The Blood Bargain

by Reeves, Macaela

  “Where ever I want to go.”

  He took a step toward me, which was humbling even though I was armed. The look in his eye made him seem like a loose cannon. Maybe I shouldn’t push him too far. Although he wouldn’t dare harm me right? My father held the same clout he did in this town.

  Not that my father cared much for me at the moment.

  With an angry hiss he spoke to me, looming at a distance.

  “Look girl. I don’t care who you think you are. We’ve already made the deal with the devil to keep on living. That’s enough of a burden every day without you digging up the past with your stupid ideals and misconceptions. Put these people’s lives in danger again in any way shape or form and I will personally gut you. That’s not a threat, it’s a promise. We’ve sacrificed too much to have you ruining this colony.”

  I was green, positively green when he was done speaking. I did not doubt for one moment that he was serious. A strong urge to be respectful to the giant overwhelmed me, if only out of fear for my skin. I nodded then ran off tucking my tail between my legs.

  The little house with green shutters welcomed my approach, despite the lack of extra feet running around on the inside it was already starting to feel like home.

  Snagging my key from my pocket, I made quick work of the door. Flipped the deadbolt, snuck inside, flipped it again.

  I exhaled. On my next breath in, I caught a familiar scent.

  Turning around slowly I saw my roommate.

  Dimitri was lounging on the ratty couch reading a comic book. He looked amazing; all masculine finesse sprawled across the sofa like a cologne ad. What really completed the effect though were his eyes, fixed on the colorful pages in front of him he looked almost human. I

  blushed as I entered the room, not sure how to greet him.

  “Ah..hi.” He waved not missing a word in his reading.

  “I did not know it was raining outside.”

  “It’s not.” I didn.t want to get into Zack’s cleansing attempt or the big scary Councilman’s promise or even the thing that tried to eat my foot. No way. I glanced up quickly enough to gauge whether I had planned to elaborate. When I didn’t speak he did.

  “Are your quarters comfortable?”

  “Yeah it’s a nice room and I slept like a rock. Hey. Oh, thanks for getting rid of the cats.” I forgot to mention it the night before.

  “You are welcome. I trust it is better?”

  “Oh man.” I laughed a little. “Much less creepy.”

  “Creepy?” He raised an eyebrow.

  “No no not creepy because it.s you and your place, just a million little eyes staring at me all grandma style creepy.” From the look on his face he was not following at all. I covered my own with my hands. “Ugh! Just forget I said anything. Can I go outside and come back in?”

  “You.re already inside.” I peeked through my hand to find him looking at me like a third eye sprouted out of my forehead.

  “Sorry. It’s a figure of speech. You make me nervous.”

  Dimitri was off the couch and in front of me in a flash. “Why do I make you nervous?”

  “Because you do that.” I said, staring straightforward into his chest.

  “That’s not why.” There was a confidence in his answer.

  “Then why is it?” I whispered my retort, even though I knew the answer. He tilted my chin up with his left hand, and then ran his thumb over my lower lip. Looking up into his eyes I stopped breathing. That endless sea of ice blue heaven that bore into my soul, making me forget about everything in the world. There was no plague, no colony, nothing but just him and me in

  this little living room.

  He leaned into me and I closed my eyes. He kissed me, lightly brushing his lips against my own, so gentle that I barely felt the contact. It was electrifying.

  “Dimitri…” His name was like velvet on my tongue. I leaned into him and he wasn’t there. I opened my eyes to find him standing a few steps back from me, his fangs extended down over his lower lip.

  “Do you want to be injured Liv?” His eyes were cold, their lovely blue they felt like ice on my skin.

  “You won’t hurt me.” I didn.t know if I was reassuring myself or him. At the moment he looked deadly as hell.

  “That is not something one can say in confidence.”

  “If you wanted to kill me, you could have a thousand times and a hundred ways by now.”

  “I am not one of your kind.”

  “So?” I crossed my arms.

  “You should fear me.”

  “Then why did you ask me to move in with you if you want me to fear you?” I wasn’t following his sudden demand for screams. He frowned.

  “I do not want you too...however you should.” I sighed, having no idea where all his self-loathing was coming from. This was obviously going nowhere. I tried to think of when I had seen him the most relaxed.

  “Do you have any board games here?”

  “I have some.” His demeanor changed, I saw a glimmer of interest spark into his eyes, the corner of his mouth kicked up slightly.

  “Would you like to lose to me again?” I got a low chuckle in response to my offer. That deep baritone seemed less scary the more I heard it, regardless of how scary he told me he should be.

  “How about Sorry?”

  “Sounds good.”

  We lit a few more candles and settled into the little square board and our colored pieces. A couple rounds in I noticed his fangs had pulled back. Visibly, he relaxed after the first game. Maybe up close like that he got hungrier? I didn.t want to ask now that he was in casual mode.

  Three games later I had a smile stuck to my face that was interrupted the occasional yawn. He had asked me about my childhood, I’d given him the drama of when I fell of my bike at eight to my broken wrist when I was eleven. He’d listened without judgment to my ramblings, offering the occasional insight or a smile. It just felt so easy.

