Drawing Down the Mist

by Sheri Lewis Wohl

Rodney glanced over at the phone and shook his head. “Nope, but I have another solution if you’re in a hurry to get on the road.”

  She thought that, despite what teachers liked to say, there really were stupid questions. “I’m in a hurry.”

  “Where are you going?” Dee asked, concern etched across her face. “It’s pretty messed up out there. You have no idea what we found when we were in Spokane.”

  “Explain.” Sasha was being snippy again, but she didn’t have time to be polite. Dee wasn’t wrong either. She didn’t have a good grasp on what was happening in the city. That was the problem with having to check out from sunup to sundown. At this particular time, it was far more than inconvenient.

  Before she spoke, Dee appeared to gather her thoughts. She liked that trait, as she’d always been drawn to thinkers. “I wish I could explain what I saw, but I really can’t because I don’t get it. People are dying everywhere, and nothing I can see or put my finger on explains why. I don’t know if something’s in the air or in the water or what, but they’re dropping like flies. The city is being overrun by military, trying to get a handle on it, or at least that’s what it looks like. Honestly, I can’t tell if they’re trying to help us or help whatever is trying to kill us. We got back here before sunset, both to avoid having the military scoop us up and to make sure we weren’t out there in the dark. I know you get why that was important. The thing is, I’m pretty sure your kind are out there now having some kind of banquet. It’s totally fucked up.”

  As Dee delivered her last few words, an expression that made Sasha feel sad crossed her face. It was unfiltered fear. Sasha was certain that her kind were doing the same thing out there that she would have to soon, if she wanted to be ready for battle. She couldn’t deny her hunger much longer, or there would be tragic consequences. She refused to let that happen.

  “You’re safe.” That was the only reassurance she could offer. It bothered her a great deal that her presence made Dee afraid. The last thing she ever wanted to be was a monster.

  Dee shook her head. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t trying to insult you. It’s the storyteller in me. We observe and then call it like we see it. I never intended to throw shade on you by lumping you in with those outside.”

  “You didn’t.”

  “I didn’t…” Dee was looking at her with a confused expression.

  “You didn’t insult me.”

  “I did.” Dee’s protest sounded sincere. “I could see it on your face, and I’m truly sorry. I just wanted you to understand what’s out there and what’s happened since you went to sleep. I’m trying in a very bad way to provide you with as much information as I can so if you do go out there, you go well-armed.”

  A ripple of something went through her at Dee’s apology. For many valid reasons, she allowed few humans into her world. Most couldn’t take her raw bluntness, though Rodney and Prima were exceptions. Now it appeared there was a third.

  “Thank you,” Sasha told her, and Dee nodded. She was pretty sure they understood each other, and for that she was grateful.

  “I don’t think you should go out there.” Prima stood with her hands on her hips, adding her thoughts to the mix. It was the first time Sasha had actually noticed her, and she looked quite different tonight. A free spirit, Prima embraced that philosophy in everything, including her clothing. Typically, she came across as bright and flowing and upbeat. Sasha had never seen the Prima in front of her before, and she wasn’t sure she liked this version. It was off. Tonight, she was serious and wearing jeans and a sweatshirt. Sasha would never have guessed that Prima even owned a pair of jeans, let alone a bulky sweatshirt. Apparently she did, and now she was presenting as a woman getting ready for something, which concerned Sasha more than she would have imagined. Prima was not a warrior, and out there was most certainly a war zone.

  “I don’t think you should go either.” Dee’s eyes met hers. What she saw there shook Sasha. Dee was deeply concerned for her well-being, which hit her hard because it had been a very long time since anyone had cared whether she returned once she walked out a door. Well, her employees had a vested interest in her survival, but that was a completely different dynamic that screamed impersonal. She was the signature on their paychecks, and that was it. This woman cared about her.

