Relias: Uprising (10 page)

 “Ah, she’s staying out of trouble.” Pontious answered. “Ranjak won’t stay away from her.”

 Luke chuckled and shook his head.

 “But that’s not it.” Pontious said. The tone of his voice made it clear that he wasn’t about to deliver good news. Luke realized this and was quick to attention.

 “What else is there?” He asked alertly.

 Pontious chose his words carefully and spoke. “I told you that I think there’s something drastic. Well I think that whatever it is they’re doing, Tess is in on it. She’s being pulled out for a special mission by Command. She won’t tell any of us what it is but we’d place bets that whatever it is, it’s going to be noteworthy, to say the least.”

 His face became stern. His eyebrows furrowed and his slicing glare could almost be seen through his black glasses. Of all the ballsy things for the Darks Command to go and do.

 “They’re taking my eighteen year old daughter and putting her on the front lines.” Luke snarled.

 “Like I said, big.” Pontious replied. “They’re sending her in a crew being led by both Thompson and Ranjak.”

 So it was
that
big. Sending his daughter into enemy territory on a secret mission was one thing, but sending her under the leadership of the Darks most prized warriors was another. Many regarded Ranjak and Thompson as the saviors of the resistance and now the both of them were going together on one single mission. You don’t put all your eggs in one basket unless you’re putting them in one hell of a basket. Luke put his hands in his back pockets and walked over to the sidewalk café, sitting down at one of the many black tables and resting his elbows on it. Pontious came over and sat down across the table from him. Pontious’s expression was cool and predicting.

 “You’re going to take her, aren’t you?” Pontious said with the corner of his mouth curving up in a smile. Luke pressed his hands to his mouth in thought.

 “I am her father.” Luke whispered. He pondered a moment longer and spoke louder. “What else is she going to do? She’s not ready to put herself into that kind of a situation.” 

 Pontious shrugged and leaned back in his chair. “With all due respect, Luke, she’s a woman now. You don’t have to always worry about protecting her.”

 “But you’ve never had a daughter.” Luke replied calmly. “You don’t know what this is like.”

 “I do.” Pontious said. “I remember back in Brún before the Union formed and it was just the war between the vampires and the werewolves. Back when my sister and I would sooner live in the back alleys than in a mansion with my crap-curdling father.  After I told him I didn’t want the family business and we broke away from the coven, my dad had his biggest werewolves coming after us. Add that to all the vampires that wanted us dead simply because we the children of Carnway Granlow. I spent every night wondering if my pride and stubbornness was going to get to be the death of my sister. I stayed by her side but I’m only one man. If any more than three grown men showed up it would’ve been the end of us both. My fear wasn’t misplaced though. You know how it ended. But I know how you feel Luke, and I’m telling you to not give into impulse.” Pontious gave a dogged chuckle. “It wouldn’t be the first time.”

 A door behind them opened up and both looked to see a woman bring out a steaming bread basket. She covered it in white cloth and walked down the walk, over the hill and out of sight.

 “Not often that something without raw meat sounds good to me.” Pontious said with a smirk. He looked back at Luke and saw his discontent. “So what is it you want us to do?”

 Luke saw Pontious staring at him without blinking, his orange eyes wide and stirring. Luke thought. Pontious had just confirmed what he had begun to question about the Ditrinity. They were still loyal to him and they’d leave the Darks if it meant maintaining that loyalty.

 But they had a better chance of defeating the Commune as a part of the Darks than they did serving with just him. They’d have themselves along with entire squads to back them and do their will. But they’d be separated, and Luke had never known a group as dangerous and closely bound as the Ditrinity. Each member had devoted their lives to the Semprys family. They had only each other.

 But here Luke sat with Pontious in front of him, offering him exactly what he wanted. Luke wanted revenge. And the Ditrinity could help him with it; better than anybody else could.

 “Luke?” Pontious asked again. Luke came back from thought and shook his head.

 “Listen to Sam.” Luke said in an exhale. “They need you. A lot more than I do.”

 Pontious nodded and stood up, tapping the table in a goodbye and turning to walk away. He stopped and turned around.

 “And one more thing. The rest of the group has been waiting for you at your penthouse for quite some time. We’ve been surprised that you haven’t been coming home.”

