Empire of Blood (Book 2): Fading In Darkness (31 page)

Chapter 43

The Sweet Sleep of Oblivion

The Queen was still not accounted for as the remaining vampires flooded into the hive. There was only an hour left before the dawn would come. Jackie had appeared from out of nowhere and embraced Simon. He blushed as he hugged her in return. As much as he didn’t want to lead her to believe that anything could come from it he was glad to see her alive and in fair shape.

“Are you okay?” Jackie asked.

“I’ll be fine. But something’s happened and I need to speak with the Queen. We need her now more than ever and I don’t know where she is.”

“What happened?”

“You can’t tell the others. Not until I find the Queen, okay?”

Jackie nodded.

Simon looked around to make sure the other vampires were occupied and took Jackie’s hand. He led her down a long cavern deep into the belly of the hive. And when they were there he showed her
Ishan’s
body.

“Oh my god.
Is he…”

“No. He’s alive. But remember what I told you about. What happened to me when I drank his blood?”

She nodded.

“
Ishan
drank the blood of the enemy queen.”

 Jackie looked down at the ancient vampire and put her arms around Simon who had no choice but to melt into her embrace. He couldn’t help but think
What if the Queen never comes back?

* * *

In between thick drops of rain a figure in a long dark robe moved with grace and silence through the alleyway until it came to two bodies lying on the ground. The Queen looked down from the black hood, her pale flesh in sharp contrast with an expression of sadness. She whispered, “I wanted to tell you, young one. But you would have changed things. You would have destroyed your destiny. Now when you return from the other side of the fire you will be new. You will be ready.”

She reached down and pulled Hank’s arms from Toby’s lifeless body. Although somewhat conscious, she knew whatever was left of Hank in this cold wet husk was too far gone to really see, hear, or know anything. She lifted him and, wrapping her huge robe around his body, cradled him in her arms before walking away into the wet dark dreariness of the night. Toby’s body lay blue and lifeless and covered in rain behind her.

* * *

It had been days since the Queen returned with Hank. Simon seemed troubled, but had held his tongue as far as Jackie could tell. A shock went through everyone when the Queen told them the news about
Ishan’s
condition. Since then the place had felt like a tomb. Which was all too fitting to Jackie since tonight was the night they would come together and collectively mourn for the dead.
Human and vampire.

At first just a handful of vampires stood in a circle around the fire. Before long more and more arrived and then the
Foederati
joined the circle. And at the back sitting alone, Jackie couldn’t help but watch the man Hank staring into the fire. Simon had told her about the murder of his son. She felt a strange combination of sadness and bloodlust watching him. She was still a fledgling after all and that was perfectly normal, but she was surprised at how sad she was, watching him.

Several of the vampires let out a series of screeches in the ancestor’s tongue in unison until the sounds began to weave together into a strange sort of song. It was dissonant but beautiful. And still Jackie found herself turning back to watch as, with glassy eyes, Hank continued to sit like a statue made of ice.

After a while, the Queen came before them all and spoke in the ancestral tongue about those who had died. And when she was done, the
Foederati
general stood up and talked about many who had died including Hank’s young son, Toby. And then the most interesting part of the ceremony came when the bodies that had been recovered were thrown in the fire and yet again Jackie found herself looking back at Hank. His shoulders twitched as each body went into the fire and began to crackle. Between the sadness and the bloodlust, Jackie was drawn more and more to the man. It made perfect sense. She could take away his suffering and hers.

She rose to her feet and began walking toward him. He paid no attention as she came closer smiling gently. So she sat down next to him and waited. He made no movements and gave no indication that he even knew she was there. Jackie reached out to touch his face when a hand came from nowhere and took hers in a cold hard grip that nearly crushed every bone in her body. Jackie’s heart nearly restarted when she looked up to see the red glaring irises of the Queen.

Leave him. Do not come near him ever again.

An image of the Queen tearing out Jackie’s throat and spraying her blood across the cave walls flashed in Jackie’s mind.
Do you understand?

Jackie nodded.

Of course you do. Now, go.

She wasted no time and went back to where she’d been standing before and tried to make the image of her headless body swinging and spraying gallons of blood in every direction go away.

Chapter 44

Revelation

After what seemed like an eternity of darkness, days, weeks, months, years—Hank wasn’t sure—there came a day when he awoke in his cavern with a realization.

Life was still moving on.

And no matter how much he didn’t want it to, it would never stop just for him. Not without taking it himself. Hank had only ever considered suicide once before. He’d long ago decided it was the easy way out. That no matter how hard life would get, he owed it to those he loved and to himself to keep going. But those days were so far away. And those he truly loved were all gone now. And all that was left was the hollow place where they used to be.

