The Earthborn (Mythos of Cimme Book 3)

by CJ Flynn

  She faced the sky, her white hair whipping furiously around her face, as the storm loomed closer. Closed in on two sides... the sun to the east and the snow to the west.

  “I feared darkness when I was a small child,” Meletine said, her voice ringing out. “And I have spent an entire millennium fearing the sun. No more.”

  The sun spilled over the rocky beach, bathing the vampire in light. She did not scream, and her body crumbled to the rocks. The wind scattered her to the sky and the earth.

  Chapter 30

  The storm that blew across was short-lived and we made it out of Nuuk on another commercial flight with a cargo add-on. I let my mind wander as the drone of the engines filled my brain. I had logged more miles in the past six weeks than in my entire life and hadn't enjoyed any of it. If I let myself, I could look at the whole of the last year that way.

  The flight out of Copenhagen was several hours out, and I would be alone in the airport while Daniel waited in the cargo box. I grabbed food and a coffee before heading to a row of empty blue chairs in front of a wall of glass overlooking the tarmac. The lights glittered as a dusting of snow fell across the pavement, and I enjoyed my food in silence. Somehow, making it out of Greenland felt like a milestone. Perhaps Meletine had kept her word after all.

  I finished my food and disposed of my trash before checking my phone. Four hours until boarding time. I would need to shop or something at some point, anything to reduce the risk of insanity. For the moment, I returned to the chairs, laid out my belongings, and took a seat. I watched the people who passed by, some strolling leisurely and others hurrying as if they were late to the most important moment of their lives.

  After several minutes, I noticed a woman staring at me from across the airport. She had the pallor of a vampire and long white-blonde hair.

  I let my vision shift to confirm it, and nearly flinched when I saw the red aura. I didn't know who she was or why she was staring at me, but I suspected it wasn't a good thing.

  I slowly shifted my body to gather up my things, watching the passersby and hoping I could find a decent-sized crowd to lose myself in. Finally, I saw a steady stream of passengers from an arriving flight, and grabbed my bag up in time to disappear into the crowd.

  I followed the flow until the nearest escalator. I wove my way through the airport, keeping the hood on my jacket up. I found signage for an attached hotel and bolted to it, hoping a room would give me a brief cover for a while. There was no telling if the female vampire would do anything if she had recognized me. I checked in after an expensive swipe of one of the credit cards Daniel had given me. It didn't have my name, and wasn't linked in any discernable way to Sorrell's organization. I couldn't afford to have them tracking my movements on a personal card.

  After a panic and reprieve in the hotel room, I was finally close enough to boarding to head back to my terminal. I took a different path than what had led me to the hotel, and just as I was handing over my boarding pass at the gate, I saw two tall men, dressed head to toe in black, heading across the terminal.

  I scrambled with my pass, moving towards the plane as fast as I could. They would doubtless check the New York flights, but there was no telling if they'd been able to secure boarding passes. I buckled into my seat and waited as the final passengers boarded. No scary guys in black suits entered the plane, and I breathed the smallest sigh of relief as the door finally closed.

  Safe. But not by much. And only for now.

  We arrived back in New York and I arranged delivery of the cargo to a hotel I had booked before leaving Copenhagen. I would meet Daniel there, we'd ditch the box, and get back to Sorrell's estate.

  My little red car was waiting in the parking garage, exactly where I'd left it, and the packet of blood samples stashed in my suitcase were calling out for the final phase of testing. We were out of the city as soon as Daniel arrived at the hotel.

  * * *

  The witches and Ernie still had their strong hold over the Estate. It glowed with sunshine in the surrounding dark world. We crossed through the magical threshold and I felt a familiar, comfortable energy wash over me. I didn't fear the sun, and I never would.

  Daniel gave me a small grin as we separated at the main entrance. “You will be in the lab all night? You are sure there's nothing I can do to help?”

  “I'll be in the lab until I solve this,” I replied, taking the shoulder bag he offered me. It contained my notes and books. And the blood samples. “I'll let you know if I need something, but it could be a while.”

  He didn't say anything for a long moment, but he closed the distance between us and gave me a deep, lingering kiss. “You will solve this,” he said.

  My mind swirled as the memory of his lips lingered on mine. The solution felt so close, and I wondered what life would be like afterwards. The price to pay for Ben's cure would be extremely steep, but I knew it would affect more vampires than just Ben. I watched Daniel smiling in the sun, and I knew it would be worth it.

  “What are you going to do?” I asked, trying to bring the conversation down to something manageable.

  “Sit in the sun as long as they'll let me.”

  * * *

  Erika Weiss was waiting for me in the lab, exactly as I'd asked. “You have her samples?”

