Eternal Day

by Kerrion, Jade;

  “What do you expect from me?” Siri sounded curious instead of defensive.

  Ashra smiled slowly. She nodded at Tera, and in that instant, Tera knew that her vision had seized Ashra, too. The queen spoke. “We’re asking for life, Siri, beyond the constraints of our domed cities. Erich knows where to find water underground. We carry the planet’s seed right here in the chamber. Aeternae Noctis contains the height of pre-apocalyptic human technology, and you embody its knowledge. If there is a way, it begins here.”

  Tera drew a deep breath. Ashra had spoken. It begins here.

  And it begins now.

  Four steps carried Erich across the breadth of his cell. Another four carried him across its length. The steel ceiling extended two feet above his head.

  He squeezed his eyes shut, but the darkness could not conceal the shrinking of space around him. He sucked in a deep breath, but his skittering pulse refused to steady. If his cell were any smaller, it would be a grave.

  She’s burying me again—this time, in the bowels of the city.

  His elongated nails pierced the palms of his hands. Sinking to his knees, he stared at the slow trickle of blood along his wrist and forearm, tracing patterns like the underground rivers. Stare. Concentrate. Focus.

  His world zoomed in upon the gold-tinged crimson of his blood. For a precious moment, the suffocating, crushing sensation alleviated. A river of blood. Liquid life.

  A memory pushed to the fore. He had once stared, transfixed, at Tera’s golden blood. Dying, the world had turned cold around him; his vision blurred into darkness. When she raised her bleeding wrist to his lips, he had allowed the heady nectar to flow down his throat.

  If he had known then what he knew now about demons wearing the guise of angels—

  Liquid life, or death, depending on your point of view.

  The chuckle of irony dispelled his cocoon of distraction. Anxiety morphed his low laughter into a high-pitched giggle. The sound bounced off the steel walls, pulsing through his ears like a cacophony of bells.

  If I weren’t already mad—

  The door slid back soundlessly, and two elder vampires entered the room. The already claustrophobic space collapsed further until Erich wheezed, struggling to draw a breath. He dug his fingernails into the side of his head, smearing his cheeks with his blood. It’s all right. I don’t need air—technically. I can’t die. I’m already dead.

  His lungs, however, seemed oblivious to logic. They burned and screamed. His heart pounded in his chest. With every beat, the blood vessels in his head throbbed so viciously he thought they would burst.

  Some part of his rational mind screamed at him. Drawing a breath he did not actually need was not harder just because two others had entered the small cell.

  Logic. Damned logic. Useless logic.

  Erich twisted his hands to rake his fingernails across his scalp. The multiple slashes of pain gave him something to hold on to. He folded in upon himself, dropping to his knees and curling into a ball. If he took up less space, if there was more air around him, perhaps it would be easier to breathe.

  His chest heaved. His thoughts skittered, smashing into each other like marbles jiggling in a tiny pocket. The crushing feeling against his chest swelled upward, drowning him.

  It exploded out of him in a long shriek. The thin, despairing sound speared through the enshrouding web, tearing through it, clearing just enough space for him to suck in a desperate heave of air.

  The red haze in his vision slowly dissipated.

  Jaden and Rafael were still standing by the door, staring at him. Jaden looked shocked, but there was something else in his eyes Erich could not decipher. Rafael’s expression, however, was entirely beyond Erich’s ability to comprehend.

  Rafael was the elder vampire Erich understood the least. Jaden had been a warrior and Talon a thug—which approximated much of the same thing. Rafael, on the other hand, had been an herbalist. He healed injuries—until Erich captured and tortured him for three years, bleeding him almost past the point of death, crushing whatever remained of his humanity.

  “Can he even understand what we’re saying?” Jaden murmured. Was that pity Erich heard in his voice? “He’s completely insane.”

  “He’s not insane,” Rafael’s cool voice was analytical. “It was a panic attack, rather dramatized—he’s a vampire, after all—but just a panic attack.” Rafael squatted across from Erich with fluid grace no mere human could attain. “Erich, can you look at me?”

