Son of Sun, page 16
“Then what?” Al said. “You keep Jude with you forever?”
“The mountain is the safest place for a vampire,” Julian said. “But once his transformation is complete, it will be up to Jude to decide where he wishes to live.”
“And if the Woodlands have been melted by the spider before Jude’s turned into a full nightwalker,” Rebecca said, “you’ll just have one more for your ranks and one less to be counted among my dead.”
“You’ll have one more alive and fighting on your side,” Julian said. “Nightland will stand with the Woodlands.”
“How?” Rebecca blew life into the embers, sparking a blaze that danced against the backdrop of the setting sun.
“We have to talk to Emanuel before we can do anything,” Jeremy said. “He’s the one who controls Nightland. He needs to know what Nallot can do.”
“He’ll never let any of you leave the mountain again,” Rebecca said.
“He will,” Nola said. “Even if it means breaking every pane of glass in the domes, we have to stop Salinger. There’s no other way out. Not for us. Not for the people on the highway. We have to fight.”
The weight of Jeremy’s arms wrapped around her did nothing to stop Nola’s hands from shaking.
“I hate to agree with you,” Julian said, “but I don’t think there is any other choice. The domes have chosen to wage war on all who survive outside the glass. If we hide, we allow them to slaughter more innocent people. They’ve proven themselves to be horrible monsters. We can’t turn our back on that sort of terror and have any hope of retaining our souls.”
Jeremy clutched Nola closer to his chest. “We have to find a way across the river, and a place for the vampires to go to ground close enough to the domes to stage an attack.”
“If I can do that, you’ll fight with us?” Rebecca stood, dusting the soot off her hands.
There is no way across the river. There is no shelter big enough to hide the vampires of Nightland.
“Fight how?” Stokes asked.
“Emanuel will have to give the order,” Julian said.
Jude gave a rattling gasp that shook his whole body.
“Jude.” Al gripped Jude’s sweat-slicked hand. “We’re talking about attacking the domes, Jude, so wake the hell up.”
“Give him the shot.” The words stole the breath from Nola’s body. “We can’t stand here talking while he dies.”
“No.” Julian pulled open the top of Jude’s shirt. “Though, from experience, it is easier to inject someone who has already lost consciousness.” He raised the needle over Jude’s chest. “It might not lessen the pain of changing, but having a still target does make my job much easier.”
In one swift movement, he plunged the needle into Jude’s heart.
Jeremy gasped, tightening his arms around Nola.
“It’s okay,” Nola whispered.
Jude took a shuddering breath, and screamed. His pale fists clenched. The muscles in his neck bulged.
“What the hell did you do to him?” Al leapt to her feet, aiming her gun at Julian.
“ReVamp is not a kind drug,” Julian said, “but it will save his life.”
A moan escaped Jude’s lips as he began to writhe on the ground.
“Is this what happened to me?” Nola asked. “I remember not being able to move—”
“You didn’t.” Jeremy shook his head. “You were so still I thought I was too late.”
Nola kissed Jeremy’s cheek. “You weren’t. I’m still here.”
With a gasp, Jude went still.
“Is it done?” Stokes asked.
“He won’t wake for several hours,” Julian said. “Frankly, I don’t envy what he’s feeling trapped inside his body right now, but all of our ReVamp is made by Dr. Wynne, who the domes so graciously tossed into the outside world. The batch is good. Jude will wake up. I think it best if we are far from here by that time.”
“Right.” Al laid Jude’s hand on his chest. “You’re right.”
Julian pulled off his sun suit, carefully folding the material and sliding it back into his pack.
“What if you don’t make it by sunrise?” Stokes said. “Are you going to leave him out to die?”
“We’ll find a place to hide,” Jeremy said. “We aren’t the domes, Stokes. We don’t believe in murder.”
Julian lifted Jude, draping the unconscious man over his shoulder.
“One of my people will come to you,” Rebecca said. “The one I send to the ledge will speak with my voice. I’ll deliver the path to ending the domes.”
