Raven (18 page)

She sucked in her breath in anticipation.

“Aiyana,” he called softly and he pressed his belly against her back.

“Yes,” was the only reply she could muster right now.

“I want you,” he said as he grabbed her hips, holding her firmly in his grasp. 

He turned her suddenly and kissed her hungrily – greedily. There was no tenderness in his touch now. Whilst his mouth sought out her tongue, his hands released what were left of her wet clothing and he let them drop to the floor with abandon. He was needy and forceful as he grabbed her under the arms and lifted her off the ground, cupping her backside in his hands as she wrapped her legs around his waist. In two strides he had her against the wall, testing and teasing between her legs. She moaned slightly and whispered under her breath, “Oh my god”.

He seemed delighted he was having such an effect on her, and by the feel of things, she him too.

With her arms still locked tightly around his neck, he moved her to the bed and lay next to her on his side, spooning her from behind. His smooth hands trailed a path from her hips all the way up to her breast where grabbed her and pulled her closer to him. Her back arched as his mouth found her neck and she felt him pushing to enter her. He found his way in and they moved with a skill that lovers normally took a lifetime to perfect. As they both rode the wave to complete and utter fulfilment, Eilam cooed near her ear, reminding her that he was half raven after all.   

****

They woke from a blissful sleep to the urgent whispers of Reed just outside of their room.

“Eilam, hurry up,” he pestered.

“What is it Reed?” he asked knowing full well who it was just from the sound of his voice.

“We’ve had word back from our sentries,” he urged, knowing this would have him out of bed in a hurry.

“I’m coming,” said Eilam, carefully slipping out from underneath Aiyana. She hurried to dress so they could follow him out to the central cavern to meet with the rest of the flock. They all stood there – their dark black hair shiny in the small glow of light afforded from a fire they had burning in a brazier. Whilst seeming older in age than she, the concern on their faces now reflected their ages for what they really were. They were only teenagers, the oldest at best the same age as she. But worry made them seem childlike and she had to wonder what had happened to make them fear so.

“What has happened?” demanded Eilam.

“We’ve been flying circles around the border ranges for days, trying to get a better location for Einar’s nest. So far the flock that flies with your father have been very cautious when coming and going from their nest,” said Cillian.

“You found it didn’t you?” said Eilam, a gleam of excitement hinting in his voice.

“We did,” said Cillian keeping his emotions neutral.

“So why do you look like someone just killed your best friend?” Aiyana joked. He gave a half smile, almost apologetically - like something just wasn’t quite right, even though this should be very good news.

“I’m afraid we come bearing bad news,” he said.

“What is it?” asked Eilam.

“We managed to get very close to their nest undetected. So close we heard things that weren’t meant for our ears,” he said.

“What did you hear?” Eilam asked, agitation starting to show in his voice.

“They’re planning an attack on the city. They feel it’s time to clear the humans out for good and take over each grid one by one. Anyone within a five mile radius of the city better get the hell out of there before their wings hit the air. They’re not taking any prisoners, if you know what I mean. They obviously don’t know you or Aiyana are still alive and seems they have no clue that either of you survived the island attack they feel like they don’t have anything standing in their way to take complete control,” he said.

Eilam pondered this for a moment.

“What do you think we should do?” asked Reed.

“Can we fight?” Eilam asked.

“It would appear unlikely, there numbers seem too great for our small flock,” said Reed.

“You have to try!” cried out Aiyana. She felt slightly foolish when all eyes turned on her. What right did she have to put these creatures in harm’s way, and all for the sake of her own selfishness. As her brain worked over time to what this would mean to her city - the one she had grown up in all her life, a sinking feeling washed over her. She had forgotten about Cybele.

“Oh my god,” she said going pale.

“What is it?” asked Eilam, suddenly feeling very worried about her.

“Cybele! I forgot about Cybele. Please Eilam, she’ll be working the early hours of this morning in the city, I have to go warn her! Please take me to her,” she pleaded.

“When were they going to attack?” he asked Cillian.

“Eilam I’m afraid they were already getting ready to leave. We couldn’t afford to show ourselves until they left or they would have known we were on to them. I’m afraid we don’t have much time,” he said sombrely.

He nodded his head, “Okay, let’s fly now. I’ll take Aiyana with me to get Cybele. Reed can come with me to fly her out of the city and the rest of you can stay on the outskirts of the city until we re-group and form together. Okay?”

All of them nodded in agreement and Aiyana felt like a weight had been lifted off her chest. She smiled weakly at Eilam and went to get her jacket.

He knew what had to be done. He had known all along that it would come to this and there was absolutely nothing he could do about it. He could no longer ignore his destiny. He wouldn’t look Aiyana in the eye from now on, for fear she would see right through his intentions. He spoke quietly to Cillian and Reed whilst he waited for her to return. If there was even an inkling of doubt that he would betray her, she would never have agreed to be anywhere near him right now.

****

Cybele had been pulling another all-nighter at the bar. Fridays and Saturdays were when they had their busiest turnover and she wasn’t about to knock back the hours or the money. The apartment she was renting in the ‘safe’ part of town cost an arm and a leg and it meant she quite often went without a meal just to keep the roof over her head; but in her eyes it was money well spent despite the fact that she was working herself to an early grave. There was no way she would give up that luxury though. Since her parents had died it was the only place that she felt safe – safe from all the cruel and hauntingly unforgettable things that went on in her city. She had seen things on her way home from work that made her want to cry out in despair and run for the hills. Bodies lay dead in side streets that she weaved through to get back home - eyes pecked out by those vicious ravens, all for a wallet of loose change and an out of date mobile telephone. Drug deals gone bad, car-jacking’s and all manner of horrible things. She would have given anything to make her city back the way it used to be, but alas it was not her destiny to do so.

