Empire of Blood (Book 2): Fading In Darkness (28 page)

She took many human vampires into herself and to their graves in the attempt to fill that need. And finally after the last of the vampires were depleted, she felt the minds growing within her.
So many of them.
But they weren’t like the other minds she had long been able to control. These were more connected to her in a way she had never experienced. They were part of her. And before long the time came for her to let them out into the world.

Through
Bellona’s
memories,
Ishan
experienced one of the most painful kinds of labor any creature can go through. Deep in the heart of a cave
Bellona
had found for herself, thousands of eggs fought to be free from inside her. It took days for them all to come out and every moment of it was torturous, but eventually they all lay in a pile below her and she covered them with her body and curled up and slept a long deep sleep.

The emotions that went through her body during this process were more varied than
Ishan
had experienced in his entire existence. Having centuries ago experienced human childbirth through the memories of a young Roman girl, it was obvious that even a human female didn’t encounter nearly the amount of hormones that a vampire queen did from pregnancy and on after labor.

Eventually the eggs hatched and
Ishan
learned the euphoric joy of giving life to thousands of children who were so connected with their mother as to be of one mind. From that moment on, there was no longer a village. The young ancestor vampires spread out into the night and decimated every nearby village within hundreds of miles. And as they grew older and the villages regrouped and rebuilt, the Queen used her powers of mind control to keep them there willing always to feed her children. And she taught the young vampires to restrain. To only feed as needed so as not to destroy the populations again.

Centuries passed and
Ishan
experienced many wonders from before he was born and the desert became a place of great religion. The nation of
Israel
grew around
Bellona’s
little cave and before long the villagers were worshipping a new god. But this was good for
Bellona
. It helped her keep herself and her children hidden.

And then the Romans came. They conquered the people there and made them follow Roman laws and pay Roman taxes. She watched it all from her hole in the ground.

Years went on and then time within
Bellona’s
life seemed to slow down.
Ishan
had lived enough lives through the blood to know that he was about to experience something very important. Late one night one of her children went out to feed when it came across a strange unkempt man following it.
Ishan
and
Bellona
watched through the vampire’s eyes through
Bellona’s
familial connection as the man’s eyes blackened completely and he overpowered the vampire and drained it of blood. The vision disappeared completely as though the connection had never been there in the first place.

Bellona
mourned for several weeks before sending out a multitude of her children after the man. It took another few weeks before they found him, but when they did, they brought him back to their mother.
Bellona
surfaced from deep within the cave to find the man bound by nearly twenty of her children. He was fast and he was strong.
Faster and stronger than her children but not her.
Her mourning had ended in anger and yet now that she saw how strong this man was a new desire overtook her.

She took him that night and yet he survived. She had never known such
a strength
in a male and couldn’t help but respect it.
To want it for herself.

“What are you?”

The man never spoke. He didn’t seem to know even the faintest form of language. Judging by the memories she experienced from his blood, he had been alive for a number of centuries longer than her. And yet he was not like her. He was more human and yet not. He simply looked at her with blood lust. And in her desire she couldn’t stop herself from giving in. She would let him feed of her often and when she hadn’t the strength she would give up one of her children instead. And always it was worth it to watch his strength and power. And then came the day she felt it stir within her womb.

A new solitary mind.

Chapter 39

The Shadows of
Deja
Vu

After a long while standing and sobbing, a hand gripped Hank’s shoulder.

“Hey, are you all right?” It was
Whindsor’s
voice.

“Yeah.
I will be anyway.”

“You did what you had to do. We don’t have much time and the last thing that kid needs is to be out in the middle of this shit.”

Hank nodded and wiped his face.
Whindsor
held out his hand and Hank took it and got to his feet.

“Look, right now we’re all set so if you want to go be with your son,
it’s
okay. If we need you I can radio into the
safehouse
for you.”

Hank thought about that for a long moment.

“I mean, you don’t look like you’re really fit to deal with this right now. I mean I’m sure you could, but maybe—”

“It’s okay. You don’t have to explain to me. I think I will go and at least apologize to him. I owe him that much. Thanks,
Whindsor
.”

Bill nodded.

“And I’ll be back soon.”

“We’ll be here… Maybe not all of us, but we’ll be here.” And with that he saluted to Hank and Hank, unsure how to respond, simply nodded.

