Once we’d finished our perimeter check, we sat down on the beach and enjoyed the sunshine, letting the light play over our faces in a rare moment of relaxation. I reached out and tried to set the current. It was so much easier than I expected. It was just as easy as getting my hair to part the way I wanted it—easier, really. I expected a struggle, but the ocean and I seemed to have reached an agreement of sorts.
I stared out at the water. Tess rested her head on my arm. “What are you thinking about?”
I had a lot on my mind and absolutely nothing on my mind, all at the same time. “I was just thinking how strange it is, you know? We’re out here in this paradise. It’s the most peaceful place on earth. We could probably make a fortune renting this place out to rich celebrities looking for private honeymoons, and what are we using it for? War. We’re preparing for a war that could destroy the Earth.”
She side-eyed me. “Well, to put things in a little bit better perspective, it’s more like we’re preparing for a war that could stop the Earth from being destroyed.”
I acknowledged the truth of her words with a nod. “You’re not wrong. And I’m not trying to get out of fighting. It’s a little hard to decide to conscientiously object when the other side’s goal is genocide, right? It’s just such a beautiful place that it feels almost wrong to be thinking about war and violence here. And yet, here we are.” I gestured toward Deadman’s Caye. “It’s happened already. It’ll happen again.”
“So we might as well be prepared.” Tess shrugged. She didn’t tend to fuss too much about the philosophical nuances of combat. She liked to fight, and she was damn good at it. “Maybe it’ll help to talk about what it means to be a Lifebringer.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Maybe?” I tried not to be too sarcastic, since she was trying to help. I probably didn’t succeed very well. Tess knew as well as anyone how much I resented being kept in the dark about the whole Lifebringer thing.
“I still can’t say I know a lot.” She shrugged and skipped a stone across the water. I smirked and brought the stone back. She stuck her tongue out at me and continued. “Even Mort wasn’t sure what causes a Lifebringer to happen, but there have been a few documented cases where they have, and the eggheads have managed to come up with a few ideas.”
“Care to share with the class, professor?” I managed to keep my tone light this time, mostly because I really did want to know.
She blushed. Tess didn’t blush often. “Most of this is stuff I picked up on by eavesdropping. I didn’t think I’d ever have to know it, but I was just nosy, you know? But now I’m glad I did. Lifebringers aren’t just special because they have more than one ability. Mort’s theory was, or is, that they have this unending, unlimited strength and ability.”
I laughed out loud at that one. I didn’t have a choice. “I’ll remind you of that the next time you’re trying to wake me up.”
She nudged me with her shoulder and laughed. “Hush, you. It isn’t always accessible. It’s like… think about it as being locked up behind doors, like bank vaults in your brain. They’re like doors of power. When you first came to us, all of those doors were sealed shut.”
“Okay, I’m with you so far. Of course, you and Margaret said that was normal.” I pulled back a little. I didn’t want to feel betrayed, not at a time like this, but I also didn’t like the direction this was heading in. “You said everyone took a long time to figure out what they could do.”
“And they do.” She took my hand and squeezed. “And what did you do that same day but pop out with your primary ability? You’re something special, Jason. And that’s kind of where I’m going with this. You’ve unlocked the doors faster than anyone else before.”
“Doesn’t that mean anyone could be a Lifebringer?” I asked.
She held her body very still for a moment. “I suppose it must.” She swallowed. “I guess it’s possible in theory. But most people, to be honest, are not. The doors are there, but either they’re sealed up so tight, there’s not a crowbar in the world that could open them, or else there’s just nothing behind it. It’s not like we’ve got a big population to examine, you know? It’s all uncharted territory. I didn’t get a chance to ask a lot of questions. It’s all stuff I’m not exactly supposed to know.”
“Right.” I swallowed and tried to ignore the cold sweat dripping down my back. “Because you were eavesdropping.”
“You were listening.” She touched my hair playfully, and then she got serious again. “I’m sorry. I was trying to reassure you, and instead, we’ve got more questions than we went in with.”
I laughed and slung my arm around her shoulders. Now it was my turn to offer her comfort. Maybe that was the way it should have been in the first place. “What, you weren’t feverishly studying every conversation you eavesdropped on for a hundred years, just in case it became useful for something you didn’t know was going to happen? Why, Tess. I’m appalled.”
She laughed and ducked her head into my shoulder. “I know. I just don’t like disappointing people. I feel like I’m failing you and Margaret when I don’t keep you informed, you know? To say nothing of Mort.”
“Right.” Something deep in my gut twisted when she mentioned Mort. I still didn’t know what to believe about him, but I meant to find out what his fate was. Before all was said and done, I needed to know just for my own peace of mind. Had he been faithful, or had he been working for the other side the whole time?
I leaned into her and kissed her cheek. “Tess, we’ll figure it out. No matter what, we’ll figure everything out. I think a lot of this stuff is coming to light now because the time is right. Maybe some of the information Mort and Margaret had was wrong, you know? It’s not like we’ve got our own diviners and prophets. They’re scavenging—recycling—vampire prophecies to get information. Sometimes, the bad guys are just plain wrong.”
