Boy of Blood

by Megan O'Russell

  “What do I say?” she begged. “You can’t just send me out there if I don’t know what I’m supposed to say.”

  “There isn’t time.” Captain Ridgeway thrust a heavy vest into her hands. “There is nothing we can do but get out there.” He pressed an I-Vent into her palm. “My guards’ lives are depending on you, Nola. Don’t let them down.”

  Captain Ridgeway wrenched open the door to the hall. The Outer Guard had already gone.

  “Why me?” Nola’s hands shook as she pulled on the heavy vest. “I can’t offer them anything.”

  “You’re the girl the domes went to battle for.” He took her arm, holding on so tightly she could feel bruises forming as they ran up the stairs.

  “That doesn’t mean I can help any of them.” Nola stumbled, but the captain’s grip on her arm was so fierce she couldn’t fall. Instead, he carried her up a few steps without even seeming to notice.

  They reached the corridor where she had left Jeremy fighting with Captain Stokes.

  “Jeremy.” She scanned the empty hall. “I left him here.”

  “He’ll be with the other Outer Guard. We’ll meet them in the atrium.”

  “But what if Stokes took him away?” Nola wheezed.

  “Not an option.” Captain Ridgeway didn’t even look worried that his son could be in trouble as he ran the rest of the way to the atrium.

  The atrium was three times as high as any of the other domes and wide enough to hold at least six of the others inside it. Stored along one side were all the vehicles that belonged to the domes, always seeming out of place between the benches, trees, and paths that filled the rest of the space. In the wall right next to the vehicles was the only door to the outside world.

  Work had only just been finished on the glass and on the giant door that had been damaged in the Nightland attack. The trees and grass that had been torn up had yet to be replaced, giving the place a tattered feeling. The trucks against the far wall roared to life and pulled into a line in front of the door.

  The Outer Guard had already loaded themselves into the trucks, dressed in heavy riot gear, all carrying weapons.

  “The sirens haven’t gone off,” Nola said as Captain Ridgeway steered her to the third truck in line. “People need to get to the bunkers. Why haven’t the sirens gone off?”

  “The sirens are under Captain Stokes’ command.” The captain lifted her into the high front seat of the truck before leaping up after her. “The Dome Guard are staying put. They can evacuate if the bridge gets crossed.”

  “But people will have more time if—”

  “Use the I-Vent,” Captain Ridgeway said, ignoring Nola as the trucks rumbled forward.

  She held the thin silver tube up to her lips, taking a deep breath and letting the medicine fill her lungs, preventing the impurities of the outside air from contaminating her. Her panic worsened at the metallic taste the medicine left in her mouth.

  Nola Kent. They want to talk to Nola Kent.

  “Where’s Jeremy?” Nola asked.

  “With the guards,” Captain Ridgeway answered, his eyes locked onto the bridge that had just come into sight.

  It was easier to see the source of the blaze from outside the domes. A thousand figures standing on the far side of the bridge, holding torches, flashlights, and lanterns, making a patch of light the domes had not been able to ignore.

  “Are you sure Stokes doesn’t have him?” Nola said.

  “Positive.”

  “Which truck is he in?” Her mouth had gone dry, her lips cracking as she fought to form words.

  “Fifth truck. The last one in line.”

  The first truck in line reached the bridge and peeled off to flank the left side; the second peeled off to the right.

  “Can he come here?” Nola asked as the truck carrying her and the captain slowed directly in front of the bridge. “Please, can he come with me?”

  The captain studied her for a moment before speaking into his wrist. “Send Jeremy Ridgeway to the front.”

  Thank you. Nola couldn’t manage to say the words.

  He climbed out of the truck and lifted her to the ground. A line of guards ran in front of them, standing between Nola and the bridge.

  Another guard ran up from behind, heading straight toward her.

  “What’s going on?” Jeremy asked, his voice muffled through the thick shielding of his helmet.

  “Nola’s going out there to talk to them, and you’ll be in the escort.” Captain Ridgeway rammed his own helmet onto his head.

