Winterfall

by John Conroe

  I sighed and pulled back my hands, which caused Wulf’s little face to scrunch up like I’d rejected him.

  “Great! Now you’ve hurt his feelings,” Lydia said, scooping up my baby boy. That left me staring at my daughter, who stared back. I gave her a goofy grin and by God she smiled back before returning to her whisker hunting.

  It was early, but I’d already come to the conclusion that my daughter was a bit less emotionally sensitive than my son. Plot twist. No big deal, just a difference to be added to the pile of them that we were noticing on a day-by-day basis. Two vastly different children, yet still twins who didn’t like being apart from each other. I glanced at Deckert. He shrugged.

  “Fascinating,” Dr. Singh muttered at his worktable.

  “What is it?” I asked.

  “The human cellular structure remains mostly intact, yet each is buffered by the nano solution. But it’s the carbon nanites themselves that have reacted to your aura. In the first sample, the nano structures are sluggish, some not reacting at all. In the second, they have recovered and are swarming the cells, keeping them alive,” he said.

  “Shouldn’t the first ones have recovered by now?” I asked.

  “I would have thought so too, yet they haven’t. You isolated them immediately after stunning them. Perhaps they need to be near others?” he mused.

  “It is possible there is a critical mass required for recovery. I sense both mild electrical current between the nano units and radio waves between the main creature and whatever smaller sub-creature has been extruded. I suggest storing the samples safely and I will maintain observation of them,” Omega said.

  “Agreed,” Singh said as he began to lock down the biosafety cabinet to contain the samples. He pulled back a bit as something tiny, insect-like, and metallic moved across the glass of the cabinet and settled into a position directly over the samples. Four-legged with two grasping arms, the tiny robot was a direct extension of Omega. The good doctor wasn’t yet as blasé about the microbots as the rest of us had become. They were everywhere we went, mostly hidden, but we found them tucked in baby bags, strollers, backpacks, and even the weapon cases that Deckert and his men carried.

  Singh hadn’t had as much time to come to grips with Omega as the rest of us. Frankly, I was much, much more comfortable leaving shifty Stefano and his skin samples alone, knowing a horde of laser-bearing micro robots were watching and guarding. The robots were modular and could combine to form larger, more powerful versions of themselves. I’d seen a puppy-sized construct cut a one-inch-diameter steel rod in half with its laser when Omega had provided demonstrations. I had no doubt the unknown number of micro units in this room could cut down Stefano and burn him into cinders.

  Footsteps approached softly, yet were easily detected by the vampires and myself. Five seconds later, my vampire appeared in the doorway, followed by Senka, Arkady, Nika, and Senka’s giant bodyguard. Through the doorway I could see Rochat talking with two of his men. Father Alfonzo, who had accompanied them, was nowhere in sight.

  Tanya looked at me, tilting her head slightly as she zeroed in on the babies. After looking both over, she plucked Wulf from Lydia’s hands and was suddenly in front of me. “Hold your boy,” she said with a smile, “while I feed his sister.”

  “Tanya he’s—” was as far as Lydia got.

  “Nope, he’s fine. The doctor wouldn’t let any contamination near the babies, would you, Doc?”

  “What?” he asked, looking up from his tablet. “No, of course not. Christian is clear. I checked him over every time he came out of the cell. Plus the twins carry more virus per cc of blood than you do, Lydia.”

  “Ah, the hunger for humanity,” Senka said, glancing at Lydia’s anxious face as the Elder slid past all of us to peer into the cell at Stefano-thing.

  Perhaps it should be a surprise that Lydia and Nika were as devoted and maternal with the babies as they were, being vampires and all. But Senka’s reaction was even more interesting. The oldest of the Elders, the quintessential vampire and she too was fascinated by the twins.

  Tanya sat down and unbuttoned her shirt, immediately causing four of the five Vatican guards to turn away. The fifth kept staring until Mr. Deckert stepped into his line of sight and caught his eyes. I couldn’t see Deckert’s face, but the guard blanched slightly before turning to look at the rest of us. Deckert was almost as fierce a protector of my vampire as I was.

  It was my turn to catch the guard’s eyes and I let Grim stare back at him for a second. He excused himself to his sergeant and left the room. Deckert turned my way and gave me a nod.

  “What impressions did you get of the archway?” Dr. Singh asked the newcomers.

  “Senka remembers there was always a supposed doorway there, but not one with alien slugs coming through it,” Tanya said, looking to her grandmother.

  Without turning from her study of the Stefano creature, Senka spoke. “The doorway is much older than I am. I saw Rome as a young vampire, maybe thirty or forty years after Turning. There were many arches that people claimed were doorways to other realms. I’m pretty certain that the arch in question was one of those. Just not sure which.”

