by J. A. Saare
“What makes you so sure I won’t haul ass the second you give me headway?” I narrowed my eyes and glared at him. “You are keeping me prisoner, after all.”
“Because if you do, your privileges will be revoked for an undetermined period of time. You’ll be kept in the basement until I’m ready to let you out. Once you go down there, you’ll wish you’d been smart and listened to me. Besides, with that leg injury to slow you down, you won’t make it far.”
“Damn it,” I snapped and tried to reason with him. “I’m not shitting you when I say I can’t stay here. I’ll die if I do.”
“It’s not the first time I’ve heard that.” Carter finished off his drink and said, “You’ll see the light. Give it time.”
Give it time, my ass. If homeboy only knew just how much time I’d given up. “How many hostages have you taken in your effort to save humanity?”
He stretched out, lifting his arms above his head. When he lowered his hands to the chair, he answered only, “Enough.”
Son of a bitch.
Struggling not to scream or toss my chair at him, I chose to make a hasty exit. I stood and tried to walk away as gracefully as I was could. Unfortunately, after I’d ventured down the staircase, I was forced to hobble to the sliding glass door. The crisp air-conditioned condo was exactly as I left it, everything neat and in its proper place. I briefly wondered what Carter would think if I went on a demolition and ruined the entire decorative flow.
A little dent in the plaster here, a lamp tossed there.
Perfecto!
I rounded the corner and slammed into a hard, steel-like form. In an instant, I was sent off course. Thankfully, my fucked-up right knee held out for a change. With a simple realignment of my posture, I remained on my feet. I breathed a sigh of relief, grateful I wasn’t mopping the floor with my ass.
“You’re the new one.”
I lifted my head and studied the woman I’d bumped into.
At least, I thought it was a woman.
The individual was dressed in the fugly camouflage pants everyone seemed to love, a thin black wife beater and combat boots. Guns protruded from holsters strapped under muscular arms and large hunting knives rested along a ribbed waist.
I did a double take.
His or her features were definitely feminine—full lips, pert nose and dainty chin—but the illusion of femininity was ruined by caramel brown hair that had been cropped incredibly short. With the lean, rippling muscles along her tanned shoulders and arms that would do a man proud, I didn’t feel embarrassed I couldn’t identify her gender immediately. I met the woman’s stare and folded my arms over my chest. She-Ra was a good three or four inches taller than me and could probably kick my ass considering I was lame and lacking her firepower, but I’d be damned if I backed down.
When in doubt, hold your head up high.
“I think they should let you go back,” she said softly as she moved closer, leaning in so I heard her loud and clear. “You deserve to rot.”
“It’s a wonderful day in the neighborhood. Hello and greetings, fellow neighbor. What’s your name? I’m Rhiannon,” I replied, giving her a snarky wave and bow. “Top of the morning to you.”
“Bitch,” she snarled.
Fabulous.
In a matter of seconds, I’d made an enemy.
I braced myself to fight, my senses on hyper-alert.
“Jax.” Carter’s voice resonated through the room. I wasn’t aware he’d been eavesdropping. I pivoted on my good leg to glance at him before I returned my focus to GI Jane. “What are you doing here?” he questioned, slamming the sliding door closed behind him. “You didn’t request a formal consultation.”
“She thinks you should let me go back.” I turned my back to Carter and smiled at Jax. If he wanted to keep me here, I’d make him suffer. I inched in closer, whispering to the she-man across from me, “Personally, I think that’s a fine idea. I’ve been trying to talk Mr. Serious over there”—I hiked my thumb in Carter’s direction—“into giving it consideration. So far, he’s not listening. Maybe you can change his mind?”
“I asked you a question, Jackson,” Carter barked from just over my shoulder. “What. Are. You. Doing. Here?”
She didn’t avert her focus from my face, reaching for the bag resting across her chest. She pulled it loose, lifted it over her head, and threw it at my feet. “Quinn told me to bring her clothing to wear until she collected some of her own.”
“That’s great. You’re such a fashionista. I can’t wait to see what’s inside.” I smiled and shifted my feet, gently prodding the bag on the floor. “You don’t happen to have a spare pair of shit-kickers? Do you?”
Jackson looked like she wanted to explode. Her lids slitted, her forehead creased and her full, berry-tinted lips thinned. Out-fucking-standing. Chalk it up to another person won over by my superb conversation skills and outstanding wit. She was good and pissed—just as I’d hoped she would be. I would have pumped my fist in the air, but I had a feeling it would have only made matters worse.
“Thank you.” Carter defused what was sure to become a fistfight, stepping in directly beside me and the femme fatale. “You can go. Tell everyone we’ll be down after breakfast. I don’t want any visitors. Tell everyone that as well.”
Jax turned to leave, but before she did, she gazed over her shoulder and said, “Don’t get too comfortable, vessel. You’re not welcome here. It’s only a matter of time before you’re gone. Your time is short.”
Our gazes met and I smiled, goading her like a moron. Bring it, heifer. “Talk about an understatement. You have no idea just how short my time is.”
She started to step forward when a horrifying growl carried through the room.
