The Pendant

A/N I'm back. I was lost for a while but found my way again. It has been a long time since I have been able to write but it seems that I am able to again! I was going through some of my stories and I really love this one and decided that I should finish it. Please let me know what you think. I very much enjoy Reviews!

She had exited the auditorium none too soon. The smell and sound of fresh young blood pulsing through the veins of the children that had piled into the small area stayed with her as she breathed in the cool night air. She needed to clear her thoughts, she had to patrol.

The world that they lived in had become a living wasteland filled with hate and violence. The streets were no longer safe for people to walk on alone. Greed and corruption had taken the place of selflessness and kindness as the cost of living went up and the salaries went down. Her once beautiful city was crumbling around her and the scum that had stayed out of view has surfaced to make a profit from those who lived here.

She took one more look at the school and envied the children that were housed within those walls. They would be her hope. As the city had started to crumble the schools had been transformed into housing and education facilities to keep the corruption from jading the youth that would someday take over. Very few people were allowed inside these buildings. Chris and his band had gone through a great deal of trouble to bring music into these walls and she loved him for it. He believed with his whole heart that he could fix the world with a song, she knew that wasn’t true, but she let him have that fantasy.

She started her climb to the top of school building, leaping from the walls of the school to the walls of the dorms and back to the school until she reached the top of the building. Lucky for her the city was grossly over developed making her travel that much easier. Her long blonde hair danced behind her in the breeze as she scanned the surrounding area.

The world was quiet. Even to her sensitive hearing the world was quiet and that bothered her. Something was coming; the scum always knew when something big was coming. It didn’t matter to her, she would handle what ever this was the same way she had been handling things for years. She glared down at the sidewalk as two uniformed police walked below her, completely unaware of the fact that they were being watched. She hated to admit it but they were part of the problem. Too many payoffs and deals over the years made them a joke. They made the good people of the city scared and the bad people laugh. If there were any good cops left she had yet to learn about them.

She watched silently as Chris and his band mates started to fill their trucks with the equipment from the show. The police stopped and stared at them. Chris gave a nod and smiled as he continued to load the equipment, humming happily to himself. The police started towards him, “what are you doing here?” The gruff voice made Chris look up.

“I had a show here for the kids tonight officers.”

“No one is permitted inside these buildings,” the officer reached behind him and removed a set of handcuffs from his belt. “You are under arrest for trespassing. Turn around.”

“But I…”

“I said turn around!”
Jade saw the scene playing out below her and jumped from the roof of the school building landing silently in a crouching position behind the deranged police officers. She stood slowly and cracked her neck readying herself for the fight that may occur.

“The proper procedure is the ask for his allowance paperwork.” She said from behind the edgy police.

They spun around and pulled their firearms from their holsters aiming the barrels right at her chest. Their hands started to tremble when they realized who they were pointing their weapons at.

“Don’t you tell us how to do our jobs,” the first officer spoke up finding a reserve of bravery.

“Wallace, I should have known. I would love to spend my time doing other things but you seem to need babysitting.”

He growled at her snide remark and pulled the trigger on his gun. The bullet hit her square in the chest and she staggered back a few feet. The leather of her corset top smoked where the bullet had penetrated. She looked down at her ruined top and snarled baring her elongated incisors. Her eyes took on an eerie reddish glow, showing the demon that lived within as the sound of her shifting bones could be heard. Her flawless feminine facial features were replaced with an enlarged and angry looking forehead. Her brows jutted enough to make it seem that her eyes had sunken slightly into her head. Her lips twitched with a deep throated snarl.

Chris smiled, fully knowing the features that were now present on Jade’s face. He watched with amusement as she bent a little at the hips before leaping in the air towards the police. “I’m thinking you shouldn’t have pissed that one off guys.” He said with a chuckle right before her foot came in contact with Officer Wallace’s face. The blow was hard enough to send him to the ground.

“Leave.” She hissed as the other cop grabbed Wallace by the arm and tugged him to his feet all the while urging him to get up so they could get out of there.

“Thanks, I’m glad you were still here or I would be calling you from jail asking for bail.”

