CHAPTER EIGHT
TRUE EVIL WILL BE AFOOT
While Alexandra is checking Josie’s vital signs she notices that Jake is unsteady and stumbles slightly. She says to Drake, “You don’t look so well?” Drake replies, “I’m just feeling tired, that took a lot out of me”. Alexandra tells Drake to go and have a lay down and she will inform him of Josie’s progress later in the day. Alexandra then goes to the bathroom, she removes her white shirt and begins to wash the blood off her body and out of her long wavy brown hair. Drake is standing in the doorway and he points out to Alexandra that she has missed some blood that is on her neck. He also comments on the tattoo that Alexandra has on her shoulder and back and says he likes how it has been written in Greek. He asks if it is the memorial tattoo she was going to get done. “Yes”. She then proceeds to tell Drake what it says, “Do not stand at my grave and weep, I am not there I do not sleep. I am a thousand winds that blow. I am the diamond glints on snow. I am the sun on ripening grain. I am the gentle Autumn rain. When you awaken in the morning’s hushed light, I am the up-fling of birds in flight. I am the soft star that shines at night. Do not stand at my grave and cry, I am not there. I did not die.”
Lullaby by Nox Arcana (Found on YouTube)
As Drake is walking out he comments on the beautiful poem that she has used, he also enquires as to how they will deal with Josie’s injuries. Alexandra replies, “I guess we will have to deal with them in the old fashion way, ie plaster. That, however, will have to wait until the bruising and swelling on Josie’s body goes down.” Drake, “Well, once she is healed send her back to her own home, I don’t need another complication with a human in my life at this time.” Drake crosses the hallway and enters his room which is next to Cassidy’s.
Back at the train station...Out of no-where, Dara, who was ordered to return home after he had disposed of what was left of the immortals and humans who were killed in the battle that night, suddenly appears in front of Malise. He grabs her around the throat and also grabs her arm. They struggle backwards and forwards each trying the get control of the child. Malise, who ends up with the child once again, and thinks she has the upper hand is suddenly struck in the forearm by several throwing stars that have just been thrown by Cinaed. This causes Malise to let go of the child. Dara catches the child and quickly gets it out of harms way as he and the others watch as the flesh on Malise’s arm begins to bubble and melt and fall away from the bone. By the time Dara has given the child back to its mother the whole of Malise’s forearm and part of her hand and upper arm has melted away due to the gold that has now entered her blood stream. Malise grabs at her neck and face because she can feel that it is beginning to bubble and blister and when she removes her hand she has that part of her neck and face in her hand.
Tansin screams at Malise to take her other form. Malise drops what she had in her hand onto the ground she then proceeds to pull the throwing stars out of the bone of what was once her arm. Her eyes change to blue, and she begins to transform. As she becomes the full lichen all that was destroyed by the gold begins to re-layer and re-build itself - layer by layer until it is perfectly healed.
Newar, Gitan and Curtis & William James are terrified of what they are seeing because they believed that Malise was only a harlequin and not a half-breed that had both of the abilities of her parents. Malise re-takes her human form and whilst looking at Dara, her brother, she says out loud, “It looks like someone has been keeping secrets from you all this time!”
Dara, calling his sister Malise a fucking bitch, pulls out his sword and begins to attack her. After about 8 minutes a Police tactical response team arrives. Just as the Police begin to run up the stairs and then take their positions to open fire, Tansin grabs what appears to be an innocent young woman in order to stop the Police from opening fire. Cinaed throws several smoke bombs and as they explode she yells out, “SCATTER!!” After the smoke clears the Police are left bewildered because there is no-one left standing there in front of them, except for the innocent by-standers.
Drake sits down on the edge of his bed and thinks of all those, on both sides, who have lost their lives this day. He lays back and quickly falls into a deep sleep. As both Drake and Josie sleep their minds once again meet, Drake finds himself sitting on the swing with Josie next to him with her head resting on his shoulder. Josie slowly raises her head and looks at Drake and asks him if she did something wrong to make him mad at her. Drake looks down at Josie and says, “No, whatever gave you that idea?” as he gently moves her hair off her face. Josie answers Drake’s question, “I’m sure I heard you say you didn’t want anything as complicated in your life as me!” Drake, still looking at Josie, simply smiles and tells her that she must have been dreaming.
Then Josie notices the worried look on Drake’s face and asks why he looks so scared. He goes on to tell her that he’s concerned that they will never remain friends and he will not see her again when he returns. Josie, looking up at the moon, is reminded of an old poem that her mother read to her and she recites it to Drake to put him at ease:
“Most people
want to be the sun
that brightens up
your day, but I’d
rather be the moon
that shines down
on you in your
darkest hour.”
This is the poem that began to reappear on his left inner forearm that made Alexandra afraid because it began to bring back all his true memories and so she had to wipe his mind again.
Drake is suddenly woken from his sleep and all he can think about doing is making a hand carved swing. He goes off to his workshop to find the right piece of wood to carve and as he is doing this Cassidy has just finished the rest of her treatment and is now leaving the surgical maturation tank.
After getting dressed in the new bio-mesh suit that has been left for her she notices that the guys are having an argument. Cassidy calls out to them, “What’s up with this shit?” Gitan, Newar and Jake Gameliel all try to tell her at the same time why they are so mad at Dara. Cassidy, “I can’t understand what you’re saying, one at a time would be good!” Newar tells her that Dara has been keeping a secret about his sister all these years. Cassidy asks, “What secret?” Gitan goes on to reveal to Cassidy that Dara’s sister is a half breed. Cassidy queries, “How could she be a half breed, she’s never displayed any other ability except for the powers of a harlequin?” Jake Gameliel, as he’s drinking some water, tells her what happened with Malise at the train station when she was struck in the arm by several gold tipped throwing stars. He tells her that she began to melt and fall apart then suddenly she transformed before their eyes into a were-panther.
Cassidy turns around and faces Dara with a somewhat annoyed look on her face, “Why didn’t you tell us that your sister was a half-breed?” Dara goes on to tell them that even though Malise is a traitorous bitch she is still his sister and he was trying to protect her by keeping the secret that she was a lichen so that if she ever got into real danger of dying she could use that to save herself. Cassidy, looking back at the other guys, and then turning back to face Dara once again, simply tells him that they understand.
Dara goes on to show Cassidy the throwing stars. Cassidy on seeing the symbol on the stars says to the guys, “Do you realise who threw these?” They all shrug their shoulders as if to say that they don’t have a clue. She goes on to explain that the mark on the throwing stars is the mark of the Nizarites, the most lethal assassin clan ever to exist. Cassidy says, “Since they have revealed themselves just be really careful”. Cassidy then heads off to see how Josie is doing.
When Cassidy arrives at the house she is told by Keira that Josie is upstairs in the bedroom across from hers and Drake's rooms. As Cassidy starts to walk up the stairs she asks Keira how Drake is. She answers, “He’s fine, I saw him go out to his workshop several hours ago”. Cassidy continues on up the stairs to Josie’s room. She enters the room as quietly as possible so as not to disturb Josie. Cassidy hears a voice behind her after she has walked into the room, this makes her jump a little. Cassidy says, “I didn’t see you there Alexandra! How’s Josie doing?” Alexandra replies, “She’s not doing well since we couldn’t use the regenerative fluid from the maturation tank on her”. While she is saying this to Cassidy she is rolling the vial, that contains Josie’s blood, in her hand.
Instead of Josie’s blood being bright red it is a greyish blue due to Alexandra performing a test on the blood to see if Josie really does carry the bio weapon. This is why it has turned a greyish blue which indicates that she does.
Cassidy asks Alexandra if her magic would help heal Josie since they cannot use the regenerative liquid from the maturation chamber. Alexandra goes on to explain to Cassidy that it would take someone far stronger than she is and if she failed to heal Josie then she would do more damage. While they continue to talk they hear a sound against the French doors which lead out on to the side balcony and steps. Alexandra stands up, walks over to the doors and opens them. As she is opening them she catches a quick glimpse of what she believes to be someone using a cloaking devise. She grabs the two axes from next to the shield on the wall and throws them in the direction of where she believes the cloaked person landed. With that Cassidy swings around, opens each of her hands and reveals a mixture of both fire and lightning in each palm.
Cassidy says to Alexandra, “What is it?” “I’m sure there was someone outside the door listening to what we were saying.” Cassidy replies, “Let’s find out,” whereupon she points both her palms at the tree and shoots out fire and lightning burning part of the tree to a crisp. After waiting a few moments and seeing that no-one is there Cassidy stretches out one of her hands and restores the tree to full health. Keira comes in to the room and tells them, “Master Zennyo Ryuo, the Dragon King, who is the second in command to Watatsumi, the Dragon God, from the island of Shokaku is here to see Drake. Do you know where Drake is at the moment?” Both Cassidy and Alexandra reply that they don’t know and have not seen him for some time.
Cassidy suggests a quick way to find him, she asks if they have anything that has been touched by Drake in the past few hours. Alexandra points to the neutraliser syringe which is sitting in the open case. Cassidy walks over, picks it up and begins to concentrate on the object. Her eyes begin to glow a blue/silver colour and after a few moments she tells Keira that Drake is out in his workshop. Keira leaves with Zennyo Ryuo and heads outside to the workshop. Both Cassidy and Alexandra decide to tag along after telling the other staff that they will be back in a few moments. As Alexandra and Cassidy are walking along, Alexandra nudges Cassidy in the shoulder. “Since when can you do a locator spell?” Cassidy shrugs her shoulders and says, “Since now!”
After they knock on the door, Drake calls out for them to come in. Drake says to Cassidy, “It’s nice to see that one of my oldest friends is still kicking.” Keira goes on to introduce the gentleman who is with her to Drake. Master Zennyo Ryuo bows and says that it is a great honour to meet the lord and master of all Acolytes. Drake turns around and angrily says, “Never refer to me as that again!” Zennyo, “I did not mean to offend you in any way.” Drake asks, “Why are you here?” Zennyo then begins to tell him that Lady Watatsumi was killed when they were attacked by those who serve both Kyah and Tansin. He tells him that she fought bravely to the end.
He goes on to say, “Many of my kind that were killed were instantly turned into creakers and that is how they defeated us. There are two other matters I must discuss with you.” The first matter that they discuss is about one of the rarest amplification stones that has ever been found. “Unlike the others, which are pure amethyst with quartz crystal this one is amethyst with a black and red core. This is the one thing that was stolen from the island of Shokaku and from those who are also the keepers of secrets.”
Cassidy asks, “What is the second matter that you wanted to discuss with Drake?” Zennyo, after pulling out an elaborately embroidered cloth which is covering something in his hand, replies, “It was Watatsumi’s last wish that you would accept this.” With that he opens up the cloth and reveals the fighting staff that was carried by Watatsumi and the many other ruling heads of that clan down the centuries.
As Zennyo hands Drake the new/old fighting staff so that he can get a feel for how it handles Cassidy notices Alexandra fidgeting with something in her hand, she leans over and quietly enquires about what she has in her hand. Alexandra answers, “This is the nose-ring that Josie has worn for the past few weeks, I damaged it when I took it out of her nose and I was hoping Drake would be able to repair it or make a new one.”
