Fate (Drift Series Book 4) (4 page)

“My wife
and
my daughter, sir? You want me to murder them…myself? I can understand your reasoning towards my wife, but my daughter? She is a child. She has done nothing. She has no part in this.” I could feel the despair and angst rising within his body over what he was being asked to do.

“We cannot take the chance of this happening again. The apple doesn’t fall from the tree…correct?”

“But sir…”

“But nothing!” The general—well Christian—shouted.

“You must kill this infection yourself. Prove your loyalty, do your duty for our cause, your men…and to me! These are your orders, Captain! Disobey and I will have you court-marshaled and shot. It is up to you. Besides, there are thousands of women out there. Find another one, start another family with a more respectable girl. Not some treacherous whore. What’s it going to be Leonard? Your wife…or your life?” Christian walked up and placed his hand on Leonard’s shoulder.

I felt Leonard’s indecision, his grief, the struggle between what was right and what he must do. He paused for a moment before he muttered, “Yes, sir, I will see it done as well.” He swallowed hard.

“Good!” Christian turned away from him, clutching his cane behind his back with both hands.

“You will get over this in time, Leonard. Loyalty and duty must always outweigh dishonor.”

“Yes, sir.” Leonard muttered again.

“Now, to make sure you carry out your mission, a small group of men will set out with you, including myself. Since we are within miles of your home, we should arrive in no time. Let us make haste and rid the world of this pestilence.” Christian changed his more extravagant general’s garb to a more suitable general’s battlefield uniform.

“Clinton,” he said, pointing to the other soldier in the tent, “Go grab ten men to accompany us. Keep quiet as to what the mission entails. Assemble in front of my quarters in ten minutes. After that, we ride.”

“Yes, sir.” The man bowed and shot out of the tent.

At that moment I was taken out of Leonard’s body and hovered slightly above him. It wasn’t long before the small squad of soldiers arrived on horseback. With a command, Christian ordered the group to ride. I could see the reluctance upon Leonard’s face. He was in pure turmoil. He was the last one to ride out, lagging behind the group.

The riders raced through the countryside; I hovered over them for the entirety of the journey. It was like I was attached to this Leonard in some way, even though I was no longer in his body, feeling what he felt. I could sense the tension burning within him the closer they got to the small town he called home.

On the outskirts of the town, they dismounted and hunched down, crouching before they crept towards Leonard’s home. The night was still as the soldiers moved into place around the homes of the area, sneaking with guns drawn the entire time.

“Captain Smithey, to the front.” General Christian, or whatever his name was at this time, called to him in a whisper.

I watched as Leonard reached Christian who was hunkered down underneath a dimly lit window on the side of a small, stone home.

“Look…see for yourself.” Christian pointed up to the window.

In that moment, I was taken back inside the body of Leonard. I was seeing things through his eyes once again. Very slowly he rose up and peeked into the window above him. His eyes peered over the window's edge. He could see a man and a woman lying together in bed. A candle at the bedside barely illuminated an area of the room but kept the couple silhouetted in shadow. The man was on top of the woman, kissing her softly. It was easy to see they were in the throes of passion.

Leonard slumped back down in a rush and closed his eyes. I again felt his jealousy and betrayal overtake him at a greater scale than it did when he was reading the correspondence letters. He was about to cry.

“Pull it together, Captain.” Christian smacked him upside the head which caused Leonard to open his eyes.

“Now you see, boy, you have been betrayed. You must do what you must do. Kill them…kill them all.” As Leonard stared into Christian's eyes, they went completely black. It came to me that Christian was working a mission of his own at this time. He was soul collecting. This whole event, Leonard, his wife, the affair, the treason, reeked of Drift Demon interference. Leonard, maybe even Isabelle and Colonel Wallace, had been set up, led here. Pushed into their desires. I didn’t know whose soul, or souls, were at stake, but someone’s was. The desires of men make it so easy for us.

“You will go inside first. I will arrange the company to close in behind you after you kill Colonel Wallace. Surprise is of the utmost importance here. Take him out, we’ll follow in, then…kill the whore and child. The men are here to back you,” Christian ordered.

Leonard hesitated, I could feel him resisting in this moment.

“Wha-what if I don’t? What if I can’t go through with it?” He stammered.

