To Have and to Hold - 11. Chapter 11

Memory floods me and I sit up, panic replacing the pain that had previously assailed me at such moments. The fool! I told him not to leave the room. Has he run into trouble? I extend by consciousness but I can’t feel him. That is wrong, I know it is wrong.

Getting out of bed the panic grows. There is a sense of wrongness that I can’t explain but neither can I shake. I extend my consciousness to encompass the rest of the house. The others I can locate easily enough... May, Gabriel, Darian, even Salem and he is shielding better than anyone. But there is no sign of Marc and he should be the easiest to find of all.

Have they taken him? Have they done something to him? Have they hurt him? Panic turns to anger as I pull on the rest of my clothes and storm out of the room in search of Gabriel and answers.

He is in the library, talking with three men, whom I recognise to be members of the council. They all look up when I come in, some surprised and some angry at the intrusion but when they see it is me, their eyes close down. They are not prepared to let me see what they are thinking and I have a pretty good idea why.”

“Where is he? What have you done to him?”

“What are you talking about? I was about to ask you the same question, along with... how did you manage to break Salem’s trance, not even I can do that?”

“I didn’t. Marc did. Now where is he?”

“Kai.... I have no idea what you are talking about. We have only just discovered that he is missing ourselves, in that he is not where we put him. I assume that you have a different cause for concern.”

Damn... he is telling the truth, I can feel it. I could always tell when Gabriel is lying and this is not one of those times.

“He came to me yesterday. We talked and he stayed with me. Somehow he had broken the trance himself and, not only that, but he was shielding his energy completely. Even I could only sense his presence and not his nature. He.,. he healed me, or at least showed me how to heal myself and we... we stayed together. I fell asleep and when I woke he was gone and now I have no sense of him at all.”

“Damn. Do you think he has left the house? Why on earth would he do that?”

“I have no idea. There is no reason. He would have woken me, would have told me.... surely...”

“Kai, I don’t think that any of us can really presume to predict what he might do at the moment. He is very young, very new and he must be very confused. I will put out a call, someone will find him soon. I’ll have them bring him back here.”

The door opens. It is May. She does not preamble. “Beth is missing.”

“What?”

“You heard me Gabriel. Beth is missing. She was supposed to meet me. We are training with Lavernock. She didn’t show and when we searched for her.... she is not in the house.”

“Perhaps she has gone out hunting.”

“Beth does not leave the house, not alone. Beth cannot survive outside on her own. She is.... special, very innocent, very open. Beth would never have left the house alone, at least not without telling someone.”

“Perhaps she isn’t alone.”

“What?”

“Marc is missing too. They are friends are they not?”

“As close as to a friend as she has ever had I suppose, and it makes sense why she would be attracted to his energy and he to hers. But why would they have left? Where would they have gone?”

“That, I think is something that we really need to find out. Salem, can you trace their energies?”

Salem unfolds himself from his chair. I had not even been aware that he was there.

“They are not in the house. They are shielded.”

“When did they leave?”

“About 5 o’clock this afternoon. They were not alone.”

“What do you mean, not alone?”

Salem drifts towards the door and we all follow. He seems to float rather than to walk although if you concentrate on his feet you can see that they are in contact with the floor, they are walking. In the hall he pauses.

“They were here. There were four humans. They left together.”

“Humans?”

“Why would they have left with humans?”

“Why would Beth have left in daylight? How would she have left?”

I feel as though I have stepped into a nightmare. Marc is gone, he has left with humans... why? Who were they? Why did he go with them? Why did he go with Beth and not stay with me? I feel hurt and confused, although at the same time a part of me realises that this is foolish... the answer to all my questions is simple.... he wouldn’t have, something is wrong, very wrong. I wander across the hall towards the door, trying to feel him, to sense what happened, why he left.

My foot skids and I almost fall. I look down in surprise, there is a puddle on the floor. It is high summer, there has been no rain for days, why is there water on the floor? I bend down and touch the liquid raising it to my nose. Coffee. Not water, coffee. I scan the floor and see the mug, over near the door, it is broken. Looking around I see another puddle, another mug, not far away. Touching one of the mugs I sense fear. Beth.

“They didn’t leave.”

Gabriel had been deep in conversation with the Council members and he looks up, seeming startled by my voice. May has been watching me and it is she who responds.

“What do you mean? What have you found?”

“They were coming through here with coffee. Something made them drop the mugs, something frightened Beth. They didn’t leave, they were taken.”

Salem glides across the floor and takes the mug from my hands. He then moves to pick the up the other. Finally he nods to Gabriel.

