97 (Rise of the Battle Bred) (13 page)

Toledo

Steel careened off of talons as strong as stone. Ringing metal and deep-bellied grunts echoed in the night. Jacob panted, but felt the adrenaline coursing through his veins. He wasn’t even winded yet; he could go all night if he had to. And he had to.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw William being reckless again. He kept lifting his right elbow too high, leaving an opening for a killing strike if he wasn’t careful. But Jacob had to turn his attention back to the Lochspawn in front of him. It was like fighting moving granite. Indeed, it wouldn’t surprise him if the Lochspawn were inspired by the gargoyles of old.

Red angry eyes seethed in front of him. Jacob knew he had to keep the Lochspawn busy before it started chanting. The chanting was what always got them in trouble. But as Warriors, they had learned a trick or two. They’d developed some throwing weapons that they periodically threw toward the Lochspawns’ faces. As they dodged the small metal blades, they couldn’t complete any spells. The trick was avoiding the wide sweep of barb-tipped claws with the help of their blades. It took agility, dexterity, and a lot of luck and skill. Jacob sent another glancing blow at the black devil. He heard rending leather, and felt satisfaction that he’d damaged a wing.

As the battle carried on into the night, the moon kept peeking behind drifting clouds. Jacob and William’s vision was acute for night, as they’d been created, but so was the vision of their adversaries. In fact, Jacob suspected that Lochspawn vision had been enhanced with some sort of thermal imaging. It gave them an edge, but Lochspawn weren’t fighting for freedom, liberty, the pursuit of a normal life, family. They were merely fighting on orders. The history of the Warriors dictated that such a reason for fighting didn’t last long. The Warriors grew tired of meaningless battle. At least that was how the stories had been passed down over the generations.

“Aaaaagghh!” Jacob gave a battle cry and lunged for the throat of the beast. His sword pierced the throat, but it didn’t go deep enough to sever its windpipe. As he withdrew his blade in a swift move, he heard noises coming from the surrounding woods. He couldn’t afford to take his eyes off of the Lochspawn, but by the sound of it, he thought maybe a group of drunken kids had stumbled upon the battle clearing.

This was very bad.

Jacob deflected a fierce blow with the edge of his sword. He felt sweat beading and running down the side of his face. Now it wasn’t just his son’s lives and his own, but the lives of these innocents that he must protect. While stabbing and thrusting, he shouted. “Run away! Run now!” He had no way of knowing if they heard him, other than the beast before him did not leave the fight.

It appeared the Lochspawn was gradually weakening from the neck wound. Jacob renewed his efforts, feinting toward the torso, then at the last moment, driving his broadsword upward to the beast’s Adam’s apple. The gargoyle-like monster made a death rattle, and collapsed at Jacob’s feet. Wasting no time, he severed the Lochspawn’s windpipe and then ran to join William in his fight. William was lying on one elbow, using his sword arm to deflect the blows from glistening black talons. If Jacob had to guess, William had already died once, and was coming out of death even now. He cursed as he ran toward them. He looked to the right, and saw the group of kids staring and leaning against one another. “Leave!” He shouted at them urgently. They stared stupidly. Jacob couldn’t waste time on them.

He reached the other Lochspawn and drove his sword into the creature’s back. The crunch of gristle, leather, bone and membrane reverberated across the field. The beast howled and arched its broken back. This gave William a moment’s reprieve to finish his living cycle. The scars from past battles glowed with a fiery anger as his skin flamed back into full life. He jumped up, light on his feet, and Jacob and William fought the creature together.

Now that it was cornered, the Lochspawn screeched like the hellish demon it was, and lashed blindly in all directions. Jacob avoided the scratches by sheer experience, having battled these spawns of the Warlochs his whole long life. William, on the other hand, was still fighting with the recklessness of youth and an abundance of lives yet ahead of him. As the two men grunted with each battle-stroke, Jacob chastised his son. “You’re lifting that elbow, Son! Watch yourself.”

More blows rained on the black devil, and it parried their thrusts with ease. Jacob was distracted by William’s repeatedly careless right thrust, and the more lucid kids who still had not left the clearing.

They began shouting and cheering at them, like idiots. Jacob growled in frustration. He continued to hack at the back of the creature, trying to slice its wings to shreds. Between the shouting kids and William’s carelessness, he missed the beginning words of the incantation.

