by Tanith Frost
“Where’s Miranda?” I ask as I take my leather jacket from the coat rack beside the door and slip into it.
“Doing as she pleases,” Raymond says, and nods toward the front of the house.
The door swings open, and one of the guards enters. His fine suit is spotted with black scorch marks. “Quickly, now,” he says, and Raymond and Viktor sweep out the door after him without any hesitation. Two more guards take up positions beside them as they make their way to the nearest van. The engine starts, and they drive off.
“Fuck,” Daniel mutters, though he doesn’t sound surprised.
There’s still fighting going on in the yard. I step onto the porch and catch sight of Miranda pinning a hunter—a Blood Defender, I suppose—to the ground, ripping his gun from his hands, and screaming what sounds like a battle cry as she presses it under his chin and fires.
She stands and backs toward the house, silhouetted by the flames that have engulfed one of the home’s vans. The bodyguard who was standing behind her at the window earlier follows close behind her. The lower right side of his face has been burned into a twisted mess, but his demeanour hasn’t changed. He’s on alert, protecting our high elder.
“They’re still coming,” Miranda says. She doesn’t sound panicked, just pissed. “They’ll take the house soon. The others made it out?”
I’m about to say no, but realize she’s not talking about the old ones. “Viktor and Raymond are gone,” I say.
“With the captive,” Daniel adds. “We got Naya out to the van, and she went with them as well.”
“And the other human?” she asks.
“Sean,” I tell her. I want her to know their names.
“Dead,” Daniel says, his voice grim. “The attackers got him when he went out to try and fetch the home’s van.”
“Could we—” I begin, and Daniel shakes his head.
“They shut him in and set it on fire.”
The blood I consumed earlier rises in my throat.
“And our troops?” Miranda asks as we re-enter the house. She closes the door behind us and looks toward the back of the building. The thick scent of smoke has filled the lower level. For all I know, the rear wall is on fire. All our enemies have to do now is trap us in here and we’ll be finished.
“Any who survived have gone with the other elders,” Daniel tells her. “At least as far as I know.”
One of the humans who drove the elders out tonight is cowering alone in the office. Trent steps over him to keep watch at the window.
“Keys,” Miranda’s guard orders, and the human fishes them out of his pocket and hands them over. The vampire turns to his mistress. “I’d advise making our exit now.”
I recognize his voice as the assistant I spoke to on the phone.
“Wait,” Daniel says, and reaches for the Pathfinder keys, which hang on a pegboard on the wall next to Sean’s computer. “The home’s van is burning, and we can’t fit the old ones in my vehicle as easily as we could in yours. Aviva and I will get them out of here and wait for orders.”
He holds his keys out.
The bodyguard glares at him. “Your vehicle’s not safe enough for her. We could—”
“I appreciate you following orders, Clark,” Miranda says softly, and looks to the office doorway. I turn to find Trent standing in the hallway, watching her. “But he’s right. They need the space. And they can’t accompany us to the city. Not yet.”
The vampire hands Daniel the keys to the van and snatches the Pathfinder keys, then reloads his gun.
Miranda looks to Daniel.
“We’ll take care of them,” he says, and she nods. She, Clark, and the human driver head outside without any further acknowledgement of the old vampires waiting in the hallway. Clark’s got a gun in each hand, and he starts shooting as soon as they’re clear of the door.
“There’s fire,” Lucille tells us. “We… there are hunters outside, aren’t there?”
“Don’t worry about them,” Daniel tells her, though his eyes are still on the yard. “We’ll be out of this shithole before you know it, off to new adventures.”
He motions for us to wait, then follows Miranda and the others out the door.
Gunshots continue to ring out like fireworks, and the smoke in the air grows thicker around us. I don’t need to breathe, but it burns my eyes and brings back memories of another fire that leave me wanting to gasp for air.
Minutes stretch on, far too long. A crashing noise that sounds like a bomb going off rings through the building, and a fresh wave of heat washes over us. The walls are coming down. The fire will be on us soon.
