Forever Young - Book 2

by Daniel Pierce

  “They held you all that time and never told you why?” Tess blinked at her. “Why would they do that?” She held up her hands. “I’m not disputing that they did. I’m just saying it doesn’t make sense.”

  “They’re vampires. They’re not supposed to make sense. They’re supposed to ruin everything in their path and leave charred husks behind them. They’re pure trash. They’ve always been trash, and they always will be.” Zarya paled, hand on Daisy’s head. “They tossed the place, and they beat me up. Then they put that bag on my head and drained me until I passed out. It probably would have killed a human.”

  “So they knew you were Ferin,” I mused aloud without really thinking about it. “They want to wipe us all from the face of the Earth, but they didn’t want to kill you. Interesting.”

  She glared at me. “What the hell is that supposed to mean? I’d rather they killed me. Believe that.”

  “I do. I do, I promise. I just… well, I don’t know why they wanted to keep you alive. You must have something they wanted. Did they give any indication of what that might be? Did they drop any hints? Ask you to do anything at all?” I leaned forward, elbows on my knees. I worried I might be coming on a little too aggressively, but this seemed like the kind of thing I needed to know about. Details might save us. All of us.

  “No. Nothing at all. I woke up in that… that place. I’m telling you, I thought they’d taken me to a desert. I couldn’t see anything, and all I felt was hot air constantly circulating around my body.”

  I knew I wouldn’t be able to handle that. How she’d come out sane was anyone’s guess. “That’s terrible.” My gorge rose. I didn’t care that vampires were monsters. They’d been human once. How could anyone who’d once been human turn around and cook someone alive? Someday, I would eliminate every vampire from the face of the world. I wouldn’t feel bad about it either. I’d take pleasure in it. If they could fall so low as to torture someone in such a way, they didn’t deserve to walk between earth and sky. It was my mission.

  “You all right there, Sparky?” Zarya knit her eyebrows together with concern. “You’re looking a little green.”

  “I’m okay,” I said. “I just can’t understand—never mind. I can And if they didn’t want anything either. It just doesn’t make sense to me. Then again, I’m from Maine. We’re practical people.” However angry I was about what had been done to Zarya, I didn’t want to distress her further.

  I took a deep breath and tried to calm my nerves. “Listen, I know this is weird, but were the vampires looking for anything when they held you here and tore apart your home?” There had to be some reason they’d come here and selected her. She was renowned for her abilities with water, but those abilities wouldn’t do the vampires any good. She couldn’t teach them to use her abilities. “Were they looking for a specific book or an item of some kind?”

  She chuckled darkly. “If they were, they didn’t share that information with ‘Ferin filth’ like me. They might have done it just to watch me suffer. You know how vampires are.”

  I knew how vampires were, all right. “Maybe they wanted to know about something local. How long has Belize City had so many vampires in it?”

  She stared at me. “Every city has some vampires. Vampires go where people are. They’re parasites. There haven’t been more than the population could handle, though. Ten at the most, and that was about a hundred years ago, when life was considered cheaper.”

  “We killed more than twice that last night alone, Zarya.” Kamila paused in stroking her hair. “They’re everywhere. And we met two locals, at least, who seemed to be aware of the issue. They wore silver cuffs on their arms and one of them tried to warn us about vampires at a Goth club in town.”

  Zarya made a face. “Shows me what I know. I haven’t gotten around to town in a while. I’d rather do my trading in the jungle. Belize City has had some issues with violent crime, and I’d rather stay away. I wonder now how much of that can be blamed on the rise in vampires, though.”

  “Probably more than a little.” Tess set her jaw. “They’re everywhere. We were in Twin Falls, Idaho when you were taken. There were so many vampires in the area, I’m surprised the CDC wasn’t called in to explain all the anemia deaths.” She toyed with one of her silver-tipped spikes. “We’re seeing it all over, everywhere we go these days. New York City seems to be one of the safest places to go, believe it or not. If you ask me, it’s just a matter of time.”

