Mason - Archaic #4 (Sample of Published Book)

Chapter 1 - Part 1

I dropped my head into my hands as I was struggling to keep a handle on the emotions coursing through me. My heartbeat raced and my head began to pound. It felt like it was going to explode. I was struggling to keep control.

I sharply inhaled before exhaling, trying to clear my mind. Thoughts evoked emotions, so I'd learned the only way to ease the overwhelming feeling was to clear my thoughts.

After a couple of minutes, I could feel the intense feelings fade and my lungs opened up again; I was able to breathe. I rubbed my forehead as my headache began to ease.

I glanced around my new room. It had originally been the guest bedroom but it was the only available room in the house. It had been previously decorated in a pastel green. Most people would have considered it soothing but it had the opposite effect on me. It put me on edge.

The solution had been to re-paint the room white. Catherine had bought the paint and the following weekend we'd painted my room with the help of my brother and Ava.

Before, when I'd been a cold, unfeeling Hue with limited emotions, white had been my color of choice. My room had been void of any color, even with white linen. There had been no posters, or any personal touches to my room, and it had suited me. Hues were all the same. We didn't do color and we didn't have the emotions to tie us to anybody or anything. We were ruthless killers with no conscience.

I still found white soothing but I'd discovered I also liked red. There was no logical reason behind the choice. The white walls and the beige carpets of my new room were broken by the vibrant red of my bed linen that Catherine had helped me pick out.

Even my clothes reflected my change. I now owned shirts in every color of the rainbow.

When Catherine had taken me to get a car, I'd chosen a red Jeep Cherokee. Jared, my brother, owned the same car in black. Sometimes I think our similarities were more than skin deep. I'd been told on more than one occasion that Jared and I shared the same mannerisms and taste.

Before the emotions had been released in me, I hadn't had the emotional capacity to form friendships or to care. My life had consisted of killing and plotting to get as much power as I could. A singular focus without any deviations.

I'd never had friends. Dylan and Caleb had been my closest followers but Dylan had died trying to get Ava out of the warehouse safely for me, and I later found Caleb's body in among the dead in the field. The two closest people I'd known for most of my life were gone and I hadn't shed a tear. Even when Jared had killed our father, I hadn't felt any remorse or grief. Killing and power had been all that mattered.

There was a soft knock at the door.

"Mason," I heard my mom call.

"Yeah," I said. I didn't invite her into my room because I didn't want company. I wanted to be left alone. I'd just gotten control of my emotions and I wanted to enjoy the peacefulness of feeling nothing for just a few more minutes.

There were times I wished I could go back to feeling nothing; it had been easier. But I never wanted to go back to being a psychotic killer who felt no remorse for the lives I'd taken.

"Are you okay?" she asked quietly. She was worried about me, they all were. At times they tiptoed around me or handled me like I was going to break. I didn't blame them because at times I didn't know how to cope and sometimes I felt like the emotions would suffocate me from the inside. It was in unchartered territory and we were doing the best we could to cope with the changes and put together a broken family.

"I'm fine, Catherine," I said with a sigh, rubbing the back of my neck.

"Okay," she replied. I heard the hurt in her voice and it made me feel guilty. Another emotion to deal with.

"Dinner will be ready soon," she said to me, and then I heard her leave.

I'd known Catherine, my mom, my whole life. We'd never had the traditional relationship between mother and son. I'd tried to kill her on more than one occasion. The fact that she'd brought me into the world and given me life hadn't mattered to me. It had meant nothing.

But now that I could feel, I felt something for her. I wasn't sure exactly what it was. It felt similar to what I'd felt for Ava. Like with Ava, I'd wanted to keep Catherine safe and protected.

Catherine had asked me to call her 'Mom' but I'd found it too difficult. I was hoping with more time it would become easier. My reluctance to call her Mom had hurt her but things didn't just change overnight. It would take time.

Dropping my head into my hands, I couldn't stop thinking about the path that had led me to this point.

The plan had been to change Ava into a true Descendant, more powerful than Jared and me. I had succeeded. Somewhere in the events that had unfolded, something had set off a change in me. I didn't know if it was the initial link that developed between Ava and me that was responsible for it.

The link had made me want to be closer to her. Being with her, touching her, had made me feel calm and at ease. It had been the closest I'd ever felt to caring about someone. When she'd been altered, our link had still remained even though it was weaker than before.

Once she'd completed the altering and become a true Descendant, I knew the link was no longer there, but it didn't change how I felt; I'd still had a need to protect and keep her safe.

Then I'd found out Michael, my and Jared's father, was after her to drain her Descendant power. I'd done everything I could to keep her safe.

But despite my best efforts I hadn't been able to keep her out of his reach. The first time I'd felt real fear was when I'd seen her for the first time after Michael had kidnapped her. It had been just a touch of an emotion but it had been there. I would have given my life to protect her and I'd nearly died trying to help her escape.

After the fight had been over and when I'd come around, I found out Ava had nearly died trying to save me. After everything I'd done to her, she'd still tried to save me.

I wasn't sure I was worth saving.

When Ava had healed me, emotions that had been bottled up my whole life had begun to escape.

A couple of weeks later I was still struggling to navigate my new life with all these new emotions swirling inside me. Sometimes it got to be too much, but I'd learned breathing through it helped to clear my mind of thoughts.

I stood up and walked over to my desk in the corner of my bedroom, which had a small wooden chair that I sat down in. It was similar to the one Jared had in his room. On top of the wooden desk stood my new laptop.

One thing I'd discovered was that I was very logically minded, which made me good at computers and programming.

Jared was the leader of the Archaic and with that came a lot of responsibilities. I had wanted to be able to help in some way. My guilt for my past actions pushed me to right things. I had offered to take over keeping track of everyone. I'd even developed new and more efficient software that kept track of all the trackers for the Archaic.