by Platt, Sean
She beamed, “Yes, I’ve got a great memory!”
“That is great,” Jacob said, reaching out to touch her face.
Two
John
John crouched in the bushes along the gas station’s perimeter on the corner of Fisher and Twelfth across from Omega’s temporary headquarters, waiting. He pulled his black hoodie away from his eyes for a better view.
It was six a.m., and he knew his target would be arriving soon, as Special Agent in Charge Serena Sanders was a woman of habit. For the past week, Sanders had stopped at the gas station to get coffee each morning, a few minutes past six.
John didn’t want to come, but didn’t have a choice. It had been nearly a week since he’d seen the video of Abigail entering the portal — the next day the portal was barricaded by the military and surrounded by ultraviolet lights to keep vampires out. He might be able to cross it with enough force, but he wasn’t sure if he could come back through if the military buffed up its protection even more. Plus, he didn’t want to kill soldiers merely doing their job.
Yet, he still needed to cross through the portal.
He had to find Abigail. Had to find his brother, Caleb. Then had to find his brother, Jacob, and retrieve the crystals — all before Jacob returned to Earth with more monsters.
In short, John had to save the only people he cared about, and the planet. But he couldn’t do it alone. Or with just Hope and Larry.
John needed help.
But is the FBI in a helping mood?
Following events at the old Omega headquarters, and the murders of Commander Mike Mathews and their boss, Director Bob Cromwell, John knew he was WANTED by the FBI. All caps.
The shoot first, ask questions later kind of WANTED.
Ironically, it was because John had helped the FBI’s Omega division for the past couple of years, arresting their “enemies of the state,” that John couldn’t turn to his old contacts — Otherworlders, Halfworlders, or even Tiny’s crew. They all saw him as a traitor, turning on his own kind. Of course they didn’t know that he’d been forced to help the Agency that had threatened Hope and Abigail if he didn’t.
But still, a traitor was a traitor, and John had few remaining friends. His last chance was the very Agency he’d been running from before becoming their colleague.
His fate, as well as that of those he loved, and possibly the planet, rested with the results of these next fifteen minutes.
He watched the black SUV pulled up to the station, then the fiftysomething-year-old black woman got out — not a speck of lint on her suit.
Sanders entered the station.
John sprinted from the bushes to the SUV, broke the lock with a minor feat of magick, then hopped inside.
John sat in the SUV’s rear, using a cloaking spell to shroud himself while Sanders chatted with the cashier until the gas station door finally opened and she emerged with two coffees in hand.
Sanders walked around the front of the SUV, unlocked the door, and got inside. As she placed her coffees in the center console, John dropped the spell.
“Coffee? You shouldn’t have.” John’s gun was at the back of Sanders’s head before she could react. “Close the door; we’re taking a drive.”
They were parked in the rear of a Walmart parking lot, a place granting them ample privacy and unlikely to invite attention from cops that parking along the roadside might.
John had explained the situation to Sanders — though not his request — as they drove. But he had yet to get a read on the woman’s emotions. Sanders held her cards close. Sure, John knew the agent would love to turn around, rip the gun from his hands, and arrest him, but he couldn’t tell from her zen exterior.
Sanders turned off the truck. “So, what do you want from me?”
“Help. I want you to assemble a team, with me on it, to go after Jacob and recover the crystals.”
“And what are you going to do with the crystals?”
“I don’t want them. You all do whatever it is you do with your Otherworldly artifacts. But we both know that Jacob can’t be allowed to keep them. He killed many people to get them, and from what I can tell, they’re extremely powerful. Do we really want to wait and see what he’s planning to do once he unleashes their power?”
“How do you know he hasn’t already? That he’s not waiting for us to come through the portal? That this isn’t some sort of trap? How do I know you’re not working with him to lead us into that trap?”
John met Sanders’s eyes in the rearview.
“Come on, Serena. You know better than that.”
“What I know is that you and your friends are responsible for the deaths of several agents, as well as the former director.”
Her tone revealed her anger. John had to tread lightly, appeal to the good agent he knew the woman to be.
“What happened with the director wasn’t intentional. But I think we both know those agents weren’t the good guys. I watched Mathews kill an innocent woman in cold blood just to keep her quiet, a woman who had just lost her daughter. Is that the kind of Agency you want to be part of?”
“So you kill a bunch of people, and I’m supposed to take your word for it that they were bad?”
“No, Serena. You don’t need to take my word for anything. I think you know damn well that things weren’t right. It’s why you’ve turned down so many promotions, isn’t it? Figured you’d lie low as an agent until you got a corporate gig or retired. Right?”
Sanders stared back in the mirror, hard. She wasn’t used to someone reading her so easily.
“I don’t know who’s calling the shots, but I’m guessing they don’t want the world to end any more than I do. If we don’t go in there and get those crystals, Jacob will return. And nobody is prepared for what he’ll bring back.”
