The Hidden Prophecy Trilogy

6. Transient Salvation-1

Zaid was just putting the gas cap back on when people started running out of the building.

He inwardly groaned but was immediately alert. He ran back to the driver’s side of the truck and grabbed his second obsidian dagger, which was longer than the first he had just pulled out of his boot. Someone was shouting inside the building, and he could hear a commotion from the now open door.

What is going on?

What is going on?He moved across the lot to the front door when a shadow dropped down in front of him from the roof. Zaid stepped back, his body moving on instinct, and barely missed the swipe of a roundhouse kick aimed at his head. The figure before him was draped in dark clothing, covering every surface of their body except for their eyes and hands. They got into a position he was intimately familiar with. Knees bent, one foot back, shoulders relaxed, and arms ready. It was the starting position for many Anunnaki fighting styles.

“Who are you?” Zaid asked. The figure responded by drawing a set of obsidian daggers similar to his own and slashed out, aiming for both his neck and abdomen. Fine, be that way. He twisted and parried with his own dagger, but one of their blades tore at his shirt, drawing the thin line of blood across his stomach. Hardly more than a scratch. He reached out with his Aura, searching for the other’s mind. Only the solid wall of a mental fortress was available to him, but it was steady, unlike an ubir’s would be.

Fine, be that way.Zaid ducked and spun as another swipe of the blade came one after the other in quick succession. He threw his left fist up, dagger in a backward grip, catching the attacker in the ribs. He rushed toward the figure again, but they launched up to grab around his waist, throwing them both back into a nearby car, its piercing alarm going off as metal crunched. He punched, ducked, rolled, and swirled away, getting behind them.

He had fought many ubir before and had years of training in Rhapta, but this was different. This was close. The shorter dagger had fallen from his hand, so he brought the other in a downward arc, but it was caught by a waiting fist.

Zaid twisted, but not fast enough. The attacker slashed at his neck, missing by several inches but still opening a huge gash across his upper chest. He grunted and slammed his head against the figure’s own while he was still close, causing them to stumble back against the car and drop their other dagger.

Just then, he heard Kinza’s scream come through the building.

That can’t be good.

That can’t be good.The attacker used his momentary distraction to lurch forward and grab Zaid’s wrist with their bare hand.

Pain shot up his arm and through his body at the contact, ruthless and unforgiving, bringing him down to one knee. He gasped as stars swirled in his vision, the pain in his body so complete he forgot his own name. He had heard of Anunnaki, who had abilities of pain, but experiencing it was something else.

It’s unfortunate that you had to be here. You’ll be nothing more than a casualty after this mission is complete. The voice came from inside his head, male and gloating. Zaid looked up and could see dark brown eyes crinkled in amusement. They were enjoying this. He could barely see through the pain that seized his muscles and clouded his vision.

It’s unfortunate that you had to be here. You’ll be nothing more than a casualty after this mission is complete. enjoyingThe hand was instantly removed from his wrist as an explosion rocked the back of the building. Through the windows, he could see a body fly across the interior and debris falling in every direction. Shelves and racks of food crashed to the ground.

With the attacker’s attention momentarily on the explosion, Zaid launched forward and impaled his dagger in the man’s leg, and before he could retaliate, he shot up, sending his fist directly into the man’s jaw.

The figure didn’t even have time to scream and dropped like a sack of potatoes. Zaid sucked in a breath and yanked his dagger out, and reluctantly made sure he was still breathing. He only killed on the job when he absolutely needed to, and only ever ubir. Even years after the first time, he still felt vile and abhorrent the next day, needing to lock all emotion into a deep, dark place just so he could breathe.

Looking down, his own shirt was soaked in blood, the gash in his chest starting to pulse rhythmically. He checked for other serious injuries and, finding none, went inside.

The door chimed as he stumbled in. He reached out and could only sense a single heartbeat in the building. Picking his way through fallen shelves, he made it to the back, where he had seen the body fly through a wall. The pile of crushed drywall was there, water trickling from the ceiling, but it was empty. And the women’s bathroom was obliterated, a gaping hole in the back leading right into the forest.

Dammit.

Dammit.A faint sound had him whirling around. In the front doorway, a different figure was hunched, looking at him from over their shoulder. The same dark clothing wrapped around their body.

“Hey!” Zaid barked and was met by the same fortress of a mind. The figure dashed out the door, and he had to pick his way back across the fallen debris, wincing at the pain in his chest. By the time he burst outside, there was no one there other than the few people who had scrambled to their cars on the other side of the lot. A puddle of blood was on the asphalt near the car, but Zaid couldn’t feel any other heartbeats.

