by Rob Cornell
The twins stood side-by-side, holding hands, still naked and not at all seemingly bothered by it. “We're done,” they said. “Let's go.”
“What are you talking about?” The mother looked down at her hand, her fingers still forked. “Where's the power?”
I thumped my chest. “Right here, baby. Right where it belongs.”
Her whole body seemed to turn to taffy. She fell to her knees, and tears glistened in her eyes. “No,” she whispered.
“It's time for this to end,” said one of the twins.
“How? How did this happen?”
I said, “It's my soul, and I decide where it goes.”
“You made a bargain. You can't take it back.”
“This was no bargain,” I said. “This was a fucking scam, and it ends right here.”
The tears leaked from the corners of her eyes and streamed down her red, freckled face. She shook her head, and her lips parted, but she didn't say anything. It looked like she was all out of things to say.
“Get out of here,” I said. “Now.”
The twins went over to their mother and helped her to her feet, and they guided her toward the door. She shuffled along like a dazed old woman.
Once they were out the door, I hurried over to Odi. I crouched down beside his bed.
“Odi,” I said.
Thankfully, the flaps of flesh the witches had split open on his chest had knitted partly together, but looked like a puckered canyon down the length of his torso. He still had other scars from the holy water, but he'd healed faster than I thought he could. I wondered if that had something to do with his innate magic as much as it did his vampirism. Seriously, when this kid came into his own, he would be a force to be reckoned with.
I gave him a gentle shake.
He stirred, groaned, and then his eyes fluttered open.
They must have had him in some sort of magical sleep. And when I'd taken away their power source, it had worn off quickly.
“Dude, WTF?”
“Our little disagreement with the Maidens has been worked out,” I said.
He wrinkled his brow. “Really?”
I nodded.
“Did you kill them?”
“Only one more. We decided on a truce.”
He snorted. “Bullshit.”
“I shit you not, my padawan. Me and the Maidens of Shadow are done with our feud. And it's about damn time.”
Odi tried to sit up, faltered. I grabbed his arm and helped him the rest of the way. He blinked a few times, scanned the room around us, refocused his gaze on me. He squinted. “I'm sorry.”
“For what?”
“Letting them get me, letting them use me against you.”
I laughed. “They picked you up while you were in your coffin. I don't think you really had a choice.”
“I just feel like… Like a liability. I'm failing you. I still can't control my magic. I'm not a very good vampire either. And…”
His mouth slowly opened, while his eyes bulged as if I delivered the most amazing news in the world. And I guess, in a way, I had. Because Odi had always smelled the vampire on me. And I knew that he had just realized he didn't smell it anymore.
“Dude, what…the…fuck?”
I smiled. “I went home to tell you all about it. That's when I found your coffin missing. I was a little disappointed, because I wasn't sure how you'd react if I woke you up in the middle of the day. I was really looking forward to seeing that.”
“You mean you're not…”
“I am not, nor will I ever again be, promise to the gods, the Unturned.
Odi cracked a smile. “Dude, that's freaking awesome.”
“That is the understatement of a lifetime.”
We both laughed, forgetting that we were in an abandoned mental hospital, forgetting that he was all scarred up and had a flesh zipper down the front of his chest.
In that moment, we were both just happy to be breathing—even though Odi didn't really need to.
Chapter Thirty-One
On the way home, I picked up a six pack of Bell's Stout. I needed a nice, thick, chewy beer, and I thought I deserved it. At midnight, Odi and I sat in my living room, just chilling in the silence. Every sip of my stout relaxed me a little more. My mind was still racing though. It felt like it would race for another three days at least. If that were the case, I was gonna need a lot more beer.
Odi put on a fresh T-shirt, covering what remained of his scars. Before he'd put it on, I'd noticed that by the time we got home, the scars were nearly gone.
After we enjoyed the silence for a while, me sitting on the couch, Odi sitting in a nearby chair, both of us just staring into our own thoughts, I finally decided to ask him about the scars.
