Broken Souls (3 page)

FIVE: RUBY

Guy’s lips brushed against mine and he spoke against
them. “I love you, Ruby.” His breath warmed my face and his fingers grazed my
back, drawing burning lines across my flesh. I shivered with warmth and
contentment, my lashes fluttering open to see his stormy eyes directly in front
of mine.

I was no longer wary of the rugged soldier who’d saved me
from the wrath of the battle between humans and Unfortunates, knowing I could
fully trust him now. I reached up and touched the fine scruff on his face, a
face hardened by the woes of battle, but soft and flawless with the element of
youth. He cupped my hand with his and deepened the kiss. My skin prickled.

“Let’s run away,” I whispered against his lips. “We can
be together.”

His grey gaze took me in, his lashes tickling my forehead
when he blinked. I wanted to be with him and he wanted to be with me, but it
could never be. Why? I mused. Why couldn’t we just be together?

“Time’s up,” he said, and I drew my brows together in
confusion, wondering what he meant.

“The legion wants to see you now,” he said, but his lips
did not move and perplexity rolled over me.
Just like that, Guy’s presence
faded and the world came crashing into my brain like a piano dropped from the
top of a six-story building— the damp chill of the cell, the smell of vampire
and werewolf, and the light of a burning torch hot on my face. It took me a few
moments to realize where I was and that Guy had only been a dream.

I sat up, reluctantly opening my eyes, not wanting to wake
up and face my cold reality. I dreaded having to go in front of the legion so
they could judge whether I would live or die, and instead wanted to sink back
into the dream where I laid in Guy’s arms, safe and warm. I blinked, seeing a candlelit
silhouette standing outside of my cell.

“My name’s Cloe.” The female vampire with the small nose and
brown hair slid open the bars and stepped forward. She smiled, and I stared at
her, stunned. Oh, so
now
she decided to talk to me.

 Cloe, as she had now finally, and so graciously, named
herself after days of silence, was the one who’d fetched me from the gates that
first night I arrived in Tombstone. She’d tricked me with her sweet smile and then
locked me behind bars. For many days since then, I’d been imprisoned, and she’d
been the one to bring me blood every night, turning a deaf ear to my countless
pleas. I wanted to be mad at her and shake her for what she’d done to me. I
wanted to yell and scream and throw her in the jail cell to give her a taste of
her own medicine. But I couldn’t. Her kind eyes looked frightened as though she
were only acting under orders, as though she might be in trouble if she did not
obey.

“C’mon.” She gestured to the exit with her chin.

“So I guess this means we’re on speaking terms now?” I stood
and smoothed out the wrinkles from my jeans. She smiled, but immediately broke
eye contact.

“I’m sorry about before. I’m not allowed to speak to
prisoners,” she said, leading me down the hall toward the exit of the
Courthouse.

I stretched my arms to my sides, relieved to be free from
that musty shoebox. “Are you saying I’m no longer a prisoner?”

She opened the tall door leading us outside, but gave no
reply. Whatever. Not like I wasn’t used to the silent treatment by now. I
stepped out into the night air and released a gasp at the status of the small
town. I’d only seen a glimpse of Tombstone the first night I’d arrived and, considering
I was too busy being rushed off to jail, hadn’t noticed any of the details. But
now that I had a chance to survey the area, words escaped me.

The stone stairs below us, which led from the three-story
Courthouse down to the street, had collapsed. The tired building slumped forward
like an off-centered ice cream cone, threatening to topple at any moment, landing
with a splat on the pavement. A huge gash ran up the length of the road as far
as the eye could see, taking chunks of pavement and store fronts within its
chasm, the old buildings crumbling, some having cracked completely in half. All
of the windows were boarded up with slats of rotting wood, and the doors hung
loosely on rusty hinges.

From what I could tell, the town was definitely living up to
its condemned status, and I thought back to what I’d learned about the great Tombstone
cave-in at school. It happened many years ago before I was ever born, but I
still recalled the story clearly and what a tragedy it had been. Basically,
hundreds of miles of mining tunnels beneath the town had surrendered and given
way, sinking most of the city into the depths of the earth. But what still
stood was jaw-dropping, in the way an old artifact in ancient Egypt would be. I
could literally feel hundreds of years of history surrounding me, thick in the
air.

