Page 19

No matter what anyone said about vampires, we truly did want to help people, even if they had a mix of light and dark. I preferred to help humans when I could. And yet, I sincerely wished I’d found some kind of excuse to leave Jennifer back at the abandoned town.

“I mean, it’s just like, so weird that you said nobody knows much about the meld,” Jennifer said with an exasperated sigh. She’d peppered us with questions since we left the town, about the meld, the Leftovers, and more. Cam had been polite enough to respond at first, but he grew quieter with every passing moment.

“Highly classified government information is usually not well known,” I replied dryly. How did these bumbling idiots survive out here for months? I was surprised they’d made it through the last hour, even with me and Cam as companions.

”Oh, that”s a great shot,” Jennifer cooed as Johnny pointed his camera. While their backs were turned, I stared at Cam in disbelief. They were taking a video of a crazy-looking mushroom with leaf-like projections coming off the cap.

Cam cleared his throat. ”So, how long did you guys say you were out here?”

Jennifer tossed her hair. Her perfume made my nose itch. I hoped Lyra was just around the corner in the woods. I really could use her right now, especially her input on these humans.

”Three months or so. We”ve lost track of time.” She batted her eyelashes at Cam, who seemed unaffected by the gesture. ”It”s so lucky that we brought extra batteries.”

Yes, lucky was exactly how I felt about their ability to stop and document every mushroom and blade of grass on our path. I continued walking without pausing. They could catch up. If they’d survived months, then it was fine for them to run after us. Cam followed me, and then, unfortunately, I heard our newest arrivals behind him.

Jennifer huffed. After an hour, her huffs had taken on the grating quality of nails on a chalkboard. Zach had once demonstrated that ear-splitting act for me at the VAMPS camp, and I never wanted to repeat the experience.

”You guys sure walk fast. Isn”t it dangerous to move so quickly? Monsters might see you,” she said vaguely. I glanced over my shoulder at her.

”You”ve seen monsters?” I asked.If they’d dealt with our invisible monster, that would be good to know.

”A few,” she replied.Funny how she clammed up now.

”Maybe we can check out some of your footage, and you can show us,” Cam said. He was looking at his compass. We’d tried to use it earlier, but the hands of the compass had only rolled around in various directions with ridiculous speed. The thing was either busted, or, more likely, the surrounding area was making it nonfunctional.

We were headed to the gate, although I hadn’t told Jennifer and Johnny that. It made sense to find the gate. Even if Lyra and the others hadn’t made it there yet, Cam and I could make contact with the Immortal Plane. Other vampires would then help us find the rest of our team. It was always easier with help.

”These trees are so creepy. Have you ever seen anything like them?” Jennifer asked.

It”s always easier with the right kind of help.

I heard the snap of Johnny”s camera. He was able to take regular pictures and videos, I guessed. I wasn”t very good with human technology.

”No,” I lied. In the Immortal Plane, the trees were beautiful in their own way, unlike these weird, corrupted versions around us. I hated the leathery look of their surfaces.

I concentrated on our surroundings as we walked. If the barrier was nearby, I would sense a fluctuation where the gate was.

”So, Cam, where did you say you were from in Scotland, again?” Jennifer asked. Her voice had a way of needling into my thoughts even as I tried to block it out.

”I didn”t… Are you particularly familiar with Scottish geography? I find most Americans aren”t.” Cam was growing cheekier every minute.

When I glanced at Jennifer, she wasn”t looking at Cam at all. She was watching me.This might”ve been the first time I had ever been so unsettled by a human woman. Johnny, her boyfriend or partner or whatever, didn”t seem to mind. He smiled at me easily. He made no twitchy movements anymore, which was an improvement.

”I knowEdinburgh,” Jennifer replied snappily.

”An hour outside of Edinburgh,” Cam said. He didn”t add to that information. I was enjoying the not-so-proper Cam now. He had an edge to him, and I could see Bryce coming through. If Bryce were here, Jennifer wouldn”t last two seconds…

I did my best to act human, but it was odd to hold back from reacting to certain things. I sensed another small creature darting across our path up ahead and had to pretend to still with everyone when we heard the light rustle.

