The Progeny

by Shelley Crowley

  “You should be dead for what you have done,” he said, lifting his chin in defiance and forcing himself not to crumble under the plea in her eyes.

  Then she blinked and the shine disappeared. Her look became cold and flat as her plump lips curled into a smile. “I know. But I’m an ancient and Guardian tends to favour them more. Not that many of us are around nowadays since the Rage.” She took a step towards him and cupped his chin, her nails biting into his skin. Her dark eyebrows lifted ruefully as he glared down at her with flared nostrils. “I just hope they give you the same treatment. Because, I know it comes as a shock to you, Caius, but I really do care for you.” She let him go but stayed close, their chests only inches apart. “I’d experience great loss if you were to die.”

  The urge to embrace her knocked against his insides but he held his ground. She watched him a moment before backing away and continuing on her journey. Caius watched her heading towards a cluster of dilapidated cars and he gulped at the thought of what lurked in the darkness behind them.

  Milah clutched his hand as they rounded the hood of a rusted canary yellow Beetle. He squeezed it and fought back the lump that had lodged in his throat.

  A group of tall pale figures emerged from the shadows of the long grass. The abandoned cars were placed in a semi-circle and for a distracting moment, Caius thought that maybe the Court had planted them in that way as to try and box him in.

  Caius recognised Guardian immediately. He had a face that was hard to forget. He was as sharply dressed as Caius had remembered, in a pin striped three-piece suit. Flanking him on both sides were four vampires Caius didn’t recognise. Three female and one male. Caius knew Guardian never worked alone, not that he needed back up. It was more for intimidation purposes. And it was working. It felt like Caius had been yanked into the past to that graveyard where he had seen Evie for the first time. And killed her. Only to bring her back to the land of the living where she would forever be an outsider.

  “Caius,” Guardian crooned in an almost sing-song manner and extended both arms as if to embrace him. His wrinkled face cracked into a shark-like grin that deepened the pools around his eyes and mouth. The moonlight gleamed off his bald head so brightly it almost made Caius have to wince. “It’s been so long.”

  Not long enough.

  Caius’ eyes shot to Milah by his side when she squeezed his hand. He looked into her eyes and his dead heart grew twice as cold at the devastation in them as she let go. He wanted to grabble for her and pull her close but she left him and stood beside a female member of the Court with her eyes downcast.

  How could you do this to me?

  When Caius didn’t answer, the fake smile on Guardian’s face fell and his eyes darkened as he lowered his head to glare at him through his grey brows. “Do you remember the first night we met, Caius?” he asked in conversational tone that held a sinister edge.

  Caius held back a shudder. “Yes, Guardian.”

  “Do you remember what punishment I gave you for exposing our kind to a breather?”

  The memory of Evie’s small bloody body in his arms pierced his thoughts like a hot needle into his brain. “Yes, Guardian.”

  “Would you like to relay what said punishment was?” Guardian angled his face upwards, allowing the moonlight to bathe his whole face.

  “You forced me to Turn a girl. To become a Maker.”

  He clasped his hands behind his back. “Yes I did.” His steely eyes glanced away. “But it has come to my attention that my punishment was short lived and you have been released without my consent.”

  Caius’ eyebrows furrowed and he looked to Milah, still with her head bowed.

  “You are no longer a Maker, are you, Caius?”

  The words stung and he swallowed the bitter taste in the back of his throat. He could hardly believe the situation he was now in. The thought of no longer being a Maker hurt more than being forced to become one in the first place. And he knew the reason why. Because of Evie. Because of who she became to him. His everything.

  “No, Guardian.” He looked down. “I am not.”

  “Well.” He rocked on the balls of his feet. “I guess I’m going to have to do something about that, aren’t I? I can’t just let you off the hook. A Maker is a responsibility you take with you until you are nothing left but pulp. You can’t just pass it onto someone else.”

  Caius’ head suddenly bounced up, his eyebrows drawn with confusion. “If you know that Evie is no longer my progeny and that she is now another vampire’s, that means you know about the cure.”

