Original Souls (A World Apart #1) (15 page)

"If you don't recognize him, this is your son, Criston!" said Sebastian in a loud tone, because with the awesome blue light, also came a high pitch whine that made my ears cringe.

"I
t’
s a cocoon," I said under my breath. Sebastian must have read my lips.

"Yes, it is, Criston. Good of you to take note and catch up with the rest of us."

I now knew why Corinth didn't remember anything from his nearly two year stent missing. He was protected by his unique power. He was only about fifteen feet away from me. The four Squadron members, that I thought to be dead, brought him in on a smaller version of the altar they had me on, minus the wheels. Geary chewed his gum, like a horse eats hay. He remained the only one who looked like he was here of his own free will.

Corinth's eyes were open, but no one was home. Those eyes radiated a blocked-out turquoise light, colored in the same shade as his irises. The shine was so bright that it was difficult to see the rest of his body. They sat the altar on the Chancellor's desk, right in front of the Gente Peligroso that tried to blast Corinth and I away back at the factory. The light beams shot from Corinth's eyes and twisted into a spiral form as they traversed his entire body in every direction possible. It formed a cocoon around him in orbiting lights that kept stiffing back and forth. They spiraled in different directions around him, while never leaving any one spot open to the world outside of its grasp, keeping the innocent boy sheltered inside.

"In case you were wondering why we kept you alive this long, here you have it." Sebastian couldn't stand the thought of needing me, I could see it in his eyes. I'm going to milk this for all its worth. "The boy is in some sort of protective lights-show. We can't penetrate the light physically or with magik. Not even the most powerful wielders could break that structure around your peasant child. We have been trying for two years and have failed miserably. That's why we decided to use you ... once again, my dear friend."

That part caught me off guard. "What do you mean
‘
once again
?’
" I asked willfully.

"So, now you realize you are not the one holding all the cards," he smugly announced. "You, Criston, this is all because of you, but in more ways than you know . . . Geary!" Sebastian called out menacingly. "Do turn off all of our little friends so that Criston and I here can have a more literal conversation."

"Right up, boss!" Geary said while glancing at me, as he turned and walked over to Evan. He grabbed him around the back of the neck roughly, but Evan didn't even seem to care. It looked as if Geary was turning something that was embedded in his neck.

Soon after Geary walked away from Evan, moving onto the others in the room, Eva
n’
s eyes went dark while he was standing up. He just fell asleep with them wide open, or at least it looked that way to me. I watched as Geary walked up to the three others that helped him bring in Corinth's cocoon. He did the same. Only when he reached the two goons guarding me did I finally find out what he was doing to the men.

Before I could examine the method Geary employed to relinquish them of their freedom to move, speak, and seemingly breathe, Sebastian got right in my face and started to whisper the facts about the procedure he was performing on them. His pale skin frightened me. He had his flaky cheek pressed up against mine, and his breath wasn't as desirable as I would have liked it to be. But my attention went back to Evan. He didn't look human any more. That's at least what I got from the look on his non-expressive face. He didn't move an inch, which meant that he couldn't be breathing. Unless he was taking in the most shallow breaths ever.

"The serum is what you were referring to when you suggested that these other men were being brainwashed," Sebastian softly said into my left ear. "They are being controlled by the El Muerte Vivo." Oh goodie, I thought, more terms that mean nothing to me. I listened in to find out what this El Muro Vive really was. "You see, this is the curse that started the Ancestry Wars that the Great Eight waged against one another. I have reproduced i
t
… in a manageable serum. I've been using it for years now. In fact, I used it on you, Criston."

That revelation didn't hit me as hard as Sebastian may have thought. It would have, had I not noticed Corinth's and my ticket out of here, dangling so close to me. As Geary was administering his touch of death to the Squadron goons on either side of me, I noticed something amazing. He went over to the second guy on my right. This was the big guy that got the ball rolling for me when I noticed the scar on the left side of his neck. I realized in-that moment that i
t’
s an incision, not an ordinary scar. A doctor, or at least a trained specialist of some kind, made that cut on his neck. And there is a slight bulge surrounding the area. Ther
e’
s a chip inside of all these guy's necks. That's why Evan scratched and itched. His must be new, or something. He didn't have that scar before, not that I noticed, but he certainly has it now.

"So the chip inside their necks releases the serum at specified times to keep them under your control, did I get that right?"

"You're much cleverer than anyone has ever given you credit for." Sweet, he awarded me with a backhanded compliment. "But!" Sebastian abruptly said as Geary was on the down swing of turning the last guy off. "You don't know the half of it really," he finally went on to say. "Look there, at this large man." He gestured just beyond the altar I was strapped to at the big goon to my right. "Watch as Geary goes into the incision with that tool in his hand."

Geary held a silver, double-pronged tool that had a blue handle. He used it to push through the skin of this guy and into the scar. As he passed the top layer of skin, the tool attached to something inside. I couldn't see it, but I heard a small clanking sound come from it. It was loud enough that I could hear it over the now lower whine of Corinth's cocoon. He then twisted the tool so that the guy's head lowered from an upright position, nearly down to his chest. His chin rested there, and I could tell that if he were to stay in that position too long he'd have a horrible neck ache once Geary finally decided to turn him back on. This guy's eyes went dark, the same way Evan's did. It was almost like they were robots, but I'm sure that's not the case.