  Another yawn interrupted my current four spot move across the game board.

  “You are overtired.”

  “Am not.”

  “Go to bed.” I was not one to usually be ordered around. Still I agreed. My lids drooping even as I nodded.

  I told him goodnight and sashayed down the dark hallway to my room.

  Chapter 10

  It was three weeks before we got news from Sammie, and none of it was good. She’d had no luck, Tommen was meticulously clean and thorough. Her little strawberry blonde curls had danced as she furiously shook her head in apology, with Ben comforting her that she did her best. What a sweet guy. He asked her to try again. To keep at it. We all had nodded and carried on patiently waiting.

  Three more weeks went by, a return to living my normal life back on the wall. Well almost normal. I went home at night to D.s, not to my room with Dad and the Russells. While the house was mostly quiet at night, D made time before patrols to break out some boxed or card based entertainment and spend a few hours with me. He never spoke really of himself and asked plenty about my life what it had been before and after the outbreak. Our time together was both enjoyable and tormenting. It no longer pained me to feed him, but I found he kept me at a certain distance. Like a chocolate lover on a diet, I saw the yearning in his eyes but his form resisted the temptation. In the end I was always alone at night, which was both comforting and hollow.

  I didn’t have any more close calls during my day shifts, which was a good thing. I found that grabber had rattled me more than I wanted to admit. For the first time, I found myself questioning why I had insisted on such a hazardous occupation. The more I thought about it -and

  trust me, I had plenty of down time to think about it-the more a singular word formed in my mind.

  Guilt. It was guilt. I knew it.

  I protected those here, because I couldn’t protect anyone when shit hit the fan. I was just a kid, shoved in a car and driven to safety by my dad. I couldn’t warn anyone, I couldn’t help anyone. I was useless.

  Now I was the
farthest thing from the word.

  Probably also reinforced why I hated Zack Graham so much.

  Zack, the annoying anti-groom who had three times now tried to get to me with Father Flannigan. At my work, outside of my old house on my way back from visiting with Zoe then by the square. Talk about embarrassing. The brat just wouldn’t get it through his head that I was here I was because I wanted to be there.

  I’m sure it would have been four run ins, but I saw him lingering around the square on my way my last meeting at Smittys.

  When we met yesterday, now six weeks after her offer to help us, Sammie still came up blank.

  At that point I was tired of waiting.

  I grabbed Cole after we broke ranks and asked him to help me do something brash and crazy.

  Forcibly raid the meat locker.

  I was not the slightest bit surprised that he agreed.

  He had been more vocal in his feelings for me. As awkward as that was at times, it still beat him being pissed off.

  He was all smiles as we walked to the locker the next day. Making horrible pun’s about the weather. Cole was armed, having swapped to a morning shift on another marker to give them the free time with daylight. I was not.

  I had time to run home and drop off my stuff before I met him on the south side. I figured if we were both armed to the teeth it would set off red flags to anyone we passed.

  This colony loved their gossip.

  The building was as we had seen it previously, secured and apparently untraveled. Full of who knows what.

  In my great display of toughness, I picked up a rock and hurled it toward the window above the door. I missed by about three feet.

  “Now the question is who taught you to break windows? Watch and learn.” Cole grabbed one of the large rocks that had been set in front of the building for display.

  Then chucked it straight through the pane. With a loud screech it broke through the glass, and then knocked something over on the other side.

  “That was loud enough!” In a panic I looked left then right, hoping no one had heard the sound.

  “It worked didn’t it?” Nobody was running at us. We were still very much alone on the edge of town.

  “Someone is gonna notice we’ve been here now.” I grumbled, yes I realized it was ironic I tried to break it first and now I’m complaining that he did. My logic engine sometimes takes a while to catch up to my actions. Maybe I needed to upgrade my internal operating system.

  Never the less, Cole looked at me like he was thinking the same thing I was.

  “Do you really care Liv?”

  “Probably not.” Even though there was no probably about it. Six weeks was long enough to wait and see inside this place.

  “Then get on in there and unlock the door.”

  As he lifted me back up I was mindful to avoid the edges of the razor sharp glass that had stuck to the frame. Last thing I needed was to end up in Tommen’s clinic with a nasty infection do to a series of unexplained cuts. The guy hated me enough as it was. Not to mention that pretty much made me the worst spy in history since that guy from Get Smart.

  The front room was an empty meat counter and a register. Overhead a giant chalkboard outlined a variety of deals for the day. It appeared the last day this shop ever opened was a Wednesday and ground beef was the ‘in’ food. The air was stale, like visiting a museum where

  dusting was optional.

  Wasting no time I backed up to the front door and flipped the deadbolt lock. Daylight poured in behind Cole’s tall frame making him look like some sort of angel or alien.

  “Looks pretty blah.” I said as he walked into the room.

  “Office over there?” There were two doors behind the counter, both unlabeled with the same design.

  “Maybe? You want left or right?”

  “I’ll take left.”

  On that I walked around the meat counter and approached the right door. The brass knob turned easily. The wooden door opened with a loud creak from its hinge.

