Fractured A Slated Novel

Chapter FORTY FIVE



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Movement. Dimly perceived but ignored. Until it stops, and a thump of my head against something hard forces me back to now, to my body, to consciousness. I open my eyes, struggle to sit up. Unsure how much time has passed.

I’m on the ground near the house. I feel my arm: the gun that was strapped there is gone. A Lorder with a gun of his own stands close by, pivots towards me when I move, watchful.

Coulson is barking at other Lorders who disappear into the woods: hunting somebody. Who?

Tori is held by a Lorder, one arm pinned behind her back suggesting she’s been giving trouble. Cam is sitting up, facing away. A medic checking his head. Dr Lysander is here also, speaking to Coulson. Katran is – and I swallow – dead: I count him on a list of those whose whereabouts need listing, but shy away from any thought of the gaping loss. Of my part in it.

The only one unaccounted for is Nico. He got away?

Nico runs, and they chase. If caught, will he be shot in the woods like my father on the beach? Like Katran. Both pains are so huge they threaten to take over, engulf me, so all there is, is pain. One current, one years ago but forgotten. Both fresh as today.

Later.

Dr Lysander catches sight of where I’ve been dumped. She leaves Coulson in mid-sentence, and hurries over.

She kneels down, touching, checking, pulling at my clothes. ‘Where are you hurt?’ And I can’t answer, can’t speak. Where don’t I hurt? But then I realise it is all the fresh blood on my clothes that has her attention. Katran’s blood.

‘Not all my blood,’ I manage, a whisper more than words.

Coulson walks over, skirting past a few bodies on the ground. Bodies dressed in Lorder black.

‘I’ve told them you got me out, hadn’t called them in yet for my safety,’ Dr Lysander says, her voice low and hurried.

Everything is remote. Cam was part of the Lorders he claimed to hate? He betrayed you, a voice whispers inside, but even that is something for later. I can’t deal with anything beyond the fact of my father’s death.

And Katran. Coulson killed him. Given a chance Katran would have killed any of these Lorders without thought. And them likewise. Nico kills even his own to further the cause of killing them. ‘What does it all mean? What is it for?’

‘Hush,’ Dr Lysander says, and I realise the last thing I’d said out loud.

‘And there she is,’ Coulson says. ‘Will she live?’ he asks her.

‘I expect so. She needs some stitches.’

His cold eyes sweep across me, assessing. ‘I understand we owe Dr Lysander’s safety to your actions. We will investigate further, and see what has happened here. But tell me now. Who is the one who has eluded us?’

What loyalty do I have to the man who murdered my father?

None.

‘Nico. Nicholas. Surname unknown.’

Coulson pauses, a glint in his eyes. ‘He is known to us.’

He nods at the Lorder whose gun is trained on me. ‘She is free to go. For now.’ He turns to me. ‘I’ll be in touch.’

Tori’s face contorts with fury. She lunges, a sudden movement that surprises her guard. She breaks free and is almost on me before being dragged back.

‘Traitor!’ she screams. ‘Kyla, or Rain, or whoever you are, I’ll get you. I’ll hunt you down and gut you with my knife.’ She is dragged away, thrown in the back of a Lorder van. But not before I see the hate in her eyes.