III

Speckles of sunlight radiated through the window, stirring Mandy Sterling from her state of unconsciousness. How long had she been out? Just the night before, she had made a run for her life, only to run into a less- than-desirable replacement for her raptured watcher. Everything had begun so quickly. Being from the poorer side of Harlem, Mandy saw lots of criminal activity-but the slums weren't highpoints for the fanged people in the state. They preferred mansions, classy casinos, martinis, cigars, and caviar. Vampires certainly had good taste.
"Hello?" She mumbled, sitting upright. Her eyes flickered open to examine her surroundings. It definitely wasn't where she'd imagined she'd end up.
She was seated upon the plush seat of the back of a squad car, neatly strapped in to her seat. The sun had just started to rise over the bleak horizon-a sad reminder that she would live another day in this horrible world. An anonymous driver briefly glanced in his mirror to look back at her, and she cowered back slightly in fear. He was an officer, she could see. She could see the edge of his tarnished copper badge.
Aaron?
Almost as if he could read her thoughts, he pulled off to the side of the road and tugged the keys from the ignition. Slowly, he turned in his seat to gawk back at her.
"You look like Hell," she commented. One of his eyes wavered, the black flesh surrounding it a grotesque, swollen lump that almost sealed his beautiful silver eyes shut. His lip and jaws had taken severe punishment as well, bleeding and swollen. She puckered her lips. He must've arrived just in time to save her.
"Thanks," he mumbled. "You should get a check at yourself. I'm surprised you're still with us, the way they were beating on you and all."
She nodded slowly, lowering her head. The cold steel of something crushing into her skull reminded her of the incident yesterday night. William Hearst could not have made it much further without her protection, handicapped as he was. She bit her lip, tears welling in her eyes. It wasn't his fault that she hadn't taken a liking to him-he was merely trying to do his job, trying to keep her protected from the outside world. Her eyes glazed over.
"Mr. Temple, you didn't happen to find another man at the scene, did you?"
Aaron exhaled, biting his lip as he studied her.
"There was another man. Before I could do anything, they'd up-and-out gathered him up and carried him off. I grabbed you before anymore was done to you."
Mandy swallowed.
"Did you see their faces?"
He puckered his lips, amused.
"It wouldn't have been my first time."
"What do you mean?"
"I know what you are, Mandy. The Slayer, right? Those guys were mumbling about it when I walked in, and quite frankly, I never believed that people like you were for real. You see, when I was an adolescent, I had an extreme interest in the supernatural. I found every book I could find about legends, fables."
"If you don't mind my asking, what led you to it?"
"President Savannah's rise to power. You know, we were a religious little community. Synagogues, mosques, churches on the street corners, lining every stop sign you came to. We attended an Episcopal Church just down Windriver, and my dad wanted for a long time to be ordained its Minister. When that escapade didn't work out, I suppose he was getting more and more down in the dumps. My mother shot herself when we couldn't afford to pay the bills, and my siblings did so many drugs that eventually their hearts couldn't stand it any longer. At least my dad was taken."
"Taken?"
"So you're another one-huh? You think it's all just a bunch of lies. Your skepticism will reward you greatly in Hell."
"That's a bunch of gibberish and you know it."
"The world is being overrun by demons, and you think that Satan's the Sandman? The Boogey man? Look, you're the biggest hypocrite I've ever seen."
She folded her arms and sank back into her seat.
"So you're not open about your faith?"
"Why would I?" He turned back to the steering wheel, slowly pushing his key back into the ignition as the vehicle slowly accelerated down the highway. "That guy you were with mentioned something about Ontario."
"Ontario. It's a barren wasteland by now, isn't it? Weren't they hit with a missile a few years ago?"
"Don't know. I guess I never cared too much about other countries until all of this came up. We're not untouchable anymore, but that gentleman seemed adamant that you get to Ontario."
"What do we do when we get there?"
"Hell if I know. If you said they were bombed, wherever I'm supposed to take you should be in plain view."
She sighed softly, looking out the window. They were in the slums of Detroit, looking to all of the vagrants, the demolished wasteland of the old Comerica Park. Even the Ambassador Bridge looked so rickety in comparison to when Mandy had been there five years earlier to visit her Auntie Caroline. Surely even Caroline was gone now.
"So. You seem to have quite the life, Miss Sterling. Care to talk about some of your escapades from your lifetime?"
She rested her head back against the plush headrest, closing her eyes. There was so much to tell. It was like a barrier of unrest had been lifted from her shoulders. Her parents and brothers and sisters had never known that she was going out at night to slay demons and vampires, on occasion when her Watcher told her it was necessary-they assumed she was going out with friends, going to a party, visiting the Church to make amends with her Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. She felt especially bad about the latter lie because she had never really taken the opportunity to find Jesus.
"Yeah. When I was a kid, my dad had a horrible gambling problem. We lost our savings, moved into that condemned apartment you saw. He got rid of his problem and found Jesus, but, as you know, doesn't help the financial situation much. My mom and dad had this weird happiness that really didn't make any sense. All of us still managed to go to school somehow, and we had food to eat, some clothes to wear. Up until they vanished, everyone was happy. Jessie and Dillon were getting accepted to the Christian College in Brook Banks, Colorado, and Sabrina was going to enter the Middle School. And for the past few weeks, I've been living by myself. Stealing food to live, killing vampires for desperate people for money. I'm their last hope, the way I figure it."
"Ah. Intriguing. Yet another morality-less beast on the road."
"Hey!"
"Well, don't come cryin' to me when something's killing you. What goes around comes around. How old are you?"
"Eighteen."
"And I'm almost twenty-one. I've got the power of authority over you, and God knows, with the trouble you're in so far, you'll really need someone to guide you."
"That's what I have another watcher for."
He slammed on his brakes right in the middle of the vacant Highway. Everything was barren as he turned to face you.
"Kid, something's telling me there's no way in Hell that guy made it out alive."