Despite, the nearly debilitating ache that Chad’s death caused in my soul, the night started out as most of our evening patrols went. Fighting had seemed like a good distraction from everything I couldn’t deal with.
Deacon and I stuck close to each other. He seemed worried to have me out of his line of vision, and I was missing the Lyons family so much that I wasn’t anxious to be alone. Besides, Deacon could fight as well as anyone I’d ever known. Seeing as I was exhausted, I stood a better chance of making it through the night if I didn’t complain.
Sometimes in the old movies we used to see in Genesis the moviemakers would put music in the movie to indicate something important was about to happen. That doesn’t happen in my real life.
Instead, Micah arrived. Even in the darkness I could see he looked worn and tired.
“What are you doing here?” I hissed. “Shouldn’t you be with your family?”
He shook his head. “Shouldn’t you? Why did you run off without coming to see me? Without coming to see Tia?”
I couldn’t answer that. I didn’t want to see Tia. Not because she had done anything. Truthfully even her plan to have a baby to get out of fighting showed she hadn’t changed at all. But I had changed.
Deacon came up behind us. “Do you two want to take out an advertisement to let the monsters know where we are?”
I shook my head as I bit down on my lip. He was right. We were being careless.
Still, Micah wasn’t done. “No one blames you. This is the life we lead. You’re family. You need to come home.”
Deacon swore. Apparently, his need for us to be silent didn’t hold when he was annoyed with a Lyons. “She’s not your family. She was your brother’s pseudo-girlfriend.”
“She’s family.”
I put my hands between them and shoved them away from each other. “We’ll talk later.”
Just then my Vampire radar went off. It wasn’t the worst signal I’d ever gotten, which meant there weren’t too many of them. I grabbed Deacon’s arm to let him know.
We shut off all lights, even the small barely visible ones we carried.
There were a lot of us out tonight. It shouldn’t be a problem to take them out. I took a deep breath and braced myself in case it was my continued bad luck to have to be one of the ones to fight them.
A crunch next to me alerted me that we weren’t alone. I whirled around, stake in hand. I felt energized, my earlier exhaustion gone.
But the Vampire who approached me made me lose my breath. I blinked a few times to make sure I saw it correctly. I’d have to be blind not to, since it carried one of the small lights the Warriors always had on. It illuminated the night around us like a beacon of death.
How long since I’d last seen its clothes? Simple, yet always clean. Brown pants, grey sweatshirt, brown shoes. How long since I’d last heard it utter my name in the way only he had been able to?
I covered my mouth with my hand as I heard Micah swear behind me. At least I knew I wasn’t crazy.
“C-c-chad,” I stuttered.
Only it wasn’t Chad. Not really, not anymore. His eyes were different. They were black and red Vampire eyes. The veins in his face protruded out neon red through his dead pale skin. But the biggest difference were his fangs.
My boyfriend. My beautiful, wonderful, strong, powerful boyfriend was a Vampire. It was too horrible for words.
“Rachel Clancy.” His voice sounded like a snake hissing at me.
I could feel the stake in my hand as my palms sweated around it. But I couldn’t move. I couldn’t make myself take the stake in my hand and push it through the familiar planes of Chad’s chest.
I shook where I stood.
“Micah, Deacon.”
I didn’t know what else to do but call their names for some kind of assistance. I spared a glance at Micah. The pain radiated from his gaze made me want to fall to my knees and weep.
“I can’t move, Rachel.”
I knew the feeling. If Icahn wanted a way to take me down, he couldn’t have construed a better way to achieve his goal. There was no way right here, right now, completely unprepared for this event, that I could raise a hand against Chad. Even if he was a member of the Undead now.
In fact, it momentarily occurred to me that perhaps there would be some kind of poetic justice to dying like this. I’d gotten Chad turned into a Vampire—and now he would end my life.
Deacon grabbed the back of my shirt pulling me to him just as Chad pounced. If I’d been where I’d stood just moments before, he would have gotten me. Letting go of me, Deacon grabbed Micah and shoved him backwards.
“Run.”
I’d never heard Deacon say that word before. It seemed to go against his nature and perhaps that is why I moved so fast. I ran until my legs burned and I had to stop.
I nearly doubled over as I panted for breath. Deacon nearly hit me from behind as he skidded to a stop, Micah close on his heels.
Deacon bounded around looking everywhere as I put my head between my legs. I wanted to puke.
“Is. He. Behind. Us?”
Deacon shook his head. “No.”
Micah groaned and grabbed my head. “My brother’s a Vampire. My brother’s a Vampire.”
I’m not sure how many times he repeated that phrase over and over again. Each time he said it felt like a small death.
Deacon leaned against a nearby tree. “Yes, he is.”
I stood up. My arms felt like lead and my legs like tree trunks. I could hardly move. Micah stared at me.
“Did you know?”
I shook my head. “No, not at all.”
“How am I supposed to drop this bomb on my parents?” Micah shouted like he wanted to bring down the trees around us. “This is going to kill them.”
