Forever Young - Book 2 Read online

  We would live more and fear less.

  12

  We got up the next morning and set out on our way, ready to engage the serious side of our journey. Daisy had gotten her break, and the rest of us had gotten what we needed, be it the touch of a lover or the joy of play. Kamila knew where we were going, but the rest of us did not. She took the lead, and we followed behind her, shuffling along a dirt path made by boats or people or both.

  The nature preserve was stunning. It was officially listed as a forest, but I had to realign my expectations of what that meant, as the trees were more likely to be laurel or loquat than pine or oak. Bermuda wasn’t truly northern, but it wasn’t a Caribbean island either. It was like Ferin. It was two things at once.

  I didn’t say anything about danger, but it simmered in my mind as the sun rose. The problem was that although we might have been someplace relatively warm, it was still winter. The sun was up now, but it would go down at the same time here as it would in South Carolina, even though it was far warmer here. The hackles on the back of my neck stood up.

  After ten minutes of growing day, Tess cleared her throat.

  “Yeah, Tess?” Kamila didn’t turn around. She kept her eyes forward on the trail ahead.

  “About how much farther until we get to where we’re going?” Tess asked, her tone thoughtful.

  Kamila paused for a second. “We’ll get there in a couple hours if we skirt any contact with people.”

  “Hmm.” Tess bit her pretty lip. She shared my paranoia, with good reason. “Any chance we arrive later, just to be absolutely sure we’re not being followed?”

  Kamila shook her head. “Unfortunately, my contact can’t wait. He’s got a limited window of opportunity. We’re going to have to be there within two hours of when he’s ready to leave. Otherwise, we’re stuck here.”

  We kept walking and picked up our pace.

  “The vampires from the cruise ship,” Tessa said a little while later. I supposed she’d been thinking about it for a while. “I didn’t actually see them. Jason, what can you tell me about them?”

  I tried to remember anything that might have been helpful. “They were just guys, you know? Nothing special about them. The only even remotely notable thing about them was the whole blood-sucking thing. The captain told me they’d booked the cruise months ago. It couldn’t have had anything to do with the war. I hadn’t even been killed yet.”

  The craziness of that statement hit me, and I had to laugh. Tess got a little chuckle out of it. Kamila didn’t take her eyes off the path.

  “Are you sure about that?” Kamila asked. She stopped in the middle of the road and grabbed a stick from the brush. I gave her a quizzical glance, but she ignored me and poked at something on the ground in front of her. Suddenly, some kind of net sprang up into the sky as a previously bowed tree snapped back upright.

  I froze. My heart hammered against my ribs as adrenaline flooded my body. I hadn’t even noticed the tree was trapped.

  “No one is supposed to be back here in these woods,” Kamila explained. “It’s a wildlife refuge. And poachers aren’t going to set traps for turtles with steel nets.” She indicated the swaying, empty net above.

  “Are you kidding me?” Tess coughed and covered her mouth. “This is just too much. He wasn’t—they hadn’t even made him yet. And you were there. Chilperic hadn’t wanted to make him. Chilperic was disgusted by the idea of creating a Ferin like him.” She gave me a wry grin. “No offense.”

  “None taken.” I rubbed at the back of my neck. I didn’t want to think about Chilperic any more than I absolutely had to. “And no, Chilperic didn’t want to make me, but he also wasn’t exactly the cream of the crop when it comes to Dread Blood, was he? The others seemed to have nothing but contempt for him and made that opinion clear with their comments. He was shit in their eyes.”

  Kamila nodded. “They’re products of demons, working with demons. We already know prophecy is a big part of their game. It stands to reason they had a clue someone would be coming along sometime soon. They wouldn’t necessarily have known it would be Jason. No one knows who’s going to be Ferin and who’s just going to die when they get drained. But they’ve been prepping for war for centuries.”

  “I was just wondering why the hell vampires, who burn to a crisp in the sun, would want to come to sunny Bermuda.” I made a face. “Now I know. They were anticipating our being here.” I stopped and scratched my head. “What does that do to the idea of free will? Does that mean there’s no point in fighting? The war is already won—or lost?”

