Joss Ware - Embrace the Night Eternal

Sedona, Arizona
June 2010

Simon Japp was damned tired of running.

The cold, heavy weight of a Berettas nose smashing against his forehead would be a relief. Or the barrel could be shoved into his mouth, damn the straight white teeth with which hed been blessed, and the trigger pulled. Or firm, capable hands positioned around his skull, and the nasty, lethal twist. Quick.

Then the bliss of ignorance. Of escape.

Because, really, death was the only way to escape Mancusi.

The desert air was dry and cleaved into his raw lungs. Blinding sunlight burned gritty eyes and tightened his skin. But green clumps of brush and trees softened the arid landscape, and brilliant flowers sprang from their depths. Above and around him, the iconic red rock rose like stacked sandstone plates, all shades of flame, copper, and orange. Breathtaking from a distance, daunting from up close. No one could deny the beauty of this place.

Hed come here to Sedona, to hide. To try, anyway.

Florita, of the perky ass and multiple wrist bangles, had rambled on about how beautiful it was in Sedona, rattling on about things like energy vortexes and crystals and shit like that. And then Rita got a little too friendly with her bodyguard, and Mancusi kicked her the hell out.

Simon had run here for no other reason than to get away from Mancusi, but he couldnt deny that he felt different here. He really did. Maybe it was just the fact that he was away from it all, even if it didnt last very long.

Nothing could erase what hed done. Who he was.

Oh, God. He wanted to put it away, to crawl out of his skin. Out of this person.

Usually so surefooted, so sleek and feline in his movements, he stumbled. Grabbed with a shaking hand at a branch. A shadowy crevice yawned before him. Here, in the middle of nowhere, along shallow, rocky hills, small mountains, the opening of a cave.

Simon cast a glance over his shoulder. He hadnt seen Mancusis bolillos for the last hour of wavering, stumbling flight, but that didnt mean they werent hot on his heels.

Of course they were.

Of course they had found him, only a breath after hed left East Los. Probably even before.

For his pursuers belonged to Mancusi. El Mero Mero.

As did he.

Dammit. Goddammit.

Inside, the narrow cave was coolcooler than the air outside, anywayand dark. Simon dragged the crushed water bottle hed bought at the last party store and drank. The liquid instantly rebelled in his belly, and he coughed it up. It splashed over the dirt-packed floor and onto his dusty boots, just as clear as it had been going down.

Pushing back the long strands of hair clinging to his face, he swore, and then prayed as he knelt there, weak, shuddering, shaking, puking up nothing.

He hadnt done that for a long fucking time.

Prayed.

Did God care if he swore when he prayed?

Please. Aliviname. Dammit, please.

He sagged to the ground, face into the dirt, unable to control the withdrawal shakes, the dry heaves, the incessant, paralyzing nausea. Simon inhaled sand and dust, the floor gritty beneath his cheek, dry and rough beneath his fingernails.

He closed his eyes and waited.

Theyd find him here. And at last, in a spray of blood and minced bone and flesh, hed find release.

Suddenly, the earth moved beneath him. Furious. Pained.

Deep.

Then again, harder and more violently, trembling, splittingThe rumbling grew louder and the ground cracked before him. Stones rained down from above, pummeling his shoulders and back.

With one last silent plea, Simon sunk into oblivion.

City of Envy
Fifty years after

So you do come up from out of your lair.

Sage Corrigan started, jolted from her contemplation of the sunset, and barely resisted the reflex to clap a hand to her leaping heart. She turned from the view of a roaring ball of red-orange bisected by the horizon, and saw the manSimon was his namestanding there behind her.

A generous distance gapped between them, as if he took care not to get too close and spook her. As if she were a skittish cat.

Maybe thats what he thought. And maybe he wouldnt be too far off about that.

Just because the only times youve seen me have been below doesnt mean that I never come outside, Sage replied, the words tripping sharply from her tongue. I know I have pale skin, but Im not some sort of vampire. Ororghoul.

And, okay, she did spend a lot of time in the secret computer room two floors below ground level. Maybe too much time. But she was tired of being teased about it. Even Theo Waxnicki, her closest friend, had made a few comments recently about her propensity to stay below, alone, working hard in secrecy.

That had ticked her off because Theo and his brother knew exactly why she spent so much time there. She was helping them in their secret war against the Strangers.

Sorry. Bad joke, Simon replied. The inflection of his voice sounded different than anything shed ever heard beforea slip of an accent, and a harsh, staccato rhythm, as if words were precious to him and therefore must be measured carefully.

How did you find me up here, anyway? she asked, gesturing to the rooftop area around them. The yellow glow of setting sun muted the sharpness and color of the space, and below was the City of Envy, already shadowed from the close, tall buildings.

Sage knew she sounded defensive, but it was hard to keep her voice measured when her heart was trammeling along at warp speed. She didnt know this man very well, and she had no idea what to say to him. Most of her conversations were about factsthings she found while doing her research. Easy things to talk about.

Accidentally. I didnt follow you. He took a step back, as if to leave, his boots grinding quietly on the dingy rooftop.

Sage looked at him, suddenly feeling guilty. It wasnt his fault she couldnt carry on a conversation. You dont have to go. Its not my view.

He paused. You want to be alone. I understand.

No. Wait. Really. Sage knew she sounded just as clipped as he did. She drew in a deep breath. I dont mind.

In fact, now that she was over her initial startle, she burned with curiosity. Shed been curious about Simon Japp and his four friends since they had arrived in Envy only a few weeks ago.

Sage was twenty-eight, born twenty-three years after what everyone called the Changethe deep-seated earthquakes, raging fires, and devastating weather that had destroyed twenty-first-century civilization and nearly all of the human race. For the last half a century, the survivors and their children and grandchildren had worked to rebuild some semblance of civilization. The result was this small pocket of a citythe largest settlement of humansin what had once been the western United States.

Although they looked as if they were in their mid-thirties, Simon and his male friends had actually lived in that world fifty years ago.

And somehow, theyd been preserved, intact, for decades in a place called Sedona. Theyd emerged unscathed and unchanged from a cave, half a century after the earth, and life as theyd known it, had been annihilated.

Simon was looking at her as if he wasnt sure whether to believe her implied invitation to staysort of sidewisewhile half his attention appeared to be focused out over the city.

She was struck, as she had been every time shed seen him, by how simply beautiful his face was. Lean and chiseled, with perfect angles at chin and jaw, cheeks and nose, his was the most handsome face shed ever seen. He had dark, exotic eyes with slender, well-formed brows arching over them, and a mouth that looked as if it had been carved lovingly by some heavenly sculptor.

And yet, despite the startling beauty of his face, Simon had an aura of reservation about him. Reservation andsomething else. Something she couldnt quite define.