Darkness Comes This Way Part 9

There on the first page of the alb.u.m was a family photo. Zarah must have been around the age of thirteen when the picture had been taken. Thomas was about sixteen or seventeen. They were still in their half-human states, not fully fledged. It was easy to tell by the markings on his and hers faces; they'd once had a sprinkle of freckles across their noses and cheeks. The change took them away later.

Behind them stood their parents and they were all dressed in rich, finely groomed clothes. Draven swallowed a hard lump forming in the back of his throat as his eyes landed on the woman that had to have been their mother. She looked human...but it was her eyes that held something strange in them. Her eyes were like Zarah's-a swirling mixture of two unusual colors. They were turquoise, almost the same bright shade as Zarah's, with swirls of intense gold. Her hair was short and black, but other features were certainly similar with Zarah: the full pouty lips, big doe eyes, and short, pet.i.te frame.

"How much has Zarah told you about our past?" Thomas split the silence, breaking through Draven's thoughts.

He pulled his gaze away from the photo and shook his head.

"Nothing, really. I struggled with her just to get a little information out about you and her going Rogue. Even then, I had to search through her memories to get more to the story."

Thomas raised his eyebrows with interest.

"Okay, apparently it's true that she's fighting against herself from warming up to you," he joked. Draven frowned instead, and handed the alb.u.m back after one last long look at the picture.

"What happened with your family?"

Thomas' eyes narrowed and he gently nudged Alyssa up from his lap.

"Sweetheart, can you leave us to talk alone for a while please?"

She nodded, leaning down and placing a soft kiss on his cheek, before walking out of the room. Draven watched her disappear into one of the back bedrooms until he turned his attention to Thomas again.

"Didn't she used to be a Guardian as well?" Draven asked with a frown. He thought he faintly remembered her. He had somewhat known Thomas from before, though not very well.

Thomas nodded as he stood and went to the kitchen across the room. He reached into the refrigerator and pulled out two bottles, holding one up to Draven as an offer. He looked a little hesitant, and it must have been clear in his face, because Thomas chuckled.

"It's safe. From the blood banks, I a.s.sure you."

"Alright, then," he said, and took a bottle from Thomas. As he swallowed down the rich, metallic flavors, he noted that Thomas could be trusted, and they sat down across from each other again. Thomas was hesitant to tell, but he started anyway, not meeting Draven's eyes. He stared out a nearby window as he spoke, distant, obviously getting lost in the memories.

"Our mother was a Fallen Angel. Our father was a vampire. That simple really, I guess. But she was so rare...such an unusual being. They agreed it would be best to just let everyone believe she was human and leave it at that. Very few knew her for what she really was. I only found out after her death."

"How'd she die?" The curiosity was building in Draven's core the more he was hearing. He even caught himself leaning forward with interest. His hands rested on his knees, fingers curling in eager fists.

"Zarah was sixteen, not fully turned yet, and I was twenty. My father was out hunting; he was a Guardian at the time. My mother had to go shopping. She could walk in sunlight during early morning hours when it wasn't too hot out, or early evening hours, but it was already after sunset. The store was only a five-minute walk away, and she was a fighter herself thanks to a lot of training from Dad. That night though, there were just too many rabids. She couldn't fight them all. They ripped her apart. I found her body. It'd been left on our front lawn. My father said that must've been where she was when they got her."

Silence stretched between Draven and Thomas. He had turned back to face him then, waiting.

"She was almost home. Right there in our yard, but we never heard her."

Draven could see the darkness in Thomas' eyes...the anger and sorrow over what had happened to his mother, his family, and he suddenly felt sympathetic.

"I'm sorry," was all he could stutter out.

Thomas waved a hand of dismissal. It was clear he wanted to quickly get rid of the images that still lived with him. His waving hand was probably not only shaking away Draven's sympathies, but the memory of his mother's mangled body splayed out on the damp morning gra.s.s.

"My father went crazy when he found out. He went on a suicide mission, leaving me and Zarah behind as he took off after the Rogues to hunt them down. He didn't know the exact monsters that'd done it, but he was determined to kill every rabid monster in a fifteen mile radius until he felt he'd had his revenge. Instead, it cost him his own life in the end. He was bitten and went rabid. Zarah and I had to hunt and kill him three years later after she was fully turned. We burned him inside our old family home," he continued.

