Boy of Blood

by Megan O'Russell

  “You didn’t fail,” Nola whispered. “I’m here, aren’t I?”

  The guard nodded and gave a pinched smile.

  “The captain said she can go in.” The limping guard returned. “But she’s not to wake Ridgeway or disturb the wound dressings.”

  Wound dressings.

  Nola exhaled shakily. “I just want to see him.”

  The limping guard nodded and beckoned for Nola to follow her. “He’s a lucky guy. Keep a good watch on him for us.”

  “I will,” Nola said, so softly her words barely made a sound as the door to Jeremy’s room swung open.

  He lay on a bed, needles and tubes attached to his arm. He slept peacefully, no pain marring his face nor any trace of blood on the white gown that covered him.

  Nola walked toward Jeremy, not noticing the guard had followed her into the room until she pulled up a chair for Nola to sit next to the bed. Before Nola could thank her, she slipped back out, leaving her and Jeremy alone in the room.

  The white gown and sheet of the bed couldn’t diminish Jeremy. He didn’t look smaller or weaker. Only peaceful. If it hadn’t been for the tubes in his arms, he could have simply fallen asleep after a long day of work in the domes.

  She watched his chest rise and fall with each breath. No rattle came from the terrible hole that had pierced him. She reached for his hand before stopping herself. She wasn’t to wake him. Instead, she curled up on the chair and stared at him.

  The tiny lines from his constant smile showed even in sleep. But the newer lines, the ones made by worry, were gone. He hadn’t shaved in a few days. Stubble marked his chin. Nola wanted to touch his cheeks. To feel their roughness on her skin. To feel the warmth that meant life still filled him.

  Wrapping her arms around herself, she fought the urge to hold him. Trying to content herself with watching his chest rise and fall, rise and fall. Each breath was another victory. Another moment of life the cruel outside world hadn’t stolen from them.

  Inhale, exhale. Inhale, exhale.

  How many millions of breaths would mean they had made it through another year?

  Inhale, exhale.

  How many breaths until it counted as a long, full life?

  She didn’t know she had fallen asleep until fingers grazed her palm.

  “Nola,” a gravelly voice whispered.

  She blinked, trying to see in the dim light of the room. A hand lay gently in hers.

  “Nola,” the voice said again. She looked up to Jeremy. His eyes were open, and a faint smile curved his lips. “Are you all right?”

  She choked on her laugh, tears tightening her throat. “Am I all right?” Nola repeated, tenderly twining her fingers through his. “You almost died, and you’re asking if I’m all right?”

  “Always.” Jeremy reached toward her.

  “Don’t.” Nola moved closer as a shadow of pain crossed Jeremy’s face. She leaned in, kissing his palm and pressing it to her cheek. “You have to stay still and rest so you can heal.”

  “I’ll heal just fine.” Jeremy grinned. Only his eyes betrayed his pain and fatigue. “I just want to hold you.”

  “If your dad thinks you aren’t resting because I’m here, he’ll kick me out.” She glanced toward the door. “I don’t want to leave.”

  “Come up here then.” Jeremy patted the bed next to him. “Then I can hold you without moving.”

  “I don’t want to hurt you. You were wounded in the city. Really, really badly and…” She didn’t have the words to say how close to losing him they had come.

  “I know.” He took her hand, coaxing her toward the bed. “I was there, and it hurt like hell. But I’m going to be fine. And I’ll sleep a lot better if I can feel you safe beside me.”

  She sat gently on the bed, easing her weight down slowly and watching his face for any sign she was causing him pain.

  “I was safe, you know.” Nola lay down next to Jeremy. He drew her in so her head rested on his shoulder. “I was in a bunker. You were the one out fighting.”

  “It doesn’t matter where you are, Nola.” He kissed the top of her head. “I’m always going to worry about you. I love you too much not to.”

  “I love you, too.” She tipped her chin up and brushed her lips against his. “You have to rest and get better. I need you whole and healthy.”

  “I’ll be fine.” He smiled, and this time his joy touched his eyes as well. “As long as I’ve got you.”

