Exsanguinate

by Killion Slade

  “But why?” I pressured.

  “She’s afraid there isn’t going to be enough food supply soon at the rate the rogues are reproducing. There’s too much nuclear activity on the planet. She’s preparing for an apocalypse.”

  “Nice! I like this Queen.” Naomae laughed. “Anyone willing to get rid of a few more vampires in this world is fine by me. But what worries me is what will she do with this army after she purges her rogues. Will she attack the Were Community next? I need to contact Queen Ayame about this. Come, boys, let’s get out of here and let them sort out their own problems. Harris, we’ll need to talk later. Keep us informed.” She turned and morphed back into her blonde wolf form once again and fled into the darkness. The rest of the pack followed her into the night. We could hear them howl as they faded from sight.

  “I’m sorry, Chey.” Harris hugged me. “Naomae can be a little, intense.”

  “So what’s next? What do we do now?” Sheridan asked.

  I kicked a dead dhampir with my toe and looked at my sister. “I guess we plan for a baby.”

  Everyone stood silent for a few moments.

  “I don’t know,” I finally said, “We need to find some way to locate where they’ve taken Dakota. I wish I had thought to tag her with a GPS device. She called out for help when they were taking her away.” I turned to look at everyone. “Did anyone else hear her cry out for help?”

  “We all heard her, Cheyenne.” Khaldon stepped closer to me and put his arm around my shoulder.

  I shrugged him off. “No matter what she’s turned into, she was frightened and didn’t want to go.”

  “Other than obvious, what’s wrong, Cheyenne? Are you hurt?” Khaldon stepped back with a look of surprise on his face.

  “What’s wrong? You have the balls to ask me what the hell is wrong, loverboy?” I stepped into his face and poked my finger hard into his chest. “Reward you later? So pleased you have delivered all of the sisters … does any of that ring a bell?”

  “But I told you that was all lies. You can’t believe what she said?”

  “I don’t know what to believe anymore.” Overcome by grief, I finally had to let it out. “How could you be in cahoots with this … this weasel?” I pointed to Ludovic. “How could you be lovers with Amicula? How could you do this to me, to us? Why would you betray your race?”

  “What? I don’t understand.” He winced. “I didn’t know anything about this, Cheyenne.” Khaldon grabbed my arms and tried to pull me in close. He lowered his voice to almost a whisper. “You have to believe me.”

  “Oh, do I now, really?” I exploded out of his grasp.

  “Cheyenne, I can explain.” His palms up in surrender. “Or I think I can explain. I’m just as shocked as you are about this. Honestly, I am.”

  “Why is that? Because she outed your relationship?” I said with a sneer. Disgusted, I turned my back on him and to hide my bloody tears.

  “No, not at all. I told you that first night, in complete transparency, that we were once together, but that was over three hundred years ago.”

  I bit my lower lip and started to walk away. “What does that have to do with me and my sisters and how you have betrayed us?” I yelled out at him.

  “Bollocks, Cheyenne. I didn’t want to have to tell everyone this, but Amicula drugged and raped me the other night.”

  I one-eightied on my heels, and everyone else looked up at him. The collective look on our faces reflected my shocked surprise.

  “From what I understand, it’s the second or third time she’s done it to me, and I had no idea that it had happened.” Khaldon ran his hand back through his hair and rubbed his neck. He looked at each of us. “That’s the only reason why I can figure out how Sheridan is pregnant with my …” he swallowed hard, “my children.”

  Sheridan made the “T” sign with her hands. “Time Out! What the hell are you talking about?”

  “Okay, there’s a lot to tell you, but you gotta hear me all the way out, okay? You can’t jump to any conclusions – do you understand?” Khaldon took another deep breath. “Regardless of what I’m going to say – we need to keep in mind that we’re dealing with sick, lunatic vampires.” Khaldon pointed at Ludovic.

  Ludovic looked at the ground.

  Khaldon continued, “We all know that Amicula works for her Aunt, Queen Civetateo. The Queen is located in the Amazon Rainforest somewhere. They keep her hidden for her safety against other supernatural beings who would like to dethrone her.”

