mind she yelled at Steven to run as she sought to rip the man’s neck out, trying to position her canines up on his vertebrae so she could break his neck.

As he fell he twisted, trying to escape her deadly embrace and suddenly Asherah felt an elbow hit her jaw, knocking her off onto the ground. With adrenaline pumping through her, she bounced and jumped back at him immediately. However, he was twisting and moving in ways she had never seen before and suddenly his palm was striking her sternum, taking the wind out of her. Before she fell she endured three more blows, each pushing her to the ground all that much faster.

Anger turned to frustration and finally to desperation as Asherah tried to get back at him. She bloodied him every time he got close, but his counter attacks were devastating and suddenly she was very scared. He had something in his hand and it discharged loudly. She felt something graze her neck, cutting through her skin as it went by. Shocked by the pain and noise, Asherah fell back. She coiled to strike again but suddenly endured another flurry of overwhelming blows that knocked her on her back.

Gasping in pain, Asherah rushed into the forest and he gave chase, aiming that weapon at her. Bark from the tree next to her showered her with little bits as another projectile narrowly missed her. The stalker was now chasing her and quite suddenly she was in her jungle. Looking back, she saw him but before she could gather the plants to her defense he struck her in the head. Dazed, she rushed toward her cliff, screaming for help. He burst out of the forest in pursuit, hot on her heels, and Asherah was knocked down as he kicked the back of her knee. Screaming in pain she rolled over just in time to miss a blow to the head from his metal stick. He reached back to hit her again when he was knocked back by her chaperone.

But the man didn't stop or even hesitate. He redirected the new attack back at the chaperone, turning the chaperone's own energy against himself and unleashing a series of terrifying blows on him that Asherah was sure was breaking bones. She had never seen anyone move like that before. Every part of the man was a weapon and he brought it to bear like a storm, keeping up the attack as her chaperone backpedaled.

As Asherah got up and started climbing up to her cave she saw him kick her chaperone in the gut strong enough to lift him off his feet and knock him back onto the rocks of the cliff. Before the chaperone had even landed, the man pulled out his weapon again and shot him. She saw what looked like a small metal dart dig into his chest, and the chaperone rolled over in agony, gasping and suddenly unable to fight any more.

Her eyes wide in terror, Asherah continued to climb. Her way to the safety of the jungle was completely blocked by this man and her only escape was up the cliff. But he just smiled and started climbing up the rocks after her. She kicked rocks loose as she climbed, but he was a skillful climber and dodged the falling stones, continuing the climb unabated. She entered her cave and tried to block the door but he slammed into it, knocking her back onto the hard floor. She scrambled back, looking for any cover or anything to use as a weapon but there was none.

The man grinned and crouched down, resting on his haunches as he telescoped his metal stick closed and holstered his weapon. Then he asked her about a game. Something about twenty questions. The only thing she could do was stare at him as he smiled sadistically and pulled out long plastic strips from a side pocket on his pants and stood up, approaching her.

Suddenly Steven felt something out in the forest. Someone. More than one. Shockingly, one was extremely familiar and his heart jolted. Asherah. She was here? Then he heard a blood curdling scream. "Asherah?" He stood up, peering into the forest. It sounded just like her when he was wrestling with her as a young teenager. But Steven remembered that a puma was hunting in this area and they also sound like a screaming woman. Perhaps that was what he heard? He was too emotionally discombobulated to locate the puma, however. He took a deep breath, closing his eyes and reaching out. It felt just like her and she was close, but far enough away that he couldn't see her through the underbrush. Suddenly, Asherah yelled in his mind loudly enough to jolt him and make him wince, "Run! Steven, run! You're in danger!" And that was it. Silence.

A gunshot went off not far away and Steven reflexively ducked, as if that would have done any good. But that sealed the deal. Someone had followed him this far. Perhaps the puma was defending him. But why was Asherah yelling? Could she sense something he could not? Or something he simply wasn't aware of? He wasn't going to stick around to find out. Grabbing the bark, he shimmied up the tree like a rocket, accelerating as he went up until he was almost to the very top. He swung the tree back and as it rebounded he pushed off. In very short order he was flying through the branches again. "Asherah?" he called out as he traveled. She didn't answer. What was all that about? Was it a coincidence?

After several
miles
he started to feel better. The life of the forest was a healing force that helped him regain his composure. If he was crazy, then he was crazy. But out there in the forest, he was home. Breathing deeply, taking in the fresh air, he stopped at the top of a tree, holding on as it swayed under his sudden weight and rebounded. "Okay, so let's say I'm not completely nuts," he said into the air. Asherah was surely listening. "Why me? What makes me so special that you are spending so much time pestering me?"

He listened inward, waiting for a response. But there was nothing. Only silence. "Asherah?" Steven asked. She had spent all this time trying to convince him she was real and now she wasn't responding? "Okay, I am now actually trying to start a discussion with you, and you're ignoring me?" He felt a little offended, but at the same time worried. Deep inside he was still terrified but then someone had just tried to shoot him. However, the amount of terror he felt wasn't commensurate to the attack. After all, he had been shot at for the past two days and this wasn't anything like that. What was eating at him? He felt out into the forest but didn't detect anyone. He was having trouble trusting his nerves however, since he didn't detect anyone before and someone had obviously snuck up on him and was shooting.

"Is this how madness happens?" Steven looked around, observing the tops of the neighboring trees that seemed to go on forever. Over the next hill there was a glow. He was getting close to civilization, but he wasn't concerned with that just now. "I try to ignore you and you won't leave me alone, and I try to talk to you and you won't respond. Is that how people go crazy?" Steven was distraught, second guessing himself yet again but unable to deny the worry that nagged at him.

Only silence greeted him. Inside he still had that foreboding sense of doom, but then that has been with him for a couple of days and wasn't out of place. He ignored that as he tried to decide whether or not he was losing his mind. Part of him wondered if this whole thing wasn't one big hallucination. Sniffing, he continued his trek toward his apartment. It was time to rejoin reality and put all of this behind him.

His night vision goggles were clearer now that there was little between him and Steven. Steven was almost right in front of him a few dozen
yards
away sitting on the ground. He kept to the side of the fire road as Steven sat there talking to himself. Laurence walked as softly as possible, feeling all the while that he was trying to sneak up on a squirrel. His quarry could see him at any moment and climb up into the canopy faster than he could run to him. He stopped and knelt behind a pile of soil at the side of the road and listened to Steven. What was that name he was yelling? Asherah? Who was that? More questions for him to ask when he captures him. But the kid seemed distraught, and did not understand why he was so important. Laurence grinned. A diamond that doesn't know its value.

He stood up and continued stalking Steven, keeping bushes and underbrush growing along the side of the road between him and Steven. While trees blocked his infrared goggles, the bushes didn't make a difference and made good visual cover to allow him to get closer to his target. He was scarcely breathing as he closed in. His reputation sat there on the ground whining and having a pity party but would soon be in his custody. Then he would have a discussion with his boss about undermining his authority in the middle of his mission. Steven's capture would be justification for all the trouble he had gone through to get him. From him they would learn more about the aliens than they had learned in hundreds of years. His name would go on the wall of the Hall of Honors, and no one would ever be able to question his value to the Order ever again.