  “Sleep,” she whispered. “I’ll be here when you wake up. I promise.”

  “Don’t let them make you leave,” Jeremy said, and in a moment, he was asleep.

  Closing her eyes, she could feel the steady rise and fall of his chest as it timed with her own breaths.

  He was alive, and he loved her.

  I love him.

  A smile still on her lips, Nola drifted to sleep.

  Chapter Ten

  Lights flashed on. With a squeak, Nola fell, thudding onto the concrete floor.

  “Nola!” Jeremy shouted.

  “I’m fine,” she groaned.

  “Sorry to wake you,” Captain Ridgeway said from his place by the door. While he didn’t look sorry, he didn’t look angry either, which Nola took to be a good sign as she pushed herself off the floor. “The doctors are ready to check on you, Jeremy.”

  The captain stepped aside, letting a doctor dressed in a white uniform enter the room. The tag on the front of her uniform read Doctor Mullins.

  “I feel great,” Jeremy said, taking Nola’s hand in his as soon as she stood.

  “I need to check your wounds, nonetheless.” Doctor Mullins glanced at Nola before looking back at Captain Ridgeway.

  “Nola, if you wouldn’t mind leaving while the doctor examines Jeremy.” Captain Ridgeway held the door to the hall open.

  “Sure.” Nola started for the door, but Jeremy held tightly onto her hand.

  “I don’t need to be examined,” Jeremy said. “I’m fine, and Nola can stay.”

  “You are an Outer Guard,” Captain Ridgeway said, his voice leaving no doubt that he was speaking as Jeremy’s commander, not his father. “You were wounded in the line of duty, and you will receive medical treatment.”

  “I’ll wait outside.” Nola kissed Jeremy’s cheek. “I’ll come back as soon as they’re done.”

  Nodding to Captain Ridgeway, she went out into the hall to wait. The brightness of the lights in the hall meant it was nearly midday.

  All the tunnels were lit according to the time of day to ensure the people of the domes would stay attuned to the sun even while working underground. But the false brightness bore into Nola’s eyes, a garish contrast to the soothing light of Jeremy’s room.

  Even the few hours Nola had slept made a huge difference. No hint remained that patients had been treated in the hall. No blood marked the floor. The scent of fear and fighting had left the air. The door to one of the long barrack’s rooms swung open. Half the beds Nola could see were filled with sleeping Outer Guard. The other half were empty.

  Were the beds empty because the guards with families were in their homes aboveground or already out working? Had more been lost in the city?

  But it wasn’t Jeremy. I didn’t lose him.

  Self-loathing welled in Nola’s chest.

  Is it so terrible to want the person I love alive?

  “Nola.” Captain Ridgeway stepped out of the door and stood next to her, following her gaze toward the empty beds. “We lost two.”

  She looked up at Captain Ridgeway and felt like a little girl again. As terrified and small as the night he had come to tell them her father had been killed in a riot.

  “I’m so sorry,” Nola said. Her words sounded hollow, unbearably inadequate.

  It had been winter when her father died. The air in the domes had been chilly. She remembered staring at the goose bumps on her arms while the captain told her mother how brave her father had been. How his act of heroism had saved lives. But all Nola could think was how badly she
wanted her father brought back inside where it was warm. She didn’t want him to sleep in the cold. Even if he was to sleep forever.

  “What happened?” Nola asked, not really expecting an answer.

  Captain Ridgeway rubbed his chin for a moment before speaking. “Follow me.”

  Without looking to see if she obeyed, he turned and strode down the hall to his office. Before she could take a step, he held the door open for her.

  Feeling as though she were being led to a teacher’s office for disobedience, Nola walked down the hall and through the open door.

  It was a small room with only a desk, two chairs, and a filing cabinet. One picture sat on the desk. Jeremy and Gentry smiling together, back when Jeremy was shorter than his older sister. A faint hum permeated the air but did nothing to lessen the horrible quiet while Nola waited for the captain to speak. She expected him to sit behind his desk or offer her a chair, but he stayed just inside the door, standing right in front of her so she had to look up to see his face.

