Chronicles of Araxx - Forever Broken

The alleyway was wide and Lee was standing in the centre, unsure of what to do next or where to go.

Jacob was standing behind her, blocking her path, but it was the people in front that had caught Lee’s attention mostly.

Jacob’s two betas were standing on the other side of the alley and they had someone with them.

The crop of dark curly hair was unmistakable. Vaughan.

What were they doing with him?

He looked up with shock on his face. “Lee, what are you…?” He didn’t get to finish his sentence.

One of the betas’s elbowed him in his side, knocking the wind right out of him.

Lee was terrified, but she couldn’t let this happen again. There was no way another one of her friends was going to get hurt because of her.

“Get off him, dog,” she barked. A burst of confidence filled her. She wasn’t going to be weak. She couldn’t.

“Lee, was it?” Jacob mocked. “What kind of name is that for a pretty girl like you?” He stepped closer to her, his hand outstretched.

As he moved closer to her, the bracelet on Lee’s wrist burned. She grabbed it, holding onto it tightly and whimpered. The pain was excruciating.

Jacob let his palm brush against her cheek as he passed her on his way towards Vaughan and the two betas.

“What’s your name, boy?” Jacob punched Vaughan in the face.

Lee clasped her hand to her mouth. She heard bone crunch, but she wasn’t sure if it was Vaughan’s jaw or Jacob’s knuckles.

Vaughan lifted his head and blood was pouring from his broken nose. “And what’s it to you?” He spat a mouthful of blood on the ground.

Jacob brought his knee up to Vaughan’s chest, knocking the wind out of him.

“Vaughan!” Lee lunged forward but was caught quickly by one of the betas. He pulled her arms behind her back and pinned them there, then kicked at the backs of her legs, forcing her to her knees.

Jacob kicked Vaughan while he was on the ground.

“Your new friend isn’t very durable, Annaleah.” Jacob laughed.

“Leave him alone, Jacob,” Lee shouted. She noticed three people on the other side of Jacob. She recognised them, from the club, but why were they just standing there? Why weren’t they doing anything?

“You want me to leave him alone?” Jacob asked in his best mocking voice. “Too bad I don’t want to.” He laughed as he kicked Vaughan again, this time in the back of the head.

Vaughan slumped to the ground unconscious.

“What will you do to make me leave him alone, Annaleah?”

“Anything, just let him go. He’s done nothing wrong. Please Jacob,” Lee begged.

Jacob laughed and kicked Vaughan in the head again.

Lee heard another crunch and suddenly felt very sick. “No!”

She pushed forward, breaking away from the beta, and lunged straight at Jacob.

He was fast, too fast for Lee, and he quickly dodged her attack, then, using her own body strength, pushed her against the far wall of the alleyway.

She hit the wall with force, then slumped to the floor, pain radiating through her back.

“Tut, tut, Annaleah.” Jacob wagged his finger at her. “Didn’t you learn anything? You can’t beat me.” He started laughing, then picked Lee up by the collar of her shirt.

She landed back on her feet but was very shaky.

He punched her in the chest, causing a shooting pain in her ribs, then her face. Jacob wrapped a hand around her throat and lifted her off her feet. “You will come home!”

Jay was the first to take action. He reached and pulled his swords from his back.

“Where the bloody hell did you pull that thing from?” Gray asked.

“A special present from Simons,” Jay said as he lifted his jacket and showed Gray the special sheath on his back. It looked small but was clearly large enough to house an entire samurai sword. Jay stepped forward, but Adz stopped him.

“It’s too dangerous in close quarters,” he cautioned as he stepped forward himself. Adz pulled his gun from his pocket. He was better with ranged weapons, and this gun was his favourite. He lifted it up and aimed.

“Watch carefully, Annaleah, dear,” Jacob said as he lifted her head. He wrapped his hand around her chin and held her face in place so she was unable to pull away. “Now.”

One of the betas pulled Vaughan to his feet, and the other, smaller beta, stepped closer. It all happened so fast Lee didn’t have time to close her eyes. The beta took Vaughan’s head between both his hands and with one sharp twist, and a crack, Vaughan fell to the floor. Dead.

Lee let out a scream.

Jacob let go of her and she dropped to her knees. There was a loud bang.

Adz had hit his mark, but it didn’t do much damage.

Jacob removed his hand from his left shoulder and blood coated his fingertips. “You shot me?” Jacob was shocked but quickly composed himself. “You missed my heart, human,” he sneered. “Get them!” He ordered his betas.

Suddenly, the whole alley filled with flames.

Where was the fire coming from? She focused on the three men who just stood there looking, doing nothing while Jacob assaulted Vaughan She could see flames coming from the fingertips of the tall, well-built man with the orange hair. The warlock, she remembers.

Lee lunged away from the wall towards Vaughan’s lifeless body forward, but something caught her arm and held her back. “Get off me!” She shouted, not looking back. “Let me go!”

“I can’t do that,” Adz said as he held onto her firmly.

Gray was using the flames to keep the betas away, while Jay was struggling to keep Jacob at arm’s length with the sword. The blade was sharp, and Jacob had several cuts from getting too close.

