by Lan Chan
Unsure what to do, I slammed my foot against the shared wall. The vibration got their attention. The man’s eyes snapped open. They were bloodshot and his pupils dilated.
He let fly with a bunch of curses. Far from being embarrassed, he lifted the woman off him and punched the wall. I hopped off the toilet and ran outside just as he went for the door to his stall.
Rachel gave me a knowing look. “Don’t tell me, he didn’t appreciate being interrupted.”
“What the hell is going on? He just sat there letting her feed off him.”
“That’s the thing, isn’t it? They don’t even know they’re prey. The endorphins in a vampire bite have them coming back time and again.”
“How…how long can they do this?”
“How long can a person regenerate blood?”
The answer of course was indefinitely. “Shouldn’t we do something about this?”
“Like what? Should we call the cops and tell them a vampire is feeding off humans? Do you think they’ll believe us?” She ground into the table with her knife. “Or should we just take matters into our own hands and stake her? In which case, we’ll bring the rest of the vamps down on us and will most likely end up dead.”
I wanted to go for option two but she got up and we left instead. “So we’re not going to do anything?” I asked when we got into the car. There was a parking fine on the window. Rachel ripped it off and threw it on the ground.
She drove us back. I thought we were returning to Terran when she made a turnoff just outside of Geelong. We stopped in front of what I thought might be a private hospital. The sign outside read: Terran General.
We went through the sliding doors on the side of the cream building. I braced myself for the usual smell of low-grade cleaning supplies and boiled food. It was there but it was overlayed with the scent of freshly cut wildflowers.
Rachel led me through the wings that reminded me very much of the infirmary at Bloodline. The stark difference was impressed on me when she pushed open the double swinging doors. Every single bed was occupied. The patients in those beds were in various stages of disrepair. Some of them were strapped down whilst others sat on the edges of their bed, their eyes completely devoid of recognition.
A half-dozen able-bodied people moved between the beds. They weren’t dressed as nurses but they administered aid. One of these women nodded at Rachel.
I didn’t know where to look. The patients were groaning in their beds. Some of them lashed out and had to be restrained.
“I don’t understand,” I said. “What’s wrong with them?”
Rachel leaned against the wall, her face grim. “What does it look like to you?”
It didn’t take long to come up with an assessment. “They act like drug addicts.”
She nodded. By her shoulder, one of the patients turned over on his bed. He saw me and stopped moving. For a second, his eyes narrowed. Then they widened and he gave me a toothy smile. “Well, if it isn’t the Alley-Cat,” he said. “I thought you’d run away for good.”
Right now I wish I had.
33
I moved around Rachel and approached Randall’s bed. While I was homeless, we’d had an uneasy alliance. Aside from that one incident with the rat, he had been good to me. Now he watched me with murky eyes that couldn’t seem to focus.
“You look like you’ve had a couple of square meals,” he said.
“You look like you’ve gone a couple of rounds with a street sweeper,” I informed him. The hacking laugh he produced made me wince. Despite being homeless, he always managed to pinch a cigarette off someone. I wouldn’t be surprised if he had emphysema. “How did you end up here?”
I sat at the edge of his bed. A single bed that somehow managed to dwarf him all the same. He’d never been a big guy. That was part of the reason why we were drawn together. Two skinny outcasts trying to make it on the mean streets. His emaciated frame and the blue veins popping out of his arms said the mean streets were winning. He tapped at his throat and I caught sight of the multiple puncture wounds. My eyes flicked to Rachel for a second but she was mute.
“Got me some money-making leads,” he said. “Was gonna come back for you eventually, but you were long gone by then.”
That was Randall all over. He used to say he’d come into some scheme to make money and get himself off the streets. “What kind of leads?”
His eyes shut. He breathed like he was sucking in air through a tailpipe. “Giving blood.” I already knew the answer but having him confirm it made me green.
“You know that’s illegal, right?”
He laughed again. It was scratchy. “Nah, this ain’t for the government.”
Like that made it okay somehow. “You’re not going to do it anymore, are you?”
This time, when his eyes opened, they were creased at the sides. His slack mouth puckered. “I’m trying to. But these narcs won’t let me outta here.” He grabbed my hand. His skin was somehow both dry and clammy at the same time. “You come to get me outta here didn’t ya?”
I wasn’t sure what to say. Rachel chose that moment to make her entrance. She pressed what appeared to be a taser into his neck. I heard decompressed air hiss. Randall’s eyes rolled back in his head and he fell unconscious.
I stood up when one of the helpers covered him up with blankets. “Poor bastard,” the girl said. “He’s been harvested so many times he doesn’t even know when he’s on the brink of death.”
I couldn’t do anything except sit there staring at the loose skin around Randall’s ankle. It was almost as though his blood had been sucked right out of his body leaving him a leathery shell. “Seen enough?” Rachel asked.
“What’s going to happen to him?”
“Same thing as everybody else in here. We try and revive them, and once they get out they usually go right back to what they were doing before.”
“Who’s giving them money for their blood?”
“Who do you think?”
