Empire of Blood: A Dystopian Vampire Trilogy (Bundle, Boxset) (Plus Two Empire of Blood Short Stories)

by Robert S. Wilson

  Jesse Murdoch disappeared from behind the window. Alexandria's hands struggled to make sense of the back of her jeans blindly grabbing for her right back pocket. The door unlocked with a click and the knob turned. Unbearably, the air thickened just before the door swung open to reveal his body up close and personal. The sheer shock of his uncovered skin and exposed penis was enough to send Alexandria into complete panic. She fell backward. Her back slammed against the railing, pinning her arm behind her. A second later and Jesse was standing over her, grabbing her by the shirt and pulling her up to her feet. The moment her arm unpinned it was like every muscle in her body woke up. Her fingers wrapped around the taser. She pulled it up and, with the push of a button, sent him flying and crashing through the doorway, sideways. His had slammed against the door jam and blood splattered up toward the ceiling. As quickly as she could, she found the towel she had brought with her. She had thought a lot of scenarios through and, although this wasn't one of them, she had come prepared for just about anything.

  She raced forward and wiped down the door jam and all the specks of blood she could quickly find on the door and the hall floor. When she could see no more splotches of red, she dashed into the apartment and shut the door and locked the knob and the deadbolt and connected the chain. Jesse lay on the floor moaning in a low almost whispering voice. The walls were nearly spinning as reality caught up with Alexandria. She was really here. She was really doing this. A thrill ran through her body but quickly dissipated into morbid apathy. She snapped herself out of the swirling mix of emotions within her and focused instead on the plan she had went over at least three hundred times.

  Jogging over to the couch, she pulled her duffel bag around from her back and set it on the left seat cushion. A quick rummage inside and she found the heavy duty rope and duct tape she had brought. She spun around to survey the apartment looking for some kind of simple chair she could tie the bastard to. She just barely caught a glimpse of the leg of a black wooden table in one of the far rooms. Probably the kitchen, judging by its decor and the presence of a table inside. She race-walked into the room and grabbed the first chair she came to. It was solid enough, she figured, that it would hold up if he fought her.

  The chair screeched a little too loudly as she slid it across the hardwood floor toward the middle of the living room where Jesse's body lay crumpled and still, his voice calling out in that papery breathy tone. She knelt down and watched him for a moment just writhing there. It felt good and terrible all at once. Empowering and nauseating and equally disorienting. She was just about to reach down when it dawned on her that he could be better off than he seemed. Reaching behind her, she found the taser and without a second thought she tased him once again. His body convulsed for a moment and then released back into stillness.

  The taser made a loud plastic clang as she set it on the coffee table sitting in front of the couch and just beside Jesse's body. She reached down and pulled him up by the shoulders. She was in good shape for her size and age, but he was heavy. Real heavy. She nearly dropped him three times before she got him into the chair. Tying down his hands was first priority. It was quick work securing everything else after that. When it was all done, she had a mind to tie a bow on his head and send a picture to the Emperor himself. She laughed at the thought for a moment and then just as quickly her face melted back into the bitterness from whence it came. The bitterness turned to anger and then the anger turned into rage. Before she knew what she was doing, her fists were pounding against his face and shoulders, his head bouncing back and forth with each hollow blow like a ragdoll. When she finally managed to regain control and pull herself off of him, her hands were covered in blood. Jesse Murdoch was unconscious.

  Two large front teeth lay in a small puddle on the floor.

  Alexandria turned and dry heaved next to the couch. The desire to truly vomit was strong, but since she hadn't eaten there was nothing to come up. After that, she fell to her knees and sat there sobbing and coughing for a few minutes. When she was done, she decided to wait there. He would wake up eventually. Then... Then she could get started. Then the real pain would begin. Her original fury had flickered out, but she still had enough disgust with the man to drive her hatred, exhausted or not.

