The Coming Storm (11 page)

“Says the gay man who’s never been near boobs,” Julus snickered.

“No, but I do love her headlights and grill,” he groaned. “And her bullet proof covering. And how thick she is. And even her coloring. Oh baby. You’re all mine now. I will be so good to you. Love you. Please you always.”

Daniel made a few gagging noises. “I’m feeling a little sick.”

“Hey, I was doing this in private while you were humping Chicago. You intruded on
my
moment.”

Eric let out a chuckle and then Max did. They both looked at each other and then it kicked up several notches. After a few moments it got so bad they were holding their sides and leaning against each other for support. The rest of us just stared at them, even Seattle whose moment with his new woman was ruined by their outburst.

“Sorry, it just sounded so ludicrous,” Eric explained when they calmed down. “I mean the literalness of it. Seattle’s humping a Hummer and Director Fabian is humping Chicago.” And just like that, I got it. Yeah, they were not the first and definitely not going to be the last people to pick on our names.

“How did you get those names?” Max asked as he wiped his hands over his head.

“Our parents,” Milwaukee answered as he batted his eyelashes, his tone filled with sarcasm. “Why? Do vampires name themselves?”

“You know what I meant. Why did your parents name you after cities?”

“Our mom was alone when she gave birth to me,” Seattle answered, all the mirth leaving the air around us. We’d not told the story since they’d died. “Dad was on a business trip and couldn’t get home in time. They didn’t have pain meds back then and I guess I was big and a long labor, so she was wiped, completely out of it. When they asked her my name she told them Seattle because that’s where they made me.”

“They lived in Seattle then?” Max asked evenly, noticing the change in atmosphere as well.

“No, they went there on their honeymoon. Mom was mortified when she realized she named me that and told everyone at the hospital that. Dad had showed up by then and said he loved it. They both agreed I looked like a Seattle. The tradition stuck because it turned out all us were made during one of their romantic vacations. Funny how it did, but yeah, so they went with the names then.” He shrugged and glanced at the H2. “We should go. It’s a long drive.”

“You can joke around and still grieve, Seattle,” Julus said. His eyes showed the gentleness reflected in his words as he reached out to touch my brother.

“I know and we have but not when millions of lives are at stake. We’ve done too much of that today. It’s time to go.”

He was right. It was nice to forget the enormity of what we had to do, and I think we had all been stalling, but we couldn’t. We had to go save our world.

Wouldn’t any sane person try and stall that job?

We loaded up as Daniel and Max went over what they had stored in the gun holds… Yes the H2s had actual gun holds. Boston and Seattle looked thrilled, so I took it as a good sign. I was just happy about all the food. Daniel had quite a spread set up for us in two huge coolers.

Good, because I was starved! But it actually turned out he had several hot breakfast burritos ready for me and anyone else who wanted them even though it was lunch time, knowing we’d stayed up late. The man knew how to spoil someone that was for sure.

And then it was time to leave. I waved goodbye to Max and Eric as everyone else got in their designated vehicles before I approached Daniel.

“I pray your journey be safe and we meet again, dear Chicago,” he said as he trailed his fingertips down the side of my face before slowly lowering his lips to mine. I threw my arms around his neck and kissed him with all I had, telling him I hoped the same. When we pulled apart, I saw fear in his eyes that I knew was reflected in mine.

It wasn’t anything mushy like we were afraid this would be our last kiss, though that would suck. We were facing end of the world shit going on. Only an idiot wouldn’t be scared. And neither of us were that.

I hopped into the Hummer’s backseat, next to Aurelo, and glanced back at Daniel and the castle when we started to pull away.

“You okay?” he asked me under his breath, trying not bring my obvious anxiety into focus.

“Just trying to commit the image and moment to memory,” I answered as I kept staring, taking in every detail. “Even if we make it back here, it won’t be like this, and we all know it. He won’t be the same and neither will we, not with what’s coming. I just want to remember this moment and things like this.”

“Things could turn out for the better. Maybe our kinds coming into the open could be a good thing.”

I turned and looked at him then, accepting the breakfast he held out to me. “You don’t believe that for a moment, Aurelo. Please don’t give me any bullshit lines.”

“No, no, I don’t believe that,” he sighed as his head thumped back against the seat. “I’ve seen too much. In a world full of humans that hate each other for the stupidest reasons and themselves most times, they won’t accept us.”

“What do you mean?” Boston asked from the driver’s seat.

“In the past hundred years alone there has been so much hate. Whites hated blacks because they saw them as not equal. Blacks hated whites because they were oppressive, and some of that has changed, and most of the reasons, but there’s still lingering hate. Any religion can hate the rest and kill in the name of it when none of them really know the answer because they’re not god and to say they know as much as him is the true blasphemous sin.

“Even if any group doesn’t say they outrightly say they
hate
the other, there’s hate in their words and actions when they disagree or fight them saying they’re wrong. Democrats say Republicans are wrong. Some hate minorities. Women are still oppressed. Gays are hated by some and beaten for who they love, not allowed to marry who they love. Southerners sneer at those from the North at times over a war that has been over for how long now?

“So yeah, anyone who thinks that if vampires, shifters, fairies, and any other magical or mythical creature came out as real in this world they would be accepted is high or delusional. There would be no sunshine or rainbows, no teenage girls swooning to date the misunderstood vampire who hunts Bambi.”

“Because you guys don’t drink animal blood,” Orlando chuckled.

“Because we’re not fucking misunderstood,” Aurelo clarified. “And the reality is always harsher than the fantasy. I’ve always said that it’s not that there’s not intelligent life on other planets. On the contrary, in a vast star system and infinite planets out there, I think there is. They just won’t ever come here.”

“They don’t have the technology to?” I wasn’t sure where he was going with this.

