The Red Zodiac Brotherhood: Succubus Knight

Lady Earth · 06-13-2008

Hey there. Well, after working for a while now, I have finally been able to post the first chapter of the novel I am writing. I hope that you all enjoy it and reviews are always welcomed. However, porting the chapter here has taken away the italics and the indentions for starting a paragraph; but I still know you will be able to tell when people are thinking or releaving a mamory. I did do my best to place italics in here as much as I could.

Chapter One: Concealed

“Noctem Aeternus…What does that mean?” the young woman asked herself while carefully examining the envelope in her hand.

Her long raven hair swayed with the gentle breeze, whilst the knee-length black and blue lace trim skirt she wore slowly joined in as the wind’s deceptive draft gain in strength. The royal blue t-shirt untucked and wrinkled made her look sloppy; as if she cared none of the way she dressed. She wore no shoes to protect her from the cold cement, her figure is plum and even though she seems delicate and as if she were ill, there is an inner beauty radiating from every part of her body.
However, what sets her apart from all the other girls her age in the south of France is her skin. Her pale-ash skin-for which many have created stories as to what the reason for the color-is the very first thing people notice. She has since long gotten used to the whispers of the townsfolk as she passes them by. She has even learned to use their fears as her advantage. And while others do frighten upon her sight, others like the children at her fathers Karate school have learned to see her as a friend.
Still, if the town’s people were top be asked by tourist to describe her in one word, this would most likely be something similar to: Spectral. But none of that matters to her.
“Hmm…Strange for there to be mail on such a gloomy day,” a cat the color of copper with big green eyes sat staring up. “After all, it does seem like it will snow.” The cat spoke without moving its mouth.
“Tell me, Zephyr, did you happen to see any one come near Rose Cottage during your morning hunt?”
“No, Master. I even took longer than usual leaving the cottage this morning!” Zephyr replies.
“I see,” the young woman whispered.
The golden letter upon the envelope slightly glowed with the fading light of the sun. The handwriting was quite comparable with someone who took great care of each letter.
Rustling from the near by forest caught their attention. Zephyr’s ears went up listening for any danger that could come at them. Her stance became one of warning as the rustling got closer and closer.
Zephyr hissed, “Master, stay back!”
Doing as told the young woman took a few steps toward the door, behind Zephyr.
Suddenly from among the brush three animals burst from different sides. The first an orange flame, the second was like a pale cold star, and the third dark as a moonless night. All three uncaring of the two they had scared.
Zephyr and her master exhaled at the sight of the other cats. “Seriously, don’t those three ever think!!?” Zephyr exclaimed kicking a pebble from the path connecting the main entrance and steps. Here I was already for a good fight and all I get is…ahhh man!!
“Admit it Zephyr, your just plain disappointed! I bet that just like the other Koia you were expecting one of the Utama.”
“Uh-huh…I mean NO WAY!!”
“Zephyr, it’s come to my attention that you and the other Koia have been leaving close to around midnight to petrol the town ever since your return two weeks ago.”
The cat’s jaw dropped open. I should have predicted as much! This is going to be hard to explain. “Master…We have not been patrolling the town at all! We all merely take a night stroll to lose weight. After all have you seen how much weight I’ve gained from hunting all those mice?”
