Darkness Comes This Way Part 10

She looked at the Rogue that she had shot in the shoulder seeing that he was fighting against the poison and about to come at her again. His lips were pulled back, fangs bared, eyes glowing in rage.

Zarah took another glance at Draven with her eyebrows raised.

"Cuff the one you have, we'll take that one."

She turned in time as the other rabid prepared to jump at her again and fired a final shot into his head.

Seventeen.

"Well, did you manage to capture one?" Nathanial asked when he looked up from his desk to see Zarah and Draven standing in the doorway of his office.

Zarah nodded solemnly.

"He's strapped down in a chair in an empty office. We also had the nurse inject him with a mild sedative when we arrived."

She thought about the drive back to the Compound. Draven had put the Rogue into the trunk of the car after tying up his legs and locking his hands together with silver cuffs. The gunshot wound in his leg had healed with the bullet intact, which was good for them because it meant the silver poison would remain in his system for a while. It didn't slow him down on the ride back, though.

The entire drive had been a bit noisy.

Kicking and m.u.f.fled screaming had echoed through the trunk and into the interior of the car. Zarah kept turning her head to look at Draven in exasperation, who was obviously grinding his teeth and clenching the steering wheel as he sped back to the Compound. Tying up the Rogue's legs hadn't done much good really. He still managed to kick with his feet, and ended up denting the the trunk and busting out a tail light.

Needless to say, Zarah knew that Draven was in a bad mood after that ride.

"Alright then, let's go have a chat, shall we?" Nathanial grinned. He stood from his desk and grabbed a gun on his way out of the office. Zarah and Draven led the way to the room where the Rogue was being held. She kept her hand near her pistol, ready to take any necessary action.

When they all entered, they were faced with the Rogue struggling to no avail against a number of silver chains and cuffs in a heavy, metal chair in front of a table. His eyes darted wildly around the room, taking in each Guardian, before landing on Zarah. His hair was long, black, tangled and s.h.a.ggy. She felt nauseous as she eyed him over and saw a little dried blood crusted at the corner of his smirking mouth. When his dark red eyes wouldn't move from her, she shuddered and turned her head. Draven noticed and stepped protectively closer toward her, keeping a hand near his holster as well.

"What's your name?" Nathanial spoke to the Rogue, stepping forward. Zarah shut the door to the office but remained behind her boss and partner in the corner of the room.

He stared at Nathanial through narrowed eyes and snarled.

"Why in the h.e.l.l should I say?"

When he snapped and began pulling at his chains again, causing the chair to sc.r.a.pe a bit on the floor, Nathanial walked over to him and grabbed him by the back of his hair. With intense speed, he slammed the rabid's face into the table. Zarah jumped as he shouted in pain and the metal echoed throughout the small s.p.a.ce of the room.

Draven and Zarah exchanged brief glances of worry before turning their attention back to Nathanial and their captive. This was very unlike the behavior of the Guardians, and the two of them were a bit uncomfortable with the situation.

"Your name, Rogue. I'd like your name so that I can be a bit nicer and address you properly. Wouldn't you at least like that?" Nathanial growled near his ear, still gripping his hair.

"Jackson," he finally stuttered out in gasp. He inhaled sharply and tried to sit up straighter when Nathanial released him.

Nathanial grinned. Zarah swallowed back her fear and shrank back further in the corner. His grin seemed so...chilling.

"Well, here's the deal, Jackson. My two Guardians here have been trying to solve quite the unusual mission. You're going to tell us all you know. We may just let you live if you cooperate freely. If you don't, I can kill you," her boss said, continuing to smile as he loaded the gun in his hand before placing it on the end of the table in the Rogue's view for intimidation.

"I'm not saying a word. I don't know anything."

Before he could continue, Nathanial lashed out furiously with a roar and connected his fist with Jackson's jaw. The Rogue spat blood on the floor and turned back with a loud hiss.

Jackson looked vicious then.

"I think you will." Nathanial said calmly, pointing at the gun as a reminder of the deal.

After a few long minutes of being lost in thought, Jackson finally nodded.

"Only if you're serious about letting me go."

"Okay," Nathanial agreed with a smirk.

"Zarah, Draven, go ahead and pull up some chairs."

She looked to see two chairs similar to what Jackson was strapped in near the door. Quietly, following Nathanial's orders, she grabbed one and sat near the table, but still as far away as possible. Draven did the same, sitting near her. Nathanial grabbed a stool and sat closest to Jackson, looking highly amused by everything.

"So, Jackson, start telling us what you know," Nathanial commanded.

The Rogue looked cautiously around the room at them and his eyes landed on Zarah again.

"It's you. You're the one aren't you?" he suddenly spat out.

"What?" she asked with a frown.

"The one with the cure. We're all hunting you, you know. Some boss man we call 'The Commander' wants you. He says that he can create a cure if he just gets to you. The man is a genius. He's already made us intelligent obviously...that happened years ago. He refuses to tell us how he did that though," Jackson rambled. He talked fast.

Zarah narrowed her eyes but refused to respond, crossing her arms over her chest.

When he didn't receive a response, Jackson smirked and licked his lips.

"So, it is you..."

"Enough." Nathanial growled.

"Tell us about what happened with the Guardian that was left tortured and injected with rabid poison in front of the building here. His name was Mitch.e.l.l."

"I had no part in that. I'm a loner!" Jackson yelled, suddenly frightened for his life. Zarah almost snorted out loud. He wasn't that much of a loner; he'd been fighting with another when they picked him up. She kept that to herself though. Apparently Draven wasn't going to say anything either.

