by SGD Singh
The group paused at the edge of the helipad, and Jax watched the giant boy in the turban lean to whisper something in Lexi’s ear, then spin to dodge her kick, laughing. He jogged toward the helicopter and climbed into the pilot’s seat, and a second later the sound of the engine filled the air as its rotors began to turn, gathering speed.
The two Asian boys and the one with the blond streaks followed. They climbed into the aircraft, deep in conversation. Everyone else stayed outside, their strange weapons gleaming against the twinkling lights below, their hair and long shirts billowing around them.
Asha approached Jax and Kelakha.
“I’ll stay with her,” she shouted over the roaring blades.
Kelakha hesitated, reaching a hand toward Jax’s shoulder and then dropping it to his side. He nodded and turned to join Aquila, and without a word they both turned and followed the others toward the edge of the roof.
Jax felt the ground shift under her feet as reality spun out of reach.
Kelakha hadn’t broken stride when he stepped off the roof. Instead of falling, his form melted into something else. Jax swore she saw wings spread as he dropped out of sight. Her heart hammered as she registered the empty ledge, and then the silhouettes of seven birds rising against the lights of the Strip.
She felt Asha’s arm around her as she stumbled.
Her consciousness began to slip away again, and Jax welcomed oblivion.
Chapter 5
The helicopter was flying over the desert the next time Jax opened her eyes, and she focused on the view, avoiding looking at her captors. Gazing down at the dawn breaking over the wasteland, tears burned her eyes.
Without Lucas, my life is like this empty desert. And there is not a single person in the entire world who cares whether I live or die.
Asha’s hand was on Jax’s shoulder, and she turned to find her captor smiling, her strange eyes filled with sadness. Jax had never realized the color of blue tourmaline could be so warm.
Asha’s voice was gentle. “He died days ago. There was nothing you could have done.”
“Were they… ?” Jax shook her head.
“Vampires,” Asha nodded matter-of-factly. “I’m sorry we didn’t get to them before they… I’m sorry.”
“Will you let me go now?”
Asha gestured toward the window. “Now?”
Jax rolled her eyes, and Asha smiled again.
The seconds stretched as Jax refused to blink. Were those creepy eyes glowing again? I imagined that, right? People’s eyes don’t glow. Yeah, and there’s no such thing as Vampires either.
“We both know you have nowhere to go,” Asha said, her gentleness softening the harsh truth. “And no one.”
“So?” Jax spat. “What’s that to you?”
The plump boy smirked across from Asha, crossing his arms. “Yeah, Asha. What’s that to you?”
She shot a quick glare at him, but stayed focused on Jax. “Will you tell me your name?”
Everyone was watching her. Even the huge boy piloting the helicopter cut his eyes over his shoulder at her. Jax looked out the window, then finally said, “Jax.”
“Okay, Jax. I’m Asha.” Her eyes had faded to an eerie blue against her caramel skin. “And I’m asking, humbly requesting. Be our guest for three days. After that, if you still want to leave, we’ll take you wherever you want to go. You have my word.”
What kind of new game is this?
Lucas had been the only positive thing in her nineteen years of life. She may not have shared his DNA, but he had been her true family—her only family. Jax felt tears fall from her eyes, and land on her shaking hands.
Asha was right. Now that Lucas was gone, she had no one.
It was obvious that other than Asha, this group didn’t really want her there. Jax forced her eyes to dry and lifted her gaze. She stared at the other passengers one by one. The two Asian boys turned their gazes out the windows, and the third boy turned his attention to an enormous revolver, checking it over with care. The pilot looked straight ahead, his shoulders tense. Why were they all obeying this small, seemingly gentle girl?
“What are you people?” she said.
That got a response from the three boys across from her. Pouffy Bleach-Streaked Hair made a strange hand gesture and the two Asian boys laughed silently. The pilot said something in a foreign language that sounded like kharja yaar, but the round boy waved him off.
His black eyes never left Jax. “We are The Infernal Guard.” His voice was lowered, dramatic. “Keeping your world safe from monsters.” He shrugged. “Well, most of the time, anyway.”
