I Am Forever (What Kills Me) Read online

  What just happened?

  Smoke billowed out from a jagged mouth where the stage once was. In the fog vampires were running everywhere. Some squirmed, pinned under fallen chandeliers. I stumbled down a few stairs. I was missing a shoe. Catastrophic Cinderella. Broken glass between my toes.

  “Lucas!” My yell vibrated in my throat but I could barely hear myself.

  Bodily carnage was everywhere. Splashes of blood painted the marble floors. Vampires lay sprawled on the ground, missing limbs, gashes in their flesh. I stepped over a vampire who was slumped over, a gold cymbal stuck in his abdomen.

  “Lucas?”

  Desperate, I reached down and pulled at a pile of vampires. Turning them over to see their faces. One young vampire flopped over. His forearm had been blown off. Below his sooty elbow jutted a red bone, a trailing tendon, and a leathery flap of skin. I was overcome with nausea.

  Someone grabbed my elbow and I spun around.

  “Lucas!”

  “Are you all right?” Dirt covered his jaw like a five o’clock shadow.

  I nodded. He pressed me to him, his fingers in my hair. I started to hear more voices. Crying. Shouting.

  “Where is the Divine?” the Empress screamed. “Is the Divine all right?”

  I broke away from Lucas. “I’m here! I’m fine!” I hollered. I swiveled around to look for her. The smoke started to clear. The Empress was on the mezzanine. She spotted me and clutched her heart, clearly relieved.

  “Come on. Let’s get out of here,” Lucas said.

  Fresh screams. A soldier’s headless body came rolling down the stairs. At the top of the staircase I saw vampires with leather masks covering the bottom half of their faces. Their swords were smeared with blood.

  Rebels.

  The dome ceiling shattered, raining glass, as more rebels dropped down.

  “Zee!” someone squealed.

  On the other side of the room one of the rebels had cornered Lettie and Merrill. He hacked at them with his sword. Lettie pushed Merrill out of the way and cried out as his blade cut her arm.

  “Lettie!” I ran and leaped over the broken stage. As I soared over the smoking wreckage, I searched the ballroom.

  I need a weapon.

  I slid across the marble floor, dropped to one knee, and picked up a flute. As the rebel raised his sword above the girls, I thrust the instrument through his ear and out the other side of his skull.

  Lettie and Merrill shrieked.

  “Run!” I yelled at them. They ducked behind some pillars as I doubled back.

  Amidst the smoke and gore soldiers fought the rebels. Lucas grappled with one of the masked intruders. He held the vampire’s forearm while trying to avoid being skewered by a sword.

  Before I could reach him, a rebel dropped in front of me. She was wearing knee-high boots and one side of her head was shaved. She pointed a baton at my face as if it was a microphone. We did a dance to the left, then to the right.

  Get out of my way.

  She pushed her weapon at me but she was too slow. I grabbed her arm and with one jerk broke the bone, a splinter tearing through her flesh. She cried out. I silenced her with a strike to the face that snapped her neck.

  Another rebel looked at the fallen vampire and then took me in, his eyes wide with fear. He swallowed and dived at me with his baton. I spun behind him, gripped his head, and twisted it like a bottle cap.

  I scoured the ground for a sword. Shiny pointed shoes appeared beside me. I looked up, startled. The waiter who had shielded me from the blast. He was grinning and holding a black baton.

  “What—” I said.

  He touched the end to my shoulder. I heard a crackle, and a jolt stabbed me. Hot pain rippled the blood in my veins. I dropped frozen to the ground, my body impaled on the current, my muscles hard and jammed. The waiter leaned over me, pressing the tip of the baton to my chest, zapping me repeatedly. Then he grabbed my arm and started to drag me away.

  What do you want?

  The moment his fingers touched my skin above my glove, I saw his secret memory. It was a photograph. Of my sister.

  Tiffany! Why does he have a photograph of my sister in his mind?

  A hand grabbed the top of his skull and pulled him away from me.

  The Empress.

  Before his eerie smile could fade, the Empress flung him across the room and through a wall.

