Chapter 33 Ahleena and The Armor 2
Callin met Jacob's eyes, his words sinking in. He drew in a ragged breath, closing his eyes for a long moment. Trying to get his racing emotions under control. The panic that had swept him up was unlike anything he could ever remember feeling. The thought that maybe Ahleena was dead had been like a black tidal wave rising up beyond the edges of the sky, threatening to swallow him entirely within its endless depths. He pulled his thoughts away from examining why he should react so strongly, afraid of what he would find if he went there.
"Where is she?" he asked.
"She is in the next room."
The next room meant she was in the Med Lab. Abruptly he remembered his bone armor covering her, and he turned to face Jacob, feeling like he was moving through a dream.
"My armor...?"
"Yes. It is still covering her. Keeping her alive. Protecting her. She has drawn her mind deep into a type of coma while she heals herself."
Callin found his clothes and threw them on quickly, almost chafing his skin in his haste. He took stock inside his mind as he dressed, wondering if he could feel that somehow his bone armor wasn't inside him. Instead, he found himself examining the link between him and Ahleena. It was both stronger and weaker than he had ever seen.
His armor, wrapped completely around her, linked her physical sensation to him more fully than the link alone could ever do, tying his powers to her mind together intricately. His armor was made of his bone, tied to him on the deepest level. And it was wrapped around Ahleena literally like a second skin. He found himself almost blushing at the level of intimate contact between them.
Her mind, through their link, was...quiet. Not gone, not really far away, not cold. Just quiet. He didn't dare try to contact her, sensing she was engaged in what was almost like an inner war. A war that could kill her if she was distracted. He found himself scenting the air again as he hurried towards the door, realizing a second later that he was once again trying to rely on his sense of smell as usual to direct him where he wanted to go.
The Med Lab had five rooms and he didn't know which room he was in. Was Ahleena to his left or his right? He tried to scent the air again, frustration rising up inside. He felt crippled without his nose!
Finally, he turned to look back at Jacob, who was watching him with a small smile on his face.
"Not used to asking for help, are you?"
Callin scowled. That was true, but he didn't like it being said aloud.
"Where is she?"
"To your right. Walk softly."
Callin was already out in the hall and moving to the right. He paused outside the door to her room, his hand hovering over the doorknob. Trepidation welled up inside, a new sensation. He had never really been afraid of anything. Not like this. Was she really ok?
He narrowed his eyes at himself and stepped into her room, moving on cat feet. He wasn't used to such indecision and fear. The lights were dim in the room, a soft glow that left shadows draped in the corners. It was a comforting light, warm yellow, and the shadows felt content, as if a great silence hung in the room. Callin walked to the bed, gnawing his bottom lip, his breathing shallow, rapid.
Ahleena lay on top of the sheets. A naked, pure white, marble statue with perfect detail. She was so still that he found himself holding his breath until he heard her take a breath. He cursed his unusually dull senses, frustrated at how poor his hearing was at the moment. Normally, he would have been able to listen to her heartbeat, to hear her breathing perfectly. He would have been using nearly all of his senses to ensure she was ok, listening to her body, using his nose to track her scent with all of its complexities. Now, he felt like an idiot only able to simply stare down at her. Not even able to contact her telepathically.
Still, seeing her made him feel better. His senses were dulled but he could still sense her strength of will through their link. She was not dying, she was healing. As he stared at her face, his eyes traced up to her head. She was completely bald, her head a smooth, white dome. He wondered how long it would take for her beautiful hair to grow back. Somehow, seeing her without her hair, without her clothes on, seeing her so wounded, made a fierce, protective instinct rise up inside. He backed away from her and sat in one of the chairs by the bed, trying to figure out his feelings. Deep behind the concern for Ahleena, a burning rage was beginning to twist and churn, demanding revenge.
Memories of that time he had first met the Flayer in the lab, of when he had nearly killed Tassen, rose up in his mind, washing over him like frigid, black water. Memories with poisonous teeth due to the viciously fresh memory of having the skin tore off his face.
He rubbed his eyes, gritting his teeth as he tried to clear his mind of the memories of the Lab. In front of him, Ahleena lay quiet, a white marble statue of great beauty. Another victim of the brutality of the Labs. Callin wondered what it was about this recent attack by the Flayers that had reminded him of his first experience with one.