And though the street ahead of us appeared dark and vacant,
I knew I was about to see more. I sensed a commotion of sorts, a bustling, and felt
an operative force of beings working together, intermingling within the city walls.
I smelled other people, er, vampires within the town, and more so than I’d ever
expected. Fear gushed through me like a rushing river.

“Come on, Ruby. We mustn’t make the legion wait.”

I glanced over at Cloe, still getting used to her having a
voice. She hurtled the large span over the crumbling stairs and landed down to
one side of the crack, graceful like a domestic feline. I followed suit, my
heart racing in apprehension over what was to come. Upon stumbling to the
ground— very much unlike Cloe’s grace— I glanced at the female vampire again,
thanking my lucky stars she’d been the one to fetch me and not the black-eyed
vampire named Horus. Shivers traveled my spine at just the thought of his name.

“I think we’ll take the scenic route,” she mused. “That way
you can see part of the town.” Cloe’s gentle profile adopted a soft glow from
the few kerosene lamps dotting the street, their flames flickering warmly among
the dystopian roadway.

“It’s very primitive here,” she explained, noticing my
curiosity. “There are no modern technologies. No electricity, phones, or computers.
Everything is run from natural resources. And the few things that aren’t, have
generators. That’s the way the Patriarch wants it, to keep us off the grid.”

I nodded, wondering who the Patriarch was, but decided
against asking, instead letting the silence of the street calm my nerves. I
gazed at my surroundings in awe. There were no words to explain the sad beauty
of the ruined city.

“That makes sense,” I said, finally breaking the silence.
“It explains how this has been kept a secret for so long.”

Cloe nodded. “We have taken many precautions. We also have
caretakers that keep us nearly invisible.”

I wrinkled my brows. “Caretakers?”

Where Cloe stepped delicately over a pile of bricks, I
scrambled awkwardly, feeling very out of practice in my vampire body after
being locked away for so long. But she kept her eyes straight ahead, either not
noticing, or not caring about my clumsiness. “Though you may never meet them,
our people are everywhere in disguise. In the police force. State officials.
The government. Even air traffic control. They work hard to keep us safe.”

We made a left turn onto Third Street. I focused on moving
my legs as slow as Cloe’s did. Unlike me, she’d long since mastered control
over her vampire body.

“Plus,” she continued. “There is a strict curfew. No one
goes outside from sunrise to sunset. Even the werewolves and witches abide by
it, except for a few night guards. It is seemingly a ghost town during the day.
Again, that’s the way the Patriarch wants it.”

Curiosity got the better of me. “Who’s the Patriarch?”

Cloe looked sideways warily. “He’s the father of the
underworld. I’ve personally never seen him before. Not many have. But he rules
above everyone, only making contact when absolutely necessary.”

We passed by an old ice cream parlor, the glass window
shattered and the paint peeling from its front. The sign hung crooked by one
nail and swung, creaking in the night breeze.

“It’s like the way humans organize their governmental
systems. It’s similar to a democracy here. There’s the Patriarch, and then
there’s the legion leaders— one for the witches, one for the werewolves, and
one for the vampires.”

“Horus,” I said with disdain, remembering his death breath
on my face. He’d told me he was a legion leader, and I couldn’t help but notice
his desire to be the sole chieftain in control, even though there were two
others. Cloe visibly shuddered at the mention of the cruel vampire’s name. She
wrung her hands together.

“We’d better pick up the pace a bit. They’ll be wondering
where we are.”

I heard the bustling of bodies as we approached the next
corner. The faded wooden sign ahead said Allen Street, and though I sensed the
town was heavily populated, nothing could prepare me for what I saw next.

We rounded the corner to see that the broken city thought to
be abandoned was hardly abandoned at all. It was not the fossilized ghost town
like it’d been painted, but more of a thriving old-west metropolis, bodies
crowding the pock-marked streets. Shopkeepers called out their wares and dogs
ran free in the road. I stopped in complete shock at the sight, thinking I
must’ve stepped straight into some sort of time warp.

