The Warrior

by Rebecca Royce

  Even so, I could not get my head around the idea that this brief moment of parental concern had anything to do with me. Not really.

  “Are you worried that you’re somehow going to get into trouble?”

  He banged his hand on a tree. “If any of the leaders were to find out I taught you….”

  I interrupted him. It all made sense now. “No one knows who taught me to make bombs.”

  That wasn’t entirely true. Micah, Jason, and Deacon knew. I was not going to tattle to the authorities about my father. Micah was up to his ears in our planning and probably wouldn’t rat out my father. If I died, Jason would tear my father from limb to limb. Deacon….

  I don’t know why but I couldn’t help but think that if I died, Deacon wouldn’t be around to tell anyone anything. No way would he be coming up from the vampire lair without me.

  My heart kicked up its pace at the thought. Why in the world would I think that?

  “No one?”

  My father’s rough voice brought me to the present. “Not a soul.”

  I didn’t even feel sorry for lying to him. He nodded, rubbing at the grey whiskers on his face. “I wanted better for you. I had this idea that you could grow up as a non-Warrior, that you wouldn’t have to face this.”

  I forced him to look me in the eyes by the sheer power of my gaze alone. “When did you think that?”

  “I don’t know exactly.”

  “Well, I’m late. If I’m still alive, I will stop by and see you soon. Go home, Harold. It’s dangerous out here.”

  Without a backward glance, I walked by him. There had been a time when Harold Clancy had been the greatest Warrior of his generation, before he dropped out. If he was an example of what happened to Warriors when they aged within the current system, I didn’t want anything to do with it. The other Warriors hadn’t fared much better. They all looked so old.

  The Lyons might be the exception—but my father was the rule.

  I mentally checked off another reason why going down into the vampire hole couldn’t be cancelled.

  The vamps needed to be stopped, once and for all. It was time to cut off the head of the snake and stop it from attacking us. Then, maybe, everyone could live a normal life, worry about things like having babies and getting married.

  If that happened I might actually be able to consider going with Jason off into the woods to live as his mate. A simpler life.

  I had to kill Icahn and end his reign of terror. Whether Jason—or my father—understood it at all.

  Chapter Four

  I stared at the sealed lid of the vampire lair. Jason and Micah flanked me and Deacon stood across from me. Footsteps crunching the leaves near us told me Glen approached. I didn’t look up as I spoke to him. “Are we clear?”

  Glen answered from behind me. “Yes. Coast is clear. As long as the wolves say yes, we’re good to go.”

  “Jason?”

  “We’re clear. They’re reporting that we’re fine. Luna says to tell you good luck and make her proud.”

  I nodded. He’d been standing next to me the whole time and could still hear them. It was a wolf thing.

  With no thought for any of the others around me, I stared up at the sky. Weeks ago, I’d believed I couldn’t turn back from the path I’d put us all on. In truth, I could have pulled the plug any time. I could, even now, stop everything and send everyone home. A few wasted months, we’d had the pleasure of exploding broken houses, and had all gotten to know each other better.

  The cold air bit at my cheekbones but not so badly that I wanted to go inside.

  “Rachel?” Deacon’s voice drew me back to earth. I couldn’t fly away into the light blue depths of the morning sky. I had to handle the situation I created. “Is it time?”

  “Deacon.” I could barely whisper his name. “Is it better to try and be wrong or never to try?”

  I don’t know why I wanted Deacon to answer me. Jason loved me. He would do anything to keep me safe. If I wanted to leave this place, he would take me and never look back. Jason would never make feel guilty about anything. In his eyes, I could really do no wrong. Micah believed in our cause. His brother had died. This felt like vengeance to him. He’d never let me turn away from this path or our choices.

  Glen had a new baby to protect, a small life he owed a better future to.

  The others…everyone had their reasons. Especially Deacon. He had lived the hell that existed beneath our feet.

  And yet….

