The Next Generation

by S. C. Stephens

  Starla snorted and popped a bubble with her gum. The apple scent floated past me, along with her chuckles. Dad shot her a glance, but looked back at Halina with determination in his eyes. “It’s a decent plan. We’ll discuss it on the way.”

  Halina grumbled and complained while she waited for the sun to set, but she didn’t offer any alternative plan and didn’t object when it was time to leave. She gave my friends meaningful looks on the drive there as she sat next to Julian and me in Arianna’s Mom’s minivan. I could tell she was determining just how long our friends would know all our secrets. Now that it was out there, I hated the fact that it would all be taken away. Our friends would never get to remember this moment.

  Running a hand through her long, dark locks, Halina finally locked gazes with me. In Russian, she confirmed what I’d been thinking. “Your friends cannot be allowed to remember this.”

  Hating the thought of going back to lying all the time, I countered, “They’re fine with what we are. They won’t say a word.” I’d replied to her in Russian, and never having heard me talk that way before, Trey twisted in the front seat to stare at me, wide-eyed.

  “It does not matter,” Halina said. “They know a secret that we share with very few. They are young…and youth talk.”

  Julian leaned around me. His emotion was simmering at the same level of desperation mine was—he wanted our friends to remember. He wanted a small piece of normalcy, wanted a friend in this world that he didn’t have to lie to. “They care about our safety, they won’t say a word.” Eyes imploring, he added, “We can trust them.”

  Halina stared us both down. “The only humans we allow to know are those who have gone above and beyond to protect us…or those we chose as our mates, those who might continue the line.” She cocked an eyebrow. “Is either of them going to breed with you? Give us offspring?”

  I was already shaking my head, but Julian turned his eyes to Arianna as she drove. Arianna was watching our conversation in the mirror. By the confusion on her face, she understood Russian just about as well as Trey did. And like Trey, she also seemed surprised that we spoke it.

  Before Julian could answer, Dad, sitting behind us, leaned over the seat. His voice was heated as he addressed Halina. “Stop it with the breeding talk. My children are under no obligation to continue the line. You know this. We’ve discussed it at length.”

  I felt my cheeks heat with embarrassment and was instantly grateful that the two humans in the car had no idea what the vampires were talking about. Julian’s mood mirrored mine. I looked back at Mom beside Dad. She was concentrating hard on the conversation—trying to keep up with the low and fast foreign language—but she was nodding in agreement with Dad. Gabriel seemed impassive about the entire thing. He probably didn’t care either way if a couple of teenagers knew the truth.

  Halina’s eyes got a little fiery as she held Dad’s gaze. “I’m aware of your feelings on the matter. I was simply making a point.” Her eyes returned to mine. “If you have no romantic interest in them, then the children will be wiped clean when this is over. End of discussion.”

  I felt my eyes sting as I faced front, ignoring her. I knew it was pointless to argue with Halina, but I still wanted to. Julian did, too, I could tell by his mood and the antsy way he kept changing his position. I thought he’d wear a hole in his jeans with all his shifting. Julian’s gaze stayed locked on Arianna the entire car ride. I wasn’t sure what that meant. Julian wasn’t sure either—all I felt coming from him was confusion.

  Things were still quiet in the car when we got back into Salt Lake City. We drove past the numerous monolithic churches, our vehicle as solemn as those sacred places. Contrary to the jokes that ran throughout the countryside, not everyone in Utah was Mormon. In fact, I didn’t think anyone currently riding in the car was. My own family had a more scientific view of things—an appreciation of nature and the circle of life, and the understanding that there was probably something bigger behind it all. Since my future was potentially infinite, I’d never really dwelled on religion, but as I passed by church after church, I started to wonder if maybe I should say a quick prayer for my family.

  The car stopped at a red light as I was staring at a temple about the size of the ranch. The glow from the signal cast an eerie red sheen on everyone’s faces. It made the car seemed filled with blood. I was anxious for the light to turn to a cheerier color when a car pulled into the turn lane next to us. It stopped level with the middle of Arianna’s minivan, well before the white line painted on the cement, since we weren’t the first car at the intersection. The window slowly lowered, and I steadfastly watched it descend. Anything that could shift my thoughts from the darkness I’d been swirling in was a welcome distraction.

