A Mark Unwilling Read online

  Mike lifts his gun, arms steady, ready to fire. Very much the FBI agent I knew when I first met him.

  “Thought you out of bullets,” the woman speaks, much to Mike’s chagrin.

  A rumble leaves his chest. “Shut it, Vampire.”

  Behind him, Eve hugs Josefina close, the girl holding her Barbies for dear life. Josie wants to run to me, but my mom won’t let her. The little girl struggles pointlessly, her face wet with tears. David studies me, standing in front of Deb protectively.

  “Okay,” I say, holding back a frown. “Let’s say you do have bullets in there. You empty it in me. It’ll hurt like a dozen bee stings, but it’ll also make this guy—” I point to Devil Jr., watching as each pair of eyes follow my finger. “—very upset. And let me just say that he’s not very nice when he’s upset.” I pause, hearing myself and shifting uncomfortably in my leather jacket. “And now I realize that everything I said sounds like a bad-guy speech. Sorry, I didn’t mean it like that. Not a bad bone in my body. I can’t vouch for his.”

  “How do we know you’re telling the truth?” David asks, and I can see the confusion and hurt in his eyes. My best—and until recently—only friend, doubting me. Salt on the wound, but I understand why.

  Darren, the big, biker Vamp who has a secret collection of dolls, says, “She isn’t lying.”

  “You a lie detector?” Mike hisses, looking very Hugh Jackman. He takes a step toward Darren, both men taking an aggressive stance.

  Before they can fight it out, Billy flashes between them. He wears an ugly ensemble of leopard-print silk and brightly-colored pants. “Easy, boys,” he says, his teeth a reminder of what he is.

  “What happened here?” As I ask, I know the answer.

  It’s just as I fear.

  “They went crazy,” Darren says, stepping closer to me. “We barricaded ourselves in here. They’re guarding the exit, too. Couldn’t leave without casualties.”

  “I tried portalling, but I guess I’m still too tired from my silver therapy,” David explains, shoulders lowering. “You sure you’re all right, Lex?” He uses the name he used to call me when I was little, and it causes Devil Jr. to look at me strangely.

  “I’m fine,” I say. “Not forced to kill you or anything like that.” I give Mike a quick glare, and he lowers his empty pistol, guilty. As the group visibly relaxes, I note that someone is missing. “Cloud?” I’m almost afraid to ask.

  Darren and Billy are sad, and the chick Vamp states, “Cloud alive. He must…”

  Billy runs a hand through his frilly hair. “He held off the rest of them while we got in here.” He gestures to Cloud’s stone throne, now a prop against the door, along with the few other furnishings in the room.

  “The madness that took the others was in his eyes, though,” Darren says, and I sigh. “He was fighting it, but I don’t know how long he’ll last. None of this makes sense. Our nest was the quietest one this side of the USA. Cloud always did a good job of keeping everybody in line, following the interspecies peace pact. It’s like something took them over, making them lose their minds and their senses.”

  “The blood moon,” I say, which immediately draws David’s attention.

  “I thought I felt something pull at my magic,” he whispers, and Deb nods in agreement.

  “What the fuck is a blood moon?” Mike questions.

  “Language!” Eve speaks through bared teeth, holding a hand over Josie’s ears.

  Mike glances at the girl. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to say fuck. I meant—” He grimaces when Eve uses her free hand and slaps him upside the head. “The hell is wrong with you, woman?”

  “It’s Evelyn, to you,” she says, holding herself straight and tall. “And there are children present.”

  “Child,” Mike answers. “One kid. And I think watching my swearing is the last thing you need to worry about, Evelyn.” The way he speaks my mom’s name, it’s like a challenge, one she is all too happy to accept.

  As they continue to argue, Deb moves to me, grabbing my arm and pulling me aside, leaving David and Devil Jr. in a contest of who could stare down the other better. Hint: it’s neither. They both look stupid.

  “We need to get out of here,” Deb says quietly, worry staining her freckled face.

  “Really? I thought we could stay here, resort to cannibalism, and…” I see that she’s not having any of my facetiousness, deciding to change course. “Any ideas? I don’t think my loveable master will help. He barely let us come here. I don’t think he’ll portal us all out.”