Suddenly Cassidy, Alexandra and Keira jump as Drake has accidently activated the two blades in the fighting staff. He stands there with a smile on his face and then he laughs out loud after watching all three of the women jump. Alexandra and Keira begin to smile and laugh as well but as he looks at Cassidy she has a really pissed-off look on her face. Drake tries to apologise for being so mean and getting a kick out of it. The look on Cassidy’s face suddenly changes as she can no longer hide the false pissed-off look on her face, she bursts out laughing….
Drake's annoyed look turns back to a smile as Alexandra and Keira just stand there clapping and also laughing. Alexandra congratulates Cassidy on keeping a straight face for so long. Cassidy, “I know, I can’t believe I didn’t laugh sooner!” Zennyo asks, “What’s the joke?” Keira explains to Zennyo that it is the first time that anyone has actually had a straight face while telling a lie straight to Drake’s face and gotten away with it.
Drake, standing there, with his arms crossed looks at Cassidy and says, “How could you keep a straight face for so long? I WILL get you back for that!” Cassidy says, “Well, I have had four years to practice since you’ve been asleep.” Drake asks Cassidy to hand him the jewellery box that is behind her. He asks Cassidy to hand it to Alexandra. As Alexandra takes the box and begins to open it Drake says, “I hope you like the very, very late birthday present I made for you four years ago.” Alexandra fully opens the box and shows everyone the beautiful colliage that Drake had made. She takes it out of the box and puts it on saying that she will never take it off, saying that it is so beautiful.
Zennyo speaks up and says, “Sorry, but I must go now and return to the island of Shokaku.” Drake and the others accompany him back to the house.
Lost In The Darkness by Nox Arcana (Found on YouTube)
Cassidy and Alexandra go on to New Atlantis and before he leaves Zennyo explains to Drake that the burial for Lady Watatsumi shall be in a couple of days at the Hall of Lost Souls. Drake and Zennyo shake hands and Drake says that he will be at the burial. As they are doing this Keira is opening the door to Arlia’s room where they put Josie when she was brought to the house. When Keira gets the door all the way open she sees the two Nizarites standing there with their swords drawn and believing that they are about to kill Josie, Keira pulls out both of her pistols and begins to open fire. At the same time she is doing this she screams out to Drake that Josie is in danger.
As Drake turns around and drops the hand-carved swing he has made he leaps across the bed and as he slams into Seneca he takes the full form of a massive white lion knocking her and taking himself as well out through the French doors over the balcony and onto the ground below. At the same time Cinaed is facing both Keira and Zennyo and for the most part getting her ass kicked very badly.
Cinaed draws out both of her swords and Zennyo quickly pulls Keira back and one of the swords just misses her throat as it is being swung in her direction. Zennyo does a round-house kick and connects with Cinaed’s chest. This knocks her backwards and makes her drop one of the swords. Cinaed turns her head to see how Seneca is getting on facing Drake and she sees Seneca jump back, then she jumps up into the air and lands on a tree branch trying to get out of the reach of Drake’s claws. Thinking that she is safe for the moment she is shocked to see Drake in his white lion form suddenly come up the tree after her.
Seneca just moves her foot out of the way as Drake’s claws slash through the branch she is standing on. This causes her to lose her balance so she begins to fall through the branches and as she falls she quickly pierces a large branch with her sword in order to stop her fall. As she is hanging there she watches Drake scrambling down from branch to branch towards her. He lands on the branch she’s on. As he moves towards her she lets go of the sword with one of her hands and reaches for her dagger. She swings the dagger at Drake but he manages to jump over it. He quickly turns around and swiftly strikes at Seneca’s sword which is stuck fast in the branch. He snaps the blade in two causing Seneca to fall towards the ground. Seneca, seeing her opportunity, lets go of the remainder of the sword, reaches down and pulls a pistol from it’s holster. She manages to fire one round at Drake through the tree branch before she hits the ground with a bone-crunching thud. The pistol round comes up through the tree and whistles past Drake causing him to lose balance and fall to the ground also.
Back in the room where Josie is Cinaed’s body armour is taking a pounding from all the rounds that Keira is firing at her. Keira, emptying both clips finally runs out of ammunition and has to stop and re-load. This gives Cinaed time to get the upper hand and she drives the sword through Zennyo and pins him to the floor. Just as Keira manages to re-load and point both of her pistols at Cinaed. Seeing this Cinaed turns around and lets fly two throwing stars. Keira watches as both throwing stars pierce the barrels of her pistols making them utterly useless to her. Keira drops the pistols and proceeds to pick up the sword that Seneca had dropped earlier and begins to attack once again.
Whilst this is going on Cassidy is searching through the vast amount of information stored in New Atlantis’ archives looking for a way to help Josie. While she is doing this Alexandra has snuck off to see The Elder to let him know that Josie really does carry the bio-weapon like her mother once did. Cassidy asks Alexandra to grab one of the boxes from behind her as she already has her hands full. Getting no response she turns around to see that Alexandra is not in the archives room with her. As Cassidy gets a trolley to put the boxes of information on she’s thinking to herself, “Where the bloody hell did Alexandra go?”
After leaving the archives Cassidy decides to go and ask The Elder if there is any more information on what she has on the trolley. As she gets closer to the door she can hear Alexandra and The Elder discussing what’s going on with Josie and the tumour but Cassidy only gets to hear part of the conversation and in the last part of the conversation Alexandra is telling The Elder that Josie had a massive allergic reaction to the serum from the maturation tank due to the medication she is taking to keep the ……. The conversation halts when Alexandra and The Elder hear something crashing to the floor. Cassidy, stooping down to pick up the documents and trying not to be seen, is thinking to herself that Alexandra lied to everyone in the room including Drake. Cassidy, thinking to herself still, “What medication would Josie be taking and for what??”
Cassidy quickly puts the documents back on the trolley and heads off to the medical centre as quickly as possible. Just as The Elder and Alexandra get to where they heard the sound coming from they notice Cassidy entering an elevator. They look at each other and Alexandra asks, “Do you think she heard us talking?” The Elder responds, “I don’t know but you had better find out quietly.”
By now Cinaed has subdued Keira by using an ancient pressure point technique which leaves Keira frozen on the spot where she was standing. Cinaed, as she goes towards the balcony, picks up a chain and bladed weapon from Zennyo. As she gets to the top of the balcony she can see Seneca dragging herself across the ground trying to escape from Drake. Drake who is still in his lion form begins to stalk Seneca and she can see his shoulders hunched and then his body begins to pick up speed and just as he pounces through the air Cinaed swings the chain weapon with the blade at the end and it wraps itself around his neck and the chain continues it’s downward trajectory and the blade pierces the ground. Cinaed pulls on the other end of the chain causing it to go taut as Drake tries to strike out at Seneca.
By now the guards that patrol the grounds have arrived. Above Cinaed on the roof is one of the guards in his harlequin form. She hears the claws on the roof tiles, so she looks up and seeing what is above her she gasps, “OH, CRAP!!” As the harlequin comes down on her position she manages to somersault off the balcony and out of the way. As she lands on her feet she still has the chain tight in her hand. One of the guards takes a shot at the chain that Cinaed is holding causing it to shatter and to come away from Drake’s neck. Drake lands with his paws either side of Seneca and on her arms pinning her to the ground. At that same time Josie cries out in pain for her mother.
Drake takes hold of Seneca’s neck trying to crush it between his jaws but is unable to. No matter how many times he tries to kill her for what she was about to do to Josie and because her clan has broken a 2000 year old truce. He hears Josie cry out in pain once again and because of this he loses concentration and is forced to revert back to his human form. As he is heading towards the house he orders the guards to kill both of the intruders. Seneca, taking a deep breath, yells out to Drake that she can help ease the young girls pain but Drake ignores her pleas.
Drake accidentally kicks the hilt of what remains of the broken sword and as it rolls over he sees a mark on the blade that he recognises as Arlia’s. Drake quickly commands the guards to stand down and then he stoops to pick up the sword.
He turns around with the broken sword in his hand and says to Seneca, “Where did you get this sword from?” Seneca replies, “It was a gift from Arlia.” Drake walks over and helps her to her feet and says, “If Arlia trusted you that much then I will also trust you.” Drake also tells Seneca that she has to remove her mask. As she does so he sees a long pigtail at the back and short and medium cut bobs on the side of her head. Seneca also tells her apprentice to remove her mask as well. As they walk up the stairs onto the balcony Drake asks her how long she has known Arlia. Seneca answers, “As long as I have lived.” After entering the room Seneca and Drake walk over to where Josie is lying in the bed.
Meanwhile Cinaed takes care of some unfinished business she helps remove the sword from Zennyo’s chest and then helps him to his feet. As Cinaed is releasing Keira from the pressure-point technique she had used earlier on her, Zennyo asks this young lady how long she has been training for. She answers, “Four years.” Zennyo replies, “You have done well against someone as old as me.”
As they all stand around the bed Seneca, using the vampire ability to take on another persons form, becomes Arlia. Drake can’t believe how well she has taken Arlia’s form when even the scent of her is almost the same too. As Seneca, now looking like Arlia, kneels next to the bed she gently places her hand on Josie’s head. She whispers, “Shhhh, I’m here Josie!”
Upon Josie seeing what she believes to be her mother it helps to ease her pain. After several hours of Seneca and Drake being by Josie’s bedside Josie has finally fallen asleep. During this time, back in New Atlantis, Cassidy has been sorting and reading through all the information she can find on body resurrection but still does not have a clear answer as to how it is done. She decides to experiment on the Creakers first before attempting this magic on Josie. After a week of practising she still has not perfected the magic that is used to resurrect a human body.
As Cassidy takes a break she notices that Drake has returned from the funeral for yet another one of his friends. Cassidy also notices that Drake is having a heated discussion with Dara. After watching this for a while she decides to once again try the body resurrection spell and so returns to the observation room.
Thriller by Michael Jackson (Found on YouTube)
Just as she gets set up she notices that Newar, Gitan and Jake Gameliel have also come to watch her practising the resurrection spell. A few seconds later Dara walks in to see how things are going with Cassidy as well. The guys all turn and one says, “So, how much deep shit are you in with Drake?” Dara answers the question, “Not as much as I thought, the only reason Drake is letting me off this time is that I helped save that girl.” All the guys say at once, “You are so lucky, because he looked really pissed off!”
As they turn back and look down at Cassidy through the window, they watch as a creaker explodes and bits and pieces of it sticks to the walls, except for it’s head which is squashed against the operating table like a watermelon is squashed against the ground when it is run over by a truck.
They watch as Cassidy peels the head from the table and drops it on the floor as another Creaker is put in it’s place. They watch this go on for many hours as the Creakers are torn apart in many different ways. As Cassidy gets to the very last Creaker it is just becoming night and the full moon is beginning to rise. She has just begun to do the spell again and she can hear the guys through the speakers betting on how this Creaker will end up. Cassidy’s hands begin to glow and just then she hears the door opening behind her and as she turns around to scream at the person to shut the door she notices that it is Alexandra Dimitri.
Alexandra asks how it is going with the spell. Cassidy says, “Well, just look around!” Alexandra looks around the room and sees bits and pieces of creakers all over the walls and roof of the room. Being in the room mainly to find out if Cassidy overheard herself and The Elder talking earlier, she asks a very specific question about the medication that Josie is taking. Cassidy replies, “I have no idea, I didn’t know that Josie was on any particular medication.” Cassidy, keeping the truth that she did hear what they were talking about, says, “Could that be why Josie had such an allergic reaction to the healing solution from the maturation tank?” Getting no response from Alexandra, Cassidy goes back and begins the spell. As she is doing so she notices that this body is reacting differently to the spell but she has no idea that it is partly because of the full moon because this was left out of the text she was reading.