In a flash, Christian pulled out a small revolver, a weapon not commonly seen during this era, but nonetheless, this
was
Christian. He cocked it before sticking it under Leonard’s chin. “Then, we go in and do it anyway and kill you in the process.”

Without saying another word, Leonard took a deep breath and crept his way to his front door. Christian waved for the company to approach and surround the house.

Very quietly, Leonard reached up and opened the door. Even the smallest noise seemed amplified as the sound of Leonard’s heart beating echoed throughout the entirety of his nervous body. He got upon his hands and knees and crawled inside the home, beginning the agonizing journey towards the bedroom where the couple were making love. He could hear his wife enjoying the moment and it ate at him as he crawled across the room and a little closer to the bedroom door.

As he scampered across the floor, Leonard made a small mistake in his stealth. His back foot hit a small end table, disrupting the vase perched upon it, causing it to hit the floor in a crash. Quickly, he jumped up and stood around a corner next to the room to hide.

A moment later, the bedroom door crept open very slowly and a figure softly stepped out.

“Hello…Christina, is that you?” A woman’s voice called out.

Then another voice, a male voice with an English accent called to her from behind and she turned to listen, “Let me go out.”

“You cannot, she mustn’t see you. She’ll tell her father a man was here with me.”

“Just move aside and stay in the room until I see that everything is okay.”

“But you’ll frighten Christina if she’s out there.”

“It will be fine, now step back and get dressed.”

The woman stepped aside and a shirtless man with unbuttoned pants emerged, closing the door behind him as he stepped into the dark room. He was brandishing a pistol as his bare feet crept across the hardwood floor. Once he had taken a few steps, he saw where the broken vase was lying shattered. He lifted his weapon and called out.

“I’m an officer in the army.” He didn’t clarify which army, I guess for his own safety. “If there is anyone here, I command you to come forward and show yourself.”

Leonard was peeking around the corner of a wall, only able to hear the officer up to this point. Then suddenly, he came into his view.

The officer saw that the front door was slightly ajar and aimed his pistol out in front of him. “C’mon now, I know someone’s here. Show yourself!”

When the officer got a few steps in front of the hiding Leonard, he stepped out and placed his rifle at the back of the officers head.

“Drop your pistol, sir and identify
yourself
, officer,” Leonard ordered.

The man raised his arms, allowing the weapon he was holding to dangle from one of his fingers.

“Toss the weapon…sir.” Leonard pushed his weapon harder against the back of the man's head.

The officer carefully tossed it into a corner of the room. “I am a high ranking officer in the British Army. There would be a handsome reward paid to the man that returned me to my company safely.” He tempted Leonard.

“I will ask you again, identify yourself…sir.” Leonard gritted his teeth in fury awaiting the man’s response.

“My name…is Charles Wallace. I am a Colonel in the British Army,” he said with hesitance as his arms remained in the air.

“What are you doing in my home, Colonel?”

“Leonard Smithey,” Colonel Wallace replied.

“That’s right…Captain Leonard Smithey, husband to Isabelle Smithey, father to Christina Smithey. What are you doing in my home, Colonel?” Leonard raised his voice.

“I think we both know what I’m doing here, Captain,” he said with a nervous tone. “Look, we can work something out. No harm will come to you or your family if you let me go. As a matter of fact, a reward can still be in order, a very healthy one, if my safety can be assured. I come from a very wealthy family.”

“Answer me, sir…what are you doing in my home?” Leonard shouted as tears fell from his eyes.

With hesitation, Colonel Wallace answered him, “I-I-I’ve been seeing Isabelle.” The colonel slowly began to turn around as Leonard began to sob.

“Listen, I realize there has been some wrong-doing here. You have the right to be angry, but this has nothing to do with the war. This is between us. Let me go free, and I will speak nothing more of your family, the incident here, nor of the information I’ve intercepted.”

Colonel Wallace was now facing the gun that was still pointed at him. Leonard never dropped his arm or uncocked the weapon. It was shaking violently in his hands, but still pointed at his intended target.

“I will leave and never will you hear from me again.” Colonel Wallace started to back away.

“Daddy?” A little girl's voice shouted from behind Leonard.

“Christina? Go to your mother…now!” Leonard called back to his daughter.

