'SIEZE THE NIGHT' SCARED THE CRAP OUT OF MY WITH KYRIAN AND AMANDA HOLY SHIT AND POOR NICK MY POOR BABY! Okay, tangent over.
Chapter Quote:
"All those who believe in telekinesis, raise my hand."
Chapter 16
It was about midnight when Kiara suggested we get something to eat. Since most Dark Hunters ate three meals a day- one when we woke up, one during the middle of the night, and one before we went to bed- I readily agreed. We found a gumbo stand that was still open and ordered a bowl each. We sat down at a table and watched the people go by.
"What was your life like Kyrian?" Kiara asked softly. I wondered when she was going to bring it back up again. I reminded myself that she'd told me her life story (the parts she could remember) so I felt obligated to tell her mine.
"I was born Prince of Thrace. I was trained as a general in our army by Julian of Macedonia, one of the most feared generals in that time period. He'd been my best friend until we died. The Romans were the ones that had to do with our capturing. Julian was beheaded, and I was killed fighting a kid who didn't know any better. I wasn't going to kill an innocent kid. The Romans wanted a show. I wasn't going to give them one. I wanted my revenge on Valerius and thought of killing him, but I knew it'd be a worse torture for him to know I was out there, able to strike whenever I wanted, than outright killing him."
"Did you have any siblings?"
"I did, two sisters, but they passed away at a young age. I didn't get to know them that well."
"I'm sorry to hear that. What about your parents? What were they like?"
"My mother died when I was ten, my father loved me but he was very strict. My best friend was Julian. We got into trouble together but nothing we couldn't handle. Most of my life consisted of fighting battles. I was undefeated."
"I read that Ares was born in Thrace. You must've had his blessing if you went undefeated," Kiara mused. "A wonderful blessing to have."
"You must have it, working for him," I said.
"I like to think so but he is a god, so who knows what he's thinking. But for a war god, he's always been surprisingly kind to me. Sometimes I believe it's because I remind him of Aphrodite. He told me she and I share similar traits. I'm honored, in a way, to be compared to the goddess of love."
"And there are only five of you? Of Areans I mean."
She nodded. "Ares doesn't like to make us. We're all very stubborn and headstrong, not always a good thing to have in a soldier that you don't talk to often."
"What powers do you have?"
"That I know of? Let's see… telekinesis, telepathy, teleporting, the ability to let Dark Hunters fight around each other without draining their powers, I have some psychic abilities but really only when it deals with myself. I don't think I've ever had a vision about anyone else. Um, I can talk to animals, I can block people from reading my mind which is really useful, all my senses are heightened, I can summon gods, and I'm good at judging people, I can see past whatever defenses they put up. Usually. Sometimes when I'm close to a person, it makes it more difficult. Oh, and I'm also a phenomenal liar when I need to be."
"That's really impressive although I'll have to remind myself to shield my thoughts if I don't want you eavesdropping in," I joked.
"I wouldn't do that! I only do it when people are in distress and I want to help them or if I need to find out what my enemy is planning."
"I believe you."
"You have another question. What is it?" Kiara queried, taking a bite of a beignet and giving me an inquisitive stare.
"You're the mind reader. Tell me."
"You want to know about the demon I'm hunting," she said without missing a beat. "Have you ever heard of the Malachai?" I shook my head. "During the Primus Bellum, the Malachai was created by the Mavromino to bring down the Sephirii. The Malachai are cruel, angry, corrupt, brutal, sadistic, and vindictive. They are born from hate and anger. Whenever a Malachai has a child, the child must kill their parent in order to gain all the Malachai powers. Even just being near the child, the older Malachai can lose its powers because its child literally is sucking up the elder Malachai's powers."
I was silent, staring at her with incredulity. "And you're trying to find this… thing?"
"It's not the first time."
"You've done this before?"
"I'm usually sent to find the Malachai and keep tabs on it until its child is born and until it starts creating so much destruction that it can't be allowed to live any longer. Of course, there always has to be one Malachai around to prevent the Sephirii from coming back."
"How many Malachais have you tracked?"
"Ares switches us up. I've done two, the other Areans have done the others, but they live so long that I think there's only been two or three besides the two I followed. The first never caught on to what I was doing. I kept a safe distance away. The second…" Kiara trailed off, her face becoming haunted by the memory. "The second time I wasn't so lucky. I don't know what happened, but whatever it was saved my life. That was the second most recent Malachai. I've lost track of him. Hell, I never even knew his name. But he found me, started beating me ruthlessly. He picked me up by my throat and stared at me with golden eyes, filled with fury. I stared him down, mentally sending his image and current location to Ares. It felt like ages before he threw me against the ground, told me to never come near him again, and then he was gone. Acheron found me, took me in. He didn't even realize it was me until my wounds started to heal… I reported back to Ares about what happened once I was able to walk on my own again. Ares said that even with my information, he was unable to track down the Malachai again. Whoever that Malachai was, he was old, wise, and cunning. I wanted to go back out and find him but Ares wouldn't let me."
"Why is he letting you go after this new Malachai when he knows what they're capable of?" I demanded. "You could get killed."
"With you being a Dark Hunter, you could be killed at any point too. Like you, it's my job to put my life on the line to make sure humanity stays safe. Besides, this new Malachai is young and, well, different."
"What do you mean?" I asked gruffly, still not liking the thought of her going after the embodiment of pretty much what I assumed was pure evil incarnate.
"There's rumors that this Malachai is different. Like I said before, in the past they've all been born from hate and anger. That's apparently not the case with this one. According to my sources, this one was born from hate and love."
