The Other Side of Life (Book #1, Cyberpunk Elven Trilogy) (28 page)

“
A small one.” Anya pointed
to the open box where she had left it. “I thought I’d never find
it.”

“
Hurry up…” Tavia whispered
to Nin. She didn’t mean to interrupt them, or rush him
unnecessarily, but she wanted all of them to get out of the
compound as soon as they could. Tavia snuck a quick peek of the
golden Zodiac symbol, before turning around again. She sensed
danger in the air, and was using all her strength to stay focused
and alert for the slightest sign of movement.

“
Redroot and diamond dust,”
Nin whispered the first line of the poem titled
ilfirin.
Anya’s eyes widened when a
shimmer went over the Zodiac symbol. Even the elements of nature
seemed to respond—the wind picked up speed, coming in from all four
corners of the world—an inner pulse from deep within the earth
caused the ground they were standing on to move, and streaks of
lightning flashed across the dark clouds gathering overhead in the
blackened sky.

Nin retrieved the partial elixir from the
box in Anya’s hand. “The redroot,” he asked her, and Anya handed it
over to him, feeling the sense of mystic power that seemed to be as
natural to Nin as breathing was to Anya.

Nin stepped into the symbol, holding up the
vial in one hand, and then tossing the redroot into the solution.
“Redroot and diamond dust. One part moonshine”—he held up his
pendant, above his eye level. Anya saw a beam of moonlight split
through the pendant. The diamond dust pieces in the vial swirled up
in a brilliant burst of white light.

“
One part Elvenhumankind!”
Nin finished.

Dresan heard the high whistle of the iron
arrowhead, which struck Tavia. She fell to the ground, clutching
her thigh, before yanking out the arrowhead. Before she could reach
for her guns, she found herself the target of another weapon—a long
rope with twin metal weights, that wrapped and locked itself round
her ankles.

Dresan fired off random shots in the
direction of the dart. He turned to Nin once, for a nanosecond,
with a look that said, “Where, where’s it coming from?”—before
crouching in a low bend, dodging another dart that flew out from
the shadows. Dresan moved forward—he thought he spotted a hand, a
flash of silver in the dark—and fired a few shots, deflecting a
dart that would have hit Nin, before falling to the ground once
another dart was fired—a dart which sliced across the side of
Dresan’s neck. It knocked him out completely. He lay motionless on
the ground.

Nin drew his plasma gun with one hand, and
handed the vial to Anya. “Pour this inside,” he instructed, already
turning to face his opponent.

“
Where?” Anya asked, but
Nin was fully focused on the next shot which he knew was
coming.

The elixir sparkled with a swirl of red and
gold stardust. Anya kept her hand steady, noticing the glass
capsule in the center of the symbol. The capsule had lifted part of
its cover, revealing a small golden hollow inside, with the Zodiac
symbol engraved at the bottom. She felt more comfortable leaving
this to Nin, but he was now looking out for both of them. All she
had to do was get this final step done right.

Nin heard a barely perceptible ‘clink,’ and
spotted Julius in the dark, from a menacing glint in Julius’s
soulless gray-blue eyes. It was the coldest look Nin had ever seen,
directed solely at him.

Julius wanted him dead—he wanted all of them
dead. He deeply regretted believing Nin so easily, that he took
Nin’s word that he didn’t know anything about “the Elven seal.”

“
The symbol’s right there…”
Julius muttered to himself, as he swerved to the side to avoid
getting hit by Nin’s laser gunshot. “You knew about it, all
along—the elixir’s mine!”

I didn’t—I didn’t
know!
Nin thought, picking up on Julius’s
words as the breeze blew in his direction. He could explain—Julius
wouldn’t even have to wait more than a minute, to see the Tree’s
true power—but he knew it was impossible to have any kind of
negotiation with Julius, whose single-minded mission was to
exterminate anyone that stood in the way between himself and the
elixir.

One of the high-powered shots Nin fired hit
Julius in the chest. Julius stumbled—Nin brought his gun down, as
he turned towards Dresan and Tavia, meaning to check on the
injuries they had sustained.