“You're healing pretty fast,” I said.
He shrugged. “I guess so.”
“Using magic to help?”
He scrunched up his face and thought about it for a moment. “I think I am.”
“You mean you don't know?”
“It's not anything I'm doing consciously, but now that you mentioned it, I can feel it. It's weird. But yeah, I can feel it.”
I sipped my stout straight out of the bottle and thought about that, rolled that around in my mind like I rolled the beer over my tongue. Healing on a subconscious level. The only time I could do that was when I was sleeping. Otherwise, I really needed to focus my energy to close even the smallest cuts. Healing was a pretty big deal. That's why there were certain people that focused almost entirely on the art.
“How much healing is the vampire in you?” I asked.
He shrugged one shoulder. “I can't tell. Is there something wrong?”
“Not wrong,” I said. “Just…different.”
“I always prided myself on being different.”
I laughed and took another swig. The beer tasted damn good. It had been a while since I'd had a stout. And Bell's was one of the best craft beer makers in the state of Michigan.
“So what about you?” Odi asked.
“What about me?”
“How does it feel not to have any vampire blood in you?”
“It feels…different,” I said and smiled.
“Look at us, a couple of different guys.” He pursed his lips and stared at the floor for a moment. “What about me?”
I raised an eyebrow. “You're going to have to be more specific.”
He looked me in the eyes. “You don't have special blood anymore. You're not the Unturned.” He hesitated to say anymore, and dropped his gaze again.
It dawned on me what he was talking about. “You're talking about food.”
He cringed. “You make it sound gross, dude.”
“Sorry. Would sustenance work better?” I winked, but he missed it.
“How am I going to…?”
“We'll figure something out. Trust me.”
Odi scratched the back of his neck, his face tight. “Okay.”
We sat in silence for a while again. Nothing awkward about it, just a couple of guys relaxing, coming down after being kidnapped and chained up by a coven of black witches, stealing souls back, stopping deadly rituals, curing myself of a vampire infection. You know, like any other Friday night.
As I drank my beer, I kept coming back to Odi's subconscious healing. It was a sign that he was a powerful sorcerer. Plain and simple. Which meant I'd have to step up his training, work with him hard to help him get control of that power. I sometimes forgot the level of strength he carried magically. Maybe, if I kept studying with Urvasi, I could start passing down some of her tricks to him. Hell, maybe I could convince her to mentor us both. With all that power inside of him, I worried that I might not be able to do him justice, that he was more sorcerer than I could handle.
“What are you thinking about?” Odi asked.
I shrugged and set my empty beer bottle down on the coffee table. “The future.”
“Okay, dude. I'll hit the fridge and get the last of your tasty blood, and we can drin
k a toast to the future.”
“Sounds—”
A thump at my door cut me off. Not a knock. Sounded like someone kicking it.
I gave Odi a cautious glance then stood. I'd had two stouts, and with as tired as I was, I had a decent buzz going. After all that shit with the witches, I was entitled to some wooziness.
Odi stood, too. He made a move for the door, but I held out my hand to stop him. I pressed a finger to my lips to signal him to stay quiet. I slowly crept towards the door. On my way, whoever was out there kicked the door again, three times in quick succession. Unfortunately, I didn't have a peephole. So I moved to the front window and parted the curtains, trying to get a view of my front porch. My visitor was out of sight from my angle.
Another kick. “Come on, Light.” The door muffled his voice. I didn't recognize it.
I crept toward the door while drawing on my magic. I held out my hand and ignited it with bright orange flame. My energy felt thin, though, and I worried I didn’t have the juice to put up a good fight. A lot depended on who the hell was at my door and what they wanted. But it seemed like there was only one way to find out, so I readied myself and yanked the door open.
Jonah Jackey stood on my porch, his face pinched as if something hurt.
And in his arms, he carried the limp body of Fiona Templeman.
