The phone rang and rang. They didn't answer. I let out a defeated sigh and stared miserably at the cellphone. It only had half its battery left. I nearly dropped it when it began ringing in my hand. Gina gave an excited whoop as I answered. Caller ID didn't recognize the number.
"Lyra!" shouted a voice that I was desperately glad to hear.
"Roxy, how are you? Where are you? Are you in the Mortal Plane?" The questions exploded from my mouth.
"Calm down," she said, and sucked in a breath. "I'm freaking out enough already. Okay, look, here's what's going on." Her voice was urgent but not panicked. "I'm okay, moderately. The Bureau found my group in the suburbs south of San Francisco. Not exactly sure how we ended up here, but we did."
I put her on speaker phone. "Good, Roxy. I'm glad to know you're okay. I'm with Dorian, Laini, and Gina." We summarized our news as best as we could. She sucked in a breath on the other side, sounding as if she'd been punched in the gut. A pause followed. "Roxy, are you there?"
"I am," she said, her voice breaking. "But Kane isn't. Most of the vampires and humans in my group ended up in the Mortal Plane, but we couldn't find him… I don't know who else is missing. You said Juneau was gone?"
Laini swallowed. "Yes. Maybe he and Kane ended up in the Immortal Plane?"
I leaned forward as a noise began to interfere with the call. "Roxy, are you near an airstrip?"
"No," she replied, but Dorian touched my elbow and pointed upward. I followed his gaze to a helicopter, which was growing nearer with each passing moment. I hurriedly said goodbye to Roxy, wishing her well and telling her that we were about to get our own rescue.
"How did they find us?" I wondered aloud. My new cellphone wasn't known to the Bureau; I’d made sure of it. Some habits died hard.
Laini grinned. "The beacon! I've got no idea where it is, but I set it off when we were inside the mountain peak, just in case," she explained, and glanced down. "Maybe it's still working?" We waved our hands to attract the attention of the chopper, but luckily it was already making a beeline for us. Never had I been so happy to see a Bureau chopper coming for me. It was a large model, made for troop transport. It landed, the blades dying down to a soft whirr. We ran up to it.
A familiar head protruded from the side. "Hello there!" Martin Fenton, with his slicked black hair, gave me a million-dollar smile. "Fancy meeting you here. Need a lift?"
I could've cried, but I'd already used all my tears for more important things. "We're so happy to see you."
He smirked at me. "I should say the same to you, since I suspect that you might've had a hand in saving the world."
"There's a lot to tell," Dorian promised. Fenton and his crew helped us board. We were physically okay, besides a few bruises, but our bodies were absolutely exhausted. It wasn't until I sat in one of the seats, buckling up, that my muscles finally threw all the fatigue in the world at me. I slumped into the seat with a grateful sigh.
Fenton rubbed his eyes. There were dark circles marring his face, nearly as dark as the shadows under Dorian’s and Laini’s skin. Fenton hadn't slept in days, it seemed.
"I followed your emergency signal here." He let out a bark of laughter. "Imagine my delight when I saw who it was. Thank you." His tired eyes grew glassy for a moment. "I think you've fixed things. The meld lasted eight hours. It's hard to tell down to the exact minute, because all of our lovely technologies went absolutely batty. We're no longer reading any revenant signatures. Most of the United States is back to normal, from the reports I'm getting."
His soldiers happily fetched water for us while a medic looked us over. Fenton wore a somber frown as he looked out at the pilot.
"Are you guys ready?" he asked us. "I'm afraid we don't have much time. So much has happened."
My stomach clenched at his tight tone. What had happened to the Mortal Plane during the meld? We needed to figure out how to reach our friends left in the Immortal Plane at the camp and determine the extent of the damage here in the Mortal Plane.
"We're ready," Dorian said. How could we not be?
The chopper rose into the air, steadying itself against the rough winds. The crew got us blankets, save for Laini and Dorian, who refused, since they were unaffected by cold.
We attempted to tell our story, but several times Fenton had to stop us as reports came in for him.
