End of the Line

by N. D. Roberts

  Mary-Anne turned inward, ignoring the concerned glances they sent her way as they hesitantly talked about what would happen next.

  Ezekiel found it hard to concentrate on the matter at hand. He heard Lilith’s advice over and over in his mind and wished he could do more to help Helena through this. However, he knew from experience that his presence would only cause her to become more frantic. He couldn’t help but feel for Caitlin and Kain when Mary-Anne’s time came.

  The thought of them having to suffer as he was brought out a determination to get Mary-Anne whatever help he could.

  He wondered if this had been Helena’s plan from the moment they met Mary-Anne. He didn’t care. He liked her as well, and he would bleed himself dry before he allowed another to go through the torment Helena was in right now.

  She screamed again, and the sounds of her agony tore Ezekiel’s heart in two.

  She broke off, her exertion too much for her body to handle.

  Royland spoke into the sudden silence. “We should be able to fix her.”

  Ezekiel started. What did the vampire know?

  “The ship. The dirigible, I mean,” Royland continued quickly. “The crew was making great progress on the hole, so it should be airborne by morning.”

  Cammie shot Royland a look that told him he was an idiot. “Sure. Airborne, but not prepared for the long voyage you’re all talking of taking. We’ve added a band aid to a cut. We need to put on the antiseptic, bandage that baby up, and have the whole thing checked over before we can even think of heading to Europe. The last time anyone voyaged that far…”

  They smiled, recalling their glory days.

  Kain, the voice of reason, cut into their nostalgia trip. “Where do you expect to fix her up? It’s not like there’s a mechanic nearby where we can just drop her off for a quick once-over. It’s hopeless. We’ve got nothing. A suicide mission and a ship that won’t make the voyage.”

  Ezekiel was silent. He was very close to reaching out to Lilith to ask her to pass a message to Sarah Jennifer…

  Kain’s eyes flashed yellow. “How about it, Ma? Shall we just call it quits and submit to the will of the Madness? Helena’s doing it. How about you bite me in the neck right here, and then maybe I can just get it over with. It’s not like you’re going to survive the journey, is it?”

  Mary-Anne refused to meet his stare. She turned away as she felt the Madness creeping inside her.

  “See?” Kain’s fear for her manifested as anger. “Even Ma thinks the whole thing is stupid. Just admit it, Caitlin. We’ve hit a dead end. It’s over. We’ll never make it—”

  Cammie slapped him.

  Kain’s hand shot up to his face. “You hit me!”

  “Somebody had to,” Cammie snarled. “Do you realize how crazy you sound?”

  Kain’s mouth dropped open. “How crazy I sound?”

  “That’s right,” Cammie told him bluntly. “Do you realize what this world’s been through? Do you realize the struggles, the trials and tribulations that have brought about each age that has come before ours? When the Nazis rose to power, people thought they couldn’t be defeated and that the world as we knew it was over. It wasn’t.”

  Kain stammered, “B-but…”

  Cammie waved off his weak protest. “When technology was brought into the world and people thought that the year 2000 signaled the end of all things as we knew them, we survived. I’ve known Weres who have wandered through the apocalypse and rebuilt the land. I’ve known vampires who have overcome their own families and fought off evil to make the world a better place.”

  “That’s not what I’m—”

  Cammie cut across his argument. “I know one vampire who came into the UnknownWorld with less knowledge than a newborn has of algebra, and she tackled everything that came her way. She overcame age-old feuds, she learned to harness Kurtherian technology, and she’s out there right now battling to keep our tiny shithole of a planet safe.”

  Kain had no recourse for that. Everyone knew Bethany Anne’s story.

  Cammie continued in the same angry tone, “And now our small band of fighters has a chance to restore the world to rights. To help rebuild the world one more time, and you’re shaking in your boots, cowering before the job at hand? Well, let me tell you something. There are only a few moments in our life where we get to choose what truly defines us. Moments when life asks you who you want to become, and you get to make your choice.”

  Kain hung his head. She was right; he knew it.

  “Your choice is now, Kain,” Cammie stated. “Mary-Anne. Caitlin. Zeke—”

  “Ezekiel,” Ezekiel corrected.

