Almost Everything

by Tate Hallaway

  He looked a bit surprised I hadn’t guessed. “Subtly, but, yes. I know this sounds a bit paranoid, but I think she was putting potions in my tea.”

  “I doubt that,” I said quickly. I mean, my mom a poisoner? We didn’t always get along, but I couldn’t go that far. “I seriously thought you guys were talking about American history.”

  “Sometimes we were, but more often it was barely veiled attempts to get me to give over information about the kingdom and what we have been doing since the secret war.”

  “Oh.” Wow, I felt stupid. How did I manage to miss all that subtext?

  “And now she has something she can use at last. Damn it all. Damn my weakness.”

  Gripping the edge of the table, Elias pulled himself up on wobbly knees.

  “We must see your father,” he said. “He may have a war on two fronts now.”

  “With witches? And Luis?” He nodded. I could hardly deny the urgency in Elias’s face. “But how are you going to get in? They’ll kill you. Didn’t we already have this discussion? Don’t you remember last time?”

  “I surrendered before because I mistakenly trusted in my prince’s mercy. I will not go so unarmed this time.”

  I wanted to believe the fierce flash in his eye, but his face looked so stark and pale. “You’re sick, Elias. You can’t fight. You can barely walk.”

  “Then you have to go.”

  “Me?”

  “Your father wouldn’t dare harm his own blood heir.”

  I wasn’t nearly so sure. My loving father had no problem calling a hunt on Mom, a woman he was still officially married to, or sending his vampire minions to attack me when I had the talisman. Still, Elias was in no shape to do it. “I guess I can go. You think I should try to go tonight?”

  “I do,” he said. A creak in the wood floors upstairs had him lower his voice conspiratorially. “If the others suffer as I do, they’ll be even weaker now that the dawn is soon upon us.”

  “So, what you’re saying is that now is a good time because I won’t get eaten before I can reach Dad?” I asked. He didn’t deny it and had the decency to look a bit chagrined. I sighed. “Fabulous.”

  Have I mentioned how much I hated going to see my dad?

  First of all, thanks to their sun allergy, the vampires have to live underground—literally. In fact, St. Paul was the vampire capital of the Midwest because of its extensive sandstone tunnels, underground rivers, and warrens of natural and man-made caves. And, while that might sound kind of cool, trust me, it’s not. Sandstone always seems to smell kind of like dog piss, and, every time I go, I end up finding gross grit in my hair and clothes for weeks.

  The other reason I loathed going to my father’s court was because the dress code freaked me out, in that they didn’t have one. Vampires will tell you that they are “natural” creatures, more like elves than demons. For this reason, they liked to cavort in the buff. Buck naked. Nude. Completely in the altogether.

  I swear I put twenty bucks in my future-therapy fund every time I saw my dad in his birthday suit.

  Being out at four in the morning is always kind of eerie, but in St. Paul it’s doubly so, because the streets are entirely empty. To be fair, downtown kind of shuts down early in my hometown, so much so that people joke that we roll up the streets after five p.m.

  Since the buses stopped running just after midnight and time was of the essence, Elias dropped me off just a few blocks away from the railroad tunnel entrance that led to the kingdom.

  He pulled into an unpaved driveway, the kind that always seemed mysteriously useless but was probably for rail crews of some sort. Elias put his hand on my arm when I reached for the door. “You won’t let me accompany you, my lady?”

  I shook my head. It wasn’t as if I wanted to go alone, but I really didn’t see much choice in the matter. “It’s nearly dawn. You should hurry home. If you were overcome by torpor at court, there’s no way I could drag you somewhere safely by myself, and Dad would probably command some Igor to stab you in your sleep.”

  He grimaced. “A vivid image.”

  “It’s also pretty accurate,” I said, opening the door and stepping out onto the scrub grass and gravel. The air felt heavy and humid after the air-conditioning of Elias’s car. I sort of regretted changing into jeans, but I couldn’t exactly go crawling around in tunnels in cotton shorts. I should really invest in decent hiking boots if I was going to keep making this trip on a regular basis. Glancing over my shoulder, I sighed. I should really get going, but I had one more question before I left. “Can you make it in past the wards?”

