Chapter Twenty-Four
Home Invasion
Santander, Spain
03:25 CET
6 Hours Remaining
"…Wake up…"
"Hrng…"
"Adrian, wake up…"
"…Gimme a few more minutes…"
Seth Daniels put his hands on his hips and shook his head down at the man spread-eagled on the bed, tangled amidst the covers and sheets looking as slovenly as one could get. "Do I need to put it in sterner terms?"
"…Mmm… Fine…" Adrian Jacobs bemoaned, groggily opening his eyes to look at his boyfriend. "I'm awake, I'm awake." He sat up in the bed and stretched, letting out a wide yawn. He looked at Seth and a disappointed expression quickly flitted across his face. "Aw man, why're you wearing those?"
"They're called clothes," Seth smirked as he threw a bundle of fabric at Adrian. "Here. Take a shower and get changed. You got fifteen minutes." With that Seth turned around to two suitcases that were laid on the floor and packed with expert precision. "I think I've gathered everything."
"Souvenirs that were under the bed?" Adrian asked as he got up and padded over to the small bathroom in the hotel.
"Yep."
"Passports that were on the side?"
"Of course."
"That's the important stuff at least," Adrian's voice echoed from the bathroom as the sound of running water splashing against porcelain could be heard. "I assume you've already packed our clothes and other such belongings?"
"All accounted for," Seth reported as he knelt down, zipping up the first suitcase – a dark purple one with spirals that belonged to Adrian. His own suitcase was a black number heavily customised with studs and spikes that Adrian often said was too dangerous to lug around for fear of accidently using it as a bludgeon. Seth straightened up and cast his gaze across the room one final time in case he had forgotten anything but it seemed like he had managed to get everything. It was a miracle he'd managed to get it all back into the suitcase especially with the purchases they had made.
All that was left was making up the bed again after the mess Adrian had left it in. Halfway through the sound of the shower stopped and the door opened. Seth glanced up to see Adrian walking out half-dressed, holding his t-shirt and his jacket in his arms, the long half of his bright pink hair plastered against the side of his head. He was wearing a strange expression that Seth was quick to pick up on.
"What's wrong?" Seth asked, quickly throwing the cover on the bed before walking over to Adrian.
Adrian chewed his bottom lip for a moment before saying, "I don't want to leave."
Realising what was on Adrian's mind, Seth softly smiled. "I know."
"I meant what I said, you know. On the beach. About moving here permanently."
"Of course," Seth said as he sat on the bed and patted next to him. Adrian sat down beside him, placing the jacket to the side and starting to wring the white t-shirt between his hands. "I agreed with you, remember? You said it yourself, Adrian. We gotta work towards it."
"Not once…" Adrian said almost too quietly for Seth to hear. "…Not once have people looked at us like we were dirt, like we didn't belong…"
Seth only nodded. It wasn't unusual for the usually bright and cheery Adrian to get melancholy in the mornings. It was a common thing for Adrian to wake up next to Seth after uncomfortable nightmares or solemn thoughts.
"Why can't it be like these two weeks all the time? I've never been so happy and now that it's ending I feel like we've missed so much opportunity…" Adrian sighed and pulled his t-shirt on, looking at Seth briefly. "Sorry…" He forced a smile. "I'm being a bit of a bummer, aren't I?"
"You are," Seth admitted and stood up again, Adrian following his actions. Then he grinned. "But hey, it's stupid-a-clock in the morning. I'll forgive you." He grabbed Adrian's leather jacket and motioned for Adrian to raise his arms. He slid one of the sleeves on Adrian's arm and leaned forward, brushing his lips against Adrian's neck. "We'll work hard to get back here." Seth trailed his lips up to Adrian's earlobe. "We'll save up as much as we can…" Seth pulled away and slipped the other sleeve on Adrian's arm. Then he stood in front of Adrian and leaned forward, planting a quick, soft kiss against Adrian's lips. "In under a year we'll make it back here. I promise."
For a moment Adrian simply stared with wide-eyes at Seth. How was it that in so few words Seth could make him feel so optimistic again? Seth was always good at remaining level-headed and always knew how to make Adrian feel almost giddy. Struck by a sudden urge, Adrian leaned forward and kissed Seth, deeper this time. Seth responded in kind for a long moment before pulling away and chuckling to himself.
"As much as I would love to continue, we've got to move. I want to get to the airport before the early traffic for everyone else heading back."
Adrian sighed and nodded, grabbing his studded boots from the corner and sliding them on. "I suppose that makes sense… but you owe me. When we get home we're not going to leave your place 'till tomorrow morning."