They are all amazed to see that the body looks like it is completely healed and those in the observation room cheer but there is suddenly a disturbing sound and reaction from the Creakers body as it begins to rapidly decay and at the same time begin to bloat. Suddenly the Creaker’s mouth opens up and it lets out a loud groaning noise as hot, disgusting, smelly gasses begin escaping from it’s mouth.
Cassidy and Alexandra gasp, “That is just rank!!” as the Creaker’s body shoots off the table, flies around the room rebounding off the walls almost knocking them both over. When it finally comes to rest against the pane of glass that the guys are looking through, it splatters against the window and then slowly slides down the window and splatters against the floor. For a moment the guys are totally shocked and then they begin screaming, “YEAH!!!! Do it again!!”
As Cassidy and Alexandra get to their feet Natalia is just landing in Cairo. Natalia has made her way through customs and is now on her way to the dig site, which will take her several days.
Meanwhile back at the Dark Fortress Tansin is placing the blood she has stolen from Cassidy with the blood she already has of the other immortal clans. As she is doing this Aziel appears and asks, “How was it, as easy as you thought it would be getting the blood??” “No it wasn’t and Drake is stronger than ever.” Aziel notices that she has another vial in her hand and asks her whose blood that is. Tansin simply says, “It is from the daughter of that bitch Arlia. She’s even stronger than her mother was when she was a vampire.” Aziel says, “What do you mean, vampire, that’s showing that she is human, it doesn’t indicate in any way that she is immortal.” Tansin replies, “Bullshit, we saw her transform into a vampire and we could even sense her from a distance.” Tansin lifts up the vial and she too sees that it is indicating that it is just human blood. She calls one of the scientists over and tells him to check the blood and after he walks away she hands Malise the immortals blood and tells her to take it to Dr Odjit at the dig site and also tells her to make sure she is not discovered. “Now all we have to do is wait until our queen is freed.
A day and a half later at the dig Mr Wolf is speaking to his son Curtis on Skype and he asks him if he could join him and Mr Solomon in Egypt. He also asks him to download everything they have on ancient tomb traps to his iPad and bring it with him. Curtis agrees and then asks his father if the rest of the guys can join him on the trip as well. His father answers, “Yeah, bring the guys over with you and you can have some fun whilst you’re here.”
The moment Curtis’ father logs off Curtis contacts William James and explains to him that his father wants him to go to Egypt and Curtis thought it would be a good idea for the guys to go to Egypt with him and have some fun. William James agrees that it would be cool to do that and to see Curtis’ father and Josie’s Dad whilst they are over there at the dig. Curtis enquires if William James knows where Dalroy and JJ are as he has been unable to contact them on the phone. William James thinks for a minute and says, “The only place I can think of would be at the forge and they’re probably in the middle of crafting some new weapons.
A few hours later Curtis arrives at the forge just as Dalroy tells JJ that they are finished for the day. They have just completed a specialised shield and a double-headed, large, serrated, battle axe that can split into two. JJ sees Curtis and asks, “How are you, and what’s up with you today?” Curtis asks them if they would like to join him and William James (who has already said yes) and come with them to the dig site where his father is in Egypt. Dalroy and JJ accept the invitation and Dalroy asks when they have to be ready to leave. Curtis tells them that they have to be ready to leave by the end of the day.
They all meet up at the airport and board the company jet that Mr Woolf owns. Once settled inside the jet Curtis starts going through all the information he has downloaded to the iPad just to make sure that he hasn’t forgotten anything. Dalroy enquires, “How is your old man going is he mummified yet? Joke Joyce!” He also asks how Josie’s father is doing since he was injured and has Porter heard from Josie. Curtis answers, “My old man is doing fine, and no he’s not mummified yet, ha, ha!!” He tells Dalroy that neither his father nor Porter have heard from Josie in the last couple of weeks. “Actually Porter is doing really badly with the injury to his eye.” Curtis goes on to say, “That’s why I’ve pinched some of the maturation tank serum in order to see if I can help Porter with his recovery.”
The guys, knowing that it’s going to be a long trip, have brought some of their favourite video games to play as well as bringing their guitars along with them. After many hours of playing against each other on the different games they have brought, William James picks up two pens and begins to tap out a tune. Curtis is the next to stop playing games and he picks up his guitar. After a short while all the guys are sitting around playing their instruments and enjoying a jam session together.
As Natalia arrives at the dig site she senses Malise who is already there. Natalia thinks to herself, “Why does it have to be that trouble-making bitch!!?” She carefully makes her way into the first part of the tomb. When she gets to the spot where the story is told about who has been imprisoned she places her hand on the wall and her skin starts to become like the sandstone of the walls. She walks through that part of the wall and ends up in a hidden chamber which was created long ago by her kind for this exact reason. Just after she has entered this hidden chamber both Malise and Dr Odjit come around the corner and stop right next to the same spot. After talking for a few moments Malise hands Dr Odjit the vessel of the Elders that contains the blood from the rest of the immortals. What neither of them realise is that they are not alone and that they are being watched by Natalia from the secret chamber.
Just as Malise is about to leave she asks Dr Odjit if she has figured out where the ancient device is that de-activates the traps and opens the inner tomb with the help of the blood. She answers “No, I’m still looking but it is hard when I have Porter Solomon and Mr Woolf always looking over my shoulder.”
After the conversation Malise decides to leave first and heads back towards the entrance but before she can leave she hears a scream coming from the direction where Dr Odjit is. Malise races back to find out what is going on and as she comes around the corner she sees Natalia coming out of the wall. She is almost all the way out apart from most of her hair which is still stone. Malise draws her sword and swings it as hard as she can cutting through some of her hair and shattering the rest. Natalia does a roll away from Malise to try and get away from her before Malise tries to cut her head off.
When Natalia stands up after rolling Malise says to her maliciously, “How do you like your new haircut?” Natalia reaches behind her head and tries to grab for what used to be her long hair and just gets a handful of tufts of hair. Turning back to Malise Natalia replies, “YOU BITCH!!” Malise steps forward and pins Natalia against the wall with the point of her sword against Natalia’s throat.
Natalia says, “NO, WAIT!! I was sent here by The Elder to help free Kyah from her prison. Malise bring the sword back from Natalia’s throat but not believing her, attempts to thrust the sword forward to kill Natalia, but Natalia is too quick and takes the sword from her as she moves away.
Malise, not really caring that she has lost her sword, pulls out from behind her back, a pistol and begins to fire it at Natalia. Natalia simply raises sand from the floor turning it into stone and stopping the bullets before they can get anywhere near her.
Malise, realising that she is getting nowhere, decides to ramp it up, pulling from a pouch a small grenade. On seeing this Dr Odjit screams, “ARE YOU FUCKING INSANE?? The shockwave alone will kill us all?” Malise, not giving a shit pulls the pin and throws the grenade towards Natalia but before she can use the sand Dr Odjit has already picked up the grenade and hurls it down the corridor where it explodes. Malise turns to Dr Odjit and snarls, “I’ll deal with you later!!” As Malise turns her attention back to Natalia she sees that Natalia has turned the sand from solid stone back to sand. Natalia asks, “Have you ever seen what happens when you have a sandstorm in such an enclosed area. As she says this she begins to whip the sand up into a frenzy and she pushes the sandstorm towards Malise
Due to the deafening sound of the sandstorm she has created she does not hear the lesser guardians coming out of the walls until one grabs her from behind and throws her through the air and she slams into the far wall and lands with a thud on the ground. After seeing this happen Malise unleashes her demons fire but no matter how powerful each blast is nothing seems to slow them down.
Natalia, leaning against the wall, says, “Don’t fool yourself, you can’t stop them that way. If these ones are awake then so are the main guardians, this means that we have to work together and work fast.” Malise asks, “WHAT DO YOU WANT ME TO DO?” Natalia replies, “First, I need you to help me to my feet.” Even though Malise hates Natalia with a passion she helps her anyway knowing that this is the only way that they will make it out of here alive. Malise, after helping Natalia to her feet, asks, “So, what now?” Natalia answers, “I need the vessel of the Elders.” Dr Odjit, after being told by Malise to hand it over, quickly gives it to Natalia. Natalia, still unsteady on her feet takes the vessel of the Elders in one hand and just as the lesser guardians go to kill them she holds it up in front of them and the vessel begins to glow. Moments after that they begin to crack and fall apart and turn into sand. Exhausted, Natalia falls to her knees. Looking back at the other two she reiterates once again that she is there to help them free Kyah from her prison.
The Path To Decay by Sirenia (Found on YouTube)
Natalia, Malise and Dr Odjit are just approaching the entrance to the main chamber of the tomb when they hear what they believe to be a helicopter landing nearby. Natalia puts her hand against the wall and causes the eyes of the statue standing near the entrance of the tomb to open. Natalia is shocked to see that it is Curtis, Dalroy, JJ and William James who are getting out of the helicopter because The Elder did not tell her that anyone else would be assisting freeing Kyah as this will simply make it more difficult.
Mr Solomon and Mr Woolf are inside the tent doing their work trying to figure out how to de-activate the traps. Omar enters the tent and tells Mr Woolf that his son and his friends have just arrived. Mr Woolf and Porter exit the tent and walk over to where the guys are standing. Curtis walks over to his father and gives him a hug. Mr Woolf asks his son, “How was the journey?” Curtis says, “Fine, but we got bored waiting to pick up the jeeps so we decided to use the helicopter to get here faster.”
As Mr Woolf, Curtis, Dalroy, JJ and William James began to walk over towards the tent, Porter, after telling the chopper pilot to return and pick up the jeeps goes on to ask the guys how Josie is. Dalroy tells Josie’s father that they have not heard from her in a while so they don’t really know how she is going. After finally entering the tent Omar asks Mr Woolf if his son and his guests would like some fine Egyptian tea. Curtis is the only one who accepts the offer of tea while Dalroy and JJ ask if they can just have some bottles of cold water and William James asks for a coffee.
After sitting around and drinking their drinks for half an hour or so they decide to get down to business and Curtis pulls out his iPad2 and jacks it directly into the table. Moments after he does this a 3D holographic image appears. They all watch and listen intently as Curtis’ father touches the holographic image and it brings up that section of the tomb so that they can all see it. They are looking at some of the traps which even includes a hidden Mayan death-pit. The guys are surprised to see so many different traps in the one tomb from all the different cultures in the world. As Curtis and William James are trying to find a way around them by looking at other information that is also included on the iPad2, JJ speaks up saying, “Whoever they have in there they sure as hell didn’t want them to escape.”
After many hours of searching they have only come up with some ideas about how to deactivate the traps. Dalroy got tired of looking at the hologram and decided to go and inspect the traps for himself. Whilst he was doing this he actually found that the traps were rigged to an ancient bio-scanner which means they can only be deactivated with the right sort of blood. This reminds Mr Woolf of what was written on the wall in the tomb. He says, “That reminds me, it said something along those lines on the wall in the first few corridors of the tomb.” Curtis says to his father, “Gee, that would have been handy information to know that way we wouldn’t have had to spend hours looking through all this crap.” Mr Woolf simply looks at his son and politely says, “So, sue me, I’m getting old!!” This causes everyone to burst into laughter as Curtis replies, “Don’t you mean, getting old-er Dad?
