Page 17

Chapter 17

A Collection Of Rachels

Blake

Kalen’s words dropped into the room with the force of a nuclear bomb.

“Xavier?” I asked. I looked to the golden dragon, confusion clear on his face. His thick eyebrows pulled together. Wrinkles formed between them. His lips were parted as if he were about to speak, but no words came out.

“Yes,” Kalen answered. He had his attention pinned on Xavier. The feathers behind his ears twitched. “They discovered that the blood of a time manipulator must be spilled by the dagger in order to activate it.”

Holy shit…

“How do you know this?” Xavier asked. It appeared as if the dust started to settle around him, but the shock continued to play across his expression.

“I still have a few connections inside the group. I get fed information. But that doesn’t matter. I know they will never bring my Rachel back, that isn’t their goal.” Kalen ran his thin fingers over a figurine, kissing the head and holding it against his chest. Cassius stood next to me, silent. I shot him a worried glance. This was beginning to spiral.

“It would explain why they kept attacking us,” I said. My mouth began to feel like sandpaper. Things were falling into place but not at all how I expected them to. “I thought I was the one being targeted, but they were never after me, were they?”

Kalen shook his head, dark eyes narrowing to slits. “Why would they be after you? Can you manipulate time as well?”

“I wish,” I said.

“Who’s in charge of the movement?” Xavier asked. He took a step forward. His presence was one that commanded attention, but Kalen didn’t offer it to him. He continued to fawn over the figurine in his hand. He turned around, the kaftan he wore billowing around his bare feet. He delicately set the figurine down on the cluttered mantle.

“He has red eyes. Like blood. A monster who’s ready to spill it, ready to make the skies match his eyes.”

The air in the room chilled to icy levels. Those red eyes Kalen spoke about flashed across my vision. It felt like they were suddenly pinned to the small of my back. I tried to shake off the feeling, but it was only getting worse. I flashed back to my stalker, to the sensation of always being watched. My chest tightened, and my palms grew clammy. Maybe this was a mistake? Maybe I should have listened to Xavier, should never have gotten involved with this…

Xavier pulled out his phone and opened up the photo he had of the red-eyed shifter. “Is this who you’re speaking of?”

Kalen turned around. I noticed then that he had small marks up and down his arms. They were tiny dots, lighter in color than the tan skin that surrounded them. Needle marks. What had they done to him?

Kalen glanced at the photo and froze. The feathers behind his ears pinned backward. His pupils flared, his teeth bared. “That’s him.”

“What’s his name? Where can we find him?” Xavier asked.

“He calls himself the Carpenter.”

Cassius gasped. I turned my head, seeing the shock play out on his pale face. What had caused my friend to have that kind of reaction?

Xavier shifted his attention to Cass. “Do you know him?”

He blinked a few times, as if he was trying to clean a slate. He shook his head. “I… the name is familiar. I’ve heard it before. But I… I can’t remember exactly where.”

Xavier’s gaze narrowed. Cassius was nervous, that was clear. He squeezed his hands, his expression clearly showing the spiral he was undergoing. I knew my best friend like the back of my hand. He had a terrible time at hiding his emotions, and today was no different. It was why we’d get in trouble as children. He could never play it cool. I used to find it admirable how he didn’t care about hiding how he truly felt.

Now, he seemed to care. He took a deep breath and straightened his shoulders, lifted his chin. He pulled down the hem of his T-shirt. Kalen cocked his head, curious as the rest of us.

“If you met him, if you knew him, you would remember,” Kalen said. He wrapped his arms around his chest. Those needle marks extended up his forearm. They were around his neck, close to his eyes. “He is a soulless monster. Psychotic. He gets off on torture. And he wants the world to suffer. He wants every single soul walking this Earth to feel pain, to feel despair. It’s why he wants the Chaos King to reign again. Some even say the Chaos King speaks through him. That the binds that stop him from manipulating this world are beginning to break. And I believe it.”

Xavier slipped his phone back into his pants. He looked worried, which didn’t exactly help quiet the fears that bubbled up inside me. It was never a good sign when the bodyguard appeared nervous. “Do you know where we can find him? Where were these tests run?”

“Somewhere underground. I don’t know where.” Kalen turned to the mantle above the fireplace. He collected a few of his Rachel figurines and cradled them in his arm. He brought them to the couch and sat. He began to coo at them, almost as if he could hear crying coming from the tiny carvings. “This is upsetting Rachel. I think I’ve spoken enough. You should leave.”

