Message Bearer (The Auran Chronicles Book 1) (5 page)

Seb ducked his head and
jumped inside. The interior smelled new, fresh from the forecourt.

Cade got in and threw his
sheathed weapons into the passenger seat. He dropped a coat over the top of
them before gunning the engine. The car whipped round in reverse, the
windscreen now facing the exit ramp.

‘We’re still a long way
from safety. Keep your head down. It’s not over yet.’

The engine roared and tyres
screeched as the car rocketed out into the night.

Cade frowned as the boy slumped into the
back of the car. The salve would be wearing off soon and the mad dash through
the hospital would begin to take its toll. In all honesty it was a surprise
that he’d made it this far. Most of the Unaware would fall into insanity when
exposed to what this one had been through. Many would simply become catatonic,
their minds unable to cope with this new reality. Yet this one still held firm.

They reached the car park
exit in seconds, a car horn blaring out as he cut someone up. They bounced over
the speed bumps, skidding onto the side road that was thankfully devoid of any
other traffic. Cade tried to
sense
as they drove. Nothing came back, but
it didn’t make him feel less uneasy. More sheol were no doubt on their way, the
aura from the boy blazing away for all Aware to see. Like moths to a flame they
would come, and in greater numbers.

They reached a dual
carriageway that forced a turn to the left. He slowed down now, feeding into
the near-side lane that funnelled traffic away from the town centre. Blue
flashes erupted ahead and two police cars raced in the opposite direction at
high speed. Looked like some poor soul had found the bodies in the ward. He
resisted the urge to put his foot down. No need to draw attention to them now.
The sheol were one thing but it still wasn’t advisable to get the local law
enforcement on their backs.

His phone blared to life
on the passenger seat. He noted the caller, and then pressed receive on hands
free.

‘I hope you’ve got some
good news,’ he said.

‘Depends what you mean by
good
,’ Thomaz said, his heavy accent even harder to understand on the
phone.

‘Break it to me. I’ve got
a passenger. A Latent.’

‘Why? That’s not your
job.’

‘No shit. I think they
need to see this one. Anyway, what kind of welcome party have you arranged?’

‘I’ve got four on route.
They’ll be at the exit in thirty minutes.’

‘That’s not good enough.’

‘Sorry, boss, it’s all I
could get with the notice. If you hadn’t gone off like that then -’

Cade ended the call. He
could do without the told-you-so right about now. With the sirens in the
distance he floored the accelerator and slipped into the outside lane.

Screw patience.

***

They travelled down Newton Drive, towards
Stanley Park. The park was a mass of shadowed trees and bushes in the dark, but
the Way shone out like a beacon, firing a bright white column of light into the
sky.

Almost there.

He
sensed
again as
he rounded the bend that turned onto a little-used side road that led to the
park. Flickers here and there came back, but nothing coherent. He kept his
probes gentle; sheol couldn’t
sense
, but they could feel it when others
scanned them if one wasn’t careful.

He parked up at a small
car park around the back of Stanley Park. It made the route back to the Way, hidden
in the base of the clock tower, further than was ideal, but it gave them less
chance of being spotted by any other being, be it human or Sheol.

‘Seb, wake up.’ He gave
Seb a kick, the boy mumbling something that sounded vaguely like a curse. He
kicked him again, hard.

‘Ow!’ Seb sat bolt
upright, his face a mask of anger. His memory caught up with him and he visibly
sank back into the car.

‘Come on, we have to
move.’

‘Where are we going?’

‘Out of here. To safety.’

To his credit, Seb
climbed out of the car without further protest. He had to be terrified, worse
even. Perhaps shock had kicked in, protecting his mind from what its senses
were telling it. Maybe he was hoping it was just a dream, that he’d just wake
up in a minute and all of this would be nothing but a nightmare.

Tough luck, kid.

They entered the park,
keeping off the main road that led into the centre where the clock tower stood.
They kept to the trees on the left, the elevated ground providing a vantage
point to spy any potential Sheol before they could have chance to act.

