by E M Gale
I shrugged.
‘Obviously, not all of them though.’
“You probably don’t want everyone to be able to read your deepest secrets,” he added, raising an eyebrow.
I smiled. “I don’t really have any secrets.”
“I can tell you’re lying, but you are rather good at it.”
I said nothing.
“Would you let me up off the floor?”
I raised an eyebrow, but I didn’t really have a reason not to, so I moved. The room seemed very large and cold to me. There was the big viewscreen looking out to space, white functional furniture and us sitting on the floor.
He moved to put his back to the sofa, and then tenderly wrapped his arms around me. I was a little stunned. He started to kiss me gently on my neck.
“You were wondering why I didn’t kiss you,” he said.
‘Well… what the hell does that mean?’
“Where are you going after Antigua Nuevo?” I asked.
He laughed. “I don’t know. I’ll find out when I get there.”
‘Huh, what is he up to?’
I twisted and tilted my head to look up at him and try to read the answer in his face.
“You really want to know?”
I nodded. “It’s something bad, isn’t it?”
“For someone else it is, not for me.”
“Tell me.”
‘I don’t know why I’m telling you, Flow, there’s no reason for me to.’
‘Maybe you need to tell someone and there’s no reason for you not to.’
He took a deep breath, ran his fingers over my hair. He looked at me in an indefinable way and then stared out at the stars.
“I’m from a small village. My parents were farmers.”
‘Really? He doesn’t seem like a farmer.’
“They were rich landowners, then, if you prefer. My uncle was a mayor in the nearby city. I was sent off to very expensive schools to prepare me to follow my uncle.”
I nodded, slightly confused at this.
“My parents had several children, my uncle had none, so I was groomed to work for him.”
He stopped. I was filled with a dread at the emotions I felt in him.
“Tell me,” I said.
“The whole village… it was… destroyed.” There was a deep, black rage in his voice.
I moved to see his face. It was distorted with anger. I had never seen him wear such a strong emotion.
‘Is this what he keeps wrapped up inside the whole time? Covering it up with politeness and formality?’
“My family…” He broke off. I moved sideways out of his embrace and put my arms around him. I rocked him back and forwards. I couldn’t say anything, but he could feel what I felt. He didn’t cry, that deep black anger just rolled off him, poisoning the atmosphere; it scared me.
He lifted his head and looked at me then hatefully.
“And you asked me why didn’t I like soldiers, as if anyone would like them!”
I leant back, disturbed and fearful.
‘Can he really be feeling what I’m picking up via the mind-meld? Can he really have that much hate, that much despair?’
I was scared. I could have broken off the link between us, but I felt that would make things worse. I had asked the question, I had to take responsibility for what I’d dug up.
“And… now you’re…”
“Now I’m hunting the son of a bitch who did it. And when I find him, I will kill him.”
There was such pain, such anger, that I couldn’t help thinking: ‘If you choose to seek revenge, first dig two graves.’
“What?” he yelled at me. “You dare to tell me that I shouldn’t have my revenge?”
“I said nothing!” I cried in fear. I broke the link, pushing him out of my mind. Not that it helped much. Even not feeling what he was feeling, I could still see it written high across his face.
He stood up, knocking me back. I sprawled across the floor and stared at him in fear. He picked me up easily, opened his door and threw me out into the corridor. I hit the metal railing at speed, bounced over it and fell about two stories. The ground rushed up towards me. I thought about screaming but then I had no mouth, no breath. I couldn’t see. My hearing was deadened. I panicked, and then I realised what had happened. I’d misted: those instincts were good for something. I reformed slowly, at rest, and then dropped about four inches to the floor.
‘I’m alive.’
I looked up. I couldn’t see him. His door slammed.
‘I didn’t mean to think it, I didn’t, but I can’t help what I think, can I? It’s unfair to blame me for a thought he shouldn’t have even heard!’
I looked at my hands. They were shaking.