Just after everyone finishes laughing Omar enters the tent and following behind him are several other tribesmen and women carrying several large bowls and trays of food that they have prepared for everyone. They place everything on the table and as they go to leave Curtis asks Omar to stay for a moment. Curtis looks straight at JJ and then nods his head to indicate for JJ to get the small case from their bags. JJ rummages around for a moment and then looks up and says, “Are you sure you put it in here?” After a few moments more he finds it underneath Dalroy’s bags. Picking it up he brings it over to where Curtis and Omar are standing.
Curtis begins to open the case and as he does so he asks both Omar and Mr Solomon if they could remove the bandages from their wounds. Omar curiously asks, “Why?” Dalroy replies, “We have something that will help fix your shoulder and Mr Solomon’s eye.” With that Curtis pulls out of the case an injection gun and a strange looking vial of liquid.
As Curtis is pushing the vial into the injection gun he looks up at Mr Solomon and Omar and asks, “Who’s first? 'Cos this is going to hurt like hell!!” As Omar speaks up and says that he will have the injection first he notices that William James, Dalroy and JJ along with Curtis are beginning to laugh and this makes him somewhat uneasy until JJ says, “Don’t worry, he’s just making fun, this won’t hurt at all.”
After giving Omar a dose of the Selenium he turns to Josie’s Dad and says, “It’s your turn.” As Porter sits down to receive the injection Omar is astonished to see how fast the wound in his shoulder has healed, not even leaving a scar from the sutures. But for Josie’s Dad the results are not as good because scarring is left visible.
The next morning the only people who are awake are the diggers and Dalroy and William James. The tribesmen, along with Omar, watch whilst William James and Dalroy practice their art of swordsmanship and archery. Omar is astounded when Dalroy splits a pea over the distance of a football field with a single bolt from his crossbow.
Moments after splitting the pea Dalroy places the large crossbow he’s carrying on his back and pulls out two smaller crossbows from the holsters on either side of his hips and suddenly turns on William James and begins to fire. Omar and the others who are watching are fearful for William James’ life but to William James this is nothing more than practice as he calmly and easily cuts each arrow that is fired directly at him out of the air.
As he is doing so he notices a young child who is holding a stick and poking it at the sand in front of her. Not knowing it is there she pokes a sand viper which is under the sand and the reptile rises up to strike her. William James sees what is happening and turning the blade of the Falchion he strikes the arrows and they ricochet of the flat side of the sword which causes them to strike the sand viper in the head killing it instantly. The child screams out, “Mummy!!” Dalroy turns to face her with the crossbows still in his hands as the young girl’s mother runs to her side. Omar, on behalf of the mother, thanks William James for saving her life. Dalroy, meantime, is pulling the arrows out of the sand vipers head.
After training and whilst having breakfast they all talk about what happened earlier and also decide on where to search the tomb next for the system that deactivates the traps.
The searching of the tomb goes on for days and then the days turn into weeks.
Back in Melbourne Cassidy is just knocking on Drake’s bedroom door. Drake calls out, “Come in.” As Cassidy enters the room Drake says good morning to her. Cassidy goes to say good morning as well and suddenly stops and tells Drake how sorry she is for leaving such deep scarring wounds on his upper right shoulder. Drake just brushes off the apologies and says, “It’s just one more scar to add to my collection, besides I did try to kill you after all!” Cassidy just places her hand across her chest where her scars are and smiles.
Cassidy tells Drake that she needs to talk to him about something really important. Drake says, “That’s fine but do you mind if we do this while we train?”
As Drake and Cassidy leave his room they find Keira standing in the hallway after having just checked in on Josie. Keira says good morning to them and Cassidy enquires as to how Josie is doing. Keira replies, “She’s not doing very well, she’s in more pain each day.” Drake says, “That’s not good, is there anything else you can do for this young lady to ease her pain?” Keira replies that there is not much they can do apart from increasing the pain medication, but even that seems not to be working.
Cassidy looks at Drake with a concerned look on her face and says, “This is one of the matters I wanted to discuss with you.” Drake asks Keira if she can prepare the part of the training room for them. Keira replies, “At once, my lord!” Then Drake returns to the conversation he’s having with Cassidy.
As they walk down the hallway heading towards the stairs Cassidy explains to Drake the idea she has to help Josie, she wants to use what little knowledge she has of the resurrection spells. Drake asks, “Are you sure you want to do that, since all the Creakers you tried it on had different results. Do you really want to risk Josie’s life?” Cassidy attempts to answer but stutters and it is at that point that Drake realises that she is not telling him everything. By the time they get downstairs and are just entering the training room Drake asks Cassidy what the other reason is for her wanting to do this, willing to risk a persons life in the process.
Tears well up in Cassidy’s eyes and she begins to explain the other reason. She tells Drake that it is her fault for what has happened to Josie. Drake asks, “How do you figure that?” “If I hadn’t sung the song I would not have upset Josie so badly and she wouldn’t have left the safety of the nightclub and she would not have been beaten black and blue. Drake says, “This is no more your fault that she got injured so badly than it is mine that Kyah turned out to be such a monster. So stop dwelling on things that you had no control over. If I know you, you will find a way to help her.” He then steps on to the training mat and for his troubles he gets a fist in the face and a foot in the stomach from Keira, knocking him to the ground.
Drake stands back up and takes another blow to the face. Keira steps back shaking her hand, “Ohhh, shit, that hurt!!” She has not realised he has made his skin as hard as granite. He looks at Keira and says, “That’s what you get for your troubles!” Moments after that he hears a swooshing sound as he ducks and rolls out of the way, when he turns around he finds Nevell advancing with both of her fighting daggers. Drake notices that Keira is now also armed. He stutters, “Now ladies, you’re not trying to get your points across are you??” He hears a voice behind him calling out, “Drake, catch this!” and as he takes hold of the retractable fighting staff and it opens he realises that it is the new one that was given to him. He catches it and opens the blades as well on both ends of the staff. As he, Cassidy and Keira practice against each other The Elder and Seneca are standing high up on a platform overlooking the training room watching them. The Elder and Seneca talk together about how the training is proceeding.
The Elder asks Seneca, “So, is it true?” Seneca replies, “Yes it is true, he did take the form of a white lion.” The Elder indicates to Seneca that Drake is descended from one of the strongest kymeras that has ever lived. Seneca asks, “Does this mean Drake can finally destroy Kyah?” The Elder replies, “That is yet to be seen!” Seneca goes on to tell The Elder that she is going to give the last remaining spell book on resurrections to Cassidy. The Elder, “How many times have I told you that you are not to interfere with Josephine’s destiny.”
Her name catches Drake’s ear and he looks up at The Elder and Seneca and hears Seneca going on to say, “I am not going to let my…” as she says this she looks down and sees Drake looking up and listening intently to what they are saying. …”my best friend’s daughter die.” Because Drake is not paying attention to what he’s doing he is sliced across the chest by Kiera. Instantly he turns around and takes his lichen form and begins to attack her and she is not a match for his lichen’s strength. Kiera is knocked down on her arse and she sees Drake with his arm raised, claws out, preparing for the kill. Suddenly Seneca appears and slaps him in the head. He turns around with his arms out to his side and he leans forward and roars right in her face. She slaps him again and says, “Just because you’re in a bad mood don’t take it out on other people, why don’t you pick on someone your own size?”
Her challenge is both answered and met as he tears into her but luckily she is still wearing the carbon fibre and sapphire armour. Many of the acolytes who are training try to subdue him but are having an extremely difficult time. Drake throws one of them into the air and as she comes down she lands on top of the table and bounces off onto the wall, landing and knocking Cassidy’s iPad triggering the music part of it’s programs and this causes one of Josie’s and her friends songs to begin playing. As Drake hears the music, which soothes the savage beast side of him, he begins to revert back to his human form. The acolytes begin to step back and give him some room, he is then helped to his feet by both Cassidy and Seneca.
Renegade by Paramore (Found on YouTube)
Drake looks at Keira and apologises to everyone for being such a cold-hearted prick. Seneca asks what is troubling him so much, to which Drake replies, “Nothing!” Cassidy, looking around, exclaims, “What do you mean, ‘nothing’, look at how many people you put at risk.” Cassidy says, “I’m you’re best friend if you can’t tell me what’s going on, you have no faith in me to help you deal with your problems.”
Drake reluctantly begins to tell Cassidy what is troubling him so much. He tells Cassidy that he can’t go on this way. He says he thought he had finally found the one who was the love of his life but it seems that it can’t be Josephine since he has heard some of the other hunters and acolytes talking about how powerful this girl is. He goes on to say that he has asked the hunters and acolytes what they mean about her being so powerful if she is only human.
Cassidy pushes her hair back behind one ear and then answers, “She is not as human as we thought in fact she is one of the most powerful vampires I have ever seen.” Drake, “Well, see that’s why she can’t be the love of my life, Josephine! She never displayed any vampire tendencies when I knew her. Cassidy looks at him and asks, “So, are you finally beginning to remember her and what she was like?” “No not really and I don’t want to talk about this anymore.”
Cassidy replies, “Very well, I won’t ask you about this again because I can see how much it is hurting you.” As Drake stands up he asks of Cassidy, his best friend, to do something for him, “Because I’m having so much trouble controlling my aggression I want you to re-seal that part of me as you did many thousands of years ago.” Cassidy agrees, she takes Drakes hands in hers and begins to channel the magic that is required to perform this task. As she is doing this she begins to feel very weird but before she can say anything she is blown off her feet and as this happens Seneca and The Elder look at each other knowing that because of what Drake is now becoming these kinds of spells will no longer work on him. Drake, frustrated, storms off leaving Cassidy still sitting on the ground.
Cassidy tells Keira to follow Drake to make sure that he is okay. Seneca now has her arm outstretched to help Cassidy to her feet. Whilst Cassidy still has hold of Seneca’s hand she gets a sudden flash and realises that she is inside this persons mind. She sees what she believes is a very old memory of Drake with Josephine.
She watches Drake leave Josephine and then she hears someone calling out a name but can’t quite hear it properly. As the person gets closer to Josephine she hears the name ‘Josie’ being called. Cassidy turns her head to see who is calling out the name and recognises the person calling out ‘Josie’ to be Arlia and it is in that moment she realises that ‘Josie’ and Josephine are one and the same person. She lets go of Seneca’s hand, she turns around and goes to yell out to Drake but suddenly Seneca re-appears in front of her raising her hand with her finger to her lips saying, “Sh-h-h-h-h-hhh”.
To see and hear this coming from Seneca shocks Cassidy and she tries to push past Seneca so she can go and tell Drake. But as she does so Seneca tells Nevel (which is Cassidy’s real name - she took the name Cassidy from a young girl who saved her 1500 years ago), if Nevel goes and informs Drake of Josie’s true identity that she, Seneca, will not help in any way with Nevel’s problem in doing the resurrection spells. Nevell turns around and bites her head off, “You’ve got nothing to offer me so stop wasting my time!!” Seneca replies, “Oh, really!” as she pulls out the last remaining book of resurrection spells. Nevel says, “WHERE THE HELL DID YOU GET THAT FROM??” Seneca, “It’s been in my possession for millennia. I will let you have the book so you can resurrect Josie to her full health on one condition which is….” “Let me guess, as long as I don’t tell Drake that Josie is Josephine, the love of his life?” Seneca, “Yesss!!” Cassidy, standing there with her arms crossed and a really pissed off look on her face says, “Fine, but you’re going to pay for this later you blackmailing bitch.” Cassidy takes the book from Seneca’s hand and leaves the room to study the book. Seneca calls out to her, “Oh, by the way, you must do it on a night when there is a blue moon or the spells will not work.”
