Empire of Blood (Book 2): Fading In Darkness

by Wilson, Robert S.

  Chapter 16

  City in Flames

  Wind blew through Hank's hair as he ran. Everything before him was a mix of blur and darkness. He wasn't even sure how he knew where to go—where to step and where not to—but somehow he just knew. The image of Necropolis burning, its flames lighting up the sky, had been playing in Hank's mind from the moment he'd woke up in that stretcher.

  A warm gust of air hit Hank as he exited the main tunnel entrance of The Nest. Gravel crunched under his feet as he continued to run. Ishan was currently on his way back to the Stratosphere from having made his announcement to the city. So much information was entering Hank's awareness, he worried that if he could see, it would probably overload his brain.

  Many vampires were leaving the city to protect the ancestors from attack. This was a good thing, Hank knew. But those who were planning on staying behind were making a mistake. Ishan included. The Emperor's army of vampires were sent only to keep the city busy so that when the dawn came, they would surely retreat within the city and be left vulnerable.

  Whatever sense that was guiding Hank now, he wasn't sure, but it was almost like a sort of inner vision. He could see a vague sort of outline of everything around him in a 3-dimensional panoramic view. Having only ever seen with two eyes, the new perspective was overwhelming. He was again thankful he wasn't actually seeing this physically. Running up Las Vegas Boulevard, he could sense Ishan's presence up ahead of him. A sort of infrared radiance shone from what Hank knew to be Ishan's body.

  "Ishan," Hank yelled, still running toward him.

  The radiance seemed to change as Ishan turned to look in Hank's direction.

  "Hank?" Ishan's lips mouthed.

  Hank slowed his speed until he was standing just before Ishan.

  "We have to go. The city isn't safe."

  Ishan opened his mouth to speak, but Hank cut him off. "The vampires are only a diversion. The Emperor has other plans. He's going to burn down the city when the dawn comes." Hank couldn't even hear his own voice, but he could practically see the words with that same inner vision that seemed to be showing him everything around him and more.

  "How do you know?" Ishan's words bubbled out from his mouth. They weren't even written words, they came out as physical objects—vivid geometrical shapes that had depth to them very much like flesh and bone but different somehow.

  "I just know. Something happened to me. I'm seeing things I can't possibly be seeing. Things now and things that haven't happened yet. But I know they will. I'm not sure how, but I know."

  Ishan's radiant form stood there for a moment taking in what Hank had said.

  "Then the time for action is now. If the Emperor wants to see this city burn then let's give him what he wants." Ishan turned and shouted toward the glass doors underneath the huge awning of the base of the hotel, "Boris, there's been a change in plans. Initiate evacuation orders at once!"

  Within seconds a multitude of vampires came pouring from the row of glass doors of the Stratosphere.

  * * *

  Simon had been watching and listening to Hank and Ishan's conversation the entire time through the psychic link that connected him to the master vampire. In mere seconds the two had contemplated what to do next. It was Simon's idea to leave the city burning. The bitter spite in him wanted to see the Emperor's face when he found out what they had done.

  Time to make this candle burn.

  Simon made his way from the makeshift strategy room within The Nest along the silver hallways toward Section 11, the main storage facilities for goods and supplies. It would take a lot of fuel to make this whole city go up in flames. Simon only hoped they had enough.

  As he entered the hallway for Section 11, the announcement went over the intercom.

  The order for evacuation has been made. All citizens are to leave at once. The choice is yours as to where you go, but it is recommended that all citizens make way for the Queen's hive in New Orleans.

  Accessing Ishan's memory, Simon was able to determine that the fuel storage room was in door 14. When he came to the right one, he wasted no time in entering the code key, releasing the wide titanium door with a deafening boom. A mix of volatile fumes wafted out from within the room. Simon opened the door and went inside.

