Majesty

by Brooke Vinson

  “Owe!” She pulled back and held her mouth, but I wasn’t going to be able to stop at one drop. I grabbed her gaze before grabbing her neck. I hadn’t fed on an actual person for so long… I had forgotten how addictive the feel was. I almost wanted to drain every drop of the precious liquid out of her, but she had the great luck that Zuhara O Kande had been keeping me full of the mixture that staved my craving. When I felt satisfied, I pulled back and she quickly grabbed her neck, moving backwards.

  “You…” Her lips quivered and I sighed, licking my lips.

  “Don’t. I am what I am. If you need me, I’ll be in the control room.” I left her and when I was in the control room, quickly messaged the entire train to be wary of her. But I needed to be wary of her the most. There was something about the complete disgust and will to kill in her eyes, something attractive and powerful.

  “You…” I looked at her as she interrupted my few seconds of solitude and sighed, realizing the reason for the interruption.

  “I’ll get Zuhara O Kande,” I stood, a little bit embarrassed for my lack of control.

  I caught her in the kitchen, but when she saw me, something in her face changed and she stood, heading in the opposite direction of me. “Zuhara—”

  “Do not touch me you fool! I will not be dragged into this with you. I won’t be a part of this love triangle. It wrong and evil from every angle. I did not care with your love for Amica; he was true to himself and true to you. He would never have worked, but he was a good person. I will not help you with this whorish woman!”

  I stared after her in confused embarrassment, unsure of what to do. Could she smell that I had bit Ado? I hadn’t given her a solid indication that anything more than a casual conversation had occurred. Maybe she was just assuming there was something going on between Ado and me. Whatever the reason, I needed to get Ado medical attention for the blood I had taken from her.

  “Zuhara O Kande.” I entered her den hesitantly, but she only waved a hand at a small paste on her table before standing and disappeared into the darkness. I took the paste, knowing Zuhara O Kande didn’t want my attention and I would be the one regretting it if I pushed the issue.

  “Ado,” I avoided her shakily shot stun bolt and easily grabbed the gun from her. “Be more careful please. If you shoot this the wrong way, you could puncture the hull and depressurize the cabin. I don’t know about you, but I can think about better ways to die than being sucked inside out by the pressure of a holotrain going over a hundred miles an hour in the upper atmosphere.”

  “If it’ll kill you, I’d do anything.”

  I sighed and moved to hand her the paste, teasing her by touching her chin. I could feel her pulse quicken and I grinned, my canines extending even though I wasn’t hungry.

  “That’s bad grammar.” I handed her the paste and actually climbed in my bed, grabbing my holoscreen to continue some research about how stun-guns and laser swords worked. She continued to stand there, frozen by the allure I had trapped her with. Then she blushed violently and stomped her way to the corner. When the sun finally rose, I sighed. Without explanation I shepherded her into the kitchen and closed my door.

  It was way too early when she started banging on my door, calling my name.

  “What!” I finally opened it, squinting my eyes in the light after she didn’t go away.

  “I’m not feeling—”

  “Go the hell away,” I snarled, closing the door and heading back to my bed. It was only seconds later when she was banging on the door again and I had to get back up. “Look! I am not a morning person, I’m nocturnal so unless you’re dying or we’re about to wreck, go away. No, even if you’re dying, go away. Zuhara O Kande is in her own room. Bother her.”

  “I don’t know her. Not to mention, I have a splitting headache—”

  “Did you eat the paste?” I moaned, closing my eyes and ducking my head.

  “It—”

  “Eat the paste.” I slammed the door and crawled back into my bed.

  Everything that happened next was her own fault. She could have killed me, she would have killed me. But she didn’t listen. If she had eaten the paste, her strength wouldn’t have given out half-way through and I wouldn’t have been able to call out past my bruised throat for help. Poe wouldn’t have come bursting in and she wouldn’t have been tied up. I was, however, eternally grateful that she had made such a fatal mistake.

  “Take her and lock her in Amica’s old room,” I croaked past my bruised throat. I wondered if it would bruise in the shape of her hands. “I’ll deal with her at sundown.”