  “Whatever.” Cammie stabbed a finger in Kain’s direction. “So, what choice do you want to make?”

  Ezekiel was stung to the core by her rant. She was right, of course. It wasn’t about any of their individual needs beyond the urgency to get Mary-Anne to Lilith’s mountain before her Madness progressed past the point of no return.

  Before he had the chance to tell them he would reach out to Sarah Jennifer, Caitlin spoke up.

  “Well, I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m ready to go kick this Madness in the ass.” She gave Cammie and Royland one of those shrewd looks. “If you’ve got the balls to give a speech that rousing, that must mean you’ve got a method to repair the ship?”

  Royland wiggled his eyebrows. “Oh, we’ve got some friends nearby. If we can get the ship in a position to fly a short distance, we can get the rest of it patched up and ready to go.”

  Caitlin nodded, her expression resolute. “Great. The moment Helena snaps out of her episode, we’ll bid our farewells and set out to the sunrise.”

  Royland sucked in a breath. “Oooh, the sunrise?”

  He preened when that got a laugh, which had Cammie rolling her eyes.

  “What about it, brother?” Caitlin asked Kain. “Are you in?”

  Ezekiel was flooded with relief at dodging the reunion he’d been avoiding for so long. This way, they could avoid Salem altogether. It brought his sense of humor back. “Oh, come on,” he teased. “Don’t tell me Sir Wolfington is afraid of a little adventure?”

  Kain let out a playful growl. “Fine. We’ve come this far. What’s an extra thousand miles?”

  Caitlin paused as she returned to her seat, realizing something was off.

  She wasn’t the only one. Now that the heated discussion had come to an end, the house was silent.

  She caught Ezekiel’s eye. “Erm, Zeke?”

  Royland whined, “How come she can call you that?”

  Cammie placed a hand on his arm. “Let it go.”

  Ezekiel and Caitlin had bigger concerns.

  Ezekiel dashed from the room.

  The bench where Helena should have been secured was empty.

  His heart rate skyrocketed as he rushed back.

  Caitlin groaned, understanding immediately. Kain was half a step behind. “What is it?” he asked. “Is she…” He couldn’t bring himself to say, “dead.”

  Ezekiel shook his head, dread contorting his features. “Helena’s gone.”

  Not for long.

  She burst through the door with the Madlight in her eyes.

  Ezekiel knew this was it. Helena was gone, and all that remained was a Mad with vampiric strength and speed.

  He heard Caitlin whisper, “Nosferatu,” and couldn’t deny it.

  Helena’s strength sent her crashing through the furniture and into the wall, unable to pull back from her frenzied charge.

  Still, Ezekiel was loath to kill her.

  The others had no emotional bond to hold them back.

  The room suddenly bristled with weaponry as everyone but Ezekiel pulled their blades. Royland had a pistol, of all things. Even Mary-Anne, in danger of turning Mad, vamped out.

  Ezekiel panicked. “Don’t hurt her! It’s just an episode. We can calm her. Tie her back down. This isn’t the end.”

  He knew that wasn’t true, yet he still held a child’s
hope that she could be saved. If they just subdued her. If they bound her and…and…

  Helena threw a table at Kain.

  The Were ducked, avoiding the makeshift projectile. “Has she ever escaped from your contraption before?” he yelled as the Helena-Mad stalked the room, eyeing each of them as if trying to gauge the weakest and therefore prime target.

  Ezekiel hesitated to answer, knowing it would seal her fate. “No,” he answered eventually. “She’s never been strong enough.”

  His mind churned, caught between loyalty to a person who no longer existed and the living.

  Caitlin lifted her sword, holding the growling Jaxon back with her foot. “It may be time to accept that Helena is gone.”

  The dog let out a loud bark and the Helena-Mad zeroed in on him with a starved look, saliva dripping from her mouth.

  Madness-fueled, Helena blurred across the room, her sights set on the noble animal.

  Jaxon leapt in front of Caitlin, his instinct to protect his human overriding his sense of self-preservation.

