Strays Read online

  Max saw all the resentment in his face when he moved past her and all the love in Reagan’s, and she felt bad for her. Kota was vampire. Curly was human. They were both her sons and she loved them equally. Shaking off her pain and humiliation, she smiled at Max.

  “We’ll find you some blankets for tonight.” She walked off, following slowly behind Dakota.

  Sighing, Curly wrapped a heavy arm around Max’s shoulders. “Got to love family, right?”

  Eric.

  “When was he bitten?” Max asked.

  “About five years ago, before all the ‘bad’ vamps were killed off.”

  Back in those times the world was confusing, but it was alive. Max could barely recall a world with bad vampires, the ones who sucked down human blood for play and changed everyone they came in contact with. The only world she had known was shared with vampires and she was content with it. There was no longer a thing as bad vampires. Everyone was equal in a world overtaken by Strays.

  “My dad left us when we were little and I didn’t stick around too long after that… so he kind of resents me for making him grow up too fast. The kid’s nineteen, acts like he’s thirty or something. Can’t blame him for it though.”

  “He’s mad at your mom, too?” Should she have been asking those types of questions?

  Curly grinned and pulled her closer. “You’re a curious one, aren’t you? Well, when he was bitten… she kind of… kept him in the basement for a while.”

  “Kind of?”

  “For about two years.”

  “What?”

  “She didn’t want people to see! All the fighting going on between vampires and humans. The laws hadn’t been established yet. She was afraid for him.”

  “Or was afraid of him.”

  Curly stopped. “Hey.” He looked sideways at her. “Don’t go sticking your nose, kitten, in places it shouldn’t be.”

  Max dropped it. She couldn’t imagine her parents ever doing something like that to her. No wonder he had so much resentment toward her. Reagan didn’t seem afraid of him now, but things had been different back then.

  Max opted to stand guard on the first floor, but Reagan wouldn’t allow it. Everyone was to sleep on the fifth floor so they could be locked inside and the men would alternate looking out through the night. After a while, Max gave in to their demands and decided to rest. She would leave in the morning, despite what anyone else had to say about it.

  Five

  Max

  ●

  I’m on a train. The windows are boarded up, but the glass has been broken in. Shards of tiny, sharp pieces sit at my feet. I’m wearing sandals. My toes are polished pink. I haven’t seen my toenails polished in a long time. The color is too like my skin. It doesn’t matter. A Stray has reached its ugly, white arm through one of the boards. Its hand is white too and the skin has been ripped from breaking the glass. I should get up and run. I know he can get through the boards. I should run, but I don’t. I sit there and I wait. For some reason, I think someone will rescue me…

  Max’s eyes opened wide. The nightmares took up most of her night and it took her some time to come back to reality. The door to the corner classroom she had been sleeping in had been left open and she heard whispers coming in from the hall.

  “I saw it!” Kota said, his voice a little louder than it should’ve been.

  “Sh!” That was a female’s voice, but not Reagan’s. “You haven’t fed, Kota, you’re not well.”

  “I’m fine,” he said, sternly. “There’s a Stray in the stairwell. I saw it.”

  “They wouldn’t come close to all this fire.”

  “It doesn’t care! It might be the one from last night. Move.”

  Max hopped up and grabbed her boots. She pushed her feet into them, grabbed her gun and then went out into the hall. Kota was over by the door, trying to unlock the chains. Max ignored the girl as she ran to him.

  “What’re you doing?” She grabbed his hands to stop him, but he clenched her sweater in his fists and slammed her against the wall. A quick tremble rumbled through her, and she stared into his eyes, all red now. His face was twisted in a structure unlike she had seen before. His bones were more defined. Tiny, intricate black veins moved beneath the skin on his face. His sharp fangs and canines poured out from his gums like a rabid wolf. He brought his face close to hers. She put her hands up to show him that she meant no harm. She didn’t want to hurt him—couldn’t if she tried—and she damn sure didn’t want him to hurt her. “It’s fine,” she said, coaxingly, but his eyebrows stayed turned down and he tilted his head at her like he didn’t know who she was. “It’s fine, Dakota.”

