Drew D'Amato:Bloodlines:02 (21 page)

Thank you Radu.
It pained him to think that.  Vlad growled into the phone. 

“He actually left a gift for her one morning on her car’s door handle.  She mistook it for bird shit.”  Radu laughed maniacally.

Vlad almost crashed into the car in front of him.  He quickly pulled into a parking lot for an In-N-Out Burger Restaurant.  He got out of the car, slammed his door, and screamed, “You fuck,” into the phone with no care about the family with small children walking out of their car and into the restaurant.  They all stared at him after hearing his obscenity.  There was something in his eyes though that told the father he was better off not saying anything to this stranger.

“Oh don’t be mad.  I was merciful, I told you.  Well actually, I just told him not to do anything because I didn’t want to ruin my trap.  Then after things happened the way they did, I wanted you to believe I was dead.  But now I am being merciful again.  I am offering you, brother, to live your human life out the way you want to with no hindrance.  I am also offering you to have your woman, with not one hair on her body touched.  You just have to stay out of my way.”

“Bullshit.”

“No, it isn’t, let me explain to you why I want to do this.  I want to see the misery in your eyes as you watch mankind go to shit.  I want you to live to see your failure.  Killing you now will take all the fun out of it for me.  I’m thinking I have maybe thirty years of watching you suffer through this pain your arrogance has caused for mankind.  I want you to live through my reign.”

“So that is the reason for you keeping me alive, but why her?  Why would you allow me any bit of happiness?”

“Because she will no longer make you happy like she does now.  Everytime you look at your love, you will not see her as you see her now.  You will see her as the curse of man—Eve.  The one who made you sloppy, naïve, proud, and then made you fall.  My victory would not be possible without the blindness she caused you.  This is my way of thanking her.  So what do you say Vlad, is she worth the
world
to you?”

Vlad stood in the parking lot.  The parking lot was silent, no cars were moving in the driveway, and anyone within an ear shot could hear his conversation.  He had to make it back to his car.  Also the bright sun felt like it was suffocating him. 
The bright sun.

Vlad got into his car.  “Radu how are you awake during the day?  I know you are in America, where are you?”

“I think we know from our last encounter that I can be awake during the day.”

“You had a reason for that.  Why are you awake now, what do you have planned?”

“I wanted to make sure you were awake.  I wanted to ask you my question.”

“Which question is that?”

“
Is she worth the world?
”

Once in the car Vlad was too focused on the conversation to notice what the rest of his body was doing.  Unwittingly he had opened the glove box, and grabbed something out of it.  Vlad looked down at his hand.  He was holding Jasmine’s sunglasses.

“Yes, she is.”

“So you will not get in my way?  Because if you try anything, I will still let you live.  But you will see what I do to her.  As a human and as a vampire.  I will make her my whore for all of eternity.”

“No, I will not risk that.  But if you do anything to her, then I will have nothing holding me back from doing anything to stop you.”

“
Well you are welcome to try, but I’d rather not deal with it.  In fact, I offer you an open invitation if you ever want to become one of my men.”

“Fuck you.”

“Really, you might want to join the club once babies are rounded up for meals.
”

“You will never get that powerful.  Someone will stop you.”

“No,
I’m going to start where I can touch
as many
different important people
as possible
.  Then they will spread the disease.  Quality
,
not quantity. 
By the time the world realizes there are vampires, there will be too many of us to do anything about it.”

“How long do you think the humans will allow that until they rebel?  They will succeed.  Over time, man always triumphs over tyranny.”

“How long do you think the humans will have?  I will make vampires out of the astute
scientists
in the field of cloning, and we will eventually produce
humans only for food.  They will never get a chance to fight or revolt
, because no one would grow to the age of walking.  I no longer will need them to reproduce for themselves
.  The world will be nothing left but
vampires
and clones for blood.  A
nd
if I die, everyone dies.  I
will be God. 
I am time eternal, no one lives past me.
”

Radu hung up with a frenzied laugh.