  “And this Amicula chick, the Priestess, is her niece?” Briggs asked.

  “Yes, that’s right,” Khaldon continued. “That night when I didn’t return from Mordez Moi, I didn’t tell you the complete story. Amicula drugged me and took me to her beach house out on Cocoa Beach.”

  A hard lump began to grind inside my throat. I didn’t like where this was going.

  “At the bar, she did tell me about the Queen’s plan to purge the vampyric race, but that wasn’t all she revealed.”

  “I’m sorry,” I stammered. “I don’t understand why it caused you to be alone at her beach house.”

  “Cheyenne, you need to hear the whole story.” Khaldon grabbed my hand, but I wrenched it away. He furrowed his eyebrows at me.

  “It’s all right, mate. Just tell us what the mental bitch did to you.” Torchy touched his shoulder.

  “She slipped the lunar blood to me at the bar. Once she drove me out to her place, she bound me up with silver bindings – arms and legs to the four posters on the bed.” Khaldon breathed in a huge breath and exhaled forcefully. “All I can figure out is that she must have given me more of the Solunarae lunar blood, just enough to make me lose control. When I woke up, she was gone. I found myself tied with one arm to the bed, and I had been … ridden.” He looked at me sideways. “She left this note on the table.”

  Khaldon pulled a crumpled piece of violet stationery out of his pants pocket. The letter reeked of her perfume.

  I crinkled my nose from the pungent spice.

  Harris sneezed.

  “Basically it says, thanks for the little swimmers. I’m off to go take care of the sisters.”

  “Fuck me, I dinna expect that!” exclaimed Torchy.

  “Are you fuckin’ with me, bro?” Briggs snorted. “You mean the bitch slipped you a roofie and milked you dry with a cock pump?”

  “What the holy fuck?” Harris grabbed both sides of his head and nervously pulled at his hair. “She seriously raped you?”

  I looked at Khaldon for a long breath and began to laugh out loud. I pointed at him in my hysteria. “You … you honestly expect me to believe that? That you, a man, could be raped? You know you had me buying your story for a minute.” I laughed so hard, it made my ribs ache. Nobody else joined me in my doubtful laugh.

  “Fine, whatever, Cheyenne. You know I’m sick of this bullshit myself.” Khaldon raised his voice, and bitterness stamped every word. “Bloody hell, I sure as fuck don’t need this kind of shite from you, or anyone else, ‘cause I didn’t ask for it!” he screamed at me. “It is what it is and that’s it.” He poked his finger hard at me but didn’t touch me. His furious energy exploded all over the rest of his words. “I don’t like this any more than the rest of you. You can refuse to believe my rape if you want. But the truth remains …” he pointed at Sheridan, “she is pregnant with my progeny, and there’s no telling how many more eggs they took from her, mated them with my sperm, and impregnated those other women we rescued last night with our children!”

  Everyone stood still as a statue. I looked at Sheridan, Torchy, Harris, Briggs, and then finally at the only person who might have answers.

  Ludovic stepped towards me with his palms up. “Cheyenne, I am very sorry.”

  “Sorry? You lousy piece of shit. Do you see what you have done to all our lives? Can you possibly imagine the sheer amount of grief and pain you have caused in thousands of people? How do you live with yourself?”

  “I don’t. I’ve been numb for
an awfully long time. That is why when I met Dakota, she changed something in me. I want to make things right, but I don’t know where to begin. But that is not the issue right now.” He swallowed hard and pulled an electronic tablet from his back pocket. The one he used to access the breeder’s records. “Regardless of what I’ve done, Khaldon speaks the truth. The Priestess records the video samplings and sends them to us for the chain of custody. The specimen containers are numbered and labeled for when they arrive here at the lab, along with the videos.”

  “You honestly expect me to believe this crock?” I shook my head in disbelief. “Why would she do this?”

  “Here, watch it.” He swiped on the screen and navigated to the breeding facility intranet website. Ludovic handed me the small tablet. “You’ll understand when you see it.”

  My eyes widened with horrific shock at how this insanity could possibly be true. I looked at Khaldon. He didn’t meet my eyes. Everyone gathered closer to watch the video.

