Dominant Species (22 page)

The
United Nation’s Auditorium, now the Vampire Council chamber, was half empty save for a few vampire aids and the Queen’s own Guard as they prepared for the ceremony.

‘Is all in order?’ asked the
Guard Captain, of one of her officers.

‘
Yes Captain, every vampire will be here. We have guards at all points as requested. But I’m not sure that the threat is as great as we have been led to believe.’

The Captain interrupted
her, ‘Today every vampire will be here together with what remains of the human resistance… the one’s that managed to kill Tolon and do what they did to Shallock. We’ll also have Overlo…’ she paused, ‘we’ll also have Karick, not to mention that evil, conniving bastard Rodan. I for one wouldn't underestimate any of them. The Queen will not tolerate any distractions in the ceremony. Is that understood?’

‘Yes
, my Lady. I apologise.’

Satisfied the Captain moved off.

Four hours later, deep in the bowls of the United Nations building, Karick sat on one side of his cell staring at Rodan on the other, each immobile in their heavy chains. Rodan jumped as the door bolts slammed back with a dull thud, marking the entrance of eight of the best of the Queen’s own Guards, all heavily armed.

T
he two vampires were dragged unceremoniously to their feet, each by four guards, then their chains were unlocked from the wall and they were led away in silence.

A rumble, like thunder, erupt
ed around the auditorium as the vampires rose to their feet. The Queen watched calmly as Rodan and Karick were dragged onto the platform by her personal guard. Rodan had but a second to glance around at the assembly before he was pushed to the ground by the Imperial Guards holding him.

‘You will kneel for her majesty.’ The Guard
hissed at him, flicks of spittle hitting the hackles on his neck.

The Queen glide
d down the steps and entered the circle of the auditorium. She grabbed an ornate goblet, raised it in the air to a chorus of cheers. As the cheers subsided, she spoke.

‘
Today I give you a new beginning. A new Council will be sworn in, their authority sealed by the blood of our enemy as has always been our way.’

Feet stamped and a
chorus of cheers erupted from around the auditorium. She turned to face the platform holding the goblet in one hand she raised the other high in the air.

On cue, t
he door to the East wing opened and four of her Guards entered, behind them a sea of humans poured out into the auditorium. At the front; Lano, Trent, Megan, Kathryn and Jake, behind them the remainder of the resistance fighters captured at the meat packing factory, then came the rest of the resistance, captured in Brooklyn by the Queen’s own Guard. At every fifth man a vampire guard. The auditorium slowly filled.

After a brief silence,
the doors on the opposite side of the auditorium opened and an even greater number of humans flooded in, these were what the vampire’s referred to as food stock. They were forced roughly into the seats around the auditorium. Jake looked up into the scared faces seated all around and suddenly realised that they had been brought here to see, at first-hand, what happened to those that challenged the vampire hierarchy. His eyes flicked to the long row of tables joined together and covered in a heavy red cover that reached down to the ground and he prayed that Drameer had done what he had promised.

‘This is a new dawn. Let us rejoice,’ the Queen
voice rang out, ‘you…’ she pointed a long finger, capped with a nail that could puncture steel, at the first man. It was Lano.

He struggled
as one of the vampires hauled him out of the line and dragged him roughly towards the queen. Some of the men tried to help him but were beaten back easily.

Jake watche
d carefully from the group. He scanned the auditorium taking in everything. Something caught his eye, at the back, half hidden in the shadows, was that a lone figure, watching, waiting?

Father Matthew
was shaking; sweat covered his face as he watched from the shadows. His eyes met Jake’s briefly and his heart felt heavy at the hate contained in that one look.

‘
Blood is the life, blood is the beginning, blood is the end,’ roared the Queen.’ On this she grabbed Lano by his ponytail and yanked his head backwards. Fear tore across his face as she drove one long nail deep into his neck. A line of blood pumped out across the floor.

In the auditorium, eyes glaze
d at the sight of the blood spurting across the floor in a pulsing arc. The queen held the goblet and filled it to the brim with Lano’s blood, before letting him fall, helpless, to the floor, where he lay gasping for air, trying to breathe, unable to make a sound, unable to escape.

Jake
automatically went to move, but Megan grabbed his wrist. He looked at her as she shook her head, holding his stare with her dark brown eyes. It was a stare that said it was already too late and deep down he knew she was right.

The sound of the vampires stamping
their feet grew louder, the rhythm increasing to a crescendo then finishing as abruptly as it had started at the moment the Queen raised her hand.

From the side Keermit
led the new Council out onto the stage. Each had been carefully selected and each was dressed in a long red gown and hood. They faced the Queen, before kneeling in a semicircle in front of her. She looked up at the auditorium and smiled. It was truly an impressive sight. Every vampire was there together with all of the humans, looking suitable terrified.

Slowly, with the goblet full, she walk
ed around the semicircle that formed her new vampire Council. She stopped in front of each and marked a sign, in Lano’s blood, on each of their foreheads. She left Keermit to last.

Father Matthew watched from the back of the auditorium as
the Queen performed her ritual, the sweat grew heavy on his skin and his eyes were tired and bloodshot. Beside him Drameer watched him intently.

Jake stared at Lano who, held
out his hand weakly. Again Jake went to move but this time was stopped by a vampire guard who grabbed his shoulder pushing him to his knees.

‘Don’t be so eager,
’ he snarled, ‘your time will come soon enough, human.’

Then the Queen was speaking again.

