A Monster’s Birth: Aris Crow Vampire Legend

by McClellan, Rachel

  My heart skipped a beat, as a surge of anger pulsed through me. "What do you know about Bastian?"

  "Only that he’s an extremely old and powerful vampire and answers directly to the Ministry. His orders are carried out by the Physician. If Victor ever disobeyed, the Physician would hurt people inside Victor's circle."

  "But Victor hurts his own people."

  "For being disloyal, yes. He plays his role well, a little too well sometimes. But the Physician is always watching him."

  We sat in silence while I tried to make sense of everything I’d just heard. Could it be true or were these all lies? He appeared to be telling the truth, and yet, the idea that Victor was trying to do good this whole time was too farfetched.

  After a minute, I asked, "What does Victor want from me?"

  "He wants you to help him take down Bastian. If we can destroy him, we can drive the vampires from the city. There is one small problem, though. Bastian has a powerful witch that follows him everywhere, making it near impossible to get near him."

  I remembered the witch. I had met her briefly when Bastian had spoken to me on the docks. I had sensed her power even then before I was a vampire,

  "Let’s say Victor’s successful somehow,” I said. “Then what? He takes back control, and we’re in the same situation we were a year ago."

  Alex shook his head fiercely. "No. Victor will leave if you will let him. He wants nothing more to do with the city."

  "What makes him stay here at all? If what you’re saying is true, he owes the city nothing."

  "It used to be all for her, for Daisy. Now it's for you." He turned in his seat and stared at me pointedly.

  "Me? He owes me nothing."

  "You are her son. He is here to help you in whatever capacity you need." He faced forward again. “In some ways, I think, he thinks if he helps you, he’ll make up for not being there for Daisy when she needed him the most.”

  "I don’t want his help. The thought of working with him makes me sick.” Even as I said the words, my stomach turned over.

  "He wants to meet with you as soon as possible," he said as if he didn't hear me. "He knows the best way to cause the most harm to the Principes Noctis."

  I started the engine and swerved the car around to drive back to the Devil's Playground. "How do I know you're not trying to trick me?"

  "I guess you don't, but at least give Victor the chance to prove himself. He wants the same thing as you—to save the city."

  I snorted. The idea was ridiculous!

  He remained silent the rest of the way, and for every second that passed, I grew angrier, my blood boiling. Victor had nearly destroyed Coast City, and now he wanted to make it right?

  I pulled up a block away from Victor's home. "Listen, this whole Victor redemption thing is too far out there for me to believe. It’s going to take a lot for me to trust him, if ever. Until then, he needs to stay away from me.”

  “What if there’s an emergency?”

  “I don’t care about his emergencies… unless…” I thought of Emma. As much as I didn’t like it, he was at least on speaking terms with her. If something happened, he would probably know. “Tell him to go to Liberty Park and say my name a few times. I’ll hear him and will come. But only if it’s important.”

  Alex nodded and exited the car. I sped away, watching him stare after me in my rearview mirror. I ground my teeth together and tightened my grip on the steering wheel. Victor wanted to help me? Why didn’t he help me by not killing Kristen? I don’t care what Alex said. Victor had a choice. He’s always had a choice. He simply chose the wrong one.

  I drove back to the garage instead of heading into Pigtown to wait for Rebecca. The last thing I felt like doing right now was standing around. I needed to crack some heads.

  After parking, I returned to Ironwood, adrenaline pumping through my veins. As soon as I found Rebecca in command, I said, "Let's go."

  My eyes flashed to Oz briefly; the scent of his blood filled their air like smoke from a BBQ pit. My stomach lurched, and I stepped back.

  "I thought I was meeting you at Pigtown?"

  "I got done early."

  She sensed my aggression and jumped to her feet.

  I walked over to my house and slipped on the strap that held my scimitar blade, my favorite weapon. I picked up the sharp blade from off the counter and held it to the light. It was still in perfect condition as if it had been cleaned and sharpened yesterday. I caught my reflection in its shiny silver. I barely recognized the hungry, almost animalistic, look in my eyes.

