by Ian Woodhead
She stared into the girl’s eyes, trying to find any untruth in her words. All she heard was quiet desperation. The other cages were very quiet, she knew that they could all hear the exchange of words. Freya also knew that despite what her feelings told her, there could be no possibility of her releasing the child. Even her status would not protect Freya from the wrath of the dwellers. Freya closed her eyes and suppressed a sob. She could not walk away and leave that girl in there, her conscience would not allow it.
“Listen to me,” she whispered. “Take this key, go lie back down and wait until the others have lost interest. If they see you unlocking the door, they will raise the alarm.”
As she turned around, the woman gasped in surprise at the sight of the five collectors stood at the end of the compound, with her husband stood behind them. Instinctively, she backed towards the cage, watching them approach. The looks upon their grim faces told her everything she needed to know.
“Did I not tell you!” giggled one of the collectors. “She is planning to let them all out. Just look at the male tribune. She has already been inside their cages. Your wife never leaves them alone.”
Her enforcer pushed past the men and strolled between the rows of cages, his eyes not leaving hers. “Should I even be surprised, Freya?” He ran up to her, raised his arm and slapped the woman’s left cheek. The force slammed her body into the cage.
“It is all lies!” she cried out, feeling hot blood drip from her split lips. “Those wolves do not care about the future of out settlement. As soon as the masters arrive, they will flee into the wilderness.”
“Now, you really are allowing your lying tongue to vomit fiction. The master would have stripped out settlement weeks ago if it wasn’t for them bringing in much needed tribune.” The large man pressed his face against the bars. “Little girl, I do have a present for you.” He took out a green apple from within his deep pockets. He turned and smiled at Freya. “The dice were kind to me, last night.”
She tore her eyes away from his stare and saw the girl reach towards the offered prize. “No,” she whispered.
He pushed her away from the cage, when she tried to get up, she found the collectors holding her down. Freya watched the girl slowly close the gap between her and the nodding man. His hand snapped forward and his fingers managed to grab the girl’s hair. The small key fell from her fingers and clattered onto the dirty floor when the enforcer slammed her hand into the bars.
“Looks like I owe you an apology,” he said smiling at the collectors. “Freya, I have enjoyed our time together but, the safety of the settlement must come before my needs. The First Father himself is coming to inspect the tribune tonight. Perhaps your addition will persuade him from stripping the settlement bare.”
Freya looked down at the broken child, watching thick grey liquid seep from her broken skull. “You are an evil man,” she spat. “I hope that the First Father eats out your black heart.”
The enforcer chuckled and moved away from the gate. He stooped down and picked up the key. “I think the only thing he will be eating out is you, my lustful but unfaithful wife.” He unlocked the door. “Amulius is going to be most happy with my tribune.”
***
The sudden movement jerked her awake. Darlene shook her head, watching that pivotal moment from her past life fade like old smoke. She took in a lungful of warm night air and gazed into the First Father’s crimson eyes. That was so vivid,” she murmured. “It felt as though I was actually re-living the event.”
He shrugged his great shoulders. “The time before my first bite has started to unfold. These memories built up your inner core, they helped to govern how you lived your many lives after I had to leave you, Freya.”
She smiled and ran her nail down his cheek. “Call me Darlene now. It’s the name I prefer.” It did feel strange to hear her old name fall from his lips. She realised now that, the name just didn’t belong to her anymore. “You still haven’t told me why you slept for so long, Amulius.”
It was not my intention to…” The great vampire blinked then slowly ran his thick tongue over his teeth, before chuckling. “Okay, I shall call you by that name, if, it pleases you. Darlene, I did not intend to sleep for all the countless sun-ups. Like the bear, our clan would only hibernate until our food supply had time to replenish. It would have taken just a few human generations for the beasts to refill the land.”
