As soon as her eyes locked with Simon’s she blasted forward at him like a bullet. Before Simon could move out of the way her teeth were locked on his throat and she was viciously sucking the life from him. The faint yellow light within the cave began to fade as the sounds of this other queen’s suckling and the feeling of becoming lighter all overwhelmed what little sensory input Simon was receiving.
And then there was an eruption of silent movement and Simon felt his body fall to the ground as Ishan pulled her away, blood gushing down her chin, her face contorted into a raging thing. Rocks began to slice at his flesh and cool wet mud slid beneath him as he realized he was being dragged backward. He looked behind himself and saw only darkness. The Queen. He closed his eyes. Then the thought of Ishan gripped him with fear and he opened them to see the ancient vampire swinging and slashing at the other queen, each blow landing with precision but barely moving or damaging her small solid body.
Chapter 38
Spare the Rod, Hate the Child
Hank, Toby, and Whindsor came to the end of the tunnel. They were greeted with open nighttime air, several black vans, and the sounds of utter chaos. Screams and machine gun fire erupted almost immediately and before Hank knew it, a man with long curly hair and a gray polo shirt and two young girls in summer dresses with vacant eyes jumped for the three of them. Out of pure instinct Hank jumped and somersaulted over Toby and Whindsor to shield them from the oncoming attack. Before he could do anything else a blast of gunfire mowed down the ravenous-looking trio and Toby screamed. It was horrible to watch, but Hank was somehow sure they weren’t running toward them to get help.
A large crowd of people just as vacant and hungry as the three they’d just seen was surrounding them just past the black vans. One of the vans backed up and then burst forward into the crowd running down a small fraction of them. Whindsor, now openly armed with a small machine gun, yelled for Hank and Toby to get in the second van as he fired into the crowd coming around the back of it. The two jumped in and a moment later Whindsor was inside sliding the side door shut. The van took off, hands and fists slapping at the windows from outside as they went.
“Any idea what the fuck all that was about?” the driver of the van yelled back.
“Not a clue, Reynolds, keep fucking driving and pretend those are Imperial soldiers you’re about to run over.”
“Ten-four!”
The next moment there was a huge thumping as the van shook and jolted upward several times. Gurgling screams and the revving engine sent a chill down Hank’s spine as he squeezed his eyes shut and tried not to think about what was happening. Toby sobbed and Hank held him close. “It’s okay, Toby. We’re gonna get out of this. It’s okay, it’s okay.” Toby was shaking and sobbing all the more. They rocked together there in each other’s arms as the van made its way to solid ground again and sped away.
* * *
As soon as Simon’s body slid away into the darkness, Ishan turned and took another swing at Bellona. Now he would be able to concentrate completely on the fight without interruption. All around them humans tore pieces of his fellow vampires away and left them to bleed and occasionally one or two would wander up to Ishan and he would push them away or slash into them. A gurgling splash of blood that only increased the animal instinct in him to kill would follow. Bellona was swift, but he had quickly found her weakness. She was so fueled with hatred that she wasn’t calculating her moves only acting and reacting.
Her red eyes bounced up and then disappeared as she somersaulted toward him. Ishan timed his movements so that when she landed his fist struck her in the gut and sent her backwards. But before she could hit the ground she used the momentum to spin herself back to her feet and the next moment she was gone. Ishan spun around scanning every crevice behind every living being still managing to ravage in the bloodfest going on all around them. He hoped Simon and the Queen were safely below in the main lower cavern of the hive. Because what he was about to do, although it couldn’t kill them, it could trap them for an unknown amount of time.
He turned and struck the nearest cave wall with all his strength. The whole of the cavern ceiling caved in on the entire room putting out the fire in a loud never-ending crackling that made it hard to concentrate on anything else. But a moment later the sound he was waiting for belted out from the falling rocks of salt. The other queen’s voice squealed in pain. Ishan’s ears noted the direction of the sound and he leapt over and under falling rock as he went, running toward her voice. When he made it to the section where she should be, he found nothing but a huge pile of fallen rock. Was she unconscious under there?
He watched and waited for sound or movement.
Nothing.
Human and vampire screams called out all around but none of them were hers. She couldn’t be dead. He knew she wouldn’t die so easily. But he could hope she was at least knocked out. A small sound dissonant with all the others gave her away just before Ishan could react and she was on him tearing into his neck with her teeth. Ishan let out a scream of anguish and then punched her in the face, tearing her away from his shoulder, her teething taking some of his flesh in the process. He turned and jumped tackling into her midsection and sending her down into the ground with a thud that clearly broke several bones in her rock solid body. She screamed out in fury.
“You will die for what your brother has done. And then—”
Ishan punched her again. Blood spurted from her nose, a drop of it falling on Ishan’s tongue. It was every bit as intoxicating as the Queen’s but an earth-shattering revelation made it even sweeter.
He could have it all.
With that thought engulfing every cell of his body, Ishan leapt at the other queen’s throat and began to drink with a ravenous abandon only a fledgling bloodlust could match. She struggled desperately with teeth, feet, and claws.
