Dawn of the Vie (Immortal Aliens Book 1)

by Laura Diamond

  “No, Cara—” I said.

  She motioned for Anna and Ben to move closer while she played the vid. I paced while it replayed. I couldn’t watch it. Not again.

  Ben’s expression softened by the end.

  “The prophecy is right. You’re the Bringer of Death.” Anna covered her mouth with her hand.

  “Stop saying that.” I took a deep breath to steady myself. If they only knew Alex had made it all up.

  Anna pointed at the communicator. “This is proof, Justin. We have to tell everyone.”

  “No, it’s too risky.” I rubbed my temple.

  “We can’t just sit here and do nothing.” Anna punched a fist in her palm.

  “There’s nothing to do but try to survive like we’ve always done,” I replied.

  “You don’t mean that. You have to accept who you are.” Her eyes filled with tears.

  I’d seen the disappointment before on Sammie’s face, when we left the little boy, David, behind.

  “I’m not the Bringer of Death!” I yelled.

  Flashlight in hand, I made for the door. I had no business being around other people. They jumped to wrong conclusions about me and ended up getting hurt or killed. It was best for me to go on, alone. That way, no one else could suffer because of me. Cara would be fine, Anna would see to it. Without me around, she might even survive.

  Guess it was official. I’d lost everything. Even my right to be around other people.

  The farther I walked, the more I convinced myself of the truth.

  I didn’t deserve to have friends, to be happy.

  Or have a life.

  Maybe it should’ve been the other way around—Alex should’ve killed me. He’d certainly tried enough times.

  “Justin!” Cara followed me into the tunnel, the flashlight’s beam bouncing between the floor and ceiling as she chased me.

  Torn between running away and returning to her, I halted. I should leave. Let her go. It was the right thing to do.

  But I couldn’t.

  Because I was weak.

  She grunted a little when she shoved me against the wall.

  “Where are you going?” Her hair bounced into her face, and her mouth quivered.

  “I don’t know. Nowhere. But I can’t stay either. I can’t put you and everybody else in danger anymore.” I lowered my gaze, unable to stand the heat of her stare and unable to tell if it was sadness, anger, or both.

  “You can’t leave. Not now. Not after everything we’ve been through.” She nudged me again. “We’re a team. I need you. I can’t do this alone.”

  I lifted my eyes to meet hers. “You need me?”

  She nodded.

  “Why?” I asked.

  “You are such a sludge brain sometimes. And brave. I don’t understand how you can’t see what you’ve done. You’re amazing. You need to trust yourself.” Her fingers traced the line of my jaw to the back of my neck. She tangled them in my hair, tugging lightly.

  “I hurt people, wreck everything. Zack and Martin are dead. I couldn’t protect Sammie. I’ve ruined your life.” Slippery tentacles of fear and guilt slithered through my belly.

  “You saved me from Abarron, which is pretty impressive, you know.”

  Her mouth curved into a smile before she pressed her lips to mine. I closed my eyes, savoring the contrast between her hesitant mouth and tense need. She moaned and pulled me closer. I responded by deepening the kiss until it was hard to breathe. My hands slid under her shirt, grazed her stomach—curse the uniform beneath—and climbed toward her—

  “You’ve got to be kidding me.” Ben’s angry rasp shattered the moment.

  Cara and I flew apart.

  Cara straightened her shirt and hair.

  “It’s great you wanted to sneak in a grope-fest, but the way you ran out of there was kind of dumb,” Ben deadpanned.

  I shrugged. “Needed some air.”

  He rolled his eyes. “Anna wants you to come back.”

  “And you?”

  His mouth twitched.

  “Yeah, thought so.”

  “He’s trying,” Cara whispered.

  “Forget it. Do what you want. You do anyway.” Ben stalked off.

  Cara tugged on my sleeve. “We should go back. We don’t have anywhere else to go.”

  “Yeah, but anyone who sticks to us could be hurt too. You want to be responsible for Anna’s and Ben’s deaths?” I challenged.

  “Of course not. How could you say that?” She slugged me in the arm.

  “Oww.”

  She cocked her arm for a second round.

