Forgotten (41 page)

“
I knew it!” I exclaimed,
pleased that my hunch was correct.

“
It was a few colleagues of
mine, Zalen included, that had been watching your house in shifts,”
Hector said. His voice was harsher than I recalled. I couldn’t hear
the affection in it. “If you hadn’t asked me to meddle with that
home security system, I never would have realized that Jace had
altered the security.”

“
When did he mess with it?”
I repeated.

Something wasn’t allowing me think
clearly. Something was off with Hector, but I couldn’t pin-point
it.

“
Oh, come now, you
remember. Think good and hard – the night you refused my ride to
take you home after coffee. My sources said that you snuck in
through your bedroom window just after Jace added an alarm to
HomFree’s system. It’d notify Marco of any intruders,
too.”

“
Jace convinced John and
Martha not to say anything because I didn’t like hand-outs,” I
said, recalling parts of the night. “He was worried about me. So
why didn’t it work? The house was broken into, and Marco didn’t
show up till it was too late.”

“
I’m quite the handy-man,
Gwyneth. After all these years of watching you grow up and waiting
for the Healer to find you, you’d think I have just been sitting on
my thumbs. I deactivated it easily.”

“
What are you talking
about?”

“
Oh, come now. You really
haven’t figured it out yet? I’ve been waiting for years, waiting
for all the pieces to fall into place, and I wasn’t going to let
one measly alarm stop me. I’ve been breaking in and out of homes
for years, searching for you. Yes, the security has improved; but
I’ve adapted. I always adapt. I’m a chameleon so to speak. I’ve
been an engineer, banker, assassin, and a police officer just to
name a few. I’ve had lifetimes to gain knowledge and experience
waiting for you to turn up again.”

Hector handed me an object. I brought
it up by my face and studied it. It wasn’t until I closed my eyes
and slipped my fingertips over its shell that I realized what it
was – my cell phone that I’d lost after making up with him at the
library. The only thing I could think of saying was “you’re
welcome” but it didn’t feel right. Hector told me I needed to
remember a phone number.

“
Your library card number,”
Hector said, staring at me as if this was the most important
information he’d ever given me. “If you dial the numbers of your
library number, you will reach me.”

“
Or I can just punch in the
number five on speed dial,” I offered, trying to be helpful. “You
were a police officer?”

“
I was an old man when I
wore that suit. But after I gained another lifetime by killing
Lily, I had to hang up that attire as well. People tend to talk
when you unexplainably become youthful again.”

“
You killed
Lily?”

Hector chuckled. “I thought it was
you. Guess I was wrong. Didn’t matter, I guess. It gave me back a
few years. Better this way. Rumor has it that you aren’t as strong
without your sisters’ aid. Lucky for me I hadn’t killed you that
night.”

I wanted to tell him that he would
have if I hadn’t traded fates with Lily, but I hesitated. I didn’t
know why. He could use the information and seemed very adamant
about gaining knowledge. It was a good thing he worked in a library
since he insisted on having so many occupations. Books were great
for learning new traits.

“
Find your sisters,
Chronicler,” Hector ordered. He stood up and walked out the door.
He paused but never looked back at me. “You’re useless to me until
then. Call me once you do, or I’ll kill the kid. We will make our
trade then. You get the kid if you grant me what my heart most
desires. If you undermine me, I’ll track down your lover-boy and
kill him just so I can live another life-time. I’d be my pleasure
to end the life of the deity who shattered my leg and sentenced me
to a lifetime with this limp. I think it goes without saying that
no one is to know about me.”

Staring at my hands, I wondered why my
fingers were so long. I wondered why black was so dark. And why
Hector smelled like rain. After what seemed like hours, my eyes had
watered, but my thoughts became clearer. I hated rain. It reminded
me of death. My library card was seven digits long, just like a
phone number. Elsie was still gone. Someone had her. Why wasn’t I
thinking clearly? What happened to my IV? I closed my eyes and
concentrated on Hector. Why had he acted so odd? Why did he smell
familiar? Why did he look so familiar?