Sanders didn’t need any intel on Otherworld’s monstrosities. She’d been with Omega long enough to have tracked down a few of the minor beasties and freaks, ones created on this world using Otherworldly magick, to understand exactly how much trouble they’d be in if the real things started spilling in through the portal. With Jacob as the Pied-Piper, it would be nothing less than a mass slaughter of humanity.
Serena’s silence said she was contemplating the offer.
“I’m here because I trust you. You’re not at this job for power. You want to help others. I can tell from the few times we’ve worked together. Women like you are rarely in charge for very long. Eventually some power-hungry dipshit will come gunning for you, or the Agency will find someone more willing to kiss ass and kowtow to the Guardians. That leaves you with a narrow window of opportunity to act and to do something good.”
“How do I know I can trust you?”
“Because if all I wanted was to go through the portal, I wouldn’t be asking for permission, or help. I’d just find a way through.”
Sanders nodded. “Let me run it up the chain and see what we get from the bosses. How do I get in touch with you?”
John handed her a cell phone. “Call me on that. Number’s already in there. Just one thing before I go. Your bosses will try and convince you to not go through with this. Maybe they’ll even tell you to act like you’re going to help, then capture me at the last minute and bring me to their godforsaken “research” facility. But you’ll be betraying humanity if you do. I need you make this happen, even if that means standing up to your bosses. Can you do that, Serena?”
“I’ll see what I can do,” she said, not meeting his eyes.
John sighed. “Well, I guess that’ll have to be good enough for now.”
He opened the door and escaped into the night.
Three
Abigail
Abigail could hardly believe her eyes as they crossed from one world into the next.
Skies were purple here instead of blue. The grass was so bright green it felt like a cartoon. And the world smelled so different — the air rich with sweet scents she’d never smelled on Earth. Abigail wasn’t sure if they were
smelling food in some nearby town or fruits and flowers from unseen fields that she couldn’t even imagine.
It was nighttime back home, but daytime here.
Abigail’s skin wasn’t burning from the sun.
She looked over at her friend Talani, then at Judith and Solomon, Judith’s husband. The women wore matching long, plain brown dresses with dark hoods and cloaks, while Solomon was in brown pants and a plain gray shirt, no cloak or hood, and a leather pack strapped to his back. Their clothing reminded Abigail of early American settlers, and it felt odd being in a dress and uncomfortable leather shoes that were nothing like her usual sneakers.
They stood in awe of the world around them, absorbing the myriad sights that Abigail was still trying to process.
“Why aren’t we burning?” she asked the other vampires.
Talani looked over to Abigail, her dark skin practically glowing.
Abigail looked down at her own pale skin. It was also glowing, as was Judith’s and Solomon’s sheer white skin, which only seemed to brighten their white hair.
Talani smiled. “Solomon used a spell to keep us safe from the sun.”
Though the sun wasn’t harming her, Abigail could still sense its warmth, and it felt fabulous. Between the years she’d spent imprisoned in Randy Webster’s closet and those following John turning her into a vampire, she’d almost forgotten the feel of sun on her skin.
She fell to the ground, running her hands through the thick green grass, digging her fingers into the rich soil, tears of joy streaming down her cheeks.
“This is soooo beautiful,” she said to Talani.
Talani fell to the ground beside Abigail, embracing the girl and holding her tight. “Aren’t you glad you came?”
Abigail flinched from the hug, used to avoiding contact with everyone but John — whom she rarely ever saw — lest they die by her touch. But then she remembered that Talani was just like her, a vampire. She hugged her new friend back, and felt even warmer.
She’d been on this world less than five minutes and already felt at home.
She’d been reluctant to leave everything she knew behind, especially leaving with these people she didn’t know. But John was busy with his government work, and she couldn’t stay with Larry, not after she accidentally killed her tutor, Katya, the first girl Abigail had allowed into her heart since her mother’s death, a woman she could tell that Larry was falling for. He might have eventually forgiven Abigail, but he’d never fully trust her. How could he, when she didn’t even trust the monster inside her — the one that needed feeding to keep her alive?
Better to be with others like me, even if they’re strangers.
While she wasn’t sure what to make of Judith — the woman felt a bit icy — or Solomon, who seemed so quiet, Abigail thought she could really come to like Talani.
The girl was only a few years older than Abigail. And she, more than anyone, seemed to understand what Abigail was going through — her pain at having killed innocents, and someone close to her.
“Yes,” Abigail said. “I’m so glad I came.”
Talani stood, offered her hands to Abigail, then helped her to stand, then began to spin her around. Abigail felt carefree, like a little kid on a playground.
They collapsed to the ground, laughing.
And laughter had never felt better.
As Judith and Solomon surveyed the clearing, Abigail and Talani lay staring up at the sky and its woolly white clouds.
“The sky looks so cool,” Abigail said. “I wonder why it’s purple.”
“I don’t know, but you’re right: it is cool.”
Abigail looked at Judith and Solomon — standing near the tree line, hands held, eyes closed, faces turned to the sky.
“What are they doing?”
“Probably trying to find a bird to hijack its sight so they can find the town.”
“They can do that? Tap into animals to see through their eyes? Can we do that?”
