by J. N. Baker
And a soldier on every street corner was exactly what got me into this damned mess. William had sent me out on a mission to gauge the new level of security that Baldric had implemented—see how many National Guard troops were stationed in Santa Cruz and how many appeared to be under Baldric’s control. And it was going perfectly fine too, until a certain soldier got too big for his britches and decided to follow me. Oh well. One less soldier for the general’s twisted little army.
That was what I spent most of my time doing since my move to California—gathering intel for William, hunting vampires, taking out the general’s men one by one. I knew it wasn’t enough, though. It drove me crazy but, like William always told me, there wasn’t a whole hell of a lot I could do about the madness that Baldric had set upon the world.
I made my way down the sidewalk with my head down. I needed to get back to the apartment before anyone else spotted me.
“Zoe!”
Too late. Shit.
Cindy bounced up and down on the other side of the street, frantically waving her arms over her head to get my attention. It was working. She managed to get everyone’s attention, including two armed troops. She darted across the street without looking, ignoring the honking horns and obscene gestures.
I tried to look as normal as possible. What did “normal” look like, again?
I gave my friendliest smile as she approached, waving casually. My free hand darted to the guitar case on my back, double checking that it was zipped shut. It was probably best if she didn’t know I’d just killed a man. Cindy had always been a little overdramatic.
“Hey, girl! What are you doing here?” she asked, as nosy as ever. “And, like, when did you start playing the guitar?”
“Oh, um, for a while now,” I lied, shifting from one foot to the other. I didn’t normally carry my sword around with me. Daggers were my weapon of choice when I was out during the day—lightweight and easier to conceal. But with the increase in activity, I wanted to be prepared. “I thought I told you?”
“Zoe, can I be honest with you?”
“Here we go again,” I mumbled. “If I say no, can we end this conversation before it begins?”
“You look like shit,” she continued, ignoring me entirely. She tugged on my long brown hair, frowning.
“Thanks,” I breathed. I sure as hell felt like it.
Cindy was one of the few friends I had left. She had latched herself onto me a few years back and, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t seem to shake her off. Aside from a couple of mutual friends, we had absolutely nothing in common. Not to mention that I was no longer “human.” That kind of put us on different playing fields.
“Did you even take a shower this morning?” Cindy pressed the issue further. She tucked an auburn lock behind her ear, drawing attention to her perfectly painted face. Could we have been any more different?
“I woke up late,” I said through clenched teeth.
“Well, at least you’re finally taking my advice on color. That sweater, like, totally makes your eyes pop,” she said, her head bobbing with enthusiasm. “Now, if only you’d stop wearing those god-awful sunglasses all the time, people would actually have a chance to see them.”
I wish I could’ve taken that as a compliment. My eyes with their teal-blue color had drawn unwanted attention throughout my entire life. It only got worse after my “transformation.” Our eyes were much brighter than human eyes—they damn near glowed. I couldn’t be seen without sunglasses or contacts to mask the intense color. They made me too unique. Unique was bad. I needed to blend in.
“Speaking of sweaters, you realize it’s, like, seventy degrees out, right?”
“Yep.” She was on a roll.
“Look at that cute couple over there,” she said, pointing a bright pink fingernail at a nearby restaurant.
“I’d rather not,” I grumbled.
“How are we ever supposed to find you romance like that if you won’t even show a little skin?” Cindy reached up to tug the sweater off my shoulder and I slapped her hand away as slowly and gently as I possibly could. No need to break any bones.
Like everything else in my life, I didn’t have much choice in the matter when it came to my clothes. I had to hide my skin. I’d been branded with the mark of the Chosen. The ancient black symbols covered nearly my entire body, trailing up my back and over my shoulders, around my sides and down my arms and legs. I had no idea what any of them meant. Hell, not even William knew. Still, I’d always thought they were sort of beautiful. But it didn’t really matter what I thought, I had to keep them concealed. One look at them and the general’s men would know exactly what I was.
It was Baldric’s personal mission to hunt down and kill all the existing Chosen. Well, all of them except one: me. Roland had made that perfectly clear. What Baldric wanted with me, I didn’t know, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to. I already had enough to deal with, what with the end of the world and all. I didn’t have time to think about what sick, sadistic plans that monster had for me.
As for Baldric wanting to exterminate the others—it gave him the opportunity he needed, I supposed. William had told me that, like him, Baldric could sense who our successors would be—some sort of extra sixth sense the originals had. They were drawn to us, sometimes even before the predecessor’s death. Once the rest of the Chosen were out of the way, Baldric would be able to find their replacements and train them as his own. He’d have his army of bloodsuckers and the Chosen at his side. There’d be no one left powerful enough to stop him. The world would be his.
Over the past thousand years, Baldric had succeeded in picking off a handful of the Chosen, though he’d only managed to get his hands on one of their replacements. William had quickly remedied that…by taking the replacement’s head. When I asked him why, he told me they were too far buried in Baldric’s lies to find redemption. I guess things could have been worse—it could have been Baldric who found me in that hospital room instead of William. Then again, would my life have really been that much different?