  She shakes her head. “No, I think—I think we have to open the door and walk out, but it’s not going to be easy. And we’re not all going to make it.” Deb fumbles in her pocket, pulling out a folded piece of scratch paper.

  A leopard-printed body, headless. Crude and simple, like an unartistic grade-schooler drew it, but it serves its purpose nonetheless.

  I crumble the paper, shoving it in my back pocket and returning to the group. I walk right between David and Devil Jr., ignore Eve and Mike’s argument, and address the Vampires in the room: “Why is the blood moon not affecting you guys?”

  “We…” Darren quiets, glancing at the Vamp stuck in the seventies, and then at the woman who only gives a shrug.

  “We’re vegetarians,” Billy finishes, saying vegetarians like vegie-tarians.

  My blank look causes Darren to further say, “We drink animal blood. The only ones in the nest.” The imposing Vamp in leather chaps feels the need to defend their choice of sustenance, “We were vegetarians before we turned.”

  I stare at his large gut for a moment, silent. “I hate to break it to you,” I slowly say, “but drinking animal blood doesn’t make you vegetarians.”

  “Sure it does. We don’t feed from Humans. We’re humanitarians.” Billy says the final word proudly.

  David finally breaks from his staring contest with Devil Jr., saying, “I don’t think that word means what you think it means.”

  Vampires are weird, I decide, glancing between the supposed vegetarian Vamps. “I thought I remember you saying Vamps living on animal blood is impossible,” I tell David, eyebrows lifting.

  My friend who holds a deep resentment for anything undead shrugs. “They can survive on it, but not forever.”

  “What he means is,” Darren adds, “we’re weaker for it. But I’ll take being weaker and in control than strong and out of my mind. A lot of other species think we’re undead, but I like to think I’m just colder that the average American male.”

  “Not to mention a bit heavy around the middle,” Billy chimes in gleefully. “Not the exact picture of immortal youth.” He pauses as Darren gives him a deadly glance. “What? I never said it was a bad thing to forever look like you’re a middle-aged, washed-up, overweight—”

  Before the disco Vampire can say anything else—and get Darren angrier—I step in, saying, “Whatever. I don’t care what you eat, as long as it’s not me or my friends. Back to the mission. How are we getting out of here?” The crumpled picture in my jeans’ pocket feels a lot heavier than it is. A million pounds, sitting in my butt pocket.

  Billy, the Vampire out of his own time, dead.

  I can’t let his possible death get to me, though. I have to get my friends and my mom out of here…even if that means losing a Vamp who, in all honesty, has been nothing but nice, if not a little on the peculiar side.

  As if he knows what I’m thinking, my inner turmoil about being okay with it, Devil Jr. stares at me from across the room. His expression gives nothing away. If it is up to him, I think everyone would die, even me. To the Devil’s son, none of us matter. We’re weak, we’re pawns. Useless, except for a bit of fun here and there.

  In that moment, my hate revitalizes, and I hate him with entire being.

  “There’s nothing we can do,” David slowly says, torn. “Except walk out and try to defend ourselves as we go.” He runs a hand through his dirty brown hair as Deb nods in agreement.

  “Can you do a
ny magic?” I ask, biting the inside of my cheek, hoping for a miracle.

  “A fireball or two, maybe,” he answers, turning to glare at Devil Jr. “I’m sure he’s full of fire, though.”

  I pause, glimpsing at my soul’s owner. To say he looks bored and uninterested would be the world’s largest understatement. “I know, but I wouldn’t count on his help.” I return my stare to David as I add, “We do this on our own. Protect Josie.” As I say her name, the little girl finally manages to break free from my mom and run to me, colliding with my waist.

  “I want Mommy,” she whispers through tears.

  I get to my knees, drying her cheeks with my thumbs. “I know, baby girl. Right now, we have to get out of here. Your mom wants you safe, and we’re all going to do our best to keep you that way. You might have to leave your Barbies here.”

  Josefina hugs them closer, muttering a teary, defiant, “No.”

  I hold in a chuckle, grabbing her hand and walking her back to my mom. “Can you do me a huge favor, Josie? Hold onto my mom’s hand, and don’t let go until we see the sun. Can you do that for me?”

