“We need to leave,” said Joel at an audio level that only an Alkron would hear.

  “Leave! We just got here!” Tyror looked back to the people sleeping. “Which one do you want? Or do you want to just start at this end and eat our way through to the other side?”

  Joel turned and started to walk away. “I’m leaving.”

  In a blur, Tyror was standing in front of Joel, just a silhouette against a single light at the end of the corridor.

  “You! Don’t tell me anything! I told you, I’m a king. You might be a hybrid, but do not confuse—”

  Joel walked past him, pushing Tyror’s shoulder as he went. “Eat if you want to eat. But I’m waiting outside.”

  Tyror watched Joel walk away and frowned, his head switching between the dorm room door and the stairwell that Joel was heading towards.

  “Aggh!” he said loud enough for a human to hear. He chased after Joel, who was now at the bottom of the two flights of stairs. “So do you not eat?” he shouted downwards.

  Within the time that it took for Tyror to be alongside him, Joel had devised a plan.

  “I know where there are humans who won’t be missed. Wouldn’t that be better?” he said to Tyror as they walked across the parking lot towards a road.

  Tyror laughed, manically, then slapped Joel on the shoulder. “I knew you were fun! Yes, you are—”

  Tyror grabbed his head as if his brain was on fire and sunk to his knees. Joel looked down at him, at first in shock then in scorn. Clearly another aspect of this hybrid’s madness.

  “Joel!”

  A voice he instantly recognized as Carla’s came some tens of yards away. Focusing his eyes, he just about saw her standing near the side of a fence in the street ahead. There was another with her, with their hand stretched out in his direction.

  “By the Gods make it stop!” screamed Tyror.

  As he writhed around on the drenched floor, Joel looked anxiously at the school buildings he had just left. How long until someone from there would hear?

  Carla waved him towards her but stopped when she saw Amos running in the opposite direction. He quickly arrived at where Joel was standing.

  More cries of pain came from the crazy hybrid. Joel heard Carla shout that he should kill him, or they were going to be caught.

  Joel’s hand became razor-sharp claws which he held near the throat of the anguished hybrid.

  “No! Stop!” shouted Amos. “He’s important, we gotta take him with us!”

  “What?” said Joel, his hand hovering near Tyror’s throat.

  “Just trust me!”

  Joel knew that the young man always knew things he couldn’t. His hand changed back to its human shape. “We can’t take him like this, you need to—”

  Tyror’s body fell limp. In one movement Joel scooped him up, throwing him over his shoulder, and then with Amos ran back to Carla.

  “This way!” she said, pointing along the road.

  As Carla, Amos, and Joel with his passenger ran along the dark street, up ahead a pickup screeched to a halt in front of them and lights started to turn on across the school buildings.

  *****

  Sasha Jacobs sat inside the cold metal container which had been her refuge from the constant drama inside the warehouse where she and the other hybrids and Alkrons were being kept. The solid box was at the back of a storage room on the second floor. She wasn’t sure if anyone else was aware of it, which suited her fine.

  When she agreed to be injected by Joel’s blood she was prepared for the change. To become strong and to have super speed, and most of all to not die. She was done with death. She had seen her parents and younger brother become infected, and she stayed with them all right up until the point they tried to kill her. Then she did what she promised each she would do and used the shotgun to end them. After that she ran from the small Canadian town she grew up in, and headed south, towards the border and America. Luckily, she stumbled upon one of the only human camps that managed to keep going. She couldn’t believe that was only two months back.

  But by the time Anna came to her with the question, the answer of which being the only way she would stay alive from her wounds, she didn’t need much time to say ‘yes.’ She was even ready to drink human blood, although the idea of that was probably the worst aspect of becoming a hybrid in her opinion.

  Except that never happened. She became something else. Something nobody seemed to understand, least of all herself.

  She hated when it happened. Her body disintegrating. When it first occurred she screamed, or she would have done, but her mouth turned to a fine powder which hung in the air, with no allowance for sound making. Her special Alkron ’ability’ was to fall apart. Literally.

  Since the moment she realized she wasn’t going to get super speed or any of the sexy things that made hybrids better than your basic vamp, depression threatened to overwhelm her. This ability of hers, that made her different, she didn’t want. If there would have been a way to reverse it, she would have taken it. But as far as she knew there wasn’t. She was stuck with a body which seemed to break up, to transform into an infinite number of tiny particles, and each time it happened she was afraid that she would fade away, a strong gust pulling her apart never to reform.

  So each time she felt her hands, feet, or any other part of her grow tingly, she fought with all her might to stop it going any further. The phrase ‘keep it together’ was never truer than for her she thought. For the past two days that had worked, but the constant stress of keeping her mind focused had made her incredibly tired.

  She leaned back in the open-topped box and closed her eyes.

  “Pssss…”

  The noise shocked her out of her mind, and back to the dingy office.

  “Hey!”

  Evan was looking down at her from a skylight. His face only just visible from the glow of lights on the ground floor.

  “What do you want?” she said without getting up.

  “You want to get out of here?” His words were slightly muffled due to coming through the glass barrier.

