Runaway (The Knight Society #1)

Gravel crunched underneath my feet and the scent of blood hung thick in the air. Now, devoid of people, the battleground look like a mongrel graveyard. Dead bodies lay scattered across the grass, like wildflowers popping out of the earth. Walking forward I avoided the puddles of congealed blood, crouched down near the nearest mongrel corpse and did what I had been raised to do. I started to hunt.

Studying the body of the nearest mongrel let me understand a few things about our latest attackers. Besides the mortal wound to its spine the mongrel’s body was fairly scar-free and for a mongrel it was kind of on the small side. Flipping the body over onto its back I looked at its face. Its dark eyes were wide open, staring blankly at the sky above. Reaching outward I pulled down its lips to reveal vicious canine teeth, made for ripping apart flesh. However, unlike mature mongrels its teeth weren’t yet fully descended. My suspicions confirmed I studied the other mongrels’ bodies and came to the same conclusion. They were all young. Far too young to have been able to sneak into the Institute.

I thought back to the attack, remembering the way one of the mongrels had hidden until the last moment. Frowning I walked over and kneeled down near its body. It too displayed none of the usual signs of age in a mongrel. A young mongrel shouldn’t have that much control, they were all about hunting, killing. It should have joined the fray with the rest of them, it shouldn’t have been able to resist. Instead it held back and waited, was almost…calculative.

Pushing it to the side for now I closed my eyes and tried to remember what the scene looked like when I had first arrived. Drake and the other Knight, had their backs to the Institute, the mongrels were attacking them, swarming from the forest. Straightening I focused on the forest ground and searched for tracks. It was easy enough to pick up the trail. No-one could accuse a mongrel of ever being subtle. In fact they hadn’t even tried to hide their presence; claw marks decorated the trees as I went further I went into the canopy. Almost as if they wanted us to find the trail. Reaching down I placed one hand on the grip of my sword and continued walking. My ears on alert for even the slightest sound.

Eventually the trail led to the black fence surrounding the Institute. Everything seemed normal until I noticed two of the bars were missing. Scanning the ground I noticed them lying in the grass a couple of feet away. The gap wasn’t big enough for a full grown mongrel to fit through, but a baby mongrel certainly could have fit. Moving forward I studied the gap in the bars more closely. The cut was clean, too precise for the mongrels to have broken through on their own. Marching over to the broken bars I kneeled down next to them. Up close I could see some kind of white glue was stuck to the ends of both.

Someone had cut the bars off, put weak glue on the ends and put them back into place so no-one would notice anything was wrong. How long had this been sitting there for? Just waiting for the mongrels to discover the weakness. Or for someone to show it to them. Chills ran down my spine and I focused on the hole in the gate once more. Outside the tree’s rustled, the wind blowing them around in a frenzy. The hairs on the back of my neck rose and I could feel someone’s eyes on me. Slowly standing I crept towards the hole in the gate once more and scanned outside. The sun had already started its descent into the horizon, casting shadows everywhere. My gaze flitted across the trees scanning till coming to a rest on a heavily shadowed spot.

There.

A faint outline of a figure was all I could make out but I knew the person behind the attack was standing there, watching me. Narrowing my eyes, I glared at the spot, willing them to come forward. To step into the light and reveal who they were.

“Why are you hiding in the shadows like a coward?” I called out. After a moment a low sinister laugh carried in the wind.

“Do not think you can bait me into revealing my identity just yet Jacqueline.” A deep voice answered, a man’s voice. He knew who I was, not a big surprise there but I didn’t like being at a disadvantage.

“Who are you?” I asked.

“For now you can call me Arthur.” Arthur, seriously? Weirdest villain name ever.

“What do you want, Arthur?”

“I. Want. It. All.” The words sent shivers racing down my spine and my hand tightened on my sword hilt. “You and I are more alike than you realise Jacqueline.” Uh, what?

“I don’t go around killing innocent people.”

“Perhaps, but you do enjoy it.” Wariness tightened my throat.

“Enjoy what?”

“Hunting. Killing.” Another dark laugh followed that remark and my face drained of all blood. “Oh yes, you and I make quite the pair.” I shuddered at the thought of ever being compared to this monster, but I couldn’t deny his words. I did love hunting mongrels, and killing them always brought a sense of satisfaction. Doubt sunk its vicious teeth in. Maybe I was part monster too.

“You’re crazy.” I spat. His laughter grated on my ears.

“Perhaps,” he repeated “but I’m going to build a new world on the ashes of this one, and maybe if you’re a good girl I’ll let you rule by my side.” Just as I opened my mouth to refuse a high pitched beeping caused me to jump. Glancing down, I saw my beeper flashing a bright blue light back at me. A summons to the Command Room.

By the time I glanced back up at the forest Arthur was retreating, but I managed to catch his last words.

“Yes,” he hissed, “I think you will make an excellent Guinevere. Until later, my queen.” And with that he vanished into the forests shadowy embrace.

Guinevere? Arthur… as in King Arthur? Clearly the guy was bat shit insane.

I stared at the forest for a few moments more before pushing away from the fence, picking up one of the fallen bars and marching towards the Institute.

As I marched down the hallway to the Control Room I could hear the voices within.

“What the hell am I supposed to tell my people?” Pierre shouted. “That the Institute is no longer the safe haven they thought it was?” Someone replied but in a tone too soft for me to hear. Pushing open the door I got my first look at Pierre. He was stalking back and forth across the Command Room, face flushed red with anger. It was the most worked up I had ever seen him. The others were seated at the table and my entrance went unnoticed as all eyes were fixed on him.

