Ex Tenebris: A Dark Fantasy (Nëphyr Book 1)

by Cindy Mezni

  “Yäk’ga,*” I told the lion. [* Let go of him.]

  He complied and went away, joining Panthrä and Tigriä who kept their distance from us. I knelt down next to Xander and realized he was conscious. He opened his eyelids and dared to smile at me. Annoyed by his coolness when he’d almost died because of his stupidity, I punched him in the jaw.

  “Ouch,” he said, still smiling, and I glared at him.

  “I wonder what’s keeping me from ordering them to slaughter you,” I retorted in a tone that was anything but affable.

  “Maybe the fact that you’d terribly regret my god-like body and, more specifically, my—”

  “Say one more word and I’ll order them to kill you, you moron,” I warned him, dead serious.

  He didn’t finish his sentence and, instead of it, he burst out laughing. Standing up, I focused all my attention on the three Nëphräm who were sitting. The image of this lion, panther and white tiger with their massive size, motionless next to each other, was something rather impressive.

  “Na’Säië—*” I began, but the shrill and repetitive sound of the alarm in case of intrusion or attack began to ring, relayed by all the loudspeakers in New Hell. [* I want—]

  My blood ran cold. This damn alarm had only rung once before. When Ezekiel had killed Efflamm and Mischa and the alert had been sounded for everyone to run after him to catch him.

  “Dënkam Queshiän num. Diek nen’vem Bëm Gelimä Gëm’nen yunä Tëra’nen.*” [* The mission begins now. If there are intruders, find them and kill them.]

  Leonemä emitted a thundering roar to make himself heard in spite of the ceaseless howl of the siren. He and the two other Nëphräm got up and didn’t wait to dash off, the ground vibrating under their steps. I faced Xander, who’d stood up and whose expression was certainly as tense as mine. We both knew that whatever awaited us when we got home, it wouldn’t be good . . .

  18

  The Beginning of the End

  As wanted by the procedure in case of an alert, all the important Nëphyr—sovereign, Councilors, floor chiefs, and security team—had gone to the Council room the moment they’d heard the siren.

  “Who sounded the alarm?” I asked as soon as I stepped in the room.

  All the persons present looked at each other, trying to see the one who was responsible.

  “Does anybody know what’s happening?” I inquired, getting impatient.

  If there was one thing I couldn’t bear, it was to remain in ignorance.

  “I was outside,” said Kieran, the chief of the first floor, as he approached me. “I thought I heard a scream or two and then it was silent again as if nothing had happened.”

  My eyebrows furrowed. It didn’t help me much. Actually, it didn’t help me at all.

  “It was the screams of one of ours. I assumed one of the Nëphyr which Drake had taken to the Reserve had inadvertently let escape a human and he was hunting him down but—”

  “ . . .but when Kieran met me and talked to me about that, I told him there had been no incident of this kind in the Reserve,” Drake finished in place of Kieran.

  I was surprised to see Drake still here, he who’d assured me he didn’t want to stay here and replace Logan in the Council, in spite of my numerous attempts to convince him otherwise. Apparently, he’d changed his mind. For now, anyway. At least he was here right now and I could only be relieved by that. Additional help wouldn’t be superfluous to face the problem which had arisen . . . and which was still a mystery, by the way.

  “Does anybody know what is really going on here?” I questioned them.

  Silence was their only answer. Well, until somebody kicked the door of the room open.

  “The alarm has been set off—”

  “That we noticed, thank you very much!” Caine interrupted the newcomer, highly sarcastic.

  “Go on,” I ordered the Nëphyr, ignoring Caine and his comments.

  I didn’t remember the identity of this Nëphyr, but it was one of the new members of the supervision. If I wasn’t mistaken, he was responsible for the cameras on the south side of New Hell.

  “It’s one of the guards who stands watch at the south entrance who gave the alert, I think. When I tried to contact them, none of them answered. Coincidence, the cameras no longer work on that side.”

  “The shouts I heard earlier, plus what he just said, leaves no more doubt. There are enemies in the territory,” Kieran said.

  My jaw and my hands began to tremble in spite of myself. Enemies. In my territory. As if I needed that now! When I had to go search for Ezekiel! And to say that no one had seen it coming and the identity of the intruders was unknown!

  “We have to know who they are,” I declared with a voice quivering with fury. “Vampires? Humans? Or even lycanthropes?”

  Another hypothesis, much more plausible, appeared to me.

  “Unless it’s Ezekiel and his—”

  “Forget Ezekiel,” Xander said, entering the room.

  I hadn’t even noticed he hadn’t followed me up here. When I saw his face, I got that the situation was serious. I’d rarely seen Xander being in the foul mood but when he wore this very expression, it meant the moment was critical.

  “Come see the news on TV,” he said to everybody while staring at me.

  He turned up the volume and I listened to the announcement of the newscaster like everyone else in the room.

  “ . . .minutes ago, the president of the United States declared a state of emergency. The citizens who live near the former city of New York are requested to go West as soon as possible. On no account are other citizens to leave their home. The army will take care of dispensing rations of food and water necessary for every household. Alpha code is decreed.”

