by Raven Steele
“Good, because killing friends really sucks, you know?”
I lifted an eyebrow. “You think you could take me?”
He laughed. “I was talking about you killing me. I’d hate for you to live with that crushing guilt.”
I chuckled and turned my attention to all the different camera views of the city. I had to admit, this was super helpful. I stared at each one of them, watching people walking in and out of camera angles. I frowned, noticing there weren't as many people as usual. It was almost dark. The night crowd, at least on the north side of the city, should be fairly numerous by now, but there was only a handful on the streets, and those who were left were walking quickly with a hint of nervousness to their steps.
"Where is everyone?"
Oz's voice lowered. "Very few go out after dark anymore. It's too dangerous. People are scared."
I gripped the armrest of the chair until it shattered beneath my grip.
"Easy there, Dracula. I don't want to have to blow more of your money than I have to."
I bent over and picked up the pieces and tossed them into the trash. "Tell me everything you've learned."
He opened a nearby drawer and pulled out a flash drive. He handed it to me. "It's all on here. Everything about the Principes Noctis’ leadership, where they go, who seems to be in charge. It'll take you a few days to go over everything as I’m pretty detailed. I like to take spy notes."
I stuffed it into my pocket. "Tell me about Victor. What has he been doing this whole time?"
"He still runs some things, but I think he's been sidelined with all the vampires coming to town. He's not the big badass he was before. Sure, he still strikes fear into the hearts of Coast City residents, but he's just not as relevant."
"Why do you think that is?"
"Couldn't say. I kinda miss his D bag ways. At least you knew what to expect with Victor. This new group, they're too unpredictable and attack for no reason. They have these places set up all over the city…" his voice trailed off.
"What places?"
"I don't want to give you all the dirt too soon. Just look at that drive when you get a chance."
I almost insisted, but then I remembered I needed to speak to Jordan. When he had shown me around Victor’s house while I “investigated” Oz’s disappearance, Jordan had seemed like a decent guy. But time would tell. I’d scope him out first to make sure he could be trusted. And if he couldn't, I’d kill him.
Chapter 7
I pushed up from my chair and walked back to Rebecca. She had styled Amy's hair the same as hers, two long braids separated by a zigzag part down the center of their scalps.
"You ladies look lovely," I said and bowed my head, trying hard not to inhale the scent of Amy’s blood. I needed to find more to drink so I could stop holding my breath around her and Oz.
"We just need matching outfits now," Amy said.
Rebecca laughed. "I’ll pick up something soon." She looked up at me. “When do you want to go?”
"There’s someone I need to see, and then you can show me around.”
She shrugged. "Fine by me. I hate being out on the streets any more than I have to. Meet me at the entrance to Pigtown. We should start there."
I nodded my head and dropped my gaze to Amy. "I didn't have time to tell you this last night, but I brought you back a few things from my time with the Ames de la Terre."
Her eyes lit up. "You did?"
"When I return tonight, I will set them out for you. I think you will like them."
She jumped to her feet and threw her arms around me. The suddenness of it made me gasp, and I inhaled a quick breath. The smell of her blood rushed into my nostrils. My eye teeth elongated, but I growled low, forcing them to retract. I patted her on the back and stepped away.
After saying goodbye, I left Ironwood, traveling fast in the tunnels beneath the city until I reached my garage on the south side of town. Ever since I had returned and saw my 1965, black Mustang, I had wanted to drive it.
Moonlight filtered through the dusty windows, and I breathed a sigh of relief at the sight of night’s darkness. Where the sun drained me, the night invigorated me and made me feel stronger. I looked forward to walking among the shadows, wrapped in night’s dark cocoon.
My car looked the same, but as I slid behind the steering wheel, I realized it smelled like fast food and black licorice. Oz. I snarled, anger flooding me, but then I tempered my mood, reminding myself how much he had done for Ironwood and the city in my absence. A smelly car was a small price to pay.
I drove fast through the warehouse district hugging every turn and accelerating at the straightaways. When I reached the edge of the city center, I slowed down, not wanting to draw any attention to myself. My identity must stay secret for as long as possible.
Just like I'd seen on the cameras back in Ironwood, most humans stayed off the streets. Vampires, however, roamed freely. They were easy to spot among the few humans. They had an unnatural stillness to them, almost as if they were statues, but a hungry look in their eyes always gave them away. I couldn't wait to start killing them. This thought sent a wave of pleasure crashing through my body, but I shook my head to still it. Samira had warned me to control those urges. They could lead to an insatiable desire for blood, something my blood donor, Elizabeth Bathory, had suffered with.
The second I entered Pigtown, I was shocked by how much worse it had become, something I would never have thought possible. At least there were more humans here compared to outside of Pigtown, but these ones were different. They were the drug addicts, most likely to rhino dust, whose addiction was far stronger than fears they might have toward anything supernatural. But they weren’t alone. Whenever I spotted a human, vampires were there too, often two of them to one human. Even in the darkness, I could detect bite marks on the humans’ arms and necks. Had this been Victor's plan all along? Fill the city with drugs, get people addicted, and then bring in vampires for an all-you-can-eat human buffet?
