The Unexpected War

by Jean-pierre Breton

  The faint rumbles of artillery could be heard in the distance, constantly sending the reminder that there was a war still going on—a war between two species that maybe, if they got to know one another, could one day set aside their differences, just as Lara and I had done.

  The last three months during the cease-fire between the fiends and humans had been the best days of my life, but tonight, the barrage of artillery fire sprang back to life once more as the cease-fire drew to an end. I got out of bed, cleaning my sniper carefully, inspecting every detail of it. I had killed so many fiends with it, and I knew I would kill so many more to protect the three most important girls in my life.

  It made me sick to my stomach to know I would have to keep on killing to survive, which was really my only goal in the past year and a half. I let out a cry of rage, pushing the weapon away.

  Lara had quietly gotten up out of bed and now sat down beside me. She took my shaky hands, placing them in her lap before pressing my head against her chest as she gently stroked my hair. “I thought we said no more fighting?” Lara whispered, slowly sliding the sniper along the carpet into the closet.

  “When I die … can you make sure Rashellia knows that I was a good father?” I asked her.

  “I won’t have to, because she’s going to grow up to see it with her own two eyes,” Lara replied gently. “You need to stop being so obsessed with this idea that you’re not going to live. You’re with me now. I would never let you die.”

  “I’m a soldier,” I told her with a sense of passion in my voice.

  “Yes, you are. No one can ever take that away from you,” she told me gently.

  “Soldiers were born to fight, and fighters were born to die,” I whispered.

  Silence enveloped the room. “Go to sleep, Lance. You’ll feel better in the morning,” she finally whispered.

  I felt her stare pierce through me as my tears slowly stained her shirt. “Promise?” I sniffled, looking up at her.

  “Promise,” she repeated. Then I felt myself slowly drifting off as I finally succumbed to the warmth of her body.

  I woke up the next morning in our bed. Lara must have moved me last night. She came into the room, smiling when she saw I was awake. I could smell bacon in the background as she stripped down to her underwear and bra and wordlessly flopped down on top of me.

  “How’s my man feeling?” she asked, cuddling against my chest as I stroked her hair.

  “Good. I’m sorry about last night,” I muttered, giving her a kiss.

  “There’s no need for you to be embarrassed about it. I know you males feel the need to hide your emotions, but I will never think any less of you for sharing your feelings with me, Lance. I’m your wife; you’re supposed to let me in a little bit every now and then, silly.” Lara paused as she readjusted herself, getting up on her knees and looking down at me.

  “Okay, I’ll try to be more open with you about stuff like that,” I promised her.

  “Thank you,” she told me, lying back down and looking satisfied by my response.

  As we lay there cuddling, I felt her stomach, which was growling unhappily. “Tricnoses?” I asked as I put my hand against her belly.

  “Don’t worry about it. I’ll tell you later,” she told me, kissing my neck and trying to shift my attention away from it.

  “You just had your tricnoses, like, five days ago, and you’ve been having them every couple of days. What’s up?” I asked.

  She let out a sigh but ignored me as she got out of bed, attending to our breakfast in the kitchen without answering me. “Do you want them scrambled or over easy?” she called out.

  “Scrambled,” I answered.

  She let out a groan, bending over the counter in pain, watching the eggs cook.

  “So what’s wrong? Are you sick?” I finally asked.

  “Sit down, Lance,” she ordered me moodily, pointing to my chair at the table.

  “I can help you, buddy,” I offered reassuringly, grabbing two plates out of the cabinet beside me.

  “Sit down!” she screamed at me, unleashing one of her powers by accident.

  The sound wave seemed to erupt all around me. It shattered the plates in my hands, knocking me to the ground. My ears were ringing, and Lara was instantly over to my side, quickly lifting my head. I could see her lips moving, but I couldn’t hear anything.

  I groaned, letting myself fall back down. Blood trickled from my ears, but Lara slid her hands gently along both my ears, healing them. “Can you hear me?” she asked worriedly, propping me up against the wall.

