Darkness spread over him. A darkness not unlike the gray overcast of a black cloud covering the Sun. There was a depth to it unlike any other vision he'd seen before. He fell slowly at first and before long he was diving deep within the heart of an oblivion spreading further and further across the vast expanse of the Universe.
Time was speeding up in this place and before long the events around Hank began to unfold in rapid succession. Faster and faster the arms on the clock hanging from the wall turned until they were nearly indiscernible. Then the flashing began and everything around Hank grew bright with the glow of foresight.
Moments blurred by. Jonny Cross stood in the back yard of the safe house. Hank was curious to learn just how the plan would go, if they would be able to keep the Emperor from learning the truth. But just as soon as he tried to skip forward, the moment disappeared from his grasp and a new vision took over.
A wind unlike any Hank had ever experienced spread out like a giant beast, setting buildings ablaze and melting nearly everything in its path. It was a blast of some sort. A big one. Nuclear. Had to be. It swept across the city like a line of molten dominoes. The destruction was so great and so fast, Hank couldn't manage to take in what he was seeing enough to recognize where the carnage was.
The experience shifted from a sort of detached observation to something else. In the space of a heartbeat, Hank felt the entirety of his being catch fire and explode. He wasn't just seeing some possible future, he was seeing his future. He tried to will away the sensation of burning all across his body. To put away the images flooding his brain.
It wouldn't stop. The harder he tried to fight it, the stronger the vision became.
But was this future set? Would he now be forced to live it out, no matter what he did? Or, like the death of his son, if he chose to act, would it become a self-fulfilling prophecy?
Green fire spread around Hank and rose up like a tall ocean wave ready to blast apart some lonely drifting ship lost at sea. But instead of washing him away in its destructive heat, it parted at the bottom and a small figure stepped out from the opening walking toward him unfettered by the burning, the melting, and still-moving blast spreading like a slow storm through the city.
When Toby's eyes locked with Hank's, everything else fell away in shattering pieces until nothing was left but father and son.
Chapter 28
Etched in Flesh and Blood
Awaken, my child. We must speak now.
Simon's eyes opened. The Queen stared down at him with an expression he couldn't quite discern. There was a sadness to that look but a sense of great love and devotion as well.
"What is it? What's happened?" He could sense something terrible from her. Not in words or thoughts but in the very complex emotion coming off of her in waves.
"My child, it's Jackie..." She looked away from him then, eyes downcast toward the cavern floor. "I've seen many futures, many possible outcomes and none of them..."
Simon took her chin gently then and pointed her face to his. "None of them what? Please, tell me."
"Simon, her fate is sealed. No future I can see will bring her back to you. And only one... Only... only one will allow you to be together one last time."
Simon rushed to his feet then. "Then I have to go. I have to find her and—"
"You will die." The words were stiff. To the untrained ear they would have sounded cold, uncaring. But to Simon's well-tuned hearing a sting of utter remorse hid behind a wall of forced detachment.
A deep weight dropped in Simon's chest. He'd known for some time now he couldn't possibly live forever. Not really. But he could live longer. He could choose to stay and who knew how many centuries he would watch fall out from under him. He could.
He could stay and let her die alone. He could stay and never even try to save her. "Is there any chance we can live? That I can save her?"
"None that I can see. But..." She gave him a weak transparent smile. "I cannot see every possible outcome. No one can. If you go now and choose your steps without my involvement, there is a slight chance you could create another future. But so long as I keep talking your chances drain away further every second. I already know you will go, my son. Don't waste anymore time with me. Your love has kept me safe and now it's time for me to let you go."
Simon hadn't expected to ever see tears in those ancient eyes. The stream of blood spread slowly, hungering him in a way he hadn't hungered for her blood before. Not as a lover's offering but as the nurturing gift of a mother's milk.
He moved closely and licked the stretching bead of crimson from her face. They embraced. Through the unseen connection between them, her love wrapped itself around him, giving him strength for what may come as they held each other. Now, go, child. Find her. Save her if you can...
***
She'd been watching this one for weeks now. He was the one. She was certain. He had pulled the trigger. Alexandria held her breath as she hid in the shadows of the alleyway. She'd followed him tonight to his apartment near downtown, watched as he went in the building and watched as the light of his bedroom switched on, and now she watched as he disrobed for his shower.
She felt nothing but cold calculated hatred as she, for the first time in her young adult life, watched a grown man undress. All she could think of was how she wanted nothing more but to cut him deep from one end to the other. To replace the smile on his face with a smile etched in flesh and blood.
She'd left the boys alone at home. So long as they stayed asleep—which they would, they both slept like rocks—they would be fine. It didn't for once alarm her to consider them sleeping in the house alone.
Besides... she only had eyes for Murdoch. Jesse Murdoch, Imperial Guardsman. A lowly bird on the totem pole, but that didn't matter much to her. He became her number one target when he replaced her father's head with a bullet.
