The II AM Trilogy Collection

by Christopher Buecheler

“There are valid arguments for either option,” Naomi said.

  “Jesus Christ, can’t you just answer the question?!” Two snarled. “Stop being a politician for half a goddamn minute and say what you mean. Grow a pair, Naomi!”

  “Two …” Theroen began, but she waved him away.

  “She’s a big girl, Theroen.”

  Naomi sighed, shifted in her seat, and looked for a time out the window. She seemed undisturbed by Two’s tone. At last she spoke.

  “I would flee. I believe … oh, what does it matter? Think of me what you will. I would go to Europe and regroup there, even if we knew their exact location at this exact moment in time. Is that enough for you, Two?”

  Two nodded. “That’s fine. Sasha?”

  “Fight,” Sasha said. “You know that.”

  “Yeah. Leonore?”

  “I would fight,” Leonore said after some consideration. “I am not much for combat, but I’ve no interest in forfeiting my council seat and deferring to a cadre of elders who will care nothing for my opinion.”

  “Fair enough. Theroen?”

  He thought about it – thought long and hard, unsure of his own feelings and motivations. Part of him cried out simply to distance himself from the council and its troubles, to go to Europe or anywhere else in the world and recede into obscurity, the state in which he had spent the past four hundred years. Another part of him felt still a great debt to Ashayt, who had brought him back from the very edges of oblivion. Would her death mean nothing, if they chose now to simply give up? Or would she have wanted them to flee, to protect themselves and so prevent further violence from coming to her people?

  “Clock’s ticking, hon,” Two said. There was a small smile on her face, and her voice was oddly gentle, as if she understood the thoughts going through his mind. Theroen wondered if she could sense how torn he was.

  “I would flee,” he said at last. “I would do it because I do not think a ragtag army of Burilgi and Ay’Araf can defeat the Children, not when we have lost so many fighters already, and not while they still have Tori.”

  “She’s the key to it all,” Two said. “She’s not afraid or ashamed, and she doesn’t care about honor. She’ll kill us in any way she can, and that makes her a match even with the best of us.”

  Theroen nodded. “She has added training and technology to her already considerable strength and speed. Certainly, she could be defeated if a very talented fighter encountered her in a one-on-one situation and was familiar with all of her weapons. That is an unlikely scenario. I see no way of getting past her.”

  “I do,” Two said, and Naomi stirred at this.

  “Two, you were amazingly lucky,” she said. “You have no way of knowing if another encounter with Tori would end in your favor.”

  “You weren’t there,” Two replied. “You didn’t see the way she looked at me. If I can get to her without Vanessa around … I swear to God, I can get her to talk to me. I can get her to listen to me, and I think I can help her remember who I am.”

  “You can’t do any of that because you don’t know where she is,” Theroen said.

  “Well I fucking sure can’t do it from Europe, can I?” Two spat.

  “So then your vote is to stay and fight?” Sasha asked.

  “We are not voting,” Naomi began. “There was—”

  “I don’t know what my vote is,” Two said. “I’m still trying to figure it out.”

  “Should we not give Lewis a vote? Or at least the chance to speak his mind?” Theroen asked.

  “This is still a council meeting, and no formal request for a vote has been called,” Naomi said.

  “Well, I formally fucking call for a vote,” Two said. “But Lewis deserves a say.”

  “I don’t think he should be involved,” Leonore protested. “He’s not even here!”

  Sasha whirled on her. “He’s not here because he fought his way out instead of running for the secret exit the moment the Children arrived. If he says his injuries prevent him from moving, then I believe him.”

  “I don’t particularly care what you believe,” Leonore told her, raising her eyebrows. “At any rate, I was merely expressing my opinion.”

  “When you find my foot lodged halfway up your large intestine, remember that I was merely expressing my opinion,” Sasha said.

  “Sasha, please,” Naomi said. “This may not be an official council meeting, but I’d like to keep it as civil as possible.”

  “It is an official council meeting,” Two said. “Other than Lewis, who else is there? We’re all that’s left.”