"You are right on some things, Criston," Sebastian said while still pressed up against me, but now he spoke with a free and louder tone. "They are being administered a dosage at specified times, but for you we employed a different method, when you kidnapped your son for us."

My strong front was annihilated this time. I figured I had been drug up, because I've been having random black outs for years. But I thought it was all revolving around the stress over Corinth's disappearance. I suppose it was, just not the way I figured. To hear that they used this serum to get me to kidnap my son from his bedroom makes me want to puke. I couldn't help myself, so I did throw up all over the ground in front of me. Lucky me that my head wasn't strapped down as well. If it had been then I would have puked that all over myself.

"I see that I've knocked your composure down a few notches," Sebastian hissed at me. I wish he had
n’
t of moved away. I would have liked some of that to get on his dreadful cloak. Just a dash of color to lighten his demeanor.

"How?" was the only word I could get out.

"Well, this lovely gent here," he gestured to the Gente Peligroso sitting behind the desk, gazing at the illustrious lines that continued to form, breakdown and reform again around Corinth, "he can explain everything!" Sebastian said with an out of character, excited tone. He wheeled the guy in the chair around the desk and took the silver tape off his mouth. The sun-dried man didn't say a word at first. "Speak, you imbecile!" Sebastian smacked him on the back of the head. That was more like his character. Now the man began to speak.

"I suspected from the very beginning that the boy's powers would have a protective feature," the Gente Peligroso spoke as if Corinth's powers had a mind of their own. "I knew that only someone he trusted could bring him to us. S
o—
" he stopped suddenly and began to cough. The beating they gave him must have been a bad one, because some blood came spilling from the side of his mouth.

"Speak on, you dirty fool!" Sebastian's will was stronger than this ma
n’
s, he did as he was told.

"S
o
… I thought that only you, Criston, only you, could bring him to us without his powers reacting adversely to danger," his voice was weak, but he kept on. "I thought that if we got him to our facilities at the factory before his powers had a chance to invoke, we could make the transfer. We drugged you with the serum that night. You weren't aware of it whatsoever, but unfortunately, we couldn't keep you there with us. After all, your son would be reported missing by your wife. You needed to grieve with her and talk with the authorities. Who were sent to your home by us anyhow. It all had to look like an ordinary kidnapping, not a huge conspiracy. We have been drugging you with the serum off and on for years. This is the reason we persuaded you to take missions that kept you far away from Draconia and Julia. We thought she would suspect the strange nature of your behavior if you two spent too much time together."

He grimaced and dug in deep, trying to keep his composure. He coughed a little more and his tone grew even weaker, but I needed to know what was going on. I listened intently to every word he spoke.

"Though we had succeeded in retrieving the boy, without incident, his powers were too quick and strong for us. After the serum would take effect in you, Criston, and you brought him within our presence, his ability trapped within his mind would instantaneously cast this protective shield you see here now on the desk. Encasing him in fiery turquoise aura rays."

He gestured to Corinth's body lying on the desk, to the right of him, with his chin. His eyes seemed to speak of regret, but his words continued on without any traces of emotion creeping into his tone.

"You were no longer trust worthy. And we never were. The Nexus denied even you access to him once you were in our midst. That's why you were lured to the factory. We needed to bring you to the base, without drugging you, so that his powers wouldn't interfere with the transfer. If it had not been for your friend, Evan, over there, we would have succeeded. His serum wore off at some point during your mission, and he saved us all from certain doom."

I was surprised to hear him say that Evan saved us 'all.' Not because I still believed Evan wasn't a true friend, but because this Gente Peligroso guy included himself in that saved category. Why would he be against Sebastian, yet helping him at the same time? Sebastian looked uneasy and impatient while standing over the old man in condemnation. It looked as if he wanted this guy to hurry the story along, but he let him continue on at his own pace.

"I, too, am guilty of this crime. Though I was not myself at the time, I still nearly destroyed your son. I am deeply sorry for this."

Even though he bore the symbol of the Gente Peligroso, his red eyes almost seemed true to me. I started to quickly feel sorry for this old fellow. He appeared to be lost in the unsavory world of Sebastian, the tyrant.

"I am a revered Priest of magik, and I have defiled my name. The El Muerte Vivo serum turns those who are exposed to it into zombie-like creatures. They are not living beings while the serum courses through their veins, but neither are they dead. They are in a limbic state between life and death. They are more powerful than humans, but rarely do they possess a free will. They can be managed affectively if given the proper diluted dosage. It won't kill them, rather making them available for use as a zombified hybrid. The serum I created was used against me in order to transfer the powers of this young boy into the Chancellor. But first you, Criston, are needed to break the spells of the bo
y’
s unique power."

This is why I'm alive. They-need me to help let down Corint
h’
s defenses, so they can get to him. That wo
n’
t happen. I may have delivered him straight to them when under the influence of an impossible sci-fi drug, but I won't let it happen again. Corinth won't suffer because of me or anyone else again.

"What do you say, Criston? Will you convince the boy that he's safe. Whichever way that might be done,
I’
m not certain, but as his father you must know some trick. It just might save your own life if you do so." Sebastian was overly cocky. But I had a plan and it wasn't going to fail.