Vlad sat in his car frozen.  He hadn’t really grasped the reign Radu had planned had Vlad died.  Radu had spent centuries planning this out.  There was no idea of clones three hundred years ago.  Vampires had a parasite-host relationship, and Radu would always have had to keep some humans alive to live.  The humans kept alive could one day rise up, had Vlad died.  But now if cloning was eventually perfected, this world Radu dreamed of was very possible—an Earth dedicated to Radu.  Vlad was their last hope.  There was no chance without him. 

S
IX

1

P
acami relaxed in his first class seat in the 707.  It was the best flight he had ever taken in his life.  He put his feet up and opened up
Face Lake,
a novel he bought at the terminal bookstore.  He was comfortable.  For Vlad though, it was one of the worst flights he had ever been on.  He didn’t have any problem bringing aboard Jericho’s cremains.  It was not a liquid, and the plastic container did not set off the metal detector.  He had the death certificate with him and that was all the paperwork that was necessary.  However, the seat being comfortable still didn’t compare to a private jet, and Vlad found himself far more nervous than the last time he traveled to Europe.

When he picked up Pacami he told him about the call from Radu.  Pacami could not even imagine the fate Vlad had described to him.  They could not lose.  Pacami thought of one word—Antichrist.  It wasn’t the way the scriptures had described it, but Radu would fit the role.  Only this wasn’t prophecy and there would not be a battle of Armageddon where good conquered all.

He had prayed throughout the day.  He had always understood God couldn’t answer all the prayers, and sometimes he wondered if he could answer
any,
or would that contradict this idea of free will?  But if there was any prayer to answer, he thought this one deserved it. 

Pacami had asked Vlad, what they would do
if
the Crusaders had given him the real Blood.  If they had been confident that they would kill Vlad that night at the airport and then get the Blood back.  Then what option did they have?

“We have to lay all our cards on the table then,” Vlad told him.  Vlad explained that he would tell the Crusaders everything; that he was Vlad the Implaer, exorcised back into a human, but he had made a mistake.  Radu was still out there.  He would tell them what his brother was planning, how to best attack it, and hopefully even get the chance to lead the attack.  He would try to work with them. 
The enemy of my enemy is my friend.

Vlad wasn’t that worried about that option. 
What are they going to do instead, kill me?  I’m a human now, I’m on their team. 
Throughout the flight Vlad started to welcome that possibility.  If they killed Radu, he would have no problem getting back with Jasmine.

Throughout the flight Pacami had thought about another possibility.  The luxury of first class had worn off.  He started to feel anxious like on his first trip to Saigon.  He was going to war—he might die and they might lose.  His mind raced with all the contingencies.  He put his paperback down.  He couldn’t concentrate.  There was one thought that came to him that he had to be sure of before they got any further.  He had to ask Vlad.

“Vlad, we have to defeat him right, no matter the cost?”

Vlad turned away from the window.  “Yes, but don’t tell me of some dramatic self-sacrifice you came up with.  Don’t think like that.”

“I’m sorry. It is a form of sacrifice, but not from me.”

“Well don’t worry.  If I have to, I will give my life to kill Radu.  I have always fought that way, why change now?”

“I’m thinking of another sacrifice you might have to make.”

Vlad’s face got more focused.  “What do you mean?”

“Well, we plan to get the Blood and bring it back to Malachi right?”

“Yes.”

“But we have no idea what the situation will be like when we get close to the Blood.  We are both sure they probably won’t trade for it, but if we can get just an audience with it, close enough to it, we can take it from them.  But we are both human.  We might be in a situation where we can’t get out alive with it.  Never mind bring it back to Los Angeles.”

“Yes, I guess that is in the cards.  Are you asking me if I would drink it and give up any chance to be a mortal again?”

“Give up any chance to have Jasmine?”

