Parasite ; Sleeper Cells ; Kingdoms of the Dead

by Ian Woodhead

  Darlene had no idea what had happened, this wasn’t the storage room, that much, she was certain about. “Amulius, what’s going on?” She stared at her husband as he looked around what appeared to be a primitive stable. He gave no indication that the head vampire even heard her calling out to him.

  She then noticed another person in here with them, a young teenage boy, he only looked about seventeen. He was huddled in the corner, gripping a large metal blade. Darlene stood up and walked between the boy and the others, noticing that none of them had even looked in her direction. “I’m still inside Colin’s mind,” she muttered. Darlene leaned against a rough wooden wall, jumping when a thin horse skittered away from her. “This is way too weird.”

  She had no idea who any of the others were, apart from the fact that, like her, they were all vampires. Darlene looked at the only other male in the stable. He didn’t seem that much older than the cringing teen. His blazing sulphur eyes found the terrified boy, the vampire yawned wide, exposing his large teeth. It took her a moment to realise that this was her Husband’s First Son. She remembered him now. Darlene also remembered that the boy used to frighten the crap out of her.

  “Juan, I should be annoyed with you,” said the First Father. “As my First Son, I expect you to keep my treats under guard.”

  Darlene chuckled at the sullen look that the vampire gave Amulius; she had been the recipient of that particular stare from both her own kids. This scene was from before the two clans slept through the ages, that much, she did understand. What bothered her was why was it inside some bloke who was born just few decades ago?

  “I shall see to it that the ones responsible are punished, my First Father.”

  Amulius pushed back the two female vampires and raced over to Juan. “No, you will take no such action, my son. It is you that is responsible. It is you that will be punished.” He snapped his fingers and the two females ran back over to the huge vampire, they hissed like angry cats at the young vampire before running their hands over the First Father’s torso.

  Darlene wanted to throw up. If her husband expected her to act in such a demeaning way, then he had another thing coming. A very bad feeling began to creep into her bones. She watched the two male vampires tear into the screaming boy, while Amulius told his First Son that he will not taste blood for many nights and his wives will not be warming Yuan’s bed come the sunrise. Darlene was watching some form of training video. As stupid as it sounded, it must be the case. When the First Father said those words to Colin, he must have also implanted these memories as well.

  She blinked and the scene changed again. This time, she did recognise the building; this was where those bastards had locked her in her own cage. She wondered down the corridor, gazing through the bars, none of the cages were occupied and this time, there were no other people in the building with her. By the looks of it, this place hadn’t been used in a long time. It did feel odd to be stood here, after so many years, even if she was only re-living someone else’s old memories.

  Darlene spun around as the doors behind her crashed open. The First Father and Juan pushed through the opening, both struggling with dragging a huge man, clad in thick, rough- hewn armour. The figure suddenly roared. He slammed his arms back, throwing both vampires against the cages. They leaped to their feet and dived on the giant, each one clamping their teeth into his neck, the only part of him that wasn’t encased in the dull armour.

  Watching them hang on to this creature reminded her of watching two big cats taking down a large herbivore. They both hung on, as each second passed, their victim slowed his movements until, after a couple more minutes his legs gave way. Both vampires jumped back as he crashed into the floor.

  Juan ran over and helped the First Father back onto his feet, they were both panting, dripping in sweat and grinning. They walked back over to the fallen giant and pulled off his heavy, horned helmet, exposing the grotesque face of another vampire.

  “The Swarmers are now deplete of berserkers, First Father,” said Juan. “Their defeat is inevitable.”

  Amulius shook his head. “Do not underestimate their guile, my son. The reports from the outer villages, tell of huge Swarmer constructs, consuming every human in their path. I have also received tale of them using female warriors in battle.”

  The look that the First Son gave the other vampire would have been comical if it hadn’t have been so tragic.” Darlene opened her eyes, she Amulius’s new First Son staring at her. All the other newborn vampires were giving her equal attention. She looked around the storage room, allowing the events of what she witnessed sink in.

  No bloody wonder they all hated Darlene. They didn’t see her as a threat, the bastards were frightened of her. She walked over to the new First Son, watching him instinctively shrink away and she leaned closer. “I think your old pal over there, Colin, is in need of some help. I think I was a bit too rough on him.” She waited until he moved out of his way before walking over to the closed door.

  Darlene looked at her watch and saw that she had only been down here for a couple of minutes. That just didn’t seem possible, it felt like she’d been down here for hours. Behind her, the newborn vampires spoke in low voices, just beyond her range of hearing, not that it mattered, Darlene knew they were discussing her.

  She sighed and grabbed the door handle, Amulius had only asked her to go check on them, to see if they were all okay, while he extracted what information he could from her daughter. Back then, it seemed like a perfectly reasonable request. Even as the honey-tinged words dripped from his mouth, her previous anxiety with discovering that both her children had been vampirised, just evaporated. What was left of her human soul must have withered and died at the news. Not only that, her loving Damien was now in the other clan, one of the hated enemy.

