by D. S. Murphy
“We’ll have time to mourn later,” I said. “We need to get as far way from here as possible, without leaving tracks.”
“And then what, what’s your big move?”
I looked around at my companions. They were looking to me for answers, but I couldn’t meet their eyes. Instead I stared at the pile of bones that used to be Thomas.
I couldn’t feel shame or remorse, just a coldness deep in my bones. We’d killed an elite. April was right, things were going to get worse. He’d taught me to fear our masters. I’d never paid him much attention, but now I wondered, how many girls had he accosted, in dark meadows outside the citadel, where nobody could hear them scream. Surely I wasn’t the first. And now he was dead. I wondered how many others would fall.
“Three chosen against three elite,” I said. “And it wasn’t even close to a fair fight. Even with Trevor and Penelope, we may not have survived, if we hadn’t used the elixir as a distraction.”
“So?” Luke asked. “What’s the game plan? Jacob said you had some kind of top-secret mission.”
I glanced at April, and she nodded. It was time to tell them the truth.
“More elixir isn’t a solution, not long term. We’ve got to find the antidote, for real. You saw Nigel’s eyes, the way they panicked. Take away their abilities, turn them human again, and they’re nothing but cowards. Imagine a weapon like that, in our hands.”
“You know where it is?” Luke asked.
“Not exactly. We’re going to try and find Damien’s childhood home. His dad had a lab there, it’s where he made the first elixir. We think there might be a cure as well. We have a map, but it’s far. I don’t know what we’ll be facing. We’ll need to work together, to trust each other. It’s the only way we make it there alive.”
“We can stop in Crollust,” Penelope said. “It’s where I’m from. It’s on the way to Sezomp, only a few days away. If we make it, there may be more elixir.”
“You want to break into a compound?” Luke frowned.
“We won’t be breaking in, we’ll be visiting.”
“But... they think you’re dead,” Camina said. “Right?”
“Probably. But maybe not. News from the citadel doesn’t always reach the compounds quickly. They’ll have heard rumors, they won’t know what’s true. We can at least rest up, gather supplies, before we make our next move. I would literally kill for a shower right now.”
“So just to get this straight,” Luke asked, “You want to lead a group of outlaws, an elite and a slagpaw, and three exiled chosen terrorists across open country, loot a compound for supplies when the entire kingdom is probably on high alert looking for us, then track down an ancient laboratory that’s probably buried in ruins from before the Culling, to find a magic potion that will turn elites human again?”
“Just the king,” I corrected. “We turn him human, then we kill him. It’ll change everything. Any objections?”
“After what he did to me?” Penelope’s eyes flashed with anger, “I’ll kill him myself.”
16
We pushed forward until long after dark. My legs were burning, and the tickling in my lungs meant I’d inhaled some ash, despite the heavy mask and thick scarf wrapped around half my face.
I stopped periodically to check behind us; at least the falling ash covered our tracks. Luke made us walk along the widened roads. He said it would be harder to track if we didn’t leave broken branches behind or sink into the dry soil. I felt exposed, with the veiled moonlight shining over the white streets. We were going too slowly.
I thought wistfully of my trips with Damien. I wished we had a bike, or even a horse and carriage. Before leaving Algrave, I’d never ventured more than a mile outside the compound. Now the landscape seemed to unfold before us, taunting us with its sheer scale.
Small clusters of abandoned buildings emerged like oases between long stretches of tree-lined road. A few times Luke made us fan out, crisscrossing through a settlement or taking different forks in the road and then circling back to meet up again later.
It seemed like overkill but nobody complained. Maybe we were just too scared to speak our worries into the near pitch-blackness. It was enough to focus on avoiding the roots that tripped our feet, and the dark branches that scraped against our jackets.
More than once, the shaggy outline of a slagpaw stalking us from the shadows quickened my pulse, before I recognized it was just Trevor’s altered form.
It was well past midnight before April stumbled. I went back and grabbed her arm, but her legs were shaking.
