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The world is getting smaller every year. No one is as aware of this as a vampire. The old ones once viewed their countries as the world itself. The young ones watched the world expand as they grew up and then rapidly shrink as technology brought it closer together.
A war hundreds of miles from Zack Henderson may as well be beating down his door. Tensions are rising between humans and vampires in the Americas. The safety of his family can no longer be assured. When one crisis comes to a lull, another rolls into town, bringing everyone in its wake to their knees. Zack finds himself far from home, trying to discover if a villain can also be a hero. If he cannot, is it enough to save the world even if it is too late to save himself?
World
of Lost Souls
H.S.
Kallinger
Book
six of The Lost Humanity series
Chapter One
“There
has to be something
I can do!” I appealed to my husband regarding the chaos in Oakland.
It was all my fault, and I was terrified that I was going to get
someone I greatly respected and liked killed. She had been seriously
injured the night before according to the report I was waving in
emphasis.
“The
only intervention allowed is to call Kim a failure and remove her
from her post, humiliating her,” he snapped. “Do you have so
little faith in your decision? In her?”
“It's
not that. But isn't this like them saying they don't trust my
judgment? Can't I even go down and support her?”
“No.
It is them testing her to see if she can hold them. And this is the
last time you will bring it up. I am sick of hearing it!” His eyes
flashed at me, the blue chased back by his pupils, threatening.
“Oakland's internal war has darkened all of April, and I am done
listening to you whine about it. It will play itself out. Stand by
your decision, or pull her out and place Tyrone Moss in charge.”
“Tyrone
isn't the right person for the job,” I argued, setting down the
tablet with the casualty report. No one had died this week, not
permanently, but it had been a near thing last night.
“Who
is?” Lukas demanded.
“Kim,”
I answered weakly.
“Then
shut up and let her do her job,” he said. I opened my mouth, but
his eyes narrowed, and I dropped the subject.
“I
heard that Soto found a place in the Mexican Vampire Army as a
lieutenant and already has a platoon assigned to him,” I told him,
hoping, again, that I had made the right decision with Kim. If I had
made a mistake, she would have to step down... or die.
“Yes?”
Lukas's expression changed, and he relaxed a bit.
Frank
Soto's departure at the beginning of the month for the war in Mexico
had been the catalyst for my current angst. When Mexico had initially
withdrawn from the Truce in January, Soto had petitioned for leave to
fight in the ensuing war between humans and vampires, but Lukas had
denied the first request. When things were obviously not improving,
he had let our Oakland guard captain go, leaving me in the unhappy
position of replacing him. Kim Oswald had been a controversial
choice, as there were many higher ranked options, but she was the
best.
“That
is good news. He had hoped to get an officer commission in the
infantry. He has the experience.” Lukas's eyes were unfocused, far
away. He had been chafing at domesticity lately, and it wasn't hard
to guess why. With war so close, the itch to fight and the concern
that it would spread here had to be eating at him. After all, if
Mexico, which had signed the Truce only five years after the US,
could back out over the war brewing to their south, what was to stop
us from joining our own southern neighbors?
South
America had always been divided on it. Venezuela, Peru and Chile
outright refused to adopt it, while Argentina had gone back and forth
for 50 years. Brazil had signed it in the early 90s. The west coast
of the continent was fighting for control, and it wasn't going well
for the humans.
“I
finished fixing the last details on Bonnie's house,” Sarah
announced, turning away from the computer. She let out a loud,
relieved sigh. “That's it. No more corrections. You can submit it
to the contractors whenever.”
“Your
last plans were fine, you know,” I said, giving our wife a fond
smile. She shrugged.
“My
best friend deserves better than 'fine,'” Sarah said. “Now it's
the best. Or the best I can do anyway.”
“The
best that you can do is better than most,” Lukas said absently.
Sarah shot him a nervous look and swallowed. He gave himself a little
shake and turned to smile at her. It didn't make it to his eyes, but
he was trying. “Shall we hunt to celebrate?”
“Pulse
again?” Sarah asked. She stood up at the same time he did.
“If
you are not tired of it,” he said tonelessly.
“Lead
the way,” she said, her smile weak. He finally snapped out of it
and walked over to kiss her. She took a shaky breath and let it out.
