Chapter 4

Sonia changed into the black dress and, carrying the boy, stopped the first car that came up along the road. It was a delivery van, empty of goods from the way it moved. Two other cars passed by before it finally parked by their side. The driver was a man in his thirties, quite good-natured she could tell, and she was sorry to do what she was about to do. She looked into his eyes once and he was instantly enthralled. It was more than the spell of beholding the gaze of a beautiful woman. Sonia needed him to be more than chivalrous; she needed him obedient and discreet.

"Take us to the nearest motel," she said in clear Hungarian. The driver started the car and Sonia, carrying the boy, started to climb in but then froze suddenly.

It took several seconds for her to recollect herself and get in the van. The driver waited patiently as if he had all the time in the world; right then, nothing mattered but what Sonia wished. Such was the power of the charm. He started the vehicle and nosed into the road without another word.

Sonia said nothing too and nearly thought nothing throughout the fifteen-minute journey. The boy breathed steadily against her chest, so fragile and tender. Her mind kept flashing back to that moment just before she got them into the van, when she froze. An image had appeared before her -- of Raymond and the unfortunate souls whose bodies he stole to extend his life indefinitely. That image came to her then because the driver of the van was about to suffer a similar fate at her own hand, and a mocking whisper at the back of her head challenged her to prove how she was better than that monster.

She had found respite in the fact that her enthralling charm merely put the mind of her victim to sleep, without injury. The driver would wake up the next morning without having any memory of ever meeting her. But with Raymond, every soul whose body he stole was lost to the Void for all eternity.

The driver wouldn't accept the credit card, or any payment whatsoever when they stopped at the motel's parking lot. Sonia knew why, so she didn't press him. She knew that what he desired over anything right then was to possess her body, but he didn't have any atom of free will within himself to ask or make any advances. She simply ordered him to go on his journey as if the last forty minutes never happened.

Carrying the boy, Sonia went to the motel reception to get a room. The girl behind the desk didn't ask any questions, which was all the better because it would sicken her to have to compel another person needlessly. The girl accepted the credit card and returned it a few seconds later with a receipt, before getting a key and leading Sonia to a room. There was hot water, the girl said, and takeouts could be ordered from a diner nearby.

Sonia thanked her and managed to hide her impatience to have the girl moving along. Inside the room, Sonia lay the boy on the bed locked the door. Then she went into the bathroom to take a shower. Hot or cold, the temperature of the water didn't matter because her skin automatically adjusted its conductivity to check extreme temperatures. She nearly had to drag herself out of the shower as the water was just so refreshing. She came out having wiped off most of the water with a towel... and was shocked to find the room empty.

*

Sonia looked around with more than her eyes, reaching beyond the room and even the motel but couldn't feel any trace of him at all. In contrast, the receptionist was at her desk chewing gum, and Sonia could also tell that seven of the motel's twelve rooms were unoccupied.

"So you were real," a voice said quietly from behind her.

Sonia turned with a start to find the boy standing unimposingly a few yards away. It was impossible. No one could conceal their presence so completely that she couldn't find a trace of their soulfire. She had felt even the tiniest trickles flowing in the empty air outside, so how could a sapient hominid, with all their metabolic reactions and restless thoughts...?

"I thought it was a dream," he said, now walking. He walked like an older man, wearily, as if each step was of extreme consequence in the grand scheme of things. He went and sat in the only chair in the room, and watched her watching him.

All of this was done in the dark, of course. Sonia didn't turn on the lights when she came in, having no real need to, and the boy appeared to possess nightvision as potent as hers. Then there was that thing he did to fool her... .

"How did you do that?" she asked, feigning similar nonchalance.

"Do what?"

"When I came out of the bathroom, you were gone," she said. "I know. I checked. But you were here the whole time."

The boy shrugged. He was quiet for a beat, like he was being forced to reveal a secret, but it wasn't that.

"I can do a lot of things that are hard for me to explain," he said, and went quiet again.