  “It was the wolf packs. Since Nightland cleared out, there’s been fighting to see who controls the city. Vampers don’t naturally like to live together. A community like Nightland may very well have been the only one of its kind in the world. Now they’re out of the city, and there isn’t another Vamper group to step in and take power.” Captain Ridgeway ran his calloused hands over the graying stubble on his face. “At least not one that can stand up to the wolf packs. The packs started by picking off Vampers, and now they’ve moved on to fighting each other to see who will end up in power.”

  “But why did all the guards go into the city?” she asked, unsure if she had overstepped by speaking. “I know the Outer Guard have to protect the peace in the city, but the Dome Guard have never gone in to stop riots.”

  “We aren’t dealing with riots. It’s become an all-out street war. They aren’t burning factories, they’re burning homes. Taking over whole blocks, and anyone who tries to fight back, or just doesn’t run fast enough, dies. Or is forced to join the pack. So, the winning pack gets stronger and stronger—”

  “Until they’re as strong as Nightland and can come for us,” Nola said. “So, you took everyone to try and stop the pack from growing. Did it work?”

  “It bought us time,” Captain Ridgeway said, “but we didn’t stop them. I think the world might have fallen too far for us to actually keep the shadows from spreading.”

  Fear swelled in her chest. “Then what do we do?”

  “Find a way to survive the shadows. Then fight like hell when they come to our door.”

  “We can’t leave the domes.” Nola’s mind flipped through a hundred possibilities, trying to find a path that didn’t lead to more gray smoke rising above the domes. “The food and the plants, they can’t be moved. Even if we could find another place for the people.”

  “We aren’t going to leave, we’re going to fight. We’ll burn the whole damn city if that’s what it takes.”

  Nola froze, frightened by Captain Ridgeway’s vehemence.

  “I hope—” Nola searched for words in the tangles of her mind. “I hope it won’t come to that. But if it’s the city or the domes…”

  “Then the domes have to survive. We were built to protect the future of mankind. And that’s what we’ll do, no matter what it takes.”

  The captain’s words hung heavy in the air.

  “Why are you telling me this?” Nola asked, wanting to flee Captain Ridgeway’s heavy gaze. It felt like he was searching her, trying to find some grain of information that would help the domes survive. But even if she hadn’t sworn to Jeremy that she would lie, there was nothing she knew that could save them from a wolf pack. “Isn’t this the sort of thing the Outer Guard always try to hide from the rest of us?” she pressed on after a long moment of silence.

  “It is,” he said, “but for some reason you, Magnolia Kent, seem to be mired deeper in this bloody muck than the rest of us. And if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that when blood and death come for someone once, they’ll come back again. And again. The bloodthirsty don’t forget.”

  The captain’s words rang over her like a judge delivering a death sentence. She had played with shadows. Now she was condemned to darkness.

  “They’ll keep coming for me till they kill me.” The words came so naturally, so simply, it felt like she had known since the first time she stared into the void of a Vamper’s black eyes.

  “They’ll kill you, or you’ll kill them. You can’t get away from a monster that has your scent. And Emanuel isn’t dead, at least not as far as we can tell. The storm that’s brewing carries one word on the wind: Nola.”

  Nola swayed on the spot, and the captain caught her by the elbows.

  “Your name is still spoken in the city. The second Nightland took you, you became a symbol of the domes. And until you’re not, you aren’t safe.”

  “Why are you telling me this?” she said, her voice stronger and louder in her anger as she pulled away from the captain. “If I’m doomed, why not just leave me in the streets and let the wolves have me? If Emanuel wants me, I’ll go. I’m not worth more people dying. Just let it be done!”

  “No. You are a citizen of the domes, and the Outer Guard are sworn to protect you. Letting the wolves have you wouldn’t make the domes any safer. It would only make you dead. Not to mention my son is in love with you. And I’m not going to let the wolves or Vampers or zombies or whatever else this hellhole of a world throws at us destroy my son’s life. He is willing to risk everything for you. It’s my job to make sure that everything doesn’t end up meaning his life.”