He knew the Queen had been feeding him.
Both human food and her blood to keep him strong.
He couldn’t relish anything anymore. The food, even the Queen’s blood, seemed to have no taste, nothing but empty texture. He tried, but he couldn’t seem to truly find that place he’d went to within himself inside Jack Draper’s memories.
Either it
didn’t exist anymore or it was hidden from him, he wasn’t sure which. But he knew that he had to find it if he were going to live.
Because every day knowing that Toby was dead was like a nightmare within a nightmare that never yielded and never ended.

But today he knew it was time for him to do something. The only thing he had left to do. He’d been dreaming about it for several days. Always in the dream Toby was angry with him. He would scream and kick and punch and cry. And each time he would say the same thing to Hank that he had said that day on the porch when Hank came back from the cemetery.

The words echoed in Hank’s mind even then. He swallowed a dry swallow and got to his feet. When his bags were packed and his mind was as clear as it could be he went out into the main cavern to say his goodbyes. The Queen only watched him as he shook the various hands and hugged and tried to manage some form of smile. The
Foederati
provided him with a small car and a fair sum of money. The latest news was that the war had moved westward and it was mostly safe to travel most places east of
Texas
. Hank had taken this as his cue that now was the time to go.

He started up the car and headed north on what would be a several day trip up I-65. Along the way he came upon many towns and cities he’d seen hundreds of times before. Most of them were now war torn and what was left was merely a shade of its former self.
Southern Indiana
had turned from a desolate nothing to a scorched desolate nothing. Hank hadn’t expected it to be this way. But he’d recently learned that the
Foederati
were spread out throughout the country, so he accepted it for what it was.

When he’d swerved the car onto the exit for 465, he caught sight of the
Indianapolis
skyline. Several of the buildings, ones he hadn’t really paid attention to before, were gone. It looked like something out of a movie. Like some post-apocalyptic city.

An hour later it was all more of the same. Ashen buildings that took Hank’s
breath
away. As he came up on the exit, he took a deep breath and held it for a long moment. He was almost there.
Almost truly home.
He pulled onto State Road 39 and headed north down a long narrow stretch of road. Eventually he came to a modest tan ranch house sitting at the top of a hill with off-white picket fencing. Hank slowed the car and turned into the driveway stretching out alongside the house.

When he got out of the car, the air around him seemed still and empty. A small FOR SALE sign was taped to one of the brown pillars of the porch. Good. The place was empty at least. No one would come snooping around as to why he was here, what he was doing. He walked around the structure until he was faced with a breathtaking forest off in the distance. He walked and he walked. And he walked some more until he came to the edge of the woods.

He knew exactly where it would be. Walking just inside the tree line, Hank counted the trees until he found the one he was looking for. It was a tall thick oak with faint carvings along its base faintly visible from where he stood. Merely 20 paces put him right in front of the huge glorious thing and he couldn’t help but stare up at its intimidating height in anticipation. Then he stepped closer and let his finger trace the outline of the carvings on the tree. It was a large heart with the names Hank and Diana in the center and an arrow through the middle.

When she had carved it, Hank had blushed and laughed and talked about how cheesy it was. But now, looking back, it was breathtaking to behold, even more so to the touch.
To know that her hands had carved out something so beautiful.
Hank wept. He had expected this to be hard but he had no idea just how hard it would be. He couldn’t have. When he was able to breathe again, Hank wandered around to the other side of the huge oak tree. A huge gaping hole filled with leaves sat nearly as high as his shoulders. Hank wiped his tears, dried his hand on his shirt and then reached his arm inside the hole.

It was deep, but it didn’t take long for Hank to find what he was looking for. He pulled his hand out and cleared away the wet bark and wood and leaves that were covering the thing. When he had cleaned it off he held the key up in front of him so the sunlight gleamed against its brass shape.  He smiled in spite of the pain gripping his chest. He would’ve known this key anywhere, just like she had said to Toby. He knew exactly what it was for. He could only hope that what it unlocked was still here.

Gripping the key tightly in his hand, Hank walked up to the back door of the house and tried the knob. It was locked. He put some pressure on the door and it easily gave. A strong familiar scent hit him as he entered the kitchen. It was something in the wood he thought, but he wasn’t completely sure. Some smell about the house that wasn’t unpleasant but had always lingered just underneath everything else. And now that there was nothing else, it was the only smell that remained.

To the left, a narrow stairway led down to the basement. Hank turned and started down the steps. They creaked and moaned as he made his way downward. The place was as musky and dusty as any basement left to its own devices for a long, long time. Random pieces of broken furniture, thick layers of dust and cobwebs decorated the room everywhere Hank looked. Aside from that, the place was just the same as it had been over ten years earlier.