  Her instincts were to say ‘no.’ Going outside would mean more stimulus. More chances for her strange ability to take hold of her.

  But she hated being in the warehouse, so she got to her feet, pulled the desk under the window in the ceiling, then climbed on top of it. She still couldn’t reach.

  Evan pulled the window open breaking the latch in the process, and hung his arms down, his hand grabbing hers, and as if she was light as a feather, lifted her up and onto the roof. She immediately grabbed her elbows with her hands. It was bitingly cold.

  “Come on, follow me,” said Evan, walking across the roof.

  They quickly made their way to a lower edge, which was only ten feet from the ground. Evan offered his hand to her which she took and he lowered her most of the way, then jumped down himself. That was when she realized they weren’t alone.

  “You only got one?” said a young man in military uniform.

  “She was easy to get. To get more would have meant going further in!” said Evan.

  The man frowned in disappointment. “It’s not going to be much of a party, with only two otherhumans!”

  “Wait? What’s going on?” said Sasha.

  “I was asked to find some hybrids or something to take to the party that’s going down a few miles from here. I was kinda hoping you would want to—”

  “Sure, I’ll come.” She was never much of a partygoer but any behavior even remotely normal she wasn’t going to miss out on.

  Soon they were driving with her in the back seat through pitch-black country roads.

  “Aren’t you afraid of vamps getting you?” she said to those in the front.

  The man who was driving scoffed. “We got a hybrid! Two now!”

  She didn’t bother correcting him.

  “No stupid vamps gonna be a problem for us.”

  The car drove into a driveway bordered by trees. Lights and sound boomed into the night.

  “What the hell…” said Sasha under her breath.

  She then saw the source of the commotion. A large country house, she guessed Victorian, appeared in front of them, and the car pulled up next to five others.

  “But it’ll attract—”

  The man shook his head. “Chill. We’re in the middle of nowhere. Ain’t no vamps around here.” He got out.

  Evan looked back at her. “You shouldn’t be afraid to just… let go, have fun. You don’t know how long you got.” He too then got out.

  She sighed. He was right. She followed him up the stone steps and into heat and noise. A bass boomed as people danced, lit by candles and flashlights.

  “Pretty cool, right?” shouted Evan. He walked to a girl who was dancing by herself. “This is Shannon, my…” He searched for the right term.

  “Nice to meet you!” shouted Shannon, shaking Sasha’s hand. “So you’re a hybrid?”

  “Err…” Somebody pushed into her back. Her neck felt weird and she started to prepare herself, but then she realized the strange sensation was the result of someone’s spilled drink.

  “Hey, watch it, buddy!” said Evan to the young man who laughed then stumbled away.

  “Follow me, we’ll find you a towel,” said Shannon.

  Sasha did as asked, squeezing through the bodies and onto the wide staircase that twisted around as it ascended. People sat on the steps talking and drinking. At the top giggles came from closed doors along the hallway.

  “Umm… I think the main bathroom is this way…” said Shannon, walking into the gloom. For a moment Sasha lost sight of her, but then a square of light heralded an open door, and she walked towards it.

  They both moved into a large clean bathroom. Shannon closed the door behind and set about looking inside the large cupboards.

  “Ah…” she pulled out a white thick towel and passed it to Sasha who rubbed her back with it.

  “I smell like beer,” she said seriously, then looked at Shannon. They both started laughing.

  Shannon looked at herself in the large mirror. She had managed to find some lipstick and had smeared a bit across her lips before the party started, but now she was regretting the decision.

  “You look nice,” said Sasha, avoiding looking at the mirror. She felt if she did, she would shatter, and seeing that would be too much.

  Shannon sighed and rubbed the lipstick from her lips with her cuff.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “I never wear lipstick. It’s not me, I don’t know why I thought—”

  A loud scream penetrated the bathroom door.

  “Someone’s having fun,” said Sasha, smiling.

  Shannon looked back at herself and ran her hand through her hair, trying to give it volume. She went to talk when the sound of gunfire split the air.

  They both looked at each other. Footsteps thundered past the door.

  Shannon ran to the frosted glass window, climbed up on the window ledge and looked out into the darkness around the side of the house. “Shit… there’s things out there.”

  Sasha knew what they were. They were vamps. She knew she shouldn’t have come. “We should leave this place. Go back to the camp.”

  Shannon jumped down. “Yeah.”

  “Shannon!” shouted Evan outside in the hallway.

  “In here!” she replied.

  The door flew open, with Evan standing in the doorway. “We gotta go.” He looked at Sasha. “Sorry.”

  She nodded and shook her head at the same time, trying to tell him it was ‘okay.’

  They all ran down the hallway. Doors that were locked were now open, and people were running from the rooms and down the stairs. The three of them tried to join them.

  Sasha looked over the balcony rail to the ground floor. Two men appeared to be fighting a vamp, while a third was being fed upon. She then realized more vamps were flooding in through the entrance.

  The screams were now continuous and people fell to the ground as vamps sliced across them, sending sprays of blood across candles, extinguishing some of them.

