I Am Forever (What Kills Me) (26 page)

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 comes 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?

I smelled grass and flowers.

I saw Brogan’s reflection in a frosted glass pane. She chewed on her bottom lip. Beyond the glass I recognized the botanical garden. Her fingers reached for the control panel by the door. They flipped back the safety guard and pressed a red button several times until the display read, “Full UV.”

What are you doing?
A familiar horn sounded in her memory. I heard Dr. Femi’s cry.
Oh no. Brogan, you didn’t.

I looked away to clear the vision.

Brogan had turned the UV lights on when Dr. Femi and I were sitting in the garden. She knew I’d survive it because I’d told her about my immunity to sunlight. But she had tried to kill Dr. Femi.

“Why, Brogan?” I stopped in my tracks and pulled her back by the hand.

“Why what, my lady?”

“I know you tried to burn Doctor Femi in the garden.”

Her eyes stretched wide. She shook her head.

“It’s okay, Brogan. I know.”

“How—how did you know?”

“It doesn’t matter. Why did you do it?”

“I was only trying to protect you, my lady. You mentioned your sister in that conversation, and I didn’t want Doctor Femi to suspect anything.”

You were willing to take such drastic measures to protect me?
Her loyalty both touched and chilled me.

“Oh, Brogan,” I began.

“Family is important,” she said.

“I know. But—”

Suddenly I saw someone behind her. I blinked. And her head was gone.

“NO!”

Brogan’s body fell, her hands open as if to catch her own head. I slid to my knees and gathered her in my arms.

No, please, no. No no no no no. NO!

San and Lucas doubled back to fight the oncoming rebels. I held her head and sobbed into her hair. Her cold blood soaked my dress. I wanted to put her back together. Her eyes were open. I started to scream and I couldn’t stop.

Then I became not me.

I stood. And I attacked. My hands did things I had no control over. I only wanted to tear this world apart.

All was a blur of blood and destruction. I rent arms from torsos. I tore someone’s spinal cord from his back as if I was deboning a fish. I kicked a rebel’s legs out from under him and as he fell, I stomped on him. His chest burst like a giant tomato between my foot and the floor.

I screamed until I was choking and blind with tears. I screamed until there was nothing left to destroy.

My eyes couldn’t focus. It was quiet except for the patter of blood falling onto the floor from my hands. My fingertips tingled. Dark, pulpy mounds like wet newspaper lay at my feet. The ground was littered with pieces of bodies, like worms on a sidewalk after the rain.

San and Lucas faced me, wearing the same horrified masks. They looked at each other and then back at me.

“Zee,” Lucas said. He sounded far away.

“She’s in shock,” San said.

“Come on, let’s go,” Lucas said, taking me by the shoulders. I took one last look at Brogan’s body. It wasn’t right. There had been no transition. One second she was there and then she wasn’t. It wasn’t right.

I’m so sorry, Brogan.

We walked into the airplane hangar; rectangular lights on the ceiling lit up the space. A shiny white jet awaited us. It had a long, pointed snout like a missile, sleek wings that bent up at the tips, and blacked-out windows.