Threads That Bind (Havoc Chronicles Series Book 1) (18 page)

“Clearly some things have stayed the same,” Dad said.

The small talk continued as Dad greeted Kara and Mallika. He had never met Kara, but clearly knew Mallika well.

After a few minutes there was a lull in the conversation. “We have a lot to talk about, Scottie,” Mallika said. “It might be better if we did it out of the open.”

We all went inside and sat in the living room. We waited while Dad quickly cleaned off and changed clothes. I sat on the couch next to Dad. Eric squeezed into the seat on my other side, even though there really wasn’t enough room. He grinned at me and put his arm on the back of the couch so it was practically around my shoulders, but quickly pulled it back when Dad fixed him with a glare. Braver men than Eric had been quelled into submission by that look.

Mallika didn’t waste any time getting down to business.

“Osadyn is in the area,” she said.

Dad turned to face Rhys, who looked very uncomfortable. He stared at the ground, not meeting my dad’s gaze.

“Then why are you all here?” Dad asked. “Shouldn’t you be out trying to bind him?”’

“The rules of the game have changed since you were a Berserker,” said Mallika. She met Dad’s gaze and held it, looking calm and confident.

Undiluted skepticism colored Dad’s expression. “What could have possibly changed so much that you would sense a Havoc nearby, but instead pursuing it you just let it wander around killing innocent people?”

“Because we know what it wants,” said Eric.

“And what’s that?” asked Dad.

Before Eric could answer, Rhys stood up. “I can’t be a part of this,” he said, and stormed out of the room.

Dad watched him leave. “Why do I have a feeling I’m not going to like what you’re about to tell me?”

It was time for me to jump in. Dad didn’t often get angry, but when he did, it was like a force of nature unleashed. I couldn’t let Eric take the brunt of that.

“It wants me,” I said.

The anger drained out of Dad’s expression, and his face turned gray and colorless. I suppose that was better than explosive anger. Still, it made me feel bad for springing that kind of news on him like that.

“It wants you?”

“It wants to free Pravicus,” corrected Eric. “Madison is just a means to that end.”

Dad glowered at Eric. So much for shifting Dad’s anger away from him. Was Eric some sort of masochist to egg him on like that?

Eric didn’t back down. “We need her, Scottie. For some reason Osadyn is desperate to free Pravicus and has been targeting Pravicus’ Berserker. Since you, we’ve had four different Berserkers in that position die. You know how rare that is. Osadyn’s been on the run for a hundred and fifty years, and we’ve never been able to catch him.

“But now we know what he wants and can finally set up a battle on our own terms. This is our first real chance to hold all the Havocs bound at the same time in over a thousand years, Scottie. You know how important that is. I understand you want to protect Madison, but this is bigger than her. It’s bigger than any of us.”

“So what you’re telling me,” Dad said in a deadly calm voice, “is that you want to use my only daughter - my untrained, brand-new-Berserker daughter - as bait to lure Osadyn into a trap.”

Mallika broke in. “Scottie, it’s not quite that black and white.”  

Dad stood up. “That’s where I differ from all of you. This is my daughter’s life we’re talking about. It absolutely is that black and white. There is nothing I won’t do to protect her and right now that means putting her into hiding immediately.” He looked at his watch. “We still have time to get her on a plane to Europe tonight.”

This was going to be ugly, but unless I wanted to be hiding for the rest of my life, I had to stop him. I reached up and pulled on his shirt sleeve. “I’m not going,” I said. “I’m staying here.”

“Oh, no, you’re not,” Dad said. “You have no idea what you’re up against.”

I stood up. “I know perfectly well what I am up against,” I said. “I’ve already battled him.” Which wasn’t really the truth, if not exactly a lie. I had fought the Bringers and other creatures he sent for me, just not Osadyn himself.

Dad looked shocked. “Not going to happen, Madison. You’re too young and inexperienced. End of discussion.”

It was time to change tactics. Facing Dad head-on was rarely the right way to get him to change his mind - when an unstoppable force pushes against an immovable object, the outcome is never pleasant. Besides, I had sixteen years of experience in dealing with Dad. In this situation, I needed to appeal to his better nature.

“Dad, Eric is right. This is about more than just us. Osadyn is out there, and we have a unique chance to bind him. Running away won’t change the fact that I’m a Berserker and my blood can free Pravicus. You taught me that I need to stand up for what I think is right. Well, this is right, and you know it.”

“Madison, I-”

“Or was all that talk about ‘honor’ and ‘choosing the right even in the face of adversity’ just talk?”

Dad looked startled. Clearly I had him off balance. “You’re taking things out of context, Madison. That was about peer pressure, not foolishly throwing away your life on something so dangerous that it has no chance of succeeding.”

