Rising Son (The Juliana Lucio Series)

by L. C. DeCarlo

  Michael kept his eyes trained on me as everyone in the house gathered together to go see Michael’s new production centers. As we hit the threshold of the door Michael spoke up loud enough for everyone to hear.

  “Gloria, I was thinking we can use your human as an example for the milking station. He is, after all, just a feeder correct? So it shouldn’t be an issue to show how a human will be strapped in and drained, we won’t drain yours completely of course we know how fond you are of him.”

  I didn’t respond. I couldn’t respond without giving us all away. I stayed as close to Christian as I could and Ana came to walk on his other side, I felt William directly behind us and when I looked I noticed Victoria had blended in with the group, but still managed to place herself directly in front of Christian. No one would be able to touch him, not on our watch.

  Chapter Twenty One

  I thought we would all cram into cars and start a caravan to wherever it was Michael was taking us. Instead he started walking down the street with a group of about 15 vampires in tow. None of us wanted to ask where the hell he was leading us, so like good little lackeys we followed him. After weaving in and out along the houses and streets of the neighborhood for a good 30 minutes Michael finally stopped walking and turned to us.

  “Here is one of our many production centers. I am incredibly proud of the endeavor as it was my brainchild.”

  He was standing in the center of a street in what was a middle-class neighborhood. There were children’s bikes lying in various lawns the requisite two cars parked in the driveways. No one seemed to want to speak up, but we all looked around trying to figure out what he was talking about.

  Finally someone did, “where exactly are we supposed to be looking Michael? I don’t see a center of any sort, just a bunch of houses.” The woman who spoke up was a small Asian woman, with short cropped hair. She had on glasses, which was different for a vampire. It must be for the look because I knew she would have perfect vision like every other vampire.

  “Exactly!” Michael enthused, “it’s also what anyone else looking for these centers would see as well. There is nothing to give them away, nothing that makes them stick out. We have large warehouses as well, but in order to maintain production in the event of an attack we have thousands of these centers right in the middle of enemy territory, and they will never even know. It’s brilliant don’t you think?”

  Everyone else was congratulating him with enthusiasm of the brilliance of it. William, Ana and I were too struck with the realization that the Coven was really ahead of the Council. If they knew anything of this we had certainly never been debriefed on it.

  “Well, let’s go inside! Each house can milk twenty humans of their blood at a time. We can drain them completely or keep them alive to use again later. The blood will be bagged for those vampires that prefer it or they can come to the center and feed directly from the vein.”

  “Why do this at all? Isn’t the purpose of revealing ourselves to make it easier to feed? To find victims and feed from them in public without having to hide. This just seems like an elaborate ploy to again hide what we are?” William asked Michael, the only one willing to challenge his plan.

  “This is why you will never go anywhere, William, the point of the production centers are not to hide from humans, but to keep the mass blood supply away from other vampires. I don’t plan on enslaving humans simply to drain them; I plan on doing it in order to bend the vampire world to my will. To starve them out if you choose.” The gleam in his eye as he told us his plan was pure malevolence.

  “You plan to control vampires by controlling the food supply? You must know that will never work. Humans and vampires both will revolt against you.”

  “Humans are too weak and the vampires too dumb. They won’t realize what I’m doing until it’s too late. Now, should we give them a demonstration? What was it Gloria called you—Chris?” He held his hand out to Christian trying to get him to willingly be a pig to the slaughter.

  From out of nowhere we heard a loud roaring. We all turned to the sound to see it was the collective voices of a mob of angry humans. Apparently they knew what was going on in their neighborhood, and they didn’t like it.

  “That’s the problem with surrounding yourself with humans, you can’t separate the heartbeats that should be there from the ones that shouldn’t,” Ana said a bit smugly.

  “Yeah, that neighborhood watch will get you every time,” William told her.

  Michael shot them both a scathing look that clearly said he was not pleased.

  “Kill them all,” he ordered.

  The group of vampires with him charged toward the mob. The humans were armed with wooden stakes and knives that glinted off the moonlight. I could smell a wave of garlic coming off the mob, and though it would have no effect on us I was amazed at their tenacity to attack a group as large as ours. William, Ana and Victoria took off with the group after watching the attack for just a moment. I couldn’t believe they would participate in this. I then saw that they were surreptitiously blocking the vampires from being able to kill the group; though several humans dropped dead to the ground despite their efforts. William’s phone flashed to his ear and I tried to distract Michael before he noticed.

  “Michael, this is awfully public. Call them off before someone notices and calls the human police,” I was pleading with him.

  Before he could answer me my eyes opened wide at what I saw coming up from the opposite end of the street. There was another group of vampires coming up to meet our own. There was no way any of those humans were going to make it out of here alive. Michael turned to see what I was staring at and stopped short, he seemed surprised as well. I felt hope igniting within me when I caught sight of Martin in the back of the oncoming group.

  I spun to face Christian, “you need to get out here before someone attacks you. Go quick!”

  “I’m not leaving your side,” he snapped while triggering the blade from within his boot.