  There was no one in the passenger’s side of the car, so I leaned forward to see what the driver wanted. That was when a flash of light erupted from the vehicle. The window Halina was sitting beside shattered a microsecond later. Shock filled me first, but it was quickly followed by panic. We were boxed into an intersection, a car in front of us, Grandpa’s truck behind us, and Starla’s car behind him, and some maniac was firing bullets into our minivan! What the hell?

  Bullets whizzed through the air. Using a gun was a hard way to kill a vampire, unless you were a really good shot. The person beside us was good, but they were hampered by the bulk of the vehicles separating us, and only a few shots were making it into the car. Even though Halina was protecting Julian and me the best she could, one of those shots nicked my arm, tearing through my jacket and biting into my skin. Crying out in pain and fear, I clamped my hand over the wound. Killing an undead vampire was difficult, but I was still alive…and a much easier target.

  As screams filled the air, Dad yelled, “Drive, Arianna! Go up the sidewalk!” Watching blood ooze between my fingers, staining my jacket, Arianna looked too freaked out to do anything.

  As Halina blurred to the shell-shocked Arianna, Dad climbed over the seat to take Halina’s spot in shielding Julian and me from the wild, blazing bullets that were still being fired. I smelled blood in the air, and not just mine. Halina looked about ready to toss Arianna outside if she didn’t do something soon. Thankfully, she merely tossed my friend onto Trey’s lap.

  Dad snarled, holding back a pain-filled cry as a couple of bullets hit him in the back. I did pray then, prayed that none of the bullets streaking into the car would hit his heart. That was all it would take to shatter my family forever.

  Just as Halina stepped on the gas, smacking our car into the oblivious car in front of us, Grandpa behind us shifted his truck and rammed into the shooter’s car. The shooter took off, peeling away as he squealed around a corner. Halina turned the wheel to follow him.

  Dad lunged forward. “No! Let him go! Nika’s hurt.”

  That was when I remembered that I’d been shot. I looked at the blood flowing down the back of my hand in utter shock; there was so much. I instinctively removed my hand to look at the wound, and a well of dark-red blood permanently ruined my jacket. The site where the bullet had gouged out my skin burned worse than any injury I’d ever received, and I thought I might be sick. My vision hazed in and out, and I heard voices asking me if I was okay. I couldn’t answer…my world went dark.

  When I came to a few seconds later, I was lying down on the seat with Mom sitting beside me, on the very edge of the cushion. My jacket was half off me, and Gabriel was crouched on the floor near my head, inspecting my injury. Tiny shards of glass were everywhere, and an icy wind tore through the car. It whipped Mom’s hair around her face as she watched over me. Pain burst through my arm as Gabriel cinched a piece of fabric around my wounded bicep, staunching the flowing blood. I bit my lip to be strong, to not cry out, but what I really wanted to do was cry like a little girl and let Mom comfort me. There wasn’t time for that though.

  I tried to sit up, but I was dizzy from the blood loss; my head swam and my eyesight darkened. Mom shushed me, and Gabriel made me lie back down. Mom wasn’t cry
ing now, but wet tracks were down her cheeks from recently spilled tears. The van was speeding under street lamps, and the alternating lightness and darkness made Mom’s face look ill, like she was about to lose her stomach.

  “You okay?” I croaked out.

  Mom bit back a chuckle. “You’ve just been shot, and you’re asking if I’m okay?” She leaned forward to kiss my forehead. “I’m fine, Nika. Not a scratch.”

  Concerned for everyone else in the car, I looked around with just my eyes. Julian, Trey, and Arianna were all in the very back now, leaning over the seat to see how I was doing. The very back window was shot out, as well, and Arianna’s hair blew across her face. Fearing for them, I asked, “Are you guys okay? Did he get you?”

  Trey and Arianna both shook their heads. Julian shrugged. “A couple grazed me, but I’m fine, Nick.” Wading past the concern he felt for me, I tapped into the tiny amount of pain he felt for himself. It was nowhere near the inferno raging in my arm, but it was there; he’d been hurt. Fury boiled in my belly that another family member had been hurt by my maniac ex-boyfriend.

