The Warrior

by Rebecca Royce

  Just then my ‘other’ sense, the one that told me monsters were near, triggered a violent response. I doubled over, my knees hitting the ground first. One second later, I fell forward catching myself with my hands.

  Deacon grabbed me, hauling me to my feet as Keith and Patrick surrounded me. A chorus of ‘are you okay’ and ‘what’s going on’ sounded in my ears.

  I closed my eyes. This was too much. It hadn’t been this bad in the Vampire lair. What was different now?

  I wrenched my eyes open. “Vampires. There are Vampires nearby. A lot of them.”

  “I’m not getting signaled.” Keith looked around, turning in a full circle. “Patrick?”

  Tia’s father shook his head. “Nothing.”

  “She’s going to be more sensitive because she survived the attack. I’ve seen this before. Those marks are like personal Vampire locators.” Deacon pulled me closer up against him. My legs didn’t want to work, and I couldn’t support my own weight. “She’s like the Cassandra of the Vampires. If you live through the initial attack, the Vampires put you to death. That’s how it works in the cages. They don’t want that much alertness to their presence. Makes it impossible for them to sneak around.”

  Keith nodded, squeezing my shoulder. “We’ve had our own experience with this, but I’m ashamed to admit we always thought the person’s brain was damaged by the experience.”

  “What a waste. You people fight these things. You would think you would want every advantage possible.”

  “Don’t fight.” I squeezed his shoulder. “We need to run.”

  Keith shook his head. “We don’t run, Rachel.”

  “Ah…yes we do. We run when there are this many coming. We run while we still have the chance.”

  “Yeah.” Deacon laughed. “I’m with the redhead.”

  He swung me over his shoulder. It didn’t seem to be as easy a move for Deacon as it had been for Jason.

  Keith swore. I don’t think I’d ever heard him use words like that before. Still, he moved forward fast. “Where are we running to?”

  “The house where Jason and I spent the night isn’t far. I’ll also be able to show you where the Vampires are underground. We’ll take care of both problems at once.”

  Deacon squeezed my leg. “Which way?”

  I pointed. “Run in that direction.”

  He did as I said, and I was relieved to see that Keith and Patrick didn’t argue. If I had to be crazy and have this even weirder ability to scent the Vampires earlier, the very least I could do was save our collective butts.

  When we got to the house ten minutes later, Deacon was winded. I couldn’t blame him. He’d run far and hard without my help. The pain had lessoned somewhat, and I’d offered to get down and run myself. The guys hadn’t liked that idea. Something about me slowing them down.

  I guess it served Deacon right if he was tired now.

  We entered the house where Jason and I had spent the night, and the pain lessoned. Deacon set me down on the ground and after initially stumbling around, I found my footing.

  I didn’t want to even imagine how many Vampires there must have been out there to have had that effect on me. We’d run through what was left of the snow. Clearly, my body adjusted pretty well to the new onslaught of weather I faced.

  “Let me ask you guys a question.”

  Keith turned around. He’d been staring at the ceiling of the house, looking at the exposed piping and the insulation hanging down over our head. “Sure, Rachel. What’s up?”

  I followed his gaze upwards to what he looked at. “It’s pretty cool, isn’t it?”

  He smiled. “It is. Kind of hard for me to imagine that people lived here. I know it shouldn’t be. I suppose it makes more sense than having human beings live underground like moles but, what can I say, I grew up in a habitat.”

  Patrick rounded the corner. “Me, too. I grew up below ground. Does your father remember living in a house?”

  “No, he pretty much drank away his early years some time ago.”

  Patrick sighed. “That’s a shame.”

  “Jason remembered it.”

  “Ah, yes.” Patrick shook his head. “The Werewolf stayed eight years old for thirty-six years. He would remember, wouldn’t he?”

  I chose to ignore the sneer in Patrick’s voice. Standing up for Jason was the equivalent of banging my head against the wall. They weren’t going to understand. Maybe ever. And I had to be okay with that. I had to be able to live with my decision knowing everyone I had ever cared about thought it was wrong.

  In theory, this should be no problem. Love conquers all and that stuff. But, man oh man, this was hard on me. Every time they made a remark, it felt like they killed my joy a little.

  “Anyway, the question I wanted to ask....”

  Deacon came back into the hall. “Question?”

  Keith narrowed his gaze at Deacon. “Where did you go?”

  “Upstairs. They have this cool room. Well, they’re all cool. I’ve never been in a house before. Some of the old people used to talk about them, and I wanted to see this thing called an attic. Apparently, there is always cool stuff stored in attics.” He rubbed his nose. “Except this one was empty.”

  “Okay.” If my tone was less than pleasant, I couldn’t help it. I’d been trying to ask this question for five minutes. “Do you think—and I know this is going to sound self-centered—”

  Deacon interrupted. “I like self-centered.”

  I actually grr'ed at him. I couldn’t remember ever making that sound before.

  “Go on, Rachel.” Keith grinned.

  “Do you think it’s possible Icahn sent that massive number of Vampires—and I mean massive because I’ve never felt anything so intense before—specifically after me?”

