by Aaron Crash
“Trina, are you okay in there?” Blaze asked.
“Thirsty, so thirsty,” the vampire said, “but Elle is close. I know she’s close. I can feel it. She’s keeping me together. I think you’ll be okay.”
You won’t be. I will eat you. You will love it, I promise. It will be better than sex.
“Did you mean to hit me with the telepathy, Trina?” Blaze asked.
“Uh, no?” Trina tried to sound innocent. And failed.
“This is a bad idea,” Blaze muttered.
“Best kind,” Elle said. “Get in there. We’re hitting the atmosphere. It’s either this or burn to cinders.”
Blaze grinned. “I’d rather die with a woman eating me than burn to death. Okay, Trina, here I come.”
Using his combat display, he triggered the torpedo’s unlocking mechanism. He’d only have a few seconds to jump from the starcycle and into the torpedo. The bike had brakes, but the torpedo didn’t.
The coffin-shaped torpedo’s front panel flipped open. It was going to be a miracle if he made the jump alive, and worse yet, he was jumping into a torpedo with a hungry, crazed vampire. He touched his ax fused to the nanotech on his hip. Then he pushed himself off the bike.
For a second, he thought he might not make it.
But then he seized the lip of the torpedo and hauled himself inside. The panel slammed closed.
And Trina latched onto him. It was pitch-black inside, but Blaze could feel that Trina wasn’t in armor. She was in her blouse, jeans, and boots, and she was in full vampire mode. His bones creaked as she gripped him.
Take off your suit. I won’t bite you. I’ll just kiss you. And I’ll do more, things you’ve never imagined.
The impulse to go along with her was strong. The air was heating up from the friction of the upper atmosphere. The noise drowned out all communication.
Blaze focused on his breath, centered himself, and played their little game. He got an arm onto his ax. If he triggered it, he would have to cut away some of the torpedo to bash it into her brain. It might kill them both. He had to hope it didn’t come to that.
Come on, Trina. Come on. Alpha, Bravo, Charlie…
Blaze, you don’t understand. I need your blood. I need it in me. Please, don’t fight me on this. Don’t resist.
Delta, Echo, Foxtrot… Trina, you’re not thinking clearly. You don’t want to kill me. If I get to Zulu, we’re done, remember?
Trina was on him, trying to scratch her way into his nanotech. And he had the idea she was licking the faceplate of his visor. It was so dark, so loud, and the heat was making him gush sweat.
She took over the countdown. Let’s get there quicker. Golf, Hotel, India. Do I have that right?
Dammit, where was Elle?
Juliet, Kilo, Lima, Mike, November. Come on, Trina. Don’t make me hurt you.
Trina didn’t respond. She still held him. The scream of their descent rose to a fever pitch. Blaze gritted his teeth and felt his stomach churn.
“Come on, sis. Don’t leave me now. Help us.”
Trina continued the countdown. Oscar, Papa, Quebec, Romeo…
They were out of the atmosphere. Elle and Ling had to be there to catch them. Trina would survive the crash, and she’d be around to lap up the paste of gore Blaze would leave behind.
Trina clawed and scratched his armor, mewling, So good. Your blood is going to taste so good.
Trina, are you there? Can you hear me? Sierra, Tango, Uniform, Victor.
Seconds left. He had to get her to her senses or do the unthinkable.
Whiskey, X-ray, Yankee. Trina, answer me! Answer me now!
I will say it, Blaze, since you are so fucking greedy with your pinche blood. I will say it since you don’t love me. Zulu.
That word. Blaze hardened his heart. He had no choice. He triggered the ax and split open the torpedo. Cold wind whistled in, followed by a torrent of rain.
Trina hissed and grabbed him, her fingers like steel. She had been fighting herself. At any time, she could’ve ripped his armor open and feasted on his blood like a demon cat tearing open a can of tuna fish.
She ripped off his helmet and went for his jugular even as he brought his ax down on her back, sizzling her skin with the star energy. His angle was wrong—one of the ax blades brushed her spine, but it didn’t get to her heart.
Invisible fingers seized them both. The torpedo was torn away and landed in mud.
