Raven (19 page)

There would be no prisoners, no hostages. They weren’t interested in bargaining, they would just take what they wanted without a second thought. After the initial attacks were over they would start to invade the banks and seize assets and stocks and use it as their own to fund whatever depravity struck their fancy. Einar led his flock now, high above the sky with darkness still on the horizon. The city lights called to him to return home now and take what was his.

****

Nothing had prepared them for what they were about to fly into. It was early, about half past four in the morning and the first light of the day was just starting to creep behind the clouds. Even from a distance they knew they would already be too late for some people. Smoke billowed from buildings and carried out of the city on a wind that fanned the flames even more. As they neared the streets they could hear the sirens wailing and the screams of people literally running for their lives.

Aiyana was frightened by what she saw and couldn’t help wondering if they might be too late for Cybele. As they neared the city limits they fanned out into smaller flocks and headed to where they were needed first.

Eilam desperately wanted to get Aiyana away from here to safety, to a place where he knew they could fix everything, but he knew she would not go with him until her sister was safe. It took all of his strength to take her into the madness and chaos that was ensuing around them rather than away from it.

As they neared the city block where Cybele worked, the smoke from the burning buildings became a lot thicker and Aiyana started to cough in protest. He held on to her tightly with his claws, trying his best to navigate them through a path that would allow a clean patch of air to breathe. He called out to Reed in his raven’s tongue, directing him to where they needed to go. He followed obediently, just as anxious to be out of the city as quickly as they could.

As they lowered themselves closer to the ground, the screams from the people trying to evacuate their buildings were clearly aimed at them. The talk around town since the species had first emerged had done them no good at all and their musings about just what this new breed were had been better off left to the imagination. Whilst everyone knew something was afoot in their town and talk had been talked and whispers exchanged, nobody had expected to see oversized ravens flying in their skies.

Some people were that scared stiff they just sat mute on the sidewalk, people pushing and shoving and trampling right over them and paying the injured the least bit of notice. Eilam and Reed ignored them. They had a plan and above all, they had to stick to it.

As the bar where Cybele worked loomed in front of them they slowed their descent on approach and Reed morphed into his human form and hit the ground running into the building. Eilam was just behind him, carefully placing Aiyana on the bitumen road before morphing himself. They were so close on Reed’s tail that the bar door hadn’t even closed yet from his entry. They pushed right through into the dimly lit pub and adjusted their eyes to scope out its patrons.

Two old men on stools occupied the bar, both frozen to the spot since the new arrivals had burst through the door.

“Is there a woman in here?” asked Eilam, breathless from his flight.

Both men said nothing, but pointed with their finger behind the bar to a door in the corner that led to the store room out back.

“Thank you,” he replied before rushing with Reed to go through it. Once through the door they stopped abruptly because they came face to face with the end of a double barrel shotgun aimed at their faces. They both put up their hands in mock surrender while she waved it in a smooth line back and forward from one face to the other.

“Don’t either of you move or I’ll blow your damn heads off,” she yelled. “I know who you are and what you are,” she scathed.

Aiyana pushed her way past both of them and into the room.

“Oh Cybele, you’re alright,” she breathed a sigh of relief as she flung herself at her sister.

“Aiyana?” her sister seemed to be in a daze and wondered what her sister was doing here all of a sudden.

“Yes it’s me! For god’s sake, would you put that gun down, they’re here to help you,” she said, determined to make her sister see what was really going on here.

“We can’t trust them Aiyana, they’re part of their race too you know,” she said, still clinging on to the gun and eyeing them suspiciously.

“They won’t hurt you, I promise. Please trust me Cybele, they’re here to help and we must hurry,” she implored.

“I don’t think we should go with them,” she still said doubtfully.

Aiyana grabbed the gun off her and placed it on the shelf of the storeroom.

“You have got to be kidding me, right? Have you seen what’s going on outside? If you stay here a minute longer you’re a dead woman. Now let’s go,” she urged pulling on her sisters arm to emphasise the urgency.

Her sister still wouldn’t budge, so she said “Cybele please, we really have to hurry!”

This time when she pulled on her sister to drag her she followed, albeit with a scowl on her face. They left the two drunkards where they sat and exited the pub to confront the growing chaos out on the streets.   

The smell of burning wood and rubber hit them full in the face. Cars were alight in the street and people were making themselves scarce. No one dared to stay in doors for fear of their building being next to set alight.

There was a trail of people running with as much of their worldly possessions as they could carry heading for the outskirts of the city limits. Calls to the APP were going unanswered and the masses had decided to leave whilst the going was still good. Aiyana and Cybele stood side by side on the road, in awe of what their city had been reduced to.

“You ready?” Reed asked them.

“Yes,” said Aiyana.

“For what?” said Cybele.

“This,” said Reed with a smirk a mile wide.

Eilam and Reed morphed in to ravens and hovered above the sisters heads.

“Oh my…,” said Cybele as she tilted her head back to stare at them.

“You’ll be fine,” Aiyana promised, “just don’t move”. With that the claws grasped on to the tops of their shoulders and they were lifted off in to the sky. Reed led the way through the city, weaving in and out of buildings with Cybele screaming like a baby the whole way.

A couple of minutes in she seemed to go hoarse and finally quietened down. It was then that they heard the god awful noise. The screech was nothing like any of them had heard before and it was so ear-splittingly high that it just about burst their eardrums mid-flight. Eilam and Reed stopped their flight and spun the girls around to see what all the commotion was.

