Burn the Night Read online

  “Get over here,” Emma grunted as she used the strength channeled by her vambraces to pull hand over hand on the rope and slide the protesting turned across the tile kitchen floor to her place, pinned underneath its comrade.

  The turned shrieked and spat. It directed its attention from Mr. Jackson and looked at Emma. It came at her in a high leap, descending on her prone form with all of its force.

  It looked like it had at one time been an average-build housewife. A blood-encrusted pearl necklace was on her throat and a pair of designer jeans rode on her hips.

  “Sorry, not sorry about this.” Emma transitioned from her rope construct to a short spear. She placed the bottom of the spear on the tile floor. The sharp point she directed at the turned’s gapping mouth.

  She caught the descending monster with perfect aim. The tip of her purple spear went into her mouth and out the back of her head, leaving her quivering on the end of her spear only a foot away from her face.

  Blood dripped down on Emma, nearly covering her own mouth. At the last minute, Emma constructed armor for her head that looked like a motorcycle helmet to shield her face.

  “This is so gross.” Emma took a quick breath before jerking her spear to the side and laying the woman beside her.

  “Emma, Emma.” Her father skidded to a halt by her side, helping to free her from underneath the heavy mass of a man that lay dead on top of her. “Are you all right?”

  “Oh, yeah, just another day at the office,” Emma lied to her father, trying to ease the panic in his voice and the sheer terror she saw in his eyes. “I’m great. This is what I do now.”

  BAM!

  The front door broke off its hinges as three more turned fell into the house.

  Emma had a brief moment to see General Fox reload and open fire once more. The stairwell was a heap of bodies where at least four more turned were either dead or in the process of dying.

  “Stay back,” Emma instructed her father, already moving to meet the new threat. “I’ve got this.”

  The three turned that had just broken down the front door bounded for Emma and her father like a tidal wave seconds from crashing on the beach.

  Emma took a brief moment to construct armor around her, the likes of which a medieval knight would wear into battle. She charged her opponents, battering into them so hard she took them from the kitchen into her father’s study. The dividing wall that separated the two was no match for the force Emma gathered. As one, they eviscerated the wall and slammed into the ground.

  Emma tried to separate herself from the pile of arms, legs, and teeth that snapped at her. Demonic red eyes from her darkest nightmares glared so intensely, it was as if they sought to burn holes in her.

  To Emma’s chagrin, her father was there a moment later. He had picked up a chair from the table and decided to use it as a weapon. One of the turned grabbed on to Emma, trying to sink its teeth into her purple armor.

  Mr. Jackson raised the chair over his head, and with a roar that would have made even Instructor Drown proud, he began beating the turned with it.

  His heart was in the right place, but there was no way her father was going to be able to fight a turned and live. A plan was still forming in her mind as she threw first turned off her, then punched another across the jaw, when the sounds of a child screaming filled the room.

  Even past the general’s blaring firearm, the screech was clear. A blue light akin to a laser beam hit the turned Emma was grappling with. The heated laser round missed her by a few inches. It met its target, annihilating the chest of the turned Emma was grappling with. A hole the size of a basketball appeared after the explosion of blood and gore washed over Emma.

  Emma turned in time to see Laloyd thrown backwards through the air as he discharged some kind of futuristic type rifle that looked like a long water gun toy. He fell back into the kitchen with a crash.

  As much as Emma wanted to help him, she still had one turned struggling underneath her while another grappled with her father.

  Mr. Jackson was trying to fend off the attack of a turned as it reached for him with long claw-like nails. To his credit, Emma’s father batted away each blow with his chair, fending off the worst of the attack.

  “Emma, hold still! I got him!” Laloyd screamed from his spot where he had picked himself off the ground. “Ughhhhhh!”

  Laloyd screamed in that same high-pitched squeal that reminded her of an adolescent youngster trying to pull something heavy.

  A second blue laser beam streaked by Emma, popping the head of the turned her father was wrestling with like a balloon. Blood went everywhere, coating her father from head to toe in the sticky red substance.