  Erich met Rafael’s hazel eyes with a sneer. “You think you can trick me with a pretense at compassion? What do you want, vampire?” He flung the word out with contempt. The corner of his mouth tugged up in a mocking grin. “How long do you think it will take you to break me?”

  “If you’re insane, then you’re already broken. If you’re not—and I don’t think you are—then there is no need to break you.” Rafael shifted into a comfortable cross-legged sitting position. “How did you fall in with the daevas?”

  “What is this? A tête–à–tête?” Erich laughed. “Where is the tea and scones?”

  “Would you rather I send for vintage icrathari blood and spider entrails cooked in daeva bile?”

  Erich blinked. “Spiders have entrails?”

  Rafael shrugged. “It’s a delicacy. You have to kill many spiders to get even a spoonful of entrails.”

  Erich laughed; Rafael grinned.

  No, no. He’s the enemy. He hates me. He’s trying to get something out of me. Humor leeched out of Erich’s face. “Nice try, bastard, but you’re not going to get to me.”

  “I’m not trying to get to you, but you are interesting. I asked Yuri about you—”

  “Yuri?”

  “Your cousin, Yuri.”

  Erich’s jaw dropped. “I…have a cousin?”

  Rafael exchanged a glance with Jaden. The other elder vampire quietly left the cell. Rafael turned back to Erich. “What do you remember of your life in Aeternae Noctis, before you were transformed?”

  “Nothing.” Erich scowled. “I see faces and hear voices, but the memories are in pieces—fragments. Nothing makes sense.”

  “And what do you remember?”

  “Tera. Her face. Her blood—like honey.”

  “And after that?”

  Erich’s shoulders stiffened. “After that, I woke up in hell.”

  “Why didn’t you come back to Aeternae Noctis?”

  His mind blanked. Thoughts fizzled out. Words caught in his throat. “What…do you mean?”

  “You were supposed to come back,” Rafael said. “Transformation is dangerous, even foolhardy. Most humans can only accept a blend of icrathari and vampire blood; the ones who survive the transformation become vampires. Pure icrathari blood is almost impossible for any human to consume. The process of transforming shatters both mind and body. Those who consume pure icrathari blood are buried outside the city. The ones who survive the transformation, their minds and bodies remade—perfected—return to Aeternae Noctis.” Rafael paused. “Why didn’t you?”

  Erich’s breath squeezed out of his lungs. “I…didn’t know.”

  “You didn’t know how to return? You would have felt the pulse of air from the city’s engines over hundreds of miles. If nothing else, Tera’s soul bond should have drawn you back.” Rafael tilted his head. The carefully professional tone of his voice, exuding intellectual curiosity instead of pity, made the conversation almost tolerable.

  Almost…

  “I didn’t know…” Erich mentally cringed at the broken edge in his whisper. “I thought she abandoned me. Discarded me.”

  The door slid open, and Jaden walked in, accompanied by a redheaded female vampire. Erich’s eyes narrowed. “You were with Tera and Talon.”

  She nodded. Her eyes were narrow slits, and the palms of her hands rested on her twin blades sheathed in leather scabbards.

  “You are my cousin?”

  “My mother was your father’s sister.”

  “And t
he icrathari took you too.”

  Yuri shrugged. “I was a troublemaker.” She did not sound bitter; in fact, her tone was touched with wry amusement. To his surprise, she suddenly frowned. “The vampires took my twins when they turned five. I hurt so much, I thought I would die. I didn’t care if I did, as long as I took out some vampires, or perhaps even an icrathari. I stirred the city into rebellion. You were a bystander, accidentally caught up in the violence. You were so badly injured I thought you would die.” She shook her braid back over her shoulder. “I lost track of you. In fact, for several days, I lost track of me.”

  “They transformed you into a vampire,” Erich whispered. “The ultimate revenge—turn the leader of the rebellion against her own people.”