In the middle of a yellow cornfield, Elle stood with Ling next to her. The starcycles lay in the dirt, still smoking from the descent. The minigun had made it, as had the spear gun attachment. It was quickly becoming his favorite weapon as well as a damn fine lucky charm.
Elle had cast her telekinesis spell, and she held them both ten feet off the ground.
Rain pattered down, and storm clouds filled the sky, blocking out the terrible collision of the planet’s suns. With his helmet off, Blaze could smell the mud, the autumn smell of the old corn in the fields, and in the distance, trees, cottonwoods to be precise. All these planet odors smelled so good after spending so much time on his ship in open space. The place definitely had a Midwest feel to it. And that’s where Blaze had grown up, in the center of the old United States back on Earth. Go Huskers!
By the cottonwoods, a farm, a barn, and outbuildings sat on a gravel road stretching toward a city. Something hissed, and Blaze realized it was that damn calico cat, Raziel. It streaked from the torpedo to cower from the rain under one of the starcycles. Had it been along for the ride the whole time? Blaze had neither heard it nor felt it, but it seemed it had snuck on board nonetheless.
Trina spat and gabbled and wrestled against his sister’s hold.
“Trina!” Elle shouted. “Behave!”
Blaze checked her mojo in his display. Elle’s VHI was fine but her Onyx levels were low, ten percent and falling. He knew what was coming.
And it was going to hurt.
NINE_
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When Elle lost consciousness, both Blaze and Trina fell to the ground. He went loose, rolled with the impact, and came up with his ax ready. The rain spat when it struck the dual fusion blades.
Trina remained on the ground, crumpled. Ling’s helmet was off, and his inquisitive pointed face showed his wonder. The downpour slickened his black-and-white fur. “Did you see the cat?”
“I did,” Blaze said. Then he called to their resident vampire. “Hey, Trina, do we have to start the countdown again?”
She didn’t answer. She lay in the dirt as the rain pounded down on her.
Ling unsheathed his nunchakus but didn’t ignite the fusions. He walked over to Elle and toed her gently. “Elle, wake up if you can. If not, sleep, and we will take care of you.”
Blaze moved on to Trina. She was out cold, in her Human form, freckles on her face. Blaze scooped her up and held her to his chest. He had nearly killed her, would’ve killed her if wielding a battle-ax inside a coffin wasn’t so hard. Once again, Elle’s magic had saved the day.
Blaze triggered comms. “Fernando, Bill, do you read me? Hey, Lizzie, you okay?”
Only static answered him. Either they couldn’t answer because they were dead, or the Lizzie’s communications array was down. Or the Onyx energy on the planet was causing interference. Or maybe all three. Whatever, they were cut off. Even on his combat display, there was no sign of Fernando or Cali and no way to connect to the Lizzie.
The gunny looked up into the raindrops in a vain attempt to see if the dragons had followed them. Or maybe the Lizzie Borden would fly down and scoop them up with stories of how Fernando had calmed Cali long enough to get her bracelets shut.
Only rain clouds and growing darkness. It was twilight, which wasn’t right. He glanced at his display, and local time was two o’clock in the afternoon. It was a rainy day, but this was gloomy, like night was forty-five minutes away. Then again, the neutron star might be siphoning off most of the light from the yellow star, which might explain the darkness.<
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No, it felt wrong. Something was off about the entire planet. They’d all seen the Onyx energy blanketing Hutchinson Prime. Somewhere on the globe was Granny as well as Chthonic, lord of death and master of haunts. Whatever the hell that meant.
Blaze laid Trina on one bike while Ling placed Elle on the other. The nanotech made beds for them both, turning the starcycles into gurneys. While they were securing their fallen comrades, Blaze saw that the vertical thrusters on both bikes had been damaged. The horizontal engines would still work, but they wouldn’t be flying the starcycles any higher than a couple of feet off the ground. No way could they use the starcycles to leave the planet.
The Marine and the Meelah walked the floating bikes, hovering a foot off the ground, towards the farmhouse in the distance.
Raziel, the mystery cat, crept underneath, not wanting to get wet. She kept looking up at Blaze with yellow eyes pleading for mercy from the rain.
