by Jeff Sampson
ShadowMegan did not take her eyes off of him. “We don’t like you.”
Shrugging, Spencer crossed his arms. “There’s not much I can do about that. But I do want you to know I’m really sorry about what you and your people had to go through. It sounds like you’ve been lorded over by powerful people who let you rot while they hid in palaces. And that’s an awful way to live.”
“Her people made their own choices,” Mr. Handler said, his tone rising.
ShadowMegan pursed her lips, listening.
Spencer took a step forward, focused solely on the possessed girl. “As sorry as I feel for you, we can’t let the Akhakhu’s escape from your awful world come at the cost of possessing humans. We’re individuals, and we have to fight for that. You would do the same.”
Mr. Handler sighed in exasperation. “Do you think you would be standing there right now if you weren’t granted gifts by our Akhakhu lords? Your individuality is an illusion. They have observed us through the veil between our worlds for thousands of years. Most humans do nothing of any importance, strive to do nothing but get through each day, until one day they die and in a few years are completely forgotten. Once, long ago, the Akhakhu even lorded over humankind—our silly, simple kind. It is time that we leave our dying world and come take our place back here once more. Only by giving yourselves over to our salvation will you be more than just one speck of dust among billions as the timeline of life continues ever forward.”
His words hung in the rafters, echoing over and over until there was nothing but silence.
“Oh,” Spencer finally said. “Heavy stuff. In the meantime, I’m going to blow your portal the hell up.”
I don’t know how he did it—a voice cue, maybe—but as soon as he said the words, all two dozen of the robotic orbs shot forward. They zipped over our heads in a blur, ShadowMegan, Handler, and I instinctively ducking. With loud, echoing clangs, the orbs attached themselves to the ring around the portal and to the computer bays.
“No,” ShadowMegan roared, her hands raising, her fingers pointing at Spencer. “You will not do this! I need the portal!”
“Aaaargh!” someone screamed from the bays to my right.
I looked over just in time to see Evan, Amy behind him. While I’d distracted Handler and ShadowMegan, the two of them must have snuck around to our side.
His eyes narrowing into the purposeful glare I’d last seen in the woods on the way to my house so long ago, Evan carried himself low like a linebacker and barreled toward ShadowMegan. He tackled her, his arms around her midsection. The two of them slammed down against the floor at Mr. Handler’s feet.
“Nikki!” Amy shouted across the room. “Go already!”
From the bays near the stairwell, Nikki did as she was told. Standing to her full height, she motioned with her hands, and Dalton rose with the power of her telekinesis. Clutching his head, Dalton ran to Nikki’s side and they took off through the doorway.
“You little vespers have tricks!” ShadowMegan shouted as she got the upper hand and slammed Evan bodily against the hard metal floor. He moaned, his eyes rolling into the back of his head.
Just as ShadowMegan raised a hand, I walked up behind her and backhanded her across the side of her face. The force of my blow sent her flying. She landed with an “Oof!” and lay facedown, perfectly still.
Mr. Handler stood above her, shaking his head. “Always so violent. So messy.”
With one eye on Handler, I reached out and gave Evan a hand up. Groaning, he started to climb to his feet. “Thanks. She’s stronger than she looks.”
Spencer ran up to us. As he did, Mr. Handler stepped over ShadowMegan, his hands behind his back once more. “I see you managed to reprogram my robots,” he said to Spencer. “Impressive, especially considering the time frame you had to accomplish the task. Such a fine mind. Too bad it must go to waste.”
“What—” he started to say.
Before any of us could move or think, ShadowMegan rose to her feet. “May I?” she asked Mr. Handler, wiping blood off her lip.
“You may.”
“Spencer, watch out!” I cried as I spun to face him.
But I was too late. Enraged, ShadowMegan shot up to hover a foot off the ground, a tornado of energy surrounding her, tangling her hair around her like a tattered veil.
I saw her raised her hands and aim them at Spencer.
I found myself running to leap between him and Megan.
Too late.
