The books were shuffled through, old pages ruffling as they were turned.
Words appeared on a page, to be read for the very first time;
Once all has been done,
Heaven is moved,
Earth changed and life gone on,
Somehow will begin a new beginning,
When heaven will come down to earth,
And new taboos be placed.
"Oh my. My, that is interesting."
"The forth Wild Power has been found!"
"They have found the last Wild Power. It is now time that we fight. Now or never. We go!"
Vampires, witches and werewolves, mortals and daybreakers alike stand together apart, witnessing and take park the struggle of a Millennia in amazement. Sides chosen, fights waged, the war is started and ended. All four Wild Powers succumb to death; as is their purpose. In death, they bring revolution to the world. Neutrality takes hold. A new race of being comes to the world.
***
"Sara? Are you ready for school yet? Sara! Come down here or you'll be late."
Sara pulled her cardigan over her shoulders and looked up and down at the full length mirror on the inside of her closet. Running her fingers through her hair, she blew up at her fringe and frowned lightly.
"This is as good as it's going to get."
Rolling her eyes, she smiled mockingly at herself as she exited her room to descend the staircase and meet her mother in the kitchen.
"You driving me to school this morning?" she asked, picking up a cool piece of toast from the table and chowing down on it.
"On the way to work. That's why I wanted you down here. You ready yet?"
"Mmm hmm," Sara said, mouth full as she bent down to grab her bag from the corner of the room. She swallowed and gestured with what was left of her piece of toast. "Let's beat it then!"
***
The best part of school, as always, was the part of it that was outside of classes. Sara sat with a small group of friends, gossiping about various members of their friendship group and peers in the year level. Definitely one of those favorite past times! Sara excused herself for a walk down to the street of shops near to the school.
Halfway along, she caught sight of someone's eyes on her from the corner of her own vision. Smiling a secret smile to herself, Sara lowered her head deliberately and kept walking. Minutes later, as she came back out of the milkbar, the blonde tipped male was standing there waiting for her.
"Am I able to help you?" Sara asked, bemused.
"No, I think that might be my job," the cute stranger told her.
Sara stared at his face, looking for a hint of humor that would mean he had been joking. Although his face was smiling, she guessed that his gesture had more seriousness to it that he would have let her think on the surface.
"Your. job?" Sara asked, tilting her head to the side.
"Look, it's kind of a. weird thing," he tried to explain. "Maybe if I talked to you in some place more private?"
"Hang on, I've just met you, and you expect me to just. come with you to, what was it, some place more private? How do I know that you're not some crazed maniac that you hear about on the news these days? These are times closely tied to war you know!"
"More than you know," he murmured under his breath. Catching hint of the words, Sara looked at him strangely. "Look. look at me," he added. "Do I really look dangerous to you?"
Sara looked at him. Really looked at him, which wasn't really a hardship, she couldn't help thinking.
"Well. okay then," she conceded. "I'll come with you. But not for long! I've got to get back to school you know," she pointed out with her fore finger in front of his face.
He grinned in genuine feeling, before extending his hand which she decided to take. Together, they walked to the street behind the shops.
"So, what is it that you wanted to talk to me about?" Sara asked.
"Sarabel, there is something about yourself that you need to know."
"Sarabel? I haven't told you my name yet," she said, suspicion clouding her voice once again.
The stranger closed his eyes at his accidental slip. Exhaling, he opened his eyes again. Sara stepped back.
"Look, I don't know who you are. and I'm not quite sure that I want to anymore. Yeah, I said that you didn't look dangerous, but looks can be deceiving. Leave me alone now. Please."
Sara turned around and fled back to the front street of the shops, only turning around to look at where he still stood once before she rounded the corner out of his sight.
***
"Where were you all lunchtime, Sara?" her best friend Trune asked in class later on. "You just left, and then never came back."
"I know. I got. held up," she said. She refused to think about the guy she had met in the street. How come all the cute ones were so strange? There was always something strange about the cute ones, whether they were just gay, or creepy. Right now, gay was sounding like a blessing! "Are we still on for bowls tonight?"
"Of course," Trune said, before turning to face the front of the room, and the lesson that was being attempted to be taught to them.
Sara walked through the carpark just outside of the bowls. Out of nowhere, someone grasped the strap of her bag from behind. At first, Sara stiffened at the thought that it must be a mugging. After that, a firm hand grasped her upper arm. By the time she thought to scream out in her alarm, her mouth was taken by her attacker's other hand, preventing her from making any noise at all. She felt herself dragged into the shadows.
