by Logan Keys
Joelle joins me.
We make sounds, strange and embarrassing sounds, we make them so the world might know we don’t care what they think, we mourn the way we mourn, and it’s fueled by love of a fallen friend.
“Did he go to heaven?” she asks a long time later and slips a small hand into mine.
“Absolutely,” I whisper.
Chapter 14
Dallas
It’s days before we can inspect the city as it stands. I go it alone to the side where the men are. I’m wary when I approach but there doesn’t seem to be any guards. I hide under the cover of darkness, anyway. I can see what they cannot. But the opening to their side is empty.
Strange.
Just as I’m about to walk through, he slips into my space. Before I can react, there’s a knife at my throat. I know it’s a he because of his size and outline, but he’s merely a shadow otherwise. I’m so surprised at being outmaneuvered, that I freeze. How he’d gone undetected by me… no scent, nothing.
We’ve been the only dark ones, us vampires, but the Underground has made more of us it seems. I feign one direction then another. The knife does not leave my skin. He keeps pace with me easily, gliding in a mimic of my movements.
The blade has not even cut me, such is his perfect ability to hug close at a speed no human eye can see, let alone follow.
Only one thing can move like us. And that’s us. They’ve made a better model. Now that he’s in my space, he does have a scent, it’s faint and blends, but I don’t smell the one thing that I should: need.
He’s not starving. Jealously strikes me swift and fast. I swipe at his throat and he backs away. He disappears, but I finally track him from place to place in the building’s shadows. He slides through the night like a wet thing.
I watch his abilities with surprise. All of our benefits without any drawbacks.
How irritating.
“Can you walk in the day, too?” I demand.
If they can make us like him, then why are we cursed?
His eyes glow more like a laser than my own blood-red. Our hunter is pain, and pain is in everything now, regret and pain.
I sense none of that on him though. I still have not seen his eyes beyond the glow. Dots, electrified, and he seems to decide he will stop trying to kill me for a moment. Not that a measly piece of sharp metal at my throat will do the job even if he were to cut deeply. Even decapitation won’t work.
Instead of answering me, he disappears.
He’s faster than me.
I growl when he jumps from the gloom again into my space. I bare my teeth. I suspect the sound he’d made before dodging away was a chuckle. He’s toying with me!
“Show yourself,” I say, claws raised, spinning a circle. I’m angry with myself for being the vulnerable one when I haven’t been that in what feels like forever.
“Why are you here?” he asks, striding leisurely into the moonlight. He comes close from a new direction, before appearing in another one, side winding, making wind at such a speed. And the swagger on this guy.
“To see your leader," I say.
“What are you?” he asks.
“I’m like you.”
He laughs from behind me and I whirl around. White teeth flash in the shadow.
“No one is like me,” he says, deep voice rumbling with warning.
He’s suddenly an inch away, and I realize something. I gape at him. “You can’t leave the shadows.” Wherever he moves… he takes the darkness along with him. “You’re a wraith of a person, aren’t you?”
So that’s it then. He’s part of the shadows themselves. It’s not that he can or can’t walk in the day, his face never is more than a black void even in the moonlight.
He comes closer as if to show me. The void where his face should be is so empty it swirls. Teeth that grin of white across inky nothingness, then eyes that glow, but between, blackness.
I laugh. “How terrifying.”
That seems to interest him. He cocks his head. “What are you,” he asks.
“Vampire,” I say. “Well, a version of it.”
“You drink blood?” He’s disgusted by the sound of it.
I stiffen, indigent. “I ate meat before. The carcass of a dead animal is not any different. I actually think eating blood from a living thing is quite nicer. It’s painless, if we choose.”
I can sense his humor. “What’s your name?”
“Dallas.”
He moves back a step giving me space just now seeming to realize he’d been clinging to me… like a shadow.
I do catch a scent, now. A craving. It’s one I’m not familiar with, and I’m now the one who follows him, getting into his space. Then I pause, feeling an overwhelming sense of sadness.
Loneliness comes off him in waves, and I’m stunned by the size of it. “You’re not the only one who’s alone,” I say softly.
I don’t know why I say it, but he startles as if I’ve cut him.
Then anger builds, the waves of its heat billowing off of him, burning my senses. His emotions each have a certain smell. It helps to read him because I can’t exactly see his expression.
“Why are you here,” he bites off.
The deepness of his voice resonates through me. I’m ultra-sensitive to the noise. It rattles my core.
“I’m here to see Bradford.”
“Why?”
“Maybe we don’t want to follow Adrian. Perhaps he’s a better leader. You have most of the force. We can add to your numbers.”
“Is that really why you’re here?”
This time, I smile. “No.”
“So, you’re going to size us up?”
“Yes.”
“How are we doing so far?”
I cross my arms. “That depends. Are there any more of your types in there?”
The white teeth again. His arms raise to either side. “Alas, I am one of a kind.”
He says it so full of boast, yet laced with sadness, that my heart hurts for him. Here I thought I walked the lonely road, even with the other vampires, I felt left out. But he is truly alone.
“What’s your name?” I ask.
