by Lily Levi
Cain wiped the back of his mouth and spread fresh blood across his jaw.
I shifted my weight from one foot to the other. “Delicious?” I asked.
He smiled at me, baring his teeth. Blood dropped to the floor and over the dead man’s flannel shirt.
“Very good,” I said. “Now, about Serena. Do you still feel her?”
But I didn’t need to say more.
Cain’s head snapped to the left and an agitated growl rose up through his throat like a wicked animal who had been unpleasantly disturbed. He climbed to his feet and moved with his shoulders nearly ahead of him, and marched straight for the open warehouse door.
I eyed the dead warehouse worker, eager for a taste as I had been, but there was no time. I left the body and found Cain already at the bottom of the cement steps, edging towards the docks like some dark beast of prey.
I hurried forward, scanning the waters as I ran. “Do you see her?” I called out over the ocean winds. “Can you sense her?”
He bared his teeth and sniffed like a discarded dog, eager for the flesh that had been denied him for far too long. “Gone,” he growled. His large eyebrows knit themselves together like beasts of their own.
“Gone,” I repeated, hoping to draw more from him. “Did she fly away?”
Cain said nothing and we stared out over the gray water together.
The ships lay still between the waves. The clouds hung with a drab hopelessness over the sea. Nothing moved except the waves and the soaring waterfowl. If she was out there, I couldn’t see her.
I turned just as two men in yellow rubber coveralls stopped behind us.
“You lost?” asked one.
“Bit early for Halloween,” said the other, perhaps noting our long, timeworn coats.
I smiled, utterly unable to help myself. “Fashion certainly rides a steep hill to the bottom,” I said and, without a moment of hesitation, let myself lunge for his meaty throat as I caught the other by his wrist.
I dug my nails into the man’s muscled forearm and twisted him down onto the planks with my teeth in his companion’s salt-coated neck. I took in their blood-flavored cries, too low to be heard above the wind by others. But if there were others, I prayed that they would come. It had been too long and watching Cain feed on Orlando had been a mostly painful experience.
There had been nothing left of him for me to taste.
By the time I had finished with the men in their yellow coveralls, Cain was gone.
I stood and scanned the docks, cursing myself for allowing my lesser needs to overtake the only need that truly mattered, that is, until the game was won in whatever way it could be won.
I hurried forward, stomach full, and left the empty bodies on the dock.
Obscurity, the Master had preached. Move in a sort of pleasant stealth, untraced, unknown, uncanny.
But when I won the game – an inevitability with Cain at my disposal – there would be no more slinking through the shadows. Let mortal men feel fear. Let their women quake. Why hide? I would let them try their hand at ending the greatest creatures to ever stalk the earth.
My reign would mark the start of an age darker than hell. All I needed to do was to strike down Serena Moon and any of the others who would come to her aid. It would hardly be possible alone, but with Cain…
“Cain!” I called, but the only answer was a furious crashing of water much further down.
I hurried down the dock and around the short end of a warehouse sided with sheet metal.
I spotted him immediately. His black coat rose up with the waves and his muscled arms pulled him forward through the gray waters, seemingly uninhibited by the cold.
“What are you doing?” I yelled over the wind, but there was little need to ask.
Further out on the water, a small, square tugboat pulled itself away from the docks and towards the heavy, silent freighters.
I wiped my mouth of the remaining blood and unbuttoned my coat, setting it on the dock at my feet. I clenched my jaw, took one step back, and then ran forward for a headlong dive into the icy waters.
“Satan alive!” I gasped, coming back up from beneath the piercing freeze of the waves. But there was no time.
I set my arms into long strokes as did Cain ahead of me, though his speed and strength far outpaced my own. Consuming Orlando would have had its benefits, but it was impossible to tell how much of his prowess in the water could be attributed to Orlando’s blood and not his own strength.
I kicked my legs out and followed him as best as I could. If he reached the boat before me, all bets were off. Serena would be a body in the water, bones in the depths, a thing that had never happened.
The cold of the water bit into my skin, numbing my body to the thrashing waves and the movement of my own limbs. The game couldn’t end this way. Cain couldn’t kill her. He would, of course, but I couldn’t allow it.
No. I needed to kill her. If Cain won the game and the Master gave him the throne, he would ruin the world; he would tear it asunder. I would ruin it too, of course, but I would ruin it so much better. I would make it into the fresh nightmare that the Master hadn’t the foresight to do himself.
I dove beneath the waves and found that I could pull myself even faster beneath them.
Even the game was short-sighted. Kill Serena or protect her, it didn’t matter which. It meant she was alone on that tugboat because which of us would choose to protect her when killing her would be so much easier? So much more fun?
I resurfaced again. “Cain!” I cried out, cold and furious. “Return to me!” There was no better time to test the boundaries of my tenuous command over him. “Cain, return!” My skin prickled excitedly at the feeling of having called a rabid dog back to my side.
And returned.
I buoyed myself in the cold water and waited for him to pull his lumbering body back through the slicing waves.
His pale face screwed up with hate at the touch of my hand on his shoulder, but he did not resist otherwise. We floated in the cold water together and watched the tugboat pull further away from us and between the freighters.
