by J. N. Baker
“That is not important,” William said, passing a damaged sign as he entered the hangar. The sign, what was left of it, read: “—rea 51.” I swallowed my own tongue. Vampires, shifts, flying dragon-monsters, and whatever the hell we were. Sure, why not add extraterrestrials and radioactive superheroes to the mix? The more the merrier, right?
Hundreds of propane lamps lit up the hangar. The light was comforting. I was sure the humans of our group appreciated being able to see again, not that there was much worth looking at. It was the end of the world, after all.
A pale man approached us from the tail end of the airplane. William instructed Josh to take the two “human girls” into the aircraft. Josh hesitated, his eyes lingering on mine for a moment before he led Cindy and Tiffany toward one of the four sets of airstairs. I watched as they hiked up the steps and disappeared into the plane.
The man came to a stop in front William. He was of average height, thin, with long brown hair tied back at the base of his skull. He crossed one arm over his chest and bowed deeply to William. “My Lord, we are nearly ready for departure.”
“Very good, Godfrey.”
And then the strong metallic scent wafted into my nostrils.
I had the man up against a mountain of plywood boxes in a second, my fingers tightening around his neck. His fangs extended. “William,” I hissed, “this man is a bloodsucker.”
“Release him, Zoe,” William ordered.
Being the obedient little Chosen I was, I, of course, did the exact opposite. Blood spiraled down the vamp’s neck.
“I said, release him,” William bellowed and I flinched. I shot him a confused look but retracted my hand. “How stupid do you think me? Or course I know what he is—he works for me.”
“We have vamps on our side?” I damn near squeaked, taking a step away from the bloodsucker as if he might suddenly bite. I wasn’t entirely sure he wouldn’t. I remembered my conversation with Cody, how he’d said that Chosen-vampire relationships had happened. I thought he’d been messing with me. It never occurred to me that Cody had been telling the truth, let alone that any of them would be working for us. Was there such a thing as a “good” bloodsucker? Thinking of Roland’s leathery face made me want to crush this Godfrey’s skull while screaming no.
Godfrey retracted his fangs, rubbing his sore neck. It was healing remarkably fast for a fang face. I glowered at him as he cleared his throat, straightening up to his previous formal posture. “The Lady Zoe, I presume. Lord Alec warned me of you. He told me you were quite the…spitfire.” The word sounded entirely foreign on his lips. Like Roland, I had a feeling this vampire had been around the block a millennium or two.
I glared at Alec over my shoulder as he burst into laughter. He grinned widely as he walked up and embraced the vampire and I wondered what alternate universe I was living in.
“Godfrey, my old friend,” he said warmly.
“It has been too long,” Godfrey said. “And what of Trent? I heard he was with you.”
Alec’s face fell. He shook his head.
“I am sorry, Alec,” Godfrey started, patting Alec on the shoulder. “He was a good man and an excellent shift. I am grateful to have had the pleasure of knowing him as long as I did. I always enjoyed his visits across the pond.”
Alec let out a breath and with it the harsh lines on his face. “It really has been too long, my friend.”
The two men smiled at each other—genuine, heartfelt smiles. I’d forgotten that Alec and Ryuu handled most of William’s business in Europe. Who knew how long Alec and Godfrey could have known one another? Decades—centuries even?
“I see another shift has already fallen into your hands.” Godfrey raised a brow, his brown eyes flickering to Cody. “They really do seem to be quite drawn to your kind.”
Alec chuckled. “That one doesn’t belong to me. He’s Zoe’s. Fresh meat.”
“You wish you had my meat,” Cody grumbled under his breath.
“A word, Godfrey,” William called. He took Annie’s hand and stepped away from us.
The vampire bowed. “If you will excuse me.”
Ryuu, Jade, and Alec took their leave as well, heading into the large hangar to do who knew what.
I moved to Cody’s side. He was still mumbling something about not belonging to anyone. I jabbed an elbow in his side. “What does he mean, ‘drawn’ to us?”
