Never Just One Apocalypse

by Karen L Mead

  “Hey, watch it, John!” she said, emphasizing his first name like it was a curse. “We like to keep the entourage thing kind of low profile, you know?”

  Golding was searching the hall for other people with his eyes, but it was empty. The bell had rung, and everyone was in class. Any students cutting, or teachers idling, were far enough away to be out of earshot.

  “Tell me about these dreams.”

  “What?”

  “You were talking to Mike about dreams. I’m guessing these are magical dreams.”

  “Why’s it your business?” said Cassie, crossing her arms again. For some reason, even though they were technically allies, being around him made her defensive lately.

  He pointed at her, face slightly flushed. “I’m part of this team now, just like you,” he murmured. “And my specialty is magical texts. If you’re having magical dreams, I want to know what they are so I can help interpret them.”

  Cassie wasn’t sure quite what to make of that.

  We’re a team? Like a superhero team?

  “Well,” she said, looking down at her feet as she shifted awkwardly from leg to leg. Her boots were getting worn; she was going to need a new pair soon. “Um, in my dreams, I get visited by my ancestors. At least I’m pretty sure they’re my ancestors.”

  John moved closer to her, so close that the minty smell of his aftershave was almost overwhelming.

  “Continue.”

  “And, um, well...they’re called the Watchers. They said—”

  John’s eyes opened so wide, it looked like they were about to pop out of his head.

  “Wait, you mean...the Watchers from The Book of Enoch? They visit you in your dreams?”

  “Yeah. At first I didn’t know who they were, but then Helen—you know, Sam’s mom—she said they’d been locked up in Tartarus for millennia. So I looked up what Tartarus was, and found out about the Watchers.”

  “So The Book of Enoch is true,” said John, his eyes still painfully wide. “What have they been saying to you in your dreams? Tell me!”

  Cassie took a step back from him. “Calm down, okay? I don’t really know...a lot of what they say doesn’t make sense. They want me to do something for them, but I don’t know what...and now they’re saying they want me to ‘flower,’ and they don’t mean my period.”

  “This is...” Golding trailed off, his eyes moving back and forth to follow something only he could see. “This is phenomenal. I have to reread Enoch immediately and cross-reference it with some of my new acquisitions.”

  “Acquisitions?” Cassie echoed. Something about the way he said that bothered her.

  “I’m going to start researching this right now. Tell the kids they have a free period,” he said, turning to leave.

  Cassie opened her mouth in disbelief. “You can’t just leave during school!”

  “Don’t you remember? One of the conditions for my joining the entourage was that I cannot get fired from this job.” With that, he flashed her a slightly sheepish smile, and began heading off at a quick pace.

  “I can’t believe you!” Cassie called after him, scandalized. “This is exactly why people don’t trust teachers with tenure, you know!”

  After he had disappeared around a corner, she sighed and opened the door to the classroom.

  “Golding said he ate a bad shrimp and he’s going home sick, so now we have a free.”

  “He’s not sending in a super-sub?” asked Madison.

  “What part of ‘free period’ do you not understand?” asked her friend next to her, her desk making a groaning noise as she quickly stood up and nearly knocked it over. “Let’s all leave before the office finds out and decides to get a sub in here.”

  In a flash, the kids were all filing out of the room, save Cassie, Mike, and Miri. Brett gave Cassie a dirty look before he left.

  “Who the hell eats shrimp for breakfast?” one of the kids wondered aloud on the way out.

  When everyone else was gone, Cassie turned to the redheaded vampire, who had started doing her nails at her desk. “Good job, stopping him from yanking me out of class like that.”

  Miri shrugged. “Golding isn’t going to hurt you, because if he does Sam will kill him and he knows it. I wasn’t going to blow my cover in front of the kids for no reason.”

  “You are just the worst bodyguard,” Cassie murmured, collapsing back into her chair. The constant dreams really were making her tired, and she was seriously considering spending the free period by taking a nap; granted, she might sleep too long and miss her next class. But did she care?

