"Did you actually believe you could do anything to hurt me, Mr. Evans?" He laughed. There was an odd sense of tension in his movements and his voice. Regardless of what he wanted to believe, or what he was trying to convey to him, Hank could see that Joseph was afraid. Afraid for probably the first time in his unknowably long life.
***
Ishan wiped the Queen's face of sweat as her body convulsed. "Push."
"I am. I am," she screamed out. He moved back over to where her legs parted, to where the child slowly released from her opening. "You're almost there, my love. Push once more and I think you'll have this one out." The Queen clenched her teeth together and grunted, every muscle in her body tensing and the child's body began to come out. Ishan put his arms beneath the tiny little body and took hold of it as its legs came out with a loud suctioning pop. The Queen was breathing hard then and lying back. "I'm so tired. I can't. I can't do anymore." Ishan stared down at the beautiful child in his arms. She looked just like her mother. Almond eyes of black and skin a pale shade of olive.
He brought the child over to her to see and she looked at her own reflection in the infant's eyes and face. Ishan reached down and severed the umbilical cord with his fangs and turned away with the baby to the makeshift crib he had set up beside the Queen's bed. The baby was quiet, but very obviously awake. Her eyes stared all around in wonder. Ishan was overwhelmed with more emotion than he had ever known possible. He lay the child down gently and smiled. "She's beautiful."
The Queen gripped his hand then quite suddenly her hand fell at her side and her eyes rolled away into the back of her head.
"My love! No. You have to stay with me." Ishan put his hands on her belly then and sent out waves of power. The yellow glow of his healing illuminated the curve of her body and the sweat upon it. She trembled then and gasped in one long breath of air. Her body rose to half of a sitting position and her hands quickly grabbed the bed behind her. A long moan of pain erupted from her voice and Ishan went back to her womb. The next head was already halfway out. Tears ran down Ishan's face as he reached forward and waited for the child to come out.
Chapter 59
Melted and Withered
The world around Hank was slipping away. He no longer had the energy to pull the stake out of his stomach even if he could focus enough to find it. Part of him was screaming, but he couldn't hear anything that told him it was actually coming from his physical voice. The Emperor watched him, waiting for him to die. Hank could see the bastard’s eyes, staring like a frightened boy who's just hit a snake with a long stick. Backed away to see if the thing will die before it can reach out to bite him. The image gave Hank strength. He's afraid of me. He's afraid of me. He's afraid of me. Hank kept repeating those words in his head over and over. Trying to keep himself awake before his mind could slip away into the ether.
Now his voice was screaming. He could hear it loud and clear. The Emperor jumped at the suddenness of it and began to back away. Hank's hands felt over his body blindly until they found the device pushing its way deeper into him. He grabbed hold of it with both hands and his scream became more guttural as his muscles tensed and his hands pulled and pulled and... It was loose now. The device was loose, but there was so much blood. Hank screamed again with all the fury inside him. He let every moment since the death of his son come together inside his mind and inside his heart and crash into each other into one large terrible emptiness that reached out of his body and took hold of his hands and pulled with him. And then the device was out completely and falling to the floor. Hank was still bleeding but his body was healing. It was slow and agonizing but he could feel the flesh reaching to close. He looked up at Joseph Caesar who was now backed against the wall staring with a mix of fury and horror.
Their eyes met and Joseph’s face changed into the face of a tiger ready to rip into its prey. Caesar lunged at Hank and with what little energy Hank had regained, he swiveled and just barely moved in time to grab Caesar's body and toss him away. Joseph landed on his feet without missing a beat and came charging back at Hank. It was Hank's turn to run, hide if he could. He turned and lunged for the open doorway he had ripped through just minutes before. He barely stepped foot out of the room before Joseph grabbed him by the throat from behind. Hank smiled. "Go ahead, tear into me, drink!"