“If
St. John gets here before you're back, I'm going to go ahead with
him,” I informed Lukas. I picked up my laptop, needing to do my
homework before it got any later.
“Ask
Garret to sit in the main house in case the children need anyone.”
Lukas was staring intently at Sarah's face as he spoke to me, and I
wondered what was going through his head. Was he reminding himself
not to neglect her for the sake of their previously damaged
relationship? Was he reminding himself why he didn't just pack up and
go fight? Both? Neither? More? Ugh. He was frustrating me so much.
“I
will,” I agreed, though I would have done so anyway. My spouses
walked over to kiss me good-bye before they left. I had eaten enough
earlier not to need to do so again.
I
didn't wait to text Garret and ask him to join me. He was sitting on
the couch with me in less than two minutes, curled up with a book. He
had moved into the guest house as soon as Ann St. John and her kids
moved back home. He kept sending Bonnie rent money since he bailed on
their lease, but she didn't seem to mind, especially when Lukas
brought up building her a house. He didn't get to finish explaining
before she had enthusiastically agreed.
Her
dad had reacted as badly as she feared to Garret and had refused to
speak to her until he moved out. She hadn't ever brought up that she
was bisexual and now planned to keep it to herself for the rest of
his life. She had told her mom—who I never got to meet—and she
took it well but agreed that she shouldn't tell her dad. He was
friendly again since she had assured him that Garret had moved out.
By
my birthday earlier this year, Lukas had five new houses planned on
our road. We had gotten the malfunctioning security system repaired,
and Lukas had the whole house inspected for any sort of tampering.
Thankfully, no one took advantage of the lapse in our coverage. Once
we were as safe as we ever were once again, we started inviting
people to build up our neighborhood. My mom appreciated the offer,
but she had several friends on her street and was comfortable there.
Vincent had been invited, but he wanted to continue learning autonomy
for now. He also liked the real relationship that he and Lukas were
developing. Lukas vacillated between enjoying it and being irritated
by it.
Filomena
teased us about not inviting her to move in, but she loved her
privacy too much and was not particularly fond of children. Samiya
thanked Lukas for not putting her in the uncomfortable position of
declining. She was even more private than Filomena.
Lukas
was considering a pet house to keep food nearby, but his annual
budget was already in the red. He offered Katelyn her own house as a
courtesy, but we all knew she'd decline. She liked being a live-in
nanny.
Nate
grumbled at me for not inviting him, so I did. I think he just wanted
the opportunity to say that he didn't want to be surrounded by
vampires. That was why I hadn't invited him in the first place, of
course. Julian would have loved having Noah always nearby.
Construction
had started in March. St. John's house was the biggest, as Lukas
insisted on giving him enough room to grow his family. He had a two
story, four bedroom Italian style house in the works. Ann cried when
she saw the plans for it. They were living in a two bedroom
apartment, and she hadn't ever expected to have a full house to
themselves. St. John couldn't protest after seeing her reaction.
After
Ann's visit, Lukas had talked to St. John about Sarah's idea to move
everyone in closer together. St. John was in favor of it. While he
supported the prevention of ghetto formations and easy mass-capture
endeavors, he was uneasy living so far out from any other vampires.
He also didn't feel Ann was protected enough when he was on patrol,
especially since she was pregnant again. She'd found out while he was
out of town. Talia was going to be a big sister this June.
Everyone
else was getting two bedrooms. Garret and Bonnie were getting two
bedrooms each for future pets. The fifth house had a yard situated
50' away from the rest of us and was for Adam and Polly. They were
moving out here to help with Julian and be close to Garret. Adam
didn't mind where he was as long as he had the buffer of space from
other people's heads, and Polly missed Garret too much to turn down
the offer.
They
were both coming over illegally, but with their gifts and Lukas's
money, immigration wouldn't be a problem. Ten minutes looking at US
immigration stuff gave me enough of a headache to never want to deal
with it. I assumed they felt the same way. I had no clue there were
so many applicants. Garret had at least a twenty year wait before he
could legally become a citizen if he was doing it by the book.
Nicky
and Crystal wanted a small Spanish Eclectic style house. Bonnie's
second bedroom would also allow for her family to visit occasionally.