"That's sounds like something to look forward to," Seth grinned wolfishly and grabbed up the handle of his suitcase. "It'll make the flight more bearable with that to look forward to. I don't want to waste any more time now, the sooner we go the sooner we can make that wish a reality!"
Berlin, Germany
03:35
Johann Schneider stared with rapt attention at Jade Skysong and Bethany Cross, his cup of tea left undrunk and long cold on the side table. Sticks was snoozing on the sofa and Murphy was also breathing much slower though the shades on his face disguised whether he was actually sleeping or not. Jade and Bethany were both looking quite tired themselves and Bethany found herself occasionally losing a few seconds of the conversation that had been going on for upwards to an hour now.
"And this spectacular healing of yours is due to this Nectar?" Johann asked after Jade finished the story of the Nectar of the Gods and what she knew of its origins which, admittedly, was very little though the Professor seemed content enough.
"That's right," Jade nodded, lifting her hand and staring at it absently.
"It has been three years since you consumed this Nectar, correct?" Johann asked with the fervour of an eager schoolchild. "Have there been any side effects?"
"Unless you call not being able to die a side effect, no," Jade shrugged, lowering her hand.
"No slow down of the healing process? Did you heal faster back when you first consumed the Nectar?"
Jade hadn't expected this question and thought for a long moment before she shook her head. "No… if anything, it may have gotten faster."
Johann nodded as if he had been expecting this answer. "It would, after all, make sense. This Nectar went into your blood and it would have been spread around the bloodstream. Perhaps the longer it remains in your body the more it develops…" Johann absently stroking the snoozing Jäger's head who had long decided the Miracle Skyhawks were not a threat. "What intrigues me is that this Oracle of yours named this Nectar as such. Would you know why?" Jade shook her head and once again Johann nodded as if he had expected this. "Nectar has great origins in Greek Mythology. Very closely, but not specifically, related to Ambrosia, the two were often seen as the drink and the food of the Gods, at least according to Homer. It would not be so far-fetched to consider Nectar and Ambrosia as the blood that runs in the Gods veins – after all, in Christianity Jesus proclaimed that wine was a symbol of his blood. Not to mention that the man called himself an Oracle – another phrase steeped in Greek Mythology." Johann stroked his moustache with glittering eyes.
"Where did the name Death come from?" Johann suddenly asked, looking to Jade again. Jade seemed alarmed at this sudden question.
"I… I don't know, it's just the name given to me by Ruby Ascot…"
"Of course, of course, you only know what you were told… But I wonder…" Johann suddenly stood up and started pacing back and forth. "I have been considering this List and this is something that is also steeped in ancient history though this could be a stretch. In Ancient Egypt it was considered common that when a Pharaoh passes his servants are slain in order to serve him into the next life. I wonder, I wonder…" Johann's turned on his heel and moved over to one of the stuffed bookshelves that lined his living room. He pulled a large old looking book and flipped through it. "…I have never heard it being mentioned in historical texts as a List but it wouldn't be a stretch… a list of people to follow their pharaoh to the afterlife… would the visionaries be considered the pharaoh in this comparison? They are given these visions for a vision, surely, or is it an innate ability? A gift or an inheritance?
"So many questions, so little answers, who would know?" Johann closed the book and threw it haphazardly on the side and turned. "I must talk with Ruby As—" Johann suddenly stopped. Bethany's head had lolled to the side and even Jade was nodding off despite her best efforts. Johann let out a soft, almost fatherly, smile. "I must contain my excitement." Johann stepped over to Jade as she was the only one still awake. "You and your friends may use my living room to rest. You have had a very busy day I have no doubt and quite frankly, you look exhausted. From what you tell me we can make no more movements until Siddharth Bola and Rose Milano arrive. So rest, sleep, get the energy you need for what is to come."
As if waiting for his permission, Jade let out a small nod before allowing her eyes to shut properly and it wasn't long until her breath slowed. Johann smiled at the four adults in his room looking nothing more than children after a long day of play and turned around, softly walking to his study on the other side of the living room.
The study was as full of books as the living room with only one wall free of clutter. However this wall had a large frame of corkboard placed against it held up with a string. On this board was a few notes and clippings Johann had gathered. It was an investigation that he had started in the hope of finding more about mysterious abilities but he was unable to find any further proof and couldn't continue it. However, everything Jade Skysong had just told him changed everything.
"Tsomo…" Johann muttered. "Vielleicht werde ich Ihrem Schicksal auf den Grund gehen... Bald." Johan felt euphoria in his chest that he hadn't felt for so long. With the four band members sleeping soundly in his living room, he closed the door to his study and started pulling books out from his bookshelves, to research everything he had learned and to see if he could learn more.
