Fangs of Fate (Untish #1)

Chapter 20

CHAPTER TWENTY

TATE

The metal chair under my leg was cold, pristine. It, like this room, boasted a sterile presence. The room’s walls were white, the chrome table in front of me was freshly polished, reflecting the light from the large windows blanketing the southern wall. The other table across from me was a white marble slab with black streaking through it. Three chairs. There were three empty chairs. I knew his High Lordship would be there, likely head of the guara, but who would occupy the third? I sincerely hoped it would not be the president.

I had been waiting in here for the past hour. It was now noon. Just like them to keep me waiting. I had practiced what I would say, my sad eyes, and thought of a few faithful things I could say about the guara, President Dale, and Mother Blood. If I could garner their favor, they may treat me like a minor. I wouldn’t be twenty-one for two months yet, so they could legally rule and place judgment on me as a minor or adult. I prayed for the former.

The door opened and three figures entered. Finally. The first was, of course, his High Lordship Lee. He was followed by Chairman Meed and Hoseff. It made sense, I supposed, that the council chairman would be present along with security. Still, my nerves were amped. These three could issue a verdict and short of execution, they could carry anything out. For it to be execution without a trial, the president would also have to be present and vote accordingly. My fingers dug into my palms. They couldn’t kill me. Well, not yet.

They took their seats and pulled out their disks, reviewing the files. The projection was, naturally, one-sided.

“Tate Aaralyn,” Meed started after clearing his throat. “I see here you’ve landed in Disciplinary Hearing for overfeeding and breaking the no-kill law veil side. Is this correct?” Meed looked up from his thick round glasses that somehow stayed perched on his stubby nose.

“Yes, chairman.”

“Hmmm, and this is the second adult violation we have on file. The first it appears occurred...” He squinted looking closer to the screen, the angle of his head making his chin appear to be a banana—sharp and irregularly shaped. “Ahh, yes. It appears you left a corpse to be found veil side a few years back. Is that correct?”

“It is.” It had been the first overfeed I’d committed veil side. I’d lost control of myself and couldn’t stop. I had just transitioned, and the guy had been a rapist and even sitting here now, I didn’t regret ending him in the least.

“It looks like your minor file is quite large. Minor infraction at thirteen, fifteen, several at sixteen, and well,” he looked up from the screen, “it appears you were busy at seventeen. Accessing restricted texts from the library, speaking of forbidden myths, and then this past spring, you’ve gotten in two bar brawls where your disdain for the guara has been documented.” He took off his glasses and tilted his angular head to look me over. “Tell me, why this pattern of rebellion? Are our laws so cumbersome that you had to break several of them?”

It was a rhetorical question. I knew that and yet his gaze made me squirm. I wanted to tell him Irene Aaralyn was why; she inspired curiosity, was accepting of all, and a warrior at heart. And they killed her in cold blood. Not even a council trial, a DH like this with President Dale present, and she never came home. Before that, sure it had been youthful wanderlust and testing of boundaries, learning as my mother encouraged, but now I seethed at the mere presence of the guara in my life.

I bit the inside of my cheek. I could do this. I could get through this; those were just minor infractions. I needed to appear as a minor. I cast my face down, staring at my hands that were gripped together so hard they were splotched in white.

“And Lordship Lee, we have evidence of the overfeed?”

“Yes, our security recovered the head hanging from a tree branch.”

I cringed. What had I been thinking? Clearly, overfeeding left a weird blood-high and my critical thinking took a hit.

“Bush. It was a bush, and it was on the side of a cliff.” I couldn’t stop the reply before it was flying out of my mouth.

“You will remain silent unless spoken to.” Meed’s voice amplified in the small room. Gone was the elderly male and replaced was one who promised violence. I locked my jaw and bit the inside of my cheek.“Since you have spoken as an adult vampire would, and this is not your first infraction or overfeed, you will be tried as an adult.”

The room began to spin. This was the worst thing.

“But I’m only?—”

My words were stolen from my lungs as the whole room hummed from the power of Meed’s judgment magic. He had activated the Judgement Ruling. It was too late.

“Tate Aaralyn, I’ve seen enough. Second no-kill violation in less than ten years. Criminal juvenal history. Unauthorized, classified documents accessed in our library at seventeen. You are trouble. A second-rate citizen. Tardy for the clinic and the veil check-ins.” He looked to High Lordship Lee. “I don’t see her doing much good to the Glenn with her presence.” He nodded in response.

Meed paused, weighing his words carefully. “It likely would have gone this way in two months’ time anyways.” He returned eyes of steel to mine, raising his hands as he did so. “Forced guara enlistment.” He slammed his hands down to the marble table, the sheer shimmer shining from them pulsed and blanketed my head. It spun before plummeting down, clinging to my skin with enough force to blow my hair up in several directions. Hoseff squinted. Meed sealed his ruling.

The magic began to settle on me, the force of it and its implications were too much. My stomach turned and roiled within. I squirmed, but the force of the magic only intensified.

“Lordship Lee, which outpost needs more soldiers?” Meed’s words began to fade. I wasn’t sure if I should be concerned or grateful that he didn’t seem surprised by my movement.

Enlistment? This couldn’t be happening. I couldn’t be sent to an outpost. This was a bad dream. I dug my fingers deeper into my palm, willing myself to wake from this nightmare and for my stomach to calm. Pain ached from the pressure of my nails; this was a nightmare, but it was also reality. I could feel the judgment resting on me, clinging to my body, sinking deep into the very essence of who I was. There would be no fighting this, at least not this side of the veil. Magic would confirm the ruling and breaking it would entail taking one’s essence from themselves once it was fully bound.

“Eastern Outpost it is. Tate Aaralyn you are hereby sentenced to the guara, effective immediately. You will be on the next circuit to the EO in two days. This is to be your service to the Glenn and shall be from now hence until the council should find a better use for you.” He tapped the disk and the blue light faded from the room. “Dismissed.”

And just like that, my world changed. The loose tingling from the ruling no longer teased at my skin, it sunk deeply, clawing its way through the barrier that was my flesh and wrapped itself around my core, encasing itself around the tiny bit of magic I possessed. I would be sent to the outpost as a member of the guara.

Hoseff stood up from the judgment table and approached my tiny tin desk. He looked bored, as if he’d seen a Judgment Ruling occur on the regular—his face set in a grimace.

“Worst part of the job.” He shook his head. “Come with me.” Without so much as giving me a chance to respond, he grabbed my arm and lifted me to my feet. I tried to resist, but the moment I did so, my inside began to scream. Magic would not be put off. I ceased my fight and numbly followed him. All my life I dreaded the idea of joining the guara. Feared it above all else. And now, I was willfully moving my feet to the very thing that claimed my mother’s life. She was a great anax for the guara, she did everything right, and in the end, they thanked her by stripping her of her life, her essence.

Hoseff pushed open a door to what appeared to be a clinic and pushed me toward the gurney. A tall male in a lab coat approached, disk in hand. Next to the bed was a tray of needles. Long and short, all terrifyingly sharp.

“Alright Jim, just another enlistment number. Meed’s Judgment Ruling is in place. Indefinite. Forced via Disciplinary Hearing. I just dropped you her file,” Hoseff said.

Jim nodded, as he moved his fingers through the air, controlling the holographic screen in front of him. “Yes, yes. Very standard. Secure her.”

Before I could react, Hoseff had pinned my left and right arm to the table, while Jim pulled straps up from the table sides and secured them to my wrists. I bucked and tried to break free, but then Hoseff lowered his body to mine, and the pressure became too much. My insides began to shrink, the internal pressure on my lungs and heart was not just from Hoseff’s weight, but from my attempt at fighting magic. I couldn’t breathe. Jim bound my ankles next and secured me to the gurney. Hoseff removed himself from me leaving an unpleasant dusting of sweat against my body.

“All yours.” With that, he left, and Jim pulled over a rolling stool and sat down next to me.One glance confirmed no one else was in here.

“They always fight and it never makes a difference.” He chuckled. “Youths think they can outmuscle magic. It just goes to show the strength of their undeveloped brains.” He tsked.

Who was he talking to?

He loaded a cartridge into a chamber and then selected a rather long needle from the tray and attached it to the gun he was holding.Momentarily he peered at me, looking me over with his greasy eyes. “I think silver is a good color for her too.”

With that, he pulled back my shirt’s sleeve and began to tattoo the guara insignia on my shoulder. The pain was instant. This wasn’t just ink; I could feel the magic binding the tattoo in my body. It burned, it consumed, it bonded to me. Gone were all thoughts of hate, of the reality I found myself in, I could only think of the pain. Of the smell of my skin burning, the tingling and stabbing pain radiating up and down my arm. I could feel it sinking deeper into me, deeper into my being mingling with my magic. Like a cat rubbing its back across my magic trying to understand it. To bind with it. I pulled my magic deep within me. The action angering the force attempting to bind resulting in a flash of pain, like my nerves were being separated from my body. The magic from the ruling reached up to meet the pen, embracing the ink and showing it around my being—pulling back the shades to my small kernel of magic within.

I tried to fight it, but the needle made contact with my skin again and I relinquished a scream as my lungs seized. I began to shake uncontrollably only to find another strap being applied across my chest, and then another.

After a brief moment of pausing to switch needles, Jim’s face came hovering back into view. “There now, the worst is done.” He lied. A moment later, the humming from his pen sounded, and then came more pain. I closed my eyes and bit down on the side of my cheek. Blood filled my mouth, I spat it in his direction. I could taste my own blood and it made my stomach turn. I tried to move, to fight, but it was all in vain. The needle came back down and with it a whole new wave of pain.