She was in an office with a lot of fake wood paneling that looked a lot better superimposed on the mini-waves. I can’t believe him! He’s been behind on his alimony payments since September!
The older man to whom she was speaking cleared his throat. You saw the police report, ma’am. There was too much blood in that bathroom for anyone to survive. Your ex-husband is almost certainly dead and in no position to pay any alimony at all.
I did a doubletake. Had I actually been declared dead? Murdered? I didn’t know how to feel about it. On the one hand, it meant no one was wondering what had happened to me. No one was worrying about me. They could feel free to mourn, and I didn’t have to worry about running into someone from my old life if we passed each other in the grocery store or something.
On the other hand, hearing about one’s own death was disconcerting. It was more disconcerting when you were hearing about it while spying on your ex while sitting on a park bench staring at the waves.
You mark my words. He faked his own death to get out of paying me what he owes. There’s no way he’s actually dead. She snorted and stomped her foot. He’s doing this just to spite me.
The lawyer yawned. Madam, the blood was tested for DNA. It was his. I sincerely doubt he had himself murdered and had his body spirited away simply to spite you. My sincere recommendation is that you find a job and learn to pay your bills like everyone else.
I let the image fade. At least one thing was going right. Linda was going to have to make her own way in the world, and that was all there was to it. My grin turned into a smile. Sometimes, it’s the little things that can make your day.
4
Tess and Kamila got back to the compound later that night. Kamila told us we were all set with her contact. We just had to wait a couple of days to ship out. “Ship out?” I asked. “Why do I not think that’s a euphemism?”
“Because it’s not.” Kamila lay back and rested her head in my lap. That could have led to something interesting, but Daisy came along and lay down beside her person. She made a very effective chaperone, much to my chagrin. “We’ve already established that no one’s going to let us onto a plane with a big old pit bull in tow, so we’ve got to improvise.”
Daisy wagged her tail a couple of times. I sighed and rubbed her belly, just as she wanted me to.
“Do you think we’re running away?” I asked Kamila as I fulfilled my responsibilities as a human. “I’m still a little uncomfortable with leaving the country. I know it’s what we’re going to do, but it still feels weird. It feels like something we… I don’t know. It feels like we’re just running away from our problems instead of standing and fighting.”
“There’s nothing wrong with beating a sensible retreat,” Tess said. “Retreat can mean you live to fight under better conditions, on your own terms instead of someone else’s. But no, in this case, we’re not retreating.” Tess jumped in to shower Daisy with love and affection too. “We won the last fight, in case you hadn’t picked up on that. And we’re getting you more training.”
“Plus, national borders aren’t necessarily a thing for us,” Kamila said. “You’ll learn to stop thinking of them as a thing for you too. Trust me. It’s not something you’re going to worry about for long.” She blew me a kiss. “They’re vampires. The most important vampires were around long before anyone thought of declaring a bunch of rogue colonies an independent country. They’re not going to be thinking about borders, so we shouldn’t limit ourselves that way either.”
“Well, when you put it that way…” I muttered.
Tess held out her hand. “Come on, both of you.” She pulled Kamila to her feet and then me.
“Where are we going exactly?” I leaned against the walls.
“We’re going out. We’ve only got, what? Two more days in New York? We might as well make them count. Who knows when we’ll be back this way again?”
I almost objected. I wasn’t a big fan of going out to party when a whole nation of vampires was on our tail, looking to eat us. But Tess did have a point. We had two days, there hadn’t been any hints of a vampiric presence in the city, and who knew when we’d be able to do any of this stuff again? We’d spent a lot of time training and working. It was okay to cut loose every once in a while.
We went to a few clubs all over the city, but the star of the night was a place imitating an old-fashioned beauty salon. They actually did manicures—and drinks. I hesitated to let someone give me a manicure, both because the whole process felt weird and because, somehow, the idea of a guy with painted nails fighting vampires just did not mesh with my self-image, but ultimately, I gave in. When two beautiful women you happen to be sleeping with want you to do something, you give in.