  I put up my hands. “I’m sorry. It’s just… so many people have died because of me. I want it to stop. I do. I don’t want to be this Bringer of Death everybody keeps talking about. Not if it means more Anemie lives lost. The whole thing is something Alex made up anyway.”

  She stepped closer to me. Smoothing my hair, she whispered, “Saying it isn’t true doesn’t change anything. You can’t ignore you’re different. Use it to your advantage. Think about the people you could save.”

  “How?”

  She tucked her head under my chin and hugged me. I hugged her back, afraid I’d fall apart if I let go.

  “For starters, you can stay with me,” she murmured.

  That I could do. Gladly. “I will.”

  Year 75, Month 6, Day 6, night

  dozen or so Anemies sat in a circle, much like the night I first met Martin’s group. They stared at me wide-eyed, open-mouthed while I told them my story since our last meeting. All regarded me with awe, though I hadn’t done anything special to stay alive. In fact, I’d gotten almost killed like half a dozen times and followed that up with jabbing a wooden stick in a distracted Vie’s chest after he helped me escape his ultra-mega-boss.

  They were most impressed—and disgusted—by Alex’s releasing Anemie test subjects from the lab and setting them up in a safe house.

  “Wow, that’s amazing.” Anna shook her head. “We could connect with the kids at the pier, broaden our network.”

  “That’s an idea, but we need to be careful,” I warned. “The pier is in the Elite District.” Plus (and I didn’t say this part because I wasn’t a total sludge brain), they’d be more helpless mouths to feed. I hated thinking it, but since they’d been housed in the lab and then tended to by Alex, I doubted they had any survival instincts.

  “All the more reason to meet them. Alex is gone. They’ll be left alone.” Cara added.

  Point made. They were vulnerable.

  “We’ll go tomorrow.” Anna tucked her stringy hair behind her ears.

  “I don’t know about this,” Ben countered.

  “We can’t just let them starve. They’re alone. Defenseless.” Anna stood, her hands fisted at her sides.

  “We’re all defenseless,” I muttered.

  “Anna’s right—” Cara started.

  “You don’t have a say in this.” Ben stuck a finger at her.

  Anna slapped his hand. “She’s one of us now and has as much say as anybody.”

  He smirked, crossing his arms.

  Anna continued, unfazed. “Besides, Justin and Cara can lead us to the pier. We need to trust them. They’ve beaten all the odds.”

  “How do you know the recording isn’t fake?” Ben asked.

  “It isn’t,” I said.

  Cara yanked the communicator from her pocket. “I’ll play it again. It’s not a trick.”

  Ben huffed. “It could be. For all we know, Cara’s a Vie’s spy, and both of them have been tranced and sent here to expose us.”

  Anna shrugged him off. “Don’t be stupid. Justin can’t be tranced.”

  “Do you know that for a fact?” Ben retorted.

  “Yes. I do.” She addressed the entire group. “Guys, we’re going to die anyway. It’s not like there’s some great place we can go to live without fear of being torched or drained or tortured. Does that mean we should ignore what’s right? I don’t think so.”

&n
bsp; Her seriousness did not match her slight stature and lilting voice. Nevertheless, everybody in the room listened intently. One by one, she met each Anemie’s stare, her face set. When her eyes met mine, she asked, “Well, who’s with us?”

  Cara stood up and joined Anna. “I am.”

  Everybody’s hand rose into the air. All but Ben’s.

  They outnumbered me. Whether I wanted it or not, this little band of Anemies had a cause—triggered by me. Not by merit, not by seniority, not by actual battle experience, but by faulty hope. In something that didn’t exist. They figured I knew something about killing Vie because one died when he drank my blood and I had a fairly decent aim with a stake. It amounted to absolutely nothing. If a Vie showed up at the door while we played our little revolutionary game, he or she would splash our blood across the wall like über-modern-abstract art and walk out without so much as a chipped nail.

  Anemia really did make us stupid.

  “Well, Vie Killer, what’s your first move?” Ben sneered as Anna settled into her place next to him. Her mouth twitched, but she didn’t say anything.

