“We can’t stay here indefinitely.” Wherever here happened to be. The two guys had been so preoccupied with tracking me, neither of them was actually sure how far north we had gone.
When I had suggested we were in Canada, Darren had grinned. Deacon had no idea what Canada meant. The differences between having lived in Before Time and only being born After could be striking.
Deacon covered me with another blanket. He’d become a bit of a mother hen. I also had no idea where he’d gotten all of his supplies. I’d given him little notice to run from the complex. Had they stored a bunch of stuff somewhere just in case?
The more my body healed, the more I wanted to get going. I wanted to go home more than I had ever wanted to before.
How long had it been since I’d seen Chad? Had he moved on? I closed my eyes. I couldn’t think about those possibilities. Doing so didn’t help anything.
“Rachel.” Darren patted me on the knee. “If we move before you’re ready, you’re going to tear a stitch.”
“I still have a hard time with the idea you stitched me up.”
He shrugged. “Basic medic training.”
“Right.” I had disliked Darren immensely, for very valid reasons. Now, however, he seemed to be growing on me. I wasn’t exactly sure how I felt about that.
“Anyway, you can probably move today. It’s been a week. We’ll go slowly.” He stood up, offering me his hand. I hadn’t walked on my own since the attack and getting up proved to be the first of many problems I had.
Ten minutes later, having managed, with Darren’s help, to move from the tree line to the fire pit a distance away, I had to sit down again. As far as I could remember, I’d never been this injured before.
Or maybe I had been. A Vampire had almost killed me once and two crazed Wolves had stuck me in the hospital. Both times, drugs had kept me pretty out of it. Being cognizant of my own injuries constituted a very different kind of healing. I think I preferred being knocked out.
“Darren.” I sat down on the ground to give my shaking legs a break. “I need to thank you. If you and Deacon hadn’t….”
He waved away my concern. “I know you don’t like me, Rachel.”
I didn’t try to deny that was how I’d felt and he didn’t need to hear about my ambiguity toward him now. It would be really easy if I could turn a switch and just like the guy. But, he’d been one of Icahn’s right-hand men for years. He’d stood there when they’d slaughtered Keith, as one of the gang watching. Even if he hadn’t known about it beforehand.
The fact that his judgment could be so askew concerned me to no end. Deacon’s, too, but for some reason, maybe because we had such strong history, I felt more inclined to give him a pass.
“I’ve always watched out for you, whether you know it or not. Before I went into my own cryogenic state I checked on you every day.”
I’d heard this story many times. The fact he’d shoved me into the machine itself could be looked at as betraying me or saving my life, depending on which version of the event I felt like accepting. I just remember feeling like the whole thing was inevitable and there hadn’t been a thing I could do about it.
Maybe that’s why I hated this feeling of weakness so much. I’d been trying for so long to regain control of my life.
Needing someone to walk me around equaled a big step backward.
“I appreciate everything, Darren.” My parents had taught me manners. Occasionally, I could pull them out and use them. “I really want to get home.”
He patted my leg. “I know, kiddo. We’ll get you there. Even if I have to bring you on my back.”
I shuddered at the thought. Days riding piggyback on Darren? How many humiliating experiences did I need all at once?
Deacon walked over to us. “Darren, man, give me a minute with Rachel, would you?”
Darren nodded. “Don’t make her upset. We have stuff to do. She wants to get home, and I want to get her there.”
“Me, too. Well, I want to get Rachel there. I don’t particularly want to go back to Genesis, myself.”
“Why not? It’s home for you, too.”
Deacon shrugged. “Not really. The Vampire tunnels were my home, but I don’t want to go back there, for obvious reasons. Genesis was home because you were there and I hoped you’d be my girl.” He didn’t drop his gaze from mine when he uttered his statement. I had to give credit to Deacon. When he went for something, he laid it out there. He never held back. “But you’re in love with Chad. I’m not going to keep beating a dead horse.”
I rolled my eyes. “Thanks for the comparison. Everyone wants to be metaphorically aligned with dead animals.”
“You know what I mean.”
I nodded. If he could be straight about it, so could I. “Sure. Go on.”
“Now? I want to be with my family, but I also want to be out there in the world, seeing things, really having some action under my belt. I don’t want to be back in Genesis living under the rule of the Lyons family.”
“It’s a democracy. If you don’t like it there, you could try to change things.”
“The Lyons are always going to be royalty. The best Warriors, the smartest…. Anyway, you don’t need to hear this anymore. I’ve never managed to talk you out of them and now you’re going to be one of them.”
“I don’t know. Even if I make it back there alive, Chad was pretty angry with me when I did what I did. He stormed off. Maybe he was actually relieved at my departure.”
Deacon shook his head. “You don’t believe your own nonsense for a second and neither do I. If you did, you’d have left him already. You love the boy and he loves you. And if he doesn’t, if he’s bad to you or somehow completely undeserving, you’ll come with me.”
“On your grand adventure?”