  “Able, she—”

  “Don’t worry. I’m going to do what needs to be done.” I croaked and laid back down, not fully able to lose myself in sleep. When the sun set, everyone was ready to hear my judgment. My throat was still sore, but infinitely better as a Skypian.

  “I have been too lenient on you,” I muttered at the gagged Ado. “You are a threat. A dangerous, dangerous enemy and letting you go has been a mistake I have barely lived to regret.”

  I moved forward and did my dirty work. We dumped her lifeless body beside a small village without stopping the train. Everyone was impressed with my ability; it had went almost too smoothly. At first, they were worried that I would be in pain over the decision, but I wasn’t. I didn’t regret what I had done, she had earned her fate.

  Expiration Date

  “Able…” I looked up from my cards to smile slightly at Siniste. “I don’t think you’re playing fair.”

  “That’s not what poker is about.” I laughed lightly and Dexter swore as Nihilo dealt her what must have been her final card because she slammed her hand down and pushed her pieces of gold into the middle of the table.

  “You can take your cheating—” Even Siniste was shocked at what spewed from Dexter and I had to put my hand down to applaud her use of the English language.

  “That was impressive.” Siniste shot me a look that said don’t encourage her, but I enjoyed playing with Dexter’s emotions. It was almost as fun as research.

  “Ready?” I asked and Siniste revealed her hand.

  “Four of a kind.”

  Nihilo put down his cards and I blinked in surprise at his straight flush. Either he was blessed by his beloved Buddha to be ridiculously lucky or he was an expert at cheating like me. He just hadn’t aimed high enough.

  “Royal flush.” I set down my cards and after a moment Nihilo gathered out all the cards and tapped the table three times, signaling he wanted to play Blind Man’s bluff.

  “I’ll beat you at this one too,” I laughed.

  “I enjoy your enthusiasm, but to me you will fall victim.” Zuhara O Kande startled me by sitting down beside me.

  “Try your best.”

  “Will you fools stop playing poker and do something useful!” Raven burst in the room as Poe and we all looked at him in annoyance.

  “About what?” Poe walked over to me, but I flashed my eyes before he could lay a hand on me.

  “You just want to make me mad, don’t you? Well mama isn’t going to play this game. If I get mad over every little thing, it’ll ruin my complexion.”

  “Okay, bye. Or would you like to play?” My winning streak was just a confirmation of my superiority.

  “Maybe just for a little—Wait a minute! This isn’t funny! Part of our train is hanging on by a small strip of metal. We need to make a stop somewhere even if we just use duct tape to fix it!” I winced, thinking of the type of duct tape he would have.

  “Is it pink and flamboyant?”

  “No,” he sniffed and I was pleasantly shocked. “It’s gray for your information. Now, we’re all pleased you’re being more sociable and at least trying to share your feelings with us, but we need you to be our captain. Now go find us someplace to dock!”

  “Bring me the holoscreen and I might.” I flashed my eyes threateningly at his commanding tone. No matter what gender he was, I was still the conductor. Poe made an annoyed noise, but went
to grab my holoscreen.

  “Here,” he slammed it at me and I considered retaliating, but settled on teasing the self-conscious crossdresser.

  “I’m sorry about that pimple, Poe… I’m sure it’ll go away eventually.”

  “NOOOO!” He shrieked and ran to find the offending blemish. I looked at the holoscreen and typed in what I was looking for. After a minute, I decided on a small but highly rated warehouse centered port.

  “You horrible, horrible man!” Raven cried, coming out in a very flashy purple dress.

  “I found us a port only a few minutes away.” I sighed and went to go check on our supplies. “If any of you need any money, ask. We have plenty still. We don’t go through a lot of supplies.” It was a bit ridiculous how little we really did go through.

  It only took us little under a half hour to reach the city and I was glad to say we didn’t need any supplies, just a maintenance check to make sure that our collision with the Earth Guard’s wreck hadn’t done any damage. As we approached, the port sent a signal, asking us to go to the fifth dock and I obliged.

