I turned to meet her disapproving glare.
“We’ve always been a team—you and me against the world,” she said. “That has not changed. Circumstances may have changed. The world might have become a little more complicated, but us looking out for each other first has not changed. With that, we’ve always treated each other with respect, and that isn’t about to stop now. I’m sorry if you’re upset. I’m sorry if you don’t approve of what I’m doing. But you will not disrespect me, especially not in my own home.”
“Then maybe I’ll just move out,” I argued. “I’m eighteen. I’m out of high school. I have money to support myself.”
“If that’s how you feel, then I’m not going to force you to stay. You’re an adult and I’ve taught you to make your own decisions. Do you really want to leave?” Her eyes quickly morphed from angry to sad, clearly dreading my answer.
“I don’t know,” I said, my own anger deflating. “I just want things to go back to the way they were before—before all this vampire crap.”
“They were always around. We just didn’t know it.”
“Yeah. And now our eyes are open, and we can see what a mess everything is.”
“You need to be able to see the mess in order to clean it.”
“And you want to clean the mess? ’Cause from where I’m standing, it doesn’t look that way.” I crossed my arms defiantly.
“Believe it or not, I do. You can’t do anything if you’re dead, so there are roles and games I must play—the same as you, now that you’ve agreed to be initiated into a group that will demand certain expectations of you. There will be things you have to do for the greater good that you will not agree with—maybe you already have done them.”
“But why the vampires?” I pleaded. “They’re what we’re fighting against. They’re the enemy.”
“Is Matthew the enemy?”
“He’s different.”
“So, you’re saying there are exceptions—that everything’s not strictly black and white,” Mom challenged.
“I dunno! Ugh. You’re so frustrating!” I exclaimed.
“I’m sorry. I’m just pointing out the flaw in your argument. There are good and bad people, good and bad angels, and good and bad vampires. You can’t condemn an entire species—that goes for any one of them. Are vampires dangerous, as a whole? Absolutely. But then again, so are we.”
I knew she was right because, deep down, I knew Matthew was one of the good guys. I believed Jack—whom I’d met at Sisters of Mercy—was a good guy as well. And I’d really grown fond of Kelsey during my stay in the hospital. So, I knew things were not so simple. Frederick had even saved me from some not-so-admirable vampires in Fangloria, and he had a chivalrous demeanor about him. But then, he’d also been introduced to me as Damien Galt, who’d been indoctrinated into me as the very face of evil—the enemy of all mankind. Was the Society wrong about him, then? Was Mom? Or was there even more she didn’t want to admit to?
“I don’t like keeping secrets from Matthew,” I said. “I’ve seen them talk to each other—I know Frederick said they have a history—so wouldn’t it be better to get this all out in the open?”
“He’s already made it clear that informing Matthew would be a bad idea—for all parties involved. I don’t want to see anyone get unnecessarily hurt.”
“What if it’s the secrecy that gets someone hurt, though?” I countered.
“Trust me; it’s safer this way,” she said, trying to end the line of questioning. “And with that, Frederick wants to meet with you again. Can you make it tomorrow evening?”
“Where?”
“At the club,” she said. “I can show you around, let you see it’s not all so bad. It provides a necessary service—kind of like that hospital you were in.”
“I really don’t want to go back there,” I said.
“I can’t believe it’s any worse than the psychiatric hospital,” she said, practically daring me to challenge her statement.
In reality, Fangloria was nothing compared to Sisters of Mercy. The club seemed to be filled with willing participants, unlike most of the humans in the hospital. As much as I detested the environment of Fangloria, I now understood its purpose; it was for all the vampires seeking semi-legal nourishment, as well as for its human patrons seeking supernatural excitement in a safer environment. Safer, but surely not safe.
“You’re not going to pawn me off on some vampire, right?” I asked, incredulously.
“I’ll kill anyone who touches you,” she said.
“And now you’re a vampire hunter?”
“I’ve done things I’m not proud of.” Her answer was irritatingly vague, and when I tried to press, she simply deflected with her new default response. “I do what’s required to keep you safe.”
“Whatever.” I pushed past her to reach the kitchen and scoured the pantry for my bag of Oreos.
“So, tomorrow?” she asked as I stalked by her, heading for my room.
“If I must,” I said and slammed the door. I dropped onto my bed, set the cookies beside me and proceeded to scream into my pillow. Maybe it really was time to move out? I had a place of my own now. I was an adult; I could handle it. Just the sight of Mom now made me crazy, as if she had betrayed me. She couldn’t be the woman I’d admired for so long, who’d raised me single-handedly. But then I was reminded of why I couldn’t fully leave.
“What’s wrong, Fee?” Becca asked, her sweet voice so calming and centering.
“Just arguing with Mom,” I said, rolling over to lie on my back and stare up at the hypnotic ceiling fan. “Nothing to worry about.”
“I don’t like it when you fight.”
