I stood in the lab two floors below our underground lair and sighed. At what point during the last few years had this become a requisite garbage dump? Or at least a place where everyone shoved their old stuff that didn’t work anymore? We didn’t have that much tech, but all of it that was broken seemed to be right here.
Glen spun in a circle. “What I could do in here. I mean, I could make a lot of this work again or make new things out of them.”
I turned to him. “So why don’t you?”
He shrugged. “How can I keep up my Warrior duties, raise what is about to be two kids, spend time with Tia, and work on tech? I don’t have free time to do it.”
“Glen.” I couldn’t believe I was about to give anyone advice. “Life is short and over in a second. You are an incredible Warrior. I can think of a dozen times you saved my ass. But you’re my family, so I’m going to say this to you. Do what you want. We have a lot of Warriors. We’re training really well. Everyone isn’t dying from being ill prepared anymore. You can step down.” I winced. “I’m not council. Chad? Deacon?”
Deacon nodded. “I think it’s a great idea. Fix our tech, Glen. That’s your job. Help fight if we need it. Train like twice a week, early in the morning, to stay sharp. That’ll give you more time with the baby, too.”
“You’re council.” Chad glared at me. “Or you’ll be some kind of advisory thing.”
I ignored him for now. “Could you make the lights work? I mean, fuck. I need to talk to you guys about this idea I had. I was going to wait. But listen, I think I know how to fix things. Some of them, anyway.”
All eyes were on me, and Brynna leaned slightly into me, showing me her support. I opened my mouth, and it all flew out. The way we had to redo Genesis. What it would take. It would be a massive undertaking. I wasn’t negating the sheer amount of work, but in two years, if we really devoted ourselves to getting it done, we’d be where we needed to be.
When I finished, they were silent. The weight of having said something stupid ran through me like I was back in school getting all the wrong answers on everything. I knew how to handle this kind of eventuality. I’d done so many times.
I made myself a joke.
“Oh, fuck it, don’t listen to me. I’ll stick to looking in the mirror. I’m good at grooming.”
Chad raised both his eyebrows. “I think it’s brilliant. I think that’s what we should have been doing since I was nineteen. I mean, yeah. This is great. Perfect. I mean, I’m sure there are things we’ll have to tweak.”
Rachel grinned. “Like we’re saying we are devoted to not living day by day but to an actual future where things are better. We can keep pushing out the exterior. Once we have the section you make under control, we wait five years and we push out again.”
“What about Doubleday?” Lydia linked hands with Deacon. “What do we do about her?”
“We let her die.” Brynna shot out. “We find this damned cloning machine, we let Glen figure out how to turn it off so she can’t make any more, and then we let them all die. At some point, even if it’s not our generation, we outlive them. The Vampires lose food supplies if we manage to get most of the human population here, and we use the Warriors that want to be involved to continue Micah’s work of emptying the underground tunnels.”
I sighed. “You make that sound easy.”
“No, not easy, just goals we can reach.” Brynna seemed so sure of this plan. I wondered if she meant it or if she was on my side in general. Did it matter? No. I was glad to have her support. Although everyone in this room seemed to think I was on to something here.
This was a first.
“I have one objection.” Chad scratched his head.
And here it was. The whole thing would fall apart now. “What?”
“In this plan, someone lives in the fort. Someone is permanently there running things. Taking all the risks.”
Where was he going with this? “Someone would have to be. Yes, for this to work. The others—the young Warriors and the established ones rotate in and off. We’d come up with a schedule.”
“And you’re the permanent Warrior, right? I mean you haven’t officially said you are, but that’s what we’re talking about.”
Deacon shifted his feet. “Shit.”
“What’s the problem?” I raised my voice. My patience was thin. That had to be true for all of us after what had happened with Dad, and yet here we were, pressing on like he’d wanted us to do every time there was tragedy. Dad had even pushed forward when Chad died. That had been hard but…
Fuck, my mind was wandering, again.
“The problem with that,” Chad hollered back to me, officially losing his cool, which was weird for him, “is I don’t want my brother facing down danger every day for the rest of his life. Okay? I mean that doesn’t sound right. We all face danger. But you know the person in that fort is going to live it, day in and day out, all the time. Excuse me if I don’t want it to be you.”
The fact that Chad was losing it threw me off my angry hill. He’d lost our father, too, and we’d hardly even discussed it. We’d always been close. In Before Time. Now. There had never been a time when Chad and I hadn’t had each other’s backs.
“I won’t be alone.” I nodded toward Brynna. “My gorgeous woman says she’s down with doing this with me.”
Deacon scrunched up his face. “Down.”
“Slang,” Chad and I said together. We’d never had a ton in common, but every once in a while, it was like we suddenly had everything alike.