"Try as you might to tempt me, Mr. Evans, I haven't lived through eons to be led into darkness by the simple taste of revenge. We both know your blood is tainted. But I can snap your neck all the same." He tried then pulling and twisting, but Hank sent one hard elbow into the Emperor's ribcage that sent him stumbling several feet backward and grabbing hold of himself. Still slightly bleeding, Hank extended one leg out and kicked Joseph in the same spot he had just crashed his elbow into. The Emperor screamed and fell forward, clutching his chest with both arms.
The wound in Hank's abdomen was down to a single pinpoint now as he circled around the Emperor's crumbled body. All he had to do was bite into the man. Let the venom take over. Just one quick motion and all of it would be over. Hank hesitated for just a fraction of a second and then moved and before his mouth could make contact there was a flash of movement and Hank was flying through the air and crashing down into the far wall.
"So very close, Mr. Evans. So close, indeed. But you must learn that he who hesitates will die with his regret."
Hank sat up gasping to regain his breath. It came in one quick burst and he began to pant. "I'm... not... done... yet..."
He lunged at Joseph again and this time the Emperor twisted around and in one flashing motion broke Hank's right arm in three places before sending a swift blow right into the tiny place still unhealed from Hank's wound. Hank screamed.
"Mr. Evans, you disappoint me. You make so poor use of the training I gave you. So poor use of the power at your fingertips."
Hank stood there letting his body heal. The bones in his arm snapped into place and he screamed. "I would much rather be a disappointment to you than the alternative. Do you think I value anything you have to say? Anything you care about? Anything at all?"
Joseph merely smiled in response.
***
Something was wrong. The Queen once again went limp. Ishan reached down and put his hands on her legs and sent the power of his healing through her yet again. Nothing happened. He let go of her and cradled his face in his bloody hands. Crying out, his voice ricocheted off of the walls of the cave and back again. The little baby in the makeshift crib began to cry. If the Queen didn't wake up, the other baby might not make it. Ishan closed his eyes and laid his hands on the Queen's belly once more, sending out every ounce of power he possibly could. At first nothing happened and then slowly there was a flutter here and a flutter there and then her body was trembling with the sensation of it again and now in one quick gasp of air she rose and their eyes met.
***
The Emperor was on him then, the creature's ghastly hands gripping around Hank's throat squeezing and crushing and squeezing and crushing. Hank gasped, but no air could go into his mouth. He fought but Joseph had him pinned, the bastard's muscles like solid steel holding him tightly. Lights began to pop in and out of Hank's vision. Lights that grew into glowing balls and stretched out like lightning in his internal vision. The lights became colors that wrapped around his entire head and haloed over the Emperor's blackened eyes.
"It's okay, Mr. Evans. Just let it all... slip away. There's nothing to be ashamed of. Nothing to be frightened of. Just let the life inside fade. No one has to know you gave up. No one will ever have to know. It'll just be our little secret. Just let the light take you and go peacefully into the void and you won't have to struggle any longer. No more suffering, no more screaming, no more hurting. Just let go."
It was so easy. He could do it too. He could feel himself slipping. The world around him coming apart at the seams and emptying itself of his presence.
"Yessss... Very good. Just let it slip away. There's nothing for you here now. Your son is truly dead. Y
our unborn daughter never lived to take a single breath. They're both gone and you can go and be with them now. Just let go."
The Emperor's words were curling up into Hank's cocoon and wrapping their way around his body and making him warm. He was right. He'd had to kill his own son. And was it true? Was little Diana gone already? Did she never even have a chance to open her eyes or take in one single breath? The cold bitter thing still alive in Hank's mind wept at the thought of it. He'd never even known she was coming. The Queen had predicted a new litter of vampires. Of ancients. But even She couldn't see everything. The visions sometimes tricked even her. For whatever purpose they had if there was one. If they could even be capable of having their own purpose.