  “But nobody ever actually came through it?” I asked.

  She turned and looked at me. Brown eyes framed by cornflower blonde hair. She looked maybe thirty. She’d looked maybe thirty for over thirteen centuries, and she was maybe the most dangerous vampire on the planet. She smiled at me and I could picture her talking to the coach at the twins’ recreation league soccer game in the future. That coach would be very engaged in that conversation.

  “There were always stories, but that’s all they ever were. Always happened in the distant past, passed down by word of mouth through the generations. But nothing ever happened with any of these portals during my entire existence, Christian. Not until now. Have I told you how very, very interesting life has become since the two of you got together?” she said.

  “Pardon me, Elder Senka,” Doctor Singh said. “Do you remember any rumors of what manner of people were purported to live in these other realms?”

  “Oh, it was always some god or gods. That’s the confusing part because over time, the names changed as people lived and died and told their stories. I never paid it much mind. They were just stories with nothing to back them up, and I was a young Darkkin trying to survive the politics of my elders,” she said.

  “Which you now dictate,” Lydia said, although her eyes were watching Wulf in my arms.

  “Such sass,” Senka said in a voice that would make most of the Coven cower. “I do miss having your snappy mouth around me, Lydia Chapman.”

  “Thank you, Elder. It does get away from me from time to time,” Lydia said, attempting to be contrite.

  “A horrible performance, my dear. I think these miracle babies have you distracted,” Senka said, sliding gracefully over to peer at Wulf in my arms. His eyes fastened on hers and a tiny hand reached without fear in an attempt to grab the nose of the senior Elder of the Coven of Darkkin. The smile it brought to her face matched the one in her eyes. I’ve seen that true smile maybe four times since I’ve known her and at least two of those times had been directed at my children.

  “You wanna be Great-Grandma, or did you have some other title for them to call you,” I asked.

  Her smile changed to a look of superiority. “Maybe just Great One will do,” she said, arching one eyebrow. Behind her, I could see Doctor Singh looking slightly ill as he observed our wordplay. The number of people on the planet who could talk with her that way numbered less than the fingers of one hand. Three of them were in this room.

  “So the question is… how many other portal-arches are there, and where?” Deckert asked. With all the predators’ attention focused on him, he stayed remarkably calm.

  “If I was experimenting with a biological warfare approach, I’d make more than one test case,” he said.

  “Hmm, devious. I approve,” Senka said, studying the retired Marine thought
fully.

  “Do you remember if there were other doorways like it, Grandmother?” Tanya asked from where she was feeding Cora. Wulf’s little nose crinkled and I could just about tell the exact moment he smelled milk.

  He opened his mouth to cry but there was a sudden breeze and Lydia was there to pop a pacifier into his mouth. Surprised, he paused to suck on it. “Just a holding measure. He’s gonna spit it out in few moments,” she said.

  “Bring him over. Piggy one is almost done,” Tanya said.

  “Fascinating, if somewhat messy,” Senka said. “To answer your question, Mr. Deckert, there are purported portals all over Europe. I have no idea how many are potentially real. But I will order them all investigated immediately,” she said, pulling a phone from the pocket of her fitted suit. “I expect your machine can get me a connection down here? Yes, four bars, perfect,” she said, pressing the flatscreen.

  The outer door opened and Captain Rochat came in, followed by two of his men. They were carrying the bio-containment box with the slug-like thing that had infected Stefano.

  They set the box down on one of the desks in the corner opposite from ‘Sos.

  We all heard it at the same time when Omega spoke. “There are sound waves emanating from that containment unit,” Omega said over the room’s speakers.

  “We know. We hear them too,” Lydia said, head tilted.

  “Were you aware that the sounds were organized into packets?” Omega asked.

  “What? Can you decipher them?” Tanya asked, looking at me.

  “Not yet, but they started as soon as it entered the room. The prisoner, however, is responding and it appears something is happening to it,” Omega said.

  The wall monitor lit up with live pictures from Omega’s cameras. Lydia ignored them and moved up next to Senka to watch directly through the door window.

  On the monitor, two windows showed opposite angles of Stefano. He or it had collapsed down to a squat, legs folded, arms wrapped around legs, head down with his face into his knees.

  “I detect changes at a cellular level,” Omega said. The lefthand window of the monitor zoomed in to focus ever deeper on the skin of the creature’s right hand.

  The screen blurred for a moment before the high-resolution camera autofocused and a dark pattern began to form in the tissue.

  “It is difficult to know what is happening, but I believe the carbon nano units are forming new structures under the skin. Crystalline patterns are emerging.”

  “Omega, is it forming carbon fiber?” Tanya asked, standing and handing Wulf to Nika while putting her shirt back together.