  I nodded. “Yes. And something else.”

  I removed the vial of blood from around my neck and laid it down on the lab table. “She claimed it was the blood of her maker.”

  Erika took in a sharp breath. “There is no record of her maker,” she said. “But it was rumored he was amongst the first of their kind.”

  I stared at the bottle, wondering what magic held such old blood in stasis. “We need to test it, too, but we need to figure out a way to keep the bottle intact. I only want a small sample of it. We shouldn't need much.”

  Erika nodded and took the samples from me. I had taught her how to work the basic test, and she had become my most trusted lab assistant and historian.

  More waiting.

  * * *

  I sat at the lab table, watching as the initial analysis of both vampires' samples flooded my screen. As I'd come to expect, Meletine's blood bore the same identical markers as the other vampire samples, but to my surprise, her maker's sample yielded only a partial match to the markers. Parts of the DNA were unrecognizable as anything related to humans.

  I reread the test.

  A light knock on the locked lab door pulled me away from the screen. I turned my chair and stood up, anxious to stretch and begin my own processing of what I'd seen. I unlatched the door and opened it. Ernie Haden stood outside, looking deeply uncomfortable and completely exhausted.

  “Allie, is this a good time?”

  I offered a small smile. “Depends on what it's time for.”

  “There's a visitor here to see you.”

  I sighed. I wanted to work, not visit with anyone. “Who is it? What do they want?”

  “Just come with me. It's worth the interruption.”

  I removed my lab coat and hung it on a hook inside the door. I smoothed my hands over my hair and gestured to the stairs. “After you.”

  We climbed to Sorrell's study in silence. I could see the back of a man's head in one of the tall wing-back chairs that faced away from the door.

  Ernie nudged me forward at the same time as the man stood from the chair.

  My visitor turned to face me, his hair even grayer around his temples. He wore thin, wire-rimmed glasses and his eyes were as familiar to me as my own.

  “Hello, Alexandrie,” he said.

  My father.

  Chapter 31

  “I'm sure we have a lot to talk about,” he said, his voice shaky.

  I stared at him, my heart hammering so hard I could feel the blood pulsing in my temples. Fear washed over me as I tried to make sense of what was happening. My father, after all this time, was alive. Standing in front of me, wearing gray slacks and a sweater vest under a blazer. He looked like a professor.


  I let out a sound that maybe was a laugh and I searched for the right words. “That's the biggest understatement of my entire life.”

  “Alexandrie—”

  I shook my head, pushing down the anger and frustration that were threatening to make an appearance. “Please don't. Just call me Allie, like everyone else does.”

  He nodded, just once. “Allie, then.” He turned to Ernie and gave him a small smile. “Can we have some time?”

  Ernie nodded and quietly made his way out of the room.

  My mind burned. I had so many questions, but I didn't know what to ask first. I wanted to be angry, or... something. But as I stared at him, the only thing I felt bubbling up was deep, sweet relief. I wasn't alone. This man, even if he'd been absent for so long, was someone who knew me. I sighed as the tears ran down my face, feeling like a little girl again.

  He held his arms open and I nodded before crossing over to him and wrapping my arms around his back. Everything that had been building inside of me in the last weeks come bubbling up and out, and I hiccupped as I held on to my father. He was here, solid, real. He patted my back and hugged me tighter.

  “I'm sorry, darling. I hope you know that I only ever did what I thought was best. There's so much I couldn't tell you in my letters, so much I couldn't say.”

  I nodded, letting my tears fall on his gray jacket. “I know. I do.”

  We stood there in silence for several minutes, hugging each other. I had never given myself a chance to think he was alive after I'd first met Anita, if only because I'd felt so long as if hr must already be dead. I'd been angry with him for a long time, and sad, and hurt. But for a bit, all of that fell away. It was just my father and me. And for now, that was enough.

  After the tears had stopped, I pulled away and dried my face. I wanted to talk to him, wanted to hear everything that had happened to him in the last years, tell him everything that had happened to me — I let out a sigh. So much to cover.

  “Did you know I thought you were dead?” I asked, finally deciding on that question because I just needed to speak.

  He nodded. “Yes. Not much happens to Anita that I don't know about. I know what she would have told you. I'm very glad you finally met her.”

  “Does she know you're alive?”

  He shook his head. “No one does, except for Ernie.”

  I didn't know why, but that made me feel a tiny bit better.

  “I'm sorry, darling. I truly am. I know these last months have been impossible for you.”