“No it isn’t! And you’re not fat, just puffy and you know that. Zephyr I know you better than you think! Now what’s up with you?”
The cat blinked, “I don’t understand your question.”
Tucking the enveloped on the right side pocket of her skirt the young woman turned her attention to the other cats. “What’s wrong with you? Why have you and the other cats been acting on your guard all the time? Has something happen that I do not know about?”
The door to the cottage opened, “Morning!!”
Zephyr was the first to answer, “Morning, Master Fanell!!” THANK THE GODS OF OLYMPUS!!!
A draft of chilling air surrounded them all, entered the cottage so swiftly and angry that it caused the fire burning within the antique chimney to die. The man standing at the door although in a suit and ready for work could fill something in the wind that had not been there a month ago.
“God, it’s freezing out here!!” Fanell exclaimed rubbing his hands together in a gesture to warm them up. He took a quick glance at his daughter who had done nothing to admonish his presence. At the sight of her feet he had to grin and give her points for it. “You know Ari, you might want to act more like us normal humans and put on some shoes once in a while. Especially since the weather is changing.” Among other things…
Ari looked down at her bare feet, “Huh? I see nothing wrong with my feet.”
Fanell shook his head, “Do the words winter, cold, or snow make sense to you?”
Tranquil and staring at her feet, “Winter is when the sky’s hue becomes one of sorrow and tears. And even if some do enjoy it, it will always carry pain into one’s heart. Cold is just a word to describe something or someone who shows no emotion; a lack of humanity you might say. Snow. Snow is the memories of mountains elapsed by mankind and lost to the eyes. Soulless dreams floating above of us. That is winter, cold, and snow for me.”
“Okay, fine, I get your heater,” Zephyr said sarcastically. Can you say DRAMA!?
“Not the answer I was expecting,” Fanell whispered scratching his head. Better change the subject here. “I got home pretty late last night. Sorry if I made too much noise.”
“Didn’t hear you come in. did you sleep at all?”
“Not really,” a faint smile and yawn added to his honesty.
“I as well found myself unable to sleep…”
Father and daughter exchanged a brief gaze. Their thoughts one and the same.
A cool draft mingled with the leafless branches of the tree forest. The cats which had been so playful, now sat motionless. Their eyes locked on their masters.
“So it appears they’ve perceived it too,” the orange flame cat communicated to the others.
“If that is so Neptune, the other members have picked up the vibrations as well,” the black cat added.
“Given the circumstances we have been informed of Hera, the attacks on two of the main families of the Brotherhood are due to the aura permeating the earth’s atmosphere.”
“But weren’t the males the ones mainly experiencing the attacks?” the pale cold star cat mussed. “It wasn’t later that the females began to experience the same symptoms.”
“Never the less Zeus, for now all we can do is keep an eye out. Our continuous patrol of the town has shown no sign of an enemy demon in sight.”
“I wonder,” Hera said, “do you think one of the Sixteen Homunculus could have been released?”
Neptune and Zeus stared at Hera. Neither of them wanted to acknowledge that she could be right for so many untold reasons. For more than six hundred years the dark spirits once under the power of the Methmui had been sealed within sacred barrels created by the founders of the Brotherhood.
“Neptune, Zeus, Hera!” Ari’s voice snapped them out from their reverie. “Time for breakfast you guys.”
