Everlasting

by Candace Knoebel

  “Do your powers work around her?” Weldon asks quietly from the other side of me.

  He nods and then looks back out the window. “The closer I get to her, the stronger they grow. That’s all we know.”

  Gavin glances back at Jaxen and then back to the road as he pulls up to a red light. His eyes find me in the rear view mirror. “What do you say, Faye? Demon or Vampire?”

  Again with the choices. It still feels strange to have a choice, to take a pick. “We have a choice? I thought we were on assignment.”

  “Yeah to take a nest down. The street we’re on has both Demons and Vampires.”

  It only takes me a second to deliberate. I scoot forward, biting my lips to bite back my smile. “Vampire,” I say, feeling like I just got to pick which restaurant I wanted to eat at. The thought thrills me to the core, lifting some of the heaviness in my chest.

  “Good choice,” Gavin says. He turns down a dark street. Abandoned buildings are cram-packed with homeless people. The pavement is cracked and in desperate need of repair. There are very few street lights and even fewer signs of life. It’s an urban wasteland of broken promises and wasted dreams, a sad place to be and the perfect place for a Vampire to pick up a snack.

  “Everything you need to know about Vampires can be summed up in what I’m about to tell you,” Gavin says, pulling up to the only smooth piece of sidewalk around. An abandoned house jammed between two other inhabitable houses sits beside us. I look away from the house and find Gavin turned around in his seat, crystal blue eyes staring at me.

  “Okay,” I say, taking long, slow breaths to calm the flame of excitement kindling inside me.

  “Vamps are animalistic. Though they inhabit humans, you have to remember they are a virus from Hell, one of many. You obviously know they feed off of blood and have cunning strength, but they can’t easily detect us when our volation is on. They’re, for the most part, an easy kill.”

  “Unless you stumble into a nest,” Cassie points out. She turns to face him, her eyes lit with images from the past. “Remember that one time?” She nudges him.

  “Yeah,” he says distantly. “Good times.” He smiles at the memory, and then shakes it away. “We’re taking a nest down. A nest can be anywhere from five to twenty Vamps. They like to inhabit abandoned areas where fresh blood wanders in for shelter. When Vamps are in a nest, they are connected by blood to one another. They’ll know if one of their own has been vanquished. That’s when things get serious.”

  The homeless, I think with a shudder. Poor people.

  “Tell me what you sense. A good Hunter can tell if they’re near a nest or not.”

  I shut everything out and tune into my instincts. My body hums with power and a need to use it. “I smell the stench of stale blood and dark power. Old power,” I say.

  The corner of Gavin’s mouth kicks up. “Good. That’s Vampiric power. They’re one of the oldest paranormal spawned from the Underground. Is there a nest? Use your volation like we talked about in training.” There’s so much around us that it’s hard to distinguish what’s what.

  But I’m part Hunter. It’s bred in me to hunt. I put all of my focus on the Vampires and look back at the house. With my volation in full thrum, I push it out toward the house, like a brief gust of wind, and wait. It rushes over the house in a wave with every point of contact it touches sparking under the low pulse of power. I can almost see the walls and layout of the home through the pulsing of my power. Two dark forces are on the second floor. Vampires.

  “There are two Vamps in the house next to us, but I don’t just sense them. I sense something else, something darker…more powerful. There’s a stench in the air… Sulfur?”

  “Very good,” Gavin says, smiling at me the only way a mentor would- proudly. “The rest of the Vamp nest must be out on a hunt. The leader always stays at the nest. Food is brought to them. That means, one of those two will be very powerful. There’s a Demon nearby too. We need to be on guard. Always stay tuned in to what’s around you, because you never know what can appear.” He turns in his seat. “So how are we going to do this? Who’s waiting in the driver seat in case something goes wrong?” he asks Jaxen.

  They pull out the game of paper-rock-scissors.

  Gavin lands a rock.

  Jaxen lands a pair of scissors. He tenses up.

  “Lose again, brother,” Gavin boasts. “One of these days, you will master the craft of palm wars.”

  “Whatever,” Jaxen says, giving nothing away. “Are you sure you can handle this?”

  He’s looking at me when he asks this. “Me?” I ask, flinching my head back a little. “Yeah, I’m totally ready.”