  Slowly, he released her. His face went back to normal in an instant.

  Max straightened her sweater. “But y-you can’t open that door.”

  The girl he had been talking to came to them now. “If the thing is out there, let it stay out there.” Her thin, straight hair was tied back into the best ponytail she could manage using a piece of torn cloth. One of her eyes was covered with a brown patch, but she didn’t let it stop her from looking Dakota directly in his eyes.

  “So it can bring more of them to us? No.” He pulled the key from his pocket and stuck it into the lock. He pulled the chains through the handles and let them clank against the floor. He threw the door open and they were met with the overwhelming scent of smoke and hot wax. “Get inside,” he told the young girl. “And tell everyone to stay inside their rooms.”

  Defeated, she nodded and ran off. Max followed closely behind Dakota. She tucked her gun into its holster and pulled her knife instead.

  We don’t shoot at night.

  But Dakota had his gun ready to pull the trigger. Max grabbed his arm. “You can’t shoot that thing.”

  “You’re going to keep telling me what I can’t do? I wouldn’t have to worry about this if you’d stayed your ass under that truck.”

  She would have been dead by morning if she had done that. Part of her wished she had just fallen into a deep sleep and never woken up again. Where were the poison apples when she needed one? She grabbed his arm roughly again when he started to walk. “If you shoot it, you’re going to draw every Stray within a hundred yards to this place. Trust me.”

  “I’ve been doing this longer than you, no doubt.”

  “How? I’m sure I learned about Strays the same time as you. And the rest of the world! And you’ve obviously been very secure here.” She jumped in front of him so that he would pay attention. “I don’t know how well your hearing is, but theirs is phenomenal. You can’t shoot it.”

  He nodded, but his gun went up anyway and he pointed it over her shoulder. “Don’t move,” he whispered.

  His red eyes were impossible not to stare into now. In them, if she looked closely, she could see the Stray. Slowly, she turned around. It stood at the window on the lower landing, its head low, its posture like a fake skeleton forced to stand up on its own. Its black coat was so long that it brushed against the floor when it shifted its weight. Its head went up slowly, and Max saw that it was indeed the Stray from the other night. Dried blood formed a circle around its nose and two strings of it covered its top lip.

  “I said don’t move,” Dakota said, sighing. He clicked the safety off of his gun, but as soon as he did, the Stray was up the stairs and Max had to move into action. Her first line of business was to get the gun out of Kota’s hands before he pulled the trigger. Luckily, she managed, and it slammed against the floor and slid. She didn’t have enough time to do what she needed to do next. The Stray’s hands were around her neck in an instant and she was going down. Her back slammed against the steps, sending a horrible shock through her entire body.

  Kota, since he didn’t have the time to recover his gun, grabbed the Stray’s coat and pulled it back.

  Max couldn’t make the speedy recovery she hoped for. She wasn’t sure if she had hit her head again or if the dizziness would pass soon, but she tried to keep up with Dakota and the Stray. Vampire
against Stray. She wanted to hope that Dakota was stronger than it, but he wasn’t. The Stray slammed him hard against the floor and Kota kicked his legs up to keep the thing from jumping on him. In the end, they both went down the stairs, tumbling until they hit the bottom.

  Max finally sobered and stood up. The disorienting sensation stayed for a moment longer, but she managed to find her footing. She grabbed her knife and ran to help Dakota. When she got to the stairs, Dakota was holding the thing off by its neck, as it snapped and growled at him. “Well, do something!” he shouted.

  Max ran to the Stray’s side. Before it could turn on her, she jabbed the knife into its side once, and then again. It screeched at her and fell away, like a dying bug.

  “Christ almighty!” Dakota rolled over. “A little quicker next time.” Climbing to his hands and knees, he snatched her knife from her. “Leave me without my gun and then take all day to kill the thing?” He stood up and, without warning or thought he slit the Stray’s neck, silencing it once and for all. He kicked his chest, knocking him over.

