“I don’t know yet. That’s why we’re doing this, remember?” I knew he was getting unnerved by my snappy comments but I had no patience for waiting. It was bad enough having to lug all this crap up dozens of floors through dark stairwells. This casino had been one of the few that had been cleared of ferals and secured around the base to keep them out. It didn’t mean that nothing ever got in. There was always that risk. There will never be complete safety in any place anymore. “Besides, I distinctly remember you not protesting when we came up with this plan.”
“Yeah, but I distinctly remember never volunteering for this,” I muttered, switching on the camera as the last sliver of sunlight slipped over the western mountains. I wanted to say it was probably another hive of vampires stringing up the ferals and tossing them to the sun to wither into dust. Who else could it be? I didn’t think there was any way there could be humans out there without anyone noticing them before, but the whole situation seemed so out of the ordinary to me. Anything was possible nowadays.
The world was in a suspended state of in between. The sun bled a tangerine-orange and sent reddish streaks throughout the sky, leaving the windows of the many casinos glowing an unnatural shade in their reflections. The shadows turned dark and blue behind the lit sides of the buildings. It was such a contrast, so stark it made me shiver, especially as I could already see the ferals crawling out of the shadows, free of their prisons to roam and feed.
“Okay, I’m done on this end, need any help?” I shifted over to where Rye was finishing up his set of cameras. His fingers worked with a smooth dexterity over the buttons and cords. He smiled as I approached, making me blush as his eyes told me so many things left unsaid. I knew how he felt about me. He had made it no secret how he wanted to be so much more than just friends. I loved how it felt when he kissed and held me, though I reluctantly pushed the thought out of my head. Pulling away from him had been more from my own insecurities about life than anything else. I didn’t know how to be with him the way he wanted. How do you open to someone when there is nothing for certain anymore? Nothing but death?
He suddenly reached out toward me, stroking my cheek and giving me another grin that made me melt inside again. He did it without words and so easily it made my heart skip in my chest and my stomach drop. How did he do that without anything but actions? His skin was the catalyst, and my body knew it. He followed it with a sweeping embrace, pressing me into his body with his sturdy arms. It felt amazing, so comforting and protective of him. It was a moment of safe harbor, calming my ever flustered heart. Breathing in his skin, I noticed for the hundredth time that he smelled of clean linen mixed with a coppery taint. It didn’t matter that he smelled of blood; the scent drew me in, and I was suddenly very aware of his pulsating jugular near my face.
Its soft rhythm made me wonder if the hybrids were really dead. They seemed more alive than some humans I had met in my lifetime. Save for the cooler body temperature and the gold haloed eyes, they appeared very human. Even their fangs retracted when not in use, a feature to make it hard to tell them apart from us. They were wolves in sheep’s clothing, hunters of crimson currency. How he could stay so close to me and not crave it was a mystery. This made me suck a breath in and pull away for a moment. I didn’t fail to notice the pain flash across his eyes before he turned back to his task. It stung me as well but I couldn’t let him in. I didn’t know how.
“Going to get some shut-eye.” I motioned to the sleeping bag tucked in a corner of stairwell entrance, trying to make an excuse to put some distance between us. Or maybe it was for my behavior. He nodded, but I still felt his eyes follow me as I made my way to the sleeping area near a small storage room along one side of the roof. It was just a shack of a building, made in the shape of an L. The walls were a grey, plain concrete, streaked with dirt from the constant desert haze and scarce rainfall. It provided plenty of shelter on two sides of me. There was a chair nearby which Rye would occupy as the night went on.
I continued to feel his gaze burn into my back, leaving me filled with longing. It sent a ripple along my spine, sending shocks down my skin. I tried to shake it off as I slipped into my sleeping bag, bother me though it may. I suppressed my feelings deep into the dark places inside my mind I dared not think about now. Maybe one day, but for now, it was an impossible desire.
