The Next Generation

by S. C. Stephens

  Once inside, I stayed near the remains of the slider as Halina and Gabriel blurred throughout the home. Dad was on high alert as he protectively stood in front of me. By the complete lack of sound or activity, I was beginning to think Hunter and his dad had already skipped town. The dining room and kitchen supported that theory. Things were knocked over, scattered, and ingredients for what looked like a spaghetti dinner were strewn over the countertop.

  Halina blurred back to us, her face grim. “It’s empty. The cowards fled—”

  The heat kicked on as she was speaking, and some sort of white powder started billowing out of every vent. In seconds, we were all coated with stuff that looked like flour, flour speckled with something bright and shiny. A hazy cloud of it hung in the air, floating like dust on its slow descent to the ground. Halina cut off mid-sentence. Eyes going wide, she clutched at her throat. As I watched in horror, she gasped and coughed at the same time. Eyes rolling back into her head, she fell to her knees. Then she started convulsing.

  Dad was at her side in an instant. “Great-Gran?”

  Gabriel blurred back to us, his jade eyes no longer aloof. “Halina?”

  Dad held her in his arms as her shaking intensified. Foamy blood bubbled over her lips as she sputtered and shook. I stared in shock, unable to believe what I was seeing. Halina was invincible. A fortress. Nothing touched her…ever. “Dad, what’s wrong with her?”

  Gabriel bent to her side, then he started coughing too. It was a much subtler reaction than Halina’s had been, but he was obviously uncomfortable. Gabriel’s eyes took in the light layer of sparkly flour covering the ground, covering us. Coughing, he faced Dad. “The powder…it’s cut with silver…the vent dispersed it into the air, into our lungs. We need…to get…her out.”

  Dad and I were the only ones not affected by the silver cloud—it burned my throat and my nose, but that was about it—so I helped Gabriel leave while Dad scooped Halina into his arms. We were outside seconds later, but Halina was still struggling, shaking, foaming at the mouth. Gabriel was still coughing, flecks of blood on his lips. Dad blurred away to the side of the house, then came back with a hose, and began spraying everyone down. The water was freezing, and I felt like I was going to turn into a popsicle before Dad was satisfied I was clean, but I didn’t care. Halina and Gabriel were coughing and wheezing; cleaning off the powder wasn’t helping them.

  Water dripping off him, Gabriel choked out, “Take her home, Teren,” then blurred away.

  Dad tore off with Halina, leaving me alone in the dark yard, freezing cold and dripping wet. Fear started pressing in on me, but I beat it back. I looked over at Hunter’s house, the slider shattered, its glass strewn everywhere. I could just see the thin layer of vampire-deadly dust covering everything inside, could see the remnants of it mixed into the muddy yard where we’d rinsed off. “What have you done to my family, Hunter?” I asked the pitch-blackness.

  Only a neighbor’s dog’s howl answered me, so I tore off into the night after my father.

  Our home was a bustle of activity when I got there. Mom’s chilly arms flew around me, wrapping a towel around my wet body before squeezing me tight. “What took you so long, Julian? I nearly blurred out to get you!”

  I couldn’t answer Mom. My eyes were glued on the chaos swarming behind her in the living room. Dad had laid Halina down on the couch. She was still gasping, convulsing. Gabriel was in a chair across from her, struggling to breathe. Dad and Ben looked at a loss as to how to help either vampire. Nika was watching the scene, her hands covering her mouth. Shock and horror filled my sister and over the din of panic in the room, I heard her muttering, “He did this? Hunter did this?”

  I pushed Mom away so I could comfort my heartbroken sister. That was when things went downhill with my grandmother. She started to cough up blood…then she started heaving blood. I froze, halfway to Nika, staring at Halina in disbelief. The once-white couch was quickly coated in pools of dark, almost black blood. I’d never seen someone vomit blood. It was absolutely horrifying.

  Dad was squatted by her side, trying to help her. His shirt and hands were soaked with water and Halina’s blood, but there was nothing he could do for her but watch. There was nothing any of us could do but watch. Mom blurred away to get some more towels, then rushed to Dad’s side. She wiped what she could from Halina’s face; the towel and her fingers were quickly stained red. “What happened?” she clipped, her voice laced with panic.

