The Dominion Series Complete Collection

by Lund, S. E.

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  When the sun sets, I wake, surprised that I did finally sleep. The sheets are wrapped around me and my body’s cold because I haven’t had enough blood. I yawn and stretch, wondering what the night will bring.

  I splash cold water over my face, staring at my bleary eyes and pale skin in the bathroom mirror. After I dress, I go to the kitchen where a pot of coffee is brewing, the scent wafting through the apartment. Julien is up, dressed in his usual faded jeans, thick black belt, and white t-shirt. His very square jaw is covered in a few day's growth of whiskers, making him look like a male model from the pages of GQ rather than a vampire-hunting vampire.

  His eyes meet mine, and I know in an instant that he must have heard us.

  “Julien,” I say and go to him, but he keeps his back to me while he watches the coffee maker.

  I rest a hand on his shoulder; he pulls away from my touch. Unwilling to give up, I slip my arms around his waist and pull myself against him from behind. He smells so good, clean and masculine.

  “Eve…” he says, his voice low as if he’s trying to be polite, but it’s forced. It’s hurt.

  “You have to understand—” I begin, wanting to assuage his jealousy.

  “I understand,” he says a bit too quickly. “In case you forgot, we vampires have really good ears.” He pauses for a moment and a sense of regret and embarrassment fills me. “I heard everything.”

  “I’m sorry.” I lay my cheek against his back, my arms squeezing around his waist from behind. His washboard abs are firm beneath my hands. "I broke my own rule the very first night. Don't hate me."

  He shrugs, but doesn’t move away. Finally, he takes my hands in his and we stand like that for a moment while the coffee finishes brewing. As usual, I’m filled with desire for him and guilt that I want him so soon after having made love with Michel. I had them both within one day of each other, hours of each other, and I feel incredibly bad and greedy.

  I hear Michel emerging from his bedroom, the door closing softly behind him. I try to pull away from Julien so that Michel doesn’t see us together like this, but Julien won’t let go. I realize he wants Michel to see me giving him affection.

  Michel stops abruptly when he sees us. Our eyes meet and I smile, but I know seeing me like this with Julien will upset him. I should protest, but I realize that Julien wants to score some kind of point with Michel after last night, to prove he means as much to me as Michel does. Julien finally lets go of my arms when he feels my resistance.

  I step away from Julien and turn to Michel. “What’s on the agenda for today?”

  Michel moves past us to the fridge, his jaw tightly clenched. He opens the door and stands staring into it. Then he bends down and removes a small cardboard box. I noticed it when I looked in the fridge before but never thought to ask what it was.

  “This,” he says and holds it up. “This is on the agenda for today.”

  “What is it?” I move closer and take it from his hand. It’s about three inches by three inches square, wrapped in butcher paper and tied up with a string like a package from another century.

  “Your freedom.”

  I glance up at Michel. “What is it?” I say. “Blackstone’s daywalking drug?”

  Michel shakes his head. “It’s the waters of life. We want you to take it.”

  I hand it back to him quickly, as if it’s poison. “I don’t want it. You already know that.”

  “Julien and I agree and Dylan concurs. You should take it. If you go to Blackstone for his serum, he’ll demand your loyalty. He’ll expect you to obey his orders, whatever they are.”

  “This will make me a...” I was going to say monster, but stop. “Into something I don’t want to be.”

  “This will solve almost everything, Eve,” Julien says. “It will make you invulnerable to other vampires. Only Soren and the Twelve, as well as other ascended vampires, will be able to kill you. Soren won’t so long as you’re useful.”

  I shake my head, for it will make me an abomination. I feel bad enough that I’ve become a vampire. I won’t become an ascended one.

  “Come on,” Julien says playfully. “No one will be able to push you around anymore. You can daywalk, you can join senses with others more easily, and keep others out. You’ll be free.”

  “Free?” I shake my head. “I don’t call what you are ‘free.’”