Meanwhile, back in Melbourne at the house, Drake is heading towards his room and he hears a painful cry coming from the room where Josie is. As he looks in on her he asks Keira if she can grab a singlet from his room for him. Seconds later she returns with the singlet and both she and Cinaed watch as Drake pulls the singlet on over his perfectly-muscled body covering up the tribal tattoos. He walks over to Josie and places his hand on her forehead and as he does this the painful cries subside.
By now Nevel has collected almost everything that is described in the book of resurrection spells from one of Atlantis’s storerooms and she places the items in a large dilly bag but there is one final ingredient missing and this is a sample of Josie’s blood that is untainted. Cassidy spends nearly the entire week leading up to the night of the blue moon searching for a sample of Josie’s blood.
Meanwhile Curtis, JJ, Dalroy and William James are having their own problems with cave-ins and other problems within the tomb but unbeknown to them it is Natalia who is stopping them from getting any further. Even though she hates betraying her friends in this way she must obey the orders of The Elder and help free Kyah from her prison.
It’s now 9.30pm in Egypt and after having had such a shitty day Curtis’ father suggests to him and his friends that it might be fun for them to go into the nearest town and blow off some steam. Curtis replies, “We have to stay here an figure out how to deal with the traps in the tomb.” “Just go and have some fun the tomb will still be here tomorrow when you get back!” Curtis, William James, JJ and Dalroy decide to take the advice and they head off to the nearest town which is several miles away.
Mr Woolf and Mr Solomon decide to go back and have a look at some of the translations that Josie had done for them. Mr Woolf stops halfway to the tent, looks towards the sky and says, “Now, there’s something I haven’t seen in three hundred years or so, a blue moon!!” Mr Solomon comments on how beautiful it looks, being pale and dark blue - he decides to take a photo of it to send to Josie. As Porter does this Mr Woolf begins to search through all the work that Josie did on the translations. After Porter has taken the photo and as he re-enters the tent he notices a large swirling mass of sand near the entrance of the tomb but thinking it’s just a sand dervish he takes no notice and enters the tent anyway.
Moments after he is out of sight the sand dervish begins to take on an eerie human shape and standing there where the dervish was is Natalia, a child of stone. Accompanying her inside the tomb is Dr Odjit along with Malise who orders Natalia to hurry because the blue moon has already begun to rise and this is the only time they have to set Kyah free from her imprisonment. Natalia says, “Alright, I’m going as fast as I can!” Malise screams, “If you don’t get the system on line in the next ten seconds I’m going to go out and kill Josie’s father and make you watch!!” With that Natalia places her hand against the stone wall and causes it to open and there imbedded inside the wall is the ancient mechanism that controls both the traps and the entrance to Kyah’s chamber.
Natalia, holding the vessel of The Elders, begins to take the vials and place them, one by one, into the machine. As she places the last one into the middle there is a sudden tremor of the earth under their feet. With this all the traps begin to de-activate.
Back in the tent where Porter and Mr Woolf are still reading through the transcripts they also feel the tremor. They see the container, which holds Mr Woolf’s blood, fall off the table and smash. Mr Woolf smells the blood and realises that it’s not his, that he is smelling the scent of a normal human. As he turns to the next page of the notes he realises exactly who is buried beneath their feet.
Mr Woolf jumps to his feet and he says, “NO, this can’t be right!! All this time we’ve been looking for Kyah’s tomb under false pretences of those who serve her.” As Mr Woolf grabs his sword Porter Solomon says, “I thought that Kyah’s prison had been lost to time and had been buried in such a way that no-one would ever discover it again.” Mr Woolf, “So did I.” Porter asks, “WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO?” “Whatever it takes to keep her imprisoned, because if she escapes true evil will be afoot in this world,” replies Mr Woolf.
As Porter and Mr Woolf head towards the tomb Cassidy is just sitting down to breakfast. A few moments later Keira shows Seneca to the kitchen where Cassidy is still having her breakfast. Seneca asks Cassidy if she is fully prepared for the resurrection ritual that will restore Josie to her full health. Cassidy replies, “Yes, except I’m missing one ingredient.” Before she can tell Seneca what the ingredient is Seneca pulls from her pocket a small metal case and places it on the bench in front of Cassidy. Cassidy says, in surprise, “That can’t be what I think it is?? She leans forward and opens the case and there inside is a vial of Josie’s blood.
Seneca asks, “Why are you so surprised?” Keira answers, “Nevel had me search the whole world for a sample of Josie’s blood and I couldn’t find it anywhere, not even in the vast amount of medical archives that we have on hand for all the immortals.
Just after finishing the conversation they are joined by Drake who looks a little worse for wear due to the nightmares he has had of Kyah escaping from her tomb. The others start to say, “You look like……perhaps you need more sleep.” Just as he gets up to go and have some more sleep a massive teleportation hole opens up and through the portal comes running Cinead followed closely by Zennyo Ryuo. Zennyo has two prisoners with him, these are the ones who betrayed Watatsumi and caused her death. Also several immortals who serve Kyah are hot on their heals but the young harlequin manages to seal the teleportation hole causing them to be lost in that dimension forever.
Beyond The Veil by Adrian Von Ziegler (Found on YouTube)
Drake is standing there in front of those who have just come through. He hears from one of the prisoners. “Get your hands off me you bitch!!” The next thing he witnesses is Cinead grabbing the prisoner who had spoken and she gives her a kick in the stomach that brings her to her knees. The young female prisoner looks up and opens her mouth to say something, Cinead quickly grabs her by the hair and quickly pulling her head back she says, “If you so much as say one more word I will end you here.” Drake says, “That’s enough, they deserve to give their reason why they betrayed all of us.” Zennyo pushes the other female prisoner to her knees as well.
By now Natalia has led Dr Odjit and Malise into the inner tomb doors which is the last barrier they have to face before entering the actual tomb where Kyah’s sarcophagus lays. Malise steps forward and just goes to push the doors but Natalia tells her to stop and says, “If you want to get us all killed just keep going the way you are.” Malise turns around and ignorantly says, “You told us that this was the last barrier that we had to get past, why are you stopping us now.” Natalia gets right up in Malise’s face and tells her that if she simply opens the doors and enters the guardians will awake and slaughter them all and re-imprison Kyah forever.
Dr Odjit enquires, “Then how do we stop them from awakening?” Natalia simply points at the scarab that is situated in the middle of the centre line of the two doors. Malise, being impatient as always, goes to take the scarab but Natalia tells her that only a human can operate the scarab controls and stop the guardians. Malise looks at Dr Odjit and tells her to hurry up and take the damn thing. As Dr Odjit removes the scarab controller they can hear Mr Woolf and Mr Solomon moving through the passageways.
While this is happening Drake along with Nevel and the others are questioning the two prisoners but are only getting smart-arse answers from one and nothing from the other. Nevel is getting furious as she has more important matters to deal with so she loses her temper and sets both of them on fire. Drake turns, looks at Nevel and says, “THAT'S ENOUGH!!” He puts his hand out and as he’s closing his hand he quells the flames.
When the flames are almost out the second female prisoner speaks up and thanks Drake for stopping the agonising pain. Drake simply looks at the traitor and says, “I’m not doing this for you, I don’t want Nevel suffering for this later on so don’t take my kindness for weakness.”
Zennyo then puts the question to the traitors, “Why did you betray Watatsumi?” Both the prisoners say at the same time, “Because it was fun! After all, we do serve Kyah.” When Drake, Nevel and the others hear this they are taken aback. The prisoner who is human states, “It was fun ripping open Watatsumi’s guts.” This further angers Drake and he takes a sword from Cinaed and quickly slices through the air connecting with the prisoners face and slicing it open. The bitch next to her begins to laugh and she goes on to say, “GO ON DO IT, CAUSE HER PAIN!! Be exactly like Kyah, be a monster!”
Nevel, Seneca and Cinaed say at the same time, “STOP!! You can’t do this you are just giving in to her.” Cinaed promptly stops talking and points at the young woman who has now taken on the physical features of Kyah. She looks up at Drake and says, “Don’t hurt me my love!” Everyone stands there with their mouths open and out from behind Drake comes his tail. He thrusts it forward and drives it right through the bitch’s throat. He lifts her up with the tail and wraps it around her neck and across part of her face and with a quick twist he wrenches her head from her shoulders. Cinaed upon seeing this thinks to herself that she’s going to vomit.
Drake goes on to tell Zennyo Ryuo to cut the other girls bonds and set her free. Then Drake tells her to give Kyah and all who serve her a message. “And what’s the message??” But before he can give her the message she pulls out a dagger and stabs Seneca in the chest between the seventh and eighth rib but before she can finish what she has started Cinaed takes out her largest sword and severs her arm at the shoulder.
As this happens the vampire who is also part ghost begins to fade. Nevel, looking at the young girl, thinks to herself, “You can’t even escape that way from Drake’s wrath.” With that Drake walks over and raises his now bony, clawed hand and strikes her at the base of the throat and rips his claws downwards tearing the young lady open from her neck to her waist causing her to drop to her knees. Her ribs and stomach are now laying across her knees and as she is kneeling on the ground she grabs at her internal organs and her guts trying to stop them from spilling out onto the floor. Cinaed had heard the rumours about how brutal Drake was towards those who served Kyah but she never thought it would be this bad. With that Cinaed races to the sink and lets rip the vomit.
Drake says, “Forget delivering the message, I’ll do it myself.” With that he tells Seneca to end it. Seneca walks over and as she does so she slides the dagger out of her chest, dropping it on the floor. She then takes out her pistol and realises that they have made a grave mistake as the young girl asks why this has been done to her. Seneca knows that she has been compelled to do this but she points the pistol at her head anyway, pulls back the hammer and shoots her at point blank range. They all watch as she turns to ash.
As Seneca walks back to talk to Nevel she places the pistol back in it’s holster and tells Nevel and the rest of them that both of the girls were actually innocent and had been compelled to obey those who serve Kyah.
Drake spins around and they can all see that he has tears running down his face as he cries for the two innocents he has just slain. Nevel steps forward and tries to console him, telling him that it’s not his fault and he shouldn’t torment himself over it. He holds his blood soaked hand up and says, “OF COURSE ITS MY FAULT, WHO ELSE IS AT FAULT, NO ONE ELSE HERE HAS BLOOD ON THEIR HANDS!!” He turns back around and fades through the doors and disappears.
Back in Egypt the doors suddenly swing open and Natalia, Dr Odjit and Malise finally enter Kyah’s tomb. As they walk over to Kyah they can see that the first sarcophagus has been smashed wide open and one third of the crystal that holds Kyah’s true powers is already embedded in the second sarcophagus. Both Malise and Dr Odjit try to open the sarcophagus. Malise looks at Natalia and demands to know why they cannot open it. Natalia steps forward and tells her that it was sealed by a child of stone to make sure that Kyah can never escape and this is one of the main reasons that she was sent. As Natalia places her hand on the sarcophagus and as she does so a line appears around the centre of the sarcophagus. There is a hissing sound as the line separates to form an opening and out of this comes a putrid rotting smell. All three of the women put their hands over their mouths and gag and Malise says, “Ohhh, that is soo rank!!”