The Lochspawn began the chant quietly, and before either Jacob or William knew it, blue flames were erupting from its maw. “No!” Jacob shouted. He tried to behead the creature from behind, but it was too late. The incantation was beginning its fatal twisting curls. The blue fire started at the base of William’s feet, and wrapped around his legs, effectively cutting off his ability to stand. It swirled up his body, burning fabric and flesh, and then the panic set in to William’s eyes. He looked at Jacob, an apology on his lips, and then the flame worked its way up his chest.

In a frenzy of fear and desperation, Jacob decapitated the Lochspawn and then leaped upon William’s body, trying to smother the magic flame with his own flesh. He shouted in agony, but seemed to draw away some of the death blow from his son. He murmured the only spell he knew, a sort of Warrior’s Prayer passed down from generation to generation. Then he lifted the lifeless form of his son onto his back and began to lope through the forest.

The kids’ shouts had died down in awe, and then rose up again in keening cries. Jacob looked across the clearing; one of the dead Lochspawn had appeared out of nowhere, apparently healed, and was now diving at the youths mercilessly. Jacob looked on in horror as the dark devil snatched at the kids as if they were no more corporeal than blades of grass. There was no time for him to cross the glen; no time to do anything but watch. The beast’s talons impaled one, and disemboweled another in a swift move. Next, limbs were dispatched from bodies. The bloodbath was over in a matter of moments. Jacob stood guard over William, who was barely conscious, and watched in grim dread as the Lochspawn walked on powerful legs toward them. He poised his sword, ready to battle toward many deaths. The rock-like Lochspawn glared down at him and pointed a bloodied talon.

“For my mate,” It spat out in a contorted voice. Then in a sweep of powerful wings, it lifted itself and disappeared into the clouds misting above the woods. Jacob looked on in confusion. Why would a Lochspawn exact revenge in such a way?  The Warlochs had every reason to hide their existence from governments and science alike, and kept their Lochspawn on tight leashes. While civilian deaths weren’t unheard of, killing so many at once was discouraged. And Jacob had never witnessed a Lochspawn caring about the death of one of its comrades.

Jacob knelt by William then. William stirred. “It killed all four of them, didn’t it?”  He asked in a weak voice.

“Hush,” Jacob said. “Don’t think about that now,” In spite of years of such deaths, it was never easy for Jacob to witness the life leave his son’s body. He didn’t have complete faith in the Warlochs that created their race; what if someone came along who didn’t have the full 99?  What if it was William?  He brushed the hair out of William’s eyes.

“How many?”  William whispered, a grimace of pain contorting his mouth.

Jacob swiftly counted the flaming scars that marked the passing of each Warrior’s life. William was young, too young, to have lost so many. He recounted, and felt blood drain from his face. William had had 46 lives prior to tonight. It had appeared to Jacob that William had perished once before the Lochspawn used its spell. The incantation had taken fifty for its toll. Jacob cursed again.

“How many?”  William asked again, his voice soft as a spring breeze. He died.

Jacob held his son close to his chest, just held him as the life cycle began again, regenerating skin and bone as needed. Jacob himself was in his 50
th
. He knew the pain being resurrected brought, and tried to comfort his son by proximity if nothing else.

In a great gasp, William’s 97
th
life-breath entered his body.

“How many?”  He asked in a clear and true voice.

“50,” Jacob said. He released his hold, letting William shake out his limbs and crack knuckles.

“Guess I better work on that right thrust,” He said, and then looked out at the carnage in the clearing. Most of the blood had already soaked into the earth, but the copper stench assaulted their noses nonetheless.

“We’ll bury them here,” Jacob announced. William only nodded. Jacob looked at his boy; his only child, his only son. The only thing left to him from his beautiful and strong wife. They couldn’t go on this way. Something had to change.

As they lowered the final corpse into the grave, Jacob looked at his only son and decided. He would no longer fight. William wouldn’t like it, but Jacob couldn’t afford to lose him. He was his only reminder of Dorothea; he had her eyes.

They would go somewhere unexpected. Somewhere quiet and boring. No more big cities. Being anonymous in big populations hadn’t worked as a strategy. Maybe getting lost in a rural area would work.

