Cogs in Time Anthology (The Steamworks Series) (23 page)

Astrid tried to direct her attention to what he said instead of how he smelled of pine trees and the rich texture of his voice. “Rehabilitate?” She scoffed. “He should be punished to the fullest extent of your law. He broke the Vow of Peace. He should never see the light of day. I thought the Society killed its mutants.”

“Perhaps you don’t understand the punitive nature of Vampire Rehabilitation.”

***

The figure wore the black robes and the silver ring of the Society, roaming the streets of the East End like a black ghost. His footsteps made no sound as he travelled, gliding a few inches above the ground. His heartbeat was lowered to a minimum to conserve his energy for the most opportune moment of the hunt.

He closed his eyes and hummed, altering the frequency of his cell molecules to make himself invisible to the human eye.
 
It is a gift to be the perfect creature.
 The only proof of his existence was the sound of the wind rustling through his satin robes.

The next victim…so many choices.
 Hunting for human blood was a sport, a boost to his ego and a symbol of disregard of the Society. The Society whispered about his mental state. Saying that, in creating the perfect creature, they may have inadvertently added a viral strand to his DNA—one that might eventually manifest itself as mental instability. But Draegan believed he was stronger and smarter than all of the vampires, including Luca, for they only possessed one mutation. Draegan possessed both.

Draegan had developed the genetic mutation for flight that allowed Society members to glide over the land instead of walking like the pathetic humans and making transportation quick. However, his biggest genetic research project was still in experimental stages—he was developing a theory of how a mutation, a genetic alteration, could change the sex of a vampire within the mother’s womb.

Draegan knew this alteration would intrigue the Society. Recent Prophetics believed a female vampire would end their reign and bring destruction to their species. Most members panicked, yet Draegan knew the solution—simply curb the birth of female vampires. He proceeded to develop theories of altering the sex chromosomal pair, removing part of the XX combination and changing it to an XY, thus ensuring no female vampires would be born.

Though Draegan was much applauded for his thought and scientific innovation, it was Luca who had been awarded a place at the High Table of the Society. Draegan’s rage knew no bounds as he saw his brother take his place at the High Table.

Killing became a drug. Though humans volunteered their blood to the Society to keep the peace, a hunt was more pleasing to Draegan’s psyche. As he roamed the familiar streets of London’s slums looking for his next victim, he stepped deeper into that murky state of existence.

Strangely, Draegan could not spot any of the familiar women that usually walked the evening streets. He had been tracking them, counting them and killing them off one by one. Carefully choosing who would be next and whose blood he would enjoy.

An eerie quiet hung in the air, only the slight hiss of the gaslights broke the silence. The East End was not a place of silence; it was the hub of most of London’s degenerate activities. From drugs and cheap gin, to prostitution and gangs—everything that the humans desired from the base perversity of their nature—found a home in the East End. It was for that very reason that Draegan selected it as his playground. For he knew that, while the rest of London slept under the violet night skies and gothic architecture, the East End would just be coming alive.

It was out of place that the East End appeared to be like any other part of London. Its streets were clean and silent, except for the occasional nocturnal animal hissing into the night’s wind. Not a single human, male nor female, walked in the veiled air of night’s cloak.

“How strange!” Draegan found himself exclaiming, his recently deepened voice giving away his maturity. “I had great plans for tonight. But it is as if someone is trying to foil my escapade.” Draegan emitted a low, guttural hum to try to find the aura of a possible tracker for a clue as to his desertion.

Someone is hunting me. And I think I know who that might be…
 A sinister smile curled his dead gray lips. Draegan was not as beautiful as Luca. In fact, it was as if their mother has chosen all the goodness and beauty to be distilled into her firstborn, leaving nothing but sinister intelligence and perversity for her second.

The Society whispered of Draegan’s instability, his school reports were marked with warnings of traits to watch for. The Society believed the genetic splicing technique, used when creating Draegan, affected his psyche in an adverse manner. No other “Perfect Vampires” were created again. The project had been immediately scrapped and labeled an unnecessary risk to the public health.

Draegan heard the singing voices of women, talking and laughing from a neighboring street. Within seconds, his sharp hearing narrowed down the exact lane the women walked.

Without so much as a shake of a single strand of hair, Draegan glided stealthily towards them. He moved like an animal, stalking its prey, completely without noise. Soon, the dark shape of his body, covered by the robe, vanished. He became invisible in the cool night air. Spaces in the fog were the only sign of his presence and movement.

As he turned the corner, he saw the women ahead. A celebration was occurring around a big, grotesque fountain in the center of the wide road. A mermaid with flaming red eyes stood in its center, with a thin spout of water spitting from her open mouth. The fountain was blackened with age and soot, yet the children of the women enjoyed the waters.

Draegan harbored doubts about it being a trap. To be safe, he held his breath and closed his eyes before he turned the corner. He activated sensors attached to his night vision goggles by telepathically adding another lens and turning the refraction. With them, he could detect infrared movement and look for signs of Luca, or any other vampire trying to find him. In short spurts, he covered the entire span of ground around him.
 

No one. Of course Luca would not leave a spread of bait like these ladies in front of his only brother, a hungry lion.

He slowly moved towards them, gliding invisibly and barely disturbing the air. His eyes traveled through the group, scanning each face until he reached the one he fancied, a beautiful, elegant creature that stood like a swan.

Astrid’s chocolate hair fell like cascading water down her shoulders onto the lavender, satin dress. She seemed innocent and devoid of the perversity that he smelled from the other women.

He moved closer, drunken with her scent. His desire and hunger for her blood stirred within him. In jerky desperation, he wove through the crowd to his selected catch. His dark eyes focused on her pale features, and in a split second, he materialized next to her.

