Unlocking the Orion Code - The Killer's Daughter - BOOK 1 by Leonard J. Walker - HTML preview

CHAPTER 10

I was alone. Aden had left when I first sat down to listen to the recordings on the memory

stick; had said he wanted to give me space to take everything in. I knew he would not have

gone far though. Not when I was the bait in his little trap. I knew he would be somewhere

close by, just waiting for my dad to show up.

There was light seeping through the dusty basement window, so I knew that the sun had

risen. I had been there all night. I vaguely wondered if Tamika had gotten worried. Had she

called the police? Or better yet: my dad?

Something creaked upstairs, catching my attention. I turned around, staring at the door at

the top of the stairs. It was slightly ajar. There came another creak, this one sounding

directly over my head.

I frowned.

It seemed like there was someone creeping about on the floor above me. I did not think it

was Aden for he had no need to creep around. It could have been a neighbourhood kid, but

somehow I doubted that.

That left one other option.

"Dad?" I called out timidly.

There was silence; then the sound of hurried footsteps, and then the basement door swung

open the rest of the way. Standing at the top of the stairs, with a look of worry etched

across his face, was my dad.

"Blair," he breathed. "Oh, thank God!"

I stared at him in a daze. It was all too much.

"Dad?" I asked again.

He flew down the basement stairs, and the next thing I knew, I was being enveloped in his

arms. I froze. He pressed a kiss into my hair, then held me at arms length and began

checking for injuries.

"Are you all right? I called last night to check on you but Tamika said you had gone out with

Aden and still weren't back yet. I was so worried."

I felt a tickle start up at the base of my skull and, without even stopping to consider what I

was doing, threw up a mental shield that I knew would keep my dad out of my head. He

jerked back as if I had physically hit him.

"Blair?"

I removed his hands from where they were gripping me on the shoulders and took a step

back. But I could not look him in the eye.

"You know I hate it when you poke around in my head," I said in a quiet voice.

My dad stared at me curiously. I could feel him poking at my mental shield, testing its

strength. I clenched my fists, squeezing my eyes shut against the intrusion.

"I'm worried, Blair. I just wanted to make sure you're all right."

"As you can see, she's fine."

Dad's head snapped up at the sound of the voice and I knew instantly from the look in his

eyes, that he recognised Aden. Which was funny since they had never met before. Aden

never came by when my dad was working in the store. Now I knew why. He had been

gathering all the pieces he needed, bidding his time until I trusted him.

You're just a means to an end. It came to me then, what that 'end' was - revenge.

"What did you do to her?" dad snarled.

"I just told her the truth," said Aden, his eyes narrowed dangerously.

"I gave you a chance. I warned you to stay away from my family."

Aden shrugged.

"Yeah well, I've never dealt well with threats."

I could feel the air around us heating up; a sign of the anger Aden was trying to keep

hidden. It was obvious my dad felt it too. He laughed mockingly.

"Do you really want to challenge me, boy?"

There was something in his voice that scared me. Looking at my dad then, I could not

recognise him at all. There was a light in his eyes I had never seen before. Was it pleasure?

Anticipation? I could feel the basement wall pressed against my back. When had I moved?

My dad did not even seem to notice that I was no longer standing by his side.

I felt the fire before I saw the flames. And then my dad laughed again. It was a harsh, cruel

sound.

I watched, unable to move, as Aden descended the now blazing staircase. The fire seemed

to dance away from him, never once touching his skin or his clothes. My dad simply stood

there, smiling. Aden had almost reached the bottom when he made his move.

Suddenly, Aden doubled over, clutching his head in his hands. He opened his mouth to

scream, but no sound came out. I knew the instant he lost control of the flames for it started

to lick out at him, catching the edges of his hoodie. But Aden did not even seem to be aware

that he was on fire. And my dad just watched him, his eyes never even blinking.

"Did you really think you could take me on, boy? Your parents tried. And look what

happened to them? What made you think you would do any better?"

His words dripped acid. Was this my dad? Was he even the same man? My dad was kind

and loving. He was the one who rushed me to the hospital that time I was two and had

eaten chocolate for the first time. He stayed with me until the doctors got the swelling in

my throat to go down and I could breathe normally again. He was the one who rescued

Scratch when he was a kitten from a group of boys who were throwing rocks at him. He

helped me raise him and show me how to properly take care of a kitten.

The man standing before me was not my father. The man standing before me was a

monster who had more or less admitted to killing Aden's parents.

"Did you kill mom?"

The question slipped from my lips before I was even aware I had thought of it. It had been

asked in a voice barely above a whisper, yet had the affect of a grenade being dropped in

the middle of the room. My dad - no, not my father - the monster rounded on me, baring his

teeth in a rage.

"She betrayed me!" he roared. "After everything I have done for our family - to keep us safe

- she turned around and stabbed me in the back!"

"Keep us safe?" I exploded. "You're a murderer! How does killing people keep us safe?"

"They would have hunted us down! Experimented on us! They were experimenting on us!

Elizabeth" - he spat her name out like a curse - "would have led them right to us!"

"She was your wife! She was my mother!"

"THAT WOMAN DOES NOT DESERVE TO CALL HERSELF A MOTHER!"

In the midst of our shouting match, we had both forgotten about Aden. However, we were

certainly reminded of his presence when my da - the monster was tackled from behind. I

stared at them, mouth practically hanging open in stupefaction.

But the element of surprise did not help Aden for long; especially when the monster fought

using his mind instead of his fists. Aden was a pyro and did not have the ability to protect

himself against mental attacks.