  Gabriel, coughing and sputtering a much smaller amount of blood, croaked out, “Silver…we were coated…in silver. Teren…rinsed it off well…but it’s…inside her. It’s still…inside her.”

  Mom twisted around to Gabriel. “Inside her? How do we get it out?”

  Dad shook his head, a bloody hand running down his face. “We don’t…” he whispered.

  Mom looked between Dad and Gabriel, her eyes wide. “Will this kill her?” She said it quietly, like somehow Nika and I wouldn’t hear her if she talked low enough. She couldn’t possibly talk low enough, though—not with our hearing.

  Gabriel wheezed, coughing into his hand. The room laced with tension as we all waited for Gabriel to pronounce Halina’s fate. When he could breathe, he shook his head. “I don’t know.”

  Somehow, the fact that Gabriel didn’t know what would happen, didn’t know what to do…made all this worse. I felt my knees start to give way as despair rocketed through my body. Nika zipped over to me, holding me up. She gave me her strength while I gave her my comfort. I didn’t know how to deal with this. Halina couldn’t die. I couldn’t imagine my family without her. She was our protector. She was our provider. For all intents and purposes, she was the leader of our nest, our Alpha. Without her… I just couldn’t imagine her being gone.

  As Nika and I sank into a chair, Ben put a hand on Dad’s shoulder. Dad looked up at him, grief-stricken. “Teren,” Ben said. “We should call the others. They would…” He swallowed, his eyes misting as he watched Halina project even more blood, “…they would want to be here if she doesn’t…” He closed his eyes, not finishing his statement.

  Dad nodded. Standing, he reached his bloody hand into his wet pocket and grabbed his phone. Thankfully it still worked. Dad’s hand trembled as he called the ranch. Pressing the back of his blood-smeared hand to his mouth, he visibly shook as the phone rang, and I knew it wasn’t the cold that was bothering him. Dad locked gazes with me as he waited. I couldn’t look away from him, from the grief and guilt I saw in his eyes. Dad felt responsible. He wasn’t responsible for this though. No, this was all my fault.

  If I hadn’t gone to that party, if I hadn’t dropped fang in front of Hunter, Nika wouldn’t have realized that her boyfriend knew about vampires. Then she wouldn’t have started prying into how much he knew. She wouldn’t have uncovered the truth, and Halina would be fine. Some wizened part of me knew that I was taking too much blame, knew that I was only at fault for a tiny portion of the events that had led up to this, but seeing the weight of the world in my dad’s eyes made me want to take all the blame. Anything to lighten his load.

  The line clicked on and Dad’s eyes shifted to just above my shoulder. “Mom?” His voice broke. Alanna heard the pain in Dad’s tone, and I heard her ask what was wrong. Dad let out a shuddering breath. “You need to come to the house. Everyone needs to come to the house. Something’s wrong with Great-Gran.”

  Imogen responded to Dad. “Something’s wrong with Mother? What?”

  Dad shook his head. “Just come out to the house. And…hurry.” The line clicked dead, and I felt Imogen’s presence start to rush toward us. Alanna stayed behind, to wait for the humans who’d have to travel by car. Imogen couldn’t wait, though, if her mother needed her.

  Dad set his red-tinged phone onto the coffee table. He was a sight to see as he stared at me—straight out of a horror movie. He was soaking wet, his clothes a mixture of water and blood. His face was streaked with blood, and a bright patch shone on his lips from where he’d pressed
the back of his hand to his mouth. His fangs were down, too, since any exposure to blood made them naturally drop. It took a great deal of will power to pull them back up once we’d tasted fresh blood—any sort of blood, even our own. Dad obviously didn’t care too much about it now.

  As we all listened to Halina expelling the very thing that was keeping her alive, Dad flicked his gaze between Nika and me. “Julian, you should take a shower, make sure all that stuff is off you. Then…you two should go to bed. You have school tomorrow.” His voice was tired, lifeless.

  Nika and I shook our heads at the same time. Feeling that Nika’s feelings matched my own, right down to the guilt, I told him, “We’re not leaving her side, Dad. Don’t even try and make us.”