  Oz came up behind me. "You sure you want to hit the streets so soon tonight?"

  "It's what I came back for." I slide the blade into its sheath behind my back.

  He held out my old ski mask. I stared down at it as if I was looking at something I used to play with as a child. It felt a lifetime ago that I used to wear it to protect my identity.

  But I was different now. Stronger. Scarier. I didn't want to hide who I was anymore. Screw keeping my identity secret.

  8

  "I don’t need that anymore," I said to Oz and turned back around. I walked toward the safe in the corner of my house and opened the door. All kinds of weapons stared back at me. I reached for several wooden stakes and daggers and opened my long jacket. I slipped the weapons into the straps I had sewn into it back in Louisiana. Four should be plenty, plus I had my blade.

  I smelled Rebecca approach from behind and turned around.

  "Can I use something from in here?" she asked as she chewed on a nail, eyeing a long sword hanging on the wall.

  "Help yourself."

  I left her in the room and walked past Oz.

  "I don't think you should do a big reveal so soon," he said to me. "Why don’t you chill for a sec?"

  "I will not hide anymore." I stepped onto the boardwalk, wondering if I should say goodbye to Roman. He could hear me gearing up, no doubt. I guess if he had a problem with me keeping my identity secret, he could find me.

  "Looking good, Rebecca," Oz said to her as she passed by, his voice low.

  "Shut up," she said and came to my side.

  I looked at her. "How fast can werewolves run?"

  "Don't worry about me."

  I didn’t wait a second longer. I took off into the southeast tunnel sprinting fast, but when I saw her right on my tail, I sped up. Most of the time, she could keep up as long as I didn’t use my super speed. If she fought as good as she ran, we would make a great team.

  We reached the bottom of a ladder leading up to an entrance into the center of Pigtown.

  Rebecca stopped me from going up. "I know I said I’d show you around the city to see all the changes, but I get the feeling you don’t really care about that. So, do you just want to start taking out bad guys now?”

  “Yes,” I said, my hands tightening.

  “Good. Me too. Do you want to work the street and take out vampires there or do something else?"

  "I want to go where I can do a lot of damage."

  A sly grin spread on her face. "I know just the place. There's this vampire, someone who thinks he's a real hot shot, who runs a bar not far from here. And when I say ‘bar’, I use the term loosely. It used to be managed by humans, but this vampire prick took it over."

  "Sounds like the perfect place." I moved to go up the ladder, but she gripped my arm, stopping me again.

  "I have to warn you, though. The things they do there, it will be worse than anything you've seen so far.”

  I shook her arm from me. “All the more reason to destroy it.”

  I ascended the ladder practically shooting through the opening, inhaling deeply. Pigtown was full of smells that hadn't been in the city before. It had more of a metallic aroma like the smell of a rusty pipe in the bottom of an old basement. Blood was being spilled here and lots of it.

  "This way," Rebecca said.

  I walked next to her on the street, keeping my head up. The town looked the same with tall buildings crowded toge
ther, barely giving room to walk between them. Clothes lines draping high over our heads held everything from towels to someone’s underwear. The streets were dirty, worse than I’d ever seen them, and drug addicts laid in the street in open view. Many of them had bite marks on their necks and arms.

  Even worse, were the dozens of vampires roaming the streets. It was tempting not to pull out my blade right then and there and start slicing off heads. I could do it easily enough. But, despite the rage surging through me, I still had to use my brain and remember Samira’s teachings. Older vampires were going to be harder to kill, and since I couldn’t tell the difference yet from an older vamp to a younger one, I needed to be careful.

  With Samira, it had been easy to tell. She was so old her power pressurized the air around her. But she was a rarity. All the vampires I passed now could've been brand-new or two hundred years old, and I wouldn't know. I needed to rely on elemental magic for that skill, and that was something I just wasn't good at yet. I needed to practice more, starting right now.

