Parasite ; Sleeper Cells ; Kingdoms of the Dead

by Ian Woodhead

  The sudden chance in the vampire’s posture startled even her. Amulius lunged forward, his gums split open and huge pointed teeth filled his huge mouth. She sighed with relief when he tore through the side of the man’s throat, guzzling down the torrent of blood gushing from the wound. Darlene looked down at the lifeless lump of flesh beside her feet and wished that she hadn’t been so violent.

  “It is like a forgotten nectar,” said Amulius, rising to his face. He stooped down, picked up the still bleeding body, and dumped it on top of the counter.” Perhaps I should have listened to you earlier,” Amulius said, wiping his mouth. He laid the body’s arms by his side and chuckled. “Oh, what delights this bright world has to offer!”

  “Are you alright?”

  He rushed over to Darlene and threw his arms around her body. “I have never felt better.” The vampire looked over her shoulder. “That was a waste though.”

  “Amulius, will you tell me, what’s happened to you. I thought you were about to die a few seconds ago.”

  “It’s the blood, my wife. The stuff flowing through his veins is so rich, unlike that watery stuff that I used to feed upon back before the great sleep. The cows really have got fat.” He pulled her over to the door that led to the main weight room. “Come, I need more.” Amulius opened the door and glanced back at the man that he’d left on the top. It will take his body just a few minutes to change, enough time for us to finish this.”

  He ran into the room. Darlene gasped at how fast he moved. The vampire crossed the space between the door and the first treadmill in a blink of an eye, diving on a young blonde woman, she hadn’t even noticed until it was too late. He pulled her to the floor and bit into the side of her neck before he was up, in search of his next victim.

  Darlene saw that the dozen or so people in this room had only just started to realise that something was seriously wrong. It wasn’t until Amulius had allowed his third victim to scream out when the remaining people all stopped their activities and ran en-mass towards the door. She targeted a huge six foot middle-aged man, waiting for him to get close enough for her to leap on him. Darlene ran her fingers through his grey crew-cut hair then bit into his neck, rolling off him as he dropped to the floor. She looked up and saw a young woman, just a couple of years younger than herself running towards her. Darlene grabbed her loose top as she passed, then threw her at the panicking crowd, all trying to get through the door at the same time.

  The flying body took down all but one man who had succeeding in squeezing through the tight bodies. Darlene flew after him, pushing away the other dazed men and women. She ran through the open door and dived onto his back. Her sudden weight caused him to stumble. She wasted no time in sinking her teeth into his flesh. This time though, Darlene drank deep, enjoying the taste of his blood as it filled her mouth.

  “You need to watch this, my wife.”

  She stood up and walked over to Amulius as he finished biting the last human. He walked back into the lobby and gently placed his hand upon the chest of the man lying on the counter. “We have just made seven others in our shape, Darlene. Each of these seven new vampires has within them, the potential to end your life. We have to ensure that does not happen.”

  Amulius opened the jaws of the motionless mouth, Amulius then held his wrist over his mouth and used one of his pointed fingernails to cut a deep line through the flesh, a few inches from the heel. Several drops of deep red blood dropped into the man’s mouth before the wound closed up.

  “Listen to me,” snarled Amulius. “You are the First Son of the Deathgazer Clan. The vampires sleeping in this room are your children. Protect them, keep them safe and ensure they obey me at all times. Their misdemeanours are your misdemeanours. Keep them under control and you will be rewarded. Displease me and your children will feast upon your flesh.”

  He spun around, laughed then grabbed her wrist. “We now have our first children, Darlene.” The vampire pulled her into his embrace and ran his long fingers up her inner thigh. “Now, while the First Son is tutoring the other, we should find them some meat. They will be very hungry when they awaken.”

  She growled in annoyance. “No, all that can wait, Amulius. I need you to give me your meat. I can’t wait any longer.”

