CHAPTER 1 #3
The light from the pale-yellow candle set out on the kitchen table flickered against walls stained by years of water damage as they silently counted down the minute it would take for Ava’s blood test to register.
Sliding the blackout curtains an inch to the side, Dani stared out into the darkened streets of the city.
Their apartment was located in the meatpacking district, one of the areas in the sector where no one particularly wanted to live, and where they could scrape up enough for rent each month.
Beyond the walls, fires burned in the distance, barely visible through the swirling snow.
Her stomach churned. She wanted desperately to open a window, but didn’t dare in this cold.
Evan hesitated before answering. “The two vampires you lured in mostly kept the cameras from getting a clear shot of your face.”
“At least something went our way tonight.”
A whistle sounded from somewhere down in the street.
Dani quickly closed the curtain. At this hour, having the windows open was forbidden.
They were past curfew, for one. Too close to the border with the pack lands, for another, though the latter had always felt more like a measure of compliance and control to her than anything else.
She’d heard whispers that the wolves could see and smell well enough in the dark to track a single human blindfolded through the vast forests that formed the zone of neutrality between shifter land and the vampire-controlled cities, so what did curtains even matter?
“They’re denouncing this attack by aberrant bloods in the streets as justification for accelerating the surveillance programs.” Evan paused. “And your picture is all over the media feeds.”
Dani was about to respond when a quiet knock sounded at the door, a pattern of quick and slow raps.
“That’s Sera.” Evan’s face flooded with relief. “She’ll know what to do.”
Dani stepped between her and the door, holding up a hand. “You know how I feel about bringing vampires here. Ava is sick. And their prey drive is primed to feed off the weak.”
“I trust Sera. And at the moment, we don’t have a lot of options.”
Dani scraped a hand through her hair. That was the problem, of course.
They had healers in the human community, doctors, nurses and midwives who worked tirelessly to help the survivors that remained.
But in the decades since the world had changed, they’d been forced to pass their knowledge down mostly through informal apprenticeships.
Few in their generation were able to remain in school past the compulsory years.
And anyone could see Ava was getting worse by the day.
“Thank you so much for coming,” Evan said as she stood aside to allow a young female vampire to enter the room.
Dani tried not to stare as Sera hurried across the room and began taking Ava’s vitals.
She suspected the vampire physician had come straight from another house call.
She had on a gray hooded thermal and fitted fleece lined black pants that looked casual, but that Dani knew from the brand didn’t come cheap.
Her long auburn hair was pulled into a high ponytail.
She took in the dark circles under her eyes, and the snow melting on her boots as she gently took Ava’s pulse, and decided perhaps she’d judged the healer too harshly.
“Can I get you some tea?”
“Thank you, but I’m fine.” Sera tucked a strand of hair behind the ear loop of her mask. “I have another patient I need to see to after this, so I can’t stay long.”
Dani nodded, wondering if she really did have another house call to make, or if it was because she didn’t want to remove her mask.
Almost three decades had passed since the first pandemic that had triggered the mutations, and although most of the vampires had emerged stronger and all but immune to sickness, some suffered unexplained chronic blood conditions.
She’d never seen this particular healer without a mask and two layers of gloves.
Evan had confided once that Sera had picked up some rare vampire contagion in medical school, something so terrible it had nearly killed her.
Even after she recovered, the experience had frightened her so much, she’d become something of a germaphobe and had dropped out before she could finish her final internship.
Now she was stuck making house calls during a snowstorm in one of the most decrepit human districts in the sector, rather than working in one of the more prestigious hospitals.
“You said you found insulin?” Sera asked.
“This is all I could get.” Dani handed over the precious vial.
Carefully, she measured out a dose, and injected it into Ava’s arm. “Hopefully she’ll wake up soon.” She nodded for them to follow her over to the fireplace.
“How bad is it?” Dani glanced nervously over at Ava. “She ran out of insulin almost a week ago. It took us until tonight to come up with the money.”
