Empire of Blood [Box Set]

by Robert S. Wilson

  The fear gripped him then from all directions as he added on concern for both Ishan and the Queen to his already panicked dread that he wouldn't make it in time to save Jackie. He pulled up on the steering wheel of the plane in the hopes that a higher altitude would get them there faster.

  Chapter 30

  The Weight of Knowing

  A community center building rose out of the darkness up ahead as Frank's Lincoln sped toward the far end of Cedar City. It had been the best chance she could think of. They could drive and drive but they wouldn't get far before either the vampires or Imperial police caught up with them, which probably wouldn't be long. She swerved the car into a residential street right before the building, found a nondescript spot and parked the car then killed the engine. In the heavy silence she sat there hoping against hope that this would work.

  "We're going to hide in that building over there. There's a basement floor that might, along with the distance, hide our scent from them. But we need to go now. Every minute we're out in the open air, we strengthen the trail for them."

  Frank nodded. "Eye-eye, captain." His attempt to hide his sheer terror failed with the crack of his voice. Jackie said nothing and the two got out of the car and went running for the building. When they got to the door, Frank tried pulling on the handle to no avail. "How the hell are we going to get in there?"

  A look of effort flashed in Jackie's eye and two swift metal clicks sounded within the door. Frank tried the handle again and it moved without resistance. He opened the door and they both ran inside.

  When the door closed behind them, it clicked locked in the very same way it had done the opposite.

  After passing several wood-finished doors, they came to a large wide stairway to the right that led down into the basement where Jackie's parents had thrown Karen's tenth birthday party. The flash of memory was complicatedly painful as she remembered the horrible jealous way she had reacted to how her parents had lavished such affection on her sister. Back in those days she had often envied Karen for being the younger one who had taken away all the special attention she used to receive before Karen was born. She knew now that had all mostly been in her head. Her parents had loved her so much and she had taken it for granted for so many years and now...

  She pointed to the stairs as they came upon them and she and Frank turned and stepped quickly down into the darkness.

  ***

  What was left of the Cedar City airport would have to be enough, Simon decided as he angled the wheel down. If it were possible for a vampire to be more pale, Rosadelma was just that. Simon had anticipated a rough landing but this was ridiculous. The wind was bad enough as it were, but the airport was no exception to the destruction that had come to this city. The moment before the front wheel of the plane struck into the broken up concrete of the landing strip, Simon took a deep breath. Rosadelma gasped as the plane slammed into the runway wheels first, rocking and shaking the entire way. Simon held tight onto the wheel, easing in on the brakes. One slip and the plane would surely lose control. The landing gear wouldn't last very long against the amount of rocks and debris on the runway.

  The steering wheel went from shaking violently to moving beyond human control. Lucky for both Simon and Rosadelma, neither one had been human for a while. Simon gripped with all he had and felt the buckle of metal somewhere unable to do the same. There was a great convulsion throughout the plane and it began to wobble to the left as it continued to zoom forward on the runway. Great, that's one wheel blown. Simon let some of the gentleness out of his foot as he pushed down on the brake pedal. The plane began to veer to the left, and though it was slowing, it was still charging with considerable speed.

  Almost unexpectedly at that point, the jet began to slow significantly. A dozen or so parked planes of different shapes and sizes littered the concrete ahead as Rosa and Simon's plane headed right for them. About five hundred feet away from the other planes the second wheel blew and they started skidding against the pavement. Then in jerking motions the plane began to actually slow to a point of rest. One more immense heave forward and it finally stopped. Simon and Rosadelma sat staring at the nose of a large commercial plane mere feet from the tip of their own.

  ***

  Jackie and Frank sat curled up together under a large oak table in the basement of the community center building, waiting. It had been at least a half hour now and by Jackie's best guess they would find them any time now. She had lost hope quickly that they would somehow pass over their scent here once in the building. The place was void of any other living scents from at least months of having been abandoned. They would probably stick out like a sore thumb on a hand full of severed fingers.

  She hadn't told Frank this and so he seemed to calm down some. Maybe he would fall asleep before they came. Not that it would matter. They would surely wake him when they tore him apart limb from limb. She'd seen their handiwork enough times. She had grown an odd sort of respect for the Queen's ancients, but there was still a ravenous animal instinct within them. And these ancients seemed all the more predatory and wild. The images of what they had done to the bodies of her sister, her mother, her father... The smell of it would never leave her no matter what. Not that she had much longer before the lights went out.

  She wondered what Simon was doing at that very moment. She was conflicted then as to whether she had any regret about leaving him there and taking off like she had. She thought that she did. But it was so overpowered by the memory of what she had found. Ignorance was only bliss without the longing. And for her the longing had never stopped, so she had taken a chance. Now she would pay for it with her life. That was easy enough to regret, but it wasn't really the source of what she was feeling.

  She wasn't afraid to die anymore. She just wanted one more moment with him.

  Before long she fell into a daze as Frank's snoring lulled her nearly to a slumber of her own. But she never managed to fully sink into unconsciousness.