As shovelfuls of dirt covered the bodies, Jacob and William whispered the Warriors’ Prayer again.

“Though we die and die again,

Yet we’ll live thru the 99th.

We were made for fodder

To fight another’s battle.

Now we fight for none but one

The One life lived, for mother, wife and son.

A life lived at another’s call

Is half-lived or not at all.

Better to live only one,

For self, family, freedom.

A single life well-lived is

Worth more than 98 only half-lived.”

The bodies sufficiently buried and eulogized, Jacob and William left the dark woods, the scene of one of the most horrendous acts by the Lochspawn, and William significantly older. They somberly packed up their possessions, and charted a route through the United States. Jacob worked feverishly on a computer program he hoped would change everything about their current existence. It had to change, because living in constant worry about his beloved son, was no way to live. It was, he thought grimly, only a half-life.

Where to start?  I had more questions, not the least of which was where in the heck Mr. Tall, Dark and Dangerously Handsome had come across
Pride and Prejudice
, which was, quite possibly, my most favorite book of all time, at least after
Miss Wyoming
.

I looked over at William behind the steering wheel. He was frowning slightly. What now?  I wished the bevy of butterflies in my stomach would calm down; otherwise, William’s Minivan was going to need a deep clean after this ride.

“Where are we going?”  I asked.

He shrugged.

“You don’t know, or you won’t tell me?”  I said.

“It’s just this place,” He said. He looked at me briefly. He must never find out what his simple gaze could do to me. Those penetrating dark eyes seemed to peel me layer by layer. What did he see when he looked at me?

We drove out of town, just a ways past the ‘Welcome to Deer Fjord’ sign, and turned down a dirt road. I wasn’t worried about being alone with William, or about his motives. I never got any kind of creepy vibes about him. But this place we seemed to be heading to, there was something odd about it. I shifted uncomfortably in my seat. He looked at me quickly.

“You okay?”  He asked.

I nodded, saying nothing. I looked out into the trees and brush, feeling stranger and stranger. As if there was something I was supposed to know about this place, but couldn’t put my finger on.

He found a place to park, probably not the first car to ever stop here, as the grass was pushed down and stumpy beside the road. There was a short path, and a wide open field surrounded by several pine trees and some leafy ones as well. The weather was still nice this side of September, so we got out to walk.

I was jittery thinking about what William had barely told me about wanting to kiss me. When would he try it?  Would he try it?  Maybe telling me jinxed it for good. I decided I couldn’t think about that, although it was a darn good distraction from the other thing I absolutely didn’t want to think about: ever.

“You have questions. Ask,” William broke my reverie. If he thought I was going to just blurt out the fat elephant in the room, he had another thing coming.

“About us?”  I threw down the gauntlet.

“Sure.”

I swallowed. “Okay,” I thought about all the things I could ask, and decided to start at the beginning. “Friday. Why did you try to get in all my classes?  You never really answered before,” I looked at him closely. He nodded, staring at his gray high tops.

“I was…am…curious about you. The only way I figured I could learn more was to increase my exposure to you,” He said calmly.

“Like a science experiment,” I said helpfully.

He huffed. “No, not  like that,” He looked at me again, and around the glen. “Have you ever been here before?”

I stopped walking, confused. Nice segue, but into what exactly?  I looked around me. Wide open area, grassy, some wildflowers dotted the field. I had that feeling again, the one that made me kind of edgy and anxious. Like I was forgetting something I couldn’t put my finger on. “Um, I don’t think so.”

He looked kind of smug, like he was expecting that answer. “Does it look familiar though?”  He asked.

I looked again. I couldn’t say that any of it looked like anyplace I had seen before, specifically. “No,” I shrugged. Then I figured I may as well tell him how I felt. “But,” I stopped, unsure how to go on.

“What?”  He asked me. He put his hands on my arms expectantly.

His warmth and strength hit me instantly, and how I longed to sway into his arms and be held, like he had held me at the track. But I was strong. “As soon as we started driving along the road, I had the strangest feeling, like I was forgetting something. But that’s it,” I rushed to say.

He nodded. “It makes sense,” He reluctantly let go, at least, I hoped it was reluctance on his part, because it sure was for me. “Ask me more,” he said.