  Not having it in him to argue, Dad nodded wearily and turned back to Halina. Mom was smoothing back her hair, cooing and comforting her like she did with us when we were sick. Our once pristine couch was soaked with red now. It looked like a scene from my favorite crime show, and I suddenly didn’t think it was my favorite show anymore. In fact, I might never watch it again.

  Imogen showed up to the house moments later. She burst through the door, looking frazzled and frightened. We all looked up at her when she zipped into the living room. She completely froze when she saw her mother, still vomiting blood. Her mouth dropped open, and twin, red teardrops fell from her eyes. “Mommy?” she whispered.

  She fell to her mother’s side after that, pushing aside Mom and Dad so she could help Halina. Nika sniffled, laying her head on my shoulder. I squeezed her hand, determined to be strong enough to make it through the pain ripping my gut apart.

  The rest of the family eventually showed up, and the house was a buzz of grief, tears, and plans. No one knew what to do for Halina, though, other than watch and wait and try to provide as much of a silver-free environment as possible. To make sure the vile stuff was gone from our skin and clothes, every family member who had been exposed to the silver cloud, besides Halina, who was too weak to move, took a shower and changed. Then all the boys were kicked out of the living room so Mom and Imogen could wash Halina as best they could, and put her in new clothes. I could hear Halina heaving blood the entire time they tried to clean her. When they were done, they both showered and changed clothes, just to be on the safe side.

  While Dad and Ben talked science with a still-coughing Gabriel in the kitchen, Nika sat with me on my bed. “It’s my fault, Julie. It’s all my fault.”

  As I hushed her, my own guilt bubbled to the surface. “No, it’s not all your fault. I’m to blame too, Nick.”

  She pulled back to look at me, her eyes bloodshot, her face wan. “I’m the one who fell for a vampire hunter. I’m the one who brought him into our lives.”

  I shook my head. “And he’s the one who did this.” Hatred brimmed in me as I thought of all the pain, suffering, and…blood. My guilt burned into anger, igniting the fire that was growing in my belly. No, this wasn’t Dad’s fault, this wasn’t my fault, and this wasn’t even Nika’s fault. It was Hunter’s fault.

  “Hunter is to blame for this. For all of this,” I hissed. My hard eyes returned to Nika’s. “This is his fault. His, no one else’s. And he will pay for it, Nika. Trust me.”

  My sister’s eyes widened at my declaration, but she didn’t say anything. She couldn’t. Her emotions were a mix of jumbled confusion. Mine were finally crystal clear though. Hunter had hurt my family. Hunter was a threat. Hunter had made it clear that he wouldn’t tolerate our kind. It was our survival or Hunter’s, and, as much as I wanted my sister to get her happily ever after, I wanted my family safe more. Sorry Hunter, but if it’s my family or yours…I choose mine.

  An hour or so later, Gabriel’s discomfort started easing. We all took that as a good sign. It was an even better sign when Halina stopped chucking up blood. Around four in the morning, she was finally calm and peaceful. Her face was sunken, her snow-white skin ashen. She’d lost so much blood. Holding her head in her lap, Imogen stroked her now-dry hair. “We should get her home before the sun comes up,” she murmured.

  Gabriel examined her, lifting parts of her lifeless, exhausted body. She offered no resistance against him. She hadn’t responded to any of us since the silver attack had begun. To a casual observer, she seemed like a lifeless corpse, not even breathing. But Gabriel assured us that she was alive, that she was recovering. How he knew I had no idea, but the fact that he seemed sure gave me hope.

  Tilting his head up to Imogen, Gabriel nodded. “Yes, she needs rest and food to fully recover from this.” A tired smile on his lips, he twisted to Dad. “But I believe she will.”

  Dad nodded as Gabriel scooped up Halina. Like a ragdoll, her head fell back and her arms fell to her sides. Gabriel blurred out of the house with her, Imogen close on his heels. I sleepily felt their bodies phasing back to the safety of the ranch. There Halina would be safe and nourished. There she could recover. Alanna, Grandpa, and Grandma Linda stayed with us until morning.

  Grandma Linda was asleep on the smaller couch with Mom protectively watching over her when it was time to get ready for school. I really didn’t want to go. It somehow felt like the least important thing in my life. I wanted to be back at the ranch, or out hunting Hunter and his father. Something more productive than learning about isosceles triangles.