  “We can’t just—”

  “We can, and we are,” Captain Ridgeway said. “Now you can either be in the escort or get to the back.”

  “Yes, sir,” Jeremy barked, but Nola could hear the worry behind his words. He didn’t want her going out there any more than she wanted to go herself. “She needs a helmet, sir.”

  “No helmet.” Captain Ridgeway took Nola by the shoulders and steered her toward the bridge. “They need to be able to see who they’re talking to.”

  He pushed her through the line of guards.

  “Don’t let her get past the center mark, and rifles up at all times,” Captain Ridgeway shouted to the guards that filed onto either side of Nola. “Under no circumstances is there to be physical contact, and if things get nasty, the first priority is to get Magnolia Kent to safety.”

  “Yes, sir,” the voices around them chorused.

  The captain nodded and walked forward. Nola followed a step behind as did the guards that surrounded her.

  Jeremy stayed right next to her, matching her every step. She wanted to reach out and hold his hand, but he gripped his weapon, pointing it at the people on the other side of the bridge.

  Nola shuddered as she took the step that carried her from the road onto the bridge. The metal beneath her clanged with every footfall. The noise of the guards’ heavy boots shook the air and rattled her lungs like a vicious tolling bell, counting down the steps she had left before she reached the middle of the bridge.

  A line of people approached from the other side, holding torches and lanterns high in the air. They didn’t have any weapons Nola could see, but if they were wolves or Vampers, they wouldn’t need guns to kill the guards, or Nola.

  Finally, Captain Ridgeway held up a hand, and the guards stopped as one.

  The silence rang louder in Nola’s ears than the clanging of the bridge had.

  The group from the city stopped fifty feet away. There were twenty of them in a tight pack, all tense, ready to fight or run.

  Run. Please, run.

  “We were told we could speak to Nola Kent,” the man at the front of the pack said from across the gap.

  Torn clothes hung loosely on his frame, displaying his sinewy muscles. Even in the chill night air, the man wore short sleeves and seemed unbothered by the cold. In the dim light, Nola could barely make out the reddish hue of the man’s eyes.

  A werewolf.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Shaking, Nola stepped forward, using every ounce of willpower she possessed to move toward the wolves.

  “I’m—” She was speaking too softly. They would never be able to hear. “I’m Nola Kent!”

  The man leaned forward, and Nola had the terrible feeling he was trying to catch her scent.

  “Allory,” the man barked, and a woman stepped forward.

  Even in the darkness, Nola recognized the woman. She was the outsider who had started the fight in the Amber Dome that morning.

  “Is it her?” the man asked Allory.

  Looking terrified of standing so close to the man, Allory took a step sideways, squinting at Nola.

  “That’s her,” Allory said. “That is Nola Kent.”

  The man smiled. “I didn’t think they would actually let the little butterfly out of her cage to play at night.”

  “Well, I’m here.” Nola took a step forward. A hand reached out and grabbed her wrist, stopping her before she could step in front of Captain Ridgeway. She knew it w
as Jeremy without looking, the way his pinky draped over her palm. He didn’t want her to move away from him. She stepped to the side, closer to Jeremy and where she could properly see the pack in front of her. “What do you want from me?”

  The man threw his head back and laughed. “You are better than I had hoped you would be, you wonderful little butterfly!”

  The pack behind him rumbled into laughter, and the sound grew like a wave, which lapped back to the horde on the far side of the bridge, who began cheering and jeering.

  “I said, what do you want!” Nola’s fear dissolved in the fury of her anger.

  “What do we want?” the man repeated. “What do you think I want, little butterfly?”

  “How would I know?” she said. “I don’t even know who you are.”

  “Lucifer, at your service.” The man bowed deeply.

  “I don’t believe you,” Nola said. “You know my name, why can’t I know yours?”

  “Lucifer is what I am,” he smiled. “A fallen angel who brings darkness to all. What is a name meant to be if not a description of what we are?”

  “Fine, Lucifer,” she spat the name, “what do you want from me?”

  Get off the bridge. Get off the bridge and get back to the domes. Being locked in the bunker is better than being on this bridge with the wolves.