 Luke got to his feet. “There’ve been things to do.” He said casually.

 “Yeah.” Pontious replied. “There always is.”

 Pontious walked past Luke and gave him a light punch in the shoulder.  His path took him to the sidewalk as Pontious walked on, popping the collar on his trench coat and putting his hands in his pockets. Luke sat back down and watched as the moon rose higher in the sky. He’d go back soon. He had some business to attend to.

Chapter 6

 The breeze caused the curtains in Tess’s room to flutter. Beyond the curtains was a balcony overlooking the river. The city was dark. Barely a street light remained luminous and the entire world seemed to exist in shades of black and blue. On the opposite roofs, Dark soldiers could be seen patrolling back and forth with one hand always on the handle of their gun. They were almost a part of the scenery: black moving cutouts crawling along the skyline against the night sky. Tess lay in bed sleeping peacefully, curled up on her side and hugging herself and sinking into the bulbous mattress that drew her in.

 There was quiet movement around the room. A shadowed figure shot between Tess’s closets and drawers, throwing her clothes and belongings into large bags and suitcases that had been laid out. A large pile of clothes had already built up on the edge of one suitcase while others had missed their designated target entirely, scattering across the bedroom floor as though they were filled with flat invisible corpses.

 The dresser drawer closed particularly loud, slamming against the main body of the dresser with a dull wooden
thunk
. Tess jerked awake, her eyes opening in a drowsy daze as she looked around the room.

 “Wha… who’s…” She trailed off in a yawn, rubbing her eyes with one hand and continuing in a voice that sounded half-asleep. “I’m gonna beat you senseless if you don’t get out now.”

 The shadow continued to move around the room grabbing whatever object it came to and throwing it in one of the pieces of luggage. She sat up, twisted her legs towards the edge of the bed and pulled the sheets back. “Listen, I don’t know who you are, but get your dirty, stinking, rotten…”

 The man’s face passed through a moonbeam and reflected off of his circular black glasses. Tess took a deep breath and smirked. “Dad… you about gave me a… what are you doing here?”

 Her recognizing him didn’t slow him down. He kept throwing things in the bags as he replied. “We’re getting out of here. It’s not safe here anymore.”

 Tess waved a hand in the air and put a knee onto the edge of the bed and pulled herself back onto the mattress. “It’s
way
too late to be pulling this kind of stuff, Dad. We’ll talk about it-“

 “We’re leaving, Tess.” Luke said firmly.

 “No we’re not.” Tess said as she pulled the sheets up to her chin and yawned. “You can go now. And don’t worry about the clothes. You can clean them up in the morning.”

 Luke stopped what he was doing and looked to Tess. He went over to the edge of the bed and sat on it, his right hand unsure as to whether or not he should place it on her shoulder. He had never had much experience with teenagers, must less teenagers of the female variety. Tess hummed quietly to herself.

 “We aren’t in any danger.” Tess assured him. “I promise.”

 “What about your mission with Ranjak and Thompson?” Luke asked. Tess sat up in bed and looked at Luke with a fearful expression.

 “Who told you about that?”

 “It doesn’t matter. But you aren’t ready for these kinds of things yet.”

 “Says who?” Tess said, her voice getting indignant.

 “You just aren’t, baby. You’ve never gone hand to hand with a real Legionnaire, have you?”

 “Of course I have.”

 “No you haven’t, Tess. If you had then you wouldn’t be lying in bed right now talking to me.”

 Tess broke eye contact with Luke and lowered her head. “It’s just that… it’s just that I…” She trailed off and shook her head. What came across her face then was a smile that looked like she was amused at something. Her own disillusion, perhaps. Luke could only hope that that’s what it was and she would soon come to the realization that she wasn’t cut out for combat against the Legionnaire. After all, she was still only a girl.

 “It’s not fair that you treat me like this.” Tess said.

 Luke was confused. What had he said?

  “How am I treating you?” Luke asked.