  Before the two met in the center of the room, Mary-Anne took the Helena-Mad out at the waist, flinging the Mad vamp across the room. The rest were unable to keep up as the two vampires went fang and claw against each other. Even Royland was hard-pressed to make out who was going to come out on top.

  Still, he did his best when Mary-Anne took a blow that sent her reeling, leaving the Helena-Mad free to go for Jaxon again.

  His eyes flashed red as he tackled the Helena-Mad to the floor, screaming, “Run!”

  Cammie dragged Caitlin out of the house as the sounds of the vampires battling it out tore the night apart.

  Caitlin pulled free of Cammie’s grip when she realized neither Kain nor Ezekiel had emerged from the house.

  Cammie took her hesitation for fear. “Keep close, Caitlin. I’ll protect you.” Her eyes shone yellow in the dark as she called her wolf to the surface, ready to shift in an instant if necessary.

  “No!” Caitlin told her. “You can’t shift. Don’t risk it!” She felt Jaxon bump against her leg and was glad at least the dog had made it out safely. “Kain’s still in there. I can’t just leave him.”

  They paused by the tree line as an almighty crash came from the house and the Helena-Mad sped through the wreckage of the door.

  The Madlight shone from her eyes, casting a corrupt halo around her in the gentle drizzle that was falling.

  Cammie hunched, preparing to shift, when a bloodcurdling howl rent the air and Kain made himself a door where the wall had been.

  Standing almost eight feet tall in his Pricolici form, his claws tore up the ground as he bounded across the clearing in pursuit of the Helena-Mad.

  She stalled, the howl speaking to some primal part of her psyche deep below the Madness corruption that drove her to seek sustenance from the living.

  That gave Mary-Anne and Royland an opening. Together, the Pricolici and the two vampires triple-teamed Helena, wrestling her to the ground.

  Cammie shoved Caitlin toward the trees. “Go.” Caitlin didn’t move. “GO!” Cammie yelled, her voice torn with fear for her lover. “Royland! Get away from her. Remember, you can’t touch her blood!”

  Royland backed off, and Mary-Anne took his place. “Just go! Get Caitlin to safety, now!”

  Caitlin still refused to move. “Where did Ezekiel go?” she yelled. “EZEKIEL!”

  She made for the house but only managed two steps before Royland scooped her up and flung her over his shoulder. He snagged the German Shepherd with his free arm and ran at vampiric speed through the trees.

  Caitlin screamed in frustration at being forced to leave her family behind and losing the only link to the cure. She beat at Royland’s back in vain. “Let me down, you ass! Ezekiel is more important than me!”

  Royland gave no sign he heard.

  Back at the house, Ezekiel watched helplessly as Mary-Anne and Kain fought Helena. He wouldn’t risk unleashing a wall of flames as much as his instincts were screaming at him to do so. Not with them all so close.

  He was reduced to waiting on the sidelines, hoping they would subdue Helena, when Lilith touched his mind.

  Not now, Lilith, he begged.

  You are in considerable distress, the Kurtherian told him. You reached out to me.

  Just like that, the urge to burn everything vanished, replaced by a crashing wave of grief. Magic poured from him, and the heavens opened in response.

  Lightning came from the clouds obscuring the dawn, and thunder crashed.

  The pouring rain turned the ground to slick mud.

  Ezekiel wept, the salt of his tears getting washed away in the storm. Lilith’s voice was balm for his soul.

  You will do what you have to, child. What would your friend want?

  Ezekiel thought back to when Helena had first realized she was infected. Her words, which he had brushed off as frightened talk, came back to him.

  “We will go far from here. Far from any humans. When my time comes, don’t let me hurt anyone, Ezekiel. I couldn’t bear it.”

  He had run to avoid his duty. To forge his own path, free of the restrictions he’d seen in Sarah Jennifer’s way.

  “Duty has a way of catching up with you,” he murmured in a broken voice. “Whether you want it or not. It’s not fair.”

  Life seldom is, Lilith told him in the same calm voice. However, you have the strength to get through this and anything else your destiny sets before you.

