by Sam Hall
Vampires who were still standing surged forward, but I instantly turned into my fireball form, complete with blades of flame. I slashed out at the nearest, forcing them back, but others quickly moved to take their place. My heart began to race as the staccato of machine-gun bullets hit my flaming shield, bouncing off.
Be careful about taking down your own people! Lyra said. He’s distracting you on purpose. Take the head of the serpent out, not the body.
I spun up into the air, hovering for a moment, noting the vampires whose guns fell limply by their sides as their mouths dropped open in shock, but I didn’t spend any time on that. I saw Rohan at the back of the crowd, two familiar figures held close to his side by his people.
He smiled as I landed with a thump in front of him, that smile not dropping as I raised my flaming blade, guns snapping up to aim at me as I did so.
“You do it and each one of them dies,” he said with a grin, eyes jerking to Bennett’s neck so I noted the blade being held there.
“The moment even a hair of my head is touched, they are dead. Do you hear me, little goddess?” He spat the words at me, the spittle sizzling when it hit my fireball. “You gave your hand away too soon. In protecting these two, I knew instantly where your breaking points were. I have had my staff scouring the records for references to Lyra’s avatars and found some fascinating evidence. Many a vampire king kept one as a pet, to feed from, to direct against his enemies, to do his bidding. It was the actions of one of the last avatars that put our beloved king, Argun, on the throne for a thousand years. I can only assume your presence is a sign from the goddess herself, of favour for my regime, as a gift to me personally.” He nodded and the knife dug in slightly on Gavin’s neck, forcing me to watch my best friend’s blood trickle down his neck as he was held still by his ‘brothers’ and ‘sisters’. “So come along, little avatar,” he said, holding out a hand to me, all golden perfection. “I’ll give you these two to keep you happy, after I’ve had a taste of that lovely alabaster skin of yours.”
I said I wanted to change things, but looking at Rohan, at the vampires willing to follow his orders, I knew that was never going to happen if the power structures stayed the same here. The Revolution had happened, the powerful vampires had been dragged to the Scaffold and bled before the people, and what had changed? The flames around me were beginning to stutter, my ability to keep feeding them waning.
Make me a pump and feed me with the strongest blood we have in storage, I said to Lyra. I felt the bite of the needle going into my chest, then the cold spread in my arteries. I watched the vampire’s eyes widen as they heard the tick, that primal sound of fear in the Quarter.
Remove the boys, take them back to the Palace, I said.
Done. The idiot. Those girls, they were lovers of the kings before they were ever avatars. They willingly sacrificed their power for those they loved.
His eyes went wider still, when he noticed he was without his hostages. “I’ll, I’ll have them—”
“You’ll do fucking nothing,” I said as I took a step forward. I pushed the muzzles of the guns down with a hand when they didn’t drop automatically. Some brave souls tried to push back, stop me from deflecting them. I fixed them clearly with a stare as I touched the weapons, making them hot enough they had to drop them. Now that the blood was pumping through me I felt a strength I’d never had before. “You are done, Rohan. You have nothing.”
I was tempted to send the large crowd of the Horde clustered around me away, but realised I needed witnesses, people to spread the word about the new world order. Instead, I gave him a shove. It was all about power displays, wasn’t it? I shoved him until he stumbled back, was on him until he fell to the ground, the ring of vampires stepping aside as if to watch this struggle play out.
Need that persuasion thing you did before, I said.
The storm? Here.
“You are nothing, Rohan. No king, no ruler, no petty despot playing with the bodies of others.” My voice no longer sounded like mine, instead, the words came out as the rumble of thunder. “No general to direct others to fight for you. You are nothing but a rat, you will skulk at the edges of civilisation in the Quarter, doomed to scavenge to survive. You will never re-join the Horde, never visit the Palace, never rule over others again.”
My words hit the man like a series of blows. How could this be? I wondered. This was Rohan, the king who enslaved every one of my people, who wreaked havoc in his corner of the Quarter, who bathed in the blood of others. How could what I said have so much power?
