Successors (2 page)

Another tremor rippled through the village.

“We are out of time.” Danato grabbed Ethan’s shirt and pulled him along at a near-jogging pace. Cori stood in the road trying to make a decision. If she followed him, she was giving up her freedom willfully. If she didn't follow him, she was risking being recaptured, and she already knew what that entailed.

The ground beneath her started to vibrate, forcing her to widen her stance just to stay upright. Windows around the town started to break. The recently fallen snow skidded off the rooftops. Every shift in her movement ignited static electricity.

She wasn't sure what the lesser of two evils was, but she was certain what the worst of three evils was.

“Wait!” Cori screamed and ran after them. Between her frostbitten feet and the violent shaking of the ground, she could hardly maintain a straight path. “Wait!” she yelled again over the ruckus. Ethan glanced back at her and then to Danato, but he didn’t dare stop since he was having just as much trouble.

She continued to grapple for purchase, practically skating across the snowy stones. She finally fell, landing painfully on her knees. “Please!” she yelled after them once more.

Even above the racket of squawking wood and scraping rock, she heard Danato’s growl of aggravation as he turned back to help her. He reached her and lifted her up with a strong arm. He half pulled, half carried her alongside him.

She buried her face against him as she heard an explosion behind them. Rock fragments pelted her in the back and legs, but she didn't dare give up her shielding to see what had happened. However, she could tell by Ethan’s wide eyes ahead of her, that something frightening was developing behind them.

Cori didn't need to be told to move faster, but the pain in her feet was forcing her to limp, which interfered with Danato's already rocking gate. Ultimately, they were slowly each other down. She started to pull away in the hopes that they might each do better on their own, but before she could separate, Danato scooped her into his arms. Neglecting to rely on his cane, he ran with her, wincing with every step.

She looked back over his shoulder and saw the uprooted outskirts of the town. A wide barrier of freshly upturned dirt circled the area they had just left. The village within remained intact—minus the repercussions of the tremors.

Danato came to a sudden stop and dropped her from his arms. As she caught her footing, he doubled over in pain. He leaned on his cane, hissing in agony.

Behind them the rumbling stopped and the vibrations ceased. Cori looked over the village. It was quiet. Only the distant sound of a few perturbed canines tainted its eerie stillness.

“Why—?” Before she could finish her sentence, the rumble of rock on rock filled the air and the undamaged village epicenter flipped. The buildings, the land, the entire contents turned over as if it were suspended on a hinge.

All that was left after the impossible transformation was vacant land. The snow was already accumulating on it, hiding any indication that something was missing.

Cori and Ethan gaped at the shocking event.

“What the hell was that?” Cori asked incredulously.

“Did they all just die?” Ethan asked.

“No, they just got moved with the town,” Danato answered.

“How do you even know that?” Cori asked, shivering in the snow.

“I just do. Don’t worry, they’re used to it.” Danato explained.

“Who gets used to
that
?” Cori pointed out to field before them.  

Danato looked at the empty space before turning his attention to her. He frowned and shook his head in disappointment. “You'll get used to the unbelievable soon enough. Let’s go.”

“I don’t know if I can walk any farther,” Cori said, looking at the soles of her feet. There were already dark patches of burnt skin. “My feet hurt so much. I don’t even know how many toes are still functional.”

“It’s not far,” Danato said.

Even as he responded, Ethan took off his shirt and ripped it in half. The weak worn cloth tore easily between his teeth. He ripped each piece again, leaving him with four long straps of fabric. He tossed two of them to Cori. “Wrap your feet with these.”

Cori stared at him a moment, unsure how to respond to the kind gesture. Danato offered the boy a small smile, as if he were proud of his clever chivalry.

She wrapped her toes as thickly as she could, to save them from a horrible death. She could see Danato watching her out of the corner of her eye, but she ignored him. Whatever his agenda was, she would deal with it later. She looked at Ethan, who was wrapping his feet just as carefully.

“Ethan, was it?” she asked. He looked up at her and nodded. “Thanks. Nobody’s ever given me the shirt off their back before.”

Ethan smiled. He was cute, but the slight sparkle in his eye, as innocent as it was, made her look away. “What’s your name?” he asked.

“No reason to get into all that now.” She smiled apologetically. “I don’t know how long I’ll be with you guys.” Cori looked at Danato, who was making no effort to hide his gawking.

He took in a deep breath, and rose to his full height. “I’ve already offered you your last chance at freedom.” The grit in his tone matched the determination on his face. “The only options left now are slavery or freezing to death.”

She looked around, searching for some identifiable features in the landscape. Anything to disprove his allegation.

“It's barren arctic tundra, nearly a hundred miles in every direction.” Danato pointed out. Her brow dipped in confusion. “You're in Russia, sweetheart,” he clarified.  

She shook her head in disbelief. She was beginning to feel the full impact of her decision to follow them. There was no one around to rescue her. No road to guide her home. No shelter to protect her from the cold. Her options were just as he said: slave or Popsicle.

3

Slaves.

That’s what Danato had resorted to.

Without an heir of his own, it was the only remedy for his failing legacy.

Despite his objections to the endeavor, he still found himself lumbering through the snowdrifts of the kola peninsula with not one, but two indentured servants.

As conflicted as he was about the situation, the arguments had already been made for and against it. In the end, he still needed a successor, and it wasn’t a job that he could simply put out a classified ad for.

