Marked by Courage

by W. J. May

  “Come on.”

  “Damn it! I can’t do this!”

  “Yes, you can.” He kept his vise grip on her and wouldn’t let go.

  When they reached the basement, she collapsed onto one of the couches. “Oh, my goodness! I didn’t—it’s so much worse than I imagined.”

  “It’s worst at night,” her father said. “I don’t want to scare you, Kallie. I just need to prepare you. You and your mother…you had no idea. You went to sleep trusting me. You trusted! You didn’t think I could smell you, but you were both so fragile, and I knew that it would only take a second to break and do something I couldn’t undo. You need to be ready.” He squeezed her hand. “I’ll go get some blood.”

  “I should.”

  “She’s showering.” He shook his head. “I can make it. I’ll be quick.”

  He was back with preternatural speed. Neither spoke as they drank hungrily. Kallie tried to shut out the noise, reminded too vividly of the rogue Reds drinking from Caleb and her father, but she could not keep the comparison away entirely. For the first time, she was desperately afraid of herself. Liam had asked her how Reds could do such a thing to one another, and she had not been able to admit to him that she understood all too well.

  Finally, her father sighed and leaned back on the couch. “So what’re you hiding?”

  “Huh?” But she knew she looked guilty.

  He only stared at her, waiting.

  Sighing, she took off the sunglasses.

  Her father breathed in sharply. His cuts were healing slowly as she watched, a mesmerizing sight, but her eyes kept returning to his face, jaw hanging open. “You’re a…”

  “A monstrosity?” Kallie suggested bitterly.

  “No.” He shook his head. “You’re a Hybrid. Holy sh—cow. Holy cow.”

  “What? You…” Kallie shook her head, nearly laughing because he was trying to not swear. “You know what this is?” She pointed to her eyes.

  “Not really, I guess.” He could not seem to stop staring. “I thought it was just a myth, Kallie. I didn’t think it was real.”

  “That one could be Red and Blue?”

  “It’s so much more than that.” He shook his head, his mouth still hanging open. “So, so much more. You’re new to this, and weak. But when you’re at your full power, you’ll be a force to be reckoned with.”

  “How long do you think? A month? I can’t wait a month.”

  His lips twitched. “I’m not sure you’re bound to the moon, sweetheart. Right now, I’m not sure of anything. I need to get some research done.” He stood and grimaced as he stretched and then quickly hid the pain. “You need to stay down here. I’ll tell your mom that you’re over at your friend’s house.”

  “Where are you going to go?” She wasn’t sure she trusted herself to be alone in the house with her mother’s delicious heartbeat pumping so close to her.

  “You’ll be fine. Stay. Down. Here.” He headed for the door. “I’m going to see what I can find out about Hybrids. I’ll be in my office.”

  “Don’t go getting yourself, or mom, killed.” Really? She had to say that to her father? Callie dropped her head back against the couch and sighed. She was screwed.

  Hybrid, jacked-up, royally screwed.

  Chapter 4

  Kallie felt Liam coming before she even received his text. Somewhere out in the world, she felt his thought of her, a feather-light touch in her mind. She wondered if this was what it would be like forever—tied to Caleb as her maker, and to Liam as the one who had saved her life time and again, as one who shared her blood and made her what she was.

  Hybrid.

  It didn’t seem real. Her father had sent her up to her bedroom when her mother left for work. He had gone down to his office and still had not come up from the basement to tell her what his research was uncovering. Kallie wouldn’t go down; she was afraid to go ask him. She found herself perfectly content to pretend she just had strange eyes. Why had this happened? Because Caleb, with red eyes, had turned her and blue-eyed Liam’s blood ran through her? Blue and Red did make purple after all.

  She could wear red contacts, maybe. She could pretend. She didn’t want to be any more special—didn’t Petra’s story show that being unique was a recipe for disaster?

  With Liam, at least, she didn’t need to hide it. She was waiting for him in the kitchen when he arrived and slipped in the door. He looked around, noting the stillness of the house, and raised an eyebrow.