All power is a combination of will and the muscle to back it up. No leader physically demonstrates their power every day. They do so regularly in ways that are convincing, then put structures in place to ensure people continue to believe it. What has he done for years, but tell everyone what to do and fuck? Lyra said.
As if to contradict what she’d said, Rohan clambered to his feet, standing there drunkenly for a moment.
And here comes the muscle part, Lyra said.
Get rid of the flames, I said, and I grinned, feeling the wind that was beginning to pick up behind me play across my teeth. Is this how blooded soldiers feel before battle? I thought, the blood in the pump feeling like it was transferring strength as well as replenishing what I was burning up. Time to find out if this was true. He dropped his head, then came barrelling at me with all of his considerable strength. I zipped nimbly out of the way, leaving him to flounder past where I once was.
You’re going to need to take him down, convincingly. This is not about you fighting him, it’s about sending a message.
She was probably right, but I didn’t care. I bounced on the balls of my feet, fists up, snickering as he looked around blindly for me.
“You scared, little girl.”
“Yeah, fucking shitting myself. Now show us what you’ve got, big boy.”
He seemed incapable of learning, cannonballing towards me again and again. I stepped aside later and later until I heard the breath in his chest begin to rasp.
“Is that it?” I said. “Have you actually fought someone any time in the last two hundred years?
He just panted, glaring at me, but his eyes flicked to the group where people had started to shift restlessly. “I don’t think any of us have fought an opponent that can teleport away or...” he snatched the pistol off a nearby vampire, quickly firing off a couple of shots whose bullets I just waved away, “...can do that.”
You need to grapple with him now, show definitively that you are the stronger one.
Got it.
“OK,” I said. “Come at me. I won’t move.”
And I didn’t. I watched him pump himself up, jumping up and down on the spot, and then coming at me with a barrage of blows. Then everything slowed right down. He was a vampire, I’m sure his strikes were lightning-fast, but from my perspective, I could see his fists coming from a mile away. I ducked out of the way of each one with ease. I smiled. Was this how the vampires felt? Did they walk around with this sense of power? When someone came at you, trying to knock your head off, did they just smile and put them down?
Yes, and you need to do the same. Restraint will not be viewed kindly here.
OK, I said with a shrug and then hit back, dropping down slightly and then striking out, punching up, my fist colliding with the underside of his jaw.
It felt like a little tap on my end but Rohan went flying back in a great arc, vampires scattering like crows to let him fall heavily on the hard ground. I was ready, fists raised when he got to his feet, dodging out the way of his hits before going in close and throwing him over my shoulder. I stood over him as his eyes went wide, him fighting to catch his breath as I’d knocked the wind out of him. “Just fuck off, you stupid cunt,” I said. “You’re done here.”
He obviously didn’t agree, fangs snapping down as he swayed on his feet, making a wild lunge at me.
He wants your blood, to heal himself, Lyra said.
I know, I said and punched him
in the face in rapid succession. I kept it up, seeing that pretty, pouty mouth grow bloody as his lip split, joined quickly by blood from his nose as I flattened that. I grabbed him by the throat, giving him a shake as one might a bad-tempered animal, hoping it might put some sense into him. This was just sadistic.
“Someone...will have you...bent over...and fucked...while they...drain...you...dry,” he said, blood coming out his nose and mouth in bubbles as he struggled to talk.
“Is that what you want?” I said, my voice taking on that terrible rumble again. “I can rewrite your destiny, make you anyone’s bitch.” His response was to blindly swat at me. I caught his hand easily, my fingers digging in when he tried to push his fist closer, almost snapping the wrist when he just wouldn’t stop. “Fuck this...” I muttered to myself. I dropped him to the ground where he fell in a bloody heap and then was forced to place my foot on his back when he kept trying to claw his way to me. “Stop!” I roared, and for a moment, the world did.
You couldn’t hear a bird cheep, only the lonely whistle of the wind, the low rumble of the storm beginning to form on the horizon. “Is there anyone else who wants to try and make me their blood bag?” I shouted, scanning the group.