“Gotcha.” Deacon walked in between us and put a hand on both our arms. “I’ll miss him, too, Chad. A lot. But he’ll have to come in regularly, and we both know he’s the right one for the job. Particularly if his wife is going with him. I watched her fight during that last battle. She’s tough.”
She’d been fighting. I turned to look at her, and she shrugged. Obviously, we weren’t going to talk about it right now. Why was this the first time I’d heard about this?
“Chad, I’m not made for safety. That’s not my journey. I won’t take unnecessary risks. You can be certain I’ll hold the wall.”
Glen cleared his throat. “Sorry to interrupt, but I found it.”
“What?”
Deacon let go of my arm. “The cloning machine?”
“Well, it’s not exactly a cloning machine. I mean how could there be a cloning machine? They’re huge. Giant water tanks. It’s a whole thing. Not like we know it. But there’s no way we wouldn’t have seen that. I mean, I suppose there are other hidden labs but…”
“Glen.” Rachel squatted next to him. “You’re rambling.”
He grimaced. “Sorry. Here.” He held up what looked like an old fax machine. What was that even doing here? Who was there to fax? “This isn’t what it looks like.”
Deacon and Lydia looked at each other and then at Glen. Yep, neither of them would know what it looked like. I’d give him my best explanation for it later. He raised it higher. “They wouldn’t have started with cloning people. They’d have to have started with something else. I…” He winced. “I need to study this. If I was a mad genius that wanted to rule the world, I’d store all of the cloning data somewhere. Like a mother system that controls all the others.”
A mother system that controlled all the others? What was my sister doing to him? That was a question for another time.
“Why would they keep it here?” Brynna put a hand on the machine. She did that a lot. Brynna liked tactical contact with things. I didn’t mind. It meant her hand was constantly on me.
Glen rose, the device in his hand. “Speculation? They wanted to be able to send things here. To clone as they pleased. Remember the killing the Vampires potion? That was here. It showed up with that video right when it did? Maybe they sent it that day. Or, maybe it was some kind of control thing. Icahn held on to it here, away from Doubleday, to try to prevent her from doing what she ultimately did.”
My brother-in-law, Glen, the man my father always hated.
He might be the savior of us all.
“I think…”
Brynna sucked in a breath, and seconds later, we all felt what had made her gasp. There were Vampires here. They weren’t the Vampires we couldn’t feel. These were good old-fashioned, signal-giving Vampires. And they were here.
Why? Glen paled. “I wonder if they know I have it.”
“Doubleday didn’t think we’d find it.”
I understood in an instant what had to happen, and I moved as fast as I could. I grabbed on to Glen. Whatever battle took place next, he had to live to take care of that cloning machine. He had to get it shut down.
“Look at me.” I kept my voice low as I dragged Glen toward the ladder. “Hide. Take this and hide. Don’t take it to my sister. Get out of here before the Vampires get you. Hide. Get it shut down before you come back. We won’t let them get to you. In fact, Deacon, Lydia, go with him. He needs protection. Go now.”
I wasn’t in charge of them; in fact, just the opposite was true. Yet, they all took off like I was the leader of this show. They hauled ass up the ladder before I whirled around. If I could, I would push everyone in this room out.
Brynna. Chad. Rachel. They were my family. But family was the problem. When you were a family of Warriors, death—yours or monsters’—was the end to every day. Doubleday hadn’t hurt me enough. I’d won her maze, beaten her challenge, and now she meant to make me pay for it.
If I asked them to leave, they wouldn’t.
“Brynna, what’s the deal?”
She pursed her lips. “They’re lost to the need to feed. She must have been starving them for a long time. I can’t insert myself in there. Not yet. They’re coming through the wall.”
I could hear the scratches, the bangs.
“Rachel, Brynna, go evacuate the civilian population down here. Please.” That was a legitimate request. “Get them out. Get the other Warriors activated if Deacon hasn’t already.”
Chad took a long inhale. “Stay away, Rachel. Keep her safe.”
She looked like she might argue and then didn’t. “I will.”
“Did you find out for sure you’re having a girl?” I might never meet my niece or nephew, but I liked knowing they were coming.
“We’re not finding out. That’s a Before Time luxury. I know it’s a girl. I can feel it. Elizabeth. That’s her name.” He rubbed his forehead. “Although she might not know me, I know her.”
My whole body went cold. Elizabeth couldn’t not know Chad. Not for this bullshit. Not for this endless amount of crap I’d foisted on us all by not dying in that madhouse Doubleday had been running.
Like I’d known with Glen, I understood immediately what had to happen. For the first time in my life, I fully grasped what it had taken for Rachel to do the things she’d done all those years ago. It had seemed like constant martyrdom, but she’d loved us that much.
“Chad, I’m sorry. That’s not at all an acceptable response.”