  “Yes can my wife and you will.” He threw his head back and laughed. “But only for a moment.” He grabbed her shoulders and dug his nails into her flesh. “Can you not sense the blood, Darlene? One of our enemies is right outside. There is a Swarmer in our midst.” Amulius ran over to the door. “Our children will have vampire blood for their first meal!”

  Darlene ran over to him and followed Amulius out of the door and stopped dead in her tracks, gazing in utter shock at the sight of her only daughter sitting on the bonnet of a Land Rover. She looked up at Darlene, not in the least bit surprised to see her mother here.

  Elsie slid off the bonnet of the vehicle and walked up to Amulius while keeping her gave fixed on her mother. “I blame you for my condition. My whole fucking life had been torn apart and it’s your fault.” She stopped before the great vampire and looked up and down his thick body. “So, I see my mother has a lover?” Elsie unfastened her blouse and allowed it to fall to the floor then threw her arms around Amulius.

  Darlene screamed and ran forward, then found herself crashing into the side of the building when Amulius lashed out with his powerful arm.

  “You can wait until I am finished with her,” he snarled.

  Chapter Eight

  The scene in front of him just didn’t make an ounce of sense to Cade. If his mouth dropped any further towards the floor, he’d be scooping up the discarded cigarette butts littering the pavement. The bunch of giggling teenage girls leaning against the window of the takeaway hadn’t noticed Cade standing behind a parked up silver estate car. Their gazes were all staring through the window, at a small group of teenage boys, arguing with an Asian guy behind the counter. “It all looks so normal,” he whispered.

  Cade looked behind him, at Katy peering around the corning of the travel agents. She shrugged.

  “Did you expect to find dozens more dried up bodies, scattered across the road?” she joined him behind the car, keeping her head below the roof. “Cade, come on, what do we do now?”

  He listened to the girl’s harsh laughter, watching them tap on the glass. Cade always tried to keep his distance from this type of crowd. His appearance always brought out the worst in all of them. He sneaked a glance at the girl, realising that she would have fit right in with that lot, currently giving that poor shop worker a hard time. Even so, Cade still felt that it was his duty to go warn them, and beg those kids to go and lost themselves in a large crowd.

  “My agenda hasn’t altered, Katy. I’m going to find those evil fuckers and end their existence. They killed my mother. I can’t allow them to take another life.”

  She turned away from watching the others through the car window. “That’s great, it really is, Cade. The only question is how? We have no idea where they are now.”

  He shrugged. “I know that I don’t have all the answers. I guess we keep walking through the town until my birthmark starts to itch, I suppose.” Even to his ears, that sounded lame.

  “Are you sure that’s a good idea, Cade? I mean, it didn’t itch when you walked into your house.”

  Was this girl even paying attention to him? He’d already explained the difference between the two clans. The image of his mate, Damien suddenly filled his thoughts. Oh hell, in all the turbulence, Cade had forgotten all about him and his sister. They had the same mark, the same brand as him. He dropped to the floor and dug out his phone.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Ringing up a mate,” he answered, punching in Damien’s number and holding the phone to his ear. His aunt lived a few miles out of the town; Cade reckoned that they should be safe out there. He sighed when the phone dropped onto Damien’s answering message. He pushed the phone back into his pocket without leaving a reply. It might be a goo
d idea to make their way over there. Cade looked at the girl beside, he’d be better company than this chav.

  Katy slid her fingers into his and squeezed. Cade felt the guilt of dismissing the girl crawl through his system, god, he could be such a twat. This chav had saved his life, for crying out loud. “Come on, let’s get moving.” He stood up and walked around the car then stopped dead when he saw that she had not moved an inch. “What are you doing?”

  “I can’t go out there!” she hissed. “Those girls know me.”

  It took him a couple of seconds to understand her meaning. Cade could not believe that he was hearing this. He marched up to her, resisting the urge to grab the front of Katy’s blouse and shake some sense into the girl. “Are you having a bloody laugh here?” he growled. “After all that we’ve been through, you’re still concerned about your social standing?”