Ling got chatty. “I have to say, that’s been my favorite battle so far. Those dragons were amazing, and we did so well against them. Your sister, did you see her? She used her consume spell to power herself up and then used that energy to destroy the hearts inside the dragons. It was something. And it felt good to use my plasma bow again.”
“What about you almost running out of oxygen and dying?” Blaze asked.
The Meelah nodded and grinned. “Perhaps that is why I had such a lovely time. Oxygen deprivation can have a strange effect on marsupial brain chemistry. I was going to ignore it until I passed out. As fate would have it, you showed up right on time.”
“Fate or luck, Ling?” Blaze asked.
“Both, neither, everything, and nothing,” the Meelah answered. “I am a child of the universe. I am the child of now. I did not get to explore death before, so I get to explore this planet. How wonderful it is that we are all alive. And I must say, breathing is underrated. Perhaps your species should value breathing over mating.”
“Never gonna happen, my friend,” Blaze said.
They found a road cutting through the autumn corn and started for the house. Just when Blaze thought the chill rain would stop, a fresh sheet of drizzle splashed down.
“I almost killed Trina,” Blaze said. “I would’ve, if Elle hadn’t used her magic to separate us.”
“Or she would’ve killed you,” Ling pointed out.
“No,” Blaze said. “I’m not going out that way. I won’t be dropped by a vampire that might love me. Well, love might be too strong of a word, and she only really likes me when she isn’t completely and totally evil.”
“If anything will kill you, it will be your family,” the Meelah said. “Statistically speaking, Human families do have a high murder rate. Too bad you are such violent primates.”
Blaze laughed, stopped walking, and let his head fall back. He was thirsty, and the rain was cold and wet on his tongue. He swallowed the few drops in his mouth and regarded Ling through his wet bangs. “I thought me finally accepting you crazy pendejos as my family was a good thing.”
“It is not good or bad,” Ling said. “Oh, you Humans, you find dichotomies so delicious. It simply is. And the love you feel toward us isn’t good or bad, it simply is. In this moment, we are alive, Trina isn’t trying to kill you, and Elle isn’t the queen of chaos. It is good right now. Maybe in a few hours it will be bad. But now it is very good.” The Meelah sighed happily. “Fighting those dragons was so much fun!”
Raziel went into a tizzy, howling, hissing, yowling. She even stopped in her tracks and got doused by the rain.
A little girl walked out of the corn.
The minute she came into view, Blaze felt the hair on the back of his neck rise, and chill nausea flooded his stomach.
Her skin was pale, and her hair was stringy, not from the rain but from rarely being washed. Her yellow dress was bloodstained but it wasn’t wet. She was maybe ten years old. In her hands was a rag doll as dirty and ratty as she was. And just as impossibly dry.
Her thin, pale lips, chapped and cracked, moved but no sound came out. Her eyes were black marbles in her skull. Over and over she spoke, and no words came out.
Blaze shivered.
She raised her hands. Her fingernails had been painted pink, but the polish had flecked away. She laced her fingers and drew her thumbs together. She looked at her hands and then spread them to gaze on her fingers, intertwined, all the while murmuring.
But she was silent. And she was dead. They were looking at an apparition…what kind, Blaze had no idea.
Raziel ran off in the opposite direction.
Ling smiled. “I believe the term that applies to Raziel is fraidy cat. Did I get that right?”
Blaze nodded. “So, what do we do with the ghost in front of us?”
The little girl, expressionless, dropped her hands and walked back into the cornfield. The rain continued to fall, but a bad energy filled the landscape.
Blaze gritted his teeth. “I hate ghosts. I hate kid ghosts the most. And give me boy ghosts over girl ghosts. Damn, we’re not prepared for them. No salt. No iron. Great.”
“What was she doing with her hands?” Ling asked.
The gunny shrugged. “No idea, but she made it seem real important. Nombre de Dios. And she scared off our cat.”
The two continued onward and didn’t stop until they reached the farmhouse surrounded by corn on three sides. The gravel driveway led to an asphalt highway that seemed to be under construction. Heavy road building equipment squatted in the rain. The whole place seemed deserted.