At the end of the room there was a small door along the far wall. Hank opened it and knelt down to reach inside. Spider webs were everywhere, but no matter how much he hated the goddamn things they couldn’t possibly get in his way now.

It took some clearing away of dust and cobwebs, but the small hatch was still there. It had always been there from before they moved in. The landlord had no idea what the extra key that came with the house was for. And while cleaning out the basement one evening Diana had found this little room. It had been blocked by old furniture and board games. It was a small hatch made of wood, and built into the wall. It had a single keyhole at its center. The paint on the hatch was now scratched up and nearly completely chipped away.

Hank took the key from his other hand and held it up again, looking at it.
Taking a moment to breathe before he opened the hatch and found out some terrible secret or something that would make his life even worse than it had already become.
But no.
He couldn’t bring himself to truly believe Diana would leave some terrible secret behind for him to find in such a way. She loved him too much to do that to him.

So, he took the key and inserted it in the keyhole and turned. A thick cloud of dust came up from within the hatch as he pulled it open. When he was finished coughing and able to wave all the dust away and see, the single contents of the hatch stood lonely and inviting. It was some kind of small music box.  Shaped and sculpted to look like a treasure chest, complete with gold colored hardware and weathered wood.

Hank turned the single notch that held it shut and lifted the lid. Inside was a small vial covered in condensation to the point that its contents were completely hidden. Underneath was a small piece of paper. Hank took the paper out from under the vial with shaking hands and unfolded it. Written in Diana’s soft beautiful handwriting was only one word.

Drink.

Hank took the vial and opened it. It was the strangest thing, the vial was some how refrigerating itself. He didn’t know such a thing was possible. But then again, after all he’d seen, he wasn’t really all that surprised. When the lid was removed he didn’t even have to look to see what was inside, he could smell it.
Blood.
A million possibilities swirled through Hank’s mind. But he was done waiting. He put the vial to his lips, tipped back his head and swallowed. And once again reality around him seemed to swim away leaving only someone else’s senses of an entire other time and place.

It hurt where he was. It hurt all over. It hurt physically in ways Hank had never endured. And he knew immediately between the pain and the blurry white walls that were surrounding him that this was a memory of Diana’s. Eventually the walls came into focus and so did the man’s face who was sitting at her side. It was no one Hank had ever seen in his life.

“But I have to tell him!”

“I’m sorry, Diana, but you can’t. Not yet. If he finds out now, the Emperor will know.” The man sighed. “And besides, he won’t be able to deal with it on top of… well, on top of your condition.”

“On top of the fact that I’ll be dead.
I get that, I understand, but I can’t just keep him in the dark.”

“Don’t worry,
It
will be fine. Like I said, just concentrate on the memory and when I take your blood, Hank will be able to know.”

“But I don’t understand. How
will my blood
—“

“I know it’s hard to understand, Diana, but haven’t I already proven myself to you?”

“Yes, but—“

“Then listen. There’s not much time. Just do as I say and Hank will know when the time is right.”

The vision seemed to fade in a strange way Hank had never experienced. Then it seemed to turn upside down and shift. And he realized he was seeing things that Diana was remembering at that moment while she was with the mysterious man in the hospital room that she eventually died in.

Hank saw different moments—places where and when this man had come to Diana before. He frightened her, made her feel weak. But not out of intimidation, simply by the things he could do. He had strength unlike anything remotely human and he could see things.
The future.
She was at the door, the chain held it from opening any further as he whispered to her from outside.

“Diana, I’m telling you,
it’s
cancer. It’s inoperable. There’s nothing they’ll be able to do about it. I need you to trust me on this.”

“No. Get out, Roger. I’ve had enough of your bullshit. If you don’t stop coming around, I’m going to tell Hank.”

Another flash and tumble and Diana
was
in
Eagle
Creek
Park
on a chilly autumn day. She was sitting at a small bench when the man she had called Roger came up and sat next to her. She had been weeping, tears rolling down her cheeks and Hank longed to reach up and wipe them for her as he watched the scene through her eyes.

“You were right. You were goddamn right. You motherfucker, you were right.”

“I’m sorry, Diana. I didn’t want to have to prove it to you this way. But I had no choice. Hank’s life depends on it. Toby’s life depends on it. Hell, the whole goddamn future depends on it.” The mention of Toby’s life left a stabbing in Hank’s heart.

“Okay, I’m ready to hear it.
All of it.
Go ahead and tell me,” Diana said.

“The Emperor isn’t human. It’s a long story, but the man isn’t one of us, he’s just not. He’s been alive for centuries. I think he’s some kind of vampire. I don’t know. He’s been living lives like pairs of socks. He moves from place to place, century to century, changes his name and moves on. Anyway, about a hundred years ago or so, he got sloppy. He got a human pregnant.”