  * * *

  It had taken him two nights to catch up to them, but catch up to them he had. Jack watched from the roof of the diner as Cayne and the boy huddled and whispered beside the SUV. With all the chaos in the area, Draper was less inclined to follow his master's instructions to the letter. He much more wanted to watch the two of them run as he chased after them.

  The boy would give good chase at his age being in good shape, but the man would not last long. And after killing Cayne, he would instill that much more fear and determination in his target.

  Cayne began rummaging through the back of the truck pulling several bags and a handgun from inside the hatch. Jack rose then, standing directly over them and out of sight. He stepped off the edge of the building and landed with a loud metal crunch on the ceiling of the SUV, only slightly denting in the thin tan metal. The man and the child jumped at the sight of it. Draper grinned down at them unable to contain his glee.

  A second later and Cayne was firing the handgun and Jack had to laugh at the attempt. Several bullets pierced Jack's chest, one of them right in his long-dead heart. Jack smiled down at them as his flesh healed and his body ejected the bullets. They fell out onto the roof of the building bouncing off the thin metal with a dull thud and scattered down onto the parking lot.

  The two turned and fled like rabbits, the boy constantly looking back with a face contorted with desperation. Jack waited a moment before he took flight. Then once they had a good 500 feet on him, he jumped forward from the truck, landing gracefully on the pavement, his legs easing into a casual walk.

  “Yes, run. Let’s see how far you can get.”

  Up ahead, the boy was making some good distance into a field beyond the parking lot of the diner while his older friend was slowing and coughing near the edge of the blacktop. Jack had underestimated just how much younger and more in shape the boy was and gritted his teeth at the thought that he would either not be able to carry out his initial plan. Or in order to still pull it off he would need to let the boy gain more ground. Maybe even give them the impression that he had let them go.

  Let them go? This idea appealed to his sense of play. He’d already made up his mind and moved in an imperceptible flash, hiding behind a large tree just to the right of Cayne and outside of the boy’s general vantage point. It took some time, but eventually the boy slowed until finally he stood leaning against a tree, breathing heavily, and staring in the direction of the diner obviously looking for any sign of Jack. Draper’s eyes lit up at the sight of the pawns moving with more accommodation to his new strategy.

  When neither of his prey were looking, Jack blasted up into the tree gently enough to keep its branches from shaking yet swiftly enough to not be visible to the human eye. He watched as the adult dragged his feet in the direction of the child. Draper reminded himself not to underestimate the man Cayne. Hank Evans likely hadn’t escaped from Necropolis without some sense of strategy or good sense. What Cayne lacked in physical fitness he likely made up for in loyalty and pure fight.

  Jack watched and waited as Cayne finally caught up with the boy and the two stood there glancing around in all directions looking for him. After a long while they finally seemed to let their guard down and began making their way north toward a distant highway. Judging from the sound of shallow rushing water and the view, they would have to cross several miles of woods and creeks to get there. As they slipped into the darkness of the trees, Jack made his way quietly down to the ground and began following at a human pace.

  He almost choked with laughter when the thought came to him that he'd better not wait too long or, with all the noise that they were making, they might end up becoming some other predator's meal. Rustling through leaves, snapping twigs, and w
hispering loud enough they might as well have been speaking aloud, Toby and Cayne were obviously not the most experienced in stealth. Jack, however, was. He flung from tree to tree without making the slightest sound. Barely causing each tree to so much as shiver with his weight as he swung along to the next one. He was directly above them now, watching with amusement as they tripped and stumbled along the pathless woods.

  Jack’s grin dripped venom as he stood looking down at them atop a thin branch. The boy’s precious youthful skin was visible in the pale moonlight. The smell of his blood crept into Jack’s mind with welcome lust. His thirst overpowered his sense of play then and he stepped off the branch. A gush of exquisite air rushed up his body as he rocketed toward the ground landing cat-like in front of his prey. With his knee high in front of him and his other leg ready to launch him forward, he sneered up at the two humans in order to give them that last moment’s realization.

