Last Light, page 2
“Eh. Some people really like the privacy.” Lexa shrugged.
“Maybe.” Andi wasn’t so sure.
Lexa shoved her hands in the pockets of her sturdy jacket. “What are they talking about?”
“Arrangements,” Andi said. “They’ll both be down here soon.”
“Both?” Lexa’s eyebrows rose. “You sure you heard that right? The vampire doesn’t leave the house.”
“She does now,” Andi said. “This time. Did Chrys tell you? About the library?”
“What library?” Lexa asked. Andi hated to admit that she felt a little better.
They sat down on the steps. Lexa sprawled out like it was the most comfortable lounge in the world. Andi wrapped her arms around her knees.
Where Andi was short and all curves, Lexa looked like she should be taking on a dangerous expedition through long lost ruins. She was six feet tall, all of it lean muscle. Her silver and red hair was pulled back into a ponytail, showing off her knife sharp ears. As sharp as the teeth in her lazy grin.
And that was before she transformed.
She was one of the last werewolves. Most of them had been wiped out by a colony of vampires over a decade ago. Lexa had survived, two long scars on her jaw a testament. The population decimated, most of the remaining wolves fled, leaving Lexa as the lone protector of the Rose Branch Coven.
She had every reason to hate vampires. More reasons than Blythe had to despise werewolves.
Andi had reasons of her own, but she couldn’t find it in her to hate Blythe. She seemed rude and sarcastic, but she was still just a person.
That drank blood. And couldn’t stand the sunlight.
Andi finished recapping their conversation, trying to keep it as short as possible. “I just don’t understand why they didn’t tell me.”
Lexa grinned. “Really, Ands?”
“What?” Andi glared at her. Lexa laughed. “What does that mean?”
“This has only been your special interest since you were, what, seven?” Lexa asked. “I bet they were just avoiding the babbling until the last possible moment.”
“I am capable of not babbling.” Andi’s cheeks were growing warm again. She hadn’t told Lexa about her attempt to correct Blythe, but it was repeating in her mind to the point that she wanted to sink into the steps.
“And the sun is capable of rising. Doesn’t mean that it does.”
Andi tried valiantly to hold it in, but the words burst out, almost of their own accord. “It still rises, just behind the darkness.”
“Ha.” Lexa snapped her fingers and pointed at her. “See?”
Andi pretended to find her knees incredibly fascinating. “That has nothing to do with the library.”
“Yeah, but you can’t help yourself. It’s cute.”
“I just…don’t like people to be wrong,” Andi said. “Because I wouldn’t want to be wrong. I don’t mean to…babble.”
“That was a bad word for it,” Lexa admitted. “But you know Chrys. They’re kinda…eh. Eh meh. Weh.”
“None of those were descriptive words.” Andi realized a moment too late that she was doing it, again.
“They can be kind of an asshole,” Lexa said.
Andi supposed that was true. Only a few years before, Chrys had been one of the most powerful witches in all of Obrye. They had been made coven head before she even came into the city from a tiny village up north when she was still a child.
That was before the darkness, before they lost the werewolves, and before her parents had been killed.
In two decades Chrys had lost nearly everything. Most of Obrye was coated in darkness, and if other towns had survived there was no way of contacting them. Vampires had gone from being an occasional danger to being a constant threat.
And the only witch with magic that worked consistently and well was an archive witch who just wanted to work in a library.
“I guess.” She supposed she ought to answer. She rested her chin on her folded arms and looked up at the sky. Nothing pierced through. It was late afternoon, the world should have been gilded. Instead, it was a mass of shadow. “At least maybe we can do something about all of this. I’m kind of surprised she agreed to help us.”
“Cause she’s a leech?” Lexa asked.
“You are aware that’s incredibly offensive, right?” Andi asked.
“That’s the point.” Lexa sighed when Andi glared at her. “Fine. Because she’s a vampire? I mean, yeah, self-interest or whatever. But she owes Chrys huge. They saved her from being afflicted.”
