The Night Before Dead

by Kelly Meding

  “So what about the rest of us?” someone from the crowd asked. “What now?”

  Astrid pinned them with a fierce glare. “Now we wait.”

  I suppressed a groan. I hated waiting. I’d been waiting all fucking night.

  She jumped down from her chair, effectively ending the announcement.

  “We want to help,” Peter said.

  “I know you do.” I nearly reached out and ruffled his hair, which was a weirdly affectionate impulse. “You boys helped so much earlier this morning.”

  “We can do more.”

  “Well, none of you are going out into the field. Wyatt would skin me if I let you do that. None of you have any sort of proper training.” My brain spun off on ways to get these three into fighting shape, with proper self-defense skills, and I had to shut that down. No more fighting after this. Not for the pups, and not for me and Wyatt. “Look, if you boys want to help, go see if Dr. Vansis needs assistance with the wounded. You can bring them food and water, if nothing else.”

  “I like Dr. Vansis,” John said. “He doesn’t treat us like we’re monsters.”

  “That’s because you aren’t monsters. Thackery raised you to believe some pretty awful things, but that doesn’t mean you have to continue living with hate in your hearts. Or that we should keep blaming you for actions taken during a time of extreme emotional duress.”

  My heart twisted sharply as I realized how much I’d come to care for these three teenage boys, and for what I’d taken from them. “I’m so sorry about your brothers,” I said.

  Mark and John shared a sad look.

  Peter scowled. “We participated in the kidnappings and murders of your friends, Evangeline. You don’t owe us apologies. Not after taking us in and giving us a second chance.”

  I did owe them. I’d stood there and watched two of their brothers—fucking teenagers—tortured for information, and then ultimately executed. It hadn’t felt right at the time, and it felt even worse with the distance of time. Knowing they’d been raised and brainwashed by a madman.

  “I’m still sorry,” I said.

  “If you could forgive us for what we did,” John said, “then we forgive you, in return.”

  “Done.”

  John smiled, and I couldn’t help myself. I slung an arm around his shoulders in a sideways hug.

  My favorite red-headed cohort sidled up to us. “I’m heading out on a patrol team,” Kismet said, her face set, a warrior ready for battle. “I’ll see you out there somewhere, yeah?”

  I nodded. “See you out there. Watch your six, okay?”

  “Always.”

  Kismet disappeared into the crowd. My phone hadn’t beeped with a message, which didn’t completely surprise me. My left hand still wasn’t fully functional, so I wouldn’t do a patrol team a lot of good. I definitely knew how Milo felt about being left behind.

  And then my phone did beep. Only it wasn’t about a patrol, it was a text from Astrid telling me to get my ass into the War Room, ASAP.

  “You three go make yourself useful in the infirmary,” I said to the pups. “I have somewhere to be.”

  “Be safe, Evangeline,” John said.

  “I’ll do my best.”

  Rufus nodded at me from his terminal as I passed him, and I nodded back. The War Room held several people I did not expect to see there. Eulan and Isleen sat together, across the table from Elder Rojay of Cania and Elder Dane of Felia. Two of the youngest Elders in the Clan Assembly, they had both been the staunchest, fiercest supporters of the Watchtower since its inception. Plus Eulan and Isleen were vampire royalty.

  I was a little out of my league, and yet every person in that room looked at me with respect. Even Astrid.

  The next thing that caught my attention was the screen on the wall and the feature film playing out. Coni warriors standing in lines, waiting. The image was a little shaky, like a hand-cam. I nearly laughed when I realized Astrid had done exactly what Marcus did.

  “Who’s wearing the bug?” I asked as I settled into a chair near Isleen.

  “Aurora agreed to wear it,” Astrid replied. “I wasn’t about to send my brother out there without being able to watch what’s happening.”

  “Smart move. Can you talk to her?”

  “Of course.” Astrid hit a button on the screen control, and a dim murmur filled the room. Low voices. Distant growls. “Stone’s with us now.”

  “Good to know.” Aurora’s disembodied voice crackled over the sound system. “Have you prepared her?”

