Darkest Hour

by Rob Cornell

  Simple, he said. You’re tired.

  Not for the first time, Jessie wished she could see him, that he was actually flesh instead of merely another consciousness occupying her body. She would have decked him in the nose. Of course, then he might stop telling her how to use her power.

  I don’t have time to be tired.

  He laughed softly. She could sense his presence in front of her. He had closed the distance between their minds. When he spoke again she could smell his breath. It reminded her of the freezer in the basement back when her life was normal, even before Mom had married Alec, the werewolf spy. Mom would buy fresh meat from the butcher in Hamtramck and freeze it. Gabriel’s breath smelled like that first whiff Jessie would get when she opened the freezer to fetch steaks for Mom.

  Magic isn’t infinite. You’re young. Even with the extra power from your vampiric state, you still have limits.

  So what? You’re telling me there’s nothing we can do? We’re going to die?

  He sighed long and hard. Do you really think I would let your father’s stupidity end my existence?

  So you have an idea?

  Yes, dear. I have an idea. But it means hurting one of your companions.

  Jessie’s invisible stomach clenched. The smell of frozen beef or pork loin wafted around her psychic self. What do you mean?

  He chuckled softly. You’ll need to draw blood.

  I have blood all over my face. I can use that.

  No, he said, his voice creaking like an old chair. This has to be blood you are emotionally tied to. Remember, in magic, blood is a symbol of power. It isn’t the actual power itself.

  So making someone I like bleed is a symbol? Not really a symbol I want to carry.

  The only way you’ll get more power is if you reach a darker part of yourself. Causing pain is the easiest way there. Causing pain of a loved one is even better.

  His voice had taken on a wet, slurpy sound. If she could see him, she imagined he would be foaming at the mouth about now.

  Why do I think you’re bullshitting me?

  Right now, it is not in my best interest to play games. We have only fifteen seconds before we’re likely to die.

  Fifteen? It was twenty seconds at least thirty seconds ago.

  Time goes slower in the depths of your mind. After all, this whole conversation is made of thoughts alone. Thoughts move much faster than the outside world.

  Made sense, she guessed. Small comfort, though. Once she pulled out of her mind, those fifteen seconds would tick by like seconds always did—too quickly by far.

  Fine, she said (or thought). I draw blood from my dad, say. Everything else works the same.

  Not the same. So…much…better…

  He said the last words as if he were in mid-orgasm. So gross. Good thing she didn’t need him anymore. She shot up through her mind, like a dolphin charging the surface of the water to launch in an arc through the air. Her eyes snapped open just as one of the wolves hammered against the van.

  This time the steering wheel slid through Teresa’s grip. The van lurched to one side. The tires keened as they scraped the pavement going sideways. Jessie felt the van begin to tip. At the speed they were going this van was going to roll and shake the four of them up inside like ice cubes in a blender.

  She reached out and grabbed Craig’s arm, dug her nails in as hard and deep as she could, which was pretty hard since she was a vampire.

  He cried out and gaped at her in surprise.

  Somehow the van righted itself and slammed back down onto all four wheels. Teresa wrangled with the steering wheel, gained control of the van, but they had lost all momentum. The wolves overtook them. One leapt up onto the hood and pawed at the glass in front of Teresa’s face. Another leapt at the shattered window above the side door. It managed to get its front paws hooked inside and its head through the opening, but the window was too small to fit the rest of the oversized wolf.

  The wolf in the window growled at Jessie, his jaws close enough that she could feel its hot, moist breath.

  Clutching her dad’s arm, she felt his blood well up around her fingers. She pushed out her free hand at the wolf and shouted, “Back.”

  As if yanked by an invisible cord, the wolf shot away from the van and through the plate glass window of a drycleaner.

  The feel of her dad’s hand over hers drew her attention back to him. He was trying to pry her hand off without success. In fact, the more he struggled, the more strength Jessie felt, and the harder her grip became.