“We will be waiting for them.” Julian gave a nod.
“If they don’t come,” Stokes said. “If that bastard gets all of us—”
“We’ll still break through the glass,” Jeremy said. “Salinger isn’t staying in there with your granddaughters.”
“Then run,” Stokes said. “Get Jude to safety before the sun comes back.”
“Travel well.” Julian skirted around the fire and out into the night.
“Stokes,” Jeremy said, “if you find my sister, keep her with you. Don’t let her disappear.”
Stokes nodded. “That girl was one hell of a fighter. I’ll try to get her on our side.”
Say something. Say that I’m sorry for the girls who are still trapped behind the glass. That Lilly was right to leave, even if it got her killed. That Stokes was right to take the people he could. To try and save one small part of the domes, even if the rest are doomed under Salinger’s rule.
Say I’ll fight even if it’s against my own mother. That Jude will be strong and able to fight again soon.
Nola met Stokes’ gaze. He didn’t say anything as Jeremy led her past the fire and out into the night. Neither did she.
The brightness of the flames hid the inside of the cave from view.
“This way.” Julian took off, running through the trees.
Nola tore her eyes from the fire, not bothering to ask if Jeremy wanted to be second in their line.
Running felt better than the slow pace they’d been forced to keep before.
When the unchanged humans ran in our line.
The air moved easily in and out of her lungs. The stars provided enough light for her to be able to see the trees she tore past.
She could keep running for a day, maybe more. She and Jeremy could slip so far away Salinger would never find them, not even with his helicopter.
There would be no hope for T. No way to travel that fast with a baby.
We have to fight the domes.
The thought brought with it a terrifying certainty. There was no other way forward. No other path to a future for anyone beyond her and Jeremy. The Northerners wouldn’t be able to defend against an attack on their home and wouldn’t be fast enough to run away. The vampires of Nightland were defenseless during the day. Salinger could flood the tunnels of Nightland with Nallot, and, as long as the sun was in the sky, the vampires wouldn’t be able to flee.
But Jeremy and I could. I could protect him. Lead him far away where Salinger would never be able to hurt him.
She listened to the steady thumping of his boots on the ground behind her.
They could find a place with water and shelter. She could find a way to grow them food. They could figure out how to hunt.
And we would be the last people in this part of the world.
“Nola,” Jeremy said, “are you all right?”
“When it’s time to fight,” Nola said, “we’re going together.”
“Nola—”
“I wish I could make you hide.” Nola leapt across the banks of a frothy stream. “I wish we could live somewhere just the two of us where there’s nothing to be afraid of.”
“But neither of us could live with that.” Jeremy ducked around a tree to run by her side.
“So when it’s time to fight the domes, I’m coming with you,” Nola said. “I’m fighting with you.”
“I…” Jeremy took her hand, his pinky draping over her palm. “I will do everything I can to keep you safe. But I won’t take fighting the monsters from you.”
“I never thought I’d want to fight,” Nola said. “All I ever wanted was to help people. To make all the awfulness we’ve been stuck with stop.”
“We’re going to,” Jeremy said. “Maybe not the way we’d hoped, but we’re going to get Salinger the hell out of here.”
“Hear, hear!” Julian said. “I must say, in the years I’ve known the horror of what Salinger is capable of, I never thought I would be present at his downfall. I don’t know how Emanuel will take the news of Nallot or what his plan will be, but I look forward to ending this particular reign of terror.”
A reign of terror. And I was bred to be one of the monsters.
Nola tightened her grip on Jeremy’s hand.
They stayed behind Julian as he led them farther west. There was no path for them to follow, no sign of the Northerners living in these decaying woods. Twice they were turned back by cliffs too high to jump. But Julian kept running.
Neither Nola nor Jeremy questioned his route. The helicopter and Nallot had ruled out running to the river and following the path back to Nightland from the city. There was nothing to do but run and hope for a clear way to the mountains.