I shook my head and stood up, facing my dad. “It’s the same principle.” I concentrated on the feelings I had before I ‘zerked. If I could ‘zerk now, that might be enough to remind him that I was a Berserker, not a helpless little girl.

I felt the prezerk - just a bit more...

“I know this is hard for you,” I said, “but it’s the right thing to do.” Almost there. “I’m more than just Madison. I’m a Berserker, Dad, and like it or not, I have a responsibility to the world.” Slowly, I began to glow. I pulled myself up to my full height and even rose on my toes to add to the effect.

This time Dad didn’t deflate, but his eyes lost that hard look. I hoped that meant he was ready to compromise.

He turned to Mallika and asked, “When are you going to do it?”

I breathed a sigh of relief and let go of my ‘zerk. I was finally starting to get the hang of it.

“December 21st,” Mallika said. “Winter Solstice and a full moon coincide this year. The odds will be stacked in our favor.”

“Good,” Dad said. “I want her prepared. Training every day, and I want her bonded to her weapon as quickly as possible.”

Just when I thought I finally understood everything, they start spouting off new things that don’t make sense. Why did it matter if it was Winter Solstice and a full moon? And I had never even heard of bonding to a weapon. What was that all about?

Eric and Mallika exchanged glances and nodded. “Agreed,” said Mallika. She gave Dad a sympathetic smile. “I know this isn’t easy, Scottie,” she said. “Please know Madison will have around-the-clock protection until it is time.”

Dad nodded. He reached out a hand and gave mine a gentle squeeze. I squeezed it back.

“Thanks, Dad.”

“I’m still not sure I’m doing you any favors,” he said. “There’s a good chance that I may look back at this moment as my biggest regret. But you are a Berserker, and I can’t deny your right to decide.”

Rhys stormed into the house, closely followed by Aata. “I can’t believe you’re going along with this,” he said to my dad. “How can you let them do this?”

Dad took a deep breath. “It’s her decision,” he said. “I made life and death decisions when I was a new Berserker. How can I tell her she can’t?”

“I don’t like this,” said Rhys. “It’s not worth the risk.”

I left them to argue about how much danger was appropriate for me and walked outside. Evening was fast approaching, but the air was still surprisingly warm for October. I closed my eyes and felt the soft breezes blow around me, caressing my skin and lifting my hair. I sat down on the bench on our front porch and listened to the frogs and crickets beginning their nightly battle of the bands to see who was louder.

After a moment I heard the front door open, and Eric sat beside me on the bench. I didn’t say anything, waiting for a witty remark about sitting alone outside my own house while it’s full of people, but it never came.

“It’s not that I don’t care,” he said. “Because I do. Very much.”

Not quite the remark I had been expecting, but he wouldn’t be Eric if he played by anyone else’s rules. He seemed to thrive on doing the unexpected.

“Care about what?”

“About what happens to you,” he said. There was no trace of humor or that sardonic smile. This looked like genuine open emotion, something I had seen very little of from Eric.

“Why would I think that?” I asked. “You’ve bent over backwards to help me.”

Eric shrugged. “Rhys thinks that because I want you to have the choice to fight Osadyn that I am recklessly endangering your life. Which – as he has pointed out several times tonight – is not something you do to people you care about. Therefore, since I am letting you endanger yourself, ergo, quid pro quo, and E Pluribus Unum, I must not care about you.” He shook his head. “The man argues like a mafia lawyer – every word is designed as a trap.”

I laughed. “Don’t worry, Eric. I know you care. You care more about my freedom to choose than about the outcomes of my choices.”

He winked at me. “Well, you do seem to have plenty of hyper-protective people surrounding you. If I let them have their way, you’d never have any fun.”

I was about to reply when I heard the sound of tires on the driveway and saw Mom get out of Mrs. Phillip’s car, back from the gym. I stood up and stuck my head in the door.  

“Hey Dad,” I yelled down the hall. “Does mom know about us, you know, the whole Berserker thing?” I asked.

Dad looked out from the living room and shook his head. “No, why?”

“Because she’s home.”

All eyes turned to Dad. 

“Into the back yard,” he said. As everyone began moving toward the door, he pulled Mallika aside and said, “Can you cast a haze for us?”

She nodded and waited with Dad and me at the front door. I wasn’t sure what a “haze” was, but I wasn’t going to miss seeing it. Eric tried to stay with us, but Mallika shooed him into the yard with the rest. He left, but clearly not willingly.

Mom did a double take when she saw Dad, Mallika, and me standing near the front door waiting for her. I could almost see her trying to puzzle out why a strange, old Indian lady was in our house.