He winced, rubbing at his ribcage before shrugging. “Like I told you before, dude. Shifts are like Chosen sidekicks. It’s like freaky fate or something. We end up around you guys without even trying, sometimes before the magical transformation even happens. Like with me and Linds going to school with you for all those years before you were ever turned. Freaky fate.”
“Wait, what? Lindsay?”
Cody nodded, pain flashing across his usually carefree face.
“Lindsay is a shift?” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Though, at this point, these things shouldn’t have surprised me.
“Yeah. Our families go way back. Our parents wanted to arrange a match between us, guarantee the shift line would carry on.”
“An arranged marriage?”
“It’s not as uncommon as you think, Fido,” Cody said when he saw my eyebrows climb into my hairline. “When two shifts hook up, it’s a sure shot at getting another shift if the female gets pregnant. It could still happen with a human, but not as common.”
I couldn’t seem to stop the words as they fell out of my mouth. “What about with a Chosen?”
“Zo…Chosen are created, not born. Just like the vampires.”
And there it was, the answer to the question I’d never had the guts to ask William.
“Anyway, when William turned you, he chose me as your kickass sidekick. Linds didn’t take that very well.”
“Where is she now?”
Cody’s hands clenched into fists at his side. “You don’t want to know,” he mumbled, turning his back to me. He dropped his head and walked away, heading for a long aisle of wooden crates.
I was so preoccupied with my conversation with Cody that I’d hardly noticed the small army working on the jumbo jet. I counted at least eighty people in the hangar alone, which didn’t include those I assumed were already on the plane. It was an impressive number when you thought about the state of the world.
I watched them for a few minutes, moving about the hangar like busy worker bees. Based on the way some of them moved, I figured Godfrey wasn’t the only vampire in the room, which meant that Cody probably wasn’t the only shift. One of those things made me more uneasy than the other.
One man stood in the middle of the hangar, talking loudly with Alec, Ryuu, and Jade—occasionally barking orders as others passed by. He was probably in his early to mid-forties, his crew-cut black hair slightly peppered with gray. He had a tall frame with muscles on top of muscles and a square, well-shaven jaw. I got the distinct impression that he was in charge—outside of William, that was. It could have been the camo cargo pants tucked neatly into army-issued boots, or the tone of his voice and the manner in which he carried himself. I found that he commanded respect like only Alec or William could.
As if he felt my eyes on him, the big man turned, fixing that stern gaze on me. Alec waved for me to come join them. I crossed the crowded hangar, mirroring the man’s sullen scowl.
“Zoe, this is Markus,” Alec said when I reached them. “He is one of our best men.”
“And he curses like a sailor,” Jade was quick to add. She looked proud of that. I wasn’t surprised. I’d heard her own colorful language plenty already. Right, like I had room to talk in that department. My grandmother would have washed my damn mouth out with soap if she were still alive. Though, if she were still alive, she’d see that my mouth was currently the least of my problems.
Ryuu clasped a hand on the middle-aged man’s shoulder, pointing a steady finger in my direction. “This, my friend, is Zoe. I wouldn’t suggest pissing this one off,” he added in a rather theatrical
whisper. “She just strangled a vampire.”
“Godfrey, to be exact.” Alec snorted. He actually fucking snorted. I almost strangled him.
The big man’s face lit up and he flashed me a grin, revealing his one missing front tooth. He unleashed a deep, full belly laugh that I felt in my bones before he doubled over, grasping his sides as he gasped for air. Markus stood, wiping at his eyes. He clapped me on the back with a large, gloved hand. “I’ve wanted to strangle the shit out of that fucking bloodsucker for decades!”
“Well, that didn’t take very long,” Ryuu said with a laugh.
“Ah, damn it to hell. Sorry,” he grumbled. I could see the struggle on his face as he tried to be on his best behavior. I wondered if he also had a grandmother who would wash his mouth out with soap. One who would grab him by the ear and tell him to be a gentleman to the ladies. The thought of this big man with his ear in the clutches of a tiny old woman almost made me laugh out loud.