Though strangely dressed in an old-timey Victorian fashion
of bustles, bowties, and leather-buckle suspenders, the town’s inhabitants looked
like normal people. But I knew better. I could smell them. Not only were there
vampires— lots of vampires— but there were werewolves, and what I assumed to be
witches too.

“This is Allen Street,” Cloe said. “Basically the life of
the city. It suffered the least amount of destruction during the cave-in.”

A loud roaring buzz whizzed by us. Startled, I turned to
watch a large white van and half a dozen motorcycles fly by.

“I thought you said there weren’t any modern technologies
here,” I said, placing a hand to my chest, catching my breath.

Cloe shrugged. “Oh, except for those. They must’ve just gotten
back from a mission. Those are scouts. They need transportation to go into
surrounding towns and get supplies and also make sure things are safe.” I
glanced back to the street, shaking my head in wonder. At this point, nothing
ceased to amaze me.

Forgetting about the obscurity of the out-of-place vehicles,
we continued on as the growling sounds of the engines faded in the distance. I
turned my attention to the various groups of Unfortunate Souls who lingered
about the streets.

“Have vampires always been here?” I queried, still trying to
wrap my mind around this whole concept. “Or was it after the cave-in this place
came to be?”

“As far as I know, only human’s lived here before the
cave-in,” Cloe answered, her boots crunching across the dirt ground. “Once it
was evacuated, a few rogue vampires found this place and word of a safe haven
traveled fast through the underworld community. Most of them came from smaller
covens and packs, having been hidden away from the world and surviving like
ruthless hunters in the night. But when they came here it was different. It was
like having a whole new life. They no longer had to hide in the shadows, and
could walk freely through the streets with each other.”

I remained in awe at how populated the city had become in
just the past few decades. “Wow. That must’ve been a dream come true for them.”

Cloe pushed her hair back from her face. “Yes. But I never
knew anything other than Tombstone in my vampire life. I was reborn here.”

I glanced over at my guide. She walked more briskly now and
I rushed to keep up pace. “If you don’t mind me asking, how old are you?”

Cloe wrinkled her nose. “Older than I look, that’s for sure.
But I am considered quite young in the vampire community. I was reborn at the
age of seventeen right after the vampires took over the city. It has been
twenty years since then.” I nearly stopped in wonder at how young Cloe looked
when she gave my arm a light tug to keep me moving, and I followed her onto the
sidewalk.

The aroma of food wafted through the streets and if I had
been human, it would’ve made my mouth water. Yet instead of triggering hunger,
the savory scent affected me in the way a nearly-forgotten memory would, like
an old child-hood blanket, pleasant but unnecessary.

The cool breeze hit my skin, lifting wisps of hair from my
face, and the combination of noisy music and chattering resonated through the
streets. Our feet click-clacked on wooden-slatted sidewalks as we whisked along
the store fronts. We passed a group of vampires who huddled together, talking
in hushed tones. They glanced up and my skin crawled as their eyes followed us.

“Soon you’ll understand the way things work here.” Cloe
pointed ahead. “For instance, just up the street there on the right is the Big
Nose Kate’s Saloon. The witches run it and make all of the meals for the
food-eating inhabitants here. And across from that is the Crystal Palace where
the werewolves congregate. They keep it fully stocked with liquor and there is
almost always a game of poker going on. It gets pretty rowdy in there.”

I nodded, making note to steer clear of the Crystal Palace
in my time here.

“Where do the vampires hang out?” I asked, my eyes
flickering from building to building, undecided on what to focus on.

Cloe laughed. “
Everywhere.
The vampire population
highly outweighs that of any other group here in Tombstone. There are so many
inns and saloons here that I’ve lost count, though I guess Vampire Hall and The
Birdcage Theatre are a couple of vampire favorites. Don’t worry, you’ll get to
know the town. It will just take time.”

If I
had
time to get to know the town, I thought
wryly. As far as Horus was concerned, I should be dead already. I kneaded my
fingers together, trying not to let my nerves get the better of me. I watched
as people drifted in and out of the buildings up ahead, their old-fashioned clothes
dusty from the miles and miles of dirt road, and I couldn’t help but notice their
eyes quickly shooting my way. We stepped around a crowd of men who argued
notably about something I didn’t understand, but they stopped as we passed,
their gazes boring into me.