by J. N. Baker
With only sixty-three vampires, forty-one shifts, twenty-eight humans, and the six Chosen, there was almost enough space within the freshly finished castle to house all of our people. Still, a number of them remained in the military-grade tents outside the castle walls, opting for more privacy rather than having to share a room. There was talk of building more permanent structures, but William wanted the castle to come first. Now that it was finished, I was sure the work on the cabins would begin.
As I passed through the open-air corridor, a pair of guards nodded at me from their posts at one of the castle entrances. Even with my silent footsteps, they were hard to walk by unnoticed. Again, I was grateful the vamps were on our side. Not that I couldn’t take them. Easily.
“Pleasant evening, ma’am,” one of the vampires said in a throaty voice. The way he spoke, it was obvious he was old, as in hundreds-of-years old. He started to bow before catching himself. I didn’t know how many times I’d told our people to drop the ridiculous formalities. I was no lady and I sure as shit didn’t need to be bowed down to like royalty. I was no better than any of them. I was a monster.
“Cut out the ma’am shit, Dante,” I told him as I passed by and the other vampire smirked.
“Of course, ma…Zoe,” Dante forced out and I rolled my eyes. The old ones had the hardest time letting go of titles and customs. They could save that shit for William, he ate it up. Not shocking since he was older than dirt.
The cold evening air slapped my face as I stepped out of the castle. I looked up at the dark sky with a shiver and sighed. William said to get used to it, that this was our life now. Still, I missed the stars, the moon—all the little things I’d taken for granted in my human life. Baldric had managed to destroy so much and it was only the beginning.
Roughly six months had passed since the Great Battle, or so it had come to be called. I wasn’t sure it had actually been six months, hence the “roughly.” It could have easily been longer. Time flew when you were trying to survive. I gave up on keeping track shortly after the battle. It wasn’t as if we had clocks or even the sun to judge the time by. There were nights and more nights. Time no longer existed in our world, only darkness.
The snow had come and gone since the bloody battle, but the cold still remained. As did the lingering scent of death. But things had mostly been uneventful. With our diminished numbers, it wouldn’t take much for Baldric to return and destroy what little there was left of us. And yet, he hadn’t tried. In fact, no one had seen or heard from Baldric since he disappeared into the shadows, minus one hand—compliments of Ryuu.
Some of our people believed he was gone for good, but I highly doubted that. Baldric was not one to accept defeat.
The power-hungry monster of a man wanted to take over the world and rule it as his own. He wasn’t going to abandon his mission after one loss—a loss he came out on top of, if we based it on numbers alone. No, he wouldn’t give up, not when he’d successfully killed off most of the planet, destroyed the Earth, and pulled the continents together to shape things as he wanted. Baldric wouldn’t quit until he was king of everything.
Dry leaves scratched at my booted feet as I moved farther from the torch-lit castle. I didn’t need the light to see, which was good now that we lived in eternal darkness. One step at a time, I inched my way closer to the surrounding forest. As I reached the tree line, a rustle in the brush caught my attention. I froze, listening, fingers flexing around the handle of my sword. I could feel eyes on me. Someone—or something—was watching me.
“Who’s there?” I called, squinting into the trees.
Leaves crunched to my right and I moved. In a millisecond, the edge of my blade was pressed against the shadow creature’s throat. The creature hissed from beneath its black cloak and, although I couldn’t see its face, I knew it was afraid.
“L-Lady Zoe,” its gravelly voice stuttered. “I-I am sorry for startling you.”
I glowered at the creature for a long minute before retracting my weapon. I hadn’t always had the greatest of relations with the shadow people, with Litharo making me think my insides were being ripped out in an attempt to weaken me and then eat me. The creatures were apparently some sort of demons or something trying to earn back favor with God by helping us. They just gave me the creeps, for obvious reasons.
“I could have killed you, Lylan,” I pointed out the obvious. I didn’t bother correcting the formality. The less I had to talk to the creature, the better.