‘Today we are here to embrace a new beginning, an end to the squabbling and in-fighting that has led us so near to extinction.’ A pause, ‘Something I will not tolerate.’ She looked to the faces in the auditorium as if making a pact with each vampire independently, before continuing. ‘We were left here thousands of years ago by our own kind as punishment, left here to die. Yet we did not. Instead we have flourished amongst the human race. We were not destroyed by our own then, and we shall not be brought down by our own now.’

Father Matthew, h
is breathing getting quicker, looked to Drameer, who gently rested his hand on his shoulder.

‘Are you ready for redemption
, Priest?’

‘Yes,
I am ready.’

‘Have you made your peace?’

‘Yes I have made my peace.’

‘
Good. Then I think you only have one more choice to make; how you die, and I think you should carry the mark of your God into this last battle.’

Father Matthew, his mouth dry, trie
d to focus. ‘But I don’t...’

His voice trail
ed as Drameer slowly dragged a long nail across his own wrist. Then with a blood tipped finger he traced the sign of the cross on the Priests forehead in his own blood.

Nodding, Father Matthew step
ped out from his hiding place. Only Jake noticed in all the commotion as all other eyes were locked on the Queen.

Then Lano, c
oughing blood, caught a glimpse of the Priest. He watched as Father Matthew calmly descended the stairs. Lano glanced at Jake and with his mouth full of blood he fell to the floor and smiled his last smile. Jake’s eyes briefly flicked shut, before being torn open by the voice of Father Matthew as he strode down the steps. His voice punched through the air with an astonishing power and clarity, and Jake thought a forgotten passion.

‘Yea, a
s I walk through the valley of death, I shall fear no evil.
Heads rocket round. Both vampires and humans frowned, confused, as the Priest marched straight down the steps towards the Queen, who looked up in surprise, having emptied the last of the blood from the golden goblet.

‘For thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff they comfort me…’ continued the Priest.

‘Oh please!’ Barked the Queen, she hardly paused as she turned her back on the advancing Priest. ‘SEN! Kill him.’ She commanded, with a voice that was both soft and powerful.

Two half
-lings left her side charging towards the Priest. He didn’t falter or hesitate once as the beasts charged. Then they leapt… and… were both taken out of the air by Drameer. Together they crashed through the first five rows of seats with the vampire on top of them. With a demented roar, Drameer killed them both, his short sword dripping with their blood.

Both Karick and Rodan w
atched as Father Matthew continued his descent unfazed. Rodan raised a pale eyebrow, a smirk washed over his face.

‘Mmm, quite i
nteresting, I’m not sure this was part of the planned entertainment. I wonder what the humans will do next.’

‘
Silence, screamed a guard, they’ll do nothing. They are nothing but our food!’

Father Matthew near
ed the stage as the Queen, confused, looked round. He marched up the steps straight towards her.

Father Matthew
strode to the centre of the stage, stood facing the Queen, his back to the new Council, who were still kneeling, thoroughly confused, in a semi-circle behind him. Father Matthew smiled and simply held out his left hand and sliced a deep gash with a knife across his palm. Awkwardly, holding the knife with his damaged hand he did the same to his right palm. Then he let the knife clatter to the floor as he raised his arms so that they were outstretched to either side of his body in a mock crucifixion. The Queen stared, open mouthed.

‘In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit’ he yelled at the top of his lungs.
You want blood? Then take mine!’

Behind him Drameer
threw a vampire guard to one side as he rapidly closed on the stage, the Queen’s bodyguards immediately closing ranks.

Two
of the Queen’s Guard’s, having regained their senses, attacked. Spinning to one side, Drameer ripped the first one’s throat out with his teeth. The second was forced back onto her knees as Drameer lunged for her throat.

Crouched over the dying guard, Drameer’s eyes focus
ed on the resistance. A moment of pain ripped across his face when he noticed, in the crowds of humans, Kathryn’s shocked face.

By now the Queen
’s face was burning hot with anger, incredulous she pushed herself past her own guards and screamed at the Priest. ‘In the name of Tallot, I’ll kill you myself!’

Father Matthew, standing with
his arms outstretched smiled, blood dripped from his wounds and pooled by his feet. The Council’s eyes continued to glaze at the sight of the blood; they looked to their Queen for their orders. Then Drameer landed in front of her.

The Queen focuse
d on him. ‘What did you think this would achieve?’

Drameer
stood, wiping blood from his mouth, ‘…a chance.’

‘A chance
? For what?’

Drameer look
ed round; a sense of calm had begun to spread through the auditorium. The Queen’s own Guard stood, waiting for their orders. The new Council watched mesmerised, not sure what to do, but desperately trying to ignore Father Matthew’s blood as it drip, drip, dripped onto the stage in front of them.

‘…A chance to change the future;
to even the odds and to try a different beginning; one where we can re-build this world, together. For centuries since we were marooned on this planet all we have done is take from its people. Perhaps now it is time to give something back.’

The Council look
ed between their Queen, and their next meal; Father Matthew as the hunger finally overwhelmed them.

‘Sentimental fool,’ she scoffed, ‘b
ut, Drameer, you are right about one thing… this is a new beginning… just not yours. This is your end.’

She
turned away from him as Keermit and the new Council closed on the Priest. Four Guards closed ranks behind her.

‘
Let the new Council feed on the blood of the enemy. Kill the Priest!’

In a daze the new council members c
ircled the Priest, their eyes glazed, focusing on the blood which still dripped from his hands. The first vampire who attacked was Keermit.

Jake screamed
, ‘No!’ as Keermit hit Father Matthew hard, knocking him to the ground. The Priest didn’t fight back as the vampires hissed all around him pinning him to the ground.