Chapter 26
Making New Friends
As it turned out I only just made it in time for my flight as check-in was closing five minutes after I purchased my ticket.
Meaning, I only just had enough time to get to my gate to board the plane.
This also meant that I was the last on board and therefore received some glares as it looked as though they had been waiting on me.
However, I had more important things on my mind so paid them no attention.
The plane was half empty anyway which was good as it meant I had a whole three seats to myself.
Flying didn’t bother me, as I was used to it.
Not only from travelling in my parent’s private jet, joining them whenever they had to travel, but also because I got to see it being flown when my dad would pilot them.
I used to love standing behind in the cockpit watching with itchy fingers, just desperate to press all those buttons.
Of course, it was also kind of hard to be scared of heights or flying, when your dad had wings.
Now spiders on the other hand scared the living shit out of me!
So, even as the plane was about to take off, I had those pictures out in my lap going over every inch of them.
But no matter how many ways I looked at it now, all I could see was that warning.
The warning of what the box actually contained and what it had the power to do.
And no one knew but me.
Which meant that I had to put my own personal feelings behind me.
All the hurt and frustration, everything I had in my mind just evaporated into dust in the single moment that I looked down at that image.
Because, without me, then they would all be lost.
Not because no one else knew hieroglyphics like me, but because no one else knew what it was they were really looking at.
The box had been made as a puzzle, yes, but everyone thought that it was a puzzle set to open it.
But that was just what its maker wanted you to think.
No, the real riddle was far bigger and what lay inside it just aided the key in opening a much larger box, one to an eternal puzzle.
But the problem was time.
Because someone else was after this box and if what the symbols meant were true, then this was far bigger than any of us could have ever imagined.
So, Lucius had to be warned.
He just had to be before it was too late.
However, my biggest problem now wouldn’t be how to escape those watching me, it would be how to reach Lucius without those watching him. Because if he had the box then there was no doubt that he would be their next target. Just like they had been watching me.
So, the key lay in these pictures and soon in the box itself.
But for now, then this was all I had, and time wasn’t on my hands.
So, I had two hours until I landed and then I had to figure out a way to…
Well, to sneak into Lucius’ domain…
To break into the formidable, Transfusion.
By the time we landed I was no closer to deciphering the hardest part which was cracking the code to opening it.
It was like a keycode and all I had to do was figure out which numbers were pressed first.
Only instead of numbers, I was actually looking at symbols of world history all centered around Ancient Egypt.
I decided it was best to put back on my heavy jacket and bring up the hood just in case they had people watching the airports, as I very well might have been discovered missing by now.
I couldn’t help but wonder if Lucius would have been informed and if so, how would he have reacted to the news?
No! I needed to focus and now was not the time to lose my head over my idiotic heart on this.
I had a job to do and so many people unknowingly depended on it.
But first I needed to get these printouts somewhere safe, just in case we ever needed them again.
I don’t know why the impulse came over me as strong as it did, but the second I was off the plane I was asking an airport worker if they had any lockers there.
He pointed off to where I would find them and after going to the Luggage Storage Service Center they helped me out in getting a long-term locker.
Then, I made my way out of the airport and the second I did, I noticed some suspicious looking guys dressed like Dante’s men getting out of a massive blacked out Land Rover.
Now, just because they were dressed the same as a couple of bad action movie extras, it didn’t mean they worked for him.
Not when the other guys sent to attack me looked just like them as well.
I swear these guys needed a new look, like maybe get a map, camera or at least a fanny pack and actually try looking like a tourist would, then that might fool me.
They could even go the extra mile and add a Mickey Mouse T shirt from Disneyland Paris and really play the part.
But what really would have made my life a lot easier was if they would have, at the very least, worn a badge or something with ‘We’re the Bad Guys’ written on, then at least I would have some clue who I was running from.
I was suddenly glad that it was dark outside, hoping not to be seen.
Then I quickly turned in the opposite direction but then jinxed my good fortune as unfortunately I wasn’t quick enough.
Because, of course, they saw me.
In my panicked state I looked up and down the length of cars all picking people up and saw the sign for taxis so I ran.
Thankfully, when I looked behind me, they’d got themselves caught behind a large family all wheeling luggage on three trollies in front of them.