  As I debated telling Mom that I couldn’t go to school since I’d been awake for twenty-four straight hours, Dad sauntered into the living room and clapped my shoulder. “Go get ready for school, Julian.”

  He was still dressed in the casual clothes he’d changed into after his shower last night. I frowned at his jeans and T-shirt. He typically dressed a little nicer when he went to work. “Aren’t you and Mom working today?”

  Mom and Dad exchanged glances. Mom had emerged from her shower casually dressed, too, but I hadn’t thought much about it since it had been really early in the morning. She was still dressed in jeans, though, as she stroked her fingers through her sleeping mother’s hair.

  I sighed when I realized what was going on. “You’re taking us to school, aren’t you?” Dad returned his eyes to mine. Before he could say anything, I added, “And you’re going to hang around the grounds, protecting us all day, right?”

  As I stood up, my joints tired and almost unwilling to straighten, Dad shrugged and pointed over to the long couch that was now saturated with my grandmother’s blood. “Can you blame me for wanting to stay close to you?”

  Listening to my sister upstairs, sniffling as she was getting ready for school, I told him, “Hunter thinks we’re human, Dad. He won’t hurt us.” My voice came out in a growl. He might not hurt us, but I couldn’t say I’d extend him the same courtesy.

  Dad narrowed his eyes at my tone. “That might be so, but I can’t risk it. I’m taking you today and staying as close to you as I can.”

  As I trudged upstairs, annoyed that after everything, school was still on the table, I heard Dad address Ben. “We need to let Starla and Jacen in on this. They need to know there’s a threat in the area. They need to be a little more…cautious.”

  Sighing, I stomped into my room and started looking around for my backpack. Nika knocked on my side of the bathroom door while I was sifting through piles of dirty clothes. “Come on in,” I told her.

  She cracked open the door, shoving back clothes and books that were in the door’s path as she stepped into my room. Looking down at the ground, to where our parents were calmly discussing guard duty details with our grandparents, Nika said, “I can’t believe this is happening.” She looked back up at me. “I can’t believe Hunter did this to Grandma…to me. I’m so sorry…” She let that sentence linger, permeating the house, meaning for everyone to hear it.

  Hurt and pain filled her, and I put my arm around her shoulders. “It’s okay, Nick,” I whispered into her hair. She held me back, the tears in her eyes dropping to her cheeks.

  Dad and Ben drove us to school while Mom went to the ranch with Alanna, Grandpa, and Grandma Linda.
Dad and Ben seemed to think that they would be safer if they were all together. I agreed. We would be safer together, so why weren’t we all together? Why the hell did Nika and I still have to go to school? If anything justified playing hooky, this was it.

  As Dad parked the car in the school’s lot, I leaned forward from the back seat. “We should be at the ranch too, Dad. Why are we at school?”

  Dad twisted in his seat to look at me. His pale eyes were stern, but warm. “Your education shouldn’t suffer because of…because of small-minded people.” He nodded his head over to Ben beside him. “And besides, you’ve got us as your personal bodyguards, so you’ll be fine.”

  Ben raised his chin, smiling brilliantly. A scar near his eye reminded me that Ben and Dad weren’t exactly strangers to violence. Even though I didn’t see my dad as scary or imposing, I knew he could be when needed.

  We all got out of the vehicle at the same time. Dad stayed near Nika; Ben stayed near me. Their eyes searched the campus, scanning for any sort of threat. Having bodyguards was strange, to say the least. It also felt extremely unnecessary since I didn’t think Hunter would hurt us poor, misinformed humans. He was probably a couple of states away by now anyway.

  As we walked, I wondered if Dad and Ben were going to take us all the way into class, maybe pretend to be high school students and sit with us during lessons. Dad could pull it off, maybe. He’d be a very old senior…maybe a fifth or sixth timer. Ben, however, wouldn’t be able to hide his middle-aged gray hairs and laugh lines. If Starla hadn’t killed off our imaginary father in the personal drama she’d created for our lives, Ben could have played our dad. Maybe he still could…the bar fight death could have been an elaborate ruse to get out of paying child support.