by Megan Parker
Stopping beside a large boulder, he smirked and laid his hand against its jagged surface.
Serena raised an eyebrow. “My father built a rock?”
Zoey was unable to stifle her laughter as Zane’s face sagged. When her bout of hysteria had died down to something more manageable, she gave Zane an apologetic—albeit insincere—look.
“Not just any rock, Serena!” she smiled as her aura emerged and wrapped around the boulder, lifting it and moving it several feet to one side, “A rock that hid the entrance to a reserve base!”
Serena frowned, noticing a perfectly-squared section of the ground that sunk in slightly. As she watched, Zane kicked some of the excess soil from its surface and, in doing so, uncovering a metal grate. Crouching down, Zane pried open a panel and revealed a keypad like the one Serena had seen him use in the clan’s elevator to access their base. Following the pattern he had before, the grate soon groaned as something on the other side shifted and allowed him to pull it open.
“My father built a second base in a hole?” Serena frowned, peeking over his shoulder at the tunnel that stretched beyond her range of vision into the depths. She frowned, noticing a series of polished metal rungs that served as a ladder for anybody crazy enough to want to go in, “Couldn’t he have at least put an elevator or something in this one?”
Zane shook his head, “It was hard enough to build this without being noticed. Too much construction would’ve gotten unwanted attention, so we had to skimp on a few of the more luxurious accommodations.” He sneered up at her, “So I’m afraid your royal Jacuzzi will have to wait.”
“Or I can just cut you open and have me a Bathory moment!” Serena stuck her tongue out!
Zoey laughed again.
Zane divided his glare between the two of them, “Are you done yet?”
Serena chuckled, “Far from it, grouchy-pants, but I think I’ll save the rest for when I’ve seen just what it is my father built that you’re so defensive about.” Though she tried her best not to show it, a lump formed in her gut as she stepped pass Zane and started to descend the ladder into the artificially lit tunnel. Zane growled, the sound echoing past Serena and making her all the more proud of being the cause of it. “Aren’t you coming? After your lovely description I’d imagine you’d be more excited to hunker down in your precious hole in the ground!” She heard Zane grumble something inaudible and it was a moment before she realized he was talking to Zoey. “What was that?”
“Nothing! Now hurry up!” Zane started after her as the others followed.
“He said he wishes he could lay you in a hole in the ground!” Zoey laughed, stepping in last and pulling the grate shut behind her, lingered a moment as her aura reached out. Serena frowned, confused, and cringed as the boulder that had been hiding the entrance was dragged back into place.
“I didn’t say lay her! I said put her in a hole! As in six-feet unde—”
Zoey giggled, “Not how I heard it.”
Isaac growled, “Can we move a little faster? Some of us aren’t used to small places!”
Zane nodded, looking glad to have something else to focus on, and motioned for Serena to continue.
“Zoey, get Isaac and his pack mates some fresh clothes while I get the other generators running. We don’t have too many rooms, so we’ll have to pair up and decide where everyone’s sleeping.” Zane instructed.
Nodding, Zoey motioned for Isaac and the others to follow as she started down one of four corridors that shot off from the circular lobby that the ladder had led them into. A series of fluorescent lighting fixtures adorned the ceiling and the tunnels, and Serena took these in with a frown.
“Who turned on the lights?”
Zane led her down one of the other tunnels, “I did. When I opened the door one of our smaller generators turned on to provide enough light until we could manually turn on the others.”
“Others?”
Zane nodded, “Mmhm. This whole place runs on energy provided by a bunch of generators. Most of them are like giant, magic batteries—ones that were charged with power from some of Vail’s aurics and store that power until we need it. But, as I’d said, your dad was always prepared with a plan-B. So he also put in a set of generators that store solar energy.”
Serena cocked an eyebrow, “Are you serious? Solar energy?”
“Yea yea, I thought it was ironic, too.” He chuckled, “Creatures of darkness going green and using the sun for power and whatnot. But, in the long run, it was the best way to ensure that we’d have a reserve if the auric batteries died out.”