  I nodded, stunned from the sound. After a minute or so of getting my senses back, I struggled to my feet and sat down at the table with my head in my arms, trying to block out the ringing in my ears. I felt a plate nudged against my elbow as Lara came with the food.

  “Eat up, buddy. Your ears will feel better in a couple minutes,” she reassured me. I felt her powers lift my head up, and then she let me take over. I straightened up in my chair, eating my eggs. “I’m sorry,” she finally told me, leaning over to kiss my cheek, but I recoiled from her. “That’s really mature, Lance.”

  I threw out the rest of my eggs and stormed into the bathroom, slamming the door behind me. A moment later, there was a timid knock. “Listen, Lance, I didn’t do that on purpose. It just came out,” she told me. There was a pause and then her voice crept through the door again. “Lance, I was reading in a book about how you humans like to camp, and I was thinking that you and Rashellia and I should go camping together. It sounds fun, hey?” she asked, hoping I would talk to her. After another moment, she let out a frustrated sigh. “Lance, open this damn door!” she finally cried out, pounding on it viciously.

  “It’s unlocked, genius,” I called out to her.

  There was a pause and then the handle turned, and she opened the door. “I knew that,” she giggled, pretending to be serious.

  I tried to keep a straight face but couldn’t; I burst out laughing. We apologized to each other for fighting and then agreed to take a little vacation. I slung the M4 over my shoulder, along with two bags for the camping trip.

  Lara strapped Rashellia to her belly, carrying the backpack of ammunition and my faithful Timberwolf sniper rifle. I grabbed the backpack with the tent and food in it, and the three of us left our room and walked down the hall.

  “Where are you guys going?” Tina asked, opening her door as we passed by her and Grant’s room.

  “Were heading out on a camping trip,” I told her excitedly.

  “Want us to take Rashellia?” Grant asked, poking his head around the corner.

  “We figured we would give you guys a break from babysitting and just take her with us,” Lara told them, leaning against the door frame.

  “I’d go with you, but if I break this hand, I’m screwed,” Tina told us with a laugh, holding up her mechanical hand.

  “Come on, man. The least we can do is take care of Rashellia and let you guys have a little bit of personal time,” Grant offered.

  “I guess if you guys want her that badly, you can,” Lara told them. She glanced at me with a shrug as she unstrapped Rashellia from her belly and handed her to Tina, who had her arms outstretched.

  “When do you guys plan on coming back?” Tina asked, cradling Rashellia, who was staring up at her sleepily.

  “Three days, tops,” I told her. “See you later, buddy,” I added, poking Rashellia, who responded with a smile after Lara kissed her forehead good-bye.

  I gave Tina a hug and then gave Grant knuckles, and then Lara and I left. We passed David and Carana in the hall, who decided to walk with us to the gate. “Where are you guys going?” David asked.

  “Camping,” Lara replied, beating me to the punch.

  “So your sister’s taking care of Rashellia?” Carana asked me.
<
br />   I nodded.

  “She and Grant may need help, though, so if anything comes up, can you give them a hand?” Lara asked them.

  They both nodded. “So where you guys going camping?” David asked.

  I shrugged. Lara smirked and whispered to Carana, whose face slowly spread into a smile. “Have a nice trip,” they both called to us as we approached the entrance where the guard’s desk was.

  “I feel bad leaving Rashellia with Tina,” I told Lara as we showed the guards our IDs.

  “This trip is for you and me to relax. Plus, Rashellia gets into her little fits, and that’s not relaxing for you, is it?” Lara replied with a smirk as we scanned our fingers and eyes at the gate before the guards let us through.

  “You have little fits too, but I don’t leave you at my sister’s place,” I said, laughing. She punched me playfully as we turned off onto a path leading into the woods. “So where are we going anyway?” I asked her, kicking a rock along the ground as we walked down a gravel road in the forest.