“It seems logical. There is an imprint of fear on one of the mugs. The other one was not afraid but there does not seem to be any logical reason why they would simply throw their drinks onto the floor and then walk out. Besides, their energy stops here.”

“What do you mean?”

“I can trace their energy trails through the house very easily. They met in the kitchen and walked together here. They were met by four humans and then...” He shrugged. “... then the trail stops.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means that they were either subdued... and it would have to have been with a very specialist drug that suppressed their energy as well as their consciousness... or...”

“Or what?”

“Or dead.”

“No, not dead. If they had killed them there would have been no reason to take them.”

“But why would humans take them?”

“They wouldn’t, not for their own purposes. Clearly they were sent because they could walk under the sun... they could hit at a time when most of us would have been asleep, when they would have had little or no opposition.”

“Of course.... Merticus. It has to be. It has his stench all over it.”

“Of course, who else?”

“But why would Merticus take Beth? What quarrel does he have with her?”

“He didn’t take Beth. He sent his hired humans after Marc and they took her because she was with him.” Gabriel turns to me and his eyes are cold. “And so it begins Kai. Do you still think that there is anywhere that is safe for him, for you, for any of us while he is free?”

“We have never been ‘safe’ Gabriel, especially not from Merticus, no one knows that better than I do. But this was not Marc’s fault. He cannot help what he is. He is doing everything he can to mask and control it and he is doing a lot better with his control than others I know of.” He has the grace to lower his eyes. He knows exactly what I am talking about.

“What do we do now?”

“We get them back.”

“Simple as....?”

“He’s right May. If Marc is shielding as well as Kai says he is then there is a good chance that Merticus will not recognise him for what he is. He will be focussed on revenge, that will be enough for him, at least for a while. Of course he will be able to sense that Marc is different but as far as I am aware, he does not have anyone with Salem’s abilities and it is very unlikely he will be able to penetrate Marc’s defences initially.

“That is not to say that he is safe or that we have time to waste. Merticus will be intent on revenge and he will want more than just Marc. He will use him to tempt Kai out into the open. He will want Kai to try and rescue him, will believe that he is strong enough to take Kai down when he does. He has no way of knowing that he has the backing of the Council again.”

“Do I?”

“Do you what?”

“Have the backing of the Council?”

“Of course you do. Do you really need to question?” Again he has the grace to lower his eyes. “Yes, yes of course you do. I have behaved badly Kai, in the past and the present. I appreciate that. I am in a difficult position. I have responsibility to keep us safe, our entire race, civilisation. I have to make difficult decisions and I have become used to making them with no thought for anyone but myself. I apologise.

“Rest assured that you have the full backing of the Council. We will do everything we can to locate and rescue Marc and Beth and when we do we will work with you to discover what this means to us and how we can all work with this.”

“Thank you.” I still don’t trust him but I recognise that we need him, we both need him, now and in the future. But I can’t think of that, all I can think of is Marc in Merticus’ hands, and I know from bitter experience what those hands are capable of.

They call a council of war in the library. As they make plans, send out runners, scan networks, do what they do I pace. May tries to talk to me from time to time but I can’t... I just can’t make small talk, I can’t cut through the images my mind is providing me, partly from memory, part from imagination.

Merticus.... he had been a friend once, of sorts. Merticus did not make friends, because that would mean having to give something of himself, having to care and he was incapable of that. Because of his lack of emotion he was enigmatic and exciting, so he had plenty of acquaintances, and I had been one of them once.

I had believed that we were friends. I had allowed him to get close to me, to become part of the inner circle, even a member of the Council.... and then he had betrayed me.

It was almost two in the morning when I hear the call. It is nothing physical, it is entirely psychic, sent to me and only to me. It is not panicked or in pain. It is clear and calm and controlled and it is Marc.

At first it is all over the place, just a call thrown out blindly, in confusion but, as he surfaces from the effects of the drug it becomes clearer and more direct. He cannot communicate as such or it would be detected and stopped but he is making a contact, sending a beacon if you wish. Unless he is closely scanned there is no way of anyone knowing what he is doing and so the beacon will be safe as long as he is conscious and able to maintain the link.

“Gabriel. I know where they are.”

*-*-*

They argued with me, of course they did. I would have argued with me too, if the shoe had been on the other foot. Merticus has set a trap for me and it just doesn’t make sense for me to walk right into it all alone. But there is barely an hour until dawn and no way that they could mount a rescue mission; to be gathered, get there, get Marc and Beth and get back; in an hour.