“Pierre, you need to calm down and take a seat.” Uncle John said, his deep voice pitched low and calming but Pierre was having none of it.

“No, what I need to do is figure out how the hell a bunch of mongrels managed to get into my Institute!” Moving from my position in the doorway, I tossed the broken bar onto the table. It bounced twice before settling and all eyes turned to me.

“That’s how.” I said. Uncle John frowned down at the bar before looking back up at me.

“Where did you get this?”

“I went back to the scene, tracked the mongrels trail back to the gate and found a hole. Two bars had been cut off and glued back on so it would seem like nothing was wrong.” Pierre finally took a seat and stared up at me with hard eyes.

“Explain.” He said and so I told them about what I had discovered in the woods. When I reached the part where I made contact with Arthur all hell broke loose.

“You did what?!” Uncle John shouted.

“Are you freaking insane?” Avery called out from across the table. The others chimed in with their own agreements and I managed to keep from rolling my eyes.

“There was a giant black fence separating us it’s not like we sat down and shared a picnic.” I protested.

“And what if he had a gun?” Uncle John grated and I paused. I hadn’t thought of that but after a moment I shook my head.

“That’s not his style. He doesn’t want me dead, or at least not yet. In fact he said some crazy shit about making me his Guinevere or queen or something.”

“His what?” Avery growled and I started at the ferocity in his gaze. His blue eyes sparked with fire and his mouth had formed a snarl. Feeling my cheeks heat I glanced away, focusing on Drake’s empty seat.

“I don’t know, he said a lot of crazy junk.” I gave them a quick recap of the conversation leaving out the bits where he had said we were similar. Those still hit too close to home.

“The guy obviously has some kind of god-complex.” I concluded with a sigh. “And for some reason he has singled out this Institute to be his first conquest.” The others gave unhappy nods of agreement. I let them mull over the information before I proposed my plan. A plan I knew wouldn’t get a lot of support.

“It’s clear this whole wait and see plan isn’t working.” I told the room and I saw Uncle John’s gaze shoot to me. His brow furrowed and I could see the gears in his brain spinning. I saw the moment he finally realised what I was saying because his frown morphed into a glare that was directed straight at me.

“No.” He ground out. I met his gaze with a glare of my own.

“Yes.” Pierre glanced between us, his head swinging back and forth like he watching a tennis match. Finally he settled on me.

“What are you talking about?” he asked.

“We need to start a hunt.” I replied, not taking my gaze off of Uncle John. “We need to track this guy down and take him out.” My announcement must have shocked the room because there were no shouts of protest, hell it shocked me too. I had killed dozens of mongrels, but I had never killed another person before. I knew I could do it. It might kill me but I knew I could do it. Knew if it came down to me or him, I wouldn’t hesitate to plunge my sword into his heart.

You and I are more alike than you realise Jacqueline.

Maybe he wasn’t so crazy after all.

“I assume you would be the one hunting him.” Pierre said, breaking the silence.

“Yes.” I replied, evenly. I watched the sadness fill Uncle John’s eyes and the guilt. I could feel myself softening at the emotion there and forced myself to look at the rest of the people in the room. Everyone seemed a bit paler and some even flinched slightly when I met their gaze. I tamped down on the hurt that surfaced. I was used to the rejection, the scared looks and whispered conversations when they thought I wasn’t listening.

“Mama, why can’t I talk to her?”

“You have to stay away from her darling, that girl is dangerous.”

“Why?”

“She’s a monster sweetheart!”

That’s right, I’m a monster. The sooner these people realised that the better. It didn’t matter to them that I was doing it to keep them safe. That never even occurred to them.

“No.” Pierre said leaning back in his chair, his tightly clenched fingers belying his casual pose. “No, it’s too dangerous. We don’t know anything about this guy, for all we know it could be a trap. Maybe he wants you to hunt him so he can corner you while you’re out there looking for him.” It was a valid argument but it was a risk I was willing to take.

“So we just sit here and wait for the next attack to happen? Thankfully nobody was killed today but what about the next time? You said so yourself Pierre, the Institute is no longer a safe haven.” He faltered and for a moment I thought I had him but then he seemed to gain resolve.

“No. My answer is no. I won’t risk getting you caught in a trap. We don’t take any further action until we have further information on this Arthur guy.” Sensing my disagreement he pinned me with his gaze. “Is that clear?” he asked.

“Yes, sir.” I gritted out from between my clenched teeth. He was making a huge mistake, I could sense it in my bones. The past two attacks weren’t about hurting people, they had just been Arthur’ way of teasing. He was saying ‘look I can get past your supposedly impenetrable defences and there’s nothing you can do to stop me’. The next attack would be the big one. The next time the mongrels slipped past those black fences, lots of people were going to get hurt, or worse. I couldn’t let that happen, orders be damned.

“Good. Now if you’ll all excuse me I have to find someone who can fix up the gate.” He snatched the black pole off the table, turned on his heel and left. Silence fell over the room once more and I could feel their eyes on me. Burning my skin. Without saying a word I stood and strode from the room. Walking through the Institute I quickly made me way to the Training Room.

Unsheathing my sword I raised it and took out my aggression on one of the practice dummies. After a minute it was little more than rubble.

Not enough.

Too fast.

I placed my sword on the ground, quickly stripped out of my shoes and taped my hands. Walking over to another practice dummy I gathered my strength and punched it straight in its plastic face. The force of the blow sent shivers up my arm and I grinned.

That’s more like it.

Pulling my arm back, I let loose another punch.