Forever Night

by W. J. May

  “There’s something…there’s something there. Inside of Petra. I can’t explain it. We are going to find a way. I want to stop this war, not just for you and Mom, but for everyone. Somehow,” she sighed, “it feels like it’s my responsibility to stop it.” Kallie looked up at him and stepped away, picking up a cooler. Heading into unknown territory was going to be dangerous, and she’d stocked up not only on blood, but on a cooler that drew its power from the car itself, keeping the blood properly chilled. Once, she would have struggled with something this heavy, but now she lifted it easily. As her phone dinged, telling her that sunset had arrived at last, she gave a last smile at her father. “I love you.”

  “I love you, too. And Kallie? I’m going to do what I can to get Caleb free while you’re gone.”

  Kallie’s heart squeezed. “Be careful?”

  “I will.” He came to kiss her on the forehead. “You, too, Kallie.”

  It seemed like only a few moments later that they were on the road, Petra chained in the back of the car, Kallie’s mother driving white-knuckled. They drove in silence. Every once in a while, Kallie glanced back at the big tent, lined with light-blocking material, that lay beside Petra. It was her excuse, she told herself, to keep an eye on Petra. She worried if the tent would work. If not, would they be able to find shelter at the places they’d marked to stop each night and wait the daylight out?

  It was too late now to do anything but hope.

  When they stopped at last, the car nestled in a stand of trees off the road and Kallie’s mother scuffing away the tire tracks with her feet, Kallie set up the tent alone. Petra, chained, clearly felt the task was either beneath her, or more than they should reasonably ask, and her help would be iffy with the chains on in any case. Was it silly to keep her chained? Could they trust her without the chains on? Kallie wasn’t sure if she would run, or worse, try to hurt her mother.

  Kallie crawled inside to lay out the sleeping bags, and checked to make sure that the cooler was still drawing power from the car without draining the battery too much. When at last she returned, her mother huddled a few feet away trying to stay calm, Petra said nothing.

  “Thank you,” Kallie offered finally.

  Petra was silent.

  “For helping.”

  Nothing. Kallie bit her lip and considered.

  “Petra?”

  “What?” Petra’s attention was sudden, vicious. “What do you want?”

  “To thank you,” Kallie said, stung.

  “Don’t thank me yet. You aren’t going to like what’s coming.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “It means you want power without sacrifice.” Petra leaned back against a tree. “You want allies without having to pay the price. You want everyone to live in the same pristine world you inhabit.”

  “You have a problem with me?” Kallie’s pulse was beating in her ears.

  “Kallie…” Her mother’s voice was worried.

  “No. I want her to explain that.”

  “No, you don’t.” Petra looked away, a sneer playing around her mouth. “You don’t want to hear that the world is complicated. You certainly don’t want to hear that there’s going to be a cost to reuniting your little family.”

  “What do you know about me?”

  “I know you lost Liam.”

  “Because—” Kallie bit back the words. “It’s nothing like you and Dad,” she said finally, hearing the venom in her voice and not caring. “I never abandoned Liam. I never turned him over to torturers. I never—” She broke off. Petra was as white as a sheet. Kallie had gone too far, and she knew it. “I’m sorry.”

  Silence was her only answer.

  “Petra, really, I’m—”

  “Just leave me alone.” The woman’s voice was quiet, exhausted, and angry and full of such despair that Kallie had no words. She looked away, and said nothing more until all of them crawled at last into the tent to escape the rising sun.

  Chapter 13

  She woke in the dead of night.

  Something was wrong.

  She had no idea what, but from the dread that seemed to flood her veins and from the way the stars wheeling above looked entirely different than they should, she knew beyond a doubt that something was terribly wrong. The world seemed to press down on her chest and it would be so easy, so very easy, to slip into darkness again. Night, soothing dark… She could sleep, sleep as long as she wanted, a dreamless sleep…

  Kallie jerked upright with a gasp. A spell. She wasn’t going to fall for this, she told herself savagely. No freakin’ way! She tried to stand and felt exhaustion dragging at her limbs, but part of her was crying out in panic. This wasn’t normal, this wasn’t right.