What the hell?
The sound was unlike anything I’d ever heard, so deep it felt as if the walls rattled and the floor shifted. Jackson glanced at Carter before she spun around and made her way to the elevator. I peered over at the man in front me—who I had identified as the source of the noise. He grew quiet when our unexpected visitor stepped into the elevator.
“Vessel?” I asked. The question about his tendency to growl could wait. “Am I about to tread water somewhere?”
He didn’t look at me until the doors to the elevator slid shut. “A vessel is a vampire blood donor.”
Great. The more things changed, the more they stayed the same. Even with the world coming to an end, people were still determined to judge and label others.
I bent at the waist and retrieved the small black satchel Jackson had brought upstairs. The contents were light, and when I flipped back the flap, I saw a pair of camouflage pants and a couple of black shirts folded neatly inside.
“What is up with all the green and black?” I grumbled, placing the flap back over the satchel. “You have a problem with brights?”
“Our clothing distinguishes us from average civilians.”
“I hate to break it to you.” I motioned at his face and then his very fit body. “But your entire look screams covert military asshole. Woodsy outdoor clothing is just the cherry on top.”
Annoyed now, Carter muttered, “Are you always such a smartass?”
“No, not always. That character trait is generally reserved for the fucked-up situations I find myself in. Like this one, for example.”
Carter appeared uneasy and exhausted, gray eyes going dark as his shoulders drooped. He raked his fingers through his hair and shifted his feet. “I’m going to be straight with you,” he said. “A person that’s just been taken off the grid would normally be quarantined and placed under observation. It’s protocol and ensures no one falls into harm’s way. The only reason you’re not is because I’ve taken a personal interest in you. If not for that, you’d be holed up in a cell in the basement with the rats, a floor mat and a water dish. No one here likes outsiders, especially human o
nes who’ve lived among vampires.”
I was about to get snarky again when I internalized his last two words.
Human ones? Hello?
Slowly, warily, I asked, “What do you mean human ones?”
“How old are you, Rhiannon?”
What a nice question to ask a girl you’d just gotten to quasi know over a few shots of Jack Daniels the night before. I pulled the satchel to my chest. “I’m certified antique at a quarter of a century. Vintage twenty-five.”
“How is it that you know so little? You couldn’t have been kept so ignorant of everything taking place. You’d have to be blind not to know what’s taken place around you.”
Nothing made me as warm and fuzzy inside as being referred to as an imbecile, but I couldn’t tell Carter why I was ignorant of the world’s happenings or why I had no idea what in the hell was going on. There was too much danger in honesty. I might find my throat cut or my body tossed over the side of the outdoor patio.
I stood there dumbly, unable to answer the question.
“Are you suddenly mute?” he snapped, staring at me as if he was fighting the compulsion to shake the hell out of me. “Where’s your big mouth now?”
“What do you want me to say?” I blurted, grasping at straws. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Does it really matter why? You refuse to let me leave, keeping me prisoner in this…this…” I waved my arm to the insanely odd and out-of-place apartment that had once been an architect’s wet dream. “Better Homes and Gardens meets The Jetsons military fortress.”
Carter moved quickly, taking my upper arms in his large hands. He squeezed harshly and growled, “You’re lying.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I repeated evenly, chest heaving. I was furious and ready to give him more than he bargained for. I might be lame, but I knew how to defend myself, and there were plenty of objects in the vicinity to use as weapons.
His nostrils flared as he inhaled deeply. My stomach sank when his irises turned silver. Carter wasn’t a vampire, but he most definitely was not a human. More than a virus had come along since the Third World War.
“You’re hiding something.” He didn’t back down, studying me. “I knew it the moment I scented the people, cars and exhaust fumes all over you in the alley. No one smells like that anymore.” He buried his face into the hair at my shoulder and breathed in. On the exhale, he murmured, “No one.”
“What are you?” I whispered.
He met my gaze and froze. For several seconds, he simply stared at me. “I won’t dignify that question with an answer. If you want to play dumb, so be it.” Carter released me and took a step back. “Get a shower and get dressed. We’ll eat, and I’ll take you on a quick tour of the premises.”
I watched in silence as he turned and stomped away. The muscles along his shoulders and arms flexed as he clenched his hands into fists. God help me. The entire situation was becoming worse and worse. And the most sickening part was that I had no idea of how to remedy it or what in the world I was dealing with.
I stormed across the distance to my room, the lush carpet padding my feet. I tossed the satchel onto the bed, ready to tear something apart, when something shiny caught my attention. Inch by slow inch, I drew closer to the bed. My stomach churned and sweat beaded across my forehead. My heart felt like it was going to pound out of my chest.
It couldn’t be.
No. Fucking. Way!
I lifted the amulet from atop the comforter with shaking fingers.
The tiny bead of amber with the back teardrop center swayed in the air.
I wasn’t sure how it was here, considering I’d handed the damned thing over to Zagan myself, but the power it radiated was an all too familiar and eerie hum against my skin. The supernatural energy that came from the thing crept through my muscles and coursed through my blood. I felt invigorated but lightheaded.