Even though she too had been to see Harmony’s ghost, how could one believe a spirit should be trusted. Her thoughts were that the spell had gone wrong the first time, so what was to stop the un-breaking of the spell to go any better. Even though it was only Aiyana who could do this, what guarantee did they have that it would actually work?

To top that off Cybele was still suspicious of Eilam’s intentions towards either of them. Which brought her back to thinking about Aiyana - what had happened to her? Of course it wasn’t unusual to not hear from her sister, but since she had been around asking about Eilam she couldn’t help worry that all her efforts in keeping her sister protected from all of this might just have been in vain.

After she had learned that her parents death was no accident she had been quite intent on shielding her from the species to avert another death in the family. She knew all about Einar from Harmony and if he knew the child even existed he would have come for her in a heartbeat. Cybele had even sacrificed having a relationship with her own sister in order to put as much distance between them as possible so no one would associate them as family related by blood.

Her once beautiful complexion had waned over the years and tonight in particular she looked worn out and haggard. The dark circles under her eyes spoke volumes and working two jobs had her burning the candle at both ends. She looked at the clock down the end of the bar and saw that it was twenty past three in the morning. Another forty minutes and she could knock off only to head home and grab a couple of hours sleep and a shower before heading to job number two at the water management facility.

At one time they had droughts along the coastal city, but ever since the evil had been cursed the rain poured incessantly. So much so the city had opened up a facility that treated the water and bottled it for interstate resale. She worked an eight hour day there, five days a week, and for what? Safety and security? It sure as hell wasn’t for the fun of it. God what she wouldn’t have given for a holiday in the sun right now, somewhere really hot and dry.

She called last drinks as she loaded up the dishwasher and poured off two more pints for the drunkards at the stools. It was then that she heard the wail of sirens in the distance. They seemed to be coming from the south of the highway, probably coming from down where the APP headquarters was located in Palm Beach. It was a distant sound at first, far off so that one could probably ignore it and chalk it up to an isolated incident. But the sound grew and the wail of the sirens became more insistent. It wasn’t just one vehicle – it was many.

Cybele threw down her dish cloth on the table and walked out the front door of the bar, leaving the two remaining customers on the stools with their beers. She watched and waited, her anxiety growing with each and every second. The storm was overhead now and the clouds flickered from the lightening that electrified the sky. The rain had abated but a mist like rain that blew on the breeze still wet her cheeks. Moments later she saw it. In the distance was the first set of red and blue lights, flashing brightly and strobing along the footpaths as they passed along down the road. What she saw was more like a procession – one that was travelling extremely fast. The speed along this section of the highway was seventy kilometres an hour, but these guys were easily doing more than that.

As they neared she stepped back from the curb, so as not to get drenched from water their tyres would kick up from the gutters that were already awash. She stopped counting the cars after seven. Hell, it looked like the whole damn department of the APP had turned up and were heading off somewhere at speed. They flew past her; obviously there must be some big emergency in the northern parts of the city. Cybele had enough sense at this point to start to feel afraid.

Very. Damn. Afraid.

Einar knew it was time. He had waited for the right time to take back his city, years and years of planning and the moment was now here. It was of course an unfortunate set of circumstances that had forced his hand to kill his own son, but the problem with that boy was that he had never listened. Never wanted to adopt their way of life and how he did things, and as was his way of dealing with everybody who stepped out of line, he had simply eliminated him.

He’d done the same with Aiyana’s mother all those years ago too. He thought his problem with the witch had ended when he’d dropped her off the tallest building in the city. He hadn’t realised that there had been an offspring who could still take away all the powers that he had possessed. That little bit of misinformation had come about from the other witch, Harmony. She had told him all manner of lies, deceiving him as the words came out of her mouth, but in the end he had fixed her too once he’d found out. No one deceived him and got away with it – no one.

Now since there was no one who could possibly stop him or get in his way, it was time to take out the good that was left in the city and make it his home. A place where he would dominate and be king - his power and strength made sure of that.

His flock had been prepared for taking over the city as they had talked about this since their first awakenings as ravens. They knew where their first point of attack would be and why. They knew which of the governments divisions would be the weakest and planned to take full advantage of that and they would stop at nothing to get what they wanted.

Before dawn was a perfect time for them to fly out of the mountains and head for the city. The rain had eased and their attack would occur when everyone was at their weakest. Most would be sleeping or less vigilant due to the early hour – but they would be ready. Einar had instructed that the first round of attacks would start in the north side of the city. This would be a distraction only, because the second wave of ravens would be flying in to Palm Beach to attack their main area command station. Once that was immobilised and no longer functioning the police would be weak enough to defeat in external areas. With no command centre up and running they wouldn’t have the ability to contact reinforcements from the rest of the state and government would have to look on helplessly whilst their town was overrun with ravens causing mass destruction. He had instructed them to torch each and every single governmental building before moving on to take command of less senior postings. Any agency that was of a threat to them would be eliminated first.