‘Bloody hell, he threw me so easily! Had I been a normal human, well, I wouldn’t be dead, maybe, but I’d sure as hell be in a lot of pain right now.’
I stood up carefully. That movement set off the singing bruises in my back and leg where I had impacted on the railing. I walked stiffly back to my quarters. I didn’t run, though I wanted to, because I didn’t want to draw any attention to myself. I hoped that no-one would notice that I was limping. I gritted my teeth and did my best to walk normally.
I arrived at my quarters and collapsed onto the floor, feeling bruised and broken. Then I pulled myself up to lock the door. I walked over and looked at the bed, but for some reason I felt that I wanted to be somewhere dark, contained and safe. I crawled under the bed and sobbed until I slept.
* * *
A Nasty Job
I woke up uninjured. There was no sign of the bruising I’d felt the night before, but I took an extra-long, extra-hot shower just in case. I spent the time before my shift in my quarters, trying to memorise vampirish words. I was always better at the grammars; I was a physicist, so I was great at learning rules and applying them or constructing sentences from first principles. However, I’d always found it excruciatingly difficult to learn vocabulary.
My efforts were interrupted when I became aware of Price coming within smelling range. I sprinted across the room, removed a silver sword from its hiding place within the couch and pushed the couch back against the wall with my foot. He paused outside the door. I held my sword up in front of me.
“You might as well come in, Price, I know you’re there.”
He misted under the door and reformed at the end of my sword. I smiled at him, not particularly pleasantly.
“Do you usually point weapons at a guest?” he asked.
‘What the hell? Is he going to pretend that nothing happened yesterday?’
“Guests who have previously thrown me off balconies? Yes, yes, I do!” I narrowed my eyes at him and did not lower the sword. He didn’t move, but he frowned. “Well, what do you want?”
He smiled sardonically. “You, obviously.”
“What? You have got to be kidding me. You threw me off a bloody balcony!”
He shrugged.
“Price! How can you be so bloody calm?”
“Florentina,” he sighed, looking at me with deep, soft eyes. It was the first time that I hadn’t been able to see the hidden anger in them. He moved towards me. I moved the sword up against his neck. He paused.
“Just what in the hell do you think you are doing?” I said coldly.
“I’m… I didn’t mean to,” he muttered.
‘Didn’t mean to? You accidentally lobbed me off a balcony?’
“Uh-huh, well, you did!” I frowned at him down the length of the sword.
He pleaded with his eyes. “You just… riled me, with your comment about revenge.”
“So, it’s my fault, is it? I can’t help what I think. I didn’t even say it to you, you read my bloody mind! Have your revenge for all I care! I hope it makes you happy!” I glared at him. He looked amused of all things. “I doubt it will,” I added darkly.
He took another step forward. I kept up the pressure on the sword, but didn’t swing it. It bit slightly into his flesh and a
trickle of his blood ran over the silver blade.
Then he rushed forwards, pushing me back against the viewscreen, crushing me with a passionate kiss. I moved the sword from his neck, dropped it on the floor, and before I knew it I had my arms around him kissing back. I didn’t know why I kissed him, but I didn’t feel like I could stop. When he went for my throat I let him and then I didn’t have to think about anything.
* * *
Price stayed in my head and my room for the minimum amount of time after. I made it to my shift on time that morning–in fact, I was early. I leant up against a wall in the training room, brooding about what the hell I was doing with a violent, unpredictable, self-destructive, stuck-up idiot like Price.
‘Maybe I ought to have cut him with the sword instead of dropping it. What did he expect me to do? Did he lunge at me expecting me to cut him? Was that what he wanted? Or did he not care whether he got cut or not? I know I have bad taste in men, but Price really takes the biscuit, and the whole damn jar too!’
The major came in and we lined up again.
‘I guess technically it’s called being on parade. I suppose at some point I ought to read some books on military behaviour, terms, tactics and the like, since I’m definitely going to need to know this stuff.’