  Emma held on to the turned grappling with her tightly. She stared into its lunatic eyes as it wriggled to try to get free of her, doing everything in its power to toss her off.

  Refusing to let go, Emma assumed a dominant position atop the turned, slamming its head over and over again against the wood floor of her father’s office.

  “I got it, I got it.” Laloyd had picked himself up from the floor once more and raced over to stand in front of Emma. He aimed the massive rifle down on the turned’s head. “Stay clear.”

  “No—don’t. You’re going to—”

  Emma didn’t get the rest of her warning out as Laloyd pulled the trigger.

  “Ughhhhhh!” The impact of the weapon’s blue laser beam at this close a distance bucked Laloyd so hard he was lifted off his feet, slammed into the ceiling, and fell down on his face.

  The only thing that saved Emma from receiving a blood bath like her father was the purple armor that coated her body. The red substance flew at her and painted her like a Pollock. She was a picture of red and purple from her helmeted head to her waist.

  “I think that’s all of them.” General Fox walked into Mr. Jackson’s office. “Everyone okay in here?”

  “I think—I think I swallowed some of the blood.” Mr. Jackson spit over and over again, trying to free his mouth of the taste. “I think I might be one of these vampires now.”

  “They’re not vampires and neither is their condition transferred by blood,” General Fox said, checking the number of rounds he had left in his weapon. He swapped out the magazine. “We’ll get you checked, but you should be fine.”

  “I’m okay too.” Laloyd jumped up from his prone position on the ground. “Wow, that was crazy! I was like vroom vroom with my Master Blaster and Emma’s dad was all like ‘No, it’s going to eat me, help.’ Then I was like, I got you! Then I came over to help Emma and she was like, ‘what no!’ And then I was like ‘Not today, you Vilmar turned piece of garbage.’”

  “I’m not really sure that’s how it went,” Emma said, rising to her feet and allowing her armor construct to leave her body. All around her, a sheet of blood fell to the ground. “Why didn’t you warn us they were coming?”

  “And I told you to stay in the vehicle.” General Fox turned to Laloyd with a stern glare. “What about that?”

  “I messed up.” Laloyd allowed his rifle to sag to the ground. The smile he had on his reptilian face a moment later now swapped with a look of horror. “They must have entered through the backyard and around the far side of the house. I didn’t see them until they were already breaking in. I had to come and help, General. You’re my family. When my family is attacked, I can’t just sit by.”

  “You’re a noncombatant and an important member of our team on diplomatic loan to us from your planet,” General Fox reminded Laloyd. “You obey your orders next time.”

  “Yes, sir.” Laloyd looked like a little boy who had just been chided by his hero. “I will, sir.”

  Sirens sounded in the distance.

  “Wonderful.” General Fox holstered his sidearm and smoothed down his uniform. “The local authorities will be here in a matter of minutes. I’ll speak with them. The rest of you stay inside. Laloyd, where’s our backup?”

  Laloyd placed his weapon on the floor and reached inside his jacket. He
pulled out a smart pad a moment later. “Sixty seconds out, sir. They should reach us just ahead of the local authorities.”

  “Wonderful,” General Fox said without actually meaning the word. “We’ll have a party.”

  Without another look, General Fox made his way outside.

  Emma took it upon herself to pick up the broken front door and prop it up against the entrance to her house. If the idea was to keep aliens and the turned hidden, giving someone a view into the house and the wreckage within was not the way.

  Emma secured the broken door as best she could before taking a look at the inside of her home. A pile of dead bodies fell down the stars where General Fox had defended the first floor. The kitchen was a mess of broken chairs. Their table was upended and glass shards from the front window sprinkled the ground.

  Blood soaked the kitchen floor leading into her father’s study, where an entire wall had been destroyed. Her father’s books were askew all over the ground, a bookcase had been demolished, and in the middle of all of this, her father sat staring at Laloyd as if he were the Ghost of Christmas Past.