A lithe frame moved across the deck and I recognized Theron almost instantly. He was far more intelligent than Orlando had ever been and also more dangerous, though far more patient with his hatred.
“Caution is not the strongest trait you possess,” I said, turning to Cain. “So let us practice it.” I pointed to the tugboat, rolling forward through the waves.
Cain followed the length of my arm.
“Who do you spy with your little eye?” I asked, struggling to stay afloat with the weight of my coat.
Cain was silent for a time, as though he were thinking, but that could not be.
“Ambrose,” he said at last.
Ambrose. My heart sank at the name. I had seen Theron, but not Ambrose. If I had missed him, which of the others were with them that I had not yet seen? Theron could be killed, as we should have killed him all those years ago when he was first brought to us, but Ambrose would prove a deadly challenge.
“And who else?” I asked.
But it didn’t matter who else he saw. There was only one I needed to see.
Serena Moon’s dark frame pressed itself up against the railings of the boat. She was so small, so far away, and growing further away still.
So small. So small, indeed.
Her long hair spun wildly in the wind that plummeted from across the endless sea; a dark halo from the world beneath ours.
I clawed my nails into Cain’s shoulder. “Little lamb,” I whispered, saltwater and blood on my tongue. “Run, little lamb.”
Ambrose
The modest vessel sat as snuggly as the water would allow between the two freighters; the one bound for England and the other for Colombia, though neither were scheduled to be manned and set off for another fortnight. Had no one even thought to interfere with Orlando and Serena, everything would’ve still come apart for him because fourteen days spent at a New Jersey port wait
ing for his ride home would’ve undoubtedly proven fourteen days too long.
Serena had already been tiring of him and I counted her weariness as a definitive point in her favor. I wondered what sort of ideas he would’ve cooked up for them had he not been able to find the port logs as I had. Would he have dropped the plan I’d given him and turned on a silver coin?
No. Of course not. Had Orlando not been killed, he would’ve continued on to the port and waited as I had wanted him to.
Orlando. I would not miss him, not entirely, but I would miss his unquestioning nature for what it had been worth.
“A research vessel,” said Theron. He climbed excitedly aboard the ship and helped Serena steady herself across the small chasm between the boats.
I followed.
“I saw them,” said Serena. She gripped onto the white railing with both hands. “Both in the water. They were following us and then they stopped. Why?”
“Only two?” I asked and took a spot next to her. “Pollux, no doubt.” Two was good. Two was fine. Two meant we had time. Without interference, Theron and I stood a chance against only two, though Cain had consumed Orlando and there was no knowing how much stronger it had made him. I wasn’t entirely keen to find out. Had there been a chance that I could bring him around to my way of things, then perhaps the risk could be embraced, but Cain was nothing like the others.
There was something much more dark and unreachable about him. It was a wonder that Pollux had any control over him at all.
“Pollux,” she said, tasting the name.”He’d come to me in Chicago.” She looked at me and then looked away back out over the waves.
I nodded. “Difficult to forget, though he does like to pretend that he blends in behind the rest. At least he fancies Cain enough to keep his company for that reason, though I dare say we might all blend in with the flowers were we to have Cain take the stage ahead of us.”
Serena’s brows knit together and she reached into the front of her leather jacket for a cigarette.
I lit it for her against the wind, though she didn’t ask me to do it, and she didn’t complain. Cain’s arrival had clearly shaken her and I was glad to see it. She claimed to not care and if it were true, her not-caring would make keeping her from the others all the more difficult.
But if she cared, she would listen.
It was all I needed.
“I’ve got it!” Theron cried from the vessel’s small cockpit behind us. “It’s not so complicated as others I’ve been aboard, which is good for us, but it also means it may not get us as far.”
I dropped the burnt match into the water below and scanned the rising waves for either Cain or Pollux, but neither were to be seen. “Very good,” I said, pulling out a second match to light my own cigarette.
“To London?” Serena asked, blowing out a billow of white smoke from between her lips.
“To London,” I repeated, noticing again the fine curve of her mouth and remembering how it had so fully tempted me years ago and how I had given into my lust for her. If Theron had not been there, and if I felt sure she would let me, I would’ve wasted no time in pressing my mouth to hers once more. But lust was a fickle thing.
Her eyes sharpened onto mine and cut through the haze that the smoke, her fear, and my sudden want had helped to create. “To London,” she repeated darkly. “Is that so?”
“No,” I said, straightening. “I do so enjoy throwing you around in circles.” I adjusted the front of my coat and lifted my hand in the air for Theron to see. “How long ago was it that you hunted the sirens, my dear Theron?”
Theron leaned closer to the glass between us, spoked wheel in his grasp. “Too long ago,” he said. “Are we to sail for Denmark?” Even through the glass of the cockpit I could feel how his eyes searched mine. If there was ever another creature I would have liked to trust, it was Theron.
But no one could be trusted, at least not fully.
“No,” I said. I pointed away from the port and the truest to the northeast as I could manage under the sky’s gray conditions. “Set the course for Iceland and do be quick with it.”