  Guardian’s eyebrow arched and his lip curled with contempt, probably because Caius was no longer addressing him in the manner that he so desired. Which was guiltily and riddled with fear.

  “I know about the cure,” he stated simply. “I know it worked on your progeny and no others.”

  “So you know about the doctor’s plan? You know he’s been taking vampires to experiment on them?” Disgust had seeped into Caius’ tone as he looked at the vampire before him.

  “I know everything that goes on around here. My Court is everywhere.”

  “Then why aren’t you doing anything?”

  Guardian took a lofty step forward, making Caius instinctively shrink back.

  The lines of Guardian’s face sharpened as he clenched his jaw. “Do you know what the Vampire Court is here for, Caius?”

  Caius stayed silent, his eyes wide and fearful.

  Guardian’s nostrils flared in anger. “We are here to keep the Equal Rights Movement intact. Before the Rage, we were simply here to keep our kind afloat and hidden under the radar. But we are known now. And we have had to change with the times. Vampires are more powerful than humans but the humans outnumber us over five hundred to one and this is still their world. We do not want a war, Caius. We do not want to seize this world and make it our own. We would just be proving the mortals right. That we are savage monsters. We need them to survive. We depend on them. Without them, we would waste away.” He took another step forward and inspected Caius’ eyes.

  “The reason I have not done anything about this Doctor Nico Bergan is because he is no threat to us. Has he killed our kind? Yes. And I am angry. That anger is the reason I am choosing to ignore the fact that you killed thirteen of his men and left four bodies out in the open for us to clean up. But I am not nearly angry enough to cause a pointless war and make the humans turn all their weapons on us and paint the streets with our blood.”

  He smiled faintly. “But the second he declares war. The second he puts our existence in jeopardy and forces my hand, that’s when I will do something about it. And trust me, Caius, if that happens-” His eyes widened with a brief spark of horror, “-get ready for the apocalypse.”

  Caius could only stare, completely lost for words. Guardian’s expression softened into an aloof smile and he stepped back. “So, does that answer your question?”

  Caius nodded rapidly.

  “Good. Then I can get back to why I asked Milah to summon you here.” Caius’ eyes shifted to his Maker and saw the pale column of her neck roll with a heavy gulp. “Your first punishment was cut short and that is unacceptable. So you are to continue it.”

  Caius’ eyebrow furrowed and Guardian’s steely eyes glinted with sadistic glee. “What do you mean?”

  “You need to Turn another human.”

  The ground felt like it had been ripped from under his feet. He felt instantly sick and lightheaded. This only enhanced the mirth in Guardian’s eyes.

  “No.” Caius shook his head and instantly regretted it as he felt his stomach lurch at the motion. “No, I can’t.”

  “Well then, lucky for you there’s another option.”

  Hope flared and Caius looked up expectantly but that dangerous look in Guardian’s eyes only grew, diminishing the spark entirely.

  A moment of silence passed over them before Caius’ curiosity got the better of him and he asked, “What is the other option?”

  There was no humou
r in Guardian’s expression as he met Caius’ fearful eyes, only the strong, unflappable demeanour of a man in total control.

  “Either you Turn another human and become a Maker again, proving to me that you are as worthy of immortality as your Maker says you are-” Caius’ eyes flickered to Milah in surprise. This time, she was looking right back at him, her eyes wide and bright. A pang of emotion ran through him. She really does care after all. “Or-” His attention quickly shot back to Guardian before him, “I will kill the red-headed freak of a vampire that you love so dearly.”

  Chapter 16

  Caius felt like the whole world was closing in on him as he made his way down the dark streets alone. His chest was tight and throat was sore. He was back in the outskirts of the city and had walked there from the middle of the country at mortal speed, needing the time to arrange the thoughts that were chasing themselves around in his head.