  “I’m sorry; I didn’t mean it to sound like that. I…”

  Cade spun around and marched away from her, crossing the road and heading towards a taxi rank. Her words had cut him deep. He honestly thought that there was something special between them. Hell, he should have known better. Despite everything that that had been through tonight, deep down, that girl would never change from being a shallow, idiotic and selfish little girl. The chances were that if their paths had not met, Katy would be with those other morons, outside that kebab shop tonight.

  “Please don’t leave me here!”

  He had every intention of doing exactly that. Cade should have stuck to his own kind. It shouldn’t take him long to get up to Damien’s aunt. If the taxis were still running that is.

  Just before he reached the taxi rank, Cade turned around and saw Katy approaching the other girls. He sighed, wondering how long it would take her to point him out, after telling them all some stupid lie about him following her there or something. Cade forced back the hot tears of betrayal. He was such an idiot for going with her in the first place. He should have known better.

  “Fuck them all,” he said. “You don’t need them, you certainly don’t need her.” He leaned against the lamppost and closed his eyes, gasping in shock when the bestial image of his mother filled his vision. Cade shook his head and groaned when his arm started to itch again. “Oh no,” he said. The shadows across the road from the takeaway grew darker and he watched two uniformed figures step out from behind a large van. They were the three men taken from that police car earlier. Cade didn’t need his irritating birthmark to supply him with that information. Cade could tell they were vampires just by the way they moved. Each one appeared to waver like ghosts across that road.

  He saw that the girls outside the shop had already spotted them and were now banging on the glass. Cade thought that they must have already guessed what they were until he saw them all spin around and waving at the approaching vampires, smiling and giggling. Even Katy had joined in. Could she not see through their masquerade?

  He jumped a mile when he heard the noise of a car engine approach. The car stopped beside him and the driver wound down the window.

  “Where do you want to go, buddy?”

  He shook his head and raced around the front of the taxi. “Get yourself home as fast as you can,” he said urgently, to the middle-aged man staring back at him. “Bundle your family inside your car and just get the fuck out of town!” Cade turned and ran back over the road, watching the three figures get closer to the girls.

  “Don’t just stand there, Katy!” he screamed. “Get them all inside. “Can’t you see what they are?”

  Her face changed to horror when the three vampires crouched and hissed at Cade. He watched her finally get his message and push the complaining girls into the shop. The three vampires changed direction when the shop door slammed shut. They now ran towards Cade.

  “What the fuck is going on here?”

  He turned around and yelped when the taxi driver grabbed him in a bear hug.

  “I know your game, sonny. What the fuck have you been up to, stealing cars, I bet.” The man looked over Cade’s shoulder. “Probably something worse, judging by the looks of those three coppers.”

  “Will you get off me, you idiot!” he screamed. The imagined pain coming from those three sets of razor sharp teeth cutting into his neck gave him the energy he so craved. “I’m so sorry,” he said. “You should have listened.” Cade brought his knee up hard, feeling it slam into the taxi driver’s testicles. He released his grip and fell to the floor, groaning in agony.

  Cade jumped over the man and easily dodged the approaching vampires, he guessed that the man on the floor had distracted them, he was no longer their main target. He felt like the biggest coward on the planet for playing such a fucking dirty trick on the man but what else could he have done. It wasn’t his fault that the taxi driver didn’t listen.

  Cade reached the takeaway and banged on the window, seeing all their faces pressed against the glass. They were all staring in disbelief at the sight of those policemen ripping into the poor man.

  He watched the shop worker rush over to the door. Cade swallowed away here frustration, still not believing that he had pulled such a cunt’s trick in order to save his own worthless life. As if anyone would listen to him, demanding that they leave town like that.

  The door opened and he almost fell back outside when Katy ran into his arms.

  “Oh my fucking God, Cade.” She sobbed. “I’m so sorry. I really didn’t mean any of what I said.”