“Y-yes.” It bowed its head and its dark cloak fluttered in the breeze. I hadn’t actually seen what the creatures looked like, not fully, and I planned on keeping it that way. Still, it made telling them apart extremely difficult. There weren’t many of them that would actually speak to anyone, human or otherwise, so I’d come to recognize them by voice. Lylan was like the spokesperson for the shadow people, taking Litharo’s place after we were forced to take his head.
“You shouldn’t be out here alone in the first place,” a deep, raspy voice said.
I whirled around, my sword clanking violently against Ryuu’s. Of course, his sword wasn’t even in his hand. I still wasn’t use to the whole telekinesis thing. I wasn’t sure I ever would be.
“A little on edge, are we?” he asked, raising a brow.
I mumbled a half-assed apology, sheathing my weapon.
“Leave us,” Ryuu barked at Lylan. He had about as much love for the shadow people as I did. He was one of the few unfortunate enough to see what they really looked like under those robes. The creature bowed ceremoniously before scrambling back into the forest where I assumed the rest of its kind were hiding. I wondered if they coexisted with the forest nymphs. I still had so much to learn.
“You really shouldn’t be out here alone, Fido,” Ryuu said again, turning his attention back to me. He had adopted Cody’s nickname for me shortly after the Great Battle, finding it fitting for whatever reason. I’d never really understood why Cody called me that to begin with. He’d said it was because I reminded him of “a tough little bulldog.” That hadn’t gone over too well for him, but the name stuck nonetheless.
“I’m not alone,” I said, pointing to the two fanged guards standing back at the castle. They stared forward like mindless zombies. Ironic, since zombies were just about the only thing our new world didn’t have in it—that I knew of. “Besides,” I added, putting a hand to my chest, “top of the food chain and all.”
Ryuu laughed, shaking his head. “We might be toward the top of the list, but you and I both know we are not completely invincible. You still need to be cautious. I don’t want to have to deal with a weepy Alec or Cody if you were to go off and get yourself killed…or worse.”
There was humor in his voice, but we both knew how serious he was. And we both knew there were far worse things in life than death, like Baldric getting his hands on me. Or should I say hand.
I waved off Ryuu’s comment as if it didn’t bother me nearly as much as it did. “Nothing is going to kill me. Remember, I’m shockingly capable of protecting myself.”
“Don’t think you can fool me,” he said, turning and walking along the tree line, hands tucked neatly behind his back, his katana floating after him. “You and I both know you haven’t been able to call up your new ability since the battle.”
“There hasn’t been a reason to use it,” I said, following alongside him.
“I have seen you trying from time to time. You can’t do it.”
I blew out a breath. “Okay, so I can’t do it,” I admitted. It was true. I hadn’t been able to call the strange new electric power since I’d used it on the battlefield. Not that I had all that much control over it to begin with. “But I can still protect myself,” I added.
“Oh, that I do believe.” Ryuu chuckled. “Do you really think I haven’t noticed how strong you’ve become since that little Stonehenge incident? I know you try to hide it, but I see.”
“Stalker,” I muttered, which turned his chuckle into a full-bellied laugh.
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I’d always appreciated Ryuu’s carefree sense of humor and his ability to get under William’s skin. He was a lot like Cody, which was probably why they had become such good friends over the past six months. The two men were practically inseparable. It was actually quite comical to see. Tall, beach-bum Cody who moonlighted as my house cat, Mr. Whiskers, and short, soft spoken Ryuu, our modern-day ninja who could move shit with his mind. Quite the pair indeed.
Ryuu and I had become close as well, once I’d forgiven him for not sacrificing me in order to kill Baldric, and he’d forgiven me for wanting him to.
We were family, after all.
Ryuu had actually been helping me train, which was why he noticed the surge in my physical power. And he was right, I did try to hide it. William was already suspicious of my abilities since Stonehenge, and Jade, well, Jade was just suspicious in general. “Trust no one” was her go-to philosophy in life. Yet, she trusted Ryuu. He was her “mate” apparently. Still made zero sense to me, but to each their own.
