Perdition

Who Will Protect You?

When the world went dark, I think every human being on the planet lost a little piece of their soul. We were all prepared for war, for disease, for the zombie fucking apocalypse even, but nothing could have prepared us against monsters who donned an angel's face.

"It's one in the morning. We have a couple more hours before dawn," I mentioned flippantly, even though my stomach was turning just thinking about daylight.

Aros grunted as we flew down the highway. I kept checking my watch every ten minutes or so, keeping track of the time. I couldn't have him bursting into flames going at one-hundred miles per hour.

It still didn't sit right with me after learning about Aros' history. He had been a holy man sent screaming to hell, but for what? What had he done to put him in this situation?

What had any of us done to be put in this situation?

"Worrying about me, Magdalene?" he asked, his tone flat and calm, but I knew he was trying to throw some humour into this twisted adventure.

"Just don't want to go flying through this windshield if you explode," I answered seriously. The last thing I wanted was to be splattered against a tree. "And my names Delta, not Magdalene," I muttered as an afterthought. He had been calling me Magdalene since we left the house. Technically, I suppose you could say we stole my father's car – if this weren't the damn apocalypse anyway.

He didn't say anything after that. We both knew that this situation wasn't ideal for either of us. Looking over to his side, I wasn't surprised to find his face blank of any sort of emotion. Vampire's – Thaerr – couldn't feel anything besides need for human blood. I wondered what it would be like not to be able to feel hate, or love, or happiness. Just living for the hunt day after day. It was pure survival.

It must have been torture.

My attention left Aros' blank expression, passing him to look at the city of Seattle as we kept a steady speed down the highway. The building's that were once alight with life were covered in darkness. There was no sign of life, no flicker of a candle, no movement from behind the darkened windows of the buildings that used to bustle in the day to day grind.

"Did they cut the power?" I asked. With their attention to detail when herding humans for selling and breeding, I would have thought electricity was a necessity.

His lip twitched before he answered, "Some lights can still burn us. We have no need for electricity when we can see in the dark just fine. If need be, candlelight does the job just as well."

Without knowing it, Aros has just explained a weakness in his people's design. My eyes motioned to the trunk of the four-wheel drive, knowing that my father had a UV light back there. Could I use it as a weapon?

I found that in the last few days I was constantly on alert. Constantly waiting for the next blow to come. I needed a plan at every turn. My muscles were tense. I couldn't – wouldn't – relax until my family were safe and out of harm's way.

"Why you here, Aros? Why are they doing this to us?" I whispered, wanting an answer to a question thousands of people probably asked every day.

He seemed to have an answer for everything. "Daes was a breeder and trafficker. We're not all bad. Some take very good care of their humans."

An answer to a question I never asked – cute. "I asked why you're here, now, after all this time. Why now, when you could have taken the world back centuries ago?"

His red eyes flickered towards me for a second before going back to the road. "We look after our humans, Magdalene." His answer was more serious this time – like he was trying to drill it into my mind. "God has forgotten his children, but Thaerr are no longer the children of God – we are the worst of the Apostates. Who will protect you when your father turns his back on you?"