by J. N. Baker
I extended my leg beyond the protection of the curtain, testing the water before stepping in. A sigh escaped my lips as the water contacted my bare flesh, scalding it as if it were trying to burn away my many sins. I stood perfectly still, letting the water cascade over my head, watching as each droplet fell from my many strands of hair. I took in a deep breath and exhaled.
When in the shower, it was just me and the water. No vampires, no Chosen, no secret wars—no end of the world. It was the one place I could truly escape, if only for a little while.
When I was younger, my two stepbrothers ratted me out constantly. “Your freaking daughter wasted all the hot water again!” It wasn’t my youthful imagination. My mother always took their side of every argument. There were times her “loving” husband would bust down the bathroom door and drag me from the shower by my hair, tossing me into my room like a rag doll. I went through a lot of makeup in my human days.
What a rotten creature, turning her back on her own child. Was it bad that I didn’t miss my mother or her “happy” little family? Maybe, though I doubted they missed me in the slightest.
It was nice to be free from that prison where strangers made the laws. Not like my life now was much different.
The bathroom door creaked open and the memories vanished. I held my breath and listened as faint footsteps approached the shower curtain. My mind raced, searching for something, anything to use as a weapon. I scolded myself for leaving my sword in the living room. It was an amateur move. Automatically, my hand reached for my razor.
Strange that no matter how hard I tried I couldn’t calm my breathing. That’s when I realized it wasn’t mine.
“Who’s there?” I demanded.
I peeled back the shower curtain and peered out to find the bathroom door still shut. It was official, after six years I’d finally lost my mind. I sighed and retreated into the shower.
There, with blackened skin and blood-red eyes, was a creature like none I’d ever seen before. Saliva oozed from hundreds of jagged teeth. A single drop splattered on my forearm, burning through the skin like acid. I plastered myself to the wall of the shower, cradling my arm against my chest. The large black beast towered over me, taking up every inch of space within my shower until there was hardly room to breathe.
“Your blood is mine!” it snarled, its top lip curling up like a rabid dog.
Instinct kicked in, and I leapt from the shower. But I didn’t account for the slickness of the wet porcelain beneath my feet. I lost traction. My hand reached out for stability, tearing down the curtain as I tumbled from the shower, smacking my head into the corner of the countertop before I collapsed onto the floor.
The beast reared back its head, steam slithering around its massive body that seemed to grow larger in the small space of my bathroom. An elongated neck extended out past the tub, razor-sharp teeth inching closer to my face. I tried to scoot back, tangled in the plastic curtain.
“Make peace with your god, warrior!”
Blood leached down the side of my face. I had to stay conscious. I had to…
“Do you trust me, Zoe?”
“I—”
William leaned in, his breath scalding the surface of my skin. “I said, do you trust me?”
“Y-yes,” I stammered.
He nodded, taking a step back. “You are a good liar,” he whispered. “No matter, we will have many years to build on that trust. Now, tell me, Zoe, what is our greatest weakness?”
I hesitated just a second too long.
“Answer me!” William roared. I winced as he grabbed hold of my face, forcing me to look at him. “You will learn that I do not like to repeat myself.”
“We have no weaknesses,” I muttered, pulling my face free.
“Wrong,” he snapped. “Everyone and everything has a weakness, even Baldric. It is just a matter of finding what that weakness is and using it. Again, what is our weakness?”
I kept my eyes down, watching grains of sand blow across my feet. “I don’t know,” I finally said.
I looked up at him, disappointment written all over his face. “Pain. Our weakness is pain. Physical, emotional, it is all the same. Pain makes us weak. So, we must learn to control our weakness so it cannot control us. We need to become accustomed to the pain, become one with it.” William paused, looking me over with empty eyes. “I hope that one day you will understand.”
“Understand wha—”
The sword came down hard. I dropped to my knees and cried out. It came down again. And again.
“Get up,” a voice commanded. “Now.”
A towel landed in a heap upon my naked body, still tangled in the plastic wrap of the shower curtain. “Where is it?” I asked. “Where did it go?”
“Where is what?”
Using my one free hand, I untangled myself from the curtain’s clutches, shimmying out of the plastic like a snake would its skin. Clutching the towel to my body with white knuckles, I crawled to my feet, using the bloodstained counter for stability. The blood was still wet. I peered into an empty shower. The beast was gone. I wondered if it was ever there to begin with.
I turned my attention to the man standing in the doorway of my bathroom, clad from head to toe in black. “Why didn’t you let me kill him?” I demanded, rubbing my temples. God, my head was splitting.
“Well, hello to you too.”
“William.”
“It was not Roland’s time to die,” William replied before turning his back to me and walking into the bedroom. He was a man of few words. I was used to it by now.
I tightened the towel under my arms and analyzed my forehead in the mirror. I wet a washrag and wiped the blood from the side of my face. The wound had healed nicely, the only trace of it the searing pain in my head. Though, some of that pain could have been caused by William.
“Haven’t you ever heard of knocking?” I asked, entering my room. “What are you doing here anyway? I thought you were supposed to be gone for another week or two.”