He never expected me to punch him. If he had, he’d certainly not have expected it to be a knockout blow. Brynna gasped, and Rachel groaned as Chad hit the floor. I looked up at his wife. “He has to meet Elizabeth.”
“Micah, he’s going to kill you.” She spoke through gritted teeth. “You can’t do this alone.”
Brynna spoke softly. “He won’t. I’m here. Get the other Warriors.”
I hoisted Chad over my shoulder. He was heavy, but I was strong. I climbed the ladder as fast as I could. Rachel followed closely. I laid him down and turned to see a Warrior running over. He was older but a good fighter, and he’d never been too much of a kiss ass to my father. His name was Daniel. I’d never spoken a word to him before, but Daniel was going to help me now.
“Grab my brother, drag him away somewhere safe. Okay?”
Daniel looked down at Chad. “Is he okay?”
“He’ll be fine. Take him. Now. Thanks.” I didn’t give him a chance to ask me any questions. I turned toward Rachel. She was pale. “Rachel, tell him…” I wasn’t able to finish. I didn’t know what I would say.
“Tell him once she had a name it was too much. I get it. He’ll never forgive you.” She threw her arms around me, and I hugged her tightly. We’d been such close friends for years before she was family. “Don’t die, Micah.”
I found my words. “You and I both know the chances are slim I’m going to get out of this. But I’ll keep them from getting up here. As long as I can.”
She pulled back. “You’re playing the role I used to play.”
“How am I doing?”
Rachel wiped tears from her eyes, and I ignored them. “Really well.”
I climbed back down the ladder. Brynna stared at a small hole in the wall. We didn’t have time before they made the small hole a big hole. I’d promised to hold them back. As long as the wall was a one-person sized hole, we had a chance. But in the event we didn’t, the Vampires could stay down here. Forever.
I grabbed the ladder. “Brynna, help me, love. We need to break apart this ladder.”
“Good call.” She was stronger than me even though she’d denied that once. Soon, using her hands, she’d torn apart the wooden ladder until it was all over the floor. Her gaze stayed on the ground. “Extra stake materials.”
“Brynna, I love you.” I had to say it. Needed to say it. Was desperate to shout it from the rooftops until it vibrated off the walls.
She linked our hands. “I love you, too. And I know this is goodbye. So thank you for making me feel human again for the first time in hundreds of years.”
“You and I should have been gone long ago. This is captured time.” I realized I meant it as I said it. “Thanks for making me feel alive. Thanks for waking me up.”
A Vampire-sized hole came through the wall followed immediately by a Vampire. The Warriors gathered above us. They’d catch them if they got up there. Genesis would stand. It had always been everything.
Before Brynna. Now she was everything.
My father once said to me, when it came to bullets, you never heard the one that got you. You were shot, but you never heard it hit. It turned out the same thing happened when a Vampire that wasn’t your mate got ahold of your neck.
I didn’t hear it. Didn’t feel it. He took me straight to the ground, his body on top of mine like we were lovers. I was dead. He’d torn into my neck in such a fashion I knew I wasn’t coming back. Brynna screamed in the distance, seeing me. Vampires, all of them circling her, surrounded her.
Everything felt distant… blood loss. Shock. Others screamed through this death. Maybe it was a mercy I couldn’t feel a thing. He raised his bleeding wrist. Why was the Vampire bleeding? He pressed it to my mouth. No, I knew what that meant. But I had no strength. Just the fog of death to drag me under.
Blood. My mouth watered. My ears rang. There was nothing else, only the need to feed. Where was I? There was glass everywhere, surrounding me. I pounded on it. There were humans out there. They stared at me through the glass.
I could have them. I could kill them. I could practically taste it. I pounded on it.
Something was wrong.
There was a promise. Someone—many someones had made a promise—I wasn’t supposed to be like this. Ever.
But that was a thought that belonged to someone else. Not my own thoughts anymore.
A female approached. She touched the glass. Sleep. I didn’t sleep. I needed to feed.
Something smelled wrong. The world tilted left. My eyes closed.
I woke up on a bed, drenched in sweat. My mother sat next to my bed, a cool cloth on my forehead. “There he is. I think his fever broke.”
“That’s good.” My father stared down at me. “I didn’t want to have to take him to the hospital.”
She rolled her eyes. “Always the pragmatist. Sounds like you were having some weird dreams.”
I stared hard at my mother. She looked… younger. What was it? Well, she didn’t have gray hair, and the wrinkles around her eyes were gone. She weighed more, like she was slightly rounder with fewer muscles.
I rubbed my eyes. Maybe I was seeing things. And how was my father here? “Dad, you’re dead.”
Hated to state the obvious, but there it was.