The tablet he’d been carrying fell to the floor.
Shattered.
The air around Spencer shimmered.
Boiled.
Spencer screamed.
Spencer went still.
Silent.
And Spencer collapsed to the floor in a lifeless heap.
The world seemed to implode around me, to press against my body, so much pressure I could feel myself compressing into a small cube, unable to breathe.
I wobbled in place, my head swimming, my eyes unable to close, unable to look away.
A million thoughts raced through my brain.
Why did I bring back Megan?
Why didn’t I make them run when I had the chance?
Why did I think I could plan anything?
Why are Evan and Amy calling my name?
ShadowMegan twisted away, her killing hands aimed at Evan. He froze in place and the air shimmered around him.
She was going to kill him too—she was going to kill every last person I loved.
One last question popped into my brain: What is that roaring?
The roaring. It was me. The wolf. I’d shifted without thinking, all fur and razor claws and shredding death. I burst forward at inhuman speeds, a monster of fury. ShadowMegan no longer looked like my childhood best friend. With my wolf eyes, all I could see was the shifting, shadowy blackness of the Akhakhu soul that wore the body like a suit.
She wasn’t Megan, Shadow or otherwise. Megan was gone. All that was left was Rebel.
Memories flashed in my head as I leaped through the cavernous room.
Spencer and I, attacking Dr. Elliott, the man who tried to shoot us. It was me who went for the throat, I knew now. I was the one who made the killing blow.
Dalton and I, reassuring each other: You are not a killer. We are not killers.
But I am a killer. That’s what they made me, even if it was just an accident of their true purpose.
In that last moment, Emily disappeared. I was an enraged alpha wolf that had just seen her pack member, her mate, go down at the hands of an enemy, while another pack member’s life was about to be extinguished.
I burst through Rebel’s swirling energy. It shredded my fur, tore it from my body in chunks. Blood oozed from my raw skin, pain shuddered through me.
I didn’t care.
I slammed into Rebel’s chest and she fell to the ground. She landed heavy, hard, half against the platform that contained the portal and half against the lower level. I heard a snap as her back cracked.
“Stop,” she screamed. “Stop!”
She went silent as my jaws wrapped around her throat. My head yanked back and forth. Blood gushed, hot against my tongue, my snout. Inky, shadowy blackness, part of Rebel’s ka, stuck to my teeth. I pulled my snout back, dragging the creature’s wispy head free from her chosen body.
For just a second, Megan’s eyes were hers again. Pale blue and sad. She gurgled, blood seeping between her lips.
My body shifted from wolf to human again without my choosing to do so. The wolf faded away. So did Nighttime. It was just normal me. The me Megan had known before all this began.
Grabbing her by her bloodstained cheeks, I looked directly into her eyes. My vision was blurry, but not for lack of superpowered eyes. Hot tears dripped down my face.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered. “I’m so sorry, Megan. I loved you too. I wish this had never happened to you. It’s all my fault.”
Then her eyes shifted back to those of the Akhakhu. The cre
ature possessing Megan made one last try for air despite the blood choking her.
And then the human body in which Rebel lived died.
I collapsed back, my head spinning, my world hollow. Meaningless. In my peripheral vision, I saw Evan gasping for air on his hands and knees. Alive.
“No!” Mr. Handler roared, towering above me. His eyes glowed bright white, the fine hairs along the back of his hands rising on end. “Rebel was a nuisance, but she was an Akhakhu! No Akhakhu shall fall to a human!”
“Stop!” Amy shouted.
Eyes still glowing, Handler turned away from me and looked at the girl. “Do not interfere, Amy Delgado. I do not want to lose all of you vespers. These must be punished for killing one of my people!”
“I see,” she said flatly. “So your gods or whatever can do that. They can decide on a whim who gets to live and who gets to die.”
“Amy…” Mr. Handler said.
She raised both her hands and aimed them at the CEO. “Guess what, man,” she spat. “If you get to do it, so can I.”