* * *
Nearly an hour later the van sat in a dark parking lot alongside the other two. Whindsor was outside talking to the other men for a long time as Hank and Toby sat not speaking for a long time.
“Toby, I need to tell you something. It’s really important.”
Toby didn’t respond, he only stared off into space tears still sliding down his cheeks.
“I’m going to see if there is some place safe you can go until things calm down.”
Toby looked up at Hank then. “But what about you?”
“I have to help these people in any way I can. I’ll be with you soon.”
“No! What if something happens to you? What if the Emperor finds out you’re still—”
“Toby, I’m far more concerned that something’s going to happen to you right now. You have got to go somewhere safe.”
“Fuck that. I’m coming with you wherever you go. I’m not going to be somewhere else waiting and constantly worrying whether you’re going to die anymore. I won’t do it.”
Hank stood and opened the sliding door. “I’m sorry, son. But this is for your own good.” He spotted Whindsor and called out to him.
“Yeah, what’s up?” Whindsor said as he came running.
“Is there somewhere safe where Toby can go?”
“Yeah, Johnson is just about to go pick up some of the other families that need protecting, he can go with them.”
“Great. Thanks. Once he’s off with them, anything you need from me, just say the word.”
Whindsor smiled and nodded. Hank looked back at Toby. The boy returned his look with one of bitterness.
About twenty minutes later Johnson came around looking for Toby and Hank motioned for the boy to come out of the van.
“No. I’m not leaving you, Dad.”
Hank grabbed Toby’s arm and pulled the boy up to his feet. “I’m sorry, Toby, but you have to go somewhere safe.”
“But I feel safer with you, Dad. I don’t know these people and I don’t know where they’re taking me and I’ve been so afraid being away from you all this time and I’m not going. You can’t make me.”
Hank stiffened. “Hell if I can’t, Toby.” He picked up the boy from behind with ease and pulled him from the van and began to drag him kicking and screaming to the other van. Johnson followed staying clear of them, a look of concern on his face.
When Hank set Toby down, the boy immediately took off in a run and before Hank had a second to think he was in front of him. All the fear and frustration of worry had built up to a single point and now it was exploding out of Hank. He struck Toby in the face sending him to the ground. Toby lay there nose bleeding and crying.
Hank stood there, his mind spinning with guilt and grief unable to do anything else but apologize over and over, but Toby only responded by sliding away from him. “My nose.” He choked for a second and then spit up blood and vomit all in one big gush along the pavement.
“Toby, I’m sorry, you don’t understand—”
“GET AWAY FROM ME.” Toby’s scream echoed off of the nearby buildings and inside Hank’s head in a way that would never stop torturing him. Then Johnson helped Toby up and walked him to the van. Another soldier ran up with a small case and began cleaning up Toby’s nose. All the soldiers were staring at Hank with an uneasy sense of fear and disdain. Hank turned away and sobbed at what he had done. If only Toby could understand. But ultimately what mattered was that the boy was away from his father before he did even worse to the boy. He tried to focus on that much as he heard the van start up and drive away.
* * *
In a vast white temple the echoes of many footsteps and voices bounced around the room in a cyclone of confusion as Joseph stepped toward the crowd of news reporters and gathered followers held back by police officers and Imperial soldiers. Joseph waved at the crowd, a large smile on his face that transferred to theirs as they saw his gesture. His long white robe stretched out behind him as he made his way in front of the many cameras prepped for the announcement.
Everything was going according to plan and he couldn’t have been more happy with it all until a sense of falling gripped him from out of nowhere and he literally and physically fell to the ground in slow motion. Hands from every direction reached out to try and help him. Screams and cries called out to him in a low pitch of nonsense. The pain he felt in every inch of his body was not real, he knew, but that’s what made it even worse. He knew it’s what she was feeling.
Tear them apart, my love. Tear them apart before they have a chance to come after you.
A fury filled Joseph then both from his own sense of terrible loss and from what he knew Bellona was filling his soul with. He fought back against it though. Now was the time to stand and be the rock he needed to be to keep the people in line. If he showed weakness now, even more would strike back at him. And this little revolution had gone far enough.
He stood solid as stone then as he felt the last moments of her life fade away. Then he smiled and waved at his people again to show them he was back on his feet. The crowd erupted with applause. One final outpouring of love came from Bellona as she bled her last.
* * *
The blood was filling Ishan in a way he had never experienced before. He could feel his body convulsing but somehow that was so far away and nowhere near as important as what was happening in his mind. He saw times long before he had ever known, people in a cave not much unlike the hive. They were like no people he’d ever seen before. Even their faces weren’t recognizable as completely human though there was an obvious relation there. Through Bellona’s eyes he saw these people surround her and worship her and eventually die and become food for her.
She was young then, still a child. Something Ishan had never imagined such an elder queen vampire could ever be. But he’d known all along they hadn’t just come from thin air. They had been born and raised same as any other ancestor vampire. And with that thought, he wondered why there were no ancestor vampires. So far all he’d seen were human vampires waiting to court the queen. He watched, he waited and he lived through a dozen years in her skin and understood vague early languages that almost couldn’t even be construed as such. And as she grew she eventually developed into a young woman and then the need came.
