Message Bearer (The Auran Chronicles Book 1) (4 page)

At some point he fell asleep. It was a
restless slumber, his dreams haunted by images of that night. The shame of his
inability to act was the worst. He didn’t consider himself brave, but never
before had he thought himself a coward. Yet, the girl had died, not giving up
until the very end. He had whimpered. He had cried, and then he had nearly died
himself.

He woke with a jolt, the
image of those malice-filled eyes fading from his mind. His heart thumped like
a jack hammer. He sat up straight and reached for the water by his bed. His
mouth was parched and his head throbbed.

A noise outside caused
him to pause, jug in mid pour. Had he imagined it? A trick of an overexcited
mind? He forced the feeling down with a shake of his head. It was probably
nothing, but he noted the location of the alarm by the bed all the same. He
continued to pour.

Another noise. The squeak
of trainers on the tiled floor. A voice sounded, first out of curiosity before
rising into a shrill, brief scream that ended as quickly as it started.

Oh God, not again!

He grasped at the panic
button. He pressed it once. Twice. Come on, come on. He pressed it a third
time, dropping it to the floor as a shadow appeared at the window. He let out a
groan, barely a whimper, as the shadow shuffled towards the door. The handle
turned with a squeak, the door drifting open.

A woman in a nurse’s
uniform ambled in, her stoop so severe she was almost bent double. That
instinct flared again, the same sensation of dread as that night, not that he
needed a sixth sense to recognise that this was another inhuman aberration.
What the hell did they want with him? The woman ambled to a halt as the door
closed shut behind her. She faced him side on, her head suddenly snapping in
his direction with a sickening crack.

He hammered at the alarm
in his hand. Where the hell were they?

‘Well, well. Look what we
have here,’ the woman cackled. Her hands were raised up to her chest, fingers
bent forwards, wicked-looking nails curled down towards the ground. She turned
to face him fully, her movement jerky, her head twisting on her neck at almost
impossible angles.

Then he saw the eyes.
Black as oil.

‘Oh god!’ Hot tears stung
his cheeks. His mind seemed to retreat, trying to send him somewhere far away.

‘Who are you trying to
call?’ The woman croaked, shuffling forwards. ‘The nurse?’ She stopped, holding
up the badge on her tunic. ‘Me?’ she said, laughing, the noise like razor
blades scraping stone.

He shook his head. This
wasn’t happening! This wasn’t happening! He tried to back up in his bed but the
pain screamed through him, pinning him in place. White spots exploded in his
vision.

‘Please, don’t...’ he
managed to whimper.

‘Oh don’t worry, Dear,’
she said, shuffling ever closer. ‘I only need your heart. I don’t know what’s
been given to you, but it will taste divine.’

She was almost on him
when he noticed the shimmering in the air behind the woman. Something crackled.
The shimmer behind the woman rippled outwards, like a pebble dropping in a
pond. Another figure appeared, a shadow with two striking yellow eyes which
stared at him from the dark.

The woman didn’t seem to
feel the arrival behind her, but she noticed the change in Seb’s focus. She
began to turn just as the shadow leapt, a dark blade flashing in the light as a
gloved hand gripped her jaw, forcing it upright. The blade drew a line across
her throat, black blood spewing forth. The woman looked simply bemused as she
collapsed into a heap.

The shadow stepped
forwards, entering the light of the lamp. It was a he, a young man, not far
from his own age. The man’s skin was pale, almost a translucent shade of grey.
His lips were dark, the colour of ruby. It was the eyes that held him
transfixed, though. They
stalked
him, taking in the scene like a wolf
stalking its prey.

‘Are you okay?’ The voice
was slight, barely audible, a faint accent it.

Seb nodded, words beyond
him.

‘We need to go, there
will be others.’ The man glanced at the bandages covering Seb’s stomach, at the
ever growing patch of claret.

‘I can’t move, it’s too
much. The pain. I just can’t.’ He slumped back, dejected.

‘Lay back. This won’t
take a moment.’

Before Seb could even
react, the man took his blade and sliced up the bandage, cutting cleanly, the
material falling to one side. A gauze covered the stitched wound. The man
sheathed the dagger somewhere inside his tunic and took off his gloves. He took
a small pouch from inside his sleeve and emptied the contents - a thick, black
paste - into the palm of one hand. He clasped his hands together, rubbing them
vigorously, the paste turning his skin a dull brown colour. He raised his hands
up, palms facing downwards.

‘This will hurt.’

He placed his hands on
the wound.

It wasn’t a lie. A
scorching heat erupted from Seb’s sternum, rippling outwards like waves of
fire. He arched his back, trying to stifle a scream but failing, the noise
resounding down the hall beyond. The fire ebbed away quickly, leaving a dull
ache at the wound.

‘We could’ve done without
that,’ the man chastised. He stepped back. ‘How does it feel?’

Seb blinked and let out a
shaking breath. He looked down at the wound. The bleeding had stopped. An ugly
black sludge covered the area now. Thin, dark lines spun away from the area
like veins. He gingerly touched the area. Nothing. He touched it again. Still
nothing. He dared to sit upright, and, aside from a slight tweak, he felt fine.

‘What did you do?’

‘You would describe it as
a form of algae. It has unique healing and pain-killing properties.’

‘You mean it’s alive?’
Seb said, swallowing something unpleasant that threatened to rush up his
gullet.

‘Sort of.’ The man moved
to the door, Seb noting the complete lack of sound he made. He crouched and
leaned out into the hall. He scanned both ways before looking back.

‘Come, we must hurry.
More of them will be drawn to you.’