Before she could say anything, Mallika turned the palms of her hands upwards. A light blue mist flowed out of them, swirled around my mom, and then suddenly constricted, sinking into her skin and disappearing.

Mom made no sign that she had felt or seen anything unusual. Her expression relaxed, though, as if she no longer wondered why Mallika was there.

“I had a great workout,” she said to Dad.

“That’s fantastic,” Dad said, visibly relaxing. “I have a few people here I would like you to meet. Madison, can you please get your friends?”

I walked out to the back yard and called them all in. Within minutes we were all gathered in the living room, and Dad introduced each of the Berserkers and Binders in turn, along with the fact that they had powers.

“For the next several months they are going to be helping Madison learn to use her own powers, okay? They are helping her and she has our permission to go with them any time of day or night.”

Eric looked over at me and grinned. Clearly he had ideas on how to take Dad up on his offer.

Dad looked at Mallika and nodded.

She stepped forward and clapped her hands together in front of Mom’s face. Blue light flashed around Mom and then disappeared.

Mom blinked a few times. “I’m going to go shower and change,” she said, and without asking any questions or even acknowledging that she had a house full of Berserkers, went upstairs.

Dad, Mallika and I stayed where we were, while the others wandered back out into the yard again.

“Please tell me she isn’t permanently like that,” I said.

Mallika put a hand on my shoulder. “Don’t worry, Madison. Your mother will be fine in a few minutes. However, you will find with regard to our work, she will be strangely forgetful and unconcerned.”

“What was that you did to her?”

“It is called a haze. It is part of the powers of a Binder. We have the ability to isolate pieces of knowledge in a person’s mind. She knows all about us now, but that knowledge is disconnected from her conscious thought processes. When she tries to concentrate on us, or on topics that have to do with us, she will find herself quickly distracted and unable to complete her thoughts.”

Dad put his arm around me. “Don’t worry, Madison. I’ve seen this done hundreds of times. Mom will be fine by the time she gets out of the shower.”

I gave Dad a hug. “That haze would have been nice to have after Josh saw me berserk. Maybe I would still have a boyfriend.”

Dad stiffened. He and Mallika looked at each other and then back at me.  “Josh saw you berserk?” Dad asked.

“Yeah, remember my last date with Josh when I came home so upset? It was the first time I’d ever ‘zerked, and I was so scared that I accidentally sent him flying into a tree.”

“Has he told anyone else?” asked Mallika.

“Not that I know of.”

Neither of them said anything for a moment. “We should probably cast a haze on him just for safety’s sake,” said Dad. “But we have other pressing issues to deal with for now. Let us know if he becomes a problem.”

I nodded. The idea of having Josh forget all about my Berserker powers was very enticing. With that knowledge gone, would he want me back? I imagined us together, walking down the halls at school while Ginger glared furiously from a distance. But that thought wasn’t as exciting to me as it would have been a few weeks ago. 

I tuned back into reality when I heard Dad ask Mallika, “Have you had any luck finding Madison’s Binder?”

Mallika seemed slightly uncomfortable at this question. “No,” she said slowly. “We’ve found nothing. I have three of the remaining seven Berserkers out looking and three more on standby. It’s never been this hard to locate a new Binder before. The search is even more difficult because we don’t know whether the Binder will be male or female.” She seemed to be studying me intensely as she spoke. 

We joined the others outside, and Mallika announced that it was time to leave.

“I am sure Madison and Scottie have plenty to discuss tonight.”

Talk about an understatement.

That night after dinner, Dad and I spent some time alone. I’d had a chance to think through things, and I had a lot of questions – about him, not just my biological Mom.

Dad had turned on a football game in the living room, and Mom sat at the kitchen table doing some on-line shopping with her laptop.

“Why do they call you Scottie?” I asked. The question had been bothering me all evening and it seemed like a safe one to start out with. “I thought your name was Bruce?”

“My name is Bruce,” he said. “Scottie is a nickname one of the previous Berserkers gave me because I was from Scotland.”

“Scotland? You mean you’re not from Ohio?” I began to realize that I probably knew just as little about my dad’s real history as I did about my mom’s.

“When you live as long as a Berserker does,” Dad said, “you have to tell lies about yourself - even to those you love. You can’t just be one person because people start to ask questions once you hit forty and you still look like you’re seventeen. It gets even more difficult when you’ve lived so long that you should be dead. Do you understand?”

I did understand – intellectually, if not emotionally - it was just hard to realize how many supposed facts were actually fabrications. How did Dad manage to keep it all straight?

“So, how old are you?” I asked.

