ECHOES IN ETERNITY

SUNRISE Part 8

Alexander Aurelius Pella

"Henry, are you sure the signal is pointing to Santa Barbara County border?"

"Yes, positive!"

"Unless he flew the SUV to Santa Barbara, there is absolutely no way for them to make it in the rush hour traffic within less than an hour! It would have taken them nearly two and a half hours to get to Montecito."

"Did you say 'fly'?" asks Henry. "Wait a minute..." he says and checks his smart phone. "When the signal came, the SUV was still on 101 North outside of Oxnard, and only four and a half minutes later it came to a complete stop outside of Montecito, right within Santa Barbara County," he explains and looks up.

"Henry, that's a fully armored SUV weighting 13,000 pounds! It's 8.3 feet high and nearly 20 feet long! How does anyone lift and fly such a vehicle in that amount time for such a distance? That's about forty miles of distance in four and a half minutes! The speed with which that SUV is carried is over 533 miles an hour..." We look at each other, understanding.

"We better fly then. I think one of the Sikorsky X2s is still on the tarmac," Henry says concerned.

The drive to the airport though short, is one of the longest in my existence.

"Patience, Alexander. It'll take a few minutes!" Henry chides.

"Few minutes, I fucking don't have! Its life and death! If something happened to Elissa under Anthony's watch, I will kill him!"

Henry remains silent. "I think they're testing the waters, the perimeters, looking for a weak spot. They've located her - remember, this used to be your tactic: strike once, strike hard. This is a message to you, too, Alexander! They're saying 'we are watching you!'" I turn to Henry sharply, my gaze full of anger.

"Do you remember Bacchus who defied me?"

"It was before my time, but I've read it. You've never talked about it, though. Is it all true?" he asks nonchalantly.

"I'm the one who tied him behind the horse, alive, to be dragged through the city! What they didn't write in the books is that he tried to fuck me over like these servants of Hades are doing. At the time, he captured Elissa, tortured her and was ready to first rape her and then hand her over to the Fallen Angels so that he would punish me through her pain at the cost of letting the Fallen take over the Heavens!"

"Don't feel too bad. We cowboys used to do that for crimes a lot less than that. Kidnapping a woman, or a girl would have been right up there to get him strung up, or stretched behind a horse easily," replies Henry.

"I don't feel bad at all! I would have done worse. I wanted to! When I found her, he had his dick hanging out, looming over her while she was screaming!" I say in a low voice full of malice as if it happened yesterday. I barely realize that my hands are fisted, my entire body gone rigid. "At the time, I was only bound by duty. But now my entire existence, my heart and soul belong to her. Do you know what I will do to anyone who dares to harm her?" I hiss. The sound that exits my lips is simply the sound of the wild, inhuman. My rage is oozing out of my pores.

"We're here," Henry says stopping the car, and we both rush to the helicopter. Once we are ready to take off, I hear Henry's disembodied voice through the cans picking up the conversation where we left off.

"I thought that incident occurred before you met Marcus."

"No. It was shortly after. Some of my former Praetorians who swore alliance to me recognized me. They fixed the story and were sworn to secrecy..." I say, but Henry interrupts me.