Micah Read online

  Micah

  Rebecca Royce

  Copyright © 2018 by Rebecca Royce

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Printed in the United States of America

  First Printing, 2018

  Paperback ISBN: 978-1-947672-42-0

  Ebook ISBN: 978-1-947672-21-5

  Cover Artist: AG Covers

  www.rebeccaroyce.com

  Created with Vellum

  Contents

  Dear Reader

  …

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Other books by Rebecca Royce…

  Dear Reader

  Dearest Reader,

  Thank you so much for picking up Micah. If you are reading this (and thank you so much for doing so!), I am going to assume you have met Micah already in one of the other six books where he plays a secondary role. (Those books could be Initiation, Driven, Subversive, Redemption, Justice, and Deacon. The first five are from my Young Adult series, The Warrior, and Deacon is from the New Adult spin-off, Warrior World.)

  Micah has always been a favorite for me and for the readers. I am so happy to finally be able to give Micah his own voice and the chance to tell his story. The truth is, we only think we know him. I hope you are as surprised by Micah Lyons as I was.

  If you don’t receive my newsletter, please pop over to www.rebeccaroyce.com and sign up. I’d love to stay in touch.

  Hugs,

  Rebecca Royce

  …

  My name is Micah Lyons, and I was told, not so much asked, to write down my thoughts for posterity. My writing something down that others will read falls into the sort of funny category, considering what a bad writer I am. I was never really up for school. Not in the time before this one, and not now.

  I’d much rather be doing things than thinking about doing them or talking about doing them. Give me a task, I get the shit done. I see the Vampires in the distance, roaming the night, seeking blood, hunting and killing us. Then I remember what we all learned—they’re really people who are sick. Some of them can be saved.

  But fixing things doesn’t fall into my purview. Sick people who suck blood are not my problem. I’m a Warrior. It’s not my job to save them. It’s my job to kill them. From now until whenever one of them kills me.

  See? I told you, people who are reading this, I’m not any good at writing.

  Chapter 1

  The afternoon sun forced me awake when what I really wanted to do was spend at least six more hours asleep. Getting up during the daytime when I was in Genesis was pointless for me. Between the sun’s hard assault on my eyelids and the girl snoring next to me—reminding me I wasn’t alone—it was time to get up and get moving.

  I sat up, cracking my neck and stretching my arms over my head. Twenty-two years old, and my body was so beat up I woke every morning stiff like I was ninety. I rubbed my eyes. Who was I kidding? No one lived to be ninety. Stiff like I was forty. Four decades was the best I could hope for, probably.

  “Matthew”—the girl next to me rolled over, touching my hip—“lie back down. Let’s sleep and then go at it again.”

  Last night, I hadn’t minded how she called me Matthew, which wasn’t even close to my name. Forgetting I was responsible for saving her life and she should really know my first name, I’d wanted to get lost inside someone so badly, I hadn’t bothered to correct her. Embarrassing a girl by correcting her was a sure way to ensure she wouldn’t spread her legs for me. The goal was to be inside her pussy. If she wanted me to be Matthew, I’d be Matthew.

  Apparently, Micah was too hard to remember.

  I didn’t even remember our actual joining, which was okay because she didn’t know my name. It wasn’t like she could go around telling everyone if I’d been less than satisfactory under the sheets. The poor Matthew fellow she could go right ahead and complain about.

  “Sorry, sweetheart.” Okay, maybe I didn’t know her name either. “I’ve got things to do today.” I swung my legs over the side of the bed. “Make sure you go down and register in the office. All you newbies have to be assigned jobs.”

  She groaned and rolled over. Only two days earlier, she’d been in a Vampire cage with five others when I’d walked into the facility and freed them. It had taken us 48 hours to get back here. Lately, I’d been the one-man welcoming committee to Genesis. Not that I complained. I didn’t want company on my explorations.

  It was better to do these things alone.

  There were few people I could tolerate for long periods of time, and all of those people had gotten married, which made them unavailable to get lost in Vampire lairs with me.

  My own company was fine.

  The last piece of clothing I located was my green hoodie. I’d stolen it off a Vampire before I dusted him. When the vamps died, the stuff they had on went with them. The whole thing was so bizarre. I’d washed and washed the piece of attire until I was sure it was clean, and now I wore it all the time. For autumn weather, it was perfect. Particularly when I constantly went in and out of Vampire lairs, which were hot. It was hot, then it was cooler. Hot. Cooler. Hot. Cooler.

  The hoodie let me layer. I might have been slightly obsessed with the thing. It was the first article of clothing I’d acquired for myself since waking up in this strange version of existence. Everything else had come from Genesis and been handed to me.

  I was a little bit proud of my hoodie.

  Leaving the girl’s tent, I stared at the sky. It was going to rain. Time to head out or get caught in weather that soaked me to the bone. I had ground to cover. Every time I found more people and rescued them from monsters, I had to bring them back here, which I was happy to do. But I’d have to backtrack. Again and again and again. I needed to know how far the underground system went and where the scientists who controlled the Vamps were.

