by David Wright
Abigail wondered if she’d die quickly. She hoped so. Life was too damned hard — all she wanted was for the pain to finally end.
Suddenly, Abigail heard a voice in her head that wasn’t hers, or any one of the many memories rattling inside her.
“Abigail?”
It was an unfamiliar girl’s voice she couldn’t remember ever hearing before.
She opened her eyes and moved her head to search the room, but saw nobody.
“Hello?” Abigail called out.
“Don’t do it,” the girl’s voice said.
Abigail realized the voice was in her head, like John’s used to sometimes come when he was communicating with her telepathically.
Who is this? Abigail thought-asked.
“My name is Talani. I’m a vampire, like you.”
How do you know I’m a vampire? Abigail thought, suddenly afraid. Someone out there knew her secret. Someone she didn’t know. How could Talani speak to her? Was she close by, Abigail wondered, knowing as she did that Talani could read her thoughts and fears.
Leave me alone!
“Relax, Abigail. I’m just like you. I’m only 15. You and I are a lot alike.”
You don’t know me, Abigail thought, feeling violated, wanting to run off and be left alone. She tried to shut the girl from her mind, but didn’t know how. She never had to defend herself against someone in her thoughts. Before now, it had only been John who could communicate with her like this.
Talani continued, “I just wanted to tell you, you’re not alone. There are others out here like us. Good people, forced to hide from the rest of the world because of what we are. I don’t want to intrude on your life. I don’t want anything, really. I wasn’t even going to bother you, but I felt your pain. I couldn’t sit and do nothing, especially if I could make a difference. I just want you to know, you’re not alone. Don’t kill yourself, Abigail. I have to go now. I can only do this for a little bit at a time. But please … ”
And then she was gone. Though Abigail hadn’t felt the presence enter her mind, she felt it leave — like a cold draft from an open window, except the window was in her brain.
Talani? Abigail asked, testing to see if the girl was really gone from her mind.
No response. As she lay in the gas-drenched bed, fumes stirring her nausea, she thought of Talani’s words, “You’re not alone.” Abigail wondered how many of her kind there were. She’d known there were some, and that many were bad, monsters feeding off the good. But what if there were others like her, like John, good people cursed through no fault of their own?
She thought of John and wondered if he would miss her, or be happy to be free of the burden of looking out for a perpetual child? Abigail then thought of her new friend Katya.
Will Katya miss me?
Katya had been so concerned when she was sick at the restaurant. She actually cared. And though he wasn’t good at showing it, Larry cared, too. And of course, there was John. She thought back to the last time she’d seen him, and how he had hugged her as though he’d never let her go.
If I kill myself, I’ll hurt them all.
They don’t deserve that.
Abigail’s tears were in full flow. She closed her eyes, trying not to think of the hurt she’d visit on those she loved most if she were to murder herself. She didn’t want to hurt anyone else. Taking her life was selfish. Yes, she’d be silencing her torment, but didn’t everyone have to deal with some amount of personal pain? Killing herself would add to her friends’ pain, especially John’s.
Abigail couldn’t bear to cause any more pain.
There had to be some other way to quiet her anguish, some other way to deal with her victims’ memories. She hadn’t even given John a chance to help her.
Abigail sat up, looked down at Bobby, and said, “I’m so sorry.”
She grazed his ashen cheek with her shaking fingertips. The corpse’s skin was hard, like burnt leather. She wanted to say something more, something the boy might be able to hear, but Bobby was gone, and Abigail was whispering to ghosts.
She rose from the bed and headed downstairs. At the bottom, she managed to get the lighter’s wheel to turn and the flame to spark. Fire immediately engulfed her in a bright, painful blast.
Abigail screamed, and was about to race out the front door, when she remembered reading long ago that moving fast could cause the fire to spread. Stop. Drop. Roll. She was about to drop to the ground when another instinct took over — not from her own memories, but something from the alien inside her. It somehow pulled the fire from her clothes and skin, like a magnet, collecting it in a ball, floating it in front of her. Then it sent the ball of fire in a blast at the stairway, where the fire began to race up the walls.
Run, her instincts said, and she turned and fled into the night, her skin already healing from the flames.
* * * *
CHAPTER 6 — John
John and Tiny followed Shadow’s scent through the tunnels.
John was damned good at hunting Otherworlders and Halfworlders alike, and Shadow had left his stink all over. They followed him on foot into the old sewer system, and eventually to where his path ended, in an ancient looking dusty basement. From what John could sense, they were in the basement of an apartment building, filled with residents, many of whom were still sleeping.
“He here?” Tiny asked.
“Yes,” John said. “Though I’m guessing if we can sense him, he can sense us, and is waiting.”
“Waiting with more of that magick voodoo shit, I bet.”
“Maybe,” John said. “So, you wait here. I’ll stay connected.”
“I ain’t letting you go up there alone.”
“Just pay attention to me, OK. I’ll be fine. I don’t think he’s looking to hurt us, anymore. He’s looking for something. I’ll see if I can help him find it, and send you a flash if something goes wrong.”
“A flash? Is that what you call that shit where you’re talkin’ in my head?”