Chapter Thirty-Two
I opened my mouth to ask him what the hell, but he just shoved past me into the house and took Fiona to the couch, where he laid her down.
She was awfully limp. Looked like dead weight. I felt a twist in my gut, and my breath caught for a minute.
Once Jackey had her down, he turned around to face me. “Close the fucking door.”
Taken off guard, I didn't know what to do besides what he told me to. I shut the door, and for some reason locked it. Just seemed, instinctively, the right thing to do.
Odi stood there looking as stunned as I felt. He stared down at Fiona's still body.
“What's going on?” I said, my voice soft and a little shaky.
Jackey shook his head and walked away from the couch without a word. His eyes were watery behind his horn-rimmed glasses, his skin ashen. He also carried an electric smell with him, which made me suspect he'd been in a magical fight very recently.
I crossed the room to the couch and looked down at Fiona. Her skin was washed of any color, her blond hair messy and snarled. She was too still. She wasn't breathing. I knew she was dead, but I still felt for her pulse. Her skin was cold. I tried to swallow the knot in my throat, but it stuck. I shook my head as if I could deny what was going on and make it all go away. I couldn't deal with this. I didn't know how to feel. I dragged a hand over my face, and my palm came away wet. I turned to Jackey.
“What happened?”
He pressed a fist to his mouth and shook his head as if he couldn't stand to say the words.
“Come on,” I growled. “Tell me.”
Jackey let his hand drop to his side, swallowed, and squared his shoulders. “We were staking out Orosco,” he said.
He scrunched up his face as if he'd been punched in the gut.
I had an idea of what came next, but I wanted him to say it, I wanted the details. “Then what?”
“We were tailing him through Pontiac. Fiona and I. Somehow they made us.”
“And?”
“They must've called for reinforcements,” he said. “We got ambushed. And Fiona…”
I waited.
Jackey closed his eyes and exhaled slowly. “One of them threw a spell at me. Fiona stepped in the way, and the spell struck her dead instantly.”
I ran a trembling hand through my hair. “How did you get out of there?”
“I didn't,” he said. “Not exactly.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?”
He pressed his lips together, and his eyebrows came together. “They let me live,” he said. “They wanted me to take Fiona with me to the other members of the resistance. As some kind of warning.”
I studied him, trying to see any sign of a lie. He seemed to be telling the truth, but the story sounded thin. I suspected there was more to it.
“That's it?” I asked. “They just let you go?”
He looked down, refusing to meet my gaze. “No. They made me beg for my life.”
I looked back at Fiona. A whole lot of memories threatened to drown me. The feel of her skin against mine, the smell of her hair, the curve of her waist as I held her against me. And then, the other memories. Like the moment she took her place at Logan Goulet's side. Her betrayal. And the hole she left in my life, and that I hadn't yet learned to fill. The hole was small though, compared to the one left behind by the loss of my mother. It had been easy to ignore while I'd let my obsession for revenge distract me.
I knelt down in front of the couch and stroked her hair away from her forehead. I traced her lips with my fingertips. Then I leaned forward and kissed her cold cheek.
“Why did you bring her here?”
“Because you needed to see it more than any of my people,” he growled. “Now will you join us?”
I looked over my shoulder at him. He had taken off his glasses and was absently cleaning them with his shirt, but his gaze seemed as sharp as ever.
“I don't think I'll be any good to you,” I said.
“After this, we need you even more. Fiona put a lot of herself into our cause. I think she was more dedicated than even me. When the others…” He slipped his glasses on, shook his head. “My people need to feel like there's a chance. You could give them that.”
“I know you think I'm some kind of symbol,” I said. “But things are different now.”
He furled his brow. “How so?”
I thought for a second, unsure how much I wanted to share. I had hated having the reputation as the Unturned, but I had to admit it had its advantages. Still, I didn't see any reason to deceive Jackey.
“I'm not unturned anymore,” I said. “The infection is gone. I'm cured.”
