I Am Forever (What Kills Me) Read online

  “You were never a match for me, brother.”

  “We will see about that, Swordsmith.”

  The brothers rushed each other. Lucas attacked and Taren blocked several of his blows before they separated. My three guards ran for me while the soldiers went after San, who waved his hand as if to say, “Come on.”

  One of my guards vaulted over the counter. Ryka screamed and stumbled back. I stuck my hand in one of the slots of a toaster and used the appliance to strike my guard across the face. I hit her so hard that her head twisted right around. Her stun gun fell onto the floor and I kicked it away.

  “Cover your eyes!” I shouted at Ryka.

  Another guard tried to stab me with her crackling stun weapon. I slapped her hand away and grabbed her by the throat. Then I slammed her down on the counter, breaking through the marble top and the wood beneath it.

  Oh crap. I’m destroying my mother’s kitchen.

  In the living room San stood surrounded by five soldiers, dodging, ducking, and deflecting their strikes. He did a spinning kick and shot one of them against the wall, snapping a painting in half and cracking the plaster.

  “Hey!” I yelled. “Try not to wreck the house!”

  “Will try my best!” he called back before lopping a vampire’s head off. “That might stain your carpet!”

  I heard a zap and I bit down hard. A streak of pain dropped me to the floor. The third guard crouched over me, pressing her stun gun into my neck. Agony immobilized me.

  I heard another zap and the guard collapsed beside me. I looked up and Ryka was standing over us with a stun gun.

  “Oh, good girl,” I said, struggling to my feet, my body aching. “Hang on to that.”

  She stared at me, her eyes wide. I realized then that my fangs were extended. Oh, great. I covered my mouth, and with the other hand I took her sleeve and ran into the foyer.

  Lucas and Taren were trading hits. Lucas scissored Taren’s sword between his blades and pinned him against the stairs. But Taren kicked him back and swiped at him, cutting him across his chest.

  “Quick, in here!” I opened a closet, swept Ryka inside, and slammed the door.

  Before I could help Lucas, two soldiers trapped me. Because my body was weak from being shocked, they were able to twist my arms behind my back.

  “Get off me!”

  I broke free, grabbed one soldier’s head, and smashed his face against my knee. I shoved the other one through a closed door, the wood splintering everywhere. He rolled to his feet across the carpet and leaped back toward me. I caught him in mid air and brought his neck down on the jagged wood of the broken door, cutting his head off.

  As I ran past the living room, San was still fighting a quartet of soldiers. He had a smirk on his face.

  “Stop fooling around!” I shouted.

  With a spinning jump he fanned his sword out and sliced off all four heads. Their bodies tumbled to the carpet.

  Lucas and Taren were locked in combat, their fangs bared, their faces strained, their blades inches from each other’s throats. They broke apart and attacked again. Sparks burst from their weapons. Taren thrust his sword at Lucas’s face but Lucas moved just in time. The blade nicked his neck but he ducked under it and it skimmed his shoulders.

  I have to stop this.

  Lucas cracked Taren’s nose with the butt of his sword and kicked him in the chest, sending Taren flying back. He toppled backward and landed beside me. This is my chance.

  I grabbed Taren’s wrist and pulled him to his feet.

  “I’m so sorry about this,” I said. I broke his arm over my knee. He howled. Then I took his other arm and yanked it out of its socket. I grabbed the back of his collar and dragged his body through the kitchen. San opened the back door and I threw Taren out. He went sailing over the fence.

  “Let’s go,” I said. My guards were stirring. The one lying in a heap of broken marble and wood in my kitchen shuddered and groaned. Her bones were cracking as they reset themselves.

  “Why did you do that? I was—” Lucas shouted.

  “You were what?” I shot back. “Going to kill your brother?”

  San opened the closet door and Ryka jumped out, stun gun outstretched and firing. She zapped San in the arm and he fell onto one knee. “Ow!” he hollered.

  “Oh geez,” she cried. “Sorry!”

  I kicked a severed head out of the way before Ryka saw it and pointed at the door. “Out! Now!”