  “Yes or no: Are you alive?”

  “Of course I’m alive!”

  “Then clearly, I’m not the world’s worst bodyguard!” said Miri cheerfully. Cassie put her head back down on her desk as Miri began to apply her second layer of pink polish to her thumbnail.

  Chapter Eight

  When Sam stepped off the plane and into the terminal at Sterling International Airport, he expected to spend a while at baggage claim, then take the bus back to his apartment. He did a double-take when one of the chauffeurs holding up a sign at the gate turned out to be Dmitri.

  The Russian vampire was well-dressed, wearing a black suit and tie and dark glasses. The small sign he was holding up said “Master Guardian” in neat handwriting.

  “Cute,” said Sam, acknowledging the sign. “But I didn’t ask to be picked up at the airport.”

  “You forget to ask for a lot of things,” said Dmitri, putting down the sign.

  Sam began making his way to baggage claim, with Dmitri falling into step beside him.

  “No, really. I was perfectly happy to take the bus.”

  Dmitri sighed and took off his glasses, then patted Sam on the shoulder. “Can I just say, you are a true lord, and if I were to die on your orders, I would accept it. It is an honor to serve at you pleasure.”

  Sam felt heat rush to his face in embarrassment and stepped back. “Uh…what?”

  “All of this is true. Yet, can I just say, it is adorable that you still think you should take the bus.”

  “Shut up.”

  “It is adorable. You are adorable. Like a little baby.”

  “Shut up, Dmitri.”

  A half an hour later, they were pulling out of the airport parking lot and onto the highway in a large black sedan. Sam tried to relax in the back seat, stretching out his legs, but he still felt tightly wound from his trip.

  “I know what you are thinking,” said Dmitri from behind the wheel.

  “Do you?” Sam muttered, mildly annoyed.

  “This is not one of those limos that has the little mini-bar in it. There is no pineapple juice for you.”

  “I was not looking for a mini-bar, I was just stretching,” Sam snapped, then stiffened at his own reaction. He really was too on edge from his experiences in D.C.; if even Dmitri’s typical silliness was getting to him this much, he’d better calm down before he dealt with anyone else.

  Especially Cassie.

  He let a few moments pass in silence, taking in the sounds of the highway. There was traffic, but it was quieter here, less overwhelming than it had been in D.C. One of the things he liked about Sterling was that it wasn’t a major city; life moved slower here. The place still had the feel of a large city, but it was a little softer, a little easier to catch your breath.

  That’s going to change though. More businesses are moving in, because there’s an entourage here now. How long will it feel like this, before we all destroy it?

  “So, what did I miss while I was gone? Anything good?” Sam asked, trying to affect a nonchalance he didn’t really feel.

  “A baby elephant from the zoo has fallen in love with your witch, it seems. He broke out of the zoo to find her, whole world losing their shit. Good times.”

  There was a pause.

  “Dmitri, can you please be straight with me for a moment here? I’m really tired and I’m not in the mood for your shtick.”

  “I love when demon
s use Yiddish! But alas, not shtick. All true.”

  Sam was silent in contemplation for a moment, then took out his cell phone. Miri picked up on the first ring.

  “Back in town, handsome?”

  “Dmitri is telling me some nonsense about Cassie and a baby elephant. Did this really happen or should I hurt him? Because I’m running out of patience.”

  “Uh, yeah, that was a thing that happened.”

  “What.” There was no question mark; it was more of a statement than an interrogative.

  “The baby elephant from the zoo seems to be like your bat, it’s attracted to magic. So it got obsessed with Cassie at the zoo, then broke out of the zoo to try to find her. It’s all over the internet.”

  It took a few moments for Sam to process this.

  “Why did no one think to pick up a phone and tell me this was happening?”

  “Well, uh…I guess we kind of assumed you already knew? Since it’s all over the internet?”

  “Don’t ever assume I know anything that happens on the internet! I hate the internet!”

  “Look, don’t shoot the messenger, okay? I’m just telling you.”