He stared at me before he raised an eyebrow. “Wishful dreaming, Micah? You’re going to school tomorrow, so don’t start any nonsense. Your mother has already missed enough work because you decided to get the flu.”
“Decided to get the flu? People don’t decide to get the flu. You don’t opt for it. And… School? I’m a grown frickin’ man. I don’t go to school.”
My mom gasped. “Micah. Language.”
It was my hands that caught my attention. They looked different, softer. Where were the calluses and the scars? The time I’d gotten gnawed on by a Werewolf had left a serious mark. What in sweet hell was going on?
I stumbled out of bed. My legs were weak. I stared at myself in the mirror. There I was. Sixteen years old, right before the cold freeze that would make time cease to move for me for hundreds of years.
“This can’t be. This is a dream.”
My mother rose. “Micah Lyons. Maybe you should get back in bed.”
“This is a dream.” I uttered it again. “Or… or a memory. Yes, I was here. This happened. It was a memory. You took care of me. The last time, before I would be dragged off to become a Warrior in a sick, twisted world. Dad’s got to go soon. He’s going to be late for a meeting to talk about all the recent weird deaths. See a Vampire in lock up. You’re going to offer me ginger ale and an R rated movie I’ve seen already but you don’t know about, Mom, because you’re so strict I spend half my time doing things just to get away with them.”
A Wolf darted through the door, growling at me, his eyes red. No, that didn’t belong in this memory. That was another time. I saw that Wolf once at Isaac Icahn’s house when it tried to kill me for talking to Rachel. It had been Jason.
The memories were mixing. That Wolf shouldn’t be here.
I was flung from the room. I landed on the ground. In front of me stood Brynna. She was wet, tired. Alone. I reached for her, but she ran in the opposite direction. Chad and Deacon, talking in low voices, walked right through me like I wasn’t even there.
“Hello,” I shouted to no one. “Hello? Help me. Someone help me.”
Doubleday walked out of the woods, Isaac Icahn behind her: collared, naked, and shivering, attached to a leash. “There’s no help, Micah. You belong to me now. There is only… blood.”
I woke up screaming. This time I knew where I was. The lab where Margot worked. Chad and Deacon held me down while Margot shined a light in my eyes. “They’re human pupils. They’re human. Can you hear me, Micah? Are you understanding what I’m saying?”
I had to swallow before I could speak. “Fuck. Yes. What’s going on? I was… I was…”
Deacon let go of my arm. “A fucking Vampire. Yes, for half a day. Let go, Chad. He’s in control.”
My brother looked like he had aged overnight. The shiner he’d gotten from me looked ugly and puffy. He dropped my arm and then gripped the side of the table like he needed it to stay upright. He pointed at me and then grabbed the table again. “Don’t do that again.”
Margot dropped the light. “He’s going to be fine. He wasn’t under long, and he never fed. Shouldn’t have the craving, I don’t think. I’m guessing, but that would be a medical guess.”
She had a black eye, too. “How did you save me? What happened to your face?”
“Well, I think the fact you’ve been feeding off Brynna when you ah, do whatever, is why you’re here. You shared enough blood that her ability to change back became, temporarily, your ability to change back. And my black eye is because I told Brynna I wasn’t going to try to fix you. She had other ideas.”
Deacon cleared his throat. “Never seen Brynna like that. She comes across as quiet and docile.”
Then they hadn’t been paying close enough attention. “She’s not any of those things.”
“No, she’s not.” Margot touched her face. “She was right, as it turns out, and not afraid to use physical force to make her point. I’ll recover, and I’m glad you did. She and I might have to talk after this. After she cools off. In the presence of others.”
I had to see her. If she’d gotten violent, then the part of her she feared was close to the surface. She needed to see me, and suddenly, the mate pull was more than I could handle. “Where is she?”
“Her fangs descended, and she ran for the woods about an hour ago.”
I jumped off the table. Unlike my dream-self filled with memories, my legs worked fine. “I have to find her. Thank you, Margot. Thank you for saving my life.”
“You saved Genesis,” Deacon told me. “We drove the Vampires back because of you. We owe you a huge debt.”
I stopped before I grabbed my coat off a hook on the wall. “Family doesn’t require thanks and that’s what everyone here is. This is my home. I can’t think of a better place to risk it all for. That being said, if I can avoid it, I’m never getting bit again by anyone but Brynna.” I winked at Chad. “And I’m not saying any more about that.”
My brother didn’t smile. “You knocked me out. I was supposed to be down there with you.”
“Elizabeth needed you to be up here. I’m not sorry. I’ll never be sorry I stopped you from getting bit, Chad. Hate me if you want to. I was right.”
He narrowed his gaze. “You do sound like him, sometimes. Just so you know.”
I didn’t have to question who he meant. He was right. Deep inside of me, there would always be a little Dad.