Suddenly the bedroom door swung open. “Leonard? Oh my God.”

Leonard looked back at his astonished wife while still keeping an eye on the Colonel in front of him, “How could you? How could you? With our daughter here?”

“I’m so sorry.” She whispered to him as her eyes welled up.

“Daddy?” The girl called to him again.

“Sorry? You say that now? You are a disgrace! Go to your mother, Christina, the two of you, get dressed to leave…now!”

“C’mon, child, hurry to me.” Isabelle called to her daughter.

I heard Leonard’s thoughts, he wasn’t going to kill his wife and child. He was going to try somehow to get them out of there. He was even going to let the colonel go. He took his gaze fully off the colonel in front of him to watch his daughter scurry into the bedroom with Isabelle.

In that moment, Colonel Wallace grabbed a hold of Leonard’s rifle with both hands and tried to wrench it from his grasp.

This caused Leonard to tense and when he did the rifle fired, shooting Colonel Wallace in the heart.

In an instant, his body buckled to the floor.

Leonard stood over the top of him, watching him bleed, grasping at his last breaths. Just then, Christian and the company came barging into the house, brandishing their weapons. When they saw Colonel Wallace on the floor they surrounded him.

“Well done, Captain. Nice to see a soldier stay true to obedience.”

Leonard didn’t say a word, only lowering his weapon to his side.

“Now, one more piece of business. Finish the mission, regain your integrity.” Christian pointed to the bedroom door.

Leonard knew what he must do next. He started walking to the bedroom where his wife and child were hiding. A couple shots rang out behind him as the soldiers finished off Colonel Wallace.

CHAPTER 4

DÉJÀ VU

Leonard reached down and grasped the door knob to the bedroom and slowly turned it. He sucked in a deep breath and walked in. He made his way around the room and found Isabelle hunched down on the floor next to the bed, cradling Christina in her arms. This scenario was taking on a very familiar tone. Now that Leonard was closer to the females, I realized I had seen them before.

“How long has this been going on? How long has it been since you betrayed me?” Leonard asked heartbroken as he looked at the cowering woman.

“I never meant for it to go this far. Colonel Wallace promised me money, land, if I would just hand over any information about the rebel cause because he knew I was married to a high ranking soldier. He just spent so much time coming here that…”

“How long?” Leonard screamed.

Isabelle sat there, clutching their daughter, sobbing before she could mutter out, “a-about-a year.”

Without saying a word, Leonard began to reload his rifle. As he did so, Christian came into the room, ordering the men behind him to stay out as he closed the door. Leonard finished loading his weapon and cocked it. His hands began to tremble as he raised the weapon, aiming it at his wife and child.

Isabelle shook in fear as she stared up at her disgruntled husband, “I know what it is you must do, I don’t blame you. Please, take Christina out of here before you do this…please.”

Leonard didn’t say a word. He was summoning the courage to do the unthinkable.

“I’m afraid you do not grasp the gravity of this situation my lady. You’ve put your husband in a compromising position because of your treachery. Law states that the punishment for treason is death. But since Leonard here can be held, and killed, because of your actions, the price for his freedom and the American cause is to take your life, and the life of the girl. We know not if the girl has played a role in this treason, so we cannot take any chances.” Christian answered for him.

Leonard remained quiet, still aiming the rifle at his wife and child.

“You would do this? Execute your own daughter…your innocent daughter on top of that?” Isabelle’s watery eyes looked to him for sympathy.

Leonard struggled to hold back tears that began to flow down his face like a waterfall. Then it happened.

“Please, do what you will, but leave her out of this…she had nothing to do with it. This is your daughter, Leonard.”

The familiar scene I was witnessing had finally reached the point I had seen play over in my mind a million times before. There it was. The haunting vision that had overtaken me so many times in the past was now playing out in its entirety, uninterrupted, right in front of me. The before and after, everything was coming together. Just as in my visions, the next scene played out spot-on.

Christian walked up behind Leonard and whispered into his ear. I never heard what was said before in the vision, nor did I know who it was whispering, but I could hear it plain as day now and knew precisely who it was.

“Finish the mission, Leonard. Complete your destiny. This moment of sacrifice will set the stage for you. You will live in infamy, becoming more powerful than you could have ever imagined. All you have to do is pull the trigger and become what it is you are meant to be. The time is now.” He urged Leonard on.