“Oh,” Cindy added, shaking me from my thoughts, “and I expect those jeans to be in my hands by tonight. I want to wear them for a hot date I’ve got.”
“Why? You know they won’t fit,” I snapped. Cindy, standing four inches shorter than me, was curved in all the places I wasn’t. I regretted my words the second I saw the pained look in her eyes. She’d always been a little sensitive about her weight.
“I’m sorry,” I sighed. “I didn’t get much sleep.” I didn’t get any sleep. I never did, not anymore. If I wasn’t out pretending to be human, I was off fighting a war no one knew about. I’d sleep when I was dead. The thought almost made me laugh out loud.
“Anyway,” she muttered, rolling her eyes. “Have you heard from Josh lately?”
“Yeah, I talked to him a couple days ago. He’s trying to find a weekend to drive up from L.A. Guess he’s been pretty busy finishing up things with his first year of med school.”
Some days, hearing from Josh was the only thing that kept me going. He was one of only two people I still spoke to who were part of my old life—my life before the “accident”—before my world was turned upside down and then lit on fire. He reminded me what it was like to be human, if only for a moment.
A mischievous grin spread across Cindy’s face. “Think he’ll ask me out this time?”
“I don’t know. Has Hell frozen over?”
“Ha. Ha. Someone thinks she’s funny,” Cindy grumbled. “You’re such a bitch sometimes. You know that?”
I sighed, resisting the urge to roll my eyes. Call me crazy, but I was in no mood for Cindy and her antics. I had dried blood under my fingernails and the smell of Roland’s BO permanently burned into my nose, not to mention I was melting in that stupid sweater. Why couldn’t William have shipped me off to some place colder if I was going to have to cover myself like a seventeenth-century Puritan? Oh, that’s right, because California was supposed to have a high vampire population. And
that it did.
I started racking my brain for something to say to change the subject when my eyes fell on one of the soldiers standing guard across the street. I did a double take. He looked like the soldier I’d just killed. What was his name again? Private Something-or-other? After a while, they all looked alike. The man standing across the street was nervous, inexperienced, and obviously human.
I counted the beads of sweat dripping from his forehead. His eyes darted back and forth, unsteady hands fondling the butt of his rifle like he was afraid to touch it. I wondered if he’d been informed of my whereabouts. It was only a matter of time until Roland crawled back to Baldric to lick his wounds, or until someone went looking for Private What’s-his-name and found him less than alive.
The soldier was right to be afraid; he’d be an easy kill. He’d stagger forward, fumbling to position his gun in the right direction. There’d be a natural pause before he pulled the trigger when he’d wrestle with his conscience over taking another human life. That’s when I’d strike—straight for the throat, quick and painless. He’d be dead before he knew what hit him.
A shudder ripped through me. I hated that—being able to see it as if it were happening. Innocent, guilty—it didn’t matter. My mind discriminated against no one. Sometimes it would play out repeatedly in my head. Going over each possible scenario, anticipating each move and telling me how to respond. It always ended the same, though. Someone died.
William assured me that, with time, I’d get used to it. But after six years, that wasn’t the case. I knew exactly how to kill half the people walking down the street—including Cindy. There was something disturbing about knowing how easy it would be to kill one of your closest friends. And William tried to tell me we weren’t monsters. Right.
The soldier looked up at Cindy and gave a quick nod. His eyes lingered on me for a moment too long. Fuck.
“Isn’t he, like, totally hot?” Cindy batted her fake eyelashes at the man across the street, flashing a girlish grin. “He’s my date tonight. God, I love a man in uniform. I think I might have to give him the time of his life. He looks like he needs to lighten up.”
“Don’t you have any shame?” I said, not bothering to hide the disgust in my voice.
“Don’t you? Jeez, Zo, it sounds like you need to lighten up. A little shame would do you good. Don’t act so innocent with—” A middle-aged woman shoved past us, knocking Cindy’s arm. “Hey! Watch where you’re going, lady!” she shouted.
The woman ignored Cindy, talking a mile a minute into her smartphone. “What? What are you saying? I can barely hear you, slow down.” She paused for a moment before sinking to the sidewalk. “No! It’s not true! Not my baby!” the woman wailed.
A man on the corner was next. “What? Are you sure? Everyone? But—well, try calling him again, dammit!”
The street came alive around us. Phones ringing, voices rising, tears falling. Each call brought more unsettling news.
“Zoe, what’s going on?” Cindy looked to me, eyes wide.
“I’m not sure.”
Of course, that wasn’t true. I knew exactly what was happening. William had been preparing me for the past six years for just this. First Asia, then Europe, then South America, and now the United States. It was the end of civilization as we knew it.
“We interrupt this program to bring you breaking news.”
A series of TVs in a nearby electronics store window caught our attention with big flashing red “BREAKING NEWS” headings. Cindy and I, along with anyone else in view, inched closer to the smudged glass. The televisions were all tuned to the same news station. The female reporter trembled, mascara running down her cheeks. My sensitive ears could hear the camera crew in the background telling her to stay calm. While those around me read the captions on the bottom of the screen, her unsteady voice came loud and clear in my ears as she read from the teleprompter.
