Page 42 of The Syphon King

“Larson Seck Sire,” he announced in a voice three times his size. “I keep seeing time running. It’s a clock with legs, running around a track in a circle. He gets faster with every lap he makes. Then I wake up.”

“Stacey Beckons,” the dark-haired teen said boldly next to him. “I’m seeing warning and danger signs of all shapes and sizes. They’re in all my dreams.”

“I see these stakes rising out of the ground,” the next boy hurried, a chubby one of maybe fifteen. “Like something is pushing them up.”

“In my vision,” a lanky tall boy with an Indian accent said, “Sand is running through my fingers, and I know it’s the sand from an hourglass.” He looked at the girl next to him.

“I keep dreaming of this creepy old man.” She hugged her waist. “He’s always screaming at me saying ‘Now!’. It’s so loud, it wakes me up each time.”

“I keep dreaming of floods everywhere,” the following one said.

“I dream of fires,” the one after mumbled.

“I get visions of these clocks that are counting down from 13,” an athletic blond boy said as he leaned to the girl that could have been Cherie’s twin who rolled her eyes at him.

She announced, “I literally am seeing shadows growing shorter around me.”

“Not a vision?” Nidev wondered.

“No sir,” she said with a near bored assurance. “Actual shadows.”

“Boyd Johnson, Sire,” the boy next said. “I keep dreaming that I’m driving toward a dead end and there’s nothing I cando to escape crashing into it. But I always wake up before I do.”

They were at the little girl with the blond curls now. “And I see an army of Kings charging toward a mean, mad, cloud of giant devils,” she said with a big voice that squeaked. “They were all you!” Her finger moved over the Creole Kings. “Andallyou,” she added, pointing at their Marsh brothers. “And some other Kings too,” she said eagerly, all smiles. “They're not here yet. But they’re coming!”

Murmurs grew around the table as they speculated about the obvious meaning. The little girl who last spoke raised her hand high in the air.

“Yes, Eve?” Nidev called.

“I know what it all means.”

“Tell us,” he urged after a span of three seconds.

She took a breath and laid it all out, counting off her fingers to keep track. “It means the clock is ticking, and times running fast. These are warning signs. The stakes are rising and time is slipping through your fingers, so you need to actnow, cuz evil is flooding in and will burn everything in their fires. Thirteen shadows are getting shorter all around you and they arereal. There’s a dead end coming fast, and the army of Kings must mount up and takecharge before it’s too late!” She ended her remarkable deduction with a sharp nod of her head, tossing her curls about.

“Marsh Kings of the swamp,” Nidev said, astonished. “Meet Eve Lakeland. She is one of the top visionaries at our school. She turned ten last month. And though she is one hundred percent blind, she can truly see.”

“Holy fuck,” Bishop muttered two seats down from Seer while the murmurs of astonishment flew all around.

Well...if that wasn’t some giddy-up-and-go shit, nothing was.

“Would my Marsh Brothers mind if we stayed another hour to discuss how to proceed with this new information?”

Bishop got all their agreements while Bart said, “I don’t care what we’re doing, just so we do it fas-fas like lil’ Eve said.”

“Indeed,” Nidev agreed, thanking the kids who turned and filed out.

“Thank you, guys,” Beth called, waving with a smile and prompting the rest of their thank-yous as they left.

Well, well, well. Thesmallhad brought thebigsomething. Real shitwas hitting the real fan.

ZODAK GROANED AS JINXXYlicked his hand, dangling from the couch where he’d slept. He froze. Not the couch. He focused his biosensors on finding Zeen. She’d woken him during the night, too afraid to sleep alone.

She’d tucked herself into his body on the sofa he remembered. Then he’d spent two hours exploring every silky exposed inch of her with his fingers while his nose remained buried in her hair. The amount of hunger she produced in him was nearly crippling. It reminded him of what needed to be done and how it seemed perfectly logical to see whether he could draw darkness from her even while she slept.

And he had. Every contented moan he obtained with his celibate caresses gave him exactly what he wanted. Andsomuch more. He quickly sat up when his memory cut off. Flashes of him carrying her to his bed came and he gradually relaxed as he recalled her returning to sleeping soundly.

He’d vowed to try masturbation to see what sort of release it would provide but he wanted his brothers aware so they could monitor it. He also wanted to know how much darkness was released by her during the night. Then he wanted to compare that with another orgasm for her.

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