  “What are you doing?” he asked with pleading in his eyes.

  She opened her mouth, but before she could speak the van came to a jerking halt and sent her sliding off the seat and onto the van floor. She had such a vicious grip on her dad’s arm she ripped loose a hunk of flesh.

  He shouted, nearly coming out of his seat as well, but he bounced off the back of the driver’s seat instead. He clapped his hand over the tear in his arm. His eyes watered.

  Seeing him in pain made Jessie feel awful. It also made her feel even more powerful.

  She got her feet under her and came to a crouched position behind the center console between the driver’s and front passenger’s seats. This gave her a view out the windshield of what had caused Teresa to stop the van. Four of the wolves had managed to circle the van after they lost speed and they now stood in a line across the street like a furry roadblock. The fifth wolf still stood on the van’s hood and had done a fair job of cracking up the windshield in front of Teresa. The safety glass had turned an ocean blue from the amount of cracks with a single, wolf paw-sized hole in the center of the damage.

  Teresa had her pistol out. She fired through the hole, but the wolf had anticipated the attack and jumped away right before she started shooting.

  Jessie lifted her left hand—the one she had hurt her dad with—and noticed the bloody patch of flesh still clutched in her fingers. The smell of electricity rose around her as if she had stepped into a storm cloud with lightning about to strike. Her father’s flesh began to sizzle and pop like bacon in a fry pan. Her stomach turned even while that sense of power swelled inside of her.

  I told you, Gabriel whispered in her consciousness. So…much…better…

  She squeezed her father’s flesh, an instinctive move she would have never made consciously. Her gorge rose, bile hot and sour in the back of her throat. The flesh melted in her hand. Then her hand seemed to absorb the viscous mess. A sound like a vibrating wire filled Jessie’s ears.

  Outside, the wolves formed a growling half-circle around the front of the van. Any second now they would rush the vehicle and claw their way in. From there it wouldn’t take much longer to make a meal out of the four passengers.

  “No,” Jessie said under her breath.

  Adam, Teresa, and her dad shouted back and forth among one another. Jessie barely heard them. Her dad tried to say something to her, too. Jessie ignored him. That buzzing in her ears made it difficult to hear much of anything.

  Once Jessie had absorbed her father’s flesh and blood, she flung open the side door and stepped out onto the street.

  “What the hell are you doing?” her dad screamed at her.

  He had to know. He had to have seen what had happened to the chunk of him she’d torn off. He was in denial. Had been since she awoke as a vampire those months ago—felt like a million years. He’d have to get with it now. Have to stop asking her stupid questions that he already knew the answer to. He would have to grow the fuck up.

  All these thoughts traipsed through her mind as casual as if she had decided on a midnight stroll in the park and not out to face off with five werewolves.

  They saw her come out and rearranged their formation to circle around the side of the van. They snarled and growled at her. She wondered if they could smell the power on her because while they had her surrounded, none of them made a move toward her.

  “I’ll give you guys one chance to run home and leave us alone,” Jessie said. Her voice sound
ed funny to her, as if there was another voice matching hers, speaking the same words at the same exact time with the same exact tone. She thought she even recognized the voice.

  The wolves didn’t retreat at her warning, but they didn’t attack either. The kept growling, barking, snarling. A great show, but Jessie didn’t feel the least bit afraid.

  She looked down at her left hand. All the flesh and blood was gone and her skin glowed from within as if her bones were made of light. She held out this hand to the wolves as she would to a tame dog for a friendly sniff.

  The wolves didn’t have to come close to smell her. A couple began to whimper when they caught her scent. The other three backed away, but continued to bare their teeth and give off the occasional threatening snort.

  “Go,” she (and the other voice) said.

  The whimpering wolves tucked their tails between their legs and ran off into the night. The remaining three seemed to get a second brave wind. They scooted closer, growled, and showed more teeth.

  Jessie twisted her outstretched hand palm out and splayed her fingers. The light in her hand intensified. Her every moved came from pure instinct now. She had no idea what she would do next, nor what would happen when she did it.