“We have to go,” Adz said.

“Who are you?” Lee asked.

Jacob broke past Jay and went straight for Lee.

He knocked into Adz, which in turn knocked Lee to the ground.

She knocked her head hard on the ground and everything went black.

Adz and Jacob wrestled on the floor, while Jay and Gray kept the betas occupied.

Things looked hopeless for them.

Then out of nowhere, half a dozen Araxx appeared.

At the sight of them, Jacob ordered his betas to retreat.

“This isn’t the end of it,” he shouted as he and the others ran away. “You’re mine, Annaleah, and you will always be mine.”

Two of the Araxx followed them down the street, but the werewolves were fast, and they were quickly out of sight.

“You got here just in time,” Adz said as he shuffled to the girl and started to help her up. She was coming out of unconsciousness and was very shaky on her feet. “Gray, help me with her, will you?” Adz turned to look at his brother.

The fire from his fingers had died, but the Araxx had seen the flames and acted instinctively. Two of them, tall well-built men were pointing guns at him.

“Don’t move warlock,” one of them said. He had a deep voice; Mason.

“You’ve got it all wrong,” Jay tried to explain. “He’s with us.”

“Get back Jason, it’s dangerous to be so close to a warlock,” the other said. He had a deep voice too, although not as deep as his comrade. Adz remembered him, he was called Billy and had a reputation for being trigger happy.

Gray held his hands in the air. He knew if he fought to get away they would shoot him down and he might be resilient, but a bullet to the head would surely kill him. He’d never tried it before, and this wasn’t the time to test it.

“It’s okay, Adz,” Gray said.

“Someone, chain him,” Mason said.

A slight woman stepped forward to help Adz with the girl, who was coming to in his arms, and the last man stepped forward to chain Gray’s hands together.

Gray didn’t fight it, and they hadn’t hurt him. They’d be able to explain everything when they got back to the Institute, and Simons would be on their side, so everything would be okay. Adz had to focus on Annaleah, Lee, whatever her name was.

Lee tugged free from their grip and fell to the ground. Quickly she crawled to Vaughan’s lifeless body. “Vaughan?”

She pressed her head against his chest to listen for a heartbeat. Silence. “No,” she whispered as she sat back and folded her knees beneath herself. Why is this happening again? First Bree, now Vaughan. She closed her eyes.

Lee had forgotten about everything around her. None of it mattered. She stared off in the direction she thought the werewolves might have escaped, the only logical direction and placed a hand on the ground in front of her, pushing herself to a standing position.

The wind blew strong, pushing her long red hair behind her in a billowing motion. “I’m going to kill you, Jacob, if it’s the last thing I do. I swear it now,” she said softly. “You dog!” She shouted as loud as she could, then took a step forward.

Someone caught her hand, and Lee pulled away.

“You can’t go after them. You have to come with us,” the woman said from behind Adz who was holding onto her hand The woman stepped forward. “My name’s Tanya, what’s yours?”

Lee snorted a laugh. “Why should I go anywhere with you?” She wasn’t looking at Tanya. She was looking at Adz. “You were here.” She jabbed a finger at him, coming into contact with his pecks. “Why didn’t you stop this from happening?” She gestured at Vaughan on the ground.

“Who was he?” Mason asked.

“A friend,” Lee said.

“Human,” Jay said.

“Oh,” a chorus from the Araxx.

“You have to come with us,” the third man said. His name was Thompson, and he was the youngest aside from Adz and Jay.

Lee half recognised him, but she wasn’t sure where from.

“It’s not safe here. It will be night soon, and you don’t want to be out here when the sun goes...”

“I know you,” Lee said. “I recognise you from somewhere.” She paused to think, and then she remembered. It came back to her in a flash. “You were there. At the castle. You were the one holding Kane back.”

“Yes, why did you run from us?” Thompson asked.

“Now’s not the time for questions like that, we have to get her back to the Institute,” Mason snapped. He was getting irritated.

“I’m not going anywhere with you,” Lee insisted.

“This is useless. We’re never going to get anywhere like this,” Tanya said.

Just as Tanya spoke, Billy stepped around behind her. He pushed the needle he was holding in his hand into Lee’s arm before she even noticed. The contents of the vial emptied into her blood stream and it started working immediately.

“What are you...” Lee’s words trailed off as she fell asleep.

“That was fast,” Thompson remarked.

“It’s designed to take out werewolves and vampires, the stuff has to be strong,” Mason explained. “Get her in the van quickly before she comes to.”

Adz and Jay took an arm each and began to manoeuvre Lee into the van which was parked on the street at the end of the alleyway.

Gray was also led to the van, and although he was heavily chained, he was not sedated.

Before Adz entered the van, he called his drone back in. It had been flying overhead the entire time. No doubt Simons was watching and judging their every move.

Adz looked to Gray. He knew the drone was still recording and Adz assumed that was the main reason for his cooperation. If he didn’t struggle or fight, and it was documented, he’d have a stronger case of him not being a danger. For him to not be like all other warlocks.

Adz hoped it worked.