  Somebody in the room turned off the sound.

  “It has already been two hours since this communiqué replayed over and over on every channel.”

  I hardly listened to Xander. I was stunned, as if a hammer had just struck me on the skull—which wouldn’t even have had such an effect if it’d been the case. ‘Alpha code is decreed.’ This sentence repeated again and again in my head. It wasn’t possible. There was an error. We’d done nothing for the code indicating a war between Nëphyr and humans to be declared.

  A cry from outside took care to prove me that all this was indeed real, unfortunately. Ninety-nine percent of the time, I loved listening to people expressing their pain. The one I just heard had nothing to do with a sound I’d have been delighted to hear. It was a complaint which could have escaped from my lips. It was one of mine who’d screamed not far from here. A female. And she was suffering. Horribly. The yell was heard again, more unbearable than the last one. We waited with apprehension for the next one. Nothing came. Only silence. A deathly silence. Until a new and ultimate scream sounded. That of a male, this time. I turned my back on the other Nëphyr present as I realized what happened. My blood began to boil under my skin. Hatred kindled within me. I felt my face tense with anger. An enemy had killed one of mine. On my lands. With no violation of the Cohabitation Treaty justifying it. “Intolerable” was the only word my brain managed to offer me as fury destroyed any rational thought. The immense rage I felt made me want to punch something, anything, just to eliminate this surplus of violent feelings. I forced myself to calm down. At least, in appearance. I couldn’t give in to my drives. If I got swept away by my predatory instincts, I wouldn’t only kill our enemies. I would kill everybody without drawing a distinction between our opponents and my kin. And my people would imitate me, and then, it would be anarchy. Maybe even the extinction of the Nëphyr of the Ameïan clan. And it was the purpose of our enemies: eradicate all Nëphyr of New Hell. It was out of the question for them to succeed.

  I turned around to face the small crowd of Nëphyr in the room.

  “I want you to make a massacre,” I said in a cold and curt voice, my lips quivering with rage. “A slaughter like we’ve never seen before. Never, you hear me? Out there, you’re not going t
o feed yourselves, you’re going to kill. You’re going to kill every human until there’s no one left.”

  I paused, keeping silent a few moments.

  “They who so wanted war, they’re going to have it. And they’re going to lose it.”

  A concert of approving screams welcomed my speech.

  “Let’s get things straight,” I began in an authoritative tone. “I want all the chiefs of floor to spread the word to their respective teams: you go hide high up on the balconies, rooftops and fire escapes. We’re going to let them come nearby and surprise them when they least expect it. I want as many deaths as possible in as little time as possible in the enemy camp. And, in order to do it, I want you to be starving. Why? It’s simple. If we want the largest number of us to survive at the end of this, you have to be in extreme conditions. The more you’ll be starved, the more you’ll be strong and cruel. And the more you’ll spill blood, the more your instinct and your hunger will be exacerbated. Got it?”

  The group nodded its approval as one Nëphyr.

  “Then do what you have to do,” I ordered them. “I want everybody to know about what’s happening as soon as possible and be gathered in the big hall and ready to leave in forty-five minutes. Understood?”

  Once again, everyone agreed. They all left, except for Xander, Caine and Drake who I held back, having an idea that might help us get out of this mess.

  “What do you want us to do?” Caine questioned me point blank.

  “I didn’t want to say it in front of the others but, obviously, it’s war again. You and me, we know very well that the last time we fought against the army, the losses were considerable. This time, I’d like to avoid that. We may be strong but the humans aren’t so ignorant anymore. They certainly found weapons to try to defeat our race. And they probably had to mobilize more men this time around. I don’t want us to lose this battle.”

  “What is your point?” Drake said.

  I sighed. I didn’t know why but I was convinced my announcement wasn’t going to win unanimous support.

  “We need reinforcements for—”

  “Other Nëphyr?” Caine interrupted me before shaking his head. “You know very well that nobody will come. The High Instances condemn but never help. And other clans aren’t going to put themselves in danger for us. And even if they do, they’d never arrive on time.”

  “Let her finish, Caine,” Xander barked, annoyed.

  Finally somebody who had noticed it wasn’t at all what I was getting at.

  “Be my guest,” Caine said, scowling, as he gestured for me to continue.

  “As I was saying, we need reinforcements. And these reinforcements, we’re going to go get them very close by,” I said, looking into Caine’s eyes.

  I made a pause before revealing my strategy.

  “We’re going to transform the humans of the Reserve.”

  “You’re totally mad!” Caine shouted, unbelieving. “Even if we had enough time to do that, how can you believe it would work? The clan is starved! If you unleash them in the Reserve, they aren’t going to transform your vermin. They’re going to feed without restraint and simply forget about your fucking war.”

  I admitted he wasn’t wrong, that it was possible that things could happen like that. But I trusted my clan to make the right decision. And then, had we really another option?

  “There’s no other option, Caine. Or if you got one, I’d be glad to hear it.”

  He sighed heavily.

  “You’re right,” he told me, probably the first and last time that Caine conceded something to me. “We have no other possibility. How do you want to proceed?”