“Got a better word for it?” John asked.
“An instant message? Or maybe a poke?”
“A poke?”
“Yeah, a poke, like on Facebook.”
John shook his head, “You crack me up, Tiny.”
“What?” Tiny asked. “You’re not on Facebook?”
“No,” John said. “What the hell am I going to do on Facebook? Make friends?”
“Ah, I see, you’re probably all on MySpace and shit like Larry.”
John laughed again as he headed out the basement door and began ascending the stairs. He made it six flights before the stairway ended on the top floor. There were more than 20 apartments on the top floor, all of them filled with either sleeping, or at least relaxed, people — all but one.
He could sense the frantic energy coming from Shadow. He tried to focus on the man’s thoughts, but couldn’t read them, which likely meant Tiny was right. Shadow was waiting, like before. John couldn’t afford to be taken by surprise, again. He considered finding a phone and calling Mike Mathews, telling him to light the place with agents.
If John did that, he might not learn who the vessels were, or how to find them, though.
He could sense Shadow’s desperation, and knew the man was afraid. John hoped Shadow’s betrayal would favor his fortune. He could offer Shadow protection from his enemies. Assuming Shadow thought he could trust John to keep him from Omega, that had to be something he’d consider.
John approached the apartment where Shadow was hiding, stopped outside the door and knocked lightly.
“Shadow? It’s John. I want to help you.”
“Go away, John!” Shadow answered, his voice high-pitched, stressed. “I don’t need any help.”
“You know I’m not leaving. And you know you can’t make it alone any longer. They’ll find you. If I did, they will too. Let me help. We can protect you.”
“Like you protected my family? No thanks, John. I’ll take my chances going solo.”
“I w
ill protect you. You have my word.”
Shadow was silent. John waited anxiously for something — either an opening of the door or an explosion. Nothing but silence answered him back.
He’s making another portal to escape!
John wondered if he should bust the door down. If Shadow was armed, or waiting with more magickal weapons, bursting through the door could be a death sentence. But there was too much at stake for John to play it cautious now.
Turned out, John didn’t have to bust through the door. It opened on its own, and Shadow appeared, looking cautiously in the hallway. “Where’s the Hulk?”
“He’s standing guard nearby, to make sure we’re safe.”
Shadow nodded and opened the door the rest of the way. John stepped inside and saw several duffel bags sitting in the middle of the otherwise empty apartment. There wasn’t even furniture, at least in the living room. John wondered how many such places Shadow had at his disposal. As many as Larry? More?
John asked, “What is this place?”
“My last resort,” Shadow said. “I can’t trust that no one knows ‘bout it, but at least I have a head start.”
“Where are you going to go?” John asked.
“Like I’d tell you.”
“Fair enough,” John said. “But I need to know about the vessels, please. Shadow, tell me while you get ready.”
“OK, but pay attention,” Shadow said, “because I’m only saying this once. I need to get the hell outta here.”
“OK.” John watched Shadow move supplies and wads of cash from smaller bags to a larger one, stuffed with weapons, of this world and John’s.
“When your mom came over, she was helped by a powerful wizard. The last of his kind, after the Great Purge.” Shadow turned to John. “You know about the Great Purge, right?”
“Yes,” John nodded. “I’ve read in The Unwritten Tomes.”
“So, this wizard was taken in by your father when the North initiated the genocide of all magick users within the Northern Realm. Your father appointed the wizard as his realm’s Head Wizard. After he betrayed your father by helping your mother, you, and Caleb escape, Jacob forced him to create a new portal to follow you.”
Shadow stopped moving boxes and turned his full attention to John.
“The wizard knew he had to do something before your father came over, too. So he had an apprentice make one last portal, then had the woman kill him and split his soul, spreading it to be stored into six crystals, so he couldn’t be forced to do whatever it was your father would have him to do. The apprentice then came, placed the gems inside five people, or vessels, then sent each of them here. The vessels had no idea what was inside them. Once they came here, their minds were wiped, and they were blended into society never knowing what they were or what they were carrying.”
John asked, “How the hell is that even possible without anyone knowing?”
“Because my father organized it on this end. He was the only one on this side the wizard could trust, and in turn, the wizard put the sixth crystal in him. My father was so committed to keeping the secret, he killed everyone who helped. The only person who knew anything on this side was him. He hid his secret until he was dying. He said I had to take the gem from his body before anyone found it, then told me there was a list of the other vessels, which he’d written in the Old Language, just in case.”
“In case of what?”
“I don’t know, in case all hell broke loose on Earth.”
John held up a finger. “Wait a second. If this wizard was so ‘all-powerful,’ why didn’t he just go after my father and kill him?”
“Because your father had infected him years before. He controlled enough of the wizard to prevent him from ever harming your father. It was surprising that he’d been able to help your mother escape without your father finding out beforehand.”
“Shit,” John said. “So, where is the list?”
“Do you think I’m just gonna give it to you?”
“What choice do you have? You think you can keep it safe after your people betrayed you?”
“How do I know you won’t turn it over to Omega? If my father didn’t trust them, why the hell should I?”