“Just need a minute,” she mumbled. Her face was pale and she struggled to keep her eyelids open. I wondered when she’d last eaten.
“We’ve got to stop,” I called ahead. “We all need rest.”
Luke nodded. I wasn’t sure how he’d become our unofficial leader, but I wasn’t about to get into a power struggle and nobody else seemed interested in seizing responsibility. We stopped at the next structure we found, a long, rectangular building that looked like it had once been some kind of a warehouse or a factory.
The windows were broken, so it was easy to shatter the remaining shards of glass and climb into the ground level; at least for everyone except Trevor. His furry shape was too big to fit. Even the main doors would have been a struggle for him.
“He hasn’t changed back yet,” I frowned, worried about leaving him alone outside.
“Did it take this long last time?” Jazmine asked. Last time I’d slit my own wrists, feeding him whatever elixir was still in my system. He’d had far more this time, directly from an elite, but didn’t show any signs of shifting back to his human form.
“He fed on the elite after it was dead,” April said softly.
“Does that matter?” Jazmine asked.
She shrugged. “I’ve never had the opportunity to study a dead elite. Elixir usually keeps its integrity after harvesting from a host. Technically, they are already dead, in a sense. But, perhaps when Penelope stopped its heart, it sent out some kind of signal to self-destruct? Honestly I have no idea, but maybe the elixir is weakened if the host is destroyed.”
I glanced at Penelope, anxiety flooding through me.
“Please?” I asked.
“Fine,” she said, rolling her eyes. “I’ll feed your dog.” She grabbed a chunk of glass and slit her wrist, holding it through the open window so Trevor could lap it up with his long tongue. I took my empty vial and held it against her skin, filling it before the wound could heal again. Penelope marveled at the wound as her skin began to repair itself.
I took a sip of elixir before passing it to the others. I felt weak and shaky, and it wasn’t just the thirst this time. So much had changed in one day, it felt like the sky was falling, but I was too exhausted to escape it.
“I believe we had a deal?” Penelope said, pursing her lips.
I started rolling up my sleeves but Jazmine pulled me back.
“I’ll go first,” Jazmine said. “You’ve already been fed on once today.”
I stepped away, revulsion churning in my stomach as I remembered Nigel’s mouth pressed against my neck, squeezing me dry like an orange.
“No, let me do it,” Camina said. “I had a pretty large dose of Bryce earlier. I’ll recover faster.” She pricked her palm with the glass, and held her arm out to Penelope.
“Isn’t that like, cannibalism or something?” Luke asked, grimacing. “I mean, can elite even drink elixir?”
“It’s probably fine,” April said, setting down her pack and stretching her shoulders. “Humans metabolize elixir quickly. Since Camina wasn’t injured, it would have just turbo-charged her immune system and boosted her red blood cells to create collagen. Those are the tough, white fibers that form granulation tissue over open flesh wounds. Elite have an abundance of collagen, which is why they heal so quickly, but very few active red blood cells of their own, which is why they need constant feeding.”
“J
ust to be clear,” Penelope said. “You’re saying this won’t kill me?”
“You’re already dead,” April said. “And you need fresh blood to continue your perpetual unlife. Bon appetit.”
Penelope hesitated for another moment, before latching on to Camina’s arm. Her nose turned up distastefully, but she fed.
“That’s enough,” Jazmine said, after a few moments, pulling Penelope away.
“So, are we cool now?” Camina asked quietly. “No hard feelings, about… before?”
“What happened in Havoc, stays in Havoc,” Penelope said, smiling through her bloodied teeth.
Through the window, I watched Trevor turn around several times, clearing a spot in the ash with his massive paws before settling in for the night. The rest of us gathered on the second floor of the large warehouse, between stacks of paper and moldy furniture. The hall was packed with tables, chairs, leather couches and display shelves. There was even a section full of porcelain toilets on wooden crates, next to an elaborate fake kitchen.
