Nightborn (part 13)

Mortensen let out what he thought would be his last breath.

Then he inhaled.

I’m alive.

He could see. The blackness was not due to life leaving him, but due to actual darkness, the lights going out for some reason. His neck hurt like hell, even more than his leg, but it wasn’t broken - if it were then he couldn’t move it. The snap he heard must have been his vertebrae crackling like old bones, due to Aiden’s strong grip.

“What is this?” a voice asked. It was Aiden. Mortensen could see perfectly well in the dark. The only light that came in the small cell was that from Rebeca’s hands as she tended to the wound on Rachel’s shoulder where Mortensen’s sacrificial knife had hit.

This could be my chance to escape, Mortensen thought. For a brief moment, Aiden loosened his Light grip around Mortensen’s neck and it would probably take another few moments for either Lightblood to use their Light for illumination. Mortensen could take advantage of the confusion and limp away.

Or, he could pick up the knife and finish the job.

“Who turned off the light?” Aiden shouted. The man sounded confused, his attention stretched. Mortensen broke free of the grip easily and landed on his good leg. Wincing and trying not to alert anyone with his grunts, he limped towards the door, favoring the injured leg.

A faint hue of white light shone from Rebeca’s hand, enough to illuminate her and Rachel’s face, casting deep shadows to the rest of the room. The sacrificial knife lay bloodied on the floor. It was an opportunity not to be missed.

Mortensen bent down and picked the knife. A blinding flash of light burst from behind - Aiden realizing his grip held only air.

“Rebeca!” he yelled in warning.

Mortensen cursed and used the knife’s handle to smack the woman on the head. The hit was strong enough that it knocked the Light out of her palms and she fell over Rachel. Mortensen spun and threw the knife at Aiden - who caught it in mid-flight with a bubble of Light - and hurried out the cell. The hallway was in darkness, save for what illumination came from Aiden’s Light.

“Die, bastard!” Mortensen could hear a sparking sound and he threw himself away from the direct line of fire. Aiden’s Light burst out the cell and hit the wall opposite the door, chipping off bits of rock.

If I had my Seed, Mortensen thought, I’d make short work of you. He tried to summon his teeth forth, but it didn’t work. No, he had to get out of here first, if he ever hoped to feel the Seed again. Perhaps Azazel could help find a way to undo whatever Rachel had done to him.

Azazel. The lights going out… was it time already?

“Stop!” Mortensen ducked as a ray of Light passed above his head, thrown by an angry Aiden standing at the cell door. His whole body was glowing and his eyes were two blue dots, too bright to look at.

Mortensen ran up the stairs, ignoring the pain in his leg and his neck to the best of his abilities. It hurt so damn much he thought he’d collapse. The only advantage he had over the Lightblood was that he could see in the dark and they couldn’t - unless they used their Light to illuminate everything. Then he was screwed.

But Aiden seemed angry beyond rational thinking. He threw his Light rays all over, hoping to randomly strike Mortensen in the dark. Luckily, the Nightborn appeared as a shroud of shadow to the eyes of a Lightblood and contrasted to the dark room Mortensen was practically invisible.

All that power and you can’t even see me, he thought as another Lightray missed him, hitting the stairs behind. Mortensen reached the top, went through an open door, and closed it behind him. The pain was so agonizing that it encroached from the corners of his vision as a pulsing light, threatening to take his consciousness.

No, he pushed it away. Just a little further.

He sauntered down the hallway, searching for a way out. He saw a figure standing not far away, leaning against the wall for support. 

Probably caught in the dark, he thought. He walked past on the other side of the hallway, unconcerned about being seen. The figure jumped straight at him to intercept.

Mortensen cursed in surprise and then froze as he saw the face. With all that burnt skin he almost didn’t recognize him. At the same moment, the lights flickered back on, revealing the two Nightborn standing in the hallway.

“I thought you died,” Mortensen said, emotions bubbling up. “I thought I killed you…”

“You talk too much,” Damien said and buried his fist in Mortensen’s stomach, pushing all air out. Mortensen collapsed on the floor, curling up in a ball, the physical pain catching up with the emotional.

“Stop… haunting me…” he groaned.

Damien, standing above him, scorched like a demon, paused. “Me, haunting you?”

Mortensen felt a sharp pain as Damien’s foot descended on his head and this time even his Nightborn vision went black.

***

“I am a fool and I’m sorry,” Aiden said. “If I could control my anger this wouldn’t have happened.”

“It’s okay,” Rachel said. “That monster brings out the worst in us.”

Aiden nodded but she could see guilt in his eyes as he glanced to her shoulder. It felt numb as if someone had given her anesthesia. She remembered standing by the door of the cell and listening to Rebeca questioning Mortensen. Then… that power came again, on its own, and Rachel could do nothing but watch. She shivered at the image of the knife sticking from her shoulder a moment later.

“He is too dangerous to be kept alive,” Rebeca said. The police chief had a nasty bruise on the back of her head and she massaged the area with her hand, administering Light from her palm. “We need to execute him.”

