If I’d been hoping for a relaxing evening with my friends, I was in for a rude awakening.
“So, I’ve been giving your little proposal some more thought.” Tess took a long pull from her bottle.
No one was more surprised by her words than I was. “Really? So, you want to go in?”
She laughed, a bitter noise devoid of humor. “Not even a little bit. I’m shocked by your arrogance and stupidity, actually.”
Even Kamila seemed to be a little taken aback by Tess’s comment. “Don’t hold back, now.”
Tess glared at her for a second then turned her ire back to me. “Jason, you’re barely getting control over your power. Sure, you’re moving faster than any other Ferin has, as in ever, but you’re still so new at this, you’re essentially a baby. You’re nowhere near ready. You’re not ready to take on a solo vampire, never mind something as intense and massive as a den full of vampires.” She put her beer down. “You’re good for your age, but you’ve only been in a few fights until now. You’re nowhere near ready.”
Kamila bit her lip, and her eyes were wide. I couldn’t rely on her for help right now.
I counted to ten, getting my irritation under control. “Look. I’m not exactly chomping at the bit to go into a swarming nest of vampires myself. It’s not my idea of fun, but I can’t see any other way to deal with the problem. We can’t just sit around twiddling our thumbs, waiting for them to come to us.
“War is coming. If we just hide out and wait, if we don’t do anything, we’ll all die anyway, and it won’t be pleasant. Since we’re going to die anyway, we might as well bring the fight to them, right?”
“Wrong.” Tess crossed her arms over her chest. “There’s nothing to be gained by throwing ourselves on their teeth. The only thing we’d gain is a painful death. If we avoid the conflict, we buy ourselves time to find another solution.”
“Another solution?” I stood up and paced in front of the fire. “Do you think we can negotiate with these assholes? Do you think we can talk them into living peacefully together in harmony and love? Come on, Tess. We both know better than that. I might be new to this whole Ferin thing, but I’m not that naive.”
She raised her chin defiantly. “Have you tried it?”
“You first.” I looked down at her. “Go on. Show me how it’s done. Look, I’m not even pretending to promise you victory here. I just promise you I’ll see what they’re up to. They may have an overwhelming force. We might have wiped out their best and brightest back in that alley. I don’t know, and the only way for any of us to know is to go find out. With reconnaissance.”
“Just because you can use your big boy words doesn’t make you a general.” Tess tossed her hair back. “Be realistic, Jason. They’ll slaughter you and leave you for the vultures.”
“So what?” I threw my arms up in the air. “At least I won’t have just rolled over for them. Maybe I’m destined to die, maybe even at their hands, but whether I go down meekly submitting, running away, or fighting as hard as I can, won’t make much of a difference to anyone but me. And since I’m the only one to whom it will make a difference, I say I want to go out fighting.
“If I’m successful, we can move on. We can just keep on going, away from freaking Idaho and its mountains and taters and vamps, and whatever the hell else it has going for it. We can go west. We can go to California or Seattle. We can go our separate ways, or we can stick together. Think about it, Tess. If we’ve gotten rid of this cabal of freaks that’s dogged our every step since I got pulled into this life, what couldn’t we do? The world is literally our oyster.”
“Except for that whole dead thing.” Tess stood up, bringing her beer with her. For one brief moment, I wondered if she was going to throw it at me. “You know the one, where the vampires make new leather jackets out of our skin.”
I turned to Kamila. “Do they actually do that?”
“Maybe.” She shrugged. “It’s possible. I wouldn’t put it past them. Which is why you should stay the hell away from that hideout, Jason. I hate to agree with Tess because she’s being a real jerk about all of this, but she’s right. You can’t just go half-cocked into a vampire nest. You think it’s reconnaissance, and that’s a good impulse, Jason. It is. The thing is, the bad guys will be expecting it. They’ll know you’re there, and they’ll come for you, and then they’ll kill you horribly. Is that what you want? Are you looking forward to it?”
“They’ll kill us horribly no matter what we do.” I grabbed my beer from the ground and took a swig, more to give myself time to cool down than anything else. “I think we’re not going to have a chance to come back from this. They might sniff me out, and they might not, but we won’t know unless we try. And I’m willing to take that risk.”
“The choice isn’t yours to make.” Tess gritted her teeth. “You’re valuable. We can’t let you fall into the wrong hands.”
“I’m a man, not a tactical nuke. Stop treating me like one.” I took another swig of beer. “I want to hear your solution.”
“My solution?” Tess pressed her free hand against her chest.
“Yeah, Tess. Let’s hear your solution. I want to know exactly how you intend to keep us safe and defeat the vampires. Are you going to set off some kind of silver bomb in their nest?”
“Don’t be a tool, Jason. You know we don’t have anything like that. And we’d never get close enough to set one.”
I nodded. “Okay, are you going to set the place on fire?”
She frowned. “It won’t help. A lot of them are immune.”
I’d known that already. I crossed my arms over my chest. “That’s kind of my point, Tess. There aren’t any options that involve us living much longer. The only chance we have might be a long shot, but it’s our only shot.”