Cologne, Germany
03:48 CET
"Something is wrong," Rose said as soon as she and Siddharth had gotten close to the house of Jenna Weissler. An almost cold analytical sense came to her as if she was back in training for the DSI. There was a car parked haphazardly in front of the house, bearing fresh scratch marks on the bonnet and sides as if someone had decided to take it for a spin in a bush. The door was hanging open a few inches peering into the blackness inside. And the window to the left of the door had been smashed – glass littering the floor.
"It looks like someone has broken in…" Siddharth said from his usual position at the back of the Tepee. He stroked his beard in concern.
Rose took a breath as she got out of the car just as Sam's motorbike came to a stop next to her, plunging the evening into sudden silence. If this was a break-in, had the sounds of the two vehicles scared them into running away? Or were they still in the house?
"What's going on?" Sam asked, pulling her helmet off and looking at Rose with concern. Rose simply looked at both Siddharth and Sam.
"You two need to stay put," Rose said, moving over to the trunk of the Tepee were Axel had stashed supplies. She reached for a small pistol, checked it over, and slid it into the hem of her jeans. Not the safest mode of transport for a firearm but Rose had no intention of even using it. Rose closed the trunk and looked again at Sam. "I'm the only one suited for any kind of combat and if people have broken in to that house I am the only one who can deal with it. So stay here. Watch the exits. If I don't come back in half and hour, call the police… assuming they haven't been called already… It seems like it would have been noisy… Understand?" Rose asked, feeling most unlike herself as she spoke. Definitely the training of the DSI was kicking in under the possibility of a threat.
Both Sam and Siddharth nodded, both knowing that Rose was right. Neither of them would be any use if things went south.
"…Good luck, Rose," Siddharth said with that worried expression still on his face.
Rose just nodded and immediately headed for the open door of the Weissler household. She put her back against the concrete wall and strained her ears to listen. Almost immediately she heard the clearly drunken slur of a man.
"...Haben Sie Besucher erwartet?!"
"Nein!" A female voice responded though sounded muffled. "Es ist wahrscheinlich auf der anderen Straßenseite oder so... Oder vielleicht sind es die Polizisten, die den Lärm betrachten, den Sie gemacht haben!"
There was the sound of thudding and then a different voice.
"Wir sollten nachsehen."
"Fein. Gehen."
Rose wished that she knew German fluently. She had understood a few words such as 'police' and 'no', but elsewhere she couldn't be sure. Then she flattened her back against the wall as she heard footsteps coming down the steps.
A man came out of the doorway, stinking of alcohol and cigarettes and quite clearly drunk going by his red face and drunken stagger. The man narrowed his eyes on the car and motorbike, clearly taking a moment to think whether they had been there before. "was zum Teufel…" The man muttered and Rose took this moment to step behind him and latch her arms around his neck in the way she had been taught back in training. The man struggled briefly but it didn't take long for him to fall to the ground. Rose felt a strange thrill at this and disappeared into the open door, stepping lightly up the stairs.
It was clear that these thieves weren't any kind of professionals. As she crept up the stairs she heard the voices coming from down the hall. Rose frowned and approached cautiously, peering into the half-open door.
Two men, equally drunk as their cohorts, were standing in front of two young women. One Rose recognised clearly as Jenna Weisler, though it looked as if her nose was busted with blood gleaming over her mouth and shirt. The other looked similar to Jenna and was shaking. Both had been thrown against the wall but weren't tied up or otherwise subdued.
The two men were equal in size and equal in unawareness as they talked to each other in low voices, clearly waiting for their partner to come up. Rose had no desire to draw this out any longer – she didn't need to worry about anything seeing as they were just normal, bumbling thieves and nothing more.
Looking around for something heavy to smack into the back of the first man's head, Rose found nothing in the hallway. Deigning herself to use the pistol at least as a bludgeon, Rose pulled it out from her waistband and held the barrel in her hand, holding it at shoulder's height. She took a breath and then crashed into the room with her foot.
The first man turned, surprised as the door swung open, to be immediately hit in the temple with the butt of the pistol. He fell like a ton of bricks and Rose span around him as if she were dancing and hooked her arm around the other man's neck, catching him in the same hold as the one who had come out to investigate. As she choked the breath out of him she couldn't help but feel almost giddy that she was worried about these people. The DSI had trained her to deal with trained men and woman who learned hand-to-hand, weapon, and firearm training not a bunch of drunk bar-hoppers.
As the man fell down to join his friend Rose smiled successfully and turned to confront Jenna and the other woman just in time for a lamp to crash hard into her face, knocking the triumph and the sense completely out of her. Rose had but a moment to see Jenna Weissler standing with the now broken lamp in her hands before she found consciousness escaping her.