  His smile held no joy. “Rachel, who cares? Who decides what’s right and what’s wrong? The only thing that matters is one moment and the next.”

  I pressed down on my eyelids until I saw stars. Colors danced—reds, greens, purples—all spots moving in circles, making me dizzy. Finally, I let go and opened my eyes to let the world right itself again.

  I shrugged and tugged my coat closer. “Micah, tell them we’re ready. We’ll do it like we practiced. Exactly the same. Everyone has a spot, and they know where we are to be. There are thirty-four of us today. There will be thirty-four of us tomorrow. No one dies. It’s an order.” I took a step back, and put my hand in my pocket to find what I sought there. “Masks on.”

  Micah nodded, pulling out his own disguise as he did so. “Glen, tell everyone. Five minutes. No more, no less.”

  I turned to look at Jason. He stared at me, maskless. I knew it had to have bugged him that I’d turned to Deacon when I’d had to make the final call. In this case, I wasn’t sorry for his pain. I knew I’d do the same thing again. Jason Kenwood would never ask me ‘who cares.’ He’d never make me feel stupid for overanalyzing things. When I needed a reality check, he wouldn’t give me one.

  He wasn’t built that way. I loved him for his goodness, and I wondered in that moment if he finally saw me for the person I’d always known I was—a young woman draped so far in shades of gray that I didn’t know if I could tell black from white anymore.

  I smiled and shoved the dark mask over my face. “Five minutes, Jace.”

  He nodded and shifted into his wolf form. I knew the wolves would guard us.

  I ran forward until I reached Micah, who lay in wait for me. “You ready to go?”

  “Yes.” He stood up, holding the device in his hands. It had been months since I’d been nervous about handling the bombs. When we’d first started, I had anxiety all the time. Now, they were like any other weapon to me.

  “After the lid blows—”

  He interrupted me. “We rush in.”

  This was Micah in his zone. Chad had never been like this. His brother had been focused and rule-following. If their places were reversed, Chad would never be avenging Micah like this.

  The thought of his brother brought up a thought that I’d been trying not to have.

  “Promise me something.”

  Micah looked up as we ran toward the cover. “What?”

  “I’m not going to be a vampire. I can’t be.”

  “You took out Chad. If I have to, I’ll take out you.” He pointed at me. “But the same goes for you. Hell, you already staked one member of my family. What’s another?”

  “Hardy-Har-Har.”

  It felt right to joke with Micah like this. We arrived back at the covering and bent down, working in unison to set up the bomb. Initially, when we had trained everyone to use explosives, we had thought to let people other than us handle the blasts. If this plan of ours were to work in the long run with any level of success, we would have to launch multiple assaults every day. Micah and I couldn’t possibly handle the boom in all operations.

  But all of that would be way in the future. I had to focus on the now. It had to me and, in honor of Chad, it had to be Micah.

  “Ready?”

  I nodded. “Light it up.”

  He lit a match and touched it to the fuse. “Ready. One. Two. Three. Go.”

  I checked the fuse and it had lit. Without another thought, I let my legs take me to the safe zone. The moment had an intensity that had
been missing for weeks. I wanted everything to go exactly as we’d planned it.

  The boom sounded as Micah and I hit the ground simultaneously.

  I panted as I looked at Micah. “Did that go off too soon?”

  We’d made it to the safe place, but barely. I could feel the heat of the explosion on my back and knew if I turned around, there would be a flame shooting out of the ground.

  Micah groaned as he stood up. “Maybe the fuse measured slightly short.”

  “Did you make it yourself?” I stood up next, brushing the dirt off my body.

  “I did.”

  Micah had a meticulous nature. He checked things over and over again. I would have to find out what happened. Micah and I ran together toward the now open hole, reaching it right after Deacon, Claire, and Glen. Behind us, the other Warriors lined up.

  “Cutting it a little close there, Lyons?” Deacon called from below as he jumped to the bottom of the ladder that would lead us downwards into the depths of vampire hell.