  “Dylan did this,” Michel says as if it’s the last resort to refer to my brother’s willingness to ascend. “If you did, the four of us would be almost invincible.”

  I push Michel’s hand away. “I’ll take Blackstone’s serum before I take that.”

  He exhales loudly. “You are so damn stubborn…”

  “You love me because I’m stubborn.”

  “In spite of your stubbornness…” he says and finally gives in, returning the box to the ice box.

  I pour myself a cup of coffee, my back to the brothers. I don’t want to talk about his any longer. What they’ve become frightens me. They’re otherworldly in a way that challenges all my views on science and religion.

  It unnerves me.

  * * *

  I’m sitting in the living room at the baby grand piano, half-heartedly playing some Chopin, when Dylan arrives.

  His face is haggard. He’s probably spent the entire day trying to discover what happened to our parents. His dark eyes go directly to me when he enters the room. He pulls off his jacket and comes over to the piano.

  “Did you take it yet?” He looks a bit flustered, as if he’s rushed over and is out of breath. “Have I missed the ceremony?”

  “She didn’t take it,” Julien says, his voice tired.

  Dylan sits on the bench beside me, shoving me with his shoulder. “Why didn’t you take it?” he says, sounding frustrated. “I did.”

  I look at Michel and then at Julien. “I don’t want to become whatever it is you are. But forget that,” I say, impatient to hear about his parents. “What have you learned? What happened?”

  Dylan shrugs and then leans back, rubbing his eyes with his hands. He exhales heavily and then turns to me and takes my hand.

  “I’ve learned nothing. No one has contacted me and there are no demands. I spent the day looking through their cottages to see if there’s anything that will lead me to who did it, but nothing. Some of their things were missing, their suitcases are gone from the closet, and some of their clothes as well. But the place is trashed. All the food is gone as well as a lot of useful items—tools, household goods. That kind of thing.”

  “Maybe they left for somewhere safe, unable to tell you at the time. Maybe,” I say, hoping beyond hope, “maybe the place was looted when people found it empty. They could be safe on some farm somewhere.” I say it but I really don’t believe it. They would have let both of us know.

  Dylan shakes his head. “They would have left something so we wouldn’t worry. No, someone took them, and it looks like they were planning to keep them for the long haul. It has to be Soren.” He closes his eyes for a moment, struggling with his emotions. “I guess we’ll find out soon enough.”

  He looks at me, his eyes hard, his expression disapproving. “Why won’t you take the waters? It’s not what you think,” Dylan says. “It’s just activation of some special genes that protect you from being staked and from daylight. It enhances your telepathy. It makes you stronger. It’s nothing mystical.”

  “Michel thinks it is.”

  “He’s rather biased,” Dylan says, smiling softly. “Everything is screened through his religious beliefs. I’m telling you, as one scientist to another, that it’s merely gene activation using a special retrovirus that turns on certain gene sequences. Nothing religious.”

  “How do you explain the disappearing and reappearing wings?”

  Across the room, Michel moves on the couch where he’s sitting, as if interested in Dylan’s explanation.

  “Mental projection and telepathy,” Dylan says. “When you’re especiall
y emotional, in specific states of consciousness, you project this image to those around you. I can’t explain it exactly—why wings, I mean. Wings must be archetypal, deeply ingrained in human consciousness. But I know I don’t have wings,” he says and laughs as if it’s the most ridiculous thing he’s ever heard. “We’re not angels.”

  “What are angels?” Michel asks from across the room. “Beings of power. The power to manipulate matter, to control human minds. Where did they get that power? That’s the question science can’t answer. Only religion can.”

  Dylan turns to Michel. “Genetic mutations. Random events that were so rare they became recessive, only showing up in a geographically distinct population. Northern European. Nordic. Hence, the white skin and fair hair associated with angels. Soren is a prime example.”

  Michel says nothing. Instead, he shakes his head in dismay.

  Dylan turns to me. “If you won’t take the waters, then you must take the serum. You can’t go on like this, living as a simple vampire, even one who is an Adept. You’re far too vulnerable.”