Darlene leaned back and watched an aircraft passed overhead, the light blinking regularly across the night sky. She turned her head and gazed at the back of her house, wondering if her true husband knew just how the human had filled the land, evidence of their work lie everywhere. She wasn’t sure if this ancient creature realised just what marvels that his prey had conceived of in the eons that he had slept. She feared that he wouldn’t adapt and underestimate them.
It wasn’t just the vampire who craved violence. Darlene closed her eyes, completely aware that she now considered herself a fellow vampire, a separate species to the human. She would just have to help her husband to adapt. One fact did stand out, their former meals would not be happy for their masters to try and impose authority.
“I just wish that, like that bear, my sleep was peaceful, Darlene.” He whispered. “My enemy could not afford to allow me to wake first. He took the extreme measure of invading my home. He and his surviving filthy clan had the impertinence to fall into my own sleeping pit.”
“I don’t understand. He had you. Why did he not put an end to you right there?”
Amulius shook his head. The time to fight had passed us by. Our only concern was to protect our bodies before the long sleep took us. Darlene, the mystics had activated the cycle. All vampires were to hibernate. There could be no exceptions. We were down to our last few, Darlene. Why do I need to explain this? You were there.”
She remembered wandering through blasted landscapes, the air thick with the stench of sour vampire blood and torn flesh. The scavengers were many, everyone fighting for the pitiful remains of what little human meat, they could find, buried under the mountains of inedible, infected undead flesh.
It took Darlene many weeks to actually find another living human survivor. “There were very little of anything left once the vampires had gone to sleep.”
He shrugged, “There were enough were left alive to allow the beast to recover enough to breed. We weren’t stupid enough to completely destroy our favourite food source. Also, if we killed them all, how would we ever awaken? Scattered amongst the beasts were others, like you, Darlene, who carried my mark. I was not the only one, my enemy had employed the same tactic.”
She looked at him sharply, unsure of what this meant. “I thought I was the only one, Amulius. Now, you announce that you have other wives?”
“Do you not know anything? Once we sleep, the only substance that will wake us from our slumber is the blood of a human that carries the Clan’s mark. I spent all those years, locked in a mental struggle with my enemy, each one trying to lure our respective thralls over to the well.” He sighed. “My enemy believed that if he slept beside me, his influence would be stronger. If appears that he was correct.”
The great vampire rose and pulled Darlene off the ground. “It matters not,” he growled, wrapping his thick arms around her waist. “The past is the past. We live for the moment and right now, this Clan needs new blood.”
Darlene nodded, smiling at him. She sensed Amulius trying to gain access to her secret thoughts, just a tentative brush, but it was there, looking for some tiny crack so he could gain full entry. “Make love to me, my beautiful husband,” she begged, brushing her hand over his crotch. There was only one part of her body that she would allow Amulius to enter.
His probe recoiled like a startled snail shrinking into its shell. Not that he had any hope of creaking into her mind. Paul was right; her mental powers were greater than his. Her husband had not told her everything. How did he wake? She felt him stiffen beneath her expert fingers. Darlene chuckled when a tiny groan
escaped from her mouth. Perhaps, she shouldn’t be so harsh. After all, Darlene still hadn’t explained about her two children, that she wasn’t as infertile as she first believed. She wasn’t sure how the vampire would react to this stunning revelation.
“As much as I want you, my immediate concerns are more pressing.” He took her hand away and kissed it. “Food is abundant.” He flared his nostrils. “I can sense those filthy things amongst the herd, Darlene, but they have taken very little food.” The First Father frowned. “This does not make any sense, it was against their whole ideal. Why do they not swarm?”
She took his hands. “Look around you, my husband. The humans have not changed that much since out time. Only it’s other humans who have protected them from harm. Don’t compare these peaceful beasts to the cows in the fields. Their guardians will bite back and their weapons make the Swarmer flesh dragons look like drugged rabbits.”
He sighed. “Darlene, I am aware of how they have taken the materials around them and moulded it to suit their purpose.”
