In Black We Trust

by J. C. Andrijeski

  A bare second later, the blond removed his hand, and Brick let out a low gasp.

  It was the first sound I’d heard out of him through the whole procedure.

  It also made me realize Brick had been holding his breath.

  Even so, the tolerance for pain, given what the blond had been doing to him, unnerved me.

  The blond vampire was fingering something in his palm, frowning.

  He brought it over to Black, showing it to him, his hand and the object completely covered in blood.

  “Is this it?” the blond said.

  Black looked down at it, his eyes still out of focus from using his sight.

  “Yes,” he said. “That’s it.”

  The blond didn’t wait.

  Curling his fingers around the tracker, he wound up and threw it out into the lake.

  I was watching the whole time; I saw the exact direction where he threw it, but I didn’t see a splash. He must have thrown it a hell of a long way.

  “That’ll buy us some time,” Black said grimly. “But not much.”

  Brick was already buttoning up the dress shirt, wincing as he straightened, but clearly not intending to do anything about the gaping hole the blond vampire left in his back. For the first time, I noticed how little blood there was, compared to how much a human would have bled, if the same type of impromptu “operation” had been performed on them.

  Even so, Brick looked paler than I’d ever seen him.

  He shouldered on his jacket over the shirt, giving me a faint wink when he caught me looking at him.

  I was still staring at the dark-haired vampire, every muscle in my body tense, when he raised his fingers to his ear, touching an earpiece I hadn’t known he wore.

  “We need immediate pick up,” he said, presumably speaking into the microphone. He winked at me a second time. “Do you have my location, dearest?”

  There was a silence.

  Brick looked around at all of us, his crystal irises as empty as glass.

  “No, a few more of us than that, I’m afraid.” Turning, he lifted an eyebrow, that time at Black. He gave him a wry smile. “We have company, Apolline my darling. You’d better send at least five. I’m assuming the others will try to make their way up by land.”

  Biting my lip, I looked sharply at Black.

  I continued to stare at him, my mouth a hard line.

  It was one thing to help them get rid of a tracker that might kill us all. It even made sense to me that he might have done it as a gesture of goodwill, in the hopes of getting information we needed before we all parted ways.

  It was a whole other thing to follow Brick into his damned vampire nest.

  No, Black, I sent.

  Black looked only at Brick, his eyes coolly appraising.

  BLACK, I sent, louder. Absolutely not. No.

  Seeing the immovability of his face, my light flared in protest, swimming into his. Apart from a twitch in the long muscle of his cheek, Black’s focus didn’t change.

  “Oh,” Brick added into his earpiece. “And they’re the non-blood-drinking variety of guest, Apolline, so you might need to send someone to the human store, pick up some supplies so we can make our new friends comfortable––”

  “Black,” I said, out loud that time. “No.”

  He glanced at me, frowning faintly.

  I could already feel what his decision would be, though.

  BRICK’S “PEOPLE” PICKED us up at the banks of the same lake a few minutes later.

  I counted seven boats, all air-powered by those big fans I associated with swamp boats, and all of them looking more or less new––or well-maintained at least. They got as close to the swampy shore as they could, and we waded out to fill them up, one by one.

  The vampires, including Brick, all got into the first boat, maybe to reassure us they wouldn’t spread out and try to pick us off one by one on our way to wherever it was Brick was taking us.

  Whatever their reasoning, I was acutely aware of the one vampire piloting the boat Black, me, Nick, Cowboy, Angel, Manny, Lawless and Lex climbed on board of. Easton, Dog, Devin and Frank waded out next and got on with us, once they realized we still had room.

  I glanced over at the immigrant seers as they waded out to the next air-boat.

  When I did, I met Dalejem’s gaze briefly.

  Don’t turn your backs on them, Jem, I warned him. Not even for a second. They’re really fast, and strong as hell. We’re also a delicacy to them, so they’ll definitely want to feed on you. Their venom will affect your mind. And you can’t read them. Not unless they bite you… and then they can read you, too.

  I tried to think what else I could tell him.

  I realized we hadn’t told the newcomer seers much of anything about vampires.

  They needed to get up to speed, fast, if they wanted to stay alive.

  It’s okay, Jem assured me. You’re right… a primer would be ideal. But for now, we might know enough. Your Uncle Charles was eloquent on the topic.

  Turning, I frowned.

  We met gazes.

  In the end, I only nodded.

  Let us know if any of you feels anything that concerns you, I sent. Anything at all. I mean it, Jem. Even if you think you’re imagining it. They can be clever as hell.

  I felt a flicker of acknowledgment from the green-eyed seer.

  Within seconds, I felt corresponding flickers from Yarli, Holo, Raven, Jax and Mika, and realized all of them had been listening to us speak.

  It struck me, not for the first time, that this group was better at reading, blocking and other assorted psychic powers than most of the seers I’d met here so far, apart from maybe Black himself.

  No wonder Charles was so hell-bent on recruiting them.

  From next to me, Black grunted, glancing at the immigrants himself.

  Yeah, he sent. They’re all trained infiltrators. Every damned one of them. Even the young ones, like that seer Jax. And Holo. They’ve all got pretty extensive combat experience, too.

