Hey, y'all. I'm back, here's the new one. If you haven't read Twilight, don't read this. The song is 'Fields of Innocence' by Evanescence. I can't check who reviewed right now, but thank you to all who reviewed on the last chapter of Twilight.
I still remember the world
From the eyes of a child.
Slowly those feelings were clouded
By what I know now.
Rena opened her eyes and looked around. Nightmares, they were plaguing her. She hadn't had a full, or good for that matter, nights sleep since what happened at the mansion. A little over two thirds of the humans that had been at the mansion that night had died, Emily included. Now the survivors that were in the area at the time were crammed in houses all over southern California. Those who hadn't made it to the mansion were still scattered around the world. Rena and many others were stationed in L.A.
Blue eyes met Rena's brown, it was Shea Redfern. "Another nightmare?" Rena asked her quietly, there were, after all, three other girls in the room.
Shea nodded, "You too?" she asked.
Rena nodded in return and looked at the glowing wall clock, 5:30. "Maybe we should just set an alarm for now," she joked. Shea didn't laugh. Rena didn't know whom the vampire girl had lost, but he must have been important. "Do you want to take the first shower today?"
"Yeah, thanks." She stood up and went into one of the houses three bathrooms. After a minute or so, Rena heard the shower turn on. She, too, stood up but she went to the living room, wearing just her boxers and a spaghetti string top. The couch beckoned to her; she sat down and flipped on the TV.
"More mysterious killings happened in Las V---" she changed the channel. There was some weird '80's movie on TNT that they seemed to play every morning. It had something to do with kids traveling through time to the days of king Arthur and Merlin, with really cheesy effects.
"You're up early, again, Rena," observed Timon, a fellow shape-shifter.
"I just like to get an early start on the day," she replied lightly. "Are you making coffee?"
"Don't I always?" After almost a month of living in close quarters with the other Daybreakers, Rena knew their routines, and hers, by memory, but she still asked. "Is Shea up, too?" he asked while making the beverage.
"I think she's still in the shower. She's been in there for awhile." It had to have been at least a half an hour since the young vampire went into the bathroom.
"Well, you should know how girls are in the shower, always taking your precious time, even if you're living with seven other people."
"Oh, shut up, Timmy!"
Scalding water was hitting Shea, but it might as well have been ice; she didn't feel it. She couldn't feel anything. As tears streamed down her face, she reflected. After the initial shock of losing her soulmate had worn off numbness stole over her. It helped her to get through those first days of just living on the losing side. But as the days passed, the realization hit her like a sharp object; no matter how long she existed life would only be a shadow of what it once was. Ryder, her one and only, was gone, and he wasn't coming back.
Her body slid down the shower wall; she just sat in the tub as the all-to-hot water hit her; unnoticed tears were streaming down her face.
Shea heard a knock on the door, "Are you ever coming out of there?" Rena asked.
She had to clear her voice before saying, "I'll be out in a few minutes!"
Cal Taylor sat on his bed in Las Vegas, thinking. It had been over a month since any word about the Daybreakers had come. They'd just disappeared, poof, gone without a trace. No, that wasn't right. Carnage from the only battle in an all to short war was still being cleaned up by unsuspecting humans. And now the Night World was encroaching on what was once shared territory with the Daybreakers. Humans were dying every night, and Cal couldn't do a thing to stop it. However, if he and his family didn't get out of the city soon they might become just more statistics anyway. There were only two problems he could think of about getting out of the city.
One: He didn't know where the Daybreakers were.
Two: His parents didn't know about the Night World.
Sooner or later, Cal would have to find a way to tell them about the danger they were in because he felt an almost prophetic urgency to leave the city. But there was still a little time.
He just didn't know how much.
"Order up," Rena looked up from the booth she was sitting in at the discreet little café, 'Of course it's a discreet little café, isn't it always?' she thought, sipping a coffee that tasted like three hour old dregs from the bottom of the pot. But where was her contact? She looked down at her watch for about the fifth time in a minute, and time hadn't gone backwards, he was late.
That could mean two things, either the mass transit of the wonderful city of angels was late, or something of a much darker nature had delayed him. Luckily she didn't have to ponder the darker things because within a minute he walked in. "You're late," she accused when he slid down in the seat across from her. His name was Kit; he'd been a vampire for thirty years, and didn't look a day over fifteen.
Rena thought he played the part of a disheveled teenager well. His scruffy gray hoodie was accented with torn blue jeans that hadn't seen the inside of a washing machine in too long. When he was changed, he'd still looked like a child somewhere between eleven and thirteen, which put his height at about 5' 3". Freckles dotted his face, he had red hair, and blue eyes, but he claimed to not be a bit Irish. Somehow Rena doubted that.
"Sorry," Kit replied, though he sounded like a kid, his eyes held depth that she hoped no fifteen year old gained. "It's crazy out there, how are things at your house?" Meaning: have there been any Night World related problems?
"Good, a little cramped, but we manage. So, what the assignment?" That was the only reason Daybreakers could afford to meet with contacts close to the leaders now. And Kit was rumored to be very high up.
He pushed a large sealed manila envelope across the table. "Don't open it here. You know the drill, when you get to your house, read the contents, assemble a team, this is definitely a volunteers only one, get in and out, don't get caught. If you, or any of your team, Goddess forbid, do, you've never met us, and make up a believable lie." Suddenly he smiled, "Did I forget anything in my little spiel?"