  He casts his eyes to the roof of the car and then onto his brother. “Just please be careful. Don’t show off or…slack off.” He looks over to Weldon. “Be a good partner to her.”

  “Duh,” Weldon says.

  Gavin snorts. “Slack off…” He gets out of the car and opens my door. Weldon slides out. I go to do the same, but Gavin stops me. “Take your flux out. Turn it into a stake.”

  I take it out and focus on the flux in my hand, picturing what I want it to be, before sending my volation to it. The flux turns into a wooden stake that continues to spark with my magic. He does the same, and then walks around to open the door for Cassie.

  “What? I get no flux?” Weldon says, standing in the middle of the road as I get out. I toss him one of my spares. He catches it, and then his eyes turn to gold. The flux shifts into a stake, and then he walks past me. “Let’s go.”

  Jaxen walks beside me around the back of car and latches onto my arm, stopping me. I turn sideways. “Please be careful,” he says darkly, his eyes hidden in shadows. “I know you’re excited. This is exciting, but it’s also very dangerous. A number of things could go wrong and I…well, just be careful.”

  “I will,” I say, swallowing his concern and using it to calm myself.

  He drops his hand as he turns away and gets in the front seat, but leaves the door open.

  “Come on,” Cassie says. She’s been leaning against the front fender of the car, watching the whole time. My cheeks don’t redden this time, for which I’m grateful. She knows my situation and she doesn’t judge me.

  When we reach the front door, Gavin holds his finger to his mouth, telling us to be quiet. Lightning sparks down his arm as he turns the handle of the front door. On the outside, I know I’m an alert, calm, composed Hunter, but on the inside, I can’t separate my thoughts from my pounding heart. I can’t stop the adrenaline leaking into my muscles, adding strength to me.

  He pushes the creaking door open, and then disappears behind it. “Last chance to back out,” Cassie whispers to me. She carries a real wooden stake.

  I answer her by moving forward, following in Gavin and Weldon’s steps. They take me through a dark, dank living room with sheet-covered furniture and into a small, nearly demolished kitchen. The walls have rotted away, leaving the thin layer of brick the house was built out of. Rats scurry away at the sounds of my breathing, leaving rotting food behind.

  I hear a scuffling step ahead and tighten my grip around the stake. I know I’m breathing too hard. I’m too anxious, too excited, for what is to come. Steady, I council myself. I don’t want to blow this.

  Around the corner, I find Gavin and Weldon heading upstairs. There’s a large hole in the middle, leading to God knows where. A couple of boards stick up, warped from the heavy snow that enters from the various holes in the roof. This place is an accident waiting to happen. I follow their steps, commanding my lungs to take longer, steadier breaths, but the rapid beating of my heart makes it difficult.

  My hand slips on the banister of the stairs, and I catch myself, both my hands splayed out to steady me. I dart my gaze around the top floor, making sure no one heard me. Control yourself!

  “Shut it off,” Cassie says in my ear.

  I flip the internal switch, and almost immediately, my heart slows to a calm beat. I feel nothing but the
need to hunt. It’s a force driving my steps forward. I’m a robot, a well-oiled machine of precision.

  I trek the rest of the way up the stairs on something like autopilot when a radar goes off in my senses. We’ve found one.

  In one swift stride, I make my way into the room where the stench is coming from. Gavin stands behind a Vampire with Weldon standing off to the side. Gavin has the Vampire on its knees, his stake pressed against the center of its chest.

  He summons me over with a head nod. “I’m giving you this one. An initiation present. The next is yours. Stake him.”

  I stop in front of the Vampire, absorbing everything in a matter of seconds; the crusted brownish-red stain around his mouth, the incisors peeking over the edge of his lips, gleaming from the moonlight sneaking in through the broken window, the cunning smile in his eyes that says he will take me for all that I am.

  And yet, I feel nothing.

  He’s the representation of all that’s wrong with this world, of every life stolen by the hands of evil. He’s a person who had his life taken by a hellish virus. He’s a monster who has the ability to take what was taken from him.

  And now, he’s dead.