”Probably just another one of those,” I said, nodding to Cam”s pet. It let out a little growl.

”How would you know?” Jennifer asked, and then thankfully turned to Johnny. ”Did you take a picture of the rat, honey?”

”His name is Finn, like the old Scottish legends,” Cam said with an offended sniff, clearly modeled after Jennifer’s. If she caught it—or cared—she showed no sign.

”He”s so cute,” Jennifer said. ”Did he just naturally come to you? It’s odd that you have such a weird creature. Maybe all Bureau people attract strange things.” Her sharp gaze settled on both of us, flickering back and forth. This was exhausting. She clearly suspected Cam was odd due to his strange pet… I thought. Or maybe she couldn’t decide who was more suspicious between the two of us. My camouflage excuse was lame, to be fair. Something was off about her energy, or maybe it was just her attitude.

”I rescued him after he was injured,” Cam said. ”There”s nothing special about it. Plenty of wounded animals will bond with their caretaker.” I smirked, realizing I had said as much to him the other night during our heart-to-heart. He was bound to that rat.

We came upon a tall tree in the midst of the plainer ones. It was massive, with deep red bark and glittering specks on its surface. Unlike the other leathery trees, this one was more solid. It reminded me of the redwoods our redbills liked to nest in. I gazed up at it and figured the low-hanging branches were good enough even for someone posing as a human to climb.

Cam kept Jennifer busy by answering her incessant questions as I climbed the branches. I needed to look for a stone circle, or anything that might indicate a gate. For my act, I made a visible show of struggling despite the fact that it was easy. I specifically tensed my muscles and raised myself slowly, knowing that human reactions required much more show for this effort.

”Why is he climbing so high?” Jennifer asked. Her questions were like pointed needles on my skin. Leave me alone, woman.

”We need to figure out where we”re going,” Cam said. ”It”s a basic survival strategy. You either try to find water or find a tree tall enough to see over the others.” He paused. I could easily hear their conversation, even halfway up the tree. ”Shouldn”t you know that?”

Jennifer stammered out an answer. How very interesting. But I couldn”t contemplate her reaction for long. I made my way to the top third of the tree, grunting to make a big performance. It was a good view of the forest, although it showed no stone circle. In the distance, a flock of birds flitted above a gathering of trees. Were they gathering around the gate? Or perhaps looking at some prey they wanted to eat? Either way, it would make sense to go in that direction. If birds were present, I doubted the invisible creature was lurking in the area. In both the Mortal and Immortal planes, bird creatures were the first to get spooked, no matter what.

”I see our path,” I called. I could sense the birds over there as a tiny flutter in my body, but the sensation would grow stronger as we got closer. They felt like Leftover creatures, making their auras a bit strange, but thankfully stronger than mortal animals. ”It looks like there is a clearing in the, uh, northern direction.” I searched for words that humans might use, knowing I couldn”t say that I’d literally felt my way to the spot.

I dropped down, making sure to stumble, and Jennifer grinned excitedly when I pointed in the direction that I wanted to go.

”I have such a good feeling about this,” she gushed. From her general aura, I could tell that she was calm, physiologically, as she spoke. There was no sweating or loud heartbeat beside the genuine interest in our journey. Johnny gave her a wary frown, but he said nothing. His role was clearly to put up with Jennifer and not protest. I would have felt sorry for him if he weren’t so complicit in her annoying behavior.

”Well, good,” I said, and shrugged, not sure if I should feel better that she wanted to go this way. Something about these two was so off. Their energies fluttered from lightly dark to darkly light from one second to the next. Maybe they weren”t ghost town hunters, but petty criminals on the run from the law when the meld happened. Their sketchiness would make more sense if they were.

We headed along the rough path toward the area I had seen. As we got closer, a pang went through me and my entire body buzzed.

It was Lyra. I would know her presence anywhere. I kept an excited breath inside me, not wanting to tip off the humans behind us. I glanced at Cam, but he was still fiddling with his compass. Maybe it was an excuse to avoid having to engage with Jennifer. I had never experienced Lyra”s aura so strongly.