  Yuri frowned. “Tera saw something in me worth keeping alive, even if it was just my willingness to stand up to the icrathari. I am her second-in-command. I lead the vampire armies. I defend the human population of our cities against daeva attacks, against you.”

  “Yuri, that’s enough.” Jaden laid a hand on Yuri’s shoulder.

  She bared her fangs. “He almost killed Talon.”

  Jaden’s eyebrows shot up. “Actually, he almost killed you.”

  Yuri flipped her wrist dismissively. “I was fine.”

  Erich did not miss the amused glances Jaden and Rafael exchanged. The ache in his chest, however, surprised him. He had not expected that level of camaraderie among the vampires—relationships rooted in friendship instead of fear. He ground his teeth and waited until he was certain his voice would not tremble. “I do not remember you.”

  Yuri snorted. She lifted her chin. “So Jaden says. That’s a convenient excuse.”

  “What happened to your twins?”

  “Jana and Jack? They’re in the city, playing with the other children.”

  Erich’s brow furrowed. “They’re alive? Are they vampires?”

  “No, of course not. They turn six next month.”

  His mind tripped over the implausibility of it all. “But you said the vampires took them two hundred and fifty years ago, when they were five years old.”

  “The vampires placed them in hibernation—sleeping, never aging.” Yuri arched an eyebrow. “You didn’t know?” She glared at Jaden and Rafael. “What have you boys been doing besides exchanging war stories? Have you told him nothing about Aeternae Noctis?”

  Jaden chuckled. “Perhaps it’s better if we showed it to you.”

  Yuri led the way, and Jaden and Rafael brought up the rear. Erich had no doubts as to what the elder vampires would do to him if he attempted an escape, but even if he did manage to break away, where would he go?

  Malum Turris was cold even to a vampire inurned to the cold. The black steel walls sucked the warmth out of the air. Engineered with startling precision, corridors curved in perfect spirals toward the hollow center of the tower, obviously designed for icrathari in flight. Next to it, a moving platform carried the less-abled immortals up the tower. “What kind of magic is this?” Erich demanded.

  Jaden chuckled. “The first time I got on, it almost gave me a heart attack. It’s an elevator; it’s pre-apocalyptic human technology.”

  “But how is it moving?”

  “It’s powered by solar energy, from the panels Siri installed on the dome of Aeternae Noctis.” Jaden shook his head. “On some level I understand it, but it’s easier to trust that Siri knows what she’s doing.” The elevator stopped, and the four of them walked off the platform into a large room, so high and so wide that its walls were lost in darkness.

  “This is…was…the vault.” Yuri’s voice carried in echoes through that strangely somber room. “This is where the vampires kept the children they took from us.”

  “They didn’t kill the children?”

  “The humans certainly thought so, but the vampires culled only from necessity. Aeternae Noctis could not sustain a large and growing population, so some children were taken and placed in hibernation—frozen in sleep—within glass coffins.” Yuri threw Rafael a sideways glance and a smile. “It came to a head when Rafael’s son was taken. Siri became highly motivated to return his son to him. That’s when we finally realized that the coffins were made of palladium glass—the same glass that protects Aeternae Noctis. Children were awakened and returned to their parents. Coffins were melted and recast into the domes that now protect the cities of Ganymede, Callisto, Io, and Europa.”

  Erich frowned. “What happens when the domes run out of space?”

  Yuri’s face tightened. “We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.”

  “There is no plan?” His voice rose in outrage. “Megun said that Aeternae Noctis was humanity’s great ark, that everything critical for the survival of the human race and the renewal of Earth was placed within the domed city.” Erich flung his arm out. “A thousand years have passed, and there is still no plan?”

  Jaden and Rafael exchanged thoughtful glances before Jaden asked quietly, “And do you have a plan?”

  Chapter 10

  Did he have a plan?

  Erich was an artist and a poet. What kind of plan did they expect him to have?

  The question however troubled him long after Jaden and Rafael escorted him back to his cell. He slumped in a corner, his long legs pulled up to his chest, and rested his head on his knees.

  Water.