  “Your mother promised to let me in when she saw me coming.”

  I hoped she would keep her word. With all the queenly posturing she did before she left, I had my doubts. But I trusted Elias to be resourceful even if Mom didn’t play fair. “You have an Igor in the neighborhood, right? A backup hidey-hole?”

  Vampires attracted a strange assortment of human groupies that acted as assistants during the daylight hours. Everyone referred to them as “Igors”; it was kind of a dis, but I’d heard worse, especially from Nikolai. But I had no idea what else they called themselves, if anything.

  Elias’s cheeks reddened as if I’d just suggested he was up to something naughty by being prepared. But he admitted, “I do.”

  “Good,” I said. “We’ll talk tomorrow night, okay?”

  “Be careful,” he said.

  I nodded that I would and clicked the door shut. “You too,” I said, though I wasn’t sure he heard me with the windows rolled up. I watched him drive away, up the steep streets into Lowertown. The skyscrapers of St. Paul seemed to look reproachfully over one another’s shoulders at me as they rose up along the river valley basin. With a sigh, I turned away and headed along the tracks toward my father’s kingdom.

  Court was winding down for the night by the time I’d wormed my way under the fence, deep into the abandoned tunnel, and through the narrow natural canyon. The Igor sentry at the cave’s mouth almost didn’t let me in, but, in my very best (and loudest) regal tone, I told him to announce that the exiled princess Anastasija Ramses Parker requested an audience. Curious vampires peeped around the cave wall, and the sentry shrugged and let me pass.

  Quartz flecks glittered where dim candlelight flickered against the cave walls. The temperature underground was quite a bit cooler than outside. An underground river gurgled through the center of the vast space, and, where it dropped in a miniature waterfall, it sprayed mist into the already-damp air. Vampires, pale naked forms, clustered together on the natural shelves along the walls. My father sat on a throne of stone near where the waterfall disappeared into a hole in the floor that I’d always expected led to an underground lake. Brown bats were returning from their night forages, and they clung to the ceiling in clusters like tiny shivering, living chandeliers.

  I wanted to hide my face in my hands. This place was so danged creepy.

  But it seemed emptier than usual … and quieter too. Most of the times I’d visited, there were crowds of vampires milling around, talking, doing whatever it was they did when they visited royal court. Where was everyone?

  My dad, meanwhile, looked as if he could use a serious jolt of caffeine. He seemed to be having trouble staying awake. There were deep bags under his eyes, and his usually ageless face seemed ragged and worn. I could see the burn marks on his otherwise handsome face from where I’d blasted him with the talisman’s magic.

  Outside of how awful he looked, I was struck as always by how much alike we looked. His hair was silken, black, and straight as a board. He had crystal blue eyes, like one of mine, and his body was lean and long. Frankly, it would have been nice if I’d inherited my mom’s curls or at least some of her curves.

  He glanced blearily in my general direction. “What brings you here, exiled princess?”

  Other eyes seemed to find me now. Those that had first watched me with curiosity now seemed to have a hint of something else. Was it hunger? Mom was right. Da
d had not yet called a hunt, which meant all the vampires were starving just like Elias.

  I suddenly did not like the odds, even without the usual complement of vampires at court. What would happen if they all decided to pounce? My cell phone did not get reception this far underground. Besides, I didn’t think 911 would take seriously the call for help from a vampire attack.

  “Um …” What had I come here to tell him, again? I found myself backing toward the door with every word. “Prince Luis wants a bride, or a groom, or whatever you call a partner in that marriage treaty thing. Confarreatio? Anyway, he brought his army to Wisconsin, and my mom is planning something also … uh, maybe.”

  Wow. All that had somehow seemed so much more critical when Elias had suggested I had to come here. Now it seemed kind of stupid, and with all the eyes on me, I really wished I hadn’t agreed to this, especially given my dad’s reaction—

  He laughed.