  “Well, I never. Maybe it is the end times, the war times.” She shook her head. “For all the talk Margaret used to do about the war coming, you’d think we’d have heard more about it by now.”

  I cleared my throat. “I hate to be the bearer of more bad news. Margaret died in the fall.” I tugged at my collar. “There was an attack on her compound. She didn’t make it.”

  Zarya’s mouth rounded in shock. “That’s awful. I didn’t know her well, but I knew her well enough to talk to when we crossed paths. We’d meet up every century or so. I always thought she was a bit of a crackpot, but she meant well, and she was harmless. I guess she wasn’t quite so wacky as I thought.” She looked down at the blanket over her legs and started petting Daisy again. “Is it really time for the war?”

  “I’m afraid so.” Kamila dropped her hand. “I’d give anything for it not to be the case, but it is. We didn’t go looking for it, but it’s here.”

  “Well, I suppose it was going to come eventually.” Zarya hung her head and sighed. “That’s too bad. I liked living alone on my little island. But everything good has to come to an end sometime, I guess.”

  I forced a smile onto my lips. “No one’s asking you to go out onto the front lines today. There’s still time. I can keep the wall up around this place for a little while anyway. Unless they get a helicopter, they don’t seem to be able to get through it. Rest. Heal. Get your bearings. You’ve been through a terrible ordeal the rest of us can’t imagine. We’ll be here when you’re ready.”

  She smiled at me, and I stood up. “I’m going to go check the perimeter again. I’ll be back.” I headed back out before anyone could stop me. I didn’t want Zarya to see my anger and mistake it for something directed at her.

  I got down to the beach and took off running. I needed to burn off some of this fury inside of me before I exploded. These vampires hadn’t even wanted anything, and they’d still done that to her. Unless they’d been using her as bait? But no, they couldn’t have been trying to bait me into coming after Zarya when she’d been taken before I’d been made.

  They had access to all kinds of divinatory techniques. We didn’t understand them, but we knew about them, and the presence of me—the Lifebringer—might have influenced the vampire plans more than we could explain.

  Zarya was a valuable weapon in her own right. She wasn’t just something to be used against the Lifebringer, so her torture was even less sensible, given enough time to work through the possibilities.

  If I had the chance to interrogate any vampires, I would have to find out, but that meant keeping one alive long enough to question.

  26

  I came back to the house about an hour later, the carved faces on the outside leering at me as I jogged up the steep stone stairs to the main room. Tess was outside, cooking over a little hibachi grill. Everything seemed to be going well, and I went inside.

  Kamila dropped a kiss on my cheek. “Feeling better?”

  “A little.” I rubbed the back of my neck and looked over at Zarya. “Look, I’m sorry. I totally get that you’re the one who’s suffered most here, and we need to be cognizant of your needs. But running helps me to clear my head, and hearing about what happened to you makes me angry. Angry at the people who did it, I mean. We’re all in a lot of danger right now. We can’t afford for me to just kind of sit there and lose my mind.”

  Zarya laughed softly. “I think I get it. And it’s fine. I’d go for a swim, but I don’t want to risk it right now. I’m sorry I’m not being more helpful. I just don�
�t have the information you want.”

  “You might. You just might not realize it.” I reached through my memory and tried to find the language used on police procedurals, the shows I’d loved in my old life. Had it only been a few months? It felt so far away now. “Look, I was doing some thinking while I was out running. And it just doesn’t make sense for the vampires to come and attack you just out of sadism.”

  Kamila raised an eyebrow at me. “And you know this from all your years as a Ferin?”

  “No, I’ve been watching and listening, believe it or not. And while they’re evil and they’re smart, they’re still animals. They don’t do things at random. They don’t do things just for the hell of it. They do things for a reason, especially now that they’ve decided there’s a war going on. We might not know what the reason they attacked you is, but we’re going to figure it out, and we’re going to do it soon.”

  “You’ve got more questions for me, don’t you?” Zarya asked.