As Julius fell back, he fired one last iron
arrowhead, aiming at Anya, who was almost done with pouring the
entire elixir into the capsule. When the last drop had been
emptied, the glass cover resealed the capsule. The glistening
elixir streamed out, following the lines of the golden symbol.

Anya’s heart froze to ice
when she heard the whistle of the iron dart coming her way.
The archer hiding in the distance,
she recalled from her dream,
with an arrowhead—

She turned—to see that Nin had run ahead,
towards her, shielding her while deflecting the arrowhead with a
clean laser shot. A second later, and Anya’s wrist would have been
shredded to pieces by the iron dart. Her heart skipped a beat when
she glanced down at the laser gun in Nin’s hand, which had kept her
from harm.

Nin smiled at her, keeping his upright
stance to let her know she was safe…just as Julius set off a
programmed iron hummingbird bullet. He’d saved the best weapon for
last.

“
Nin’s heart,” Julius
whispered to his secret weapon, unheard and unseen by anyone on
Xenith’s compound—his compound—as he set the speciality high-speed
bullet off to locate its target.

Nin took a moment to catch his breath. It
was the only moment he was totally caught off guard—the only moment
that the bullet needed. They never saw the bullet coming at
high-speed, and the shrapnel going through Nin’s body like it was
designed to do.

“
NIN!
”

Anya’s scream pierced the night, as Nin
slumped onto the ground, taking the execution shot to the back of
his chest—dead center in his heart.

Chapter 19:

Nin couldn’t feel a thing. He lay with Anya,
beneath the tree, the bullet shrapnel embedded in him, as scattered
rays of sunlight started filtering through its branches.

Leticia came running
forward into the clearing, her hand cut and bruised, where she’d
wrestled and squeezed her hand out of the handcuff. Blood trickled
down from a jagged, nasty gash in her wrist.
She saw what had happened, and noticed Julius’s body on the
ground, not knowing if he was dead. She saw that she was too late.
She got on her knees on the ground, quietly praying to her own
God.

I blame myself,
Leticia uttered in prayer. The image of Julius
stepping out of the jeep with the case of arrowheads flashed over
and over again in her mind. She felt she could have tried harder to
stop Julius, though she’d done whatever she could.

Anya held Nin in her arms, cradling his head
in her lap. She placed a hand over his chest, unable to accept what
had happened. It was too unreal. Nin had left her side, to take
down the individual that had fired off the darts—Julius. She’d
heard the arrowhead coming in her direction—it was for her—she was
the one that should have been hit.

Anya’s worst nightmare had come true—that of
a friend, lying in her arms, in their last moments.

“
There are more vials,” she
said, half-choking on her words, her fingers fumbling over the
wound in him. “There’s still a bit of time, there’s…”

Nin held her hand, feeling the hand of death
closing in around his neck, the lifeblood ebbing away from his
physical body.

The end of the
line,
Nin thought, remembering the break in
his fate line, when Anya had held and read his palm.

Anya’s heart was torn in a whirl of
conflicting feelings: enraged that Julius’s massacre had been so
swift, embittered at the unjust outcome, engulfed by a sense of
disappointment and discontent that hit her in the core of her soul.
Having allowed Julius to have his precious elixir would have been a
more merciful option than the torture she now had to endure because
her life was spared.

Why had Nin made the decision to save
Bloodstar, using the elixir? What if it turned out to be a wasted
effort?

Anya searched the ethereal eyes of Nin: her
roguish, Elven partner-in-crime, her slain friend, her first real
love…and saw her own reflection…which led her to realize she was
staring into the eyes of her soul mate.

“
Nin…” she called out to
him. “You can’t go, not now, not after we…”

She didn’t even know what to say, about all
the things they seemed to have bonded over—the conversations they’d
enjoyed—the essential culture they seemed to be drawn to…

“
Look,” he whispered, the
last word that came from his lips. He was looking at the Tree, a
faint smile forming on his lips.

Anya leaned in. She gave him a kiss—a kiss
of life, as she intended—before feeling his life force slip away
from her, forever.