I smiled a little. “Okay. Why didn’t you want to tell me where you were from?  I mean, Toledo, Ohio. Big deal,” I grinned at him.

The light went out of his eyes. “I’m sorry. Ask me anything else. I don’t want to talk about Toledo yet.”

I put my hands up, “Whoa. No big deal. Fine, no Toledo,” I scratched my head. “Pride and Prejudice?”

He smiled again. “Book on tape. We spend a lot of time on the road. My knowledge of Classic Literature is partly what got me in Mrs. Dietrich’s class.”

“Partly?”  I quizzed him.

He shrugged his mammoth shoulders boyishly. “She thinks I’m cute.”

I scoffed at him. “Cute?”  I punched him in the arm; he pretended it hurt. “You’re a lot of things, but I wouldn’t call you cute,” I couldn’t help it; I chuckled. He looked wounded. “William, excuse me while I blush like a maniac right now, but you are so far from ‘cute’,” I used air quotes. “You’re like on another planet,” He still didn’t seem to get it, frowning unhappily.

I sighed.

“William, you’re like a…a Calvin Klein ad from Krypton,” A blank look. “Ripped. Cut. Chiseled,” I let my hand drift towards his torso, paused, glanced up at him, and allowed my hand to touch his abs through his shirt. I pulled away before I went crazy. “You’re handsome and strong. So strong…” my husky voice drifted away as I looked up at him, seeing him, but not seeing him, as my mind’s eye replayed the scene at the playground. His eyes softened when he looked down at me.

“You think I’m handsome?”  He asked me quietly. My blush completely engulfed my skin. I nodded. Was this the moment?  Would he bend down and touch his oh-so-divine mouth to my own?  I dared not close my eyes, even though it seemed like the thing to do. But no. He smiled a little. “More questions?  I’d be surprised if you didn’t have more,” He told me.

Swallowing disappointment, I decided to launch into them. “How does somebody with 99 lives not just live forever?  I mean, what happens when you all get old?” 

I thought this was a safe bet. He could decide whether or not to divulge what life he was on. Maybe he was on, like, his tenth one, or something. I couldn’t imagine what that would be like, to have that many do-overs.

“Do you get diseases, like cancer and stuff?”  I was itching to caress his face with my palm. He looked like he needed a shave, but just barely. His hair curled at the nape of his neck. I wanted to run my hands in it. Whoa Nelly. I needed to rein it in.

William rocked back on his heels. “Good questions. There are legends of a Warrior who lived to be in his nineties. We just tend not to live that long. The Warlochs really have it out for our kind, you know. And they develop weapons and spells that incinerate multiple lives at once,” He stated it so calmly, like it was just encyclopedia facts.

“We don’t get diseases, though. Healthy as a horse,” He pounded his chest and smiled wide, showing those beautiful white teeth. The Warlochs hadn’t shied away from creating beautiful specimens of manhood, I decided.

“How did your mom die?”  I asked softly. I hoped it had happened long enough ago that this wouldn’t be a sore spot, like Toledo apparently was.

“Lochspawn, of course. I was only two. I’d already lost a couple lives in utero. My mom was a true Warrior. She fought, even late into her pregnancy. I guess we had died together a few times. My dad went crazy and hid us in the middle of Juarez, Mexico. We lived in this hovel in a tiny barrio. The sheer size and poverty of the city seemed like the perfect hiding place. A Lochspawn found us by accident, and of course, my dad had just left across the border to try and make some contacts. It used the spell and my mom didn’t have a chance. If the spell gets repeated twice, then the Warrior pretty much loses any lives he or she has left,” He looked out into the woods, probably not seeing anything in particular.

“My dad tells me that neighbors described a great
Diablo Negro
made out of stone attacking the hut where we lived. They described blue flames and a fire that didn’t consume the wood. After it left, they came looking for the bodies. They found me stuffed under a pile of clothes and things. My mom had hidden me and fought to the death.”

I didn’t know what to say. I remembered that he had only just learned this a year ago. “Do you remember anything?”

He turned his head to look at me and smiled. “No. I’m glad I don’t; it seems that would be pretty traumatic. What about you?  Do you remember your dad?”

