With the air now clear, Reece felt much better. Ciera walked over and leaned into him. She had needs and had gone without for too long. Bringing her hand to his chin, she turned his face towards hers. Her lips attacked his, rejuvenating her. Knowing what she needed, Reece returned her kiss with a passion that rivaled her own. Breaking the kiss, she shivered and stood up.

“Thank you, I needed that,” she moaned huskily before heading off to answer the call of nature.

Naeva leaned in and kissed him on the cheek before she too stood up and walked out of the room. Before she walked out of sight, she turned and smiled knowingly.

“I’ll see you later, love.”

“Sounds good,” Karina mockingly replied.

Naeva just smiled wickedly and rolled her eyes before sauntering out of sight. Karina put her head back on Reece’s chest and tilted her face upwards to face him as best she could. Reece leaned his head down into her, completing the circle as their lips met in an upside-down kiss that Reece didn’t want to end. When it finally did, Karina turned in his arms and looked at him directly.

“Something is still bothering you,” she said, keenly aware of his feelings. “I already have an idea of what it is, but I want you to say it so we can talk about it.”

“Yeah, a couple of things,” said Reece, drawing out his words as he narrowed his eyes at Karina. “Remember the woman you saw dying when you first met me?”

“Well, she’s alive, or... rather, she’s a vampire now, I guess...or maybe a lilitu like you,” he continued, keeping his demeanor neutral. “You wouldn’t know anything about that, would you?”

“Now that you mention it, yes...I did try to turn her. It was her only chance at survival,” Karina explained. “She had lost too much blood and only had moments to live. Why I didn’t tell you? Well... I almost did. I told you I had done everything I could for her. I guess I didn’t finish telling you the whole truth for a couple of reasons. First, for the turning to work, she had to have one of the right bloodlines flowing through her veins. Not everyone who drinks from a lilitu or a vampire and then dies, will turn. The vast majority of those given the blood stay dead. I didn’t want to give you false hope.”

Karina paused for a long moment after the revelation.

“What’s the other reason,” pressed Reece.

“Honestly, I was immediately taken with you and I didn’t want you waiting futilely for her to return to you. If you did, I was afraid you would let what I felt growing between the two of us die on the vine,” she timidly confessed. “For that, I am sorry.”

The two of them sat like that for several minutes.

“Well,” he chuckled darkly. “I guess it doesn’t matter now. She’s alive and she’s moved on. If it hadn’t been for you, she would be dead right now. So, thank you. I understand why you chose to do what you did. Still, give me some time. Things... are weird right now.”

Karina didn’t blink an eye or pause before responding.

“Of course. Remember, I see your thoughts and memories every time I drink your blood. I know what makes you tick. I had a notion of how the conversation would go, but we still needed to have it even though it was painful for the both of us.”

“Well, then maybe you should have another taste. Then we can both find out if anything’s changed in the last few moments since your revelations to me,” replied Reece winking playfully at her to thaw the frigidity between them.

She nodded to him and he moved his neck to the side, giving her access to his life. She accepted the invitation and drank deep and long. When she had finished, she gave Reece a drop of her blood to restore him and then looked at him thoughtfully.

“I think we’re going to be just fine,” she said, pausing before adding, “Why didn’t you tell us about the goddess you met?”

Reece raised his eyebrows at her question before responding, “Honestly, I wasn’t entirely sure you would believe me. I mean, zombies, rakshasas, and vampires are one thing. Meeting actual gods is on a whole other level.”

Karina pondered his answer for a moment.

“I guess that makes sense. So, I saw that your former love, Aika, tasted your blood. You know that you’re blood is addictive. I doubt you’ve gotten rid of her that easily. Plus, she’s one of my progeny now, so I’ll need to introduce myself, or better yet, you can introduce me to her. She deserves an explanation of how she became the way she is now. I’m the one who turned her, therefore, I am responsible for her. It was a failure on my part that she had to start her new life without a guide. No new lilitu or vampire should ever have to go through that.”