  After he had hung up with Miri, Sam was about to call Cassie, then paused. He could reach out to her with his mind, which would give him a much better sense of what was going on than trying to discern it through conversation, but he usually refrained from doing that sort of thing. But her mind had been out of his reach for a week, the physical distance between them making mental communication more difficult, and he didn’t realize how much he had missed her until now. He wanted to talk to her, mind-to-mind, but he wanted it for the wrong reasons; less for any information he might glean, but rather to enjoy that special kind of intimacy their bond made possible.

  Idly, he reached out to Vladmira, something far easier and habitual. She was sleeping, tucked cozily beneath a ledge, but at his gentle pull she awoke and flapped her little wings, ecstatic at his return. He could feel the chill of the wind high above the city streets as she stirred, and even in the climate-controlled car, a breeze ruffled through his pale hair. Through her, he felt the general contentment of the thousands of other bats in the city, all of whom followed her orders like good little soldiers. He had never quite been able to discern what the bats thought of him, or if they even understood him as anything other than an abstract concept, but they served Vladmira with absolute loyalty, and her happiness was their happiness. It wasn’t the same kind of contact that he had with Cassie, but well…it was nice to feel wanted sometimes, even by a bunch of bats.

  He sighed; if only things with his little witch could be half so simple….

  Do not think of that ugly harlot! It is I who am your QUEEN!

  His eyes snapped open, and he gasped, feeling like someone had punched him in the stomach.

  Was that voice…Vladmira’s? Did she just talk to me in words? She’s never done that before!

  “Are you alright back there?” asked Dmitri, noticing Sam’s startle. All traces of banter gone, he was all business, his thick Russian accent abandoned.

  “Yes…I…I’m fine. It’s hard to explain,” said Sam, pulling his bangs back from his face.

  As he calmed down, he realized the car was slowing. Soon, Dmitri had pulled to a complete stop.

  “What’s going on?”

  “I don’t know,” said Dmitri. He took out his phone.

  “You know, you could turn on the radio. For the traffic report,” said Sam.

  “Faster this way. Hmm, looks like there’s a big accident up ahead, that’s a shame. Thought I heard a crash before, but I hear so much, I don’t always focus.”

  “How big an accident?”

  “Big, multi-car pileup. We may be here for a while.”

  Sam looked out the passenger-side window, but couldn’t see anything beyond the solid wall of stopped traffic that now occupied the highway. Later, he wouldn’t be able to say what had compelled him to do it, but he got out of the car and began walking forward, next to the concrete divider. Dmitri didn’t miss a beat, following a step behind him.

  After a few minutes of walking, they were in sight of the crash. It looked like a red SUV had collided with the back of a produce truck and flipped over, causing a chain reaction that involved five other cars. Police had blocked off the area with cones, but couldn’t do anything to stop bored drivers from getting out of their vehicles to gawk at the accident, taking pictures with their phones. A woman was being loaded into an ambulance, looking shaken up but otherwise okay. Another ambulance took off, sirens screeching, leading Sam to believe that most of the victims had already been removed from the wreckage.

  Dmitri shrugged. “A shame, but it happens every day. Maybe they will be lucky, and all will survive.”

  “No,” said Sam, squinting. “Someone died here. Someone….”

  Close to Sam and Dmitri there was a flipped-over blue car. Sam knelt, peered through the backseat window and flinched; there was an infant seat in the car.

  I sensed it the moment we…baby, eleven months…the car seat worked, it was installed properly, but the car flipped over several times, so much force…so much.

  He put his hands over his eyes and shuddered. There was a part of him that was invigorated by death, drew strength from it, but even that part of him could take no joy in this. He felt sick to his stomach. He tried to stand back up from his kneeling position, but found he was dizzy.

  There were other injuries, one man lost an arm and one hit his head, probably in a coma now, but the only death was…only the baby was….

  Dmitri steadied him, solid as a rock. “Every day, this happens. I know you don’t want to hear, but it is normal to die. It is the most normal.”

  “Dmitri….”