Hera sprinted in the air, “About time!”
Ari followed her father inside halting just a minute to make sure the felines were in. Smiling she saw the uplifted tails and turned to look around the antique Victorian Cottage her father had restored as soon as he’d bought it. Ari had been six then. To her left the renovated Victorian drawing room, the chandelier exported from Italy after being fixed hung above the signs of the zodiac hidden in between the crystals sparkled with the glow of the candles she’d lit at five in the morning. The mantle on the chimney held a medium size clock carved into the wood, and on either side of it pictures. An oriental rug adorned with intriguing designs and patterns that only few would recognize covered the wooden floor. Two ruby sofas and table lamps at either side added to the comforting feeling of the room.
Pictures hung on both sides of the long foyer. Some from when her father was younger and in the military, others of friends, pets, herself, and places she and her father had visited. Everything one could imagine from any part of the Earth, cultures, and people. All except for one single thing…Her mother’s face.
Nowhere in the house can one find a photo of the woman who had loved, and marries William “Bill” Fanell. The woman who later gave birth to a baby girl! No evidence of such a living person. And that was understandable, for when her mother had passed away her father had gotten rid of her memories.
Finally as one neared the opening of the two way hall to the right is the kitchen were Ari catches a glimpse of Christine as the blonde cracks eggs and pours juice in glasses. While to the left, the other corridor leads to the library.
“Morning, Chris!”
“Morning, Mistress Arinayed,” Christine replied smiling at her. “Would you like to eat now?”
“Would I ever!” Zeus exclaimed.
“YO! She’s asking me you good for nothing flat eared RAT!”
The cat hissed, “What did you just call me!?”
Hera stepped in between the two fighting ‘idiots’ as she usually called them. Of course one couldn’t call it a normal day if this two did not shout at each other. “Come on you two! Can’t we ever just have a nice, calm, relaxing meal without you both killing one another? Is not that I have anything against Master Arinayed kicking your ass Zeus—”
Neptune and Zephyr hailed, “Alleluia sister!”
Zeus ****ed his head to the side and glared at them. “Pss. This puny-weak-miserable-human can’t beat a Koia like me!”
“COME CLOSERYOU ASS SNIFING CAT AND I’LL SHOW YOU JUST HOW THIS PUNNY-WEAK-MISERABLE-HUMAN CAN BEAT YOU—”
A grumbling sound cut her outburst short. Even Christine who had been happily shopping carrots stopped to listen. “Master Fanell appears to be hungrier than expected this morning.”
Blinking twice, “How did you know the noise came from him?” I’d sworn it was me.
“My internal sensors and hearing processors have been given a whole maintenance about a month ago. This, plus the new software added to my program gives me the capacity to detect every sound surrounding the state.”
Another growling emanated from her father’s stomach, as the rest of the group was left dumbfounded by the words that had been spoken by the cyborg.
Arinayed snapped out, “So, let me get this straight. Dad ran a full maintenance on you thus amplifying your programming and because of that you hear a lot better?”
“To put it in simpler words, you are correct.”
Boy for a cyborg the words simple and short sure aren’t in her vocabulary! “Dad, care to explain?”
A yawn, “I created Christine when you were ten, dear, I thought it about time to upgrade her, plus connecting her with the new security system I installed in the cottage had been on my mind for a long time.” He stared at Ari, “You do remember when I gave you Christine, don’t you?”