“So,” he said, “why are you up?”
I knew the question was coming, it was only a matter of time.
“I couldn’t sleep.” I stated the obvious, leaving out a few minor details of a certain someone who was blissfully haunting my dreams. Ryuu and I had grown close, but not close enough for that conversation. Annie was the only one who knew the whole truth. Information she’d gleaned on her own. She was a perceptive thing.
Ryuu stared at me blankly as we walked, those intense hazel eyes boring into me until I couldn’t take it anymore.
“What?” I snapped.
“Oh, I’m sorry. I’m just waiting for the truth. I figure if I wait long enough, I’ll get it. We have forever, take your time.”
“Funny,” I sneered.
“Why aren’t you sleeping?” he asked again, his face serious as he stopped walking.
I released a weighted breath, staring out into the darkness. The wind howled and I shook, more out of habit than from the cold. “Do you ever hate what you are—what you’ve become?”
Ryuu was quiet for a moment. “Did Alec ever tell you about my human life?”
I shook my head and Ryuu started walking again.
“My father was a great samurai during the Edo period. Because of that, I was raised around Bushido—the way of the warrior. From a very young age, I was taught honor, dignity, and how to fight. I was groomed to be just like my father. But my skills lay not in combat, but stealth. At the age of eleven, I caught the eye of a group of shinobi assassins.”
“Shinobi?”
“Ninjas.”
“I knew it!” I blurted, quickly slapping a hand over my mouth.
Ryuu smirked. “Yes. But my father didn’t share your enthusiasm. He was not happy about it. In fact, he forbade it. He wanted me to follow in his footsteps and live the honorable life of a samurai. Ninjas were not seen as honorable. In my time, they were spies and mercenaries and considered a lower caste in society. My father threatened to disown me if I disobeyed him, but I wasn’t given the choice. The group stole me away from my family in the middle of the night. I never saw them again.”
“Ryuu, I’m so sorry…”
“Don’t be,” he said with a shrug. “I likely would have run away to join them eventually. I never wanted the life in the spotlight. I enjoyed sneaking through the shadows too much. I was a natural at it. I took what I’d learned from the samurai and joined it with what I was learning from the shinobi. By the time I was fifteen, I was one of the greatest ninjas alive. Did you know my name means ‘dragon’? Well, it didn’t take long before I was known across the land as the Blood Dragon for all of the blood I stole.”
“I don’t understand,” I started. “What does this have to do with…”
He stopped walking again, turning to face me. “What I’m trying to tell you is my whole life I have been trained to be a killer. I stole lives long before I became one of the Chosen, Zoe. The only thing that changed for me was my ability to move things with my mind. I haven’t known anything but what I am now. This has always been me. So, no, I don’t really hate it. It’s all I’ve ever known.”
I nodded, my gaze falling to my feet.
“But I haven’t experienced great loss because of what I am, not as you have,” he went on. “I have lived a life of relative solitude for a very long time. This is the most people I have been around consistently in the past two hundred years. I never even took on a shift as the others typically did. It was ingrained in me from a young age to never get attached to anything or anyone. Attachment leads to suffering, and death is an integral part of life. Life is created and life ends. These are the ways in which I was taught.
“This was the life I have always trained for. But not you. You were ripped out of a normal life and thrown into a world of war and death. You’ve been forced to spill blood and take lives. You have lost people you cared about, some deeply. You are allowed to hate it.”
A bitter laugh escaped my lips. “William is of the opinion that I should thank him for doing this to me.”
“He’s not altogether wrong.”
“But you just said—”
“I said you can hate what you’ve become, Fido, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t for the best. Sure, it isn’t ideal, but because of what you are, you’re still alive.”
“Because of what I am my friends are dead,” I snapped.
“They would have been dead a lot sooner if not for what you are. What you are gave them more time.”