Andi stared at her. “…How?”
“Dunno, it was a few years back, when they still had their sauce.”
“Don’t ever call it that.” Andi wrinkled her nose.
“You are so picky today. When they had their magic,” Lexa said. “She must have been a normal vamp to begin with, and she fell. Happens, sometimes. I don’t know the details.”
“I wonder how,” Andi said. Blythe seemed to be quite in control of herself. She hadn’t even tried to attack them.
“Well, they’re about out, you can ask her yourself, if you’re feeling brave,” Lexa stood up and stretched, offering Andi a hand.
She accepted it. “I don’t think it’s really a matter of feeling brave.”
Chapter 3:
Chase
Andi watched the sunlamps through the window.
They always overlapped, just slightly. Enough that the road was always bathed in light, only small wedges of shadow cutting into the road. Light like midday always filled the center of the city, but towards the edges the dark leaked in.
Chrys and Blythe had left the house with a bag each. Chrys hadn’t said what was discussed, just told Lexa to drive them back to the coven hall.
The only sound since was the rumbling of the car’s engine.
Andi snuck a look at her seat neighbor. The lights made Blythe’s hair glow and shone on the metal handle of her cane. Her eyes glinted like a cat’s in the moment between the lamps. Vampires could be in the sun, even the sun lamps, but they irritated them and caused them to weaken, losing a lot of their strength and agility.
Blythe looked over and Andi whipped her head around to stare out the window.
The car bounced over a particularly large pothole, jerking her against her seatbelt.
Road maintenance had been the least of anyone’s worries for the last several years. Cars were a rarity, Andi had only ridden in one a few times. The first time had been on her way to the academy, a boxy thing that made the car Chrys was using now seem sleek and streamlined in comparison.
“The plan is to head back to the coven hall for the night, we’ll head out first thing in the morning.” Chrys’s voice broke through her thoughts. “We’ll be meeting Ingrid and Gilbert there. Do you remember them?”
“They’re in charge of city defense.” Andi had met them a few times. Ingrid’s specialty was warding magic. She was kind, but fierce. Taller than most witches and able to swing a sword as easily as she used to be able to use magic. Gilbert was strong in light magic, which seemed odd for a man who looked like he had wrestled a bear and won. He’d become one of the most useful witches in the Rosewood in the last handful of years.
“Not leaving anything up to chance, are we,” Blythe said. “Are you bringing her, too?”
“Of course I’m going.” Lexa didn’t take her eyes off the road. “And if you have a problem with that, you’re free to jump out.”
Blythe’s fingers tightened around her cane. “I don’t have a problem, merely getting a feel for what will be expected of me.”
“Nothing much, just try not to bite anyone.”
“I’ll be on my best behavior if you are.”
Andi tuned out their sniping, leaning back to stare out the window again. The only thing to see was the vague shape of bushes on the side of the road and the ever-present lamps, one after another.
And tiny lights, out in the darkness.
She frowned and sat up a bit, peering through the glass, trying to see past her own hollowed out reflection. It was far too late in the year for fireflies, but that was all she could think of what they looked like. Tiny flecks, moving and bouncing in pairs.
The cold realization that they were eyes reflecting the light hit her just as the sunlamps went dark.
“What the—“ Lexa was cut off by something slamming onto the hood with a loud clang. Andi shrieked, leaning as hard as she could against her seat. A pale face with bright red eyes pressed against the glass. Lexa jerked the wheel and the vampire slid off.
“Why are the lights out?” Chrys yelled, rolling down the window. Cold air burst into the car, the wind overtaking the rattle of the engine.
“Why would I know that?” Lexa swerved to avoid another vampire leaping at the side of the car. They slammed right below Andi’s door. She bit down another scream. “Get your head back in here!”