  Water was the key. Even he, non-scientist that he was, knew it. A memory fragment flashed through his mind. The waterfall streaming from Malum Turris encircled the town, watering the fields and forests.

  Beyond Aeternae Noctis, the only water he knew of were the large underground rivers and lakes, some scarcely larger than puddles, and others so wide he could not see the other side.

  A smile spread across his lips. He loved the water. How much time had he spent wading in the icy cold shallows, marveling at the waves lapping against his calves? He had surprised himself by swimming, as if he had always known how, but he must have learned it as a child, living in Aeternae Noctis.

  His cell door slid open. He turned his head without raising it. A slim figure, framed by the spread of wings, stood by the door. Tera spoke quietly. “You have a plan?”

  He chuckled, the sound low and without humor. “You don’t?”

  Her shoulders lifted in a shrug, her wings pressing against her back. “The Earth wasn’t ready for a plan; we weren’t ready to execute it.” The door slid close behind her; she showed no concern about being alone in the cell with him. “Despair over the loss of Earth drove the humans we’d saved to suicide. When we realized that fear kept them alive, the icrathari and the vampires became enemies instead of guides and protectors.”

  “And you created the great lie of Aeternae Noctis. A greater necessity at work…”

  Tera frowned. “Yes.”

  Erich shook his head. “I sensed it.”

  “You had no fear of us.”

  He laughed. “You took our warriors, our healers, our thinkers, and our children. I was an artist; I served no purpose.”

  “We all serve a purpose, even though we do not understand it. Perhaps yours was to know more of the outside world.”

  Her cool tone raked him like claws. “Are you telling me that my purpose was to suffer out there in hell for hundreds of years?” Erich shot to his feet. “Do not twist this around to make me one of you. I was a nobody. I didn’t care to be a somebody. I just wanted to draw— No, I didn’t even want to draw. I just wanted to look at you. Capturing your beauty was beyond my skill. Not the slash of your cheekbones, the length of your eyelashes, or the arch of your neck. Those were simple—but the look in your eyes…It eluded description; it haunted me.” He snarled. “It’s still there in your eyes—and there is still no name I can put to it.”

  “Erich, we need your help—”

  “We?” He folded his arms across his chest. “You, your icrathari sisters, your vampire army, your human slaves. We need your help?” He snorted out a bitter laugh. “I am not one of you. You saw to it when
you destroyed me for daring to look at you.”

  Tera closed the gap to Erich in an instant. Her small hands—hands that could easily snap his neck—pressed against his cheeks. Her lips met his in a kiss.

  Erich’s eyes flared wide. He stiffened, as if electrified, beneath her touch. His breath seized in his chest, unable to inhale or exhale.

  Time froze into a single moment.

  The fragrance of night blossoms suffused him. Tera tasted of nectar—no, that single word was too simple to describe the complexity of tastes that infused him. Hints of spice perfectly blended into sweetness, adding depth and richness into the swirl of its ever-changing flavor.

  He prayed time would never begin moving again.

  His heart thudded in rhythm with hers; his pulse steadied to match hers. The fragmented thoughts and memory shards that whirred constantly through his mind like circling, crackling crows fell flat, the wind pulled out from under their wings.

  For a single, perfect moment, he was at peace.

  Was this how it had always been meant to be? Not fighting, not doubting if she—

  Reality smashed into him.

  Of course she did not. Why else would she have punished him for his insolence?

  He gripped her arms and pushed her away. His upper lip curled into a sneer. “Your kiss is wasted on me. Is this the soul bond Rafael told me about? The one that was supposed to keep me at your side?” His bitter laughter bounced off steel walls as cold as her expression. “It works only on fools—those who have never known what it is like to be destroyed by an icrathari.”

  “You feel it.” Her voice was low and harsh. “I know you do.”

  “What you feel is the remnants of the man I was. A fool of the poet, content to adore and worship you from afar, withered beneath the sun. His soul lies dead where you buried him. I’m just the shell of his shattered memories.”

  “I don’t believe you. You’re not insane.”