  The tears welled in my eyes again. His words of warning, his attempts to help me through time and space, swirled through me as I stared at him, trying to catalogue every square centimeter of his face. He had grayed since I’d last seen him, but his clear, blue eyes were as sharp and bright as ever. His forehead was wrinkled, and he hadn't shaved in a few days. Even his hands looked older, the skin thinner. I blinked away the tears and nodded. “Your journal helped.”

  “Good. I had no idea if it really would.” He held his hands up to his face. “What I see... it's not like watching a movie. It's so different.”

  I let my vision shift and saw for the first time how brilliant and vivid his blue aura was. The power and energy came off him in waves. I held my hand out and he reached out to touch me. The energy pulses deepened and I could make out the sorts of visions he had. Like fragments of a dream, or pictures torn to pieces.

  I dropped my hand and my vision returned to normal. “How do you make any sense of that?”

  He smiled. “Practice. Have you accessed my other journals? The jump drive?”

  I shook my head. “I can't break your encryption. I have a friend working on it.”

  He offered me another smile. “Let's see about getting it back, then. I'll be happy to give you access.”

  It seemed like such a mundane request, but I knew it was anything but. I dropped into a chair and put my head in my hands as the reality set in. My father. Was alive. The jump drive would be no big deal, and the Sorrell—thing—seemed smaller too.

  He sat next to me and awkwardly patted my shoulder. “Are you alright?”

  I laughed again. “Just in shock, I think. There's so much I want to ask you.”

  “Well, we've got a lot of time for all that.”

  “Why now?” I asked, shifting forward in my chair. “Why are you back now?”

  “I know what you're trying to do, and I want to help you.”

  I raised my eyebrows. “You know?”

  “I think everyone who's ever heard the word vampire knows what you're trying to do now. Ernie's little sunlight trick isn't exactly subtle.”

  “What do you think?”

  “If your friend Harding was half as smart as he seemed, I think he already did most of the leg work.”

  I nodded. “Yes. He did. I'm just trying to trace the genes, I guess. I think if we can figure out where the initial mutation occurred, I can engineer a retrovirus that can fix it.”

  My father nodded. “And how far back have you gone?”

  “To Lillith's maker.”

  He let out a low whistle. “I'm not sure you'll be able to go back much further than that without looking at someone who isn't a vampire.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “The Druids are responsible for the vampires, and the shifters, and all the rest of us. Do you think they conjured the first vampire out of thin air?”

  I shook my head. “Of course not. They would have used—” I closed my eyes as frustration burned through me. “They would have used themselves. Obviously. I can't believe I didn't think of that.”

  My father offered me a small smile. “The Druids created all of their creatures to try to solve some problem within their society. Immortality was their first desire.”

  “I need to get a sample of Ernie's blood.”

  He nodded. “It's worth a look.”

  Within twenty minutes, I was seated in my lab, facing Ernie, who was perched precariously on a small stool. He had rolled up his sleeve, and looked dubious of the process.

  “I don't think this will tell you much,” he said. “I'm not the same kind of druid as they were.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked, taking out several collection tubes and lining them out on a small tray.

  He frowned. “I'm sort of washed out, I guess. My mother was a witch, and my father was druid. It's been many generations since there were enough of us to have a pure druid. I don't even understand most of what they were capable of, let alone actually use any of it.”

  I tried to catalogue this tidbit away, but a hundred questions jumped into my mind. I had so many questions about the druids, but for all his seeming-omniscience, I was starting to get the sense from Ernie that a great deal of it was a mystery to him as well.

  I knew that the best place to start was the DNA.

  I motioned to his arm and held out the small needle. “Let's see what we find.”

  * * *

  I'd finished the initial cleanup of Ernie's sample when I heard a loud knock at my lab door. “Come in,” I said, setting down a test tube. I had set the agarose gel again, and would be comparing the two oldest vampire samples I had to Ernie. I still wasn't sure what I would see.

  “Allie?”

  My father again. I smiled. “Come in. Your timing is perfect. I need a break.”

  “Glad to hear it.” He had moved into the room and was standing near the end of my lab table. “Do you need any help?”

  I shook my head. “Not yet. Maybe once I have the results.”

  “What's going to happen next?”

  I shrugged. “A miracle, I guess. I'm hoping I have enough to work off to write that retrovirus. The vampire DNA rewrites the host DNA, and I need to have something to work from if I'm going to reverse that. An original sample isn't enough, apparently. Harding tried that and it didn't work.”

  “What about your friend?”

  “You know about Laura?”

  He nodded. “Harding was able to cure her
, yes?”

  “He was, but Ben and Laura were at very different parts of the transformation. For Laura, it was like fighting off a cold. Ben is basically dealing with stage four cancer by comparison.”

  “And you think Ernie's DNA will give you what need to allow that rewrite to happen?”