Jax lunged at the asshole who made her brother’s death a joke, but Asha was faster, and much stronger than she looked. She wrapped her arms around Jax, holding her away from the boy who continued to grin, theatrically blocking his face and… are those claws growing out of his fingertips?
Kicking out at him and missing, Jax collapsed back into her seat, shaking with rage.
Asha snapped, “Back off, Ursala! She’s been through enough without your bullshit!”
Turning to Jax, Asha spoke as if nothing had happened. “We’re almost to our destination, Jax. Will you give me three days?”
“Why? I’m not… I’m nobody.”
Asha’s eyes glowed again for a second, like wind on blue coals, and she looked fierce. “You’re more than you realize.”
No. Asha was wrong.
Who will notice if you disappear for three days with teenagers who kill monsters for fun? Who will care if you never come back? Who will care if you die? No one.
“Okay.” Jax met Ursala’s gaze, watching the smile vanish from his lips. What choice did she have, really? “Three days.”
Chapter 6
As sunlight burst from the east, the helicopter began to lose altitude, and Jax searched the barren land, wondering why they were landing in the middle of nowhere. As they continued to descend toward the ground, the helicopter didn’t slow. She instinctively braced for impact, but they sank through the dirt and choked desert shrubs as if they were air.
Jax gasped as her stomach dropped. She pressed her face against the window and looked up at the sky as they plunged into darkness. The helicopter seemed to be falling down an enormous well, and Jax watched the circle of daylight fade above them as her pulse sped, making her dizzy.
Great decision, Jax. Traveling underground with mutants. What could possibly go wrong?
After what seemed an eternity, bright light flooded through the windows, and the helicopter finally met solid ground with a violent jolt before the rotors began to slow.
“Sorry,” the pilot called over his shoulder, but Asha just grinned at him, raising a thumb in encouragement.
Ursala and the two Asian boys were out of the aircraft in one fluid motion, leaving what looked like an underground hangar without a backward glance.
Asha jumped out and reached a hand up to Jax. “C’mon, I’ll show you around.” She turned to the pilot, who was almost to the door, and called, “Nidhan! Join us, will you?”
He stopped short and turned reluctantly, but Jax saw his smile was genuine when they reached him. Asha hissed something at him in that same unrecognizable language, before saying, “This is my brother, Nidhan. Nidhan? Jax.”
“Hi,” he said, nodding at her. Then, to Asha, “We’re showing her the mess hall first, right?”
Asha laughed, taking his arm. “I’m sure we could all use some dinner.”
“You mean breakfast…?” Jax mumbled, wondering why it mattered.
Nidhan said, “Being monster hunters, we sleep during the day and slaughter evil beasties by night. So for us it’s dinner.” He yawned. “You’ll get used to it.”
“So in the winter…”
“Less sleep,” he said. “But more time for eating.”
They talked as if a life of killing monsters were perfectly normal. Jax felt her curiosity awaken in spite of her frayed nerves and almost overwhelming fatigue, and she leapt at the
chance to think of anything but Lucas’s head rolling off his shoulders and bursting into flames.
Welcome to the party, beautiful.
Vampires. Fucking Vampires.
“So, there’s no cure for… uh, Vampirism?”
“No, there’s no cure.” Asha put a hand on Jax’s shoulder. “Vampires inhabit the recently dead. They slowly kill their victim from new moon to new moon and then incubate for twenty-four hours, from midnight until the following midnight. The new moon was a week ago. If victims get help when the feedings first start, before the second new moon, they can be healed, but it’s extremely rare that they get help in time.”
“Asha,” Nidhan said, shooting Jax a worried glance. “Way too much information. She just—”
But Asha seemed to understand Jax’s need for facts. “We’re working on a way to detect Underworlder contamination within the civilian population. So far, there’s been very little progress. Vampires know how to choose victims living outside the grid, usually—”
“I’m very sorry for your loss, Jax,” said Nidhan, cutting Asha off again. “I know how hard it is to lose someone you love. We all do.”