  “In that case, I insist we remain civil,” Naomi grumbled. She stood up, moving toward the kitchen. “Would anyone like a refill on their drinks?”

  Sasha and Leonore, who were both drinking blood from Naomi’s now nearly exhausted private reserve, both declined a refill. Theroen handed her his wine glass. Two shook her head and said, “I’m going for a walk. I need to think about this shit.”

  “Are we to simply wait until you get back to continue?” Leonore asked her, and Two shrugged.

  “You do whatever you want. I’m not going anywhere unless I decide to do it. If I don’t see you again, it was nice knowing you, I guess.”

  Without further word, she headed for the front door and left the apartment. The others watched her go and, after a moment, Naomi turned to Theroen.

  “Are you going to go after her?” she asked.

  Theroen met her gaze and raised his eyebrows. Smiling a bit, he shook his head. “After these three years together, I have learned that it is best to let her go. She has thus far always returned for me.”

  Chapter 15

  Unexpected News

  “Look who’s finally decided to show up.”

  Two glanced over at Leonore, who was still sitting on Naomi’s couch, though now she had borrowed a laptop and was working her way through what looked like an overabundance of unread email. Sasha was out on the balcony, talking with Naomi. Theroen was watching CNN with the volume so low it was inaudible even to Two’s ears.

  “Oh, are you still here?” Two replied, affecting a tone of disinterest, and Leonore glowered at her before returning to her email. Theroen turned to watch Two, an expression of mild amusement on his face. Two stepped over and sat down on the arm of the couch next to him.

  “Have you come to any conclusions?” he asked.

  “Well, I concluded that this shit is crazy,” Two said, and Theroen’s smile widened.

  “We’ve had some news,” Theroen said, and Two found herself momentarily annoyed with his preternatural calm. It was impossible to judge from his tone whether the news was good or bad.

  “Oh yeah? What’s up?”

  “Let’s reconvene the group,” he said, standing up and walking over to the sliding glass door. He tapped on it, gaining Naomi and Sasha’s attention, and gestured back toward Two, who waved at them. Naomi nodded and the two women made their way inside.

  “I trust you found whatever it was you were looking for?” Sasha asked, after they had all taken their seats.

  “Not really, but at least I feel better,” Two replied. “Anyway, what’s the news? Anything good?”

  “It depends on your point of view,” Naomi said. “Kanene is alive. She called me not forty minutes ago.”

  “What?!” Two cried. “That’s awesome! Why wouldn’t that be good news?”

  “It’s fantastic news,” Sasha said. “It’s just not the real news.”

  “I’ll make you guys a deal,” Two said. “I’ll shut up if one of you will just tell me what the fuck is going on.”

  “What a change that will be,” Naomi said, but there was a small smile on her face.

  “Ha. Ha. Ha,” Two said, but then held her hands up and closed her mouth, waiting for someone to proceed. After a moment, Naomi took up the task.

  “The last we saw Kanene, she was dragging Peter’s body away. She pulled him outside the building, stopping to fight off soldiers trying to kill her. I don’t
know how she did it, but she eventually broke through and got his body to an alley. It was there that she was able to determine that there was nothing she could do for him. It hurt my heart to hear the loss in her voice.

  “She left his body on a rooftop, and I have promised her we will go and take care of him. She had planned on rejoining the fight, but by that time the cathedral was burning and the streets were full of people. She remained on the rooftop, watching, and when the Children began to disperse, Kanene followed them, moving over the rooftops. After several blocks they reached their vehicle. You won’t believe this, Two, but she literally leapt into a parked cab and did the ‘follow that car!’ routine.”

  “Nice.”

  “They went to LaGuardia, and she almost lost them there. There was security to avoid and apparently quite a bit of razor wire, but she found the hangar that the vehicles were driving to, scaled it, and made her way to a skylight.

