Into the Aether_Part One(18)

“We’re ready. Room 511,” she said simply, hanging up the phone. “Perhaps this is why god wants you,” Emily said, her red eyes staring at Aaron.

“God...?”

“Not your God, mine. He has instructed me to collect you.”

Aaron considered this. “And just who is your god?”

“Saveio,” Emily said as if it were obvious.

“And he told you to collect me? Just what does this ‘god’ need with me?”

“It is not my place to question him. He required that we collect you unharmed, but I believe it’s to do with the cleansing.”

“The cleansing?”

Emily gave him a malicious grin. “Something that I am looking forward to,” she replied.

Aaron looked at her, not entirely sure if he was imagining this whole absurd situation, or if he was actually debating his role in some god’s plan with a green-skinned creature who was pinning him against the wall with her mind.

“Emily, what are you?”

Smiling, she replied, “We are Legion.”

A gentle knock came from the door. Emily walked backward, her eyes never leaving Aaron. Reaching behind her, she opened it.

A bright blue light issued behind her, throwing Emily forward several feet. Her limp body lay twisted upon the floor as Aaron fell to the ground, the invisible restraints holding him broken.

From the corner of his eye, Aaron saw a figure walk into the room, reach toward Emily’s neck, and check for a pulse. Aaron stood up and turned to see the figure brushing back the long red hair from in front of her face. Panting and rubbing his chest, Aaron asked, “August?”





Five





A monolithic grey apartment building towered over the street opposite the Loyalist Hotel. A single figure stood on its roof, her foot resting on the raised edge as she leaned downward, her unseeing gaze cast toward the street behind her trim black sunglasses.

She wore brown knee-high boots, blue jeans, a black long-sleeved shirt, and a brown jacket. The cold wind whipped her hair into a tangle of knots, and blowing snowflakes latched onto it, but she did not care. The cold bit angrily at the exposed skin of her cheeks and hands. Again, she did not care. Her focus was on the task at hand; everything else was secondary.

Her attention snapped to the far right side of the street. The sounds of a single car engine came to her, and she knew instantly that Aaron was in the vehicle. She recognized the driver, too. It was the youngling, Phillip, whom she had sent to escort Aaron to his hotel. The vehicle continued down the empty road, the freshly fallen snow crunching beneath its tires.

Telepathically, Phillip called out, “I sense you, Matriarch, but I cannot find you.” August Ness hated the title Matriarch. She hated it more for having had it forced on her.

“Above you.” She felt his hesitation.

“My apologies. I used your surname. I think he has put it together.” A dull twinge of annoyance pinched August, but the outcome of Phillip’s mistake was not so grave. “He would have discovered it for himself. It is of little consequence.”

August could feel Phillip’s relief. Her thoughts carried her through the past year, and she wondered briefly how Jordan would have dealt with the youngling. But what did it matter? She was certainly not Jordan. There were bigger issues at hand, and unlike him, she recognized that times had changed. The old ways no longer applied.

The engine across the street stopped. Car doors opened and closed, and the sounds of footfalls drifted up to her. A trunk opened, something heavy was placed on the ground, and the trunk was closed again.

A male voice asked, “How long will you be in town?” Phillip.

A second male voice responded, “Just a couple days.” Of course, that voice was Aaron’s. She noted the mild disappointment in his tone.

“First time in Hamilton?”

“First time in this country. How much do I owe you?”

August could hear a gentle ruffling and assumed Aaron was thumbing through the money in his wallet.

“Thanks for the drive, keep the change,” Aaron said. Footsteps in wet snow followed the exchange, along with the sound of plastic wheels against the sidewalk, one of them squeaky.

“Matriarch, do you want me to stay with you?”

“Yes, I do.” August let her mind reach out. She felt Phillip, Aaron, the occupants of the hotel, and the people in the building beneath her. Their thoughts were focused on the trivialities of day-to-day life. There was no threat among them.

She listened intently: the wind howled around her; a bird, well above her, fluttered its wings fruitlessly against the wind; voices spoke indistinctly in the various rooms of the hotel and apartment building below; vehicles on the distant highway sang in a faint, wavering tone.

August moved her head to the right. A faint, almost imperceptible noise came to her from the alley below. She scanned the area for any living thing. The alley was not only absent of any life, but it felt like an emptiness hung there.

“I require your sight,” she ordered Phillip.

“Of course.” The perpetual darkness that was her vision melted to a view of the street below, her pupils dilating. Their eyes panned the area, examining every shadow, crevice, and secret place. The alley was awash with darkened areas that could not be penetrated. The Cubi were capable of many things, but seeing in the dark was not one of them. August peered into the velvety blackness of the alley beside the grey building. A light flickered on and off, briefly showering the area in a warm glow. There was no one. August’s vision faded.