  “Oh right.” Laloyd waved to Mr. Jackson with a hand covered in green scales. “First time seeing an alien, huh? I promise I’m not going to pop out of your chest or anything. I come in peace and all that. Are you all right, Mr. Jackson? You look pale.”

  13

  “So this is what a government safe house looks like, huh?” Emma strolled around the small confines of the dilapidated condo on the outskirts of town. “I thought it would be—be…”

  “Less mildew-y?” Mr. Jackson finished her thought.

  “It’s only a very temporary location,” Laloyd assured them as he pulled his black jacket tighter around him. Although it was the middle of the night, he didn’t want to draw attention to any prying eyes who might be able to see past his hat and hood. “As soon as General Fox meets with the Alliance and irons out the details, I’m sure we can use the Academy as a headquarters.”

  Emma took a second look around the rundown neighborhood. She wasn’t sure if it was the late-hour darkness or if the area actually looked this bad in daylight. After General Fox had spoken with the local authorities and his team had arrived to contain the area, Emma, her father, and Laloyd had been given directions to the safe house.

  The idea was General Fox would use Emma’s holo band to communicate with Slain and arrange the meeting with the Alliance. In the meantime, she was stuck on Earth. The safe house Laloyd had taken them to looked like it had seen better decades. A wrought-iron screen door and iron bars over the windows gave way to a white one-story house whose paint peeled off it like a snake shedding its skin. The lawn looked like it hadn’t seen a lawnmower in months and the waist-high chain link fence that surrounded the property was already beginning to rust.

  “It’s a—a—well, I’m just going to be honest with you. I was expecting more too.” Laloyd shook his reptilian head. “We’re in good hands. There are two squads of Marines stationed around the neighborhood, in vehicles, rooftops, and surrounding buildings.”

  Emma looked up and down the street, trying to spot their silent guard. She couldn’t spot a single one. They were hidden well. It looked like any other street in the middle of the night, deserted and alone.

  “Let’s see if the inside looks any better,” Laloyd said with a hint of hope in his voice. “I mean, the inside can’t be as bad as the outside. Right?”

  Emma followed Laloyd with her father as the three unlikely companions entered the porch. The wood beneath their feet groaned as if the house itself were complaining about having visitors at this time of night.

  Laloyd produced a black chip from the inside of his coat and waved it in front of the wrought-iron gate as if he were wielding a magic wand.

  To Emma’s surprise, there was a click and a soft female voice welcomed them.

  “Welcome to Haven.”

  “This day just keeps getting weirder and weirder.” Mr. Jackson looked down at his daughter with a fatigued smile. “Maybe it would be easier if you were in a gang or ditched school or something.”

  “Sorry.” Emma shrugged with a smile as she followed Laloyd into the house. “Just intergalactic relations and fighting the forces of darkness across the universe. You raised me too well to drop out of school.”

  “I should have fed you more processed foods and let you stay up late watching TV as a kid.” Emma’s dad grinned at her. He waved a dramatic hand in front of him. “After you.”

  Emma gave her father another smile. After all he had been through that day, he was still the same joking, caring father she always knew. There was a tiredness in his eyes now that hinted at more than physical fatigue. Something there told Emma he hadn’t come to grips that her mother was back in the picture. That was going to be something only time would be able to heal.

  Emma walked into the house, where an empty room met her. The carpet was ripped in a dozen places. Dusty blinds hid the windows and the smell of something long dead made her gag.

  “Wait a minute, wait a minute,” Laloyd said with a cheerful smile as he glanced down at the smart pad he held in his hands. “I knew Haven had to have a few tricks up her sleeve. Watch this.”

  Laloyd went to a crumbling brick fireplace to their left. He looked back down at his smart pad for a minute, then used the same black key fob he had used to open the door to pass across a specific series of bricks.

  “Oh, so it’s actually worse inside than outside,” Emma’s father said behind her. “I didn’t think that was possible. But on the bright side, we don’t have vampires here trying to rip out our throats.”