“Then why doesn’t it make sense to you?” she snapped. “If those things did follow their primal instincts and swarm, the authorities would have this town under a lockdown within an hour. The army would come in with helicopters and tanks and soldiers, carrying very big guns. They wouldn’t stand a chance.”
“It does not make sense to me, Darlene because I have never credited their First Father with that much amount of forward planning.”
Darlene kept her mouth shut, she didn’t think that reminding him that apart from her, none of his other clan members had survived. “If food is abundant, then why are we in my back garden, looking up at the stars? You’ve already told me that while they haven’t tried to convert the whole town in one night, they have at least made some of the locals into their own kind.”
An alien emotion briefly passed across his face before the man’s scowl returned. Darlene blinked, not completely sure that she’d seen him look so hesitant. He stormed over to the back door, scooped something off the floor and returned to her location.
“What does this say?” he demanded, thrusting a torn piece of paper into her hands.
Darlene uncrumpled it and looked, in confusion at a full-page advert for some protein supplement to add to milk. “Amulius, I don’t understand, it’s just an advertisement. They’re trying to sell something that’s supposed to build up you muscles. Why do you look so distressed?”
“And why do you even ask me that question, Darlene? Have you any concept of our lineage? I am the last of the Deathgazers. I can trace my blood back to the first vampire. I am pure, I am undiluted.” He dropped to the ground and drew his legs up. All I see around me are uncountable hordes of mongrel humans.” He reached over and snatched the paper from her hands. “Nothing is what it seems here. You tell me that this human has taken some kind of potion to make him look like a prince? How am I supposed to recruit an army of vampires, when the food hides inside false bodies?”
“Welcome to the future, my husband. I do feel your pain. Such vast expanses of food and you have no idea where to start?”
He shook his head and sighed loudly. “We live for such a long time, Darlene. I cannot allow myself to choose the wrong specimens for fear that somewhere in the far future, my poor decisions will turn against me.”
She picked him off the floor and kissed him. “Amulius, if you don’t recruit tonight, you won’t have a future.” Darlene dragged him over to the back door. “Come on; let me be your guide.” Her own blood began to pleasantly boil as she looked at the smiling hunk holding the tub of protein powder against his toned chest and giggled quietly before she screwed up the paper and tossed it into the garden. Darlene knew exactly where to take her husband.
Darlene pulled him across her lawn, looked to her left and spotted one of her neighbours leaning out of the window and openly staring at the pair as they scaled the high wooden fence that separated her property from a stretch of derelict land. It wouldn’t surprise Darlene if the nosy bitch had taken a few pictures on her phone as well. She landed in the knee-high weeds and turned around, watching her close the bedroom window. She decided there and then that woman would be getting a visit from her, later on tonight.
“What amuses you?”
She shrugged and took hold of his hand. “Oh nothing,” she replied grinning up at his confused features. “I think that it’s just taking more time than I thought to adjust to what I have become.” Darlene led him through the rubbish strewn ground, listening to him emit the occasional growl, followed by a sigh. “Are you okay?”
He shook his head. “I do not enjoy this place, Darlene. It is too crowded, My observations have shown me that the beasts are changing into vermin. Their filth is everywhere. They remind me of Swarmers too much.” He squeezed her hand tight. “I fear that their foulness will infect me when I feed.”
The white glow from the streetlights reflected from his wan face. Darlene jerked to a halt, spun Amulius and slammed his back into the fence overlooking the back of the shops in the town’s main shopping parade. “Wait, are you telling me that you have not tasted since awakening?”
The vampire took his time to nod. “I tracked down the remaining thrall and sipped from her but I have yet to feed, I mean properly feed.” He sighed again and gazed down at his feet. “I have not found a beast that does not disgust me, Darlene. I would rather die than to allow their foul blood to contaminate me.”
Darlene took a step back to look at him, was he serious? “Is it that important to you? I thought that blood was just blood.”