"Sir, we've lost contact with Ogden." More reports came in, flitting like flies at Fenton, who merely nodded and had his assistant beside him take note of every city. I drew a mental map of every town they mentioned, realizing it was as Sen said. A few states were affected severely by the meld, starting from the tear and spreading out, but it hadn’t reached most of the country.
"There's been quite a few developments, as you can see," he muttered and pinched his nose, listening to another report. He pulled the receiver toward his mouth. "Sanchez, has anybody heard from anyone below Provo?" I couldn't hear the reply, but I could tell that it wasn't what Fenton was looking for. He pulled himself away from the phones and leaned forward. "I quit smoking four years ago. I've never wanted to start up again this badly."
The pilot shouted that we were close to the Utah-Nevada border. I adjusted myself to look outside the chopper. Instead of an arid landscape of hills and warm shades of dirt, I saw trees below us. Immortal Plane trees. I said a foul word. This was… How was this possible? Dorian let out a low growl beside me.
Fenton sighed. "Yeah, it's shocking, to say the least. The entire area that we've lost has turned up like this. The Bureau contacts in this area have made no contact with the outside world so far, including the location right below us. Thankfully, most of these areas weren't highly populated, but we’ve lost contact with whole cities. It's not great."
"Not great," I echoed with a disbelieving shake of my head. What was happening? I’d thought we saved the world, but Fenton was showing me the extent of our failure. Entire cities… If we’d just managed to stop Alan from taking Irrikus's armor, could we have prevented this?
"Sloane," Fenton said sharply. "I see that expression. You have no idea what a help you guys were. I don't exactly understand how you did it, the energy and stuff, but you stopped the madness. It just left a little chaos in its wake. As bad as this is, do you have any idea what this could’ve turned into if you didn't succeed?"
I pressed my fingernails into the palm of my hand, thinking of Zach. I already felt as if I’d lost so much, but Fenton was right. This tragedy could've been worse. We’d done everything we could to stop it. And Zach would’ve been proud of me, of all of us. Still, the victory felt hollow for the moment. I needed to find my parents, and that was just the beginning of the list. We had missing friends. Juneau, Kane… So many incredible people had been thrown into chaos with the end of the world.
Laini thought something over. "Perhaps the barriers were fixed the only way they could be. Maybe the damage from the tear and the meld rendered it impossible to go back to the way things were."
I listened to her, but the gradual descent of the helicopter made me look down again. "Where are we landing?"
"Black Rock facility," Fenton said. "We need to check on it before we head back to base. Nobody has answered our calls here." My skin went cold. This was where my parents had been sent. The chopper landed in a small clearing. "You can stay here, if you want." His knowing look told me that he already knew who had been stationed here. Fenton was anything but stupid.
"No," I said fiercely. "We want to help." But in my mind, the only thought was of my parents. Were they here? Fenton and his crew got off the chopper, making sure the clearing was secure. There was nothing but birds passing by in the air. I could feel Dorian's heavy stare on my back as I moved through the clearing.
"Lyra," he whispered urgently. "I'm not trying to pry, but I know this is where your parents were. You said the phone call dropped." I couldn't remember if I’d told Dorian where my parents were, but with his super hearing, it was reasonable that he might've overheard it.
"T
hey didn't answer before on the phone when I tried again…" I let myself trail off as we joined Fenton's soldiers in an investigation. A four-lane highway ran through the area, looking terribly odd with Immortal Plane vegetation covering it. It was like the plants just exploded to cover the area, although they looked stable now. Where was the base? I peered at the vines crawling across the ruined highway. Underneath the trees, things still looked melded. I narrowed my eyes and removed my knife from my weapons belt, just in case. If this area had immortal creatures, we needed to be prepared.
A makeshift Bureau outpost with portables and new buildings constructed from raggedy plywood greeted us after we made it through a thick hedge. I kept my breath steady and slow, recalling how Sen had coached me into my own death. Now, I found my pulse racing at the sight of this post-apocalyptic scene before us. Buildings—old ones from the ghost town right alongside big temporary structures from new Bureau construction—were cut cleanly in half, as if half of their walls had decided to just magic themselves away.