  “Tell me what to do.” Her words came out as a plea. “Just tell me what I’m supposed to do.”

  “Stay safe, Magnolia. I don’t know why you’re so damned important, but you are. And if you end up in trouble again, my son will be running at the head of a pack of my guards trying to save you.”

  “I would never ask him to—” she couldn’t form the words. “I want Jeremy to be safe.”

  “I’m glad we both agree on that.” The captain’s eyes darkened for a moment. “That’s the problem with my raising children to be Outer Guard. They got to be really good at it.”

  “How was Jeremy hurt?” Nola pictured Jeremy running at the front of the guards as they fought the wolves, risking his life to protect everyone else’s.

  “The same as all Outer Guard get hurt.” Captain Ridgeway opened the door to the hall. “Doing his duty to the domes.” Without another word, he bowed Nola out of his office.

  Nola jumped at the firm click of the door behind her as though it had been a gunshot. Part of her wanted to run as far away from the domes as it was possible for a person to go. Out into the wild where even the wolves and Vampers couldn’t find her. But the much larger part wanted nothing more than to be with Jeremy. To make sure Doctor Mullins was positive he would to be all right.

  Running toward the door, she knocked before anyone could try and stop her.

  The instant Jeremy called, “Come in,” she swung the door open and slipped into the room, closing the door quickly and leaning against it, her heart racing as though she had just run from the boogeyman.

  “I thought you’d run away.” Jeremy sat up in bed and had more color in his cheeks than he’d had when he’d woken up.

  “Your dad wanted to talk to me.” Nola pushed herself off the door and ran the few steps to the bed, anxious to be closer to him. “Did the doctor say you could sit up? You need to be—”

  “What did my dad want to talk to you about?” Jeremy cut her off, taking her hand and pulling her down to sit by his side.

  “He told me—” Nola began, instinct telling her to lie, to say that Captain Ridgeway had lectured her about not tiring Jeremy and allowing him to rest and heal.

  When did lying become so easy?

  “He told me he’s worried about me,” she began again. “He thinks the wolves or Vampers or someone will come after me again. Apparently, I’m a symbo
l of what the outsiders hate about the domes, so basically I’m doomed. Mostly, I think he’s worried you’ll get hurt trying to protect me. I can’t let anything happen to you because of me.” She dug her nails into her palms to keep her hands from shaking.

  “Don’t worry about me getting hurt,” Jeremy said, taking her hands in his. “Turns out I’m really pretty good at this guard thing.”

  She laughed weakly. “Good or not, I just want you to be safe.”

  “I will be.” Jeremy held Nola so her head rested on his shoulder. “And so will you. I’m not going to let anyone hurt you.”

  “But what if your dad’s right? What if all the darkness and blood really are chasing me?” The words felt foolish in her mouth, but it didn’t erase the fear Captain Ridgeway had left lodged in her chest.

  “They are.” Jeremy wrapped both arms around her. “My dad was telling the truth. People in the city know your name. Wolves, Vampers, they’ve all heard the name Nola Kent.”

  “But why? I’m no one. I’m not important at all.” She buried her face in Jeremy’s chest, the stench of chemicals obscured his familiar scent of fresh earth, and she hated it. Hated the one who had torn his flesh and left him stuck in this hospital room. She wanted to fight all of them. Find the people who knew her name and destroy every last one of them, until there was no one left to hurt Jeremy.

  “You are important.” He held her even closer, as though he had sensed her urge to run. “You’re important to me because I love you. And important to the domes because you’re brilliant.”

  “But why in the city?” Nola whispered. “Nightland is gone. Emanuel and Kieran are gone. There’s no one I’ve ever met left in the city.”

  “You were important to Nightland.” He pressed his cheek to her hair. “You were important enough for there to be a battle over you. And if you were important enough for us to fight over you, then you’re important enough to be a target. Yours is the only dome name people know in the city. It’s the only name they can shout.”

  “What do I do?” Nola held onto Jeremy as tightly as she dared.

  “You don’t do anything. We will figure it out. Together.”