  Max thought he could have shown a little compassion, but how could she expect him to? It had tried to kill them both. It had tried to kill her twice!

  “Help me get its body downstairs so we can burn it.” Still catching his breath, he bent down and grabbed its arms.

  “Burn it?”

  “They’re scared of fire for a reason.” Dakota nodded his head toward the body. “Bodies burn like flash paper. Grab its legs.”

  Max, shaking her head, listened. She didn’t know where they had come from, or what they really were. All she knew was that they wanted to eat her and everyone like her. Maybe, once upon a time, they had been human, like her. Maybe they had had families. Maybe they had been vampires. This Stray had a name. Had he had a wife? Children? Max couldn’t let herself think about that. Looking at it in that light was humanizing it and she couldn’t. It was a monster. And if she ever had to choose between her own life, she would choose her every time.

  Once they were downstairs, Dakota disappeared into a room, leaving her to stare at the empty, quiet world outside. She stared straight ahead into the dark. The Stray’s limp body created a stain on the pavement at her feet. They could be watching her. They could know that she had just killed their brother, husband, cousin, friend.

  On a train…

  Dakota came back with a water bottle of yellow liquid. “Move,” he said, rudely.

  “Manners,” Max said, stepping out of his way and crossing her arms. She backed up inside the building, past the candles. She watched as Kota emptied the half full bottle of liquid onto the Stray. He pulled a small pack of matches from the back of his pants, lit one and let it drop onto the body.

  And he was right, Max saw, as the body whooshed into bright flames and burned into a black charcoal-like lump. It burned more, sending paper thin flakes of black into the air. The flakes vanished too. The fire burned until there was nothing left to burn. Not even a blemish was left on the ground to prove that the Stray had ever been there. Dakota walked back into the building and past Max.

  “We should get back upstairs.”

  Max caught up with him and walked beside him. “Have you killed a lot of them?”

  He stopped. “What?”

  “Have you killed many Strays?”

  “Could you look at me when you talk? Or stand on this side?”

  Max laughed and jumped in front of him. “You’re deaf?”

  “No. Well, in one ear.”

  “This one?” She tapped the hearing aid in his left ear.

  He pushed her hand away, not smiling. “I can hear you fine. I just do better at it when I’m reading your lips.”

  “Ah.” She squinted. “Mm hm.” They started walking again. “And you know Sign Language?”

  He sucked in a deep breath and puffed it out. Then he did something quick and incoherent to her with his hands, making an angry expression.

  “I’ll take that as a yes. What did you say?”

  “I said I’m not here to be your friend. I want you gone tomorrow. Got it?” He flicked his index finger up, nodding.

  Max nodded. He didn’t have to kick her out of the place. She had already planned to leave. She wished he showed a little more sympathy, like Curly and Reagan, but he was a vampire and made no secret about it. She hadn’t interacted with many vampires in her day, but she saw now they were a lot ruder than humans, unless of course that was one of his human traits. Then she had it all backwards.

  Six

  Max

  ●

  The morning of my first day of school my dad tried to teach me how to drive. “You can’t use two feet,” he had said to me, laughing, as if he had expected me to do that. “That’s beyond dangerous, you don’t even understand.” And when he looked at me I was comforted by the magnificent depth of his blue eyes. “Pick one.” “Okay,” I had said, but that hadn’t gotten me driving the car any better. Mom had sat quietly in the backseat, her eyes faraway like she would rather be anywhere else in the world. I tried not to watch her from the rearview mirror, but I couldn’t help myself. She wanted to go home. They had argued that morning, about what, I didn’t know, but she could hardly stand to look at him or be in the same place as him. I didn’t learn to drive that day… or any day after that…

  Max had slept closer to the window, like most of the people in the room. She didn’t know about them, but she would use the window as her escape if anything came up. She woke up from another memory. She couldn’t call them dreams anymore. Her mom’s and dad’s faces were perfectly implanted in her mind. Every detail of them she had in her head and it sometimes made her want to curl over and cry. Even though she didn’t have Eric around, she still had to be strong for herself.