“What did they do to you?” I asked. He wanted us to leave, but this was the closest we had gotten to answers so far. How could we just walk out?

“They broke me. Every day. Every hour. Every minute. They have entire laboratories, running experiments that are akin to torture. Injections of burning fluids, rooms that would fill to the ceiling with rotten smelling water, captured Shades that would tear some participants apart and leave others alive.”

“Shades?” Xavier asked.

“Yes. The Carpenter commands them. He must have some kind of connection to the Chaos King for them to listen. And that’s not all; he also has plans to create new forms of those abominations. Experiments that combine them with others, like yourself.” His eyes settled on Xavier.

Controlling Shades was never a good sign. They were the agents of the Chaos King. Demons that walked the Earth, shrouded in shadow with legs like a spider and a mouth that siphoned bones out through any orifice they could latch onto. Their only purpose was to destroy, to create terror. They had gone to hiding in the years after Niazatos was defeated but were slowly crawling back out of their holes. If this Carpenter was controlling them, then maybe they were closer to releasing the Chaos King than we thought. And if he was trying to make them even more monstrous by combining them with other forms, then we were truly fucked…

A cold, cruel shiver crawled down my spine.

Cassius had gone quiet. He looked out to the street, as if he were wishing he were anywhere else but here.

“Do you know anyone else connected to this group?” Xavier asked. His tone had shifted to one of urgency. He must have realized that Kalen wasn’t going to keep entertaining us for much longer. My pulse quickened. We had to leave here with more answers if we wanted a shot at stopping this.

“They keep the identities of everyone a secret. Even when we were in the testing facility, they had a Marvel weave illusion spells on all of us. Only the Carpenter was cocky enough to show his true face.”

“But the testing facility is here? In Los Angeles?” I asked. The clock on the wall said it was three o’clock. We’d been here for an hour already.

Kalen shook his head. “I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t fucking know!” He screeched so loud that I was sure the windows would shatter. “They lied to me. They used me. I don’t want to remember that time, don’t want to speak about it. Now, go! I’ve had enough. Please, go.” Kalen rose from the couch. He was inches shorter than Xavier and built to be about half his size, but he didn’t cower from the golden dragon. He instead pushed him backward, two thin and scarred hands falling on Xavier’s chest.

Xavier only moved a foot or two but didn’t turn to leave. “I’m sorry for what happened to you, Kalen. I truly am. And I want to make sure it doesn’t happen to anyone else. Is there anything you can remember, anything you can say that would help us find the location of this lab?”

Kalen opened his mouth, about to screech again. But no ear-piercing sound came out. Instead, he began to cry. It started as sniffles before shifting into full-blown tears. “I just wanted my Rachel back. My only daughter. My link to her dead mother. They promised, they promised.” He grabbed one of the Rachel figurines and launched it across the room. It hit a framed photo and sent glass flying through the air. A tiny shard nicked my cheek. I pressed a hand against the sudden sting. A frantic look entered Kalen’s eyes.

“You want information? Then go find that psychotic wolf shifter. Find him and make him pay for the lies he fed me, the pain he put me through.”

Cassius shifted next to me. “Guys…”

Xavier’s attention was pinned on Kalen. “Then help us find him. What else can you remember? What else can you tell us?”

“Nothing!”

“Hey, you guys?—”

“There has to be something,” Xavier pressed .

Kalen began to shift. More feathers sprouted around his head. His mouth started to take on a beak form. Talons appeared instead of fingers. He lashed out with his hand, slicing through air. “Out!”

“Guys!” Cassius shouted. He pointed at the window. “They’re running toward us!”

Kalen screeched again. Xavier and I both turned to see where Cassius had been pointing, but it was too late. Then came a crash. The door was blown off the hinges, and wood splintered through the air. A vampire and a knife-wielding man came rushing in. Xavier threw a hand across my chest and pushed me back. I saw gold mist begin to float around his hands. He was moments away from turning back time. It would give us an advantage. He’d be able to protect us.

But the vampire was quicker. He launched a small bag directly at Xavier’s face. Dark red dust blew through the air. It stung my eyes and tasted like bitter coins on my tongue. Xavier coughed, stepped back, wobbled.

There were no more gold sparks. His color paled, eyes wide.

“Dragonsbane,” he choked out before he fell to his knees.