Rena met his eyes with a grin, "Nope, I think that's it." She lifted the envelope; it was kind of heavy. "This is important, isn't it?"
"Maybe," he replied somberly, "But remember, I'm just the messenger, I don't read the message." Rena nodded. Kit stood up, threw a bill on the table to cover her coffee, and left her there with the envelope.
Cal wheezed. He was lucky to be alive after what the Night Worlders had tried. There wasn't enough pain anywhere in his body for anything to be broken, he hoped. Attacks were expected, had to be, they were even planned for. But he hadn't expected to be cornered in the gym locker room. It seemed low somehow, even for the Night World. He was slumped against a bank of lockers in the very back corner, trying to gather the strength to stand up.
When he did he gasped, it was a liquid sound. Being shot hadn't even hurt that much, comparatively. Of course, he had been knocked unconscious nearly instantaneously after those blows. Now, he didn't have that luxury. "Come on," he said to himself, "One foot in front of the other. Just get to the nurses office." Each step felt like thousands of red-hot needles were poking all through his legs. A tear leaked out of his eye. The fragrant scent of stale gym socks wasn't helping his breathing.
Luckily for him, one of the basketball players, who was for some reason extremely early for practice saw Cal, as he leaned against a bank of lockers, resting after five steps. "Oh, god, Cal, are you all right," he paused, "Stupid question. What happened?"
"I tripped," Cal said, "Then I continued to slam my body against some lockers." Somehow, through his pain, Cal retained a sense of humor, however morbid.
The basketball player, who Cal was sure he knew, helped him off of the locker and supported most of his weight, "Let's get you to the nurse. You look like you could die at any minute." It seemed the jock, too, had a morbid sense of humor.
"Don't go down there, Lukas."
"Skinheads again?" Ben Lukas asked, referring to one of the more prominent gangs at El Camino High School. Being a child of a Mexican woman and a black man, Ben was a perfect target for them.
"Sí, man," replied Alex Mañoso. "They're beatin' up any hombre estúpido enough to go down there."
Ben rolled his eyes and shook his head. "It's getting so we can't even go to our lockers after school. Can I borrow your English book, dude, I don't want to risk it."
"No prob, here," Alex handed him the requested book. "You waiting for your sister?" There was a very boyish light in his eyes as he asked.
"Don't look like that when you talk about her, bro. She's my sister. And she's just a kid."
"You big bad hombres talkin' 'bout me?" Teresa Lukas asked. She was Ben's fifteen-year-old younger sister, and unlike him, was all Mexican. Her dark brown hair fell in loose ringlets around her face.
"Hey, Teresa, lookin' good, chica." Alex said. Ben glared daggers at him.
"Ready to go, niña?" Ben asked.
"Don't you gotta get your stuff?"
Ben rolled his eyes, "Skinheads, again." Teresa nodded and said nothing. "You wanna walk wit' us, amigo?"
"Yeah, thanks," Alex replied gratefully. There was a sound back in the hallway, it sounded kind of like a rabid dog, to Alex. Actually, it sounded like a wolf. "You guys hear that?"
"Hear what?" Teresa asked.
The next sound was definitely a howl, "That."
All three shared a look. As quickly and silently as they could, they made their way to the bustling L.A. streets, hoping to get lost in the crowd.
The envelope seemed to be starring at her, but Rena wasn't sure she wanted to open it. She and her roommates, her team, hadn't had any important missions, ever. If she opened the envelope things would change. They'd all be bonified Daybreakers, but weren't they already? Things had changes so much already; she wasn't sure she could handle anything drastic. 'You're just scared.' She chided herself, 'Open it and get it over with.'
Inside the envelope there was a file folder, she opened that and saw that it was a file of another member of Circle Daybreak. His name was Cal Taylor, he was sixteen years old, and he and his family were stuck in Las Vegas. Her orders were to assemble a team to rescue the Taylors, and get them into an L. A. safe house. "Easier said than done," she muttered. "Everybody!" she yelled, "Get in the living room, we got something to discuss!"
Minutes later, the ten residents were seated more or less comfortably in the cramped room. "Okay," Rena began, as everyone finished getting settled, "Here's the deal, we were given a mission today. It's search and rescue, emphasis being on the rescue. There's a human in Vegas we're being sent after. He's been a Daybreaker for a while, I guess, and he didn't get out after the initial battle. So, who wants to go?"
Blank looks all around, finally Shea asked, "What's his name?"
"Cal Taylor, I think he went to school with some of you guys." Now certain faces were shocked, "So who's in?"
"I am," Shea said. Her response was followed with similar replies from Jett Dalton, Mackenzie and Raleigh Weald, Timon, and Ramon.
"Seven is a good number," Rena said. She turned to her other housemates, "I guess you guys get to stay and guard or something. Everyone else, get enough weapons to muscle our way to, and to protect, the family. We'll need a van. Timon, will you call headquarters? Arrange for us to pick it up early tomorrow afternoon. We leave at three. Any objections?" No one had anything to say, eventually everyone went back to their own business. Before midnight, everyone, vampires included, was asleep.
I still remember the sun,
Always warm on my back.
Somehow it seems colder now.