“I would have posted.” She turned to look at him; her classic smirk kissed her lips as she shook her head to return her features to normal. The oddly happy sound of her cell phone sang from her coat pocket. She sighed as she looked at the number. “How did you find me?”

“It’s nice to hear from you too. I will explain that, but right now we need you,” the familiar voice came from the other line.

She ended the call and looked at Chris. “I’ll be late. My warden is in town.”

Chris smiled at her and ran his fingers through her long blonde hair. “I’ll be there waiting. Try to be nice. Liam has the best of intentions. He’s one of the few good guys left in this world Purity.”

She nodded and started her climb back up the side of the building. She knew right where he would be.


After traveling most of the city, Jade stood on the roof looking down at a frantic Liam from the glass sun light window directly above him. He was a stout looking man with wide features. His nose was large, his cheeks were large, his shoulders where large. He squeezed himself in a button down shirt and brown suit. He reminded her of a potato.

His eyes stared at the closed wooden doors as he tapped his thick fingers on the table he was seated at. He shifted through a file before pressing the speaker key on the conference phone in the center of the table. “Julia has Ms. Jade arrived yet?”

“Not yet Mr. McCullen.”

“Send her in as soon as she arrives.”

“Yes sir.”

Jade shook her head. Not only had he found her, but it appeared that he set up shop here too. All she had wanted was some sort of normal life. She knew full well that she would never have a completely normal life. She had not had one before the accident and any idea of a normal life was gone after the accident but she did not need that fact rubbed into her face by Liam.

With an animalistic growl she silently lifted one of the windows her duster tails silently danced in her decent. She landed with a slight crouch on the table right in front of Liam. Out of shock he screamed his chair falling back. Jade glared at him as she stood and looked down at the fallen man. He climbed out of the fallen chair and lifted it upright again.

He reached around Jade and pressed the speaker button again. “Never mind Julia she’s here”

“Yes Sir,” came the simple answer.

Liam gestured to a seat and Jade jumped from the table and took a seat a smirk was plastered to her lips and danced in her eyes. She seemed to laugh at the man without making a sound. The fact that she made him nervous made her happy, one of the few things in this world that seemed to bring her pleasure. She crossed her legs at the knee and her foot bounced in agitation.
“It has been awhile. How are you?”

“Not long enough. Liam I told you I didn’t want bothered.”

“I’m good by the by thanks for asking.”

Jade looked at him not amused. He had disrupted her semi-normal life and she wanted it back and wanted him gone. She was not one for small talk and pleasantries and he knew this. It was like he was trying to make her mad, push her buttons, asking her to react. She wouldn’t, not this time.

“I see that you have been busy, assisting the police in arrests. So much for the normal life you wanted. I hate to break it to you but that’s not a normal job.” He watched as she shifted in her seat glancing at the opening in the ceiling. “I’m just having a bit of fun with you Jade. How is Chris? Still well I hope.”

“How did you find me?” She growled at him, her eyes narrowed into slits that warned him he was walking a fine line.

“We never lost you Jade. We left you alone. We know this transition hasn’t been easy for you and we wanted to give you the time and space you needed to adjust. It isn’t like you are going to die any time soon. We had been observing you from afar, seeing how you had evolved and developed. You are beyond anything we could have imagined. I wanted to leave you be after we saw how well you were doing and how you had adjusted to social standards.”

“Bull Shit. You have never wanted to leave me alone. I’m too important to your research. You should have just let me die with the rest of my family.”

“You’re wrong. I can observe you without bothering your life. You are important to my research because your results vary so much from the others. You are special Jade, one of a kind.”

She turned from him, painfully aware she was one of a kind. Her mind flooded with the memories of her family and the last time she would ever see them alive.

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Her father had been a very successful lawyer; he was the founder and senior partner of his law firm. She really did not see him much. He worked long hours most days of the week. When he was home he was on the phone or his laptop working. She loved him all the same though. The few rare moments that they had together were special. She knew it was because she never got to see him but she didn’t mind. When it was just the two of them she was ‘Daddy’s little Princess’ and she loved it.