They’d come a few hundred
yards along the ridge, the trees thinning as the nearest building, a café by
day, formed out of the gloom. Cade waved a hand, motioning Seb to keep low. He
scanned the surroundings, his eyes providing a green-tinted night vision, the
vista before him almost as clear as day. Nothing there. He cast his
sense
forward, straining it to its limits, but picked up nothing. He made as if to
rise when he felt Seb move behind him.

‘Hello there, fella, who’re
you with?’ Seb said.

Cade spun round, blades
out in a flash. A small dog, a terrier, was nuzzling the boy’s hand. The boy
returned the affection, stroking the animal into a frenzy.

‘Seb,’ Cade hissed, ‘Come
on, before…’

Too late.

‘Ruffie? Ruffie?’

An elderly couple emerged
from the gloom, their voice tinged with a vague sense of urgency. The woman
smiled when she saw the dog rubbing Seb’s hands. The man stopped, noticing Seb,
before glancing up, seeing Cade as he squatted against the tree.

‘Who are -’

Cade’s
sense
flared. The man’s aura snuffed out and was instantly replaced by a black cloud.
Somewhere, in the gap between realities, he heard a scream. The change was
almost instant.

The man froze in
mid-sentence. His head twitched, cocking sideways. His arms snapped up, hands
drawn up towards his chest as a guttural growl rumbled from his throat. He
blinked once, his eyes turning black. He bared his teeth, raising clawed hands
as he dropped to a squat.

The dog suddenly stopped its
play and turned towards the possessed man. It growled in return before
launching itself at the man as the woman began to scream. The sheol caught the
animal in one hand, the poor creature wriggling in a futile gesture as razor-sharp
talons tore through fur into soft flesh.

‘Go.’ Cade said.

‘What, where?’ Seb said,
eyes wide, locked on the still twitching animal.

‘Towards the tower! Now
run!’

Cade didn’t turn as the
boy scrambled away. Instead he held his gaze on the sheol as it ripped the dog
in half. The woman’s cries had turned into a mindless babble now as she slumped
to the floor.

The possessed man leapt
at him without pause, staggering as one of Cade’s daggers found itself embedded
in his throat. He spun wildly, clawing at the open wound as black ichor sprayed
out in a grotesque fountain that covered the woman.

Without hesitating, Cade
pivoted towards the woman, the gurgled growls that had suddenly replaced her
terrified babbling telling him all he needed to know. She lunged forwards,
leaping over the old man’s twitching body. Cade tried to duck and roll, but his
foot snagged on a tree root. He dropped to one knee as the sheol reached him, falling
forwards and grunting in pain as she leapt over, nails the strength of steel
raking his back. Rolling with the impact, he brought himself upright in a
crouch, blades at the ready.

The woman was nowhere to
be seen. He
sensed
, receiving nothing but scattered, fleeting pulses.
She was around still, but not in their immediate vicinity. He staggered
forwards, collecting his other blade from the dead possessed, which again
resembled that of its host – an old man who just happened to be in the wrong
place at the wrong time.

‘You’re bleeding.’

Cade spun round. Seb
stood at the edge of the clearing, leaning against a tree. His lips were pinched.
His face locked in a pain-filled grimace.

‘I’ll live,’ Cade said,
telling a half truth. Already he could feel the poison at work in his system, a
dull heat that would only grow in intensity without treatment.

‘How are you feeling, you
don’t look so good,’ he said.

‘I think that stuff you
gave me is wearing off, it’s starting to hurt like hell again.’

‘It will, you need proper
healing.’ He wiped the black blood off his blade and sheathed it against his
thigh. ‘Come on, we’re almost there.’

‘Where?’

‘Sanctuary.’

Seb grunted. He opened
his mouth as if to speak, but his eyes glassed over and rolled up in his head.
He slumped back, his head hitting the trunk with a thud.