  At least one of us hadn’t fallen under the delusion that I was the Bringer of Death. Still, he pissed me off. Royally.

  “Why you gotta be such an ass?” I asked.

  “Ha! So you can’t take what you spew out?”

  I wanted to knock some teeth out of his obnoxious smile.

  “If you want to hear what I really think—like really think—then here it is. Every single one of us is still alive because of two things: luck and street smarts. Neither one makes us invincible. Neither one keeps us safe forever. We’re just a bunch of Anemie orphans with nowhere to go, no way to fight, no chance at winning anything.”

  “Wow, you’re such a downer. I thought leaders were supposed to be inspiring. Where’s your battle speech?” he countered.

  “I never said anything about being a leader.”

  “Whatever.”

  “Dude. Why do you hate me so much? I didn’t do anything to you.” I stood again, even though we had all just sat.

  He rolled his eyes.

  “You don’t actually have to stay here, you know.” I cocked an eyebrow.

  Ben hopped to his feet and padded across the circle so our faces were inches apart. “You’re telling me to leave when it was you who wrecked everything?”

  “I…” Air got stuck in my lungs.

  “Ben,” Anna said.

  “I’m not done yet,” he snapped. “Before you showed up, we were doing all right. If Zack wasn’t such a gullible sludge brain…” His Adam’s apple bobbed as tears slid down his face.

  “I’m sorry.” I reached out to clap his shoulder like I’d do to a grieving brother.

  “Whatever.” He smacked my hand away.

  “Come on, I’m trying to apologize.”

  “It’s too late for that.” Ben swung his fist. It went wide.

  I blocked him by sweeping my arms. I didn’t want to get into another fight. Seemed it was the only thing I did.

  “What? Not such a tough guy, eh?” He came at me a second time.

  “Dude, stop it.” I planted my feet apart, one slightly in front of the other to steady myself.

  He cocked his arm and let his fist fly. Third time was a charm. His punch landed square against my jaw. I fell, clutching my face with a shaky hand. Ben dove on top of me. He got in two blows to my belly before I could block him and toss one of my own. I hit nothing but air. The wide arc left my neck open. He clamped both hands around my throat and squeezed, crushing my windpipe.

  “Ben, stop it,” Anna screamed.

  “Justin!” Cara yelled.

  The room blackened. I grabbed his nose and twisted. He yelped and leapt off me, backing into Anna’s waiting arms. She and a ponytail wearing, string bean of a kid named Keith hauled him to the opposite side of the circle.

  I rolled on my side, coughing.

  Cara was next to me in an instant. Tendrils of her hair framed her flushed face. “Are you okay?”

  “Hey,” I wheezed.

  Anna tried to examine Ben, but he cursed at her. “Dammit, Anna! I’m not staying here with him. He says we’re all in danger. We already know that. He says he can kill a Vie, but the only way he can do it is if they drink his blood. He doesn’t have enough to kill all of them. Then what happens when he’s bled dry?”

  “Ben, wait. Don’t go,” Anna pled.

  “I’m not going to sit around and hide like a coward. If he doesn’t want to do anything worthwhile, then I will.” He stalked out of the room.

  Anna chased him. Even though he’d totally ripped her a new one. Only love would make her do that.

  I gestured to the other kids. “Go on. Show’s over.”

  The group dispersed pretty quickly. Some wore smirks while others rolled their eyes at me as they filed past. Maybe they lost their belief in me. Good. The worse they thought of me, the better. I hoped they didn’t decide to do anything stupid with what they learned.

  Cara kept checking my chin for bruising.

  Anna returned a few minutes later without Ben. She paced the room, her short steps and frequent sighs matching her pinched expression.

  “You all right?” I asked, suppressing a wince. Damn, Ben’s punch had hurt.

  Anna kept pacing. Pace, pace, turn. Pace, pace, turn. “I’ve never seen him so angry before.”

  “I’m sure he’s fine. Maybe he ran into one of the others or something,” Cara offered.

  “Yeah,” she replied. Pace, pace, turn.

  “Maybe we should look for him?” I offered.

  Anna’s brow arched. “I don’t think he’d want to see you.”