“The auric batteries can die?”
Zane nodded as he stepped up to a series of consoles and began turning on the monitors, “Sure they can. Everything dies eventually. Leave a battery out too long and the energy begins to fade. It might take hundreds and hundreds of years for it to happen, but we were never sure when or even if we’d have to use this place.”
Serena shook her head, “So what was my father’s plan if the sun died?”
“If the sun died”—he gave her a condescending look—“then we wouldn’t be having his conversation.”
“Oh…” Serena blushed, “Right.”
As the control center came to life, Zane began toggling switches and typing commands. Taking this in for as long as she could manage, Serena soon became bored and turned away from him to explore the room.
“Wouldn’t have killed the old man to put a little color in this place.” She sneered, taking in the solid-white walls and ceiling—still illuminated by the just-as-white fluorescent lights—and a floor that seemed to be made of a single piece of cold, lifeless rock that reflected the light above it along its dull-gray surface.
“I think you’re missing the point of why this is here.” Zane sighed as a final keystroke was applied and the whirring of activity began.
Startled by the noise, Serena whimpered as the lights dimmed to nearly nothing before flashing brighter than before and leveling out once again. “Wh-what the—”
Zane took her quaking shoulders into his palms to steady her nerves, “It’s fine, princess! That was just the power shifting to the other generators. Everything should be up and running now.”
She blushed, biting her lip at both her reaction and Zane’s touch and she nodded, shrugging free of his hands. “Does this place have running water? I’d like to take a shower.”
Zane frowned and nodded, “Yea. We used preexisting sewer systems to avoid the hassle of putting in new plumbing and tapped a public water main that runs beneath the park. The boiler still needs to heat up, so it might be a little bit before we have hot water.”
“At this point I don’t care,” Serena laughed, “Just as long as I know that I’ll be able to wash this ash out of my hair!”
Though she shouldn’t have been surprised by outcome of the group’s pairing, she was nevertheless taken back when she discovered she’d be sharing a room with Zane. Even more alarming was the realization that she wasn’t opposed to the situation.
As it turned out, a “limited” number of rooms turned out to be a dozen—the hall that Zoey had led the group down earlier forking off into two others which had six rooms sectioned each—and this meant that, between the group of 26 vampires and therions, every room was occupied by two—and in two of the more “fortunate” rooms, three—irritated Mythos.
Serena scoffed and shook her head as she rinsed the shampoo from her hair for the fourth time. Given all the facts, she found herself playfully calculating how long it would be before a fight broke out between their haphazard group.
Except for Isaac and Zoey, of course, who had all but leapt at the chance to share a room. While Serena was sure they were at each other’s throats, she was also sure that neither of them minded.
Chuckling at the sheer calamity of the whole mess, she grabbed the shampoo bottle to begin her fifth lathering. A dime-sized bead of the viscous, amber fluid landed in her palm before it choked out its last drop and made an obscene noise. “
Fuck!” she sighed. No matter how many times she scrubbed and rinsed she felt hidden under a film of soot and grime. Giving her body one final rinse before deciding that nothing short of a fire hose would do the job; she turned off the water and stepped out of the shower.
At least she had a room attached to a private bathroom.
She rolled her eyes; the perks of bunking with her father’s favorite warrior.
The towels, like the bathroom—like the halls and like every square-goddam-foot of their underground safe-haven—were white. Cursing at the bleached prison, she violently snatched one of them up and began to dry; doing everything in her power to sully the immaculate cloth’s surface and failing miserably.
Perhaps Keith wouldn’t have to kill her, after all, since she would probably have a seizure when she was once again introduced to any color that was rapidly becoming a distant memory in her mind.
She smirked at the idea of ripping Zane’s throat open and putting a little red on the walls.
And then regretted it just as fast as she’d humored it.
What the hell was happening to her?
Slipping into a pair of sweat pants and a tank-top that Zane had given her, she tied back her hair and stepped out into the room.