  He had so desperately wanted to take Milah aside and talk to her but Guardian had clicked his fingers and she had followed him, turning into a white blur and leaving him alone amongst the dead cars. The backwards glance she had given him had almost made him crumble to the ground. The sorrow, the anguish, the guilt, everything hit him all at once. And then she was gone. For all he knew, it could be years until he saw her again. And he needed to see her to thank her. He had had no idea how much of an impact she had on his encounters with Guardian. But now he knew that forcing him to become a Maker hadn’t been Guardian’s chosen way of dealing with Caius’ treachery and if it hadn’t been for Milah talking Caius up, she could have been scraping him off the floor of the graveyard.

  And she had saved his life yet again.

  Why was she making it so hard for him to hate her? He wanted to hate her. She had taken away his mortality for her own selfish gain. She had done it because she had been lonely and needed a partner in crime. Apparently, it wasn’t half as fun to scour the streets and rip apart unsuspecting humans alone than it was with company. And Caius had been her company for just short of eighty years, destroying towns in reckless abandon before he finally took a long hard look at himself in the mirror and realised he didn’t want to be the monster she had created.

  He bit back a growl when his fangs threatened to burst through his gums and he fell back into a pocket of darkness where the street lamps didn’t reach. The streets were scarce which wasn’t unusual. Most humans tended to stay locked indoors when vampires were out and about. And tonight was a good night to let their fear get the better of them because tonight, Caius was looking for a new progeny.

  Pain lanced through his heart so fierce it made him press his palm to his chest as if to calm it. He knew what it was and used to revel in the odd, twisted feeling. His tether to Evie. Not nearly as strong as it used to be. But still present. And fighting. The feeling surged through him, knocking against his insides as if in protest of what he was committed to doing. But he had no choice. It was either this or let the woman he loved die. And stay dead. Forever. Guardian would make sure of it.

  But the thought of making another progeny made the backs of his eyes burn with hot tears. Could he really go through with it? Could he really willingly bring someone into this world of damnation? He remembered how hard Evie had taken it. How she had battled with him and ached for her old life. But of course, he hadn’t helped her. He had been in no fit state to be a Maker so soon after losing Catherine.

  It would be different this time. He’d be there for his progeny and help them through the transition. Make them proud to be amongst the immortal. To be a nightwalker, as they used to be known as.

  Was he really ready for that? Ready for all that responsibility? Being a Maker was a big deal. Do it wrong and you could end up with a rogue vampire on your hands. If that happened, Caius was sure that nothing Milah could say would stop Guardian from ripping his head from his body.

  He had to pick the perfect mortal.

  But how the hell was he supposed to know who the perfect mortal was? There was no way of knowing how one would react to becoming a vampire. It affected everyone differently.

  Caius stumbled, his head spinning and heart aching.

  Too much pressure.

  Too much.

  I can’t.

  I just can’t do it.

  “Oh go fuck yourselves! The lot of you! I don’t have to deal with this shit!”

  Caius picked his head up, watching through the strands of his hair as an angered teen stormed out of a building and stomped down the steps. His eyes flicked to the lit-up sign above the door the teen had just slammed behind him. Dial-a-bite, at your service.

  The teen stuffed a folded piece of paper into his jeans pockets and started tugging at his messy dark hair, pacing the street back and forth.

  Caius closed his eyes to enhance his hearing. The boy was human. He could hear the heavy thud of his heart.

  “Fucking arrogant fuckers,” the teen mumbled under his breath. “The lot of them. Fucking fuckers.”

  Caius scoped the streets around them. The few that had been out seemed to have disappeared as if the teen’s explosive language had made them scurry. Biting the inside of his lip, Caius approached warily.

  “Are you okay?”

  The teen spun to him and was backlit by the orange glow of the streetlamps. Caius focused his eyes and let the features rise from the blacked-out form before him.

  The boy was in his late teens. Seventeen at the most. His hair was much shorter than Caius’ but shaggy enough to flick and curl just below his ears. Deep shadows hung under his dark eyes and his skin had a sickly, waxen quality. He was sporting a thick black fleece, baggy jeans and boots.