“Right.” He sat down next to me. This reminded me of the old days, the way it had been before everything went haywire. This was the Deacon I had missed. My best friend, the easy comrade.
“I can’t see myself going anywhere. I’m really homesick, if you want to know the truth.”
He nodded. “I get what you’re saying. It’s because you’re not feeling well. We always want what’s familiar when we’re hurt. Listen, I need to tell you something.”
I turned to regard him. Deacon had such a handsome profile. Really, he’d grown to be a beautiful man from the skinny, malnourished boy in the cage he had been. Yet I didn’t see him in a romantic way. For about thirty seconds’ worth of time I’d considered it, when Chad had been dead.
But when I’d come back from being away, I’d never picked those feelings back up. Probably because he had been such a jerk to me when he hadn’t remembered me.
“Darren said he’ll carry me on his back.”
Deacon grinned. “We can trade off.”
“Right, because I weigh so little. You’ll both make it about half a mile before you’ll be hobbled and then none of us will make it anywhere.”
He clutched his chest dramatically. “Don’t underestimate our ability to cart you around. It burns my ego.”
I laughed. How could I not?
“Rachel, listen. I owe you a large apology.”
My jovial mood plummeted. I dug my nails into my palms. Apparently we were going there. He hadn’t picked up on the vibe I didn’t want to?
“It’s okay, Deacon. Let’s just move on.”
“No.” He ran his hands through his hair. “I tried to kill you, and Jason ended up getting killed. I’m not sure there is a large enough apology for kind of thing.”
“Well.” I stretched out my legs, which ached from my earlier exertion. “You have saved my life several times. Why don’t we say we’re even on the tried-to-kill-you column? And as for Jason…he made the decision to save me. That’s not on you. We can level his death right onto Dr. Icahn’s head.”
“You’re letting me off the hook too easily.”
I elbowed him. “I know.”
But I couldn’t help myself. Deacon equaled home to me.
***
Darren hadn’t exaggerated when he told me he would carry me home. I’d spent most of the day on his back. A small group of us, which included Deacon’s family, walked through the woods, fields, and old neighborhoods, presumably on our way back to Genesis. I had no idea if we were going the right way.
I didn’t ask. They’d tracked me and whatever they knew about where we were was more than I did. Since I relied on them entirely, and especially considering I could still barely make it across a field without falling over, I couldn’t exactly complain.
Bouncing along, strapped to his back so if I fell asleep I wouldn’t plummet to the ground and reinjure myself, I listened to Darren hum softly.
I didn’t recognize the song but it sounded light and airy, not at all the tune a person who had seen everything Darren had should be filling his day with. The man remained an enigma to me and, for now, I had no interest in figuring him out.
“Am I breaking you?” I’d asked him some form of this question every hour. I didn’t want him hobbled for bringing me home. We had at least a week of this to go.
“Nope.” A smile in his voice. “I’ve told you, Rachel, you don’t weigh very much. Not for me anyway. Now the boy? If Deacon tried to haul you around, he wouldn’t make it very far. He wouldn’t admit it and he would certainly do his best to try.” He paused. “Before he fell over.”
Deacon called over his shoulder. “I heard you.”
Night had started to show over the horizon and Deacon’s father suggested we stop for the night.
One day less until I could see my family again.
Darren set me down with instructions not to do more than stretch out my muscles. They were all concerned with a reinjury and I couldn’t blame them. They’d taken Andon’s medical supplies but those wouldn’t last forever. I doubted they could bring me back from another brink-of-death experience anyway. I mean, I know Icahn had made me stronger so I could fight the monsters, but how much could one person’s body handle?
Keith hadn’t been able to live through getting his throat slit. Warriors died all the time.
“Rachel.” Deacon handed me a thermos with water inside. “Drink this. Dehydration is not our friend. We’re going to go gather for the night. You good to stay here for a while?”
I smiled. “Sure. Just call me Rachel-who-sits-a-lot.”
“You’re doing great. You’re not dead. You’ll get your strength back.”
“When did you become so cheery?”
Deacon stretched his arms over his head. “Life feels easier for me these days. I don’t have anyone with me who has any expectations I can’t meet. And I see in the horizon experiences I never thought to have.” His eyes twinkled. “I rescued you without being led to it by any of the Lyons, or Keith Endover.”
My heart stuttered when he mentioned Keith. “He liked you. He thought you were talented and had great things in store for you.”
My friend shook his head. “I’m sorry. For a second, I actually forgot he was gone. Weird to think of any world without Keith in it. Helping Patrick, running the Warriors.”
Tears I didn’t know I still had slipped from my eyes. “You’re telling me.”
He leaned over to rub my shoulder. “Sorry. Stay here. Rest. Try to sleep. We’ll all be back shortly.”
I nodded. Would there a come a time when someone could say Keith’s name and I wouldn’t weep? Already, I could feel how far away from me he had gotten. With Chad and the others there was distance, a physical removal. With Keith…space. And even though I couldn’t put my finger on exactly why they were such different experiences, they just were.
