chapter 20
The battle started before we even got down into the parking garage of the building, when I told Obi I needed him to stay with Cathy and take her home once she woke up. His protests were loud, angry, and laced with profanity. They were also ineffective. We had no idea what we would be walking into, and as tough as the former Marine had proven to be, he was still human. He would have been little more than a red-shirt out there, even more so once he had finished off his remaining forty something rounds. He gave up when Rebecca threatened to Command him. At least this way he could pretend it was his choice, he had said.
Merov’s... no, Rebecca’s private elevator led down into a secluded area of the garage, complete with its own attendants. They stood at attention when the doors opened, not even questioning Rebecca’s newfound authority. She led me out into a sea of luxurious excess.
There were at least thirty cars here, all of them washed, waxed, and primed for driving. They varied in size and shape, but I imagined none of them cost less than a hundred grand. They sat arranged by type in two rows on either side of the main aisle, sports cars, sport utility vehicles, sedans, and even a few that I couldn’t classify. Growing up in a city, I had never been a big car guy, but even the little bit I knew was enough to be impressed.
“We’ll take the Rolls,” Rebecca said to one of the attendants, an older vampire with long greying hair.
“Yes, mistress,” he said, dashing off to get the car.
“It’s not the fastest thing in here, but its armor plated,” she said.
I had a feeling we were going to need the protection. “How do they just know you’re the boss?” I asked her. I could hear the heavy growl of the car’s engine coming to life, and then I saw the headlights flick on.
“The transfer,” she replied. “They can feel the shift the same way you did. They just understand it better.”
“Have I told you how awesome I think you are,” I said to her.
The car rumbled up to where we were standing and the attendant popped out. He held the driver’s side door while the other one opened the passenger side.
“We’ll settle that later,” she said to me with a wink and a grin.
I wasn’t one hundred percent sure what she meant, but it didn’t sound bad. She tossed the blessed swords in the back seat and sank in behind the wheel while I circled around and hopped in on the other side, putting Boots’ weapon with the others. The attendants slammed the doors shut, and with a slight squeal of tires and roar from the engine we were off.
“What time is it starting?” I asked when we pulled out of the parking garage and onto the street. It was almost ten o’clock, which made the otherwise insane Manhattan traffic almost bearable.
“I don’t know,” she replied. “It can’t be too soon, or Merov would never have made it in time. I’m going to guess around one or two. It’s a three hour drive.”
I looked over at her, admiring the shape of her face in profile, her expression purposeful as she drove. I respected her for her strength and resolve, and for being so unequivocally willing to do this for an angel, her kind’s mortal enemies, just because she knew it was important to me. What the beautiful creature driving the car saw in me, I had no idea, but for some reason she wanted to be with me, to be on my side. It was insane, but despite everything I was happier in that moment than I had ever been before.
“You should rest,” she said. She snaked around the slower moving traffic with practiced ease. “I think we’re going to need everything you’ve got.”
The truth was, I felt good. “What about you?” I asked. “I’ve never driven before, but once we get out onto the open road I’m sure I can figure it out.”
One eye pivoted to look at me, and she laughed. “We’ll be dead before we get there,” she said. “I’m fine. Between your blood and the transfer, I don’t think I’ll need to rest for a while.”
We rode in comfortable silence, the interior of the car impervious to outside noise. There was so much I wanted to ask her, about the transfer, about demons, about Reyzl. I couldn’t bring myself to do it. The moment of peaceful companionship was just too appealing. I kept my eyes out the window, watching all of the people who turned their heads to stare, who tried to see through the vehicle’s tinted glass. What would they think if they saw us as we were, a vampiress and the bastard son of the universe? An image of pitchforks was the first thing that came to mind.
It took us about half an hour to get out of Manhattan and onto the George Washington bridge. I could sense Rebecca tense up when the car eased out over the open expanse of water, then relax after we crossed it. She breathed out a deep sigh on the other side.
“What’s it like?” she asked me then.
“What’s what like?”
“To be a human. To be so inferior and weak.”
I couldn’t help but smile. “Thanks Becca,” I said. Her head snapped to the right so she could look at me. “You don’t like being called Becca, do you?”
She tilted her head ever a tiny bit, smiled, then put her eyes back on the road. “It’s not that. I’ve never had anyone refer to me like that before. Like a friend.”
“I am your friend,” I told her. “It must be hard to have been ostracized by your people for thinking different. For trying to help them see the bigger picture.”
She stared straight ahead. “It has been lonely,” she admitted. “I never thought that I would achieve much more than being Merov’s laughable daughter, or Reyzl’s toy. Even the scientists who were working on the synthetic... I know they thought the project was an eccentric waste.”
“Now you’re the boss though,” I said. “That has to count for something.”
Rebecca sighed again. “I wish it were that simple. The family will follow me because it’s our way, but I expect that I’ll be challenged quite often, at least in the beginning. At least until they see that I’m not someone to be taken lightly.”
I reached over and squeezed her shoulder. “Nobody will take you lightly. Merov was a serious monster, and you destroyed him.” She didn’t look too sure. “Anyway, I’ll be with you.”
The engine roared as she accelerated past an eighteen-wheeler, flipping off the driver on the way past. “A*shole,” she shouted into the cabin.
I doubted the sound would be able to penetrate the armored walls, but the simple normalcy of the gesture made me laugh.
“Being human isn’t much different than that,” I said. “You just do your best to have some fun, stay sane, not be lonely, and navigate around all the a*sholes. ”
She was thoughtful for a minute, as if I had said something profound. “What about your family?” she asked. “Do you miss them?”
It occurred to me then that I hadn’t thought much about my family since returning from Purgatory. My mind wandered back to my mother, sitting in the kitchen reading a trashy romance novel and drinking tea. She had been a good enough mother, there for me when I needed her, a decent moral guide. It hadn’t been her fault I thought I was smarter than I was. She had supported me as best she could during the trial and my incarceration.
My father? He was there some of the time, gone the rest. He had popped back in and out of our lives a few times over the years, usually to have someplace to be when he couldn’t think of anywhere else. I didn’t know if he was even still alive. I had some extended family too, but I didn’t know any of them that well. It had just been my mother and I, and even so I wouldn’t say that I felt close to her.
“No,” I said after a long pause. “My mother is super religious. No offense, but I don’t think she’d approve of my choice of friends.”
We continued talking for the rest of the drive. It was simple, easy talk about everything and nothing. I learned about how she was raised, her first taste of fresh blood, how she came to be appalled by the way Merov killed humans so casually for food. I told her about my mortal childhood, my love of technology, my first kiss, the sadness I had felt when my dog Whisper had been hit by a car when I was nine years old. We were new friends and old friends at the same time, keeping each other good company while we drove through the night towards an uncertain future. I took comfort in knowing that there was nobody else I would rather have headed towards oblivion with, and that if oblivion did come at least I wouldn’t end alone.