Creature Discomforts (Descendants)

by Peterson, Jenny

  It was Willem. She couldn’t get the whole encounter with him out of her mind. It was a horrible combination of humiliation and confusion. It had been nearly a week since the peculiar vampire had escaped into the tunnels, yet the questions around him lingered: What was this greater evil, this beast of old? And what did it have to do with Willem’s collection?

  Even worse, every time she and Sid had tried to make any sense of it all, Sid had very carefully not breathed a word of how Rachel had come to be locked in the cage of a tacky vampire with a love of velvet. That was even worse than him teasing. To think that he was so embarrassed for Rachel made her skin crawl and her stomach churn.

  Rachel closed her eyes and silently listed every capital of Western Europe. Then she refocused on her biological anthropology final exam and started writing.

  An hour later, she found Sid and Kendra laying in the shade of an old oak at the edge of a courtyard. Rachel dropped her bag and collapsed to the grass, throwing an arm over her head. She was done. Her first year of college was done. Her insides coiled with both relief and trepidation.

  “Finals went well?” Sid asked, all sweetness and light.

  Rachel peered at him from under her arm. She wished he’d start teasing again. This new softhearted Sid had her on edge.

  Next to Sid, Kendra looked up from a musty old book open on her lap and toed at Rachel’s elbow. “Heard from Daphne yet?”

  Rachel had called her mom as soon as they got back to Saint Etienne and told her of the encounter with Willem—glossing over the whole “your daughter got crazy drunk and made out with a vampire” thing—and Daphne had rushed off the phone after learning of the greater evil and beast of old Willem had gone on about.

  The thing was, so far they’d found nothing in any texts detailing a specific demon using those terms. Demons, the most dangerous ones anyway, weren’t exactly modest. None proclaimed themselves middling or passable. It was always “most terrifying” this and “supreme demon” that.

  “Not a word from Mom yet,” Rachel said. “Anything in that histoire?”

  Kendra shut the book, dropped it next to the Corpus, and stretched out on the grass between Rachel and Sid. “Well, I found an account of a water gremlin who called itself the greatest evil, but it was bagged by an eight year old girl in 1872.”

  Rachel rolled over in the grass and picked absently at a blade. Her brain felt a bit like an empty teacup with just the dregs left clinging to the bottom. “So freshman year,” she said, her eyes still focused on the verdant lawn rolling out under her and across the yard to a fountain. A group of girls sat around the edge with their feet in the water.

  “You’ve handled it well, Rachel,” Sid said. He looked over Kendra to Rachel and smiled. Not a smirk or a grin but a smile. “My first year at uni I failed a class after I missed the final exam chasing a shapeshifter through London. I could have used someone like you to help me juggle it all.”

  Rachel dropped the blade of grass and pushed herself up to sit and stare at Sid. “Okay, that’s it. Why are you being so nice? Is it because of Willem? Because I was stupid enough to get caught by the world’s lamest vampire?”

  Sid scrunched up his face. “Do you want me to be mean to you?”

  Rachel threw her hands up. “I want you to be you! You should be giving me a hard time about it! I could have gotten us all killed, including that girlfriend of yours. But you’re just being so … so nice.”

  “She’s not my girlfriend anymore,” Sid said quietly.

  Rachel’s heart kicked over in her chest. She peered at Sid, but his eyes were hidden behind dark sunglasses, and his face was very calm. Was he broken up about it? Relieved? And even worse, what had changed to make Rachel care so much? She shrugged, hoping neither Sid nor Kendra noticed the spots of color burning in her cheeks.

  “Either way,” she said. “People could have been hurt, and it’s my fault.”

  Sid sighed loudly. “That’s the job. We put others in danger, but we save a lot of people too.”

  Rachel laughed darkly. “Yeah, except for those six girls who disappeared from the very college we attend.”

  Sid looked away over the courtyard, but Kendra rolled onto her side and grabbed Rachel’s hand. “You saved me,” she said. “You didn’t think twice before going after me when those sirens had me cornered last October. And you saved Beth Ann. You can’t keep a running tally of all the people you hurt or help or you’ll go nuts.”

