Until Dawn

by brett hicks

  Liam ran his hand in front of his body.

  “I think I do just fine on that front little princess. Or, were you curious to take me for a test spin?”

  He waggled his eyebrows suggestively and I snorted and began to walk down the shattered stone walkway. We crossed the street and I felt the creeping shadows thickening with every step.

  “Is there any particular reason you wish to cast the first wards so far out?”

  I eyed him and gave him a white smile.

  “Liam, your lack of faith is disturbing. But, do you truly expect me to tip my hand out here, right now?”

  Liam licked his lips and chuckled, shaking his head.

  “No yer smarter than that lass, but I do expect some form of explanation once you’re feeling generous enough to explain your tactics.”

  I shrugged a shoulder and continued to walk, ignoring the burning heat between my shoulder blades. The sensation that told me I was being watched, being hunted like prey.

  “I am a little surprised at how adaptive you are to this new inhuman reality lassie. How are you not rocking yourself slowly, drooling with the grim reality you’ve entered?”

  I popped him in the shoulder and scoffed again.

  “You’re an asshole, you know that, right?”

  Liam smiled cheekily and gave me one of his innocent looks and pointed to himself in a silent, “Who me” expression. I wasn’t buying that shit! Liam was the type of man who planned his outfits, so I hardly believed he was not fully aware of every word that came out of his mouth, and his intended meanings to each spoken word. Liam seemed to be testing me constantly, prodding and pushing buttons. He knew I had a temper, a very violent one, but I had managed not to be petty with him and get riled up, yet. If he kept pushing the bull, he was going to get the horns.

  “My arse is one of my best assets.”

  He winked at me playfully and I chuckled.

  “Why are you trying to make me mad? Are you trying to see if I’ll strangle you, like Seri did me?”

  Liam stopped for a beat and eyed me.

  “Wasn’t sure when you would get around to asking that question, but no, I have other reasons. I need to know your temperament, your moods, and your thought process lass. I like ye, but I also need to understand ye. I am one of the top strategic minds Seri has, and I have more experience with wars than she has numbered in years of life. Is it really unexpected for me to want to gauge your measure?”

  I kicked a rock and I felt one of the shadows recoils in fear.

  “Stupid vampire political bull shit, if you ask me.”

  “Stupid inhuman political bullshite, but yes, indeed it is.”

  Our shadows chose this moment to pounce on us having lost patience to wait any longer. I had hoped we could draw them to the park, and then deal with them further form human eyes, but this was Harlem, not Brooklyn. Violence permeated the inhuman emotional atmosphere here, and no one had been holding them in check.

  “Got left, you get right.”

  “You know, you really sound like yer kin right now?”

  I ducked and swept my foot, tripping up an attacker, my dagger was already flashing in action in my hand, severing the arteries in the neck. Liam had explained that exsanguination would not always kill an immortal, but even a vampire was taken down for a while, if you bleed them out.

  I didn’t want these dead, not yet. What I wanted was to prove that I was the alpha bitch of these parts. This is simple street logic, beat the piss out of your would-be rivals and make them too leery to test your resolve a second time. Sometimes a living message of defeat was more effective than sending them a bunch of body bags. Mass death could incite escalations in the desire for violence, and then you have an urban turf-war on your hands. I presently had enough psychos at my doorstep, so I wasn’t overzealous to add to the list of my foes.

  Liam barely moved as he disarmed his attacker with minimal force and he sunk a blade deep into the being’s spine. The grunt of pain was the only sound he made. Liam had pieced his spine, paralyzing him in one swift blow. His technique and execution were flawless.

  “You know, you could have spent about a second less on your take down, if ye had just stepped into the thrust.”

  Liam chided lightly, but I could hear the edge of his tone, he was being serious.

  “You know, all I wanted was to finish my degree and bang a hot redheaded bride. I didn’t ask to be some princess, or a ruler.”