The heat of friction burned Nola’s feet, but the pain never progressed.
I should be bleeding. I should be damaged beyond repair.
Julian paused as they reached the top of a hill.
“Is Jude okay?” Nola asked, stopping next to Julian. “Do you need me to carry him?”
“I can carry the weight, Nola.” Julian stared east.
Nola followed his gaze.
In the depths of the decaying forest, a wasteland scarred the earth. A wide circle of death where nothing survived.
“If this is what humans insist on doing, I don’t blame the earth for trying to rid itself of us,” Julian said.
“It’s not all humans,” Jeremy said. “There are good people, and that’s who we’re going to fight to protect.”
Jude gave a shuddering gasp.
“If you can hear me,” Julian said, “I’m sorry for the bumpy ride, but I’m afraid we must keep going. I don’t know which will startle Emanuel more, our returning so quickly, or my jumping into the tunnel with a newly minted vampire over my back. We’ll find out soon enough, I suppose.”
Julian turned south, heading toward the silhouette of the mountains reaching up into the night sky. “We aren’t going to reach Nightland before dawn.”
“Then we’ll find a place to shelter,” Jeremy said. “We’ve made it far enough. I don’t think the Outer Guard are going to find us.”
“No,” Julian said. “I don’t think they will. However, Nightland itself could be found. If the Outer Guard are searching so far north, they may be turning their attention west of the domes as well. We would have had to leave Rebecca tonight even if Jude hadn’t been in need of another dose of ReVamp. If the Northerners found the path to Nightland, the Outer Guard could as well. If an Outer Guard were to capture a Northerner—”
“They could give up our home,” Nola said.
“I’ll get you as close to the entrance to Nightland as I can before the sun starts to rise,” Julian said. “You’ll have to find your own path from there.”
“We can do it,” Jeremy said.
“Tell Emanuel everything,” Julian said. “Make sure he knows to expect a Northern emissary and understands how much of a threat or ally the Northerners can be.”
Nola touched the hole in her shirt where the arrow had pierced her flesh. “We will.”
“Good.” Julian ran south toward the jagged outline of the mountains.
Chapter Twenty-One
Nola stood on top of the ridge, looking down at the uneven mound of earth far below.
“You know,” Jeremy said, “when we had all those classes in Green Dome on how to properly plant things, I never thought I would be using those digging skills to bury two vampires.”
Nola squinted down at the freshly turned earth. From this height, there was no hint of the two men hiding from the sun beneath the layers of dirt.
“I hope we dug deep enough,” Nola said.
“Julian said to go. We have to trust him.”
Nola looked toward the summit of the mountain. High above, a familiar divot marked the place where two peaks joined, sheltering Kieran’s garden. Taking a deep breath, Nola sprinted up the slope.
A faint fatigue pulled on her limbs.
Sleep. I’ll have to sleep soon.
The clatter of rocks beneath Jeremy’s feet followed her up the mountain.
What if Salinger’s found Nightland? What if everyone’s dead and we’re racing back to a tomb?
“Say something nice,” Nola said.
“What do you mean?”
Nola could hear the hint of a smile in Jeremy’s voice.
“I need to think about something other than the possibility of Julian bleeding from all over his body, or Nightland being flooded with Nallot.” Nola’s breath hitched in her chest. She pushed herself to run faster, tearing around the bend in the ridge and twisting to follow a new ridge east.
“Okay,” Jeremy said. “When all of this is over, you and I are going to run to one of these peaks just for fun. And we’ll lay under the stars and watch the heavens move, and we won’t be afraid of anything.”
“That sounds really nice.” Tears burned the corners of Nola’s eyes.
“It’s going to be amazing,” Jeremy said. “Every night I get to hold you in my arms will be amazing. And we’re going to have so many wonderful nights, Nola. We just have to keep fighting for a little while longer.”