Shrieks of women filled the air. Astrid looked Draegan straight in the eyes, her face remaining calm and serene. She had no fear of him.
 

Was that a smile from her? Something is out of place. She doesn’t carry the smell of begging desperation.
 The rustling in the air behind him confirmed his thoughts. 
Luca. The bastard followed me.
 Draegan wasted no time. He grabbed Astrid by her wrists and bit into her neck.

Astrid screamed.
 

Yes, bitch. You will fear me. I like the taste of it.
 Draegan felt his robes being pulled from behind as he was thrown over the building. He landed upon the roof to view Luca as he materialized on the ground. Luca started to give chase, but stopped almost immediately. Draegan laughed. 
Pathetic Luca. Helping the human woman, are we?

In the second Astrid fell, Draegan had disappeared, though his laugh echoed in his wake. Before Astrid’s eyes fully closed, Luca ran back and knelt by her, taking her in his arms to hold her. He tried to suck at the neck to obtain the venom, but her blood flow was too weakened from the attack.

The scrambled decibels of voices dizzied her, but Luca’s voice surrounded her with calmness. “Lady West. Astrid! Look at me!” Luca’s face paled with guilt and anxiety. His plan to capture Draegan had failed and he had risked the life of the beautiful creature, to no avail.

For Draegan, Astrid was as good as dead, he felt somewhat sated by her small amount of blood, but his biggest satisfaction was in outsmarting his older brother.

Chapter Five

Canary in a Coalmine

London 1860

Draegan’s face was drawn into a tightly stretched smile, unique to his perverse temperamental expressions. He had outwitted his brother’s plans, which pleased him immensely. What’s more, judging by the look of pain that flashed in his brother’s eyes at the sight of the fallen woman, Draegan had managed to hurt him, too. He sat, contented with his actions, believing that though the night may have started in a dull escapade, it had ended most magnificently.

Luca crouched on the ground next to Astrid’s body, which was quickly turning a dull, bluish color as the venom from Draegan fought to disable her immune system.

“Lady Astrid, please try to wake up!” Luca’s voice sounded shrilled and panicked, the strange intensity of his feelings frightened him. The other women formed a circle around Astrid and Luca, their sighs and gasps reverberating in his ears like a percussion band. Clatter and cackles assaulted him. He looked at each of them, willing them to take their leave.

His attention fell back to Astrid as he closed his eyes. He held her to as his chest vibrated against hers with a low growling hum. 
Awaken, Astrid. Please. Open your eyes. It must be, and it will be!

Astrid’s eyes slowly flickered to life as he laid her back on the cold stone of the curb. Her eyes stared up into his, but the rest of her remained paralyzed. Luca grinned with joy as he clutched her to him.

“A knife!” he yelled. “I need a blade!”

The women began to scream. “You’ll not kill her! We won’t allow it! Death to the vampire!” They all ran towards him and beat him on his back and shoulders. Some kicked him in his legs, but he was unyielding.

“Women!” he yelled back. “Time is wasting! Give me something with which to cut myself. I want to save Astrid from the venom!”

The women remained immobile, either unwilling or too frightened to aid him, so Luca placed his own forearm in his mouth and bit down, gnashing his teeth to break through the sinewy tissues of his muscular arm. He scowled, not from pain, but from desire and fear, until finally he punctured his own veins. To the shock of the women, he poured his drops of thick blood, a syrupy blue liquid, onto Astrid’s lips.

Astrid’s face shrank back in disgust as she felt the bitter blood in her mouth. Though she was weak, she tried to spit out the blue substance as it fell cold and sticky on her lips and tongue.

“No, Astrid,” whispered Luca. “Drink it. Just a few drops, it is the only antidote to the venom. It will provoke an immune response for your weakened body. You will be safe, I promise.”

Astrid gazed into Luca’s pained and worried eyes. Her heart lurched from its space of fear and drew towards trust and faith in the strange vampire who seemed more humane than most humans.

She choked back the next few drops of his sticky, blue blood willingly, but with much effort, because life was fading from her every second until Luca’s blood was absorbed into her system. Slowly, as the blood began to flow down Astrid’s throat, the voices of the women around her filled the air with thankfulness. Astrid’s color was returning.

As soon as Astrid was able to sit on her own, Luca leapt up from her side. “Take care of her!” he commanded. He grabbed an apron from one of the women and ripped it into a tourniquet for his own arm and in a flash, he darted off in the direction he had last seen his brother.

Luca’s sleek body cut through the wind as it picked up speed. As he gained more strength and speed, his body lifted in the air and he hovered in space, moving quickly and without effort. His robes billowed behind him as he cut through London, zigzagging through the fog.

I will find him. I can smell him. 
Though Luca had the powerful physical vision of the prophetics, he reached for his goggles. Brass plated over platinum, the goggles’ lenses were coated with a blue film to detect change in molecular frequency. With them, even if Draegan hid himself and changed his frequency, Luca would find him.

His scent grows stronger.
 
Luca knew Draegan could not be more than a hundred yards away. Cautiously, he removed a small ray gun from the folds of his robes. Luca configured the ray gun as a tracking device to find his brother’s DNA and to lock on its presence. It also emitted a tranquilizing jolt, a stunning and disabling beam of paralysis.

Luca bowed his head and made another strange humming sound, much like the drone of bees. At the same time, he flicked several droplets of blood from his slashed arm into the air. The blue blood hung for a moment, suspended and immobile, floating vibrating in rhythm with the hum.

Luca stood still, humming and watching as the drops of blood slowly made their way to a small street on his left. He followed cautiously and silently, leaving no trace of his own scent or sound. From the corner of his eye, he saw the quick figure of a robed vampire gliding through the gates of the train station. Behind the figure were the droplets of blood. Luca held his breath, relieved that the beads had found their closest genetic match, his brother Draegan.