Something’s gone wrong out front.
They’ve all left us. Even Daniel. Or he—
The loud blast of a car horn is blessed music to my ears. I open the front door to find Daniel has backed right up to the porch and thrown the rear doors of the van open. He glances up at me before he makes his way back into the driver’s seat.
He’s bleeding. It’s vampire blood, pale and useless, leaking rather than pumping like blood from a living human, but the cut that’s laid his cheek open is deep and long.
I grab hold of Hannabelle’s arm, ready to force her out of the house, but she moves willingly. They all do, driven into the night by our instinctive fear of fire. They pile one by one into the van, climbing over rows of seats, nimble as teenagers in spite of their decades of quiet living.
There are some things we don’t lose.
Dark forms swarm toward the porch as Lucille climbs in. I leap after her, pulling the doors shut behind me.
Daniel hits the gas as soon as we’re in, and I lose my balance and slam back against the doors. Lucille tumbles over the back seat and onto Trent, who helps her sit up. She hides her face against his arm.
I wince as the van hits something, and keep my eyes squeezed closed as we bounce over uneven ground.
Or whatever we just hit.
I don’t open them until we’re on the road, speeding away from the old house that’s burning behind us. I pat my pockets, realizing far too late that I left my phone charging in the office and my gun in a vehicle that’s now on its way to town with Miranda.
Edwin is laughing near the front of the van. He turns around and winks at me.
“Told you things would get interesting.”
Chapter Ten
We follow the road back toward the Trans-Canada Highway, driving at high speed until we get close to Clarenville, when Daniel drops to five kilometres over the speed limit.
We can’t afford cops tonight.
The van is nice. Nicer once I squeeze past the other vampires and take my seat next to Daniel, just as he’s slowing down. I could have come up right away, but it’s taken me this long to work up my nerve.
I wish he and I were alone. I wish we could just get it over with, whatever it is. He’s not my trainer anymore. He’s not even my boss. He can’t fire me, but even if he could, that wouldn’t be my chief concern.
When I was in training, I got used to getting yelled at by my pseudo-drill sergeant. I never got used to disappointing him.
Or worse, myself.
I settle into the leather seat and press the button that adjusts the lumbar support, sneaking a glance at my injured forearm as I do. The burn marks from the silver aren’t too visible, though they ache horribly. I pull my sleeve low to cover my hand.
“We should take care of your face,” I tell Daniel. It will heal on its own, but a couple of bandages to hold the wound closed will speed the process up.
Edwin hands me a white plastic first aid kit. Everything looks off-the-shelf except for the vampire-grade sunscreen in its brown glass jar.
“Go ahead,” Daniel says. “I’m not stopping.”
I dig down and find a couple of butterfly strips, then pass the kit back to Edwin. A wound like this would definitely require stitches on a human, but these will do for him.
“What happened?” I ask as I lean over the centre console and press the edges o
f the cut together. I don’t bother trying to keep my voice low. It’s a big van, but it’s full of vampires with supernatural hearing. There will be no secrets.
I apply the first sticky strip to his skin. Daniel winces. “They were waiting for us. I kept under cover behind Miranda’s bodyguard, but had to split off to get to her van. Two of them were waiting. It’s fine.”
“It’s not fine.”
I don’t ask whether he killed them. Now that we’re out of the moment, now that no one’s life is in my hands, I can see how it would be necessary. I’d want Daniel to do what he had to do to defend himself.
So why couldn’t I do it for myself when it was my responsibility?
Vampires are killers at our core. Our laws are designed to keep that urge in check, but there are no repercussions in a case like this. I’d be a hero for doing this job that comes so easily to Daniel, Miranda, and so many others.
Instead, it turns out I’m no better than Hannabelle.
I crumple the bandage wrappers in my fist and curl up in my seat.
Not being willing to snap a stranger’s neck would have been so normal when I was alive.