  The talk of destiny made him think of Sarah Jennifer again. How many times had she been forced to make decisions that affected people the world over? “How does Sarah Jennifer cope with it?”

  Lilith’s reply surprised him

  She feels much as you are feeling now, that no one person should be faced with the responsibility for the life of another. She saves her tears for when the hard work is done, and she holds herself accountable for every living being lost to the Madness in the meantime.

  The scales fell from Ezekiel’s eyes. I know what I have to do.

  Chapter Twelve

  The Helena-Mad had escaped in the downpour.

  Ezekiel followed the trail she and the others had left to the dirigible, his heart heavy. Despite his grief, he felt better control over his magic than he’d had in a long while. Perhaps it was because the event he’d been fearing for so long was past. Helena was gone, never to return, and now all he had to do was obey her final wishes.

  He heard frantic shouting up ahead at the crash site.

  Slipping through the trees, he saw that the dirigible had been repaired well enough to get them airborne. It was no Enora, but it was a sight to behold all the same.

  He felt no sense of Helena’s mind in the clearing. The dual stench of Madness and fear filled the air.

  There she was, still attempting to get at Caitlin’s dog.

  He hesitated, wondering if the fixation on Jaxon was the last vestige of sanity clinging to her mind or just her long-ingrained habit of only feeding on animals surfacing like some macabre muscle memory.

  He heard Caitlin’s voice drifting toward him as he inched closer, calling on every bit of magic he had in his effort to replicate Esme’s ability to control the Mad.

  It was in the blood.

  It was always in the blood.

  Caitlin had her hands up in a conciliatory gesture. Her left foot was back, her body held in a ready stance should it come to a fight. “You can’t have him. He is not yours to have, Helena. Nor are any of us. You are a vampire under the influence of the Madness. Hear me, if you can, and give us some kind of sign that you are still in there.”

  Ezekiel’s heart hurt. He wanted to believe he saw recognition flaring in the Helena-Mad’s eyes.

  “Helena?” Caitlin repeated. “If you’re in there, give us some kind of sign. Anything…”

  Ezekiel hung back, his entire focus on calling to the nanocytes running through the Helena-Mad’s veins.

  She growled, baring her teeth as Caitlin took a step towa
rd her.

  Even from a distance, Ezekiel saw the Madlight in her eyes, the dull red outshining the early morning sun filtering through the breaks in the clouds.

  Jaxon snarled as Caitlin continued talking in that low, persuasive voice.

  “Helena? Are you in there? Come back to us.”

  She reached out, breaking the spell.

  The Helena-Mad snarled and lunged at Caitlin, tossing her into the crew standing as if frozen on the deck of the dirigible.

  She darted toward the dog, and Ezekiel knew it was now or never.

  Something clicked in his mind, and he found the bridge he needed through the remnant of his own blood that was still in Helena’s system. He reached for the nanocytes coursing through her veins and sent out a single thought.

  STOP.

  The Helena-Mad froze mid-strike.

  Ezekiel ignored the people staring at him as he advanced toward the dirigible, his hands glowing with white light.

  The light extended, surrounding the Helena-Mad.

  Ezekiel broke out in a sweat as pain wracked his body, the magic threatening to tear him apart. He refused to give in. Refused to believe he would fail.

  This was Helena’s last wish, and by the Matriarch and all the stars above, he meant to make sure the woman this Mad had once been got the ending she deserved.

  He focused, his hands trembling with the effort of holding her in place.

  “Bind her,” he called to the other UnknownWorlders. “Tie her up while I can still hold her. Hurry! I can’t hold her for long.”

  They obeyed without question, restraining her from head to toe in ropes and chains. Just in time, since Ezekiel’s nose began to bleed as his effort became too much for his body to handle.

  He released his magic, bending almost double as the recoil of it snapping back hit him like a punch to the gut. He waved a hand to indicate they should move her off the dirigible.

  Tentatively, since she was snapping at them, they removed her to the edge of the forest, hardening their hearts against her plaintive cries.

  “Here,” Ezekiel told them as they reached the foot of a mighty pine.

  Caitlin looked at him like he was a taco short of a combination plate. “What? Why are you stopping?”