  “No. No, I’m not fucking okay!” he cursed, stabbing a pointed finger to the door of the Dial-a-bite service building. “The fuckers wouldn’t even look at my CV. Said I’m too young. Too young to get bitten? What the fuck?”

  Caius’ brows furrowed. “You want to be a blood whore?”

  The teen sighed but his shoulders were still bunched with tension. “Well, how else am I supposed to find a vampire? I can’t even go to their bars because I’m too young.” He heaved out a bitter hiss through his teeth. “Of course, I tried going around asking people on the streets if they knew of any vampires but that just ended up with me being whacked around the back of the head with a purse and being called a freak.” He winced and scrubbed the back of his head.

  Caius took another step towards him, inspecting his face. The teen went back to pacing and tugging at his hair, too caught up in his problems to notice Caius slowly gaining on him.

  “You’re looking for a vampire?” he asked.

  The teen stopped dead in his tracks and met his gaze. “Yeah, you know one?”

  “I might do. But first, I want to know why you seek one.”

  The teen gulped and looked around warily. Caius nodded his toward the street. “We’ll walk and talk.”

  The teen followed as Caius headed back the way he had come from, knowing the streets he had passed were dark and deserted.

  “I’m Caius, by the way,” he said when the teen fell into a step by his side. The teen was short, coming up to Caius’ shoulder. He kept his head down, watching his feet.

  “Robin,” he mumbled, kicking a stone.

  Caius headed down an empty side street. Robin didn’t seem at all worried about being led into the darkness by a stranger which Caius couldn’t help but be a little concerned about. In times like these, it was necessary to be a little paranoid.

  “So, Robin, tell me why you need to find a vampire.”

  “I want to be Turned.”

  Caius stopped dead and Robin almost rammed right into his side. He spun around, his eyes wide and trained on the teen. Robin gulped and shifted awkwardly.

  Surely this couldn’t be happening? There Caius was looking around for a possible progeny and he ended up bumping right into one? Coincidence or fate?

  But he didn’t want to get excited too quickly. This boy clearly had issues and he needed to kn
ow exactly what they were before they went any further.

  Robin cleared his throat, cutting through the silence. “Yeah, I know what you’re thinking. I mean, people get thrown into psych wards for this.” He scratched the back of his head, looking uncomfortable. “Are you going to call me a sick bastard and tell me to fuck off? Because it definitely isn’t the first time.”

  Caius shook his head and the tension in Robin’s shoulders lifted ever so slightly. “Tell me why. Why do you want to be Turned?”

  “Why do you want to know?”

  “I can’t help you if I don’t understand you.”

  “Then you can’t help me. No one understands me.”

  Pain glistened in Robin’s eyes. Caius managed to catch it briefly before he looked down. “Try me.”

  The boy sighed. “I just want to be better.”

  “And how do you see being a vampire as being better?”

  “I’ve been bullied my whole life. And before you roll your eyes at me and tell me that’s just a part of growing up, let me paint you a picture.”

  Caius arched his eyebrow, intrigued. This boy really was trying to sell himself, like he was being interviewed for the role of a bloodsucker.

  “I had to go to hospital four times in the past two years. All completely unprovoked beatings. Like, dude, do you realise how weak the human body is? It’s bloody scary.”

  “Yet you’re still standing.” He didn’t mean to sound so underwhelmed.

  Robin blinked at him. “Yeah, I guess I’m stronger than I look.”

  “But what about your family? You would have to leave them if you are to be Turned,” said Caius, remembering how distraught Evie had been when he told her she could never see the people she loved again.

  Robin scoffed and looked up at him, his eyes blotchy and red with brewing tears. “My family? What, you mean my dad who OD’d when I was six and my mum who got banged up for dealing the stuff? That family?” He gritted his teeth. “I’ve been passed from foster home to foster home since I was ten. Never stayed in the same place long enough to grow attached. They give excuses like I wasn’t fitting in right or I saw things differently to them but I knew what they really thought. I was just a fucked-up kid that went through too much too young.”