  I concentrated on the faces of the vampires we passed, really focusing on them. A few met my gaze but quickly looked away. I frowned unable to determine their age. I tried again, remembering what I had learned about elemental magic.

  Sucking in a long breath, I focused on the way my feet hit the ground. The sound of my steps moving heel to toe, and the amount of pressure placed on my feet. I then imagined I was barefoot and there was no sidewalk. My flesh meeting earth’s floor.

  A surge of energy ignited my body as I became connected to the earth. When I had eye contact with the next vampire, I could easily tell he was only a decade old. Another passed me. He had been living for a century.

  I continued to look at each vampire, their age coming to me as quickly as their scent, but the further we walked, and the less I concentrated on my connection to the earth, the magic within me faded. At least I knew how to do it should I need to again.

  From the information I gathered so far, I could discern that most vampires on the streets tonight were under a hundred years old. They should not pose a problem for me unless there became too many of them. But these were just the vamps I could see. Vampires were like mice. For every one you spotted, there were at least ten in hiding.

  "How much further?" I asked.

  She nodded just up ahead. "Around the corner."

  We walked past two vampires, and I noticed the way they looked at her, eyes hooded and teeth elongating. Had vamps been looking at her like that this entire time? I had been so caught up with my connection to the earth, I hadn't noticed.

  "Do you feel safe in the city?"

  She scoffed. "What do you think? Every vampire I see wants to kill me. I rarely go out unless I have to."

  "So why come? What good can you do if you rarely show yourself?"

  She glanced around to make sure we were alone. In a quiet voice, she said, "My role here has been to help humans. I have rescued many and snuck them out of the city. Vampires can barely see me coming if I don’t want them to."

  "But your smell…"

  "There are ways around that." She reached into her pocket and pulled out a small aerosol can. "It's deer piss. I hate the smell of it, but it confuses the hell out of vampires. I only use it when I absolutely have to."

  "How did you discover that secret?"

  She shook her head. "Don't ask. It's a night I'd rather forget, but it did save my life.

  She stopped suddenly and glanced over my shoulder. "We’re here. Beneath the red awning, but I should remind you, don’t freak out when you go inside. Study your surroundings first. Know who or what you’re about to fight."

  "Do you plan on wearing that spray of yours in there?"

  "Not if we are just going in to destroy the place. I hate wasting it if I don't have to. Let's go in, look around for a minute, then if you think we have the upper hand we'll get to work."

  I brushed past her and headed straight for the front door, but as soon as I opened it, two tall, barrel-chested vampires stopped me. I didn't have time to ground myself to the earth to discover their age so I pretended to be one of them until I could.

  I met their hard gazes. "Is there a problem?"

  The one with dark hair answered. "First, we've never seen you before. Second, you have an animal with you."

  Rebecca reached over my shoulder attempting to get at the vampire. "I'm no animal, you jackass."

  He chuckled. "Sure act like one. What’s she doing here anyway?"

  “I'm looking for someone,” she blurted.

  I glanced over at her, but she refused to look at me. I decided to go with it. “Just let us in.”

  "Fine by us,” the other vampire said, “but your girl may have some issues inside of here. Shifters aren’t welcome. She's bound to get attacked a few times, but if you're fine with that, then have at it."

  The two vampires looked at each other and smiled, stepping back to part the way. I walked into a small, tile-floored entry and opened the second door. It took me several seconds to process the scene before me, mostly because I was overwhelmed by the smell of blood that permeated the air. It was so strong I had a sudden urge to attack the nearest human and sink my fangs into them.

  Rebecca gripped my hand suddenly, her nails digging into my flesh. She must've sensed my aggression or saw my teeth elongate from my mouth. I sucked in air, forcing my body to relax. I held my breath and looked around.

  What probably used to be a boring bar with tables and chairs had been transformed into an open space with great big pillows and large bean bags laid out across the floor. Only a long bar remained from the previous owner. Blood had been spilled on its top. A female vampire lapped at it with her tongue. Others at the same marbled bar drank blood from tall glasses, laughing and chatting with each other. Even more stretched out on the pillows and bags, sometimes three at a time, with a naked human in their grasp.

