Blood Day (24 page)

Flynn turned away from him, seeming to feel Mike studying him.

“There is a woman,” he said, as he paced along the edge of the pit. “I was hoping you could save her. Your incarceration would allow you to reach her.”

“Oh,” said Mike. “Oh, I see.”

Flynn turned and looked at him sharply. “Do not assume that you understand me, Mr. Novak. I am not like you.”

“You love her,” said Mike.

Flynn snorted in derision. “Love is human. Love is for cowards, for cattle. She is not an object to be loved.”

“Then why don’t you help her yourself?” said Mike.

“I cannot,” said Flynn, resuming his pacing. He was so nervous and unsure that Mike felt slightly baffled. The terrifying monster had a woman, and he was worried for her.

“Because you made a promise,” said Mike. “What kind of promise?”

“It is not your concern. I have changed my mind because you are too important now, a public figure, a legend. The humans will begin rebelling now. You must go to them, feed their discontent with their new governors. Make them see that revolution is the only way. The Revenants are weak, and together you humans can be strong.”

“They’ll get there on their own,” said Mike. “They don’t need me.”

“No, but they want you,” said Flynn.

“Who is the woman?” said Mike, his curiosity getting the better of him. He knew it was in his best interest to just do what Flynn commanded. His life was at stake, but, that curiosity was a part of him, had been for decades. Maybe all his life. It was the reason he became a journalist, and the reason he was colluding with a vampire and on the run.

“She is my secret,” Flynn barked. “None of your concern.”

“What are you going to do, then?” said Mike. “If you don’t send me to save her.”
 

Flynn turned to him and Mike saw the very human worry and confusion in his eyes. Joshua Flynn had been human once, and part of him still was. He may have been powerful, he may have been a killer, but he wasn’t a monster. At least not all of him.

“She doesn’t want me to save her,” said Flynn. “She wants to do it herself. She wants me to stay away so she can prove her strength. I made a promise.”

“Where is she?” said Mike.

“In the belly of the beast,” said Flynn, and Mike swore his dark eyes were shining. Could Joshua Flynn cry? Did he even remember how? “She must miss the music so…”

Mike turned to see Dez looking at Flynn, the cowardice gone, something odd in his face.

“What is it?” said Mike.

Dez shook his head, not looking away from Flynn.
 

“The music,” said Dez. “The girl.”

Joshua Flynn turned his gaze to Dez, his demeanor changing. He stood up to his full height, head and shoulders taller than Mike, an inch or so taller than Dez.

“What do you know of her, Paine?” Flynn rasped and Mike took a step back. The time for curiosity was over.

“I met Sia,” said Dez, “Mikey met her too. When I worked for the Movers, I was the one who picked her up. She talked about music. Asian girl. Japanese, maybe.”

“Your prejudices mean nothing to me,” Flynn said, his voice low and dangerous.

“No prejudice,” said Dez. “Just an observation. I’m just telling you what she looked like.” He was scared, but something in him had decided to man up. Perhaps he smelled an opportunity. A way out. “So you did send me to rescue her. Got into my head, didn’t you? Thought I was going crazy.”

“Sia?” Mike whispered. He’d forgotten all about her in the chaos. Mike swallowed thickly. “Sia Aoki?”

“Well, that explains why she wouldn’t let me help her,” said Dez. “She
wanted
to be there.”

In seconds, Flynn had them both flattened against the cement, his hands at their throats.
 

“What do you know about Sia?” he breathed. Mike could see the skin of his face twitching, like he was just on the verge of changing, just on the verge of ripping them apart.

“I…tried…to…help her,” Mike gasped. “The…story…the…hospital…You sent…Dez…remember?” Flynn was losing it, Mike could see the panic in his monster eyes.

“You can’t help her,” Flynn said, his voice like gears grinding against metal. “No one can. She won’t let them.” He slowly released Mike’s neck, and then Dez. They both slid down the wall and sat gasping for air. “She wants to join me, she wants that power,” Joshua was saying, pacing away again. “But she wants to take her own power first. She wants what’s hers. What her mother took but was too weak to keep.” Flynn turned and looked down at Mike. “They killed her so easily, Sia’s mother. Before I could get to her. She was to be a gift for Sia.”

