Darkness Comes This Way

by Pixie Lynn Whitfield

  “I noticed while you were resting, before Nathanial came barging in. I had to hide my hands under the blankets while we were speaking because I don’t know how to control it yet.”

  When he looked down at his hands, her eyes followed his to see that they were glowing a soft mix of silver and blue, fading in and out in a pulsing rhythm for a few seconds before the color fully stopped and his normal skin tone returned. A gasp escaped her lips and her eyes widened as she backed away from him.

  “No…Draven…I’m so sorry…I should have never—” she started, worry and fear lacing her voice. Zarah had changed him with her blood. What was happening?

  He shook his head and offered a smile.

  “Don’t be. You saved me. I don’t know what’s going on, but we’ll figure it out. We’ll go to Thomas and see if he knows anything.”

  She nodded warily, still unsure, as he handed her a bottle of blood so that she could start getting her strength back.

  Just as she finished and felt her body reacting, healing, the nurse came in.

  Draven sat back in the bed, the odd glowing having not returned since he started healing, and Zarah stood and started pacing around after getting her energy back.

  “I see you’re both feeling better already,” Cathy said with a warm smile.

  “You’ve recovered well. Draven, exceptionally fast.”

  She was handing them a couple of more bottles to put in the nearby miniature refrigerator to drink if they needed, and then checked over Draven’s stats. She also gave Zarah a blanket and pillow to use if she wanted for rest.

  “What time is it?” Zarah asked the nurse when she was about to leave the room again.

  “Almost six.”

  Zarah frowned. The day had passed by in a blur and it was already almost nightfall again. Surely that was impossible? She must have slept a while earlier, and Nathanial must have taken his time before coming to visit. But nonetheless, the events they had endured had put them in the Compound hospital for the day and it made her restless then.

  After the nurse left, Zarah turned to Draven with a sigh.

  “Are you ready to go?”

  “What? Where?” He uncrossed his ankles and sat up. He had been lying across the bed with shoes on, one arm tucked behind his head, ankles crossed, looking bored as he stared up at the ceiling in silence.

  “I don’t know. Anywhere. Probably to Thomas so I can get answers.” Zarah shrugged.

  Draven let out a long breath and began to shake his head in protest.

  “No. You should rest. I don’t think we’ll go anywhere tonight.”

  She growled in frustration and flung herself down in the chair as he stared over at her with eyebrows raised in amusement. Huffing in annoyance, she let her breath blow the hair out of her face.

  “You want to go get your cross-stitching?” He teased with a playful smile. She sent him an icy glare.

  “I’m sorry—” he started, but before he could get his sentence out was interrupted by a loud commotion outside of the hospital wing. Shots were ringing out through the hall, causing them to spring up from their spots.

  Before they could reach the door, it flew open, and Zarah gasped.

  Twenty-Three

  “Thomas!” Zarah yelled.

  Draven was beside her looking as surprised and shocked as her.

  Behind her brother in the distance of the halls, they heard more gunshots and shouting. He was breathing heavily, out of breath and panting. She furrowed her brows at the outside commotion.

  “What the hell is going on?” she asked, rushing forward. He threw weapons at them.

  “No time to get into a detailed explanation, little sis,” he replied as they began loading their guns.

  “Be ready for war. The Rogues have overtaken the Compound. I’m here because I was with them when the Commander made the call to make the attack.”

  Zarah muttered a curse.

  “How did they know the codes to get into the Compound to begin with?”

  Thomas shrugged and she narrowed her eyes. Did her brother sell them out? The rage coiled around her as she stepped toward him.

  “I swear, Thomas—” she started, only to be yanked back by Draven as he gripped her arm.

  “We don’t have time for this, Zarah. I trust this wasn’t his doing, now let’s drop it and get out of here before they reach you.”

  She turned and looked at him in surprise. His jaw was clenched in determination, eyes staring hard down at her.

  “Leave? Are you saying that we just leave while the Guardians fight for their lives out there against who-knows how many Rogues? It could be a losing battle, Draven. We should be helping.” She shook her arm free of his grasp and stepped away from him.

  “They’re after you. They know what you did at the warehouse, and they’re here to get you once and for all. Draven is right. You need to get out of here,” Thomas cut in.

  “No!” she turned and screamed.

  Zarah stormed up to Thomas in the doorway, Draven a few steps behind her trying to protest but to no avail. She wasn’t going to listen. She was going to fight. She was not a Guardian who ran away. Not anymore at least.

  “Move,” she demanded. She was almost a foot shorter than him but it didn’t intimidate her.

  When Thomas remained silent and stood there stubbornly, she raised her gun and pointed it in his face with a feral growl.

  “I said move, Thomas. You can help me fight, or you can get shot. Your choice.”

  His red eyes narrowed and finally after a moment’s silence, stepped aside.

  “Don’t think that I’m doing this because I’m afraid of you, either. It’s only because I know you’ll need the help. The Guardians are outnumbered.”