  But it was the scene against the back wall that made me almost vomit. There was a dozen, naked humans chained to the walls, their heads slumped over. Only two of them, both men, looked alert and terrified.

  I swallowed around a hard lump in my throat. My kind truly were monsters, and I prayed I never became this savage.

  “I’m texting Oz for the van,” Rebecca said in a hushed tone. By how pale her face was, I don’t think she expected it to be this bad.

  On the other side of the room, I locked eyes with one of the few vampires who sat in a chair. He had long dark hair twisted into a thick braid and swept to the side of his shoulder. He didn't bother concealing his fangs or wipe at the blood running down his chin. A human lay crumpled at his feet.

  I approached him as if I didn't care about the broken and bloodied humans all around me. It was a difficult task.

  "Welcome to Bloodlust,” the vampire said. “You are new, are you not?"

  His eyes flickered to Rebecca who stood just behind me.

  "I am," I said.

  "My name is Roberto. What brings you to Coast City?"

  "Death."

  He smirked. "Ah, we all seek the lives of humans, but we must temper ourselves. What would we do if they were no more left? That brings me to the first rule of Bloodlust. You may drink freely, but if a human dies under your care, you will be banned for life. Do you understand?"

  My gaze dropped to the red-headed girl at his feet. The young female sure looked dead with several bite marks all over her body, but then her fingers twitched. I wondered how he managed to keep them alive after being bitten so many times.

  "Do you have a second rule?" I asked.

  He glanced again at Rebecca. "The shifter. We normally don't allow their kind, but sometimes they serve a purpose. Why is she here?"

  "Death," she mimicked and grinned.

  His thick brows shelved over dark eyes. "If you would like to die, that can be arranged. We've had stranger requests."

  "She didn't mean her death," I clarified.

  I quickly focused on the floor beneath my feet, grounding mys
elf to the earth. Being near this many vampires, and already having my vampirism so close to the surface, it was an easy task. Power swelled inside me, and I glanced around the room. All were less than a hundred years old. My gaze settled on Roberto. Except for him. He was much older and stronger.

  He rose from his chair and stood tall, garnering the attention of other vampires in the room. They disentangled themselves from their humans and came to their feet.

  "No one comes into my bar and threatens me, especially strangers," he said. The air surged with electricity, lifting the hairs on my arm. The other vampires closed in.

  I glanced back at Rebecca. "Are you ready for this?"

  "I've been waiting for this day ever since I stepped foot into this city." She withdrew two blades from behind her back and gripped them tightly. I reached for my own sword and slid it from its sheath.

  Let the killing begin.

  9

  Roberto roared, inciting the others into the fray. They rushed all at once with only Roberto taking a step back. My blade swung through the air, slicing upward at an approaching vampire. His head fell to the ground and turned to dust a second later. I spun and swung again, cutting a vampire through the center of his skull. I kicked him and knocked him away. I hadn’t quite severed his head, but his body lay on the ground, convulsing.

  I didn't have time to see what happened next because I was shoved hard by someone into a bulky, female vampire. I managed to keep my feet beneath me and shoved my blade forward. It slid into the vampire’s stomach with little resistance. I withdrew it quickly and sliced off her head. Dust polluted the air, making it difficult to see.

  I turned away just in time to catch Rebecca jamming a wooden stake into the heart of another vampire. Just as quickly, she stabbed one coming up behind her. I had expected her to shift into a wolf, but she looked like she was doing just fine fighting as a human.

  One after another, vampires rushed us only to meet their deadly fate. I was surprised I hadn't had to use my super speed yet. Most of the vampires were untrained and clumsy. I killed each of them with ease, as did Rebecca, but I grew increasingly concerned about a few vampires, Roberto included, hanging back from the fray almost as if studying our moves.