‘Shit.’ Cade stepped
forwards and hefted the kid onto his feet. He was going into shock. Without the
treatment he would’ve been dead already, but it was a risk he had to take.

He doubted his father
would see it that way.

Cade shrugged the thought
from his mind and hefted Seb up so that his arm was swung over his own
shoulder. Together they limped out into the open square.

They were halfway across
when Cade’s
sense
flared to life. He dropped Seb, catching him at the
very last just before he hit the floor, letting him touch the ground gently.

The woman sheol burst out
of the undergrowth, galloping towards them at high speed. She’d assumed a more
feral form now, running on all fours, extremities now morphed into wicked
looking claws. Drool swung from her open mouth, where teeth, now elongated into
sharp fangs, flashed in the moonlight.

Cade rushed forward to
meet the charge. He feinted low as the beast barrelled towards him, the
creature leaping high and right, straight into the blade in his off hand. The
weapon ripped a hole in the beast’s gut that sliced along its body in the
opposite direction of its momentum. The sheol slid to a motionless heap several
feet behind them, entrails spooled out across the floor.

Without pause, Cade
hefted Seb up and half dragged, half carried him towards the exit. They were in
sight of the Way now, the rune-covered door, invisible to the Unaware, glowing
in the dark. The sight spurred him on, and they were near jogging speed when his
sense
flared again. What now? He cast a look behind them and saw a
slight figure, clad all in black, racing towards them across the concrete. He
dropped Seb against the door before banging three times.

‘Open up for Danu’s sake!’

Time was up. He turned back,
ignoring the tingling in his shoulders from the poison. The figure was just feet
away, their movements agile, almost cat-like. This was no sheol. The figure’s
right hand moved sharply. He ducked on instinct, pain flaring on his cheek as
something sliced his skin and slammed into the door by his head.

Cade raced to meet his
opponent. Damned if he was going to fail now when sanctuary was so close. The
shadow leapt up, drawing a short sword from their back as they did so. He
rolled forwards, under the attack, the shadow striking the ground where he’d
stood with a dull clang.

Cade was up and on the
attack in an instant. His blades danced before him, attacking high and low,
probing for gaps in his opponent’s defences. The warrior matched him for speed,
but their strength was less than his. With every attack he pushed on, forcing
the shadow back. Their blades clashed and clanged in the night, sparks flying
as they danced around the open square.

A noise from the exit
made him pause. Not another attacker? He glanced, just for a second, just
enough to see the door opening and the welcome sight of his Brothers spilling
out, just enough time for the shadow to catch him unawares.

His
sense
flared
before his own physical senses made him aware. The sword lunged. He pushed one
dagger up, pushing the tip of the sword away from his chest and into his
shoulder. Pain exploded up his side. The shadow followed through but he
twisted, ignoring the fire in his shoulder and chopping down with an iron-lined
sleeve onto their wrist. Bone gave way and the shadow let out a yelp as it
stumbled backwards.

‘Cade! Eyes!’

He knew what was coming.
Without thinking Cade threw himself to the floor, covering the unconscious Seb
with his own body, readying himself for the feel of cold steel in his back.

The strike never came.
From somewhere behind him came the familiar sound of a grenade launcher being armed.
The shadow cursed just as the grenade launched with a loud
whoompf
!

The world exploded into a
searing white light. Cade scrunched his eyes shut, waiting for the effect to
pass. Seconds that felt a lifetime drifted by, the smell of the wet earth
mixing with that of burning phosphorous.

‘Clear!’ Came a shout
from the door.

Without a second thought,
for he knew and trusted the source, Cade forced himself upright and staggered
to the open door. He cast a last look at the square, noting with no small
respect that no remains lay where the shadow had been seconds earlier. Strong
hands grabbed him as he stumbled in, dragging him into safety. Others rushed
out and collected the boy. The door shut behind him, the air crackling with
energy as ancient seals activated.