  The stink of burned wood and metal met my nostrils, and I pulled my shirt up slightly so it covered my nose.

  The Vamps hadn’t charged upward. We’d counted on the daylight and our element of surprise to keep them below. Next time we might not be so lucky. They still had wolves and the wolves had no problem handling the daylight.

  Of course, we had wolves to help with that problem, at least for now. As Jason had told me, that was all about to change.

  The halls were dark. Vampires didn’t require light to see and fire could kill them. I wouldn’t want a device that could kill me lit and unwatched while I slept. The last time I’d been in one of their lairs, I’d been trapped in a mine with little to no light. Just enough so the humans trapped there didn’t have an accident before completing their work.

  “No more unnecessary talking.” We moved single file down the long hallway. Deacon’s experience living in the vampire lairs had proved invaluable to our planning and we knew where we were going even though most of our force had never been in vamp-land before.

  There were three kinds of lairs. The mining or working version that I lived in for a while, which would be huge. It would take all of us to clean the vamps out, and would likely be the most dangerous of all the lairs. Reinforcements would arrive quickly in those lairs.

  Deacon said there were two smaller versions, one a holding center where we would likely encounter little resistance, and a feeding den.

  I repeated my earlier command to center myself. “No more unnecessary talking.”

  The masks we wore weren’t to protect us from the vampires but from the humans we rescued. If they identified us to the adults we’d never be able to rescue anyone else.

  Jason had come up with the idea to wear them. He said it reminded him of books he’d read in school before Armageddon. Sometimes it irked me that I’d never get to see any of that literature. Unless one of us suddenly discovered a missing library; it had all burned in the initial destruction.

  Up ahead, Deacon struck a match on a tiny explosive. The flame lit up his masked face for a second before it rolled to take out the door in our way.

  “We’re lit.” Deacon’s voice carried through the silence, and we all backed up to avoid the blast.

  A small boom sounded through the walls and the lock fell off the door with a clank against the metal floor. Jason had told us that before Armageddon these tunnels with welded lids had been called a “sewer system.” Apparently, Icahn had used his human slaves and his vampires to convert the sewers into his operating areas during the chaotic years that followed Armageddon.

  Jason had joked that we might find an animal called an alligator down here with us. I hadn’t really understood what was funny about his statement since I had no idea what an alligator was. I hoped I was not about to find out.

  “Move.” I called out the advance. In the future, the others would take their turns playing the role I handled but for now, I pushed us forward. The longer I did it, the more comfortable I was, not to mention happy we’d practiced this so often.

  I gripped my stake, feeling the vibration of my ever-shaking fingers on the wood. This didn’t used to happen to me. Just another gift left over from the night I’d ended Chad’s vampire existence.

  Nervous vibrations or not, I killed the undead when I had to.

  The first room we entered had dimmed lighting provided by lanterns. The layout proved to be similar to the one I’d found Deacon in one year earlier, which meant we were in a feeding area. Four large human-holding cages swung from the ceiling, filled with people waiting to be eaten.

  I shuddered at the horror. How long had they been trapped like that? I looked over at Deacon. What if things had gone differently? He’d be dead instead of standing less than a foot away from me.

  My instincts that allowed me to feel when vamps were present zinged, giving me goose bumps everywhere.

  “Let’s move.” I pointed to the left. “One, two.” I indicated where I wanted everyone to go, but they already knew. We’d practiced this setup more than once. Thanks to Deacon’s nearly perfect memory for detail, everyone comprehended how the rooms would most likely appear.

  My job was to get those people out of the cages and to take down any vampires who got in my way.

  Our movement caught the attention of the undead and several vampires slithered across the room from the shadows. I rolled my eyes. These vampires hadn’t even come out to look at what had made the initial explosion.

  Two reasons accounted for this. One, it was daytime. They moved around underground during this time but they were still lethargic. My experience in the mines had taught me that the wolves mostly handled the daytime activities.