Nathanial continued the questioning.

"What do you know though?"

"Some members of the Commander's Army ambushed him. The Commander has been creating experiments to make us more advanced creatures...some extra additions, I think. It's to my understanding they haven't exactly been working. The experiments have been dying off after a certain time period. They were very unusual. The Commander wants to create them to make us 'equal' or more superior to Guardians or something like that. If successful, your weapons would no longer be very effective in fighting us," the Rogue explained, sounding slightly confused. The silver was starting to control his system more, and it was beginning to exhaust him and slur his speech slightly.

"But from what I hear, all that stuff is just for show. For fun. Nothing The Commander is truly serious about yet anyway. His main focus is this girl," Jackson added.

"Hm," Nathanial said, thinking.

"Mitch.e.l.l came back to life, well sort-of, after I shot him in the head. He had to be shot a few more times before he was fully terminated," Draven said as he joined the conversation. Jackson looked at him.

"Look, I'm being honest. I don't know much. All I know is that they want her," Jackson said with a snarl.

"In fact, she has quite the nickname among our kind. I don't know how it was picked up, but her body count may have something to do it."

"What would that be?" Zarah asked with interest.

"Angel of Death."

Draven froze and tried to keep his features emotionless. Surely the Rogues couldn't know her family secret? And if they did...that would mean that it was someone very close to her trying to harm her...

No. It had to be a coincidence. Just as Jackson stated, it had to have something to do with her famous Rogue body count.

Zarah snorted, oblivious to Draven's tensed up reaction next to her.

"Funny nickname," she muttered.

"Well," Nathanial started as he stood, taking the gun in hand. "If you have nothing else to offer us-"

Draven and Zarah jumped up together as Jackson looked at them all pleadingly.

"No! No! You said you would let me go free if I talked!" he started yelling, begging. Zarah had seen instances before where Rogues had pleaded for their lives, but this was a situation that she actually wished she could let this one go. They had captured and tortured him...it wasn't in their code. This was wrong, and the sinking feeling in her gut made her feel wretched.

"Ah, Jackson. I said that I would let you go. I didn't say anything about 'free'. I'm letting you go as a Rogue...meaning I'm releasing you of this life," Nathanial said with a mischievous smirk as he pointed the pistol at him. Jackson let out a choked sob. Zarah noticed how young he looked...he had to have only been around seventeen or eighteen when he was turned vampire, a bit unusual since most wait until they're twenty or older for the turning process. Perhaps he had been bitten as an innocent human to start with. Time seemed to slow as Nathanial's safety clicked off.

They shouldn't be doing this. She looked at Draven frantically.

It was as if he'd read her mind.

"Wait," he said.

"Let me do it. You probably have other work to do."

Nathanial stopped and looked at Draven. Jackson stared at him with begging red eyes.

"I have other things to tell," the Rogue quickly said in a desperate attempt to save his life.

"But I only want to tell them to those two...alone," he added, looking back at Nathanial.

Their boss looked at each one with narrowed, angry eyes.

"No, I believe we're done here."

The gun had a silencer attached so as to not raise any alarm inside the underground building. When Nathanial fired the round into Jackson's head, Zarah brought her hand up to her mouth to fight back a scream of protest and turned her head. It was the first time in her career that she must have felt remorse toward killing a Rogue. Nathanial set the gun back on the table when he was finished and smiled at them.

"I'll call the nurse to have her take care of the body. Good work tonight. Get some rest." He pa.s.sed by them and left the room. Zarah was left standing there feeling the shock and horror weighing her chest down, unable to look toward Jackson's limp corpse.

Zarah stormed out of the office in fear of getting sick if she stayed in there any longer, and quickly walked toward her room.

"Zarah," Draven shouted at her from down the hall, trying to catch up with her. She stopped and waited, keeping her back facing him and her head hung down. Her weight was steadied against the wall as she leaned against it with her hands.

"Are you okay?" he asked when he reached her.

She slowly shook her head.

"It wasn't right, Draven. I respected Nathanial..."

She was whispering, confused and trying to fight back the oncoming tears.

"I don't care if Jackson was Rogue. That wasn't our way of doing things. It was just so...horrific...and he looked so young."

Draven sighed and looked around the empty hallway before speaking.

"I know. I tried to save him. I was going to let him go if Nathanial had let me take care of it. I don't think he was trying to be entirely cruel though. After all, he's still very angry after the Mitch.e.l.l incident. Maybe that was his form of payback." Draven shrugged. When Zarah looked up into his eyes, however, she could still see him lost in thought, doubt lines etched around his down-turned lips, as if he still wasn't sure if his own explanation was convincing.

"Maybe you're right," she finally said with a sigh.

"Either way, I wish I hadn't been a part of that."

He pulled her into a tight hug at that moment, which surprised her.

"Me, too," he said.

Her phone rang a second later, making her pull away from him awkwardly to answer.

"h.e.l.lo?"

"Hey, sis."

"Thomas. Hi," she replied. She looked at Draven to see him eyeing her in confusion.

"What's going on now?"

"I'm afraid I have some unsettling news to give you. I just got back from a meeting," he began.

She paused and listened intently. It was after a few seconds that she realized she'd been holding her breath.

"The Commander is moving on to bigger things. He's decided that once he's extracted the cure from you, he's going to start harvesting humans and out the vampire race. Which of course could result in a very nasty war as you know."

"What?" Zarah nearly screamed.

Eighteen.