  Tess swatted my arm. “Oh my God, shut up.”

  Kamila snorted. “Tess is right. There’s no need to be paralyzed with possibilities. There are too many variables, too many choices, to foresee who’s going to win and who’s going to lose. If they knew the outcome, why try to kill us? There’s no reason.”

  I considered that. “Sorry. Prophecies are still beyond me. I’m built to fight. I’m—I’m made for it now, using water and fire, even my hands. That, I can do.”

  Kamila turned around and kissed my cheek. “And you do it very well too. You led those two vampires far away from the rest of the passengers and the crew. You’ve got a natural instinct for this war, and it’s already paying dividends.”

  Tess nudged me with her shoulder. “Yeah, and don’t think I didn’t notice how you completely managed to avoid letting us know about it so we could help you out.”

  I hung my head. “I know. I did. And you’re right. I did that on purpose. I didn’t want to have to tear you guys away from a moment of joy, just to satisfy my suspicions.” I cleared my throat. “But since the danger’s past and we’re not likely to be on a cruise ship at any time in the near future, I don’t mind telling you that, next time, the circumstances will be quite different.”

  “Good,” she said. Then she slipped her arm around my waist. “And thank you.”

  “The excuse Captain Logan came up with was good enough for the human crew and definitely for the passengers. It won’t fool any Ferin crew, and it won’t hold up to serious scrutiny by law enforcement. You know who else won’t buy it? Vampires.” Kamila sighed and started walking again.

  “They know who was killed. And they’ll know who did it.” Tess drew herself up to her full height. “They’ll be gunning for us, and they’ve got some way of figuring out where we are.”

  “They don’t know exactly where we are.” I looked around. “They’ve got traps, but the placement is random, based on hope instead of information. We’re ghosts. For now.”

  Kamila snorted in anger. “Right, but we do want to get off this island as soon as we can. Divination, as I understand it, is more a game of probabilities than anything else.” She gave me a wintry smile. “So they did their ritual, found the signs that told them where we were most likely to be, and sent people to the places most likely to have the Lifebringer show up at this stage of the war. The other routes we were considering went through the border in Laredo and catching a cargo freighter in New Orleans, so I wouldn’t be surprised to find more of the filthy little things there.”

  I recoiled at the thought of vampires having such a clear window into my life. Then I laughed. “So they want to play games with statistics, do they?”

  Tess blinked over at me. “What are you talking about now?”

  “I worked in insurance, Tess. No one knows probabilities and statistics like a guy from the insurance industry. Give me a computer and a spreadsheet. I’m going to own them so hard, their ears will bleed, if I don’t bore them to death first.” I rubbed my hands together.

  “Great.” Kamila rolled her eyes, but she seemed to be smiling. “He’s the Lifebringer, but he’s going to roast them with actuarial science.”

  “Knowledge is power, kids. Never forget that.” I preened a bit, earning a laugh from both women.

  We kept walking, alert for traps of any kind, even cameras. I didn’t see any signs of them, but everything was on the table for the fangers.
They had a goal, and so did we. They also had a limitation—they couldn’t see us or follow us during the day. If we could improvise and use tools to overcome our shortcomings, it stood to reason they would do the same.

  With every step, Zarya became more important.

  The trees shifted from tropical beauty to a lingering, sinister enclosure that watched us with unseen eyes. Every lengthening shadow contained a threat, and I was reminded once again that paranoia isn’t always without meaning, especially if roaming vampires are hunting you like prey.

  “Why don’t we get back to the road?” I turned to Tess and Kamila when we next stopped for a water break. We might have been able to keep going a little longer, but we didn’t want to pass up the opportunity during daylight hours. “They might be less likely to attack if we’re near people. It doesn’t work that way all the time, but it might be some little bit of insurance.”

  Tess made a face and looked away. “You mean like Sucky Dee and Sucky Dum from the cruise ship?”

