Post by silent.lullaby on Jul 17, 2010 16:35:05 GMT -5
Dusk .::Chapter 18::. Life Goes On
“I want to see my daughter. To know she is well.” Michael was asking the Elders when Calum came back in through the back elevator doors.
“She is being punished for her acts, and punished for thinking she couldn’t be punished in an hour. She’s foolish, and needs to be taught many lessons.” One of the elders spoke calmly. “You know this Michael.”
“I also know those dungeons are no place for teenage girls.” Michael said as he watched another man drag Scarlet, who was kicking and screaming incoherently toward the back elevator. “These are both young women from my Covenant.”
“Yes, but you didn’t come up with all of this until it was your daughter down there, Michael. You’re only doing this for her.”
“She is my daughter, I can punish her for her insubordination, she doesn’t need to be in a damned dungeon. She’s a child, she has broken no law.”
“She talked back to us elders.”
“She’s a teenager in her first life!” Michael said sighing, “of course she talked back, she wants to know what will happen to her friend, and frankly I want to know what’s going to happen to the two girls in my Covenant!”
“Your daughter will be brought home in three days Michael,” one of the elders said with a sigh. “And you heard Scarlet’s judgement yourself. One month. That’s shorter than any human sentence. Now go home to your family Michael.”
Michael looked to Calum but he was busying himself with papers avoiding looks. Finally Michael relented, not because he didn’t want to see his daughter, but because there was no need for him too to get shoved down there too, and loose his Covenant while he was at it. No, play it smart, the elders were right. Three days, Aries would be just fine, a little cranky sure, but just fine. Then again, he remembered what they’d managed to do to Scarlet in less than a week and he wasn’t so sure. Still he got into the elevator with golden doors and hit the lobby button and hoped he was making the right decision.
***
“She’s a bit of a trouble maker,” Henry, Calum’s grandfather said once the other Elders had left.
“She isn’t,” Calum responded hotly, “you seen Scarlet, in less than a week what Maverick had done to her.” He said Maverick’s name like it was some form of curse that burnt his tongue. She wanted to know what they were doing to her friend.”
“If we told them what happened... they’d retaliate against us.” Henry argued as he took the papers Calum busied himself with and set them down away from his grandson. “I’d like tea, we can discuss this why it brews.” They took the golden elevator to the forty fifth floor, it required a key to get the elevator door to open, and Henry had it. The forty fifth floor was his home, lavishly decorated. Henry started to boil the water and Calum continued his rant.
“She was just defending her friend.”
“After she turned her friend in. It was guilt more than anything, I’m sure.”
“No, she’s not like that. She follows the rules, she expects her peers to do the same, but what you’ve managed to do to Scarlet.”
Henry cut him off, “I’ve done? I’ve done nothing but sentence that girl to one month in the basement.”
“So you won’t take any responsibility for what’s happened to her.”
“She needs to be the one to take responsibility. We’ve had to go out and send an operative to fix the boys memories so it seems to him like they’ve broken up and to return him to a normal mental state. You can’t brake the rules Calum, we both know what happened before the years of Elders and Covenant leaders. Chaos, murder, broken minds, we were a plague on this world.”
Calum bowed his head.
“We were monsters of legends. We were feared, hated. Now we are working towards merging with humans as equals.”
“We can’t know that, that will work.”
“We can’t hide in the dark forever,” Henry argued, “sooner or later they will know. They are getting closer, all this television and internet nonsense, believers all over the place all ready. If they shall know, it should be on our terms.”
The kettle screamed and Henry poured two cups of tea and gave one to his grandson. “You’ve delivered many other girls to the basement before.” Henry stirred blood and sugar into his tea. “You care for this one?”
“No,” Calum responded swallowing hard.
“Your hearts beat otherwise,” Henry responded. “You have a wife Calum.”
Calum’s jaw clenched. “I’m aware.”
Henry took a small testing sip of his tea before letting out a sigh, “that’s the stuff.” He looked to his grandson, the worried expression on his middle-aged face. “Tea is a nice, calm, relaxing drink.” Calum looked up at his grandfather who smiled, “I’ve made many a decision over a nice pot of tea.” Henry took the teapot from the warmer and set it in front of Calum, “perhaps it’s time you made yours.”
***
“The basement!” Vivian nearly screamed when Michael told her as they lay together in their coffin. He shushed her but she hit his chest hard, “why, why is our daughter left there! She was just testifying! She was helping them!” Michael pulled his wife close, in her anger, her fear for her daughter her teeth had slashed through and the scent of her blood wafted through the coffin.
“There was nothing I could do Viv.” Michael sighed, “trust me, I tried to convince them to let her go, but if I pushed any further I’d have ended up in a cell too, maybe the more cynical on the Elders Council would have added more time to Aerabella’s time to punish me.” He ran his hand through her hair, trying to calm her sobs, “Tobias and Angelique will hear you honey.” He hadn’t told them yet, he had to tell Vivian yet, and besides, it was late and they’d already been in their coffins. He felt her fangs bite into his shoulder, he felt shocked for a moment before he realized it wasn’t out of anger, or anything, it was because she was using his shoulder as a muffler for her cries. “I”m so sorry baby.”
“Calum took her down there, and just left her,” she said after a few minutes to calm down, and after she’d removed her fangs from her husbands shoulder.
“He had no choice.” Michael said with a sigh, “he was as trapped in all of this as I, besides, it’s his job.”
“Errand boy for the Elders, seriously, the boy is in his, what fifth life now? He should get out of there.”
Michael gave an uneasy laugh, “easier said than done. He’s the grandson of an Elder, it’s expected that he will take that Elder’s chair when Henry decides to retire.”
“Wouldn’t Calum’s father be next to take over?”
“No one knows what happened to him.” Michael explained. “So next in succession is Calum.”
“I don’t know if he could,” Vivian whispered, “he’s always seemed like such a quiet, gentle soul.”
Michael held his wife close, “you never know what you get with the quiet ones.”
***
“Hayden! Give it back now!” Harmony’s voice was nearly a growl and Hayden could feel it, the moon phase. Legends said that the full moon made werewolves shift. The legend was half right, it made the lady wolves shift, the new moon made the males shift.
“Why?” Hayden argued, calmly. The women always got bitchy, twitchy and snappy when the full moon was coming. Then again, when the new moon was on it’s way the men always got fidgety, agitated and nearly always got into fights with someone, for something.
“Because it’s mine!” Harmony snapped back lunging but Hayden sidestepped.
“Who are you calling anyways?”
“Aries!” She shouted, “now give it!”
“Kids cool it,” their father said stepping into the room, and silently assessed the situation and before either of the twins could say anything he spoke, “Hayden, give your sister her phone back, and have either of you seen your mother?”
“Said she was going for a run.” Hayden responded looking at his father, while holding the phone out to his sister, but she didn’t take it. He turned to her, “take ... it.”
Harmony was sweating, her body shaking, her hands in fists. “Harmy,” her father said carefully, “‘Ayden back up.” Hayden took two steps back. “You want to lay down Harmy?” He took a few steps forward before noticing her shoulder was bleeding. “It’s not the shift,” he yelled at Hayden, “Take care of your sister,” he said running toward the back doors sliding it open with his hands before jumping off the back deck and shifting in mid-air.
He grabbed his sister and tripped her legs out from under her getting her down onto the couch before ripping off a part of his shirt and pressing it on her injured shoulder. “What the fuck?”