Seb felt like he was
wading in treacle. He willed himself out of the bed and struggled to his feet.
His mind, overwhelmed with so much information, much of it contrary to what he
knew about the world, was on the brink of close down.. Something deep down though,
a twinkling spark of resistance, wouldn’t allow it. He focused on this, gaining
strength from it. He had no idea what was going on, what he’d stumbled into,
but he was alive, and on some insane level, following this killer seemed the
best way of remaining in that state.

‘Who are you?’ he said as
he joined the man at the doorframe. He shot a look down the corridor, noting
for the first time that the fluorescent lights were turned off, the only
luminescence coming from emergency lights above the fire exits.

‘Cade. You are Seb?’

Seb nodded. ‘You’re not
human are you, neither was
that
?’ he said, nodding to the still twitching
corpse on the floor.

‘No, I’m not, not
anymore, the woman too. She was human though, once. Tonight she was just a
vessel for something else. Your people would call it a daemon, but they’re
known to my kind as the sheol.’

Seb opened his mouth to
follow that up. He had so many questions, his mind a tumult of thoughts and
emotions. A sharp look from Cade stilled that though.

‘I know you have many
questions. Answers will come, but for now, we must get you out of here.
Something happened to you. Between you and Sarah. We don’t know what it was, or
why it was you, but something did, and we need to understand why. Now, follow
me. We’re not safe yet.’

They edged out into the
corridor, Seb following Cade as he crept down the hall. The blade was drawn
again, held in Cade’s right hand, pommel forwards, blade facing back and
pressed flat against his forearm. Seb noticed another blade now, a twin to the
first, was held in Cade’s other hand.

As they walked past the
other rooms of the ward, Seb noticed a common feature. All the lights were out
and all the beds were empty. They reached the reception. Seb nearly tripped as
he saw the nurse sprawled over the counter, his neck twisted at an impossible
angle.

‘Where is everyone?’ he
whispered. ‘The ward’s empty.’

‘You were put in here by
the police as they thought you’d be safer away from a public ward. You were a
witness to a murder. The killer is still out there. This ward was re-arranged
to accommodate you, and your guard.’

‘Where is -’ the words
died in his throat as they rounded the corner beyond the reception. A mutilated
police officer lay sprawled on the floor next to a vending machine. Still
steaming coffee bloomed out across the floor.

‘She did that?’

‘She wasn’t a she, she-’

Cade stopped, his head
snapping towards the green door marked "Fire Exit". At the same time,
Seb became aware of a new sensation, a strange crackling, like static. He
rubbed his fingers in his ears but the noise remained.

‘What is that?’

Cade spared him a glance,
a look of what appeared to be shock on his face. A noise from beyond the fire
exit stole his attention, and he moved towards the door. As he neared the
barrier, where whoever was coming up was just behind the door, he did something
that caused Seb to freeze on the spot.

He vanished.

The door burst open. Two
hospital porters stood there, mouths agape, arms hung low like apes. It was
their eyes though that gave their true nature away. That and the fire-axe and
knife that each welded.

‘We wondered what had
kept dear, sweet Mary. Now we know,’ the orderly on the left snarled, drool
pouring from his mouth. The other grunted, his face one that did not display
any real intelligence. They both stepped forwards, lumbering towards him.

The air shimmered behind
them. Cade appeared from the shadows. The blades flashed and the dumb one
dropped like a stone. The other, the one who’d spoken, was quicker, and he
whipped the axe round to face the danger, aiming a wild strike at where he
anticipated his attacker’s face would be. The axe fizzed but hit nothing but
air. Cade dropped to a crouch, the movement preternaturally fast. He moved into
the man, one dagger slamming into his stomach with such force that it lifted
the orderly off his feet. Momentum carried him forward and Cade was forced to
let go of the dagger as he stumbled forwards. He spun about, putting himself
between Seb and the orderly.

‘You have no business
here,
Brother
,’ the orderly grunted, clutching the wound in his abdomen
where black blood streamed forth, pooling on the floor by his feet.

Cade didn’t respond. He
merely maintained a ready pose, squatting close to the floor, the other dagger
held forward, business end pointed at the orderly. Seb noticed that his free
hand was reaching behind him, taking hold of something hidden in his tunic. His
hand whipped, a blur, and something shiny flew out, striking the orderly in the
throat. Blood poured freely as he collapsed to the floor.

Cade rose and retrieved
the other dagger from the dead porter’s stomach. He looked down, studying the
man for a moment before taking a phone from his tunic.

‘It’s me,’ he said,
motioning for Seb to get up. ‘I had to go in. They found him.’

Someone spoke back, their
voice loud, animated.

‘I don’t know, all I do
know is that he’s lit up like a bloody Christmas tree. I need to get him to
Skelwith.’

Skelwith?

That voice again, calmer,
but still loud. Seb strained to hear with no luck.

‘Understood. I’ll need
support. Anything in the area? Good. Let my father know, too.’

Whoever was on the other
end of the line hung up. Cade slid the phone away and moved to the fire exit
stairwell.

‘Come on!’

They hurried through the
door and down the stairs beyond. Cade kept slightly ahead, checking every
corner, his yellow eyes scanning the gloom. Seb stayed back, clutching, more
out of habit than need, the black mass on his stomach. It didn’t hurt, only
ached, the knowledge that something was feeding off his injury disconcerting to
say the least.

They went through floor
after floor, encountering no more of the things that had attacked them earlier.
The lights on these levels were on, and Seb could hear the murmur of activity
on each floor beyond the doors, the noise of nearby life making him feel more
comfortable.

They arrived at the last
door. “U1” was marked on the wall beside it. Cade kicked it open and they
emerged into an underground car park. It was largely empty, save for a couple
of vehicles stationed near to where they emerged. Cade headed towards a black
Audi A4 that was parked nearest them. Seb followed.

The car bleeped as they
approached. Cade opened the back passenger side door and nodded inside.

‘In.’