  “We want what all of us want.” Lucifer raised both hands in the air, inciting cheers from the people behind him. He tipped his head to the side and sneered, looking like a rabid wolf that wanted nothing more than to bite. “We want food,” Lucifer growled. “We want medicine. We want our fair share of the riches you’ve got in the domes.”

  “We don’t have riches.” Nola laughed loudly, though her heart still fought to burst out of her chest. “I don’t know why you think we do.”

  “We don’t want gold and jewels, butterfly, we want food. And I know you have that.” Lucifer grabbed Allory under one arm, lifting her off her feet. “Allory here told us about your food. Rows and rows of food just waiting to be eaten. Isn’t that right, Allory?”

  “Yes,” Allory whimpered. “I saw it, worked in just one of the domes, and there’s more food there than I’ve ever seen.”

  “Thank you, Allory.” Lucifer let go of Allory’s arm, and she crumpled to the ground where she lay shaking, not even attempting to stand back up. “You have food. You are hoarding food and watching the city starve. We’d always thought it, but now thanks to Allory”—he kicked Allory in the stomach, and, with a cry of pain, she rolled to face the sky—“well, now we know that you have stores of food. That you filthy Domers in your glass castle high on the hill just like watching the rest of us starve. Well, we say enough!” Lucifer punched the air, and a roar soared from the far side of the bridge.

  “So tonight, we eat!” Lucifer bared his teeth, which shone white in the moonlight.

  The rustle of the guards behind her sent a shiver up Nola’s spine.

  “The only question is do we eat your food, or you?”

  The snarls of the pack carried over Lucifer’s words.

  The domes could feed all these people for one week, maybe two, but then there would be nothing left. All of them would starve.

  She glanced toward Captain Ridgeway, but his face was hidden behind his visor.

  “Me personally?” Nola asked. “I don’t think there’s enough of me to go around.”

  The pack howled with laughter.

  “Not just you, my beautiful butterfly.” Lucifer took a step forward. Each of the guards pointed their rifle at his chest. He spread his arms wide and took another step forward. “We’ll eat all of you. Tear the flesh from your bones and have the freshest, tenderest meat any of us has ever tasted.”

  “But that still doesn’t answer my first question.” Nola pulled her hand from Jeremy’s grip and stepped in front of Captain Ridgeway. The sound of bodies shifting caught her ear, but she didn’t dare turn to look. “Why did you want me out here? I have no authority in the domes, I don’t know how much food we’ve got, and even if I wanted to give it to you, I couldn’t. I am no one. Why would you want to talk to me in the middle of the night on a bridge over a rancid river?”

  “Because I’ve heard stories about Nola Kent, the butterfly that flew into Nightland.” Lucifer’s red eyes bore into hers. “The butterfly that didn’t want to kill the Vampers, who helped them get medicine.”

  Nola’s breath caught in her chest. If this man knew she had stolen, then she should walk into the city now and save the Council the trouble of having to formally banish her.

  “I can’t give you anything.” The warmth had drained from her body, stolen by the wind. She couldn’t feel her hands as they shook, and each ragged breath stole heat from her lungs.

  “You wouldn’t let the slaves you master fight,” Lucifer said. “You protected them, kept them in the warm.”

  “They are not our slaves,” Nola said.

  “We are all slaves to the ones who have the food. The babies who cry from hunger and the old that waste away rather than take a crust of bread that might save the young. We are all slaves to the death that lurks over this city, and you in the glass castle have mastered that death. With your food and medicine. The acid rains can’t burn you, and the winters can’t freeze you. And the ones who have mastered death are masters of us all.”

  “That doesn’t make sense!” she shouted. “I didn’t let my people fight, so what? I kept them inside the domes, but why do you care? What the hell have they got to do with you?”

  “My beautiful butterfly, you are the only soul in the glass castle of murderers who has ever shown compassion. The rest all turn away from the diseased and the dying. The light from their mythical bright future blinds them to the darkness. But you’ve seen what lies in the shadows, and we will haunt you for the rest of your days.”