  I exhale, resigned to taking Blackstone’s serum. “How do we get it? Do you have contacts in Blackstone so you can get some for me?”

  He nods. “Lord Blackstone himself. We’ve become close,” Dylan says and raises his eyebrows as if in surprise. “He’s taken me under his wing, seeing me as his protégé.”

  "How can you even consider working for him?"

  "I'm not really working for him, Eve. I'm trying to understand his capabilities and goals. For the Council."

  “You’re a good secret agent,” I say, giving him a grin. “But it must be hard. Doesn’t he know about Sarah? How can he think you’d side with him after her death?”

  “He apologized to me. Said if he had known about Sarah, he would have warned me. We could have turned her before—she could have been healed. I blame myself for not pushing more, but I was trying to stay under the radar.”

  I nod and take his hand. Dylan looks at it and then smiles at me briefly before becoming serious once more. He pulls his hand away.

  “Look, Eve, if you’re not going to ascend, the first thing we have to do is get you Blackstone's serum so you can daywalk. I’ve convinced him that you did all this willingly, thinking it might kill Michel and Julien along with Soren, and that you wanted to become a vampire. You're going to have to meet him, though. Now that you’re a vampire, he'll consider you one of his and you'll be welcomed into the fold. You're going to have to pretend you now share the goals of Dominion so that we can get you ready for battle. You can't fight effectively if you can't daywalk. If you won't ascend, you have to take the serum."

  "I don't want to meet Blackstone. He's the bastard responsible for Sarah's death. For the fall." I turn to Dylan and frown.

  I’m unsettled about having to meet Blackstone, but if it's necessary, I'll do it. When I finally received my mother's research files—after years of fighting with the University to get them—I knew my life would be in danger if I chose to follow in my mother’s footsteps as a vampire hunter. I can't back away now that I really am one.

  "If you get me as close to Lord Blackstone as possible,” I say, “I'll jam a wooden pencil into his cold black heart."

  Dylan shakes his head. "Believe me, I felt that way after Sarah died. But if either of us did that, someone would replace Blackstone. He's important, yes, but he has a son and lieutenants who would be only too happy to replace him if we killed him. We must get to the heart of the organization and destroy it from within. All of it."

  "How?"

  "The Council is working on a plan."

  "Tell me," I say, frustrated that none of them will tell me everything, as if to protect me. "I'm not going to tell anyone."

  “Eve, you know why we can’t tell you.” He shakes his head. "You can't know the details now, because even I don’t know them. We'll both find out once the mission is ready."

  "Do you know?" I say, turning to Julien.

  He smiles but says nothing and shrugs as if it's out of his control.

  I sigh heavily. "Don't you trust me?"

  "It's not that," Julien says. He comes over and leans against the table across from the piano, his arms crossed. "If I told you and you were captured, they'd torture you to get the information since you won’t ascend. This is a need to know mission. Only those at the top know all the details. Those in operational mode only know what we need to know. We act when we receive the signal to proceed. Once the plans are complete, you'll be informed. Like before, you'll be given a drug to make you forget. Only when you're given the code word will you know."

  That's the plan. Like the plan to destroy Soren, we'll strike from within. I'll know the plan, but it won't be available to my conscious mind until I hear the code word. That way, I can't be tortured to get the information. Organized madness.

  “When will we go to Blackstone?”

  Dylan stands up. “No better time than now.”

  I turn to him, dreading this meeting. “Where?”

  “At his compound in Cambridge. I’ll arrange a meeting with him later tonight. If you pass muster, and I know you will, you can take the serum. This will mean you can move more freely during the day.”

  As much as I’m reluctant to meet with Blackstone, there’s no fighting it. I have to take the serum so I can daywalk. Not taking it is preventing me from moving around in the day. Even though I won’t be ascended, being able to daywalk will give me an advantage over regular vampires. Besides, I want to feel the sun on my pale face once more.

  “All right,” I say, resigned to my fate. “Let’s go.”