  Rodney stood up and handed Sasha a heavy black object about three inches wide by five inches long and half an inch thick. “Portable battery. You can power that baby on the go.” He nodded toward her still-charging cell phone. “You really need to go out there? I’m leaning in the same direction as Prima and Dee. It’s insane in the city. We can do what we need to from here, so is it all that critical that you leave? We have everything we need down here for months. By the time we run out, the insanity up there will be over. I vote we stay here and stay safe.”

  “It is more than important. I have to see it for myself in order to grasp what we’re up against. Intel aside, I’m not working in the dark.” There was no substitute for firsthand information.

  “Then I’m going too.” Dee was reaching for a jacket.

  “You need to stay here.” Dee would slow her down. It was important to get out there, take the temperature of the assault, and return with a solid plan to shut the Consortium down.

  “Oh, hell no.” Dee continued to slip her arms into her jacket. “You go, I go. We’ve already decided nobody goes out there alone, and that includes you.”

  “That’s fine for you. I don’t need a partner. I’m a bit more capable of taking care of myself.” She didn’t need to explain further. They all knew what she meant. Only then did Sasha notice the gun strapped into the holster at Dee’s waist. What the…? She was getting more interesting by the second, although that didn’t change anything. Dee was still going to stay down here with Prima and Rodney.

  “Those bastards out there threatened me and then blew up my house. If you’re going after them, I’m going with you.” Dee squared her shoulders and stared right at Sasha. “You’ve got a partner whether you like it or not.”

  Sasha started to argue and then glanced at the gun again. Honestly, up against vampires it wouldn’t be much good unless she’d loaded it with silver, which wasn’t likely. Then again, if things were going south, the humans could be as big a problem as the vampires. Anarchy had a way of raising its nasty-looking head in situations like this, and that was a lesson she had learned firsthand. She nodded as she quit arguing. “Anybody else jumping on this bus?” She looked over at Rodney and Prima. They glanced at each other and then shook their heads.

  “I’ve seen enough for one day,” Prima said. “I don’t need to go back out there. Ever.”

  Rodney waved his hand toward his command center. “You and I both know I’m more helpful from here.”

  “All right.” She looked back at Dee. “Let’s get out of here.”

  “Hey, beautiful.” Rodney came over and put a hand on her arm. “Before you go, I brought you something you might need.” He tugged her over toward the refrigerator. “You just need to know the right people who happen to owe you a big favor.” He opened the door.

  She gasped. “Oh God, I think I love you.”

  He laughed, reached in, and handed her one of the packets of blood. He had laid in a dozen, if not more. “Here, power up, and then get out there and kick some ass.”

  Sasha grabbed the gift and ran back to the bathroom. As grateful as she was, she didn’t want to imbibe in front of them, especially Dee. Two minutes later, she returned feeling like someone had given her a new life. Power surged through her, and with her hunger fully sated, she was laser focused.

  She patted Rodney on the shoulder and pushed up on her toes to kiss his cheek. “I don’t think I love you. I do love you.”

  He winked. “Ah, you just want to get in my pants.”

  She laughed and gave him a second kiss on the cheek. “Maybe in another life.”

  She dropped to her heels, walked toward Dee, and waved a hand toward the big metal door. “Let’s go.�
�

  ***

  Dee couldn’t believe she’d just gone toe-to-toe with a vampire and won. She also didn’t know what she was thinking. Challenging Sasha when she knew she could crush her like a bug was way outside her norm. It felt right, though. In fact, it felt imperative. She had to go with her. It was a strong feeling with no rational explanation. Maybe she was picking up on some of Prima’s psychic vibes. She just knew she was compelled to be at her side when she left the bunker.

  At the same time, she certainly didn’t want to return to the city. It had scared the bejesus out of her earlier, and now she was demanding to go with a vampire? If she closed her eyes she could still see the insanity, and trying to make sense out of any of it was impossible. Why was she wading right back into it, in the dark, with the vampires? Damn feelings that pushed in directions she didn’t want to go. She was obviously losing it.

  Or was she?

