19. Rue

Rue

The answer as to whether the biological attack could kill monsters was answered less than twenty-four hours after the siren went off. Thankfully, it was turned off after a couple hours, which was far longer than necessary as far as every single one of us was concerned.

Most of the news feeds were down at this point. There were still a few channels running which, by all accounts, were probably because those who'd been controlling them died where they were and never turned anything off.

It was… harrowing. A real life apocalypse happening right before our eyes.

In the footage of one of the channels where we were basically just looking at a field of bodies, we saw a monster come into frame. She looked around, careful not to touch anything.

As to whether or not the pathogen in the air was still present was answered, too. It was the first time that we could see the progression, uninterrupted by other bodies and panic.

Her death took longer than I could stomach. She was clearly filled with pain and panic and desperation. But there was no one there to help her. Not that I thought there was help for any of it at this point .

"Do you think someone let it loose in our world?" someone asked.

"I'd have to assume not," another answered.

I'd stopped trying to learn names at this point. For now, there were other more important things to do. Like soaking up all the time I could get with my husbands. I wasn't sure about the Day of Shambala countdown being a legitimate finite moment, but I was sure I felt one hanging over us.

Now that we knew that the poison could kill us, all of our days were coming to a close. It was just a matter of time before it reached the compound.

The Taikas' house was enormous, but I was confident that it was because of a magical distortion of space more than the house itself was big enough to hold so many people. I spent most of the time here wrapped up with one or multiple of my husbands in a big chair that easily fit three of us comfortably.

I knew I wasn't the only one who felt the dooming energy. It hung over us like a cloud. The entire house was quiet, even though conversation rarely stopped. How did you fight something you couldn't see?

Maybe more terrifying—what was next? What would Silence send to us? What would they unleash into the supernatural world to eliminate everyone?

Logically, I didn't think it would be another biological attack. From what we'd seen, it was indiscriminate. They wouldn't be able to pick and choose which species lived and which died. That meant the hybrids and beasts would come for us.

I was almost relieved with that option. At least they were visible, and we could fight back. Even if we were severely outdone. In numbers, I was fairly confident that the number of people in the compound was more than those Silence had left to hit us with. However, that single army had killed four billion people all on their own.

Granted, those four billion were practically defenseless. They might as well have been children for as well as their return attacks were effective.

That should be reassuring. There were all these morals that could be said about how someone so strong only picked on the weak and whatever. But the truth was, we knew they picked on everyone indiscriminately. Their murderous intent was truly unbiased.

I was staring at nothing, curled up on the chair with Bryn at my side. Javan was on his other side and we absently picked at a few slices of pizza while listening to those around us talk.

There was newer speculation about how the virus traveled now that it'd been a day since the attack. It wasn't moving on the wind, thankfully, though was definitely airborne. But it was still unclear as to how it was released to begin with.

As with every other Silence attack, the event took place simultaneously worldwide. If I had to take a guess, there were probably only a few thousand humans left alive. Something inside me said I was being super generous with that number, too.

The fact that we had humans living within the compound was a concern. Not because we were worried that they would contract the illness and pass it on to everyone else, but because we didn't know how to treat it.

A lot of talk revolved around that concern. Hypothetically if the pathogen reached us, what did we do? How did we combat it? How close was the nearest human settlement and should we consider studying one of the corpses, so we knew what we were dealing with?

Obviously, bringing a body that we knew contracted the illness into the compound was vetoed. It hadn't truly been a suggestion, but the fact still remained, if we wanted to know how to fight against it, we needed to study it. Needless to say, we'd yet to study it. Right now, everything we knew was based on speculation. Because it presented so much like rapid-acting rabies, we were prepared to treat it as rabies.

Koa screaming ‘Daddy' had everyone on their feet. My heart lodged in my throat as we jostled our way toward them. Calix was on all fours, his body shaking with tremors. There was sweat on his brow.

A pit formed in my stomach.

"Lazarus!" someone yelled as they dropped onto the ground next to Calix. Calix collapsed. His eyes were wide open, bloodshot.

My worst fears came to life before my eyes as foaming saliva dripped from his mouth. Movement buzzed around the room. Doors slamming. Urgent voices. Panicking cries. They all sounded as if they were in a tunnel.

No. How did this happen?

"Cobalt!"

Two hulking men got close to Calix, but Koa was too far within his panic to think clearly as he screamed and cried. A black void opened behind him, and everyone scrambled backward.

"Fuck," Javan cried out as he and Bryn dove for Koa.

Bryn scooped Koa up who was now somehow an actual child. I wasn't sure how his monster worked, but once the void opened, the body he usually lived in vanished.

This was the Koa I'd met in his void days ago. His eyes were matte black and there was blackness bleeding through his skin, winding through his veins. Consuming him.

Bryn hugged him tightly as Javan joined them, wrapping both of them in his arms. "Listen to me, Koa," Javan said. "We can't let your monster eat anyone. If you want them to save Daddy, you need to control your monster."

It was then that I saw him lurking in the darkness. Big, black eyes that shimmered. Enormous teeth, dripping with hunger. His snarl filled the room as he prowled closer.

Koa sobbed. "I'm trying."

"I know, baby, I know. Be brave, okay? Daddy wants you to be brave for him," Bryn said.

I couldn't imagine how much strength it took for both of them to keep themselves under control, when I was sure all they wanted to do was freak out. Tears muddled my vision as I remained standing right where I'd gotten to my feet. Frozen in fear.

