I knelt down and Tiffani’s hand fell away. Without her touch, I felt cold, but I needed to see myself more clearly. The lines of the water moved and made me look blurry. I leaned forward, blowing on the water to make it stop. This was silly, I knew it wouldn’t make the water calm down, and yet, for some reason, it worked.
My face smoothed out beneath my vision so I could see the mirror image better. I gasped and covered my mouth. My face. It was wrong. Tears filled my eyes as I realized who I looked at. It was my…mom. We looked alike, everyone said so, and yet, in a lot of ways, I didn’t resemble her at all.
We shared the same red hair and pointy nose and yet on her it didn’t look so pointy. She wasn’t freckled and her face was less round than mine. Her eyes were haunted as she stared up at me from the reflection pool. I knew it was wrong. Terribly wrong. She shouldn’t be down there. It should be my reflection looking back.
I stumbled backwards before I fell onto my rear end, screaming.
Tiffani moved behind me. “Come on Rachel, we have to go. They’re coming for you.”
I shook my head, trying to speak but my mouth wouldn’t work. Tiffani ran away from me, off into the darkness across green grass like the kind I’d seen in the movies about Scotland. Above her head, the sun set.
“Rachel.”
I jerked awake, falling off the couch with a thud. Unlike in dreamland, hitting the floor awake really, really hurt. I groaned, grabbing my left elbow, which seemed to have taken the brunt of the fall.
“Are you okay?” Keith knelt by me, grabbing my arm as he pulled me up. I stumbled backwards onto the couch, still rubbing my aching elbow.
“You were really out cold. That sleeping pill did a number on you.”
Hadn’t I told him that would happen? I couldn’t clear my head and my movements were sluggish. Even rubbing my poor, beat up elbow took more effort than it should.
“I’m so slow right now, the Vampires won’t even have to try to get at me.”
Keith stood up, patting me on the head. “That’s okay. We’ll fix that right up.”
He handed me a cup of warm liquid. It smelled inviting. I gasped at the thought. What a strange thing to say about a scent.
“It’s called coffee.”
“I’ve never heard of it.”
“I know. It’s a Warrior secret. They found a way to make it in small supply in the agricultural section.” Keith walked across the room and flipped on the light. I groaned as I hid my face behind my free hand. “It has caffeine in it. Drink up. I need to get you up, feed you, and get you in front of the Council so we can convince them to let you have a traditional introductory day.”
I sipped the strange beverage. It was hot and somewhat bitter. In fact, it made me want to gag and yet the smell was so enticing I took another sip.
“Keith, I had the weirdest dream.”
“Yeah, the pill does that.”
He placed food in front of me that I thought looked like meatloaf. When I took a bite, I almost choked on the strong taste of it. I’d never been to the ‘farm,’ the agricultural part of our habitat where they kept the animals they fed us. But the adults were always worrying about grains and how they related to politics. I’d never paid attention.
Clearly, there were a number of things I should have spent more time learning about. It might still be the sleeping pill messing with my head, but I was calmer than I was before I went to sleep.
I stood, stretching my arms above my head. “What do you think my chances are?”
“Are you eating?”
I shook my head. “Keith, please don’t avoid my question.”
He sighed, and I thought he looked about ten years older than he had this morning. “Tia’s dad has been looking for Mia all day. She’s been completely missing.”
“How is that possible?”
“I have no idea, Rachel. No idea.”
“So the point is she has no clue about your earlier demonstration.”
“Listen to me, Rachel.” He walked closer to me so that we stood facing one another. “Whatever happens, even if you do get sent up there alone, you have to believe in yourself. You have to know you will survive the night. You’re Rachel Clancy. Your parents were great Warriors.”
Keith’s words made me feel uncomfortable, vulnerable, and more opened up for public viewing than I’d ever been before. I rocked back on my heels. Was that true? Were they great Warriors like Tia’s parents?
“How would you know? You weren’t here.”
“Do you know who Elise Dodge is?”