  I began to pace up and down the room, thinking quickly about the procedure to follow.

  “Take a hundred young Nëphyr with you, including some older males and females who possess the Telepathiaë or the Spiritaë in order for them to control the Nëphyr who will transform the humans in order for everything to go well and fast. Explain to them all quickly what they have to do, and then make sure they take care of the humans just transformed, and that only one thing matters to every one of them: see blood flowing like water.”

  Drake nodded in approval. Xander was impassive, even if I saw in his look he was agreeing with me. For his part, Caine seemed pensive.

  “You do realize many of the new transformed won’t be ‘usable’ in so little time?”

  “I do, Caine,” I retorted. “Many of them are simply going to die and most won’t have mutated in time to fight, but if at least twenty of them have turned when it all starts, it will be something at least. And we have some luck in spite of everything. The humans of the Reserve are cruel by nature and they hate their kin because they sent them here.”

  “Make sure everyone who’ll get in the hall knows what’s going on, and make groups that you’ll allocate all around the zone of ambush,” I told Xander and Drake. “Oh and tell Edenaï to lock the humans in the basement. She’ll be more useful out there than here.”

  They nodded. When both had left, I returned to the television and zapped to find additional information on the events which had led to the activation of the Alpha code. In vain. Every channel only showed on a loop the announcement of the President. The reason why all this had been started remained a mystery. There had to be something on the Internet. I rushed toward the place where I was sure I’d find a computer. I settled down on the desk chair and turned the machine on. As I waited while it started, I brooded over my hatred for all the technological devices. Even if I knew how to use a computer, these things weren’t of my time. The same went for cell phones. What was understandable because I’d “died” in the sixties. The characteristic sound of the opening of the session was heard. Finally . . .

  About twenty minutes later, I turned off the screen with a furious gesture, causing a cracking sound. Damn technology! It was no help when you needed it. The only moment of my existence when I really needed this fucking Internet, it didn’t help me at all. Focusing on the computer, I understood where the noise which I’d detected came from. In my anger, I’d separated the screen from its base. Too bad, but it wasn’t as if I was going to have to give an explanation to its owner, Nathanael. And even if I had to, I’d still have to survive all this. And there was a long way to go. If the humans didn’t have me today, we’d pay for the consequences of this war tomorrow. Well, I would. I doubted the High Instances would spare me, especially since I hadn’t caught Ezekiel. Unable to help it, I burst out laughing. A nervous laugh. I was already dead. There was no doubt about it. Unless I ran away, of course. I could escape during the battle. But I’d become a Träditra. I shook my head without thinking. I didn’t want to be a traitor. I preferred to die in the fight or be executed rather than be considered like the one I hated more than anything else in this world.

  I really had to be out of my mind to prefer death to disgrace . . .

  I went out of the room and returned to my apartment. The television was still on and the news was still the same. Damn it! Instead of repeating the same thing, one of these channels couldn’t say more on the cause of all this? Feeling exhausted, I sat down on the only sofa in the room and held my head between my hands. My mind was racing. There was probably a way to learn more about it . . . All of a sudden, I looked up. The radio. Maybe I would have a chance to learn more about this with this media. I switched the device on. The miracle finally occurred after I’d changed the station several times.

  “ . . .found completely mutilated. According to our sources, the President had decided to set off the alert after an umpteenth macabre discovery, this time more important than the previous ones. Ten dismembered bodies were discovered in an alley in Washington, D.C. The government would have considered this as a provocation from the Predators, the bodies having been found near the White House and having ‘the very distinct traces of work committed by these creatures’ to quote the terms used by our source.”

  I angrily clenched my teeth and fists. I knew now why the Alpha code had be
en decreed. The catch was that it couldn’t have been us. I had no idea when all these bodies had begun to pile up here and there but, one thing was certain, it couldn’t be someone of the clan. Or it could be, after all, I realized. Who told me it wasn’t one of mine who’d done it? One of the accomplices of Ezekiel living in New Hell I’d ordered to be executed recently? Or even one of his exiles? It could be one of them. Or even Ezekiel himself. Unless it had nothing to do with Nëphyr and they had taken the act of vampires or lycans for the work of my people. After all, what did the humans know about the difference between the work of a Nëphyr and that of a vampire? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. To have a better idea of the person who was responsible for this chaos, I had to know when the first butchered bodies had been discovered. Wanting to get more information, I switched radio stations. It was now that I regretted having lost my temper and having broken the computer. With these new elements, a few seconds would have sufficed to obtain the answer to my question. I could have wandered in the building looking for another computer, but I didn’t have time. And the majority of Nëphyr who lived here hated technology, quite like me. So there was little chance for my search to succeed. I gave up the idea of getting an answer after having listened to all the stations, for the fourth time at least.

  “Need some help?” asked a voice I believed I’d never hear again.

  Slowly, very slowly, I turned to face Nathanael. He was here. This bloody deserter was really here. The anger burning in me threatened to drive the beast in me to commit an irredeemable act. I was this close to rushing at him to pull his head off.