And maybe it was the martinis talking, but my nails looked good.
“What do you think?” Kamila asked.
I held out my nails, which had something clear on them. Wiggling them under the light, I grinned. “I’ve never felt more beautiful.”
“That’s the spirit. Now, shall we drink?” she asked, dragging me to the door with Tess on her arm.
“Thought you’d never ask. Let’s taste the apple,” I said.
We hit a few bars, taverns, the odd club, and when those didn’t work, we bought a bottle of wine and drank it while strolling to the next pub on our route. The night passed in a cheerful smear, the city cold and bright, our time broken with a kaleidoscope of bar life.
The next day, Tess and I busied ourselves with packing, while Kamila went out to conduct more business. It shouldn’t have taken us long to pack, but we had the whole day to do it. Now that we were staring down the last few minutes in this compound, I found myself reluctant to leave. I dragged my heels and got distracted by every little thing, and it was only a matter of time before Tess noticed.
“What’s going on with you?” She patted the seat beside her in an invitation to talk. “Are you having cold feet about this whole Lifebringer thing? Because I hate to remind you, but it’s kind of a lifetime appointment. It’s not going away.”
I shook my head, laughing quietly to myself. “Not at all. I’m on board.”
“Really?” Her skepticism dripped from her voice, but I didn’t mind. I kind of understood, in a way.
“Really,” I said. “I don’t have to understand everything that goes into it to accept it. Like you said, it’s not going away. Like everything else with this whole Ferin thing, it’s not a choice. But I can choose how I deal with it. I can choose to let it control me, or I can choose to take the reins and make it my own.”
“This is true,” Tess said.
I nodded. “I get the important part, you know? I get the Lifebringer is supposed to go find the vampires and take them out. My job is to keep the Ferin, and especially you and Kamila, safe from the vampires, preferably by killing them all. I’ll fight those bastards with everything in me, right down to the marrow. And I’ll even enjoy it.”
“That’s oddly endearing. Creepy, but endearing. Why the long face, then?” She tilted her head to the side. “I don’t get it.”
“I just can’t help but feel like we’re leaving something important behind, you know? Something we need.” I sat down on the bed and rubbed at my face.
“Like what?” She put her arm around my shoulder.
“Like Mort.”
She let her hand fall down to her side. “Oh.”
“Right. Oh.” I lay back and sighed. “It’s like, I’m still not a hundred percent sure we should trust him.”
“You’re being ridiculous. I’ve known him for a hundred years.” Tess launched herself to her feet.
“I know. You’ve known him for a hundred years. I haven’t. And he might not have gone out to Twin Falls with betrayal on his mind, but if they got to him and put the hurt on him, well, I wouldn’t blame him one bit if he cracked, you know?”
She sagged and turned away. “I know.” She took a deep breath. “I’ve been thinking about it too. Do you think he’s still out there somewher
e?”
“We didn’t hear anything about him in Twin Falls. None of the vampires mentioned him.” I licked my lips. “They could be keeping his whereabouts a secret, but Chilperic wasn’t that guy. If he had something, some kind of information, and you didn’t?”
“Oh, he’d taunt you with it. He was a total dick.” Tess recovered some of her vigor. “If he’d had any information about Mort, any at all, he’d have gotten in our faces right away, just to make it hurt more. So it’s a safe bet to say that whatever happened to Mort, the vampires weren’t involved.”
“Or at least Chilperic wasn’t involved.” I sat up. “I don’t think Chilperic was the top of the food chain.”
“He was Dread Blood, though. He was created by Malfas himself. Why wouldn’t you think he was seriously bad news?” She stepped closer to me.
“Oh, don’t get me wrong. Chilperic was terrible. He was awful to fight, and he was worse to be killed by. But when I was listening in on some of those vampires, they made a point of saying how sloppy it was to create a Ferin. Even Chilperic made a comment about it, like I was some kind of stain on his clothes.” My insides twisted with shame, but I pressed on. “It’s like… well, it’s like this. I feel like there are definitely other vampires out there, possibly Dread Blood just like Chilperic. But Chilperic wasn’t the best they had.”