Dad shrugged. “It’s depends on what you mean. Old enough. I was born in 1615. Given that Berserkers age around one year for every thirty years of life, and that I stopped being a Berserker around sixteen years ago, that puts me somewhere between forty-five and forty-six years old.”

I did some quick calculations. He might be forty-six physically, but he had lived for almost four hundred years. Before the American Revolution, before the French Revolution. He had lived through all the world wars, and through some of the greatest events in history. It hurt my head to think about all the things he had lived through.

As we talked, I learned that Dad had grown up a farmer in Scotland. He had discovered he was a Berserker when defending his home from a rival clan - which I thought was a much more convenient time to discover the powers of a Berserker than during your first kiss. He had routed the attackers all by himself and been treated as a hero when others heard of the deed. But the next time he fought, he wasn’t alone. When he began to glow, his clan members thought he was an evil spirit.  They wanted him gone. No one dared to attempt to kill him, but they ostracized him and made it clear he was no longer welcome. Even his own family refused to speak to him. They moved out of the house, leaving him alone.

Hurt at his treatment, Dad decided to leave. He spent the following years wandering through Europe, surviving on what he could earn doing odd jobs for villagers. He specialized in helping farmers clear trees from their land. He could simply rip them up from the ground, clearing more space in an hour than a team of men could do in a week.

Because he had been traveling, it was extremely difficult for the Berserkers to catch up to him, especially given the limited transportation methods in those days. But eventually the Berserkers found him and for the first time he realized he was not alone.

“Shing was the one who explained to me who I was and what I was a part of.” Dad rubbed his chin for a moment, thinking. “All the others who came with him have died since then. I don’t know what has happened with the seven who bind Verenix, but Shing may be the oldest living Berserker now. If he’s not, he is close to it.”

Shing was something of a puzzle to me. He didn’t seem to really fit in with the others. “How old is he?” I asked.

“I’m not quite sure of the exact dates, but I think he’s around seven hundred to seven fifty. Something like that.”

This information, thrown out by my dad as casually as if he was telling me the price of gas, was disorienting. It was going to take me a while to absorb this new version of my dad - the one who was a four hundred year old ex-Berserker.

I couldn’t help myself; I began to laugh. The absurdity of it all was too much. The past few days had been a shock, and my emotions were too close to the surface right now - they somehow had to come out. It was either laugh or cry.

At first it was just a chuckle, but soon I was laughing so hard that tears streamed down my cheeks. I leaned over and lay on Dad’s lap, unable to stop laughing. After a few minutes, the spasms of laughter began to subside and were replaced by gasping sobs.

Dad said nothing and simply brushed my hair out of my face while I released all the emotions that I had bottled up about what I had learned, and more importantly, unlearned – about my mom, about my dad, and about who I was.

***

The next day, Rhys and Eric picked me up for school. This time they were not in the Range Rover, but came in the Mercedes Eric had tried to give me.

I invited them in while I gathered the last of my things. Dad came over and they started talking.

“Are you sure she can’t have the car?” Eric asked. “I mean, now that you know who gave it to her?”

Dad fixed Eric with a piercing look. “
Especially
, now that I know who gave it to her,” he said. His face was a rock-hard mask of suspicion and parental disapproval, but it didn’t remain like that for long. His mouth quirked and eventually broke into a smile. “You never did anything halfway, did you Eric?”

“I’m sorry to report that, well, I haven’t changed a bit since I last saw you.”

Rhys rolled his eyes at this exchange. He didn’t say much, but I had the feeling that it wasn’t from lack of anything to say. He had a quiet depth about him that made me intensely curious. If we ever got a chance to be alone I would have to find out more about him.

“We need to help her choose a weapon today,” Dad said. “I want to get her trained and bonded as quickly as possible. She’s going to need all the practice she can get before Winter Solstice.”

“Agreed,” Rhys said.

“Bring her back here after school,” Dad said. “We can use my practice room to show her the options.”

What was with the excessive bossiness? He seemed less like my dad and more like a drill sergeant. Not to mention that he was making decisions for me without my input.

“Hello?” I said. I raised my hand and waved it around. “I’m right here, you know.”

Dad’s confused look changed to one of dawning comprehension. “Sorry, Madison,” he said and gave me a hug. “Old patterns of behavior return when around old friends. I guess I over-did it. How about after school you come back with Rhys and Eric so we can show you some weapons?”

I kissed Dad on the cheek. “Sounds great. Thanks.”

School flew by in the blink of an eye. Surprisingly, I was able to concentrate on my classes and temporarily push away all the confusion and fear. Ginger seemed to have recovered from her fear of me and was back to her nasty self again. But the past few days had changed me. I no longer cared what she thought. The taunts she threw at me seemed childish, and I wondered how she thought I could even care.