  We fled the house and I climbed into the passenger side of Ryka’s car. I pushed open the driver’s side. She came running down the driveway, slid across the ice, and slammed into her own door.

  “Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God,” she repeated as she got inside. She threw the stun gun onto the dashboard and tried several times to stab the key into the ignition before managing to start the engine. Lucas was pulling San behind him. He threw San into the car and climbed into the backseat. Our wheels skidded on the icy road and we peeled down the street.

  “Ry, we’re going to the ruins,” I said.

  “Oh my God,” she was still saying over and over again. Her eyes kept flitting to her rearview mirror. She turned onto a main road and the car fishtailed.

  “Whoa, lady,” San said, gripping my headrest.

  I rested my hand as carefully as I could on Ryka’s shoulder. Her breath pumped from her mouth like smoke.

  “Ry, it’s okay. You’re okay.”

  She slammed on the brakes and the car spun out. Everyone screamed. The force of the spin threw San over Lucas’s lap. The car bounced off a snowbank and jerked to a stop.

  Ryka’s white fingers gripped the steering wheel as if she was trying to tear it in half. The muscles in her neck were pulled taut. The car filled with the sound of her clattering teeth and her panting. She was shaking so much that it looked as if she was being electrocuted.

  “Ryka, are you hurt?” I asked. “Ryka?”

  She screamed at the windshield, her eyes squeezing out tears.

  “Good God!” San exclaimed covering his ears.

  When she ran out of breath, she inhaled sharply. I patted her right hand, which was wrapped around the wheel. “It’s all right. We’re all right.”

  Her head turned sideways to look at me. “What the hell? What the hell?!”

  “Okay. I know. Just breathe.”

  “No, it’s not okay! WHAT THE HELL?!”

  She was hyperventilating and I was afraid she would pass out.

  “Shh, calm down. Just breathe.”

  Lucas nudged San and they got out of the car. Lucas opened Ryka’s door and eased her out. She continued to yell at me. San opened the passenger side door and we switched places. Lucas put Ryka in the backseat, handed her the seatbelt, and closed the door.

  “Drive to the end of this street and turn right at Pembina Highway,” I said, buckling up beside her.

  “This can’t be happening,” Ryka said, her leg thumping the car floor.

  “Look, I know this all seems insane—”

  “Insane? No, this isn’t insane. This is some sort of nightmare! You need to pinch me.”

  “I’m not pinching you.”

  “No, pinch me.”

  “Seriously, you don’t want me to pinch you.” I’ll punch a hole through your arm.

  “Apparently you disappear and get involved in some sort of gang and everyone’s fighting, and oh my God, I Tasered that woman and—”

  “Ry, can you stop talking for a second?”

  “I Tasered that woman.”

  “I know. It was awesome. Thank you. Can I say something?”

  She filled her lungs and held her breath. “Yes.”

  “This is going to be hard to understand, but I have to tell you something. Please don’t freak out and jump out of the car.”

  “If you think I’m going to jump out of the car, maybe you shouldn’t tell me.”

  “Seriously?”

  San turned around in his seat. “Hey lady. We’re vampires.”

 
; My jaw dropped. “San!”

  “What?” he said before facing forward again.

  “Very funny,” Ryka said.

  I frowned. “Not actually that funny.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “I’m going to blurt this all out before I lose my nerve.” Here goes. “Remember that guy that I told you about the night I went missing? He was a vampire and he tried to kill me.”

  She started to shake her head so I spoke slower and louder.

  “I tried to run away and fell into this sacred vampire well filled with blood. It turned me into a vampire. Those vampires with the stun guns and the swords want me to return to Italy to live. But bad vampires have taken my family and we have to get them back now.”

  I bit my lip. The car was silent except for the squeal of the windshield wipers and the groan of snow under our tires. Ryka blinked at me, her mouth ajar. She then stared at the back of Lucas’s headrest as if it was a television screen.

  “Ry?”

  She didn’t answer. Oh man. I broke my best friend’s brain with this information.

