Parasite ; Sleeper Cells ; Kingdoms of the Dead

by Ian Woodhead

  Cade turned to look at Katy and saw her gaze was somewhere else. He saw two dark blue cars parked on the opposite side of the road. He was sure that they weren’t there earlier. The girl shivered.

  “Are you okay?”

  “Just turn around, Cade. Oh hell!” She grabbed the wrist of his jacket and pulled him away from the building. “Run!”

  He just managed to keep up to Katy’s pace as she raced down the empty street, her burst of speed surprised the hell out of him. He thought he was fast. Cade tried to grab the back of her jacket and jerk her to a stop. He just couldn’t believe that after everything that they had been through, she was fleeing from some idiots in cars, no way could they be that scary. Katy glanced over her shoulder and gasped, her face was full of terror. He heard the car engines start up.

  Katy put on another burst of speed then ran around the corner of a large department store. There was still nobody about. The two cars were right behind them. Cade followed Katy through a set of sliding doors that led into the town’s bus station. Just like the rest of the town, Cade saw nobody about, not even any of the ever present security guards were in their usual spots. This just didn’t feel right.

  The image of all the other town’s people, slumbering in dark places, hidden from the sun, just wouldn’t leave his mind. He shook his head, no, that was one thought that he refused to entertain. It was just really early, that’s all.

  Katy was already at the other side of the station, peering through the glass doors that led into the bus station’s carpark. She didn’t appear to be too eager to leave. He spun around at the sound of car doors slamming shut. Two men must have seen them enter the bus station and were quickly making their way towards the doors. Cade leaned against a metal locker and watched them approach.

  After what he had been through, so far, Cade point blank refused to let a couple of goons intimidate him. They reached the entrance and he now saw them in glorious detail. Cade inwardly groaned, He knew the pair of them. Not that was much of a shock, their town wasn’t that large, not many folk was strangers to each other, especially ones with reputations.

  They were just a couple of years older than Cade. He remembered them from school, even back then the bastards were born with bad bones. Adrian Lloyd and Steven Lloyd used to fancy themselves as a pair of small town Kray twins. They used to terrorize him and his fellow metal loving pals, keeping up with the persecution all the way up until the pair of losers left to join the dole queue. Cade grinned to himself and clenched his fists, that was a few years ago and time plus the regular workout at the gym had turned that geeky thin long-haired boy into a bloke who doesn’t run from anyone, least of all two old school bullies.

  They had seen him, he enjoyed their expressions change from glare to shock. He guessed that they recognised him too, and that he had put on quite a bit of muscle since their last encounter. He nodded at them, He was so going to enjoy this. Cade took one step towards them then stopped dead. He glanced back and found out, to his horror, that the other pursuers must have slipped in through the other entrance.

  What scared him more than anything was that Katy was actually talking to them, she didn’t seem to be in the least bit distressed. “What the hell is going on?” The two men rushed passed him, giving Cade the briefest of glances. He followed them, getting more and more confused.

  He shouted out when they grabbed her arms and pulled Katy through the sliding doors. Cade raced over and found his way blocked when the twins both pulled out pistols from inside their jackets. “You have got to be fucking kidding me,” he growled.

  Through the window, he watched one of the cars screech into the bus waiting area. “No way.” Cade glared at the grinning me. “What, like I’m scared of you two, fucking clowns?” He swung his arms up, catching their wrists. Their weapons both flew out of their hands. Cade shouldered past them and raced through the doors.

  He reached the car just as two more goons bundled Katy into the back seat. “Get the fuck off her!” he shouted, ducking his head and peering inside the car. A young, dark-haired man, grinned back at him. Cade stood shock still, staring at the ghoul’s blood-stained eyes.

  “Thank you for keeping my girlfriend safe, Cade,” he said. “Now fuck off.”

  He found two pairs of hands jerking him out of the car. Cade found his arms bound to his body.

  “He’s going to fucking kill us, literally, for letting you pull a stunt like that,” growled Adrian. “Best we make sure that it isn’t possible for you to do it again.”