William sat on my bed, his hood pushed back. It was hard not to stare even after the six years I’d known him. He was like something out of a damn fairy tale. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that he wasn’t from our time.
He didn’t look much older than me, but looks were deceiving in our world. He was tall and muscular—my queen-sized bed seemed to shrink under his massive frame. His dirty blond hair hung loosely around broad shoulders, waved and windblown as if he’d just arrived from a long journey through far and distant lands. And his eyes, those deep blue eyes, like staring into an endless abyss. I’d often wondered what they’d seen in their long lifetime.
“Well, you seem very pleasant today, Zoe.” He flashed me a tight smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes and then it was gone.
I sighed. “Sorry. It’s been a long day.”
William rose from my bed and stepped toward the window, peering through dusty blinds. “The days will get shorter soon.”
I opened my mouth to question him but quickly decided against it. I wasn’t entirely sure his words were intended for me. It wasn’t unlike William to think out loud. And, if I was being perfectly honest, I didn’t have it in me to hear whatever dark thoughts were going through that head of his. I had enough shit on my plate as it was. “I saw Alec today,” I said instead, so quietly I thought he might not have heard me. He did, of course.
“Alec…” William backed away from the window and looked down at me as I took a seat on the edge of my bed. He seemed to always be looking down on me. “Yes, he just arrived a couple of days ago. He was in Europe with another of our kind for the past few years.”
“He said that you were the reason he left, that you sent him away.”
“I did.”
When I realized that the conversation wasn’t going anywhere, I finally asked, “Why?”
“It was necessary,” was all he said, turning to face the window once more.
“I don’t understand.”
William sigh
ed, running his finger along a dusty blind as if he were a white-glove health inspector looking to report me. I wondered if he found the time to dust his own apartment or if he had better things to do. He rolled the clump of dust between his thumb and forefinger. “It is critical in the first year for a new Chosen not to have any human contact,” he started. “I have told you this before, Zoe.”
“But Alec isn’t human.”
“Let it go, Zoe.”
“No,” I snapped. “Why?”
“Because he was keeping you human,” William said, his voice flat. The muscles in his back tensed under the thin fabric of his black hoodie. “I am sorry if this upsets you,” he continued, “but it was for your own good. His presence made you weak.”
“I am not weak,” I growled, standing from my bed and stepping behind him until I was sure he could feel my breath on his back.
“But you were,” he snarled as he turned on me, his nose to mine, staring down at me with hard eyes. “You were growing weaker each day he was with you. I did what had to be done.”
I swallowed hard, returning his gaze. “I appreciate that you were trying to look out for me in your own overly protective, controlling way. But I’m a grown ass woman. I can decide for myself what is and isn’t good for me. Do not ever interfere in my life like that again. You may have ruined my life, but this is still my life.”
“This is not about you, or what is good for you and your life,” William said in a voice that was too calm for comfort. “This is about what is good for our kind, for everything we have worked toward for nearly a thousand years. I will not tolerate weakness, Zoe. Weakness does not win wars. Alec made you weak, so I sent him away. I did what I had to do, and believe me when I tell you, I would do it again if need be. You are one of the Chosen—act like it.”
I fell back a step as if he’d physically struck me. He might as well have. I dropped my gaze to the floor like a scolded child. “You’ve taken so much from me already. Please, don’t take more people out of my life than you already have.”
“What is done is done,” William said, putting a firm hand on my shoulder for the briefest moment. “The past cannot be changed.”
William couldn’t remember when he was “created.” The earliest memory he had was of living in the eleventh century. He’d been one of the Chosen for a thousand years, maybe more. Alec once told me that William and Baldric were the only survivors of the Great War. The rest of the original seven were destroyed. I knew there were others. There were always seven on Earth at one time. Being the eldest, William put it upon himself to take charge. After all, he knew best.
“I had another vision today,” I said casually, running fingers through my damp hair as I walked to the mirrored closet door. Things like that were normal for our kind. I wasn’t the only one with a “gift.”
“What did you see?”
“Earthquake in Los Angeles.” I glanced at William over my shoulder, sending a silent prayer to whoever was still listening. “It looked pretty bad.”
When I first “saw” the tsunami hit the East Coast I wanted to do something, anything to stop it from happening—to stop the death that would come. I begged and pleaded with him, but William forbade it. He told me it was pointless. That the future couldn’t be changed, only prepared for. And that it would only guarantee the general’s men finding me. It was a miracle that after six years they hadn’t managed to capture me, especially with their increase in numbers.
“I know you want to do something, Zoe, I can see it in your eyes. But you know the consequences that will come if you do. You will endanger all of us—everything we have been working for. Centuries of work, ruined.” I saw the anger flicker across his hollow eyes. It didn’t hold a candle to my own.
“Do you realize how many people died today?” I raged. It was my turn to get in his face. “Do you have any idea whatsoever, or are you too consumed with your own little world? Those people’s deaths are in my head—their blood is on my hands. I knew they were going to die and I did nothing. Nothing! We’re here for a reason, aren’t we? To stop Baldric? To save people’s lives? What the hell are we here for, if not to do something?”