  “Other soldiers arrived, and most went immediately to sleep. A few were awake, watching the entrance to the hangar, and she was able to catch some of their conversation. The Children’s forces are flying out from different airports, some traveling all the way to Philadelphia to depart, but they were all slated to arrive in Chicago. At last, with dawn nearing, she realized she must make a decision …”

  Here, Naomi paused for a moment and broke into a smile, shaking her head in admiration.

  “She stowed away, didn’t she?” Two asked, and Naomi nodded.

  “She did. There were offices in the far corner of the building, dark and empty, and she took a chance at breaking a window. The men on guard didn’t hear the glass. At one point, Kanene walked within twenty feet of them, prepared if necessary to kill them, but they never turned around. She made her way through the shadows to the jet, climbed into the cargo hold, and buried herself in a storage unit filled with surplus gear. She spent most of the day sleeping there, knowing that if they found her they would put her to death but beyond caring.

  “At some point during the day, they flew, and later they must have moved the box without ever opening it. When she woke, she was in a warehouse attached to their headquarters! It took her hours to make her way out unnoticed, but she did it, and now … Two, we know where to find them!”

  For one of the rare moments in her life, Two was stricken dumb. She glanced at Theroen, but he was keeping his expression blank, looking back at her with that same eternal calm she’d been so frustrated by a moment ago. Sasha and Leonore seemed to be waiting for Two to speak.

  “Are we going to fight them?” she asked at last. “Is that what this means?”

  “We’re still discussing that,” Naomi said.

  “I still do not see what there is to discuss,” Sasha said. “Between my Ay’Araf and Lewis’s Burilgi, we can throw numbers at them greater than anything they could have in that building.”

  Naomi made a noise of aggravation. “Sasha, we cannot swarm into an Illinois suburb with five hundred vampires and attack a four-story building. It would risk everything we’ve spent the past centuries establishing. Do you want to go back to skulking in graveyards and living on the fringes of society, falling asleep every morning wondering if someone is going to try and drive a stake through your chest?”

  Sasha sighed. “Why do you continue to assume that I am an idiot with no tactical sense? When have I ever advocated a full-scale frontal assault? Naomi, if I were as full of raging bloodlust as you seem to think, would I not have asked for more than a handful of fighters during the attack on Aros’s base? I am a fighter, yes, but I am not a raving psychopath.”

  “My apologies,” Naomi said. “I do not think you are an idiot or a psychopath. I am merely advocating prudence, and I am … I am afraid of what will happen if we gather in large numbers again.”

  “At least this time we’ll have warning if they mobilize,” Leonore said.

  “Yes,” Naomi replied. “Two, Kanene has told me she intends to stay in Illinois and monitor the Children. It’s dangerous, but …”

  “But we need eyes on them, right,” Two said. “Listen, I have an idea that might help her stay out of trouble. They don’t know she’s watching, but if she stays unaccounted for, they might get cautious. When we put out the news about Peter’s death, I think we should do the same for Kanene. No one needs to see the body, right? They’ll believe the news if it comes from the council, long as she’s not around. The council can know she’s alive, but there’s no reason for anyone else to know.”

  “That’s very good,” Sasha said, nodding. “If we make it seem as though she’s passed, the Children won’t suspect she’s watching them … unless one of the remaining council members is a traitor.”

  “Doubt it,” Two said. “If any of us were, there would’ve been thugs in black jumpsuits at the door hours ago.”

  “Lewis is still a possibility,” Naomi said. “Though a remote one. I cannot imagine what he would stand to gain.”

  “We must operate under the assumption that the council is secure,” Theroen said. “We need Lewis’s people if we choose to follow this path. We were lucky to come out of Aros’s base mostly intact, but we are not in so fortunate a starting position this time. We have lost Mother Ashayt and Jakob, and each of them would be worth a great many Burilgi indeed in any sort of battle.”

  “Stephen, too, will be missed if there is fighting,” Sasha said.

  “He is missed regardless,” Naomi murmured. She was looking at the muted television, on which they could see images of the burning cathedral. “Turn it off, Theroen. I don’t want to watch it again.”