  Something about Sasha made her want to be more than she was, and a little voice in the back of her head whispered that’s why she’d opened her big fat mouth. Feeling more courageous had her now racing through the darkness in a lame attempt to keep up. The woman could run like an Olympic athlete, while Dee was a plodder who would be lucky to finish a 5k in anything that resembled a decent time. It would be a miracle if she got back to where the car was parked without impaling herself on a fallen tree. And hell’s bells, it sure seemed like they were running a lot farther than when they’d trekked in. Granted, she’d come here in the daylight, which was probably skewing her sense of distance. Maybe.

  Finally she could make out the shape of the car in the distance. Thank God. Her lungs were about to burst. Sasha wasn’t even breathing hard, though Dee fell into the passenger seat huffing and puffing like a three-hundred-pound asthmatic. She ran a hand through her hair. Did she look as haggard as she felt? If they survived this thing, whatever it was, she silently promised herself to spend more time out running and less time punching away at her laptop.

  That thought made her laugh out loud, causing Sasha to cut her a look. She shrugged. “Yeah, I get it. Not exactly laughing time, but you had to be inside my head to appreciate it.”

  “I’m not following you.”

  “You wouldn’t be alone. My family’s been trying to figure me out for years. Here’s the deal.” She gave herself a second to breathe smoothly so she wasn’t gasping between words. Or gasping quite as noticeably anyway. “That run through the dark woods just kicked my ass, and I was thinking about how I need to work out more. Then I thought about what was happening out here and realized how stupid that was. I should be worrying more about simply staying alive and not about whether I can do a decent trail run. In the dark. With a vampire.” She couldn’t help it. She snickered again. “Sorry.”

  For a moment, Sasha stared straight out the windshield into the darkness that stretched as far as she could see in front of them. “I do understand. Sometimes when it seems the darkest and the bleakest, we have to take a moment to find the humor. It’s what keeps us from falling into despair so deep we’ll never recover. We have to hold on to hope no matter what the universe throws at us.”

  Dee heard the deep emotion in her words and realized that something had happened to this woman. Not just being turned into a vampire. No, it was something far more personal, and it had left a deep, lasting mark. “Yes. Exactly.”

  Sasha turned the key and the car came to life. She didn’t put it immediately into gear. Instead, she stared out into the darkness beyond the windshield. “We can’t let them win,” she said softly.

  “Pardon?” She wasn’t following the abrupt change in direction at all. Must be oxygen deprivation. They’d been talking about running and keeping despair at bay with humor, and now it sounded more like they were going into battle. Then again, maybe that was exactly the way she should be thinking. Especially given what she’d seen earlier. Also a hazard of being a writer with ADD. Her thoughts jumped around all the time. It worked for her, and most of the time she swore it made her a better writer. Right now, though, it would probably be advantageous if she could focus on what they were soon to face, like Sasha appeared to be doing.

  Sasha turned once more to look at her. God, she was beautiful. How on earth could she possibly be a vampire? They were monsters, right? Everything she’d ever studied portrayed them as ugly, dark, and evil. They shouldn’t be lovely, smart, and interesting.

  Sasha said in a matter-of-fact manner, as if Dee should already know this, “They want to take over.”

  “They? As in vampires like…” It came so close to slipping off her tongue, and she didn’t want to say something stupid again.

  “Like me,” Sasha said. Damn. Nothing slipped by this woman.

  “I didn’t mean it like it sounded.” How did she put her foot in her mouth every five minutes when she was around Sasha?

  “There is only one way. You either are a vampire or you are not a vampire. I am. You are not. So, yes. I mean they as in vampires.”

  Dee couldn’t argue the point and was still busy trying to figure out a way to get her size eight out of her mouth. If all else failed, she’d employ a technique she constantly used in her writing: diversion. The proverbial bait and switch. “What do you mean they want to take over?” She’d gotten momentarily stuck on the they part and missed the takeover piece.

