The rage still boiled in his throat. Even two thousand years later, Orion burned for Selene. His priestess, his beautiful shining mage. The legends often called her kind ‘witches’. But he knew better. He had been there. He knew what they’d sacrificed for humanity.
He turned from the darkness, his dragon eyes burning. His senses expanded, becoming more powerful. The sounds of chaos echoed up from the world below. Orion moved through the penthouse, his body fluid and supernaturally quick. As much as he opposed Xander, he reveled in the feeling of his true form. Inside his bedroom, he opened his safe, pulling out the communication devices he and his team developed based on ancient immortal technologies.
Unlike the human race, immortals would not be without power during this trying time of transition. Orion knew that if he wanted to live up to the love of his late Selene, he would have to protect humanity from Xander’s army, The Surge.
Orion shuddered at the thought of them. Xander’s Surge was a supernatural army of dragons and vampires, working together to take over the world. They were the reason the veil was cast in the first place. And even in a world without magic, The Surge had still found ways into power, prestige, and wealth beyond measure, always ready to cheat and swindle and lie.
Orion pressed his thumb to the clear glass pad and the screen lit up. He flipped through his contacts, brought up his brother’s name, and hit call. The device buzzed several times before Titus’s face popped up on the screen.
“Orion. We failed,” Titus said.
“What did you expect to happen?” Orion snapped.
“Even our team could not keep up with how quickly he developed his particle beam.”
“Have you fortified the city?” Orion asked.
“The world is in turmoil, there is little we can do until it runs its course.”
“And what of Xander and The Surge? Surely they will be taking their feed.”
“We’ve suspected for some time that his lab is in Denver. If that is correct, I’d surmise he will be gathering his forces there.”
“I will speak with you again when I reach the fortress,” Orion said.
“Aren’t you coming here, older brother? The clan expects you to rise as Alpha in this dark time.”
“I…need time. The feeling of Selene is in my bones. I will activate the fortress and contact you again.”
“We will need your help in St. Louis, Orion. The clan will not wait.”
“There is more at stake than the clan’s Alpha, Titus. The world just ended. Didn’t you notice?”
“That is exactly why you must address this issue now. Everything has changed. We need your leadership.”
“I’ll let you know,” Orion said with his best businessman voice as he swiped at his glass pad.
Orion heard the last startled squeak from his brother as his face disappeared from the screen. He couldn’t think about who should lead the Silverdrake clan right now. He’d shouldered that burden for three thousand years. All through the time of the veil and before it. He was tired. His heart ached for his lost love. Orion needed to be alone.
He approached the open door to his balcony. The sounds of screams and cries in the darkness below shot through the night. He stood on his balcony and let out a deep breath. He felt the magic deep inside him, burning like the ancient elemental fires of old. The dragon at the pit of his heart awakened, ready to fly into the dark world to bring back the light. For Selene.
He let out his breath and spread his arms. The magic coursed through his nerves, vibrating like high voltage electric lines. With a sharp cry, he threw his head back and shifted.
The cry became a roar as his body changed, too big to be contained on the penthouse patio. He jumped on agile feet to the railing, his immature wings flapping out of his back. His sharp teeth grew in his mouth and he roared again, hurtling himself off the patio. He flapped his wings, still too small to hold him aloft. With a surge of power, his body fully shifted. His dragon form grew to the size of a large city bus. He trumpeted his call as he swooped over downtown Los Angeles.
Orion was alive again. In his right form. His heart just about burst with exhilaration. Oh, how he’d missed the feeling of air under his wings. He drifted over the darkened city, smelling the toxic fires. The burning cars and houses were the only things keeping the world alight. So many would die tonight and in the coming days. Days that would be filled with darkness and dread.
His soul grew heavy with the weight of it. The joy of his dragon lost in the sea of despair of human suffering. His Selene sacrificed herself to free the humans from the tyranny of The Surge. He was glad she would never know that her sacrifice had been for nothing.
Even during those two thousand years without magic, The Surge stopped at nothing to bring misery to humanity. They couldn’t operate out in the open. No, the new weapon of choice was manipulation and illusion, hypnosis, mass mind control, subversion of government funds for black ops research. And they’d won.
His poor Selene. His shining priestess. The woman branded a witch by the ages. She’d died for the sins of The Surge. Her sacrifice had been wasted. Orion shed a tear of sorrow. It dropped from his eye, tumbling down to the ground as he flew north. Daggers of existential darkness sliced his heart. The only thing keeping him from utter despair was the thought that she could be out there, somewhere.
Chapter 4
Lucia stood from the couch, gasping for air. The waves of energy moving through her pulsed with her heartbeat. She leaned on the back of the couch for support and looked around. Everyone was terrified. Harriet sat in her chair, staring at the wall, her head bobbing erratically from side to side. The children’s librarian was huddled in a corner, her thick blonde hair a blanket over her face. She’d lit all the candles and was now silently sobbing with her hands over her face.
Lucia knew the woman only from working with her for the last two years. They worked in different sections and seldom crossed paths, but she knew her name was May Anderson. What Lucia didn’t know about May Anderson was the names of her children, her pets, her husband. Those were the words and associations Lucia could hear and feel running through her when she looked at May.