  Theroen did as she asked, and looked back at the rest of the group. “Have we found out where Lewis stands? I know he said he could build an army, but is that the path he believes we should take?”

  “I haven’t spoken with him yet,” Naomi said. “Still, I think it’s a safe bet. He would not be talking about armies if his intent was to flee. Lewis will want immediate, direct action.”

  “They can’t know we’re coming,” Two said. “If they find out we’re going to throw everything we’ve got at them, they’ll bolt. Remember how Tori vanished for two years as soon as they realized we were looking for her?”

  “If we are to attack, then you are right,” Naomi said. “It is essential to keep our knowledge of their location a secret until we’ve begun the assault.”

  “So, then, that’s the plan … right?” Two asked. “We keep it on a need-to-know basis, and the only other person who needs to know is Lewis. We get him to start putting together his people while Sasha deals with hers, and if anyone wants to know why, we say we’re doing it for security reasons. The big question is how we get them to Illinois without the Children figuring it out.”

  “Two, the big question is whether we are even doing this,” Naomi said.

  “Seriously? Are we still fighting about this? We know where they are and we know we can put the numbers together to take them on. The only real problem is how do I get in there first to talk to Tori?”

  There was a prolonged period of silence after this statement, and Two looked from face to face. It seemed that her fellow vampires were making a pointed effort to avoid her eyes.

  “I’m not leaving her,” Two said. “I think I’ve made this clear.”

  “We know you want to save her, Two,” Naomi said. “But you may have to accept that she will be a necessary casualty.”

  “I can’t do that. I just can’t.”

  “She has chosen her side. She chose it long ago and has only backed up that choice again and again.”

  “She doesn’t remember who she is!” Two cried.

  Sasha spoke up, now willing to meet Two’s gaze. “Let me ask you a question, Two. Why should I expend any thought or effort on saving that woman’s life?”

  Two found herself grasping for words, trying to find a way to answer Sasha’s question. At last she said, “You don’t understand …”

  “I understand that she is an unrepentant killer. She has assaulted our
people again and again, cut the throat of the oldest living vampire on the planet, led the attack on our very council, and murdered my fucking patron!” Sasha snarled.

  “It’s not her fault! They’ve done things to her. They’ve—”

  “So what?” Sasha asked. “What difference does that make to me? You’re trying to convince me to help you save her? I don’t understand why you think I should do anything other than hunt her down and kill her myself.”

  Now Two felt rage kindling within her, along with a sort of mute despair. This was what she had feared, and it was already happening. The council had written Tori off and condemned her to death.

  “You’re not going to do anything to her,” she said between clenched teeth.

  “I like you, Two,” Sasha said. “But I have sworn no allegiance to you. I will do as I please, and if you have any shred of sense in your head, you will stay far out of my way when the time comes for me to do it.”

  “If you touch her, Sasha, I’ll kill you. I’m not kidding.”

  “Two, stop it,” Naomi said, frowning. Sasha was looking at Two with a haughty, almost disinterested expression.

  “Perhaps you should get that out of the way right here, then, before it becomes an issue,” she said.

  “Perhaps I fucking should,” Two growled, and she left the armrest she had been perched on, standing up and facing the Ay’Araf woman. Sasha tilted her head, surprised but not afraid, and things might have escalated had Theroen not also stood and placed his hand on Two’s shoulder.

  “If it pleases the council,” he said, “I would like to speak with Two alone for a few minutes. May I request a recess?”

  “Don’t even start in on the ‘elder doling out life lessons’ shit,” Two said, and Theroen smiled a little.

  “No, Two. I am your lover, or boyfriend, or whatever you would like to call me, and I would talk to you as such. I will save the sire-to-fledgling talks for future moments when tensions are running a bit lower. Right now, I just want to talk to you as an equal. Is that acceptable?”

  Two stared at him for a moment and then nodded. “Fine. We’ll go out on the balcony – I could use some air anyway. Nothing is settled, Sasha. Don’t think that it is.”