He glanced down at his arms, thinking of the first time he had met a Flayer. Thinking of how Tassen had nearly died from just losing the skin on one arm, and how Ahleena had the skin torn from her legs, upper chest, and face.
He knew the agony she was in. He also had lost all of the skin on both arms, and across his chest that day in the lab long ago. Tassen had only had the skin violently "exploded" off his one arm. But Callin had rapid regeneration, some strange mutation of his powers that accelerated the healing process in his body. He had healed with no visible scars within a day, while Tassen was left with raised, gnarled, parallel lines up his arms. Scars that had served as a constant reminder to further his hatred of Callin. His hand hadn't fully healed, either, from when Callin had crushed it. Tassen had personally held Callin responsible for his crippled hand and disfigured arm.
Callin felt a shudder ripple down through him as more wretched memories of the Lab surfaced. He shut his eyes tight and pushed them down. Memories of unimaginable internal pain, caused by focused sound waves, ripping him apart from the inside. Tassen had his revenge, many times over. There were times when Callin cursed his healing power. Tassen delighted in sending him to the brink of death, then leaving him lying in a bloody heap, to slowly, miserably recover. Only to do it all over again. And the healing took far longer than the wounding, and was many times more painful. Memories with teeth, indeed.
Callin felt his claws burning in the cool air, and lifted one hand to look at them. Blood trickled down from the tips of each finger where the bone claws had cut their way through. The crimson lines seemed to seethe with power, forged in memory. His fingers had always healed up after he bared his claws, only to be cut open again next time he bared them. Reminding him of the repetitive torture at the hands of Tassen. He snarled low in his throat, flexing his claws with a dark smile as he remembered feeling them bite deep into Tassen's face, cutting furrows into the bone beneath, that time when he and Mirage had almost escaped. He hoped that memory haunted Tassen.
That was a disfigurement that Tassen had never truly healed from, instead disappearing from the Labs the day after he was finally conscious. Callin's ultra-keen hearing had heard the whispered rumors and fears by various lab workers days after Tassen had disappeared. It was sickening how terrified the employees of the Labs were of their bosses. Some group simply referred to as The Council. Referred to in hushed, fearful whispers. Callin had begun to understand just how deeply in the belly of the beast he lay as he heard these conversations. They were scared Tassen, one of their brightest, most powerful and influential, had been assassinated by The Council for his failures, for his fiasco with Callin. And many of them wanted to secretly kill Callin, out of fear of what retaliation he may bring upon them all by The Council.
In those days following his escape attempt with Mirage, where he had nearly killed Tassen, Callin had learned much by listening to the conversations buzzing around the Labs. Apparently, The Council had some high plan for Callin, which is why he hadn't been ordered killed long ago. He had learned that The Council planned on using Mirage against him, although he hadn't known how they were going to do that at the time.
He slowly waved his claw-adorned hand in the air in front of him, watching it closely. Tiny bits of brilliant blue sparks were beginning to glitter on the tips of each claw, making the shadows in the room dance in sudden, fitful bursts. His memories were surfacing and receding like some uncontrolled, unnaturally rapid tide. What was it about that Flayer in the hall, so long ago?
His claws flashed a particularly violent array of blue, and sudden realization struck him. That Flayer had been responsible for his being able to access his powers enough to overcome the sound shield Tassen had surrounded himself with. He remembered that feeling in the air, and now knew it was not only in the air alone. It was the feeling of the Flayer inside his mind, overcoming some of the blocks the Lab telepaths had placed there. Enabling him to reach out and close his hand around Tassen's, even through the sound shield. The realization didn't end there. Now he knew why that particular memory had surfaced. When he had fought the Flayers out in the woods the other night, he had sensed that strange feeling in the air.
Not coming from the Flayers in front of him, but coming from somewhere beyond them. Somewhere out near the border of the mansion property. He figured he had just discovered how the Flayers had been able to get past Ahleena and Jacob's mental ward. There had been another Flayer there. One with special abilities. Abilities to control the powers of others.