  Dylan nods and goes to put on his jacket. “Come with me to the compound. I’ll introduce you around and talk to Blackstone’s lieutenant to arrange a meeting. People from Blackstone will be very pleased to meet you. You’re the legendary Adept who worked for the Council but who changed sides. The vampire who almost succeeded in killing Soren Lindgren and his Twelve. The woman who chose to become a vampire.”

  “I didn’t choose it,” I say a little too petulantly.

  “No, you didn’t, but they don’t have to know that. Believe me, it will be a plus in their eyes. You’re revered. Blackstone will be very pleased to offer you the serum so he’ll have you in his debt.”

  Michel comes to me as I put on my jacket. “This is really important, Eve. Please cooperate. I know you despise him and with good reason, but your ability to daywalk is critical. Don’t resist.”

  I nod and dread fills me. I realize now that this serum of Blackstone’s will change me as well.

  “How will the serum make me feel?”

  “You’ll feel like hell,” Julien says, the only one of them who has taken it. “You’ll sweat, you’ll feel nauseated, you’ll shake. You’ll probably pass out for a while and sleep like the dead. When you wake up, you’ll be transformed. It’s like the waters, but not as complete. And it’s temporary. If you don’t keep taking it, you’ll revert back.”

  “Is there any risk?”

  Julien shakes his head. “They’ve almost perfected it. You feel like total crap for a while as the nanovirus infects you. It’s really fast, but it’s pretty safe.”

  “Pretty safe?” I say, hesitating. “Has anyone died because of it?”

  Julien shrugs. “A few, but it’s really rare. Don’t worry. You’ll be fine.”

  I take in a deep breath and look at them. I want to kiss and hug them both, but which one would I kiss and hug first? No matter which I approached first, the other would be hurt. Instead, I go to where they’re standing side by side and stand between them, my hand on each of their shoulders.

  “Kiss my cheek,” I say. It’s the only compromise I can think of that won’t hurt either of them. They both hesitate and then lean down, each one pressing their mouths on a cheek. I pull them momentarily against me, both at the same time. I want to kiss them both but can’t. Having them kiss my cheek will have to do. I let go of them with deep reluctance and turn to Dylan.

>   “Let’s go.”

  Chapter 88

  “To be trusted is a bigger compliment than being loved.”

  George MacDonald

  We walk on foot for some miles through the city center to a garage that has been converted into a stable. Dylan lives in this neighborhood in North Boston, deserted now except for a few of Lord Blackstone’s forces, which are scattered throughout the city, most in Cambridge.

  The trip to the stable drives home how far civilization inside the protected zone has fallen. In the cold of early winter, the trees are all leafless and trash has rotted on the corners. Stores have been looted of everything salvageable and everything plastic or made from petroleum products has disintegrated into crumbly powder or sticky dark sludge.

  We cross a bridge into Cambridge, skirting the dilapidated trucks and cars sitting abandoned on the overpass.

  “What kind of surveillance does Blackstone have in place?” I ask, conscious of all the places where we could be watched. “Will they see us coming?”

  Dylan shakes his head. “Don’t worry. There’s too much city and too few forces to monitor the entire place. Besides, Lord Blackstone will welcome you. You’re his heroine.”

  “Why does he think that?”

  “He thinks you wanted to kill Michel out of revenge for your mother, and Soren as well.”

  I frown, surprised, but I guess in Lord Blackstone’s mind, it’s impossible to imagine a vampire not sharing his goals for Dominion. I try to relax.

  “But they lived,” I whisper to Dylan. “Michel and Julien should have died as well. How did you explain that to Blackstone?”

  “An error in formulating the nanovirus which allowed Soren and the Twelve to survive as well,” Dylan says, leaning down so that his lips are by my ear. “It wasn’t viewed as sabotage, but incompetence. The scientists involved in engineering the nanovirus are all dead so there’s no one to tell the truth.”

  I nod, filled with guilt that scientists died because of me.