It’s official. I’m in crazyville.
Marigold Vesta’s amulet—spun by Lucifer’s very own familiar—was once again in my possession.
Chapter Three
Carter pointed out various things inside his building as we made our way for the bus that would take us on a mission through the city. I got to visit the apartment used as a storeroom, and the large area downstairs with a massive projection screen and couches that were used for movie night. He also introduced me to several of the unbelievably fit and trim residents who crossed our path along the way. Aside from brief glances and bobs of the chin in acknowledgement, they didn’t talk to me and I didn’t talk to them.
Truth be told, my mind was elsewhere entirely.
For the umpteenth time, I brought my hand to my chest, patting the amulet hanging from the cord around my neck. It was still there, emitting an odd powerful hum against my skin. Since I’d slipped it on, I’d felt calm yet powerful. It didn’t make a lick of sense.
“Rhiannon.” Carter broke through my haze. “Are you listening to me?”
“Yes, I am.”
I lowered my hand from the incredibly thin but overly large black turtleneck I’d taken from the satchel and changed in to. The camouflage pants fit a bit better due to the assistance of an old military-style cloth belt with a metal clasp that shone like polished brass. I looked pretty hard core until you got to the immaculate white Nikes with the light pink swooshes on my feet.
“Who are you thinking about?” Carter slowed his pace.
Who wasn’t I thinking about?
I was worried about Disco, without question. My lover had no idea where I’d been for the last century. Which got me to thinking about everyone else. What happened to my old boss, Hector? My coworkers Deena, Cletus and Butch? Did The Black Panther Lounge, where I worked as bartender, still exist? Then there was my vampire family—with Paine and Nala being in the forefront of my mind.
Each time I started this train of thought, I went back to one person in particular.
Ethan McDaniel, aka Goose—my mentor, friend and the only person aside from Disco I trusted completely. He would know what to do and how to get myself out of this situation, but was he even around? Was such a thing possible? Vampire blood extended longevity, but one hundred and one years was a hell of a long face lift.
“Rhiannon,” Carter prodded, “answer me.”
“I’m not thinking about anyone,” I lied, increasing the pace down the narrow hallway. “Isn’t there another room you want me to see?”
A firm hand grasped my shoulder and spun me around, bringing me face-to-face with one furious and very disbelieving man. The rope Carter walked was getting shorter and shorter. His gray irises shone oddly, becoming almost silver again.
“You were romantically involved with one of them, weren’t you?” His voice changed, becoming impossibly deep before my very ears. “That’s why you won’t tell me anything. That’s why you’re playing stupid. You’re protecting your lover.”
If only it was that simple.
Beyond my own threshold of patience, I let him have it. “If vampires are as evil and powerful as you say they are, why would I need to protect any of them? We are the endangered species. Not the other way around.”
“That’s true enough. Your species is endangered,” he agreed, catching me off guard as he brushed his larger body lightly against me. “But mine isn’t. Soon, we will equal them in number, if not exceed them. While they control the night, we control the day. When the time comes, they will all burn.”
Your species? Mine isn’t? What the fuck is he?
“Carter,” a deep voice bellowed from the end of the hall. “We’re ready to go.”
“We’ll be right there,” Carter shouted but kept his powerful gaze homed on me. Moving closer into my personal space, he whispered thickly, “You’re not going anywhere. Your place is here. Your home”—he emphasized the word with purpose, allowing it to hover between us for sever
al seconds—“is here.”
Before I could respond, he released my arms and moved away.
Stepping past me, he strode toward the end of the hall. He glanced at me when he stopped before the men and quickly turned away, absorbed by their conversation.
Something was very, very wrong. Something I didn’t fully understand.
And it was something I wasn’t sure I wanted to.
Each new landscape I viewed was a stark contrast to the world I’d left behind.
There were no longer choppy lawns or trimmed sidewalks.
Now the city consisted of sparse portions of grass, ragged weeds and random flowers jutting from the cracked asphalt. The sidewalks were covered in paper garbage, clothing and forgotten belongings. Buildings were in considerable disrepair with bricks missing or scattered about. Multiple window ledges were falling apart, air conditioning units dangling precariously close to disaster as they tottered on the ledges, and most of the doors to the once beautiful residences were missing all together.
The large reinforced bus traveled across the city, the driver deftly maneuvering the sunlit roads. All remained empty but for a random critter here and there. Dogs and cats immediately sought shelter, fleeing from sight as we rounded corners. The few people I saw were hidden behind heavy curtains.
All I could see were tiny glimpses of their eyes.
Our stops were sporadic, mostly trips to restock supplies from storage facilities scattered across the decaying city. A majority of the food we collected was of the canned variety, and each label was oddly pristine. I noted there was little dust or grime, indicating the non-perishable market continued to thrive despite the change in the infrastructure. I wasn’t entirely sure how that was possible. When I asked Carter about it, he informed me humans had to be fed and vendors were always willing to make arrangements for the right price.
We stopped once to eat, smack-dab in the center of a place I once loved.
The meal should have been pleasurable. It wasn’t.