“We can do it.” Rocks shifted under Nola’s foot. She leapt forward without thought, landing without breaking her stride. “You and me together, we can do it.”
“Absolutely we can.”
The ruins of the city came into view, nestled next to the banks of the rancid river. Nola’s gaze followed the path up from the city, through the woods and the field of brambles, up to a basin between two steep slopes.
“I see the path.” Nola veered off the ridgeline and onto the steep mountainside. Her feet barely touched the ground as she leapt down the slope.
Bang!
The sound caught her ears while she was midair. She twisted toward the noise, forgetting to keep her gaze on the ground beneath her.
“Nola!” Jeremy shouted as she hit the rocks below.
Instinct told her to fight for her footing, but the ground slipped away beneath her. A sharp stone cut into her arm as she tumbled down the slope. Her pack banged into her spine, knocking the air from her lungs.
“Nola.”
She caught a glimpse of Jeremy chasing her. She reached out and seized a rock, but the force of her fall pulled the stone from the mountainside, sending a cascade of rocks down on her.
Pain burst through the back of her head, stealing her vision. A crack sent a fresh wave of hurt through her leg.
The pain of stones pummeling her skin didn’t stop, but the ground beneath her held firm.
“Nola, are you okay?”
Hands pulled the weight away from her chest.
Nola gulped in a breath. Shifting her ribs even that small amount sent the agony in her head spinning.
“I’m okay,” Nola said. “I’ll heal.”
“Just hold still. Let me get the rocks off you.”
Nola blinked, pulling the gray stones back into focus. A rock the size of her pack pressed on her pelvis, pinning her to the tree that had stopped her fall. She lifted her arm, pushing her hair away from her face. Blood coated her skin, though the cuts had already begun to heal.
“What was that bang?” Nola asked.
“I don’t know.” Jeremy lifted away the stone that had pinned down her right leg. “It came from the east.”
“Nightland?”
“Farther away, I think,” Jeremy said. “We have to get to Emanuel.”
“I think I can walk.” Nola sat up, biting back her scream as pain shot through her stomach.
“I can carry you.”
“You have to be ready to fight.” Nola gasped as she put weight on her right leg. “We don’t know what the explosion was.”
I shouldn’t know what that noise means.
“Dr. Wynne might have to reset your leg.” Jeremy wrapped his left arm around Nola’s waist, taking most of her weight as they headed down the mountain. His gaze darted between Nola’s face, the path down the mountain, and the city far below.
“I don’t see any smoke,” Nola said.
“I’m not sure if that’s a good thing.”
The pain ebbed away from her pelvis as they reached the tree line. Signs of life marked the trees, things Nola wouldn’t have noticed before. Dirt piled at the base of a trunk where some small creature had dug its home. Bark torn away in patches large enough to feed a man-sized animal.
The basin appeared in the trees below, as welcoming as seeing the door to her home in Bright Dome.
“Do you think they know we’re coming?” Nola asked. “Have the guards spotted us?”
“I’ve never been sent to guard the tunnel. I don’t know what the sightlines are like.”
Nola shook her head. The movement blurred the edges of her vision. “As safe as Nightland is, it’s still not enough. I don’t know if it will ever be enough.”
“It won’t. Not until the domes are no longer a threat.”
Neither spoke as they walked into the clearing below the entrance to Nightland.
Nola scanned the trees, searching for any sign of a Northerner hiding in the branches. She took a deep breath, trying to catch the scent of human life.
“It’s Jeremy and Nola,” Jeremy said, his voice barely loud enough for vampires to hear. “We’re coming up.”
They stood frozen for a moment, Nola feeling foolish as she listened for a voice welcoming them home.
“Me first?” Nola whispered.
Jeremy bit his lips into a flat line.
“If there were Outer Guard waiting up there, they would have fired on us already,” Nola said.
“Can you jump it?” Jeremy asked.
Nola tested her weight on her leg. The pressure sent pain shooting from her ankle to her knee, but she stayed on her feet.
