The Blood of the Infected (Book 2): Once Bitten, Twice Live

by Stanton, Antony J.

  Despite the frenzied attack Max virtually managed to break out a moment later. A thrusting foot caught Alec in the chest and he was stupefied on the floor for a moment. Max started to rise but by that time Farzin had positioned himself behind and knocked him back to his knees, just beside the altar.

  The attack lasted for only a number of seconds, so fast did it all occur. Throughout it Luca stood rooted to the spot, a statue, watching with abject horror as his clan turned upon itself. Comrades whom he had considered his closest and only friends for so many years were literally at each other’s throats as his beloved Clan Leader lay writhing in some kind of hideous, agonizing metamorphosis. Max tried valiantly to regain his feet one last time but Farzin and Alec both grasped him simultaneously. Alec grabbed one wrist and yanked Max’s arm out straight, Farzin took the other. They each placed a tight, restraining hand on his left and right shoulder respectively and held him face down in that crucifix position, unable to move and hardly even able to struggle. He cried out desperately in rage as his shoulders were forced straining against their sockets, bringing a range of curses down upon Farzin. Farzin and Alec still had to work hard, but theirs was now a position of dominance and Max could not shake himself free. Breathing heavily and with a trickle of blood creeping down his cheek Farzin turned to the unresolved vampire with a sly smile, his eyes luminous and malevolent.

  “So Luca, it is time for you to make your decision. You are either with us or against us. There is no middle ground here.”

  Max was desperate and he called out in a pitiful voice. “Luca, you must do the right thing. Help me. Please.”

  “Silence, fool, you are nothing more than a lap dog. I despise you even more than I despised our illustrious leader.” Then he turned again to Luca who had still not moved.

  “This is your one and only opportunity. Either you are for us or you will suffer the same fate, make no mistake. What is your decision?”

  Max tried to struggle but like a fish in a net he had absolutely no chance. He could hardly move his upper body and every time he tried the two vampires forced his shoulders painfully back. Luca saw a movement from the corner of his eye as Ricardo and Simeon came closer. He was in a crisis. With his leader beyond help and Max as good as finished he felt he had no choice. He could either perish or acquiesce.

  He bowed his head. His cheeks were burning with shame but he mumbled softly. “I am with you.”

  “Luca,” Max screamed, his desperation striking a note in Luca’s heart even now.

  Farzin chuckled softly to himself. “In that case I give you my first command as your new Clan Leader. Come.”

  As Luca stepped forwards so did Ricardo and Simeon until they were right behind him.

  Farzin continued. “Grasp his head.”

  “Luca, no,” Max begged. Luca looked incredulously at Farzin who repeated his command.

  “Do it. Take his head between your hands. Twist it as hard as you can. Else we shall do it to him ourselves, and then to you also. You must prove to me that you are faithful.”

  Time sat down and crossed its arms and legs, watching with lazy interest as Luca looked slowly at the small group, and then around at the rest of the room. But there was no salvation to come from Sebastian and Darius was now thrashing and mumbling incoherently with eyes bulging and froth spewing forth from his gaping jaw. By drinking the infected blood it had worked its way quickly into the vampire’s greedily awaiting veins. Luca’s attention came back to Farzin whose expression had intensified.

  “Do it!”

  Luca stepped forwards and reluctantly took hold of Max’s head in his hands. Max tried again to struggle, thrashing around as much as he could, kicking out with his legs and bucking his torso against his captors but the two vampires held him fast. Although Max was far stronger than either of them, the holds they had upon him gave them complete control and he was helpless. Sebastian was his only remote possibility of salvation now. Luca moved slowly, waiting and hoping.

  “Do it Luca,” Alec chimed in. His expression was a leering obscenity, mimicking that of Farzin. Only Flavia still standing away in the shadows had the grace to look disturbed and although it went unnoticed, she turned her head from the tortuous scene. She may not have been actively participating, but nevertheless complicity comes at a price.

  “Luca, no!” Max started to shriek, his voice dark but high-pitched, sounding deranged and furious as Luca slowly started to twist. He felt the muscles in Max’s head go rigid as he tried hopelessly to resist. Next he felt the neck bones strain, then with one quick motion he rotated the head as far as he could until Max’s head was looking straight up at the ceiling, straight into his own eyes. His mouth flopped open as a breath noisily escaped his lips.

  “More!” Farzin screamed and Luca rotated again, turning the head a full revolution so that Max looked back down at the floor. There was a loud, sickening crack that everyone heard and Luca felt more keenly all through his arms as the spinal column snapped completely. The head went loose in his hands and lolled forwards. Max’s body juddered violently, nearly shaking their grips on his arms and only then did Farzin release the older vampire, letting his body fall to the ground. He cackled and whooped, spinning round and round with his arms out straight and his head thrown back in a crazed stupor, crowing like a maniac. Alec giggled childishly while Luca just stared down at the motionless body and then at his own hands. He had taken the lives of many humans and countless animals but never of another vampire. He was transfixed, watching in repulsed, horrified amazement as Max’s body seemed to lose colour, seeping it through the open staring eyes, nostrils and mouth and leeching it from the skin into the atmosphere. All the life force he had stolen from others through the years was being reclaimed in one compressed instant. His skin paled visibly and his hair withered and rapidly declined. There was a light rustling sound, almost imperceptible, somewhere between a distant wind and the sound of white noise. Max’s skin shriveled and shrank around his skeleton, as though his innards were being freeze-wrapped. His features distorted, his eyes half-closed and he looked as though he was smiling; a thin, pained smile, an accusing, sardonic smile. A curious smell enveloped the corpse, slightly sweet and sickly but cloying and unpleasant.