I hated him even more at that moment and regretted not killing him when I had the chance.
I turned down the next block. The Devil's Playground was just up a head. It was a large structure looking more like a castle with gray stone and iron trim than any kind of traditional nightclub.
On the same property, at least one hundred yards back was Victor's home. I couldn't see it through the tall fence surrounding the grounds but knew it was there having been there a couple of times before. Jordan, who lived with him, should be inside, but I wasn't about to go there and find out. I needed to get Jordan alone, where I could tell if he was lying to me or not.
I parked half a block away and waited, hoping he would leave the place and go into Pigtown. After about thirty minutes of just sitting there and feeling like I was wasting time, I realized there was another way. I picked up my phone and called Oz. When he answered, I said, "I need to get a cell phone number for someone. Can you do that?"
He laughed loud and long in the earpiece of the phone. When he stopped, he said, “I accept the challenge. Give me a name."
"I need the number of a guy named Jordan who works with Victor. He lives in Victor’s home too.”
"I know exactly who you're talking about. One second." In the background, he typed onto a keyboard. It took almost a full minute before he said, "I've got it. Jordan Sanchez. His number is 283-4959. What do you need his digits for?"
"I'll tell you later." I hung up and dialed Jordan's number. When he answered, I said, "I need to see you. Meet me outside."
"Who is this?"
I hesitated, wondering what I should say.
"Never mind. I know who this is. Victor said you might be calling. It's safer if we don't meet here. Do you have a car?"
"I do."
“I'll meet you on the northeast corner." The line went dead.
I parked at the corner across from the street and waited. About ten minutes later, I recognized Jordan's large frame walking down the sidewalk. He was the opposite of Victor's
normal thugs who were always tall with muscles as big as their heads. Jordan was several inches shorter than me and probably weighed twice as much too.
As he approached, I rolled down my window so he could see my face, then rolled it back up. He sauntered across the street and slid into the passenger seat closing the door behind him. He barely fit. "Drive away from here like you’re heading out of the city. We need to make sure no one can listen in. Nice ride, by the way. I wouldn’t have guessed."
I pressed on the accelerator. He said nothing else until we reached a residential area on the outside of the city. He turned to me, shaking his head. "I can't believe you're actually alive. Victor himself barely believed it even when he was telling me. But here you are."
"I need to know the truth.”
"I'll tell you, but first I want to know how you’re alive. People still talk about how many bullets were drilled into you before you finally came down. Victor himself said your heart had stopped beating. So how are you here?"
"I wasn't alone that night. After everyone left, they brought me back."
He narrowed his eyes and scrunched his nose. "I don't think so. Victor would've sensed someone else."
I leaned toward him, one hand on the steering wheel, while I summoned my vampirism to my eyes. The air in the car pressurized, and he shrunk away in fear. "Are you calling me a liar?"
He lifted his hands. "No problem, man. No big deal. It's all the same either way. You're here, and now everything is going to change."
"How long have you known Victor?"
"I was just a young kid, barely thirteen, when Moretti himself brought me into his gang. I never knew my father, and my mother had just died. I was the perfect candidate for him."
I glanced over at him briefly, wondering what that must’ve been like to be raised by a mob boss. Moretti ran the city before my father killed him and took over.
Jordan continued, "Moretti wasn't the nicest guy, as I'm sure you've heard. If I didn't do exactly as he said, I was often beaten. It was your father who freed me. Jonas was an okay dude for a long time, and I even helped him take down some of Moretti’s locations."
This surprised me. I hadn’t spoken to many people who personally knew my father.
"It was through your father that I got to know Victor. When Jonas Crow was out fighting crime, me and Victor would often shoot the breeze playing video games or whatever. After Jonas went rogue, it was Victor who took me away from it all. He could see what was happening to Jonas, the whole power-trip thing and knew things were going to get worse, especially when Jonas started working with the Principes Noctis. There were many nights when the two would fight about it, and one time it came to blows. Jonas was too strong and broke Victor's jaw. That’s when Victor decided the only way to stop his best friend was to also take V proteins. He had me steal it from your mother's lab. He was pretty upset about lying to Daisy, but he didn’t want her to know."
I pulled over into the last gas station before entering the freeway heading out of town. I turned to him. "When did he inject V proteins?"
"A couple of years before your parents were killed. No one knew."
"Why?"
"Because he needed the element of surprise. He knew your father was getting in deeper with the Principes Noctis, and there was nothing he could do to stop him. He wanted to make sure he was strong enough to get you and your mother safely out of the city. He figured he was going to have to fight Jonas to do it."
"Do you know what happened that night my parents were killed?" My fingers curled around the steering wheel until my knuckles turned bone white.
He shook his head. "No one does. Victor has a theory. "
"Which is?"
"The same night your parents died, Victor was going to sneak you and Daisy out of the city. A few weeks before this, your mother had asked him how to get her hands on a bomb. He had pressed for more details, but she wouldn’t say another word. Sometimes he wonders if she had found one with plans of killing Jonas. I don't know why she would want to use a bomb, though. Even Victor thought that was harsh. She still cared for Jonas, as far as he knew."