Vlad turned away from Pacami and looked out the window for a minute. 

“Maybe I can become human again.  Maybe if you drink it for a good reason, God will forgive you.”

“I can’t count on that, and neither can you.  Even though you are doing it for the best reason imaginable, you are still turning to the Blood of the Betrayer for help and not the Lord.  The Templars thought they were doing the Lord’s work, too.  They did it for the sake of Christianity, for the Holy Land.  They did not have evil intentions, yet they were not able to get the exorcism to work either.”

“Maybe they did it wrong.”  Vlad still stared out the window.

“They did it the same way they did it with the peasants and slaves—the same way I did it with you.  Vlad, I give you my word that if it comes down to you having to drink the blood, I will try the exorcism again once Radu is dead.  But we can’t expect it to work.  You have to make this decision believing you’ll never become human again.  Would you do it?”

Vlad turned back to Pacami.  “
The world can fight for itself.  I covered its ass long
enough
.”

Pacami sat there disappointed.  Vlad took out an oversized pair of women’s sunglasses from his jacket.  He held them in his hands.

“Are those hers?” Pacami asked, and Vlad just nodded his head.  “You can’t give her up can you?”

“She is the reason I am doing all of this.”

“I know, but Vlad isn’t that selfish?  This is the world we are talking about here.  Besides you know what will happen.”

“We don’t know that for sure.  The humans can still defeat him, and I can still have her.  He can’t survive a nuke.”

“Even if humans do
kill him. 
By the time it gets to that point—the world knows as a group that vampires exist, and they have used nuclear weapons—the Earth would have already paid such a cost.”

“Just don’t ask that of me Pacami.  Don’t ask me to give up on love, to ever love again.   Because that’s what this sacrifice asks—eternity without love.  I would rather be dead.”

Vlad turned back toward the window. 

Pacami felt for Vlad, he really did. 
H
e saw how Vlad did everything he could to save the world and destroy Radu. 
He was not
evil.  Most people were not evil because they did not have
the power to be evil
,
but they would if they could.
Vlad
had all the power in the world, and he gave it all up.  He just wanted love.

How could Pacami ask this man who had already given up so much, to give up more?

“If someone has to drink the Blood, I’ll do it,” Pacami said.

“What?” Vlad turned back to him shocked.

“I’ll drink the Blood.”

“Would Father Montes perform the exorcism to get you back?”

“It wouldn’t work, I would have drank it willingly.  Then I will make you a vampire, and when Radu is dead, you can kill me.”

“Father, no.”

“I have lived a long life.  I have survived a war.  If I can’t die for the sake of the world, how can I ask that of you?”

Vlad still wanted to oppose, but he looked into Pacami’s eyes and knew he was for real.  This man was a warrior himself.  He was ready to die.  Vlad still tried to argue it.

“Maybe the answer isn’t with the Blood.  Maybe that’s the lesson we have to learn here and why the exorcisms don’t work?  At the end of the day we should choose to not use this power to defeat evil.  We should trust God will save us.”

Pacami put his hand on Vlad’s and tried not to sound condescending.

“Vlad, I have been in war.  I have seen horrors, rapes, and other atrocities.  I am a man of the cloth, but I have been sure of this for years—God does not get involved.”

Vlad looked at the priest, shocked to hear such an assumption.  Pacami saw he owed it to him to expand on that.     

“The gift we have is free will.  Our lives are shaped by our decisions.  What would this world be if God helped the side that was good to win wars and criminals regularly received justice?  Good is always rewarded, and evil is always punished?”

“It would be perfect.”

“It would be a fraud.  People would do what they do because they are assured they will be rewarded.  There would never be any
genuine
sacrifice, character is what you do when no one is watching.  They would all know they were being watched and would be good just for the beneft in it.   No true test of good and evil.  Because of this, He does not get involved—ever.”

“Then what good is He?”

“To guide you with
your decisions.”    