They sent him off in the second van with a handwritten address, a pistol, and a stake-gun. He wasn’t quite sure what to think about the stake-gun. He didn’t imagine it could do much against anything more than maybe the ancestor vampires. He set both firearms in the passenger seat and started the van and then drove off for
2515 Franklin Avenue
.

When he arrived, the place was much larger than he expected. But then, who knew how many people they were holing up in the place. Hank took a long look at the firearms and got out of the van, leaving them behind. In the dark the building looked almost dark brown, but as Hank stepped from the van and came closer, he could see it was more of a dark rust color. When he was at the front double doors he found the small rectangular box to the left of the doors and opened it. Neon green numbers sent out an eerie glow from inside. Hank typed in the
keycode
written on his hand. As the door unlatched and he went inside, he quickly wiped the numbers away from his sweaty palm just in case.

One of the soldiers he recognized from the hive sat in a plastic chair leaned back as Hank came inside. He stood and saluted Hank and Hank merely nodded back.

“I’m here to see my son, Toby Evans.”

The soldier began rifling through a thick stack of papers clipped to a clipboard. “Yes, sir…
Uh, yeah, here.
Evans. He’s in room 42B on the second floor. The stairs are over there.” The soldier pointed to the far corner of the huge open room.

“Thanks.”

As Hank made his way up the steps he could smell Toby’s blood and it sickened him to realize that. He was starting to worry that he’d made a mistake, but it wasn’t like the vision so he had to hope that it was safe. When he got to the second floor it took him no time at all to find Toby’s room. He knocked and from inside he heard Toby’s exhausted and defeated voice.

“Come in.”

Hank opened the door and quietly slipped into the room without closing the door. He didn’t want the boy to feel trapped.

Toby was lying on the end of a bed curled up into a ball staring into empty space.

“Son?”

Like night and day, Toby jolted from the bed with a fury. “No, I told you to leave me alone and I meant it.” He pushed Hank back. Hank didn’t resist the boy and he lost his balance and fell into the hallway. A tall man in a white dress shirt, slacks and a tie walked up then, his bald head reflecting the overhead halogen lighting.

“Is something wrong, son?” he asked Toby.

“Yes, tell him to go away, I don’t want to see him,” Toby said.

The man looked down at Hank to speak and Toby took off running down the hall. Hank got up to follow but the tall man grabbed him from behind. “You’ll let him go if you know what’s good for you. If the boy doesn’t want to talk to you, maybe you should leave him alone.”

“He’s my son. I just need to apologize to him.”

The man loosened for a split second and Hank took his chance, He pulled his arms snapping at least one bone in the man’s arms at the same time. The man moaned in pain as Hank took for the stairs to follow after Toby. He hadn’t wanted to hurt the man, but he couldn’t let Toby just run off without letting him know how sorry he truly was.

When he got to the bottom of the stairs a feeling like ice clenched around his heart as he realized he could no longer smell Toby’s scent at all. He raced for the door and ran out into the street calling for him.
“Toby!”
Only his voice echoed back to him at first. Then after he turned the corner, the distant sound of Toby’s heartbeat faded into existence. Hank ran toward the sound. As he rounded another corner the first explosion went off. He could feel the shock wave from it as he fought to keep on his feet still running toward that distant beating heart.

A moment later another explosion shook the ground and the sound of gunfire echoed off the walls and ricocheted in Hank’s brain. Everything was becoming just a little bit too familiar as Hank jogged along the sidewalk. The wind blew a huge cloud of smoke to the east in front of Hank and brought with it the thick familiar smell of sulfur.

Fuck. I’m here
.

Just ahead on the right he could see the alleyway that would forever haunt his dreams.

No. I can’t go this way. I can’t do what I know I’m going to do.

Hank took a deep breath. Something was very wrong. He didn’t want to murder his son, but he was merely steps away from when and where his vision had showed him and he knew just how quickly everything could change in that solitary blink of an eye. He listened for Toby’s heartbeat. It was wild with anger and fear; beating like a fast steady war drum. Tears streamed down Hank’s face and he turned away from the sight of that alley and began to run.

He ran for Toby. He ran for himself. He ran for the future where the two of them would escape together.