“No,” said Damien. Rachel felt a knot in her stomach as she laid eyes on the detective. His face… He was supposed to remain in bed and rest, but he had torn off the bandages from his head and came down, catching Mortensen in the hallway.

“No, as much as I hate saying this and as much as I want him dead, we still need him. Now more than ever. We need the details of their plans. I fear it has started.”

All heads in the room turned to the TV screen in Rebeca’s office. The electricity was back on at the moment, but judging by how it’s been coming and going in the past hours it could cut out at any time.

The Apocalypse, Rachel thought. She heard the others mention it several times but didn’t know what exactly it meant. Nothing good, by the looks on their faces.

There was a news reporter on the screen, a young blonde woman in a pretty blouse. She stood outside a power plant and talked to the camera, with a whole army of policemen behind her, surrounding the power plant complex.

“... at 1:49 AM this night. The group broke in and took over the power plant you can see behind me and have been causing power outages-” she glanced down at her notepad “-seven already in the past two hours. The police force has the building surrounded as the group appears to have hostile intentions, possibly even terroristic. So far, there have been no demands from the group, but the police are attempting to establish communications. We will try to get a brief interview…” Her voice trailed off. The cameraman froze as figures appeared on the roof of the power plant, and then leaped from it, landing on top of police cars.

“Oh, my-”

The news reporter dropped her microphone and screamed, as one Nightborn with yellow eyes bit a police officer. Gunshots went off and the cameraman appeared to stumble back, before throwing his camera and running. The camera cracked a lense and recorded a few last images of Nightborn biting and slaughtering the police force, unaffected by their bullets. Then the image cut off.

Rachel hugged her knees, resting her chin on top of them. Two weeks ago her life was normal, safe. Now… she didn’t know what to make of it.

“Is this it?” Aiden whispered. “Are they trying to call their Master?”

Rebeca shook her head. “If you had asked me a few days ago I would have laughed at the idea of an Apocalypse. I didn’t think it was real.”

“But how are they going to do it? If, that is what they’re doing, and not just mindlessly causing fear and panic.” Both Lightblood turned to Damien.

“I don’t know,” Damien sighed. “But he does.” The detective nodded his head toward the corner of the room where Mortensen lay unconscious, tied up to an iron radiator. “We need to get this information at all costs. If we do not know what their strategy is, how will we combat them? How will we know that we aren’t playing right into their trap?”

“I agree,” Rebeca said. “But why would Mortensen give us anything? What can we possibly offer to dissuade him? He’ll not respond to threats.”

“He’s a Nightborn,” Damien said, looking at Rachel. She held his gaze, though it was hard not to look at that reddish flesh. “There’s only one thing that he values above all else. And Rachel took it from him.”

“The Seed,” Aiden said. “We can offer it back to him!”

“That would make him that more dangerous,” Rebeca mentioned. “Look at what he did even without it.”

“You underestimated him,” Damien said. “I’m sure you won’t do that again. Besides, if you bind him properly with Light it should hold him.”

“And what if his other powers come back as well?” Aiden asked. “The fire? That is not standard Nightborn domain, is it not?”

“No, it isn’t,” Damien shook his head. “The fire… I don’t know how he was capable of it. Perhaps Rachel can see to it that we give him only the connection with his Seed and nothing else. A Nightborn, just like me.”

Rachel felt their eyes upon her. 

“What do you think?” Rebeca asked. “Can you do it?”

“I-” They all looked at her as if she was their savior. She still didn’t digest the fact that something in her possessed supernatural capabilities. She had no control over them, let alone be capable to fulfill this role placed on her of stopping a war. 

“Rachel?”

She couldn’t even stop her emotions, how could she stop a war? Between two supernatural peoples? It was ridiculous! She worked at a bakery, she wasn’t a warrior… up until recently she didn’t even consider that angels and demons could exist, let alone believe in them.

“Rachel?”

“I can’t do it,” she whispered. “I don’t know how.”

Aiden offered a tired smile. “You can learn, Rachel. I can instruct you…”

His voice trailed off as the lights flickered and turned off again. Darkness engulfed the room and somebody cursed. For a moment, Rachel’s mind was transported back to that tiny cell on the farm where Mortensen kept her locked up. She felt the darkness encroach on her, but the feeling was gone as two blobs of light appeared - Rebeca’s palms.

“What in damnation are they doing?” Rebeca snapped. “Turning the power on and off. Why?”

“Hell if I know,” Damien said. He stepped to Rachel and met her eyes. “Please, you can do it. I know he’s a monster and he doesn’t deserve any power, but there are other monsters out there, ones far more dangerous and deadly than him. We need what he knows.”

“I’d love to help,” Rachel said. “But I just don’t know how! It comes and it goes, I’ve no control over it.”

“Well, how did it come previously? First, it was due to the attack, right?”

Rachel nodded. “When Mortensen turned into that fire monster, yes.”

“Why do you think it came then and not before? Or later?”

Rachel shrugged. “I was in danger. Maybe it’s a defense mechanism?”

