The Codex of the Knights of Day - 7. Chapter 6: Welcome Home

Chapter 6: Welcome Home
Home, that’s where we were going next, I considered Arkansas my home; that was an embarrassment to say the least. It wasn’t as alive as New Orleans was. It was easy to get up and do something in New Orleans, anything at all; but getting anywhere was a hassle in Arkansas. I missed the food, the energy, the French Quarters and Café Du Monde above all, but the people there. My family, my father’s and grandmother’s family were nothing but lairs, thieves and molesters. In my dreams, I killed them and smiled about it as if a huge weight was lifted off my shoulders. Caleb used to say it was my true nature shining through in those dreams and it scared me. I had be gone so long from these people, would I be able to control myself, knowing about all of their past crimes against my mother and grandmother and great-grandmother.

I believed that Caleb would be the one to stop me if I went too far or if my father found me first and decided to make good on his threat. At first, my mind went to Jensen, he could probably stop me, but I would have to explain everything to him and he already felt bad about my classic abused childhood story, he would end up killing them himself if I told him the rest of my mother’s.

We arrived at the Eclipse point where the dome had spilt the Huey P. Long Bridge in half with its black shell. On the mega camper, there was enough room to put three separate rooms in the back. There were two beds per room and they were twins, leaving very little room to operate. Jensen and I shared one and Sandra and Casey had their own, lucky bastards.

Jensen was already naked when I got to the back. Well, he wasn’t naked; he still had his black boxer briefs. A ripple of lust went through me as I just stared at his body and he let me. I had never noticed how built Jensen was or saw how tightly his briefs hugged his…lower half. God, he was hot. At 6’3”, with blonde hair cut low at the sides and a little more on top that usually swooped low on his forehead. His chest was wide with hard red nipples and tight abs with a trail of dark blonde hair going into his briefs.

Jensen half smiled, stepping closer. “Hey.”

I found myself out of breath just by looking at him. “Hi.” He handed me some black clothes. “What are these?”

“Just the new armored clothes the Colonel had made for us.” He said, unfolding the mesh black jacket with black armor plates.

I threw my shirt off, staring at his ass as he pulled up his pants. In the back of my head I was telling myself to stop but I just couldn’t help it. I wanted to walk up and touch his stomach to feel his hot skin against mine.

“Jensen?” My voice came out shaky.

Jensen gave me worried look. “Are you okay?”

I realized that this was a bad idea. I shouldn’t be talking about sex. “Uh, never mind.”

“Come on, tell me.”

I didn’t dare look back into his eyes or I would do something I would regret. “Nothing, it was stupid.”

Jensen’s nose wrinkled in the cutest way as his face grew serious. “You’re nervous?”

I laughed and said, “Yes, but I’ll get over it.”

He pulled me into a hug, holding my head to his neck. I could lick him if I wanted to. I did want to. His honey tanned neck, probably soft and sweet. What the fuck is happening to me? “It’ll be okay. I promise.”

I patted him on the back and starting pulling away so he wouldn’t feel my hard-on. “Thanks.”

Jensen stopped me from pulling completely away. He looked down and looked back at me, stunned. “Are you…hard?” He sounded disgusted. I tried to wrestle out of his grip, but he was too strong. “Stop, Aiden.”

I hot tears rolled down my face as I struggled to get away. “Let go of me.” I felt pressure building up in the back of my head. “Please Jensen, let me go.”

He pulled me back into him, holding my face as he put his lips on mine. I held my breath as long as I could until I felt his mouth open and his tongue surged past mine. Every atom in my body exploded as I kissed him back harder. He hoisted me up on his waist as I turned savage, wanting nothing more than to feel his naked skin against mine. His tongue danced with mine and we explored each other’s mouth. My hands clawed his back as he gripped my shoulders almost painfully as we rocked against each other.

I found myself climbing on top of him, unzipping his pants with this unfamiliar hunger in my being. I stopped, returning to my senses. Shame washed over me. I never felt like this before. When Caleb kissed me, he didn’t bring this out in me.