“We need to recruit more Ferin,” Tess said. “We might be able to survive, but only with a big enough force in the right stronghold. There are other groups. There’s one in New York, another one in Mexico City—”
“And one in Twin Falls, except they’re gone now. You want to go tearing down to Mexico only to find these guys got to them first?” I shook my head and took a step back. “I guess you can go do you, but I’m not going on a bunch of wild goose chases all over the continent, hoping we can somehow stay under the radar. That’s just dumb. I’m going to see exactly what we’re dealing with and go on from there.”
“The hell you are.” Tess scoffed at me. “You’re going to stay right there where you’re safe. You still don’t know what you’re doing. You’re not putting our lives at risk by going up and poking a hornets’ nest by yourself. Is that clear?”
I squinted at her. “You did get the memo that you’re not actually a drill sergeant, right?”
“Stop trying to deflect. I asked you if your orders were clear.”
“Crystal, sir.” I saluted.
“Stop being an infant, Jason. I mean it. You need to start listening to the people who know better than you do.” She gave me another glare and disappeared into the van.
Kamila stayed with me for a few seconds. “I’ll talk to her. Just...don’t go out of the camp, all right? She’s right. It’s too dangerous. We don’t know what’s happening, how many of them there might be, or how strong they are. It would be foolish to go in guns blazing without more information, and we don’t have any reliable ways of getting that information.”
I’d only been arguing about ways to get that information for hours, but I managed a little smile for Kamila somehow. I hadn’t convinced her yet, and I didn’t think very highly of my ability to convince her now.
I had no idea why everyone was so enamored with Margaret’s way of doing things when being sedentary had given the vampires a great target. There wasn’t anything I could do about it, though, so I smiled at her while she headed into the van to talk with Tess.
I stared into the fire. Our only chance for survival laid in action. Getting a closer look at what the enemy had going on was common sense.
&nb
sp; Why couldn’t Tess or Kamila see that?
If they refused to do anything, I would have to go in alone, and the thought of it chilled me to the bone.
32
I waited until I was reasonably sure the ladies had gone to sleep. I couldn’t hear them arguing anymore. The van stood still among the trees, indicating no one inside was moving, with Daisy snoring and moving her feet in search of whatever dogs did in their dreams.
Once I thought I could get out undetected, I left in a silent walk, my feet careful and light. I wheeled my motorcycle out of camp and onto the open road. When I was far enough away from camp, I kicked the engine to life. The last thing I needed was for Tess to assert her imaginary authority. Again.
The whole thing felt like high school, and not in a good way. For a moment, I wondered if there might not be something to what Tess had said. Was I arrogant? I’d be stunned if I wasn’t, given my newfound talents.
I didn’t think arrogance was the issue. My body was twenty again, but my mind had the benefit of age and experience. Her opinion was valid, but so was mine. Tess didn’t have the right to make the decisions for all of us, and I chose not to wait for inevitable death. If I had to die, I would go down fighting, and I had no plans on dying tonight.
I knew approximately where I was going based on that puke Jameson’s supposed confession. I couldn’t think of him without my stomach rising at the thought of what I’d done to him, but I pushed the nausea and guilt aside. I didn’t have time for them. I was going to scout the place out and get back to camp before anyone even knew I was gone.
I killed the engine and hid my bike a mile and a half away from the site, opting to slide in through the night, filled with a new love for caution. Vampires had extraordinarily good hearing, and the last thing I wanted was to tip them off to my presence. I ran the rest of the way on swift and silent feet.
The opening to the hideout was another old mine entrance. Apparently, the undead had a thing for mines. It looked abandoned, but all the hair on the back of my neck was standing on end. Something was here, and I didn’t need to go inside to know it wasn’t good.
Why does it always have to be mines?
Maybe they weren’t getting in through the obvious entrance, though. The door was ancient and nailed shut. Vamps could just tear the doors off their hinges, but the hard part would be putting it back in pristine condition every time. The vampires had to be coming in and out some other way.
I climbed up into the trees. I didn’t need to sit around on the ground, waiting for a vampire to come and finish what my maker had started. Maybe that vampire would screw it up too, and I’d somehow be a double Ferin. I didn’t know if that was possible.
I bet Mort knew.
I crept around the old mine, trusting the trees and shadows to hide me. If the vampires could pick up my scent, I was done. Chances were, I was done for anyway. The thought terrified me, and I had to admit I wasn’t looking forward to being torn apart. It was one thing to bluster my way through a conversation with Tess, but out here by myself in the wild was a whole different story.
People said bravery was less about being unafraid than about being afraid and getting shit done anyway. If that was true, then I had to be the bravest man alive. I focused everything I had on that mine as I circled to the left. My stomach shook with terror, but my feet stayed sure on the branches as I moved. Twenty minutes later, I saw three shapes on what looked like a deer path in the woods.
Two males and a female walked along the path. Their heads were high, and their mouths were red with blood. One of the men wore a red stained shirt. “I still can’t believe Jameson went and got himself caught,” he said. “He was one of the best fighters we had.”
“I know, Brad.” The woman’s voice was tight, the voice of someone holding back a flood of words. “But now he’s gone. Do you want to cry about it maybe? Go get a beer and sob into it like some human—or a filthy little Ferin?”