She tried to focus on his brain activity, out of fascination, to try and discern his state of mind from the electric charges that were highly sensitive to changes in emotional states, so that she could understand this being the like of which she'd never come across in the roughly one thousand years she had walked the earth. But he glanced apprehensively at her suddenly and shut her out. Right then, he became to her heightened senses like any other piece of furniture in the room, giving off only minute traces of his existence.

Sonia knew that she was failing to conceal her own excitement over this remarkable boy, even though something kept screaming at her that only a few hours ago her magical radar thought him to be Raymond  -- or did it think Raymond was him?

Awareness of that paradox was what was finally able to temper her excitement and get her thinking like someone with a job to do. The kid wasn't Raymond. Whatever it was that confused her senses back then, it was gone now. The boy's soulfire was as singular and unique as that of every living or non-living manifestation of nature in the universe. But there was a relationship.

"What's your name?" she asked him.

She had to use her eyes now to observe him as he only earlier rendered most of her other senses useless. She could see that he was pondering earnestly over the question. She gave him time to come to whatever conclusion he was deliberating on.

Finally, he shrugged and said, "It won't mean anything to you."

Which, she had to admit, irritated her a little. She wasn't playing games.

She said, "I'm going to have to ask that you do better than that."

He glanced sharply at her and she shuddered. Her words must have sounded to him like a threat, or an attempt to impose on his will, and he clearly didn't like that. Not for the first time since arriving in that motel, Sonia flashed back to the battle in the woods, and how she would have been overpowered were it not for the boy. It was clear that she was going to have to take a softer approach and attempt to gain his trust, which would be more time-consuming, but what better choice did she have?

Kyle felt his body absentmindedly, looking for any discomfort to show that he had woken up prematurely. Usually, he wouldn't wake until his body was in top condition, unless there was some sort of mortal danger nearby. At the moment, he felt fine. His hand slid down to his pocket and only managed to stop himself from taking out the note. Dalia wasn't anybody's business. He simply needed to get out of the country--and perhaps out of Europe entirely, lay low for a few years, before starting to search for her. She was good--much more than a mere doctor. He knew that she would leave trails he could follow.

He chuckled, and returned to the present. With its monsters and strange women, with the blood in his hands and the guardians who protected everything but the interests of their wards. The smile left his face, and his heart.

Sonia saw the boy suddenly stand up and say, "I think I'll be on my way. I hope I don't need to tell you not to go back into that forest--

Sonia stood up as he began to walk away and sharply said, "Wait!"

Kyle stopped talking and glared at her. He felt absurd for a moment, frowning at a person in the dark, but then realized that she could very likely see him, so he frowned harder and said, "Yes?"

"Sit down, please," Sonia said, sitting down. "I need to speak with you."

Kyle didn't move for a moment, but then he sighed and sat down. He said, "I'm listening. But I really can't stay; you need to understand that. For your own safety, in fact. People are coming for me. And they are not nice people."

Sonia remained quiet to ensure that he'd finished, before she spoke. She said, "I'm looking for someone. A man. Throughout the extensive period of time I've known him he has looked like -- and literally has been -- a completely different person every time I saw him. But I usually have an infallible means of finding him no matter what form he takes, wherever he is on the planet... ." Sonia paused, unsure of how to continue. Outside, the sky was starting to grow lighter in shades. And she saw that he noticed it too.

At least he was polite enough to not cut her off. She said, "I went to that forest last night following his... scent, and I found you instead."

Kyle's brows furrowed. He said, "I think you're forgetting that I wasn't the only thing you found down there."

Sonia shook her head. She said, "That changes nothing. Raymond--" She froze at that slip,  but realized that it didn't matter. "His name is Raymond," she said, "and he has always had a penchant for attracting dangerous forces in the name of power."

"What are you saying?" Kyle said.

"I want to know why following Raymond led me to you. Up until the moment you... killed that thing I still thought you were him."

"And how about now?"