"You need to find her. She is out there and all alone. You know what you must do."
"You saw what happened today. She totally freaked out when I came to her. I doubt that she'd take kindly to me coming up to her this time."
"In the situation she presently finds herself in, I'm thinking that anything is going to be a blessing right now."
The blonde tipped hottie sighed and looked down, already knowing what he was going to do.
"Fine. I'll go."
Without looking back up to the other whom he'd been talking to, he shimmered from sight and that place.
***
"What are you doing here? Why have you taken me? What did I do?" Sara was blindfolded, a very real fear flooding into her tone. "Why won't you let me see? What are you going to do to me?"
Only silence acted as a reply to her pleaded questions.
"Please, just let me see. I don't understand any of this. Why are you doing this to me?" A lone tear escaped in the dip between eye and nose, slid down the cheek without behind absorbed by the cloth over her eyes. Her hands also were tied up, preventing her from wiping even that away.
Lachlan shimmered in again, immediately surveying his surroundings while still carefully out of sight. He would be no help to anybody if he too were caught here. 50 meters in front of him, he could make out Sara's form, tied to a pole and blindfolded. Her breath was heaving and panic was radiating off her, although she was uttering not a sound. After assuring himself as much as he could that nobody else was anywhere around, Lachlan stepped forward, making the first moves towards her.
"Sarabel," he said as quietly as he could, while still being sure that she would be able to hear him, "Relax. You are no longer alone. You have me. I can help."
"You can't help if you are lying dead next to her," another voice said from within the shadows.
Even as Lachlan's attention was being diverted, he was conscious of Sara's horrified gasp. He wasn't sure if it was fear for him, herself or everything that she couldn't see. But it didn't matter now. All that mattered was gaining the upper hand here, and getting both him, and Sarabel back to safety, far, far from here.
"If you would truly pose a threat, why don't you come out into the light? Show yourself for what you really are."
Lachlan waited to see if his dare would be accepted or not. Seconds later, he found his answer as some sort of creature stepped out from the gloom. In immediate and uncontrollable reaction, a bright light suddenly flared all around him. Right then, he was truly glad that Sarabel was blindfolded from what could only ever cause her a great amount of fear.
"Ah, so it is not only us that the barriers of this world became open to," the thing opened its mouth to say.
"Wherever your kind shall be, you can bet that we shall follow after," Lachlan replied, staring intently at the being in front of him. Both stood in very wary position, heightened for easy movement at the first indication of attack from the other.
"Glad to see that your kind are so dedicated," the thing returned.
Lachlan smirked without humor.
"Just one question; why?" he asked. "Why this girl; out of every single other one you could have chosen, what is it about this one that pushed her out from the rest?"
"Can you not see it by looking at her? Or did your higher ones neglect to tell you who it was you were going after?"
Lachlan narrowed his eyes, but refrained from saying anything that might give away any information, however useless, to the enemy side.
"Oh, it's okay, I can see that they did not." Now it was the thing's gruesome turn to smirk. "The truth is that your Sarabel is one of the Wild Powers. No, no, none of those of the war. Those were The Wild Powers. There will be none others of that ilk. But there were many beyond those four, others who would only be brought forward in the after affects of the Millennia War. It is a race, now that we are all down here, a race to gain as many from this place to our own. I think it's safe to say that yours are the losing team."
"Your kind can actually act as a team?" Lachlan asked incredulously, darting a glance towards Sarabel to see how she was holding up through all of this.
"Enough of that now. I will either take her to my side, or consume her powers for the greater good. Either way, you have no factor in this, so I would say it's safe to say you have no further use here. And as you appear already prepared."
The thing lunged. The brightness surrounding Lachlan brightened, rebounding the thing away from him with as much force as it had lunged. Regaining its balance, it attempted a different tack. Dark, opaque purple spurted forth from his hands, directed at piercing the block set up by Lachlan.
Sara, who had been left by and forgotten for the moment struggled with the words that had been spoken between the two beings over her only moments ago. Could it have been her that they'd been talking about? A 'Wild Power'? What on earth could that be, and if it was her, how had she not known anything about it? What did it mean for her? If it meant a whole stream of kidnappings and strange men, then she definitely didn't want any part in this new position that they would place upon her!
Meanwhile, without her seeing, the two 'beings' were progressing in a full blown magical fight. Neither appeared to be wearing down in any obvious way, and it seemed about time that one or both of them were about to pull on reserve power anytime soon. Then, just as suddenly as that, the 'thing' paused for a moment, before disappearing.