“Father, you became a priest because of your
deal
with God.  Why did you carry through on your end if you didn’t think He had anything to do with it?”

“Oh, He had everything to do with it.  True, I would have survived without ever making that deal, but I still decided to make it.  What saved me though was not the deal with God, or His divine power, but that I did a Christian thing.  I picked up a fellow wounded soldier.  A bullet that pierced his leg would have shot through my neck and killed me if I wasn’t carrying him.  I lived not because he used some force to make the bullet miss me, but because I had done what he would have wanted me to do.  That is only how He gets involved.  He influences us.

“And what I am saying here is again His influence on me.  I am an old man with not many years left, but you have true love ahead of you.  Why should I ask you to give up your life and not mine?  God wants us to be selfless.  Neither of us asked for this, but it has to be done.  If I have to, I will drink the Blood.”

2

W
arburton waited for them in his car outside Heathrow wearing his No. 1 dress uniform that Vlad had requested.  It was the formal uniform for members of the MPS.  It was four in the
afternoon when they landed.  Vlad led Pacami to the rear of Warburton’s car in the parking lot.  Pacami put his bags in the trunk.  Vlad brought his bags with him into the backseat.  Pacami then instinctively opened the front right door of the car.  A moment of awkwardness passed between the two as Pacami almost gave Warburton a lap dance.

Vlad introduced the two: “Father Pacami, meet Detective Chief Inspector Louis Warburton of Tower Hamlets.”

“Nice to meet you,” Warburton said awkwardly.

“You, too,” Pacami said from above him. 

Pacami went around to the other side.  Warburton took off once everyone was inside.

“We have to hurry,” Warburton said.  “He closes his shop in an hour, and it’s going to take us half an hour to get there.  He is an older man, fifty something, full head of grey hair.  He appears very suave.  What do you guys have planned?  If need be, I can get my hands on some sodium pentathol.”

“We are not going to interrogate him.  We are going to trade with him.”

“What makes you think they would trade the Blood for just the book?  I’m sure they have a translated copy.”

“They do, but we are just trading for a chance to see the Blood.  We will take it from there.  All I want from you is to walk in five minutes before us and shop, look for something for your wife.”

“You don’t want me to speak to him at all?”

“No, not at all.  The Crusaders don’t allow for loose ends, even if it means killing a cop.  If they feel you know anything about the information inside the Dark Bible or anything about the Blood, they will approach you.  You either join them or die.”

“But I’m a cop.”

“They only approach cops.  They kill anyone else, they can’t use them.”

“So why do you want me to even come in?”

“Because they still value discretion.  He may be less inclined to pull anything on us if a cop is also in the store.”

“That’s why you told me to wear my dress?’

“Yes.”

Warburton’s No. 1 dress uniform consisted of black trousers, a white shirt, navy tie, and a black fleece with his badge on his shoulders. The MPS wore their badges as a black epaulette.  Vlad noticed the three Order of the Bath pips and no name.

“Good, you didn’t wear the one with your name,” Vlad said.

“You didn’t have to tell me that.  I was going to use a fake name if I had to.”

“It won’t come to that.  You are just here to limit his options.  I don’t want you in the crosshairs of these men.  I want to protect my investment.”

“Investment?” Pacami asked.

“I don’t have many cops that are indebted to me.”

“How?”

“He saved my life, that’s how we met,” Warburton answered.  “I was just a constable, on foot, alone, answering a call of gunshots in this old building by the docks.  I get to this open, abandoned building and find three men flying through the air, and another four jumping to different levels fighting back at them.  All of them with firearms.  I didn’t have one.

“Stranger than this, when a man died they disappeared into nothing.  I was in shock.  I couldn’t move.  In what seemed like just seconds there were now only two figures left.  My
radio went off, and one of these figures dashed toward me.  He was blond.  He looked like the Russian in that Rocky movie.  Instantly he had his arm around my neck, and a gun to my head.”