  I drive my stake through his heart, watching the light dim from the shell of what once was. Blood gurgles out of the Vampire’s mouth and out of every visible orifice. I step away. All I feel is a hunger, a need to hunt.

  The wildness I feel is reflected in Gavin’s eyes. “You’re one of us now,” he says, dropping the Vampire. The body slowly burns away into black, fiery ash. A chilling breeze sweeps in and lifts the ashes, carrying them out into the snowy night. “Your turn.”

  Volation rushes down my arms, sparking out onto my flux. I send it out through the house, encasing it in an electric barrier the Vampire can’t escape from. The other Vampire, the leader, is so close that I can smell its horrible stench, the spoiled blood…the dirt…the darkness. This is what I’m made for, to clean the world of this impurity, to right the wrongs that have been done. I walk past Cassie with Weldon on my heels and stop in the hallway just outside the door. The Vampire will know that one of its own just died. They’ll expect me now. This makes me smile.

  I take a determined step, the deteriorated wood groaning under my feet. My boots come down on a spot where the floorboards have rotted. It gives way under my weight, and my foot falls through. Splinters pierce through my skin, burning and stinging. Gavin grabs my hand while Weldon pries the wood away and pulls me back from the floor’s weak spot. Cassie drops to a crouch and puts her hands against my torn pants and bleeding calf. She chants a healing spell, and magic vines wrap around my leg, sealing my skin.

  “Be a little more careful, please. Jaxen will have my ass if anything happens to you,” Weldon mutters in my ear.

  I nod, taking a deep breath to slow my heart. I press myself against the wall and follow it down, tip-toeing toward the room I sense the Vampire in. The smell of death grows stronger with every step, so pungent I almost gag. Two more steps and I’m standing next to the doorway, heart slowed to a calm pace. Weldon’s right next to me. I look to make sure Cassie and Gavin are behind me, and then step into the doorway, stake at the ready.

  But I wasn’t prepared for what would happen next.

  The Vampire leaps through the air in a blur and slams into me with so much force that I’m thrown backwards. I crash through the railing and hit the wall above the stairs that plunge into the darkness below. My lungs are a compressed, empty mess. I gasp for air as I scramble to get my bearings with my body sunk deep into the wooden wall.

  “Shit,” I hear Weldon say.

  The Vampire lets go, falling lithely to her feet, then darts into the shadows. I wasn’t prepared to be released so quickly. I hadn’t caught my breath yet. I fall, my hands clawing through the air for something to grasp on to, but there is nothing. My free fall slams me sidelong into the stairs, but like everything else in this house, they’re rotten. They give way under my weight, and I tumble into a dank, dark void that swallows me.

  The ground rattles with the impact of my body. Sharp, searing pain shoots through my leg, and I scream, unable to contain the sound. My emotions flicker back on, out of my control, and all at once, I’m struck with fear and pain and anger. I summon light onto the palm of my shaking hand and hold it over my leg. A piece of rusted rebar has gone straight through my thigh. I take the collar of my leather jacket in my mouth and bite down as hard as I can, then lift my leg off the rebar.

  A tear-filled scream rushes up my throat and rips through my teeth. My mind blackens from the pain. Don’t pass out! I’m barley hanging on to sanity when I hear Gavin’s voice shouting for me above. “Down…” I cough to clear my hoarse throat and try again. “DOWN HERE!”

  His head appears in the hole. “Holy shit, Faye! Are you okay?”

  “I think,” I lie.

  “Hang in there. We’re going to get the Vamp while Weldon grabs you.”

  I nod, unable to speak. The world’s spinning away from me as I fall back into the dirt. Warm blood trickles down the sides of my leg. I know I’m bleeding out. I can only be thankful that our kind is insusceptible to disease. I can feel my heart pumping out my life force and try to calm myself down. I can’t be scared, because with every fear-filled heartbeat, I lose more and more blood.

  I put my hand over my thigh and attempt to heal myself, but can’t. My mind is everywhere and nowhere. My control is thin. My grasp on reality is weak. This is all on me. I was responsible for taking that Vampire down, and just as I feared, I screwed it up.

  “FAYE!” It’s Jaxen. I hear wood being ripped off the side of the house. Thin strands of weak light stream in through the boarded up window to my right. “Cover your face!” he shouts. I turn away, pulling my jacket up over my head, and then he kicks the window in. Shards of gleaming glass rain down around me, disappearing into the dirt.

