Harriet took her salad jar and a fork to the table beside the window and started poking at the dressing coated spinach greens. Lucia’s stomach churned.
“I’m going down to the cafe to get something to eat,” Lucia said. “I’ll be right back.”
“You need to stop eating muffins for lunch, Lucia,” Harriet chided as she left the librarians’ lounge.
Harriet was right, but she didn’t need the older woman telling her so. Harriet had grown up in a different time. When men were men and women had husbands.
She hurried through the stacks and turned the corner to the stairs. Taking them quickly, she made it to the bottom floor and hurried to the cafe at the entrance of the library.
The public library had become a bastion for the homeless. Every year, the problem seemed to get worse and worse. Why was it so hard to find a home these days? Now, there were at least twenty homeless people wandering around the entrance of the library in front of the cafe.
Lucia moved to the end of the line and waited for her turn. A lemon turnover and a mocha latte? Harriet would disapprove, but Lucia told herself she’d make a salad jar for lunch tomorrow.
She came to the head of the line and greeted the young female barista with a center nose ring and a short pink haircut. She offered Lucia an overly happy greeting, asking what she wanted. She gave the girl her order, suspecting that it might take a little chemical help to work in these conditions.
Lucia turned around and saw two men in shabby clothes fighting outside on the sidewalk. A gutter punk couple approached with their pit bull puppy on a rope leash. The dog began barking at the two fighting men. Lucia turned to the barista for help.
“Should we call the police?” she asked.
“Nah. This happens all day.”
Lucia turned back to look. One of the men had fallen on the ground and the other one had walked away. The punk kids had their dog under control and were consoling the man on the ground.
“That will be fifteen ninety-nine,” the barista said.
Lucia pulled her card out of her wallet and ran it through the reader. She then hurried to the waiting area at the end of the bar with the other customers. She looked around, chagrined. So many faces looked dull and empty, even the college kids with the newest phones.
Things had been bad for a while, but lately it had grown much worse. Sometimes she wasn’t sure if she was blowing it all out of proportion. She was, in fact, a lonely woman who spent most of her free time talking to her cat. However, Lucia had spent all her adult life learning to categorize and analyze information. From what she observed, she knew that something was off in the world. Even if she couldn’t put her finger on what.
The barista handed her her order. Lucia started to walk back up to the lounge to join Harriet. That’s when the world ended.
Boom! Deafening and white hot. It shook the entire foundation of the library. Lucia dropped her food to cover her ears and screamed. Her skin burned from the heat, and the light blasted her eyes. As quickly as it started, it was over.
Cars crashed into each other outside. One of the doors shattered and caustic smoke billowed into the lobby.
Everyone around her was screaming, shouting, swearing. Gruff voices threatened. Someone begged for help. Bodies pushed around her as people struggled to get in or out of the library. She screamed again, pushing the crush of people away.
But curiosity burned inside her. She had to see what had happened. Panting and whimpering, her body pulsed with adrenaline. Lucia approached the open door and ran out onto the street. Shielding her eyes, she looked up into the sky. A black spot had formed in the center of the sun. Her eyes burned. She had to look away. No cars moved. The neon welcome sign for the cafe was out. All the lights were dark. A man pulled his cell phone from his pocket and tried to turn it on. He flicked and clicked. Nothing happened.
There was no electricity.
Lucia glanced at the sky again. The dot on the sun had grown into a central circle. The light of the world grew dim around her, as if it were twilight. She grasped her heart, feeling it skip behind her ribs. She sucked air, unable to breathe. Had she hit her head? Was it a nuclear explosion? Had the sun died?
She stepped backwards, looking up at the dimming sun one last time before she ran into the library. She took the stairs as fast as she could, her Mary-Janes slapping on the steps. She hurried to the second floor and down the hall to the librarians’ lounge. She unlocked the door and shut it as fast as she could. Standing with her back to the door, she tried to catch her breath.
The rest of the librarians were gathered in the room. The window had survived the blast, and there were at least five people gazing out of it. Lucia ran to the window, barely noticing that the library was already dark. She joined the group in time to see the dark circle in the center of the sun begin to envelop most of it. All that was left of the star was a burning red rim, casting the world in the dim light of dusk.
She watched in shock and awe as the day turned into night. The people around her wept. Lucia wept too, wanting to sink to her knees and wail for salvation. But the churning, burning torrent in her chest wouldn’t let her mourn the chaos. Her heart twisted inside her, forcing her to tend to its call. She gripped her breast, gasping at the stabbing pain. Forced to move, she stood and walked away from the group at the window.
She made it across the room and collapsed in a chair, panting and whimpering from the pain. She bit her lip when she realized Harriet was sitting on one of the armchairs across from her.
“What the fuck is happening out there?” Harriet said. “Are you okay? You look like you’re having a heart attack.”
“I might be,” Lucia said through clenched teeth.
“I’d call you a doctor but…” Harriet said, holding up her dead cell phone.
“Twenty-seven year olds don’t have heart attacks,” Lucia stuttered.