I hope she”s okay.

I increased my speed, not caring about the complaints from Jennifer as she trailed behind me. She was clearly excited to go along with us. I would deal with these two weirdos once I talked to Lyra about them. I was sure that she would have an idea of what to do, since human civilians were her department.

”It”s here,” I said as we came upon the outskirts of the gate. The clearing radiated strong energy at me. There were other vampires here. Two of them felt familiar, but the other was completely off. I charged ahead through a narrow opening between two bushes. The birds in the trees cawed, likely sensing our presence.

Lyra wheeled around to face the sound. Her eyes went a centimeter wider, and she nearly cried out my name, the words dying in her throat. Her gaze went straight to Jennifer and Johnny behind me.Her eyes locked onto me again with a questioning but cautious energy.

“It’s just me, Lance,” I called out to her. “Don’t worry.”

”It”s our teammates,” Lyra said, recovering. Jennifer stumbled over a vine, and Johnny helped her into the clearing. She hadn”t seen any of the looks between Lyra and me, but when Jennifer tilted her head up, she let out a loud gasp that startled everyone in the clearing.

”You”re Lyra Sloane,” Jennifer breathed. Lyra raised a curious yet annoyed eyebrow.

I cleared my throat hurriedly. ”We met these civilians out in an abandoned city. They”re unaware of anything that happened in the outside world since they were caught here in the meld,” I explained quickly, trying to make my voice serious and official sounding. Sike, Arlonne, and another vampire presence were nearby in the trees. Bryce lay on the ground, propped up by a gear bag. ”They don”t know anything about where they are.”

Cam watched Bryce carefully, clearly wanting to go to him immediately but holding himself back.

Jennifer scoffed behind me. ”Neither do you. You said you didn”t know where we were.”

I gave Lyra a pleading look while Jennifer studied my wife. Lyra nodded, as if understanding that we needed to hide the supernatural presences among us.I had dropped her a message in that anything statement, even if the girl didn’t pick up on it.

”You”re the famous Bureau rebel,” Jennifer added. She forgot her anger at me as she stepped toward Lyra with interest. ”Oh, I have so much to ask you. Why do you think all this happened? Are you still working with the government?”

Lyra frowned. ”I”m sorry, but I cannot answer any questions about that.” Beneath her soldier”s composure, I could feel her heartbeat increase. She was flustered by Jennifer”s questions. Who wouldn”t be?

Jennifer tossed her head to the side with a sneaky expression. ”Oh. You can”t even tell us whether your secret vampire paramour is here?”

”Excuse me?” Lyra sputtered. She recovered quickly. ”Look, I can”t talk about that right now. I, um—” She fumbled for a moment, and Cam jumped in as the unexpected savior. I supposed he had more experience with Jennifer.

”Lance and I will make sure our teammates are okay. I want to check on, uh, Captain Bryce,” he chimed in.“Don’t worry, Lyra. We’ve got this.”

”Of course,” Lyra said, with an appreciative smile and a nod. ”You and Lancecan catch up with Bryce. Our other teammates are in the woods, checking something out.”

Checking something out? I wondered if that meant dealing with a creature, but I would find out. Thankful to have someone—even if it was my poor wife—to dump Jennifer and Johnny off on, I headed off to check on Bryce with Cam.

Cam looked over to the human duo. “They’re not watching. You can make it to the forest.” I thanked him and rushed into the woods.

Sike spotted me twenty yards in. He was crouched down by the corpse of a creature. Judging from the trail of blood, he and the others had dragged it here from the clearing so that they could examine it. Based on the smell, it was decaying fast. Arlonne and a new vampire greeted me.

”Hi, I’m Chandry,” the newcomer said cheerfully. ”You must be the famous Dorian we”ve been waiting for.” I shot a curious look at Sike, who lifted his hands in defensive protest.

”I said only good things,” he argued. Well, I guessed they’d had plenty of time to talk.

Arlonne grunted.”I smell more humans on you,” she said. ”What”s going on? I sensed darkness balances that I don’t recognize, that’s why we dragged the body out here.”