“I do.”
She was a Warrior who had lived and died in Treasure habitat in England. She took down ten Vampire groups all by herself before she went down. She was a legend before her body finished burning.
“The great Warriors are easy to know, even the ones that don’t live here. Genesis has a reputation. It’s why I wanted to come here and crossed an ocean to do so.”
I tried to digest this. Either his words or the meatloaf was making my stomach turn. “You knew about my parents?”
“I knew about your father.”
I took a moment to let that news sink in. He knew about my father? The drunken man I had to peel off the floor every day? It was hard to reconcile that idea with the one I lived with daily. How much of what happened before I was born should matter in my life?
“If you’re not going to eat, shall we go?”
He extended a hand to me, and I took it, feeling the warmth of his skin against mine. It was no secret I’d never had a dad I could count on. But, I’d had men who had tried to be there for me. I had Keith. I’d had Patrick Lyons. I was lucky.
Tears filled my eyes, and I brushed them away. “For whatever it’s worth, thank you for trying.”
He squeezed my hand, but didn’t speak. We walked together, hand-in-hand, teacher and student, pseudo-father and tainted daughter of a lost legend, to my destiny. Whatever it was going to be.
A sense of peace overtook me as we approached the Council room. Keith let go of my hand before knocking on the door.
“Don’t slouch,” he whispered. “No matter what happens, you stand straight.”
Keith’s words made me acutely aware of my posture. I did have a tendency to stand with my shoulders rounded. I think it came from being taller than all the other girls I hung around with. But, I realized as I stood there, it made me seem unsure. The Council was going to have no trouble believing I was an unprepared Warrior.
Did I want to be thought of that way?
“Okay.”
I knew I could do it. I could stand straight. I could fight as well as most of my classmates. I could get through this. I could survive. I didn’t want to be the girl Mia Sandry had to be convinced was incompetent.
“Keith.” He looked up as I said his name. “Don’t do it. Don’t tell them I’m bad. If they’re going to send me up there alone, they’re going to do it. I don’t want to feel pathetic. I don’t want the story to be that we tried to stop it. Elise took down all of those Vampires. You traveled across an ocean and a continent.” It was hard for me, but I kept going. “Tia’s father keeps our perimeter safe. If this is it, I’m going down with glory. My father screwed up our name, our reputation. I can bring it back to us.”
As I spoke, Keith’s gaze changed. He’d looked despondent, worried. My words did something to him. I wasn’t a mind reader, I couldn’t know exactly what Keith thought. But it struck me that I’d just made him proud. I smiled at that idea. I’d wanted to make proud him for so long. It fit that at this moment, I could achieve one of my goals. It made sense.
“You’re from a family of Warriors. Whatever his flaws are, they’re not yours. You are one of us, and you have always been.”
The giant wooden doors, which separated the meeting room that determined all of our futures from the rest of the compound, swung open. On the other side waited the seven people who got to say what my future would hold.
Tia’s father stepped out, his expressi
on unreadable. “Keith, the vote was four to three. You stay out here.”
Keith ran a hand through his hair. “I’ve always been allowed inside for the decisions.”
“Not tonight.”
Keith grabbed Patrick’s arm. “Is it done then? Does he have all the votes? Should we not bother with the pretense?”
“I have no idea. None.”
“It’s okay, guys.”
I stepped into the room without turning back. They could decide what happened to me. I could decide how I reacted to it.
Keith said I was a Warrior. As of tonight, I would behave like one.
My back was straight.
Chapter Four
The door clanged shut behind me, taking all my newfound confidence with it. The room felt like a tomb. Well, I’d never been in a tomb, but I’d heard that expression somewhere. It seemed applicable.
Of course, I wasn’t sure if tombs were red-bricked conference rooms. Still, the mood from the people at the long table in front of me was somber enough for a funeral.
I dug my fingernails into my hand, keeping my back straight even as my steps faltered.