  “Haven,” Laloyd said, speaking to the chimney. “Enact protocol zero, four, zero, eight, seventeen.”

  “Protocol zero, four, zero, eight, seventeen recognized and executed,” the female voice that seemed to come out of the very walls themselves answered. “Please make sure all exits are secured.”

  “Oh, right,” Mr. Jackson said, closing the front door behind him. “Sorry, Haven.”

  “No need to apologize, Richard Jackson,” Haven answered back. “Please remain standing where you are for a brief moment.”

  Shimmering green lights descended from the ceiling down to the floor as if they were peeling away a layer of reality. The house transitioned from dilapidated and condemned to state-of-the-art and high tech.

  The walls transitioned from stained, and in many cases, riddled with holes to plain white and without blemish. The old flooring underneath their feet turned to lush grey carpeting, sleek furniture filled the room, and even the fireplace moved from crumbling brick to a steel fixture showing four large screens that monitored the exterior of the house.

  “All right, yeah, guys, now we’re talking.” Laloyd removed his deep hood and the baseball cap that sat awkwardly on his horned head. “Now it’s time to just kick back and wait. I wonder if this place has any food or Netflix.”

  “Yes.” Haven’s voice came from nowhere and everywhere at once. “The kitchen is fully stocked and we have access to over two thousand channels and apps.”

  “Anyone want anything?” Laloyd placed his smart pad on one of the cushioned chairs in the room. “Since coming to this planet, I’ve become a big fan of pickles dipped in peanut butter.”

  “That’s just wrong.” Emma shook her head while waving away Laloyd’s offer. “I’ll pass, thanks.”

  “Papa Bear?” Laloyd looked over to Mr. Jackson. “Something to help cope with the events surrounding your day?”

  “No, thanks,” Mr. Jackson said with a weary smile. “I think I just need some sleep.”

  “Cool, cool, I’ll be in the kitchen getting my pickle and peanut butter sandwich on.” Laloyd did a body roll dance move before venturing deeper into the house.

  Emma and her father were left alone for the first time since Mr. Jackson had discovered the truth about his daughter.

  “Dad, I—”

  Emma didn’t get to finish her words. The space next to her shimmered f
or a brief moment before the familiar figure of her mother appeared next to her.

  It was like Emma’s body had turned to stone. Her eyes doubled in size as her father saw her mother for the first time in sixteen years. Not only that, he was seeing her in her true form.

  Tistan Duel’s orange skin, hair, and eyes clearly set her apart as an alien. While on Earth, she had been disguised to look like a human with a pill that altered her true pigmentation.

  She wore a brown cloak with a hood that fell behind her back. A black and purple uniform clung tight to her muscular body. Her swords were sheathed in a holder behind her back. The handles poked up on either side of her head.

  Emma wanted to say something. She even tried to break the silence between her mother and father, but no words came out. It was like she had been struck dumb and paralyzed at the same instant.

  “Intruder detected, activating initiative Cole,” Haven’s voice filled the room.

  “What’s going o—” Laloyd rounded a corner with a half-eaten pickle smeared in peanut butter. His mouth was full as he spoke. “Oh—oh my. Haven, retract that order. She’s a friendly.”

  “Understood,” Haven obeyed. “Retracting order Cole.”

  “Riley?” Emma’s father looked at Tistan without fear. “Riley, is that you?”

  For the first time since Emma had met the brutal warrior she knew her mother to be, the woman was silent. Tistan opened her own mouth as if she were going to say something, then thought better of it and closed it again.

  CRUNCH!

  Everyone looked over to Laloyd, who stood in the doorway munching on his pickle. He stared on wide-eyed as the drama unfolded in front of him.

  “Maybe we should give you some—some time to talk this out,” Emma said, finally finding her voice.

  “No,” Tistan and Laloyd said at the same time.

  “You should hear what I have to say,” Tistan told her daughter while shooting Laloyd a dirty look. “I want you to be here.”

  Tistan took a step toward Richard, opening her hands as if she were going to start speaking.