Calix's body jerked, and Koa's wail filled the air. The beast stepped out of the void. One nasty claw, digging into the floor, tearing straight through it.

"Koa," Javan said, pulling Koa's face away from Calix. "If it eats them, they can't save Daddy."

"I can't," Koa cried. His sobs ripped my heart in two. "I-I can't. Daddy is dead!" he wailed.

Then his head was out of the void and fuck, I thought I just lost several years off my life as I stared in horror. He was the thing of nightmares.

"Can you do something?"

I glanced at my side, wondering if the question was for me. What could I do?

But it wasn't. There was an oni there, leaning against the wall with a child wrapped snugly in his arms as he watched with fascination. He shook his head. "He's not a shadow. He's… a void. It's different."

"But can you calm him?"

The oni looked amused. "Why do you think I'd be able to do that?"

"I need a story book," I said.

Dozens of eyes turned to me.

"Please."

Someone handed one to me. I made my way through the bodies, only barely looking at Calix. If I looked at him, I might break down and that wasn't going to help Koa keep his control.

Stepping just inside the void where Koa was held by Javan and Bryn on my right and the beast was creeping out on my left, I turned and sat with my legs folded under me as three more of me walked out of my body as if they were echos and stood in front of the beast .

Taking a breath, I looked at Koa. "Listen to my words, okay?"

Koa's sobs were hiccupping. Uncontrolled. He tried to nod, but I could see his fight with the blackness was lessening. He was losing his struggle. I didn't dare ask what would happen if it consumed him.

Taking a breath, I turned to the book and opened it. My echoes reached hands out to the monster, letting it sniff us.

"Torin," one of the Nephilim over Calix's body said. "We can't fight the magic. It needs to be removed before we can stabilize him."

I tried to contain my terror and focus on the words on the pages. My eyes were so filled with tears that I could barely make them out. They floated and contorted. One of my echoes touched the beast in a soft, reassuring pat. He snarled, growled, bared down as if he were getting ready to lunge.

Taking a deep breath, I began to read. On one side, Koa continued to sob. On the other, his monster continued to growl.

Minutes passed and both remained just how they were. The toxin in Koa's veins stopped moving through him. The beast hunkered down and let my echoes pet him, coo to him, soothe him. He was still growling, but he wasn't moving further out of the void.

Calix started coughing. He rolled onto his side, coughing up blood, and slowly lifted himself to his hands and knees again.

"Daddy!" Koa shrieked as he tried to pull free of Javan and Bryn.

Calix looked up and he looked like death reawakened. "Be brave, my baby," he said hoarsely.

New tears filled my eyes. I looked at my husbands to find fresh tears moving down their faces. Calix looked at both of them. Then at me. It was a goodbye if I'd ever seen one. His eyes touched the beast, too. "Be good," he whispered.

It was hard to keep reading. My voice shook and I took frequent breaks because I couldn't see the words. Calix continued to cough. The Nephilim were glowing brightly and when they touched Calix at the same time, he too began to shine like the beacon in a lighthouse.

The glow was so bright that I couldn't see the pages at all anymore. The monster growled beside me, and my echoes moved in closer, wrapping their arms around his neck and hugging him fiercely. I felt their tears, too.

Time stopped moving as the bright light filled the room. The Nephilim and Torin conversed over Calix. He continued to cough, but made no more sounds. He'd fallen onto the floor again, unable to maintain the strength to hold himself up.

Koa cried. My other two husbands cried. I thought even the beast was crying through his growls.

We knew we only had upwards of two hours before the pathogen succeeded. As the minutes ticked by, the more filled with sorrow I became. There wasn't anything we could do. Silence had found something to take out even the strongest monsters.

I'd stopped trying to read since I couldn't see the pages anymore. I wasn't sure if I moved, or if my family shifted to surround me, but Bryn pressed our struggling Koa between us as he continued trying to break free and get to Calix while he cried and begged for his Daddy.

Bryn didn't try to hold it together anymore. Neither did Javan. Both were crying as they stared at Calix.

On my other side, the beast was hunkered next to me. His large shoulder leaning heavily into mine. My echoes—now five of them—were covering him like a blanket, trying to talk soothingly and reassuringly through their own tears.

Finally, the blinding light died down.

"No," Javan choked. "Please, don't stop. Don't give up." His broken voice tore at me.

"We didn't give up," Cobalt said and helped Calix sit up. "We would never give up on someone we love."

Calix looked exhausted. He had dried blood on his chin and staining the front of his shirt. He gave us a weak smile .

I wasn't sure who moved first, but we were all on Calix in the next breath. He answered with an ‘oof' as we surrounded him. Everyone else backed away as Koa's monster took more steps out of the void to loom over us.

"You're scaring them," Calix said, voice rasping. "Come here."

The monster's weight settled on top of us, making me feel like someone had just set a semi-truck on our backs.

"I'm sorry, Daddy," Koa whispered. "He's scared, too. He doesn't want to go back right now."

"It's okay," Calix promised. "Everything's okay now."

"Is it?" Javan asked.

"Yes," Lazarus said. "In good news, we understand what we're dealing with."

"In perplexing news, it only touched you. Even with the rest of us hovering so close."

"Our humans?"

"They're in a clean room," Torin said.

"How will we know when it's safe for them to come out?"

No one answered.

"We don't…"