  “Mom. Mom?” She couldn’t stand, and so she crawled, dragging herself over the ground with every ounce of strength she could muster.

  Wouldn’t she just prefer to sleep?

  No!

  “Mom?” When she saw how still her mother was, Kallie’s fear gripped her like a noose. Panic broke once more through the siren call of sleep, and she felt her fingers close clumsily around her mother’s shoulder. When a breath rose slowly in her mother’s chest, she thought she would cry with relief. “Oh, thank goodness you’re alive.”

  But her mother didn’t even move. When Kallie shook her, her body moved heavily. Curled on one side in her sleeping bag, she thudded onto her back so heavily that Kallie watched her head loll uncomfortably.

  “Mom?” She felt for her mother’s pulse. The call of sleep was fading from her as she fought for consciousness, but her mother was not even starting to wake. Her pulse was strong and slow, but nothing Kallie did, from calling her mother’s name to shaking her, seemed to wake her.

  Petra.

  The thought came with a stab of awareness and Kallie pushed her way out of the heavy tent, taking a deep breath of fresh air in relief. Something about this seemed to shake the sleep from her blood even quicker, and she inhaled again as she looked around.

  She didn’t, at first, realize that she was moving west. But she was, her footsteps showing behind her in an eerily straight line. There was something this way, something that made walking west feel like walking downhill; her feet thudded too heavily on the ground and she clenched her hands as muscle control returned. When she crested the little hill, her breath caught in her throat.

  The collar lay discarded on the ground nearby and a cloud of blood-red power cloaked Petra where she sat, head tipped back to stare at the moon above. She was chanting, her power rippling in the air, both seen and unseen. It smelled to Kallie like cinnamon and metal, like musty old books and rich earth and flowers, sickly sweet. She swayed, yearning toward it.

  Reason returned in a single breath, with a jolt so strong Kallie acted on instinct. She ran as fast as she could, bowling Petra over. Her footsteps scuffed the careful lines drawn on the ground, and Petra’s cry of shock and horror echoed Kallie’s own yell of anger.

  “What’re you doing?” It was Petra who spoke. Horror was plain in her white face. “Do you have any idea how dangerous it is to—”

  But Kallie wasn’t listening anymore, for a single scrap of scent on the breeze caught her attention. “Reds.” Her fingers dug into Petra’s arm, hauling the woman upright. “You called Reds after us?”

  “I didn’t! I was—”

  “You called them,” Kallie hissed. “Don’t freakin’ lie to me. I won’t stand for it.”

  “Kallie—” And then there was real fear on Petra’s face. Her voice broke off and she swallowed hard.

  Kallie turned, and she knew without asking that the Rogue Reds were there. She stared off into the distance. They’d be here any minute. These were the Rogue Reds who had imprisoned Petra, and they were going to kill everyone in the camp.

  She was damned if she was going to let them get to her mother. Kallie tapped deep into herself, into the core of power that glowed purple in the center of her very being. She felt the power crystallize and shatter, the b
all cracking to let the light stream out, and power coursed through her veins as she laughed in exultation. It didn’t matter how frightened she was, or how terrifying it was to see her enemies; she had to protect her mother—this was what she had been made for. She felt more herself in this hybrid body than she ever had as a human.

  There were three, fast and young, all coming at them quickly. Kallie launched herself at the first one and her momentum met his with a sickening crunch. She winced as the power jolted through her. He had fed on something strong recently, something that smelled of daylight and—

  A scream burst from her, rage twisting her heart until she thought she would suffocate. She saw the gleam in his eyes as her fists lashed out. He was moving fast, evading her more easily than he should have, and this power wasn’t his. This was Caleb’s blood, the blood of a day-walker, and Kallie wanted to sob with the knowledge that he was drained dry while this Rogue Red used his power.

  “I’m going to kill you,” she snarled.

  “Try it,” her opponent laughed.

  “Kallie!” Petra’s voice was panicked. “Kallie, help!”