  That vampire knew my sister? I need to probe him!

  I tried to sit up but my shoulder ached as if I’d been hit with a sledgehammer.

  We were surrounded by snarling rebels. Twin prongs jutted from the ends of their batons, a blue current lighting up the tips.

  One rebel lunged, and the Empress grabbed his arm and snapped it off at the elbow like it was a dry branch. Then, without turning, she thrust the amputated limb behind her and stabbed the jagged arm bones like a fork into another rebel’s stomach. He howled, the hand sticking out of his abdomen as if he had a grotesque deformity.

  More converged, but they would all die. The Empress grabbed the sword from a rebel’s belt and drew it across his body like she was playing a violin, slicing him in half. In the same motion she decapitated another rebel. Her every cut was decisive, and every move she made was almost in slow motion until the final blow, which was in fast forward.

  She spoke to me over her shoulder.

  “Is the Divine able to run?” She stood tall and swept her sword straight up, splitting a rebel’s face in half.

  I gagged at the sight. My body was tight, my limbs sluggish, but I managed to climb to my feet. “Yes.”

  “Then, my lady, you must run. For all of our sakes.”

  I stumbled away from her, knocking into vampires engaged in battle. I looked frantically for the waiter. I need to know why he’d seen my sister’s picture!

  Lucas was using a silver dinner platter as a shield to fend off three rebels. Just above him on the mezzanine San was outnumbered by four attackers. He grabbed a wooden chair to block a strike. A rebel chopped the chair into pieces, leaving two wooden stakes in San’s hands, which he immediately stabbed into the chests of two of his assailants. Then he rolled under a long marble table, popped up on the other side, and kicked the table at the remaining two vampires, sending it and them crashing over the railing.

  “Watch out!” I shouted.

  Lucas looked up and dived out of the way a second before the table crushed his three opponents.

  I turned to run and a rebel attacked me. I leaned back and tried to kick her. She blocked me, and the heel of my stiletto pierced her palm. I stumbled back, losing my shoe in her hand. I regained my balance and ran at her, grabbing her hand and slamming the shoe against her face, sticking her hand to her forehead. She fell and I stepped on her. I heard her ribs crack.

  Being electrocuted had made me slow and weak by my own standards—I was now only as fast and strong as my attackers.

  More rebels were coming through the ceiling. “Let’s go!” I shouted at Lucas and San. I clambered up the stairs, tripping over my dress.

  San met me at the top. My skirt was ripped, exposing my knees, so he tore the fabric away. I grabbed the doorjamb and with a groan I pulled myself through to the corridor.

  “My lady, are you hurt?” San asked.

  “They electrocuted me.”

  “What?”

  “That’s how they’re avoiding the whole shedding-blood thing. The rebels are zapping me.”

  The halls were chaotic. Vampires were running everywhere.

  “San, we have to find this waiter.”

  “What? What waiter?”

  We turned down one corridor and saw rebels hacking at party guests. One of them spotted me.

  “The Divine is over here!” he bellowed.

  “This way!” Lucas caught up to us, grabbed my elbow and dragged me down a narrow hallway and through tall doors into the library.

  “Get out of here!” I shouted at the librarian.

  A rebel jabbed at me with her baton.
I slapped it away and grabbed her head, dislocating her jaw, and threw her over the bridge. It still took more effort than I’d hoped.

  San was on his back on the edge of the bridge with a rebel on top of him.

  “San!” I gripped a shelving unit and gave it a shove. San heard the whirr of the sliding unit, and with a grunt thrust the rebel up. The units slammed together and squashed the vampire’s head.

  “Get your head in some books,” San said as the beheaded body tumbled over the bridge.

  “You’ve been watching too many movies,” I told him.

  Lucas took my hand and we all raced out of the library as more rebels streamed onto the bridge. I still struggled to run although the heaviness was beginning to lift.

  “Lucas,” I cried, “we need to find that waiter!”

  “What waiter?”

  “The one who stopped us before the explosion.”

  “Why?”

  This wasn’t the time to explain my power to him. “Just find him!”

