Chronicles of Araxx - Forever Broken
Chapter 23

Lee started off slowly with her training.

She knew she had to be quick about it, but on her many travels through the internet, she found a lot could go wrong with free running, and if she did it wrong she could break bones, or worse.

So, she started out with simple things, like jumping over small walls whilst running and there were plenty of them near the warehouse. The tallest wall was about knee height, and after a small amount of practice, she was able to clear it quickly and easily.

Lee then moved onto jumping from wall to wall. She’d seen this done in a lot of the videos and it didn’t look too difficult. The walls she started out on were low, and it was a good job too. Only a meter apart, Lee was struggling to clear the jump. She caught herself a few times, tripping and ending up on the floor, but by the end of the day, she could do that too.

She was fit, so she had no problem with keeping her energy up, but the agility side was harder to do.

It was late when she realised she was ravenous, and she needed money too.

She headed into Camden Market. It was a Saturday which meant it would be crowded and she was right.

After only ten minutes wandering around the market, Lee had collected three wallets, and a total of four hundred pounds.

People in the market always had a lot of money, and tourists didn’t guard their bags very well.

She had a pang of guilt, taking money from people. They’d earned the money, and all she did was sneak it from their pockets, but she needed to eat, and she needed to top up her oyster card. On her way over to the market, only four tube stops away, Lee had used the last of the money on her card.

Lee picked up a coffee and a Panini from one of the food tents, before heading back towards the tube station and topping her card up. She put another £40 on it. That would last her plenty of time, and she wouldn’t have to worry too much about being caught without any money on it.

The tube was full that afternoon, and Lee couldn’t stop looking down the carriages, hoping she would see Bree, and praying she wouldn’t see Jacob or any of the other people who were with him.

Luckily, her journey went without a hitch, and she was back at the warehouse before dark.

Lee decided to spend the rest of the afternoon on weight training. She didn’t have a lot of muscle mass, and in an all out fight, she was sure to lose. She used her own body as a weight, doing push-ups and lunges, as well as stretches. It was pretty basic, but Lee could feel it tug on her muscles. That meant it must be working.

An hour of weight training passed, and the sun had started falling behind the clouds, making it too dark for Lee to risk practising outside, so she went inside the warehouse to eat and to research more things she would need to learn.

She would need to put them into real practice, in the field as it were. As she sat and ate her noodles, Lee planned her next day and how she would put her newly learnt skills in to practice.

Meanwhile, in Gray’s flat, they were planning their next move.

It had been a couple of days since they had clapped eyes on the girl they were after, and they were no closer to getting her. They had not seen her at all, despite searching the streets in London.

“This is useless,” Adz said. “We are never going to replace her traipsing the street. We need to think of a better way of replaceing her.” He looked out the window into the dark. “What if we used the drones?” The others looked at him. “I think it’s a good idea. We can cover a larger area, then when we replace her, we can follow her.”

They all agreed this would be a good idea, but neither Jay nor Adz knew where to start.

Gray, however, had an idea. He started by telling the others he recognised the blonde who was with her. “I’ve seen her around this area a lot, hanging around Camden. I think she lived just around the corner.” He continued telling them how he had seen her pickpocket people, usually people who looked rich, like they had a lot of money. He also talked about how she would stare at him. “What if the red-head…”

“Annaleah,” Adz interjected.

“Annaleah. What if she was living with the blonde? What if they were staying in the same place? That would mean she’d still be around here, right? This would be a familiar area and she’d stay in an area she knew best.”

It made sense, and the three of them decided they would focus their efforts on the Camden area. It was the only lead they had, and it seemed like a good one.

Gray and Jay went to bed, both tired after walking the streets all day, leaving Adz awake. He tried to sleep, closed his eyes, counted sheep, but he just couldn’t drop off.

He decided he would start the search early and use his drone to look around. After picking up the rucksack he’d put it in, he headed up to the roof of the building.

The sky was clear, but the stars were hard to see.

He turned one of the drones on and set it off into the sky, flying it over the main road and down a few back streets.

Then he came across something strange and decided to investigate. Zooming the drone in, keeping it well out of sight he saw there was a man standing on the stairs of a fire exit to one of the block of flats, and another was on his way up the stairs of the fire escape.

Adz focused on the faces of the men and he recognised them. They were from the club. What were they looking for? That apartment looked empty.

Adz adjusted the volume on the microphones and was able to hear their conversation.

“The werewolf said this is where the girl was staying,” the first one said. He had dark eyes, almost black. “I can smell her all over this place.”

“She’s not here now, though, is she?” The other said. He had softer features, and blue eyes, but was still unmistakably a vampire.

“No, gone, but I don’t think she’s gone far, and she’s not been gone long,” the black-eyed vampire said. “The sun will be coming up soon, and we have to report to the werewolf. We’d better go.”

“I hate that we have to work for him. It sickens me.”

“Me too. But when Kane comes to power, I want to be on his good side.”

The vampires left and Adz was left wondering what they were talking about. What did they mean ‘when Kane comes to power’? It didn’t sound good.

Adz went inside to tell the others what he saw. It wasn’t something he should keep to himself. When he walked into the apartment, he called, “You guys wake up, I have to tell you...” He was cut short when he saw them both sitting in the living room, a projection on the table in front of them. “Oh.”

“Good evening, Adam,” Simons said. “It took a while to get through to you boys, but I finally found a way into Jay’s drone.” He sounded mad, and Adz didn’t like him when he was mad, no one did.

“Sir, I can explain,” Adz started. He expected Simons to cut him off, but he kept quiet, letting him speak. “We had to go dark. We found the werewolves. They were in the hotel we were staying in, and we thought they knew we were there.” Adz looked to Jay and Gray for confirmation. Both of them were silent, just watching. “I thought we could do this mission on our own,” Adz admitted. “But I think we might be in over our heads.” It took guts for him to admit they were overwhelmed by the whole thing. He looked to the projection of Simons on the table, expecting him to burst into a fit of rage, but he stayed quiet. This brought out the anger in Adz. “Say something.”

“They already told me everything,” Simons said.

“Huh?”

“We had to Adz,” Jay admitted. “It was the right thing to do.”

“But Gray!” This wasn’t a question. He knew how the Araxx felt about warlocks, even if Gray was only half a warlock.

“Adam. Don’t worry about your brother. I knew about him from the moment we took you in even though the others don’t know about him.”

Simons spoke with a calm, even tone. “I have to be quick with this boys. Adam, Jay and Gray, your mission is very important, and I know I’m asking a lot of you, but you have to bring that girl back. I have secured this drone so only you and I can see the images on it. You can also use it as a secure way to contact me. I need you to call as soon as you have a lock on her.” He looked scared, which was worrying.

Simons was not scared of anything, and for him to look worried, means something must be wrong. “I did not realise the werewolves had vampires working for them, and that heightens the danger. I thought you would be able to replace her quickly and bring her back before they found out where she was, but I was wrong.” Simons looked down.

“Why haven’t you told anyone about this?” Adz asked. He was curious and didn’t trust Simons completely. He threatened to take them off the mission just after they arrived in London and now he was talking as if that incident had never happened.