“I’m sorry.” I whispered.

I tried to get off him but he pulled me back down in his lap, staring at me with his hazel green eyes. “I wanted to do that since I saw you. We’ve done nothing wrong. So please, don’t act like this is a mistake and don’t shut me out.” He kissed me again, gently as if it was a promise.

I chewed on my lip, just letting him hold me. “Why do I feel guilty?”

He smiled, thumbing my lips with curiosity. “You’re over thinking it.”

“Or,” I supplied.

“Or what?”

“Or, that we’re just moving into this way too fast. I mean, a week ago, none of this would have ever happened.” Then my voice got really quiet. “His body’s not even in the ground yet and we’re fighting to get our pants off.”

He gripped my face again. He looked just as sad as I felt. “I’m not arguing that we are going fast but, are we supposed to ignore it? Yes, if everything went according to plan, I would be sulking in the corner of your house while you and Caleb and your friends celebrated his return.”

I pushed him back hard. “So what? You’re happy Caleb’s dead!”

Shock played on his face then rage came after. “What?! No! I’m just saying that we can slow down, not stop. I like you, Aiden. I found you cute even when you punched me in the face. Hell, when I saw Hellion’s face, I was pissed because I thought you were trying to- I don’t know. Keep him alive in some way.”

I took a step back surprised. “You like me? You just met me and you already like me.”

He stood there with his hands on his hips, God he looked so hot mad. “You like me too, or you wouldn’t have been hard both times we got close.” He laughed at the expression on my face. “Oh, what, you thought I didn’t feel it then?” He came closer. “Aiden, I promise, I won’t try anything you’re not ready for. I’m just fine with holding your hand.”

I pulled away from him again. “It’s just too much right now. I can’t be with you, at least, not right now.”

He looked defeated but nodded. “Okay, but don’t wait too long.” He warned.

It was too much to be around him so I changed in the bathroom. The new uniforms were futuristic looking. The jacket was made out of what felt like Kevlar with black fiber glass plates covering the arteries from the neck to my abdomen and the pants were roughly the same thing. It was tight fit but not uncomfortable where you have to pull at the collar.

Everyone was dressed and ready when I came out of the Mega camper, which we hide off the bridge a few miles away. We each had a color in the piping that would identify us to the others. Casey’s was white, while Sandra’s was light green, Jensen’s was the deep red of Sparky’s cape, and mine was the burnt orange of Hellion’s swords.

Casey leaned against the car, staring up to see how high the dome went. “I bet you’re happy to be home. Well, not that it’s being attacked by demons, but its home, right?”

I didn’t say anything to credit or discredit his assumption. “Come on.”

I have to say I was so nervous that my knuckles where white from gripping the steering wheel too hard. I looked to Jensen, who just stared at me, biting his lower lip. He put his hand upon mine, giving it a light squeeze. “Do you want me to drive?”

My felt my head shaking ‘no’ but screamed ‘yes’ in my mind. I didn’t want to try to save them. I had tried to disown that ‘family’ and now I was being brought back.

I revved the engine and shot forward into darkness. Entering an Eclipse is like when a movie is starting and the lights go so dim that you can’t see anything until your eyes adjust from the lack of it. As a Knight, my vision is like an infrared camera. Everything has the black and white look but with the helmets on, it is night vision essentially.

I slammed my foot on the brakes upon seeing the flood of people that just surrounded us. A few tried to escape through the hole that we just made but it closed so fast that people were severed in two or lost a limb(s).

Someone with a loud speaker said, “Exit the car with your hands up or we will shoot.” A spotlight so bright hit us, illuminating the people around us back into colors instead of their gray looks.

We exited the car carefully with Sandra’s force field spell covering us just in case. The crowd moved back like water and a flood of guns and red beams hit us next. I wonder how well Sandra’s spell would hold up if we had to take them down. Two soldiers fell back and the leader stepped up.