  Evan’s eyes were now black, and he ripped through two vamps that clambered up the stairs. A third though made it past his grasp and leaped in front of Sasha. Its face contained a manic smile displaying razorlike teeth. The creature raised its claw and swiped across her as if she wasn’t there.

  She looked down at where a gaping wound should have been, but instead mostly saw carpeted steps. She had become ethereal, a ghost amongst other creatures of the night. The vamp, confused, tried to bite her, with the same result. As screams of pain rang out all around her, she suddenly felt completely safe. She was no longer of the world that contained the suffering.

  Even for its animal-like brain the vamp realized there was no point attacking her and moved through her to Shannon. She screamed, but before the vamp could do any damage Evan grabbed it, twisting its head and breaking its neck.

  Even amongst the chaos, they both looked at Sasha in shock. Her appearance then grew denser until the lighting was once again fully bouncing off her.

  Shannon noticed a gap between them and the entrance. “Come on!” she pulled Evan along and with Sasha they jumped down the remaining steps, glancing past people fighting with vamps and out into the night air.

  They only got a few steps before they were stopped in their tracks due to soldiers with M4s raised aloft advancing towards them.

  Bullets streamed to their left and right felling more vamps.

  Instinctively, Shannon, Evan, and Sasha raised their hands in surrender.

  As the soldiers in full battle gear rushed past and into the large home, killing vamps as they went, Galloway emerged from the glare of a bank of headlights, shaking her head.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  Anna stood next to Jess. They both looked at Marina sleeping in the small cell. Anna turned to the sergeant standing next to her. “Does she really need to be in there?”

  “Galloway says she’s dangerous, so that’s where she stays until we’re sure she’s not going to try and eat anyone.”

  “You took Jasper!” said Jess.

  The sergeant frowned. “It was for the best. He’s fine, you can see him if you want.”

  “But we’re not allowed to take him home with us?” said Anna.

  The sergeant shook his head, then looked back at Marina. “You can probably wake her up now. We’re going to let you both go into the cell. It’s in her interest that you convince her to stay calm and that it’s in everyone’s best interest for Jasper to stay here.”

  Anna wasn’t convinced that was true but nodded, and another soldier stepped forward, placed a key in the lock, and pushed the door open. Before anyone else had a chance to move, Marina had jumped from her supposed slumber, across the cell, and had the soldier a foot above the ground with her hand around his throat. The sergeant and three other guards immediately raised their weapons.

  “Mom?” said Jess.

  As if coming out of a dream, Marina looked down and, on seeing her daughter looking up at her, dropped the soldier to the ground who grabbed his throat, coughing.

  “Get on the ground!” shouted the sergeant to Marina.

  She sneered in response and went to move forward when Anna stepped in front of her and the danger she was facing.

  “Marina, this is not the time for this. Jasper’s fine. Jess is fine.”

  “They took him from me!”

  Anna nodded, agreeing. “And that was wrong. But we can go see him. You’ll see for yourself he’s okay.”

  Marina pulled Jess to her but continued looking at Anna. “Now. I want to go now.”

  Anna looked at the sergeant. He sighed then lowered his gun and gestured for the other soldiers to do the same. He then nodded.

  A short while later, after a short walk through a series of corridors and stairwells, Marina rushed into a room and knelt in front of the little boy who was still wearing his sunglasses. “Are you okay? Did they do anything to you?”

  Jasper shook his head.

  Marina looked back to the sergeant at the door. “Why is he here?”

  He went to answer but stopped and stepped inside the room to allow Groves to appear.

  “You!” said Marina.

  Groves held up her hands. “I just want to talk.”

  “Start then!”

  Groves looked at the sergeant who moved outside. Anna and Jess then entered, the latter walking to Jasper and engaging him in conversation.

  Groves closed the door. “I’m sorry things happened the way they did, but once we knew who Jasper’s father was, he had to be taken into protective custody. Not merely for his sake, but for everyone’s at the camp.”

  A number of questions ran through Marina’s head, the main one being why didn’t they just ask her, but instead nothing came from her mouth. She knew she never would have agreed to them taking him away anyway. Quickly she changed tact in her mind. Jasper seemed well, maybe it was better to go with the flow for the time being. “So… so what’s the plan? How can he help?”

  Groves appeared to relax and walked closer to Marina, sitting on one of the chairs nearby.

  “Umm… he already has.”

  Marina looked back at Jasper who was now laughing with Jess a few yards away, surrounded by toys. “What did he do for you? Did he find his father?”

  “Yes, he located him quite accurately. And it would appear he’s being held captive.”

  *****

  A blue road sign momentarily lit up in the pickup's headlights, then receded back into darkness as it moved past.

  Joel sat in the passenger's seat alongside Dalton who was driving. In the backseat was Carla and Amos, and in the bed behind them, secured with multiple layers of chains was the hybrid Joel had stumbled into.

  They were now only four hours from Jankle, and most in the pickup had been sleeping. Amos though was still awake, keeping Tyror’s mind from escaping its unconscious state.

  “You should get some sleep,” said Carla, her eyes having taken a sneak peek at the young man next to her.