Tess laughed. I wished I shared her ease. Beyond us, the ocean went silently by.
31
Kamila and Zarya returned about an hour before nightfall. We gave some thought to setting up our beds in separate areas. When Tess, Kamila, and I gave up and moved our mats closer together, though, even Zarya bought in and joined hers with ours. It wasn’t perfect, but none of us could see a point in keeping apart. We all wanted the comfort and security of being close to one another, and the only one close enough to their old life to worry about social norms was me.
And I sure wasn’t about to worry about social norms when I had three beautiful women with incredible abilities to keep me company. And the dog.
I kept up my training, primarily with Zarya, but with Kamila and Tess as well. I didn’t want to lose any edge I might have had developed. I might have cajoled Tess into brushing off our conversation about the Lifebringers and doors of power or whatever, but the concept was as etched into my mind as sure as the day was long. It seemed possible that I could do more and go for longer, if only I unlocked doors that might not even exist.
I was becoming obsessive about what might be locked inside me. I could send my consciousness halfway around the world, so long as I knew what I was looking for and my target was near water in some way. I could burn anything that could be vaguely interpreted as combustible. I could seal a vampire into a metal tomb. I could probably launch one into space, given the right equipment.
I considered the limits of my power, and then, I discarded them.
Of course, there was the old-fashioned Yankee in my head, jeering at me the whole time. The idea that I could have all of this special whatever locked up in my brain when I’d barely passed high school chemistry just seemed absurd. It smacked of an arrogance that made the Mainer in me cringe.
I couldn’t deny I was mastering the abilities I did have faster by the day. The wall didn’t even press against my consciousness anymore. I hardly noticed what I’d done to the current, except for the vague confusion of local fish.
I had a job to do. Arrogant or not, delusional or not, I needed to find and unlock the doors in my
mind. The war between vampires and Ferin was real, and if we were going to have any hope of stopping it, I needed to be as good and as strong as I could be.
The women were gifted, ancient, and strong, but they didn’t have a huge interest in improvement or getting better themselves. That concerned me, if only in the periphery of my worries. I’d mentioned the possibility to Tess that maybe we were all Lifebringers. Maybe the possibility lay within all of us to find unlimited capacity, infinite energy, infinite ability. She hadn’t discounted it, nor should she have, but she also hadn’t shown a whole lot of interest in exploring the concept.
I couldn’t fault her for it. I was basically telling her, Here’s this worldview you’ve held for a century. Now take it and throw it into the ocean with a cinderblock so it doesn’t float back up. Good. Now try this.
It wasn’t going to sit right the first time, or probably the second or third. I couldn’t bring myself to believe all three of them had reached the absolute peak of what they could do with their abilities, though. It just didn’t make sense to me.
I refused to hold it against them. What did I know? Maybe they’d all individually examined their own limits and decided they’d already met them. These women had histories that I could never hope to fully uncover.
We kept training, but I couldn’t shake the feeling something was wrong. The ladies didn’t seem worried, but they seemed too comfortable to me. It wasn’t that I felt they shouldn’t be comfortable. I wanted them to be comfortable for the rest of time, honestly. I just didn’t want them to have a false comfort. Not with fangers permeating the world around us.
I circled the island after announcing I was going out for a run. Something was coming. I didn’t know what it was, and I had no way of finding out. We had no technology, not even a telescope. All I had was a gut feeling, the absolute certainty that we were not safe where we were.
I tried to explain this to Zarya. I thought she would be the most sympathetic, considering she’d been victimized most recently. She laughed it off, though. “You’re just being paranoid because you’re still so new,” she told me. “It’s understandable. You were brought into this crazy world, and it’s been constant conflict ever since, hasn’t it?”
I couldn’t deny that was the case, so I didn’t try. Instead, I pointed out that the constant conflict had given me a kind of crash course in knowing when things were about to hit the fan, and right now was one of those times.
She patted me on the hand. “Look, I’m starting to wonder if the pressure isn’t getting to you. The war is a lot of responsibility. It’s okay to take a little bit of time apart and relax a little. Maybe we should cut back a little bit on the training?”
That was the absolute last thing I wanted. I pretended to acquiesce. “No, no. It’s fine, I’m sure. You know how it is. When everything’s too quiet, it must be a problem.”
I started to create an alternate plan. If the ladies were committed to becoming lotus-eaters, I had to find another solution. I couldn’t protect the entire island alone, so I would have to convince them to defend the island in spite of themselves. I thought about it for a long time, wishing I had the Internet.
Not, of course, that there are a lot of blogs with advice on “how to manipulate your alternative family into training to survive the vampire apocalypse.” I was going to have to survive this one by my wits alone.
As many plans go, it came to me over coffee. I thought the plan was a good one. I gathered the women together one morning, after they were two cups into their own caffeination. “Okay. We’ve all accepted that the vampires will probably find us eventually. It won’t necessarily be here, but I think it makes sense for us to train together, to make sure we’re not tripping over each other while we try to fight them together.”
The women nodded slowly.
“Okay, so what’s your plan?” Zarya pushed her blonde hair over her shoulder. “Are you going to summon a vampire to fight?”