That means that if I want Council backing, if I want the others to help me, I am going to have to wait until sunset. I will then have to trust that Merticus will do the same and I know him better than that. He will not wait. He will ensure that my day is filled with fear and pain... and they will not be mine.

I can’t do that. I can’t sit here through the day and share the pain as Merticus tortures Marc, sending his pain to me, making me hear it, understand what is happening and that there is nothing I can do to stop it, to help him, to save him.

And so it is now six o’clock. The talking is done, the sun is up and I am alone in the hall, or at least I think I am.

“I only wish that I could go with you.”

“I bet.”

“You are angry with me, and distrustful. It does not surprise me, but it hurts nevertheless. We were close once, closer than I have ever been to anyone else before or since.”

“We were. We are not any more.”

“Kai.... I know that I... I was... I behaved badly, and I know it. I have had plenty of time to ponder and to regret. I didn’t know what I was doing. I had been besides myself, so worried about you. I knew that you were in pain but I didn’t know how or why. And then when you came to me... when you told me.... I couldn’t believe that Merticus would have been capable of that, and I couldn’t get past the... the mechanics of what he had done.

“I was unforgivably cruel to you. As soon as I realised what I had done, that I had driven you away, I understood that. I couldn’t stop thinking about what you had gone through, at his hands and mine. I have never forgiven myself Kai, never.”

He is very close, so close I can smell his musky perfume. He smells of wealth and power and of something that had once been dear to me. His hand touches my face and it would be easy to turn my head and kiss it, as I used to. It would be easy to fall into his arms, to feel his warmth and strength comforting me as only he could, only he had. But there was something between us, something soft and warm, the memory of a kiss, a touch, a face.

I take his hand and remove it from my face, releasing it. “Thank you Gabriel, I appreciate your candour. It was a hard time for us all and there is only one man to blame for it. I am glad that we have come together again, glad that I have had this chance to see you and speak to you again. I am even hoping that perhaps we can learn to be friends, but as for anything more.... that died a long time ago.

“I loved you Gabriel, with all my heart and soul, I loved you and I would have been loyal to you, I would have been at your side forever. But it wasn’t to be and what we had is gone. You are my past. Marc is my future. He is the one who holds my heart now. I will do nothing to hurt him. He is good and pure and he deserves better than this.

“You don’t know him and you have not been prepared to give him a chance. If you care for me at all Gabriel don’t let jealousy and spite and a stupid desire to cling to the past stop you from getting to know someone who is truly remarkable and could be your key to a far brighter future.”

“You know me too well, you always did. I could never pretend with you, never hide anything about myself. That is what I loved most about you. There has never been anyone since who has been prepared or able to be so honest and direct with me.

“If I promise to try.... if I promise to give him a chance, will you come back with me? Will you come home? Will you work with me?”

“I’ll think about it.”

“I suppose that is the best I am going to get right now isn’t it?”

“It is.”

“Take care Kai. Be careful, please. It doesn’t seem natural so see you walk out into the sunlight at this time of the day. Please, be careful. Don’t take stupid chances. When you find them let us know where you are. Keep them safe until sunset and then we will come for you.”

“I will do my best.”

As soon as I step outside into the warmth of the sunshine, the feeling of being alone is incredible. I hadn’t realised how much I relied on my friends until I was no longer able to call on them for help. As I extend my senses, reach out for the contact, it comes slamming into me. Marc is in pain. I can tell that he is trying to hide it and that thought makes me smile, even as I am gritting my teeth.

Threading through the silent, deserted streets, following the beacon that my love is sending to me, even as he is trying to hide the fear, shock and pain that he is experiencing, my mind is racing. So much has happened in the last few days.... no I must remember that it was more than that but my lost days are the least of my worries at the moment.

It is easy to follow the beacon and I make good time. I am surprised by how soon the streets fill with people. I am not used to crowds and I try to keep to the side streets and less populated areas. I have passed right through the city now, and I am on the far side, away from the sea. The people fall away as all the buildings which surround me now are warehouses or industrial units. I have an idea where I am going.

On the far side of the industrial zone there is an abandoned hotel. The spreading industrial estates caught it unawares and made it unprofitable as a hotel and it closed down. It has been boarded up and abandoned ever since... or has it?

I pause for a moment to pass the location back to Gabriel and, as I do so the pain explodes in my head. I fall to my knees even though the pain is not mine. No, oh no. He knows, he knows what this will do to me. He knows how much pain this will cause to both of us. Merticus, the bastard. When I get to him I will tear out his heart with my own hands. It has begun and the worst is knowing that no matter what I do I cannot get there in time to stop him.