They started swearing at them in German throwing their arms up and down in frustration.
This would have given me the advantage I had been looking for.
That was if I hadn’t then fallen over someone else’s trolley because I had been too busy looking behind me at them.
I crashed into the load and fell over the top of it landing hard on my elbow on the other side.
“Shit!”
I hissed in pain, grabbing it and at the same time scrambling to get up as they were now gaining on me.
“Es tut uns leid, Es tut uns leid”
I repeated the word for sorry in German to the poor couple whose luggage had also taken an unfortunate nose dive.
I could see them now, only a few metres away from being within grabbing distance, so I quickly turned, running into the road just as a car came to a screeching halt.
Then, just as I thought that was it, it was all over, a woman stuck her head out of the window and shouted,
“Quick, get in!”
Well, I didn’t need telling twice.
She had reached back and opened the door for me so all I needed to do was dive in the back before she slammed her foot to the floor.
We drove off on screeching tires and the smell of burnt rubber was all we left behind.
I quickly sat up and slammed the door shut before looking through the back window to see the men now getting in their own car, ready to make chase.
“They are following us!”
“I know,”
she said calmly, looking in the rearview herself as she changed gear before hammering it forward in fifth gear.
Then she swerved around some parked cars, not slowing down in anyway, making me grab onto the back of the seat just to stop myself from being thrown down on my side.
Then the second there was a large enough gap in the road ahead she overtook a small VW that definitely let us know they didn’t appreciate our driving or the mystery woman beeping her horn at them.
Then she went speeding past the shaking fist through the window of the small car with a laugh.
As we shot ahead I saw the Land Rover coming out of nowhere, sideswiping another car in its way.
And the chase was on and all that was left for me to do was hang on for dear life whilst a person I had never met tried to get me out of this mess.
“Who the hell are you, lady?”
I asked, making her chuckle before she quickly turned down one of the side streets making the Land Rover have to slam on their brakes and reverse to follow us.
“Call me Bess Athis.”
I frowned thinking that was a weird last name,
“Bess Athis?”
“Yeah, as in the Best at this, now hold on!”
she said as we started driving towards a set of steps and I freaked,
“Oh shit!”
I shouted, bracing myself with a foot on the door and my hand on the holder above.
But then, just before we went off the edge careening down the side, she tugged up her handbrake making the brakes lock on the rear, causing the wheels to scream sideways as she spun it round.
Then she dropped the handbrake again and off we went at killing speeds once more.
The Land Rover wasn’t so lucky not having the same maneuverability as the BMW we were currently pushing to the limit.
I say us, what I meant was the crazy blonde lady I had never met before.
It slammed into a post caving in one side of the passenger door on impact.
However, it kept on coming, meaning we kept going and I wondered for how much longer I would last without throwing up.
Let’s just say that there wasn’t much need or room for that matter for high speed chases in London, so I had to say this was my first.
“Oh shit, we won’t fit!”
I shouted slapping a hand to the seat in front of me as if this would help in stopping the car before we went speeding down the narrow pavement only meant for pedestrians.
“Oh yes we will, we just need to…oh, there you go!”
she said adding this last part when we had mounted a curb and were currently driving side on down the long street with our wheels only half on the road.
I looked behind and saw that the Land Rover knew it couldn’t get down here so backed up, obviously knowing another way.
“We lost them”
I said, releasing a held breath.
“Yeah, but not for long,”
she warned and a minute later she was right as they were at the end of the road waiting for us.
Then the second they saw us coming they floored it, coming at us head on the moment the road widened up and there was room for them.
“Oh look, hello fellers,”
she said laughing and obviously letting me know she was insane.
“Oh, oh, oh shiiiiittttt!”
I shouted the second she did another handbrake turn, snapping the car around and down into another narrow street before they could hit us in that deadly game of chicken.
“Jesus lady, who taught you to drive?!”
I asked before we went over some bumps in the road at speed and making me hold a hand to the roof so that I wouldn’t bash my head.
“Well, it wasn’t him that’s for damn sure, now hold on, this is gonna be tight!”
she said, first referring to Jesus not being her mentally unstable driving instructor and then to the intersection we were just about to fly through.
I screamed and covered my head with my hands as I saw the red light and moving lanes of traffic we were about to suicidally drive into.
“AAAAAHHHH!”
I swear they say your life flashes before your eyes, but for me all I could see was the red light we were driving through, even after I closed my eyes.
“You can stop screaming now, we survived,”
she said calmly reminding me that she was right, if I was screaming then I wasn’t dead…yet.
But then she had no choice but to join traffic and the second she swerved around one car, there was another one on the other side for us to try and miss.
In fact, this was when I shouted in pain as a lorry locked its brakes and its load jackknifed coming towards us and ended up passing its own cab and driver, without anything able to stop it.
“Oh goodie, this will do nicely,”
she said in that crazy cool tone before she barely missed it, by I swear what looked like an inch! Locking up the brakes once more, she only just managed to get us down another alleyway.
But the move knocked me clean on my side and my head hit the door frame with a crunch.
Then she stopped the car and looked behind her with an arm on her seat as if waiting to see what would happen next.
She shrugged her shoulders at me, not looking too concerned but then again, she was more occupied currently and I too looked up to watch.
The Land Rover went crashing into the oncoming lorry and I thought this was it, they were definitely not walking away from that one.
But then I was wrong.
As it turned out there was at least one of the people in that car that must have been a supernatural.
I knew this for certain when the car suddenly erupted into blue flames and the second they touched the lorry’s load, it then burst into a cloud of ash.
As if one touch from a forked flame and it literally was incinerated.
“Ah, damn it!”
the woman said, losing her cool and slapping a hand down on the back of her seat before putting the car back into first and driving off at killing speeds once more.
“Oh dear, that is unfortunate.
Pesky little men, you got their baby,”
she said weirdly, and I had to admit I had no clue what she was talking about or to whom in fact, as I swear it was as if she had even forgotten that I was back here.
And now, with what I could feel was blood trickling down the side of my face, well let’s just say I was asking myself if I should be worried about this woman’s state of mind.
We continued on and when I looked back, for once I couldn’t see the bad guys following us.
“I think we lost them for good this time,”
I said, making her chuckle again and say,
“Time to be sure.”
Then she pulled into an underground parking garage, swiping some kind of card and then parked the car before turning off the engine and killing the lights.
“What now?”
I asked, whispering for some reason and it made her smirk.
“Now we wait a minute and if no one comes to kill us, then I think it means we are good to go,”
she said as though the idea of someone coming to kill us didn’t bother her one little bit.
But in fact, was more of a fun thought to play around with in her mind.
If there was one word to describe this lady, then that would definitely be ‘unhinged’.
But then again, it had to be said that she had mad crazy driving skills that certainly came in handy in my first official car chase.
And well, she had most likely saved my life, so big plus and thumbs up from me on that one.
Which prompted me to say,
“Not that I don’t feel eternally grateful here, but why did you save me and who are you?”
“Eternally grateful, now I will have to remember that one,”
she said smirking again.
Then she stuck her hand in between the seats for me to shake and said,
“Honestly, my real name is Bess, Bess Shaw and I came here to save you.”
I took her hand and gave it a shake and said,
“I guess that means you know who I am then.”
She smiled and then said,
“Oh, I know who you are, everyone in my world does.
I have been dying to meet you, to meet the girl who has got a certain Vampire King’s panties in a twist…so tell me, girl to girl, how did you manage that, uh?”
she asked, making me jerk my head back in surprise.
“Uhh, I am not sure what you mean.”
She scoffed at my vague answer, one I gave her because, one I was surprised by her question and also because I couldn’t get a read on what she was.
She definitely wasn’t human, but she wasn’t coming through as an Angel or Demon either.
Of course, I only understood this after I asked the question,
“So, who sent you?”
“No one sent me,”
she answered bluntly, making me frown.
“Then why and who and…”
She started laughing again, which I had to admit, sounded a little cackled and any minute now I kind of expected her to start rubbing her hands together or something.
But then she stunned me by saying,
“No one sent me because, I am the new oracle.”
After my new friend Bess dropped this colossal sized bombshell on me, I first sat in silence too shocked to know what to say.
Then she declared I was still bleeding and got out of the car.