  Eventually, she got up from her place on the floor and took out the other various items she had packed for the "baptism" as she had been calling it in her head the past few days. The Baptism of Jesse Murdoch. Even now it had a nice ring to it. At least when her stomach wasn't turning over itself. Sitting on the couch now were razors, forks, tooth picks, a hammer, a cheese grater, an extension cable with the female end spliced off and two long copper wirings free. She was saving that last one for the final moment. She'd had it all planned out in her head even if it wasn't quite going to spec by this point. She could put it back on track easily enough.

  A few minutes later and she became impatient. She was already nervous about what she was doing for fear that someone would call the Imperial police, but now she was also ready to get started. The initial sickness had seemingly worn off and she couldn't stop thinking about her father. The last moment she had seen him alive burned in her mind like the phantom image of a flare. Duct tape in hand, she pulled out a long section of it and, still attached to the roll, she slapped it against his face, causing his head to weave back and forth for a second. Then she started wrapping it around and around until his mouth was tightly sealed with a good thick series of layers. She stepped into the kitchen and started rifling through cabinets. A moment later and she found what she was looking for. She put the medium-sized bucket in the kitchen sink and turned on the cold side of the faucet.

  When it was mostly full she turned off the water and took it by the bendy metal wire handle and stood in front of Jesse preparing herself for what she was about to do. When she was ready she grabbed the bottom of the bucket with her other hand and poured the contents over Jesse's head all in one big splash. He immediately came to, moaning and whining in muffled tandem through the thick layer of gray tape covering his mouth.

  "Shut up." Her eyes burned into his. He kept on with the noise and so she picked up the hammer and gave his left knee a good hard thwack. The scream was loud enough that it was almost audible even through the tape. But after that it didn't take long for him to be completely silent. His eyes spoke volumes however. They were huge like saucers and dilated, the glow of the fluorescent lamp shining off of the whites of his eyes like little white-yellow dots. Now that she had his attention, she was ready to get to work.

  She turned and pulled out the only thing she hadn't yet taken from the duffel bag. She cradled the photo for a long moment before she finally turned and lifted it into Jesse's field of vision. When he saw it, his legs and arms flailed wildly within the limited mobility they had and his eyes rolled all around in his head as if he might find a way out of this place if only he kept those fleshy marbles moving in his head. "Of course you already know why I'm here but I wanted you to really remember. To have his face fresh in your mind when I do what I came here to do." She set the photo back in the bag gently and neatly and turned and spit in Jesse's face. He turned his head in a useless attempt to block the spittle just before it covered his cheek, his nose, and his left eye. He pushed his head forward manically in nearly every direction managing to free some of the goo from his face, but not much. The realization that he might vomit hit Alexandria, so she got out her towel still partially covered in his blood and wiped the mess off of him.

  "I wouldn't want you to choke on your own goddamn vomit before I even have a chance to really hurt you, now would I?" He started moaning again and just as quickly as before, she reached over and grabbed the hammer and brought it down on his right knee this time. He screamed again in that muted garbled fashion. "I told you to keep quiet." When the volume of his voice dropped down to a simple mumbling, she set the hammer down again. "Now, where should we start, Jesse?—Oh, you don't mind if I call you Jesse, do you?" His head swung around frantically. "Ok
ay, good." She turned toward the myriad of supplies she had scattered across the couch cushions and held her hand over each for a long moment before moving on to the next one in turn.

  When she had went through the entire gamut of items three times, she brought her hand back over to the razors and grabbed a particularly long old blade attached to a handle. It had been her father's shaving razor. Turning around, she brandished it in front of Jesse's moist pleading eyes. She stepped forward and put her right knee on his left leg and positioned herself just in front of his left eyebrow. She took the blade sideways and brushed the cold flat steel lightly down his cheek. Then back up and slowly down again. Her hand reached around his head and grabbed hold of his hair in a tight pulling grip and she pulled his head against the back of the chair. Her right hand squeezed tightly against the handle of the razor as she brought it slowly and forcefully toward his forehead. She pressed it hard into his flesh and every muscle in his body jolted as the blade cut near to the bone. She brought it slowly over his brow. The edge was a mere centimeter from his eye when her body dropped into a sobbing mess, sending the razor sliding across the floor.