  By the time I pull my jacket back down, Jaxen’s already by my side, assessing the damage. Anger, rage, fear, regret…it all flashes across his face. Though his eyes glisten at the sight of my leg, his voice is a steady flow of calm reasoning. “You’re going to be okay, Faye. I promise.”

  “I’m cold.”

  He yanks his jacket off and puts it over me, then pulls his shirt off. He’s left bare-chested and shivering as he wraps it tightly around my leg. I can barely blink my eyes; that’s how tired I am. I weakly grab onto him as he hoists me up. He holds me with care, pressing me against his chest. “Hang on, I’m going to find a way out of here.”

  My eyelids shut, and then I’m jostled awake as he’s running past the side of the house.

  “Cassie will heal you. I’m so sorry, Faye. This should have never happened.” His eyes are infinitely patient and they hold me in place, forcing me to believe his words.

  “It’s my…f-f-fault,” I stammer, my teeth chattering. Even with the extra layers, I’m freezing. Dark circles appear around the edges of my vision. I try to focus on his voice and not the throbbing, numb feeling in my leg. I try not to think about how much of my blood is pouring out of me.

  When we get to the car, he lays me in the backseat and puts his hand over my wound. His head jerks in every direction. “GAVIN! CASS!” he shouts out into the night. There’s no return call. “CASSIE!” Still nothing.

  “It’s okay,” I hear myself saying…at least, I think I say it.

  “Dammit!” he curses, panic in his tone. He looks back at me and down at my leg. “You have to try to use your powers, Faye.” He brushes hair out of my face with blood-stained fingers, his features softening with regret.

  “I…I can’t,” I say, trying to keep my eyes open.

  He takes my hand and puts it on my thigh. “If you don’t, you will die. Do you understand?” He lifts my head, forcing me to look at him. “Do you understand me, Faye? You have to. Please, for me. I can…I’ll help you. We’ll do it together, okay?”

  I attempt a nod and close my eyes, focusing on my intent. Spells from my Grimoire pass th
rough my mind until I find the one I need. I speak the first words, pushing all of my strength into the intent, but nothing happens. “It’s not working,” I say.

  “Try again,” he says, putting his shaking hand on mine. Light emits from his palm, flowing into mine.

  “Jax…”

  “Shh,” he says, his eyes closed. “Together.”

  The pain starts to lift from my wound, my muscles stitching themselves back together. I’m not even putting any intent into the spell. It’s all him.

  “How are… How are you doing that?” I ask through clenched teeth, trying not to scream in pain.

  He doesn’t answer me. He just looks at me and continues to pull on my power and uses it to heal me.

  “That’s not possible,” I say. “Not even if we’re…”

  “It’s happening. Hush.” I know he wants me to drop it. I can see it in his eyes. But I can’t. I won’t.

  “No,” I say, sitting my head up. “I know I’m…disoriented, but I know what’s happening, Jaxen. You’re spell casting.”

  “Let it go, Faye.” He sounds desperate and irritated.

  “Not until you explain this…”

  “Do you want to die?” he asks, his voice raised. His eyes are set on me in a rigid line.

  “What?”

  “You heard me. Do you want to die?”

  “No.”

  “Then stop asking. I’m able to do this because of you, because of what you are...because we’re linked somehow. You can’t speak of this anymore, or we’ll all be killed.” He holds my gaze for a long moment, enforcing everything he’s trying to tell me without telling me.

  I want to ask more, but I stop, my eyes drifting past his shoulders. Every nerve ending in my body is writhing in warning. “Jaxen, something is wrong.” My voice sounds as if I’ve swallowed sand.

  He stiffens a little, still pulling on my magic. “Yeah, that’s what I’m trying to tell you. Something is def…”

  “No, Jaxen, something is off. I sense dark magic.”

  He lifts his hands from my legs, stopping his pull on my magic to heal me. Rippling volts of electricity spark in his eyes. His hands move to my waist, gripping tightly. My skin responds with goose bumps raising from his touch. “Don’t move,” he whispers, his face hardening like stone.