I leaned back in my seat knowing exactly why she would want to kill him with fire. She wanted to make sure he stayed dead.
"After your mother died," he continued, "Victor was devastated. He wasn't sure what to do, and for the first time, he talked about leaving Coast City. But then the Principes Noctis found him. Somehow, they knew he had V proteins in him, and they offered him the same deal they had given Jonas."
"What was the deal?"
"They were going to make him a ruler over humans, but in return, he had to keep humans under control, by drugs or whatever other means he wanted. They didn’t want any of them interfering in vampire business. I guess they had been trying to transition the city for some time, but Moretti, as bad as he was, couldn’t quite get behind the idea of vampires in Coast City. But Jonas, he identified with vampires and came to believe he was part of some grand race, even though he wasn’t really one of them. Victor thinks Bastian, the guy in charge, promised Jonas the chance to become like them. All he had to do was provide some of his blood to Bastian for testing.”
He inhaled a breath and continued. “After Jonas died, Bastian ordered Victor to keep up the work. They saw V blood as a way to create soldiers for them that could rule humans during the day, something they aren’t able to do themselves. As far as Bastian’s concerned, that’s a vampire’s only weakness—daylight. Bastian also hoped V blood would lead to creating vampires who didn’t go through the typical new vampire out-of-control bloodlust thing. It’s hard to run a city with those things running around.”
"So, just like my father, Victor sold his soul to the devil for a sliver of power.” I shook my head, disgusted with all of them.
"Not exactly. Victor knew the Principes Noctis were coming to Coast City one way or the other. He wanted to stop them, but he was only one man, and Bastian was far more powerful than him. He decided the only way he could help the city was by delaying them as much as possible. Meanwhile, he also began to study his blood, trying to find a way where he could become a full vampire, putting him on an even playing field with the others."
"So both sides are studying V proteins but for different reasons." I leaned my head against the driver’s side window. Too bad they didn't realize the answer was right in front of them. All they had to do was inject V proteins, then die. Or maybe they'd already tried that and failed. V proteins had to bind to the right kind of DNA, or all kinds of problems could arise, including death. I had tried to find what that connection was while on the Bisou Islands, but never could, even with Roman's help.
"I don't get it," I said, as my head began to ache. "Victor has hurt and killed a lot of people. He also introduced a drug that’s destroying the lives of many people. You can't tell me he did that for the greater good."
Jordan glanced out the window, his eyes full of regret. "I’m not defending Victor. He’s not a saint. Far from it. In his mind, he justified his actions by saying it was the only way to keep an eye on the Principes Noctis. He also introduced rhino dust, convincing the Principes Noctis to give the people time to become addicted. Then vampires would have a free supply of fresh blood and wouldn’t have to fight humans for it. He did this to stall for time. He hoped that during the years it took to manufacture and to establish a strong drug network, he would figure out a way to become a vampire. But while waiting, he became lost and did things he wouldn't have otherwise. Victor has many regrets.”
The pain in my head spread, feeling like blades were scraping the inside of my skull. The idea that Victor had been trying to do the right thing all along was not something I could comprehend. "And killing Kristen? Was that part of his plan also?"
"He tried to save her, but Bastian insisted she be killed in front of you. He said if she didn’t die, then Emma would be killed too."
My heart skipped a beat, as a surge of anger pulsed through me. "What do you know about Bastian?"
"But Victor hurts his own people."
"For being disloyal, yes. He plays his role well, a little too well sometimes. But the Physician is always watching him."
We sat in silence while I tried to make sense of everything I’d just heard. Could it be true or were these all lies? He appeared to be telling the truth, and yet, the idea that Victor was trying to do good this whole time was too farfetched.
After a minute, I asked, "What does Victor want from me?"
"He wants you to help him take down Bastian. If we can destroy him, we can drive the vampires from the city. There is one small problem, though. Bastian has a powerful witch that follows him everywhere, making it near impossible to get near him."
I remembered the witch. I had met her briefly when Bastian had spoken to me on the docks. I had sensed her power even then before I was a vampire,
"Let’s say Victor’s successful somehow,” I said. “Then what? He takes back control, and we’re in the same situation we were a year ago."
Jordan shook his head fiercely. "No. Victor will leave if you let him. He wants nothing more to do with the city."
"What makes him stay here at all? If what you’re saying is true, he owes the city nothing."
"It used to be all for her, for Daisy. Now it's for you." He turned in his seat and stared at me pointedly.
"Me? He owes me nothing."
"You are her son. He is here to help you in whatever capacity you need." He faced forward again. “In some ways, he thinks if he helps you, he’ll make up for not being there for Daisy when she needed him the most.”
"I don’t want his help. The thought of working with him makes me sick.” Even as I said the words, my stomach turned over.
"He wants to meet with you as soon as possible," he said as if he didn't hear me. "He knows the best way to cause the most harm to the Principes Noctis."