  “Mom’s working a night shift today.” Kallie heard the old term come out of her mouth and shook her head when Liam raised his eyebrows again.

  “Is something wrong?” He drifted closer, his blue eyes almost burning in the dim light.

  Yeah, I might be some mythical type of vampire. Kallie shook her head and lifted her shoulders in a helpless shrug. “Everything’s screwed up,” she said brutally. “Everything.”

  “Not everything.” Liam was at her side in a moment, one arm around her and his fingers beneath her chin, tilting her head up. “Look at me, Kallie. You’re one of the bravest, strongest people I know. You have me on your side—forever. You managed to save your father from a terrible death. Some things are going right.”

  “And even more are going wrong!” She wrenched away from him, as much to protect herself from the flutter of desire as anything else. “Things are going wrong,” she repeated. “Every time something gets fixed, something worse goes wrong. What did I ever do to deserve this?”

  It was Liam’s silence that suddenly worried her. Had he found something to explain why she was cursed? “Liam?” she asked tentatively.

  “I…maybe I should come back another time.”

  She could feel his hesitation. “No. Stay put.” She pointed at the floor where he stood. “Whatever you found out, you have to tell me.” Kallie felt her heart twist suddenly. “Caleb’s not dead, is he?”

  “No! No.” Liam smiled at her bitterly. “That’s one thing you don’t have to worry about for a very, very long time.”

  “Oh?”

  “He’s a day-walker, Kallie.” Liam’s voice was flat. “I told you how much power the vampires got from feeding on your father. They get even more from Caleb. They’ll keep him alive as long as possible.”

  The thought of Caleb hanging bloodied and beaten from his chains, just a piece of meat for them to use, made Kallie moan. She pressed her hand over her mouth.

  “Listen to me.” Liam did not move to comfort her, though it showed on his face that it was costing him not to. He gazed at her with naked hunger, as if he wanted to take her in his arms and…

  She closed her eyes to erase the image. “Yes?”

  “Caleb’s strong and he’s very smart. He’s been a vampire for longer than I have. He’s fought in battles that would destroy a human. I won’t lie to you and pretend he’s not in pain, Kallie, but he’s going to survive this. He can take more than you know yet. Someday, even when you’ve been a vampire for longer, you’ll understand. But for now, you’ll just have to trust me.”

  Kallie took a deep breath and nodded. “I have a very small circle of trust. Luckily you’re in it.”

  “There’s more.”

  “What else?” Her fingers trembled as they hung at her sides, so she curled them into firsts and shoved them into her sweater pockets. She’d been cold while she slept during the day, and again this evening. She wondered if she’d ever understand true warmth again. “What else did you find out?”

  “They’ve moved him.” Liam let out a frustrated sigh.

  “You went back for him?” Kallie felt her heart squeeze.

  “I knew if he died, you’d never…” Liam waved a hand, grumpy. “Let’s not make a big deal of it.”

  “Let’s.” Kallie went to his side, cupping his face in both hands. “You have no idea how much this means to me.”

  “I’m trying not to think about that.” He smiled up at her sadly. “You should stand over there before I kiss you.”

  “Right
.” She drew back, but her fingers traced over his cheek lightly and they both shuddered. She turned herself away. “So. He’s gone.”

  “Which, I have to be honest, was kind of a relief.” To her surprise, she heard genuine humor in his voice. “I was trying to figure out how I was going to get him out of there without giving in and killing him, and I had no ideas.”

  Kallie stifled a laugh that was half-sob.

  “Here’s the problem.” He sobered. “I mentioned the power they get from him. It’s…it’s a lot.”

  “So our enemies are stronger.”

  “It isn’t just that, Kallie.” He looked at her gravely. “The amount of power Petra put into making him a day-walker… It was immense. I heard it nearly killed her.”

  “He told me that.” She didn’t know what else to say.

