Moonbreeze

E TALKED UNTIL about ten and then I went to bed. In less than ten hours I was going to take Emanual through with me to tell the others that the plan had changed.

  I was scared. I couldn’t recall entering through the Creepers in daylight but then again it had been late afternoon the first time when I’d thought I’d killed Blake.

  It was a miracle all by itself that nobody had found me, except Charles.

  I struggled to sleep. My mind was way too busy thinking about things I didn’t know how to change.

  When my buzzer finally went off, I got up and dressed in a black track suit with my sneakers and a hoody.

  I found Emanual with all his men and a couple of G.I Joe and Janes eating breakfast. He was making jokes again and they were talking about what was going to happen. We’d spoken about it last night. He’d asked me so many things, but I’d told him that whoever’s place they were going to take, they had to stay put until the Council came to pick up the monthly supply.

  They all looked up as I neared. Emanual smiled. “Good morning, Princess.” He had a huge grin on his face.

  “Now I know why Lucian disliked you so much at times.”

  He roared with laughter, all of them did.

  “Let me introduce you to the guys.”

  “And girls.” A brunette raised her hand.

  “So sorry, Amanda.” There was teasing in his voice and his eyes found mine again. “And Amanda.”

  “This here,” he touched a huge guy like himself with curly hair touching his shoulders and a neat goatee, “is Raymond.”

  “Nice to meet you….”

  “Elena.” I put my hand out in front of me and he shook it with a grin.

  “Then Dicky.” A smallish guy with the purest white hair and bluest eyes I’d even seen reached out his hand. “He might be short but he is lethal.”

  “At your service,” Dicky answered.

  “Taylor.” He gestured toward a girl with black hair, she had a Julia thing going on, a bit Goth with a lip ring and plenty of make-up. She looked up from her plate, stared at me with hard eyes that made my stomach turn slightly and then she smiled as if she could sense it. Just like that all the turning disappeared. She had the most beautiful smile.

  “We can’t leave all the fun to the boys now, can we?”

  “I like that,” I said.

  “Amanda.” The red head that’d previously spoken waved at me. She had her hair in a high ponytail and she was seriously a stunner too. I had a feeling that most of them were dragons as they had that unnatural beauty in their DNA.

  “Dale, Finn, Laura, Simeon,” he said and I stared at the one called Simeon. He was just like Taylor. It made me scared just to be in their presence, he had plenty of scars too and didn’t say a single word. “Jerry.” Emanual carried on. A tallish guy who had the sweetest smile with short shaven hair stood up. Now he looked lethal.

  “Nice meeting all of you. I’m sure Emanual gave you the necessary details of what Etan is like. It’s changed a lot. I’m sure what some of you remember is still there and I thank you for doing this. I hate putting you all in that sort of danger.”

  They all stared at me and made me feel so small.

  Raymond started to laugh. “She has no idea how many wars we’ve fought, has she?” He looked at Emanual.

  “No, but the princess is still learning. It’s good that she cares about her people.”

  “Still here, Emanual.” I felt like an idiot. I knew they were specially trained, still they were living beings, and weren’t as indestructible as they pretended to be. “Just be safe, please.”

  Annie slinked into the dining room and I excused myself from the table.

  “Did you sleep well?” I gave her a hug.

  “No, I should have.” She looked worried.

  “Hey, I told you….”

  “I know, still I’m worried about so many things, Elena. What if my mom….”

  “Will you stop that. I know you are scared to meet her Annie, but she really wants you to come home. She will accept you. I promise.”

  I didn’t like making promises on behalf of others, but I know Constance. She only spoke with love and yearning when Anouk’s name was mentioned. Sometimes I thought that it hurt her so much, that she didn’t like speaking about her family.

  I smiled. “I for one, can’t wait to see this reunion.”

  Annie smiled.

  “Come, let’s eat before all the special ops eat everything.”