  Darlene had watched her beautiful daughter sidled up to her husband, her big blue eyes, catching the moonlight from the window above them. Not once did she believe that the First Father would do anything untoward to Elsie. It just didn’t even enter her mind that she had just left her beautiful young daughter with a lustful vampire without thinking of the consequences. She moved her hand away and turned around, gazing at each of the vampires, watching their lips move up until the tips of their teeth showed. Her sudden burst of anxiety must have reached every one of the monsters down here. They were all revelling in her naivety.

  “Oh, don’t you worry, my mistress,” gurgled Colin, unable to stop himself from chuckling. “Our First Father will take good care of your loving daughter.” His friend held out his hand and Colin downward slapped it. “I know that you were fumbling around, inside my head, Darlene, and I so hope you found what you were looking for. You are no good to him anymore, my sweet. You might look young, but you’re almost as old as the First Father.” Colin drew himself up to his full height.

  She watched in despair as the others stood up and huddled beside their First Son. All their eyes were now glowing deep red.

  “See, I know that our First Father just sees you for what you are. You have given him a new sex toy and I imagine right now that he’ll be getting a lot of satisfaction out of her.”

  The other vampires all laughed alongside Colin. Darlene knew that she’d have to trouble in confirming whether or not their snide remarks were true, she daren’t though, not knowing how she’d react if the head vampire was doing to her what he should have been doing to her. Even so, Darlene couldn’t stop a single tear from rolling down her cheek.

  “He sees you as some old hag, a piece of garbage to be thrown out with the rest of the rubbish.” He smiled when one of the others handed him something. The vampire chuckled. “Yeah, you’re pretty fucking tough for an old bird and I reckon that you could do quite a bit of damage if we were just numbered maybe two of three.” He looked at the comrades. “But we ain’t. There’s a few of us here.” He showed her what the other vampire had passed him.

  Her distraught face reflected off the shining metal blade of the katana.


  “I’d forgotten all about this, Darlene,” he said, running the edge of the blade down the wall. “Now, I’ve given this some thought, as soon as I knew you weren’t trespassing in my brain, and I figure that the only reason why he sent you down here was so we could have some fun as well.”

  The others murmured their ascent.

  Darlene grabbed the handle, jerked open the door and ran through it, there was no way she could fight them all, despite her rage telling her that they wouldn’t stand a chance. The last image she saw before running from the room was the same stupid look etched on all of their faces. Those idiots actually thought that she would stick around and let them fulfil all their perverted desires with her pliant body, as if Colin’s harsh words had somehow knocked all the fight out of her.

  As she raced along the dark corridor, heading away from the metal stairs that led back up to the ground floor, Darlene clearly heard the sound of their shoes slapping on the concrete floor. So, the bastards were giving chase? That was fine by her, with luck, they’d split up, giving her a better chance to take them out.

  The noise of their pursuit got louder and Darlene didn’t believe that the bastards had split up. She sighed before slipping through a wedged-open fire door and then running through the first unlocked door she found. She needed to increase the odds in her favour, she needed some sort of weapon.

  She found herself in another storage room, identical to the last one but without the murderous vampires with their blood raised to volcano levels. There was nothing in the room at all, the shelves had been stripped. The sound of their footsteps got louder. They were bound to check this room.

  Darlene spun around, intending to get out of here, there was no way that she wanted to be trapped. As she grabbed the door handle, a freezing cold hand slipped over her mouth. She struggled like a fish on a hook but her efforts had no effect, the silent adversary was too strong. Darlene felt her strength suddenly leave her, knowing that the person behind her must be her husband, none of the other vampires had his strength.

  “You look so beautiful,” murmured a familiar voice.

  She choked back a loud sob at the sound of his voice; it took a great deal of effort just to stay on her feet. “Paul?” she gasped, spinning around. “But, I thought, well, I thought…”

  He grinned back at her. “Oh wow, what a reaction! It looks as if these new bodies of ours can take a little more punishment than we thought.” He gingerly felt the inside of his ribs. “It still huts like a bastard though. The pain is lessening, as long as I don’t overstrain myself.”

  Darlene clenched her fists, feeling her long nails dig into the soft flesh. The discomfort was enough evidence to tell her that this was no dream. “I just don’t get it, how on earth did you know where I was?” It took a lot of effort to get the words out. Her voice cracked with every word she spoke. “I really am so sorry for what I do to you, Paul. Will you ever find it in your heart to forgive me?”

  He softly kissed her lips while running his fingers through her hair. “Darlene, there really is nothing to forgive. As to the small matter of locating you?” he chuckled. “We are both linked, remember? Your soul just blasted a path through the darkness. I would find you, honey, even if you were on Mars.”

  Darlene couldn’t stop grinning. “Oh my, listen to the bard. Have you just eaten a dozen romance novels?”

  He frowned. “I’m sorry. Does it irritate you?”

  “Of course not, silly!” she cried, flinging her arms around him. “I still can’t believe that it really is you. Oh God, I’m so glad that have found me.”

  Paul gently removed her arms “You need to listen to me, sweetheart. We don’t have a lot of time left.” He looked up towards the door. “They’ll be back here any moment. Paul pointed over to the far wall, “There’s a grate over there, Darlene. “That’s my way out of here.”

  “Wait, you mean our way out?”