"Were you fully turned at twenty then?" Draven asked.

Thomas nodded.

"Yes, luckily, my father had done that before he left on his d.a.m.n mission to avenge my mother. Told me that if he didn't make it back, I had to be Zarah's protector, and that's what I've always done. I was the one that fully turned her when I felt she was of age and ready, the day after her nineteenth birthday. Yes, I also turned her Rogue, but that was because I knew it would protect her in the end."

"I still don't understand how you turning her Rogue protected her." Draven was still confused, the frown pulling down his mouth. He clenched his jaw to suppress the anger.

"As I told you, I knew she'd cure. After my mother's death, my father told me about her. There is a special gene that a Fallen Angel carries and pa.s.ses onto their offspring that provides them protection from the poison. It's an immunity, so to speak. My father told me that it's only pa.s.sed onto the females, so he was certain that Zarah had it. In order for it to take any kind of effect, she'd have to be turned Rogue first. The gene would then attack and kill the rabid cells over a short time until the cure is fully in place and the Vampire becomes normal again. After that, permanent immunity is in place and no matter how many bites she gets, Zarah can never be turned Rogue again," Thomas explained. He was getting annoyed having to talk so much, but had to admit that the Guardian wasn't so bad after all.

"It also activated the Fallen power. I'm not sure what yet, but something is different about her. Only time will tell, I guess," he added.

"So, what? Is she going through like a special growth? Developing over time? New emotions, special powers...that sort of thing?"

"I guess you could say that."

"What are Fallens exactly anyway? I'm not sure I understand that species. Where did they come from?" Draven continued to ask.

"Are we talking actual angels here?"

"You'll have to ask a Fallen that, which is difficult for us since they hate our kind. I couldn't explain it to you. I think that's almost like asking where we came from. Does one of us ever truly know the proper answer to that question? There are so many different legends and stories through history, it's hard to give one," Thomas explained.

He nodded in agreement. After another awkward silence, Draven's eyes grew wide as it all sank into place and he finally understood everything.

"But she wants to kill you now!" he suddenly yelled. Draven felt as if he had made a friend out of Thomas in the last hour and a half, even if he had entered by punching him.

"You need to tell her this, or she'll destroy you."

Thomas shrugged.

"That's just fine with me. I can't live like this forever."

Zarah was lying in her bed, watching boring reality television, when she smelled Draven coming down the hallway. His heavy boots echoed loudly on the tile, and she frowned.

Standing and running over to the door, she opened it, catching him just as he started to pa.s.s her door. He stopped when he saw her.

"Where were you?" she asked, eyeing him curiously.

For a few minutes, he remained silent and only stared at her intently as if he were lost in thought. Finally, he just smiled and shook his head, starting to walk away again as he answered.

"Nowhere. Don't worry about it."

Sixteen.

"Mom is gone?" Zarah asked in a choked whisper, tears stinging at her eyes. She looked closely at Thomas, and suddenly narrowed her eyes when she noticed a difference. Gasping, she brought a hand to her mouth.

"You've been fully turned!"

He nodded and pulled her into a tight hug.

"Mom is gone. Dad has left. It's just us now, Zarah. I'm going to protect you, I promise."

Zarah woke the next evening and rolled over in her bed to stare blankly at her alarm clock. She let it blare with its annoying buzzing for a few seconds longer before reaching over to shut it off, letting her arm dangle lazily from the side of her bed afterward.

The dream had made her wake up. Anger and hurt consumed her as she remembered Thomas' words those decades ago...

"You broke your promise, big brother," she muttered out loud as she kicked out of her covers and stood to get dressed.

After she was ready, she heard a knock on her door. She knew it was him before she opened the door.

"Hey," she greeted casually. He smiled shyly and nodded in response.

Zarah grabbed her gun and holster, attaching it to her hip as she headed out of her room behind him. She had also placed a large knife in a leather pouch on the other side, and grabbed a shoulder holster and another small pistol hanging beside her lightweight, black knit duster jacket on a coat rack near the elevator.

"Did you make those?"

She was slipping on the black fingerless gloves he'd been messing with on her counter a few evenings before. They matched her jacket perfectly. A brief nod was all she allowed before she stepped up to the elevator.

"Zarah," Draven began, sounding a bit soft-spoken and nervous.