The muscles along his jaw tightened. “We have had this conversation. Repeatedly. There are things beyond even our control. You must accept that as it is.”
“We haven’t even tried.”
“Enough,” William growled, taking a step closer. His eyes scanned over my face, reading me like an open book.
“What?” I snapped, pulling away from his stare.
“What have you done, Zoe?”
“Nothing.” I stood as gracefully as I could and headed for the bedroom door, holding it open for him. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’d like to get dressed and I think you’ve seen enough of my naked body for one day.”
He didn’t move an inch. In fact, he could have been mistaken for a statue.
“Look,” I sighed, “I didn’t do anything. I wanted to, but I didn’t. And who the hell would’ve believed me if I had?”
William shook his head, disappointed, but I didn’t really care. It wasn’t the first time and it sure as hell wouldn’t be the last. He walked past me, stopping short in the hallway. “You are so much like her, Zoe,” he said, the same admiration in his voice that had been in Roland’s.
“Wait,” I started. “So much like who?”
“It matters not—”
“It matters to me,” I snapped, interrupting him. “Don’t keep me in the dark, William. You want me to be Chosen, then treat me like one. Today, Roland told me I look like ‘her.’ Is that why Baldric wants me alive? Tell me!”
“Roland was alive before the Great War. He remembers.”
“Remembers what?”
“Everything,” William hissed. “Now, I need to meet with someone tonight. It is important. Please, be careful and do not do anything stupid.”
I got dressed as quickly as I could, going through my normal rituals. I found that they kept me sane. It was easier to pretend that I didn’t know each new day could be the end. Ignorance was bliss, right?
A hard knock came to the front door. If I were still human, I might have jumped. Instead, I exchanged my hairbrush for the dagger on my nightstand and slipped out of the bedroom. Clutching the short blade in my hand, I cracked open the door only to find Alec standing there with a lazy smile on his face.
“You look surprised to see me,” he said. “I told you I’d come for you tonight. I gave you my word.”
“H-how did you find me?” I fumbled over the words.
“That doesn’t matter. All that matters is that I’m here.” He flashed me that devilishly handsome smile I remembered all too well. Oh, what that smile used to do to me. Hell, what it still did. “Aren’t you going to let me in?” he continued.
When I didn’t immediately move to open the door, Alec vanished. As in, here one second, gone the next. Evaporated into thin air—gone.
“Fucking teleport,” I mumbled into an empty doorway.
In an instant, a large hand slammed my door shut—from the inside.
The sharp edge of my blade was at his throat in a second. I couldn’t help it. It was instinct, one that had kept me alive for the past six years.
Alec chuckled, pushing the dagger’s sharp edge away with his index finger. His body pressed into mine, pinning me against the door. “Oh, come on. You used to love that move.”
“That was a long time ago, Alec.”
He retreated a step, giving me an inch of space to breathe. His eyes danced over the dagger still firmly gripped in my hand. “Do you treat all the men that come to your door like this?”
I withdrew the dagger, tucking it into my belt. “I don’t have many men showing up at my doorstep these days.” I thought I felt blood rush to my cheeks. It was unlikely, but stranger things had happened.
“I can’t say that I’m sorry to hear that,” he purred, running his hands up my bare arms. Goose bumps raced across the surface of my flesh, reveali
ng just how long it’d been since a man had touched me.
“I’ll, um, be right back,” I said, withdrawing from his touch and escaping to my room. I closed the door behind me, resting my head against its cold surface. Shit.
“Ah!”
“Sorry,” he grimaced, “but I have to make sure it’s clean so it heals properly.”
Alec leaned in close, blowing on the open wound, his eyes never straying far from mine. He placed a gentle kiss on my shoulder, distracting me from the pain. It worked for all of two seconds.
I winced as he moved around to my back, pouring the liquid fire over my broken flesh. “Why did he do this to me?” I sobbed.
“It’s part of the training. Although,” he paused, taking note of the number of cuts across my body, “he seems to have you on the fast track.”
“Enough!” I cried out, pushing away from him. “I can’t take any more. Why don’t I heal as quickly as you and William?”
He set the rubbing alcohol down and pulled me back into his arms, careful of where he put his hands. “Your body has to learn how to heal. It takes time. I’ve been doing this for over five hundred years, and William, well, he’s as old as dirt. You know that.”
I laughed half-heartedly. Alec caught my chin in his hand, forcing me to look at him. He smirked. “There’s that smile I love so much.”
In an instant, Alec was gone, the lingering warmth of his touch the only thing that told me he had been there at all.
“Alec?” I stood from the cot with a wince, limping as I made my way to the rickety door of the cabin. I swung it open, bracing myself against the doorframe as I stared out into the darkness. Nothing.
A gentle hand wrapped around my waist and I gasped as Alec pulled me back into the safety of the cabin and the warmth of his embrace. His lips found mine and, broken and bleeding body be damned, I melted into him as if his kiss could save my very soul.
“I’ll never get used to that,” I whispered as he broke the kiss. I breathed him in, savoring his masculine scent. “I wish I could teleport like you. What good is seeing into the future anyway?”