  DAVID WAS GOING to take Emanual and I to the Creepers and I so didn’t like the fact that Emanual was going to stay and scout around doing whatever Helmut had forced him to do. But at least he wasn’t alone. He had plenty of his men, nine to be correct, with him.

  Still, it was dangerous.

  The Creepers were still fast asleep, barely moving when we got closer.

  “Okay, how do we do this, Elena?” Emanual put his backpack over his shoulders. He was already wearing the Buyo device around his big, gorilla-sized chest.

  “Just stay really close to me.”

  He lifted me up without any warning, and carried me like a baby. “This close enough?”

  I laughed. “Yes, it’s close enough.”

  David chuckled. “Be safe, you two. We are never going to see our loved ones if something happens to Elena, Emanual.”

  “Now I know how Blake feels whenever people tell him that. A bit of faith, David.”

  “Okay, let’s go big guy, and don’t be scared, okay,” I said.

  “Me, scared?” He huffed.

  “Blake was,” I whispered and looked at him.

  “I’m not Blake, Elena.”

  “No you are definitely not.”

  He chuckled and walked quickly toward the Creepers and one sprang out of the earth ready to snap at us. I lifted my arms out as Emanual stopped. He just looked at it through squinted eyes, while my heart was hammering inside my chest. I didn’t think that I was ever going to not be afraid of them.

  The Creepers on both sides of us stopped coming closer and they hissed like mad.

  Their hissing wasn’t good. It could give this entire mission away, but there was no way of keeping them quiet.

  “Just walk fast, please.”

  “Okay,” Emanual said, sounding calmer as he took huge steps. About five strides later we’d entered the core, or what I liked to call it anyway.

  Emanual gasped. It took everyone’s breath away. It was probably the most magical part of Paegeia and yet nobody but a few of us had seen it. He was the fourth one.

  “Yeah, I know it’s breathtaking right. Who would’ve thought?”

  “It’s beyond breathtaking,” Emanual voiced.

  “Don’t go crying on me now,” I teased and he chuckled again.

  “Blake was really scared?”

  I laughed loud as we walked, or he walked with me in his arms, toward the other side.

  “He was, he didn’t say it, but I could see it in his eyes.”

  “He is never going to hear the end of it.” Emanual smiled.

  “Quiet you.”

  “Oh you stand up for him now. I’m glad.”

  I didn’t say anything to that. Silence struck and we just looked at all the beauty around us.

  “What was it like . . . for him?”

  “What, your Sonic device didn’t show you everything?”

  “No, only the highlights.”

  “Not easy to witness, Elena. The beginning was the hardest, when he did everything alone.”

  “Why did he do it alone?”

  “He’d gotten seriously fast. Nobody could keep up. I got really worried and that was when Helmut told me if I wanted to go, I should. So I waited for him, tried to track him down but my tracking ability can only look for diamonds and gold, not badass dragons.”

  I giggled again.

  “I was having dinner at Jimmy’s when a report came over the news, that Blake had crashed at a nearby site. Exhaustion had consumed him.”

  “Exhaustion?”
br />   “Elena, he didn’t care about himself. He only tried to find you. He slept for almost five days. I don’t think he slept at all before that.”

  I swallowed hard. My Sonic hadn’t showed me that one.

  “When he woke up, I told him this had to stop, he had to look after himself first and after that day, I helped him. Made sure that he looked after himself.”

  “I was really so hard on him.”

  “Elena, c’mon. You thought he was dead, and when you did discover he wasn’t, the first thing that popped up in your mind was who Blake was, not what he’d become. I didn’t like it much that he asked us to not tell you anything, but I trusted him on that. It was as if he really knew the best way to deal with this, and how you would react.”

  I stroked my face hard. “It doesn’t make any sense, Emanual. He doesn’t know me.”

  “I know. I tried to guess what the Dent was, what they went through when that happened. We know now that a kiss from the dragon’s side triggers it, or any sort of intimacy. But what they truly go through while they sleep, no one will ever know. You just have to trust it Elena.”