She snapped her eyes away from the other librarian, the intense grip of fear strangling her aching heart. She glanced at Harriet and a wave of utter panic washed over her. The terror was so deep it almost floored her. Lucia grabbed an emergency candle and stumbled toward the back of the library. She had to get out of here. There was a closet in the back where they kept cleaning and office supplies. She gripped the knob, but it didn’t budge.
She gripped tighter and twisted, flinging open the door and shutting herself inside. The air smelled of bleach and dust, but it was better than outside. Pain shot through her brain and the light in the room seemed to brighten. Lucia groaned and backed against the wall, sliding to the floor. She set the candle on the floor and hugged herself, tears starting to run down her cheeks.
The darkening of the sun had thrown the world into chaos, but she couldn’t understand what was happening to her. Her body was awash with unbearable sensations. Lucia swore she could hear and feel the people just beyond the supply closet door. She tilted her head against the wall, staring at the mop bucket and the long silver mop handle. The useless electrical box hung dormant on the wall. For the first time, what had happened to the world started to sink in.
What would happen now that the sun had gone out? How long would it take for everyone to freeze to death? She thought of it, living out her last days in the darkness of the city, slowly freezing to death. Felix would be terrified. She thought of her cat alone in her apartment. She wanted to go home, but could she risk going into the madness on the streets? Already there had been pounding fists at the locked door of the librarians’ lounge. What was going on out there?
Almost all the librarians and staff had stayed. At least she thought they had. Not even flashlights worked. The only light came from candles. How long would that last?
What was really
going on? At the back of her mind she was still capable of rational thought. She had witnessed a massive coronal ejection. A solar flare. It had caused an electromagnetic pulse. What they called an EMP. That had wiped out all electricity. All of it.
How could this happen? Why had there been no warning? She’d heard others asking these questions in the librarians’ lounge, but she’d had no voice to speak. She couldn’t be with other people right now. She couldn’t stand feeling their terror and confusion. Lucia had enough of her own. She panted, whimpering as she pressed her eyes shut. She wanted to go home to Felix, get in bed, and wake up in a tomorrow where this had never happened.
Images washed over the screen of her mind, vivid and lush like a fever dream. She saw herself draped in white robes like a Greek goddess, standing over still water in a marble pool. Behind her was a man. He walked across the vision, his face dark and brooding. The woman, the vision of herself, raised her arms, chanting. The man roared at her to stop but the woman continued to chant, a halo of light illuminating her head. The man fell to his knees, weeping.
The priestess in Lucia’s vision raised her arms all the way above her head and clapped. And, as if struck by lightning, fell into the pool. Dead.
Lucia’s eyes snapped open. She scrambled to her feet. What the hell was that? It had been so real. She could still feel the despair of her vision self at the sight of her lover’s torment. She’d left him. Why?
She could feel her love for the man. The strange dark man, imploring her not to do it. Not to do what? Did she kill herself? The strange vision or memory or whatever it was, left a mark on her psyche that she couldn’t shake. It felt too real. Lucia pushed herself up from the floor and burst out of the cleaning closet.
Outside in the lounge, everyone was crying and breaking down. The tension clanged like an iron bell. It was as if time had stopped. The dim candle light illuminating the librarians’ lounge was not enough to brighten the mood that had overcome the people within.
Lucia wanted to leave. Everyone around her feared death, but she felt like she’d already experienced it. Time and time again, through all the centuries she’d existed. Memories swam in the furthest reaches of her mind. Were they real?
No matter what, she needed to get away from the minds of the people in this room. They clamped down on her awakening consciousness like a vice.
Could she leave? Go out into the night? She thought of Felix, at home in her apartment, all alone in the darkness. Her building was only six blocks from the library. If she could traverse those six blocks, she could make it back to her own place. What then? She didn’t know what she would do next. She just knew she had to get away from the pulsating fear of the other librarians.
She went through the emergency tool kit that had been spilled across the lounge table and grabbed a handful of flares and a lighter. She shoved them in her purse and headed for the door.
“Are you leaving?” Harriet asked her from the armchair. She hadn’t moved this whole time. The candlelight reflected in the tears streaking down Harriet’s face.
“I need to go home.”
“Are you sure you want to go out there?”
“I have to go,” Lucia said, opening the door. “Take care, Harriet.”
“You do the same, kid. Don’t get yourself killed.”
The door clicked closed behind her, and she was in the pitch darkness of the library. She grabbed a flare from her purse and broke it open, activating the light. It illuminated the hall, and she could continue on. She could sense other people in between the stacks. She could feel their minds and sense their presence. Quickly skirting around the corner to the stairs, Lucia made a run for it. She took the stairs two at a time and hurried through the lobby and out of the building.
On the street, the wind blew cold from the bay. Lucia shivered and gripped her free hand into a fist, pumping it for warmth.
A building burned down the block, the bright flames lighting the street. Lucia started to run in the opposite direction, toward her building. Usually she took the bus, but from the looks of the street, she didn’t think she’d be taking one again anytime soon.