Hank shuddered. He thought of the child that could have been. She couldn't be dead. Couldn't be. He had to know. Had to find out for himself. He flexed his arms with the need of it. The sheer will to know the truth. Slowly he pulled his arms out from under the Emperor's pinning legs and grabbed hold of the monster's fingers still wrapped around his neck and squeezing the life out of him.
Joseph's clawed fingers came away slowly and Hank gripped the man's fingers and pulled them back, breaking several at once. The Emperor screamed out. He jumped away just before Hank could make another move. Climbing to his feet, Hank glanced around the room. Joseph was nowhere to be seen. Hank took a moment and let his senses focus. Soft silent footsteps led away from the room. Hank turned and leapt toward them, landing on Joseph's back. He grabbed Joseph by the neck. Just as quickly Caesar threw Hank off of him and back against the wall. Hank slid downward, landing in a sitting position.
"How do you know?"
Joseph turned then, an eye raised in Hank's direction. "How do I know?"
"How do you know that Diana is dead?"
"Because, Mr. Evans... I entered the launch command myself. By now all of New Orleans is melted and withered under a pile of ash."
The surety in Caesar's voice told him it was true. Grueling hopeless despair washed over Hank from head to toe. He felt himself sinking into something deep and unending. A place where no light can shine and no heat can warm.
Chapter 60
One Fleeting Glimpse
Hank lay there on the floor, tears blurring his vision and every ounce of hope within him spent and dried up to nothing. Joseph stepped closer, watching him intently. "I'm not sure which will be more satisfying. Watching you die or watching you suffer as you do here and now. Regardless, I will remember both fondly."
The Emperor’s words went through Hank as he sat there letting every horrible moment in his life reawaken to haunt him at once. He had struggled so hard for so long only to fail. It had always been fated to end this way. How he could have ever expected anything else, he didn't know. He lay there, waiting for Joseph to finally get it over with.
To take him to that place where his children waited. Where Toby and Diana his daughter and Diana his wife hid beyond the threshold of this world. Joseph sent one hard blow into Hank's stomach and all the air left him again. Then, kneeling down, the Emperor grabbed Hank's face and pressed the back of his head against the wall and stared into his eyes, that deathly grin cast on his face again. Then with his other hand he grabbed hold of Hank's throat. Once more, the world around Hank began to slip away.
***
The pain was unbearable and the need to slip away into that dark canyon beyond the animated world was strong inside the Queen's heart. But she was almost there. The second child, Hank's child, was coming now and she could feel him out there somewhere losing strength as she had moments ago. Sinking down into a pit of emptiness and death.
She reached out then with her mind far away to where his heart still barely beat. Electric impulses of sight and hearing and touch and love stretched out from her and through miles of wind and rain and cold and hate and fire and death and screaming, it connected with him and she let the whole of her experience go into his heart and mind.
She watched as the child's head came free and Ishan looked up at her with such love and light and then the arms were coming out and the body and slowly he pulled the legs from her and raised the child in his arms and placed the little thing in front of her and she took it and held it and let her eyes wander over its tiny body.
And for that moment, encapsulated in time, she gave Hank the last breath of her strength and she breathed no more.
***
Hank's eyes opened. His shoulders pushed and pushed and his hands freed themselves and he pushed his fingers against Joseph's face with something beyond his own strength. Something new and pure and filled with love and power. The Emperor screamed with the shock of it then rose to his feet and backed away holding his face.
Hank was up on his feet now. He stepped closer and closer to the Emperor as the creature blindly staggered backward, reaching behind himself with his hands, his eyes now white, blood red splotches shaped like Hank's hands stretched out around them.
"You were wrong about Diana. She lives. I just saw her birth for myself. She lives and she is strong and so am I. And now it's time to finally do what I came here to do. It's time to end this. For Toby, for my wife and my daughter, for every life you've taken, for every soul you've corrupted. For every heart you've torn out and eaten before the bearer's eyes with that greedy sickening grin of yours. It's time for it all to end."