The night sky morphed into its darker twin as the colors faded and the darkness of night woke the city. In the distance, the snarls and moans of the feral vampires filled the air as they descended from their daylight tombs. It sent a different kind of shiver down my spine as I concentrated on breathing deeply, attempting to slow my frantic heartbeat down. It was unnerving, sleeping in the middle of the city, surrounded by fangs and death. I hated this and doubted I would get much sleep tonight, if any. I’d just have to do without.
“Going to be a long night, try to sleep some.” Rye’s voice was soft, but it did nothing to soothe my nerves. The chair creaked with his weight as he came to sit near me.
“Okay.”
~~~~~
Rye
RYE WATCHED THE soft sway of breathing under the sleeping bag. He knew April was not yet sleeping, or maybe she was in some half-awake and half-asleep state based on the stillness of her sleeping bag. He wondered what she was dreaming about, if anything. Turning toward the darkened Strip, he could see clearly with his vampire eyes. The shadows of ferals running about, rummaging through messes and heading out toward whatever it was they were searching for. They were on their nightly run through the streets, blood-starved and desperate. Their features stood out, stark in the pale moonlight. They snarled with their ruined faces, morphed from what once was beautiful and human.
The night felt crisp, rich in coolness and doused with the scent of ozone. Glancing up at the stars made Rye mildly aware that while some things never changed, others were constantly in a state of flux. He had hoped that with time, April would return his affections like when they had first met. But after saving her family from Christian’s hive, she had withdrawn from him in the most devastating way possible. The emptiness that had settled in the place of her love had left him hollow, cold and longing. She needed space, he got that. The post-apocalyptic world was no place to fall in love, or think of any future for that matter. Still, hope was all that was left to hold onto. Hope was all he had.
Straightening, he moved his gaze along the streets, but thoughts of April never left his mind. He longed for her to become his mate and form the absolute bond with him like the other mated couples in his hive. But she was not a vampire hybrid. She was a human mutation of some sort, which left him wondering if there could ever really be anything more between them. He’d never give up on her. If he was patient, she’d know how much she meant to him.
What if there were others like her out there? Maybe even another human hybrid that would be better suited to love her, one who could give her the life she craved, the life that was stolen from her when the epidemic hit. Could that be possible?
And then what? Would she choose a mortal man if she met one like her? What would happen then? He shuddered to think of it but tried to keep his thoughts on the task at hand. If he didn’t, he would drive himself mad with worry and unreasonable jealously. It was bad enough he couldn’t reach her anymore, but to lose her to someone else, someone who probably didn’t even exist, was making him feel foolish.
The streets seemed emptier as midnight came and went. He was still wide awake and contemplated letting April sleep longer. Her rapid heartbeat had slowed as the echoes of the ferals’ screams faded into the night. Where they had all gone was beyond him. At least he and April were safe for now in this building, high above the deadly grip of the hunters. But he didn’t want to take anything for granted, so he never let his guard waver.
As the morning moved on, a shadow shifted in his periphery. It brought him to a crouch near the ledge to study the Sahara Casino down on the northern end of the street. The old rollercoaster that hung from the front was falling apart, bits of metal and cables dangling from the steel beams. Old billboards that used to cling to the outer walls of the casino’s entrance lay shredded across the wall. The coaster led into the building through a gaping hole, but it was high up on the street, and he doubted the ferals would be able to reach it. He squinted his silver grey eyes and continued to scan the street surrounding the casino. Suddenly a flash of metal reflected the moonlight on the top part of the roller coaster. The building that housed it was smaller than the towering hotel behind it but connected itself nicely to one of the hotel floors. The windows had opened, and what looked like people had emerged, pulling ropes tied to staggering figures behind them.
Feral vampires.
Rye trained some of the cameras on them before flying over to April to give her a slight shake.
“April, get up, I see something.”
“Mmm?” She sat up so quickly she almost rammed him with her head. She was instantly awake, which made him smile. It was amazing how fast she was on her feet and ready to pounce on something in a second’s notice. “Where?”