  Kallie’s hand smashed across her opponent’s throat and she was turning even as he stumbled back. The other two Rogue Reds were advancing on Petra, cruel smiles on their faces.

  “We have a stake for you,” one of them taunted her. “We might let you live if you just tell us where it is.”

  “Where what is?” Kallie raced forward as Petra drew herself up.

  “What you’re searching for.” One of them smiled, shaking his head. “You had to know we’d figure out that—”

  It was as far as he got before Kallie’s foot slammed into his back. She punched her heel out, hitting his kidney, and, vampire or not, he went down with a scream. As her first opponent rushed at her from behind, she swung to deal with the third Rogue Red, yanking the arm out quickly and breaking it with a slam of one fist. She winced as the bone broke and the vampire cried out.

  The first vampire was heaving for air around what seemed like a broken trachea, but, like any vampire, his body was already healing itself. His eyes, red as garnets, looked just as cold, and he bared his teeth with a hiss that was soft but deadly. He moved like a predator, and Kallie felt the gulf between them. This was a hunter, a vampire who hunted humans for sport and for food. He knew how to fight, and she…

  Well, if all she had was explosive strength, then that was all she had. And she would use it, damn it. Kallie drew in a breath as slowly as she could, and then, with as much speed as she could manage, screamed at the top of her lungs.

  The sound shocked him enough that when her hands and feet lashed out, he went back with a scream of his own. Bones broke under her strikes, and his cries of pain stirred a part of her that she ached not to acknowledge.

  “I’m not like you,” she found herself whispering as she turned, taking on the other two with the ferocity of a caged animal. “I’m not like you. I swear I’m not.” One of them knocked her sideways and she tasted blood from a loose tooth.

  And then one collapsed, writhing, the stake he had dropped embedded in his own back now. Petra stood behind him, her face twisted into a mask of vengeance. She watched him die without pity, without care, and Kallie was so horrified by all of it, all of it together, that when the last one came at her with a hiss, she very nearly had her neck torn open. She moved just in time, teeth grazing the skin, and one hand came up to crush her attacker’s throat.

  There was silence, except for the low moan of the wind and Kallie’s labored breath, and she heard the sobs that were not entirely from exertion. She was afraid, terribly afraid now. What was she turning into? What had—?

  “Kallie?” Petra was in front of her.

  “You.” Kallie pushed her away, half-stumbling over the dead vampire’s body and feeling her stomach twist in revulsion. The other two were coming back to consciousness, moaning in pain, and she wanted to cry. She looked back at Petra, face twisting. “You did this.”

  “I was trying to ward us,” Petra said, her voice low and angry. She met Kallie’s eyes unflinchingly. “They’ve been following us since we left the city, not sure where we were going, but certainly following us. I felt them come closer tonight and I thought it was best if they didn’t find us, if they just passed by us.”

  “That’s why you put us to sleep, huh?”

  “You would have stopped me! You wouldn’t have trusted me to do this.” Petra narrowed her eyes. “Would you?”

  “No.” Kallie snatched up the collar. “Put this back on. How did you even get it off?”

  “If I got it off before, how do you think it’s going to stay on this time?”

  “Damn it!” Kallie turned away, hands clenching her hair.

  “Kallie, listen to me. We should go.”

  “Mom won’t wake up since that spell.” If she hadn’t come rushing from the screams and fighting, she wasn’t going to wake for anything. “You need to wake her.”

  “No. Just you and me.” Petra’s voice was urgent. “Leave her. She has the Blues to protect her, and the Reds don’t know about her. Come with me, and I’ll teach you what I know of magic.”

  “No.”

  “Kallie, listen. You shouldn’t have been able to wake up tonight. Before you were a vampire, you had the potential to have this power, and you have even more potential now. Let me show you and teach you how to control it.”

