The Shadow Kingdom

Chapter 7 - Underground

Adrian pulls his Audi sedan into the parking lot. I said goodbye to Alex at the airport. It was even more painful than watching John and Sophie drown.

"I want to show you something," Adrian says. He leads me to a keypad locked door in the basement parking structure. He unlocks the door, and there is a staircase that leads to a sub-level beneath the parking lot.

The lights flicker for a second and then reveal an enormous room. Along one wall, there is a weapons locker with an arsenal that rivals the NYPD's. In the middle, there are two tables, and there is a large indoor shooting range on the opposite side. "This is where Diana keeps all her special toys." Adrian explains.

I walk along the wall, impressed by the vast variety of guns. "She has quite the collection - M4A1, G36, ACR, QBZ-95, SCAR, and even an M110 sniper rifle."

"Do you know a lot about guns?" He sounds genuinely surprised. Most men are.

"John used to take me to the shooting range. I also play a lot of video games. How are you able to maintain a secret sub-basement in this building? Do you own this floor?"

"My family owns the entire building." Adrian shrugs. Of course, you do. "I want Diana to give you some real-life combat training. If I'm going to protect you, it will be easier if you can also protect yourself."

I turn away from the impressive collection to face Adrian. "You were cheating that time we played darts."

"Pardon?" He asks quizzically.

"That night when you and I were at Brown's Social, you were guiding the darts to the bull's-eye with your powers. You cheated."

He smiles. "You cheated too. I saw you dampen those billiard balls. That's how you won at pool."

I sit down on one of the tables. "When you healed my knife wound, how did you do that?"

"Some spellbinders are more special than others. People like my siblings and me are called prodigies. We have abilities in addition to our elemental magic. In my case, I have the ability to restore or drain a person's life-force. That is how I was able to heal you."

"You can drain a person's life-force?"

"Yes. By doing so, I can heal myself."

"Is that the reason why you still look so young? You take the life-force of other people, and it rejuvenates you?"

"No, of course not!" He makes a face at me as if I'm being absurd. "I'm not a vampire. My blood has special healing properties of its own. If a person absorbs a small amount of my blood into their system, it heals them and makes them younger. I rejuvenate them. And since I have plenty of my own blood in my body, I get to enjoy the luxury of immortality."

"Oh, I've been wondering about that since day one. So I'm guessing you're not really forty-five?"

"No actually, I'm good deal older than that. I'm ninety-nine years old." Ninety-nine? Clearly, I do have a thing for older men.

"So you're like the walking fountain of youth. And you share this blood with the rest of your family. That's why they're all still alive."

"You always were a smart girl." He grins.

"What about Diana?"

"She has the power to slow down time, or at least, that's how she describes it. To everyone else, it looks as though she is moving with superhuman speed, but from her perspective, it feels as though the world is slowing down. You can imagine how useful such ability would be when she is using a sniper rifle – or any weapon for that matter."