Author's Note:
Yup, no need to panic, same story, just a new cover and a shorter title. What do you think of it?
Part Two
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His eyes opened to a room nearly as dark as the hold had been. The only light came in through he small porthole to his right. Vellis was curled on the floor, shaking. He looked as sick as Castian felt. He glanced at him as he sat.
"There's thirty minutes," Vellis whispered. Castian's guts tightened inward. His eyes moved to the watch on his wrist. They'd been here twenty-three hours and thirty-two minutes. He swallowed.
"I guess this means we're not getting burnt alive," he muttered. His words stuck in his throat, a sorry comfort if any at all. He was going to die. It became so much more real than it had been the night before as he watched the hands on his watch move. He was going to die. They were going to die. Really die, not get shot at, or possibly be hung. No, even if they got away from the pirates, they'd die. There was no way that they'd ever make it back to the Warp hole, it was impossible.
"Yeah," Vellis whispered, and he wasn't sure if he was agreeing with the earlier statement, or reading his mind. "We're totally screwed, Castian."
"I know," he snarled back. "Can we not talk about it?"
"Sure, doesn't matter anyway."
He put his hands against his forehead and pressed. A headache was building behind his eyes. He could feel the panic clawing up inside him, trying to escape the hold he kept it in. No. No. He couldn't just die. Here, in the middle of no one gave a shit. Without accomplishing anything. Tears burned the corners of his eyes.
"I've never done anything. No one is ever going to remember me." His voice broke, "I'm a murderer for hire."
Vellis sat, groaning. "Oh yeah? I can top that. I'm not even human anymore."
Castian laughed. "Me either man." His hands were shaking. He pressed them down on the planks below him. "Me either."
"No," Vellis snorted. "I'm not being metaphorical, Castian. I'm not human anymore."
Castian made himself look up at him. "We've all done bad stuff man, we...." Vellis grimaced, showing the two long fangs in the dark. Fangs. Real fangs, not just his imagination. Castian slowly slid back. He remembered the blood on Vellis' mouth. He's thought he's been punched. What if... what if that wasn't it?
"Yeah." Vellis dropped the look. "I told you Taff did stuff to me."
Taff? Taff had done that? What was that. "What..."
"Oh come on, I know you don't read much, but you know what a vampire is."
"Yeah, but they aren't real."
"Are they not?" Vellis scrubbed a hand over his face. "I wish you'd tell my body. It's why I'm sick so much, or... a part of it." He pulled his knees up under his chin and sat quietly for a long moment. "I can do what you did, travel from the Field without a suit, without the Warp pad. I can't control it though, I just sometimes pop in and out, and then I get sick." He dropped his hand from his face, looking more tired than anyone Castian had ever seen. "I'm hungry, always, and I can't hold food down. I'm tired, but can't sleep." A low sigh escaped him. "Maybe dying won't hurt so much as all that..."
YOU ARE READING
An Assassin In Time
Science Fiction(ON HOLD) If time couldn't hold you, what would you do? Castian was born inside a Field, outside of time. He has no timeline. He belongs nowhere, and anywhere. The Field he was in was destroyed when he was young, and he and four other children...