  Cade held her tight against his body, feeling her rapidly beating heart against his ribs. He watched a thin youth, sporting a blonde razor-cut, dressed in full denim take one more look outside before he glared at Cade.

  “Are you going to tell me who the fuck you are, what is going on and why are you touching up my mate’s girlfriend?”

  “Shut the fuck up, Darren!” yelled. Katy. “You wouldn’t understand, even if I drew it out in crayon for you.”

  The shop worker bolted the door and ran over to the phone. Cade listened to him shout across at his fellow workers in the kitchen. He had no idea what was being said but judging from the panic in all their voices, it wasn’t good. The shop worker glanced out of the window before staring at Cade.

  “Real police don’t do that,” said the shop worker. He ran back over to the counter, ducked under it, and ran through the kitchen.

  He hurried over to the one whom Katy and called Darren and grabbed the front of his jacket. “Now you listen to me, young man. Those things out there will eat you.” He pushed him over to the opening that led into the kitchen. “Your Asian friends have already made a run for it. I suggest you and your little friends do the same.”

  “They’re coming over here!” said a young dark haired girl. “What are we going to do now?”

  Darren took the panicking girl’s hand then pulled her into the kitchen. “Do what he says, you clown!”

  Cade watched them all disappear into the next room. He saw the vampires stopped right outside the door and try the handle. He winked at them and showed them a single finger, laughing as they all roared back at him.

  “Shouldn’t we be following the others?”

  He chuckled and nodded, “Why? It’s not like they’ll come in here now, is it!” He pointed up at the huge plastic menu hung above their heads. He then pulled her into the kitchen and walked over to an aluminium container half full of brown powder. Cade dipped his hand into it and crumbled the stuff between his fingers. “Just look at their faces, Katy. I bet they all know garlic when they see it.” He watched them all turn and disappear into the night. “I thought so. I know of a couple of coppers that frequent the Hellraiser nightclub on the other side of town. They once told me that most of the station coppers live out of takeaway boxes, on and off duty.”

  Katy ran passed him and peered into the next room. “The others have gone.”

  “I just hope that, unlike that taxi driver, they do the wise thing and get the fuck out of the town.”

  Cade spotted a large cleaver hung on the me
tal wall; he wiped the garlic off his hands then walked over and lifted it off the wall. He picked a tomato out of a Tupperware dish, placed it on the chopping board in front of him and slammed the cleaver down, watching the razor sharp blade slice the fruit cleanly in half.

  “You can’t be serious, Cade.”

  “Of course I am,” he said, grinning at the girl. “We need to tool up.”

  “Yeah, but, are you honestly going to tell me that you could bury that blade into somebody’s neck?” She frowned. “Tomatoes don’t bleed, Cade.”

  He shrugged then tucked the cleaver into his belt, before walking up the Katy. “I’m so sorry,” he said.

  She sighed. “No, it’s me who should be apologising, sweetheart; I acted like a complete arsehole.” Katy brushed her fingers through his long hair. “I don’t always think before I open my gob, Cade.” She looked over at the kitchen doorway. “I know that none of my so-called mates would have risked their neck to come back to save me. That includes my now ex-boyfriend.”

  Cade kissed her gently. “You wouldn’t be saying that if you had heard my thoughts after I’d left you.”

  She giggled. “I bet you called me a right load of shitty names. It doesn’t matter though. I was still in the wrong.” Katy smiled. “Do you feel good about helping that lot get away?”

  Thanks to his actions, those people in this shop had not suffered the same fate as that taxi driver. Maybe the more he saved, the crushing burden of guilt for allowing that man to lose his life would ease? Cade wasn’t that naïve, he did know that he wasn’t directly responsible for his death, just as he wouldn’t have been able to save his mum.

  Katy suddenly leaned forward and kissed him. “Don’t blame yourself, Hun?”

  He pulled her back. “How did you know what I was thinking about?”