 “Like… this!” Tess said. “This! I… I don’t know how to say it but… you’ve always known that you can do things, right? You’ve always known what you can do and that you’ll always come out on top. I’ve seen the video tapes. Everybody has. I watched the mindlogs of the battle out over the Damidian highlands where you set up a grav-field and boarded that Legionnaire battlecruiser and killed everybody inside yourself. I saw another mindlog, the one during the invasion of Elysium, where you reclaimed an entire district by yourself. I saw you break a Monolith’s back like a cheap habit. You’ve done so many amazing things and you’ve done them by yourself. You never would’ve done those things if you didn’t know that you could do them.”

 She looked at him, her eyes begging him to understand. But Luke didn’t. He couldn’t. When the things that she had mentioned actually happened, Luke was sure that he was going to die and every time he told himself that he wasn’t going to go down without a fight. It wasn’t self-confidence nor was it an ability to read the future. When those things happened the primary objective Luke had was to inflict as much damage as he could before getting smashed to a pulp by some raging Berserkers or getting his throat torn out by some Nightwolf battalion. He never thought he’d live. Now here he sat with his daughter in front of him, begging him to understand her position and where it was she was coming from, pleading with him to let her put herself into the same situations that he could barely survive himself.

 He was sure that he understood the things going through her head. She wanted to prove to herself and everybody who knew her that she was strong and brave and everything that a real warrior should be. It was a pride issue, and Luke wasn’t going to let his daughter get herself killed over pride.

 “I’ll tell Nate to tell Sam tomorrow why you didn’t go. I’ll make sure that-“

 “No!” Tess yelled, jumping out of bed. “I’m not going to go with you! My place is here, fighting the Commune, fighting the Legionnaire!”

 Luke stood up and faced her with an unmoving expression. “Can you promise me that you won’t go with Thompson and Ranjak then?”

 Tess looked offended, almost disgusted. “No! I can’t do that!”

 Luke was quick to approach her. He grabbed her arm and held her where she was. She struggled at first but Luke reapplied his grip and she knew she wasn’t going anywhere. “I can do what I want.” He said. “The Darks aren’t the good guys anymore. There are no good guys in this war. I am not going to let you get yourself killed trying to prove something.”

 Tess wrestled against Luke’s iron grip as he dragged her towards the door. “I can come back and get your things.” Luke said. “We’re leaving, one way or the other.”

 Tess wrestled as hard as she could and started yelling. “Somebody! Get in here! Let me go, Luke! You can’t do this!”

 They stopped at the door and Luke forced her to look in his eyes. “I’m your father, and the only family you’ve got. Now if you want to have clothes where we’re going then it’d be smart to-“

 There was a strong knock at the door, followed by a deep demanding voice. “Is everything all right in there?”

 Tess was only slightly comforted. She gave a loud reply. “Get more men! You’re going to-“

 Luke put a hand over Tess’s mouth. Her head moved around, dodging around it and making it difficult for Luke to silence her.

 “Luke Semprys is in here! He’s trying to take me to-“

 Luke slammed her against the wall with a sharp crack, sending a split through the drywall that stretched to the ceiling. He pressed his hand over her mouth and she was quiet, her body ceasing to struggle. All she did now was look at Luke, her eyes becoming moist and watery. It shouldn’t have taken as long as it did for Luke to realize what he was doing. He caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror hanging on the door and saw his expression.

 He was enraged. His face was dangerous, the same face he’d seen on himself as he minced through Legionnaire soldiers, the same face he wore as he’d hold an enemy warrior by the throat before shoving his sword through their hearts. The face he wanted them to see as the life drained from their bodies and dripped to the floor. The unwelcome, damning glare that he wanted every Legionnaire to see before they finally closed their eyes.

 And here he was, violently restraining his own daughter and giving her the same cold expression he gave to his worst enemies.

 The anger, the frustration, drained from Luke’s body. His expression melted into one of fear. He looked back to Tess and found his hand still covering her mouth. He immediately ripped his hand back to himself and saw a white, hand shaped mark around her mouth where the blood had been forced out. Luke staggered backward and began to breathlessly apologize.

 “Tess… baby… I…”

 With one hand Tess gingerly rubbed her face while the other massaged the dark bruise that was emerging on her arm. It couldn’t be right. There’s no way that Luke had done that. He loved Tess. She was his only child left living. She was the only person he loved. How could he have even thought of doing what he had?