  Farzin clapped a hand on his shoulder. “Well done, you have proven your fidelity to me. Now, kneel.”

  Luca dropped to his knees almost involuntarily as his strength failed him, unsure as to what his fate would be. Farzin held out his left hand with the deep, red ring on his index finger towards him. Luca knew immediately what was expected. He took Farzin’s hand and brushed the ring with his lips.

  “You made a wise decision. Now arise. You are one of us. Come, we have much to do. Two down, one more to go.”

  Flavia looked at the quivering body of Darius, her expression impassive and veiled. “What about him?”

  “Leave him. He is of no concern to me now.”

  Ricardo and Simeon had remained silent and still throughout but now they joined the others, the new clan with a new leader. As they all filed out into the night Flavia delayed and hung behind a little. Darius’s eyes had rolled back showing just the red-tinged whites. There was sputum covering his lips and his skin had already started to go a slight grey colour. His body still shook but less violently now, rhythmically vibrating and his limbs seemed to be hooked and twisted as though arthritic. It was clearly a horrendous way to go and she felt a burning guilt. She knelt briefly beside him, took his gnarled hand in hers and he seemed to focus on her for just a moment.

  “I am sorry my lord,” she whispered but she was unsure whether he had even heard her, let alone understood. “I am so sorry,” then she rose to follow her new Clan Leader before her absence was noticed.

  CHAPTER 18

  Sebastian was totally unaware of the radical changes that had befallen his clan and the devastation facing him upon his return. His vigil this night proved more fruitful. He did not have to wait too long beyond sundown before the object of his reminis
cing arrived in the guardroom to replace the same young man he had watched the night before. He observed her now from the same spot as she chatted to the man, hardly more than a boy really, not so dissimilar in age to he himself before he was turned into a vampire, forever to walk alone in the twilight and contemplate his lost life as a human. Looking at the two of them interacting he could imagine the tone of her voice, the melodic character it had when she joked, the subtle tremble and quickening of pulse as she laughed, a laugh that filled a room like birdsong, taking him back. Sebastian could tell that the man dallied longer than he needed to, purely because he did not want to leave the company of this enchanting female. Although Sebastian could not blame him, he now felt a twinge of irritation. For all his years as a vampire he had tried to maintain a sense of patience, waiting and biding his time, a faculty that their lifespan inclined them towards. But now when time was running out he found his patience was thin. Finally the man left and it was his turn. He waited a few moments longer in case the man returned.

  Collins had her back to the door. She did not hear it open but felt a cold rush of air on her nape as the candles skipped feverishly in the draught. She stood abruptly and twirled round giving a slight yelp when she saw a dark figure looming over her, before realizing whom it was. She instantly felt dizzy, a rush of blood to the head perhaps.

  “It’s you,” was all she could think to say.

  “Did you not know I would return?”

  “No, yes, well maybe, I’m not sure. I wondered if you would but didn’t know for certain.”

  He smiled, liking the fact that she seemed flustered as that was how he felt. Flustered - another emotion he had not experienced for far too long. Her embarrassment assuaged his, somewhat.

  “I waited yesterday as well but you were not on duty.”

  She blushed. “No, I, err, I wasn’t. Sorry.”

  “He likes you.” It was not a question but a statement of fact.

  “Who?” She was puzzled and thrown off guard.

  “The boy that was in here.”

  “What, Scovell? Nah. He'd like anything in a skirt, I don’t think it’s just me.”

  “You’re wrong.”

  She blushed again and there was an awkward pause. “It’s nice to see you,” she said. “By the way I’ve been wondering, how did you find me the other day? How did you find out where this base is?”

  He hesitated and she was not sure if he would actually answer. He looked deeply in thought and seemed reluctant to speak. He liked the fact that she had been wondering, as it implied he had existed for a moment in her thoughts, as she had in his. With no other trace of his existence on this earth, all he could hope to leave behind were memories.

  “I had reason to believe that your colleague, Bannister you said his name was, would return to see Flavia. So all I had to do was to watch her and then when he came, I followed him.”

  “So he went back to see her?”

  Sebastian barely nodded, only the slightest of inclinations of his head.

  “And did she drink his blood again?”

  Again, the hint of a nod.

  “But he is not going to become a vampire.” It was just an affirmation of something he had already told her and he did not answer. She paused in thought for a moment, staring at the floor. “There is so much I have wanted to ask you,” she said a little breathlessly.

