Emergence (The Infernal Guard Book 1)

by SGD Singh

  “What are you talking about, Lexi?” Tzirga said, shoving Lexi. “We don't! Not like that, anyway. And besides, Nidhan is into you. How can you not realize that?”

  Lexi blushed crimson, shaking her head again.

  “Even though you are a crazy white girl,” Tzirga grinned.

  Asha took the chance to slip out of the booth. “I'll just… go now… way too much drama.”

  † † †

  Lexi was in a much better mood when she met Asha for Underworlders Studies at twenty-three hundred hours, settling onto the bench beside her in Training Room Two as they waited for Uma. Asha wiggled her eyebrows and grinned.

  Lexi muttered, “Don't start, Asha.” But Asha could see she was trying hard not to smile.

  “I should be pissed you thought my brother's a sleaze bag.” Asha tried to sound indignant. “Like some mindless piece of meat to be handed around.” She fluttered her eyes and whispered, fanning herself with a hand. “No, no. I don't want him, you take him. No, no. Really, I insist. You take him.”

  Lexi glared, opening her mouth to reply, but Uma entered the training room.

  “Okay, people.” She clapped her hands. “Everybody gather in a circle and make yourselves comfortable. Today we'll just talk.” She sat down cross legged and leaned against the weapons wall door, motioning them forward.

  Karan and Himat followed Wei Feng and Li Tsia, sitting down in a semi circle in front of Uma, leaving Asha and Lexi to sit on either side of her. Uma studied the end of her long, white braid for a moment, and flung it over her shoulder, and looked up at the ceiling.

  “First of all, just to clear things up. Vampires.”

  Asha and Lexi straightened, looking across the circle at each other.

  “Also known as Vetala. Strigoi.” Uma sighed, inspecting her nails and looking bored. “Hailing from Atala, or the highest Underworld. Their true form is, in fact, a white, scaly, bat-like creature about the size of a Pomeranian. They have red-veined wings, and glowing blue eyes. So no. There will be no romance, true love, uncontrolled teen-angst desires. That's all bullshit, okay?”

  Asha was careful not to look at Lexi and managed to keep a straight face.

  “Although you should know they use the legends and stories to their advantage when seeking out victims for food, or good-looking humans for their friends to inhabit.” Uma reached behind her, detaching a wooden stake off the weapons wall and twirling it in her hand.

  “Very vain, Vampires,” she continued matter-of-factly. “Although when you live that long, given the choice, who wouldn't want to look good, right?” She shrugged. “You see, Vampires occupy the recently dead. Feeding off fear-infused blood, Vampires kill their victims over a period of one moon cycle, new moon to new moon. Then, at the moment of death, they enter the corpse through the mouth, in their mist form, and incubate until the following midnight, at which time they rise. The Undead. Ready to help any recently-immigrated blood sucking buddies find their own human bodies. Obviously, during the period of incubation, the victim can't be embalmed or otherwise interfered with. This is why Vampires prefer good-looking homeless kids, prostitutes, people who won't be missed. They can complete the process undisturbed. Once in a while, a rich and famous person on some ultra-exclusive holiday has disappeared. But that never lasts long. Being recognizable doesn't really suit staying under the radar.” Uma twirled the wooden stake again, catching it with her other hand.

  “Sunlight is deadly to them. And holy water severely burns them. But they do have tremendous strength and they're extremely fast and smart. Well, for Underworlders. A stake through the heart and beheading does the trick.” Uma looked thoughtful. “Actually Bram Stoker's Dracula was fairly accurate, though not as funny as some of the other stuff on Vampires.”

  “Do not underestimate them under any circumstances,” Uma said, pointing the stake at them. “They are fiercely loyal—strictly to each other. And they live for at least a thousand years, so they love long, diabolical planning to further their own interests. Fortunately, here in India vampires are extremely rare. Mostly because we cremate our dead within twenty-four hours. When we do come across them, they're usually trying to pass themselves off as European tourists.” Uma straightened her left leg, wincing.

  “That doesn't mean we won't train you to fight them… probably next week. Okay, any questions?”

  Asha couldn't help herself. “So, Vampires really do exist?”