* * *

When Simon woke up, the first thing he did was touch his throat. It was mostly healed but still slightly open and stinging badly. He rose to find himself alone in an empty cavern—the Queen’s quarters. He wondered where she was.
If
Ishan
was alive, and what had happened while he was unconscious.
He stepped out into what had been the main cavern of the hive to find the ceiling much rougher and higher and the ground covered in large chunks of rock and stalagmites and stalactites everywhere. In the distance, he could see the crumpled shape of
Ishan
lying still on the ground. He ran to the ancient vampire and tried to turn him over. He wouldn’t budge. His fangs were clamped hard into the throat of that other queen. Her body was shriveled and dry.

It took some prying but Simon was able to pull
Ishan’s
teeth from her and turn his body over. He listened inside the vampire’s head for the sound of firing synapses
Ishan
had long ago taught him to detect. They were there. In fact they were like rockets. He’d never heard synapses firing so quickly. He looked over at the obviously drained queen vampire and thought he understood. Then as he gripped
Ishan’s
hands to drag him away from there, a shock shot from the elder vampire’s skin into Simon’s and he fell to the ground convulsing and burning with pain.

He saw visions of strange faces, a desert, and a large temple he vaguely recognized. When his body was still again and the visions were gone, he took a few deep breaths and looked at
Ishan’s
still body. He was sure now that what he had suspected was in fact happening.
Ishan
was living out the queen vampire’s life and who knew how long such a life had been. Worse yet, who knew how long
Ishan
would be unconscious and what he would experience while under. Would he even be the same person when he awoke?

* * *

A single high-pitched scream ripped through the air and pierced Hank’s heart, nearly sending him crashing face first into the road.
Toby.
The world stopped as Hank turned around and ran the other way, the fire of his breath burning in and out of his lungs and the soles of his feet tearing away at the concrete below. In the mere seconds it took him to recover the ground he had ran the other way, the screams grew more and more anguishing and tortured. There was a gurgling choke at the back of that throat now as it screamed for mercy and Hank running at inhuman speed still couldn’t get there fast enough. His body felt as if it were moving in slow motion, each leg stepping in front of the other, each building taking forever to pass, and then there it was.

The alleyway again.
Hank crossed the street like lightning and in the blink of an eye he could finally see around the corner.

What he saw confused him. Toby’s head lay on the shoulder of a man as if he were comforting the boy. The two were embraced. And then it fell into place.

Toby wasn’t moving.

And Hank would have recognized him anywhere.

His body froze. A flash of lightning blasted through the sky in the distance. It was like Hank was bolted to the road. He could only stand there and watch as Jack Draper pulled Toby’s lifeless body from his shoulder and tossed it into the dumpster like a worthless item of trash to be discarded and forgotten. Jack took a deep breath apparently unaware of Hank’s presence and then fell to the ground laughing and convulsing.

All the
world was a cage at that moment. Everyone who had ever lived was trapped inside an invisible wall of fire that burned every cell in their bodies at the mere thought of moving and yet none of them would have moved regardless. The very moisture in the air hung around Hank like particles of so much blood spread out through a world of hatred and violence and wonder and death and murder and he could do nothing but stand there knowing that he would never hold Toby’s hand again, he would never watch the boy grow to manhood. He would never stand by his son as the boy’s wife walked down the aisle.

He would never hold his child again.

And it was within this daze that Hank mentally collapsed until finally a single sound broke through.
The voice of the thing that had just murdered his son.

“
Oi
, what you
doin
’ there, Henry?
You look like a poor bloke who just watched his own flesh and blood come to an end hanging over a fucking dumpster in the middle of
shitstain
alley.” Jack laughed wildly.

And that was all it took to turn that switch.
Just a few words spoken by the man who had turned the world upside down.
Raindrops began to fall as every pore in Hank’s body screamed out for him to run. Instead he walked, taking each step like the blast of a shotgun into the fiery gut of God himself. Jack watched him with a sly smile across his face and the building rain soaking his hair and streaming down his cheek and around the line of that sharp terrible grin.

The rainwater began to splash under Hank’s feet as he stepped up onto the broken blacktop that made up the alleyway until he came face to face with Draper. The two stared at each other for a long time.
Hank’s face one of contorted, exhausted rage and Jack’s one of sick amused contempt.