“As you have already heard, the worst has happened: one of our own has turned rogue. One of our own has turned against us.”
The master paced back and forth in front of his large window, his hands behind his back. The light grey of the brooding clouds contrasted against the master’s dark suit in a way that made him look feral, dangerous. He was the panther trapped in his cage, dying to get out and hunt. The others who stood shoulder to shoulder with Vara shifted uncomfortably, not happy with being in the same room as the master when he was like that.
“Kieran,” the master continued, “killed two men. Rick and Sven were the victims of his greed. They suffered as a result of Kieran’s weakness.”
Vara scowled, doubt rising in her at the master’s image of Kieran. Sure, he’d been weaker than wet paper, but would he have…?
The master turned and looked at Vara, his dark eyes seeming to pierce straight through her. “Kieran was a bomb waiting to go off,” he explained to them all, but still kept his gaze locked on Vara. “The Black Dragons were not in his blood. His conscious wore him down until finally…”
Everyone in the room held their breath as they watched the master, waiting. On his desk, the clock began to tick louder, or maybe with all the tension, Vara just noticed it more. She had to strain her ears to hear the master’s soft voice.
“Boom.”
Left and right, people shivered. Even Vara couldn’t hold back a tiny thrill of unease at what the master said so ominously. Now he’d mentioned it, Vara had a stupid thought that the clicking in the room wasn’t actually the clock, but was one of the others, waiting to explode like Kieran had.
“Bring Kieran back to us. Alive.” The master turned from Vara and turned to look at the others one at a time. Darius, Omar and Kerr looked down at their feet, only Leo was able to return the master’s stare. “Return him to us so he can pay for his butchery and theft.”
The master walked back to Vara and stood so close to her she almost went boss-eyed. His breath blew into her face as he stared down at her. “You will lead this mission, Vara.”
Her heart swelled with pride. “Yes, Master,” she replied, biting her lip to keep her smile from hanging from ear to ear.
He nodded once, satisfied with her disciplined answer. “Good. You leave tomorrow.”
The urge to grin vanished.
“T-tomorrow?” she spluttered. “We can’t even prepare? Master – I’ve been Asleep for God knows how long! I won’t be ready for whatever hole Kieran’s crawled into!”
“You have until tomorrow to train.” He’d stepped back at her outburst and had turned away to face the window again. Then he paused and frowned. “No, you will be looking after Emily then. You can’t train, Vara. Not unless you take her with you.”
Right, because Vara was going to be able to concentrate with Emily there, poking around everything dangerous.
“Master, Kieran could be half-way around the world by now. A delay of a couple of days, or week even, won’t make much difference.”
Some shadow crept into the master’s eyes. His voice had an edge to it as he replied, “No. We leave tomorrow.”
Vara frowned. Was he… frightened?
“Would you like to stay behind?” he snapped, turning red with anger as he scowled at her.
Blood rushed to her cheeks. “No.”
On her right, she felt Kerr’s shoulders shake as he tried to hold in his laughter. She gritted her teeth. Didn’t he just love to see her squirm?
“Vara, you will lead the team searching for Kieran. Leo, you will lead the team looking for the stones. You will both be working together, but with separate missions, are we clear?”
Everyone nodded at once. Vara forced herself to, reeling at the news that Leo was also going to lead the team. Sure, it was for something different, but now he didn’t have to take her orders, the freak was bound to undermine her somehow.
Fantastic.
“At nine o’clock tomorrow morning, report to the armoury room where you will prepare yourself with the necessary equipment. Leo will advise you on what should be needed. Then at ten, you will once again report to my office where I will inform you of what is to happen next.” The master turned to face the window, but as he did, he glanced at Leo. Both of them seemed to share a look, like they were in on something none of the others knew. Which, of course, bugged Vara to no end.
“Vara, send Emily in and tell James to get back to his duties. I want to talk with this girl.”
“Yes, Master,” Vara replied, annoyance forgotten as a shiver of anticipation rolled down her spine. Miss Sweetness was going to get the shock of her life when she came face to face with the master.
“You are dismissed,” he informed the others. “There will be no packing as nothing can be brought with you. Instead either train or rest yourself. Tomorrow will be a long day.”
“Where are you sending us to?” Kerr asked eagerly.
Vara rolled her eyes. No doubt Kerr would be on his laptop as soon as possible, researching about the geography, animals and random historical facts of wherever they were being sent to. He just loved to be the smartest person in a crowd.
The master smiled, sending alarm bells shrieking in Vara’s mind. His eyes twinkled as he said, “Somewhere out of this world.”