Lachlan blinked in surprise at the sudden absence of opposition before him. It took a moment before he rushed over to help Sara up. Taking away the blindfold first, Sara blinked up at him, then gasped out loud as she looked beyond him and to a black spot, almost like a mini explosion, on the ground. She looked up at him again, questions full in her eyes.
He bent his head for a moment in the guise of untying her wrists, which was really only an excuse to give himself some time. As he stood up to full length once again, Sara stared at him for only a moment, before saying bluntly, "What are you?"
He took her hand in his, careful not to rub against the burn marks that her ties had left there.
"Now is not the time or the place. Come, I will take you to somewhere that we can talk. That is, if you will trust me this time..?"
Sara lifted her shoulders, and then dropped them heavily.
"I don't suppose that I really have much choice in that now, do I?" she asked ironically. "Seeing as how you so obviously saved me just now from. whatever it was that, well, wasn't trying to save me. But we'll have to make it quick. My mum's going to be getting real worried some time soon."
"I can make it quick. Take my other hand." Lachlan turned to face her.
"Take your. how are we supposed to walk anywhere if we're facing each other?"
"Walking won't be an issue. Please, trust me."
It seemed silly to hesitate any longer, especially as seeing how she had been the one requesting that they hurry it up some, and so she took his hand with hers. Immediately on contact, she felt a strange shivery feeling all over her body. For a moment, it was as if she couldn't open her eyes, or if she was opening, she couldn't tell any different for if they had been closed. Thankfully, the sensation lasted only a moment, until the shivering slowly ebbed as well. More than just slightly freaked, Sara jumped back, relinquishing all contact between them.
"Okay now, what the hell was that?" she asked, pointed a shaking finger in his direction. Her eyes skated across the room all around them both. "And. where are we now? How did we get here?"
Lachlan opened his mouth, but before he could say anything, Sara overrode him with her second onslaught of words again.
"And just one more thing, I meet you in the street, I get kidnapped on my way to meeting with some of my friends. oh my god, my friends! They're going to think that I piked on them or something!" Sara's voice escalated at the thought, before she glanced again to Lachlan and realised, in the big scheme of things, that was not important anymore. "Anyway, I get kidnapped, you come out of nowhere to come and save me after I ran away from you the first time, and then take me away into the same nowhere that you came from, and. and I don't even know your name yet!"
Sara placed her hand son her hips firmly and glared at him, insisting without words that she owed him some answers. Lots of answers!
"You'll get all of your answers, I promise," Lachlan told her. "But all of that will come in time. For right now though, we still have things to deal with. Many things that need to be dealt with. You remember when we first met, you said that we were in the middle of a time of war? Well, you couldn't be more right and I'm afraid that I, and that thing that stole you, come as the effects of that war."
"Okay, and see, that's just another one of my questions," Sara said, stepping away from him and starting to pace in agitation. "Cause, you know, I know that there was someone else who took me, they did not have your voice at all, even though I haven't talked to you for much, but then, when you opened my eyes again, there was nobody but you there, and only a black explosion mark to show for anyone else. What exactly happened down there that I didn't see?"
Lachlan took a deep breath. He knew what she had heard, and knew what was coming.
"And what the hell is that Wild Power stuff all about?"
He thrust a hand through his hair, tousling it all up with a sigh.
"Boy, is there a lot to be explained here."
"Yeah, you're sure right about that," a third voice interrupted. "Starting with that the hell you're doing here with my friend!"
Sara spun around, suddenly facing Trune and her cousin Kyli.
"Trune, Kyli, what are you two doing here?" Sara held a hand up to her head, trying to deal with everything that was suddenly happening around her. How had her friends even found her here, when she didn't even know where 'here' was?
"Look, we really don't have time for this," Lachlan interrupted. "You can be safe in the knowledge that I'm not going to do anything to your friend, but that I really need to be talking to her alone right now."
Trune shook her head slightly then, a small smile appearing on her lips.
"I don't think so, bub," she said. "You see, bad things have happened to my friend tonight, and all of them happening just after you met her this afternoon at the shops."
"Trune, how did you..?" Sara narrowed her eyes in confusion. She expressly remembered not telling her friend that.
Trune didn't take her eyes off Lachlan, although Kyli did turn her head to mouth to Sara 'It's okay, just wait'.
"So here's what we're going to do," Trune continued. "If you are only trying to help Sara here, as I'm sure you've tried to convince her already, then you are going to be fine with coming along with the three of us to our community house nearby. Then we'll decide what side you truly are on."