  At what must have been a puzzled look from me, his mouth turned grim.

  Infiltration was a job category back on Old Earth. I’m guessing I need to tell you more about it now, since it’s a skill set we’ll all need to improve.

  He motioned vaguely with a hand.

  You already know some of it, doc. Like I told you before, it means they were militarily trained to use their psychic abilities. On Old Earth, technically, infiltrators could only legally work for human governments and human oversight bodies of various kinds. Some corporations were able to obtain permits to use them legally, but not many, and it was generally defense contractors.

  His mouth twisted in a scowl.

  In reality, of course, there was a massive black market for infiltration, in both the human and seer worlds. Organized crime, both the human and seer varieties, had virtual armies of militarized seers working for them. There were a lot of freelancers, too.

  Frowning faintly at the immigrants, he added,

  I pick up a ton of military with this group. Recent, too. I suspect that war they mentioned was going on for a while. All of them feel like they have recent time in the trenches, but some have experience that goes back centuries.

  He glanced at me, his mouth pursed.

  Especially your buddy, “Jem.” That guy feels like Adhipan to me.

  Again, I opened my mouth, about to ask.

  Black answered before I could.

  Like a seer’s version of special ops, he explained. They were an elite force back on Old Earth. Seer recruited and trained, they didn’t work for humans at all. They worked for the seer government back before First Contact, and before the humans nearly wiped our kind out.

  Scowling back in Jem’s direction, he gripped me tighter by the waist.

  They were considered the best of the best. It’s said they were chosen at birth, based on their potential sight scores, trained in caves in secret… kind of like warrior monks. They were practically a myth during my time,
but I came across a few during one of my military ops with those terrorists I told you about.

  He nodded towards Jem.

  …They all felt like him.

  I followed his gaze to Jem, interested in spite of myself.

  Feeling Black’s reaction to my stare, I glanced back at him, then took his other hand, pulling it against my side. I felt him relax––exhale, at least. I also felt him thinking about our conversation, what we’d just been talking about, turning it over in his head.

  I also felt a fainter flicker of his irritation and jealousy that I still spoke to Jem more than the rest of them.

  I didn’t bother to comment on the last part.

  You’re trying to decide how to use him, I sent, amused.

  Black glanced at me, quirking an eyebrow.

  All of them, actually, he sent. Not just your new boyfriend.

  At my eye roll and frown, he went on before I could speak.

  I’m thinking you’re right. We need them. Scowling a little, he added, You were right about something else. I should have spent more time with them. It’s too late now––we’ll just have to try and get them up to speed as we go. But it was stupid not to work with them when I had the chance.

  I nodded, suppressing my faint smile.

  I was still smiling when I turned, glancing behind us.

  My smile faded when I caught the crystal, lifeless eyes of our vampire pilot staring at me. He peered at me out from under a wide-brimmed hat, wearing a long-sleeved shirt buttoned up to his neck and down to his wrists. He also wore baggy pants, boots, and gloves.

  Holding my gaze, expressionless, he nodded towards the rows of benches stacked before him in slightly elevated tiers.

  For the first time, I realized all of us were standing in the front part of the boat.

  “Get your people to sit,” the vampire said, when I still hadn’t moved.

  His voice was as flat as his affect.

  Glancing around, Black noticed the interaction between me and the vampire and frowned.

  He motioned for the rest of our group to find a bench.

  “You heard the man,” he said, gruff. “Sit your asses down, so we can go.”

  I noticed no one really wanted to sit at the very back, near the elevated seat of our pilot. In the end, Nick was the first to venture onto that last bench, followed by Angel, Cowboy, Easton, Dog, and Frank. All of them but Dog held guns in their laps, and sat sideways so they wouldn’t have their backs to the vampire.

  I can’t say I blamed them.

  The vampire pilot fired up the fan, catching hold of the wheel.

  Turning the boat around slowly, he realigned our trajectory, which had drifted somewhat in the pause. Once he had, he began following the airboat in front of us.

  Neither airboat headed back out into the lake.

  Instead they traveled south, taking us into a tributary, and deeper into the swamp.

  I guessed that was at least partly to keep us under cover among the trees and vines. I noticed the airboat in front of us had already pulled out its retractable canopy, likely to give the vampires on board further protection from the sun.

  I continued to hear explosions behind us intermittently for at least the first twenty or so minutes we were traveling away from the shore of that lake.

  I couldn’t help wondering what happened to Jackson’s sister and her kids. I’d seen Jackson himself get on the boat behind the one filled with immigrant seers, along with some of the Native kids, Tomás, and others who looked like locals.

  I wondered how many vampires would get wiped out in this purge.

  I wondered why Brick hadn’t seemed overly concerned about that fact while we stood on the shore of that lake.

  After about an hour, my mind was more or less spinning into circles.

  It hit me just how tired I was, how little sleep I’d gotten.

  I found myself leaning into Black’s side and partway into his lap as the droning of the airboat’s fan went on behind us. I felt Black urging me to rest, reassuring me with his light that it would be all right, that he’d keep me safe if I wanted to take a nap.