  Liam’s hand flashed, and his dagger was buried in the throat of an approaching shadowy vampire. I ducked and felt the cool wind blow my long curly raven hair from my cheek. I slammed my blade through the chest of the attacker; she was wiry and compact, but quick and ruthless. She spun to attack again, but my elbow caught her in the temple, cold cocking her.

  “If wishes were ponies, we’d be running a bloody horse farm lassie.”

  We moved, and four more bodies rushed us. I pulled two more daggers free not bothering to try to fish out my dagger from the downed foe. I spun in a full circuit, slashing at limbs and cutting at any vulnerable tissue in my path.

  Liam moved like a bending shadow made living flesh. He twisted with an inhuman grace and blades sailed past him, not even touching his clothing. He swiped blades in clean jugular strikes and slashes.

  I spun, kicked at a kneecap and I buried a blade into a heart—no point in trying to hold back that much. Besides, if I sent them all back alive, then I would be perceived as a weak little girl unwilling to end my opponents.

  I swiped at wrists and grasping fingers, three of which flew free of a hand followed shortly by horrified screams.

  “Persistent buggers aren’t they Thea?!”

  Liam’s tone was musical, and his body sung with the vibrancy of a man in his element. He was like the grim reaper in flesh and five-hundred-dollar jeans. This was what Seri’s second-in-command was capable of when attacked. Liam the charming and flirtatious vampire bartender was nowhere to be seen. This was Liam the reaper of souls. I couldn’t help but to wonder why me, why had Liam taken such a shining to me? He had begged Seri to change me; she had done so at first, very reluctantly.

  “If I recall correctly, you did ask for this Thea. You told the Crown Princess to send out the word and send it out she did.”

  I dodged two clawed hands slashed at me and I jabbed a dagger between the wolfish eyes of my attacker, dropping him instantly. Another, a feline was fully phased into a sleek leopard. It let out a savage blood-curdling roar and flew at me with a speed and grace nearly mirroring Liam’s.

  “Fuck this…”

  I muttered, and I rushed forward to greet the huge five-foot cat. I slammed into it with an energy I didn’t even realize I was calling up. The cat exploded into a heap of parts and I gagged, but I managed to dodge the next attacker. My powers begun to spill free and I felt connections forming between the fallen dead and myself. I felt them awakening, but instead of attacking me like I expected, the turned on their friends and began to defend me.

  Liam laughed loudly and finished his battle with a pair of very fast and cunning vampires.

  “Thea Salvo, you were born to rule.”

  His tone sounded serious, and much more like a proclamation and fact, than a suggestion, or even a gest.

  Twenty-One:

  Most of the remaining attackers scattered to the wind when they saw the dead beginning to rise and fight their friends. Apparently, that is creepy even to inhumans!

  “Ew, why do they keep touching me?!”

  I sounded very girlish, even to myself! Liam chuckled next to me as we pulled the last of the bodies into the vacant boarded liquor store across from the old park.

  “Because, they are zombies and you are their master. Because, to touch you, is to touch the source of their newfangled life. There is a reason why sex with the dead is called necrophilia.”

  I twisted my nose and popped Liam on the arm.

  “Ew?! You are freaking disgusting! I swear, all you ever think about is sex!
”

  Liam nodded in agreement.

  “And so do you lassie. All I have to do is breathe a word about Seri and I can practically hear your knickers twisting in desire.”

  I popped him on the chest again.

  “How do you Scott's make underwear sound so filthy dirty?!”

  Liam looked sullen.

  “I’m an abused man. I need to ask Seri for a raise! Right after I get her to untwist your bloody knickers.”

  ` I sniffed and rolled my eyes.

  “Right, since we’re on the topic, have you and Bix gotten it on yet? Heaven only knows what you two are waiting for!”

  Liam stilled besides me and his eyes looked suddenly older, weighed by something from his dark past.

  “It’s not so simple lass. If I were to consummate my affections for Bix, she would learn of something I swore never to share with another. I fear how she might react.”

  Liam’s sincere, if not also evasive reply made me frown and begin to puzzle out his words.