  “I still can’t help you,” Nola said as thoughts of desperate children grasped at the edges of her mind. “I wish I could. I wish there was enough for everyone, but there isn’t. Even if we wanted to feed the city, we couldn’t.”

  “I think the butterfly is lying. That the only one from the glass who can see truth has turned to lies to survive. Or”—he turned to look at the woman lying on the ground—“Allory has. Are you lying to me, Allory? Stores of food, you said. Long tunnels with places to sleep, you said.”

  “It’s true,” Allory whimpered. “Everything is there up the hill. I swear to you.”

  Lucifer swept his gaze from Allory to Nola.

  “One of my girls is lying. And one knows the price of lying,” Lucifer snarled, “which makes me think it’s probably her.” He leaned over Allory who lay sobbing on the ground.

  “Stop!” Nola shouted. “There is food. But not enough for everyone. And it takes time, a lot of time, to grow more. If we fed half of you even, there wouldn’t be enough for anyone to survive. Please believe me!”

  Lucifer grabbed Allory’s arm, wrenching her to her feet.

  “I wish I could help you, but I can’t.” Nola reached toward Allory, wishing she were strong enough to run forward and snatch her from Lucifer’s arms, but he pulled her closer, tracing the curve of her neck with his nose as he scented her skin.

  “The domes can’t save the city,” Nola said, “but we might be able to do something, figure out something. Nightland had gardens, gardens that grew good food.” She took another step forward, pulling Lucifer’s eyes from Allory back to herself. “And they had a way to filter the rain water, and keep the acid rain off the plants. I’ll bet you knew that, though,” Nola shouted as loudly as she could, hoping the people on the far side of the bridge could hear her. “Nightland found a way to feed the children. And they did it on their own without help from the domes. I saw the garden. Maybe some of you did, too. Is that why you’re so angry now, because Nightland abandoned you? Because they aren’t here to feed you anymore?”

  “No one wants the Vamper scum on our streets!” A man behind Lucifer spat on the ground, and as one, the pack tip
ped their heads back and howled at the sky.

  Nola fought to swallow the knot of fear in her throat as the sound vibrated the metal under her feet.

  “Fine!” Nola shouted as soon as the howling began to fade. “Fine! You don’t want Nightland’s help. But what they did was amazing. And I’ll do whatever I can to help you rebuild what they had. So you can grow your own food.”

  “And how many will be dead by the time the food grows?” Lucifer said.

  “How many will die if we eat what we can’t replace?” She took another step forward. The sound of boots on metal followed her. “I’ll find a way to help, but I can’t give you anything tonight.”

  “So we should wait and starve while you go home to your nice bed and full belly?” Lucifer stepped forward, gripping Allory’s neck and dragging her with him. “Tell me how that sounds fair, little butterfly?”

  “It isn’t fair,” Nola said. “The world ending isn’t fair. Nothing is fair. But you wanted to talk to me, and this is the best I can do.”

  “No, little butterfly, it isn’t.” Lucifer smiled. “The best you can do is for my city to be fed. We’ll eat our fill tonight, and when there’s nothing left of the Domers but bloody bones, we’ll have your nice beds to rest in and all the dome food to eat.”

  “Please don’t,” Nola said. “How many people will die if you try to fight us?”

  “Butterfly”—with a grin on his face, Lucifer leaned down as though to kiss Allory’s neck—“we’re already dead.”

  “No!” Nola screamed, but her cry was covered by Allory’s. The shriek lasted for only a moment before a spurt of blood sprayed the ground.

  Someone wrapped a hand around Nola’s arm, but she didn’t turn to see who had yanked her backward. The pack rushed forward, hiding Allory behind their surging mass.

  Poor Allory.

  “Get her out of here!” Captain Ridgeway’s voice cut over the screams as she was dragged through the front line of guards. As soon as she was behind the line, they began firing on the mob that had rushed toward them. The people at the back of the bridge were piling on, joining the fight. There were too many of them for the guards to face. Sheer numbers would overwhelm the domes.