  So…much…better…

  When she clenched her teeth, that was her own doing. But when she next spoke, it came from the power that controlled her, and it came only in the other voice.

  In Gabriel’s voice.

  “Ex in adveho sicco.”

  Not her voice, not even her language, but she knew what it meant, knew it was Latin for From in comes out. Didn’t have a clue what that was supposed to mean, though. At least not until she saw what happened next.

  Chapter Five

  With a last high pitched yelp from each of them, the three wolves took on a whole different form.

  It took a moment for Jessie to decipher what she was looking at. The twitching organs, the quivering arteries, and the raw, red flesh didn’t make any sense. The sight was too removed from any real thing she had seen in her life. When it finally dawned on her, she bent at the waist and threw up between her feet.

  They’re inside-out. Oh, Christ, I turned them inside out. And they’re still alive.

  Gabriel chortled in her ear as if he had somehow gotten outside of her and now crouched beside her while she puked blood onto the street.

  She scampered away from the sound, but when she looked, saw no one.

  The deformed wolves continued to pulse and jerk.

  Her dad climbed out of the car, taking in the sight with eyes as big as headlights. He had a hand clamped over where Jessie had hurt him. Runnels of blood leaked out between his fingers. When he turned to her, the look in his eyes said everything—disgust, fear, hate.

  Jessie doubted he would ever want to include her in another mission. Hell, he might even exile her. Send her back to Mom, as if Mom would stick around after one glimpse of Jessie’s new self.

  Adam climbed out of the van behind her dad. The ogre’s green face was pinched, as if the sight of what Jessie had done physically hurt him. He whispered something under his breath. Jessie heard enough to know it wasn’t in English.

  When Teresa came around the front of the van from the driver’s side she didn’t look half as surprised as her dad or Adam. Her mouth formed a straight line. Her cold eyes seemed to bore into Jessie like a drill bit made of ice. Teresa shook her head and curled her lip.

  “I’ve been right about you all along,” she said.

  Jessie opened her mouth to defend herself, but found her throat too dry to speak.

  Teresa took a couple steps forward. She held something at her side that Jessie hadn’t noticed before. Something black. It didn’t look like a gun. Yet the way Teresa kept it low and close to her side gave Jessie the impression it was some kind of weapon.

  But weapons, for the most part, didn’t work on Jessie. Teresa knew this. What did she think she would accomplish by hurting Jessie? Did she think Jessie wouldn’t fight back? If so, the woman had another thing coming.

  Her dad moved in between them and faced Teresa, blocking her way. The move surprised Jessie. The way he had looked at her, if anything, she thought he would help Teresa do whatever it was she had planned to hurt Jessie.

  “We don’t have time for this,” he said.

  Teresa spat air. “We don’t have time to spare. Look at what she’s done. I thought the exploding was awful. But this?” She pointed at the misshapen knots of flesh and organs. “This is the kind of thing we expect from our enemies.”

  Craig glanced at the inside-out werewolves. He sighed, nodded, and stepped out of the way. As Teresa closed the distance between her and Jessie, Craig looked at Jessie with his familiar stoicism. That face said he was being professional, not letting his feelings get in the way of the mission. Jessie knew it was bullshit. She’d seen the compassionate side of her father. Knew that despite all his training, he still carried a caring human being inside of his shell.

  She also knew that didn’t matter. Because once he had a leash on that softer side of his nature, he didn’t let go.

  Jessie made a face at him. “You can be such a prick sometimes.”

  Teresa closed within a couple feet of Jessie. “Where did this power come from?”

  “You think you can hurt me with whatever’s in your hand? Didn’t you see the wolves with their silver cross?”

