The vampire was first to speak; I guess he thought it was a good idea to say something before one of us shot him.
“Well, well … that was some show you put on out there.” He didn’t move from his position on the couch, which was a good thing for him because that definitely would have gotten him shot.
“What do you care? You’re going to die, just like they did,” Drew snarled at him. I stayed silent, wondering why we hadn’t already killed him.
The vampire smiled, showing his pristine white teeth, fangs and all. “Trust me, you do not want to kill me. I am here to help.”
I sensed Drew’s confusion, but he didn’t show it. I was confused, too. Help with what? Killing the vampires? That hardly seemed like something he would want to help with … not to mention the fact that as Hunters, we were led to believe that all vampires were bad and evil. All of them.
Drew shook his head slightly. “I highly doubt there is anything that you can help us with. On top of that, what would make you think that we would even want your help?”
The vampire leaned back into the couch cushions. “You intend to stop the new vampires from being made and kill the existing ones, do you not?”
His eyes flicked back and forth between Drew and I. When neither of us responded to his question, he just continued, “I know who you are, Hunters, I also know that you want to stop this destruction that my kind is causing.”
Finally, I found my voice. “There is nothing that you can do to help us. The only way you can help is to accept the inevitable … you are going to die today.”
That bastard actually laughed at me. “And the dhampir speaks. So gallant of you, Ms. Kallistrate. However, your threats mean nothing to me. If you kill me now you may never find the answers you seek.”
Shocked rippled through me. He knew who I was and he knew I was half vampire. This information only stunned me for half a minute and then I recovered … and charged him.
I don’t know what happened exactly. I could have just shot him, I could have used my fire on him, even from that distance. But, no, I ran forward a couple of steps and jumped, covering the space between us in the single leap. I landed on his lap, knocking the couch backward in the process.
“Chloe!” Drew called from behind me. I couldn’t tell if he was warning me or pissed off, but I didn’t really care. I pulled back my arm and slammed my fist in Mr. Know It All Vampire’s face.
I hit him again, and again. It wasn’t doing anything to him … in fact, it probably felt like I was tickling him, but I didn’t care, it made me feel better. Drew stood back and let me beat on him. However, I knew this was mostly because if he intervened we would give the strange vampire an opening to attack us while we were distracted. Therefore, it was better for him to keep an eye on the enemy. After hitting him several more times, I guess he grew tired of it because he pressed his palm against my chest and pushed.
Mid-punch, I felt myself lift into the air and let my fire loose from my fingers in attempt to get one last hit in on him. None of the flames hit him. Before I knew it, my back slammed into the entertainment center where the lady and her cat pictures were. I bounced off of it, landing on the floor. I turned over, trying to get up quickly, but the damn thing toppled and fell over onto me.
Pain flashed through entire body and I found myself trapped underneath the evil entertainment center. It didn’t help that the television was an old one, not one of the newer, lighter flat screens.
I tried to call for Drew to help me, but nothing was coming out, and I felt a horrible pain in my chest. I gasped, trying to suck air into my lungs and kicked against my confines.
Suddenly, the entertainment center was being lifted off of me. “I got you,” Drew reassured me as his face come into view. Then he lifted the television off my midsection and threw it in that crazy vampire’s direction. “Look what you did, asshole!
The television flew by his head, missing him by close to an inch. I kicked my feet and tried to get up, wanting to tell Drew to just shoot the bastard. Unfortunately, I still couldn’t manage words; only few choked gurgles escaped from my throat when I tried to speak.
I felt Drew’s strong arms encircle me and lift me to my feet.
Why in the hell wasn’t his attention on the enemy? This was not like him at all, he never sacrificed a kill to help another. We were Hunters! We were supposed to be able to take care of ourselves.
“Ugh,” I groaned, turning to face my opponent. He must have seen the fury in my expression because he got one look at me and lifted his hands into the air. “Now, now … you attacked me. I told you, I’m simply here to help.”
“There is nothing you can do that will help us!” I wanted to yell at him, but my voice cracked and was more of an angry whisper.
Drew silently slid into a position where he was between me and that vampire. At that point I wasn’t sure if his intention was to protect me from the enemy or to protect him from me.
“Drew! Shoot him!” I threw my hands in the air. “Why haven’t you killed him yet?”
“Because I want to know what he has to say.” He didn’t look away from the vampire when he spoke.
“What? Are you kidding me? He knows me, he has obviously been following us or had us followed. He is a freaking vampire, just kill him already.”
The two males met gazes; staring each other down in some kind of silent challenge. “And that is exactly why we need to find out more information from him,” Drew finished.
“Ugh!” I marched over to where my gun had been thrown, snatched it off the floor, and then held it up, aiming right at the vampire’s chest. “Fine. You want to talk, let’s talk.”
Drew shook his head, probably in exasperation. “Chloe, if he was going to kill us he would have already. He has had plenty of opportunity.”
“I don’t see you lowering your gun,” I shot back at him.