  “Micah Lyons.” The call from Deacon Evans halted my progress.

  He was my best friend. I didn’t know which of us was more surprised by our relationship, but there it was.

  “Deacon Evans,” I spun and walked backward. “Wife pregnant yet?”

  Deacon rolled his eyes. “No. Did you knock anybody up I should be concerned with?”

  “I don’t know if it should concern you.” I held out my hands in front of me to ward him off if he decided to punch me. Bantering with him was fun, and I smiled, maybe for the first time in weeks. “No, no one is pregnant.”

  I always suited up, and since sex no longer seemed to take the edge off, I was probably going to start cutting down how much I indulged. Wow. When had I gotten so fucking old?

  “Where are you off to?” When he caught up to me, I turned once more, and we headed toward my tent.

  “Back down.”

  Deacon sighed. “Already? You’ve been here a whole 24 hours. I wouldn’t even have seen you if I hadn’t bumped into you now.”

  It was sort of convenient he had. “Aw, Deacon. Are you missing me so much you’re stalking me?”

  The comment earned me a punch on the arm, and I laughed. If every day could be like this, maybe I would stick around. But I knew better. Genesis didn’t mean only good times with Deacon Evans. It meant family obligations, disapproving stares, and the constant knowledge I disappointed my parents every time
I opened my mouth. Remaining meant no self-determination.

  I was between a rock and a hard place. I needed Genesis. I’d never survive leaving entirely. But staying meant being trapped under rules I had no say in, surrounded by the same people day in and day out.

  I had to keep living this in between life.

  Deacon sighed. “I do miss you. Asshole.”

  I snorted. “Sorry. I’ll be back. A couple of weeks, if not sooner.”

  My friend looked up at the sky. “Shit, it’s going to rain. If you’re going, you should go—unless you want to stay. That’s an option, too.”

  “Was just going to swing by my tent and go from there.” We’d practically reached my designated area, and I’d hardly noticed the time pass. The Warriors were all housed together in shelters originally designed for us by Dr. Icahn, the madman who destroyed our lives to begin with. The little living quarters were more like collapsible permanent homes. Our engineers had hooked us up basic plumbing, which would make actually collapsing them a problem now. There was talk about building actual houses, but so far, the plan was only talk.

  Despite the fact I didn’t currently perform Warrior duties, they hadn’t kicked me out of my spot and into general housing yet. Our tents were slightly bigger. Not that I was in mine enough for it to matter. Still, this had been mine since we moved above ground. I didn’t want to live somewhere else when I had to be here.

  Deacon jerked his chin toward the hills behind us. “Be careful out there. Lots and lots of Vampire activity at night in those hills. It’s like they’re looking for something.”

  I was, too. Maybe I had something in common with the bloodsuckers. Only, I had no idea what I searched for anymore.

  I spent an hour swapping clothes. Although I took the hoodie with me everywhere, I did alter the shirts I wore underneath. I needed underwear. Pants. Socks. Food. Water. A first aid kit. Condoms. My ink and needles.

  The last bit I probably wouldn’t use, since I didn’t ink my own skin and I traveled alone. Still, I brought them every time. If pressed, I wasn’t sure I could say why I did it. Not that anyone ever asked. Outside of Deacon, most people gave me a wide berth. Well, save for my family. They tended to get in my face as much as he did. Probably wise on the part of everyone else.

  I walked out of Genesis without incident. The civilians weren’t allowed beyond a certain point. The rules were simple. For everyone’s safety, only the Warriors could come and go. But not even the Warriors could exit the way I did.

  I’d pushed against the boundaries until the powers that be—also known as my father— bent them for me. Even then, I’d only gotten so much space because of my last name. It pissed me off that they treated me differently, but it didn’t prevent me from taking advantage of the privilege. I would lose my mind if I had to stay here.

  I sighed. Enough.

  With the sun in the sky, I wasn’t afraid of the Vampires, and I trudged up into the hills without a backward glance. Instead, I kept my gaze toward the clouds. I’d always loved the world above our heads.

  As a child, in the Before Time, I’d been a daydreamer. Eventually, that title had changed to inattentive. Ultimately, the titles had been something akin to loser and disappointment. At one point, my father had suggested I wasn’t worth the air I got to breathe for free. That had been a really super day. But then we’d all been frozen and woken up here. So, what did it matter, really?

  I climbed down into the Vampire hole with the distinction of having been so active Vampires had poured out of it to kill us—or to tried to—every night. Now it was relatively empty. I hadn’t run into a Vampire in weeks in this part of the underground maze.

  Deacon said they’d been having a lot of action… so where were they coming from?

  I’d see if I could figure it out. Much as I wanted long breaks from my family and friends, I didn’t want them dead or injured. I helped when I could.