Evan was biting her nails again. Even before they’d run out entirely, they’d been rationing Ava’s doses, trying make the last of the insulin stretch a little longer. She hated the medication shortages, which were always worse in the winter.
Sera shook her head. “With diabetes, long term control of blood sugar levels is critical. When a person’s levels are allowed to stay too high for long periods of time, it causes serious damage to the body.
Reduced circulation in extremities. Damage to vital organs.
You have to find a way to get her a regular supply of insulin and keep her levels stable. ”
“Okay. So, we got the insulin. It should bring her levels back in range, right?”
“It’s not that simple. Ava won’t survive many more of these spikes in blood sugar. Each of these episodes does more harm to her body and that damage is progressive. If you can’t get her levels controlled, the disease will eventually progress to infection, or coma and then death.”
It suddenly felt like all the air had been sucked from the room.
Dani looked around to the pallet in the corner by the fire where she and Evan had slept the night before, then to the cupboard that so rarely contained any food.
The closet held a fine red silk dress and the wool coat she’d worn tonight, both items that had once belonged to their mother.
Dani felt her knees began to shake. She doubted they would even fetch enough to pay for a single vial of insulin.
Medicines were so hard to come by now and they didn’t dare give up the last few nice things that allowed her and Evan to pass without notice into the Old City.
“There has to be another way.”
But even as she said it, she felt a surge of hopelessness at their situation. She looked around their drab apartment, where the cold constantly seeped under the door. The snow howled relentlessly outside, the fire in the grate never doing quite enough to warm the room.
And yet, it was home. Her writing notebooks were stacked haphazardly on an end table.
Evan’s sketches were tacked up on every wall, illustrations she’d done of the characters in the latest story Dani was working on in the evenings.
Ava had the pictures of her favorite dancers and skaters she loved to follow on social media.
Their father had once told her that even in the face of the difficulties they were up against, it wasn’t enough just to survive, that they had to find things worth living for, little bits of joy in each and every day.
And so Ava had her dance tutorials she practiced by watching videos and the outfits she sketched and designed and sewed out of scraps.
Evan had her drawings. Dani had her books, along with the stories that lived in her head.
Their house might have been constantly in need of a good clean and more heating oil, but it was full of love.
But all the love in the world wouldn’t get her sister the food and medicine she needed.
With only one work permit per household, the jobs Evan had to take were all under the table, risky, dangerous work that could mean her arrest if she were caught.
And Dani knew well enough from counting out their pennies every month that her shifts at the factory barely paid enough to cover their rent, and didn’t come close to covering the cost of Ava’s insulin.
Sera hesitated. “There’s always the werewolves.”
“No,” Dani said sharply, then quickly lowered her voice when she saw Ava stir. “Do you know what they’re doing to human women once they get them across the wall? I won’t let them turn her into a breeder.”
“Of course I know.” Sera’s eyes flashed with anger, but then she just looked tired.
“They have excellent medical care out there. They’re signing contracts now.
Two surrogate births in exchange for full wages, room and board for the years spent in their colony.
Unfortunately, their medical care is better than anything humans have access to here. ”
And of course, it made sense that it would be. Most female werewolves had been rendered sterile by the virus. Procreating with human surrogates was the only way wolf shifters could keep from going extinct.
“She’s ten.” Dani rubbed her temples, feeling a headache coming on. “I can’t believe we’re even having this conversation. I won’t send her there. It’s not an option.”
“Ava wouldn’t be eligible to decide if she wants to participate until she comes of age, but you or Evan could go across with her, make it a condition of your contract with the pack that she had to receive medical care in order for you to—”
“Become their breeding stock?” Dani bared her teeth and Sera took a slow step back, holding up both hands.
“I don’t trust the wolves. They break into our city every month to steal women off the streets.
Even if Evan or I agreed to sell ourselves to them so that Ava could get the treatment she needs, I certainly don’t believe they’d honor the terms of any contract saying she couldn’t be touched. ”