She told Sarah to go wild designing something contemporary and artsy.
Garret wanted a cottage style with a tower on the side like on the
castles back home. Both he and Bonnie wanted balconies with entrances
to the house and master bedrooms on the top floor.
Sarah
based her plans for Bonnie's house on the three others. She gave it a
covered porch located under the main house. The master bedroom could
only be accessed from the outside balcony, which she set up
higher than most vampires could jump and covered with a downward
swoop of curved roof so one couldn't just jump down to it. You had
to be able to fly to get into it. You couldn't tell it wasn't a
window from the ground, which made the balcony look decorative. She
could use the second bedroom for booty calls or if she was too
damaged to fly.
I
had to admit that I was excited and happy to watch the houses go up.
The idea of having our flock close together appealed to me more than
I'd realized it would. I squeezed Garret's leg affectionately, and he
patted my hand. If I didn't need to get this damn homework done
tonight, I probably would have dragged him off to the bedroom by now.
Not that I minded just cuddling while we did our own things, but all
this flock togetherness had me running on a high. Until the Kim
situation, no one had been able to bring me down, not even Mr. Battle
Itch.
“You
done wi' that yet?” Garret asked.
“Almost.
I was just thinking that it was too bad we don't have time to
disappear for a bit,” I told him.
“To
bed or out of town?” he asked, closing his book on the scrap of
green ribbon he was using for a bookmark.
“Bed,”
I answered as I saved my work.
“We
could be late gannin over to the house,” he said, shooting me a sly
smile.
“No,
no. I want to do some physical work to get my mind out of Oakland,”
I said, shaking my head. He sighed.
“Not
Oakland again,” he muttered.
“I
have guilt!” I protested. He shook his head and rolled his eyes.
“Aye,
aye,” he said, patting my hand again. “I've the kids tonight?”
“Yeah.
I got on Mia about her grades earlier, so watch out for attitude,”
I warned him.
“Is
Eva still sulkin' like?” He glanced at the hallway to the rest of
the house. The kids had already finished their homework and could be
heard playing. Eva's school performance had shot up after her bully
was gone. Her therapist had let us know that she had finally unloaded
everything that she was keeping to herself. She spent the next couple
months with double her usual therapy and got an award at the end of
the semester for being the top in her class.
At
Mia's parent-teacher conference, they told us that she wasn't
thriving in her environment. They already taught to the student's
ability, not age, but they had wanted to move her up a grade. She
wasn't doing anything at a kindergarten level—including
socializing. Her comments to the CPS caseworker turned out to be
understatements.
I
hadn't realized that none of the kids at her party were from her
class at school. She didn't have a single friend in her homeroom
class. She had a few in her upper level classes, though. They were
the kids at her party, along with those she had been friends with for
years.
We
thought it sounded fine, but Mia freaked out. She cried that she was
already weird and that skipping grades would just make her stand out
more. It took a week, but Jamie convinced her to at least try it for
a month. It wasn't an instant success. For the first time since she
started school, she had come home crying that she didn't want to go
back.
Sarah
was upset enough by the situation to suggest homeschooling her, but
Jamie and I both pointed out that she wasn't being picked on. She
just didn't have very good social skills, and pulling her out of
school wasn't going to help with that. She was too used to Eva
helping her make friends. Now she had to do it on her own. The fact
that she already had a few proved she was capable.
It
was still hard watching her struggle. Thankfully, it didn't take the
whole month before she adapted and was excited for school again. The
teacher had us in for a conference at the end of the trial period to
report on her progress. Part of skipping involved an IQ test to be
certain she was within their guideline threshold for doing so, so we
were given that information as well.
The
principal told us that she would definitely qualify for the Gifted
and Talented Education program at our public school, but since that
school stopped at 6th grade, she would be in an
educational gap if she continued on her current curve. Her school
went to 8th grade, and then parents decided to either
continue on to the connected high school or transfer to public
school. The high school only had night hours, so it was our first
choice, but it wasn't necessarily best for the daytime students. We
didn't need anything else to confirm that she was in the right
school.
After
that, Eva needed repeated reassurance that she wasn't either dumb or
a disappointment just because she wasn't skipping grades like her
sister. We reminded her that she was in several classes past her
grade, too. Having Mia in her reading class was bothering her now,
though. That distressed Mia, and her grade started slipping. We knew
it would just take time for the adjustment and were doing our best to
be patient.