  “Not yet.”

  Prepared me for what?

  “The Tainted changed them, Stone,” Astrid said. “Really changed them.”

  “I expected it to,” I replied. “I’ve seen what the Tainted can do to an elf, so I can imagine what it would do to a Therian.”

  “It may be worse than you imagine. Aurora.”

  The camera angle changed, centering on my three Tainted allies. Seeing them again in the brightening light of dawn only heightened the otherness of their appearances, and it made their purple skin seem to ripple. As if water moved below the surface. Water as inky as what was in that pool.

  I did my best to look horrified but I’d never been a very good actress.

  Astrid groaned. “You’ve already seen them like this, haven’t you?”

  “Can I plead the fifth on that?”

  “How the hell—no, never mind. I don’t want to know.”

  Aurora made a sound not quite like laughter. “You never cease to surprise me, Evangeline.”

  “I didn’t mastermind this one, if it helps,” I said. “So this is us? Hanging out until something interesting happens?”

  “Pretty much,” Astrid said.

  “If I had know there would be a movie, I would have brought popcorn.”

  That actually got a small smile from Isleen.

  “Astrid told us of how the Lupa you protect helped save lives today,” Elder Rojay said.

  I sat a bit straighter. The Assembly had been torn about allowing the pups to live, much less live in the heart of the Watchtower, but Wyatt and I had both been prepared to throw down to protect them. Their continued existence was due in no small part to me and Wyatt volunteering ourselves to be held accountable if they went rogue and hurt someone.

  Instead, they’d defied expectations and done some good.

  “They did,” I said. “Without being asked or prompted, they volunteered themselves. One of them saved my life during my fight with Nessa.”

  Elder Rojay tilted his head to the side. “Then they have earned our gratitude.”

  “Awesome. Does that mean a permanent stay of execution?”

  “Stone,” Astrid snapped. She didn’t like me getting lippy with Clan Elders.

  Rojay smiled. “That is not my sole call to make but their contribution will be addressed at our next Assembly.”

  Oh goodie.

  Nothing remotely interesting happened for close to an hour. The Coni on screen seemed as restless as those of us watching from the War Room. Even the three Tainted grew agitated, and that wasn’t a good sign. We’d brought them over to do something, not stand around in silence and stare at the woods.

  No one was more relieved than me when the intercom buzzed.

  Astrid hit the button. “Dane.”

  “It’s Jackson.” His deep voice bellowed through the speakers. “There’s a police car on Cherrydale road, heading toward the Olsmill cut-off. We just turned on to follow it.”

  “How close to the cut-off?” Astrid asked.

  “Half a mile and closing in.”

  “If they turn, you intercept immediately.”

  “Understood.”

  A police patrol stumbling across several dozen bi-shifted Coni and three very scary looking humanoid-demon thingies could put a serious dent in today’s plan.

  “They’re turning,” Jackson said. “Intercepting now.”

  “Aurora, are you copying this?” Astrid asked.

  “Yes,” she re
plied immediately.

  “Hold tight until we know what we’re dealing with.”

  “Acknowledged.”

  Hearing Aurora speak and act like a seasoned pro sent a surge of pride through me. She’d come so far from the scared, pregnant were-kestrel I’d first met so many months ago. Today she was doing her species—and her daughter—very proud.

  Jackson must have turned his mike off, because I counted to a hundred before he spoke again. And there was no missing the tension in his voice. “Astrid?”

  “I’m here,” she said. “Who’s in the car?”

  “Well, her name badge says Hendrix, but I don’t think Officer Hendrix is home.”

  Trepidation slithered through my gut. “What color are her eyes?” I asked.

  “Bright blue,” Jackson said.

  Fuck, damn, and shit.

  I caught Astrid’s gaze and saw the same thing in her eyes that had to be reflecting in mine: shit just got real.

  Chapter Twelve

  I started pacing the room. I needed to do something during the time it took for Jackson and his team to escort Amalie’s newest avatar up to the sight of the old nature preserve, where our warriors were waiting. The two cars finally came into view on Aurora’s chest-cam, and I stopped pacing in favor of cracking my knuckles.