“Alright, that sounds perfect, but let’s wait a bit,” responded Reece. “I’m emotionally drained and need to meet up with Micah soon. How about we meet with her tomorrow, if she’s available of course?”

“Sure, that works for me,” smiled the cute lilitu, relief evident on her beautiful face as she suddenly raised her voice. “You can come back in now.”

Ciera and Naeva walked back into the room.

“All better now?” asked Naeva playfully.

“I think we will be,” he answered her before addressing all three of them. “So, alright then... thanks again for setting me straight. I’ll try and be back soon.”

Reece turned and walked out the door waving gently to the three young ladies. They returned his wave, smiling all the while.

“You better,” Naeva’s voice called out after him. “I want a proper reunion.”

He smiled before pushing the erotic thoughts from his head, taking off to find Micah. It took a while to locate him and by the time he did, his emotions had calmed, and he felt able to carry on a normal conversation. The two men talked in Micah’s quarters for about an hour. Reece exchanged some small-talk and then moved on to exchanging information. He told Micah everything he thought might be relevant from his experiences and Micah took it all in. Once Reece had finished, Micah took over.

“So, we’ve been busy too. We’ve contacted dozens of vessels and a few communities,” he said. “Some of the information is sketchy, but we have determined that the Order has bases set up all over the world. Some of these didn’t survive the early days like they weren’t ready for the plague when it happened.”

“Like what you experienced, most of the Order here in the U.S. has some ability to control the undead. This is a recent development, and most of the Order’s other forces lack the ability,” continued Micah. “We think they finished their development on the ground and couldn’t distribute the info to the rest of their network. Zhengzhou’s hard drive was invaluable in giving us insight into what they are doing.”

“Much of their research and development involved exploiting something called a ‘nightcore’ and intercepted communications on the ground gives every indication that it is not in their possession. That’s a good thing. Based on their files, they need this object to create the substances they use to control the dead. That means that they will eventually run out of the stuff and lose control of their zombie hordes.”

Micah paused to let the new information sink in.

“We think that’s why they’ve been so active,” he explained. “Normally, if you hold all the cards, you just hang back and wait it out. But they’ve sacrificed tens of thousands of Z’s and hundreds of their Order troops to try and recover this ‘nightcore’ object and destroy any resistance they encounter.”

“That does explain a lot,” reasoned Reece as he rubbed his chin in thought.

The visions that the goddess Shoki gave to Reece were starting to coalesce into a plan of action. The knowledge she had bestowed slowly dripped into his consciousness a little at a time. It was a strange feeling, knowing things that he had no frame of reference as to why he knew them. Despite that, he simply knew what his next step in helping the goddess would be.

“There is something I need to do, and I need some information before I can do it. I need to find a Norn. Don’t ask me why. You wouldn’t believe me. Have you heard of them?”

“Surprisingly, yes,” laughed Micah. “But it’s quite the journey. There is a large community in Scandinavia that has resisted the zombie incursions. Their defenses consist of high cement walls, Norwegian Berserkers, and warrior women which I’ve heard them referred to as Valkyries. I’ve heard that there is a Norn among them. To be honest, I wouldn’t know a Norn from a hole in the ground. I’m still trying to get my head around all the other supernatural creatures that have revealed themselves. I guess many of the old legends are true after all. What a strange and crazy world we are living in now, huh?”

“Yeah, you aren’t kidding,” agreed Reece as he contemplated Micah’s words. “I guess we’re lucky. We’ve made many powerful allies in the fight against both the Z’s and the Order.”

“Right you are there,” added Micah. “The Order’s spies have been cunning, even infiltrating our organization. If it wasn’t for a pair of Anubins sniffing them out, they’d have given away our position and we would have been attacked by now.”

“Anubins?” inquired Reece.