Crossing the threshold, she shivered at the change in temperature and took a moment to adjust as she looked over to find Zane hunched over a desk in the corner of the room. Though everything—every-goddam-thing—was evenly lit by the all-seeing fluorescents, something in his features seemed shadowed and, as a result, aggressive. His gaze, locked between his palms, which lay flat on the table’s surface and shivered intermittently, seemed to be wilder and less focused than usual.
“Zane?” her voice came out as a whisper, though she hadn’t intended it to. He whipped his head towards her; his mismatched eyes flashing with the intensity and rage that she’d come to expect from his beast-state. She frowned and forced herself to take a step towards him. Even with all his strength and all the danger he wielded, she couldn’t bring herself to blame him for any of it. She knew he was tortured; tormented by whatever it was those tattoos were put on him for. “It’s okay. It’s going to be alright.” She walked over towards him; her bare arms tingling as her flesh tightened and left goose-bumps. Slowly, trying not to startle him, she placed her left hand on his shoulder and began to absorb some of his excess energy in an attempt to calm him.
Feeling the sudden drain, Zane’s eyes became tired and half-lidded as his body and aura started to lose their tension. She could tell he was trying to relax—could see enough into his mind to watch him regain enough focus to begin counteracting the effects of his rage—and he began clenching and unclenching his fists repeatedly. When he reopened his eyes, they were a dimmer gold, looking suddenly tired and worn-out, and looked up at her face.
“S-sorry…” his speech was slurred from exhaustion.
Serena shook her head and slowly pulled her hand away, “Don’t be. I know it’s not your—”
“It’s… it’s anger. My anger. Mine! Not the damn curse’s; MINE!” His body tensed and went rigid as his aura flared and he snarled from the second wave of anger. Serena started to reach for him but he shook his head, forcing his eyes shut and inhaling sharply and continuing to clench and unclench his fists until he’d relaxed again; this time seeming even more drained from the process. “Th-they saw it; saw the real me and used it as a trigger. They booby-trapped my own anger to cause this...” he spoke, his voice coming out more of a growl and he forced an exhale and shook his head, “I couldn’t control it to begin with. But now… now the damn thing knows. It sees a way out and it’s doing all it can to do just that.” He looked up at her, his eyes sad and pleading. “I… I can actually feel it in my head, lurking about and trying to find the right triggers to push me over the edge. And… and I’m starting to want it; I actually want to let it out… but I don’t know if those are my thoughts or its. And I can’t help but wonder, wh-who the fuck am I anymore?”
She frowned and leaned over to him. She wanted to help him, to make him feel at peace just as much as she did with him. “It’s okay. I’m here for you, Zane, and I still know who you are,” she said softly, offering him a smile, “Who you really are.”
Zane frowned, shaking his head, “Why should you care?”
Serena bit her lip, kneeling down, “Because I do!”
“Hardly!” he scoffed, “I heard you and your ghost—your lover, right?—heard you talking about me!” He shook his head as his long, unkempt dark hair shook more in his face. “We’re not right, right? That’s what you said! What you told him!” he forced himself to relax again and groaned as his head rolled about on his shoulders, “Don’t pretend to care about me just to make me feel better. It’ll only piss me off more.”
She frowned, freezing her grip as she watched the emotions cave into his face as he confessed hearing Devon and her conversation. And while she remembered saying the words, she couldn’t recall if she’d ever believed them. She bit her lip. Was she falling for Zane? Could she actually get over Devon, even with him still haunting her? She had sworn to be faithful—had even been ready to marry Devon—but what did that mean now? Looking into Zane’s golden eyes, she suddenly felt like everything was right. There was no more doubt or panic at not knowing what was coming, because she at least knew that he wouldn’t let her face it alone.