Lady Earth · 06-13-2008

The candles on the cake burned brightly casting shadows around the darkened room. The children waited patiently for the birthday girl to blow them out. But the girl with her sad expression did not seem happy. Her face showed a beautiful smile, she could not hide the true emotions dancing among the reddish-blue eyes. And to the girl’s father it was more than obvious.
“Come on Ari,” her father murmured as he stood behind her, “Make a wish.”
Two hours later father and daughter strolled through the forest silently listening to the sounds of the woods. Christine, her father’s gift to her walked behind them keeping a small distance between them.
“So Ari, how do you like her!?”
“Huh?”
“Christine?”
“She’s okay. But I still don’t think I need a babysitter,” Ari confessed turning her head over her shoulder to look at the blonde woman following them. For a ten year old she was much more mature than kids her age.
Christine smiled and waved at her just as an aunt or sister would.
“Hmm, never thought a machine could look so human...Creepy!”
“Listen Ari, she’ll be more than a sitter for you. She’ll be more like the housekeeper. She’ll take care of you while I’m at work or out of town. Furthermore you’ll have a female figure in the house. I’m more than sure you’ll warm up to her and that creepy feeling will go away. ”
Ari had not taken her eyes from Christine, “Why did you name her like that?”
Bill chuckled, “Ah well, call it youth memories…I used to be a big Star Trek fan in my youth. I had a crush on Nurse Chapel. So there you have it.”
“Star Trek? Oh my God Dad, you’re such a geek!”
Bill laughed.
The little girl stopped and turned to Christine, “Hey Christine?”
“Yes Master?”
Taken aback Ari groaned, “Master? Is she going to call me like the Koia all the time, dad?”
Bill stepped besides her, “You might be able to train her to call you Ari in time.”
Christine arranged the last pieces of fruit on the plates and as she rounded the cooking table she caught sight of the lost way he Master had in her eyes. “My Lady Fanell, are you alright?”
“Hmm…Oh nothing! Just reminiscing the past.” Who’d known that after a while I’d warm up to her? BUT I STILL CAN’T GET HER TO STOP CALLING ME MASTER OR MISTRESS! “Say Christine—’’ stopping as non other than her father’s stomach made its presence known, Ari smiled. “Hungry?” she asked eyes filled with mischief.
Bill narrowed his eyes ever so much before rolling them to the side. Those blue orbs set upon the now falling snow outside the window as if wishing for time to halt. “Apparently I should have had some of that burned stuff you left for me last night.”
Her tone border on serious, “And to think last week you had the audacity to give a hard time about not eating all day.”
A low chuckle reverberated between them, “I got—” he reached up and ran his fingers through his unruly dark hair. “I got distracted.”
Ari nodded, “Really? Does it have something to do with the e-mail you got from Esmer?”
Zephyr rubbed her furry body against Ari who in turn walked towards the stove. The cats padded after her as she warmed a pan of milk and poured it into four saucers. Deep delighted purring filled the room as the cats lapped up the milk. As soon as it was done, Ari laid slices of turkey on the empty saucers.
Christine finally done with her masterpieces placed the plates in the table. “Breakfast!”
Ari’s prepared rebuttal died as her stomach launched its own assault. Her cheeks reddened a bit, “Ohm…”
“I guess I’m not the only one with an appetite,” Bill leered. “Come and sit.”
“I don’t need to be told twice!” Ari ran to the round table and took he assigned place to his left. “About the e-mail, have you found anything?” Hey, this omelet is fantastic!
“Not as I’d hope! Most of the data that was kept in Mexico was lost during the 1985 earthquake. Some records although readable have vital scriptures missing.”
“So there’s really no way of knowing if Esmer is right?”
Bill nodded, “I’ve spoken with other members of the Brotherhood and have been informed that they might be someone with a copy containing the scriptures of the Book of Shadows that belonged to one of the fallen Angelus.”
“An Angelus once possessed a Book of Shadows?” and intrigued Ari asked. “I thought only members of a Vampyr clan were allowed to have one.”
“When the Angelus became allies with Sagatus he gave them one of them many Shadow books he’d written.” Bill took a sip of his coffee before continuing. “After the Civil War a member of the Red Zodiac found it in the hands of a Vampyr who’d been feeding with the blood of dying soldiers.”
“I can’t believe that those things have existed as long as we have.”
“Well, they have and so have we.”
Christine removed Bill’s empty plate. “Was the food pleasing, Master?”
“Ah, Christine what would I ever do without your wonderful cooking?”
“I suppose you’d be stuck with Mistress Ari’s cooking.”
“Hey, I’m not that bad!” Ari retorted. “Yesterday’s was just a new recipe I wanted to try!”
“Perhaps it will be best to leave the menu to me from now on.”
Heaving a big sigh Ari sat back down. She felt the rustle of the letter in her pocket. “Oh yeah…Dad, I found this during my morning stroll.”
Bill extended his hand to take the letter, “How many times have I told you to not go on strolls all alone.”

