September 12 | Daybreak

Kittie Cad gripped the steering wheel with both hands as the cramped Nissan flew down the highway at breakneck speeds. "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death," Kittie shrieked, "Lord, please don't let Terrance kill me if anything happens to his car!"

I gripped the door handle, reminded of the high-speed chase to the cabin. We were following the same route except this time no one was in hot pursuit. The hurricane had cleared the roads of any but the savviest and bravest of drivers. And big trucks. One flew past with a loud blast of the horn.

We were gliding through torrents of rain that obscured our view. The windshield had become a waterfall, and gusts shoved the car along like a toy. In the backseat, Zyr and Wallace bracketed Haley and the wolf. I huddled in the passenger seat. We were almost to Ponchatoula, Louisiana. The GPS gave instructions to take the next exit.

Meanwhile, my Empathy flurried with anticipation, my own and everyone else's. I anxiously fondled Zyr's Damascus steel sword. The blade was the only weapon Tegan hadn't sabotaged at the cabin. Now Zyr had given it to me. Small comfort.

Sighing, I wondered how I had gone from my super chill, I-hate-everybody life to trying to save the city from a raving vampire. Raised in a Fundamentalist Christian human family as an intersex Futanari Supernatural, I couldn't have felt more detached from others. Yet, as the Nissan sped down the off-ramp, I had the distinct impression any sense of isolation from the rest of the world was smoke and mirrors.

None of us were alone. Our foils and triumphs were tiny pixels in the big picture of the universe. It felt like everyone in the car was supposed to be there. Each of us had a purpose, and the outcome depended on our ability to conceive that an insignificant detail could be the whole point. Maybe my brain was just regurgitating some Tumblr guru nonsense, but...

Aurie had played things safe in life, which led to her having mostly positive experiences, which allowed her to trust a perfect stranger at precisely the right moment. Maybe I had always felt like a loner because someday she would need a hidden, enchanted apartment. Maybe Zyr's obsession with Darcy Cyprian was in preparation for what we were about to do now, and maybe the case was a pretext for the evidence the three of us needed to make our lives make sense.

I had blanked out, philosophizing, when Kittie suddenly lost control of the car. "Oh, shit!" she yelled. I snapped free of reverie as a collective scream went up. The vehicle fishtailed and banged the guardrail. Sparks flew, quickly extinguished by the downpour.

"Kittie, watch out!" I grabbed the wheel, pointing at the trees we were about to impact. Kittie yanked the wheel back in the nick of time, but it was too much. Too much noise and activity.

With a tortured growl, Zyr slammed his head against the back window. The vicious smack silenced our noisy panic. I gasped at the sickening smear of blood on the glass. A dark bruise appeared at the detective's temple, and a line of red trickled from his lip, but the injury would heal itself. I was more concerned with his unnerving mental regression bleeding through my consciousness.

A visibly shaken Haley righted the car with a flick of her fingers. Zyr remained in distress, though. The she-wolf in the backseat bayed in mutual discontent, but she had Wallace to calm her. Zyr had no one. He braced himself to strike his head again.

"Don't!" I begged.

"I can't...control it," he labored to say as he clutched his head.

Snatching off my seatbelt, I fought through the crawlspace to the backseat and into his lap. I gathered his face and probed the vacant amber orbs. At first, my Empathy folded around nothing but savagery. It took longer than I felt comfortable with for Zyr to return to his senses.

"Please, focus on Aurie, and hold on for me. Please, Senpai," I whispered. I pressed my forehead to his. After a beat, his arms snaked around me. He nodded and flashed a tormented grimace that was supposed to be a smile.

"Is he alright?" Kittie whispered. I didn't know how to answer. How to explain we were saving one friend while losing another? She reached between the front seats to rub my back. "We're at the town limits. We're gonna get through this, okay, guys?"

No one said anything. I floundered in a tidal wave of emotions, sadness and grief that linked me to the others in the car.

I barely knew Haley or Wallace. Still, it seemed like my life had hurtled toward this moment with the getaway driver, the psychic witch, the Guardian Angel, the ghost, the werewolf, the people I loved. Seconds before the car had swerved, I was close to understanding my destiny. But if this was it, then was I destined to lose my Soul mates within months of finding them?

The champagne Nissan crested a hill. It dragged into Ponchatoula doing forty-five miles an hour. At daybreak in the picturesque small town, nothing stirred. The storm-ravaged sky was a lighter shade of dark grey since we were farther north of the hurricane. Only the outer rain bands had reached the area.

Haley gestured ahead. "Pull in at that gas station so we can take stock."

Kittie found a parking spot beneath a flickering chain-convenience store sign, and the rest of them piled out of the car. I didn't want to leave Zyr's lap, but when I raised my head from his shoulder, I realized he had fallen asleep. Unfolding from his embrace, I decided to jet inside to use the facilities.

I needed to regroup. The restroom stall door closed behind me, and, standing over the urinal, I heaved a sigh. Falling in love had been easier than expected. That night at the cabin when the three of us had slapped a label on our intimacy, I thought I could handle it. Prepping myself to accept the loss to come was proving harder.

