Laura woke to unfamiliar surroundings. Her arm stung from where the spines had injected her with the sleeping agent. Thanks to her healing ability, she was able to wear off the effects of the drug in half the time they expected her to. She looked around the clearing while still pretending to be asleep, scanning for anyone nearby. They had left her close to the edge of the clearing, away from the rest of the camp. If she could cut her bindings, she could escape and get back to the others and warn them.
She felt a sudden pain in her arm, but nothing was there. She went back to work cutting the bindings on the sharp rock digging into her back when she felt another sharp pain in her arm again. She had a flash of Keira fighting Nathan in a clearing nearby. Each strike he made against Keira, Laura felt as well. They might be clones, but somehow other than their DNA, they were connected. Why hadn't it shown before?
Laura began to work more frantically at her bindings, trying to break free of them and stop the fight before anything happened to either of them. She felt sudden warmth in her hands and all of a sudden the darkness seemed more distant than before. A weight seemed to drop into her hand and she felt the familiar handle of a dagger in her balm, the blade poised incredibly against the rope so she could cut it.
She didn't worry about how it had gotten there, she just used the dagger to cut the rope, feeling the fight was nearing an end; she cut faster and faster, slicing through the rope until she felt the rope break and she was able to move. She removed the rope from around her hands and then moved her hand to cut the ropes around her feet. As she moved her hand around from behind her, she saw the pale white glow before the dagger itself was in view. Somehow she had managed to form a dagger from light, but the only source of light was… moonlight. She looked up at the moon and it glowed the same pale white as the dagger.
She didn't take the time to worry about how she was able to do it. She moved the dagger to her feet and quickly cut through the bindings. Once they were broken, she moved quickly towards the trees and into the shadows, the dagger in her hand creating the only light for her to travel by in the darkness of the trees, but it was enough for her. She raced through the trees, following her instinct as to where Nathan and Laura were fighting. She stopped as she reached the clearing, sensing movement behind her as she did so and plunged the dagger back into the heart of an Eraser that had been stalking her through the dark. How long it had been following her, she didn't know, she was preoccupied, but now there were more showing up, surrounding the clearing. If Nathan had noticed them he didn't show any indication that he had sensed them.
Laura stood in the darkness of the trees, feeling the familiar numbness she had experienced whenever she had gone into combat, the loss of all emotion. Her pupils dilated and she was focusing on nothing but the upcoming battle. The dagger had gone from her hand, and a large cat walked up next to her made of pure light. It rubbed itself against her legs and she reached down a hand to stroke through its fur, calming it as it growled sensing the enemies nearby, letting it know now wasn't the time to attack.
Laura saw the similarities between her power and Nathan's, except that the darkness was his, while the light was hers. As soon as she realised that, she began to figure out how to control her ability, using the descriptions Nathan had given her while they had talked in their times of not running away from things or fighting other things. A sudden movement from Nathan and Keira signalled the beginning of the fight…
Chapter 50
She tried to attack me again, running at me, but to the side so she would sweep me again, clipping my arm. I side stepped her and stuck my foot out, tripping her up. She fell to the ground and I landed on top of her, struggling to hold her down while she tried to cut me with a second knife. The shadow panther walked up to her and tore the knife out of her hand then placed it's fangs around her neck, making her sit very still.
"Now listen to me, Keira," I replied, "I'm not here to kill you. I'm here trying to save your life from the six Erasers… make that five Erasers, surrounding us and the three flying ones above us. So promise you won't kill me as soon as my back is turned to you. We'll figure out our differences later."