  “Did I stutter?” I asked her in a mild tone. Sass, I could deal with. Not listening when we were at risk was another thing entirely.

  “You’re right, it might be helpful,” Kamila said, biting her lip. “It’s not a guarantee, though, and right now, I don’t want to do anything without a guarantee. And there’s another fly in the ointment too. In a little while, we’re going to meet with my contact. He’s got reasons of his own for not wanting to be seen in areas with a lot of people in them, if you know what I mean. So we’re going to have to stick with what we know. It’s not a bad idea, and we’re not hiding for the sake of hiding. In this case, we’re just keeping ourselves and the people here on Bermuda safer. “

  I sighed. I knew she wasn’t keeping secrets for the sake of keeping secrets. She was still hiding things, like the identity and nature of this mysterious contact, but I figured she was having the same problem I was. She must be worrying about the flowers and the birds carrying tales back to the fangs. I’d hate to bring trouble down on my friends and allies that way. I didn’t blame her in the least.

  I knew her contact had reasons for avoiding customs. Maybe he was Ferin, like us. If he was bringing us off the island without involving the authorities, he might have been a human trafficker or smuggler. The two didn’t have to be mutually exclusive.

  After all, there was no mechanism for ensuring the bite only took good people. And a smuggler wasn’t necessarily a bad person, even if piracy had gotten a bad rap over the centuries. I’m sure that somewhere in the depths of time were pirates who did charity work; I just couldn’t think of any offhand.

  As the sun moved inexorably higher, the moral standing of our pirate became less of an issue than safety. If we didn’t make it to the rendezvous on time, it would all be moot.

  We arrived at a small cove, like many others we’d seen on the island. Kamila put her hands on her hips and nodded once, turning back to smile at me.

  “We’re here. Now we wait.”

  13

  They came for us half an hour after sundown.

  Somehow, some way, they’d known exactly where to wait, exactly where we would be, and managed to get into position without a sign. I didn’t know how it was possible. I almost didn’t want to know how it was possible, except for the fact that it was one more thing I would have to defend against going forward.

  I didn’t have time to think about it or worry about it. I had to deal with pesky little things like not dying. Or being bitten.

  There were ten of them, all ready and waiting for us. I couldn’t understand how any of them passed for human on the street, as they looked wild, unkempt, and pale, the kind of ghastly creature you hear about in campfire stories when you’re a kid. The earliest vampire movies looked like Twilight compared to these freaks.

  I knew why they were physical wrecks. These monsters were scarred and mangled by fights they’d barely won. I didn’t need someone else to tell me these were among the most dangerous types of vampires to fight. They weren’t just strong. They’d honed their evil and their hate through years of savage violence.

  Two of them attacked me at once. One of them had filthy claws, sharp as razors and gleaming in the night. They slashed across my arm as I raised it to block, and when my hot blood sprayed from the wound, their eyes lit with feral hunger. They were thirsty, and they’d found a target that couldn’t be drained.

  Maybe there were some fates worse than death.

  I glared at the one with the claws because I wanted no part of whatever he had planned for me. He burst into flames. For a second, it didn’t seem to bother him. He must have been very old because his other hand snapped out and clawed me across the chest, the motion little more than a blur. Then he let out a mighty shriek and burst open, my flames burning him from the inside out as his ribs blew outward in a repulsive shower of innards. In seconds, he fell to ash.

  I didn’t take time to admire my handiwork. I drew the pistol Kamila had given me on the ship and shot the other one in the heart. He didn’t even have time to scream. He simply collapsed. His ashes mingled with those of his companion, and I kicked them around to make sure they were dispersed beyond recovery.

  Kamila had her shotgun at the ready. She fired into the chest of the nearest vampire, sending him to meet his maker, but the next one kept coming with fearless abandon. She snapped her fingers, and steam poured from the vampire’s ears. In only a few short seconds, the vampire exploded. Kamila boiled his blood, a feat that showcased her incredible power.