“Because I’m not them, and I would never let them have the list.”
“Yeah, what if they use your woman as leverage? They obviously earned your devotion enough for you to betray your people for a year. What’s a little thing like a list?”
“I don’t know what to say to change your mind,” John sighed. “But I do know one thing: If Jacob is after you, then he will find you. What happens when he gets the list?”
“I imagine he’ll go after the crystals and get them, one way or another. If he gets them all, my father said the wizard’s soul, and his power, can be brought back and either absorbed by someone, like Jacob, or another host. Whoever brings him back, will have all of his power and knowledge.”
John sighed, “Then you need to give that list to me.”
“What are you going to do with it, John?”
“We destroy it. With the list gone, no one has the power, right? Everyone on the list is protected. Nobody, on either side of the war, will ever find the crystals.”
“I don’t know,” Shadow said, then fell into silence.
“What?” John said. Shadow stared, his expression slightly off.
Shadow wasn’t moving. He was frozen in place, mid-thought. Shadow’s eyes widened, staring behind John.
John turned, but he was too late. A sharp pain sliced into his back, sending him to his knees, the world erupting in pain. He fell to his side as something burned through his body. He looked up and saw Jacob in black robes, staring down with a smile.
“Hello, brother,” he said, stepping over John and walking to where Shadow was still frozen stiff, likely captive in some spell or enchantment.
John flashed out to Tiny, Tiny! Help!
No response.
Jacob is here! Jacob is here! He stabbed me!
“Where is the list, boy?” Jacob asked.
Shadow’s mouth opened, gasping as if Jacob had just given him the ability to use it. “I don’t know,” he said.
“I let you use your tongue, and you use it to lie to me?” Jacob said, shaking his head as he loomed closer to Shadow, until he was inches from his face. “Open your mouth, boy.”
Shadow shook his head. His shaking turned violent as Jacob took control, parting the man’s mouth against his will. Jacob’s gloved right hand reached into his robe and pulled out a dagger. His left, also gloved, moved to Shadow’s mouth and pulled at his tongue.
Shadow screamed as Jacob raised the dagger, tracing the black blade against Shadow’s cheek, drawing blood as it moved.
John reached behind his back, trying to feel the pain’s source — another dagger, stuck in his back. He tried to grip it, but the moment his fingers touched it, they locked, unable to move.
Shadow screamed as Jacob cut his tongue off and threw it to the ground in front of John, where it landed with a sickening splat. Blood gushed in rivers from Shadow’s mouth, but he couldn't bring his hands high enough to stop the flow with Jacob controlling his body.
“Now,” Jacob said, “I want you to use your hands and go get me that list. Remember what I did when your tongue disobeyed.
Shadow’s hands went to his mouth, feeling his severed tongue as he cried out in anguish.
“Now!” Jacob shouted.
Shadow kneeled and began unzipping a green camouflage knapsack. Jacob watched him carefully as John tried to keep his focus through the burning sensation.
Tiny! Come on!
Shadow handed the list to Jacob. “And where’s your father’s crystal?”
Shadow reached down the front of his shirt, hands shaking as he retrieved a crystal pendant, glowing just the slightest bit red, on a black leather cord, and handed it over to Jacob.
“Thank you,” Jacob said, then thrust his blade into Shadow’s chest and shoved him to the groun
d.
John screamed, “You fucker!”
Jacob turned to him, smiling. “Now, little brother, what to do about you?”
Suddenly, Tiny was in the room, charging at Jacob.
Jacob spun out of the way seconds before Tiny could get a hold of him. Tiny fell forward, nearly colliding with Shadow’s fallen body, missing the wounded man by inches. Jacob’s eyes fell on John, then went to Tiny and back. He smiled and ran from the door.
“I’ll get him!” Tiny said, jumping to his feet.
“No!” John said, “Get this knife out of my back.”
Tiny’s eyes went wide, almost scared. “Oh, shit.”
“Put your gloves back on or else it might burn you.”
Tiny retrieved his gloves from his jacket, slid them on, then yanked the blade from John and dropped it to the carpet next to him. The fire was gone, but the pain remained.
John looked up as Shadow crawled toward the duffel, blood spilling in pools from his wound. He pulled out a notebook and pen, then opened it on the floor and scribbled across the pages.
“What is it?” Tiny asked Shadow.
“Jacob cut his tongue out,” John said as he got up and went over to see what Shadow was writing.
The top of the paper read, “5 ”
“You remember the names on the list?” John asked.
Shadow nodded, keeping his eyes on the paper as he struggled through dying breaths to move his pen and get names on the page.
The names weren’t names, they were Social Security numbers. John stared as Shadow scrawled numbers as fast as he could.
He’d written three sets of when he had to stop, surrendering to a violent fit of coughing that lasted for nearly a minute as bloody nuggets spewed from his mouth.
Shadow turned back to the paper and scrawled. He reached the fifth set of numbers when John’s eyes locked on the last set in disbelief. His heartbeat nearly tripled in speed. He knew that Social Security number. Could never forget it.
No. It can’t be.
John kneeled next to Shadow. “That last number, are you sure?”