The Everborn - Nicholas Grabowsky [141]
38.
An Assessment of Casualties
The showdown was over almost as soon as it had begun.
So it was, at least, at the Doctor Jonas E. Salk Elementary School playground, in the dead of night.
So it was, though it would one day inevitably commence again.
Salvatia would have succeeded, if it weren’t for two unforeseen facts: one, her Dreg ultimately betrayed her. His diminishing interest in the night’s plan gave way to his own selfish feelings regarding this pitifully lost family of his, regarding his brother, spawned by those damnable photographs at the Erlandson fireplace mantle. She thought she’d conditioned him otherwise, but dammit all, he screwed everything up anyway. She should’ve known better, as wise as she was. Two...the second fact...the most important fact...was the presence of that cursed Watchmaid Camelia and her ‘Born. No matter that Simon apparently backed down and disappeared from the playground at the finest hour, this second Watchmaid proved to be her untimely undoing. If it wasn’t for Camelia, as long as Simon was in the vicinity and at least twenty meters or so away, she surely would’ve achieved delicious success.
So close, yet....
Salvatia wounded that bitch.
She hoped she killed her.
Fancy that chance.
***
For Bari, the casualties were immense; for her own interests, from her own standpoint, they were like unto the aftermath of war.
Though she succeeded in her most desperate goal -- the safety of Andrew and likewise the safety of Ralston -- there were grievous casualties nonetheless.
Andrew’s mother and stepfather had been abhorrently slaughtered in their beds.
Ralston’s three friends were brutally massacred, though their deaths were inescapable. They were in the way, and for the sake of Camelia’s surprise, there was nothing Bari could do. Besides, there could be no outside human witnesses.
Most of all, and most woefully of all, Salvatia had slain Camelia.
At the playground, Bari held the dying Watchmaid within her arms, held her close as Camelia’s metallic flesh fell into corrosive decay, transforming her back into the human young lady she once was, so delicate and beautiful and baring the full-legged fully-formed body with which she’d been born into this world. As Bari’s dear friend passed on, Bari swore to her a solemn promise -- to protect Ralston through to the next life, to keep Andrew and Ralston in close proximity to each other regardless of the cost save for their very lives, to protect both as though they were both her own.
But Ralston’s identity would be contained, kept in utmost secrecy. The Magdalene was unaware of Ralston’s name; she was only aware of that wretched nameless Everborn to Camelia. And as far as the Magdalene knew, Camelia was still alive.
There was much to be done in light of the aftermath of the incident at the playground. Much to be done. For one thing, this called for a profound cover-up. Bari was faced with the task of shrouding the minds of the two Everborn, an easy endeavor for a Watchmaid at the outset, though Ralston and Andrew were sure to hold some memory of the events, a catalyst to account for missing time and the inevitable outcome of the human deaths involved.
And if anyone needed a catalyst, it was Andrew. Bari vowed to see him through the loss of his family.
When she lifted her gaze from her bosom friend, she saw that Ralston remained to her far left and solitary upon the grass...
...and Andrew was gone.
Quickly, Bari departed from Ralston and from the bodies of his friends and hers, for the moment, to return to them and to reconstruct the scene for the humans who would most certainly come upon them by morning, before even the first child set foot upon the grounds. School, today, would be canceled, for sure. Bari had to return. But first, there was her own Everborn to deal with.
When Bari found Andrew, she discovered him inside his house, in his parents’ bedroom, in the corner of the room alongside the open door and several feet from the foot of the bed where his parents