“Blood is the life, Darlene, it is also death. My death would last another thousand years if I willingly took inferior blood.” He squeezed his hands tight. “Take me to where you are leading me, my wife. Perhaps I will find what I seek there, although I doubt it.”
The blood that she took from Paul still flowed through her, she couldn’t understand his reluctance to feed. Darlene thought that after spending such a long time cooped up inside a well, without feeding, he would have rampaged through the town by now. She thought that if she was in his place, Darlene might have down that and damn the consequences. Darlene nodded to herself, deciding that he would soon drop this melancholy feeling once he saw where he was taking him.
She ran over to the fence and jumped up, climbing over the barbed wire running along the top with ease. Darlene so loved how her body responded to her desires now. She felt more alive now than at any time throughout all of her previous lives. Darlene ran through along the top of the brick wall and leaped into the corner of a carpark. She giggled at the sight of Amulius struggling to keep up. He managed to pull his bulk onto the wall then jumped down falling into the side of a red sports car. The grin slipped off her face. “Are you alright?”
He sighed again. “Perhaps I have been too hard on myself,” he whispered. “Perhaps I should have fed.”
She lifted him up, threw his arm over her shoulder and dragged the groaning vampire towards the large glass building at the front of the carpark.
“Where are you taking me, Darlene?”
“What is wrong with you, Amulius? I just don’t understand why you’re allowing your body to perish.” Darlene had no trouble in carrying the vampire over to the entrance of the building. She leaned him against the wall, getting very concerned over the speed of his deterioration. She believed that even in the last few minutes, his body mass had shrunk, was that even possible?
“I’ve already explained,” he slurred.
Darlene carried him through the double doors, blinking at the harsh white light that blasted away their shadows. Amulius hissed before covering his eyes. She gazed over at the checking-in desk, and in particular at the two large men behind the counter, both deep in conversation over food nutrition. Perhaps her husband wasn’t alone after all with the obsession of keep toxins out of their bodies.
She sat him down upon a plastic chair, groaning in annoyance as he just slid onto the floor.
“I’m sorr
y, miss,” announced a young twenty-something, dark haired man. He glanced over at his older colleague. Who sighed dramatically. “But this is a member’s only club.” The man leaned over the glass counter. “And I don’t recognise either of you.”
“It doesn’t matter,” she said, smiling at the other man, his wavy blonde hair hid such a defined face. She judged him to be in his early thirties and he certainly knew how to take care of that gorgeous looking body. Darlene approached the desk, looking at both of them one by one, deciding which one to choose. She leaned to one side and saw the gym behind them wasn’t that full tonight but, Darlene still guessed that there was enough flesh in there to keep her husband happy for quite some time.
“Seriously, miss,” said the dark-haired man. “I really must insist that you leave.”
As far as she was concerned, his speech had just sealed his fate. “What if we wanted to join up?” she asked, grinning, watching some of his bluster vanish when he saw her large teeth. Darlene whipped out her arm and wrapped her fingers around his throat. Before the other employee had time to react, she lifted the struggling man off his feet, pulled him over the top and threw him hard. His body slammed into the concrete wall, beside the front doors and slid to the floor in a boneless heap. Darlene didn’t need to check the body to know that the impudent fool had said his last words.
She grabbed the other man by the arm and pulled him towards her. “Don’t struggle so, much,” she whispered. “You don’t want to end up like your buddy.” Darlene cracked his head into the counter when his struggles became troublesome. The blow knocked most of the fight out of his body. She sighed, gazing in desire at the pulse vein running across his neck. Darlene couldn’t stop herself from opening her mouth and sinking her fangs into his flesh.
Her husband’s quiet groan pushed through her own desire, reminding her of what she needed to do. Darlene pulled the man over to where her husband lay and rested the young man’s head on the vampire’s chest, then pushed two fingers into his wounds and hooked them before yanking them back out, his flesh ripped open and a torrent of warm blood spurted over Amulius’s cheeks.