“But you were in danger at Mortensen’s farm too,” Damien said, frowning. “Why didn’t the power come to you then?”

She could really use the power then, but it didn’t come to her. With it, she wouldn’t be a victim and Mortensen couldn’t hurt her.

“And the second time was down in the cell,” Damien said. “Where you saw through Mortensen’s lies. Do these two situations have anything in common?”

“Mortensen, for one,” Rachel said. Even now, with the monster tied up to a radiator, she felt uncomfortable being so close to him. “But it can’t be just him because, as you said, I was helpless while locked at the farm.”

“Perhaps it's because you came here,” Aiden said. “To Lightblood mansion. Perhaps our presence triggered something in you.”

“Could be,” Rebeca agreed. “You can see our inner light, but not Damien’s shadow, can you not?”

“I can’t see it all the time. It just… comes and goes.”

The three frowned in thought. Rachel stared at the floor, trying to remember if anything, in particular, happened that triggered the Absolute Gene. 

They’re depending on you, she told herself. Think hard.

Nothing came to mind. She hated being so useless.

Then, something pinged at her. It was like a buried awareness that wanted to resurface and make itself known. Something about that last thought bothered her, but she couldn’t quite say what. Something about it didn’t feel true.

What did I do to access my power?

She frowned. And then it became as obvious as daylight. Of course! I stopped being a victim!

Good, that voice in her said. You realize.

Use it.

She looked at Rebeca. The woman’s hands were glowing, illuminating the dark room, as she sat and pondered. Rachel focused her attention on the woman, setting an intention to try and see her inner light. She had to focus on it, putting all other thoughts away, and then the woman flared like a bonfire.

Rachel yelped and jumped on her seat. She did it!

“Rachel? What is it?”

She looked at Damien and focused on seeing his inner light. Or rather, his inner darkness. And sure enough, as soon as she put away her distracting thoughts about his freshly scarred face, she could see a black shroud surround the detective, hanging from him like long drapes of shadow.

“I can see,” she said, excited. “I can see into you if I focus.”

They all looked at each other. “Can you see my light?” Aiden asked.

Rachel looked at him. It took a few seconds and then the man burst aflare in her vision, his body becoming pure white light and his eyes two deep blue sapphires. 

“Yes, I can see it. It’s beautiful.”

“How, all of a sudden?”

“I just... decided to.”

Damien snorted. “Decided? That’s all it took?”

She felt a bit foolish for not realizing it sooner but didn’t let herself feel inadequate. “Yes.”

“Are you ready to try it then? With Mortensen?”

Rachel took a deep breath. Seeing inner lights and shadows of people was one thing, but reconnecting the Seed to a Nightborn was quite another.

I can do this, her voice said.

She smiled. “Wake the bastard up.”

***

Damien’s skin burned as if it was still on fire and his own reflection scared him. You did this, you bastard. You’ve turned me into a monster.

He smacked the sleeping Mortensen on the face. And he enjoyed it.

Mortensen startled awake, scrambling to protect himself. When he noticed he was bound and everyone was gathered around him, he began thrashing violently.

“Stop it,” Damien said and slammed the man against the radiator. The Seed within him was strong, able to still Mortensen with one hand. 

“What more is it that you want?” Mortensen spat. “You’ve taken my trust in you and shattered it. You’ve taken my child and killed it. Now, you’ve even taken the Seed from me! What more do you want?”

“We can give it back,” Damien said.

“Why would you do that?”

“You have something we need.”

“Oh? And what might that be?”

“Information.”

Mortensen snorted. “I already told you. We will purge this world-”

Damien glanced at the man’s broken leg. Fresh blood was oozing from the wound. He extended his claws and jabbed them where the leg was broken. Mortensen’s whole body jumped and he roared in pain.

“You think being separated from the Seed is rough? When I’m done with you, you’ll be begging for mercy!” Damien twisted his claws.

“Fine!” Mortensen shouted. “Stop! I’ll speak!”

Yeah, you will, bastard! He twisted once more for good measure and retracted his claws. Mortensen breathed heavily. He locked eyes with Damien and there was a burning hatred in them. Damien returned the gaze, as cold as his heart.

“First, the Seed,” Mortensen groaned.

“Note,” Damien said, “that we can take it away just as easily as we can give it back to you. Rebeca and Aiden will restrain you.” He placed a clawed hand at the man’s throat. “If you as much as flinch, I’ll slit your throat. You’ll tell us everything you know about your Lord’s plan and perhaps we’ll let you live.”

“Fine already,” Mortensen grunted. “Do it! Give me the Seed!”

Damien nodded and the two Lightblood placed their Light chains around Mortensen’s body, securing him. Then, Rachel’s eyes flashed violet and she looked at Mortensen.

The man’s face relaxed, a wide smile spreading across his lips. He looked like he just received a shot of heroin in his vein, nearly melting with content. Damien noticed his leg stopped bleeding. The Seed had reactivated.

“Oh, man…” Mortensen sighed, closing his eyes. 

“Speak,” Damien said.

“Fine. Listen closely, then. I will only say this once…”