  Suddenly the group of Council vampires were there and jumping into the middle of the fight. They were picking off the Coven as easily as if they were slapping away flies. They weren’t just attacking the Coven vamps until they stopped fighting; they didn’t stop until they staked them through the heart. I couldn’t be happier until they began to turn on William, Ana and Victoria, they must not know who we really are! Because the group attacking the humans was suddenly much smaller, and I was distracted; I didn’t realize that Michael, Christian and I were suddenly surrounded.

  “Christian!” William called out to him.

  We looked his way to see a stake tumbling through the air in Christian’s direction. He was throwing him a weapon even if it meant killing one of the good guys. I crouched facing one of the oncoming vampires as Christian caught the stake with a sure hand and turned just as we were about to be overpowered by an oncoming vampire. A small group had jumped on us at once. I was grappling with a vampire of my own and could only watch as Christian caught the stake and spun striking an attacking vampire dead center in his chest.

  I don’t think Christian was fully aware of what he had done.

  He had just saved Michael’s life.

  The vampire he staked was a Council vamp and had been posed to land a killing blow by staking Michael. Martin called out to the remaining Council vamps and they ran away into the night-- just as quickly as they came, but not before Martin shot me a scathing look that was ready to kill. We were all surround by silence as we stared at one another. Christian was looking at the stake in his hand and the disintegrating vampire before him.

  Michael turned to Christian taking his hand in his shaking it firmly, “thank you. You just saved my life. I would never expect something like that from a human no matter how loyal to their master.”

  Christian didn’t respond, just kept looking blankly at the stake in his hand. I reached over taking it from his grip.

  Michael’s head snapped up and cocked to the side, “I believe you have been proven
correct in your prediction Gloria. It seems the human police are on their way. I believe we should part ways before they arrive.” It was only then that I could also hear the screeching of the police and ambulance sirens.

  “My invitation does stand; however, you are more than welcome to stay with me if you wish--”

  “No.” Michael’s eyebrows rose at the abruptness of my reply.

  “I mean no thank you. Not tonight Michael,” I told him with weariness I was sure he could sense.

  “Of course, I’ll be seeing you later, my sweet.” He nodded goodbye to Christian, leaving without another word with Monica in his wake.

  The five of us were left standing on a street that was littered with slaughtered human bodies and piles of ash from the disintegrated vampires, in what would have been an otherwise quiet neighborhood. The sounds of approaching sirens getting closer the longer we stood there.

  “We need to leave now. We will be killed on sight if not taken into custody. Christian must not be seen either,” Victoria started walking down the street opposite of the oncoming sirens.

  Christian hadn’t uttered a sound yet. I was devastated at what he was forced into doing. By putting him into this situation I had stolen his innocence from him, it disintegrated right along with the life of the vampire he had killed. We didn’t make it ten feet when Ana suddenly stopped walking while eerily turning her head to the right.

  “What are you doing? We need to get out of here,” I hissed at her back.

  “Humans. I hear their hearts beating like frightened rabbits,” she looked at me, then Christian, “get him out of here. I’ll take care of them.”

  The sirens becoming louder. I was becoming more panicked.

  “What are you going to do? You can’t kill them after what you just did to protect them!”

  “They have seen us and more importantly they have seen Christian. They will give his description to the police.”

  “I don’t want anyone else killed because of me,” Christian sounded as panicked as I was feeling.

  “I can compel them to forget, at least let me try before you just kill them.”

  “There are five of them there isn’t enough time,” Ana was firmly holding her ground.

  “I can do them all at the same time.” I spun around, “Victoria, can you get Christian out of here before the police arrive?”

  Victoria didn’t say anything she just bent over and flung Christian over her shoulder running down the street so quickly her feet were a blur. The only thing left behind was the sound of Christian protesting. I’m sure it hurt his pride having a girl half his size fling him over her shoulder like a child. Once he was gone I didn’t hesitate to make my way to the bushes where the sounds of human heartbeats were coming. They must have ran and hidden during the fight. I didn’t blame them.

  “Jules, no one can compel five humans at once. We don’t have time for this,” William was arguing as he followed after me.

  “It can’t be harder than multiple vampires can it? Humans are always easier,” I said off handedly and took a clearing breath to focus myself. My compulsion was quick to respond again, but the oncoming police were making me nervous.

  I stopped in front of the bush and knelt down to face five pairs of wide, frightened eyes. Ana moved behind them to prevent them from running away.

  “You might want to back up a little, I don’t want to accidently get you too,” I told Ana with an awkward half smile. She didn’t argue, just raised her eyebrows and stepped back.

  With my compulsion at the ready I shrank down and made eye contact with each set of terrified eyes. I focused all my energy into their minds until I could feel the pressure of it shoving back at me. I was grateful to be kneeling because I had to brace myself on my hands and knees in order to hold myself up. The amount of energy I was using to exert my will on them was astounding.