The rock walls imprisoned
me, but the straw roof allowed light to seep through. An elderly
woman hung from rusted shackles. Her gray hair lay in chucks at the
floor. Vomit, urine, and a lovely scent of lilies hung in the air.
Her breathing was labored, she neared death. I kneeled on my hands
and knees in a pool of urine. My clothes were soaked in
sweat.

“Give me what I desire
most, or I’ll kill the Prophet.”

My head shook as I gazed
up to the young man with piercing light green eyes. Hector circled
me, careful not to touch the pool I kneeled in. His brown curly
hair looked almost black in the dim lighting. The scent of rain
lingered around him.

“Time is slipping away,
Chronicler,” Hector said, as he tossed a spear back and forth in
his hands. “Your sister is hanging on by a sliver of her
thread.”

He walked gracefully over
to her. Yanking what was left of her hair, he spat in her face. Her
chest rose as if she was struggling to breathe, but a weak laugh
came out. “Utter destruction would be had by all, including the
humans.”

He beat her, but I was too
weak to stop him. A testament of my age. I was no longer young and
strong. My nails were yellowed. My skin clung to my bones, like the
mouthless ones, my Scavengers. My body warmed thinking of them
taking me from this world. I wanted death but refused to leave this
life knowing all hope was lost.

“
Blood will be spilled,
and no new life will be had amongst our race without us three,” the
Prophet said before passing out. I glanced down at her hand. She
made the slightest movement with what fingers she had left. Slowly,
she made three snipping movements.

“
Our sister will cut soon,
Butcher,” I whispered. My voice hung in the air as if I’d
sung.

Hector laughed, “I’ve
killed enough of you to know there has already been blood spilled.
Give me what I ask, and I’ll end the genocide.”

An impossibly beautiful
young man crashed through the roof. Jace’s body was engulfed in
flames. My captor threw a spear. Jace dodged the blade, but it
scraped his cheek. He slammed his foot down on my captor’s leg and
held it there while the man screamed.

“This will never heal,
Butcher,” Jace promised, and then rushed over to me. He never
opened his mouth, but I still heard his screams in my mind. His
misery ripped through me like it was my own, when he lifted my
frail body in his arms. My life was draining into death’s
embrace.

Marco appeared. But it was
too late; the injured Hunter was gone – vanished into thin air by
Zalen. Our gaze locked before they vanished.

I looked up at Marco. His
penance for past sins was my sister’s doing, not mine. But, we both
knew the Cutter would never have uttered a single word to him about
our past if I hadn’t involved us. Regret erupted inside
him.

“
Our past is not forgotten
but has been long forgiven, Reaper.”

Marco snorted, refusing to
believe me. He grabbed Jace’s shoulder. Within a blink of an eye, I
was lying on the ground outside the burning building. My feet
brushed against the ground as my savior, Jace, held me in his warm
arms.

“
Tell that to your sister.
She won’t be particularly pleased to be on this side of her
scissors. You smell like death already,” Marco snorted, and
vanished.

Jace gently lowered me to
the ground. “I’ve never asked anything from you, until now. Please,
grant me what my heart most desires.”

“
Anything,” I said,
looking into his chocolate brown eyes.

“
Give me a second chance
to make this right,” he begged, as smoke seeped from his skin.
“Give me a second chance to be with you like we once
were.”

“
You wish for my
immortality,” I said, stroking his thumb with my gnarled hand. My
old body scarcely obeyed my command. I wanted to rest, needed it.
The thread of my life was unraveling while his was as strong and
youthful as ever. It was cruel in more ways than one.

Jace held my face in his
hand, comforting me. “I want your immortality and for you to have
what you once had before she took it from you and the
humans.”

“
You only get one request,
and you have to be willing to kill me for it,” I said and guided
his hand over my chest. The knife skimmed my skin, but it was
enough to tear it open.