Leonard walked up to the petrified girls and stood over them. I remembered from my vision that the next thing I heard was a gunshot and that is where the vision would always break away. I’ve never seen what happened next. I didn’t know if I would in this moment either, but I knew what he was about to do.

Without a word, Leonard steadied himself, reigning in his tears and stopping his hand from shaking. Isabelle clutched her crying daughter and braced herself for what was coming next. Leonard started to squeeze the trigger before suddenly turning the weapon on himself and placing it under his chin.

The sound of gunfire went off and suddenly I shot back out of his body and hovered over the scene at the top of the room. Leonard’s lifeless body fell to the floor in a clump as Isabelle and Christina crawled over to him. The two laid over the top of him, embracing him while they sobbed uncontrollably.

Christian looked frustrated. “You fool, but nonetheless, mission accomplished.” He scoffed.

The door behind him swung open and a couple of soldiers stood in the doorway with their weapons drawn.

“Stand down men. Our boy Leonard here has decided to take the side of traitors and sacrifice his life instead of theirs. He lacked the guts to do justice. Let us go.”

Christian started to make his way out of the bedroom when he addressed one of his men, “Private, let me see your rifle.”

The soldier obeyed and handed his weapon over to their leader. Christian was now armed with a pistol, and a rifle in each of his hands.

“Gentlemen, this is how we must deal with traitors. Take note.”

Without hesitation, Christian walked back to the grieving mother and child and aimed the rifle first as he ordered the soldier to hold his pistol. Isabelle and Christina both screamed as Christian pulled the trigger and shot Isabelle. Then, without an ounce of hesitance, he handed the rifle back to the soldier and ripped his pistol back from him. He walked up and shot the crying girl like he was stepping on a bug. Both bodies fell lifeless on top of their father on the bedroom floor. It was a sad sight to behold.

I started to hover right in front of Christian's face as he sat their smirking proudly at what he had done. I wanted to punch him, but couldn’t. As I was staring at his face, the environment around him, including what he was wearing, changed. The next thing I knew I was hovering back away from his grinning face. After getting a few feet away from him, I instantly knew where I had been taken this time. I was in Darryl Kite’s room, after he tossed Shade off the balcony and right after I threatened him and went out to save Shade.

Darryl was standing back out on the porch, looking down. Christian transformed himself into shadow form and started to hover around Darryl’s head. He was whispering in his ears—a common tactic Drift Demons use to make a human think they are going mad, hearing voices telling them to do evil things. I had used this tactic on Darryl, and apparently Christian was, and had been, using it on him, too, without my knowledge. It wasn’t just me on the Darryl Kite job, it was Christian too. It was clear to me now. But why? Why would Christian soil his hands on such a low level Drift Demon job?

Anyway, I could hear what Christian was telling Darryl in his ear.

“You have killed the girl…now you must kill yourself…they’re coming for you, Darryl…nothing can save you now…you must die, Darryl…die. Death will set you free.” Christian kept repeating to him.

“No, stop it, leave me alone! I can’t listen to you anymore. Leave me in peace! Go away! I am not committing suicide. Stop telling me this!” Darryl shouted and stomped around on his porch, holding his hands over his ears.

I heard Christian growl as only a demon can and he materialized behind the embattled Darryl who was unaware of his presence.

With another snarl, Christian grabbed Darryl, who screamed like a banshee, tossing him off the porch and to his doom. Darryl hadn’t committed suicide that night, Christian killed him. Christian had directly interfered, multiple times from these two flashback points in time, in the death of humans. He had been the direct cause of them. He broke spiritual law. The heavens now have cause and a legal right to kill him. But why they hadn’t yet, was unclear to me.

I was still hovering in the room behind Christian, just inside the sliding doors that led to the wrap-around porch and could see the moon in front of Christian as he walked up to the porch railings, looking over the side and down into the valley where Darryl’s body lay in ruins. His hands gripped the railings and he began to laugh in glee. Suddenly I was being pulled back away from the scene. It wasn’t long before it faded and I was again soaring through the star-surrounded, rainbow-like tunnel.