Alexandria slipped out of the cool expanse of shadow surrounding her form and made her way toward the front of the building. Quietly, she jogged up the stairs she had watched him take only moments before. Something about the way the wind blew through her hair gave her confidence and the anticipation of what she would do when she stood face to face with that motherfucker was becoming cathartic. He would taste his own blood before the night was over. She would make him taste it. It would be the last thing he would ever do. Her pulse quickened at the thought. A mixture of fear and hatred and revulsion with... herself, maybe? Everything was so jumbled up inside her head these days. Not a single feeling could just be simple anymore. Everything had to have attachments to something else.
Imperial gospel music bullshit seeped out into the empty air surrounding the metal stairway from some nearby unseen open window or door perhaps. The words, "Glory to Caesar," twisted into her gut like a knife, but she let them fade to the background with the rest of the fury continually building inside her. The echoes of her steps rang hollow but swiftly with each passing floor. Just two more to go. She was almost there. The tightening of her guts was a new kind of nausea she'd never known possible. She didn't feel like she would throw up so much as she felt like her stomach would keep twisting and twisting until it strangled itself to death, taking her out in the process. The sound of nearby voices on the next floor above sent her nearly reeling into her shins. She didn't want to be seen here. If someone remembered even a glimpse of her after what she was about to do, she'd end up on a Nightly Broadcast before you could say v-a-m-p-i-r-e-s d-r-o-o-l. That was the new phrase going around in the various underground scenes for the past few months. She'd heard it more than a few times from complete strangers on the local bus and had once even heard a kid about Jeremy's age spouting it off without a care in the world. The Foederati rules and vampires drool! If an Imperial guard ever heard him, he'd be caring, all right.
The voices were getting closer. Apparently someone was about to come around the corner of the next floor, just above her. She dived back down the stairs and waited, breath held deep in her chest, as the voices grew way louder
quite suddenly accompanied by the rhythmic tapping of casual footsteps.
"—hell is wrong with Jimmy these days?"
"I don't know. I keep trying to tell him he's going to get himself killed if he keeps this shit up."
"For real. I don't think I'm gonna be hanging out around here for a while. I don't want to end up on the fucking TV with a pair of fangs in my goddamn neck."
"Yeah, I'm with ya. If he wants to get himself good and dead, that's his problem, not ours."
Two sets of shoes began making their way down the staircase directly in front of Alexandria. She took a deep breath and started toward the mouth of the steps.
"Besides, I..."
Alexandria looked up at the two boys and gave her best giddy schoolgirl grin. The two boys smiled back, dumbfounded.
"I... I... Oh, never mind."
They scooted out of her way when they crossed paths at the near middle of the stairs. She could feel their eyes on her body as they continued down the steps. When she got to the top, she made the half-turn toward the next set of stairs, keeping her eyes forward, letting her peripheral vision feed her as much as it possibly could. They were watching her all right. But not in any way she probably had to worry about. She could imagine them being questioned by Imperial Police:
Tell me again about the girl you saw.
Well... She had a really nice ass.
Alexandria smiled despite herself. Somehow the humor of her imagination combined with the thrill of why she was there and the odd sense of cheap and dirty confidence that came from being objectively admired seemed to fuel her in a way she wouldn't have expected. The empowerment of it all was so distracting that it almost took her a whole minute before she realized this was the floor she'd been headed to. She stopped and looked around at the angles of the building and the different lit up windows trying to orient herself based on what she had watched from the street. If she was gauging her location well enough, Jesse Murdoch's door was just around the corner. Wouldn't he just be so surprised to see her.
It was oddly surreal and not quite what she expected, but when she came around the corner she could make out Jesse's window as the third and last one along the wall. Why he left his curtains open to the world while changing out of his clothes in such a wide open apartment where anyone could see him was anyone's guess. She didn't want to know. Didn't care really. Just another passing curiosity as she tried to keep her mind steady. A tiny voice in the back of her head had been whispering to her ever since she heard those two boys coming around the corner. It said, "You're on the edge of a cliff and you're just about to jump, Alex. Maybe it's time to turn around.... go home?"
But she wasn't listening. And so the voice had faded more and more into the background ambience of nearby traffic and unidentifiable white noise.
Passing what she believed was Jesse's front door, she was just about a handful of steps away from the light glowing down on the walkway from his window when she slowed her pace. She crept the rest of the way to the window itself and glanced inside with as much stealth and concealment as she could pull off. The pattering of water told her he was still in the shower. Her glimpse inside confirmed it as well. The bathroom door she had watched him enter through, completely bare ass naked, stood closed. With all her courage having gone this far, with all her sheer will to do something, anything to somehow make someone pay for the death of her father, she hadn't put much thought into exactly how she would get inside Jesse's apartment.
She backed over to the door and tried the knob. Locked. Shit. She wasn't exactly a goddamn locksmith or anything. Now what?
Her eyes slid over to the window. Maybe...?
She eased back over to the square outer frame and felt for the middle of the window. When it was in her hand, she gently pushed upward to test its resistance.
It didn't budge but she kept on pushing, easing in more force with time. There was an odd sort of creaking sound from the frame of the window and it began to move upward slowly with a growing aching whine. She stopped pushing, waiting for someone to notice.
