Authors: Megan Morgan
“Yes, of course we want that,” Occam said. “But that’s not my motivation tonight.”
“Then tell me what’s going on.” Robbie turned in a circle. “Why are you crawling out of your hole and putting me in a corner? Just because you can?”
“It’s because you’re fucking with my investment, Robert,” Occam said. “And self-interest is my only interest.”
June’s head was spinning from confusion. Occam looked over at her, smiled, and waggled his fingers at her in a little wave.
“Her?” Robbie grew incredulous. “The reluctant Siren?”
“The very powerful reluctant Siren.”
June gaped.
“Who’s dying,” Robbie said.
“Yes, exactly, who’s dying. You know how that goes, don’t you?”
“Shut up!” June stepped forward. “Stop saying I’m dying. I’m not.”
“The cleansing is coming,” Occam said. “Do you think we would repopulate our ranks with weak vampires? We’ll own this city one day, but it will be because we built a careful empire to inherit it, brick by strong brick.”
“I’m not becoming a vampire!” June said. “I’m sick of you acting like you’ve made a decision for me. Whatever this is, whatever you’re trying to prove, you can stop it right now.”
“The only reason any of you are alive right now,” Occam said to her, “is because I’ve made this decision for you.”
Robbie flung his hands up. “Fine. I won’t touch your prize. Take her and go. She’s of no interest to me, anyway. She’s exactly the kind of cowering scum I don’t want in my ranks.”
June gritted her teeth, a mixture of furious and horrified.
“Now,” Robbie said. “Are you going to get out of my way, Occam? You’ve already said this war is of no interest to you.”
“I’m protecting the rest of them because it’s what June wants,” Occam said. “I’m making her happy. A happy Siren is a good Siren. For me.”
Robbie gnashed his teeth. “Fine. Take all of them except Sam. I want him.”
“No,” June said. “He’s not taking Sam.”
Occam shrugged. “My darling has spoken.”
“You’re overstepping your bounds, Occam!” Robbie clenched his fists. “If you try to stand in my way, I will take you out. You’ll be among those I get rid of.”
“Is that so, Robert?” Occam remained unruffled. “Do you think you have the power to take out the vampires? All of us? We’ve already disposed of the minions you brought here with you. Bring some more. We like easy pickings.”
Sam stumbled forward, Muse clinging to him. “Enough of this. No one else has to die. If you want to do something to me, Robbie, do it. We’ll do this one-on-one. This doesn’t have to be a war.”
“It was a war long before it came to you and me,” Robbie said.
Occam sighed dramatically. “This is the most fruitless pissing contest I’ve ever seen. Fanatics never prosper. They have a glorious blaze-up, and then they fall into their own ashes. Sam need not worry about taking you out, Robbie, you’ve already taken yourself out. You’ve wounded a city and made it furious. The normals will hunt you and your people down. They’ll string you up.”
“You lie.” Robbie brandished his fists at him. “My beliefs will spread. We’ll grow, and survive, and flourish!”
“Pretty sure every cult leader on the planet has had the same idea. Right up until a bunch of men in body armor carrying rifles put a cap on their hopes and dreams.”
“You have no idea what I’m capable of.”
“Yes, I do, because I saw it today. You blew your wad too soon. Don’t you know the key to any successful takeover is patience, not jumping as soon as you feel froggy?”
Robbie’s eyes bulged, and his jaw clenched. He was breathing hard and fast through his teeth.
He unleashed his fury. The bushes next to the building ripped out of the ground and flew across the lot, spraying clumps of dirt. June barely stepped aside in time to avoid being hit. The windows above them shattered, and glass rained down. She and Sam stumbled back from the building. Sam covered Muse’s head with his arm.
“You’re a child,” Occam yelled over the noise. “No one is impressed. And you’re drawing all kinds of attention to us. Good job.”
The destruction ceased. Stray pieces of glass tinkled onto the pavement. Shouts sounded from the apartments above.
Robbie spun toward the girl Zack had attacked and left lying in the parking lot. He lifted his arm.
Something flew from her to Robbie’s outstretched hand—a small black object. He whipped around and pointed the gun at Occam’s face.
“You didn’t disarm my people,” Robbie said.
Occam stared down the barrel of the gun, unflinching. June held her breath. Zack and Belle backed off.