  “The fact that she even had the power to do that is a big sign. What he has become is on the level of a myth. I hate to say this, but the more I look into things, the more it sounds like Caleb is on the level of a demigod.”

  “Why do you hate to say it?” She looked over at him, frowning.

  “Because then I’m competing with a demigod,” he said, crossing his arms. “And how do I win that one?”

  Kallie couldn’t help herself, she laughed. She tried to think of something reasonable to say. “Okay, so those bastard vamps are getting a lot of power from him. Now what?”

  “Now we try to figure out what they want it for. They’ve taken him somewhere, and I’m fairly sure that it’s nowhere inside that building. The rogue Red I met, uh, he didn’t know.”

  Kallie looked over at him sharply and saw a look on his face that made her recoil. It was savage, self-satisfied. It was the look of a hunter who has taken down his prey and destroyed them utterly. It terrified her; not only to see such animal instinct on his face, but to realize that she was no longer a woman who needed to fear it—instead, she was a woman who understood it. She was like him, hadn’t he said it?

  You’re a hunter, too.

  “What else did they say?” She kept her voice flat, and looked away so she wouldn’t see his approving nod.

  “That there are rumors of another spell they could do with his blood. I’d like to pretend that it’s just the lesser rogue Reds dreaming of glory, but I’m very afraid that it’s true.”

  “What kind of spell? To make another day-walker?” Kallie shook her head. “Caleb said that Petra told him that was a one-time spell.”

  “I wouldn’t—” Liam looked away. “Not important. This is a different kind of spell. Remember when I told you that I’m a hunter?”

  “Yes.” You said I was one, too.

  “When I used the word, well…imagine I used it with a lowercase H. But there used to be a different kind of vampire. Hunters, Trackers, whatever you want to call them. They weren’t just vampires; they had traits of werewolves and witches bound into them.”

  She stared at him, repeating his words and letting them sink in. First, she had to deal with the fact that there were possibly other witches, more than just Petra around, and werewolves. People who turned into wolves or wolves that shifted into humans? After trying to process that as simple fact, then she forced herself to imagine vampires with these traits… more hybrids. And what they hell were Hunters with a capital ‘H’ and Trackers? “What the hell is going on?”

  “What?”

  “I’ve been around a vampire for a few years. Never have I seen anyone other than my dad. Now there are day-walkers, and Hunters, and—” Hybrids. “Well, it doesn’t matter what else. Why are they coming out of the woodwork now? Why don’t I know more about them?” Since Caleb and Petra had told her what she thought was basically everything, she now realized she knew nothing at all. She’d barely scratched the surface.

  “Because we are all that remains of a shattered empire.” Liam looked at her sadly. “Where do you think the myths of our kind came from? Vampires have walked the earth for so long that we’ve forgotten where they came from, or at least, now we have. Your father will have told you how powerful vampires are, and it’s true. There are a few still who remember the old days, and there are those who are in the government, banking, intelligence, but it’s nothing compared to what it used to be.”

  “What happened then?”

  “War,” Liam said shortly. “We turned on one another. There’s a rumor—just a rumor, mind you—that there didn’t used to be these factions, or at least, that we didn’t used to hate one another instinctively. Whatever happened, it cost us everything. No remembers now whether we had a history of our kind, or how our kind came to be. You’ll find a few vampires who were created desperately in the final days of the war. But even they don’t know our heritage. Not really. The Reds and the Blues rebuilt separately, and now we’re here. Blues almost gone, Reds divided amongst themselves, and no way to know what myths about our kind are truly our history, and which are just terrified tales started by the humans.”

  “So we’re stuck in a war that really isn’t a war. It’s more like the last days.” It seemed impossible to believe.

  “It sort of seems like that, doesn’t it?” Liam sighed “There’s more, unfortunately. Here’s the thing. The magic from a day-walker might be enough to make this sort of spell. There are rumors that one of the rogue Reds was studying with Petra to learn the ways of witches.”

  “I thought you said there were more witches?”

  “There were.”