  And, frankly, his laugh didn’t sound very sane either. It was the sort of cackle a movie supervillain might utter, only scarier. The sound startled a few bats who took to the air with a screech.

  Worse, whenever I turned my attention back to the courtiers, they seemed to have sneaked closer by an inch or two, like cats stalking prey.

  “It was very kind of you to come with this news, child,” my father said, though it didn’t sound as if he meant a word of it. In fact, he didn’t even seem interested. He brushed an imaginary speck from his naked shoulder, as if brushing off the collar of a coat.

  What was wrong with him? So we hadn’t exactly been best friends since the whole exile scene, and, okay, I totally smacked him down when I destroyed the talisman, but he was behaving really unhinged. When he first appeared on my doorstep, he seemed totally normal—like a proper dad. I still kind of held out a sliver of hope that we might, you know, get to know each other better and be less estranged. But now he acted just plain strange.

  His eyes, in particular, seemed focused on something just out of reach. Was the hunger hitting him worse than the others?

  I glanced over my shoulder. The vampires were definitely closing in, forming a circle around me.

  “Perhaps you would like to stay for dinner?”

  I shook my head. I took a step back, and nearly collided with a female vamp. I ducked before she could seize my shoulders. “You don’t mean that,” I said, scanning the closing ranks, desperately looking for an opening. My heart pounded with fear. I felt my body beginning to change, just as I saw the vampires around me doing the same. First, my fangs elongated. They stretched through my gums with a familiar ache. My perception shifted as my pupils went cat-slit. All around me I saw the reflective glitter of gold and green irises.

  “Please, Ana, don’t go,” my dad said somewhere behind me. My eyes stayed glued to the closer threats. “We’re dying to have you.”

  Chapter Four

  Dying to have me? Seriously? That old joke? Hunger must make Dad not only mean but also stupid.

  “Are you trying to be funny? Are you seriously calling the hunt on me?”

  He snorted, as if I’d suggested something ridiculous. “Don’t be silly—we don’t eat our own kind. We might tear you limb from limb for a light snack, perhaps, though. …”

  “You are really, really sick, Dad,” I said, not bothering to look at him. Instead, I continued to search for an out.

  When I spotted a vampire I thought I could take, I didn’t wait for Dad’s response. I rushed forward with a wild shout. The vampire in question instinctively moved out of the way to avoid my aggressive move. I’d picked him because his expression hadn’t seemed nearly as inhumanly hungry as the rest, and, well, he just looked like he might dodge instead of counterattack. It seemed I’d gambled right for once.

  I found myself on the back side of the circle. Luckily, they’d all moved in tightly, so there was room to dash for the door. But could I make it? I mentally steeled myself as I ran by, pretending this whole moment had already been blocked out on the stage and we were all just doing our bit in some grand play.

  I tried not to feel hands grabbing for me. I could see the mouth of the cave. Just a few more steps …

  And I’d have to deal with the sentry. Having heard the commotion inside, he was ready for me. Using a broken broomstick as a weapon, he smacked me expertly across the shoulder. I let the force of the blow knock me down, and I rolled into the narrow stream. I was going to be bruised tomorrow and my jeans were completely soaked, but for the moment I was more afraid of what would happen if I were caught.

  I stumbled a bit recovering from the roll, but I mostly kept my momentum. The dumbstruck sentry, however, was a perfect obstacle for the vampires spilling out of the cave. In fact, from the sounds behind me, some of them seemed to have decided he made a fine substitute for a meal.

  Resisting the temptation to look behind me, I kept running. It had been a lot slower going in because my eyes had to adjust to the dim-to-no light. With my body in vampire mode, I could run without hesitation. Rats scurried along the wall, squealing their protest, but I outpaced them easily.

  My heart pounded in fear more than in exertion. Transformed, I could run for miles without breaking a sweat. But I could run only so fast. My now more sensitive ears picked up the sounds of fleet footfalls gaining on me. Don’t look, I told myself. Seeing how close they were would only make me stumble. Focus on feet. Move. Hadn’t Elias said they’d be in a weakened state? How far to the entrance?