  Rachel slumped back down to the grass, suddenly exhausted. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. Beside her, the grass rustled as Kendra and Sid stretched out under the dappled shade of the giant oak. “I’ve been overwhelmed trying to keep everything straight. I think I’ve been a bit of a shit to both of you these last couple months.”

  Kendra’s hand covered her own and squeezed. “It’s okay,” her friend said. “At least you’re not Beth Ann.”

  “Speaking of,” Sid muttered.

  A shadow fell over them accompanied by an annoyed “mh-hm.” All three pushed to their elbows to face Beth Ann. Her face was tight, her shoulders straight, and Rachel was pretty sure she was glaring behind her giant sunglasses.

  “We were just talking about you!” Kendra chirped with a big smile.

  “I’m sure,” Beth Ann said. She crossed her arms over her pale pink button down and nodded toward the Corpus near Kendra’s hand. “Conspiring about drugging another good girl?”

  Sid sighed like a man who had the weight of the world on his shoulders. “What are you talking about, Beth Ann?”

  “That horrible book!” Beth Ann was losing her careful poise, and she started tapping one cotton candy nail against her arm. “You think I haven’t noticed you three bent over that thing? It’s probably a manual for drugs or something.”

  “Yes, Beth Ann,” Rachel said. “That’s it. You’ve got us. We’re meth dealers.”

  “Don’t mock me, Rachel Chase. You had to have drugged me. There’s no other explanation for all those … those horrible things I saw.”

  Rachel balled her hands up in the grass, ripping blades from the soft ground. “I saved your ungrateful ass.”

  Beth Ann’s nail was tapping faster now. She pursed her strawberry lips together in a way that drew her face inward and made her look quite mousy. Then everything relaxed. Her features settled into their normal prettiness, and she smoothed her hands down her sleek hair and crisp shirt.

  “My mother always told me to meet bad manners with a smile,” Beth Ann said before smiling sweetly at the three of them. Her smile dropped as quickly as it’d appeared. “She also told me not to have anything to do with bad people, and you three are bad people. I’m going to pretend I never met any of you.”

  “So why are you still talking to us?” Sid snapped. Rachel nearly cheered for him.

  Beth Ann’s mouth compressed to a slit and her face drained of color. She puffed up like a marshmallow ready to explode for one horrifying second, then turned on her heel and stalked off.

  Beth Ann disappeared down a walkway, and Sid collapsed to his back. “I’m so happy that’s over,” he sighed. “She was way more work than expected. Are all American girls so difficult?”

  Kendra reached over Rachel to poke him in the ribs. “Hello?” She pointed to herself then Rachel before poking Sid again, who yelped and scooted out of the way. “Obviously not.”

  She lunged for him, ready to strike again, when Sid’s phone beeped and he scrambled to his feet, laughing and jumping away from Kendra. He flicked a finger across the screen, and Rachel watched as his smile fell and his forehead contracted into worry. He dropped to his heels in front of Rachel and held his phone out for her to see.

  The screen showed two words from Bernard: “Willem. Help.”

  CHAPTER 13

  The cave entrance was absolutely silent.

  Rachel’s heart hammered so hard against her ribs she could hear her blood pulsing through her veins and pounding in her ears. Every muscle in her body tensed, every hair on
the back of her neck prickled. Something was here—something deep and dark in the silent cave. Rachel raised her eyebrows at Sid in question and saw him shift his eyes down the tunnel. His chest rose and fell in short little gasps and his hands clenched the two daggers already out and held in front of his body.

  Step by step, they inched farther into the cave, farther into the murky gloom. Yet the world around them kept its secrets. The tunnel curved, and muddy light bled from the cavern and fell across the toes of their boots.

  Sid held an arm across Rachel’s chest and eyed the cavern just around the bend. There was something in there. A sound squirmed around them. A wet sound, sloppy. Bile burned up Rachel’s throat. Sid leaned close, his mouth pressed to her ear.

  “Ready?”

  She nodded once, and they hurtled into the cavern.