  Tess had her silver spike—no, she had two. I hadn’t realized she carried two of the devilish little weapons, and watching her fight with them was like watching a dancer in motion. She plunged a spike into the heart of one and into the neck of the next, destroying them both while spinning into the path of a third. He grabbed her wrist in his iron grip, and I thought surely he would break her arm. She simply stabbed him in the eye with her other spike and jumped back, watching the creature fall to a cloud of ash with her own feral grin contorting her beautiful face.

  I looked down at my wounds. They hurt, more than I would have expected for their depth. I would have to deal with them later, as I was sure those claws were as diseased as their owner. Looking at my wounds drew my eyes down, where I saw two new vampires slithering along the ground, eager to fight.

  One of them glared at me with raw hate in his eyes, leaping up to close the distance between us. Before I could blink, he jumped to his feet and closed the distance between us. I didn’t allow anyone that close to me unless they were female, beautiful, and naked. The fanger failed on all counts.

  He reeked. There might have been ways for vampires to avoid their signature stink, but he hadn’t found it. Most of them paid attention to hygiene and only stank when they opened their mouths, so that they could move among us in disguise.

  “Ferin blood.” He hissed and licked his lips. “So foul. So good.”

  I pushed him away with a blast of fire so hot, it scoured his skin away. “Dude. Personal space. Learn about it.”

  He howled but rushed back toward me. His friend, who had apparently forgotten about niceties like language and shampoo, simply clamped his jaws down onto my leg. I yelled once in pain and unloaded a fireball onto him. It wasn’t enough to make him let go, and now I had the other one to contend with.

  I remembered this pain. It was less shocking this time around, but no less of a violation. I still had the gun out. I shot the verbose monster in the face and then unloaded on the one down on my leg, letting every bit of my internal flame worm its way within him.

  I vaporized the one who’d been on his belly. The talkative one had crumbled to ash, but the ash had held the shape of the vampire it had been. A quick blast of fire provided enough force and wind to scatter him beyond the point of return.

  I leaned against the nearest tree. I’d lost a lot of blood, and I would lose more without a bandage. It wouldn’t kill me, but it would slow me down, and I didn’t have that luxury.

 
Tess stabbed another vamp through, and he screeched as he fell to the ground. I cringed at the unearthly howl. Any vampire on the entire island of Bermuda must have heard him. Kamila was left with two. She flambéed one, which left a single, hissing fanger from their entire attacking force.

  Kamila brought her shotgun up and into position, ready to shoot him, but I called out, “Hold up!”

  She shot him in the foot. Instead of clawing her face into ribbons, which had probably been his intent given the way he was standing, he gave an anguished wail and doubled over, clutching at the ruin of his foot.

  “What the hell, Jason?” She didn’t take her eyes off the vampire in front of her, but her tone spoke clearly enough for her. “We’re not here to play footsie. We’ve got places to be.”

  I dragged myself over to her. The vampire’s eyes glowed red, and he lunged for me. I shot his other foot, which distracted him with enough pain to make him rethink his choices. Gouts of dark fluid leaked from the remains of his leg, yet I felt nothing when I saw his pain. “Look at him, Kamila. He’s fully dressed and not in rags. The others weren’t even really wearing loincloths, but this one’s in modern jeans? Any alarms going off here for you?”

  The vampire snarled at me, spittle flecking his pale cheek. “Smart for a Ferin. Do you think that gets you a cookie?” He grabbed at his own crotch. “I’ve got a cookie for you right here, you filth-ridden breather.”

  I backhanded him with everything I had, snapping his head back like a broken toy. For good measure, I’d set my hand ablaze as it landed on him. He screamed and clutched at his cheek, which was now branded with the imprint of my fingers. “Name,” I snapped.

  He leered at me. “Eat me.”

  I increased the burn, sending fire sizzling past his skin into the bones of his face.

  “Marco. It’s Marco, you shithead.” His voice was choked with anger and pain. It sounded like music to me.