"This is Martin Fenton, head of the Bureau's board, here on official business," Fenton called out. "If you're a survivor, please present yourself."
No answer. Nothing but silence and the faint chirp of crickets. I took a good look at the area, forcing myself to look past the unnerving plywood structures. A grove of trees beckoned us eerily as its branches waved in the slight breeze. They grew violently and strangely in a bizarre square where a building should have been. There was no trace of a swamp.
"Fenton, my parents said that Black Rock was being swallowed up by a glowing swamp," I told him quietly. I’d heard my parents well enough to be sure, even with our bad connection during that phone call. "This doesn't look like a swamp to me."
Fenton crossed his arms and ordered his soldiers to do a sweep. They darted in and out of the makeshift buildings but came back emptyhanded after a few minutes. I examined the trees in the square, not touching them, but trying to see if they looked familiar at all. I had seen quite a few different kinds of trees in the Immortal Plane, but these didn't look like ones I’d seen before.
"Sir, the instruments just finished sweeping the area. I'm not picking up any human energy signals," the soldier closest to Fenton said. "Nothing. There is something here, though… not a vampire. It's just… energy." Mysterious energy signals? Dorian and I exchanged a look. The Bureau knew how to look for vampires, darkness, and human energy signals. What else was there?
Fenton pressed on his comm. "Crew, prepare to apprehend or fire. Unknown energy signals."
"Smells like a shrieking decay," Laini said after a tentative sniff. "Maybe some of the creatures got left behind during the meld."
The scream of a beast made us stiffen. I took a step forward, but Fenton threw his hand out as blasts fired somewhere in the forest.
"You four are completely exhausted from your fight," he said severely. "You saved the world. My men and women can handle a monster or two. Stay here." We said nothing as Fenton jogged after his soldiers.
"I don't hear it trying to attack. Whatever it is, it sounds as if it’s fleeing," Dorian admitted after a second. "Laini and I would hear it if it came toward us."
I held on to that comforting thought as the four of us settled into the entrance of the makeshift base. I rubbed my arms, suddenly chilly from the disturbing sight of the plywood construction. Had my parents helped build these structures? Where had they gone?
We made our way back to the clearing, since I figured it was better to protect the helicopter from any wayward beasts. Gina and Laini sat in the grass, dissolving into soft conversation. It sounded like they were soothing one another. I stared out at our new normal as Dorian slipped his hand into mine.
"This is insane," I whispered.
"Can't say I disagree," he admitted.
I looked at him, admiring the way the light fell on his handsome face. His sharp cheekbones jutted out even more than usual, lately. I raised my other hand to brush the side of his face. I just wanted to steal one moment alone to drink in a good look at him before we joined the others.
The arbiters had told me I would lose Dorian, but here he was in front of me. Gratitude and comfort squeezed me. We were together. We still had our necklaces, meaning that we could be close to one another. The magic was still working in the Mortal Plane, perhaps possible thanks to the arbiters’ technology, but I hoped their effects would last. In this moment, my feelings for him were stronger than they'd ever been. I dropped my hand from his face and placed it on my chest. It was so wonderful, the lack of pain. Dorian caught my eye, giving a soft nod of understanding.
"You're all I have left," I told him gently. He was my rock, my fiancé, my best friend… the love of my life.
“And I’m not going anywhere. Let’s rest for just a moment," Dorian suggested with a soft gaze toward our friends. “Our next adventure awaits. We could use a second to breathe.”
Settling next to Gina and Laini, I leaned against him, listening to his heartbeat. Every thump reminded me that this was real life. We were alive together.
40
Lyra
Two weeks later, the smell of espresso filled the immaculately decorated office. A woman in a pressed pencil skirt with an ID badge pinned to her blouse brought me the coffee. I accepted it with thanks, letting my eyes roam around the office with curiosity and fatigue. After spending most of my time in battles or shabby camps for the last year, the glitzy interior design struck me as flat and empty.