He glanced at me with a raised brow. “No. They’re smart enough not to go to the
one
planet that would instantly blow their heads off just for showing up and not being human.”

“That is a very scary, very logical, and very valid point,” Orlando whispered.

Well shit. I bit into my burrito in silence, even more depressed now. I couldn’t help but wonder if this was how Seattle, Phoenix, Milwaukee, and Julus’s ride was going. Were we going to spend the next few days in morose conversation and end of the world talk?

Shoot me now if that’s what we were looking at.

“And on that note, let’s put on some music,” Boston said, cutting into our tense musings minutes later. I was all for a change in mood, because if this was how the road trip was going to go, we were going to be ready to slit our wrists at the end of it. Of course the tanks came equipped with all the bells and whistles.

Yes, I knew they were H2s, but they were bullet proof, had gun holds, and I’m sure more than that. I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if there was a damn James Bond panel that came out with weapons, Seattle had been so excited… So I would stick with calling them tanks.

He pushed some buttons on the radio, muttering that he’d never seen a system that was hooked directly into someone’s iTunes or something and that the selection was killer. Then he got that shit-eating grin of his and selected a song before focusing back on the road. It took me only a moment to recognize the song but I wasn’t even the first one to comment.

“You’re sick, you know that, right?” Orlando asked in a serious voice as he stared at Boston in disbelief. “Who fucking plays something like that when we’re on a mission to save the lives of millions from being slaughtered by humans?” I tended to agree with him. Imagine Dragons’s
Radioactive
didn’t really seem appropriate considering it was all about the apocalypse and the destruction of everything.

“Someone who knows we’re going to be successful and come out the other side of it.” I felt a sliver of hope at the conviction in his voice. If anyone would know more about this type of situation than me, it would be Boston. “I’ve been in bad situations, guys. Ones I didn’t think I’d live through. You either worry it to death and it consumes you, or you acknowledge the elephant in the room and conquer the bitch.”

“Your brother’s right.” I glanced at Aurelo and saw him nodding with approval. “Get the doubts out and move on. You said not to give you bullshit, so fine. This will suck. Nothing will be the same and some of us might not make it out of it alive. But all is not lost. We aren’t without hope and we have an advantage they won’t think of.”

“I’ll bite,” Orlando chuckled. “I could use some good news after that. What’s the advantage?”

“Humans are notorious for underestimating others,” Boston answered. “They will see us as freaks of nature and thus not worthy of life and weaker. That will be their mistake. You guys haven’t seen as much as Aurelo and I have. There are so many mother fucking powerful paranormals out there.”

“I saw Director Fabian take out ten humans in barely the blink of an eye once,” Aurelo muttered as he smoothed out his shirt as if the information might not be welcome to me. “It was a long time ago and things were different but bad people were the same. We went to visit his sister on the east coast and were eating at an inn. Turns out there was a human who was upset by her denying his repeated advances.

“When she went to use the restroom, he and some friends accosted her. Of course we heard after her first cry of outrage. Before she could even tear into them, Director Fabian turned into mist, flew out to her, and sucked them all dry. They had all gathered to watch the show, drunk and thinking that beating a woman who had done nothing more than chose who she should be with during that time was acceptable.”

“Then he was nicer than I’d have been,” Boston said in a cold tone that almost made me shiver. “I would have strung the fuckers up and castrated them before bleeding them slowly. You never hurt the weaker.” He must have realized how that sounded because his head snapped to the review mirror and looked at Aurelo before the road again. “I didn’t mean Fabian’s sister is weak or women in general. I just meant to them she was and anyone is weaker than ten on one.

“She could have taken them of course being a vampire, but they didn’t know that. They attacked her thinking she would be easy prey and that’s unacceptable is what I mean. If you and I got into it, fine, we’re about evenly matched. I’m not going to beat on Chicago.”

“Because I’m weaker than you,” I supplied.

“Right.” I turned away and looked out the window as if he’d smacked me as Aurelo growled quietly. “Fuck, just shoot me. That’s not how I meant it.”

“No, it’s fine. I get it.”

“No, you don’t,” Orlando explained as he turned around and tenderness shone in his eyes. “I get what Boston is trying to say and royally screwing up. Physically you are not as strong as him, Chicago. You’re smaller, but it’s not even that. You don’t work out. You don’t have any weapons or fighting training. He does, having worked for the PP. He’s saying it would be an unfair fight and you don’t fight when it’s stacked like that.”

“Yes, that’s what I meant.” I could hear the grief in Boston’s tone that he’d upset me. “It’s not a judgment against you as a person, Chicago. I think as a man you’re stronger than me. I might physically be able to best you but that big brain of yours saved us all. How cool is that? A hundred other people could have been downloading what you were and never noticed those file names. They would have let it go right past them. And adapting to the situation like that? Nope, couldn’t have done it.”

“Okay, you’re forgiven,” I chuckled as I tossed the wrapper of my now finished burrito in our designated garbage.

“Yeah, that was a pretty good apology.” Aurelo gave me a wink as he slipped his hand in my free one to show me support. “And I agree with him. Director Fabian does as well. I know that’s a big part of why he hopes you and your family will come back after we’re done in DC, speaking strictly as our leader. He told Julus and me to try to convince you guys, give you whatever you’d want to make it happen.”

“Because he wants Chicago and Milwaukee’s genius on his side?” Boston asked hesitantly.

“Not just that. All six of you are huge assets. You and your brother used to be PP guards, which means you know your shit, weapons, and how to handle yourself no matter how bad things might get. You train people to fight and in the days ahead there might be a lot of that. Seattle knows vehicles which is always an asset. Chicago and Milwaukee can hack to keep us in the loop and help us stay off the grid along with our security people.