“What I am is a damned monster,” I growled.
“Not all monsters are bad,” he said matter-of-factly. “We are the monsters that hunt worse monsters. Seems honorable enough to me.”
“Honorable,” I scoffed. “Right.”
I started walking away and Ryuu was quick on my heels. He clearly wasn’t ready to leave me alone yet. We walked side by side in companionable silence until we reached the makeshift cemetery, and my feet faltered. I stared out at the crosses, hundreds of them. I wasn’t sure I could even find Cindy’s anymore. Josh didn’t have one. Couldn’t waste a plot of land for an empty grave.
“I miss them,” I whispered.
“I’m sure you do.”
His nonchalance started to rub me the wrong way. He and Jade were starting to make a lot more sense. “Are you saying you wouldn’t miss Cody if he died? Or Alec, or me, or Jade?”
“But, of course. Pain is unavoidable but suffering, that is optional. Nothing is permanent, nothing truly lasts forever. Not even us.”
Something stirred in the darkness and Ryuu’s sword landed in his hand. A familiar cloaked figure stepped forward and Ryuu lowered his blade.
Lylan hurried over to us. “Lord Ryuu, I must speak with you in private.”
“Can’t it wait?”
“I am sorry, sire. It is quite urgent.” The shadow creature stepped up to Ryuu—closer than I would have ever allowed—mumbling something into his ear.
Ryuu’s face was grim. “I need to go check this out,” he said to me.
“Should I wake the others?” I asked.
“Not yet. For now, just go back inside.” Without another word, he stalked off into the forest, disappearing into the night with Lylan.
Fog crept out of the trees, slithering over the ground like a great white snake. A cold breeze rustled my hair, my body shivering. My eyes darted back to the cemetery and then to the trees once more. It was too quiet. Something was wrong. But I was confident Ryuu would have asked me for help if he needed it.
For once, I did what I was told. I went back inside.
The castle was quiet when I returned, the guards no longer at their posts. They were likely doing a perimeter check. It looked like most of our people were still sleeping, completely unaware of whatever was happening outside. I knew Ryuu said not to wake the others yet, but I figured it wouldn’t hurt to let Alec know something was up.
As I headed for the stairs, a loud crash sounded from the storage room on the other si
de of the courtyard followed by muffled voices.
I tiptoed in the direction of the door, listening intently. My hand snaked to my hip and drew the sword from its sheath. As I moved closer to the room, the voices grew louder, more distinct—two of them. Something toppled over in the room and feet shuffled around. They obviously needed some lessons in stealth. With the number of Chosen and vampire living in our midst, I was shocked the entire castle hadn’t woken yet.
My fingers tightened around the sword’s hilt. I raised my weapon, my free hand hovering over the door handle. Before I could wrap my fingers around the knob, a shout erupted and the door flew open. I jumped back, ready for anything.
Cody and Holly stumbled out of the storage room. “Stumbled” might have been too graceful a word for it. They fell at my feet, giggling like small children. Holly’s petite body was wrapped around Cody’s waist, his long fingers tangled in her short black hair. I stopped my blade no more than a quarter of an inch from Holly’s throat. Needless to say, she stopped laughing.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” I raged.
“Oh, h-hi,” she said, fumbling over her words. She sounded like she’d been drinking. She sure as hell smelled like it.
“I could have killed you,” I said stiffly.
Holly avoided eye contact with me. She looked embarrassed, her cheeks turning five shades of red. It was better than looking dead, I supposed. “I-I’m sorry,” she stuttered, struggling to get to her feet. “We were just having some fun.”
“Go to bed,” I snapped, sheathing my sword. “Now.”
She nodded, apologizing again, one hand tenderly rubbing her unscathed neck. She wouldn’t find any cuts; I had a steady hand. She was lucky.
Holly was already shuffling up one of the stairwells when I turned my attention to Cody. He grinned at me like a drunken fool and I cursed whoever packed the crates of alcohol when we loaded up the plane in Nevada.