  The fact that she’d admitted who she was to Jackson made me all kinds of nervous about this, and I hated her with a blazing fury for picking Officer Hendrix. A woman who’d been so brave during the battle with the dwarves, and her open interest in the supernatural side of our city had probably made her mind an easy target for Amalie.

  Amalie climbed out of the cop car, her blue eyes shining bright. Supernaturally bright, as they always did when she used a human avatar for communication.

  One of the Tainted growled, and I was pretty sure that was Wyatt. He had twenty times more reasons to hate her than I did.

  Jackson, Shelby, Carly and Oliver flanked Amalie as she slinked forward, moving with no haste, observing those around her. The Tainted were somewhere behind Aurora, and her gaze lingered there the longest. Not an ounce of emotion leaked through.

  “I see no one here worth parlaying with,” Amalie said.

  Parlay? What century are we in again?

  “I’m surprised you came here, sprite.” Wyatt’s terrible voice crackled over the speakers. “You never do your own dirty work.”

  She blinked once. “Such a monumental shift in the Break required a personal investigation on my part. This was, I assume, done in order to regain my attention.”

  “Among other things.”

  “And I am here. I do not, however, waste my time with beasts and children. Bring me someone worth speaking to.”

  Ouch.

  “Aurora,” Astrid said, “Tell her I’ll be there in thirty minutes.”

  “Copy that.”

  I followed Astrid toward the doors without thinking. “It’ll take forever to get across the city and into the mountains during rush hour,” I said.

  “Do you have better idea?” she snapped.

  “Perhaps some of the Coni could fly back and provide transportation,” Eulan said, joining our private conversation.

  “In broad daylight over the city?” I asked. “Because all it takes is one fast person to put that shit on YouTube.”

  “You make an astute point. However, I do wish to accompany Astrid to this meeting. My people have a stake in this outcome, too.”

  No pun intended.

  I glanced at my healing left hand, then sighed. “I can try teleporting us there. At least that will only take, like, thirty seconds.”

  “Have you ever teleported that distance before?” Astrid asked. “With two people attached to you?”

  “No.” I glanced past Eulan to Isleen, who watched silently from her seat at the table. She nodded at me. “But the Watchtower has a secret weapon we can use to my advantage.”

  I’d only been inside of the Sanctuary once in my afterlife. A day after my resurrection, Isleen brought me here to perform a vampire ritual that had helped me remember the last day of my first life. And I’d remembered. I’d curled into a ball and sobbed on Alex’s chest as I remembered the horrific way in which I’d been tortured and died.

  While First Break and the secondary hotspot that the elves were guarding were the only direct links to the other side and the source of all magic, smaller pockets of energy existed all over the city. If a human being was born over one of these hotspots, they ended up Gifted like Wyatt. Or like the body I resurrected into.

  Chalice Frost had been born in the public women’s bathroom back when this had been a functioning mall, because her mother Lori got stuck inside after a ceiling collapsed. Hence my handy teleporting powers.

  I’d fought against the power of the Break during the Tainted summoning, and standing outside of the Sanctuary again had my tether all kinds of excited. The vampires had sealed off access when they evacuated the Watchtower, but Eulan produced a key that opened the veneered door.

  He and Astrid followed me inside. The air was stale but the décor hadn’t changed. Unlit, half-burned candles on the sinks and counters. Plush green carpet on the floor, three non-working toilets converted to chairs. Cozy despite the chilly air. Power rippled over my skin and vibrated through my muscles. Power so close to what I’d felt at First Break itself.

  “You are certain of this?” Eulan asked.

  “Yes.” A part of me was terrified of what I was about to do, because I could fail. I could lose steam and teleport us into a building or drop us from the sky into the forest somewhere.

  I could, but I wouldn’t. I was standing on a Break, about to teleport to another Break. Magic was surging all over the place, thanks to the elves and their spell. It might be a bumpy ride, but we’d get there. Alive and in three individual pieces.