  “A secret you swore not to share, and one that would enrage Bix? That sounds a lot like a past dalliance of some sort…”

  I felt my eyes pop wide and Liam only needed a second to realize what conclusion my mind had reached. I was not studying to be a detective for no reason at all. I take the information I have, and I unwind the truth at the end of each proverbial rabbit hole.

  “So, you had sex with Seri?”

  Liam looked around and I already knew I was right. I couldn’t help the knot of jealousy in my gut. That didn’t add up, because my gaydar told me Seri was not into men at all! Trust me; a gay girl knows these things. As I mentioned before, we have accidentally hit on straight girls, all of us, so of course we learn how to distinguish straight from gay. However, bi can be confusing to read sometimes, because that is a tangled mesh of intertwined desires forking out in two directions.

  “Liam, I’m not going to tell anyone, and you didn’t even speak a word of this to me. I figured it out for myself. If you want, I will talk to Seri about this, after everything is resolved. Tell me everything; let me be your priest, well priestess I guess.”

  “Oh, you led me right to a nun joke and I’m not even in the mood to take the bloody bait. Hell…”

  Liam scrubbed his hands through his hair.

  “It was part of the price for freeing me form the Baron I was once enslaved to. Seri claimed she wanted me for a bedmate, and the Baron wagered my freedom against her virginity. Seri won, but her father literally held a sword to us and forced her to complete her own agreement, that I was meant to be a bedmate. He’s daft like that, a stickler for the letter of the law, and such. This was shortly before Seri ended up leaving her home in London; I followed her here to the states to try to protect her and to repay the insurmountable debt I owed her.”

  I sighed and touched Liam’s cheek with my palm. The gesture might have been sweeter, if I hadn’t smeared dark blood onto his cheek at the same time.

  Whoops!

  “Liam, Bix will not try to kill Seri for that. It sounds like you were both raped and each other were used as the instrument of violation to the other, but neither of you is responsible. Trust me, I know a little bit about freely giving myself to someone, but only because I wanted to live.”

  I looked away, a bit of shame colored my cheeks. I had never spoken of the loathsome things I had done to survive as a sixteen-year-old out in the world alone.

  Liam sagged and leaned into my touch.

  “I half expected you to kill me if you found out. I know how you feel for Seri. She is half of my heart, even if we are not really lovers. It’s a bit incestuous, but I consider her my sister now.”

  I shrugged, and I pat his cheek again.

  “Tell Bix how you feel for her and absolve yourself of this guilt you’ve been carrying for three-hundred-years! You’re not the same man as you were then. If Bix is too stupid to know to be angry with Cain, then she’s not the woman I think she is.”

  Liam’s throat bobbed, and he nodded.

  “I cannot tell you how many times I’ve thought about having this conversation with Seri but stopped myself. I had been harmed in many ways while in the Baron’s tender care. But, what I took from Seri that night was her purity of soul. She never wanted to be with a man, ever, so what I stole from her can never be replaced.”

  I sighed and shook my head.

  “Liam, you took nothing. You and Seri did what you had to, to survive her psycho father. That is all that matters now. She loves you, I see it, and she trusts you more than a girl even trusts her own brother, this explains why. It might have been a terrible moment for both of you, but it linked you and forged an unbreakable bond between you both.”

  Liam grunted, and he pulled back and wiped his cheek. He must have smelt the cool blood.

  “You’d have me walking about looking like I just snaked on a bloody tourist, would you now?”

  I snorted and punched his arm.

  “Sure, why not? This is New York City, home of the goth underground.”

  Lim chuckled, and he sighed out.

  “Aye, it is, but I still prefer my anonymity lass. Remember, one-day humans shall learn of us. I would prefer not to be remembered as a possible vampire by a local when that time is upon us.”

  “Everything is a damn lecture with you Liam!”

  I grumbled and began to trot back towards the park at a brisk pace. Liam was in toe behind me chuckling at my back, stupid Scotsman!