  “No Tanya, I do not believe it to be carbon fiber. It is forming nanocrystalline structures just under the skin,” Omega said.

  “Shit. Lydia, Nika, get the twins out of here,” Tanya said. “It’s forming some kind of diamond armor.”

  Chapter 7

  Fairie

  Mack popped another bite of quail into his mouth and decided he really liked it. Along with at least three of the other meats on the banquet table. But not that lizard meat crap from the Summer Realm.

  The welcome banquet was in full swing, the giant amphitheater converted to an enormous dining room, with banners and décor that celebrated Summer, Winter, and Dragon equally.

  Jetta sat next to him and Stacia across from both of them, seated at a table far removed from the raised dais where the queens of Fairie, their heirs, favorites, and the Speaker ate their own dinners. Ashley looked miserable seated almost in the middle of the table, but at least her father was with her, on her left.

  Declan stood behind her, hands behind his back in a relaxed approximation of parade rest. Twenty feet to Declan’s right stood a ten-foot-tall, black-furred monster that could only be a Bigfoot, and twenty feet to Declan’s left stood a tall elfin knight in translucent blue armor.

  The sasquatch was the protector of the Winter Queen, Morrigan, and on this world, sasquatches were known as trolls. Apparently, in medieval Europe, they used to be called trolls as well. Ashley had explained that sasquatches, or bigfeet or yetis, were able to pass back and forth between the two worlds at will, a natural gift which explained partly why science had never proven their existence. They just left the planet when humans got too close.

  The big blue knight was Queen Zinnia’s bodyguard. Not wanting the Speaker for the Dragons to be without one, Declan had claimed first watch, with Stacia set to spell him as soon as she’d gotten enough calories packed into her lithe frame.

  Apparently it amused the elves to no end that the now-jeans-clad human youth was occupying a position alongside much more fearsome-looking guards. Mack smirked to himself. Joke’s on you, assholes. Slim Shady up there could level the building with a thought. Squatch and Blue Man Group wannabe would be smears of blood on the wall before anyone could blink.

  Actually, according to Declan, there was so much raw magic in the air here that he might go to knock down the building and accidentally flatten the whole city.

  A lot more oxygen than normal in the air, too. That’s why they’d all had to take a strange supplemental drink that one of the city’s white-clad staff members had provided. According to Ian, the drink would provide them with temporary protection from oxygen toxicity or hyperoxia, which would eventually effect them in Fairie’s high-oxygen atmosphere. The elves were masters of biology, and the Moores had been taking the supplement without ill effect since first coming to Fairie.

  Stacia grimaced, putting her fork down and focusing on the dais.

  “What’s up?” Jetta asked her.

  “The Summer elves are having a grand old time insulting Ashley, Declan, and the rest of us in Elvish,” she said.

  “Oh. Oh! Let me guess. Declan’s computer friend is translating for him through his Bluetooth thingy,” Jetta said, catching on faster than Mack. “And you can hear the translation from here?”

  Stacia nodded. Mack hadn’t been truly surprised by the existence of Omega. His roommate had always had a magical flair, literally, with all things technology, and he had interned at Demidova Corp last summer, where they were working on artificial intelligence and quantum computing. It shouldn’t really have surprised anyone that he’d achieved outrageous results. Outrageous pretty much defined Declan.

  There had been numerous little hints that Mack had started to notice. Oddly, his laptop had been freakishly fast and Jetta’s old Chromebook had gained a suspicious degree of usefulness after years of spotty performance. The kicker had been when Declan went to Maine and the Sutton kids were working in New York State for the summer. Some government welfare-slash-child-service types had come snooping to see how well he was taking care of his still-underage sister. Somehow they’d been suddenly recalled to their home office, right in the middle of the interview, and then when he’d called to follow up, the agency phone service could find no hint of their case. It seemed the Suttons had disappeared from the agency’s computer system. On top of that, the last holdup on their parents’ final estate proceedings had magically cleared away, leaving them with a small and very useful sum of money. When Declan had returned from Maine, he hadn’t known a thing about it, but also, he was completely unsurprised by it. Mack had pressed him and he’d introduced him to Omega, the super quantum AI that took an active interest in every aspect of Declan’s life, especially his close friends.

  “Are they saying awful stuff?” Jetta asked.

  “Stupid crap. He’s ignoring it mostly, but now the males have started in on me. Add to that magical drunkenness and low blood sugar and we’ve got a bomb ticking. Problem is, if I go up to relieve him, the comments will pick up and boom!” Stacia said, making exploding gestures with both hands.

  “I got this,” Mack said, pushing away from the table. “He’s really affected by all the magic, isn’t he?”