Keith

Chapter 1

     "Tears filled my veins, blood escaped my eyes and time stopped.Everything shook and my knees buckled. Darkness took over my rose-coloured glasses; I was sure this was my apocalypse........
The day you told me to move on.
                  -Erin Van Vuren

He wouldn't let me hold him and I was so scared. Terrified infact because I was not sure how exactly I was going to survive this, without him.
Shun had been my rock, shield, my anchor but now he was looking at me like I was a stranger. His grass green eyes said all the words his lips would not. They were painted across his face in scarlet, the colour of blood, the blood of heart.
         That was when I realised that despite knowing that this was coming, nothing on earth was ever going to have prepared me for this day. And I felt the world move as he walked away, my heart in tow. The distance of every step pulling it further and further from chest.
  I watch him move. Transfixed as though under a spell. I watched the hands that used to hold me. The lips that used to kiss me. The hair, darker than a night without stars, that I used to ran my hands through. I watched the only stable ground I had while my world shifted on its axis walk away from me. The only man I had ever loved. I watched him but all I could feel, hear or taste were his words echoing throughout my body...
   I don't know who you are anymore. This beast you are becoming, it is something I can no longer pretend love.
   

          ************************

2 Years Later.

The phone ringing.I wasn't imagining it, it was actually ringing at six in the morning. I was tempted to just let it be and go back to sleep. The bed was so warm and I was beyond exhausted, but the problem was it wasn't just any phone, it was my work phone.
     My hand searched the lamp table next to the bed while my head remained on the pillow eyes closed.
       "Yes?"

   "Your presence is required in Commander Damien's office as soon as possible."
I exhaled for patience and inhaled for strength. My lids were so heavy. What was Keith thinking! Mornings and I were as compatible as a drunk man on a rollercoaster and if he knew I was to have an early morning, he shouldn't have kept me up so late. He , however, was my boss and commander. If he wanted to see me at 02:59:59 in the morning, then I would be there at 02:59:59:00, no questions asked. That didn't mean I had to like though.
   "....And he requested that you come dressed as a civilian."
I groaned into my pillow.
         "I'm on my way."

There was no warning labels, no danger signs that flashed in my head, nothing. I knocked and entered Keith's mammoth sized office. It was situated right smack in the middle of the Vetoxian city. Paintings hang on the white walls and a bowl filled with black marbles sat on the clear glass table on near the leather seats in his office.It was on highest floor of the fourteen storey building, meaning I couldn't jump out of the window without probably ending up dead but at the moment I was willing to take my chances.

Keith sat behind his large mahogany desk his attention on the man that sat across him.I knew who it was even before I turned, dressed in red leather from head to toe ,he was almost always unmistakable. Daniel Acount. For me however, it wasn't the red he wore that made him easy to identify, it was the fact that we had once been on the same team for almost two years.

Once again I felt like the lost girl that had been kicked out the team. Insecure. Unwanted. Alone. My heart beat at five million miles per second and my lungs couldn't keep up. I could have been given all the oxygen in both worlds but it still wouldn't be enough. My mind was screaming at me, to move, to ran, maybe even set myself on fire as long as I wouldn't have to face him.

      "Aleksander."
Keith's voice cut through my thoughts like a sharpened blade. My heart slowed . I survived, I reminded myself. I am here. I survived. No one can take that away from me.
 
Danny's head whipped around so fast I was suprised it didn't just fall of completely.
He looked like at me, his eyes as wide as saucers, as though I was the ghost of his great grandmother.

      "LEXIE!!"
He crossed the room in strides and stood before me. He wanted to hug me, I didn't know what to do.
I took a step back and he ended up wrapping his arms around thin air.

     "Now that the warm welcomes and kisses are done. Let's get back to business, shall we?"

"You called for me?"
I turned to Keith.
       "Yes. It seems that Daniel here and his teammates are facing a problem that requires your particular skillset."

"Is this a mission?"
"Would have I called you here if it was otherwise?"

He leaned against his chair. His storm blue eyes studing me. He could look at someone and make them feel as though he knew every secret, every dark thought you have ever had till you felt stripped of everything but your soul.

"Earth has been getting threats from Nobun," Danny started.

Nobun was the dimensional planet that stood in between earth and Vetoxi. Ravaged by wars and endless battles, it barely had a functioning government. It was a planet covered by endless raging deserts and wild Reshis that had not found compatible souls to link to.
A Reshi is a beast of  two forms. The first form, is almost human in size, with skin tones ranging from purple to green depending on the elementia, claws, horns and other bodily structures depending on their main form.
The second form is that of the beast.
It can be the shape of anything,a dragon the size of a tower or a snake like reptilian the length of a train.
They cling to human souls that are strong enough to maintain a balance based on compatibility.

"The Nobunians have been stealthily attacking and stealing members of various battle teams from earth."
He crossed his arms against his chest his face a mask of anger as he continued.

"We don't know why or where they were being taken. Earth is relatively new to the knowledge of Reshis and other planets. We can't afford to be agressive and we neither have enough information or equipment to stealthily infiltrate the Nobunians."

His unspoken words hang in the air. They were asking for Vetoxi's assistance in getting their people back.

"Tell me," Keith asked, "why did it take so long for the earth government to decide to act? My sources inform me that this abductions have been going on for over six months"

"Those files are supposed to be classified,"danny responed.
I almost laughed. Keith had spies everywhere. Even his spies had spies and his spies spies had spies. Keith Damien was a very very shrewd man.

"That does not answer my question."
Though he probably knew what it was. I was amazed that Danny managed to speak despite how hard his jaw was clenched.

"They captured Curtis Dmitriev. My teammate, "he mumured , his eyes trained on me.

My name, you see, is Aleksander Fay Dmitiriev.
Curtis is my cousin.