  Kallie stared at him “Are you born with it? Or do you just have to learn it? Like study spells and stuff?”

  Liam shuddered. “You don’t want to know.”

  She stared at him. “That bad?”

  “Let’s just say…actually, let’s not.” Liam sighed and straightened his shoulders. “You really don’t need to know.”

  Kallie shook her head. “But I’m going to have to, right? If this rogue Red was studying spells, I’ll have to get in the middle of it.”

  “No, she’s going to be the Hunter.” Liam met Kallie’s eyes, and there was genuine fear there. “There’ll be no one on this earth who can escape her. No one she cannot find. If her maker loses control of her, for even an instant, terrible devastation will ensue.”

  “Why will her master need to control her? Do you have a master?” There was too much information to take in. Too much to understand.

  Liam waved his hand. “More information for another day. We just need to focus on this right now. This is huge. Dangerously huge. I told you werewolves exist.”

  “I’ve yet to see one—”

  “Well,” Liam said cutting her off, “imagine a hybrid of a werewolf and a vampire, with the skills of a witch.” He shuddered. “Pray we never have to meet one.”

  “We won’t,” Kallie said suddenly. “Petra was the one who trained this vampire. She’ll stop it.”

  “That was what I didn’t want to tell you,” Liam said quietly.

  “Tell me what?”

  “Kallie…” Liam inhales a long breath and let it out slowly. “It’s beginning to look more and more like Petra is behind all of this. Caleb was supposed to protect you—the human you. Now that she’s gotten all the use she can out of her day-walker, she wants something more.” He stepped close to Kallie and looked her in the eyes, holding her gaze with his beautiful, serious blue ones. “She wants her own Hunter.”

  Chapter 5

  “Are you okay?” Liam’s voice floated quietly across the room as he asked. They’d spent most of the night without talking, just sitting. Kallie staring off into nothing, and Liam starting at her with troubled eyes.

  “I’m fine. You should go home.” Kallie shrugged her shoulders. She hadn’t known what to say to him or how to respond to his accusation of Petra. What if Petra was behind all of this? She didn’t know the woman. Did her dad? She sighed. She wasn’t even scratching the surface when she thought life was complicated.

  “Why?”

  She almost scoffed but held it back before it escaped her lips. “Well
, among other things, my room isn’t light-proofed and you can’t exactly hang out in the basement with my dad.”

  “Kallie, have I done something to upset you?”

  “No!” The word escaped too quickly, too sharply. She sighed. “I mean…I don’t know.” She looked away, sighing, and rubbed at her forehead. “It’s not your fault. You should go.”

  “Not until I know what’s bothering you.” He met her eyes across the room, and she winced at the pain she saw there. “I know you don’t want me to kiss you right now, but you have no idea how hard it is not to.”

  She couldn’t even bring herself to smile.

  “Kallie…”

  “I gave up everything.” Kallie knew she should send him home before the first rays of daylight crept over the horizon, but she could not keep the words back any longer. “I’ve been turned into…” She trailed off, not wanting to say it.

  “A monster,” Liam finished softly.

  “You know I didn’t mean it like that.”

  “Actually, I know you did.” He reached out. “I should’ve taken you to my place tonight.” When her eyes flew to his, he shook his head. “Not like that. Although…well, never mind. It’s not important right now. I mean, I’ve been watching you. I can’t even imagine what it must be like to be around your mother right now. I did this for my family because they were dead. If I had to live with them nearby, with me…like this…” He shuddered. “Come back to my place with me.”

  “I can’t.”

  “Because of your father?”

  “I’m afraid to leave him like this.”

  “And go home with a Blue,” Liam finished. “He won’t be happy, but he’ll understand. Trust me, Kallie, it will be easier if you don’t have to worry about your desires.” A smile touched his face. “You can tell him you’ll have the bed, and I’ll sleep on the couch.”

  “No guest bedroom?” she joked.

  “I don’t trust myself to have people over,” he said flatly, to shock her, and to remind her what they both were.