"About last night... I'm really sorry I pushed you like that."

She held up a hand to stop him from saying another word.

"No, don't be sorry. It's fine. Sometimes I need to be pushed, I guess. You did have a right to know a little bit...and it was wrong of me to be so rude. It just...hurts...to talk about that stuff." Zarah looked down at her feet and shuffled them out of anxiousness.

"I understand," he replied.

She looked back up at him, meeting his eyes, and forced a smile.

"Zarah! Draven!" Nathanial's voice suddenly cut through the quiet hallway. They turned to see him coming at them with a big grin on his face.

"Come with me, please. I'd like to speak with you both in my office before you go out."

Zarah and Draven exchanged looks with each other, shrugging curiously, before following Nathanial to his office.

"What's going on?" Zarah asked once they sat down across from his desk.

Nathanial leaned back in his chair and placed his hands behind his head comfortably.

"I have a specific mission for the two of you tonight."

They remained silent, waiting for him to continue speaking. Zarah had a bad feeling creeping through her body that she couldn't shake. Almost as if her nerves were trying to warn her about something. Trying to shake the feeling away, she focused on Nathanial.

"The both of you are to bring back a Rogue captive for questioning."

Their jaws dropped and eyes widened at his command.

"What?' they both asked in unison, alarmed.

Nathanial frowned and leaned forward, placing his hands on the desk in front him in a firm grasp.

"You two will do as I say. Bring one back here. Alive. I want to question it. Now go."

They stood and left the office without argument. In silence, they headed to the elevator again and left The Compound. When they stepped out into the night air, they glanced at each other warily as they approached Draven's car.

"This isn't right, Draven." He revved the engine and put it into gear, reversing out of the parking spot, heading out of the garage and into the street with caution.

Draven stared straight ahead at the road lost in thought. Zarah was right. Something seemed a bit odd about it, but he wasn't going to question the motives of his boss. Maybe Nathanial had a plan behind this that would help them along in the end, and if they found a Rogue that was easy to question, they could get more answers. He glanced briefly at her to see her turned in the seat, staring at him with worry and silent questions. Those beautiful, big eyes glowed against the dash and it brought back the memory of his conversation with Thomas.

Half-Fallen, half-Vampire.

"Two halves...one known as 'good', one known as 'evil'. It's who she is. Always torn between the two. It's the result of the swirling colors in her eyes. Though we don't really know the true nature of Fallens really...but naturally, they're a.s.sociated with the light side, while the vampire is a.s.sociated with the dark."

"And what about you?" he had asked Thomas with a smirk. "You were born from the same mother."

"Yes, but I lost all of my light when I went Rogue. Hers cured her."

Zarah reached over and lightly touched his arm, getting his attention again.

"What?" he asked.

"I said, are you okay?" she said, looking concerned.

"You seem distracted."

He forced a smiled and nodded.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Let's just do what Nathanial asked. He apparently has some sort of plan that we aren't aware of."

She swallowed and nodded before leaning back against her seat and staring back out the window again.

"Zarah! Behind you!" Draven screamed.

Zarah quickly spun around in time to see a snarling Rogue flying at her. He had jumped from the roof of a low-lying nearby building in the back alley that they were standing in. They had been fighting another male Rogue, trying to subdue him enough to get him captured, when Draven had warned her of the incoming attack.

She was knocked backward into a brick wall, which stunned her momentarily before she regained her footing and began fighting. Throwing a hard punch, she connected with the Rogue's jaw first with her right fist, and then threw up her left leg to put a kick into his stomach. It sent him to the ground as he growled and screeched. Just as he was rising to come at her again, she yanked her pistol from her holster and fired a round into his shoulder, causing him to let out a howl of pain and grip his arm. The silver would certainly hold him back for a while; it wouldn't kill him until she struck a bullet into his head though.

She made a quick glance back at Draven to see him still struggling with the other. Pointing her gun in that direction, she shot that Rogue in the leg once she was sure she had a clear shot. Draven looked at her in shock and relief. He had been fighting to hold a grip that he hadn't managed to get to his own gun. The Rogue in Draven's grasp fell to the street in pain, reaching for his leg with a yelp.

"Now the question is, which one do we take, and which one do we kill?" Zarah asked, looking at Draven. He shrugged, still holding the one by his s.h.i.+rt collar.