Hank’s words reverberated around the room as he reached forward and took hold of the Emperor's neck and pulled him close. The thing before him screamed out like a banshee, still blind to everything around it. Hank took hold of Joseph's head with his other hand then and felt the fangs extend within his mouth.
He thrust his face forward and clenched his teeth onto Joseph's throat, willing the venom out. He could feel it spraying out of him and into the Emperor's veins all throughout the monster's body. Spreading. Joseph's body began to quake in Hank’s hands and within seconds it went still.
Hank looked into those pupilless eyes. Some semblance of movement was still visible within them but it was fading quickly. The hand still holding up the creature's body could feel his pulse running in and out of its neck. He wasn't dead just yet but he would be soon. Hank picked up the body and flung it over his shoulder. He had one more thing to do before it was too late. One last thing.
***
The world blurring and tearing around him, Ishan reached gently beneath the tiny child's body and lifted her up and carefully kneeled down and placed her in the makeshift crib alongside her sister. The two babies lay there kicking randomly and staring at their little hands. Both mouths were open, one adorned with two long fangs like her mothers, the other void of anything that would allow it to be discernable from any other human child.
With both children lying in the crib, Ishan rose and turned to his lover, his mother, his everything. She lay still, eyes staring into the void. He took her hand in his then and buried his face in her chest and, as the tears threatened to flood his face and fill his lungs, he shook with the impact of her loss.
***
Hank picked up the camera sitting in the heap of junk. He had a hunch there was a way for the Emperor to transmit live from it and he was about to find out just how likely that hunch was. Joseph's body lay on the floor shaking with slow violent convulsions as Hank searched around the room. On the wall, half busted, a long flat television was embedded. It took him a few minutes to figure out how, but he managed to find the flat invisible buttons just below the screen and turned it on. Fires erupted behind explosions, and gunfire and Hank knew he was watching the current news. More and more bloodshed and all for what? So this monster lying on the floor could have some kind of ultimate power over these people? So he could live for thousands of years and lord over those he felt were beneath him?
It was beyond anything Hank could understand. He flipped the switch on the camera that said LIVE and after a short few-millisecond delay, the screen on the television turned dark with the image of Emperor Caesar's broken and crumpled body lying in a pile of debris. H
ank zoomed in on the man's pale and withered face. He grabbed the camera’s built in microphone and pulled it over to his mouth.
"This is your lord and savior, Joseph Caesar. His body is breaking apart from the inside. In just a short moment he will no longer live and you will all be free. Free to worship as you choose. Free to rebuild what was once a great nation either in its own image or into something entirely new. You will be free to start again without fear of reprisal or death for doing what one man has declared a sin. Watch carefully as his breath runs out."
Caesar's chest rose and fell three more times then his body twitched upward and in one quick jolt, he exhaled one long loud gravely breath.
***
Dustin sat hiding in the shadows listening for some sign that anyone else had survived. It had been a complete massacre. The vampires disappeared first and then another wave of Imperial soldiers came in firing and within seconds the whole place was on fire. Some other bomb or something, he wasn't sure. He only knew he couldn't feel his left leg and it wasn't likely he would live much longer anyway if the Imperials found him like this. He took a deep breath and held it so he could listen.
Nothing
The streets were on fire still. Cars, buildings, everything. Bodies were scattered all around him.
A gleeful cry broke out into the night, filling the silence with its joy.
Dustin was sure then that he was about to breathe his last. He turned his head in the direction of the voice and more cries erupted from just up the street. A figure dressed all in black half walked, half marched between the flaming cars and buildings holding out an Imperial flag. Dustin tried to scoot himself to where he could hide but it was no use. The creature crept closer and closer, a massive grin spread across its face. It locked eyes with Dustin then and quickened its pace.
Rising From Ashes: Empire of Blood Book Three (A Dystopian Vampire Novel) Page 30