Now
I lunged at Deacon. I’d take off his goddamned head and not worry about the consequences. Days earlier, I’d failed with Jason. So much had changed and I wouldn’t fail everyone, not with so much on the line.
The Deacon in front of me was a complete stranger. One who worked for Icahn.
I caught him in the shoulder. Blood gushed out of his wound and he roared.
Chad leaped forward, his own machete raised. “If you touch her, Evans, I’ll destroy you. Slowly.”
His tone left no room for argument.
“You’re so smitten with her. Can’t you see she’s lying? Nothing she says can be at all true.”
Micah lunged forward. “You think working for a man who would unleash Vampires on human beings is the right move? You think those are the kind of guys you want on your side? Even if you thought we were all nuts, he sounds better to you?”
Micah and Chad had him distracted, although I suspected Chad might really kill Deacon if he moved toward me. I had my machete drawn. It seemed like a perfectly good tool to use, considering the circumstances.
“If what she says is true, then I spent my early years as Vampire bait.” Deacon slammed his hand against his chest. “That’s not who I am. Do you get it? I’m not Vampire food.”
Deacon sounded so distraught I almost stopped what I’d planned to talk him down. I’d loved him. Well, sort of. I’d suspected I could grow to feel love if I’d ever really allowed it to start in my heart.
His pain would have to wait. Maybe I was coldhearted. I really didn’t care.
Without a second thought, I shoved the front end of my machete into the control panel of the machine. It felt good to attack an inanimate object causing so many people so much pain.
The dials came off easily, but by the time I started chopping at the wires, sparks flew into the air. No one would be repairing it, not if I could get it into bad enough shape.
It was really too bad I didn’t have a match.
Deacon wailed behind me and I heard a scuffle.
“Got it?” Micah asked Chad.
“I do.” Chad made a tsking sound on his tongue. “You should never let someone disarm you like that, son.”
He sounded so much like the Chad from the time before the world ended, I almost laughed.
“She’s destroying a machine allowing you to live again.”
“Exactly.” Dr. Icahn interrupted our discussion by walking into the room. I noted he didn’t carry his unnecessary cane. “And I’m afraid it’s worse. Darren.”
Darren dragged my mother in by her hair. She’d been whacked and bruised. I could tell from the yellowing around her eye and the way her mouth had started to swell. But her eyes were steely. They hadn’t harmed her spirit.
“Mom.”
She shook her head. “Don’t look at me, Rachel. You do what you have to do. Finish what you start. Even when things are dire.”
“Don’t listen to Mommy, Rachel. You see, the thing is,” Icahn walked to where the machine lay almost in pieces, “if you destroy my cloning device, I’m just not sure what will happen to Chad and your mom.”
“What do you mean?” My stomach twisted.
“We’re not clear about cloning. The world ended before I could perfect the science but all of us who have been cloned, and yes, I count myself in the number, we’re connected to the machine. If you destroy it beyond repair, I can’t promise we all won’t just drop dead.” Icahn smiled. “Now while I am certain you would be thrilled to watch me collapse on the ground, a pile of worthless cells, I know you don’t want to lose Chad again. You might die from the pain. And you’ve just reconnected with Mommy.”
“Rachel.”
I couldn’t look up to see what Chad would say. I didn’t have to. I knew what would be in his eyes. He’d want me to do the right thing and continue to destroy the cloning machines.
“You don’t even make sense, Icahn.” I fisted my hands, wishing I could just lean over and break the man’s nose. “Why would you all be connected to the machine? You’re making shit up.”
“I might be or maybe there is something metaphysical about this whole thing.” He shrugged. “I don’t really know because I can’t tell you why the cloning works. Where does the soul come from? Why does it reform in the body like it does? As I told you, we built the technology. We’re just not certain how it works.”
“How did you build technology you don’t understand?” My head hurt.
“The science was there. We knew how to grow a body. We simply didn’t expect the soul to come back with it.” He shook his head. “It will always be one of my greatest regrets. If we could have known cloning better, perhaps we could have been closer to being gods.”
“All right.” I held up my hand. “Enough.” I really didn’t want to travel down the divinity path with him. Not even a little bit.
“Rachel.”
My mother wanted my attention. I couldn’t give it to her, either.
No one would fault me either way I went. If I were now not able to destroy the cloning machine, everyone would get it. I loved my mother; I’d just gotten her back. My feelings for Chad were so intense I’d been willing to sacrifice everything, even myself, to have him back in the world.
If I could do it they’d talk about my strong decision, the way I’d known right from wrong. Only I didn’t. For once in my life, I had no idea which direction would take me down the right path.
I stared at Isaac Icahn. Whatever he wanted from me, it had to be the wrong thing to do.
Tears filled my eyes. Sometimes hard decisions could be easy, even if I hated myself for having to make them.
I looked at my mother. She nodded to me. I knew she understood and would have done the same thing in my shoes. I believed this because she had been the one to give me my moral compass. Well, she and my father. Right from wrong, yes from no, they all came from her and Dad.