“It is with great sadness that we bring you the following. Just moments ago, a tsunami struck the East Coast. States stretching from Maine to Florida have been reported to be completely under water.
“A tsunami of this magnitude has not been seen before. The number of casualties is expected to be in the…in the millions. U.S. troops have been deployed for search and rescue. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the victims and their families. Please, stay tuned for a message from the President of the United States.”
Cindy sniffed, wiping a stray tear from her cheek. “Oh my God. All those people. Can you believe this, Zoe?”
It would have been nice to cry, to mourn for my own country—for humanity in general—but my reaction was quite different. Rage consumed me as I watched aerial shots of the aftermath flicker across the screens. So much death, so much destruction. I clenched my fists until my fingernails broke skin.
I’d warned William of the tsunami over a week ago. I saw it happen, just as I’d foreseen many of the other events that had taken place across the globe as of late. He told me there was nothing we could do about it. “Some things are beyond even our control,” he had said. I found it hard to believe there was absolutely nothing we could’ve done to stop it or to at least save even a fraction of those people.
I couldn’t help but feel slightly responsible for their deaths. Their faces would haunt me forever and, as William said, forever was a long time.
In the blink of an eye, white noise took over the broadcast, the buzz of static scratching at my ears. And then, nothing. An unsettling silence lingered in the air. No one seemed to notice, no one except me.
“I think we need to get out of here, Cindy.”
No response.
“Cindy, I’m serious. We need to go. Now.” I grabbed her by the wrist and dragged her away from the crowd.
“Hey! What the fuck do you think you’re doing? Let go of me!”
I spun around, shocked to find a stranger in my clutches. “Oh, I—”
She yanked her arm free and stormed off down the sidewalk.
I turned to face the electronics store that was no longer there; wide screen televisions were replaced by manikins in bikinis and swim trunks. Disoriented, I took a step back, the hot sun beating down on me through a thick layer of endless smog. Tall buildings, crowded streets, and busy people. Los Angeles.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I said to myself. “Not again. Not here.”
Another vision. After six years, I should have been used to them, but I wasn’t. There was nothing normal about seeing into the future, not that I thought I was even remotely “normal.”
I scanned the many faces as they passed by, hoping I wouldn’t see Josh’s among them. No one wanted to be in my visions. Usually, the people I saw ended up dead. That seemed to be a pattern in my life.
Vibrations licked the soles of my feet, pulsating through my calves and up my thighs. I swallowed hard.
All at once, the earth shook violently, snapping the street like a twig. Chunks of asphalt sailed through the air, plowing through buildings and cars. The concrete beneath me lifted, knocking me off my feet. Before I could find my footing, the shop window behind me exploded, shards of glass burrowing deeply into my skin. I crawled for the nearest car, pressing my back against its dented side. The driver was already dead. I could smell his blood.
It was like watching a scene from a movie played out in slow motion. There was no running, no escaping. The Earth swallowed anything and everything in its path. It screamed like a freight train in my ears. One by one, buildings toppled like dominoes. Within seconds, the once lively city was nothing more than a pile of rubble.
“Look out!” someone screamed, but I was already looking over my shoulder, watching the building as it barreled toward me. I braced for impact.
“Zoe? Earth to Zoe.” Cindy’s incessant poking brought me back to the here and now.
“What?” I blinked, trying to focus on her face.
“What’s up with you, girl? You were hyperventilating like you just saw a ghost or something.”
“Only about a million of them,” I mumbled.
I pushed her hand away, not wanting to draw attention to myself. But it looked like it was too late for that. The small crowd gathered around the display window whispered amongst themselves, their eyes burning holes straight through me. They weren’t the only ones. I’d managed to capture the undivided attention of the two soldiers across the street—Cindy’s boy-toy and his shorter, stockier companion. The shorter man muttered something into a walkie-talkie before they started across the street. It was time to get the hell out of Dodge.
“Um, Cindy, I need to go.” I didn’t wait for her to put up a fight, waving over my shoulder as I made my way down the sidewalk.
I weaved in and out of the small crowd, keeping my pace as humanly as possible. I had to play it smart. We were in the middle of a very public place, regardless of how thin the crowds had become recently, and Baldric had people everywhere. If I took off at full speed, I’d risk drawing the attention of any vamps in the area. While a human might not be able to keep up, a vampire would sure as hell come close.
The soldiers weren’t far behind me. I heard the distinct sound of their rifles slapping against their hips with each hurried step. I needed to lure them away—get them alone.
Without warning, a man stepped in front of me, coiling his long arms around my waist as I tried to swerve out of the way. His head dipped and, before I realized what was happening, his lips were on mine. The contact was brief, but as he pulled away, he took the air clean out of my lungs.
“Hey, babe.” The stranger tightened his grip. “How was work?”
That voice. I went stiff in his arms.
“A-Alec?” I breathed.
He leaned in close, the soft skin of his lips grazing the edge of my earlobe, sending electricity shooting through me. “Play along,” he whispered, his subtle accent wreaking havoc on my body. It was something Western European. I’d always had trouble placing it. He pulled his sunglasses down the ridge of his nose, staring at me with golden eyes, rich like honey, stealing whatever breath I had left.