  I hoped that the sun was rising and that it was the bright, clear, hot day the meteorologist promised on the news last night. I actually didn’t know exactly what happened to vampires in the sunlight, but I knew Elias couldn’t stand it.

  The ground leveled out when I reached the railroad tunnel, and I was able to pick up a little speed. Unfortunately, my advantage was also the vampires’. I swore I could feel breath on my neck, and the hem of my jeans snagged on something. Hands? Teeth? I didn’t want to know, nor was I going to check. I kept my eyes on the prize, which was, literally, the light at the end of the tunnel.

  I was almost there. The biggest hurdle now was the fence, which I had had to shimmy under to get in. Dropping down to wiggle through seemed like a recipe for getting grabbed. How was I going to do this fast? Was there another way?

  I could feel myself slowing down as I anticipated the problem. Someone got a hold of my ankle. My foot slipped through the grasp, but it was too late. I could feel myself falling. I wasn’t quite close enough to slide underneath, baseball-style, but I did manage to hurl myself close enough that I was able to grab the links of the chain and hold on tight. Hands closed around my legs and started to pull. I heaved myself in the other direction with all the strength of desperation.

  Teeth grazed my jeans, and I started kicking. Someone grunted in pain as my sneaker connected to a jaw or teeth; I wasn’t sure which. But I took advantage of the moment and dragged myself under. Of course, to do this while still holding on to the fence, I had to twist around. For the first time since I started running, I was face-to-face with the seething mass of pale flesh grasping hungrily at me. I was glad I hadn’t given in to my earlier impulses, because the shocking sight of the naked, twisting forms just about caused me to lose my stranglehold on the fence. I screamed despite myself.

  When one of the vamps managed to puncture the cloth of my Converses, I realized that giving in to that panic had cost me precious time and breath. I redoubled my efforts to pull myself the rest of the way through the fence. My shoe came loose. I pulled myself upright and then scampered with one stocking foot for the shaft of sunlight that had slanted into the tunnel.

  I’d been so smart up to this point that I can’t quite tell you why, but when I reached the outside, I stopped and turned around. Maybe I just felt as if I’d made it to gool, base, safe. Or perhaps I was just curious to see the effect of sun on vampires. I leaned against the mouth of the tunnel to catch my breath and watch.

  I think I was hoping for something spectacular—bodies
bursting into flame or instantly crumbling to dust. At the very least, I thought they’d … stop.

  To be fair, most of them did halt just at the edge of where light cut the darkness. But many more than I would have liked barreled right out into the morning sun. A woman managed to tackle me before I could get over my surprise enough to make an escape. I landed hard on the tracks with her full weight on top of me.

  The wind was knocked from my lungs, and, as I gasped for breath, I had a close-up view of her face. The sun definitely had an effect on her.

  She looked like a corpse.

  I mean, technically, that was what they all were—sort of. As I’d said, a vampire had explained the process to me, and it involved human sacrifices who were taken over by the entity—the vampire—brought by the witches’ talisman from beyond the Veil. The original human body didn’t die, but that person was gone, overcome, emptied.

  I could see the truth of that with the daylight on her face. Her eyes looked glassy and dead. There was a gray cast to her skin.

  The sight shocked me so much that, at first, I forgot to fight. In those few precious seconds, the other vampires who had ventured out came to her aid. She leaped off my chest and grabbed the waist of my jeans, clearly intending to haul me back inside the lip of the cave. Someone had my feet again. My head bumped on the ties and gravel as I was being inched closer to the hungry horde waiting in the shadows.

  I started flailing and screaming. My fingers scrabbled painfully as I grasped for the steel rail or anything. Where were the police when you needed them? Or even a helpful passerby?

  But it turned out I didn’t need either. Without warning, the woman let go. She clutched her own stomach instead. Her body was shaking violently, and then she lost it.

  She puked all over.

  And what came up was blood.

  It splashed my one remaining shoe, my socks, and everything. I jumped back, suddenly able to find my feet because the other vampires either rushed to help her or were similarly afflicted.