“Who are you?” He asked. He looked vaguely familiar. He was older, not much older, maybe early fifties with his brown hair already almost completely gray. He walked with a prostatic right leg that was blown off during Desert Storm. His eyes were brown and alert even when he was unarmed. I had only seen this side of him once, when I was very young and he still was with the military.

I laughed a bit, keeping my hand very high. “I thought Mrs. Connelly said to throw out that uniform.”

Dale Connelly striped off my helmet and a pleasant yet simple smile curled the end of his lips. “Well, I’ll be damned. Aiden, is that you?” I felt my face heat up at the sound of recognition. “Yep, I’ve never seen anyone’s face turn beat red as easily as yours.”

Dale waved them to stand down and I put my sore arms down. He clapped me on the back in relief, “What are you doing here?”

We started filling him in on what had happened in the past week. He was stunned for a moment, taking a step back, which put the other soldiers on edge, and he barked at them to go back to their duties before we appeared. Dale brought us to his tent, where all of the other senior officers, who stared at all of us, especially my forehead. Dale Connelly was my grandfather’s neighbor since they moved there I think, about 30 or so years.

Dale sat down and un-strapped his legs, muttering under his breath about how much he hated the damn thing to begin with. “So, you’ll be searching all of New Orleans for a demon leader? How will you be tracking him down?”

I sat facing him with Sandra to my left and Casey on my right, leaving Jensen on Sandra’s end. I didn’t mean for it to end up like that but now, that I’ve realized my sudden feelings for him, it might be better. “The demon leader is easier to pick out from normal demons. They retain their human form but they have this deep Mediterranean tan and there’s a symbol on their forehead similar to mine.”

He looked pained by all of this. “And you’re the only one can kill them?” I nodded. “What about people like you?”

I didn’t know what he meant by that. “People like me?”

Dale grimaced at what he was about to say. “When we were leaving, your grandparents had boarded up their house already but we saw Carlisle break in with Kendall. They both had symbols on their heads.”

I gasped as if someone stabbed me deep in the gut. My being a Knight was through genetics, not personal merit. When it came to Knights, I liked to believe Knights were people who deserved it, not born. I haven’t done anything great or wonderful in my life, but I thought it was me that made me a Knight, not blood.

I flinched at Casey’s touch, “Whoa, Aiden, are you alright?”

I was breathing so hard and heavy, I sounded and felt that I had ran a marathon. My mouth was dry; my knuckles were white with tension and shaking furiously that they were outlined in orange. I sprinted outside to wander around the base for a few minutes. My muscles had tightened, ready for a fight, but no demons to take it out on. The smell of blood hit me with its sweet metallic smell. I was standing outside the medics’ tent, which was full with injured people, tired medics, and screaming patients.

The children were the easiest and the quietest out of the bunch. I guess when you’re a kid, you can check out mentally easier than an adult who have had enough bad experiences to deal with the pain, even if they didn’t want to be awake. Next, came the teens and the most endangered patients, and not in that exact order. People had started running (limping) to me with renewed hope and vigor, but the real medics continued to do their job.

“Oh god,” The head medic cursed as two soldiers came in with a man on a gurney. “Aiden!”

There was a swarm of people there before I could think of getting up from my seat. The man they brought in had had his left arm bitten off in ragged stripes with the bones and marrow showing through the mass of shredded meat.

I stumbled over myself, realizing that my body had become numb from healing too much. My body started moving again, but I didn’t feel like I was controlling it.

The arm had been ripped off right below the artery and tourniquet had been dirtied and blood stained but it held perfect. I applied my shaking hands to his wound and he bellowed into the night air, as a hound would do. Neither light came from my fingertips nor did any pain bite into my arm. I tried again but nothing but blood wet my fingers.

I felt someone touch my shoulder. “We’re going to cauterize the wound.”

I saw the red-hot iron pan heating over the fire. “No, let me try again.”

The man screamed as I pressed my hands to his wounds. The crushing emotions in my chest suddenly disappeared and bright, searing, painful light shot out my hands. I tried to shield my eyes from the light as everyone in the tent had done but my body surrendered to the magic. It was painful and hot and it only grew brighter.