  As he said that, more screaming echoed around them and the smell of smoke began to fill the air. They ran out of the room and toward the main lobby where the commotion was, passing fallen Guardians along the way.

  “Where’s Nathanial?” Draven shouted over the noise as they drew closer to the fighting, now beginning to get caught up in the action.

  A lone Rogue that had been standing guard at their end of the hall caught sight of them and began to charge. Zarah raised her gun and fired, the bullet striking the angry monster’s head and throwing him backwards through a wall. He hadn’t even had time to let out a warning at her.

  She turned back to Draven and shrugged.

  “I don’t see him around here at least. Maybe he’s fighting somewhere, or locked in his office.”

  More gunshots fired out caught their attention again. Zarah glanced at Thomas.

  “Are you sure you’re with us?” Her eyes were suspicious. Sure he had been helping her and Draven a lot recently, but she still didn’t know if she could fully trust him sometimes.

  He clenched his fists and let out a throaty grumble.

  “Of course I am.”

  She nodded.

  “Alright then, just making sure. Don’t let another Guardian kill you because I might not always be able to keep an eye on you. Killing you is my job, remember.”

  With that, she started forward, gun ready.

  The guys looked at each other momentarily, eyebrows raised, before turning and following her into the fight.

  ********

  The fighting was intense the further they crowded into the Compound’s main lobby near the elevators. Zarah looked around at the scene.

  The place was trashed.

  Resident Guardians were fighting with all the strength they could muster, Rogues were coming in by masses through the elevator from the above parking garage, and fires from various rooms had erupted. Blood splashed on the walls caused Zarah to have flashes of scenes she’d fought to keep at the back of her mind. She grabbed at her temple and clenched her eyes shut with trembling lips. The screams and laughter roared through her in waves. She heard bodies flying, hitting objects with sickening crunches, but when she opened her eyes everything still moved in a blur. Her nostrils flared and her
eyes widened in fear.

  “Watch out!” she heard a vaguely familiar voice shout. Her hearing sounded tunneled through all the chaos. She thought it was Thomas, and spun around in time.

  She ducked as a rabid charged at her, causing his fist to get stuck in the wall. Her instincts came back in a rush. Without so much as a blink of her eye, she took her silver dagger from her belt loop and stabbed him through his back, reaching his heart, before he could turn around and attack again.

  Draven wasn’t far away fighting a pair, too. When they’d entered the fight, she hadn’t even had time to tell him to take it easy before the army descended upon them. She began to silently worry that maybe she had made a mistake in wanting to join the fight after all, looking around as she spotted Thomas and Alyssa as well. She noticed her partner and the two Rogues fighting together within minutes, sharing weapons, and her heart swelled with a sudden, unexpected pride.

  Fighting her way through the crowd, she made her way toward them. If she was going to die, it’d be by their side.

  “You’re even lovelier in person.”

  A Rogue stepped in front of Zarah, causing her to freeze.

  “Oh? Yeah, I’m sure you’ve heard so much about me,” she replied with a smirk, holding her gun tight.

  Her eyes wandered over to Draven, who was also staring at her in worry and trying to get to her. Except that he and her brother were beginning to come under attack by a large group and couldn’t escape the foray to help her.

  Zarah looked around and frowned when seeing that many of the other Guardians had been left on the floor, wounded, dead or simply gone. It was only them against the army then.

  This didn’t look good at all.

  “I’ve heard a lot about you actually. The Commander sends his regards. He wished he could be here tonight, but he wanted to be ready for when I brought you in instead.”

  The Rogue’s voice brought her attention back to him and she stared in disbelief.

  “I’m not going anywhere with you. Don’t flatter yourself.”

  She started to raise her gun, noting that he had no weapon, and walk toward Draven while motioning him to go to the elevators. When she reached him, she saw they were surrounded on all sides, making it hard to leave.

  “I think you will,” the Rogue commented across from her, smirking.

  The army attacked, blood-thirsty monsters lunging at them from all sides, and they had barely little time to react. Many of these were less intelligent—the Rogues that had yet to be bitten or drink from one of the more “conscious” beings. These were the monsters that Zarah used to hunt before her world went crazy.

  Their weapons were running short, while the numbers of Rogues were growing larger. Zarah tried to keep her focus on the fight, but her vision strayed occasionally to Draven. He was beginning to get tired she knew since he was still recovering from the previous fight.

  They were separating. Drifting farther and farther away into a battle against several Rogues at a time and Zarah knew this was their plan. When the fire started in the midst of their battle, her breath caught. Her eyes scanned the area frenzied and distressed more for her partner’s safety. That moment of weakness cost her.

  “You really are quite a beauty.”

  She tried to turn to face the Rogue, but he had his iron grip on her. He kept her facing forward, her eyes focused on Draven who was still oblivious to the situation. His hands wound around to her stomach and pulled her closer against his body. While he smelled of cinnamon and coffee, Zarah wanted to lose all the contents of her stomach just from the filth of his touch.