I shifted into Lyra’s flaming form without thought, except now, I could see myself reflected in the glasses of one of the closer vampires. I had great wings of fire flickering at my back. No one met my gaze. Some dropped to their knees immediately at the sight of me, others saw the gesture and promptly followed suit.
It wasn’t a triumphant moment. I’d won a fight forced on me and it was in no way a fair one. Basically, I’d fought Rohan’s unrelenting belief in his divine right, and only a beatdown was enough to convince him otherwise, if at all.
This is why I didn’t want to do this, I said.
Why? He was too dangerous to keep where he was with his outdated ideas about avatars. Particularly as you’re albino, he couldn’t possibly see past his view of what that meant. He had to be removed, or he would’ve spent every waking moment trying to take you down, to prove he was right.
I don’t want to be like them, I said. I don’t want might to equal right.
Well, with you at the helm perhaps the Horde can become a kinder, safer place. It’s better to change things from within.
Within? I’m not staying. I’ll deal with whoever fights their way to the top but I’m due at the wolves this evening.
Yes, that alliance will be a useful one, especially with your creation of this moonstone wall, but—
No buts. I’m not taking over here. Take me to the Palace. I’m getting the boys and then we’re out of here.
But—
Her words were lost as the quick yank of dislocation took all of my awareness with it. I blinked when I saw the white steps of the Palace in front of me. “Where are Bennett and Gavin?” I said, grabbing the sleeve of the nearest vampire. She shrunk back from me, but pointed to inside.
I walked in the direction she indicated, noticing the vampires skittered out of my way like cockroaches as I did so. The crowd milling inside parted, leading me to where the boys stood, looking fine except for the dry blood on Gavin’s neck.
“It looks like the wall is permanent. We need to investigate what the hell is in it that’s repelling us,” Gavin said. A couple of vampires nodded and then headed back outside. They both turned to look at me when they noted the people around them had gone still.
“Lethe,” Bennett said, stepping forward, but Gavin put an arm up.
“Hey,” I said, walking into that arm, grabbing Bennett’s limp one, trying to wrap it around my waist. “You’re both OK?”
“Yeah,” Gavin said with a nod, “and you?”
I looked down at the blood on my knuckles and splattered over my clothes and dismissed it with a wave, my skin coming up clean. I smiled what felt like the first true smile in my life. I could do so openly. Things could change, albinos didn’t have to live the way they did anymore, jonesing for yellow and letting the vampires tear through them for the privilege of more of it. I took in the Palace with fresh eyes, saw the same old decaying beauty and black-clad vampires sweeping in and out. Rohan had been king since just after the Revolution, the strongest vampire left. Who knew what it could become now?
“Yeah, I’m good. Rohan’s gone or will be. That was his blood,” I said, flexing my fingers.
“So are you taking control of the Horde?” Bennett said, eyes going wide.
“Gods, no,” I said with a wave. “You’re missing the point. We’re free now. No one’s beholden to Rohan anymore. He’s been taken care of. We can go anywhere, do anything.”
“Except go anywhere near the wolves,” Gavin said. “What did you put in that wall?”
“That only affects vampires. I can get you past it if you want to, but there’s a bigger picture here. You became vampires to protect me, to make sure we were safe. If you’d stayed human, you would’ve been anyone’s meat, you said. You owed your loyalty to Rohan for changing you. Well, he’s gone now. The Horde doesn’t even have to stay in its current form. You don’t have to fight with the wolves anymore, you can do whatever you like, be whatever you like.”
In my mind, this was the moment they rushed towards me and caught me up in their arms, swinging me in the air as their joy reflected the one I felt inside. Instead, mine stuttered and then began to flicker out as I stared at their impassive faces. Silence yawned between us, more eloquent than anything they could’ve possibly said, yet Gavin’s mouth opened to tell me what was now apparently clear.
“Lethe, we can’t—”
“No,” I said, holding up a hand. I shook my head, kept shaking it so perhaps the subsequent blur of my vision would make it impossible to see the moment when the two of them betrayed me.