"Look, whoever you are, we really don't have time for this! More than you know is at stake right now," Lachlan said, obviously trying to tamper down a temper that was slowly rising.
Trune's expression didn't change. Finally, Lachlan was the first to give in.
"Fine," he allowed grudgingly. "Go to where you mean to go and I'll follow you. You can even take Sarabel along with you if you feel you need to."
Trune stared at Lachlan, and a sort of understanding passed silently between them. Only Sara was left confused in the end. When she piped up with a, "But how are we going to get out of here, let alone have him follow us?" a secondary look passed between Trune and Kyli over her head, and they came to either side of her and murmured a short incantation under their breaths.
Confused, and more than a little frightened with this after everything else she had just seen in this small space of time, Sara looked over her shoulder at Lachlan, who was staring at the backs of Lachlan and Kyli as they too disappeared, taking Sara with them.
Only moments later, Sara, Trune and Kyli reappeared somewhere else again, followed closely by Lachlan. Sara still wasn't sure about what she felt about that one. Turning around, she saw that the four of them weren't the only ones in the room any longer. She took a deep breath, feeling that this was just another time in a long time running that she would be of a need to brace herself.
***
"My name is Lachlan. Well actually, that is the mortal name I have assumed while being here. The correct pronunciation of my name would be totally unutterable on the human tongue. As to why I am here." he cast a short look over to Sara for a moment. "I think that that would be best shared with Sarabel first." As his eyes passed over the rest of the group, he conceded, "On second consideration, there are more than a few of you here who will also have an interest in this information.
"Alright, first of all, it is important that you understand that the four Wild Powers chosen for the war were not the only Wild Powers in existence. It was they who made their choice in the life other than this one, the choice to come here as martyrs for this plane, to inevitably create a better world for all who live here. However, they were only four chosen out of all the possible Wild Power souls.
"Sara, as well as a few of you assembled here are other Wild Power souls. Why is it that all of you on this plane found it so difficult to find the designated four? You were sifting through literally thousands, so of course it was going to be a long trial. But that was the way it had to be. However, now that that is passed, those four Wild Powers have achieved what they set out to do, and it is the rest of them now who are coveted.
"You see, in the end of the war, the barriers between the worlds opened up. Many of my kind were allowed to come through in that time, but we were not the only ones. Another kind, demonic in nature, were able to slip through the barriers. In many ways, both kinds were reliant on the other to arrive here, for the sake of the eternal balance. Every time one of these souls 'departs' either by calling or. death, the barriers open up again, only for a small fraction of the original time, but still enough to allow another to come in its place."
"So, if this other kind is demonic of nature, that makes your kind..?"
"Angelic," Lachlan filled in. "Of nature. As I said, the balance."
Lachlan raised his chin as glances passed around the table, everyone there assembled trying to make their own ends of what had been told to them. When nothing was said for a while, only speculated upon, Lachlan decided to take his time and ask some questions of his own.
"Now I have given you all the answers you sought. Whether you choose to believe me or not is your decision. I have only told you as much as I have because I have the sense that the information will be well used here. Now I only ask for that same confidence in me when I ask you exactly to whom have I given this information?"
One of the men at the table, obviously one of heightened status, was the first to stand up and speak first.
"We are the organisation known as Circle Daybreak. While not widely known, it is our aim here to offer a safe haven for all vampires, werewolves, vampires and even humans alike." He paused, obviously waiting on a reaction from Lachlan. "You don't appear especially surprised by this."
Lachlan smiled slowly.
"We are from another plane. There is not much from this one that we don't know of. However, just being here gives an entirely different perspective onto everything that we, or I at least, had ever known."
"Then there are more of you, that you are in contact with?" he was asked.
"Not that I am in contact with," Lachlan corrected. "As we go along in this world, we encounter others of our kind, and the other, but that is for us to do once we are here. We are not put here in clumps of our own kind anymore than any of your kinds are born that way."
"And your purpose here is to. find each other?"
"No. It is to find the rest of the Wild Power souls. If my kind does not, then the demonic one will. That can not be allowed to happen."
"I can promise you that that will happen. You see, just as you are in conflict with this other kind, we have conflicts of our own. Bets are that if you can find us, they will find them with equal ease."
"Then we do all in our power to prevent that from happening as far as we can control," Lachlan said. "Are we ready to work together as one?"
Sara looked around at everyone, all of these strange people who were bringing out more and more strange things. She'd thought she could take care of all of this new information that had been showered upon her today, but this was getting to be far too much. She felt a headache coming on. The last thing she heard before she blacked out was, "We are agreed. Whatever this thing is, we shall work together against it. It is the will of Circle Daybreak."