  “Good point.” I sat against the wall. My body needed the rest, but sitting still always left me restless. After everything that happened, I should be doing something, anything.

  “So, where does everybody else go, Anna?” Cara sat next to me and stretched her legs out, tapping her toes together. Tap, tap, tap. Tap, tap, tap.

  “We don’t tell each other exactly where we’re going, but there are some pretty regular places. We all kind of rotate,” Anna replied.

  “How do you communicate?” Cara said.

  “We see each other on the streets or other subway stations. There are ways to talk without being obvious. If too many of us stay together for too long, Vie or guards might get suspicious. And the human slaves are always spies. Whether they mean to be or not.” Pace, pace, turn.

  Cara ducked her head. Tap, tap, tap.

  “Don’t take it personally. She’s just mad about Ben,” I whispered.

  She picked at a piece of lint on her shirt. “I’m not.”

  Uh, she totally was. “Maybe we can stay here tonight and then find another place tomorrow. We need to keep moving.”

  “You guys can go. I’m not leaving without Ben.” Anna shifted a pile of blankets around until they formed a sort of nest. She sat in a huff, folding her limbs up into a tight ball. “We made a promise not to abandon each other. I have to wait for him. Then we’ll meet up later.”

  Cara stopped tapping. “It’s okay. If I were in your position, I’d wait too.”

  “Yeah?” Anna’s voice sounded lighter, relieved.

  “Yeah. It’s like Justin and me. If we didn’t have each other, we wouldn’t have anyone.” She half-smiled at me. “Never thought I’d say that about an Anemie.”

  “I’ll take that as a compliment. Thanks,” I said.

  “You’re welcome.”

  “An Anemie and a slave. Who would’ve guessed such a thing?” Anna tucked her arm under her head.

  I grabbed the nearest rag and tossed it at her face.

  She giggled. “I’m glad you’re here, Justin. Even though Ben’s acting like a dick because of it.”

  “Thanks… I guess.”

  An easy silence took over. I tipped my head to Cara’s and listened to our breathing. “How are you holding up?”

  A long pause. “I don’t belong here.”<
br />
  The honesty of it nearly doubled me over. She was from a different world. Now the stark reality of mine crashed down around her like an imploding building. “I know.”

  “I don’t belong anywhere, really.”

  I kissed her temple. “What do you mean?”

  “If I’d never met you…” A heavy sigh was followed by a low growl.

  “I’m sorry.” I exhaled.

  She pressed a finger to my mouth. “Let me finish.”

  I nodded, mute.

  “If I’d never met you, you wouldn’t have gotten captured and your friends wouldn’t have been tortured.” Her chin trembled. “I wouldn’t have danced.”

  “And you wouldn’t be a homeless fugitive trying to fit in with a bunch of paranoid Anemies.” I sounded funny with her fingers on my lips.

  “Sometimes I want to scream and run to Alex’s. I know this sounds crazy, but it was safe there.” She lowered her hand to my chest. “But Alex is gone and so is that life, so I have to suck it up and join this one. I’m free.”

  “Freedom comes with a price.”

  “And an expiration date?” Her forehead wrinkled.

  “Yeah. It can happen any time.”

  “My old life had an expiration date too. This way, here with you, I might have some say in it. Before, I didn’t.”

  I hugged her to me, holding her so tightly I stole both our breath away.

  The exile and the fugitive.

  NCAAR MEMBER FLYER

  Date:

  Dear Valued and Esteemed NCAAR Member,

  The New Year, New City campaign is well underway. Your generous donations continue to deliver precious aid to those who need it most, those considered untouchables in our restructured society. Anemies across the city thank you and bless you.

  But our work is far from complete. Anemies continue to be hunted, exterminated, and eradicated, almost to the point of extinction. We cannot let this happen. It is imperative that we redouble our efforts to preserve this downtrodden population of humanity.

  Our history is a long one, crossing many eons and constellations. Have we not learned how precious every being’s life is?

  The measure of a Vie’s character is not reflected in how he or she treats his or her fellow Vie, but in how he or she treats those who are helpless. Who are most helpless? Anemies.