  Bernard was laid out flat on the cavern floor, a shape bent over him. It didn’t make sense at first, what Rachel was seeing. Bernard’s head was cocked at an unnatural angle, and his legs were splayed. Her eyes crawled up Bernard’s limp body past the thing crouched over him … over the hole ripped open in the troll’s chest. Bernard’s ribs were cracked open and splayed like the poor troll’s legs, and there was blood everywhere. Blood that had spurted from Bernard’s missing heart.

  The thing squatted over Bernard’s body spun on its heels and snarled. Blood ringed Willem’s lips and dripped down his chin. Both of the vampire’s hands were covered in Bernard’s blood, and the last pulp from Bernard’s heart still clung to Willem’s fingers. Willem snarled again, his razor sharp teeth dripping, and sprang upright.

  Willem was a study in whites and reds and blacks. He crouched low on the balls of his feet and circled with his jagged nails out, like an animal closing in on its prey.

  Rachel matched him, her arms in front of her chest and a wooden stake in her hand. Beside her, Sid smoothly sheathed his daggers and reached for his bow. Willem charged at the same moment Sid fired. The arrow punched into Willem’s shoulder, but it barely slowed the beast down. He pummeled into Rachel and snapped at her shoulder. His teeth clamped down on the meat there and tore a gaping bite into her arm that pulled a scream from her throat.

  Rachel dropped her stake and collapsed hard to her knees, Willem on top of her. He landed a punch into her ribs that cracked them apart like toothpicks and reared back for another blow. Rachel tensed, but Willem jerked suddenly, and an arrow burst through the middle of his chest. He shrieked and swatted Rachel across the temple, a jolt so hard that she slammed against the cave walls and slumped to the ground. The world blurred and swayed, either from her shoulder or ribs or the blow to her head she didn’t know.

  Willem was on Sid now, circling and throwing punches. Sid grunted and ducked, playing for time and searching for an opening. But each blow from Willem came closer, each duck from Sid weakened and slowed. Rachel tried to move her arm and sobbed. It was like lightning forking through her, hot and crackling. But she couldn’t just sit there and watch Sid get slowly beaten down. It didn’t make sense. None of this made sense. Vampires weren’t supposed to have this sort of brute strength.

  With a guttural groan, Rachel crawled forward and grabbed the dropped stake with her left hand. She stumbled to her feet and lurched toward Willem. He had Sid cornered now, was almost playing with him. Sid had dropped his bow and was slashing out with his dagger, opening cuts and gashes on Willem. Yet the beast pushed forward, like the wounds were nothing.

  Rachel planted her feet right behind him and plunged the stake into his back. Willem twisted and bellowed, and he turned on Rachel so fast she stumbled backward across the cavern. One of Bernard’s cages scraped her torn arm, and she screamed.

  Willem prowled closer and laughed. His mouth was a horror of blood and white froth, like a rabid animal. Yet still he stalked forward, his white skin gashed, a stake in his back, and two arrows studding his torso. Rachel gritted her teeth and lifted her bloody arm up to twist between the spaces in the cage’s bars. It held her steady, and the pain kept her from passing out.

  The vampire was so close now she could see her face reflected in its shining black eyes. Willem cocked his head, regarded Rachel.

  “You murdered my nest,” he said. His voice was sticky with blood and lather, and his breath was hot on Rachel’s cheeks.

  “You murdered my classmates,” Rachel grunted. She flicked her gaze behind him to Sid. He leaned heavily against the cavern wall, both daggers and his bow forgotten at his feet. Rachel watched as he shook his head and struggled to stand upright. One arm inched up across his shoulder for the weapon strapped to his back, reaching for the hilt of a sword.

  Claws raked across Rachel’s cheek and she cried out. Willem was right in front of her. Rachel clenched her uninjured arm, balled her fingers into a fist. She had to do something, but she could barely think past the white hot pain shooting through her body with every breath.

  “You’ll never be able to stop us,” Willem taunted. “We are a rising tide. A rushing sea.”

  Rachel focused on her clenched hand, tried to direct every last bit of strength into her fist. Behind Willem, Sid swam into focus, his face determined.

  “You tried to contain us, but we have awoken. Your blood will be—”

  Sid roared and ran Willem through, the wickedly sharp tip of his sword slicing Willem through the back and bursting out at his stomach. The vampire dropped to his knees, his body finally going limp. The cave around them went absolutely silent. The drip of water off rock and blood from wounds echoed in the stillness.

