by Bond, Casey
"Who will guard my home in my stead?" Asa asked, enjoying the spectacle of our argument.
I smiled at him sweetly. "Let Terah stay behind." Titus nudged me and gave me a look that said he more than approved of my suggestion.
“She won’t want to be left behind,” Enoch warned Asa.
“But brother, I’m sure you can find a way to persuade her to see the logic in it.” Enoch stiffened. Asa, on the other hand, winked at me before turning and walking away.
“I’ll be back in a few moments,” Enoch replied stiffly, excusing himself.
“What exactly did Asa mean by that?” Titus asked, watching my reaction. “Can Enoch control his siblings?”
“Not that I know of,” I answered. I couldn’t fathom why he would have the ability, or why they wouldn’t be able to resist his compulsion.
“He can control his sires…” Titus led.
“But his siblings are his equals. He didn’t sire them,” I argued.
“As far as we know.” Titus rolled his shoulders, shook his arms out, and stretched, limbering up for the hunt ahead. “We need to watch them closely.”
“You’re watching them close enough for the both of us.”
“And what about you?” he asked. “Are you watching them enough?”
“I know you don’t like Enoch.”
“I don’t like any of them,” he countered matter-of-factly. “And I sure as hell don’t trust them. But how well do you actually know Enoch? We’ve only known him a few weeks altogether, spread out over decades and centuries, and he’s been alive a lot longer than that. How do we know anything about him? I think we’ve seen enough to have learned that there’s a lot more we don’t know. Besides, it can’t hurt to be cautious.”
I turned away from him to think and stared at the rows of short hedges surrounded by tall ones, picturing a hooded man walking out from between the tallest, knife blade pointed toward my belly.
The sky darkened. Pale-gray tendrils of smoke curled toward the thinly streaked clouds, outlined in gold. The acrid scent stung my nose, even though I’d been outside in the fresh air long enough for the few burns on my hands and cheek to heal.
I let out a pent-up breath.
What Titus said made perfect sense. Any logical person who heard his argument would agree with him. The three Nephilim had been alive for thousands of years, and we had only been in their presence for a few weeks. Even those weeks were spread out over time. I saw distinct changes in Enoch between the first time I met him, to when I saw him on the seas, and I couldn't help but wonder how much he had changed since then. I'd only had a few minutes with him so far.
"You know I'm right." Titus wasn't bragging or trying to rub salt in the wound; he was trying to be the voice of reason because I couldn't be. Whenever I was around Enoch, I couldn't think clearly. My emotions ran wild, pouring over me like an angry tidal wave. Crushing. Unforgiving. Powerful.
Maru told me never to reveal my weakness to anyone, not even those I trusted, because those who were friends today, might be enemies tomorrow. The weakness of the enemy makes our strength. Titus still thought of our targets as enemies, and while I could see that Terah and Asa clearly were, I couldn't see Enoch ever being someone I could fight against.
I promised Victor no one would ever disarm me again and that his faith in me was well-placed. But here I was, in seventeen-seventy-seven, and Enoch had completely disarmed me with the force of who he was. Because I saw him for what he truly was and not the monster Victor made him out to be, I was glad to break the promise I once made.
“You need to watch yourself around Terah,” Titus interrupted my train of thought, both brows raised. He held onto my upper arms as if infusing the words into my brain.
“I know. I’ll watch my back, but I think you should watch yours, too. You’re her hunter. If she wants to get rid of anyone, it makes sense that it would be you first.”
He gritted his teeth but gave me a curt nod. We stood in silence until Enoch returned to the garden a few minutes later. "We need to split up. Eve and I can head toward my home place and track the scents of the vampires from there. We should be able to tell who sired them."
"Eve and I are not splitting up. If anything, you can go with Asa."
"Absolutely not," Enoch gritted. “I haven’t seen her in –”
"She and I stick together," Titus argued. "Period."