“I don’t like it when we fight either, but we don’t always agree on stuff.” I opened the bag, split one of the cookies, and ate my designated half.
“Save me mine, okay?” she said, cheerfully.
“I always do. When I die, I’ll be able to bring you a huge bag of your halves. You’ll have so many, you’ll never want to see another Oreo again.”
“No way,” she chuckled. “I’ll never get sick of them.”
“You’re so optimistic.” I laughed too. “I wish I had your optimism.”
“I’ll give you some of mine since you’re gonna give me the cookies.”
“Deal.” I split another Oreo and popped the filling half into my mouth.
Becca always helped me get perspective. She helped me remember what was important and I could never fully leave her—not even for that lavish, penthouse condo. No matter how at odds Mom and I were right now, here was where I belonged.
After a few more cookies, I slipped into my pajamas, snuck out of my room to wash up, then went to bed without uttering another word to Mom.
“G’night, Becks,” I said as I pulled the covers up to my chin.
“Night, Night.”
“Sweet dreams.”
“See you in the morning, in the morning.”
8
Matthew
I was ready to face the firing squad. I didn’t know which was worse, standing before the Order or the Assembly; it seemed I had critics no matter where I stood.
I knew Fiona had wanted me to stay the night, but the meeting with the Assembly had already been scheduled. As much as I wanted to, I couldn’t just blow them off. There was a slim enough chance they’d be willing to help as it was.
It was true we’d performed several assassination attempts of Damien Galt over the last decade since he’d been in the public eye, but the Assembly was proving to be less receptive to each additional mission; they argued that the missions were a waste of valuable resources. What they were really saying was that the missions were doomed from the start and that this was all a part of the inevitable future, so why continue to try?
The truth was, we didn’t know what could be changed and what couldn’t, so it should be our duty to keep trying. However, that argument typically fell on deaf ears.
After waiting around for a half hour
for everyone to gather, I stood before a majority of the Assembly—five of their seven members—and debriefed them on the latest failed attack on Galt.
“Why is this the first we’re hearing of it?” Douglas Fiennes asked in his usual patronizing tone.
“Because there were no Society resources involved,” I said.
“You’re a Society resource.”
“I’m a Society member; there’s a difference. What I do in my own time and with my own resources is not contingent upon Assembly approval.”
“But you got help from the Vampire Order,” Janice Bolt said, rocking back in her chair with her arms crossed.
“Yes,” I said. “They see him as a threat as well and requested my help in taking him down. They provided the initial resources and manpower.”
“And now that that mission has failed, you are requesting Society resources and manpower,” Janice said.
“We’ve been through this before,” Douglas said.
“Not all the resources and manpower, but the help in putting together a joint team for one more mission,” I said.
“And what if this next mission fails?” Ashley Degray asked.
“Then we’ll reassess.”
“You said there were casualties,” Douglas said. “How were you not better protected?”
“Yes; two angel casualties,” I said. “There had never been a concern with explosives previously, so it wasn’t something we’d anticipated this time.”
“But you’ll anticipate it in the future,” Janice said. “I know you can’t guarantee success, but how can you guarantee a better chance of success next time? What will you do differently?”
“First of all, figuring out how they evaded us. They are not vampires, we know that much—otherwise, we’d have been able to sense them earlier and track them better. So, we still haven’t been able to figure out how they disappeared. Once we solve that mystery, it should greatly aid us in the next mission.”
“How much are we talking?” Douglas asked. “How many of our guys are you hoping for?”
“I don’t have the exact size of a strike team yet, but I don’t anticipate it being much larger than before. So, four to six fighters. But what will be more important this time around is infiltration. I want to be involved in the next strike, but I’ll have to keep to the background until the attack to keep from blowing our cover.” I hadn’t told them about the voice on the phone, figuring that was something better left out. “Once we determine a time and place for the next strike, I want help infiltrating our guys into the situation to give us the best advantage.”
“We don’t want a public execution,” Janice said. “Whatever happens should be discreet.”
“Of course,” I said. “The aftermath will spread like wildfire, but we’ll be sure not to have the assassination itself end up on the nightly news.”
“Not that that’s the worst thing that could happen,” Ashley chimed in. “We would have just rid the world of one of the most dangerous men in history despite what the populace might believe. We’re not doing this for popularity, but for the betterment of mankind.”
“I know,” I said, realizing I wasn’t really included in the mankind she spoke about. I hadn’t been included for a long time. I knew what I was doing it all for, which was mostly for my own failings than anything else. I’d told Frederick about Damien Galt when I first arrived on Earth. Had that story set all these events in motion or would they have unfolded the same way regardless? I had no way of knowing.
Even though the Damien Galt we all saw on television was obviously a different person, I couldn’t help believing that Frederick was involved in some way. I’d kept him from finding the time portal for all these decades, but he’d never given up his interest. The time was approaching for Vampire Nation to come into the light, so we’d soon find out if everything we’d prophesied and feared was true.