  She nods, slowly gripping Eve’s hand, clutching her few Barbies in the other.

  As I stand, I give my mom a hard look. She can’t even meet my eyes. She turns away from me, from her own daughter, as if she’s ashamed of me. Maybe she is. I bet she didn’t think she’d ever spend some time with the Devil’s son. I know I never did.

  A loud bang echoes throughout the room. The stone throne wobbles with the force of the hit, and a low and deadly feminine voice says, “Come out, come out, little mice. Don’t you want to play?” With harsh laughter, another thump.

  I look to the Vampires in the room, saying, “Open it up. She wants to play, and I’m feeling like a game of Life myself.” Even David gives me a quizzical glance on that one. Not all of them are winners.

  The three Vampires work together to move the throne aside. And they struggle doing so. Great. I know they said they’re weaker, but I didn’t realize they meant that weak. They’re basically a few rungs above a regular Human.

  When the throne is fully away from the door, the owner of the voice on the other side kicks it down and flashes into the room. The blonde, leather-clad chick who brought me to the Vampire lair to begin with. Her ghostly skin is speckled with red, her eyes glowing a color I can only compare to the blood moon outside.

  “Hello, dearies,” she says, drawing her tongue along her ever-sharp fangs. “Who wants to go first?” She spots Devil Jr., adding, “You look tasty.” And, in spite of what he is, she lunges for him with her inhuman speed.

  Stopping her is easy for him. He holds up a hand, choking her, lifting her in the air. The Vampire struggles to get free.

  “Go,” I yell, wanting to get moving while one Vampire is occupied.

  Darren is the first to leave the safety of the room. Mike is beside him, barking orders, “Darren and I will take point. You—” He points to Billy. “—take the rear. You—” The woman, whose name I still don’t know. “—stay by the girl. I want a tight formation. No breaking off and being a hero!” Everyone nods, understanding.

  As they shuffle out, I pause and glance back at Devil Jr., who still holds the maddened Vamp in a magical grip. His blue eyes meet mine, and for a moment—a quick moment—I wonder if I should help him. But it’s gone instantly when I realize that he doesn’t need my help. Josie does. And so I turn and leave, catching up to the group.

  I walk beside Billy, hyper-aware of the scrap of paper in my pocket. I wonder if I showed him his fate if he’d still be willing to help us get out. Oh, well. It doesn’t matter now. The wheels have already started to turn.

  Darren leads us through the winding concrete corridors. What dim lights there used to be are even worse now. Most are completely off and broken; a few flash every now and then, flickering in some cheesy horror-movie way. I do my best to ignore the blood painted on the walls, and I hope that Eve is able to shield Josie’s eyes.

  We come onto an area that leads to a stairwell, and we hurry inside, heading up. The elevator isn’t functioning, so we’re forced to walk up ten flights of stairs. By the time we reach the top, I’m the only one not out of breath. Even the Vamps are frowning with tiredness, though they’re not gasping for breath like my mom and David.

  “We can take two vans,” Darren says, hand on the door before us. “Nat, get the keys.”

  Nat, the woman Vamp, nods once.

  “All right,” he says. “Here goes nothing.” And then he pushes open the emergency exit door, and we scurry out into a parking garage. Nat sprints for a room off to the side, where the keys are kept. As she leaves, Mike huddles closer to Josie and my mom, looking very much like a protective father and husband.

  Except he isn’t.

  Just as a wave of sadness threatens to overtake me, we head further into the garage to find a mass of bodies laying before the twenty or so vehicles the Vampires have. Each body is torn into pieces. Their faces masked with only fear. A sense of dread fills me.

  “Shit,” Mike whispers.

  David says, “Those are Vampire bodies.”

  Sure enough, there’s not nearly enough blood for them to be Human corpses. The scene looks like a cheap haunted house scene, too fake to be real. And yet, it is real. This isn’t a haunted house.

  Darren nearly falls to his knees. The big Vamp puts a hand over his face, shoulders slumping. Billy moves beside him, putting a hand on his friend’s back. Whether they lost their minds or not, the bodies once were their friends.

  “Something’s not right here,” I say, flicking to Nat in the in the security booth, fumbling at the box where the keys sit behind locked doors. I see a shadow to my right and instantly point. “Someone’s there.”