  My mind was still reeling from this latest revelation. Part of me could have suspected they knew each other, due to their deeply familiar behavior, like a divorced couple that happens to be friends, but Seri had indeed seemed uninterested in the men around her.

  I’m going to take a blow-torch to her father’s sack! Sick mother fucker!

  My silent promise was made, and I was a woman of my word! One day I would deliver retribution on Seri’s behalf. Besides, I didn’t trust someone sick enough to do something so depraved to his own daughter. I was going to have to figure out how to kill the first fucking vampire someday in the future—no pressure there!

  ***

  I could see the translucent wards pulsing like shattered glass running with living currents of electrical power through them. All along, the length of the metaphysical glass was shattered and frayed.

  “Ok sensei how exactly does a girl fix this mangled mess?”

  Liam smirked at me and he pointed to the glass-like fence.

  “This is your land, so the wards guarding it transferred to your ownership along with the members of the inhuman populace who are submitting themselves to your rule. You must fuse these wards with new magic and they will start to regenerate.”

  I eyed him speculatively.

  “Are you telling me that all I have to do is touch the damn fence?!”

  Liam quirked a curious brow in a silent question at my comment therefore, I gestured towards the shattered glass glowing faintly under the moonlight before us.

  “The broken wards look like a glowing glass fence to me.”

  “Ah…”

  Liam’s eyes danced in mischief.

  “Yet another thing you should never share with others lass, that you can see the magic such as you do. I can feel the wards and I can tell if they wish me ill, but I cannot spot them with my naked eyesight.”

  I blinked at his latest bit of helpful information.

  “Why couldn’t I just be some regular inhuman vampire-slash-necromancer?”

  He chuckled darkly.

  “A mystery for the ages that is lass, now touch yer fence and get on with it, yeah?”

  I growled in annoyance, but I complied and touched my hesitant right hand to the flickering glass. The power slammed into me as if I had just stuck my finger into an open socket. I half expected my hair to have turned white and for it to be frizzy and standing on ends.

  My magic rushed up to greet the fence, just as it had with the newly risen zombies. Some powers seemed to work on instinct
and I was beginning to realize all power could be shaped and twisted like putty in my hands, so I managed to feed the wards. They felt as if they had been starved for centuries, which made sense, but I was even more shocked that they almost felt alive!

  I watched in wonder as the broken glass began to mend in quick order. As far as the eye could see, the wards were closing up and crackling with a newfound lease on life. They felt lethal, like the world’s largest bug zapper. Anyone who did not have my blessing to be here would find a cruel surprise awaiting them.

  “Shit, Liam, it worked! Their healing and holy-molly, I hope this doesn’t kill any humans!”

  Liam chuckled beside me and sighed a breath of relief.

  “They do not touch non-magical beings. If you don’t have any of the alchemical blood in your veins, then you would not cause any reaction in the wards.”

  “What’s to stop them from using human thugs to come after us?”

  Liam laughed in earnest.

  “Oh, lamb, then they would just be feeding our bloody army. Besides, if one is willing to break the most sacred law that governs all inhuman kind, then the entire world would turn against them.”

  With that comforting bit of information, Liam grabbed my hand and tugged me back the way we came.

  Twenty-Two:

  What do vampires do with the fallen on their land? Apparently, they eat them, and then they bury the bodies. Not that I minded that second part, since I could feel all the corpses calling to me, pleading for my necromantic magic to fuse with them, to give them a new half-life. I could see how this death power would be seductive and possibly addictive to my ancestors.

  Liam had been alone with Bix for a long time now. I was almost sure he was taking my advice, because that man was starving for Bix’s perky and gorgeous body. Hell, if the girl played for my team, I would be too!

  I sat watching my third day rise up. Three nights ago, I had still thought of myself as human, but now I am a leader amongst inhumans. I didn’t feel some profound sense of loss, just a deep shock, and a little bit of disbelief at my situation. Part of me refused to believe that Henry had led me down this rabbit hole, or that he had been a pretender for as long as I had known him.