And she found herself forgetting…
She nodded, “I… I did say that, but I—”
No! Stop it, Serena! Devon pulled away from her, using her aura to build his mock-body as he always had before; hollow and translucent and trapped in her aura because neither of them was ready to let go of the other. She couldn’t even remember what it was like to not have him attached to her auric field. And now he was pulling at her; using more energy than he ever had before in an effort to pull her away from Zane. You’re mine! Mine! His voice bellowed in her head and the dresser on the other side of the room began to shake.
She cried out, gripping her head and dropping to her knees as Devon howled and pulled at her, “N-no! Devon… please! I can’t… I can’t keep… don’t make me…”
Zane’s eyes flashed again and a deep growl emitted from his throat as his aura began to shift from blue-to-red, his eyes widening momentarily before narrowing in on Devon.
He could see him?
“Get away from her! Leave her alone, you clingy bastard! Can’t you see you’re hurting her?” Zane yelled.
Devon whipped and writhed in rage at the accusation and Zane’s hair shifted from the force, We were fine until you showed up, monster! We were together and we were happy and—
“Happy? Sitting alone in some shit-hole in the woods with nobody but a ghost to keep her company? And a pussy of a ghost, at that! You think she was happy like that?”
“Zane...Devon...” Serena whimpered and turned to Devon, growing more uncertain.
No! I won’t let it end like this! I’m doing what I should have done in the beginning! Devon flew at Zane, beginning to tear free of Serena’s purple aura and disappearing for a moment before emerging once again in Zane’s; her ghostly lover now bathed in scarlet as he struggled to take control of Zane’s body.
Zane growled, fighting back Devon’s advances as he steadily lost more and more of himself to the invasion. As Zane’s life began to drain from his eyes and Devon’s force began to occupy them, the body began to shake with violent spasms.
“Devon! Get out of him now! This isn’t the right way to do it!” Serena cried out, taking Zane’s shoulders and shaking him.
“Too late.” Zane’s eyes shifted and glassed over as Devon took control. As Serena watched, the last auric tendril receded back into the body as he finished.
“Z-Zane?” Serena frowned, stepping back, “I didn’t… where? Where is he? Where is his aura?” She began to shake, feeling cold and alone and, worst of all, whole. The part of her aura that Devon had occupied for all those years had been returned to her, and the new sense of st
rength was overwhelming.
“Serena!” Zane’s voice seemed different with Devon using it, “I did it! I got him!” he looked at his new hands and examined his face, beginning to laugh excitedly as he confirmed his success, “I’m… I’m back! I have a—”
“How could you do this?” she screamed at him, “You knew this wasn’t the way! You knew this was wrong! It wasn’t supposed to be like this!”
Devon stepped towards her, his motions clunky and uncoordinated in his new body, “Don’t you see? Now you don’t have to choose between him and me! You can have me in his body!” he smiled, but it looked foreign and wrong on Zane’s face, “It can be like we always wanted!”
“I never wanted this! You’ve… you’ve killed him! I can’t even see a trace of him left! We were never supposed to steal a body, Devon!” she sobbed, shaking her head.
He frowned and stared in disbelief, “Were you… did you actually feel something for him? Something past just this body? I thought—”
“You thought wrong!” she hissed, glaring at him through tear-filled eyes. “You’ve been dead too long, Devon! You aren’t like you were! You never would’ve done this before! You might be Devon’s aura… but you’re not him! Not anymore!”
He sneered, shaking his head angrily, “You… you’re lying! You betrayed me! You said ‘forever’! You promised…” he flinched and looked down at his arm as the tattoos began to glow, “What? What is this? Who are—” he shook and dropped to his knees, whimpering as his aura began to inflate and shine brighter than before; the red becoming so massive and overwhelming that the entire room looked like it was bathed in blood. His body continued to shake at the aura’s epicenter as swirls of new color—new aura—began to writhe through the calamity. “H-HOW ARE YOU…” he clutched his head and whimpered before twitching violently and snarling. “You’re not welcome in me either, you phantom fuck!” The body lurched forward with a tremor as its joints began to break and shift with start of the transformation and the bright, pained eyes locked on Serena as Zane’s voice—Zane’s real voice—came through:
