7. Chapter 7
Josiah
I had made one more visit to Salioes and told the council about what I had learned of Kyril.
They still hadn’t had any luck finding any information about him and they had nothing of value on the species he was either.
As far as everyone was concerned, whatever Kyril was and wherever he came from, never existed.
He seemed to be a completely unknown entity, which didn't sit very well with me at all.
The Council refused to tell me anything about Camille or Jerrod, regardless of my pleas.
I had considered that maybe they had gone to Arion, but I didn’t know where that was and had no idea if they could even find the lost planet of our ancestors. We definitely didn’t have time for them to be on a wild goose chase trying to find it though.
I spent much of my time training, honing my own strength and agility, though at this point I wasn’t sure what difference it really made.
I didn’t think I was a match against Kyril alone.
I hadn’t spent much time alone with him yet, but any time I did spend with him was far from pleasant.
I had a feeling it was best I stay as far away from him as possible.
“Athia made it sound like your skill was sloppy and mediocre,” Kyril said from behind me.
I sucked in a sharp breath. I had gotten so lost in thought, that I had been in a state of distraction and didn’t notice him sneaking up behind me.
I remained silent for a moment and tried to calm my body. My breathing and heartbeat were in a rapid panic. My muscles were rigid and I tensed at his presence in alarm.
“I sense the panic from you. I didn’t mean to unnerve you,” he divulged, though from the sounds of it, he was taking a bit of pleasure in my noticeable distress.
“I’m just not used to people sneaking up on me,” I revealed. “Athia may think I’m unskilled, but the men I have been training are far from nimble. Trying to train with them isn't exactly ideal.”
“I’m wondering if Athia understands skill at all now,” he said, eyeing me suspiciously. “Would you care to spar with me before I seek Athia out for the rest of the day?”
This was far from a good idea. If I said yes, he may figure things out about me that aren't apparent at first glance, but if I said no, he would likely grow more suspicious of me than he seemed to be already. It was fair to say that this was going to be a losing situation, no matter what I chose. Especially if I didn’t play the situation out perfectly.
“Maybe you can give me some pointers?” I asked, trying to appease him.
“If you insist,” he said as he walked closer to me.
He didn’t even wait for me to acknowledge a fight with him before he was hastily throwing his hand out toward me. I blocked the punch and he raised an eyebrow at me. I decided then to let him make the first moves. That way, I could choose when to block and when to let him strike me.
I squared out my legs to give myself more leverage as his hits grew harder and more furious. He didn’t seem happy with how I was impeding the damage. He kicked up, connecting with my side—hard and swift—and sliced his hand back across my face. I instantly felt the sting of the wound.
He was definitely drawing blood purposefully. I touched my face to see the red shimmering liquid sticking to my fingers. I then looked over to him and looked at his hand. His nails were sharp and pointed just like his teeth.
“You’re quite fast,” he said in approval. “But, I am growing hungry now, so I will leave you to what you were doing previously.”
Just as he was getting ready to turn and walk away, one of the men from my morning squad came floundering in through the door, swaying with each step. He was clearly very intoxicated.
“Briggs, training isn’t for hours! What the fuck are you doing here?” I yelled at him in irritation.
“It’s such bad manners stumbling around with that tainted nectar coursing through his veins,” Kyril rebuked and I saw a flash of disgust on his face as he regarded the intoxicated man.
I blinked and he was standing in front of Briggs, holding his gaze. Briggs was clearly three sheets to the wind at this point, so I wasn’t even sure the guy knew what was happening.
“Whoa, pal, howdja dothat,” Briggs slurred, as he registered Kyril standing in front of him.
“Do what?” Kyril smiled as he grabbed Briggs's head and tore it over to fully expose his neck, giving him full access to the area.
I watched as Kyril bit into the thin flesh, right into Briggs's carotid artery.
I could hear Kyril gulping down large mouthfuls of blood.
Briggs looked over at me in horror, eyes wide and panicked, as he slowly bled out into Kyril's mouth and onto the floor below.
The surprise on my face quickly vanished as I did my best to control the panic that I was now feeling.
Kyril moaned in ecstasy as he took one last mouthful and tossed Briggs’s lifeless body onto the floor like a used tissue paper. “Clean this filth up, Akuma.”