Mr. Handler shot up into the air as though ejected from a jet. He hung there, stunned. Then, Amy flung her hands toward the floor, and the man flew down.
He landed heavy, hard against the concrete floor.
“Emily,” Evan said, grabbing my shoulders and forcing me to look away from Handler, from the dead body of my old friend. “Wolf eyes. Wolf eyes!”
I let him aim me toward Spencer’s fallen body. My vision went gray—and that’s when I saw it.
The ghostly ka that belonged to Rebel had clawed its way out of Megan’s dying body. Like some twisted shadow of a human spider, it crawled across the floor—and started to slip inside Spencer’s body, starting with his hands.
No. Spencer would not be like one of them. I wouldn’t allow it. I wouldn’t!
Strength surged through my limbs. I crouched like a linebacker, then spread out my arms, letting claws burst from my nails. My teeth sharpened into fangs, but I didn’t go full wolf—I didn’t need to. All I needed was the gray vision that let me perceive the shadowwoman that was inside my sort-of boyfriend’s body.
The aura hovered around him, just barely seeping out of Spencer’s seams—a soul of a creature larger than the host in which it had climbed inside. Its head had yet to merge with Spencer’s, but it was starting to seep in through his mouth, his nose.
I refused to let his body become another suit of meat for some alien being. And as had been made clear over and over lately—if I could perceive Rebel’s ka, I could hurt it.
The creature inside Spencer twitched his limbs. His chest rose and fell and he started to climb up into a sitting position.
Half roaring and half screaming, I pounced.
I landed feetfirst against Spencer’s chest, and he fell onto his back, hard, while I stood atop him. He gasped for air, the wind knocked out of him.
Meanwhile, Amy took out all her weeks of anger and rage out on Mr. Handler.
With a fling of her arm, he tumbled head over heels across the room before landing on a desk between computer bays. Paper flew everywhere, and a monitor crashed to the floor, where it thundered and sparked.
“Stop!” Handler gasped, his eyes flashing between normal and blazing white. “You don’t know what you’re doing! We are the future!”
Amy stalked forward, her wild hair an untamed mane around her face, her eyes filled with a fury I’d never seen.
“You don’t get to have a future,” she said.
Then, raising both hands, she flung Mr. Handler once more.
He flew off the desk—and directly into a computer bay. Glass exploded outward and blue bolts of electricity sparked through the air. Convulsing in pain, the man screamed louder and louder as Amy kept shoving him into the monitors. His skin reddened and bubbled, and smoke rose from his scalp.
Beneath me, ShadowSpencer struggled to toss me off. Turning away from Mr. Handler’s gruesome demise, I jumped off Spencer’s chest, landing with my feet on either side of his torso. Then, focusing on the edges of the shadowwoman, I fell to my knees, gripped its incorporeal limbs, and yanked as hard as I could.
Mr. Handler fell silent, but my screams took his place. Spencer thrashed and writhed, howling in pain, but I pulled with all of my strength. Gradually, bit by bit, Rebel’s ka came free—first one arm, then another, and then the entire upper half of her body.
With one final primal scream, I flung myself backward.
And the shadowwoman came with me.
I held it in my hands, my claws penetrating its wispy, not-quite-there skin. It was a featureless shadow in the shape of a woman, but of course wasn’t a woman at all. It tilted its head, studying me curiously.
And then I pulled my arms apart and tore the thing in half.
It shredded down the middle like a paper doll, complete with a satisfying rip.
Then it was gone.
No poof. No swirl of smoke. Just gone.
I stood there, chest having, looking at the empty spot in front of me where the creature had been.
“Perceive that?” I asked no one in particular.
Exhausted from the exertion, I let my wolf features recede, my Nighttime strength fade away, until I was just Emily again.
The cavernous room stank of burned meat and melted plastic. Trying not to gag, I turned to see Amy standing still, looking at the destroyed monitor bays. I couldn’t see Mr. Handler from where I stood, but I could see the smoke rising from his body, could smell his remains.
“Holy…” Evan said, coming up to her side. “You’ve got a lot of power, Amy. A whole lot of power.”