  His screams were manic now.

  It was like she was just now hearing them. The moment during her actions had been in complete silence and now the world around her was reasserting itself in all its noisy chaos. She had wanted so badly to kill away the poison inside her. She was sure this would be the way, but now she could only sit there and hide her face in her hands as the moaning pitch of her voice rose in dissonance with Jesse's. The sobbing careened into full on dry heaves again and when her stomach could convulse no longer, she lay face down on the floor pounding her fist against the laminated wood.

  A familiar voice in her head told her to get up. It told her to pick up every scrap of herself that she had torn away in this place tonight and get the hell out of there. To get her brothers and run. To find someone who could help them. She thought of the boys then. They were all alone. Anyone could come into their home and do anything to them. Fear gripped her then. Fear mixed with the still strong nausea and self-disgust. Her father's voice told her one last thing as she ran away from that place.

  It told her it wasn't her fault.

  Chapter 35

  Intruders

  When they were sure the place was secure and the only remaining living vampires were themselves, Rosadelma, Jackie, and Simon went back down into the basement of the community building and found the pile of blankets Jackie had covered Frank with. The entire time they were checking bodies, Jackie was telling Simon and Rosadelma all about how she met Frank on the road and how he had given her someone to confide in and how she now considered him a close friend. She pulled off the blankets and shook Frank awake. He opened his eyes and nearly jumped out of his skin at the sight of Simon standing behind her.

  "Fuck!"

  "It's okay, it's okay," Jackie said, waving her arms in front of him to get his attention. "He's with me. He's—he's Simon. Remember me telling you about Simon?"

  Frank looked at Jackie then back at Simon. "Yeah, I think so."

  “And this is Rosadelma.” She motioned for Rosa to come over.

  In typical fashion, she gave Jackie a dismissive gesture. “Hey.”

  Frank walked over and waved, his expression somewhere between bewilderment and wild confusion. His eyes shot back over to Jackie. "Hey, did you fucking knock me out or something?"

  Jackie sighed. "It was for your own good. I thought we were dead." She turned her gaze down to the floor. "I didn't want you to suffer through it."

  Frank ran his hand over his mouth and nodded. "Fair enough... Thank you, I guess."

  She ran up and gave him a big hug and rested her head on his soft cushioned chest. He patted her on the back with a few awkward motions and then looked at Simon. "You got yourself a real handful here, you know, kid."

  Simon smiled. "I know. I do."

  "A real fuckin' firecracker, let me tell ya." Frank grinned as Jackie let go of him and pulled herself back over to Simon's side. She had been sure for a moment there she would lift up those blankets and find his body lifeless and drained of blood.

  Rosadelma sighed. “Are we gonna stand around here all fucking day playing cute ‘n cuddly or are we gonna actually start figuring out what the fuck is going on here?”

  The next second happened so fast, even Simon didn't see it coming. A natural vampire grabbed Frank under the arms from behind and blasted up into the air over the open stairway and out of sight. Jackie screamed and Simon and Rosadelma took off running after them.

  When the shock finally wore off, Jackie turned and ran up the stairs and through the main hall, jumping over body after body until she was outside in the cool night air. The moon hung in the Eastern sky and the stars winked back at her with the knowledge that she was truly and greatly fucked down here on Earth. She tried to keep her head from reeling as she ran her way up the street scanning the skies in every direction for any sign of Simon or Rosadelma or Frank and his vampire captor. It hit her like a ton of bricks then that she could have saved him all along had she remembered to use her newfound power. She tried then to raise her body up in the air but nothing happened in reply. Her hands were shaking and her vision was blurring as she screamed out into the empty night. Her voice echoed back at her in mocking fashion.