  We stood in a circle in the middle of the room. I ripped bandages part of the way off my left hand so I could hold Astrid’s properly.

  “Hang on tight,” I said. “This is going to feel weird.”

  I closed my eyes and pulled up every ounce of loneliness I could find: the helplessness of Wyatt dying in my arms, the grief of Tybalt bleeding out in front of me, the horror of shooting Alex in the back of the head to end his suffering. Lives lost. Friends lost. So much loss and grief and pain.

  Power surged through me unlike I’d ever felt, and it ripped us apart. I held tight to my friends as we fell into the Break and moved. My healing arm screamed at me. My senses burned. Everything hurt all at once as we kept going, farther than I’d ever taken anyone before. We swam through lava that scorched every cell in my body. I had no voice to shriek.

  Onward we hurtled, and I drew on memories. The empty blacktop on the other side of Jackson’s car. Our destination. It was close. I pulled on everything I had, every last scrap of energy from the Break, and I took us there. Ripped us free of the Break and then hard pavement scraped my palms. Pain ripped through my skull so fiercely I nearly threw up.

  Astrid and Eulan walked away, but someone was by my side. When the dizziness subsided, I blinked Carly’s concerned face into focus.

  “Where the hell did you come from?” she whispered.

  “Headquarters. Ouch.”

  “Will you parlay with us?” Astrid’s strong voice broke over the crowd. “Or are we, too, animals and children?”

  “Your appearance is startling,” Amalie replied. “I sensed magic just now. How did you arrive here?”

  “Does it matter? You asked for someone worth speaking to. We’re here. Parlay away.”

  I kind of loved Astrid for sassing the Sprite Queen.

  “You risk much in bringing three Tainted into this world,” Amalie said. “Their containment is will not hold indefinitely.”

  “You don’t approve? I’m surprised. Here we thought you were totally on board with Tovin’s plan to summon a Tainted that he had no hope of controlling, so that it could get loose and cause all kinds of chaos.”

  “That
would have been amusing, yes.”

  “Because it would have started the downfall of mankind? Blazing the path for you and your people to reclaim the earth for themselves? Even though you don’t belong here and you never did.”

  I wanted to see Amalie’s face, to know if anything Astrid was saying had hit home. If she was surprised we knew what we did about her peoples’ history.

  “The elves have been quite forthcoming with information, have they not?” Amalie said. “You know more than you should.”

  “I know you once enslaved the vampires to do your bidding. I know that my people developed because of the magic you brought here. I know that humans are the rightful inheritor of this earth, not the Fey. I know that humans confound the Fey because they are unpredictable and ruled by their emotions, and you don’t understand emotions. You don’t understand why the three men behind me would risk everything to host a Tainted in order to defeat you. You don’t understand why we sacrifice for those we love. It isn’t in your nature anymore than giving up is in mine.”

  “Or mine!” I said. My voice echoed off the trees nearby.

  With Carly’s help I managed to stand on my own two feet. Over the hood of the car, I met Amalie’s wide eyes and took a hell of a lot of satisfaction in having shocked the shit out of her.

  “Surprise. Not dead,” I said.

  Amalie blinked. “So I see. Finally. Someone worth parlaying with.”

  Astrid growled.

  I circled the car to stand next to Amalie and Eulan, careful not to look for Wyatt. I couldn’t look at him or think about him right now, because seeing his Tainted form on a monitor and seeing it in person were two entirely different things. My head throbbed but not enough to throw my concentration.

  “Could we use a more modern word than parlay?” I asked. “Debate, or negotiate, or even threaten with a fiery demise? I realize you’re old as fuck and still catching up with the world, but no one has said parlay in a non-ironic way since the nineteenth century.”

  Which was to her as last Tuesday was to me, but whatever.

  “I suspected you were alive,” Amalie said. “This body’s thoughts were of a girl similar to you, though your appearance has been altered somewhat. She was intrigued by you and the work that you do. It made using her for this task quite simple.”