  We rushed into an oval lobby, and I knocked over a stone statue of me to block the entrance. But rebels were coming in from the other side of the room through the only other exit.

  “Up!” San yelled. He ran, jumped, caught a railing on the second floor, and pulled himself up. Lucas knelt and weaved his fingers together.

  “Zee, come on,” he said.

  I held his shoulders, stuck my foot in his hands as if it was a stirrup, and he launched me up into the air. San caught my hand and swung me over the railing. As the rebels charged, Lucas leaped up, stepped on one of the vampires’ shoulders, and reached for me and San. We grabbed him from the air and pulled him over the railing.

  As we ran down a dark corridor, I could smell the soil and the greenery. A glass door slid open and we tore across the botanical garden, kicking up the ground and breaking through bushes.

  One rebel had followed us inside. He flung himself at one of the silver columns and knocked it down in front of us. He then unleashed a blast of shiny objects at San and Lucas. One stuck in San’s arm—a four-pointed star like the ones the senator had thrown at me. It was a distraction. Because in seconds we were surrounded.

  We backed up into each other.

  “Lucas,” I said.

  “It’s all right, Zee.”

  “No, run. Take San and run.”

  “Why are you talking crazy?”

  “Run. Go turn the lights on.”

  We exchanged a look. He grabbed San by the scruff of his neck and took off. Lucas ducked under a rebel’s sword while San slid on his knees through a vampire’s open legs. The rebels didn’t chase them. They were focused on me.

  One thrust her baton at my chest. I twisted to the right, caught her wrist, and broke it. The stick fell from her limp hand and I used her as a shield, ramming into other rebels and then throwing her at my attackers. I punched an assailant in the throat and ran up the spiral staircase at the center of the garden. The rebels crawled up the sides like rats.

  Bad idea.

  One jumped over the rail and into my path. I turned back, kicked one of the rebels down the stairs, and climbed over the rail. A rebel reached around and pressed his baton to my arm. I cried out at the paralyzing pain and fell.

  I landed awkwardly on top of a hedge and bounced onto the ground. Moaning, I rolled onto my back.

  A dozen rebels stood around me, their stun sticks snapping, ready to bite.

  “Why are you doing this?” I asked.

  No one answered. As they took a step closer, the alarm went off. Thank you, Lucas.

  They looked around, confused.

  “I hope you’re wearing sunscreen,” I said.

  The ceiling panels withdrew and light filled the garden. The vampires screamed as they began to smolder. I got up, lifted my face briefly to the sunlight, and walked away.

  I didn’t stay to see them burn.

  Outside my room I saw Brogan pushing through several fleeing maids.

  Blood was smeared across the front of her beige dress and up her neck. We rushed to each other.

  “You’re bleeding,” I said.

  “It’s—it’s not mine,” she said, her eyes wide. “It’s not mine.”

  Lucas and San disappeared into my living quarters for their weapons.

  “Shh, everything’s going to be fine,” I said. I squeezed her hands to try to calm her.

  “No, my lady. Something terrible has happened.”

  “I know.”

  “No. Something has happened to your family.”

  Fear exploded inside of me. Sick, devastating fear. What? No.

  “My friend, the one who watches your family, he called during the ball. Now I can’t reach him.”

  “No!” I cried.

  Lucas ran outside. “Zee, what’s going on?”

  “Brogan, what else did he say?”

  “Nothing, my lady. The call was so brief. He—he just said something bad had happened.”

  “To my family?”

  “I—I don’t know, my lady,” she said. “I’m sorry.”

  I started to choke. My knees buckled. Screams echoed in the hallways.

  “Zee!” Lucas caught me.

  “I’m sorry, my lady,” Brogan said, tears in her eyes. “I wish I had more information.”

  You do have more information! I tore off my gloves and grabbed her right hand. She gasped.

  What do you know?