  I took a step forward into the darkened hall. A scraping sound registered in my ears. I immediately backed up and rechecked the main room. Cole was ruffling around behind the left door. I heard what sounded like a file cabinet open. No real cause for alarm there.

  Returning to the corridor I checked my surroundings. The only light that was entering the space was from a back window beyond several doors that ran the length of the corridor. According to the little white man on the black background, directly to my left was a bathroom. I opened the door according to my training, just as I had the last one. Swing wide, step back and wait for any sound or movement.

  Nothing of interest there, just a small room with tacky nautical wallpaper a neglected pedestal sink and a stock frameless mirror.

  Since the area around the door was well lit, I grabbed the edge of the frame where it was hinged to the wall and pushed. When the knob came within arm’s reach,

  I pulled it shut. Another great pair of survival tactics: Don’t reach into unknown areas, close all doors.

  Continuing down the hall there was only one door left. I followed the same methodical process. Nothing but a dark void and the thin cracks of light coming in a small square box in the corner. Looked like someone had blacked out the window, I thought walking forward. Pulling that down should give enough light.

  I was halfway into the space before the smell hit me. The leathery rancor of flesh so long dead it had mummified combined with the sickly rot of fresh decay.

  From the black void a series of dull moans chilled me to the bone.

  I was unarmed and without visibility. I backed up as fast as my boots would move.

  In the light of the doorway I waited. I grabbed a mop out of the bucket that was haphazardly laying in the hall. There I stood, wielding cleaning supplies as though it were a mighty sword.

  I waited.

  Nothing came forward.

  Against my better judgment I edged forward, waving the broom handle in all directions like a maniac. Nothing lashed out at me on my trek to the window. When I was within arm’s reach I ripped down the cardboard blocking the daylight.

  And screamed.

  Not a foot from where I stood was a head on a table, eyes still tracking my movement while the jaw tried to open despite its lack of room to do so.

  On impulse I flipped the broom around and bashed the thing in the head over and over until it was a pile of mush.

  Cole who had heard me scream came running in behind me. In fact he was moving so fast he nearly plowed me over.

  “What the...what is this?”

  The room was probably the butchers cutting room. Now I guess the best word for it would be a lab. Laid out upon the butcher's block in the center of the room was a deadhead. It had been dissected, it’s cranium open revealing the brain matter which had been pinned and labeled with a series of surgical instruments. Small jars set beside it on the table containing a collection of body

  parts floating in milky looking liquid. Its chest cavity open and pinned back with more of those metal clamps.

  A supply closet with fingers sticking out below the door.

  I pointed to the diseased digits and he nodded.

  “Good thing some of us come prepared.” He muttered. Having been on duty earlier in the day he was armed. I backed up as his large body edged in front of me, blocking my view of the door.

  With expert precision, he drew one of his blades, pivoting his body into an attack position. Unsure of what awaited him in that closet I backed up, holding my bloody mop handle at high point.

  He kicked the door in.

  In a blur of motion, there were two freshly disposed deadheads littering the closet floor. Slowly I released my grip on the wooden handle, it clattered to the floor.

  “So...what did you find in your search?”

  “Nothing like this.”

  I walked around the room, my eyes trailing over the utensils lining the butchers block. How organized they all were sitting in t
heir neat little rows.

  “Liv get down!” Cole screamed at me from across the room. I didn.t question. I ducked. There was a whirl of metal and a sickening thud.

  I turned around in a daze. A dead man lay on the ground behind me, the door to the cold storage ajar. It was so close. It could have bit me in another step...

  Then the unthinkable happened. The big strong me, the one who never feared anything, started crying. As the water poured down my cheeks, Cole enveloped me in a bear hug.

  “Stop that. You’re fine. It’s okay.”

  “I am most certainly NOT okay. I almost died. Again. I do not like this growing trend.” Cole wiped the tears off my cheek and smirked at me.

  “You could go marry Mr. Wonderful still, I’m sure that’s a cozy danger free life.”

  “Shut up.” I mumbled into his chest. We stood like that for a moment, until I felt like a dork for having a little freak out. I pulled back awkwardly, blushing.

  “So...do we go tell everyone about this?”

  “Let’s finish looking around, I bet this file cabinet is more useful.”

  “Holy crap Liv.”

  “What?”

  “Listen to this: Iatome Solution #14 shows no sign of success, subject’s infection level in the medulla oblongata continues at 100% cellular saturation. Increased dosage of the iatome solution #15 caused temporary mutation resulting in increased strength and cognitive response.

  Attempting to repeat results TS-134 was given IAS-16 on delayed drip combined with increased steroids. It just goes on like this.”

  “Tommen is trying...to cure them?”

  “Liv...I don’t think Tommen is a pediatrician. This is chemistry. Like...big time organic chemistry, I recognize just a few of these compounds from AP Chem.”

  “Maybe he’s just really smart?” I saw the header on the notepaper, the familiar eagle and Latin credo.

  “This paper is from my dad’s agency.”

  “Found two more folders, same label. This one is marked classified.” Cole pulled out some of the papers. “More research notes.” With a frown he threw the file at me. “Check the date.”