The house was three levels, including a steepled attic which had an octagonal window peering down on them. A shape moved up there, or at least Blaze thought he saw motion. A wraparound porch surrounded the place. Every shade of every window was pulled down and the doors were closed. The siding needed repairs and a paint job, but then the whole place could use a good exorcism spell.
Blaze and Ling collected their unconscious comrades and carried them up. Blaze settled Trina on a porch swing while Ling laid Elle on a wooden bench built into the side of the house. The rain thudded down on the porch’s roof.
Blaze knocked on the door. Maybe whoever was up in the attic would come down and let them in, though the gunny wasn’t so sure the movement in the window had been caused by something alive.
A shriek from inside the house shattered the stillness, followed by the sound of weeping. Then nothing.
Blaze thought about bashing open the door but paused. He couldn’t just start breaking into houses, and the farmers who lived here might be good people. If they were still alive.
Another round of knocking and Blaze shouted, “Hey, anyone in there? Do you need help?”
Just rain answered him.
Blaze didn’t knock again.
Squeaks came from the barn but just when Blaze thought about going over to check out what might be making the noise, they stopped.
Blaze had to swallow a lump of dread forming in his throat. “Okay, Ling, we stay together. Looks like this whole place is haunted as fuck. Alone, the ghosts have a better chance of dicking with us. And if they touch us, we go insane. We need to find salt and iron. Iron shouldn’t be too hard to find on a farm.”
The calico raced out of the cornfield and leapt onto the porch. It shook itself then walked stiff-legged, looking pissed off, annoyed, and a little crazed.
Pounding erupted from inside the house, and the back door was thrown open and slammed shut. Then silence.
The twilight darkened for a bit, and the rain grew heavier.
Blaze tried the front door. The minute he touched the scratched brass knob, the door creaked open slow and loud. It mixed with the sound of weeping inside, right inside, unmistakable.
Someone was crying their eyes out, but when Blaze got a glimpse into the living room it was empty. The word parlor crept into the gunny’s head. It was a big space with sofas, easy chairs, tables with doilies, and old-fashioned lamps with actual light bulbs. Everything was so old-school American.
Blaze and Ling transferred the Onyx witch and the vampire onto a sofa sitting on a hooked rug on the hardwood floor, which was dusty and cobwebbed in the corners. Raziel dashed around the room, yowling, and then made a beeline for Elle’s lap. The calico curled itself up there and began to purr. Crazy pinche feline.
To the right a big dining room table sat empty. Clatter came from the kitchen, but Blaze knew, if he went there, it would be empty. Just more ghosts dicking with them.
Footsteps slammed above them on the second floor. The stairs on the left creaked as if someone were coming down them, but there was nothing and no one. That they could see.
Ling grinned. “Well, they are certainly trying very hard to scare us.”
Sweat dripped from Blaze’s face. “And it’s working on me. But not you, right? How come this ghost stuff doesn’t get to you?”
A baby cried from below them, in the cellar, but then was silenced.
“Why should I be afraid? Of death? I’m very excited about death. Think of it, all of us die, every single thing alive. It’s the one thing all life has in common. Worms, ants, Meelah, Humans, Clickers, all die. What is it like? What happens afterwards? How amazing is it that we all get to experience the same thing?”
“Yeah, Ling?” Blaze gruffed. “What if nothing happens after we die?”
“I’ve not been nothing before. I wonder what it’s like?” The Meelah winked at him. “If death ends all conscious thought, I won’t be sad for there will be no suffering, no disappointment, nothing.”
“And if a ghost materializes out of nowhere, touches you, and drives you insane?” Blaze asked.
“I’ve not been insane before,” Ling said. “I wonder what it’s like? More importantly, I’m not insane right now. I think I shall enjoy my sanity right now and not live in fear.”
Blaze chuckled. “You have an answer for everything.” He ran quickly into the kitchen, and though they’d heard clanking and banging in there not minutes before, it was empty. Going through cupboards, he found sugar, flour, canned food, and finally a big bag of table salt. A quick look in the pantry and he found an even bigger bag of rock salt. For Grandma’s homemade ice cream! Or so the packaging promised.