“Not
really,” I answered. “Eva hasn't brought it up in days. I think
she's almost over it, but Mia hasn't regained her confidence yet.”
“Bloody
ridiculous,” Garret muttered. “It's a small school. It's naught
against her that they have to share classes. Mia's all about books.
Makes sense she's readin' so far ahead of her age.”
“I
think Eva's finally figured that out,” I said, flicking his arm.
“Remember that Eva fell behind because she was being bullied. It's
not like she can just magically make up for the time lost. As hard as
she's trying, she's still got to get there the hard way while
recovering from all that.”
“And
Mia earned her place in that class fair and square and shouldn't be
sufferin' from her sister bein' jealous like,” Garret said, poking
me.
“I
can be sympathetic to both my daughters at the same time, you know,”
I pointed out. Garret shrugged and nodded.
“I
guess I'm still narked Eva never told none of us what was happenin',”
he admitted. “And don't think I didn't notice when I sudden wasn't
bein' asked to watch the kids no more. You thought it coulda been
me.”
“Not
really,” I muttered, suddenly tense. I remembered Lukas's comment
that Garret would disappear for weeks if he knew that we had
suspected him in the least. He sighed.
“I
wouldn't hurt one of those bairns to save my own life,” he said
softly, and touched my face. I relaxed.
“I
know,” I answered, covering his hand with my own.
“I
hope you do.” He kissed me. Then he rested his chin on my shoulder.
“I've still got that bastard's fangs.”
I
sat back and stared at him in shock. I hadn't pursued information on
who'd torn apart Jerrod Miller, the father of the boy who'd hurt Eva.
The son of a bitch had been biting his own son. I knew Lukas hadn't
done anything, but it hadn't occurred to me that Garret might. He
raised an eyebrow. A harsh breath of laughter escaped me, and he
smiled darkly. It made me think of the slow, vicious smile St. John
had given me when I mentioned that Diarmad was plotting revenge
against New York. It reminded me of how glad I was that he was on our
side. Apparently, the same could be said of Garret.
All
St. John had told me about New York was that Robyn was as twisted as
Nicky had said, and he was never going near the upper east coast
again. He had returned no worse for wear but refused to even look at
Filomena for a while. He had brought back something very
interesting: a new therapist for me and Jamie. Specifically, he had
used his temporary connections to find a psychologist that worked off
the record with vampire criminals.
After
a very thorough check by Lukas, I suddenly had someone I could talk
to about everything I had done. He did a lot of the same stuff
Jamie had, but I still felt better afterward. I wasn't about to leave
my first counselor, though. He had been with me through too much, and
I preferred him for my trauma issues and depression.
I
was able to finally speak to St. John about that, since it hadn't
been an option at the prison. I originally tracked him down to thank
him for the referral, but we ended up going on patrol together and
chatting quite a bit. Ann's visit had been peaceful. Julian was on
his best behavior for two whole weeks in deference to Talia. He
chewed out his sisters whenever he was worried that they were being
too rough around her, brought out all of his toddler-safe toys for
her to play with and didn't try to escape once. Ann had told her
husband that she missed us as much as Julian missed them.
A
knock came at the door, and I kissed Garret one last time before
trotting over to answer it.
“Lukas
is out eating,” I told St. John as I stepped outside. He nodded,
and we walked together to the lot where his house was being
constructed.
“Can
I ask you something?”
“Oswald
will be fine. You made the right choice,” St. John answered, making
me laugh.
“No,
I was wondering how likely you thought it would be that we end up
involved in the war,” I said. “I can't ask Lukas. I think he
wants to run off and fight in it.”
“Ah.
Hmm,” St. John stopped and looked at the framework for his future
house. “I fear it is likely. I hope it is not. The last war that
found me with a family stole them from me.”
“I
think we're why Lukas is so moody,” I commented.
“He
is worried for his family,” St. John mused. He nodded. “That
explains much.”
“Right?”