The pain was radiating out through her body, electrifying every nerve as it passed through her. The children’s librarian placed a candle on the table while the janitor fiddled with a battery powered radio.
The sun went dark.
The radio didn’t turn on.
Chapter 3
Orion Silverdrake stood on the balcony of his penthouse, the spark of his returning powers throbbing through his brain and body. He gazed up at the dark sky, at the last sliver of sunlight around the edge. Xander had done it.
As the heat of Orion’s dragon hit him, deep in the gut, he didn’t know whether to thank Xander or kill him. No. Xander was a psychopath.
The sound of the chaos below reverberated from the ground, even on the fortieth floor of his condo building. Orion knew that Xander craved a blood feast that would never end. He’d wanted it before the veil, and he would want it again.
Orion’s army, men in business suits with official titles, had tried to prevent the Dark Sun. But in the end, who could be trusted? How many immortals would see the return of power as too good a thing to pass up?
For two thousand years, the immortals had lived without access to the dimensions of power: a power many once called magic. The dragons had lived without their ability to shift into their true form. The vampires were unable to walk in the light. The only power left to either was their ability to influence the minds of men.
The rage still boiled in his throat. Even two thousand years later, Orion burned for Selene. His priestess, his beautiful shining mage. The legends often called her kind ‘witches’. But he knew better. He had been there. He knew what they’d sacrificed for humanity.
He turned from the darkness, his dragon eyes burning. His senses expanded, becoming more powerful. The sounds of chaos echoed up from the world below. Orion moved through the penthouse, his body fluid and supernaturally quick. As much as he opposed Xander, he reveled in the feeling of his true form. Inside his bedroom, he opened his safe, pulling out the communication devices he and his team developed based on ancient immortal technologies.
Unlike the human race, immortal
s would not be without power during this trying time of transition. Orion knew that if he wanted to live up to the love of his late Selene, he would have to protect humanity from Xander’s army, The Surge.
Orion shuddered at the thought of them. Xander’s Surge was a supernatural army of dragons and vampires, working together to take over the world. They were the reason the veil was cast in the first place. And even in a world without magic, The Surge had still found ways into power, prestige, and wealth beyond measure, always ready to cheat and swindle and lie.
Orion pressed his thumb to the clear glass pad and the screen lit up. He flipped through his contacts, brought up his brother’s name, and hit call. The device buzzed several times before Titus’s face popped up on the screen.
“Orion. We failed,” Titus said.
“What did you expect to happen?” Orion snapped.
“Even our team could not keep up with how quickly he developed his particle beam.”
“Have you fortified the city?” Orion asked.
“The world is in turmoil, there is little we can do until it runs its course.”
“And what of Xander and The Surge? Surely they will be taking their feed.”
“We’ve suspected for some time that his lab is in Denver. If that is correct, I’d surmise he will be gathering his forces there.”
“I will speak with you again when I reach the fortress,” Orion said.
“Aren’t you coming here, older brother? The clan expects you to rise as Alpha in this dark time.”
“I…need time. The feeling of Selene is in my bones. I will activate the fortress and contact you again.”
“We will need your help in St. Louis, Orion. The clan will not wait.”
“There is more at stake than the clan’s Alpha, Titus. The world just ended. Didn’t you notice?”
“That is exactly why you must address this issue now. Everything has changed. We need your leadership.”
“I’ll let you know,” Orion said with his best businessman voice as he swiped at his glass pad.
Orion heard the last startled squeak from his brother as his face disappeared from the screen. He couldn’t think about who should lead the Silverdrake clan right now. He’d shouldered that burden for three thousand years. All through the time of the veil and before it. He was tired. His heart ached for his lost love. Orion needed to be alone.
He approached the open door to his balcony. The sounds of screams and cries in the darkness below shot through the night. He stood on his balcony and let out a deep breath. He felt the magic deep inside him, burning like the ancient elemental fires of old. The dragon at the pit of his heart awakened, ready to fly into the dark world to bring back the light. For Selene.
He let out his breath and spread his arms. The magic coursed through his nerves, vibrating like high voltage electric lines. With a sharp cry, he threw his head back and shifted.
The cry became a roar as his body changed, too big to be contained on the penthouse patio. He jumped on agile feet to the railing, his immature wings flapping out of his back. His sharp teeth grew in his mouth and he roared again, hurtling himself off the patio. He flapped his wings, still too small to hold him aloft. With a surge of power, his body fully shifted. His dragon form grew to the size of a large city bus. He trumpeted his call as he swooped over downtown Los Angeles.
Orion was alive again. In his right form. His heart just about burst with exhilaration. Oh, how he’d missed the feeling of air under his wings. He drifted over the darkened city, smelling the toxic fires. The burning cars and houses were the only things keeping the world alight. So many would die tonight and in the coming days. Days that would be filled with darkness and dread.