After several more minutes Mr Woolf and Josie’s father finally reach the inner sanctum of the tomb and they are shocked to see that Malise and Dr Odjit are pushing the remainder of the lid open but they do not notice Natalia, who is backing into the wall and concealing herself from sight. Porter puts his hand out and tells the girls to stop. Malise turns around and tells him, “This is none of your concern human.” Mr Woolf steps forward and says, “Yes, but it is mine.” With that he takes a swing at Malise with his sword just missing her. Malise moves out of the way and at the same time she draws her sword and also a dagger and begins to engage in combat with Mr Woolf.
While this is happening Porter Solomon is asking Dr Odjit, “Why have you betrayed your own kind and why are you doing this?” She answers, “Because in the end all of you will be slaves and I will be immortal for serving Kyah so faithfully.”
Mr Woolf has managed to knock Malise on to the ground and he is now standing over her with his sword pointing at her and she still has her sword pointed at him. Malise goes on to say, “I guess this is what they call a stalemate. Even if you end my life here you cannot stop my queen from rising from the grave.”
At that moment a rotting hand comes up out of the sarcophagus and places it on the side and Kyah begins to pull herself up out it. Porter yells out to Mr Woolf to look out because Kyah is reaching her hand out trying to grab hold of him. Mr Woolf jumps back and lands next to Josie’s father.
Malise rolls over and jumps to her feet and then kneels in front of Kyah to show her loyalty. Dr Odjit also kneels. Seconds after Kyah has climbed out of the coffin the eyes of the guardians light up but no-one notices this. Kyah speaks and says to both of them. “Rise!” Kyah goes on to tell Malise that she has done well. Malise answers, “Thank you my queen!” Kyah then looks in the direction of Porter and Mr Woolf and says sarcastically, “I see that you’ve brought guests to dinner.” Porter asks Mr Woolf, “Does that mean we are here for dinner, or as dinner??”
Mr Woolf looks straight at Kyah and proclaims, “You will never leave this tomb! I swear this on my life.” He immediately begins to attack Kyah but his sword blade is blocked by one of the guardians as the sword almost connects with Kyah. The guardian pushes him back and Kyah stands there looking a little bemused because she can’t understand why the guardians have protected her when they were placed there to rip her a new arsehole if she was ever to escape and they had been ordered to put her back in her prison.
Dr Odjit steps forward and holding out her hand she shows Kyah that she has control of the guardians as long as she has hold of the scarab which is in her palm. To prove that she has control she orders the guardians to stand down and they instantly obey.
While this is happening Josie’s father asks Mr Woolf, “What are you going to do next?” Mr Woolf answers, “I can’t do a damn thing while the guardians are active, I wouldn’t stand a chance.”
Out of the stone wall appears Natalia’s face, she decides to give Mr Woolf a helping hand. She causes the ground to shake which puts everyone off balance but even more so Dr Odjit who loses her footing altogether. Tripping really badly she falls into Kyah’s arms who helps her get her balance again and stand up. Kyah looks lovingly into Dr Odjit’s eyes and tells her that it is time for her reward. Dr Odjit turns and looks at Mr Solomon and Mr Woolf and says, “I told you so, I’m going to be one of Kyah’s immortals!”
Kyah gently takes Dr Odjit’s face in her hands as she kisses her. At first Kyah has her eyes closed then she opens them and they begin to glow bright blood red and yellow. Suddenly Dr Odjit finds it hard to breathe as she realises she is totally screwed because she can feel her own organs sliding up her throat and out of her mouth as Kyah physically consumes them to replace the organs that were damaged from the bladed chain that she was also wrapped in within the sarcophagus.
Sweet Sacrifice by Evanescence (Found on YouTube)
Everybody looks at Kyah’s stomach and chest and sees an unsettling squirming beneath her skin as her wounds begin to heal. Malise tries to intervene telling Kyah that this human has sereved her well for many years. Kyah turns around and before speaking swallows the remains of one of Dr Odjit’s lungs. She then goes on to tell Malise that she has a choice, that it is Dr Odjit who can be consumed or it can be her. Malise lowers her head and steps back. Kyah goes back to feeding.
Josie’s father sees the poor, not so innocent girl stretching her hand out begging for help. Mr Solomon goes to her aid, taking hold of her hand trying to pull her loose of Kyah’s grasp. Without knowing it Mr Solomon is now being fed upon by Kyah as she drains the life force from his body. On seeing this Mr Woolf takes his sword, raises it above his head and bringing it down he cuts off Dr Odjit’s arm but it is already too late for Porter Solomon who now looks like he has third degree burns to half of his body. Omar suddenly appears in the tomb and helps Mr Woolf to drag Josie’s father to the tomb entrance. Mr Woolf then tells Omar to continue dragging Josie’s father to safety as he now has to deal with sealing Kyah within the tomb once again.
Mr Woolf puts some high explosive on the under side of the doorjamb so if Kyah manages to make it past him then the explosives should bury her under thousands of tons of rock which would squash her like a pancake.
Mr Woolf confronts Kyah and says to her, “You will never be whole Kyah, just like your body, your soul is rotten to the core!” This pisses her off and she finishes feeding quickly and what Mr Woolf and Malise see is Dr Odjit’s stomach and rib-cage sucked in really tight like someone decompressing and they can hear the bones cracking as Kyah sucks the remaining juices from her body.
As Kyah drops the remaining smoldering flesh and bones on the ground she tells Mr Woolf that he will pay for his insults. She begins to walk forward towards Mr Woolf but what she doesn’t realise is that by killing Dr Odjit the guardians are now once again free to attack her and put her back in her prison.
Both of the guardians attack at the same time, one grabbing her arms and the other slices her across the chest with its claws. Kyah pulls her hands down away from the guardian and crosses her arms over her chest, stomach and neck but it is too late the damage has been done. She arches back and from her neck to her waist begins to open up as her body concertinas outward. She bends back so far that she is able to reach the scarab, taking it in her hand she knows the guardians must obey her since she has just fed upon a human. As she pulls herself back up and together again into an upright position Mr Woolf once again attacks her but no matter how many slices he puts into her she just heals. While Mr Woolf is doing this he doesn’t see Malise come up behind him. She takes her sword and swings it right across the back of his legs, literally cutting them out from under him.
As Mr Woolf drops to his knees Malise grabs his head as if she is going to run him through with her sword and she screams, “NOW DIE!!!” Malise has her sword at his back and is about to plunge it into him when Kyah says, “Wait!! I have a much better idea for him.” Kyah walks over to Mr Woolf and reaches down and grabs him by the throat. Mr Woolf, still being defiant says, “Do your worst.” Malise looks down at him with a wicked evil grin on her face and waves to him saying, “Bye, bye; bye, bye!” Kyah begins to turn Mr Woolf into a Creaker but unlike the others she leaves his brain intact and alive so he can see, hear and feel everything but he has no control.
Kyah then releases Mr Woolf and commands him to hunt down his friends. He turns around and re-enters the passageways of the tomb and begins to close in on Josie’s father and Omar. Just as he comes around the corner he sees Omar struggling to get Porter up out of the lower levels of the tomb. The ladder they are on breaks sending them crashing back to the ground below. Mr Woolf transforms into his lichen form and jumps through the air at them. Just as he reaches them Natalia, who has been watching the horrific chaos that Kyah has caused, reaches out grabs Omar and Josie’s father and pulls them back into the safety of the stone wall. Mr Woolf slams face first into the wall. He gets to his feet and begins clawing at it.
Malise comes around the corner a few steps in front of Kyah and notices Mr Wolf clawing at the wall. She realises she has not seen Natalia since a few minutes after opening the tomb and it must be her who has saved Mr Solomon. Kyah appears behind her and asks, “Where are they?” As Malise answers she takes a few steps back knowing that Kyah is not going to be happy. She tells her queen that Natalia is within the walls of the tomb and has helped Porter escape. Kyah, looking at Malise, strikes her in the face and says, “You and the others have become soft since my imprisonment and it seems that Aziel and Tansin have become the same.”
Kyah, Malise and Kyah’s new pet, Mr Woolf, proceed to leave the tomb. Natalia reappears with Omar and Mr Solomon and as all three listen they can hear the blood curdling screams and wailing of those who are being killed and absorbed by Kyah.
Natalia looks at the injuries to Josie’s father and knows that if he is not taken to New Atlantis quickly he will die.
Meanwhile outside the tomb over 280 of the 320 who are working and helping at the dig site have been killed, the rest have fled in terrified fear. Now what stands before Malise and the enslaved zombified Mr Woolf is Kyah with her body fully restored after feeding on so many. As she stands there she screams out loudly, “FATHER, I AM FINALLY FREE!”
Back in New Atlantis The Elder appears and a shudder is sent down his spine even though he helped his daughter escape from her imprisonment.
Still inside the tomb Natalia senses the vibrations of a jeep approaching and she knows that this is Curtis, William James, JJ and Dalroy returning and not knowing they are about to walk into a trap. As the jeep pulls up Curtis notices that there is something strange because of an eerie silence. As he steps out of the jeep the other guys notice that he is suddenly wearing his armour which is made up of many different pieces from what was once the Roman Empire. Curtis also draws his two gladiatorial swords. The others get out of the jeep and join Curtis at the front of the jeep and they are also in their armour with their weapons at the ready.
Curtis asks Dalroy to take up a defensive position with his crossbows. As he does so the medieval armour he wears makes it slightly difficult to move in such sandy terrain. Then Curtis, William James and JJ walk forward and spread out so that they are not so much of a target. They are moving between the tents and as they come out into a flat open area towards the tomb they are horrified to find that many of the diggers have been killed and torn apart. As William James steps forward to check one of the diggers to see if she is still alive JJ calls out to him to listen as they can hear something heavy being dragged through sand.
As they both turn they see one of the little girls and she is dragging an Egyptian Khopesh sword behind her. Dalroy lowers his crossbows and looks at Curtis and says, “My God, she’s still alive!!” Curtis and William James put away their swords and walk up to her. William James kneels down in front of the little girl who is covered in blood and tries to ask her what happened. He then notices that the sword she is dragging belongs to his father. As he tries to take it from her she pushes it out of the way so he can’t get hold of it. This pisses him off a bit.
Meantime, JJ is standing next to Dalroy as he puts the question to Curtis and William James, “How is she the only one who managed to survive?” William James replies, “I don’t know how she survived but at least she did.” JJ is now getting a little bit worried so he turns and stands with his back to them. This also begins to worry Dalroy who then raises his crossbows again.
They ask her again what happened but she still won’t answer. Curtis reaches out and grabs his father’s sword and says, “Give it here!” As he is pulling it away from her he finds after a short time that he can’t pull it any further because she is resisting. Now really pissed off he yells, “Just give me my father’s sword!!” The little girl looks up at him so innocently and says, “If you want your father’s sword, here take it!” At the same time she swings the sword hitting him across the chest and knocking him on to his arse. She then turns on William James just as quickly as she did on Curtis. He manages to stave off her attack and he manages to slice her across the face. As she turns back towards them they see that the little girl is actually a Creaker, one of the living dead.