I watched Deacon walk off into the woods. If I had any say in it, I would never ever be the person left by the fire because of injury again. Sighing, I looked up at the sky. Reds and purples dotted the horizon, streaming together to make the world seem, at least temporarily, lovely.
Maybe life could be more like this now and less like it had been. Icahn was dead. Who knew if the stuff he had spouted out about the other scientists would prove to be true? Maybe we would all get to live….
I doubled over in pain, gripping my arms. It felt like someone knifed me over and over again. I closed my eyes, knowing what this physical signal meant. Vampires.
I gulped. Vamps didn’t scare me, not when I had full use of my body. But right now? I could barely move. The severity of the pain signal I’d received told me that there were a whole bunch of them.
With a little maneuvering, I got to my knees. As I bit down on my tongue to stop from making noise, I moved forward in search of a sharp stick. Because of my injury by a Vampire, the one that had left me permanently scarred on my face, I could sense the undead a few minutes earlier than my comrades.
Surely, by now, Deacon and Darren should have noted them, too. Wouldn’t one of them come back for me? I really hoped they thought of it.
This was why we didn’t let regular humans fight with us. The sheer terror of those creatures being out there and me being defenseless made me shake. I stared at my hands. I hadn’t been this fearful of the things going bump in the night since my first trip Upwards. I’d ended up in a faulty Vampire cage, put there by Andon Kenwood, who may or may not have been trying to kill me. I’d been attacked and nearly died.
I’d never known real fear until then.
I shook my head. No way, no how, did I intend to visit such an emotional place ever again.
My arms still worked just fine. If something came into my space, I’d use a sharp stick and I’d improvise. I would not be going down without a fight. The monsters had already taken enough flesh from me. They wouldn’t be getting any more.
I got close to the fire and pulled one of the medium-sized branches from the pit. The flames had made the end flimsy and I broke it off. What remained inside felt sturdy. I hoped it would pierce flesh.
I’d never seen a Vampire laugh. They spoke rarely. Only the newer-made ones could still manage speech. Mostly they slithered and hissed, like snakes. But if I poked at one with a makeshift stake and nothing happened, I might actually get to see Vampire amusement, if such a thing existed.
I really hope I don’t have to find out.
I could try to hide. For a few seconds, I played with the idea in my head. Crawl into some bush and stay low. As I dismissed the musing, I bit down hard on my lip. They already knew where I was. They could smell me. Hiding would be too silly at this point. If they were coming for me, then I’d have to just wait them out.
Back on my hands and knees, I crawled to my position by the tree where I’d been before. I supposed I had nothing to do but wait, even though it massively sucked.
***
I knew when it approached. I swallowed, sitting up straighter. Ten minutes had passed. How had Deacon not made his way to me yet? I didn’t like the idea something had happened to him. He could fight as well as anyone, but any of us could go at any time.
All I could do was to hope he made it through tonight and managed to get back to me. Because the closer the Vampire got, the bigger and more looming it appeared.
It had obviously seen me. Not acknowledging it didn’t seem to be an option any longer. “Hi there.”
The Vampire nodded to me. So it still communicated, perhaps only nonverbally, but nodding would do.
“Come to kill me?” I kept the stick gripped in my hand. The undead creature hadn’t even looked at it. Vampires who lived wherever we were must not have been as versed in fighting Warriors. The ones at home would have noticed it right away and tried to take it.
Right then, they might have succeeded.
It came closer, tight enough against me I could see the fork in its tongue. “You really are little demons.”
It hissed and I shoved the stick into its chest. Not as effective as a stake. The vamp didn’t go straight down to the ground before turning into dust. Instead, it staggered backward, looking at the stick in its chest.
“That’s not going to kill you, is it?” My heart rate picked up. My life-giving organ slammed hard against my ribs.
He looked at the stick again and then back down at me. His eyes were red and huge, and the side of his mouth dripped blood. The thing had fed. I hoped not on Deacon.
I struggled to my feet. “So tell me the truth. I just made you really, really pissed, didn’t I?”
It nodded at me.
“Well, you can’t blame a girl for trying.”
It smiled and I knew it intended to leap at me. The sad truth was I could do nothing to get out of its way. Ready for the assault, I gripped the tree behind me.
“Nice try with the stick, Rachel.” Deacon shoved his stake in the creature’s back and it disappeared into dust on the ground.
I shook my head. “Took you long enough. I didn’t even see you approach.”
“I ran into about five of them on my way to you. Might have been six. Sorry for the delay. But I am relieved to see you at least made an attempt to save your own life.” He grinned. “You’ll be better in no time.”
“Deacon, this new attitude of yours. The positive outlook on life.”
He smiled. “What about it?”
“I’m not so sure I like it. The old Deacon would have told me all about every kill and hollered at me for being so weak.”
He put his arm around me. “Things are looking up, Rachel. I can promise you they are.”
Somehow, I didn’t feel so sure.