I tried to reason with her. “But, in other countries, people are paid for their blood too.”
“They also have to have tests done to make sure they’re medically fit to donate. Does it look like your friend is fit for anything?”
I couldn’t get the word “friend” out of my head as we returned to Terran. Randall was a friend despite everything. He’d been there for me as much as anyone could be while I tried to survive without Nanna. Now look where he was. Would I be the same if the demon inside Nanna hadn’t tried to kill me and Kai had extracted me?
Needless to say, my sleep was fitful. At least I didn’t have a nightmare. When I went down to breakfast the next morning, Samantha and Matilda were in there with Jessica and Sean. I heard their strained voices from the hallway. They didn’t drop their heated topic of discussion when I entered.
“The soul gate will prevent any of them from entering,” Jessica said. “But we need to stockpile provisions should we be cut off for a prolonged period of time.”
“What will we do if they create a barrier around Terran?” Sean asked. I almost choked on my spit. Matilda noticed it immediately.
“How did he figure out how to counter our phasing?” she asked. Gone was the jovial demeanour and in its place was the Soul Sisterhood assassin.
“I didn’t show him anything if that’s what you’re getting at.”
We locked gazes. Neither of us would back down. She had an unwavering death stare. But I had stared down demons. I would be damned if I let them intimidate me. My eyes were straining from not blinking when Samantha reached out and shook Matilda’s arm. The other woman finally broke eye contact.
“We’re not going to get anywhere fighting amongst ourselves,” Samantha said. “Alessia hasn’t betrayed us.”
Her words seemed to be enough to placate everybody else. “But you can help us,” Jessica said. “You can tell us whether the supernaturals are thinking of an assault.”
“You just got done interrogating me for being their spy. Now you
want me to be yours?”
Samantha rubbed her eyes. It was the first time I’d seen her distressed since the beginning. “We need to know how much time we’ve got to make preparations,” she said.
“Preparations for what?”
“Don’t kid yourself,” Matilda said. “We’ve lost our one advantage. Any minute now, those supernaturals are going come for us. Just like they did last time.”
There was nothing I could say to that. They spent the next day basically battening down the hatches. What concerned me were the wooden crates they were stacking against the kitchen walls.
“What’s inside those?” I asked Sean.
“Insurance,” he said, before walking away without actually telling me anything. I spent the day in the library trying to brush up on my summoning skills. Phoenix sensed the mood in the place and refused to leave my side. Thankfully, everybody was too preoccupied to notice him underfoot.
Close to the time when I was meant to be dropped off at the fern forest, Samantha and Matilda took me aside. “Are you sure you want to go back?” Samantha asked. Matilda leaned against the hallway banister. She appeared to be lounging but I noticed she now wore a hip holster holding a strange-looking gun.
“Why wouldn’t I?”
She closed her eyes slowly. “There will come a time soon when you’ll have to make a choice. I sincerely hope you choose well.”
Sean and Rachel both wore similar guns to the ones Matilda had on her person. Neither of them said a word as Phoenix and I got out the back seat at that drop-off point. This time, Kai was waiting for me. He noticed the rather chilly send-off.
“That was…civil,” he said.
“Oh don’t start. I’ve had just about enough of everybody trying to get one up on each other. How did you figure out the soul phasing thing anyway?”
Anybody else might have been smug about unravelling this puzzle that had eluded the supernaturals for centuries. Kai simply blinked. “It was only a matter of time,” he said. “Though you did help me a little.”
“I did no such thing.”
“You did more than you’ll ever know.”
I waited for him to elaborate. It wasn’t forthcoming.
“Fine. Keep your stupid secrets.”
He curled his arm around me and teleported. We came through on the other side in my room. Sophie wasn’t around. Disappointment added to my irritation at him being tight-lipped.
“I’m not going to tell them if that’s what you’re worried about.”
He grabbed me when I tried to stalk past. His fingers laced around my arm. “I’m not questioning your loyalty.”
I tried to shake him off but he held firm and drew me into an embrace. Frustration tried to take hold of me, but it melted into the weightless feeling I always got when he was around. “Nobody questions anything, but I bet I’m still locked out of where I want to go.” He tipped my head up when I refused to look at him.
“This isn’t about you.”
I scowled. “They’re trying to help me free Nanna. But we can’t do anything because she’s in Seraphina and I’m not allowed in there. It’s ridiculous. She’s my grandmother. Who the hell are the Council to tell me if I can see her?”
He ran his hand through his hair. The breath he let out felt...inevitable. Like he’d been waiting for us to get into this argument. The thought scraped unpleasantly at me. Whether we liked it or not, a line was being drawn in the sand. Something occurred to me.
“You thought I’d go there and hate it, didn’t you?”
He didn’t bother to deny it. “I thought you’d see that they’re unhinged.”
“They are. But then again, they have every right to be.” I hedged my bets. “Did you know Rachel when she lived in Rivia?”
He shook his head immediately. “I didn’t have much to do with the general population until after my family were murdered.” He cupped my cheek. “They’d say and do anything to get you on their side.”
I snorted. “At least they’re letting me make the decision.”