"Hello," I said, waving my hand to both of them. "I'm right here. Oh, and I'm going with Titus. We're teammates, and as much as I want to spend time with you catching up, now is not the time. Besides, I’ll hunt better without distractions, and your presence is a distraction to me, Enoch."
For a moment he looked angry, and then the meaning of my words struck him and he gave a sheepish grin. "I see. Well, I certainly wouldn’t want to distract a huntress from her prey."
Titus groaned, sliding his hands down his face, and turned to give us a moment of privacy. Enoch kissed me, hard and fast. For a moment, I did just as I’d imagined. I tangled my fingers into his shoulder-length curls, feeling their softness. I breathed in his scent and felt the muscles ripple under the vest and blue coat he wore.
“I promise we will spend plenty of time catching up, my huntress.”
With one last, lingering kiss, Enoch released me and the three of us began the walk to Enoch’s home. Asa caught up with us halfway there as we walked through rows of dried cornstalks.
“There is no foreign scent in my home,” he fumed. “That means that whomever set the fire was no stranger. They were an opportunist.” He glared at me.
I rolled my eyes. “I didn’t set the fire that almost killed me, Asa.”
Asa turned the full weight of his glare to Titus.
“Both of us were outside, dude. Did you happen to ask your psycho sister where she was when it broke out?”
“She assures me she wasn’t involved.”
Titus snorted. “Right, right. Because she hasn’t acted strange or suspicious the entire time we’ve been here.”
Asa chuckled. “Do you ever tire of being so blunt?”
“Not really, no,” Titus answered honestly. “And Terah’s lying.”
“How could you possibly know that?”
“Her body language. She’s almost as bad a liar as Eve.”
I tried not to take offense, reminding myself that he was only being honest, even if it was aggravating. Titus was great at reading people, but I wasn’t completely sure Terah was the one who set the fire. Maybe it was the same person who’d tried to kill 1776.
Chapter Nine
Maru
Enoch had quickly and unequivocally agreed to allow Yarrow safe passage to the human Haven they had been ushering people to over the past several weeks, saying there was plenty of room. Once I secured a place for her there, I sent a message letting her know. Things had been quiet for two days and I’d been climbing the walls of the small apartment, waiting to hear back from her and worrying she’d gotten caught trying to help me, when the device finally rang.
I'm on night shift, she wrote. Delta Unit. Sector Three.
Sector Three wasn’t far from where I was holed up. I quickly decided to find her and hide with her until dawn, when the shifts would head back to the Compound and Enoch would send someone to protect us. I sent a message letting him know as much and he replied, saying he would come for us himself and personally see us to safety.
As much as I wanted to trust him, I didn’t. I couldn’t. It was hard to consider him as anything other than the monster Victor had told us about for so long. There were broadcasts of him drinking from women until their legs were too weak to stand, his laughter ringing out as he eased them to the ground. There were broadcasts of him from other surviving cities, showing attacks from his vampire army on the military.
Yarrow said she’d dug up a lot more information she needed to share with me. I hoped she had good news instead of what I’d seen on the broadcasts. Especially if he was coming after us himself.
&nb
sp; I waited out the sun and when it began to set in the west, I watched to make sure no one was outside. Sector Three was two blocks over. Delta Unit was one of the furthest deployed from the Compound, and the closest patrol to the Dead Zone. They were also historically the unit who suffered the most casualties. Their turnover rate was triple that of the Alpha, Bravo, and Charlie units, so I needed to find her fast and get her to safety.
Enoch’s device buzzed in my pocket with a message from Yarrow as I crossed the street. Entering Sector Three. Our orders are to enter the Dead Zone and take out as many vamps as we can. Please find me. I’m terrified.
Yarrow, who was used to typing on keyboards and scanning screens, was pretending to be a member of the military. She was probably armed to the teeth, yet terrified of the weapons strapped to her back and in her hands. They carried assault weapons and magazines loaded with wooden bullets, which were only effective for vamps who hadn’t fed and were withering. Maybe they would surprise a fresh one, or assist someone else and get lucky. More often, the vamps ducked away and fed through our lines of defense.