  “She tells us how much Prophenol she uses on each donor.” Ludovic continued to describe the procedure as if he saw this every other day. “Then she tells us how much of the lunar Solunarae blood she used to keep them conscious, but still wild. They have no memory of what they do.”

  Illuminated on the screen was a still image of Amicula and a test tube. I pressed the play button and what Ludovic explained was exactly what happened. Khaldon was tied to a vertical rack with a bench in front of it. His eyes glowed red.

  I took in a deep, rushed breath.

  Khaldon looked down at the ground and walked away from us. I stole a glance at him as he stared up at the sky. I had to finish watching this video. I had to understand.

  My knuckles turned white as I held on to the tablet. Amicula placed a vacuum pump onto Khaldon and turned on a timer. Within seconds, the orgasm release was over. The pump sucked the semen and deposited it into a test tube. Amicula wrote on a sheet of paper. ‘Next deposit in seven minutes.’ There were two entries already on her list with exact times next to them.

  “How many times has this happened?” Sheridan asked.

  I looked over at Khaldon and then back at Ludovic.

  “This was his second time, but there are two more videos. The latest one was three days ago when she drugged him at the bar,” Ludovic explained. “But he isn’t the only one. She does this to men all over the world.”

  “Are you feckin’ kidding me?” Torchy exclaimed. “Blimey, how long has this been going on?”

  “How many deposits does she normally collect when she does this?” I shook with fury.

  “They have been doing this for close to five years now. Normally there are about four deposits per vial she sends.” Ludovic swallowed again. He looked over at Khaldon and pointed. “Khaldon is lucky. We’ve seen videos where the donor doesn’t have much to offer. Let’s just say she gets angry. We have videos of castration because the donor could not please her enough. The guy never knew what hit them. They would either die or wake up castrated. But they’re all on video.”

  Khaldon had squatted with his head in his hands.

  “Do not destroy this.” I handed Ludovic the tablet back.

  “On second thought, give that back.” Sheridan snatched the tablet from Ludovic. “I need to know who is the father of whom and what. We need to try and help these guys as much as the women. They are all victims. I can’t believe how inhumane she is to people.”

  “That’s because she isn’t human, Sheridan,” Torchy added. “She couldn’t care less what she does to them.”

  I looked at Khaldon, uncomfortable and horribly angry with myself. I’d had defiled him in front of our best friends. He risked his life for me. There was no telling how many men he had killed here tonight to help rescue Dakota. He’d had been a pawn in this woman’s wicked games longer than any of us had.

  What a terrible jerk I’ve been. I doubted him in his most vulnerable state.

  I walked towards him, knowing that whatever I said most likely wouldn’t matter. I could never repair the damage between us now. He stood up, turned his back on me, and looked out over the water. I reached my hand out to touch his shoulder but retracted. He took a few steps away.

  I’ll be surprised if he ever talks to me again. How could I be so damn unkind? Why didn’t I trust him?

  I reached out again and gently touched his shoulder. He grabbed my hand and pulled me in closer to him.

  “I’m so sor …”

  He turned around and shushed me with his finger. “Shhh … m’lady. Don’t. I would have done the same thing.”

  He leaned down and put his forehead to mine. Tears escaped my eyes and dripped down my nose.

  “I’m sorry, too. We’ll find a way to get through this.” He grabbed my shoulder and reached to lift my chin, forcing me to look into his green eyes, his face covered in his own tears. I wiped his cheeks and tried to smile through my trembling lips.

  I put my hands on both sides of his face and pulled him in to kiss me. He lifted me off the ground and held me tight. I cried out at the pain in my ribs, and he released his grip. We kissed with more passion than I had ever dreamed of in all my nights of gaming with him. Our salty, coppery tears mingled with our tongues as grief, relief, and exhaustion flooded through me. I wanted him so very much in my life. I couldn’t imagine life without him.

  One day, I will kill Amicula and everything she has done to us!

  After we checked on the breeder women inside and determined they were still safe, we looked around at the cleanup.

  “What do you want to do with all these dead bodies?” Harris asked.