“You’re probably right.” She bowed her head, and a curtain of dark hair fell across her face. “I’m scared, you know? Chilperic took everything from us. He took Margaret. He took Owl’s Head. If he wasn’t the best of them, what else is in store for us?” She rolled her shoulders and held her head up. “Whatever. It doesn’t matter. We’ll be ready for anything because it’s all we can do, right?”
“Damn straight.” I gave her a little smile. “I still feel kind of weird about leaving the country without looking for him, though. He and I weren’t friends, exactly, but it doesn’t sit right with me.”
She licked her lips and glanced toward the door. “There’s not a lot we can do, you know? We don’t know where he is, and I’m not sure there’s a feasible way to find out. He knows about this group. We know that much because they mentioned knowing him. They also told us they hadn’t heard from him. If he’s alive, he’ll probably come here eventually. Bill and the others will either tell him to wait here or tell him to come find us in Belize.” She paused. “Do you think this Zarya person will drown him?”
“I gave it some thought. Then I realized we can’t drown.” I shook my head. “If Mort is dead—if someone killed him—then searching for him will just be a waste of time, effort, and resources. It will completely distract us from all of the work we have to do to get ready for the war.”
Tess recoiled. “Jason! You’re not wrong, but don’t you think that’s a little cold?”
“Maybe. It’s also true. We can’t afford to sit idly by and just wait for him to show up. I’d love to. I’d love to treat him like a cat, set out a can of tuna, and hope for the best. But with no way to reach out to him and no idea if he’s actually alive…” I trailed off. She was smart enough to know what I meant.
She glared at me and crossed her arms over her chest, but she nodded. “Okay, fine, you’re right. And we are leaving tomorrow. It’s just… you sounded so cold.”
I got up and wrapped my arms around her. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to. And I did say I was uncomfortable with it, remember? I said I didn’t want to leave him here.”
“You did.” She rested her head on my chest. “All right, it’s over. Mort’s a pretty resourceful guy. If he survived, he’ll find his way sooner or later. He knows what you are.”
I jumped a little, shocked and confused. “He does?”
She nodded. “Margaret told him before she died. So Mort isn’t languishing somewhere, hoping you’ll swoop in on a big white horse to rescue him. He knows you’re off getting training. He knows you have an important job to do.”
I did have an important job to do, and as we puttered around in silence, we both gave that job some serious thought. I suspected we were thinking about different aspects of the job, though.
Part of my role as Lifebringer, at least as I understood it, was to help all Ferin. I might not particularly like Mort, but if he was being held somewhere or otherwise detained, he needed and deserved my help. I chomped at the bit, eager to get out there and rescue him.
I couldn’t do it, though. Not yet. I didn’t have any intel on where he could be, and I had no way of knowing who might be guarding him. I would find out, though. If Mort was out there somewhere, captive and alone, I would find him and rescue him.
It would be a long while before I would be able to do that. I needed to have better control over my abilities before I took on any more vampires. I would go to Belize, I would study hard, and I would get ready.
And then, I would come back. I’d come back for Mort and for everyone else.
5
The day of our departure, we got up early and thanked our hosts. Then Bill drove us in Kamila’s van down to the port. The port didn’t look all that great on a winter morning. In fact, it looked kind of sketchy. I saw a lot of guys who’d gotten pretty grimy lurking in the shadows and moving things around, their entire air one of opportunistic crime just waiting to happen. As an outsider, I didn’t know what their purpose was, but I knew enough to move through without a second look. Trouble would find me. I didn’t need to seek it out.
Kamila knew where she was going, a fact that added to her complicated nature. I stuffed my hands into my pockets and kept my head down. It wasn’t for me to decide if she was supposed to know this world or not. We pushed our way through all of the cargo ships until we got to our apparent destination, the Atlantic Symphony.