Jax processed what Asha told her as they climbed a wide staircase lit by intricate stained glass lights depicting animals, mostly birds of prey. The sound of laughter and shouts filtered down to them from somewhere above.
Jax stopped short. “So if when Lucas was sick I had…”
“Known he was being slowly killed by a Vampire who wanted to take over his body?” Asha smiled. “Lucas probably wouldn’t have let you take him to the hospital. The process is draining but painless. All he would remember was partying with extremely good-looking people, who were pale and oddly cold.”
“Way to tell her gently, Asha,” Nidhan hissed. “Damn.”
But Jax nodded. Knowing Lucas had died the first night he hadn’t come home, and that his death had been painless, was somehow comforting. Or maybe Asha had worked her magic on her, and Jax was about to pass out again.
“The Guard taps into hospitals around the world and do what we can, but…” Asha trailed off, shrugging. “People have to get to the hospital in the first place, and then the right details of their case have to be entered into a computer. It’s all frustratingly prehistoric. Too much relies on civilians. No offense.”
“None taken.”
“We don’t have many techies in The Guard,” said Nidhan and Jax thought Asha smiled at her knowingly. “When you can fly, sitting at a computer isn’t exactly a thrill.”
Jax remembered the figures on the roof morphing to birds and gliding into the sky. Maybe this is nothing more than a drug-induced nightmare. Had Zara given her something somehow? The bartender had touched her arm. It was possible, right?
They followed the noise down a marble hallway that ended at the top of another staircase and Jax felt her eyes widen in awe. She looked down at a garden restaurant, white tablecloths and soft lighting between fruit trees. People were laughing and eating and getting food from an elaborate buffet at the far side of the room, below a mural the size of a house depicting some sort of battle scene in carved stone.
As the three of them entered the restaurant, all talk died down.
Up close, Jax saw that each person wore torn and bloody black clothes with different colored bands around their arms. Their faces and hands were scraped and battle-worn. And their hostile gazes turned on her.
“Just ignore them,” whispered Asha, leading her straight to the buffet.
Jax noticed Aquila at one of the tables, laughing and shaking his head.
“Oh look, Nidhan!” Asha said with exaggerated enthusiasm. “The spicy potatoes you like!” She winked across the room at Lexi, wiggling a heavily ringed hand in a mysterious gesture, and Lexi glared.
Jax was beginning to realize these people communicated a lot through hand signals.
Nidhan laughed. “Oh you’re in big trouble, Asha.”
Asha made a noise like pshh and began filling her plate with food Lucas would have described with contempt as organically non-edible cuisine. But Jax was starving, and she filled her plate with anything she remotely recognized, which wasn’t much, and followed Asha and Nidhan to a table where Lexi, Aquila, and Kelakha sat, refusing to look at her.
They ate in silence for long, uncomfortable minutes, until Lexi smiled mischievously. “Here comes Uma. Good luck.”
Jax followed everyone’s gaze to see a tall woman with a white braid that hung past her knees. She seemed to ooze intimidating leadership as she approached their table. Her expression was laser-focused on Asha, and murderous.
“Explain,” she snapped, jerking her chin toward Jax.
Asha met her gaze without flinching, and Jax was impressed. If this woman ever looked at her like that, Jax only hoped she wouldn’t piss herself. She watched as Asha silently rose and left the restaurant—mess hall.
Uma pointed a finger at Aquila, who raised his hands innocently, and then she stalked off after Asha.
“Don’t worry,” Kelakha said to Jax. “Uma is almost always that pissed off.”
“Not that pissed off,” Lexi sang. She turned to Jax, who tried not to flinch. “Did Asha say anything about where you’ll be sleeping? The place is actually full.”
“Lexi!” said Nidhan.
“Nidhan!” Lexi said, lowering her voice to mimic him.
“She’s our guest. So take her to your room to rest until Asha gets back.”