  The smell came first. Haunting the air around her. There were at least a dozen of them. Ancient and human vampires alike. Then came the scratching on the ceiling and Frank awoke in sheer terror, gripping onto her as if there was something she could do to save him. Even through two floors it was loud. Something exploded from above and a huge cloud of dust rushed into the basement from the wide open stairway. They were inside. It was only a matter of time now. Jackie took hold of Frank and with a swift movement he surely couldn't have expected, she knocked him completely out. At least this way he had a chance of not being conscious for his own death.

  With the amount of stale blood on their breath, Jackie could have smelled them coming from Montana. She did her best to cover Frank over with some blankets she had found in a utility room. Then, after taking one last look at the crumpled heap he lay beneath, she turned and walked toward the stairs, defiance dancing its way into every step she took. She may have been a little brat when she first became a vampire but that sense of rebellion still ran through every vein in her body. The difference now was in what she rebelled against. She had a true cause now. One she'd be willing to die for. And that was lucky enough as it seemed she would surely pay that price soon.

  Six ancient vampires soared into the room, floating on the air, murderous expressions clutching their gaunt faces. Jackie let her hatred consume her and with barely a thought, dozens of small wooden chairs came sliding across the hardwood floor from across the room then jumped up into the air toward the vampires. Four of them managed to dodge the chairs while the other two were knocked down to the ground. Jackie lunged for the nearest vampire, teeth first. She barely missed its shoulder as she flung past and the next thing she knew her powers were holding her there in the air just floating like the rest of them. She smiled. She might not make it for very long but she was damn well going to give these fuckers the fight of their undead lives.

  Two of the others came around behind her as the one she nearly grazed lunged for her this time. She rose up high above them all and with a
wave of fury from her mind, she sent bronze trophies and glass-framed pictures hurtling at them in a cyclone of destruction. Two of the vampires were minced to pieces while the other two managed to barely escape. She hung there in the air just taking in the whole of what she had done. She felt truly empowered for the first time in her life. "You assholes want some more?"

  The two vampires hanging back were joined by another dozen or so in quick succession, the new arrivals popping in from the smoke-filled stairway. She knew there were more of them. Were they testing her? Trying to see how dangerous she was. She certainly felt dangerous. Random shards of shattered glass rose into one giant wall at her command and floated still. She willed it forward in one huge gust and the vampires scattered to escape. Half of them never stood a chance while two of the creatures turned to avoid the glass and ended up flying into more. The remaining vampires, about three, went flying for the stairs. Jackie sent her body careening after them.

  At the top of the stairs, in the main hall of the building, she stopped dead in her tracks. Her confidence had taken such a boost that she hadn't even thought about what she was doing. Before her stood, on feet and in the air, about a hundred vampires, ancient and human, staring her down, waiting for her to make a move. There's no fucking way I can make it out of this...

  Jackie hovered there for a long moment, sure her expression was near to laughable. But not a single one of them was smiling. She may not have the upper hand but they sure as hell didn't take her abilities lightly. Her eyes wandered around the room behind and around the enemy vampires. Windows littered the place high above them all. She knew she would need an extra boost of oomph to shatter them all simultaneously. She let her memory of Karen fill her up, from days when she was alive to the moment Jackie found her eviscerated corpse.

  A solitary scream rose up from the back of her throat and every window in the room exploded, sending huge glass shards in all directions. Her mind reached out and created a perimeter around her, deflecting glass as it flung toward her. The vampires that weren't torn to shreds were still covered in so much glass and blood they couldn't manage to come after her. And yet still she knew her time was almost up. Too many of them were healing already, throwing the pieces of glass that didn't manage to fully destroy them aside as they lunged at her from both the floor below and the air around her. She shot forward toward one of the open windows, hoping to lead them out of the building when one of the ancients caught hold of her right ankle and gripped with iron, bringing her flinging toward the blood and glass-covered floor.

  She hit the ground hard, causing her arm and collarbone to snap. The human vampires on the ground closed in on her.

  "She ain't so big and bad, after all," a tall male vampire with one blue eye and one green eye said, tongue pushing through the gap where his two front teeth used to be.

  "I be getting a good taste o' her first, laddies, so don't go gettin' greedy," another said, his bright red hair shining in the glow of the street lights coming through the void where one of the windows used to be.

  Jackie's bones began to snap into place. She screamed. Several of the human vampires laughed while about a dozen ancients floated above the others, watching, waiting. Jackie moved to a sitting position and began backing away on her hands behind her. The men moved closer. A female vampire, long black hair and silver shining eyes, stood smiling, chewing bubblegum, large hooping earrings hanging down from her ears. "She don't look so tough..." The girl stooped down and reached out for Jackie, but Jackie slapped her hand away.

  "Get away from me."

  The girl laughed and looked back at the other vampires. "Oooh. We got a fiesty one here. Did you see what she did to my hand." They broke out in laughter. Jackie turned and leapt into a run for the door, but the girl was fast. She lunged for Jackie and hooked her arm around Jackie's neck, pulling her back against the girl's chest then tightened her hold. "Ah, ah, ah. Where are you off to, eh?"