“We have a new contract,” said the major, with a glance at me. I raised an eyebrow at him.
‘Ah… a ‘contract’. What the hell have these guys done to deserve the UESF coming after them? And why in disguise? Plus, if he’s still using terms like that, that must mean that no one’s told him I’ve made their disguise. Or rather, I’ve made their second disguise, since they’re marines in disguise as mercs in disguise as normal traders.’
“We’ll be using the teleport. It’ll be hot down there,” finished the major.
We were then dismissed, or, well, not since we were pretending to be mercenaries, but it amounted to the same thing. We armed ourselves. Since we were heading to jungles and not narrow corridors I took one of the large silver swords and one of those useless guns. As we didn’t have to worry about hitting the hull and we weren’t going to be engaged in close-quarters fighting, the marines carried guns primarily with a combat knife or two tucked away somewhere just in case. I got raised eyebrows from Connor for taking the sword, but no one challenged me on it.
‘I guess as the scary vampire general I can take whichever weapon I please. Just as well since the sword is the only thing I actually know how to use.’
We then walked into an adjacent room which had the teleporter in it. The teleporter was an enclosed transparent box fed by all sorts of interesting wires. The box was just big enough to take a s . I had been wondering what the hell this thing was. On the top there was even something that looked like a Tesla coil or two. I tried to concentrate and sense anything from this machine, but I didn’t notice anything helpful.
‘Perhaps a vampire’s senses have evolved to be good at finding living creatures, not inanimate machines.’
“We have a teleport? If we have something as Star Trek-ian as that, why the hell do we use a shuttle every time?” I asked Petey as our s was waiting.
“It’s orcian. Never heard of the Star Treks,” he replied.
I grinned awkwardly at him.
Lightning started sparking across the Tesla coils.
‘I bet Rob would love this. In fact, I bet he’s already tried to play with it.’
I felt a deep, cold fear.
‘I hope he hasn’t played with it!’
“Well, why the shuttle last time?” I asked, as much to distract myself from my fear as to learn about UESF tactics.
“Stealth? I s’pose,” Petey said.
“Stealth?” I queried. The shuttle hadn’t seemed all that stealthy to me.
The teleporter was being warmed up. It glowed an ominous yellow colour.
“Yeah, these things put on one hell of a light show.”
“A beam of purple light from orbit,” piped up Cliff. “It looks really cool!”
“Oh, great, do we have to shout ‘transform’ as we go?” I remarked drolly.
“No, why would you do that?” asked Stonewall.
“Anyway, transporters cost a hell of a lot to run,” added Grom.
A s positioned themselves in the box, aiming their guns out towards us so that when they arrived they were defended.
“Enough chatter,” said the major. “Get ready.” Just in case, I put my shades on.
My fascination with the transporter had successfully distracted me from the mission; I was far too easily distracted to be a soldier. The major had said it would be hot down there, he was expecting around twenty people, and we had been shown pictures of them all.
‘What the hell did they do to be marked for death by the UESF? And why the hell do I have to do it?’
There was a weird vacuumy pop from the machine’s air vents and A s vanished.
“D s , you’re next,” said the major.
We ran up and into the box, positioning ourselves. I drew my gun and held it in both hands, pointing it directly at the major on the other side of the box. There was a weird feeling of being stretched out like an elastic band and then snapping back to normal shape. The world reformed around me.
I was on a grassy plain. We had arrived at the top of a hill. A s was twelve metres in front of us, fending off about ten people. The attackers smelt… odd. I fired my gun, actually hitting one of the attackers. I fired again. I got a second one in the back. He fell to the floor, but he wasn’t dead and started to get up again. Out of the corner of my left eye I saw a searing purplish-white light. I shut my right eye in time but my left eye burned. The light faded and I could smell C s about eight metres behind us.