“Shade.”
“Nice to meet you, Shade.”
His shadow head inclines.
Shade turns toward the entrance. “I’ll take you to Bradford. I won’t let them tear you apart either. I can offer you my protection if you like?”
“I don’t need it. But why would you offer?”
“It’s not every day I meet someone who---”
“Is like you…?”
“Not exactly. You have a face.” His bitterness is a brightly burned smell. I taste this in the back of my throat.
“What’s going on in there?” I ask when I hear shouting.
“Tonight? Oh, the usual.”
“Liar.”
He smiles again. At least his teeth let me know when he’s smiling, even if the smell is a tip off.
Shade sounds weary of it all. “Change of guard is always a little tense. There’s some infighting. Many don’t want to follow the guy but he’s got the machine. They fear it.”
“What machine?”
Before he can answer, men in uniform rush through the gate. I’m against the wall hiding in the shadows before they can see me. Shade is there too, hand at my mouth, finger to his lips.
“Shade!” they call but he shakes his head once.
“Shhhh,” he says, too quiet for them to hear.
“I get it,” I mouth.
When they leave, he slowly gives me back my own space, almost reluctantly.
He likes to invade a person’s area, I see.
“Those were Bradford’s men.”
Shade nods, and his black shock of hair flops over his void, disappearing wherever it touches. “Things must be getting heated. Might be better during the daytime.”
“You can travel in the day time?”
“If I stay to the shadows. You?”
“I can stay in th
e shadows, too, but if I get into the sun, it’s like being burned alive. I go out rarely and it’s draining. Plus, then I need to… um…”
“Feed?” he supplies.
“Don’t sound so disgusted.” I head back toward our side.
“Where you going?”
“I’ll come back another time. I don’t need to end up in the middle of a man chest beating session.”
Shade follows and I raise a brow at him as he keeps pace with me. But he shrugs, hands in his pockets.
The rest of him is corporeal somewhat, still in shadow, but his face is darkest of all. Hands, hair, legs and arms, clothes, all of that is dark but visible.
“Why not?” he asks.
“The sun, you mean? Vampire. You get me?”
“Ah. So, it’s true. Bunch of bloodsuckers running things over here. This I gotta see. Adrian is still the leader, right?”
I nod.
Shade huffs. “Why? Couldn’t you drain her dry and get rid of the stupid witch? You know we have the forces. We are the ones who’ll keep building and readying for the fight for Anthem. Adrian has nothing but women.”
I turn to face him.
“Er,” he laughs, “women who can kick ass for sure. I just meant… no weapons.”
I bare my teeth and lean closer.
Shade covers his throat, and in a blink, is ten feet away. “All right. All right. Touché, vamp-girl, touché.”
“Ugh. Don’t call me that.”
He’s suddenly inches away, his black void bent from his tall height, at least six feet, to peer into my mouth. It’s so strange how he does that, just clings to you almost, and, well, it isn’t unpleasant as it would be with a normal human. I don’t feel threatened, or claustrophobic.
“That’s not what I meant.” He straightens, satisfied. “These are awesome, but real weapons. The type that go ka boom.” He shrugs.
I sigh and lead the way again.
“He’s okay,” I say to the two vampires who lean out when we get closer to the building where Joelle is staying.
This apartment had been her choice of residence, a curious one. Very… domestic.
Shade and I enter together. Joelle doesn’t turn from the window. My guess is she’s not really looking through that ruined glass, either.
She’s got a lot on her mind, our little queen. “Have you met Bradford yet,” she asks, still facing away.
“No.”
“I have.”
Joelle spins toward us when Shade speaks. She gazes at him in surprise, but that’s quickly swallowed by curiosity. Ah, so he’d entered past her defenses as well. Makes me feel a tad bit better.
“And?” she asks.
Shade shrugs. “He’s a fool. He won’t rule long. And if someone doesn’t step in when he falls…”
“I don’t like this divide,” she says, turning back to her window. “I’d prefer if we were to work together. What is it with adults that makes them so easily annoyed with the rest of those just trying to survive?”
I jump in before Shade can accidentally say something about women again. “Shade, do you think the forces actually like following Bradford?”
“Sort of. They like order. Adrian is selling chaos by the pound. Bradford is stupid but old school. He follows the old military standards. The men like having a leader who won’t turn them into stone for being a man. Who isn’t erm…emotional. I think it’s pretty simple. He and Sergeant Nolan have an agreement. They train and work together. Sergeant Nolan hates Bradford as much as we all do, Bradford is a special and he’s not afraid to fight. He also has a small following of specials.”
“What’s a special?” I ask.
Joelle points at herself, then me. A ghost of a mischievous smile plays on her lips but then disappears beneath haunted eyes, and a sad little girl springs forth.
“Can you get Dallas inside?” she asks Shade.
“Not tonight. Bradford has lost control of some of the forces. It’s getting messy.”
Joelle waves him away. “We can handle messy.”
I shake my head at her. “I think we should wait. Maybe this will work to our favor and I won’t have to.”
“Won’t have to what?” Shade asks.