As he watched his claws slice through the air, his mind raced down paths of revenge. And how to control and utilize his powers completely. Jacob hadn't yet really been able to help him overcome the blocks in his mind. Blocks keeping him from accessing the full extent of his powers. But now he knew there was somebody, or some thing, that could help him. Inside, the creature raged to be brought back to the Lab and set free. He logically knew it would be suicide to take on the Lab by himself, but when the beast inside went so stark, ravening mad, he felt like nothing could stop him.
And he could so clearly see it in his mind. Walls painted red, crossed with deep gouges, doors blasted off hinges, bodies strewn about. Bodies of any and all livings things down within the Lab, except for those victims like himself and Mirage. And standing in the entrance to the tunnel that led to the surface, arms raised triumphant, body soaked in blood, eyes blazing with insane hatred, he could see himself. He could see himself leaving that creature there, deep underground, once his work was done.
The thought of being free from the hatred, the rage, that coursed through his dreams and laid its burning hand on every thought, every day, seemed too unreal to imagine. Sometimes he wondered if that rage, that hatred, was all he was, now. Or if he had begun to grow attached to it.
"They know where we are, now. And they know how to get past my psychic ward. They will be back." Jacob said, standing in the doorway to the Med Room.
Callin had been so lost in thought, and with his hearing gone dull, the voice of somebody so close startled him violently. His instincts had him rolling forward in a tight ball, only to leap up while twisting, to land facing the doorway with claws bared and held ready.
"Nervous?" Jacob asked dryly, still standing calmly in the doorway.
Callin forced his heaving breathing to slow, forced his claws back inside, and closed his eyes for a moment. The burning ache at the tips of his fingers wasn't fading as it normally did. He knew it was because his powers were acting strangely, were not quickly sealing the holes his claws made like usual.
He drew a deep breath and visualized that singular blade of centered focus that Ahleena had taught him. It took a long moment before he felt in control of himself. He narrowed his eyes at Jacob, not appreciating the interruption.
"So when they come back, we kill all except one. And then you and Ahleena can mind-rape whoever, or whatever, is left alive, and find out where they are. And then we pay them a visit. And we leave nothing alive when we leave." Callin stated matter-of-factly.
Jacob smiled grimly. He appreciated Callin's analytical approach. And his determination to end things. But he knew it wouldn't be as easy as that.
"They won't come directly, next time. And they will come with even greater force." He explained.
Callin looked down at his hands, scowling. He didn't like the warning in Jacob's tone. He wasn't scared of the Flayers, or anything the Lab could throw at him. He wanted nothing more than to go there and ravage and rip and shred until there was nothing recognizable left.
"So what do you propose we do?" He asked, finally raising his eyes to meet Jacob's storm-gray gaze.
"Once Ahleena is healed, once your powers are stable, we bring the fight to them." Jacob stated darkly.
Callin grinned, more a baring of fangs than an expression of mirth.
"Excellent." He growled.
"We all meet at ten, in the kitchen. We're going to discuss battle plans." Jacob said, turning and walking out.
Callin paced around the small room for the two hours before ten, lost in thought. Part of him was excited to finally attack the Lab, but another part was filled with cold dread. What would happen when he finally saw Mirage? What would happen if she attacked them, if she wouldn't stop, if the lab controlled her completely? He pushed those fears aside as he stepped out of the Med room, determined to focus on the moment. He would deal with Mirage when it came time.
As he walked towards the kitchen, his hearing alternately sharpened, then faded away. It felt like his footsteps were utterly silent, then suddenly thundering loud. Like his heartbeat didn't exist, but then was a rhythmic pounding in his ears drowning out all else unless he consciously ignored it. The voices of others in the mansion reached his ears, and he found himself following their conversations, unable to block them out.
"-said it will be at least ten days before she wakes. Seems like it would take longer than that to heal from what that Flayer did." Raina said.
Her voice moved slightly away as she passed the doorway to the hall where Callin stood, his eyes shut tight, as the barrage of sound threatened to sweep him away.
"Yeah, but she is a Ninja. Jacob said she is using some ancient meditation technique to accelerate her healing. And that Callin's bone armor is assisting. He said he had never seen such perfect teamwork. Makes me sick." Carmen said, the last part muttered so low Callin wasn't sure he heard it.
Raina's laugh rang out, piercingly loud all of a sudden, making Callin growl and drop to his knees, his hands clasped tightly over his ears. What was happening to him?!