His soul grew heavy with the weight of it. The joy of his dragon lost in the sea of despair of human suffering. His Selene sacrificed herself to free the humans from the tyranny of The Surge. He was glad she would never know that her sacrifice had been for nothing.
Even during those two thousand years without magic, The Surge stopped at nothing to bring misery to humanity. They couldn’t operate out in the open. No, the new weapon of choice was manipulation and illusion, hypnosis, mass mind control, subversion of government funds for black ops research. And they’d won.
His poor Selene. His shining priestess. The woman branded a witch by the ages. She’d died for the sins of The Surge. Her sacrifice had been wasted. Orion shed a tear of sorrow. It dropped from his eye, tumbling down to the ground as he flew north. Daggers of existential darkness sliced his heart. The only thing keeping him from utter despair was the thought that she could be out there, somewhere.
Chapter 4
Lucia stood from the couch, gasping for air. The waves of energy moving through her pulsed with her heartbeat. She leaned on the back of the couch for support and looked around. Everyone was terrified. Harriet sat in her chair, staring at the wall, her head bobbing erratically from side to side. The children’s librarian was huddled in a corner, her thick blonde hair a blanket over her face. She’d lit all the candles and was now silently sobbing with her hands over her face.
Lucia knew the woman only from working with her for the last two years. They worked in different sections and seldom crossed paths, but she knew her name was May Anderson. What Lucia didn’t know about May Anderson was the names of her children, her pets, her husband. Those were the words and associations Lucia could hear and feel running through her when she looked at May.
She snapped her eyes away from the other librarian, the intense grip of fear strangling her aching heart. She glanced at Harriet and a wave of utter panic washed over her. The terror was so deep it almost floored her. Lucia grabbed an emergency candle and stumbled toward the back of the library. She had to get out of here. There was a closet in the back where they kept cleaning and office supplies. She gripped the knob, but it didn’t budge.
She gripped tighter and twisted, flinging open the door and shutting herself inside. The air smelled of bleach and dust, but it was better than outside. Pain shot through her brain and the light in the room seemed to brighten. Lucia groaned and backed against the wall, sliding to the floor. She set the candle on the floor and hugged herself, tears starting to run down her cheeks.
The darkening of the sun had thrown the world into chaos, but she couldn’t understand what was happening to her. Her body was awash with unbearable sensations. Lucia swore she could hear and feel the people just beyond the supply closet door. She tilted her head against the wall, staring at the mop bucket and the long silver mop handle. The useless electrical box hung dormant on the wall. For the first time, what had happened to the world started to sink in.
What would happen now that the sun had gone out? How long would it take for everyone to freeze to death? She thought of it, living out her last days in the darkness of the city, slowly freezing to death. Felix would be terrified. She thought of her cat alone in her apartment. She wanted to go home, but could she risk going into the madness on the streets? Already there had been pounding fists at the locked door of the librarians’ lounge. What was going on out there?
Almost all the librarians and staff had stayed. At least she thought they had. Not even flashlights worked. The only light came from candles. How long would that last?
What was really going on? At the back of her mind she was still capable of rational thought. She had witnessed a massive coronal ejection. A solar flare. It had caused an electromagnetic pulse. What they called an EMP. That had wiped out all electricity. All of it.
How could this happen? Why had there been no warning? She’d heard others asking these questions in the librarians’ lounge, but she’d had no voice to speak. She couldn’t be with other people right now. She couldn’t stand feeling their terror and confusion. Lucia had enough of her own. She panted, whimpering as she pressed her eyes shut. She wanted to go home to Felix, get in bed, and wake up in a tomorrow where this had never happened.
Images washed over the screen of her mind, vivid and lush like a fev
er dream. She saw herself draped in white robes like a Greek goddess, standing over still water in a marble pool. Behind her was a man. He walked across the vision, his face dark and brooding. The woman, the vision of herself, raised her arms, chanting. The man roared at her to stop but the woman continued to chant, a halo of light illuminating her head. The man fell to his knees, weeping.
The priestess in Lucia’s vision raised her arms all the way above her head and clapped. And, as if struck by lightning, fell into the pool. Dead.
Lucia’s eyes snapped open. She scrambled to her feet. What the hell was that? It had been so real. She could still feel the despair of her vision self at the sight of her lover’s torment. She’d left him. Why?
She could feel her love for the man. The strange dark man, imploring her not to do it. Not to do what? Did she kill herself? The strange vision or memory or whatever it was, left a mark on her psyche that she couldn’t shake. It felt too real. Lucia pushed herself up from the floor and burst out of the cleaning closet.
Outside in the lounge, everyone was crying and breaking down. The tension clanged like an iron bell. It was as if time had stopped. The dim candle light illuminating the librarians’ lounge was not enough to brighten the mood that had overcome the people within.
Lucia wanted to leave. Everyone around her feared death, but she felt like she’d already experienced it. Time and time again, through all the centuries she’d existed. Memories swam in the furthest reaches of her mind. Were they real?
No matter what, she needed to get away from the minds of the people in this room. They clamped down on her awakening consciousness like a vice.