They were gone. Something was going on, and he didn’t like it. Never had he been attacked by another Anunnaki; only ever ubir. The first figure clearly had a pain ability, and the second he was unsure about, but they shouldn’t have been so… stable. They had moved with precision and what was clearly years of training. Up close, their clothing looked distinctly Rhaptan as well, if an unusual style.

stable. Police sirens came from a distance.

Zaid only knew one thing, someone was out here trying to sabotage his mission, and it looked more and more as if Kinza wasn’t an ubir. Were they trying to kill him or her? His money was on her, but what was the purpose if Zaid was going to bring her in any way? What was she?

He had a sinking feeling the explosion did not come from the attackers.

Growling in frustration, he ran around the back of the building. His vision swam a bit as the blood loss started to slow him down. Some wounds needed to be tended to; even with Anunnaki healing, they weren’t immortal after all. He came out near the building’s dumpster, which butted up against the dense forest, the shadows between the trees lengthening with the fading light of day. He reached out one more time, taking as deep a breath he could, and listened.

There. It was faint and growing fainter, but a heartbeat moved through the forest, away from him.

Kinza.

Years of training had him wanting to run after her so he wouldn’t lose a mark. He desperately needed stitches, though, and even if he did catch up to her, he would probably pass out from the blood loss. He knew better than to attempt that.

He clenched his jaw, the muscle twitching, and headed back to the truck. The sirens were getting closer, and he wanted to avoid unnecessary human contact. It would be a royal mess if they found him here with no identity and no record of ever existing. No, he would drive to the nearest town, get the stitches, and then go after her. Ubir or not, he still intended on bringing her back to Rhapta.

The forest was deep, but he wasn’t worried. He would catch up to her before morning.

* * *

Kinza stumbled through the forest, pushing away brambles and slapping cobwebs out of her face before they tangled in her hair. It was much darker under the cover of trees, and the air started to chill her skin. She kept looking behind her, expecting the dark figure to be on her heels, sword raised to strike, but after fifteen minutes of running, she started to slow down before she face-planted in the darkness.

The tingling on her neck had subsided, but the burning in her abdomen was fading slower. Pulling up her tank top to check for wounds, she gasped at the sight. The lines of her tattoo were glowing faintly, like embers in a fire. She poked and prodded at it, but it didn’t cause any pain. After what had just happened, this shouldn’t have surprised her as much as it did. She pulled her shirt back down, and thankfully it covered the glimmering lines.

She kept walking through the woods, hoping to find another road and hopefully a ride and cell service. Her mind was frazzled; jitters of anxiety made her hands shake. That had been the second time a room she had been in exploded. The figure’s sword had been so close as fear had taken over, and the white light appeared again, pushing everything around her back. Now that she thought about it, when it happened the other night, she had still been in her nightmare, the vengeful hands of the warriors outstretched to grab her.

Zaid may not have been a hundred percent sane, but there was definitely something going on. There were too many things piling up that didn’t make sense. Things that she couldn’t explain. That was also the second time the dark figure had followed her, and this time they tried to kill her. Who would want her dead? She’d had normal parents, normal friends, never once healed quicker than she should have before today. Never once did light burst from her tattoo. There was nothing in her life that had been odd or supernatural.

Well… That might have been a small white lie she had been telling herself. A tiny little fib that kept the sheer panic of the last day’s events at bay. She didn’t want to think about her parents’ mysterious deaths, or the unexplainable tattoo, or the freakish nightmares. So she locked those memories away for now and concentrated on trying to find shelter.

Well…Within twenty minutes, the sun had set completely, and every sound of the forest at night made her flinch. A fear of darkness had never occurred to her until now. She had no idea where she was, and she was moving too far east, away from the highway. She didn’t dare go back, though, for fear of the attacker or Zaid finding her again. In the back of her mind, a faint thread of regret wormed its way in, making her hope that Zaid hadn’t been killed by the would-be assassin. It wasn’t his fault he was a lunatic.

After another thirty minutes of walking, she no longer knew which way she was going. A few steps more, and a dim yellow light appeared between the trees. She peered at it and turned in that direction. As she drew closer, the edge of a large clearing came into view. It was someone’s property; a large farmhouse sat to one side with a neatly tended garden of flowers, and an even larger barn sat on the other, and a large pickup truck and trailer sat outside. The light from the barn was what she had seen. It looked like it would be a quaint but beautiful home in the daytime. Every horror movie she had ever seen left her mind at the thought of a warm fire and a cup of tea. Maybe they would let her use their phone!