My next sensation was Elysia’s hand was being removed from my eyes. I was back at my spot, standing before the two angels.

“Now do you see, Leo?” Argento questioned.

It took me a moment to regain my senses before I could answer. “I see that Christian is more of a beast that I thought. Not sure how that was even possible. I see that he has broken spiritual law by directly interfering with the death of humans.”

“Indeed he has.” Argento approached me.

“I’ve already known Christian can’t be trusted, what does this have to do with me trusting you? As far as I can see, this makes me trust the two of you less. The heavens could have taken him out at any time for breaking these sacred laws, but yet, again, you’ve done nothing.”

“There is more to this story, why we have let him go this long after the atrocities he’s committed against the humans.”

“But let me guess, this reason can’t be told to me as of yet…right? Need to know basis? Humans are dying because of his actions, Argento.” I answered for him in frustration.

“He must think, which he does, that he is beyond the reach of the Heavens. A process must be completed before we can get him right where we want him. While he thinks he’s gaining power, he’s actually losing it, making it easier for us to tip the scales of balance back into our favor. It is unfortunate that lives are being lost in this process, but a lot more will be lost if we intervene too early.” Elysia completed for him.

“And I’m one of the tools you’re using to delay him?” I looked for confirmation.

“Not using, relying upon my boy…to stop him,” Argento added.

“Great. Thanks for that. That doesn’t make me feel any better toward this situation. I guess I
am
just a pawn to you, regardless.” I walked over to the edge of the cliff and looked down, turning my back to them.

“Leo, do you know why we showed you what we just showed you?” Argento approached me at my side.

“Of course, to show me his nature. As if I didn’t already know. You want me to forget what he told me about not trusting you either, I understand the game now. I’m in the middle of a tug-of-war between the two sides. I get it.”

“No, that’s not it.”

I looked at him confused. “Then why?”

“Isn’t it clear to you…yet?” He smirked assuredly at me.

“I wouldn’t be asking if it was, Argento.”

“The soldier, Captain Leonard Smithey, Leonard,
Leo
, is you, son. That was your life before you fell under the deceptions of Christian and the Drift Demons like yourself. That was the life you lived that ultimately led you to what you are now.”

The shock flowed through me. No Drift Demon ever gets a glimpse about who he or she was before they became a beast. I was stunned and even more confused now.

“I don’t follow, he-Leonard-me, didn’t kill my wife or my child, I took my own life over having to do such a thing. To me, it seemed noble…not evil. I was condemned for eternity to be this…for that? I didn’t feel like I was an evil soul back then. I felt a troubled and confused soul, not a monster. It doesn’t seem fair.” I despaired.

“Well, there are some sins committed prior to that, but that is of no importance at this point. Sins that mankind has a tendency to overlook in times of war. Regardless, you still took a life…your own. By every definition, that’s still murder.”

“But-I-I…” I couldn’t come up with the words to say about what I was feeling inside and just shook my head in rebuttal. It still didn’t seem right to me, but it was much too late for that now. I was what I was. Nothing could change that.

“I realize this won’t help bring you comfort, but the reason why you have overcome most of you demon tendencies is because you were a good soul when you were human, a good soul that made mistakes. Sometimes things like that bleed through with the soul, wherever it goes, with whatever it becomes. That is why you feel the things you feel and have the ability to love and care for those that you do, because of the choice you made in the end. There was some good, some nobility as you said, in that choice.”

“Maybe…but I’m still here…I’m still…this.” I pointed at myself.

Argento turned to me at my side. “Yes…you are still this. A demon that cares for a human, a demon that has humans that care for him, a demon that has knocked out two of the most powerful beings that have ever corrupted mankind, and a demon that has the chance to do what no other beast from the depths of Hell has ever done before…win his freedom. That’s who you are, and that my boy, is unique.”

I looked over to him and nodded in approval.

“Don’t you ever forget that, Leo. You have greatness within you that you have already let shine, no matter what you are. Stay on point, no matter the odds, no matter what happens and that light within you will never go out. You’ll see.” He smiled.

“I appreciate that, Argento, I really do, but other than making me feel a little better, it still doesn’t help my cause.”

“It will help you more than you already know, trust me.”

“I hope so, but as for trust, I’m not quite there with you all on that just yet.” I grinned.