Leticia came over, laying a comforting hand
on Anya’s shoulder.

“
Anya…” Leticia said,
pointing in the direction of the Zodiac symbol.

Through her tears, Anya watched as the
golden circle started to rise from the ground. The battered half of
Bloodstar was reaching its branches down toward the hollowed out
earth surrounding it—just as Nin had said, about the branches being
able to morph into roots. All the forces of nature were summoned—a
strong, howling wind blew over the naked landscape—dark clouds in
the sky swirled in a vortex above—as streams of glittering deep red
and gold traveled up the Tree, from its deepest roots, to the
leaves on the topmost branches.

As Bloodstar rejuvenated its life force,
everyone and every living thing on the planet was engaged at their
core, unified in the interconnectedness of all forms of life.

The compound started to transform right
before them. Lush, fresh greenery started sprouting up over the
barren, sandy, cracked areas of earth caused by all the recent
excavations, and continued throughout similar spaces in the Amazon
and beyond. The tents that had been set up by Xenith had all been
blown away.

“
Go, just go!” called out
one of the scientists to his colleagues, who were now awake. Even
the guards were scrambling out of the vicinity as quickly as they
could, some dropping their weapons along the way, not knowing what
was going on.

Leticia tugged hard on Anya’s shirt sleeve,
and held onto Anya. Anya hugged Leticia back in return, clinging to
her. They had both survived—what about the rest?

They watched Julius slowly blinking his
eyes, and beginning to regain consciousness. The first thing he set
his gaze upon was the Tree, surrounded by a pure, crystal-white
halo, before he turned towards Leticia. For a moment, Leticia
remembered the good times they had shared. Despite what he had done
to her only just moments ago, she found herself feeling pity for
him. She thought he had the same look of repentance on his face
too.

“
Leticia,” Julius called
out in an almost inaudible voice, “Please…I’m so sorry…”

He tried to lift his hand, but he was far
too weak. Leticia looked at Anya, as if for approval. Anya forced a
thin, weak smile, before gazing down at Nin. Leticia approached
Julius and took his hand in hers. At least she could offer him a
last gesture of comfort. She felt Julius’s grip tighten a
little.

“
Leticia,” Julius repeated,
in a ghostly voice.

Leticia felt his grip grow stronger. Somehow
her presence seemed to give him strength. She saw some color seep
back into his face. What was happening? She turned to look at Anya,
frantic for an answer, and saw Anya still cradling the lifeless Nin
in her arms.

“
What’s going on?” Leticia
questioned. Suddenly, she understood.

“
Julius, I can save you,”
she said in a rush. “My love for you is giving you strength. You
don’t need to die…but just promise…promise you will not harm the
tree, Bloodstar.”

Julius tightened his grip. What Leticia had
said seemed to be true. He seemed to be growing stronger. He could
stay alive—he wanted to.

“
I won’t,” he said. He
wouldn’t harm the tree. What Nin said was true—Julius could see it
for himself now. What he thought was gibberish was actually fact,
not fiction. Julius thought he might even try to protect the tree,
now that he’d witnessed its powers first-hand.

But he noticed the color draining away from
Leticia’s face, which was looking more gaunt and sunken, the longer
he held on. He was watching his touch drawing her life force—if he
lived, then she would have to die. He remembered what he had done
to Leticia, and Anya, and Nin. Julius deduced Nin was the ultimate
betrayer, who knew how to piece together the symbol and numbers on
the parchment, to reveal the elusive and prized elixir of eternal
life.

He looked at Nin and Anya for a brief
moment, realizing what he had done. A sense of immense remorse came
over him: she was never going to get him back. Julius could feel
Bloodstar calling out for him—his blood—to repay Nin’s life that
he’d taken.

Julius released Leticia’s hand the slightest
bit, and already saw she was a little less drained. He remembered
the better times they had shared. He couldn’t let her die,
especially not for him. He knew what he had to do.

Slowly, he loosened his hold on her
hand.

“
Julius,” Leticia cried
out, “Julius, don’t let go…”