Daystar (87 page)

A tongue brushed his hand.
 
Rake looked down.
 
The licker was a mangy dog, skinny and starving.
 
The dog was as desperate for food as everyone else was in this city.
 
In this case, Rake’s vomit was on the menu for breakfast.
 
He waved it off.
 
“Wait until I leave.”

The act of moving made his head pound.
 
He rubbed his temples, but a headache was firmly entrenched behind his right eye.
 
He looked up into the smog-filled sky.
 
The sun had already risen, so his high had worn off and a hangover had set in along with the shakes.
 
His vision was fucked up, but there wasn’t much to see besides a thick layer of pollution and the rest of humanity.
 
Rake didn’t care for either.

The headache brought on a wave of nausea.
 
He curled over to his right side and heaved until his stomach emptied.
 
He rolled to his other side and hunted for breakfast in the garbage.
 
The dog edged close again.
 
Rake grimaced and held his head.
 
“Fuck off, or I might put an effort in and eat
you
.”
 
It was an empty threat, he didn’t like eating dog; he found their taste unpleasant.

Rake pawed through boxes and bottles, condoms and worn out clothes.
 
He held up his reward towards the dog.
 
“A fucking pizza slice!
 
Ha!”
 
He sat back against the bare concrete walls of a half-constructed apartment complex.
 
He stuffed the slice in his mouth and enjoyed his pizza, pretending he didn’t taste the mold and beer.
 

Someone screamed in the building next door.
 
A gun went off.
 
There was a thud and silence.
 
He stretched and savored the moment of calm.
 
The sky wasn’t pissing on him and he could swear he didn’t feel as shitty as he normally did.
 
Things weren’t so bad.
 

Rake scratched his scalp and pawed off gunk that looked like a mixture of blood and mud.
 
He cracked his neck and jaw.
 
He touched his face and winced, he definitely had a black eye.
 
Clotted blood and knife holes ruined his only shirt, but considering that he wasn’t dead and no one had dumped him naked in a dumpster, things were looking up.
 
He smiled.

He got to his feet and heard a moan.
 
A fellow junkie laid face down a few feet away asleep or dying, hard to tell.
 
Rake rifled through his neighbor’s clothes.
 
He found some of the local currency and then something even better, a syringe, loaded and ready to go.
 
Rake grinned and it didn’t even hurt his face.
 
He gave the man a half-salute.
 
“Have a fucking fantastic day my friend.”

Rake wandered off to find a good spot to shoot up.
 
He passed through a local market where vendors sold noodles and silks, and whores peddled their wares.
 
He ignored the offended glances from the patrons; he knew he reeked.

He tripped on the uneven pavement that made up Bangkok’s streets.
 
A knife-wielding butcher chased him away from his livestock.
 
Rake flipped him off and spat towards his chickens.
 
The man made to attack, but thought better of leaving his goods unattended.

Rake smirked.
 
One of these days, he knew he’d get himself killed by needle or knife, maybe today, maybe not.
 
He smiled at the smog-filled sky.
 
He really didn’t care.
 

***

Ravil was thrown into a crush of bodies as her male guardian shouted, “Run!”

Ravil scrambled to her feet.
 
She ran through an airport food court.
 
The people around her became a blur, the sights and smells unfamiliar, the roar from incoming airplanes deafening.
 
She raced past racks of cheap knock-offs on sale, searching for a way out of the crowd.
 

She skidded to a stop in front of a gift shop as two Hunters looked up from perusing watches.
 
The pair sniffed the air, purred, and smiled in unison, showing off sharp teeth.
 
Ravil held in a scream and turned the other direction.
 
Her feet slipped on the tile.
 
Gloved hands brushed her shoulders.
 
She closed her eyes and waited for pain.

Sirana smashed a flaming fist into the first Hunter.
 
“Ravil, go!”

Ravil ran blindly.
 
A blast of heat hit her back.
 
A hiss and Sirana’s cry of agony followed.
 
Ravil looked back, she couldn’t help it.
 

The Hunter that lived had Sirana by the throat.
 
It looked at its dead burnt partner.
 
The Hunter growled and snapped Sirana’s neck.
 
It dropped her body, sniffed the air, and turned its eyes to Ravil.
 

Ravil’s pupils dilated.
 
The space between the Hunter and her undulated, a living, moving force.
 
She reached her hand out.
 
The air around her body shimmered.

Ravil’s other guardian grabbed her and threw her over his shoulder.
 
“None of that!”

“Calpsan!
 
But
Sirana
!”

“Mourn later, Ravil!”
 
Calpsan pushed through the crowd, but their progress wasn’t fast enough.
 