He didn’t answer, so I flicked my gun toward the tiny little kitchen table that was set up in a corner of the room. “Go sit over there.”
Still standing by the overturned couch, he threw a glance at Drew before he silently complied with my demand. He strode confidently over to the table and pulled out a chair. “Aren’t you going to join me?” he asked.
I tried not to limp as I crossed the room to sit at the table with him. My left leg was killing me from when I was crushed by the entertainment center. I hoped I managed to look unharmed, though, I didn’t want that guy seeing any weakness in me. Before I sat down I met Drew’s eyes and he nodded, indicating that he would stay standing.
I pulled out a chair and plopped down into it. “Well, you seem to know us, now tell us who you are.”
His lips curled into a smile. “Of course you would want to know, it’s only fair, I suppose. My name is Anthony Christos.”
Drew’s eyes widened and Anthony smiled with satisfaction. “Ah, you know of me?” He directed the question to Drew.
“Of course I know who Anthony Christos is, but that doesn’t mean that you are who you claim to be.”
“I have no reason to lie.”
“Wait,” I interrupted. “I don’t know who Anthony Christos is. Why is that so important?”
Drew actually had the audacity to roll his eyes while we held this guy at gun point and interrogated him. “Didn’t you learn it in school?”
Now it was my turn to roll my eyes. “You mean while I was held captive in my evil father’s mansion for a year? Oh wait … no, you must mean after I got back and spent a few months back in classes, and then the vampire apocalypse started. I’m so sorry, I must not have been paying close enough attention.”
“You probably just missed it somewhere. And you do all that research on your own, too.”
“Drew, just tell me.”
Anthony raised his eyebrows. “She is truly a feisty one. I have always taken a liking to women who have a bit of fight in them.”
Drew raised his eyebrows at that last part. “She’s not a woman.”
“Really, D
rew?”
He shrugged. “I mean that you’re young.”
Anthony grinned. “Long ago, when I was a human, girls were married off when they were very young and considered women at an early age.”
“Forget about it and start talking,” I blurted out, fuming over how blunt this guy was.
Drew picked up the conversation since he seemed to know so much about the topic. “Anthony Christos is one of the very first vampires. After discovering how evil his kind was, he fought against them with the Hunters, but the evil offspring had become too many for them to win the battle. Ever since, Anthony Christos has lived in hiding or a chosen seclusion. Either way, no one has heard of him or from him since that battle long ago.”
I almost rolled my eyes again. Really, why was that such a big deal? He was the same as the next vampire in my book.
Anthony clapped his hands in a slow arrogant manner. “Well done, Hunter. At least you know your history.”
I wasn’t at a point to even consider moving my weapon away from him. “This doesn’t mean anything. You are still a vampire, making you a threat and part of the problem.”
Surprisingly, he nodded. “Yes, I am part of the problem.”
Drew took a step forward. “You say that you want to help, that we need you. What do you know that can help us?”
“I am actually quite shocked that none the fearsome Hunters have discovered the answer to that question, especially since you are all supposed to be so educated on vampire lore.”
Drew ignored the jab.
“Tell us,” I demanded.
He smiled that half gentle, half scary smile again. “To kill the vampires … all of them, you have to kill the first in the bloodline. You do that and the entire line will cease to exist.”
I sat back a little bit in the hard wooden chair. It seemed so simple. How could the answer to all of this chaos going on around us be something so freaking easy. And here, in front of us, sat the first in the line of many. “Do you know what this means?”
He nodded, his smile suddenly replaced with a solemn expression. “I am willing to accept my final death. After so many years of seclusion from my own kind, as well as humans, my time has come.”
Drew didn’t look convinced. I know I sure as hell wasn’t. “So you’re just giving yourself up to us? That is why you found us?”
“Not entirely.” He leaned forward and folded his hands on the table. “You cannot possibly think that I am the only vampire that is first in a bloodline.” He lifted his hand, giving us a dismissive wave. “This … problem you are facing right now did not start with my line. In fact, there are very few left in mine.”
It was my turn to lean forward. “Do you know whose it is?” I asked.
He nodded. “Of course I do.”
“And you are going to help us find them?”
“I will do my very best. However, I stay alive until the other lines are taken down. That is the deal.” Anthony looked to Drew for confirmation of the deal.
I didn’t like this at all. He was a vampire! I knew some were worse than others, but at this point a vampire was a vampire and I just wanted to kill them all. Regardless, I had a feeling that Anthony was telling the truth, and if there was any way that he could help us find the head of each line, we were going to have to keep him alive.
Drew met Anthony’s eyes. “I don’t understand why you even want to help to begin with.”
Anthony merely shook his head a tiny bit. “You, young man, were raised as a Hunter, raised with the understanding that all vampires are inherently evil. But, there are some … very few, in fact, who are not. Yes, we drink blood and have a lust for it that drives us to do the most ungodly acts, but the few who can fight the demon inside do not like the creatures that we are and want to rid the world of the evil ones just as much as you do.”