  Sensing my anger, Julian leaned over and ran his hand through my hair. “I’m fine, Nick,” he reiterated. Images of my father taking bullet after bullet seared my brain. I looked past Mom, to the front of the vehicle. Dad was in the passenger’s side now, debating with Halina on where she should drive us. Face grim, he looked back at me. There was pain in his expression, as surely as it must have been on mine. Hunter had hit him a few times, but thankfully he’d missed the one crucial area. Dad was still alive…or, still undead.

  I could feel the rest of my family following closely in the vehicles right behind us, but I didn’t know if Hunter had turned his gun on them in the melee. I had no idea if they were all right or not. Trying to will my body to super-heal, like the rest of my family could, I asked, “How did he know where we were?”

  Gabriel, his face stormy, but seeming uninjured, shook his head. “He must have staked out the ranch…followed us when we left.” His cold fingers circled around my arm, feeling heavenly against my heated skin. “Perhaps he thought his odds would be better if he attacked us while we were trapped.”

  Mom’s face darkened. “Like fish in a barrel.”

  Gabriel nodded, then added, “His choice of weapon was not the best, however. He should have used a much larger caliber, something strong enough to penetrate the body of the car. It would have been noisier than his silenced weapon, but the odds of him killing one of us would have vastly improved. I dare say he would have succeeded if he hadn’t acted so rashly.”

  None of us knew how to respond to that, so the car continued in silence. The sound of glass being crunched beneath shoes on the floorboards was all I heard for a while. Then Arianna murmured, “My mom is going to kill me when she sees the van.”

  DAD DECIDED THAT we couldn’t risk the life of Trey’s family by continuing to his home. By the way Hunter had sped off once Grandpa had rammed him, we assumed he wasn’t following us anymore, but we didn’t know for sure. It was entirely possible that Hunter had doubled back and was trailing us again. Our entourage wouldn’t be hard to follow, especially with the bullet holes adorning the minivan’s side and the blown-out windows. Hopefully no well-meaning citizen had reported our car fleeing the scene of a crime.

  Eyes watchful of the road around us, Dad told Halina to pull into the first dark, seedy motel that she saw. Finding an alley nearby, we parked the minivan as close to the wall as Halina could get it, so the violent evidence wouldn’t stand out. The rest of our caravan parked in the motel’s lot, near the exit but facing a side street, so their vehicles wouldn’t be direct giveaways that we were here. Streaming out of their cars, my family hurried to the alley to make sure our group was uninjured from the showdown.

  Conscious of another attack, Mom and Dad quickly helped me put my jacket back on and get out of the car. My arm burned, and I was lightheaded, but I was still breathing, and that was always a good thing. As the family groups melded together, I was hugged and inspected by every single friend and relative.

  When Julian hopped out of the back seat, he looked at the wreckage with grief and guilt in his heart. Turning to Arianna, he said, “I’m sorry about your car. We’ll get it fixed.”

  His eyes locked on the street, Dad nodded. “Great-Gran will have someone inside clean it up, then take it to a shop. A small, private one.” He risked a glance at Halina. “You’ll have to go with, to ensure the car is quietly repaired tonight. We don’t need anyone reporting this. We’ve attracted enough attention already.”

  Halina nodded, her reluctant eyes flicking over all of us. As our guardian, she didn’t want to leave our side, but she was also the only one of us who could do compulsion, and covering things up was a big part of our protection.

  Seeing her in agreement, Dad told Arianna, “I’ll have Starla call your mom, explain that there was a situation with the car and we’re getting it fixed. We’ll get her permission to let you spend the night with us.” He stopped roving the streets to meet Arianna’s eye. “I’m sorry, but it’s too dangerous to drive you home.”

  Arianna was too startled by the evening’s events to comment; Julian gently grabbed her hand in support. Antsy about being out in the open, Dad started ushering our group to the motel office. On the way, he told Trey, “We should call your parents too…they’ll be worried.”

  Trey shrugged. “Nah, I doubt they’ll even notice I’m gone.” Bringing his fingers to his lips, he mimed smoking a joint.

