Darkest Hour

by Rob Cornell

  “You think I’ll cut myself just to use...” She couldn’t get herself to say the word magic. Even after all she had seen, it still sounded too ridiculous. Especially when talking about herself. Now she had a sense of why Craig and his friends referred to it as mojo. Magic just sounded so...fanciful.

  “I don’t know what you’ll do. None of us do. You’re kind of a loose cannon at this point.” He held up his hands, palms out. “No offense.”

  Kate’s head spun. All of this trouble over her. Did they really have no better way to find Jessie? Did she really have the kind of power they alluded to? “I don’t want to hurt anyone,” she said. “But I’ll be damned if I let you people keep manipulating me.”

  “Fair enough.”

  “Take me to Kress.”

  Thom took her to Kress’s penthouse floor again. He escorted her as far as the door, then drifted back and waved in the door’s direction. “Go on in. He’s expecting you.”

  Though Kate wasn’t sure how, since Thom had been with her since leaving her room, and had not communicated with anyone else on the way up. Before she could say anything about it, Thom sank down through the floor and out of sight.

  Kate opened the door and stepped inside.

  The sound of piano music greeted her. She didn’t recognize the song, something classical, Bach maybe. The whole room filled with it. Kate remembered the piano in the penthouse from her last visit and knew someone was playing it now. The music sounded too full to be coming from any kind of stereo.

  She moved through the entryway and around the corner, bringing the piano into view and confirming her hunch. Kress sat on the bench, head bowed, eyes closed, his fingers flickering over the keys. He played for about a minute more, Kate content to let him go on forever. Then he stopped abruptly, dropping an almost painful silence onto the room.

  He opened his eyes, lifted his head, and smiled at Kate. “As a child, I wanted nothing more than to become a concert pianist.”

  Kate remembered that Kress claimed he wasn’t mortal. She tried to imagine a non-human childhood with such a seemingly human aspiration. “You grew up in our world?”

  He nodded. “My parents were brought here at the turn of the century.”

  “But you look...”

  “Human?” He slid the cover over the piano keys and stood. “Some of us do.”

  “What are you?” The question popped out automatically. Kate covered her mouth, cheeks flushing. “Sorry. That was rude.”

  He laughed. “I had you killed and brought back to life in order to awaken a power in you you probably aren’t equipped to handle. I think I can forgive a little rudeness.”

  Good point. Why did she care at all about insulting him? She had intended to tear into him the moment she saw him. Instead, she was acting like a star struck fangirl. Somehow, Kress projected a disarming charm that was nearly...

  Supernatural.

  As Jessie would have said, Duh.

  Kress pushed in the piano bench, came around to her side of the piano, and leaned against it. “Like I said before, there is no known mythological corollary to my kind on your world. I could tell you what I call myself, but your ear would not know how to hear the name. My parents were killed almost immediately after arriving on this plain. So, if you’re at all privy to the tabloids, you know the rest of my history here, as it’s mostly true.”

  All the celebrity news shows like to play up Romeo Kress’s life growing up in an orphanage, getting a scholarship to Julliard, being discovered while performing a stage version of Oliver Twist, the beautiful irony of a life destined for stardom. But in all his interviews, he claimed never to know his parents.

  “Your artistic talent,” Kate said. “Is that a part of who you are?”

  He raised his eyebrows and shrugged. “I imagine it is. But I was very young when I arrived here. Without my parents, I had no one to tell me who I am. To this day, I only know that I don’t belong here.”

  “That’s what all of this really comes down to. All that talk about The Return, saving the mortal world from over-population. It really comes down to you wanting to go home.”

  Kress pushed away from the piano, a wolfish grin on his face. “You seek the Chosen One. If you find her, you could help save your world from destruction. But that would be a happy side effect. All you really want is your daughter back.”

  “I’ve never pretended to want anything more.”