His lips parted slightly. “How?”
“Magic,” I said with a wry smile.
“I don't know what to say.” He let out a short, derisive laugh. “I suppose, congratulations.”
“Sorry to disappoint,” I said.
He laughed again, a little less derisively this time. “Maybe you're right. I'm pinning too much on you. But I want you to know it isn't just the Unturned business that makes me want you at my side. In fact, that's a small part. You're a Light, Sebastian. I'm not sure you understand how much weight that name carries in the supernatural community.”
I did, but when you're fighting vampires, stealing from a dragon, putting an end to evil conspiracies threatening your city, trading souls, battling witches, and losing your parents… I'd spent a lot of time focusing on survival in the moment. I hadn't had a chance to remember the past.
“My parents were good people,” I said. “Grandparents, too.”
“And every generation before that. Damn right.”
I turned back to Fiona. For a long time, I had wanted closure with her. I had thought that closure might involve doing something I would regret, but someone else had done it for me. But I never really would've hurt her. It had all been bluster.
After betraying me, she had tried to do the right thing, tried hard, in fact. And while I hadn't been able to look past the rift she had torn between us, others had—first the global ministry, next this resistance unit. And she had given her life to their cause.
Was it time for me to accept the pain she had brought? Time for me to let go and do what was right? To continue what she had sacrificed herself for?
I stood slowly and turned around.
Jackey looked tense and uncomfortable. But he looked me in the eye.
“I could still help,” I said.
His eyes widened. “Are you sure?”
“Yeah, dude,” Odi said, his voice bright with surprise. “You sure?”
“Put me to work. I'll do what I
can.”
Jackey narrowed his eyes and stroked his chin. Then a smile dawned across his face. “Didn't you say Orosco had personally tried to recruit you?”
I smiled myself, seeing where he was headed. “That's right. He thought the Unturned could help bring the vampires back into the fold.”
“That would definitely make them stronger.”
Odi looked back and forth between us. “Are you talking like going undercover?”
Excitement lit Jackey's eyes. “The Ministry offices in the RenCen are locked down too tight for anyone to get in. And after getting caught tailing him, we won't get another chance to catch him on the outside.”
Odi gaped at me. “You're just going to walk in there? By yourself?”
“It's the only way,” I said.
“It's insane.”
Jackey nodded. “It's a huge risk.”
I glanced at Fiona's still body. “There's no point in fighting for a cause if you're not willing to take risks.”
“All right then,” Jackey said. I could hear the excitement in his voice. “I'll contact my people and set things up.”
“What about me?” Odi asked.
“You don't have to be in on this,” I said.
“Pfft. I'm your padawan, remember? I go where you go.”
“We can find a place for him,” Jackey said. “We'll need an extraction team, and his shadow walking could come in handy there.”
An extraction team. If I went into the belly of the beast to assassinate Orosco, there would be no getting out. But I didn't say anything. I didn't want Odi to worry.
But I would have to make sure he was taken care of once I was gone.
I happened to know someone who was good at that kind of thing.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Immediately after sundown Odi and I met with Jackey and his crew in the parking lot of a Meijer grocery store. They had a white cargo van and two compact cars with them. In the back of the cargo van they had a chest with a whole lot of firepower—shotguns, assault rifles, handguns. All the good stuff.
We went over our plans. Mine didn't take much describing—turn myself in, get close to Orosco, and melt his face.
Jackey went through his elaborate extraction plan. I only half-listened because I didn't really think we would need the plan. I wasn't even sure how powerful Orosco was. For all I knew, he would melt my face before I melted his. Either way, my odds of getting out of there, successful or not, were pretty damn slim. Even if I took down Orosco, I would still be surrounded by his people. They weren't just gonna let me walk away. Not like the Wicked Witch of the West's soldiers who turned sides the moment Dorothy melted her with a bucket of water. But the idea was, if we took out Orosco, the lack of leadership would make taking out his disciples a lot easier.