  The room was silent. Not one of the three men I’d arrived with had anything to say. They stared at me in the darkness of the empty house, and I wished I had kept my mouth shut.

  Finally, Patrick spoke. “I don’t think it’s beyond the realm of possibility to think Icahn would have some revenge in mind for you. He was—how should I put this—rather obsessed with you. But, we just ran him out of Genesis. How could he possibly have had time to form a Vampire army to come after you?”

  I nodded. What Patrick said made sense. And yet…

  ***

  We spent most of the night in the basement. I could feel the Vampires beneath us. The others couldn’t, but they didn’t doubt me.

  Deacon walked across the room. “One thing is for sure. They don’t know we’re up here. That concrete foundation beneath us is doing a good job of keeping us hidden.”

  So I’d been right, Jason and I hadn’t needed to run away that night through the snow. Except I never would have been able to convince him of that. He’d been so preoccupied with keeping me safe. I smiled at the memory. It had been just a few days ago, and it already felt far away.

  Was he wondering where I was? Did he miss me?

  Patrick turned to Deacon. “How can you be sure they don’t know we’re up here?”

  “They’re lazy down there. I never thought about it in those terms until Rachel voiced it, but she’s right. The Vampires down there don’t have to work too hard. I think there are two types of Vampires. The ones who come up and go hunting for all of you, and the ones who prefer to get their blood easily from humans in the cages.”

  Patrick closed his eyes. “We have to get those people out.”

  Keith nodded. “Top priority.”

  A shiver travelled up my spine. “Guys…”

  Keith jumped to attention. “I felt it, too.”

  Deacon looked between us. “What?”

  I whispered, “Vampire.”

  “Ah…yes, there are a ton of them below us. We already determined that.”

  “No,” Patrick’s tone was one of exasperation, “above us.”

  We all looked at the stairs. Keith put his hand in front of his mouth to tell us to be quiet. I wasn’t sure about D
eacon but I had no intention of speaking. None at all. Keith walked to the basement stairs and pointed upwards. He wanted us to follow. I started to move and then stopped.

  I pulled a stake off my leg and handed it to Deacon. I wasn’t sure if he hadn’t gotten a Warrior signal about the Vampire or he hadn’t known he had. You had to be trained to recognize what happened to you when the monsters were near.

  He looked down at the wooden device and then back up at me. Finally, he smiled as he held the stake like I’d given him the best toy in the world. If we’d been allowed to make noise, I would have yelled at him for handling it so carelessly. He needed to hold onto that thing like it was his lifeline.

  Patrick must have noticed. He came up behind Deacon and readjusted his grip on the stake. Deacon nodded and Patrick continued his walk up the stairs. There was something so surreal about this, I wasn’t one hundred percent sure it was happening.

  What was I doing back in this house? What was I doing with these people at this particular time? It felt important, like the whole world was shifting as we waited to see what would happen next. Was it one Vampire or many? It felt like one, but maybe my senses were off. Ten could feel like one. Who knew? If I was getting signals that indicated thousands of Vampires, could I still be counted on to know what a single Vamp felt like?

  One step at a time we climbed, each of us silently trying to watch how much noise we made. One creak too many and the things would be on us faster than we could blink. But, hopefully, it was a small number and this time I wasn’t alone.

  Keith rounded the corner and I heard a loud hiss. I caught my breath. I knew he had engaged the Vampire.

  “Five,” he called back to us, “there are five of them.”

  He sounded amazingly calm, not even stressed, and that made me nervous. I might have preferred it if Keith had at least seemed disturbed by finding five Vampires. That might have made my own terror a little less lonely.

  Patrick rushed forward.

  I was next.

  As soon as I came around the corner, it would be on. I blinked. I’d fought them before. I was a Warrior, and even if Isaac Icahn had created the program for nefarious reasons, we were still capable of getting the job done.

  I looked back at Deacon. “Stay back here. You’ve never fought them. Don’t make now the first time you start.”

  He laughed, a loud hard sound. “I’ve fought them, sweetheart. I’ve been fighting them since I was a toddler. I just didn’t have your pretty toys to do it.”

  I would deal with that ‘sweetheart’ later.

  I whirled around before I leapt into the fight. Keith fought one on one against a Vampire. It hissed and snarled at him. One thing had changed since I’d last fought them. Their appearance no longer made me want to scream like a baby. I’d gotten used to seeing their red-veined face and snake-like tongues.

  Even the pointy end of their clawed hands didn’t cause me much of an issue. I’d survived it once. If it got me again, I would again.

  I jumped on the back of one of the Vampires. He literally didn’t see me coming. He fell to the floor, me still on top of him. I plunged my stake into his back, hoping I’d correctly estimated the location of the heart. I was right. He groaned and died.

  I jumped up. Who was next? Keith had his well taken care of. Another few seconds, he’d have him staked. And, I was pleasantly surprised to see that Deacon had kicked his Vampire across the room. I could see now why they had shoved him in a cage instead of sending him off to work or to breed.

  Patrick, however, looked like he could use a little help. Two of the Vampires were taking him on at the same time. I wasn’t surprised. If the Vamps knew us at all, and I had every reason to think they now did, thanks to Icahn, they knew Patrick was maybe the greatest Warrior who ever lived.