Wide windows looked out over the dark trees. An icy wind cut through the cracks in the walls, but in the center of the room, the air was free from ash. Someone had made a barricade of rusty shopping carts, stacking the tall metal shelves into a twisted corridor leading to a central nook, but it looked like it hadn’t been used in decades.
Jazmine took off her jacket, and Camina frowned at the purple bruises on her neck and arms. Camina was relatively unscathed, but then she had gotten a large dose of elixir during the fight. April was more shaken than anything, but she bore her fear bravely.
We started a small fire for warmth and light, keeping the flames low. Luke created a flaming torch from old fabric and went to explore the building for supplies.
“Oh, hello there,” Luke said, his silhouette dark in the doorframe across the room.
“What’d you find?” I asked, climbing over the furniture to join him. He forced the door open with his shoulder until the wood splintered.
Inside was a body, leaning against the wall, mostly bones with only straps of clothes. Luke reached for something round and metal, stuck in the man’s rib cage.
“What is it?” I asked.
Check it out,” he said, showing it to me. A metal pin, the writing faded but still legible.
Vampire Killer.
“Some kind of metal or award?” I guessed.
“Must be left over from the race wars. Some kind of honor I guess.”
“What is this, a burial?” I asked, looking around the room. The wall had been painted with symbols, and melted wax had formed patterns on the floor. Luke pried a few of the mounds off the cement with his knife.
“Candles,” he said. “Either they killed him when he was in the middle of some kind of satanic ritual, summoning a demon, or...”
“Or it’s a shrine. A mark of honor. They were thanking him.”
“Fat lot of good it did him. He died alone, and in pain probably.”
“But someone was left behind. Someone who cared about him.”
Luke pinned the button on his jacket.
“You really think you deserve that?” I asked.
“Man’s gotta have goals,” he smirked. Then his eyes flicked to Penelope and his expression darkened.
“Don’t even think about it,” I warned.
He held his hands up. “Hey now, I get it. She’s an ally. It’s just, I swore all my life I’d kill every elite I could find, as soon as I got the chance. Here I am, traveling with one.”
“Inside or outside the citadel, maybe life isn’t as simple as the stories we’re told.”
“Maybe,” Luke said. “It just makes things confusing is all, I mean... ‘death to elites’ is a lot easier than ‘get to know them and figure out if they’re one of the good ones, ask them to tea first.’ That hesitation, that’ll get us killed if there is another race war. I guarantee they won’t take the time to get to know us before tearing us apart.”
“Let’s try to avoid a war then, shall we? No killing unless absolutely necessary.”
“I always thought, when it happened, I’d at least take one down with me. But I shot one today, and it didn’t even phase him. My first real encounter with an elite, and he hit me with my own gun.”
He reached up and touched the angry wound on his forehead. The jagged cut was already beginning to heal, but it left a nasty bump.
“There was nothing you could have done,” I said.
“I know,” he sighed. “That’s the problem. They’re so fast, so strong. We never stood a chance, did we?”
“I’ve been trying to tell you,” I said quietly.
Laughter pulled us back towards the main room. Camina was helping Jazmine drag large mattresses into a pile. Once there was a stack of half a dozen, she climbed on top and jumped up and down on it like a trampoline, before tumbling onto her back, and sinking so deeply she disappeared under the surface with a contented moan.
Some of the mattresses were still half wrapped in plastic and relatively clean. I had to admit it was a nice change from the thin pads of Havoc. We spread them into a circle around our gear and slept. I closed my eyes, resisting the urge to lean out window every five minutes, peering into the darkness to see if Trevor was okay down below. I hated leaving him outside.
I got up early, as soon as it was light enough to see, and crept outside in my bare feet. Birds were chirping from the dark branches, and I heard the rustle of wings that signified an owl hunting for prey. I’d left Trevor some clothes I’d found in a broken closet, so he had something to change into at least this time.