She took many human vampires into herself and to their graves in the attempt to fill that need. And finally after the last of the vampires were depleted, she felt the minds growing within her. So many of them. But they weren’t like the other minds she had long been able to control. These were more connected to her in a way she had never experienced. They were part of her. And before long the time came for her to let them out into the world.
Through Bellona’s memories, Ishan experienced one of the most painful kinds of labor any creature can go through. Deep in the heart of a cave Bellona had found for herself, thousands of eggs fought to be free from inside her. It took days for them all to come out and every moment of it was torturous, but eventually they all lay in a pile below her and she covered them with her body and curled up and slept a long deep sleep.
The emotions that went through her body during this process were more varied than Ishan had experienced in his entire existence. Having centuries ago experienced human childbirth through the memories of a young Roman girl, it was obvious that even a human female didn’t encounter nearly the amount of hormones that a vampire queen did from pregnancy and on after labor.
Eventually the eggs hatched and Ishan learned the euphoric joy of giving life to thousands of children who were so connected with their mother as to be of one mind. From that moment on, there was no longer a village. The young ancestor vampires spread out into the night and decimated every nearby village within hundreds of miles. And as they grew older and the villages regrouped and rebuilt, the Queen used her powers of mind control to keep them there willing always to feed her children. And she taught the young vampires to restrain. To only feed as needed so as not to destroy the populations again.
Centuries passed and Ishan experienced many wonders from before he was born and the desert became a place of great religion. The nation of Israel grew around Bellona’s little cave and before long the villagers were worshipping a new god. But this was good for Bellona. It helped her keep herself and her children hidden.
And then the Romans came. They conquered the people there and made them follow Roman laws and pay Roman taxes. She watched it all from her hole in the ground.
Years went on and then time within Bellona’s life seemed to slow down. Ishan had lived enough lives through the blood to know that he was about to experience something very important. Late one night one of her children went out to feed when it came across a strange unkempt man following it. Ishan and Bellona watched through the vampire’s eyes through Bellona’s familial connection as the man’s eyes blackened completely and he overpowered the vampire and drained it of blood. The vision disappeared completely as though the connection had never been there in the first place.
Bellona mourned for several weeks before sending out a multitude of her children after the man. It took another few weeks before they found him, but when they did, they brought him back to their mother. Bellona surfaced from deep within the cave to find the man bound by nearly twenty of her children. He was fast and he was strong. Faster and stronger than her children but not her. Her mourning had ended in anger and yet now that she saw how strong this man was a new desire overtook her.
She took him that night and yet he survived. She had never known such a strength in a male and couldn’t help but respect it. To want it for herself.
“What are you?”
The man never spoke. He didn’t seem to know even the faintest form of language. Judging by the memories she experienced from his blood, he had been alive for a number of centuries longer than her. And yet he was not like her. He was more human and yet not. He simply looked at her with blood lust. And in her desire she couldn’t stop herself from giving in. She would let him feed of her often and when she hadn’t the strength she would give up one of her children instead. And always it was worth it to watch his strength and power. And then came the day she felt it
stir within her womb.
A new solitary mind.
Chapter 39
The Shadows of Deja Vu
After a long while standing and sobbing, a hand gripped Hank’s shoulder.
“Hey, are you all right?” It was Whindsor’s voice.
“Yeah. I will be anyway.”
“You did what you had to do. We don’t have much time and the last thing that kid needs is to be out in the middle of this shit.”
Hank nodded and wiped his face. Whindsor held out his hand and Hank took it and got to his feet.
“Look, right now we’re all set so if you want to go be with your son, it’s okay. If we need you I can radio into the safehouse for you.”
Hank thought about that for a long moment.
“I mean, you don’t look like you’re really fit to deal with this right now. I mean I’m sure you could, but maybe—”
“It’s okay. You don’t have to explain to me. I think I will go and at least apologize to him. I owe him that much. Thanks, Whindsor.”
Bill nodded.
“And I’ll be back soon.”
“We’ll be here… Maybe not all of us, but we’ll be here.” And with that he saluted to Hank and Hank, unsure how to respond, simply nodded.
They sent him off in the second van with a handwritten address, a pistol, and a stake-gun. He wasn’t quite sure what to think about the stake-gun. He didn’t imagine it could do much against anything more than maybe the ancestor vampires. He set both firearms in the passenger seat and started the van and then drove off for 2515 Franklin Avenue.
When he arrived, the place was much larger than he expected. But then, who knew how many people they were holing up in the place. Hank took a long look at the firearms and got out of the van, leaving them behind. In the dark the building looked almost dark brown, but as Hank stepped from the van and came closer, he could see it was more of a dark rust color. When he was at the front double doors he found the small rectangular box to the left of the doors and opened it. Neon green numbers sent out an eerie glow from inside. Hank typed in the keycode written on his hand. As the door unlatched and he went inside, he quickly wiped the numbers away from his sweaty palm just in case.
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