She grabbed the back of Chrys’s sweater and hauled them back into the car, shifting with a quick jerk of the stick. Every dial on the dash whipped quickly to the right and back to the left in a way that Andi was fairly certain it wasn’t supposed to.
She really should have learned something about any type of vehicle.
Chrys struggled to roll up the window. Another vampire threw themselves at their side of the car, latching onto the top of the glass. Chrys cursed and put all their weight on the handle. The vampire reached for them, but Blythe’s cane lashed out, slamming into their arm and smashing it into their face. They howled and lurched back. Chrys hurried to roll the window up.
“Where to, boss?” Lexa shifted into the next gear, the entire car shuddering under the stress.
“Turn left next chance you get,” Chrys said.
Lexa paused. “That’s not towards city center.”
“Those lights will be out, too,” Chrys said. “This is an all-out attack. We need to get to the library. Right now.”
“What about your friends?” Blythe asked.
“They’ll know to head that way,” Chrys insisted. “We’re out of time. There’s enough blood in these bags to hold you over and Andi has anti-venom in your bag. That’s all that we need.”
Andi put a hand on her bag. She did have four bottles of anti-venom, standard equipment for any witch leaving the coven hall, but she’d never thought she’d actually be in danger of using them.
“We had a deal—“
“The time for deals is over,” Chrys snapped. “Turn left.”
“Yeah, I don’t think they’re going to let me!”
Andi immediately saw the problem.
She wished she hadn’t.
There was a barricade in the road, right where the fork was just visible. One of the bushes on the side of the road had been hauled to the middle, surrounded by vampires, all of them afflicted judging by their white hair. The afflicted weren’t known for planning ahead, but Andi didn’t see the normal vampire that must have been controlling them.
“She’s not built for off road.” Lexa hadn’t taken her foot off the gas. “Gonna have to use the lights.”
“Those are experimental, they—“
“Sorry, can’t hear you!” Lexa slammed her other foot down on a pedal she hadn’t used yet.
The round headlights flooded the entire road in front of them with blinding, searing light. The vampires shrieked and scurried out of the line of fire.
The bushes caught, flames roaring in the dry leaves and twigs. The barricade lit like it had been doused in gasoline.
“Okay, yeah, experimental.” Lexa shifted again, spinning the steering wheel. A horrible screech of rubber and they didn’t so much turn as slide to face left, drifting through the flames and coming out the other side. The car shuddered when Lexa threw it into another gear, stopped just long enough for Andi’s stomach to catch back up to her, and lurched forward.
“You have quite a grip there,” Blythe said.
Andi realized she’d grabbed her arm and immediately let go, holding onto the door handle with a grip that hurt her knuckles. “Sorry.”
“Gonna need directions soon!” Lexa yelled. The engine let out a high pitched whine and rattled ominously.
“Right!” Chrys yelled, and they were all thrown to the side when Lexa turned again. If it weren’t for the rope-like seat belt, Andi would have gone flying through the window.
They were in the city again, but not the one that Andi had become used to. As Chrys had predicted, all of the sunlamps were off. Only the interior lights kept the dark at bay.
With a crack and a pop, one of their headlights went out.
“Turn those off!” Chrys yelled.
“Don’t know what to tell you, I’ve been hitting the pedal for the last five minutes,” Lexa said.
“I told you they were experimental.”
“Eh, we’re alive.” Lexa spun the wheel at Chrys’s next barked out direction, nearly slamming into the curb. The streets were narrower, meant for pedestrians, not vehicles. The dark city streets were completely abandoned.
The wheels bounced and jerked on the cobblestone. Andi almost bit her tongue and kept her mouth closed after that.
Chrys instructed Lexa to pull over and she slid the car to a stop, the wheels bumping the curb so hard that the other tires left the ground before bouncing back down, yanking Andi against her seatbelt.
“Why do I let you drive, again?” Chrys muttered, head in their hands.
“Because you can’t.” Lexa gave them a winning smile, turning off the car. The remaining headlight went out, leaving them in darkness. “…Chrys, this is a school.”