“There are so few of them. It’s much easier to be magnanimous when they don’t have hundreds of different voices constantly bleating at them.”
His jaw clamped as he spoke those words. I recognised the weariness in it. For a second, the tug of my affection for him suggested that I should drop the subject. But it was also what he said that had me pausing. There were so many supernaturals compared to the Soul Sisterhood. And they had just lost their one advantage. I would be just as insane if I were in their position. I caught myself referring to them as though I wasn’t a part of them. The same way I’d done while I was at Terran. If loyalty was the ultimate question here, where did mine reside?
I brushed my hand over my face. All of a sudden, the last four days caught up to me. My energy levels crashed. I sat down heavily on the bed. “Blue?”
Kai crouched in front of me, his hand intertwined with mine. “How come you never call me by my real name?”
For as long as I lived, I would never get used to the way he became motionless when he was caught by surprise. It didn’t happen often enough. Malachi Pendragon was always prepared. But sometimes, when I was very lucky, I’d say something that caught him off guard.
“Do you want me to drop the nickname?” His voice was a rough caress. His let go of my hand and scraped his palm down my leg until he clutched my calf. There was nowhere for me to go. I sat there dumbstruck like a deer in headlights. His startling green eyes peered at me without blinking.
“The thing is, I don’t know if either of us is prepared for what might happen,” he said. Something inside the core of me tightened. The only time I’d heard him call me by my real name was right before the cavern dropped on him. He leaned forward until our lips were inches apart.
“I don’t know if I’m prepared for it, Alessia.”
I was prepared for the kiss. But not the intensity of blazing green light that radiated off him and enveloped me in tingling heat. It seeped into my skin, heating my blood until I felt like I was way overdressed. Kai dragged me closer, the length of his body pressed against my chest. His arm formed a brace behind my back, trapping me in place. He fisted the back of my top, his knuckles grazing my oversensitive skin.
Something chimed by the wall. It was loud enough that I had the feeling it had been going off for a while. Kai’s mouth moved to the column of my neck. I gasped when his tongue lapped at the pulse point below my ear. I shuddered against him at the same time the piercing wail of a bulletin almost busted my eardrums. It was my pained whimper that pushed him to stop.
He grunted and threw a pillow at the mirror. Phoenix barked at the sound. I took a long, shuddering breath and scampered to take the call.
“It’s about time!” Basil’s voice shouted when I made the connection. His eyes flicked behind me and then creased in annoyance.
“No boys in the room.” Basil said. Then he caught sight of Phoenix. “That animal shouldn’t be there either.”
I blew out a breath through my nose. “Hi, Basil.”
Kai brushed his palm over my shoulder and teleported out. I shivered at the phantom touch. Okay, I would let him off the hook for the name thing.
“How are you?” Basil asked.
I sat cross-legged on my bed with the mirror in my lap. Phoenix hunkered down on all fours. His eyes closed. “I’m okay. A lot has been happening.”
“I’ll say. Did that boy really figure out how to counteract the Soul Sisterhood phasing?”
“He has a name.” Basil made a disgusted sound. “And yes, he did.”
“How?”
“Beats me. He claims I helped him, but I swear I did no such thing. He better not be going around telling people that’s what happened, because if the Sisterhood think I’m a spy...” I trailed off as the thought sank in. If I had inadvertently helped Kai against them, would they not want me at Terran anymore?
Basil saw my reticence. “That boy is a lot of things, but he’d not stupid enough to do anythi
ng that would hurt you.”
“Then how did he figure it out?”
“I’m not sure. How do the Sisterhood do it in the first place?”
We stared at each other. He knew well enough that I couldn’t say anything to him about their methods. “Lex. This is a dangerous game.”
“It’s not a game. Both sides want me to be their spy. You know I’m not good at this type of thing.”
He looked behind him surreptitiously. Like he was making sure there was nobody else around. “Things appear to be escalating very quickly,” he said. “I’ve heard rumours that the Council are making preparations for an assault.”
I wasn’t surprised. “I don’t understand why they can’t just talk things out. They get into a room together and it’s like they’re not able to think straight. On their own they’re perfectly reasonable.”
“Everyone thinks they’re right,” Basil said. “I’ve been around for a long time. But not as long as some others. This isn’t the first time someone has had the bright idea of revealing our existence to the humans. No matter how it happens, there will always be an initial period of mass hysteria.”
I braced my chin on my balled fists. “The humans are dead set that it’s happening. They...I think they’re afraid.”
Basil nodded. “Of course they are. Their deity has disappeared and they’re contending with rumours that Lucifer is mounting a return.”
Hearing his name from somebody else was like a switch. I opened my mouth automatically as though I was going to spew everything I knew but my voice died. I scented smoke in the air. My mouth felt like it was coated in ash.
“Lex?”
I choked on a cough. Phoenix opened one eye and regarded me quizzically. “I’m okay.” My eyes stung with tears. I wasn’t sure whether it was from the frustration or the physical barrier. “How do I choose? I feel like I should warn someone. I just can’t figure out who.”