For a moment they didn’t know where to look, but then the noise came again and the girls raised their hands to cover their ears from screech. They saw it was coming from the tops of one of the buildings close by. It was a raven and it didn’t seem happy in the slightest. It was an angry call, and it wanted everyone to hear just how upset it was. Aiyana knew instantly that it was Einar, and she felt Eilam’s grip on her shoulders increase.

The raven had seen their little group pass through and had instantly recognised the son he thought to be dead, and he wasn’t happy about that one little bit. He wanted Eilam to know that he was coming for him and he wasn’t going to stop until he was dead for real this time.

As they hovered in the air with Eilam and Reed’s wings flapping wildly, they watched on in horror as the raven left its perch on the building and folded its wings to the side of its body and made a dive for them. Several things seemed to happen all at once then. Reed turned instantly and headed off out of the city with Cybele and on towards the beach. Eilam watched entranced as his father spiralled towards them. It was like he couldn’t move even if he had wanted to. The thing that broke him out of his reverie was four ravens, ravens from his flock, swooping from the side and sending Einar crashing through the glass of a high-rise window.

Eilam took this as his chance and didn’t wait to see what unfolded behind him. He was hot on the tail of Reed and made his way to the rocks along the headland at Burleigh. He flew for all he was worth, knowing that it may just come down to seconds left to do what he needed to do to keep his love safe, to keep everyone safe. He saw Reed land on the beach in front of them and he followed suit moments later. Ignoring the other two he turned Aiyana to him and kissed her deeply.

He broke apart from her then and he saw the confusion in her eyes. He pulled the dagger he had given her earlier from out of the pocket in her jacket and he thrust the handle into her hand. She tried to drop it but he clasped his hands around hers and held it firmly in place. He watched the tears start to stream down her face and wondered how someone could look so beautiful when they cried.

“Eilam, please,” she sobbed.

“You have to, love,” he said gently.

She was blubbing uncontrollably now, the sight of his face blurring in her vision.

“You can’t make me, I won’t,” she said fiercely.

“It will all be over quickly,” he promised.

“But I would have to live with that for the rest of my life,” she cried, her tears falling so fast she thought they too could fill an ocean.

“I forgive you, you have too,” he pleaded with her.

“But I love you, Eilam,” she sobbed.

“And I love you, and always will,” he said as he brushed the tears from her cheeks.

“I…can’t…” she said. She felt miserable. How could he ask such a thing of her when all she wanted to do was spend an eternity with him? On the beach here, she felt like they were all alone in the world. The wall of ocean on one side and the high-rise buildings on the other, besides Cybele and Reed, they could have been the only two people on earth at this moment.

While she wanted to love and hold him, he wanted her to end the very thing she wanted so much in this world.

In the distance the noise that met their ears rang with finality in the air. The cry of Einar could be heard above the crashing of the waves, shrieking louder than he ever had before. He wasn’t alone though. When they all turned to see what was coming their faces fell in disappointment. There was only one way out of this now and Aiyana just couldn’t face the reality of what she was being asked to do.

Einar occupied the sky, not just him, but his flock as well. The blackness of their bodies panned across the sky and they cast a shadow across the entire coast as they made their way south.  It looked like Armageddon, and the four that remained on the beach felt fear like never before. Eilam’s primal instinct was to protect his mate and he knew he only had very little time left to convince her of such.

“Aiyana, my sweet Aiyana. You know you can’t deny it; if you don’t do it now we’ll all be dead anyway and there would have been no point to any of this. Einar would have won and then all your family’s deaths would have been in vain. I’m begging of you, please drive this dagger through my heart and let your mind rest easy that it is what I want, more than anything right now,” he said.

She glanced in the direction of Einar and the other ravens. All the responsibility lay with her. It was only she who could make the choice for all the other people in the city and for the rest of Eilam’s flock as well. If she didn’t do it, all their deaths would rest on her shoulders. If she did do it then she would have murdered the only person on this earth who she could rightly call her soul mate.

She faced him now, torment stripping her features bare. She was a hollow shell of the vivacious thrill seeking individual who had first gone to the mountains to seek Eilam out, and now there was nothing left. Nothing of that old self, that person who would smile, laugh or ever feel again.

If she killed Eilam now, of course she could save everyone – everyone but him.

She felt like her soul would be damned for all of eternity, and all because her grandmother had interfered all those years ago. She felt hatred and shame that her family was the cause of all this and yet in a full circle, she would be responsible for the end.

“Please Eilam, don’t make me do it,” she begged one last time.

“It will be okay, Aiyana. You’ve made me happier than you will ever know and I can go peacefully knowing that you, my flock and the rest of civilization will no longer beholden to Einar and his evil ways,” he said, kissing her lips briefly as he did.

The screech came again, the blackness of the raven’s bodies loomed closer and their shadows already touched the sand at their feet. There wasn’t a single second left for her to decide. He squeezed the dagger in her hand once more and nodded to her.

“It’s me or everyone, Aiyana. You know it’s the right decision,” he said, nothing but love in his eyes.

She resolved herself to the fact that he wouldn’t let up. He cared more for her, Cybele, his flock and even the people that lived in the city more than his own life. There was nothing she said that would change his mind and she knew then that their fates had already been written.

She clutched the dagger with sturdy hands, the tears forever flowing down her face and she knew that her heart would never mend from such a break. She raised her arms with the dagger in hand, staring into the soul of the man who had so captured her heart and made her feel like no person on this earth deserved to feel. Einar in the distance had seen her raise her arms and the glint of steel make him squawk in defiance, as though he couldn’t possibly accept what was happening before his plans had been played out.