  I nodded. “I’m afraid so. I wouldn’t put you through it if we weren’t in so much danger. I’ll be as respectful as possible. I promise.”

  “I’m sure. Let’s hear it.” She sighed and rested her head on Kamila’s shoulder.

  With that ringing endorsement, how could I possibly refuse? “Okay. Um, this one is kind of big. It’s something that keeps coming up every time we come in contact with one of these bastards, or at least with one of these bastards who’s feeling chatty. Do you know anything, anything at all, about something called The Day of Culling or a Lord Malfas?”

  She pulled her head back, brows knit together, and shook her head. “I’ve heard the name, but I don’t know a lot. No more than anyone else who grew up in a convent back in the sixteenth century. Everyone was having visions in those days.” She looked up at the ceiling. “Why do you think I moved here? Everyone was always talking about this demon who flew, and this one who swam, and this one will appear in a special circle if you conjure him between noon and two o’clock on Tuesday, but you have to give him a piece of toast if you want him to answer questions. I mean really, who comes up with this shit?”

  I laughed. “So you think it’s demonic?” That was good. It was better than we’d had before.

  “Well, I know there’s a demon called Malfas. He’s supposed to be a major demon, but I never could take him seriously. Who could? He’s supposed to be a giant crow running around in fancy pants.” She laughed. “I don’t know if he has anything to do with the vampires or not. A few of them mentioned him in conversations, but they didn’t go into details. They’d just say things like ‘Lord Malfas will be pleased. Here, turn up the heat.’”

  I winced. “I wonder if Malfas has been encouraging the vampires’ sadism?” It didn’t matter much, but I was curious. “So what about this Day of Culling? Did they happen to mention that, or did it come up in your convent school days?”

  She shook her head. “No, that one’s new. It sounds like typical end-of-days drivel, doesn’t it? Don’t the usual end-of-the-world prophecies talk about separating wheat from chaff, or sheep from goats, and all that stuff? A culling would be just like that. Those that are strong would be worthy of life. Those that are weak and pathetic would be weeded out. Like if you were starting a garden.”

  I didn’t like that idea at all, even if it was garden-variety apocalyptic bullshit. I didn’t even know what Tess’s power was, but she could kick the ass of anyone I knew. “Huh. I guess it’s just some normal blather, then.”

  “Right. Something I did hear them mentioning, though, was someplace called Patagonia.”

  “Patagonia?” I sat up a little straighter. “Like the clothing company?”

  Kamila glared at me. “The location, Jason.”

  I blushed. “Right. Sorry.”

  Zarya chuckled. “Right. The vampires said they came from somewhere in South America, even though they sounded mostly American to me, and they mentioned Patagonia more than a few times. I’m not a hundred percent sure what that’s supposed to mean, though. As far as I know, Patagonia is a myth.”

  I blinked. “I’m pretty sure it’s not a myth, though. It’s the tip of South America. Doesn’t Argentina have one part and Chile the other?”

  Zarya shook her head slowly. “It could be that there is a place down there called Patagonia, but it’s not the Patagonia they have in mind. The vampires’ Patagonia, or at least the way they talk about it, is tropical. The tip of South America has penguins.”

  Kamila burst out laughing. “Oh my God, I’d forgotten about that!” Her cheeks turned red, and even Daisy turned around to look at her oddly. “And that one was convinced Isaac was its mother —”

  “—and he had to run around trying to teach the poor little thing to fish!” Zarya doubled over with laughter. “How could I forget? It was the funniest thing I’ve seen in my life. He did it too. That penguin was able to live in the wild, like any other penguin, before we left. I thought I was going to freeze my tits off, but that penguin was safe and happy.”

  “That he was.” Kamila smiled fondly, and I couldn’t help but feel a little bit of jealousy. Here was a moment shared between these women and Captain Logan that I couldn’t hope to understand. And they’d all split up and gone their separate ways, in spite of all the love I could see between Kamila and Zarya and the affection I saw between Kamila and Logan when they were together.