It was one thing to ask someone to move to the bitter climate of western Russia and work for virtually no pay or respect. It was a whole other thing to ask someone to completely give up their former life—including friends, family, and useful technology—just to support the secret agenda of protecting the world from violent supernatural creatures.

Yeah, that wasn’t a job bid he expected to get a lot of responses to.

On the other hand, a slave…

The rational part of him believed that he might be saving these young people. At the hands of a different buyer, the girl would be beaten and raped repeatedly, which he assumed, she had already been introduced to. The boy could arguably face a worse fate—depending on the proclivities of the buyer. Danato was not a cruel man, and would never harm them in such ways. However, he wasn't lying that they weren't going somewhere safe. After all, he could hardly call a place that houses criminal monsters safe.

He also wasn't lying that he didn't need the girl. He needed a young man to replace him when he was no longer able to perform the functions of his job. Ethan was young. Young enough to adapt to the strange new life that he was about to be introduced to. Danato could mold him into a man, the way his father would have if he were still alive.

The girl on the other hand...

Granted she wasn't more than five years older than him, but he could see the fire in her eyes. She might have been a headstrong woman before, but after this trauma, her distrust would make her downright problematic.

These were of course things he contemplated after he purchased the volatile woman. Had he not been entranced by the familiarity of her wavy blonde locks and rosy cheeks, he might have prevented this potential debacle.   

Danato glanced back at his new
employees
trudging through his tracks with barely bandaged feet. The girl was continuously scanning the horizon for evidence of civilization, but he knew there was nothing to find. Outside of overachieving hikers and seasonal fisherman on route to the ocean, this area was unpopulated. Ethan was positively vibrating since he had given up his shirt. It was a generous offering, one that Danato suddenly realized he had not matched.

Danato slipped off his wool trench coat and handed it to Ethan. “Here.”

Ethan only questioned the offering a moment before slipping it over his shoulders. He lifted the ample fabric for Cori to join him under, but she just shook her head.

“Don’t be daft; it's freezing out here.” Ethan tossed the black fabric over her shoulder. Danato could see her stiffen as Ethan tugged the fabric together, consequently pulling her closer to him. "Good?" Ethan asked and she nodded with glazed over eyes. She most likely would have preferred to keep her distance from the boy, but it was no doubt difficult to refuse the warmth it provided.

She looked up and locked eyes with Danato. For a moment, he saw what she had been hiding behind her anger. She was terrified. There was no doubt about her history. Yvette had brought her to a precipice. If she fell; she would break, and possibly never recover. The only question was if Danato was pushing her over or pulling her back.

He wanted so much to say something that would make her feel safe, but she wasn't going to trust anything that came from his mouth. Not yet anyway.  

"What's all this about?" A gravelly voice asked behind him.

Danato turned and saw his assistant, coming over the next snow drift.
At 56 inches, Belus was a tall dwarf. His tomato-red wiry hair and beard gave him the look of a Scottish terrier: cute, but only because he was small.

Despite his lesser size and rank, he was a formidable companion and Danato dreaded updating him. Belus was not likely to approve of his adjustment to their plan and Danato wasn’t going to like having to rationalize it to him.

“Please tell me you forgot how to count?” Belus's hoarse voice always made him sound like he had a cold. Twenty-plus years of smoking had taken its toll on his throat before he got the message that it wasn’t good for him. Danato had never taken up the habit, but when Belus finally quit he found that twenty years of second-hand smoke had left him just as cranky with nicotine withdrawals. That wasn’t the best month for either of them.

"And is that a girl?" Belus looked at the huddled mass of fabric behind him and the two inhabitants therein. His disapproving frown relaxed into a blank-faced stare as the girl looked up at him. After a pause, Belus shook away the  thoughts that had prompted his stare and turned his attention back to Danato. "What happened?"

"I had some money leftover," Danato explained. "I put it to good use."  

"Good use?" Belus narrowed his eyes. "If I recall correctly, you vehemently opposed this idea. Now instead of abducting one person; you have two."

"It's done. I can't change it now."

"Clearly. Do they have family?" Belus asked.

"The boy is an orphan. In and out of foster homes and juvenile detentions," Danato explained.

"How do you know about that?" Ethan asked.

Danato glanced back, noting the surprise on his face. "Yvette keeps good records on her acquisitions. She prefers orphans. The investigations don't last as long."

"The girl's mother is dead," Danato continued. "Her aunt was basically taking care of her, but she died rather recently." The girl glared at him, but didn't deny the details. When he looked back at Belus, he found the dwarf inspecting him for a loose screw in his brain.

“You say that as if you intend to keep her on. We need the boy, but what did you have in mind for her?”

“We’ll take her on as an employee. We could use more full-time help. Someone that we can train and don’t have to replace in six months.” Belus stared back at him. "We're already skirting the boundaries of morality here. I don't see why one more will make our path to hell any smoother." Belus still didn't respond. "If you have a better solution for this situation, please offer it. I’m already at my limit for underhanded deals today.”

Belus shook his head and looked around at the vast emptiness. “We could wipe her and let her go,” he said quietly.

Danato glanced back at the girl. It was true, that was an option. An option he had not offered her. “I think we could use her," he whispered back. "She'll be better off than she was.”

Belus examined him again. Whatever he found made his frown deepen. “We’ll take her then,” he said, dropping the argument entirely. “She’ll hate us for it, but at least this way, the boy will have a companion.” He nodded to the pair huddling under Danato’s coat.

Danato nodded. He was glad Belus was in agreement. He didn’t want to be the only one responsible for dragging two people into their strange and dangerous world against their will.