“Judith and Solomon can, yes. Solomon tried to teach me, but I haven’t been able to get the hang of it. But they’ve been vampires a lot longer than I have.”
“How long?”
“I dunno. Thousands of years?”
“What about you?”
Talani didn’t answer.
Abigail rolled over to see her friend’s face. Talani stared up at the sky as if wrestling with whether she wanted to talk about herself.
“Long enough,” she finally said. Given her lack of eye contact and tone of voice, Abigail decided to drop it. The last thing she wanted was to make her new friend uncomfortable.
Abigail rolled back over, stared at the sky, and tried to think of a way to transition from the awkward silence.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to —”
“It’s okay. Just not something I like to think about. But hey, I’m sure none of us has a good story on how we turned, right?”
Abigail thought about her own turning — shot in a motel parking lot, dying until John gifted her with his curse.
She told Talani her story.
“And are you glad he turned you?”
Abigail kept staring at the clouds, even though she could tell that Talani was now lying on her side, looking at her.
“I dunno. I mean, I guess I’m glad I’m not dead, but at the same time, I don’t like feeding on other people to survive.”
“Yeah, it can be tough.”
“How do you do it, Talani? You seem nice. How do you decide whose life to take so you can live?”
“At first it was tough. I didn’t want to feed. But I was young.”
“How old were you when you turned?”
“Five.”
Abigail sat up, met her friend’s haunted eyes.
“Five?”
“Yeah.”
“But you look sixteen.” Abigail remembered Judith saying she could use a spell to age them. “Did Judith age you?”
“Yeah,” Talani said, plucking fat green blades of grass from the ground and running them through her fingers.
“Oh, wow.”
Abigail stared at the blades, her mind turning the possibility of Judith aging her. Talani, either sensing Abigail’s thoughts or invading them again, said, “You want her to age you, don’t you?”
Abigail felt guilty, though she didn’t know why.
“Maybe. Why?”
“Just asking.”
“Do you think I should?”
“I dunno. Why do you want to be older?”
“I don’t know.”
“Sure you do,” Talani said, meeting her eyes, challenging Abigail.
“I don’t like being a helpless child. First my parents died, leaving me all alone in the world. Then my only family, my jerk of an uncle, sold me to a man who kept me in a closet as a sex slave. And then I got kidnapped by this evil vampire, Jacob. Then I wound up staying in a house with John’s friend, Larry, who was super nice. But, as you know, I then accidentally killed a family of innocent people, and then my only friend. Nothing good has come from my childhood. The sooner it’s over, the sooner I can start a new life.”
Talani looked at Abigail, her smile kind. “Everything will be better now. I promise.”
Abigail wanted to ask her how she could be sure. They hardly knew one another, and were on a world that neither of them was familiar with. How could she be confident enough to promise what she couldn’t possibly know?
But Abigail said nothing.
There was something comforting about Talani’s blind optimism that made Abigail almost believe her. She certainly wanted to believe her, anyway.
“Thank you,” Abigail said, wanting to hug Talani, but not comfortable enough to initiate.
Talani reached over and hugged Abigail again.
Abigail wasn’t sure if the girl was in her head and knew she wanted a hug, but oddly, she didn’t even care. The thought of someone else being there gave her comfort, especially after John being gone from her head for so long.
The
sound of footsteps broke the moment.
Judith and Solomon were heading toward them.
Talani stood and helped Abigail to her feet. “What’s up?” Talani asked. “Did you find the town?”
“Yes,” Judith said. “We’re about a day’s walk from Jonah.”
“Jonah?” Abigail asked. “Is that a town or person?”
“Both,” said Solomon. “My sister, Cassandra, lives there, with other Outcasts under the town. We’ll be safe.”
As they walked, Judith explained that the town beneath the town was a refuge for other vampires and freaks shunned from The Forgotten City, and hunted in The Freelands by The Hand of the Seven Gods. They were given safe passage under The South’s oldest town, Jonah.
Abigail wasn’t sure how much she liked the idea of living in an underground town, but didn’t want to seem whiny. She could take things one day at a time. So long as Talani stayed by her side, things wouldn’t be too bad.
Abigail couldn’t stop gawking as they made their way out of the woods then traveled along a brick-paved road toward Jonah. Everywhere she looked, there was something she’d never seen — from giant, ancient trees to birds and other animals that looked both odd and somewhat familiar at the same time, like evolutionary cousins to animals on Earth. There were large white birds that looked like cockatoos, but far larger. Long rodent-like beasts scurrying along the brush on either side of the road. Creatures that she couldn’t quite make out scampering in the shadows of the brush.
Abigail also heard exotic noises she’d never heard: chirps and birdsong, insect-like buzzing and clicking, the occasional unidentifiable animal yelp that made her jump. The sounds made her think of an old black-and-white movie she’d seen on TV one night when she couldn’t find anything else to watch, about a man named Tarzan who grew up in the jungle.
She remembered his yell and had to stifle a giggle as she imagined herself swinging on a vine and doing the same thing.
Talani looked over and smiled. “What?”