“Morning,” I said when I found him, sprawled out in a pile of blue plastic tarps, in the middle of what looked like a large outdoor bathtub.
He blinked and groaned, flexing his muscles as pushed himself up, but he was human again.
“I feel like I drank a bottle of whiskey last night.”
“In other words just another day for you, right?”
He grinned, pulling on the pair of brown overalls I’d left him, then stood and stretched.
“Thank you,” I said. “For going back for her. For saving us.”
“She’s important to you,” he said. “And if you haven’t figured it out yet, you’re important to me.”
He stepped closer, his voice husky. This time I didn’t pull away.
“When the building blew up, I was so scared. I thought I’d lost you. I didn’t know what to do.”
“I’m still here,” he said, cupping my cheek with his rough palm.
“But for how long?” I asked. It was mostly rhetorical, but I couldn’t help myself from following the train of thought.
“I mean, this is crazy. Did you ever think, growing up in Algrave, we’d be on a quest to topple the kingdom? King Richard was practically our god; a savior. That’s what we were taught.”
“We’ve changed, we’ve learned,” Trevor said, reaching for his shirt. “But now we’re free. Free to choose our own paths. Free to be together. Isn’t that worth the risk?”
A flash of metal caught my eye and I recognized the simple gold band on a long chain around his neck. It was the ring he’d tried to give me once, in Algrave. Somehow he’d held onto it, all this time.
My eyes drifted to the scars on his chest and arms. Scars he’d gotten fighting for me; and he was still fighting. If I hadn’t been chosen, would he have gone down this violent path and joined the rebels? I was a whirlpool of destruction. If not for me, he wouldn’t have been tortured, turned into a slagpaw by the king.
And it wasn’t just an accident of fate. If I hadn’t gone out hunting; if I hadn’t somehow captivated Nigel’s obsession, I doubted any of the elites would have given me a second look at the choosing ceremony. What a different life we might have had.
“We may have to pay with it for our lives,” I said finally, answering his question. “And that’s a choice we can make for ourselves, but not for others. Jacob said they wer
e going to attack the compounds. Is that really what you want?”
“Something has to happen,” Trevor said darkly.
“Not that.” I turned away from him, but he grabbed my wrist and pulled me back. Then he blocked my path, pushing his hand against the wall.
This time he kissed me hard. Hungry. His lips were salty, and a heavy musk tickled my nose, but it wasn’t unpleasant. His body pressed up against mine, and for a moment I forgot everything. Damien, the capital, being chosen.
That all seemed so far away now, like a dream; and the illusion had been shattered. Even if I could go back, pretending to be Damien’s companion, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to, knowing what I knew now. No matter how I felt about Damien, I’d never be welcome in the citadel again, and even if we somehow managed to kill King Richard, Damien might never forgive me.
I’d never really had a choice before, but maybe, for the first time in my life, I could be the one to do the choosing. I still wasn’t sure how I felt about Trevor, but there was something seductive about having responsibility over my own body.
“Get a room,” a voice called down from above.
“Besides, aren’t you married?”
“Engaged,” I said. “Kind of.”
I glanced up to see Jazmine and Camina, leaning out the window on the floor above us. I grinned, as Trevor bit and pulled softly at my lower lip.
“To be continued?” he murmured, brushing a hand over my tangled dark hair.
“Maybe after I’ve had a shower,” I said. “I feel disgusting.”
“Good idea,” he said. “You stink.”
“Watch it, furball,” I teased.
At dawn, we started moving again. We traveled during the day, and at night took shifts sleeping. We lit fires to cook in the afternoon, before the night fell – it was too dangerous to have a fire in the dark and give away our position. During the day, the ash would hide our smoke, and the warm glowing coals gave us a sliver of warmth against the cool night air.
The meager rations we’d grabbed before fleeing Havoc ran out the third day. I felt naked in the woods without my father’s bow. We couldn’t use the guns, except in an emergency, because the retort would circle for miles.