I said and blew out a frustrated breath. We continued to the
house-to-be and set to work being useful. I was sure the energy Lukas
was expending in personally working on building the houses was the
only thing keeping him as level headed as he still was. I couldn't
imagine how insufferable he would have been if we didn't have this
project. So I was happy when he caught up with us and we were all
working together at building our neighborhood.
For
all his faults, I still loved him as intensely as ever. It was why
I'd asked him to become my husband legally... and made the mistake of
telling my mom about it. When she demanded a wedding and I explained
that we weren't planning one, she yelled at me for half an hour about
how selfish eloping was. Now that she didn't hate Lukas anymore, she
was in a place to enjoy our wedding, and she'd be damned if we took
that away from her.
I
whined about not wanting another anniversary to remember or to have
to wait until July—our anniversary was July 21st—and
she pointed out that the anniversary would be there whether we had a
ceremony or not.
Unable
to argue with her, we planned another small ceremony at the beginning
of December. 'Planned' was the operative word, because I made another
mistake in bitching at Steve and Nate about my mom demanding it, and
they bitched at me for trying to exclude them. Nate surprised me with
that, but he just shrugged and said friends went to each other's
weddings and got free booze.
Still,
it had been nice, and Lukas did seem to enjoy any excuse for a
celebration, and celebrate we did. He didn't even wait for all the
guests to leave before dragging me off to bed.
Lukas
caught me staring at him and returned it, again leaving me wondering
what was going through his head. Neither of us asked the other why we
were spacing off before we broke eye contact and went back to work.
At least our goals were aligned.
When
the work crew called it quits for the night, we headed home. St. John
invited me to go hunting, but I still wasn't hungry, so I was able to
turn him down in favor of returning to Garret. It was Monday, so I
would barely have time with him for the next several nights between
his job as a courier and my nursing school.
Vincent
was waiting for Lukas when we got back, sitting as far away from
Garret on the couch as he could get. Garret was ignoring him for his
book, and Vincent was sketching something in a large pad of paper.
They both stopped and turned to smile brightly at us. I looked around
for Sarah.
“Where's—”
I started, but a sudden, loud thud and explosive swearing drifted out
from the direction of her art studio, answering my question. “Ah.”
“I
do wish she would not throw solid marble at the wall,” Lukas
muttered. “I may have reinforced the walls for vampires, but the
light paneling can still be damaged.”
“She
gets super pissed when she does that,” I agreed. “I'm not
saying anything to her about it, though.”
“I
am not that stupid, either,” Lukas said with a snort.
“I
wish she'd go back to painting. This sculpting phase hurts my ears,”
I added.
“When
you have something in your mind, you have to get it out,” Vincent
said.
“Garret!”
Sarah yelled from her studio. He snickered and stopped sitting
twisted around on the couch. “That isn't funny!”
“What
did you do?” I asked.
“Can't
prove I did aught,” he said, his shoulders still shaking with
amusement. He was not above using his telekinesis for pranks. Often
childish ones, too. The studio was pushing his range, but only just.
“You both home for the night?”
“What's
left of it,” Vincent said. Lukas raised an eyebrow and made his way
over to his lover.
“Are
you feeling neglected?” he teased. A tiny bit of pink colored
Vincent's face as he smiled sheepishly. Lukas crawled onto him, and
Garret turned to me expectantly. “Let me remedy that.”
I
stalked off toward the bedroom when Lukas and Vincent started being
annoyingly lovey dovey, knowing Garret would follow. Sarah was busy,
after all. Near Christmas, Lukas had asked me and Sarah to sleep with
Jamie so he could have Vincent stay the day. Since then, Vincent had
stayed over several times, but we only got kicked out the one day.
Lukas also no longer stopped himself from telling Vincent that he
loved him, and sometimes they annoyed me.
I
began taking the ensuing aggression out on Sarah... in bed. She liked
that quite a bit. Lukas had finally regained his confidence and
started playing with her again, too. The counselor definitely helped.
Since Sarah's threshold was so high, she had told him that it was the
connection with behavior manipulation that he needed to watch. He
didn't appreciate my snarky 'duh.' They were happy again, and that
was what mattered most. So, her relationships were back on track
again, and she and I had done some important talking, leading to an
increase in time together that we both needed. But when she was in
her studio, Garret would certainly do.
He
seemed to like my aggression just as much.
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