My heart thundered. I didn’t want Yarrow to get killed over this.
I weaved between buildings and hid behind steel dumpsters, climbed through windows and out back doors. The device buzzed. Washington Avenue and 3rd Street heading toward 2nd.
She was a block away and advancing in my direction.
I hid in what once was a bookstore, the smell of old paper and dust permeating the air. I knew I had to grab Yarrow without being seen. If anyone else saw me, they would arrest me and take me to the Compound where Victor would decide my fate, and he’d already made up his mind that he wanted me dead.
A few soldiers passed, but none were Yarrow. “Hurry up!” a young man hollered over his shoulder. I could tell he was new and not very bright. With a voice that loud, the vamps would hear him coming a mile away and be ready for their attack. I finally saw Yarrow dawdling up the sidewalk. She awkwardly held a rifle over her shoulder, pushing her thick glasses up onto the bridge of her nose. She furtively glanced in every nook and cranny, in every window, ignoring the guy’s prompts for her to speed up.
I crouched at the shop door, quickly swinging it open and pulling her inside. “Thank God,” she breathed, immediately handing her gun to me. “I was terrified I’d shoot myself. I have no idea how to use one of those things.”
“We aren’t safe yet,” I whispered, urging her further into the store where we could hide between the tall bookshelves.
“I was the slowest. I made sure of it. So, if we’re going back to the apartment you’ve been squatting in, we won’t be seen by any of the military. The bulk of Delta unit should be close to the Dead Zone now.”
“Ticher ordered Delta into the Dead Zone?” I exclaimed.
She nodded. “He’s done taking orders from Victor. He told us that Victor’s surprise tactics aren’t getting rid of the problem. To get rid of the vamps, we have to fight dirty, and we have to attack hard.”
Yarrow was dressed in standard-issue black military fatigues, her beautiful hair swept up in a hat. She wore a slender, foam pack on her back that blended seamlessly into her uniform. When all was clear, we made our way out of the store’s rear door. A cat startled as we spilled into the alley. I held tight to Yarrow’s hand as we made quick tracks across town. We slipped into the apartment I’d hijacked and I made it as safe as possible, blocking every exit with furniture.
In the days while I waited for Yarrow’s message, I explored my space of confinement, realizing this apartment was originally a storefront that had been converted to a living space. I found a small door that led into a basement overflowing with boxes, stuffed full of hats, blouses, coats, worn shoes and peeling leather handbags. There were stacks of canned goods and a small lantern. If nothing else, we could hide in the small space. The military would never find the entrance. I wouldn’t have noticed it if I hadn’t been staring at the space so long.
I’d found a cache of small jingle bells in the closet, and now every window had a tinkling alarm bell hanging from it. If someone opened a window, we would hear it. If they tried a door, they wouldn’t be able to get in without a great deal of effort. And most importantly, we would have time to get away.
“There’s so much to tell you, I don’t even know where to start,” Yarrow whispered, pressing a shaking hand to her forehead.
“You’re safe now,” I reminded her.
“I’m not safe until I make it to the Haven. Maru, I am so scared.”
She surprised me by hugging my neck tight. I wrapped my arms around her and held her just as tight. I’d given Eve hugs on occasion, but Yarrow was different. She was nothing like a sister to me, and everything I wanted.
When she finally released me, she pulled the pack off her back and unzipped the largest pocket. “I’ll tell you everything I know, but there are a few things you need to see first.”
She pulled out a communicator. “They can’t track this.” Scrolling through reams of data, she pulled up a video feed. “This is not one of Victor’s cameras. I think it might be General Ticher’s. I think he planted it during one of his meetings with Victor.”
In the video, Kael and Victor were staring unflinchingly at one another, a simple mahogany table separating them. “Explain why Eve’s clone is wearing clothing that is not from this era,” Victor demanded.
