The Survivors

Chapter Sixteen: Evolution, pt. 1

EVOLUTION

"You're going to fight my family?" I asked, scared. "You're going to hurt them?"

  "You're misunderstanding. We're going to fight with them. We're on the same side," he said.

"How can this be? We've always been peaceful!" I asked. I could feel the panic rising through my body.

"It will be a civil war. There is a group of rebel Survivors that will threaten your family," he said.

"Anthony, they're not going to rebel. No one but me has left in 319 years," I argued.

"They've already left your family. It happened while you were apart from us. When we heard about it, I sent Everett to you. I wanted him to bring you back to us so we could explain, but then I saw a vision of the lynxes hurting you, so we came here instead," he said.

  "But what will cause this battle?"

  He sighed. "I feel partially responsible. I now know that your family was safer inside the walled city. I didn't know that letting them disperse would be dangerous until Ginny told me that they do not marry. When I found out, I realized what a terrible mistake I had made."

  "Why does that make them unsafe in the outside world?" I asked.

  "Because they will evolve into something terrible among humans," he said. "It is a matter of genetics, so to speak. We knew your family a long time ago. Adelaide's family lived in Pickering in Yorkshire in England five centuries ago. They were pureblood witches. Many generations after Adelaide left them, families from their village-other families of witches-migrated to Salem. We would check in on them from time to time. When we learned of the witch trials, we assumed that they were executed and that the line had met its end. We didn't know that your elders had been exiled. They are pureblood witches. Though many in Salem were innocent and wrongfully accused, many-including your ancestors-were witches.

  "But since your elders have continued to extend their line, and since they do not marry, all their children are illegitimate," he said.

  "Not all," I corrected. "John and Rebecca married, so their children would be legitimate. And some in the later generations have chosen to marry."

  Anthony scrubbed his face with his hand, the mannerism I now knew was a trademark of all the Winter men. "That only clarifies what we already believe. Your family has become a mix of creatures now. If two Survivors were to mate and have a child illegitimately-like your elders did-and then two of those illegitimate Survivors had a child together, again out of wedlock, that child would be a nosferatu," he explained.

  "There are no shape-shifters in my family," I argued.

  "There wouldn't appear to be. Shape-shifters, vampires-it takes humans to bring out their powers. So long as they were living in isolation from humans, their traits wouldn't be present," he explained. "And if the pureblood witches from John and Rebecca's line mated with the nosferatu..."

  "They would be vieczy, like your family," I said, shock spreading across my face. "And if they go outside the walls and encounter humans..."

  "Then they will kill them. The activation of their hunting instincts would be instantaneous," Anthony said.

  "But we have been a peaceful people, always," I said, trying to will his explanation untrue.

  "Because you have never lived among humans. The elders have kept the family contained to protect them. They would change if they spent time with humans, as you did. But you changed for the better. They would not be so lucky. If a fully matured vampire of our kind who has never learned to control his impulses comes into contact with humans, it will not end well," he said. "I am so sorry, Sadie. I couldn't have known it when I stood up in front of them and urged them all to see the world, but we understand what it means now. This rebellion will end in massacre."

  I understood why he didn't want me to blame myself, then, but I could only see it as my fault. Anthony may have encouraged them, but I knew they would never have left if it weren't for me. I opened the door. I showed them the way.

  "Who will be massacred exactly?" I asked.

  "Humans, for one," he said.

  "But in the war?" I asked.

  "I am not sure what prompts them to do it, but these rogue Survivors will come back to your family, likely to destroy them once they realize that they can acquire their powers if they kill them. I have seen many cultures of supernatural creatures around the world murder each other for acquisition of powers. It is not uncommon," he said.

  "And we are going to fight against them?" I asked.

  "We are," he said. "We'll stand along with your family. We cannot leave them defenseless against a pack of vieczy. They'd have no chance."

  I pressed my hands to my face and closed my eyes tight.

  "All we can do now is warn your family that the war is coming," he said gravely. "We will protect them, Sadie."

  "The same way that you rid the world of violent creatures," I said.

  "Yes," Anthony said.

  "Because now my family, some of them are evil," I whispered.

  "Yes," Anthony said.

  I swallowed hard as another wave of guilt hit me. I didn't care what Anthony said. I had started this all.

  And I felt so stupid! I had fought tooth and nail trying to convince the elders that we needed to see the world around us. Condemning their behavior. Accusing them as tyrants. And all along, they had merely been protecting us.

  "Why didn't this happen to me?" I asked. "Why didn't I become one of you?"

  "You are different," he said solemnly.

  "In what way?" I asked.

  "I'm not entirely sure. But whatever the reason, I would be grateful for it if I were you," he advised.

  I said nothing. Anthony called out for Ginny, who flew to his side. "I need your mind," Anthony said. "It's time to show her."

  Ginny nodded. "Focus on my mind, Sadie," she said. I closed my eyes and obliged. Ginny focused on Anthony. The bulwark in Anthony's mind did not limit her, so she could read him. He conjured up his vision of the war, and I could see it through her mind.

  I shuddered when I saw the horror of it. I saw blood, bodies-some of family members and others of creatures I had never seen before. Mark was a powerful, central warrior in the battle. All of the Winters, all of the elders, in hand-to-hand combat with other members of my family and with strangers I didn't know. I had been searching for mortality, and now that I was faced with images of the dead, I was shaken to my core.

  Anthony quickly unfocused, the vision fading. I opened my eyes and looked at Ginny and Anthony. "Will it really be like that?" I asked.

  "It will," Anthony said.

  "What do we do now?"

  "We go home," he said, "to your family. And we prepare. You should take some time, though, Sadie. They've already gone, and so there's nothing we can do today that cannot wait a few weeks. You need to focus. Use this time to mentally ready yourself."

  "How do we prepare?" I asked.

  "We need to train your family to fight. My family has been preparing for this war since Mark was born. I knew he was the powerful warrior of my vision. I've spent the last hundred years training him, acquiring for him as many powers as possible, all so he could be ready to fight this battle," he said. "It's why we named him Marcus Apollo."

  "Destroyer," I said quietly.

  "Exactly," Anthony said.

  "How much time do we have?" I asked him.

  "In the vision the sky is bright grey, and there is no snow," he said.

  "There will already be snow on the ground there now this far into October. The snow won't melt until April," I said

  "So we have six months," he said. "At most, a year."