  “Was that too much? Ryka?”

  Finally, she spoke. “Did—did you say that that guy was a...vampire?”

  “Yes.”

  “You’re a vampire. For real.”

  “Yes.”

  “Zee,” she said, hugging herself, “when you disappeared, my mind played out the most frightening scenarios. I imagined horrible, horrible things. I even had a nightmare once that you were abducted by aliens.”

  I might take that over this right now.

  “But this? This isn’t...no. It’s not possible...Vampires don’t exist.”

  “I had the exact same reaction,” I said.

  “Your teeth...I saw your teeth,” she said. “I thought I hallucinated that.”

  “Yeah, they get pointy.”

  “So you’re all vampires. Like, you drink blood.”

  “Yes, but we’re not going to hurt you.”

  “That hadn’t occurred to me, but thanks for planting that seed.”

  “You’re not supposed to know about us so don’t tell anyone.”

  “Oh, because I was going to update my Facebook status as soon as I got home: Zee’s a vampire. Come see her teeth.”

  We drove away from the city lights.

  “Turn here,” I said. Lucas fiddled with the headlights as we headed down a dark, bumpy back road flanked on one side by trees and by open white fields on the other.

  San leaned against his window. “I feel like we’re driving right into a horror movie scene.”

  “This is a horror movie,” Ryka whispered.

  The road ended at a small parking lot. In the corner stood the old monastery. Its insides had been gutted by fire a long time ago, and all that remained was a brick and stone facade. That’s why people called it the ruins. It was like a doll house with the roof removed—just walls, blank windows, and a bell tower minus the bell.

  Cormac walked out of the woods and into the spotlight of our high beams. Thank God, he made it.

  As Lucas pulled up in the lot, I opened my door and scooted over to make room for Cormac.

  “I’m glad that you made it here safely,” he said.

  “What are we doing here?” Lucas asked.

  “The only den in this region is under the ruins, and a lot of the local rebels come here. The den master often knows about everything that goes on in the city. He supplies the rebels with illegal weapons and blood. I think it’s a good place to find out who took the Divine’s family.”

  “Okay,” I said. “What are we waiting for?”

  “We can’t just walk in there without a plan,” Lucas said.

  “They won’t open the door to just anyone, especially if they do not recognize you,” Cormac said. “And we will definitely draw attention with the Divine’s presence.”

  Frustrated, I leaned over and slapped the armrest in between Lucas and San. “We’re running out of time. My sister needs me and we only have a few hours before sunrise.”

  “Okay, Transporter,” Lucas said. “How about you and I go in?”

  “Yes, but there’s a problem. I am banned from the den because of a little incident several years ago.”

  “What kind of little incident?” San asked.

  “I accidentally...uh, killed the den master’s favorite human.”

  “I’m getting out of the car,” Ryka said.

  “Wait, Ry. Seriously, Cormac?”

  “I was just having a sip and the human had a heart attack,” Cormac said. “Now I owe the den master another human.”

  There was a pause. And then the three guys looked at Ryka.

  I shook my head. “No way!”

  “No way what?” she said.

  Lucas turned and frowned at me. “Zee, time is short. Cormac, San, and I will bring Ryka to the door as an offering. As soon as they open up, two of us will go inside and San can bring Ryka back to the car. Then I’ll find the den master and beat the information out of him.”

  “That is ridiculous,” I huffed.

  “Do you have a better idea?”

  I showed him my palm and wiggled my fingers. “Beating him will take too long. I’ll just grab his face and suck out his secrets.”

  “She has a point,” San said.

  “Cormac,” I reached over and tugged at his sleeve, “give me your jacket. I’ll flip up the hood.”

  San rubbed his chin. “That’s not much of a disguise, my lady.”

  “It’s either a winter coat or this red dress.”

  Cormac retrieved his phone from the inside pocket and handed his jacket to me. “If we get separated, call me.”

  He gave us a number to memorize and Ryka watched me wrestle on the jacket. “Okay. I’m having a hard time processing. What’s the plan?”