Once all has been done,
Heaven is moved,
Earth changed and life gone on,
Somehow will begin a new beginning,
When heaven will come down to earth,
And new taboos be placed.
"Oh my. My, that is interesting."
"The forth Wild Power has been found!"
"They have found the last Wild Power. It is now time that we fight. Now or never. We go!"
Vampires, witches and werewolves, mortals and daybreakers alike stand together apart, witnessing and take park the struggle of a Millennia in amazement. Sides chosen, fights waged, the war is started and ended. All four Wild Powers succumb to death; as is their purpose. In death, they bring revolution to the world. Neutrality takes hold. A new race of being comes to the world.
***
"Sara? Are you ready for school yet? Sara! Come down here or you'll be late."
Sara pulled her cardigan over her shoulders and looked up and down at the full length mirror on the inside of her closet. Running her fingers through her hair, she blew up at her fringe and frowned lightly.
"This is as good as it's going to get."
Rolling her eyes, she smiled mockingly at herself as she exited her room to descend the staircase and meet her mother in the kitchen.
"You driving me to school this morning?" she asked, picking up a cool piece of toast from the table and chowing down on it.
"On the way to work. That's why I wanted you down here. You ready yet?"
"Mmm hmm," Sara said, mouth full as she bent down to grab her bag from the corner of the room. She swallowed and gestured with what was left of her piece of toast. "Let's beat it then!"
***
The best part of school, as always, was the part of it that was outside of classes. Sara sat with a small group of friends, gossiping about various members of their friendship group and peers in the year level. Definitely one of those favorite past times! Sara excused herself for a walk down to the street of shops near to the school.
Halfway along, she caught sight of someone's eyes on her from the corner of her own vision. Smiling a secret smile to herself, Sara lowered her head deliberately and kept walking. Minutes later, as she came back out of the milkbar, the blonde tipped male was standing there waiting for her.
"Am I able to help you?" Sara asked, bemused.
"No, I think that might be my job," the cute stranger told her.
Sara stared at his face, looking for a hint of humor that would mean he had been joking. Although his face was smiling, she guessed that his gesture had more seriousness to it that he would have let her think on the surface.
"Your. job?" Sara asked, tilting her head to the side.
"Look, it's kind of a. weird thing," he tried to explain. "Maybe if I talked to you in some place more private?"
"Hang on, I've just met you, and you expect me to just. come with you to, what was it, some place more private? How do I know that you're not some crazed maniac that you hear about on the news these days? These are times closely tied to war you know!"
"More than you know," he murmured under his breath. Catching hint of the words, Sara looked at him strangely. "Look. look at me," he added. "Do I really look dangerous to you?"
Sara looked at him. Really looked at him, which wasn't really a hardship, she couldn't help thinking.
"Well. okay then," she conceded. "I'll come with you. But not for long! I've got to get back to school you know," she pointed out with her fore finger in front of his face.
He grinned in genuine feeling, before extending his hand which she decided to take. Together, they walked to the street behind the shops.
"So, what is it that you wanted to talk to me about?" Sara asked.
"Sarabel, there is something about yourself that you need to know."
"Sarabel? I haven't told you my name yet," she said, suspicion clouding her voice once again.
The stranger closed his eyes at his accidental slip. Exhaling, he opened his eyes again. Sara stepped back.
"Look, I don't know who you are. and I'm not quite sure that I want to anymore. Yeah, I said that you didn't look dangerous, but looks can be deceiving. Leave me alone now. Please."
Sara turned around and fled back to the front street of the shops, only turning around to look at where he still stood once before she rounded the corner out of his sight.
***
"Where were you all lunchtime, Sara?" her best friend Trune asked in class later on. "You just left, and then never came back."
"I know. I got. held up," she said. She refused to think about the guy she had met in the street. How come all the cute ones were so strange? There was always something strange about the cute ones, whether they were just gay, or creepy. Right now, gay was sounding like a blessing! "Are we still on for bowls tonight?"
"Of course," Trune said, before turning to face the front of the room, and the lesson that was being attempted to be taught to them.
Sara walked through the carpark just outside of the bowls. Out of nowhere, someone grasped the strap of her bag from behind. At first, Sara stiffened at the thought that it must be a mugging. After that, a firm hand grasped her upper arm. By the time she thought to scream out in her alarm, her mouth was taken by her attacker's other hand, preventing her from making any noise at all. She felt herself dragged into the shadows.
"You need to find her. She is out there and all alone. You know what you must do."