“They took something,” Mike said, thinking that he should stop talking, and should just agree to be a revolutionary leader of the people, and rabble-rouse his sinewy heart out. But here he was, trying to get the story. And for what? No reason at all. Just because he wanted to know what made this monster tick. It fascinated him that the old Rev had fallen in love with a human woman. Sia Aoki, the beautiful damaged girl who he had met as a junkie hooked on Slack. But anyone who could make a Revenant feel love was nothing short of extraordinary. Sia was no girl.

“She was pretending,” said Mike. “She was never a junkie.”

“She has a child. A child of all things,” said Flynn. “She’ll never be a monster with a child around.”

“Maybe she doesn’t want to be a monster,” said Mike.

“She wants me,” he said. “She knows what I am. And she is more like me than even she knows.”

“She has a child,” said Mike, putting it together. “A child raised by her mother. So why is she in the experimental hospital?”

Flynn didn’t say anything for a long time. The silence was too thick, it felt claustrophobic. Mike felt a harshness in his throat, could still feel the cold fingers pressing into his neck. Finally, when Joshua spoke, it was like a bell chiming in the dead of night. It was so clear and concise and made such complete sense that Mike couldn’t imagine why he hadn’t put it all together before.

“Where do you think all the children have gone, Mr. Novak?”

Twenty-One

“Viv?” said a muffled male voice through the door. “Open up, Viv.”

“Just a minute,” she called, and her voice was thick now. Not cold and hollow, just slow and thick and stupid. She stumbled over Tom’s body, pushing herself into the bathroom. Grunting with effort, she pulled her fluffy white robe over her clothes, kicking off her shoes as she did so. She tripped over them as she went out.
Hurry, hurry,
she thought to herself. But she couldn’t hurry. She could barely remember to breathe. She blew out the breath she’d been holding.

“I’m not feeling very well,” she panted, sucking in air. “I…I fell asleep with the radio on. Sorry for the noise.” For effect, she switched on the radio. Ambrose Conrad’s voice crackled through the speaker.

“
…for you should not waste valuable energy fighting those in charge. Embrace the modern way of the world. Let us take your burden from you. There is no need to choose when there are those who would choose for you…
”

“Viv, open the door. Please.”

The voice was familiar, but she couldn’t place it. Her heart was pounding too hard in her ears now. She looked through the peephole, but the light in the hall was out again. She blinked at the door. She was caught. They knew about her and it was all over.
 

And then she could breathe again. It was all over. No matter what happened, it was over.

“…
Revenants are not here to hurt you. We are here to help you. To save your world…
”

She felt calm again and she didn’t forget to breathe. She almost smiled. They would take her now and she wouldn’t have to pretend anymore. No matter what they did to her, she wouldn’t have to pretend.

“…
offered a helping hand when you could no longer save yourselves. There is no good or evil, just the efficient way and…
”

Viv switched the radio off. She opened the door and squinted into the hall.

“Who’s there?” she said. A pale face presented itself in front of her own. A haggard, tired face with the silver whiskers of at least a week of not shaving. A handsome, aged face whose blue eyes twinkled blearily at her. As her vision adjusted she saw speckles of something dark all over his forehead and cheeks.

“Hey, Viv,” he said.
 

She shook her head. “Mike?” she asked. She didn’t understand. Her mind was overwhelmed by all that had happened in the last hours and she couldn’t process any more. She glanced at the body behind her and back at her old neighbor, her old lover. Two different worlds, two lifetimes colliding. “Mike Novak.”

“I’ve got some things to talk about with you, Viv,” said Mike.

“Well, I guess you’d better come in,” she said, still slow. Still muddy and leaden and hollow, after all. “Though, I should warn you, I’ve made a bit of a mess.”

“I’ve just been next door and I—” Mike said, stopping when he stepped through the door and saw the body on the floor. “Oh.”

Viv was staring at Tom, his eyes aimed at the water stained ceiling, his throat open to the world. She fell back on the sofa and put a hand over her own mouth.
 

“He was going to hurt me, Mike,” she said from behind her fingers, her voice muffled. “He was looking for you and he was going to hurt me. So I decided to hurt him instead.”

“He was the one squatting in my old place?” said Mike. He crouched down and looked at Tom’s face, looked down at his still body. “Big fella.”