  He perched on the edge of the table bringing his eyes a little closer to her level. Her enthusiasm was contagious and it surprised him just how easy it was to get along with her. For so long he had been deprived of company outside of the clan and it was a real pleasure for him now to talk with her. Not only that, but her purity of heart was obvious and made him want to at least deserve her company. Compared to the rest of his clan his attitude towards humans was, and generally had always been, somewhat benevolent, but he was not proud of everything he had done. He too had spilled the blood of humans. He too had had to kill to survive, once upon a time. Perhaps being with this girl made him want to seek redemption. Perhaps it was more to do with the end of days. Perhaps he could foresee his own imminent end, and before it was too late…

  He smiled through his eyes and drew her in once more. “Oh?”

  “So many things really, it all just seems so mad, I’ve been struggling to take it all in, this whole situation.”

  She sat on the edge of the table next to him now, close enough that he could feel the heat from her body, the heart pumping warm tempting blood through her delicate veins as he gripped the table hard, the subtle scent of her skin as he inhaled a little too deeply, the sharp intake of breath she took when she got over excited and tried to get out too many words at once, the slight tilt of her head when she listened intently to what he was saying, the dilation of her pupils and the nervous way she licked the top of her lips; it all had him feeling intoxicated and he felt that it was he who was being charmed. But why was he so drawn to her? What was it that made her more special than other human woman he had come across over the long years? Was it merely the fact that this unique set of circumstances enabled him to actually get close to someone without having to hide away and keep a discrete distance from all but the most wretched of society’s members? Undoubtedly that was part of it. Did she also remind him maybe of someone from a long time before, from when he was first turned, before the slow taint of corruption had set in? Unrequited love always digs its claws in deeper than any other.

  He had also been asking himself again exactly why he had not wanted to drink her blood on their first meeting at the petrol station. Or why had he not wanted to try and charm her when he came to her two nights previously? Or now even? Flavia knew him all too well; her accusation had left its mark. He had told her it was because he would rather a person acted through desire rather than because he had influenced them, and that was indeed true to an extent, but was that the whole story? Was it also perhaps because he could see the futility of expecting to have anything more than a fleeting moment with her? Because ultimately they were too dissimilar to share more than that. He was a vampire and his fate was tied to those of his clan. If he had a future any more, then with his own kind was surely where it lay. If she were turned then that might be a different matter, but… He did not know the answer for sure, but he knew that he did enjoy her company; time lost its slothfulness, the monotony of certainty and the repetition of immortality, when he was with her and that was good enough at present. Some questions are best left unanswered. Some are best never asked.

  There was indeed much that she wanted to know. She was still fascinated with his life in France as a human and they chatted for a while about how it had been for him when he had been newly turned. Then there were so many questions about actually being a vampire and the myth of it all.

  “So, vampires are only supposed to come out at night, you're supposed to sleep in your coffins during the day. But you and the woman were there in the daytime when you defended us at the petrol station. How come?”

  He smiled and managed to stifle the look of someone who has been asked a question too many times before. “Well that would be because the vampires with whom you are familiar are those of horror stories where many characteristics have been embellished or are entirely fictitious. We do not spend our days asleep in a coffin; in fact I have never slept in one – too many hard corners. I prefer something a little more pocket-sprung,” he said with what might have been a slight smirk. “Also we are able to go out in the sunlight. It does not harm us as your films and books might suggest. However we do generally avoid it to an extent. When we are first turned our eyes tend to become rather photosensitive. Furthermore, it is better to avoid drawing attention to ourselves. As we age our bodies develop and change in subtle ways and this would be easier to see in the light, so we prefer to go about our business after dark, more often than not, and mix with the kind of people who are awake at night, who don’t ask too many questions, the underbelly of society.”

  “How do your bodies change?”

/>   “As well as our eyes becoming more sensitive, our bone structure slowly develops, just as it does when you were a developing child. We grow taller and our facial features slowly alter.”

  “Yes, I kind of thought you looked Eastern European - Slavic or something.”

  “That is a typical look for us, after a while.”

  “Is that something to do with the fact that the vampires with Dracula were from that general region?”

  He nodded somberly. “I am not exactly sure what the connections or bloodlines are, I don't know if any of us remember any more. But I believe there may be some element of truth in that. Our heritage does seem to start from that part of the world, as far as I am aware.” She caught on fast and was clearly fascinated by this conversation. He was impressed by her again.

  “And how was it that you and the woman were able to deal with that mob of infected? You didn’t even have any weapons. Do you develop superhuman strength or something?”

  He laughed and it filled the small room with the sound of souls stirring. How many times, in the presence of how many human women, had he laughed like that before?

  “Not exactly superhuman, but we do become faster and stronger, and our neurons are firing much quicker. You have heard stories of people who sometimes exhibit seemingly impossible displays of strength in moments of desperate need, yes? For example a mother might lift an extremely heavy object off her child trapped underneath. A person fleeing a grizzly bear might vault a high fence without even stopping to consider it. That is a little like us.”

  “When the adrenaline kicks in, you mean.”

  Again he nodded. “If you like; as though we are on adrenaline all the time, something like that, yes.”