  “Yes, Sandhu. Do you need time to process? Did you really think all the legends that have survived for hundreds of years were baseless? From all over the planet? Before people even knew the planet is round?”

  “Okay, but why?” asked Lexi. “Why do they come here? And how do they even get here? I mean, they're from another dimension, right? Atala is…” She trailed off.

  Uma crossed her arms and looked amused. “Yes, Hewitt? Go on, by all means.”

  “Well, it's another dimension, right? Realities stacked on realities.”

  “Actually,” Uma said, smiling, “that's not a terrible explanation for the un-explainable. Realities stacked on realities.” She looked around at the class. “As for why… well, if your reality was, shall we say, nothing short of horrific, wouldn't you take the first opportunity to relocate?”

  Himat raised his hand. “So, can't we let them stay? Like refugees, if they… um…”

  Uma laughed. “See? That what comes from too much false information romanticizing them. Have you not heard a word I've said? They feed off fear-infused human blood, people. They do not die. At least not for a very long time. Even the most devastating injuries heal within hours! And we. Are. Their. Food. They have a special fondness for the blood of children under seven.” She looked disgusted. “Have you ever thought about how many missing children there are? Vampires happily feed off them, slowly, until they die. Or we find them first.” Uma leveled her eyes at Himat. “Tell me, Pradhan. What is it that you think we do here, exactly?”

  Himat looked like he wished he could fall through the floor, and Asha felt her temper flare.

  She said, a little too loudly, “It's hard to answer that when we've all had something of a strictly need-to-know upbringing.”

  Himat turned his orange eyes to Asha in surprise, then quickly looked at his hands.

  Uma sighed and tugged at her left leg, closing her eyes. “Okay, fair enough. Sorry. It's this damn leg making me… bitchy. Thought it was healed.” She replaced the stake. “I acknowledge it's a lot to take in. Go to your rooms. Rest. And for God's sake, read about Underworlders.” She got up slowly, wincing again. “The beet-onion-kale juice isn't so bad if you drink it fast. I'll see you all tomorrow.”

  † † †

  “You knock, Lexi,” Asha whispered. “You're the one who can't go one day without laying eyes on his manly perfection.”

  Lexi made an irritated noise and shoved her back at the door marked N. Sandhu.

  Asha hissed, “Fine! I was a little concerned about his ability to survive laundry duty, anyway.” And knocked.

  Five long seconds later, the door was jerked open, and Nidhan stood there wearing only a towel. His thick, wavy hair hung down past his waist. Asha heard Lexi gasp behind her.

  Nidhan didn't seem to notice. He shoved one large hand at Asha's face. “Do I smell like bleach?”

  Asha leaned back, slapping his hand away. “Uh, no? Soap.” She coughed. “Lots of soap. Sandalwood and neem, I'm guessing.”

  Nidhan looked relieved, then smelled his own hand and shuddered. “You have no idea of the shit I've been through today.” He dropped his voice. “Washing people's dirty underwear. And socks!” He made a face, smelling his forearm.

  And then Nidhan finally noticed Lexi. He froze, his eyes widening as he visibly realized he was pretty much naked.

  “Yeah,” Asha smiled. “You can put some clothes on now. We'll wait.”

  Nidhan slammed the door.

  “Damn!” Lexi whispered. “I mean, holy shit, Asha. Your brothe
r is smokin' hot!”

  Asha covered her ears. “I am not hearing this. I'm imagining drowning puppies. Cute, fluffy ones.”

  “Drowning puppies?”

  “Well, obviously rescuing them would be the next stage of the mind-clearing exercise.”

  Lexi snorted, mumbling something obscene about inter-species relationships.

  Nidhan opened the door a minute later, fully clothed. Avoiding looking at Lexi, he motioned them onto the balcony. They snacked on fruit while Asha and Lexi filled him in on the classes he missed, Chakori's injuries, Asha's healing, and the existence of Vampires.

  Nidhan stared at them. “Well, that would certainly explain the Elvis sightings,” he said. “What? Everyone's heard of Elvis, Lexi. What's after dinner?”

  “Weapons,” Lexi said, but this time she sounded doubtful.