  Dad frowned at the reference, while sympathy trickled into me. My parents were so overprotective that it was hard to imagine parents who were so busy getting stoned that they wouldn’t notice their only child was unaccounted for. I wasn’t sure what that level of apathy would do to a person, but it sure explained why Trey came to school buzzed every day. Well, almost every day.

  Dad clapped Trey’s shoulder. “We’ll tell them that you’re with us anyway. They should know where you are.” Trey was beaming when Dad removed his hand.

  After Dad had Starla make the phone calls, he headed into the office with Halina. One of the fluorescent light bulbs inside flickered off and on in a steady rhythm; it almost matched the blinking of the vacancy sign near the road. I watched my dad through the glass; he was handing the greasy, overweight man at the counter a wad of cash. Both Halina and Dad had bloody smears and streaks on their clothes. I was sure Halina had taken a bullet or two, and I knew my dad had taken several. The clerk on duty didn’t notice their appearance, though, thanks to whatever story he was being fed by Halina.

  Moments later, they were back with two keys to adjoining rooms and the beefy man was heading out to the van with a gallon of bleach and a handful of rags. Hiding any trace of our vampire blood was of the utmost importance.

  Dad unlocked one motel door while Halina unlocked the other. Starla groaned as she peered into the room Halina had opened. “You have got to be kidding me.” She twisted to Gabriel behind her. “I am not staying in this despot, Father.”

  Crossing his arms over his chest, the aged vampire stared his “daughter” down. “Until this situation is properly contained, we’re all staying together…so yes, you are staying here, Starla. And you will keep your opinions to yourself and be appreciative that none of the bullets in the air tonight hit you.” He placed a cool hand on my arm as he said that. The throbbing was better than before, but his touch still felt wonderful.

  Starla looked appropriately chastised as she walked into the dingy room with Jacen, who seemed a little unsure how to respond to Starla being scolded. Gabriel was his leader, yet Starla was his girlfriend; it put him in an uncomfortable position.

  While Ben, Julian, Arianna, Trey, and Mom entered the second room, Grandpa, Alanna, Grandma Linda and Imogen followed after Starla and Jacen. Gabriel and Halina seemed unsure which room to enter, which family members to protect.

  Dad slung an arm around me while nodding at the other door. “We’ll be fine. You can stay with th
e others, Great-Gran.”

  Maybe seeing that our room was a little human heavy, Halina turned to Gabriel. “You stay with your nestmates. I’ll stay with Teren and the children. I’ll need to leave as soon as that malodorous man is done cleaning the car anyway.”

  Gabriel gave her a brief nod. “Be safe, love.”

  Halina stepped into him, cupping his cheek. “And you as well.”

  Leaning in, Gabriel gave her a brief peck. “And try to remember that you are not at full strength yet.” He gave her a pointed look. “Regardless of what you believe, you are not invincible.”

  Halina smirked. “So you say.”

  Gabriel’s normally passive face was amused as Halina sauntered into our room. Dad shook his head at his great-grandmother and her super-old boyfriend as he urged me inside. I cringed when Dad closed the door. Starla was right, the place was a dump.

  There were two beds with rumpled, mismatched comforters; I instantly wondered when they’d last been washed. Between them was a table that was missing a leg. The top of the table was resting on a nail driven into the wall behind it. It looked ready to topple at any moment, which would surely break the gaudy lamp sitting atop it that was the only point of light in the room.

  The wallpaper was cracked, and a faded grayish-yellow color that made the room seem sickly. There was a door leading to a bathroom in the back of the room; I was a little afraid to go in there. But Dad had wanted discreet…and sometimes discreet meant decrepit.

  There were no chairs in the room, so everyone was seated on the bed or standing around. Dad helped me to the bed where Mom was sitting, and even though I was feeling better by the moment, I sat down beside her. Julian and Arianna were sitting on the edge of the other bed, still holding hands. Arianna was paler than I’d ever seen her and Julian was filled to the brim with worry. Ben was on full alert at the window, peering through the blinds.

  Halina’s eyes were on Dad as he stepped up to Ben and clapped him on the shoulder. “I was only grazed, Teren, but you took a few,” she said. “How many times were you hit?”