I watched in horror as Aden curled up in pain only to have the monster land a punch on the

side of his head. It did not stop there. Whatever it was that the monster was doing, it was

causing Aden to bleed out from him ears. He clawed at his head, as if trying to peel the skin

back from his skull. My hands flew to my mouth, stifling the scream that threatened to

burst forth. I had to do something.

It was just a thought. Before I even knew that I would carry through with it, I had cast a

force shield and sent it towards the monster with enough force to throw him into a wall.

His eyes snapped to me, anger raging in them.

"What are you doing, Blair?" he hissed.

I felt myself shaking my head.

"Stop."

A look of understanding dawned on him. He smiled and for an instant I saw my dad again;

the loving, caring father I always knew him to be.

"It's ok, honey. It'll all be over soon and he'll never bother us again."

I stared at him. His smile grew, but now there was a crazed glint to it. I knew then that the

man standing before me would not stop until Aden was dead. I shook my head again.

"I can't let you."

His face twisted into an ugly scowl.

"Fine."

Without warning, I felt him slam into my mental shields, tearing through it as if it were

paper. I screamed as the force of his attack slammed my head back into the wall behind me.

"Blair!"

It was as if my insides were boiling. My brain felt as if it were being turned to mush. I tried

re-erecting my mental shields but the mere thought of it caused more pain. I fought the

monster for control of my brain and body. But he was stronger. And he was winning.

How do you protect your mind against a telepath?

I struggled to push myself off the floor - how did I end up on the floor - and felt another

mental blow hit me. It was as if I had been run over by a tank. My breath left me in a rush. A

shadow fell over me and I looked up to see the monster smiling down at me.

"Stay there, Blair," he said, his voice strangely gentle. "I'll deal with you later."

I could see Aden trying to crawl towards me, determination burning in his eyes. I had

distracted the monster long enough for him to regain some control over himself.

"Blair!"

The monster turned around to kick him in the chest.

"Get away from her!" he growled.

It was getting hard to focus on things. Their voices were starting to sound muffled, as if I

had cotton wool stuffed in my ears. I shook my head in an attempt to clear it, but that only

made things worse.

The heat was getting stronger. Aden had long lost control of the fire he had started and it

had spread to the ceiling. I was sure the floors above it were ablaze as well. The monster

was still kicking Aden, venom dripping from his lips with each blow.

"Beg, boy! Beg me to spare you life - just like your father did!"

A groan sounded somewhere above us. The flames had weakened one of the ceiling's

wooden support beams - directly above Aden and the monster. The part of my mind that

could still piece together a coherent thought knew Aden was in no condition to get himself

out of the way of the falling beam in time.

My brain screamed at me as I ruthlessly forced myself to cast a force shield over them. I

could feel it flicker in and out of existence. It was not strong enough.

Just a little more…

Pain raked down my back and I was sure someone was ripping out my spinal cord as I

channelled whatever energy I had left into casting a shield over Aden that would hold up

against a falling wooden beam.

"What are you doing?"

The monster towered over me, a curious look on his face. At some point, I had tried to

crawl closer to Aden. I had not even realised it. I blinked up at him.

Suddenly, a hand clamped itself around the monster's ankle. I looked on in wonder as Aden

glared up at him with blistering hate, blood covering his face. And then he smirked.

The monster drew his free leg back to kick him again. But he never got the chance to. The

next instant, his leg was on fire. The flames spread quickly. The monster yowled in

surprised outrage and agony.

Another groan sounded and the support beam gave way.

No!

I found myself stretching out my hands, as if to physically stop the rapidly falling beam, and

felt the force shield form just feet above Aden's head. The monster was not as lucky.

Aden stared, wide eyed, as one end of the burning beam struck the monster on the head

while the other end slid harmlessly off of the shield I had cast. The monster crumpled to the

ground like a marionette whose strings had been cut.

I fell back onto the cold concrete, staring unseeingly up at the ceiling.

I knew the house was on fire. I knew that I could not move. This was not how I imagined I

would die.

"Get up! Please! Get up!"

Dead. The monster was dead - my father was dead. I could have saved him but I chose not

to. Did that make me a killer?

Someone was shaking me. I hissed in pain and tried to tell them that they were hurting me.

But I could not form the words.

"Blair! You have to get up! We have to get out of here!"

Aden - he was the one calling my name; trying to get me on my feet.

Sorry…

"No! Don't you apologise, Blair! Just hang in there!"

I could not even begin to imagine how Aden must have been feeling. He had suffered the

worst of the monster's attacks but here he was, on his knees beside me, trying to get me to

safety - the daughter of the man who murdered his parents.

I felt the urge to laugh at how absurd the whole thing was, but the only sound to escape my

lips was a low, keening wail. It was a dirge, not for the life that had been a lie or the

hollowness I felt, but for the loss of the man who had called himself my father. No matter

what he had done, he was still my dad. He had raised me; taken care of me. A part of me

knew that I had done the right thing. Someone had needed to stop him. But knowing I was

right did not make his death any easier. My eyes fluttered close.

The sound of breaking glass cut across my morbid thoughts.

"Stay with me, Blair!" Aden whispered harshly in my ear.

I felt him slide his arms under my knees and behind my back, lifting me up. I was carried

and pushed and jostled until, suddenly, a rush of fresh air filled my lungs. I blinked and was

looking up at a pale blue sky - I was outside.

"Blair?"

A pair of familiar gray eyes stared at me in concern.

Behind him I could see the abandoned house, completely engulfed by the flames. Glass

littered the grass where the tiny, basement window had been smashed open.

Aden leaned down to brush my hair away from my face.

"It's over."

Somewhere in the distance, I could hear the sound of police sirens getting louder and

louder. I had a feeling that this was far from over, it was in fact, only the beginning...

END OF BOOK I

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