Joelle and I share a look. Like we’d tell him our plans. Could be he’s loyal to Bradford. Joelle’s almost imperceptible nod tells me she heard that thought in my mind.
I sense that Shade guesses we’ve been able to communicate. Those laser eyes go from me to her and back again.
“Will he win if it comes to a fight? I mean amongst the men? Will he still rule?” Joelle asks.
“Probably,” Shade answers.
Because the bad guys always do.
I sigh. I offer to give Shade protection home, but he laughs and disappears. Just like that he’s invisible or gone, or both.
When we feel certain we are alone, I ask, “Why do you want me to see Bradford, anyway?”
“We don’t have to, but it could help us make some decisions. For now, I’d like to get inside his head.”
“Ah. The dreams.”
She nods. “Besides, Dallas, you have a way with men.”
I give a dry laugh. She’s not wrong.
Chapter 15
Crystal
Mimi’s woken up, so I sneak to the door to watch.
“Jeremy,” she says.
He lifts his head where he’d been laying it on her bed. “Mimi!”
“I knew you’d come,” she says, and his face crumples.
He pushes at the tears, smearing them, and smiles. He’s not smiled since waking up, but he does for Mimi now.
I turn back to the doctor. “I thought you were going to make her like Liza?”
The doctor shakes his head. “Few will ever be as Liza is.”
I turn back to where the two siblings hold one another. “I thought you were going to fix her?”
Why do we get to live, Jeremy and I and Liza, but Mimi won’t?
“I tried,” the doctor says.
“How long?”
“Days. Maybe less.”
Jeremy comes out of the room when Mimi’s asleep again. His purple eyes don’t see me anymore. He wants to stay with Mimi, he says, but he shakes and quivers and collapses onto me. I help him back to his room instead, promising him if she wakes I’ll tell him.
Jeremy rests fitfully in his cell, and I decide to lay down myself. I don’t sleep though. On my side, I stare at the wall, and go back to where I was in the past. I relive it like it’s happening now, hoping for a clue. A way to let go of this awfulness, and trade it for another worse awfulness, I suppose. Like poking at a cut to see how deep.
But I don’t get to do it for long, because Jeremy comes in, eyes bloodshot.
“I heard you and the doctor,” he says.
“You did?” I sit up.
“Yeah.”
He sits with me and then hands me a scrap of paper. This one says many things. Paragraphs and paragraphs.
I silently read the words until they blend together into one big ideal. It gives life back to society, these words of his. These magical and colorful words. How they energize one even as low as I am now.
But one part catches my eye. Bold, harsh cursive: Stop the purge. End the Purge. Fight the purge.
Jeremy leaves me with his soul on a bit of paper, but I’m not here anymore. I’m there.
Dawn rises but we don’t get to see it. Before light, they drag us from the cells and we won’t be back until the moon is high if not already descending. We pass the place where they’ve been beating us half to death, and this time the guards continue on. The rows of hanging people stop my heart. All fly high by the hooks cutting neatly into their backs. The sight doesn’t shock as much as the first time, but what does catch my eye is the section that’s empty waiting for us. This is what eviscerates me where I stand. I promise myself not to scream when they tear off my shirt and pants. I don’t get far enough to promise much else because the hooks are enough to strike fear into the
bravest of brave, and they hold me down while I let out girlish screams of rage and fear and desperation. It’s so loud that it shreds my throat. And the pain isn’t nearly as bad as the total and utter fear that bleeds into you when you know you’ll hang while they drain your blood and replace it with a mixed version of yourself.
After this I won’t be me.
After this I won’t be anyone.
I’m deranged with panic. I’m animalistic, scratching, biting, clawing, and punching, and none of it matters. They pin me and force me into position.
I make slobbery sounds, tears blocking my vision and the IV is set up after I give the guard a few punches and slaps until they hold me still. The pressure on the hooks makes me suddenly docile as a lamb.
Everyone from the cell screams and cries. Everyone.
Chapter 16
Crystal
When it’s the wolf’s turn I don’t look and muffle my ears mentally trying to give him his dignity. He does holler, and I feel better for having made a show of my own terror.
Then we wait, suspended, while the blood cycles, and the loss of it is enough to make me fuzzy then sleep.
I wake groggy, and thirsty like never in my life, the iron in my blood running low.
It must be night because they cut us down and drag us away. They ask us questions. I must answer wrong or maybe it’s right; I get back to the cell that’s only half full.
They chain us again.
Phillip enters dragging his feet and sits against the wall. After they fix his chains, he sighs when the door closes. “You still with us?”
“I thought I wouldn’t be,” I slur.
Then I cry from thankfulness and then regret because we have to do this all over again. Again and again until we are not we anymore. That’s what they do. Purge you until you are gone.
For some it only takes once. Others more than once.
But after two times, you are finished. It’s never more than two.
“They say for some it takes a second time,” he says quietly.
His voice wobbles from fear. We are nothing but nerves now. Flinching echoes of the previously brave. Exactly where they want us. So that’s why some of the cell mates are gone. They’d crossed over. They are zombiefied puppets now ready to do their masters will.