  He kissed her again. “No, honey, if they catch me in here, those newborn vampires will kill me, I might have stood a chance if I was still in good shape. He sighed. My body still needs a lot of repairs doing do it first. Don’t worry, I’m not going far, I promise.”

  Paul released her and ran over to the door, he opened it a crack and peered out. “Yeah, they’re coming back.” He hurried over to the grate, lifted the metal grate off and leaned it against the wall. “I need you to put this back when I’m inside.”

  “No, I can’t!” she replied, shaking her head. “You can’t leave me here!”

  “Listen to me. “You will come to no harm. They will return with the First Father.” He looked back at the rectangular hole in the wall. “I have heard much on my way back to you. Enough to realise that there is a good chance that me, you and your daughter could emerge as the top players in this.”

  “Elsie?”

  He nodded. “These ancient vampires really have no idea what they’ve unleashed upon this planet, Darlene. We can’t go back to the being human. We must accept that. It still doesn’t stop us from ensuring that we put these fuckers back in the ground where they belong.”

  “What about Damien?”

  Paul sighed, I’m sorry, he is lost to you. Even if you wanted to take him back, your blood wouldn’t let you. His blood certainly wouldn’t allow it. Now, you need to listen to me, sweetheart.”

  Chapter Thirteen.

  It looked as though his fingertips had left indentations in the metal. Damien took his eyes off the stone floor, thirty feet below him and ran his fingers along the girder again, trying not to chuckle when he realised they were just imperfections in the steel. He dipped his head, making sure that the vampires hunting for him were still out of sight. Damien couldn’t see any of them but he did hear a cry of anger, followed by what sounded like a pile of boxes crashing to the floor.

  Damien slowly crawled along the underside of the girder, taking his time; he had no wish to slip. The roof of the butcher’s quarter was just a few feet away now. He should be safe in there, until the sun went down. Damien didn’t think the vampires would continue to trash the place, looking for him, would they? Damien inched further towards the roof, listening to the noises coming from the top end of the market. They didn’t seem to be giving up looking for him so far.

  He let his legs dangle when he reached the roof, sighing with relief. Damien had never been that bothered about heights but, crawling from one end of the market to the other, on a roof beam was taking it a bit too far. He dropped onto the roof and dropped to his knees then leaned over the edge. Would his newly enhanced body have stayed in one piece if he had slipped?

  From where he lay, Damien clearly saw the patch of black slime, still bubbling under the light from that hateful sun. “How close was I to getting caught?” he whispered, suppressing a shudder. Like the plant that he was, Damien had just stood there, rooted to the spot, gazing down at the rendered down vampire. He could hear the sound of heavy footsteps yet didn’t move until the last possible moment. Damien had already discovered that, despite his previous fears, none of his bones were broken in the fall, he’d just given his body a few more bruises to fix.

  Even looking back, Damien still believed that he had been so fortunate to get away. At first, he assumed that they hadn’t seen him sprint up the aisle, unless they had caught a glimpse of his shadow. Most likely, the vampires had heard him fleeing, he hadn’t exactly ran like a ninja.

  Damien had jumped into the first hiding place that he found, an empty stall with a huge ‘to let’ sign bolted to the front. He knew that this place had been empty for years and judging from the rank smell of piss coming up from the bare floorboards under his knees, Damien guessed that he had also inadvertently found the market’s second unofficial toilet.

  He had forgotten what they had even sold in this lot, he moved his knee off the damp patch, wondering why he was even thinking about shit like that. Trivialities left his mind when he saw the Swarmer leader step out into the aisle. He had his back to Damien but even that was enough to shock hi
m rigid.

  The guy couldn’t have been much older than Damien. Well, he didn’t look much older. Not only that, compared to the two great hulking monsters sanding beside him, he looked like a tiny child.

  Even from where is hid, Damien felt the waves of fear rolling off the two huge vampires. How the fuck had that child managed to become their leader? Those two vampires could easily eat the wimp and still have room for ice cream.

  He leaned further out, trying to catch their frantic conversations. They were too far for him to catch any of their words, Damien sighed then tried to use his embryonic talent to scan them, it was no use, they had clamped their minds tights. At first, he assumed that it was because they knew another one of their kind was close by until Damien felt the leader trying to read them as well.

  Suddenly, the diminutive vampire snapped his arm forward and grabbed the bald creature by the throat. Damien’s jaw dropped when their leader effortlessly lifted him up, until the gagging vampire’s feet left the floor. How was that even possible? If was like watching some schoolgirl lifting up the back of a bus with one hand.

  He needed to get out of this fucking market, like right now. His temperature began to rise and it felt like his heart was trying to beat its way out of his ribcage, what the hell was happening to him? Damien had never been so terrified. He wasn’t the only one who was acting strange. The vampire beside his dangling companion had dropped to his knees, he had his arms over his head and was weeping like an injured baby. His moans turned Damien’s spine to jelly.

  Their leader released the vampire, stepping back as he fell and landed in a boneless heap. The heart-stopping fear that coursed through Damien’s body just died away, leaving him sprawled out on the floorboards, shaking like a leaf and feeling like he’s just been dropped into a snowdrift whilst naked.