  Teresa raised the device she held so Jessie could see it. She still didn’t know what it was, though. It was not much bigger than an old-fashion cell phone, the kind you used to have to unfold to use and that had a retractable antenna. But the device had no antennae and didn’t look like any part of it flipped open. On one end there was a pair of metal knobs, like two silver molars. A rocker switch was built into the side. Other than that, the device looked like a harmless brick of plastic.

  “You’ve probably never seen one of these before,” Teresa said.

  “Bummer.”

  The corners of Teresa’s eyes tightened, deepening the first hints of crow’s feet. “This was invented by an intruder. A gremlin of all things. Little twitchy creature usually responsible for destroying gadgets had actually invented one.”

  Jessie had long since given up her surprise at the introduction of any new supernatural creature she had previously thought fictional. But the notion of gremlins literally screwing with mortal technology sparked an ember of amusement. It made her think of the movie. “These gremlins,” she said. “Do they multiply in water?”

  “Quit the jokes,” Craig said. “This is serious.”

  The wolves had stopped twitching and now lay still and steaming in the cool night. The iron smell of blood rolled off the remains pretty strongly. Though some of that scent may have come from her lovely vampire vomit. She could have gone a while longer without learning a vamp’s dinner looked pretty much the same coming out as it did going in.

  A police siren whined in the distance. To Jessie’s sensitive ears, it sounded a ways off, which meant the others probably couldn’t hear it yet. “The police are heading in,” she said. “Shouldn’t we head home already?”

  Teresa turned the device so that the metal knobs pointed at Jessie. “Where are you getting your power?”

  “Seriously? You want to do this now?”

  “How did you learn to do these things? To kill like this?”

  “First of all, I didn’t learn to kill anything. I just know how to focus the power and get some kind of…result.” Jessie waved a hand at the werewolf remains. “I didn’t mean to do that. That’s just how it happened.”

  Adam muttered something under his breath again and dragged his big hand down over his face. His eyes shined in the moonlight as if he had tears in them. No. Not as if. Those were tears.

  Why was the huge ogre crying over a few werewolves? Jessie’s stomach clenched at the idea she was responsible for those tears.

  Teresa, on the other hand, kept her stare as cold and blank as ever. “Are you telling us yo
u aren’t the one controlling your mojo?”

  “I’m telling you…I’m not telling you anything.” Jessie turned to Adam. “I’m sorry. I was trying to help. I didn’t want to upset you.”

  Adam cocked his head and gazed at some point beyond her without speaking.

  Jessie looked to her dad. “What else was I supposed to do? Let the wolves kill us?”

  Craig crossed his arms, said nothing.

  Teresa jabbed the device into Jessie’s sternum, pushing the metal part hard against her breast bone. Then she thumbed the rocker switch.

  The whole world lit up. The sky, the clouds, the buildings around them, all seemed to turn into pure light. A thousand watts of pain crackled through Jessie’s body. She couldn’t tell her hand from her head. Everything just hurt. Her body shook. Foam curdled from her mouth and she felt it run down her chin.

  Then it stopped.

  The world had taken back the darkness. Everything looked the same as it had. No blinding light. The pain lingered, but at least now she could differentiate the parts of her body, could feel things besides the pain alone.

  Her limbs went weak and she collapsed to the ground. She wiped the drool off her mouth with the back of her hand and tried to stop the mewling sound coming from the back of her throat. Control yourself. Don’t let the bitch know she hurt you.

  A stupid thought. She had foamed at the mouth and fallen to the ground. Of course Teresa knew she had hurt Jessie. The question was how?

  Jessie craned her neck back so she could look up at Teresa looming over her. “What did you do to me?”

  “Think of it as a Taser, tailor made for supernatural creatures.”

  “How?”

  “Like I said. A gremlin invented this. I have no idea how it works. I just know that it works. Good enough for me.”

  The disgust for this woman never felt stronger within Jessie. She knew Teresa hated her ever since the vampire king had turned Jessie into one of them. And Jessie had never begrudged Teresa for that hatred. Even though Jessie had all but brought the woman back to life, and had only been able to do that because she was a vampire.