Dalroy opens fire on her with the crossbow but for some reason misses as they realise she is actually faster than other Creakers they have faced before. She begins to attack Curtis again whilst he is still on the ground. JJ comes to his aid as he places his arm up in front of his face and activates the shield. All they then hear is a very loud clang as the sword connects with the shield. This causes the untested shield, which is part of a new weapons system, to fail. The shield closes and the blow causes the gauntlet that JJ wears to disengage and fall to the ground. At the same moment other Creakers who were buried beneath the sand begin to rise. JJ who is fending the sword off with one of his axes screams out to his friends, “MOVE!!!”
Blackened Roots by Adrian Von Ziegler (Found on YouTube)
William James and Dalroy grab Curtis by his arms and begin to make a run for it. As they look back they see that the little girl has her hand around JJ’s throat and she throws his through the air and into one of the tents. They try to get back to the jeep but by this time there are too many creakers in their way so they decide to stand and fight.
As William James draws his Falchion sword he looks at Curtis and says, “This isn’t going to be easy.” Curtis replies, “No, it’s not but it is going to be fun!” At that very moment the young girl who is now a Creaker and is still holding Curtis’ father’s sword, flies through the air towards him. Curtis draws his swords thrusting one through her chest and then he swings the other one on an upward trajectory and connects with her armpit taking her arm off and the follow through removes a third of her skull killing her instantly. As he puts his swords away and bends down to pick his father’s sword up several of the other Creakers attack. Dalroy takes aim and fires and the two Creakers in the front are hit in the head, the arrows pierce their skulls and the arrow tip and half of the shaft comes out the back of their heads. The Creakers behind them are nailed in the head by the same arrows. The guys all laugh as they watch the Creakers trying to pull themselves apart.
Dalroy stops laughing and looks over towards where JJ landed wondering if he is still alive. Inside the tent JJ is now standing dusting himself off. JJ is thinking, “Bloody hell, that shouldn’t have happened with the shield!!” The other thought he has in his mind is, “That little bitch!” In the middle of his leather and chain-mail vest hangs a unique amulet that is engraved with magical symbols. As he takes a look outside the tent he can see his friends in trouble but his eyes are drawn to the top of the hill and standing there is Kyah, freed from her tomb, along with Malise. What shocks him the most and chills him to the bone is the sight of Curtis’ father who is now a Creaker under the control of Kyah.
JJ then watches Kyah send Curtis’ father to attack his own son and his friends. Curtis hears something behind him, turns around with his sword raised ready to strike but when he sees that it is his father, he hesitates and says, “DAD, what are you doing!?” Even though his father is now a Creaker, Curtis just can’t bring himself to do what is needed and lowers his sword.
Dalroy, on seeing this, does a rolling somersault over the top of William James and lands near his friend Curtis. Dalroy raises his hand crossbows and goes to fire not realising that he has already spent the last arrow. He quickly presses a button on the side of the handle and flips the crossbow to the vertical position with the handle now locked into position. He proceeds to use the crossbows like war hammers. Dalroy plunges them one after the other into Mr Woolf. Mr Woolf strikes at him, hitting the chest plate and ripping it open. Curtis stands there staring vacantly not knowing what to do next.
Dalroy, holding off many more blows from Mr Woolf , looks at Curtis and yells out, “What the hell are you doing, pull yourself back together!” With that Curtis charges in and swipes his sword right across his father’s back slicing him down to the bone. Curtis and Dalroy watch as the muscle fibres begin to re-attach and pull themselves back together. Curtis says, “We are in so much shit right now!”
With that Kyah appears on the top of the hill so that they can all see her. Dalroy reiterates what Curtis has just said and adds a few more words…”We are in so, so much DEEP shit right now!” William James looks over and says, “Well at least it can’t get any worse…” until he spots Malise who is walking down the hill, which distract them long enough for the Creakers to get the upper hand…”Oh, fuck me, I should have kept my big mouth shut!!” Malise walks up to him, grabs him by the hair, pulls his head back and says, “Yes, you should have kept your big mouth shut!”
As she orders the Creakers to rip them apart Kyah says, “WAIT!! I will give you this one last chance for you to join me.” Dalroy, Curtis & William James all look at each other for a few moments. Dalroy is the first to speak up and says, “You can kiss my arse!!” Malise pulls really hard on his hair, “Arrrghhhh!” Kyah asks Curtis and William James if their decision is the same. William James replies. “You better bloody believe it!” But Curtis answers, “No.” William James asks, “What do you mean ‘No’?” Curtis looks Kyah right in the eyes and tells her in no uncertain terms, “Blow me bitch!!”
Malise explodes and says, “YOU DARE TO SAY THAT TO KYAH??” After saying this she screams, “BAD DOG!!” and then proceeds to kick him. As he spins through the air Malise simply says, “ROLL OVER!!” Malise draws out her sword and stabs him through the leg pinning him to the ground as she says, “STAY!!” Malise then proceeds to retrieve Mr Woolf’s sword and walks back over to Curtis. As she raises the sword above her head, back in the tent JJ is just taking hold of the amulet around his neck and a few seconds later his eyes begin to glow and he disappears beneath the sand.
Now Malise is bringing the sword down and screaming, “PLAY DEAD!!” Malise, for some reason, is thrown off balance which causes her to miss Curtis’ head with the sword. As she regains her footing she raises the sword above her head once again only to suddenly stop, swing around and look in the direction of the tents. Everyone sees a massive thing moving through the sand and then they see a row of large fins appear through the sand and they hear a low rumbling growl at the same time. Malise suddenly gets a shuddering feeling like she is appearing in the movie Jaws, she can even hear the music for when Jaws is approaching.
As in the movie Jaws, right before the shark attacks, it disappears. This is also exactly what happens to the massive thing and the large fin, it also dives beneath the sand to where it cannot be seen. Malise, being very wary, orders about a dozen Creakers to search for the creature. As they move forward they hear a rumbling sound and this causes the sand to suddenly rise up about a foot and they can all hear a sound like high pressure air coming out of the sand. Then just as suddenly as it started it stops. When Kyah and Malise look there are no more Creakers standing in that area. They are looking puzzled when the sand turns a bright orange and red colour. Suddenly the sand rises about 10 feet into the air and as it comes back down to settle there is a large crater left in its wake, as if there has been a nuclear weapon detonated underground.
Malise, being stupid, turns her back on the crater as she orders more Creakers forward. Right at that very moment she is hurled into the air and as she is falling back down she can see a massive set of jaws opening under her with large, very sharp teeth. There is absolutely nothing she can do to save herself and she falls straight into the creature’s mouth and it slams it’s jaws shut. The guys who are pinned down begin to cheer loudly.
The creature then looks at Kyah as if it is going to eat her next. As all the dust settles the creature is revealed to be JJ in the guise of a desert dragon. The dragon lunges towards Kyah and begins to growl and groan in pain in the process and then to thrash it’s head about side to side. Moments later it spits out this large wet, mucous covered lump which is soon revealed to be Malise who is somehow still alive. She is standing there with the two swords in her hands, as she looks up at the desert dragon and very boldly states, “Didn’t anyone ever teach you not to play with your food?” Still covered in a large amount of mucous and sand the dragon rubs its mouth and face in the sand as it tries to get the foul taste of Malise out of its mouth.
The guys, seeing Malise covered in all this muck makes them turn a little green around the gills, but they still find it extremely funny. Dalroy yells out to Malise, “I guess it looks like you’re all washed up??” This infuriates Malise and causes some of her demon powers to appear and she burns away all the mucous she is covered in. As she is doing this, JJ, still in guise of the desert dragon, lashes out at Malise with his tail and begins to wrap her in the massive coils of his body and begins to crush her just as a giant anaconda would.
Kyah, who is enjoying this intently, walks down from the hill and without saying a word she uses one of the abilities of the race of harlequin ie; demon, where they can literally take possession of anothers body. Kyah takes full possession of William James and she then orders the Creakers to release her because she is now in possession of his body. She takes hold of the falchion sword and starts slicing Curtis and Dalroy up, inflicting the most pain she can without killing them. JJ gets the hint and releases Malise and begins to back off. Malise stands up and begins pushing the bones she has had crushed back into place and they make audible cracking sounds as they regenerate.
Kyah, in the most facetious and sarcastic way, then instructs the desert dragon to leave and the reply she gets is that he simply cannot for he knows that if he does she will kill them. Kyah raises the sword again but before she can do any more damage she suddenly drops it and begins to stagger. Malise races to William James’ side just in time to catch Kyah as she is pushed out. Seeing how much power Kyah has used and how drained she is Malise teleports Kyah, the Creakers and herself away as quickly as possible.
Curtis and Dalroy help William James to his feet as they watch the desert dragon disappear beneath the sand. Before they can say anything they hear the voice of someone calling for help and they see Omar dragging Josie’s father, who is badly injured, from the entrance to the tomb.
As they make their way to the entrance of the tomb to help they see JJ coming out of the tent and watch him pick up the gauntlet that had earlier fallen off his arm. They are each very happy to see that they are all safe. As JJ joins them they reach the entrance of the tomb quickly. Curtis, still in shock that his father has been turned into a creaker, helps William James and Dalroy to stabilise Josie’s father. As they are doing this they hear a sound coming from within the tomb.
Dalroy stands up and begins to enter the tomb but JJ grabs him by the shoulder and tells him he will have a look and it is better that he returns to helping Josie’s father. JJ takes the gauntlet snaps it back onto his arm and after it locks in place he activates it. When he does this the shield appears with a double serrated battle-axe. He takes the axe in his right hand and enters the tomb cautiously believing that there may still be some of Kyah’s people in there.
As he reaches the lower levels of the tomb he sees someone moving about. As he raises the axe to strike the person is suddenly revealed to him to be Natalia who seems to be in a state of shock as she is talking to herself saying, “This was not supposed to happen”. She suddenly stops mumbling to herself when she spots JJ and asks him what he is doing here.
JJ tells her that he is here with Curtis and the other guys visiting Josie’s father and Mr Woolf. JJ then asks Natalia what she is doing here. She responds that she is doing exactly as she was instructed and that everything went to plan except for Josie’s father, he was not supposed to get injured according to what The Elder had told her. JJ says to her, “So you’re responsible for all the death and destruction including the injury to Josie’s father and the death of Curtis’ father?” Natalia tries to apologise and says she was only doing as she was instructed.
William James and Curtis enter the tomb and yell loudly that they have to get Porter Solomon back to New Atlantis as quickly as possible. JJ begins to return to his friends but before he leaves the tomb he turns back and tells Natalia to leave before Curtis discovers that it was she who was responsible for the death of his father and kills her for what she has done…..”Get back to New Atlantis before we do.”
Natalia arrives in New Atlantis moments before the guys do when she realises just how close behind her they are she heads directly back to Melbourne. As she is stepping through the teleportation gate she can hear all the commotion going on behind her with the medical team beginning to work on Mr Solomon. As soon as she arrives home she heads straight to her own room where she begins to remove the purple and black make-up which she wears when she is in her acolyte uniform. Just as she finishes removing the lipstick Cassidy walks in and says, “Great, you’re home - I need your help with something really important.”
Natalia replies, “I’ve done something really bad.” Cassidy doesn’t quite hear her and turns around and asks, “What?” Natalia says, “Don’t worry about it, I’ll see you in a few minutes.”
Ten minutes later Natalia enters Josie’s room and sees Nevel standing there along with Alexandra, Keira and both Seneca and Cinaed and she watches and listens as they go through the list of items required to do the resurrection spell. Nevel asks if Natalia has all the items that are needed for her to do her part of the spell. As Natalia looks over everything she says, “Now, let’s see what I’ve got here!” She says, “We have enough calcium to fix her bones, we also have the right herbs that will help draw all the bruising out from her body and we have the vial of her blood.” As she comes to the last ingredient which is a very, very white clay, she puts her hand into the bowl picking up a little of the clay and she rubs it between her fingers to see if it is fine enough. Natalia looks up at Cassidy and says, “I’m ready and everything is here so we can start as soon as you want.”
As Cassidy begins to read from the book, “Crystals of life, by the power of the blue moons light I, Nevel, command you to come to life.” As she reads, each of those who are present take their place in the circle and each of them is holding a crystal. By the time she finishes the first part of the spell all these crystals are lit up and Natalia has finished mixing everything into the fine white clay.
Meanwhile back in NewAtlantis they are still working frantically on Josie’s father. Standing there watching what is going on is both Curtis and Dalroy while JJ and William James have gone to speak to The Elder about what has happened.
The news of Josie’s father being injured has also reached the ears of Drake and he sends one of the heralds with a message for Curtis to appear before him. After receiving this news Curtis reluctantly obeys and heads off to the throne room. As he enters he sees Drake sitting upon the main throne lost in thought.
Curtis walks down the stairs and across the floor and kneels in front of where Drake is sitting. He looks up and asks, “You sent for me, my lord?” Drake, looking down says, “Yes, I did!” He goes on to ask Curtis to explain why Porter Solomon has been injured so badly. Curtis explains that he had been injured way before they had returned from the nearest town to the dig site and this was Kyah’s doing. Drake places his hands on the armrests of the throne pushes himself to his feet and says, “THAT”S IMPOSSIBLE, you need a willing human to help open the inner doors.” Curtis tells Drake that it was Dr Odjit who was the one who unlocked and opened the doors and she paid the price with her life. Drake says, “I should have known something bad was going to happen because I was having nightmares about Kyah escaping.”
Drake goes on to say, “I also heard that you lost your father. I’m so sorry to hear this.” Curtis demands permission to go after Kyah immediately and says that he wants justice. He turns to leave before he has even been dismissed by Drake. Drake asks, “Where do you think you’re going?” Curtis states, “I’m going after Kyah.” Drake replies, “Like hell you are, you would be just as likely to get yourself killed in the state of mind you’re in.” Curtis spins around and yells, ‘I WANT JUSTICE!!” Drake steps down from the throne and puts his hand on Curtis’ left shoulder and tells him, “You don’t want justice you just want vengeance and vengeance is more like a double edged sword, be sure you don’t cut your own throat as you strike down your enemy.” This enrages Curtis even more and he pulls away from Drake and heads towards the throne room doors. Drake says, “I’m so sorry for this..” as he summoned the guards.
Curtis commmands the guards to move, they ignore him and look past him in Drake’s direction and they see Drake shaking his head “No.” The guards reply, “We cannot do that.” Curtis then tries to push past them but the guards use their shields and lances to prevent him from doing so. Suddenly he grabs hold of both of the guards and throws them across the corridor. He thinks the way is now clear to leave but he finds Drake standing in his way.
Back in Josie’s room we now find Natalia doing the second half of the spell. As everyone watches Natalia slowly pours the mixture of clay and herbs over Josie’s body. As the clay begins to harden it takes on the physical characteristics of Josie, including the horrific injuries she sustained from the beating she received.
Natalia then steps back and Nevel opens the skylight which allows the moonlight to enter the room. The moonlight passes through a crystal which is suspended from the roof, the crystal sends out fine, more powerful beams of moonlight to all the crystals that each of them is holding. These crystals then repeat the process and refract the ambient blue light of the moon on to Josie. Now they all wait in silence as the blue moonlight begins to do it’s job. The first visible thing they see is that the clay face, having once been caved in, begins to take it’s normal shape again as it absorbs the calcium and repairs the broken and shattered bones.
Then the once white clay surrounding Josie’s body begins to take on a black and purple tinge as if it is absorbing the bruising from her body. As the healing is taking place Josie’s body begins to rise into the air and the clay begins to heat up.
Drake pushes Curtis back down the stairs telling him that the only place he’ll be going is to one of the holding cells until he cools off. Curtis, listening to this, paces back and forward and then suddenly takes his four legged lichen form and the pacing becomes faster and faster as he begins to growl and bear his teeth at Drake.
Just as William James, Dalroy and JJ arrive at the throneroom Curtis charges Drake, he comes flying up the stairs, leaps into the air and tries to bite Drake on the neck. Drake puts his hand out, grabs Curtis around the neck and holds him out in midair. Drake hears the others behind him and he turns halfway around just so they can see Curtis dangling, still snapping and snarling, from Drake’s clenched hand. The guys all yell at Curtis, “What are you doing, are you crazy, you’re just going to piss him off?”
Drake simply looks at Curtis and says, “Of all people, you want to try this shit with me?”
The guys and Curtis see Drake beginning to transform. He’s one about one quarter of the way into the transformation as a herald arrives to inform him that Nevel and the others have started the Resurection spell on Josie and that it is going well. On hearing this Curtis is the first one to revert to his human form followed closely by Drake. Curtis then asks Drake if this is Josie Solomon that their talking about. Drake answers, “Yes! How do you know of Josie Solomon?”
Before Curtis can answer, Dalroy quickly explains that they have been best friends with her since they accidently met Josie in the school music room about 10 years ago. JJ then asks why they are performing such a dangerous spell on Josie. He and the others are told by Drake that Josie had been badly beaten when they found her and it is the only way to repair all the damage to her body since she had such an allergic reaction to the liquid from the maturation tanks.
William James asks if he and the guys can go and visit Josie. Drake says, “Fine!” and he decides to go with them. All the guys go through and come out on the other side of the mirror and Drake is the last one to appear. As he steps through he stops and picks up on a scent he has never smelt before.
Headwind by Medwyn Goodall (Found on YouTube)
All the other guys have left the study except for Dalroy who asks Drake if there is something wrong. Drake answers, “No, I’ve just picked up on this awesome scent but I don’t recognise the person that it’s coming from.” Dalroy takes a deep breath in, sniffing the air as he does so. He gets a smile on his face and says, “That’s an easy scent to identify, that’s just Josie.” Drake and Dalroy continue to head towards the room that Josie is in.
As they are walking along the corridor Drake discusses with Dalroy at length as to what Josie’s scent reminds him of - "the warm sun on a winter’s day, a Summer’s rain and the scent of the rarest flowers during spring". Dalroy just thinks to himself, “Maybe Drake can finally let go of the past and fall in love again on this day.”
Back in the room Nevel and the others begin to see the small cracks appearing in the now baked clay which indicate that the spell is working fully and is almost complete. Enthusiastically Curtis, William James and JJ burst through the door. As they do so they don’t realise that they are too close to the circle. Curtis comes to a sudden stop with his toes just outside of the circle but William James and JJ slam into him pushing him forward as Natalia screams out, “DON’T BREAK THE CIRCLE!” But it is far too late. In crossing the circle it has set off a chain reaction that cannot be stopped, it causes all the crystals to shatter and Josie’s body, now covered in the hardened clay, to drop like a stone.
Everyone ducks for cover except for Nevel, Natalia and Drake. Nevel tries to use her powers to slow Josie’s descent and bring her body to a stop but she has already used a lot of her powers and has been weakened far too much to do this on her own. Josie’s body suddenly comes to a stop just before hitting the floor. Nevel looks up and sees that it is Drake who has come to her aid and caught Josie, he is standing there with an outstretched hand and arm and Josie has stopped just millimetres from the floor.
The next person who comes to Nevel’s aid next is Natalia, she causes the clay to grow out from Josie’s back and pushes her back up to about the waist height. Natalia turns around, looks at Curtis and says, “That was far too close!”
As Drake asks if everyone is alright Cassidy goes back to the book of resurrection spells and she reads a PS bit pertaining to this particular spell. It indicates that if the spell is not finished properly it will keep absorbing the person until there is nothing left but a hollow shell. Natalia turns around with an absolutely panicked look on her face and tells everyone who is involved in doing the spell that it must be completed for Josie’s sake. Seneca tells Nevel that this is impossible without the crystals and these have been destroyed.
Drake asks Keira if there are any more of these crystals. Keira replies, “No, these ones were hard enough to find and I think that they were the last ones.” Nevel, “Oh, God, what are we going to do??” Drake offers to finish the spell for her but he is told that the one who starts the spell is the one who must complete it. Natalia looks up and says, “I’ve got an idea and this might just work.” She tells Cassidy that she can change the composition of the crystal balls that she possesses.
Cassidy does not hesitate in retrieving the crystal balls. Natalia asks each of those who were in the circle to re-take their positions and she takes one crystal ball each from Cassidy and hands them around the circle. She then proceeds to take pieces of the broken crystals from the floor and melds them into each of the balls. Instantly they begin to glow again and Josie once again rises from the floor but Natalia realises that there is one crystal missing. Being one of the rarest ones of all she cannot do the same with it as she has done with the others. She looks at Nevel and asks if she trusts her. Nevel responds, “Yes!”
After hearing this Natalia hands Nevel a pale blue diamond and tells her that she will have to absorb the energy from the blue moon and then channel her own energy through this diamond in order to finish the spell but it is extremely risky to do so. Nevel takes the blue diamond and begins to absorb the power from the blue moon and then she channels her energy through the stone.
As before the same thing happens with the crystals and once again the hardened clay begins to absorb the energy from the moonlight. After a few seconds the cracks re-appear in the hardened clay and as the clay begins to heat the cracks get larger and larger until Josie can be seen through them. It appears to those watching that she is on fire. Suddenly Cassidy realises that they are truly out of time as the sun begins to rise and the moonlight which was once being channelled begins to dissipate.
Cassidy decides to channel more of her own energy through the blue diamond and as she does so her hair, like her eyes, becomes a metallic silver and suddenly the whole room is lit up. She lets go of the diamond and it just hovers in mid-air. As Cassidy draws the purified water from it’s container and pours it into the cracks in the clay in order to complete the last part of the spell, there is a sudden flash as the water turns to steam and the clay explodes into fine dust and when this dust has settled there is Josie, fully healed. All those who are holding the crystals begin to say, “That was such….” and Nevel finishes the sentence …”a rush!”
As Josie’s friends Curtis, William James, Dalroy and JJ place her back into her bed, Cinaed realises there is something different about Nevel as she says, “Look at that!!” As everyone turns to see what she’s talking about they notice that Nevell’s hair is now quite long and they now realise what Natalia was talking about when she said that this could be dangerous when they see that Nevel has aged several years just like a human.
Nevel appears to have completely run out of energy and she slumps to the floor. Drake picks her up and takes her across the hall to her room and places Cassidy into her own bed. Nevel says she is fine and tries to get out of bed again but Drake tells her to rest. To make sure she does as he says Drake spends the whole night sitting next to her bed keeping watch over her as Josie’s friends keep watch over her too.
......To Be Continued (Chapter 9 is underway & listed under 2013)
......To Be Continued (Chapter 9 is underway & listed under 2013)