  Jackie fought and fought, but the girl was strong too. She had Jackie in a vise-like grip, squeezing her neck near enough to break it. The redheaded male came walking up in near dance-like steps, sliding onto the floor as he moved closer, then reached out and grabbed Jackie by the chin. "You ain't gettin' away lassie. Oh no, uh uh, you ain't." He grinned, blackened teeth nearly camouflaged in the dark recesses of his mouth. His breath was rancid from more than just blood. Jackie had heard that some vampires would eat the flesh of their victims. If she had to guess, she would say he was one of them.

  He came close then, drawing an imaginary line along her throat down to her jugular. "I'll fix 'er right up real quick. Yeah. Drain the bitch." The rest of the vampires began to argue among themselves, fighting for who would do the honors of ending Jackie's life. She squirmed once but the girl nearly took off her head she squeezed so hard.

  The redheaded vampire turned to his grumbling cohorts and laughed. You wan' 'er, come through me an' get 'er." There was a crazed look in his eyes. Then he turned and went to grab her chin again. A great gust of wind came through the windows and the next thing Jackie knew the place seemed to explode with activity. She couldn't make out what was happening. All she knew was that something was in the room with them and the very next instant vampire after vampire were dying before any of them could see it coming. She took the moment of distraction and slammed her elbow into the girl's stomach, sending her careening for the floor, still pulling at Jackie's neck. Jackie spun around and kicked the girl in the face, then screamed out her fury once more, lifting her body on the air and launching herself toward one of the windows. That was when she remembered Frank.

  She turned and just as quickly blasted her way through the still dazed and confused crowd toward the stairway. Two ancient vampires tried to block her way but she managed to slip in between them and leave them struggling to keep up. At the bottom of the stairs, just beyond the bodies and the glass and the blood, a single ancient vampire was reaching for the pile of blankets on the floor. Jackie shot forward and grabbed the vampire's arms from behind, pulling the creature into a full Nelson. She turned and flung the thing at the wall. It struck the hard surface and fell. When it landed it immediately rose to its feet and wiped the blood from its nose. Just before Jackie could do anything though, the vampire disappeared before her eyes. She turned and turned, eyes searching every corner of the room for where the vampire might have went. A moment later, there was a new gust of wind and Simon appeared standing before her, his body seeming to blur into being.

  Their eyes met and he opened his mouth to speak but before he could get a word out, she was running into his chest and wrapping her arms around him. He held her tightly against his body as she melted into him.

  Rosadelma came walking down the stairs, clapping her hands. “Did you miss me too?”

  ***

  "Mr. Cross, I've been alerted that your heart rate has become dangerously fast. Please work to calm yourself. If you should die out there in the middle of nowhere, your sister will be of no use to me."

  Jonny's pale hands were nearly welded to the steering wheel as he broke into a cold sweat.

  OhmyGodohmyGodohmyGod! This fucking plan isn't going to work!

  Julie's face was all he could see now as he tried to keep his eyes on the road in front of him. He took a long deep breath and held it in. When the twisting and writhing in his stomach seemed to quell some, he let it out. "There's something I have to tell you, sir."

  There was a long calculated silence before the Emperor spoke. "Yes, Mr. Cross? What is it?"

  A long bead of sweat dripped down the side of Jonny's face.

  "Is there something I should be concerned about, Mr. Cross?"

  Part Three: A Passion Unquenchable

  Chapter 31

  The Meddler

  The Imperial church stood lone and tall in the darkness, its window eyes twinkling with the reflection of pale blue moonlight. George Nelson stood watching those eyes, imagining that they were watching him back. He'd been in this godforsaken place for months no
w and his heart hardened more and more with every foul thing he witnessed. But his was work that had to be done. In order to destroy a great building, you must take it apart brick by brick from within. George was doing that, brick by brick, so to speak. When the church acted against the innocent, George would do his best to find a way to make it right. To find them shelter or a way to escape the clutches of the Imperial police. Tonight it had been a young Jewish couple. A neighbor had overheard them talking about the Torah and reported them to the Imperial church. George had held back the report long enough to get in touch with a friend from the Foederati and when the Imperial police arrived at their front door, no one was there to be found.

  Last week it had been atheists, a few days prior to that it was Foederati sympathizers. Then there were the moral accounts. Even if he didn't agree with the person's actions, that didn't give the church the right to dictate their judgment. Judgment was God's alone to deal out. And Joseph Caesar might not have been a man, but he was hardly a god. No matter what he told the people to believe.

  George had also taken it upon himself to meddle with Imperial paperwork and spread anonymous rumors about particularly nasty Imperial clergymen and women that typically led to them losing their positions or worse. He couldn't really control how severe the punishment ended up being, so there was a risk in getting someone hurt. Although it was the last thing he wanted to do, that risk was worth it for what he was able to accomplish. On one hand he often felt guilty for the deceit he was creating, on the other hand, he knew his actions were done for just reasons. That and seeing the effects of his work made every day of it worth it.