“
Living as an immortal in
this body would be more like a curse than a gift,” he said. The
regret in his eyes was already evident. “I want you to have the
opportunity to be what you once were, before she took
it.”

“
Reborn as what I once
was?” I asked, tracing his thumb since he refused to return my
gaze. Smoke rose around us. It seeped over the wheat grass while
every building around us went up in flames.

“
Playing with your fate is
dangerous.” His voice burned apologetically. “But I can feel the
life leaving your body. I’ve never asked for you to grant me
anything, dearest. Grant me this.”

“
Choose one.”

“
Then I chose you,” he
said, and the regret in his eyes was already evident. “I want you
to have the opportunity to be what you once were, before she took
it.”

“
My body is aged, and my
soul is broken.” My voice hung in the air as if I’d sung
it.

“
So give me a taste of
your kiss, and let me be reborn into a life of eternal passion.” he
said, speaking in the same melody.

“
I’ll be reborn as human,”
I said more seriously. My smallest finger stroked his thumb –
connecting our souls. “Take my Elysian as promised. The others will
be looking for someone to follow; they will look to you even if
there are others who challenge you. Return it to me so I may defy
death once again in my human form.”

“
I’m not a ruler,” he
insisted.

“
You must learn,” I
insisted.

“
I don’t care about the
others, only you matter to me,” he said.

“
Then you must find me and
return the Elysian to me,” I whispered. “You must heal me, Jace.”
The very essence of my spirit– the Elysian pumping through my veins
- started to drift into his soul. “Follow your heart. It brought us
together once before.”

Countless souls of humans
and deities pulled away from me as the Elysian drained from my
body. I felt disconnected and disturbingly alone. Jace broke the
connection before I was completely disconnected from him. I didn’t
have to ask why he didn’t take it all – I saw the truth in his
eyes. He couldn’t bear it. “I can’t steal everything that makes you
who you are. I can’t take it all. I can’t take all the essence of
your soul.”

His chocolate brown eyes
didn’t radiate with vengeance as he pressed a knife to my chest.
They glistened with tears. His dark brown hair shimmered, like gold
had been melted into each strand. The sight would’ve been utterly
breathtaking if sand and sweat hadn’t dried into his hair as well.
A bloody gash under his left eye interrupted his otherwise
perfectly tanned skin.

Burnt oranges, soft
yellows, and deep reds surrounded the sun as it neared the horizon.
My time was quickly slipping away. A hint of scorched wood
piggybacked the wind while smoke crawled over the blood-soaked
dirt.

I reached up with my
gnarled, weathered hand and gently stroked his face. Hiding in the
sheer beauty of his eyes rested his tortured soul – screaming for
forgiveness. His tears trickled onto my aged skin as he shoved the
blade deeper through my chest. I struggled to breathe. My vision
darkened at the edges.

My oldest friend. My would-be brother.
The person who’d I’d come to rely on over the years had murdered my
family. Hector betrayed me in the worst way. I rubbed sleep from my
eyes, wondering if my previous life was this disorienting and
cruel.

I sighed and focused on the gift Jace
bestowed upon me. I gazed at my gray hand. Like the objects around
me, I was painted in black and white. I gazed out the window. The
sun kissed the horizon.

“
To see the colors of a
sunset,” I said, longing to view the scene the way it was meant to
be seen.

“
Seeking a little
color?”

Leaning against the hospital door
frame stood a preposterously attractive young man. He took my
breath away the moment our gaze locked. His chest failed to move
until I gasped. In a world still in black and white, Jace was a
splash of color. His chocolate-brown eyes matched the color of his
hair perfectly. It was a few inches long, and the flecks of gold
shimmered in the light. His skin was lightly tanned. His burgundy
shirt clung to his chest like it was sewn on. His blue jeans hung
on his hips perfectly. He smiled, and his dimples revealed
themselves. I opened my mouth to speak, but couldn’t get a word
out.