"Now it's... it's different. You seem to be someone else entirely."

Kyle shrugged with a look that said, Well, there you go. But then something came to mind and he said, "Just asking: you don't seem to be fond of this Raymond; so why won't you stop looking for him?"

"He took something from me."

"And you're trying to get it back?"

Sonia didn't answer.

"You were planning to take something else from him."

Sonia said nothing.

"Preferably his life, right? Because something tells me that what he took from you can never be made whole again."

Sonia stared at this boy who could discern the whispers of her soul this easily.

Kyle got to his feet. "I don't know any Raymond," he said, "or anyone for that matter. I have to go. Unlike you, I would rather not murder people if I can help it."

"Millions of people have suffered because of him alone--

"Then why do you feel so responsible?"

Sonia couldn't tell him that.

"Goodbye," Kyle said. "I can't help you kill anyone. Not unless they'd kill me if I don't, sorry." And with that, he was gone.

Sonia sighed. She wore her black dress and went to the motel's reception where the girl from last night was getting ready to clock off her night shift when Sonia got her to call a taxi.

*

The New Age Institute for Creativity and Innovation had two main operational areas, each with its own sophisticated network of systems and micro-facilities. The main block, which was the first area accessible from the front gates, was reserved mainly for the public, made up of the largest building in the property where most lectures and entertainment activities took place and two smaller buildings for accommodating students, visitors and regular company staff. Much further behind, closer to the woods, were several smaller buildings, one-third of which were arranged in the fashion of military barracks with elaborate urban warfare courses and firing ranges stretching off to the side. That, along with a stout five-story building which had just as many floors underneath, served to further a four-hundred-year-old vision.

Inside one of the numerous operating theaters, a boy of fourteen had just finished carrying out a delicate kidney transplant. As soon as he left the theatre, he found the Director waiting outside with a man he had never seen before.

"Hello, Wyatt," the Director said. "I have someone I need you to meet. Do you have a minute?"

The teenager acted like it was a normal thing for one of the most powerful women in the world to seek his availability before bringing up a proposal, rather than simply making him do what she wanted.

He said, "I guess I could spare a few minutes. Should we go to my... office?"

Sheila said, "Sure, why not?" and let him lead them to said office. Inside, he sat on the couch while they took the chairs. He was eyeing Raymond curiously, and Raymond held his gaze with equal interest.

"Wyatt," Sheila said, to break the staring contest. The boy blinked and looked at her. She continued: "This here is... the owner of this whole place -- everything you see here. None of the things we do, none of the things you have seen and witnessed all these years would have been possible without his vision... . And then there's one other thing... ."

Most other people would have at least feigned interest and prompted her to go on by asking one other thing, but the boy only held them both in a grim gaze. He looked like he was straining against some kind of pressure, perhaps accumulated fatigue from eighteen hours of surgical operation. But everyone knew that physical fatigue wasn't a biological condition applicable to Wyatt... or his two siblings.

"He's also my father," Sheila said. "As well as yours."

The fourteen-year-old master physician didn't act like it meant anything to him. His brows furrowed and he appeared rigid as a concrete column, but he had been like that since the start of the conversation. An awkward silence followed... for a few seconds.

Wyatt chuckled at a thought and said, "Well, I appreciate that it means something to you, but... what exactly does that mean? I'm -- forgive me for being blunt, but I don't understand why you want me to be excited?"

Sheila flushed. She had never expected to be in this position before. She stole a glance at her father and saw that he was smiling with keen interest, as if it was all well and good.

Raymond smiled. He said, "You're right. To be frank, the word never meant much to me. Personally, I'd prefer if you called me Raymond over father... ." He adjusted himself in his seat, somehow taking up twice as much space as he had before, without even being aware of it, but he could see that he had the boy's attention.

Wyatt chuckled. He said, "You're good with words." Then he shrugged. "What do you want me to do?"

Raymond said, "Right now, I want you to meet one more member of the family."