Daniel’s phone buzzes beneath the dashboard. I reach for it, but he grabs it first and checks the number.
“Viktor,” he says. “I’ll call him back.” After ten rings, the phone goes silent.
Then it begins ringing again.
Daniel glares at it.
“I can answer,” I tell him.
He pulls into a gas station parking lot. “I’ll be right back.” He looks over his shoulder. “None of you move.”
Trent glowers at him. No one speaks.
Daniel flips the phone open and leaves us, closing the door behind him and stalking toward the coffee place on the other side of the lot.
Genevieve clears her throat. “I’m not sure he was addressing you, dear…”
They all look expectantly at me.
I sigh. “Anyone want a coffee?”
I fish a handful of change from the cup holder, slip from the van, close my door quietly, and creep after Daniel. He’ll be able to feel me coming if he’s paying attention, and that’s okay. I really am getting coffee, even if no one else wanted any. If I should happen to bump into him out here—
“Yeah. No, I know.” Daniel’s voice, coming from behind the coffee place. He’s speaking quietly, but it sounds serious. I stop just within hearing range.
“I understand the urgency, but I can’t. Not now.” He pauses. “No, not on her own. She’s developing her skills, but there are still some obstacles there.” Another pause. “The fact is, though, that I do still feel responsible on some level. I can’t leave. Not when the old ones are so unpredictable.”
In the momentary silence that follows, an empty chill envelops me.
He’s staying. That’s good. But it’s because I can’t handle myself. He’s not ratting me out to anyone, not spreading the word on my most recent shortcoming, but there it is. He thinks I’m too weak for this job.
He steps around the corner, startling me.
“Yes,” he says into the phone, but his eyes are locked on me. “I’ll be back as soon as I can. Right. We’ll discuss it then.”
He closes the phone without saying goodbye.
I hold up my fistful of coins. “Coffee?”
He leans back against the brown brick wall and cracks his knuckles, then forces a smile. “Better make it a large.”
He heads toward the van.
“Daniel?”
He turns back.
“I’m sorry. I froze, I…” I sigh. “I’ve never intentionally—”
“Don’t worry about it. You’ll find it gets easier.” He gives his head a shake, then frowns. “No. Do worry about it.” He takes a step closer, back into the shadows, close enough that I have to look up to meet his gaze. “Think about what would have happened if I hadn’t come. Would you have let the house burn under you so you didn’t have to kill?”
“I don’t know,” I admit.
His jaw hardens, but he’s not angry. He lets his guard down, allowing me to feel a hint of his power washing over me. And when I open myself to it, I catch the pain in him.
And for the first time since he’s let me sense anything, fear.
“I hate that it matters to me,” he says, and his voice catches. “But the thought of losing you because you wouldn’t kill a fucking vampire hunter…” He trails off. “I can’t give you answers about where we came from or why we’re here. But I need you. Those vampires in the van need you. And I’m pretty damn sure that if you do have some grand purpose, it doesn’t end with you burning alongside someone who wants to see you and everyone like you erased from this planet.”
“I know. It will be fine. I froze up, but it won’t happen again.” And it won’t. Now that the moment has passed and I’ve had time to think about what it would mean to truly die, I know I won’t freeze again. I will defend myself.
“Good,” Daniel says, and he sounds like he believes me.
It’s not until I’m entering the coffee shop that I understand what he said.
He needs me.
Daniel doesn’t fucking need anyone. It’s a point of pride for him. For every self-respecting vampire.
That admission is a confession of a weakness that is, to him, as bad as any of mine.
My chest tightens. I wanted this, once, when my future seemed brighter. Now all I can think is that I’m dangerously close to rock bottom, and the last thing I want to do is take him with me.
It’s not the worst drive I’ve ever been on.