This was the nightmare, I realized. It wasn’t so much that they could kill us. It was that they would change us. I’d made Chad promise he wouldn’t leave me a Vampire. I made him promise me if that ever happened, he would kill me. Now, here he was—a bloodsucking Vampire—and I’d run away.
“We can’t leave him like that.” My hands shook and I hadn’t noticed until just now. “I ran away. I couldn’t do it. But I have to find a way to do it.”
“I couldn’t either.” Micah paced between Deacon and me. “I couldn’t move.”
“Yes, we have to end it.” Deacon stepped away from the tree. “But I think we need to address something here.”
I thought I might fall over. “What?”
“Have you ever seen a Vampire so young before? I mean we all recognized him as Chad. When have any of us ever seen one that could still be recognized as ever having been human?”
He was right. Never before. What did that mean?
“Have you Deacon? When you lived underground? Did you see them so newly made?”
“No.” He shook his head. “Newly made Vampires are kept away. They’re vulnerable and easy to kill. That’s why we got away so easily. Otherwise, we never could have run.”
That made sense. “Someone made the decision to send a newly made Vampire after us.”
Micah swore. “Someone sent a message.”
I didn’t think we needed to guess who that was. Chad was changed after the explosion, and Icahn sent him after us to make some kind of sick point. He’d done so we’d know—he had bested us. He had taken someone who belonged to us—someone he once knew personally when Icahn had lived in Genesis—and he’d done the most abhorrent thing possible.
In my mind, I fell to my knees and stopped breathing. In my mind, I wept on Deacon’s shoulder until I had to be carted back home. In my mind, I had time and ability to mourn for Chad the way I should have.
But in real life, I stood still giving no one any outward indication of the scars forming on my heart inside of me. In real life, I did what was expected of me—I stayed silent and held my pain to myself.
Deacon moved forward. “We’re going to have to do something about this, Rachel.”
“I know.”
And if I had something to do with it, I would be the one to give Chad what I know he would have wanted—the end to the hell that it must be to be turned Vampire.
***
I stood outside the tent and let Micah give his family the horrifying news. Despite Micah’s proclamation otherwise, I didn’t feel like family anymore. I was Tia’s friend, well I hoped I still was, Micah’s friend, and their dead son’s girlfriend. I had made it out of the wreckage that had ultimately led to his becoming Undead.
After a few minutes, I quietly opened the flap to the tent. None of the Lyons mulled about the room. I imagined they’d all gone off to their rooms in grief. I didn’t want to intrude but there was something I had to do, someone who I owed a visit.
Tia’s room was next to her parents. They had one of the largest tents in the compound because of the sheer size of their family. I walked on quiet feet until I reached her area. Poking my head in, I saw she stood staring at a picture attached to her wall. One of her younger siblings must have colored it for her. It was a remarkably close replica of the Lyons family all standing together in front of a brown tree.
“Tia.” I hated to interrupt but I didn’t want delay the inevitable.
She whirled around. When she looked at me, her eyes were huge. “Rachel!”
Tia rushed in my arms and I hugged her—hard. She’d been my best friend for such a long time. I felt a large chasm between us now. Our destinies would be different. I knew it in my bones like I knew when a Vampire approached. Still, I loved her like the sister I’d always wanted.
“I’m sorry, Tia. So sorry, you’ll never know.”
She pulled back to look at me. “We don’t blame you.”
“You should. It’s my fault.”
“No.” She dabbed at her eyes with a cloth she held in her hands. “I think you sometimes like to take on the world’s problems as your own. You were both sent on an impossible mission. It’s a miracle you’re back at all.”
“It doesn’t feel that way right now.”
She sat down on the edge of her bed. “I can imagine. It feels pretty bad from where I am, too.”
I moved to sit next to her. “Are you…?”
I couldn’t say the word. It was still too weird for me to deal with at all.
“I don’t know for sure but I think am. I haven’t told Mom and Dad yet. I think they have enough to deal with. Of course, no one is making me even try to fight anymore so maybe they know.”
Tia was going to be a mother. At sixteen years old. Her baby would be more like her sibling.
I tried to process this. “Are you going to get married?”
Her eyes lit up like she hadn’t just lost her brother. “We are as soon as possible.”
“That’s great news.” I almost choked on my words. I still disliked Glen immensely, and he was going to be Tia’s husband. Well, if Patrick didn’t kill him. “Congratulations, sweetheart.”
“Thank you.” Her face fell. “Chad can’t be left out there like that.”
I stood up. “I know.”
“You’ll take care of it?”
Tia hadn’t changed, not at all. She continued to be the sweet, remarkable girl who expected other people to handle things for her. The weird thing? I was happy to do it. I wouldn’t want Tia anywhere near this mess.
Like lightening going off in the darkness of my mind, I suddenly felt illuminated. I stood up fast.
Tia shook her head. “What?”
Deacon had said I would need to find a purpose to move on. I would need to figure out what was going to drive me forward so I could live with everything that happened.