  “But you’ve been given something more. A role in the fate of this world. What good is having your daughter back, only to have the world end? Yes, I want to go home. I want to know what I am, why the rules of this world work differently for me than everybody else. But I have come to accept my motives are only a means to the larger end.”

  Again Kate felt like a player in one of Kress’s movies. She wished she could have read the script ahead of time. She shook her head, bewildered. “You know, before Craig Lockman came crashing back into my life, I was just a suburban mother trying to raise a difficult teen. I’m not a secret agent or superhero. If you think I can help find Jessie, fine. But that’s as far as I go. I can’t save the world. That just isn’t...me.”

  His brow creased. “But you saw what you did to Mica? There are very few who can subdue one of her kind so easily. That wasn’t a parlor trick. That was true power.”

  “Power I don’t have any idea how to use. Power I didn’t even have before you bled me to death and then shocked me back to life.”

  “If you’re worried about control, we can help you.”

  “I didn’t ask for this.” She started to tremble. All at once, his magical charm had worn off and her anger came boiling back. “You had no right to...change me. I didn’t want to become a part of this world. I wanted to rescue my daughter and get the hell away from it.”

  Kress stepped toward her. “I’m sorry you feel that way. But if you truly believe you could have stolen Jessie away and lived a so-called normal life somewhere, you’re more naive than I thought. Your power was dormant. Left alone, it never would have surfaced. But Jessie’s power...” He slowly shook his head. “There is no containing what she is. You will never be able to hide her.”

  A hint of incense cloyed its way into the room and made it hard for Kate to breath. She waved a hand in front of her face to no effect. “She’s hidden pretty good from you.”

  He closed his eyes with a long sigh. “Those that wish her harm are far more powerful than me. They may already have found her.” He opened his eyes and glared into Kate’s. “It may already be too late.”

  A bitter flavor filled Kate’s mouth. “Is that a threat?”

  “Stop being so stubborn. I understand your fear, but it’s time you stopped fighting me and directed your battle to those who’ve earned it.”

  She started to say she was pissed off, yes. But she wasn’t afraid. She stopped, looked inward, and could easily see her anger only a coat of paint over the fear. Not of Kress or his menagerie of paranormal oddballs. What scared Kate most was this expectation that she could find Jessie and rescue her from some dark fate. What if she couldn’t, though? What if, even after they had given her magical powers, she didn’t have it in her to save her daughter? What if she failed her?

  Kress had the wisdom to let Kate work things out on her own. He stood quietly, his gaze on her focused but soft. He must have turned on whatever magic he possessed, because that inexplicable desire to please him came over her again, not in any crude way. She felt like a favored student desperate to make her teacher proud. If she focused, she could dampen the feeling. She couldn’t banish it completely, though.

  “I want to help,” she said.

  “But?”

  “Are you sure about my...power?” God, how stupid did that sound?

  “I’m not the one who has to be sure.”

  “But it’s real, right?”

  “You know it is.”

  “Is it enough?”

  He moved close to her. His cologne smelled natural, like a collection of f
resh spices. He rested a hand on Kate’s shoulder. “They only way to know is to use it.” He squeezed her shoulder. “Help us find Jessie, Kate. Then help us save your world.”

  “Turn it off. Whatever you’re doing, turn it off. I can’t know if I’m making the choice on my own if you’re going to try to manipulate me with your tricks.”

  “It’s not meant as a trick. I’m able to project my emotions. The only thing you’re feeling is my sincere desire to help you.” He removed his hand. “But I’ll back away.” He skirted the piano and crossed over to the sofa where he sat when Kate first met him. He sat and folded his hands in his lap.

  Kate sensed his influence fade, though it left her feeling chilled, as if someone had stripped her of a warm blanket.

  She had her wish. Time to decide what came next. With this new power now in her, she might be able to find Jessie on her own. She didn’t need Kress and his team for that. But what then? She knew deep down what he had said about Jessie’s own power was true. She had seen for herself her daughter unleash that power. She had even used it to save Kate from insanity.