I decided to sit in the grass, and he followed suit. “I don’t. I used to be really mad that he ditched us like he did, but my mom and I had this talk the other day, and it kind of changed things for me a little bit,” Our arms brushed against each other as we sat in tall grass and heard birds and wind stirring the leaves and pine needles in the woods around us.

“How?”  He asked me.

“She told me how much they loved each other. She told me that when she looks at me, she gets happy remembering him,” I felt a blush begin, but it didn’t bother me. William never teased me or remarked on it in any way, so maybe I could deal. “How can I be mad at him when even she doesn’t seem to have any bitter feelings?  So that’s it.”

William started shredding grass in his large hands. “Did she say why he left?”

I watched his fingers tear delicate strands of green. “No. She said he never came home one day, and she had called his mom and neither one of them ever heard from him again. I guess I kind of figured he got scared of parenthood or something,”

“He left before you were born?”  He asked.

“Yeah, like, my mom was just barely pregnant. I don’t know if he knew about me or not. I kind of thought maybe he knew and that’s why he left,” I shrugged and glanced at William. His dark hair curled slightly at his neck and my fingers just itched to reach out and touch him. I started shredding grass too.

“You know,” he started. He cleared his throat, like maybe it was going to be difficult to say what he was going to say next. “It’s good you’re not mad at your dad anymore. Maybe it wasn’t his choice that he didn’t come back,” He cleared his throat again. I looked over at him, and saw moisture glisten at the corner of his eye. If it fell, it would track down the dark stubble on his jaw, and maybe drip onto the collar of his dark shirt. I decided I didn’t want his shirt to get wet, so I reached over and wiped at his eye with my thumb. He closed his eye. I watched his Adam’s apple bob as he swallowed.

“What are you thinking of?”  I whispered.

He took a shuddering breath. “Toledo.”

I didn’t press him. I just nodded and let my hand fall to his massive bicep. He was like this bulwark of strength, and it slayed me to think of him hurting. He seemed more capable of inflicting pain, not feeling it.

“So, can I ask you another question?”  I asked.

“Of course.”

“What is it about this place?  Why’d you bring me here, and why were you asking me about if I’d been here before?”  I just laid it out for him.

He chuckled softly. “Nothing gets by you. Ever,” He stood up, and then reached down to pull me up with him.

I went along with it, if only to feel my hand in his. He took me around the field. “I have something to tell you, about why I’m so curious about you. But it’s something that I don’t really understand,” He used his other hand to swipe across his mouth, and his brow furrowed. I admit; I was completely intrigued.

My hand felt swallowed up in his. He squeezed ever so gently; I couldn’t tell if he was doing it on purpose, or not.

“I can see everywhere you’ve been,” He finally said.

I’m sure I looked as confused as I felt. “Explain.”

“I can see your path. Everywhere you go, everywhere you’ve ever gone, you leave a path behind you. I can see it,” He just looked at me, probably waiting for my reaction. I didn’t know what to say though, so he continued. “You shine. You glow,” Oh great. Was he really going to bring up my blush now?

He still held my hand, and squeezed again. He brought his other hand up to my cheek. “I’m not talking about your blush, Jane,” He said my name, and I’m fairly certain I melted into a blushing puddle at his feet.

“You have an aura about you, and you leave a glowing trail behind you. I could see your path as soon as Dad and I entered the town limits. It’s really bright in places you’ve been recently, and it’s really faint in places you visited a long time ago. Places that you go often, are really glowing pink. As soon as I realized it was someone’s path, I had to meet them. I saw you on your paper route Friday morning. You left a pink handprint on our moving truck.”

I recalled that embarrassing moment, the one I’d been
so sure
no one had witnessed. I had to look down, feeling as stupid as I did.

Still, he didn’t let go of my hand. Instead, he pulled me to him. “You don’t have to be embarrassed, Jane. I wanted to know everything about you. When I saw you in the parking lot at school, staring at me with those eyes…” He stopped. He looked into my eyes, and I was wondering, what about my eyes?  What? 

“I felt angry that you were so beautiful. I knew I wouldn’t be able to just blow you off. I knew then that I would have to get to know you, no matter what.”

“Oh,” I said, my lips in an ‘o’ shape, and my breath easing out like a slow leak from a tire. I tried to comprehend what he was saying about my ‘path’.