“I did the right thing, right?” Amy asked me. She turned to me, her eyes momentarily soft, pleading.
I didn’t know. She’d killed someone. Someone who had held us captive and wanted to give our bodies over to other souls. Someone who was definitely dangerous, and had definitely done a lot of evil.
But also a man who had become consumed with the promises of a devious, alien species. A normal, weak human who thought he was going to make the world a better place.
“You did,” I lied.
“Yeah,” Evan said, scrunching his nose as he turned away from the burned body. “He was going to kill Emily. You didn’t have a choice.”
Amy flashed me a smile, then her face hardened into the mask I’d seen her put on so often.
Coughing. Heaving, hacking coughing from the floor to my left.
I turned, expecting to see one of the possessed adults waking up. Instead, I saw something that made my heart leap and my hand fly to my mouth.
Spencer was sitting up, one hand on the floor. He looked dazed, confused.
But he was alive.
“Spencer!” I cried.
I ran over to him and flung myself to my knees at his side. While he coughed into his fist, I put his head in my lap and brushed his hair with my hands.
“Oh God,” I whispered. “Oh thank you. I thought you were dead. I thought I lost you like I lost…” I swallowed. “You’re alive!”
Finally able to look into my eyes, he grinned. In a croaking voice he said, “Hey, Em Dub.”
And I knew then it was really him.
I pulled him up and I put my hands on his cheeks, and I kissed him.
He was surprised at first. Hell, so was I. But soon his arms were wrapping around me and he was kissing me back.
Neither of us was any good at it. It was slobbery and kind of awkward.
I don’t know about him, but I didn’t care one bit.
Amy cleared her throat. Spencer and I pulled apart and looked up at her.
“I hate to break up the reunion,” she said. “But we need to get out of here.”
I stood, helping Spencer up along with me. He winced—moving so shortly after having an invading soul ripped out of you apparently hurt—and let me and Amy put our arms around him to keep him on his feet.
He looked between the both of us and smiled. “My heroes.”
“Hey,�
� Evan said, jerking his thumb toward the blinking robot orbs still clinging to the portal and the computers. “What are those for, anyway?”
“Nothing yet,” Spencer said. “Not until I activate them.”
“Then, explosion?” Evan asked with wide eyes.
Spencer nodded. “Boom.”
Nodding appreciatively, Evan said, “Sweet.”
Boys.
“All right,” I said, looking around at the unconscious people around me. Trying not to focus on Brittany’s body.
Trying not to see Megan lying there, alone. Dead.
Tears stung my eyes. But I needed to focus. Needed to be the alpha.
“All right,” I repeated, running my free hand through my hair. “Spencer, go ahead and set the bots to detonate. And, Amy…is it okay if Evan carries out Brittany?”
Amy’s lip trembled. “No. Leave her here. She’ll slow us down.”
“Are you—” I started to ask.
“Yes!” Amy spat. “Drop it, okay? We can cry later. There’s no crying now. None. Got it?”
I swallowed and met her eyes, apologetic. “Yeah. Later.”
“What about all these other people?” Evan asked, gesturing at the fallen possessed parents, scientists, and guards.
“Leave them, too,” Amy spat, glaring at her fallen parents. “They betrayed all of us. And they’re all possessed. Just leave them.”
“Yeah,” I said, though my gut twisted, hating this, hating all of it. “Let’s go. Let’s just go.”
Spencer shouted, “Detonate!” and then a string of numbers. The bots blinked with red lights. They beeped, counting down the seconds to detonation.
Summoning the last of my strength, Amy and I helped carry Spencer out of the basement and back up the stairs, Evan behind us.
Just as we escaped the empty lobby and joined what looked like all of Vesper Company’s employees on the street outside, the first of the explosions sounded below, and the first floor of Vesper Company began to collapse.
32
IT’S WHO I CHOSE TO BE
Megan was gone.
I had lost her weeks before, I know that, long before she was ever possessed by a creature from another world.