I almost laughed. Did he seriously think we were buying this garbage? “I don’t believe you.”
“Whether or not you want to believe me is your choice. I have no reason to lie, even more so since I have agreed to let you eventually kill me for good.”
Drew rubbed his forehead. “All right. Tell us about the other lines.”
“Yes, of course.” The solemn yet wistful expression returned to Anthony’s face as he leaned back and prepared to tell his story.
“In the beginning, the original lines consisted of six vampires. No, we weren’t related. We were simply in a bad place at a bad time … chosen by the woman who cursed us. This woman, like the race of Hunters, was also the daughter of a god a descendant of Hades. With his blood running through her half human veins she was very, very powerful.
“Now, as most stories go, love and deceit played a very large part in how it ends. This woman, who was named Chryssa, was born into a wealthy and prominent family. Not only was she extraordinarily beautiful, but she wanted for nothing … and when she fell in love with a commoner it was no exception.
“The man she fell in love with was called Lavrentios. As a commoner, he was obviously taken with Chyssa from the very beginning. He may have been from a poor family, but he was indeed as handsome and strong as the males from more prominent families. Chryssa, even though descended from the God of Hell, was human enough not to deny what she thought was true love.
Lavrentios would have been a fool to deny Chryssa; she was everything he could have ever wished for. Along with the inheritance of her family line she was a rare beauty with her long, dark mane, eyes just as dark, and flawless golden skin. So, Chryssa took this man as her husband, and more than willingly, he came to live with her among all her wealth and power.
“It was only after a few years of marriage that Lavrentios, who never had any sort of wealth nor power, eventually let both of these troublesome things go to his head. Chryssa caught him fornicating with two of her handmaidens. Now, understand … these women were under Chryssa’s rule, which meant her husband was able to make them do whatever he wanted them to. They were slaves, with the title of handmaiden. Just as the servants were slaves with the titles of servants. All of the slaves were obligated to do as their master’s ordered. If they refused to comply, he would have whipped them or perhaps worse, depending on his mood.”
Anthony paused and took a deep breath before he went on. “I was there, I was one of their servants who bore witness when she discovered her husband’s infidelity, when she went mad with jealousy and rage. There were two handmaidens and four servants in attendance of the incident. Two men were standing watch over him and I, as well as another male servant, were always with Chryssa.
“Insanity followed Chryssa’s initial shock of finding her husband with two other women. She screamed and threw things, telling him that she gave him everything. Lavrentios, a changed man since his commoner days, merely dismissed her with a wave and instructed the servants to remove her from his presence. I will never forget the next moments, for they are seared into my memory, but they happened so quickly and in such a blur of time.
“Lavrentios had absolutely no idea of the power that his wife was able to wield. It is entirely possible that even she had no idea until that tragic day. The magic of the gods swarmed up around her in dark, oily smoke and she ordered us to bind his hands and feet together. Immediately, we complied. He fought us and he put up a good fight, but the last few years of laziness had made him weak. We were slaves, which meant that we were stronger, plus there were more of us. Even Lavrentios’s own servants had to heed her word and helped us to subdue him. Once he was bound, she ordered us to kill him.
“We were a gentle people, the slaves. Everyone has a line they will cross and murder was that line for all of us, which was the reason we hesitated when she demanded that we kill her husband. I was not going to kill a man over adultery, which happened on a day to day basis in those days. Many wealthy men took mistresses. I floundered, as did my fellow friends.
“Seeing our hesitation, she became enraged once again. I felt the magic well up within the walls as she called upon the power of
her descendants to help her. It was then that foreign words escaped her lips and a curse was place on all six of us who bore witness.
“Suddenly, I felt as if my body was afire. We crumpled to the ground while Lavrentios cried out for help, screaming for mercy from his once so doting wife. Even the handmaidens had fallen to the floor and were writhing in agony from the pain that seared their bodies from the inside out.
“I do not know how much time passed in which we were forced to endure the pain. We all awoke feeling weak, confused … and hungry.
“She stood there watching us and waiting.
“My mouth was dry, drier than it had ever been. I moved my tongue over my teeth, trying to force saliva to form, and discovered sharp points had developed on my teeth. They felt as sharp as the edge of a sword.”
Again, Anthony stopped speaking, but this time he absently moved his hand to his mouth. His lip lifted and he touched the tip of one of his fangs as if he were remembering the first time he felt them.
“What happened next?” Drew tried to direct him back into the story.
Anthony swallowed and then continued, “Finally she spoke only one word. ‘Feed!’ she demanded, pointing at her bound husband.”
Sadness filled his brown eyes as he caught my gaze. “You have no idea how it felt. Have you ever been so hungry that it literally burned in the pit of your stomach? I felt this hunger in every pore, every cell, and every part of my being. I looked to my five companions, knowing they felt as I did. As I set my sight upon them, I saw that none of their eyes were the deep, rich brown they were before. Each of them had changed from the original color to the glowing red of demons.
Vampire Apocalypse (The Arcadia Falls Chronicles #3) Page 4