  The ladder was rickety. If I kept doing this, I would have to replace it at some point. Next time I came through, I would bring tools. Fluorescent lights blinked on and off when I reached the bottom. They could probably use a change, but I was fresh out of those types of light bulbs. They’d not made it to this new existence with us. Although, it seemed the Vampires and the crazy scientists who controlled them with addiction probably had some.

  I’d find out.

  And just the idea I was going to have to start repairing these places was fucking ridiculous. I smirked. That was life. Or whatever. I wasn’t a ninety-year-old man reflecting on shit. I was exploring Vampire holdings and saving people’s lives.

  There wasn’t anything better for me to do.

  I’d no sooner rounded a corner when my senses went into overdrive, causing my head to violently spin. I doubled over, grabbing on to my knees. Memory washed over me, bringing dizziness in its wake.

  “What are we going to do about Micah?” My mother sighed. She set her coffee on the table and palmed her eye.

  My father shook his head. “Do about him? What do you suppose we should do? He’s lazy, and he’s pretty much a player.”

  My parents hadn’t known I was there, or they’d not have said those things. The fact that they spoke without knowing I was there didn’t mean I shouldn’t have heard what they said. I wasn’t even surprised. They sat around the kitchen table at night, and they talked. They always had. On nights my father came home in time to have this kind of conversation, they discussed all of us.

  I was one of five children, and we were the only family in town with so many children-slash-siblings running around. It was trendy to have three, and most people had two. My parents had always done things their own way and damn the consequences. They were stricter on us than any other family around, too. Yes, ma’am. No, sir. Nowhere in our small New Jersey town did I hear that kind of talk except inside our own walls.

  My father was an FBI agent, a pretty important one. I supposed I should know more than important about his position, but I didn’t because I didn’t care. He was a big time hero. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We could only afford to live where we did in this town where everyone was richer than us because my mother’s father had left us the house. The taxes were in some kind of low bracket thanks to a deal Grandpa had once made with the county. They thought I didn’t know that shit. Maybe my siblings didn’t. I did.

  I heard things I shouldn’t when no one knew I listened.

  “He’s not Chad.” My mother sighed again. She was doing that a lot lately when it came to me. “We can’t count on him getting a scholarship from the Icahns.”

  My father shook his head. “No, he’s certainly not Chad.”

  “Patrick.” Admonishment filled her voice, but not as much as I might have hoped. “Micah is sweet.”

  “I’m pretty sure he’s having sex with half the student body.”

  It wasn’t quite so many as he said. I closed my eyes. No, I wasn’t my big brother, Chad, the perfect son. I loved him or I’d hate him. Next they’d bring up Tia, the only girl and a year younger than me. She really could do no wrong. Then my younger brothers were pretty much babies and unsullied by choices.

  I slammed the outside door to get out of hearing their diatribe about my flaws. Maybe I should sleep with everyone in the class. My parents both shut up. I might not be as smart as the rest of my family, but I was the only one who knew how to be quiet, and a general knowledge on how to go through life without everyone knowing where you were all the time had to count for something.

  Hurt made me want to lash out, but instead, I didn’t say a word. What was the point? They thought I was an idiot, and they were probably right.

  “Hey.” I stepped into the dining room far enough to lean against the door. “How’s it going tonight?”

  Then, I was thrust back into the here and now, away from my memory of a time I’d never return to and was better left unvisited in my own head.

  “What. In. The. Ever. Loving. Fuck?”

  A deep but feminine voice answered me. “I’m s
orry. That happens when I’m around sometimes.”

  I raised my head to look out through the blinking lights. They were going to give me a headache if I didn’t get out of this section soon. I knew whose voice I heard. Truth was, I’d been wondering if I would run into her since I learned who she was.

  The lunatic scientists who inflicted this special hell on the world had managed to, after having themselves cloned lots of times, turn one Vampire back. To cure her of the virus which had made her a Vampire to begin with. Out of thousands they’d tried to fix, she was the only one who had gotten better.

  Then she’d managed to escape captivity with the help of one of the scientists who now lived at Genesis. We’d all been briefed on the former Vampire named Brynna. She brought memories with her when she arrived places, caused the other people to suddenly get lost in their own minds. We had no idea why.

  And that was certainly what had happened.

  She was dark haired, a stark contrast to the flashing light in the room with us. “Brynna, right?”

  I phrased it as a question when it wasn’t one. Sounded somehow more polite.

  “Micah, yes?”

  Seemed she was doing the same thing. I pointed up at the light. “Can we do this somewhere other than this headache inducing flashing light fest?”

  Normally, I could be charming. I hated the constant blinking light. She looked to where I pointed and then back to me. “Sure, follow me. If you want.”

  There was a challenge in how she phrased her invitation. Or maybe it was her tone. I didn’t know. Did she think I wouldn’t follow her because she’d been a fanged, blood-sucking monster and now she was something else? Well, she’d soon see I didn’t scare easily.