  David turns, whispering in an ancient language. A small ball of heat gathers above his palm, melding and forming into living fire. I notice the sweat that dots his forehead almost immediately after the spell. If only his magic reserves were always full. We’d be unstoppable.

  But they’re not. Magic doesn’t come freely. It expends energy, and after being locked up with silver and tortured—something he hasn’t opened up about, not that I blame him for putting up walls—I’m sure his energy is vastly depleted.

  The shadow vanishes, and David whispers, “I don’t see anything.”

  A figure flashes to the pile of bodies, and David lets loose the fireball. The magical ball of flames explodes on impact; but it doesn’t hit the figure. It hits the bodies, catching them all on fire. Vamps seem to be oddly flammable.

  Darren and Billy stumble back, keeping themselves away from the fire. The figure appears once more, and Billy blinks, recognizing the shadow, even though his back is turned to us. “Cloud, is that you?”

  Staring at the fire that now consumes his flock, he mutters, “They stopped listening. They had to die the true death.”

  “You had us worried, there.” Darren reaches for him, but instantly drops his hand, backing away from his leader when Cloud turns to us.

  His tall, lithe form is drenched in dark red, making it clear that Vampires were not the only ones he killed. The dark red against his blue stare is a startling contrast, his yellow hair wet with blood. His sharp features twist as he sees Darren and Billy. “It’s coming back. You should go.”

  Nat runs to us, seeing cloud. “What numbers for lock?”

  “Four four—” He squeezes his eyes shut. “—five.” He falls to his knees, hands holding his head as if his brain is going to explode. Nat runs back to the room, clicking in the correct numbers for the keys. His fingers clench in his hair, and he says, “Go. I can’t stop it forever.”

  I study how he’s hunched over, how he seems to be fighting something inside, and a bad feeling grows within me. “Nat,” I shout for her, “hurry with the keys!” I push Deb and Eve away from the Vampires, adding, “Get to a van, now!” They run towards a vehicle, and David and Mike go with them. I linger by the Vamps, putting one hand on each of
them, pulling Darren and Billy away from Cloud. “Come on, guys. We have to go.”

  As we step away from the burning bodies, from Cloud, his shaking abruptly stops.

  Cloud slowly gets to his feet, looking at Darren and Billy with glowing red eyes. “You should’ve run.” His voice is low, a deadly whisper. It scares me, even though I know I can’t die. I’m scared for my friends, for Josie. “Now you’re all going to die.”

  Before I can say or do anything, Cloud flashes to Billy, gripping his head. His fingers dig into his eye sockets, and Billy screams for only a moment. With a sharp yank, Billy’s head separates from his body as Cloud uses his unnatural strength to pull him apart. Billy’s leopard-printed body collapses in a heap of cold flesh, and Darren screams, ready to fight the beast that once was his leader.

  A measly amount of blood flows from the decapitated head and body, and I step between Darren and Cloud, telling the sane Vampire, “Go. Help the others. Don’t worry about me.” Fifty feet from us, Nat hurries our group into two separate vans. Darren doesn’t want to go, but he knows he’s too weak to fight. The undead biker goes.

  Cloud studies me with his red eyes, tossing me Billy’s head.

  I let the head hit my stomach and bounce to the floor, thinking, sorry, Billy.

  “Hero, huh?” Cloud asks, eyebrows risen beneath a thick coat of blood. “I don’t care about your Mark. I’ll kill you all the same.”

  I push back the memories of laughing with him about Billy’s silly attire, the funny stories they shared with me. I do my best to forget the Cloud I knew—the gloomy, sad Vampire who I, in spite of David’s warnings, was starting to like. This is the new Cloud, and there’s no going back.

  Shrugging, I break my silence by saying, “You wouldn’t be the first to try.”

  “I wonder if you’ll have that same sense of humor after I’ve drained you dry,” he whispers, glowing eyes narrowing. In that moment, he is what David said he was all along: a lookalike undead Human with a hunger that’s never satiated. A body walking and talking only due to parasites. His tall form hunches, his mouth hangs slightly open, his fangs visible. A pale, dangerous animal that radiates a certain deadly beauty, like a tiger.