  As we stepped off the train, we were greeted by a strange sight. It was a girl, well I assumed it was a girl, with an oddly colored cat-looking thing perched on her shoulders. She was thin and small with blonde curls cut short to her head. Her body was so flat and ambiguously neither male nor female the only indication of her sex was the torn skirt she was dressed in. Her eyes confused me with one shining the color of the golden sun and the other the silver of the shining stars. She wasn’t overly attractive in my opinion, but she wasn’t ugly either.

  “Welcome to Vanguard. We don’t have much, but if it’s assistance you need, that we can do.” Even her voice was of an ambiguous nature. As she curtsied, some unexplainable emotion turning her face red, the cat thing unwrapped from her neck to stare at us and I gasped. It was a creature from myth, miniscule and the color of black-violet, but I couldn’t mistake it. It was the Night Panther, with bat wings melded seamlessly onto the body of a bony feline, and eyes the color of rubies.

  “Do not waste your time, Magnus. These are Skypians, all of them too. Warn them about what lies here and quickly hide because your father draws near.” We jumped as the cat spoke before launching into the air and disappearing into the night.

  “Lale!” Magnus yelped as the cat disappeared. Then she looked at us with fearful eyes. “Be silent and listen. This is the worst place for your kind to have landed. My father…”

  She fell silent, looking back at something even I couldn’t hear yet. “Say not a word and hurry and leave. He isn’t a kind man and he likes Skypians, but Skypians do not like him.”

  “That isn’t helpful…” I trailed off as she too disappeared seamlessly into the night. I motioned for Zuhara O Kande to find the pair while we dealt with the man that had fathered the at least partial Skypian.

  “Hello,” I looked at the man and for a second couldn’t possibly understand why they had bashed this innocent, kind old man. He only wanted to help us. How could someone not trust those eyes… Then something deep within my brain triggered and my hypnotic gaze burst outward to counter his own. I shivered a little, wondering if this was what my prey felt like. “Skypians?”

  I winced a little, realizing my eyes had given us away, but the man only smiled and clapped my back roughly. He was wearing a dirty lab coat, but that wasn’t why I tried to avoid his touch. He smelled of something… something wrong.

  “Don’t worry, don’t worry! I run a special place here, everybody is welcome. I have quite a few Skypians living within these very walls! What has brought such a strange group as yourselves here?”

  “We ran into a bit of a wreck earlier and we need our holotrain checked for damages.” I wanted to leave like the girl had warned us to. This place was very much wrong.

  “No problem! No problem!” He muttered, pulling out a miniature holoscreen from the pocket of his coat and tapping some things on it. “Our mechanic will be here in about an hour. Seems he’s tied up with something at the moment. Why don’t you spend the rest of the night in our hotel, it’s a little small but very comfortable.”

  I looked around, but could only see the gigantic warehouse he was leading us to. Whatever the reason, I wasn’t going to be staying in this place long. I planned to only take a look around before leaving. If he was able to control minds and was impervious to my control, this would be a dangerous escape if we needed to get away and fast.

  “Raven!” I suddenly gasped, grabbing my head in my hands. “I can’t believe I left the money on the holotrain. Would you be a doll and go grab it for me?”

  She froze, having watched me put the coins in my pocket herself. Thankfully, she understood what I was doing quickly and nodded. “Where are they?”

  The man in the lab coat jumped as he heard her masculine voice. “Should be beside Nihilo’s strongman weights in the chest. The fourth car, I do believe.”

  Raven thought for a moment and realized what I wanted with an uneasy shifting. I didn’t want to need the weapons we had taken from the Earth Guard holotrain, but I had the feeling we would. Raven walked off swiftly and the man in the lab coat moved closer to me.

  “Is that a man?”

  “That is Raven.” Since my eyes couldn’t hold the warning, I made my voice carry it to the man.