  I watched him in awe. He easily ducked away from one Vampire while kicking the other one over. I’m sure he could easily have handled it himself. But I kind of wanted to help. How often was I going to get to work with the legend? This was my last time with the Warriors before I left.

  I grabbed the Vampire Patrick had kicked over and plunged my stake through his heart. He made the same groan as the others before his eyes went blank beneath me. I pulled the stake out of his chest and looked around.

  Patrick had taken down the final Vampire. We stood silently; all of us looking at each other in post-fight euphoria that I knew wouldn’t last.

  This was what it would have been like. If I’d been allowed to go up with the Ones and Twos. If Icahn hadn’t had it out for me. If I hadn’t had my journey Upwards all by myself, this is what it would have been like.

  And then I never would have known. About any of it.

  As I stood there, watching the faces of three men, I’d come to respect so much over a lifetime and just a few days, I knew I would never forget this moment for as long as I lived.

  If I was lucky enough to see grey hair appear on my head, I would still be able to remember exactly how I felt at this point in time.

  Triumphant. Yes, we’d only bested five Vampires, but they’d been tough Vampires, not the weak ones from down below. We’d done it together in the darkness of a house where people had lived their lives years before I’d ever been conceived.

  And, somehow, I was better for having done it.

  “You guys,” my voice shook, “I have to go. I’m running out of time.”

  Keith looked up at the ceiling. “You have to tell me where you’re going. I won’t stop you—as you’ve pointed out I can’t stop you—I just need to know where you’re going so I can find you if I need to.”

  “No, we won’t be there very long. I’m sure Andon is going to move the pack.”

  “Rachel.” Keith extended his hand in a pleading gesture. “Do me the small favor of telling me the coordinates on the map. I’ll do my very best to stay away and not show up there to haul you back home.”

  I raised an eyebrow. “Your very best?”

  “I can’t make any promises. You feel like family to all of us.”

  They felt like family, too. And that’s why I told them the coordinates.

  Chapter Twenty

  I walked through the woods feeling less afraid than the first time I’d ventured out on my own. As the sun came up, I pushed my new pair of sunglasses onto my face that Tiffani had supplied me with, and let myself enjoy how pretty the snow looked on the branches, covering the whole place in winter wonderland glamour.

  The Vampires would be in bed now. Well, the ones who hunted on the surface. I didn’t know what happened to the others that lived below ground. Could they be up all day?

  I had no idea. I hoped I never needed to know the answer. I was going to live with the wolves—the good ones—and if I was lucky, I would never have to fight the Vamps again. I’d delivered my message, finished my task, and in a few minutes I would be arriving at their camp with still three days to spare.

  My insides warmed at the thought of seeing Jason. Maybe he’d be asleep, and I could wake him. Maybe he’d be up pacing, waiting for me. I grinned at both images. So what? I was a romantic and I was happy to be returning to my boyfriend.

  With a song in my soul, I rounded the corner. The tents should be up ahead.

  Except they weren’t.

  My heart sped up as I walked forward. Had I screwed up the location? I pulled my map out of my pocket and looked at it. No, I was correct. This was where I was supposed to be.

  This was where the tents had been.

  In fact, I could see the clearing in front of me where they had stood. Patches of ground not covered by snow were a certain indication of their former presence there.

  “Hello!” I screamed out in the distance knowing no one would be there to answer.

  They’d left. They’d picked up their stuff and they’d left without me.

  No. No. No. This wasn’t acceptable. They weren’t supposed to have done this. Maybe they didn’t. I bit down on my lip. Maybe they’d left me a clue. Jason would have do
ne that. He would have left me something to find out where they’d gone. I ran to the clearing looking all around.

  The only things I could see were twigs and branches. Nothing. Not one physical reminder that the pack had ever been here at all. I was such a pathetic investigator I couldn’t even tell how long they’d been gone.

  I squatted down and looked at the dirt on the ground.

  Okay.

  There had to be a solution to this.

  He wouldn’t leave me.

  No way.

  He’d be back.

  I would wait.

  I sat down on the dirt, not caring that the ground was cold. It was dirt and not snow because the tents had covered them so recently, the snow had not had time to fall where the tent had been. That had to mean something.

  They’d be back. Sometime in the next three days, Jason or another pack member, would come back to pick me up.

  They knew I was supposed to come.

  They wanted me to.

  I didn’t move a muscle as I sat in the dirt hardly breathing because of my fear of the pain. If I let myself breathe, if I let myself think, if I let myself blink an eyelash, then the pain would start.

  And this pain I couldn’t survive.

  Physical pain? Yes. This? Absolutely not.

  This was why I held myself back. This was why I never said those words to anyone but Jason. This was why it was stupid, stupid, stupid to let yourself care too much about anyone.

  They die. They get drunk and forget to feed you. They have their own families and occasions there are endless reminders that you don’t quite belong. They leave you—after you’ve been through hell to get back to them—sitting in the dirt in the woods.

  Oh no. There I’d done it. I’d started thinking about it, and just like I’d imagined it would, the pain hit me like a sledgehammer on my chest.