It was immense. It was like a city, but vertical and blindingly white, soaring upward in steel magnificence. I stared up at it until Tess elbowed me. “Stop gawking,” she hissed. “You look like some kind of bumpkin.”
“I am some kind of bumpkin.” I whispered too, since I didn’t need any of the crew to hear us. “I lived my whole life thinking of Portland as a big city. You could fit three of Portland onto that thing.”
She snorted at me, but she didn’t laugh. She just linked her arm through mine and pulled me along.
We kept moving until we got to the gangplank. Did they still call them gangplanks? I had a vague memory of the word and a diagram of a book about pirates my mom bought when I was a kid. I’d been fascinated by the book when I was five years old, but this floating citadel had about as much resemblance to the pirates of yore as an Abrams tank did to an early cavalry unit.
A man in a white uniform waited for us out there. The black epaulettes stood in sharp contrast to the bleached polyester of the rest of his outfit. He stood about five foot seven, with short hair and a goatee, and he looked to be about twenty.
Only twenty and a captain already? I smelled bullshit or possibly vampires in this guy’s past.
“Jason, Tess, I’d like you to meet my friend, Captain Isaac Logan. Zac, these are my friends. The ones I told you about.”
I stepped forward and offered my hand. Logan smiled and shook it. “It’s good to meet you. I’ve heard a lot about you. Kamila and I are old friends.”
I glanced over at Kamila. “Just how old?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.
Kamila laughed. “Nothing gets by you, does it?”
“That’s a good thing, I suppose.” Logan grinned and took Kamila’s bag from her. “Why don’t we go aboard? We can chat a bit in my cabin.”
I hesitated, if only for a moment. The mammoth ship was liable to eat me whole. “Okay.” I offered to take Tess’s bag, shamed into chivalry by Logan, but she moved my hand away with a gentle nudge.
We had to take two different stairways, three corridors, and an elevator to get to Logan’s office. What happened if the ship lost power? That elevator would be dead in the water, so to speak. Those stairwells would be as dark as the interior of any mine. I considered that and began marking e
scape routes in my head.
“Not a fan of the sea, I take it?” Logan had a little bit of an accent. If I had to guess about his origins, I’d say Scotland. God alone knew when, though.
“I’m a little nervous about the boat. Ship,” I corrected myself when both he and Kamila gave me dirty looks. “Ship. Apologies. It’s…” I trailed off and tried to think of something inoffensive to say, since I’d already more or less shot myself in the foot here. “It’s pretty far outside anything I’m used to.”
“Not exactly used to the cruise ship lifestyle, eh?” Logan sat behind his desk, which was covered in paperwork. “Well, you’ll get used to it in no time. Is this still Daisy?” Daisy came around the desk to sit on Logan’s feet and receive the love and attention that was her due. “It’s good to see you, girl. We’ll be at sea for a few days, heading down to Bermuda. It will be long enough for you to throw the hounds off your trail, or so I hope. Not long enough for you to get too used to cushy living at sea, but you can’t have everything.” His phone buzzed, and he sighed. “We’re still loading up, but we should be able to get underway tomorrow morning. I’ll bring you to your lodgings in a minute. For now, the chef and our food supplier are about to get into fisticuffs about the state of our dairy products, and I can’t afford to replace him on such short notice. And he can’t afford to get fired again, so here we are.” He rolled his eyes to the heavens and stood up. “I’ll be back in a bit.”
Logan left the cabin, and I turned to the ladies. “Old friend, hmm?”
Kamila blushed, and Tess nudged me with her elbow. “Since when are you the jealous type, huh?”
“I’m not.” It was mostly true. “He is Ferin, though.”
“He is.” Kamila tossed her long red hair over her shoulder. “Listen, the ship is nice, and it’s great for Isaac to take us as far as he will, but we can’t get complacent, okay?”
“Of course we can’t. What are you specifically concerned about?” Tess licked her lips. She leaned back into a sprawl, like she didn’t have a care in the world, but I recognized the tight set to her jaw.
Forever Young - Book 2 Page 3