“If you’ll excuse me,” Markus said with the most awkward bow I’d ever seen. “I need to finish preparing this fucking bird for takeoff.”
Ryuu snickered.
“Need extra hands?” Alec offered.
“Shit, yeah,” Markus said before mumbling another apology, and even I had to laugh. Alec kissed the top of my head before he and Ryuu followed Markus back to the plane.
A crash of thunder rattled the air around the hangar. “Storm’s back,” I mumbled as the heavens opened and rain showered over the desert.
“No shit,” Jade sneered.
“Five minutes,” William shouted, the queen bee telling the workers to hurry the hell up. People fluttered around the building, hauling crates into the open cargo hold, removing straps from the massive wings. The hangar buzzed like a busy beehive.
“A group this size could prove useful,” Annie said as she joined Jade and me. “William said there are more waiting for us where we are going.”
“Yeah, but do you think they can all be trusted?” I asked.
“Of course not,” Jade snapped, rolling her eyes. “No one can be trusted.”
“Not even you?” I retorted.
She shot me a glare. “No one,” she growled. “The sooner you both learn that, the longer you’ll live. But I guess it doesn’t really matter, we’ll all be dead soon anyway. Our numbers are only a fraction of Baldric’s army. We were supposed to have more. We should have had more.”
“Well, it’s better than nothing,” Annie boldly replied, her sing-song voice wavering slightly. “And you heard William. It’s been done before. They didn’t have the numbers during the Great War either and they—”
“And they all died,” Jade interrupted, her voice bitter. “Besides, the general’s army is a lot bigger now than it was a thousand years ago. He’s got creatures that would make your worst nightmares seem tame. For every hundred we have, Baldric will have a thousand more. I don’t know what William is planning, but it better be damn good. Otherwise, we might as well kiss our asses goodbye.”
With that, Jade stormed off, taking the airstairs two at a time and ducking into the plane. What crawled up her usually chipper ass?
“Don’t listen to little miss crabby pants.”
I spun on my heels to find Markus hovering behind me, staring Annie and me down like a hungry wolf. I waited for the snarl that never came. “Couldn’t help but hear your little discussion,” he finally said. “I wouldn’t doubt that William fellow. He’s smart. After all, he’s got me.”
“And what’s so special about you?” I asked, furrowing my brow at him.
“I worked for the general.” There was a long, unnerving pause that only amplified the tension between us. “And yes, that’d be past tense.”
Annie let out a breath.
“I worked for that asshole—sorry—for damn near two hundred years. He killed my wife and five-year-old daughter when I failed to complete a mission on time.” Rage flashed across his dark green eyes and the leather of his gloves squeaked as his hands clenched into fists at his sides. “Obviously, I no longer work for him.”
I searched his face. “So, what are you?”
He jabbed a thumb in Cody’s direction. “I’m a shift, like that friend of yours. What’s it been now, four hundred and thirty-three years? Shit, I’m getting old! Oh, sorry,” he mumbled.
“Can’t the general find you?” Annie asked.
Markus shrugged his big shoulders. “Probably, but he won’t. I’m just one of thousands. I’m nothing to that piece of shit—sorry. William gave me the option to change sides and I jumped at the opportunity to get my revenge. See, I want the same thing you folks want—to destroy that motherfu…Eh, you know what I mean.”
“Glad to see you’re on our side,” I grumbled.
“Shit, yeah! Excuse my French. You see all those people?” Markus pointed around the room to all of William’s worker bees. “Half of them have no idea what the hell they’re doing here or what they’ve signed up for. All they know is that they’re alive, for now. They’ll follow anyone with a backbone and William is that backbone.”
“And the other half?”
Markus flashed me that toothless smile. “They’re just like me. Out to get some good old-fashioned revenge. Don’t get me wrong, they’re decent enough people. They’ve made their fair share of bad decisions. Hell, I know I have. That Baldric, he’s got a way with words. He can get inside your head, make you do things you never thought you’d do, not in a million years. Next thing you know, twenty years have passed and, no matter how hard you scrub, there’s still blood on your hands.”