Brad turned around and backhanded the woman. The sickening sound of shattering bone filled the nighttime air, and she fell to the ground. “Shut your fucking mouth, Suze. Don’t ever let that disgusting word pass your lips again, do you hear me?”
Susan sprang gracefully to her feet. A dribble of blood stained one side of her mouth and chin, but she grinned wickedly. “Give it a rest, Brad. At least I’ve never created one.”
The other male snickered at Brad like some kind of demented imp.
Brad got into Susan’s face. “I’m warning you, Susan. Don’t push me. You know what I’m like.”
“What are you going to do, Brad? Smack me around some more? You know I’ll only put up with it until I get bored, and then I’ll break out the silver claws. Fun times, those babies. And they don’t fit you. Made for a woman’s hand, they are.” She laughed, clear and high and evil. “Come on. Let’s get inside. He doesn’t like us hanging around outside.”
Susan walked toward a wide-leafed bush. If she’d been just a normal human woman, I would have thought she was going to relieve herself. From my vantage point, I could tell that she was sneaking through a hole in the wall. This was the secret entrance Jameson had described, perfectly hidden by the greenery.
Brad turned to the imp. “Jeff. What the fuck are you staring at?” He pushed Jeff in both shoulders, hard enough for him to land on the ground in a cloud of dust. This only made Jeff laugh harder.
Brad shook his head and waved a hand in disgust, turning his back and leaving him behind. He followed Susan into the mine. After a second, Jeff got up and followed.
I licked my lips. I should probably go back for Tess and Kamila. I knew where the vampires were. I knew the mine could be some kind of maze from which I might never find my way out. I should make sure at the very least someone knew where I was.
I also knew damn well that I wasn’t going to do that.
Keeping my comrades informed would be the smartest thing for me, but it would also rob me of precious time. It was time I didn’t have. I also had my pride. I needed to get in there and come back with real information, more than simply they live in a hole in the ground, or else they would just use it to try to forbid me from doing anything at all without permission in the future.
I’d already been married once. I didn’t need to go through all that again.
I eased my way down from my tree and landed silently, covering the open ground with all the speed I could muster. I had no way of knowing if any vampires were out here standing guard. Once I got back into the shadows, I felt better. It was probably a false sense of confidence, but it was better than nothing.
I stepped carefully into the obscured mine entrance, and the angle of the sun left it in deep shadow. In the air, I could smell phosphorus and other elements I hadn’t thought about since high school chemistry class. The scent was primal. Somewhere deeper inside the mine, I heard something skitter across rock, the noise echoing through unseen chambers.
The low-light conditions weren’t an issue, leaving no reason for panic in my new surroundings. If the rock had any kind of warmth at all—which it did—I should be able to see that heat as part of my Ferin ability. I hadn’t tried it, but so far, I hadn’t found much that couldn’t be done if I put my mind to it.
I decided to let my senses roam and see.
When I opened my eyes, it was like I was looking through an infrared camera you see on ghost hunting shows. Everything around me had a heat signature of its own. When I looked at my own hand, it seemed to be scorching hot, all bright reds and yellows. The rocks around me were more muted, but they still had a signature, the shades wildly varied once my eyes began to fully adjust. I guessed a vampire would show up as a blank spot since they were so cold as to be almost freezing.
I thanked my power, drew in a breath, and then I pushed my way into the labyrinth.
33
The tunnels meandered in a senseless tumble, one dark hole after another, and once I got past that initial entrance, I knew this was a place where sunlight never fell.
The only thing every path had in common was the fact that they went down. Always down. It made sense. I tested each tunnel I came to, each one a dusty dead end before I finally got to a larger branch—the fifth such attempt, and I knew this because my Ferin skills let me recall every twist and turn. There would be no wandering on my part; I seared the paths into my memory, compiling them as a living map I would share with Tess and Kamila when we rejoined each other. The possibility of failure never entered my mind. It simply wasn’t an option.
I entered a small warren that didn’t seem materially different from any of the others until I heard voices. I considered the voices were an effect of mine gas or a hallucination, then listened again, my body going still with the effort. I knew that gas might not impact me like when I’d been human, but once again, old habits die hard. I heard the sounds as a muffled song, and then, the black voids on the wall ahead came clear.
Vampires.
I briefly considered attacking and burning them all in a glorious cleansing, but pride is hardly an ally when fighting beings who look at me as food. I didn’t need a small victory. I needed a total win.
Even if I could burn so many—and I had no idea if my powers would let me take on so many vampires at once—then surely their screams would alert the rest.
Maybe I could burn the whole nest, but I wasn’t so arrogant as to be sure of it. And something deep inside of me warned me not to try it.
Since I’d come here to do reconnaissance, I did try to listen. I didn’t dare get too close, but Ferin hearing is a sheer wonder, and the mine walls acted as a focus for the mumbling words of untold fangers. The mine had a small alcove cut into the wall, probably for people to get out of the way of the mine carts on rails, so I leaped up into it, nimble and silent. Crouching on the gritty shelf, I let my hearing roam.
Forever Young Page 19