He closed his eyes and the people around him were hit with a wave of panic.
 
The crowd parted, confused and anxious.
 
He sprinted through the gap, spotting the exit out to the street.
 
Screams followed as the Hunter clawed through humans, pushing them out of the way in pursuit of its prey.
 

Ravil watched it near.
 
She searched the crowd for help.
 
She did not understand the language here well, but she had picked enough of it up to get by.
 
She saw a stand of posters and got an idea.
 
She threw her hand out.
 
“Movie star!”
 
She pointed her finger at the Hunter.
 
“Big name movie star!”

People stopped and turned to the Hunter.
 
They ran towards it without thinking, trying to figure out who it could be under the dark sunglasses, black suit, and cotton gloves.
 

Calpsan darted outside and set Ravil down on her feet.
 
He scanned the taxis that swarmed the street like flies and dragged her to the closest one.
 
He tossed her in the back seat and jumped in after.
 
“Go!”

The taxi driver hit the gas and the car zoomed away from the curb.
 
Calpsan pulled Ravil’s hat down, shadowing her pink eyes and white hair.
 
He stared out the back of the taxi, but the Hunter was nowhere in sight.
 

He shuddered and waved his hand towards the driver.
 
“You want to take us to a confusing place, a place crowded and hard to navigate.
 
It will make you happy to do this.
 
You also have no desire to listen to us talk or remember us when you are done.”
 
The driver smiled, dull-eyed.
 
Calpsan closed his eyes and went limp in the seat.
 

Ravil slipped her small hand in his.
 
Already petite, she looked childlike in her overlarge clothes.
 
“Calpsan?”
 

He looked over and rubbed her palm.
 
“She died doing her duty, Ravil.”

“But.”
 
She shuddered.
 
“You two...”

Calpsan squeezed her hand.
 
“I will find you someone else, Ravil, before I go, it is a promise.”

She jumped on him.
 
“I don’t want to be alone here!”

He aged as she watched.
 
“I know, but I cannot remain.”
 
His hands shook.
 
“I am sorry, without Sirana I cannot continue.”

Ravil hugged him and sobbed into his shirt.
 
“They will find me Calpsan, they will take me back.”

He lifted her chin up so that he could gaze into her eyes.
 
“No one is going to find you.”

She shook her head.
 
“They will!”

Calpsan took off her hat and smoothed back her white hair.
 
“They are not searching for a Navigator, Ravil.
 
They are hunting for my kind.
 
You should be pleased that you are a rarity and such an asset.”

She pointed to the Asians that biked through the streets outside their taxi.
 
“I do not blend in here!
 
We should not have left the Europe place.”

“The Ampyr have many more agents there, and
this
place breathes anonymity.”
 
He pinched her pale cheek.
 
“You will be able to hide.”

“But what if they find me still?”

“Then I will find a killer to defend you.”
 
He nodded to himself.
 
“A person to replace Sirana in strength and me in sense, someone to see you safe until you can be recovered by the Resistance.”
 
As he formulated the desire, he searched outwards, letting the emotions and wants of the people in the city flood his senses.
 
He scanned the population.
 
“I will find you the best in this place.”

She wiped her eyes.
 
“I don’t care about this person!
 
I don’t want you to die!
 
I didn’t want Sirana or Paulos to die!
 
I want you to stay with me!”

Calpsan shushed her.
 
“You do not have a choice.
 
I do not have a choice.
 
Death comes to
everyone
, Ravilaea.”

Ravil sat back in her seat and folded her arms, pouting.
 
“Death is
stupid
.”

Calpsan smiled briefly, wrinkles formed around his eyes.
 
“You will grow up and realize that death is inevitable, but it can have meaning.”

She kicked the back of the driver’s seat.
 
“I
am
a grown up!
 
I have seen more, experienced more than most.”

He shook his head.
 
“You are innocent, remain that way.
 
Perhaps I can find someone to show that to you.”

Ravil looked up.
 
“Show me what?”

“A life free of worries, if only for a time.”
 
He patted her hand.
 
“Now take a chance to rest, I must concentrate on finding this person.”
 
He closed his eyes.
 

Ravil watched his brown hair fade to gray.
 
“I want someone who does not need others.
 
A person who will not go if their loved one dies.
 
I want someone who has lost and still lives.”

Calpsan winced.
 
“A good requirement I think.
 
I
am
sorry, Ravil”

“I didn’t mean it!”
 
She hugged him.

“I know you didn’t.
 
Regardless, it is a good idea, someone on their own, a person not held down with ties to others.
 
You need someone that will flee with you if the need arises.”