  “Oh, I have no problem! I was just curious. I’m Dr. Vanguard, by the way. I specialize in Skypian anatomy. I study how your people’s bodies work. It’s quite an interesting field—”

  “Mr. Vanguard, I don’t mean to insult your hospitality, but we would greatly appreciate the mechanic’s services so we can leave as soon as possible. We have a performance scheduled in a few days and we’re already behind because of the wreck.”

  “I completely understand!” Vanguard waved his hands. “I wish I could speed him up, but he’s a bit of a slowpoke. While you wait Mr…”

  “Able.” I supplied grudgingly.

  “Mr. Able, would you like to take a tour around my facility? There are many things that an intellectual like yourself would find tantalizing.” I knew something was very wrong as he pegged my interest, but we needed to wait for the mechanic.

  “As much as I would—”

  “How about Little Miss Dexter, here?” I instantly bowed up and prepared to attack him if he tried to capture my friend’s mind. Only I was allowed to manipulate them and I only did so on the rarest occasion. I couldn’t afford lose any advantage this soon either, especially without having seen what kind of security his lab afforded. This situation had too many variables to have turned sour this quickly.

  “I would rather not,” she muttered, uncharacteristically calm and quiet. At least they too had sensed the danger here.

  “Pity…” He muttered and after taking a second to think, sighed and gestured back to the train. “You can go wait on your train if you’re going to be this disagreeable. I would have preferred to share my work with another intellectual, but it seems it was not meant to be. If you change your mind, you need but knock on my door and one of my paiges will answer you.”

  “That will not be necessary.” I nodded my gratitude for his offer and led my group back towards the train.

  “Able, what—” I silenced Raven quickly with my eyes as we piled back onto the train.

  “Quickly, arm yourself with one of each of these and never let it leave your sight. That man… that human,” I said the word with scorn and a dubious confusion that I had never before attached to my species, or half of it at least, “is like me, but is far less kind and in his hands, his power is more dangerous than a thousand cannons.”

  “… but if he’s like you….” Siniste started to murmur, but couldn’t finish the statement.

  “Then we’re fucked fifteen ways to hell.” This was one of the few times I appreciated Dexter’s crassness.

  “Yes, that’s a fairly accurate description. There is something very wrong with this place and though my mind burns with curiosity as to what, I feel that
for all of our safety, we should leave at first light.”

  “That’s not gonna happen any time before Thursday.” I turned and ensnared the small…

  “What are you?” The thing that looked like some crossbreed between a dog, tree and human snorted at me.

  “So yah can use the shiny eye thang too? Very nice, wish I could. Don’t change nothin tho. You done messed up all sorts a thangs when you rammed into whatever yah did. ”

  “You’re the mechanic.” I stated not because I wasn’t sure, but I still hadn’t been given an answer to my earlier inquiry.

  “Right yah are. At least until Friday. My dates comin, comin real soon. Not too pleased about it, but I’ll be fixin your train so don’t have no worries. Would yah like a report about what’s wrong before I start fixin or do—”

  “I repeat my earlier question and I expect an answer promptly this time. What are you?”

  “Wish I could give yah an answer. The only one who knows is…” He grew silent and it took all of my power to make him answer…“the doctor. You’ve already talked to em. Don’t let him fool yah, he ain’t human anymore. Ain’t no more human than the rest of us in this place. I’m gonna go get started now. I’ll give yah a report by the first light. Good night, ya’ll.” I stared after him and felt a dangerous idea form that even my sensibility and logical thinking couldn’t stop.

  “If we’re going to be here for two days…” I tapped the table doing calculations as fast as I could. The chances of me sneaking into his lab and escaping unseen all depended on whether he was the only one with the same power as me and if I could manage to avoid him entirely. His lab was enormous, if the entire warehouse was his play toy, but I was only one small person, a sneaky one.

  “Able, I have done what you asked though I had to travel ridiculously fast. To the air they both took, in a ridge-ridden cliff I had to look. Here she is with her love, though it isn’t love symbolized by the dove. Hers is much like Amica and you, full of strife and much pain too. Yet for them there is hope, where for you there was none. Here she is, Magnus Vanguard.”