I scrunched up my face in confusion. "I'm guessing that's significant?"
"Metaphorically, it means that the new Malachai can either go Luke Skywalker or Darth Vader on us. We don't know. It all depends on who he surrounds himself with and what he chooses to do in life."
"If you find him, what are you going to do?"
"First, I assess the situation, see if it's safe for me to get closer. If it is, I'll try and become acquainted well enough with them that I can figure out which path they're heading down. If it's the good path, I'll try and keep them on it. If it's the bad path, I'll try and change that."
"If you can't?"
"Then I have to wait for them to have a kid before I kill them and prevent them from doing as much destruction as I can."
"Have you killed one before?"
Kiara nodded hesitantly. "My first one. I'd just witnessed him slaughter an entire town and when I get angry, I fight better. My reflexes are quicker, my hits and blows give more critical injuries. The battle lasted hours. Ares couldn't get involved directly but he kept up my stamina and endurance so I didn't tire. The Malachai did, slowly but surely, and I killed him, stabbing him in the heart. The last thing he ever heard was me telling him I was sorry. I hated killing him. I hate killing in general. But I had to protect humanity, and he was killing them. I had to stop him. It gave me nightmares for years."
"You still dream about it," I stated. When she looked up at me, I hastily added, "One of my powers is mind reading. You're good at blocking your thoughts but your guard is down right now."
"You're correct on all accounts. I just hope this Malachai is good. We don't have enough good in the world."
"If you need any help, let me know. I can have Nick help you too."
"I don't want to drag the two of you into this. If, for some reason this Malachai is bad and they figure out that you and Nick helped me find them, they'd kill the both of you. I've watched enough friends and family of mine die in my lifetime. Don't make me add the two of you to that list," she said softly.
"I promise. But if you need anything, let me know."
"Thank you." The two of us finished our gumbo while we scanned the crowd for any Daimons. None passed us. We went back to patrolling the Quarter. Every time our arms brushed, even just slightly, it felt like electricity coursing through my veins. If Kiara had any of the same feelings, she was extremely good at hiding it.
Soon I felt that I needed to get home, that the sun was going to be rising in an hour. Kiara and I headed back to my house. We both took showers and had a quick snack before it was bedtime for me. But before I did, I motioned for Kiara to follow me. I led her into my room where I kept a stack of books. They all had something to do with Thrace and Athens.
"I don't know if these will help you any, but maybe they will," I said, handing them to her. She took them gratefully.
"You're a wonderful human being," she breathed, hugging the books close to her chest. Giving me a kiss on the cheek, she said thank you and headed to her room. I got into bed. For two hours I tried falling asleep. However, it was completely futile. My mind was transfixed on Kiara. Whenever we talked, it felt like we'd known each other forever, like I could tell her anything. Considering how guarded I'd been my whole life, it was a new concept to grasp that there was someone out there that I could trust.
Unable to fall asleep, I got up, knocking on Kiara's door. Her muffled voice said to come in. She sat cross-legged on the bed, a book placed in front of her. She peered over her tea cup at me.
"Hey," she said sleepily. "What are you doing up?"
"Couldn't sleep. What are you doing awake?" I replied, sitting in front of her.
"Reading information about the Malachai that my sources sent me. He or she is definitely in New Orleans. Supposedly he was at Café du Monde earlier. At least this Malachai has good taste in food."
"May I?" I motioned at her book. She nodded. I picked it up, scanning the page. The information was pretty vague but I guess when hunting a super powerful being like a Malachai, they'd be good at keeping things secret. "You've been reading this for two hours?"
"More or less. I read a chapter in one of your books but got that right after. Unfortunately, my memories are second to finding the Malachai."
"Let me help you with this. Besides, you look ready to pass out from exhaustion. Take a break," I said.
"What about you? You need to get some sleep," she argued, placing her cup of tea down on the nightstand. "If you stay up, I do too."
"This is my house, you're my guest, therefore I'm ordering you to go to sleep," I said, a grin breaking out on my face at our childish argument.
"Well I'm a princess and I say I'm going to stay up."
"I'm a prince so I'm saying go to bed."
"Then we're on equal ground; I make my own decisions and you make yours. My decision is to stay up with you and read some more."
"You're not going to give this up are you?"
"No, I'm not," she retorted. She hesitated before adding gently, "I appreciate your concern, and I'm not meaning to be so stubborn about this, but this is my job. I've been more tired than this when researching before."
I handed her the book she'd been reading and grabbed one of my own. "You read on your Malachai. I'll read one of these books and see if I can find anything that could help you with your memories."
"You're the nicest Dark Hunter I've ever met, Kyrian. Have I told you that before?" she queried, leaning against the headboard.
"No," I said, leaning back with her. "But you're welcome to tell me that as often as you like."
"I'm not going to be giving you a bigger ego than you already have," she bantered playfully.
I placed my hand over my heart in mock hurt. "Ouch!"
"Get reading you goof," she said, rolling her eyes. I nudged her gently. Although Kiara didn't look at me, I saw a smirk appear on her face. I began reading my book, getting four chapters in in an hour. I'd just started chapter five when I began dozing off. Kiara had slumped onto my shoulder a while back and my head fell onto hers. It'd been a long time since I'd shared a bed with a women, let alone with one where all we were doing was sleeping. Rather than listening to my better judgment (which was telling me to get to my own bed), I allowed myself to fall asleep with Kiara.
I'm so bad at ending these chapters… sorry :/ reviews would be wonderful (hint hint).