Tia’s dad took his seat, smiling at me as he did. I think this was meant to booster my confidence, but I was past any kind of external help. It was going to have to come from inside of me, or not at all.
The people I’d been informed were already on my side, John and Raj, flanked him on both sides. Raj was tall, thin, and dark with piercing brown eyes. I sort of knew his wife, Cindy. They lived on the same block as the Lyons. Occasionally, Tia and I would babysit for their twin five-year-old daughters. The girls were cute, and I liked the family. They never made snide remarks about my father or treated me like I was anything other than a normal teenager, like Tia.
I had never met, or even see, John Cohen before. He couldn’t fight anymore. Not since he and Tia’s father had taken on a Vampire Kiss—a collection of Vampires living and hunting together—all by themselves. They’d won their battle. Patrick had walked away unscathed, carrying John over his shoulder. Even with the best rehab he could get in the habitats, John walked with a cane. The story had been in the paper when it happened. I had sat up at nights wondering if I’d end my days that way, limping.
To my left, I could see a grey, steel cane leaning against the wall. A strange thought filled my mind, and I bit down on my lip as it passed through. That cane, whatever else it might be, was a weapon. I could pick it up and use it to get myself out of here if I needed to. I swallowed away the tart anxiety that thought provoked.
How long have I been doing that?
Every time I entered a place I hadn’t been before, I immediately identified all the things in the room I could use to defend myself. I supposed, for the line of work I had been chosen for, that technique was a good thing. Still, it was disconcerting, and I wished I had some time to actually dwell on the implications.
On the other side of the table, which was more a podium than a table, sat a woman I didn’t recognize, who must be Mia Sandry, and Liam and Noah Icahn. Liam regarded me with distant green eyes. They were the Icahn green eyes. The papers loved to refer to the family that way. The Icahn eyes, the Icahn handshake, the Icahn maneuvers. As if every member of the family did exactly the same thing or moved as one unit instead of individuals. Noah was less imposing than Liam. He slouched in his chair, his hand on his chin as he scratched the side of his face in an absentminded gesture, which made me wonder if he was thinking about what was going on here.
I had to fight the urge to rush forward and haul him over the table to shout, “You mind paying attention? We’re here to discuss a topic of life and death. My life and death.”
I blinked at my thoughts. I wasn’t usually so aggressive. What was happening to me? There was no time for introspection. I had to focus on the here and now.
Mia, the woman who had my fate in her hands, was small and dark-haired. She wore her hair in a severe bob with equally severe bangs covering her forehead. High cheekbones accentuated her long nose, and she’d painted her lips a dark shade of red. She wore all black and seemed to have stepped off the pages of a gothic novel I’d once read at Tia’s house. The word ‘witch’ came to my mind and goose bumps traveled over my skin. Apparently, I wasn’t too old to be terrified of children’s tales.
In the middle of the group sat eighty year old Dr. Isaac Icahn himself. For the habitats, where most people died in their sixties, he was ancient. A living legend amongst us, he’d had the foresight to design and build the habitats, using his own fortune to create them. He’d led humanity when we would have fallen. He’d given of himself time and again to better all our lives.
And now he wanted me dead.
For years, I’d envisioned my end. My death always seemed to be pain filled at the hands of a bloodsucker. I knew, however, that it was this man, the one who we all regarded so highly, who had chosen to bring this upon me, was almost more than I could take. It was just so…wrong.
Tia’s father spoke, drawing my attention. “Hello, Rachel. Welcome to the Council this evening.”
I knew the words I was supposed to say. Keith had driven them in our heads every Friday since we advanced to his class. “Hello, Council members. My name is Rachel Clancy. Today is my sixteenth birthday. I come to discover how I might best serve you, my habitat, and humanity.”
I liked the ritual of saying the words. I hadn’t realized I would. In the fuss of this whole nightmare, I hadn’t stopped to think I would finally get to utter that phrase and, to be honest, I hadn’t thought I wanted to utter it at all. It turned out that I did. It was funny, and I found myself smiling about it. How is it possible that I knew myself so little?