  “What if it’s not real, Emanual?”

  He sighed and gave me that knowing look. The one that told me he was really seeing my point here.

  “You think that too, don’t you?”

  “I don’t know, Elena. Sure, it doesn’t explain the sudden affection thing, but he told me once that it’s a strong bond and not some instant kind of thing. And that he was wrong.”

  “Yeah, I saw the Just Kev interview. Still it doesn’t make sense. Right, I’m not crazy here?”

  “I know. All I can tell you, is what he told me, the hints he gave me, he said it’s something beautiful, Elena.”

  “Something beautiful.” I raised my eyes. “He used those exact words?”

  “The badass Rubicon said beautiful. No lie.”

  I couldn’t help but laugh, but it was cut short when night streamed in from the other side.

  “It’s really night time here?”

  “Yep, freaky right?”

  “No, sad.”

  I sighed. “Tell me about it.”

  The hissing came again. They knew when prey or something other than them was near and they couldn’t stand it.

  I let both my hands on either side of Emanual again and he just walked out as if we were not surrounded by deadly snatchers again.

  Once out we took the long road on the path that led to the cornfields. We chatted more about what Blake had gone through, and I knew I should stop but I couldn’t. I realized one thing, that it wasn’t just hard for me when I’d gone missing, they’d suffered too, in some way. Still, seeing Blake that day on the mountain, the way he’d rejected me, and seeing the guy in the lake, the one who’d kissed me, they were two different people and knowing that Emanual also questioned the things I did, made it so hard to trust this new Blake.

  We reached the cornfield and this time, we didn’t have a gun cocked in our faces.

  The Benson’s house came into sight and I saw three figures sitting on the porch: Charles, Luke and Blake.

  Blake saw us immediately. “Elena?” he asked and he walked towards us.

  He found Emanual. “What are you doing here?”

  Emanual just laughed. “Change of plans Blake. Elena made a bit of shit.”

  “Which I will handle.”

  “Princess.”

  “I told you not to call me that.” I sounded annoyed.

  “What sort of shit?”

  “It doesn’t matter, I’ll deal with the Ancients.”

  “Emanual?” Blake sounded concerned as I walked over to Charles and Luke.

  “Elle.” Luke was the first one to get up.

  “Luke.” I hugged him as Emanual told Blake I’d threatened the Ancients when they wanted to put Annie in quarantine.

  “What?”

  “We need families, more kids preferably. Kids soften everything,” Emanual said as I greeted Charles.

  “What is going on, Elle?”

  “They want to put Annie in quarantine, but we have a plan.”

  The old man stroked his face hard.

  “Hey, over my dead body.”

  He smiled and grabbed my arm.

  I could hear Emanual and Blake getting closer.

  “Emanual, King Helmut’s dragon, Luke, Charles.”

  “I wanted to say you looked familiar. Haven’t aged in years.” Charles shook his hand.

  He laughed. “It’s a dragon thing.”

  “Don’t say that too loud here. Dragons are quite rare this side, well ones that still know how to become one.”

  We followed Luke and Charles into the house and found Gertrude busy with her needlework and Daisy reading a book.

  “Elle!” Gertrude got up. “And who is this?”

  “Emanual.” He reached out for her hand. “King Helmut’s dragon.”

  “Ahhh, I wanted to say you look familiar.”

  “Elena?” Blake touched my arm softly and nodded towards a private spot to talk.

  I sighed and followed him into Charles’s office.

  I didn’t look at him as I folded my arms and leaned against Charles’s desk.

  He stroked his face hard and cupped the back of his head as he started to pace.

  “What exactly did you tell the Ancient’s guards?”

  “They wanted to put her in quarantine, Blake. And I was angry, okay.”

  “What did you say?” he asked again.

  “I told them if they didn’t leave in two hours I was going to unleash you on them.” I spoke the last part softly.

  He just stared at me with a look on his face I’d never seen before. It looked like he wanted to laugh, but he looked serious too.