An all-girl’s school for the gifted, according to the sign atop the wooden double doors.
“I know.” Chrys opened the door and stepped out onto the street. “The doorway is inside. Come on, it’s only a matter of time before we’re overrun. I think we only just beat them.”
“How did they know about it?” Blythe asked. “Who have you told?”
“No one,” Chrys said. “Only present company, Gilbert, and Ingrid. Before you say anything, I trust them with my life.”
“The librarian?” Andi suggested. “The teachers?”
“Have all been at coven hall since the opening was reported.” Chrys pulled out a key and unlocked the door, leading them all inside.
The school’s high ceiling was lost to gloom, despite the lights lining each doorway all the way down the hall. They glowed feebly, unable to penetrate the miasma that seemed to have fallen over the school. The smell of ozone was thick in the air, along with a tension that made Andi step closer to Lexa.
Only one door was ajar, at the very end of the hallway. Light leaked across the scuffed and well used floorboards.
Chrys walked straight to the open door. Andi followed, her hand on her bag. Lexa locked the doors behind them, though Andi doubted it would even slow a vampire down. Blythe’s footsteps were silent, but her cane tapped softly with each step.
Chrys pushed the door open the rest of the way.
On the other side was a small library, the walls lined with books.
A doorway took up most of the back wall, surrounded by thick roots.
Chapter 4:
Doorway
Andi touched one of the roots. Magic thrummed under her fingertips, ancient and deep. She peered into the doorway. The roots twisted into a tunnel beyond it, stretching out into darkness.
“It really is The Library.”
She hadn’t doubted Chrys, exactly, but there was a large difference from being told it was back and seeing it with her own eyes.
“How long until Ingrid and Gilbert get here?” Lexa asked, strapping on her sword belt and slinging her bag over her shoulder.
“I’m not sure, it depends on if they were held up or not,” Chrys said. “We might not want to wait very long, it won’t take the vampires a lot of time before—“
Lexa shushed them, holding up one hand. She turned her head to the side, listening, her ears twitching. Blythe was listening, too.
Andi didn’t hear anything.
Lexa motioned for them all to stay put and moved towards the door, carefully, her boots not making a sound on the floorboards. She listened at the gap of the door, then pulled it closed. A screech rose from somewhere inside the school. Andi’s heart beat faster and she wished she was safe at home. Or at the library.
Both of those places might have been overrun already.
“Dammit,” Lexa muttered. “Vamps. Lots of ‘em. I don’t think Ingrid and Gil are getting through.”
“I knew they’d find it eventually.” Chrys was surprisingly calm. “I’ll stay back, hold them off as long as I can. You three get to the core. Quickly.”
“What?” Andi’s voice cracked. “But we can’t just leave you here, we—“
“There’s no time, and we’re out of options.” Chrys put their hands on her shoulders and steered her over to the side. There was no doubt that Blythe and Lexa could hear every word regardless, but there was at least the illusion of privacy. “I wouldn’t do this if there was any other choice. Andi, you are an amazing witch.”
“I’m just an archive witch,” she said.
They shook their head. “No, you’re so much more than that. I believe in you. I know you’ll find the curse’s origin and fix all of this.”
“I’m not a curse breaker!” Andi’s voice went up an octave without any input from her. She wanted to cry, or maybe scream. She dug her nails into her palms and tried to even out her breathing.
“I know,” Chrys said. “But you’re the only hope we have now. Lexa will help you, and Blythe is…she can be very reliable, when she chooses to be. I’ll buy you as much time as I can. Ingrid and Gil are probably on their way. Everything will be okay, I promise you, but you have to go.”
She knew they were right, she knew she needed to get moving. Her fingernails stung her palms. She bit her lip and nodded, jerkily. Chrys pulled her into a hug, squeezing her tight, then turned and released her, pushing her towards the doorway. “I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
She knew they were lying.