  Chapter 13

  When they'd finished eating and weapons class still wasn't canceled, Lexi turned into a giggling, jumping, very annoying person. She and Li Tsia scrambled to be the first through the carved metal door, and Asha and Nidhan rolled their eyes.

  Behind the door, everything was dark. Asha stood, breathing in the oppressive heat that filled her lungs. A faint orange glow shone in the distance, and they all followed Lexi down a hallway toward it. The sound of low voices grew louder. Turning a corner, they entered a long, narrow room, lit only by a fiery glow around the next corner.

  Two large, shirtless men stood over a steel table, deep in conversation, their powerful muscles shining with sweat in the dim light. The larger of the two had a long, black braid that hung past his waist dividing the long scars across his broad back. Asha wondered if they'd been caused by the same Underworlder that injured Garud's arm. The Wolverine strikes again.

  The table was covered with what looked like handguns.

  “So, start with the flares. That's—” He straightened his scarred back and turned to the class.

  The other man turned, too. “That's what I said, Arihan.”

  He was the shorter of the two, but still at least six feet tall, with huge shoulders and arms. He had unusually light eyes, as if the color had leeched out of them, and short, thick hair. He glared at the Trainees as if they were interrupting.

  “Good evening, everyone,” he said with a tortured sigh and motioned them forward. “Stand in front of this table.” He flipped a switch on the wall, and bright light illuminated a target wall about forty feet away. “What you see before you is exactly what it looks like. A .50 caliber handgun. The thing that makes these guns different, aside from their size, is they have a few minor modifications. This weapon can pass undetected through any security system. And the ammunition they take will not kill civilians, so even if you're a terrible shot, don't worry about that—just hope you can beat whatever it is in hand-to-hand combat.” He laughed softly.

  The bigger man muttered something, and the speaker nodded. “I am Dhevan. This is Arihan,” he said, bowing with a sweep of his powerful arm. He held out one scarred, rough hand, getting each of their names in turn. Asha thought he looked more intently at Nidhan and Li Tsia than the others.

  Perhaps it was a requirement that Tvastars be huge.

  Asha noticed that Dhevan's right foot seemed to be made entirely of silver metal. The top was covered with a carving of an ugly monster, its many hideous eyes widened in agony, its razor teeth bared in a silent scream.

  Dhevan started speaking again, and she pulled her gaze from his foot.

  “We, along with one other instructor, Avinash, will train you in the use of various weapons,” Dhevan told them. Lexi grabbed Asha's hand and nearly crushed the bones in her fingers.

  Dhevan looked back at Arihan, who inclined his head and stepped forward.

  “Moving on.” Arihan's voice was deep and gravelly. “Today we'll practice shooting flares.” Up close, the scars on his back looked hideous, and Asha tried not to stare. “It's simple. You load in the flare, like so.” He grabbed a metal box filled with purple, rubbery-looking bullets the size of something you'd see in a Rambo movie. He held one of them up, then loaded it into the brushed metal revolver with a flick of his wrist.

  “Look here on the handle. Push this purple button with your thumb, like so.” Automatically the bullet spun into place with a soft click. “And…”

  He pulled the trigger, and everyone jumped.

  “Has a pretty big kick.” He grinned, and silver incisors shone in his mouth. “You'll get used to it. It has a silencer, but obviously it's still a little loud.”

  Nidhan raised a hand. “Shouldn't a flare be something we see?”

  Arihan turned to Himat, his eyebrows raised.

  “I see it,” Himat said with a nod. “It must be beyond the human visible spectrum. Like ultraviolet or infrared… It's also still making a high-pitched sound.”

  Everyone just looked at him. He pointed at his bright orange-red eyes and shrugged.

  “Anyone who will be able to help fast enough, will be able to see the flare.” Arihan stepped backward with a sweep of his arm. “Okay, go ahead, give it a try.”

  Lexi was already loading her gun by the time Asha reached for hers. The weapon was much lighter than it looked and felt perfectly balanced in her hands. The heat was still stifling, and Asha could see why the two men didn't wear shirts if they spent most of their time in it.