  He watched the car speed off while feeling the barrel of the gun digging into his ribs. Cade turned his head and glared at the man. “Is it true that you two still suck each other’s dicks?” He watched his mouth form an ‘o’ before he snapped his head forward and butted the man between the eyes. Cade snatched the pistol out of Adrian’s numb fingers and raced back through the bus station door, catching his breath when he heard the sound of the other pistol fire. He crouched down and run towards the other entrance, holding the gun tight, wondering what the hell he was going to do now.

  Chapter Twelve

  Beneath the strong smell of floor polish peppered with a hint of old sweat, Darlene realised that she could pick out their scent. She got to her feet and stretched, her fingers almost touching the storage room’s low ceiling. At either side of her, squashed up against the two walls, her husband’s new army of embryonic vampires slept. Darlene lowered her head, gazing down at the blond-haired, muscle-bound behemoth, curled up and sleeping like a giant baby, beside her feet.

  He stunk. They all did, the smell coming from them reminded her of old road-kill on a boiling hot day, mixed with after-shave. Darlene straightened her back, looking down at this abomination, watching him pant like an exhausted dog. It bothered Darlene that the emotion she felt for her husband’s babies was repugnance. Why was that? This is what she wanted, to sit by her husband’s side while their children went out and brought this town to its knees.

  “Only, I’m not at his side,” she growled, quietly.

  Her foot strayed close to the blond man’s face and he responded by pulling his lips back and uttering a quiet growl, Darlene flinched and skipped back a step. She counted to three, enough time for her to regain her composure. She then growled herself, feeling a little foolish as well as annoyed that she had allowed this moron to startle her.

  Darlene pushed her foot forward until her toes were touching his cheek, just daring the bastard to growl again, one more noise escaping his lips would give her the excuse she needed to rip the skin off his face. She felt almost cheated when he just whimpered before rolling over.

  She crouched down and pushed her fingers through his thick hair, it felt greasy and her action released a sour smell of old sweat. Darlene wrinkled her nose. These enhanced senses would take some getting using to. “You dare to threaten me?” she hissed, feeling his whole body shake. The man still slept through her words but the emerging vampire sense within him recognised the threat to his life. Darlene grinned. That strong self of self-preservation would not allow this baby vampire to snooze through his imminent execution.

  Darlene extended her finger, gazing in fascination at her fingernail; they were so long and tapered to form a spike. She hadn’t noticed that before. She’d never had much luck in growing her nails, the chore of housework saw to that. Darlene smiled, instinct alone told her that a bout of washing-up or vacuuming the front room would not dull these babies.

  The new vampire was now fully aware of his predicament. That fact made evident when she saw him clench his fists. Her husband still had a decent looking body but it paled in comparison to this young hunk. Even so, she could not allow this upstart to think he could better her. Darlene placed wrapped her fingers around his wrist, marvelling at how easy it was to keep him subdued, despite his bulk; he still wasn’t as strong as she.

  Darlene waited long enough for him to see that he was wasting his efforts before gently pressing the tip of her fingernail against his eyelid. H
e suddenly became shock still. “That’s so much better,” she soothed. “We can be friends, or…” she paused and made sure that he saw her lick her lips. “Or, I can scoop out your eyeballs and suck on them like juicy grapes.”

  There was no need to start munching down on this poor puppy, the fear rising from his mind was sustenance enough. This puppy had no clue what he’d done, and the fact that he was powerless to stop Darlene, made her very moist. Just for that moment, she wondered if he had the equipment to satisfy her.

  “Please mistress. I don’t know what I’ve said to upset you,” he said.

  Darlene gazed into his pale eyes, noticing that the whites now contained a tinge of pink. “Maybe you don’t know, at least on the surface, my young friend. It doesn’t stop the taint in your system, seeing me as some kind of threat.” She wrapped her fingers around his throat. “You have no idea how much that upsets me.”