  “We’re going to use you as vampire bait,” San said.

  “San!” I scolded him. I turned to Ryka. “If you’re okay with this, we’ll walk you to the door to get them to let us inside. Then San will take you straight back to the car.”

  “There are vampires in this place?”

  “I promise that I won’t let anything happen to you.”

  “I can’t do that. No way.”

  “Ry, I need you. For my family.”

  “I...I don’t know.”

  “Please, Ry. They have my mom and dad.”

  The bridge of her nose wrinkled as she considered the information and analyzed my face. “Oh man, I can’t believe I’m going to agree to this,” she said.

  “Thank you. I promise I will protect you.”

  “Just promise me that you won’t disappear on me again.”

  “No matter what happens, we’ll always be best friends. San will get you out of there. I want you to drive straight home. Don’t look for me. Don’t call the police. When it’s safe, you’ll hear from me, okay?”

  She hugged me. “I don’t care what you are. You just come home after.”

  I’ll try.

  I had come to the ruins a few summers ago to take photos. At the time the place seemed magical. Like a fairy-tale castle.

  In the light of the moon the structure looked skeletal, forbidding. Our feet crunched the gravel and the snow as we walked around the monastery. Pebbles and ice stuck between my toes. I wish I’d grabbed shoes.

  The rap of Ryka’s heartbeat made me nervous. Around the back Cormac led us through an arched opening. He walked into the middle of a clearing and bent over. With two hands he lifted a chunk of stone out of the ground. It came out like a miniature iceberg to reveal a hole.

  Ryka took one look at the hole and swore.

  “San will take you right out,” I said.

  We each dropped into the hole. Hewn from rock, the narrow stairwell reminded me of a catacomb. At the bottom a single blue lightbulb illuminated a steel door. San picked Ryka up in his arms and started descending. She buried her face against his shoulder.

  “It’s going to be okay,” I told her and myself.
r />   Cormac pulled the stone back into place and ran down the stairs. We heard muffled music, and bass beats boomed against the door. Cormac rapped on the steel. After a moment a panel slid open and an eye appeared behind chain mesh.

  “Transporter,” a female voice said. “I thought we made it clear that you are banned from this place.”

  “I’m here to see the den master. And I’ve brought him a treat.”

  I heard Ryka’s sharp intake of breath.

  “I can see that, Transporter. But we are at capacity, and you’ve brought friends.”

  The hum of a surveillance camera in the corner of the stairwell drew my attention.

  “They’re foreigners and I wanted to show them some hospitality.”

  “Sorry, Transporter.”

  “Viuda, let us in and I’ll deliver you an extra month’s worth of blood.”

  There was a pause. “Two months,” she said.

  “Two months will attract attention from the Monarchy. I’ll have to steal it from other shipments.”

  “Two months, otherwise you and your friends will have to find somewhere else to—”

  “Fine, two months!”

  “Remember, “she said, “all weapons have to be checked in at the entrance.”

  She slid the panel shut and the door vibrated with the click of several locks opening.

  The door creaked open and Cormac and Lucas stepped inside. I took one look at Ryka. In the blue light she looked unearthly.

  “I’ll see you soon,” I said.

  “Be safe,” she said. And San leaped up the stairs with her.

  I walked inside. Lucas had knocked Viuda out and put her behind a counter at the entrance.

  I froze. Den is not the appropriate word. The place was a massive open warehouse. It was like being inside a meat locker. And vampires were everywhere.

  The white strobe lighting made them look ghoulish. Especially the ones that were dancing, the flash capturing them mid-motion. The vampires licked their lips and reached out to touch a sweaty young man while he jumped to the music, a blank look in his eyes. His body odor coated the back of my throat; it was pungent, like insect repellent. To my left a girl was sitting on a vampire’s lap. She couldn’t have been older than me. She looked liked a groupie with a rock band. Her blond hair was slicked back into a tight ponytail, and her small body was wrapped in a blue dress. I remembered Lucas telling me about the few humans who knew about vampires; they hung out with vampires and served them in hopes of becoming immortal.