I knew what it was. Goosebumps assaulted my skin and for once, it didn’t have to do with the presence of any monsters. No, it was because I had clarity.
“Tia, I know this is a terrible time. The worst possible. But could you get Micah for me? Could you see if he’s awake?”
She rose. “Okay.”
That was the nice thing about having people around who knew you so well you didn’t have to explain things more than once. I’d asked Tia to get Micah, so she had.
Moments later, a disheveled, half-asleep Micah stumbled behind Tia into her room. There had been a time when I’d loved him. Or thought I had. It had been a safe, harmless crush that had allowed me to get through a time in my life when it had felt like I couldn’t win for losing.
I still felt that way, but now I knew I could handle it myself. I didn’t need to focus all my affection on a person who didn’t return it just to feel alive.
Micah was my friend. He was Chad’s brother. And he was the best chance for my newly forming plan to take place.
“What’s up, Clancy?”
“Come with me, Micah.” I walked around him out the door, knowing he would follow me.
“Can I come, Rachel?”
I stared at Tia. There was a time not so long ago, I would have loved that.
“I’m sorry, Tia. You can’t.”
She started to protest and then abruptly stopped. “Okay.”
I could read the disappointment in her eyes, but there wasn’t anything I could do to make this better for her. She was pregnant and she was going to have a baby. I was going to follow what felt like my destiny. Unfortunately, she couldn’t come.
Micah followed me out into the near dawn light. “What’s going on?”
I rubbed my arms at the cool air wishing it could always feel like it was twelve noon outside. I liked warmth. I’d never gotten used to the cold, and I had a feeling I never would.
“We can’t leave him out there Undead.”
He cocked his head to the side. “Clearly. Did you bring me out here when I was finally falling into a sleep to say that?”
“No. And trust me, I get that you need sleep. I brought you out here because I want you to help me do something the adult Warriors will never approve of.” I paused. “Even if you say no, I need you to keep this between us and not tell your parents.”
Micah fell silent. “I’m listening. You have my full attention.”
“I’m sick to death of it, Micah. I’m sick to death of running, of losing people. I’m so hollow inside after losing Chad and then seeing him like that, I’m not sure anything can ever fill me up again.”
He pulled me into a brotherly hug, which I appreciated. “I told you that you should be with us.”
“No.” I shook my head searching for words. “The hollowness keeps me angry, and I’m going to need my anger for this. I need it.”
“What are you proposing we do? I have enough anger to pull us both through any task, Rachel.”
“Good. What I’m suggesting, Micah, is that those of us who feel like we do, who feel just sick of it, who felt that way even before we even went Upwards to fight, I’m suggesting that we take the fight to them.”
He stared into my eyes, and I was glad he did because it gave me the opportunity to see the realization of what I’d just said dawn on him. “You’re saying we stop reacting and start acting.”
“I am.” I walked a few paces away from him, needing to move as much as I needed to breathe. “We couldn’t have in the past. No way, no how. We didn’t know about the underground lairs, we didn’t know how their network worked. We still don’t know everything we should but….”
He interrupted. “We know enough to begin.”
“They can’t come after us here if they’re running for their lives.”
He was silent for a minute. “Not that I have any problem lying, truth telling was more Chad’s way than mine, but why can’t we tell the adult Warriors?”
“They’re too set in this. There are too many things that they cling to, things we’re going to have to let go of it this is going to work.”
“Like what?”
“Micah, I’m proposing we abandon our Warrior ways. I’m going to say that even non-Warrior humans can fight. I’m going to stop the patrols. Instead, we’re going to use our stealth abilities to go blow things up.”
“We don’t know how to blow things up.” He shrugged. “At least, I don’t know how to. It’s forbidden to have that skill. Do you know how to make a bomb?”
“I don’t, but I know someone who does. Someone who will be more than happy to teach us how.”
“Who do you know?”
I swallowed. My throat had gone dry. What I was going to tell Micah I had never, ever told anyone. It had been a secret I thought never to share because in Icahn’s Genesis, it had been so frowned upon. Now I knew why and I meant to rectify it as soon as possible.
“My father. He knows how to make things go sky high.”
Micah took a step away from me. “And you think he’d be willing to help us without telling the others?”
“My father has no love for the other Warriors, and let’s say if he objects, I’m going to remind him—vehemently—that he owes me. A lot.”
“We’d have to be careful. We’d have to be sure we asked the right people to join us. Not every young Warrior will do. Some of them are as indoctrinated to the failing system as their parents.”
“I agree.”
He smiled. “I never thought I’d say this, but Deacon would be perfect.”
“He would. He despises authority after living under the human traitors in the Vampire tunnels.”
“Yes, that.” Micah agreed. “And he’s a mean son-of-a-bitch who will probably love the idea of destroying things.”
Even though it had been one of the worst days—weeks, months—of my life, I felt a grin form on my lips. Things were looking up. We were going to destroy them. I was going to see to it.