  Eventually, despite the tension and worry that vibrated my skin, I found my light responding, letting go of Jackson’s sister and the vampire driving the boat, and the thought of alligators and cottonmouths and being hit by missiles or drones from the same government I’d once taken a vow to protect.

  Soon all that was left was the droning of the airboat’s engine.

  I felt Black above me, his mind still moving in strange geometrical spaces high above my head. I watched him move chess pieces around in a distant fascination, even heard him talking to Jem and the others once or twice.

  All of it seemed to be happening far away, though––too far away for me to make out specific words, or make much sense of the pictures I saw flashing through different parts of Black’s mind––much less the places or pieces on the chessboard itself.

  I felt flickers of his emotions, though.

  I felt that grief there again.

  I felt his worry about where he was taking all of us.

  I felt that worry center on me a few times––a worry that turned into a near-paralysis as he sifted through possible scenarios, possible ways all of this could go wrong.

  I don’t know when I actually fell asleep.

  I just know when I opened my eyes next, it was dark out.

  I was still curled up in Black’s lap, but my arms were wrapped around his legs, as if I’d been trying to hold him in place, even in sleep. Instead of leaning on his shoulder, I had my head in his lap, my cheek resting on his thigh.

  I could hear cicadas all around us, and frogs in the dark waters by the boat.

  It was then that I realized the engine of the air-boat had been switched off.

  We were stopped.

  16

  NEW ORLEANS

  THE AIRBOAT WAS parked at a small dock.

  It was a significantly smaller, more run-down and water-damaged dock than the one I remembered on the outskirts of Lafitte.

  It was also almost completely green with moss.

  More moss hung from the trees on the shore on either side of the narrow canal. The moss and tree trunks receded into the dark on both sides; I didn’t see any kind of road or structure behind them, at least not in the immediate distance.

  Black nudged me gently with his hands as the others began to disembark in front of us, starting at the back end of the boat, near where the vampire pilot still perched on his elevated seat.

  The vampire itself just sat there, his pale eyes catching light from some distant source as he watched all of us leave the boat with flickering glances. He still wore his wide-brimmed hat, long-sleeved shirt, and gloves, even though it was dark out now.

  I sat up, fighting to clear my head.

  I fought with the basics first, wondering where we were.

  New Orleans, Black murmured inside my mind. The outskirts, at least.

  He rose smoothly to his feet, gripping my hand as he led me to the edge of the boat, then onto the green-tinged dock. One light stood at the end of the small wooden platform, orange in color and so choked by a cloud of insects it didn’t offer illumination much past the end of the boat’s bow and the edge of the dock itself.

  Somehow, the sound of the insects and frogs made it feel strangely silent––maybe because I couldn’t hear much of anything else.

  It was humid too, so much so I realized I had a film of sweat on my face, and that my shirt stuck to my back and chest.

  The vampire pilot was in front of us somehow now.

  He led us up the short, rickety pier and away from the small tributary and onto drier land. I saw more orange-tinted lights now that we were on higher ground, and realized a small parking lot stood there, along with a wooden structure that looked like a bait shop.

  The bait shop and attached coffee stand were clearly closed for the night.

  None of us spoke, we just followed the vampire wordl
essly as he led us to the parking lot. We were just entering the next set of lights on the path when that I saw a line of cars pull into the parking lot from a narrow road that must lead out of here.

  All of the cars appeared to be brand new, black Lincoln town cars with tinted windows..

  That’s when I noticed the vampires.

  They walked out of the shadows of the trees near the bait shop as soon as the line of cars appeared. I saw doors opened by drivers wearing chauffeur uniforms, then vampires slide into the back of the first Lincoln town car without so much as a glance.

  Brick and Dorian were two of them, I noticed.

  Glancing behind me, I realized that more of our people were already heading up a different lit path from what must be a second dock. I saw the immigrant seers among them, along with the teenager, Magic, and some of Black’s employees from San Francisco.

  I was still standing there, waiting for the rest of our group, I guess, when more of our people appeared on the same path where we’d come from. I watched as they all walked towards the row of cars silently, and entered those cars, one by one, when Black directed them that way.

  I saw Jem give me and Black a glance, a nod, and a near-grimace, right before he climbed into the back seat of the third car in the lineup.

  Then, presumably because our group was all more or less accounted for, Black led me towards the fourth of those cars, gripping my hand even more firmly in his.

  We climbed inside that car when the chauffeur opened the back door, with Cowboy, Angel and Nick right behind us––and still, none of us spoke.

  The ride into New Orleans was nearly silent, too.

  I was more aware of Black’s mind moving, shifting over me as he fought to hide his nerves. I considered asking him questions, then decided it could all wait.

  We were here now. I wasn’t sure how much strategizing we could do at this point anyway, given how little we knew about what and who would be waiting for us on the other side of this ride.

  He’s honorable, in his own way, Black murmured to me.

  I looked away from where I’d been peering out the window at the buildings of the French Quarter, looking up at the hanging flowers and lit windows of the upper balconies and wooden shuttered windows.