Her mother was the head of research and development for the United States Government. In the months prior to the accident her mother had become fully absorbed in her work. She was working on finding and altering the gene codes of the human species. Her goal was to eliminate the inheritable flaws that dwell in the bloodstream by rearranging DNA strands. She was so close to a breakthrough that she couldn’t leave work. Again Purity did not mind her mother had been there for everything she had ever needed and right now her mother needed her to be there.

So when Purity’s father suggested they all go on a vacation together Purity was thrilled. She did not even ask if she could bring Chris with her, she wanted her parents all to herself. Her father even offered that he come and she smiled and said he wasn’t family yet. Her dad had laughed and pulled her in for a quick hug before packing the back of the SUV with their belongings.

She sat in the back of the SUV as her father drove the winding back country roads to their summer cabin. Her mother chattered about taking a nice long hike one they got settled in and her father wanted to go fishing. He glanced over lovingly at his wife and that’s when it happened. A deer leapt from the surrounding forest and was hit by the SUV. The deer became lodged in the windshield, not dead and not quite alive. It was kicking trying to get free. She could hear her family screaming, she was screaming as her father lost control of the vehicle. She watched in horror as the deer continued to kick and her parents fell silent. As the SUV collided with the guardrail the deer dislodged from the glass and the SUV tumbled over a steep hill. Rolling over and over until Purity continued to scream as a thick tree came into view.

That was the last thing she remembered of her old life, her parents battered, bloody, and silent in the front seats and a collision with a tree. She had no idea how long they had been there or how she ended up in the military hospital but that is where she finally regained conciseness. She looked frantically for her parents asking everyone that walked by where they were. No one seemed to want to give her a clear answer.

It was at this point she started to notice she was different. She should have felt weak but she didn’t, she wasn’t even tired. Her hearing was off, things seemed so loud, so distinct. She felt like if she concentrated hard enough she could have focused on single whispered conversations across the hall. Her sense of smell had increased. She could pick out not only normal every day scents but things she could only describe as emotions. Lastly, her eye sight was incredible. She could see the individual fibers in the shirts of passersby and was certain if the whole hospital had lost power she could see perfectly well in the dark.

It was at this point she met Liam. He had been there since the crash and had taken care of her. He explained to her that her father had been dead before help had arrived at the scene and her mother died shortly after being brought to the hospital. She was the only one to survive.

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Jade shook her head and pulled herself from the past, it was over. “Why did you want to see me?”

“We have a problem, a very serious problem. Do you know anything about the Necklace of Aello?”

“No.” He waited a moment for her to say more but she didn’t.

“The Necklace of Aello is a red stoned necklace supposedly worn by the Greek Harpy Aello. She was one of the tormenters of criminals but was closely allied with the underworld. She was a demon.”

“Ok and?”

“It is said that the owner or wearer of the necklace will possess great power linked to the underworld. Her spirit is said to be trapped within the largest stone on the necklace. With the right incantation it can be released bringing with it a flood of demonic creatures known to only as the old ones. The individual is then granted immortality to serve among the old ones.”

“Old ones?”

“The original demons and powers of the world. Aello allied herself with them and her loyalties are what got her the necklace.”

“Cool. So where do I fall into all of this?” She looked bored with the history lesson. Her fingers scratched at the bullet hole in her chest. It was very itchy and she wanted to get home to pull the bullet out.

“We have reason to believe that someone is attempting to discover the hiding place of this necklace,” Liam sighed when he saw the look of annoyance on her face, “We need your help in securing the necklace before they do.”

“Why do you need my help?”

“Because it is a dangerous mission and with your particular abilities you will have the easiest time acquiring the necklace.” She nodded in understanding and yawned, dawn was fast approaching and she could feel it in her bones.

“Do you know who is after it and why?”

“His name is Timothy Highren. He has connections to many of the major crime circuits in the city. We believe he is looking to release the demons to benefit his business profits and gain immortality.”

“Figures. I am well acquainted with Timmy. I hate to cut this sort but it’s almost dawn and I prefer not becoming a crispy critter.” She stood and jumped effortlessly back on the table. “Have a team ready and we will go over plans tonight. I will be here just after dark.” Liam nodded his head in agreement as Jade leapt back on to the roof. She would have to hurry if she was going to get into her apartment before dawn.