  She felt a tingling sensation in her hands and started to smile, only for the Rogue to growl in her ear.

  “Turn it off or they all die right now.”

  She looked down and saw that her hands had begun to glow, that same soft violet glow as before, and the Rogue behind her was instructing her to turn the ability off. Zarah didn’t even know what was going on with her, much less, how did he?

  Sighing, she closed her eyes and thought about it.

  “How do I know you’re not going to kill them anyway?” she finally whispered back.

  “We only came for you. Now turn it off. We leave, and they’ll be left.” His voice held authority. She could tell he was the leader of this mission. He snaked one of his hands upward into her hair at the base of her neck. It made her shudder.

  “I see the way you look at him. I know you don’t want him hurt.”

  She opened her eyes and stared across at Draven again. He was fighting beside her brother and Alyssa. Clenching her jaw tight, she made every effort to stop whatever it was that was causing the strange aura. She was going to save them at least.

  “I don’t know how,” she growled. Her anger made the heat intensify, causing the Rogue to let out a short yelp.

  “It’s called concentration, my dear. Turn it off or in one single instruction, I will have them destroyed. And don’t think about doing it anyway. It won’t save you either. If I die, they’re automatically instructed to kill.”

  Stop. She kept thinking to herself. Finally with some struggle, she calmed herself and the light faded, and the Rogue seemed to let out a sigh of relief behind her. Zarah began to wonder if she’d made a mistake, but then it was too late as he yanked a needle from his pocket and plunged it into her neck.

  She screamed.

  Draven turned from the fight and they met each other’s eyes. His widened, first in shock, then in horror.

  “Zarah!”

  As the three of them tried to run toward her, she could feel her consciousness slipping. The Rogue kept one arm around her, motioning the others to begin their retreat out of the Compound with the other.

  Thomas and Alyssa were tossed through a bedroom door where a fire raged. Draven was picked up by his shirt collar and thrown against a wall, his head slamming back and causing his balance to falter. Before he could recover and pick himself up, a heavy bookshelf fell in front of him. A couple more fires ignited around him and laughter rang out as he struggled to get up.

  Zarah’s vision was slowly becoming fuzzy. The sounds around her distorted. The room spun in and out of focus. She kept whispering for Draven under her breath but no one heard her.

  As she was being dragged out by the Rogue with the others following, laughing menacingly around her, she could hear Draven faintly in the distance over the disorienting noise until she finally succumbed to unconsciousness.

  He was screaming her name.

  Twenty-Four

  Draven started coughing. There was too much smoke. With his head spinning wildly and his legs taking some time to push his body up from the wall, he looked around at the damage.

  The Compound was destroyed.

  And Zarah was gone.

  “Thomas!” he began to shout, pushing through piles of trash, stepping around burning books and destroyed computer systems that lay scattered along the tiled floor.

  “We’re here.”

  Draven breathed a silent sigh of relief when seeing the Rogue and his mate come stumbling from the room they had been tossed into, also coughing from the heavy smoke. He rushed over to them and they all looked around in silence.

  Movement suddenly caught their attention in one corner of the room, causing Draven to draw his gun in a flash and steadily move to the area.

  “It’s just me,” a hoarse voice said after debris had been kicked away from his body. It was a Guardian, injured but alive.

  “Jerry?” Thomas breathed out in surprise. The Guardian was rising to his feet, slowly moving. Upon hearing Thomas’ voice, he snapped his attention to him and his jaw dropped.

  “Thomas? But it can’t be… You’re—” he started, stuttering in disbelief. His eyes shifted warily to Thomas’ eyes, noting the red irises. As he swallowed a lump in his throat, he began to reach for his gun.

  Seeing the situation, Draven quickly stepped in front of Zarah’s brother and shook his head.

  “No. He’s on our side. Ther
e’s no time to explain right now. Just trust me.”

  The Guardian hesitated; his hand wavered over his weapon while he stared hard at Draven, before nodding.

  “Alright.”

  So at least they had Jerry on their team as they began to search the Compound for more survivors and come up with a plan to go save Zarah.

  **********

  “And you’re sure that’s where they’re going to be?” Draven asked, eyeing Thomas timidly.

  “Yeah. That was the plan. I hope, anyway, that things didn’t change as soon as they realized I was fighting against them. It doesn’t hurt to go check at least, right?”

  Draven looked down at his watch. They couldn’t afford to waste much time so he nodded in agreement with Thomas.

  “Right.”

  During the brief check of the Compound, they had found three other surviving Guardians along with Jerry. Many were dead, and a few were missing. Nathanial was among the missing. They’d managed to get the fires out with a few fire extinguishers, but due to the extent of damage, had to take refuge in the Lounge. It was the only place in the Compound that hadn’t been critically hit, as well as the gym.

  After convincing the survivors to help, they had formed a small team to prepare a rescue mission. Thomas informed them that the Rogue army and the Commander could be at an old abandoned military base on the outskirts of the city.