  “I can’t tell you,” Lara giggled, grabbing my hand.

  We turned off the gravel road onto a tiny dirt path. About ten minutes later, we finally made it to where Lara wanted us to set up camp. It was an open field, with flowers growing all over and a pond in the middle of the field.

  “It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” Lara asked, looking dreamily into the sky as the sun sparkled off her. I nodded in approval, absorbing the scenery around me. She sat me down on a rock near the pond and then looked back up into the sky, as if in a distant land.

  “What’s up? You’re acting weird,” I told her, looking up at the sky, trying to find what she was looking at.

  “I think it’s time … I’ve been holding it back for a while now, but now is the time,” she said dreamily. I looked at her, confused, as she patted my shoulder, and then she got up, taking a step back from me. “I’m sorry, Lance, but it’s time,” she repeated, taking another step back.

  I watched, confused, as she transformed, but it wasn’t her usual fiend battle form. Clouds started to form overhead as white wings sprouted from her back, elegantly unfolding. She closed her eyes, tilting her head back, and recited a prayer in a sing-song voice that put me in a trance, as everything seemed to come to a halt around us.

  The bees stopped buzzing, the leaves stopped shaking, and even the birds stopped chirping. Everything fell into slow motion. Her voice had me transfixed as I stared at her beautiful body. A beam of red, green, and blue light shot down from the sky.

  She began to float off the ground, spinning around slowly. With a loud crack of thunder that seemed to boom from the heavens above, a blinding flash occurred, making me gasp as I shut my eyes. The wind picked up, seeming to twirl around me, as if I was in a hurricane.

  I could hear the prayer being recited but not by Lara; instead, it was what seemed like a thousand voices mixed into one as the wind swirled around us. Then, with a sudden gush of air and a blinding white flash of light, it was over, leaving us in silence.

  Chapter 23

  The sound of trickling water slowly brought me back to consciousness a few hours later. I felt a hand slowly stroking my hair as water lapped against my feet. I opened my eyes; the dazzling light was gone. Lara was exceptionally beautiful. Her wings fluttered gently in the breeze.

  She had cat-like ears and a whip-like tale that swayed back and forth in the wind. She glanced down at me, smiling gently, as she cradled me in her arms. We were lying in the shallows of the pond. She gently wrapped her wings around me, hugging me closely. I could feel her calmly breathing in and out.

  She closed her eyes without saying a word and began purring and softly kissing my neck. I closed my eyes, silently returning the kisses. We clumsily rolled deeper into the pond, both laughing like little children as we splashed around in the shallows, still making out.

  I ended up on top of her. She stared up at me, and for the first time in a long time, we stared into each other’s eyes unblinkingly, as if reading each other’s minds. We filled in the gaps that had distanced us over the past few months, falling in love with each other all over again.

  “I love you,” she whispered into my ear as the water lapped against us.

  “Me too. You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me,” I whispered, remembering back to what seemed like so long ago, when we had first fallen in love.

  As night began to set around us, we built a campfire. Lara snuggled next to me in the sleeping bag beside the tent. “Did you camp a lot before the invasion?” Lara asked.

  I stared at the fire in silence for a second before replying. “Yeah. Kate, Tina, and I basically lived in the woods, twenty-four/seven, growing up,” I told her.

  “What are those sounds?” Lara asked, still snuggling next to me.

  “Crickets and frogs,” I told her.

  “They sound so nice at night,” she replied. “You told me that you grew up without your parents, so who looked after you?”

  I let out a sigh, but I decided to open up to her a bit. After a silent pause passed between us, I said, “Kate was seven years older than me and Tina. Mom died when I was about eight, and Kate started taking care of us. Our father had walked out on our mom, apparently when he found out she was pregnant with me and Tina.”

  “You and Tina are twins?” Lara asked, nudging me to turn over, which I did. I nodded, and she smiled, resting her head against mine. “Why would he leave?” Lara asked.