“You better hope you do that right,” Occam said. “I’ve been shot before. It pisses me right the hell off.”
A shriek sounded above. A woman was leaning out a window. She quickly drew her head back in.
“The police will come soon.” Occam remained calm. “So you’d better make a decision. Do you think you can do this right?”
June silently willed Robbie to drop the gun.
“As an addendum”—Occam took a step forward—“if you pull that trigger, you’ll have a whole mess of vampires feasting on you.”
Don’t do it
, June thought fiercely. As much as she hated Robbie, she’d seen enough blood and gore.
Robbie’s hand faltered.
“Come on. Make your move,” Occam said. “You can take out a whole crowd of people, but not one vampire?”
Robbie’s expression sagged. The sudden passiveness was more terrifying than his outrage.
“You’re right,” he said. “The time for hesitation is over.”
He turned away from Occam and pointed the gun at Sam.
Time stuttered into slow motion, like when June had been shot in the parking garage. Robbie pulled the trigger. June stood frozen, helpless as everything unfolded in front of her. Sam didn’t move, either. He didn’t have time.
But Muse did.
She leaped in front of Sam. Time sped up again as the impact of the bullet hitting her threw her back against him, hard enough Sam nearly toppled over. He caught her under the arms, and they both collapsed to the ground.
June’s ears rang from the blast. Objects started flying again: bushes, glass, rocks—a furious hurricane of debris. The cars in the parking lot awoke like disturbed slumbering beasts. Car alarms rang out, glass shattered, tires blew out. Robbie streaked away in the chaos.
She didn’t think to tell Occam to stop him. She dropped to her knees next to Muse and Sam.
Bright red coated the front of Muse’s tunic. She clutched her throat, more blood spilling over her fingers.
“No!” Sam screamed, cutting through the static in June’s ears. “Do something!” His voice was helpless and horrified. He clutched Muse against his chest.
No help could get there fast enough, though. Blood ran from the corner of Muse’s mouth. Her face had gone as white as her clothes. Her eyes were wide and lucid and filled with terror. She opened her mouth as if trying to speak, but more blood spilled out.
June whipped around. Occam, Belle, and Zack stood nearby, watching passively.
“Do something!” June demanded, and would have used her power if she could have. “Help her.”
“What would you have me do?” Occam asked. “There’s only one thing I could, and Sam would never allow it.”
She turned back to Sam. Muse looked up at him, shaking, gripping weakly at his shirt. Sam’s face was twisted and wet with tears. He gazed bitterly at June, eyes shining.
June gripped Muse’s shaking hand on Sam’s chest. Her skin was cold. June closed her eyes.
“Don’t feel the pain,” she said, over the noise around them. Warmth coated her throat and spilled across his lips. “You’re not suffering.”
Muse’s hand went limp. June opened her eyes. Muse sagged against Sam, her face placid and eyes distant.
“I’m sorry,” June choked out. Tears spilled over and streaked down her face.
Sam cried out, a half-scream, half-sob, an excruciating sound of pain. He sounded like a little boy. He hunched over Muse and gathered her against him, his tangled hair falling across her shoulder.
Lights flashed over them. A car had pulled into the lot.
“We have to go.” Occam gripped June’s shoulder. “Unless you want to talk to the police.”
The car pulled up next to them and drew to a stop—Occam’s car, the black one. They couldn’t end this horrible night in jail.
“Sam”—June gripped his arm—“we have to get out of here.”
Belle and Zack hurried to the car.
Occam held a hand out to her. “We’re all leaving. No one will be here to protect you.”
“We’re coming.” June struggled to her feet, pulling at Sam. “Sam, we have to go!”
Sam got up, still holding Muse, keeping her gathered to his chest. Her arm dropped away from her body and dangled, limp and lifeless, blood running from her fingertips.
June sat on the porch of Occam’s ramshackle prison house. The neighborhood was so still it seemed abandoned—no lights in any of the houses around them, no one out on the street. Vaguely, in the distance, the city hummed in its constant cacophony, but the noise seemed from another world.
She ached for a cigarette. Wounded lung be damned. Luckily, she didn’t have one, because she would have sucked it down and paid for it all night.
A floorboard creaked behind her. Her brief respite was over. She’d been out on the porch for at least twenty minutes.