* * *
Vara drummed her fingers against her knee impatiently as she leaned against the wall. Every now and then she’d flick a quick glance at the master’s door, listening hard for some noise, some indicator that the master wasn’t sitting at his desk, calmly ignoring Emily’s cooling corpse. Maybe she should’ve insisted on staying with Emily, especially after that look the master flashed her when he laid his eyes on her for the first time. It was as though Emily was the face of everything the master hated.
Not good to be her.
She began to chew on her lower lip as she remembered she’d been in the same place only a couple of days ago, but so much had changed. Kieran was even more of a bastard than normal; he’d pulled the trigger on two of his mates and had gone running. Emily had rung and got herself pulled into the mess. The master had Awoken Vara after telling her about … stones … magic stones…
Vara frowned, trying to clear the fog from her memories. Stones that could take you anywhere, he’d said. If that was true and Kieran had one…
Well, the paper-trail wasn’t going to be at all helpful.
So how the heck were they going to find Kieran?
The master’s door opened and Vara jumped away from the wall. Emily stumbled out, her head lowered, pale hair falling over her face. She was bent forwards, like someone who’d been shot in the stomach. Or was trying hard to keep themselves together.
Vara stepped in front of her, making her stop. Vara’s frown deepened when Emily looked up and revealed tears crawling down her cheeks. Damn, Vara never knew what to say in situations like these. She wasn’t like the other girls; being able to comfort other people wasn’t something that came naturally to her.
“What did the master say to you?”
Which wasn’t the best thing to say, it turned out. Emily’s eyes glistened even more as she thought of a reply, and when she did, her voice didn’t seem to want to work to tell it to Vara.
“He-” she croaked. She swallowed and tried again, but that didn’t seem to work either. Her lower lip trembled and then before you could even ask if she wanted a tissue, she threw her hands to her face and began to sob.
Vara shuffled uncomfortably, her hands shoved into her pockets for something to do. She bit her lip again until the tang of her blood made her stop. Suddenly, anything that wasn’t Emily became very interesting to look at.
“Ah,” Vara mumbled when it looked like Emily wasn’t going to stop crying on her own, “you want to go to your room?”
Emily shook her head furiously, blonde hair flying to and fro. “No!” she bit out, voice thick with tears. “I want to go home!”
“That really isn’t gonna happen,” Vara said dryly as she studied one of the master’s paintings.
Emily rubbed at her eyes, like she was angry at herself for crying. She flounced past Vara and Vara followed her, happier now she wasn’t crying any more.
“I don’t know what the master told you, but we can’t let you go home. You know too much about us.”
Emily whirled around to face Vara. “I know nothing! Not a thing! Everyone says I know ‘too much’ but no one will tell me anything!”
“Because you know too much. You want to know more? You really can’t go home then.” Vara was taunting her, but it was so much more fun than standing awkwardly in the middle of the corridor, waiting for Emily to stop crying. This was a situation she excelled in. Definitely.
“I-Argh!” Tears of frustration welled in Emily’s eyes. “Please! Tell me something! I-I need to know about Kieran, and if I need to know about Kieran then I have to know about you. So please! Please.” She was breathing hard at she stared at Vara, doe eyes wide and pleading.
Vara smirked. “You sound so pathetic, you know that?”
When Emily’s mouth popped open, Vara cut across her. “No one has told you anything because you wouldn’t believe a word of it. That’s why. Also, we’re a top-secret sort of family, we don’t like to give information about ourselves out to just anybody. You want to gain our trust? Prove yourself. That’s how it works. Now you can’t go home because yes, you know about us, but also because you might be able to help Kieran. You can comfort him in whatever state he’s in and help us welcome him back home.”
So we can destroy him, Vara added to herself mentally. She kept her eyes on Emily’s because she noticed the girl tended to believe Vara was telling the truth when Vara did that.
Emily swallowed again, all the fight leaving her as she seemed to sort of sag. “I don’t know,” she whispered.
“Sleep on it.” Vara forced a smile. “You won’t be so confused in the morning and you’ll realise that by coming with us and asking no more questions you will save Kieran’s life.”
Emily stared at Vara, and Vara found herself wondering at how, after the kind of breakdown Emily had just had, she didn’t look like the wreck she should’ve. Most victims had puffy, red eyes as they begged for their lives. Running noses, wobbly chins, blotchy faces, the like. Emily looked … fine.
Bitch.
“You’ve had a hard day,” Vara said as she placed a hand at the small of Emily’s back. She gave her a light shove, sending her stumbling forward. “You must be exhausted.”
“I don’t need sleep, I need-”
“To think, of course. So much has been going on today…”
“No-”
“We’ll talk in the morning,” Vara lied. “Just stop being so stubborn. Stay in your room and try to get some rest.”
I need to start training for tomorrow.
