Eternal Day

by Kerrion, Jade;

  Tera cast him an amused glance. “When were you ever?”

  “Well, after a thousand years, I thought maybe I’d have changed, but it appears that I’ve merely settled more comfortably into all my bad habits.” He ground his teeth. His fangs were noticeably pointed. “Do you really think it’s going to work?”

  “The plan is solid. Siri came up with it, after all.”

  “But it depends on them.”

  “They want a restored Earth as much as we do.” Her voice was steady; her uncertainty deeply buried. Tera traced patterns in the sand with the toe of her boot. “The icrathari were the firstborn of the Great Mother.”

  “And landed up with the task of babysitting your most irresponsible youngest sibling—the humans.” Talon shrugged. “All of this might have been avoided if your Great Mother had the foresight to give humans long lives. The problem with people is that they can barely think beyond each day, let alone their lifespan. Never mind thinking of consequences that stretch out into centuries and millennia. They can’t wrap their minds around an extended concept of time.”

  “It’s not their faults.”

  “At some point, they’re going to have to step up.”

  “And they will. When the Earth is restored, the humans will rule, as they were always intended to do.”

  Talon’s jaw dropped. “What?”

  “Come on now, Talon. You were once one of them.”

  “And that makes me uniquely qualified to tell you that they are not competent. They can barely rule themselves. You saw what they did to the Earth. Will the icrathari be around several thousand years from now when they screw up again?”

  Tera sighed and leaned against the rock wall. “In the end, we can only rule ourselves, not others. We cannot live their lives or make their decisions for them.”

  Talon’s eyes narrowed. “You’re thinking about Erich.”

  “Yes.”

  “You’re going to kill him.”

  Tera drew a deep breath. “Yes.”

  “But you love him.”

  “Which has nothing to do with anything. He’s Canya’s now, and she’s a threat. She’s declared as much. We are all going to have to watch our backs the moment we bring down the caves.”

  “Hence the time-delayed explosions, which gives all the vampires and humans a chance to get away.”

  “Humans have no place in a battle between icrathari and daevas. Your job, Rafael’s, and Jaden’s is to reduce the collateral damage.”

  Talon nodded grimly. “I hope the other three stations are moving as smoothly as this.” He peered across the vast underground sea as if trying to make out the movements on the other side. “How much time do we have?”

  “Ten minutes.”

  Siri watched from Aeternae Noctis as hundreds of daevas took to the sky, each carrying the precious packets of silver iodide. The sensors she had launched a day earlier were already primed to track the levels of silver iodide, oxygen, and nitrogen in the atmosphere.

  “How is it going?” Ashra asked quietly.

  “On track, so far.” The report on one of her many screens tracked the rising concentrations of silver iodide critical to rebuilding the atmosphere. “I know I gave Tera a hard time about trusting the daevas, but we could not have done this without them.”

  “I know. And the explosives in the caves?”

  “No way to know until they go off, but Tera’s there, as are the elder vampires. I’m sure they’ve got it under control.” Siri squeezed her fingers into fists. “This is the only chance we’ve got. That’s all the silver iodide we’ve managed to scrounge together. If we miss this window, I’m entirely out of ideas.”

  “It’ll work,” Ashra said. “And then we’ll have to deal with Canya.”

  “One problem at a time.” Siri grimaced.

  They waited as the pale tinge of dawn brightened with the approach of the sun. Siri drummed a nervous rhythm against her console. “Anytime now, Jaden. It’s okay to be early. It’s okay not to stress me out.”

  The first rays of the sun stretched out across the sky. The daevas screeched, wheeling around to flee from the golden orb.

  On the screen, the levels of silver iodide reversed their rising trend. “The heat of the sun’s breaking them down,” Siri said tersely. “If we don’t get water soon, there won’t be enough silver iodide in the air to promote cloud formation.” She peered down at the ground, as if willing it to crack open. “Damn it, Jaden. Tera. What the hell is going on down there?”