  Would that happen to the three of us—me, Kamila, and Tess?

  Zarya’s eyes got far away. “Do you ever hear from Isaac? Do you know if he’s still around?”

  Kamila grinned wickedly. “Well, you and I both found one solution to our predicament. We chose to isolate ourselves. Zac went the opposite route. He’s the captain of a cruise ship. He brought us part way here, in fact.”

  Zarya dropped her jaw. “Did he now? Why would a Ferin take a job in plain sight like that? With vampires running amok like that, as if they’ll make more any time now?” She shook her head, and then she looked over at me. “Do you think perhaps that’s what they’re doing? Making more?”

  Kamila looked between us. “Come again?”

  “Earlier, your young friend mentioned the number of vampires in a smaller city like Belize City. It’s too many to keep in the area, and he said you had too many in Twin Falls—wherever that is. Do you think they’re just making more vampires, to serve as soldiers in this coming war?”

  “They would have had to plan it for a while.” I rubbed the back of my hand. “As in, longer than I’ve been alive, I think. But that doesn’t matter.”

  She looked at me a little oddly. “No, it really doesn’t. They can consult their demon, who looks at probabilities. I’m sure some fifty or sixty years ago, Malfas perched on his little bird stand in Hell, saw the signs were right for a change, and said, ‘Hey, you’re going to need another thousand vampires or more, so get to snacking.’” She licked her lips. “That’s a ghastly thought, isn’t it?”

  “It would explain the number of alleged overdose deaths rising as quickly as it has been.” Kamila made a sour face. “We’ve got to do something about this. If people die any faster, it will be an unmitigated disaster.”

  I couldn’t argue with her. “We need more information. We need to figure out where Patagonia is. And I’d like to make sure we can get the word out to as many other Ferin as we can. Who knows how many of us are out there? Some will want to fight with us, some will want to stay out of it, but we can’t just let them sit there not knowing. They’re sitting ducks out there.”

  Zarya nodded. “That’s God’s own truth.”

  Tess entered the room from outside, carrying a bowl of rice and some meat on skewers. I didn’t know where she’d gotten the meat from, and I decided I didn’t want to know. I hadn’t gone so far into survival mode that I had the stomach to kill for my meals yet. Sometimes, we just had to accept ourselves for who we were, and I was definitely a product of a world of supermarkets.

  We sat down at a low table on cushions on the floor. The table h
ad once been a normal dining table, but the vampires had destroyed all the legs. One of the girls had turned a negative into a virtue and created an elegant dining solution for us. I had no doubt that Zarya was grateful, as she smiled indulgently when we were all seated.

  I didn’t want to bring up the obvious, so I kept my mouth shut. The future was very much on my mind, though. We couldn’t stay here. We needed to be on our way. The vampires would have no trouble finding their way to a helicopter once they realized that solution would work. I wanted them to find nothing there but our dirty dishes.

  I began to work through the possibilities as we dined, creating and discarding plans that made the world smaller with each passing thought.

  Going onto the mainland would bring us closer to the vampires’ homeland. Going back to the States would put most of us on familiar ground, but we’d already seen the vampires could get to us there. We needed somewhere to go where we could study, but where we could get back to fight our enemies when the time came.

  Europe was. . .interesting but exposed. I had a different thought.

  “How many vampires are there in Mexico?” I wondered aloud.

  Tess snorted. “They can follow us to Mexico.”

  “Doesn’t Mexico produce a lot of silver, though?” I took a bite of meat, chewing slowly. “If we find a place to hole up near the mines, they’ve almost got to stay away from us.”

  “Almost only counts when we’re playing with hand grenades,” Tess replied almost automatically, but then she sighed. “Honestly, I can’t think of a better solution.”

  “We’ll come up with something,” Kamila said. “In the meantime, let’s just sit back and rest a little bit.”

  And we did. I never asked what the meat in our dinner was, and no one told me. Some things are best left unsaid.