Silence closed in on her, took her breath away.
She grabbed for the base of the window again and continued where she left off, only letting her body push into it more quickly. If it were going to be noisy, might as well get it over with sooner rather than later. About a foot and a half of an opening later and the shower water stopped to a grinding halt.
Quick thumps and fumbling thudded dully from behind the bathroom door. There was an urgency to it. A quickness.
Alex was just about to turn around and start race walking for the stairs when Jesse's bathroom door opened and after he fanned the steam rolling up and out of the room to unobstruct his vision, their eyes met. Alexandria's heart thudded to an indiscernible tempo. After a moment of confusion, Jesse's eyes lit up with recognition and a smile reached his lips then faded.
He let his towel fall to the floor, his fully erect penis aiming for the sky like some awkward Nazi salute from down below. Alex backed away from the window, trying to remember how to move her legs so that they would take her away from this place.
Jesse Murdoch simply grinned and, with one hand holding on to his hardened extremity and the other brushing against the outside of his hip, he started forward for the door of the apartment.
***
Rosadelma watched as Simon rushed out of the Queen's quarters. Something was up and she was damn well not going to be left in the dark. She jumped to her feet and ran after him in one fluid motion. When she caught up she grabbed hold of his shoulder. He turned in mid stride, almost lashing out at her.
"Don't touch me."
"What's going on, Simon?"
He flashed a quick glance at her as she struggled to keep at his side. "I have to go."
"Where?"
"The old city... Necropolis. The Emperor has moved his vampires there and Jackie..." He stopped for a moment, overwhelmed by the words on the tip of his tongue.
Vampires... Rosa put her hand on Simon's back and awkwardly worked to comfort him. Without warning he stood back up and broke into a run again. In less than a second she was by his side. "I'm going with you."
"No. I have to go alone. It's too dangerous."
"I don't care how dangerous it is. I have to go."
Before Simon could take another step she grabbed hold of his collar nearly sending him into the wall beside him. A look of complete surprise took over his face.
"See... I'm stronger than you think." She sighed. "They killed her, Simon. They killed Shanene."
Recognition took over his expression and he opened his mouth to speak but nothing came out.
"They killed her and now I've got nothing. I'm going with you. I don’t care what the risk is. I don't care if I die. I'm going."
Simon nodded meekly. "All right, all right. You can go. But let me make this absolutely clear."
She straightened up and crossed her arms across her chest.
"We're not getting out of there alive."
Rosa nodded halfheartedly. This wasn't a game anymore. Either she was all in or it was time to fold and go home. That last split second of Shanene's life played in her mind again and she stiffened. "I'm ready when you are."
Chapter 29
What Could Possibly Be There
"Hey, fuckers." Jackie’s words echoed off nearby houses toward the three vampires scraping away at the roof of Frank's car. The pale skin of their ancient faces contrasted with the glowing heat of their snake-like eyes as the vampires raised their heads to find the source of her voice. They hissed in unison then began to creep forward, half floating, and half crawling along the windshield and then the hood of the car. The sight of their eyes and the knowledge of what they had done to her sister, her father, and her mother filled her with a rage beyond anything she had ever known. She lunged forward breaking into a full on sprint. All around the street debris and random items floated up from the ground in chaotic motions. A high pitched cry erupted from one of the vampires and they le
apt for her. But she was ready. She ripped into the middle one's throat in a flash of movement that sent its head careening from its body, the two falling flat to the ground.
The vampire flanking to the right grabbed hold of her arms and pulled them behind her as the other one lunged for her neck. She kicked at it, but between the one holding her and the quick pressure of the other's teeth in her collar bone, her leg barely made much of an impression. Dizziness washed over her and she fought with every thought in her mind to keep it from drowning her. She screamed with the fury of so many years of helplessness, both human and vampire, and her anger erupted into that other sense reaching out from her all around.
There was a thump and the clenching teeth grabbing hold of her released. The creature's scream quickly silenced as the chunk of concrete came down on its head, sending a spray of ancient blood in every direction. She fell backwards, barely catching herself with one arm and leaping up to her feet to find the vampire soaring through the air, scrambling to escape.
The next few minutes happened so fast, Jackie almost didn't feel the passing of time as she ran harder than she ever had before. The motherfucker would die. She would catch it and it would pay for what they had done to her family.
Frank's voice called out weakly behind her, "Jackie! Wait..." She didn't listen. Her focus was too strong on the vampire ahead of her cutting through the air like the sharp point of an airplane. Her legs were moving at full speed. Miles went by like seconds and an hour passed in windy desperation. Still the creature kept its lead on her, floating along as a pale dot in the sky. Before she realized what she was seeing, an entire city of lights rose out of the desert before her. The vampire she had been following joined hordes of others flying through the air and floating over the apocalyptic city before her. Half lit, half torn asunder, the city that had once been called Las Vegas seemed to pulse with life if that's what you would call it. Given the fact that every being propelled by that life was neither truly living or dead.
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