  Without thinking, she took in a great lungful of air and found herself gazing at her image through the man’s eyes. What he saw, shocked Darlene to the core. Her furnace-fire eyes, drilled into the new vampire’s gaze, she felt his terror, pinning him to the spot. Gone were her smooth, flawless skin, her dark grey complexion now resembled the surface of the moon. Her blood cooled down, and Darlene saw herself shake her head. The next moment she saw the vampire’s face looking back her, his expression was a mix of confusion and alarm.

  She twisted her head and saw that the others were now all awake, each one staring at Darlene. Only one of them had taken the step of standing up. She watched her husband’s first son take two steps towards her before stopping. He looked around. Darlene could almost hear him sighing, as if trying to weigh up his very limited options.

  It was so difficult in trying to keep a straight face as the vampire neared her. His face was set, it looked like as was about to try to calm down a ferocious dog. It just looked so ridiculous considering his size. He made three of her, This was a guy who used to take his body building seriously. The vampire taint, running through his system was already working on his body, bulking it out even more. The guy was already larger than the First Father. She suspected that the taint had not finished with him, just yet.

  Darlene heard the sound of a quiet splutter and turned back around. She had completely forgotten that she was still gripping the other vampire by his throat. She was vaguely fascinated by the new noises that were coming from his mouth, he sounded a bit like a mouse caught in a trap. She raised him off the blue, watching the colour in his face drain, the new vampire really did looked pale now.

  “Please, mistress, let us discuss this.”

  She sighed and reluctantly released him, not surprised by the fact that she had effortlessly lifted up a well-built man with just one arm. “What is there to discuss?” she replied, turning to glare at the other man who had stopped in the middle of the room. She didn’t think he’d dare to take another step towards her, just in case, he received the same treatment, his size didn’t intimidate her, Darlene had no doubt that she’d be able to handle him like a ragdoll as well.

  “What’s to discuss?” she repeated, walking over to the vampire, watching him react to her presence by immediately forming a defensive pose. Unlike that blond-haired idiot, Darlene knew that he would do anything to stop her from treating him in such a belittling way, even if his actions did enrage the First Father. His only regard, right now, was for the others that were now under his care. The fact that this idiot just saw her as some pet for the First Father annoyed the fuck out of her. She might have claws and more dangerous than any guard dog, but she was still on a leash. She sensed the suspicion from all of them; that and fear.

  Darlene brought both her feet together and flashed him what she hoped would look like a bright, disarming and very innocent looking smile. She took great satisfaction in seeing his whole posture change. How easy was it to take advantage of her feminine wiles? His initial confusion gave her the lever that she needed.

  While his mind attempted to come to grips with her bizarre behaviour, Darlene jumped into his exposed mind. The illusion of time came to a standstill while she explored the corridors of the First Son’s thoughts. Darlene gained immense satisfaction from the knowledge that, just like the blond-haired vampire, this one had no idea that she was encroaching on his innermost secret thoughts.

  Nothing was closed to Darlene’s inquisitive mental caressing. He just opened up like an unlocked door, showing Darlene everything he had. Before she became too deep, she had to check on one more thing. Like the blond boy, Darlene looked at herself through his eyes.

  The image of a beautiful woman smiling back at the vampire shocked her rigid. Her inner monster was well and truly back in the box. What a metamorphosis. Her heart-shaped face had filled out in all the right places, defining her delicate bone structure. The only abnormality to this otherwise classic full model look were her deep crimson eyes and her enlarged canines. Not that the vampire had taken much notice, her large breasts had trapped his roving eyes.

  The lust he felt for the soft skin beneath her tight clothing was driving the First Son insane with desire, it threatened to overtake his every other sense. He would not dare to try anything though, he wasn’t that stupid. The first Father might only see her as one of his possessions, but the head Vampire would tear of his face if the vampire tried to take advantage. The main reason, the reason that stopped him from doing anything and was his sole problem with her was that he suspected that Darlene was a lot stronger than she looked.

