“Sometimes, to save the many, you must sacrifice the few.” He looked away then, a bitter smile crossing his face. “Jeb tells me I’m too soft and that my stubbornness is what keeps me from being a true leader. No, I don’t want anyone to die, to be left behind, but that weakness might get the whole group killed.”
“Zeke…” I wanted to tell him that was screwed up, that Jebbadiah Crosse was a cold, unreasonable, heartless bastard, but I couldn’t. Because, in some sad, twisted way, I agreed with him. Growing up in the Fringe, you came to accept hard truths. Nothing was fair. The world was cold, unforgiving, and people died. It was just the way things were. I didn’t like it, but the old man’s reasoning wasn’t unjustified.
Though I still thought he was a complete bastard.
“Anyway…” Zeke shrugged, giving me a small, embarrassed grin. “You’re welcome. And I’m glad you came back. It was a good thing, too—you got us off the road in time. Thank you for that.”
“Sure.” I paused, chewing my lip. Now seemed as good a time as any, but I wondered how best to bring it up. I opted for my usual dive right in approach. “Zeke…who’s Jackal?”
He stumbled, then looked at me sharply, blue eyes narrowing. I knew I had something and hurried on. “The men said Jackal was looking for someone. It’s you, isn’t it? Or the group.” I nodded to the people walking ahead of us. “Who is he, and what does he want from you?”
Zeke took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. Dropping even farther back, he gave the group a wary look, his eyes lingering on Jebbadiah up front. “None of them can know about this,” he murmured as I fell back to join him. “They don’t know who Jackal is, and it’s better that they remain oblivious. I’m the only one, besides Jeb, who knows anything about him, so you can’t mention his name to anyone, okay?” He closed his eyes. “And please don’t tell Jeb that I told you.”
I nodded. “Why the big secret?” I asked, frowning. “Who is this Jackal person, anyway?”
“He’s a vampire,” Zeke replied, and my stomach clenched. “A very powerful vampire. He leads a group of raiders all across the country, looking for us. The others think we just run into random raider gangs that want to hurt us. They’re terrified enough without knowing what he is. But Jackal is their king, and he’s been on our trail for a couple years now.”
“Why?”
“He hates Jeb,” Zeke explained, shrugging. “Jeb nearly killed him once, and he’s never forgotten it. So, he hunts him for revenge, but he’ll kill us all if he finds us.”
That didn’t make much sense. “So, you’re saying this vampire king is sending his raider army on a wild-goose chase all over the country, looking for one person who could be anywhere, all because he’s holding a grudge?”
Zeke looked away. I narrowed my eyes. “What aren’t you telling me?”
“I can’t say.” Zeke looked back, eyes pleading. “I promised Jeb that I wouldn’t tell anyone. I won’t break that promise, no matter what you say. I’m sorry.”
I believed him, which was strange. I’d never met a person who couldn’t be bought, cajoled or bribed, but Zeke seemed the type that, once he promised something, would take his secrets to the grave. Still, it was frustrating, being left in the dark. Especially if the dark had a powerful vampire king lurking close by.
I cast about for another topic, another way to extract his carefully guarded secrets, but something else he’d said caught my attention. “Wait a minute,” I muttered, frowning at him. “You’ve been wandering around, looking for Eden, for a couple years?”
“I think…” Zeke paused a moment, brow furrowed. “I think this summer will be our third year. Or is it our fourth?” He raised one lean shoulder. “It’s hard to keep track, anymore.”
“And you still think Eden is out there?”
“It has to be,” Zeke said in a fervent voice. “If it’s not, all the lives we lost, the people who put their trust in us, it’ll all be for nothing.” His face clouded with pain, before he shook it off, his eyes narrowed in determination. “Every year, we get closer,” he said. “Every site we come to and it’s not there, that’s just one more step closer to finding it. Jackal and his gang, they’re out there, looking for us. But they won’t find us. We’ve come too far to be stopped now. We have to keep everyone’s faith alive. If they knew a vampire was hunting us, they’d lose hope. And sometimes, hope is the only thing that gets us through the day.”
He sounded very tired, and I could suddenly see the terrible burden he carried, the weight of responsibility far beyond his years. I remembered the way his eyes had gone dark when I asked why the group traveled at night, the look on his face as he recalled something terrible. Death had marked him, the lives lost weighed on him; I could tell he remembered each and every one.