I lingered over the sink and shook my head at my teary-eyed reflection. Sniffling, I exited the restroom, past Kittie raiding the coffee machine. Haley was shoplifting. Wallace was stretching his legs outside. I paused next to him beneath the store overhang. He was talking quietly to the obedient wolf at his feet. A few early birds stopping in for gas greeted the docile animal, too. I jerked a chin at one of them.

"So, how does it work?" I asked, thinking of the wife that Wallace no longer knew. Thinking of Zyr no longer knowing us when the time came. "What if someone from your past life runs into you?"

The Guardian smiled. "I won't know them, but truthfully they won't know me, either. People see what they want to see: the good doctor, the insurance man, the homeless person."

"But not Haley."

"Haley was the exception," he chuckled. "I went into that hotel the night of the hit-and-run trying to evade a teenage girl who shouldn't have recognized me."

"Was it fate, or did she somehow defy...destiny, or...?" I trailed off. Wallace touched the side of his nose and winked. I puzzled over his non-answer, my lips around the vape pen. It sizzled, empty. I glared at the useless device. "I'll be back," I muttered as I darted into the store for another pack of cartridges.

The Guardian Angel and wolf were nowhere to be seen by the time I returned. Glancing around, I trudged to the car to fill the tank for Kittie. There was a miniature TV embedded in the gas pump. The local news mentioned the missing daughters of a famous Hollywood director, but the coverage was overtaken by talk of the bizarre hurricane that was behaving in ways weather shouldn't.

"Good job, Haley," I whispered. I peered in the backseat to find Zyr awake. I opened the door and felt his forehead. He was feverish. "How are you feeling?"

"Like we shouldn't linger." He smiled wanly.

"Yeah, same." I studied the ground. "Look, there's something we should talk about before we reach the Ashivant place. It's Tegan. Her role in this seems accidental at best and misguided at the very worst."

"I want to rip Tegan to shreds," he growled. I squeezed his hand, and the sharpness in his tone eased with a solemn exhale. "But I know she's not responsible for this, and I made a vow to protect her. She'll have to answer to the Council."

He glanced past me at our returning crew. Wallace guided the wolf into the backseat, and Haley beamed as she showed off a pocket full of candy. She handed chips to Zyr. Kittie Cad reached me a coffee. I returned to the front seat to give them space in the back.

"You guys ready to kick some ass!" Kittie Cad rallied. I almost smiled as the others cheered. "So, what's the game plan?" she asked.

Several pairs of eyes shifted to the detective. Clearing my throat, I answered for him, "Haley and I will locate Aurie's Soul while Zyr finds the vampire. Wallace, you keep track of Aurie's wolf, and Kittie, if you can stick by the car for a speedy getaway, that would be great."

"Darling, fast is my normal setting," Kittie preened.

We hit the road again. I observed Zyr through the side mirror. My consciousness occasionally flared with bursts of primal unrestraint. Yet, he wasn't hurting himself. He had wrestled the last of his self-control into working order. It allowed me to breathe easier.

The main strip of Ponchatoula was lined with quaint antique shops and boutiques. It was a blink-and-you-miss-it kind of place. As we crossed a set of train tracks, the sleepy town quickly receded. The Nissan headed off the beaten path to the Law Offices of Ashivant, Ashivant & Claiborne.

I wondered how corrupt Darcy's attorneys had to be for the vampire to get away with committing his atrocities on their grounds. That is, if he was there.

Lightning arced across the sky. I worried my bottom lip with my teeth as we turned onto a dirt road, and I noticed prominent No Trespassing signs. I imagined all the ways this trip could go wrong. Louisiana had Stand Your Ground Laws, meaning if we got shot, it would be our fault. We were the trespassers.

Swallowing fear, I squinted ahead. The trees making the country lane feel claustrophobic gave way to bucolic fields on either side. Another burst of lightning traced electric outlines along the maelstrom of clouds. I caught sight of the house at the top of a hill, a stately manor that hearkened back to times when—

Crack! The appalling sound of shattering bone. Zyr slamming his head against the tempered glass again. I jerked around to face him. His eyes were all fire. My cry for him to stop went ignored. He flailed. Haley fought him off when his convulsions violently overtook the backseat. Attempts to physically restrain him were futile.

The detective was shifting, changing right before our eyes with no control over it.

"Zyr! Oh, gods, stop the car! Kittie, stop the car!" I pitched.

My best friend slammed on brakes. "Watch out, Wallace!" Kittie stared in the rearview. Zyr snarled and snipped at the angel, at anyone and anything within reach. Haley fended him away with magic now.

I hopped out the car, falling in my frenzied rush to his door. The rain made the dirt road a sloppy mess. When I managed to fumble the handle open, the untamed black wolf shot past me, disappearing into the dense underbrush of the woods behind us.

"Zyr!" I yelled in horror.

"No, don't! Darcy will hear you," Haley cried.

"Get in the car, Mys," Kittie urged.

I fell to my knees, spasmodic with tears. Without warning, the she-wolf tore from the leash and shot off after Zyr. "No, don't!" I tried to grab the leather strap, but it ripped through my hands, leaving a painful tear.

My ears rang, and the world stopped. This couldn't be happening. I screamed, though I didn't hear it over the ringing. I screamed until my lungs compressed and I had nothing left within me but suffering. Now I was hysterical. Now there was no consoling me.