  Rachel’s legs gave out, the cage screeching against its chain as all her weight hung from her bloody shoulder. Sid pulled his sword from Willem’s chest, yet the vampire stayed kneeling, silent and slumped. Rachel’s voice was barely a whisper when she tried to speak. “Is it …?”

  At that moment, the air swelled with charge and the metallic tang of lightning sparked all around them. Rachel sucked in a breath at the same second Willem arched. The vampire’s head was thrown back by the force and he screamed some guttural, harsh tongue. The words—if that’s what they were—were muddy and thick, like words that had been born in the muck and crawled only through darkness.

  Willem burst forth with the dark language, and the words marked him, crawling black across his pale, gashed skin. They covered him in squirming inscriptions that seemed to burrow under his skin and make his entire form ripple. He coughed, then choked, then doubled over and expelled a rush of tar-black ichor that slithered away across the cavern floor, pulsating and alive. Rachel watched with horror as the creature disappeared deeper into the cavern, but a whistling breath brought her back to the crumpled figure before her.

  Willem looked up at Rachel, and she gasped to see his eyes were brown, the whites around them forked with red veins.

  “Wait,” the vampire whispered. “Please.”

  But it was too late. Sid was swinging the sword, and Willem’s head tumbled from his shoulders and landed with a wet thud next to Bernard’s feet.

  *

  Rachel leaned against Sid as they trudged up the sidewalk toward Caster Hall. The sun had long ago set and the campus was dark and empty outside the halos of light shining from the lampposts. Up ahead, only a few windows still shone yellow from Rachel’s hall, the last students packing up and heading home for summer.

  Sid gently helped Rachel ease up the steps—any quick movements made her right side sear with pain—and pulled the door open for her. He winced as he did, and Rachel was reminded that he was nearly as injured as she.

  “At least let me hold my own gear bag,” she said.

  “I’m fine,” Sid grunted.

  Rachel didn’t have the strength to argue and followed him slowly into the building, every footfall echoing around them. They had won. They had defeated the vampire plaguing campus. Yet everything in Rachel told her there was something larger at play here—and somehow they were far from winning. The thought made her bone-weary.

  The common room swayed around her
, the shadows in the corners seeming to reach out. Was the slithering creature that had vomited from Willem waiting there, watching? Rachel wavered on her feet, tears of exhaustion pricking at her eyes.

  “Rach?” Sid’s voice was frightened. He lowered her to a scratchy couch and knelt before her. “Rachel?” He said again.

  Rachel blinked away the tears and dragged an approximation of a smile across her lips. “I’m just tired,” she admitted.

  Sid’s shoulders slumped and he reached for Rachel’s face, pulling her close. His face was battered, and blood crusted the hairline at his temple. Yet he smiled, and it warmed something in Rachel.

  “You were amazing,” he breathed. “Seriously, Rachel. Don’t listen to me when I say otherwise, when I … I try to pretend I could do something without you.”

  Rachel smiled—a real one—and reached up for Sid’s hand with her uninjured arm. “Got it,” she said. “I will never let you forget how awesome I am.”

  “I’m not joking,” Sid said. There was urgency in his tone, like he wanted to say something before he lost his nerve. He leaned his forehead against hers, until their faces were so close Rachel couldn’t tell where she ended and Sid began.

  Rachel tugged her fingers from Sid’s hand and sat back. Something was changing between them, something Rachel hadn’t wanted to admit she desired. But she knew one thing: She didn’t want it to happen like this, born of fear and adrenaline. If she and Sid were going to take the first tentative steps to become more than friends, she wanted it to happen in the light of day, under the sun, where the most pressing matter was where to eat for lunch. Not like this.

  “I’m exhausted, and I’ve lost more blood than I’d like to think about. Can we … can we talk about this in the morning?”

  Sid deflated just the tiniest bit, but he covered it with a smile and helped Rachel to her feet like the last few minutes had never happened. They hobbled together down the hall and nudged open Rachel’s dorm room door. She had to blink against the sudden brightness.