  Then he blew out a breath, his lips vibrated and he folded his arms.

  “It’s the Ancients, Elena.”

  “I didn’t give a shit who they are, Blake. She is your cousin, what did you want me to do, let them take her? She’s been through enough and there are no plagues here.”

  “Okay, easy,” he sang. “All I’m saying is you have no idea what you just did. And it puts me in a completely different situation now.”

  “Well I’m so fucking sorry that I spoiled your plans.” I was upset again. “I’ll deal with them myself, like I always do.” I walked past him and opened the door.

  “Elena, it’s not…”

  I shut the door without even hearing him out.

  When was this going to stop? I couldn’t believe that I’d actually missed him the past two days.

  Gertrude looked at me, concerned. “Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine. We should start getting some of the kids and parents out, Emanual.”

  He squinted.

  “Don’t look at me like that. He stays, as this is where he truly wants to be. I’ll handle the Ancients myself.”

  “Elena.”

  “Just stop it.”

  “The Ancients?” Charles had a worried look on his face.

  “It’s a long story, I’ll be fine.”

  “You won’t be fine, Elena.” Emanual was getting angry. “Don’t be stupid.”

  “I’m not the one….” I said and paused as Blake entered the kitchen.

  “You’ve got people on the other side ready to take places?”

  Emanual nodded.

  “How many Buyos?” He stared at the one around Emanual’s chest.

  “Blake?” Charles looked at him.

  “We will show you first, Charles.”

  “Ten,” Emanual said, “including me.”

  “Okay, get ten grown-ups ready to leave. All the kids they don’t know about are coming with us tonight.”

  “Oh so now it’s us?”

  “You threatened the Ancients, Elena. I don’t even know how to handle this one.” Blake looked worried and I realized that I was in serious, serious shit, princess or no princess.

  “We need to do this fast.” Blake looked back at Emanual.


  “So ten of us have to pack?” Gertrude asked.

  Blake nodded and looked at Emanual. “But first we have some convincing to do.”

  CHARLES AND THE entire Benson family, with Luke, were all sitting in the lounge.

  Emanual took a hair from Charles and put it in the orb section right in the middle of the harness that was on his chest. He closed the lid and the orb started to glow.

  Emanual closed his eyes and sort of disappeared, then Charles appeared in his place.

  Everyone gasped.

  “Come here, Charles,” Blake said while Emanual was super quiet. “Speak into the device.” Blake tapped softly on the middle section that had a funny black-looking orb.

  “What?” Charles asked not taking his eyes off Emanual who was the spitting image of himself.

  “Here.” Blake showed with his hand. “Just say your name.”

  Charles bent down and cleared his throat. “I’m Charles Benson.”

  The device played the recording back and then Emanual spoke. It was still his voice but the more he said the line, the more his own voice started to disappear and then we were left with two Charles and no Emanual.

  “Good enough for you?” Blake looked at the real Charles.

  He just stared at Emanual, or his replica. All of us did. “Brilliant.”

  Emanual caught my eyes. “It’s still me Princess.” He still sounded like Charles.

  “It doesn’t look or sound like you anymore.”

  “That is the plan, right?”

  “Yes, it is.”

  “You feel old?” Charles asked and Emanual and Blake laughed.

  “No, I still feel like me. It’s just an appearance device. A trick as Helmut calls them. They are quite protective of these because in the wrong hands, these could lead to many horrors.”

  “Now that, I can understand.”

  “The scientists are working around the clock to get the first 150 finished. We are going to use the farms to station ourselves.”

  “Who is going to work the farms, Emanual?” Gertrude sounded worried. “If you take all of us out, the Council will know by the next—”

  “Relax, Elena has informed me of what it’s like here.”

  Blake looked up at him.

  “You’re kidding me right?” Emanual grinned as he caught Blake’s eyes.

  “Just making sure.”

  Everyone chuckled, except me. It wasn’t like that with me and Blake.