Lady Earth · 06-13-2008

“I know the woods pretty good.”
“Still, it wouldn’t hurt to take Christine with you, right?” He playfully stared at her.
“I’ll do it next time. Happy?”
“You bet!” Now let’s see here. Huh?
“What’s wrong, dad?”
Abruptly Bill stood up, almost knocking the chair and table down. His hands trembled. Can this be? “Ari, I-I have to go back and keep on working.” Without another word he sped faster than she’d ever seen him out of the room.
The cats stared after their master and back to the young woman sitting down, her desire for food gone. The cats could tell she was worried. Her right eye which was like an emerald became a dark forest and her left eye which was the same blue as her father’s turned into a pool of ocean water.
“The time has come,” Hera communicated to Zephyr telepathically.
The other cat nodded.
Snowflakes whirled past the window glistening in the beam of the kitchen light.
“Something different about that snow,” Ari observed. “Should I put two and two together and guess why you’ve come?”
The cats completely ignored her.
“I mean, you guys just think of us as mere commodities.” She watched the cats vigorously wash themselves. “I turned nineteen two weeks ago and where were you then? Parties don’t interest you, I suppose?”
Neptune, the orange cat, stopped washing and returned Arinayed’s gaze. Not many cats could look at you in the eye like that. Neptune’s gaze burned with knowledge, wildness, and with memories of a life most mortals could only dream of. Neptune was two-hundred years old, as were all her kindred. And as all Koia, she and her brothering were messengers which served under the orders of Gaea. No other being in this universe has power over them. To serve families like the Fanell’s and others from the Brotherhood is just temporary. After all they search for the same object…the same purpose.
Hera, Zeus, and Zephyr now added their intense gaze to Neptune’s. Ari had the feeling the Koia were trying to tell her something but they couldn’t. And at the same time they send her a whispered Forgive us.
Christine silently observed the scene playing before her. Analyzing was all she could do at this moment. To protect, guide, teach, obey, and train the young heiress to the Fanell Empire was all she-a cyborg-had been constructed for.
The felines stopped their grooming and with one last look they ran out the kitty door leading to the backyard of the cottage.
“As I said before, something different about that snow, Christine. The sky is a violent gray and the old man is whistling.”
The cyborg nodded, “A storm is on the way.”
Rising from her seat, Ari shrugged, “Guess so.”
“Do you think the Koia will be fine?”
“Those cats have made it through worst. If they chose to go out in this weather…” She stood still just before exiting the kitchen. “Not our problem.”
“In that case I shall find candles. If it’s going to be like many past winters the electricity will give out on us. And wood, we well need lots and lots of wood.” The blonde kept babbling on.
Ari smirked. For a cyborg she sure can act like human! It’s all due to father’s ingenious programming. All those years as head of the Tohma Electronics Corporation in Japan did help. Heck! Christine is so human that not even the town’s people have figured it out yet. “I’ll be in the drawing room!”

Meanwhile on the second floor of the cottage, in the third room to the left; among the darkened space Bill Fanell systematically typed codes into the computer keyboard. His eyes set upon the now open letter. At first glance the neatly folded sketch of the Vatican had not really caught his attention. However, as his mind had taken in the Latin words written atop the envelope it had hit him like a bucket of cold water.
“Computer, input the new settings into your system and when ready confirm.”
As the humming of the machine filled the room Bill picked up the letter again. The artist had taken careful detail when drawing the artifacts of the many statues surrounding the home of the Pope. “Andre my friend, so that’s where you’ve been all this time…”
“Adjustments completed,” the electronic voice of the computer cut through his thinking.
“Alright—”
“Master Fanell,” Christine’s serene voice called to him.
Bill’s reaction was to nod towards the chair next to the main computer to his left. “Sit.”
Christine did as ordered and sat. “Master, the Koia have gone.”
A murmur, “Just as I thought they would. The storm that’s coming is not natural, Christine.”
“Affirmative. Sensors indicate an abnormal miasma fluctuation has appeared near the suburbs of New York over the past two weeks.”
“If my memory doesn’t fail me it all began around the same day as Arinayed’s visions began.” Bill reminisced.
Christine ****ed her head to the side, “Visions, Master?”
“Shit! Christine commence immediate file delete.”
The way his faced had momentarily shown worry caused the cyborg to become curious about his words, but never the less she did as commanded. “System alert! Information saved within this model concerning the previous conversation will be deleted upon password entered. Do you wish to continue?”
Heaving a sigh Bill spoke, “Yes.”
“Please enter password verification.”
“William Fanell, zodiac lineage Capricorn.”
“Password…Correct.” Christine’s iris’s disappeared making her eyes pools of sky-blue gems. From the back of her neck a long-thin black wire snaked out towards a small handheld device Bill had extracted from within his pants pocket. As soon as it reached the device the wire connected to the small USB whole on its side. “Commencing data deletion. Time estimated, two minutes.”
I’m sorry Christine, but there are some things not even you can know.