People had left their cars stalled in the street. The sidewalks were full of desperate souls, wailing and running aimlessly around. A woman grabbed Lucia’s arm and begged her for answers. She just shook her head and yanked her arm away, running off down the street. She had to get away from the swirling mass of panicked minds or she would go mad.
Her own mind was ablaze with new sensations she couldn’t understand and couldn’t control. It was as if every desperate person who passed her screamed inside her head. How could that be? She had never had any psychic ability. She had never even believed in such things.
How else could she explain this? Was she hallucinating? Why wouldn’t her heart stop throbbing in her chest as if it wanted to fly out to sacrifice itself for the dying world? She ran on, skirting around stalled cars as she crossed the street. She veered into the middle of the road and ran faster. There were fewer people than on the sidewalk but she had to weave between the dead cars.
When she’d run three blocks, she started to feel winded and her flare had started to dim. She slowed her run and then stopped, bending over to catch her breath. She held the flare in her hand as she sucked air into her burning lungs. When she stood up, finally feeling able to go on, she saw several dark figures approaching from a dark street.
Their shadows were black against the blacker night, their movements strange and quick. When they came into the glow of her dying flare, she saw that it was a group of three men and one woman, dressed in long black coats. They wore a crest on their chests, a red lightning bolt striking the Earth. They smiled at her maniacally and laughed when they jumped up onto the cars around her.
“What do you want?” she said, turning in a circle to look at each of them.
“We want to feed,” the woman said, her lips red and her eyes eerily bright in the flare’s red glow.
Lucia felt a ball of fear in her chest. These were not regular hoodlums or teenagers dressed up in the latest goth fashions. These people were something else. Not only could she see it in their eyes, she could feel it in their hearts. She sensed a cold yearning, ready to kill to feed a sick insatiable lust. They would drink her blood until she was dry.
She knew what they wanted, but had no idea how to stop them. Her flare began to die. She dropped it, grabbed another and lit it. The memories of her past life wove a tapestry around her mind. She’d encountered these beings before. She knew in some instinctive way how to defeat them.
One of the vampires jumped from the car above her, and the others followed suit. Lucia gasped, fear taking hold. This morning she’d been a mild-mannered librarian. Now she’d been thrust into this strange world. These nightmare creatures would kill her and somehow she knew what they were.
What did that make her?
She squeezed her eyes shut and balled her fist. When she opened her eyes, and let out a sharp breath, a ball of white light shot out from her tight fist. She sucked another breath into her lungs and let it out, opening her palm. The energy exploded outward like a light bomb and the vampires flew backward.
Lucia burst into a run, her lungs ragged from the three blocks she’d already run today. Her Mary-Janes were not made for this sort of thing. She pumped harder, her purse flapping at her side as she gripped her flare. She ducked around the next block, hoping that whatever she’d done with that ball of light would hold the vampires for a little while.
She still didn’t fully comprehend how she knew those were vampires, or how she’d defeated them. It was as if she’d just woken up from a coma and now she was starting to recall who she really was. Her past life flooded her imagination and ancient knowledge floated around the periphery of her consciousness. If she reached out and picked a memory, she could almost see the vast details of her old life. Almost.
She’d just defeated a group of vampires. The spell had come to her instinctively, like a muscle memory.
She knew how to pull the energy out of herself. But what was the energy? Could it be what she wanted to call it?
Magic?
What was magic? Was it the manifestation of conscious intent? How had magic become possible at the very same instant the sun had ejected a massive flare? Something was responsible for all this, and Lucia wanted to find out what. Even if she was running from vampires, she was still a librarian and curiosity would still always get the better of her.
She kept running, ignoring the screaming from the knot in her side and her burning throat. She didn’t stop until she made it back to her apartment. As she ran to the door of her building, she breathed a sigh of gratitude that it wasn’t on an electric lock and shoved her key into the door.
Inside the building, she hurried up the stairs and made it to her floor. She was ready to collapse by the time she got to her door and locked herself inside. Felix greeted her as soon as she entered. She set her flare on the counter and knelt to pet her cat. The black and white stray was the love of her life and he’d been with her for five years.
She stroked his back and then gently picked him up, holding him to her chest. She continued into the living room where she used the lighter to light several candles across her mantle and in the centerpiece on her coffee table. She made the conscious decision to save the rest for later. The flare slowly died on the kitchen counter.
Lucia petted Felix on her lap, staring at a candle flame on the coffee table. Her apartment was turning cold, but at least she had Felix purring against her chest. He rubbed his cheek on her hand. She took a deep breath, letting it out with a low moan.
Now that she was home, at least she could hear herself think. But the pulsing panic of the city around her wouldn’t leave her alone. How long could she stay here? With all forms of mass communication down, there was no way of knowing anything. Everyone was on their own.
A tear streamed down her face as she thought of the vampires from the street outside. This wasn’t just a natural disaster. Something about the fundamental nature of reality had shifted. None of it made any sense, but Lucia somehow knew she was part of it all. Some ancestor of hers, in the deep past, had something to do with what was happening now.