He turned and walked toward the door, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.
Briggs was staring flatly my way, eyes vacant and empty.
He was nothing more than a husk now. I stared at his corpse, stunned at what had just happened.
Kyril just drank Briggs dry like a fucking vampire.
I had never even heard of vampire lore until coming to Earth.
Had their kind been to Earth before or was it all just a coincidence?
My mind was reeling. He moved so fast, faster than my eyes could even register. I hadn’t even realized he had moved until he was in front of Briggs and biting into his throat. This guy was going to pose a lot of issues and I wasn’t sure any of us could actually do anything about it.
After disposing of Briggs's body, I went back to my office. I never left The Authority in normal circumstances, other than to go on errands for Athia. I sat down at my desk and pinched the bridge of my nose. There were only so many places left to look!
Where the hell was Camille?
I found myself lost in thought, yet again, trying to sift through more possibilities.
They weren’t going back to Croneatos or at least not as far as Vina knew.
They could be looking for Arion or maybe even found it already.
Considering what we knew of the Mother Planet, or the lack thereof, I found this option to be highly unlikely.
Knowing my brother, I thought maybe he would skip looking for Arion if he was actually with Camille.
I seriously doubted they would go back to Salioes again. There was nothing left for them there. We didn’t have any helpful information about the Gilarian and we didn’t know the exact location of Arion either. Everything about either of those topics was purely speculation and hearsay.
All of the other options were checked off, so that really only left Jovalia.
There were other smaller inhabited planets that had life forms we sought out for mating, but they wouldn’t know anything about the Gilarian or the risk they posed either.
I had been to Jovalia many times in my youth, mostly to accompany Jerrod on his mandatory visits with the Council during his years of training as the next leader.
It was imperative for him to forge strong relationships with the other planetary leaders.
The memory of Jovalia was hazy, but I figured it would be worth trying to rift there.
It was really my last option to find them and get this information out to the right hands.
But, I needed more than anything to check on Camille.
I needed to see her. To make sure she was okay.
I needed to figure out what had happened to the bond.
Our bond. The bond that now left me feeling empty and missing a piece of myself.
The unanswered questions were driving me to the brink of insanity.
I took a deep breath and thought of the last place I had visited on Jovalia.
A place that would have been secluded enough to just pop up into.
I imagined a little park in the capital.
Much like Earth, the nature of the planet had similar characteristics, but everything there had a metallic-like sheen to it.
I remembered the water looking more like liquid mercury.
I opened my eyes back up and stood in the middle of a random park I vaguely remembered on Jovalia. It was exactly as I had envisioned it from all of those years ago. Completely unchanged.
There was a sudden shriek of terror from behind me. I spun around toward the sound and saw multiple Jovalian residence gawking at me. I had quite literally just appeared out of thin air, like some kind of phantom. I clearly had not thought the repercussions of rifting here through very well.
The Jovalians all had shiny, iridescent pearl-like skin.
Their eyes were much larger than human eyes and the irises were a disorganized mixture of the rainbow.
All of them were void of hair. They had very small noses and blue colored lips.
All of the beings looked very similar, but had very small deviations in various characteristics that made them narrowly unique from each other.
Their clothes were very sheer and looked like silks, tulle and lace.
Everyone was dressed very elegantly for a stroll in the park.
“I’m very sorry for frightening everyone!
” I said quietly in their native tongue and put my hands out straight in front of my body to show my palms. This was a form of peace or surrender on their planet and I was thankful I had come here so many times previously.
I wasn't sure how easily I could have talked my way out of this had I not known any of the customs here.
A young boy poked his head out from around a younger woman’s legs in front of him, “Where did this being come from mama? He looks funny!”
She hissed loudly at the boy and pushed him back as far away from me as possible, “Who are you, outsider, and why have you appeared here?”
“I come from Salioes and am looking for the Council Leader of my planet. I believe he may be here with your king,” I answered. “It has been quite a time since I have traveled here, so I am not familiar with much. Would someone be willing to take me to The King's palace?”
“I will,” a very tall and slender man said in a high pitched, singsong like tone.
I thanked the man and the crowd. Clearly, rifting was causing more problems than I had previously intended, but I was that much closer to having more answers. All I could hope for was that Camille was actually here and that my search for her would finally be over.