  A second later she spotted them. Simon and Rosadelma were at least five or six miles out but they were walking back toward her. No sign of Frank at all. She began to run again, heading straight for the other two vampires. She'd already lost so much to these fuckers, she couldn't bear to lose Frank too. She yelled out to Simon and Rosa, "We have to find him."

  Simon's expression was heavy with regret. "I'm not sure we can before it's too late."

  "We have to try." They were running alongside each other now. Jackie took Simon's hand.

  "Okay. Let's try."

  She smiled back at him and then without warning she reached out and took Rosadelma’s hand. Rosa struggled to get away, an expression of confusion and disgust on her face. “What are you fucking doing?”

  Jackie paid her no mind as she closed her eyes. She let the fury building inside her tighten up into one big twisted knot then, just like that, she let it loose and the three of them began to rise up in the air. The expression on Simon's face nearly knocked her out of focus but she held on with everything she had. She wasn't going to lose Frank to these assholes. Not today.

  ***

  After a couple of years of near complete invincibility and about an hour in the open air, Simon still wasn't quite sure he was handling this whole flying thing very well. Jackie seemed focused and calm nonetheless. And of course, as soon as they had lifted off the ground, Rosadelma stopped fighting, her expression of confusion replaced with one of anticipation. They were a mere handful of miles away from the border of the city where Simon had taken his last mortal breath before drawing his first immortal breath. Although now Simon knew that immortality only lasted forever in fairytales. He squeezed Jackie's hand tightly. He still hadn't had the heart to tell her they would most likely die soon. That these moments could very well be their last. He could only hope Rosadelma wouldn’t blurt it out before he had the chance. And now that they were going into the heart of the enemy's new playground, he was sure it had been a fatal mistake to try and save Frank. But he was sure now that he would have followed Jackie through the fires of hell if it meant they could stay together. He had never known that feeling before. Now, it was something he would hardly give up even in the face of death.

  As he thought about all the years he spent in misery, looking up to Joseph Caesar as if he were some kind of savior, a spot just above the horizon caught his attention. Holy shit, I think I just found him."

  "Where?"

  Simon lifted Jackie's hand and used it to point out the speck moving further away from them toward the ground below. There was a quick shift of movement and Jackie had them soaring at a much lower altitude. Before long they were close enoug
h to get a better look as the ancient vampire carried Frank onto the top of a tall gray building and then quickly disappeared down an obscured entrance. As they came closer, he could make out the outline of a trapdoor. "There!"

  Jackie brought them in closer and then the three of them fell and landed on their feet just a few meters from the door. Simon winked at Jackie and then opened the door. "Sorry. Usually, I'd say ladies first, but—”

  “Thank you very much.” Rosadelma pushed Simon out of the way and dived, feet first, into the rectangular opening deep down into a dark empty abyss, leaving Jackie and Simon staring after her.

  ***

  The alarms sounded from every corner of the facility at a deafening volume. Harek hated high-pitched noises. They were not honorable and not to be trusted. He yelled out in his mighty baritone voice, "Close exits, lock systems. Find intruders, bring to me!"

  The knuckleheads the Master had sent along with him were nodding like idiots and running around just as mindlessly before they finally scattered off in all directions. Harek had been happy with his new title as the Emperor's assistant until the Master had sent him here. Even if they had abandoned the place, he still felt like it was enemy territory. He hated every spec of dust in this place, every towering building, and every shiny light still working against the odds like a miracle in a funeral home.

  Chapter 36

  Mouths Opened As One

  The big black monster of a truck had been a good choice for the trip. It more than splendidly handled every curve and bump these country roads threw at Jonny. He wasn't used to driving something so big but it handled well in contrast to its size. Jonny checked the tracking beacon he had picked up along with other materials from a strange shifty man with a long white streak in his hair and green eyes that couldn't quite seem to cooperate with each other. He was about fifteen miles from Hank's current location. Along with the beacon, the man had provided a duffel bag filled with a handful of needles and an assortment of different medical vials. Jonny didn't know anything about drugs, but he guessed it was some kind of stuff to knock Hank out.