I want to be a Warrior.
Even the thought felt weird as it tickled my brain. All this time I’d been afraid, and now faced with the reality of it, I wasn’t. Apparently I was brave. I could have sprouted wings and flown from the delight of it. My emotions were ping-ponging all over the place. I wasn’t sure if it was the caffeine or the terror doing it.
“Hello, Rachel.” Dr. Icahn spoke, and I turned my gaze to him. “We welcome you to the Council tonight. Patrick was just telling us of some of your troubles in class.”
Well, here we were. The moment of truth. “Troubles, sir?”
The living legend arched his grey eyebrow at me. “According to reports today, you failed rather badly in a test given to you by Keith Endover.”
“It was a test I was meant to fail. Keith often gives us lessons like that to challenge us, to teach us how to behave in adverse situations.” I was incredibly proud of the vocabulary I was pulling out. Another few minutes and I might have to resort to some angst-ridden drivel, but for the moment, I could make my teachers proud.
Dr. Icahn looked confused. He arched back in his chair as he looked at Patrick Lyons. “What do you say about this new development, Patrick? Are you still going to push to keep the girl from completing a mission?”
“I never suggested she couldn’t complete a mission, Dr. Icahn. I merely stated she be given a mission more appropriate to her personal abilities.”
“What are your abilities?” The squeaky, high-pitched voice of Mia Sandry made me jump. Somehow, and I’m not sure why, I hadn’t expected her to speak. I guess I had this idea she would sort of pop up at the end of the discussion having listened silently the whole time. Or at least that’s how it had gone in my head. But as I had to relearn over and over again, real life didn’t go like it did in my personal script.
“I think I’m a good Initiate. I think I’m as capable as most of the group. There are some much better than me.” Like Tia. “And some who are really much worse. My own abilities fall somewhere in the middle.”
“An honest answer.” She nodded as if I’d confirmed something for her.
I spoke to the whole group. “You can all see my reports. They get sent to you, right?”
“They do, Rachel, they do,” Patrick answered. I couldn’t make out what he was thinking or
what he wanted me to do. Usually at his home, he was so open, like a book I could read. Now, since I didn’t have him guiding me, I was going to have to navigate this situation all on my own.
“May I say something off topic for a moment, please?”
Liam Icahn shifted in his seat. “It is highly unusual for a sixteen year old Warrior to speak at these proceedings other than to follow protocol.”
“I know. I’m familiar with the protocol. I’m asking for special permission.”
Dr. Icahn looked at his son and spoke. “I have no issue with the young woman speaking.”
“Thank you, sir.” I swallowed. I was afraid, but the fear wasn’t as potent an emotion as the resolve that made me want to move forward. I could feel the steel determination I needed traveling through my bloodstream.
“Dr. Icahn, I want to say thank you to you, sir, for saving all of us forty-six years ago. I know I wouldn’t be here if you hadn’t. We would have all perished without your help.”
He seemed startled by my speech. Clearly, he’d not been expecting it. I hadn’t really anticipated saying it. But, I needed to talk from my heart. I needed to know I had done everything I could do. That was the best I was capable of.
“Um…” Dr. Icahn cleared his throat. Instead of looking imposing to me, he just looked old. My Dad had pictures of his father hanging on the walls. My grandfather had managed to save my father from the monsters on Armageddon day. They’d lived, just the two of them, until my grandfather passed away from the lung sickness three years before I was born. Back then the habitats didn’t have as good control over their air filtration systems. A lot of people succumbed to lung diseases, being underground and living with the reprocessed air.
Dr. Icahn reminded me of Granddad’s pictures, frail and falling apart but with steel resolve in his eyes that said his body might fail him but his mind never would. I couldn’t think of anything more commendable. My father had let his mind go. Not that I wanted to admire the man who wanted me dead. No. Only I couldn’t help feeling respect for him for fighting as long as he could, for living as long as he had.
The Warrior Page 4