My fingers clawed at my sternum, trying to get to the pain spreading beneath it until Bennett reached out, pulling my fingers away. I snatched them back, able to shake him off with little effort, something that surprised the both of us. I straightened up, staring back at him, both of us realising that I was the stronger one now.
So why did it hurt me so much then? Brief flashes of Marley’s betrayal by the beach came to mind. We’d been a bunch of dumb kids, clawing our way to survival, and then we’d gone our separate ways: the boys to the vampires, Marley headfirst into addiction, despite sharing a roof with me. None of them had seen me clambering towards adulthood, none of them knew who I was now. In their minds, I was still their ‘wild girl’, some sort of illusory golden figure, just as they were in mine. We were imperfect strangers, with a patchwork awareness of each other.
I stepped backwards, something I needed to do. We’d been playing this game for so long, the push, pull. Well, that was going to stop. I wasn’t unhappy about thinking of them walking free of the Quarter if I managed to pull down the Wall. If I didn’t, I guess nothing had changed. I didn’t mean to do it when I spoke. I didn’t call for that stormy sounding voice of coercion, but it came unbidden, my words echoing through the hallways of the Palace so that every vampire in the vicinity heard and was forced. “Take control of the Horde,” I said, part prophecy, part attack. “You choose it over me every time, well then, have it. The vampires are your responsibility, they will turn only to you for leadership. Make the best of it you can.” My voice quietened so that my voice was nothing more than a rasp. “I hope it keeps you warm at night... because I won’t.”
Lethe, this is not wise. You need them, need this—
Take me to Miriam’s now, I said.
I didn’t blink, wanting to fix their faces in my mind, the moment their eyes went wide, one lot dark, one lot grey, Bennett’s arm reached out towards me before I disappeared out of the building.
I blinked, the afterimage of the boys so burned into my retina that it overlaid the view of the afternoon light casting the land outside the wolf camp gold. I rubbed my eyes, ridding myself of this last part of them. I took a breath, a long and shuddering one, but each one after came more easily than t
he last. There came a time in every child’s life when they had to put away childish things, and belatedly, now I needed to put away mine. My eyes traced the worn dirt path into camp where kids played, pushing toys through the dirt. It was time to start moving towards a new future.
Epilogue
Rohan
“What do you want done with him?”
Rohan tried to lift his head but his efforts were rewarded with a boot to the face, shoving it back down again. He struggled to open his eyes, to look into the faces of those who sought to usurp him, but his body screamed as he did so, the lids swollen shut and caked with blood.
“You heard the lady. Dump him in Ground Zero. Any who are dumb enough to want to follow him better grab their shit and go. The goddess has spoken. Rohan is no longer king, and no longer part of the Horde. Any that want to protect him, perpetuate his crap, needs to get gone as well. He is done, we are done with the way things were.”
Rohan expected a response to that, at least a huff of irritation, a brief demur, but none came. He was king of the Horde for two hundred years and was being deposed without a word in his favour. Instead, fingers dug into his armpits as he was hauled semi-upright, his head lolling back as he was dragged along the ground.
Stones, glass, the rough texture of asphalt all tore at his skin as he was moved, and he was unable to do a thing about it. He felt trapped inside the cage of his mind, the struggle to even articulate his pain was beyond him. Finally, it all stopped when he was thrown into what he assumed was the back of a car.
His head swam as the car started and then took off. He slid around on the cracked vinyl seat, pain flaring with each bump. He couldn’t make out where they were going, any sense of the external world being buried under layer upon layer of agony.
His symbiotes, the same bloodborne pathogens that had colonised the entirety of the Horde, were overwhelmed by his body’s needs right now. He’d been pummelled into oblivion by that little avatar bitch. Things had broken inside him, he’d felt it as she wiped the floor with him, that deep-down sense that something has gone terribly wrong. He was slammed from one end of the car to the other by a particularly sharp turn, pulling a strangled cry from his ruined throat, something that got a chuckle from the front.