Downstairs in the drawing room Ari silently lay on the couch. Her mind trying to focus on the book her hands held. Due to her illness since childhood, her doctor had advised Bill Fanell against sending her to a private or public school. Thus, her father had done his best in home schooling her. Yet as time went by and the more they moved from city to city or country to country finding someone to teach her became a battle.
Not many could handle teaching a girl who could die on them at any moment. Especially with a child as strange as Arinayed Fanell, the girl with two different color of eyes, the girl who talked to herself or to the walls.
So here she was, a nineteen year old young woman who’d never gone to school like all the other kids she saw from her window. A young woman who never felt sorry for what she did not have. Arinayed Fanell, so especial and unique some would never understand.
Kyaaa! How am I suppose to understand this when the so called Edgar Allan Poe is so weird!? I mean, how could a raven talk? At that thought she chuckled. Why do I have the idea that this guy Poe was as high as a bird when he wrote this? But hey, if dad loves his poetry if his business. “Oh, I’d rather be reading Nora Roberts, or Stephen King. At least I get their stuff.”
After that thought left her mouth she was startled by the ringing of the phone. She pulled her self away from the comfort of the couch and crossed the room to pick up the phone that hung in the wall. “Hello, this is the Fanell Family. How may I help you?” God I sound like a freaking operator!
“Whoa!” a hyper squeaky girly voice spoke on the other side. “I think I dialed the wrong number. The Ari I know would never answer the phone like that.”
“Ha-ha, very funny, Kiwi!” Ari sarcastically replied.
“Sorry! How come you’re answering the phone like such a ‘lady’?”
“Don’t get me started!”
Kiwi laughed, “Did you finally get tired of scaring your father’s potential mates away with your usual greetings? Or did you finally meet match?”
“Ha! You wished.” Ari returned to her seat on the couch. “The last time one of those fake-breasted-bimbos-money-chasers women tried to make herself at home in the cottage, she had the pleasure of meeting my good friends the rats!”
“Grows!”
Ari laugh as she listened to Kiwi trying not to vomit. “She had so graciously made a salad and while she took some coffee to my father in the library I used a little spell to conjure up some rats to pop out from the oven. And we-ll…let’s just say she hasn’t shown her face in the past oh…three months!”
“I gotta hand it to you, Ari. Even though some of you exploits are child like while others are quite freaky, you sure can get rid of those girlfriends fast!” Kiwi commented sourly. “But enough of that, how you been?”
“I can’t complain. You?”
“Japan is even better than I expected! I love it here!!”
Although Ari could not see Kiwi’s face she know the young girl two years younger than her, was all smiles. “I’m pleased you are having fun. But do remember why you are there.”
“Awww! All fun and no work make Kiwi a naughty girl!”
“Kiwi, my father trusted you to find the contact and extract as much information from him as you could.”
“I know…” Kiwi sighed.
“Any luck?”
“No. This guy is sure hard to find, even with the data I have on him. Hikarashi Tsukino-the brother who met me in the air port said that he’d been in the case for four years.”
Tsukino? Why does that name sound so…of course! He’s the head of the Tohma Electronics Corporation in Japan that dad used to work in. “Kiwi, one question.”
“Yeah?”
“Did you happen to see if any Koia where with him?”
“Now that you mention it, no he didn’t. When I asked him he said they’d left without a word about a month or so. Why?”
Thought so! And if I’m correct all the other Koia from every family related to the Red Zodiac Brotherhood is either gone or on its way. “Kiwi, your family is one of the few normal mortals that have been allowed to work for the Red Zodiac, correct?”
“Yes. Thanks to your dad after he found out that in our line run the blood of a long lost brother—”
“Entei, the Emperor of fire.” Ari cut in.
“My mother still has no idea how she’s going to repay your father for restoring our family’s name.”
Ari smiled, “There is no need, Kiwi. My father is more than glad he found you, and found the lost brothering in the process. But any ways back to what I was saying, Kiwi I need you to do some digging for me.”
“What type of digging?”
“You know my father worked in the same corporation Tsukino is in right?”
“Hee-hee…Nope!”
“Kiwi!! I thought you had studied this guy before you left Chicago!?”
“Ahhh!!! I’m sorry, I’m sorry. Is just I’ve never been one to read much and…and well…”
No wonder her grades in Literature and English have always been so low. “Come now Kiwi, this mission is far too important to mess up!”
“I know, I know…I promise I will read everything there is in his file before I meet up with him tomorrow,” Kiwi pleaded.
“Good, now here’s what I want you to do…”