“He couldn’t handle his liquor,” she said. She met Mike’s eyes. “I was so angry.”

“They’ll be checking on him soon,” said Mike, his voice tight. “We have to go.”

Viv shook her head. “Bounty hunter. No one knew he was here. He bragged about it.” She took her hands down and looked at them like they were alien to her. “I just killed him. Just like that, I killed him.”

Mike sat down next to her and put his arm around her, and she let her head loll onto his shoulder.

“How could I do that?” she said. “How could I kill a person?”

“If you hadn’t,” said Mike, “he would have hurt you, right?” Viv shrugged. “Killed you, maybe. Turned you in to the Revs. While he went on his way with whatever they offered for information leading to me.”

“Fifty grand,” she said. “It was in the paper.”

“I heard that,” said Mike, remembering Lila. “That was a year’s salary for me. You could turn me in, say I killed the guy in your apartment. Fifty grand, Viv.”

Viv laughed and raised her head to look at him. “What the hell am I going to do with money? I’d just drink myself to death. There’s nowhere to run to, Mike. And there isn’t anything on this godless earth that will make me feel good again.”

“Did it feel good to kill this piece of filth?” said Mike. “Even just for a second?”

“For a second,” she said. She shook her head sadly. “But it doesn’t last. Nothing ever does.”

“I can help you, Viv,” said Mike. “Get rid of the body, clean up. No one will know.”

“I don’t care if they know,” she said. “As long as they don’t know until after tomorrow. After tomorrow, nothing matters.” She could still hear the slow heaviness in her voice, and she realized she was in shock. “I shouldn’t have said that.” She tried to stand and fell back when her legs wouldn’t support her.

“What’s tomorrow?” said Mike.

“I can’t tell you,” she said. Why did she say anything about that? She couldn’t think. She needed air. But as she opened her eyes, they settled on the dead body of Tom, who wanted to rape her, Tom who would have tortured her to get what he wanted. And there was so much blood. “Shit,” she said, louder than she meant to. The room started closing in.

Mike was holding her then, rubbing her back, crooning softly, just like he used to. Back when things had been worse for her. Though she felt ashamed for considering her own grief worse than killing a man. Viv squeezed her eyes shut and tried to calm herself, tried to clear her head.

“It’s okay, Viv,” Mike said. “I’m going to help you. It’s going to be okay.”

But Viv knew it wasn’t going to be okay. She knew that whether her plan worked or not, the next day would be her last day alive on the earth.
 

Viv watched Mike from the passenger seat of her car. The shock had worn off a bit and she was feeling weak and empty. Mike didn’t tell her where they were going, just kept saying he knew a place.
 

He meant he knew a place to dump a dead body. Viv would have cried if she could have, but she didn’t think she even had the tears. She wished she’d had something to drink, but Tom had spilled the bourbon all over the kitchen floor.
 

“Who was the man?” she said, breaking the silence.

“What?” said Mike, surprised.

“The man you were with,” said Viv. “I heard you arguing next door. Who was he?”

Mike didn’t answer for a while. “A friend,” he said. “Just someone who was going to help me. But he wasn’t cut out for it.”

“Cut out for what?” said Viv.

“Doing what it takes to stay human,” said Mike.
 

“I don’t think any of us were cut out for that,” said Viv, thinking of the body wrapped in garbage bags in the trunk. “I don’t think any of us will ever be the same kind of humans ever again.”

“You don’t believe that, do you?” said Mike. “You think we’ve lost our humanity?”

“Surviving isn’t humanity,” said Viv. “Living is. And none of us have lived for a long time. Not really.”
 

Mike grunted, and Viv could see the displeasure pursed in his lips. He watched the road.

“What are you mixed up in, Mike?” said Viv. “Why are you helping me?”

“We’re here,” said Mike, slowing the car.

“This is your old newspaper building,” said Viv.

“What you’re going to see,” he said, looking down at his lap, “it’s going to scare you. But I didn’t do any of it. I hope you believe me.”

“What’s going on with you, Mike?” said Viv.
 

Mike glanced at her, then looked out the window at the old Post building. In one of the broken windows, Viv saw an owl standing on the pane, looking down at them. She stared at it. She’d never seen an owl in the city before, and it seemed out of place. It seemed to meet her eyes, then spread its wings and soared away, between the tall buildings.