“Over there, on the roof of the Sahara.” He pointed her in the direction of the strangers, a trail of ferals roped in their midst. They approached the edge of the roof and studied the group below. The snarls echoed down the street as they attempted to snap and bite their captors. April’s eyes widened in shock; she’d never expected to see the activity right in front of her.
“What are they doing with the ferals? Are those hybrids?” She narrowed her eyes to see better, hoping to recognize one of the captors.
Rye focused his stare on the wardens. They moved with grace, and there were a total of twelve of them. He studied each one’s movements and listened with his enhanced vampire hearing. A male voice could distinctly be heard barking orders at the others as they worked to follow his commands. Several female voices echoed back, though Rye could not confirm how many were men and how many were women. He quietly relayed this information to April as she moved some more cameras to point their lenses in that direction. Rye didn’t want to run the risk of the others hearing him either. If they were hybrids, they were a bit too far to hear them conversing quietly, but if he yelled they would definitely hear him.
“Can they see us?” April whispered as she came to crouch next to him, zooming one of the long distance cameras onto the group, snapping pictures as well as she could with the night vision in place. She looked excited, eager to discover the mystery of what was happening in front of them. Nothing thrilled her more, it seemed.
“I don’t think so, but I wouldn’t risk us being seen.”
“What do you think they’re doing?”
“My guess is they are waiting for morning.”
“Why?” April turned her confused face toward him, waiting for an answer.
“To fry the ferals they caught to ashes, what else?” He shrugged and glanced back toward the group. He could feel the morning crawling across his skin even though the sun was more than an hour away from showing its face. Rye shifted uncomfortably, knowing he’d have to descend down the steps before the full spectrum of rays spilled across the roof from the sun and began to cook him alive. He’d have to leave April to tend to the cameras after sunrise, hating the thought of leaving her alone. He knew she would be just fine; it was an isolated island here, without any other buildings tall enough to jump from. He just hoped none of the guards down there would spot them before they got away.
With under an hour left until sunrise, the ferals had become restless. The guards had brought several more strung up and lined them up into rows near the edges of the building. They tethered them to a rigged up pulley system, making it clear that they had put together some sort of machinery for this. Was it only to drop the bunch into the streets below? Rye furrowed his brows as he rationalized their actions. Why bother? Why not line them up on the street instead? He had a creeping suspicion that this was done to make sure none survived the sun. It was to incapacitate them until the UV rays could have their wrath without a chance to escape into the shadows once the sun rose.
It didn’t bother him that they were about to kill the ferals, but the mystery of the strangers made him antsy, and he wanted to hop on down there to see who they were. But why were they targeting feral vampires? And what was to stop them from targeting the hybrids next? He gritted his teeth at the thought, nicking his tongue in the process. It was uncomfortable to sit there in the warming air of the dawn, but he had to know what was going on. Glancing at April, who had been mostly silent, he saw that her legs were bouncing just a bit. She was desperate for action, too. A woman like her didn’t stay cooped up for too long, not with so much to learn about the world around them. It was one of the things that he loved about her: her wild, antsy streak.
The male leader of the group was scanning the horizon, too, briefly lifting his head toward them. Rye and April quickly ducked down a bit more, watching to see if he had spotted them. His face lingered in their direction for an uncomfortable moment before turning away. Had he seen them? Had he spotted the cameras? Rye twisted his tongue inside his mouth with the suspense of it all, hoping the feeling of dread was just anxiety that was snaking around his abdomen.
April looked like she felt the same way, her body pressed against the concrete wall that lined the edge of the roof. He could hear her heart racing like a hummingbird in her chest, and her eyes were wide in horror. This definitely was no run-of-the-mill scouting mission. This was a whole other enchilada. Rye even felt her anxiety leak into him as he studied the group and hoped he wouldn’t regret discovering them.
The downside of discovery was that it could really alter your days in unexpected ways.