“Nuking an entire city should be an acceptable sacrifice to stop the all-out war,” Douglas offered.
“That would simply lead us to the same result sooner,” I countered. “It would start a chain reaction ending in the same scenario.”
“We don’t even know what the true scenario will be, since everything we’re going by is from the perspective of being on ParallEarth, cut off from all communication with the ground,” Bruce Roselli said. “We’ve been assuming the worst all these years—an unrecoverable apocalypse. But what if it is only the beginning? What if this planned escape into space has all been for nothing?”
“I guess now is as good a time as any to let you in on the newest development,” Janice said. “On ParallEarth, we recently received a communication from the ground. They’ve been living in the aftermath for ninety-plus years, and they’ve confirmed that everything we’ve feared is true.”
I could tell by the shocked faces around the conference room table, that it truly was the first time the others were hearing about this development, as was I. Except for Ashley… She didn’t seem surprised at all.
“When were you going to tell us about this?” Douglas barked. “When was the first contact made?”
“It was very recent,” Janice said. “I wanted to speak with the commander on the ground myself before revealing this new development. I feel what he’s told me about the future state of Earth is true. We are leaving for a reason.”
9
Sean
I couldn’t believe I was leaving for New York in two days. My room was already practically packed. I’d be renting a small U-Haul trailer to take everything but the big furniture, driving my new car cross-country. So far, the furthest I’d ever driven was to Yosemite the previous summer, with a few friends. Dad had offered to come with me to New York, then fly home—but I’d declined the offer. I felt I needed to do it on my own.
I had considered staying for Fiona. I really did want her back, but it became apparent I’d already lost her—that her eyes were now fixed solely on this new Matthew character. I knew there was something off about him, but she wouldn’t hear anything of it. My last-ditch effort was telling her about the pictures I’d found him in. Unfortunately, I couldn’t show them to her since they’d mysteriously disappeared, but I knew he had a hand in that too, somehow. Unfortunately, me bringing up the pictures didn’t seem to dissuade her in the slightest; if anything, she seemed to find it all oddly romantic. It had never occurred to me that she was into stalkers, though maybe it should have.
I’d told Fiona I was staying for her, but I’d never cancelled my acceptance to NYU. I wasn’t going to throw away that opportunity on a romantic whim, not until she gave me a real commitment. If we’d gotten back together, then I probably would have stayed, much to my parents’ disapproval; luckily for them, that wasn’t how the events played out.
It was time to start over and focus on me for a while, then I’d be open to meeting someone new.
In the middle of packing earlier in the day, Harrison had called me and demanded we go out for a proper send-off—one last hurrah before we too went our separate ways. He’d be leaving for San Francisco in a few days as well, so a cross-country road trip for the two of us wasn’t going to happen either.
He showed up at my house just as the rest of the family was sitting down for dinner. I said goodnight to everyone as I stole a warm roll for the road and ran out the side door. Harrison’s car was idling at the bottom of the driveway. At least I wouldn’t be driving tonight; I had enough driving on the near horizon.
“So, where’s the action tonight?” I asked as I buckled up and Harrison backed out of the driveway.
“Know what this is?” he asked, tossing me what looked like a blank credit card.
I examined the black card, which was a lot heavier than I would have expected. It wasn’t a credit card. “Is this a room key?” I asked.
“Not exactly,” he said, a huge grin spreading across his face.
I looked it over again, trying to figure out what he’d given me. A small engraving sat in the bottom right corner, but its bla
ck coloring matched the card, so the engraving blended with its background. On the back stood a string of numbers, but nothing that made any sense. I stared—and as I looked more closely at them, I saw there were also intermixed letters. Upon isolating the lettering from the numbers, I realized they spelled guest.
“I give up,” I said, looking up from the card. “What is it?”
“You were close when you said it was a room key,” Harrison said. “It is a keycard, but it doesn’t open the door to a hotel room. It grants us admittance to an exclusive club, supposed to be totally unbelievable. It sounded like a perfect plan for our last night together before leaving for college.”
“This thing gets us into some special club?” I was a little skeptical to say the least.
“Yup.”
“Where did you get it?”
“That girl I was telling you about—I texted you a pic—Amaya. She had an extra card and gave it to me. Supposedly, it only works once. And the only way to get in is with one of these, so this is our one shot.”
“I find it hard to believe some place is so exclusive that the only way to get in is with a special keycard.”
“Dunno, but that’s what she said,” Harrison said with a shrug. “She seemed to know what she was talking about.”
“So, how did she get it?”
“I’ve no idea. I tried looking the place up online and there wasn’t much information.”
“What’s it called?”
“Fangloria. Up for an adventure?”
“I’m game,” I said, ready to cause some mischief. “Let’s see what we’re in for.”
“That’s what I’m talking about!” Harrison yelled. “One more adventure, for old times’ sake. It’s gonna be awesome!”
10
Fiona
Angeles Betrayal Page 5