Serena tilted her head and a pretty frown crossed her lips. “Iceland,” she said and I could nearly taste the sweet relief in the curve of her voice around the word, though she tried to hide it.
Ignoring her, I rolled up the sleeves of my coat and set to work unfurling the heavy canvas sails. The winds were up and we would use them to our advantage until forced to use the vessel’s motor.
Serena stubbed her cigarette into the deck and stepped up to help me and Theron maneuvered us out from between the steel freighters with an expert hand.
I stepped into the cockpit beside him. “I shall put together a fleet in your name,” I said. “Each one will be named ‘The Theron’.”
He gave me a long eye that told me he knew I was lying. “If we survive,” he said. “I’ll expect a fleet. I’ll also expect you not to kill me and take my blood if the Master grants you his throne.”
I laughed. I would kill him, of course, though I detested the thought of it above all else. When the game was won - the war, as it was - there could be only one heir left, not two. Balance would always need to be found, even in the dark.
Especially in the dark.
When the land had grown small and the skies darker above us, heavy with rain, I motioned for Serena to follow me below deck.
She hesitated and so I left her where she stood. Her curiosity would force her to follow me and I was not disappointed.
“What?” she asked, bending down from the steep steps to look beneath the top deck.
I shrugged off my coat and motioned to the plastic-covered chair beside me, but she remained standing.
“I don’t want to make Theron jealous,” I said, undoing the button at the cuff of my shirt with one hand.
She stared at me. “I’m not fucking you,” she said flatly.
I laughed. “Wouldn’t dream of it. You fucked Orlando and see what happened to him.”
She crossed her arms in front of her and I couldn’t help but notice the slight downturn caused by the relaxing of the small muscles near her mouth. She hadn’t liked my answer and her disappointment thrilled me.
“Come here,” I said. I rolled the white sleeve halfway up my forearm.
She stared at me as mistrustful as she’d been in Chicago.
“You’re hardly timid,” I said. “Do come here.”
She looked up through the portway, unfolded her arms, and descended the rest of the way down the stairs. “What is it?” she asked. “What are you doing?”
I held out my uncovered arm to her.
She stared down at it.
“Bite me,” I said as though it were the most obvious thing in the world that I wanted her to do. “It’s a once-in-a-thousand-year-lifetime opportunity. Bite me, Serena.”
She frowned down at my arm and then up at me. “Is this a joke?” she asked. “Or part of your hate-filled war game?”
“Ah,” I said. “Very good. It’s not a joke and so I’m afraid that means it’s part of my hate-filled game, yes.” I licked my lips and waited for her to gnash her teeth into me. I could sense her desire at the opportunity presented to her. Anyone would’ve taken it, but Serena Moon simply stood there, wasting away the window in which my offer stood.
“I don’t trust you,” she said, eyes narrowing.
I lowered my arm. “You trusted Orlando well enough.” I tried to hide the pleasure in my voice. If she would question me on this, perhaps she had learned what little Orlando had to teach her – trust no one and take nothing until you know why it’s given.
She said nothing.
“They can sense you,” I said. “We can all sense you to some measure. I must embarrassingly admit Theron’s sense is even keener than my own, but that is neither here nor there.”
She shook her head.
“We can sense your blood, Serena. Have we not - all of us - tasted you once before?”
“More
than tasted, I’d say,” she said.
“Yes,” I said. “Precisely. You are marked in our memory. Even Cain remembers.” I held out my arm to her again. “Take it. We are entirely unattuned to each other’s blood. Except for Orlando,” I added. I hardened my gaze at her and she did not look away. “Take it, Serena. Let the scent of my blood cover yours as well as it can. We will be followed and it’s better if only two or three did the following and not ten.”
“It won’t last,” she said.
“No,” I said. “It won’t. But it’ll last long enough to cover our way for a small time and that is all we need. A small time. I’m not asking you to trust me, Serena. I’m asking you to bite me.”
She stared at me but still made no move to take what I offered.
“What’s in Iceland?” she asked. “Why are you taking me there?”
“You followed Orlando without question,” I said.
She laughed at an irony that wasn’t there. “And do you see where it got me?” she asked.
“Yes,” I said, showing her the pale underbelly of my forearm. “On a boat to Iceland. Now please take what I’m giving you before I change my mind.”
She shook her head, but just as I’d hoped, she couldn’t help herself beyond her own dark nature. She reached slowly out for my arm and didn’t break her eyes from mine until her cold lips touched my skin.
I closed my eyes.
Waiting for me behind my lids was the image of a long fir branch waved over tracks in the winter’s snow.
Iceland.
How I had loved to stalk through the ice and snow. I had worn white then, from head to toe. My skin had needed no covering and only the pupils in my eyes had stood out against the chill of the world I had loved.
And then the Master had called me and I had come, leaving my home behind. He had not forbid me from returning, but he hadn’t needed to. There had been nothing worth returning to after Brynja had died.
Until now.
It would be good to see the icy ridges and forgotten stones of home once more.
Serena
I closed my eyes. His blood trickled into my throat, tickling the sides of my parched flesh as it moved downwards into a body that could never feel full again. I took from him as gently as he’d promised to take from me all those years ago, though the difficulty of it was nearly impossible.