  “It is normal. It is sad, but part of life. You cannot interfere.”

  A sudden flash of anger seemed to clear Sam’s thoughts. He snapped his head in the vampire’s direction.

  “You’re giving me orders now?”

  Dmitri’s expression didn’t change.

  “You know that I am not.”

  “What was all that before, about you being honored to serve? What happened to that?”

  “I am serving right now. I’m reminding you of what you already know,” the dark-haired vampire said quietly. “You have been warned against doing this. You cannot.”

  It was true; he had already meddled with time far too much, and he had promised (both Court, and his father) that he would stop—or, at least that he wouldn’t meddle without a very good reason. Getting involved in a car accident that had nothing do with him didn’t count as a good reason.

  But it would be so easy. Looking with his inner eye, a kind of violet second sight that was usually dormant, he could see how simple it would be to reverse this one little moment in time. The crash stood out in bold relief, a clear, strong thread in the endless tapestry that surrounded him. All it would take is a little yank, a little pulling here and there and they would all be back before the SUV had slammed into the truck. The vehicle would swerve the other way at the last minute, there would be no collision, no chain reaction, no death.

  Dmitri sighed. “You did not have a very good time on this trip, I see.”

  Sam reached out a hand, feeling if the soft fibers of causality that were visible to him felt as pliable as he imagined; they were. It felt soothing, the silkiness of the invisible threads between his index and middle finger. As he gestured, the threads seemed to warm to the touch. It was simultaneously comforting and stimulating, like running his fingertips along Cassie’s pale skin.

  “No, I didn’t.”

  Before Dmitri could say anything more, Sam had already begun to reposition the threads. For just a moment, time flowed backwards, people being loaded out of ambulances and back into prone vehicles, cars flying about as though they were children’s toys, until the accident was unmade, and traffic resumed as usual. In the space of one breath, Sam and Dmitri were standing on the side of the road while the nor
mal midday traffic zoomed by loudly in the three lanes before them. As time resettled into its new form, Sam jumped at the sound of a loud crash from somewhere behind him.

  Dmitri sighed. He had to yell to be heard over the sound of traffic. “Our car was still parked. Someone just rear-ended us.”

  “Oh. Whoops.” Sam looked back to where the minor accident was, trying to sense what had happened; there was no death, only annoyance.

  “Small price to pay.”

  “You say that, but…” Dmitri started with his typical insouciance, then his eyes seemed to bulge out of his head. “What have you done?”

  “What?” Sam asked, whipping his head around to look where Dmitri was looking. Then he went cold.

  A wave of rot was spreading, corrupting everything in its path. Where the accident had once been, cars stopped with a screech, their frames quickly bending into rusted metal skeletons, while the people inside shuddered and retched. There was a hiss, the sound of dozens of rubber tires melting and bubbling on the too-hot pavement, a sound that grew louder and louder as the noxious wave grew. By the time Sam noticed it, the wave was already spreading to the cars behind him, picking up speed the more fodder it enveloped.

  “It’s the taint,” Sam said, his throat tight. “But I’ve never seen it like this.”

  “What is happening to the people in the cars?” Dmitri asked. His tone was flat, devoid of emotion.

  They’ll die…no. Some will die, but others will…change. Change into what? You know what…zombies, mindless walking corpses. So many bodies…

  Sam’s vision shook, and it was a moment before he realized Dmitri had grabbed his collar and was shaking him.

  It would be convenient to have an army of these things. Cassie won’t like it, but she’s always difficult. Bossy little witch, soft and so helpless…they’re all just so…helpless…like they were made for nothing more than….

  “Stop this! Stop this before--”

  Grimacing, Sam pushed Dmitri away and began to do something he’d never attempted before; he reversed his own reversal. With a few flicks of his fingers, the smokiness of the taint retreated, traffic resumed as normal, only for the red SUV to hit the produce truck once again. The SUV flipped, end over end, and slammed into a black compact car, which careened into a turquoise sports car, which slammed into the grey sedan in front of it, which slammed into….