  People guarded the halls, but Kota was still asleep. He had been the one to stay up for most of the night, guarding the place. Now—and she could hear his loud laughter—it was Curly’s turn. Brushing off the rest of her anesthetic mood, Max pushed the thin sheet from her and stood up. What were they out there laughing for? Clearly no one had told them about the Stray attack last night. Max was still grateful that it had only been one. Dakota was right though. There was no telling how many more would come. She felt bad leaving them there to fend for them, but she had to get out of there to find her brother. Plus, Kota had made himself quite clear. She checked her gun to make sure the clip was full. It was morning. The sun was up bright and early. She wouldn’t hesitate to shoot during the day.

  She put her boots on, tied them tight and tucked her knife in safe. Her brother was a couple days off now. She would have to move fast to catch up to them. The last thing she remembered him in was a plaid t-shirt and his yellow baseball cap. It broke her heart remembering that he had only played baseball to please their father, and how much he had cursed that damn hat when their father died. She would do anything to get back to him. Anything.

  Dakota moaned in his sleep, but Max ignored him. She went down the hall to the bathing room, quietly so that no one stopped her. There were two people in the room in separate tubs, a male and a female. They paid no attention to her as she walked past them. She went to the lab sink and filled it with hot water. With an old cloth, she wiped her underarms. There was no toothpaste that she saw, so she gargled with hot water. She ran some water through her hair and tied it in a ponytail. Then she found her way back to the room where she had slept. She was about to grab the jacket Reagan had given her, but Dakota moaned again, stopping her.

  He sounded in pain. She wanted to make sure he was okay, but she wanted to be gone before he woke up. She would just tell Reagan or Curly. She snatched up the jacket. She saw Curly when she stepped out into the hall, but Curly wasn’t with her. Kota groaned again before she walked away. She went to Curly, who was talking to a dark-skinned male, whose muscles bulged every time he moved his arm.

  “Hey,” Curly said, turning to her. “Good morning. You’re all dressed.”

  “I’m all leaving,” Max said, nod
ding. “I’ve got to get back to my brother. I can’t wait anymore.” She hadn’t mentioned her brother, but she expected him to understand. He had a younger brother, too. “Um”— she pointed over her shoulder. “Kota’s”—

  “You’re going by yourself?” Curly said, his assault rifle crossed over his chest.

  “I got here by myself.”

  “Just barely,” the dark-skinned man said, chuckling.

  “Well, I’m a big girl.”

  “What’re you, like fifteen?” Curly shifted his weight from one leg to the other.

  “I’m seventeen, thanks.”

  “Mm.” He bit his bottom lip and looked her up and down. “I see.”

  Max stared at him with shrunken eyes. She felt naked, like he had undressed her with his eyes. She had never been looked at like that by a man before. She shook off his stare and pointed over her shoulder again. “There’s something wrong with your brother.” She thought maybe he was having a nightmare. Even so, she wanted to tell someone. She preferred Reagan, seeing to as the intoxicated smell of Curly’s breath had just hit her. The guy was drunk or on his way to being drunk. She wanted to slap him. Drinking at a time like this? Where had he even gotten the booze?

  “What do you mean?” He sobered up quickly, standing up straight.

  “He’s in there doing a whole lot of moaning.”

  “Shit.” He slammed his rifle against his friend’s chest and stormed off. Max followed him to the room and watched as he dropped to his knees beside Dakota. “Kota?” He shoved his shoulder hard. “Kota, wake up. Wake up!” He lifted up and shouted into his ear. “Kota!”

  Dakota’s eyes popped open wide, but they were blank. They weren’t red, or green, just white. White, like a Stray’s. The black veins, like Max had seen last night, returned to his face. She faltered. She wanted to turn and run out of there. What she saw—what she was looking at—was Stray. Except for his hair, he resembled Stray so much that she was a little confused.