I followed her and just as I walked round to her side she threw a scarf at me, telling me to use it.
So, I held it to the cut on my head and followed her from the parking garage up onto the street level.
“So, what now?”
“Now we walk, come on, it’s not far from here,”
she said before crossing the road and zipping up her tight biker jacket.
It was now that I finally had chance to take the rest of her in.
“I have to say, you’re not what I had in mind for an oracle,”
I told her, as in truth she was far from it.
“Yeah well, that chick Pythia was some tough boots to follow,”
she said referring to the original and oldest oracle and a now good friend of my mother’s.
Not that she got to see her much anymore, as let’s just say, where she lived now wasn’t exactly what you would call easy to get to.
But, as for this new one, well let’s just say, blonde, beautiful and also wearing the tightest clothes you could get on a person without them being classed as an extra layer of skin, hadn’t been it.
But it had to be said that she definitely drove like a badass, so it wasn’t surprising that she then looked like one!
Knee high, spiked leather boots clicked along the pavement as she strutted along like a pro.
She certainly couldn’t be classed as clumsy that was for sure as there wasn’t a scratch on her, unlike me.
No, I had a cut just in my hairline and no doubt a nicely mottled bruise brewing under my skin just ready to scream angrily at me tomorrow every time I twisted my torso.
I could already feel the skin getting tighter as the pain was setting in and walking in heels wasn’t helping.
This had been both from where I had been thrown around in the car and also when I fell over the luggage at the airport. That, along with the pain throbbing in my elbow, then let’s just say that tomorrow was going to be fun when getting my first look at myself in the mirror.
But, I followed Bess because really, what else could I do? It obviously wasn’t safe to be out here alone, which made me wonder if she had seen all this? So, I decided to ask her.
“So, you saw all this happening?”
“Something like that, it's why I had the garage plan and this,”
she said, holding up a card with a small chip in it, making it look like a credit card.
“What’s that?”
“A way to get in,”
she replied with a grin over her shoulder at me.
“A way to get in where?”
I asked feeling in some way as though she was enjoying playing with me.
But then again, from what I heard of Oracles, well then in a word, they didn’t usually get out much.
“In there,”
she nodded ahead of her and now I could see it for myself.
It was a huge five story building made of black brick and was framed by a thick light grey stonework all around the windows and doors.
The building itself was set at an angle, so that the front door was situated at the corner.
Then, running down the sides, were ten sets of windows reaching high up to the top of the building.
However, like on the Land Rover that had been determined to get to us, each of the windows was blacked out.
This just made the building look eerie and even more intimidating, like a giant insect staring at you with a hundred black eyes.
All apart from the very top row that were from the inside framed by red velvet curtains as if this was someone’s home.
It certainly set the scene for a gothic nightclub that was for sure, especially with all the twisted wrought iron that framed each window’s stone arch above.
Below them, however, were wilting metal flowers the size of bedside tables that looked worn and rusted on purpose.
It gave the place a steampunk, industrial vibe.
They had been made into lamps that made the street below glow red from the crimson bulbs, as it bathed the long line of people waiting to get inside in a blood coloured hue.
However, the most unusual part was the metal vine that had been embedded into the ground where it started before it then grew upwards attaching itself to the side of the building.
It was there in certain points that massive bloody spikes, the size of a person’s head, looked to have attacked the building, by latching its thorns into the brick.
So many people were still stood in line just waiting for their chance at getting inside before the night was over and I suddenly wondered what the time was.
Well, it looked like it was far from closing anytime soon so at least that was a plus.
The very last aspect of the place for me to take in was the name above the door.
A gothic script of calligraphy in red and black metalwork was hung over the entrance, spelling out the club’s name with the F in the middle dragged further down the rest of the letters.
This was done for a single purpose as a metal droplet dripped down and hung from the razor tipped edge.
I shuddered, not only at the sight of the single blood droplet, but also at the name and the memory it invoked from the very first time I had seen it, doing as I did now as if that memory was trying to drag its way back…
My lips then formed the name and I knew in that moment, unlike what I had vowed that day, then it wouldn’t be the last time I saw it as I had hoped.
But it most definitely sent me back to the first…
“Transfusion.”