  “There are two choices,” Khaldon answered. “We can call in the cleaners, but most of them are busy with taking care of the women we rescued yesterday. Or, we can call the ghoulies to come and take them away. Whichever way, we need to take care of them soon.”

  “Won’t they just disintegrate when the sun comes up?” I asked.

  “Not knowing who their vampiric fathers are, we have no idea about their dynamics or sun sustainability. If we don’t cut off their heads, or have the ghoulies disassemble them, the city of Orlando is going to have a murder of revenant vampires let loose on the population.”

  Harris, Briggs, Sheridan, Torchy, and I turned to look at Khaldon. We couldn’t have timed our shock any better than a rehearsed Gregorian chorus. “REVENANT VAMPIRES?”

  Chapter Fifty-Seven

  The Penthouse – Thanksgiving Day

  “Do you mind if we turn off the TV for a while, Chey? I can’t keep listening to these global catastrophes. It’s nothing but fear porn.” Sheridan grabbed the remote and muted the CCNN channel.

  “I know, but since we don’t have a clue about where Dakota is or if she escaped from that wicked wench, I’ve been scouring the headlines looking for where she might be attacking people for food. I want our little sister back. I miss that brat.”

  She hugged me and patted my back. Her baby bump pressed up against me.

  “I even have the headline news ticker on my phone to alert me if more than two bodies are found mutilated somewhere.” I pulled out my phone to show her. “ExsanguiNation pings me if it finds any blood demons, or if any case lots of Solunarae blood are being sold through the Super Market.”

  “Listen, Chey, we’ll find her. It won’t be long now. If you keep watching this stuff though, you’re gonna turn into a paranoid fear junkie.”

  “Oookay. Whatever. You’d be amazed at how many humans are killed every single day on this planet. It’s surprising we aren’t extinct.”

  “Seriously, Chey? That can’t be healthy.”

  “You’re right. It’s not good to bombard my brain with so much negativity, but I don’t know how else to find her. You’ve got your ways, and the guys have theirs.” I heard Beano kick over his empty food bowl in the kitchen. “Any one of us is bound to find a trace of her.”

  Beano trotted into the living room with Stormaggedon on his heels. They sat at my feet.

  “
I guess you’re hungry huh, big fella? And you too, toots?”

  Stormy lifted a paw to shake.

  “You know, Cheyenne, we were supposed to take Daddy out to the Cracker Barrel for Thanksgiving dinner today. Do you still want to go, or do you want to make something at home?” Sheridan looked at the circled date on the wall calendar.

  Beano pulled the sad puppy dog eyes on me. “C’mon, Sher, let’s go to the grocery store. I need to get the pups some food anyway. We should start some new traditions with the new family. Why don’t we invite the guys over and have a nice dinner?”

  “Sounds fabulous. Let’s go. I need chocolate.”

  I grinned at her and grabbed my car keys.

  An hour later and we had the fixin’s for a Thanksgiving feast that would make our mother proud. I never had a reason to own a formal dining room table, so Sheridan and I pulled out the old ping pong table that hadn’t seen the light of day since I moved. We draped a pair of white sheets over the top, added flowers with fall leaves for decorations and called it good. We now had a space large enough for all of us and the food.

  One by one, the guys arrived and took their well-earned position at our humble table. We put everyone to work serving up the food. We loaded platters with smoked turkey and spiral ham. Torchy brought out the rosemary garlic mashed taters while Khaldon took out the green bean casserole and sweet potato pie. Daddy was right behind him with a steaming pot of grits and greens and a loaf of French bread. Briggs hogged the giblet dressing while Harris dished out the orange juiced yams. I completed the spread with my mother’s ambrosia recipe passed down from many grandmothers before her. Everything looked and smelled delicious.

  I clinked my spoon on the wine glass to gather everyone around. “I’m not sure how you guys have done Thanksgiving in the past, but in the O’Cuinn household we each go around stating what we’re thankful for this year. There are a few obvious ones, of course, and this is the first Thanksgiving we’ve had without Dakota since she was born.” A silent, crimson tear threated to cascade down my cheek, but I held it back.