  Erich stood back as a human set the final explosive in place. “We’re done,” he said, glancing over his shoulder at Canya as she soared toward him.

  Several feet away, Jaden nodded. The control for the explosives, a small gray device, hung from his belt, its two buttons clearly marked—one a delayed trigger, the other immediate. “Let’s clear out of here before I bring down the caves.”

  “You won’t.” Canya hovered close to the rock ceiling and screamed an order. The sound bounced off the cavern walls, carrying it to all sides of the underground ocean. “Now, my daevas! Attack!”

  The daevas whirled, unleashing their claws and fangs on the humans and vampires they had been helping mere moments earlier. Screams rose into a cacophony of sounds, the wail of each individual death blending into a greater, orchestrated symphony. Jaden drew his twin swords to fend off the wave of black wings diving toward him.

  “What are you doing?” Erich shouted at Canya. “We have to leave this place. The caves will come down and bury all of us!”

  “No, it won’t. We’re not going to blow it up.”

  “What? But the Earth—”

  “The humans deserve nothing. They’ve earned nothing. The Earth will stay as it is. The explosives are exactly what we need to destroy Aeternae Noctis. Without their ark, the icrathari are nothing. They will be like us—burned, hideous, driven underground.”

  “Revenge? Is that all you want? To reduce them to what you think you’ve become? The daevas would have been the heroes—the saviors of Earth—but…” His gaze flicked to the battle raging around him. The remaining vampires and humans had fallen in around Jaden. The elder vampire was a talented warlord, but even he would not be able to win the battle against the flurry of daevas closing in on him.

  If Jaden fell, if the timer was taken—

  My choice.

  Erich’s hands curled into fists. Do something. His body, however, seemed immobilized, as if something held him to Canya’s side, silently watching the massacre of humans and vampires.

  The blood bond.

  He ground his teeth so hard, his fangs sliced into his tongue. The metallic taste of his blood stung him. No longer their blood—not Tera’s, not Canya’s. It’s my blood now. My choice. My will.

  Nothing rational about it.

  Insane.

  It’s what I am—and I accept it. I embrace it.

  Panic swelled, bursting through the flimsy barriers of self-control. Anger and fear rushed over him, blurring his thoughts, slicing rationality into shreds, until all that was left was instinct.

  Instinct and love.

  It was Tera’s face he saw when he leaped over the bleeding, broken bodies of humans, vampires, and daevas to Jaden’s side. Her voice in his mind muted Canya’s screams of outrage. The fragrance of night-blooming flowers dampened the rank reek of terror and the scent of freshly spilled blood.

  My will. My choice.

  I choose love.

  Jaden spun around, poised to attack the greatest threat—Erich—but his jaw dropped when Erich tore a daeva from the air and raked his claws through its throat. “What—?” Jaden’s eyes narrowed. “For Tera.”

  Erich’s smile was faint. “For my muse.” Always, and only for my muse.

  Canya’s voice rolled off the rocks, the words distorted. Now, my daevas! Attack!

  Tera’s wings flared, shooting her into the air. “Fall back! All of you! Talon, get them out of here!”

  A scream bounced off rock, echoing
wildly as a human plunged toward the underground sea.

  Too late!

  Tera raced to catch the young man, but suddenly all around her, humans and vampires were falling. The daevas had let them go, dropping them to their deaths.

  Tera’s thoughts spun faster than her heart raced. Canya was not even waiting for the explosion before turning on the icrathari. She was doing it before the explosion. She was willing to sacrifice the restoration of Earth.

  For revenge.

  Tera tossed the trembling human down to Talon. “Get our people out of here now!”

  “But the explosives—”

  “Do it!” Tera raced across the underground ocean, her large wings carrying her over the miles of water that separated her from the other stations. She had to get to Jaden. He controlled the timer, and if he were under attack…if he could not activate the explosion, then all of their effort would have been for nothing.

  Hundreds of humans and vampires were sacrificing their lives.

  She could not let it be for nothing.