Keira looked at me for a moment, then nodded her head, just a single movement, but one that would let me know without letting the Erasers know we were about to attack. I felt the darkness flow through me, but also felt a new presence, one of pure light, standing just beyond the clearing watching us, waiting for us to make a move. Laura, I thought, but how did she get that… that power? Could it have been…? I flashed back on the time when I had kissed her, then flashed back to the day my mother had injected me with the virus to kill off the mutation of my foresight. That day, instead of getting rid of my ability, it gave me a new one. So what if… I thought; what if that drug was in a virus form? Does that mean I infected Laura when I kissed her? Is it transferred through blood, saliva or breathing? But if so, it gave her a new ability as well…
I felt a movement as the Erasers began their attack and leapt off of Keira, launching a sweep-kick into the nearest Eraser's legs , sending him sprawling to the ground where the panther… well let's just say it dealt with him. Gross, I don't think I'd be feeling like dinner tomorrow. The dagger appeared in one hand and the gun appeared in the other. Don't ask me how I could have both of them and the panther around, I have no clue, but my powers were growing. I shot at an Eraser, the bullet of darkness hitting him square in the chest. I continued through the attack by sweeping the dagger up and slashing an Eraser in the leg, making him collapse and drew the dagger down to finish him.
Laura was right, the killing, once started, never stopped. I found it easy to kill these Erasers; no second thoughts went through my head, just the need to protect what I cared about. A sudden burst of flame erupted from the forest near the clearing and scorched two Erasers that were charging our way, a third one went down on his knees, no apparent reason except to clutch his head in pain. I guess Dean had arrived as well.
I felt a shoulder back into mine and whirled around to have my blade blocked by one of pure light. I stared into Laura's eyes as the blades clanged together and sent sparks of light and darkness everywhere. I whirled away and struck another of the Erasers, a flying one this time, and he crashed to the ground. We were down to about three Erasers, Keira taking down one with a dagger to the throat, Dean was torturing a second, and I told him to put it out of its misery. Cass had already burnt the third and was cremating the corpses to rid us of the evidence of the fight. That's when I heard Laura cry out in pain and whirled around to find a familiar face standing over her as she fell to the ground bleeding, a sword was in his hand, her blood on the blade…
Laura! I thought immediately, Laura, please don't be dead. Please don't be.
I looked to Dean and he had heard my thoughts. He nodded his head to signify she was still alive. I looked back at the Eraser with the sword in his hand and cold hard anger flowed over me. My world turned to a red haze, my vision focused only on the one Eraser. My breathing was coming quickly and I began to hyperventilate until suddenly everything was gone, I felt no emotion, no pain, exhaustion, fear or worry. Everything had been blocked out except for the cold hard calculating brain.
"Jake," I said at last, "How nice of you to join the party. Tell me… you trying to start resurrect an old fashion in the art of combat? Or do you want to fight me close up to watch me die? If that's the case… I'll be watching you die. No-one and I mean no-one, hurts my flock and live to talk about it. Prepare to die!"
As I expected Jake rushed forward, swinging the sword high and my neck. I moulded a sword out of the darkness and bought it up to block his attack. He glared fiercely into my eyes and I saw the hatred he had burning under the skin, but shown in his eyes.
"No, Nathan," Jake replied, "You prepare to die! You and your filthy flock. You're kind are out-of-date now. You aren't needed around anymore."
"Why?" I asked coldly, sliding the blade out from the block and continuing through with my own attack which Jake had to block or he would have been decapitated, "Do you think we are the ones that are out-of-date? When we display rebellious behaviour that makes us hard to understand? No, I think you are the ones who are out of date, Jake, You and your pack, which does their every bidding and provides no challenge for them at all. You are out-of-date."
As I expected Jake took the bait, he attacked me relentlessly, trying to prove we were the ones out of date, but I was in no mood to fool around. I calculated his every move and the one he would do next from his body language, the only thing I cared about was drawing him away from Laura for Dean to help her, and it was working. I didn't need my foresight to read Jake's actions, he made them clear himself. I blocked another attack and swung back at him, cutting his arm and part of his chest deeply, seeing the crimson spread over his shirt. Laura, I thought, the first sign I was wearing out, please be alright, please survive this…