  “None of you,” I said slowly making sure to again make eye contact with all of them, connecting my will to theirs, “will have any recollection . . . of any part of this evening. You do not know what happened to those people,” again I pushed my will deep into their minds. I could feel the electricity surrounding me. I was almost afraid that if someone touched me they would be electrocuted. “You have no idea why you are hiding . . .” one last penetrating look that reached into them and bent their will to mine, locking away their memories; my entire body was trembling just trying to hold myself upright; “you will remember nothing of anyone here. Do you . . . understand?” I could barely whisper out the last.

  “Yes,” the group answered in unison.

  “Good. I release you.”

  I collapsed to the ground and heard a man’s voice yell behind me.

  “Stop! Police. Put your hands up!”

  I couldn’t respond or look behind me. I just felt the sudden whipping of a wind storm and the comforting blanket of darkness surround me.

  I woke up to the sound of voices arguing and the tangy smell of fear in the air. It took me a moment more to become oriented, but I quickly realized that the fear was coming from Christian, and the yelling was Martin and Sebastian.

  I sprung up from where I was laying fangs instantly bared.

  We were all in the library. I had been laid out on the couch and I could tell the situation was serious. William was standing firmly by Christian’s side, his eyes black as night, fangs visible through his clenched lips. Ana and Victoria were left to pace along the back wall Ana interjecting her protests from there. They all stopped to look at my sudden awakening.

  “What’s going on?” I demanded.

  Martin’s eyes didn’t stray from Christian as he answered, “We are just trying to figure out why your son saved the life of our enemy.”

  “We also want to know how long they have been working together, but since we can’t compel him to find out we must use other means to discover the truth. Except William refuses to hand him over,” Sebastian spat out in disgust.

  I flashed over to Christian’s other side before anyone could reach out to stop me. I saw the dried blood on Ana’s face and knew she had tried to get to him herself, and failed.

  “He isn’t working with the Coven. Tonight is the first time he has ever met any vampires other than us and it was at your order, Sebastian,” I told him with a deadly calm.

  I was still weak, but better than when I was kneeling on the side of the road. I didn’t care if it killed me; I would do anything necessary to stop them from even touching Christian. I pulled my compulsion to me once again; perhaps I could compel them to leave Christian alone. Except instead of the lightning strength I normally had, I felt only a sputtering of control. There would be no way I could hold either Martin or Sebastian tonight.

  “Then why did he save Michael’s life?”

  “I told you! It was just instinct, I caught the stake and swung at the vampire that was about to attack us. I thought I was protecting my Mom not Michael!” Christian yelled at them exasperated.

  “Or perhaps you think if vampires are revealed to the world your mother and father will be permitted to be together again, is that the real reason you saved him? Are you a turncoat, Christian?” Martin asked stepping closer, but before he could get close enough to touch Christian William stepped in the way. I noticed he was staying out of the argument, but was still protecting Christian nonetheless.

  William and Martin were contradictions of every kind.

  Where William was tall and lean, Martin was short and stocky, William’s pale white skin made Martin’s seem to soak up the light with its darkness. Neither of them were lacking in strength or power, regardless of the difference in their physicality, and I wondered who would win if it came down to a fight.

  “You know Sebastian it’s you that has been noticeably absent every time we’ve needed you in a hurry. I think it’s you that should be answering these questions, not my son.”

  Sebastian turned to me fangs bared, “I don’t need to answer to any of you, Mrs. Lucio, and if you want the lives of
the rest of your family to remain intact I would remember that.”

  “You’re threatening my family because you can’t do your job!” I yelled at him, but I doubt I was very threatening with the fatigue rearing its ugly head.

  “My job is none of your concern and since you haven’t gained any information I think you all should be pulled from this assignment tonight!” Sebastian yelled back.

  “She has to gotten information, I watched her compel three vampires tonight. I also overheard them talking about their plans,” Christian retorted.

  “What plans?” Martin asked.

  “Give us your word not to touch my brother and dad.”

  “We already have. They are being guarded are they not?”

  “Yeah, well it sounds like they are being held hostage more than anything.”

  “I give you my word, but I highly doubt you saw your mother compel three vampires. There would not have been enough time for that,” Sebastian interjected before Martin had the chance to respond.

  “Sebastian, I compelled them. Why in the hell do you think I am so drained; besides how would you know how long I had to do it anyways?”

  “Well, it doesn’t really matter. I’ll find out what’s going on soon enough myself,” Martin said turning to look at all of us.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” Victoria said speaking up for the first time.

  “I’m moving in. Someone needs to keep a closer eye on all of you; it might as well be me.”

  “We are definitely going to need a bigger house if this keeps up,” William mumbled unhappily.

  Chapter Twenty Two

  “Well, no matter what you think is or isn’t going on I have to get Christian home. He should have been home already. We can deal with the rest of this tomorrow night. Christian, go grab your bag.”

  Christian shot furtive glances throughout the room. I don’t think he believed Martin and Sebastian were really going to let him go, but no one tried to stop him while I sat on the couch waiting for him to grab his things.