  I shrugged. “He was young and not ready for a family, I guess. Kate always told me that when he was around, he was always bitter about being stuck at home with her and mom. He liked to travel, and I guess he felt we would tie him down,” I told her bitterly.

  “I know I’ve said this before, but you’re nothing like your father, Lance,” she reminded me, giving me a kiss on the forehead.

  We silently watched the fire swaying side to side in the wind. Lara purred, and I stroked her back, occasionally kissing her. “So what happened today?” I asked her as she rolled over to face me.

  “I ascended, which basically is just something that happens when a pure-blood fiend goes from childhood to adulthood. I told you a little bit about it in Monatello, if you remember.”

  I nodded, remembering her mentioning something about it. “So you’re more powerful?” I asked.

  “Yeah, I can cast spells for longer periods of time, and I won’t have tricnoses anymore; plus, I can gain more powers.”

  “How?” I asked.

  “By killing other magical creatures,” she replied. I went silent—this didn’t sound good at all to me. She must have caught my sense of unease, because she smiled reassuringly. “You know I’ll always be the same, though, Lance. Right?” she said, softly rubbing her nose against mine.

  I nodded. “Are you always going to look like this now?” I asked. “With the cat-like ears, and fur in random places, and the long whip tail, and the set of angel-like wings?”

  “Yes. When a pure-blood ascends, he or she loses the shape-shifting abilities.”

  “Okay, it doesn’t matter to me. I’ll always love you for you, Lara,” I promised her.

  She smiled, and just as she seemed about to say something, a military helicopter flew overhead toward Brawklin and disappeared behind the tree line. Not even seven minutes later, it reappeared, quickly flying back overhead in a northeast direction.

  “That was weird. I thought Brawklin was a no-fly zone,” I whispered to Lara.

  She nodded in agreement as we stared up at the now-clear sky. We lay in silence for a couple minutes, occasionally calling out an idea of what the helicopter was doing. And then the cracking of gunfire erupted from off in the distance, causing us to jump up. I looked in the sky, and the figure of a fiend streaked through it, crash-landing in the field close to us.

  “Carana!” Lara c
ried out as we neared the panting fiend, whose wings were peppered with bullet holes. “Don’t move,” Lara urged her. Carana quickly transformed to her human form as she lay on the ground, drenched in a pool of her own blood.

  “Is she going to make it?” I asked Lara, who was speedily digging through Carana, pulling out bullets and healing the wounds. She looked at me and nodded comfortingly.

  “What happened?” I asked Carana, who was fighting to stay conscious.

  “All dead … Dracona … back … Rashellia …” she whispered into my ear. Then, with a shudder, her eyes fluttered shut as she went unconscious.

  “Heal her!” I yelled in a panic to Lara.

  “Calm down; she’s fine. She’s just unconscious from the loss of blood. Everything is healed. She will live.”

  I quickly grabbed my assault rifle, slinging my sniper over my shoulder and ignoring Lara’s yells as I sprinted across the field into the woods toward Brawklin. As soon as I reached the opening to the gate, the guards opened fire on me. I could see humans being thrown from top floors of buildings to their death below. I crouched behind cover in fear.

  The all-too-familiar roar of rage erupted from the tree line behind me, and Lara streaked through the sky, crashing headlong into the entrance, which exploded from the force of the brutal impact. I raced to the door, shooting a fiend that was aiming a fifty-caliber machine gun at her. Bullets seemed to bounce off her as she regained her senses and took me under her enormous wings—bullets ricocheted off them.

  Once inside Brawklin, she transformed to her new fiendish form, and I quickly handed her my handgun. We slowly crept through the halls. I killed a fiend as we rounded a corner, spotting him eating a dead human.

  The lights were off, flashing red, with a loud siren echoing through the halls. When we finally reached the door to our room, fear clenched my chest. We entered, staring in disbelief at the demolished room. The whole place was trashed. They had obviously been looking for something.