“You ordered me to deploy the clones,” Kael answered calmly.
“The army I sanctioned was supposed to land at the gala the top Assets never appeared at. That was the plan.”
Kael gripped the table edge until his knuckles were stiff and white. “That was the plan you suggested, but it wasn’t the wisest course of action.”
“My orders are not suggestions,” Victor snarled, his voice low and sharp as glass.
“We harnessed the ability to travel through time, and you felt that the best course of action was to attack the Triad in our time?” Kael scoffed. “I came up with a much better plan. I sent the top three Assets to a time they would be vulnerable, to a time before any vampires had been recorded in valid historical records.”
“When was that?” Victor fumed.
“Thirteen-forty-eight.”
Victor’s eyes bulged. “Thirteen-forty-eight? No wonder you can’t track them! It makes sense why their communicators don’t work. Will it even be possible for them to return to the present?”
“When I am ready for them to, yes.”
“You’ve overstepped your authority and undermined mine, Kael. You’ve committed treason.”
“Careful, Victor.” Kael’s features darkened. “Don’t forget that I’m the one you trusted to develop the technology behind your plan, the one you trusted with nuclear energy. The one who has sacrificed human after human just to make your plan a success, and then you,” Kael sputtered, standing and bracing his palms on the table, “you wanted me to send all that hard work to a ridiculous vampire gala? When we could eradicate them entirely…when we could stop the Triad from siring vampires at all…when we could stop this country from being torn apart?”
Victor rose from his seat and opened his mouth to speak, but Kael narrowed his eyes and spoke first. “You wanted to be a hero. If the vampires had never swept over this land, you would be nothing.”
“And neither would you.”
“You’re wrong,” Kael argued. “I would still be brilliant. I’d be the man who prevented mankind’s extinction.”
Victor became icily calm. “Why is there a year tattooed on the clone?”
“Because I sent a second army. A trio of clones from all three top Assets were deployed to every year between thirteen-forty-eight and the present. If your army of Eve clones failed, and thus far they have, the second generation of clones might succeed, because they have a separate mission.”
“What do you mean?”
“I instructed them to do everything in their power to be bitten and turned. Only when their transition to vampire was complete, were they to r
eturn home.”
“You want venom.” Victor gave a mirthless laugh. “Imagine – a vaccination against vampirism.”
“If we can’t kill them, we can at least protect the future generations of humanity from them.” Kael stood up and straightened his lab coat.
Victor was quiet, contemplative as he looked across the table at his former underling. “Is there anything else you need to tell me?”
“The top Assets aren’t dead. They left thirteen-forty-eight by jumping, but I directed their landing to the year seventeen-seventeen. From there, they jumped again. They’re currently in seventeen seventy-seven, in the newly declared United States of America, in the Colony of South Carolina.”
“Why are you guiding them?”
“Because I have a third plan, using Eve as bait,” Kael answered callously.
Victor shook his head. “I underestimated you.”
Kael gave him a wide smile. “But Eve didn’t. She told me something once. She said I didn’t realize how powerful I could be if I stopped taking orders. She was right.”
I held my breath as I waited for Victor’s explosion, but Kael’s declaration was met with a beat or two of stony silence. Victor didn’t outright threaten him. He didn’t utter a word, but revenge darkened his features and hatred settled in his eyes.
“Cheer up, Victor. I only did what was best for this country and its people, and despite my methods being unconventional and perhaps something others won’t understand, I don’t regret any of the steps I took along the way.”
“Your pride will be your downfall, Kael.”
“Only if I don’t succeed. If any part of this works… if we collect venom and I develop an anti-venin, if one of the Triad gets staked and their entire bloodline of sires dies with them, or if Eve is the one thing that draws them to us, we have a real chance at extinguishing the threat. For good.”
“At which time you will claim the victory. And you call yourself altruistic…” Victor guessed.
Kael smiled. “I never claimed to be anything but brilliant and ruthless. Both were attributes you appreciated when we first began this journey.”