“Excuse me, did you say my room? I didn’t just break ’Lakha’s Vampire record to have a shitty night’s sleep.”
“Well she can’t sleep in my room,” said Nidhan. “And Asha could be hours.”
“She can have my room,” Kelakha said, a little too loudly, and everyone turned to him in surprise.
“What?” he said. “I’ll sleep with Aquila.”
“Says who?” said Aquila.
Kelakha shrugged, looking uncomfortable, and Aquila laughed. “Fine,” he said, standing. “But I get the bathroom first. C’mon, Jax. If you’re done eating we’ll escort you to your VIP guest accommodations.”
Glancing back at the door where Asha disappeared, Jax followed Kelakha and Aquila in the opposite direction to an elevator, wondering how Aquila knew her name.
Aquila said something in a foreign language while they waited for the elevator, and Kelakha blushed, replying in the same language as the doors slid open. Jax guessed he was being teased for offering her his room, and she looked at the ceiling. Some things never changed, even for mutant monster hunters.
The doors opened again, and Jax looked around at what appeared to be a hotel lobby, complete with shining granite, oversized flower arrangements, plush sofas under muted lighting, and more animal-themed paintings. Jax noticed exotic antique weapons displayed under glass tables. Hallways led off the lobby in every direction, and Aquila moved in his light stride toward the one to the left.
Jax hesitated to follow. “I can wait here for Asha if you want. I mean, you must be tired… after…”
“It’s not a problem,” Kelakha insisted, and so Jax followed him halfway down the hall to a door. “Um, but only my ring will open the door. So if you, if you leave the room… Can I give you my number? That way, if you need me to open the door again…”
“Why don’t you just loan me the ring?” It’s not like I could steal it and escape from down here.
Kelakha relaxed and almost smiled, wiggling his fingers. “Only works on my hand.”
Can’t argue with that. Jax pushed a few buttons on her phone and handed it to him to add his number. “You guys have cell reception down here?”
Damn your curiosity! Who gives a rat’s ass about reception?
Kelakha nodded, his thumbs moving. “Central Headquarters has everything.” He handed her phone back and raised his hand with the carved silver ring to a brass plaque that read K. Shukla by the side of the door. It clicked open immediately.
Jax leaned forward to study the ring, but then noticed that t
he two boys were watching her curiously. And just that fast, her interest in the wonders of magical technology was replaced with grief. Without a word, Jax turned to enter the room, fighting the urge to punch one or both of them.
She looked around the luxuriously large suite and took in the elaborate bathroom, king size bed, sunken living room with a table of fruit and nuts, and large closet.
“This should have everything you need,” Kelakha said, clearing his throat. “Someone will bring you clothes and a fresh toothbrush at sunset.” He was backing toward the door.
“Don’t you need clothes before you go?” Jax asked. “I mean, Aquila’s obviously not your size.”
Aquila snorted back a laugh, as Kelakha blushed again. “Nice,” he said.
Kelakha cleared his throat, “Yeah, I’ll just… thanks.” He grabbed an armload of clothes out of the closet and all but ran out of the room.
Aquila lingered, looking at Jax, one of his eyebrows raised beneath his messy hair. She crossed her arms and met his gaze, hoping her grey eyes conveyed contempt, anger… anything but fear.
His mouth twitched once, and he shook his head. “I’ll tell Asha where you are. Get some sleep, Jax. I’m not sure what her plan is, but my guess is you’ll want to be rested up for it.”
The door closed with finality behind him.
Three days.
Taking off her jacket, she kicked her shoes toward the wall and curled up on the bed.
Three days to understand what happened to you, Lucas.
Chapter 7
“Okay,” Lexi said, “what’s the deal with this civilian? Graduation’s in two days, yaar.”
They were in Asha’s room, surrounded by impersonal luxury in various shades of white under muted lighting. Lexi sat on the bed, watching Asha fill a glass with clove water.
“We need her,” Asha said again. “I can’t See it all, but Jax is essential to something… important. Crucial even. I know she has a photographic memory. And she’s some kind of computer genius.”