My nose suddenly burned from the scent of something sharp and pungent. The awful light was gone but there still were little gray spots dancing on my vision. Jensen had to help sit me up, but every part of my body popped and cracked as if I had begun to petrify.

He pulled me into his arms carefully. “Are you okay?” My mouth was too dry to talk, but when I tried to reach for the glass of water, Jensen stopped me, turning my palm upwards. “You haven’t healed yet, the light hurt you.” My hands were red and angry like third degree burns. The orange light shone through my cracked skin, leaving my hands new and unburned with the healthy pink skin.

I sagged against Jensen again, feeling the heat rolling off his body. “Thank you.”

He kissed me on the forehead and sighed. “I’m just glad that you’re okay.”

I hadn’t noticed that he had intertwined our hands. They looked good together. “What happened exactly?”

I felt him shaking his head in confusion. “When I got there, it was already over, the medics said that they were about to cauterize his arm when the sun basically came out of you and healed everyone around you.” He chuckled at his next thought before he told me. “You had us scared shitless. When the light shot out of you, there was a kickback that landed you a few yards from the medical tent.”

“How long was I out?” I asked.

Jensen sat up to grab his watch that was sitting on the nightstand next to us where I realized we were in the barrack tent in a bed together. “It is…4:32 in the morning.”

I stood up to stretch my sore muscles. “Were you awake the whole time?”

Jensen ran a hand through his hair. His eyes were half-opened and bloodshot as he stretched and got comfortable under the sheets. “Mostly, I went to sleep for an hour and woke up right before you did.”

I climbed back in bed with him, feeling half-obligated and wanting to. “Just go back to sleep.”

Jensen mumbled something, but too tired to put in enough effort to tell me and he was out like a light. It was an odd feeling to have Jensen in bed with me while I was completely awake. I had to have slept at least 17 hours since we arrive in New Orleans around ten in the morning so I had already slept almost a whole day, a whole day of demons and abominations running around and terrorizing people while I was sleeping.

Humans alone were dangerous to one another and coupled with threat, people become much worse and more selfish and those with power like Sandra or me could be hundreds of times worse. I nearly cursed aloud, remembering what Dale said about the marking on Carlisle’s and Kendall’s foreheads.

He looked…cute as I slipped out of Jensen’s bed. I have to admit, I thought about kissing him before leaving but it wasn’t the time for that. Making my way out I saw Sandra and Casey sleeping in the other beds down the way, each sleeping in their body armor. I couldn’t see how that was comfortable but stranger things had happened. The whole camp was sleeping and only a few half-awake soldiers kept watch. One side of me said I could sneak away, go to Carlisle, and see if it’s true. I had always assumed that he would be a demon that I would simply let Hellion’s sword carve into him with a strange demented glee.

“I see you can’t sleep either.” Dale said on his approach to me. He looked me over once and nodded, saying, “You were always a fast healer.” I shrugged my shoulders, not having an opinion on his statement. “So what are you doing out here?”

I glanced to the truck, feeling my legs begin to flex in anticipation of running to it. “I’m thinking about Carlisle and Kendall.”

If Dale was surprised, he didn’t show it. All he did was fold his arms over his chest, drawing his lips into a tight line. “If I knew that it would affect you this much, I would’ve kept to myself.”

“It would be pointless because I would have to go over there eventually. You just saved me the trouble of thinking theories how to locate Knights.” I said honestly. “Where are they?”

“You’re not thinking about going alone to track them down, are you?” He waited until I promised I wouldn’t go alone. “They’re in Woodmere.”

I turned to face him, feeling detached from my emotions. “That’ll be our last stop. First, Champagne, then Marrero and Gretna, and lastly, Harvey, to see if they’re all alive.” It was the locations of my main family line. I started walking away until Dale grabbed my arm.

The look of fear was clear on his face. I wonder whom he was afraid of. “Don’t do anything you’ll regret.”