“You mean,” Annie hesitated, “like mind control?”
He locked eyes with her. “Exactly. Anyways, that’s why I’m here, to help William lead these people and to get my damn revenge. I’ve still got my resources. I know what the general’s plans are for this world, well, what’s left of it. We’ve already managed to gather food, water, medical supplies and, of course, weapons. Baldric’s men will be heavily armed.”
“Where’d you find enough weapons?”
“We have our resources.” He smirked.
The ground trembled beneath our feet and screams erupted within the hangar. A man slipped from the top of the plane and landed face down on the concrete. The snap of his neck echoed in my ears. He didn’t get up.
“Lord William, it is time!” Godfrey hollered from an open door of the plane. “We must leave now or else!”
With a deafening roar, the earth ripped apart, tearing the hangar floor wide open. Large chunks of concrete crumbled away as the crack spread, creeping dangerously close to the massive aircraft. If we didn’t take off immediately, we were doomed. Everyone seemed to realize it at once, making a mad dash for the plane. They were going to trample each other to death.
“Go!” Markus roared. He shoved us toward the rear of the plane where a slightly less crowded airstairs waited. He pushed Annie and me up the stairs, keeping a firm grip on our arms and elbow checking anyone who got in our way.
Alec’s head popped out of the plane and his eyes found mine. He reached down and pulled Annie and me onto the plane, Markus trailing after us.
“We have to close the doors!” Alec shouted.
“There’s still people getting in,” Ryuu yelled back from somewhere farther up the plane.
Jade appeared next to me, pressing a button that started the retraction mechanism on the airstairs. People still on the stairs scrambled to get to the top in time. A few who hadn’t made it on yet screamed and cried out for us to wait for them. One man jumped up and hung from the end of the stairs until his fingers slipped.
“They’ll die,” I yelled at Jade, yanking her hand away from the button.
“We will all die if we don’t get off the ground,” she growled, slamming me into the wall. She pushed the button once more until the stairs fully retracted and Alec slammed the door shut. I could still hear the cries of those that didn’t make it on echoing in my head. My mind started racing. Did all my people
get on the plane? Josh and the girls had gotten on when we arrived, and William would never leave without any of the Chosen. At least, I didn’t think he would. And then it hit me. I hadn’t seen Cody get on the plane. I hadn’t seen him since he’d stormed off.
I pushed my way through the plane, eyes searching frantically.
“Fido!”
I let out a breath as Cody waved at me from the front of the plane, Annie at his side.
“Get this plane off the ground,” William roared as he stepped into the aircraft. Ryuu shut the door behind him and slammed the latch down to seal it. The engines revved as the pilot started coasting the giant plane forward out of the hangar. Whoever was on the plane was on and whoever wasn’t, well. May God have mercy on their souls.
“Zoe!” William snapped and my head shot up. “Upstairs.”
Alec came up behind me, pushing me toward the front of the plane where the stairs led to the upper deck. I scanned the plane as we moved through it. There were definitely more than eighty people, even with those we’d left behind to die. Men, women, even children scrambled to find seats. Some even took to the floor. It looked like there was easily five hundred plus crammed into the aircraft. And Annie had said William told her there would be others waiting for us wherever the hell we were going. Maybe Jade would be wrong—maybe we would stand a chance.
Alec and I sprinted up the stairs to the upper deck where I found William, Annie, Ryuu and Jade. There were also a number of others—Markus, Godfrey, and Cody to name a few. I made the assumption that those on the upper deck were those who William saw as “important.” Which is why I was surprised to see Josh and the girls there too. Though, I was sure William knew I’d just bring them up on my own whether he permitted it or not.
All of a sudden, the plane shook wildly and I dove for the nearest aisle seat, fastening the metal buckle snuggly around my waist. I wasn’t stupid. I knew if the plane crashed, seatbelts wouldn’t save us.
Alec stepped around me, dropping into the seat next to mine and strapping in. “Don’t look out the window,” he told me.