  The First Son averted his eyes and Darlene then noticed the vampire who had mistakenly growled at her back in his original position against the wall. The look that he was giving Darlene could have peeled paint off the wall. His glare was pure poison. It didn’t escape her attention that his eyes had deepened in colour in the last few minutes, she did wonder if that was because of his extra bout of excitement.

  Despite the First Son’s desire to rip off every shred of her clothing and take her like a rutting stallion, Darlene knew he felt the same way about her as the blond vampire. It wouldn’t surprise her if all the other newborn vampires hated her with equal intensity. Darlene fought back the hurt, tears and the irrational sense of self-loathing. She needed to discover why her presence caused such heated emotions. What had she done for them to hate her?

  She had to dig a little deeper, that’s all. The trigger would be somewhere inside the First Son. Darlene pulled back and grinned when a picture of the man running for the bus exploded at the front of her mind. It felt so strange to witness this newly made monster doing something as mundane as running for a departing bus. He was called Colin Rushmore and until just a few hours ago, he was almost content with his life. His son, Steven, wasn’t following in his father’s footsteps and turning into a complete bastard like he did at the age of twelve; his job paid him well enough, his large circle of friends loved his sense of humour and he knew for a fact that half of his female friends so wanted to jump into his warm bed. The only thing stopping him from taking up with their numerous suggestions, serious or not, was that his warm bed already had an occupant.

  The only part of his life that didn’t please him anymore was his so called ‘loving’ wife. Colin wasn’t completely sure, just yet but his guts told him that the sneaky tart had more than a couple of extra friends. According to what he had had from a couple of well-placed friends who frequented the gym, his dearest Sharon was a bit of a wild one between the sheets. That bit, Colin did find hard to believe. The woman had never been an animal with him in all the fifteen years of married life.

  Darlene focused on the image of him taking a photograph of the woman out of his wallet. She mentally nodded, Darlene knew that woman alright. She thought her name sounded familiar. She’d also heard of the rumours of his darling wife being a little bit naughty as well. The last Darlene saw of her was a few days ago, being very familiar with some guy in the back of a taxi, outside the off license.

  She pushed away Colin’s worries over his wife and du
g deeper until he saw Colin in the gym upstairs. His defined muscles were shined with sweat as he ran on one of the treadmills. Darlene saw that Colin’s training partner, the man urging him turn increase the machine’s speed, was the blond man. Why did this piece of information not surprise her?

  His name was Adam Davis and Colin had known the man since school. Now that did surprise her, Darlene had no idea that they were both the same age. The respect Colin had for his best friend could be a problem. The First Father would not tolerate any favouritism between the First Son and his other vampires.

  Darlene then heard the man moan out. At first, she guessed that Colin had found out that she was deep inside his thoughts. That idea vanished when she saw that she wasn’t the first one to invade Colin Rushmore’s mind.

  She gazed across his mental landscape, her focus drawn to the sight of a huge crimson block of gelatinous shiny matter, submerged into the surface of the man’s brain. Was this her own mind translating into imagery of that this represented, or was Darlene actually seeing the physical part of the vampire sense fusing to Colin’s body?

  Thick red tendrils extruded from the central mass, each end finding a separate area of his flesh before drilling through the soft tissue. Against her better judgment, Darlene drifted closer to one of the tendrils, eager to learn more. The fact that what she was witnessing had already happened to her made Darlene feel a little nauseous but she quickly put that feeling into a box.

  As she drifted closer, Darlene found to her horror that she had no other choice. That pulsing crimson mass was pulling her towards it like the moon pulled the tide and just like the vast oceans, she was helpless to stop it.

  The sweet stench of wet meat engulfed her senses just before Darlene’s world turned red. The hoarse male voice, ordering her to get off the floor shocked her senses back to reality. Darlene snapped open her eyes, not knowing where she was. The only thing that assaulted her nostrils now was the smell of wet hay, missed with fresh horse manure. Darlene Gazed in wonder at five faces staring at her.