I briefed all three of them on what was happening, including that Jennifer appeared to be oddly curious and pointed with her questions.

”I can hear her grilling Lyra from here,” Sike said with a sympathetic wince. ”That”s what that flowery smell was. Chandry thought it might be rotting vegetation somewhere.”

Arlonne crossed her arms. It was glorious to see her. It meant they”d come through a gate, and I needed all the information on that. Quickly, she explained how they’d met up with Lyra and how they found the gate.

”We would be safer in the Immortal Plane,” Arlonne added sternly. ”Our wildling allies could get the humans some food. They”ll know what”s safe for them… but it sounds like your new guests are complicating matters.” She curled her lips with distaste at the extra trouble but said nothing more. She still had understandable reservations about humans, given her history with the Bureau and the world’s current treatment of vampires.

I shrugged. Our mission was to seek survivors, and, apparently, these two had survived. ”We”ll have to proceed with caution.” I strained to listen to what Lyra was telling Jennifer. My wife”s tone sounded tight and frustrated. ”I just hope we don”t have to postpone the mission until we remove these two…”

Sike sighed. ”What a waste of time. We haven”t seen the creature, either, so it might still be out there.” His brow furrowed curiously as he turned back to me. ”Wait… you”re named Lance now? Do we all have to do silly names?”

”I was with Lyra in some of the papers,” I reminded him. ”You were at the press conference, but I can”t remember if you said your name. Maybe tell them Sike is a nickname. She didn”t seem to recognize me. You”ll have to use the Leftovers camouflage excuse like I did.” It was wild, but we had to work with it for the time being.

“Camouflage?” Arlonne echoed, with a pitying shake of her head. “They might be suspicious when they see my muscles tearing apart monsters.”

“We have to hide our abilities if we want to escape the suspicions of those two and keep Callanish in good standing,” I insisted. Chandry and Sike let out groans of protest. “There’s nothing we can do. Your muscles are fine, Arlonne.”

“Well, I suppose there are human female weightlifters,” Sike offered helpfully.

”She asked about Lyra”s paramour,” Chandry said. ”I”m not familiar with that human term… what is it?”

”Me,” I admitted. Arlonne chuckled, and I sighed. ”We”re going to have to roll with it as best we can. I”m sure Cam has mentioned something about our camouflage experiment already. He”s good at slipping things in.”

Arlonne nodded. ”Bryce”s nephew?”

”Yes,” I said. ”Speaking of Bryce, how did he get hurt?”

Chandry stifled a giggle behind Arlonne’s glare. Oh, there”s a story here.

”It was the curse,” Arlonne explained stiffly. She lifted her chin despite the embarrassed emotion flickering underneath her brave exterior. ”I thought… I thought I had a lock on the feelings between us, but I guess something changed recently. I”m frustrated that it”s created a hassle.” She dipped her head in apology. ”I will try to work around it as much as possible. I don”t want to impede the mission.”

I shook my head, knowing full well that my own experiences had once hurt missions. ”We can work around it,” I promised. ”Maybe when we get to the Immortal Plane, we can ask Reshi about reverse engineering the necklaces for both of you. It”s an obstacle that we can get around for the moment, but I”d rather take care of it sooner than later.” I understood the struggle well.

Sike averted his gaze. ”Nobody”s made it work but you and Lyra.” His words echoed with a certain hollowness. ”Maybe it”s better to just stick with vampire lovers.” He must have been thinking about how his relationship with Louise had gone up in smoke. We hadn”t heard from her in some time, but she’d made it clear that she wanted distance from Sike when their own feelings had initiated the curse.

It was times like these that I truly cursed the arbiters for placing such a ridiculous constraint on vampires.

Arlonne thumped a hand against her chest.”I”m strong,” she said. It was all she needed for an argument. We all knew it was the truth. Sike was just upset. He gave a meek nod, and Chandry studied him curiously beneath her lashes.

”Whatever our personal feelings are on relationships,” I told them, ”I don”t want these humans finding out what we are.”