  “No,” Kallie said flatly. Dawn was just beginning to lighten the sky and she looked back to the tent. “You’re going to help me get Mom out of here, and these two into the shade. Nobody’s dying here if they don’t have to. We’re going to give them a fighting chance, and then we’re going.” She moved to the bodies and then turned back to Petra. “If you so much as step a toe out of line again, I’ll kill you. I won’t hesitate this time.”

  Chapter 14

  “I don’t see anything.” Kallie look around and frowned. “Literally nothing.”

  “It’s here somewhere.” Petra’s voice was faint and slightly out of breath. There was a clank as her chains dragged over the rocky hillside. “I can feel it.” There was surety in her voice. The chains were almost a joke now, just a way to make Kallie and her mother feel safe. Kallie knew they couldn’t stop Petra, but her mother didn’t know so she’d made Petra put them back on.

  “What does it even look like?” Kallie’s mother had not spoken in days, and her voice came out low and rusty. When Kallie looked over, the woman seemed as surprised as anyone to be having a fairly normal conversation. It seemed like they should be shouting curses at one another, but the climb had robbed them of most of their strength.

  “It’s an orb.” Petra did not look over; she refused, ever, to look at Kallie’s mother. “A silvery metal. Spells on the outside, and a sapphire.”

  “I thought silver was bad for witches.”

  “It wasn’t made by witches,” Petra reminded them. “It was made by vampires. And vampires have never liked witches.”

  “Really? Why not?” Kallie couldn’t hide the sarcasm from her voice.

  Petra ignored the sarcasm. “Vampires like to think they’re superior to humans. They don’t like being reminded that they’re wrong.” Petra looked around herself, and then pointed to where Kallie’s mother was standing. “It’s that way. Buried in the rock.”

  Kallie and her mother started digging, shifting the boulders. It would have been impossible a few weeks ago, but with the two of them well-rested and well-fed, no longer bound by human limitations, they were able to move the stones fairly easily. Kallie squinted in the moonlight, looking for the telltale gleam of light.

  The chink of a tiny rock on metal had them all scrambling to peer down into the darkness of a tiny cave. None of them said a word as they hauled the rock away, scrabbling against the rough surfaces. Kallie found herself holding her breath, desperate to see—

  Nothing. Or, at least, it looked pretty much like nothing. An orb, it most certainly was, and there was a gleam of deep
blue that Kallie could see in her enhanced vision. But it would never have stood out on the mountainside. It was hardly on the level of a crumbling cathedral, something that made her feel the vampires had enjoyed a large and powerful empire.

  “It wasn’t supposed to be seen,” Petra explained. When Kallie’s head jerked around, the woman laughed. “No, I can’t read thoughts. I don’t need to. Your face says them clearly enough.”

  “It’s…nothing.” Kallie stared at it. “This can’t possibly be it. Can it?”

  “It is. You didn’t like touching the collar; can’t you feel the draw of that?”

  Kallie stepped forward hesitantly, laying her palm flat against the metal. She drew in her breath sharply. It was warm, pulsing with life against her hand.

  “It’s—is it alive?”

  “Not as you would think.” Petra’s voice was soft with reverence. “It’s responding to you. To your skill.”

  “I’m not a witch,” Kallie reminded her.

  “Mmm. We’ll see.”

  “We have company.” Her mother’s voice was sudden and urgent, breaking the reverie between Kallie and Petra. All three women sank to a crouch, taking shelter behind one of the boulders they had moved. Two SUVs had turned off the main road and were making their way across the rough ground that led to the hills.

  Petra swore, and Kallie bit her lip, trying to figure out who it would be and how to protect her mother and… there was way too much to consider. Seemed like it all the time these days. She wished they had thought to hide the car, and knew there hadn’t been time for that. It was all a mess of poor decisions, and knowing that they were better than the alternative did nothing to make her feel better. “You two stay here.”

  “Leaving us together isn’t exactly wise—”

  “No matter who’s down there, they probably want me alive and I can at least talk to them. Right? Neither of you can say the same. So…stay here, and…don’t kill each other.” When neither of them answered, Kallie raised an eyebrow. “Okay?”

  “Yes,” her mother said finally. Petra gave a shrug.