Bill patiently awaited the results from Christine’s diagnostic of the sketch that was inside the envelope. He checked the time on his wristwatch. He’d been up here for about an hour and still nothing. Could it be that he was wrong about the drawing and was trying to read too much into it?
No. I know Andre well and he’d never send such a detailed drawing unless there was something he had to say. That old grump is no idiot when delivering information critical to the brotherhood.
“Anything?” Bill asked exasperated.
Christine shook her head, “Nothing.”
“Dig deeper, Chris.”
“I shall do the best I can, Master.”
Bill exhaled, “Forgive me Christine.”
“There is no need for that, Master. Lord Andre is a man who has many secrets. And if he has found anything about our Lady, I am sure as you are that it is all within this sketch.”
“No one has heard from that old fool in years. The last thing we’d heard he was seen in the Caribbean. After that nothing—until today that is. Noctem Aeternus is the emblem of his family’s code of arms”
“That is what my data confirms. Why has he been so detached with the Red Zodiac?”
“To make a long story short, Andre’s family betrayed the brotherhood when he was only a teen. Because of this the entire DuPré family was vanished from the Red Zodiac. He alone has worked to reestablish his family’s name.”
“Have the elders allowed this of him?”
At that Bill moved closer to the bookshelf and took in hand the picture frame. In it his grandfather and a beautiful raven haired woman with brown eyes leaned against a wooden fence. Her arms where around a young man with a mushroom hair cut, blue jeans, and t-shirt, his eyes just like his mothers, held warmth in their depth.
“You truly did love her, didn’t you grandpa?” Bill whispered with a grin on his face.
Christine watched him intently, “Master,” she whispered so low Bill did not hear her. Her hands which had been sitting in her lap acted out of their own accord wanting to sooth his mind. But she stopped herself. Something is extremely wrong with my programming. I should not be feeling these emotions for my Master. I am after all a cyborg, not a human.
In that same instant her censors broke through the pencil lines of the drawing and found hidden within the page itself a letter written directly to Bill. “Master, drawing contains a concealed message for you.”
Bill stared blankly at Christine, “Are you sure?” he walked closer to the computer screen where the blonde cyborg created a clear view of the letter. Quiet laughter emanated from Fanell. “Why you…”
“It would seem that Lord Andre is no fool at all,” Christine spoke standing closer to Bill. “His idea of concealing the written paper of the letter within the paper and placing a top of it a thin layer a criscellous to erase any trace of ink, plus sketching a drawing in it is quite brilliant wouldn’t you agree?”

Kiwi inhaled and exhaled. “Ari, I will do my best in during this mission. I know this will allow me to finally pledge my allegiance to the Brotherhood.”
“I have no doubt you will do well on this mission my father send you, Kiwi.” Arinayed encouraged. “Plus I have it in good ears that Justin is waiting for you.” She teased.
“Huh! I-I-I have no idea what you’re implying by that.”
“Uh-hu! Keep on saying that to yourself and you’ll begin to believe it.” Ari smirked when she got no reply. “Anyways, good luck.”
“Thanks. Well, I have to go now but I’ll cal you later.”
“Later, Kiwi, and don’t give up.” Clicking the Talk button off she ventured to look outside. The storm got worst than she’d thought. The snow had begun to cover everything in sight.

So there you have it, the first chapter.