"You saw what happened today. She totally freaked out when I came to her. I doubt that she'd take kindly to me coming up to her this time."
"In the situation she presently finds herself in, I'm thinking that anything is going to be a blessing right now."
The blonde tipped hottie sighed and looked down, already knowing what he was going to do.
"Fine. I'll go."
Without looking back up to the other whom he'd been talking to, he shimmered from sight and that place.
***
"What are you doing here? Why have you taken me? What did I do?" Sara was blindfolded, a very real fear flooding into her tone. "Why won't you let me see? What are you going to do to me?"
Only silence acted as a reply to her pleaded questions.
"Please, just let me see. I don't understand any of this. Why are you doing this to me?" A lone tear escaped in the dip between eye and nose, slid down the cheek without behind absorbed by the cloth over her eyes. Her hands also were tied up, preventing her from wiping even that away.
Lachlan shimmered in again, immediately surveying his surroundings while still carefully out of sight. He would be no help to anybody if he too were caught here. 50 meters in front of him, he could make out Sara's form, tied to a pole and blindfolded. Her breath was heaving and panic was radiating off her, although she was uttering not a sound. After assuring himself as much as he could that nobody else was anywhere around, Lachlan stepped forward, making the first moves towards her.
"Sarabel," he said as quietly as he could, while still being sure that she would be able to hear him, "Relax. You are no longer alone. You have me. I can help."
"You can't help if you are lying dead next to her," another voice said from within the shadows.
Even as Lachlan's attention was being diverted, he was conscious of Sara's horrified gasp. He wasn't sure if it was fear for him, herself or everything that she couldn't see. But it didn't matter now. All that mattered was gaining the upper hand here, and getting both him, and Sarabel back to safety, far, far from here.
"If you would truly pose a threat, why don't you come out into the light? Show yourself for what you really are."
Lachlan waited to see if his dare would be accepted or not. Seconds later, he found his answer as some sort of creature stepped out from the gloom. In immediate and uncontrollable reaction, a bright light suddenly flared all around him. Right then, he was truly glad that Sarabel was blindfolded from what could only ever cause her a great amount of fear.
"Ah, so it is not only us that the barriers of this world became open to," the thing opened its mouth to say.
"Wherever your kind shall be, you can bet that we shall follow after," Lachlan replied, staring intently at the being in front of him. Both stood in very wary position, heightened for easy movement at the first indication of attack from the other.
"Glad to see that your kind are so dedicated," the thing returned.
Lachlan smirked without humor.
"Just one question; why?" he asked. "Why this girl; out of every single other one you could have chosen, what is it about this one that pushed her out from the rest?"
"Can you not see it by looking at her? Or did your higher ones neglect to tell you who it was you were going after?"
Lachlan narrowed his eyes, but refrained from saying anything that might give away any information, however useless, to the enemy side.
"Oh, it's okay, I can see that they did not." Now it was the thing's gruesome turn to smirk. "The truth is that your Sarabel is one of the Wild Powers. No, no, none of those of the war. Those were The Wild Powers. There will be none others of that ilk. But there were many beyond those four, others who would only be brought forward in the after affects of the Millennia War. It is a race, now that we are all down here, a race to gain as many from this place to our own. I think it's safe to say that yours are the losing team."
"Your kind can actually act as a team?" Lachlan asked incredulously, darting a glance towards Sarabel to see how she was holding up through all of this.
"Enough of that now. I will either take her to my side, or consume her powers for the greater good. Either way, you have no factor in this, so I would say it's safe to say you have no further use here. And as you appear already prepared."
The thing lunged. The brightness surrounding Lachlan brightened, rebounding the thing away from him with as much force as it had lunged. Regaining its balance, it attempted a different tack. Dark, opaque purple spurted forth from his hands, directed at piercing the block set up by Lachlan.
Sara, who had been left by and forgotten for the moment struggled with the words that had been spoken between the two beings over her only moments ago. Could it have been her that they'd been talking about? A 'Wild Power'? What on earth could that be, and if it was her, how had she not known anything about it? What did it mean for her? If it meant a whole stream of kidnappings and strange men, then she definitely didn't want any part in this new position that they would place upon her!
Meanwhile, without her seeing, the two 'beings' were progressing in a full blown magical fight. Neither appeared to be wearing down in any obvious way, and it seemed about time that one or both of them were about to pull on reserve power anytime soon. Then, just as suddenly as that, the 'thing' paused for a moment, before disappearing.