  Jack blasted forward like a shotgun shell at Cayne, claws first, fangs extended. A blurring projectile caught his attention far too late and before he could understand just what was going on, he saw a man far behind Toby and Cayne holding up what appeared to be a crossbow and then the sky rolled over him and his body struck the ground. For a split second he gasped for air, the old human reflex convincing him he’d knocked the air from his lungs until he remembered he hadn’t needed to really breathe for nearly 500 years now.

  A sharp heavy sting from his chest caught his attention. He looked down to find a glint of silver piercing his body, surrounded by a pool of blood. His cackling laughter echoed off of the trees. Toby and Cayne stared in awe as a man dressed in black pants, a solid black shirt and an even blacker trench coat dragging nearly down to his ankles walked up between them and holstered the long crossbow inside his coat. The man had long dirty black and brown dreadlocks hanging at random around his shoulders clear down to his waist. Underneath a thick black mustache, he smiled down at Jack and winked.

  This made Jack only laugh louder and harder. “A fucking stake? Seriously? What do you think I am, sodding Dracula?” With that his laughter brought him near to tears.

  “Keep laughing, motherfucker. You won’t find it so goddamn funny when I crank up the blood absorption.”

  Jack’s laughter dove, faltered, and died. He looked down at the silver device pinning him to the ground again. A red LED flashed back at him from it. He felt that cold sweat that always came with a loss of blood. This silver device was draining him. And fast.

  “That’s what I thought. I hope you don’t mind if I take your friends here with me. I’m inclined to think they might get along better with me after all. Goodbye now.”

  That was the last thing Jack saw before his vision faded to one big dark blur.

  * * *

  The fire trucks hadn’t been used in over a decade and Isingoma had never imagined they’d be used for such an ironic purpose, but as he rode shotgun alongside Simon in the lead of seven other trucks, he couldn’t help but laugh.

  Simon looked over at him with an excited smirk. “Yes, we really are doing this.”

  “I know, I know, it’s just so absurd.”

  “It was a hell of an idea and I think it will work. I’m glad you came up with it.”

  Isingoma smiled in reply and laughed.

  When they reached the exit for Las Vegas Boulevard, several of the other trucks followed them off the highway and the rest continued on, their engines trailing by with that Doppler zoom. Once Simon turned the big noisy thing onto the road, Isingoma looked in the huge rearview mirror. The other two trucks turned off onto separate streets headed for their assigned destinations. Simon and Isingoma were headed for the strip.

  Off in the distance, smoke began to rise from far off in the city. It was time. They really were doing this. Simon brought the truck to a halt in front of the Sahara Hotel. The building’s tall tan structure, dotted with a multitude of windows and a huge gash in its upper top left corner, towered over them, daring them to somehow bring it down. Simon laughed as he peered up and out the window at it. He put the truck in reverse and pulled backward aligning the front end of the truck with the hotel.

  Isingoma climbed out of the passenger side window and up onto the roof of the fire truck. The huge nozzle of the once-water-now-fire cannon that he had engineered stared down at the hood of the truck as he sat down behind it. He lifted it by the handles and aimed it in the general direction of the building. He turned on the pre-ignition switch and the sound of gas being released hissed from inside the cannon. He leaned over and hollered down to Simon, “You ready?”

  “Yeah, buddy. Hell yeah!” Simon whooped with laughter.

  Isingoma also found himself unable to peel away the huge grin stretching out his face.

  “Fire in the hole!” Isingoma hit the ignition trigger and a huge torrent of flame shot forward from the nozzle of the cannon. Within seconds the lower half of the Sahara was popping and smoking. He let out a good long cheer of his own with the sight of it. They were finally taking back their freedom. The excitement and the fear of what would come next fueled through Isingoma’s veins and he was actually loving the thrill of it. He couldn’t wait to see how the Empire reacted to this.