Chad’s gaze sought my own. He smiled at me, nodding, giving me permission. I would have done it without his okay but it felt nice to have it.
I didn’t know if this would be the last time I saw either of them. Perhaps I should have said something, only there were no words worth saying. Instead, I raised my machete and slammed it down on the last untouched batch of wires. The machine stuttered and went silent.
The lights had given the cloning bed an eerie glow and they disappeared. Silence ebbed through the room. I lifted my eyes, scarcely able to let myself really look.
Had anyone fallen to the ground dead? A headache throbbed between my eyes.
My mother still breathed. She looked left and right before nodding at me, a slight smile on her face. Chad remained where he stood. He didn’t even look fazed by the experience.
Icahn also retained his life. He sighed loudly. “This doesn’t mean we won’t suddenly die. It could take some time. I told you, we really don’t know.”
Chad laughed, which startled me. I jumped from the sound. I wasn’t the only one, because all eyes in the room were focused on him.
“No one knows when they’ll die. Even if you’re diagnosed with a horrible illness you could go out and get struck by lightning. It’s called being human. If I collapse on the ground in an hour never to be heard from again, then so be it. My life, my soul—whatever you want to call it—I don’t want it in your hands.”
I loved Chad. I mean, I had known it before. All the things I had done to make sure he was okay had been evidence of it. I’d probably fallen for him at the ice-skating rink in the time before Armageddon.
Right then, however, I fell straight into the I-will-love-you-forever zone and I knew I’d never get to climb out. My heart swelled and my cheeks heated. This was the worst timing and there wasn’t a thing I could do about it.
“You’re right, Mr. Lyons.” Icahn nodded. “No one knows when they’re going to die. For example, Rachel had no idea her life had come to an end.”
I saw the gun only seconds before he fired it. No one could move fast enough. Bullets flew. That’s what they did and nothing human was going to stop them. The bullet with my name on it headed straight for me.
A growl sounded somewhere in the room. Truth was, I had no idea where Jason had come from. When he had gotten in the room and how long he’d been there didn’t matter.
The only important factor was while I couldn’t do a thing to save myself from a speeding bullet, my Werewolf ex-boyfriend could. He put himself between my certain death and me.
With a roar, he took the hit meant for me and hit the ground. I breathed hard. For a second, I couldn’t move.
“Jason.” I rushed to his side. Blood pooled at his chest, a large, gaping red hole of life force leaving his body. “What are you doing? You’re going to be fine. It didn’t take off your head.” The only way to kill a Werewolf came from chopping its head from its body. Messy, but effective.
He coughed, blood pooling on his lips. “In my Wolf form, yes. In my human body I can die just the same as you.”
My heart stuttered. Jason had taken a bullet for me and it was going to kill him. “Don’t move.”
A large bang sounded behind me. I didn’t look to see what it was. My eyes were only for Jason.
“Not much chance I will.”
“Right.” I pressed my hands down on his chest. “Hold on. We’ll find your father or shift or something.”
“Not gonna happen, pixie-girl.”
His eyes were so blue, so clear, for a second I was transported back to my sixteenth birthday, the night he’d first kissed me. We’d been so young. I’d been so completely naive. Happiness had surrounded us and I’d believed it always would.
“Oh, Jason.”
“Forgive me?” His words had become harder to hear.
“There’s nothing to forgive.” My words were true. I didn’t care about any of it.
“There is and I know it. You’re my mate. I should have done better.”
“Oh, Jason.” Tears ran down my cheeks. “I forgive you. I loved you, you know I did the first time around, and the second, I would have gone off with your pack.”
“I know.” He smiled. I could see the life slipping from his eyes. His blood had stained my hands, the sleeves of my shirt. “You would have ended up with me. I’ve never doubted it. Because only I have ever seen how beautiful you looked in the snow. That day when it came down all over us, when it was like only the two of us existed in the world.”
With his words reminding me of the days we’d spent fleeing Vampires, a time I didn’t let myself visit in my memory very often, Jason slipped from the world. In my arms, but not by my hand. I’d wanted to kill him, so why did I now weep like a baby over his dead body?
***
My name is Rachel Clancy.
In the end, it had been Jason who had found redemption, not me. Really, what did I have to hold against him? He’d saved my life over and over again. Did I want to have perished when the Vampire virus spread? No. Because of him I had the chance to do all the things I ended up doing, to become the version of me I never would have known without him.
Thought he’d hurt those I loved on occasion, he never hurt me, not physically. And although I believed the world better off without Werewolves, the sweet boy inside of him should have had better.
Icahn escaped, of course. When Micah had wrestled the gun from him, Darren and Deacon had gotten him away.
But I’m not concerned about it. Not when the wolves howl every night over the horizon, saying good-bye to the boy who should have someday been their Alpha. I’m sure Andon knows his son is gone. A reckoning with him now will never be avoided.
Chad sits down next to me. We have no plans and we’re not making any. Keith and Patrick will tell us what to do next. They’re in charge. For now, we’re just young Warriors searching for justice.
I won’t rest until I’ve found some. For all of us.