  And what of the things she had seen during that insanity?

  Visions of Jessie bringing about terrible darkness.

  Kate had tucked those images away as mere scraps of an addled mind. If they had been glimpses of a possible future, though, how could Kate stand by and not try to redirect that fate? Hiding Jessie away would not work. These dark forces would find her again and again, just as they had in Illinois from that terrible artifact. Just as they had to somehow make Craig take Jessie away from her.

  Now, Kate had power of her own to fight back with. And a powerful group of potential allies to back her up. Craig had had his chance at protecting Jessie. From the sounds of things, he had failed. It was time she took over.

  “Okay,” she said. “Here’s the deal. We find Jessie. We kick the crap out of everything that’s trying to get at her. We help her do her thing to trigger The Return. We save the world. I get my daughter back. You get to go home. Sound about right?”

  Kress grinned, clapped his hands together once. “Sounds perfect.”

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Waiting was the worst part. But mobilizing an army, even a small one like theirs, took time. Mobilizing equipment took time. Gathering resources, arranging travel, and staging a military assault on a city in the middle of the frozen nowhere took time.

  Time.

  Meanwhile, the vampires continued to feed on and turn the small city’s entire population.

  Lockman slammed his fist on the table. He sat alone at the long conference table in the middle of the War Room. Maps, photographs, and schematics littered the surface like some creative tablecloth. Among the mess, Lockman had enough room for a laptop and a thermos full of coffee the gnomes in the mess hall dutifully replaced with a fresh one every hour. He used the laptop to surf the Net, keeping tabs on public knowledge of the situation in the north.

  Rumors that Barrow had ceased contact with the outside world cropped up on some fringe internet news sites. Lockman knew this wasn’t entirely true, as their resources showed the vamps making fake standard communications to fool any outsiders into thinking nothing was wrong in Barrow. This included regular contact from local law enforcement. It appeared the vamps were keeping cops alive and hostage to vouch for their city’s safety.

  The ruse wouldn’t last long. But the vamps had three more weeks of night, and that’s probably as long as they planned on staying. They had little concern for the mess they would leave behind.

  Word down the line said that federal law enforcement wasn’t so easily fooled. They wanted to know what had happened to the team they sent to investigate the initial swath of missing persons reports. They weren’t getting answers they liked.

  Lockman knew it was only a matter of time before the FBI sent more men into Barrow. The last thing he wanted was for his crew to get tangled up with the feebs. Slim chance they would see an army of supernatural monsters as an allied force. Lockman wouldn’t have the time or patience to try to explain the situation. If mortal law enforcement got in the middle, they would have to fend for themselves.

  “How much longer till we hear about those crop dusters?”

  Adam stood at the touch screen on the wall. He had it zoomed to a satellite pic of Barrow, working on drawing up a tactical approach to the city. From the aerial view, the city didn’t look like much more than rows of shoeboxes lined up along roadways with a whole lot of ice surrounding them.

  “About fourteen minutes less than the last time you asked.”

  “Don’t give me lip, Adam. The longer we wait, the more people get killed or turned into vamps. If it’s not too late already.”

  Adam tapped the screen and zoomed into the city’s local airfield. He stroked his chin and stared at the screen, silent.

  Lockman shoved the laptop back, crinkling some of the papers on the table. He turned his chair to face the ogre. “You hear me?”

  “I hear an echo,” Adam said. “The next part goes something like, ‘And then Gabriel gets there and leads his new-found army south, where it continues to grow until all of North America becomes a vampire breeding ground.’”

  “Is this a fucking joke to you?”

  Adam turned away from the screen, offering Lockman a grave look. “No. But we are mobilizing as quickly as we can. We were not prepared for something like this. We can’t drop a fully equipped army into Alaska as if by magic.”

  Lockman cringed at that last word. He hated it. Worms crawled under his skin at the sound. But after he got past his initial disgust, he realized something they had missed. “Why not?”