I mean, I don’t know whose bright idea it was to put radio controls in the back seat, but the old ones’ friendly bickering over stations is actually an improvement over strained silence—or even comfortable silence, for that matter. Daniel constantly checks the mirrors and is obviously making sure we’re not being followed, going as far as to take unnecessary exits when any one vehicle has been behind us for too long.
Just to be sure, I guess.
Still, he seems to relax more as we get further from the burning, bloody mess we left behind.
Genevieve leans forward as we pass the exit to Come By Chance and trails a blood-red fingernail over Daniel’s cheekbone, just above the cut. She clucks her tongue gently. “Poor boy.”
Trent crosses his arms and scowls at her. “For the sake of the void. The dirt on his empty grave may only just have settled, but he’s a grown vampire. Let him be or tell him what you really want and be done with it.”
Genevieve chuckles and sits back, casting a flirtatious glance over her shoulder. “Jealous, you old grump?”
Trent glowers at her, and Lucille smiles.
Hannabelle stares out the window, watching a world that must be completely unfamiliar to her go by.
Edwin changes the radio station again, settling on oldies, and Genevieve looks about ready to strangle him.
It’s strange, being with them like this. I had no idea what to expect when I got this assignment. Dusty old corpses, I guess, or a haunted house full of antiquated, undead curiosities. Relics. Horrors, maybe.
These vampires—these people—are not that. Oh, they’re strange. Their clothes don’t fit the world we’ve brought them into, and they’d stand out in any crowd with their weird mannerisms and mature bearing. Their centuries of life pair oddly with their still-youthful faces. They’re unsettling. Just not in the way I anticipated.
I thought they’d be used up somehow, but really, Genevieve flirting with Daniel isn’t her being a funny old lady. Sure, she dresses like my grandma, but she’s gorgeous. Mature, confident, something straight out of the silver screen era. Even Trent, who can’t be bothered to remember how old he is, doesn’t look more than sixty.
A terrifying sixty, sure. The type who would send neighbourhood children screaming for their mothers if they dared step on his lawn, should he ever be allowed to make his home among the living. But still.
“Where are we going?” Hannabelle ask
s a while later, when it’s become impossible to ignore the fact that dawn will be on us soon.
Edwin turns the music down, and we all look at Daniel.
“Holyrood,” Daniel says. “We’ve got enough gas to make it that far, and Maelstrom owns a house there where we can hole up until we decide what to do next.”
“Your idea?” I ask.
“Viktor's. Why?”
I shrug. “No reason.”
And there really is no reason for me to feel uncomfortable with taking orders from any elder. They’ll want us to lay low, stay quiet, keep attention away from this crew of monsters, at least until they figure out what to do about the Blood Defenders.
But I can’t help wondering what Miranda was going to say to me before the attack. I’d just mentioned Viktor. Surely it wasn’t a warning, but I wouldn’t have minded a little insight into the elder’s mindset.
“Will you be heading on to town after we’re settled?” I ask Daniel. “To help with… whatever?” I don’t really want to think about what danger he’ll be throwing himself into if he goes after these people, but I need to know where we stand.
“They’ll expect me back, yes. It’s not so different from hunting rogues, really.”
“Just warmer-blooded,” Edwin observes. He sounds a little dreamy. He did get that extra feed in, and must be feeling pretty good.
“Oh, shitnuggets,” Lucille says from the back, and Daniel snorts loud enough that Genevieve giggles. “I had the loveliest sourdough starter on the go.”
“You’ll be settled somewhere else before you know it,” Daniel says. “You’ll start over.”
I watch him as he speaks, as he makes eye contact with her in the rearview mirror, and wonder who the hell he really is. I’ve always known him one way, even if I thought I saw new facets as our relationship changed. Daniel has many good qualities: determination, a low tolerance for bullshit, impressive combat skills, a fine ass, and a sharp mind. But he is not patient. He is not understanding. Had I known all of this was coming, I’d have expected him to be barking orders at these older vampires, making sure everything ran like clockwork because that’s what it might take to save our asses.