  Sasha began backing up the car, though the automatic-headlight switch must have been turned off because no lights came on. Dee couldn’t see for crap, but it didn’t seem to faze Sasha. She expertly backed from between the trees and onto the forest service road, where she drove steadily and with confidence despite the fact they had to be at least four hundred yards down the rutted dirt road. If she’d been driving, she’d have wrapped the car around a tree after about twenty feet. Or probably more like ten feet, she was that good.

  Neither of them spoke until after they came out of the trees and pulled onto the empty highway. How quiet it was. No oncoming traffic. No one behind them. This wasn’t like driving on the freeway, where cars constantly flowed in both directions. At the same time, she couldn’t remember traveling on this highway without at least a few other vehicles.

  Sasha finally switched on the headlights and, as she did, spoke to Dee’s question. “A segment of my particular population is embracing an ideology that is pushing them to relegate humans to the minority category.”

  Dee was usually pretty sharp, but right now she felt a little dumb. This wasn’t clicking, or as her brother liked to tease, she wasn’t connecting the dots. “What do you mean, relegate to minority category?”

  Though she was expecting to hear a note of exasperation or the tone of voice one used on a small child who required a slow and detailed explanation, neither was apparent. “Vampires have existed longer than any other creature on the planet, yet they have always been relegated to the shadows and to the whispered folklore that made them—us—out to be monsters.”

  “Can’t blame humans for that really.”

  “And why not?”

  That made her stop and think for a second. “Well, come on. You do use humans as food, right?”

  Sasha nodded slightly, though her eyes remained on the road. “Indeed, but I would posit that humans are no different. Do you not use animals as food? I certainly did when I was human, without ever giving it a second thought. Doesn’t that make humans just as much monsters as vampires are said to be? I would suggest that killing to survive makes no one a true monster. Killing for the sake of killing, yes. Killing for sustenance, no.”

  Okay. She could understand her point, sort of. Still, killing humans to survive wasn’t really the same, though she suspected that the vegans and vegetarians of the world would be firmly in Sasha’s ethical camp. The ideology of vegans and vegetarians aside, it was hard to completely wrap her head around Sasha’s logic. Consuming animals for survival had been around since the beginning. It had never been acceptable to use humans for the same purpose.

  “For argument’s sake, say I ag
ree with you. Why then are these vampires out there trying to kill every human in sight? That doesn’t sound like anything related to survival. That sounds a lot more like a band of serial killers out for thrills.”

  That’s the way it had seemed to her when they’d been out earlier. What she’d seen had been horrific. The six o’clock newscasts reported that last night thousands were dead just in Spokane. She had no idea what was happening elsewhere and was pretty sure she didn’t want to know.

  “It’s all about survival of the fittest. Just like any superior herd of cattle, they want to breed for the finest. They’re culling the herd by eliminating the weak. They’ve developed and introduced an airborne toxin that will take out all those too weak to survive. They’re creating the ultimate herd of cattle, but instead of bovine, it’s made up of humans.”

  A chill went up her spine. It suddenly made a twisted sort of sense. “That’s messed up. How long has this been going on?” In her head nobody, vampire or human, could pull off something this massive without years of planning.

  “For millennia. The very earliest vampire writings talked of the rapture, the time of the vampire rule. It has finally arrived.”

  That was shocking, creepy that in the background a faction was plotting to destroy the majority of a species and use the rest as dinner. “We’re fucked.”

  This time Sasha shook her head. In the glow of the dash lights, her face radiated strength and determination. “They have been planning and plotting for thousands of years, but I am ready. I have been ready every day for a hundred years.”

  ***

  The Elders sat on the lush sofas and side chairs, each holding a crystal goblet filled to the brim with deep-red blood. A coppery scent wafted through the air that was pleasing to the group gathered here. Katrina too held a glass, though not a single one of them realized it had been poured from a different decanter. It was something none of the arrogant bastards needed to know. Seven Elders in total ranged in age from over two thousand years old to the youngster, who was a mere three hundred and twenty. They had much in common despite the great variance in their ages. Each was beautiful and elegant, and anyone who might walk into the room would guess that the eldest was no more than forty-five. All of them also mistakenly believed themselves to be untouchable.