  She flew past a distant shoreline where Rafael and Yuri fought, surrounded on all sides by daevas. Her heart clenched but she raced past them. All that mattered now was reaching Jaden.

  Precious minutes passed. She pushed harder, faster than she had ever flown. Her near-perfect attunement with the Earth told her that dawn was passing into day. In scant heartbeats, it would be too late.

  Her wings pressed flat against her back, accelerating her across the surging waves. The sound of water gave way to screams and snarls. Jaden…

  And Erich.

  She would have to kill him and Canya if Jaden were to have any chance at all.

  And even then, it would be too late.

  She could not win a battle, any battle, in the few seconds she had left.

  Tera neared the shoreline. Her eyes narrowed, then widened. Her thoughts stuttered.

  Erich and Jaden were fighting together back-to-back, as if they had trained together their entire lives. Erich leaped, tearing daevas from the air. Jaden ripped out their throats before they hit the ground.

  Canya hovered over them, her body almost shaking with rage. “No! You are mine! My blood is in you!”

  “My blood is my own! I am my own!” Erich shouted. His gaze flicked to Tera’s approach.

  Canya spun in mid-air to glare at Tera. “You!” Her eyes glowed yellow, but they were moist. “He chose you. You abandoned him, but he still chose you!” Her wings flared in advance of an attack.

  Erich snatched something from Jaden’s belt and leaped into the air. He grabbed Canya’s feet and dragged her to the ground. “Get Jaden out of here!” The controller for the explosives glittered in his maimed hand.

  Erich…

  Jaden…

  Tera had an instant to make the decision she knew she would regret for the rest of her immortal life. She swooped down and grabbed Jaden. Her wings beat down, driving hard against the air to put distance between them and Erich.

  “What is he doing?” Jaden demanded. “Is he insane?”

  Tears stung Tera’s eyes. She could barely see.

  “Doesn’t he know—?”

  An explosion shook the massive underground cavern, and then another, and another, until the cascade of sound rolled shockwaves that drove her from the air. Tera and Jaden landed on a far corner of the cave. She turned around as the roof of the cave trembled.

  Small debris rained down, scarcely more than grains of sand, then pebbles. Cracks raced across the roof of the cave, and then with a tremendous roar, the cave collapsed. Rocks splashed into the underground ocean, churning the water into waves.

  On the far side of the shore, rocks collapsed on the distant, battling figures of Erich and Canya, burying them.

  Tera squeezed her eyes shut. It was over. It was done.

  Heartache pulsed through her chest. She bit her lip, but nothing stemmed the wrenching pain. It’s done, as I promised him.

  So why does it hurt so much?

  She carried Jaden back to the surface of the Earth. Together, they stood in a shadowed alcove overlooking the vast underground ocean as the first rays of the sun stretched across the baked soil and kissed the water.

  The water churned and boiled. Steam hissed into the air, vapor rising invisibly.

  A tiny wisp of white appeared in the unforgivingly brilliant blue canvas of the sky. As blue as Erich’s eyes.

  Tera drew a deep, tremulous breath. The faint white threads spread across the sky, reinforcing each other as they thickened into clouds.

  She stepped out from the shadows and extended her arms to the now gentle warmth of the sun. Silent with awe, Jaden stood beside her. Moments later, they were joined by Rafael, Talon, and Yuri. A handful of daevas circled overhead. From the foothills, the voices of the surviving humans and vampires united in a cry of delight and triumph.

  Rafael spoke quietly. “Life returns to Earth.”

  “And Earth to the dominion of man, as it was always meant to be,” Tera murmured.

  “What will happen to the icrathari and vampires?” Jaden asked.

  “We will occupy the far reaches of the Earth, untouched by humanity. We will fade back into legend.”

  Talon chuckled. “Until we save their collective asses again.”

  Tera shook her head. “If we are lucky, not for another thousand years.”

  “Are we done, then? Do we return to Aeternae Noctis?”

  Tera glanced toward what had once been the shore of an underground ocean, now buried beneath twenty feet of rock.