  Adam cocked an orange eyebrow. “Magically transport eight-hundred men and a pair of crop dusters loaded with holy water? Why hadn’t I thought of that?”

  Sarcasm sounded strange coming from Adam. Unlike Marty, Adam always had such a formal way of speech. Lockman kind of liked the sarcasm, despite its point being directed at him.

  “Nothing that drastic. Even if that were possible, I wouldn’t allow it, because we both know the cost of something like that. But the vamps made it up there somehow, and I doubt they rode snowmobiles.”

  “We’ve checked. None of our interdimensional portals have an exit anywhere close to that locale. Nothing even in Alaska, period.”

  “There has to be something.”

  The ogre turned back to studying the map, as if the answer might be marked there. He grunted. “I’ll have some of the science team look into it.”

  “Someone better qualified than Truman, I hope.”

  “We have an astrophysicist on retainer. He’s studied the similarities between interdimensional portals and wormholes. Rather, he has studied to find if there are any.”

  “Are there?”

  “You’d have to ask him.”

  Lockman glanced at his laptop. The screen displayed an article written by a fringe news site claiming Barrow had been occupied by the military due to some science experiment gone wrong. The tremors of the situation up there reaching mainstream awareness had begun.

  “Sounds like a long shot,” Lockman said.

  Adam threw Lockman a huge grin, showing off his dice-sized teeth. “Come on, Lockman. When has anything we’ve done been any less than a long shot?”

  Lockman chuckled. “Okay, keep the mobilization running as fast as we can, but call this guy in to see if we can’t jump things ahead a little.”

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  If Gabriel still possessed a mortal body, he would have crashed the stolen Civic hybrid miles ago. Instead, he felt as fresh and vibrant as if after the most restful night’s sleep. This probably had something to do with the woman who had caught him stealing the car and whose blood he had drained.

  Vampires did, in fact, sleep. But Gabriel wondered if that behavior wasn’t a holdover from having to stay cooped up during the day. Now that the sunlight no longer posed a threat to his vampiric body, he imagined he could go on indefinitely as
long as he fed regularly.

  My how those ancient voices had changed the proverbial playing field. Lockman and his ilk were in for a horrible surprise if they met again.

  He’ll find me, the girl said. And he’ll rip you the hell out.

  Gabriel admired the endless stretch of dessert on either side of the road. Some might call the landscape barren and dull. He found it hypnotic. Not barren at all. Life teemed even in the harsh, dry openness. A different kind of life. A more dangerous, hardy life. Plants with quills and lizards with quick tongues. And snakes with fangs.

  The girl didn’t like being ignored. She demonstrated what Gabriel could only describe as a psychic temper tantrum. A quiver ran through their shared body. Their heartbeat quickened. An inexplicable anger made Gabriel throttle the steering wheel as if he meant to tear it loose.

  Enough!

  Like that, the sensations quit. He had blocked her and whatever she was doing. Yet he could still sense her within him. In his mind he heard her weeping.

  He returned his focus to his driving. An hour later, he reached his exit. He followed the road signs to a blip of a town called Sombrero. The whole town consisted of two motels, three restaurants, a gas station, and the few houses that belonged to those that ran these places of business. Except for the folks that lived in Sombrero, this place was merely a stop on the way to somewhere else.

  Gabriel pulled into the dirt strip that acted as parking lot for the La Posada De Rosa motel. He parked the car in front of a pink shack separate from the motel proper. A set of sagging wood steps led to a screen door with a neon sign above it that read No Vacancy but with only Vacancy currently illuminated. Gabriel doubted the No saw much light. The pink paint job had faded and peeled in spots, though the side of the building closest to the motel had a fair amount of shade from a Burr Oak and the neighboring structure that had protected the paint, leaving it as bright as flamingo feathers.

  Gabriel climbed out of the car and up the steps into the shack.