Lachlan blinked in surprise at the sudden absence of opposition before him. It took a moment before he rushed over to help Sara up. Taking away the blindfold first, Sara blinked up at him, then gasped out loud as she looked beyond him and to a black spot, almost like a mini explosion, on the ground. She looked up at him again, questions full in her eyes.
He bent his head for a moment in the guise of untying her wrists, which was really only an excuse to give himself some time. As he stood up to full length once again, Sara stared at him for only a moment, before saying bluntly, "What are you?"
He took her hand in his, careful not to rub against the burn marks that her ties had left there.
"Now is not the time or the place. Come, I will take you to somewhere that we can talk. That is, if you will trust me this time..?"
Sara lifted her shoulders, and then dropped them heavily.
"I don't suppose that I really have much choice in that now, do I?" she asked ironically. "Seeing as how you so obviously saved me just now from. whatever it was that, well, wasn't trying to save me. But we'll have to make it quick. My mum's going to be getting real worried some time soon."
"I can make it quick. Take my other hand." Lachlan turned to face her.
"Take your. how are we supposed to walk anywhere if we're facing each other?"
"Walking won't be an issue. Please, trust me."
It seemed silly to hesitate any longer, especially as seeing how she had been the one requesting that they hurry it up some, and so she took his hand with hers. Immediately on contact, she felt a strange shivery feeling all over her body. For a moment, it was as if she couldn't open her eyes, or if she was opening, she couldn't tell any different for if they had been closed. Thankfully, the sensation lasted only a moment, until the shivering slowly ebbed as well. More than just slightly freaked, Sara jumped back, relinquishing all contact between them.
"Okay now, what the hell was that?" she asked, pointed a shaking finger in his direction. Her eyes skated across the room all around them both. "And. where are we now? How did we get here?"
Lachlan opened his mouth, but before he could say anything, Sara overrode him with her second onslaught of words again.
"And just one more thing, I meet you in the street, I get kidnapped on my way to meeting with some of my friends. oh my god, my friends! They're going to think that I piked on them or something!" Sara's voice escalated at the thought, before she glanced again to Lachlan and realised, in the big scheme of things, that was not important anymore. "Anyway, I get kidnapped, you come out of nowhere to come and save me after I ran away from you the first time, and then take me away into the same nowhere that you came from, and. and I don't even know your name yet!"
Sara placed her hand son her hips firmly and glared at him, insisting without words that she owed him some answers. Lots of answers!
"You'll get all of your answers, I promise," Lachlan told her. "But all of that will come in time. For right now though, we still have things to deal with. Many things that need to be dealt with. You remember when we first met, you said that we were in the middle of a time of war? Well, you couldn't be more right and I'm afraid that I, and that thing that stole you, come as the effects of that war."
"Okay, and see, that's just another one of my questions," Sara said, stepping away from him and starting to pace in agitation. "Cause, you know, I know that there was someone else who took me, they did not have your voice at all, even though I haven't talked to you for much, but then, when you opened my eyes again, there was nobody but you there, and only a black explosion mark to show for anyone else. What exactly happened down there that I didn't see?"
Lachlan took a deep breath. He knew what she had heard, and knew what was coming.
"And what the hell is that Wild Power stuff all about?"
He thrust a hand through his hair, tousling it all up with a sigh.
"Boy, is there a lot to be explained here."
"Yeah, you're sure right about that," a third voice interrupted. "Starting with that the hell you're doing here with my friend!"
Sara spun around, suddenly facing Trune and her cousin Kyli.
"Trune, Kyli, what are you two doing here?" Sara held a hand up to her head, trying to deal with everything that was suddenly happening around her. How had her friends even found her here, when she didn't even know where 'here' was?
"Look, we really don't have time for this," Lachlan interrupted. "You can be safe in the knowledge that I'm not going to do anything to your friend, but that I really need to be talking to her alone right now."
Trune shook her head slightly then, a small smile appearing on her lips.
"I don't think so, bub," she said. "You see, bad things have happened to my friend tonight, and all of them happening just after you met her this afternoon at the shops."
"Trune, how did you..?" Sara narrowed her eyes in confusion. She expressly remembered not telling her friend that.
Trune didn't take her eyes off Lachlan, although Kyli did turn her head to mouth to Sara 'It's okay, just wait'.
"So here's what we're going to do," Trune continued. "If you are only trying to help Sara here, as I'm sure you've tried to convince her already, then you are going to be fine with coming along with the three of us to our community house nearby. Then we'll decide what side you truly are on."
"Look, whoever you are, we really don't have time for this! More than you know is at stake right now," Lachlan said, obviously trying to tamper down a temper that was slowly rising.