  Her breath whispered out of her in a sigh. Erich…

  Chapter 18

  Darkness surrounded Erich, filling his lungs with each breath he could not draw. Panic dug icy cold claws into him.

  I’m not human. I don’t need air. I don’t need to breathe.

  He ground his teeth. How could logic and two hundred and fifty years of experience not overcome what was merely a reflexive habit from his twenty-five years as a human?

  Two hundred and fifty years…and infinity.

  He could not turn his head, but he knew Canya lay buried in the rocks beside him, her throat and stomach ripped apart by his claws. In the chaos of the battle, he had known, too, that they were out of time. The sun was rising; their window of success was down to seconds.

  My choice. My will.

  I choose Tera.

  I choose death.

  He triggered the immediate explosion. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Tera fly Jaden to safety. Canya wrestled for the device even though it was of no further use to either of them. “You are mine!” she screeched. “I claimed you.”

  “You claimed my body.” He stared at Canya, surprised by the pity that muted his anger toward her. “Not my love. That, I gave freely, hundreds of years ago, to Tera.”

  Rocks cascaded around them. Canya’s wings flared to carry her away. He struck then, tearing through her throat and stomach, and pinning her to the ground as she died, as rocks buried them.

  Canya would never harm Tera again.

  He had seen to it.

  It’s done. It’s over.

  Erich fought for a breath, but the weight of the rocks crushing him did not permit him enough space to expand his lungs. Dread clutched him. He was buried…forever—not injured enough to die, yet not strong enough to escape.

  I’m back where it all began, buried in the earth.

  Terror cracked the paper-thin walls in his mind. Abandoned by…

  No, not abandoned. The trembling in his fingers stilled. “I chose…” he whispered the words. “I chose Tera.”

  And if there was a price to be paid for his choice, this time, he had paid it knowingly, willingly.

  And I have all eternity to learn how not to be claustrophobic.

  Just focus on her.

  Erich closed his eyes and embraced the darkness.

  He was not alone. In his mind, he sat beside her with a pencil in his hand and paper on his lap. He would never be withou
t his muse. He gazed into her dazzling gray eyes, touched by both joy and sorrow, eyes that had seen humanity’s triumphs and follies. Her smile, rare and precious, danced on her lips.

  The racing fragments of his mind settled—still broken, but no longer frantic, no longer lost. His emotions focused, no longer at odds. The churning conflict in the pit of his stomach eased.

  Peace wrapped around him.

  The fragrance of night-blooming flowers surrounded him, so real, so tangible, he could almost touch them.

  Sunlight splashed on his face. The light did not burn.

  His eyes flashed open.

  Her face was the first one he saw.

  He blinked. Not real.

  Not far off, he heard Talon’s voice grumble. “This is viciously back-breaking work, even for elder vampires. Please tell me we’re close.”

  A faint smile spread across Tera’s face. “He’s here.”

  “That bastard better be alive after all that work we put in.” Talon’s face appeared next to Tera’s. “Hey, he is. A little scuffed up, but still in one piece.” The elder vampire grinned. “All right, folks, we’ve got about a gazillion more pounds of rock to move. Let’s get to it.”

  Erich emerged into a sun-warmed world. He squinted at the white clouds in the sky as they drifted with the wind. “It worked…” he murmured. “It wasn’t for nothing.”

  “No, Erich,” Tera murmured. “It wasn’t for nothing.” She wrapped her arms around his waist and carried him across the dusty landscape. Far below, he saw what appeared to be a trail of people stretching between the four domed cities in the Colorado Valley.

  “The humans are already setting up homes outside the domes,” Tera murmured.

  Erich frowned as water drizzled from the sky. “Is this…rain?”

  Tera smiled faintly. “The water cycle has begun. It’s coming back—life has come back to Earth.” She circled before landing on a precipice and smiled as she caught raindrops on her outstretched palm. “You did this.”

  Erich shook his head. “I did it for you. It was what you wanted.”

  “And what did you want?”

  “To know that you were happy.” He turned to her. “Are you?”