My left eye hurt like it had when Anna had taken the photo of me and I could barely see out of it.
‘Great, I lose my binocular vision just when I hadn’t been doing too badly with the gun.’
I switched the gun to my left hand and drew the sword with my right.
My s were assembled behind me. I could smell five guys running up the hill towards them. Ahead, five of the people who had been attacking A s bounded towards me.
‘Hey, they’re moving very fast!’
Two attacked me at once. I swung the sword to the right, cutting one across the chest, and fired the gun point-blank into another. He fell down, but the one whose chest I had cut had dodged well enough to survive. He lunged at me again as another went for my throat. I dodged right, towards the one I’d injured, my sword aiming straight for his heart. He was impaled and his heart stopped beating. The one who had dived for my throat missed and glanced off my shoulder, falling towards my gun hand. I pulled the trigger and shot him in the stomach. One left. I pulled my sword out of the impaled guy easily and swung it towards the front where the final one was. He drew back just outside of my range and stared at me, weighing up his chances.
I smelt the other strange-smelling guys coming up behind me. The marines in my s were hitting them, but the others were still coming. I shot at the guy looking at me. The shot went wide and landed about a metre away from C s , my s ’s backup, who were advancing on our position.
‘Oops.’
Cliff was standing next to me and facing the other way, watching my back. The guy in front of me feinted towards me, then lunged for Cliff’s back. I put myself and my sword in the way in a high defensive posture. The odd-smelling guy sniffed at me. He looked feral and crazed to me. His face started to change. He didn’t look quite human any more. I kicked him backwards and swung the sword, decapitating him as he fell. I glanced at his head on the floor. It now looked perfectly human.
‘What the hell, am I hallucinating?’
A s had killed the six who had been attacking them. I turned round to the three who were heading towards my s , but C s had moved up the hill, flanking them. I raised my gun and pointed it down the hill, but I didn’t need to fire. C s cut them down from the side whilst my s
held them in place. Given that I didn’t have great binocular vision and my shooting wasn’t that hot at the best of times I didn’t fire on them, so there was no chance of me accidentally hitting one of the marines.
Suddenly it was quiet. I could still hear the ring of gunfire in my ears. My eye was burning agony. I dropped my gun and put my left hand over my injured eye, bit my lip and tried not to scream.
I tried to go into the healing state. It seemed to help a bit.
“We’ll wait here for extraction by shuttle,” said Sticks, who had been commanding A s and was leading the mission. “C s , set up a perimeter.”
‘Maybe I should try misting? My ears hurt less once I reformed after the flashbang in the docking bay.’
“Clarke, are you OK?” asked Cliff.
I misted, still in the healing state.
‘I didn’t know I could do mist whilst healing. My eye doesn’t hurt in mist form. I have no eye.’
“Hey, where’d she go?” said Cliff.
‘Aw, shit, spooking the marines, not a good idea.’
I counted to ten–
‘I guess that’s all the healing I’m getting.’
–and reformed.
“Ah!” Cliff yelled.
“Sorry for spooking you,” I said to him with a grin, still holding my hand over my eye. It hurt far less, but it still hurt.
“Are you injured, Clarke?” asked Petey.
‘Shit. Do I want them to know that light hurts me? No. But then again, he is in charge of my s so I guess he needs to know.’
“A little, but I’ll be fine.”
He nodded at that. I looked down at the bloodied sword in my hand and tried not to think about what I wanted to do with it. Instead, I wiped it off on the grass.
I looked around. The smell of blood was strong in the air. Corpses were scattered around on another beautiful landscape with tall, orangeish plants that looked like gorse but were more delicate and much less spiky. A slight wind brought an acidic smell up from the ground. And on top of that, those poor people, dead. I shook my head, then, curious, walked over to look at the one I’d decapitated. His face looked like a normal human face. But neither him or his companions smelt quite right to me. I couldn’t put my finger on it. They smelt human but not… normal.