  Before long, Simon started the engine back up and began moving the truck forward. Isingoma kept the cannon going, firing flames into each building as they passed. After an hour or so the entire strip was alight with huge orange, yellow, and black flames. Several of the buildings including the Sahara had small explosions burst out from within. They had done their job and now it was time to get out before there was nowhere to run.

  They left the fire truck there, its cannon still containing enough fuel to blow up another city block, and ran the full speed their undead legs were capable of, blasting out from the flames like rockets headed for the stars.

  * * *

  When they arrived at the rendezvous point at the Southeastern corner of town, a legion of gray semi trucks—each brandishing a long rectangular emblem that said “Darvender Industries” along the broad sides of its trailer—were parked in single file, engines running and waiting to take the citizens of Necropolis away from the burning cinders of the city’s remains. Simon looked on at them in awe, wondering just who would be driving these big trucks as the first blue tint of dawn reached over the horizon.

  Chapter 17

  The Foederati

  “Toby, are you all right?”

  Toby stood in a daze, staring down at the vampire who had nearly killed them. The question had come from the man in black leather who was now facing the two of them.

  “Sh-sh-sure. I’m fine.” Toby sighed. It was Dustin who asked the question that Toby couldn’t concentrate hard enough to even put into words.

  “Who the hell are you and how do you know Toby’s name?”

  The man gave a lopsided smile and reached out his hand for Dustin to shake. “Name’s Jonathan Braldon,” the two shook hands, “and I know both of your names, Dustin. I’ve been assigned to make sure you get to safety.”

  The two of them just stood staring at the man unsure as to what to say next.

  Jonathan looked at Toby then, “I was sent by a friend of your father’s. This one here…” he kicked the vampire’s limp body, “…he won’t be the last, I guarantee it. You two come with me and I’ll get you out of here in one piece. But we have to move quickly.”

  Dustin looked at Toby, his face asking the same question that was on Toby’s tongue.

  “Should we trust this guy?” Toby asked.

  Dustin looked the man over. “What proof do we have that you are who you say you are and all that jazz?”

  “Not shit, man. But I’d like to think the stake I just put through that fucker right there would be one hell of a sign of good faith.”

  Dustin nodded with a snicker and Toby laughed.

  “All right then. Where are we headed?”

  “For now we’re headed out of here. I’ll tell you more when we’re far enough away from Bloodthi
rsty McGee over here.”

  “Fair enough,” Dustin said.

  Jonathan led them to a hidden path through the forest and they walked off into the woods.

  * * *

  Hank sat bundled up against the corner inside one of the Darvender trailers as the truck shook and bounced along the highway. His human vision was still only darkness and his hearing was faint at best, but his new sense of vision was growing more aware by the hour. He could sense exactly how many people were in the room without counting. He could tell their sexes, the outline of their likenesses, and their rough ages all from this strange new sense of sight. It was like an internal sight and sound working together almost. Sonar, maybe. There was no way to be sure. But it was also more than that. He could see things along a strange track that he knew to be the future. It was sketchy down that path. Dark and hazy. But through the fog he could make out the impressions of things to come.

  * * *

  An old and rusty green Chevy pickup truck sat waiting when they reached the end of the woods. The stars were fading into the dark blue sky as Jonathan unlocked the passenger door and motioned for Dustin and Toby to get in. Dustin pulled himself up into the truck and sat in the middle of the seat and Toby followed suit, sitting in the passenger side. Jonathan got in the driver side and started the engine. It coughed into life like an elderly man who’d been smoking for decades. Jonathan pushed the gas and the truck roared out onto the road.

  “Sorry about the silent treatment back there. Unfortunately that stake most likely won’t kill that greasy fucker. It’ll only drain so much blood. I didn’t want to tip him off if he happened to get away before the sun came up. Personally I’m rooting for the sun,” Jonathan said looking at Dustin and Toby and laughing. There was a moment of awkward silence and then Jonathan continued.