“Yeah, that’s a funny story, ... a boy and girl... siblings,” chuckled Micah. “We picked them up in a small coastal town called Massawa in Eritrea, Africa. They had saved a couple of dozen people from the zombies. According to them, the Order was mostly wiped out in Africa. They weren’t prepared when the outbreak hit. They still have a presence there, but no control over the ghouls.”

“Word is, the siblings are excellent trackers, though we haven’t had an opportunity to test that out on the carrier. However, they have keen intuition and can somehow detect deception skillfully,” Micah explained. “The siblings, Nuru and his younger sister Nyx, are also competent in a fight and took down the spying interlopers in relatively short order.”

“Nice, I’d like to meet them sometime,” replied Reece. “By the way, what’s your role here these days?”

“I guess you could say I’m somewhere in the middle of the hierarchy. We don’t have any kind of strict system or anything. Partly because it hasn’t become necessary, partly because the people here are from all over, and creating a government over them would be extremely difficult, and partly to separate us from the Order’s rigid hierarchy,” explained Micah.

“We do have some leadership, mainly for logistical reasons,” he continued. “Captain Schwarzenegger runs the carrier, but she has a lighter touch than some captains. You’d like her. Li Jie organizes our defenses. He’s young, but a brilliant tactician. Bembe is a sort of spokesperson for many of the refugees we have aboard. He’s very spiritual and a pacifist, and great at de-escalating situations and problem-solving. Last is Ann Starking. She’s from the northern states that used to be Canada. She represents most of the refugees not represented by Bembe and is also a great problem-solver. She’s not a pacifist though and believes we need to fight back more against the Order. They’ve created a rough council to debate options, whenever a big decision comes up.”

“Ah, I think I understand,” replied Reece as he considered the loose set-up of the carrier’s leadership. “Makes sense for the small communities that are all that’s left of humanity.”

“Exactly,” agreed Micah.

Reece and Micah made small talk for a while longer before Reece posed a question.

“So, about that Scandinavian settlement that you mentioned, is there any chance we can head towards Norway? I have a pretty important mission that will change the outcome of this war,” explained Reece optimistically.

“Probably, I don’t see why not...unless something else has come up that requires more immediate attention. I’ll find out and let you know in the morning. For now, it’s been a long day and I need to grab some rack,” replied Micah, yawning as if to accentuate his point. “Unless there’s something else?”

“Nah. I understand. I’ll let you get some sleep. You sound like you need it,” chuckled Reece as Micah yawned again. “It was great chatting with you. Sleep well.”

Reece got up and left Micah’s quarters, yawning himself. Micah waved him off as another yawn took over, causing Reece to yawn again as he went to shut the door. “Well, seems we can both use some shut-eye,” said Reece.

Both men chuckled as Reece exited the cabin, closing the door behind him. Turning, he headed down the corridor on his way back to the quarters where the girls were staying. Halfway back, Reece finally ran into Aika and Pasha. He hadn’t seen any trace of them since shortly after he had arrived.

“Hey, I wondered where you got off to,” he greeted them. “I was just heading to visit with a couple of friends. Care to come along? I can introduce you.”

“Nah, we’re a bit tired and are gonna get some sleep,” answered Pasha as she casually stepped between Reece and Aika. “Maybe another time.”

“Alright then, they’re in 17A if you change your mind,” responded Reece, feeling an uneasiness between him and his current company. “Are we okay?”

“I’m not sure,” answered Aika before Pasha could respond.

“Does this have to do with my influencing ability?” asked Reece.

“Basically, yeah. We don’t know how we feel about you right now. It’s not your fault, but it’s odd not being able to trust your own emotions,” answered Aika honestly.

“In that case, I think you should come with me. There’s a lot I just learned that you’ll find more than interesting,” said Reece as he tried to convince them to come with him.

Aika frowned but nodded in agreement, while Pasha just stared doubtfully at him. Reece nodded back and beckoned for them to follow as he led them to the girl’s room. He knocked hard on the door and waited. A few seconds later, Naeva answered the door.

“Hey, what took you so long...”