Trune's expression didn't change. Finally, Lachlan was the first to give in.
"Fine," he allowed grudgingly. "Go to where you mean to go and I'll follow you. You can even take Sarabel along with you if you feel you need to."
Trune stared at Lachlan, and a sort of understanding passed silently between them. Only Sara was left confused in the end. When she piped up with a, "But how are we going to get out of here, let alone have him follow us?" a secondary look passed between Trune and Kyli over her head, and they came to either side of her and murmured a short incantation under their breaths.
Confused, and more than a little frightened with this after everything else she had just seen in this small space of time, Sara looked over her shoulder at Lachlan, who was staring at the backs of Lachlan and Kyli as they too disappeared, taking Sara with them.
Only moments later, Sara, Trune and Kyli reappeared somewhere else again, followed closely by Lachlan. Sara still wasn't sure about what she felt about that one. Turning around, she saw that the four of them weren't the only ones in the room any longer. She took a deep breath, feeling that this was just another time in a long time running that she would be of a need to brace herself.
***
"My name is Lachlan. Well actually, that is the mortal name I have assumed while being here. The correct pronunciation of my name would be totally unutterable on the human tongue. As to why I am here." he cast a short look over to Sara for a moment. "I think that that would be best shared with Sarabel first." As his eyes passed over the rest of the group, he conceded, "On second consideration, there are more than a few of you here who will also have an interest in this information.
"Alright, first of all, it is important that you understand that the four Wild Powers chosen for the war were not the only Wild Powers in existence. It was they who made their choice in the life other than this one, the choice to come here as martyrs for this plane, to inevitably create a better world for all who live here. However, they were only four chosen out of all the possible Wild Power souls.
"Sara, as well as a few of you assembled here are other Wild Power souls. Why is it that all of you on this plane found it so difficult to find the designated four? You were sifting through literally thousands, so of course it was going to be a long trial. But that was the way it had to be. However, now that that is passed, those four Wild Powers have achieved what they set out to do, and it is the rest of them now who are coveted.
"You see, in the end of the war, the barriers between the worlds opened up. Many of my kind were allowed to come through in that time, but we were not the only ones. Another kind, demonic in nature, were able to slip through the barriers. In many ways, both kinds were reliant on the other to arrive here, for the sake of the eternal balance. Every time one of these souls 'departs' either by calling or. death, the barriers open up again, only for a small fraction of the original time, but still enough to allow another to come in its place."
"So, if this other kind is demonic of nature, that makes your kind..?"
"Angelic," Lachlan filled in. "Of nature. As I said, the balance."
Lachlan raised his chin as glances passed around the table, everyone there assembled trying to make their own ends of what had been told to them. When nothing was said for a while, only speculated upon, Lachlan decided to take his time and ask some questions of his own.
"Now I have given you all the answers you sought. Whether you choose to believe me or not is your decision. I have only told you as much as I have because I have the sense that the information will be well used here. Now I only ask for that same confidence in me when I ask you exactly to whom have I given this information?"
One of the men at the table, obviously one of heightened status, was the first to stand up and speak first.
"We are the organisation known as Circle Daybreak. While not widely known, it is our aim here to offer a safe haven for all vampires, werewolves, vampires and even humans alike." He paused, obviously waiting on a reaction from Lachlan. "You don't appear especially surprised by this."
Lachlan smiled slowly.
"We are from another plane. There is not much from this one that we don't know of. However, just being here gives an entirely different perspective onto everything that we, or I at least, had ever known."
"Then there are more of you, that you are in contact with?" he was asked.
"Not that I am in contact with," Lachlan corrected. "As we go along in this world, we encounter others of our kind, and the other, but that is for us to do once we are here. We are not put here in clumps of our own kind anymore than any of your kinds are born that way."
"And your purpose here is to. find each other?"
"No. It is to find the rest of the Wild Power souls. If my kind does not, then the demonic one will. That can not be allowed to happen."
"I can promise you that that will happen. You see, just as you are in conflict with this other kind, we have conflicts of our own. Bets are that if you can find us, they will find them with equal ease."
"Then we do all in our power to prevent that from happening as far as we can control," Lachlan said. "Are we ready to work together as one?"
Sara looked around at everyone, all of these strange people who were bringing out more and more strange things. She'd thought she could take care of all of this new information that had been showered upon her today, but this was getting to be far too much. She felt a headache coming on. The last thing she heard before she blacked out was, "We are agreed. Whatever this thing is, we shall work together against it. It is the will of Circle Daybreak."