  A man’s voice spoke in my ear. Static and wind muffled his words. “Brogie, something terrible has happened to the Divine’s family. I can’t talk right now. I’ll call you back, okay? Love you.” A harsh click brought a visual of his face. Handsome, boyish, with triangular eyebrows and soft, wavy brown hair to his shoulders. He had a cleft in his chin and a shy, half-smile.

  I released her hand and fell back against Lucas.

  “Oh my God,” I whispered.

  “What happened?” San asked. He was attaching a sheathed sword to his belt.

  I turned and gripped Lucas’s arms. “My family’s in danger. I have to go to them. Don’t ask me why. I just need to. I need to go now!”

  Hysteria pushed tears from my eyes.

  “All right. Whatever you want,” Lucas said, his eyebrows squeezed in concern. My fear frightened him. “Let’s get out of here.”

  “San—” I started.

  “I will come with you, my lady,” he said.

  “No, San.”

  “I’m the Divine’s chaperone. Wherever the lady goes, I go.”

  “But you don’t have to.”

  “My sole purpose is to be with the lady and protect her at all costs. There is no question that I am coming.”

  “The Empress will probably not let us leave,” I said.

  “Which is why we have to leave now while everyone is in battle,” Lucas said. He was shrugging a backpack on. “I know a secret way out. I used it to sneak in after the Aramatta took you from Nuwa’s temple.”

  “Can we find a plane like we did when we went to Taiwan?” I asked him.

  “I could ask Samira. She has the best connections.”

  “What? Yeah, she has connections—to the people who are trying to kill us. She’s a rebel!”

  “Who’s Samira?” San said.

  “Lucas’s ex-girlfriend.”

  San raised his eyebrows. “Your ex-girlfriend is a terrorist?”

  “She wouldn’t be involved in this attack,” Lucas said. “She’s a low-level transporter for them.”

  “How do you know?” I retorted.

  “Uh oh,” San said. “I killed a lot of vampires back there. I don’t want to be responsible for—”

  “You’d know if you killed her,” I said. “She’s got purple hair.”

  “She couldn’t be killed by someone like you,” Lucas shot back.

  My fangs broke through my gums. I’m freaking out right now.

  Brogan put her hand on my arm before I could do anything reckless. “My lady. Why don’t you take the Monarchy’s jet? It co
mes with its own pilot.”

  “Show us the jet,” Lucas ordered.

  “Follow me,” she said, picking up her skirt and running out.

  If something has happened to my parents or Tiffany, I don’t know what I’ll do. I can’t handle that. I won’t be able to bear it. I wanted to tear through my skin to dig out the aching dread in my chest.

  I thought of my sister’s photograph in that horrible vampire’s mind. He had something to do with this. If he hurt them, if he did anything to them, I’ll rip his head off. Oh God. I need them to be okay. Please let them be okay.

  I just needed to see them. Or to hear their voices. Maybe I could get to a phone.

  A trio of crying maids headed toward us. “This way,” Brogan said, making a sharp right into an alcove. She leaned against the wall and it gave way to a secret passage.

  “Brogan, who’s your friend?” I asked as we moved through the servants’ austere quarters. She didn’t answer.

  “Someone you love? A boyfriend?”

  “He is my brother.”

  “He’s a vampire?”

  “We were blessed at the same time. I am a maid. He is a transporter. I haven’t seen him for more than a hundred years, not since our creation ritual.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “We speak through phone messages. If you meet him...” She paused. “I hope you get to meet him.”

  “Me too. Why don’t you come with us, Brogan? Then you can see him.”

  She slowed her pace. “I don’t—”

  “Please, come with us. You can’t stay here. The Empress will know that you helped me and she’ll punish you.”

  “I couldn’t.”

  “Yes. You could. We’ll protect you. And your brother will be so happy to see you.”

  It was the first time I had ever seen her smile. “I would like that.”

  I took her hand and followed San and Lucas.

  We walked through a door and into a huge, empty hallway lined with pillars and lit squares on the ceiling. Everything glowed blue.

  “The hangar is just beyond those doors,” Brogan said.

  “Thank you,” I told her, squeezing her hand. “You’ve always looked after me. I’m grateful.”

  Why have you been so good to me?