18. The Guardian

3.03.20

Kody's POV

I woke up on the floor of my dad's office next to James. He was curled up against my chest, and I had my arms around his back. There was a little smile on his face, and he looked like a tiny kitten asleep. I was sad because of what he went through for me. He had starved on the streets and gone to jail just so that he could stay close to me if I needed him.

James looked so different on the surface, but he was still the same on the inside. His hair has grown long and untamed, and his cheeks had grown hollow from the lack of food. He had returned to an unhealthy looking pale, and his muscles were slowly disappearing from hardly any exercise.

I knew the conditions in those prisons in Carbuos from conversations on the streets. Guards would mostly ignore prisoners; no food for days on end, hardly any yard time, and rare opportunity for personal care plagued the prisoners there. James embodied the very meaning of being an inmate.

However, he was still a ball of happiness. It wasn't as strong as it was before I went into a coma, but his smiles were still bright and short in between. He still had the playful energy that I had fallen in love with so long ago even if he was slightly more mature.

Suddenly, the door opened to the office.

"What the heck?" My father mouthed at me when he saw our position.

"Sorry..." I mouthed back.

His face lighted with realization, and he gave me a look of disgust. "Take him to your room, and I'll clean up the mess down here," he breathed while shaking his head. I stood up and lifted James's sleeping body into my arms while internally cringing at how light he was. I carried him up to my bedroom and set him on the bed before tucking the blankets around him.

I looked around the closet for something to wear, and noticed that none of it really fit my style. It was all either fancy or bright colors, and I had to wonder what my father thought of me. Eventually I settled on a bright blue- shiver- hoodie with a white shirt underneath and blue, denim jeans.

I walked out of the room so that I could bring James breakfast for when he wakes. I wandered throughout the hallways while searching for the dining room. The air was eerie, and I knew that it was my intuition telling me that something was wrong.

Suddenly, something gripped me from behind. I wrestled as hard as possible, but a hard hit to my head made everything start spinning. I continued trying to fight, but I was basically worthless when the world was spinning in front of me. The last thing that I saw before everything went dark was the enemies of the moon.

Third POV

The two men bathed in black dragged a knocked out Kody from the castle. They would have expected there to be more security around the moon's king, but it was strangely easy to just wander in and grab him.

"What are we supposed to do with him?" One of the men, Ben, asked.

"We've been through this a million times, Benjamin. We have to take him to father so that he can eject the powers from him and get more powerful."

"Why, though? What's dad going to do with the power of the moon and the sun?"

"Brother, I know that you're forgetful, but pay attention more! He plans to end the night as we know it. He'll make our kingdom stretch farther. Ben, he's going to get rid of the stupid moon's abilities for good."

"Right, sorry Blake."

"Whatever, just drive the car," Blake demanded while throwing Kody's blacked out body into the back of the van.

Meanwhile, James was just waking up from the best night of his life. He didn't expect to be waking up in his boyfriend's bed, but it was nice.

The door opened, and a disheveled Marcus rushed in. "Have you seen Kody!" he demanded loudly.

"I just woke up, so no?" James responded, confused.

"Get out of bed now! I've looked all over the castle and can't find him!"

"What's the worse that can happen? For all that we know he could have gone out for a stroll."

"No, you don't understand! He's the guardian of the moon, and that puts a huge target on his back. The sun's guardian is a greedy man who wants all of the power. The sun guardian chased Kody's mother into the ground, and now that Kody has the powers he's after him too!"

"Why is this stressing you out so much? What's a man gonna do with a boy and some powers."

"The process of power transfer is too much for a lot of people. James... Kody could die. Or worse, he could lose his memory of everything! That's... I'd hate to say it, but that's how his mother must have died. She probably transfered her energy to Kody to get him to wake up knowing that she wouldn't make it."

"So you're telling me that Kody is in extreme danger?"

"Yah."

"Why the hell are we still here!?" James shouted before shooting out of bed and throwing on clothes. "Do you know where they're taking him?"

"The sunniest place on Earth... Mexico."

***

Kody's POV

I groaned lowly. I don't know where I am, but there's a bright light shining into my closed eyes that's bothering me. I could distantly hear people talking next to my head, yet I wasn't completely present enough to hear their words.

"Whenever he wakes up, prepare the machine. We need to harvest it before the father realizes," a gruff voice, the first thing I heard, commanded from above me. It brought me back to a memory from when I was just a little child...

"Hand over the child, Helia." the same voice that I had just heard demanded.

"No! I won't let you hurt my son!" my mother responded while clutching the baby me closer to her body.

"This'll all be over soon enough, Helia. I will have all of the power in the universe one day."

"Not on my watch."

The memory disappeared when cold water was thrown into my face. I didn't open my eyes because I was concerned that the light would somehow hurt me, but I fidgeted slightly against the restraints that bound me to this table.

"Blake, hit the switch," a younger voice announced.

The metal underneath my back got extremely hot, and I began to sweat. Suddenly a searing hot pain travelled up my entire body. I cried out loudly, and the sound was mixed with three pairs of laughter. It felt like I was being slowly torn apart from the inside out, but for some reason a voice in my head told me to keep my eyes shut no matter what.

The world was spinning even behind my eye lids. I could smell the metal from the table, and one of the people laughing had a body odor problem. I could taste my own sweat and tears, and the red light that came from behind the skin of my eyes was eerie.

Just as I was about to give in to my fate, a loud crash was heard from the other side of the room.

"Turn it off!" A voice shouted.