Occam stepped beside her and stood at the edge of the porch. “What a bloody end to a bloody day,” he said.
She drew a deep breath. “Is he okay?”
“He’s where you left him. As okay as he can be.” No real concern filled Occam’s voice.
The world teetered around her as she waited for something to happen, for a final shove to send things spiraling into the abyss. The tension hung so heavy it bowed her shoulders.
Occam squatted beside her. He gripped her arm. She snapped out of her stupor, frowning.
She had a fresh cut from Robbie’s temper tantrum, where a piece of glass nicked her forearm. The wound was scabbing over, but when Occam rubbed his finger across it, the cut opened up fresh. She winced. Occam brought his finger to his mouth and sucked the blood off, like licking cake icing.
“Stop.” She jerked her arm away. “Don’t touch me.”
He popped the finger out of his mouth. “I’m not snacking on you.” He ran his tongue over his lips, gazing across the yard. “I’m trying to figure out something.”
“What?” She held her hand over the wound.
“You can tell a lot about a person from the taste of his blood—well, if you’ve been a vampire long enough, you can.” He rose. “Your power is incredibly strong. It’s grown vast and quick over the past couple months, like a cancer multiplying. That’s why the necromancy started. As your power grows, other abilities may open up to you.”
“And that’s why I’m dying.” She forced the words out. “That’s what the food allergies are.”
“Yes. I knew it at once. I’m not fond of you just because you’re powerful. I feel a kinship with you. I’ve been there.”
She looked up at him.
“Back in my day, my human days, we didn’t call them allergies. We didn’t have such things. But it was horrible and painful nonetheless. I’ve forgotten a lot of things over the years, become detached from many things from my past, but that… That I remember.”
“The same thing happened to you?”
“Yes. I was lucky the vampires found me when they did.” He kicked at the porch floorboards, sending a tiny stone tumbling down the steps. “It had come to the point I couldn’t consume anything, even water. Starvation and dehydration are a grisly way to die. Not to mention the pain from my guts deteriorating. There’s no pain like being eaten from the inside out. I will never forget.”
She closed her eyes, cold horror gripping her and settling deep in her chest. “That’s what will happen to me?” she whispered.
“That’s what will happen to you.”
She opened her eyes. Anger replaced fear.
“It’s not fair,” she choked out. “After everything I’ve been through, as hard as I’ve fought to survive… It won’t matter. I’ll die anyway.”
“We all die anyway. Well—not all of us. And you don’t have to.”
She blinked tears from her eyes. “Maybe there’s something they can do now. Some medical intervention they didn’t have back then.”
“Nothing will stop it. That’s the curse of what we are. It uses us up until we are no more. Maybe—the abominations that we are—it’s how nature expels us from the ecosystem. But there’s a way to fight nature, hand-to-hand. You can be victorious.”
“This is your bargaining chip. You get me for your vampire princess, because my alternative is suffering and death.”
He chuckled. “You won’t be a princess. No more than I am a king.”
“What if I choose death?”
“Death is scary.” He rocked back on his heels. “You have time to decide, perhaps longer than you expect. But it will be an increasingly painful time. I’m a patient man. I will wait. I have nothing but time.”
She couldn’t speak.
“We will build our army, one strong soldier at a time. And one day, we will conquer. You’re not overly special, but you are rare and strong. We value your future service.”
“I don’t know how to be a soldier. I don’t even know what the hell you’re fighting for.”
“You will. Time heals all wounds and shows you the way. Better than you could imagine, in one lifetime.”
The hum of a car engine coming down the street interrupted the quiet. Headlights splashed across the broken pavement. The vehicle slowed and stopped in front of the house, a red pickup truck with a cap.
“Ah, the party guests have arrived,” Occam said.
“Who is it?” She rose slowly and cautiously to her feet.
“Don’t worry, no one who wants to hurt you.”
Her trepidation turned to shock, and then relief, when two people got out of the truck and walked across the yard toward them.
“Aaron! Trina!” June rushed out to meet them.
“June!” Trina called.
June clutched the other woman in a tight, trembling hug. Trina hugged her back.
“You’re alive.” June gazed at her in amazement as she drew back.
“So are you,” Trina said. “I’m glad. I really am.”
Aaron stood beside them, silent and grim.