  The second reason these vamps had failed to investigate made me ill when I dwelled on it. These vamps had full stomachs. With the humans being caged and, with the exception of Deacon the day I’d found him, mostly subdued, they made easy meals.

  The vampires running things here had no idea what to do with us. They’d never had to fight for their food. Still, they would be deadly if we let our guard down, which is why I had no intention of being stupid.

  I advanced first while they acted like fake replicas of themselves instead of brutal creatures that wanted to feed on my blood. Using my foot I kicked one backward. It hissed as it hit the ground with a large thud. As it made its horrific noise, I saw the serpent tongue in its mouth. I’d had a close encounter with a vampire mouth once, and I had the scar right smack dab on my face to prove it. No way would I be getting that personal with one ever again.

  In two strides, I’d bent over the creature and plunged my shaking stake right through its heart. He vanished into dust around me. Behind me, I heard the fight raging. I turned around to observe and grinned. If only every vampire we encountered in our fights was as daytime lazy and too well fed to be dangerous. These guys were…nothing.

  They weren’t even putting up much of a fight.

  With a running jump, I leapt up onto the side of the vampire cage. The humans inside all appeared as if they’d seen better days. If they looked that worn out in low light, they would probably appear near death when we got them all out into the sun.

  I did a quick head count. In my cage, there were three men, two women, and two children. Seeing the kids locked up made my stomach turn. Deacon had told me a few of the vamps preferred to feed off the young. It didn’t make sense from a productivity stand point. The kids needed to get old enough to work for the vampires. Their taste for young blood won out over common sense.

  Well, they wouldn’t be able to eat these children. Not today.

  “Listen up. Everyone needs to hang onto these bars like your life depends on it because, well, it does.”

  Micah jumped up next to me. He shouted to be heard over the foray beneath us. “You ready?”

  “Just explaining what has to happen here. We are getting you out of here and then you will be going to a safer place. But first I have to break this cage. It’s going to fal
l to the ground. It might hurt but it won’t kill you. I know this, because I’ve done it before.” I turned back to Micah. “Now, I’m ready.”

  Using our strength like we had as children in the main park of Genesis, we swung back and forth, moving the cage as we did. It was heavier than the time I had broken Deacon out. Or maybe I didn’t have as much utter-terror-moving adrenaline through my body; either way, Micah and I struggled to get it going.

  “We are going to lift weights.” Micah muttered to me and I laughed as I realized he’d been on exactly the same wavelength as me. Looking to my left, relief filled my body as I saw Deacon and Glen’s cage was about to hit the floor.

  Our cage really began to swing and the people inside of it started to shriek. I stared at them, confusion causing pinpricks to radiate through my spine. They did want to be freed, didn’t they?

  The cage broke free and we plummeted downwards. Micah and I maneuvered ourselves into a roll as we came down. The maneuver saved us from being crushed by the crashing cage but it did nothing to stop pain from pulsating up and down my arm after the fall.

  “You okay?” Micah held out his hand to me. Apparently, he’d landed better than I did. I took his help and let him pull me to my feet.

  I rubbed my arm. It really stung. “I guess so.”

  “Look.” He motioned with his chin behind me, and I turned around, trying to ignore how badly my arm pained me.

  The vampires were gone, except for two. It looked like two of our members, Jessica and Siri, were going to handle them fine. Out of the mess of the four cages, the human prisoners were getting to their feet.

  Micah patted me on the arm that didn’t hurt. “We did it.”

  “We did.” Suddenly, my arm didn’t hurt quite so badly.

  “Who are you people?” A woman spoke from the rubble of the cage Micah and I had broken off the ceiling.

  “We’re friends.” That had been the response we’d decided on when we’d made up the plan to remain anonymous. “Don’t worry. We’ll get you to a place where you can get help, soon.”

  I did a quick head count. Everyone was there but Deacon. Where was he? I swung around.