  “So, in a combat situation,” Arihan was saying, “when firing a flare, naturally you aim for the sky.” He paced behind them, shouting above the noise, the sound echoing off the stone walls. “Today, I just want you to get a feel for your weapon and start to get comfortable with it. Use one box of ammunition each. Press the purple button every time. Get used to where that button is.”

  As he paced, Arihan corrected their posture, hands, and the placement of their feet. Asha was surprised how fast she used up one box of ammo. The shots began to die down and everyone lay the weapons on the table and turned to Arihan, their ears ringing.

  “Good!” he said.

  Dhevan looked at the ceiling, with a sigh. Shaking his head, he left the room.

  “All right. This is the first weapon you are being issued. You will take it with you everywhere. Everywhere, understood?” He pointed to one wall, heading for the door. “There are weapons belts. Grab one and follow me,” he called over his shoulder.

  They followed him into another dim room that seemed like an office, except none of the machines looked familiar to Asha. Even the filing cabinets, on closer look, weren't really filing cabinets, but small square drawers.

  Arihan opened one of the drawers, took out a small metal object the size of a large cell phone, and placed it on the desk.

  “Now, at the base of the grip on your weapon there's an engraving.” Everyone looked. “Line up. When it's your turn, I want you to place your right thumb here.” He indicated a similar engraving in the center of the metal device on the desk, and motioned Li Tsia forward. “You will feel a stinging sensation. Immediately place your thumb to the engraving in the weapon, like so.”

  Asha was next. A split second after she touched her thumb to the metal, it started to glow, and a sharp pain shot through her hand, making her wince. “Don't look at your thumb, Sandhu. Put it onto the weapon. Good.”

  Asha felt a slight pull, as if the weapon were sucking at her skin. Gears seemed to shift inside it with a soft sound like metal sliding on metal.

  “Congratulations,” said Arihan when they had all finished. “From this moment on, this weapon will only fire for you. Take good care of it; they're not cheap.”

  Lexi's eyes were gleaming as she cradled her weapon, and Asha was worried she might actually cry.

  “Tomorrow we'll practice with targets, and learn about a variety of ammo—”

  Uma walked briskly into the room, whispering something to Dhevan without even acknowledging the class. He nodded and looked serious. Then she squeezed Dhevan's hand and turned to the class. “Time for more bonding, people. Return to the outdoor training arena and stay there
until further notice. Don't forget your drinks on the way out.”

  † † †

  It was raining steadily, so everyone huddled under the veranda, trying to stay awake by singing, arguing, and telling stories. Most of the boys eventually fell asleep.

  Asha sat in the shadows near Mia, Chucho, and Freya, plucking at her harp, and watched Aquila sleep against the far wall.

  His head lay on his rolled-up uniform shirt, and he had one knee propped against the stone wall. His arm lay across his eyes, causing his grey T-shirt to ride up on one side. Asha was mesmerized by the inches of pale, smooth skin and the sculpted hip bone above his belt, his revolver hanging at his slender waist. Asha wondered absently at the many rings on his hand, which hung relaxed by his neck, fingertips touching hair that looked soft as silk. The gentle rise and fall of his chest…

  “Sing something for us, Lexi!” Tzirga and Ariella spoke at the same time and laughed.

  Lexi looked for a few minutes at the fire blazing in a large stone bowl.

  “A lot of people have asked what it's like to be rich,” she said, barely over a whisper. A few people laughed. “But at Nidhan's house I read a poem, a song, in a Sikh philosophy book.” She looked so serious that everyone sat still, waiting.

  Asha pulled her gaze from Aquila's sleeping figure and sat forward, watching Lexi with concern as she gazed into the flames, her hair shining like gold. “I realized, as I read it, that it summarized my feeling about having a lot of money exactly… how I felt before meeting Asha and BapuJi, her grandfather.” She met Asha's eyes for a second across the flames. “And how I felt before I met all of you. You took away the meaninglessness of a shallow existence. You gave me the gift no amount of money could have ever bought. Each and every one of you are my beloved friends.”

  Her eyes filled with tears as she gazed at the flames.

  Then she began to sing.

  Lexi's beautiful voice carried softly in Punjabi, her accent barely noticeable, and the mournful tune filled the rain-soaked garden, as tears ran slowly down her face.