I was in the nation’s capital, but I was tired. Washington, D.C. was cold and bitter with the wind blowing outside. My Bureau contacts had issued me a new coat, but the Bureau's patch on the front soured my mood due to recent events. I crossed my arms and stared at Fenton, who sat at his desk with a few guards behind him. He gave me a lopsided frown.
"Lyra, you know that I'm really sorry for this," Fenton pressed. My head already pulsed from the oncoming headache that this conversation was going to bring. "I know you're angry."
"Angry is one word for it," I said, and sipped my espresso. Only the finest for Fenton, who had quickly lost my favor in the last few days. He was lucky that I still had an ounce of respect for him, which was why I was here, trying to work out this mess.
He folded his hands and placed them on the desk. "Let's talk about working for the Bureau, Lyra."
I exhaled evenly through my nostrils, feeling like a bull ready to snort and charge at him. I wasn't happy to be in this meeting. The Bureau had failed me again.
In response to the meld, the United States increased existing vampire restrictions and shut down the vampire refugee transfer programs, the Bureau cooperating fully with the federal government's wishes. It was cruel and stupid, but other countries had even worse policies at the moment. Some nations had taken a shoot-on-sight approach. Others, like Scotland, allowed vampires to take psychological tests in order to claim residency, but they still had to wear special muzzles in the presence of any humans. The muzzles were fairly humane, but still—muzzles! The vampires had helped save the world. Didn't they deserve better than this?
Most vampires had returned to the Immortal Plane through the new barrier, where weak spots existed, just as Dorian had suspected. The barrier had gone back to its pre-Separation state, from what we could tell. If Ruk had survived, maybe he had returned to the Higher Plane with the rest of the arbiters. Most of the other vampires naturally wanted to return to their native plane, but the ones who remained had to stay because they were highly vulnerable. They couldn't make the journey because they were still worried about the chaos that the Immortal Plane governing bodies were going through. We had a scout come back to report to us, but we were cautious with movement, since we needed more time to study it. It was good to be able to have a way to ferry news and messages between the Mortal and Immortal Planes.
I hadn't done much since I came back. For one thing, I had to recover. There had been a moment when I walked back into my family’s Chicago apartment and found it completely empty.
No Mom, no Dad, and forever, no Zach. It hit me then that my entire family was gone, and I was the only one left. I went to pieces in Dorian’s arms, and it took days before I put myself back together again. I still felt like I was missing some pieces, and that the cracks in my soul were visible. Sometimes, I dreamt that I was back in that place, and Zach pulled me along instead of pushing me away. Sometimes, I woke screaming for my parents.
Dorian and I were in the process of organizing a memorial service for Zach with our friends, but his body was still in Itzarriol, which complicated the matter. I desperately wanted my parents to be there too. There were still missing humans and vampires, and we had our work cut out for us with the bureaucracy in the Mortal Plane, but Dorian had convinced me that I needed to take time to heal. I would be of no use if I hurt myself by pushing my body too far.
On the other hand, I remembered how I’d found my parents, in that formless darkness when my soul was between life and death as the planes were separated by Ruk. They were still alive. If they weren't in the Mortal Plane, then they had to be in the Immortal Plane somewhere. Alive. I held on to that belief harder than anything. It helped drive me forward. Dorian felt the same, since he confessed that he’d sensed his own parents during our out-of-body experience.
So, I had taken time off to heal and grieve and build up my strength to become Lyra 2.0, who had to exist without parents or a brother. And what did the Bureau do in the meantime? They royally screwed up everything I’d worked for.
"I'm disappointed in you and the Bureau," I told Fenton, letting my tiny coffee cup land hard in the saucer on his desk. "The Bureau has a history of sweeping vampires under the rug. And this time is no different. Even when we know the truth, the United States decided to blame vampires because it was the easiest thing to do." He opened his mouth to speak, but I wasn't done. "I'm especially angry at you and your operatives, for giving an ultimatum that Dorian could no longer remain in the Mortal Plane unless I came back to work with the Bureau. You apparently plan to label him as an experiment." My eyes narrowed.
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