I forced a laugh. “Cute, but no. I’m going to have each of us stationed at a cardinal direction on the island. At some point, I’m going to set something off to simulate a vampire attack. We’ll all fight it together, and then we’ll talk about how we handled it. I think it makes sense to be prepared.” The vampires were coming, but unless I came at them with solid information, I wasn’t going to get anywhere.
“I guess it’s good to be prepared.” Kamila shrugged. “What about Daisy?”
I grinned. “Daisy is getting trained too. When I give the signal, Daisy needs to go to her hiding spot. It’s a plan you guys had when you lived in Virginia, but we’ve fallen out of giving her a hiding spot. We need to get her back into the habit. They’re coming, and I’d just about lose it if anything happened to her.”
Kamila rewarded me with a bright smile. She brought Daisy into the ruin and showed her how to get into the basement, which was more or less hidden from view. Daisy repeated the steps perfectly on command, so we didn’t have to worry too much about her.
I put Zarya at the north end of the island, with myself at the east. That way, the two strongest water Ferin would be in position for the direction I expected vampires to come from. I stationed Tess on the western side because her abilities were formidable but not at all mystical. Kamila had the southern tip of the island.
I put them through a few drills, sending in watery assault teams of vampires here and there just to see how we would all react. I didn’t exempt myself, although it was a little harder because I already knew they were coming.
The problem was as bad as I’d expected. No one was ready to meet an invasion. Fortunately, the ladies were all ready to work on the issue without needing to be convinced.
We trained this way for another few days, with Zarya and I taking turns creating the invading vampire force. That way, each of us got to take part in fighting the enemy off. I was proud of how much improvement I saw, even by the end of the first day, but it wasn’t enough. The imminent invasion was like a constant drumbeat against my mind.
We regrouped after a couple of days to talk about what was working and what was not. I tried to stay positive, but it wasn’t easy. “I’m worried.” I didn’t see a reason to beat around the bush. They were my friends, my colleagues, and my lovers. “Something’s coming. It’s on the horizon, and I’m concerned we’re not ready.”
Tess rubbed my shoulders. “I know. I know you’re worried.” She found a knot just under the shoulder blade and worked it. “The thing is, you’re probably always going to be worried. It’s a major concern, don’t get me wrong. I’m worried too. I just don’t think we’re going to be able to set your mind at ease without doing something drastic, you know?”
I did know. So did the others. They all nodded in unison, while I tried to count to ten. “We’ll do another dry run tomorrow,” Zarya assured us. “We’ll go through every scenario. I promise, nothing’s going to go wrong.”
Zarya couldn’t make that promise. She didn’t have insight into the vampiric psyche, no matter how many months she’d spent in captivity with them. None of us could see them coming across the water, even if I swore I could feel them. And none of us dared pretend they wouldn’t come eventually either.
We went about our usual business—train, work, rest—until darkness fell. I could just make out the lights of Belize City in the distance if I struggled. It was a pretty sight, if not an adequate substitute for the stars they drowned out. I stood watching the lights in appreciation for a little while.
Then, one by one, the lights went out. After a second, I realized they weren’t going out. They were being blocked out—by humanoid shapes, which could only mean one thing. The vampires had found a way to get through the current barrier I’d built around the island, and they’d come to attack.
“Swarm!” I bellowed. I could only hope the others heard it. I wrapped a swirl of water around a group of vampires, like a cyclone or a serving of cotton candy, and let it fly. “Swarm!”
My cyclone knocked a handful of vampires
off the beach. It took the head off of at least one of them. I knew because it bounced at my feet before crumbling to dust. The problem was, there were more. They crawled up from the ocean itself, a tide of the undead surging forth from the sea. They were mobile, they were strong, and worst of all, they were hungry.
32
I recognized some of their faces from the vampire nightclub, but most of them were strangers. I didn’t have time to wonder how they’d found us. My plan should have worked, but maybe it had been a long shot to begin with. Maybe they’d had our scent for a long time before we came up with the idea. Whatever the case, they had no intention of letting us get away like we’d planned.
This was a fight to the death.
I thought quickly, seeking maximum damage with minimal time. I sent a massive amount of water out to sea and then brought it back in, a terrible crashing tsunami. Vampires were immortal, but certain things could kill them. Losing their heads would do the trick. The only problem was, you had to find a way to take their head off.
I hadn’t met the creature that wouldn’t lose its head when millions of gallons of water dragged it across sand and rocks. I was ambivalent about coral before that moment but seeing the effects of it on vampire flesh made me a fan. Coral was our friend, and I would use it like a cheese grater against the vamps.
That took care of about ten of them. The black ash of their bodies scattered on top of the water, harmless and dissolving in the current.
The rest of them didn’t even take note of their comrades’ passing.
The women all joined me, pressing in back to back. Even Tess, who preferred to fight hand-to-hand, recognized the ultimate futility of such a style right now. She had Kamila’s shotgun by her side and fired into the crowd of undead, taking them out one by one. Cold gore splattered with each pinpoint shot, followed by her grim laughter.
Forever Young - Book 2 Page 20
